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George R. Berman
22066 Las Brisas Circle
Boca Raton, FL 33433

I will scan them and return to you immediately, if not sooner.

DIRECTORY

Jason Bacon John Barnes Tersh Boasberg
Jonathan Donald    
Richard Eckart, Jr. John Fitz Gibbon Jack Flobeck
Jacques Gansler Art Grahame Peter Hutt
Arnold Kaplin David Linett Hugh Magee
Eric Moore Austin Pryor Mel Schupack
George Teebor Peter Tveskov Skip Vilas
Reid Williamson George Woloch  

 

Rev. Franklin E. (Skip) Vilas 
  revfvilas@aol.com
 

I retired from full-time Episcopal parish ministry with Joyce in 2000. I have served now for one year as interim rector of All Saints' Church in Bay Head, NJ. I continue my work as president of Partners for Environmental Quality, an interfaith coaliton in NJ -- and as a member of the Interfaith Partnership on the Environment of the United Nations Environment Programme, where we provided a religious presence at the Rio + 10 Earth Summit in Johannesburg, SA in 2002. 

We are currently serving as a team as Interim Directors of the Port Newark Center of the Seamen's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey. 

It doesn't feel like retirement!

Mel Schupack
melschupack@aya.yale.edu

 

Newsletter Number 19
The Monadnock Conservancy
Fall 2001

Close to Home

Forests and Trails Conserved near center of Fitzwilliam


Mel Schupack of Fitzwilliam walks the trails on his land whenever he can. He grabs his walking stick, dons a cap, and sets off. "I just like to be in the woods," he says simply. He hikes here often with friends and encourages neighbors and visitors to walk and ski there as well. Even the local youth cross country ski team works out on these well-managed trails.

In a special ceremony at the 2001 Monadnock Conservancy annual meeting, Mel and his wife Barbara took a giant step to ensure that these trails and forests will remain forever as open space: Witnessed by some 115 members, they signed a conservation easement on their 108 acres of land on Upper Troy Road - a stone's throw from the center of Fitzwilliam.

"If we are going to preserve this area and the woods and the natural environment that we all love, we're going to have to start now to try to protect those parts of it we think are important," Mel later told reporter Steve Sherman for an article in the Monadnock Home Companion.

In addition to the terrific trail network, which is maintained under an agreement with the town, the Schupack land includes well-tended forests and helps conserve highly visible land near the center of town. Mel serves on the Fitzwilliam conservation commission, along with Conservancy trustee Paul Kotila, and the group is actively seeking out additional land conservation opportunities.

"We have few enough protections for our forests and environment," Mel said at the annual meeting. "To me, this makes the work of the Monadnock Conservancy and the obtaining of conservation easements to protect what we can of our heritage so critically important. It is wonderful for Barbara and me and our entire family to be able to to contribute something to that purpose."

Austin Pryor
AustinP615@aol.com

Another good year has passed. We are technically defined as retired, but we have yet to figure out what that means.

Austin still works "full time." (Well, isn’t golf 5 times a week in season work?) Regardless, he spends many hours as a volunteer management consultant and workshop leader, a source of great satisfaction. In addition to his face-to-face counseling during the year, he had some 400 sessions with start-up businesses via the Internet. Check out www.scorenorwalk.org. His computer fixing and consulting business for homes and small businesses also flourishes.

Dorothy did retire from full-time teaching at Greenwich Academy, but was called last February, due to the unexpected departure of a teacher, to take over music for grades I and II until the end of the school year. She continues to be the "orchestra" for the spring Gilbert & Sullivan performances, and gets other special projects, piano accompanist for one of the Christmas programs, substitute music teacher and (non-musical) assistant in the production of the school’s alumnae magazine. Dorothy also assists Austin’s computer consulting business.

Singing in our church choir remains a priority for both of us. Last spring we sang Bach’s Magnificat and his Easter Oratorio with small orchestra. Spring 2002 will feature a full performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610. It is one of the most beautiful (and difficult) works in the entire choral repertoire. So we face a winter of hard musical work.

In March, we spent a week in Destin, Florida playing golf, where we met some terrific new friends, an unexpected bonus. Our youngest son, Brad, Kristine and our grandson, Charlie, age 1, joined us for a few days. In July, they added a new grandson, Baxter, to the fold. Son, Chris, in Denver, continues in the home theatre and hi fi related business.

Summer was very pleasant with unusually nice weather and much golf. A special highlight was our trip to Minneapolis/St. Paul to visit family and friends, followed by Dorothy’s 50th high school reunion in Minot, ND. We also attended Austin’s 45th reunion at Yale where, in addition to the usual "conviviality," he put on a short workshop, "Investment Allocation for Mere Mortals." Next June we will go back to the Twin Cities for HIS 50th high school reunion. Ahhhg!

John A. Barnes
jby56@earthlink.net
 
Here is an impromptu photograph of my extended family that was taken on
the occasion of my birthday last year.  Won't say which one!  Shown are my
wife, Judy, my son's family on the left, and my daughter's family on the
right.  We are retired at Lake of the Woods in North Central Virginia and
always available to help these families as often requested.  We are sorry
not to have been able to attend the Yale 45th reunion, but God willing and
the creek don't rise, we are looking forward to the 50th.

Art Grahame
grahame@cville.net
 
Here is a montage that our friends get a kick out of. That's me and Bette in
the middle. And, yes, we can name each and every one of the "furry faces" to
use Austin's words.  On your email you did ask for a picture of our dog.
The attached picture is an example of the saying that you better not wish
for something - you might get it.
To make a long explanation short:  Bette has run our local Humane
Society/SPCA for about 15 years. For the last 5 of those years the operation
has been separate from the County pound which she managed as a shelter under
contract with the County until the pols insisted that she kill the animals
by their schedule. So our place - we live in a very rural situation of 350
acres and with the closest neighbor being about a half mile away - became a
shelter/sanctuary. We have two dog lots, each about 2 acres. Bette will soon
have her "Almost Home Pet Adoption Center"  near town,  on the main US
highway 12 miles away from here. She just needs another $200,000. I help a
little, mainly by transporting a couple dozen puppies each month to the
Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem, MA, where good spay/neutering practices
have resulted in a shortage of puppies. Bette has worked out this
arrangement that has enabled her to save about 1500 hundred puppies over the
last 3-4 years. Bette adopts kittens and cats though the generosity of a
locally owned (by my son-on-law) pet store in Charlottesville, 40 miles from
here.  Bette - with some help - saves about 800 animals a year!  And each
time she saves a dog or cat she makes at least one human family happy. She's
got decades in the bank against GWB's volunteerism request.
For my part, I sing in a pretty good barbershop quartet (Dreamland) and
chorus (currently SPEBSQSA Chapter President). Barbershopping is a wonderful
hobby that permits us to bring some joy to people while having great fun
ourselves. Also, I'm Executive Director of our County's affiliate with the
Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc., a new part-time position.
In addition to Janet who owns the pet store, we have daughter Lauren who has
been teaching Spanish kids in an American school setting in Valencia.  We
have no grand children. Is that why we have so many dogs and cats, Mel?			

Rev. Richard Eckart, Jr.
putzi916@cs.com

My first job was to teach English in Hong Kong as a Yali Bachelor. Those two years altered my life. I worked for a Yale graduate named Charles Long, '44, and I became a part of his family. I also made friends with a student named Bruce Rigdon who was taking his senior year abroad at Hong Kong University. I was strongly influenced by both of these men. One result is that I was dragged with a part of me kicking and screaming to the Cathedral in Hong Kong to be confirmed an Anglican in 1958. Only a part of me was ready to be confirmed, the part of me that saw reason and logic and warmth in the Christian Faith. It was enough to confirm that part. I applied to Seminary and finally on the strength of a letter written by Skip Vilas chose Virginia Seminary. I was to graduate in 1961, met a lovely and talented young German woman named Renate in Europe in 1960. Renate came to the States in 19! 60 and we were married in Septembe r of that year. 

For most of my working career, I've been a parish priest (during the 1960's, 1980's and 1990's) and a Chaplain at a prep school during the 1970's. As a parish priest, I've mostly worked in the inner city and I volunteer there now that I am retired at a homeless shelter on Hudson Avenue. 

Unable to have children, we adopted Michael in 1964 and Amy in 1970. Mike, unfortunately, wrestles with being drug and alcohol addicted and lives in the St. Paul, Minnesota area. Amy lives close by and is raising our grandson, Trevor, who is 13 years of age. 

Our life has been very good and while there have been ups and downs to cope with, we've had very good times as a family. Many of those occasions happened at Thousand Island Park, N.Y. where we go during the summer. That gives us time near the water with friends we've known most of our adult lives. 

Renate is an accomplished artist. Our homes reflect her nature: paintings on the wall, a sense of balance and color throughout. Renate loves to travel as do I. We've often been back to Europe to see her family and twice have visited New Zealand where we'll be returning in January of 2003. New Zealand is an incredible land. 

I do some writing, some volunteer work, work as Chaplain to the Clergy and Spouses and Widows of our Diocese, attend Church at Spiritus Christi, formerly a Roman Catholic Church, that is in the heart of our city, and have ambitions to become a clown. If you remember my size, I am six feet five inches tall and weigh 230 lbs. That means a lot of me being ridiculous which suits me just fine. While I believe people are created good, we are often ridiculous as we live out our lives. 


John Fitz Gibbon
jjfitzgibbon@hotmail.com

From the November/December artletter of the Crocker Art Museum, in Sacramento, California, and the accompanying press release, comes this news of John Fitz Gibbon's doings:

 

GREAT LEGENDS OF CONTEMPORARY CALIFORNIA ART

SHOWCASED IN PILOT HILL EXHIBITION

The Pilot Hill Collection of Contemporary Art

 

John and Jane Fitz Gibbon's home has been a retreat,salon and setting for happenings. From the momentthat California art "arrived" on the scene, the FitzGibbons have been there participating in the next movement or "ism," while amassing a renowned collection of hundreds of works along the way

Representing nearly a half century of production,these works are primarily by California artists andthose who, at least for a time, have called the GoldenState home. The distinct West Coast sensibilitythat runs through the collection is distinguishedby its humor, irreverence, and adherence to thephysical object — whether it is still life, landscape,or especially the human figure. 

DIEBENKORN_Portrait_of_Jane.jpg (181103 bytes)The collection, on loan to the Crocker from the home of John and Jane Fitz Gibbon, showcases some of the legendary names in contemporary art, including Robert Arneson, Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, Joan Brown, Roy De Forest, David Park and Mel  Ramos.

 

The Fitz Gibbon’s Pilot Hill residence, perched above Folsom Lake about an hour’s drive from Sacramento has been a retreat, salon, and setting for happenings. From the moment that California art "arrived" on the scene, the Fitz Gibbons have been there, participating in the next movement or "ism," while amassing a renowned collection of hundreds of works along the way. "For John and Jane Fitz Gibbon, art has always been about friendship, love, humor, storytelling, and the western  ethos. Their collection offers a survey of California art post 1950 and is remarkable both because of the consistently high quality of the art and because its formation represents friendships between the Fitz Gibbons and the artists who created the work," according to Scott Shields, Curator of Art at the Crocker.

Fitz_Bailey_Robot_Secretary.jpg (49769 bytes) Driven by an inexhaustible fervor for his subject, John Fitz Gibbon is an extraordinary art critic and an eccentric, intensely passionate man. For more than forty years he has collected, studied, written about and lived with art. He has also taught its history—from caves to de Kooning—for twenty years at California State University, Sacramento. In the course of his career, he has penned dozens of articles, gallery guides and catalog essays about the artists and the works he collects. Fitz Gibbon’s writings and tastes are distinctly different from those celebrated in the eastern United States. 

To see these images full-screen, click on a picture 

 

 

Rev. Hugh Magee
hughmagee@earthlink.net
From Yvonne Magee:

[Webmaster's note: Though this is now history, it's ... well... nice, so I've left it up]

Dear friends of Hugh,
 
I am taking advantage of the fact that Hugh is out to use his address list for the purpose of inviting you all to a farewell/retirement party that is being given for him at the Cashmere Community Center, in Cashmere, Washington on Sunday, June 22, from 4:00 - 8:00 p.m.  Dinner is included, with a choice of spit-roasted baron of beef or barbecued chicken.  Attire is very casual; there should be croquet and softball in the afternoon. 
 

Peter H. Tveskov
tveskov@sbcglobal.net
Over the years my children have been urging me to write down the memories of life in Denmark during the German occupation from 1940 to 1945, but as most of us, I never had the opportunity or time to do so.


Since my retirement and with the advent of the PC I finally did it! Considering the fifty or more years that have gone by since then, I felt it necessary to do a great deal of historical research and was surprised to find that my memories  actually agreed with events of those five years. I also found that history is very subjective.


While not especially relevant to the subject of World War II, it was
intriguing to stand on the battlements of Bohus castle in Sweden a few years
ago and observe how it controls Sweden's access to the western oceans.
Denmark's loss of that castle to Sweden five hundred years ago is but a foot
note to Danish history, but a momentous event in Sweden's history.
In any event, Danish history being very much a niche subject, I was
surprised and pleased that my little book "Conquered, not defeated" has been
published.

Peter's book is available through www.amazon.com or  www.booksamillion.com 

 

David Linett, Esq.
ginlin@aol.com
I was elected in June to be a member of the Board of Directors of Rotary International (now with 1.2 million members in 32,000 Rotary Clubs in 166 countries) and am looking forward to two years, beginning in July 2004, of a pretty active travel schedule with my wife, Penny. We are looking forward to a visit next week from my son Peter, '86, his wife Cheryl, '86 and their twin daughters. Cheryl's father is Bill Slover, also '56.

 

 

 

Jason Bacon
jbacon@together.net
I've just become President of the Vermont Historical Society which is completing the first phase of the restoration of the Spaulding Graded School in Barre. 

This Richardsonian Romanesque building will house the Society's collections and headquarters.

I'm also pleased to serve as a director of the Vermont Teddy Bear Company.

 

 

 

 


George Teebor 
teebog01@med.nyu.edu

My first update since graduation, hence a brief autobiography. I am acting chairman of the department of pathology at NYU school of medicine where I have been since my graduation from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1961. I have been doing research in DNA Repair for over 30 years and have had the pleasure of participating, in a very small way, in the molecular biology revolution and its application to medicine. Cecile and I have been married for 45 years, we have 3 marvelous children Julia, a lawyer turned social worker, Daniel, a lawyer turned movie producer and Susan a physician (dermatologist) and 7 equally marvelous grandchildren with one more on the way.. Regards to all.

                                                                                       -- George Teebor

 

Jacques S. Gansler 
jgansler@umd.edu

In January ‘01, after serving as Undersecretary of Defense (for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics – with an annual budget of around $180 billion), I started a “third career” as an academic (or maybe that really is a return to my four-year academic career at Yale). Having spent most of my life in industry (along with a first appointment in the government in the ‘70s) the academic life is certainly a big change – although I do manage to keep up with my prior two lives by serving on a number of corporate boards and on a number of government commissions.

I am in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Maryland (a graduate school only), where I hold the Roger C. Lipitz Chair and also run a research Center on Public Policy and Private Enterprise. I really enjoy the teaching and writing; and a professor’s life is certainly far less intense than my last job. (Although right now I am also serving as Interim Dean of the School, so I’m keeping more than busy.) I used to be against “tenure” but, now that I have it, I must admit it has some attractions.

 

 Jack   Flobeck
colojack@mindspring.com

Every January for the past few years, "Crazy" Charlie Shedd (in the middle) drives south from Wyoming and my wife, Kathryn, and I drive north to Denver for the National Fly Fishing Show. We spend two days casting, tying flies, seeing old friends, and arguing the relative merits of various casting strokes.


First, you should know that Charlie uses the monicker "Crazy" in the marketing of several salt water line drying devices that he makes and sells from Glenrock, WY. He is also a MASTER CASTER, one of only 3 here in Colorado, Wyoming; so don't mess with him on any of the details of a perfect cast.

July, 2007

I can’t resist telling you about some recent publicity for our WATER Think Tank, Aqua Prima Center Inc. We were one of the featured speakers at the 32nd annual Colorado Water Workshop, and spoke on "Colorado’s Thirsty Future." 

Some of our remarks have been plucked out of context and picked up by the Associated Press to now appear in many newspapers across the country.  I guess that’s because we spoke after Pat Mc Elroy, Head of Nevada Water and before the Chief of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

We had charts, graphs, and 45 minutes of ideas, suggestions, and firm recommendations to solve the year 2030 WATER GAP in Colorado of 630,000 Acre Feet.

The situation was simple. We pointed out that there is only a limited amount of water in the World, 326,000,000 cubic miles of it. Water comes in three flavors; solid, liquid, and vapor, just like ice cream used to come in Chocolate, Vanilla, and Strawberry. 70% of the water in the World is salty and is in the oceans.  There’s lots of water at the North and South Poles, but it’s that frozen flavor; and less than 2 % of all the water in the world is potable and with most of that drinkable water underground. 

My audience was a little dazed, so I relaxed, walked out from behind the podium, smiled, and said…..  " You know, we have plenty of water, we just have the people in the wrong places. If we could just get more folks to move to the North and South Poles, we would be O.K."  That got a big laugh, and then the audience paid more attention.  Well, mirable dictu, those off-hand remarks have now hit the NATIONAL Media. I am writing because I did not want my class mates to think me cruel and inhuman to suggest we had a people problem; I was having fun and suggesting that maybe everyone can’t live in Phoenix, Tucson, Denver, Las Vegas, or even Florida, or California, for that matter.

Jack


 Tersh Boasberg
tershboasberg@aol.com 

Cody II

(Click on photos to view them full-screen)

Last year on the weekend after Labor Day, John Fitz Gibbon gathered six Yale '56ers at his good (and indulgent) buddy, Roger Hollander's spectacular ranch, 20 miles from Cody, WY, previously owned by Buffalo Bill himself. But there was wine left over; books yet to devour; trout still in the lakes; and problems of the world only partially solved. So Fitz called for Cody II.

September 10-12 this year saw 16 classmates (roommates, D-porters, even a couple of strays from Branford and Calhoun) and two longtime California artist friends of Fitz's (painter Bill Allen and sculptor Bob Hudson) rally to the cause. Whisked there Cody09A.jpg (53112 bytes) and back by Kim Chace's private time-share jet, nine of us (Boasberg, Chace, Jim Downey, Worth David, John Eaton, Bill Rees, Jack Silliman, John Wallace, and Angus Wurtele), joined the West Coast contingent of Dan Banks, Peter Brier, Bill Bourke, Peter Bull, and Milt Gaines (arriving via commercial air) (tut, tut) to embrace Fitz and Roger in an outpouring of affection, fascination, friendship, and... pure excess!

It was hard to believe that all of us could fit so comfortably on Roger's newly laid stone patio overlooking from 7500 feet the magnificent South Fork valley of the Shoshone River, with snow-capped mountains rimming the eastern edge of Yellowstone Park, trailing off to distant Montana Peaks (about to be climbed by Milt.) The dining table seated 18 commodiously; its three gleaming 5-armedCody02.jpg (76418 bytes) candelabra casting just enough light to soften the few wrinkles of the assembled guests, yet allow instant recognition of the wine labels.

And what wines they were. Friday night, accompanying perfectly cooked roast buffalo tenderloin, we indulged in Roger's impressive collection of red Burgundies and old Rhones. Saturday, to go with 24 fresh caught brook trout (thank you Angus, Cody12.jpg (120810 bytes)Milt, Bill and Bob), an assortment of full bodied Verget white Burgundies from Chassange Montrachet and Meursault; and Sunday, to complement the wonderful lasagna, a selection of robust old Italian reds: two Barolas, a Valpolicella, and a Gaja Barbaresco. Angus Wurtele's own fine Terra Valentine cabs from Napa Valley, and Bourke's Merrie Edwards, an excellent Russian River Pinot Noir, highlighted our "Cocktail" wines.

Dinner conversation was, of course, sparkling; interspersed by an admixture of Bourke's rendition of Irish poetry; Downey's intrepid basso; a long discussion of what we'd like to see for our 50th reunion; and Peter Brier's disquisition on the "Silent Generation" (evidence of which could not exactly be discerned that weekend). Evening feastings were followed by John Eaton's fabulous concerts, made all the more sonorous by Roger's Steinway piano-- how did they ever carry that up here? And, one night we even screened a rare Fitzer '70s "adult" video-how did he ever convince his Sacramento art students to doff their clothes to welcome the spring unicorn?

Cody04.jpg (69216 bytes)Were there enough bedrooms you ask? Five in the main house; another five in the guest house next door; and Roger has the horse barn and Buffalo Bill's 1900 hunting lodge well in his restoration sights. The days were filled with walking the roads Roger has constructed to log the beetle-infested spruce; or fishing (brookies, cut-throats and rainbows) the four lakes which Roger has rejuvenated with aeration pumps and boutique bacteria to control the algae; or riding the four ATVs (which some insisted on calling ATMs) to the highest realms; or rumbling down Roger's 10 mile driveway into Cody for buffalo barbeque and Moose Gruel amber at the Hotel Irma before visiting the surprisingly good Buffalo Bill Museum's displays on western art, Plains Indians, and Yellowstone Valley fauna and flora.

Cody08.jpg (120943 bytes) But the best way to spend time was to wander through Roger's basement where one could stumble upon untold riches: like his well-catalogued eclectic library filled with books on a few of his favorite subjects like art and architecture, western history, cooking, literature, decorative arts, photography, music, and wine; like his unbelievable 3-400 case wine collection which is challengingly dispersed in two cavernous cellars and along the basement walls, organized in such a way as to confuse the most serious oenophile; or like his spectacular collection of 15-17th Century Indian and South Asia batiks, carefully wrapped in cotton muslin-at least those that were not beautifully displayed in the house.

Cody10.jpg (88706 bytes) And then there was talk, conversation, personal stuff, more talk and more  conversation. The problems of the universe solved at last; Bush v. Kerry, just a minor footnote in the group's wide-ranging explorations of geopolitics, art, literature, and history; and maybe for 72 hours the ravages of Fitz's Parkinson's were tempered by the love of 18 disparate friends who held fast the bonds of 50 years, forged first at Yale and, for Bill and Bob, in the brave new world of California art.

Friendship Lasts. 

Tersh Boasberg 9.18.04


 George Woloch
epitome3@yahoo.ca

 

I'm doing a second B.A. as my retirement project. Since I'm a part-time student, it will take years. This is a photo of me in Spanish class at Concordia University, in Montreal, in the fall of 2003.

 

   

Here's a photo of myself and grandnieces, taken two years after the other one. It was taken at a Swiss restaurant in the Laurentians. Their grandfather, my brother-in-law, died last year. I am chugging along pretty well for a 71-year-old, but I don't think think that I'll be able to make it to our 50th reunion.

Best wishes,
George Woloch

 

 

 Reid Williamson
 
J. Reid Williamson Jr.

During his 31-year tenure as president, Reid Williamson has led Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana to its nationally preeminent role in preservation and presided over the continuous growth and improvement in the organization’s programs, services and historic properties.

 
Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana:

Preservation leader announces retirement
After an award-winning career that cast him as a Hoosier living legend, J. Reid Williamson, Jr. has announced that he is retiring as president of Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana in April 2005.

During Williamson’s 31-year tenure, Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana grew in size from less than 200 members and a staff of three to nearly 11,000 members and a staff of 53 spread among ten offices located throughout the state. The private nonprofit group is the largest historic preservation organization in the U.S. after the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Notable “saves” during Williamson’s years at the helm of the foundation include the transformation of Indianapolis’s Lockerbie Square from a dismal area of dilapidated homes to a restored high-end neighborhood. Sparked by Historic Landmarks’ program of buying and reselling homes in the area with protective covenants, the turn-around was then replicated to reclaim other historic districts in the inner city. Rescues of threatened structures during Williamson’s tenure include the West Baden Springs Hotel, early landmarks on High Street in Lawrenceburg, and nearly 40 structures that appeared on the organization’s annual 10 Most Endangered list. His belief in fostering local control led Historic Landmarks to create and help support more than 200 community preservation groups and municipal preservation commissions throughout Indiana.

We are very grateful for the decades of leadership Reid has provided to this organization and we will build on the strong legacy he leaves us,” said Patricia A. Wachtel, Vice President of Irwin Mortgage Corp. and chairman of the board of Historic Landmarks Foundation. “The board will continue the strategic planning process we’ve begun before launching our search for Reid’s successor,” Wachtel added.

 

Arnold Kaplin 
a.kaplin@verizon.net

Hi Guys! To bring you up to date on my circumstances lo these many years:  

Have been in private practice of adult psychiatry in Alexandria, Virginia for 40 years------currently working 1/2 time & spending other 1/2 at beach-house in Delaware, or with family in & around Baltimore. NEVER plan to retire (as long as a few brain cells survive...) Children: Gillian -family physician in Bel Air, MD; Adam (Yale '88) -- psychiatrist on faculty at Johns Hopkins Med Center; & Jesse--clinical social worker in Bel Air. Their 4 children (one more to arrive 3/9) keep me young---at least in spirit.

The accompanying photo shows the family on a recent trip to Costa Rica in 2003.  

Top row: Jesse and me.
Bottom: Gillian, Marcia and Adam.

Wife Marcia is a clinical social worker & our practices dove-tail (seeing some of the same patients in the different treatments we offer---which has kept our relationship fresh & exciting.)

One of the delights of my life has been traveling to exotic locales ( 3 trips to China---1 along the Silk Road, India, photographic safari to East Africa, Amazon jungle, Galapagos Islands. Macchu Picchu---discovered by an early Yalie) I must have been a travel agent in a previous incarnation.

I am THRILLED to read of all the preparations for our 50th & can't wait!

 

Peter Hutt 
phutt@cov.com

 The Hill

LARGEST CIRCULATION OF ANY CAPITOL HILL PUBLICATION

A food and drug super-lawyer, Hutt had auspicious beginnings

October 30, 2007 

 

Washington seduced Peter Barton Hutt before he even made it to his hotel.

On a beautiful day in 1960, Hutt arrived here for the first time to consider a job at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He’d just finished his master’s of law at New York University a year after earning his law degree at Harvard. The offer from the FDA was appealing, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to move away from his hometown of Buffalo, N.Y., where his family’s been rooted since the 18th century.

Today, Hutt is seen as one of the foremost food and drug law attorneys in the country. After more than four decades in practice at Covington & Burling, his clients include the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Consumer Healthcare Products Association.

He’s also the editor of a widely used food and drug law casebook and has taught a winter course at Harvard Law School every year since 1994. Hutt sits on the boards of directors of nine companies and on advisory committees to the FDA and the National Institutes of Health.
But on that balmy day 47 years ago, he was just a young attorney with stellar credentials but no Washington experience.

As soon as he stepped out of Union Station, however, his heart set on Washington. “It was one of those days,” said Hutt. “The sun was shining, it was gleaming off the Capitol roof …”

The first thing he did was call his wife in New York City to tell her: We’re moving to Washington. “Food and drug law is a real passion with me. I came into it through sheer serendipity,” he said in recounting the trip.

His next steps were even more audacious. He had an opportunity to go to the FDA and work under his mentor, Chief Counsel William Goodrich. Even so, Hutt wanted to see what else was out there.

First, he marched into the Federal Trade Commission chairman’s office and was presented with a job offer, just like that.

Next, he went to Covington & Burling, again unannounced. “I did not realize it was the largest law firm in Washington. I had no appointment, and I knocked on the door and I was offered a job,” Hutt said.

Of course, Hutt still had the FDA job to consider. Not only had he traveled to Washington for that job in the first place, he’d forged a relationship with Goodrich. They first met when Goodrich spoke at Harvard during Hutt’s third year. Hutt introduced himself, Goodrich took him to dinner, and before they’d parted, Goodrich promised to set him up with a fellowship at NYU. That fellowship led to the opportunity at the FDA that Hutt was about to turn down.

“I called Bill Goodrich. Bill said, ‘Peter, don’t be a fool. Take the job at Covington.’” Working his way up to partner would help him get a senior position at the FDA later, Goodrich told him. He was right. In 1971, Hutt got that great FDA job: Goodrich’s. The chief counsel was retiring and urged Hutt to take his place.

“The unbelievable good luck of all that occurring — I mean, that changed my whole life,” Hutt said. “I tell my students every year, the one thing you should not waste your time doing is trying to plan your life.”

Aside from the FDA stint, Hutt’s entire Washington career has been at Covington. But Hutt said he remains most proud of his work at the FDA, where he served as chief counsel until 1975. “During my four years at FDA, it was an extraordinarily productive time,” he said.

In short, Hutt says, he, FDA Commissioner Charles Edwards and Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Elliot Richardson fundamentally changed the nature of the agency.

“FDA was a law enforcement agency until I got there. It became a modern administrative law agency as a result of the kind of approach I took, which is rulemaking, not litigation,” Hutt said.

During this short timeframe, the FDA took on many of the responsibilities we now take for granted, such as nutritional labeling and over-the-counter drug reviews. Food, drug and medical device companies also had to come to the FDA first, rather than waiting for the FDA to ferret out those breaking the law.

Hutt doubts the agency could be so bold now. “All the stars were aligned at the right time,” he said. For one thing, Washington was a bit distracted by the Watergate scandal and other things during the later years of the Nixon administration. “With the turmoil that that caused, people were not focused on what the Food and Drug Administration was doing,” Hutt said.

The FDA accomplished almost all of these changes without new legislation — something Hutt said Congress should consider.

Hutt sometimes briefs congressional staff or lawmakers on behalf of his clients. Though he is a registered lobbyist, he thinks of himself more as an expert attorney. “I can be, if you will, more objective and more neutral,” he said.

His abiding frustration is Congress’s propensity to pile new statutes on top of the underlying 1938 law that created the modern FDA. The Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act “has been amended well over 200 times and now reads something worse than the Internal Revenue Code,” Hutt quipped.

Rather than continue to pass laws expanding the FDA’s authorities and responsibilities — “FDA has so much raw power that it doesn’t need any more legislation” — Congress would be better served by setting aside far more money for the agency, Hutt argued.

Hutt respects the good will and good intentions of the members and staffers working on food and drug legislation, but he believes that politics inevitably influences them.

“You don’t get any credit, if you’re a legislator, for slaving away in the mines of the appropriations [process] and trying to get sufficient funds so that FDA can keep its house in order, as contrasted with passing new legislation where you can go back to your constituents and say, ‘Look what I’ve done,’ ” Hutt said.

 

Eric Moore
 ebmemoore@yahoo.com
 

Here's a photo of me with two Anglican pastors, my translators and fellow hymn singers, on a mission trip in September to Uganda under the auspices of Equipping Pastors International. Three of us from the States were teaching 1st Corinthians to clergymen with an average educational level of 8th grade. A very sobering but uplifting experience.
 

 

 

These two shots of me and my wife, Peggy, were taken by a thoughtful stranger at "Pretty Place", Caesar's Head, S.C. at the height of fall colors. He then emailed them to us on our 50th wedding anniversary 11/13/07!

Best regards to all,
Eric Moore

 

 

Jonathan Donald
jdpinc@capital.net

Operation Smile

I was in Vietnam in the early 1970s making a television special on the war and I returned there last month making a documentary on "Operation Smile" which is a surgical mission operating around the world that performs facial surgeries to correct cleft lips and cleft palates among local indigent populations, mainly small children. The experience  offered me the opportunity to reflect on my two different experiences in Vietnam.  I found that there was  a real parallel between Operation Smile's work  and the character of the Vietnamese as I rediscovered them.

Most of our work was in Hue, the old Imperial City on the Perfume River half way down the coast from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City that most people still call Saigon. Our work and the surgeries were interrupted there by the Monsoon which after more than a week of solid rain sent the river pouring into the city streets. Children released from surgery could not get home, while those waiting for surgery piled up behind them in the wards. The fear of a power failure materialized with some surgeries completed by flashlight. The director of the program scoured the city for a standby generator and found one but no one could imagine how to deliver a huge 100K generator through flooded streets. Fortunately the monsoon relented. 

The effect of these one hour long surgeries was almost miraculous. The small child that had gone into the surgery with a mangled upper lip emerged whole and beautiful with no more than a tiny scar to show for the experience. It produced a wholesale change not only in the child’s appearance but in the prospects for its life, and indeed that of its family.

When the flood receded we returned home with one family to film a reunion that was  marvelous to behold, relatives and neighbors crowding around on the street to exclaim over the little boy. Everyone was still wearing boots and the grandfather showed us how high on the wall the water had come. The little patient's  father told us how they had feared for their son and the stigma he might bear and  how much rosier the future now looked. These were people with nothing except a frail shelter to live in, the clothes on their back and a lifetime of work to look forward to. Yet they had no complaints of any sort about their lives and were more grateful than many of us can imagine for the gift they had received. Their son had been restored from a terrible accident of nature to what God had intended. The little boy's mother put him in a cradle outside the house and rocked him to sleep with a lullaby. 

The miracle that a smile can achieve will never leave any of us who were there to witness that family’s homecoming. There are certainly dozens of worthwhile medical missions around the world, most treating more serious problems but it would be hard to find any effort that is so marvelously and obviously redemptive to patients and their families.

The redemptive smile seems rightly symbolic of present day Vietnam. It is a very forgiving place. I never saw an angry person  even in the maelstrom of street traffic – a setting for road rage if there ever was one. In just the last century Vietnam has fought wars with the  Chinese, Japanese, French and the US but it is friends with all its old enemies. It may be a simplification to say but the country is a place of resilience, patience and those family values that we wishfully invoke so often here at home.

Regards,

Jon