Class Events

Past Event: Rick Hatton ’64 on “Wildfire Containment and Suppression From the Air”

On Thursday, January 23, 2025, Rick Hatton ’64 spoke on “Wildfire Containment and Suppression from the Air.” The video recording of this event can be seen here.

This topic was particularly relevant at the time in view of the multiple wildfires threatening Los Angeles as gusts to hurricane force fanned the flames.

Rick founded and runs a company whose primary asset is a surplus DC-10 airliner modified for aerial firefighting. The plane is fitted with a large external tank from which a fire-suppressant mixture can be dropped to contain the spread of a wildfire.

Past Event: Len Baker ’64 and Bob Archer ’64 on “Climate Crisis: Rethinking Required or Else!”

Bob Archer ’64 and Len Baker ’64 were featured in a 90-minute Zoom event on October 5, 2023. Their subject was “Climate Crisis: Rethinking Required or Else!” The event was attended by 70 classmates and friends. Joe Wishcamper ’64 organized the event and fielded questions from the audience.The speakers agreed on the urgency of the problem and the necessity of implementing some form of carbon pricing.

The video recording of this event can be seen here.

Past Event: Jethro Lieberman '64 — Everything is Jake

For our second program in 2023, our Yale ‘64 Authors Book Club invited Jethro Lieberman ’64 to discuss his new novel Everything is Jake and reflect on the differences between writing fiction and non-fiction in book form. The Zoom meeting was on July 13, 2023, at 4:00pm EST. In addition to his day jobs in law practice, journalism, and law teaching, Jethro has had a separate writing career, beginning with his first book, published in 1966 while a third-year law student. Since then, some thirty of his books have been published on topics ranging from constitutional law to CB radio. Everything is Jake is his first novel. During the Zoom event Larry Crutcher ’64 masterfully kept the pace moving over seventy minutes of conversation and Q&A about all aspects of Jethro’s career, thoughts on writing, and hints that another novel is coming. See the event video here.

Past Event: Nortin Hadler '64 on “Health at Our Time of LIfe”

On April 27, 2023, Dr. Nortin Hadler ’64 discussed “Health at Our Time of Life.”

Dr. Hadler discussed longevity, disease burden, and mortality as well as the medicalization and overtreatment of our age cohort, followed by a brief summary of the relevant health economics. Then he moved on to object lessons using selected classmate questions solicited beforehand. The discussion section was moderated by Sam Francis '64.

See the video of this event here.

Past Event: Russell Sunshine '64 — From Past to Present

For our first program in 2023, our Yale ’64 Authors Book Club invited Russell Sunshine ’64 to talk with us about two writing projects — his memoir Far & Away and his blog Agile Aging. The Zoom meeting took place on January 20, 2023 at 4:00pm EST (1:00pm PST). The video of the event can be viewed here.

Russell worked for 40 years as an independent consultant in international development. He advised national governments and international organizations on subjects ranging from foreign investment to democratic transition to post-conflict peace-building.

Past Event: Re-evaluating Civil Rights in Contemporary America

On December 1, 2022, this panel discussion was motivated by the upcoming Supreme Court decision on affirmative action. The panel featured classmates Jim Duderstadt '64, Joe Lieberman '64, and Joe Rich '64, with two guest panelists, civil rights lawyer John Brittain and Rutgers University President and former Yale College dean Jonathan Holloway. The discussion was moderated by Howard Gillette '64. To see the report of this Zoom event, including a video, click here.

Past Event: Yale ’64 Authors Book Club

On July 14, 2022, we held our third ’64 Authors Book Club event. Following two classmates’ books of fiction and nonfiction, this Book Club was devoted to poetry by classmate Syd Lea ’64, the former Poet Laureate of Vermont and a recipient of the 2021 Vermont Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. The book is titled Here and is available on Amazon. A video of the Book Club event may be viewed here.

Past Event: China — Confrontation or Collaboration?

Ward Wickwire hosted a Zoom event — “China: Confrontation or Collaboration?” — on Thursday, April 28, 2022. The panel included Ambassador Chas Freeman ’64 and former US Foreign Service Officer Mac Deford ’64. All classmates and their families were invited, and seventy-five attended. See the news story here.

Past Event: Joe Lieberman spoke on “No Labels: The Centrist Solution”

On Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022 the Class of 1965 hosted Senator Joe Lieberman ’64 via Zoom, with our Class invited to attend. Joe gave an hour-long talk titled “No Labels: The Centrist Solution.” Attendance included 129 from ’64 and 135 from ’65. You can see the video here.

Joe represented Connecticut from 1986 to 2010 as a Democrat and then as an Independent for the last two years. Upon retirement from the Senate he was instrumental in founding No Labels, a national citizen’s group committed to promoting bipartisanship in Congress, and he now serves as its co-chair. His recent book, The Centrist Solution:  How We Made Our Government Work, and How We can Make it Work Again, documents how a centrist governing philosophy has been essential to our democracy for over 200 years, and argues that it is just as critical today. At Yale, Joe was a Scholar of the House and Editor in Chief & President of The Yale Daily News.

You may want to read Joe’s recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece here.