THE LATEST NOTES FROM PEGGY
(lower case, of course)

(July 31, 2009)
dear '58ers,
what a week last week was: we lost two of our class, both to cancer. owen hawkins, our host at the menlo circus club for the 50th reunion, died of lung cancer, on july 24th. this, after a long and active battle. and jennifer perrin english died that same week, of esophageal cancer. both of these bears were at our reunion, both enjoyed the reconnection and friendship given....and how fortunate we all are that we could be together for that. many have now contacted me about owen's death, and i thank you for that.

barbara hollander chaconas had been in steady contact with owen and connie, setting up part of an upcoming trip for them. the four of them had been on a short cruise in may and owen was quite positive about the early august trip. his lungs, however, deteriorated sharply by mid-july, and quit on him the 24th. there will be a service for him at the menlo park presbyterian church august 11.

as i was fielding the e-mails about owen, les dalecio alerted me to my old pal jenny perrin english's death. they both lived in lafayette, and les had coached jenny and john's daughter in soccer. apparently there was a service held in sonoma where the english family had another home. no philosophizing. i'm sad. they were both good friends. i'm extremely grateful we were all together last november. i consider that a gift.

lighter stuff

funny eileen bolton cooper reports from arizona that she's decided to go back to college. undeclared (in her e-mail, anyway) major. any of the rest of you doing that?

faculty ken winn reports in, in typical jovial mode, saying he's doing fine, if doing all slower than before. he enjoys hearing about individuals in our class. me, too.

there's been a partial reunion since the november one, this one in sedona, arizona, at dave webster's. it involved ben, dave, john symon, nick nicholas and frank (the elusive) tripiano. this is just what i love to hear. these get-togethers are terrific.

likewise this may, jack lorton and i met up in the water world, swimming in the masters swim nationals in clovis. jack swims for the rinconada team (on embarcadero in palo alto), so was there with a full posse. as it turned out, that posse contained two more connections for me. the first was '56er carol tait macpherson, coach of the team. you may recall that she was olympic caliber when we were at m-a. younger sister, carleen, '59. carol plumbed me for an update on myself, so it included my post-college competing in synchronized swimming. she mentioned that another person on her team had done so, too. later, that someone (who had talked to carol in the interim), came and found me just as i was about to get up on the blocks for a race.......and it was one of my old teammates, no less. i nearly fell over. we haven't seen each other since my last nationals in 1966. now that was fun.

local to m-a, i read that the foundation for the future, m-a's fund raising arm, is doing good things. they're the group that wonderfully arranged for us to have our picnic at m-a. they sent out a blurb on recent achievements which seemed like things were going in a good direction. jack lorton and i talked about it a bit in clovis and agreed that they could have made a better story had they included information on two other classes: 1955 and 1958. someone, somewhere, has such statistics, but the ones who stick in my mind are duncan ferguson for the '55ers, and horace aubertine for our class. we had mega-achievers, doers, wonder-test-takersscholarship winners.

that's it. we have updated the alumni page with the address changes and the people with bounced or no-longer-valid e-mails. on the latter, please send along correct e-mails if you are in contact with these people. i'll be grateful and think you're quite swell. well....actually, i already do.

Got your Bear Wear?

Get your M-A Bears alumni apparel from the online Bear Store...this (relatively) new website sells all things Bear and now you can advertise that you're an alumnus of one of the world's great high schools.

Just click the photo at left and you'll go right to the Alumni section...from there you can choose sports-related apparel, as well. Want to bet that a Lacrosse sweatshirt would have been rare in our era? As a matter of fact, did anyone play soccer in 1958? Now's your chance for redemption and to help the Bears while doing so. And to give one of these items to the kids or grandkids might earn you enough points to get you into a championship!

Noted Menlo-Athertonians

• Isaac "WestmenloAA" Baron, young American professional poker player from Menlo Park. He was the winner of the first Card Player Magazine Online Poker Player of the Year Award in 2007. Graduated circa 2005



• George Hanks "Hank" Brown, a Representative and a Senator from Colorado; born in Denver, Colo., February 12, 1940; attended the public schools; graduated, Menlo-Atherton High School 1957; B.S., University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo. 1961; J.D., University of Colorado 1969; M.L. (tax), George Washington University 1986; served in the United States Navy, lieutenant 1962-1966; admitted to the Colorado bar in 1969; vice president, Monfort of Colorado, 1969-1980; served in the Colorado senate, 1972-1976; became Certified Public Accountant, 1988; elected as a Republican to the Ninety-seventh and to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1981-January 3, 1991); elected to the United States Senate in 1990 and served from January 3, 1991 to January 3, 1997; not a candidate for reelection in 1996; co-director, Center for Public Policy and Contemporary Issues, University of Denver 1997-1998; president, University of Northern Colorado 1998-2002; president, Daniels Fund 2002-2005; president, University of Colorado 2005-2008; Now retired, he has gone back to work for the University, helping coach up-and-coming student leaders.



• Lindsay Buckingham: Growing up in Atherton, Buckingham and his brothers were encouraged to join the M-A Water Polo team. Though Buckingham dropped out of water polo to pursue music, his brother Greg Buckingham went on to win a silver medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Lindsay played guitar and bass with Fleetwood Mac. (see Stevie Nicks below)



• Cheryl Burke: Professional Dancer, winner of Dancing with the Stars season 2 with partner Drew Lachey and season 3 with Emmitt Smith; Currently a Dancing With The Stars instructor; 2002 grad of M-A



• Greg Camarillo, Professional Football Player (Miami Dolphins), attended Menlo-Atherton High School and was a letterman in football and basketball. In football, he was a four-year letterman and as a senior, he was a first team All-Peninsula Athletic League honoree and an All-San Mateo County selection. In basketball, he was a second team All-Peninsula Athletic League selection.



• Chris Dorst, Olympic Waterpolo Player
  a member of the 1980 and 1984 US Olympic water polo teams, Dorst won a silver medal at the Los Angeles Games. He holds a B.A. in History and an MBA from Stanford University, where he was an NCAA All-America, team captain and national champion in water polo. Currently chairman of the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame Board of Directors.



• Sahara Lotti, 1995 grad, screenwriter and actress. Wrote scenes for acting classes at USC and after graduation decided to do screenwriting full time. Currently greenlit is her film A Family Affair starring Sarah Jessica Parker. 1995-ish graduate of M-A



• Greil Marcus, noted critic on rock music (First records editor of The Rolling Stone) and American culture and author of many books, including Mystery Train and Lipstick Traces.



• Bob Melvin: circa 1979 grad, (born October 28, 1961, in Palo Alto) is a former Major League Baseball catcher and the current manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks. His cousin Tom Melvin is tight ends coach for the Philadelphia Eagles.



• Stevie Nicks: singer, songwriter, and keyboardist; member of rock band Fleetwood Mac. In 1966 her family moved to Atherton where she attended Menlo-Atherton High School for her junior and senior years, that included Lindsey Buckingham, who was a sophomore. They had a garage band and played current top 40 cover tunes at dances at M-A. 1974 is when they got the fateful telephone call that would propel them into "Fleetwood Mac"



• Courtney Thorne-Smith: actress who grew up in Menlo Park attended Menlo-Atherton High, but graduated from Tamalpais High School, Mill Valley. Her father a computer scientist, and her husband is Roger Fishman.


• Bob Weir: guitarist and founding member of the Grateful Dead, raised by adoptive parents in Atherton, played guitar at 13, evidently holds a record for being expelled from nearly every school he attended - probably due to his then-undiagnosed dyslexia. First Grateful Dead appearance in album Ace (1972). You DO remember vinyl, don't you?



• Steve Westly, Managing Partner, The Westly Group which holds $2.9-billion in North American investments former Controller and Chief Fiscal Officer, State of California. Stanford graduate.

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