www.andover.edu/classnotes PHILLIPS Dermod O. Sullivan Carlton House, Apt. 3-L 35 North Chatsworth Ave. Larchmont, NY 10538 315-750-0385 or 914-834-6816 dermod58@gmail.com
It’s not too early to plan for the 60th Reunion, June 8-10, 2018. Before the start of reunions, Al Griggs and I will host classmates and spouses/significant others at the Lake Mansfield Trout Club in Stowe, VT. The stay at the Trout Club would begin the weekend before on Sunday, June 3, and last through Wednesday morning June 6. There is fly fishing at the club as well as local golf courses and miles of hiking trails, making the excursion appealing to both classmates and their spouses. People could also extend their stay at the club. Al Griggs would host more golf at his course, Baker Hill in Newbury, NH on Wednesday—about two hours south of Stowe. Thursday, we plan more golf near Andover prior to Reunion kick-off on Friday morning. Griggs has recently returned from attending the wedding of his niece Eleanor in Ireland, as well as a trip to Norway visiting Bergen and Stavanger. On the way back from Norway, he played golf at St. Andrews in Scotland. They played the “new” course. While the “old” course is on everyone’s bucket list, being the site of many British Opens, the “new” course is a destination in its own right, having been designed by Old Tom Morris and “newly” opened in 1895. I had the same experience in 1970, as the “old’ course was unavailable and I was treated to an enjoyable round on the “new” course. Talked to John Murphy and he related his experience on the “old” course at St. Andrews 20 years ago. He was paired with a couple of taciturn Swiss gentlemen. The outgoing nine featured balmy, unseasonable Scottish weather, but on the incoming nine it reverted to form a Shakespearean tempest of wind and rain. But the golf pairing turned favorable. The Swiss were members of the R&A and their personalities brightened as the weather darkened. Murph had the rare good fortune to be invited into the clubhouse for the warmth of a fireplace, followed by lunch and drinks. Knowing that Chris Wadsworth was a fisherman, I called him regarding fishing at reunions. That led to the inevitable “fish” story, as Chris recounted landing and releasing a 39-inch striper on an 8-weight fly rod from his Boston Whaler off Cape Cod. The estimated weight was 25-28 pounds and took a half hour to land with the rod bent almost double. It happened on Chris’s 75th birthday and his wife Lori reports that the weight of the fish and the time spent to land it has increased each year. Regarding our reunion, Chris will have to know the timing of his annual piscatorial pilgrimage to Montana before committing. Tom Cutler was moved to add a few memories of the late Bob Palmer: “Over the past 15 years or so, Bob reached out more and more to his old friends, many of them from Andover and some
from Yale. He began to host an annual gathering of five or six at his new home in Sanibel, FL and over the years got Reggie Barnes, John Murphy, and most recently, Blitz Fox and Gil Bamford to come. As I was a new Florida arrival (albeit from the East Coast), I was a regular at the gatherings. I remember the conversations were always fun and funny and great walks down memory lane. Bob often provided apt postscripts to these stories by adding factual corrections to the narratives (while not editing out the punch lines). He also had a large fund of stories about many of our classmates which he capsulized in what was a great personal essay in the 50th Class Book. Worth re-reading. He also had a prodigious memory for sports related facts—some relevant—some just showing off. Since many of the visitors to Sanibel were liberals, conservatives were overwhelmed. The closing point of view was always articulated by Bob, because he had better arguments (I of course made sure I was on his team) and he could hold his vodka. A lovely guy. What a loss and what a shame he’s gone.” Charlie Brennan reports that the class fundraising for our 60th Reunion has gotten underway, led by Marshall Cloyd, Bill Stiles and Charlie. As we get closer to reunion, classmates will be contacted by our hard-working representatives. Speaking of Marshall, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lone Star Flight Museum, where he served as Chairman of the Board from 2003-2014, successfully leading the museum back from the devastation of Hurricane Ike and relocating and expanding it to Ellington Airport. Be sure to check out the picture of five classmates in this issue’s photo section featuring Roger MacKenzie, Phil Woodward, Phil Makanna, John Murphy, and Blitz Fox. Four of the five have initially indicated that they will be returning for reunion in June. Speaking of Phil Makanna, he has re-edited and digitized his 1971 movie into a 78-minute version. It’s called Shoot the Whale and it’s described as the “The one and only WWII Cowboy Circus Electronic Musical Comedy Documentary,” with score by famed composer Robert Ashley. I quote from the promotional material: Ironically titled, “Shoot the Whale” would never do so. Rather, it’s a delirious pageant about violence and the decline of the West. Great barren stretches around Death Valley provide the backdrop for a frantic scenario, conjured into being by The East Bay Sharks, an early—seventies street theatre troupe featuring Darryl Henriques. An act of urgent improv, Philip Makanna’s first and only full— length film follows this gangly gang of cowboygarbed gonzo actors as they stage senseless shoot— outs, meander absurdly at an abandoned mine, and hungrily serenade a lonely woman. It’s cartoon militarism when a Nazi half–track arrives on the sandy scene. Beautifully shot landscapes collide with electronically processed images from circus acts to further heighten the riotous atmosphere. “Shoot the Whale” unreels like a barbed and anarchic pipe dream stoked by the National Harpoon (sic).
1959 ABBOT Nathalie Taft Andrews 2407 Ransdell Ave. Louisville, KY 40204 502-459-5715 dulcie@iglou.com
PHILLIPS David Othmer 4220 Spruce St. Philadelphia, PA 19104 215-387-7824 davidothmer@aol.com
A couple of quick notes: As of mid-September, Bill Bell and Pepper Stuessy were planning to get together later this fall for “another canoe trip through a national park—this time Congaree National Park in South Carolina.” Congaree is between Charleston and Columbia, closer to Columbia—I hope that the hurricanes did not make that trip impossible, but am sure that if they did, Bill and Pepper found another place to celebrate this tradition! Maynard Toll reported that “on September 16, Kay and I attended a memorial service for Saone Crocker, wife of Chet Crocker, at the US Institute for Peace in Washington, D.C.. Saone, Chet and I were classmates in the MA program in international relations at SAIS (Johns Hopkins), where both Chet and I stayed on for a PhD. Saone was an exceptionally great lady who passed away earlier this year after a long and brave bout with ovarian cancer. She has left behind a lovely family.” For those of you who haven’t been reading your emails, or who are not yet on the email list, several of our classmates have been sharing essays on their memories of the 1960s. Here are excerpts from a few of them that have been forwarded to you via email before these notes went to press: From Quinn Rosefsky, who was stationed as a general medical officer at Loring Air Force Base in northern Maine, where, among other duties, they cared for Air Force fighter and B-52 Bomber pilots. “I bought a Super 8 camera and made a few movies—my most “famous” movie (not my best) was the result of the friction between the macho fighter pilots and the more cerebral B-52 pilots. A fighter pilot asked if I would do a gangster movie. How could I say “no?” They wrote it. I filmed it. As a reward, I was given a ride in an F-104. After a few barrel rolls and sharp reversals of direction playing war games with a Canadian jet, we landed. Walking across the concrete airstrip, I vowed never to do that again.” From Jim Bailey: “Just out of law school, I was sent to San Diego for basic training in the Naval Reserve. At the end of week one, I asked if I could give free legal advice to a lot of officers and chiefs who had marital and financial problems and Andover | Winter 2018
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