graduate news NOTES & ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM CLASSMATES
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1940 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Percy Nelson 617-244-4126 percylnelson@comcast.net
1941 The recently published 378 Years in America chronicles the history of the Waterman Family and business, and offers the perspectives of Frank Waterman III ’41 on the future of America. For more information, visit BespokeHistory.com.
58 Nobles SPRING 2015
1942
1950
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
CLASS CORRESPONDENTS
Putty McDowell 781-320-1960 pbmcd2@verizon.net
Peter Briggs 513-474-2520 hbriggs@cinci.rr.com
1946
Sid Eaton Jr. 503-223-7548 sidandmeg@msn.com
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Gregg Bemis 505-983-7094 gbemis@swcp.com Gregg Bemis writes, “News this winter is rather brief. Dick Lucas is in Arizona seeking warmer weather than in Pennsylvania and hoping to lower his golf score. He will succeed in at least one of these efforts. I’m scheduling a dive trip to St. Lucia in April as my golf score is beyond redemption. Hopefully, with only 16 months until our 70th, we can all start planning to attend.”
1948 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Bill Bliss 781-326-1062 wlbliss@comcast.net
1949 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
John Guilbert 520-887-0628 Please refer to Memoriam section for the obituary of Seth Newton.
Sid Eaton reports a spring, summer and fall of trips, all stateside: in May, with his bride, Meg, to his 60th reunion at Princeton, where he saw his Nobles classmate Eddie Stimpson and his soonto-be-bride; in July, to a nearby Kaiser Hospital, where his gall bladder was successfully, quickly and almost painlessly removed; in September, to New York City, as the guest of three former students with whom he had traveled the nation in 1963, followed by a week in Maine, the high point of which was a visit to the Center Harbor Boatyard, where a 70-foot day sailor was being built for Los Angeles architect Frank Gehry; finally, in October, to Phoenix, where he, with two friends, took in a week of fall baseball watching future major leaguers for but $6 per game and $3 per hot dog. Next trip: this May, for our class’s 65th reunion. Jack Hoag reports having traveled to Washington, D.C., for Harvard’s football victory over Georgetown and to Harvard Stadium for all of Harvard’s home games, victories all. Future trips
are being planned for Alta, Utah, where the skiing is great; to the south, where he hopes to see Dudley Hall; to the Friday-night dinner of our class’s 65th reunion; and then to his summer home at Squam Lake, N.H. Jack Whiting reports celebrating his and Jill’s 60th wedding anniversary at the house of their son in Medway, Mass., and the July birth of their second greatgranddaughter. Ralph (Tad) Powell Jr. reports, “I continue to enjoy teaching about two-thirds time here, at the University of Minnesota Medical School, doing diagnostic pathology and a small amount of research. I leave in a few days to go on the annual skiing trip to Beaver Creek, Colo., with our two youngest sons and my wife’s brother. Our youngest son, Nate, defends his research at noon tomorrow, on his way to getting a Ph.D. in neuroscience here at the University of Minnesota. I continue to enjoy good health, perhaps better than I deserve. I am looking forward to attending our 65th reunion. I am delighted to hear that so many of my classmates seem to be happy and in good health.” Ned Almy reports, “Two grandchildren’s weddings (see Ted Almy ’75), a cruise of the Baltic and celebrating 20 years at the Landings on Skidaway Island. It is hard to believe how fast the years go by. Nancy and I will celebrate 60 years of marriage in
June with all of our children and grandchildren at the Landings.” Please refer to Memoriam section for the obituary of Bruce Palmer.
1951 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Galt Grant 781-383-0854 galtgra@gmail.com
1952 & 1953 CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Winston “Hooley” Perry perrydise@tampabay.rr.com From Hooley Perry: “Lately I have spent so much time orchestrating the ’52 & ’53 Nobles Plymouth Class Luncheon in September, and then sending out the many photographs taken at the event to the attendees, in addition to sending copies of ‘The Putnam Legacy’ CDs out to every one of the nonattendees, that I just couldn’t find the time to put together a complete submittal of my usual rambling notes about most everyone of you in time for inclusion in the 2014 winter edition. So, due to time constraints on my and the school’s part, and in an effort to fill in those gaps over the next few months, I will be blasting out brief interim email updates on what everyone is doing, and/or has done, so that all of you will be up-to-date with the latest and the greatest news of every one of your classmate’s lives
(so you might want to save them). The latest exclusive group to be established within our far-flung classmates is ‘The Stent Club.’ For those of you who have not had the pleasure of experiencing this helpful, and sometimes necessary, medical procedure, a stent is a very small spring (about the size of the spring in a ballpoint pen) that is inserted into your body’s arteries to open up veins that are mostly blocked up with ‘bunches of stuff’ (that’s a medical term) caused by, or related to, living the good life. Our latest initiated member is Hal Knapp ’52, who recently had one stent installed. Now, in the past, I have had four stents installed, and I know that earlier this year, Bob ‘Stretch’ Cumings ’52 had about five or six put in, which only goes to show you who is living the good life among us. If any one of you out there wants to share how many stents you have floating around somewhere in your body, please let me know. In honor of the event, I just might establish a yearly ‘Stent Cup’ award for whoever has the most stents. So, Hal, congratulations, and welcome to the club. Last week, ‘Grum’ Ward’s lovely wife, Maria, very kindly sent me a page cut out of the Harvard Magazine announcing the latest ‘Harvard Medalist’ winners, one of which is our very own J. Louis Newell, Harvard Class of 1957. It went on to say, ‘Whether cheering from the stands at the stadium, or chairing the committee charged
with “Making Commencement Happy” (an interesting committee assignment), you stand always ready to answer Harvard’s call, as a stalwart leader of your class, the Harvard College Fund, the Harvard Club of Boston, and the Harvard Varsity Club.’ They went on to say that ‘Newell could not be present, but that he will receive his medal at a later date.’ So, way to go ‘Nails’ (as in ‘tough as’) Newell. You are the best! I received the nicest thankyou note, and informative letter, from Stanley Johnson ’53, in reply to my sending him a Putnam Legacy CD. Stanley says that he and his wife enjoy good health while living in Baltimore, have sufficient income to achieve their goals, and as he happily puts it, ‘We have been lucky indeed,’ in addition to the fact that with ‘a marriage, a career, children and grandchildren, we worked hard at creating a life that has meaning for us, and now we are enjoying the fruits of our efforts.’ Congratulations, Stanley. I would personally wish that condition on all of us, and it was a great pleasure to hear from you after way too many years. Please stay in touch! I know that most, if not all, of you heard the sad news about the passing of Billy Allen ’53 on Nov. 6, as a result of his house fire in Chatham. Billy was a one-ofa-kind type of guy, while being a great athlete both at Nobles and Harvard, and a good friend to all of
us. I personally, and I’m sure many of you who knew him well, will miss our Cuban amigo. So, vaya con dios, my friend. It never ceases to amaze me how Louis “Nails” Newell always keeps bouncing back after fighting so many health battles that would ‘deep-six’ most of the rest of us. First it’s the loss of the use of his kidneys, which required dialysis three days a week for Lord knows how many months and/or years. And then it’s months in a hospital bed fighting off many spreading infections. And now, because of those recurring infections, the doctors had to amputate his right leg just below the knee. And then, after just a few days, they had to perform a special operation on his lower right leg so that they can attach a prosthesis to it, so that he can hop, skip, and jump around the hospital rehabilitation unit. Will it never end for this tough guy? Hang in there, ‘Nails.’ You are an inspiration to all of us. For those of you who were wondering about one of our northern classmates, all is well with Don Atwell, who is now living in a retirement home and not having to shovel snow off of his roof or anywhere else for that matter. His ‘Mainiack’ Telephone Company has been on strike since October 2014, and they are still arguing with the Feds, while saying that they still have service, when, in fact, they don’t. His new retirement home number is (207) 256-3060,
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