Aug 2000
Whew! New Orleans and the Kentucky Derby on successive weekends. And now this deadline. Well, at least there is something to write about, thanks to prolific classmates. As advertised, several classmates (accompanied by spouses and guests) gathered in New Orleans April 28-30 to socialize, eat, and attend the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Jim Amoss, editor of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, made the arrangements, including hosting a delicious Saturday brunch, and John Gazzoli coordinated the weekend. The festival was terrific, and the conviviality and fellowship exceeded expectations. Highlights of the weekend were Walt McMonies‘s cargo shorts, the substantial number of T.D. alums in attendance, and Harold Mancusi-Ungaro‘s stories of the latest trends in boob jobs. Attendees included Amoss, Averill, Cooper (Guy), Derbes, Gazzoli, Groome, Harrington, Mancusi-Ungaro, McMonies, Nelson (Scott), Putnam, Resnicow, Saccone, Sacerdoti, Snow, Straff, and Yarmuth. The next reunion event will be in Boston over Harvard game weekend, and will be hosted by Lang Wheeler. Details are still being worked out, but the format will be similar to the New Orleans event: Friday night cocktail/dinner (possibly attendance at the Yale Glee Club concert), Saturday brunch chez Lang, and a party of some sort (victory, we hope) after The Game on Saturday evening. Start thinking about it.
Susie Goldman, wife of the late Rick Goldman, wrote from Washington, DC, to report on a new generation of Yalies: “I always read and enjoy the ’69 class notes, particularly since my husband, Rick Goldman, passed away more than ten years ago. It’s never occurred to me to write until I began noticing that frequently the notes carry news of classmates’ children who carry on the tradition at Yale. So I write with the thought that some of Rick’s Yale friends might be interested to know that the last of our three children, Alice, will enter the Class of ’04 in the fall, following her brothers, Dan ’98 and Bill ’01. We are sort of boring in this regard, but very happily so. Dan is an NBC Olympic researcher in New York, and Bill is taking this semester to study in Madrid. I can’t even imagine how proud and delighted Rick would be to know that all of his children have had the opportunity to thrive at the school he loved so much.”
Bob Shevlin wrote several months ago, and somehow I laid his report aside until now. Here it is: “Hi, John! I was reading the November Yale Alumni Magazine and had visions of you sitting there like the Maytag repairman, waiting for the calls that never come in. Well, here’s some good news. I am proud to announce that my younger son Ken has been accepted to Yale on early decision and will join the ranks for the Class of 2004. I e-mailed this joyous news to former classmate John Adams, only to learn that his daughter Elizabeth will also grace the class! Last summer when I toured the college with my son it was the first time I had set foot on the campus in 30 years. I was very pleased — not to mention nostalgic — to see the school so well maintained and looking very much like it did during the ’60s. I am looking forward to being on the campus again. I can’t wait to try out the golf course and take in some football at the Yale Bowl. Like me, my son plays trumpet. Maybe he’ll decide to join the long blue line of the Yale precision marching band in a Y2K revival of the Yale-Vassar merger formation.” Speaking of that infamous event, I propose we build a monument to the formation’s bass drum. It might be called “Shooting Blanks.”
One of our most active classmates has received an important honor. Bob Shlachter, a partner in the Portland, Oregon, law firm of Stoll, Stoll, Berne, Lokting & Shlachter P.C., has been named as one of Portland’s top litigators by the National Law Journal, the legal industry’s national weekly newspaper. Bob concentrates on intellectual property, unfair competition, and commercial litigation. He won an $8 million settlement for Soloflex in the “battle of the biceps” trade-secrets case against Bowflex. He also won a settlement for Soloflex against NordicTrack in a false advertising and trademark infringement case. While practicing in California, Mr. Shlachter helped the owners of Guess? jeans recover more than $250 million in stock and cash in a fraud suit brought against Jordache. He also coaches the mock-trial team at Portland’s Catlin Gabel School.
Finally, I made two factual mistakes in my last submission. (What do you expect? I’m a journalist.) William Bogaty has not yet taken over all of Asia. He is CFO of Exxon/Mobil of Japan. And his new crop of kiddies comprises one girl and one boy, not two girls. I have had my hearing checked, but they can’t do anything for my memory.
Well, that’s the old mailbag for this month. Have a great summer. Deadline for information for the first issue of the fall is sometime in August. I look forward to hearing from you.