CLASS OF 1980 | 2018 | ISSUE 3
Thank you, Wes ’80 for writing. There were so many first-time and return writers that I had to cut the print column to half the size of what was submitted. In the print version, I urged you to put that magazine down and I hoped you would pick up your phone, tablet, or laptop and go straight online to view the notes in their entirety. Here, online, you will learn more about the lives of our classmates and can click on a few links they sent. I hope that the level of engagement in writing for our class notes column is an indicator that there will be many who, for the first time, will join us “Reunion loyalist” and attend our 40th in May 2020—where we can look back with perfect vision to what one of our classmates who recently wrote called, “a simpler time.”
Cheryl Salden Green writes: My husband, Jim, and I are very excited that our son, Mitchell, was admitted to Wesleyan early decision this year and will entering as a freshman this fall. Mitchell fell in love with the school when we visited during Alumni Sons and Daughters Weekend during his junior year (in spite of the fact that Jim and I went there)! Jim and I met in Foss 7 the first day of freshman orientation in August 1976 (and got married 15 years later, after Jim finished his medical residency and I was out of law school). We have been on campus more during the college application process in the last two years than we have since graduation. I am a real estate attorney in Rhode Island working in-house for CVS Health. Jim and Mitchell (who recently became an eagle scout) are both active volunteers for Boy Scouts and other groups. We live in Foxborough (home of the Patriots). I would love to hear from some of our Wesleyan friends.”
Bruce Post writes: “My second novel, Eris Adrift, was published in May and is available at Amazon, as a paperback and also on Kindle.”
Nancy Stier writes: “I recently spent a wonderful evening here in NYC with classmates Art Feltman, Thom Kleiner, and David Kohane, a dinner we arranged to celebrate our big birthdays this year.”
Paul Edwards writes: “In July 2017, I moved to San Francisco with my family to take up a new position at Stanford University, where I am William J. Perry Fellow in International Security at the Center for International Security and Cooperation. I’ll be a lead author on the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, a four-year task that’s both an honor and a ton of work. My wife, Gabrielle Hecht, also took a Stanford position in the history department. Our 15-year-old son, Luka, is finishing his first year of high school, playing soccer, and writing poetry, fiction, and rap. Two sightings of the aggressively shaven Alan Jacobs, on his way to Norway to make a film about the 1911 race to the South Pole. (Memo to Alan: Norway is nowhere near Antarctica.)”
Jacquie and Andrew McKenna writes: “Greetings from Boulder, Colo. Our family is back in Boulder after our girls, Xan (16) and Juliana (14), lived for five months in Monteverde Costa Rica with local families and attended the Monteverde Friends School for a semester. They are both basically fluent in Spanish and much more aware of their own traditions after living in a very different culture. They also survived the eye of Hurricane (in Spanish “Tormenta”) Nate—cut off for a week from water and electricity, surrounded by mudslides in every direction but well taken care of by an amazing community.” During these five months, Jacquie and Andrew lived in Monteverde for a couple months volunteering with the local community on solar and conservation, traveled throughout Central America for a couple months and returned to the States for a month as empty nesters (very strange)! Speaking of empty nesters, we sure are aware how time is passing as our oldest daughter obtained her driver’s license this month and is talking about colleges and our younger daughter graduated from middle school and heads to high school next year. As we all say, “where does the time go?!?!” Before we know it, we’ll all be back at Wesleyan celebrating our 40th Reunion year—FORTIETH! Yikes!”
David Claman, PhD, writes: “I recently earned tenure at Lehman College in The Bronx, one of the senior colleges of The City University of New York. I teach music theory, composition, and electronic music. With tenure comes a much-needed sabbatical. I’ve fortunately been awarded a Fulbright-Nehru grant for research and teaching in India next year. So, in September my wife, Sunita, and I will once again relocate to India for many months, this time to Delhi. I will be affiliated with The University of Delhi, composing, teaching, and learning more about Hindustani music. The experience I had learning South Indian music at Wes with T. Viswanathan PhD’75, T. Ranganathan, and K.S. Subramanian PhD’86—among the finest musicians I’ve ever worked with—has stayed with me and continues to play a part in my life. But at this point I’m interested in learning more about music in North India which is significantly different.
“The rest of the time, we live in Jackson Heights, Queens, N.Y., with our dog named Boffin who was rescued off the streets of Delhi three years ago. I’m also in the final stages of putting together a CD of my music for Albany Records. Several of my compositions are posted here, as well as on YouTube and Spotify.”
Peter Scharf writes: “I continue my itinerate life as a visiting professor at various institutions. Last November I completed a three-year appointment at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, and at the end of July I take up an appointment in the Language Technology Research Center at the International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad. I’ll teach a course on Paninian linguistics for non-Sanskritists, the aim of which will be to get the future writers of machine translation of Indian languages to include concepts from their own currently neglected Indian linguistic traditions. In the meantime, I keep adding texts, lexical resources, and linguistic technology to the Sanskrit Library website.”
Jeff Green writes: “I started working part-time in the emergency department of a new hospital in Ashdod, Israel, and continue to work in a couple of ERs in Wisconsin sporadically, dividing my time between Israel and Milwaukee. Our oldest daughter is a doctor in Australia, our youngest is in the Israeli intelligence service, and our son (Wesleyan Class of 2015) just got a record deal in LA. Check out his tune—Bring Me Down by Double Twin.”
Walter Calhoun writes: “I presently live in Highland Park, Ill. I have not had steady employment since I was hit by a car as a pedestrian on May 22, 2002 when I was sent 30 feet in the air and suffered a severe head injury after landing on my head and face. Miraculously, I did not break any bones. I was, however, in a coma for close to 30 days and then further hospitalized for another six to seven months as I attempted to recover from my various injuries.
“After I was discharged from the hospital, I continued to try and develop civil defense business in the mid-size defense firm where I was a partner. Ultimately, I was no long able to try lawsuits to verdict like I had before and by 2008 left the practice of law for good. By that time, I was living with my daughter, Sammy, who had obtained her degree in religion from St. Anselm in Manchester, N.H., and had begun work at CDW Corp. We lived in Glencoe, Ill., together for three years until we were joined by my son, Daniel, who was then taking a break from college. Sammy has been working at CDW in Bridgeport, Conn., while living with her fiancé, Brian. They plan to marry on Oct. 12, 2018 art the Bronx Zoo in NYC. Daniel graduated from Lake Forest College in Illinois cum laude this past June and has accepted a position in finance at Ayco. I have tried to keep in contact with Steve Freccero who was nominated to serve as a California state judge after a position as an assistant U.S. attorney and becoming a partner in private practice and Labeeb Abboud who is a general counsel for a company in NYC Blessings in joy.”
Melissa Stern writes: “My mixed media installation project The Talking Cure just finished up a fabulous run in St. Louis at The Kranzberg Center for Contemporary Art. It goes back on the road again in a few months. Stay tuned for details on where and when. Right now ,I’m working like mad getting ready for my solo show at Garvey Simon Gallery in NYC, which opens in October. Hope to see some Wes Tech folks there. I also start teaching at Parsons School of Design this Fall, so it’s going to be a jam packed couple of months!”
Cindy Ryan writes: This May I received my second master’s in clinical mental health counseling – expressive arts therapy from Lesley University. Along the way I had the fortune to be supervised by Deb Madera ’95, who founded one amazing mental health treatment facility, Cultivate Care Farms, where I interned. Expressive arts therapy combines beautifully with animal and farm-assisted therapy! This past year I Interned at an exceptional integrative care facility with cancer patients and their families. As my two adult kids, Juliet and Jonah, have long since found their successes, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting back to the books, finding a new passion, and reinventing myself by harnessing the power of creativity to help others.”
Ellen Haller writes: “I’m writing this while completing my sixth AIDS/LifeCycle, a seven-day, 545-mile charity bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angles. I ride because I was in medical school in 1982 when the AIDS crisos first hit, and I’ve lost countless patients to this disease since those dark days. I ride because AIDS is still here. I ride because California is beautiful. And, I ride because I love cycling! My main news is that, after 30 years on the full-time faculty at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, I’ll be retiring as of June 30, 2018! I’m looking forward to more cycling and also to continued ice hockey playing; yep, I still play! Huge thanks to Wes where my hockey addiction first began.
David Luberoff writes, “At the urging of Jenny Boylan, Eric Segal and I traveled down to Middletown on May 26to join her for the gathering of former Argus editors and writers that marked the paper’s 150th anniversary. We had a wonderful afternoon starting with lunch at O’Rourke’s and then a long stroll around the campus, highlighted by a visit to the Argus’ former home at the corner of Church and High Streets, which now houses the school’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (and looks a lot better than it did when it housed the Argus). After taking some selfies there, we strolled through the Butterfield dorms and around campus, including a recollection-filled hiatus sitting on Foss Hill, where we ruminated on the unexpected paths our lives have taken. We ended at Russell House for a reception where several decades of Argus alumni told similar tales of late nights, crises, take-out food, and a variety of important experiences and lessons that we’ve taken forward, even as most of us moved into non-journalism professions. All in all, a fun and touching day.”
KIMBERLY OFRIA SELBY | kim_selby@yahoo.com