Class Note 1963

I hope all of you who attended our 50th, June 7-11, had a great time. Earlier I caught up with Tom McInerny on the phone at his three-acre home in Honeoye Falls, New York, outside Rochester, where he was taking a breather from his hectic schedule as president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Tom was preparing for a trip to Japan, which would force him to miss our 50th, after returning from trips to Scotland and Poland. He spends 10 to 15 days a month on the road including numerous trips to Washington, D.C. Tom became especially busy after the Newtown, Connecticut, gun massacre, advocating for gun safety legislation. “Three thousand kids a year die from gun violence,” he said. “We have developed a comprehensive plan that includes banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and universal background checks.” Tom has met three times with Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. secretary of health and human services. He has taken a sabbatical from his practice and has a wonderful 48-year marriage to Beverly, an artist and landscape designer who has built an Oriental-style garden in their back yard with Tom doing the heavy work. His Twitter handle is @AAPPres.


Meanwhile, down in New Orleans, Jim Irvin was about to leave for the hospital to visit his wife, M’Adele, who was doing well after a serious accident in which she was dragged by their bolting giant schnauzer. The couple was nevertheless planning a trip north in June to visit family and drop by Hanover. Born in the New York City area and raised in Miami, Jim has practiced commercial law since 1972 at the firm of Milling Benson Woodward. Jim and M’Adele live in Uptown, New Orleans, where Jim plays banjo for friends and gatherings. The couple has four daughters.


Ken Meyer is catching up on science fiction and history, having retired in 2010 from a 30-plus-year career with the U.S. Census Bureau. Trained as geographer, Ken taught at Temple, joined the Census Bureau in the 1980s and became regional director of the New York City region, charged with preparing for the 2000 census, or “the big show,” as the Census Bureau calls it. The year 2000 was the first time the Census Bureau would invest in paid advertising in a significant way to improve mail returns and reduce the expense of census takers. The bet paid off, and Ken was able to return part of the expenses back to the government. He moved to Washington, D.C., as chief of the public information office with the goal of turning the census into a brand. Did he succeed? Well, census is not exactly toothpaste, but has much more awareness and plenty of media exposure. Ken and Karen, his wife by second marriage, live in Annapolis, Maryland. Ken had to miss the reunion as he, Karen and his stepdaughter Hannah celebrated Hannah’s graduation from Mary Washington College with a trip to the Cayman Islands.


Next issue: News from our 50th.


—Harry Zlokower, 60 Madison Ave., Suite 1010, New York, NY 10010; (212) 447-9292; harry@ zlokower.com