1956

It is a curious and unnatural phenomenon, but classmates obviously hibernate during the summer. As this is written (early August), the mailbag is devoid of tasty tidbits and malicious morsels. Apparently nobody has done anything, or at least nothing they wish anyone else to know about. Is anybody there?

The absence of news drives me back to birthdays. But this report will be the last since we are down to the few remaining youngsters in the class. The system has broken down anyway, since not one, but two names were omitted from the last column.

The lone classmate born in September 1935 is Bruce Kahn, whose last known address was Stamford, Conn. Also missing from a previous column is Buzz Farber, a free-lance writer in New York City. If it is not too cold on his birthday in October, he will take the day off to sail in Long Island Sound.

The only November birthday celebrant is Woody Fraser, president of Chip Enterprises in Hollywood. Woody is a TV producer whose successful daytime show was the subject of an earlier column note.

Two classmates were born in December 1935. Joel Ash will celebrate his birthday in Weston, Conn., or traveling to Europe or the Far East for ITT, where he works with chips and telecommunications at their advanced technology center in Shelton, Conn. For Joel, living is learning. "The more I have learned and experienced, the more I see how much still remains we all have barely scratched the surface and this will never change, despite an accelerated rate of learning." He and Marsha joined Bob and Ruth Becker at the August wedding of our son, Henry Malin '82. Abner Oakes Ill's son, Abner IV '81, served as an usher. More on the wedding and a picture will doubtless appear in the '82 column at some point. The other December birthday will be

celebrated by Al Levenson, a partner with the prestigious Washington firm of Fulbright and Jaworski. Al's particular specialty is securities law. He earlier served with the Securities and Exchange Commission and has taught part time in a number of universities.

The year 1936 provided four classmates. Born in January were Vince Felitti, a physician in La Jolla, Calif., and Roger Tolins, an attorney in New York City, living in East Hills, Long Island. In February 1986, John Van De Kamp will celebrate his 50th birthday. John is the incumbent attorney general of the state of California in Sacramento. Regular readers of this column will be well aware of John's efforts over the years to keep Sirhan Sirhan in jail. John also filed suit against Texaco following its acquisition of Getty, an effort of questionable merit which Bill Tell and your secretary took personally. The final 1986 50th birthday will be celebrated by Tony Richter in June. Tony lives in Bedford, N.Y., and commutes to the city for his job with New York Life Insurance Company.

It is hard to believe that our youngest classmate, Lincoln Yu, will be barely 50 in time for our late 30th reunion in June of 1987. Line was born on February 3, 1937, which means he was only 19 when we graduated in June of 1956. It also means he was only 15 when we matriculated in September 1952. Ah, youth! Who else in the class did not have a driver's license when he went to college? At last report, Line was a stockbroker for Shearson American Express, living in San Antonio. If we all retire at the age of 65, he will be the only one that can claim to have worked 45 years. Line, be prepared to address the class on the meaning of all this at its 30th reunion.

That does it for 50th birthdays. Over the past three years each classmate's name has been mentioned at least once in the column, a secretary's dream. (If I have omitted someone, it is because the College has no record of your having been born.) It would be helpful to hear from some of you so that the column may continue. Some of us have grandchildren. What do you think of grandparenting? Some of us have changed careers. What motivated you to do so? Some of us are profoundly troubled with the state of society. Or the College. What concerns you? The purpose of the column is communication. Share your thoughts.

Richard Scobie '56, executive director of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee,traveled to Sudan and Eritrea to observe the delivery of relief supplies in famine areas andthe problem of obtaining safe passage in the war zone. He is pictured here with Bob Rosenthal,African correspondent for The Philadelphia Inquirer, in the frontlines with the EritreanPeoples Liberation Front in northern Ethiopia.

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