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Ken writes:
As of this column, the New Year has just been ushered in. Let’s hope for a great 2025 for all.
I’ll start by enthusiastically recommending a visit to Wes if you haven’t had the chance to recently do so. Following a fair hiatus myself, I went to the campus on a beautiful Saturday in September for an afternoon of tennis team alumni-student play. I drove up with our classmate, (my brother-in-law) Steve Greenberg, who did a great job of rallying some troops from our era to attend. Kathy Mintz was there as well from ’78, great to see as always; members from ’79 and a wide range of other years came as well; and last but not least, was the presence of our legendary, 83-year-old, three-decade Wes coach, and still-active tournament player, Don Long, who drove down from Rochester, New York (!) to attend. It was terrific to meet and play with the kids—both the men’s and women’s teams are nationally outstanding—and to spend some time with their highly successful and charismatic coach, Mike Fried. Best of all was just the simple feel of being on campus.
As for brother-in-law Steve, he continues his very fulfilling lifestyle of full-time ophthalmology practice, family time, and a lot of still-good tennis and paddle tennis. His wife, Hannah, continues her full-time work as well—in the financial sector—and their kids, William, Haley ’14 (married to Spencer Hattendorf ’12), and Kit are thriving. Between the two of us, Steve and I have nine grandchildren . . . and counting. (While tallying, I’ll add that I do have a couple of millennial Wes grads in my clan as well, between my son-in-law, Alec Coquin ’08, and Eli Schned ’05, the brother of my other son-in-law, Paul.) A regular topic of conversation between Steve and me is the “if and when” of retirement—we’ve gotten nowhere with it but take that as a good sign.
BiIl Adler reports that he continues to enjoy life in Japan, which has been his home for the past 10 years. He lives with his girlfriend and cat, writes fiction, and continues to explore that country. He invites everyone to let him know if you’re visiting Japan . . . “I’ll show you around.”
Paul Chill retired in August from full-time teaching after a 36-year career on the UConn Law School faculty—14 years of which he served as associate dean. He will still be able to teach a course every year on a part-time basis, “but without the burdens of administration, committee service, and faculty politics—what a deal!”
Karen Frickenhaus writes from “our tiny piece of paradise in the woods on a pond in central Massachusetts,” where she and husband, Howard, live with their two dogs and two cats in “a little arts-and-crafts-inspired gem” they created and remodeled by themselves over the past 20 years. She just returned from her third yearly adventure in Germany, resulting from the unexpected discovery of a Frickenhaus family clan there; her enthusiastic relatives, “embracing their exotic American auntie,” have immersed her in the cultural treasures and charms of 20 German cities and innumerable villages, an ancient ancestral home, the mountains and cities of neighboring countries, and . . . pipe organ music! Karen still works full time in her own design-and-build landscaping business (The Garden Artist) incorporating an aesthetically naturalist approach. She says, “thanks to Wes for sparking a love of lifelong learning, cultivating my eye for design, and forcing me to keep my toe in the water of the German language!”
Geoff Ginsburg is in his third year as chief medical and scientific officer for the All of US Research Program at the NIH, the mission of which is to build the largest patient database of its kind—more than a million people—to serve as a unique source of health-care research. He reports that over 15,000 researchers around the globe are currently using the database, with a paper being published from it almost daily. “It’s a dream job to be setting a scientific agenda for the nation. My scientific roots were formed at Wes. I am grateful.”
Wendy Kaufman has spent her career involved in both education and the arts, currently focusing on the latter in which she is “proud to serve on the board of the Denver Art Museum. Please come visit! The newest show, Maurice Sendak, received a wonderful review in The New York Times. Best regards and cheers to ’74–’78 memories!”
Kathy Mintz not only attended the September tennis event on campus, but Homecoming as well, where she played in a student/alum/parent round-robin event and enjoyed seeing assistant tennis coach Lucas Pickering’s father (“my old publisher’s league softball captain in NYC”). Kathy continues to live in NYC, where she plays pickleball and squash—and works as an organizer for the annual Tournament of Champions professional squash tournament held at Grand Central Station.
Richard Order reports from Connecticut, where he practices law, that he has just published Reimagining a More Perfect Union: A Better for Modern America, a book “in which I dramatically rewrite and restructure the United States Constitution to make America sane again.” In the book, Rich explains the history behind many of the current provisions and his how and why of replacing them with a system tailored to our current society. “No legal training is needed to understand it!”
Beth Robinson writes from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, that the arrival of her daughter’s baby boy a year ago led her to retire from her long career in global health in order to take care of him on weekdays (“has felt wonderful to support my daughter and son-in-law”). Prior to this, Beth spent her career co-authoring and editing public health works, training journalists and health officials in Africa in the reporting and communication of HIV management, and teaching scientific paper writing in Latin America and Africa; since retiring, she’s switched to writing creative nonfiction, and “very thankful for having had great teachers in COL.”
Julie Scolnik describes her 2024 as the year to be remembered as “Two Weddings and a Funeral.” Both her son, Sasha, in France, and her daughter, Sophie, in Brooklyn, tied their knots. And after a long and legendary life, her father Louis—”jazz-loving, sax-playing, civil-rights activist, founder of the ACLU of Maine and justice on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court—took his last bow” at age 101.
Susan Southard writes from North Carolina, where she moved eight years ago to support her 96-year-old father, that she’s currently working on her second book while at the same time arranging a 2025–2026 book tour based on the 10th anniversary of her first book, Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War (2015) and the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Japan. Her work focuses on the humanitarian impact of nuclear war, on which she speaks publicly in addition to her writing and welcomes invitations to do so (susansouthard@cox.net).
Jonathan Spector reports that all is well with family and life in Vermont: keeping busy with a lot traveling; helping to produce a “fantastic” Broadway play (Operation Mincemeat), scheduled to open in March ’25; and awaiting the arrival two grandchildren . . . “lots of fun activities in retirement.”
Bill Weiss writes from Pleasantville, New York, where he lives with his wife, Karen. He serves as general counsel for several of Teijin’s (Japan) U.S. corporate operations. Bill had a wonderfully fruitful family year in ’24: of his four kids, two became married and a third presented Bill and Karen with their first grandchild. I must also mention that our class-notes exchange revealed that the child’s father, Bill’s son-in-law Charlie, is none other than a terrific new practice partner in my orthopedic group!
Best,
Ken
SUSIE MUIRHEAD BATES | sbatesdux@hotmail.com
KEN KRAMER | kmkramer78@hotmail.com