Greetings, fellow ’71s! I had the pleasure this past month of attending Class Officers Weekend and the inauguration of our new president, Phil Hanlon. I took advantage of a great tour of the new Black Family Visual Arts Center, where classmate Bill Phillips has an office as visiting associate professor of film and media studies. Bill has written for most of the major studios, networks and cable companies and teaches “Screenwriting 1,” “Screenwriting 2” and MALS 226: “Graduate Screenwriting.” Great pomp and circumstance surrounded the inauguration, with some terrific speeches, which led Michael Maynard and me to search our memories for the inauguration of John Kemeny in 1970 while we were undergraduates. Neither of us had any recollection of that ceremony, which I suspect was nothing like recent “passing of the Wentworth Bowl” ceremonies. I hear great reports of our Homecoming mini-reunion—some 25 classmates and spouses marching in the Friday evening parade down Main Street to the Green and the bonfire, a wonderful dinner hosted by Judy and Tom Oxman at their home in Hanover and a gratifying, much-needed win over Yale before one of the largest crowds (11,000-plus) at Memorial Field in recent years, if not decades. Back in the day we had the second-largest crowd ever (20,306) to witness a 38-0 humbling of Princeton in October of our senior year by that remarkable undefeated, untied, almost-unscored-upon championship team. Bill Seidman, CEO of Cerebyte Inc., a software and services company he founded in 1997, is about to publish, with coauthor Richard Grbavac, The Star Factor: Discover What Your Top Performers Do Differently—and Inspire a New Level of Greatness in All. Bill is an organizational performance expert, having spent his entire career helping large organizations develop and sustain high-performing cultures. He writes “I live in Lake Oswego, Oregon, with my wife of 37 years, Elizabeth Lincoln (Smith ’74). We have three children, David ’04, James ’06 and Andrew ’09. David is married to Julia Keane ’04. I got a Ph.D. in education from Stanford in 1987 and worked for various high-tech companies until founding Cerebyte. I had the good fortune to link up with John Baldwin in southern France about two years ago and again at his home near Lake Como in Italy 18 months ago. John is doing well, married with three kids.” Sue and Hank Rickleffs recently passed through Hanover and ate at the newly renovated Hanover Inn. “What a pleasure; great food and a warm, yet unstuffy décor. The College did well to revitalize the old gal.” Hank is also one of many who highly recommend the Picasso etchings exhibit at the Hood. Jim Smith, chairman and CEO of Webster Bank, and wife Cathy were honored in September by the Mattatuck Museum with its annual Brass Button Award. This recognizes outstanding contributions of individuals in greater Waterbury, Connecticut, who are dedicated to the cultural and social enrichment of the community. Cathy is the past president of the Mattatuck’s board of directors. Well, I’m up against my 500-word max, so next issue will share news of Kim Krostue, John Gilligan and Hans Wolfgang Pfahler.
—Pete Webster 17 Woodbridge St., South Hadley, MA 01075; weebs71@gmail.com