YWAA Highlights, 2019

Lectures from Yale professors, a cappella concerts from Yale groups, drama at Boscobel, honors for Westchester athletes and book awards for top Westchester high school students. In 2019, YWAA finished another year filled with favorite and popular activities and old traditions. 

The calendar of events appears familiar, but each year brings something unique and memorable. That might include Yale professor Laurie Santos' spellbinding talk on the secrets of happiness to a large Chappaqua audience or Yale singing groups filling the concert hall with thrilling a cappella sounds, also in Chappaqua. 

YWAA highlights of 2019 are summarized below. (Click Past Highlights to review the same from 2013-18). 

A CAPPELLA IN CHAPPAQUA

The New Blue and Spizzwinks performed in Chappaqua in February (YWAA photos)

A cappella singing is as much a Yale tradition as witnessing Yale-Harvard football games in the Bowl, making treks up Science Hill or sneaking for dessert treats at Durfee Sweet Shoppe. A cappella concerts are also popular in Westchester among Yale alumni and community guests. As part of an ongoing program, YWAA invites Yale groups to Westchester to celebrate the music and to pay tribute to Westchester students in current groups. 

In 2019, the Spizzwinks and New Blue performed in Chappaqua in February before a Sunday afternoon crowd of Yale alumni and Westchester music fans. Two groups from Chappaqua's Horace Greeley High School preceded the Yale collegians. The Spizzwinks returned to the area for the third time since 2013. They sang favorite renditions of "Once in My Life," "No Regrets," and the Yale football medley.  Having turned 50 years old this year, the 2018-19 New Blue included four students from Westchester. 

Also in 2019, the Whiffenpoofs, featuring a female singer in its troop for the second straight year, sang at a concert at Grace Episcopal Church in White Plains in November. The same Whiffs are headed to Singapore and Taiwan for concerts in Asia for the 2020 spring break. 

THE ROAD TO HAPPINESS

YWAA director Rich Fabbro introduces Yale "Happiness" Professor Laurie Santos, who delivered a one-hour version of her popular course in Chappaqua in March (YWAA photos)

Laurie Santos, Yale professor of psychology and Head of Silliman College, has garnered much attention the past year because of the popularity of her "Happiness" course in New Haven, which has attracted over a thousand students.  Students have crashed through lecture-hall doors to get a seat in a course that is supposed to guide them through a hectic college life and help them seek contentment as they approach adulthood. Students and the media may call the course "Happiness," but it has an official Yale course-listing name:  "Psychology and the Good Life."

YWAA brought the course to Chappaqua in 2019, inviting Santos to speak to a Westchester audience (and an older crowd) about the pursuit of happiness at a later stage in life. The session (one hour, not for a semester) proved to be one of the most well-attended YWAA-sponsored lectures ever. 

Santos, who after her talk departed Chappaqua for a national spring-break tour on the topic, provided her Westchester "students" ten pointers. Tip No. 2?  "Our life circumstances don't matter as much as you think."  Tip No. 3?  "You can become happier, but it takes work and daily effort."

CYRANO AT BOSCOBEL

YWAA annually hosts a Shakespeare outing at Boscobel in Garrison, associated with productions of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.  The annual YWAA event includes a thought-provoking lecture from Yale Shakespeare expert Murray Biggs. 

Biggs returned to Boscobel this year in August, and his pre-performance lecture once again stirred up emotions and sparked enthusiasm about the play Yale guests would see that evening. This year, Shakespeare wasn't the featured show. Cyrano seized that honor. The Hudson Valley performers presented a loose, colorfully interpreted drama of the life of the French novelist Cyrano de Bergerac. 

As usual, the Sunday affair was enhanced by green, scenic views of a late-summer Hudson River in the background and by an opportunity for Yale guests to relax on the Boscobel grounds with a picnic with friends. 

Yale's Murray Biggs, always a favorite among YWAA guests at Boscobel, returned to speak about Cyrano in August (YWAA photos)

AMERICAN CUISINE EXPLAINED

Yale Professor Paul Freedman, now a national expert on American cuisine and restaurants, talked about his new book in Scarsdale in November (YWAA photos)

In 2019, Paul Freedman, Yale professor of medieval history, followed up his popular book probing the history of the ten most influential American restaurants with another one examining food culture in the U.S.: American Cuisine: How It Got This Way. Just as he did in Mar., 2017, Freedman returned to Westchester as a guest lecturer Oct., 2019, as part of the YWAA speaker series.

At the Scarsdale Library, Freedman explained to his Yale and community guests how eggplant parmesan was created in the U.S., not in Italy, how American cuisine developed from Americans' objectives to adapt food habits to hectic lifestyles, and how generations of Americans grew up with dry cereals for breakfast and TV dinners in the evening. But he praised recent developments in Americans' efforts to improve the cuisine and make it more healthy--and more tasty.

WESTCHESTER B-BALLERS HONORED

Yale's John L. Lee and Barbara Liebowitz Bettigole were honored as legends during halftime of the Yale-Princeton men's game in the Ivy League basketball tournament in New Haven in March

In March, Yale hosted the third annual Ivy League basketball tournament in New Haven and emerged as the Ivy champion with a berth in the men's NCAA tournament. During the Ivy tournament, the League, as it does each spring, honored a few of its legends. This year the team of legends included past Westchester resident John J. Lee '58, '59 Eng. and Westchester alumna Barbara Leibowitz Bettigole '78, two of the most outstanding basketball players in Yale history. Their stories were told during an intermission at the tournament, and they will join the list of previously honored legends.

Lee, for whom the Yale basketball amphitheater is named, departed Yale after three varsity seasons with a 20.3 ppg average and after leading the Elis to a spot in the 1957 NCAA tournament.  (While at Yale, Sports Illustrated put him on its cover to tell a national audience about his Ivy feats.

Leibowitz Bettigole (widely known as "Liebo" while at Yale) was a pioneer in women's basketball and women's sports at Yale, when women were beginning to make a strong mark in athletics on campus. She scored 1,046 points while at Yale, leading the team in scoring three years.  In Westchester, she set similar records while playing three sports for Byram Hills High School in Armonk.

At the 2018 tournament at Penn's Palestra, Scarsdale native Earl "Butch" Graves '84 was honored as an Ivy legend.

THE IVY LEAGUE'S BEST GOLFER

James Nicholas '19 excelled in many sports while at Scarsdale High School--football, golf, and hockey. By the time he was a sophomore at Yale, he had decisions to make. He decided to concentrate on golf. 

By the time he was a senior, he had been named the Ivy League's golfer of the year twice after winning Ivy individual championships.  He also served as golf-team captain as a senior in 2019. 

THE MAJOR LEAGUE CALLS

Kumar Nambiar '19 and Griffin Dey '19, two baseball standouts when they played in high school in Westchester, helped Yale to two Ivy titles during their years in New Haven. 

Shortly after they graduated, they were both drafted by major league teams.  Nambiar, a left-handed pitcher from Mamaroneck, struck out 162 batters in his Yale career and was drafted in June by the Oakland A's.  Dey, drafted by the Detroit Tigers, is from Pound Ridge and was best known for his power hitting while at Yale. He hit 26 home runs in his career, second on the all-time Yale list. 

REMEMBERING BILL

Bill Nightingale, doing what he enjoys and doing it for decades, helped lead the YWAA debate program (YWAA photos)

YWAA lost one of its most devoted and beloved leaders in 2019. William "Bill" Nightingale, who for decades helped lead the YWAA debate program and who arguably attended or led more alumni events than anybody can count. He died suddenly in October after attending an event at the Yale Club of New York.

Until his death and for decades, Bill often planned his days and calendars around Yale, Yale alumni activities, his Class of 1953, and Yale Westchester.

Bill served all possible roles while leading YWAA debate--organizer, planner, emcee, dinner host, and liaison with high school and college teams. For YWAA, he invited a cappella groups to the area, hosting them and celebrating what makes a cappella special. Bill, a devout fan of the American song book, hosted other YWAA music events, too.

Bill was an eager champion for the Yale Alumni Schools Committee, where he helped organize alumni interviews for decades. Like no other alumnus, he pushed for significant Westchester representation in each first-year class at Yale. He interviewed applicants and marshalled their candidacies through the process. He unabashedly rooted for Westchester students to find places on the Old Campus.

Bill was involved beyond Westchester, too, accumulating awards, positions, and committee memberships for anything that would push the Yale agenda ahead of, say, Harvard and Princeton, as he would say. He nudged presidents and admissions officers. He made calls to New Haven and bugged alumni to come join his administrative efforts. He wore a navy Yale cap when he ventured outside or attended a Yale event in and out of New Haven.

Bill wrote checks and contributed funds to any reasonable, Yale-oriented, fund-raising campaign. Even up to the week of his passing, Bill always showed up, made an appearance, voiced his opinion and offered a joke to lighten a too-formal setting. At events, Bill emceed and made sure to cite all who contributed or helped in some way. He always found a way or an excuse to communicate with New Haven to advise presidents, AYA executive directors and heads of admissions.

Bill best exhibited "...and for Yale."

Freedman Explains "American Cuisine"

Yale Professor Paul Freedman returned to Scarsdale Dec. 11 to discuss his new book about American cuisine (YWAA photos)

After the success of his first book Ten Restaurants That Changed America, Yale Professor Paul Freedman responded with an encore that describes the uniqueness of American cuisine. The newly published book is entitled American Cuisine: And How It Got This Way. Freedman's day job or primary profession on campus in New Haven is professor of medieval history. Nowadays he has become a national expert of American restaurants, American cuisine, Americans' food habits, and the evolution of it all over the past two centuries.

In the day job, Freedman for years has studied the history of what people ate and how they prepared food in medieval times. That study spawned a special interest in food preparation and food trends beyond those times and with focus on America, especially factors that explain changes over time.

On Dec. 11 in Scarsdale, Freedman returned to Westchester to discuss his new book as part of the YWAA lecture series. (The event was co-sponsored by the Scarsdale Library and the Scarsdale Women's Club.)  It gave him an opportunity to explain for his audience what characterizes "American cuisine," what makes it unique in the eyes of the rest of the world. He described the good, the bad, the popular, and current trends and observed that, for the most part, American cuisine has improved remarkably over the decades. 

Only here in this country, Freedman said, Americans will say, "I don't want Thai food tonight, because I had Thai food recently," when they seek to eat out. People in Thailand, Freedman added, don't get to say that. Yet that describes the American food scene today, where restaurant patrons here get to pick from cuisines of Thailand, India, China, Italy and Vietnam on any given evening and don't have to return to it for awhile. 

American cuisine indeed, he said, represents foods from different countries, although since the late 19th century, immigrants have prepared some dishes to accommodate the tastes of Americans or at least to their expectations of what that food should be. Freedman reminded the Scarsdale audience that some foods we think of as ethnic or having originated elsewhere are ethnic-inspired dishes that were invented right here--eggplant parmesan and chop suey, for example. 

American cuisine, too, Freedman said, is cuisine developed over time for evolving, fast-changing, and rushed lifestyles.  TV dinners and other processed foods (with sugary flavors) did just that. 

In March, 2017, at the YWAA-sponsored lecture, Freedman presented his first book, reminding his audience then it wasn't a list of the Ten Best, but a list of the Ten Most Influential. Hence, Howard Johnson's makes that list. The second book was a natural next step, not to select what is good or bad, but to explain what the cuisine has been and what it might be. The book is also an off-shoot from his popular undergraduate food course taught at Yale. 

In Dec., 2019, audience members asked him to assess the current American focus on healthy foods and the farm-to-table movement.  Freedman paid tribute Alice Waters, the founder of the acclaimed Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, Calif., and who in the last decade has worked with Yale to improve the food offerings at Yale College. 

Click American Cuisine to purchase the book on Amazon. Rich Fabbro '76, YWAA director, organized the event.

Freedman responds to questions from the Scarsdale audience, Dec. 11 (YWAA photos)

The Game, The Protest, The Darkness

There were protests, darkness, and fanfare in the stands at the Bowl on Nov. 23.  There was also a game, one of the best Harvard-Yale contests in history. (YWAA photos)

Years from now, those who chronicle the best of times of Yale football will scratch their heads figuring out how best to describe The Game, 2019.  On and off the field, in the stands and on the Bowl's new artificial turf, and under cloud cover and late-autumn dusk, this year's Harvard-Yale football game (the 136th Game, Yale's 147th squad) had just about everything.  

Books have been written about Yale-Harvard, even as recently as last year. Web pages have described Yale-Harvard traditions and pranks. Last year's Game was special because of the venue.  The Game was played at storied Fenway Park in downtown Boston. For Yale-Harvard, 2019, where will the chroniclers and college football historians start?

After tossing passes that seemed to soar far beyond his target receivers in the first half, Yale quarterback Kurt Rawlings '20 gathered himself for the second half and led his teammates to a comeback for the ages.  In double overtime and under the glimmer of lights from a new scoreboard in a darkened Bowl, Yale beat Harvard, 50-43.  

Double overtime in darkness wasn't on the agenda.  Players roaming and wandering around the field squinting to find teammates and opposition is best explained by, well, the Protest. Yale's shocking turnaround and its effective offensive play (and one shrewdly executed on-sides kick after a late touchdown) were all enough to give The Game national attention.  But around the world (at least through various media), This Game became That Game because of The Protest.  As the Yale band marched off the field at half time, Harvard and Yale students, joined by others, in unison swarmed the field and settled themselves onto the "Y" at midfield. 

Some unveiled signs to explain they were protesting both universities' investments in companies in fossil-fuel industries.  Some protested the universities' response to the impact of climate change. A Bowl crowd of 45,000 watched, surprised but not shocked, because unusual, unexpected things happen at Harvard-Yale games. The Protest, which may have peaked with over 400 students, led to a silent stand-off, which led to an impasse and then to a looming question of whether the football contest would ever continue. When the Yale announcer requested demonstrators to leave the field, that only encouraged others to stream from the stands and dash to midfield to join the other participants. 

With the Harvard team too far ahead and the sun setting behind the press box, many in the old stadium departed. No one expected a Yale team to overcome a 17-point deficit, especially after a half-time intermission that stretched to almost 90 minutes. 

The third quarter ended as a Harvard first-year running back scampered down the sidelines one more time. (He scored four times on long runs. Yale defensive backs couldn't catch him.) For most, The Game would be over after the annual Saybrook strip show by Yale students, a traditional exhibition that appeared this year to be more X-rated than usual, perhaps because New Haven cops and Bowl security were already preoccupied with protest duties during the day. With the sun going down swiftly, Yale students offered comical assistance by flashing their cell-phone lights as if that might permit the stadium to be sufficiently lit. 

The tide turned. Rawlings, assisted by receivers Reed Klubnik and captain J.P. Shofi '20, turned a switch on and methodically led the team down the field for score after score--at the end of the game and during overtime. Rawlings passed for three touchdowns and 417 yards, a performance that deserves to be discussed for all-time. 

At a point when fans in the stands could hardly see beyond 10-20 rows because of the dark skies, they still could see a sharp glare from the scoreboard, which proclaimed Yale the victors after a failed fourth-down attempt by the Crimson in the second overtime. When the scoreboard atop the stadium showed 50-43 as a final, The Game and The Protests had now evolved into The Swarm. Yale students and other fans sprinted by the hundreds onto the smooth turf (which in past years would have been torn, brown and smelling of sweat) to celebrate. Yet another tradition which New Haven and Yale security officers permitted without any ado. 

The Yale Precision Marching Band celebrates the Yale residential colleges, 14 in all (YWAA photos)

The protesters took over the field just as the Yale band departed the field. (YWAA photos)

Yale students and fans celebrated in the darkness after the second overtime, after Yale beat Harvard, 50-43.(YWAA photos)

Yale quarterback Kurt Rawlings '20 tossed the ball for 417 yards, leading the Bulldogs in a second half that could be remembered for years to come (YWAA photos)

Freedman's History of American Cuisine

Yale history professor Paul Freedman, speaking at YWAA in 2017, will return to Westchester (Scarsdale) to speak about his new book, American Cuisine and How It Got That Way, Dec. 11. (YWAA photos)

Paul Freedman, Yale professor of history, who has developed a reputation and following as an expert on American cuisine and restaurants will return to Westchester to speak in Scarsdale about his new book American Cuisine and How It Got This Way, Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 7:30 pm.

Yale alumni, guests and members of the community are invited to attend the event, part of the YWAA lecture series coordinated by YWAA director Rich Fabbro '76. The event will be co-sponsored by the Scarsdale Women's Club and the Scarsdale Library.

In Mar., 2017, Freedman was in Scarsdale to share research stories about his book Ten Restaurants That Changed America, a list that includes Delmonico's, the Four Seasons, Howard Johnson's and Mama Leone's.  His roster of ten didn't attempt to name the 10 best, but the 10 most influential in the last century. 

In his new book, Freedman chronicles the evolution of American cuisine from colonial times until today. He describes tastes and preferences based on regions, standards and cultures. He examines the California food revolution starting in the 1970s. He looks back at the launches of dry cereal, key lime pie and chicken Parmesan. And he celebrates the influences from immigrants and assesses the food scene in America today.  

Freedman will lecture at the Scarsdale Women's Club on 37 Drake Road in Scarsdale.  The event is free and open to the public. To register to attend, click FREEDMAN. 

In Mar., 2019, in Chappaqua, the YWAA lecture series hosted Yale psychology professor and Head of Silliman College Laurie Santos, who described why her course "Psychology and the Good Life" (the popular course on "Happiness") has attracted thousands of students at Yale and in online offerings. In May, 2018, Yale screenwriting professor Marc Lapadula discussed his six films that influenced America cinema in a YWAA-sponsored lecture in Chappaqua. 

Other YWAA-sponsored speakers have included Yale law professor Akhil Reed Amar '80, '84 JD, Yale history professor Joanne Freeman, and Yale physics professor Meg Urry. 

In his first book on American cuisine and restaurants, Freedman (above) named Delmonico's restaurant (above, R) as one of the top 10 restaurants that changed America. 

Yale Singing Alums

Opportunity for Yale Singing Alums

Are you interested in gathering with other Yale singing alums from the Glee Club, a cappella groups, Yale Russian Chorus, Slavic Chorus and other groups?

In Washington,  D.C., and other cities, the Yale Glee Club and singing group alumni have participated in a wide variety of singing opportunities:

• Informal evenings around a piano singing through favorite songs
• Hosting the Yale Glee Club (and singing a set of songs at the concert as well as singing with the YGC)
• Joining together for a local singing dinner
• Hosting a cappella jamborees
• Finding joyful ways to reconnect through singing.

If you sang at Yale in any group and are interested in being on an e-mail list, please send an email to clayk@aya.yale.edu.

The Glee Club is very interested in coming to Greenwich for a concert next year, so we are hoping to gather a local chorus of singers who would like to join in (which usually means three rehearsals of fairly familiar songs--any yodelers out there?).

Clay Kaufman

Whiffs '20 in White Plains Nov. 9

The Yale Whiffenpoofs 2019-2020 will present a concert in White Plains Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019 at 7:30 pm as part of the performance series of Downtown Music at Grace.  Ticket prices range from $15-25 for students, seniors and adults. Tickets can be purchased at the venue (Grace Episcopal Church, 33 Church Street). (For more about purchasing tickets in advance, click Whiffs-Tickets.)

This year's version of the Whiffs will have just returned from a southern swing where they will perform in late October in Atlanta, Savanah and Charleston. They are scheduled to sing in Singapore and Taiwan during spring break '20.

This is the second year in a row the formerly all-male group has included a female singer. Neha Bhatt '20, who sings tenor, is a biomedical engineering major from Minnesota. The Whiffs '20 also include Rye's David Townley '20, a baritone and mathematics major. Another Rye native Danny Keller '18 sang with the group two years ago. The group performed in Rye in April, 2018.

For over 30 years, Downtown Music at Grace has sponsored concerts featuring artists from around the world. Timothy Lewis serves as musical director. His writings are church music have been published by Yale.

William Nightingale '53, Yale Champion

William ("Bill") Nightingale '53, impassionate, devoted, eager and dedicated alumnus to all matters and traditions related to Yale, died Oct. 6 shortly after an accident at the Yale Club of New York. 

In the days before his death, he was on the phone making calls, agitating and scratching out an outline to plan the annual Yale Westchester Debate Competition, a successful event he had led in various ways since 1997.

Whether in Westchester, at Yale or in the office of a Yale official, Bill had a persevering hand in Yale affairs on all fronts: Collegiate debate, his Class of '53, his residential Silliman College, Westchester admissions and alumni interviews (for which he helped lead for decades), Yale a cappella singing groups (whom he regularly invited to sing for Westchester audiences), and Yale alumni assemblies. The list is too long to enumerate. 

Wherever there was an event in Westchester, in Manhattan, or in New Haven, Bill prioritized Yale. He showed up (often along with his beloved wife Nancy), got involved and engaged, and raised his voice to express striking opinions on how Yale could be better or do better and how Yale should set a standard that exceeds that of Princeton and Harvard.

If a call had to be made (to a professor, to a Yale president, to a Yale singer or debater, or to a young alumnus or alumna), Bill made it. If an event had been planned or organized and if the event involved Yale, promoted Yale, or boosted Yale's prominence within the Ivy League ranks, Bill attended. Bill picked up the phone to make the call and kept calling until he got others to join his mission. Of if Bill couldn't make the call, he summoned Nancy to reach out on his behalf. 

When called to take on Yale leadership roles (in Westchester, at Yale in New Haven, for Yale admissions, within in his class, or for any special endeavor or task), Bill raised his hand, while, of course, encouraging others heartily to join in his involvement. He was a master at nudging fellow alumni on behalf of Yale.  

Among Yale alumni interviewers in the area, Bill championed Westchester candidates and stayed critically involved in an admissions process that in recent years involved applicants who were six decades or more younger than him. 

His role in admissions and his unrelenting coaxing of Westchester alumni to interview candidates in their neighborhoods and push for higher representation of Westchester students on Old Campus went all the way back to 1960. In some way or another (in interviews, in correspondence, and at admitted-students receptions), Bill may have had input or encouragement--directly and indirectly--in over 500 Westchester students who attended Yale. 

For many years starting in 1983, Bill was Class of '53 Treasurer, assuming all roles, responsibilities and fund-raising that come with that post. He was also instrumental in organizing annual Class of '53 reunions at the Yale Club in New York and did so for over 18 years. In 1963 and for many years afterward, he used his resources as an advertising art director to publish a Class of '53 directory every five years.  

At the Yale Westchester Alumni Association, Bill served as secretary from 1980 until recent years. He continued as a board member and attended the board's most recent meetings in 2018-19. 

Six years ago, the YWAA paid tribute to Bill for his contributions to the alumni community and for his sterling leadership of the debate competition. At the dinner organized by former YWAA Chair Merrell Clark '57 '70 MAR, Yale president Peter Salovey '86 Ph.d., who couldn't attend, sent a statement that read, "It is especially fitting we share a last name. Salovey means nightingale in Russian! And the nightingale has a sweet, usually nocturnal song. I appreciate the knowledge that together we can sing for the greater good of our shared alma mater."

At a different alumni function that year, Salovey told his audience a story about waiting to be interviewed for the job as Yale president. He sat nervous not about the upcoming interview, but about the time on the clock. He said he kept glancing at his watch to make sure he could depart the interview promptly, escape New Haven, and be in attendance on time for a Yale Westchester alumni dinner organized by Bill. Salovey, the main speaker for the event, appeared just in time. 

At the 2013 dinner in Bill's honor, long-time YWAA director B.K. Munguia '75 spoke, "Whenever Bill calls, I try to say yes. He's so much fun. He only asks for what he gives--100-fold." YWAA director Scott Sherman '71 said, "I'm a lawyer. I can't run events. It's an honor to watch him get people to do things." 

"A Knight and a rare bird" is how YWAA and Yale alumni leader Clark described Nightingale at the dinner. He highlighted Bill's "creativity, bright ideas, clear thinking, artistry, innovation, determination, follow-through, humor, diligence, writing skills, planning or anything to do with leadership, ebullience and success."

Years ago Clark said he thought "(Bill) was nuts" when he presented the idea of starting a debate program. But a fleeting idea pushed through in 1997 and has resulted in over 20 debate nights involving Yale competing against other Ivy schools (Brown, Princeton and Harvard). After the collegians debate, teams from several high schools will compete. 

The debate is often held at a Westchester high school (at Ardsley, the Hackley School, the Masters School and Byram Hills in recent years) and attracts a large turn-out of alumni, high school students, and community members. Debate judges have often include local politicians and judges. In 2018, with Bill on the front row monitoring the affairs of the evening, Yale defeated Princeton; Harrison won the high school competition (held at the German International School in White Plains). 

Yale alumni and friends know Bill best in his unheralded position as cheerleader and campaign manager for Yale activities off campus and in the New York area.  Beyond Class Treasurer and YWAA secretary and leader in the Westchester Alumni Schools Committee, he stepped into other formal positions or received formal recognition.  Under president A. Barlett Giamatti '60, he served on the University Communications and Publications Council. He received a Yale University Outstanding Service Award in 2000 at a banquet organized by Clark and where New York Governor George Pataki '67 spoke. 

Featured below are pictorial highlights of Bill's involvement in debate and other YWAA activities since 2013.

"If you want to inspire young alumni," Mark Dollholpf '77, then Yale Alumni (AYA) Executive, said in 2013, "then hold out the leadership examples of Bill Nightingale."  

Bill Nightingale '53, Merrell Clark '57, Mark Dollhopf '77 at the William Nightingale Debate Fund Dinner in Nov., 2013

Nightingale is honored at a dinner in Westchester in Nov., 2013, above and below (YWAA photos)

Nightingale receives recognition for alumni and community leadership from Yale president Peter Salovey '86 Ph.d. and from the City of Yonkers

Nightingale acted as debate emcee, along with Susan Kaminsky '86, when the event was held at Hackley School (AYA photos), above and below

Nightingale is pictured with YWAA president Tim Mattison '73 and Eve Rice '73, Yale Corporation trustee 

Debate night at Hackley School in Tarrytown, NY, in 2014 (AYA photos)

Nightingale emcees once again to kick the event off for Debate Night at the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry (AYA photos), above and below

In 2016, Nightingale spoke to a large crowd of students and parents at the Yale-Princeton debate competition in Ardsley, NY, in 2016, above and below (AYA photos)