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NEWS
FROM YOUR CLASSMATES
Remember
meeting friends at
to talk over the past
week or month?
Well this
page reads best when your contribution find it's way to Jon's
computer. Included
below are some thoughts and excerpts from our classmate's lives. I thought
you would enjoy reading them. For the sake of brevity I have "edited"
the e-mail headers, however I have NOT altered the main message. The most
recent is listed first. Click
on the photo to see the full size
We Celebrate James
Jeffery Ryan's Life
.jpg)
Good-bye Jeff....
God Bless you !!
" You will not mind the roughness nor the steepness of the way,
Nor the chill, unrested morning, nor the searness of the day;
And you will not take a turning to the left or the right,
But go straight ahead, nor tremble at the coming of the night,
For the road leads home...."
Contributed by: Vince Muti
Caryl Göpfert,
Phd
Born Caryl Lee Reimer on December
13th, 1942 in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Caryl died peacefully in
her home in Palo Alto, California on May 8th, 2009. She is survived by
her son Matthias, her daughter Sharon Danielle, her husband Yang Wong,
and many caring friends and relatives in Germany and the United States.
Death is not extinguishing
the Light; it is putting out the Lamp because the Dawn has come.
- Rabindranath Tagore
Am ruhigen Fluss ist
das Ufer voller Blumen.
------------------------
After graduating from the University of Rhode Island in 1964 Caryl began
her graduate studies in Germany. Caryl lived in Germany until1991 where
she raised a family and taught English and German; during her years abroad
she began her Zen meditation studies that were to guide her throughout
her life and for which she earned a 'teaching staff'.
After moving back to the United States
in 1991, she graduated from Salve Regina University, R.I. in 1994 with
a Master's Degree in Holistic Counseling.
In 1994 Caryl traveled cross-country
to study at ITP (Institute for Transpersonal Psychology) in Palo Alto,
CA and earned the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Transpersonal Psychology
in 1999. Her thesis investigated betrayal in the student-teacher relationship
in the Zen/Buddhist tradition. A difficult topic that Caryl discussed
with great compassion, courage, and intelligence, for which she earned
both the respect and rejection of many of her colleagues.
Over the years Caryl traveled to
Turkey, Morocco, Italy, France, and lastly China - the photographs of
her travels document beautifully what she experienced.
Since her graduation from ITP in
1999 Caryl worked as a grievance counselor, elderly companion, as well
as giving Zen workshops in the U.S. and Germany; she participated in an
authentic movement group and continued her studies of Ikebana. Her beautiful
arrangements were exhibited and filled both indoor and outdoor spaces
with their striking shapes and colors. Caryl traveled many times across
the ocean torn between two countries that she called home; when she met
her husband-to be Yang Wong in 2001 she found safety and love in Palo
Alto.
Caryl was unwavering in her Zen meditation
practice during her chemotherapy treatment after she was diagnosed with
ovarian cancer in 2007. She gave an inspiring dharma talk on December
30th, 2008 that addresses the issue of practice while receiving treatment.
You can listen to her talk online at www.imsb.org/teachings/g#1A6CDF.
In January 2009 a day before traveling to Germany for the last time, Caryl
met Tibetan Buddhist monk Segyu Rinpoche whose humanity and spiritual
guidance were a comfort to her, her family and friends during the final
months and hours before her passage.
In lieu of flowers we invite you to make a donation
in Caryl's name to the Juniper Foundation.
More information about the this wonderful foundation
and tax deductible donations can be found at
http://www.juniperpath.org
Six Yew trees have been planted in
Caryl's memory at Spirit Rock, just north of San Francisco. In time there
will be a bench for us to sit, giving us a place to come and be in memory
and meditation. The trees stand before you enter the parking lot area,
so you may park and walk back a few feet and visit them without intruding
on the events taking place at the meditation center.
For more information on how to get there please go to http://www.spiritrock.org/.
A Special Memoriam
TO THE LIFE OF:
VINCENT N. MUTI
November 21, 1916
May 25, 2009
Vincent N. Muti sorting
mail on his last day of work in 1975.
On his route, his homemade birthday and anniversary cards endeared him.
Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stayed the Merry
Mailman of Ramsey from the swift completion of his appointed rounds.
One-third of a century has passed since Vincent N. Muti hung up his bag.
But the fond memories linger.
How do you forget a mailman - a decorated
World War II hero, no less - who delivered homemade birthday and anniversary
greetings to people on his route? And who lavished NECCO candy wafers
on a generation of kids?
The Record profiled
Mr. Muti on Feb. 1, 1961, under the headline "Merry Mailman Adds
Measure, Giving Extra Postal Pleasure."
Mr. Muti, according to the article, had an uncanny ability to correctly
guess the nature of the cards people received. So he carried his own birthday
and anniversary cards, inscribed them on the spot, and slipped them in
with the rest of the daily mail. The story's accompanying photo shows
a uniformed Mr. Muti dropping off mail at the Vaubourg family's snowy
doorstep on Wyckoff Avenue. Tom Vaubourg, a North Jersey Media Group editorial
staffer who was a little boy back then, remembers "the ritual"
involving their neighborhood mailman.
"He gave out NECCO wafers. We'd see him coming, and we'd all gather
to meet him on someone's porch."
But Mr. Muti had ground rules;
"You couldn't ask him for the candy," Vaubourg said.
"You had to wait for him to give it to you."
Here's how The Record explained it:
"He has taught them that they must not ask for any candy, so children
now ask him for their 'special mail.' The Merry Mailman pretends to look
in his bag, all in vain, until he hears, 'Oh, you know the kind of mail
we mean!' Then he distributes the candy among the eager hands."
Retired Ramsey Postmaster John Folkrud was Mr. Muti's last boss.
"Nice guy, Vince. Kept in touch with me all these years. Every Christmas
I'd get a card from him."
In addition to candy and birthday and anniversary greetings, Mr. Muti
carried dog biscuits.
"All the dogs greeted him, and he didn't have to worry about getting
bitten," Folkrud said. (Not true. By his own count, Mr. Muti was
bitten 12 times during his more than 30 years as a letter carrier.)
Vincent N. Muti, the fourth of nine children of Italian immigrants, grew
up on Carol Street in Ramsey.
After starting as a clerk-carrier for the Ramsey post office in 1942,
he went off to war with the 8th Air Force in England. He flew 21 missions
before being seriously wounded. He came home to Ramsey with the Purple
Heart and a slew of other medals, and returned to his job. Mr. Muti's
son, retired Ramsey cop Vincent S. Muti, said his father loved serving
the town.
Now, about those greeting cards:
"Every evening, he'd sit at the dining room table and make up his
own greetings with oak tag and multicolored pencils," his son said.
"They'd say, Happy Anniversary or Happy Birthday, Your Merry Mailman,
Vince."
And about those NECCO wafers: "He bought packs and packs and packs
of them. He bought out the local candy store of every NECCO wafer they
had. Then, he filled a square metal can with them and carried it in his
mailbag. "At night, when he was filling up his tin, I'd ask him for
one. He'd laugh and say, 'No, you're not on my route!' "
Mr. Muti, who took anti-seizure medicine as a consequence of his war injuries,
retired from the Postal Service in 1975. Some years later, he and his
wife, Dorothy, moved to a trailer park in Port Richey, Fla.
"Dad had a tricycle, and he'd get up every morning at 6 and ride
through the trailer park," his son said. "He'd hang people's
newspapers on their doorknobs. He'd take their garbage to the Dumpster.
They called him the ambassador of goodwill. He did all of this until a
couple of weeks ago."
The Merry Mailman of Ramsey died May 25th, 2009, He was 92.
The
latest about our classmate Jim (Jeff) Ryan
Mixes
well with people!
Jim
(Jeff) Ryan's latest "gig", out of retirement and back with
BMW on the Hydrogen 7 CleanEnergy program - I call it "Driving with
the Stars"! Tough job working with celebrity VIPs showing and loaning
them these cars.
Jon
(Jock) Mason - Tough work but somebodys got to do it, right Jim?
Date:11/18/2007
FROM: Barbara Goetschius
Barbara
M. and Doug Goetschius' WebLog
Jon
- You are so faithful at keeping us informed, thanks so much for your
diligence. Did think about finding you when we were in CA, but things
never worked that way. I did a blog and if you think it would be interesting
for classmates to read would you put it on the class site
We had a wonderful six months traveling around our beautiful country -
a dream come true, and it was everything we had hoped it to be. Hard to
settle down now!!!
DATE:
11/08/2007
FROM: Jim (Jeff) Ryan
JIM's LINK TO: Jay
Leno's Garage
Hi Jon
- Nice to hear from you - great link to RHS. I'll be at the #50 no matter
the location - of course presuming I can hang on for a couple more years!
Don't know if I told you, but BMW called me out of retirement last January
to head up a special project - The BMW CleanEnergy program. My role is
to work with Creative Artists Agency (CAA represents most of the top entertainment
world stars) here in LA to place VIPs into the BMW Hydrogen 7 for short
loans. This is a car that uses liquid hydrogen as a fuel, and the only
emissions when burning hydogen is water vapor. The objective is to have
the VIPs become ambassadors for the hydrogen fuel technology, and help
accelerate an infrastructure of hydrogen filling stations by influencing
top government people. We have 25 of these cars in California. Our H2
filling stations at the moment are in Sacramento and Oxnard, with another
soon in Santa Monica. So far I have worked with people like Jay Leno,
Tom Hanks, Julia Dreyfus, Demi Moore (and Ashton!), Pierce Brosnan, Cameron
Diaz, Adrian Garnier, etc, etc - so you can imagine this is fun "work".
Leno did a neat video with us - go to: www.jaylenosgarage.com - once on
the home page, click VIDEOS on the menu bar - that will take you to a
page with lots of his videos - look in right hand column for the BMW Hydrogen
7 video. You might see an RHS alumni !
We just completed our 17th Annual BMW Charity Ride - again very successful,
raising over $80,000 in donations divided between the CHP 11-99 Foundation
and St. Francis Medical Center Foundation. I'll send you the photo album
separately on dotPhoto web page. Lots of photos!!
Lastly - my newest car project - I found one of the original 1966 427
Fairlanes (only 57 of these cars made!) up in Canada - just the body but
with all the right serial numbers. So I'm now in the process of restoring
that car - and may even go racing when it's done. Attached is a photo
of the car when it first arrived here. Now the body has been completely
restored and painted in the original color (white - all 57 cars were the
same color) and we are now working on the engine and driveline. Hoping
for a mid 2008 completion. You may not remember, but when I was working
for Ford in the 60's and 70's - I bought one of the original 57 cars and
raced it all over the country (Lynn was a casualty of that) - this current
car is a "sister" car to my original one.
Hope all is well with you, and thanks for all you do with the RHS site.
Regards - Jim (Jeff) Ryan
DATE:
08/14/2004
FROM: Bob Hurley
Hi Everyone,
Staying fit at my age, takes some persistence. I even have Joan lifting
3x a week but I'm still stronger than her. I only placed 3rd 'cause New
Jersey has some serious 40 year olds. Damn kids have no respect.
Himself
DATE:
June 12, 2004 to July 28, 2004
FROM: Jon (Jock) Mason
SIX
WEEKS IN THE SADDLE!
(L) Jon & Blaine Cassidy
(Jon's Irish cousin & his 1st motorcycle ride)
(R) On Rte 66, Kingman AZ to Oatman, AZ
Leaving
Auburn, CA the only goals we had was to find the "cheapest motel"(Urban
Camping!) and be in Philadelphia for the July 4th weekend. We accomplished
both while meeting some very fine Americans along the way. I did observe
that 15% of Americans live in single or double wide mobile homes! After
putting 8,630 miles on the old odometer, two oil changes, one new rear
tire and a broken left mirror (in Mississippi) which was finally replaced
when we found a BMW dealer in Oklahoma City, we arrived back home in Auburn
on July 28, 2004. Two days rest and then we were volunteering for the
TEVIS 100 Mile Challenge. A challenge race for Horse & Man. Horse
& rider travel 100 miles in 24 hours following the Old Western Trail
from 6,400 feet (Lake Tahoe) to 1,200 feet (Auburn).
DATE: 10/14/2003
FROM: Jim (Jeff) Ryan
The
link below will attest to the very fine work Jim (along with BMW and Jim's
many associates) has been doing over the years raising money for St Francis
Hospital in the Los Angeles area. The ride is called Riders
for St Francis.
Having
participated in organizing 10 charity Golf tournaments for UC Davis' Children's
hospital, I personally can attest to the many hours Jim puts in for "his"
charity . . . . You Go Jim!
DATE:
October 9, 2002
FROM: Joan Hurley and "The
Home and Store News"
Newspaper
"PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT"
Robert Hurley, a Ramsey High School graduate, participated in the Connecticut
State Drug Free Championship held September 22. Bob won first place in
the master's bench press category and said he's looking forward to the
New Jersey State Drug Free Bench press Championships held in Haledon on
November 9. "Although I'm satisfied with my lifts in Connecticut,
I hope to improve for the New Jersey meet. Even at my age, with the proper
training and nutrition, there are no limits. When younger lifters tell
me they hope they can equal my lifts when they're my age, I suggest they
try it now." Bo trains at the New York Sports club in Ramsey.
A special thanks to Vince Muti for informing the Webmaster
FROM:
Brenda (Fairservice) Blair
dandbblair@pocketmail.com
DATE: 03/20/2002
Dear
Jon,
We are
"on the road again", so won't be able to send a digital picture
until November, when we get back to home base.
This
year will be a little less traveling than last year. We are in Cherokee,
TX right now working with a Children's home. We'll be here until April
14. We then head towards Cloudcroft, NM and will work at a Christian Youth
Camp there (in Weed, with a population of 20). After a week there we head
to Las Vegas, NM to work at a church camp there for 3 weeks, and then
head to Hamilton, Montana to visit some friends, and work with the Church
there, the first part of June. We will leave there in time to get to Red
River, NM for the 19th to help with the Red River Family Encampment, a
church family retreat until the 26th of June.
THEN,
we will head to Pearland and spend July in Texas with our grandkids doing
the water world, Astroworld things, and then head to the Northeast. We
will be working with a church camp in Macutchinville, Iowa for a week,
then a children's Home in Dahlgren, Ill for 3 weeks . . . THEN, personal
fun time with friends and family in Michigan, NY, and NJ . . . Until the
end of Sept., when we head to Marshall, TX to decide where we want to
volunteer to go for 2003.
I won't
have a chance to look at the web page - unless we find a phone line we
can connect our laptop to at one of our stops.
You are doing a super job on that page, and I really appreciate it. Have
any of our "lost" classmates been found?
Thanks
again for all your work, Brenda (Fairservice) Blair
FROM:
Sandra (Burger) Constantine
sandra_constantine@prusec.com
Thank
you. Actually, this is a powerful letter and it is making the rounds as
it is the 3rd copy that I received (which is ok). I am so encouraged by
the strength and resolve of the people around me. I am confidant in our
government (I thank God every day that a few dimpled chads did not produce
a different outcome). I believe that the enemy has underestimated we the
American people and our leaders. It may take time, but we will overcome
this insidious evil. America and the world will be a better place for
it.
Jermey
Glick, the strong you man who lead the overthrow of the hijackers on Flight
93, was a good highschoool friend of my son Jeffrey. His family and especially
his wife Lyz, also a high school friend, have shown unbelievable strength
in dealing with their loss.
You
and our other classmates probably remember the air raid drills from grade
school when we had to crouch under our desks. For many years we worried
about the threat of a nuclear war. We have more recently worried about
everything from global warming to meteor strikes, to mad cow disease and
a myriad of other potential threats that were so sensationalized. Strange
thing - None of those ever happened. It is the thing that probably none
of us ever seriously worried about that did occur. Guess, that is how
life is.
Please
share my greetings and good wishes to all our classmates.
God
Bless America!
Sandra
FROM:
Sue (Brimmer) Goetschius
SGoetsch@nycap.rr.com
Hi Jon:
I don't disagree with your messages or e-mails or being Politically correct
or anything else.
You've done such a great job with our web site and keeping us all informed
and I really see no damn reason for ANYONE to be offended. Think we should
get Bob Hurley and Vince involved.
Our son Brad, was working at Tower # 1 on 9/11 on the 85th floor.........plane
hit the 87th and 88th floor.........I am so thankful that he survived.
Took him almost an hour and a half to get down 85 flights. Got to the
30th floor and met firemen coming up....Brad made it out of the building
with less than a MINUTE to spare before the tower collapsed. I didn't
find out until 5:30 that night that he was OK.... so you can understand
my inpatience (and a certain amount of pissed off-ness) with my fellow
classmates who don't want to know, don't want to deal and /or don't want
to accept this act of war for what it is.
I told Brad that his father continues to watch over each of us and I am
so certain that Wes played guardian angel and helped Brad get out.......
Don't fuss about a couple of people and don't take it personally. I think
you've done a terrific job on all counts...
My best
to Lois....take care...
Sue
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