CLASS OF 1982 | 2021–2022 | WINTER ISSUE
Laura Fraser and I are hoping that you are enjoying the reopening and the end of the pandemic (and we hope not the end of the end of the pandemic) as you read this. A few lovely updates as time marches on.
“Small world,” writes Rich Lipman. “We were on the same Zoom call recently for the Stanford Ethics in Society undergraduate honors thesis presentations. My son was one of the presenters.” Good timing, too. I was there supporting one of my students and our class email went out soon after, so Rich thought to get in touch. Nice to be there with you, Rich.
After twenty years, six research trips to Egypt, and a lot of rough road and broken glass, Peter Blauner (after a little prodding by this classmate) is pleased to announce that his ninth novel, Picture in the Sand, will be published by St. Martin’s/Minotaur in the fall of 2022. Peter points out “this is only half as long as Moses and his followers spent wandering in the desert.”
Sharon Marable is a physician living in Sharon, Massachusetts. She is currently working at Southcoast Health in Massachusetts and was recently appointed the vice chair of the Massachusetts Medical Society’s Committee on the Quality of Medical Practice. She is enjoying mentoring students on the medical and public health career pipeline. It’s nice to do good, Sharon.
Karen Mohr just ran 60k around Chrissy Field in San Francisco. “To celebrate my 60th with Emily Brower ’83 at my side. Great way to catch up with old friends.” I did not run 60k to celebrate my 60th and my feet hurt just reading her email, but that is a wonderful accomplishment.
Stephen Daniel writes: “All is generally well out here on the sandbar, though a much busier year due to the presence of COVID refugees than our community typically enjoys. Daughter India ’22 has adored her time at Wes. Funny how the family generations have lined up—my father Ron ’52, brother David ’77, me at ’82, and India at ’22. We may all have a private reunion at some point.” Stephen also stepped down as chair of the board of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy just before writing to us “after six years at the post collaboratively building this amazing not-for-profit, though will remain on the board. Also stepped down from the Board of Jazz at Lincoln Center not long ago after 12 years there. Nice to have some time free up!”
Steven Maizes (my second cousin and basketball star at Wesleyan) writes “post vaccine I had some fun interactions with our classmates from 1982. First Nina Goodwin and her husband Chris came over to demolish my wife Nicole and me in a game of doubles ping-pong. Then Michael Zeller (backed by his lovely wife Gayle) duplicated his multisport athletic ferocity by destroying all competitors in table hockey.” I hope I’m not stirring up controversy by saying this: vaccines are awesome, even if it’s for backyard table games.
Emilie Attwell writes, “News for me is that I changed jobs. I retired from the state with a pension and full health benefits. I now work for the Local Mental Health Authority in San Antonio at the Center for Health Services as their forensic psychiatrist. The new job is almost all virtual, which is a timely subject currently. She sent me a recent photo of her travel companion, “Lil Bunny.” Wish we could share that.
“I’m not a regular contributor to class notes,” writes Steve Gorman, “but your message arrived at the same time the announcement for my new exhibition was posted, so here is my news.” It’s a bit modest for Steve to just send a link to his show, Down to the Bone, at the Peabody Essex Museum, where his absolutely stunning photographs of Kaktovik, Alaska—an Inupiat village in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—are shown alongside the work of the great cartoonist, Edward Koren (“a dramatist of the Anthropocene”), where they “respond to the consequences of destabilizing our natural environment and speak to their alarm about the global climate crisis.”
Former class secretary Bob Russo is keeping up communication, and we’re so glad to end on this note. “The most exciting thing Carol ’84 and I have done is to get a puppy. She is a Small Munsterlander (a rare breed, look it up!) She’s a blast and a cure for encroaching old age.” If you have to put it that way, Bob, fine, but I’ll leave you until next time with a quote from T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets (that I read in Humanities 101, Cosmic Dissolution, during freshman year, so totally appropriate here):
Time past and time future
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.