Class news: 2005

Princeton Personality:
Independent Scholar George Newlin '52


Princeton Town Topics describes George Newlin as "corporate lawyer, venture capitalist, amateur concert pianist and opera singer [who] has succeeded in everything he set out to do." But it is his current, third career, as independent scholar researching Dickens, Trollope and other Victorian novelists, that George says is categorically "the most enjoyable of any of my careers."His analysis: there is thesis - law, antithesis - music, and synthesis - literature. "Somehow, it all came together," he says.
George's encyclopedic thousands of pages on Dickens and Trollope have been published. His work on George Eliot is to be published next month, and he is now working on Thomas Hardy. His life has had its ups and downs, but apparently has never been dull.
For the full text of the Town Topics article - a companion piece to George's personal contribution to The Book of Our History that he put together for our 50th Reunion - go to the Town Topics website, http://www.towntopics.com/mar2906/index.html
and to the column by Jean Stratton.

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A LIFE IN THE THEATRE, by Mervyn Rothstein

Playbill, November 24, 2005

Stage professionals look back at decades of devotion to their craft

PRODUCER ROGER BERLIND

"I've always been involved in the theatre-in high school, in college. In fact, I spent a year and a half, after I got out of die army, trying to be a song-writer," producer Roger Berlind says. "I love it because occasionally it's thrilling-emotionally involving, intellectually compelling or just plain funny."
Berlind has manifested that love in 50 shows, starting with the Richard Rodgers-Sheldon Harnick musical Rex in 1976.
His Broadway credits include the original productions of Amadeus, Nine, The Real Thing, The Rink, Steel Pier, Passion, City of Angels, Copenhagen, Proof and i and the revivals of Guys and Dolls and Kiss Me, Kate. Thirteen have won Tony Awards as best in their category and two- Proof and Doubt-have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Berlind's attempt at songwriting failed, and he first achieved success in a very different career. "When it got very hungry out there, I had to go to work," he says, sitting in his Manhattan office. "So I went down to Wall Street. I had never had an economics course in college, and I had 26 or 28 interviews before anyone would hire me. But I finally got a job. And I did very well."
On Wall Street, Berlind co-founded a major brokerage firm-Carter, Berlind & Weill. He was committed to the world of high finance. But in the mid-1970's, he decided to give the theatre world another try, and he moved from Wall Street to Broadway.
How does he choose the plays he wants to produce? "It's strictly a gut instinct," he says.
At that moment, his assistant enters and says there's an important phone call. Berlind apologizes, and takes the call-he has been trying to reach this person for a while.
The phone conversation over, he continues. (More about that call later.) "I can fall in love with a play or a musical because it has an emotional connection, or because it's intellectually challenging, or because I'm laughing so hard I can't get off the floor. Then I have to consider the economic implications of doing the show."
But he's most certainly not in it for the money. "This is not the best industry in the world if making money is your primary motive," he says. "But a show can make money, if your instincts are shared by audiences and critics."
One of his favorite productions, he says, "is a theatre in Princeton-and it can't be dosed by the critics." A multimillion-dollar gift by Berlind helped build the Roger S. Berlind Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey. It is used by the McCarter Theatre and as the main stage for Princeton University, his alma mater.
Seven years ago, Berlind told an interviewer that he kept saying it was time to retire, but he kept finding things to do.
"I've been quitting for years," he says. "I'd love to be playing tennis and just reading, but I'm constantly seduced by new projects."
Which is where that phone call comes in. It was from John Patrick Shanley, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Doubt. He was calling to talk to Berlind about a new play.

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The following words were spoken by Cliff Barr at Arthur Collins's Funeral Service at Kent School

The Kent School-September 7, 2005


About one or perhaps two years ago, Arthur was the commencement speaker here at Kent. Although he invited and urged Barbara and me to attend, we could not, but he was kind enough to send us a copy of his speech. It was, as you would expect from Arthur, a wonderful talk. His love for this school was palpable and his benefactions are evident on the campus. He also gave of his time to come and teach architecture and real estate here. How fortunate those students were .And here we are at Kent today and, oh my, it is such a sad occasion.

Arthur was the toughest, strongest man I have ever known in terms of facing obstacles and dealing with them. My admiration for that quality is unbounded.
Now, just a few personal recollections. Not long after graduating from Princeton, Arthur and I were both in the real estate business in Manhattan. We would get together for lunch from time to time and meet in the bar room of 21. We had a prime table because that was Arthur's uncle's table, who was a regular. Neither of us merited such a spot in the then fabled place but there we were, having great fun. Fast forward many years…Arthur bought Palmer Square and the Nassau Inn in Princeton. One result was he now had no problem getting a table or a room on his own. At reunion time our class was favored for hard to get room reservations at the Nassau Inn. That was Arthur.
Many developers coveted the opportunity to acquire and redevelop Palmer square. But the owner, Princeton University, was very concerned about proper design and architecture. Arthur won the assignment because the record of his many development projects in his career made clear his devotion to exemplary architecture, design and detail.
This was a clear confirmation of Arthur's stature and respect in the real estate world. His stature in athletics was recently honored in Darien with a prestigious award. I will not try to do a catalogue but for one more trait, Arthur's modesty. With all his accomplishments, always, always modest.
On a regular basis Arthur and classmates Bob Jiranek and Chips Chester would go on 1 to 2 week horse back riding trips, very rough trips. Hearing about their travels was a lesson in geography for me. The locations were often remote and primitive. After one trip Bob told me that his greatest fun was seeing Arthur unable to reach his office by cell phone. Arthur's devotion to his business was legendary.
I mentioned Arthur being tough and strong; he had been playing senior ice hockey for some time. That in itself is pretty tough. But, recently his team made it to the finals of the world championship. In order to participate and help his team win (which they did) Arthur ceased his chemo therapy for 2 months so he would be at full strength and not let his team mates down. That was quintessential Arthur.
In these last several years, months and weeks, Arthur had his ups and downs but required constant monitoring and care. It was a grim situation which Arthur handled in his inimitable strong manner. Judith provided the care, comfort, emotional support, and the encouragement Arthur needed during all those difficult times. Her deep and complete love for Arthur was apparent in her every action. No man could ever have a better wife and caretaker than Judith.
My dear friend Arthur was very strong. I think, actually I know, Judith is just as strong. I loved Arthur, I love Judith. There's no doubt in my mind that although Arthur is gone he will never be forgotten.

Cliff Barr '52

The following words were spoken by the Headmaster of Kent School at Arthur Collins' Funeral:


Tribute to Arthur Collins '48

1929-2005


This is Arthur's campus.

As our new students arrive on this beautiful campus, as our students are unpacking today in their dorms and are preparing to go to modern classrooms and laboratories -- and as faculty families are unpacking in their new homes on Skiff Mountain Road -- how fortunate we are that this is Arthur's campus.

Arthur devoted over two decades to the master planning and architecture of Kent, and while it looks as though it has been here -- as is -- for a hundred years, this campus is new -- and young -- about the same age as our students.

In the words of the Psalmist (133.1): "How good it is to dwell together in unity."

Arthur's campus is our community, a community renewed in these last two decades in large measure through the realization of his architectural vision.

Arthur devoted himself to strengthening the human fabric of our community by bringing people into the design process, by encouraging and supervising the so often brilliant work of others, amateurs and professionals alike. He was in that sense a man of the people. He always listened to our students, our faculty, our maintenance staff, our professional consultants, and when all the ideas had been expressed and fully discussed, he would say, "in my humble opinion.... " That was the moment when the problem was solved!

Though too modest to draw attention to himself, Arthur was a keystone in this community during its most challenging and therefore most creative times. In words attributed to Winston Churchill, himself referring to the re-building of London after WWII, "First we shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us." Quietly, but determinedly, Arthur renewed the very concept of community in a School founded in the Benedictine tradition, an ancient monastic tradition which to this day prizes community values as a counterweight to the individualism and competitiveness that define modern society.

Our keystone. It is no coincidence that the handsome archway joining the two wings of the Middle Dorm along the River is known to his friends and colleagues as "Collins Arch."

Here in Kent, as elsewhere, Arthur was a steward of God's creation. Tirelessly working for what was right for our School, for our neighbors on Skiff Mountain, and for the public, Arthur brought the Trust for Public Land into the picture here in Northwest Connecticut. On behalf of the School, he concluded an historic conservation sale of the Lands of Skiff Mountain, formerly Kent School for Girls, that will protect the natural beauty, the wildlife and wetlands, and the peace and serenity of Skiff Mountain in perpetuity. All the while providing public access for the enjoyment of this lovely mountaintop in the foothills of the Berkshires.

One of Arthur's own teachers, the late William H. Armstrong, who arrived at Kent at about the same time that Arthur enrolled as a student here, wrote a much-appreciated poem which he read from this pulpit, and which is still read to our students from this pulpit each fall. Mr. Armstrong's poem is a song of praise to nature in which God calls on the reader to give an account of his or her life, asking, "What did you do with my creation?"

This -- the preservation of beautiful Skiff Mountain and the beautification of his own beloved School "between the hills and river shore" -- is what Arthur did with God's creation just in this place.

A teacher and an artist at heart, Arthur would reach for his big pencil and draw a sketch on whatever paper was at hand. It was "just an idea." And in recent years it gave him great pleasure to meet with students, to share ideas, to get to know the members of our Art Department, and to make provision for our community's future well-being -- endowing instruction in Art & Architecture by making possible the Trustees' institution of a teaching chair to be known as The Arthur Collins '48 Teaching Chair in Art & Architecture. So that young people will always learn the classical traditions, the disciplines of problem-solving, the requirements of innovation, the apprehension of beauty. So that generations to come will make something beautiful from "just an idea."

We at Kent will always be grateful for Arthur's many ideas and his many gifts.

It has been one of the greatest privileges in my life to have known Arthur, to have worked with him all these years, and to have been his friend.


Richardson W. Schell
Headmaster & Rector

From the Washington Post, June 22, 2005:

A Moment to Seize With North Korea
By Donald Gregg and Don Oberdorfer

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's remarkable statements to a South Korean envoy last Friday present a rare opportunity to move promptly toward ending the dangerous nuclear proliferation crisis in Northeast Asia. The Bush administration should seize the moment.

The reclusive leader told South Korea's minister of unification, Chung Dong Young, that he is willing to return to the six-nation talks on his nuclear weapons program if the United States "recognizes and respects" his country. More than that, according to Chung, he raised the prospect of reversing his burgeoning nuclear program, rejoining the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which he abandoned two years ago, and welcoming back U.N. nuclear inspectors in return for a credible security guarantee.

The U.S. national interest as well as the interests of our Asian partners in the talks -- all of whom favor much greater U.S. engagement with North Korea -- call for a positive response from Washington. This would be particularly welcome in Seoul, which both of us visited last week.

For starters, we suggest that President Bush, after touching base with our Asian partners -- South Korea, China, Japan and Russia -- communicate directly with Kim Jong Il to follow up on his remarks. He might consider offering to send Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill and Ambassador Joseph DeTrani to Pyongyang to prepare for a visit to Kim by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The purpose would be to explore the policies behind Kim's words to determine whether practical arrangements can be made, subject to approval by our partners in the six-nation talks, to end the dangerous North Korean nuclear program.

In efforts to reassure North Korea, the United States has repeatedly declared that it recognizes North Korean sovereignty, has no hostile intent and is willing to arrange security guarantees and move toward normal relations with Pyongyang once the nuclear issue is resolved. Kim's remarks present a golden opportunity to take the U.S. offers to the one and only person in North Korea who has the power of decision. According to those who have met him personally in the past -- including former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, former South Korean president Kim Dae Jung and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi -- Kim is more flexible than anyone else in his government. That is not surprising, since he sets the line and others must follow.

As we well know, this is not the first time that Kim has sought engagement rather than hostility with President Bush, whom he discussed in surprisingly positive terms last Friday. During a visit we made to Pyongyang in November 2002 following a nuclear-related trip by Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, we were given a written personal message from Kim to Bush declaring: "If the United States recognizes our sovereignty and assures non-aggression, it is our view that we should be able to find a way to resolve the nuclear issue in compliance with the demands of a new century." Further, he declared, "If the United States makes a bold decision, we will respond accordingly."

We took the message to senior officials at the White House and State Department and urged the administration to follow up on Kim's initiative, which we have not made public until now. Then deep in secret planning and a campaign of public persuasion for the invasion of Iraq, the administration spurned engagement with North Korea. Kim moved within weeks to expel the inspectors from the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty and reopen the plutonium-producing facilities that had been shut down since 1994 under an agreement negotiated with the Clinton administration.

Now the North Koreans are believed to have produced the raw material for at least a half-dozen nuclear weapons and many believe their claim to have fabricated the weapons themselves. Early this year North Korea declared that it has become "a full-fledged nuclear weapons state" and that it is working to produce still more atomic arms, all in response to U.S. hostility.

Kim's statements in Pyongyang Friday may be a sign that he is uncomfortable with persistent pressure from the United States and his Asian neighbors to return to the six-nation talks, which he left a year ago. He may also be feeling the pinch of deepening food shortages in his country. By reversing his nuclear program in return for the guarantees he seeks, Kim could avert stronger measures being discussed in Washington and other capitals to force the issue. These measures, in our judgment, promise only greater confrontation and growing danger on all sides.

By visiting Pyongyang and engaging Kim, Rice would not be condoning North Korea's human rights practices. The State Department has made clear that human rights is an issue to be resolved in negotiations on establishing full U.S. relations, not in talks on the nuclear question. If she responds to Kim's latest statements with a well-prepared visit and successful negotiations, Rice will have earned her spurs as America's chief diplomat.

Donald Gregg is a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and currently president of the Korea Society. Don Oberdorfer is a former diplomatic correspondent for The Post and currently journalist-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.

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OUR FIFTY-THIRD REUNION, MAY 25, 2005
Bob Eby, Harry Emlet and Rudy Lehnert
Ted McAlister and godson Bill Harvey, Dick Pivirotto, and Bob Middlebrook

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'52 Equestrians Rode in Mexican Mountains

By: J.C. ("Chips") Chester


This year, the annual horseback ride took place in the Sierra-Madre mountains-about 2 1/2 hours southwest of Mexico City. Participants included the "usual suspects", namely messrs. Collins, Jiranek, and the author. Only this time, Arthur Collins was under orders from his doctor not to ride, but he and his lovely bride, Judith, came along anyway as happy and congenial tourists. A major addition to this year's equestrian team was Margo Fish, widow of '52 classmate, Howard M. ("Mac") Fish.

Margo is an experienced long distance runner (she ran in the most recent Boston marathon), but only a beginning rider, who took lessons this past summer and fall to qualify for this annual event. She discovered that even a Western saddle can cause blisters of one kind or another, while running 26 miles never seemed to cause a problem.

As in the past, our ride was sponsored by Equitour, a company which is headquartered in Dubois, Wyoming, and owned by a 1952 Yalie named Bayard Fox. Bayard is a prep school classmate of our own Jay Sherrard. The company operates around the world through local outfitters. Our hosts were Jose ("Pepe") and Lucia de Schravesande, and attractive young (by our standards) couple who had acquired several acres of land about 8 years ago and then built a "finca" (estate) from scratch, including a large and comfortable manor house with pool and Jacuzzi and a stable full of horses just below. Aside from being expert equestrians and guides, they managed to run a highly efficient hostelry, which provided wonderful cuisine both at home and on the trail. Efficiency and congeniality are qualities which do not always go together, but both are descriptive of our highly valued hosts.

Valle de Bravo, named for a revolutionary hero not actually from the vicinity, i s town and lake community surrounded by mountains and populated to a large extent by weekenders from Mexico City. During the week prior to our arrival, much attention had been focused on the area, as the American Ambassador to Mexico had wed the Corona brewery heiress, who owned a home there. Laura Bush attended the wedding, so there were many helicopters flying in and out of town-filled with security forces.

Actually,Valle de Bravo is an unusually safe community-at a time when kidnappings elsewhere in the country have been rampant. As Pepe explained, there is only one road accessing the town and no convenient escape route. The road is monitored heavily by police. In fact we never experienced a moment of anxiety throughout our stay.

HORSES
The horses we rode were outstanding: Margo rode a roan quarter horse, while Bob and I both rode Trakehners, who happened to be full blood brothers. Trakehners are very large (over 17 hands), but not stocky equines that originated in Poland, although they are mostly associated with Germany. Germans took them over and rode them in two World Wars and practically adopted them as their own. My horse was such an enthusiastic jumper that he actually jumped logs and fences in his field with no-one on his back. Unfortunately, I did not bring this one home with me as I did from Ireland and Wales, because at the moment my local horse population is oversubscribed. The lady who runs our stable has threatened to confiscate my passport if I returned with another horse!

FIGHTING COCKS

Our hosts own a number of fighting cocks and even staged a cockfight in our honor. The birds fought valiantly as always, but no-one was injured as they had protective covers affixed to their spurs (instead of sharp blades). It was almost like boxing with boxing gloves, although there were no k-O's, and all fighters emerged unscathed.

In real cockfights, the birds fight until one or both are killed.

The scenery around Valle de Bravo is magnificent, and we did not encounter a single cloud during our entire week there. The temperature rose to about 75 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and fell into the 40's at night-with no humidity. The perfect climate.

Most of our time was spent climbing up and down mountainous terrain, and I can personally attest to the fact that the descent is harder on the knees-especially replaced knees.

However, nothing about this excursion involved anything that can be accurately described as sacrifice. It was pure pleasure all the way.

Tally-Ho for now


The Easy Riders of '52


Classmates in the Press

George Towner has brought the following article from the Washington Post of April 28, 2005, to our attention:

Calif. Education Secretary to Resign

By TOM CHORNEAU

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- State Education Secretary Richard Riordan said Wednesday he will resign in June, ending a sometimes bumpy tenure in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration.

The former two-term Los Angeles mayor and wealthy businessman gave no reason for his decision.

Riordan was an uncomfortable fit in an administration that has seen its attempts to change public school funding and management largely stymied by opponents.

His resignation was not a surprise to many in the Capitol who have expected him to leave after an incident last summer in Santa Barbara in which Riordan jokingly told a child named Isis that her name meant "stupid dirty girl."

The remark provoked widespread criticism and calls for Riordan's resignation. He made a quick apology, but never seemed to recover.

Schwarzenegger said he regretfully accepted Riordan's resignation.

"Dick is a dear friend and someone I have always admired for his achievements, his sincerity, and an adventurous spirit that is distinctly Californian," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

Riordan, who was mayor of Los Angeles from 1993 to 2001, lost the Republican nomination for governor in 2002.

A moderate Republican, Riordan is known for his ability to reach bipartisan compromises on difficult issues, but he appeared to play a background role in Schwarzenegger's administration.

"He didn't seem to have any kind of central role in the governor's cabinet," said Barbara Kerr, president of the California Teachers Association. She said she met with Riordan only once or twice and never over critical issues.

The governor has been under vigorous attack from teachers, parent groups and school administrators for a recent proposal to switch $2 billion from schools to other state programs, and for his support of two potential ballot measures that could restrict money for schools and make teachers work longer to earn tenure.

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Care To Brush Up On Dickens?

The New York Times published the following article about George Newlin on March 6th.

New York Times March 6, 2005

March 6, 2005, Sunday Late Edition - Final
Section 14NJ Page 4 Column 1 Desk: New Jersey Weekly
Desk Length: 1640 words

IN PERSON; Care To Brush Up On Dickens?
By IVER PETERSON

PRINCETON

YOU can never tell what will prompt a person to make a sudden and wild career move. Wars have often done it. Winning the lottery can lift many a nose from the grindstone. And so, of course, can divorce. For George Christian Newlin, it was divorce.

Mr. Newlin -- Princeton class of '52, Yale Law School '55 -- had already had careers as a lawyer and as a financial manager -- two and a half if you count his opera singing -- when his second wife walked out on him in 1988.

''It was awful,'' the 74-year-old Mr. Newlin said in a recent interview. ''I found that I didn't want to do anything that I had done before, and as a kind of therapy, just to get me out of bed in the morning, I began re-reading Dickens. And it became my passion.''

In 1995, ''after eight years of unremitting attention,'' as he put it, the Greenwood Press brought out the result of his reading: ''Everyone in Dickens,'' in three volumes totaling 13,000 entries over 3,744 pages at a cost of $356.95 and covering every character Dickens wrote of in his 518
known published works of fiction, travel, criticism, and lectures.

The next year -- at 1,168 pages and with a price of $192.95 -- Greenwood brought out his next writing effort, ''Every Thing in Dickens,'' which Mr. Newlin calls a topicon, or topical concordance, analyzing the ideas of Dickens's work.

Now, after another eight years, Mr. Newlin has further proof that the shift from law and finance to critical reading of Victorian texts has moved beyond therapy. M.E. Sharpe has just published four more massive volumes, ''Everyone and Everything in Trollope,'' at $499.95 a set.

In them, Mr. Newlin gives Anthony Trollope, a friend and contemporary of Dickens, the same exhaustive treatment. If the Dickens volumes were therapy for a man unable to be idle, the Trollope volumes have sealed Mr. Newlin's reputation in English literature circles. Indeed, last month Princeton University held a publishing party for him at the Firestone Library, where Mr. Newlin's work was praised, particularly for bringing an amateur's indifference to current academic fashion to his work.

''George demonstrates the value of positivist scholarship in an age when the academy curls its lips at such a thing,'' said David Parker, retired director of the Charles Dickens Museum in London and now a fellow at Kingston University in London. ''He is interested in the text, in the history -- he's interested in embedding the work in its context, whereas the academy believes that the text creates its own context. The technical term for this is hogwash.''

In his labors, Mr. Newlin found that Dickens has been so widely read and so repeatedly dramatized that his creations -- Scrooge, Fagin, little Nell -- have become part of the intellectual furnishings of people who have never even picked up a book by the author. (The names Scrooge and Fagin, for example, are recognized as correct by the spell checker on the computer these words are being written on. But Pickwick and Micawber are redlined.)

''There are things about Dickens today that people assume are true, but are not,'' Mr. Newlin said. ''People assume that 'The Old Curiosity Shop,' with little Nell, is a sentimental, stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth kind of thing, but it's a page-turner, and it has three of the most villainous characters in any of Dickens. It has a dwarf named Daniel Quilp, a person you would never meet in real life, very sexually driven, and of course the brother and sister Brass.''

Sex? In Dickens? According to Mr. Newlin, it's all over the place. ''Sexuality is always coded,'' he instructed. ''Look in the topicon under 'double entendre.' Quilp keeps his wife up all night with his long red cigar -- that is as near as Dickens dared to get to talking about sex.''

So although Oscar Wilde is said to have quipped, ''One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing,'' the little girl's death is never actually described in the book, Mr. Newlin said, and the term little Nell never appears. Both the death scene and the name crept
into the public mind through subsequent dramatizations that, Mr. Newlin suggests, lacked the restraint of ''CD,'' as Mr. Newlin always refers to Dickens.

Mr. Newlin knows that his huge volumes are not likely to end up in home libraries, but public and university libraries have been buying them -- 100 sets of the Dickens series at nearly $500 apiece have been ordered by Japanese libraries alone, he said. Yet Mr. Newlin's obsessive attention to
the details of Dickens's writing has produced some insights that the general reading public would recognize, like his use of comic alliteration in names from book to book -- Gordon, Gashford and Grooby in ''Barnaby Rudge;'' Wardle, Weller and Winkle in ''Pickwick Papers;'' Nicholas Nickleby and Newman Noggs, and Pip and his friend Pocket in ''Great Expectations.''

''How different this is from the received notion that CD agonized over every name,'' Mr. Newlin said. ''I think he was just having fun, until he caught himself at it and then he changed.''

Also in the section of given names, with its 85 footnotes, comes Mr. Newlin's observation that while Dickens used the names of his father and of his brothers -- John, Alfred, Augustus and Frederick -- over and over, he never shared the names of women close to him.

''Something caused him to sidestep the five women in his life,'' Mr. Newlin said. ''He never had a Catherine, his wife, but he used Kate. He never had an Elizabeth, his mother, but he got Betsy and Lizzie. His sister was Frances but he never used her name, he never used Mamie, his daughter's
name, and he never used Georgina, his sister-in-law's name.'' He used Georgiana instead.

After Dickens, the Trollope work seemed like a logical next step, but it is the differences between the two, Mr. Newlin believes, that account for the continuing supremacy of Dickens's work in the public mind. Dickens wrote a manageable number of books and Trollope wrote too many, he said, and while Dickens's plots are memorably melodramatic, and many of his characters unforgettably grotesque, Trollope created men and women who seemed lifted from the daily life of his day.

''Dickens wrote 14 1/2 novels,'' Mr. Newlin said. ''Trollope wrote 47 novels and 46 short stories, and a lot of them are immense. He wrote five travel books, three of them monstrous, huge things.''

But then, Mr. Newlin is a fan.

''The big surprise is his wonderful standard of quality,'' he said of Trollope. ''He never wrote anything that you can say was a bad book. He wrote a couple of books that failed -- a French romance and an attempt to be comic about the new retail commerce in London -- but his output was of an amazingly high quality. He just wrote too damned much. Even Henry James, who loved him, said he just couldn't keep up.''

So while Mr. Newlin describes Trollope as a workaholic, Mr. Newlin's friends have described him as obsessive. For his part, Mr. Newlin does not argue.

He had to be, he said, to put in the hours to become an accomplished pianist as a child in Brooklyn Heights, where he was born, and in Scarsdale, where his parents moved when he was 7 and reared him and his two younger brothers. His father, A. Chauncey Newlin, was a well-known New York lawyer.

After the Army drafted him in the mid-1950's, dashing his hopes of continuing as a tenor in student operas in Vienna and Salzburg, Mr. Newlin auditioned for, and won, an appointment as a concert pianist with the famed 7th Army Symphony Orchestra. But burns suffered in a fire in his off-post
housing ended that career, and after seven months of hospitalization and reconstructive surgery, he served out his stint in the Army playing the organ as a chaplain's assistant at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.

''I never trusted my talent to be such that I could have a great career in music,'' Mr. Newlin said. ''I wanted enough money to live, and, taking the line of least resistance, I became a lawyer.''

Today, Mr. Newlin -- who has a son, an adopted daughter and three stepchildren -- does not own a house, but lives with friends in north Princeton. His Volvo, covered with the kind of soft left bumper stickers one expects to see on a Volvo in Princeton, is old and dented. But he has kept his much-traveled black Steinway concert grand piano from his days as a prosperous man, and he still plays with blinding speed and panache.

Not that he expects to have much time for concerts. He has already begun work on his next project, ''Everyone and Everything in George Eliot.''

''George Eliot lived at same time as Dickens and Trollope, and as Thackeray,'' Mr. Newlin said, as if that explained everything. ''To me, they all belong together, because they all knew each other, they admired each other, and never have we had a flowering of English literature like that.''

Images: Photo: ''Just to get me out of bed in the morning, I began rereading Dickens,'' George Newlin said. ''And it became my passion.'' The result was his three-volume work totaling 13,000 entries over 3,744 pages. Next came Trollope, and Eliot is in the offing. (Photo by Laura Pedrick for The New York Times)

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Iver Peterson
The New York Times
609 895 2993
609 895 2648 - fax

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More Classmates in the Press

The following, slightly edited, is Don Kahn's report on classmates and their works recently noted on the Internet and in the prominent press.

1) In perusing the site, www.globalflyer.com, to determine the characteristics of the aircraft which flew nonstop around the world (my interest stemming from four years in Exxon's aviation marketing ), I observed the charity which had been elected to receive any profits from the venture ( the costs of which were underwritten by Virgin Air's Branson). The organization selected was "Project Orbis"....which was initiated in the late 1970's and got started in 1982 by our own Dave Paton '52 and George Hambleton.'52. A description of Project Orbis is provided on the GlobalFlyer site, but with no mention of its originators, and in Dave Paton's section in the Book of Our History. (I notified George and he will pass it along to Dave.)

2) The writer/editor of the Book of Our History [George Newlin, of course!] was the subject of a long, half-page article in Sunday's New York Times, 3/6/05, for having completed his 4-volume concordance/index/anthology on author Anthony Trollope, Everyone and Everything in Trollope (available for $499.95). The article, entitled, "Care To Brush Up on Dickens", was in the New Jersey section of the Times, under "In Person." (He discusses at length his prior works on Dickens.) So far, I have not been able to call the article up on my computer....perhaps because the NY Times does not consider N.J. material worth archiving. If I succeed , I will forward it. The article does identify him, in several ways, including "Princeton class of '52.

3) My son (P '86) brought to my attention that the Wall Street Journal, on 3/4/05, carried a very long article entitled, "The Book Club Snub." The article gives prominent attention to California Secretary of Education Dick Riordan '52 and his book club, both at the beginning and the end of an article that surveys very selective book clubs across the nation. The author byline is Katherine Rosman. It does not connect Dick to Princeton. It does say that "He rules it autocratically..." as I believe a leader from '52 should. I will try to bring it up on my computer and forward it. [For the full article, click here.]

Don goes on to say, "I am basking in the reflected light of '52 classmates," as are we all!

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Alaska Tour

Sandy and Margy Zabriskie are organizing what sounds like an extraordinary two-week tour of the heart of Alaska, where they spent many years of their ministerial career. Here is their invitation to the Class of '52 to participate. To find out more, phone, write or e-mail them; addresses are at the bottom of this announcement.

The tour's title is "Experience the Heart of Alaska." It will start on June 29 in Fairbanks and end on July 13 in Anchorage, with a maximum of 30 participants. It will be unlike most of the package-tours you see advertised. As we lived in central Alaska for 15 years, we want our friends to experience the wilderness and wildlife and meet Native Americans and sourdoughs and other prominent Alaskans who shape life on the "Last Frontier."

We'll spend a few days in the Fairbanks area, seeing the University of Alaska, mining camps, and the Midnight Sun. Lodging will be in comfortable Alaskan-style places with private baths, as it will be throughout the tour. We will drive down the Parks Highway to Denali National Park. The centerpiece will be four days at Camp Denali, at the far end of the Park, with spectacular views of Mt. McKinley from your own log cabin and even from your comfortable bed! Professional naturalists will be guides for the walks or hikes (depending on health and strength and each person's inclination) to explore the gorgeous flora and fauna of the hillsides and watch grizzlies, gray wolves, foxes, eagles and other forms of wildlife. Back in the camp each evening, we'll have gourmet dinners and optional programs about the Park, its wonders or policies or politics.... And then on to Anchorage via the Alaska Railroad for several days. We'll also go to Seward to see the superb sea life museum and take a full day's boat cruise into the Kenai Fjord National Monument, where we'll see sea lions and seals galore, jillions of birds, and several kinds of whales..... The cost for the tour will be $3,475, plus transport to and from Alaska (we figure many folks with frequent-flyer miles and/or other perks can get better prices for air travel than we can).

This tour began as a project of Margy's Swarthmore class at their 50th reunion. Many of her classmates and spouses will help fill the group. We still have a few openings - and thought that some Princeton classmates might be interested. For further information, send us a message at amzab@together.net, call 802-863-4571, or write us at 119 Northshore Dr., Burlington, VT 05401..... Spaces will go on a "first-come-first served" basis.

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Rod Johnson has passed on the following item about recognition given to a classmate for outstanding leadership in science and technology in the past year.

Peter Cartwright, Calpine CEO and President, Named Business Leader of the Year in the 'Scientific American 50'

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Calpine Corporation (NYSE: CPN) Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President Peter Cartwright has been named by Scientific American magazine as Business Leader of the Year within the "Scientific American 50" -- the magazine's prestigious annual list recognizing outstanding acts of leadership in science and technology from the past year.
Announced today, the "Scientific American 50" appears in the magazine's December issue, arriving on newsstands November 23. The complete list may also be accessed on the magazine's website at www.sciam.com. "Scientific American 50" winners will be honored November 16, at a celebration at the New York Academy of Sciences in New York City.
Said Editor-In-Chief John Rennie, "Scientific American believes strongly that the best hope for a safer, healthier, more prosperous world rests in the enlightened use of technology. The 'Scientific American 50' is our annual opportunity to salute the people and organizations making that possible through their outstanding efforts as leaders of research, industry and policymaking."
Selected by the magazine's Board of Editors with the help of distinguished outside advisors, the "Scientific American 50" spotlights a Research Leader of the Year, a Business Leader of the Year and a Policy Leader of the Year. The list also recognizes research, business and policy leaders in various technological categories including Agriculture, Chemicals & Materials, Communications, Computing, Energy, Environment, Medical Treatments and more.
Cartwright has been named Business Leader of the Year in the industrial category because of his leadership in promoting low carbon electricity both in the United States and in other key markets around the world. Earlier this year, Calpine's board of directors unanimously supported an investment strategy that commits the company to investing only in low carbon power technologies, such as natural gas and renewable energy.
Cartwright said, "Calpine's goal is to continue to provide clean, affordable and low carbon electricity. Like a growing number of energy companies, Calpine recognizes that the power sector -- as the largest single source of carbon dioxide -- must take steps to reduce its total emissions. Calpine prides itself in being a technology leader within our industry, and I am deeply honored to be recognized by Scientific American, one of the world's leading voices for science and technology."
Past "Scientific American 50" winners for 2002 and 2003 have included Roderick MacKinnon, professor of molecular neurobiology and biophysics (2003 Research Leader of the Year, as well as winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize for Chemistry); Burt Rutan, president, Scaled Composites (2003 Aerospace/Business Leader); Gro Harlem Brundtland, former World Health Organization secretary general (2003 Policy Leader of the Year); Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and chief executive officer, General Electric Company (2002 General Technology/Business Leader); and Steven Jobs, chief executive officer, Apple (2002 Communications/Business Leader).
Founded in 1845, editorial contributors to Scientific American have included more than 100 Nobel laureates, among them Albert Einstein, Neils Bohr, Francis Crick, Stanley Prusiner and Harold Varmus. Scientific American, Inc. is a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, a U.S. subsidiary of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH, a privately held international media corporation operating in more than 40 countries. In addition to Scientific American, Holtzbrinck Publishers includes the book publishing houses Farrar, Straus & Giroux; W.H. Freeman; Henry Holt and Company; St. Martin's Press and Tor; the academic scholarly publishing company Palgrave U.S.; the College Publishing Group of Bedford Freeman Worth; and the distribution company VHPS.
Calpine Corporation, celebrating its 20th year in power, is a North American power company dedicated to providing electric power to customers from clean, efficient, natural gas-fired and geothermal power plants. The company generates power at plants it owns or leases in 21 states in the United States, three provinces in Canada and in the United Kingdom. The company, founded in 1984, is listed on the S&P 500 and was named FORTUNE's 2004 Most Admired Energy Company. Calpine is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CPN. For more information, visit www.calpine.com.

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The Class of 1952: Supporters of Education

Two recent items of note indicate the dedication of members of the Class and their families to education.

Adela Wilmerding has brought our attention to an article from NewsSmith, the Smith College newsletter:

New Teaching Award Honors Smith Faculty:
Four faculty members were named the first winners of the Kathleen Compton Sherrerd '54 and John J. F. Sherrerd Prizes for Distinguished Teaching. The new Sherrerd Teaching Award is to be given annually to Smith faculty members in recognition of their distinguished teaching records and demonstrated enthusiasm and excellence. The winners of the first Sherrerd Teaching Awards are David Cohen, professor of mathematics; Shizuka Hsieh, assistant professor chemistry; Mahnaz Mahdavi, associate professor of economics; and Vittoria Poletto, senior lecturer in Italian language and literature. The four faculty members were honored at a presentation of the award on April 21.

And devotion to education continues to the next generation, as witnessed by this article from the October Tiger E-News:

Murley family donation to fund tower at Whitman College
An alumni couple has made a significant gift to the Whitman College complex to commemorate their 25th wedding anniversary and the start of undergraduate coeducation at Princeton 35 years ago. The gift from Charter Trustee Robert S. Murley '72 and Mary Pivirotto Murley '76 will fund construction of the imposing gothic tower that is among the new college's most prominent architectural features.

More information about the generous contribution to Princeton from Dick and Mimi's daughter and son-in-law and about the donors themselves can be found in an article at http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/04/0927/1a.shtm, which notes that "The family’s ties to the University span four generations."

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[Ed. note: A recent Playbill reports that "Extraordinary support for the arts was a way of life and a labor of love" for our classmate, hotel entrepreneur and philanthropist Peter Jay Sharp (1930-1992). Bob Lovell spotted the following that shows that his philanthropic spirit and devotion to the arts live on.]

Endowment Doubles for Brooklyn Academy
By FELICIA R. LEE

New York Times, October 5, 2004

As the Brooklyn Academy of Music prepares to unveil its $8.6 million exterior restoration, academy officials say the long-struggling institution's turnaround has been strengthened by two major gifts totaling $30 million, more than doubling its endowment. With its fatter pocketbook and face-lift, the 143-year-old academy is poised to become "the quintessential urban arts center of the 21st century - with music, dance, theater, opera, film and a large education program," Karen Brooks Hopkins, president of the institution, said recently.
A $20 million pledge from the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, which supports education and cultural endeavors; a $10 million gift from two supporters, Richard B. Fisher and Jeanne Donovan Fisher; and other contributions have increased the endowment to more than $50 million from about $18 million, said Ms. Hopkins and the academy's executive producer, Joseph V. Melillo.
The pledges and contributions do not mean that the institution can cut back on fund-raising in an era of general economic uncertainty and dwindling foundation, government and corporate support for the arts, Ms. Hopkins said. The Sharp Foundation money, for instance, will be delivered over five years.
And while the Brooklyn Academy's comeback has been widely lauded in recent years, Ms. Hopkins said that its place in New York culture would depend on factors beyond money and edgy programming, factors like the fortunes of Brooklyn.
Academy officials are betting that a revived Brooklyn reflects the institution's future. They are in preliminary negotiations to buy the Salvation Army building on Ashland Place, which is next to the academy. The building would be used for education and community purposes, and include classrooms, small theaters and meetings spaces, Ms. Hopkins said.
Now, the endowment money buys some breathing space for long-range planning amid the hectic pace of fund-raising, Ms. Hopkins said. For years, the academy was so busy surviving, she said, that it was not until 1992 that it had an endowment.
Endowments are "increasingly critical to the survival" of nonprofit institutions during tough times, Kate D. Levin, the New York City cultural affairs commissioner, said.
"Endowments don't mean much to the average Joe but it definitely is a kind of institutional solidification," Ms. Levin said. "What it means long-term is enormous. It's got to make funders more confident."
Some of the premier arts organizations have huge endowments. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for instance, has an endowment of well over a billion dollars. Carnegie Hall's endowment is $150 million, with $51 million more in uncollected pledges and gifts.
Given institutions' different missions and operating costs, comparisons are wasted motion, but a healthy endowment signals a certain stability and a financial cushion, Ms. Levin said.
For the Brooklyn Academy, the endowment news rides the wave of a renaissance in housing and the arts in Brooklyn. The academy has recorded a 40 percent uptick in attendance from five years ago. Its audiences are younger than those that flock to institutions like the New York City Opera, and 65 percent come from Brooklyn, compared with the predominantly Manhattan audiences of the past.
The academy began its first season in 1861 in a Brooklyn Heights building, which burned down in 1903. It opened its Beaux-Arts building at 30 Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene in 1908 and for years has been a microcosm of a changing Brooklyn.
Things were so bad in the 1960's that there was talk of turning the building into tennis courts, and by the 80's crack had moved into the neighborhood. The academy has since distinguished itself as the home of the Next Wave Festival of contemporary performing arts and, in an area with one of the largest black populations in the country, for culturally diverse programming and audiences.
For instance, the 22nd season of the Next Wave Festival, which begins today, features "Othello" from the London-based Cheek by Jowl theater company; the Polish director Krzysztof Warlikowski's American debut with "The Dybbuk," taken from Jewish folklore; and an all African-American cast in Flaubert's "The Temptation of St. Anthony," with music and libretto by Bernice Johnson Reagon of the a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock.
Also on the calendar will be the Oct. 24 celebration of the restoration of the academy's building. The name "Peter Jay Sharp," carved on either side of the building, will be unveiled.
"They're an institution for the future of New York," Norman L. Peck, president of the Sharp Foundation, said of the decision to contribute to the academy.
"Having a strong, solid BAM out there is not only good for Brooklyn and Fort Greene but all of New York," Mr. Peck said, because of the city's shifting demographics.
The foundation commissioned a study to understand how the academy drew young audiences, with an average age in the mid-30's compared with the upper 50's at institutions like Lincoln Center and City Opera, he said.
"It's a combination of programs that attracted a youthful audience, but the youthful audience was coming to Brooklyn anyway to live," he said. "They couldn't afford to live in Manhattan."

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Some pre-season football intelligence from Ray Close'51, via Paul Mueller.
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"I was watching the first football preseason workouts this week and was accosted by an old geezer who said he was the grandfather of Jordan Munde, a freshman running back (#34) from Palos Verdes Estates, California, a graduate of Peninsula High School. According to Grandpa, Jordan broke all the rushing records established some years ago at that high school by a guy who went on to became a big star at USC (sorry I don't remember the name). Jordan was recruited by Stanford, Penn, Yale, Dartmouth and Harvard, but "liked Princeton best". The Class of 2008 roster says he's 6'0" and weighs 200 lbs, but my new informant tells me he's 6'2". I also learned from the garrulous old fellow that Jordan is an A student and has a brother at Annapolis. His father is a motorcycle cop in Los Angeles, and his mother is an airline pilot who can get him free tickets back and forth to LA. Here's an excellent baseball player (1st baseman), but plans to devote all his energies to football. His girlfriend is also entering with the Class of 2008. She's an All-State water polo player. And here's another minor piece of TOP SECRET intelligence volunteered by the proud old Grandpa, who never even asked my name: Jordan and his girlfriend are both virgins. They're into religion, said the old boy with a wink. (What would those kids do if they knew he'd said that to me, a total stranger?)
So there you are, guys. I may have been a lousy spy in the real world, but as a sports reporter, I should get a medal, don't you think?
Question for Bob Varrin: Last Spring, when we were sitting at the same table with Roger Hughes at the annual football awards dinner, I remember that Roger said something about having some terrific (unnamed) running back in the incoming freshman class, but neither of us could figure out later exactly who this kid might be. I guessed at the time that it might be Jake Staser, from Alaska (225 lbs), who got a number of rave press notices when he first accepted to come to Princeton. But maybe it was Jordan Munde. Do you have any new information on that? (With Jon Veach and Brandon Benson, we should be in pretty good shape when it comes to running the ball.)
Princeton is going to end up much better than 6th in the league. More like 3rd.
Note we scrimmage Yale in the pre-season. That should tell us something.
September 18th will be the first game."

Dickinson College Awards Honorary Degree to Hal Saunders

Following is the text of the citation for the honorary degree Dickinson conferred on Hal Saunders on May 21:

"Come, let us reason together." This bible verse is ideally suited for a citation in honor of Harold H. Saunders. At a time when our nation seems inextricably mired in conflict, your extraordinary career testifies to the power of sustained dialogue. You served your country for over two decades - as an Air Force officer, a Foreign Service Officer and a member of the White House Staff in the National Security Council. An expert on the Middle East and South Asia, you helped to mediate five Arab-Israeli agreements and to lay the groundwork for the Camp David Accords, the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty and the release of the U.S. hostages in Tehran.

Since leaving government service, you have intensified your personal efforts on behalf of conflict resolution and reconciliation in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, the Middle East and within the United States. You currently serve as Director of International Affairs at the Kettering Foundation and as Chairman and President of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue. Your published works are an indispensable resource for both academics and practitioners involved in negotiations, and you are also involved in cultivating the next generation of problem solvers and peace makers at selected colleges and universities, including Dickinson College.

You are the recipient of the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service - the nation's highest award for civilian officers. You have also received the State Department's Distinguished Honor Award, the "excellence in career" award from your Alma Mater, Princeton University, and the "Search for Common Ground Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Academy of Diplomacy. You also have the distinct honor, and good fortune, to be married to Carol Saunders, a distinguished Dickinson College alumna.

Mr. President, I am honored to present to you Mr. Harold H. Saunders, an engaged academic and an informed and principled practitioner, who personifies the values that Dickinson seeks to instill in all of its graduates, for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of International Relations.

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Gerhard Andlinger '52 gives $25 million to university

In a move that sends Princeton's anniversary campaign over the $1 billion mark, Gerhard R. Andlinger '52, an investment banker, has given $25 million for new campus projects. Andlinger is the chairman and founder of Andlinger & Company, Inc., a private investment firm.

Andlinger, who grew up in Austria, in 1948 won an essay contest sponsored by the New York Herald Tribune and came to America. A year and a half later, he arrived at Princeton with a scholarship and $8 in cash. He earned an M.B.A. at Harvard and after serving in the U.S. Army began working at the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. He founded his company in 1977.

This is not Andlinger's first major gift to Princeton. In 1991 he established the Gerhard R. Andlinger '52 Professorship of Social Sciences, held by professor Robert J. Wuthnow.

Two of Andlinger's five children attended Princeton, Merrick '80 and Nicole '91.

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ITALIAN SOJOURN
'52 Equestrians Hit the Tuscan Trail

by: J.C. ("Chips") Chester

As usual, the three intrepid Class equestrians, consisting of Messrs. Collins, Jiranek and the author, embarked on our annual horseback ride-- this time in rural Tuscany. Of all of our rides in exotic foreign lands (there have been 9 in toto), this one clearly ranks as the most luxurious: No more sleeping in sleeping bags, as in Mongolia and Iceland; instead, we had private rooms with showers in a refurbished castle just 20 miles south of Siena. The estate was owned by an Italian financier, Signor Vittorio Cambria, and consisted of the castle complex, extensive farmland, and a stable full of horses. Unfortunately, we never met Mr. Cambria, as he was hospitalized for tests during our week at his Castello di Tocchi.

An unusual aspect of this Equitour program was a continuing cooking course-- under the leadership of Giancarlo Gianelli, a prominent Italian chef, who had just published a new cookbook, entitled: "The Taste of Memories" (which we all purchased). The cuisine was, of course, superb. This time we had several non-riders in our group who spent some time each day in "cooking school" and then drove out to meet us for luncheon on the trail.

Other innovations: Both Bob and Arthur produced brand new "state-of-the-art" digital cameras, which seemed to represent the same level of difficulty as locating the Class web site. After much study and mutual consultation, however, the cameras began to function. This was in distinct contrast to Arthur's also brand new "state-of-the-art" watch, which was supposed to sound off at regular intervals to remind him to take medication. However, this wonder of modern technology never managed to function at all. My idiot-proof Olympia camera, which I purchased in South Africa in 2001, produced photos from 4 rolls of film which I consider of good if not superior quality. However, like its owner, the camera is old and out of date.

But let me start from the beginning: We spent our first night in Florence with our '52 classmate, Douglas Gorham, and his family, who invited us for dinner at their attractive villa in Settignano, a Florentine suburb which is located high on a hill with a magnificent view of the city. In the early fifties, just after completing service in the Navy, Douglas married Janny Bruggisser, a Swiss national whose family had lived in Florence for generations. He has lived there ever since (and also has a chalet near Gstaad, Switzerland). Like most of us, he is now retired as the former Italian representative of Bally shoes. He was succeeded by his son, Alex, who also happens to be my godson. In fact, I suddenly realized that the last time I was in Florence was in 1958 when I was a "young" Vice Consul in Munich-attending Alex's christening. He is now 45 years old, has 3 adorable children, and runs his own export-import business. His younger brother, Tommy, was also on hand. with his Japanese-born fiancée; both work for Proctor and Gamble in Geneva. After a full evening of Gorham hospitality, Douglas showed us some important Florentine landmarks the following morning and then sent us off to Siena after luncheon.

Everything in Siena, we discovered, is old, preserved just as it was centuries ago, and of historic value. The town still looks medieval-- with narrow winding streets which are restricted to traffic (except for buses and a few taxis).

The main piazza is called "Il Campo" and is famous for a kind of free-for-all horse race which takes place on July 2 and Aug. 16 of each year. This has been going on for almost 300 years-- since 1721. It was originally designed to compensate Siena for losing a war with Florence in 1559, but has since become an all-absorbing local competition. Horses representing 17 districts or neighborhoods of Siena are originally entered in the race, although the number is eventually reduced to 10. The jockeys (mostly pros from Sardinia) ride bareback and flail each other with whips. A horse does not have to have a jockey on his back to cross the finish line and win. The whole contest resembles Britain's Grand National Steeplechase in that only a few are left standing at the finish.

We sat in an outdoor cafe in Il Campo on the night of our arrival and noted that the entire piazza race course was composed of hard stone. Evidently, the stone is covered with sand just before the race, but one wonders just how much cushion that temporary substance can provide. On the next morning, we returned to Il Campo and witnessed a nearby exhibition of falconry and eaglery (if there is such a word). As expected, it was a spectacular performance.

That evening we were picked up at the train station by van. (Siena has a station but no trains that go south to Rome and Naples. For those destinations you have to either change trains or be driven to a town called Chiusi, about an hour away. Siena, it seems, is resistant to change and perhaps that is its charm.) From the station, our driver took us to our Castello, which was to become our headquarters for the next week.

HORSES: As usual, our 7 riders (altogether) were provided with locally bred and trained horses. Bob and I drew a Tuscan - breed called "Maremmano". It was essentially a "warmblood", which means a cross between a draught and a thoroughbred. My mare was named "Damigella" which means "lady-in-waiting" in Italian, and she took good care of me (and my steel and plastic knee which was being put to the test for the first time since my operation last November). She had very smooth gaits, and I was able to sit to the canter, which helped considerably. Arthur rode a stockier horse representing a breed called "Murgese" from the south of Italy.

Our companion, Dr. Bill Stephenson from East Texas (where they hunt coyotes on horseback), was even assigned a genuine Lippizaner named Pluto. As you probably know, this is a very rare breed which was rescued from Eastern (now "Central") Europe after World War II by General George Patton; the handsome stallions (mostly) now perform with the Spanish riding school of Vienna. Pluto was a fine animal, but he had not been taught to dance or perform the cabriole in mid-air.

SCENERY: The Tuscan landscape -- at least where we rode for 5 days -- is remarkably wild and rural. We rode up small mountains and across fertile valleys-- only occasionally crossing paved highways. There are many ruins of castles and large villas, but no sign of the developers who have ruined so much of the rural scenery in Northern Virginia. (Note: Arthur is also a developer, but he specializes in urban renewal and revival, which is a different concept than building endless row houses in the countryside).

A number of the ruins have been purchased by wealthy individuals, who have restored them, but always in keeping with the original architecture. After riding 6 hours in the rain on the first day, we headed home on Tuesday from the Cannucio Horse Center, where the horses had been left for the night. En route we passed a 17th Century watch tower and numerous 18th century villas. Finally, we reached the former monastery -- the Augustine Hermitage of Leonardo at the Lake -- which is now a renovated private residence. During our stay at the Castello, we were treated to a wine-tasting at the factory and estate owned by Count Strozzi and his wife, Irina, a Russian Princess in San Gimignano near Siena.

Another major highlight of that week was a visit to a sheep farm, owned and run by a Sardinian family. We were shown the intricate process of cheese-making and the afternoon milking of some 200 sheep. Each female has to be milked twice daily -- beginning at 4:00 A.M., and she only produces one liter of milk per day. It is a notably hard way, to make a living!

Our final ride was to a very quaint medieval town named Monteciano--and from there another half hour to the highly impressive ruin of the Abbey of San Galgano.

Galgano was a knight who gave up his title and duties to devote himself entirely to God. In the nearby hermitage-church of Montesiepi, the knight's sword implanted in a stone base (representing the end of knighthood) has been preserved for posterity. While the church is quite small and modestly attractive, the abbey is an immense shell of a ruin, which nevertheless suggests a momentous history. By this time it had started to rain, so we galloped all the way back to Monteciano for lunch.

Finally, we departed the Castello on Saturday for Chiusi, where the train took us to Rome and then Naples.

There a driver picked us up and took us to Sorrento -- our headquarters for the following week's visits to Pompeii, Capri, Positano, Ravello and Herculaneum (or Ercolano in Italian -- a smaller version of Pompeii). However, that is another story.

A final note: At this stage in history, many have gained the impression that Americans are not all that popular around the world. Whether that widespread assumption is correct may be debatable. We can only say that in Italy, tourists-- whether equestrian or pedestrian-- remain most welcome.

Tourism is a mainstay of the Italian economy, and the natives are invariably friendly. Only be sure to bring sufficient funds -- in the form of cash or credit -- as the dollar-Euro exchange rate is currently quite unfavorable to Americans.

Arrivederci and warmest regards to all classmates.
IN FONDO

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Attendance at '52's Washington Mini-reunion Wins a Pair of Trophies

President Hal Saunders has received the news from Adrienne Rubin of the Alumni Council that the excellent attendance at 1952's Mini XVIII in Washington, DC, May 1-4, 2003, has won the Class the 1928 and 1898 trophies for the 2002-03 year. Here is what Adrienne had to say:

Congratulations to you and your class! You have won the 1928 Trophy. The 1928 Trophy is given to the class with the largest number of its members attending any gathering outside of Princeton during the year between Reunions. You have also won the 1898 Trophy. The 1898 Trophy is given to the class with the largest percentage of membership attending any gathering during the year between Reunions. You won both awards for your Mini-Reunion in Washington, DC.
The awards will be presented at the annual Alumni Council Luncheon on Friday, May 28, during Reunions weekend.

A nice recognition and reminder of a fine event in the Nation's Capital!



Sarah "Tink" Bolster S'52: "The Picture of Health"
For good reason, the Spring 2004 issue of the Smith Alumnae Quarterly has selected Tink Bolster, wife of our outstandingly active Classmate Joe, as one of three Smith graduates over the age of 70 who prove the adage that "exercise does a body good." In the process, the magazine says, " they're redefining conventional ideas about aging and its limitations."

You can read the full article at http://www.saqonline.smith.edu/ (click on "Hitting Her Stride," under her picture), but, for the benefit of all, we repeat here "Tink's tips" contained in a sidebar to the article:
Tink's Exercise Tips
Start slowly.
"You never want to jump into an exercise program, especially if you’re training for a triathlon. You need to get your body used to the level of exercise, the movement. Don’t be afraid to take your time.”
Pay attention to what you eat.
"I try not to eat too many fats, but that doesn’t mean I’m averse to putting a pat of butter on a muffin. I eat moderately and don’t fill up on sweets. I eat one big meal a day—breakfast—and then have a light lunch and dinner. That tends to be enough for me.”

Good advice! But read the full article to get the full story of how Tink stays so fit.

And thanks to the Smith Class of 1950 for its gift to Princeton '52!


1952 Associate Grace Brush Wins Mathias Award

The Johns Hopkins Magazine for February 2004 features our Class Associate Grace Brush on its cover and in a report on Grace's pioneering research into the causes of environmental damage to Chesapeake Bay. (Click here to read the article.) Grace, who earned her Ph. D. in biology at Harvard in 1956, has been connected with Johns Hopkins since she and her late husband Lucien '52 arrived in 1969. Lucien was a professor of hydraulics and hydrology there, and Grace is a professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering. Her work will be recognized this spring with the award of the Matthias Medal given by the Maryland Sea Grant, Virginia Sea Grant, and Chesapeake Research Consortium.

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Harold H. Helm Award to Joe Bolster

For members of the Class of 1952, a highlight of the Alumni Day proceedings February 20 was the announcement that the annual award named in honor of Harold H. Helm '20 was given this year to Joseph L. Bolster, Jr. '52. The award recognizes "exemplary and sustained service to Annual Giving." Harold Helm's son John '52 was present to help celebrate the memory of his father and the well-deserved ("long overdue," the presenter noted) honor to Joe.

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James A. Baker III '52 to Tackle Iraq Debt Problem

The press reported on December 5 that President Bush has appointed Classmate Jim Baker, former Secretary of the Treasury and of State, among other high offices, to seek an international consensus on how to handle Iraq's huge debt problem. "Secretary Baker will report directly to me and will lead an effort to work with the world's governments at the highest levels, with international organizations and with the Iraqis in seeking the restructuring and reduction of Iraq's official debt," Bush said in a statement.

For the full Reuters report on the appointment, click here.

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For other Class news, see the 1952 PAW Class Notes. Recent Class Notes are on the Secretary's page (click here). Earlier Class Notes, from the fall of 1995, are on the University's TigerNet website (click here).

In keeping with Campus tradition, and thanks to arrangements made by Joe Bolster, the Class of 1952 now has a commemorative plaque on the wall of Nassau Hall. The yellow arrow shows where to find it, just to the right of the west entrance to the building, on your next visit to the University.

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Dick Riordan, Retired as LA Mayor, Takes State Post

John Peak has brought our attention to an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune about Classmate Dick Riordan's appointment to the cabinet of Governor-elect Schwarzenegger. Dick was named California Secretary for Education. According to the article, the appointment led to the resignation of the California teacher's union member of Schwarzenegger's transition team, but it added that "analysts said Riordan's reputation for bipartisanship and bringing new ideas to the table should serve the new governor well." For more, click here and read the Union-Tribune article.


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Oberdorfer's Book and Lectures on Senator Mansfield

Don Oberdorfer's latest book, Senator Mansfield: The Extraordinary Life of a Great American Statesman and Diplomat, was the subject of receptions and talks in Washington, DC, on October 14, at the SAIS Kenney Auditorium, and in New York on October 16, at the Japan Society. Mark Shields and John Glenn spoke of their personal recollections of Mansfield at the Washington affair. Don discussed the Senator's dilemma in opposing the Vietnam War while seeking to maintain influence with the President as Majority Leader.
Others attending in Washington included Jean and Barry Loper, Helene and Quincey Lumsden, Phyllis and Bob Oakley, Kent and Steve Rogers, Carol Saunders, and George and Clara Towner. The New York Times reviewed the book Sunday, October 12.
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BERLIND THEATRE DEDICATION

Class members who attended the dedication of the Roger S. Berlind '52 Theatre (next to McCarter) on Monday, September 8, included President Tilghman, Bill and Mary Murdoch, Dan Duffield, and Bob Lovell, as well as the donor. Bob steered us to the report of the dedication (click here), including Roger's confession that he had discovered "a streak of 'Trumpishness'" in himself (referring to the naming of the theater) and expressed appreciation to Brook and their son "'while I proceeded to decimate their inheritance' to make the donation possible."

Click here for an earlier description of the project
— but ignore the University's misstatement about Roger's Class.

ALUMNI DAY AWARDS

The Class of 1952 was well represented in the awards at the Alumni Day luncheon February 22. The following citations are from the printed program for Alumni Day.

The Class of 1926 Trophy

Established by one of Annual Giving's legendary classes and first awarded in 1978, the trophy goes to the class that raises the largest amount in each year's campaign. This year's winner [no surprise - ed.] is the Class of 1952, which set a new all-time record for any Princeton class with a total of $6,047,713 in their 50th Reunion campaign. They were led by Class Agent Donald M. Malehorn of Morristown, N.J., and Special Gifts Chair Joseph L. Bolster, Jr., of Princeton.

The Jerry Horton Award

Given for the first time in 1982, the award was named in honor of Arthur J. Horton '42, a former Director of Annual Giving, Director of Development, and Recording Secretary of the University. The award is presented to a regional Annual Giving committee in recognition of their successful efforts to expand dollar and participation totals. The winner this year is the regional Annual Giving Committee of Houston, Texas, chaired by David Kingman Smith '52.

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SUSTAINED DIALOGUE AT THE CLASS DINNER

Classmates who braved the continuous downpour of Alumni Day on February 22 to attend the Class Dinner — the handsome walkways all over the campus were either ponds or rivers — were rewarded with presentations from three articulate young Tigers involved in the program of sustained dialogue to improve race relations on the campus. [For a fuller report of the discussion, click here.] Participants in sustained dialogue meet regularly in discussion groups of about ten. The program on the Princeton campus began nearly four years ago as one of our ’02-’52 activities and has grown to about a dozen groups.

In introducing the discussion Saturday evening, Hal Saunders noted that Princeton students have been instrumental in getting sustained dialogue programs started at the University of Virginia and at Dickinson College, and the Class of 2003 is exploring expansion of the program to other campuses. He suggested that Classmates, wives, and associates might identify other places where the program could take hold. Janet Dickerson, the University’s Vice President for Campus Life, followed Hal with a warm endorsement of sustained dialogue, calling it a "stealth program” for its unexpected impact on the University.

The three young speakers were Teddy Nemeroff ’01, David Tukey ’02, and Ambika Kapoor ’04. They spoke of the situations that led them to form or join dialogue groups, typically because they found sustained dialogue valuable as an approach to overcoming the problem of minority students who felt uncomfortable at Princeton. The students believed that they had achieved and contributed to better understanding and acceptance of differences based on racial identification.

Groups have sometimes been able to affect developments on the campus beyond the sustained dialogue program itself. A case cited was that of retired New York State Supreme Court Justice Bruce M. Wright, who was made an honorary member of the Class of 2001. In 1939, Justice Wright, son of an African-American father and a white mother, received a full scholarship to Princeton, but because of his race he was turned away when he arrived for registration.

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The New Afghanistan: Year 2

By Robert Oakley

The Washington Post, Friday, January 3, 2003; Page A19

A year after the Bonn Conference on Afghanistan's future, there is considerable ground for optimism about that country. Living conditions are still harsh for many people, and episodic violence continues. But at the same time substantial progress has been made in Afghanistan, thanks to patient, persistent efforts both inside and outside the country.

With leadership from the United States, al Qaeda forces and the Taliban were defeated, relief was provided for the population and some 2 million returning refugees, and a start was made on developing sustainable Afghan self-governance. Barring a reversal by either the Afghans or their international supporters, the stage is set for much greater progress over the next year, although serious problems will remain. But if U.S. leadership falters, so will other international efforts, with potentially disastrous consequences not only for the Afghan government, but also for the campaign against al Qaeda and the future of neighboring Pakistan.

The United States had a wise initial strategy for avoiding the sort of fatal mistakes the Soviets made in Afghanistan in the 1980s. By establishing a broad political coalition, including Muslim countries, and using small Special Forces teams to fight alongside Afghans against al Qaeda and hard-core Taliban, the United States avoided being seen as occupying Afghanistan or going to war against Islam. This was reinforced by large-scale relief for the destitute population and the political empowerment of Afghans by the Bonn Conference and the country's loya jirga, or national assembly. The United States, Saudi Arabia, Japan and the European Union set up the Afghan Reconstruction Steering Group, which includes the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank and is becoming increasingly effective. The United States, France and Britain have begun a multi-year program to train a new Afghan national army. Germany has done the same for the police, with U.S. help. The threat from al Qaeda and the Taliban has been reduced to manageable levels in much of the country, and the International Security Assistance Force has helped establish the security that is vital for Kabul. The U.N. Assistance Mission for Afghanistan and Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi have won the confidence of all parties with low-key advice and coordination for donors and the new government.

Starting from zero a year ago, the administration of President Hamid Karzai has achieved many attributes of a responsible government. It has a long-term national development framework and budget, worked out with the World Bank, the United Nations, the United States and other donors, and is carefully applying it to ensure that donor proposals meet Afghan realities. A central bank, fiscal discipline and a new national currency have been established. Construction of the large-scale Ring Road program has begun; large-scale community development projects will soon follow smaller efforts. An Afghan Defense Commission (including senior "warlords") has reached agreement on the size, makeup and training of the new army and the demobilization of local militias. This will take time but will ultimately be the Afghans' own solution to their endemic security problems. Prudence has proven to be better than prematurely deploying unready international peacekeepers (with inadequate resources) to remote areas. The violence that would have followed such deployments, involving al Qaeda, the Taliban and warlords, would have seriously disrupted both the war against terrorism and the process of gradually stabilizing the country.

As it stands today, the process of building the new government at the center appears to have readied it for the next decisive step: becoming effectively operational in the countryside.

For this to succeed, the flow of international assistance, which has recently accelerated, must continue. This includes the Bush administration and Congress actually funding the four-year, $3.3 billion Afghanistan Freedom Support Act, as well as training the country's army -- actions vital both for the badly needed resources and for the strong signal to all parties of a long-term U.S. commitment. It will also require that international donors and nongovernmental organizations reorient their programs outside of Kabul in order to enhance the operations of the government ministries rather than the prestige of donors and regional power centers.

Obviously, all this cannot happen without security. The United States and President Karzai have agreed on a new plan to shift the priority of coalition efforts from combat to stability operations for most of Afghanistan during the next year, creating eight or more joint regional teams with civil and military membership, including coalition forces and small Afghan army contingents. These teams will have enough capability -- with on-call backup -- to provide increased security for reconstruction by the Afghan government and international donors.

The achievements of the first year augur well for the long-term future of Afghanistan. But should the United States falter in its leading role, so would the coalition. This would create dissension within the Afghan government and with the provinces, reigniting ethnic and regional rifts. Worse, it would reinvigorate al Qaeda and the Taliban, which could shift back from Pakistan for a major assault in Afghanistan. Backing away would also have a devastating effect on efforts by Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf to uproot al Qaeda and the Taliban, neutralize their supporters and bring political, economic and social reform to that country. And it could have serious negative repercussions on Kashmir and India-Pakistan relations. Given the potential that still exists for a political-religious explosion in Pakistan, with its nuclear weapons, and the prospect for increased tensions stemming from Iraq, this could have incalculable consequences for the entire region and the United States.

The writer is a former ambassador to Pakistan and a visiting fellow at the National Defense University.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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Classmate in the Press:

George Dean continues his good work on behalf of women in politics. The following is from the New York Times Book Review section on November 17:

To the Editor:

Richard L. Berke's review of Thomas E. Patterson's book ''The Vanishing Voter'' (Oct. 20) suggests that the major reason Americans are voting at declining levels might be the lack of scintillating, attractive candidates. All anyone has to do is look at the United States Congress and the state legislatures to see that they are essentially clubs for middle-aged white men who routinely get re-elected over 90 percent of the time because of fund-raising advantages, high name recognition, staffing and party support.

Until the Republican and Democratic parties recruit, encourage, train and support more women and minority members to run for winnable elective offices, our government will not reflect the diversity of the nation, and voter interest in the good old boys' club in Washington will continue to decline.

Term limits could help by opening up seats to new faces and by encouraging representatives to take stronger stands on important issues. As it stands now, however, the political experts estimate that only about 5 percent of Congressional elections are even competitive, and that doesn't attract voter interest and participation.

George A. Dean
Southport, Conn.

Princeton '52 in Savannah's Service!

Walt Culin reports that W. Park Callahan '52 is the new President of the Princeton Club of Savannah. More than 30 members of the club met at the Chatham Club in Savannah November 1 to install new officers and to hear Dr. Norman Itzkowitz, Professor Emeritus of History and Near Eastern Studies at Princeton. Dr. Itzkowitz spoke about the situation in the Middle East, from historical and psychological viewpoints. Classmate Larry Austin is also a member of the Club and attended the function.

In addition to Park, the Savannah Morning News reported that new officers include Walt as Treasurer. Vice President and Secretary are Lee Ann Aldridge '89 and Wilson Morris '61. Directors are Gene Buttle '49, Fred Coffman '53, Tom Kane'53, Charles Mikell '63, Dick Miller '48, and Gere Williams '62.

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Fiftieth Reunion Album Copies Available

Additional copies of the Class of 1952 Fiftieth Reunion Album are available. It's 40-plus pages of great memories — worth sharing with family and friends!

To order an extra copy or copies, send classmate Ansel Gould a check for $10 payable to Princeton Class of 1952 for each copy. Ansel's address is 4636 Sunflower Drive, Rockville, MD 20853-1750. You can e-mail him at avgould@alumni.princeton.edu for information on the status of your order.

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Longer articles may be accessed by clicking on the article title below

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60th/50th Reunion: Former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz '42 (1982-1989) encounters former U.S. Secretary of State Jim Baker '52 (1989-1992). Courtesy of Bob Doherty '52

George Garrett Tapped as Virginia's Poet Laureate
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The Class of 2002 honors the Class of 1952
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Saunders, Oberdorfer Report on U.S.-China Dialogue
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Phyllis Oakley's Address to the Class

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Cliff Barr -- Squash Champ

Cliff Barr is a paradigm for Classmates who still have important things they want to accomplish and the discipline to stay the course. Cliff writes the following:

"On March 14-17, 2002 at what might seem to be a hostile venue, I played in the United States National Squash Championship at Yale. I am very pleased to report that I again won the National Championship in my age group, which you all know is 70 plus."

Congratulations Cliff from the Class of 1952!

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