Class Note 1978
Issue
Jul - Aug 2017
As I sit down to write, our 40th reunion is six weeks in the future. As you read these words, that gathering is history. I have now been writing this column for four years and I thought I would take a few paragraphs to reflect on that experience.
During the last four years I have mentioned 198 of you in this column. This has included, poets, governors, scientists, actresses, authors, healers and a man who may be the most avid avian photographer on the planet. (You know who you are, Richard Hoeg!) I’m always impressed with the incredible array of activities being undertaken by classmates, which constantly inspires me to do and try more. On a more melancholy note, nine ’78s have died during my tenure as class secretary. I have celebrated their lives and mourned their passing, keenly aware that the ranks of departed classmates will only increase as the years hurtle onward.
What’s missing, of course, is what the other 700-plus of you have been doing. So I give you my cri de coeur: Email me! Call me! Send news. I want to know about the interesting things you are doing. Seriously, I want the column to be about everyone in the class, not just a few. Perhaps you are embarrassed to toot your own horn or think that nobody cares. But I guarantee you that there are classmates who are dying to see your name pop up and want to know what is happening in your life. So, please, get in touch with a brief update so I can include news about you.
Someone who contacted me recently was Geoff Crew, who is working to unlock the secrets of the universe. Literally. Geoff is part of the team operating the Event Horizon Telescope and laboring to take a picture of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. Geoff reports they are using a radio astronomy technique called very-long-baseline interferometry, which involves using radio observatories all across the planet to observe the same thing at the same time. If it is done right, says Geoff, they can “make an image at extremely high angular resolution, good enough to count the stitches on a Red Sox baseball from Tokyo if you could see through the Earth.” Just remember, Geoff, it you stare long enough into the black hole, the black hole may start staring back at you.
Finally, congratulations to Doug Bradley, who coached his pro hockey team in Hungary, DVTK Jegesmedvek, to a league championship for the third time in a row. Doug was a star defenseman at Dartmouth and played in the Blackhawks organization before turning to coaching. With three championships in a row under his belt, it would seem he is excelling at it!
It is my hope that in my next column someone will become the 200th classmate I have written about. Will it be you?
Send news!
—Rick Beyer, 34 Outlook Drive, Lexington, MA 02421; rick@rickbeyer.net
During the last four years I have mentioned 198 of you in this column. This has included, poets, governors, scientists, actresses, authors, healers and a man who may be the most avid avian photographer on the planet. (You know who you are, Richard Hoeg!) I’m always impressed with the incredible array of activities being undertaken by classmates, which constantly inspires me to do and try more. On a more melancholy note, nine ’78s have died during my tenure as class secretary. I have celebrated their lives and mourned their passing, keenly aware that the ranks of departed classmates will only increase as the years hurtle onward.
What’s missing, of course, is what the other 700-plus of you have been doing. So I give you my cri de coeur: Email me! Call me! Send news. I want to know about the interesting things you are doing. Seriously, I want the column to be about everyone in the class, not just a few. Perhaps you are embarrassed to toot your own horn or think that nobody cares. But I guarantee you that there are classmates who are dying to see your name pop up and want to know what is happening in your life. So, please, get in touch with a brief update so I can include news about you.
Someone who contacted me recently was Geoff Crew, who is working to unlock the secrets of the universe. Literally. Geoff is part of the team operating the Event Horizon Telescope and laboring to take a picture of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. Geoff reports they are using a radio astronomy technique called very-long-baseline interferometry, which involves using radio observatories all across the planet to observe the same thing at the same time. If it is done right, says Geoff, they can “make an image at extremely high angular resolution, good enough to count the stitches on a Red Sox baseball from Tokyo if you could see through the Earth.” Just remember, Geoff, it you stare long enough into the black hole, the black hole may start staring back at you.
Finally, congratulations to Doug Bradley, who coached his pro hockey team in Hungary, DVTK Jegesmedvek, to a league championship for the third time in a row. Doug was a star defenseman at Dartmouth and played in the Blackhawks organization before turning to coaching. With three championships in a row under his belt, it would seem he is excelling at it!
It is my hope that in my next column someone will become the 200th classmate I have written about. Will it be you?
Send news!
—Rick Beyer, 34 Outlook Drive, Lexington, MA 02421; rick@rickbeyer.net