Bulletin! On Dec. 10, at 1 pm, on Dec 11, at 1 pm, and on Dec 13, at noon, Theater 154 at 154 Christopher St. in Manhattan will present an updated showing of Dick Maltby and David Shire’s wonderful new musical, About Time, first unveiled at our 65th Reunion in May. If you are in the vicinity, and if you missed it the first time, indeed even if you saw it then, the show, with new numbers, is absolutely delightful and very much worth a visit. As we used to say, if it makes it in New Haven, it will make it in New York. Our supremely talented classmates will be on the scene.
Meanwhile, as I write, on Nov.18, it is 60-plus degrees outside and a drought has been officially declared in New York City. Still, this alarmingly unseasonable weather has had one clear upside — the perfect climate in which to enjoy the Saturday Yale Bowl tailgates arranged and catered by the indomitable Griffiths, Bobbi and Charles. Among those profiting from their recurring hospitality either at the Bowl or, after the Princeton game, their home in neighboring Woodbridge, were the Semples, Hugo and Eve Kranz, Al and Peggy Atherton, Ed and Sue Greenberg, Bob and Eleanor Ittner, plus friends of the ’59ers and several people from the class of 1958, Carl Lindskog, Richard and Harriet Case and Susan and Alan Davidson, ’58’s corresponding secretary.
Griff and his bride were given a well-deserved shout-out at our Class Council Zoom call on Nov. 14. Flawlessly orchestrated by Mr. Greenberg, the call featured an authoritative report from Mr. Atherton, our treasurer, who estimated that we still have about $53K in the bank even after all the 65th reunion expenses. That sum, plus our class dues, allows us to go forward with our longstanding Hopper (née Calhoun) College Fund for Excellence, which subsidizes summer research projects undertaken by meritorious Hopper students who could not otherwise afford them. One such beneficiary, Ethan Chiu, a history major in the class of 2026, joined the call and thanked us for the help, as has the new head of Hopper, Sam Moyn. Our healthy balance sheet also allows us to begin preliminary speculation about a possible 70th Reunion. I emphasize the words preliminary and speculation, although the idea is not as nutty as it sounds: the members of the class of 1954 who showed up at some of our 65th reunion events looked amazingly spry.
Ed reported that Jim Sheffield has decided to retire after serving for many years as chairman of our class agents. He’s done a great job. Charlie Nolan, co-chair of our 60th, has agreed to succeed him. Among those on the Zoom call, looking quite alert themselves, were John Moss, Austin Hoyt, Tom Maxey, Bill Waldorf, Charley Ellis, Jim Pender and Art Kelly.
One thing that struck me about all these interactions was how little talk there was about the 2024 election and politics in general. It’s not as if we are incapable of argument or incurious about what lies ahead; I just think that a lot of us are in a count-your-blessings mode, at least I am, a bit worn by disputation, increasingly aware of the fragility of life and just grateful to have made it this far.
Here’s someone who made a difference: Randy Ney, who died in Houston on Oct. 15 following a stroke suffered while he was vacationing on Nantucket in September. I did not get to know Randy until some years after our graduation and I’m glad I did. Randy was a success everywhere he went, first in his family’s retail business in Arkansas and later as the founder of a high-end travel agency in Houston, where he and his wife Lea moved in 1998 and where he contributed significantly to Houston’s civic life. He loved Yale, where he matriculated after Choate. He co-chaired our 60th Reunion with Mr. Nolan and played a pivotal role in the 65th, among other things finding nice places for us to stay and figuring out how to get Anne Applebaum from Poland to Washington to Jonathan Edwards in time for her panel. Randy’s happiest moments were with the Whiffs, which invited him to join after he had spent three years with the Bakers Dozen. He was proud to be a Whiff, proud especially to be its first Jewish member — almost 50 years since the group’s founding in 1909. Randy is survived by two sons from a first marriage and Lea’s three. A son and daughter predeceased him.
Three more names in this month’s roll call. George Hodgetts died in Alabama in August. Born in Woodbridge, he studied engineering and played baseball at Yale, earned a master’s degree from Harvard Business School and had a successful and varied business career as an engineer and entrepreneur. A devoted golfer, he was predeceased by two daughters and is survived by Mary, his wife of 27 years, a son, a daughter and various stepchildren.
Steven Matthysse died in Newbury, Massachusetts, in September. A true polymath, he entered Yale at the age of 16, received two undergraduate degrees and, later, a doctorate in clinical psychology from Harvard. He taught psychobiology and psychology at Harvard Medical School and also spent three decades associated with McClean Hospital. Among his many interests was schizophrenia. Amazingly, in his middle years, he discovered rock climbing and classical ballet; it was in a ballet class that he met his wife Marcia, his partner for 41 years. He is survived by his first wife, Ann, and a son.
The remarkable and entertaining Alex Pagel died in June in New York City. The owner of Pagel and Company, a Brazilian iron exporter and shipping company, Alex was a kind of cultural polymath, if there is such a thing, with interests that included opera, classical music, theater and the art he collected on his travels to India, Japan and other far-flung destinations. An amateur painter, he gave himself a nom de plume, “Le Chienoit Le Cap,” which I’m told was an homage to Haiti. He could talk about almost anything, from V.S. Naipal to P.G. Wodehouse, played decent golf at East Hampton’s Maidstone, one of his multiple clubs, and according to his obit co-authored a book, “Birdie for Buddha: A Zen Golfing Guide to Scotland.” He is survived by his wife, Luisa, and a daughter Allegra.