CLASS OF 1970 | 2018 | ISSUE 1
NEWSMAKERS | 1970sNEWSMAKERSTEVEN OSSAD ’70
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Aloha, everybody. I’m sorry to have to begin these notes with word of the death of another classmate. Arden Reed passed away “peacefully in his sleep…surrounded by his family, after a brief battle with cancer,” says Dru Sherrod, his partner for the past 35 years. She says, “Arden’s unique sense of curiosity and engagement will be greatly missed by his students and colleagues, friends, and family. May we remember Arden best by living lives of more intense connection and commitment, with others and with the world.” Agreed. Our condolences.
Josh Barrett just missed the deadline for the last column, so his news comes first.“Since retiring from my law practice I’ve enjoyed having more time for music, singing with the West Virginia Symphony Chorus, continuing to gig as lead guitar in a rock/R&N/blues band, and doing occasional acoustic gigs with my wife, Julie Adams, who is the singer in the house band on the weekly public radio show Mountain Stage. So, it was a special treat to have a visit this summer from my former bandmate Dave Cain ’68, who was bass player and leader of The House of David while at Wesleyan.Dave lives in Texas now where he retired from a career in teaching but is making lots of music performing as a singer-songwriter, doing some recording both as a solo and with his talented wife and daughters, and teaching guitar students. We hadn’t seen each other in decades but still have lots in common and had a fabulous weekend playing and singing together, reminiscing, and seeing a bit of beautiful West Virginia scenery. We don’t have many Wes alumni in West Virginia, but if you want to visit bring your guitar.”
Darwin Poritz wrote in for the first time in years, motivated by e-mails about our 50th Reunion. He wrote, “I spent June in France cycling with the Fédération Française de Cyclotourisme, one week in the Loire valley near Blois and another week in the department of the Puy de Dôme, a complete cycling and linguistic immersion experience, the best way to cycle in France as the French do. Another week was spent in Grenoble, sightseeing and studying French at the local Alliance Française. Meanwhile, I am still happily working as a statistician at the Johnson Space Center here in Houston. In 2017, my daughter Julia received her Texas state license as a clinical psychologist, and my son John is pursuing his French degree at SFSU in California.” Thanks for writing, Darwin.
Dave Davis sends a “Happy New Year” to former classmates. Dave continues to work for Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB)—the PBS affiliate in Oregon—as VP of TV production. OPB is currently producing a four-part National Public Television series on how the brain affects human decision-making. Dave is married to Cindy Talbot, M.D., sister of classmate Steve Talbot, and they have three children, all now getting either PhDs or M.D.s.
Had a note this time from Eric Buergers, maybe his first ever. Eric retired in June after teaching English at Arlington High School near Poughkeepsie, N.Y. for the past 38 years, capping a career that spans 47 years all told, including stints in Germany, Middletown, and Durham. Says Eric, “My daughter is an English teacher in our rival school, John Jay, and my son (U.S. Navy) got commissioned to D.C. from San Diego, so I hope to be able to spend more time with both…Wesleyan has served me well with great memories of life in the womb, and inspiration from people and ideas that carry on still.”
More from Eric about his career: “Looking forward to getting together with John Valente ’72, Bill Davis ’71, Brad Matthews, and Marjorie Melnick ’72 in New England, and Uffe Hansenin Denmark sometime soon. Wesleyan has served me well with great memories of life in the womb, and inspiration from people and ideas that carry on still. At a recent ceremony to honor and remember Marjorie Daltry Rosenbaum MALS’55, with whom I did my student teaching, I ran into Dick Winslow again. He took one look at me and said, “Buergers—you’re the percussionist!” Amazing after all these years. I’ll never forget him. Same for George Creeger, Alfred Turco, and many others. The music of Unit 1 still resonates!”
In reply to my comment about finding a path in life early, Eric wrote: “I’m not so sure what I found was a path—I think I stumbled upon a set of very fortunate circumstances. I had no idea when I entered Wesleyan what I would do professionally. English teacher was as remote a possibility as becoming an aardvark. But as you know, Wesleyan has a way of showing you more about yourself. In high school, music was my passion and math my strength, which Wes somehow morphed into a kind of English major. I still had no firm career plans when I graduated and took off for Germany, but circumstances there nudged me towards teaching and I found that I really enjoyed it…I discovered my niche with seniors about 20 years ago and have loved my gig even more as a result.”
From Joel Adams comes a bid for a record: “I am guessing that I hold the class of ’70 record for number of children currentlyin college. I have four: a senior at James Madison and sophomores at Temple, West Chester University (Pennsylvania), and Highpoint University (North Carolina). (Yes, triplets). I enjoy reading the class notes about some of you who are retired and living in or visiting various wonderful locales. I cannot afford to retire, but I am thankful for my good health which allows me to keep earning a living in the Philadelphia area.” I can’t afford to retire either, but I can’t imagine being in your situation. Wow! As the 1939 British poster said, “Keep calm and carry on.”
And a note from Roger Mann says, “Ted Reed and I went to games four and five of the World Series in Houston. Both of us attended our first World Series 60 years earlier in New York with our fathers.” It was a pretty decent series considering that the Red Sox weren’t in it.
We also received a sweet-and-sour note from Elliot Daum. The good news is that Elliot retired “…after 17 years on the bench and 27 as a lawyer.” The bad news: “We were burned out in the big fire in October but we’re rebuilding with the assistance of Brooklyn architect Nathan Rich ’02. We plan to travel a lot while we can. Life begins at 70!” Good outlook and good travels to you.
From down in New Zealand comes a note from Peter Ratner (the same one who many years ago wondered when the rest of us were going to come to our senses and move there, too—a sentiment that resonates more with me than ever, but I digress). He, too, recently retired after practicing law for 44 years, and his wife also retired from nursing. They plan to spend a few years mostly at their country place in Greytown, while helping to look after their granddaughter in Wellington, then “…we expect to be full-time in Greytown looking after our garden, working on some local conservation areas and, well, we are not sure what the future holds.” Congratulations to you both.
Meanwhile, back on the U.S. mainland, Steve Ossad was busy winning the 2018 Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award for biography for his book Omar Nelson Bradley: America’s GI General. Ed Castorina has posted a review on Amazon. Looks like an interesting read. Congratulations, Steve.
Bob Stone in L.A. described a happy retirement from law practice. “I’m now two-and-a-half years happily into retirement from the practice of law here in Los Angeles. My wife Nancy pushed me to retire and, as in most things, she was right. I didn’t realize how much of a toll the commute and the work had been taking until the stress was removed. To my surprise, there’s no boredom. We’ve kept busy with travel abroad (Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Vietnam, Cambodia, Canada, and Peru, and next April back to South Africa and Botswana), babysitting for our three grandchildren (ages 8, 4, and 2), lots of pleasure reading and couples book group dinners, and just hanging out with friends. I’m also serving on some nonprofit board committees and occasionally volunteering legal services to those organizations. And there’s the never-ending quest to improve my golf game.
“I’ve kept in touch with some of my wonderful friends from Wesleyan, both on social media and the old-fashioned way. Marc Pickard and I have had frequent contact. We’ve visited Marc and his wife Jeannie in Vancouver several times and toured Peru with them last April. I’m proud to say that even at our advanced age, we were able to make the steep trek up to the Sun Gate at Machu Picchu. Last summer we were honored with a visit from Larry Mendelowitz ’72 along with his wife Karen and daughter Dana. Steve Berman ’72 made the long trip from his home in Santa Monica to the San Fernando Valley to see Mendo and join us for lunch. It’s always amazing to me how we can pick up so easily where we left off all those years ago at Wes.