By Scott Sullivan
A Grim Reaper edition. Ten mortalities, including some of the most active and popular 1958ers. It is, of course, impossible to give due credit to those rich and productive lives in the hundred words allowed here. Happily, though, full obituaries for all are posted on the class website.
Otherwise, the highly successful mini-reunion honchoed by Pudge Henkel in Cleveland is history, and we look forward to our grandiose 65th in New Haven next May 25 to 28.
Two recent publications before we enter Death Row.
Fred Hammond, retired professor of music at Bard College and an outstanding harpsichordist, has translated Sette e Mezzo (Seven and a Half), a 1952 novel by Giuseppe Maggiore, a little-known but meritorious writer whose work influenced Tomasi di Lampedusa’s classic Il Gattopardo. This, Fred’s sixth book, is available on Amazon at $22.95.
Sidney Hollister, a book editor in San Francisco, has published Learning to Dance with French: A Memoir, a real-life Bildungsroman which recounts his midlife visit to France in 1978–79. Not, to be honest, your correspondent’s cuppa tea, but well and honestly narrated; it should be a good read for the author’s friends and for anyone thirsty for information about the land of Charlemagne and Brigitte Bardot. Order from Amazon at $18.71.
And now, our necrology.
Nolan Baird, an investment counselor in Chicago for all his career, died in Naples, Florida, on November 8, 2020. His longest and final gig was with William Blair & Co. In retirement, he was active in the Naples Zoo and Arts-Naples.
Hugh Galloway, a New York–based civil engineer, died in New Rochelle, New York, on February 20 of this year. Hugh earned a master’s degree at Yale and spent his career mostly in New York City, where he worked on One Penn Plaza. He worked briefly in California and Washington, DC. A confirmed bachelor, he enjoyed golf, photography, crossword puzzles, and Jeopardy!
Bob Cutler died May 24 in Cleveland, his hometown. An eminent biophysicist, he held graduate degrees from the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies and the Weatherhead School of Management. He filled top positions in Cleveland labs and founded his own firm, North Coast Biomedical, in 1987, selling electro-medical equipment throughout the northeast US. Bob was truly a Renaissance man, a student and frequent quoter of Soren Kierkegaard, a devotee of classical music, a singer in the Cleveland Opera, and a frequent speaker at the Cheshire Cheese Club.
Dr. Richard Morrison, a Florida-based surgeon, died July 5 in Sarasota. Dick did his MD at Cornell and interned at the Medical College of Virginia. After practicing for a decade in Virginia, he moved to Venice, Florida, and founded Surgical Associates of Venice and Englewood. After retirement, he moved to Boca Raton where he headed the local health clinic. He was a fisherman, golfer, and sailor, and was active in local banks and civic projects.
Ed Connors, a high school teacher, worldwide travel guide, and prominent conservationist, died July 26 in Aspen, Colorado. After graduation, Ed dabbled in finance and attended Harvard, before settling into the teaching he so loved. He taught at schools in Denver from 1964 to 1993. Along with instruction in advanced placement subjects, he led students on field trips across the nation and abroad—104 foreign trips in all. But perhaps Ed’s most important contribution was to wilderness conservation, persuading Congress in 1975 to designate the Weminuche Wilderness Area, the largest in Colorado.
Edward Probert died July 31 in Morristown, New Jersey. Ed earned his law degree at the University of Virginia, then joined J. P. Morgan where he worked for 27 years, ending as a vice president. He moved on to be president and CEO of the Fannie Ripple Foundation, dealing with cancer, heart disease, women’s health, and—his dearest cause—domestic violence. He served on the vestry of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and was an ardent golfer.
Hoyt Ammidon III, a globe-trotting financier, died August 12 in Middletown, Connecticut. After graduating with the class of 1959, Hoyt served four years in the marine air corps, then moved to Wall Street, first at Morgan Stanley, later at Berkshire Global Advisors. In the 1970s he lived and worked in Paris, the high point of his life. His long financial career led him to Princeton, New Jersey, Houston, New York City, Bermuda, Manchester, Vermont, Hobe Sound, Florida, and Essex, Connecticut. He kept up his athletic prowess, at ice hockey especially, till late in life.
David Povich, scion of a Washington journalism dynasty and a top DC criminal lawyer, died at home on August 19. David’s father Shirley was sports editor of the Washington Post; his sister Lynn was a top writer for Newsweek and pal of your correspondent. David took his law degree at Columbia and went to work for the transcendental DC law firm Williams & Connolly, where, with partner Brendan Sullivan, he formed Washington’s top criminal defense team. In his most famous case, in 1975, he successfully defended a US attorney in a sensational sting operation, well worth reading up on. He retired as a senior partner in 2014 and spent years sailing the Atlantic.
Malcolm McDonald, a Minnesota real estate executive and hugely active Yale alumnus, died August 26 in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Malcolm earned a Harvard MBA and went to work for the First National Bank Building in St. Paul. In 1977, he moved to Space Center, Inc., a large real estate and space rental firm, of which he was director and vice president. He retired in 2005. He served Yale causes with phenomenal vigor, creating a Bulldogs on the Lake program that mirrored my own Bulldogs in the Big Easy. He was a devoted parishioner and vestryman of St. John’s Episcopal Church.
Bill Stubenbord, a renowned kidney transplant surgeon and researcher, died September 18 in Essex, Connecticut. In an incident that made worldwide headlines in February 1977, he flew the kidney of a 16-year-old boy from Moscow to Brooklyn, where he transplanted it into a male patient. He earned his medical degree and interned at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he spent most of his 43-year career. He was named “teacher of the year” in 1992 and an annual award for resident physicians was established in his name.