1964

1964

It is a pleasure to kick off this bimonthly column with news of Barbara and Dick Couch’s gift of $2.5 million benefiting the Dartmouth Cancer Center. The focus of their gift is to support the recruitment and retention of up-and-coming cancer clinician-scientists from under-represented groups in medicine. Well done, Couches. Quite recently the process for making donations via the internet for our class project to provide funds for maintaining Ukrainian refugees in Romania has changed and been simplified. Henceforth donations can be made at www.romanianunitedfund.org/donate_to_rotary_piatra_neamt. Donations go to the Rotary Club of Piatra Neamt in Romania, where classmate Larry Laster, wife Maria, and son Andi, along with others in their town, continue this necessary work to feed, clothe, and otherwise provide for the welfare of some hundred or so refugees, including many children of this horrific war. The need remains real, and our class executives, together with the Laster family, gladly acknowledge the generous gifts from many of our classmates. This effort has recently been awarded the 2023 Charitable Award from the Alianta organization at its 2023 gala. Dan Dimancescu developed the relationship with Alianta that led to this award. Your class co-secretaries, together with our webmaster, held another Zoom-based session on March 29 with the theme being memorable travels. Twenty-three classmates participated to share their experiences. Some heavily edited highlights were Hugh Savage’s 2015 trip of return to Vietnam with professor Ed Miller as the tour guide (Hugh had been stationed there in the mid1960s); Tim Brooks' visit to Memphis, Graceland, and Sun Records Studios; Hunt Whitacre’s visit to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville; Don Mutterperl’s trip to Alaska; and Carlos Ballantyne’s hike along the Boynton Canyon Trail in Sedona, Arizona. Much further afield were John Schuler’s visit to Hadrian’s Wall in the United Kingdom; Bill Neukom’s climb up Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania accomplished by Mike Parker; Ben Koehler’s New

Zealand trip; Tom Bird’s touring of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temples; Dave Hope’s trips to Africa, Vietnam, and Cambodia; Les Buck’s touring of the Greek Islands, Turkey, and much earlier, Israel; and Don Warnecke’s travels to the vastness of Antarctica and other wilderness regions. Lastly, Rob Goodman related his 2022 trip to Botswana and Namibia.

Best regards.

—Ray Neff, 3685Fairway Dr., Norton Shores, MI 49441-7016; (616) 551-8595; rkneff@grnail.com; Robert C. Goodman Jr., Kaufman & Canoles, P.C., 2101 Parks Ave., Suite 700, Virginia Beach, VA 23451; (757) 624-3238; rcgoodman@kaufcan. com