CLASS OF 1979 | 2020 | ISSUE 1

As I (Diane) write these notes, it is a beautiful warm day in January in San Diego. Just enjoyed a magnificent sunset on the beach. I really don’t miss the East Coast in the winter, although I know some of you are skiers and other cold-weather lovers. By the time these notes hit all of our mailboxes, it will be May and sunny and warm for all of us (except those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, I suppose).

Julie Hacker and her partner, Stuart Cohen, received a lifetime achievement award for excellence in design, academics, and scholarship from the Society of Architectural Historians. They also served as the co-editors of the Classicist, a journal of the Institute of Classical Art and Architecture, focused on Chicago and its rich architectural history. Julie sits on the local Custom Residential Architecture Network (CRAN) Steering Committee and the National CRAN Advisory Group, which is the residential arm of the AIA (American Institute of Architecture). She also serves as a preservation commissioner for the City of Evanston. Way to go, Julie!

Received a great, interesting, and fun note from John Tjia. “We are all probably at the age when we have to start thinking about the next stage in our life, regarding work and retirement. (In my case, I may be three years ahead of you as I was originally Class of ’76. I took a ‘gap year’ after sophomore year, which became three years, but that’s another class note.) I tried retiring two years ago, leaving my position as executive director at Ernst & Young’s Business Modeling Group in New York after 12 years there; however, after two months of doing crossword puzzles all morning and halfway into the afternoon at home, I thought it best to get going again. I joined MUFG (a Japanese bank) as a senior credit trainer in 2018 but then in early 2019 moved to Santander (a Spanish bank) as executive director in credit to develop a credit forecasting and analysis platform for them. It’s been a great position, and I’m not retiring (again) in the foreseeable future! That said, I seem to be getting calls from my Schwab financial advisor quite often these days. He keeps reminding me that my portfolio seems to be geared to getting market hits, but, he says, I really should be thinking more about yield and cash flow. He has a point! Longevity runs in my family (my father turned 105 in December), so I—and perhaps we all—have to think about long time horizons, it seems. On the upside, the mortgage is paid off, and my two kids have finished college, so no tuition bills anymore. Yay! As a final note, over the past 10 years or so, I have been doing oil painting as a weekend hobby and seem to have a little bit of a knack for it. I held an art show in January in the local coffee shop in Pleasantville, N.Y., where I live. I wasn’t selling them, but it was exciting to put my art out in public. Some of my paintings can be seen in the online version of these class notes. Overall, not a bad run for a Wesleyan BA in East Asian Studies! I hope everyone here and from the Class of ’76 cohort is doing well. I can be reached at johntjia@gmail.com.”

Art by John Tjia
Art by John Tjia
Art by John Tjia

Beth Masterman writes: “My daughter, Amanda ’08, and her husband Victor had a baby on June 29, Fjord L. Karlsen. Victor is Danish, hence Fjord. In other words, I’m a grandmother! Of course, it’s a wonderful, joyful experience and still: tick tock, tick tock.”

And finally, on a sad note, our classmate, Samuel Lieber, passed away unexpectedly on June 21. At the time of his passing, he was president of Alpine Woods, L.P., which he co-founded. At Wesleyan, he majored in art. Following his graduation from Wesleyan, he attended New York University’s Stern Graduate School of Business and the NYU Real Estate Institute. Before founding Alpine, he was with Whitbread-Nolan, Inc., was a Noyes fellow with The Project for Public Spaces, and was a real estate portfolio manager with the Evergreen Funds. We extend our deepest sympathies to his family and friends.

Please send us news for our next issue. We are part of a wonderful community. We should never forget that. Connections to our friends, no matter how long it’s been since we last saw each other, are important and bring joy.

Ann Biester Deane | abdeane@gmail.com

Diane LaPointe | dmlapointe28@gmail.com