By Rich Banbury
What could be a better venue for an international class mini-reunion than Cambridge, England! The academic institution there was initiated in 1209 and is truly a marvel. This exploration has been organized by Jim Taylor, who studied within Trinity Hall at Cambridge for two years and knows well the history, traditions, libraries, and amazing architecture of the university. The visitations limitation is only 50 souls, and by the time you are learning about this wonderful reunion it may be filled up! It happens September 8–14, 2019, so if you want to be included get a hold of Jim posthaste.
Donald Dell has agreed to be the Class of 1960’s representative to the Yale Alumni Association and his appointment was unanimously approved by the class executive committee. After Yale, Donald was an acclaimed top-10 tennis player and participated in US Davis Cup matches. Subsequently he became a representative for such tennis stars as Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors, and Ivan Lendl; he also spread his wings in the direction of stars of other sports such as basketball’s Michael Jordan. Who remembers that Donald was captain of the freshman basketball team for our class? I recall that many years ago I watched him on national television playing on the historic grass courts of Wimbledon.
Still practicing ophthalmology is Frank Williams, MD, of Key Largo, Florida. Frank, with other volunteers, gives eye medical treatment in Bhutan twice a year. In strong testimony to his dedication, he has made 56 such trips over these many years. Looking forward to a challenging but extremely rewarding task is Rusty Wing, who was confirmed by the executive committee as chair of our 60th (Can you believe it?) class reunion in 2020. Another volunteer, Terry Rothermel, our chair of class agents, has the charge to raise money from our classmates to meet or exceed our fiscal-year target for the university’s Alumni Fund. Our treasurer Bob Ackerman reports that, for last year, 37 percent of potential donors gave $295,000 (exceeding Terry’s target by 11 percent), and that we have a quite respectable $45,000 in the bank.
Despite a loss to Dartmouth on the gridiron last fall, the program for the game included an interesting factoid therein: It was noted that the first eight games played between the two schools were played without Dartmouth scoring any points in any game. Yale started out the series in 1884 with a 113–0 victory. Maybe it was like rugby.
Current Ivy League football contests don’t attract great audiences, to say the least. Notably missing are students. Both the Ohio State and Michigan bands, to name a few, have more members at a game than an Ivy game has students in the stands. Total attendance at the Bowl for Princeton at Yale in 2018 was a feeble 12,622 on a day when the Tigers were 9–0. Other than for the Y-H game, folks can and prefer to watch a big screen at home. In 1956, it wasn’t unusual for the Bowl to be at its capacity of 70,000 seats. Who were the guys in our class that played football and helped fill the place? Many of them are still around to tell their grandchildren about the good ol’ days. Among them, to name just a few: Captain Rich Winkler, Al Puryear, Mike Curran, Dick Sigal, Raleigh Davenport, Matt Freeman, and Bob Mallano.
Stayoung.