Class Note 1978
Issue
November-December 2025
Class Note 1978. It’s mailbag time—a chance to serve up some of the tasty odds and ends that showed up in my email or caught my eye on social media.
Melinda Kassen was inducted in October into the Shaker Schools Alumni Hall of Fame, established in 1986 to honor distinguished graduates of public schools in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Melinda, who graduated in 1974 from Shaker Heights High School, was honored for her 40-year career in the law, where she first prosecuted domestic violence cases, then focused on Western water quality and water management. “She represented nonprofit conservation organizations advocating for healthy rivers as well as several Colorado agencies,” according to the award committee. “She also did stints teaching law school, as environmental counsel to the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, and negotiating the cleanup of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. Melinda now volunteers as a victim advocate, teaching older adult short courses, and in the Jewish community” in Boulder, Colorado, where she lives. Congratulations, Melinda!
Dr. Keith McCrae was quoted in a WallStreet Journal article in August on listening to your body to avoid life-threatening complications of illness or injury. Keith, director of classical hematology at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, explained the body’s blood-clotting mechanism and how it might not react the way it’s supposed to as the body tries to heal, underlining the importance of paying attention to symptoms, especially unusual or sudden-onset ones. Good advice for all of us at this stage of life! Thanks to Mark Arnold for bringing the article to my attention.
Ray Boniface wrote briefly a few months ago of spending the summer of 1975 motorcycle racing, which morphed into auto racing and became a lifelong pursuit. I wanted to know more so I asked him to expand.
“Since a teen, I’ve been into motorcycles, then cars, maintaining and modifying them,” Ray writes. “While in high school and college, I raced dirt bikes. Later, I began doing on-track sports car events.
“In 1996 a four-day course of racing school (along with Fred Seligson) gained me a competition license. I bought my first actual race car from what turned out to be a fellow alum, Dave Laughlin ’61. It took some time—learning to prepare the car, develop my race craft, and getting faster—before I began to win consistently, including three track championships.
“I enjoy the intense, in-the-moment focus while on track. And it’s been very gratifying to have some success after a great deal of work building my mechanical and driving skills.
“These days I still get the car on track a few times a year to run laps and still race occasionally. I even won one last summer, beating a quick youngster on guile.” That had to feel good, Ray; thanks for writing.
Happy holidays to all—stay warm and please send news!
—Anne Bagamery, 13 rue de Presles, 75015 Paris, France; abagamery78@gmail.com; Rick Beyer, 1305 S. Michigan Ave., #1104, Chicago, IL 60605; rickbeyer78@gmail.com
Melinda Kassen was inducted in October into the Shaker Schools Alumni Hall of Fame, established in 1986 to honor distinguished graduates of public schools in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Melinda, who graduated in 1974 from Shaker Heights High School, was honored for her 40-year career in the law, where she first prosecuted domestic violence cases, then focused on Western water quality and water management. “She represented nonprofit conservation organizations advocating for healthy rivers as well as several Colorado agencies,” according to the award committee. “She also did stints teaching law school, as environmental counsel to the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, and negotiating the cleanup of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. Melinda now volunteers as a victim advocate, teaching older adult short courses, and in the Jewish community” in Boulder, Colorado, where she lives. Congratulations, Melinda!
Dr. Keith McCrae was quoted in a WallStreet Journal article in August on listening to your body to avoid life-threatening complications of illness or injury. Keith, director of classical hematology at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, explained the body’s blood-clotting mechanism and how it might not react the way it’s supposed to as the body tries to heal, underlining the importance of paying attention to symptoms, especially unusual or sudden-onset ones. Good advice for all of us at this stage of life! Thanks to Mark Arnold for bringing the article to my attention.
Ray Boniface wrote briefly a few months ago of spending the summer of 1975 motorcycle racing, which morphed into auto racing and became a lifelong pursuit. I wanted to know more so I asked him to expand.
“Since a teen, I’ve been into motorcycles, then cars, maintaining and modifying them,” Ray writes. “While in high school and college, I raced dirt bikes. Later, I began doing on-track sports car events.
“In 1996 a four-day course of racing school (along with Fred Seligson) gained me a competition license. I bought my first actual race car from what turned out to be a fellow alum, Dave Laughlin ’61. It took some time—learning to prepare the car, develop my race craft, and getting faster—before I began to win consistently, including three track championships.
“I enjoy the intense, in-the-moment focus while on track. And it’s been very gratifying to have some success after a great deal of work building my mechanical and driving skills.
“These days I still get the car on track a few times a year to run laps and still race occasionally. I even won one last summer, beating a quick youngster on guile.” That had to feel good, Ray; thanks for writing.
Happy holidays to all—stay warm and please send news!
—Anne Bagamery, 13 rue de Presles, 75015 Paris, France; abagamery78@gmail.com; Rick Beyer, 1305 S. Michigan Ave., #1104, Chicago, IL 60605; rickbeyer78@gmail.com