CLASS OF 1975 | 2021–2022 | WINTER ISSUE
Here’s what classmates are enjoying or anticipating: Travel! In-person meetings! Dinner with friends! Postponed wedding celebrations! Hugs! Family visits! Seeing new grandchildren!
A house fire at chez Rachel Adler Hayes destroyed their kitchen, and damaged the rest. After several months in an apartment, Rachel has discovered how little stuff they really need. Friends and her temple community provided great support.
On a comical front, David Bickford reports his “steadiest gig was eight months being paid to COVID test three times weekly at Jimmy Kimmel Live, just in case they needed me for a sketch.”
Recent or soon-to-be retirees: With their last child married, John Tabachnick and Sherry are retiring at Thanksgiving and plan to celebrate in the Caribbean—their first trip anywhere in a long time. Paul Gionfriddo retired in June as CEO of Mental Health America. He and Pam live full-time in Middletown now. Pandemic attention on mental health impacts gave Paul air time on CNN, MSNBC, CSPAN, NBC Nightly News, and Face the Nation. He says mental health presents the only chronic diseases we wait until Stage 4 to treat, which is spurring some fundamental re-thinking. Sadly, this wasn’t soon enough for Paul and Pam. Their son Tim died in last January at age 35, after living with schizophrenia for most of his life.
Paul Bennett retired five years ago. He and Laura keep busy with a variety of hobbies, interests and friends. A visit from their Brooklyn-based older son (first time since COVID) was a high point. Younger son, nearby in the Bay Area, works in tech. All are healthy, happy, and vaccinated. Paul chairs the boards of Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and a Cristo Rey De La Salle high school designed for underserved students of color. Other pursuits are keeping in shape and doing house/yard projects. Paul looks forward to fall outings, and (like me) has been “praying against the odds for a less-than-horrendous fire season.”
Grandpa Len Burman and Missie (Smith ’75), married 44 years, have now married off all four of their kids and expect grandchild number four soon. Len’s retired from the Volcker professorship at Syracuse University, but still doing research at the Urban Institute. They enjoy their lake house in central New York and a home in Arlington, Virginia.
Joe Morningstar sent a first-time note. He’s moving to a Middlebury, Connecticut, house that has land for a garden and a barn to build next spring. Joe’s still working in real estate. “Can’t give it up—it’s too much fun!” He lovingly writes of his boys, Tom and Jack, who work in film/video and recently built a log cabin in upstate New York, and of his daughter, Grace, who is a doula and whose two little girls bring Joe great joy and fun. Additional Item: “I’m a vegetarian. Who would have thought?”
Bruce Weinraub wants to know “What’s everyone is up to who lived at Hewitt 10 our freshman year?” If you know, send news I can share in our next notes.
Joost Brouwer stays in touch from the Netherlands. He frequently sees his two sons who are local. The son in Australia (and the newest granddaughter, born mid-2019) are another story. Joost and Emilie hope to visit Australia in late 2022, but the baby already recognizes them on video and calls them “Opa” and “Oma,” like a good Dutch baby.
Cathy Gorlin practices family law and imagines retirement. This summer she had visits in upstate New York from Chris McCoy McNeil and Tory Rhoden Cohen (Smith exchange), and in Minnesota and New York from her daughter and five-year-old grandson. Cathy’s son is currently applying for medical residency.
Martha Faller Brown and her husband, Anthony, visited Martha’s family’s summer house in June to enjoy Adirondack beauty, the novelty of rain, and catching up with Faller siblings and their kids. She continues to manage operations for a Bay Area legal services program, now dealing with post-COVID staff turnover and hiring.
You’ll find Deb Kosich hunkered down in Houston. She did manage spring/summer trips to see her mother in Massachusetts and her condo (which narrowly escaped last summer’s fires) in Colorado.
I recently traveled for the first time in 20 months, spending a long overdue reunion with my sister in Western Massachusetts. While there, I saw my friend since 7th grade, Tom Kovar ’76, a social worker and musician. My trip included other notable visits and celebrations: two delightful days with Jean Barish ’74 in the Catskills, followed by a Brooklyn weekend celebrating Risa Korn’s daughter Melanie’s marriage. Risa and I enjoyed catching up after the festivities. Missed seeing David Leisner, who was on deadline to finish a commissioned composition, and then going out of town on vacation.
By the way, Gary Steinel saw Bruce Springsteen’s show in 2017, but I never did score a ticket.