Class of 1960

Back, Back...
...to Culver Days
Class of 1960
Spring & Summer 2014
Well, here goes another issue of the newsletter. I hope you find it interesting and enjoyable.
A recent note from Bob Funk: “Well, I have been sitting back
and learning from those classmates who have gone before in later years
and have gotten married. That would be Don Richter some years ago to
Peg and most recently Kay and TY. Dr. Bonnie Stewart (Ph.D. - Education) and I were married on Wednesday, August 13, 2014 here in Sacramento. We figured that we are getting older, so chances are running
out and we better get moving while time is on our side. I was musing
about asking Tom Jackson to make a quick trip to Sacramento to perform the ceremony. Unfortunately I know how busy Tom is so all I can
do is ask. (Tom’s Response: If, indeed, this is such an invitation, let me
be very direct and “public” about my reply: Yes, indeed, I hereby accept
your invitation—and I feel very honored to be involved. As I told Tricia
of this sacred event, she immediately effused, “That is so sweet…CAN I
GO?!” Yes, ma’am.) The alternate would be to ask this fiery redheaded
woman pastor from the near-by Methodist church to perform the wedding ceremony. Not the same thing as having Tom and keeping it in the family. We expected
about 30 people locally to attend. No gifts or money please. A nice write up in the 1960 Class
notes would be fine. And, Bonnie is looking forward to meeting everyone next May.”
Bill and Gerry Gram and Jim and Laird
Pylkas. Jim and Laid visited the Gram’s in Florida
during March. Interesting story follows: “Jim and
Laird Pylkas visited Bill and Gerry Gram in
Bokeelia, Florida in March. It's always fun to catch
up and swap hunting and fishing tales. On another
note, on March 29, Bill and Gerry were in Crystal
River, Fl along with Gerry's sister, Eley, and Eley's
husband Al Kuchar, both CMA '67. Driving through
Homosassa, Fl they spotted a silver Lexus SUV with
Ann Arbor, MI license plate that reads CMA6086. Of
course we immediately translated that to be Culver
Military Academy Classes of 1960 and 1986. Couldn't get a real good look at the driver because he was
going 55 in a 45 zone but we are wondering if that might have been a classmate ahead of us. In
our trusty white Chevy Traverse, we were able to get ahead of him momentarily hoping he
would see our Montana tag which reads REDFSH and has a Culver Military Academy license
plate surround. If it were a classmate, what fun it would have been to meet unexpectedly so
far from home.”
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Tom McKitterick responded to my note about misuse of his email address. His comment was “Thanks for letting me know. The same thing is been happening to me from people
on my list, I get some really weird advertising from people I know. We live in Englewood,
which is south of Sarasota and north of Fort Myers. We would love to see you. I sold my inventory of books about a year and a half ago but still do business on the Internet. What was
all that white stuff in your pictures? Actually things look quite beautiful and on occasion I do
miss it! Thanks for your note it's always good to hear from old friends.”
Charlie VanTuyl asked how to get in contact with Pete Johnson, his comments in
two emails, “Hi Bill, Are you living in Culver now? I have a question. Drop me a line...Kim
and I have moved to Tulsa. We are waiting to see if the Country Club House in McAlester is
finally going to sell (it did). We should know this weekend. Then we can buy a place in Tulsa
(they bid on a condo). I enjoy my work here as a psychiatrist. Tulsa is very different from
McAlester. There we had four good restaurants - here there are dozens. There the Library
Book Club was the height of intellectual experience. Here there is a lot to do. The best is my
grandkids. They are getting old enough to be trying their wings. My oldest, Joshua van Tuyl
(Joe's oldest son) is in the second year of a six year BS-D.Pharm program. He'll be a pharmacist at age 24! Solomon ("Solly") Cornell (Annabelle's oldest son) is interviewing next week for
a slot at the Oklahoma School of Science and Math in Oklahoma City. That is a state funded
boarding high school for talented kids. Those two are my academic stars, but all the g-kids
are bright and attractive...Well, more later, Best wishes, Charley.” And, “I have 11 gkids! ...Unfortunately I let my step-daughter talk me into painting over the Startrek mural,
when she moved into that house. When we get a house in Tulsa, I am going to have another
painted...It's great to hear from you.” Best wishes, Charley
Warren Kaufman writes, “Thanks so much for carrying information about The Safe
Blood Africa Project in the Culver, Class of 1960 Newsletter. FYI, I did find a good shipper
for the donated blood mobiles out of Galveston Texas and a volunteer to drive one of bloodmobiles from Fresno California to Galveston. We are now working on generating the funds &
writing the grants to cover the shipping costs from Galveston to Lagos, Nigeria of around
$34,000.”
Burr Cain is doing well in California. I talked with Burr a couple of times recently.
He wasn’t getting the newsletter or any information from Culver. I called the Alumni office
and made the changes. Now he is receiving the Culver news. Burr is doing well, and has felt
great for about a year now. He and his wife Sally decided to sell their home in Livermore,
took 10 days to sell. Sally has moved into an assisted living facility. If you would like to send
Burr a note he is at Kindred Health Care, 76 Senton Street, Livermore, CA 94550. Or,
give him a call at 925-551-1259. I’m sure he would like to hear from you.
Jim Godshall has been in touch, mostly about the class website, etc. He mentioned
that their annual trip to Michigan’s UP might not go this year unless wife Nancy’s back problems are resolved. I’m sure many out there can relate. Otherwise all is well with Jim.
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Steve Clark sent the picture on the left of 3 generations at Culver cadets, Steve ’60, Miles ’17, Wyatt ’15 and
son James ’87. James also spent 5 years in Woodcraft. I
met Wyatt at the Fitness Center one day working out. We
got into a discussion about what sports he played, etc. He
mentioned his granddad had graduated from CMA, he
thought around 1968. I asked him who it was and corrected
him that it was 1960, and that he was a classmate. This picture was taken during Parent’s weekend, April 25-27.
Bob Rossow is headed on another road trip. His
family is gathering in Blue Moon Bay, Maine for his mother’s birthday. Family is heading in from various locations via plane, train and car. Bob really
enjoys road trips and will keep me informed on interesting points along the way. Hopefully we
will cross paths in Culver in June.
Received a facebook note from Dave Martinson saying he and family had moved back
to Vero Beach in Florida having found Arizona not to their liking. He said they missed the heat,
humidity, sand fleas and beaches. I can understand missing the breaches, but the rest? I’m sure
they have many friends there.
From Bill Gardner: Thanks, Bill, and thanks for the nice news. Congrats as
well. We’re in London for a week, returning Thursday to Nantucket where we spend summers
now that we’re retired. You will get a kick out of the following that I sent out yesterday: After
visiting one of my cousins yesterday, we walked from Victoria station back to our flat, stopping
at a local pub. It was a beautiful day, so we took our drinks and sat on one of the outside tables. Soon thereafter, a man in his 80’s and wearing a snappy uniform came out to smoke – and
chat. It turns out he was a resident of the nearby Royal Chelsea Hospital. He asked us where
we were from. When I told him Washington, D.C., he broke into a huge grin and said “it was
my regiment burned your White House in 1814!” I went inside and bought him a beer.
Judy (Gollnick) Council gave me a call. Since her computer was down she decided to
revert back to the good old phone to communicate. Judy still lives in Worland, WY and “sort of
runs a B&B” along with being active in her local Red Cross and Disaster Preparedness Council,
or some such name. She also talked about her recent trip with her niece Michelle and husband
through the Northwest, 5 states in 5 days. Michelle is the daughter of Walt Gollnick, Judy’s
brother.
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Jim and Carole Buresh sent the following: “We cruised for 16 Days from NY to London with
stops in Bar Harbour, Maine; numerous places in Canada, and then a transatlantic crossing
with two days in Ireland (Cork and Dublin) and finally to London. We got to enjoy sportscaster
Vern Lundquist on board with many stories about college and pro football, college basketball
and golf. Also took French cooking classes from the Bon Appetit Center and one night enjoyed
a special seven course dinner with seven different wine tastings.” Photos follow.
Peggy's Cove lighthouse in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Quebec City
Blarney Castle outside of Cork, Ireland and Millennium Wheel in London on the Thames
Dave Greene sent the following. “One more year, and the golf handicap seems to be
creeping higher - getting older is not fun, but it sure beats the alternative! As far as the 55th
is concerned, it falls exactly on our 50th wedding anniversary (the 16th) and Georgia's birthday (the 15th). Rather than having a party for our anniversary where we invite a bunch of
people who probably won't remember it the next week, we are taking our two children and
their families to Bonaire for a week of scuba diving. Both Georgia and I are certified as are
our daughter, son-in-law, son and two grandchildren. Our son's wife is planning on attempting to get certified, but she is not comfortable with a mask on...... Continued on next page
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Dave Greene, continued
Bottom line, we won't make it this next year. But.... I do plan on visiting in the future,
and if Culver still has the place to park RV’s (5 spots near the boat house, across from the
baseball field) we would drive our coach up and stay in it. It sure would be fun to get out on
the lake again - haven't done that in a while. Anybody got a ski boat?
We are heading for New Mexico and the NRA Whittington Center for some shooting in
two weeks, then on to Creede, CO for some riding in the mountains (Georgia has a 4-wheeler
and I still ride a Yamaha 450) and fly fishing. Don't know if we'll make it up to Aspen to see
Tim as we have to be back here around the 20th of August for a seminar where Georgia is
speaking.
I will send some pictures for your amusement and amazement when we get back from
the summer trip. Thanks for the birthday message”
Marleen and I spent a few days with Barb and Rags Raggio. We go see them near
Martinsville when we want to relax. While there Rags and I visited Fred Jungclaus for a
few hours, he lives about 20 minutes from Rags. Fred was in great spirits, recovering from his
stroke in April. To attest to the fact he is still quite functional I am including a series of pictures I took of his “work area.” You will note some, not all, of his RC Airplanes in various stages of work. The large model he is standing next to uses a very large RC combustion motor.
However, he, like Al Smith, has converted to electric motors, like the two Mosquitoes, one is
on his lap sitting in the chair, that are in flying condition. The bookcase around his TV is also
Fred’s handywork, as well as the truck at his feet. The net picture shows the truck is used to
carry his RC items when he goes flying. The picture of a sailing warship, including the cannon, and the bookrack are also his creations.
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That’s it for this edition. The email version will get out before Bob Funk’s marriage to
Bonnie, the printed version a bit later. Keep in mind our 55th next May and think about attending. As for news and pictures, I can always use good fodder for the newsletter. I actually
can’t do it without your help, so please send me “stuff.”
Culver Events
SAVE THE DATE
October 3, 2014
Upcoming Culver Club Events
Culver Club of Indianapolis, September 6, 2014 ~ Hickory Hall Polo
Oklahoma Culver Club, September 17, 2014 ~ Packard’s Rooftop Bar: Oklahoma City
ONE Culver with Jim Henderson in Atlanta, GA, September 18 ~ Private Residence
Culver Club of Chicago, September 19 ~ Wine Tasting at ENO
Culver Club of Kentucky, September 28 ~ Tumbleweed Bar and Grill
Tampa Culver Club, October 8 ~ Happy Hour
For more information on any of these events,
please visit our website www.culver.org/alumni or contact:
Maria Benner, Culver Clubs Coordinator
maria.benner@culver.org 574-842-8321