CLASS OF 1979 | 2018 | ISSUE 1
Class of 1979 Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship Fund
Julian Carraway ’18, Sociology
Happy Spring! My first PCA race of the season will be at Road Atlanta in April (ABD).
Ann Kaplan never ceases to amaze! “Last fall, I organized a conference, Duty to Warn. The speakers were psychologists who outlined their concerns about the president’s dangerousness. There’s nothing like successfully herding a group of NYC shrinks to give a person a sense of bewildered accomplishment. In August I dived the Lembeh Strait in Indonesia. The strange life there includes hairy frog fish, blue ringed octopi, stargazers, seahorses, ghost pipefish, devil fish, and scores of nudibranchs. I attended a Vinyasa yoga retreat in a villa in Nice. In addition to hours of yoga instruction, the retreat included meditation, indulgent food, and great wine. LuxYoga sells a T-shirt that reads: “F*ck Kale. Eat Butter.” Last year, I was promoted to vice president at Council for Aid to Education, where I have worked for 17 years as a researcher and writer. I spent much of 2017 working with a brilliant coder, Jacob Drew ’98, on a benchmarking platform for advancement professionals. Our new application just launched and has been very well-received.”
Martha Bush remarks, “After a wonderful run of 25-and-a-half years at SIGMA, I will be leaving as of the first of the year. I will be doing a couple of personal projects that I hope to tell you about later in 2018.”
Matt Jarvinen reports that Ralph Maltese and his bride, Sheila Peck ’81, visited him in Colorado last September. Ralph was named “Most Valuable Wedding Guest” by the family when his godson, John Jarvinen, was married in the hills west of Denver. Ralph stuck around for a few short hikes in Rocky Mountain National Park, topping out at an elevation just over 13,000 feet.
Melissa Stern ’80, Jim Friedlich ’79, and Max Friedlich ’17 spent a wonderful Christmas Eve with Tom Valtin, at Tom’s home in San Francisco. Jim hung out with Ralph Maltese in San Jose, last month. Tom is working at The Sierra Club as he has since Wesleyan. Ralph now runs operations for The Santa Clara Food Bank, serving hundreds of thousands of meals daily to the region’s most at-risk populations.
Robert Kuhn notified us that “after 11-plus years in Florida, my husband Steven and I moved back to the Northeast in April (with our two Irish Terriers). In fact, we moved to Salisbury, Conn., one town over from where I went to boarding school (Hotchkiss). We were ready for a change and needed to exit overcrowded South Florida—we just didn’t know we’d end up in a community I was a part of in the early 1970s! We’re very happy so far and look forward to reconnecting with northeastern friends and making new ones. Anyone in the area, feel free to reach out!”
Joy D’Amore moved to Philadelphia from Dallas in December to start as director of executive search at CBIZ CMF. She leads searches for CFOs for middle-market private equity-backed portfolio companies nationwide. On a personal note, Joy had a wonderful surprise. Thanks to Ancestry.com DNA testing, she discovered that she has four younger half-brothers who live in the Richmond area. Joy had been adopted at birth and grew up an only child. She met her brothers over New Years and is very happy to be developing a close relationship with them and their families, including seven nephews and two nieces. Joy had met a half-sister six years ago from her maternal side and stays in close touch with her and with her 14-year-old niece.”
Katharine McKenna visited her daughter, Eliza ’20, at Wes. Katharine continues to paint Wyoming and the West. Her paintings will be on exhibit at the President’s Office Gallery at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn until May. Still travelling, she visited Scotland and Costa Rica with upcoming trips to Las Vegas and Paris.
Andrew Tanzer reveals: “I just published my first book, Robert Kuok: A Memoir, the story of a low-profile, enormously wealthy Malaysian-Chinese tycoon. Published in English in Singapore and Chinese in Hong Kong, the book sold more than 100,000 copies in Southeast Asia in its first two months and will go on sale in the U.S. this spring. After 25 years in journalism, mostly in East Asia, I switched to private wealth management in 2011 and became a chartered financial analyst in 2012.”
Jono Cobb writes: “No big news on the home front but I want to encourage folks to get to the polls this November! If you think your vote doesn’t matter take a look around at the current situation in our country.”
Sean Barlow and Banning Eyre invite everyone to join them at Afropop’s 30th anniversary gala on May 3 at City Winery in NYC. Harry Belafonte is honorary co-chair. Aurelio Martinez and Mokoomba will be inducted into the Afropop Hall of Fame. Afropop’s galas are always exceptional (afropop.org/page/gala2018).
Gary Breitbord | gbreitbo@aol.com
Ann Biester Deane | abdeane@aol.com