CLASS OF 1985 | 2014 | ISSUE 3
Mary Beth writing this time:
With profound sadness I share the news that our brilliant and accomplished classmate Seth Teller passed away on July 1, 2014. Seth was a faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and led the Robotics, Vision, and Sensor Networks group in MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Seth’s PhD was earned at University of California, Berkeley, and he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Computer Science Institute of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Princeton University’s Computer Science Department. He is survived by his wife, Rachel Zimmerman, and two daughters, Sophia and Julia. I have a wonderful memory of Seth when he greeted me on Foss Hill at our 25th Reunion; his warm, sweet smile made me feel 20 years old again. Even in the rush of the 25-year-catch-up-convo, he listened deeply, and encouraged my support of my oldest child’s music study, sharing the observation that his best students at MIT were musicians; he also warmly invited us to visit his lab. That quick little conversation on Foss Hill had a big impact, and I know there are many in our era at Wesleyan who feel profoundly effected by Seth’s friendship, and share a deep loss with his family.
Nancy Velez, who was a Better Chance Scholar via The Spence School, currently lives in the Bronx. She taught fifth-grade bilingual classes at a South Bronx public school for five years. Nancy then joined Thirteen/WNET, PBS’s flagship station, for six years, where she managed their tri-state area and national PBS technology/teacher training conferences. After Thirteen/WNET, Nancy worked at ThinkQuest/Advanced Network & Services, an internet company, where she was assistant director of national and international partnerships. She has presented at many technology conferences within the U.S. and abroad. At Prep for Prep, as director of leadership development projects, she managed their largest educational initiative called Aspects of Leadership. Nancy worked at Sarah Lawrence College in their fund-raising department. She currently is the senior director of major gifts at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Nancy began singing in high school and was a gospel soloist at Wesleyan. She is a two-time Apollo amateur night winner and has performed in two Spanish operas in New York City. Nancy has performed throughout the New York area in musical theatre productions, shows, and as a background vocalist for different composers. She has also studied and lived in Colombia and Madrid, Spain.
John B. Clutterbuck, a partner at Andrews Kurth, LLP, in Houston, writes, “Got married, had two kids, now have just finished emptying the nest: Denison Univ. and Wash. U. in St. Louis are the lucky colleges. Next updates will be kid marriages and grandkids, likely in that order but you never know.”
Mark Sussman writes “My wife, MJ Thompson, and I both teach at Concordia University (in Montréal, QC), where I’ve shifted from the department of theatre to working as associate dean, academic affairs, in the faculty of fine arts. Concordia has a very strong art school, and I’ve become interested in how we balance practice and theory in the teaching of art across the disciplines. (I’ve even started spelling theatre with -re.) Our kids, Sam (11) and Finn (8), are growing up in two countries and languages, with friends in Brooklyn and Montréal. Our newest addition to the family is Shadow, a Cairn terrier needing a new home that we found living on 24th street in Manhattan. I still work with Great Small Works, the company I co-founded 20 years ago now, based in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Lately I’ve also been working with the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, based at NYU. Most recently, I published a chapter, “Notes on New Model Theaters,” in the 2014 Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance.
CAROLINE WILKINS | mbkeds@yahoo.com
MARY BETH KILKELLY | cwilkins85@yahoo.com