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Kurt Blankmeyer writes,<br />
“Bravo, Piers! Thanks for taking<br />
this on. Great to hear from all<br />
of you. Retired from law practice,<br />
I read, write stories and essays,<br />
dabble in local politics, try to<br />
cook edible meals, and spoil our<br />
magnificent Maine Coon cats. Ilga<br />
and I will soon celebrate our 50th<br />
wedding anniversary. Stay well.”<br />
George Dangerfield congratulates<br />
Piers on his new title, adding,<br />
“Middlesex couldn’t have chosen<br />
anyone better than you! Meg and<br />
I are thrilled at your elevation and<br />
look forward to your continued<br />
revelations of our school years<br />
and beyond. Meg retired at the<br />
beginning of this year, so we’re<br />
able to have extended travel to<br />
many places and countries for<br />
longer periods of time than before.<br />
We’re hoping to get together with<br />
you and our classmates sooner<br />
rather than later. I’m aware of<br />
the years since we were in close<br />
contact. But they were some of<br />
the finest times. All the best.”<br />
Frank Dinsmore reports, “I’m<br />
now in the fifth year of retirement.<br />
We sold our last yacht, a Nordhavn<br />
48’ that we kept in Sausalito, and<br />
are trying to downsize. We still<br />
have our airplane, a Turbo Arrow<br />
III, and I continue to fly Angel<br />
Flights. I was unable to take my<br />
Airline Transport Pilot practical<br />
exams, so I remain a commercial<br />
pilot. We would like to sell out<br />
and move to Idaho, but that will<br />
take time.<br />
Sandy Dodge also offers his<br />
congratulations to Piers, writing,<br />
“You’ll make a great class secretary.<br />
I wonder how many of us are left?<br />
You’ve made the move that Kate<br />
and I will probably be faced with<br />
in the next few years. Two years<br />
ago, I kicked myself upstairs to<br />
be chairman of the board of our<br />
company, so I’m semiretired. I<br />
assume you are in Rhode Island.<br />
Many times I have thought about<br />
the summer we were together on<br />
Chan Young’s ranch before spending<br />
our freshman year in college.<br />
We had a lot of fun. All the best.”<br />
Rusty Robb tells Piers, “Glad<br />
to see you are going to reinvigorate<br />
the class communication. A quick<br />
overview of my life: Retired from<br />
the M&A business (after 30 years)<br />
a few years ago. Attempting to<br />
write my third book but struggling<br />
to find a publisher through my<br />
literary agent. Bike every day<br />
until last week, when a falling tree<br />
branch knocked me out for two<br />
hours. Our four kids, all in their<br />
50s, are doing well in various businesses<br />
and have spawned seven<br />
grandchildren, the eldest of whom<br />
is 26. Piers and I see each other<br />
annually for a weekend, and I see<br />
Piper monthly. I’m an avid reader,<br />
40-50 books per year, and enjoy<br />
my various ‘men’s clubs,’ one of<br />
which just started admitting women.<br />
And, lastly, the Town of Concord<br />
is suing Lee and me, including<br />
Harvard College and four other<br />
abutters, regarding territorial rights.<br />
Life marches on. Thanks, Piers for<br />
picking up the baton. (Since 1970,<br />
my second wife changed my name<br />
to “Russ,” but for you old timers,<br />
I’m still ‘Rusty.’)”<br />
Jim Wilson writes, “What<br />
fun to somehow be on this e-mail<br />
connection. My life has been less<br />
glamorous, sans titles and notable<br />
achievements, than most of you. I<br />
live in Vermont, near Dartmouth<br />
College, and stay active teaching,<br />
traveling, enjoying the outdoors,<br />
and fretting over the current political<br />
charade. I do enjoy hearing<br />
what friends from looonnnngggg<br />
ago are doing in our twilight years.<br />
Good health takes on special<br />
meaning once one hits the big<br />
8-0!”<br />
’57<br />
Class Secretary: Lee Hegner,<br />
leehegner@aol.com<br />
Wendell Poppy writes, “Jessie<br />
and I are still working on our old<br />
farmhouse and gardens. The big<br />
job, this year, is an almost DIY<br />
renovation of the summer kitchen/<br />
guest house. My carpenter neighbor<br />
and I just installed a new floor<br />
made of reclaimed barn boards.<br />
Thank you, Middlesex, for introducing<br />
me to the joys of woodworking.<br />
Our farm is in a conservation<br />
program, and the continual<br />
struggle is keeping invasive plants<br />
out of the prairie grasses. I’m pretty<br />
sure these are Pennsylvania prairie<br />
grasses. Lest you think it’s all work<br />
and no play here in rural Pennsylvania,<br />
we do find time to appreciate<br />
our local and excellent music and<br />
theater offerings. I try to go to<br />
the gym or take a long walk on<br />
the nearby rail trail every day. Our<br />
nine-year-old grandson keeps us<br />
entertained with his soccer and<br />
basketball games. And he allows<br />
one-on-one scrimmages with<br />
me. The Amtrak line is 15 minutes<br />
away and gets us to Penn Station in<br />
three hours, so we can easily visit<br />
two of our sons and families in<br />
NYC. Our major trip this November<br />
is to Vietnam and Angkor Wat. I<br />
have the Ken Burns’ Vietnam series<br />
on my watch list, but I keep falling<br />
asleep after about 10 minutes. It’s<br />
not Ken’s fault. I have so many<br />
fond memories of my years at<br />
Middlesex. Thanks, guys!”<br />
Harry Poett reports, “I continue<br />
to enjoy life in Montana. I<br />
skied in Montana during the winter,<br />
including a week-long trip with<br />
children and grandchildren—all<br />
21 of us in one house. I traveled to<br />
Chile and Argentina trout fishing<br />
in March and April, fished in<br />
England in May, and played tourist<br />
in Portugal. This fall will find me<br />
steelhead fishing in British<br />
Columbia.”<br />
’58<br />
Class Secretary: Peter Hutchinson,<br />
pilgrim1837@yahoo.com<br />
Hays Browning reports that they<br />
spent a few days in Stonington, CT,<br />
with his niece, Allison Green ’85,<br />
and her family. After some downtime<br />
in Lucerne, he is embarking<br />
on a two-week river cruise on the<br />
Rhine and Moselle Rivers, from<br />
Basel to Antwerp.<br />
Bart Calder has little to report,<br />
except that it was hot and muggy<br />
last summer, even up along the<br />
mid-Maine coast.<br />
John Chalmers was really<br />
glad he made it back for our 60th<br />
reunion, and after seeing everyone<br />
again, he is already looking forward<br />
to the 65th. He has retired<br />
from UCSD but is still doing a<br />
little community theatre and<br />
computer art.<br />
Trip Pollard continues to<br />
be very busy out in Montana.<br />
It turns out that his son and John<br />
Sweeney’s grandson are both<br />
engineers on large yachts sailing<br />
out of Ft. Lauderdale, FL.<br />
Mike Simmons had lunch<br />
with Bill Moseley shortly before<br />
the reunion. They both live in the<br />
same town in Florida. Bill and<br />
his wife enjoy touring around the<br />
country in their travel trailer, but<br />
they couldn’t make the reunion.<br />
Marty and Pete Hutchinson<br />
enjoyed the summer between<br />
Acton and Manchester. Some golf<br />
for me, beach time for us with our<br />
grandsons. I had a long lunch with<br />
John Sweeney, who is working<br />
for Brick Ends Farm, an organic<br />
compost company in Hamilton,<br />
MA. We both agreed that the 60th<br />
reunion, with 13 classmates returning,<br />
was great, especially seeing<br />
George Monro, whom we hadn’t<br />
seen since graduation. I want to<br />
thank both Rufus Frost and Phil<br />
Davis for all their help in making<br />
it such a success for our class.<br />
With Everest visible in the<br />
background, Leigh and Art<br />
Sorensen ’59 stood at 17,500+<br />
feet near Gokyo Ri in Eastern<br />
Nepal in March <strong>2018</strong>.<br />
’59<br />
Art Sorensen reported, “Leigh<br />
and I went to Nepal in 1970, with<br />
the third group ever, to Annapurna<br />
Base Camp west of Kathmandu.<br />
We returned this March to eastern<br />
Nepal. We skipped Everest Base<br />
Camp to climb to Goyko. The<br />
people and mountains are still magnificent.<br />
Nepal has pretty much<br />
recovered from the 2015 earthquakes.<br />
The mountain villages<br />
now have hydroelectricity and “tea<br />
houses”—unheated hostels—for<br />
trekkers. And everybody has a<br />
cell phone.”<br />
’60<br />
Class Secretary: Hunter<br />
Moorman, hunter.moorman@<br />
gmail.com<br />
George Ecker reported last<br />
summer that he and Ruth enjoyed<br />
MIDDLESEX fall <strong>2018</strong> 29
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