RE Log Fall 2016

46 Ransom Everglades LOG FALL 2016 Class Notes Ransom School 1953 Bart Durham is a personal-injury at- torney in Nashville, Tennessee. He started in the 1960s and early ’70s as an assistant U.S. district attorney and assistant state attorney general. In 1975, he opened his private practice in Nashville, Tenn. His son Blair and his team of personal-injury lawyers spend their time prosecuting insurance companies. More information on the firm can be found at http://www.bartdurham.com/ Bob Pendleton and his wife Elsa retired in 2000, sold their house in the Mojave Desert and became full-time travelers. They have driven their pickup truck to all of the states and Canadian provinces, and spent about a year and a half, on and off, traveling by train in Western Europe. They often spend summers in Canada and winters in South Texas. They chronicle their journeys on their “Open Road” website at http://www.bobandelsa.com/ . Elsa has self-published three books and is working on a fourth, and Bob has self-published an autobiographical memoir. 1958 Edward G. L. Carter , a great nephew of Ruth Ransom, continues his nine- year labor of love, working on the home in Thailand he has dubbed The White Elephant. He notes the Thai flag included a white elephant about 100 years ago. Carter has also helped build a restaurant, and his home includes a three-bedroom guest house and many treasured items, including this trunk made in 1896 for Aunt Ruth by Louis Vuitton. Jim Ryder writes, “I’m still enjoying retirement, doing a little legal work occasionally in the contracts area. For pleasure, still active in photography. I was a major contributor to the Ransom Yearbook and newspaper during the 1950s. A few weeks ago, I made my first visit to Alaska on a small photo workshop. We stayed at a lodge near Sterling, Alaska, set on the Kenai River. The lodge was our base and each day we went different directions. On one day we photographed scores of eagles, including these. What a sight! Depending on who you ask, these eagles were either fighting or partaking in a mating ritual. Still thrilling.” 1964 Tom Griggs and his wife Janet visited campus last April while in town from San Francisco. Tom and Janet continue to be strong RE supporters even while living on the West Coast. They hosted NorCal alums at the Press Club this past spring in San Francisco where their company Taste Catering is involved. Bill Schaefer officially retired in June 2015. He welcomed his second grand- child, Amelia Louise Kavanagh, into the world Oct. 26, 2015. 1966 Jon Engle writes “After graduating from Ransom, I went to a small liberal arts college in Vermont, and after finishing college did quite a bit of traveling. These travels included an across-the-U.S. trip with former student David Schmitt ’66 , as well several journeys into third-world countries. In the latter, I’ve crossed through jungles and deserts where there were no apparent roads and ended up in places that haven’t really changed since biblical times – where fields were still plowed with camels and oxen, where electricity was unheard of and where if you told people about things like television, they wouldn’t believe you. (Enough adventure and stories for a book, but too much to fit into this space.) I now live deep in the jungles of New Hampshire where I am still involved with one aspect or another of education – which I find fulfilling and continue to love. On my days off, you might find me meditating under a tree, reading a good book or sitting on the deck with my sweetheart, my wife. You might also see me shooting hockey pucks across my deck. (I’m the old guy in a local ice hockey league … a little bit slower but still shoving, laughing, sweating and hav- ing fun with the best of them!) That’s it for now, but if I can’t make it to our 100th- year reunion, I’ll try to write again then. P.S. Hello to Mr. De Carlo, who I hear was at the reunion, to Mr. Stokes and Mr. Bowden. Also hello to all others from my class and times, whose records are now kept in some archeological journals.” David Schmitt, see John Engle ’66 1967 Dan Brock writes “My wife (Margaret) and I have lived in North Carolina for the last 33 years. She just retired as a physi- cian/faculty member from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine; I am still in the commercial aviation/airline business, having consulted in the field for the last 17 years. I have renewed my inter- est in music playing guitar and bass in dif- ferent settings. At present, my instrument of choice is the upright bass, and playing music that I had never heard of until about three years ago … old time, mountain music and blue grass. In November, I am traveling to Florida for a Rock Review with former band members from the 1960s. Jane Margulis ’67 , was our lead singer from 1966-67. The motto for the Rock Review is … ‘If the song was written in the last 50 years … we don’t know it.’” Jim Searle and his wife Patti have been devoted to raising awareness for autism. They are the founders of the worldwide organization Expect a Miracle 2 (EAM2. org). The vision of this organization is “to encourage everyone to believe and expect miracles for their loved ones who are angelically different.” EAM2 provides hope through financial aid to children and