CLASS OF 1976 | 2016 | ISSUE 3
Skip Adamek reminded me that he retired back in 2011. (Sounds like a good deal.) He is living in Raleigh, N.C. and rented a house in Cape Cod for September. Skip enjoyed a weekend with Paul McDermott and Steve Farrell ’77.
Cheryl Alpert went to a niece’s graduation at Wes this past June. Just before, she tripped over her new puppy and fractured a vertebra, but she is fine now.
Jane Barwick shared the news that she ran for judicial office, won her election, and in 2015 became a judge of the Superior Court of Fulton County, Ga. Fulton County is the largest county in Georgia and contains most of the City of Atlanta.
Carol Bellhouse has 21 books in print, a movie in production, another in pre-production, and several in development. Fabulous!
Barbara Birney enjoyed tree zip-lining in Crater Lake National Park and reports that Peter Hansen is starring as the director in his local community theater’s production of The Chorus Line.
Matt Cartter’s daughter, Eileen, graduated from Kenyon College this past May with majors in English and American studies.
Elizabeth Eisenmann is in early retirement; her husband prefers to keep working. She is enjoying her twin granddaughters (now 3) and adopted a German Shepherd.
Ron Epstein, an academic family physician, has written a book entitled Attending: Medicine, Mindfulness, and Humanity that is being published by Scribner in January. The book mentions several of Ron’s teachers and mentors at Wesleyan, including Jon Barlow, Ken Maue ’69, and Randy Huntsberry. Copies can be pre-ordered at: ronaldepstein.com/publications.
Don Fallati wants to thank everyone who attended the Reunion and for those whose work and support enabled a class scholarship to be established, especially Shonni Silverberg. Don also wants to thank his Reunion co-chair Connie McCann for her efforts, and the class panel that included Leslie Gabel-Brett, Jay Hoggard, Seth Lerer, and Laurel Cantor. Don gives special mention to Ethan Bronner and Michael Greenberg, who were awarded Distinguished Alumni Awards, and a personal note to Gary Eager and Abe Yale. Don continues to work in his own advisory practice focusing on healthcare technology and lives in Larchmont, N.Y., with his wife, Ruth Pachman ’78.
Oliver Griffith retired as head of communications for part of the World Bank Group in Europe in January. “Have been fixing up our country place south of Paris and starting to do some consulting on development and communications. Still playing jazz when possible, my original career goal. Would be glad to hear from old classmates visiting Paris.”
Jeff Frank’s son, George, graduated from the Air Force Academy and is now a second lieutenant at flight school in Columbus, Miss. Jeff’s oldest son, Nathan, graduated from Carnegie Mellon, and then Quantico, and is now an FBI agent working in Virginia. Jeff’s daughter, Stephanie, lives in Hawaii and just started a new job with the Hawaii Department of Energy.
Byron Haskins reports that he and wife Gabrielle are about to be empty nesters as Gabrielle’s youngest just bought a house a few blocks away. Gabrielle is recovering well enough to travel again and her second grandchild, Thomas, was born in Montreal in March. Byron is enjoying retirement and not missing work at all.
Merle Kummer, recently empty-nested, moved from the suburbs to Cambridge in August and is consulting in the life science industry. She is also enjoying the time she now has for quiet reflection.
Chris Mahoney and his wife, Joan, visited Israel for the first time and had a wonderful trip.
Debbie Gottheimer Neuman has enjoyed spending the past year as a consulting director of development for Enders Island in Mystic, Conn. She welcomes all Wesleyan friends to get in touch if visiting Mystic. Deb and her husband, Paul, look forward to their son, Josh, completing his MS in plant pathology and daughter-in-law, Meagan, completing her MS in nursing clinical leadership this fall.
Jack O’Donnell’s daughter, Maggie ’19, has started her sophomore year at Wes and is a member of the women’s crew team.
Rob Sloss is working at Parsons Corporation, an engineering and construction firm in Pasadena, Calif., as the vice president of tax. Ron works with a team on a large number of M&A and structuring projects in more than 70 countries, including projects involving missile defense, WMD removal, and the construction of train lines, bridges and tunnels. Ron lives with his wife and a very old cat.
Mike Stopa is living and working around Boston as a practicing nanophysics theorist. His company works on a new form of computer memory made from carbon nanotubes. Mike and his wife, Hiromi, have four kids. Kaileigh is a frosh at Tufts, Robin is graduating from Haverford this year, and Miranda has two more years at Oberlin. Their son, Kipling, is still in high school and pitches for the baseball team. Mike was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this year, and live-blogged the convention for The Boston Globe.
Barbara Strauss’ daughter, Hanna Ingber ’03, is an assistant editor on the foreign desk at The New York Times. She recently gave birth to Aarav Jacob Yerasi, Barbara’s newest grandchild. Barbara’s daughter, Rebecca Ingber, is an associate professor of law at Boston University Law School in the field of international law and national security law, and has two daughters, Alma Rae and Tess Metlitsky. Barb mentions that she connected with Debbie G. Neumann and Catherine Thibault ’77 at the Reunion.
Mitchell Marinello | mlmarinello@comcast.net