Memorial Service Remembers Those Who’ve Passed
|

Memorial Service Remembers Those Who’ve Passed

The Class convened in Battell Chapel on Saturday afternoon to share remembrances of the 45 classmates who have passed away during the prior 5 years. The Rev. J. Douglas Ousley ’69 officiated. Eliot Norman and Dick Williams organized the musical portion of the program. Dan Seiver read off the names (see slides below, one per person) and attendees shared stories and memories of the deceased.

Norman Jakob Resnicow, May 4, 2024

Norman Jakob Resnicow, May 4, 2024

from Norman’s 50th Reunion Essay:

“…. Beyond these headstrong episodes, I’ve realized what a lucky life has been granted me. After our parental generation’s 16 years of economic depression and world war (my mother’s family escaped Germany in 1939), I was born in the right place at the right time. It was a given our generation would advance and prosper beyond our parents. (Not a given now.)

I had the luck to apply to Yale just when the Ivy League broadly opened up to boys of my background; to enter the law firm world just when top tier firms likewise opened up; and to begin practice when there was a fair shot to grab the prized partner ring. Timing does matter and, for me, has made a strong difference. …”

Simon Newcomb Whitney, Jr., November 14, 2023

Simon Newcomb Whitney, Jr., November 14, 2023

Simon’s Yale years were interrupted twice (once for the 67-68 school year, once later), for reasons he explained in his reunion essays in both 1994 and 2019 (see below):

From his website: “Simon Whitney, MD, JD is a family physician and ethicist. He taught at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, for twenty-two years. He is retired from the practice of medicine but continues to publish and teach about medical ethics.

… Dr. Whitney has studied the Institutional Review Board system, including its origins, its triumphs, and its failures, since 2007. … In 2023, he published From Oversight to Overkill: Inside the Broken System That Blocks Medical Breakthroughs—And How We Can Fix It (Rivertowns Books). This book brings to life how scientists struggle …”

William Kurt Sacco, February 10, 2024

William Kurt Sacco, February 10, 2024

My best friend at Yale, Bill Sacco, passed away on February 10th, 2024.  Bill was one of the most talented photographers of our generation.

Our friendship began in sophomore year on the day we moved into Silliman College.  While everyone else was upstairs trying to make their new rooms livable, Bill and I converged downstairs in Silliman’s photographic darkroom.  We both looked at the enlarger.  “Schneider lenses,” I observed.  “Yes, but no Tiffin filters,” Bill commented.  Professional colleagues whom you also like!  This is one of the gifts that Yale can give.

Wentworth Earl Miller, Jr., March 17, 2024

Wentworth Earl Miller, Jr., March 17, 2024

Wentworth Earl Miller, Jr., fondly known as Earl by family, peacefully passed away on March 17, 2024, at the age of 76 following a long and courageous battle with cancer.  He is survived by his beloved 99-year-old mother, two sisters, seven brothers, three children, and five grandchildren.

Went was a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School, a Rhodes Scholar, and the creator of LEEWS (Legal Essay Exam Writing Seminar), a successful law preparation …. 

Donald Ferguson, December 13, 1968; Updated

Donald Ferguson, December 13, 1968; Updated

UPDATED comments, posted 4/8/24 Remembering Donald P. Ferguson, ’69 Mark Alden Branch’s “Old Yale” article, “The Stories Behind the Names,”, in Yale Alumni Magazine, November/December, 2023, focuses on five of the 35 Yale alumni killed in the Vietnam War. One of them, Donald Ferguson, ’69, is also part of another group of five men killed…

Richard Lavington Farren, December 3, 2023

Richard Lavington Farren, December 3, 2023

Ken Brown, who roomed with Richard Sophomore and Junior years offered the following for the class notes.

Richard L. Farren of New York City, age 76, died suddenly at his home on December 3, 2023.  Richard was a practicing attorney at the time of his death.  He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1965.  He matriculated with the Yale Class of 1969 but graduated in three years …

Bruce Robert Bolnick, November 19, 2023

Bruce Robert Bolnick, November 19, 2023

Bruce was born May 12, 1947, in Detroit, Michigan. He grew up in Skokie, Illinois and attended Niles West High School where he became a state champion gymnast.

He studied economics as an undergraduate and for his PhD (Yale, 1972). For his graduate research he studied how human behaviors can cause departures from the principles of rational economics, a topic that was not well received at the time, but which (as Bruce would wryly note) led to a Nobel Prize for some later researchers.

Charles L. Apel, November 21, 2022

Charles L. Apel, November 21, 2022

Summary from Wired Magazine:  Charles Apel’s resume: drops out of Yale in 1967 to become a hippie and get high with Jim Morrison. Lives in the jungles of Colombia to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Eventually pardoned by Jimmy Carter. Fathers seven children. Returns to school and earns a BA in 1999 and a chemistry PhD in 2003. Now works in the Astrochemistry Lab in the Space Science Division at NASA researching the origins of cellular life. Associate editor of Biosystems.