By Scott G. Sullivan
Well, the Boston extravaganza has come and gone, a noteworthy successor to its Chicago, New Orleans, and Washington predecessors. (This is being written a month before the event, but your scribe has unshakeable faith in all things ’58). On to New Haven next spring.
It’s a light issue for news: a few personal notes and the usual ration of obits.
Checking in with news and views are:
Ralph Greenbaum from Nashville, who reports on his retirement last July 16 after 49 years of pediatric practice, and on the death of his wife, Raye Ann, from lung cancer on August 12.
Bob Holland of Columbus, Ohio, who says he is “just as deplorable as I’ve always been.” He celebrated his 80th birthday “and retired from that, too.”
John Zimmerman writes that he is still living in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, in the same house he bought 51 years ago and is still married to the same “trophy wife” for the same 51 years. Our classmate Jim Darby lives in the same town, making Sewickley the most densely populated Yale ’58 community in the universe.
Randy Kwei checks in from Hong Kong, where he recently celebrated his 81st birthday. Randy is still working as an advisor for Shaw, Kwei and Partners, a private equity firm. He’s thankful for his relatively good health and his ability to go on playing singles tennis. He’s also into yoga and occasional hiking and is involved in several community service projects. He hopes to make it to the next reunion.
The Rev. Bill Dent from Rockingham, Virginia, describes a culture-soaked tour he made last year, with his wife Judy, to Austria and Germany. On a ten-day jaunt organized by Lifelong Learning International, the couple visited Salzburg, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Neuschwanstein castle, the Dachau concentration camp, Munich, Nuremberg, Bayreuth, Dresden, Leipzig, Wittenberg, and Berlin. Wunderbar!
We have lost five more of our dear friends.
Norrie Sellar died on June 20 last year in Madrid, where he had lived for 44 years. A language buff from a young age, Norrie taught English for many years at the Jesuit-run University of Comillas, doing both general teaching and courses specializing in the language of law, economics, and business administration. He retired in 2004 and continued to enjoy golf, reading, and Yale Club projects in his adopted city; he was especially interested in finding qualified Madrileno candidates for Yale. After college, Norrie served in the army in Germany, then returned to the US and taught at various private schools before moving permanently to Spain.
William Marsh died August 20 in Traverse City, Michigan, where he had been a prominent car salesman, powerboat skipper, and civic leader. After college he briefly attended law school but quit to take over his father’s Ford dealership when the father died. “I didn’t choose this business; it chose me.” In 1980, he moved to Traverse City, where the water was wonderful, and went on to develop a hugely successful business, the largest in northern Michigan. He was known for his highly innovative selling techniques, such as negotiation-free selling and the Price Point used car brand. He loved to race his TC Express powerboat throughout the Great Lakes and even off Florida. His company contributed funds to countless local charities and needy individuals.
David Sauer died December 14 in Landrum, South Carolina. He was an ophthalmic surgeon and, in later life, a breeder of horses and show rider. He took a degree at Tufts Medical School and interned at Boston City Hospital, then joined the navy and was assigned to Japan, where he met and befriended survivors of Hiroshima. In November 1963, he performed an epic eight-month motorcycle journey, starting in Calcutta and ending in the Netherlands. Returning to the US, he married and settled in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where he practiced for many years. After his wife’s death, he moved to the Carolinas and lived a life of horsemanship.
Dan Montague died of Parkinson’s disease in Warwick, New York, on December 12. After a brief stint as a musician, Dan went into finance; he worked for the telecommunications firm ITT in the Caribbean for two decades, establishing the company’s presence in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. In the 1970s, he moved to Westport, Connecticut, working for ITT in New York and then for Southport Financial Services. In 1964, he moved to Tampa, where he worked as financial vice president for the telecommunications company CommX. He and his wife Barbara retired to Warwick in 2003.
Leigh Stephenson–Kuhn died January 4 in Portland, Oregon, where he lived and practiced law his entire adult life. After Columbia Law School, he moved to Oregon to clerk for Federal Judge Gus Solomon, then joined the firm now known as Lane Powell PC, becoming a partner in 1967 and retiring in 2013. He was an expert in pension and profit-sharing law and in employee pension plans. He had an active civic life, serving as president of the Portland Episcopal School, the Portland Opera, the Portland State University Foundation, and the Oregon Yale Club. He loved fly-fishing, photography, and his state’s celebrated pinot noirs.
As for your correspondent, I will be in France when you read this, celebrating my 80th. Back home mid-June, then return to Europe in July for the marriage of my granddaughter Olivia, in Trento, the Italian town that hosted the eponymous Counter-Reformation Council.