Class Notes Nov./Dec. 2002

Not all of our classmates by any means are retired, although most aren't "all work and no play" these days.

BOB HATCH, CEO of a few companies he owns, is, in his words "as retired as I'll ever get." From Kansas City, he has traveled the world catching freshwater fish seven or eight weeks a year. When I reached him, he and his son had just returned from Russia's Kamchatka peninsula "where the average trout you catch is 28 to 29 inches."

For some, it's an outside activity that gives pleasure. BRIAN BRIGHAM, a Santa Fe print shop owner, on the side runs a soccer league for five-to-14 year olds, with 50 teams and 1,000 players. "I had played soccer at Dartmouth," he recalls, "but I only went through the freshman team before I discovered beer and cigarettes."

DON BELCHER, the Appleton, Wisc. CEO of the Banta Corp., with $1.5 billion in annual sales, isn't too busy to continue a livelong devotion to the Boy Scouts. An Eagle scout when he was a kid, Don is president of the Central Region of scouting, one of four regions in the country. Earlier in his career, when he was stationed in California, he was president of the San Gabriel Council of the Boy Scouts.

BRYANT BARNES, a Kansas City-based investment counselor, plays golf and enjoys his five grandchildren by two daughters both living in Kansas City. He remarks hopefully, "I think you might have seen the bottom of the market in July of this year."

Retired in 1998, BRUCE RYAN, who lives on the scenic Oregon coast, is a busy volunteer for a small town fire department. "I like the idea of a change of vocation and that I don't have to work for pay," he told me. The volunteers also assist the ambulance companies and, to fire and medical emergencies, respond 500 times a year.

GRAHAM ROGENESS, MD, has little time for outside activities. As medical director of the Southwest Mental Health Center in San Antonio and a child and adolescent psychiatrist, he remarks, "I'm just trying to take care of different crises that occur." The parents of six children, he and his wife, Ruth, were celebrating their 39th anniversary the week I called, and he said, "I think about retirement, but it'll be a few more years."

DICK FOLEY, by the way, has published "Tyrone," a children's book that was written by his sister, Sue, before she died of breast cancer in 1990, as a tribute to her, with all proceeds going to the University of California's San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The book, about a turtle who can't get his head inside his shell anymore, is beautifully illustrated. Copies can be ordered at $14.95 plus $3.50 shipping and handling, from Robert D. Reed Publishers, 750 La Playa St., Suite 647, San Francisco 94121.

--KEN REICH, 5522 Nagle Ave., Van Nuys, CA 91401, (818) 994-9231 (h), (213) 237-4712 (fax); e-mail: ken.reich@latimes.com