CLASS OF 1988 | 2024 | SPRING ISSUE
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Hillary writes for this issue.
Hello classmates,
Steve Pike, who teaches public diplomacy and public relations at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor. He retired from the U.S. Department of State in 2016, after a quarter century as a diplomat, in order to take up research and teaching at Syracuse. In 2023 he published the paper What Diplomats Do: U.S. Citizen Perspectives on the Work of Public Diplomacy in Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, as well as a chapter on the management of public diplomacy in A Research Agenda for Public Diplomacy, (Eytan Gilboa, ed.).
Andy Goldman lives in Spokane, Washington, and says, “I teach at Gonzaga University, where I’m a professor in the history department (and surrounded by basketball fanatics). I’m currently on sabbatical and have just returned from several weeks in western Sicily, where I’ve been working as part of an international archaeological survey project studying an ancient marine battle site off the Egadi Islands. I do love my job sometimes: handling 2,250-year-old objects from off the seabed (90 meters down!) makes for a pretty phenomenal field trip (as does Sicilian cooking). I’m very pleased to announce that I have a book in press right now, the third edition of Ancient Cities (Routledge), written with my close friend Charles Gates and available in February 2024. Life in the Pacific Northwest continues to be lovely; we bought a new house two years ago and—with lots of room and several large pets—welcome anyone passing through. Last spring I had a wonderful visit with old Argus-mates James Shiffer ’89 and Kirsten Delegard ’90, who both gave lectures at Gonzaga.”
Alisa Newman shares that she enjoys visiting Wes where her daughter is a first year living in Clark (with a groundhog outside the window!). “The new buildings look great without taking away from the character of the campus I remember. Main Street has so many more options now! I think there used to be exactly ONE restaurant we would ever go to.”
More info from Middletown comes from Jen Alexander, who lives “a few blocks from campus with my husband Mark Masselli (Hon. ’09); our four kids have grown and (mostly) left the nest. The Kidcity Children’s Museum just celebrated our 25th anniversary, and in addition to the magical experience of making exhibits with our classmate, Scott Kessel, I have gotten to work with Wes students in every generation, since we are a work-study site. I’m grateful for Doug Mackenzie ’89 who, between his music and body work, is kind of a one-man analog Facebook, as he travels the country and brings me news of the Wes alums he visits.”
Another empty nester is C. C. (Crichlow) Clark, who has a college grad and a college junior, and reports from Arlington, Virginia: “I went back to Wes for the first time in 15 years for a Black alumni weekend. It was phenomenal to spend time with so many Black alumni and students. Many from the Class of ’88 were there, including Ingrid Gordon, Majora Carter, Maurice Willoughby, Marc McKayle, Al Young, and Fred Montas. I’m still basking in the glow of the weekend and looking forward to the next one.”
Christie Trott had a busy year in Northern California: “My daughter has been applying to colleges, and my son is hot on her heels, prepping for college applications. My sister, Shelley ’91, went to the recent Homecoming and had a blast seeing some other Wes alum. I transitioned to being an admin at the school I helped start during COVID, and I’m completely out of the classroom for the first time in many years. Sadly, I also broke my foot and had to have surgery, so I’ve been hobbling around on a scooter, crutches, my butt, and even crawling like a baby when necessary. All in all, life is good, and I try hard to be in gratitude despite the absurdity of the world we live in.”
Finally, we have sad news from Ellen (Shandling) Burgess: “It is with a heavy heart that I share that Katy Shander-Reynolds passed away October 20, 2023, after a long battle with lung cancer. She is survived by her loving husband and four children.” Katy’s obituary is located at https://katyshander.com/obituary/.
Best wishes,
Hillary
PETER V.S. BOND | 007@pvsb.org
HILLARY ROSS | hrossdance@yahoo.com