CLASS OF 1972 | 2014 | ISSUE 2
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
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