Jean and I connected with Bill and Ellen Blodgett (Lake Forest, Illinois) over dinner recently. Bill spent a year at Dartmouth, then transferred to Beloit College. He is still active in his own marketing consulting firm, serving major national food companies. Earlier he held senior marketing and sales positions with Pillsbury and Peavey companies. Bill crosses paths regularly with Bob Closser (Mission Hills, Kansas) during vacations in Hawaii.


Jim Balderston (Portola Valley, California) sent along a copy of the Virginia Law Weekly featuring a Page 1 photo of professor Jeff O’Connell (Charlottesville, Virginia) and a “thumbs up” review of Jeff’s annual appearance in Dandelion. Dandelion is an opportunity for University of Virginia law students to blow off steam in “sometimes ludicrous, sometimes hilarious skits.” Sadly, we learned at press time that Jeff has since died. Details will follow in the next issue of the alumni magazine.


Bob Hopkins (Darien, Connecticut) reports a mini-mini-reunion over a festive lunch with Connecticut neighbors Dave Batchelder (Salisbury), Dick Dutton (Washington), Sandy McDonald (Darien) and out-of-state import Dave Saxton (York, Maine). Batch and Dick get together almost every week.


Setting the pace for “getting all there is to get out of life” is Ed Landau (Worcester, Massachusetts). His remarkable career includes stints in medicine (professor of gastroenterology), landscape architecture (with a mid-life master’s), court mediation and adult education (as teacher and student). He is now actively involved with the Worcester Foreign Relations Committee.


Paul Meyer (Middlebury, Vermont), in a bit of a stretch, claims the distinction of being the first in our class to retire. “After realizing that college life was more fun than the business world,” he reports, “I ‘retired’ from Eastman Kodak in 1955. I acquired the necessary union card (a Ph.D. in very pure mathematics) at Columbia, then spent a very happy career as an academic.”


Chuck Ryan (Salem, Virginia) has recently re-retired after 26 years preparing tax returns. His earlier career (32 years) was in manufacturing management with Mohawk Rubber Co.


We report the recent deaths of Joe Baker, Bill Beasley and Blaine Boyden. Our class was represented at Bill’s funeral by Jerry Mitchell, Mike Choukas and Loye Miller. Peirce Mckee attended Blaine’s service.


—Pete Henderson, 450 Davis St., Evanston, IL 60201; (847) 905-0635; pandjhenderson@gmail.com