CLASS OF ’59 – March/April 2008

This past summer, as part of his exploring unethical situations for his class at the U of South Carolina, Stan Lomax spent six weeks in Myanmar and Thailand—the latter in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, which are jumping-off places for visiting Myanmar hill tribes. It was his first trip to Myanmar—just a month ahead of the Buddhist and dissident demonstrations and violence—but, he says, “I had researched the country so extensively I knew exactly where I had to go.” Stan notes that the people in Myanmar “are very devout Theravada Buddhists and revere their monks while having to obey a military junta that gives them very little personal freedoms. I was able to visit with several monks and three of the country’s notable comedians, “the Mustache Brothers,” who give nightly performances from their garage in Mandalay—courageous people who had been jailed for seven years each but continue to poke humor at the generals.” Following the summer violence all three of the comedians, and most of the monks that Stan befriended, were missing. Stan will continue his studies of Asian cultures this coming July, when he’ll be off to visit the Montagnards in Viet Nam.

Stan traveled by air between the major centers of Myanmar: Yangon, Taungyi, Bagan and Mandalay. “The Myanmar airlines are, for the most part, owned by the junta, so there's some guilt on my part for putting much-needed cash in their pockets, but it was the only viable alternative. By contrast, my ethics class, at my urging, is studying how Chevron is pouring millions into the junta through their continued oil operations off shore and what pressures can be exerted on that company to stop.”

For the past five years Jim Wray and his wife Deborah of Afton, VA, have been studying Peruvian shamanism. After Jim, a particle physicist, retired from the aerospace industry last June he joined Deborah’s practice, ShamansDream Energy Medicine (www.shamans-dream.com) in Charlottesville. The practice derives primarily from the Peruvian Q’ero tradition, supposedly dating back to Inca times. Writes Jim, “psychologist and medical anthropologist Alberto Villoldo (nc) has translated this work for the development of ‘western shamans’ and our studies have been principally with him.” Both Jim and Deborah are graduates of Villoldo’s Healing The Light Body School, where Deborah currently serves on the faculty. The new endeavor hasn’t kept Jim—who led the Stumplifters Dixieland Band during our days on the Hill—from pursuing his music. He’s working on a couple of jazz albums with collaborators in Los Angeles. As 2008 began he had a web site under development, which you can check out at www.yojimbojazzband.biz.

Dave Trebour of Richmond, VA, owner of six separate dealerships in central Virginia representing GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, and Suzuki, was honored by GM with an award as a 2006 Dealer of the Year (one of five Pontiac dealers nationally to receive the award). Though still active in the business, Dave finds plenty of time to enjoy his 80-foot motor yacht, the Lolly. He and his wife cruise the East Coast as well as the Bahamas and Caribbean. “Our spring is usually spent in the Bahamas [the Exuma Islands are a favorite destination] or the British Virgin Islands, and during August and September we travel north to Maine with stops in New York, Newport, Nantucket, and Boston.”

‘59ers who attended on-campus CAU programs last summer included Ted Hammond, who took the Sailing Clinic. Martin Kroll, with his wife Rita and son Spencer ’88, took Great American Trials of the Twentieth Century. Marjory Leshure Marshall took Heavenly Matches, Earthly Delights: Wine and Food Preparation and Pairing. Sara Peters Michelin attended Inventing Christianity: The First Six Centuries. And Gerald and Tamara (Livingston) Weintraub attended Holy War, Crusade, and Jihad in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

• Jenny Tesar, 97A Chestnut Hill Village, Bethel, CT 06801; tel., (203) 792-8237; e-mail, jet24@cornell.edu.