It’s summertime, when class notes are shorter but, one hopes, still useful. A late July Zoom meeting arranged by Ed Greenberg takes place after the early July deadline for these notes and will be reported on later in the year. And by then we may have a clearer picture of the negotiations with the Trump administration, which only recently trained its sights on Yale. Meanwhile, a few news flashes suggesting remarkable vigor in our aging ranks.
First, Bobbi Griffith, a real warrior whose Saturday tailgates adjacent to the Bowl have, in my view, played an important supporting role in elevating Yale’s football fortunes, including four straight over Harvard and a national ranking last year. Bobbi has had grueling hip surgery, following a challenging travel schedule that included visits to one son in Singapore and another son in Shanghai—“a great trip,” she writes, “but maybe our swan song for Asia.” Despite all this, she and Charles hope to re-up with the tailgates, beginning with the home opener on October 3 against Merrimack and the Ivy League opener against Dartmouth on October 10. Check our class of 1959 website going forward for confirmation and further details.
Next, comes this excellent note (quoted in full) from Dick Rhodes, far and away our most prolific author and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for his majestic book on the making of the atomic bomb; also writer of critically celebrated works on Audubon, farming in America, the history of energy, the Spanish civil war, and lots else.
“Hi Bob: Responding to your plaintive request for summer news, I am holding steady up here in Seattle, the last stop on a 70-year progress westward, keeping ahead of global warming. California fires chased us out of the Bay Area (insurance companies redlining whole neighborhoods by making fire insurance unavailable), but mostly we downsized and moved to where my son Tim and three of our four grandchildren live. They’re in their 20s, a delightful age, just figuring out their lives. Not my son: he just turned 63, which makes me (and all of us ’59ers) impossibly old. To keep the years at bay, I just turned in the MS for my 28th or so book, The 90,000 Babies of Dr. Jo, about an early 20th-century doctor, public health pioneer, and suffragist credited with saving the lives of that many tenement babies with hygiene and pasteurization (stupidly resisted once again these days). Due probably in spring 2027. I’m working also on a long fiction, my first in more than 50 years; great fun after so many years of history and biography. Ginger is scaling back her clinical psychology practice after 20-plus years of treating trauma patents. Took the whole family to see the Whiffs when they came through Seattle, joined them in their traditional Whiff song (couldn’t remember all the words so mouthed them instead, swaying in time and delighting the grandchildren). And a good time was, and continues to be, had by all. Best, Dick Rhodes.”
One more piece of news about the David Shire/Richard Maltby show About Time, profusely and deservedly celebrated in this column for the late-life off-Broadway masterpiece it was and is, underwritten in part by classmates after an initial gift from Art Kelly. The show won double awards from the Drama Desk, one for best musical revue, the second a lifetime achievement award for the extraordinary Shire/Maltby partnership in the 60-plus years after our graduation. A couple of classmates who missed the show have wondered how to catch up. It is right there on our website, with reviews, names of contributors, the libretto, the whole nine yards. Give it a look.
Finally, a public service announcement for anyone planning to use the Merritt Parkway this fall. I just got my new New York State driver’s license. It expires in 2034. Defying my kids, who were alarmed by the news, I may be tempted to take one last shot at the Bowl, not only to see the Griffiths but also to see how the old eye/hand combo is working at 65 mph. On your toes!