CLASS OF 1973 | 2016 | ISSUE 3
Our ever-faithful and prolific correspondent David Feldman, AKA David Harp, writes that he stays in touch with his Hewitt 9 next-door neighbor Paul Van Stavern, in Salvador, Brazil, and appreciates him more every year. He’s also in touch with Michael J. Robinson ’75, who lives in New Haven. He says he sees him whenever he drives down to the Kripalu Institute in Massachusetts or to the New York Open Center. Through Mike he stays in touch with Granny Hale and Rich Jasper, whom he calls “two great guys.” He adds, “As a few of my friends begin to shuffle off this mortal coil, as The Bard put it, I appreciate both those who remain and those who have shuffled all the more.”
David says he is still living in the Worcester range of the Green Mountains in Northern Vermont with Rita and has no more children at home. He says, “I have been working with a delightful carpenter to renovate an old cabin on my property (he reminds me, just a bit, of another carpenter from long, long, ago) and enjoying the physical experience of learning to do framing, trim, plumbing, etc.” And he is still writing. He finished two new books recently, one a book on mindfulness in nature with his beloved twin sister, Dr. Nina Smiley. He says some of you may remember her during our second semester of sophomore year. She was at Wesleyan from Vassar on the Twelve College Exchange, “back when women on campus were a rarity.” He is working on his most advanced harmonica book yet, a series of 220 graded exercises for the Hal Leonard Music Company. He is also doing some mindfulness mentoring over the phone and via Skype. He says he has a few interesting clients, including a venture capitalist and a high-end trial attorney. “Everyone needs mindfulness,” he says, “whether they know it or not.”
He also says he is working on his own mindfulness practice, and on helping others to use mindfulness (often via the harmonica, as a breath-focus tool) to deal with aging issues: COPD, dying and grieving, and loss of mental function. He says he would love to hear from classmates who are either in these fields, or working with these issues. He says after losing weight, and mostly maintaining that loss (down more than 50 pounds), he is playing around with marketing a diet method incorporating—you guessed it—mindfulness and harmonica: The Harmonica Diet™.
John Huttlinger writes that summer in the Adirondacks was beautiful, adding it was “a little too dry, but great for the tourism businesses.” He says his June production of the annual Lake Placid Film Forum featured a guest appearance by Jeremy Arnold ’91. Jeremy hosted a presentation of The Third Man and he participated in panel discussions and workshops. He signed many copies of his recent book, Turner Classic Movies: The Essentials: 52 Must-See Movies and Why They Matter. Jeremy’s family has had a camp on Lake Placid for several generations, but John just met him this year. “Small world!” he says.
For the first time in my memory, we are hearing from Michael Morales. He reports that he is an adjunct professor at Springfield College in creative writing. He is also an interviewer of Stanford University applicants. Michael was on Wesleyan’s Admission Committee in 1972 as a student advisor when he was a junior. He is also a scholarship judge for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin. They have distributed more than $1 million as the top Hispanic chamber in the U.S. Michael is also the author of a forthcoming book: The 1-Minute Expert: How to Be Recognized as an Expert in 1 Minute or Less and past-president of a Hispanic veterans foundation.
We also received word about artist Todd Stone and his participation in the first art exhibit at the National September 11 Memorial Museum, Rendering the Unthinkable. Todd has been documenting the ever-changing skyline of Lower Manhattan over 20 years and is maintaining a studio on the 67th floor of 4 World Trade Center chronicling the site. The website for the exhibit is rendering.911memorial.org.
Finally, I received a colorful photo and note from Peter Gelblum. The photo shows Peter and Randall Brown ’74 in their furry, raccoon hats carrying a banner for the San Lorenzo Valley Recycling Center and flashing their Wesleyan “W” signs at the end of this past year’s 4th of July parade in Boulder Creek, Calif. He says he and Randall did not know each other at Wesleyan, but they discovered each other both living in Boulder Creek.
That’s it for now. Look forward to hearing your stories.
PETER D’OENCH | Pgdo10@aol.com