Greetings!
At last, after
a considerable lapse of time, the class website, "42 in
Cyberspace," is coming back to life. (Want to know the reason for
the interruption of service? Though it's not polite to inquire about
what goes on or doesn't go on in the mind of an 85 - (I should say
87-year-older – and who
would want to admit to dementia to any degree? – I'll be frank to say
your editor is slowing down, in particular when dealing with
technology. Switching to a new computer and different software has
about done me in!)
The most ancient event reported in this space
goes back to the autumn of 2005. The mini in St. Louis – under the
management of Bourne Beans and the Jim Chamnesses – was a winner.
The company, the place, the food & drink and the
weather combined to make our five days together delightful. A
few months later, Alumni Day in Princeton on February 22, 2006 the
Chapel was
again scene of the always moving tribute to classmates who have
departed from us in the year just past. Bill Coleman was our affable
representative doing the honors in the procession to the altar carrying
a carnation in honor of 18 dear friends. On Alumni Day in 2007 Rusty
Husted, in one of his last acts as class president, honored 20 we lost
in the subsequent year. (The names of the deceased are included
in
the Memorials page which can be clicked on in this website.)
Since our get-together in St. Louis we've
had get-togethers of a couple of dozen classmates at football games
played in Princeton – culminating in the home team's first-place finish
in the 2006 season. As for official reunions: our 64th had
30-odd '42ers present and like others before
(what is it about early June in New Jersey?) the weather was unkind –
on
Saturday June 3 showers and worse. At midday the crowd making with
lunch in the muddy area near the tent outside Forbes was considerable.
By P-Rade time, however, many of us who lived nearby had
disappeared back home. Happily, the weather for our 65th in
2007 was a big improvement.
Thursday evening, May 31, 2007, we had a fine dinner at the
Present Day Club in
Princeton – an A-1 sendoff for the 96 ultimately showing up on June 1
at our headquarters in Forbes: 48 registered classmates, 23 spouses,
five widows and 30 family members and guests. The names of attendees
and program details have been covered by Bruce Merrifield in the Weekly, but
what has only recently been revealed by President-elect Bob Young and
Special Gifts Chair Bob Baldwin are the statistics on Annual Giving,
particularly the total raised via '42's special 65th reunion gift.
Here's some of what we should be proud of:
For the year 2007 173 classmates and widows raised $1,149,518 from
81.2% of us (the highest participation rate for the year from any
Princeton class.) Since graduation we have garnered $13,577.052.
We have now set dollar records at nine major reunions and 31
non-majors. Not bad for a bunch of guys moving on to the Old Guard.
By way of personalizing '42's achievements, it seems an appropriate
time to note the attention given George Shultz in the last year or so.
At least, the media attention he has received, particularly in 2006,
has
been remarkable.
In noteworthy public appearances he has made across the country, in
January Dutch was among other former
Defense and State
Secretaries in a photo op at the Oval Office.
(In the NYTimes Maureen Dowd needled him as the guy with
the tiger
tattoo on his rump.) Last December George appeared for an
hour-long interview with
Charlie Rose. On the excellent TV show "American Experience" he
elucidated how he helped President Reagan engineer the end of the
Cold War in the 1980s.
In 2006 and 2007, unlike some of us retirees, he was
still going
full tilt. With colleagues at the Hoover Institution at Stanford he was
tangling with the intransigent problems of national entitlements. He
turned up in Princeton on
March 15 to participate in a two-day conference dealing importantly
with the topic of preemption as a part of U.S. foreign policy,
delivering a keynote address in McCosh 50. And as a favor to his old
roommate on the 17th he dropped by to participate in a televised
hour-plus program entitled "A Conversation with George Shultz."
It took place at
Pennswood Village, a CCRC, in Newtown, PA, home to the Colemans, Cooks,
Davises and Grovers, all of whom plus four hundred some in the audience
thought George
was great!
AS FOR NOTEWORTHY NEWS OF MORE RECENT
NOTE: On the weekend of the Yale game just past - a regrettable loss of
course, as was the season over all over but we make it a practice to
downplay the specifics of unhappy events - the contents of a lockbox
stashed away in the cornerstone of the '42 dormitory were brought to
life as part of the demolition necessary for the new Butler College.
The archeology dig established we've progressed in years but
remain pretty much the same high-quality guys we always believed
we were. Check Prexy Bob Young for details.
(revised 12-29-07)