CLASS OF 1977 | 2014 | ISSUE 2
It boggles the mind to think how much more difficult the task of Class Secretary would have been in the days before e-mail. You’ve all made my life easier by replying to my pleas for class notes and updates. Many thanks! What also delights me are the number of first-time contributors we are still hearing from after all these years. Here we go:
Jay Kilbourn wrote about his profession combining business and ecology. Jay is VP of the firm Resource Solutions ,which is doing a host of good things: making composts from bio-solids, assisting paper mills in recycling their products, and assisting farmers in New England and New York with fertilizer alternatives made from wood and other materials. All of the work is part of thinking known as industrial ecology, to redesign industrial processes so that waste will be intentionally recyclable and a more valuable resource.
Bob Nastri has been nominated to the State Superior Court by the Governor of Connecticut. Sarah Schultz O’Loughlin is a school psychologist at a Charter Public School in Norwood, Mass.; she lives in Hull, Mass., is happily married to husband Spencer, and has four sons. I was impressed to hear that her sons are in business together.
Eric Simons, a frosh hallmate of mine, writes from Colorado about building a new home in the hills of Buena Vista, soon departing from Boulder. Eric, always the outdoorsman, has been developing and building wind farms around the globe. He’s married to his nearly retired corporate lawyer wife, Linnea, and has three grown sons. Eric would love to hear from Jack Brandon, Lee Brown, Greg Powell, Sarah Plotkin, and Leah Schmidt.
Carol Cooper has a 2013 music feature for the Village Voice, on the yearly Globalfest international artist showcase, which is up for a Pulitzer Award. In addition, she is teaching creative writing at the Manhattan Center for Science and Math. By the time we read this, John Fink will have made his way to New York for TV business and hopefully met up with Rick Dennett and Peter Guenther. Buzz Cohen has begun previews for his 62nd production as stage manager at the Public Theater in New York. Buzz manages one show per season at the Trinity Rep in Providence. Julie Shapiro is teaching law in Seattle and is proud of her son Eli ’17, a freshman at Wesleyan. Will Altman has been busy publishing works on the following: Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche: The Philosopher of the Second Reich; Martin Heidegger and the First World War; Plato the Teacher: Crisis of the Republic; The German Stranger: Leo Strauss and National Socialism. All books are published by Lexington Books. Will has retired from more than 30 years teaching in public high schools to devote himself to research and writing. He resides in Florianopolis, Brazil.
Jim Melloan wrote of leaving his position at Inc. Magazine to move back home to Westfield, N.J., to care for aging parents as well as do freelance writing and editing. On Sundays, Jim co-hosts a music jam at a place called Old Man Hustle on New York’s Lower East Side. He is in touch with Tom Kovar ’76, David Oppenheimer ’78, Jack Freudenheim ’79 (and his band Borough Boys), Ann Beutler Millerick, Professor Neely Bruce, John Williams, and Kit Reed.
Hank Rosenfeld’s book on Groucho Marx is receiving rave reviews in Italy. Sue Guiney wrote in about her new novel in her Cambodian series: Out of the Ruins. Sue has spent several months in Cambodia this year teaching a workshop in a shelter that is part of a different NGO: Enfants du Mekong. It has been helping kids in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam for over 50 years.
Mark Beamis wrote about remaining sane and serene as well as adjusting to the change in mayor in Boston. Jerry Stouck and wife visited their Wesleyan junior son David ’15 late last year in China and reports David’s siblings are all fully engaged in academics: both as graduate and undergraduates. Laraine Balk Hope wrote late last year describing her economist work at the Inspector General’s Office for the U.S. Postal Service. Her husband, John, is teaching biotechnology at Johns Hopkins. She is spending time with her extended family in the UK including a new grand-nephew. Lisa Nelkin and husband Bret are retired and living in Colorado Springs, traveling RV-style throughout the US and Canada. Lisa has a daughter married and living outside Baltimore, as well as a certified therapy dog.
Jerry Caplin is busy renovating homes in Charlottesville with his company, Silk Purse Properties, creating affordable rentals for blue collar families. He appears to be loving every minute of it. By the time we read this, Deb Mercer should have returned from her husband’s birthday celebration in France. Jane Goldenring has been a visitor in New England during this relentless winter to film Boychoir with an all-star cast including Dustin Hoffman. In addition, her new Disney Channel TV movie, Zapped, will be aired this summer. Finally, Peter Oldziey writes noting however the technology has changed things such that appreciation of music, or how he organizes his outdoor adventures, he still relaxes in jeans and tie-dye shirts just as he did at Belknap or on the Lodge or Upper Porch. “The more things change the more they stay the same.”
Ain’t it the truth!
Gerry Frank | Gfrank@bfearc.com