Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005 3:30 PM                                                                                                                      Home
Subject: "Stuff and Things"

October 14, 2005



Dear Classmates,



I have just mailed the 18 of you fellow residents of Timothy Dwight for whom I am responsible the customary Alumni Fund solicitation letter and want to thank you (a) for your considerable generosity in years past and (b) for what I hope will be a continuation of that happy practice. In the process I have included a gentle reminder that paying our class dues is a good idea and much appreciated. I will doubtless follow up on this letter in due course.



Meanwhile, however, I want to share with you some thoughts that came to me as I was signing these letters. Increasingly, I have been struck by how fortunate I was to have been able to go to Yale and, most particularly, to have had the joy over many years of the numerous friendships that were either first made or strengthened there. This was brought home to me at our Class Council meeting here in New York last month.



At the same time I became acutely aware how scattered we have become geographically and how the many changes that have occurred in our lives since Graduation have tended to separate us even further. In addition, I also noted that many of you from whom I have been soliciting funds for years were not people I knew well, if at all, as undergraduates. Although it is pretty late in the day, I'd like to try to rectify that situation to the extent possible. 



For the cynics among you, this is not intended to improve my performance as a co-agent for TD. Rather, it is born of a sense that we are a loose community that might enjoy coming a little closer together while we still have time. Since, as noted above, we are scattered across the country, in-person reunions are not easy to organize and get to. However, given the ease of electronic communication, some additional contact should not be hard to arrange for anyone inclined in that direction. 



In this regard, I learned at the Class Council meeting that the Class of 1954 has its own website at http://www.y54.org/. I encourage each of you to visit it. I also urge you to send Barry Rich, our very able and diligent Class Secretary, notes via email or otherwise, about developments in your own lives that you'd like to share with the rest of the class. You can do this through the class website. 



Further, I'd welcome email messages, letters, or phone calls from all of you, and particularly, advice that you will be in New York City and open to the idea of catching up over a drink or a meal. My email address is jaygreer@worldnet.att.net. My telephone number is 212-873-8217. My mailing address is 101 Central Park West, #3E, New York, NY 10023. I in turn will let you know whenever I plan to be in your neighborhood and see whether you have the time and inclination for a visit. In case you are wondering, I absolutely will NOT ask you for money on such occasions, but I should add that, if you raise the subject, I will feel free to discuss it. I also will not share any exchanges on such occasions with anyone else unless you agree.



I look forward to hearing from each of you in due course and hope that, like me, you are well, are bearing up under the burdens of advancing years, and are very interested in what's going on in life.



Yours ever,



Jay Greer



P/s For you troglodytes that don't have email, and for those others of you who haven't admitted to Yale that you do, I am sending you a copy of this message via “snail mail.”