CLASS OF 1992 | 2022 | SPRING ISSUE
Dear Classmates:
Happy spring! I’m looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible at our 30th(!) Reunion later this year. But for now, here’s the news from the class of 1992.
Andrew Draper is working at an education-tech start-up from his apartment in Brooklyn, where he lives with his 16-year-old son. Leaving Brooklyn, Jonathan Liebson has jumped the East River again and returned to Manhattan. For the 20th anniversary of 9/11, he published a photographic memoir of that day with The American Scholar online.
Over the summer, I made a quick escape to the Pacific Northwest, where I got to see my senior-year roommate Simon Fulford, who is working at Parrott Creek Child & Family Services. They are launching a major capital campaign this year to increase their residential and community-based treatment programs. In addition, Simon will have a chapter titled, “Listen and Let Me Heal My Pain: Justice for America’s Children” published in the UK-based Monument Fellowship book series this spring. All the while he continues to look over his three boys (now 10, 14, and 19).
Anne Paris is also in Portland, Oregon, with her partner Ben Root, and her son lives with them half time. Anne is mostly working as a freelance writer and analyst, doing work for tech firms and education nonprofits. “During COVID I bought a camping trailer, and so I’m looking forward to doing some ‘work-from-camper’ road trips after my son goes to college in the fall of 2023. I try to squeeze in some time for poetry, painting, and traveling, and I’m looking forward to leading a writing and art residency in eastern Oregon in the spring.”
Sarah Guernsey is still teaching 6th grade math and is excited to be in-person after being virtual for most of last year. She and Adam Blumer ’91 are empty nesters, having sent both of their boys to college. Sarah just finished working as part of the transition team for the new mayor of Framingham; she was one of the co-chairs of the education subcommittee. After that she has been keeping active by serving on the executive board and the bargaining team for the teachers’ association.
Welcome first-time notes contributor Melissa Doty who lives in West Virginia and sums up the past 30 years as follows: “Current husband, Steve, and I share five adult kids who have pretty much flown the nest. Over the years I’ve been a mom, a business manager, and a nonprofit director, but in 2016, I started painting and now that’s what I do! (Come say hello over on IG@melissadoty.art.)”
Linda Perlstein lives in Seattle where she just started a new job at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with their Global Communications team to supervise writing projects, particularly those in the voice of the foundation and its leaders.
Joy Lewis writes that her son graduated Sidwell Friends School, Washington, DC, this past June and is now a freshman at Wes (class ’25).
Maurice Harris currently lives just outside of Philly and is working for the Reconstructionist movement of Judaism in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. His third book was published in 2019, and it’s called The Forgotten Sage: Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah and the Birth of Judaism as We Know It, from Cascade Books.
Chris Arndt is going on his seventh year in Telluride since moving out of NYC in 2015. His sons Alden (12) and Graham (10) ski downhill, cross-country, play lacrosse, and enjoy the outdoors. He continues to work on environmental issues some but spent a lot more time in the past few years getting back into playing bass and music, especially last year. He recently recorded an album in Nashville. The album, Lost Bags, is a mix of new and old original songs, many of which date back to his Baggage Claim days at Wes. Check out more here: https://mailchi.mp/7a6bfc1da80e/introducing-the-doc-project.
Jay Hardwig writes from Asheville, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife of 25 years, Nita Smith. They work as teachers for students with blindness and low vision. Jay recently published a middle-grade novel, Just Maria. Just Maria is the story of Maria Romero, a blind sixth grader who is trying her hardest to be normal—learn more and order your copy at jayhardwig.com.
Lori Coyne started a new role with her firm in May 2021 as a senior environmental sustainability consultant in Environmental Resource Management’s (ERM’S) Sustainability, Strategy, and Disclosure service area. Lori is also an empty nester as her daughter went off to UVM (which she chose over Wesleyan!).
That’s all the news for now. Please send Paul and me your updates. And hope to see you at Wes in May!