October 2009

 

Dear ’57 Classmates and Family,

 

The Vancouver Mini (July 31-August 7) has 26 (48 capacity) signed on, and the D.C Mini (May 6-9) has 54 (full capacity) with 4 on the waiting list.


Despite the D.C Mini’s full capacity, cancellations are likely at our age, and I recommend, if interested, that you sign on for the D.C. Mini at a deposit cost of $300 per person.  Also, those of you interested in joining the D.C. crew only for the Saturday May 8 dinner, with featured speaker Classmate Norm Augustine, at The Chevy Chase Club at $65 per person (open bar included) may sign on just for that event.  For either D.C. Mini objective send Nate Bachman a check payable to Princeton Washington D.C. with memo entry either Mini-Reunion or Saturday dinner.  See the Vancouver Mini-Reunion detail for Nate’s address.

 

            The Vancouver Mini-Reunion is again provided for your consideration. Signed on are Bachman, Blankley, Bolgard, Canaday, Chambers, Chase, Courtney, Demarest, Duncan, McCabe, Mulcare, Peyton, and Swan.  To continue plans for this Mini we will need another 22 sign-ons at minimum by or before year-end.  The venue is delightful, the accommodations and cuisine first rate, and the cost-benefit very attractive.

 

            Bruce Woodger is your genial host for the post-game reception in the Professors’ Lounge on the 2nd floor of Jadwin Physics following the Princeton-Yale football game on Saturday November 14. The Class will also have three tables available in Jadwin that day for those of you who elect to lunch in Jadwin Gym prior to the game.  You may bring your own picnic or purchase lunch for under $10 per person.  For tickets to the game call 609-258-3538.

 

Should you have this letter in hand prior to the Princeton-Harvard   

Game in Cambridge on Saturday, October 24, our Class has reserved a

Table for 10 under a big tent near Harvard Stadium for a pre-game

Tailgate.  Lunch offerings including New England clam chowder, chili,

deli sandwiches, fresh fruit, drinks and snacks will be available at a

            reasonable cost. The Princeton Band will provide pre-game entertainment.

           Alumni day in late February provides another opportunity for Classmates to gather in Princeton for an inspiring, entertaining, and educational weekend including the Service of Remembrance, the Saturday luncheon, seminars, athletic contests, and dramatics productions. You should receive, via the P.A.W. and a separate Alumni Day brochure mailing in late January information on this event.  Hope that we might have a good Class Mini-reunion on this occasion.

        



 

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Please read on for news of the Class’s on-going endeavors:

 

Caring Committee:  co-Chairs Ted Jones and Tom Williams were joined by 13 others in the September 3 conference call during which they were updated on nearly thirty ’57 family members with a wide range of health issues.  Happily, there were many positive reports.  The Caring Committee exists to offer contact as it might be requested on behalf of or by someone and as it might be helpful to the individual afflicted.  Contact is made usually by someone on the Committee who knows the individual for the purpose of expressing concern and/or providing pertinent information or contact data of value and interest to the individual.  Ted and Tom have done an excellent job of placing the priority on discrete, welcome, and useful contacts versus discomforting unsolicited interaction. So, if you or a ’57 family member close to you might find comfort in speaking to someone knowledgeable about his or her medical concern, by all means contact Ted or TWilly.  For example, I had some good advice re cataract surgery a few months ago from a Classmate, and when some artery plaque became feisty and rose up in rebellion a couple of months ago it was good to know that heart medical expertise was available in our Class.  When my prostate experienced an alien invasion 10 years ago, my good friend Jack Goodman‘s referral to a top Sloan Kettering surgeon gave me 10 good years and counting.  My wife Ramona has two excellent leads via Classmates for consultation on back issues. So we can be of great help to one another, especially as we grow older, due to our fortuitous association with so many accomplished, experienced, and caring people. I hope that your Caring Committee contact data list sent in my August mailing remains close at hand.

 

Classmates Fund:  What Shep Davis and his Trustees have accomplished with this initiative in 22 years is extraordinary! Few if any other Classes have anything like this resource that was modeled on one run by my father H. Stewart Peyton’s Class of 1926.  It is working and worthy of your continuing support.  Fred Reynolds, with a copy of the letter sent to Elliott Otis by the Class of 1926, got this launched, and Shep has headed it from the beginning.

 

Class Dues: The orange sheet lists the 100 plus of who have responded to Class Treasurer Fred Deming’s dues request for the 09-10 year.  Thank you!  And thanks as well to many of you who sent along donations to the Classmates Fund and the Class of 1957 Memorial Scholarship Fund at the same time.  The $50 dues is a very modest fee principally for the Princeton Alumni Weekly that is sent to all of us, for our Class mailings, and the many services performed for all Princeton Classes annually by McLean house personnel and the Alumni Council.  Please check the list, and if you do not see your name, be sure that the next list corrects this omission. And should you be so inclined, much appreciated contributions to The Classmates Fund and to our Class Memorial Scholarship may also be sent via the same card along with news and changes in contact data.

 

Annual Giving:  Shortly you will receive the first 2009-2010 mailing for Annual Giving from Class agents Dean Groel and John Nevin.  Please participate in this campaign.  Between the faltering economy, family priorities, and other pressing needs it is not easy to respond to each of the many causes competing for your support, but I hope that you may find reason to contribute to this years campaign.

 

Necrology:  It is my unhappy duty to inform you of the loss of four of our Classmates since my last communication: Richard V. McCracken 7/30/09, Robert A. Fagan 7/25/09, David W. Almgren 9/28/09, and Richard J. McCready 9/29/09.  Memorials will appear subsequently in the Princeton Alumni Weekly, and their lives will be celebrated at the Service of Remembrance on Alumni Day, Saturday February 20, 2010.  I also regret to report that Bruce Woodger, having lost his wife Cynthia in January, on August 19 also lost Cynthia’s daughter Amanda Lake.  Amanda had accompanied Bruce for the Russia Mini and joined Bruce and Cynthia for our 50th Reunion.

 

I welcome any thoughts that you may have regarding any of our present Class initiatives or need thereof. You may reach me by phone at 609-737-0390 or by e-mail at mspeyton57@aol.com. Please do all that you can to keep the lines of communication humming within our great Class family.