Class of 1966 News - May/June 2009

John Sowle is co-founder and artistic director of Kaliyuga Arts, a company that produces offbeat challenging work. The company did a production of In Circles, a musical adaptation of a Gertrude Stein play with music by New York composer Al Carmines, in February in New York City. See John on the web site, www.kaliyuga.com. Lucy Garnett ran into Robert Zucker while both were watching spawning salmon in Marin County, California. Steve Disman spent a considerable part of last year sailing on the Mediterranean. In the spring, the highlight was the Eastern Mediterranean Yacht Rally, an organized tour for pleasure boats. The tour started in Istanbul and called on 21 ports in six countries on three continents. The fleet averaged approximately 60 boats with 180 sailors. In addition to Turkey, they stopped at North Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt. While in Israel, they made a side trip to Jordan. Steve says "not only did we see and experience incredible places, we met and sailed with some wonderful people of all nationalities". The highlight of the fall sailing season was a major thunderstorm. It was the equivalent of "sticking your head through the sunroof of a car going 70 mph with a fire engine alongside spraying water through a hose at you." The Dismans have lived in Berlin, Germany for five years.

In their Christmas letter, Muffet Shork and Howard Chatterton summarized their year. The high (or low) points were that Muffet got a stent in April 2007 but still took first place in her age group on an ice and snow covered course in the Lake Tahoe Marathon in September. Howard is teaching at the Maryland Institute College of Art and consulting on USCG and fireboats. Alan Newhall is counting the days to retirement on June 30. He has been serving as pastor in United Methodist Churches, first in California and then in Illinois, for 42 years. He still plans to be involved in quite a lot of volunteer work -- summers at church camps and winters in the West Bank of Palestine. He and his wife, Kathy, bought a home in East Peoria last year. Kathy will continue working for the University of Illinois Chicago, coordinating care for children with long-term special needs until 2010. Then they plan to do a lot of traveling. He’d like to hear from classmates who lived in the Methodist House at MIT -- and also Walker Staff persons. Ted Gull doesn’t have 42 years in, but he has spent 30 years at Goddard Space Flight Center. His focus these days is on evolution of massive stars and coordinating multiple observations of a massive binary, Eta Carina, which will go through an X-ray minimum in January 2009, an event that occurs every 5.54 years. He is also participating in the preparations for repairing the spectrograph during the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission scheduled for later this summer. At the American Astronomical Society winter meeting he met Paige Smith for dinner and reminiscing about their days at Walker. He and his wife, Connie, celebrated their 40th anniversary last year. They have two sons and five grandchildren.

Sadly, we have learned of the passing of many classmates. Andrew J Worek died in Harris County, Texas on January 18, 1976. Paul Stein, a physician, passed away at his home in Palo Alto, CA, on September 25, 2004. Paul is survived by his wife, Elyse, and his children, Michael, Jordana and Jonathan. Edward (Monty) Graham, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, died September 12, 2007, at his residence in Georgetown after a five year battle with cancer. His wife, Kathryn Park, son Ian and daughter Lydia survive him. Forrest (Woody) Stoddard lost his battle with cancer on January 25, 2007. Woody’s dream was to help create and promote wind power - a new, nonpolluting, renewable source of energy. He received his Ph.D. in Civil/Ocean Engineering in 1979 and spent the rest of his 34-year career pursuing his dream by writing grants to fund research, battling resistant public utilities, and lobbying state and federal agencies to promote interest in alternative energy. He was regarded as an expert in his field of structural dynamics, aerodynamics, design, and development of wind turbines. Two sons, Joshua and Nathan, survive him.

tel:716-839-3525(h)

e-mail: eklepser@alum.mit.edu

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