Personal News

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.

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