My apologies if you've looked in vain for fresh content at this site in recent months. The peaceful yet unexpected passing last April of my father, Richard Sewall, has taken me off my orginal game plan. The day I called my brother Rick to say I'd finally completed arrangements for our father to live with me here in Glenview, IL was the day when Rick told me that Dad's 95-year motor had finally run out of gas and I'd better head back east quick for his last hours. Thank goodness we were with him at the end - it makes all the difference!

My Dad's passing changed many things. Gone was the prospect of bouncing my daily scribblings off him. But awaiting me was the chance to travel back east, which I did for two exhilerating weeks in August.

I first attended a memorial service for my father at his favorite church in South Bristol, Maine. Next, in New Haven, my colleague Bob Back and I made a three-hour presentation to an undergraduate seminar on the Clinton presidency at Yale. Our appearance here resulted from the first Yale succession opinion piece that appeared in the Yale Herald last February. The seminar discussion prompted a second Herald op ed piece that appeared September 19.

Bob and I then drove to Vermont to visit the Rev. William Sloane Coffin, a close friend of my father's at Yale from the 1950's on. Finally, we drove to Washington D.C. for several meetings related to the Yale succession project.

Bob and I have decided to morph the Yale succession project from its original book format to an Internet format. This format will facilitate dialogue aboutthat might ultimately impact the 2004 presidential elections. To join the dialogue, visit our gateway site .

It's time to get the blogging ball rolling!