The Best Seat in the House is Dave Leighton’s first book about the naval aviation and airline worlds 1963-2001. In the author’s words, “What started as a whimsical little coffee table book for folks close to me, turned out to be a significant project and a bigger part of my life than I expected.” Writing on the book’s website, www.bestseat-leighton.com, Dave explains, “It is 250-plus pages of musings and mutterings, anecdotes and bantering, interesting facts, beautiful photos, and stories about the world as I saw it as a Navy fighter pilot and later as a 747 captain with Northwest Airlines.” Dave has written op-ed pieces for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune from his home in theLake Minnetonka area in Minnesota,where he resides with Mary, his wife of almost 50 years. Dave served as a naval aviator in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in the Gulf of Tonkin, off the coast of North Vietnam. He joined Northwest in 1969. The Leightons raised three children. Dave can be reached at dleig1919@aol.com.

Charlie and Claire Logan organized a Psi U gathering in Roanoke, Virginia, that included Sam and Deamie Cabot, Chris and Anne Wiedenmayer, Gerry and Mary Sullivan, John and Althea Hicks, David and Michele Halstead, Pete Suttmeier,Wick ’62 and Liz Warrick and Skip ’61 and Patsy Kendall. The get-together included “wonderful tours and guides of the National D-Day Memorial, Thomas Jefferson’s second home in Poplar Forest, and the Natural Bridge, ” reports Sam Cabot.

While memories of our 55th last June remain vivid, what particularly stands out are individual conversations with classmates whom I may have known in passing or might not have known at all in our undergraduate years. Two of these encounters occurred in front of Baker Library at dinner with Rich Edelson and wife Judy of Bethesda, Maryland, and Doug Bell and wife Michelle of Denver; both men are physicians, the former a neurologist and the latter an otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat). Rich, who retired in 2003 after a successful recovery from a serious bike accident, took up piano, volunteers at a clinic, enjoys his grandchildren, and travels. Doug, who also recovered well from medical issues, teaches at the University of Colorado Medical School, bikes long distances, and indulges his grandchildren.

At the 55th I bumped into football vet Frank Finsthwait, who teaches English and coached in Atlanta for more than 40 years, and Vaughn Skinner, also a football standout and now an avid golfer who lives near Syracuse, New York, and is retired from finance. I recently spoke with Ellen Kardon of Weston, Massachusetts, wife of Steve Kardon, who died in 2014. A football fan, Ellen alerted me to Dartmouth’s victory over Yale and 4-0 record in early October. Ellen recounted her precious memories of meeting Steve on a bike trip in France and how later in their marriage they recreated their trip in the Loire Valley.

I regret to report the death of Larry Keyes.

—Harry Zlokower, 190 Amity St., Brooklyn, NY 11201; (917) 541-8162; harry@zlokower.com