AC_1965_Web

65 AN T I OC H CO L L E G E C L A S S O F 19 6 5 5 0 t h A N N I V E R S A R Y B O O K A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z G R E N E L L offices throughout California, I left and set up my own consulting firm, QBA, Questions Beget Answers. I worked with several homeless- serving agencies and wrote propos- als that ended up creating hundreds of housing units for homeless peo- ple and families on two decommis- sioned military bases, the Presidio andTreasure Island. For a number of years, QBA handled the City of San Francisco’s annual application to HUD for $15–$25 million annually in housing and homeless services. In 2005 I became an employee at Swords to Plowshares, a local agency that helps veterans and where I had written grant proposals for a few years in the 1990s. Since mid-October 2014 I’ve been retired and in addition to down-sizing my stuff, I plan to work on writing a novel or two and de- velop something for publication from the extensive two-year court- ship correspondence between my maternal grandparents. I submitted a design for the Ground Zero memo- rial in 2003, and as of this writing, I’m preparing a design for a Nelson Mandela Memorial competition in the San Francisco Bay area. I love my designs. Our son Alex, his wife Sarah and daughter Anuhea live with us, and we’re in the process of making the house into two more separate units. With a variety of work schedules, the current arrangement is fairly comfortable for all of us. Once we can toss the many files we have no further need of and pare down our collection of books,we’ll be ready to liberate more space for more grand- children. After India, Peter worked for many years at the California State Coastal Conservancy, eventually be- coming executive officer. After that he became general manager of the San Mateo County Harbor District, which he retires from this January. Peter describes all his jobs as “meet- ings and memos.” 70th birthday swim, November 2012. When Alex was in elementary school and I was in charge of en- tertainment for the annual May Fair school fundraiser, I assembled a band that included Peter. More than twenty years later Peter is still play- ing in that band and other spinoffs. He now plays with four differ- ent bands and has an average of six to ten gigs each month. At Antioch he learned banjo but these days he plays bass so that he can play any kind of music, which he does— country, blues, jazz, covers. In 1994, choosing between sink- ing or swimming, I chose to swim. I took up Bay swimming at the South End Rowing Club where I swim daily at Aquatic Park. I no longer do out-of-cove swims, but I love being around swimmers who have swum Alcatraz many hundreds of times, the English Channel,Cook Strait, and other incredible feats. No way could I return to an indoor pool. I happened to be at Reunion in 2007 when the closure of the col- lege was announced, and I caught the fever. I became active with the San Francisco Bay area alumni group and then was elected to the alumni board and served as treasurer for the College Revival Fund. I enjoyed reconnecting with Antiochians and those years were very difficult. We achieved our goal with the reopen- ing of the College. The old Opera House, the Antioch Area Theatre and the Shakespeare Festival involved so many people from the college, the village and beyond, and it seemed like a good way to rally folks for the college. In the fall of 2007, just after the closure was announced, I met with PaulaTreichler,my brotherTony and sisterWendy,and Ina Frank at the home of Robin Lithgow in Venice, Calif., where we pored over donor lists to see how we might use the theater as a focal point for fundrais- ing for Antioch.We met again the fol- lowing February with Louise Smith, head of the Theatre Department, present and came up with a case statement. In 2011, we held a fund- raising event at a huge Palos Verdes estate where John Lithgow per- formed“Stories by Heart,”a one-man show he developed after his success at cheering up his father with fa- vorite stories from their childhood. Arthur Lithgow was an alumnus and had created Antioch’s Shakespeare Festival in the 1950s.Now Paula and I are co-chairs of a committee to raise funds to complete the renova- tion of the Foundry Theatre. Victories for humanity? None at- tempted or achieved. I struggle to be kind, keep the house clean enough and the pantry and fridge adequately stocked.