CLASS OF 1972 | 2023 | FALL ISSUE
Bob White’s most recently published article on his research into the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis can be found at https://ojin.nursingworld.org/table-of-contents/volume-28-2023/number-3-september-2023/articles-on-previously-published-topics/eunice-rivers-rn/. Bob analyzes the historical treatment of Eunice Rivers, an African American public health nurse who was involved in the study and was generally assumed to be the only woman in a staff position in the infamous study. He shows that several white women authored articles on the study, and Miss Rivers was not, in fact, the only woman involved.
“Only identifying the black public health nurse, when there were white women involved, is inequitable, and thus a race issue. Only identifying the nurse, when there were statistical, administrative, and medical personnel involved, is inequitable, i. e., a class issue. In sum, all women who had roles in the TSUS should be revealed, because they matter.”
Bob’s article is a compelling and disturbing read. He makes a very strong case that Miss Rivers was herself victimized by the public treatment of the study and should have been included in President Clinton’s apologies to those wronged by the study, which included Tuskegee University itself.
Andy Feinstein has been named co-chairman of the Connecticut Task Force to Reform Special Education Law, along with the head of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents. https://ctexaminer.com/2023/04/11/faced-with-continuing-staff-shortages-state-special-ed-task-force-seeks-solutions/
“Between the Scylla of federal law and the Charybdis of limited funding, we have a narrow field in which to make recommendations. Running this task force now occupies a large proportion of my time. We are committed to making meaningful, yet achievable, recommendations.”
Mark Gelber sent further details about his visit to the Connecticut Valley last fall, previously briefly reported here. Before his talk at Wesleyan on Kafka— https://german.site.wesleyan.edu/2022/11/03/distinguished-grst-and-col-major-mark-h-gelber-72-on-china-judaismand-franz-kafka/—Mark spoke at a conference on Ruth Klueger at UMass Amherst. A small Wesleyan reunion was held at Amherst, attended by Burt Feuerstein and his wife, Janet Shalwitz, Michael Bober and his wife, Rosalina (still teaching at Amherst College), Howard Shpetner, and Marjorie Melnick. Mark admits to not really knowing Marjorie, who taught music at UMass for many years, but Burt sang with her in the Wesleyan choir. “I did not recall that there was one,” observes Mark. In Middletown he saw Krishna Winston and Vera Grant, meeting Krishna for coffee at the Wasch Center, of which she is now head. Mark recalls her giving a tutorial in German translation to him and Burt, and admits that Burt, a retired physician now living in Phoenix, is “a much better translator” than Mark. And finally, while he was “lingering” outside 60 High Street, where he lived senior year, Mark was invited in by the current owner, who proudly showed off the remodeled premises. My memory of 50 years ago is that remodeling was definitely called for even then.
Leon Vinci has been appointed as a board member of the Virginia Western Community College (VWCC) Scholarship Advisory Board. On behalf of the Virginia Western Educational Foundation, Inc., Leon’s responsibilities include awarding annual scholarship disbursements to eligible students.
Dennis Kesden and his wife, Sherry, have been surviving the Scottsdale heat wave.
“My thrice weekly golf goes on all summer (starts 7:00 a.m. in 90s, ends 10:00 a.m. at 105 [degrees] or so). We continue our biking and workout classes. My 44-year-old physicist son is applying for his full professorship at UT Dallas and is very involved with his research, teaching, and faculty/university politics. He is president of the Texas section of the American Physics Association this year. My daughter here in Phoenix is busy planning my grandson’s Bar Mitzvah next month. My niece just graduated from Wesleyan and is working in NYC. My siblings (both Wesleyan graduates) are alive and well in California. We traveled to Sherry’s 50th MIT reunion and had a blast in Boston. Always in touch with Mike Busman—we met him in Quebec City this summer and had a wonderful time.”
Dan Gleich, on the other hand, has been particularly glad to live in San Francisco, where the temperature has been a steady 74. He’s “almost retired” with wife, Pat, daughter, Ginger, and her family right in town. Two grandsons, four-and-a-half and eight months. His son is a first-year public school teacher in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
“The members of the Quad County Association: myself, Peter Stern, Morgan Muir ’73, and Jack Fritz ’73, continue to get together with our now multigenerational families for a rotating quarterly dinner. I’ve also been working on a writing project with Richard Hood and hope to have some news about that next time around. For now, it’s all very hush-hush.
Paul Vidich’s latest novel, Beirut Station, should be in the bookstores by the time you read this.
John Manchester has a YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq4gg_vD2EzRUMWhn_zyGlw. A new video comes out every two weeks. Recently John featured lovely paintings by Eric Kaye.
Finally, we lost Jon Berk in August after a long battle with dementia. Jon had a successful legal career at Hartford’s Gordon, Muir & Foley, alongside Bill Gallitto. He argued several cases before the Connecticut Supreme Court, but apparently was better known for his prodigious collection of comic books. See https://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2017/05/30/berk-72-puts-rare-comic-and-art-collection-up-for-auction/. Jon is remembered particularly fondly by his teammates on Wesleyan’s rugby team.