CLASS OF 1991 | 2014 | ISSUE 2
Happy spring? I wonder as I compile the notes. I do hope it’s here to stay once this column hits your mailbox. There are far more interesting things to read than the weather, so here we go:
Carol Sherwin writes, “I just finished a two-year stint in the retail sector; working in a department store environment has been the toughest career to date, and for anyone keeping score I now count at least five, including: “mad scientist” at Consumer Reports Magazine, clinical professor at NYU, business strategy consultant and HR director. Not sure of my next step, I headed back to where it all started and attended Connect@Wes, a two-day seminar. I hadn’t been back to campus in more than 10 years, and it is as beautiful as ever. I ran into Cecilia Pohorille McCall, who is doing very interesting work that draws on her legal training.
“While on campus, I participated in the “speed interviewing program organized by the Career Center and got to check in with our class’ dean, Meg Zocco, who now works in University Relations. So many surprises on campus: a moment of silence for Mocon; a moment of amazement at the coffee bar/sandwich shop in the Science Center lobby. And everyone has a laptop….”
Carol adds that she still lives in Westchester, N.Y., with her husband of 17 years and while she figures out her next career step, she’ll continue her volunteer work for Wesleyan, conducting alumni interviews for prospective students, “I joined WAAV six months after we graduated and have never failed to learn something from interviewing a student!”
Kristin Sandvik Lush was in Tokyo in autumn 2013, and when she posted on Facebook “I’m in Tokyo,” Sarah Sutter responded “OK! Where can we meet up?” Kristin and Sarah connected in person over the course of the time Kristin was in Japan. The impromptu visit concluded with a gathering at an izakaya in Kanda later in the week. “It was great to see her—it had been 20+ years!”
Kristin adds, “Upon my arrival, my former student asked, “What do you want to do in Tokyo?” I hadn’t done any pre-tour homework, until I met up with Sarah, and she wrote out a Cool-Things-to-See-and-Do list, with a key train stations map on the back! Who needs Lonely Planet when you’ve got a frosh year WestColleague with local knowledge?! I’m looking forward to her spending a holiday with us in New Zealand!”
Sarah continues to teach at the American School in Japan. Some of her photos were published in The Sky Unchanged, a collection of photographs, interviews and tanka poems from survivors of the 3/11 triple disasters. The poems are printed in Japanese and English, but the interviews are only in Japanese. You can view Sarah’s photos in the book here: bookclub.kodansha.co.jp/books/topics/kawaranaisora/.
Michelle Lockhart has been busy in Texas launching Charlotte Max Designs, named for her grandmother. Michelle took her love of 1950s vintage Lucite handbags and accessories and updated them with bright colors and contemporary lines. Look for them in museum stores and at charlottemax.com. “We are proud that all of our products are handmade in the US and cruelty-free.”
Alexander Levi a hybrid 1990–91 grad, shares “recent highlights of a very Wesleyan-rooted adventure in creative, innovative, professional success: after practicing 10 years in Spain and five years in NYC, my studio, SLO Architecture, is winning awards: Harvest Dome 2.0 won the 2013 Dwell Vision Award and the 2014 AIANY Design Award; Bronx River Right-of-Way won an unprecedented second Blinder Award from the James Marston Fitch Foundation; and SLO is almost done with the construction of an integrated art installation for an elevated NYC Subway stop in the Bronx, the Cross-Bronx Waterway.”
More awards for classmates: Andrew Junke won this year’s Marvin B. Sussman Best Dissertation Award from Yale University’s sociology department. He will give a lecture at Yale in conjunction with the award. Brian Howell has been promoted to full professor at Wheaton College in Illinois.
Dan Prieto, Jerome Copulsky and Jeff Hayes spent a “what happens in…” style weekend in New Orleans in March. Not long after that, Jerome and Dan hosted Jeremy Sacks in DC, when he was in town from Portland, Oregon. Of note, they were sitting across the bar from Sting, who was in town for a concert.
Stuart Rockoff is now executive director of the Mississippi Humanities Council. He and wife Susan live in Jackson with their two daughters. A few hours away, Laurie Woods lives in Oxford, Miss., with her Mississippi-native husband. She teaches a very small class (three boys) of elementary students at a Montessori school and will soon begin a master of education in literacy with the goal of becoming a literacy specialist.
Jennifer Fletcher completed a Master of Teaching degree at the University of Sydney in 2013 and teaches high school English. She recently took her family to their first baseball game in Australia! Jennifer excitedly reports, “We (Team Australia–notice my shifted allegiance) thrashed the Diamondbacks.”
After 10 years raising children, Debby Popkin is practicing midwifery again and finally fulfilling her dream of attending home births, along with Lillian Siegel, ’08, CNM. You can find them in the Southington, Conn. area.
I close this issue with sad news. Brain Lenhard died suddenly on March 13, 2014. Brian lived in Wilmington, Del., and his loss is mourned by his wife, Melissa Dodds Lenhard, and children Nicholas and Caroline. If you’d like to share a story about Brian, I would be happy to publish it in the next issue of class notes.
Renée K. Carl | rcarl@wesleyan.edu