CLASS OF 1976 | 2017 | ISSUE 3
For this issue, I asked about retirement plans and got varied and often non-committal answers. To vary the line-up, the last shall be first.
Tom Kovar went to Professor Dick Winslow ’40’s funeral in Antrim, N.H. Dick, 99, was a mentor of Tom’s in the music department. Afterwards, Tom had dinner with Pam Swing ’75, Win Lockwood ’78, and others.
Cheryl Alpert is a real estate agent in the Boston area. Her son, Eben, is enjoying his work at PWC and her son, Chason, just started at Booz Allen.
Carol Bellhouse published two books and produced two films this summer. Burnt Orange is about three women at the end of the world. The second film is a pilot for an adventure race series; the first episode is about racing burros.
Carol Berger has retired from her career as a school psychologist. She and husband Ron live in Longmeadow, Mass., and have two married sons and three granddaughters. Carol stays in touch with Linda Borreson and Sue Feinstein Barry and hopes to get together with Nancy Cornwell Goeden.
Ethan Bronner, who writes on politics for Bloomberg, is investigating President Trump and Kushner business practices and keeping an eye on the federal probe into possible collusion with the Russians. Son Eli ’10 is the president of a startup called Careerlist, which links young marketing professionals with big companies.
Joe Carcillo is a pediatric intensive care physician in a children’s hospital at the University of Pittsburgh. His daughter is in her first year at Michigan and Joe is coaching the local girls’ Catholic high school rowing team.
Jon Cleworth enjoys being an uncle to one nephew and five nieces. He reports that Jimmy Joy MALS ’72, former crew coach at Wes, received an award this November at the New York Athletic Club for his outstanding career as an oarsman and his contributions to American rowing.
Ron Epstein’s book, Attending: Medicine, Mindfulness, and Humanity, is doing well and he has been traveling to talk about how doctors can practice more mindfully and achieve shared understanding with their patients.
Jeff Frank recalled his Wesleyan experience as encouraging free expression, tolerance of different opinions, and learning to persuade those with different outlooks to your point of view. Remarking on the news about universities shutting down what is labeled by the opposition as “hate speech,” Jeff hopes that the free discussion of ideas remains a part of the Wesleyan experience.
Karen Gervasoni’s daughter Lia is a high school junior and is dabbling in media studies. Son Cole is playing on his high school basketball team.
After transferring to and graduating from Wesleyan, Jamie Beck Gordon worked for Ed Koch and obtained a degree in international relations from Columbia. She volunteers for various charities and is on the board of The Neuberger Museum at SUNY Purchase. Married in 1985, Jamie has a son, 30, and a daughter, 27.
Joellyn Gray is on the board of the CTA Foundation, an offshoot of the Consumer Technology Association, the group that hosts CES, the world’s largest trade show for technology.
Oliver Griffith is working for an infrastructure fund in Africa and living in Paris.
Steve Gross and wife Meiyan are retired, she from the Sunnyvale School District and he from SanDisk. They renovated their home in Cupertino, Calif. Daughter Alexa attends Wellesley College. While visiting her, Steve stayed with Tim Hill ’75 and Jan Schwaner-Hill ’75, and caught up with Norbert Kremer in Boston.
Byron Haskins, recently retired from federal service, volunteers as a MoveOn Summer Resistance Mobilizer, focusing on preventing the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Grandson Zayer was born in August. Byron traveled enough to visit all six grandchildren within 30 days, including trips to Montreal and NYC.
Alan Haus and family vacationed in New Orleans, the Caribbean, and Mexico. While traveling, there were four actual or potential hurricanes in the region and a major earthquake in Mexico. Alan’s family lucked out and had perfect weather.
Maggie Heffernan reports that David Low moved to Manhattan and now lives in the same co-op as she does. They run into each other often and are both big Yankee fans.
Libby Horn is working as a FNP at a family practice, sings in two choruses and church choir, and volunteers at a hospice and a school-age reading program.
Jim Johnson brought the concept of “Ciclovia” to his hometown with the Chattanooga City Celebration closing down more than six miles of city streets to motorized traffic and connecting festivals in six neighborhoods for cyclists and pedestrians.
Michael Kennedy-Scanlon and his wife live in Barcelona and experience first-hand the Catalan independence movement, which he describes as highly emotional and intolerant.
Andrew McCulloch retired as president/CEO of Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Health Plan of the Northwest. After 10-plus years in this role, his organization was ranked as the highest quality, best service, and most affordable entity in the Pacific Northwest.
Jack O’Donnell had his first grandchild and traveled to London to meet him. Son Sam ’01 lives in London and Jack figures he will be making many trips there to make sure the little guy can play baseball. Jack’s daughter, Margaret ’19, is studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Hanoi, and Cape Town.
My oldest daughter, Samantha, is engaged and making plans to get married next year. Daughter Michelle is gainfully employed. And daughter Lindsey is studying Russian in Kazakhstan. I had a busy year, traveled around India in February, flew in a two-seat WWII fighter in June, and spent Labor Day weekend with Nancy in Asheville, N.C., with friends.
Mitchell Marinello | mlmarinello@comcast.net