1965

On October 17, 1989, the San Francisco Bay Area experienced the strongest earthquake in more than 80 years. Much of the American population, expecting to watch the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's in the third game of the World Series, instead followed television coverage of the resulting destruction. All of us in the class of 1965 could claim at least some personal connection with what we were seeing; many of our classmates living in Northern California were going through an event they will remember for a lifetime.

Dick Jones, his wife, April, and their daughter Chandra, had flown home on Sunday from our class mini-reunion at Dart mouth. Still tired from the trip, Dick had left work early and was looking forward to a restful evening. He says, "When the earth quake hit, the tremors didn't seem much worse than usual. They just lasted a lot longer." No damage was done to their home, but the Jones family did experience a lengthy period without phones or electricity. Dick says he first moved to Palo Alto to work on a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Stanford. After receiving his degree, he performed research in pharmaceutical delivery systems for Syntex for the next 14 years. In 1984, he joined the genetic research firm, Genentech, and recently was named vice president of pharmaceutical development for Pharmetrix in nearby Menlo Park.

Paul Pringle, who also attended the mini-reunion, was in a meeting in Los Angeles when he felt a mild tremor. Fifteen minutes later, he was told a major earth quake had hit San Francisco. Unable to reach his wife, Cynthia, due to overloaded inbound phone lines, Paul followed a prearranged plan to contact his mother-in-law in Michigan. He learned Cynthia had already made her outbound call and that his family was well. Paul is a securities lawyer working on public stock offerings with the firm of Brown, Wood, Ivey, Mitchell & Petty. He completed law school at the University of Michigan and practiced in New York City for three years before being transferred to the San Francisco office.

Jack McLean, captain of the football team our senior year, proved himself as able to avoid earthquakes as he once avoided tacklers. Jack, an attorney, was driving in the Chicago area when he decided to listen to the World Series on the radio. Although he had dodged the earthquake himself, Jack had an immediate concern for his wife, Gayle, and three-year-old daughter Rachael, at home in Tiburon. When he finally made a phone connection, Rachael calmly explained, "Daddy, the house was jumping!" Jack is a partner with Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, one of California's largest law firms, where he specializes in antitrust law. His Dartmouth graduation was followed by services as an army officer in Germany and Vietnam. He received a law degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1972.

Gary Jaffe, who says his home in the Buena Vista Heights area is built over solid rock, was not aware the earthquake was significant until he began receiving phone calls from friends in other parts of the country concerning his safety. Gary came to the West Coast originally to attend business school at Stanford. Graduating in 1967, he joined the Institute for Defense Analysis in Washington, D.C. Four years later, he returned to the Bay Area as a securities analyst with an investment firm. In 1978 he joined Bain & Company as a management consultant. Among other geographic assignments, Gary had the opportunity to spend two years working in Europe. Since 1981, he has been back in California as a strategic and organization consultant with the MAC Group, a firm employing more than 200 professionals on a worldwide basis. [See the March issue for a continuation of Earthquake '65]

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