Labor of Love

Kevin McKelvey and his brother Steve '77 have written about about their father's passion: baseball autograph collecting - and specifically a version of it called "cluster collecting" that he helped invent. The Rev. McKev. was an amazing person!

"While the title of this book – Labor of Love — captures the essence of our father’s lifetime hobby, it applies equally to the five years spent cataloging thousands of autographed baseball items – auctioned off over almost two years by Heritage Auctions – to determine those which would be most fascinating to baseball fans and collectors of all ages. 

 
For over six decades, our father lived a life “silly on baseball” — while building one of the largest and unique private baseball autograph collections in the world. His “labor of love” was a meticulous approach to collecting themed autographed baseballs, team sheets and even first-day issue US Postal stamps he considered relevant to the culture of baseball. The collection celebrated everything from the game’s greatest milestones and memorable events … to its most noted characters, occurrences and relationships. It’s a genre of autograph collecting, known as “cluster collecting,” that he is widely credited with creating.

This book shares the story of the unique baseball autograph collection’s origins. The book features – in photographs and short stories – a collection of some of the most unique themed “cluster” items ever created, befitting my father’s legacy as “the czar of cluster collecting.” Included is a baseball signed by 17 of baseball’s legends who hit 50 or more home runs in a season; 13 players who are members of baseball’s 500-home run club; and all eight of the pitchers who won three or more Cy Young Awards (before Clayton Kershaw joined the group in November of last year). 

Among the cluster-themed sheets is one signed by all eight Presidents of baseball’s American League teams in 1950 … and another signed by all 14 Presidents of American League teams in 1993 (which includes a future President of the United States!). Memorable event theme balls include those jointly signed by Hank Aaron & Al Downing, Orel Hershirer & Don Drysdale, Bill Veeck & Satchel Paige, Harry Caray & Phil Rizzuto, Yogi Berra & Sandy Amoros, Mickey Mantle & Chuck Hobbs, among many others. 

What do these players have in common? Each of these cluster balls is accompanied by a story that details these players’ unique connection in baseball history. Of the hundreds of “cluster balls” our father collected, 35 of the most unique and special balls are featured in this book.

Labor of Love” concludes with the story of The Collection’s most treasured family heirloom: a home-run themed baseball signed by Frank (Home Run) Baker, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Roger Maris … and Sammy Sosa. The tale of this baseball – the only one of its kind in the world – is as yet an unfinished story.

here's the link:

https://store.collectivecopies.com/store/show/ofc10

M/M McKelvey

Just a nice pic I snagged from Kevin's page.

Two more bite the dust...

Happy Birthday...
Kevin McKelvey - May 22
Brad Weir - May 23
Thanks again Facebook.

Sounds like it might be time for a survey about TURNING 45! What's true? What's not? Are you where you expected? Why? Why not? Should you have a house policy on X-Box to guide your kids?

Send ideas for questions to jgknight83@gmail.com!

Dick McKelvey Funeral Reception

It looked like an opening faculty meeting from 1982 for a few minutes in the Memorial Buidling lobby at DA today. After a wonderful service for 300 in St. James Church in Greenfield, Rev McKev was further remembered by family, friends and colleagues. Our condolences go out especially to Dick's wife, Joan and our classmate, Kevin.

2007 - June - DA 83 E News

DA Class of 1983 E-Newsletter
June 2007
Dear 83er,

Welcome to our most recent addition: Greg Badalich! That puts us at 131 members of the class on the E-Newsletter distribution – impressive – thanks for keeping in touch.

ClASS NOTES:
(Ed. Note. Most notes can be posted and viewed on www.DeerfieldAlumni.org, you should register for the alumni website to read them and post your own.). If you need any helping logging on to the site, like your unique ID – please email jknight@deerfield.edu

Most Recent Postings to class notes on www.DeerfielAlumni.org:

David Morley (1983)David Morley (1983) writes, "I competed in the US Masters National Championships in Federal Way Washington on the 18-20th of May. Swam five of six personal best (masters times, that is) and finished as follows in my age group (40-44 years) 50 Backstroke - 4th, 100 Backstroke - 5th, 200 Backstroke - 7th, 100 Butterfly - 10th, 100 IM - 7th and 200 IM - 5th. It was a great meet and a lot of fun watching other former Olympic swimmers compete at this level. In fact, there was a swimmer in my age group who is currently training to make his 4th Olympic team for Greece (now at age 42). Don't get any ideas - swimming for me is more for fitness and health reasons and the occasional competition. Beside that, everything else is great. I have been trying to encourage Sean Nottage to get back into the water and train and I keep getting the "I promise this time I really am going to get back in the water and start training again!" Submitted on Jun 18 2007.

David Smith (1983)Lt. Col. David Smith (1983) writes, "Gearing up for my third tour in Iraq this summer by keeping it simple in Vermont. My small maple sugaring operation makes about 40 gallons a year." Submitted on May 2 2007.
Gregory Atkinson (1983)Greg (Tex) Atkinson (1983) writes, "I finally have some news to report from Houston. My wife (Kristin) and I had our 4th child on April 3rd. Her name is Lainee Elizabeth Atkinson. Although she was born 6 weeks early and still in the ICU, she is doing great. She is improving daily, and we hope to bring her home soon." Submitted on Apr 16 2007.Craig Pattee (1983)Craig Pattee (1983) writes, "My kids are terrific: Mack is 3, and Brady is 4. We got them up on skis out in Jackson Hole recently. They love it and are becoming great little athletes. They continue to crack me up and I'm thoroughly enjoying being a dad. Bridget and I and the kids have moved out to a farm in Middleburg, VA, about an hour outside of DC. The commute is incredibly bad, but the quality of life can't be beat. Business is great, and our lobbying firm (Dutko Worldwide) survived the elections just fine. Change is good for the lobbying business (especially since we are a bi-partisan firm). And in my spare time, I'm advising Mitt Romney on his presidential run. So, life is great and I remain a lucky guy. My best to the Class of '83!" Submitted on Feb 15 2007.Kevin McKelvey (1983)Kevin McKelvey (1983) writes, "I am living in Boxford MA with wife Liza and kids, Phebe, 13 and Tim, 6. Phebe is nearing high school age and has already tossed Deerfield into the hat as a viable option. Nice to be a young lady in 2007 and have that choice! I'm sales director for a mobile music company here in Boston called Groove Mobile: selling full track music through wireless carriers like Sprint; think iPod on your phone. Hip-hop & rap rule the scene, so trying to keep up with the Akons, Yung Joc and Justin Timberlakes of the world. Lots of outdoor neighborhood fun: mountain biking, backyard hockey, skiing. The locals keep us very busy. Hoping to get back to DA for a winter sports weekend later this month." Submitted on Feb 13 2007.Paul Magee (1983)Paul Magee (1983) writes, "Currently living in inexpensive Mexico with my wife and children. Had to keep a low profile however after the US recently beat Mexico in soccer! Hoping to bring the family to Deerfield this summer for their first visit." Submitted on Feb 12 2007.

REMEMBER: 25th reunion is June 13-15, 2008

DEERFIELD TRUSTEES from the Class of 1983: Win One, Lose One

Philip B. Weymouth III

Philip B. "P.B." Weymouth III ’83 is the newly elected President of the Executive Committee of the Alumni Association and was also elected to serve a three-year term on the Board of trustees. He is a 1987 graduate of Yale University where he majored in Economics & Political Science and History. In 2004, Mr. Weymouth joined the boutique investment bank, Watch Hill Partners.

Mr. Weymouth has been a speaker and panelist at a variety of Media & Communications conferences and industry events and was a member of the board of the Software & Information Industry Association’s (SIIA) Content Division from 2003 to 2004. Mr. Weymouth currently serves on the board of mix1®, an all-natural, nutritional beverage company based in Boulder, Colorado.

In addition to his service to Deerfield, he serves on the Yale Campaign Committee and the University of Virginia’s National Committee on University Resources and has previously served on the Yale Development Board (1998 – 2006) and The Darden Society Board (1995 – 2002). Recently, he was appointed by the Headmaster as the President of the Buckley School Fathers Committee, upon which he has served since 2004. He and his wife, Elizabeth, reside in New York City with their three children.


Andrew N. Schiff ‘83

WHEREAS: The Board of Trustees of Deerfield Academy notes with regret the expiration of the term of Andrew N. Schiff member of the Class of 1983, as a member of the Board.
and
WHEREAS: Mr. Schiff has served the Board with generous compassion since 1997 as a member of the Board of Trustees, serving on the Executive Committee, the Student Life Committee, the Committee on Trustees and the Investment Committee.
and
WHEREAS: Mr. Schiff has in that time chaired the Student Life Committee and been instrumental in arranging fruitful opportunities for members of the Board to meet with students to listen and learn about Deerfield from diverse perspectives.
and
WHEREAS: Mr. Schiff as a physician has instigated productive discourse on the health issues of adolescents.

Now be it therefore RESOLVED that the Board of Trustees of Deerfield Academy expresses its heartfelt gratitude to Andrew Schiff for bringing his voice, vision and clear promise to the Academy and its people.
and
Be it further resolved that this Resolution be spread upon the minutes of the May 6, 2007 the Board of Trustees of Deerfield Academy and that the Clerk be instructed to send a copy thereof to Mr. Schiff.

NEWEST ADDITION TO THE 1983 Communication channel: THIRTY SIX classmates can now be viewed on our Class of 1983 Web Album. See current photos of classmates! Imagine the fun! Check it out by holding “Ctrl” while you click on the link below: You can even leave comments…Bookmark this page…

If you are having problems viewing this site, copy and paste the following into your browser: http://picasaweb.google.com/jgknight83/DA1983

ANNUAL SUPPORT: Our 24th year since graduation is almost over – and our annual support participation is a little leaner than usual. We have only 39 donors – our usual finish on June 30th is about 60. Please take a minute to participate – at whatever level – if you have not done so already. Go to www.deerfieldalumni.org and click the button to the right called “Make a Gift to Deerfield”. THANKS

CONTACTING THE EDITOR:
Please let me know if there is a better email address for this missive…Email for newsletter contributions is jknight01038@comcast.net – or you could always use classnotes@deerfield.edu, or POST YOUR OWN to the website at www.deerfieldalumni.org. Hope to hear from you…

2006 - March- DA 83 E News

DA Class of 1983 E-Newsletter
Laaaaaaate March 2006


Dear 83er,

NEW YORK, NEW YORK! On April 11th, ARMSTRONG, GOODSON, KNIGHT, LYNCH, PIERSOL, SCHLICKMANN, SCHMIDT, and WEYMOUTH
are registered to attend the Deerfield Reception in NYC at the Penn Club on 30 West 44th Street. Rumored that Gottscho will appear…Psyched that Goodson is coming from California with his family! To register go to www.deerfieldalumni.org and then “Calendar & Events”. If you are in the city, you should be there…Starts at 6 pm…

In conjunction, Knight will host the first 25th REUNION Brainstorming session at the M Bar, (next door to the Penn Club at 12 West 44th Street), at 5 PM on that same Tuesday, April 11th! Bring your energy and your ideas!

Charlie Cost ‘83 Award
At School Meeting Feb 21: The highlight of this week was the presentation from last year’s Charles Cost Award recipient. This award is a cash stipend granted “to that student who, upon application, demonstrates a sincere desire to work in a volunteer capacity for a significant portion of the summer in a position which best suggests a commitment to help his/her fellow humans, a quality which will long be remembered as an important ingredient in the personality of Charles Piper Cost ’83.” This recipient gave a touching and informative presentation on his project last summer in South Korea. He explained that his aunt was born with mental disabilities and that he wanted to find a way to enrich her life and the lives of those who lived with her in her residential community. With the generous help of the Cost family, he gave art lessons to all interested members of the residential community. The Deerfield community was shown pictures of these proud artists and the work they produced. Finally, these new art students were honored with an Opening at a real art gallery in Seoul. The looks on their faces and the pride with which this project was described demonstrated how important these shared experiences are to the whole community.


FEEDBACK: Thanks to Nelse Clark, Hardie Jackson, Brian Steward, Doug Schmidt and Ed Goodson for their encouraging comments about the January Newsletter. The pictures appear to be a big hit, so keep them coming!

BACK FROM THE MIDEAST, for now…Dave Smith is back from his flying patrols in Afghanistan, but “I'm home until late March then going back to the Mid East for a couple months. Things are good here. Anna is doing well. Hope you are well and had a great holiday season.” Dave Smith Ed. Note: Dave, you are likely back there by now. Our thoughts, prayers and best wishes to you and your family! Keep us posted!

Jon Bernstein writes: “My wife, Kristi, and I have a son (Jack) who will be 2 in March. (Not sure if I've reported before). Too much fun. I've got to say we didn't have to endure too many sleepless nights. He's a champion snoozer at night. Rarely wakes up. (Jinx, as I was typing, he let out a yell. But all's OK and quiet again.) I'm still slugging it out at American Airlines. Determined to stay at least until we turn a profit for 2 quarters in a row. Then I'll contact Mr. Wareck about how to start a revolution.

Other than Jack and work, I spend lots of time helping my folks rebuild their house. Their town, Bay St. Louis, MS, was pretty much destroyed by Katrina. They're fixing up their house and will sell it. You can't imagine the destruction until you see it. I was down there a couple weeks ago, and there are huge (I mean huge) areas where nothing has been touched. It's as if the hurricane was last week. I also have tons of friends and family in New Orleans (my hometown) that we're doing whatever we can to help. The positive is my folks will probably move here.”

Congrats to Kevin McKelvey on his new job as Sales Director in the Americas for Groove Mobile, a hot digital music company!

Dave Venman chimed in with a note to the editor: “My old neighbor (on Plunkett West I) – boy that was a long time ago. (I used to be cool). Good to hear from you – sounds like things are going well, as always, at DA. I have not run into anyone in quite some time, although I used to see Jim Sullivan at Vermont Law School (even that was a long time ago now), and quite a few folks in and around Burlington, VT. I am now married with two children (Ethan 5 and Sophie 2), and living in Lincoln, VT, otherwise known as heaven on earth (population 500 or so). I have my own law practice with my wife, Sandra Lee, with offices in Vergennes and Middlebury. I specialize in Commercial and residential real estate, business/commercial law, and wills/estates, while my wife focuses on criminal and family law. We have no employees to keep overhead low, and with understanding bosses are able to slip out for afternoons of skiing (4 ski areas within ½ hour from home) and mountain biking. Not so bad for an old man.
Gotta go, but I wanted to touch base and say hello. Greetings to all, and I promise to put June, 2008 on my calendar.

Man on the move: Scott Pryce has a new position also: “I’ve been asked to run ProLogis operations in Iberia. ProLogis is an industrial real estate development and management company. This means I’m moving from Paris to Barcelona: it’s tough having to move from one “horrible” city to another. Linguistic adaptations are once again in order: I’m looking forward to morphing my Latin American Spanish to Spanish Castilian, and my Brazilian Portuguese to the old continent’s version of the language. I’ve got a huge renovation project on a house by the beach, which will be ready to receive guests once the contractors finish the job. But it is hard to say when that will be in the land of “mañana.”

THE NEW ALUMNI WEBSITE! Twenty-Eight (28) of us have registered on the new site so far – the more who register and “unhide” a bit of contact information – the more robust the DIRECTORY SEARCH feature will be!
Having you been to the CLASS of 1983 PAGE on the new site at www.deerfieldalumni.org lately? (I know it needs work-send suggestions). If you need help registering for the new site contact Doug dschmidt2@nyc.rr.com or John jknight@deerfield.edu… Check out the upgrades on the new site!

Automated registration and password retrieval process.
MyPage feature that can be customized.
Permanent email forwarding.
Ability to create and post class notes and related photos.
The ability to register online for events in addition to Reunion and to display who else is attending.
Use virtually any field in the alumni directory searches.
Personally select which pieces of information are viewable and which are hidden for your own record.

83 ON CAMPUS
Ed Goodson and family are planning an East Coast trip in early April. They might even hit the NYC reception on April 11!!! Update: They are registered!

FOR THE SKIERS:
Alpine Skiing teams both finish second in Class A in NEPSAC! This is the top New England skiing class. Last year, their first in Class A, our Boys finished 3rd and girls finished 4th. All this without much snow!
Second Place Finish for Alpine Skiers
February 17, 2006: Both the girls and boys team finished 2nd in the NEPSAC Alpine Skiing Class A Championships.
For the Slalom event all 5 boys racers finished in the top 15. Captains Kyle Avery and Marshall MacNabb finished 2nd and 5th respectively. The girls were paced by Christie Schnurr's 3rd place and Captain Liz McClure's 8th place finish.
In the afternoon's Giant Slalom event the girls team was again led by Christie Schnurr and Captain Liz McClure (4th and 7th) with Captain Catherine Hart finishing in 11th. Captains Marshal MacNabb and Kyle Avery led the charge for the boys (4th and 7th) followed by freshman Philip Amato in 10th.

New England Prep School Class A Alpine Ski Championships 2006

Boys Team Results:

Place Team Slalom GS Score
--------------------------------------------------------------
1 HOLDERNESS 11 8 19
2 DEERFIELD 18 21 39
3 NEW HAMPTON 24 27 51
4 KENTS HILL 44 45 89
5 VERMONT ACAD 60 69 129
6 PROCTOR ACAD 98 52 150
7 ST PAULS 95 58 153
8 EAGLEBROOK 89 75 164
9 GOULD 66 100 166
10 KIMBALL UNION 102 84 186

Girls Team Results:

Place Team Slalom GS Score
--------------------------------------------------------------
1 HOLDERNESS 11 8 19
2 DEERFIELD 25 22 47
3 GOULD 30 28 58
4 ST PAULS 37 39 76
5 KENTS HILL 58 59 117
6 VERMONT ACAD 77 84 161
7 PROCTOR ACAD 70 94 164
8 KIMBALL UNION 105 73 178
9 NEW HAMPTON 91 96 187
Hosted by HOLDERNESS SCHOOL at CANNON MOUNTAIN, FRANCONIA, NH.

THE PHOTO SECTION:

Doug and Lisa Cruikshank recently visited John and Martha Knight in Hatfield, MA. Doug is on a “garden walk” as he transitions from CSFB to a new job at Lehmann Brothers. In his spare time, Doug has developed a new hobby as shown below. Here Doug shows us the size of his…latest bottle of port wine.


Giving to DA: We’re in the final 90 days. Help us regain our laudable participation level. It doesn’t get much easier than clicking below:




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

Please let me know if there is a better email address for this missive…Email for newsletter contributions is jknight01038@comcast.net – or you could always use classnotes@deerfield.edu, or POST YOUR OWN to the website at www.deerfieldalumni.org. Hope to hear from you…