P.A. 1964
Tom Seligson
15 Bradley Street
Westport, Ct. 06880
November,2002

One of the benefits of working in New York City is the chance to see the many classmates who either live near by or come to visit. Recently, over the course of a single week, I got to spend time with Dana Waterman, as well as Rob Auld, Tony Sapienza, and Larry Darby. Dana, and his lovely wife, Faye were in town from Iowa to visit their son, Rian, who's at N.Y.U. Dana still looks more boyish than middle-aged. What's his secret? Could be its from returning to his roots? Dana, as you know, not only lives in his hometown, but in his grandfather's old house. It's certainly not from taking it easy. Dana's law firm is as busy as ever, plus he's become an avid bicyclist, logging 40-50 miles at a stretch. Being an active biker myself, we plan to hit Central Park, next time he's in town. Talking about looking young, Tony Sapienza is also a contender for the Dorian Grey Award. Tony joined Rob, Larry, and me for lunch, while in town on business. Not surprisingly, since his company manufacturers the Joseph Abboud line, among others, Tony was the only one of us in a suit and tie. A more casually dressed Rob was here to visit his daughter who's at Medical School at Columbia. Having retired from Fidelity this past spring, he's now living full time in Aspen, and excited about exploring this new phase of his life. Rob plans to stay busy, working with a local group that provides business expertise to non-profit groups. However, I expect he'll also find plenty of time to hit the slopes, and I hope to take him up on his kind invitation to do likewise, while visiting Hotel Auld. Larry, who's still with Kaye, Scholer, is currently living a bi-continental life, having returned to New York following a stint in Asia. His family is still in Hong Kong, where his daughters are completing high school. Though he visits every chance he can, Larry is holding down the fort at their home in Tuxedo Park, an historic private community about an hour out of New York.

The same week as the New York lunches, I also got to spend time with my former cross- country teammate Bob Stempson. Bob lives in nearby Danbury, and we met for dinner at a popular local saloon. Bob filled me in on the colorful life he's led since Andover. After Harvard, he taught school in Harlem (as did I), during which time he became fascinated with Eastern religions. "I was very interested in how people perceive the world differently," he said. "I also wanted to learn more about myself." Bob embarked on a spiritual/psychological quest that took him all across the country. He spent a year in a log cabin in Virginia, living without heat or electricity. He then hitchhiked to New Mexico, where he said he saw "visions of what I should do." Bob's goal became helping others pursue the same self-knowledge he's been seeking. He spent eight years working with kids at the Mead School in Greenwich, and in 1982, he opened up his own center for human development. The center offered programs ranging from Myers-Briggs testing to new age philosophies. In recent years, it has evolved into a series of psychic fairs that Bob conducts every weekend. "I run 63 fairs a year," he said. "We offer mediums, clairvoyants, aroma theraphy, even pet psychics," he explained. "I love doing it. I've seen so many people helped by the specialists I offer." For those skeptics, Bob cites research that shows we use only 10% of our brain. "What do we do with the other 90%?" he said. "This is all about opening ourselves up to our true potential." Bob, who has a son at Vassar, recently married for the third time. He met his beautiful new wife, Amalia, who's a nurse, when she took care of Bobs father in a hospice. They tied the knot this September.

Another classmate who's shared his challenging search for personal contentment is Hal Rose. Last year on our listserve, Hal revealed the difficult time he had academically while at Andover. An inability to concentrate, that Dean Benedict attributed to laziness, plagued Hal his entire four years. Only as an adult did he come to realize that he suffers from some sort of ADD. He harbors no grudge against the school for being insensitive to his needs, and has since come to grips with the years of unnecessary pain and self-doubt he had to endure. Hal went on to work in his family's hot dog business, spending twenty-two years traveling to baseball parks, racetracks, and arenas. "I kept my head down and installed computer systems to track cash and inventory," he wrote. "The company was sold to the highest bidder during the Baseball Strike of 1994, and since I made enough out of the deal to retire, I did." Hal has been married for 27 years, and has two daughters. Today he spends his time doing volunteer work with the Red Cross, and has just finished rebuilding his home on Saratoga Lake. "My agenda is pretty simple, he wrote me. I try to make some progress every day, and leave what I find better than it was when I found it."