It is June and besides reunions, with which we are not involved this year, the World Cup is being played to the delight of some of our classmates. Aldie Caram is on site at the games cheering on Team USA and passing valuable information to the rest of us via the class listserv. In addition to Aldie’s updates, critical reviews have come from the likes of Peter Elias, Peter Schaeffer, Terry Light and John Beck. You will know how this all turned out when you are reading this column but right now there is excitement and optimism from a number of classmates.


In the last issue of this column we reported on the listserv questions about retirement. Continuing on that theme several of us weighed in with our current status and the one who first asked the questions offered his own answers. Peter Elias has gradually cut back his work schedule to three 12-plus-hour days per week and does not work weekends, holidays or remain on call. This has allowed him time for grandparenting, taking short trips, teaching a half day a week in a local residency and doing a lot of reading and some writing. He definitely plans to retire and feels that moment will come at age 70, after which his participation in medicine will be writing and volunteer work. Tex Talmadge had a lengthy response that began with “not retired” and “not planning to.” Tex chose his career in academic and clinical psychiatry partly because his mentors practiced well into their 80s. Even in the twilight of his work he still feels engaged in a profession that is interesting, satisfying and challenging. He believes he is still in the “student stage” of his life. Rick Willets assured us that he is retired, leaving a career of teaching high school science for a life of leisure. He did this four years ago and has no regrets. Responding to the question “how is retirement going?” he said: “Wonderful—it turns out that I do nothing well.” We will visit more of these responses in the next column.


David Prentice provided the listserv on the 50th anniversary in May with a video of the origins of BASIC showing Professor Kemeny and some students at Kiewit. One of those was Greg Dobbs who provided insight to his role, which he downplayed as limited but admitted developing modules for time sharing and helping create the EDIT system and later String Editor. He remembered Steve Hobbs had a much deeper role with the operating system.


Dimitri Gerakaris forwarded a letter from the outgoing director of Athletes United, who thanked our class for the grant we provided last year that allowed them to expand their work providing kids in the Upper Valley “the opportunity to participate in a free, organized sports program that allows them to interact with Dartmouth varsity athletes.”


Regrettably, we heard from James Ennis about the death two years ago of Stephen Davies, who succumbed to cancer. Our condolences to all who knew Steve.


—Steve Larson, 465 Miller Road, Winchester, VA 22602; (360) 770-4388; wheat69@outlook.com