Class Notes December 2005

Some of our classmates don't let physical infirmity get in their way. Such a man is Ed Daumit, a stock broker with Oppenheimer in St. Louis.

 

About two years ago, Ed suffered a very serious stroke. He was paralyzed on one side and could not speak normally. He was in a coma for 18 days and remained in the hospital for three months after that. But today Ed is working full time, has no present intention of retiring, and there is little or no trace of a speech impediment.

 

Ed still goes to therapy five times a week even when he is vacationing in Florida, and his goal remains, he told me, to be able to walk 100 feet unassisted. For the time being, he uses a single cane.

 

On the stock market, Ed is very upbeat. "I'm hooked on it." he remarked. "I love it. I broke down in a psychologist's office when he word retirement was mentioned. To me, the largest problem is a person who loses his focus and asks, 'Why, me?'

 

Helping Ed keep a busy schedule is his wife, Beth, who he describes as his life long friend, and an office staff who knows they can reach him at all times and places.

 

And, of course, there are others too, in our class, who remain devoted to their work. Ray Keating is working full time in Campton, N.H., on his firm ACCS, Inc., producing software management programs for beauty parlors, and has no plan now to retire. He and his wife, Christine, are kept busy too with their five daughters and 11 grandchildren.

 

Those who are retired though, seem to stay active. Stan Jones and his wife, Judith, are members in Shepherdstown, W. Va., in Faith and Action, a volunteer caregivers program for the elderly. Stan retired just a year ago from 14 years as an Episcopal priest, and before that worked in Congress with Sen. Ted Kennedy and Rep. Wilbur Mills on health care legislation.

 

Retired too, after 22 years as a New York police detective, specializing in anti-terrorist work, and 15 years in private security, is our classmate, John Scarinzi, who has been making improvements to his house in Middletown, N.J., and has traveled twice to Europe. John says he is fully supportive of the War On Terror, but believes it will be "a long drawn out battle."

 

Our class president, Ken Johansen, plans soon to name a committee to consider where to hold our 70th birthday celebration. Key West, Fla., Charleston, S.C. and Asheville, N.C. are among the places under consideration. And our immediate past president, Rick Roesch, has been elected to a second term on the executive committee of the Assn. of Dartmouth Alumni.

 

Wayne Givens, a classmate who belongs to an extended Dartmouth family, is mourning his brother, Gene, Dartmouth '55, who died last year. Wayne's son, Jeff, graduated in the Class of 1992. He bids us hello from Ft. Collins, Colo. , where he retired after many years with Kodak.

 

--Ken Reich, 5522 Nagle Ave., Van Nuys, CA 91401; 818-994-9231; kennethireich@yahoo.com