The 2009 Yearbook
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C ‘49 March ‘09 THIS INTERNET VERSION is a slight update of the hard-copy version circulated to classmates on February 14, '09. Several new bits of data have been added, and for classmates' privacy, email addresses have been deleted. Also, typos have been corrected and 11 photos have been included of '49ers who were under-represented in the initial edition. Page 80, between the Class Secretary's Essay and The ReNEWed Crane, is blank. Just ignore. The picture below is of faculty singers in March '49's production of Trial By Jury. Get this: we're now twice the average age of those guys then. Ben Snyder, 'the Last of the Mohicans' (third row, the first on the left), hopes to join us for our 60th. C ‘49 PERSONALITIES BEHIND OUR PENS Back in ‗49, by looking at our signatures reproduced here, a handwriting expert might have claimed to discern vital characteristics about each of us. As detectable from pressures and slants of our writing, how strong were our emotional and physical energies? What did our baselines tell about our emotional controls and reliabilities? Did sizes of our signatures reflect our abilities to concentrate? That discernment would hardly be science, but who knows? it might have been a start towards apprehending the ways we were. (C0ntinued on inside back cover.) STAFF for The ReNEWed Brook Every contributing „49er – Data/Support √ Alumni Office – Printing/Mailing Tom Clark– The Idea/Format/Production √ Dick Townsend – Tweaks/Flashbacks/Layouts Ron Ballantyne – Art √ Walt Denison – Data Mobilization, with John Rice & Dick Breck Ken Herman – Most Senior Informals √ Bob Beyers - Alumni Informals ® Jay Levin – Overleaf – Used by permission SHOULD OLD ACQUAINTANCES BE FORGOT? A lawyer‘s answer: ―It depends.‖ Yes, go ahead and forget… if you‘ve totally outgrown all of us and choose to have nothing in common with any ‗49er anymore, ever. Leave us in your memory‘s deep storage. Forget about a once-in-a-lifetime re-experience. Do not indulge in any slight way your inner teen-ager. Here‘s the other side‘s ‗It depends," the side that holds that this year's shindig is not just for hard-core reunioners. As everybody says, over scattered ZIP codes, interests shift, personalities evolve, and loyalties are tested. Yet acquaintances from sunshine days should not be forgotten if you retain at least a twinge of residual affection towards full-tuition and scholarship guys that you started out with, one of your earliest reference groups. We learned to empathize with those not like us. Granted, with the lapse of time, after a few genuine pleasantries, we may strain to fill up the conversational time with some old colleagues -- but then again, we may find we run out of time before we run out of talk. That is, we survivors may profit in sharing elements of our lifetimes of adventure and misadventure -- after all we‘ve been through, we‘ve earned perspectives on what it‘s all about. Additionally, we septuagenarians have mutual interests in the beauty and terror of aging. In short, while re-walking the School's familiar routes, we poor worms do have reasons to remember and revisit. Our upcoming 60th Reunion may be our last, best chance to renew relationships face to face and to appreciate the kind gesture. Yet it‘s also a provocation to exchange images and writings about ourselves. That‗s why in advance of June 5-7, 2009, we ‗49ers pulled together to ‗play with‘ and extend The Brook 1949, our now-dusty yearbook. As an overture to this Reunion, we worked from fugitive data to try capturing bits of our last 61 ('49 plus our years that followed). We've seen no such long-term account anywhere on the good innings of any group of high- school classmates, and we feel tickled to have had this chance to pull together one. The ReNEWed Brook is dedicated to those who‘ve regularly fought the good fight to keep us in touch. We particularly salute our extraordinary, indefatigable, and absolutely world-class Class Secretary-General Walt Denison. Hats off as well to our generous local hosts including Ben & Louise Lowell, the Dick Breck family, and Ron & Barbara Ballantyne. Finally at the risk of being utterly self-absorbed (think back, we were one proud and spectacularly privileged group), join us now in a toast: To all in our ranks, Good Health and Good Fortune. And after all that, well, may your stars shine bright in the heaven. -- Dick and Tom who, in the course of working on this project about our Class's 60-year transition, have not only heightened their own sense of mortality but also have started trying harder to make every day count with family and friends (including old Cranbrook types). Hello, „49ers This publication is offered as a Supplement to our Class's newspaper in „04, The ReNEWed Crane, a run-up to our 55th Reunion. Five years ago, the middle image on that front page had been recycled from the first page of our initial '48-49 Crane. Remember, the headline was "Little Man, What Now?" Now, more than 60 years after our John Gordon obligingly posed as walking through that Marquis archway, that Fall, 1948 scene re-appears on the Overleaf. Only this time, it's an early June day, sunny like we expect for Reunion Weekend. We expect our 60th will reenergize, inform, and entertain you. It's not Spring, 2004 long enough to bore or obligate you. C ‘49 I. WE STEP FORWARD, 1 BY 1 "Oh, where is it, where has it all gone, my past, when I was young, chipper, clever, when I dreamed and thought with grace, when my present and my future, were lighted with hope?" — Character in Chekhov's Three Sisters Milt Matter stands victorious in the Little Gym some 60 years ago. That was a good moment. But to return to Chekhov's theme, what now, elder '49er, about your good moments? The following sketches begin to suggest that over the long haul each of us has gone on to win merriment and cleverness, dreams and thoughts with grace. Certain hopes have been fulfilled (whoever gets everything?). Obviously we're not the stuff of Chekhov tragedy; based on our journeys, there's strong value in a Cranbrook education. Later sections refer to our group's kindredness at Cranbrook and after. In the opening 46 pages, however, the focus is less collective, more micro. The aim is to capture a bit of the past, present, and future of the individual '49er... C ‘49 Up and At 'Em RONALD WILLIAM BALLANTYNE Has spent his life tinkering with anything he can get his hands on. Used to play a mediocre piano and a somewhat better banjo. Is a pretty good woodworker; likes restoring antique power- boats; favorite possessions are his ‗35 Ford roadster and his ‗30 Chris-Craft. Has about 1000 hours flying, but now couldn‟t land a Piper Cub. Currently flies rather large model airplanes, with indifferent results. Is a 17 handicap golfer. Has devoted too much time fly-fishing all over the place and will tell you that trout may be dumb, but they are honest. While capable on some days of having a complaint (like all of us), regards this life as very well worthwhile... Now considers a great day as having a good dinner with mandatory glass or 2 while talking with his wife Barbara and hearing from his kids and grandkids. Has been married to Barbara for almost 30 years and they continue to live in their dream home near School. Barbara is an accomplished artist and a beautiful competitive ballroom dancer. Ron treasures family as well as new and life-long friendships. He remembers the years at Purdue and those distant days at Cranbrook with hazy but real affection. Most admires Thomas Edison for his ―cut and try‖ approach. His hero is brother John, Cranbrook „48. Ron‟s greatest hopes are for his extended family and for all other honest people to follow their hearts. He genuinely thinks that Cranbrook‘s faculty and his buddies saved his ass. Living Classmates C ‘49 GUNTHER WILLIAM BALZ Gunther emailed these barebones data: ―‗53, B.S. Business/Engineering, M.I.T; „53-„57, Active duty on destroyer, U.S. Navy; „57-„84, Worked in metal finishing industry; „88-‗94, PhD in Experimental Psychology, Florida Atlantic University; happily married to Susan; 3 children, 1 grandson, Will; Hobbies: aviation, tennis, reading.‖ That was it: 39 words. Needed: about 240 more… Happily, anyone can look Gunther up on web. So here is a quick thumbprint... Is still tall and blue-eyed. Sold his company in Kalamazoo to retire at age 53. Lives with beautiful wife Susan in oceanfront condo, Highland Park, FL. They‟re vegetarians, drinking no alcohol (―…I grew up in a time where most well-to-do people were alcoholics. It just was the way life was. Leisure to those people meant getting plastered.‖)… Describes self as ―half-fast inventor.‖ Holds about 50 patents, several becoming big moneymakers… Builds & flies planes. Donated one to a Kalamazoo museum. Is a licensed aircraft mechanic. Says his round-the world trip in ‗62 ―should last a lifetime.‖ Once won the National Air Races in Reno. Is said by others to speak in an ―ingenuous manner that serves to conceal his erudition and sometimes to psych his [air-racing] opponents into taking him too lightly.‖ Describes himself as ―still scared right up till I get buckled into the cockpit. After every race, I practically faint from sheer terror at what I‟ve done.‖… Loves Victorian novels & classical music, especially Bach‟s organ works.