Dave Gerard

8822 Harbor Cir

Terrell, North Carolina 28682

703-626-0393

dgerard@erols.com

www.west-point.org/class/usma/1968

 

Note the new address and phone number – and stay alert for a new email address.  Yea, I know it’s a tough switch after 20 years, but the class has grown (up?) with change. 

The major transition story is obviously about Dan & Kathryn Kaufman.  I’m not even going to try and contend with the Supe’s letter in the May Assembly or the Dean's Office article.  While they attempt to chronicle and capture Dan’s achievements in keeping our alma mater a viable and relevant institution, they can never capture what Dan & Kathryn mean to us.  They always facilitated and strengthened our connection with West Point during visits, through recruiting and reunion support, and having someone there that would give us straight answers, and they personified the dictum of The Corps and The Corps and The Corps.  They dedicated themselves to West Point, and West Pont is infinitely stronger for it.  West Point and the class will miss them there greatly.  Fortunately, we will be able to keep in contact with them, and share their adventures and exploits for years to come.  While Dan’s retirement (actually 6 June 2005) marks the “last man standing” of a classmate on continuous active duty, we still have two remaining in uniform: AF Doctor Bill Dickerson, and Army Chaplain Mike Cerrone.

[Photo #1 –“Attendees at Dan Kaurfman’s retirement p-rade:  Rich Carlson, Ray Puffer, Terry Holland, Dave Clemm, Dave Ohle, Tom McNaugher, Sandy Cohn, Peter Hanson, John (Tony) Dodson, Dan Kaufman, Lyle Pirnie, Dave Martin, Tony Ambrose, Dutch Hostler, Jon Dodson, Pat Toffler, John Calabro, and Mike Palone”]

Other news to come out of the gathering to witness Dan’s retirement p-rade includes:  Pat Tofler is “retired retired” from his USMA Engineering Operations and ORSA duties and living a happy and busy life on a Greenwood Lake in New Jersey with his bride, Robin; cadets are young; Jim & Kathy Feher are the proud parents of a 2nd Classman; There’s a “Respect Officer” on Bde Staff; Dave Martin was in Saudi Arabia for about two weeks to begin a consulting assignment to bring broadband Internet to the masses (Anyone who has been there agrees that Saudi Arabia is a very rich country but, even when you’re in a 5-star hotel, all there is is a dial-up connection that sports frequent dropoffs as a “feature”); Peter Hanson enjoys his banking duties with private clients in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; Lyle Pirnie has reinvented himself again and is embarking on a new employment adventure in licensing and Government compliance with a Chinese semiconductor and computer operation; and Jim Greenberg contacted John Calabro in February to find out how to put on a Founders Day celebration in Riyadh since there were only about five grads left in there – enough for a party.

 

[Photo #2 – “Dave Martin with friends in Saudi Arabia”]

In a single-handed attempt to help restore some culture to cadet life and create “Renaissance officers,” Standard Holdings Group and H Quotient CEO Sandy Cohn is sponsoring evenings at the opera programs for cadets.  Sandy selects the opera based on story relevance and foots the bill for cadets and an OIC to sit in better than scholarship student seats.  During intermissions, the cadets are escorted back stage to meet and have refreshments with the performers.  The New Yorker magazine dedicated its March 5 “Talk of the Town” section to Sandy’s endeavor.  In another New York adventure, Sandy was the wedding coordinator, stand-in father of the bride, and best man at the winter wedding of Brian & Jan Copley.  He also hosted their reception at the Rainbow Room.  After Dan Kaufman’s p-rade and reception, Jon Dodson and I were treated to dinner and lively conversation by Sandy & Kathy at the Hotel Thayer.   I always see it as a special miracle to see Sandy and Jon together because, other than class functions in the DC area, the last time they were together was in the Field Hospital supporting the 1st Cav in Vietnam where they were both med-evaced to in critical condition as a result of separate fire fights.

[Photo #3 – “Sandy Cohn invites Maj. Scott Chancellor, and CDTs Marya Rosenberg, Devon Greer, Aaron Wilkerson, Kent DeBenedictis, Kyle Greenheck, Sean Miller, Jacob Kim, Ryan Clinton, Michael Kim, and Lorin Veigas to an evening at the opera in NYC”]

 [Photo #4 – “Brian & Jan Copley, and Jan's daughter Amanda Healey at the Rainbow Room after Brian’s and Jan’s wedding”]

While they would have loved to attend, Jim & Kaew Carman were in the throws of crashing to get their house fixed up to sell in preparation for Jim’s reassignment to Hawaii, where he will be working at Camp Smith.

I’m learning that lawyers don’t retire – the “loop-hole” part of them anyway.  Last December, when Pete Wallace heard that Dutch Hostler had “beat” him to retirement, he was hurt.  Dutch retorted that, since his retirement from IBM was age based and Dutch was older than Pete, Pete still had a shot at earlier retirement.  Pete moved his “victory lap” (aka around the world tour or taking the long way home from London) planning into high gear so he could retire from Morgan Lewis as a partner at a younger age than Dutch retired from IBM.  As of 31 March, Pete is a gentleman of leisure touring Europe in fine style in the first arc of his world tour.  We expect that he and Barbara to return to the US soon since son, Steve, is about to become a dad in June and Gwen's husband, Brian, was transferred to Tampa to do essentially what Dwight Lee does – take various people to sporting events and play golf.

[Photo #5 – “Jay & Chris Williams, Jerry & Ana Hansen, and Jon & AJ Dodson last 4th of July”]

About 37 years ago, as part of graduation leave, Barbara & I visited my parents and where I grew up in Southern California.  One of my parents’ friends was a member of a key club called The Magic Castle – a private club owned by and run for magicians.  As a graduation present, the friend gave me a pass to The Magic Castle for Barbara and me and our guests.  Since I had been away from the LA area for so long – and my professional aspirations were very different than my old friends, our only guests were a sorority sister of Barbara’s and her husband.  When we arrived at the club, we ran into Dick Steiner and Bob Clarke, who were also touring Southern California, and had just been kicked out of the reception area of the Magic Castle because they were not members and had no member connections.  A brief conversation with the persons granting entrance to the club, checking of my pass, and presentation of class rings gained all six of us entry.  Now, West Point graduate, retired Signal Corps officer, and bipartisan (he has performed for Democrats and Republicans) magical entertainer and mentalist Dick Steiner has been invited to perform in front of his peers at The Magic Castle during the same time as the class boat cruise in Alaska.  If you’re missing the cruise and you’re gong to be in the LA area around 22 August, contact Dick for special passes – he can get you in.

John Westerlund sounds like he has a balance to his life that will sustain him for the long run.  Other than teaching a class for a semester, he hasn’t had much to do with Northern Arizona University since he finished his Ph.D.  Normally, he’s a cook, laundry man, bottle washer, and chauffeur for his son.  His “real employment” is seasonal as a summer National Park Service interpretive ranger at the three National Monuments just outside of Flagstaff, as well as doing interpretive presentations in the local Forest Service campgrounds and at the top of the ski lift at Snowbowl ski resort.  He received a couple of awards (Book of the Year from the Arizona Authors Association and the Southwest Book Award from the Border Regional Library Association in El Paso) for his book, Arizona’s War Town, and has been doing signings and presentations throughout the Southwest.  He went to El Paso for the award presentation and called Gil Tijerina, who John maintains, has been a civilian too long since Gill had no idea who he was talking to despite having classes together and engaging in many BS sessions, trips, etc at The Rock.  I explained to John that Gil may be experiencing a little stress right now since his bride, Irene, is having a really rough time with cancer – three bouts in as many years.  Her surgeon keeps removing it, and she goes through chemo, but the stuff keeps coming back.  You know Gil.  He does focus.

Speaking of the health of classmate brides, Fred Johnson reports that the experimental drug Linda had been using was not working, so she has reverted to the old tried and true chemo.  With the change in regimen, her skin has cleared up and the family sees her as getting back to normal.  For those of you wondering, neither Fred nor Linda have ever smoked, which reduces her chances for lung cancer to about 10 percent – but she has it and she needs our prayers and best wishes.  For those of you who wish to follow the Johnsons’ progress, tune into CarePages.com, enroll, and follow the directions to "sparkyjohnson."

Art Ackerman reported that he has completed another transition and is now on the East Coast as VP of Programs with DataPath Inc.  Art & Sun Cha are now living in Duluth (suburb of Atlanta), Georgia – and were not part of the “runaway bride” flap.

Paul & Kerry Baerman sadly advised us of the devastating loss of their middle child, Colin, who died in his sleep after a long and grueling illness.  Paul & Kerry requested that if you cared to help remember Colin, donations in his name may be made to the Saint Peter School Scholarship Fund, c/o Saint Peter Church, P.O. Box 827, Monument, CO 80132.

Space precludes reporting on all of the news sent in from Founders Day activities.  When slashed in the name of economy, I’m beginning to know how Firestone feels about Ford.  Although our class ranks 4th in subscription to Assembly, we are being curtailed in Notes space.  Our subscription numbers show that we do care about remaining in contact with classmates and the health of our class.  A major material legacy that Dan Kaufman – and the class – will leave at West Point is the new library.  We are still short of our fund raising goal and we urgently need everyone’s help.  If your resources are limited – especially after the tanking of the stock market and soaring of oil prices — we request an early donation to our class gift fund.  Once we take care of that, we’ll see what we can do about propping up the AOG.  In the mean time, look after each other, check out class web site, keep in touch by sharing adventures because YOU’RE ALL WE’VE GOT.