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CLASS NOTES
Columbia College
Today Betty and Bill Treiber '27 "continue to be in good health." In April, they returned from "The World of the Apostle Paul," a tour of the western Mediterranean during which they visited many historic spots and heard lectures from two professors. Fred W. Farwell '31 is "now living in an elegant retirement home in western Stamford, Conn." After 40 years on the bench, Charles M. Metzner '31 "decided to enjoy fully senior status as a federal district court judge and discontinued sitting. It's not bad once you get used to the idea," he says. He and his wife are enjoying Sarasota, Fla., where they now live. "For the past 10 years, I have spent most of my spare time putting out a (free) peace newsletter, a task at which I am still plugging away," writes Walter Volckhausen '32. "I wish I could see more about Columbia's dedication to education for a peaceful and sustainable world." He also lavishes praise on his wife, Jane, "who has put up with me for fifty-some years." The College sends its most sincere condolences to Lloyd Seidman '32 after the death of his wife, Judith (Barnard '33), on November 21, 1999, "after 63 years of an exemplary marriage." "An unusual aspect of our relationship (among many)," he says, "was that we first met as fellow students in the third grade at P.S. 167 in Brooklyn." E. Malcolm Cohen '33 retains fond memories of his last meeting with Larry Eno '33, who died in 1997. "All I need say is that he still had a great mind and a great sense of humor," he writes. "It was a pleasure to be with him and reminisce, even about the Barnard girls we knew." He also wanted to thank Dean Quigley "for his letter of sympathy and gift of a precious ROAR LION pin when I could not attend the last reunion." He'll try to make the next one. Louis J. Francis '33 writes that he and Virginia "will be celebrating our 50th anniversary in September." "I appreciate your successful efforts to improve Columbia College Today," writes Jack Keville '33. A sudden fall put Jack into the hospital for three weeks with an injured shoulder, but he's on the mend at home, where he is receiving care. Nevertheless, the injury "greatly restricts travel." His doctor also has nixed Jack's "three miles of gentle jogging, and I sorely miss that," he writes. CNN's Cold War Documentary: Issues and Controversy, which was edited by Arnold Beichman '34, has recently been published by Hoover Press. The book includes a critical analysis by historians Robert Conquest and Richard Pipes and columnists Charles Krauthammer, Ronald Radosh and Jacob Heilbrunn, among others, of the 24-episode CNN series as well as a defense by CNN consultants. Millard L. Midonick '34 is senior counsel to the firm Fernsterstock & Partners, on Wall Street, works pro bono as a general master to moderate appeals in civil cases for the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court, First Department, and serves as a judicial hearing officer in civil and criminal courts for New York City. Lawrence Greene '35, who is the author of several legal texts and once served as assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, is now retired from private law practice. He is married to Tatiana W. Green, professor emerita of French at Barnard. He still remembers fencing and playing on Columbia teams. (He won gold and silver King's Crowns for his play on the chess team.) Eugene A. Mechler '35 is retired after a long career at RCA, where he analyzed data from satellites. He spends his winters in Delaware and Florida and his summers in Bridgeton, Maine. His hobbies include making wooden puzzles and other woodworking, collecting minerals, stamps, and butterflies and magic. "Still married to Alice Blemer Mechler," he writes. "Still enjoy life, reading and friends."
Paul V. Nyden Bertram W. Miller, M.D., Chapala Jalisco, Mexico, has been a resident of Mexico since July 1969, where he moved because of family health problems. Bert received his M.D. from NYU in 1940 and interned until 1942, when he became a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force. He spent his time in the Pacific theater. After his return home, he went into private pediatric practice. He writes, "Private practice was an eye opener. It became quite evident that what was taught in medical school was not necessarily practiced in private. Competition was rife. What a physician in a first-class hospital would tell his residents and interns about the use and misuse of antibiotics was not really the way he did things in his own office. In private practice, he did otherwise for fear that patients would go to other physicians, of whom there were many, who would prescribe incorrectly to soothe their expectations." Despite this, he did enjoy his practice and his patients. Coming to Mexico gave him time to develop his interest in photography. He has been issued five U.S. patents in the field of photographic color printing. He and his wife have four children: Rich '64, married to Bonnie, Barnard '64, both Macintosh programmers, Berkeley; Jill, Spanish teacher, North Shore; Norma, teaching math at an extension of Florida State University, Panama City; Doug, died in 1994. Bert says that his years of retirement have been his "golden years" despite multiple physical impairments.
Murray T. Bloom Whatever happened to...Ben Brown, who had been voted "most outstanding member of the Class" when he graduated? Well, for the past few years he's been enriching surgeons who repaired his heart, lungs and knees. He retired in 1983 as program director of the Harvard University Center for International Affairs. Ben likened it to the Nieman Fellowships offered to journalists. Ben's group usually consisted of 20 mid-level State Department people and other international affairs specialists who would spend a year at Harvard. He's been married for 50 years-a second marriage-and has three children, "several grandchildren and one great grandchild." He stayed on at Columbia and got a doctorate in history in 1942. He was an assistant professor for a while and then entered the Navy. He served as an Air intelligence officer in various posts from London to Berlin. After the war, he operated the Foreign Policy Association chapter in Cleveland and then was acting president of the American University in Beirut in 1958-60. He's been living in his present house in Cambridge since 1960. Interesting neighborhood: one of his neighbors is Julia Child and the other resides in a former home of William James. Jules Simon, who was business manager of Spectator in our senior year, became a fund-raising executive after graduation. In October 1999, he died at his home in Sherman Oaks, Calif.
Dr. A. Leonard
Luhby Alan D. Kandel recently was honored by the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan with the prestigious Leonard N. Simons Award. Kandel, who retired in 1984 as assistant director of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, later took training in archival administration at Wayne State and has been actively involved with archival collections and exhibits. He has written several articles that were published in Michigan Jewish History, a journal of the Jewish Historical Society. His latest article, "Ford and Israel," focused on the relationship between Henry Ford II and the State of Israel.
Ralph Staiger
The recent airing of Nuremberg with Alec Baldwin as prosecutor brought to mind our classmate, Joe Lhowe, M.D., who was the physician in attendance at the real Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders. Is it possible that he inspired one character, a young medical captain, who suggested to Baldwin that the prisoners have an exercise yard, and also had long conversations with "Hermann Goering?" Just speculating. Donal E. J. MacNamara proudly writes to say that his son, Brian Scott MacNamara, received his J.D. degree at Pace in June, magna cum laude. He continues, "Unfortunately he got his undergraduate degree at Cornell, but in other respects he is quite respectable." At our 50th reunion, Victor Wouk spoke about alternative-fueled automobiles, and he arranged for some sample cars to be available at the 55th reunion. Vic is pleased with the appearance of full-page advertisements and television commercials for the Toyota Prius and others.The Prius is a hybrid car that uses a smaller engine than the equivalent conventional car. A small bank of batteries, which are charged by a motor/generator driven by the engine, is used to supply the extra power needed for acceleration and hill-climbing. The engine charges the batteries during driving. The batteries are also charged as the car decelerates or goes downhill, and never require special charging. In addition to reducing noxious emissions more than 80 percent, the hybrid uses half the fuel. The high price of gasoline ($5 per gallon in Japan and France, for example) is apparently encouraging at least one auto company, Honda, to join the parade to the future. The initial impetus to the development was the California requirement that two percent of all cars sold in the state have zero emissions, a mandate that has been deferred from 1998 to 2003.
Seth Neugroschl On the Class of '40 legacy, starting with a quote from the last issue of our Class Notes: "Our 60th year 2000 reunion proved, by all reports, as memorable as we had hoped, and could be a precursor to a worthy Class of '40 legacy (given our class's history) if we choose to make it so by our future actions." We're in the early stages of exploring what that legacy could be and how to actualize it. We plan to be in touch with you soon for your thoughts. Also, we hope to be able to make available the record of the June 3rd program in one or more forms - the entire day was videotaped. In his powerful and deeply moving introduction to our reunion program, history professor Jim Shenton '49 described the impact of his experience as a 20-year-old army medic - from landing on Utah beach to liberating Buchenwald. Characterizing the 20th century as 75 years of war...potentially a rehearsal for the 21st century...he described the present as a time of testing: "Have we learned, have we learned?" This struck me with particular chilling force in October, as the Israeli-Arab breakdown reached crisis proportions and The New York Times reported, at the extreme, of a parallel to the August 1914 chain reaction. As Jim pointed out, in answer to a question by Danny Edelman: Given the accelerating technologies of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems - and access to them - there may not be "small" wars in the 21st century. Much appreciated notes from two classmates who couldn't make it to our reunion for health reasons: Art Steinbrenner regretted having to miss our "inviting sounding" 60th reunion because of health problems (I hope temporary, Art!) and "enjoyed reading about the planned activities." He recalled his life as a daily commuter to campus from White Plains, his later math doctorate at Columbia, teaching at West Point and, for 40 years, at Arizona. John Ripandelli (via e-mail), reporting that "my back is working pretty well again," commented, "Looks like you had a great reunion." (Rip, during reunion planning, sent me a very thoughtful piece on our legacy theme.) In the e-mail, he recalled various classmates: Charlie Webster: "Wasn't he on the heavyweight crew?" Danny Edelman: "I'm not surprised at his success...he was a very hard worker, took tons of notes in class;" and Chet Hall: Rip volunteered for the Navy's midshipmen training program with him; Chet was admitted ("didn't he end up a Commander?") while Rip flunked the physical. Rip subsequently "spent four years at war in Germany as a First Louie in the Combat Engineers... Battle of the Bulge, the bridge at Remagen, the fall of Nuremberg and the final hours in Himmler's home town of Landshut. Then four years in a Veterans hospital. After that, 40 years of being an actuary - a one-man shop, consultant, for most of the time. Now I have put my feet up and joined the ranks of the retired. The pay is not so good, but the hours are great!" Rip, as an actuary, here's a question I think the entire class would like your professional answer to: According to our best estimate, with the help of Alumni Office records, at least half of our graduating class is still around, 60 years later. A number of classmates suggested that this is considerably better than actuarially expected. Are they right?
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