CLASS OF 1983 | 2020 | ISSUE 1
Greetings from seasonally warm New Jersey! Not sure whether to celebrate or be concerned about the beautiful 60° January weekend we had here in the Garden State. I suppose it depends on which side of the aisle you are on. But I’m told to keep these notes nonpolitical, so all I will say is, “Yikes!” Wishing you light and love in the coming decade. Here is the news:
With both kids in college, Lisa Kennedy sold the house and downsized to condo life and is loving it! She is in the residential real estate biz for 18 years and going strong. Now, Lisa is with Coldwell Banker. Daughter Julia will receive her bachelor’s degree from Fordham University and son Adam is a film and TV production major at Valencia College in Orlando. Last summer, Lisa and Adam visited Ken Fuch, who took them on a personal tour of his new L.A. soundstage of Family Feud.
Karen Miller’s five kids are out of college and have started their own journeys. She and her spouse traveled to Africa, France, Spain, and a few other fun spots. When not traveling, she continues to play squash competitively. In June, her daughter is getting married in Lake Placid.
Richard Cho was selected as a 2017 Distinguished Career Fellow (DCI) at Stanford University. Richard has close to 25 years of experience in the energy industry, having served as the CEO and president and/or board member for several companies. For most of his career, he developed alternative energy projects around the world. He is the founder of Ridge Energy Services, a company that is making investments in the energy sector.
Greg LoPiccolo writes, “After 19 years at Harmonix, where I worked on Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and numerous other music games, I struck out on my own last year and founded ToneStone, focused on music creativity for nonmusicians, driven by gameplay. Chris Foster ’92 is collaborating on the design. Look for it in 2021!”
In December, Sue Peabody returned to Réunion Island for the opening of her museum exhibit, L’étrange histoire de Furcy Madeleine, which explores the struggle of one man to become free in French and English legal systems. While in London, Sue caught up with Jenny Boylan ’80 and Deirdre Finney Boylan, when Jenny delivered a lecture on plot, self-acceptance, and love to students, parents, and staff of the American School. Sue began work on her next book, The Failure of the Succès: Anatomy of a Slave Smuggling Voyage.
Mitch Plave sends greetings from Washington, D.C. He serves as special counsel at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which is an agency that charters and supervises national banks. His focus is administrative law, which involves the rulemaking process, public input to adoption of rules, and judicial review of rulemakings. Son Aaron Plave ’15, is a software engineer at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Los Angeles. Daughter Leah is a cellist and recently completed a master’s at McGill. Her first CD will be issued this spring. Mitch had dinner with Beth Tractenberg, who is thriving as a wills, trust, and estates lawyer in New York at Steptoe & Johnson.
Charlie Brenner, now an empty nester with a University of Iowa graduate son, and his fiancée bought a beautiful 30-acre farm outside of Iowa City, where they are building a new house and starting a lavender business. They will stock the ponds and plant the first field this spring. As head of biochemistry at UI and chief scientific adviser for ChromaDex, Charlie tweets about metabolism @charlesmbrenner.
Vashti Dubois is at The Colored Girls Museum, which is partnering with the Center for Digital Humanities at the University of Arizona to establish a model for collaboratively producing VR/AR museum experiences to expand and engage audiences. The institutions will create an augmented reality enhanced virtual museum experience that connects a dynamic group of artists, educators, and technologists with everyday women of the African diaspora.
Sheila Spencer kicked off the New Year 2020 in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles with her husband and two kids who are home from college. Her daughter is a sophomore at Sarah Lawrence College studying studio art, and her son is an English major at Reed College in Portland, Ore. She had a lovely dinner with Heidi Mastrogiovanni ’79.
Pam Dolin sends new year’s greetings and writes, “I am a newly minted grandmother to baby girl, Violet Evie! A new chapter in life!”
Tricia Reilly attended Family Weekend to visit her son, Peter ’21, a junior, and ran into her friend and former partner from Tyler Cooper, Bob Allen ’70, who was being honored at midfield during halftime as a member of the last undefeated Cardinal football team—Little Three Champions—on their 50th anniversary. Tricia is the chair of the Labor and Employment Practice at Murtha Cullina, LLP in New Haven.
Nancy Rommelman’s works appear in the LA Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Reason, and other publications. Her most recent book, To the Bridge, A True Story of Motherhood and Murder, was published in 2018. After years on the West Coast, she is delighted to back home in NYC (Chinatown).
Laurie Hills | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu