www.andover.edu/intouch One thing you can be sure of: The East—and Andover—is quite unlike the place we departed those decades back. Boston has become practically unrecognizable, especially if you were one of the lucky ones who used to catch the bus back to PA at the Trailways bus terminal next to the Hillbilly Ranch, across from the Playboy Club. You should consider joining in—even if you had a lousy time once you got on that bus and had to be in a SamPhil history class the next morning at 8:20 a.m. (Speaking now of real estate developer Steve Cadogan, formerly of North Andover, more recently of West Hollywood, Calif., and Paris, who had no need for that bus.) Come—to witness not only the changes that have taken place at PA (a law-professor/techie head of school who went to Exeter!) but also the inevitable and fascinating alterations that have occurred in our bodies and characters. It might not possess the bright lights of Vegas, but there will be people you will be surprised and glad to see. Mail will arrive soon.
1970 ABBOT
Penny Snelling Sullivan 972 Summit St. Lebanon PA 17042 717-274-0498 sullivan@mbcomp.com Sandra A. Urie 38 Prospect St. Winchester MA 01890 781-729-4480 sandraurie@gmail.com
Virginia Knapp Cargill wrote that she had a wonderful evening with Sandy Urie and Sandy’s husband, Frank Herron ’70, at an Andover event on Nantucket in August. Virginia also related that she moved to a new house—smaller in size. She described it as the “big transition time to empty nest.” She is employed part-time, pursuing a new Internet venture with a group in San Francisco. Her sons are “doing well and off the payroll—yeah!” We can all relate to that sense of relief, and I have only one child. One of Virginia’s sons is in NYC at an ad agency, and the other is in Boston with a software firm. She also did some traveling with friends to Barcelona, Spain, and the Provence region of France this past June. In her words, it’s “a period of transition” in our lives, and we now need to figure out what we plan to do with the last third. The newest entry in Nan Quick’s armchair travel blog is titled “The Disparate Delights of Four Low-Country Plantations.” Exciting news for Sandy Urie: Her daughter, Katie, married Terry Kerr on Nantucket Island this past fall.
PHILLIPS Peter Williams 3070 Shamrock North Tallahassee FL 32309 850-893-3342 Petewilliams1@hotmail.com Frank Herron 38 Prospect St. Winchester MA 01890 617-852-0126 ffherron@gmail.com
For the first time in the history of this column, we will use the word “Spotify.” That’s one of the places where you can download Alex Donner’s White Tie album. The compilation first came out about 2000, but the digital version available now is brand new (as of late summer/ early fall of 2013). In addition to Spotify, the album is available through iTunes and Amazon. The album includes the works of writers Burt Bacharach, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin—none of whom are classmates. The blurb Alex distributed with his announcement included an enthusiastic recommendation from Frontstage Review in 2000. Regarding Alex, the reviewer said, “There are many self-styled ‘new Sinatras’ out there, but this guy is not copying anyone. He’s the real thing.” I liked it. I bought it. The photo on the album’s cover might have stirred Andover’s discipline committee out of its slumber in 1970. Alex’s left hand gently thrusts a glass of champagne to the viewer—an offer? A toast? The fingers of his right hand tweeze a lit cigar. Amazingly, Alex looks young enough to make us think the shot might indeed have been taken in the lobby of Stearns House in 1970—except for the white-tie garb. In addition to sending word about his album, Alex noted he and his music-making took a prominent place in the “400” edition of Quest magazine in August 2013. (The magazine is devoted to “society and culture in New York, the Hamptons, Greenwich, and Palm Beach.” It’s not to be confused with the Quest magazine of the Theosophical Society in America.) Alex, long a highly sought-after fixture at top-drawer soirées, is featured in a neat four-page spread titled “The Bandleader Played On.” In an interview with Lily Hoagland, he talked, among other things, about his early years (but not as early as Andover). The music and law-school training led him to handle “divorces during the week and weddings on the weekend,” he told her. Using the argot of celebrity watchers, the writer said Alex plays for the “boldest of the bold-faced names.” The photo spread in the magazine includes images showing Alex with, among others and at various times, George H.W. Bush ’42, Ivana Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, and Queen Noor of Jordan (a Princeton classmate). (Note: Only one of those names is deemed worthy of bold type in this publication.) In discussing his interest in trying to keep up
with the times and tastes musically, Alex quotes a line from Bob Dylan’s “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”: “He not busy being born is busy dying.” Nice sentiment. I hope we’re doing our best along those lines. On other fronts, Chip Boynton reports that Rob Christie’s daughter is in her second year at Wellesley College. Also, and I think this has been reported in this space in previous years, Chip and Burr Tweedy visited Norm Selby in August on Martha’s Vineyard. It appears that the crabs and clams were harder to discover this year, or maybe we’re just having a harder time bending over to look for them. Chip also acknowledges that he lost a Stanley Cup–related (Bruins vs. Blackhawks) bet to Rod Goldstein and that “both Rod and the Blackhawks showed a lot of class in winning.” Speaking of Rod, my wife [Sandy Urie ’70] and I enjoyed running into him and his wife, Keith, at a reception for John Palfrey at the Great Harbor Yacht Club in Nantucket at the end of July. The Goldsteins—all of them—are in fine form. On that same island (over Memorial Day weekend) we enjoyed having a drink with Bill Brenizer and his wife, Margi. Bill and his family have been going to Nantucket for decades. He does some great work with the Nantucket Land Council board, and, while still very busy with Wells Fargo, he also finds time to stroll and swing his way around the golf course. Bill Roth says he spotted Larry Remmel walking into a Barnes & Noble in Manhattan in late summer. (Has our class news really devolved to that level? Yes.) And Bill is in LinkedIn touch with Rob MacIver. And he went to an engagement party for one of Mark Kelly’s sons—Jed ’04. As you can tell by now, the news is on the thin side. So why not devote some space to personal news? Katie Thorpe (Sandy’s daughter; my stepdaughter) married Terry Kerr in September on Nantucket. Katie, who went to Duke, is still working and thriving at Sotheby’s in the contemporary art department; Terry is the owner and founder of Henley and Sloane, a menswear shop based on Nantucket. And some updates about my sons (Sandy’s stepsons): Andrew ’00, who went to George Washington and earned an MBA degree at Yale, married Yawei Zheng in Atlanta in early 2013, and they now live in Hong Kong, where Andrew is a global equity analyst for Invesco. Son Stephen, who went to Cornell, is in the final year of an MBA/JD degree program at the University of Texas in Austin. Son Edward, who also went to Cornell, has completed basic training in the U.S. Navy and will spend a year studying Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif. He reports that his drown-proofing test at Naval Station Great Lakes might have been a bit easier than the one we all faced at Andover. Blub. Blub. Blub. —Frank Herron
Andover | Winter 2014
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