CLASS OF 1970 | 2023 | FALL ISSUE

Aloha, everyone. Lots of news and plenty of space because this column is digital.

Some of your classmates were traveling during the past several months, perhaps most notably Elliot Daum and Marcos Goodman, who both embarked on months-long expeditions all over Europe.

Peter Ratner wrote: “Not much to report. Retirement is still working out for us. Am attending to some medical issues (cataract surgery), so have been a bit slack with my conservation work. [Peter volunteers on projects regularly.]

“Looking forward to Australia in August to see my daughter and then four weeks in Alsace (to visit places in Germany where my ancestors lived), Normandy with two of our daughters, England, and the US of A.”

While some of us would like to retire, at least one of us intentionally isn’t. Had this from John Rinehart: “As I was getting ready to retire, a new job opportunity presented itself, so as of March of this year, I became the director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. After almost 40 years in private practice, the return to an academic position has been interesting. I would say that for those of you who have grandchildren who are considering medicine as a career, the future of medicine is exciting. Combining AI with molecular biology offers opportunities that cannot even be imagined. How long this leg of the journey will last, I don’t know but so far it is interesting.”

From Rob Baker: “We have a new grandson. Spent some time enjoying Nicaraguan hospitality and, of course, waves. We are still enjoying time on Kauai.” 

A long letter from Bob Apter: “I am continuing to enjoy Sedona, even the summer when it frequently gets to 100 degrees! I usually hike three times per week, and I have no trouble keeping busy the rest of the time with the year-round film festival here, and lots of dining and entertainment options unusual for a small community.

“I visited the Oak Creek swimming hole in the picture yesterday with a friend. It was a perfect place to swim in the heat, with cool but not too cold water! The swimming hole was amazingly more than 100 yards long (we never reached the upstream end of the swimmable pool) and about 25 yards wide. The area near the rock wall in the picture is 12 feet deep!  Although Sedona is known for crowds, because this place is little known and a bit difficult to get to, we didn’t see another person the whole six hours we were out. It is similarly relatively easy to find incredible places to hike that tourists will never see!

“The picture of Coffee Pot Rock in the snow got 26,000 likes on a landscape photography site, probably a combination of Coffee Pot being an iconic symbol of Sedona, and the amount of fresh snow was quite unusual. I took the picture from the street a few doors from my house! All these pictures are taken with my iPhone.

“Brenda and I separated at Thanksgiving and are in the process of divorce. But condolences are not in order! I feel very liberated and newly able to explore what Sedona has to offer. I am now in a new relationship with Anngwyn St. Just. She is well- known in a small circle of practitioners of Systemic Constellations. You can learn a bit about her work by Googling her. She has written 10 books, several of which have been translated into Spanish and German.  

“I have been utterly amazed at the number of people I have met in Sedona with psychic abilities. Some of them I have met through Anngwyn, but others just by meeting people and their friends. I do believe the phenomena they describe are real, at least for the most part, and I am exploring this new (for me) realm. Sedona, with its vortexes and red rocks, is truly a magnet for such people.

“I am still doing a bit of telemedicine work for COVID, but my workload has dropped way off because of the ending of the emergency status (which means I can no longer prescribe for COVID in states where I am not licensed), and the easing of the pandemic. I am still involved in a lawsuit against the FDA for suppressing use of ivermectin for COVID and fending off medical licensing boards who want to take my license away for having had far better treatment results than they can account for, by ignoring all of the mainstream narrative advice, which I consider to be corrupt lies. I have done something like 15,000 patient consultations for COVID. In the first month I did this (April 2021), I had two high-risk patients not respond well, and they went to the hospital where they worsened and died. I adjusted protocols, and since then I have not had any deaths, and very few hospital visits in patients I have treated.

“Because of my divorce, I am not yet in a permanent housing situation, but I would love to get together with anyone who might be coming through Sedona! And if you like, I can guide you on one or more hikes to incredible places.”

And this from the elusive Harvey Bercowitz: “Picture of me, wife Lynn, and dog Sadie (our fourth Komondor) at home in Virginia Beach. We love living by the ocean. Still happily retired. Traveling a bit more. Just back from visiting Bob Feldman, wife, Kathy, kids, and grandkids vacationing in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. He remains busy writing and updating psychology textbooks and doing special projects for UMass, Amherst where he was most recently vice chancellor. Hope to see you in ’25!”

Peter and Emi Kalischer have moved from Japan to Honolulu, where their condo has an ocean view.  

Jeremy Serwer sent in photos to show us “how simple and fun life can be at 75. . . . Where else can you invest a $100 or so, plus gas and tolls, pulling 8,000 pounds, and get a quarter to half of it back?  And enjoy a favorite pastime, the Old West?” He said he’s not sure if our Wesleyan education “prepared me for when it comes to this stuff, though I bet it gave me the right frame of mind. . . .”

We moved into our Kalihiwai Valley (Kaua’i) home in February. There is much to do to finish it, including redoing some things that the second general contractor screwed up.  He abandoned the project, so we were left with a lot of basic things to handle. The bulk of those is done, but it’s proving difficult to get the electrician and the plumber back to finish the last of their work. Still, with only one neighbor in this end of the valley, a beautiful waterfall view behind some invasive trees to be felled, and a lazy river nearby that leads to a gorgeous bay, we don’t have much room to complain. Now for interest rates to fall to the level at which the place will be affordable. 

On another front, because of the building costs and our underpaid jobs, Vera and I don’t really travel except for very special family occasions. But we’re planning a trip to New Zealand for next June. Very fortunately, we have been able to book flights on Alaska Airlines miles via Fiji Airways, one of their partners. With a stop on Christmas Island for one hour (“How’d you like to spend Christmas on Christmas Island?”—Leon Redbone) and two days in Fiji on the way to Auckland, it should be fun. We’re digging out the warmer clothing for the New Zealand winter weather and scouring guidebooks and the internet for ideas. Tried an AI search for an itinerary based on hot springs, short hikes, and scenery. An interesting experiment. 

And that about does it for this round. In case you are as spacey as I am, go right now and put our 55th Reunion on your calendar for May 2025.  

Aloha,