CLASS OF 1962 | 2023 | SUMMER ISSUE
Robin Cook has recently completed his 40th novel, while he and his partners anxiously await FDA approval for their new mobile spectrometry-based diagnostic machine for multiple viruses including COVID, influenza, and monkey pox (as described in earlier Class Notes).
Bruce Franklin, who has recently moved to Tucson, Arizona, reported in on an eventful post‑Wesleyan career that began in Kampala, Uganda, followed by a posting to Nairobi and later to an up-country secondary school in Narok, the land of the Maasai. Returning to America, he completed graduate studies at Columbia and Teachers College, and subsequently taught for 45 years, first at Kean University in New Jersey, then Quinnipiac in Connecticut. In 1998 he began playing in tennis tournaments in the Southwest and around the world, mostly the senior European red-clay court circuit, and soon after “founded with others a 60-and-over basketball program where I played for 22 years. . . . Sometimes we even had our own cheerleaders—young and seniors!” Bruce continues “at a leisurely pace, to research into the business interests of the Founding Fathers.”
John Hazlehurst writes: “Still happily ensconced in our ancient, three-story Victorian in Colorado Springs. All those staircases? We must be nuts. Further evidence: Karen and I have two large-breed puppies, a Chesapeake and a poodle mix. Now 15 and nine months, they’re mischievous, destructive, disobedient, and wonderful. We still publish our annual visitor magazine, Colorado Fun, which has somehow survived and thrived for seven years. We’re in reasonably good health, and enjoy geezer jokes, e.g., I sometimes forget a name, but I never remember a face.” [Ed. note: their impressive magazine is available online at www.coloradofunguide.com/themagazine/.]
Dave Hedges and his wife recently visited Quito, Ecuador, and the Galápagos Islands, “a thoroughly enjoyable trip with a group of just eight people on a 98-foot boat, and crew of 14 to wait on us. Wonderful wildlife with birds, iguanas, sea lions, turtles, and outstanding fish for us snorkelers. Quito, is a very interesting city at 9,400 feet above sea level and we were able to visit the equator and stand on both hemispheres at the same time. Only wish we had done it five to 10 years ago as the hiking was somewhat strenuous.”
Bruce Menke is still “fighting the good fight” in Georgia where the state legislature “continues to approve bills which are outrageous infringements of our most basic and essential rights, and we continue to do everything in our power to oppose those actions including writing numerous letters to the editor”—one of which appeared prominently in the March 12 edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Peter Mooz and wife Betty (a native of Middletown) are moving to a villa at beautiful Atlantic Shores Senior Community in Virginia Beach, following a long career in Texas and Virginia of directing art museums and foundations, followed by establishment of a real estate agency which specialized in restoring antique houses and creating historic districts. He remains active in a foundation for the fine arts he established in 1985 to help museums and artists bring art to low-income families, and in 2020 published American Masterworks of Religious Painting 1664–1964. He sends regards “to classmates and friends who have also found new lives in retirement, and thanks to Professor Sam Green who sent me on my life in art.”
Bob Saliba thanks his wife Jenny for convincing him to move into a continuing care retirement community, Fellowship Village, in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Following “one of the best decisions I ever made in my life, we are both very happy here, have made many new friends.” Fifteen months with a personal trainer “turned my life around and as a member and president‑elect of the residents council, in addition to my other activities and interests, there is no more rocking chair for me.” Their children live nearby, with daughter Lynne soon to receive her PhD in nursing from Rutgers and granddaughter Liz loving her first year at Connecticut College; their son George, a freelance business journalist, lives nearby in Caldwell.
Len Wilson is “still learning to adjust our lifestyle to be trained by our one-year-old Chinese Crested puppy [while] still playing pickleball several times a week. My game is better, but my legs are aging at an incredible pace, and I am still too proud or dumb to play down at a lower level.” Len has just “volunteered,” under some peer pressure, to assume the vacant role of chair of his retired YMCA alumni group, which “keeps me informed and active at the keyboard a major part of each day.” He and Joyce “continue to enjoy retirement and reflecting on grandchildren’s career choices.”
Chuck Work reports surviving Hurricane Ian in Naples while many others were not so fortunate. Closer to the water, the damage from the surge was significant. He was writing from San Francisco while hoping that the terrible weather would allow him to attend one son’s golf match in a qualifying round for the SF Amateur Championship and a grandson’s game with the Cal Berkeley Soccer Club. Vin Hoagland echoed Chuck’s complaintabout the deluge of rainin Northern California as his rain gauge measured 2.9 inches in the previous 24-hour period.
Just before deadline, Dave Hedges added the sad news that his dear friend Ted Hillman passed away on April 3; obituary at https://www.freyvogelfuneralhome.com/obituary/Edward-Hillman.
And two other websites of possible interest:
John Driscoll Memorial Service:
https://www.wesleyan.edu/alumni/events/past-events/fy23/homecoming-2022.html
Just before deadline, Dave Hedges added the sad news that his dear friend Ted Hillman passed away on April 3; obituary at https://www.freyvogelfuneralhome.com/obituary/Edward-Hillman.
And two other websites of possible interest:
John Driscoll Memorial Service:
https://www.wesleyan.edu/alumni/events/past-events/fy23/homecoming-2022.html
Just before deadline, Dave Hedges added the sad news that his dear friend Ted Hillman passed away on April 3; obituary at https://www.freyvogelfuneralhome.com/obituary/Edward-Hillman.
And two other websites of possible interest:
John Driscoll Memorial Service:
https://www.wesleyan.edu/alumni/events/past-events/fy23/homecoming-2022.html
Bruce Corwin at our 50th: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NUu9_Zso6g.