2026
Happy New Year!! Can you believe that we are about to celebrate our 70th reunion since our 1956 graduation. Your Reunion Committee, working with Heather Corbett and Krystal Augustine at the Yale Alumni Association (YAA), are planning a wonderful celebration for us all. The reunion will be held May 22 through May 24, 2025. A block of hotel rooms has been held for us at the Omni New Haven Hotel. Look for notifications from the YAA shortly about the hotel room block. You must make your reservation in January to ensure you will have a room with our classmates at the Omni.
The Reunion Committee is chaired by Ray Foote. Other members include Dan Banks, Ed Barlow, Marv Berenblum, Tersh Boasberg, Peter Braun, Ken Liebman, Bill Poovu, Bill Rees, and me. Be on the lookout for e-mailings from the YAA for further information.
As of June 30, 2025, the YAA reported that we had 300 members of the class still with us, 136 of whom paid class dues last fiscal year totaling $15,175.00 bringing our treasury balance to $68,333.64 as of June 30. Much of this will be used to subsidize our reunion.
Raleigh (Mouse) Coffin has recently published a new novel – Four Yale Men: Their Lives and the Lady Who Dazzled Them. It deals with the Class of 1956 and the intertwined lives of four fictitious Yale graduates who aggressively go into the business world. Mouse says a bit of romance is included. The book is available at Amazon.
Regrettably, we continue to lose classmates. Martin R. Bowen, a dedicated public servant and advertising executive died on September 28, 2025. He remained loyal to Yale throughout his life and served with distinction as our Class Secretary for ten years. Professionally, Martin rose to become Senior Vice President of McCaffrey and McCall, Inc., a leading advertising firm where his many abilities left a lasting impression on both colleagues and clients. In addition to his professional accomplishments, Martin was an advocate for civic engagement, serving four years as a trustee on the Scarsdale Village Board where he was praised for the example he set for the responsiveness of government.
Jonathan W. (Jon) Fleming died peacefully on November 13, 2024, at his home in a retirement community in Mitchellville, Maryland. While serving in the U.S. Army at Fort MacPherson, Georgia, from 1957 to 1959, Jon witnessed the injustices of racism and segregation. inspiring him to pursue a career in Civil Rights. He worked briefly as a journalist for the Bennington, Vermont, Banner, before obtaining a law degree at Columbia University Law School in 1964. He then joined the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights where he helped craft and pass the pivotal Voting Rights Act of 1965. He later worked for California Senator Alan Cranston. Jon was an exercise enthusiast, biking 10 miles from his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, to his office and back. He was a lifelong swimmer having excelled on the Yale swimming team. He remained active in retirement, volunteering as a tutor and staying involved with the Democratic Party.
Emil J. (Hutch) Liebewein died on February 2, 2025, at a hospice facility in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. With his BS in engineering from Yale, Hutch was initially employed in General Electric’s Management Training Program. He later obtained an MBA from the University of Chicago and remained in Chicago after graduation. In 1996, he retired as Vice President of Manufacturing for Bodine Electric Company in Chicago, a position he held for many years having held several other management roles throughout his career. He met his first wife on a flight to Chicago in 1964 when the flight attendant, his future wife, accidentally spilled coffee on him. She died in 1991. Decades later, Emil reunited with Deborah Dow Brabec, a widow, whom he had dated in high school and escorted to a Yale prom. They lived in Hattiesburg to be near members of her family. Emil had a deep love of the outdoors and served many years as “President for Life” of Trollers Unlimited fishing club in Chicago.
March/April
Our 70th reunion is fast approaching. Activities will begin on Friday, May 22 and run through breakfast and a memorial service on Sunday, May 24. By now, I hope you have made your reservation at the Omni Hotel which will be our reunion headquarters.
I recently received a report on the status of the Class of 1956 Memorial Scholarship Fund, reflecting a book value as of June 30, 2025, of $599,094 and a market value of $858,499. A distribution was made for the 2025–26 academic year of $39,283. Ada J. Perlman, Class of 2027, was the recipient of our scholarship. She is a college aide at Pierson College; investigations editor for the Yale Daily News; a performer and tour manager for Magevet, a Jewish a cappella group; and active in several other campus activities. She is the granddaughter of Lawrence Perlman ’57, and the daughter of Jonathan Perlman ’86.
Bruce Dunn emailed me his observation praising Yale for having done better than other universities in keeping some “balance in unbalanced times.” He observed that in the past the university allowed excessive spending on education at the expense of building maintenance, but with great endowment management it has rebalanced quite well.
After hearing Es Esselstyn speak of his Vietnam experience during his November Zoom presentation, Mike Carey wrote that he, too, served in Vietnam with the 312th Evacuation Hospital, a reserve unit from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Afterwards, he spent 27 years in the Army Reserve and served again on active duty in Desert Storm in which his daughter also served.
Along with his payment of class dues, Claude Offenbacher wrote, “Still enjoying my principal life hobby—acting recently with a role in the ‘Not Ready for Retirement Players’ production of Arthur Miller’s Incident at Vichy in Eugene, Oregon. . . . The play speaks to [the] arrest of French citizens in 1942 during WWII and presages ICE run-ups in twenty-first century United States.”
Ed Renner also paid his class dues and reported that he is glad to be among the 30 percent of us still on “the right side of the grass.” He has enjoyed his retirement for 28 years and his 14 grandchildren and 9 greats.
Bill Dickinson says he is still enjoying good health, playing golf two or three times a week, riding his bicycle, keeping house, and helping with church projects. He misses his wife of 67 years who died two years ago.
George M. Ball, a founding partner of Philpott Ball & Company, a boutique investment bank serving the defense, aerospace, and technology markets for over 30 years, died on March 8, 2025. Upon graduation from Yale, George was commissioned as an officer in the US Marine Corps, where he became an aviator serving four years flying numerous types of aircraft. Upon discharge, George joined Shell Oil Company before starting his 50-year career in investment banking. He began with Reynolds and Company and Kidder Peabody in Boston before moving to New York City with Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette where he became managing director. In 1983, he moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, to manage the Three Guys grocery chain, but returned to investment banking in 1989, retiring from Philpott Ball and Werner in 2012. George served on several corporate and nonprofit boards throughout his life. He is survived by his wife Barbara.
Arthur (Art) Greenberg passed away on November 25, 2025, at Maplewood of Southport, Connecticut. A native of the Manhattan Beach section of Brooklyn, New York, Art entered the family business, Union Confectionery Machine Company, after graduating from Yale. Founded in 1912, the company bought, sold, and rebuilt used confectionery equipment and built new equipment. During his first two years there, Art obtained a master’s degree in industrial engineering from Columbia University. Over his career, Art introduced European machinery to the North American market and earned the respect of customers in the confectionery, baking, and snack food industries around the world. His organizational skills were legendary. He retired in 2007 but was active with the YMCA’s Men of Westport/Weston, a group of retired and semi-retired businessmen, serving the group in leadership roles.
In early December, Roger Bullard sent me an e-mail informing me that Dr. F. Whiting (Whitey) Hays had died. Subsequently, I received an obituary reporting the date of his passing as November 7, 2025, in Concord, Massachusetts. Whitey received his medical degree from New York Medical College in 1960 and completed seven years of residency in both general and thoracic surgery at San Francisco Hospital, Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, and New York Medical College’s Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals. He was drafted by the US Army in June 1967, completing basic training at Fort Sam Houston in 1969 before deploying to Vietnam. He served during the first Tet Offensive and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for Meritorious Service. After his discharge, Whitey settled with his family in Concord and pursued his career as a surgeon until he retired in 2013. He traveled often with his family and was a lifelong fly fisherman, making annual pilgrimages with his children and grandchildren to Maine’s Rapid River.
Michael R. J. O’Connor died peacefully in his home in Branford, Connecticut, on December 12, 2025. He received his law degree at the University of Connecticut. His family reported that no one had a greater mind as evidenced by his winning ways in playing Trivial Pursuit. He was also known to be unabashedly silly with no face he could not make nor sound or voice he could not imitate, keeping his family and others in stitches. His family praised him as being an incredibly hard worker with kindness, humility, and sincerity. He is survived by his wife Maureen.
May/June
It is reunion time!! Our 70th Reunion will begin on Friday, May 22. Programs will begin that afternoon and run through brunch and a memorial service for those we have lost over the past five years on Sunday, May 24. I look forward to seeing you all there!!
One of the great pleasures of participating in our monthly Zoom meetings is learning about important matters that we may not have known about. For instance, Jordan Cohen recently told us about a very interesting article in Foreign Affairs magazine entitled “The Price of Authoritarianism” which is available on the magazine’s web site – foreignaffairs.com. It is worth reading.
Another example of these informative monthly sessions was provided by John Gille, our Zoom speaker in March, who spoke on his career at the National Center for Atmospheric Research Center with a focus on remotely sensing from satellites.
I regret to report that we continue to lose classmates. Russell S. (Russ) Broad, Jr., a native of New York City, died on February 10, 2026, in Naples, Florida. Russ joined the Navy after graduation and spent three years on active duty and remained deeply proud of his service throughout his life. He worked for more than four decades in financial services beginning in institutional sales before becoming a stockbroker with Kidder Peabody, UBS, and ultimately with Stifel. In his final years Russ lived independently in Naples. He loved skiing, tennis, playing cards, boating, and being at the beach.
Dr. Norman S. Hubbard died peacefully at his home in Oyster Bay, New York, on February 18, 2026. After Yale Norman went on to obtain both Masters and PhD degrees in economics. He began in academia as an assistant professor of economics at Brooklyn College, eventually becoming a tenured professor there. His research and teaching centered on labor dynamics and manufacturing in the U.S. He is best known, however, for his accomplishments as a philatelist where he became a passionate collector of Latin American postage stamps. He was considered to have the finest collection of Guatemalan stamps ever assembled. He won several prizes for his collections. He served as Governor of the Collectors Club of New York and Chairman of the Philatelic Foundation as well as several other prestigious positions within the field of philately.
Jack E. McGregor, founder of the Pittsburgh Penguins and a former Pennsylvania state senator, died on January 6, 2026 in Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania. The obituary in the New York Times reported that “he did a lot of things in a lot of places.” He began his career at age seven delivering newspapers on his bicycle. After his Yale graduation Jack served with the U.S. Marine Corps attaining the rank of Captain. Upon his release, he entered The University of Pittsburg Law School, serving as editor in chief of the law review and finishing first in his class. While in law school he successfully ran for the Pennsylvania senate serving there for two terms. As founder and owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins, he served as its first president and its representative on the National Hockey League’s board of governors. He sold his interest in the Penguins and moved with his family to Washington, D.C. when he was appointed by President Nixon as general counsel for the U.S. Pay Board. Among his other distinguished corporate roles he served as general counsel for PEPCO, executive vice president of Carey Energy Corp., founder of an international venture capital firm, President and CEO of Aquarian Water Company, and chairman of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation as an appointee of President George W. Bush. Throughout his life, Jack was active in politics and community activities in addition to his interests in professional sports. He is survived by his wife Joannah Punell McGregor.
Gerald F. (Jerry) Linderman died on his 91st birthday, September 13, 2025, in Saline, Michigan. Following his Yale graduation, Gerald joined the U.S. Foreign Service holding posts in Nigeria, India, and the Republic of the Congo. These experiences led him to an impressive academic legacy at Northwestern University and the University of Michigan, earning both his M.A. and PhD from Northwestern. His passion for American History resulted in a lengthy career at Michigan as a professor specializing in articulating a raw, transparent view of soldiers’ experiences in American wars. During his tenure he received four teaching awards before his retirement in 1995. His daughters frequently met former students who often commented that Jerry was the best professor they ever had. He authored three books throughout his career focused on American wars. He will be remembered as a kind and gentle man and academically as someone with a deep understanding of battle.
Lawrence A. (Larry) Strauss was reported by his wife Francine Weinberg to have died on May 2, 2025. I regret I was unable to find any further information about Larry, his career or his interests.
Andrew Torchia died in his Larnaca, Cyprus, home on December 31, 2025, following an illness. He was a career journalist who described journalism as “a good education [with] a blend of pressure, hunches, guts and elbows, writing simple declarative sentences and beating other reporters to the nearest phone.” He started in journalism at his hometown paper, The Lancaster New Era. He then moved briefly to the Wall Street Journal before joining the Associated Press (AP) in New York City. His career with the AP took him to London, Nairobi, Lisbon, Johannesburg and Stockholm where he was chief of Nordic services. He took early retirement in 1994 and sailed the Mediterranean with his wife Marian in a 16 meter steel-hulled Chinese junk for some years. They split time living on the junk in the summers and an apartment in Larnaca in the winter. Andrew had a stroke in 2000 damaging his speech and ability to understand others, but he developed a liking for Chinese opera. After English language tutoring, his wife’s urging, and partial recovery, Andrew returned to reading, travel and a degree of conversation. Both his sons are now international journalists.
July/August
70TH REUNION
As the Class of 1956 celebrated its 70th reunion during the weekend of May 22–24, we were reminded of the words of “Bright College Years”:
“ . . . Oh, why doth time so quickly fly?
The seasons come, the seasons go,
The earth is green or white with snow,
But time and change shall naught avail
To break the friendships formed at Yale.”
Indeed, the 30 of us who spent a 48-hour weekend together renewed those friendships and even met some new friends, all of which made us very happy to have participated in what will likely be our last formal gathering in New Haven. We had total attendance of 59, including wives, widows, and significant others—a great turnout for a class of nonagenarians. We were one of the few classes to have held a 70th reunion, but hopefully more will follow our leadership.
Ray Foote served as our reunion chairman once again. He was ably assisted by Dan Banks, Ed Barlow, Marv Berenblum, Tersh Boasberg, Peter Braun, Ken Liebman, Bill Poorvu, and Bill Rees. Our program began on Friday afternoon with Steve Scher showing a documentary film he created entitled The Way It Was, featuring several outstanding restaurants in Paris, France, from his days in 1972 while on sabbatical from Brown University. The finished product wasn’t completed until a few years ago due to his career change. The film was shown to us in a theater in the relatively new Humanities Quadrangle on York Street. From there, we journeyed to the Elm City Club for beverages and dinner. The evening concluded with several of us gathering for more time together at our reunion class headquarters in the New Haven Omni Hotel.
Saturday morning, we had several outstanding programs to choose from which had been arranged for all reunion participants by the Alumni Association—12 began at 9:30 a.m. and another 11 at 11 a.m. So much to learn and so little time! Shortly after noon, our class reconvened for lunch in the President’s Room on the second floor of the Schwarzman Center, during which time Yale’s president Maurie McInnis stopped by to introduce herself around our tables and make a few remarks. Our class participants also posed with her and Handsome Dan for a group photo.
Saturday afternoon we attended a wonderful talk by Jennifer Frederick, associate provost and executive director of the Poorvu Center, entitled “Artificial Intelligence at Yale”—which really helped many of us better understand artificial intelligence and how we might begin to use it. That was followed by President McInnis speaking to all the reunion classes in Woolsey Hall about Yale and its impact on higher education. The afternoon concluded with alums from a cappella groups entertaining everyone with song, including a medley of old Yale favorites. From there, we adjourned to Mory’s for dinner and a brief class business meeting. During that meeting we honored five classmates with an award for distinguished service to Yale and the class: Dan Banks, Peter Braun, Peter Brier, Jordan Cohen, and Stephen Scher. Dan, our class treasurer, reported that our class treasury had a current balance of $68,333 from class dues we have paid over the years. Much of this balance will be used to cover our reunion expenses. We also learned that our classmates have given Yale over $176 million since we graduated, some $495 thousand of which has been given to the Alumni Fund just this fiscal year.
Sunday morning, we gathered for brunch and a memorial service conducted by David Rivera, assistant university chaplain, honoring the 130 classmates who have died over the past five years. With that, our reunion concluded.
The weekend could not have been as successful and fun without the wonderful support we received from the Yale Alumni Association’s Heather Corbett, senior director for Yale College classes, and her staff. We had buses dedicated to our class for ease in getting to all our sessions, and staff members who were always on hand to assist everywhere we went giving directions, answering questions, etc.
Our class motto, Friendships Last, was clearly on display, and you can ensure its continuation by participating in our monthly class Zoom meetings. Our next meeting will be at 12:30 Eastern Time on Wednesday, September 9. YAA staff will email reminders several days in advance with the link. Everyone is invited to attend, but make sure you haven’t instructed the YAA to block your email.
September/October
We will resume our class Zoom meetings on Wednesday, September 9, with Jordan Cohen speaking to us on “Understanding Islam.” These sessions are open to all classmates; however, I am aware that some of you have asked the Alumni Association to block your emails to prevent you from getting too many messages from Yale. To get notices and links of our Zoom meetings, you will need to contact the YAA and ask to have your block removed.
I recently received an email from Bob Bartlett expressing his disappointment in not being able to attend our reunion. His wife died three years ago, and he has been traveling extensively since then including eight Viking ocean and river boat cruises. His ninth cruise conflicted with our reunion. It began on May 5 in Tokyo, crossing the Bering Sea and ending in Alaska on May 28. He also stays busy gardening, supporting his church, playing tennis, reading, and singing in musical groups including the Yale Alumni Chorus and the Pilgrim Festival Chorus in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
The class notes for the July/August issue of the Yale Alumni Magazine were entirely focused on our 70th reunion. Thus, I was unable to report the obituaries I have received since the May/June issue. Over the past several months I have received notifications of 12 classmates who have died. The magazine has space limitations for class notes, so I can only report brief obituaries for these classmates; however, my more complete reports for each of the 12 are posted on our website – yale56.org.
Charles C. (Charlie) Nott, IV, an avid fisherman and outdoorsman died March 16, 2018, while with friends at their camp in the Adirondacks. After working in banking for many years as a Certified Financial Planner, Charles became a teacher of Transcendental Meditation in the 1970s, affording him “insights into the world beyond this one.” He is survived by his wife Sarah.
Lawrence A. (Larry) Strauss died on May 2, 2025, in hospice care following injuries from a fall in his home in Lenox, Massachusetts. After his discharge from the U.S. Navy in 1960, he worked in his family’s clothing business in Ashville, North Carolina, before moving to New York City to pursue opportunities in the financial industry including Lehman Brothers. His wife of over half a century, Fran, survives.
Albin C. (Al) Koch died on May 16, 2025. He had a long and rewarding career, working for various law firms, as a Judge Advocate General in the U.S. Air Force, and the IRS before settling into private practice. In 1979, he and his wife Harriet bought their home of 45 years in Pasadena, California. In 2021 they gave their summer home in Nantucket to Harvard in memory of her father who had been a music professor there creating, the George Wallace Woodworth Graduate Research Fellowship.
The family of Dr. Roger B. Daniels reported his peaceful passing on December 7, 2025, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Roger obtained his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and received further training in Boston. Following military service, he began a lifetime of clinical practice as an internist and as a teacher serving for over two decades at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.
Lawrence K. (Larry) Schwartz died on February 28, 2026. Larry began his career working at New Haven Trap Rock Co. as an assistant engineer. He moved from that role to work at City Iron Works in Wethersfield, Connecticut, as a structural designer and then became a partner in Shepard Steel Company in West Hartford until his retirement. He is survived by his wife Merle.
Martin Fenton, Jr., a visionary whose career ranged from oil and gas exploration to large-scale real estate development to pioneering in the development of modern senior living communities, died March 6, 2026. By the 1980s, he recognized the rapid growth of the nation’s senior population and the need for senior retirement living and provided the leadership for making the Senior Resource Group become an industry leader in senior retirement living. He shared 38 years of marriage with his beloved wife Casey Griffith Fenton who survives.
Dr. Harte C. Crow died in Etna, New Hampshire, on March 21, 2026, after a sudden illness. With his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and further studies, Harte served two years in Vietnam and then became a staff radiologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and faculty member at Dartmouth Medical School. He established the medical center’s ultrasound and CT programs and co-authored three books on ultrasound. He is survived by his wife Ann, sister of our classmate Chuck Henry.
Robert W. (Bob) Miller died on March 23, 2026. Following Yale, Bob obtained a master’s in chemical engineering at the University of Delaware and began his career in plastics research for Monsanto Corporation and later worked at Diamond Shamrock Corporation, ARCO, and FINA dealing with customers around the country with occasional travel to Europe and Japan. His wife Janet survives.
Arthur L. (Art) Mori died on March 27, 2026. Following law school and brief careers in engineering, the U.S. Army, and secondary school teaching in Nigeria, he obtained a degree in secondary education at the University of California, Berkley; taught two more years: and obtained a PhD in chemistry at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, in 1971. He then began a lifetime of teaching at Chaminade University, Honolulu, until his retirement in 2000 but continued tutoring students for two more decades. He is survived by his wife Val.
Renowned jazz pianist and advocate for American music, John L. Eaton died in Chevy Chase, Maryland, during our reunion memorial service on May 24, 2026, in New Haven. He entertained us at reunions several times over the years. During his six-decades of performing John recorded albums for the Chiaroscuro label and delivered song-filled lectures on American music that were broadcast around the country. John began working with the Smithsonian in the late 1970s performing concerts that he described as “a mixture of stand-up comedy, lecture and playing.”
Dr. Bruce P. Anderson died on June 26, 2026. Bruce earned a Doctor of Dental Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Dental School and served as a dentist in the U.S. Army, earning the rank of Captain. In addition to his 40-year career as a dentist in Farmington, Connecticut, he was a pilot, a pilot instructor, a hot-air balloon pilot, and an off-road race driver. His wife Sally survives.
George S. Weaver, a member of our class who withdrew from Yale in February 1953, died on June 22, 2026. George was a life-long resident of West Virginia and active in many political and community organizations. While continuing his education at the University of Massachusetts’ agricultural school, he married his high school sweetheart Shirley who survives.