CLASS OF 1972 | 2015 | ISSUE 3
Rick Berg and his wife are back from Bhutan, where he was writing software for the Royal Thimphu College. “That,” he says, “was a wonderful and enlightening experience, but after two years at Himalayan wages there is no question of retirement. Besides, I need something to do, since I’ve given up climbing after several bad falls. So it’s back to New Mexico, where I’m writing software for DataWizards, a small company I share with three partners, and hiking on the weekends. Occasionally I do get back East, where I get to see Bernie Crawford, who is a surgeon in NYC.”
The following major news bulletin is submitted verbatim and without further comment: “Much to the surprise of all concerned, Steve Roper finally married his long-time amiable consort, Nancy J. Stack ’74, in April of 2015. This shocking turn of events was aided and abetted by Steve’s ’72 classmates, J. Bryan Flynn and John R. Rivers, along with honorary classmate, Carol (Beardsley) Rivers. The happy couple will continue to reside in Melrose, Mass., where Steve has retired after 31 years of attempting to keep the Mass. Dept. of Transportation from violating all known federal and state historic preservation laws. Nancy J., although entertained by Steve’s adventures in the trackless morass of Medicare/Social Security, continues to labor as a hired gun planner/project manager in Boston.”
John Manchester and his wife, Judy, have moved to Oakland, close to sons Shawn and Chris, who are both enjoying high-tech success, and grandson Jackson, who is a nuclear-powered age 3. John is in his 11th year of pursuing a second career as a writer after the Internet destroyed his old one as a composer. He is still holding out for traditional, over self-, publishing. His latest is a thriller with a backstory based on the Wesleyan ’60s.
Jerry Ryan, after buying or financing nursing homes for various companies over nearly 35 years, is retiring to Greenville, S.C., next spring. Presumably, Jerry left nothing but satisfied customers in Greenville. Jerry has four grandchildren between his wife’s two and his own two.
After over 30 years of designing and producing computer games, and before that, paper-and-pencil games, Arnold Hendrick and his wife, Georgeann, have retired to “sagebrush steppe” country of Meridian, Idaho, just outside of Boise. Except he hasn’t really retired at all: he’s still employed making computer games for a virtual company.
After almost 40 years in New Jersey, Doug Stivison and wife Heather moved to the beautiful southeast coast of Massachusetts, where Doug took up the position of pastor of the Congregational Church of South Dartmouth. The iconic 200-year-old church is just two blocks up from the waterfront of Padanaram Harbor….well known to sailors as the site of the Buzzards Bay Regatta. Doug had the pleasure this summer of walking his daughter, Megan, down the aisle, then turning around and officiating at the wedding. Singing at her sister’s wedding was Beth Stivison ’09.
After completing a long-dreamed-of circumnavigation aboard his 43-foot South-African-built cutter, Nat Warren-White has returned to his home state of Maine, where he is writing about his adventures. To date, Ocean Navigator, has published 14 pieces written about all legs of the journey and Nat is busy looking for a publisher to help edit and create a book stitching these “chapters” together. Nat and Betsy, together since ’75, have just been blessed with their first grandchild, Diego Antonio, born June 15 to son Josh and his partner, Maria, in Berkeley, Calif. “What a thrill —and great to join the club and be able to share grandparent stories with Peter Stern and others, plus have an excuse to spend more time on the Left Coast.” Nat continues to act and coach executives through the Ariel Group in Boston (arielgroup.com) while practicing as a drama therapist. The theater company he helped start in 2004, AndStillWeRise (andstillwerise.org), comprised of ex-prisoners and their loved ones, continues to thrive in Boston and will be appearing at the North American Drama Therapy conference in White Plains, N.Y., on Oct. 15. Any and all WEStech friends are welcome to visit in South Freeport, Maine. Nat enjoys being in regular touch with Joel Bernstein, Jim Pickering, Stephen Policoff, Peter Stern, Peter Love, Inara de Leon, Paula Harrington and others from our sweet bygone WESU days, but still misses Oscar Look dearly. A book of Oscar’s letters and poetry, published by his daughter, Erin, is available on Amazon…just search Oscar Look and it’ll pop up!
Andy Feinstein continues to work, expanding his law firm, which specializes in representing students with special needs and their parents. “I see Rich Easton on alternate Friday mornings at the Stonington Men’s Group and just missed Paul Vidich’s 65th birthday party last Sunday evening.”
Mark Frost’s weekly newspaper, The Chronicle, celebrated its 35th anniversary on Sept. 2, still “locally owned, locally committed” and having its best year ever. Mark is following with interest the Wesleyan Argus controversy—and hoping the Argus and Wesleyan will stand their ground in defense of a free press and free speech.
Bruce Hearey’s son, Leif Dormsjo ’97, got married this past April to Kristin Barcak, in a lovely weekend celebration in Charleston, S.C. Having worked in Maryland state and city government for well over a decade, Leif is now the director of transportation for the District of Columbia. Son Owen will be graduating with a PhD in economics from UCLA next June, and hopefully will be more than gainfully employed when this gets printed. Bruce finished a year as president of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, and is now back to practicing law. He and wife Stephanie are downsizing, as they are a short year away from empty nest status. They are leaving leafy Shaker Heights and migrating a few miles west to a condo townhouse in Cleveland’s increasingly cool Uptown area. The three flights of steep stairs do not intimidate them, whether Bruce gets that long delayed hip replacement surgery or not.
“Despite the pessimism of all these Republican loudmouths, life to me at 65 seems pretty good,” writes Bruce. “I am bemused by the stuff on campus: Deke suing the University, the University shutting down Psi U, students wanting to shut down the Argus…I guess [expletive deleted] keeps happening on campus no matter the generation.”
Finally, this has been an eventful year for me. My son Mark was married on April 18 to Jenny Bonacore Adolfson. I may be a latecomer to the marriages-of-children scene among this crowd, but I must confess it was one of the happiest days of my life. And, as you can see from my new address, Elisa and I have happily relocated to a wonderful new townhouse near Danbury. (Thanks in part to Fran Pennarola ’73, who handled the closing). No, this is not retirement, but it is the end of 60 years of Davis family presence in the Village of Croton-on-Hudson, and that was not devoid of emotional pangs. It’s great to be back in Connecticut after 43 years, and it makes for a shorter drive to our 45th Reunion, which will be here soon.
Thanks, folks! More in four months!
SETH A. DAVIS | sethdavis@post.harvard.edu
213 Copper Square Drive, Bethel, CT 06801