By Tommy Bourgeois
News from here and there:
Architect (also guitarist and mandolinist, but that’s a different story) Mark Hewitt writes, “I am pleased to be contributing to a major book on the Diplomatic Suites and Collections at the state department in Washington, DC. My friends Alan Greenberg and John Blatteau are featured in the text and should be celebrated for their pioneering work in the revival of the Classical tradition.” I trust Mark will keep us apprised, and I’m holding him to his promise to join me in an acoustic jam session at our 50th reunion.
Here’s an update from Paula Marantz Cohen: “I’m still at Drexel as a distinguished professor of English, and for almost ten years have been dean of the university’s Pennoni Honors College. Husband Alan Penziner ’73, ’77MD, is retired from his oncology practice and we’re now living in Center City, Philadelphia. We just welcomed our first grandchild, Lucy Marantz McDonald, born to Kate Penziner ’11 and William McDonald. Both are physicians at Cornell in NYC. Son Sam Penziner ’07 is an infectious disease specialist and aspiring stand-up comic in California. I published a book last year: Of Human Kindness: What Shakespeare Can Teach Us About Empathy (Yale UP) and have a new book forthcoming from Princeton UP: Talking Cure: An Essay on the Civilizing Power of Conversation.”
I’m overdue to relay this interesting news from Alan Gabbay: “Having retired just before Chicago went into a long and strict lockdown in March 2020, I found myself with ample time to discover the great outdoors in my region. That experience led me to develop the recently launched website Great Public Land Destinations—Chicago and Beyond, which features 50 public spaces to hike or bike in, as well as nearby places where a casual bite can be obtained. I am hoping that it will be a good resource for residents and visitors alike.”
Hats off to treasurer Nancy Young, for planning and, better yet, pulling off January’s Class of 1975 70th birthday bash in Manhattan! Here’s her account, for which I am grateful:
“Our 70th birthday bash was truly fabulous. Friday night cocktails in the stately Trumbull Room of the Yale Club got off to a great start with close to 60 friends reuniting for the first time in years (if not a decade!). Cary and Chris Whipple were also able to join us.
“The Highlights of the Met tour on Saturday at 11 a.m. was unfortunately limited to 25 participants, but a great treat to see the Met through the eyes of an experienced docent. Cathy Sullivan and her husband, Henry Stevenson, toured the Met on their own since we had hit the maximum number allowed for the guided tour. The lunch that followed at the Peking Duck restaurant in midtown Manhattan was a real treat for the 42 attending and the restaurant did not disappoint. We were all stuffed to the gills!
“Saturday night’s cocktail reception with dinner and dancing drew almost 90 to the Yale Club’s Grand Ballroom : Joe Altonji and Cynthia Nethercut, Lori Andrews, Susan and Jim Austin, Louise and Stephen Ballou and their daughters, Cora and Eloise, Ted Ballou (Y ’76), Jerry Brand and Alicia Everett, Lester Bronstein and Benjie Schiller, Peter Bubriski, Chip Carey, Roy Carlson, Catherine Carr and Louis Tannen, Eric Castro, Javade Chaudhri and Gail Kee (Y ’76) and their daughter Alina, Wade Cleveland and Travis Seward, Catherine and David Cuthell, Chris Donnelley, Ellen and Thomas Draper, Serena Fox, Hal Freedman and Margy Popper, John Friedman and Janet Kagan, George Hackett, Michael Hausman and Tracy Pogue, Linda and Charles Kaplan (whose two daughters were both married in Grand Ballroom!), Lisa Kaslow and Jeffrey Korber, Jeremy Korzenik, Nita Krevans, Gary Kubek, Jeffrey and Susan Jones Leath, Lila Locksley, David Lopato and Barbara Freedgood, Jeffrey McAulay and Patricia Bouley, Laura Mathews, George and Andrea Miller, BK Munguia and Jon Mark, Pamela and Al Palitz, Richard Reiner and Alicia Everett, Chris Romney, Kim Rosenfield, Nancy Ross and Bill Carmean, Marta and Paul Squire, Michael Stein, Carol and Charles Stockdale, Catherine Sullivan and Henry Stevenson, Julie Sullivan, Richard Swift and Linda Drake, Cynthia and Rob Tauxe, Aimee Troyen, Ellen and Andrew Tung, Ariane van Buren, Betty and John Wong, Raymond Wong, and Paul Ford and Nancy Young. It was particularly wonderful that Lila Locksley, widow of our classmate Charles Keefe, who passed away last September, could join us.
“From 6 to 7 p.m. we enjoyed the music of the David Lopato Trio while enjoying cocktails, including Negronis and gimlets, and hors d’oeuvres. A truly memorable moment was Susan Leath’s and Chip Carey’s discovery that they were supposed to have met in freshman year (as arranged by Susan’s brother Paul Jones ’68) and were now doing so for the first time—52 years later!
“Another great story came from Andrew Tung and Jeff McAulay (the tailgaters extraordinaire of our class, having tailgated at The Game and others for over 50 years with their wives and the Altonjis) as told by Andy: ‘The first Yale course we took that led directly to a paying job was not in the humanities or sciences but in food service—my roommate Jeff and I took a one-hour mixology course on the second floor of Commons that was a prerequisite to tending bar at university dinners, receptions, and class reunions. Not only did we get to stay in New Haven after spring classes ended to serve and observe the 40th and 50th reunion attendees (how did it get so late so soon?), but there were other perks as well. Once, we were dispatched to an event on Hillhouse Avenue; while carting our bottles and glasses through the back door of the appointed mansion, we came upon Kingman Brewster at the kitchen table in his shirtsleeves, digging into a pork chop before having to face yet another group of faculty or alumni. Our president was in fact quite gracious to a couple of flustered underclassmen, and we chatted for a few minutes before all straightening our ties and moving on to the evening’s festivities.’
“I must add that Andy and Jeff were disappointed that the one-hour mixology course used only water instead of real alcohol!
“After a truly delicious dinner (kudos to Chef John Johnson), we toasted our class with Iron Horse Vineyard’s Year of the Rabbit sparkling wine, kindly donated by Joy Sterling. From 9 to 11 p.m., Steve Ballou and the Skokorat band (his brother Ted Ballou ’76, daughter Eloise Ballou, Scott Hamilton, Rip Westmoreland, Seb Perry, and son-in-law Artiom Komorov), with David Lopato joining on keyboards, rocked the house with songs from our youth, including ‘Dancing Queen’ (my request), ‘Norwegian Wood,’ ‘Twist and Shout,’ ‘Gloria,’ ‘Like a Rolling Stone,’ ‘Wild Thing,’ ‘Born to be Wild,’ and many more. Everyone was on the dance floor having a blast!
“Kim Rosenfield said that ‘One of the reasons I was so joyful dancing is that last year at this time I was using a walker and we weren’t sure what to do about my terrible pain. I had major back surgery in April and was out of commission for three months. I am so grateful it was successful and that I can dance, and travel, and walk thru the Met.’ I was also part of the bionic crowd, with my total hip replacement in March. Jeanne Ferris Petit, who sadly was not able to join us, also had hip replacement surgery last year.
“The frequent request was not to wait another ten years to have another bash. We won’t have to since our 50th reunion is coming up in 2025! Looking forward to seeing everyone then!”
Keep your cards and letters coming, dear readers. They’ll end up in print.