Class Note 1963. We celebrated the life of Harry R. Zlokower, our class secretary for the past 43 years. Along with Harry’s family and his friends, Bob and Beth Bysshe,Bill andPat Russell, Lenore Bowne, Art Williams, Dan Muchinsky, and yours truly gathered one afternoon at Le Zie Trattoria in lower Manhattan to share memories of the diehard Yankee fan who was a consummate organizer and gatherer and a dedicated father and husband.
I told this story: One night about a dozen years ago my daughter Kelsey, an aspiring jazz singer, was performing at a watering hole in lower Manhattan. When I looked around, I was stunned to see Harry and Nicole at a nearby table. During a break, they told me that they’d been going to Kelsey’s gigs for some time and were big fans.
In December we lost Thomas Daniel Bracken, Louis V. Gerstner Jr., and Blair C. Wood.
Dan passed away December 23 in Portland, Oregon. Dan (Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Gamma, and Sphinx) earned his Ph.D. in physics from Stanford, taught at Reed College, worked for the Bonneville Power Administration, and formed a consulting company. He’s survived by three adult children and four grandchildren; his wife, Jeanne, whom he met at Stanford, predeceased him. I learned of Dan’s passing from classmate Tom Carter.Tom and his wife are living in Los Angeles, close to their three children and two grandchildren. He’s cowriting a book with three former colleagues.
Lou (Kappa Sigma, Casque & Gauntlet), who died December 27 in Hobe Sound, Florida, received an honorary degree in 2013. Less well known than his business accomplishments is the Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Scholars program for promising first-generation, STEM college students, which Lou established in 2020. In Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? Lou revealed that his parents refinanced their home to pay for his education.
Blair Wood(Phi Kappa Psi)died at home in Montana on December 28, his daughter, Hilary, reports.
Dan, Lou, and Blair are the 303rd, 304th, and 305th classmates to leave us. Tread carefully, do your balance exercises, and sing, dance, and laugh as much as possible.
—John Merrow, 201 East 79th St., Apt. 5D, New York City, NY 10075; (646) 373-3034; john.merrow@gmail.com

64Gus Buchtel, puzzle master for a blog created for our age group, has contributed material for this column. His blog asks a question and then he grades the answers. The following are answers from our classmates. In 2024 he asked for answers to the following challenges. With “Write a clerihew about a famous person,” winners were Richard Scaramelli (on Biden)and Wendell Smith (Trump). With “Advice to young relatives to help them safely navigate the turbulent conditions of today’s world,” Chuck Carroll won. On “Why the monkeys in a temple in Bali steal phones from tourists,” the winners were Paul Brown and Richard Scaramelli, who said the monkeys use the objects to barter for things they did want, such as bananas, after the monks inadvertently taught the monkeys that stealing would be rewarded. In 2025 he shared the following challenges. For “Best talking animal joke,” Bill Hamm won with a talking dog whose owner is selling him for $10 and, when asked why the price is so low, the owner explains the dog is a first-class liar and has never left the backyard. Fred Kolo, Bruce Michal, and Joe Cardillo earned honorable mentions. With “Best story or joke that illustrates the difference between men and women,” Bill Hamm won and runners-up were Marshall Noecker and Doug Raybeck. For “Provide an autobiographical incident when classmates thought they were going to die but quirk of fate intervened,” the winner was Carlos Ballantyne with a near-death experience with pulmonary edema in the Himalayas. First runner-up Doug Raybeck, who listed the benefit of learning how to fall in judo classes, which came in handy when a car turned in front of him on his motorcycle: “I went sailing clear over the car, lowered my shoulder, tucked my head to my chest, rolled, came out, and slapped with my left forearm.” Others included Kjell Johansen, fearing for his life when hiding in a basement bomb shelter in the early 1940s while the Allies bombed nearby harbor facilities in his hometown in Norway; and Chris Palmer, who fell asleep at the wheel but came out just fine.Contact Gus Buchtel (gusb@med.umich.edu) to participate in the future.
—Robert Goodman Jr., Kaufman & Canoles, P.C., 2101 Parks Ave., Suite 700, Virginia Beach, VA 23451; (757) 624-3238; rcgoodman@kaufcan.com