CLASS OF 1981 | 2023 | FALL ISSUE
Greetings from Brooklyn! Welcome to the digital edition of the Class Notes, with lots of pictures! Thank you for all the pictures.
I write this in August. You know by now that it was hot. And fires. Lots of fires. And, of course, Maui, where my wife and I honeymooned right after 9/11, is well, at press time, authorities were still trying to find the missing and the dead. Tragic.
Greg Davis and his wife moved to Maui in 2021. He wrote this summer:
“We live in South Maui, and the devastating fires that destroyed buildings and homes in Lahaina and Kula were in West Maui. Maui is a very small island, so nothing is very far from anything else, but we were not directly impacted by either of those fires.
“There was, however, a third brush fire in Kihei, where we live. It’s not the first time we have had to contend with smoke, road closures, and power outages from brush fires in our area, but it was the first time we had to evacuate our home. The flames from the Kihei fire came very close to homes that are a few blocks away from us. And flying embers can set homes on fire when the winds are as strong as they were on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We evacuated our home on Tuesday night with our seven cats. When we got the evacuation notice, we tossed the cats into their carriers and then drove to the evacuation center we were told to go to, but when we got there, we learned that the center was being shut down because the fires were too close. So, we got back in the car and drove south, away from the fires, until we found an empty parking lot at an upscale shopping center in Wailea where we could spend the night in our car. The security guards there told us that management had told them to let people stay in the parking lot and in the public areas of the shopping center, and to keep the bathrooms open. We watched the news all night and saw what was happening in Lahaina but couldn’t get any news about our area. So, when the sun came up, we decided to drive back to our house to see if we still had a house.
“Fortunately for us, the winds had shifted after we left and the fires stayed in areas of vacant fields. There was no damage to our house or to any of our neighbors’ houses.
“The damage, death, and destruction in Lahaina is apocryphal, however, and it will take many, many years for Maui to recover from that. Many, many people have lost their homes, businesses, and their jobs, and at least 93 people have died from the fires [as of his note on August 14th].
“Right now, we are just grateful that we were spared. We are trying to stay out of the way of rescue efforts so that first responders can continue to do their jobs. The fires around Lahaina are not out yet. Eventually, we will try to find a way to help those who have lost so much.”
On a happier note, Lisa Greim retired from Xcel Energy last November, and has been doing contract writing and editing for them and others since then. “Telecommuting for two pandemic years spoiled me—I still want to work, but not the way virtual work expands into your whole 24/7 life.”
She adds, “It’s been a good compromise so far and has allowed me and my husband, Chris Varner, to scuba dive in Fiji, river cruise in the Netherlands and Belgium, and ‘festivate’ at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. We had the perfect pandemic wedding in August 2020, featuring a masked appearance at the courthouse to do the paperwork and a wedding picnic with our grown kids, boxed charcuterie, cupcakes, and canned beer.”
She saved the important part for last: “Chris is a lovely human being, my kids are both fledged, and life is sweet. Since photos are allowed, I’ll attach one from wreck diving in Sint Eustatius in 2021.”
Luis Taveras has a new book, The 90 Day CIO. “Available on Amazon. All proceeds go to charity. Thanks.” Congrats to Luis!
Brenda Zlamany is excited to announce, as are we, that she is “The winner of the Worcester County Mechanics Association’s competition for the monumental portrait of William Brown and Martha Ann Tulip Lewis (Brown). William was a successful 19th-century businessman in Worcester involved in the Underground Railroad, and Martha was his partner in life and abolitionist work, as well as a community leader. This painting is one of three portraits of impactful Black Americans of the 19th century commissioned for the awe-inspiring Great Hall Portrait Gallery.”
https://mechanicshall.org/portraits-project/
On June 3, Brenda’s portrait of Elga Wasserman, commissioned by Yale University, was unveiled and permanently installed in its final location at Bass Library, 10 Wall Street, New Haven, Connecticut. https://news.yale.edu/2023/06/06/yale-unveils-portrait-our-very-own-mother-bear
“I am thrilled,” she adds, “to be a visiting artist at the prestigious American Academy in Rome for the month of September 2023!”
Brenda also had a series of Group exhibitions this past spring:
—A Painting is a Painting is a Painting, April 15–June 4, 2023, at Artport, Kingston, New York
—Undue Burden: Privacy, Protection, and Politics, March 18–April 18, 2023, at City Lights Gallery, Bridgeport, Connecticut
—Five Points: A Convergence of Dreams, April 6–29, 2023, at Equity Gallery, New York, New York
Mark Saba has a new book of poetry, Flowers in the Dark, which was published in January by Kelsay Books.
At the end of 2022, Mike Trager became a retired partner at Arnold & Porter, where he had been a senior partner and part of the firm’s leadership. Mike began his career as a U.S. government attorney but spent most of the past few decades in private practice in Washington, D.C. And, thanks to a presidential appointment, Mike has returned to government, where he is vice chair of the Department of State’s Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and a member of its Executive Committee. The board has the statutory responsibility for independently supervising the global Fulbright Program. Led by the U.S. government, in partnership with more than 160 countries worldwide, the Fulbright Program promotes mutual understanding among the peoples of the United States and other countries to provide for a more secure and peaceful world. The comprehensive program is a primary means for facilitating international cultural diplomacy and soft power.
Mike is thoroughly enjoying retirement with his bride of 36 years (Mariella, who is Washington Circle Chair of Refugees International). They are the proud parents of Nick ’11, who has spent the past seven years living in London while working for State Street Global Advisors, and Alex, who lives in NYC and works for Microsoft. His parents, Ina and Phil Trager ’56, Hon. ’08, are doing well. In this picture, taken in June at the U.S. Embassy in Rabat, Morocco, Mike is in the middle, joined by embassy staff, the executive director of the Moroccan-American Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange, and MACECE board members.
Alison Williams writes that she had a great time traveling to Togo, West Africa, in January for two weeks. “I stayed in Notsé, spent a lot of quality time under the mango tree getting to know the neighbors, did some science labs/workshops with high school students, and really immersed myself in Togolese culture. It was wonderful. I took the plunge and am now an independent diversity, equity, access, and inclusion consultant, working with schools (secondary and higher ed), civic groups, trade organizations and nonprofits). I’m ‘up for hire’ if anyone would like to inquire! I’m managing to play my oboe a lot—a good antidote to the mad times we live in. I’ve been fortunate to have been in touch with lots of classmates in the past six months—too many to list and feel grateful for the friendships that have stood the test of many decades since our student days.”
David P. Miller sent some wonderful photos, including this amazing shot. “In late February, my wife (Cathryne) and I went on a cruise to Northern Norway, to hopefully see the aurora borealis. We were joined on this trip by the Benjamins (Kathryn Moody ’82 and Lee Benjamin). We had three nights of good aurora viewing, over a week of great meals, and a generally wonderful time. The photos below show the aurora over Alta, Norway, and the four of us at dinner.”
In July David went to Omaha, Nebraska, to visit “my good Wesleyan friend, John Lyden. John is now chair of the Religion Department at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. I got to spend several days with him and his wife, Liz, who I found out graduated from Brown in ’82 (we know several people in common). Omaha seems like a wonderful place and I also got to see ‘the greatest office in the world.’ The photo below is of the three of us in Memorial Park in Omaha.”
David adds, “I also regularly see Linda Hornby Schogren ’83. She’s a regular attendee of our monthly Zoom SF book club. I also see Bob Seiler ’82 regularly on our biweekly retired engineers Zoom meeting. One (perhaps the only one) good thing to come out of the lockdown was a massive improvement in video conferencing. I wish Wesleyan continued it today for seminars and updates—for those of us not in traveling distance to Middletown.”
I will leave you with this: stay safe, stay cool, stay out of harm’s way, and may the road rise to meet you—unless you live over a fault.