Kenner/Garrett Eddy Memorial

 Special thanks to Michael Kenner who, upon hearing that our classmate, Garrett Eddy, died after being shot down while serving as a Forward Air Controller (FAC) with the USAF in Cambodia, took on the tasks of researching Garrett's fatal flight and coordinating with the Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial in San Diego to arrange for a plaque to be added to the Memorial in Garrett's memory.

Since the text on the plaque is difficult to read in this posting, I'm including its text here:

"KIA October 1970

Medals-Ribbons:

Air Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, Outstanding Unit "V", National Defense Service, Vietnam Service with 3 Stars, Gallantry Cross with Palm, Gallantry Cross Unit Citation, Republic of Vietnam Campaign.

Garrett was flying reconnaissance northwest of Kampong Cham, Cambodia when he was hit by ground fire.

Menlo School Class of 1964 honors your service."

 

Let us all be thankful for Garrett's heroism and his service to our country!

May you rest in eternal peace, Garrett!

A recent observation from an "Eat Your Vegetables" alumnus regarding my recent postings on the class's Almost 60th Reunion:

 

"You weave a rich tapestry from the assorted threads of the unwashed underwear of a group of wild and crazy guys." 

Menlo School Class of 1964's "Almost 60th Reunion"

Welcome Classmates! Earlier this year, some of you probably got tired of receiving e-mails from Mike Kenner and me encouraging you to join us for an "off-cycle" Class of '64 Reunion. 'Sorry about that, but we really thought it was a good idea not to wait all the way until 2024 for our next get-together. 

But, if you missed this one, don't worry - you'll start hearing from us again early in 2024 as we start prepping you to join us for our REAL 60th Reunion sometime in October, 2024.

That said, we DID gather together 10 classmates and 3 wives in Palo Alto to, once again, share our memories of our Menlo experiences back in the 60s!  We would have had 12 classmates, but Bruce Benton's flight out of Tennessee experienced a mechanical issue and had to return to base. After that delay, re-scheduling just wasn't an option for Bruce.  Jon Lawson was also planning to join us, but he was scheduled for surgery the weekend of our reunion and chose not to join us (a GOOD choice, Jon!). We're sure hoping Bruce, Jon, and a BUNCH of you who couldn't join us this year will give serious consideration to joining us in 2024!

Next I'd really like to express my thanks to Mike Kenner for ALL of the work he put into organizing this reunion, from the emails and post cards, to the cool "Eat Your Vegetables" shirts, to making the arrangements with Pezella's Villa Napoli for our dinner AND for arranging for a photographer (Christophe Testi of Creative Shot) to capture wonderful photos of us - ALL at our very BEST!

NOW for the photos:

 John Zinke greeting Keoki Raymond:

Mike greeting me:

And, attending his FIRST Class of '64 Reunion, EVER, Skip Croninger!

Kim McKeller greeting Keoki Raymond (Doug Williams in the background):

Mike Kenner and Guil Gaylord:

Tom Love and Keoki:

Another plug for Pezella's :-):

Connie and Mike Kenner:

Guil Gaylord:

Guil's lovely wife, Karen:

Doug Williams:

Doug's lovely wife, Lulu:

 

And now, on to dinner:

Tom Love:

Skip taking a look at our 1964 Yearbook:

Tom Alexander:

 View 1 of dinner:

And View 2 of dinner:

 

And NOW, the group photos (yes, we are just about to the end)!!

Front Row, L to R: Tom Alexander, Kim McKeller, Mike Kenner, and John Zinke

Back Row, L to R: Keoki Raymond, Tom Love, Guil Gaylord, Skip Croninger, Bill Jarrott and Doug Williams:

Classmates and spouses:

Front Row, L to R:  Tom Alexander, Lulu Williams, Connie Kenner, and Karen Gaylord:

Back Row, L to R Mike Kenner, John Zinke, Keoki Raymond, Tom Love, Guil Gaylord, Skip Croninger, Bill Jarrott, Doug Williams, and Kim McKeller:

Hope you enjoyed the photos!  And Mike and I also hope you'll all consider joining us for our REAL 60th Reunion in October of 2024!  In the meantime, stay safe and well!! Cheers, Bill

"The Long, Disorganized Life of Skip Croninger"

Dartmouth College after leaving Menlo. Why I decided to trade Stanford, four miles down the road, for four years at an all-male college where I would freeze my ass off each winter, I'll never know. Although I seem to recall that Martie, my childhood sweetheart, decided to enroll at Skidmore College in New York around the same time.

As I approached Dartmouth graduation, it occurred to me that if I didn't "do something" I would almost certainly be drafted, so I applied to the Naval Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, and my application was accepted.  With a week to go in the eighteen-week training program, my company officer took me aside, complimented me on my scholastic performance while at OCS, and described the career benefits that might accrue from an early tour of duty cruising around the Mekong Delta in a fiberglass-hulled Swift Boat, a conversation which did precipitate a few anxious moments.  However, upon graduation I was assigned to U.S.S. Courtney, a destroyer escort home ported in Newport, as a division engineering officer.  Somehow, the U.S. Navy must have found out that I was an English major, and wisely concluded that I was supremely qualified to master the intricacies of steam propulsion.  Shortly after reporting for duty, Martie and I were married, and a year and a half later Courtney's home port was shifted to Naples, Italy, so off we went to Europe for a couple years.  And, for all my whining at the time, my four years in the Navy turned out to be one of the most worthwhile and enjoyable (in a funny sort of way) experiences of my life.

At the conclusion of my Navy career, Martie and I spent 3 months driving around Europe in a small Fiat 124 Spyder, armed with a bunch of NATO gas coupons and a ridiculous amount of Skippy peanut butter (no relation) before returning to Boston for two years of graduate business school.  After graduating I joined Arthur Andersen as a staff accountant, leaving after two years for an assistant treasurer position with a small, privately-held, high-tech company.  Around that time Martie and I were divorced, mostly because, after spending four years at an all-male prep school and four years at an all-male college, I pretty much had no clue about how to build a successful marriage and was too busy with my career to spend much time thinking about the problem.  Also, as best I can remember, at the time I was about seventeen years old emotionally and intellectually.  As they say, there ain't no cure for stupid, and, while I was smart in some ways, I was pretty much off the mark in others.

Shortly thereafter, I had the good fortune to acquire a life-long business mentor who taught me a lot and forgave most of my mistakes, and my financial career progressed in a haphazard but reasonably fulfilling fashion.  It even managed to survive a three-year mid-life crisis during which I lived in unemployed splendor and uncertainty in Honolulu, Albuquerque and San Francisco before returning to New England to resume my efforts to log enough years of honest work to generate a decent monthly social security check after I retired.  Shortly after my return, I got married again, to Patti, an old flame from my single days in Boston.

So, I finally retired, I thought, around 2005. But no, the 2008 financial crisis and the impact it had on my limited financial resources encouraged me to go looking for work, and so I took a job as chief financial officer of a beleaguered regional residential real estate developer for several years.  My boss was a member of the board of trustees at a local university, and in 2011 I successfully transitioned from a business career to a job as an adjunct professor, where I spent a surprisingly rewarding ten years teaching a variety of graduate and undergraduate finance courses.

So here I am in Hudson, New Hampshire, fully retired but divorced again. (Quite amicably. I think I snore.) I'm in decent health, I play golf twice a week when there is no snow on the ground, I read a lot of books, some of them actually worthwhile, and I do my best to enjoy and appreciate what is a very simple and unstructured life at this point. Looking forward to my trip west and our Menlo class reunion!

 

 

More 55th Menlo Reunion Photos

From the Saturday morning Brunch at Dinah's Poolside Restaurant:

Keoki, Sam, Bruce, John Z., Mike K. Tom, and Jon.

Tom Love and Sam Felix.

John Zinke, Mike Kenner. Tom Love, Jon Lawson.

Keoki Raymond.

Doug and Lulu Williams included in this one - everyone else you ought to recognize by now :-).

Kim/Anne Marie - I'm sorry there aren't any photos of you in the post - but I'll be HAPPY to add to the post if you'll forward a photo to me (Bill J)!

Thanks to ALL who participated - it was another GREAT time!! To those of you who were unable to attend or chose not to - COME JOIN US IN 2024!  It's NEVER too late to join the fun!!

Tha, tha, tha, that's all folks!!

Menlo Class of '64's 55th Reunion

Nearly a dozen members of the Menlo Class of 1964 gathered in the Menlo Park/Los Altos area over the weekend of 12 - 14 October, 2019 to celebrate the 55th anniversary of our graduation from Menlo.

Our celebration began with a wonderful pre-Homecoming Game "festival" organized and hosted by Menlo on the Douglass Lawn! Special thanks to Katherine Kelly and the Menlo Alumni staff for the incredible selection of foods, beverages and entertainment!

UNDER THE LIGHTS at Cartan Field (a FIRST for us!), Bruce Benton, Bill Jarrott, Jim Odriozola and John Zinke were joined by John Lawson, Kim McKellar and Kim's lovely lady, Anne Marie to watch the Menlo Knights defeat the Carlton High School Scots, 23 to 17!!  Unfortunately, NO photographs were taken to remember this event - in fact, as the evening grew increasingly chilly a few of us faint-hearted departed at the beginning of the 4th quarter when it appeared that the Knights had the game under control, and returned to Dinah's for a night cap in the warmth of Dinah's Poolside Restaurant.

On Saturday, we enjoyed a casual morning and afternoon of classmate arrivals and informal get-togethers in and around Dinah's.  Our "main event" was a lovely dinner in the heated patio of Pezella's Via Napoli Italian Restaurant, about 4 miles south of Dinah's on El Camino.

From here on, it'll just photographs of the event, courtesy of CreativeShot Photography (SPECIAL thanks to Mike Kenner for engaging the photographer!).

Most dinner attendees, with small group photos and individual photos to follow (unfortunately, Kim McKellar and Anne joined us after the photographer departed)

Bruce Benton

And his cousin (or as Bruce refers to her, his "Reunion Wife!"

Doug Williams.

Doug and his lovely wife, Lulu.

Chase (or as we remember him, "Chip" Young).

And, Chase's lovely wife, Judith Branch.

Steve Westbrook (his FIRST Menlo reunion, ever)!

Bill Jarrott, John Zinke Ann Sullivan (with back to camera), Bruce Benton and Steve Westbrook.

"Keoki" George Raymond and Lulu Williams.

Jim Odriozola (you may recall that Jim joined our reunion group two years ago when we discovered his wife worked with Mike Kenner's daughter in Santa Cruz).

Jon Lawson.

Mike Kenner and Jim Odriozola (More photos to follow - I've run out of room in THIS post!).

Tom Love and Sam Felix.

Tom Love ad Mike Kenner.

Billy Wolff, Doug Williams and Mike Kenner.

John Zinke and Sam Felix.

Bruce Benton and Ann Sullivan.

Jim Odriozola.

Bill Jarrott and John Zinke

Photos from the Saturday morning brunch at Dinah's will be included in the next post.

Scott Clinton

I'm sorry to share that, via an e-mail from his son, James, I've just learned that Scott passed away a couple of months ago. Classmates have written with remembrances of Scott, including Bill Phinizy who shared this photo of the "Backbay Chamberpot Terriers" jug band started by Robby Kreiger and Billy Wolff that also included Scott, Bill Phinzy and Jerry Dunn:

Mike Kenner commented: "Sorry to hear that....I did love the way he laughed!" May Scott rest in eternal peace.