CLASS OF 1986 | 2023 | SPRING ISSUE
Lots of news from ’86ers:
Greg Zlotnik reported that 10 members of the class of ’86 were named to Coach Dicenzo’s All-Decade Football Team in September. Former players were acknowledged during Homecoming weekend in early November. The classmates included Dave Bagatelle, Mike Dolan, Bill Gerber, David Hill, Jack Kuhn, Jay Norris, Joe Norton, Dave Patterson, Joe Wight, and Greg.
Hal Phillips contributed a lengthy update, which he starts off by saying: “Much activity and WesContact in 2022. Front and center, my new book: Generation Zero: Founding Fathers, Hidden Histories & the Making of Soccer in America, published in July by Dickinson-Moses Press. I like to call it ‘the modern Creation epic U.S. soccer didn’t know it had’—and yes, there’s some tidy WesContent therein. Can’t wait to embark on the next book project. Not quite ready to retire from Mandarin Media, the content/digital marketing agency I’ve owned/operated since 1997. But the GZ experience has confirmed for me what retirement will likely entail.
“The publication and marketing of this book has resulted in all sorts of soccer-related outreach. Among the WesKids with whom I renewed acquaintance this year, in the flesh: Stephen McDermott Myers ’87, GZ’s primary editor; former teammates Scott Kessel ’88, Adam Rohdie ’89, David Slade ’87, John Dorsey ’87, and Andrew Lacey ’89, who were all on hand for the first-ever Wes Alumni Soccer Weekend in October; and Tim Dibble, who was kind enough to attend a reading I gave down in Boston in November. Because I participate in group chat dedicated to the beautiful game, I’ve enjoyed all sorts of great back-and-forth with Patrick Symmes ’87 and Jon Gould. Also dined with Jon and wife Tina Howard in Springfield, Massachusetts. . . . This summer, I fielded a call from Mike Jeffrey ’74, longtime president of the State Soccer Coaches Association here in Maine. It took us 15 minutes to realize we were fellow WesProducts who both played for the late, great Terry Jackson, who passed away in June. In November, I was informed of Herb Kenny’s July passing. I played golf at Wesleyan as well. Herb coached that team, though I had as much contact with this fine fellow while covering the men’s basketball team for The Argus.
“My wife Sharon Vandermay and I do indeed make our empty nest here in Maine. We’re foster parents now that our own kids, Silas and Clara, having shoved off for Missoula and Brooklyn, respectively. After 23 years in rural New Gloucester, we moved last year to the more urbane, somewhat revived mill community of Lewiston-Auburn. I run MM, write and play in a couple bands—one bluegrass/Americana, the other more alt country. Sharon quilts and spearheads the renovation of our sprawling Colonial Revival/Victorian (inclusive of an Airbnb apartment) hard by the mighty Androscoggin River. Was pleased to visit with lots more WesKids this year during the natural course of our 50-something lives: Rich Gibbons ’87 and Heather Moss ’87 in San Diego; John Sledge in LA; Dave MacDonald up in Bar Harbor; Dennis Carboni and new Australian citizen Dave Rose, down in Boston. Still hoping to reconnect with Sue Arnold ’84, our esteemed freshman-year RA back at Butterfield C, who is back in New England, I gather. Sue: You’ve been warned.”
Daniel Seltzer contributed: “Almost 1000 days have passed since what I think of as the start of the pandemic here in NYC. Have been here throughout, with a few brief escapes. Still masking up in the grocery store, but the calculus of risk continues to evolve. We live the new normal, I guess. My wife commutes to the Bronx every day as a social worker. My kids are around the city, making their lives in education, law, and the arts. My work in tech is mostly strategic/advisory and I’m very happy not to work out of a Midtown office or attend in-person meetings much anymore. I make music on guitar whenever I can, get out on the water and wing foil when it’s not too cold, and stay in touch with a few old Wes friends near and far including Peter Durwood, John Ephron, Nat Pierson ’85, and Giles Richter ’87. I even ran into Ken Zita ’82 on the street last week. Happy to reconnect with folks at daniel.seltzer@gmail.com.”
Alicia Sisk said she is “working as a psychotherapist both in Manhattan and Bronxville. Empty nester as my twins are finally away at college. Enjoy going back to watch the Wesleyan women’s basketball team. They have come so far since 1986!!!”
Marc Rosner provided this note: “I was trying to think of anything interesting about my life, and remembered I got engaged on the ferry from Athens to Crete last August, to Diane Gross, who happened to be in my sister’s class in Rochester, I think that at least makes the world a safer place for most of us . . . .😂”
Michael Robinson wrote, “I’ve spent the last five years of divorced life dedicating myself to building no-utility, high-performance homes [for] the low and moderate income of Newburgh, New York, sometimes even with my ex-wife Dar Williams ’89 helping me! Yes, you can take the boy out of Wesleyan but . . . . More importantly, I’ve been grieving my dearest of friends, Paul Ratliff ’88, who died on December 22, 2021. He was a gentle man and a gentleman, a fiercely dedicated friend, brother, husband, and father. Whimsical, whip smart, inventive, funny, keenly insightful, but most of all kind. Rest in peace, my good brother.”
Erika Levy said, “I am still enjoying my work as professor of communication sciences and disorders at Teachers College, Columbia University. Delighted that my daughter started at Wesleyan this fall. My husband, my son, and I had fun visiting her during Homecoming/Family Weekend—I still love being at Wes. Would like to be more in touch with my old classmates.”
George Justice has moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he has taken the position of provost at the University of Tulsa.
Eric Heinze, a professor of law and humanities at Queen Mary, University of London, writes that his book, The Most Human Right: Why Free Speech is Everything (MIT Press, 2022), has been nominated for season 18 of the podcast The Next Big Idea. In the book Eric writes that there has always been disagreement about which aspects of our humanity should be protected by such basic rights. The well-known lists, such as the U.S. Bill of Rights, generally include rights not to be tortured, or arbitrarily killed, or imprisoned without trial. Other countries also include things such as minimal levels of clean water, nourishment, housing, or education. Once a list has been agreed most experts insist that we cannot prioritize some rights above others. They argue that all human rights must enjoy an equally high status, because no right can be fully enjoyed unless the others are fully secure. However, Eric argues that this assumption makes no sense: free speech must by definition take priority because without it nothing else can even be called a right.
Elizabeth Graver shared, “My novel, Kantika (‘song’ in Ladino) will be out in April from Metropolitan Books/Holt. Inspired by my Sephardic Turkish grandmother’s migration story, this book grew out of interviews I did with my grandmother decades ago, while I was still in college. Now my daughter Sylvie is a Wes sophomore and loving it.”
Kristin Bluemel shared that she spent most of 2022 in Newcastle, England, where she served as Leverhulme Visiting Professor in the English Department of Newcastle University. Living among the “Geordies” was great fun, though she encounters plenty of interesting characters on the Jersey Shore where she has spent most of her career at Monmouth University.
Julia Barclay traveled to Maine in October where she saw Bennett Schneider, who was also in Maine at the time.
