to the Class of 1966 Reunion Essays and In Memoriam

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
LAW SCHOOL
CLASS OF 1966 REUNION
CLASSMATE SUBMISSIONS
April 15-17, 2016
Duke Addicks
Mentor C. Addicks, Jr., better known as “Duke” Addicks, 1453 Hoyt Avenue West, St,
Paul, MN 55108. 651-643-0622 addicks.storyflute@gmail.com. For the fiftieth year class
reunion, University of Minnesota Law School, 1966-2016
Law Occupations: Assistant Ramsey County Attorney, prosecuted major felonies 19661967, and Special Assistant County Attorney, 1968-1969 while practicing as a partner in
Meredith and Addicks; Staff Counsel, Association of Minnesota Counties 1969-1973;
Legislative Counsel, League of Minnesota Cities 1973-1979; partner in Pepin, Dayton,
Herman, Graham and Getts, 1979-1982; Supervisory and Policy Liaison responsibilities
directly reporting to the City Council, Mayor and Coordinator, City of Minneapolis, 19831992; Director of Intergovernmental Relations, Director of Member Services, Special
Counsel, League of Minnesota Cities, 1993 to present. Also served part-time as chief justice
of a tribal court.
Part-time professional, non-law careers included: prospector for gold for the Ojibwe of
northwestern Ontario; fur trade era history-teller and re-enactor; ghost story investigator
and teller; street musician; president of a small multi-national corporation. Many of my
stories and music are on YouTube and SoundCloud.
What I’ve learned from my inexperience: Know what you don’t know. Do the unexpected
often, otherwise they will. Show up early and stick around long after it appears to be over
to find out what’s really going on. Have better luck this time. Listen, then think, then talk.
Assume that your opponent is even more sneaky and crafty than you are. Leave nothing
behind. Don’t watch TV, ever. Say “yes, Dear” often, and then do what you want to. If
you’re afraid to fail you’ll never succeed. Don’t let go of the law, at age 76 I’m still
litigating. Slow down but don’t stop. Play music on street corners but don’t accept tips.
Pretend you’re bored but pay attention. Daydream often.
Have interests beyond the law. Learn more about something else: I have a M.A. in
comparative religion from a theological seminary and recently received a certificate of
completion of graduate studies in ethnomusicology from a major university. Get to know a
wild thing, see below.
Philosophy of Life. Give yourself away. Volunteer. I was a volunteer naturalist/historian
for the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge for twenty-five years and a founder and
attorney for their non-profit friends organization; a volunteer for ten years as an educator
at the Raptor Center at the University; and also for a decade as an eagle handler and made
many education presentations with an eagle perched on my fist at the National Eagle
Center.
Politics: Democrat then, Democrat now, there is no creditable alternative.
I’m Duke Addicks on Facebook, Mentor Addicks on YouTube, and my web site is
www.mentordukeaddicks.com
Robert Alfton I joined the Minneapolis City Attorney’s office in 1967. I was assigned to the Criminal Division and then to the Civil Division. In the Civil Division I litigated numerous cases and was also the labor relations attorney and the attorney for the City Council Licenses Committee. In 1978 I was appointed Minneapolis City Attorney and was in that position for sixteen years. I am now in private practice as “of counsel” with the Cummins & Cummins law firm in Minneapolis. I practice labor and employment law. My professional experience includes speaking at law conferences locally, nationally, and internationally. I attended the program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the Harvard Kennedy School. I am admitted to practice in Minnesota, the U.S. Eighth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. I am a member of the Minnesota State Bar Association, the World Jurist Association, and the International Municipal Lawyers Association (past president). I was a member and past president of the Minnesota Municipal Lawyers Association. I am also a member and past president of the Minnesota Aquatennial Ambassador Organization. I served in the U.S. Naval Reserve until 1972 and earned the rank of Lt. Commander. I love to play golf and am a member of the Men’s Club at Gross golf course. I have made two holes in one. I have a son, Isaac, who lives with his family in Little Elm, Texas. He and his wife, Holly, have two children. I also have two brothers who live locally. CHARLES H. “HUCK” ANDRESEN LEGAL Law practice primarily in real estate including mining law. Currently of counsel at the law firm of Hanft Fride, P.A. in Duluth, MN. Past Chair of MSBA Real Property Section, and awarded the Distinguished Service Award in 2012. Member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers. Speaker at a number of real estate seminars; and editor of recent CLE Desk Book regarding Boundary Law in Minnesota. Currently counsel for Poly Met Mining, Inc. PERSONAL Since graduating from law school have resided in Duluth, MN, with wife Karen Have three children, daughters Angie and Briar, and son Glen. Daughter Briar is a partner at Fredrickson & Byron. Eight grandchildren, the latest of which being twin boys born on April 7, 2016. LEISURE Leisure activities include golf, skiing, fishing, and running, although the running has now turned into a jog. Hanft Fride, A Professional Association 1000 US Bank Place
130 West Superior Street
Duluth, MN 55802-2094
218-529-2445 phone
218-529-2401 fax
kathy@hanftlaw.com Dear Classmates,
It will be good to see you at our reunion, and, probably like you, I am amazed I am still
around. It feels like I am writing my obituary, but here goes.
FAMILY: Married to Lynn McEvers Andrews and have two children, Laura (an orthopedic
surgeon), a son, Chip (a fly fishing guide and math teacher), a stepson, Larry (President and CEO
of Accelerated Diagnostics), and John (a computer software engineer)--and four grandchildren.
HOME: Tucson, Arizona, and Hurricane Mesa Ranch, Cody, WY.
LAW PRACTICE: Semi-retired from Gray, Plant, Mooty in Minneapolis. My practice areas
evolved into estate and legacy planning, tax, and family advisor.
TEACHING: Adjunct Professor of Business Law at the Carlson School of Management and the
University of Minnesota for 35 years (department chair for 25); Adjunct Professor in Business
Law at the Warsaw School of Economics, 1991-2001
COMMUNITY SERVICE: Boards of The Guthrie Theater (President and Chair); Minneapolis
Foundation; Minnesota Public Radio; Minnesota Medical Foundation; University of Minnesota
Law School Board of Visitors; University of Minnesota General College; Buffalo Bill Center of
the West, Cody, WY; Arthroscopic Association of North America; MN Governors Commission
on the Arts, chair of public sector funding; Theater Communications Group; State of Wyoming
Economic Development Council.
ENVIRONMENTAL BOARDS: Earthjustice (formerly Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund-honorary lifetime trustee); League of Conservation Voters, Washington, DC; American Rivers;
Greater Yellowstone Coalition; Friends of Alta.
HOBBIES: Used to be anything outdoors including golf, fly fishing, hunting, ranching
activities, rafting, heli-skiing, mountain hiking. Now I am pretty much limited to a little golf,
reading, travel, and venture capital.
HEALTH: I have a terminal illness called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis which I have been
fighting for seven years which, in and of itself, is good news as the average life expectancy is
two to three years. But, I was fortunate that the Mayo Clinic and a doctor in Tucson were able to
enroll me in a very experimental drug trial which slowed the progression of the disease. The
drug is perfenidone and was approved by the FDA last May and is now available commercially.
POLITICA: In law school I was a Republican and actually managed the Doug Head for Senate
and Doug Head for Governor campaign. We lost. The next year I went back to my precinct
caucus as Minnetonka Republican Chairman and was asked whether I was pro choice or pro
life. When I answered pro choice, I was not elected a delegate and have not voted republican
since with the exception of Arnie Carlson. I still consider myself a Republican; it is just that I
haven't voted for any in years. I think W C Fields quote not only applies to the Republicans but
Democrates as well, "If God intended us to vote, He would give us candidates to vote for"
Look forward to seeing you,
Andy
Andy Andrews
Dear Classmates,
It will be good to see you at our reunion, and, probably like you, I am amazed I am still
around. It feels like I am writing my obituary, but here goes.
FAMILY: Married to Lynn McEvers Andrews and have two children, Laura (an orthopedic
surgeon), a son, Chip (a fly fishing guide and math teacher), a stepson, Larry (President and CEO
of Accelerated Diagnostics), and John (a computer software engineer)--and four grandchildren.
HOME: Tucson, Arizona, and Hurricane Mesa Ranch, Cody, WY.
LAW PRACTICE: Semi-retired from Gray, Plant, Mooty in Minneapolis. My practice areas
evolved into estate and legacy planning, tax, and family advisor.
TEACHING: Adjunct Professor of Business Law at the Carlson School of Management and the
University of Minnesota for 35 years (department chair for 25); Adjunct Professor in Business
Law at the Warsaw School of Economics, 1991-2001
COMMUNITY SERVICE: Boards of The Guthrie Theater (President and Chair); Minneapolis
Foundation; Minnesota Public Radio; Minnesota Medical Foundation; University of Minnesota
Law School Board of Visitors; University of Minnesota General College; Buffalo Bill Center of
the West, Cody, WY; Arthroscopic Association of North America; MN Governors Commission
on the Arts, chair of public sector funding; Theater Communications Group; State of Wyoming
Economic Development Council.
ENVIRONMENTAL BOARDS: Earthjustice (formerly Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund-honorary lifetime trustee); League of Conservation Voters, Washington, DC; American Rivers;
Greater Yellowstone Coalition; Friends of Alta.
HOBBIES: Used to be anything outdoors including golf, fly fishing, hunting, ranching
activities, rafting, heli-skiing, mountain hiking. Now I am pretty much limited to a little golf,
reading, travel, and venture capital.
HEALTH: I have a terminal illness called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis which I have been
fighting for seven years which, in and of itself, is good news as the average life expectancy is
two to three years. But, I was fortunate that the Mayo Clinic and a doctor in Tucson were able to
enroll me in a very experimental drug trial which slowed the progression of the disease. The
drug is perfenidone and was approved by the FDA last May and is now available commercially.
POLITICA: In law school I was a Republican and actually managed the Doug Head for Senate
and Doug Head for Governor campaign. We lost. The next year I went back to my precinct
caucus as Minnetonka Republican Chairman and was asked whether I was pro choice or pro
life. When I answered pro choice, I was not elected a delegate and have not voted republican
since with the exception of Arnie Carlson. I still consider myself a Republican; it is just that I
haven't voted for any in years. I think W C Fields quote not only applies to the Republicans but
Democrates as well, "If God intended us to vote, He would give us candidates to vote for"
Look forward to seeing you,
Andy
Larry Brown At this time of life we can appreciate how lucky we are. We live and worked in an ideal period in time for living well. My career ranged from four years of private practice in Pipestone, MN, a town of 5400 people, to working in large insurance and financial companies with thousands of employees. It culminated as Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of AEGON USA, the American subsidiary of a Dutch financial services company‐‐now operating under the TransAmerica name after we bought TransAmerica with its pyramid shaped San Francisco building. As I grew older, I grew wiser (in terms of warm weather), and moved from Minnesota to Baltimore, Maryland for 15 years, then to Clearwater, Florida, and now Sarasota, Florida. I retired in 1999. On the way, Bev and I raised two boys and have five grandchildren. I have been involved with a number of cultural, educational, and charitable activities over my career. It's a good life. Bob Cheatham Greetings to my classmates. Having left Minnesota on graduation and working in law firms in San Francisco until retirement in 2005 I’ve lost touch with most of you, although I have the pleasure of Bill Drake living out here about half time and joining him and Dave Baudler occasionally for golf, plus Joel Dobris is not far in Davis. Also my wife Kay and I see Professor Jack and Joyce Sampson occasionally. After the first two years living in San Francisco we crossed the bay and stayed put here in Piedmont/Oakland in the same house since 1969 except for a two year stint in Los Angeles in1980. We are still here, not far from our three kids and 6 grandkids in the area. Thinking of this reunion brings up memories of the first two years in Law School which I consider my best and most enjoyable in school ever, excepting maybe kindergarten in St Paul, 1943, which was also pretty good. After my 5 year engineering schooling I found words and questions more interesting than numbers and chemistry. I am ever grateful for the faculty we had ‐ Kamizar with his challenging questions and the importance and subtilties of due process; Miller explaining in copyright class how West Side Story borrowed from Romeo & Juliet; Chopper keeping us awake in class with his energetic style and the ins and outs of pre‐trial discovery; McCoy in Torts explaining the complexities of approximate cause when a loose car wheel goes down a hill; Lockhart on the interstate commerce clause and the then newish labor union laws; and Pound the Buddha, who knew everything and didn’t act that way. A note about retirement ‐ it beats working, and I can be our family lawyer without keeping a time sheet. Bob Cheatham K‐John Cheung TO MY LAW SCHOOL MATES OF CLASS OF 1966
Prior to saying anything else about my experiences gained during the last half-century, I must
apologize for not communicating with you earlier. However, my present greetings to you on this
special occasion, particularly with the booklets to be published, are of significant importance to
me as it should help absentees like myself (on account of prior engagement) to reminisce and
reconnect with you. I must also acknowledge the invaluable education and practical experiences
received from attending universities in the States, especially from the Law School, which
prepared me well in dealing with problems arising from practising in different jurisdictions.
After graduation, I spent several years teaching at the universities and working for a couple of
multinational commercial concerns in Hong Kong in the legal and personnel areas. In 1971, I
said to myself that despite the above enriching experiences, my interest still laid in the practice
of law. With that in mind, I left for London with my family for the professional qualification of
a barrister as at that time, U.K. and Hong Kong did not recognize U.S. law degrees as
professional qualifications. I practised law as a barrister first in London and later Hong Kong
until I and my family moved to Canada in 1988 which again necessitated going through the
professional qualifying processes. Again, the training received from the Law School in problemsolving and analytical ability, no doubt, contributed greatly not only to the practice of law, but
also to passing of exams in various jurisdictions. Awakened by the injustice and abuses suffered
by our society’s marginal members, especially the abusive practices of our provincial children’s
ministry (British Columbia, Canada) in snatching children from their families on the slightest
suspicion of physical abuses without adequate inquiries, and what such children went through in
the process including sexual assaults from members of a foster-family in one particularly nasty
case, and the increasing vicious attacks by politically correct groups (encouraged by some
politicians and judges with the same inclination and dirigisme) on freedoms of speech,
conscience, association and religion and family values, a group of my friends and I started an
organization known as the Canadian Alliance for Social Justice & Family Values Association
(CASJAFVA) in 1997. My pro bono involvements in CASJAFVA took up more than 80% of
my time in organizing continuous and incessant activities such as protests, rallies, meeting with
politicians and bureaucrats, and the editing of CASJAFVA’s publications until 2012 when I
retired from leading CASJAFVA. I am grateful for such satisfying experiences. I continue to
provide pro bono services to various organizations, although I retired from active practice of law
in 2014.
BILL COSGRIFF By way of introduction, Bill’s wife forwarded the attached resume’ for Bill. Unfortunately, Bill is suffering from Parkinson’s Disease and likely will not be in attendance at any of the activities this alumni reunion weekend. Although he has authorized us to edit his submission we felt that we should include the entire document as it was forwarded to us. Bill sends his best wishes to the class of 1966. RESUME WILLIAM JOHN COSGRIFF
1860 Colvin Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55116-2712 (651) 698-475712/01/13
PERSONAL DATA:
Date of Birth:
Place:
Marital Status:
Children:
March 3, 1941
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Married
John William,
born 4-7-75
Weight:
Height:
Hobbies:
180 Lbs.
5' 11 II
Photography,
Travel,
Reading
HIGH SCHOOL INFORMATION:
School & Location:
Cretin High School (now Cretin-Derham Hall High School),
Saint Paul, Minnesota 1955-1959
Activities & Honors:
Senior Class President; Cadet
Colonel; Editor of Yearbook; Chicago
Tribune Silver Medal as Outstanding
Junior (1958) and Gold Medal as
Outstanding Senior (1959)
UNIVERSITY INFORMATION:
University & Location:
Degree & Date:
Major & Minor:
Activities & Honors:
University of Saint Thomas, Saint Paul,
Minnesota 1959-1963
Bachelor of Arts, Cum Laude, June 1, 1963
Accounting and History
Mr. Tommy Award (Outstanding
Senior); President, Delta Epsilon Sigma
(Academic); Member, Phi Alpha Theta
(History); Vice President, Student
Council; President, Tiger Club (Campus
Honorary); President, Sophomore and
Junior Classes
LAW SCHOOL INFORMATION:
Degree & Date: Activities & Honors:
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 1963-1966
Juris Doctor, Cun1 Laude, June 11, 1966
Delta Theta Phi (Academic)
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS INFORMATION:
School & Location:
University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Degree & Date: Activities & Honors:
MILITARY STATUS:
Classified 4-A; Lieutenant, United States Navy Judge Advocate Corps (1966 to 1969); Schools
Command, Newport, Rhode Island (1966-1967); Legal Staff, Commandant, Ninth Naval
District, Great Lakes, Illinois (1967-1968); Legal Staff, Commanding General, First Marine
Division, DaNang, Republic of Vietnam (1968-1969); Legal Staff, Commandant, Twelfth Naval
District, San Francisco, California (1969)
ADMITTED TO PRACTICE LAW:
Admitted to practice before the following Courts: United States Supreme Court; Minnesota
Supreme Court; United States District Court, Minnesota; United States Court of Appeals, 8th
Circuit; United States Tax Court; United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit; and United
States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
EMPLOYMENT RECORD:
Harold Pharmacy, Saint Paul, Minnesota (1957-1963)
American Can Company, Saint Paul, Minnesota, (Summers 1960-1962)
United States Navy, (1966-1969)
Doherty, Rumble & Butler (law firm), Saint Paul, Minnesota:
Associate (1969 to 1973); Partner (1973 to 1980) and Managing Partner (1975 to 1980)
Doherty, Rumble & Butler Professional Association (law firm),
Saint Paul, Minnesota: Shareholder (1980 to 1999); Director (1980 to 1992 and 1995 to 1996);
President (1980 to 1987); Chairman of the Board (1995 to 1996); Vice President, Finance (1987
to 1989); Vice President, Marketing (1990 to 1992)
Briggs and Morgan Professional Association (law firm), Saint Paul, Minnesota: Shareholder
(1999 to 2007); Of Counsel (2008 to 2013)
Certified Real Property Law Specialist certified by The Real Property Section of The Minnesota
State Bar Association (1991 to 2009)
JOEL DOBRIS
After graduation I went to work for Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy in
New York City (now Milbank). I was dragooned into doing trusts and
estates and charitable corporations work. I came to like it and stayed [a
long time]. I accidently wandered into teaching with the help of Jack
Sampson and spent the rest of my working life teaching Property,
Trusts/Wills, and Estate Planning at UC Davis. I didn’t like any of those
courses in law school but came to love teaching them. Teaching took me a
while, but I eventually got good at it. I also managed to do a lot of writing,
which is the name of the game in the modern law school. I wrote about
fiduciary duty, trust income taxation, trust and charity investing, and future
interests, among other things. I’ve done law reform work with ALI, as an
Adviser, and NCCUSL, as a Reporter, and some consulting and speaking. I
mostly retired in 2008 and fully retired in 2013. I started dating my wife Linda in 1963, got serious in 1967 and got married
in 1970. It’s a match made in heaven. We have one kid, Eliot, the apple of
our eye. He lives in San Francisco and got married in the short period in
2008 when same sex marriages were first legal in California. He married
Enrique Sanchez, an architect. Eliot resisted my pleas to become a lawyer
and does public relations and marketing. Not being a lawyer may be one of
his proudest accomplishments. Oh well. My father wanted me to go to
medical school. Rebellion runs in the family. Our beloved dog won’t be
going to law school, either. Davis, California is an idyllic college town. We’re lucky to live there. No
snow. A lot of Davis kids go to Carlton. I was a liberal Democrat in the 1960s and I am a little-bit-less liberal
Democrat today. It seems to me our class got one of the best educations ever given in an
American law school. Lucky us. Joel Dobris <jcdobris@ucdavis.edu> Hope to see you in April. Bill Drake ‐ 50th Reunion, Minnesota Law School, Class of ‘66 Career: Frederick & Byron – general practice, 1966‐71 Medtronic – 1971‐1992, title VP, Secretary & Deputy General Counsel (headed the general legal group for 14 years), early retirement Islet Technology, Inc. – 1995‐2004, co‐founder, biotech startup (closed doors in 2006), islet cell transplantation for Type 1 diabetes Living Abroad: Verona, Italy – 1962‐62 (18 months), military service Tokyo, Japan – 1966 (four months), exchange program London, England – 1993‐95 (2 years), graduate degree in economics, London School of Economics Family: Married to Maria Cheng (Minneapolis) – 1968‐1979, one son (b.1973) Married to Anne McLaughlin (Minneapolis) – 1983‐2008, adopted her son (b.1979), another son (b.1986), “adopted” daughter (b.1978) Committed relationship with Barbara Wiechmann (S.F.) – 2008 on Currently I split my time between Minneapolis and San Francisco. I am in good health (knock on wood!) and have been enjoying being vegan for 5 years now. My life has had many bumps and challenges but overall I have been blessed and fortunate. I have had the great fortune of knowing some amazing people throughout my life. My children are doing well and are good persons (currently living in Bay Area, Brooklyn, Washington, D.C. and Minneapolis). Only one grandchild so far: Quinn, age 9, a lovable special needs child (a genetic condition, Fragile X Syndrome). Special Interests: duplicate bridge, Asian brush painting, tour guide at Minneapolis Institute of Art, cross country skiing, Wisconsin lake place. Prem Dobias Human Rights Fellowships: endowed this at Minnesota Law School in honor of Czech landlord in London, a holocaust survivor, and close friend. Politics: In 1960, my first chance to vote, I voted for Kennedy and have voted for Democratic presidential candidates ever since. I am an admirer of Barack Obama and am supporting Hilllary Clinton. Flaten Statement December, 2015 As I write this I’m looking out at Eagles Nest Lake One near Ely, MN where Betsy and I are at home since I retired after 37 years of business practice with the Rider Bennett law firm. It’s snowing and the trees are flocked and it's as beautiful and fulfilling to us as our family raising, law practicing days in Minneapolis. Though I am the only former Rider Bennett lawyer living in the Ely area, there are numerous attorneys who have come here to retire and enjoy the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness which is still unspoiled, uplifting and right outside our door. Unfortunately the BWCAW is threatened today by the emergence of proposed big foreign corporation copper/nickel mining projects. If this type of new mining is permitted in Northeastern Minnesota’s water rich environment, it will pollute our pristine water and damage human health beyond measure. This means that I have joined substantially all of our Ely area lawyers, and many other native and transplant retirees, in working actively against the dangers of polluting hard rock sulfide ore mining in Northeastern MN. Our area is starved for jobs in what once was an iron ore/taconite mining economy, making the outcome of the fight against copper/nickel mining difficult and uncertain. But it’s what I use my legal skill set for these days when I’m not outside planting trees, canoe tripping, snow shoeing or discussing other issues relating to Global Warming and Climate Change which have also arrived in Northeastern MN. It all keeps me happy and engaged. I will miss seeing everyone at our 50th, but alas Betsy and I will be away hiking and enjoying the out of doors in Arizona and California, doing our best to “Carpe Diem.” John Flaten 1375 Walsh RD Ely, MN 55731‐8034 (218) 340‐7908 Jpflaten@gmail.com Lee Frankman
Sorry I won't be flying home for reunion. We are in Naples, Fl for the winter and heading to
Andros,Bahamas on April 20 bonefishing returning to Naples on April 27.. I just don't want to
fly home for the reunion and then turn around and fly back to Naples for the Andros trip,
especially since we come home to Minneapolis on May 4.
I know that many of our classmates are retired. I am still working. I have a busy life, sometimes
too busy. I had lunch twice with Eric Schultz here in Naples recently and we discussed some of
our classmates. I am still working with my son in the practice, doing eminent domain cases. I'm
actually doing more work down here than fly fishing. I have just spent about two weeks writing
legal memos and affidavits on several cases where we received excellent commissioners' awards,
but now have to make motions to get the clients attorney's fees and costs back. Sometimes we
spend more time doing that than winning the original case. I have commissioners' hearings set
around the State of Minnesota from May through the first part of August.
August 22 I'm heading with some fly fisherman from Arizona to Kamchatka, Russia for the large
rainbows there, meeting up with my wife, Marles, in Anchorage on Aug 28 and heading with her
to the Tsiu River in Southeastern Alaska for the silver salmon run. You can google Marles. She
has a world record Taimen, 47 lbs. caught in Mongolia in the Ur River. We have been to
Mongolia twice. I have fished with a fly in every continent in the world except Antarctica. We've
caught tiger fish in Zambia, trout in New Zealand, Tasmania,Terra del Fuego etc.So my life is
very busy between working and sneaking away from the "office".
I met Justice Scalia in Naples at a cocktail party last winter and we talked fishing. I also met him
at Northrup last October (?) with my son, who is also a U.of Minn Law School grad. I am in the
Lockhart club and so went to hear him speak. I couldn't think of anything worthwhile to say
(which a lot of judges and clients would say is typical of me), so I said "the price of liberty is
eternal vigilance" and he said, "Ya but I'm not eternal". A few months later he died. At least he
was in a hunting camp, and he died in his sleep, which is not a bad way to go.
I would love to see all you guys and I will miss being there. Bill Drake is a special person-he has
raised a lot of money for our class scholarship fund. I studied a lot with Chuck Faegre in school.
I have tried to call him, but can't find him. If any of our classmates know where to get in touch
with him, please let me know. I hope Bill Milota feels well and is swimming. I swim here a lot,
but Bill was All American at the U. I officed for years with Mike Mollerus but am out or touch
with him too. Tom Casey and I skipped a lot of classes together, but modesty forbids me to say
what we did with the time. Best wishes,
Lee
Leland J. Frankman Law Offices
900 IDS Center
80 South 8th Street
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402
612-375-1600
612-437-4972 -fax
Email: flyfishinglawyer@comcast.net
John C. Frentz In the fall of 1966 I opened my own office in Mankato under the name John C, Frentz, Attorney at law. My first year was interrupted by having to serve active duty in the U.S. Army Reserves from March 1967 until Fall 1967 (I was in the unit at Fort Snelling from 1966 to 1972). My practice when I resumed in the fall of 1967 became a very general practice; divorce, real estate, bankruptcy, corporations, personal injury, etc. From 1976 to 1987 I also had an office in New Richland, Minnesota that I had open every Wednesday. I shared the Mankato office with three other attorneys at times until 1983 when my brother, L. Brand Frentz moved back from California to join me. We formed the firm Frentz & Frentz Law Offices, which soon evolved into "exclusively personal injury." In 1987 Brand's son Nick Frentz joined the firm, and in 1994 my daughter Joan Frentz Adams joined. The firm became a highly successful and well known firm in South Central Minnesota. In 1998 Brand retired, and on December 31, 1999 I retired. My daughter left the firm later, leaving Nick to run the firm at present (Nick is also running as a Democrat for the Minnesota Senate from the Mankato district this fall). I was married To Emy Young of Dallas, Texas in 1968 and have two children, Joan and Tony. Both of them stayed in Mankato living in my neighborhood, and they gave me five grandchildren. The grandchildren stay overnight at my house every Saturday night. My wife died of cancer in 1990, and I haven't remarried. Emy was an artist, and after her death my son purchased a local building and created an art center named after her. My family first came to Mankato in 1854, 162 years ago. All four of my grandparents were born in Mankato, as well as my parents. My children are the 7th generation of our family in Mankato. As to philosophy of life I had two competing goals; one to be very successful and the other to live a very simple life. For 34 years in my practice, I lived the first part. After early retirement at the end of 1999, I'm living the second part. Thoreau said "Let your affairs be as two or three, not a hundred or a thousand." I don't belong to churches, clubs, or other organizations. I spend a lot of time alone and with a few friends and family. My activities tend to be in the outdoors, like hiking (and climbing, I climbed the Grand Teton in 1991), golf, hunting, birding, and others. My brother and I did write and publish a book about the Frentz Family in 2013. Kent Gernander After graduation, I spent a short time with the Oppenheimer firm in St. Paul while waiting to pass the bar, then spent 3 years in Navy JAGC, about half trying cases at Great Lakes and half teaching military law at Newport, RI. After service, I returned to St Paul and Oppenheimer, where I stayed for a year. Opting for a smaller firm in a smaller community, I moved to Winona and joined the Streater & Murphy firm, where I practiced for the next 40+ years. My work has been varied and interesting – transactions and planning along with civil and criminal litigation. I recently left the firm and now advise a few business clients and do some consulting on professional responsibility and legal malpractice. I have been active in professional organizations, including MSBA, LPRB, and MCLE, and in community organizations. I have done some writing and teaching. My wife, Elizabeth Burke, and I live on a farm near Rushford, where we enjoy changing seasons and scenery and wildlife. We enjoy visits with our 5 children and (so far) 3 grandchildren. I enjoy hunting, hiking, skiing, biking (last fall I completed a ride to New Orleans), inline skating and ice hockey. I have had infrequent occasion to recall the holdings in Priestley v. Fowler, Erie RR v. Tompkins, and the Steel Seizure cases; I once dealt with a trust drafted by Harry Blackmun that violated the Rule Against Perpetuities. Kent Gernander As graduation neared, Susan and I decided to escape our many well-meaning Scandinavian
relatives and begin to live our own life. Over spring break 1966, we traveled to Portland, Oregon, a city
we had never visited and where we knew no one. After two days I had a job offer with an established
(1886) law firm of mainly Republicans (the moderate variety). The partners were mainly east coast
educated and they were active in city, state, and federal issues.
Our first son arrived in October shortly after I passed the bar. My first political project occurred
when I teamed up with another young lawyer and we successfully changed the state law to allow fathers
in the delivery room. The next year two rather important milestones: we purchased a 75-year old house
in an inner city neighborhood and we welcomed our second son. He was the first all-black child adopted
by a Caucasian family in Oregon. Over the years our family grew to include another homemade product,
a daughter, and two sons, a Chinese/Caucasian, and a black/Caucasian, and a second daughter black and
Japanese, until there were six children under the age of six.
As our family grew, so did our interest in city politics. Shortly after we moved into our house, I
was elected to the Model Cities Board, my first experience with inner city and interracial politics. In
1971, I was selected to chair the Citizen Involvement Committee of the Downtown Plan. The committee
was an eclectic collection of architects, artists, citizen activists, and business men and women. The plan
was approved by the City Council in 1972 and still stands today. In fact, I have been interviewed by
students doing their doctoral thesis on the plan. As a result of this work, I was selected as Portland's
Junior First Citizen and also awarded the Outstanding Young Alumnus of Iowa State University.
There were still many challenges to urban living, primarily good public schools. So in 1980, after
years of school volunteer committees, I ran for the Portland School Board. It was a close race; results
weren't announced for three days. At my first meeting we closed three schools and at 3:30 am we had a
police escort home. I served with an exceptional board and my political philosophy was to do the right
thing and not worry about re-election. At the beginning of the four-year term, the School District had a
budget surplus of about $100,000; when the term ended, we had accumulated a $65 million rainy day
fund.
I didn't run for a second term as my law firm and our six teenagers needed my attention. Things
were changing in Portland, in part because of a group of young professionals with a commitment to
public service. We now had a vibrant downtown and our inner city neighborhoods were thriving. Public
education was good and the City was implementing progressive transportation planning. I served on
several committees regarding the siting of light rail lines. Portland now has five light rail lines and three
street car lines plus a tram that runs between the two campuses of the medical school.
Probably my proudest accomplishment deals with the problem of homelessness and people with
addictions. In 1980, I was elected to the board of Central City Concern, a nonprofit then responsible for
dispersal of federal funds. At that point we had four employees and a budget of $400,000. I served as a
board member for 33 years, and chair for 26 years, retiring in 2013. CCC now provides medical, dental,
acupuncture, mental health, and psychiatric care for well over 10,000 patients a year, plus provides 2000
units of housing and employment training. The housing serves only those below 30% median income,
well below the poverty line. CCC now has 700 employees and an annual budget of over $55 million.
I am now the Senior Partner with the same firm and we still live in the same neighborhood. Our
firm is a very manageable size, focusing on commercial real estate and lending practices, with estate
planning and commercial litigation. The firm (now mainly Democrats with a few moderate Republicans)
has a well-deserved reputation as a family friendly firm and a pleasant place to work. Another partner
and myself are members of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.
Fifteen years ago, I opted for senior partner status. When I am in Portland, I am at the office fulltime most days, doing some legal work and a lot of volunteer work, such as heading up our
neighborhood's historic district and serving as land use chair. We live in the largest historic district in the
Pacific Northwest, which means a lot of time spent on historic preservation. Senior status has also
allowed us to pursue our love of travel, which is useful for visiting two of our children who have carved
out international careers, one as a foreign service officer and a son who works on rule of law, and anticorruption projects around the world.
The move I described earlier turned out to be the best decision we ever made. It took us from one
great city, Minneapolis, to another, Portland, Oregon.
Av Gordon
I am married to Bari, and we just celebrated our 50th anniversary. We have two daughters and
four grand children. The foregoing are my best accomplishments.
Since 1966 I have practiced in the Twin Cities, focusing on corporate and securities laws. For the
last 33 years I have practiced at the Minneapolis office of Briggs and Morgan, where I am
currently of counsel. I plan on retiring completely in December of this year.
I enjoy travel, tennis, photography, movies, reading and writing stories now and then. We live in
Plymouth, Minnesota.
What I read: local newspapers, contemporary fiction, World War II history, The New Yorker,
sometimes Wall street Journal, John Grisham and Stephen King novels, just about anything
written by David McCullough or Michael Lewis, and various online stuff. Currently reading
Command and Control by Eric Schlosser . . .the Illusion of Safety (this will scare the crap out of
you).
Things that scare me: nuclear holocaust, Donald Trump, Ben Carson and some other presidential
nominees, living too long, losing loved ones, living alone, death.
A Few People I miss a lot who enriched my actual or cultural life: Parents and grandparents,
Harry Friedman (friend), Tom Helgeson (friend, writer, editor and amazing fly fisherman), Dave
Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Phil Woods and Miles Davis, to name a few jazz greats, artists and
creative people Edward Hopper, Mark Rothko, Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Capra, John Huston
and actors Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, John Garfield, Paul Newman and Bogart and Bacall, to
name a few.
Some Places I miss: North Mpls (1941-1960), the home at which I grew up, Victory Memorial
Park, North Commons, old Mpls main library, the Point Supper Club, Herb’s Bar, Harry’s café,
Charlie Hall’s restaurant, Malcoff’s, Lincoln Del and old style delis and bakeries, the Nankin and
Oglansky’s grocery store.
A few things I will miss when they go away: the daily and Sunday newspaper, Market BBQ.
minnieskid@gmail.com
Jack Heen – 50 years later: ‐Reasonably good health (subject to outcome of laminectomy March 31, 2016) ‐One wife (Joyce) ‐Three daughters Sheila – Harvard Law Degree, teaches the negotiation course at HLS; co‐author of two New York Times Business Best Sellers (search Heen at Amazon.com) and cofounder of a consulting firm (diffcon.com) to Fortune 500 companies Jill‐ ophthalmologist Stacy – Teaches negotiation theory, Masters degrees from MIT and Tufts ‐Nine grandchildren, ages 1 to 16, including 6 year old boy/girl twins ‐10+ years in Des Moines, Iowa with Davis Law firm‐several IPO’s, acquisitions, general corporate work . ‐9+ years in Lincoln Nebraska with Nelson Harding Law Firm, an early 7 office multi‐city law firm innovator – that ended up with 2 offices when I left. ‐30+ years In Lincoln as a sole practitioner – lots of contracts, general business practice and acquisition work, a couple of tender offers, some litigation, worked with two VC backed funeral home consolidators, ended up on board of directors of public (Toronto Stock Exchange) consolidator – and lots of happy clients. ‐Travels include Switzerland, Germany, England, Israel, Mexico, Hawaii, Egypt, New Zealand, Australia (3 times), the Dominican Republic , and Alaska, including an all‐family Alaska Cruise last year to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary – and 34 consecutive years of family vacation to Door County Wisconsin. ‐recreation includes golf (struggle to break 90), fishing (Salmon in Door County, Sailfish and Albacore in Cancun, Walleye in Lake Erie and elsewhere), 4 point pitch games 3‐4 days a week and weekly poker game. ‐Still go to the office every day to do a little work. It’s been a great ride with limited regrets – can’t ask for much more Otis Hilbert
I started clerking for a small law firm in St. Paul in March of 1966 and went full time when we graduated.
Our clients were mostly small businesses and manufacturers. I got a lot of real estate experience with our
one big real estate developer. When our younger son, David, came along in 1970, I decided the 70-hour
work weeks of private practice were not the best thing for our family. Lutheran Brotherhood was looking
for a lawyer with real estate experience to advise its investment division and I got lucky. I spent the next
30 years with LB and retired in 2000.
My career with LB was very gratifying. I found happiness working with our then 4-man law staff on the
legal issues of a not-for-profit fraternal insurance company. When LB decided to expand its product
offerings to mutual funds in 1972, I was fortunate to be the lawyer on a small committee
charged with enabling LB to sponsor mutual funds offered to our million-person membership by our 2000person field force. This involved a multi-year and complicated partnership with a large mutual fund
organization in order to have experts guide us while we learned the business. I became a mutual fund
lawyer through on the job training as LB became the first fraternal insurance company to sponsor mutual
funds. Eventually, the entire fund organization was moved in house, and I served as general counsel and
corporate secretary for a complete family of funds offered by our subsidiary broker dealer and managed
by our subsidiary investment advisor.
Things were going fairly smooth when a right angle career move put me on the 3-man committee charged
with assembling a downtown Minneapolis site and arranging the details of building our new home office.
This was a 4-year project that ended in 1981 when we moved into a new 16 story building across the
street from the Hennepin County Courthouse.
From the mid '80s to retirement, my experiences were what you would expect in a growing
financial corporation; lots of meetings, with me doing more management than lawyering. My staff grew to
8 lawyers, including the first women to serve LB in that capacity. I enjoyed the responsibility of
maintaining our compliance with the complexity of federal and state laws governing our funds and
investment operations. We relied on outside counsel to do the heavy lifting in such matters as litigation,
lobbying and the like, and coordinating those matters gave me a taste of what real lawyers do. I was able
to take some great trips when we decided to treat our field force and /or board members to an exotic
setting for their meetings.
Retirement came in 2000 when the stock market pushed our pension plan up to a level I thought I could
live on. Shortly after my retirement, LB merged with Aid Association for Lutherans and formed a Fortune
500 company called Thrivent Financial.
My dear sweet wife, Dawn, who had been teaching piano, playing band jobs and parties and receptions
for decades, decided she was also ready to retire. We sold the house and downsized to a condo,
spending our winters in California. It was a great life until Dawn died in 2009 after a very short battle with
acute leukemia.
My days are now spent acting (in the true sense of the word) as treasurer of our condo association and
watching my sons and their families grow. Both my sons have a pre-teen daughter and son. Jim, Class of
1996, is a professor at the Mitchell Hamline Law School and his wife, also a lawyer, is a corporate
executive. Dave had aspirations of becoming a house-husband when his wife was named general
manager of the Australian operations of her large pharmaceutical employer, but his hopes were dashed
when his employer, also a large pharma company, refused his resignation and moved his job to
Sydney. He now works out of their large employer-provided water front house on Sydney's Middle
Harbor. If you have read this far, you now have some idea of why our drug prices are so high, and you
also know why I can't make plans to attend the reunion - Mary and I may be on a 20 hour plane trip to the
land down under.
Was it Maynard Pirsig or Boots McClure who told us it is normal for a person to be liberal in their 20's and
gradually turn conservative by their 40's? That process never happened in my case. A recent cartoon
nicely summed up my politics: my heart is with Bernie, but my head is with Hillary.
Of all things I learned in life, perhaps the most important are: keep a sense of humor, and be
grateful. Having courage is also important. I recognized my deficit in this last regard when I realized I was
wearing neutral colored clothing to avoid being called on in our first year law classes.
I close with an expression of my amazement at the digital revolution we are experiencing - the internet is
literally changing everything, I mean everything. Do you know there is now a search engine dedicated
solely to Simpsons quotes? Hello to all who may remember me and best wishes for an enjoyable
reunion. /Otis
otishilbert@aol.com
Rollie Hoch I married a Duluth girl, Joan Sundquist, in the Spring of 1967. We will celebrate our Fiftieth year together next year. We have two children, a son, Troy, who is an attorney in Tucson, and a daughter, Amy, who owns a preschool in Colorado. Amy has two boys, Dylan, 17, and Kooper, 12. I had always planned to use my legal training in the business world. Following Law School I spent a year in Pittsburgh with United States Steel, and then one more year with a bank in St.Paul. In 1969, I accepted a position as the junior lawyer in a two person legal department with Minnesota Power & Light Co. In Duluth. This was a life changer for me. I loved going back to Duluth and the challenges of representing Northern Minnesota's largest electric utility. I also was surrounded by a smart and kind management who gave me greatly diverse responsibilities. Among my various areas at MP&L: I was the Company's chief lobbyist in St.Paul for three Sessions; I was responsible for all FERC filings of the Company, including power sales agreements and licensing of various hydro projects located upon the thousands of forest acres and lakes owned by the Company; I was in charge of acquiring needed right of way and in this capacity, I even tried a couple of eminent domain cases to a jury. I loved my job! I was contacted by a headhunter in the Spring of 1974 who asked if I might be interested in a legal position in Tucson, Arizona with Tucson Gas & Electric Co. After expressing an interest, TG&E flew Joan and me to Tucson for an interview. There was a 100 degree difference in temperature in the four hour flight from Duluth (30 below) and Tucson (70 above). That got our immediate attention. I accepted the offer to become Senior Attorney in a six person in house legal department. The job provided fabulous opportunities, not because of being a well run company, but because of the opposite. The Company was on the verge of bankruptcy. In fact what happened, unbeknown to us, is the State Commission ordered the Company to hire four experienced individuals from other electric utilities across the country, a finance person, an accountant, an engineer, and a lawyer. The four of us rolled up our sleeves and went to work immediately. Much of our work had to do with contractual commitments that the Company had made to participate in future power plants that it neither needed nor could afford. Consequently, I negotiated and wrote the first contract in the Country for the sale of our interest in a large nuclear project to be built near Phoenix. Next, the same thing for an interest the Company had in a jointly owned coal fired plant on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico. Soon thereafter, I was responsible for the sale of our gas utility business, after which we became Tucson Electric Power Co. Five years after we arrived,TEP was the most profitable electric company and had the lowest customer rates of any utility West of the Mississippi. Most of these achievements were due to our new financial man, who was a genius, but it sure made for some interesting work for me. In the mid eighties, the aforementioned financial man, myself, and one coworker attempted to do a leveraged buyout of a Southern Arizona utility. The effort was very interesting and challenging, bringing us in touch with some very well known people on Wall Street. As it happened, we were out bid by a rival suitor and although our banker, Drexel Burnham, wanted us to continue in the bidding war, we felt that the price of the buyout had exceeded our comfort level. Twelve years after coming to Tucson, in 1986, I retired from corporate law. My wife and I purchased a ranch near Durango, Colorado. The ranch was totally undeveloped land at 8000 feet elevation and we personally, with our two kids, built two log homes, barns, corrals, etc. and operated a thriving cattle ranch for twenty five years, before selling it in 2011. During this period, we spent about six months each in Arizona and Colorado. This was a very special chapter of our life and greatly different from my last five years of my corporate life where I was, at minimum, one week out of every month away from my family in New York, Washington, Chicago, or San Francisco. Today, we continue to spend six months at our small horse farm in Tucson and the other six months at a small farm we own in Dolores, Colorado. Life has been good to us and I attribute a lot of our good fortune to the wonderful education at the Law School and to the many talented classmates that I shared those three years with in the Sixties. All the best, Rollie Hoch....... Hyatt Al My thanks to the committee for the opportunity to present this short summary of my career following completion of my studies at the University of Minnesota Law School. I had decided to go to law school about two years before my first class at the Law School in 1963, following the death of the father of my friend Leeds D. Cutter the III. Mr. Cutter, the deceased, was the leading lawyer in our hometown, Anoka Minnesota, and his son, Leeds, and I were determined to take over his law practice. Unfortunately, Leeds was killed in a car accident in 1962, but I was not deterred from my Law School quest. During our first week in law school I recall the famous speech that Dean Lockhart and othe faculty members made warning us that one third of the entering students would not return for a second year. On November 22,1963 while studying with Tom Wexler and Doug Rainbow for Professor J.J.Cound's practice exam we learned of the assignation of President Kennedy and along with all others in the law school that day, promptly went to our favorite watering holes assuming Professor Cound's exam would be canceled the next day. The exam was not canceled and the highest grade received was 8 1/2. The remainder of November and early December were difficult and for one who had always found happiness and joy in communication with others, lonely. On December 8,1963, I met Helene Hanson whom I married following the end of second year classes in June of 1965. Two children were born as a result of this union. They are twins Michel and Amy born March 19,1970. Helene and I were married for 47 years, until she died in October of 2012. Following completion of studies in 1966, I accepted a position with the FHA, in Washington DC. During that summer and fall we took advantage of the many tourist attractions in the area but we left Washington in February of 1967 for a non‐legal job in Springfield Illinois, which took advantage of skills I had developed as a gambler and a bookmaker. I left that position in April 1968, and accepted a position as a legal editor with the West Publishing company in St. Paul. With all the resigning and transferring of positions I had not yet taken the bar exam. This was completed in July of 1968 when I passed the exam on the first attempt. I accepted a position with the Minneapolis City Attorney's office in 1972 to do criminal prosecutions. I transferred to the Civil division in 1979 and handled primarily cases involving widespread discrimination, cases in which policemen's knuckles were bruised by criminal defendants jaws, and matters involving acusition of property. During the vast majority of this period the City Attorney was our classmate, Bob Alfton. I left the City Attorney's office in 1995 and worked in private industry with both Leanord, Street and Dienard and with the Taylor law firm. Following those private firms I worked in the Hennepin County Public Defender's office handling criminal matters. During all the above years my chief recreational activity was golf. I am proud to note that I have played golf in all 50 states and 3 foreign countries. While playing in central Minnesota in August of 2008, I suffered a mild stroke which caused my loss of vision. In October of 2012 my first wife Helene passed away from Non‐Hodgkins Lymphoma. During the time surrounding her death and beyond, I had been attending classes at the Vision Loss Resource Center. In July of 2013 I met Diana Vanasse. We dated until New Years Eve of 2015 and married that day. I am happy and very contented in the condo I purchased in 2004, City Bella Tower located at 6600 Lyndale in Richfield Minnesota. Allen Hyatt 612‐926‐1481 Kim Johnson:
two years military service.attorney, public defender, judge
Family: wife Beverly, two daughters, son-in-laws, and five grandchildren
Rey Kirkman
Regret not being able to attend by reason of a prior commitment.
I retired as Real Estate Counsel for Litton Industries, Inc. in 1998. I was located in
Beverly Hills, CA. We moved to Salem, OR in 1999. Retirement has been good to
us. We travel a lot. I do the same things I always have done, except I don’t go the
office anymore.
I left Minnesota in 1976. Perhaps it was an early onset of Mid-Life Crisis. Whatever, I
sought “Climatic Asylum” in San Diego. I arrived in San Diego with no professional
contacts – completely cold. At that time there were more law students than practicing
lawyers in San Diego. Immigrant lawyers were not welcomed.
It took some time to establish myself in S. California. The dreaded California Bar Exam
was required, of course. In my class of out-of-state lawyers the pass rate was just
12%.
I had gained useful real estate experience in Minnesota, and used this experience to
build on.
I practiced in San Diego County for several years, experiencing issues of foreclosures,
forgeries, frauds and Ponzis - issues which were comparatively uncommon in
Minnesota. Not “Minnesota Nice.”
I joined Litton in the early 80s. Litton was unique among Fortune 500 companies in
that it had a central real estate department, which did in-house brokerage, appraisals,
acquisitions/dispositions, architecture, and construction management. We had real
estate offices in Chicago, New York and Zurich, Switzerland. I was the real estate
counsel and worked everywhere, managing outside counsel in some foreign
jurisdictions. It was "living the dream."
I remained single until age 51. I was never interested in having a family. Also, I made
some bad choices, had poor timing, and was generally too busy. I met Vivien in 1990
through Great Expectations, a precomputer dating service. Vivien was a school
principal in South Pasadena. Marrying Vivien was the smartest thing I have ever done.
We married in ’91, and began planning retirement soon thereafter.
We looked all over the West for a retirement home. Salem represents a peaceful
compromise of our interests and life style.
Best to you, our classmates and their families,
Ken Kirwin
After graduating, I clerked for Associate Justice Robert Sheran for a year before becoming the twelfth
lawyer at Lindquist, Magnuson & Glennon. I spent three years there, including a year after the firm
doubled its size by merging with Vennum, Newhall, Ackman & Goetz. Shortly before Lindquist & Vennum
moved into the IDS building, I left to join William Mitchell College of Law's full-time faculty.
At Mitchell, I taught a variety of courses over the years, starting with Constitutional Law and Professional
Responsibility and then from time to time teaching Workers' Compensation, Criminal Law, Criminal
Procedure, and Legal Writing. In the mid-1980s I became a co-coordinator of the Legal Writing program,
helping with the evolving design of the program with hiring, training, and supervising of the program's
adjuncts.
I also helped to design and coordinate Legal Writing's successor, the Writing & Representation: Advice &
Persuasion (WRAP) program, which debuted in 2000. I was a co-coordinator of WRAP until I (semi)retired in 2006.
Since (semi-)retiring, I have continued to teach ten to thirteen WRAP students each academic year, first
in the traditional program and, since January 2015, in Mitchell's new Hybrid Program where most of my
teaching is online.
My (semi-)retirement also has allowed me to spend more time with my wife Phyllis and our three sons
and six grandchildren, volunteer for the DFL, and handle pro bono guardianship cases for southeast
Asian refugees via Catholic Charities.
I plan to suspend my Hybrid Program teaching during the 2016-2017 academic year to allow time for an
extended trip to southeast Asia.
Ken Kirwin
651-795-1846
kenneth.kirwin@wmitchell.edu
David Larson
After 6 years with Hoke and Larson and 35 years with Dudley and Smith I retired March 30, 2007. I
enjoyed my law career, but I'm enjoying retirement even more. I still do some work for old clients;
but if an old client says he was wronged by some dirty bastard and is willing to spend an unlimited
amount of money on attorney fees to sue the bastard and teach him a lesson; I say, " I'm so sorry,
but I am retired."
I encourage my classmates to check out Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, olli.umn.edu, where I take
courses taught by retired professors. This quarter I taking classed on Richard Nixon and the French
Revolution.
I have spent the last four years as Chairman of The Columbia Height Library Task Force to study
whether Columbia Heights needed a new library. The Task force concluded that the existing city
owned library was too old, too small, outdated and expensive to maintain.
The Task Force recommended that the city build a new 22,000 square foot library on one floor with
large windows at a cost of about 10 million dollars.
Citizens petitioned the City Council for a referendum on the library. It was necessary to form a new
committee, "Vote Yes For A New Library." After putting up lawn signs, going door-to-door passing
out brochures the citizens voted 63% to 37% to increase their taxes to build a new library.
The grand opening ceremony for the new library will be in June 2016.
David W. Larson
Attorney at Law
763-571-6059
LARRY LEVENTHAL
Larry Leventhal is engaged in the private practice of law officeing in an 1886 mansion in St.
Paul under the firm name Larry Leventhal & Associates. Since graduating law school, much of
Leventhal’s career has focused on providing legal services to American Indian Tribes and
organizations, and on Civil Rights concerns. Leventhal remains active in both criminal and
civil litigation. His practice also includes real estate, domestic, nonprofit corporations, and
small business. He serves on the Federal Defender Panel of the U.S. District Court, District of
Minnesota.
Leventhal has represented Tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Michigan, Oklahoma and elsewhere as to issues ranging from tribal government operations,
gaming, business development, environmental issues, and litigation. He currently serves as
legal counsel to several American Indian Tribes. Leventhal served a leading role during
negotiations of Tribal/State Class III Gaming Compacts in North Dakota and Wisconsin, and
has been engaged in many aspects of Tribal Casino development and operation.
Additionally, he has represented urban Indian schools, housing projects, and community
centers in various matters, including litigation against the federal government. He serves as an
attorney for the American Indian Movement, and other organizations with American Indian
concerns. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Native American Community Clinic
of Minneapolis, and the National Coalition Against Racism in Sports and Media.
Shortly after law school graduation and admission to the bar, Leventhal was often in Federal
Court representing selective service resisters and demonstrators against the Viet Nam War.
Among his more notable criminal cases, Leventhal was part of the defense team (also
including Bill Kuntzler, Mark Lane, Ken Tilsen and Doug Hall ) representing Dennis Banks
and Russell Means on numerous felony charges arising out of the 1973 siege at Wounded
Knee. After nine months of trial, all charges were dismissed on the grounds of government
misconduct. He also successfully defended Quibella Shabaz, daughter of Malcolm X, as to
charges of conspiracy to murder Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan. More recently,
Leventhal was part of the defense team that secured dismissals on all charges associated with
the December 2014 Mall of America Demonstration pressed against Black Lives Matters
Defendants.
Early in his career, Leventhal successfully represented the Lac Courtes Oreilles Chippewa
Tribe against Northern States Power Company on issues associated with the utility’s 1923
flooding of Tribal lands. Several years ago, he represented the Spirit Lake Tribe, in North
Dakota, in securing a U.S. District Court injunction requiring County government to keep
open two polling sites located within the Tribe’s Reservation it had announced it would close.
On three occasions Leventhal secured judgments against federal agencies on behalf of
American Indian Schools for monies that were wrongfully withheld. He secured an
injunction against Bureau of Indian Affairs’ cutting back services to the Spirit Lake Tribe
based upon anticipated, but not congressionally approved, future budget reductions.
Leventhal represented American Indian Opportunities Industrialization Commission
regarding a funding cutoff and secured re-instatement of Department of Labor’s monetary
support.
Leventhal represented the Little Earth Housing Project in South Minneapolis which the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development tried to foreclose upon and attempted to halt
the practice of Indian preference. U.S. District Court and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals
determined that Little Earth was an American Indian Housing Project justifying Indian
preference. HUD was ordered to pay for a physical rehabilitation of the project.
A few years ago Leventhal secured a $200,000 verdict against the City of Minneapolis in favor
of two American Indians who were thrown into the trunk of a police squad car and transported
by city police. He represented and reached a settlement against World Championship
Wrestling on behalf of an American Indian wrestler who was terminated when he refused to
exhibit stereotyped dancing and behavior. He reached a settlement against the City of St.
Paul, for an American Indian individual who was removed from a party at his daughters home,
handcuffed, maced transported to the City line, maced again and thrown in a snowbank, and
then abandoned without transportation or proper clothing for winter weather conditions.
Similarly, he successfully represented several minority individuals who were attacked and
injured by Minneapolis police officers.
Leventhal has taught American Indian Law and other classes at the University of Minnesota,
Hamline Law School, Northland College, College of St. Scholastica and elsewhere.
Additionally, Leventhal served as project director in a federally-funded program of Indian
Law seminars at colleges nationwide, directed to educators of American Indian students.
At St. Scholastica, a classroom mock trial exercise led two of Leventhal’s students to go
fishing, asserting treaty rights, without a Wisconsin State license. Their action led to a U.S.
Court of Appeals decision vindicating these rights, and a later related U.S. Supreme Court
decision validating treaty based tribal fishing rights.
Leventhal periodically speaks on Indian Law issues at legal education programs for attorneys.
He appears in recent editions of Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World.
Leventhal has published writings on several topics related to Indian affairs in legal journals,
including the federal trust responsibility to Tribes, treaties, and Tribal sovereignty.
John Lindstrom Upon law school graduation I practiced law in Willmar initially with classmate Jim Metcalf with the firm of Davis & Strauman. When Uncle Sam called, I went on Active Duty for 6 months and then returned to Willmar to practice with the Johnson,Schmidt,Thompson firm. In 1972 I was elected as a State Representative and served until July 1, 1976 when I was appointed as a District Court Judge in the 8th Judicial District serving 13 counties in West Central Minnesota. I served as a district judge for 29 years retiring in 2005. Since then, I have served as a Mediator and Arbitrator. My wife Mary and I will celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary in 2017. We have 3 Adult children and 6 grandchildren. We have been fortunate enjoy relatively good health enabling us to do an extensive amount of world travel since retirement. Best wishes to all, John Lindstrom Bob Martin
Lessons of life experienced: Expect the unexpected - roll with it; it’s the only show in town
Your passions: Family, outdoor life and environment, photography
Philosophy of life: Do as much good as possible
Major achievements (or failures);
All New Mexico state and federal courts, 10th Circuit, US Supreme Court
Albuquerque Bar Association president, board of directors
Good peer ratings
Four Corners power plant emissions controls
Major reform of sex crimes laws and systems
Teaching and training
Failures – Ah, well, now there are some long stories, eh?
Predictions for the future: Fortunately, my children and grandchildren are activists.
Martindale-Hubbell: AV, Preeminent – 5/5
Best Lawyers of America
Albuquerque Bar Association, 1985-88 (board of directors, secretary, treasurer, vice-president,
president), still a member in retirement
Taught paralegals and business law students, 2003 Excellence Award
Still reading, writing and training in employment law locally and for LexisNexis and Poms &
Associates
Reading, writing, hiking, biking, climbing, and photographing
(https://www.flickr.com/photos/94779902@N00/)
Dennis M. Mathisen Univ. of Minn. Law Class 1966 Wow. Fifty years since we finished 3 years of painful and joyful study and became lawyers. I was married before starting law school. My wife, Gail, was a schoolteacher and she supported us during those three years. We eventually had two boys who are both married and working; one as a hotelier in Florida, and the other in real estate in Arizona. One of our sons has blessed us with 3 grandchildren (triplet boys). Gail and I now reside mostly in Arizona; however, we have a home in Colorado where we spend summers. I am semi‐active in owning and managing a leasing company, K2 Capital Group LLC. I am also semi‐active in a land development project in Cave Creek Arizona with my son, Peter, and his wife, Annie. Life has been very good to Gail and I, and we are still great companions and buddies after more than 53 years of marriage. We have traveled extensively and hope to continue to do so for a few more years. I have struggled with a rare blood cancer for the last ten years and have had some down time with a stem cell transplant and several chemo treatments at the Mayo Clinic, but it goes into remission for periods long enough for me to continue to enjoy life. New drugs keep coming along and I have not been told to get my affairs in order, so I expect to be here a while longer. After graduation from law school I spent twelve years practicing law, first as a staff lawyer with the Office of Chief Counsel for Internal Revenue Service, and then as a partner with the Minneapolis law firm of Lindquist and Vennum. I left the practice of law in 1978 and joined with a client, Irwin Jacobs, to engage in a number of business strategies. Over the next ten years, we acquired a number companies, both private and public, through leverage buy‐outs, including, Grain Belt Brewery, Mid America Bancorp. and AMF, Inc. We acquired the accounts receivable of W.T. Grant in a competitive bidding process from a New York Federal Bankruptcy court and became one of the larger collection agencies in the country with receivables in excess of $500 Million. Our activities were financed by a combination of the investment bank Drexel Burnham and Minneapolis banker Carl Pohlad who was our partner in many of these ventures. There were many failed attempts at acquisitions, including Kaiser Steel Company, Walt Disney and Pabst Brewing Company. All of these activities generated litigation in many forums: state and federal courts and many regulatory agencies. We had several proxy fights. Negotiations for financing was never ending. We utilized the services of many law firms throughout the entire country but our principal firm was Weil, Gotshal & Manges in New York. We had a very small staff of people managing these activities; everyone was extremely busy and after 10 years we called it quits. Irwin Jacobs consolidated his companies and settled in to operate them. I formed a new company, Marshall Financial Group, Inc. and moved into a new phase of my life. Beginning in 1989, I began focusing on community banking. I had already acquired a few banks in Colorado and in 1993 moved to Colorado, did a public offering of securities, acquired additional banks, merged with another bank holding company in 1997 and in 2003 sold the entire holding company to Bank of the West. Being the deal junkie I had become, I continued dabbling in finance in various forms but now have only one finance business, a leasing company engaging primarily in leasing medical equipment.. My career has been far more engaging, challenging and fun than I could ever have imagined, and it evolved because of my legal education at the University of Minnesota. I am eternally grateful. My status as a lawyer also gave me opportunities to serve the community in many other ways. I served on the boards of many Minneapolis community organizations, including The Minneapolis Art Institute, Children's Theatre, Minnesota Humanities Commission and various human rights groups. I believe my most important work has been serving as a trustee and vice chairman of the board of the Robert F Kennedy Center for Human Rights and Justice in Washington, D C, and it has been my pleasure to assist Kerry Kennedy in spreading the doctrine of "Speak Truth to Power" with curriculum and plays through out school systems in the USA, Europe and Africa. I opposed both the war in Viet Nam and Iraq; I support a women's right to choose to bear a child; I am in favor of equal rights for women and equal pay for equal work for women. I have supported same sex marriage and am generally opposed to any kind of discrimination. I believe that government can serve a useful role in helping people transition through the vagaries caused by the technology revolution. I believe in universal health care and would support a single payer system, but the Affordable Care Act is a good start. I am not in favor of privatizing social security or abolishing it. I support a taxation system which taxes income in graduated rates and I am not in favor abolishing the estate tax. I suppose all of that would indicate that I am a democrat and have always been so. My best regards to my fellow classmates of the law school class of 1966 J. Lawrence McIntyre Larry McIntyre (the J is for John which is on my passport and Driver’s License but not my Attorney License). After Law School I clerked for then Eighth Circuit Judge Harry A. Blackmun, in Rochester, married Mary Seifert who had returned from two years in the Peace Corps, and after the year clerkship joined the Doherty, Rumble & Butler Law Firm where I had been a summer law clerk between our second and third years. I was at the Doherty Firm for 27 years first in Saint Paul and then in Minneapolis, specializing in Corporate Finance and Securities Law. In 1993 I joined The Toro Company, Bloomington, Minnesota, as Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel , where I remained until I retired in 2007. Mary and I live in Saint Paul (not too far from St. Thomas College) and have three children, Matt, Aimee, and Brendan, all of whom live in the Twin Cities. Aimee has one son, Liam, who is 12. While I have maintained my Attorney License until now, I have not had much active practice since retirement. Instead, Mary and I travel quite a bit and we are both avid duplicate bridge players. Bridge Tournaments are often held off season in resorts which makes it somewhat less expensive. I also teach duplicate bridge at least once a week and teach at Chat Bridge sessions. I serve on the Board of The Bridge Center of Saint Paul which is in North Saint Paul. WILLIAM J. (Bill) MILOTA First, I hate to talk about my career. It seems egotistical. On the other hand, I am my favorite subject. I was pleased to that the request for statements included a suggestion that “failures” be included. I prefer to call them expensive post graduate lessons, and I have had several. The easy stuff is that I have practiced law in one form another fairly consistently since graduation and passing the bar. Following a year of clerking for Henretta, Muirhead, Oberg and Davidson, I started as an associate with Mahoney & Mahoney in Minneapolis as both a litigator and the handler of whatever general practice matters came along. M&M was one of the premier insurance defense firms in the cities and still exists. After 2 years I concluded that I would not become a partner unless I was adopted so I moved to Diessner, Wurst, Bundlie, Carroll & Crouch (Bill Crouch, not John) to assist with insurance defense and to function as a business lawyer. That engagement lasted 9 months and ended when I left to founded franchise consulting firm along with 6 non‐
lawyers to make my first million. It was the peak of the early franchise boom after all. We were tremendously successful for 6 or 7 months when the recession hit and interest rates went sky high. So much for the million before age 30. In ’70, dabbled in financial consulting services to entrepreneurial businesses with a partner, while starting a solo practice from the ashes of my franchise whirl. By ’71 I was beginning my first battle with cancer, had left the consulting idea behind, and was practicing alone in Bloomington. I survived the first round of cancer only to enjoy a second in ’75, still practicing more or less alone. I brought in two lawyers to share offices, John Mc Eachron and Earl Johnson. We operated loosely as Mc Eachron, Johnson & Milota officing in Metro Office Park near the airport. I had a lot of divorce business from Control Data across the road from us back then, as well as real estate developers operating around I‐494. In’79, I surrendered the do‐it‐yourself theory and joined John Candell to practice commercial real estate and finance law in downtown Minneapolis in Hagerty & Candell. Commercial real estate and finance have been my primary focus with a short hiatus to the present. Now I am soloing it again from my home office. The second hiatus occurred from 92‐94 when the commercial real estate depression forced many real estate lawyers to retool. I joined Walsh Title and Real Estate Services, Inc., a former client, with the intention of buying the company through a leveraged buyout. We were extraordinarily successful until interest rates rose dramatically in the spring of ’94 ending the residential refi boom. I returned to a solo practice. While practicing alone between ’94 and the present time, I have been invovled several businesses including an executive office suite operation, a time management training franchise, and an Internet company that I started along with 3 young whippersnappers. That company has been quite successful and remains privately held. The company, US Internet Corp., is a multi‐faceted Internet services company which owns the Minneapolis Wi‐Fi System as part of its operations. I have been an active volunteer throughout my career with many roles in organizations dealing with the poor, the homeless, alcoholism and addiction. I’m a member of the Edina Rotary Club and a Gopher supporter. As for politics, I’m a cynical, liberal leaning independent, supporting honesty, integrity and straight communication, as if that exists in politics. As you might guess, I do not work for many political candidates as a result. For hobbies and physical activity I sail on Lake Superior and play tennis (doubles these days). I am married to my first wife, Cathy, nee Cairncross, and we have three adult children and six grandchildren. I live in Southwest Minneapolis in the first house I purchased in 1967, which today is too big for two of us. Noel P. Muller
Career:
Sullivan, McMillan, Hanft and Hastings (now Hanft, Fride), Duluth from September, 1966
through December 1971;
Northern City National Bank of Duluth (now US Bank, Duluth) as Vice President & Trust
Officer from December, 1971 through mid-January, 1976;
Gray, Plant, Mooty, Minneapolis from mid-January, 1976 through mid-2006 (decidedly parttime after 2000).
Muller&Muller, PLLC with son, Andrew P. Muller, from mid-2006 through the present (with
offices in the old Boulevard Theater bldg, 53rd & Lyndale, Minneapolis. Andrew has a two
block commute; I have a mile.
Family: This September, Karen, my wife (and law school financier) and I will celebrate 54 years
of marriage. We have two sons, Matthew, age 45, and Andrew, age 43. Both sons and their
families live in south Minneapolis within a five minute drive from our home.
Matthew's wife Tatiana (Tania) had a son, Konstantine (Kosta) when they were married in Seoul,
South Korea on September 11, 2001 and they now have a son Savili (Sava), age 8. Matthew is a
pilot for Delta. Matthew learned to fly in the US Army, first as a Chinook helicopter pilot and
later as a small fixed wing pilot. After two years in Korea, Matt served two deployments in both
Afghanistan and Iraq.
Andrew's wife, Tanya, had a daughter, Emmery, and a son, Galen, when they were married on
August 11, 2001. They now have a daughter, Augustine, 12; a son, Andrew, 8; a son, Henry, 5;
and a son, Brennan, 3 months. Andrew, as noted above, is an attorney, specializing in
employment law, but very much a general practitioner. (Dad is along for the
ride.)
NPM
David Murrin After graduation, I served two years in the Army as draftee. Following the military I was a law clerk for Judge Vogel of the 8th Circuit. I worked briefly for Legal Aid and spent three years at the Legal Rights Center as a trial and appeals lawyer. This was followed by thirty years as a Public Defender. As part of defense work, I tried and argued State v Russell in 1991. This resulted in the State Supreme Court declaring the crack cocaine laws unconstitutional as racially discriminatory. The case became national news and affected me professionally and personally. The democrats in the legislature so castigated me I changed political parties. For the last sixteen years I have taught trial skills at William Mitchell. I also have instructed both CLE and Nita courses on constitutional law and litigation skills. I still am shocked at how little my law school education prepared me for the actual practice of law. Finally, I am married and have been for 42 years. We have four children all successful but none becoming lawyers. Robert Oliphant 330 Desperado Drive, Cottonwood, Arizona 86326 roliphant@msn.com Married, wife Susan Oliphant (former partner, Maslon, et. al.) Two daughters; 7 grandchildren. University of Minnesota Law School: 1966. Law Clerk, Gerald W. Heaney, 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. Staff, Minnesota Appellate Public Defender’s Office. University of Minnesota Law School: Tenured professor. Oliphant & Associates law firm. National Institute for Trial Advocacy (Administrator). William Mitchell College of Law (Tenured professor; Associate Dean; Emeritus Professor). Retired: 2005. Current Web Master: www.eyeonyavapaicollge.com Current: Work of the Family Lawyer, 4th Edition (with Ver Steegh). Published February, 2016 (Walters/Kluwer) It is a textbook used in several law schools. Current: Family Law, Examples & Explanations (with Ver Steegh). Published March, 2016 (Walters/Kluwer). Currently I work on updating the two legal publications listed above; run a personal Blog; write short books and pamphlets describing the disparity of educational opportunities in Arizona; and write editorials on occasion for the local newspapers about the post‐secondary education disparity between the two sides of Yavapai County. I also helped create a group that advocates major change in post‐
secondary education opportunities in the Verde Valley (where I live). I am often considered a radical outsider because of my view that all children in Yavapai County should have equal post‐secondary education opportunities. It is somewhat akin to working in the 60s in Mississippi to gain voter rights for Blacks although not yet quite as dangerous. Hope you have a great time at the 50th anniversary. I just had a total hip replacement so travel is off for a few more weeks. Best, Bob Oliphant James R Olson 1103 Winslow House 100 Second ST SE, Minneapolis MN 554i4-­‐2157 612 617 8869 jrolson1111@gmail.com MY ONE PAGE STATEMENT •
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The only member of our class from North Dakota and a graduate of North Dakota State in Fargo Took some abuse from sophisticated Twin Cities classmates who had actually graduated from the exalted U of MN Have wonderful memories of my classmates which were the best part of my years at the Law School Made Law Review in the first cut which was supposed-­‐some of us thought-­‐to be our ticket to a coveted spot in a top-­‐tier law firm. Didn’t take us long to figure out those slots went to second and third-­‐tier graduates of the “better” law schools As a fool-­‐proof method to avoid disbarment, I went directly to Business School out east and earned a MBA. Never practiced law, but used the background and the degree to advantage in the business world. Worked at Cargill, Graco (CFO), Ponderosa (CFO), Pillsbury (VP Strategic Planning), Carlson Companies (VP of Restaurants) and Schneider National (President). While at Schneider, it became the largest over-­‐the-­‐road trucking company in the world Owned a chain of full service car washes in WI Mostly retired for 15 plus years; am a Board member of Meritex Enterprises (commercial real estate investment and management) and Chm of its Compensation Committee Live in downtown Minneapolis right above St Anthony Main Have one son, Trevor, CEO and owner of Aware Web Solutions. Wife, Kerry, is SVP and Deputy General Counsel of the Carlson Cos. Grandchildren-­‐Taylor 7 and Ella 4 Marvelous significant other, Cheryl Stone, VP Wealth Management, US Bank For the past 15 years, have had monthly lunches with a couple of law school classmates, inviting 1 or 2 additional classmates to join us. A wonderful tradition that continues Lifelong political conservative with strong liberal leanings on social issues. Believe the election of Trump would be fitting quid-­‐pro-­‐quo for those of you who gave us Obama. I mean where is Joe Biden when we really need him! Bob Regal
I started a private law practice in South St. Paul, Minnesota in November, 1966, and I
still practice law in South St. Paul today. I have no plans to retire. My law practice is
primarily in the areas of Elder Law, probate and estate planning.
Married to my wife, Marge for 52 years. We have three children and seven
grandchildren with whom we spend a good deal of time, and with whom we have a lot of
fun and good times.
I thank God for all these good years and I trust God for the future.
Regards, Bob Regal
JACK SAMPSON a.k.a. John J. Sampson
I. WORK CAREER
Law school epic. In 1957 I graduated from The U with a B.B.A., and took a job with
Inland Steel in Chicago. I wound up in an East Chicago, Ind. in a hot steel rolling mill as a
foreman with crews of 40-50 employees (98% male). In 1963 I quit the mill, went back to
Minnesota, and married Joyce two weeks before the first class. Her teaching the last two years
saved enough $$$ to camp throughout Europe for three months (with Joel Dobris no less).
Practice (short and semi-sweet). I signed up with with a relatively small San Francisco
firm—I made the letterhead as the 29th lawyer of “Morrison, Foerster, Holloway, Clinton &
Clark.” The firm survived my leaving to shed three of its names and grow to 1,000 attorneys.
Federal governmental study. In discussing law teaching Dean Bill Lockhart said that as
chairman of the U.S. Commission on Obscenity & Pornography he had an interesting year-long
job for me. The result was a task to produce a market study of print, film, and television
presentations of sexually oriented materials. I so doing, I correctly predicted how the the industry
would look in the future, i.e., like it does in the 21st Century.
Teaching at The University of Texas Law School. Emphasis has been on Family Law,
Legislation, and the Children’s Rights Clinic, representing allegedly abused or neglected clients.
Law School; Other Activities. Teaching law entails participation in other “useful
endeavors” as an understood aspect of the job. While writing for student-edited law reviews is an
important way to meet that demand, in law school I had “been there, done that.” Rather, my
attention focused on the fact Austin hosts a legislative session every odd-numbered year. By
chance it turns out I have a knack for writing statutes. From 1973 through 2009 not a Texas
legislative session ended without enacting one or more statutes or amendments drafted primarily
by me. Further, I have served as Reporter for all versions of the Uniform Interstate Family
Support Act (in force in all U.S. jurisdictions), and the Uniform Parentage Act (in force in eleven
states). I also was on the U.S. State Department delegation to The Hague Conference from 2003
to 2007 for the promulgation of the Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support
and Other Forms of Family Maintenance (in force in the European Union and six other
countries). Finally, from 1965 to 2007 I wrote and edited the State Bar of Texas Family Law
Section Report—five peryear, four averaging 64-76 pages, plus one 120 pages
II. LESSONS LEARNED
A Tale of Partners in Excellence. In the early 1970s I agreed to write solicitation letters
for our fundraising program to all U.M. graduates practicing in Texas. I received only one direct
response, to wit: “I won’t contribute a dime to a law school that admits men like those involved
in Baker v. Nelson.”
This encouraged me to consider the following cases:
Baker v. Nelson, 291 Minn. 310, 191 N.W.2d 185 (1971) (License for same-sex marriage not
authorized under state law)
Baker v. Nelson, 409U.S. 810 (1972) (“The appeal is dismissed for want of a substantial federal
question.”);
Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. ___ (2015) (“Baker v. Nelson must be and now is overruled.”).
I will discuss the lessons learned at brunch.
George A. Sissel, Class of '66, Univ. of Minn. Law School After graduating, George moved to Denver, CO and practiced mainly government contract law with the Sherman and Howard Law Firm. While there, George married Mary Runsvold, of Sioux City, Iowa, and they had two children, Jenifer and Greg. In the early 70's he joined the Law Department of Ball Corporation and its subsidiary Ball Aerospace in Boulder, CO. In the mid‐70's, George and Mary and their two young children relocated to the headquarters of Ball in Muncie, IN for 25 years. George became Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. In the mid‐1990's he was elected President, CEO and Chairman. In 1998 George and Mary returned to Colorado with the relocation of the Ball headquarters to the Denver area. At that time he also became Chairman of Ball Aerospace and served until his retirement in 2002. Since retirement George and Mary have been deeply involved in volunteer charitable activities in Colorado, including the University of Colorado and its Foundation. They have enjoyed golfing, skiing, hiking, foreign travelling and generally basking among the fruits and in the warmth of retirement. Living in Denver, they are near their two children and their three grandchildren, also living in the Denver area. georgesissel@yahoo.com Bill Soth
I am providing below the items requested in the materials regarding the reunion.
Career and family: After law school I spent my entire career with Dorsey & Whitney, with
a couple years out with the Army as an artillery officer. My wife Roxanne and I, married
for 54 years, have two sons. One is married and living in Ft. Collins, Colorado with two
daughters 19 and 16 and owns a construction company. The other is married and living
in Minneapolis with a daughter 13 and a son 9 and is a rather well known photographer.
Lessons of life: Keep an even balance of career, marriage, family, friends, travel, etc.
Passions: Life is short -- enjoy it all and vote.
Major achievements: A wonderful and full 35-year career at Dorsey & Whitney with an
interesting and successful practice. An outstanding family with a wife and two sons and
their families all of whom have been my pride and joy for these many years.
Predictions for the future: At best, troubling.
ROGER V. STAGEBERG PERSONAL STATEMENT After six months of basic training and reserve duty, I joined the Minneapolis firm of Mackall, Crounse & Moore (15 lawyers) in March 1967. I left Mackall, Crounse & Moore in March 1986 and joined my brother, Mark (’69), at Lommen, Nelson, Cole & Stageberg, P.A. (28 lawyers) (now Lommen Abdo, P.A.). I have been in primarily a corporate and M&A practice, with some international work, and continue to work 50% time at Lommen Abdo, P.A. I was privileged to serve as President of the Minnesota State Bar Association in ’93‐’94. While an early teen in Northern Minnesota, my Norwegian grandmother planted a message with me, my brother and our six male cousins that at least one of her eight grandsons should become a Lutheran minister. I managed to ignore that message until 2002 when I enrolled at Luther Seminary in St. Paul. I squeezed a two‐year degree into four years and graduated in 2006 with an M.A. in History & Theology. I have been fortunate to use the degree for teachings regarding the relationship between history and Judeo‐Christian theology during the past 4,000 years. I have done several fill‐in sermons and have presided at one wedding and four funerals, a logical result of the age group in which we all find ourselves. My wife, Sheila, and I have been blessed with two sons and three wonderful grandchildren. In 1966 I was a Goldwater Republican and today I am a Clinton Democrat. Richard (“Dick”) Swanson’s 50th Reunion “Essay”
I suppose the most unique aspect of my law career is not so much the law practice
experience I have had, but the fact that I made what some would think a drastic lifestyle shift
from the cities to the north woods, a homestead, and small town life. I have always been
motivated by a desire to have a fair balance between my professional and personal life. So I
began my law career in a very small office in Minneapolis with two very fine lawyers, Harry
MacLaughlin and Blaine Harstad. I had great respect for Harry and Blaine, but after two years I
felt a need to add public service to my portfolio and joined the State Public Defender’s office as
the first Hennepin County Public Defender for Misdemeanors, after participating in the case
that secured the right to counsel for persons charged with misdemeanors. After serious burnout and two more years later, as a direct result of working under the student practice rule with
law students in Bob Oliphant’s clinical program, I had the opportunity to serve under Dean Bill
Lockhart at our law school as Assistant Dean for admissions, scholarships, and placement. Of
course, this was at the time when law school applications for admission exploded in number,
which made my new job interesting and a bit hectic.
While I enjoyed each professional experience I had, I realized that it was the lifestyle
that made me dissatisfied. This was the late sixties and early seventies you know. I needed to
be more connected to the natural world on a regular basis. My wife and I ultimately decided to
move. Coincidently I announced my resignation at the same time as Dean Lockhart announced
his retirement. I am honored to have served under him for two years. But now we were focused
on planning a year in the wilderness with our six year old twins, after which the future was
deliberately left wide open. We sold or stored our possessions and packed up our pickup truck
for the trip to a vacant land parcel we had purchased on a lake in Cook County near the
Canadian border. Our land was accessible only by water, so everything came to us via our two
canoes and a 12 foot fishing boat. We camped out for two months while we built our cabin to
the point where we could seek shelter inside. We spent the full year there off the grid. No
electricity or well, just the lake in our front yard. It was a wonderful year, the best of our lives.
When the first year finished, we realized we had made solid connections with folks in
the north and wanted to stay. Confident, I started a solo law practice in Grand Marais and soon
accepted the appointment as Cook County Attorney, a position that lasted just over twelve
years. I was able to limit my work time to three to four days per week, which allowed me time
with my family and our “homestead”. We continued our off grid lifestyle, but purchased 40
acres closer to town, where I built our new home and learned about raising chickens and goats,
among other things. After our children went off to college (and ultimately to law school at the U
of M in the case of our son), I ratcheted up my work schedule in private practice, but never let it
become more than a five day work week. I enjoyed the role I have had (and still have on a
limited basis) as a small town general practitioner, with ready access to the wilderness. While I
admire and respect the amazing professional accomplishments of so many of my classmates, I
have no regrets about the decision made many years ago to move to the north woods.
Dixon Tews April, 2016 Here is my lifetime summary in one half page: How did it get to be 50 years after we graduated law school in 1966? Somehow I passed the bar exam (taken in my full body cast worn as a result of a spring skiing incident). Remember the exam was in un‐
air‐conditioned Fraser Hall? Then in fall of 1966 after we were admitted as fullfledged – but unknowing – lawyers, I started at a relatively small firm. Then my somewhat larger firm (Petersen Tews & Squires). Then a much larger firm (Rider Bennett). Then for the first time a solo firm – TewsLaw. This incredibly competent firm has a fine administrative staff and no internal debates or disagreements over anything (including things like production or billable hours or the like). Since my commute is now 20 or so feet down the hall in my home office on the shores of White Bear Lake, I don’t see any reason to stop practicing. On a personal level, Jean and I have been married 51 years now and have 3 lovely daughters (one of whom is a lawyer married to a lawyer, in Washington DC), 3 great sons‐in‐law and 9 fine grandchildren, scattered around the countryside. We live in the same place on White Bear Lake that we have been in for over 40 years. It’s too big, but there is always a need for a place for grandchildren to stay if they should decide to visit from time to time. I just got back from skiing in Park City Utah, and I can say with some certainty that there are not a lot of other 75+ year old codgers still doing the turns on the mountains. Call if you want to do lunch. Dixon Tews 651‐426‐0109 P: (612) 347-7815
CHRISTINA HUGHES, CFP® , Financial Advisor
March 9, 2016
Robert Tufford
301 Clifton Ave #4L
Minneapolis, MN 55403
I have worked since law school in the financial services business, the last 45 of which are with
a company now called Tufford-Hughes and Associates. Our clients mostly have been
professionals and small business owners. Given the passage of time we add to that now
retirees, former small business owners and widows. It is work that I was good at and a good fit
for my skills and personality. I also have felt that our work was beneficial for our clients and
rewarding to us. I am mostly retired but the business continues to thrive and I enjoy the small
part I play in it now as a non-owner.
Personally, I have been married to my wife Marie for 25 years and as a blended family we have
a number of children and grandchildren. We have lived in downtown Minneapolis for over 20
years and enjoy the various activities that exist in the city. (Sports, Orchestra, Theater,
restaurants etc.)
I work out daily, play golf in the summer, take piano lessons, travel some, go to the office when
I feel like it and am in relatively good health. Like most people, I have had a few unexpected
twists and turns with life but have wound up at age 75 with few regrets and some good
memories. I am hopeful for the future and think that is somewhat the key to avoiding the
negatives that seem to overtake a lot of people our age. Politically in 1966 I was a Republican
but changed along the way to being a Democrat but somewhat of a moderate Democrat. I am
looking forward to our reunion and seeing people that I mostly have not seen for 50 years and
did not particularly know well back in our law school days.
Robert D. Tufford, CLU, ChFC
3300 Edinborough Way • Suite 550
Edina, MN 55435
(612) 347-7810
www.tufford-hughes.com
Securities and advisory services offered through Cetera Advisor Networks LLC, member
FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services also offered through AdvisorNet Wealth Management,
Inc. Cetera and AdvisorNet are under separate ownership from any named entity.
Rick Varco
Following graduation, I enlisted in the Army; completed Officer Candidate
School at Ft. Benning, GA; and married our classmate Mike Murphy's sister
Tara. In the only lottery win of my life, I was assigned to and spent my
entire tour of duty in Helena, MT. Coming back to St. Paul in 1969, I went
to work for the State and, in 1973, the Minnesota Attorney General's
Office, retiring from there in April, 2015. While at the AG's Office, I did legal
work for state agencies, including the Departments of Human Rights,
Corrections, Labor and Industry, and Transportation. In the main this was a
trial and appellate practice. As such I was fortunate to be able to argue
before each level of State and federal court.
Tara and I had four children, three of whom are living. Our sons
reside in St. Paul, our daughter lives in Portland, OR.
I was a Democrat walking into Prof. Kenyon's class on November
22,1963, and remain one today.
Barry Weinberg
Short Statement:
I’ve been a government lawyer, an international lecturer, an author, and, currently, I am a
playwright. I live in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, and in Swanton,
Maryland, in the Allegheny Mountains, with my wife, Lyn Utrecht, whom I married in
1990. I have four children ranging in age from 23 to 45, one grandchild, three horses,
one dog and one cat.
Achievements:
I retired from the U.S. Justice Department in 2000 after a career as a civil rights litigator,
supervisor and administrator, including being Acting Chief of the Voting Section in the
Civil Rights Division. I began there while still in law school in the summer of 1965,
investigating the beatings on the Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights, and
shortly before I retired I supervised multi-state litigation proving the constitutionality of
the National Voter Registration Act (the Motor Voter law); there was a lot of other work
in between. After receiving several awards myself, at my retirement ceremony the Barry
H. Weinberg Award was established in the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section.
Since 2000, I have been an international election observer, and lectured overseas and in
the U.S. on election dispute adjudication. I have worked in Nigeria, Liberia, Ukraine,
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Canada.
The Second Edition of my book, The Resolution of Election Disputes, was published in
November, 2008.
Currently, I am a playwright. A reading of my play, “The Chadwick Story,” was done by
the Baltimore Playwrights Festival in January 2016. “End Papers” won the American
Association of Community Theatre’s nationwide competition and was published and
produced in 2014. Also in 2014, “The Main Chance” was chosen by the Baltimore
Playwrights Festival in March; “It’s Your Funeral,” my one-act play, was among the
winners of the Old Opera House Theatre’s New Voice Play Festival (Charles Town, WV)
in April, and the Frostburg (Maryland) One Act Play Competition in June. My fiveminute play, “The Prize,” won Theater J’s 5x5 Festival in Washington, DC, in 2008.
I have been on the board of directors of three nonprofit organizations, and was a
gubernatorial appointee on a government board. I go to see the Baltimore Orioles and the
Washington Nationals play baseball. I go to the annual jazz festival in Saratoga Springs,
NY. I record books for the blind and dyslectic, and I sing bass-baritone with the Encore
Chorale (for people 55 and older).
Predictions for the Future:
I believe, as Mort Sahl said, the future lies ahead.
Reason for Writing All This:
You asked for a one-page statement. Be careful what you wish for.
weinutr@verizon.net
Thomas Wexler: short statement of post-law school life and lessons
After obtaining my U.S. Army certification as a combat platoon leader I served two years near
Boston, MA. Then returned to Minneapolis where I practiced a broad variety of trial work for 21
years and then was elected to be a District Court Judge in Hennepin County where I served for
18 years, retiring in 2009. I continue to do some part time work as a contract judge for the
Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings, where I am mostly mediating medical licensing
cases and OSHA penalty cases. I have had a few significant wins as a trial lawyer and a few
significant appellate decisions as a judge. One of the interesting cases I tried was a pro bono
case for the MCLU to get girls onto boys’ high school athletic teams at schools that did not have
girls teams in their non-contact sports. That was sustained at the 8th circuit and is now the lead
case in an ALR Fed. article.
I have been married to my wife, Ardis, for 46 years. We have three children and 5
grandchildren. Ardis and I travel a fair amount, though mostly now we cruise to places around
the world.
A great deal of my judicial experience involved underprivileged segments of our community,
and I am concerned about the quality of life and the welfare of those who struggle daily without
adequate income. We do a lot to help. We need to do more.
wexleradr@aol.com
Stephen (Steve) Winnick – Class of ‘66
Being several years older than most in my class presented a challenge- but I can’t
remember what that was. I served in the military after undergrad for slightly more
than two years (1st Lieutenant, Army), was married and concerned about a recall to
service because of Viet Nam-which never happened. During my second year,
encouraged by my Writing instructor, Mike Sullivan of Gray Plant and later Pres
of Dairy Queen, I obtained a clerkship at the Mpls firm- Levitt Palmer et al. I
stayed there throughout my career.
Most significant accomplishments are my 4 grandchildren, two married children
both living in this area and my long suffering wife of 55 years- Arlene. I am
blessed.
We were a unique Firm, 11 lawyers serving some of the area’s leading businesses,
including Carlson Companies, Marquette Bank and other Pohlad interests,
Dahlberg Electronics, and numerous bank and finance related companies. We
merged with Briggs and Morgan in ’83.
I initially did business litigation and transactions. My significant cases that were
tried included: Representation of the St. Louis Park School District in defending
against racial discrimination in hiring of a teacher in Federal District Court with a
ruling in our favor by Judge Gunnar Nordbye. Defense of Marquette Bank in a
UCC, Article 9 self help collection brought by a debtor before a Federal Court jury
and Judge Phillip Neville, affirmed by the 8th Circuit; and a family partnership
dissolution tried before Judge Douglas Amdahl in Hennepin County.
With the Briggs merger, I chose to focus on transactions. This was the beginning
of the bank merger era in Minnesota. I represented the Pohlad group in many such
deals, and a number of other independent bankers and businesses. The most
significant were the Fed assisted acquisition by the Marquette group of F&M
Savings Bank (with classmate John Troyer), creation of MidAmerica Bancorp and
its acquisition of 19 banks, and others.
Business deals included real estate developments for Carlson Cos., creation and
later sale of CVN Cos., a television shopping channel (with classmate Av Gordon
on the i.p.o.)and Valuvision Int’l (now Shop NBC), sale of AM Miller & Assoc.
and merger of Bekins Van Lines, which was owned by local interests.
Boards I served on were Twin Cities Public Television, Mpls Television Network,
Legal Advice Clinics, Lupus Foundation, Brooklyn Park Bank, Twin Cities
Marathon (Pres 89-91) Edina Human Rights Comm. and Edina Schools PTA (Pres
76-77). In ’97 I received my Firm’s Pro Bono Award.
Upon retirement, I engaged in consulting to law firms & businesses, including
several local and NYC firms. Now I play golf, travel, attend grandchildren events
and volunteer. I am still a Dem; prefer a public policy agenda slightly left of
center and abhor the political and social extremes.
For me, it’s all about family, health, luck, hard work, relationships and more luck.
A belated thank you to the University of Minnesota Law School.
Al Woodward Here is my effort at compressing the last 50 years. My career as a lawyer actually began as a second year student when I accepted a summer clerkship at the St Paul firm of Maun, Hazel, Green, Hayes, Simon and Aretz. This morphed into a half time job during my third year as Kathy and I were now parents and in need of income. The firm offered me a position as an associate upon graduation and there I remained until the fall of 2000 when I became a shareholder at Leonard, Street and Deinard, where I practiced until I retired at the end of 2114. My 35 years at the Maun firm was more than I ever expected. I was joined at that firm for many years by my best friend and classmate, Gar Mulrooney. The firm name changed many times, finally settling on Maun and Simon and we moved from St. Paul to Minneapolis. We were a relatively small firm with a very sophisticated business practice. In the late 60’s several of our large family clients decided to become public companies and the firm tapped me to become our overnight securities law expert. Av Gordon was doing the same thing at his firm and I fondly remember meeting with our wives at the Plaza Hotel in New York for one of the first PLI Securities Law Institutes. It was our first trip to the Big Apple and we were duly impressed. Representing public companies, assisting in capital formation, corporate governance and transactional work became the focus of my practice for the rest of my career. Kathy and I now have been married for 51 years. we have four children and 10 grandsons, ranging in age from 20 years to 10 months. That is a lot of testosterone! In 1978 Gar and I bought a townhome on Lake Owen in Northwestern Wisconsin. Several years later we bought the adjacent unit and later as our children grew older we split the ownership. Today each of our family's spend much of the year at Lake Owen. It is our treasured home away from home. Kathy and I have always tried to sta engaged in our community and, in fact, have found that volunteerism is much more rewarding than routine law work. My first taste of volunteer work occurred in 1968 when I was asked by the then mayor of St. Paul to chair the Interim Committee for Model Cities. We were charged to develop a governance structure for implementation of the Model Cities program in St. Paul. It was a very contentious time and, I think, the mayor was looking for some naïve young man to blame if it failed. Ultimately, we adopted a structure, an election was held and the resulting community advisory council was formed. I believe it still exists. Since then I have served on a number of non profit boards, alumni associations and private school boards . The best part of my legal career are the memories. Unfortunately , space doesn’t permit even the highlights so this will have to do. Al Woodward Class of 1966
In Memoriam:
Richard Angell
Richard Hassel
Barbara Bacich
George Hoey
Stephen Bolduan
Albert Johnston
David Byron
James Lammers
Bruce Campbell
Jon Lehman
John Candell
Robert Nys
James Carr
Ebert Olson
William Garrison
Mark Rodman
Gerald Geraghty
Richard Schieffer
Paul Gooding
Albert Schultz
Bruce Hanson
Edward Schwarz
David Hartle
Maher Weinstein
Class of 1966
“Lost Alumni”
If you have information about the whereabouts of these classmates, please contact the Law
School's Advancement Office at lawalum@umn.edu or 612-626-8671.
Richard A Francis
Roland F Hoch
Richard W Towey
Kenneth A Malvey
Hugh A Cameron
Virgil V Peterson
Margaret B Vandepas
William A Western