NOTE: The print version of the magazine shows the incorrect dates for the 60th Reunion in the orange box at the top of the column. The CORRECT dates for the 60th Reunion are May 23–26, 2019.
The summer months yielded almost no news, which is probably a good thing overall, but I would appreciate a report or two going forward. Bestir yourselves.
Meanwhile, herewith another reminder that Don Watson and a few helpers are assembling a book of reminiscences and reflections of our time at Yale, to be distributed in conjunction with our 60th reunion next year. The literary returns have been clocking in at about one a day, and have been great fun to read (Don has sent some samples), so much so that Dyer Wadsworth and a few others are thinking of underwriting a vanity edition. Don reports that every one of the essays reveals something that even the author might not have been fully aware of, at the time—the influence of this or that teacher, coaches, friends, random acts of kindness, words written down in lecture notes, stuff that is now more fully appreciated through the lens of time.
The book is to be called The Way We Were and the drop-dead deadline for submissions is December 1. They can be long or short. Don’s inbox is lakesideDJ@aol.com. Get cracking. (As of this writing [September 15] I have yet to send in mine, not least because it is painful to admit the fundamental truth of my undergraduate years: namely, that I arranged my workload to work nonstop on the News so cleverly that I missed out on just about every one of Yale’s legendary professors, beginning with Vincent Scully and ending with Maynard Mack, with luminaries aplenty in between. My clearest memories are of the United Greek Restaurant on Chapel Street at 1:00 am and the Yankee Doodle the next morning. But I did get a career out of it. So it goes.)
Anyway, to repeat: lakesideDJ@aol.com. Send him your historical thoughts and, when finished with that, send me a more contemporaneous update on what you’re up to. I hope to have a full report on reunion planning for the festivities next year in the next issue.
One more addition to the roll call this month. Roland Kopp passed away peacefully on July 2 in North Palm Beach, Florida. He was 81. Roland graduated with a degree in electrical engineering, served three years in the Navy, and then spent the next three decades working for IBM—at one point helping run its operations in Argentina, where his son was born in 1972. Roland and wife Karen called Candlewood Lake in New Fairfield, Connecticut, home for many years. He moved to Florida in the late 1990s, living first in Long Boat Key and then in North Palm Beach. Survivors include his wife, Karen, a daughter, Laurie, and a son, Eric.
We’ll have the usual reunion tent at the Princeton game on November 10, at the Bowl.