Tag: 1981

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.

Greetings from Zurich, where I am vacationing and spending some time with my middle son James, who has been living here for three years and currently works for Google. What a beautiful place, and what a wonderful lifestyle.

So much news this cycle!

Congrats to David Lynch who shared: “I’ve just signed a contract with Hachette Book Group for my next book, a history of what’s gone wrong with globalization over the past quarter century and a look at what comes next. Working title is The World’s Worst Bet: How the West Gambled on Globalization and Lost. It is scheduled to be published by Hachette’s PublicAffairs imprint in early 2025.” A timely topic—and a book we should put on our “to read” list in 2025.

Alyson Myers, president of the Fearless Fund, an organization dedicated to a healthy ocean and a transformational, productive, blue economy (www.fearlessfund.org) traveled abroad in February with Tory Estern ’82.  Alyson writes, “Tory called and said: ‘You wanna go to Egypt?’ I said, ‘Yes, why not?!’  It was that simple!”  They first traveled to Istanbul, then on to Cairo for a few days, after which they boarded a riverboat to Luxor before heading up the Nile ( south, actually) heading to Aswan. What an amazing trip!

Lisa Rudy wrote in from lovely Cape Cod, where she is now a juried master artist in photography. “I’ve also been writing and directing plays in local theaters,” Lisa says, “and you can’t get a much better view than the one we get from the performance space in the Woods Hole Community Hall looking out at the research vessels and Woods Hole passage! I’m still hard at work as a writer and consultant; have done a lot of work on autism inclusion at museums across the country, and our son (who is on the spectrum) is playing clarinet in the town band where his dad is the proud emcee. Meanwhile, our daughter Sara is graduating college . . . no grandkids on the horizon, lol!”

Barb Martin Herzlich and Sandy Herzlich are still living in the suburbs of Philadelphia but enjoying much more free time now that Sandy has fully retired. Barb is turning into one of the area’s premier potters. The only problem is that the pieces she likes she won’t sell because she wants to keep them. The pieces she doesn’t like she won’t sell because she thinks they’re not good enough. “Our home is bursting with ceramics!” Beyond the regular retirement activities of golf, paddle tennis, etc., Sandy’s filling his days coaching football at the local high school and working as a substitute schoolteacher. During Homecoming this past fall, Sandy was honored to be named, along with classmates Tony DiFolco and Tim O’Brien, to the 1980s All-Decade Football Team, followed shortly thereafter with a visit with Tony and his wife Linda at their home in Florida. “It was great to get back and see so many old friends.”

Elisha Lawrence, who is living in Redondo Beach and loving the LA life, shared that her son is getting his master’s in computer science at Stanford and her daughter, who is applying for her MFA, graduated Wesleyan Class of 2021. “That’s 40 years after me!” she writes. “It feels like it was just yesterday that I was studying in the reference room at Olin.” She is approaching 10 years working as AVP, Global Anti-Piracy for ABS-CBN, a large studio based in Asia that distributes their movies and TV shows into 190 countries. Elisha would love to hear from Wes people in the area; she has a Wes sticker on her car and routinely gets stopped by people asking what year she graduated. Apparently, LA is a hotbed of lot of Wes alumni!

Congratulations to Kathy Prager Conrad, who recently shared that she officially retired in March after an illustrious career of service in our nation’s capital. Her last job was at Accenture Federal Services.  In Kathy’s case, “retiring” means a shift from full time to flexible work on a few key projects and from occasional to more frequent personal travel, along with more volunteering and family time. She kicked things off with a trip to Costa Rica; I am looking forward to details.

Deb Chapin checked in from a ski trip to Banff, where she was nursing a knee injury that prevented her from taking on the slopes but thankfully NOT the apres-ski activities. Snowshoeing was also on the itinerary. Cheers to that!

David Miller sent us an introspective note:

“I tested positive for COVID at the beginning of March, being vaccinated and boosted, and fortunately my symptoms have been pretty mild. However, the enforced isolation has given me more of a chance to reminisce and contemplate some things.

“For a few years, starting about 45 years ago, I was able to spend many nights at VVO looking deep into the sky. At that time there were only a few faculty and even fewer astro students. Even amongst that small crowd, I was one of the few who wanted to look through the telescopes with my eyes. I signed up for every observing shift I could and only on the coldest nights containing the longest exposures; 30 minutes or more of quietly tracking a star for Dr. Upgren’s parallax project in the middle of winter, had me questioning my activities.

“For years afterwards, I correctly thought I was spoiled; I had a 20-inch refractor and a 24-inch reflector practically at my beck and call when I was an undergrad. While the intervening years have placed me in the same room with bigger telescopes, I was never able to look through them. While paging through the images at APOD and marveling at the results from the Hubble and Webb scopes, I was filled with the longing and majesty of viewing a dark sky filled with stars.

“Having retired and having the time and funds to indulge some of my whims, I’m able to play with the new breed of smart telescopes. My Wesleyan education allows me to understand what is being done. My graduate studies and subsequent technical experience give me the how. My life gives me the why.

“Seeing details emerge from the seemingly dark sky and seeing the stars strewn across the screen like dust as the details of the nebulae and galaxies emerge makes me feel like I’m 19 on Foss Hill on a spring evening. I do wonder what the current majors feel as they gaze up at the night sky.”

That’s it for now. Happy summer!

Greetings from Brooklyn!  We went to Maine last July and broke bread with old friends Seth Mirsky ’82 and Nicholas Herold ’83.  It was good to see them and their significant others. I also saw Jenny Boylan ’80 here in NYC as part of her book tour for Mad Honey, co-written with Jodi Picoult. But enough about me. You all sent me about 1,500 words of news that I now have to pare down to 722. Here goes:

Paul Robinson reports that the Annie Haslam lead singer of the ’70s band of the Renaissance, has a “legacy” band of which he is a fan, and coincidentally Dave Miller was able to get him an autographed copy of a live album from years ago. “The ’70s live, people!”

Liz Rees reminisced about living on Foss Hill freshman year, and going to dance class in tights and a down jacket. She has a MA in poetry and teaches creative writing to everyone from school kids to grad students, and private workshops that are “like, conducting a post-MFA salon or workshop that lasts 15 years.”  She has also published five books of poetry. She’s looking to connect with “any Wesleyan folks who live or summer in Downeast Maine.”

Sandy Herzlich writes that he and his wife Barb Martin Herzlich are now successfully retired in Wayne, Pennsylvania. They have three grandchildren. Barb is a “very successful potter” and Sandy is coaching local HS football. They returned for Homecoming. He was “especially pleased to be able to catch up with our classmates Tim O’Brien, Tony Difolco, and Paul DiSanto. Tony and I had the privilege of serving as honorary co-captains for the football team in the game against Williams. Photos of the event make us look like old men being helped onto the field by strapping young players. Probably because that’s a pretty accurate rendering!”

Laurie (Conrad) Kramer retired three years ago from her job as a software engineer in the genomics department at Princeton University. “An interesting use of my English major!” She lives in central New Jersey “with my husband Phillip and our dog and keep busy playing competitive bridge. I’d love to hear from some of my Wes friends.”

Wayne Pepper attended Homecoming weekend this fall in order to visit his nephew Adam Pepper-Macias ’25.  He was delighted to see that Adam has followed in his footsteps by becoming a member of Alpha Delta Phi. Wayne gave Adam a tour of the CFA Theater, reminding anyone they encountered that he directed his senior thesis on the main stage.

Ariel Rubissow Okamoto launched a new San Francisco Bay Area climate resilience magazine called KneeDeep Times; we are indeed knee-deep in all kinds of challenges and messes these days. Ariel mentors emerging reporters, photographers, and artists. She is proud to report her daughter Tira is researching climate equity issues as a graduate student at Simon Fraser University, and her daughter Mikki is an architect in San Francisco. Ariel and her husband Paul continue their work to save the planet —he teaches sustainable design at the University of San Francisco. Ariel is also nearing completion of a memoir of her days as a Napa Valley vintner, for which she once appeared on the cover of Wesleyan’s alumni magazine. “Those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end . . . .”

Charlie Spiegel will be celebrating his 65th (ugh, but along with many of you! Medicare) birthday mid-April in beautiful San Miguel de Allende (SMA) Mexico, where he celebrated his 60th with among others, Nancy Chirinos (Traub).  “You are all invited, otherwise you will need to wait five more years, until we are, umm, well you do the math.” Attendees will include Nick Radcliffe  and Pam Bolton ’85. Laura Fraser ’82, who is hosting in absentia, met with Charlie and Kate Rabinowitz  ’83 to help plan the event.  Charlie says: “We’ll celebrate at an authentic Mexican restaurant in the chef’s carport near where my partner Lon has a small house. BTW, Anne Stevenson Yang and I met up recently to swap stories of current national (Nevada, with Action-SF.com, a group I help coordinate) and local (Connecticut) election volunteering.”

Chris Graves recently hosted a minireunion of classmates from both prep school and Wesleyan, including Professor Jim Terry.

Chris worked full-on throughout the pandemic on the behavioral science of vaccine hesitancy. “I fielded the country’s largest behavioral science-specific study to decode the ‘sensemaking genome’ of the many ways people are hesitant when it comes to vaccines. The Rockefeller Foundation and Milken Institute asked me to chair a work stream on a global task force seeking to craft a blueprint for a better pandemic early warning system. I supported the WHO, UNICEF, Save the Children, and the Chicago Department of Public Health as well with behavioral science insights.”

Greetings from the heartland! I, Joanne, am writing this as summer rolls to a close: cooler evenings, shorter nights, summer’s bounty giving way to fall’s produce and falling leaves. I sincerely hope that each of you has enjoyed the fruits (and vegetables!) that the season brought including travel, relaxation, and joyful encounters with family and friends. I have noticed that people are starting once again to settle down into a pattern of acceptance of this new COVID-reality and moving forward with their lives.

Joanna Buffington writes that she is continuing to work and support land trusts on Cape Cod that focus on land and wildlife protection. She serves on the board of the Eastham Land Trust as well as volunteers for Mass Audubon, helping them in their efforts to protect diamondback terrapin nests and hatchlings, as well as helping to rescue endangered sea turtles that get stranded along Cape Cod Bay when water temperatures drop and they get trapped in their effort to return to warmer southern waters. Thank you for your efforts on nature’s behalf, Joanna!

Congratulations to Melissa Ann Coyne, who was promoted last year to city clerk for the city of Lake Worth Beach, Florida, after having served as deputy city clerk for five years. Melissa reports that her daughter Skye was married at Yosemite National Park on May 3rd. Skye recently wrapped up a starring role in Love’s Playlist (which will air on either Lifetime or Hallmark); she started filming on another project in August. Melissa’s new son-in-law is starring in That’s Amor, which airs on Netflix. “I’m a very proud mama!” she writes—understandably so!

Paul Godfrey is thrilled to announce that he and his wife, Mary Sue, are the proud, first-time grandparents of a beautiful granddaughter, Norah Sage, born to their son Charlie and daughter-in-law Hannah. Paul writes, “My specialty is taking her on long walks in the stroller so that she can get a good nap and her parents can get some work done.” I’m just wondering when she’s getting her first pair of skates and a hockey stick? Paul writes that in June, he and Mary Sue went east to the Cape from their home in Minnesota, and then out to Fishers Island, New York. They spent time with Linda and Tim O’Brien, Diane and Jim Baker, and Cathy and Jon Duane, hanging out at the beach, biking, fishing, and barbecuing for a week straight. Paul says, “For the record, the striped bass in the photo is the biggest fish I ever caught—but Jim made me return it to Long Island Sound because it was too small to keep.”

Chrissi Winkelbauer Kelly was in the beautifully preserved Germany renaissance town of Goerlitz in late August, attending a conference. She described visiting an art installation called Osmodrama—a “smell symphony” played on a device that wafts odors over you to tell a story, while a composition about the evolution of the earth played in the background. She chronicled this on her Facebook page–fascinating! Since suffering from anosmia several years ago as a result of an illness, Chrissi has become an expert in the field and is often tapped to lecture and teach.

Best wishes to Greg Davis, who recently retired to paradise from the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board), where he worked for many years as a field (staff) attorney. He made a big move not just across the country but across the ocean as well,  leaving Harlem for Maui with his wife and their five cats.  Just to confirm: “It IS wonderful . . . very tranquil with many beautiful beaches and  great weather no matter the many microclimates.” And Greg sends his best wishes to everyone.

Ed Suslovic and his wife Jen have returned to their home in Portland after many exciting weeks on the road in their new camper. This Labor Day, they officially become “empty nesters.” All three of their children (Matt, Meghan, and Kate) are all within a half-mile of each other in Somerville—which sure makes visits and family gatherings easy!

Livia Wong McCarthy, her husband Joe, and daughter Delia graciously hosted me and Kathy Prager Conrad July 4th weekend at their lovely home in Princeton. Deb Chapin had to cancel last minute due to a COVID scare, and she was sorely missed—but fortunately, she did not fall ill. In the spirit of our senior year Sunday night co-op, Liv, Kathy, and I prepared a delicious meal which we were then able to share with Shari and Mike Toohey and Lynn and Paul DiSanto. Sadly, Barb and Sandy Herzlich had to cancel at the last minute. But the evening was nonetheless delightful—we all caught up on several (and in some cases, many!) years’ worth of news, both at the table and alongside the hot tub, after which we all donned our souvenir Wesleyan socks, courtesy of Paul.

Paul Gaetano, who retired three years ago after 33 years as a Connecticut supervisory state’s attorney, is thoroughly enjoying “retirement.” He and his wife Elaine just celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary with a fabulous Greek islands cruise that left out of Venice, where Paul was able to dazzle his spouse with his Italian, still sharp from his Wes study-abroad days. Following that, they traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, on their actual anniversary weekend. When he’s not traveling (his wife is Spanish), he is keeping busy as an adjunct professor at the local community college. “I love it!” writes Paul. “I teach criminal law and constitutional law courses to mostly young and ambitious students. When you retire from your full-time job/career, you certainly need to continue with a purpose and concrete goals.” Great advice, Paul, as many of us start reaching that age of retirement. I do know that many of you have already retired from one career—so please reach out and let me or David Block know what you are up to these days!

And since I have a bit of space left, let me share that our oldest son Alex is still in the Seattle area working as a software engineer consultant, solving lots of people’s problems; our middle son James is in Zurich and working at Google, specializing in AI and loving the European lifestyle; and our third son Christopher is in Chicago working as a trader and enjoying the city life. They all somehow ended up with computer science degrees and have found ways to marry that to their interests. My husband continues to teach at Indiana University, and I continue to teach my various-format fitness classes at the Student Rec Sports Center. And we travel as much as we can!

That’s it for now—and best wishes for the upcoming holiday season! And please keep the news coming! Any photos for the online edition of Class Notes should be sent as a separate jpeg attachment and not embedded within the body of the correspondence. Thanks.

Joanne

Greetings from Brooklyn!

I’m seeing themes in this edition of our notes.  Many of us are going strong, as we continue to do what we do, while others are winding down, and even retiring.

For example, Paul Robinson tells us that he was recently notified “I’ve been granted a patent (for you computer techies, it’s related to the Spectre vulnerability reported a few years ago).  This is my fifth patent overall but my first solo, which is a nice career capstone.”

John Hester reports that he is happily retired and enjoying traveling.  He landed in Summerville, South Carolina.

Dave Smith writes that “After 32 years of federal service, I retired from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. I plan a combination of loafing, strategic environmental consulting, travel, and home projects going forward. While I enjoyed my time with EPA, having real time for nature, family, my guitars, and novel reading is a wonderful change. Best to all!”

Meanwhile, Michael Getz and his wife Tiziana is delighted that their daughter Melissa “had a wonderful, carefree, pre-omicron wedding in early December of 2021.”

That’s where we are in life, I guess, as we trudge deeper into the second half of our first century: winding down, retiring, and marrying off our children.

Others of us are still going strong with our careers as well. Ramon Pineda writes that he is happy to have changed jobs and is now working for E.W. SCRIPPS in Corpus Christi, Texas. “With NBC, CBS, CW, and Telemundo affiliates, we produce more news than any other broadcaster in the area.” Ramon adds, “News matters to us and we are always looking for great journalists who wish to join our family in Corpus Christi or the other 40-plus markets we serve.”  If you know a journalist in the area, please let him know.

Barry “Pono” Fried continues to offer his unique tours of Hawai’i’s culture, nature, history, language, music, food, wildlife, sacred sites, beauty spots, and less visited country villages, on Maui, Kaua’i, and the Big Island of Hawai’i.

Some of us travel and get together, which we cannot take for granted these days. Belinda Buck Kielland, Livia Wong McCarthy, and friends celebrated Belinda’s 60th birthday two years late in Tanzania this October, “when there was a small window of opportunity to travel. There’s nothing better than the gift of time with dear friends and roommates.” B and Liv wrote that they hope to see more Wes friends soon.

Delcy Fox also wrote that she was “fortunate to celebrate Christmas with my family in the Netherlands, where my son is on a two-year assignment. Since the country was on total lockdown, we took day trips to Germany and Belgium. In November 2021, I enjoyed viewing the Jasper Johns exhibit at the Whitney Museum in NYC with Gary Shapiro. We reminisced about when Jasper Johns came to Wesleyan. In January 2022, I had a Zoom dinner with Miriam Stern Sturgis and her husband Gary Sturgis ’77. Miriam and Gary recently welcomed their fourth grandchild, Adina Clare Paulsen. Throughout 2021, Miriam and I did Israeli Dancing together (via Zoom) every Sunday.”

As for myself, I can’t leave well enough alone. Like many of you, I suppose, I can’t seem to stop learning about all sorts of things and accumulating more and more certifications within my craft. After decades of work as a financial professional, I am now a recently minted CFP® Registrant (who does that at 62?). I have also become a certified tax coach through the American Institute of Certified Tax Planners.  I also continue to help on the Emergency Committee for Rojava, as they continue to be under threat of ethnic cleansing, and worse, from both Turkey and ISIS. My 17-year-old is still deciding where to go next fall, which has a lot to do with why I’m not joining others of you in winding down quite yet.

The weekend before these notes were due, my wife and I saw a dance performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music of T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets.” Yes, the idea is audacious, and was accomplished brilliantly.  I came home to an email from fellow Brooklynite and classmate, Brenda Zlamany, letting me know that her portrait depicting five pioneering women scientists from Rockefeller University will be permanently installed at Rockefeller University, with an unveiling scheduled on April 14th.

And that’s seems to be our world: finding windows of availability for travel, seeing friends and classmates in person, or using Zoom and other remote means to get together, moving our work and careers forward, or winding down (by choice, I hope). In our 60s, I am keenly aware that entropy works. As B and Liv remind us, let’s not take things for granted, and work, against entropy, as much as possible, in gratitude.

Summer greetings!  As I started writing this edition of the Class Notes, July 4th fireworks were exploding in the background. And now, I am gazing out upon the rolling hills, fields, and vineyards of Tuscany. It’s been a joy to travel again and spend time with our kids, despite masks, sanitizer, and thermometers. As more and more people get vaccinated world-wide, life is slowly returning to a “new normal.”  Fingers crossed we tackle the new variant(s) and this quickly becomes history.

On behalf of my Reunion co-chairs, Delcy Ziac Fox and Nancy Parker Wilson, I’d like to extend a very big and heartfelt thank you to everyone who served on our 40th Reunion Committee. Many hours of meetings resulted in a series of fun, interesting, and informative Zoom events for our virtual rolling reunion. Special thanks to those who chaired sub-groups or were major speakers. Thanks also to Paul DiSanto, and to Mike Schramm and his Wes-based team. All the events were convivial and filled with memories, laughter and many reminiscences.

Delcy Ziac Fox reports that she recently had dinner with former InTown 21 housemate Jim Sullivan ’82. Delcy adds that she’s “thrilled to be retired after 35 years in marketing and communication! I am spending summer on Cape Cod. During the holidays, my family plans to visit our son Liam, who lives in the Netherlands.”

     Jeremy Kenner writes from “down under” where, he says, they are “blessed with only semi-corrupt national politicians and fairly competent state leaders . . . and where the occupants of this island are a bit more community-oriented and rule-abiding than the average American.”  He continues, “My five sons, all in Melbourne and ranging from 34 to 8, are all coping one way or another and I am still employed by the Australian government as an advisor (ethics) to our version of the NIH. It’s a pretty good job and I was ‘in the room’ (but not at the table) for lots of government policy discussions about COVID for most of 2020.”  Jeremy remains in contact with Bob Stern ’80, Suzanne Hinman, and Anji ’82 and Todd Citron ’83 as well as some occasional Facebook interactions.

Congratulations to Sandy and Barb Martin Herzlich, who welcomed their second grandchild, Joanie Jet Herzlich, in November 2020, joining her brother Boston King Herzlich as the children of their oldest son Mark. Sandy pulled the plug on his full-time working career and retired on May 31st, his 63rd birthday, and is now looking forward to spending time coaching high school football.

     Lisette Cooper recently sold her company, Athena Capital Advisors, but stayed on with Fiduciary Trust International, overseeing sustainable investing; she also continues to serve on a few nonprofit boards. Congratulations to Lisette for being named to “Worth’s 2021 List of 50 Women Changing The World” for her work in shareholder engagement and impact investing.  She has two sons in the Bay Area, one in financial tech and the other in the wine business, and a daughter in Massachusetts working to stop sex trafficking of children. Lisette spends summers in Massachusetts and now winters in Delray Beach. She would love to hear from you at lisette0001@gmail.com

“After 13 years at PlayStation working on the PS3, PS4 and the start of the PS5,” says Ned Lerner, “I founded my fifth startup, Hearo.Live (in 2017).  Hearo makes watching Netflix, Disney+, TV or YouTube with your family and friends anywhere easy and fun. Before COVID, it seemed like co-watching might be a strange thing to do, but not anymore. If you try Hearo, let me know what you think!”  He balances all that mental energy by training to run the Boston Marathon in October. Good luck, Ned!

     Chuck Zabriskie writes that he and wife Nora were delighted to see Greg Andris and his wife Naomi while their daughter toured nearby Rice University. “Rice won the competition,” he added, “so we look forward to seeing them more frequently over the next four years.”

     Diane Goldstein Stein has some exciting news: “We now officially have three Wesleyan alumni in our nuclear family, and we’ve been gratefully together for much of the pandemic. Daughter Lisa Stein ’21 produced and had the lead in Missy Mazzoli’s modern opera Song from the Uproar at Wes in late February 2020, before the world shut down, and that was the start of Lisa (singer, cellist, composer) being home with us for the next 15 months.”  Lisa finished her final years remotely; produced her first vocal album, Sonic Salve; performed some virtual concerts; and virtually co-led the weekly Wesleyan Nigun Circle (niguncircle.com), which she started freshman year. Son Matthew Stein ’16 (violinist, composer, puzzle designer) joined the family in Allentown, Pennsylvania from San Francisco mid-summer 2020; besides working remotely on his puzzle design business, Enigmida, Matthew performed some virtual concerts with Lisa, and, together, they designed a print-and-play social justice Passover puzzle game (escapetheplagues.com).  Diane continues, “Happily, my husband and I got to enjoy Matthew and Lisa jamming together while they were both home. Matthew will return to the Bay Area in August to continue his creative endeavors, Lisa already headed out to her first post-grad job, and soon, my husband and I will have to adjust to being empty nesters once again. My pandemic life has included starting to practice yoga, teaching my religious school via Zoom, and leading a volunteer effort to help the indigenous Maya weavers we met in 2018 and 2020 in Guatemala through MayaWorks. I’ve also enjoyed the rolling ’81 Virtual Reunion events and keeping regularly in touch with Leslie Sundt Stratton.