Class of 1966

Barbara and Steve Hayes grew up together in Wilmington, Delaware, and have been married 53 years, through Steve’s service as a naval officer in Vietnam and civilian career in public and international affairs. The year 2024 was eventful for the couple: Steve published his third novel, Missing Letters, got hearing aids and a knee replacement, and the couple moved into a one-level condo. (Good idea!)

“The most significant event in my life,” writes Chuck Forester, a retired city and community planner, “was knowing for certain that I was infected with HIV by a lovely man in 1975, seven years before AIDS had a name. That makes me perhaps the longest-living AIDS survivor in the country.” Chuck, an AIDS activist for 50 years, has lived in Sonoma, California, for a decade.

Not only is John Hargraves an award-winning translator of German literature, he’s also a talented musician. John combined those skills to curate and present a musical tribute to German author and composer E.T.A. Hoffmann at the German consulate general in Manhattan in February.

“I retired from the Navy as an admiral almost 30 years ago,” writes Bill Hayden. “Can you believe it?” Bill, a fighter pilot, aircraft carrier captain, and the head of the Navy’s pilot training program, went on to found and run Starbase Victory, a successful nonprofit elementary school STEM program that provides hands-on projects for students in the Portsmouth, Virginia, public schools.

Class VP Budge Gere traveled to Australia, New Zealand, and Greece last year, plus to our class ski and golf outings and 80th birthday party. The highlight: The four-day Annefest in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at which the University of Michigan community honored Budge’s wife, professor Anne Gere, for 50 years of pioneering research in language education, writing, and literacy (and much more).

Our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of five distinguished classmates who have recently passed: London-based financier and lawyer John Barbieri, international and security affairs expert Dave Barton, Dartmouth Alumni Award recipient Bill Higgins, civil rights and environmental lawyer Elliot Taubman, and Oregon ophthalmologist Randy Wolfe. Obits on the class website and the online DAM.

Start planning. Our 60th reunion is June 15-17, 2026, in Hanover.

—Larry Geiger, 93 Greenridge Ave., White Plains, NY 10605; (914) 860-4945; lgeiger@aol.com