CLASS OF 1974 | 2016 | ISSUE 3
Here you will find the unedited updates from your classmates, since a shortened update was included in the print edition.
Charlie Cocores and his wife, Carol, organized a week-long Habitat for Humanity build in New London CT this July. Rich Bennick serves on the Habitat board with him. Harold Sogard volunteered for the build and a number of Class of ’74 members contributed to the project including Tom Barton and Tim Donahue.
Monique Witt and her family are still involved in producing jazz and blues, with four upcoming releases. Of particular interest are the first studio album from blues guitarist SaRon Crenshaw, trumpet player Wayne Tucker’s second album, and her younger son’s first album of original material since the “Michiko Session Tapes.” This one is also trio format, this time with jazz legends Billy Hart on drums and Curtis Lundy on bass.
Her own projects include several music videos and a recently begun research project for a book on Cosmopolitanism and Humanitarian Crimes. Ben graduated this spring from Columbia (early phi bet and suma) and finished his program at Julliard. He continues to perform and is now teaching as well. Dev is getting married in October and continuing his work as a sound engineer and audio tech designer. Steven resists retiring from Wactel, but they’re all good.
Fred Hosea provides a synopsis of his life after Wesleyan: “Since my graduation in 1974, this is my first update. I sang, recorded and toured as a singer with Chanticleer in the 80’s, did a Ph.D. in psychology at the Wright Institute, and languished in depressing under-employment for years due to the idealistic, but now very relevant research I did on social ecology and the need for new, interdisciplinary models of professions, social planning and philanthropic strategy. Was one of the founding organizers of the Green Party of California, and dedicated years of efforts to elevate the discourse and choices, to improve political culture and institutions in the US. Also sang exuberantly with the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, although most of us are not theists. After working for 17 years in Kaiser Permanente in California — most recently as national Director of Research and Innovation in Clinical Technology, — I retired last year and moved to Cotacachi, Ecuador where I live in a beautiful country home, almost 9000 feet up in the Andes, in between two extinct, 15,000 ft. volcanoes, surrounded by 45 indigenous communities that I work with on cultural preservation. I just finished editing a book for the World Health Organization to guide Ministries of Health in planning and operating complex technologies in healthcare systems. Also co-authored a chapter in another book on Disaster Management. Today, I began teaching a course on The Art and Science of Innovation for students at Yachay Tech University, a visionary educational effort in Ecuador to create a knowledge-based economy, to replace over-dependence on mining and oil industries for national income. Also am consulting to engage Yachay students in sustainable development projects in the surrounding indigenous communities where I live, addressing climate change, water mgt, alternate crop strategies; training indigenous midwives as community healthcare workers, using cellphones to link them to call centers; and doing a pilot project on using Common Operating Picture software (developed at Carnegie Mellon Univ/Silicon Valley) to improve disaster response capabilities and speed damage assessment. Am in a research collective looking at point of care diagnostics for heavy metal exposure. Currently am studying how fractal theory can be applied to visualization of psychological structures and processes, and how certain “lower level” phenomena, such as cell apoptosis, can also be seen at “higher” systemic levels (like the self-destruction of empires, or of suicide bombers), and how those underlying forces are represented, and reinforced, in spiritual and political belief systems. Also, starting classes in Kichwa. In other words, a fairly typical Wesleyan career and life trajectory.
Michel de Konkoly Thege’s update is that “I am now a double Wes alum, since I completed an MPhil in the Wesleyan GLSP and received my degree at the May 2016 commencement (and I for sure walked). My master’s thesis centered on Paul Reynaud, a French center-right politician who was active in the 1930s. The great thing about doing this thesis was that my adviser was Nathanael Greene, who was also my adviser when I did my senior thesis; it was quite rewarding to work with Nat again. All in all, the MPhil was a terrific experience, and it was fun to spend a significant amount of time in Middletown as I attended classes and researched the thesis. I will be doing a WESeminar on the thesis during Family Weekend in October.
I am now teaching history and English electives to 11th and 12th graders at my school in downtown Manhattan; I also teach a class on school finance in the Klingenstein program at Columbia University – Teachers College. And am happily living in lower Manhattan with my wife as I have for the past 30 years.”
After 11 years at the Federal Trade Commission and 27 years at Jones Day, Toby Singer retired from Jones Day in mid-August. She highly recommends retirement to anyone else considering it — She is keeping very busy with volunteer work and travel, as well as rediscovering how to cook, but she’s never in a hurry!
Jim Gilson reports that he and his wife, Nancy, have made some changes that have long been in the works. “I have retired after a number of years working as General Counsel and as an administrator for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the La Brea Tar Pits. I continue to consult and volunteer and am glad to have time for more of that, including serving on the American Alliance of Museums’ national Accreditation Commission, which allows me to stay involved with lots of great institutions and do museum-related travel. Nancy has scaled back to part-time, from-home work. In conjunction with those work changes, we have relocated from Los Angeles to Alexandria, VA, where we are enjoying living in a renovated Old Town townhouse among historic buildings, a few blocks from the Potomac and near all that Washington has to offer. Both our kids are in school in the east: Lisa finishing a PhD at Yale and Matthew transferred to GMU and studying to be a high school history teacher. Before we left LA, we were able to see Wesleyan friends Dave Rosenblum (’75), Bruce Corwin (’63), and Jude Schneider (’79 ?????), but we did have to pass up on the Yellowstone trip that Paul Liscom has hosted the past few years for Mark Decker, Rip Dauster, and me (and spouses) the past few years – maybe next year. We are looking forward to reconnecting with Wes in DC and making new friends.
Todd W. Grant sends greetings from Ann Arbor, where he has lived since 1977. He states,
“I have no notes of enviable accomplishments. I note simply that to be alive, healthy, and active a few months short of being 65 years of age is a treat the vast majority of humans throughout history have never had. My marriage of decades in length keeps getting better, and our twin sons at age 28 are making good headway in the adult world. And I am able to go mountain biking on weekends and occasionally get away to real mountains several times a year. My wife and I spent a week in the Canadian Rockies in June. One of our sons and I will be spending next week backpacking in the High Uintas Wilderness in Utah.
Harold Sogard notes how sad he is about the passing in August of Seth Gelblum ’75. “He made me laugh at least a million times, both during and after our time together at Wesleyan.”
Lyn Lauffer reports, “The film festival was fabulous, and, as last year, I met Wes alums there, whom I hadn’t known before, and not only from ’74. Lloyd’s (Komesar) work has had a great impact on the arts scene in Vermont, without question.”
Jonathan Weiss updates us – “I live in Andover Mass with wife Susan (and dog Louie.) I work as a psychiatrist in North Andover, still interesting, usually fun, always too busy, and the commute is 10 minutes. Our son Sam works in Palo Alto for a start-up he co-founded. Our daughter Hannah (Wesleyan 2012) has lived for 4 years in Australia, the farthest English-speaking place on the planet. Unfortunately she’s very happy there.
Besides enjoying New England seasons in Andover, we spend a few weeks each summer in Orleans, on Cape Cod, and go skiing at Sunday River in Maine. I’ve been playing guitar in some informal gigs and that’s a blast. Would love to hear from people.
Lloyd Komesar reports, “The 2nd Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival was a great success this past August and I genuinely appreciate all my classmates and other Wes alums/parents who joined in the festivities this year: Bill and Jane Pearson, Lyn Lauffer, Wayne Forrest, Neil Salowitz ’73 and Debra Storey, Steve Goldschmidt ’72 and Stacy Sussman, Seth ’72 and Elisa Davis ’76, Todd Jick ’71 and Wendy Ehrlich, Audrey, P’09 and Joel Brockner, P’09, Joan Gamble ’80 and Chip Paison, Mike and Lynn McKenna ’73, Bob Kesner ’67 and Andrea Torello, Sivan Cotel ’05, Paul DiSanto ’81, Mark Masselli ’09, my daughter, Rose Komesar ’07, and my wife, Maureen Carn, P’07.
Our special guest this year, the legendary documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple, turns out be a P’04. Who knew? Barbara presented a 40th Anniversary Tribute screening of her first film, the Academy Award winning and still incredibly potent, Harlan County, USA. We welcomed actors Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard for a lovely morning “Coffee with. . . .” conversation. The acclaimed American author Russell Banks spoke eloquently about the “Book To Film” process. Folks from The New York Times and The Nation were central to our panels. And we screened 77 fine films by first and second-time filmmakers, including 35 Vermont premieres, with Wes filmmakers Beatrice Alda ’83, Juliet Werner ’03, Naomi Saito ’16, and Allie Miller ’16 all in attendance. Credit for MNFF’s growing popularity rests in large part with our gifted Artistic Director, Jay Craven P’04. Yes, there is a Wesleyan connection pretty much in all corners of our Festival. We’re having fun and I hope to see more classmates at the 3rd Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, August 24-27, 2017.”
Carolyn White attended the national annual conference of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) in Denver, Colorado last July. Our John Hickenlooper, Governor of Colorado, was a keynote speaker alongside former Congressman Patrick Kennedy. To the captivated audience of over 2000, John described , some of the many changes he has been able to effect that enhance the lives of those living with a mental illness. John canceled his presence at a significantly more prestigious event to address the NAMI families dealing with mental illness and she thinks that says a lot about him and his values. She read John’s memoir, The Opposite of Woe, and enjoyed it thoroughly, especially the parts about Wesleyan. It is amusing, thoughtful, and entertaining.
According to ArtNet News, “Following his short, two-year tenure as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s director, which he left in 2013, bespectacled gallerist Jeffery Deitch returned to New York City to set up shop again at his old space on 76 Grand Street in Soho.“
An article in the Denver Post on July 28 discussed Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper’s upcoming speech at the Democratic National Convention and the possibility he may be tapped for a Cabinet position if Hillary Clinton were to be elected. The article also discussed portions of John’s memoir, The Opposite of Woe as quoted below:
“Hickenlooper grew up in Wynnewood, an affluent suburb about 10 miles outside Philadelphia on the Main Line. He traces his family lineage to Anthony Morris, a central figure in the city who opened a brewery in 1687 and later became the second mayor of Philadelphia. A street in Olde City Philadelphia, Morris Alley, is named for him.
In his memoir, Hickenlooper recounts his childhood outside Philadelphia, particularly the death of his father 10 days after his eighth birthday. As a kid, he recalls being “the skinny dork with acne and the Coke bottle-thick eyeglasses,” and a “petulant loudmouth perpetually teased by my classmates.”
His behavior problems eventually prompted his mother to send him to the nearby Haverford School, a private, all-boys institution founded by Quakers, where he pitched seven scoreless innings for the varsity baseball team his senior year, giving the school the league championship.
Elsewhere in the memoir, The Opposite of Woe, Hickenlooper recalls the times he tried to grow pot outside his bedroom window and the time he took his mother to a local screening of the X-rated movie “Deep Throat,” one of a number of intimate revelations in the book.”
SHARON PURDIE | spurdie@wesleyan.edu