1938

THE OSSEN CHRONICLE. From the pages of the Quincy (Mass.) Patriot Ledger, courtesy of his son Dick Ossen '60, comes the kind of update on a classmate that burnishes the sobriquet "amazing" as it applies to the class of 1938. Paul Ossen, who only last year gave up his Quincy medical practice, did so with an extremely palatable Rx for retirement: more study. Yep, Dr. Paul, while not necessarily cavorting on campus, is finding himself very much at home in the classrooms of the University of Massachusetts. He may be 50 years older in age than his fellow students, but he is obviously very much their peer in spirit.

Nothing if not eclectic in taste, Paul has taken courses covering the history of U.S. intervention in Central America (how timely can you get?), the U.S. Supreme Court, and assorted American authors. Then, in spite of having undergone open heart surgery last November, he works out at the local YMCA, attends bi-weekly meetings at Quincy Hospital, and takes continuing education courses on tape to keep up his medical license.

Finally, according to Dick, Paul and Bunny have attended every '38 reunion and just about every mini-reunion, as well.

Now is this a chronicle or what!

LOST CHORD. It was in time for at least two earlier columns that this scrivener had a few facts about the enduring leader of Big Band East, a 16-piece, "our-music" kind of aggregation that plays for dances, weddings, and whatever. But his notes were part of the aforementioned lost chord. Regrets and all that, Rog. "Rog" is maestro Roger Baker who, with wife Alice, books gigs from their digs in East Hampton, N.Y.

When he isn't producing swinging tunes, Rog is swinging a golf club at the Southport Country Club. Sounds like a fair way to go.

DOWN EAST DOINGS. "Been pretty quiet. Snowed in since Thanksgiving. Staying pretty close to home." Such was the garrulous effusion emanating from Maine man Lew Parker as he reacted to the searching question, "What's up?" The fact is that he and Fran are not staying anywhere near home. At this moment, they should be somewhere in the sun-drenched West Indies, while May and June will see this peripatetic pair in, among other places, Morocco.

Actually the Parkers do a lot of traveling, often Dartmouth Alumni College style. Last year Russia was their port of call. And you see what's happening there.

As part of his "pretty quiet" lifestyle, Lew—remember he's a U.S.Coast Guard captain (ret.) is deeply involved with the Mahan Maritime Museum in Bath, Maine. Interestingly, in this area is the shipyard in which the country's largest wooden schooner was built in 1909. Just above it is the Bath Iron Works where Aegis cruisers and state-of-the-art frigates destined for today's navy are under construction. (Note: these facts are substantially correct, but may contain some distortions resulting from coffee stains on admittedly crabbed handwriting.)

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