Class Note 1957

Coronavirus is the news. It’s the postponement of Bert O’Neill’s heart valve replacement and the cancellation of Clark Griffiths’ “3rd Friday” lunch in Lebanon, New Hampshire. It’s John Roberts’ struggles to keep This Week in Palestine on the air after Boston station WCBZ suspended all its programming. It’s the postponement of Jay Greene’s World War II lecture series in St. Helena, California. It’s Herb Roskind, the “Captain Pontoon” of Martha’s Vineyard, watching his dream set sail without him.

There were some bright spots, of course, It’s Bill Davidow, Silicon Valley pioneer, Intel executive, and author of The Virtual Corporation, publishing The Autonomous Revolution: Reclaiming the Future We’ve Sold to Machines. It’s Dick Perkins continuing with LandVest, which he created more than 50 years ago. It’s the lovely note from Inger Baehr recalling the pleasure with which she and husband Bob Baehr enjoyed hosting a 2006 mini-reunion at their home in Grimstad, Norway. It’s Dick Canton, just before lockdown, hosting a beautiful weekend for 18 gathered in Naples, Florida. It’s Alice and Tom Macy visiting Vero Beach, Florida, on their way to that Naples affair, allowing for dinner with Judy and Kent Whitaker. And just sliding under the virus wire, it’s Mike Lasser, dining first in Sarasota, Florida, with Lee and Bob Caldwell and Lee Hirschey’s wife, Debby, then performing here in Vero Beach, where he and his incredibly talented singers absolutely wowed a packed museum crowd with City Songs. But the hard work of Dick Duncan and Judy Stempel for the greatly anticipated Santa Fe-Taos, New Mexico, reunion had to be cancelled, as was the trip to San Francisco with the Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble.

Rod Hinkle asks what we octogenarians should be doing at such a time. Mike Lasser provides an answer with his plan to gather personal anecdotes about our lives at Dartmouth between 1953 and 1957. Let’s have fun with this. In Mike’s words, “the best, the funniest, the wackiest.” We all have stories to tell. If not now, when? Please send yours directly to mlasser@rochester.rr.com.

My hope is to lighten up in the next column. Maybe even talk about first cars.

—John W. Cusick, 105 Island Plantation Terrace, Vero Beach, FL 32963; (772) 231-1248; johnwcusick@aol.com