This column reports on two items—the class mini-reunion in N.Y.C. (January 25-27) and the passing of H. Flint Ranney, our beloved newsletter editor for 37 years. Flint was honored at a memorial following the class meeting at the Yale Club. Attendees included Tom and Barbara Bechler, Roger Benson, Jack and Pat Billhardt, Sid and Suzanne Devorsetz, Don Dillon and Mary Thornmeyer, Bob and Pam Faulkner, Alan and Diane Friedman, Harold and Joan Gordon, Woody and Marion Gray, Tom and Sandy Harper, John Higgs, Karen Merrels, Wally Pugh, Dutch and Barbara Rosenberger, Tom and Abbey Rosenwald, Buddy and Rona Schattman, Roger and Sherry Schumacher, Jack Talmagni and Susan Orlando, Dick and Georgia Whitney, Stew Wood and George Yeager. Other events included Friday night cocktails at the Yale Club followed by dinner, a visit to the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday with a private tour and luncheon arranged by Jack Talmagni, a delightful cocktail party at George Yeager’s beautiful apartment, a Saturday night dinner at Shun Lee West, and a delicious Sunday brunch hosted by Harold and Joan Gordon amidst their art.


We now further honor Flint with the Barbary Coast Jazz Band marching up Main Street, led by Samson Occom. As it turns out, Flint is the only newly deceased classmate behind the band on this occasion. We all bow our heads in silent tribute to this esteemed ’56.


I close with a stanza from a poem titled “Eulogy in Granite,” written after the fall of the Old Man of the Mountain. It fits Flint.


“In my mind I can still see his face,


On the mountain remains not a trace;


By nature designed,


His place still enshrined,


Granite features that time can’t erase.”


—Joel D. Ash, P.O. Box 1733, Grantham, NH 03753; (603) 863-3360; joel@poeticlimericks.com