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Tony Pearson
Name: Tony Pearson After leaving GDA, I went to the University of Pennsylvania, had way too much fun and got thrown out midway through my sophomore year. Not a good time to have that happen, what with LBJ figuring an all-out war in Vietnam would be just the thing to boost American business. To avoid the draft, I enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve, spent a fun-filled summer of '64 at Parris Island, and was readmitted to Penn the following January. I finally graduated in '67 and the following year, shortly after the Tet Offensive, my battalion in Philadelphia was called up to go and fight for the American way. We got as far as Okinawa, but then, for reasons we never understood but certainly never questioned, they sent us home again. You never saw so many happy people on one airplane! Back here in the real world, I worked for many years as a journalist, first for, of all places, the Newburyport Daily News, then the Boston Globe and the Associated Press. For the past decade or so, I have been fighting a rare neuromuscular disorder that has all but destroyed my balance and makes walking extremely difficult. Unfortunately, my dear wife, Linda, will be away in New York over the reunion weekend because of a long-standing prior commitment and I'm not sure I'll be able to make it to GDA under my own steam, but I will try my best to put in an appearance on Saturday. It hardly seems as though it's been 40 years since the last time most of us saw each other at the Senior Party right here at my family's old place in Hamilton. My best to you all, Tony Pearson |