1974

This month's column contains a dazzling display of '74 talent and accomplishment. First is Shepperson "Shep"Wilbun, who has recently risen to the rank of director of the Memphis Housing and Community Development division.

More than 10 years ago Shep borrowed $1 million with two other cronies and rehabbed some inner-city apartments in a bold attempt to improve a "bad" neighborhood. Although not a financial success by any stretch, Shep's independence, persistence, and talents (including those developed via his urban studies major in Hanover) helped him to win the job. He was quoted in the Memphis Commercial Appeal: "My [late] father [a former Circuit Court judge] said, 'You need to make sure you go in business for yourself, work for yourself, because you don't like to follow orders too well.' He was absolutely correct. I don't like anybody telling me what to do."

I can relate. So bring your butt to Hanover in '99, Shep, so we can hear your tales of war.

Former (?) Peter Bien scholar PurnellDelly continues his never-ending attempt at mastering every single language in the world.

He's now back in D.C. from a threeyear State Department stint in Turkey for a six-month crash course in Danish before moving on to Copenhagen next summer. Purnell promises to give his wife, Sharon, son Evan, and daughter Alyssa a rest from his peripatetic ways soon. We. hope to see the Delly family in fall force at the 25th.

Purnell's e-mail came coincidentally on the day before I accidentally ran into a long-lost '74, Steve Hagedorn, in Baltimore. The coincidence was that Purnell and Steve used to hang out in Gile Hall for several hours at one sitting for several years with Steven "Snagberg"Sandberg, Eric Frank, and Howard"Charlie Parker" Chessire. Steve, who now hangs out up in Rochester, M.N., at the Mayo Clinic in the department of family practice, also recalls such Gile Greats as Lex "Sex" Chalko, Gary "Snortin"'Morton, Dave Sweet, Scott "Gouda"Mason, Ken "Jook Bok" Bernstein,John "Fat" Larson, and Doug "D.J."Johnson. And the rain makes Applesauce. I happened upon Steve at a medical outcomes conference in Baltimore, so we made it a night of crabs and microbrewed beverages.

Steve and his wife purport to have a keen interest in various and sundry homebrewing techniques. Your class officers may make him Entertainment Director if I can convince Steve and his family to make the voyage to Hanover.

Speaking of Sex, Wayne "Dude"Whitmore tells me that Lex has cashed in his chips on his successful psychiatry practice and moved his family from Connecticut to Tenessee to become a Freudian country gentleman.

Lex is a man after my own heart, in that he followed his. Please invite me and the rest of the '74s down to the plantation for some therapy, Dr. Lex (as in Dr. Haldanish).

One of my old and forgotten chemistry professors, Roger Soderberg, sent me a snippet out of the heavy journal Science from a fellow chem major, Tom Seeley. Tom has written a book titled The SocialPhysiology of Honey Bee Colonies, which, according to the review, "...addresses the deceptively simple question of how worker honey bees acquire information and organize their work...Seely's main point is that individual bees can perceive only a small amount of the total information available in the colony, yet the hive's 'wisdom' lies in the worker bees following simple rules to determine work priorities." Sounds like a good late summer—early fall read.

Send me your thoughts eletronically.

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