Class of 1964

By John G. Hoeschler, 2004 

I regret that Linda and I will be unable to come to the reunion because of a conflict with a wedding in Morocco. We had hoped to come but the 4 day blast in Africa was too good to pass up. Therefore the following will have to do as a report of activities.

Having just returned from a successful (that is, I returned) first time helicopter skiing trip in B.C., I am back to practicing real estate development law and helping various non profit organizations. I am the head of a planning commission and serve on the boards of the Guthrie Theater, the Minnesota Humanities Commission and Viterbo University. In addition, this past year has been pretty full of good trips--to Norway to hear the premiere of a piece of music we commissioned, to Montana for xc skiing and some research on Glacial Lake Missoula, to Rome at the end of January to enjoy several concerts by the New World Symphony from Miami (in which the son of good friends plays--at this age any excuse for a trip will do) during which we found the best guides in baroque art and ancient ruins that we have ever had the pleasure to retain. (If anyone is going over and would like a reference, let me know.) After one week at home it was out to British Columbia with my brothers to go helicopter skiing. This was something that I had wanted to do for years but hadn't gotten around to. When I told people what I was planning to do, priests in Rome offered earnest prayers and my wife seriously suggested more insurance. Even though I have only been doing a little xc skiing in the past three years, the trip was a success and I would be interested in going again since the powder skiing is actually easier than on the packed slopes. It does, of course, assume a certain level of ability and, a little more conditioning than I had would also be of help. Back again to Minnesota for a week (where global warming is clearly ruining the skiing but turning us into a more temperate place and thus more welcoming to any of our classmates that would like to come by) and then off to Naples for two weeks and my introduction to pneumonia.

While we were in Florida, we were joined by our son Fritz and his wife Julie. Fritz is a Captain in the USAF and is currently based in Pensacola training navigators after a three year posting outside of Cambridge, England with an F-15 squadron. He missed the festivities in Iraq when the Turks would not allow more Americans to come through but we were just as happy--especially since I think that that was an immoral and illegal war. Notwithstanding my pacifist views, we find ourselves with representatives of our children's generation in every branch of the military and a niece and nephew just exchanging places in Iraq. It will be interesting to see if the neocon/neowilsonian proclivities of this administration will bring about big changes in the region, but I doubt it. Suicide too easily trumps security.

My recent schedule hardly sounds like that of someone who claims to be still working but, what the hell, it's getting late  as everyone else in the class of 64 well knows.  My wife  of 38 years, Linda (Lovas), retired last summer from running the American Composers Forum, a formerly small communist front which, over 12 years, she turned into the largest composer service organization in the country. (I have always felt that if she can raise $4million a year for modern serious music composition, she could raise it for anything.) This relaxation of her schedule allowed us more time for the traveling and also allowed her to help our daughter Kristen plan a delightful wedding this past Thanksgiving to a young (well, at 37, maybe more middle aged; but what can you expect of an Irishman) partner of an old law partner of mine.

The wedding was quite the affair with three special compositions and much other wonderful music performed by friends. The reputation of the Catholic Church was greatly enhanced by the performance and preaching of another Irishman, Kevin McDonough, who is the pastor of the mostly black parish that we have been attending for the last few years. The Black congregation is much more welcoming and outgoing than the normal, straight-laced White parish and makes it easier to return to Holy Mother Church after having been driven from the church by the guitars of the 70's.

We are becoming more involved in the church as both Linda and I serve on the boards of Catholic universities and continue to watch with interest as the institution moves in new directions the more it tries to stay the same. One very interesting group we ran into in Rome, the Legionaries of Christ, is worth watching as it looks like the Jesuit Order when it was young Both attractive and a little scary at the same time; all that and its own sexual scandal to keep it current. Look it up on the net. I'm sure we will be hearing much more from them in the future. We are heading back to Rome in late May on our way to the wedding in Morocco that will prevent our appearance at the reunion.  This trip to Rome is in connection with another religious project with which we have become involved, the Saint John’s Bible. This is the first handwritten, illuminated manuscript bible in the last 500 years. How's that for a return to Holy Mother Church of old? This little project is being sponsored by St. John's University, a Benedictine Monastery and school located in Lake Wobegon territory northwest of the Twin Cities. The writing and art is under the direction of Donald Jackson, the Queen's calligrapher, in Wales. Jackson is a much more expressionist artist than you might expect of a calligrapher and I am convinced that this will be the American analogue of the Book of Kells, something to give all of you another reason to stop by to see us in Minnesota. It will be finished in '06 or '07 in seven elephant folios. We are joining a group from the University which is traveling to Rome to present il papa with his own autographed reproduction of selected parts--something like a duck print limited edition. Needless to say, we hope he will be able to receive us. But if not, we're in for some more great touring, then of to Marrakech and points southwest before we return to Minnesota for our usual delightful summer.