YAM Notes: July/August 2011

We are urged to be succinct in these pre-summer notes so as to leave room for the reunion reports. Just as well, since there is less news than usual. But before I forget, I would be greatly surprised if the usual suspects  — Piroumoff, Hallas, Buchanan, Griffith, Semple, plus assorted drop-bys like Gertz and Greenberg — were not assembled in Parking  Lot B next to the cage for Yale first home game against Georgetown on Sept. 17, kickoff at noon. Cornell is next, on the 24th, and then come a bunch of away games. Check the schedule on the Yale athletics website and join us if you can. Meanwhile, I urge you all to send me a note.

From Fred Cowles in South Salem, N.Y., come news of a man who seems perpetually in motion — California for cross-country skiing, the Galapagos and Machu Pichu in March. Retired from estate planning, he stays active as executor for his extended family, including his wife’s 101-year-old uncle, who, when asked whether he wanted a new hip or  a wheelchair, told the doctor: “Operate. I have places to go and people to meet.”   I find that enchanting.

Bill Shackleford says that  he and Christa are alive and well in Seal Beach, CA., with Bill in his 18th year of retirement, happily and busily so, with “memories of a career as an engineer/physicist dimmer by the day.” Travel is his vocation now, with  Finland, Norway, Ecuador and Peru added to the list this year. He loves the home he’s been in for 40 years, but even there he gets antsy, jumping in his RV and bombing  around  to places around the west, including a family compound  on Vashon Island, WA.

Craig Lllewellyn, whose lifetime job has been keeping the military healthy and teaching other doctors how to do that, is now pretty much emeritus, spending less and less time on emergency military preparedness in  Bethesda, more and more time  consulting around the country and just plain living in Wilimington, Vt., where he and Gail hosted BJ and Tom Chadwick, his roommate at Yale.

Bob McMeekin and Lyn are  happily in Santiago, where he is still active as a human resources economist but finds himself devoting more of his energy to sculpture — something he discovered  five or so years ago, now a passion. He started small but recently finished something  (identity unknown) measuring 6 feet by 3 feet.

As is increasingly the case nowadays, we end on a sad note: The Daily Advertiser of Lafayette, LA., reports the he death of Harold J. Morrow, who died of unidentified causes in February at his home in Lafayette. Born in Kansas, Harold grew up in Lake Charles  and remained mostly in  Louisiana. He received a masters and a doctorate in geology and had a successful career in oil and gas exploration and development. He is survived by his wife Pat.  and four children.