1972

In building one of MCI's fastest-growing business units, while living in the place I want to be (Seattle area), I wind up traveling all over the place, in fact even more than Greg Norman (280,000 miles/year), who figured that he'd save time by buying his own Boeing 737 airplane earlier this year!

Among the 50 or so airports that I've traversed over the past year is Atlanta, where some of my team lives, so recently I checked out Jesse Spikes's first foray into restauranteering, the Jesse James Pit Bar B.Q. at 6083 Old National Highway in College Park, GA (770-997-9921). Seems that Jesse is thinking big—so stores before too long; maybe Jesse needs to fill up the time after being a key member of the Atlanta Organizing Committee for the 1996 Olympic Games. Great photos on the wall (was that really James Earl Jones, voice of CNN and Darth Vader?), and scrumpious ribs. Jesse's still a partner in the Atlanta law firm of Long, Aldridge, and Norman.

Speaking of traveling, CharlieNearburg couldn't make it to our 25th because he was driving a Ferrari prototype at the 65 th annual 24 hours of LeMans (for afficiandos, it was the Pilot/RSR Racing Ferrari 333SP). Charlie's been racing for ten years, including a recent fourth overall finish at this year's Sebring 12-hour Championship. Look for Charlie in upcoming ESPN coverage of racing.

And speaking of Atlanta lawyers, LewHome has been named president of the National Minority Golf Foundation. A partner with Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy, where he's been focusing on public finance and health care law, Lew has relinquished his duties there to head the Phoenix-based Foundation. Among other projects, Lew plans to work closely with Tiger Woods' foundation to expose youth to the game of golf. Maybe your kids caught the fever t00...0ur 8-year-old watched the final round of the Masters with me and announced that she too wanted to learn to play, so Erika's taking lessons already with her brand new clubs.

In the "we all should be so lucky" category, the Wall Street Journal carried an article this summer on Young Dawkins's surprise upon learning that a Chinese gent wanted Oberlin College bank account information, where Young was vice president for development and alumni affairs, in order to wire $6 million! Young flew to Hong Kong to check this out, and returned with confirmation of the unrestricted monies which, it turns out, were given in memory of a 1906 Oberlin graduate who later became premier of Nationalist China. Young is now working with the University of New Hampshire Foundation, a private charity which seeks gifts for the state university.

And in a sadder note, Joel Reader died in his Beverly Hills, Calif., home. Joel was chairman of the Los Angeles-based investment banking house Ocean Capital, and will be missed by friends and family.

Please take a moment right after reading this to drop me a line, via e-mail if you can. Let me know if you'd like a listing of the 100-plus '72s whose e-mail addresses we're collecting.

Here's hoping that you're enjoying the fall colors and hints of colder things to come!

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