Author: Anne Marcotty

Thanks to all of you who sent updates—they’re always eagerly anticipated and appreciated!

First things first: Somewhere in the cutting and pasting of e-mails, I managed to bungle Susan Budlong Cole’s name in my last class notes. (So sorry, Susan!) Susan is on her second retirement, having ended a 25-year career providing treatment for those with drug and alcohol addictions back in 2004, and now has wrapped up a seven-year career in financial planning and research. “I continue with my volunteer teaching at York Correctional Institution with Wally Lamb and the Inmate Writers’ Group.”

Anne Heller Anderson has settled in northern California. “I have not been back to Wesleyan since 1980, when I transferred to UC, Berkeley. But I am excited to say I will be back on campus again… with my daughter, Brooke, for the Sons and Daughters Program for high school juniors,” she writes. “I can’t wait to see the Usdan Campus Center, the organic farm, and Foss 6, my freshman dorm. Hope to see some of our 1982 classmates and their sons or daughters at the program!”

Lots of exciting career moves to report: Kweku Forstall in January becomes the Atlanta civic site director for the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Steven Maizes writes: “I am helping to open the new Los Angeles office for Guaranteed Rate mortgage, one of the largest mortgage bankers in the country. I have helped a lot of Wesleyan alumni get loans over the years in California, and we can now do loans in all 50 states.”

Joseph Dow is the senior compliance manager for the Boston Public Schools’ Office of English Language Learners. He has two sons, Aaron and Noah, ages 10 and 13. Joseph says that since leaving Wesleyan, he keeps in touch with his “classmate/former roommate and best friend, Douglas Borton, now the internationally famous writer, Michael Prescott.”

Carson Milgroom has been leading an “ordinary life on the plateau, happy and healthy, blessed” in Newton, Mass. He’s married and has two sons, 11 and 14, who are home-schooled. “I’m still playing hardcore amateur baseball around Boston,” he writes, “Just spent a week down in Fort Myers in a tournament my team won. Got to play at JetBlue Stadium/Fenway South.” Carson adds that he’s best reached at milgroom@gmail.com, and promises to send “another update in 20 years.”

Carl Schwaber writes that since 2009, he’s been living in Los Angeles and working as an actor. “Most recently, I booked and shot a co-star role on the TV series, Criminal Minds. I play a pimp who poses as a butcher in the episode that aired on Nov. 27, 2013, on CBS. More at carlschwaber.com

Congratulations to Jeff Phelon, who writes that he recently married JoAnn Sidor in Manchester, Conn.
“My brother, Pete Phelon ’85, was the best man. Paul and Fran Carroll Strumph from the Class of 1982 were also there to celebrate!” he says.

Wesleyan continues to beckon successive generations of Cardinals whose parents are alums.

“We (Robert Smythe and Susan Dinsmore Smythe) had a great time visiting campus with son Harry (hopes to be Wes ’18),” Susan writes, “Got to wander all around memory lane, including into the ’92 Theater, where I was happy to see posters on display of shows we were involved in along with Brian Snedeker. We were lucky enough to stay with Di Longley and Chris Diamond ’85, and also got to catch up with John Giammatteo ’81 and his lovely wife, daughter, and baby son! ”

Susan adds: “Robert continues teaching at Temple University and acting in Philadelphia and beyond. I continue to work as a project manager in facilities at Swarthmore College, and am finishing up eight years in local government.”

Alex Thomson says he, Kevin Foley, and John McIntyre ’86, “all enjoyed rowing together at The Head of the Charles this year in the Senior Masters Eights category.”

Julie Kraushaar Zurcher writes that she and her family now live in California, after returning from six years in Basel, Switzerland. “Am enjoying the convenience and customer-oriented aspects of life in America, and have re-connected with Michael Ostacher, who does return my e-mail but is busily living the Silicon Valley life, so I haven’t seen him recently. (But I still love ya, Mike!)” She is also good friends with Heyward Robinson ’80, who would have graduated with the Wes class of 1980 had he not decamped to Duke after two years.

Empty nester Dave Hessekiel makes a standing offer: “Classmates: Consider this an invitation to come on by for a visit to Rye!” Dave and wife Andi “miss our girls (Kira graduated from Tufts in May and is teaching English in France; Sophie is a sophomore at Vassar)” but they’re also enjoying their newfound freedom. Dave was on tour in Beijing, Seoul, and Ljubljana, Slovenia, for the book Good Works! which he co-authored last year.

Naomi Fuchs says she is enjoying life in Sebastopol, Calif., with her husband of 30 years, David Willson. “We have three grown children and two grandchildren with another on the way. I found my dream job as the CEO of Santa Rosa Community Health Centers, a community clinic providing primary care, mental health, and obstetrics to 40,000 low-income, underserved people in the greater Santa Rosa area.”

Peter Brooks is living in West Windsor, N.J., with his wife, two poodles, and the youngest of his four children. He has been CEO of a technology services company owned by Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania for the last 10 years, after stints at two engineering software firms and three years running his own software company in Cambridge, Mass. His two middle children are in college, and the oldest graduated and is living and working in Brooklyn. He writes that he “still loves music and plays the cello often.”

Greg Ward is a board certified physician specializing in rehabilitation and pain management, and is founder of the Louisiana Institute of Physical Medicine in Baton Rouge. He forwarded a bio stating that he is the proud father of two daughters and is an avid fisherman.

Bill Anschell, who lives in Seattle, recently served on a National Endowment for the Arts music panel. In 2013, he released his first CD of original electronica. He says that over the years, he’s had many of his compositions placed in TV and film by LoveCat Music, which is owned by Randy Frisch ’84.

Anne Hietbrink writes: “I’ve been out of touch with most of my Wesleyan connections for a while. I am living part-time on Lopez Island in Washington State and part-time near Monterey in California with my long-time partner and now spouse (yay!), Beth Shirk, and our two dogs. I am drawing, writing, and exploring pottery after a career working with outliers of various descriptions. I am an enthusiastic cyclist, fascinated by the physics and the fun of those wheels going round. I am curious about my beloveds from the Wesleyan years.”

Stephanie Griffith
stephaniedgriffith@gmail.com

I write this sitting at my kitchen table on the first cold night in mid-November. The house is suddenly very quiet ever since my trio started college in the fall. Realizing my kids would soon leave the nest, I threw my hat in the ring last spring and offered to be class secretary; I figured I would have some free time. I must admit, being an empty nester is quite nice. Yes, I miss the kids and the hustle-bustle, but it is rather nice going to the supermarket every two weeks and having a clean house. Besides, only 16 more days until Thanksgiving…but I’m not counting! Professionally, I’ve returned to my Wes roots for a PhD in sociology, have been working at Rutgers University, the School of Public Affairs and Administration, conducting research on urban education and school reform, and am writing a dissertation. What was I saying about free time? Here now, the news:

George Russell writes: “I live in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with my partner, Dave, and my dog, Buck. I do bodywork, movement analysis, teaching and chiropractic in the Flatiron district of Manhattan. In July 2013, I directed a dance/theater version of a play by Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin called Savage/Love. It was produced by a performance space called HERE in Soho, and performed by De Facto Dance, which included Meg Fry ’91 and Kelly Donovan ’93.” George adds he recently saw Heather Masri, who works at NYU and is writing a book on science fiction writers; Carol Einhorn ’84 and her son, Griffin, age 5; and Melissa Wood, who teaches art at the Kent Place School in Summit, N. J.

Lee Hass reports she moved to Tasmania in 1993 and runs a nonprofit, Future Tasmanai, which works to help transition Tasmania towards a sustainable future, economically, environmentally, and socially. Kirsten Wasson has been transplanted, too. Kirsten has run away from upstate New York to the City of Angels and has landed in Beverly Hills. She works at a juice bar, seeking fame and misadventure. Kirsten’s son is also in Southern California and both are available for life-crisis consultation. Former class secretary, Cheri Litton Weiss, is also on the West Coast. Cheri recently enrolled in a graduate program in cantorial studies at the Academy for Jewish Religion in Los Angeles and continues to be the broker/owner of a real estate firm, Top Coast Properties.

Back to the East Coast: Jonathan Chatinover is the swim coach for the Martha’s Vineyard High School co-ed swim team and Craig Edwards, married to Mary K. Bercaw, lives in Mystic, Conn. Craig continues to perform, tour, and teach music (private fiddle lessons at Wes) when he is not developing exhibits and soundscapes for the Ellis Island, Lyman Allyn, and Mystic Seaport museums. David Frankfurter and Anath Golomb live in Durham, N.H., with their dog, Sadie. David is chair of the Boston University’s Religion department and Anath maintains her private psychotherapy practice in Portsmouth. Their daughter, Sariel, is in her second year at Columbia and their son, Raphael, graduated from Princeton last year and is the executive director of Wellbody Alliance, an NGO based in Sierra Leone.

Pam Dolin Mitamura shares that her oldest daughter is a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin, the middle one is a sophomore at Vassar, and the youngest daughter is a senior, applying to college. On behalf of the class of ’83, I want to express our condolences to Pam on the passing of her mother last year.

Also, our condolences to Kate Rabinowitz and Rameshwar Das ’69 on the tragic death of their 14-year-old daughter, Anna Mirabai Lytton. The full obituary can be found here. May their memories forever be a blessing in your lives. Kate wrote: “This year is beginning a new life, after the death of our 14-year-old daughter this summer from a tragic bicycle accident. Rameshwar Das ’69 and I have two children, James, 16, and Anna, 14. It is the greatest loss, as she was the greatest girl. She was the joy of all of us, smart and funny and independent and creative, beautiful and ‘better’ than her parents…she got the best of us, and took it much further. In her brief life, she lived in a beautiful oceanside retreat near New York City, traveled to India, Italy, England, Scotland, Canada, and all over the US. She experienced city life and the wilderness through the farm and wilderness camps in Vermont, camping with her family, and adventuring all over the West. What a gift that she had so much experience and joy to live and share. It is not for any of us to know how long we are to live.

We miss our dear Anna more than words can say.

A foundation has been established in her name that promotes arts and wellness programs for underserved populations in schools and community centers. Contributions can be made to Anna Mirabai Lytton Foundation, PO Box 625, Amagansett, N.Y. 11930.”

Thank you to everyone who sent me information for these Class Notes and/or a private e-mail to catch up. I’ve enjoyed checking e-mails these last few weeks and reconnecting with Wes folk. Until the next installment…stay in touch.

LAURIE COHEN
lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu

Happy winter, fellow classmates. Roger Pincus and I (Michael Steven Schultz) are your new class secretaries, and this is our first set of notes. I won the coin toss and will be your host this month, and Roger will take over next time. Thanks to all who took the time to send us a little news.

Chuck Schneider mentions in passing that he is a practicing medical oncologist at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center and Research Institute in Newark, Del. But he’d really rather talk about his fiction. A Portrait in Time, a thriller set in the contemporary Paris art world (and in 19th-century Paris, as well), is available in an Amazon Kindle edition (and soon in print). (charlesjschneider.com)

Paul Baker checks in from San Francisco to let us know about his November art show, featuring some new works. He and Scott Schryver call themselves “Art Men” (artmenart.com). The opening featured a signature whiskey-based cocktail called the “Jackson Pollock” (In past years, Paul was an exhibit designer at the Cleveland Museum of Art).

Don Rea left Bucknell University after 16 years and is now the technical manager of Arts People in Portland, Ore., (providing online ticketing and donation services to nonprofit theater and art organizations).

Mike Heydenburg checks in to say that he can’t really talk about much of what he’s doing, but he did get his second master’s of science from the National Intelligence University.

Lawrence Wiedeman also is unable to discuss too many details of his work, but does take time to mention a cardboard paddlewheel boat, a cow chip hurling soda bottle rocket, and 1930s golf clubs, among his non-work distractions.

Rick Davidman continues to work as an art dealer in NYC. He owns DFN Gallery (dfngallery.com), which is no longer a physical space but creates art exhibitions in several venues. Rick also acts as financial adviser to many artists, dealers, architects, and other members of the art/design world.

Hsiao-chiung (Helene) Li went to Hong Kong in 1993 after law school and still hasn’t left. She is no longer practicing law, but is married and is raising a family there, and often acts as a Hong Kong interviewer for Wesleyan.

Ellen Prager is back from the Galapagos Islands. As science adviser to Celebrity’s small cruise ship, Xpedition, she is able to make the trip several times a year. Like many of our classmates, she is also an author—her children’s illustrated book, Sea Slime: It’s Eeuwy, Gooey and Under the Sea, comes out in February, and she is starting a middle-grade fiction series with the book, The Shark Whisperer (available in February).

Michael Lewyn lives in Midtown and teaches property and environmental law at Touro Law Center on Long Island). He publishes articles on municipal planning and related issues, most recently in the Real Estate Law Journal. His writings appear regularly on two urban-planning blogs, the Planetizen (planetizen.com) and the Congress for New Urbanism (cnu.org/cnu-salons).

Joel Fein is part of Osler Circle, an almost-all-doctor Beatles cover band from CHOP (Childrens’ Hospital of Philadelphia), and played a gig at World Café Live in November (oslercircle.org).

Sally Bromage Suhr is celebrating 25 years of marriage and an empty nest (in Marietta, Ga.). She has left her second-grade teaching job after 11 years. Her daughter, Abby, graduated from UGA in May and is a kindergarten teacher at a charter school in Brooklyn; Dylan is a junior at Georgia College; and Anna is a freshman at Savannah College of Art and Design. She wants to know if Cathy, Melissa, Liz, Tammy and Jon are coming to Reunion.

Speaking of Reunion, Gail Jenkins Farris is already planning the 30th Reunion and is looking for submissions for a slide show (send to gailfarris@aol.com). Her daughter, Kim ’14, is graduating this year, and daughter Jen ’16 is also at Wesleyan (currently a sophomore).

See everyone in May?

Michael Steven Schultz and Roger Pincus
mschultz84@wesleyan.edu
Rpincus84@wesleyan.edu

Mary Beth writes: The flurry of 50th birthday celebrations has been lots of fun. I remember being a student at Wesleyan and thinking turning 30 would feel strange! This past fall I had brunch with Desirée Alvarez, Amy Seplin and Liz Maher Muoio, whose daughter, Molly ’17, is a frosh. Joe Muoio ’13 attended Homecoming 2013 weekend last fall with Molly and members of his former Wesleyan football team, including Head Coach and Wesleyan Athletic Director Mike Whalen ’83. Wes enjoyed victories over Amherst and Williams this year, winning our first Little Three Crown since 1970. Desiree, Amy and I had to feign interest in football while Liz explained how remarkable this achievement is. But, really: WOW. Congratulations and thank you, Mike! Amy Seplin has been a film editor since graduating from Columbia Film School, working in NYC on documentaries, and has now returned to Columbia to become a nurse practitioner. By the time you read this, we will have surprised her with a birthday toast at Bemelmen’s Bar. Desirée Alvarez is an artist and poet living in Soho. She exhibits widely and her fabric art can be seen at Central Booking Gallery on the Lower East Side. She designed sets for Gayathri Khemadasa and Jeff Hush ‘84’s Phoolan Devi Opera, which was performed at South Church in Middletown last spring. She also teaches at New York City College of Technology, CUNY. You can see more work and get more details at her website. Last April Desirée had an exhibit at Piermont Straus Gallery, owned by Laura Straus ’88, where Patty Fabricant has also exhibited. Patty has been hard at work designing many beautiful books over the years, and drawing and painting seriously in more recent years. She has now amassed an impressive and varied portfolio of work, and she is exhibiting more widely; details and images are available on her website. Patty and I had dinner last fall with Ellen MacLeod Korbonski, who has two young daughters and is also creating artwork in varied media, including some mesmerizing embroidery.

I attended the Second Annual Guitar Mash in New York, an interactive play-and-sing-along fundraising event, co-produced by Brooklynite Maureen McSherry ’87, who has become an all-around theatrical and event producer. She is a producer of Matilda, The Musical, and a producer of The Williamsburg Independent Film Festival. She also produced a beautiful, talented daughter who is trying to launch an acting career.

Michael Stephen Schultz ’84 and I also attended Dana Lesley Goldstein’s play, Daughters of the Sexual Revolution, at Workshop Theatre in New York this past fall, and was happy to learn that Dana was getting inquiries from additional producers as a result of this production. The play is about a family with a daughter who attends a liberal arts college in New England, which felt familiar.

I am hearing good things from friends who have attended the Wesleyan Sons and Daughters weekend, which I attended last year with my son. It’s a smart way to start the college application process, helped us tremendously, and I recommend it to everyone with children in high school. Keep the notes coming, and happy birthday to the last few of you who have yet to cross over. Feels fine on this side.

CAROLINE WILKINS and MARY BETH KILKELLY
mbkeds@Yahoo.com
cwilkins85@yahoo.com

We are nearing (or at) 50 years old, and there are lots of changes in our lives. For me, a new career path means I spend weekends in Maine with my family and weeknights in Boston with my 80-year-old mother. I now do corporate relations in the College of Engineering at Northeastern University, and in the evening I work on a doctoral degree in organizational leadership. The goal is to complete my degree in 2016, the same year my twins get their high-school degree.

Here are similar stories from classmates:
Sarah Bosch Holbrooke: “After living in NYC since graduation, I moved with my family to Telluride in August. My husband, David, runs Mountainfilm.org, and we thought it would be nice for our three kids (Bebe, 18, Kitty, 13, and Wiley, 11) to experience four seasons of outdoor fun. I’m continuing to work in television production, freelancing for the Katie Couric daytime talk show. I think the biggest changes are that I’m making dinner rather than reservations, bears run outside our back door, and it’s mid-October and we’ve already had several serious snow storms. It’s all good, but a real adjustment from Brooklyn.”

Charlie Berthoud: “After 10 years near Pittsburgh, we moved to Madison, Wis. and love it here. I am serving as the pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church—a wonderful progressive congregation. My wife is looking for lawyer-related work after 12 years at home with our two boys. Emma Caspar ’85 is here too, and we enjoyed catching up at Nepalese restaurant. Life is good.”

Julia Lee Barclay-Morton: “I fell in love and got married at 50 for starters(!) to my beloved Canadian, John Barclay-Morton. I have found true love and am astonished by the grace of this. Having never experienced it, I didn’t know what I was missing until I found it. I was recently hired to edit a book by the widow of a well-known theater theorist (Stefan Brecht) of his writing on a favorite director/writer (Richard Foreman). This happened in part because of Wesleyan connections and work begun at Wes as a student. I also teach writing at Fordham, which is something new that I have discovered I love. Just two years ago, I moved back to NYC from the UK (where I had lived for eight years), with a PhD in hand (received at 46), a marriage ended, a theatre company disbanded, my father having died and finding out that my last name was a fiction because of WWII (and in the process discovering a new family). There were other losses as well, including a miscarriage, infertility, my stepfather’s death, friends dying, my cat of 20 years dying—in other words life in and around 50. Throughout all of this, I maintained my sobriety and celebrated 26 years clean and sober last year—a reminder throughout all of the good, the bad, and the ugly, that I am lucky to be alive. I feel truly blessed now, renewed after a time of grieving, and now able to participate once again fully in the world.”

Ellen Santistevan: “Going into the field of bodywork has been an absolutely amazing and life-changing journey. Everything about my life is healthier: most especially self awareness and relationships. It has been a true gift. Coincident (or nearly so) with opening myself up in this way has been a flowering of my artwork. Never before have I been so able and so needing to devote myself to writing and painting. There is a feedback loop between the creative personal work (internal) and the bodywork career (external), each of which enhances the other. I don’t suppose that I could have come to this point in my life without all the other experiences I have gone through. Just as I was unable to do a handstand as a child, and now am unbelievably surprised to be able to do so, even as I am approaching 50—age does have its perks.”

Elaine Taylor-Klaus: “In a nutshell, as a socio-preneur I am working to change the way that parents live with and manage children with chronic illness and special needs. Two years ago I launched ImpactADHD, a global resource for parents that is the first of a network of coaching/training resource sites and programs. With an emphasis on the importance of the role of the parent, we will expand the wellness model to teach parents to teach their children to live with and thrive with disease, rather than be defined and exclusively limited by it. We are setting up strong systems to meet the needs of families, introducing a new way to manage old problems. Research is proving that parent training improves efficacy of other treatment methodologies, and health care is moving in the direction of a wellness approach to medical care. These factors combined make the ‘coach-approach’ to parenting an ideal solution for families.”

Ethan Knowlden: “This summer, I had a job change: Senior vice president, general counsel and secretary for Complete Genomics, Inc., in Mountain View, Calif. We have about 200 employees, and my department is two. We have a very cool technology that allows us to provide the most accurate whole human genome sequencing available today. In March we were acquired by BGI, the world’s largest sequencing company, headquartered in Shenzhen. Complete’s mission is to improve human health by providing genomic information to understand, prevent, diagnose and treat diseases and conditions. That is something I’m excited to be part of.”

A P.S. from Eric: Many thanks to you for your generosity: 243 classmates made a contribution to Wesleyan last year. As I am turning 50 this year, I am giving contributions of $50 (or multiples of 50) to a bunch of organizations. Some gifts, such as the one to Wes, are in memory of friends who have died and never made it to 50. If you are looking for a reason to give to Wes, check out thisiswhy.wesleyan.edu.

Eric Howard
EricInMaine@gmail.com

Muzzy Rosenblatt may even be more ubiquitous in NYC than he was at Wesleyan. In the span of a couple of weeks this past fall, I ran into him at a fundraising breakfast for our favorite US Senator (Michael Bennet), I saw him moderate a fascinating panel of some of Wesleyan’s most illustrious New York public policy minds (John Rhea, Shola Olatoye ’96, Sharon Greenberger ’88, John Alschuler ’70) at a “Future of the City” discussion regarding the challenges our new mayor will face, and then I opened up my New Yorker magazine on Nov. 11 to find a letter Muzzy wrote on the work he’s done with the BRC! And he did it all wearing his big red cardinal costume!

In addition to Muzzy, I was lucky enough to lay eyes on a number of classmates recently. I saw Rob Campbell give an amazing performance at Playwrights Horizons last November. I ran into Michael Pruzan at a book party for his sister-in-law Tracey Winn Pruzan ’85, and I got to have a long overdue lunch with my old roomie Lisa Abroms Herz. I also saw Molly Renfroe and her husband, Dan Katz ’85, at a party this fall.

Mark Pinto wrote in: “Little change here. Still living in Tacoma, Wash., with my partner, Jeff Williams, and working as a residential real estate broker. Just got back from a great trip to Barcelona. Looking forward to seeing classmates Jennifer Bush and Grier Mendel in Seattle in a few weeks.”

Imagine my delight to receive this e-mail from Joss Whedon: “For reasons too complex even for me to understand, I have not been killed. I have however had my consciousness transferred into the body of a very old (and rather bald) man, and I’m planning a strongly worded letter on the subject. I am splitting my time between LA (which is a desert) and England (which is like Eden except you can eat an apple and nobody gets huffy about it), where I’m working on a startlingly original idea I call a ‘superhero franchise.’ My progeny, in fifth and third grades respectively, are thoughtful, funny, and considerate, so I am demanding a paternity test. In my spare time I enjoy not having any spare time. I keep in touch with almost no one from our days of salad except Thomas Plotkin ’86, whom I seldom actually see but who lives forever in my heart and should really get a place of his own.”

Also in West Coast news, Richter Hartig was promoted by Starz to senior vice president for original programming production finance.

Joshua Bellin writes “The big news in my life is that my debut novel, a young adult science fiction novel titled Survival Colony Nine, has been accepted for publication (it’s due out next year).”

Stephen Porter reports that he is “happily living the midwestern whitebread life in St. Paul, Minn. I work as a research scientist at the local VA hospital studying antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Melissa and I have now been married for 21 years. Our son, Daniel ’16, is a sophomore at Wes. This was entirely his idea. He is living in WesCo, is in CSS, and claims to be working really hard. Wesleyan has truly proven to be a great fit for him. There is nothing like watching your child thrive at your alma mater to prove what a great school Wesleyan truly is!”

“Thanks to the support of many Wes alums and other good people,” writes Tim Sheridan, “we hit our Kickstarter goal in July. The book, Thunder & Lightning: a Story for a Stormy Night, is now available at thunderlightning.bigcartel.com.

Leslie Cannold wrote, “I do have news! My third book, The Book of Rachael, which went into a second printing here in Australia is being published in the US this December! It will be the feature title for my publisher, and continue to be prominent in their advertising through January as it is seen as a great holiday gift for anyone (Christian, Jew, Atheist, Feminist, etc.) who likes a ripping historical yarn with great sex. You can find out more about the book here: cannold.com/articles/article/the-book-of-rachael.”

Nancy Dobrow Bean “lives in the Pioneer Valley, Western Mass., with my husband, Mike, and our three daughters, Grace (9), Julia (15) and Maddi (18). Maddi just started her freshman year at Emory in Atlanta this September. Big change in the household! The girls are all singing and dancing, playing soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, skiing, hiking… we don’t sit around much! Mike sells organic coffee and our house generally smells like roasted coffee and wine. We are surrounded by farms, the Mt. Tom and Skinner Mountain Range, Mt. Holyoke Mountains, and the Connecticut River. We are also adjacent to our rivals at Amherst College! My event marketing and production company, Wise Up Events, is based in Boston. We just wrapped up production for the Taste of WGBH Food & Wine Festival in September, and the James Beard Foundation Taste America Tour in October. Now we gear up for full pre-production for the Nantucket Wine Festival. I am co-owner and director of the NWF. It takes about 11 months to produce, includes 50 different events over five days, and takes place every May. This May will be our 18th annual festival. I stay in touch regularly with my BFF Sibyll Carnochan Catalan, and would love to connect with other Wes alums! Best to reach me at: nancy@wiseupevents.com or cell: 617/755-5523.”

Joe Crivelli wrote in to tell me he regularly posts information on WesConnect, but that it feels like his own personal blog since he can never find other classmates posting. Feel free to join Joe and post your news on WesConnect, too—maybe it will catch on.

Have a happy and healthy 2014!

Amanda Jacobs Wolf
wolfabj@gmail.com

Peter writes for this issue.

Kelli Craig-Henderson reports: “I am just packing up for a move to Japan to head the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Tokyo Office. I’d enjoy hearing from any classmates who happen to be in my new neighborhood.”

After some 25 years of working for print newspapers, Jenifer McKim is moving into the exciting new nonprofit world of investigative journalism. “I left the Boston Globe, where I’ve worked for the last five years, and joined the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, a small newsroom based out of Boston University and WGBH radio/TV. I’m writing, editing, teaching, and helping build this new initiative, which can be found at www.necir.org.”

Bobbito Garcia advises: “On the career side, the doc I co-directed Doin’ It in the Park: Pick-Up Basketball, NYC, which peaked at #2 on iTunes Top Sports Movies and #4 on their Top Docs list. Broadcast premiere on PBS will be in early 2014. Also, the 10th anniversary edition of my book Where’d You Get Those? New York City’s Sneaker Culture: 1960–1987 (Testify Publishing) hits shops December 2nd.”

Hannah Doress shares that “I’m glad to be working on meaningful projects—I spearheaded a collaborative bilingual organizing project on Sea Level Rise called Shore Up Marin which received funding from San Francisco Foundation. I will produce my fourth Earth Day Marin Festival and Day of Action on April 6th. I recently co-launched Gluten Free Traditions, an affordable online cookbook series authored by my wife, Emily Bender. I had a major Wesleyan flashback when I visited Poland with my mother, who was speaking at the U Lodz Gender Studies Conference. It was just like Wes but international! My 10-year-old son, Abraham, is learning holistic horsemanship from Alane Freund ’87. We see Ilana Trumbull-Stearns ’90 for acupuncture. We had a recent mini-reunion with Ilana, Sara Elsa-Beech (now an architect), Jen Balfour ’90 (practicing acupuncture), and Stephanie Haffner ’91 (a public interest lawyer). Last Wes reunion before that was in SF with Ilana, Stephanie, Amy Randall ’89, Judith Sansone ’89, Seth Cousins ’91, and Jason Dewees. I saw Michael Frank ’86 at a fundraiser with his cute husband—Michael is city manager of Novato. We love visitors so let us know if you’ll be in the area.”

Chris Pearson is living out in Santa Cruz, Calif. “Susan and I just celebrated our 19th anniversary. We have 16- and 11-year-old daughters, and are starting to look at colleges for the oldest. I’m still working at West Marine, where I’m the marketing director for the B2B division.”

Mark Niles left his position at the Seattle University School of Law, returning to Washington, D.C., in order to work at American University. He is “looking forward to seeing many of my Wes alumni friends in the D.C. area, including Dana Martin ’86 and David Hill ’86 among others. Recently went on a college trip with my 17-year-old daughter that included Wesleyan. She really liked it, but her mom went to Williams, so we will see…”

Daniel Rosenberg advises, “It’s been a busy year. We spent the summer in Berlin at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and are now on sabbatical at the Stanford Humanities Center, which is terrific.”

PETER v.s. BOND and Hillary Ross
007@pvsb.org; hrossdance@yahoo.com

Thank you SO much for your service David Milch! Welcome to our new guy, Jonathan Fried. Yay!

Sooooo many updates, we speed-wrote… .

Stephanie Dolgoff, now “happily divorced,” is hanging with her twin tween gals—while her Formerly Hot book has been optioned by Lions Gate!

Joel Jacobs is studying barefoot massage and has begun acting lately even though he’s still got his day-job practicing environmental law in the California Attorney General’s Office.

Rabbi Jennifer Feldmen-—Kehillah Synagogue of Chapel Hill, NC.—proudly shepherds a congregation that includes quite a few Wes alums. She’s even officiating a Wes wedding in Latin America!

Vermont-based soul and blues singer/guitarist Dave Keller is celebrating the release of his new CD, Soul Changes—recorded with Al Green’s original backing unit, The Hi Rhythm Section!

We heard from Jaewoo Choo, who lives in South Korea working as a professor of Chinese foreign policy at KyungHee University. Jaewoo is married to James Rhee’s cousin. He and his spouse have a 14-year-old son.

In Jericho, N.Y., Jeffrey Naness is a partner practicing labor and employment law for management at Naness, Chaiet & Naness.

This past November Dr. William “Rob” Spencer won his second term as a Suffolk County (N.Y.)legislator.

Robin Allen McGrew is living in Athens, Greece, with husband Wes, their 15-year-old son, Nicholas, and daughter Susanna.

Dr. Jim Vincent has been running his own real estate appraisal firm for 15 years. Meanwhile, he still keeps up with theater.

Ellen M. Richard Tan has caved to our peer pressuring (Yay us!) and given us the good news that she is “happily gay-married (to quote Colbert) to Dorothy Tan, with one marvelous girl pitbull dog, Sophie.”

Phineas Baxandall is living in Cambridge, Mass., along with kids 14 and 12 with his partner, Sarah. He left academia about a decade ago and still does a fair amount of research as part of advocacy to close corporate tax loopholes.

Paul M. Gallo and his wife, Katie, just welcomed their second daughter, Kelsey Jordan Gallo, this past November 4th.

Kevin Heffernan just moved from Northampton back to Boston, Mass., where he is a housing lawyer for the State. He has two boys ages 2 and 5.

Jeff Brez has moved to the United Nations Secretariat in New York, where he works with the creative community (TV, film, etc.) and NGOs to promote UN priority issues and foster social change. He is married to Adriano Monti.

Holly Adams is dusting off her passport because—guess what!—she and her husband are officially empty nesters, y’all.

Marit Larson and Adam Sobel are still in New York with their two boys Eli (15) and Sam (12). Adam is a professor of atmospheric sciences at Columbia; Marit is Director of Wetlands for the NYC Parks Department.

Anjulika Chawla has been living in Rhode Island since September 2011 and writes: “Met my guy here, and 11 years and four kids later we have gotten engaged on April 1st of 2013. It may take us another decade to actually get married, but you are all welcome to come when it does happen!”

Jonathan’s updates here:

Kim Slote lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with her two children. Victoria Shestack Aronoff started nursing school, after a decade of grant writing. She lives in Maplewood, N.J., with her two children. Mark Seasholes has been in Hong Kong for the past five years, with his wife and daughter. They are in Austin, Texas, for the year. He saw Michael Mahon around Halloween for some barbecue, live music, and a UT football game. Bob Sutherland owns and manages several Sutherland Lumber stores. He lives in Niwot, Colo., with his wife and two daughters. Edward V. Colbert III is a partner with Looney & Grossman in Boston. He has a wife, two children, and at least five pets. He coaches hockey, and plays in a league with John Brais ’86 and Ted Galo ’85. Robin Smith is now vice president and general counsel for the Americas/Pacific Region of the US subsidiary of LEGO Systems, Inc. She reports that Dar Williams’s performance at Homecoming was “fabulous.” Evan Heimlich taught a World Religions course at Norco College in Southern California. Katey Miller Goldberg and Steve Goldberg celebrate 27 years since dating as sophomores! They live in Greenwich, Conn., with their three children. Steve is a senior portfolio manager at Citadel Asset Management and Katey works part-time in commercial real estate. David Levine visited Ricky Kotler in Baltimore, where Rick is a doctor in the managed care division of the Baltimore VA hospital. He lives in Columbia, Md., with his wife and three kids. David, an investment banker for middle-market companies, lives in Chappaqua, N.Y., with his wife and two kids. After many years teaching art history at Swarthmore, Janine Mileaf is the director of The Arts Club of Chicago. Matthew Coan lives in Mill Valley, Calif., with his wife and three kids. He co-founded Presidio Benefits Company in San Francisco. He was at Wesleyan’s first Little Three football championship in 43 years with Norm Beaulieu, Jim Lukowski, Mike Charlton, Adam Rohdie, Andy Lacey, Jim Regan, and Greg White ’87.

Since last reunion, Abby Smuckler Lotwin has married, had twins, left her long career in educational publishing, and moved to the ’burbs. She recently got together with Ladeene Freimuth, Colleen McKiernan, and Rachel Wulf Silver. Andrew Manning is a research geologist in Denver, Colo., is married, and has two daughters. He was inspired to see Wesleyan Earth and Environmental Science grads and faculty at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. John DiPaolo is a deputy assistant secretary for policy in the US Department of Education. He and his wife have one daughter. Janine Mortimer is in the Dominican Republic, enjoying the sunshine as the marketing manager for Occidental Resorts in the Caribbean.

See you at our 25^th (gulp) Year Reunion!

Jonathan Fried and Michele Barnwell
jonathan.l.fried@gmail.com
fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

Hi all. Here’s what we have:

Carolyn Vellengo Berman writes that she has been thinking about Wesleyan quite a bit since she and her husband Greg Berman ’89, along with Sarah McNaughton Williams ’88, hosted a fundraiser for the Wesleyan Center for Prison Education last spring. “It was fun to catch up with Wesleyan friends and make some new ones as well. I also had an opportunity to review Wesleyan Professor Andrew Curran’s marvelous new book, The Anatomy of Blackness, for H-France this year. Highly recommended.”

Josh Leichter is doing “excellent, with lots going on.” He is engaged to be married to “the unparalleled Dr. Kyra Bobinet. My daughter’s a freshman at college. Not Wes, but a school that I am in love with, College of Wooster in Ohio. My son is a junior in high school and more focused than he’s ever been about anything on getting his driver’s license (those in Boston area, beware).” Josh is about to switch jobs and in two years will be moving to SF Bay Area, where his fiancée lives.

Alison Bowers writes in after attending the beautiful Bar Mitzvah of David Gottlieb, son of Bethel Gorin Gottlieb and the late Brian Gottlieb ’88 and grandson of Robert Gorin ’57. Also at the event were Laurie Malkin, Kerry Kourepenos, Seth Bergstein ’88, and Alex Mochary Bergstein ’88.

Also writing from the Northeast is Ben Robertson, an actor and writer in Keene, N.H. Ben helped start the Monadnock International Film Festival and is on the board getting ready for the second annual festival in April. He “would love to get film submissions from Wes alums as well as see friends from Wes next year at the fest.” You can see more about MONIff at moniff.org.

Next door in western Vermont, Ernie Luikart ’91 and Wendy Herrick ’90 are still living happily with their two daughters, Molly (8) and Emma (11). Ernie is working both as a full-time RN and also teaching a class, Natural Disasters, at Green Mountain College. Wendy continues to counsel students and teach classes on psychology and other subjects at Long Trail School in Dorset, Vt. Ernie has made a nearly full recovery after falling out of a tree (“testing it to see if it was safe for the daughters to climb—it wasn’t”) and fracturing the lateral processes of three lumbar vertebrae and cracking a rib or two. “I am not quite as good as new, but I wasn’t before the fall either.”

Bruce Hooke moved to Plainfield, Mass., and bought a home next door to a retreat center called Earthdance, a center for improvisational dance, theater, and movement. His life is “now closely interwoven with the community at Earthdance.”

Ed Ungvarsky writes from his family’s new house in Washington, D.C., where “they expect to stay until the golden years.” The special needs-focused public charter school that his wife, Olivia Smith ’91, founded and directs has expanded to a second campus and is frequently cited as a model school. Their daughters happily play soccer and listen to Taylor Swift.

Congratulations to Gerald Richards, CEO of 826 National (826national.org), a nonprofit network of creative writing and after-school tutoring centers located in eight cities. He was in D.C. at the Library of Congress to receive the inaugural American Prize for Literacy, which was given to 826 National for their work over the past decade. “There are 826 centers in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Boston, Detroit/Ann Arbor, and San Francisco. It was a great honor for our organization and cool to be in the Library of Congress. If you are looking for a volunteer opportunity, walk into an 826 center in your city or take your kids by to visit one of our storefronts.”

Finally, it has been brought to my attention that congratulations are also due to Michael Thomas, a veteran of Kosovo and Afghanistan, who has become a hero to local veterans in Connecticut. Michael has taken over a Subway franchise location and used it to set up a veterans program. He employs several veterans, some with disabilities, and teaches them (along with his employees who are not veterans) a broad range of skills necessary for today’s job market. His vision includes using the location as a space where veterans can network, obtain career advice, and meet with VA or New Haven Vet Center staff. In addition to awards and certificates he received during his military years, Michael has recently been given a few more honors for his latest work. First, the Connecticut Small Business Administration awarded him the 2013 Veteran Owned Small Business Award. Second, he was inducted into the Connecticut Veteran Hall of Fame. Fewer than 100 people have been inducted to the Hall, which is for veterans who have contributed significantly to their communities after the conclusion of their military service.

That’s all for now. Please keep your updates coming.

Vanessa Montag Brosgol
vebrosgol@optonline.net

We’ll start off Notes with not one, but two reports from campus:

Tibby Erda Mahler went to Homecoming 2013 and watched Wesleyan beat Williams and win the Little Three outright. A former student of hers plays on the team and Tibby’s son is a quarterback, so she has a whole new appreciation for football. “Campus looked awesome. We ventured down to the ‘new’ fieldhouse and watched volleyball, as my 12-year-old is a player and wanted to see a college game. Felt great to be back on campus. Hard to believe either of my kids could be there in five or six years. I’d be honored, as would my husband and my dad.”

Meanwhile, our very own Trustee, Dan Prieto, has been up to campus twice for board meetings. He’s been impressed by campus and the students. Dan serves on the University Relations Committee, focused on improving career resources for students and improving connectivity between students and alumni in their fields of interest. Dan asks, “If any folks from our class are willing to engage students to get them interested in particular career fields, let me know. We’re starting career-centered Facebook groups to bring alumni and students together. First one out of the gate is WesCareers Finance.”

Moving into the world of art and entertainment, Evie Manieri reports that the mass market paperback of her debut novel, Blood’s Pride, comes out from Tor Books in late January 2014.

Suki Stetson Hawley has been making films with her husband, Michael Galinsky, and partner David Beilinson, for 15 years under the company name Rumur. Together, they’ve made five documentary features and lots of shorts. Three recent efforts include: Battle for Brooklyn, shortlisted for an Academy Award in 2012. It’s the story of reluctant activist Daniel Goldstein as he struggles to save his home and community from being demolished to make way for a basketball arena and the densest real estate development in U.S. history. Along the way, he falls in love, gets married and starts a family while living in a vacated building in the heart of Brooklyn. Who Took Johnny premiers at Slamdance in January 2014, and examines the infamous case of Johnny Gosch, the first missing child to appear on a milk carton. Finally, they are launching a kickstarter campaign for Story of Pain, delving into the state of mind-body medicine in our culture and healthcare system.

Eva Pendleton has a new position as Manager of Integrative Health at NYU Clinical Cancer Center, responsible for developing and overseeing programs to help support patients during and after their cancer journey, including massage therapy, acupuncture, yoga and meditation.

Alisa Rosen is celebrating the first birthday of her daughter, Sophie Anna, in February.

Deborah Sue Mayer is concluding a nine-month deployment as a commander in the U.S. Navy assigned as the Deputy Staff Judge Advocate for Joint Task Force Guantanamo. By the time of publication, she will be back to her job as the director of investigations for the Committee on Ethics, U.S. House of Representatives, and her new house in Alexandria, Va.

Lindsey Cowell Parsons is now the program coordinator at the Center for Australian, New Zealand, and Pacific Studies at Georgetown University. Speaking of New Zealand, Kristin Elisabeth Sandvik Lush announces an open invitation to couch surf in Aotearoa.

Finally, a bit of news about me: After years in policy and politics, I needed a change. I took some time off and worked on a long-standing project, trying to figure out where in “Russia” my family originated. It became an obsessive, fascinating project ranging across multiple countries in Eastern Europe. Friends asked me to help them, then friends started paying me to help them, and easterneuropeanmutt.com was born. Never in a million years would I have predicted I would become a genealogist! I absolutely love learning the history of family migration, and finding the little stories that make each experience unique.

All the best to everyone—don’t forget to write!

Renée K. Carl
rcarl@wesleyan.edu