Greetings, fellow ’70s. First my apologies to David Muller, whom I overlooked in my April column highlighting 1970 ROTC graduates who went on to make the military a career for 20 years or more. Dave writes, “Having studied Chinese with professor Jonathan Mirsky, I was commissioned as a naval intelligence officer and spent the next 20 years in that line of work. The highlight of my career was running the Navy’s human-source intelligence (espionage, etc.) operations worldwide for five years. Served my final Navy year on assignment to the White House under Bush 41, where I set up intelligence support to the first drug czar, Bill Bennett. I’ve now been retired for longer than the 20 years I was on active duty but am still in the intelligence profession, presently working at the National Counterterrorism Center.”


From the Durango (Colorado) Herald comes word of Pete Harter’s retirement after 23 years as the principal of Needham Elementary School. Reading the article it is abundantly clear that he has had a profound positive impact on the lives of thousands of kids as well as the greater Durango community. Pete and his wife, Candace, have three grown children, all of them Needham graduates.


Classmate Robert Rudney recently published a novel, Lovers Lame, that he quips “makes disability sexy.” He goes on to say that the book is “also a conscious effort to raise public awareness on disability issues, especially employment, and to expand the audience.” Bob, who is retiring as a senior advisor in the Defense Department, notes that, “only one in five Americans with disabilities is employed. That’s unacceptable.” Bob was the recipient of a 2008 Kennedy Foundation Congressional Fellowship and won the 2011 Defense Department Award as Outstanding Employee with a Disability.


Not surprisingly a number of our classmates are actively engaged with charitable organizations as operating officers or board members. The class executive committee has agreed that we should get the word out about such groups through this medium and other class correspondence. So here is the beginning of that effort, one that will continue in future columns. Jim Clark and his wife, Nancy, have operated the Zienzele Foundation (www.zienzele.org) for more than 10 years. The foundation’s stated goal is self-reliance for Zimbabwean orphans and their caregivers through project development, education, counseling and community support. Visit their website to find out more. Kadita “A.T.” Tshibaka has been actively involved with Opportunity International (OI) for nearly a decade, including service as interim president and CEO in 2009. He is a current board member. OI seeks to empower people to work their way out of chronic poverty, transforming their lives, children’s futures and communities by providing microfinance services, including lending, savings, insurance and transformational training. They currently operate in 23 countries. Check them out at www.opportunity.org.


Fall is almost here and two mini-reunions are planned, one in Hanover September 29 and the other in Princeton, New Jersey, November 17. Keep an eye on the class website for more details.


—Bill Wilson, 304 Highlands Bluffs Drive, Cary, NC 27518; wilson8689@aol.com