Class Note 1975. Several months ago I tracked down information on and wrote about several classmates from whom we had not heard in many years. I basically hunted for those who reside in my current domain of Florida. This resulted in at least one return call. I thought I would try this again and throw the net a little wider. How about Alaska? I bet some of you are aware of Ivory Jack’s Restaurant, owned by Dick Elsworth ’74, in Fairbanks, Alaska, but are you aware that we have classmates in the same state? I know, there are only 50 of them (states, that is), so the odds are pretty good.
It is remarkable what you can find trolling around the internet. Chris Puchner has been holed up in Alaska since the late 1970s. As an exploration geologist, he must have found his dream jobs on the frontier. I believe he was chief geologist of at least one mining organization in Fairbanks. He also has been an active participant in a variety of winter sports, most notably as president of the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks. I suspect he has a few pairs of long johns.
Staying with the cold sports theme, Steve McKeever is the treasurer of the Arctic Orienteering Club. For those who do not know, orienteering is a challenge to use a map and compass to find your way through unfamiliar territory. Imagine doing that in the Arctic. Steve has lived in Anchorage since 1966, when he moved there at age 12. After receiving his degree in anthropology from Dartmouth he was awarded a civil engineering degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage. He retired in 2021 after a 45-plus-year career in the oil and gas industry, including a dozen years working for drilling contractors as a roughneck, driller, and tool pusher; a decade working for a manufacturer of blowout preventers and well control equipment; and 20 years working as a drilling engineer. Orienteering sounds like a piece of cake.
We can also find Larry Benz in Alaska, where he resides with his wife, Pita (Jelley) Benz ’76. They are known for their community involvement and patronage of the local arts. I also think they enjoy the deep backwoods lifestyle as I discovered they have a hand-built cabin on the edge of the Chugach National Forest. Hand-built? Yikes! An article describing a day with the Benz family in the Alaskan outback was posted a few years back in the “blogosphere” on the Off the Beaten Path platform. It sounds positively ideal.
So, which state is next?
Vox clamantis in Florida.
—Stephen D. Gray, 4396 NW 53rd Court, Ocala, FL 34482; (650) 302-8739; fratergray@gmail.com