City Views - eCommons@Cornell - Cornell University

After graduation as a mechanical engineer,
George A. Jackson of Huntington, NY,
worked for the New York Telephone Co. until
his retirement in 1964. William E. Friedman
has been retired from his law practice for
two years. David C. Ford says he is still able
to get around.
Classmates whose deaths were reported recently
were Allison Danzig and Morris T.
Kwit. D James H. C. Martens, 1417
Sunken Rd., Fredericksburg, Va. 22401.
language of engineers. Otto Spahn—the
chemist, soldier, and now farmer—gives this
formula for oldsters, if we have a disability:
"You will just have to make the best of it and
carry on." The 256-mile drive from Hillsdale,
NY, to Ithaca leads him to have reservations
about getting to Reunion. Could you join forces
with Ed Moot, who lives in Rhinebeck? Let
him drive and you play the clarinet. Must you
get back the same day?
Ruth Van Kirk Royce, after breaking
some bones, took to the Oak HΠ1 Manor in Ithaca
for treatment and has graduated to a walker
and can drive a bit. Her daughter Mary Royce
Severns '53 visited for a month and returned to
Great Falls, Mont. Ruth plans to return to her
home near Enfield Falls this summer. The
class's sole representative from Oklahoma, Corinne
Lasater Elliott (Mrs. Estes C.) is ceriik
part-time farmer . . . doing something
in the potato world that nobody else doesW
Clifford Buck has contribu
ted lavishly to Cornell in the
nature of descendants. His
daughter, Shirley Buck Rabeler
'47 (Mrs. Raymond
C. '47) cites numerous descendants,
all loyal to the various
colleges on the Hill; so loyal, in fact, that
many of them could marry only other Cornellians.
Among the scattered graduates, three will
be celebrating Reunions this year. She sent a
photo which, unfortunately, would not
reproduce well enough for publication.
The "girls of '22" can still boast a bathing
beauty, not on the cover of Vogue, nor in a centerfold
of Penthouse, but nevertheless, authentic:
Madeline Gray (Grosshandler) Rubin,
who swims daily in an indoor, heated pool in
Amherst, Mass., has been asked by Time to
pose in a swimsuit. This, despite the passage of
years, should indicate senior vitality. Indoor
swimming in winter may not be Hawaii, but it's
not a bad illusion. D Sylvia Bernstein
Seaman, 244 W. 74th St., NYC 10023;
telephone (collect!), (212) 724-2261.
The second mailing for Reunion was to go to all
classmates on March 15, detailing our part in
the overall program for Thursday to Sunday,
June 11-14.
From Nat Talmage's letter to "Chape"
Condit we learn that the son in H. R. Talmage
and Son of Friar's Head Farm, 36 Sound Ave.,
Riverhead,. NY, is Nat, himself, and that he
turns over his geranium-growing business to
two more generations of Cornellians, while he
lends a hand from time to time. We hope they
can spare him June 11-14, maybe June 6-14. A
long time ago, a broken back from picking up
potatoes brought me back from the Fanning
farm on Sound Ave. to this Lake District area.
Jay C. Thomas, you may find the proposed
$225 round-trip fare from Chicago to Ithaca
of interest. After all, we mechanical engineers
should get back to school to learn the new
tain we should have a Reunion, but with illness
in her family and the 1,500-mile trip from Paul's
Valley, she will not make it. She keeps in touch
by subscribing to the Alumni News. D Rollin
H. McCarthy, 19-B Strawberry Hill Rd.,
Ithaca, NY 14850; telephone, (607) 277-0588.
aGreetings from a classmate
who resigned his class offices
following a stroke in November
1986.1 now welcome being
back at my precious jobs for
the class, due to excellent care,
good food, and good physical
therapy. As my doctor said, "If you like what
you are doing, keep doing it in moderation."
The 1987 dues bills have gone out. Our class
roster is down to some 600 men and women,
many inactive, of some 1,300 matriculates back
in 1919. Of the men, 95 paid dues. Some 35
Never mind that Wilton Jaffee '24 attended the Arts
college—not Agriculture—during his years on the Hill.
Sixty years or so later, he's going strong as a part-time
farmer, proud to be ' 'doing something in the potato
world that nobody else does/' Jaffee says he grows
"the only organic, high altitude, certified seed potatoes
in the U.S." on six acres near Aspen, Colorado, at
8,000 feet above sea level.
Potatoes grown frpm Jaffee's seed tubers have
been described by food critic James Beard as "fluffy
and snow white inside, with an earthy honest potato
taste, the like of which you'll seldom find." Each year,
after his spuds have been dug and safely stored away,
when Aspen becomes fluffy and snow white outside,
Jaffee heads for the slopes to reign as the area's oldest
ski instructor and ski racer. And, if that weren't remarkable
enough, in appropriate seasons he is also a
medal-winning free-style swimmer and golfer.
have passed on, which is expected in an old, old
class, but it is a saddening statistic.
As our 65th approaches, in June 1988, Van
is sounding out the possibility of a Reunion a
year early. You may have heard from him by
now. Van is our ace in Ithaca, who keeps things
on course. He has a new pacemaker, and improvement
to his hearing.
A letter to Van in January from Irving S.
Wright, MD '26 was forwarded to me. The
first paragraph alluded to my entering a nursing
home, as a "best" move if it is a good one. (Mine
is.) He states, "I continued to practice medicine
at the Medical College as emeritus professor
until 1981, when I undertook a new project at
the suggestion of the National Inst. on Aging
and others—the establishment of a new volunteer
agency—the American Federation for Aging
Research—devoted to the raising of funds to
provide grants for young MDs and PhDs who
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