CLASS OF 1975 | 2017 | ISSUE 2
I love leftovers, and what follows are some “leftover” notes from late 2016 and early 2017 that did not make in to our in-print columns. I apologize to those of you who took the time to write. Please continue to do so early and often—it will give you a better shot at being in the first serving of notes, rather than the dessert course or later. Note that some of the ages and references to time may be off after all this time, and a few children may have changed jobs or cities, but the big concepts should still be right.
Ed Van Voorhees is gratified to work part-time with The Bootstraps Foundation that gives scholarships to young people who have “pulled themselves up by the…” Despite familial substance or physical abuse, mentally ill parents, or life-threatening disease or injury, each excels in school and expresses optimism. Ed also runs a little franchise. He and his wife, Linda, are reducing work commitments, playing tennis, and traveling a bit (to visit grandchildren, among other destinations). The kids are married and scattered: Ellen in charge of women’s ministries at a Neighborhood Christian Fellowship in LA, Matt in finance in Denver, Jessica is an internist in Nashville, and Ben is running a start-up in D.C.
Ben, the son of Pam Swing and Marty Plotkin ’76, would either graduate last spring or will this spring (they knew, I don’t). Pam is a resident scholar at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center. This is a wonderful center—very supportive and stimulating—with about 85 scholars engaged in a broad spectrum of research, art and activism. Pam wrote, “My current project is research on my militant suffragist grandmother, Betty Gram Swing, who worked closely with suffrage leader Alice Paul (one of five women considered for placement on the back of the 10-dollar bill.) My grandmother was jailed for picketing the White House and went on an eight-day hunger strike—all in all, she was jailed five times. She also burned President Wilson’s words and various other escapades. With the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment coming in 2020, I am writing a book, probably aimed at young adults, which will bring the suffrage movement to life through following my grandmother’s story.”
Pat McQuillan connected with Pam and Marty at Reunion last year. He got a kick out of discovering that her son and daughter both went to Sudbury Valley School, a very student-centered institution in Framingham, Mass., that Pat always presents to a curriculum theories class he teaches at Boston College. Pam came as a parent, to Pat’s class to recount how well her two children had done at the school and that her son, in fact, received a PhD in physics from U of Washington, even though he never took a math class at SVS. Pat may organize an entire day focused on student-centered learning and would invite Pam back to speak.
David Drake claims to have the best job in the world. After Wesleyan, he earned graduate degrees from UCLA and Harvard Graduate School of Education. In 1990, he started White Oak School in Westfield, Mass. White Oak is a state-approved nonprofit school serving great kids with dyslexia and related language-based learning disabilities. “It’s incredibly rewarding work,” Dave says, “and we’ve helped many hundreds of kids to read, spell, write, and generally come to believe in their potential to succeed and thrive.”
Larry Greenberg, reported from Martha’s Vineyard that he and his therapist wife, Debbie, were once again gearing up for the busy summer season in their physical therapy clinic there. Their oldest son, Dan who works as a VP at BlackRock in Manhattan, was getting married in Allentown, N.J., in September, while his daughter, Sarah, a corporate event manager in Waltham, Mass., got married in September 2014. His youngest son, Stephen, works as an associate producer for NBC Sports in hockey and football and was scheduled to cover volleyball at the Brazil Olympic Games with his girlfriend, who is also an associate producer for NBC Sports. They hope for a third September wedding in the coming years and anticipate cutting back their work schedule as retirement years approach.
Nancy (Robinson) Neff wrote, “My son, Sam, 24, works for SunPower in Richmond, Calif., as a mechanical engineer, mentors a high school robotics team, and loves blues dancing. My son, Jeremy, 22, graduated from George Washington University where he loves the ultimate frisbee team. He has directed some great student theater and will be interning with a theater company. My husband Robert is an electrical engineer with Keysight Technologies and loves bicycling. I am a regional volunteer coordinator with California Clean Money Campaign.” They were working to clean up money in politics, trying to pass the California DISCLOSE Act, which would require the strictest disclosure on political ads in the country.
David Lipton let us know he was excited that his third child, Gabriel ’16, was from Wesleyan with a government degree, joining Dave’s oldest, Anna ’08. Meanwhile, Dave had signed on for another five-year term as number two at the International Monetary Fund. When he started in 2011, he followed John Lipsky ’68, so Wesleyan has been having a long run at the IMF!
Russ Munson talked about a not-so-recent-anymore great day he spent in NYC at Karen Freedman and Roger Weisberg‘s place, catching up after way too many years with Tom Fox (who was traveling throughout the Northeast visiting engineering schools with his high school junior son). Tom is a German professor at U of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. Russ’s son and daughter joined the NYC party with their respective spouses. Russ is married to Deb Quinn-Munson ’82, who is hard at work with pastel, watercolor, and oil painting. Russ spends his workdays in Wallingford, Conn., as chief medical officer for HealthyCT, one of the few remaining co-op health plans created by the ACA.
Tom Fox also saw Bob McNamara on that same New York trip. Bob added a few items to the previously reported details about Tom. Not only is Tom on the U of A faculty, but he is former chairman of the modern language department, and his daughter is attending school there. Last fall, Bob and his wife, Irene, had a nice brunch with Dave Quinn, who continues to run a marketing and communications business in New London. Bob said, “Dave’s relationships in the Connecticut marketplace built up over many years make him the go-to guy for all kinds of companies in the area. He seems to be adapting well to the digital age.” As for his own news, Bob writes, “Although I missed Reunion last year with an ailing father, I managed to get to a Wesleyan football game for a post-Reunion reunion with former roommate Bruce Weinraub. Irene and I are doing well and expecting our first grandchild in July. I am now managing partner at Mooreland Partners, a boutique investment bank advising technology companies on mergers and acquisitions.” Bob and I ran into each other at Wesleyan’s parent/child weekend in 2012. My eldest chose Stanford, and Bob’s third son wound up going to Williams, so Bob has split loyalties in the Little Three, and I just extended the grad school relationship I started with Stanford.
Dave Rosenthal spent a grueling, exciting year helping to lead The Baltimore Sun’s coverage of the death of Freddie Gray and the Baltimore riots, and then took a buyout from the company. “It was tough to leave my job as investigations editor, especially after being involved in coverage that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and had exposed police brutality in the city. But I felt the time was right.” He moved to a new job in a new place, leading a group of journalists at public radio stations in Buffalo, Cleveland, Rochester, and other cities in reporting on the Great Lakes. The regional initiative is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, so when you’re listening to NPR and hear a report on the lakes, think of Dave. He’ll be working from WBFO in Buffalo, so he and Suzy relocated and hoped to meet some fellow Wes alumni up north.
Randy Steer reinvented himself a couple of years ago as a cybersecurity expert after spending most of his career in policy and budgets for energy and climate-change R&D. (A Monty Python “And now for something completely different” career shift.) He wrote that he was on an assignment to the Under Secretary of Energy to coordinate cyber initiatives across DOE science and energy offices—with a side-benefit of exposure to R&D policy again. Not sure whether he is still there, with all the changes in D.C.
Brad Kosiba keeps himself busy with “a messy blend of beekeeping, veggie gardening, church maintenance, Boy Scout leader training, and some vaccine and biotech manufacturing consulting that is somehow keeping me off the streets. Dorothy recently started part-time at the local office of The Livestock Conservancy (heirloom farm animals) and their sons continue to labor in math, engineering, and theater tech. We have a cool ‘grand-dog’ sharing arrangement with our middle son who travels most weeks, lets us have a dog and leave it, too!”
Cynthia M. Ulman | cmu.home@cmugroup.com
860 Marin Drive, Mill Valley, CA 94941-3955