CLASS OF 1973 | 2026 | SPRING ISSUE

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From Milwaukee, Wisconsin Dana Barrows writes that he and “Holly Babbitt love living on the Massachussets SouthCoast for the past five years.” He says he continues working on his terms, year 51, as an estate and business planning specialist with Northwestern Mutual, working mainly through joint work partners with closely held business owners. He calls it “intellectually stimulating and fulfilling. We each have developed significant friendships here, and deep connection to various nonprofits and volunteer activities, including the Garden Club of Buzzard’s Bay, the SouthCoast Community Foundation, the Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust, Westport Conservation, and others. Our challenging course, Allendale CC, is less than a mile away, and we are surrounded by amazing hiking trails that lead down to the marshes and the ocean.” They feel that “Wesleyan and Connecticut College continue to courageously serve as a beacon of light and reason and leadership in these turbulent times.”

Jim Powers celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary (Martha Wettemann, Trinity ’73) at Rose Vineyards in Branford in May. He also presented on humanism in medicine in November at the annual meeting of the Gerontologic Association of America.

Dr. Michael Fossel writes that his new book, Reversal,came out in February. It reportedly is significant as a “unified model of aging that connects molecular biology and clinical medicine.” 

From Nashville, we have a newsy note from Bill Williams. He writes that “my wife and I recently bought the dog a yard and left our Nashville condo for Ashland City, a little rural community about 40 minutes from the city. It’s slower, a whole lot quieter, and the dog now shares her yard with a friend.” He also notes “I have somehow gotten myself involved in public policy surrounding diabetes care. Having had type 1 for 65-plus years, I find that I have a good bit of credibility with legislators and their staffs. As a result of enormous improvements in insulin and diabetes technology, significant numbers of longtime type 1 diabetics are now reaching Medicare age” and he says there are serious challenges with services and care.

Bill also said, “I spent a day on Capitol Hill in October with a delegation from the grandly named Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition and am now involved in an effort here in Tennessee to make diabetes tech more available to Medicaid recipients in a fiscally sustainable manner. Stay tuned.”

Our faithful correspondent Dr. Mark Helfat sends a colorful note about his newest work. Mark says, “Retirement has permitted me to complete and publish my first (and last) novel; the culmination of a 15- to 20-year project. Are there literary awards for procrastination? A Vet’s Story (available on Amazon) is an easy read that follows the exploits of a veterinarian on a mission of revenge, which is interspersed with personal recollections and unique veterinary anecdotes. The names of several Wes friends and acquaintances appear throughout the book (misspelled to protect the innocent). The University also appears on pages here and there. My faculty advisor was Dr. Nicholas Knight, a Shakespeare scholar in the English department. While I took a slew of science courses to fulfill my veterinary college application requirements, I also completed an English major.”

Mark notes, “Dr. Knight didn’t know what to do with me as I appeared to have a split personality. That being said, we survived each other for four years and left on good terms. Perhaps he knew that one day those Faulkner and Alexander Pope lectures would come to the aid of this advisee’s confused aspirations.” The Beagle Book club gave his novel “4 Paws Up” a nice review on their Bad Biscuits review site.

Bill Corvo writes that his documentary, Max Corvo for Freedom—about his father Max Corvo, who was hailed as one of the heroes of World War II as head of the OSS in Italy—has won a series of awards, including a special film festival award. It is available through Amazon. Congrats, Bill, as a historian and your special work about your father. Bill’s work has also been featured in The Middletown Press if you would like to find out more about Bill and his dad.

Stephen Sullivan writes that he has spent the last year building a “final stage home” on a remote island in Washington State in the San Juan Archipelago. He says, “It is a relatively compact house on one level with bathrooms accommodating a wheelchair. As an architect for the last 40 years, it was challenging and fun to design the abode knowing that if I were lucky, I would die there, looking out on the meadows, the straits of Juan de Fuca, and the Olympic Mountains in the distance.” He also notes, “I would not have made this choice to build in this location were it not for the fact that my daughter and granddaughter live on our family retreat there. Its immediate proximity to Canada also feels comforting in our challenging moment in history. (I like the fact that the San Juan Islands are practically in Canada. The Pig War of 1872 redrew the international border to give these islands to the USA, rather than to the Crown).” Stephen says, “I have happily retired (95 %) from my architectural practice and I now plan to be the old potter I have always hoped to be, since seeing ancient potters in Japan during my 1973 Watson Fellowship making their simple wares. My big project is to replace the burners on my kiln, reminding me of the extraordinary art department faculty at Wesleyan when we were there, including Mary and John Risley who were lifelong mentors to me.”

We also heard from Mike Robinson who said that Bill Burke hosted him during a busy visit in which they went all over, from Bill’s home in Centennial to Breckenridge to downtown Denver. He said that Bill continues fundraising efforts for the Duke Snyder memorial endowment in honor of the late, longtime hockey coach. Bill told Mike there was also a memorable pond hockey tournament in early 2025 in Greentown, Colorado, that some spirited Wesleyan hockey alums took part in. For some, there is no age limit to what you can do.

Until next time,

PETER D’OENCH | pgdo10@aol.com