Forty years ago, we were navigating our first years at Wes! I’m grateful that so many of us have remained friends over the decades. Here’s news from some of those friends:
Marc Stein’s fifth book, Queer Public History: Essays on Scholarly Activism, was published by the University of California Press in March. “The intro includes some autobiographical reflections on our years at Wesleyan!”
KT Korngold has been accepted into a Montessori doctoral program through the University of Wisconsin–River Falls. She is part of the first cohort of this inaugural program, which began in May 2022. KT continues to direct the Montessori Children’s Center and Center for Montessori Education in West Harrison, New York.
Christopher Kylin dared me to include this note: “Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary has happened to [me] for over 2,133 days; [I anticipate] continuing this streak for at least another 7 days.”
Barbara Schwartz writes: “I hope everyone is doing okay in these crazy times. I have been doing okay. I am finally leaving the agency where I worked for 32 years. I was director of a therapeutic after-school program for homeless and at-risk children. I am now just doing counseling and supervision in private practice. I still feel so young that it’s hard to believe we are headed toward 60 soon. My partner and I still hike every summer in a national park. I would love to hear from anyone who remembers me from Wesleyan. I still have such fond memories.”
Joan (Edelman) and David Landon live in Walpole, Massachusetts. Dave is an archaeologist with UMass Boston and Joan is drug safety analyst with Harvard Medical School. They are empty nesters but are “expecting our first grand baby at the end of February and could not be more excited! We know everyone has had their own share of sadness over the course of the pandemic but we hope there has been some light as well.”
Amy Nash and I saw one another IN PERSON in Minneapolis in October. She is still working from home, coming up on 25 years as communications manager at MSR Design, a nationally recognized architecture firm. “I did manage to travel to NYC and Martha’s Vineyard last summer. While in NYC, I had dinner with Mike Groseth ’83. During last summer, I also had the pleasure of seeing Beth Purnell Gartman and Tim Dyke ’86 who were visiting Minneapolis on separate occasions. And last fall, I caught up with Caroline Hale-Coldwell and Nancy LaMarca Gordon, two other Wesleyan alumni who live in the Twin Cities. It was a great year for reconnecting with classmates even if it was a challenging year in every other way.” Amy also continues to write poetry.
Nancy Vélez, a fundraiser with over 26 years of experience in the nonprofit and higher education sectors, is the principal gift officer at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Nancy lives in the Bronx.
Bill Wrubel is “very excited to report that my daughter Maisie will be a [first-year student] at Wesleyan this fall, where she will be in the class with Andy Meier’s daughter Oona! They were both one-year-old babies on campus at our 20th Reunion in 2005.”
Hilary Jacobs Hendel works as an emotion-centered psychotherapist. Her 2018 book, It’s Not Always Depression, has sold over 100,000 copies worldwide. Hilary runs Emotions Education 101 classes on Zoom and published the Emotions Education 101 Turnkey Curriculum. Hilary also has many free resources on emotional health at hilaryjacobshendel.com.
That’s all for now. Write me anytime with your news and updates. Take care, my friends.
