1959

I recently heard from several classmates coming to our 50th. Last December Haig Kazazian, Baltimore, was featured in a front page article of the Philadelphia Inquirer headlined, “Beginning to Crack the Code of ‘Junk DNA’: A Penn Scientist Studies Rogue Bits of Faulty Genetic Code.”

Haig, who was premed intending to be a doctor during college, switched to genetics in the 1960s and worked at Johns Hopkins studying inherited diseases such as hemophilia and muscular dystrophy. Focusing on certain “junk” genetic material we all carry but that seems to have no purpose, Haig was the first to document the phenomenon of this stuff taking on a life of its own, copying itself and jumping around in our DNA. His discovery led to better understanding of certain diseases. Now retired from chairmanship of Penn Medical School’s department of genetics, Haig continues some teaching and research and will be at our 50th along with Stu Hanson, whom he occasionally sees.

George Kelly, living in Philadelphia, does not know Haig but amazingly remembered his name and face from Hanover days as he read the Inquirer article. Retired from a Wall Street/ M&A/International law career, George now stays active by skiing, rollerblading and leading a Philadelphia neighborhood anti-graffiti project. He is in almost daily e-mail touch with Marv Sezak and also looks forward to seeing Stu Mackler at our 50th.

Another skier who will be in Hanover is Andy Hommeyer of Olympia, Washington. After careers in marketing for General Mills and Olympia Brewing and then in financial planning, Andy now enjoys retirement skiing, cooking, working out and traveling to see grandchildren.

Tom Bransford, New York City, says, “I always enjoy visiting Hanover and agree with my old roomie John Icke, who is adamant about attending.” Tom is with a nonprofit organization distributing technology programs that inner-city kids can use to better their lives. Patrick Burns is another classmate giving a great deal of time to nonprofits by serving on several boards, previously having led a venture fund dedicated to investing in minority-owned enterprises. He says of the 50th: “You bet I’ll be there. It’s a milestone! I see Jim Giddens from time to time up in Massachusetts and hope he will be present.”

Paul Downing is attending and says that Greg Stark will also be present. Now retired after 40 years of teaching high school in Saugus, Massachusetts, Paul says he got particular satisfaction from “motivating a lot of good kids to go to Dartmouth including a couple of exceptional hockey players.” Paul has moved to North Conway, New Hampshire, “a great vacation place that I figured would therefore be a nice place to live.” Bruce McInnis is another with an education career, in his case teaching college-level music at Amherst, Pacific University and now, in retirement, at University of Maine at Farmington. Bruce is trying to get Bob Bailey to come and is occasionally in touch with Doug Adams.

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REUNION June 12-16