1977

Trapped in die Checkers Hotel in Los Angeles with my deadline looming, I called as many classmates as I could in the local area codes to gather" lews and avoid the scrutiny of the Lehman Brothers expense police. I had success on both fronts.

I had a great conversation with Diane"DeDe" Bentley. I caught her in her office in San Diego where she was preparing the naval submarine USS Pogy for an exploratory mission to the North Pole. Not in search of Santa, DeDe is a civilian scientist working with the Naval Arctic Sub Lab designing cold climate experiments. Pretty sweet duty studying ice in San Diego.

We talked about her years working as a green coat with classmate Mark Steward. She still has some clout at Thayer after all these years since she arrested NealWebber for riding the tray conveyor dressed as Groucho. DeDe recently found herself in Quechee short 100 sets of silver and, waving her green coat credentials, was able to secure enough cutlery to cover her.

DeDe keeps up with Stacy Tighe, who is completing her Ph.D. in oceanography at URI. Having been a "rocks" major in school, I can't help thinking Stacy's proven the old adage "no guts, no glory."

Two other research types DeDe stays in touch with are class couple, Michael Wash and Mary Ann Enos Walsh. They work at CRREL in Norwich and overlapped with DeDe while she did some Ph.D. work there. I guess someone needs to study stuff like how long ice cubes last. God knows I've tried.

I didn't catch Ken Richardson but I did get a hold of his mother. She said Ken is married, living in nearby Inglewood, carrying mail for the U.S. Postal Service.

Lee Burgunder and his wife live in San Luis Obispo, where he is a business law professor at Cal Poly. His nanny wouldn't give me any more details. She did ask what college I was calling from. How you gonna keep 'em down on the farm after they've seen Poly?

My apologies to Craig Aronson. He returned my call to the Checkers and woke me from a deep sleep. All I recall is that he is a lawyer in L.A., still single, still involved in undergraduate interviewing, and staying up later than me.

Robert Johnson's office at Disney informed me that he is the chief of labor relations for the studio. My question is, how much strife is there among gargoyles and hyenas?

It's a small world, part II.

Helen Conroy is my new neighbor. We just moved to Piedmont near Oakland and it turns out Helen, her husband, and two children live around the corner. When she isn't throwing us out of her pool, she'll return to her litigation law practice in San Francisco.

As I composed these notes, I got a huge kick out of eavesdropping on a painfully chic trio of entertainment types moaning about the dearth of good talent, about upcoming opportunities for Colleen Dewhurst and Lily Tomlin, and the fate of Friends.

So much Pellegrino, so little time. Ta ta for now.

156 Dracena Ave., Piedmont, CA 94611;

John Bird '77 published, p. 62

Diane "DeDe" Bentley waspreparing a navalsubmarine lor amission to theNorth Pole.Pretty sweet duty studying ice in San Diego. Doug Ireland '77