www.andover.edu/intouch Abbot legacy. As AAEI enters its implementation phase, please consider engagement outside of class parameters. In alignment with Abbot@Andover, check out the Brace Center, fittingly housed in Abbot Hall adjacent to the Abbot Circle: http:// bit.ly/1MRPTSN. As described on the website, “The Brace Center for Gender Studies at Phillips Academy was opened in 1996 with a generous gift from Abbot Academy alumna Donna Brace Ogilvie ’30, contributions from others, and a start-up grant from the Abbot Academy Association. Its aim is to provide resources to enhance and strengthen Phillips Academy as a coeducational and multicultural institution by examining the complex issues related to gender, including sexuality, race, and ethnicity.” During a conference call with Judy Davis and PA ’66’s Topper Lynn and Warren Baker, discussion centered on the balance between Abbot@Andover and the merged school in regard to reunion planning. Although we enter the 50th at the same collective age, diverse life experiences enrich the process. Warren also brought up www.encore.org, with its emphasis on “second acts for the greater good,” as a potential intriguing spur. With that theme part of a perennial (and universal) babyboomer dialogue, what does a meaningful second act entail? With suitcases stacked for a peripatetic fall, thanks again to Abbot ’66 as we prepare to “March On” to more June days spent around the Abbot Circle (after a seemingly improbable 50-year span of time).
PHILLIPS Ray Healey 740 West End Ave., Apt. 111 New York NY 10025 212-866-8507 drrayhealey@gmail.com
Gentlemen, As we race toward the date of our 50th Reunion, June 9–12, 2016, the stories of our lives have poured into our reunion yearbook, and here’s a preview. Ben Gardner writes, “I retired from Choate this summer after 16 years as medical director; retirement lasted four weeks. I have just returned to work as co-medical director of Phillips Exeter Academy, where my boss is the new head of school, Lisa MacFarlane ’75, also an Andover grad!” Alex Belida writes, “I was in Africa reporting from 1993 to 2000, based first in Nairobi and later in Johannesburg. It was the highlight of my professional life. It wasn’t always amusing. I was shot, shelled, and threatened. But with a neverending supply of human dramas, it gave me a chance to be a real ‘voice for the voiceless’—like the 25 Mozambican flood victims I rode with in a helicopter with a posted capacity of eight. Or the Angolan boys I discovered crawling out of the sewers where they lived. And the dead man I
stumbled upon in the streets of Brazzaville who seemed to be calling to me. I saw many corpses like his—victims of war, genocide, famine, and sickness. A symbolic path of the dead is now etched in my mind—a personal collection reflecting the path their corpses left across much of Africa: from arid Somalia in the northeast, across Sudan and into northern Uganda, down through steamy Rwanda, Burundi, and Congo in the center of the continent. On another note, I’ve also finished writing a novel tentatively titled Killing His Goat and Other Tales of the African News Network, which involves a journalist broadcasting to Africa and a fictional U.S. invasion of Zimbabwe.” Rick Allen writes, “At the University of North Carolina, from my perch in the journalism school, I watched Ralph McGill doing the Lord’s work down in Atlanta, helping guide his city through the shoals of the Civil Rights era. In 1972, I joined the Atlanta Constitution and eventually became its political columnist. From there, I went to CNN as lead political analyst (for the 1988 presidential race) and network commentator. In 1982, my wife, Linda, and I took a year off and traveled around the world. In Chile, I saw how a country that had enjoyed more than a century of democracy watched it evaporate overnight in a coup—and I thought how utterly fragile that system is and how quickly it could be gone. After 20 years in journalism I realized I hated news—never enough time to get it all and get it right before deadline— so I began writing books. First Secret Formula, a history of Coca-Cola, then a history of Atlanta, and finally, as we began spending more time in Montana, a book about the famous Montana Vigilantes, gold-camp enforcers who took the law into their own hands. Linda and I will celebrate our 40th anniversary a week after our reunion, and she has been the love and lodestar of my life.” Peter Franchot writes, “After Andover, I spent two years at Amherst, dropped out to work on Gene McCarthy’s presidential campaign, lost my student deferral, and promptly got drafted into the U.S. Army. Post-military, I finished my Amherst degree, worked for several years for public-interest groups in Vermont, then got a law degree from Northeastern in Boston. I headed for Washington, D.C., to work for the Union of Concerned Scientists and then as staff director for thenCongressman (now Senator) Ed Markey. In 1986 I ran for the part-time Maryland state legislature and spent 20 years on the appropriations committee and in business development in the private sector. In 2006, I was elected to the Maryland statewide office of comptroller of the treasury and am now serving my third four-year term. I am a fiscal moderate who believes in government but wants that government to be fiscally responsible and full of common sense. Any political popularity I enjoy allows me to help thousands of Marylanders, the little guys, who are beaten down by the bad economy and need a hand largely because they do not have the resources
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to ride through the rough times. Thirty-five years ago I married Anne Maher, a fellow law student at Northeastern, who is now a partner with a DC law firm. We have two children, Abbe, 34, and Nick ’03, 31.” In September Al Basile released his 12th solo CD, B’s Expression, on Sweetspot, and spread the word on Facebook. As he notes on his website, “B’s Expression is produced by Duke Robillard and uses the Duke Robillard Band to back up Al on this newest collection of his songs. Al’s been nominated for a Blues Music Award four times in the last five years, and his discs routinely place in the top 15 on the Living Blues charts. Often referred to as the ‘Bard of the Blues,’ Al writes some of the best songs in the genre; his singing and cornet playing stand out with world class backup and production from Duke and his band.” Please visit www.albasile.com for more information and to buy a copy of this or any of Al’s CDs. Al notes, “This is my most fully realized project so far. I wrote the arrangements when I first wrote the songs—they’re an intrinsic part of the concept in each case. The bass lines, horn parts, and vocal phrasing are designed to work together in specific ways. We went in with an unusually clear blueprint, and these great players found ways to follow my vision and still enrich and grow the parts in personal ways. The result is highly organic and true to my concepts.” Al’s website bio states, “Al’s poetry and fiction have begun to be published in recent years. He taught full time at the Providence Country Day School in East Providence, R.I., from 1980 to 2005 and since then has concentrated on his writing, performing, and recording.” Adios, amigos. Keep writing, e-mailing, and texting. Andover | Winter 2016
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