David Wood has sent his annual greeting with a quotation from Aesop, “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” David added a P.S. urging us to Google Glenn Campbell’s “Try a Little Kindness.”
Dick West calls to our attention the article of January 17 in the Wall Street Journal by honorary classmate Fay Vincent, “Old Age Is Like a Debenture”: “When you know you’re living on borrowed time, you learn to be patient and tend your own garden.” Dick also writes that he and Joanne have made their last move, from Phoenix to Eugene (Oregon), where they had lived 50 years ago when he was dean of Oregon’s Business School. Starting at Yale’s WWII-vintage Quonset huts, this was their 19th move. Living closer to their children compensates for “lousy” weather, taxes, and air service.
Howard Richards has received the Lifetime Commitment Award from the Human Dignity and Humiliation Association. See Howard´s acceptance address on our website under Classmates and Activities where he advocates the creation of “dignified livelihoods that do not depend on sales.”
Two more Tuesday Tea Talks have been added to our website, the first featuring Larry Gibbs, former commissioner of the IRS, and the second, Sharon Kugler, retiring university chaplain at Yale after 16 years in that role.
Four obituaries added to our website:
Julius Anthony Forstmann. Originally with ’60, Tony graduated with ’61, but maintained close ties with our class. Chief partner of his private equity firm, he was a noted philanthropist, including the Hole in the Wall Gang, Inner City Schools, and the Family Academy, through the Huggy Bear Invitational Tennis Tournament which he founded in 1985.
Richard A. MacKinnon. With a dual career as director of IBM’s Cambridge Scientific Center, developing time sharing and the personal computer, and member of MIT’s faculty, Dick taught operating systems there, as well as Harvard, BU, and others. He later joined twin brother Bill MacKinnon as chief scientist of the consulting boutique MacKinnon Associates. Service as board director of the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary was a long commitment, as well as to his accomplished family. See Bill’s remarks at Dick’s memorial service.
Ambler Moss. Known as “The Ambassador,” Ambler negotiated the United States–Panama Canal Treaties, served as ambassador to Panama under Presidents Carter and Reagan, and was founding dean of the University of Miami’s Graduate School of International Studies. Ever the diplomat, his advice to all was, “Keep calm and carry on.” See Ambler’s Tuesday Tea presentation from August 2021 on our website.
James Wessel Walker. A native of South Africa, Jim earned his PhD at Columbia and taught at Yale before becoming professor of atmospheric, oceanic, and space sciences and professor of geological sciences at the University of Michigan. Honored scholar and teacher; blue-ribboned baker; singer and actor; prophet of today’s climate challenges; lifelong activist for non-violence, racial justice, gender equity, and peace; he protested, demonstrated, marched, and was arrested for his civil disobedience.
Tempus fugit, sumus hic.