Class Note 1978
Issue
Jul - Aug 2016
As this column goes to press, class mini-reunions are taking place around the country. I am counting the hours until I head off to the New England gathering on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I’m pretty sure that Lenny Weiser-Varon is already dreaming up some humdinger puns to try out on us all. It has taken loads of work to organize each of these get-togethers, and I think it is appropriate to give a rouse to all the people who devoted hours and hours of effort to make them happen: Paul Ehrsam (southern central region); Dave Graham and Michael Whitcomb (West Coast); Barbie (Snyder) Martinez and Todd Anderson (New England); Jody Dietze, Marco Zarbin and Tom Hopkins (Mid-Atlantic); Park Dougherty and John Glaser (Southeast coast); Steven Peseckis and Keith McCrae (eastern Midwest). I’m sure there are many others who contributed as well. Thanks for working hard to bring classmates together!
The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine has presented Bill Dexter with its Founders’ Award, which goes to the person who “exemplifies the best that a sports medicine physician can be and do.” For the last 20 years Bill has been the director of the sports medicine program at Maine Medical Center. He plans to step down in the fall. “The award was so unexpected and quite humbling,” he writes. “I have had a great run—an enormous amount of support, terrific staff, residents and sports medicine fellows and am so grateful to have had lots of talented folks around me over the years.” Bill and his wife, Cindy, have downsized from house to condo and recently celebrated their 35th anniversary. As for the future, he says he is “in the process of building Dex 3.0.”
Frank Wilderson was in Hanover recently to deliver the annual William W. Cook lecture. Frank is a professor of African American studies, drama and critical theory at UC Irvine. His talk, given to a packed room in Sanborn House, was titled “Afro-Pessimism & the Paradox of Affirmation.” The talk was part of an extended speaking tour that has taken him across the United States and to Canada and which will send him to Germany and Brazil before it is done. Frank and his wife, Anita Wilkins, are both accomplished poets. They’ve been together for 19 years, and wed three years ago “when the German government told me that a common-law partner was not good enough for us to get the spousal health benefits” during a fellowship there! He has a daughter (from his first marriage) and granddaughter who live in South Africa. Says Frank: “Like nearly everyone in the class of 1978 I just turned 60 years of age (on April 11) and am pondering what that means.” As I write my 60th birthday is just eight hours away, so I know exactly what he means.
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—Rick Beyer, 34 Outlook Drive, Lexington, MA 02421; rick@rickbeyer.net
The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine has presented Bill Dexter with its Founders’ Award, which goes to the person who “exemplifies the best that a sports medicine physician can be and do.” For the last 20 years Bill has been the director of the sports medicine program at Maine Medical Center. He plans to step down in the fall. “The award was so unexpected and quite humbling,” he writes. “I have had a great run—an enormous amount of support, terrific staff, residents and sports medicine fellows and am so grateful to have had lots of talented folks around me over the years.” Bill and his wife, Cindy, have downsized from house to condo and recently celebrated their 35th anniversary. As for the future, he says he is “in the process of building Dex 3.0.”
Frank Wilderson was in Hanover recently to deliver the annual William W. Cook lecture. Frank is a professor of African American studies, drama and critical theory at UC Irvine. His talk, given to a packed room in Sanborn House, was titled “Afro-Pessimism & the Paradox of Affirmation.” The talk was part of an extended speaking tour that has taken him across the United States and to Canada and which will send him to Germany and Brazil before it is done. Frank and his wife, Anita Wilkins, are both accomplished poets. They’ve been together for 19 years, and wed three years ago “when the German government told me that a common-law partner was not good enough for us to get the spousal health benefits” during a fellowship there! He has a daughter (from his first marriage) and granddaughter who live in South Africa. Says Frank: “Like nearly everyone in the class of 1978 I just turned 60 years of age (on April 11) and am pondering what that means.” As I write my 60th birthday is just eight hours away, so I know exactly what he means.
Send news!
—Rick Beyer, 34 Outlook Drive, Lexington, MA 02421; rick@rickbeyer.net