Bill Boardman has announced his new book, Circling the Drain: Trump’s Assault on America, available at Amazon or the Canadian publisher, Yorkland. Bill writes, “Our constitutional crisis began on day one, January 20, 2025, when Trump asserted that he had the authority to rewrite the Constitution by executive order.” Bill has lived in Vermont for over 50 years as an author, teacher, acting coach, journalist, and one of Vermont’s 28 elected assistant judges.
Guy Robinson enthusiastically recommends Sir Simon Mayall’s book, The House of War: The Struggle between Christendom and the Caliphate. A retired British Army general, he is Middle East adviser at Britain’s Ministry of Defense.
By way of Bill MacKinnon, Fred Wells sends greetings to all and would welcome correspondence from classmates, especially those who lived in Davenport’s Upper Courtyard senior year. Fred has had a richly varied career as reporter, sailor, contractor, and farmer. His address can be found in the class directory.
The 1960 executive committee met at Mory’s (and by Zoom) in October and began discussion of a proposed minireunion this year in New York, featuring theater, museums, dining, conversation, fun. Since that meeting, Peter Wells has reserved 30 rooms for the Class of 1960 at the Yale Club for April 14–17. Note the dates. More details forthcoming.
Recent Tuesday Teas posted on our class website (yale60.org) include Tim Heaphy on Charlottesville and January 6; Dan Horowitz continuing the discussion begun at our 65th reunion; Professor John Ryder on the war in Ukraine; University chaplain Maytal Saltiel, who convenes Yale’s many religious ministries; and Brian Meacham, managing archivist at the Yale Film Archive.
Five full obituaries have been added to the In Memoriam section of our website:
George Levine. George’s long legal career included 30 years each as an attorney and as a Connecticut Superior Court judge. He was a devoted citizen of Hartford, serving its Foundation for Public Giving, the Jewish Federation, the City Council, the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Housing, the International Airport Commission, and many others.
Bob Putsch. On the Navajo reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico, with the US Public Health Service, Bob developed a passion for cross-cultural medicine and devoted his career to its practice. His research and writing addressed inequities in health care, institutional racism, ethical dilemmas across cultures, and the importance of communication in medicine.
Peter Seed. A Harvard-trained public finance attorney, Peter spent his retirement years in his native Minnesota, Vero Beach, Florida, and South Island, New Zealand, celebrating “the great outdoors” by leading excursions biking, hiking, canoeing, skiing throughout the world, and authoring bike and hiking maps of England, New Zealand, and the Upper Middle West.
Ted Sheldon. A casualty of Covid, Ted was a specialist in corporate relations, which required deft diplomacy and elegant prose which ultimately led to a lifelong dream realized in a published novel in his 80s: Depends What You Mean by Love (Gadwell Press), available at Amazon.
John Thompson. With a PhD in English from the University of Michigan, John was an esteemed teacher at Michigan, an award-winning author of short stories, and a much sought-after speechwriter for large corporations in the Detroit area. Many of his writings have been published in Vital Speeches.
Tempus fugit, sumus hic.