Peter Dorsen kindly reminded me that he will turn 70 this year in May. And he’s not the only one! Just about all of us are, or will be, three score and ten before the next Rose Bowl Game.


Seventy—that used to sound pretty old, but from the way many classmates are carrying on, 70 could be the new 50. I offer three examples.


Take Steve Coles. Yes, after overseas positions at universities in Saudi Arabia and Oman and 15 years as a marine biologist at the Bishop Museum in Hawaii he claims to be “semi-retired.” You decide: He’s still managing or participating in biological surveys in O’ahu and Guam and currently he’s assessing the impact of a recent spill of 240,000 gallons of molasses in Honolulu Harbor.


“This is quite a challenge physically,” Steve reports, “requiring up to six hours of diving daily in very turbid water, but I’m happy to say that that this near septuagenarian has been able to keep up with the 30-year-olds in our crew!” For a change of pace Steve heads east to the Rockies for Tim Urban’s ski mini-reunions in Winter Park, Colorado. He and Renuka, married 42 years, have two children and three young grandkids.


Then there’s Harry Greenberg, who has been a faculty member at Stanford University School of Medicine for the past 31 years and by his own admission “continues to lead a full-time, pretty busy academic life.” Harry is a researcher and the senior associate dean of research at the medical school. Harry and Diane, a trust and estates attorney, have been married for 46 years and, when they can get away, it’s not for a week on the beach. In recent years they have trekked in the Himalayas, Andes and Sierras and have adventures planned at Denali, the Atacama Desert and the Altiplano in northern Chile. They also have two grown daughters who live nearby and have the joy of their first grandchild, born in February. 


And now for Peter Dorsen. Pete coaches a local Minneapolis ski team and competes with great success in his age group at the North American Birkebeiner ski races. He’s looking for a part-time job as a chemical dependency counselor, but if nothing comes up he will celebrate his 70th birthday by hiking the 273-mile Superior Hiking Trail from Canada to Duluth, Minnesota. The best part is that he’ll invite us, all his 70-year-old friends, to join him for part or all of the jaunt.


—Larry Geiger, 93 Greenridge Ave., White Plains, NY 10605; (917) 747-1642; lgeiger@aol.com