CLASS OF 1976 | 2023 | FALL ISSUE
Thanks to everyone for such an enthusiastic response to my plea for notes! We’ve heard from several people who have never sent in a note before. Here’s the latest, in the order I received it:
From Don Fallati: “I have recently joined the Board of Trustees of Print Center New York (https://www.printcenternewyork.org/). It is the leading nonprofit exhibition space in New York dedicated to exploring the medium of prints. The Print Center offers interdisciplinary exhibitions, innovative scholarship, educational programming, and digital resources, and it has recently opened a new, ground-floor space at 535 West 24th Street. It’s in the heart of the Chelsea Arts District, and I encourage anyone interested to visit as the Center always has interesting exhibits.
“My wife (Ruth Pachman ’78) and I have been collecting prints and works on paper for many years, mainly focused on modern and contemporary artists. We are also excited about Wesleyan’s new art gallery being constructed in tandem with the renovations to the PAC. It will be a great new arts space in the center of campus and a showcase for the school’s significant art collection.”
From Nat Needle: “This might be fitting: my old Alpha Delt roommate, J. Mark Beamis ’77, came out from Boston for my birthday show in Worcester and recorded this. The evening revolved around accompanying eight different vocal soloists, so I only got to sing a couple myself [including] a 1931 tune I hadn’t done in maybe 40 years, a request from vocalist and erstwhile bandmate Tina Le, who prefers Perry Como’s more relaxed version.”
From Elyse Grasso: “The beginning of August saw ground being broken, finally, for the rebuild of my house that was burned to the ground in the December 30, 2021, Marshall Fire and wind event.”
From Tom Kovar: “I’m still pursuing three creative outlets (music, fiction, photography), and the photo is from a brief but outstanding family vacation on Cape Cod.”
From Merle Kummer: “I’m pleased to report that I’ve helped found the CoLAB High School Stem Career Collaboration, which just incorporated as a nonprofit in April 2023. We connect Watertown (Massachusetts) High School Students with local STEM professionals to inspire them to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math. Here’s our new website: http://bit.ly/WHS-CoLAB.”
From Jaimee Kurfirst Mirsky: “Not much new to report except a new granddaughter, Ruby. She is the fourth grandchild and first girl of the bunch. Jay and I are enjoying retirement—we both spend as much time as possible with the kiddos, and lots of time working in our garden. I’ve been part of an online classics book group since the beginning of COVID. I never wanted to join a book group before, but the time was right, and this one is pretty special—we actually read and talk about the books. 🙂 I’ve also been advancing my knitting skills and doing tutoring for a local literacy organization. Not exciting, but I’m fine with that at the moment. I’m including a photo of the family from a recent week on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.”
From Byron Haskins: “Gabrielle and I reconfirmed our wedding vows on August 12, after 20-plus years of everything you can imagine in a partnership during turbulent times (but I won’t get into the details that include getting her citizenship because she believed 2016 was the time for the first female POTUS and seeking a third act in Canada because it wasn’t). It was a joyful recommittal, small group of friends and family on our back patio. Tears shed, laughs laughed. Also we sold the property in Quebec, are ending our apartment lease in Montreal, and consolidating in Michigan for the next leg of our journey. I will miss Montreal, as we made a few friends there and got a bit closer to Quebecois family during the last two years. I still volunteer sometimes with the Michigan Democrats as part of the Senior Caucus (one fight against ageism) and the county party organization, and continue my hobby of creating technology-assisted one-man-band esoteric music under the label of ‘the ignorant savants,’ which is a poke at how we Americans have a tendency to plow into things as if we are all-knowing when we actually generally keep heads-in-the-sand about the requirements of a common good, a common ethos, or a historical use of convention. It’s an end run around facing growth-enhancing cognitive dissonance. Also I’m keeping the door open on the Classmate Conversations for which you can contact me and Joanne Lukitsh about anytime— if any two or three classmates want to chat about something chat worthy, I’m willing to produce the video and post it on our Wes76Alum YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Wes76Alum.”
From March Boal: “Life is good! My two sons are grown and started on their careers. I just got back from a week on Cape Cod, where I worked several summers while at Wesleyan—it is still beautiful but considerably more crowded. I have not retired yet—I am still enjoying teaching economics at Drake University in Iowa. By the way, I have a message for any high school seniors daunted by the decline of affirmative action: we have empty seats here at Drake. We may not be as prestigious as Harvard, but our professors knock themselves out for students and our graduates do quite well in the job market.”
From Leslie Gabel-Brett: “I am feeling fortunate that I have love, health, and family in abundance. Carolyn and I took a great trip to Italy with our daughter and 15-year-old granddaughter. We are also enjoying summer vacation on Cape Cod with all our kids and grandkids—we made them play pickleball! I am keeping my creative brain cells active by developing a one-act play about Victoria Woodhull and Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. And I am happy to continue as a visiting faculty member at Wes, teaching a course on social activism and theories of change. I share with and gain inspiration from the next generations who will do their part to repair the world.”
From David Cohen: “I had my (roughly) annual reunion with Michael Greenberg and Matt Paul and our spouses in Boston this spring. Sadly, Stewart Shuman missed the affair this time. My wife, Sandy, calls these annual events “Seven Doctors and Me.” She only has a master’s degree, poor thing. As usual we walked many miles, ate, drank, and talked family, art, politics, Wesleyan, and science while touring the Boston Public Library and Mike’s famous lab. I’m recently semiretired to the Berkshire Mountains, woodcarving, and working on writing a book on some local history. Check out my COVID lockdown creation, a self-published children’s book called The Amazing Life of Squirt the Water Drop. It only took me 25 years to go from concept to publication. My youngest two kids live on Maui and are emotionally traumatized but physically safe!”
Norm Kerner, who is retired from his long career as a record producer and recording studio designer/owner, now oversees operation of his two studios in Hollywood, California. Here’s a look at one of them.
From Debra Neuman: “Barbara Strauss invited me to spend a week with her at Quisisana Resort in Center Lovell, Maine, in August, a place she and her late husband Jeff have loved for many years. It was a wonderful week and here’s a photo of us playing pickleball, a new passion.”
From Cheryl Woodson: “Talk about how to ‘live out loud and age excellently!’ I’m 67. My Aunt Terri (in the middle) is 96, and her main runnin’ buddy, Miss Edna, is 103! I’ve been posting their wisdom on my Facebook and LinkedIn pages for the last couple months.
“I’m also gearing up to offer two online courses in November (National Family Caregiver and Alzheimer’s Awareness Month) To Survive Caregiving—Yes, you CAN! offers info and insights from To Survive Caregiving: a Daughter’s Experience, a Doctor’s Advice that won first place in the 2022 Writer’s Digest awards for Best Self-Published Books—Inspirational/Motivational Category. Dementia: The ‘Slow Walk Home’ (thusly named by Bishop T. D. Jakes) covers the genetics, physiology, and pathology impact on people who live with Alzheimer’s and other dementias and the people who love them, treatments, and ways for everyone to cope.
“I’m launching an updated website at www.drcherylwoodson.com [and] will begin social media marketing for the courses in September. Stay tuned!”
From Lyle Weinstein: “I am not sure what people might be interested in reading, but my wife suggested that it might be helpful to people to mention the two books I have written on caregiving for dementia patients, The Alzheimer’s Family Manual, and, more recently, The Montessori Alzheimer’s Project. There are a few online videos of talks I have given on these topics, such as the recent one in Halifax, Nova Scotia at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elk5NVdt6E8.
“Other things I have edited and published include a four-volume series on Dissociative Identity Disorder and early childhood trauma entitled Engaging Multiple Personalities, several books on Tibetan Buddhism including Penetrating Wisdom by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Devotion by Lama Pema Tsewang, and others that are not sold on Amazon . . . .
“I have retired from practicing law (which I did in Colorado and California) but still assist my wife, Riza, in the Montessori school community she established in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Throughout all these years, I have continued my study and practice of Buddhism, helping to establish some meditation and retreat centers in the United States and Canada, in particular, Thrangu Monastery in Richmond, British Columbia.”
From Susan Mitchell and Sue Heller Clain: “We got together at Sue’s home in Media, Pennsylvania. Sue has retired from teaching economics at Villanova University. I was visiting my son and his family, including my 2-year-old grandson in Philadelphia. I am also at the very beginning stages of seeking ordination to the Episcopal priesthood in Maryland. We’ve been friends since being assigned adjoining suites in Lawn Avenue (CSS) in 1972.”
From Meredith Bergmann: “I taught a workshop on ekphrastic poetry at the Frost Farm Poetry Conference [in August] in Derry, New Hampshire, and had a wonderful time. Participants came from all over the country, and were serious, enthusiastic, and irreverent—lots of interesting conversations and debates about all aspects of poetry, biography, and art.
“On [August 21], we drove to Albany for the unveiling of the Ginsburg bust in the State House; photos from the event are at the link https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-unveils-portrait-carving-immortalizing-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-new-york.
In late August “will be the ceremonial groundbreaking for my Lexington, Massachusetts, sculpture, Something Is Being Done. The bronze won’t be installed until next May—it’s at the foundry, in progress.” Meredith Bergmann and MA State Senator Cindy Friedman
From Rob Williams: “I am currently living in Maui and working as a disease physician. I have been here since March of 2021. Although I didn’t get to see him, Elliot Epner was here and left right before I arrived. I have not seen his name listed in the oncology department. I missed him by about a month. I’ll be here until March of 2026. I’ll then be looking to retire.
“I survived the Maui fires and we are very safe. The entire island is in mourning as we all know someone who has lost a home and/or family members. Recently heard from Pete McArdle. He is retiring after working many years as a veterinarian. More recently he was a research coordinator at Novartis. I have been very busy with the COVID-19 pandemic and retirement is looking very good right now.”
From Polly Hays: “Greetings from Denver, where we had the rainiest June on record, and then in July and August are continuing to break heat records. I continue to enjoy the leisurely pace of life in retirement, and recently told someone that I am a homebody who likes to travel. This winter I made my way to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, for a singing and mediation retreat; we also enjoyed the reward of a spectacular view of the northern lights one evening. Yes, they were just like the pictures, and yes, it was cold out, about minus 20 [degrees] Fahrenheit. This summer, I had a totally different adventure in Atlantic Canada. Trip included hiking in Cape Breton Island National Park and experiencing the tides of the Bay of Fundy in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
“Below are a few pictures from Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park in New Brunswick, where you can walk on the ocean floor at low tide, and kayak among the rocks at high tide. Now that was fun!!!”
From Cindy Arnson: “The highlight of 2023 was the June wedding outside of LA of our son Micah to Maya Paz. The photo says it all. We were very happy! I should be easy to spot; others in the photo are my husband, Gerry; oldest son Zack (a U.S. Foreign Service Officer); and Micah’s twin sister Jeanne (a grad student at George Washington University, in clinical mental counseling). We’re sorry to have Micah and Maya on the West Coast, but since we racked up a lot of frequent flyer miles during the pandemic, we have a nice cushion for travel.
“After 30 years of not being in the classroom, over the summer I taught a class on Latin America for midcareer master’s students at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS, where I did my graduate work). I’ll continue in the fall of 2023 and accompany the group to Chile in mid-October. It’s challenging but rewarding and keeps me on my toes. So much for ‘retirement,’ but I’m very happy not to have to fundraise, attend staff meetings, fill out personnel evaluations, etc., all part of my previous job at the Wilson Center. We feel blessed to be in good health, have kids we’re proud of, and additional time for hobbies like woodworking and fussing over our garden of native perennials!”
From Douglas Morris: “Since I have never before sent in a note, let me boil down what I have done between graduating Wesleyan and retiring a year ago: Mostly I worked as a criminal defense lawyer for indigent defendants in federal court, largely trying to persuade judges to give my clients less time or keep them out of the hellholes of federal prisons altogether; I now am adjuncting at Brooklyn Law School, teaching a seminar on the Nazi legal system; I have also moonlighted as an independent legal historian writing two books on lawyers who resisted the Nazis (Justice Imperiled: The Anti-Nazi Lawyer Max Hirschberg in Weimar Germany [University of Michigan Press, 2005] and Legal Sabotage: Ernst Fraenkel in Hitler’s Germany [Cambridge, 2020]), and I am now finishing up a short book on the anti-Nazi Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, criticizing his badly flawed theory of resistance; I am married (happily, still getting along), and have two children and three grandchildren, each of whom I have tried early on to introduce to ideas of social justice by reading to them Yertle the Turtle, which I first came across in the 1973 Nat Needle production of Dr Seuss! at Wesleyan after I landed a minor role as a turtle, an oppressed turtle.”
From Steve Smith: “I started at Wes with the Class of 1975 but took 1974 off and graduated in 1976. I married before senior year and we ran and lived in the Alumni Guest House, so I wasn’t too visible, either. But with friends in classes before and after mine, maybe someone will remember me.
“After graduation we spent 10 years in Oklahoma and have lived in the North Carolina mountains since then. No prestigious awards or inspiring work experiences, but 48 years married to my best friend and 52 together is worth a lot. Four years ago we both retired and haven’t looked back.
“Since junior high Jean has been an artist and I’ve been a ham radio operator. After retiring, we started going to state and national parks about once a week, where I talk to folks around the U.S., Canada, and Europe on a small radio and Jean paints two or three watercolors with pen-and-ink added in the two hours we’re usually there. Then we visit that park before looking for a mom-and-pop restaurant in the area and checking out a new-to-us town. So far, we’ve gone out 197 times to 142 parks in six states. It’s been fantastic, having a one-day vacation every week!
“One photo is of my setup one day last year in South Carolina, with Georgia across the river. I sometimes use a microphone but prefer Morse code using the WWII key shown. I talked with 97 people that day. The other photo (below) is a painting Jean did at a park last month. It’s been fun watching her progress in creating paintings quickly without knowing in advance what they would be.”
From Desmond Whitney: “I don’t have much to report except to say that being nearly 70 is not anything like what I would have imagined when we were all together in Middletown. Without a doubt, the last decade or so has been the best chapter of my life (recognizing I can say that in part because I’m lucky to have continuing good health).”
Notes from Facebook (provided here with permission):
Seth Lerer retired from UCSD in June, after a stellar career as a professor of literature at Princeton, Stanford, and finally UCSD. Retirement hasn’t slowed down his productivity; this year he provided an essay for the recently published Textual Communities, Textual Selves: Essays in Dialogue with Brian Stock, and next January his Introducing the History of the English Language will be published by Routledge Press.
Jon Daniels has relocated to upstate New York after a long stay in Phoenix, Arizona. Welcome home!
Marjorie Allen Dauster and her husband Rip ’74 met David Harmin and me for lunch at Rein’s Deli not so long ago; they regaled us with tales of their recent trips to Iceland and Italy and, to be honest, I can’t remember where else because they’re traveling so much! Both are in good health and are greatly enjoying their grandchildren. You wondered why I mentioned puffins in Iceland? This is why!
From Melissa Blacker: “David and I are still living in Worcester, Massachusetts, which we call the spiritual center of the universe. At least, it is for us. We have moved out of the Buddhist Temple that we founded 14 years ago. The Temple is supported by the local and now national and international Zen community that we started 30 years ago, and though no longer living on site, we are still the guiding teachers. Our new official name is Boundless Way Zen Temple: www.boundlessway.org. David and I live a 10-minute walk from the Temple, which was closed to in-person visits for the three years of the pandemic, but during that time we found a new life on Zoom. And now we’re once again open to the public. The Temple has an acre of gardens and winding paths in the backyard, with a koi pond and waterfall. If you’re ever in Worcester, feel free to take a stroll and enjoy the flowers, shrubs, and statues.
“Our daughter and her husband are expecting their second child in early September, a girl, and are the happy parents of a four-year-old boy. He calls us ‘Baba’ and ‘Nana,’ and they live about an hour away, so we get to be with him once or twice each week. And we’re still together, enjoying our entry into aging.”
From Jim Rolston: “We bought carbon-fiber gravel bikes when we retired just as COVID hit. Good way to be outside and away from folks. Studded tires for riding on ice! We did a bit over 1,000 miles on the rail trails that first year of COVID. Perfect time to retire and the perfect way to get fresh air, exercise, and stay away from people!”
And, finally, from the Harmin household: “David is still working full time in Mike Greenberg’s lab at Harvard Medical School; it’s hard to retire when you love your work and your coworkers! He is spending his spare time singing with the local Vox Lucens choir and walking our ancient, doddering dog around Cambridge. I am enjoying retirement more with every passing day and am keeping busy volunteering with the Weavers Guild of Boston.
We both feel incredibly lucky to enjoy continuing good health, wonderful friends, and a home in the best neighborhood either of us have ever enjoyed. See you at the 50th!
