Cornell Reunion 2007

"It's up to you to save the world.  Our generation messed up." said an older person to no one in particular. I graduated in 1982 with a degree in Chemistry.  As is tradition at Cornell, there were no hired inspirational speakers.  The send-off was given -- more appropriately, I think -- by the then university president Frank H.T. Rhodes.   The economy was in rough shape, but President Rhodes nevertheless emphasized the importance of setting great goals and finding meaning in service and leadership. I found a  portion of his speech in the NY Times .  My graduating class had 4,200 students, and President Rhodes was a distant figure.  Yet, we were separated by one degree. One summer, I had a job at Uris Library doing general inventory, cataloging, and shelving.  I learned this library was steward to a very special collection: all the issues, from number one with Marilyn Monroe on the cover, to the present, of Playboy Magazine.  I got the...

This past Saturday, a group of Cornellians volunteered to help cleanup Untermeyer Gardens .   I was there, along with my wife and son.  In part, it was for my son who needed community service hours for high school, but it was also a great outdoor experience. At the garden, a fence was built to keep deer out, but what of the deer already inside?  Here we are mapping out a "deer shooing."   We formed a line, and moving slowly through the bushes, herded the deer to a gate exit.   The photo above shows the team on the "easy" trail.  The bolder volunteers went through some tough and sloping terrain that included bushes, nettles, and dense branches. There was an estimated 12-18 deer in the garden and we counted 7 departures.  Not bad, but another round of deer shooing will be needed. We also got a tour and some history from master gardener Tim. Finally, we spent a couple of hours clearing an area of some brush, fall...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, ... it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair ... With apologies to Charles Dickens, I am writing about two sun dials on Cornell's campus.  One is outside Goldwin Smith Hall in the Arts Quad. As A Shadow Such Is Life The other is in the Engineering Quad. Designed And Erected In Memory Of His (Joseph N. Pew, Jr.) Loyalty To Engineering At Cornell As an undergrad, I didn't pay much attention to either of these works of art.  Apparently, neither do current students as they hurried past me while I was taking pictures.  But these two sun dials merit contemplation.  One is from the past, and with the gravitas that a layer of patina brings, provokes thoughts of time and mortality. The other looks outward, and with modern, shiny arms, seeks to embrace a future where the sky's the limit. When family and friends talk about college, ...

Last year I was able to reconnect with Ken Lin.  A former software developer with Lotus / IBM, he has struck out on his own at P1 Software .  He is following his passion for driving, auto-crossing, and racing. Here, he is with his son in a sweet BMW Z4 M Coupe.

Happy Holidays! I've become a car buff of late.  Mid-life crisis?  Perhaps.  Better late than never! I dug up some old memories of the Cornell gang (see photos below) and their cars, but I am missing many of you.  Let me test my memory: Frank: AMC Gremlin and Eagle Peter: Mazda Mazda6 Wayne: Red Honda Prelude Helen: Grey Honda Prelude George: Blue Honda Prelude Florence: BMW Philip: BMW me: Acura Integra Enjoy the memories and here's looking forward to 2013! Who is this guy and what car is this? Toyota Celica replaces the Dodge Dart. But a new Dart lives: http://www.autoblog.com/2012/12/04/2013-dodge-dart-review/ The Evil Tercel Keeta can't drive stick. Garfield watches my back Matthew leaves his Dad in the dust. A Miata at the NY Auto Show suits me. Or how about a 1997 Acura NSX?    The road beckons.

Wendy Raymond with her husband Dave I found Wendy on Schoellkopf Field and we recounted the time she set her lab bench on fire. We were in chem lab 301 or 302, I can't recall precisely. I do know it was Professor Rasmussen's class and our TA was a fellow named Jay. Anyway, the experiment involved distillation. Wendy needed to cool down her equipment and reached for what she thought was a water bottle. Unfortunately, the water bottle looked just the the acetone bottle, and acetone was what she wound up spraying on her flask. Jay came by and covered much of the fire, but I could have sworn he took a deep breath and blew out the remaining flames. Maybe he had a cape on too... Wendy is currently an assistant professor of biology at Williams . She's also a Red Sox fan. Although I'm from New York, no worries as I am NOT a Yankee Fan. I'm a Mets fan. Let's go Mets! Belated Update (09/06/2018): I was informed by a Westchester Cornellian (Laura Fratt) tha...