CLASS OF 1974 | 2016 | ISSUE 1
Class of 1974 Endowed University Scholarship
Rami Hamati ’19, Manja, Jordan
Charlie Cocores writes, “I’ll be leaving my second career as the Educator in Residence, Certification Officer, at Connecticut College in May. Hope to continue to teach some psych in local colleges. Carol and I are awaiting our 5th grandchild in April and couldn’t be more excited! If folks are ever in Old Saybrook, CT or Pawleys Island SC look us up!
Writing under a penname, Ellen Levy Sarnoff is a bestselling steamy Romance writer on Amazon. Among the authors who write these kinds of books, she has even been more popular than 50 Shades, E. L. James. She has made both the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. LOL! What a career. From children’s television programming to this!
Bob Baum is enjoying life in the Upper Valley of Vermont and of being a grandfather. He just published a book, West Africa’s Women Of God: Alinesitoue And The Diola Prophetic Tradition, available from Indiana University Press.
Monique Witt and her One Trick Dog Records company are “deep in the production of the first four albums of 2016, the first a jazz fusion with Katini Yamaoka Dinkubahi that will be sent for broad distribution in Japan, the second, a delta blue with SeRon Crenshaw, then the Roy Assaf Trio’s new offering, and finally a debut album for my son, Ben. Everyone is busy. Ben will finish his programs at both Columbia and Julliard in May. He was elected early to Phi Beta Kappa. My elder, Dev, is engaged and will marry in the fall. Hello to Bob Baum.”
Doug Cole went to DC in February to meet their new Just born granddaughter, Lyra Abigail Cole. Grandchild #4. What fun! Also, he is celebrating 40th anniversary to Carolyn Loughlin this year; 30 years in their home in Woodinville, which has become wine capital of Washington.
As of February, Tom Barton had recently retired from a 32-year practice in orthopedic surgery in New Hampshire.
Nancy Collins reports that she “retired in August 2014 after 30 years as a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. We now have a second house in Rio Verde, Ariz., where we are part time. My husband, Brian Mahoney ’73, is still working 50 percent at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis and I still have my big vegetable and flower gardens in North Oaks, Minn. We are working on our skills in bridge, ballroom dancing, pickle ball and hiking, and advanced Spanish, and volunteering. We visit Dan (computer programming for Safe Net) in Milwaukee and Meredith PsyD (works for PACE University and has her own private practice) and her husband Armintas (Point 72 hedge fund) in Manhattan. We see Katie and Chloe and Sookie (her family of 2 Frenchies) in Minneapolis where she is an ER doc at Fairview Ridges and Southdale Hospitals. That is busy enough for us! Glad to be off the ever accelerating hamster wheel of work.”
This past winter, Kathy Scholle Hale had lunch with Bob Gershen and wife Debra Kaye who now live in Sarasota, Fla. Also for the first time in years, she had a long conversation with her old roommate, Brett Sherman, who is living in NYC with her architect-husband. Ironically they discovered that they each own a house in Westerly, R.I. Small world.
Jan Eliasberg shares, “I’m delighted to report that I am now the proud parent of a Wesleyan student — my daughter, Sariel Hana Friedman ’18. Sariel transferred to Wesleyan from Barnard and, within days of her arrival, was sending pictures of Foss Hill covered with snow and texts saying things like “I love this school!!!!!!!” (There might even have been a few more exclamation points). She has declared — in true Wesleyan fashion — that she’s going to double major in American Studies and Studio Art and minor in Film, concentrating on the production and history of design and the history of advertising and visual communication in America.
Because of her background and experience in graphic design, Sariel’s been hired to work part-time at Wesleyan’s Office of Communications, creating and designing advertisements for the Wesleyan Film Series, pamphlets and brochures for admissions and fundraising, and doing layout for the Wesleyan University alumni magazine. Several people were extraordinarily helpful in her transition: Andrew Stuerzel, in University Relations, and Tonya Strong, Dean of Admission for Transfer Students, who were gracious and helpful every step of the way.
I’ve been busier than ever with challenging, wonderful directing work. I’ve spent several months in Nashville, directing episodes of Nashville, created by Callie Khouri and starring Connie Britton. I’ve fallen in love with the music, the architecture, the food and the lively spirit of the city. I’ve also been involved in directing the first season of a wonderful new series called The Magicians, based on the best-selling trilogy of novels by Lev Grossman. The Magicians has been called “Harry Potter goes to graduate school,” which gives a flavor of this unique world — where magic is dark, sexy, alluring, addictive, and downright terrifying in equal measure. I adore the show, which has just been renewed for a second season. Among the writers is fellow Wesleyan grad, Henry Alonso Myers. Look for my episode on March 7th.
Chris Neagle reports, “I saw Chuck Gregory in Ft. Lauderdale last month (January), who I connected with on FB. He started with us but graduated in 1973 and moved to Florida. I last saw him during a 1976 law school vacation.
“His living room looked just like our old living room in a Washington Ave house we shared with others our junior year—full of electronics! He hosts the weekly New American Dream Radio show on its website. He remains extremely liberal, fun to be with, and seems happy with life. Met his wonderful wife Lorraine and her African mouse, too. He promised to come to our 50th.”
And Chuck Gregory says, “I recently got to see Chris Neagle for the first time since the ’70s. It was great to rediscover that friendship, and to find that we still shared many common views after all these years. I hope other old friends will look me up if they visit the Fort Lauderdale area.”
John Hickenlooper writes: “On Jan. 16 (yes, 1/16/16, and almost exactly a month after VT Gov Peter Shumlin ’79, married Katie Hunt) I married the remarkable Robin Pringle, who is VP of Corp Development for $45-billion holding company, Liberty Media. I can’t remember being this happy. We had a one-day honeymoon in Boulder, came back to see the Broncos beat the Patriots, and then went off to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. And. Then in late May Penguin Books is publishing my sort of memoir, The Opposite of Woe. A full but a happy year ahead.”
And from me—Sharon Purdie—My husband, Ted Sybertz, and I continue to split our time between Vero Beach, Fla. (kayaking, biking, swimming, hiking), Park City, Utah (skiing), and Jamestown RI (sailing, biking swimming, hiking). Our daughter, Sherry Sybertz ’10, will complete her MBA from Middlebury Institute of International Studies in May and our son, Jeff Sybertz, will complete his MBA from Stern (NYU) in May 2017.
SHARON PURDIE | spurdie@wesleyan.edu