CLASS OF 1985 | 2016 | ISSUE 2
Caroline writing this time: My semester is over, and I’m getting ready to travel to San Francisco, where I’ll be visiting Jolynn Jones. The two of us will be taking part in The Overnight Walk to benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Walking 18 miles throughout the city ought to give us time to catch up!
Rob Menard wrote that he was promoted to clinical professor of plastic surgery (affiliated) at Stanford, and traveled to Hanoi in March to perform craniofacial surgery. He reports that in April he traveled “with my two high school aged daughters to India to perform craniofacial surgery and to watch them do site visits for the charity they founded, the Girls International Fund for Tomorrow girlsinternationalfundfortomorrow.com).”
I received a nice note from Randy Accetta: “I head up a national coaching program for runners, I teach Entrepreneurship at the University of Arizona, and I produce running events in Tucson and Phoenix. Every so often, I’m quoted in Runner’s World and other such places. I live in Tucson with my wife and two young children, a 9-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl, both of whom play hockey. Living in the desert, I don’t keep up with Wesleyan folks as much as I should, but I do play in a fantasy baseball league with Chris Gould ’87. Last week, I taught my running coaching course at the New York Road Runners offices, where I saw many copies of books published by Breakaway Books and Garth Battista. I went to a Portland Seadog baseball game last summer with John Brautigam ’82 and Ed Suslovic ’81, both of whom ran cross country at Wes. If anyone wants to come to Tucson, let me know!”
Andy Norman is still alive and well. He enjoys teaching philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University, and explaining the humanist point of view at public forums on science and religion, reason and faith, and the origins of morality. He sold his youth Ultimate camp—Camp Spirit of the Game—and is now helping Pittsburgh’s professional Ultimate franchise—the Thunderbirds—grow its fan base. His son, Reece, is studying physics at Juniata College, and his younger son, Kai, experiments with homemade rocket fuel.
And we have a first-time caller (long-time listener!), Barbara Schwartz: “I have never written in but have followed things from afar. For the past 26 years I have had a pleasure of working at Housing Families, a family homeless shelter in Malden, Mass. I currently run a therapeutic after-school program at Housing Families for homeless, formerly homeless, and at-risk kids. I also have a private practice counseling kids and adults and just got my own office. Otherwise, I go hiking in a different national park every summer with my husband. This year we are off to Hawaii. I’d love to hear from anyone who remembers me from Wesleyan days. I still recall those days fondly. barbaras@housingfamilies.org.”
I also heard from K.T. Korngold who said that she and Ellen Korbonski had a great time meeting up at her daughter’s gymnastic meet in Chelsea Piers. K.T. is also “hosting our annual ‘CME|NY Pathways to a Peaceful School Conference’ this July 21, 2016, at the Radisson Hotel, in New Rochelle. Our keynote speaker is Linda Lantieri. I started the conference after the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School to bring a day of dedication and reflection to Montessori schools in the region, and the conference has now expanded to attract Montessori teachers and administrators from far and near! Last year we had 30 educators from Shanghai among the participants. Next year, my colleague Martha Haakmat ’87 (head of Brooklyn Heights Montessori School) will be one of our speakers, presenting on diversity in Montessori schools.”
That’s all for now. Hope we all have a wonderful summer!
CAROLINE WILKINS | mbkeds@yahoo.com
MARY BETH KILKELLY | cwilkins85@yahoo.com