1951

Let's extend hearty congratulations to Jeff O'Connell, who recently was named one of "The Lawyers of the Century" by The American Lawyer magazine. Jeff was cited, along with his coauthor, former Harvard law professor Robert Keeton, for their research and writing on the field of tort reform. "As academics, they invented nofault auto insurance," the magazine stated. Jeff is the Samuel H. McCoy II Professor of Law at the University of Virginia, where he has taught since 1980. Jeffs name also arose from another source recently, a book review he coauthored with his brother, Tom O'Connell '50, for the University of Virginia's Journal ofLaw and Politics. The book is about Kenneth O'Donnell, the intimate "Irish Mafia" associate of John F. and Robert F. Kennedy, written by O'Donnell's daughter. The review convincingly judges the strengths and weaknesses of the book, but is most intriguing for the wealth of additional commentary and O'Donnell and Kennedy anecdotes offered by the authors O'Connell. Perhaps that should be no surprise, given that the O'Connell boys and Kenny O'Donnell were neighbors and high school contemporaries in Worcester, Mass.

After a career in the telephone business, much of it with AT&T, Ned Hoeppner seems to be thriving in a new field. For the past 10 years he has been teaching history and humanities courses for older adults in the College of DuPage, near his home in Glen Ellyn, I11. He finds the work rewarding and, best of all, "it's a lot of fun." Ned says he can control his teaching schedule to leave plenty of time for travel, and he and Maurine have been to Alaska, Australia, New Zealand and Europe several times in recent years.

Nancy and Sam Roberts recently spent two weeks on the outlying Philippine Island of Panay, with their daughter and son-in-law Virginia and Ted Edwards and three children. Ted has located the family there in a simple fishing village, to be near them while he heads a unique venture capital expedition seeking gold bullion and other vast treasure loot believed to have been buried on the island of Luzon by the Japanese during World War II. From those modest surroundings, Nancy and Sam moved on to first-class hotels during a two-week tour of the Hawaiian Islands, catching up with Fumiko and DickHalloran for an enjoyable dinner in Honolulu along the way. Toni and DickBarnes flew to Kenya and on to a cruise to Zanzibar, Madagascar and the Seychelles. Dick is still talking about the giant Seychelles turtles, which "eat out of your hand and like to have their necks stroked, like a dog." A March fishing trip to Arizona enabled me to have a brief but very pleasant overnight visit with Sarah an d Charlie B reed in their lovely Scottsdale home at The Boulders. On the comeback after treatment for lymphoma, Charlie was elated that his golf game is back in the groove.

-Loye Miller, 1672D Beekman Place NW, "Washington, DC 20009; (202) 462-6216; loye.miller.sl@alum.dartmouth.org

JeffO'Co nnelllias teen credited withinventing no-faultauto insurance.LOYE MILLER ' 5 I