Roger Algase: Clarence B. Jones was a close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His obituary has been published in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/26/clarence-b-jones-martin-luther-king. As a Harvard Law School graduate in 1963 I was working for Mr. Jones, who was at the time a partner in a small civil rights law firm in NYC. It was under his direction that I prepared and filed the US copyright application for Dr. King’s immortal “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. This was after, at Mr. Jones’ direction, getting permission from one of Dr. King’s associates at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta to change a couple of lines in Dr. King’s speech that didn’t quite fit in with my Harvard English grammar. When I told the SCLC what I wanted to do, I half expected them to say, “Who the hell do you think you are, young man!” But what they actually said was: “You can go ahead and change anything you want. Martin doesn’t care.” So I did.
John Carswell: “Tom Burns and I saw demonstrated the so-called thermite reaction in [‘Weary’] Weaver’s chemistry lab – a Sudden Heat Delight. We heisted the powders back to Twink Catlett’s and my room [2nd floor Adams Hall North] and its working fireplace, where we caused these timid-seeming chemicals to ignite, predictably, like young lovers in the high heat of passion. Serious fire and heat! A bit of carpet was scorched, a bit of floor to boot. A stink ensued and Tom and I hoisted windows and fanned like mad. Mr. Hulburd must have been out coaching. The adrenal rush is obviously to blame for my life of sneaky misdeeds and mad adventures – if only in my over-charged imagination.” [Excerpt from letter last October]
Jack Doykos: Joanna and I just returned to Rye Beach where we live about 800 yards from Steve Clarkson in the summer and about 1200 yards from him in the winter at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Also at PGA National we are lucky enough to have a couple get together with Doug and Kate Fisher frequently. I speak with John Palmer and am fortunate enough in the summer to have a couple rounds of golf with him, often at his Portland country club in Maine.
Doug Fisher: Kate and I are leaving on a family Safari with 8 people to Tanzania soon (this July) and then we’ll celebrate Kate’s 91st birthday on July 20.
[Excerpt from Doug’s Memoirs: My Life So Far (313 pages illustrated 2023)]: “One major prank engineered by a boy in our dorm named Dave Moore has become a classic in Andover school history. . . . It involved a fair number of students and required a number of steps to pull it off. The main north-south highway was blocked off and all the vehicles (cars, trucks, buses, etc.) going north were rerouted east through all the main campus buildings, past faculty housing and classrooms, before being redirected back onto the highway. Traffic traveling south was all rerouted into the West Quad, past faculty homes, past six large dormitories, and down a long, winding dead-end road called Hidden Field Road. The dead-end created an enormous back up. We watched with glee from our windows as the traffic problem grew worse and worse. It was dark, headlights were on, horns were blaring, and people were trying to back up or turn around but there was no room for that. The traffic just kept coming until some smart truck drivers figured out that they had to move the detour signs to let traffic flow south again. Even then it took several hours for all the trucks and cars down the dead-end lane to back out. The perpetrators were never identified or caught.” [Ref. related 1955 class note by Steve Clarkson, Andover Magazine Spring 2026, p. 46.]
Steve Kaye: I’m working on a scheme to host five players from the Berlin Phil to play with our resident pianist at Millbrook Music Salon millbrookmusicsalon.org. We have the Balourdet Quartet coming this weekend, three of whom will be staying chez nous, they are of that statifyric world of fine artistry. They will be joined by our resident pianist and music director Sophia Zhou to make a quintet. They will be playing at a local church in the village. I run into PA folks or their works fairly often. A recent highly publicized sale at Christies had a Frank Stella and a Carl Andre; a Fred Rezewski piece will be played by pianist Benjamin Hochman with members of the Met Opera orchestra at a nearby venue. I sometimes run into Oscar Tang at music events of which he is a major benefactor. The contributions of these luminaries will endure. I can remember Frank’s painting in the cellar art studio, a landscape. When I saw it, I remember thinking “this guy can paint!” Little did I know, but I was awed.
Don Oasis: Ellen and I will summer in Saratoga Springs for the racing season. If any of you are close please call 978 394-1131.
Peter Parsons: I read about the monster 7.8 earthquake in faraway Basilan June 7. We felt no shakes up here in Baguio. During WWII my dad went ashore in Basilan to visit a sugar warehouse only to find himself getting shot at by Japanese! Am planning my next book, a compilation of these WWII events. Starting with the one in which the neighborhood kids nominated me to be their designated hangee, as in a western movie we had all seen. This was in Manila just before WWII descended upon us.