Tag: 1983

Hi, everyone. I hope these notes find you well. Our 35th Reunion is almost here! I hope you plan on coming back to Middletown May 25 to 27. Cori Adler, Carlton Barnswell, Ben Binswanger, Jeffrey Burack, Michelle Deatrick, Richard Eaddy, Yates Exley, Peter Gilhuly, Eve Hall, Paul Halliday, Darrick Harris, Lewis Ingall, Ruth Jaffe, Lisa Mould Kennedy, Tom McKibbin-Vaughan, Megan Norris, Orin Snyder, Kim Beede Soule, Paul Spivey, Adam Usdan, Mike Whalen, Michael White and Ellen Zucker have all been working hard to plan a wonderful weekend of activities. Get more information and register at wesleyan.edu/rc2018.

Eileen Kelly-Aguirre left her position at The Gunnery after almost two decades to take a job as executive director of School Year Abroad (SYA), with schools in France, Spain, Italy, and China. She has been running SYA’s school in Zaragoza, Spain, as interim resident director, and will return to the U.S. in the summer to a new position, her home, and her partner, Jack, in Washington, Conn. She is almost five years out from a colon cancer diagnosis, surgery, and chemo, and is feeling great. She urges all her Wesleyan friends to stay on top of those preventative screenings!

Andrea Smith is busy tending farm animals (goats, chickens, mini horses) plus dogs and cat with son Nathaniel and husband Patrick in New Jersey, while heading the department of anthropology and sociology at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., where she has worked since 1999. She is deep into settler colonial studies, and busily working on a book about the commemoration locally of the Revolutionary War.

David Steinhardt has edited the bestseller The Elegant and his fully credited name and editorial brand, Massive Publishing Enterprise, are now in two new books, Deviant Desires: A Tour of the Erotic Edge, and a history of Eurasia from Rowman & Littlefield by Dartmouth professor P. K. Crossley.

Karen Adair’s baby just turned 21 and is a junior at St. Lawrence University. Another offspring just turned 25 and the other three are slogging through their daily routines in the work world. Karen and husband and enjoyed the month of August in their place in Lake Placid and weirdly didn’t feel guilty with down time!

Heather Rae is pursuing a new career in genetic nutrition and wellness coaching. She launched The Wellness Spot in Maine in April and is very excited about the venture. She writes, “I finally found my calling in life. It certainly took a while!”

Nancy Rommelmann’s newest book is To the Bridge, a seven-year investigation into why a mother would drop her two young children from a Portland, Oregon, bridge. As the promo copy goes, “The case was closed, but for journalist Nancy Rommelmann, the mystery remained: What made a mother want to murder her own children?” It’s up for pre-sale now on Amazon.

Charlie Brenner writes from Iowa City that his metabolism research has taken off. He spent time with George Russell in New York last summer and will be in Hong Kong for a product launch. See aboutnr.com and truniagen.com for more information on Charlie’s work.

Ruth Jaffe is sending her youngest child off to college this year and is happy to be retiring from logistics management. Her middle son is a senior at Wesleyan.

Michelle Regalado Deatrick writes: “Daughter Elizabeth Deatrick ’14, after completing a master’s in science writing at Boston U, is a science writer/editor for the National Institutes of Health. Son Alexander is in his second year at Amherst. My husband, Steven Przybylski and I live near Ann Arbor, Mich., on an 80-acre farm. He’s a technical consultant. I write poetry, farm, and continue environmental and small farm rights activism. In a major life shift, I’ve become involved in party and electoral politics over the last three years as Michigan special projects director for the Bernie 2016 campaign, an elected DNC member, and vice chair of the County Board of Commissioners. I’m now running for State Senate.” Go Michelle!

Timothy Brockett writes, “The town I live in, Emigrant, Mont., is undergoing a gold rush. Places where I once panned for ’color’ are now taken over by commercial operators. So, I have traveled to the southern Rockies in search of better pickings. Last year, I found several promising silver and gold deposits in Nevada and Arizona. This spring I will explore those deposits further on my way to Mexico to study the lava fields in the Sonora desert that borders Arizona.”

I look forward to seeing many of you at the Reunion in May. Thanks to the committee for all their hard work. I started to read the Great Books series that Mortimer Adler created in the 1950s. They are a chronicle of Western civilization and absolutely fascinating. They remind me of my humanities and English studies at Wesleyan. A full set of 60 books costs less than a one-semester course back in the 1980s at Wesleyan so they are quite a bargain, too.

Laurie Hills | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu

Hi, Class of 1983. It’s hard to believe it’s summer already. The flowers are blooming, and my kids all graduated from college and are planning the next phase in their lives. I continue being a data geek at Rutgers, working on the endless dissertation, and caring for my mother with Alzheimer’s. I suppose this is what they mean by a “full” life. Here’s what our classmates write…

E. Jenny K. Flanagan: “I’ve been living in Rhode Island since 1991, and for the past two years in the trending historic waterfront village of Warren, R.I. We bought a 240-year-old Colonial and rehabbed it. Our two sons, who we adopted from Ecuador in 1994, are now grown and living nearby. Tom ’82 is writing a book on systems science and democratic processes for large groups to solve complex problems. I have been working for the past 23 years as a commercial real estate appraiser, with a specialty in land conservation projects, working for clients throughout southern New England.”

Tim Brockett: “Gold fever has hit my new hometown of Emigrant, Mont. You may remember a few years back we had a huge forest fire that leveled thousands of acres in the adjoining Absaroka wilderness. Many people hiked in the next summer and found previously hidden outcrops and stream beds containing gold. Now the commercial operators are moving in and exploring the area. It is a terrific time for geology students to test their skills. Once again my Wesleyan degrees have come in handy.

“Hunting season went well. My friends bagged several elk, mule and white-tailed deer, a buffalo, and a gorgeous wolf. The wolf had incredibly soft and thick fur. He was stuffed and now poses no danger to people or livestock. I spent several days hiking, prospecting, and camping along the U.S. and Mexican border in March. Hunting, prospecting, and living in the mountains of Montana is wonderful.”

Mark Kushner: “I am still thriving in San Francisco, having opened and operated cutting-edge charter schools around the country for the last 22 years, and now leading my first independent school. I still love skiing (telemark and backcountry now), and playing soccer and tennis. My kids are now 14 and 11, with the oldest attending my alma mater, San Francisco University High School, and already expressing interest in Wesleyan! Please look me up if you are in the area.”

Glenn Lunden: “In February, I married my life-partner, Frank Meola, in a small civil ceremony at the Brooklyn Municipal Building, attended by both of our mothers and my brother, Jeff. After 23 years together (and a not-so-recent Supreme Court decision), we figured it was time. Besides, we wanted to legitimize our two cats.”

Lynn B. Ogden: “I transferred to Boyden’s New York metro office but haven’t abandoned Portland, Ore., completely. I enjoy catching up with friends and classmates. I am a regular on campus this spring cheering on my daughter, Emi Ogden-Fung ’19 and our amazing Wes Women’s Lacrosse team who are headed into the NCAA championship for the first time in the team’s history! Go Wes!”

Tim Backer has released “many works so far in 2017, with the culminating CD of a 22-year project, A Platform for Dreams. Classicality (based in Beethoven’s dialect, a reevaluation of understanding 20 years after grad school, having gained insight into cultural politics, European history, the classical music tradition, Chinese philosophy, and women-as-they-actually-are); The Musing Genie: Thirteen Electric Guitar Explorations (a documentary of sorts about achieving mastery of the instrument as a tool for improvisational classical music in the Zappa tradition); Patriotic Impromptus (a dramatic narrative constructed of seven pass-throughs of the U.S. national anthem); The Four Zoas By William Blake, A Recitation (five hours reading aloud the least-understood top-tier poem in the English literary canon).

“A Platform for Dreams is primarily a political text, encrypted into sheet music and then recorded and performed. All this has come out of my label, BackWords Recordings, an independent culture production house. The headwind of today’s biz has been an annoyance, but not much more than that. The business plan is to establish rock classical as a genre, allowing reentry of other artists’ back catalogs as well as giving the critical community something to chew on. backwordsrecordings.com.”

Until next time, namaste!

Laurie Hills | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu

Greetings Class of 1983 and Happy New Year! The good news is I have heard from many of you. The bad news is I only have 800 words. I did my best to edit your replies to include as much as possible.

In the arts world, Cheri Weiss, fourth-year cantorial student, released an album, Hineni: Music for the High Holy Days (hazzanit.com), which was distributed free to 1,000 shul-ins, chaplains, rabbis, social workers in hospitals, and retirement homes across the U.S. Tim Backer owns and operates an independent culture production house and released his collection, The Musing Gene; he attributes the source of his electric-guitar-rock-classical style to Wesleyan. Eve Annenberg wrote and directed two feature films, including Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish and produced eight indie films. Kate Rabinowitz runs the Anna Lytton Foundation for Arts and Wellness (annalyttonfoundation.org) in honor of her late daughter. Julia Kay’s upcoming book, Portrait Revolution, ships this spring. The book contains tips, techniques and inspiration for making portraits and is filled with 450 portraits by 200 members of Julia Kay’s Portrait Party, an international online community of artists.

In the academic world, Andrea Smith is professor of anthropology and department head of anthropology and sociology at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa. Her research focus is on colonialism (French and US) and her new book is called, Rebuilding Shattered Worlds: Creating Community by Voicing the Past. Liz Hamilton works at Butler University as a department secretary and encourages classmates who hire to consider well-educated-but-been-out-of-the-workforce-for-awhile people! Kirsten Wasson works at a progressive high school as college counselor and internship coordinator in LA.

In the social action sphere, Jessica Cogen is the development and outreach director of Food for Others, a large food pantry/food bank in Fairfax, Va., providing free groceries each week to 1,800 families in need.

In the science and medical worlds, Charlie Brenner published the first clinical trial of nicotinamide riboside (NR), a vitamin metabolic booster he discovered 12 years ago and is now used over-the-counter by 200,000 people. Pat Roth is a practicing neurosurgeon in New Jersey and is chairman of the department of neurosurgery at Hackensack University Medical Center and soon-to-be chairman at Seton Hall University, too. He finished his second book, Keeping the “Me” in Medicine, which explores the power of the narrative in medicine to make doctors better doctors and patients better patients. Heather Rae is a certified integrative nutrition health coach and with husband and chiropractor, Aubrey, opened The Wellness Spot in Richmond, Maine.

In the business world, Raul Mercado is the director of New Jersey Institute of Technology Procurement Technical Assistant Center. He is responsible for the development, enhancement, and delivery of procurement and certification assistance programs, training technical support, and outreach to New Jersey-based small businesses seeking to sell to the public sector. Glenn Duhl joined Zangari, Cohn, Cuthbertson, Duhl & Grello, P.C., and is practicing management-side employment law and litigation. Glenn Lunden was part of the team at New York City Transit that opened the brand new and long-waited-for Second Avenue subway line which was first proposed in 1920. Rick Mandler celebrated his 25th year at the Walt Disney Company, mostly at ABC, working in a variety of capacities from legal to media and technology. He teaches TV management as an adjunct at NYU’s Stern Business School.

On the social front, Karen Adair Miller, Tammy Rosengarten Darcus, Gretchen Millspaugh Cooney, Sue Stallone Kelly, and Barb Bailey Beckwitt had a fun roommate getaway at the Cooney’s house in Nantucket. Glenn Lunden and his partner, Frank Meola, had a mini-Wesleyan winter reunion with Christina Meyer Wilsdon, Dan Schlein ’84, and John and Sarah Borden Holman. Megan Norris writes that after 15 years of Wes Board meetings, her tenure is coming to a close.

Lastly, I report my life is complicated and overwhelming at times as I juggle work, research, motherhood, and caring for my elderly mother with Alzheimer’s. The good news is my trio will graduate in May from college. The bad news is their graduations are all on the same weekend and on different coasts! Until next time…

Namaste,

Laurie Hills | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu

Here are a few updates from the Class of 1983:

Kirsten Wasson has been living in LA for three years, and works at a progressive high school as college counselor and internship coordinator. Her son, Noah, also moved to LA, and is acting and modeling. Kirsten is hiking, swimming, and writing. She traveled to Guatemala this fall.

Holly Gruskay writes, “I’ve been busy this summer juggling my kids’ sports activities as well as working to pay for it all. Son Seth Halpern finished out his high school swim teams with wonderful times, and just left us to study at RPI’s School of Science. Daughter Sofie Halpern is in recruiting mode for girls’ ice hockey…mostly to engineering schools, as well as NESCAC (yes, Wesleyan, you’re on the list!). We’ll be spending virtually every weekend this fall in Boston’s NEGHL league.”

Eve Silverman writes, “I know it’s been many years since I’ve submitted notes. I’ve been hit with a spell of nostalgia having just dropped off my firstborn at college. I’m approaching my 20th wedding anniversary and my 30th graduate school reunion, yikes. Old, yes, but happy living a split existence between southwest Connecticut and Mad River Valley, Vermont. Hope everyone is well!”

Cheri Weiss, former class secretary, supplies us with an update. She has been featured in the San Diego Union Tribune about her work as a cantor-in-training, bringing High Holy Days prayers and songs to shut-ins. Find a link to the article on the online class notes section at classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu.

Andrea Corney writes, “I finally have an update! Late bloomer that I am, on Aug. 20 I got married for the first time. My sweetheart is Chris Carneghi. His hair is so short because it all fell out during chemo. We were married at my parents’ retirement community in Saratoga, Calif. The great thing about getting married this late in life is that you can wear comfortable clothes and enjoy the day because you realize that as long as every guest feels welcomed and included, the day is perfect, even if none of the details are. We are savoring every day and hoping the chemo and radiation did the job.” For a photo of the wedding, see the online class notes.

Taya Glotzer attended a Wes reunion this summer in upstate New York at the Jankowski’s summer home. She was joined by Frank Moll ’84, Melanie Peters, Dottie Jankowski, Michael Sommer, Diana Moll, and Peter Jankowski.

Lastly, Sue Spaulding has photos from the Fort Bragg, Calif., Labor Day parade.

Laurie Hills | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu

Class of 1983: The Stuff of Which Legends are Made.

Hi, All! Global warming or not, it has been a beastly hot Memorial Day weekend in New Jersey. My daughter and I thought we’d escape the heat and took a ride to the Jersey Shore, only to sit shivering on the beach craving a hot cup of coffee. Ah, well. Best laid plans. Here’s what some other classmates have been doing:

“Marcus Eliyahu Mann (called ‘Marc’ until age 24!) is now a happy and grateful, serious and also often playfully goofy professional personal growth counselor in private practice (relation-shift.org), as well as a passionate writer, poet, and ‘un-rutted’ East-West, mind-body, dogma-free spiritual philosopher in W. Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, Pa., USA, Earth. He has written two book collections: Shame and Magnificence: The Discovery of the True Self, and Its Unveiling — A Record of Personal Awakening to Who We Really Are; and The Conscious Jew: Awakening to the Meaning and Value of the Jewish Anomaly; Distinguishing and Reclaiming the Path OF Jesus from the Myth and Religion ABOUT Him—and the True Reason to BE or Become a Jew; as well as a children’s book: The Colorblind Bower Bird: a Children’s Book for the Men and Women We Are Becoming. He loves his work, private practice, students, and individual and conscious relationship clients (he invites you to come see his site!—and be in touch!), and enjoys a long-since found and grounded sense of the ineffable. He supports and catalyzes others in discovering their selves from-the-inside-out intrinsic authority and creative ownership; in having healthy, co-creative celebratory relationships with self and thus with others; and in how to give up the human addiction to what might be called Outsourcing The Mystery. Having lived in many wonderful places across the U.S. and beyond, and after moving to the now self-recognizing, beautiful ‘Ugly Duckling City’ — Philadelphia—some years ago, he discovered he loves it right Here.”

Glenn Lunden had a pair of mini-reunions with Wesleyan friends visiting NYC. He spent Saturday with Michael Mendelson ’85, his wife Pam, and son Ari, who were visiting from the Washington, D.C., area. Ari is graduating from high school and is keenly interested in Glenn’s line of work, public transportation and urban planning. They met at the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn, to receive a personalized and highly idiosyncratic tour from Glenn. On Monday, Glenn and partner Frank Meola got together with friends from the Boston area, Bruce Masi-Phelps ’82 and wife Mary, along with their sons Patrick ’15 (who lives nearby in Brooklyn) and Matthew (who is in NYC for an internship for the summer). Daughter Andrea ’18 stayed at home in the Boston area. Glenn adds, “Bruce and I both missed the 35th anniversary celebration of the Wesleyan Spirits at Reunion this year; we’d helped found the a cappella singing group back in 1981. To the relief of everyone at brunch, we did not break out into song.”

Lisa Kennedy writes that her daughter, Julia, is graduating from high school and will attend Fordham University in the fall. She asks anyone “to e-mail me if you have kids there: lisakennedy137@gmail.com.”

Tuckerman Babcock was elected chair of the Alaska Republican Party.

Three years after Kirsten Wasson left her stable academic life in Ithaca, N.Y., for L.A., and after several jobs in various venues from floral arranger to juice bar girl, she is now the college counselor and internship coordinator at MUSE School, a private high school in Calabasas, Calif. In her free time she hikes, swims in the ocean, and spends time with son Noah, a model and actor in L.A. Kirsten also performs as a storyteller (of midlife adventures) at venues around the city and had two stories aired on KCRW’s UNFictional program. She is finishing a memoir about starting over as a single woman over “a certain age.” Kirsten, I can relate to that!

Karen Adair Miller shares, “Retired life continues to be a challenge, as I am busier than ever! That said, been traveling and am looking forward to being with our WesU field hockey crew in August. Tammy Rosengarten Darcas is flying from Australia to meet Sue Stallone Kelly, Barb Bailey Beckwitt, Karen Adair Miller and Gretchen Millspaugh Cooney for a fun end of summer weekend! “

The women of 77 Home Avenue are also having a summer reunion. Marina Melendez, Lisa Miller, Kathleen Bransfield and I will meet up in NYC to catch up on the last few decades, and toast Marina and husband, Joe Virgadula ’80, on the engagement of their son, Luis. We will also toast and Skype our good friend Deborah Mutschler, honorary classmate ’83, who can’t join us.

Judy Korin has lived in Los Angeles since 1988, and is a filmmaker. Her “recent proud achievements are: co-directing the short virtual reality film, Francis, an intimate story meant to shine a light on global mental health issues that premiered for an audience of 250 policy makers and mental health professionals at the first-ever World Bank/World Health Organization high-level meetings about global mental health and producing a micro-budget independent film, Finding Neighbors, now available on all your favorite digital platforms.”

Heidi Brierley and husband Jim Boyce “moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Heidi’s hometown of Berlin, Conn., to be surrounded again by trees and family. They are also closer to their daughter who is at MIT.” Heidi, thanks for being the only classmate (guilt intended!) to share a recent enjoyable book: Laurie R. King’s latest, The Murder of Mary Russell, and she suggests reading the series in order, starting with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. I spent one day of this Memorial Day weekend completely procrastinating from working on my dissertation (which is finally almost done…well, sort of!) to read The Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline. It is one of those books you just can’t put down.

Amy Appleton writes: “I was delighted to return to Wesleyan to attend the graduation of my daughter, Charlotte Sarraille ’16. Charlotte majored in English and classics. My son, Ben Sarraille ’19 is in COL and sings with the Wesleyan Spirits. I’ve attached a photo from the tent party and one from graduation.” [See classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu]

Cheri Weiss, a fourth-year cantorial student at the Academy for Jewish Religion in Los Angeles, has just released a new album of High Holy Days music. Hineni was conceived as a way to bring High Holy Days music and prayers to those unable to attend services through illness or other reasons beyond their control. It is offered free of charge to anyone unable to afford it, as well as to chaplains and other clergy working in hospitals, retirement homes, etc. It’s also for purchase through her website Hazzanit.com/music on CD or digital download format.

Thanks all for contributing. Until next time, Namaste.

Laurie Hills | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu

Summer is over and the September back-to-school craziness finally subsided. Today I bought some mums and pumpkins to welcome fall. Thankfully, Hurricane Joaquin headed out to sea and all New Jersey had was lots of rain. I hope these class notes find you safe and warm enjoying the next change of seasons.

Harry Gural started a new job as Democratic staff director for the Joint Economic Committee, a House-Senate committee that produces reports and holds hearings on economic issues. Glad to be back on the Hill after a year-and-a-half working for a nonprofit on corporate tax policy, he writes, “The Senate is eerily quiet—guess I’ll always be a House guy. My four years with Barney Frank were about as good as it gets.” Harry sees David Hart, who lives just a couple miles from him in D.C. and speaks to Alison Neely and fellow head resident Marty Dobrow.

Helen Kohane Kobek published a new book Everyday Cruelty: How to Deal with Its Effects without Denial, Bitterness, or Despair. “It is a guide to understand what everyday cruelty is, how it affects us in body, mind, emotion, spirit, and behavior. The book explains what it is about everyday cruelty that makes it so hard for us to ’shake’ and then offers hundreds of tested, practical strategies for dealing with this challenging daily experience.”

David Steinhardt, also recently rewrote and published his honors thesis, once a novel, into a 46,000 word novella. It is a “psychological and political pilgrimage thriller of ideas, now called The Book of Paul or Yet Another Columbus Avenue Jaffa Gate Type Situation.”

Ken Schneyer’s latest story, “The Plausibility of Dragons,” will appear in Lightspeed Magazine in November. He teaches legal studies and literature at Johnson & Wales University in Providence. Spouse Janice Okoomian teaches gender and women’s studies at Rhode Island College and this term has a new course called The Whole Enchilada: Food, Gender, Identity, Power. Daughter Phoebe studies dance and Latin at Marlboro College in Vermont and son Arek’s passion is theater and creative writing in high school.

Nicholas Herold sent an update of his activities the past few decades. “In keeping with my lifelong disinterest in doing anything long enough to become an expert, or anyway, highly paid, I started working as an EMT in the Boston area…I’m riding in the back of an ambulance, having just dropped off an elderly man at a rehab center. He has had a full life himself, having been career Army and Air Force, and as a Navy careerist, provided coffee service to aliens in Roswell, New Mexico. He was kind enough to make me a sergeant. As for me, I was a bartender at a country club and a high end restaurant, worked to get Massachusetts’ universal health care law passed, did health care services research, was the business manager for a health care for the homeless organization, and fished 20 tons of herring out of the Bering Sea. For several years I’ve provided pro bono management consulting services to nonprofit organizations, most recently the Arlington International Film Festival.” Nicholas is close touch with David Eggers ’82.

Cheri Litton Weiss married Dan Weiss in 2012. Dan is a hospice and palliative care nurse studying for his doctorate in nursing (DNP). Cheri finished her second year at the Academy for Jewish Religion (AJRCA), where she is studying for the cantorate, her lifelong dream. She continues to run her real estate company, Top Coast Properties in La Jolla. Between selling homes, attending weekly classes in Los Angeles, and watching daughter Emma play water polo for UCSD all over California, she does a lot of driving and has discovered the beauty and entertainment value of audio books.

Matt Ember and Laurie Sklarin ’84 celebrated daughter Sydney’s wedding. Younger daughter Jamie Ember ’16 was maid of honor and accompanied by Arthur Halliday ’16. Classmates Glenn Duhl, Mark A. Armstrong, Melissa Duggan Pace ’84 and husband Chris Pace ’82, Jeff Resler ’84 and Ed Decter ’79 attended.

Brad and Lele Galer celebrated their 27th anniversary and are now empty nesters. Their sons are spread across the U.S. Alex is an editor for the comic book company BOOM! Peter is a senior at Vassar, and Simon is a sophomore at Connecticut College. Lele is an established artist (painting and steel sculpture) in the Brandywine area of Pennsylvania, and Brad is chief medical officer for Zogenix Inc. Brad and Lele founded in 2005 and run the Galer Estate Vineyard and Winery in Kennett Square, Pa., which has become a nationally acclaimed winery, winning more than 90 blind wine competitions in Napa, Sonoma, and the Finger Lakes. They invite Wes friends to stop by and share a glass on them!

Eileen Kelly-Aguirre finished her first year in new position as executive director of School Year Abroad, a high school study abroad program/school in its 50th year. Glenn Lunden is “now an official beggar on behalf of Wesleyan, courtesy of the ’This Is Why’ fundraising website at wesleyan.edu: thisiswhy.wesleyan.edu/home/story_detail/249.”

Rita Fernandez Lurito is an empty nester and travels a lot. Her youngest son is a junior at Wes and spent the summer in Japan. Rita and family developed and launched a free wine app to help select wine tailored to your taste and budget. “Corkscrew” can be downloaded from the Apple Store or directly at smarturl.it/Corkscrew.

Lynn Ogden dropped off daughter Emilie Ogden-Fung ’19 at Clark Hall after a two-week trip to France and London. Lynn joined Boyden Global Executive Search as partner in the San Francisco office for consumer and nonprofit clients and recently had drinks with Dan Vigneron. 

Mitchell Plave’s son, Aaron Plave ’15, graduated from Wesleyan this past May, majoring in computer science. Aaron works as a Web designer and computer programmer for the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena. Daughter Leah studies at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (CCM) with Yehuda Hanani, a well known cellist. Mitchell continues to enjoy the banking regulatory and legislative practice at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in Washington, D.C.

Karen Adair enjoys retirement but says she is busier than ever. She sits on the Wes Athletic Advisory Council and the Northwood School board in Lake Placid, N.Y. All five of her family members are off doing their own thing. Karen writes, “The book The Life Changing Art of Tidying Up has truly influenced my daily existence. Gotta tell you…all is cleaned out and tidied up. The poor kids will never recognize a thing!”

Thanks for the info on favorite books and volunteer activities. Until next time, namasté,

Laurie Hills | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu

Summer is over and the September back-to-school craziness finally subsided. Today I bought some mums and pumpkins to welcome fall. Thankfully, Hurricane Joaquin headed out to sea and all New Jersey had was lots of rain. I hope these class notes find you safe and warm enjoying the next change of seasons.

Harry Gural started a new job as Democratic staff director for the Joint Economic Committee, a House-Senate committee that produces reports and holds hearings on economic issues. Glad to be back on the Hill after a year-and-a-half working for a nonprofit on corporate tax policy, he writes, “The Senate is eerily quiet—guess I’ll always be a House guy. My four years with Barney Frank were about as good as it gets.” Harry sees David Hart, who lives just a couple miles from him in D.C. and speaks to Alison Neely and fellow head resident Marty Dobrow.

Helen Kohane Kobek published a new book Everyday Cruelty: How to Deal with Its Effects without Denial, Bitterness, or Despair. “It is a guide to understand what everyday cruelty is, how it affects us in body, mind, emotion, spirit, and behavior. The book explains what it is about everyday cruelty that makes it so hard for us to ’shake’ and then offers hundreds of tested, practical strategies for dealing with this challenging daily experience.”

David Steinhardt, also recently rewrote and published his honors thesis, once a novel, into a 46,000 word novella. It is a “psychological and political pilgrimage thriller of ideas, now called The Book of Paul or Yet Another Columbus Avenue Jaffa Gate Type Situation.”

Ken Schneyer’s latest story, “The Plausibility of Dragons,” will appear in Lightspeed Magazine in November. He teaches legal studies and literature at Johnson & Wales University in Providence. Spouse Janice Okoomian teaches gender and women’s studies at Rhode Island College and this term has a new course called The Whole Enchilada: Food, Gender, Identity, Power. Daughter Phoebe studies dance and Latin at Marlboro College in Vermont and son Arek’s passion is theater and creative writing in high school.

Nicholas Herold sent an update of his activities the past few decades. “In keeping with my lifelong disinterest in doing anything long enough to become an expert, or anyway, highly paid, I started working as an EMT in the Boston area…I’m riding in the back of an ambulance, having just dropped off an elderly man at a rehab center. He has had a full life himself, having been career Army and Air Force, and as a Navy careerist, provided coffee service to aliens in Roswell, New Mexico. He was kind enough to make me a sergeant. As for me, I was a bartender at a country club and a high end restaurant, worked to get Massachusetts’ universal health care law passed, did health care services research, was the business manager for a health care for the homeless organization, and fished 20 tons of herring out of the Bering Sea. For several years I’ve provided pro bono management consulting services to nonprofit organizations, most recently the Arlington International Film Festival.” Nicholas is close touch with David Eggers ’82.

Cheri Litton Weiss married Dan Weiss in 2012. Dan is a hospice and palliative care nurse studying for his doctorate in nursing (DNP). Cheri finished her second year at the Academy for Jewish Religion (AJRCA), where she is studying for the cantorate, her lifelong dream. She continues to run her real estate company, Top Coast Properties in La Jolla. Between selling homes, attending weekly classes in Los Angeles, and watching daughter Emma play water polo for UCSD all over California, she does a lot of driving and has discovered the beauty and entertainment value of audio books.

Matt Ember and Laurie Sklarin ’84 celebrated daughter Sydney’s wedding. Younger daughter Jamie Ember ’16 was maid of honor and accompanied by Arthur Halliday ’16. Classmates Glenn Duhl, Mark A. Armstrong, Melissa Duggan Pace ’84 and husband Chris Pace ’82, Jeff Resler ’84 and Ed Decter ’79 attended.

Brad and Lele Galer celebrated their 27th anniversary and are now empty nesters. Their sons are spread across the U.S. Alex is an editor for the comic book company BOOM! Peter is a senior at Vassar, and Simon is a sophomore at Connecticut College. Lele is an established artist (painting and steel sculpture) in the Brandywine area of Pennsylvania, and Brad is chief medical officer for Zogenix Inc. Brad and Lele founded in 2005 and run the Galer Estate Vineyard and Winery in Kennett Square, Pa., which has become a nationally acclaimed winery, winning more than 90 blind wine competitions in Napa, Sonoma, and the Finger Lakes. They invite Wes friends to stop by and share a glass on them!

Eileen Kelly-Aguirre finished her first year in new position as executive director of School Year Abroad, a high school study abroad program/school in its 50th year. Glenn Lunden is “now an official beggar on behalf of Wesleyan, courtesy of the ’This Is Why’ fundraising website at wesleyan.edu: thisiswhy.wesleyan.edu/home/story_detail/249.”

Rita Fernandez Lurito is an empty nester and travels a lot. Her youngest son is a junior at Wes and spent the summer in Japan. Rita and family developed and launched a free wine app to help select wine tailored to your taste and budget. “Corkscrew” can be downloaded from the Apple Store or directly at smarturl.it/Corkscrew.

Lynn Ogden dropped off daughter Emilie Ogden-Fung ’19 at Clark Hall after a two-week trip to France and London. Lynn joined Boyden Global Executive Search as partner in the San Francisco office for consumer and nonprofit clients and recently had drinks with Dan Vigneron. 

Mitchell Plave’s son, Aaron Plave ’15, graduated from Wesleyan this past May, majoring in computer science. Aaron works as a Web designer and computer programmer for the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena. Daughter Leah studies at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (CCM) with Yehuda Hanani, a well known cellist. Mitchell continues to enjoy the banking regulatory and legislative practice at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in Washington, D.C.

Karen Adair enjoys retirement but says she is busier than ever. She sits on the Wes Athletic Advisory Council and the Northwood School board in Lake Placid, N.Y. All five of her family members are off doing their own thing. Karen writes, “The book The Life Changing Art of Tidying Up has truly influenced my daily existence. Gotta tell you…all is cleaned out and tidied up. The poor kids will never recognize a thing!”

Thanks for the info on favorite books and volunteer activities. Until next time, namasté,

LAURIE Hills | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu

Apologies for no class notes this issue. Life is a bit too busy: work, family, school, elderly parents, and summer converged (more like collided!) and as soon as I come up for air I will continue with the class notes. In the mean time, please continue sending your updates and I will compile them all for next time.

I’m sitting here on a Saturday night in early February just after the “winter storm of the century!” LOLs: we only had six inches! I’m listening to sappy Spanish love songs and writing these Class Notes. What can I say, Spanish love songs make me happy and I have no life! Judging from the few responses to my e-mail asking for info from everyone, I have to conclude you all are as busy as I am, running in too many directions. I’m in the homestretch, frantically writing, re-writing and rewriting (did I say rewriting?) my dissertation. I heard from just a few classmates, so these notes will be brief.

Glenn Lunden writes, “I was invited to visit the campus this past fall by the History Department, to give a lunchtime ‘History Matters’ talk to majors (and other interested parties). In my presentation, ‘History Track-Career Track-Railroad Track,’ I spoke about how majoring in history could be relevant to many different career paths. (Perhaps the real reason the History Department invited me to speak is that they were curious how a history major ended up in charge of scheduling New York subway trains.) The students asked a lot of insightful questions; everyone wants to know about the subway, it seems. Afterwards, my life-partner, Frank Meola, and I enjoyed a fine lunch with my thesis adviser, Ron Schatz, and the chair of the History Department, Magda Teter.” Thanks for the update, Glenn. I’d be curious to understand what safety measures the transit authority is taking to ward off any bad doings by bad people. Also, I’m curious about what you think of New Jersey’s infamous “Bridge-gate” affair!

Janet Lambert Preston writes “I teach at Unity College in Maine—the first to divest from fossil fuels!” Pretty cool, Janet. I wonder what other measures the college is taking towards ecological sustainability. It is certainly a growing industry and I hope one here to stay for the long haul.

John Fixx shares, “Two years ago I left a school in Waterbury, Conn., after having served schools as head for 15 years, and my wife and I moved to our beach house in Madison, Conn. Right back into the frying pan, I took a position as head of school at The Country School in town, relishing the short commute. I also coach cross-country and get exercise by jumping to conclusions and dodging the issues. My wife, Liza, and I have two children of the usual ages, with our son a senior at Boston University and our daughter a sophomore at the University of Vermont, near our vacation house, which is convenient for her and her marauding friends. In honor of our son’s graduation, we are off to France this summer for a spell and then back to work. I am up at Wesleyan once a week, training with a bunch of other geriatrics on the indoor and outdoor tracks. I’m so proud of what the Little University was and what it has become.” Agreed, John, “Who knew?!”

I hope to get back to Wes one day soon. I did visit Marina Melendez Virgadula, with my daughter, Hillary, a few winters ago. We had a great time catching up. Definition of a good friend: It may be years since you see one another, but when you do, it is as if no time has elapsed at all!

Heather Rae writes, “I’ve left Maine for Northern Virginia where my partner, Aubrey Gail, and I are building a functional health practice. I am studying for a health coach certificate with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and digging into neuro-endocrine testing and more, with intention of coaching Aubrey’s chiropractic patients along their wellness path.” I like the holistic approach, Heather.

I’ve been part of a medical legal partnership at a Newark hospital pediatric department, which is modeled after one in Boston. We provide ‘upstream’ service delivery, including assistance with medical and educational issues, and a complete social worker work-up to help low income children and their families get the public assistance and educational services they need in order to reduce family stress and improve medical outcomes for the child. (Phew, that was a mouthful!) I’m evaluating the program and as a sociologist also interested in the factors the enhance or constrain the collaborative processes across professional disciplines. Collaborative research is in its infancy and one I plan to research further. Mostly, I’ve been doing a lot of grant writing and talking to venture capitalists in order to find outside sources to keep this project and others like it up and running in Newark and the surrounding urban centers.

Eileen Kelly-Aguirre is enjoying good health after a trying 2014. She left the boarding school world, moved to Massachusetts, and is now executive director of School Year Abroad. Glad to hear the good news, Eileen. Be well!

Lastly, Cat Maguire (that is Maguire with a “g” not Maquire with a “q” as I mistakenly wrote last time—so sorry, Cat) shares she “has been teaching internationally for the Laban/Bartenieff Institute for Movement Studies in Belgium and Mexico, along with her stateside teaching in Charlottesville, Va., and at the University of Maryland in College Park, Md. It makes for a hectic schedule, but husband David Campanelli and youngest son Keegan have been doing a great job holding down the home front!

Thanks all for your contributions. Until the next time, Namaste.

LAURIE Hills | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu

Summer is over and I’m not sure where it went. Sending sophomores off to college is so much easier and less dramatic than last year. Phew! (Can’t wait till they come home for Thanksgiving.) In the meantime, I just moved to a new home in a quaint little town complete with a river and waterfall and no franchised businesses. I am ready for new beginnings and the new year. I’m not sure why the calendar dictates the new year begins in January. For me, it’s always been September. Seems like there are many changes for our classmates as well… 

Ruth L. Schwartz married her longtime partner, Michelle Murrain, in a small, unconventional riverfront ceremony on September 13th. Ruth is a writer, healer, teacher, and visionary. Check out her new project at hearforareason.org. Suzanne Smith is job hunting for the first time in years and in the middle of a divorce. Suzanne, I am going through one, too. It’s overwhelming, scary, and liberating at the same time. Thanks to Facebook, Suzanne stays in touch with Mike Steinberg, Susanna Sharpe, David Hill ’86, and hometown friends Staci Caplanson and Claudia Florian. She’d love to hear from Tricia Reilly. 

Ben Binswanger and wife Karen just moved to Fairfield, Conn., and look forward to more frequent visits to Middletown for dinners with Katie Binswanger ’15, Tim Israel ’16, Kiley Kennedy ’16, and Gabriel Weinreb ’18. Steve Sorkin and his wife, Aida, live in Lincoln, R.I., since 1997, also in close proximity to Wes. They enjoy visiting son Mathew ’15, who plays on Wes’s baseball team, which won both the Little 3 and the NESCAC Championship for the first time. Their daughter, Melissa, attends Boston College. Cat Maquire and David Campanelli’s son begins his collegiate journey at Brown University. Stephanie Oddleifson lives in Natick, Mass., and enjoys her job at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care as a data analyst in the Medical Informatics area. One of her daughters attends Colby College and the other is a senior in high school. Stephanie, remember when you introduced me to force blooming bulbs in the winter? Much thanks; I continue the practice. Other nature oriented news…

Naturalist classmate Timothy Brockett lives in Montana where “we arm ourselves for protection from bears and other large predators. Hunting season is a wonderful family time where everyone gets to enjoy the vast outdoors. Many families use the abundant deer and elk to supplement their diet. A few hunt bear but that is a fatty meat. Others hunt wolves and foxes just for fun. The gun laws are progressive so we carry weapons in our vehicles and on our person, and we shoot just about anywhere without a permit or violating the laws. Interestingly, Montana tends to be a very polite society with little crime.” After a long cold winter where the temperature dropped below 30 degrees for several days, and everything freezes within minutes, Tim spent a rejuvenating two weeks in Grand Cayman fishing, hiking, and swimming. And, after the fires that swept through Emigrant Gulch, just north of Yellowstone Park, he spent the summer mining for gold and recovered almost three pounds. Additional summer fun included… 

Susan Kelly, Barb Bailey Beckwitt, Sue Stallone Kelly, Karen Adair Miller, Gretchen Millspaugh Cooney, and Christine Tam Rosengarten Darcas met up in Maine in celebration of their friendship that began 35 years ago at field hockey practice. Barbara Miller Legate reports that while in Las Vegas she saw Chris Wink’s Blue Man Group at the Monte Carlo. Jonathan Chatinover spent the summer broadcasting home games for the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks (summer collegiate baseball) with son, Keith, assisting. While there, they crossed paths with Guy Davidson ’16 (current Wes student), son of Guy Davidson (our classmate).

Kenneth Schneyer and Janice Okoomian dropped their daughter off at Marlboro College in Vermont, and their son just started high school and is interested in architectural drafting. Ken didn’t actually win the Nebula or Sturgeon Award this year, but “it’s nice just to be nominated.” He just released his first science fiction collection, The Law and the Heart, and his earlier fantasy stories have been translated into Russian, Chinese, and Czech. Spanish and Italian translations are in the works. Tim Backer just finished a new disc, Platform for Dreams, in which he develops a branch of classical music founded by The Beatles and writes, “It is a great leap beyond my first rock classical album, The Subtle Dawn.” Other professional news…

Janet Milkman works on green building in Philadelphia and enjoys biking, kayaking, and being an empty nester. Cori Adler bike commutes to her faculty position at Antioch University in Seattle and the Cornish College of the Arts. Proud of her neighborhood, which was recently mentioned on NPR, Cori lives with her husband and “brilliant teenage daughter.” Other Wes folk in Seattle include Cliff Meyer ’82, Chris Meyer Wilsdon, and for an all too brief period, Dan Bergman ’85. All, according to Cori, “have a spouse and at least one child, are in good health, and are every bit as scintillating as [she] remembers.”

Lori Kipnes received her master of arts in teaching with a concentration in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from Brandeis. She is the Judaic coordinator at the Frances Jacobson Early Childhood Center at Temple Israel in Boston. Prior to living in Sharon, Mass., Lori had lived in Chicago and Israel. At the time of our correspondence, all three of her daughters were in Israel and under rocket fire. Hopefully, by the time these notes appear in print, a peace settlement will have been achieved. Son Erez, who has Asperger’s and “more than a handful of learning challenges,” is participating in a therapeutic transition program and working part time. 

Mary Freeman lives in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is director of workforce development for Southwest Solutions in Detroit, and is in the thick of Detroit renewal efforts, particularly with regard to adult education and training. Mary, let’s talk sometime…I, too, am involved in urban renewal in Newark, N.J. I’m writing a grant to open a community center with wrap-around services including healthcare, education, and job training and workforce development, in one of the city’s poorest sections. Perhaps we will meet at the next Urban Affairs conference.

Finally, many classmates expressed their sincere best wishes to Mike Whalen and his winning team. Until next time…Namaste.

LAURIE COHEN | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu