CLASS OF 1971 | 2015 | ISSUE 3
Greetings, Thank you for responding to the request for info and whether you plan to attend Reunion 2106 (Yes, some of you caught that), but I hope you will all attend Reunion 2016!
John Cuddy intends to come to the Reunion.
Ian Hunter wrote: “Both my daughters have quit gainful employment and returned to school this fall. My older daughter is pursuing a PhD in quantitative marketing at Stanford Business. My younger daughter’s PhD will be in statistics at Harvard. Meanwhile retirement is not in sight.”
John Rothman wrote, “I think this might be my first class note. I am at present rehearsing Pinter’s The Homecoming at Berkshire Theater Festival and have just returned from New Orleans, where I was shooting a pilot for Amazon Studio called One Mississippi with Tig Notaro. Hoping it will be picked up and go to series. My wife of 32 years, Susan Bolotin, is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Workman Publishing. My daughter, Lily, is history editor of Time.com and my son, Noah, is a manager and producer at Underground Films. I am in close touch with Philip Casnoff, Graeme Bush and Gene Borgida. I will consider the Reunion if I am not shooting the series!”
Joe Keller will attend and is still living in Cape Cod, with a condo in Florida, and playing golf only on days that end in a ’y.’
Dave Lindorff says, “Unless there’s an unanticipated conflict, I plan to be at the (OMG!) 45th Reunion. I will be armed with info on maximizing Social Security benefits. I’m working on a book about how people in our age cohort avoided the draft—working title: What Didn’t You Do in the War, Gramps…and Why? If anyone has an interesting experience to relate please get in touch with me at dlindorff@gmail.com.”
Jim Rizza wrote, “New granddaughter—Lilyana. This makes four granddaughters for us. Would love to attend the Reunion next year but it takes a team of wild horses to drag me onto a commercial airline flight these days. If they let me fly the plane . . . , that would be different!! So, will not be attending.”
Katy Butler says, “I am fortunate enough to be granted a month of uninterrupted writing at Yaddo, the famous writers’ colony in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. I will be working on a new book for Scribner/Simon and Schuster, a practical manual about how to negotiate the ’grey zone’ between active living and active dying and how to shape a good end of life, to the degree it can be controlled. If anyone has stories of good deaths send, please send them to me at katybutlewriter@gmail.com.
“’Slow Medicine’ now has over 2000 members on Facebook, thanks, in part, to the fact that in the spring of 2015, the New York Times Sunday Review published my essay exploring my ambivalence with ’death with dignity’ legislation. I don’t think it should be illegal to shorten one’s life or hasten death in the face of a horrible fatal illness, but we need so much more than that—mainly, better funding for palliative care, hospice, and caregiver support.”
Stephen Ferruolo wrote, “I am in my fifth year as dean. Legal education continues to confront challenges, as does higher education. Our daughter, Cristina, is starting her second year at Colgate. Our son, Stephen, in now steeped in the college application process. It is certainly likely that he will end up at a liberal arts college. I feel good about that legacy. They have seen how valuable the Wesleyan experience has been for my life. I am very glad that they will have that liberal arts education foundation for their own lives.”
Bob Leroy writes, “I’m founder and coordinator of an annual national nonprofit public health conference. Next one is May 19–22, 2016, same dates as you-know-what.”
Ed Swanson writes: “I seem to recall that the rock group The Zombies played at Wesleyan during my sophomore, junior, or senior year, but am not certain.” He wonders if anyone recalls this and can clarify the time frame. We’ll post your answers in the next set of class notes.
John Holden: “I retired in June 2014 from being assistant head of school at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, Potomac, Md., for 28 years, ending my 42 years in independent school education. Joan, my wife, and I have four wonderful children—three daughters and a son—and our first granddaughter. My passion is biking. I bought a recumbent bike in May 2014 and rode it 3,000 miles across the southern tier of the U.S., from San Diego, Calif., to St. Augustine, Fla., in March and April of this year with a group of 43 people, average age 63. In all, I have ridden over 10,000 miles in the last 15 months. Joan and I are living in Cataumet, Mass., on Cape Cod. I have been getting together with Pam and Bob Kyrka who live in Holliston, Mass. Bob is a retired veterinarian and Pam continues to teach high school English.”
Sorry if I butchered some of your notes to fit the column. See many of you at Reunion 2016!
NEIL J. CLENDENINN | Cybermad@msn.com
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