Author: Anne Marcotty

Categories Class Notes | 1940sPosted on

Class of 1943 | 2014 | Issue 1

Unfortunately, we have lost two more of our classmates: Ed Barker died Sept. 11, 2011; and Al Pels died June 28, 2013. Ed was 89 and a member of Sigma Nu, while Al was 91 and a member of Beta Theta Pi. They will be missed and our thoughts and prayers are with their families at this time.

In this regard, I received a printout from Robert Mosca, Wesleyan senior development officer, dated July 31, 2013. It shows that of the 214 original 1943 classmates, 151 (71 percent) are deceased and 63 (29 percent) are still living. So good wishes to all of you and stay healthy! Due mainly to the fact that we were a wartime class, it also shows that 160 (75 percent) received Wesleyan degrees while 54 did not—most of these having earned degrees from other institutions.

Gene Loveland writes: “Nothing new since the spring letter and picture of the family reunion of 41 strong. Still writing my two-page column for the House Organ, and managing our four putting tournaments plus the twilight league. And mostly getting older by the minute with Joan keeping pace. Have a good year!”

From Dick Ferguson: “Wish there were more Wesmen around here—just Bob Foster ’47. We feel lucky to have our great-grandchildren around for so long. Gordy is in Hawaii. Kim is in Philadelphia and Rhode Island. They visit back and forth. Doug is in New York City. Best of all to you and yours!”

Muzz Molina writes: “I still remember the first day in school—Sept. 1, 1939. Hitler had just invaded Poland. Churchill was getting ready to make a speech—and Norm Daniels was getting ready to coach the ends at Wesleyan—which was about to have a great season (Little Three Champs)!”

FREDERICK P. APPLETON
100 O’Brien Court, Suffolk, VA 23434

Categories Class Notes | 1960sPosted on

Class of 1966 | 2014 | Issue 1

Aloha, all. Well, we are now on the upwards swing towards summer and hope that your winter months were not too bleak.

First, all of us in the class take our hats off to Essel Bailey and his wife, Menakka, for the wonderful support they have given Wesleyan this past year. Thank you, Essel. There will be many Wes men and women today and in the future who will benefit from your generosity and whose efforts will impact us, our children, and our grandchildren.

Congratulations, also, to Coach Mike Whalen ’83 and the Cardinals this year, with 12 of his players being named to the all-NESCAC team for 2013… and, of course, the Little Three Championship. Needless to say, the Williams and Amherst alums here in Hawai`i have a new appreciation for us folks from Middletown. Also, I need to put a plug in for the webcasts from Wesleyan for all its sports programs. It’s almost like television and it has no commercials. Wonderful for us old folks who, on weekends, enjoy looking in on campus sports activities… my advice to you all is try it if you haven’t done so already.

A fellow Punahou alum, Gifford Lum, wrote me and gave me a wonderful update on his family. He noted: “Our son, Elliot Lum, is presently living in Manhattan where he is vice president of strategic marketing for Columbia Records. He completed an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management before joining Colgate Palmolive in New York and then migrated to Columbia Records, a division of Sony. Elliot was married in Sept. 2011, in New York at the Museum of Natural History, followed by a reception in New York City at the Museum (Powerhouse) and a reception in Singapore, the home of his bride, Denise Lee. In 2011 we traveled to Singapore from Boston for the reception and then continued on a tour to Southeast Asia, visiting Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar (Burma). Our daughter, Deirdre Lum, is presently living in Palo Alto, where she is clinical assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford Medical School specializing in minimally invasive gynecological laparoscopic surgery and responsible for the fellowship program in that speciality at Stanford. In addition she is a peer reviewer for the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology. Deirdre married in Sept., 2007, in Hanover, N.H., where she and her husband, Daniel Markman, both graduated (Dartmouth College). Audrey and I continue to live in Newton, Mass., and I continue on the clinical staff at Harvard Medical School while Audrey enjoys her time at Harvard Neighbors, actively involved in its art and calligraphy programs.”

Some final thoughts: All of you should have received my letter for this year’s Wesleyan Fund. Let’s all try to get as close as we can to making our goal. Finally, we’re only a few years away from the Big 50, so start planning now. t would be wonderful to see all of you again on what now is Corwin Field, the site where our post-Wes lives all began.

And a Hawaiian proverb to close: E kanu mea `ai o nana keiki i ka ha`i. (Plant edible food plants lest your children look with longing at someone else’s.) We have all been so fortunate to have eaten from the Wesleyan garden!

Hardy Spoehr

hspoehr7@GMAIL..COM; 808/944 8601

Categories Class Notes | 1970sPosted on

Class of 1971 | 2014 | Issue 1

Aloha. Thanks for your response to my pleas for news. I have too much, but here is a brief summary. Kip Anderson reports his first book of poetry was published, Mortal Soup and the Blue Yonder, White Violet Press, by C.B. Anderson. Harlan Stanley is “still working at LaSalle Investment Management, but found time to play golf with Frank Leone and Bruce Barit ’72 at Bandon Dunes in September.” He stayed with Burk Murchison in Dallas, who has three grandchildren. He and wife Peg have one granddaughter and another due.

On a sad note David Foster reports his wife, Linda Susan Foster, passed away Aug. 17, with her loving family and caregivers by her side. Rod Cash reports the passing of Gus Ayer on Feb. 13. “All of Gus’s friends at Wes remember him for his incisive comments on anything and everything and his wonderful sense of humor, accompanied by a beaming smile and the most infectious laugh ever. We also remember Gus for having a series of girlfriends all named Pat. Gus was mayor of Fountain Valley, Calif., in Orange County, and an environmental and political activist. He was an inspiring mentor for young progressives in Orange County. Gus is survived by his wife of 37 years, Verna, and sons Ethan and Eliot.” Marvin Williams reports that sadly his “wife of 34 years, Faye Williams, died this past June of cancer. She was brilliant, graceful, beautiful, and funny. I am spending part of Thanksgiving holiday in Grants, N.M., under 11,600 ft. Mt. Taylor with Herb Wilkins, my West College roommate, and his vivacious wife, Renee.”

Demetrie Comnas and his wife, Ann, returned a few years ago from almost 20 years in Europe (London and Athens), and settled in Villanova, Pa. “I am one of the senior partners in a UK–based consulting practice, The Principia Group, Ltd., and continue to serve on the review committee of the Fulbright Foundation for Greece, and as accounting warden of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Gladwyne, Pa.

Jay Wish writes, “After 34 years on the faculty of Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in Cleveland, I’m joining the faculty of Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis as professor of clinical medicine.” Jay Resnick is finishing his first semester of ancient Greek, and taking creative writing. He and wife Judy love their first year as grandparents. Fran Pawlowski is retiring in May after teaching at St. Michael Indian School on the Arizona portion of the Navajo Reservation since three months after leaving Wesleyan. Connie Balides won the Pedagogy Award for 2013 from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, an international professional organization of film and media scholars. She teaches film studies at Tulane University in New Orleans. Bob Baranoff is retiring as head of research for LIMRA, a research trade association for the financial services industry. His wife, Ronnie Kuzara, will be retiring from teaching art. They have bought a house in Arizona near their daughter, Rebekah, for the winters, and their son, Joshua, is getting married in June.

Another Wes-techer has moved to Hawaii: Andy Sutton. After 31 years as professor of music (ethnomusicology) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he retired in June and is now at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa: dean of the School of Pacific and Asian Studies and assistant vice chancellor for international and exchange programs. Ed Swanson’s daughter (a curator of Mellon Academic Programs at Williams College) gave birth to her second daughter, and his second grandchild, this fall. Budding chef in need of a job, Warren White earned a culinary arts technical certificate from Nashville State Community College.

Jim Rizza contacted his thesis adviser, Vito Modigliani, now professor emeritus, psychology, Simon Fraser University. Jim has three granddaughters—Ava, Aubrey, and Addison, ages 22 months to 4 years. Mary McWilliams continues to run a nonprofit that uses claims data on 3 million lives in Washington to report on the variation in quality and cost of various doctors and hospitals in the area and is focused on reducing the overuse, underuse, and misuse of health care services.

Katy Butler’s book, Knocking on Heaven’s Door, was just named one of the 100 best books of 2013 by Publishers Weekly and is a finalist for the “Books for a Better Life” award. [Ed note: See review, p. 18.] Jay Resnick, Mary McWilliams, and I read it and recommend it to all.

Sad news is that George Naylor passed away Nov. 8. He was the author of plays, short stories, and books about the counterculture and his time as a farmer.

Mike Thompson reports he keeps in constant touch with Jon Felt and Jake Weiss.

George Lehner is the chairperson at the Fund for Peace, a nonprofit that focuses on conflict resolution in fragile and failing states. He is also serving as counsel to the White House Correspondents’ Association in Washington. Henry Saunders practices internal medicine and hospice and palliative care in Conway, S.C. He and wife Donna married two years ago and live in North Myrtle Beach. They have a large combined family, including Henry’s daughter who just celebrated a same-sex wedding in Iowa to Wesleyan grad Kiera Mulvey ’00! He reports on two non-grads—Charlie Bell, who is a retired financier living in Thailand and Canada, and Jonathan Kramer, who has been on the faculty at N.C. State for years. Pam and Bob Kyrka report that Bob is retired, Pam is still teaching, Kristin ’04 is an immigration lawyer in Seattle, and Morgan is working and living in New Hampshire. That’s it! Thanks for the updates.

NEIL J. CLENDENINN
PO Box 1005, Hanalei, HI 96714;
Cybermad@msn.com

Categories Class Notes | 1960sPosted on

Class of 1967 | 2014 | Issue 1

As I explained in my last set of notes, about two weeks before those notes were due, I sent an e-mail out to those on the Wesconnect 1967 e-mail list asking what was up with them, and I ended that e-mail by asking who their favorite Wesleyan professors were, and why. I included the first batch of responses in that last set of notes. Here’s what I learned from others who responded.

George McKechnie moved to Berkeley following graduation from Wesleyan, where he received a PhD in personality and environmental psychology. After a few years of teaching at Arizona State and then back at Berkeley, he left academia and launched a high-end audiophile business in SF (his clients included Boz Scaggs, Francis Ford Coppola, and Ray Dolby). In 1980, he moved to the Monterey Peninsula, where he practiced clinical psychology for two decades. In 1999, he and his son, Loren, launched Axiom Home Theater, which George still runs. He retired from psychology practice in 2005, when his wife, Dee Davis, also a psychologist, took down her shingle. He recently launched SyncMyHome.com, a consumer guide to home automation.

“In answer to your question about favorite Wes professors,” George wrote, “for me it would have to be Karl Scheibe. I would also like to nominate Ted Sarbin (Karl’s mentor), even though his connection to Wesleyan was tenuous; he spent a year at the Center for Advanced Studies a year after we graduated. I suspect that you, too, have fond memories of Karl [I do indeed. Could not be fonder]. He visited Ted in Carmel a few weeks before Ted’s death at 94 from pancreatic cancer and brought Ted by my home for a final visit. I must say it was a most bittersweet occasion.”

Pat Weinstein is still in the beverage business, running the family Pepsi-Cola franchise in Wenatchee, Wash. He writes: “The business is still exciting to me, combining major financial decisions, e.g., investment in a co-op production facility for 10 bottlers in the Pacific Northwest with local, very personal decisions, e.g., scholarships to the local community college. My wife, Susan Landon, has been asked to give the commencement speech at one of the community colleges in part as a result of our efforts to support the school.” One daughter (Eileen) just graduated from the American University of Paris with a master’s in international affairs, and is working (from Paris!) in the family business (in Seattle), doing IT and HR work (the wonders of the cloud). Another daughter (Emily ’97) is a project manager for Bridge Housing in San Francisco and was recently appointed to the Oakland Planning Commission. One of their sons (Matt) is the administrative director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, and the other (Andy), who created his own digital marketing company in New York, recently moved back to Seattle and he, too, is working in the family business doing sales and marketing. And, most impressively, Pat is still playing basketball. His team won the United States national championship held annually in Coral Springs, Fla., and then went to Torino, Italy, to defend the world title at the World Masters Games (they won again, but Pat came away with a torn meniscus; as of October 2013, he was recovering from the surgery he had in late August).

Bill Klaber’s newest book, which he started over a decade ago at a Wesleyan Writers Conference, The Rebellion of Miss Lucy Ann Lobdell, was published in June 2013. It’s the fictional memoir of a woman who lived in the mid-19th century, a real woman who, one day in 1855, cut her hair, changed her clothes, and went off to live the rest of her life as a man. She did it to earn men’s wages, but the changes went far beyond anything she had imagined. As Bill explained in his e-mail to me, “True story, fictional memoir.” The early reviews were so encouraging that Hudson News decided to put it on the front table in all its US airport stores in the summer of 2013, and it was nominated by the American Library Association for the Over the Rainbow Award. For more information, check out MissLucyAnnLobdell.com.

After graduating, Charlie Green received his law degree from the University of Florida and has been a lawyer in Fort Lauderdale since 1970. He started a firm in 1980 that is still going (Green, Murphy & Murphy). He and his wife, Nancy, have two sons and four grandchildren (three girls and a boy): “Our second son graduated from Wesleyan in ’95 and met his wife there. Hopefully, there will be a third generation at Wes.”

In June, 2013, Jim Kates read translations at the Longfellow House in Cambridge, Mass. (their fair city). He was filling in for Franklin Reeve, who was ill (and who subsequently died later that month) and he read alongside his former teacher, Norm Shapiro, suggesting once again that everything that rises must converge.

Peter Waasdorp wrote, as he put it, “from across the decades—late as usual.” Here’s what he had to share: “I’m in Falmouth on Cape Cod, where I settled in 1997 with my wife, Tinker Cavanagh, after a year of sailing to the Exuma Islands in the Bahamas and back. Still doing carpentry part-time (with an ever more complaining body) and still doing political organizing. Occupy Falmouth is going strong, with more than 200 members and very active foreclosure, anti-nuclear power (the Pilgrim plant is in nearby Plymouth), climate justice, Citizens United, and other committees. Thanks to the help of the ACLU this past year, I mediated my case against the Town of Falmouth for wrongful dismissal from the Conservation Commission (with a withdrawal of charges and a $32,000 financial settlement). See Fred Freije annually or so, and just missed a 50th reunion at the Hill School with Phil Miller because it conflicted with my Northfield/Mt. Hermon 50th.”

Richie Zweigenhaft
rzweigen@guilford.edu

Categories Class Notes | 1970sPosted on

Class of 1970 | 2014 | Issue 1

Aloha, all. As I’m writing, the coincidence of Thanksgiving and Hannukah, which I understand will not occur again for 70,000 years—and thus I predict none of us is going to be around to celebrate it!—is nearly upon us, giving us the formal occasion to ponder major issues and to stop our busy lives long enough to be thankful. Personally, I’m glad to be vertical and in reasonably good shape. And, yes, I think about the alternative when I’m up early to exercise and walk in the dark. Glad I can still fell trees and move rocks around in preparation for actually beginning to build our little house. I’m learning patience with the process, although I have to say patience is waning as I continue to teach 7th graders.

On to true happiness: Gus Spohn reports, “I am blissfully retired now from my position as director of communications and publications at Yale Divinity School, from which I received my M.A.R. in 1973. After graduation I worked as a reporter for the Bristol (Conn.) Press, followed by seven years as Protestant editor for Religion News Service, then took the position with YDS in 2004. My wife, Sarah Clark ’73, and I have two children, Julia Clark-Spohn ’02 and Katy Clark-Spohn Botta ’05. (Katy is married to Robert Botta ’05.) I am the proud grandfather of Wilder Gustav Botta, born in February. Sarah and I have lived in Hamden, Conn., since 1980 but are likely to relocate (who knows where?) in the next year or two.” Congratulations, and enjoy!

Elbridge Smith shared this: “I seem to have missed the Wesleyan get-togethers scheduled this fall in Honolulu—but it’s been so long in between, I’m not sure I’d know anyone going. Our son ‘E.Z’ (Elbridge Zenichi Smith) has joined my law firm as a law clerk, while he awaits the bar exam results, which may be out within the week. After three years in Boston, which they loved, he and his long-time girlfriend, Jill, are back home, he to work and she to work on her PhD at University of Hawaii Med School (a research biology area I cannot pronounce). Our daughter, Meredith, had also gone back to school and has now received her master’s in teaching from University of Hawaii in May; she is now teaching fifth grade at Pearl Harbor Kai Elementary School; and in September she married chef James Word. All four of them live with us in Kailua now, with our multiple dogs and cats. In addition to our family trip to Boston, we made another short trip to Cobleskill (upstate), N.Y., to take my Mom back for the rest of summer after the wedding and enjoyed some great apples, fresh corn, a couple of 36–38 degree nights, and the beginning of fall leaves turning.

“I thought all this graduation and employment by the kids meant I would get to think about easing towards retirement and cruising in my ’55 Chevy, but since we have to expand the house to accommodate all, I may have to continue working, not just to keep the world safe for democracy (aka filing federal employment cases) but paying a mortgage. I could go on (what lawyer couldn’t?) but that seems like the more ‘da kine’.”

Nathan Heilweil reports he’s “still working, visiting my three grandkids, 5 years to 6 months old, playing tennis almost every afternoon in summer and three nights a week in the winter, and enjoying a great steak and vodka (extra cold, shaken—not stirred—with extra olives) with Suzanne, my wife of 40-plus years. Still feels like our first date!” Nathan’s looking forward to seeing everyone at our 2015 Reunion, as am I.

The art world is that much richer because Bruce Williams remains very active in it. He shared a couple of links. The first is video of one of the artists with whom he has worked: vimeo.com/ileife/artis. The second is a film he made several years ago: vimeo.com/ileife/optica.

Among those classmates who’ve opted for climes warmer than Connecticut is Roger Mann, who writes: “I have been living in Naples, Fla., for 13 years, operating a swimming pool service business. This summer I sold the business and retired. I can now play tennis and nap during the day and stay up past 10:00 p.m., when necessary. My wife, Tessa Tilden-Smith, is still working.”

I love this report from Robby Laitos: “On Sept. 19, 2013, Mark Fuller drove from Aspen, Colo., and I drove from Fort Collins, Colo., to attend a book-reading/signing by Katy Butler ’71 at the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver. Katy’s new book, Knocking on Heaven’s Door, has emerged on the NYT’s nonfiction best-seller lists, and in late September 2013, it was No. 8 in the Denver Post’s nonfiction best-seller lists. After an outstanding reading and discussion of Katy’s book at the bookstore, Katy, Mark, Brian (Katy’s partner), and I repaired to a local watering hole in Lower Downtown Denver for some adult beverages and serious laughter and reminiscing about ‘Wesleyan West’ in Aspen in the early 1970s. Katy looked and sounded great, and is obviously (as she puts it), ‘an overnight success at age 64.’ Mark Fuller is a true environmental pioneer and powerhouse in western Colorado, and is presently executive director of the Independence Pass Foundation, doing incredibly innovative work on high-altitude revegetation. Mark also has successfully combined efforts from the U.S. Forest Service, Colorado Department of Transportation, and local governments to preserve some of the most pristine land in the Western U.S. I am fine (just getting older) and try to stay active, primarily by trying to keep up with Mark in his outdoor pursuits. In the winter, I have skied with Mark down ‘Roberto’s Run’ in Upper Snowmass, the only ski run I have done in 49 years of skiing that truly terrified me (Mark eats this stuff for breakfast), and in the summer of 2013 I gamely followed Mark on a successful climb up the East Ridge of Shimer’s Peak outside of Aspen, another heart-in-your-throat adventure. I also enjoy watching Sponge Bob Square Pants with my 7-year-old (true story).”

Word arrived here that Stuart Frank won the Historic New England Book Prize for 2013 recently for Ingenious Contrivances, Curiously Carved: Scrimshaw in the New Bedford Whaling Museum, published in Boston by David R. Godine. According to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, “[t]he book is also the recipient of the Boston Bookmakers Prize for the year’s best work in the pictorial category.” Also from the website, we learn that Stuart earned master’s degrees at both Yale and Brown, as well as a Ph.D. in American civilization at Brown. He is the author of a number of books, including Herman Melville’s Picture Gallery (1986)—awarded the John Lyman Book Award of the North American Society for Oceanic History, and the Dictionary of Scrimshaw Artists (1991), which also received the John Lyman Book Award. His Scrimshaw and Provenance was published this year by Mystic Seaport. Additionally, he has written many monographs and articles. For those who remember Stuart playing guitar in stairwells around campus, it will come as no surprise that he also has toured four continents performing historical and nautical music. (See the website for more: whalingmuseum.org). Congratulations, Stuart.

Heard from Michael Hunter. Here’s an update, maybe his first ever: Mike couldn’t decide on a major and ended up changing it twice, resulting in staying on for a year after graduation to “take enough music courses to have the equivalent of a BA in music, then stayed another two years to get my MA in music (choral conducting and organ performance). I think I was the first ever Wesleyan MA in Western music. . . .” Continuing, “I got a job on Main Street, Middletown, at The Church of the Holy Trinity in the fall of 1970, and I’ve been an Episcopal Church organist and choirmaster ever since. After my dad died (here in Tampa) in 1997, I moved down to look after Mother, who died in 2004. I was appointed to my current position in October 2003, and have loved every minute of it. I’ve just been given a five-month sabbatical to round out my 10th year on the bench at St. Andrew’s…” Mike then did some traveling and is about to come to Hawaii as I write. He also shared that he’s been growing orchids for a long time: “I tried growing them under lights in Connecticut, but never had much success. Now I have about 200 plants on my screened patio (as you probably know, we call them ‘lanais’ here), and they are all flourishing. In fact, one of my projects for these early days of my sabbatical is to divide and repot them… should take about two weeks, if I only stop to eat and sleep.”

And, finally, Maurice Hakim sent this interesting bit of news: “As co-captain of the 1969–70 Road Trippers Society, I am very pleased to see something is still going well at Wesleyan.” To prove his point, he attached the following link: glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/smitten/2011/09/the-25-horniest-colleges-in-th.html.

I’ve just created a Facebook page called Wesleyan Class of 1970 after discovering we don’t have one. If you want to sign up for it, please send me a friend request. Thanks. And, as they say here, a hui hou (until we meet again).

Russ Josephson
P.O. Box 1151, Kilauea, HI 96754
russ_josephson@yahoo.com

Categories Class Notes | 1960sPosted on

Class of 1960 | 2014 | Issue 1

Jim Corrodi sent the following: “Gladys and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in August by renting a villa in Tuscany for a week, joined by our three children, their spouses, and seven grandchildren—15 of us altogether. It was terrific, but the hill towns were a bit exhausting for Pop-Pop. I slept well.”

Eliot Glassheim has written a book, Sweet Land of Decency, to “tell the story of American history as it illustrates centuries of struggle to move from darkness to light, from selfishness to common good, from exclusion to inclusion, from control by wealth to control by reason, from evil to good.”

Dave Major writes: “In Vienna recently for a Technical University review panel, I was delighted to have lunch with Sasha and Harald Kreid. Harald, an international student who was with us during our senior year and had many friends in our class, is now retired after a distinguished career in the Austrian diplomatic service. It was a pleasure both to catch up and to remember fine times at Wesleyan.”

Gus Napier writes: “In July, Margaret and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. Our daughter, Sarah, and her family came from Concord, Mass.; our son, Mark, and his family from Albany, N.Y.; and Julia and her family arrived from Buenos Aires. Including our six grandchildren, there were 14 of us for a week of hiking, canoeing, swimming, and team cooking. We had a great time together—the way we usually do, but enriched by our awareness of time’s fleeting passage.”

It is with sadness that I report the passing of Tad Bartlett on Aug. 6, after a three-year battle with cancer. After graduating from Wesleyan, he worked as a special agent for the Defense Intelligence Agency. He married the love of his life, Frances Matko, in August 1969.

Tad worked for W. R. Grace and lived in Europe before joining Chemical Bank in New York City. As a vice president he opened the first Chemical Bank branch in Calgary, Alberta, and lived there with his family from 1980 to 1983. While in Calgary, he loved to attend the Calgary Stampede and purchased one of his most prized possessions, a pair of cowboy boots.

After Calgary, Tad and his family moved back to the U.S., first to New York and later to Maine. Tad loved Maine and enjoyed many summers at their home on Southport Island. He and Fran moved full-time to Boothbay Harbor in 1995, where he was famous for his lobster dinners and blueberry pancakes. He worked as a realtor there.

Tad’s passion was music of all kinds, particularly classical and opera. He was very active in Lincoln Arts Festival, where he was a board member for over 15 years and served as president for two terms. He sang in the Lincoln Festival Chorus and Sheepscot Valley Chorus, as well as with the Our Lady of Peace choir and the Methodist Church choir for many years.

Tad is survived by his devoted wife of 44 years, Fran Bartlett; daughter Jennifer Valerie Bartlett and her partner; and son Philip Loomis Bartlett and his girlfriend. On behalf of the Class of 1960, I offer our condolences to his family and friends.

SAL RUSSO
2700 Kentucky St., Bellingham, WA 98229
salandjudy@hotmail.com

Categories Class Notes | 1960sPosted on

Class of 1968 | 2014 | Issue 1

Jeff Talmadge has done something quite remarkable: after working in very responsible positions in a humongous computer company that managed to go belly-up, he created a job for himself with a website—weneedavacation.com—which gets folks vacation rentals on the Cape and the Islands. Well, Jeff’s cottage industry has been going and growing since 1997 and, at this point, Jeff is easing himself out and passing the business on to the next generation. Jeff’s daughter, Becky, and stepson, Jimmy, are taking the lead, and a grandson is afoot at work some days. Jeff and Joan have renovated their East Orleans summer home for living there full time. And a holiday letter gave me the distinct impression that there is not a golf course Jeff does not like.

Though Amby Burfoot has retired as the editor of Runner’s World and moved to Mystic, he continues writing about running-related issues. He was 7/10 of a mile from the finish-line when the bombs went off in Boston. Unbelievably, it has been 25 years since Dave Pryor died from Agent Orange. Bill Nicholson fondly remembers rooming with Dave before Dave concluded that “this arrangement was not going to lead to anything but weekend mischief and mediocre grades.”

Jeff Bell traveled to Russia where he saw the places to which Professors Greene and Pomper had introduced him. So much for the enduring value of a liberal arts education. Wig Sherman’s youngest son, Jonathan, was a lacrosse captain and an economics major at UConn. His post-graduate plans are to secure gainful employment. In August, Paul Spitzer gave Judy and me a fascinating tour of the Connecticut River’s estuary, and we also visited Dave Losee’s exquisite cottage in Isleboro, Maine.

Dave Gruol, Jacques LeGette, Steve Horvat, Ray Solomon, Craig Dodd, Ted Ahern and Pete Hardin got together for their annual golf retreat, which took place this year in Madison, Conn. Dick Emerson was also there, but a back injury limited him to lively conversation and walking the round of golf they played at the Yale golf course, helping to keep up the spirits of those who struggle at this frustrating game.

As my regular readers know, the crew has stayed in touch and active but there has been one notable exception—Joe Kelly Hughes ’67—who until recently was unaccounted for. It turns out, he was drafted out of law school, ended up a Navy SEAL officer and qualified for underwater demolition team training. After two combat tours, he spent three years as a naval adviser to Bolivia. (“I can’t tell you how radically all that affected my mindset.”) Leaving the military in 1975, he moved to the Mexican Caribbean and was involved in many recovery projects. For some years, Joe has been Atlanta-based, developing industrial automation equipment and watching our country move from an industrial to a service economy. A FEMA responder, he spent many long days in New York after 9-11 and Sandy, and in Mississippi after Katrina. “My wife of 15 years and I travel, and I read to expand my knowledge of art and history which began in the COL. I hike with my dog through the Appalachian mountain trails, build and restore ship models, and am a director of a museum of underwater history in Mexico that I helped establish.” His son, a well-known hunting and fishing guide, lives in Bozeman, Mont., with his wife and son.

As the crew has stayed so close over the years, sorrow over the passing of Sib Reppert ’67 in August (of the same kind of liver cancer that Steve Jobs had) was tempered only by the realization that he had lived such an extraordinarily full life. Study at Oxford, service aboard a nuclear submarine and Harvard Law were followed by a Boston-based career as a litigator involved in patent-related and other complex cases including the national asbestos property damage litigation, breast implant cases, and professional malpractice cases. While a life-long competitive oarsman who competed in hundreds of regattas, sailing was Sib’s passion and he was never happier than at sea. Indeed, in 1995, Sib and his family sailed through the Panama Canal to New Zealand aboard their 37-foot sloop. And, in 2001, he and his daughters sailed from Cape Town to the Windward Islands aboard their 42-foot catamaran. In October, several of us celebrated Sib’s life with his wife, Christine Veztinski, and daughter, Victoria ’04, in an event beautifully orchestrated by Will Macoy ’67. Victoria reflected that he had gone quickly—he had been rowing just weeks before his death – and “at the top of his game,” so we needn’t feel bad. Though as Davy Crockett ’69 noted, we all thought he’d be the last man standing and do.

Finally, in July, we lost Alan Nichols to a brain tumor. His regimen of daily exercise strengthened his physical and mental well-being, which his doctors said enabled him to sustain his fight against the tumor as long as he did. A Bethesda-based golf nut, Al wrote for an urban daily and on the environment before focusing his journalism on travel and golf-related subjects for a number of major outlets. A low-handicap player, he was also an occasional amateur tournament participant and a life-coach whose teaching was designed to have an impact on more than your game. Al was especially close to John Carty, who remembers his presence and kindness at some of life’s bigger junctures – like the present he gave John’s first-born. If you put “Alan B. Nichols” into You Tube, you will find some wonderful videos of Alan puffing on a cigar and reflecting wryly on his life and the world. And that is probably how we should remember him.

LLOYD BUZZELL
70 Turtle Bay, Branford, CT 06405
203/208-5360. LBuzz463@aol.com

Categories Class Notes | 1960sPosted on

Class of 1969 | 2014 | Issue 1

Mike Terry retired from investment banking and is active in tobacco and smoking control. “Smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the US. Big Tobacco spends $10 billion a year on promotion.” His father, Surgeon General Luther Terry, issued the legendary report about tobacco dangers in 1964.

Harry Nothacker’s wife teaches English to immigrants. Son Keith developed and sells a breathalyzer that interfaces with an iPhone. Son Brian is a web architect at Vanguard. “I continue to enjoy Ironman training and competition—inspired by Jeff Galloway ’67, Amby Burfoot ’68, Bill Rodgers ’70, and Silas Wild.”

Now retired, Phil Wallas is “interested to see what identity I have outside work.”

Tony Mohr, vice chair of the ethics committee of the California Judges Association, says: “I preside over civil trials: personal injury, eviction, malpractice, and asbestos. I married Beverly Page last May and had an essay published in The MacGiffin.”

Jim Adkins attended his 40th med school reunion in DC. “Saw family and friends. To Manchester, N.H., to see son. Drove up Mt. Washington, spectacular foliage. Continue to work part-time, play trombone, and wonder where the time went.”

Jeff Richards produced an acclaimed revival of Glass Menagerie. “Upcoming, a musical, Bridges of Madison County, and an LBJ/Civil Rights play that vividly re-creates a time we are all familiar with.”

Doug Bell founded and operates Grasslands, a major farm and land appreciation investment in Uruguay. “The best priorities are family, friends, and keeping our health.”

Jim Martello wrote, “Gail, daughter Jennifer, and I are fortunate, well, and live in Vernon, Conn. I taught/coached 33 years and now operate a paint/wallpaper business. We own a place near Sarasota, where our son and his family live. Remember, 66 is the new 46.”

Howie Brown, fully retired, visited India and Hawaii recently. “The arts scene in DC is such that one could go to two performances daily forever—reminds me of London’s music scene in the ’70s.”

David Siegel is chief of medicine for VA Northern California Health Care System and professor of internal medicine at UC, Davis. “Last son at Albert Einstein in NYC. No retirement plans.”

Tom Goodman: “I’ve been in Philly for 35 years. One daughter, Mara. I taught photography at UT San Antonio and Philadelphia College of Art. Check out tomgoodman.com.”

Mike Fink said, “Daughter Jennie graduates in December and Katie in 2018. We see the light at the end of the tunnel. Still love my work as a real estate developer, so no retirement plans.”

Peter Cunningham is an independent photographer in the publishing field. “I’m re-issuing some old rock and roll photos and creating a book, One Word Poems, which matches photos of words with images that echo their meaning.”

Tom Earle’s married daughter Inga lives in Bangalore. “Her first child made me a first-time granddad. Tempus fugit.”

From Larry Feldman: “I’m reasonably healthy, kids doing well, working full time. I was honored by a group who deal with hazardous waste sites, a field I’ve worked in for three decades.”

Darius Brubeck’s granddaughter Lydia Elmer ’17 and Nathaniel Elmer ’14 continue the Wesleyan tradition. “I’m touring the UK and South Africa.”

Steve and Dave ’72 Knox’s family reunion in Seattle included both their daughters named Caroline. On Steve’s side, the children are involved with medicine. “Saw Sam Davidson’s [’68] famous art gallery in the heart of downtown.”

Eric Greene wrote, “Jeanne and I live in Greenfield, Mass. We love our online mineral business and have no plans to retire. I have fond memory of Joe Peoples’ Geology 101.”

John Mihalec saw Steve Darnell and David Burke at a Wes/Williams soccer game before watching Wes beat Bates in football 35–7.

John Wilson is back in Ann Arbor after Coda, an electric carmaker, went into Chapter 11.

John Crigler wished “the government would take more time off, so I could catch up. Work involves public radio, TV stations, and their Web-based spinoffs. My psychologist wife jokes that only one of us is in the caring profession.”

Charles Elbot reconnected with Al Wallace ’70 and Barb Watson ’70. “Eclectic holds many fond memories. I’m now an executive leadership coach for Denver Public Schools, have two sons nearby, and travel with my wife, Barbara.”

Charlie Morgan had dinner with Rick Cram, a fellow Gamma Psi, who also lives in Bonita Springs. “Any other Wes grads in the Fort Myers/Naples corridor? I research family history, do some consulting, and play tennis.”

From Paul Melrose: “Son Ian and wife Cindy have Maddy and Jersey. Wife Sue will retire from the ministry around Reunion. I do executive and clergy coaching. See Marge and Barry Checkoway and heard that Lanny Schiller survived Boulder flooding but house damaged.”

Dave Dixon helped develop a post-Katrina master plan for New Orleans that celebrates the city’s relationship with water and uses water-management strategies to solidify neighborhoods. Dave, who works for Goody Clancy, spoke at NYIT in New York City and was billed as “a leading thinker, doer, and visionary.”

Rameshwar Das wrote, “Two events came down the pike this past summer, one life-affirming, the other life-shattering. On June 15th our 14-year-old daughter, Anna Mirabel Lytton, was run over on her bike and killed in our hometown of East Hampton, Long Island, N.Y. On August 1st, my second book with Ram Dass, Polishing the Mirror, was published. Enjoy every moment.” Please look at ’83’s notes for a remembrance by Anna’s mother, Kate Rabinowitz ’83.

We need to add David Sullivan, Bill Lewis, Margorie Daltry Rosenbaum, and Anna to Ed’s list.

Think Reunion.

CHARLIE FARROW
1 Cold Spring Rd., East Haddam, CT 06423
charlesfarrow@comcast.net

Categories Class Notes | 2000sPosted on

Class of 2009 | 2014 | Issue 1

Four years after graduation, here is what some fellow 2009 grads are up to…

Elana Baurer graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in May. After taking the Pennsylvania and New Jersey bars she will be moving back home to Philadelphia to work at Duane Morris, LLP. She also hopes to start a juvenile advocacy nonprofit in Philadelphia.

Katie Shelly is publishing Picture Cook, which is a collection of more than 50 dishes that completely re-invent the traditional recipe format by rendering each recipe as a hand-drawn, flowchart-like illustration that uses a minimum of words. It will be published by Ulysses Press in October. The link to pre-order is on facebook.com/PictureCook

Aviva Tevah has been in NYC since 2009, working on reentry education issues with the non-profit service providers, city agencies, and academic institutions that constitute the New York Reentry Education Network. The Network is organizing its first conference, called “Pathways of Possibility: Transforming Education’s Role in Reentry,” which will bring together stakeholders to build a shared reentry education agenda moving forward.

Chris Goy spent the summer in Chicago as a management fellow in Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office and then returned to Philadelphia for his final year studying public administration at UPenn before starting a life out in the Rockies…or Hawaii.

Julie Neuspiel will be moving to Boston (living in Allston!) to begin a PhD in clinical psychology at UMass Boston mentored by Dr. Abbey Eisenhower. She will be studying the supportive roles of parent-child and teacher-child relationships in social emotional development, particularly within contexts of economic and developmental adversity during early childhood and the transition to school. Her training will be supported by Boston’s Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities fellowship which is funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the US Department of Health and Human Services through the 2006 Combating Autism Act. Max Wu ’08 is a second-year doctoral student in the same program, and Cara Herbitter ’03 is in her entering class as well! George Bennum is living in Boston, working as a GIS analyst for a civil engineering company. He is hanging out with Adam Nikolich a fair amount and brewing beer with him.

Sarah Gillig Sunu just wrapped up her first year of graduate school at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, where she is earning a master’s of environmental management with a concentration in coastal environmental management. Sarah has also changed her name to Sarah Sunu (maiden name at Wesleyan was Gillig); her husband, Steve Sunu ’08, is in North Carolina with her and is a freelance journalist.

Gabriel Fries has taken the four years since Wesleyan to do the “post-college wandering” thing. He has been a zombie in an episode of Good Morning America, passed out real estate flyers in a monkey costume, and been a tall skinny Toys “R” Us Santa, among other odd jobs. He has also gotten into teaching—teaching filmmaking for three summers at a camp in New Hampshire, teaching English, baseball, and hamburger eating (this is not a joke) at a place called American Village in France, and most recently, teaching English through theater with a traveling children’s theater company in Italy! It’s been a good ride, but now he is ready to stay in one place and start focusing more on depth than breadth

Ari King recently published his book, Now What?! Conversations about College, Graduation, and the Next Step. More information can be found on the alumni website., which is exactly what it sounds like—a night of veterans sharing their stor ies.

Dominic Ireland is leaving his position at Bridgewater Associates, taking a month to travel through Turkey, and then moving to Austin, Tex.

In 2012, Daphne Schmon finished her first feature documentary, Children of the Wind. So far, they have been to four festivals and won six awards, most notably Best Documentary and Best Emerging Filmmaker at X-Dance Film Festival, the world’s premiere action sports film festival. The film will be released this spring worldwide. Website and trailer can be found at: childrenofthewindmovie.com. Daphne is living in New York where she has founded her own film company, Seek Films. In addition to touring the festival circuit, she is in development for her next feature film project.

Chris Helsel has just arrived in Madrid where he will be completing a master’s (LLM) in international sports law this semester. Chris finished at Villanova Law this fall and will receive his joint JD/LLM degree when he finishes in Spain.

Karl Grindal and Laurenellen McCann have been living in Washington, D.C., for the last 3+ years and celebrated their first year of living together by getting a domestic partnership. Karl is a cyber-security consultant for the government and is helping a former professor write a history book on cyber conflict. Laurenellen is the national policy manager at the Sunlight Foundation and spends her days thinking about government transparency and open data. On the side, she runs a project about mapping public art and occasionally gets Karl to help her run The Alley of Doom, a pop-up game, funded by the Awesome Foundation, that allows passersby to pretend to be Indiana Jones.

 Jesse Coburn has been on the road doing his Mute Puppets show for the past three years. Drawing on his readings of mysticism and Martin Heidegger, he has developed a performance that bypasses the “Gerede” of the everyday, allowing (for once) silence to pour out of the furry mouths of puppets. Their frenzied gestures refer to a different language, one inscribed in the natural world. In ’13-’14 he will mostly be in Tennessee, West Virginia, and upstate NY. He is always dutifully polite upon meeting a fellow alum.

Zeeba Khalili is living in Somerville, Mass., and started an awesome new job as a program associate at Summer Search, a national non-profit that supports low-income youth to develop leadership skills and graduate from college. She is still waiting to find out if she can join the Mystical Seven.

Sam Ottinger is living in New Orleans and is now a licensed mortgage loan officer. He’s baking bread, brewing beer, and growing his own tomatoes. Come visit! Minimum of five drinks required per visitor.

Brittany Delany, based in the Bay Area, collaborates regularly with Wes Alums in art and performance projects. In February 2012, she danced with Shayna Keller, Samantha Sherman, and Sarah Ashkin ’11 at Movement Research at Judson Church in New York and also co-choreographed a dance sequence for a film directed by Nikhil Melnechuk ’07.

Delany runs a monthly arts program Ground Series in Oakland with Sarah Ashkin ’11. Ground Seriescreates a space where art and community find common ground. All of the programming prioritizes communal exchange of skills, resources, and experiences in order to strengthen and unite artist and neighbor. In January 2013, Britt and Sarah hosted Wes Alums Khalia Frazier ’07, Aaron Freedman ’10, Allison Hurd ’11, and Samantha Sherman with director Pedro Alejandro, professor of dance at Wes, to create a dance for camera in a Berkeley arts space and to develop a new work premiering at Wesleyan in April 2013.

Michelle Brown and Paul Boulat are wrapping up a wonderful year living together in Astoria, NYC, following a tradition starting at Wesleyan where they lived together for five semesters. Michelle graduated from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts with an MA in art history in May and is now looking to enter the museum professions. Paul is a manager for Vermont-based textile company Anichini. They are looking forward to staying neighbors, as both are staying in Astoria for the foreseeable future.

Ryan Walsh sends “a pic of me and Dino playing for the Eaton Vance hockey team. We worked together for most of the year until Dino left to work for a start-up, this is all we have for memories…. just in case you needed some ammo.” You can see the photo online: go to wesleyan.edu/magazine and click on “class notes.”

 

And finally, Sara Swetzoff, her spouse and her child have moved to Portland, Ore.

Alejandro Alvarado
ale.alvarado12@gmail.com