Class Notes
Jim White ’62 B.D.
Dear Ron (Byars) and Classmates of ‘62—many of whom, like me, just passed the “Piano Keys Birthday,” #88.
So … another year has rolled around, and I am still walking, but now with a white-and-red cane, which enables me to look like a blind person and so get through airport lines quickly! I am still fishing a little when people will take me to the water and tie on a fly for me. Back home as best I can I peck on a new book—which may never hatch—working title is 90 Years a’Trout Fishin’ (Memoirs of a Pescador). My wife Patti continues to cater events at our church, for the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and is known for making delectable food. Our dog Gilda is now in her 13th year and went to the gathering of “Goldens in Golden” [5500 golden retrievers]. What a show!
Some of you may remember two YDSers in the class just before us, Bob Webber and Joe Jones. Both have passed. Joe and Sara’s daughter, Serene, who my then-wife Anita and I babysat at the Disciples House in New Haven, went on to become a significant theologian like her father. She taught at Yale Divinity for a number of years and then was called to be president of Union Theological Seminary. Happy to say, Serene Jones will be the lecturer here in Colorado Springs at First Congregational UCC in April. Right now, our church is reading her book, Call It Grace. I commend it to you. It is good.
Meanwhile, we shall all get ready for the No Kings Day on March 28. At the last rally here in Colorado Springs, I sat in my camp chair and had posters read to me. The best poster was … “You Know Things Are Bad When an Old, Straight, White Guy Makes a Sign.”
Carry on the fight, friends.
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Ron Byars ’62 B.D.
I am enjoying a new book by N.T. Wright called God’s Homecoming. He is writing about how Christians have reframed God’s promise of a new creation into “going to heaven.” He has written about this before, but this is a deeper exegetical dive into his thesis. I was particularly interested in it because it is similar to something I also wrote about (much less expansively) in my 2022 book, Preaching and Praying as Though God Matters: in the Post- Establishment Church, particularly Ch. 3, “The Reformation: Preaching to Get Ready for Heaven.”
Susan and I have been living in a senior retirement community for nearly two years. Our lives are smaller, but I am enjoying recording a weekly Podcast Called “What Language Shall I Borrow” produced and posted by our son Matt.
I suspect that I am not alone in detesting the current leadership of our country. I can’t do much about it, but I do post on my Facebook page relevant articles from the New York Times. In this red state, we are fortunate to have an appealing young Democratic governor, Andy Beshear.
Blessings to you all!
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Leroy Howe ’62 B.D.
Thank you again, Ron, for gathering these letters for us. I appreciated their thoughtfulness very much and grieved over the passing of yet another of our peers. I’m still feeling the absence of Bill Mount, my roommate at YDS and later on teaching colleague at Perkins in Dallas. We were Best Man in each other’s wedding.
But I am still feeling renewed by the quality of reflection shared by our other colleagues. Nancy and I are living in Michigan now. I’m still writing. Finished a book last year and hope to do the same this.
All the best to you,
Leroy
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Frederick Trost ’62 B.D.
Thanks for your faithful relationship to the YDS Class of 1962. It is a gift to us all! My wife, Louise Herrman Trost and I are living in retirement in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, grateful for the arrival of each new day. Louise taught in the Wallingford CT public schools while we were living in Bellamy Hall and later renting an apartment on Canner Street in New Haven. She is the key who opened the door, enabling me to study at the divinity school. We lived in Germany for several years while I served as a Vikar in the Badische Landeskirche in Karlsruhe and studied theology and Church History at Heidelberg University. For nearly twenty years, we had the joy of serving in the pastoral ministry at St. Pauls UCC on the near-north side of Chicago. We then were called to Madison where, for about twenty more years, I was given an opportunity to offer pastoral leadership to the Wisconsin Conference of the UCC (until retirement in 2001.) Since YDS, we have remained active in faith-related projects committed to social justice and peace-making; most recently (2017) forming (with others) the Interfaith Peace working Group, which continues its challenging work among laity and clergy throughout the state. Looking back, I treasure those who taught us at YDS, as well as the laity and clergy in the parish (and others along the way) who have been among our teachers. Louise and I send good wishes, gratitude and respect to you, Ron, and to the remarkable Class of 1962 for our “life together” and for the good memories that have come with the passing of the years!
Your brother in Christ,
Frederick Trost