November/December 2007
Back in autumn of 1958, after a rousing night of partying in the Albany/Schenectady area, Gary Randorf and a friend slept at a fraternity brother’s home in Glens Falls. The next day, his host’s father, a pilot, wanted to show the two young men the vastness and wildness of Adirondack Park. “I was dumfounded,” writes Gary. “We flew over countless lakes and forest lands, with little sign of human manipulation. A six-million-acre wilderness park in upstate New York—how could that be? After getting an MS in Natural Resources from Cornell in 1972, I was recruited to join the fledgling Adirondack Park Agency staff, spending over thirty subsequent years with the agency and then becoming the founding executive director of the preservationist NGO, the Adirondack Council. Along the way I learned that the park was the most written about in the world, but strangely enough there had not been a artistic photography book that also told the full story of this amazing park. So I decided to fill the gap.” In 2002, John Hopkins University Press published Gary’s The Adirondacks: Wild Island of Hope, which is available in many bookstores in the Northeast and from Amazon “for a nicely discounted price.”
On September 16, Dick Vincent was honored by the Upstate New York Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame at a banquet in Rochester, for his contributions to the sport, including having been a positive role model to younger wrestlers. He was introduced by classmate—and fellow wrestler—Dave Dunlop. “I still follow Cornell wrestling very closely, and I’m excited about this honor,” said Dick during a telephone conversation. A resident of Houston, TX, Dick has a well-deserved reputation as a giant in the food industry. He retired from Mars a number of years ago, and from Riviana more recently. Today he’s involved with biofuels. He’s on the board of Patriot Biofuels, an Arkansas-based biodiesel company, and gives talks on biofuels to American Management Assn. groups here and in Europe. Dick is on Cornell Council and the University’s Biological and Environmental Engineering Advisory Council—as well as the Food Science and Nutrition Council at Texas A&M. Recent travels have included a trip to Japan, where his son teaches English in a Tokyo suburb.
Here are some new addresses for Phil and Eleanor McCarthy: 241 John’s Island Dr, Vero Beach, FL 32963; The Chatham, 45-2 South Passaic Ave., Chatham, NJ; and 49 Alder La., Sedgwick. ME 04676. Phil is retired but continues to run Summit Angel Group, an angel investor in venture capital deals and real estate. He stays in touch with many of our classmates through mini-reunions in Florida and sailing trips in Maine. And “Thank God for Dave Dunlop, who keeps me very well posted on Cornell friends.”
Nancy Hewitt Holler of Auburn, ME writes that her present “day job” seems to be “keeping up with all the paperwork our life seems to generate.” She also enjoys the “detective work” of hunting down information for her family’s genealogy. Sallie Sook Joachim of Lake Placid also researches her family history, and finds time for singing, gardening, and until recently teaching an English class or two at North Country Community College. Carol Vieth Mead of Palos Verdes Estates, CA volunteers for two philanthropic groups and occasionally works part-time as a private secretary. She took her first CAU trip in January, to Moscow and St. Petersburg—“loved it!”
Benson Simon of Laurel, MD, was co-chair for the Johnson School’s 45th reunion this past June. He and his wife, Mary Ellen, were in France in May and Martinique in July. Last year, together with Alan and Dee Rosenthal, they took a Smithsonian tour of St. Petersburg. Photography is one of Benson’s prized pastimes; earlier this year some of his photos and Mary Ellen’s paintings were on exhibit in a local show. Another travelin’ couple is Bill and Sue Mattison Fraser of Greensboro, NC. They recently packed up their van and toured the U.S. for ten weeks. Keeping up with their growing family—they now have 12 grandchildren—keeps them busy, as do church and community activities.
Carl and Nancy Hedden have downsized to a smaller house at Eagle Rock Resort, the largest planned development in Pennsylvania, where there are plenty of amenities to attract their four children and seven grandchildren. Their address: 1280 Valley of Lakes, Hazleton, PA 18202. Carl has taken up tennis again and finds time to fly a glider and maintain his old Ferrari. No one can possibly think of ‘59ers as couch potatoes, but most of us aren’t in the same league as Paul Marcus of Greenwich, CT. Paul’s still playing ice hockey, in an over-70s league and an over-40s league. Meanwhile, he continues to work full time as a food broker; his firm, Paul Charles LTD, specializes in poultry, cheese, and cheesecakes.
*
Jenny Tesar, 97A Chestnut Hill Village, Bethel, CT 06801; tel., (203)
792-8237; e-mail, jet24@cornell.edu.