2023

As has been well-reported, we live in a speeded-up 24-7 cable news cycle universe. So, in keeping with the new zeitgeist, my notes will be (somewhat) shorter this year. Similarly on-brand was our class reunion last spring at John Colston’s house. It wasn’t officially our year to have a major fifth or tenth year celebration, but in 2021, owing to COVID dislocations, we got shoehorned in with the Class of ’76 (no disrespect to the ‘76ers) at an event at the school. So, we decided, hey, we’re all grown up, even by some measures, old, we can re-une whenever we want to. And we did: A quick glance at the photo of the gathering suggests the “we’re all in this together” fellowship which, as a class, I think we’ve always been fortunate to enjoy. My eye travels to the bottom right-hand corner: a very fit Watty Galleher who came in all the way from Denver (I think), Brian Goodman doing an excellent impression of the old Dos Equis “world’s most interesting man,” and Gerry Brewster sporting a hard-to-miss flag-of-Maryland shirt. Many thanks to John for hosting, and to New Jersey-ite Bill Harwood for pitching in with logistical back-up.

In this same spirit of mastering one’s own destiny, Kevin Lynch has been making noises about a “class trip” to catch an Orioles game at Camden Yard this summer, or maybe next. Given the actuarial tables we’re dealing with here, I’m with Harwood who writes that an “every-two-year” get-together would be the better way to proceed. If you’re interested in the Os plan, shoot Kevin a note, or me, and I’ll make sure he gets it.

Gerry Brewster and I have found ourselves in the same business this spring, both of us committed to publishing PR. I’ve been haranguing classmates, and most anyone else, about a book I recently co-authored, published by a Harper Collins imprint: “Fire on the Levee: The Murder of Henry Glover and the Search for Justice After Hurricane Katrina.” In brief: in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, five white New Orleans cops were responsible for the murder of an unarmed Black man and then “disappearing” his body (by incineration, hence the “Fire” of the title). The book is written in the first-person voice of lead author Jared Fishman, at the time a young Justice Department prosecutor who, with Ashley Johnson, an African American FBI rookie, solved the case and tried to bring the criminals to justice (with mixed results).