CLASS OF 1978 | 2020 | ISSUE 1

Jon Spector has retired from his position as CEO of The Conference Board and is “comfortably settled with my wife, Wendy, in beautiful Woodstock, Vt., getting in shape, improving my tennis, and helping to figure out how best to develop our local economy.”

Ruth Pachman has relayed the sad news that Debbie Stuckey died, surrounded by family and friends, on Jan. 6, following her long battle with breast cancer. Ruth, along with Marilyn Fagelson and Elise Bean, “had visited with her just two weeks before, spending a lovely day trimming her Christmas tree and cherishing what was clearly close to the end of 45 years of friendship that started in Clark Hall freshman year and wound through Delta Tau, the William Street apartments, Foss Hill, and McConaughy. Debbie was a government major and got her doctorate in psychology from Boston University and Harvard. She was a family relationship therapist with her own practice in Washington, D.C. At Wes, Debbie was a fabulous dancer and singer. Her intense joy of music, among countless other things, will be remembered by us and many other classmates.” Debbie leaves behind two daughters, Kiera and Hayley, and a son, Will. Our heartfelt thoughts go out to her family.

Dave Wilson has an active musical career on saxophone and released his fifth album (One Night at Chris’) last summer with great acclaim. Dave lives with his wife, Lisa, in Lancaster, Pa., where he teaches music and owns a musical instrument shop.

Julie Skolnik is a flutist in her long-successful chamber group of 22 years, Mistral Music, and relates a heartening tale of this past year, which made the front page of The Boston Globe. Just as the group was starting a concert piece, an elderly woman in the front row collapsed in cardiac arrest. With doctors present in the audience, CPR was initiated; she came around, pleading from her departing stretcher to just be left alone (“What are you doing? I want to hear the music!”). The group responded with an encore of “Here Comes the Sun” and a visit to her in the hospital. Heart-stopping music, they feel.

Susie Muirhead Bates | sbatesdux@hotmail.com 

Ken Kramer | kmkramer78@hotmail.com