CLASS OF 1982 | 2015 | ISSUE 3

Newsmaker: Bonnie LePard ’82

Bonnie LePard ’82 was named executive director of Oatlands, a 415-acre self-supporting National Trust Historic Site and National Historic Landmark, in Leesburg, Va. Previously the founder and longtime executive director of the Tregaron Conservancy in Washington, D.C., LePard had worked with the community and the Historic Preservation Review Board in a successful effort to save Tregaron Estate, a century-old estate designed by renowned architect Charles Platt and famed landscape architect Ellen Biddle Shipman. Prior to her work at Tregaron, she was an environmental crimes prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice. An English major at Wesleyan, she holds a J.D. with emphasis on environmental law from New York University School of Law. She is a former Trustee of Wesleyan.

Our next Reunion is just around the corner in 2017 (35 years since graduation and counting!) but that hasn’t stopped members of the class of 1982 from taking part in “mini-reunions” when and where they can.

Bob Russo writes that he and Joe Barrett had a bunch of alums to his family cottage on Chappaquiddick in August. (Those from the class of ’82 were Bob, Anthony Pahigian, John Brautigam Tom Davis, and Mike Greenstein, along with Steve Davies ’83.) “We had a blast playing in the ocean and catching up,” he writes.

Vincent Bonazzoli enjoyed a recent mini-reunion as well: “Lyndon Tretter, Ilyse Tretter, my wife, Paula, and I met in Saratoga, N.Y., in August for four days of golfing, eating, drinking, bike riding, paddle boarding, laughing, dancing, and, yes, a little gambling at the track. We even won a few races,” he writes. “Plan to see them again in New York City in December. “

He writes that he and Paula traveled weekends this past fall to see their son Matt play football in Saint Paul, Minn., for the fighting Scots of Macalester College.

Donna Phillips let us know about a recent mini-reunion with Julie Broude-Bordwin and Harold Bordwin at the Fountainebleau Hilton. “After the mind-boggling realization that we had not seen each other since graduation, we spent a few hours catching up on the last 33 years!” she wrote. “Hopefully, it will not be another 33 years until we connect again, since as Harold pointed out, we will be 88 years old by then (gasp)! “Donna has been working for the past 22 years as a pain psychologist at the Rosomoff Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center in Miami. “I just celebrated 18 years with my life partner, Mariluce de Souza,” she writes. “We travel as much as work and finances permit, having been to Italy, Greece, Turkey and Brazil in recent months.”

Donna adds that she has become “an Instagram addict, connecting with people all over the globe through a mutual passion for photography and travel. You can find me @paindocmiami—or better yet, come find me in person the next time any of you decide to take a winter sojourn in Miami!”

Jim Friedlander writes that he and his wife, Liz Irwin, are “involved in all things Cuban.”

They chartered the first legal private yacht to Cuba from the U.S. since the Cuban Revolution in August. In October, they assembled a high-profile group of professionals and diplomats to found the Havana Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit organization designed to restore, protect, and preserve the city of Havana.

Separately, Liz has been appointed a representative to the United Nations for the Business and Professional Women’s Association and is advocating for women’s rights, as well as focusing on the issue of access to fresh water.

Cindy Rich, who lives in the Washington, D.C., area, works as a senior privacy adviser at Morrison & Foerster LLP, helping companies comply with privacy laws and regulations around the world. She writes that her son, Hugo Kessler ’19, started at Wesleyan this fall.

Cindy’s oldest child, André, is graduating in June from MIT and will work for SpaceX in Los Angeles as a software engineer. Her daughter, Mara, will start high school in the fall, so Cindy and her husband, Glenn Kessler, have four more years before they become empty nesters. She writes that she “enjoys traveling with her family to far-off places around the world such as Burma, India, Peru, Vietnam ,and Morocco.”

A “happy and excited” Anne Heller Anderson writes that her daughter, Brooke ’19, is a first-year student at Wesleyan. “I had the honor of being asked to make welcome remarks on Arrival Day to parents gathered to hear President Roth speak in Memorial Chapel. Very fun!” she writes.

Jim Sullivan is also the proud parent of a Wesleyan frosh, one of several from offspring from the class of 1982 to have enrolled in the class of 2019. “My son, Owen ’19, is a freshman at Wesleyan now,” he wrote.

Joe Fins writes that his new book, Rights Come to Mind: Brain Injury, Ethics and the Struggle for Consciousness, was published by Cambridge University Press in September. “I continue to teach medical ethics at Weill Cornell Medical College and am also serving as the Solomon Center Distinguished Scholar in Medicine, Bioethics, and the Law at Yale Law School.”

Fran Strumph writes that she and her husband, Paul Strumph, celebrated the wedding of their daughter, Caroline, to Michael Schnapp in August: “It was a beautiful, fun-filled weekend on Smith Mountain Lake. Wesleyan was well-represented—Jeff Phelon with his wife, Joanne, as well as my sister, Susan Carroll ’80, and Henrik Dohlma with his wife, Christianna Williams.”

Fran says their youngest child, Matthew, is a third-year law student at the University of Virginia. “Paul is head of diabetes clinical development at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, and is working on a very promising drug to treat Type 1 diabetes. I am enjoying retired (from teaching first grade) life at the lake, and traveling as much as possible with Paul.”

Double congratulations to our classmate Charita Cole Brown, the winner in October of a “pitch week” book prize for emerging authors at Vermont Writers’ Retreat. Charita’s memoir, Defying the Verdict: My Bipolar Life, follows her triumphant journey to overcome bipolar disorder—an illness that was diagnosed while she was a student at Wesleyan. She now enjoys a normal, asymptomatic existence, and is the mother of two grown daughters. Charita was one of several finalists chosen from dozens of candidates across North America. Her prize includes a publication deal with Curbside Splendor, a Chicago-based publisher, and a national book-launch publicity campaign led by Meryl Moss Media.

Many thanks for these updates. Keep those cards and letters coming!

Stephanie Griffith | stephaniedgriffith@gmail.com