UPDATE Below are the class notes as they appeared in the Jan/Feb issue of the Yale Alumni Magazine. They were filed in November, and as of this writing — Jan. 17 — are obviously out of date. As of Jan. 17, the financing for a limited off-Broadway run is moving briskly ahead — inspired, as celebrated in the notes below, by generous gifts from Art Kelly and other classmates. Rehearsals will begin in February, and the show is scheduled to open live on March 15, most likely at 6 pm, at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater on West 64th St. in Manhattan. Performances will continue for 5 weeks and could last much longer depending on demand. Going forward, check the theater’s website for tickets. The Joey Parnes office mentioned below is also happy to answer inquiries. Bob Semple
The dream of transporting the new Dick Maltby / David Shire musical from York Street to Broadway moves closer to reality by the day, a tribute to their decades-long collaborative fecundity but also, in a modest way, to the enthusiasm of their classmates. As of this writing, in late November, nearly a dozen of us, inspired by a challenge pledge of $50,000 from Art Kelly, have promised more than $100,000 to the cost of a full-scale production in New York. Early contributors include Charley Ellis, Alex Ercklentz, Ed Greenberg, Paul Horne, Charlie Nolan, Al Atherton, and Jim Pender. There will be more by the time you read this, a couple months hence, and we’ll update at intervals on the website.
For those of you tuning in late, the sequence is as follows. Three years ago, Richard and David tried out a few songs for an unnamed revue at 54 Below, an event space in Manhattan. The Shire family was laid low that evening by Covid, and Richard was required to sing one of the female parts, but the response was positive and duly reported to Don Watson, chair of our 65th reunion. Don alertly invited the talented duo to bring the show to New Haven in the spring of 2024, which they did, complete with some new songs, a splendid cast, and a title: About Time. Again, a rapturous response, leading to more workshops, more songs, and then, last fall, a full, two-act and highly successful Goodspeed Musicals production in Chester, Connecticut. A Zoom call in October with about 40 classmates got the money flowing, along with plans to bring the show to New York this winter.
Our website has a ton of stuff, including the history, a video of the Goodspeed show, the libretto. Two contact points for anyone who wishes to join in: One is Joey Parnes, the show’s producer, at Joey@parnesoffice.com, phone (212) 510-8564. Simply announce yourself as a member of the class of 1959. And keep Mr. Ellis informed at charley.ellis1963@gmail.com. At a certain point the Class of 1959 will be listed as one of the show’s producers, a nice tribute to friendships forged in New Haven many years ago. But as Art Kelly observed to me, this is mainly about Richard and David and their inexhaustible creativity. “Think about it,” Art says. “How many 88-year-olds are out there bringing a show to Broadway?”
We do seem, however, to be a cohesive class. Here’s another example: A Zoom call held every month since April 2000, when Covid was at full strength, involving the surviving members of WYBC’s executive board: Mr. Ellis, chairman; John Tilson, vice chairman; Phil Lieberman, program director; David Dworski, PR director; and John Horne, business manager, who orchestrates the calls. Missing are the late Bob Schaefer, secretary, and Ted Mollegen, the technical director, who in 1958–59 detached the station from the university’s wiring system and moved it to commercial FM with two stations broadcasting from the top of Harkness Tower. These guys talk about everything. Recent guests included Rabbi Bill Cutter, who addressed the effects on public discourse of the Israeli-Hamas conflict, and your scribe, who enjoyed a lively discussion about his 50-plus years in the news business and the vast and often unsettling changes in the media landscape.
Here, briefly, are recent departures, with much more detail on our website. Frederic “Deri” Meier, a longtime resident of Waitsfield, Vermont, died of natural causes in June. Born in Dobbs Ferry, he graduated with a degree in history of art; served in the Marines and for many years with Mobil Oil in the Persian Gulf; tired of corporate life in the ’80s and regrouped with positions in the Vermont state government and as an owner of a thriving ski chalet at Mad River Glen. His first wife died; he married Susanne Orland in 1988. She survives him, as do two children and two stepchildren. Wayne Brenckman died a little over a year ago in Durham, North Carolina. He came to Yale circuitously via Andover, Rugby in England, and Bristol High, attended Yale Medical School, entered the Navy as a medical officer, and worked for several drug companies based in Raleigh. His first wife predeceased him. Norman Wilson, who died last year in Alexandria, Virginia, received a medical degree from Harvard and practiced psychiatry for most of his life, largely in northern Virginia. He too was predeceased by his wife; one son survives him.
Charles Thebaud, most recently of Needham and one of a bunch of our classmates who seem to have migrated at some point to Massachusetts and the adjacent landscapes of Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard, died in October. A Deerfield graduate, he was commissioned in the Army upon graduation, studied at the Monterey language school, and spent much of his working life in military intelligence, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. He was a lifelong sailor, and a good one. Born in White Plains, he learned to sail at the American Yacht Club in Rye, taught many of his colleagues to sail on San Francisco Bay, and moved to Nantucket in early retirement before settling in Cummaquid. Predeceased by his wife of 50 years, he leaves a son and a daughter. Mike Cowan, a retired professor of American studies at University of California at Santa Cruz, died in May. He received both his BA and PhD from Yale, served as an associate dean in Branford College, and moved in 1969 to California, where he became a strong advocate for the teaching of American studies and the UCSC campus that was his academic home for 40 years. He leaves Byron, his partner and husband of 47 years, and two children, David and Susanna.
And here, finally, is news of a deceased classmate that kind of tickled me and is the only one of its kind that I can recall receiving. It arrived in November from Kathleen Clark, who identified herself as the wife of Arthur Clark, “always called Toby.” She said that for years she had enjoyed reading every issue of this magazine, and keeping up with Yale, but that Toby himself was not reading it. “I have to confess,” she wrote, “that Toby actually died in August 2014, and my guilt has finally overcome me. Maybe it is time to let you know of his demise.” To which she attached a little obit from the Santa Fe New Mexican. Kathleen said she met Toby, who had earned a master’s in psychology from Columbia, after he moved west to California. At some point Toby decided that the psychology he was studying wouldn’t actually help anyone; they married and moved to “the Land of Enchantment—New Mexico,” where he helped the homeless. “He was a sweet guy,” she adds, “with a very big heart. And funny. Good luck to you all.”