Wednesday, January 25, 2006

2006 - January - DA 83 E News

DA Class of 1983 E-Newsletter
January 2006


Dear 83er,

FEEDBACK:
Always great to know Jim Wareck is reading the newsletter: “Sorry it has taken me so long to respond to the latest email, but a few thoughts came to mind. One, it appears you must be very busy and successful in your new development post because the November 05 DA 83 newsletter was definitely a paste and cut job. I mean a word for word recitation of an Adam Weinberg PR press release? And Weinberg, are you going to try and convince us that this World Learning Center is NOT a North Korean front operation? Two, since when is it news that Eric Suher is controlling more means of production and avenues of commerce? Couldn't that be in the newsletter every month? And finally, I want to thank you and the newsletter for clearing up a potentially ground-breaking discovery. Around the time I received it, I was out walking at night and thought I had witnessed an unmistakable UFO. But now with the news that DA has appointed a female head of school, I realize the unidentified flying object shooting past the planet Venus was just PB Weymouth when he heard the news. Still in DC, all DA 83ers should call, I make an excellent tour guide and Craig Pattee has offered to pick up lunch.”

(PB gets much positive pub later in this issue…)

November 30 Beer and Burger Social at PJ Clarke’s was well attended and provided many good laughs. Thanks to Doug Schmidt for getting it organized. Knight drove down from DA and brought Andy Blau ’81 with him to the event. Ian Murray ’82 attended and wondered who all the youngsters from ’83 were. Geoff Siefert ’84 stopped by as well, just in from South Africa via London! Dominating the scene was ’83 with Will Piersol, Whit Armstrong, John Kikoski, Schmidt, Knight, Al Compagno, Chris Lynch, Drew Schiff, PB Weymouth and hopefully I didn’t forget anyone. Pete Pauley was sad to miss it, and Dave Madden from CA lamented he had been in NYC only a day before!

Nate Blain complained from DC that nothing fun ever happens there with the class of ‘83. Sadly, I had to inform Nate that a DA sponsored young alumni event was taking place in DC in December…but he didn’t qualify!!! Maybe Nate can find a way to actually get Wareck and Pattee in the same room for a social occasion…

Johannes “Yogi” Mortier apologized from Germany that he could not attend. (Fifty bucks says he is coming to our 25th reunion in June 2008!!!) “Thanks for the note. Sorry, I cannot make it. I left the university of Frankfurt / Main and went into private practice (orthopedics). Home address is still the same.”

Jamie Robinson’s art has really taken off in Athens, Ohio. Look for his “Athens Block” reproductions at this art gallery site: http://www.lamborns.com/athensblock.html

This just blew in: Don Hindman (dhindman@clarknational.com) is living in Chicago with his wife, Maron, and their four children, ages 9, 7, 5, and 7 mos.! Don's most recent (surprise) baby, Trudy, will inevitably prompt a visit to the Urologist for Don at his earliest opportunity. As a "recovering lawyer", Don is running his family's distribution business, Clark National, Inc. Lastly, Don relates that he sees fellow alum Eddie Opler '89 on a regular basis in Chicago, where they meet to discuss the benefits of coeducation at Deerfield.

Eduardo Blohm is Deerfield’s Admission Representative in Venezuela and reports all is well with him…


NEW ALUMNI WEBSITE!
Having you been to the http://www.deerfieldalumni.org/ site lately? (You can get there from http://www.deerfield.edu/ too). It is all NEW – and hosted by a new company – so you will need to register again ONCE then you can create your own username and password. The 9 digit ID # required is being included on address labels in all major school mailings: it starts with “D00”. Contact Doug dschmidt2@nyc.rr.com or John jknight@deerfield.edu if you would like your ID# sooner than the Annual Report 2005 which is in the mail…

Upgrades include:

Automated registration and password retrieval process.
MyPage feature that will contain that information of most relevance and interest to the alumnus/a.
Easy to use and manage permanent email forwarding system.
Regular changes in photographs, content and layout.
The ability to create and edit class and club pages.
An ‘auto generator’ process for alumni to create their own class notes and allows them to upload related photos.
The ability to register online for events in addition to Reunion.
The alumni directory makes it possible for us to use virtually any field in the database for searches.
When updating records, alumni will be able to personally select which pieces of information are viewable and which are hidden.

Further Upgrades Coming:

Message Boards and Chat module
Polls and Quick Survey Module
Career and College Mentoring Modules

83 ON CAMPUS


Recently an alumni swim meet was held to honor the memories of former faculty Larry Boyle (recently deceased) and Bill Tyler (still very much kicking). Team ‘83 was well represented by Dean Singewald, Dave McNeil, Dave Morley and Sean Nottage. John Knight jumped in when the photographer appeared…Nottage and Morley are clearly benefiting from living in the Bahamas and it was fantastic they made the effort to attend the event. Dave McNeils’s father swam in the meet also…Great job!

Tim Ehrhart called from campus on January 6th to see if John Knight was getting any sleep (see below). Tim was in town to help with some family matters. Still working at Chubb (18 years) and living near Clinton NJ with a great wife and a great family of three kids 8,5 and 4!

As for John Knight, he is on a brief break from work at DA to help his wife Martha cope with the Christmas Day arrival of Eleanor Noelle Knight! He says it was still fun opening the gifts 10 days later! JK is taking any advice from Christmas babies on when to celebrate birthdays! Jim Wareck on Nora’s birthdate: “John many congrats to you and Martha. But god it sucks for Eleanor. Now she will only get one set of gifts, unless the Vatican acknowledges that Jesus was actually born in May.”

Making it happen at DA:
PB Weymouth was on hand for the new boathouse dedication, partly to honor his father. Here he is with his dad and his own two rugrats followed by the “press release” about the opening! PB is in his sixth year on the Executive Committee of the alumni association. THANKS PB!
November 15, 2005 Last Saturday on a crisp, blue sky morning, friends of Deerfield crew gathered to recognize donors and to dedicate the newly opened Hammerschlag Family Boathouse. A first-class facility that provides more convenient access to the Connecticut River for rowers, the Hammerschlag Family Boathouse is named in honor of Lynne and Mark Hammerschlag, P'93, P'04 and features three bays of shell storage space, training and strength conditioning rooms, and generous rigging areas.
Evoking a traditional New England barn, the post & beam wooden structure fits in comfortably with its natural surroundings, overlooking a grassy meadow above a quiet stretch of the river. Guests at the dedication ranged in age from 8 to 98 years and traveled from as far as the rowing Mecca of Henley-on-Thames, England -- a testament to the long and proud tradition of Deerfield graduates in the rowing world as well as the prospect of more enthusiastic rowers to come!
NOTHING NORMAL EVER HAPPENS TO:
Brian Steward
This is a picture which was taken (against my pleading) after I fell into the Nueces River near Montell, Texas (20 miles from Rocksprings) last Friday (in November). While the air temp was 70 degrees, the water was approximately 45. That did not prevent me from spending the next 2 hours in and around the river. Beautiful country. The comments about throwing a dog into the river were exaggerated. I was simply trying to ease her transition into the water…unsuccessfully. Fortunately, she eased my transition into the water on two occasions. Also note that I had changed clothes immediately before this spill which made it even more pleasurable.

AND THIS ONE IS FOR BEAUBIEN, SILVERMAN AND SUHER and any other WGAJ founders…an email sent the students 1/11/06 by the faculty rep for the radio station:

“Over the years Deerfield Academy's very own Radio Station WGAJ 91.7 FM THE VOICE has been under-recognized by our beloved community. Year after year DJs have come and gone and the greater community has neither embraced nor directly rejected these beautiful souls. Instead they have been given the cold shoulder of apathy. The poor radio station began to slowly fall and decay.
Luckily for the world, 6 brave Radio Warriors have arisen and taken up the challenge of getting everyone to tune into 91.7 FM, the place to be on the Franklin County dial. These 6 have decided that the station's black and white colors are too boring and out dated. After much debate, coffee and a scuffle or two they came up with the greatest idea imaginable. Give the station back to the people.
In order to do so these great wave warriors have decided to challenge you, O mighty Deerfield, to give the station a new image. There will be a T-shirt contest so everyone can proudly wear the WGAJ logo, which will be displayed on both our new banner and stickers. The logo, the sticker the banner and the T-shirt will all be made by you and contested over. All these will be submitted to the ITS box in the switchboard under the name Mr. Terwilliger.
Then the best 3 of each catogory will be picked and you will vote on the new image of WGAJ. Our job is done. Now it's your turn to let THE VOICE be heard.” The Mighty 6

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL and keep those stories coming…

P.S. 25th reunion is June 6-8, 2008

Please let me know if there is a better email address for this missive…New email for newsletter contributions is jknight01038@comcast.net – or you could always use classnotes@deerfield.edu. Hope to hear from you…