1962

242 Silver Hill Road Concord, MA 01742

Congratulations to Dick Hofmann, who was recently appointed president and chief operating officer of Continental Can Company, Inc., of Norwalk, Conn. Dick, who succeeds R. Philip Silver in the position, was executive vice president for the company's domestic food and packaging operations since 1984 and has been with the company since 1964.

Congratulations also to Jeff Sund, who was recently promoted to vice president and editorial director of the college division of Houghton-Mifflin Company in Boston, Mass. Jeff has been in the publishing industry since graduation, spending the last 14 years with Houghton-Mifflin.

Gene Gasbarro's reunion committee met during the Harvard weekend to further discuss and plan for the June 18-21, 1987, event. Gene reports that early returns indicate that the class has a good chance to break all attendance records for a 25th.

All the fraternities had receptions after the Harvard game, and my daughter, Ann, and I had the pleasure of meeting with the families of fraternity brothers Woody Chittick and Jim Morse at Bones Gate, as well as Bill Marx, whose son, Bill, is the first son of a classmate that I know of to be in the next generation of brotherhood at DTD/Bones Gate. We also enjoyed seeing Gordy and Pat McKean and sons Bill (freshman at the College) and Jim after an absence of a couple of years.

Dick Zartler has been with Grace's Dallas-based Natural Resources Group (NRG) since 1980 and is behind several innovative programs to help maintain the energy service businesses until the early 1990s, when it is expected that the nation's beleaguered energy industry will make a comeback. One of his first projects was the joint venture of Grace's Drilling Mud, Inc. (DMI), with Hughes Drilling Fluids, a division of Hughes Tool Company. (The mud is pumped into a well bore to remove cuttings from the bottom of the hole and to prevent the sides from collapsing.) Acquired by Grace is 1979, DMI was mainly in Oklahoma, west Texas, and the Rockies, but not along the Gulf Coast. Dick, who is vice president of NRG, stated that DMI's charge was to expand into a national mud company whose service areas include the Gulf. Since Hughes Drilling Fluids was located chiefly in the Gulf, the benefits of a joint venture were immediately seen and became the first such venture in the industry. Dick feels that the key to the future in the short term is to survive effectively. Beyond that, he wants to take advantage of Grace's strength and opportunities ahead to become more competitive. Dick's final thought: There is life after OPEC! Weekends, he and his wife, Fran, take their 24- foot cabin cruiser for picnic jaunts on nearby Lake Grapevine with children Bill, 21, Stacey, 19, and Mark, 18.

Not to be outdone by the '43 members of the fanclub for Jeff Kemp '81, pictured elsewhere in thisissue, Michael Kirst '61 shows his support forthe 49ers' quarterback.