CLASS OF 1971 | 2024 | SPRING ISSUE
Aloha, Class of 1971,
Continuing with the theme of transitions, unfortunately some are sad. Michael Zuckerman writes, “Yesterday would have been my 45th wedding anniversary with my wife, Evelyn, who died this past March 13.”
David Lindorff writes, “My wife, Joyce, an early keyboards performer and professor at Temple U, and I, an investigative journalist, had contemplated a few years ago slowing down our work life and focusing only on things we found compelling—[her] on performing, recording, and research, and me, on important stories only—when family events intervened along with the pandemic. In any case, we ended up with our son, his girlfriend, and her 6-year-old daughter living in half our home. Meanwhile, our daughter (three years ago) had a son with her partner in the UK where she’s a professor at Oxford. So, now we are grandparents—hands on often enough, with a now adoptive “granddaughter,” who lives with her birth father in Philly, and on Zoom with our grandson in Didcot, just outside Oxford. We never did slow down, as Joyce decided not to retire, and I’ve wound up busier than ever with a film (now in theaters and online) and a book just out that I have to start hustling with book events and interviews. We’re loving it all, it turns out. Just gotta stay healthy and fit. . . .”
From Dick Scoggins: “My wife and I are living in Glendale, California, with my daughter, her husband, and three kids. My son, Nathan ’99, and his wife and three kids, live 10 miles up the road. Quite a journey to get here: Rhode Island, England, and finally California. Still active in missionary work focused on Muslims; quite an active area with the new dynamic of the Arab world. Still using the insights I gained at Wes!”
From Jim Rizza: “It’s been an interesting year here in the Sonora Desert of Arizona. Once again, this year set a new record; hottest ever. And the heat was deadly.
“Several of our plants, trees, and bushes perished despite extra watering and fashioning nursery-cloth shades where we could. Increasing watering time was a hard decision because of the intense, persistent drought here. Our concrete garage floors had to be jackhammered up and replaced because of the combination of tree roots tunneling under the slab looking for water and the shrinkage of the expansive soil as it dried out. The heat placed so much demand on our heat pump that one of the bus bars in our electrical breaker panel fused. Cooling would have been lost in the house in 119-degree Fahrenheit heat for three days until a new panel could be installed, but I was able to jerry rig some temporary wiring to keep the heat pump functioning during that time.
“Our hot water heater is situated in the three-car garage, where temperatures often hovered around 120 degrees this summer. It failed and had to be replaced even though it was only two years old.
“Irrigation for lawns, trees, and shrubs worked overtime and parts failed. Throw in some costly, nonheat-related appliance replacements, premature heat-related tire wear on our cars, and a few other events, and it has been quite a year. It has certainly kept me busy working the problems and writing checks. We find it hard to understand why political polls show the impacts of climate change at nine of the top 10 concerns among voters. Incredible in fact.”
Laurence Mark notes: “I recently produced two films for Netflix: an animated movie musical called Vivo, in 2021, starring Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02, with songs written by him, and a new version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, in 2022, starring Emma Corrin (who played Princess Diana in The Crown). In other words, have lately been feeling like a ‘full-service’ producer, traveling from one extreme to the other—going from a fun family film to classy soft-core porn. An unusual, wide-ranging journey.”
And finally, Michael Brewin comments he: “is thankful for having survived a dramatic year.” He suffered a stroke, then later fell and smashed his skull, resulting in two emergency brain surgeries. Michael then spent months doing daily physical therapy (balance, walking, fingers). A longtime environmentalist and a veteran of educational, cultural, community, and other nonprofit boards, he was also recently appointed by the mayor and city council of Tigard, Oregon, to be the new water commissioner for the greater area’s district, serving 75,000 residents, and thousands of area businesses, workers, and customers/clients/guests.” Michael has resumed his music and writing projects too!
As for me, spending time in San Diego. Seeing Stephen Ferruolo, professor at USD Law School, and Nancy Binkin, who will be celebrating her three-quarter century mark with a big blowout in Piedmont, Italy!
More next time. Aloha!