Class Note 1978
Issue
May-June 2020
Part of my role as class secretary is to note the passing of classmates in Class Notes and on the “In Memoriam” page of our class website. This is not as morbid a job as it seems. Obituaries are not about death. In fact, they are celebrations of life. Often it is a joyous experience to learn about and recount a person’s accomplishments or the lives they touched. Nevertheless, the process sometimes leads to somber reflection. Not all life stories have happy endings.
In getting a chance to go to Dartmouth, we each, in a sense, won the lottery. But not everyone has been able to hold on the prize. There are ’78s who have taken their own lives, some a long time ago, others more recently. There are ’78s who have found themselves in homeless shelters or out on the street. Others’ lives have been devastated by mental illness or addiction. There are those whose failures in the professional world have sent them on downward spirals. A classmate who recently died was described by a friend as being “essentially destitute and alone, having alienated just about every living family member and friend he ever had.”
What’s most troubling is that we are often helpless to change things for our fellow classmates. Sometimes we don’t know the circumstances until it is too late. Other times the person in dire straits doesn’t want help or is unable to accept it. There are no easy answers. No button to push, no fund to contribute to that will make it all better. Some classes have formal systems in place for classmates in need of counseling or mental health assistance. Perhaps these ruminations will spark some discussion on whether we should embrace such a plan. But the truth is, we can’t always catch people before they fall.
We can, however, remember. I am working right now to make sure there is a web obituary for every classmate who has died during the last 40 years, even when information is scarce or painful. Under class president Barbi Martinez, we have set up a system to ensure that classmates who die in the future (chances are good it will happen to all of us!) are appropriately commemorated. Obituaries can be found on the ’78 website’s “In Memoriam” page, at 1978.dartmouth.org/in-memoriam. More information is always welcome.
Not all classmate stories are happy ones. But we owe it to one another to honor and remember every one.
—Rick Beyer, 1305 S. Michigan Ave., #1104, Chicago, IL 60605; rickbeyer78@gmail.com
In getting a chance to go to Dartmouth, we each, in a sense, won the lottery. But not everyone has been able to hold on the prize. There are ’78s who have taken their own lives, some a long time ago, others more recently. There are ’78s who have found themselves in homeless shelters or out on the street. Others’ lives have been devastated by mental illness or addiction. There are those whose failures in the professional world have sent them on downward spirals. A classmate who recently died was described by a friend as being “essentially destitute and alone, having alienated just about every living family member and friend he ever had.”
What’s most troubling is that we are often helpless to change things for our fellow classmates. Sometimes we don’t know the circumstances until it is too late. Other times the person in dire straits doesn’t want help or is unable to accept it. There are no easy answers. No button to push, no fund to contribute to that will make it all better. Some classes have formal systems in place for classmates in need of counseling or mental health assistance. Perhaps these ruminations will spark some discussion on whether we should embrace such a plan. But the truth is, we can’t always catch people before they fall.
We can, however, remember. I am working right now to make sure there is a web obituary for every classmate who has died during the last 40 years, even when information is scarce or painful. Under class president Barbi Martinez, we have set up a system to ensure that classmates who die in the future (chances are good it will happen to all of us!) are appropriately commemorated. Obituaries can be found on the ’78 website’s “In Memoriam” page, at 1978.dartmouth.org/in-memoriam. More information is always welcome.
Not all classmate stories are happy ones. But we owe it to one another to honor and remember every one.
—Rick Beyer, 1305 S. Michigan Ave., #1104, Chicago, IL 60605; rickbeyer78@gmail.com