Sam Wright ’48

Five members of the class of ’48 returned for our 70th reunion in June: John Bissell, Peter Dunne, Sandy Walker, Elliot Hayne (and Judy) and Sam Wright (and Terry) (Terry and I subsequently celebrated our 67th wedding anniversary in September). I heard from both Sid Liebes and Chris Boyle who were unfortunately unable to be there. The imminence of the Mulligans’ departure at the end of the month seemed to permeate the weekend. Friday night, the Mulligans again, graciously, hosted the older reunioning classes at their home and the five of us plus wives as noted, along with Peter Dunne’s son, also Peter, CdeP ’81, enjoyed a wonderful evening. I think there was almost a universal anticipation that Michael’s face would still show the effects of his accident. But quite to the contrary. Prior to dinner he showed me an x-ray of his head which clearly demonstrated the almost awesome amount of material that had been used in his reconstructive surgery. That image and his totally restored appearance spoke worlds about the professional care he had received.

Saturday morning, scheduled to deliver our class toast that evening at the Banquet, I woke with a case of laryngitis, severe to the point where I was nearly mute. John Bissell was kind enough to deliver my remarks instead and from all accounts my speech seems to have definitely been improved by his delivery. I had a nice note from Michael thanking John and me for that. John’s and my toast concluded with a quotation from Meister Eckhart, the 14th century mystic and Catholic priest who said, when speaking about meaningful prayer: “If the only prayer you can ever say in your entire life is ‘thank you,’ that is enough;” and this was our toast and prayer for the Mulligans.

John Bissell and I, talking about the weekend agreed that 5 years was too long a time to renew the friendships we had made at Thacher and concluded we would return in 2019 for a mini off year reunion and would promote that to our classmates.

Thacher changes, always for the better, and is still the wonderful place we knew 70 years ago.

Sam Wright CdeP 1948

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