1964

Tom Parkinson, who was class secretary from 1994 to 1999, sent a message about his upcoming retirement from academia and I told him I'd use large portions of it in the next column as news was sparse this month. "I know the feeling", was his response. At the end of this academic year Tom will retire from Moravian College (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; founded in 1742!) as professor emeritus of economics and business. He will be continuing in two important roles: Director of the Beinecke scholarship program (www.beineckescholarship.org) and program administrator for the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) graduate fellowship program. The former awards about 20 scholarships annually for graduate study in the arts, humanities and social sciences and was initially funded by the S&H Green Stamp money. The program is a philanthropic effort of the William S. Beinecke family, who also built the Rare Books Library at Yale. Since 1975 more than 350 students have been the recipients of Beinecke scholarships for graduate study (including Tom's son, Michael '91). The WCS Christensen graduate fellowship program is a recent outgrowth of the Beinecke African scholarship program and supports graduate education for foreign scholars in conservation, wildlife biology and environmental policy.The program began in 1996 and to date has help fund the education of eight Beinecke African scholars and WCS Christensen scholars from Russia, Cameroon, Indonesia, Cambodia and Brazil. The program is run under the auspices of the WCS international conservation division, which is located at the Bronx Zoo in New York.

"Since one of my responsibilities in connection with these programs is to visit each one of the scholars on their graduate and undergraduate campuses, I have visited more than 100 different universities in the United States and United Kingdom since assuming the directorship in 1994. This 'heavy' responsibility has forced me to explore a number of campus golf courses, dine at some of the best restaurants, assemble a large collection of coffee mugs decorated with each university's seal and to visit with a number of classmates who are professors. Hey, somebody has to do it!"

Brad Evans has been named a charter trustee of the College. Brad becomes the fifth member of our class to serve as a trustee, and joins classmates Dave Shipler and Bill Newcomb, who are on the board. Brad takes the seat being vacated by Dr. Stan Roman, who has served for the past 10 years. Trivia question: Who was the fifth (and first) classmate to serve as trustee? The answer is on the '64 Web page.

Finally, I remind you of our early planning efforts to create a memorable 40th anniversary reunion over Memorial Day Weekend in 2004 (May 28, 29, 30 and 31). Class VP Ed Williams (egwilliams@somlaw.com) is heading up a planning committee that currently includes Mark Kirschner, Roy Lewicki and Hunt Whitacre. The committee is actively seeking your suggestions and your participation.

2861 Gladstone Ave., Ann Arbor, MI48104-6432; gusb@umich.edu