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CLASS NOTES
Henry S. Coleman I had a long note from Steve Seadler, who lives in Randolph, N.J. Probing last year, he discovered that a computer error had "disappeared me." He goes on, "now too much to relate, but those interested can find me in five different Marquis Who's Who (World, America, Science and Engineering, Finance and Industry, East). More important than all of that, however, is my book Principia Ideologia-A Treatise On Combating Human Malignance. Much material about and from the book is available on Barnes and Noble's Web site, bn.com. Type Seadler and hit enter. E-mail: principia@seadler.com. I had a call from Howard Clifford, who now lives in Moosehide, Nev., where he is running a golf range on the desert. He says his customers are fabulous out of sand traps. Howard is envious of Steve because he also has written a book, his being on the sex life of the desert fox. He can't find a publisher and I suggested that if it were about Lions, at least CCT would comment on it. I left him searching for lions.
George W. Cooper As many a better writer has done (cf., Proust's Recherche de temps perdu), go autobiographical when there's nothing else to say. This correspondent and his wife, Isolde, just returned from our second office for her international law practice. Instead of Stamford to New York, it appears we will be making longer, if less frequent, commutes in forthcoming months, if not years. Speaking of foreign travels, a correction is in order. In the last issue, it was suggested that Peter Brescia and his wife, Mary, consider a trip down the "silk road." Well, Peter writes to say, "been there and done that," while stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul back in 1968-72, and added his regrets at the present status of the Afghanis, whom he characterized as a "fiercely independent people...now being crushed."
Theodore
Melnechuk My local postmaster once advised me that when sending mail to poor countries like India, I should have the postage printed on the envelopes at the post office, instead of applying postage stamps at home, because postal workers in poor countries sometimes peel the foreign stamps off incoming mail and sell them to local collectors, and the no-longer stamped mail does not get delivered. Was it some similar intervention, I wonder, that kept me from receiving any tourist postal cards from you, classmates, this summer? Next year, please send me a card from anywhere (anywhither?) you journey to. You may win a prize for having traveled the farthest (see item below about John Corn). John H. Bottjer continues to work during the week as a commercial loan broker, but spends his weekends on the North Fork of Long Island, near Orient Point. He says that the area has become fine wine-growing country. While staying out there this summer, Bob heard that classmate Dick Hyman was playing jazz piano elsewhere on the Island. Attending Dick's gig in secret may have been one way Bob and his wife recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. When not sampling grapes, they live at 7 Brassie Road, Eastchester, N.Y. 10707. John P. Corn hasn't been answering the telephone number that Columbia gave me for him, so I don't know whether he still lives in Little Rock, Ark. Those of you who attended the 10th class reunion at Baker Field in 1958 may recall that John not only played well as an outfielder in our pick-up baseball game, but also won the prize for having come the farthest distance to attend the reunion. I would appreciate hearing from or about John. Norman Kelvin recently sent me a free copy of his latest book (a practice I wish all of you who publish books would emulate!). It's an anthology he edited for Dover, published last year, called William Morris on Art and Socialism. As I was then just beginning to read Jacques Barzun's big new book From Dawn to Decadence, I lent Norm's book to my son, Andrew, because he is, as Morris was, both a self-employed printer who uses hand-set type and an artist and craftsman. Andy hasn't returned the book yet, so, for more information, you can contact Norm at Apt. 5B, 290 Riverside Drive, New York, N.Y. 10025-5200. (That zip code would be a palindrome if only its last zero were followed by a 1.) John M. Miner still puts in three days a week at the mortgage insurance agency he first worked at, then ran, and then bought some years ago. At other times he can be found on a golf course, where he says he is no Tiger Woods. John tried living in California soon after graduating from Columbia and moved there permanently after serving in the military during the Korean War (which, you will recall, began just two years after our class graduated). John has kept in special touch with four classmates who all once lived in the same frat house as he did, and at the 50th class reunion he met with them-Sears E. Edwards, Harry E. Ekblom, Fred B. Morrison and John C. (Jack) Thomas, Jr. The five agreed heartily with a speaker who described how much the Big Apple had changed in half a century. John married his wife, Frieda, in 1979, and since then they have been living in what is locally called (at least by landlords) "The People's Republic of Santa Monica," because, like Berkeley, it has long had very strong rent control laws. Their address is Apt. #4, 912 16th Street, Santa Monica, Calif. 90403-3222. A fine coincidence: Thomas S. Reges, when I phoned him, was reading a current book that expresses opinions about various Columbia figures from the days when we were there. After graduating, Tom attended Harvard Business School and ultimately became a real estate developer in Grand Rapids, Mich., a city he likes for its humane scale and the consequent accessibility of its officials. Concentrating on office buildings, Tom initiated the local creation of private swimming clubs, and his company, Jolly Roger Inc., still owns one he built that in winter becomes an artificial ice-skating rink. Tom visited Israel in 1963, 1988 and earlier this year, and gives lectures on how it has changed. He and his wife, Midge, have two children from this, the second marriage for each, plus eight children from their prior marriages, plus what he called "too many grandchildren to count." That may be why he and Midge like to get away often to Toronto and Montreal. When not traveling, they live at 7240 Thornapple Park Drive South, Grand Rapids, Mich. 49506. By the time this column appears, Homecoming will have been held on October 21, featuring a football game between Columbia and Dartmouth (where my daughter-in-law, Josna Rege, is an assistant professor of English). For health reasons I can't go, so I will be grateful if those of you who do attend will send me a letter or e-mail about how it went, whom you saw, and any other personal news. Thank you-and I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving!
Joseph B.
Russell An update from Cary, N.C.-Chet Nedwidek, still happily working as assistant director of the geographic information systems unit of the North Carolina Department of Transportation, is getting deeper and deeper into woodworking at home. He has been teaching his grandsons to turn wood on a shopsmith lathe, and by the time you read this, the 14-year old will probably be doing bowl work on his large capacity lathe. Cary, which had a population of about 3,000 30 years back, now holds about 95,000-lots of Yankees moving down to his neck of the woods! Gwen and Colin Hughes and Hallie and Joe Levie took an Insight tour of Ireland together in July, after which the Hugheses went on to the political scientists' convention in Quebec while the Levies toured further in Belgium.
Mario Palmieri The Class of 1950 has done it - big time. The books are closed, the numbers are final and I now can tell you that our class contributed just a tad under $109,000 to the Columbia College Fund in our 50th anniversary year, exceeding our goal by nine percent. Classmates responded magnificently and a hard-working, dedicated and efficient reunion committee deserves a lot of credit for this great result. News of classmates: Ray Annino continues to wield his paint brushes and announced a new on-line showing of his watercolors. Sailing vessels predominate in these 10 works, and Ray has provided a brief text to accompany each painting. His website address is: http://pages.prodigy.net/raya1. Harry Pauley also has a website, for his recently published Shakespeare: The Main Story. The book presents the main story and the scenes and characters of Shakespeare's plays. You can get an on-line preview at: http://www.1stbooks.com. Sad to report, we recently learned of the death of Warren Lapworth in 1991.
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