CLASS OF 1971 | 2023 | SPRING ISSUE
Aloha, Here are the more extensive notes from classmates emails. Most following the new guidelines for talking about their transitions after work life. Each entry is followed by the classmate who contributed. Enjoy!
Jay Resnick, of the Hewitt 8 Delaware guys, sent in this photo. Comments about it came from John Wheat, David Rabban, and Michael Brewin:
“Hope you had fun! Looks cold [or wet] for September (jackets)—climate change here has turned the Pacific Northwest into a hot place, even in October (70s–85 degrees F);
“Idea: might be cool for someone to host a live, one-hour Zoom ‘happy hour’/Wes get-together event, one to two times per year;
“P.S.: Here’s a concert music track (at Seattle Center) for chilling out (and a shout-out to my music bros, Richie and Warren): Stolen Moments.” NB: You might need to download the file and use iTunes, Apple Music, Google Play, etc. for your listening pleasure.
“The documentary film whose story I discovered and researched, found the sources for, and produced, along with co-producer Mark Mitten and director Steve James, was completed this summer, funded in full by Participant Films, and was one of two documentaries chosen for the first time for world premieres at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, where it got a five-minute standing applause from the 1000-seat full house at the Aliedo on September 2. The U.S. debut at Telluride, a day later, also played to full houses. A Compassionate Spy, about teenage Manhattan Project physicist Ted Hall who became a Soviet spy at Los Alamos to prevent a U.S. monopoly on the bomb, should be released next spring. The whole project has been an exciting journey as I’ve spent my whole career as a print journalist. Got to see our grandson Jacob finally on his second birthday in Oxford where daughter Ariel is now an associate professor when the film premiered in the U.K.”— Dave Lindorff
“Well, I don’t know if this is good news or bad news but I’m not really in a period of transition— well except that I have entered what I call the ‘used car’ phase of life in which parts need to be replaced, in this case a hip. But otherwise, I still produce content for a video game company and so am required to spend a bunch of time in the U.K.; I still teach screenwriting through a low residency program as part of UC Riverside, I still produce and write the odd film, I still consult for a preschool . . . . So, retirement is not really part of the picture. Nor are any of my three kids showing much interest in giving me grandkids. The truth is my work life is always challenging in a good way and my family life is wonderfully gratifying. SO, I’m more than okay with the lack of transition.”—John Schimmel
“Missing Wes and DKE more than ever. It really was an incredible time in our life and a transformation for generations to follow. I’m not entirely proud of how it all went down but would love to go back knowing what we know now. Doing all the mundanities of 73-year-olds, including golf, grandparenting, and drinking good wine.
“Need the ‘fountain of youth,’ before we have another civil war. Miss the rock concerts.”—Joe Keller
“Hope you and Class of ’71 are doing well! I am prep cooking one day per week at Feed More and training to give tours at VMHC.”—Warren White
“After almost 40 years of doing commission furniture design and construction, I am now concentrating on designing and making pieces for our home—no more commissions! I also photograph these pieces and write them up for publication in one or more of the trade journals if I feel that it is applicable. I have been teaching more and enjoying it—last spring I had Jay Resnick’s son Eli as one of my students in a class in Indiana! It’s all very rewarding and I am enjoying it.”—Andrew Glantz
“Neil, I’m avoiding ‘transitioning’ until I come up with something worth transitioning to. Until then, I am still practicing law, albeit at a slower pace than when I was half my current age. Karla and I have downsized (a hideous word and concept) into a condominium, and I’ll consider retiring from my law practice when I find the right next step. I’m really looking for something related to climate change, but that isn’t easy to find.”—Mark I. Wallach
“Unfortunately, I could not go to our reunion. For my transition, I am remaining active as a senior partner at Blair and working with some clients, portfolio managers, and also marketing. I am also on a number of Boards of Trustees including Wesleyan. I am trying to spend a lot of time with my children and grandchildren which has been very rewarding. Finally, I am playing more golf, hiking, and taking a few online courses. So far it has gone well.”—Phil Rauch
“I decided to respond right away before I forget to follow up (another sign of aging).
What’s made my life more fulfilling may not be instructive to others due to my personal circumstance. However, the experience may be replicated by some, as well as give others hope.
“After being widowed in 2000, I finally found the second love of my life six years ago. I am now in a long-term, committed relationship with a wonderful man with whom we share our love for one another and for travel, bicycling, dining out, winters in the desert, our respective board experiences, new friends, and an extended family—all in greater abundance than were feasible while I was single.”—Mary O. McWilliams
“I’ve been practicing law in New York for small firms and large firms. For the past six years, I’ve been a sole practitioner, working out of my home and eliminating a 3 ½- to 4-hour commute. After I set up my solo practice, I practiced in the estates and trusts area and handled small- to medium-size deals such as purchase and sale agreements, structuring and documenting financial arrangements, and a variety of other business matters. About five weeks ago, I handled a transaction in which two partners who operated an accounting firm for 35 years were separating. I represented the withdrawing partner in what was supposed to be a friendly deal between two old friends. I warned my client that when money is involved, old friendships and years of working together usually mean nothing, as each partner jockeys for his own best deal.
“The attorneys representing my client’s partner were from a large midtown firm, with a senior partner and a junior partner working together. Both attorneys were extremely dismissive of me, were terribly rude, refused to even consider comments from me, and lied about the execution document. On the day of the closing, the big firm attorneys emailed to me the final, execution documents, and a marked copy of the execution documents, showing the changes from the prior draft of the document. I went through the documents and discovered that they had removed from the agreement one section which was very important to my client and hadn’t marked it. They probably figured that I would just go over the redlines and wouldn’t notice that they had omitted this very important provision. But, as an old-fashioned attorney, I read every word of the redline and discovered their effort to cheat. I called the junior partner, asked about the redline, and let him have it. Failing to mark a change under these circumstances is unethical and violates the unwritten gentlemen’s understanding among attorneys that the marked copy of the document accurately shows all changes to the document. But I caught these sons of bitches in a lie.
“The junior partner wrote me a two-page letter explaining that the copy-room clerk had made a mistake, and his assistant made a mistake, and as a result they sent the wrong document to me. It was everybody’s fault except the junior partner’s. I emailed the senior partner about this and he told me that they thought my client wanted the important clause to be removed.
“That was it: my moment of disgust. I didn’t want to deal with slimeballs like these two lawyers anymore. I didn’t want to do deals and take middle-of-the-night phone calls anymore. I didn’t want to do the things I had been doing for close to 50 years. So at that moment of disgust, I stood up, retired, and began to wind down my law practice. I’m pivoting into becoming an advocate for people who have a brain illness and have been caught up in the criminal law system. I am excited to learn about the laws and procedures that govern when a person with a mental illness commits a crime, is caught by the police, and goes to jail. If this person is determined by the court to be dangerous, as determined by the court and the district attorney, and as approved by some old men who are unaware of the advances that have been made by psychiatrists and psychologists, the person is placed in a secure forensic psychiatric hospital for an unknown period of time, possible the rest of his life, until the DA, the court and the old men in Albany agree that the person is no longer dangerous. There are no objective standards for a person to achieve in order to be no longer ‘dangerous.’ The residents of the hospital receive little treatment, and spend days at a time with nothing to do but sit in their rooms and try to entertain themselves, especially during the pandemic. I’d like to change this system. This piece may be a little too long for your column, but it felt good to me to get it out.
“Be well, stay safe and enjoy life!”—John Wagner, Esq.
“Neil, I think this is a great idea. I will not be retiring until next August but the consideration of alternatives and options is creative for us all. Look forward to reading the notes and hearing about what others are into.”—Anthony Wheeldin
“Neil, here is my response to your request for what I am doing since undergoing the transition brought on by retirement.
“I was obliged to retire from paying work in 2005. Since [then] I have done music, visual art, studying and writing on topics that aim to reveal the heart of what is, both mystical and rational, learning to fly airplanes, and I have spent a great deal of time helping family and friends in a variety of ways.
“In addition to playing music on the guitar and doing semi-serious photography, metal work, woodwork, and other art, my passion has been revealing the true nature of reality. This has entailed reconciling and relating mystical revelations about reality with theoretical thought systems like quantum physics which attempt to do the same.
“Extending peace.”—Jim Rizza
“Neil, we have finally decided to emerge from our COVID hibernation, so here we are in Italy again, this time for about three months. My wife Lindsay speaks fluent Italian, and I’m working on it. Luckily we have Italian friends in Florence and Rome who we stay with—la vita e bella! Hope all is good with you.”—Blake Allison
“Still working full time at USC in Los Angeles doing cancer immunology research and loving it. On off time, I went back to collecting a fine set of Indian Head cents, enjoying coin shows and my grandchildren, and reading a good book about every two weeks. One of my MD/PhD students, as a present for training her, recently bought a first edition, signed copy of The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann for me after hearing about this fabulous work and the Freshman Humanities Course at Wesleyan. I plan on going back to read some of the books from the humanities and German and Russian lit classes such as The Magic Mountain, The Glass Bead Game, Steppenwolf, Crime and Punishment, etc., since they are cherished memories of my Wesleyan experience. I truly miss Wesleyan and hope to visit soon. So glad my son, Aaron ’01, was able to have his own time at Wesleyan. He is in private practice doing maternal fetal care and doing very well. Finally, my wife and I enjoy seeing British mysteries on PBS some nights and my younger son Seth is working with me in the lab while he instructs youngsters in baseball after a short but exciting professional baseball career when he was younger.”—Alan Epstein
“While surfing for something else, I found this. The tip-off was Brooks Edwards’s mustache in the preview frame. I think it was posted only a few weeks ago, so apologies if you’ve already seen this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGjg56e_9N8
“It’s all homemade and cliché free. Contemporary cinematographers would go to school on this. I met an episodic TV director who was hired to shoot a Tampax commercial set at Woodstock. Her husband had been a member of the Hog Farm, so it was closer to the vibe than usual, but it still looked too polished. Like studio musicians trying to sound like a garage band. Some music producers I know gave up and started to hire garage bands to lay down the tracks.
“Some political rants included, but not Aly Sujo’s discourse on bodily functions. Acoustic set opens with Deep Elem, Garcia and Weir apparently playing at the same tempo, but different time signatures. Or maybe it’s a tech glitch. Garcia’s steel solo on Last Lonely Eagle is a triumph of musicality over limited technique. Too Hard to Handle achieves critical mass—Booker T on acid.”—Mark Paul
Dave Foster commented on a series of emails on O’Rourke’s, initiated by Jay Resnick, concerning the Amazon book that can be ordered about the diner. Then there were further comments from John Wheat and Michael Brewin.
Kip Anderson says, “Thanks for the prompt. Nowadays I get much satisfaction from spending time with my three grandchildren. And all along I’ve continued to write poems and see them published in various print and electronic journals. For example, there’s this one published in The Lyric:
Old Friends Remembered
My once-long hair’s been slowly thinning
For going on some thirty years,
But friends I’ve known from the beginning
Are with me as my exit nears.
I’m powerless to turn the tide
That’s always surging toward the finish,
Yet age-old bonds I hold inside
Are something time cannot diminish.
It’s fair to say I was a loner
On many drear and foggy days,
But now I am the happy owner
Of memories that dispel the haze.
And finally, I have not transitioned, I guess. I retired at 52 years old. Decided I missed an opportunity and became an architect/city planner. Worked on improving the built environment in the town of Lihue, Kauai, Hawaii. I can actually see things changing, albeit it has taken 20 years. While doing that I became a hospice palliative care physician and started the Palliative Care Program on Kauai that became a test site for CMS of the government. Then I went back to full-time chief medical officer for a biotech company and am now on my second full-time company job. Luckily, I can work remotely so I spend most of my time on Kauai and the rest in La Jolla at my second home. One day I promise myself I will just go to the beach every day on Kauai, but not yet. 😊!!!!
Until next time. All stay safe and healthy and let me know how your transitions are going.