Dimitri Sevastopoulo
dsevastopoulo@gmail.com
On April 4, my wife, Cathy, and John Wilmerding ’56 and I marked at dinner the three-week anniversary of Cathy’s testing positive for coronavirus. Hers was a mild case accompanied by a stubborn low-grade fever that lasted two weeks. She has recovered and it is likely she is immune.
Rob Claflin
robclaflin@comcast.net
Rick Sperry
overcable@aol.com
Rick Sperry writes: “I was at the National Cathedral a few weeks ago with Tony Parker for a thank-you fundraising dinner for the Bishop Walker School. There were 850 in attendance and the Cathedral was beautifully lit with stars illuminated all over. You all remember Bishop Walker, right? His wife, Maria, 80, was there too and is doing very well. Peter Gerry was there as well (another board member with Tony), plus Hilton Foster and Dave Shepard, son of Dick Shepard, who handles marketing and PR for BWS.”
A note from Robert Walmsley: “Anne and I had been in Rome for about a month when the Italian government imposed the COVID-19 lockdown. It happened in daily increments. First, all museums were closed. Then, people on the streets were to ‘distance’ (new verb), and all public concerts, movie theaters, and other large gatherings were banned, but parks, restaurants, and churches remained open. My brother and his wife were visiting from Copenhagen, and we celebrated her birthday at lunch at an empty restaurant the day the government imposed a nationwide ban that brought Rome under the same restrictions as the northern regions where the outbreak was most virulent. Everything was closed other than grocery stores and pharmacies. We stayed in Rome for another week, keeping to our apartment except for occasional trips to the market. We had planned to stay until mid-May, but when the U.S. State Department warned U.S. citizens to return home or prepare to shelter in place indefinitely and the Italian government indicated that the lockdown was not going to be lifted anytime soon, we gave in and returned to the U.S. and our house in Northeast Harbor, Maine.”
From Andy Johnston: “Thank you, SPS. I met my wife, Christine, in the SPS summer school of 1970 and married that September. We live in Clio, Calif. Very few Californians have ever heard of Clio. It is a tiny town of 74 human beings, and 36 dogs. In any case, Christine and I will be celebrating our 50th year together this September. Best wishes and blessings to SPS.”
(L. to r.) Bill Gordon ’64, Haven Pell ’64, Charlie von Stade ’62, and Chuck Coggeshall ’64 in Big Sky, Mont.
Peter Humphrey ’64 and his wife, Bonnie, with their granddaughter, Eleanor de Tessier Humphrey, born on March 15, 2020.
(L. to r.) Bobby Clark ’61, Alex Whiteside ’62, Pete Meyer ’66, Tim Clark ’53, Dave Eklund ’65, Jim Goodwin ’64, Ed Harding ’54, Liz Robbins ’79, Peter Twining ’65, Laurie Brengle ’65, John Rice ’65, and Rector Kathy Giles at a luncheon organized by John Rice in Newburyport, Mass.
John Rice
Jwrice460@gmail.com
Randy Morgan
wyndmoor@comcast.net
From John Rice: “I organized a luncheon for the forms of the sixties at the Black Cow in Newburyport, Mass., in February. Peter Twining helped me coordinate the venue and Laurie Brengle provided moral support. Dave Eklund and Bob Hall were also on hand, along with several other folks, including Bobby Clark ’61, who was my Dorm II Sup back in 1960. Melissa Walters was there to provide liaison with the School. Despite an impending snowstorm, it was a delightful, fun, low-key luncheon with no other purpose other than camaraderie. Watch for a summer event and see you next year.
Roy Farwell writes: “We have sold the Idaho house, although we get to stay there through this August. Primary residence is back in St. Louis due to the emergence of grandchildren there. We are working with my son to buy a condo at Lake Tahoe, where we will hopefully spend our summers starting next year. We find ourselves increasingly sensitive to the hot, humid summer weather in St. Louis. Our western experience has enabled us to become quite good tour guides for Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. We visited Zion Canyon in January, and are hoping to see many of the other western parks during the next few years. In October, we will tour Scot- land and Ireland to track down some of my wife’s roots. In the meantime, I still play guitar and banjo and sing a bit at various venues in the Midwest.”
Bucky Putnam reports: “Our son, Nat, was married on September 8, 2018, in Aspen, Colo., under clear blue skies to Maria Jose Cardenas. After graduating from Drew University in Madison, N.J., Nat enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., where Maria was pursuing her degree as well. After graduation, both moved to Aspen, where they live and work. If you are in the Aspen area, feel free to stop by the Aspen Public House, where Nat is executive chef, or The Monarch, where Maria is the manager/sommelier.”
Hugh Clark
hclark@ursinus.edu
Like everyone, I have had to make adjustments in the face of COVID-19. Although my wife Barbara and I have made Mt. Desert Island our formal home since we both retired in 2017, like so many MDI transplants we seek warmer weather for the winter. For us, that has meant the greater Philadelphia area – perhaps not everyone’s idea of the winter ideal, but it’s close to our sons and their families. As late fall evolved into this year’s mild winter, we enjoyed seeing our grandchildren, getting together with so many of our friends, and benefiting from the cultural opportunities presented by New York and Philadelphia. All that came to a crashing halt as the nation closed down, as was brought home most starkly when we paid a final visit to our elder son’s family. Though he had to go to work every day, our daughter-in-law was working at home along with our three-year-old grandson. We could talk across the social distancing, but we couldn’t get close. It was sad for us all, but our grandson simply had no way of understanding why he couldn’t give his grandparents a hug. The sadness on his face as we stood the mandated six feet apart will be inscribed in my memory forever. This embodies the tragedy that is COVID-19. We are now back in Maine. We quarantined for the mandated two weeks. But as we look forward, there is no real end in sight. Our friends who for summers past have joined us aren’t sure if they can come. We see our island friends across the six-foot mandate. We can’t have the social gatherings that have made MDI such a favorite place to live. Everyone is leery of hiking the island’s myriad trails that have been so much a part of so many lives and that I have hiked since I was a boy. As I write in mid-April, Barbara and I, as well as our sons and families, remain healthy. I fear I will learn that too many of my class and of the School’s alumni have not been so fortunate. Life will go on, something akin to normalcy will return. Let us hope we’re all able to celebrate that time.
Nick Apostol reports that he has a new venture manufacturing Biotab7 (advancedbiocide.com), a disinfectant that eliminates and prevents the coronavirus. He is also producing N95 masks and test kits for the coronavirus.
Tim Rowland reports that, of his three children, one is an APRN in palliative care at Mass, General, a second an OB-GYN at Beth Israel, and his third a public defender in Boston.
Gordie Grand from Anguilla: “We are stuck here and are fine with it. Better to be self-isolated in 80-plus temperatures with warm water. The ports and the airport are totally closed for personal travel until further notice. All the resorts and most of the restaurants are closed and may or may not reopen this season with lots of layoffs, which is scary. Eighty percent of the Anguillans’ personal incomes depend on December-May to be busy. As usual, the Anguillans remain upbeat and positive. Food supplies, gas, etc., don’t seem to be an issue, and there is no panic buying yet. We are assured that there will not be issues in these areas going forward.
John Landes
Jlandes1948@yahoo.com
A note from Michael Klosson: “Before all the recent turmoil, I was engaged in trying to put the band back together, that is Agape aka The Drunken Lords from SPS days. Our keyboard genius, Gary Dorfman, who joined Agape after Lex Roberts sadly died in a car crash, reached out to me last July, so my wife, Boni, and I visited him outside Newport last November and played some of my songs in his in-home studio. We called Stuart Scadron-Wattles and his wife, Linda, who winter in Seattle. We’re planning an in-person reunion when things calm down. Still looking for Bill Reid and Dave Small, so we’d welcome any information on their current whereabouts. Of course, music is just my hobby. These past few months as acting COO of Save the Children, in addition to my day job as vice president for policy and humanitarian response, have been challenging as I’ve been at the center of pausing our international and most domestic travel and eventually deciding all 1,300 of us will work from home for the foreseeable future.”
Eliot Larson
ewlarson@comcast.net
Charlie Musser received the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Distinguished Career Achievement Award. The book that goes with his documentary about family photo- graphy, Our Family Album (2019), was recently published by Indiana University Press.
John Hasen writes: “One good consequence of the forced quarantine: I’ve read The New Yorker cover to cover. And I’ve even caught up on reading some back issues.”
The Form of 1968 was well-represented at Spring Training 2020 in Lakeland, Fla. (l. to r.): Jon McCall, Niko Sullivan, Eric Pope, Deane Evans, and David Tandy.
Charles Scribner ’69 (r.) met Jay Aston ’92 and his son, Jett, on a beach walk on Long Island.