CLASS OF 1989 | 2015 | ISSUE 2
Jonathan writes: Hey, all. Things seem to have been a little quiet for ‘89ers these past few months. Michele and I can’t believe that’s true, so please take a few minutes to drop one of us a line for the next issue. Please. Thanks, peeps!
Susan Turkel leads us off with her reflections on last year’s Reunion: “So much fun to see people and dance under the big tent!” She’s been working as a social sciences librarian for the last 17-plus years—14 years at Bryn Mawr College, and then three-plus years at the University of Michigan. Last summer she returned to the East Coast to be closer to family and help out her aging parents. She left Ann Arbor (although continuing to work remotely on a part-time basis) and now lives with her partner, Mark, in the Philly suburbs, where she’s taking art and writing classes, doing lots of contra dancing, spending time with friends and family, getting ready to start some volunteer pursuits, planning her parents’ 50th anniversary party, and thinking about what she’d like to do with the next chapter of her life.
Stephanie Dolgoff reports that she is “half dead and bald from the stress of a renovation, but with two tween girls, one bathroom wasn’t cutting it. Grateful to have such good friends and healthy kids. Love to all.”
Dan White is hard at work on his second nonfiction book, Under The Stars, which is going to be published by Henry Holt and Co. in the summer of 2016. It’s an embodied history of American camping, which means everything from survivalist camping (camping without any gear—or clothes—in mountain lion territory in the Santa Cruz Mountains for 24 frightening hours), to exploring the Everglades and “glamping” on an ersatz safari in Wine Country. Several of Dan’s Wesleyan friends, including James Shiffer, Sara Oh Neville and Bill Sherman ’90, have been giving encouragement, stories, and help along the way.
From Joel Jacobs, we learn that he has been continuing his “recent pursuit of acting, and has now been in four plays, most recently as Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird.” He’s also been coaching his younger daughter’s high school debate team. His older daughter, Aviva, will start at Pitzer College in the fall.
Mark Mullen’s big news is that he moved from Tbilisi to San Francisco.
Kate True digs out from the Boston winter to say she and her three daughters (Ona, Flora and Tess) made it to the promised land of spring. Ona ’19 will be a first-year student at Wesleyan in the fall! Kate recently completed a creative entrepreneur fellowship through the arts and business council and Discover Roxbury, and is busy with her art, portrait painting, and independent curating, as well as teaching part time at the Sudbury Valley School. Visitors are always welcome at her old Victorian home in Roxbury, which she is continually upgrading.
Finally, Betsey Schmidt and her husband hosted a lovely alumni event in March to honor Wesleyan President Michael Roth ’78 at their new(ish) apartment in Brooklyn.