CLASS OF 1994 | 2023 | SUMMER ISSUE
Greetings from Chicago! My law firm merged with Atlanta-based Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP and I continue to practice employment and commercial litigation with a little bit of immigration law too. My daughters, Sarah and Norah, who recently turned 14, are graduating 8th grade in June.
On to other news. I had reported in a prior note that Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert were collaborating on a nonfiction book. They recently completed and submitted the manuscript for The Secret Life of Data, which will be released by MIT Press in spring 2024. Congratulations to them! Aram and his sister Rachel Hope Cleves also have a forthcoming science fiction novel entitled A Second Chance for Yesterday. It will be released by Solaris Books in August 2023 under the pen name R. A. Sinn.
Joe Pickard reports that his family has relocated (again) to the Bay Area in order to be closer to his daughter who started her collegiate career at University of California-Davis. Joe recently started a new position at Sandia National Laboratories as an ES&H coordinator for Sandia’s Livermore, California, facility.
Raya Salter started her own organization, the Energy Justice Law & Policy Center. She also is an appointed member of the New York State Climate Council and finalized the state’s climate plan. She also went viral after testifying before Congress about big oil and earned an attempted takedown by Tucker Carlson. Raya mentions that she saw Ingrid Lunden, Melinda Lombard, and Hayley Buchbinder in NYC in September 2022, along with David Buchbinder ’90.
I last reported that Dave Campbell extended his stay in Japan to continue to work at Dell Technologies in Tokyo for a fifth year. Dave and his family are leaving Japan later this summer. He and his wife Brenna ran into Wes alums Grace Rubin ’18 and Lucy Rubin ’17 at a Harry Styles concert at Ariake Stadium.
Josh Protas sent a pretty hilarious update about a prank he pulled on John Lewis. In Josh’s own words: “April 1, 2023, will mark the second anniversary of the proclamation by Mayor Ruthann Fuller of John MacDougall Lewis Day in the City of Newton, Massachusetts. What on earth could John Lewis have done to warrant such recognition? The answer leads back to Wesleyan and several friends from the class of ’94 —Jon Bender, Gabe Meil, Tomer Rothschild, and me. John is one of the most caring and compassionate people you will come across. He is also one of the most gullible. And our group of friends has regularly exploited this to our great delight and amusement through a number of pranks, often executed on April Fools’ Day. Fortunately, John also tends to be a bit forgetful, and he regularly fails to remember how devious his friends truly are and he continues to fall for our pranks. In 2021 I reached out to the office of the mayor in Newton (where John lives with his family) about the idea of a proclamation to recognize John’s graciousness and good humor in being on the receiving end of pranks by declaring April Fools’ Day as John MacDougall Lewis Day. As it turns out, two of the mayor’s brothers (and many of her constituents) went to Wesleyan, and she was game.
“Below is the text that I submitted, which was pretty closely incorporated into the official proclamation issued by Newton mayor Ruthann Fuller. She even went to John’s house to personally deliver the written proclamation so that he would know it was for real.”
Recognition by the City of Newton, Massachusetts of John MacDougall Lewis, city resident, husband, father, and mensch
John MacDougall Lewis deserves public recognition, not for his contributions in healthcare management, not for being a caring and compassionate husband and father, not for being an upstanding citizen of Newton, not for being a kind and loyal friend, but rather for his exceptional ability to be on the receiving end of April Fools’ Day pranks.
For many years, John’s friends from Wesleyan University secretly conspired ongoing and escalating pranks to unleash on John, many, but not all of which, occurred on April Fools’ Day. As April 1st approached each year, John either completely forgot about the repeating pattern of history or let his airs of suspicion inexplicably drop. In stunning displays of gullibility and/or a misplaced faith that his friends had reformed their ways, John fell for pranks over and over again (the bag of rocks hike, the airport extra cargo fiasco, the cancelled wedding venue hijinks, the fictitious Golden Shovel award, and the office laptop imbroglio stand out as favorites). What is remarkable about John MacDougall Lewis is how he accepts being pranked with grace, laughter, and respect for the effort put in to fooling him.
We can all use a little more laughter, especially during these challenging times. John MacDougall Lewis can take a joke like a champ and has an infectious laugh that brings joy to those around him.
John’s friends hope that by declaring April 1st John MacDougall Lewis Day in Newton, Massachusetts that John will forget all about the pranks we have pulled on him over the years and will not seek revenge.
And finally, Josh updates that he is “very excited by a career change and a deep dive into the world of vermiculture. With my wife Abby Foss and our children Eli, Noah, and Cory, we have launched District Vermiculture (DV) in Takoma Park, Maryland.” Abby also continues to teach AP Literature at a public high school in Silver Spring.
Operating out of a decommissioned air force hangar, DV has a large footprint and has rapidly expanded the scale of its composting operations. DV was recently recognized by the Vermiculture Association of Mid-Atlantic Producers (VAMP) at the National Vermiculture Expo as Emerging Vermiculturist of the Year and won gold ribbons for worm casting quality and soil complexity. Most exciting, DV has landed Sesame Street’s Slimey as DV’s official “spokesworm.”
That’s all for now. If you are passing through Chicago—or are in Chicago—look me up!
—Samera