CLASS OF 1971 | 2024 | SUMMER ISSUE
Aloha, here are the emails I received for this time.
Alan Epstein writes: “Hope you and your family are doing well. I am still working full time at USC and am involved in two new start-up companies that will keep me pretty busy along with university work and a constant stream of students being trained in the laboratory. My son, Seth, is working part time in the lab with me and then coaches high school baseball and loving it. My other son, Aaron ’01, is now in private practice and has an active, four-office, OB-GYN [group] where he practices maternal fetal-care medicine for high-risk pregnancies. Busy like most with four grandchildren ages 9–16, which mostly keeps my wife very involved. Not much more to add except that I recently completed the best Indian Head cent collection, which is a lifelong hobby of mine that enables me to get my mind off research and make new friends. Looking forward to seeing the next issue of Wesleyan Magazine to see how everyone else is doing. All the best.”
From Dick Scoggins we hear: “Hopefully this is our last one. We moved from England to Los Angeles in 2012 after 20 years in the UK working with a mission organization for Muslims. Our son (Nathan Scoggins ’99) and his family had moved to Los Angeles in 2000. They live about 10 miles away from us. Our daughter and her husband had moved out here in 2005. They have three children and live with us in a multigenerational home. While I was in England I was struck by the fragmentation of family and felt that we needed to move back to the USA with our kids in order to build an extended family network. I continue to work in person with people here, and also online with people around the world, focusing on character building and building strong families.”
And from Anthony Wheeldin: “Retired from the bench in August 2023. Still work part time to cover various calendars leaving lots of time for grandchildren, family, and fun.”
Sadly, a transition from Jay Resnick: “Tough year for me. My wife was diagnosed with cancer and died five weeks later on August 30, 2023. I am continuing to learn Yiddish and just finished my first semester of Latin. Zay gezunt (Yiddish: ‘Be well’).”
John Schimmel sends this: “Biggest transition for us: my youngest is finally graduating her five-year college program. One friend translated that news as, ‘You’re getting a raise.’ Other than that, no major changes. Still married to Maureen Donley, still producing narrative content for Cloud Imperium Games and for my own projects, still teaching in UC Riverside’s Low-Residency MFA Creative Writing program.”
Mike Yamashita: “Sorry, Neil, I’ve been flat out on multiple assignments since Lil and I met you for that memorable evening at your island paradise.
“Hokkaido: Made great progress on my book on Japan, getting the weather I wanted— two weeks of heavy snow. Hokkaido is normally the snowiest place on the planet, this year being the exception up until the blizzards we experienced in late February. The book will focus on my love affair with Japan from the first visit on a ‘roots’ trip after Wes graduation in 1971, to my first story for National Geographic on Hokkaido in 1979, up to the present, revisiting the 10 National Geographic magazine stories and three books I’ve done on Japan—working title, Full Circle.
“North Vietnam in March: Shooting for a Chinese cell phone company, capturing seasonal change from winter to spring in a country that loves flowers. Flowers were everywhere on the streets of Hanoi in February and March for Tet and International Women’s month celebrations, when bouquets are traditionally gifted. More photography for OPPO in Brazil in May.
“My retrospective book on China titled, East Meets West, is in the final layout stage, to be launched in June. It will be the first in a five-volume series entitled A History of China Through Foreign Photographers’ Eyes, mine covering the last 40 years to the present.
“Next trip: Leaving for Venice for the Biennale on April 17, with major events celebrating the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo’s death. A new edition of my book on Marco Polo is being published in Chinese, and a traveling exhibition is touring Italy. If anyone is in the Liguria Region in the vicinity of Genoa, please stop by Castelnuovo Magra; [it is on] display till October 13.
“I also have some speaking engagements coming up toward the end of this year and next in Des Moines and Kansas City. I will keep you informed as we get closer to those dates.
I am an umbraphile! My fifth total solar eclipse was done on April 8, 2024, in Lake Placid, New York, the day after my birthday. It all started as a kid in Boston (number one)—cloudy, only experienced darkness. Number twp was in Oregon; number three in Chile; and [for] number four, I traveled to Antarctica and only saw darkness, but obviously a trip of a lifetime. And now the great North American eclipse and, of course, I had to find totality not just 99%. Totally lucked out in that it was a clear day but the moment the moon finished eclipsing the sun (or moon ole sol) it clouded up. But a total eclipse is so extraordinary and magnificent. Love it. So now off to the next one . . . more on that later.
Aloha for now. Send more transitions.