CLASS OF 1973 | 2023 | SPRING ISSUE
Jay Rose writes that thanks to the efforts of Hank Shelton ’72, a number of Delta Tau Delta members from the classes of 1970–73 held a mini-reunion Zoom call. Representing the class of 1973 were Bud Brainard, Scott Fleischer, Paul Fletcher, John Franke, Mark Helfat, and Jay. Thanks, Jay, for all your efforts.
Rich Ladd tells me he finally stopped working in November as his son graduated from Boise State and his daughter had their first grandchild. He adds, “We are planning to stay in Washington State and enjoy its beautiful landscapes, but we will be traveling the roads of the U.S. in 2023–24 and plan to be present at our 50th Reunion.”
Peter Gelblum writes that the community theater that he’s been president of for the last five years, Mountain Community Theater in Ben Lomond, California, did not produce any live shows in 2020–21 because of the pandemic. He says that during those years, in addition to producing a bunch of short Zoom videos, MCT paid the costs for him to create his first film, about the CZU August Lightning Complex Fire. Peter writes, “In August 2020, the fire killed one person, burned 86,500 acres, including 97% of Big Basin Redwood State Park, California’s first state park, and destroyed 911 homes in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties. My wife and I were evacuated for 2 1/2 weeks, with the fire coming within about 100 yards of our house. In early 2021, I interviewed people who lost their homes in the fire and people who fought the fire, transcribed the interviews, created a script using only the words from the interviews, cast actors to play the people interviewed, and filmed them.” Working with a professional editor, they scored the film and backed the actors with images donated by several local professional photographers and painters. He says the result was a 90-minute-long piece of “verbatim film.” He says he has hosted many local screenings at everything from fire stations to big-screen movie theaters, with all admission donations going to the local volunteer fire departments and a fund for fire victims. Peter adds, “I’m now working on raising funds to get it online for free viewing. Other than that, since 2020, we’ve taken two, seven-week, 8,000-mile, cross-country trips to see friends, family, and amazing places in the motorhome we bought to avoid flying and staying in hotels while the pandemic was raging (as millions of others did). Now, I’m back to directing plays and working on ACLU and other local social justice issues, taking shorter RV trips, seeing as much live music as possible, and enjoying visits with our combined three grandchildren who, unfortunately, are scattered around the country.”
Stephen Sullivan sends greetings from Seattle. He tells me that since graduating from Wesleyan, he has had a “dream career as both a potter and an architect.” In 1973–74, he spent a year in Japan studying Japanese folk pottery as a Watson Foundation fellow. “What a great gift the Watson Fellowship was, to embark at age 20 upon a world very different from the one we inhabit today,” he said. “I was welcomed generously by the people of Japan, and decided that I would become a professional potter, like the masters with whom I had studied there. The reality of American culture convinced me a few years later to give up my dream of being a potter, and to study architecture.”
Stephen graduated from Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1981 and moved to Seattle with his partner and future wife. He has been there since that time, and recently celebrated the 35th anniversary of the founding of his architectural practice, Stephen Sullivan Designs, PLLC, www.stephensullivandesigns.com.
He is still working in his architectural practice, while he maintains a ceramics studio on his farm on Lopez Island, in the San Juan archipelago. He says, “The Lopez Island farm is committed to soil regeneration practices as well as wetland restoration and tree planting. My daughter and granddaughter live on the farm.” Looking back at Wesleyan, Stephen notes, “Wesleyan’s art department, with its extraordinary teachers, was an important starting point for me. We were so fortunate to have passionate teachers devoted to the educations of their students.”
To find out more about his work in the past 50 years, he sends these links: https://a.co/d/2OpFCw7 and https://oroeditions.com/product/architecture-as-art.
From Indiana, Stephen Butler says he plans to attend our 50th Reunion and is struck by how quickly 50 years seem to have passed.
And finally, I hope to see you back on campus at our 50th Reunion: May 25–28, 2023. First, keep an eye out for the 50th Reunion Class Book, which will be mailed to your home in late April 2023. This wonderful keepsake will include biographical submissions by classmates, memorabilia, photos, and reflective essays touching upon themes ranging from rugby and football to political protests, and from once-in-a-lifetime concerts to life-changing conversations.