Tag: 1972

Newsmaker: Seth Davis ’72

Seth Davis ’72, an attorney and partner at Elias Group, LLP, was named vice chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources Law (SEER) to become chair in 2014. SEER is a forum for strategies and information for environmental, energy and resource lawyers, representing nearly 11,000 members. In practice for almost 40 years, Davis has specialized in environmental law since 1980 and practiced at the Rye-based environmental law firm since 2004. He was involved in the negotiation of the cleanup of one of the country’s first multi-party Superfund sites, the Bluff Road site in South Carolina, and was actively involved in remediating hazardous waste sites throughout the United States and in Puerto Rico. A College of Letters major, he earned his JD from Harvard University School of Law and serves as an adjunct professor in Pace Law School’s environmental program.

Again, the news is sad. Much as I fear this is something to be expected with our age, I sincerely hope I can return to my usual cheerful, snarky style in the next issue.

Chuck Raffel died suddenly at his home in New Rochelle, N.Y., in April. Chuck taught Jewish philosophy for many years at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women. He was universally beloved by students and colleagues. The chair of Chuck’s department described him as “a consummate mensch and colleague, and a beloved teacher.”

Chuck was one of my closest friends at Wesleyan, especially during freshman year, when we both lived in Clark Hall and experienced the legendary “Don Juan class.” But I couldn’t put things any better than this excerpt from an e-mail from our mutual friend Mark Gelber:

“I have very clear memories of times spent with Chuck. We lived together the first semester of our senior year. He also visited me in Germany when he was on the Wesleyan program in Paris and he slept on the floor of my small Dachzimmer in Bonn. But, probably it was during our freshman year that he made the strongest impression on me. Before one would enter Clark Hall on most nights one was greeted by your booming voice and the melodies from Meistersinger or another opera. But, by the time one reached the third floor and came close to Chuck’s room, the sounds of The Band’s new album or Dylan or Johnny Cash were clearly audible. One entered Chuck’s room and there he sat, eyes closed, buddha-like, relishing every note and obviously enjoying a paradisiacal experience.

“Chuck’s ironic wit, sharp intelligence, and biting repartee combined with an uproarious and sometimes outrageous sense of humor to make him a terrific companion in almost any situation. He was much wiser than he knew. He became very close to George and Nina Sobelman after he returned from France and when I came back to Wesleyan after another semester abroad, he and you encouraged me to tag along and see for myself what was happening over there on Shabbat evenings. He also included me in a high-powered Rambam seminar which had life-lasting consequences for his intellectual path and career.

“I did not see him for well over 30 years and then owing to Michael Bober’s brilliant orchestration behind the scenes, I met up with Chuck and Bill Schultz in Manhattan for a drink and then Chuck and Michael came to a lecture of mine afterwards.”

Oscar Look died on July 10. I had not seen him since Wesleyan, but I offer these tributes, posted on Facebook, and shared here with permission of the authors. First, from Nat Warren-White:

“Oscar lived his life since leaving WesTech in his hometown of South Addison, Maine, where he fished for lobsters and ran his pound much as his father had done. Oscar served as the harbormaster for many years, was a devoted father to his daughter, Erin, and a deeply loyal friend, sibling, and son. He was a prolific poet and reader, the keeper of all forms of arcane knowledge, which he loved sharing. He will be sorely missed by many…a bigger heart and a truer man would be hard to find. Fortunately, he was able to get out on the water aboard his trusty lobster vessel, Southwind, the morning of the day he left us. I suspect his spirit is flying out to sea right now…the place he was happiest and most at peace.”

And from John Perry Barlow ’69:

“Here’s your last Oscar Look. He was the IIIrd by that name, a 5th generation lobsterman from South Addison, Maine, and unquestioned Harbor Master there for 30 years. When we were in college at Wesleyan, he rode a Royal Enfield with electrics by Lucas, or, as he called their maker, ‘the Prince of Darkness.’ Any moisture would shut them down. He threw himself at everything until there was nothing left to throw. They only made one Oscar Look of his model and that one was in questionable taste. The previous version, Oscar Look Jr. was on the Bataan Death March, as he informed me from his doorway when I turned up in the middle of a winter night looking for his son and was met by the sinewy Elder Look, shivering in a t-shirt and tidy whites. I was so startled by this declaration that all I could think to say was, ‘How was the food?’ ‘I’m going to like you,’ also declared Oscar Look Jr. Oscar Look III was never unkind to anyone in his life. Once, when giant (4’x12’) sheets of Thermopane were popping from their frames on the 60-story John Hancock Tower in Boston and sailing down to the perilous streets below, Oscar went down with a flatbed and gathered up enough windows to build himself a very large glass house for next to nothing. Nobody ever wondered if Oscar Look was a man, even when he had hair down to his butt. No one was ever in a room where Oscar Look was laughing without laughing, too. Like his father and grandfather, he kept a little museum of alarming marine biology: surprising creatures that had been yanked unwillingly to the surface with a tangle of Look Lobsters. He once trapped a lobster so large—60 pounds, I believe—that he gave it to the Boston Aquarium. Last I heard it was still there, growing bigger. He was a man of few words, all of them funny and accurately, if economically, applied. He literally wore himself out and on the evening of July 10, he was, at long last, fully depreciated. The sea is not deep enough for him.”

As I stood at Chuck’s gravesite, together with a number of brilliant, kind Wesleyan comrades, I could only think what a joy it has been to have been part of that community, and to have known such friends as these. Peace to you all.

SETH A. DAVIS | sethdavis@post.harvard.edu
17 Wolf Road, Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520

This rough winter was particularly rough on the Class of 1972. On Feb. 15, Michael Heilpern died peacefully at his home in Claremont, Calif. Michael and his wife, Linda, started a typesetting business in California in 1979, and saw it grow and change into a Web consulting company that serves membership organizations, public agencies, and local businesses. He was actively involved in establishing online communities—spaces where people with common interests, devotion to a shared cause or geographic proximity, could connect. Among these were ClaremontCalendar.com, featuring community events in his home community, and LAjazz.com, a resource for Southern California jazz musicians and aficionados. He was involved in a variety of community and conservation causes, most recently a public policy document outlining a responsible strategy for the maintenance of Claremont’s trees.

On March 13, Eddie Ohlbaum lost his fight against cancer. Eddie was a professor at Temple Law School for years. He ran the school’s highly regarded trial advocacy program, founded Temple’s innovative LL.M. in Trial Advocacy program, and was a founding board member of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project at Temple. More importantly, Eddie was profoundly loved and respected as a teacher and mentor by decades of Temple students. Check out the outpouring of tributes at law.temple.edu/SitePages/Ohlbaum-Tribute/. But here’s mine:

“Eddie was my classmate at Wesleyan and we lived on the same hall freshman year. He was an always active, exciting, funny, energetic guy, who was ever true to his principles. Even then he was a true champion of justice and equality, and lived his Jewish faith every step of the way. I have many fond memories—wild times in the hall, sleeping on the same floor for the November 1969 peace march in Washington, his unannounced and unsanctioned visit to our archeological dig in Beersheba (and his unceremonious ejection from the camp by the head archeologist’s wife), and his constant, positive presence on the Wesleyan campus. He was truly one of a kind and he will be sorely missed.”

And this note from David Layne ’10, the secretary of his Wes class and Eddie’s student at Temple. David compiled portions of remarks he made at the tribute at Temple: “Professor Ohlbaum was a brilliant educator, but his brilliance was about more than how incredibly knowledgeable he was with the rules of evidence and its caselaw. He was brilliant as a professor and advocate because he had an uncanny knack for understanding what it takes to connect with people. Couple that with the fact that class with him was never dull. I’ve spoken with friends at other law schools who’ve told me how they hate evidence class, and that I am crazy for having loved it so much, and that’s 100 percent Eddie’s fault. His enthusiasm was infectious, and he brought the mundane to life whenever he was behind the podium for lecture (although I always found it ‘curious’ how he managed to consistently weave himself into his criminal fact patterns, such that our first exposure to the excited utterance was Eddie jumping in front of the podium, with a fictional knife in his back screaming ‘Ohlbaum did it!’)…I can say with confidence that Eddie Ohlbaum epitomized what it means to be a Temple lawyer and a Wesleyan Cardinal. No one believed in the students more here at our law school, or cared more about their success ,than Professor Ohlbaum. He was absolutely cherished here at Temple Law—and he will be missed—but his legacy carries on in scores of students who are unquestionably better trial advocates for having known him.”

Mike Busman’s first book, American Moment, has been released on Amazon and Kindle, and is going into wider distribution. The book lays out the case for a new party that will follow a reasoned, middle path towards a sustainable future. Favorable reviews and comments have been piling up, and you can also check out Mike’s blog at AmericanMoment.net where you can read more and get personally involved.

Bonnie Krueger is directing Hamilton College’s Paris program for the ninth time, located in the same Reid Hall where she studied in 1971. “Back then, we wrote aerograms and never called home; now students Skype and post selfies to Facebook. But Paris still works its magic.”

Roger Jackson has begun a three-year phased retirement from Carleton College, looking forward to more time for writing, travel, and teaching in other contexts. In that spirit, he spent the fall of 2013 as Numata Visiting Professor in Buddhist Studies at McGill University in Montreal, where he and his wife, Pam, lived downtown, enjoyed the city’s many delights, and tried their best to translate Québecois into Parisian French. Roger continues his work on Tibetan meditation traditions, Buddhist poetry, and the place of Buddhism in modernity. In recent years, he has reconnected with Frank Levering ’74, whose 60th birthday he helped celebrate by scaling Long’s Peak with him, a slog of epic length that proved neither of them are in their 30s anymore, in body if not in spirit.

Pete Clark’s book, Masterminding the Deal, came out in August. It was covered in the Economist, Institutional Investor, and Financial Times, and Pete was interviewed on BNN TV Canada.

From Win Watson: “Win Watson update. Three grownup kids. Two grandkids. Farm in Madbury, N.H. Full professor at UNH. Just had my first successful radio-controlled airplane flight. More importantly, just received the Brierley Award as the Best Teacher at UNH this year.”

Last June, Yale University published Steve Alpert’s collection of Indonesian art and textiles, Eyes of the Ancestors: The Arts of Island Southeast Asia from the Dallas Museum of Art. The book has a number of authors, including Steve, and has been critically well-received. Sir David Attenborough has called it “the best book ever written on Indonesian art.” To celebrate Indonesia, and the book’s launch, a Who’s Who of Wesleyan alums and master gamelan players, led by Professor I.M. Harjito, his wife, Denni, Wayne Forrest ’74 and Sam Quigley ’74—and Alec McLane (director of the World Music Archives), Joseph Getter MA ’99 , Chris Miller MA ’02, Anne Stebinger, Barry Drummond, Leslie Rudden ’77, Mark Perlman PhD ’94 and others—all brilliantly accompanied famed Indonesian puppet master, Ki Purbo Asmoro, while he performed under the stars at the Nasher Sculpture Garden. Eyes of the Ancestors was awarded the 2013 Prix International du Livre d’Art Tribal. Wayne wrote to say “that the ghost of David (McAllester) is shining on us.” “Amen,” says Steve. “Wesleyan, largely through its dedication to world music, including its gamelan orchestra, gave many of us our first glimpse of one of the world’s most fascinating countries and its many diverse cultures.”

Finally, I was honored to be part of a most unusual event last December. Andy Feinstein celebrated the 50th anniversary of his bar mitzvah by having a second bar mitzvah! Along with Rich Easton and Paul Vidich, I was present as Andy led the sabbath service, read from the Torah, and (surprisingly) held forth on many topics of great meaning. Andy’s journey through life has not been an easy one, and this occasion marked the celebration of his coming to terms with that journey and himself. In his own words:

“This transition is to a higher level of personal honesty, to accepting and being compassionate with myself, to being comfortable in my own skin, to accepting love from others, and to loving others for who they are. This Bar Mitzvah is a celebration of my journey… Over the last 50 years, I have overcome challenges that I thought would kill me. You have, too. We have survived hardship and felt joy. We have buried people close to us and have welcomed new, fresh souls into our lives. We have gone through a lot. And, we are here. So, because you and I have made it to the Winter Solstice of 2013, it is right to have a big party.”

A big party of which I was honored to be a part.

SETH A. DAVIS | sethdavis@post.harvard.edu
17 Wolf Road, Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520

My thanks to all of you who sent me recent updates. Inclusion here is based solely on order of receipt. If you don’t see your news here, you will in the next issue!

Starting with a personal encounter of an unusual kind, Rob Gelblum and I spoke together on a panel on brownfields development at a recent conference in Baltimore. We had them rolling in the aisles. Rob, after many years with the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office, is now in private practice in Raleigh.

Steve Goldschmidt went to San Francisco for the National Association of Realtors national conference, and had dinner with his old roommate, Steve Lewis. “After dinner,” writes Steve G., “he drove me back to the hotel in his shiny Maserati but he asked that I emphasize to you that he bought it used.” Duly noted. Steve L. also claims still to own the truck he drove at Wes.

Art Vanderbilt wrote to recommend Katy Butler ’71’s book Knocking on Heaven’s Door. Katy gives a moving account of the last years of her parents. Those who knew Jeff Butler of the CSS will not want to miss this.

Bob White sends the sad news that George Jett lost his wife, Lynn MacFarlane ’75. The two of them met at a Reunion in 2005.

After 12 years as pastor of churches in suburban New Jersey, Rev. Doug Stivison has accepted a call as minister of the Congregational Church of South Dartmouth, Mass. “It is a classic white clapboard New England Congregational church combining long history with a vibrant, outreach-focused congregation. Its 200-year-old spire is a navigational landmark to sailors on Buzzard’s Bay —with the church just three blocks from the harborfront of Padanaram.”

Bruce Throne sends us this report: “I’m still in Santa Fe practicing law, one child (Greg) in his last year studying engineering at Trinity U in San Antonio and my daughter now in Australia, 13 months into her solo travel around the world, intending to beat her dad’s record from the late ’70s. I’m spending a lot of time helping renewable energy providers in the state with the second greatest solar potential in the country (yes, it’s sunny here in New Mexico) trying to deal with state regulators who seem to think climate change is a ‘greenie’ hoax on the public. Bet Wes-Techers living on islands or the coasts are thinking otherwise (glug, glug). About five years ago, I actually ran for election as commissioner at our Public Regulation Commission (regulates electric utilities and more) and finished second out of six candidates in the Democratic primary to a young man without a college degree who subsequently got indicted for violating the state’s campaign laws, misappropriating public funds and other minor infractions of the law and had to resign. So much for a Wesleyan education. Where was that course in ‘local politics’ at Wes? Sorry to report that Bruce Hearey was one of the folks that squandered $100 for ‘seed money’ for my otherwise publicly-funded campaign, even though he’s still in Cleveland and, so far as I know, his only interest in New Mexico is attending local pagan ceremonies (I’ll let him describe that, if he can). Actually visited Bruce and his lovely wife, Steph, in Cleveland two summers ago where he graciously took me to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (his thousandth visit apparently, he told me yawning) and provided trivia (still yawning) about events in the ’60s and ’70s that even that museum didn’t seem to know about (thus confirming why he became a lawyer—trivia ad nauseum). Also ran into Larry Weinberg hiking on the Aspen Vista trail above Santa Fe a few years back; heard he’s retired and moved here but haven’t seen or heard from him his since. Perhaps because I lost that election to a convicted felon? The only way we recognized each other on the trail (with all that grey or receding hair) were the Wes t-shirts we both were wearing that day for some odd reason. Hard to believe those old t-shirts still fit, or even have survived this long. Hope everyone else in our class is surviving that well. Cheers.”

And, for his part, Bruce Hearey writes: “My Victorian Fiction class at John Carroll U. is going well despite its difficulty; anyone else ever read Daniel Deronda? (I am two-thirds of the way through a masters in humanities degree program.) I will be the president of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association come June, 2014. Stephanie and I had a great get-together with Robbie Brewster in NYC in November. He looks great, is doing well, and we even managed to talk for a few minutes about something other than getting so damn old. Played golf with Brian Silvestro ’70, Jack Ingraham ’70, and Steve Ingraham ’70 in August in Rochester. Nothing but happy news from this correspondent on the North Coast.”

Just before fall semester began, Dave Gerard and his wife, Miho, returned to campus to meet Professor Phil Pomper, who had been Dave’s history tutor in CSS, and a key adviser for his senior honors thesis. Dave’s son, Pierre Gerard ’15, an Earth & Environmental Sciences major active in a variety of green causes, joined them for a meeting in Phil’s office where they had a vibrant discussion about the merits of moderate versus radical activism to effect social change. Afterwards, they headed down to Luce Restaurant for lunch, where the conversation turned to psychohistory as well as their shared passion for vigorous exercise, and in Phil’s case, long distance running into his 70s. Pierre later attended the dedication at Homecoming of the Philip Pomper Classroom on the fourth floor of PAC. Dave is an organizational psychologist and is a principal consultant with Korn Ferry in San Francisco. He is active in interviewing for Wesleyan in Silicon Valley, and attended a recent gathering of prospective students, parents and alumni with the new Assistant Dean of Admissions, Kora Shin, in Palo Alto.

Thank you all! Watch for the rest next time!

SETH A. DAVIS
17 Wolf Road, Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520 Sethdavis@post.harvard.edu