CLASS OF 1990 | 2017 | ISSUE 1
Class of 1990 Scholarship
Kathryn Toner ’20, Doylestown, PA
Hi everyone and Happy New Year! Here’s the latest from our class.
Alfredo Viegas has been back to Wes a few times this year because his daughter, Alessandra ’20, started in September. Al got a surprise at the Alumni-Legacy reception when he ran into Shawn ’88 and Ellen Burgess ’88, as “Shawn had been my freshman RA in Butterfield C, and his daughter, Ramsay ’20, was also starting. It was great seeing Shawn and Ellen again and knowing that the Wes legacy continues for our kids.
Two major announcements come from Joy Challenger. First, in May, Joy graduated with a D.Min. from Duke University’s Divinity School in Durham, N.C. Second, in September, Joy married Brian Slaughter on Martha’s Vineyard at the home of classmate Denise Jefferson Casper. Joy has moved to the D.C./Northern Virginia part of the country.
Carol Lynne Booth is the director at Jewish Baby Network, a small nonprofit outreach organization that builds community connections for Jewish families with babies and toddlers in the Bay Area. “We have really expanded our programs and community partners and just added an SF chapter. We host a variety of events at many different Jewish institutions as a way to connect families to each other and to the wider Jewish community. I meet wonderful people, help them make friends and find their place while holding lots of babies, so I am having a great time!”
Carol’s other piece of big news is that she and her husband, David Booth ’91, will be celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary this June. “So crazy! Our days of running around Wes together do not feel that long ago, so I guess it is true that time flies when you are having fun. Continuing the milestone theme, my son, Josh, is living in Seattle and will be 21 in March. My daughter, Naomi, just turned 18 and most likely heads off to college in the fall, and my daughter, Maytal, is now 15 and just got her driver’s permit. It makes me realize that I must be getting older and leaves me wondering where the time has gone. I wish the whole class of ’90 a very healthy and Happy New Year!”
Amy Morgenstern spent the second half of 2016 on sabbatical in Oaxaca, Mexico, with her wife and 9-year-old daughter, “all of us making lots of art, writing, and improving our Spanish. Then, as tempting as it was to stay outside the United States forever, it was back to my work as minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto, where I’ve been for 13 years.”
Victor Khodadad is a recent co-founder of New Camerata Opera, which is a new opera company based in New York City. NCO produced its first main stage production, The Count of Luxembourg and Other Tales: A Viennese Pastiche, in October, which played to rave reviews and sold-out audiences. Victor was invited to give a TEDx Talk in December about innovation in the arts which featured New Camerata Opera. More information is available at newcamerataopera.org.
Ben Robertson continues to live in Keene, N.H., where he is working as a Web designer with his company Menadena. Interested classmates can learn more about Ben’s work at menadena.com.
Finally, I just heard from Lara Laurence, for whom the Women’s March in D.C. turned into a Wesleyan event. “First, on my Amtrak train heading south, the woman sitting across from me turned out to be a Wes grad from the Class of 1980—too bad I never asked for her name. Then, in D.C., my daughter, a sophomore at Bryn Mawr, Colleen McKiernan ’89, and I stayed with Ladeene Freimuth ’89. After the march, my daughter and I headed to Sarah Leavitt’s (’92) house for dinner. Also, there were Michelle Elisburg ’92, Jessica Feierman ’92, and Susannah Beals-Simon ’92.”
That’s all for now. Thank you to those who wrote. As always, please e-mail me anytime with news.
Vanessa Montag Brosgol | vanessa.brosgol@yahoo.com