CLASS OF 1979 | 2023 | SUMMER ISSUE
Denise Giacomozzi reached out with the following note about a worthy volunteer opportunity that she is involved in and hopes others may want to join her. “My news is that I now volunteer for ENGin, a U.S./Ukraine-based 501(c)3 nonprofit, which urgently needs volunteers to practice English online with Ukrainian youth and young adults. I hope other Wes folks will check it out at www.ENGinprogram.org.”
Doug Pavlak shared this news with us. “Happy to report that my son, Gunter Haug-Pavlak ’23, is going to graduate this year as a member of the class of 2023. He is the only one of our seven children (blended family) to go to Wesleyan. I otherwise am swamped in my practice in neuromuscular medicine here in Portland, Maine. My wife Norma continues to fight the plight of the elderly in her job in adult protective services for the great state of Maine.”
Julie Hacker is busily engaged and happy professionally and otherwise. She writes: “I organized with my partner and husband (part of the Cohen & Hacker team) the National AIA CRAN (Custom Residential Architectural Network) 2022 Symposium, which was held in Chicago. It was sold out in three weeks and was a great success. I am the VP of Sponsorship and Development for the AIA Chicago chapter and serve on the national and local CRAN steering committees. So . . . pretty active in my AIA chapter representing a residential voice in architecture. My firm, Stuart Cohen & Julie Hacker Architects LLC, is alive and kicking while trying to save our historic building stock.
“I continue to take my weekly musical theater classes even though my singing is subpar—a great group which keeps me laughing, and I get to perform! My son, Gabriel Cohen, is thriving in LA doing his studio work as a sculptor while managing an art gallery.
“I am definitely older but feel pretty ageless, which is the way I like to keep it. I have overlapped frequently with Joan Craig, our classmate and a wonderful architect in Chicago—in fact she now has a terrific architect working for her who used to work at my firm—small world.”
In news from Spain, Cliff Hendel and his family (now including two grandsons) remain in Madrid, which he first visited on a Wesleyan semester-abroad program in the fall of his senior year. He continues to work—in English, Spanish, and French—as an international commercial and sports arbitrator, using (or pretending to use) his multijurisdictional legal qualifications as attorney (New York), solicitor (England and Wales), avocat (Paris), and abogado (Madrid).
His sports work—involving international labor contracts in soccer and basketball—has been particularly rewarding, and particularly “global,” of late. As deputy chair of FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber, he has been invited to a number of interesting destinations, including New Zealand for the draw of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Doha (Qatar) for the final of the 2022 Men’s World Cup, Rabat (Morocco) for the final of the 2023 Clubs’ World Cup, and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) for the biannual conclave of the FIFA Football Tribunal, among others. He is looking forward to the upcoming annual meeting of the members of FIBA’s Basketball Arbitral Tribunal in Schlauss-Elmau (Garmisch, Germany), an Alpine resort where the G-7 has met.
He has also made a minor contribution to historical literature, having penned a chapter on the relation between Alexander Hamilton and George Washington in a Spanish collective work on historical pairs called “A La Sombra: Actores Secundarios de la Historia.” An English version under the title “Hamilton and Washington: The Architects of America” was published in the NYLitigator (Vol. 26, no. 2, 2021). His other writings are more prosaic and professionally oriented, such as an article “The Past, Present and Possible Future of the Spanish Renewable Energy Arbitration Saga,” published in the NYSBA International Law Practicum (Vol. 31, no. 1, 2018).
He would be delighted to welcome any Wes alums who visit Madrid on business or pleasure.
Anne Peters sent us this update: “I made a ‘shake up your life’ series of changes and married screenwriter Eric Roth (writer of Forrest Gump, Dune, A Star Is Born, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Insider, and House of Cards among others). He has two amazing movies coming out this year, one, Killers of the Flower Moon, is directed by Marty Scorsese, and the other, Here, is directed by Bob Zemeckis. We live between Santa Monica and Condon, Montana, and I still work long hours running my clinical diabetes program at USC. My son, Maxwell Votey ’14, graduated from NYU Law School and started working at Kirkland and Ellis in NYC with a dream of becoming an art law lawyer. My step-granddaughter, Maya Donovan ’20, lives in Brooklyn and is an aspiring singer.”
Mark Ginsberg was just appointed a commissioner of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (“LPC”). The LPC is the largest municipal preservation agency in the nation. It is responsible for protecting NYC’s architecturally, historically, and culturally significant buildings and sites by granting them landmark or historic district status, and regulating them after designation. The agency is comprised of a panel of 11 commissioners who are appointed by the mayor and supported by a staff of approximately 80. There are more than 37,800 landmark properties in New York City. His bio on the commission’s website notes that Mark is a founding partner of Curtis + Ginsberg Architects, with over 40 years of professional experience, and his national leadership in sustainable design, resiliency, and housing is widely recognized. The focus of his work is centered on community-based design, affordable housing, and sustainability. He lives in a historic district in lower Manhattan. Congrats on your appointment, Mark. Sounds like a great way to contribute your time and expertise!
That’s it for this issue. Thanks for all the submissions! Be safe and happy.