Author: classnotes

Please write to your class secretaries. 

Peter writes in for this issue:

Keith Seibert advises: “I enjoyed heading to Wes in October to attend the men’s crew endowment of a rowing shell to celebrate our coach, Will Scoggins. Great to see 20-plus teammates who rowed or coached during Will’s 1985–87 tenure.”

Rich Silverman shares: “I retired from the entertainment business last year and moved from Los Angeles to the Upper East Side. I’ve been pursuing my other professional passion, real estate, working as an agent for Corcoran.”

Suzanne Gilberg reports: “I’m super excited to share that I have a new book published in October by HarperCollins called Menopause Bootcamp. I have been very involved in the burgeoning cultural conversation on healthy aging and specifically on menopause as a medical expert, media personality, and consultant to industry, including scientific and medical advisory boards and digital health start-ups. It’s been really fun and gratifying to appear on The Drew Barrymore Show (I’ll be back end of this month!), be interviewed for The New York Times and Oprah Daily, give a TED Talk for Naomi Watt’s inaugural Menopause Symposium, and appear on podcast giants like Dave Asprey’s Human Upgrade.

Karl Slovin writes that he just finished, El Tour de Tucson, his second century ride.

Tim McCallum lets us know his “big news is I was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer back in late July. The other big news is so far I have gotten my Ca-19 number (indicative of cancer activity in the body) down to 32 (3-42 is considered ‘normal’) from over 1500 back in August. So—I’m feeling pretty good and now making plans as far away as March, which was unthinkable just a month or two ago. Living in Haiku, Maui, and raising my boy (now six) with the help of extended family and friends (we call the family you choose ‘ohana’ here in Hawai’i) and living every day to the fullest. Anybody who wants to be in touch can find me on Facebook.”

Julie Baher notes: “I am now working at Myriad Genetics (I run the design team for our software side). It’s a very interesting time to work in both women’s health and oncology. Family is all fine. My son is a cinematographer in Los Angeles (hit me up if you know a band looking for a music video!). I’ve a daughter at Colorado College. Planning on roaming the country next year and doing the digital nomad thing. Hoping to be in New Orleans in February!”

We received late news that Paul Ratliff died on December 22, 2021. His friend, Michael Robinson ’86, said Paul was “Whimsical, whip smart, inventive, funny, keenly insightful, but most of all kind.” His obituary says, “he was an actor, a cabinetmaker, a writer, a therapist, an ethnographer, an adventurer, a storyteller, a humorist, a deeply observant and wise human. In his presence you felt truly seen, heard, understood—and funnier, smarter, and more interesting somehow.” Michael’s FB post can be read below; the full obituary can be read here.

Our 35th Reunion is coming up—Reunion & Commencement 2023 takes place May 25–28! Stay tuned for more info from the Reunion Committee in the coming months, and let us know if you’d like to be involved in helping plan and in reconnecting with classmates.

Hello, friends. This edition’s column seems representative of our Wesleyan experience. Judge for yourselves!

Jolie Parcher sent a note from Amagansett, New York, where she owns Mandala Yoga Center for Healing Arts. She launched Mandala Gives, a nonprofit branch of the studio, allowing her to provide yoga classes to those who have less access to it. She’s been offering yoga for Parkinson’s, chair yoga for seniors, yoga for first responders, and yoga at a local women’s shelter.

Nicholas Birns reports that his co-edited Companion to the Australian Novel launches in spring 2023 from Cambridge University Press. He is also very happy to be back teaching in person again!

Anne Undeland is busy playwriting, with the goal of developing great roles for women over 45. Her most recent play, Between the Sheets, just finished its run at Boston’s Gloucester Stage after an award-winning 2021 run in the Berkshires. Anne has had enjoyed seeing Elena Pappalardo-Day ’86, Emily Cowan ’86, Alex Fisher ’86, and Dan Bellow.

I got a report from Trish McGovern Dorsey and John Dorsey as they are getting into the swing of post-COVID life. They enjoyed a lovely in-house(!) dinner with Sue Romeo Malestein and her husband Rob (on their way home from Nova Scotia), along with Holly Campbell Ambler and Doug Koplow and their spouses. They are also getting back on the in-person theater and symphony cadence with Holly Campbell Ambler, Dennis Mahoney, and spouses. They met Eric Apgar to see the band Melt (whose lead singer is Veronica Frommer, daughter of Pauline Frommer ’88). Trish says, “Who would have thought we could stay up late enough for the main stage event starting at 10 p.m.? And how lucky that it helped improve our cool parents rating with our 20-somethings who adore the band.”

David Abramson writes, “I couldn’t attend the 35th, which was one week after picking up my daughter Hazel from her junior year at Wes. D.C. is just too far for two back-to-back trips. She’s run into her fellow classmate, Arlo Weiner, son of my former fellow Foss 5 hallmate and East European House housemate, Matt Weiner, once or twice.” David is working in the field of his major as a Russia analyst at the State Department. He’s going to London on detail at the U.K.’s State equivalent, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, for a few months in 2023. He is in touch with Skip Lockhart, Jessica Miller, Becky Riccio, Rich Monastersky ’86, and Janet Ginzberg. He writes that he tries to attend Tierney Sutton’s (’86) performances whenever she’s near D.C. She’s a jazz singer and stand-up comedian, and he says it’s like getting two shows for the price of one. David writes, “It’s been fun to reconnect with Wesleyan as an institution in new ways over the past decade, through my daughter’s eyes, in terms of speaking engagements, and renewing ties with my former professors—Duffy White, Priscilla Meyer, Susanne Fusso, and Irina Aleshkovsky—and those who arrived after I graduated—Peter Rutland and Victoria Smolkina.”

On to the relocation section!

After 24 years with Charles Schwab in the San Francisco Bay Area, Tom Pixley moved with his family to Shanghai in September to set up a representative office for Schwab in mainland China.

David E. Perryman and his family have relocated from Boerne, Texas, to Boone, North Carolina. He says it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump off the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Appalachian Trail. David now manages communications for the provost/Office of Academic Affairs and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at Appalachian State University. He’s teaching a class in leadership communications. An update on his kids: Braden (23) is in graduate school at Virginia Tech; Ethan (22) is a senior at Rice University; and Calvin (18) is a freshman at Connecticut College.

After nearly 30 years in Brooklyn, Bill Shapiro has moved to Taos, New Mexico, with his wife Naomi, where he continues to write (mostly about photography) and edit (mostly photo books). Brian Shelley and Nelly Taveras live in Albuquerque and he sees them often for skiing, mountain biking, and other adventures. Bill loves his new surroundings. We exchanged neighborhood pictures: He sent me a photographer’s shot of the gorgeous light in his yard and I returned a cell phone photo of the Northeastern fall foliage. My front-yard tree was bursting in  deep Cardinal red. (Am I a true Wesleyan alum, or what?)

Michael Bennet won re-election to his congressional seat for a third term, making Colorado the only state with two Wesleyan senators!

I have a fun Wes connection to report. My husband teaches digital art at Tenafly (New Jersey) High School where he has Steve Baldini’s daughter Ali in class. What a great way for me to connect with Steve who played such a key part of my Butterfield B frosh experience!

I got late news that Natasha Kraus died in December. Please send your memories of her so we can honor her in the next issue of this magazine.

Sending love till next time!

Lots of news from ’86ers:

Greg Zlotnik reported that 10 members of the class of ’86 were named to Coach Dicenzo’s All-Decade Football Team in September. Former players were acknowledged during Homecoming weekend in early November. The classmates included Dave Bagatelle, Mike Dolan, Bill Gerber, David Hill, Jack Kuhn, Jay Norris, Joe Norton, Dave Patterson, Joe Wight, and Greg.

Hal Phillips contributed a lengthy update, which he starts off by saying: “Much activity and WesContact in 2022. Front and center, my new book: Generation Zero: Founding Fathers, Hidden Histories & the Making of Soccer in America, published in July by Dickinson-Moses Press. I like to call it ‘the modern Creation epic U.S. soccer didn’t know it had’—and yes, there’s some tidy WesContent therein. Can’t wait to embark on the next book project. Not quite ready to retire from Mandarin Media, the content/digital marketing agency I’ve owned/operated since 1997. But the GZ experience has confirmed for me what retirement will likely entail.

“The publication and marketing of this book has resulted in all sorts of soccer-related outreach. Among the WesKids with whom I renewed acquaintance this year, in the flesh: Stephen McDermott Myers ’87, GZ’s primary editor; former teammates Scott Kessel ’88, Adam Rohdie ’89, David Slade ’87, John Dorsey ’87, and Andrew Lacey ’89, who were all on hand for the first-ever Wes Alumni Soccer Weekend in October; and Tim Dibble, who was kind enough to attend a reading I gave down in Boston in November. Because I participate in group chat dedicated to the beautiful game, I’ve enjoyed all sorts of great back-and-forth with Patrick Symmes ’87 and Jon Gould. Also dined with Jon and wife Tina Howard in Springfield, Massachusetts. . . . This summer, I fielded a call from Mike Jeffrey ’74, longtime president of the State Soccer Coaches Association here in Maine. It took us 15 minutes to realize we were fellow WesProducts who both played for the late, great Terry Jackson, who passed away in June. In November, I was informed of Herb Kenny’s July passing. I played golf at Wesleyan as well. Herb coached that team, though I had as much contact with this fine fellow while covering the men’s basketball team for The Argus.

“My wife Sharon Vandermay and I do indeed make our empty nest here in Maine. We’re foster parents now that our own kids, Silas and Clara, having shoved off for Missoula and Brooklyn, respectively. After 23 years in rural New Gloucester, we moved last year to the more urbane, somewhat revived mill community of Lewiston-Auburn. I run MM, write and play in a couple bands—one bluegrass/Americana, the other more alt country. Sharon quilts and spearheads the renovation of our sprawling Colonial Revival/Victorian (inclusive of an Airbnb apartment) hard by the mighty Androscoggin River. Was pleased to visit with lots more WesKids this year during the natural course of our 50-something lives: Rich Gibbons ’87 and Heather Moss ’87 in San Diego; John Sledge in LA; Dave MacDonald up in Bar Harbor; Dennis Carboni and new Australian citizen Dave Rose, down in Boston. Still hoping to reconnect with Sue Arnold ’84, our esteemed freshman-year RA back at Butterfield C, who is back in New England, I gather. Sue: You’ve been warned.”

Daniel Seltzer contributed: “Almost 1000 days have passed since what I think of as the start of the pandemic here in NYC. Have been here throughout, with a few brief escapes. Still masking up in the grocery store, but the calculus of risk continues to evolve. We live the new normal, I guess. My wife commutes to the Bronx every day as a social worker. My kids are around the city, making their lives in education, law, and the arts. My work in tech is mostly strategic/advisory and I’m very happy not to work out of a Midtown office or attend in-person meetings much anymore. I make music on guitar whenever I can, get out on the water and wing foil when it’s not too cold, and stay in touch with a few old Wes friends near and far including Peter Durwood, John Ephron, Nat Pierson ’85, and Giles Richter ’87. I even ran into Ken Zita ’82 on the street last week. Happy to reconnect with folks at daniel.seltzer@gmail.com.”

Alicia Sisk said she is “working as a psychotherapist both in Manhattan and Bronxville. Empty nester as my twins are finally away at college. Enjoy going back to watch the Wesleyan women’s basketball team. They have come so far since 1986!!!”

Marc Rosner provided this note: “I was trying to think of anything interesting about my life, and remembered I got engaged on the ferry from Athens to Crete last August, to Diane Gross, who happened to be in my sister’s class in Rochester, I think that at least makes the world a safer place for most of us . . . .😂”

Michael Robinson wrote, “I’ve spent the last five years of divorced life dedicating myself to building no-utility, high-performance homes [for] the low and moderate income of Newburgh, New York, sometimes even with my ex-wife Dar Williams ’89 helping me! Yes, you can take the boy out of Wesleyan but . . . . More importantly, I’ve been grieving my dearest of friends, Paul Ratliff ’88, who died on December 22, 2021. He was a gentle man and a gentleman, a fiercely dedicated friend, brother, husband, and father. Whimsical, whip smart, inventive, funny, keenly insightful, but most of all kind. Rest in peace, my good brother.”

Erika Levy said, “I am still enjoying my work as professor of communication sciences and disorders at Teachers College, Columbia University. Delighted that my daughter started at Wesleyan this fall. My husband, my son, and I had fun visiting her during Homecoming/Family Weekend—I still love being at Wes. Would like to be more in touch with my old classmates.”

George Justice has moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he has taken the position of provost at the University of Tulsa.

Eric Heinze, a professor of law and humanities at Queen Mary, University of London, writes that his book, The Most Human Right: Why Free Speech is Everything (MIT Press, 2022), has been nominated for season 18 of the podcast The Next Big Idea.  In the book Eric writes that there has always been disagreement about which aspects of our humanity should be protected by such basic rights. The well-known lists, such as the U.S. Bill of Rights, generally include rights not to be tortured, or arbitrarily killed, or imprisoned without trial. Other countries also include things such as minimal levels of clean water, nourishment, housing, or education. Once a list has been agreed most experts insist that we cannot prioritize some rights above others. They argue that all human rights must enjoy an equally high status, because no right can be fully enjoyed unless the others are fully secure. However, Eric argues that this assumption makes no sense: free speech must by definition take priority because without it nothing else can even be called a right.

Elizabeth Graver shared, “My novel, Kantika (‘song’ in Ladino) will be out in April from Metropolitan Books/Holt. Inspired by my Sephardic Turkish grandmother’s migration story, this book grew out of interviews I did with my grandmother decades ago, while I was still in college. Now my daughter Sylvie is a Wes sophomore and loving it.”

Kristin Bluemel shared that she spent most of 2022 in Newcastle, England, where she served as Leverhulme Visiting Professor in the English Department of Newcastle University. Living among the “Geordies” was great fun, though she encounters plenty of interesting characters on the Jersey Shore where she has spent most of her career at Monmouth University.

Julia Barclay traveled to Maine in October where she saw Bennett Schneider, who was also in Maine at the time.

Please write to your class secretary.

Hello, Classmates!  Here is news from our far-flung alumni.

From Dana Safran, I got a lengthy, multicharacter report. Dana, Deb Kacanek, Andrea Roman, and Carol Einhorn met on the beautiful North Fork of Long Island this summer to celebrate four decades of friendship and were feeling pretty damn sensational at 60.

Debhas been enjoying 60th celebrations with Wesleyan friends while obnoxiously reminding them that she has yet to reach that milestone (at least when this update was sent to me some months back).  When she is not sluggishly watching a Marvel movie with her husband Roger, 11-year-old daughter Sasha, and dog Luna in Jamaica Plain, she is a social epidemiologist at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health where she leads research on violence and the health of women who are living with (or who are at risk for) HIV in the U.S. and southern Africa.

Andrea lives with her husband Tom in Newton, Massachusetts, still living in the same house where they brought up their three kids, who are now in their 20s and off and about. For work, Andrea chairs the board of her family’s media company, the Taunton Press, Inc.

Danareports that she and her husband Alan are now living it up as empty nesters with part-time residence in Dupont Circle (D.C.) and part time in Newton, Massachusetts, because of Dana’s D.C.–based job as CEO of the National Quality Forum.  Their three adult kids are living in LA, D.C., and Brooklyn. Their adopted labrador, Colbie (age eight) happily transitions with Dana and Alan between life in D.C. and Massachusetts.

After stints as a performing singer-songwriter, music journalist, and fundraiser for music education, Carol now serves as director of Institutional Advancement at Library of America, a nonprofit dedicated to publishing and celebrating the canon of great American writing. She and her teenage son live in Brooklyn, delightfully close to Prospect Park, the Botanic Gardens, farmers’ markets, and food trucks.

Sally Bromage Suhr and her husband Scott both retired in August and took a lovely two-week trip to France. While in Paris they attended an evening concert at Sainte-Chapelle, and as they were seated in this fairly intimate setting, the two groups around them were in a buzz discovering they were both Wesleyan grads! They enjoyed the concert and visiting with Owen Bennion ’09 and Richard (Dick) Emerson ’68.  Not only was Dick a fellow Wes grad, but he grew up in Florham Park, New Jersey, as did Sally, and that his roommate at Wesleyan was her father’s cousin, Bill Bromage ’68! Petit monde!

Sadly, her father, Edward Bromage ’59, passed away in September. They always enjoyed sharing an alma mater, 25 years apart. While planning his memorial service, she got to catch up with some of his Delta Tau fraternity brothers and their families. Some of her father’s best tales were about his fraternity life, and Sally is glad he got to share his stories of being a bit of a rascal with his grandchildren!

Jim McGonagle sends congratulations to Bob Barringer and Pat Costello on their election to the Wesleyan Football 1980s All-Decade Team. The All-Decade Team was honored with a dinner and induction ceremony on November 3rd, then recognized again at halftime of the Wesleyan-Williams Homecoming football game the next day. Caught up with other class of 1984 members including Joel Armijo, Scott Spague, and Jackie Gilson Marraffa, who was there with her son Nick ’18 to accept the All-Decade Award for her late husband, Bob Marraffa ’82.

Susie Kang Sharpe had an exhibit in Madrid and another successful show in Paris in October. She also won two top awards at international art competitions this fall, while maintaining a busy medical practice. Her story as a physician-artist has been featured in 20-plus magazines, TV, and podcasts. You can check out her artwork at https://www.susiesharpe.net. She ships worldwide, and her proceeds go to her philanthropic work.

Michael Lewyn has had a pretty unexciting year, but continues to teach at Touro Law Center, lives in Manhattan, and contributes the occasional scholarly article, and blogs at marketurbanism.com.

Finally, let me take a personal note and observe that I will be coming up on my 10th anniversary of becoming class secretary. It is getting to be time to pass the baton to another classmate and let someone else have the pleasure of hearing from everyone. If you are interested in chatting about the post, please contact me at the email below.

Until next time,

Michael

Hi Everyone,

Greetings and Happy New Year! Just a few notes this issue. Here goes. . .

Cheri Weiss moved with her husband Dan and their two little dogs, Hope and Josie, to Hawaii. She writes, “The dogs were totally confused at first (and I don’t think they appreciated the journey) but everyone has now adapted to our new home. The people are wonderful and kind, and it is really a wonderful adventure for our family.”

Wayne Logan is in his 25th year of teaching law with the last fifteen at FSU. He has a book coming out this fall—The Ex Post Facto Clause: Its History and Role in a Punitive Society (Oxford Press) and is anxiously awaiting the bidding war on movie rights!

Helen (Uddoh) Matausch and her husband Rainer sent a picture from Tunitas Creek Beach in Northern, California! (Yes, they are on the beach!) Helen has been in the medical industry for over 20 years and currently works for an acute behavioral health-care hospital. She finds it very challenging, never boring, and most definitely needed. Her goal is to get a doctorate in psychology focusing on counseling adolescents. Though not an easy age to deal with, Helen writes, “I have an affinity toward them! Wish me luck!”

Nicholas Herold and his partner Emily have been in Maine for three years, hosting short vacation stays at their Portland Victorian home in South Portland and in Eaton, New Hampshire. They are also real estate agents (residential and commercial), but their main focus is to provide an awesome experience for guests (Wes alumni receive a 10% discount). With COVID, the first floor became a rental apartment, they cooked their meals on a camp stove in the barn (ignoring as best they could the aromas of rodents and gasoline), and the cute little outbuilding where Emily and Nicholas had been sleeping became a private room for guests. Now they offer just three spaces and since they are private and more luxurious, it’s less work, despite an increasingly full calendar.

They are developing plans to work with reproductive health-care providers in Maine to use their resources to help women get the support and care they need. Loving to travel, they visited Portugal, Holland, and Belgium, and Chile last year. Last tax season they hired David Block ’81 to do their taxes and was a great experience!

Heather Rae sold everything in Maine two years ago and landed in southern Florida where she is building a private practice in terrain-based functional health, specializing in genomic biochemistry and detoxification. Her plan to leave the U.S. in 2020 to travel was thwarted by “COVID” restrictions, as she refused to take “COVID” tests or injections. Heather posts regularly on Telegram about scientific fallacies of “germ theory,” the “NO VIRUS” challenge, “vaccines,” and how individuals can attempt to remove environmental toxins contributing to their chronic health conditions.

Keep those notes and photos coming. . .

Namaste,

Laurie

Greetings, classmates,

I sent out a nudge about class notes and since you’re all dutiful A students at heart, I got a bunch of good material. Thank you.

First up is Ginny Pye who has, yes, another novel­—The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann—coming out in 2023. If anyone needs inspiration for a later-in-life career, look no further. I saw Jenny Boylan ’80 in New York at a diner near where we used to share an apartment and passed along how pleased Ginny was to get a blurb from her without even asking. Jenny shrugged. “She’s a wonderful writer.” As her former publisher at Shebooks (My Mother’s Garden), I agree.

Suzanne Berne also has a new novel, The Blue Window, out in January. She and her husband Ken Kimmell have seen a lot of Wes friends recently: Rick Goldstein, Raf Ornstein, Elyse Klaidman, Martha Murdock, Shirley Hedden, Jane Hammerslough, and Ezra Palmer ’81, Ginny Pye and John Ravenal ’81, and Jessica Barton ’81.

Patty Smith is also writing up a storm, with a flash fiction piece showcased in a Page to Stage performance in Richmond, Virginia, and a couple of essays coming out soon in an anthology. She’s still teaching creative nonfiction and American literature at the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School in Petersburg. She and her wife also recently Zoomed with Michael Lucey, Holly Brown, Jenny Curtis, Anne Wise, and Joanne Godin ’81.

Terri Seligman is still lawyering, married to the same person, and her kids are all grown up. She has a wonderful new hobby: playing with two Afro-Brazilian percussion groups, one all women (Batala) and one co-ed (Mambembe). “It’s been fabulous getting back to music, and fun to be a performer again.”

Christian Vescia enjoyed the reunion, as he has in the past—he and his wife Lucia reconnected at our 10th Reunion and married two years later. He retired from full-time work in October, leaving a Silicon Valley fintech start-up (Affirm) where he worked designing training programs and curricula. Now he’s busy with travel (Hawaii), exercise (swimming), gardening, guitar lessons, political activism (he’s keen on Andrew Yang’s Forward Party), and general puttering. Lucia is working part time doing physical therapy and sensory integration work with young kids.

Daniel Meier has been in touch recently with Peter Schochet, Joe Merrill, Dave Gaieski ’81,  Doug Jones, and Roger Hale. He hopes to return to campus next year; his niece is Wes ’26.

The “Stupid Dogs”—Jack Taylor, Bruce Crain, Dan Hillman, Kevin Foley, Stephen Daniel, John Mooney, Alex Thomson, and Peter Frisch—gathered again, as they have every year since graduation, “an event that’s ever more precious with the passage of time,” says Jack.

Congratulations to Charita Brown, who was recognized as a “Woman of Integrity” honoree at the Black People Rock Honors Ceremony (Maryland) for excellence in mental health advocacy, and who was also awarded a mayoral citation from Baltimore mayor Brandon M. Scott.

Susan Smythe says she and her husband Robert are enjoying working in the same place—Swarthmore College—where Robert, after a career in theater, is running the bakery in the school’s new sustainable and beautiful dining center, for which Susan was the project manager. (I don’t remember a bakery at MoCon…)

Paul Meltzer has been focused on local politics in Denton, Texas, a city of about 140,000 (“larger than South Bend, Indiana,” he points out). He served as a city council member, and mayor pro tem, fighting for a balanced, environmentally sensitive approach to growth. He challenged the incumbent for mayor and, as they say in the Olympics, “silvered.” He’s currently president of the Denton Rotary Club, writes regular columns in the Denton Record-Chronicle, and is working on a documentary following 10  aspiring actors from a previous chapter in his life. He’s still happily married to Bonnie Friedman ’79, also retired from teaching creative writing and enjoying much more time for her own writing, and they’re more frequently at their place in Park Slope, Brooklyn, available to catch up with NYC friends.

Mark Sirota visited Joe Barrett at his family home on Chappaquiddick, almost to the day the 44th anniversary of the first and only other time they were there together, October break, frosh year in 1978. “I didn’t catch a fish this time either,” he says.

Beck Lee is hard at work on an initiative to forestall polarization and demonization of those who are unlike ourselves. His “can we all get along?” work, via the nonprofit Cultural Fluency Initiative, will celebrate cultures of all kinds and promote cross-group understanding and collaboration. “It all stems from my great good fortune over the years to have worked with cultural groups, artists, and leaders from so many interesting countries, walks of life, and perspectives,” he says.

Martin “Chip” Shore was bummed to miss our reunion, but he and his wife Shari were off with their son in Tahoe. Chip stopped work in January and spent most of the year skiing, playing tennis, biking, and working on his “honey-do” list, in addition to taking care of his parents. Unsure if he’s going back to work (it interferes with skiing, just saying), he’s volunteering to promote gender equality, transgender awareness, and financial education.

Like a lot of our classmates, Catharine Arnold and her husband John Bozzi ’79, are enjoying being “Nana” and “Papi” to their grandsons. “Lots of things have changed since our sons were babies—nothing in the crib, Snoos, sleep sacks, etc.—but nothing beats that beautiful smile and hug when they see you.” Greg Lewis, an owner and CEO of Aerosol Dynamics, also has a baby granddaughter, another who is a freshman at Columbia, and a grandson in grad school at Brown.

We’re grateful Lavinia Ross survived a near-fatal heart attack in June. “Every day is a gift,” she says.

Jim Friedlander wrote in with some up-to-the-minute news: Bonnie LePard was on the official guest list for the Macron state dinner at the White House on December 1.

Stay healthy, happy, and creative!

Greetings from Brooklyn!  We went to Maine last July and broke bread with old friends Seth Mirsky ’82 and Nicholas Herold ’83.  It was good to see them and their significant others. I also saw Jenny Boylan ’80 here in NYC as part of her book tour for Mad Honey, co-written with Jodi Picoult. But enough about me. You all sent me about 1,500 words of news that I now have to pare down to 722. Here goes:

Paul Robinson reports that the Annie Haslam lead singer of the ’70s band of the Renaissance, has a “legacy” band of which he is a fan, and coincidentally Dave Miller was able to get him an autographed copy of a live album from years ago. “The ’70s live, people!”

Liz Rees reminisced about living on Foss Hill freshman year, and going to dance class in tights and a down jacket. She has a MA in poetry and teaches creative writing to everyone from school kids to grad students, and private workshops that are “like, conducting a post-MFA salon or workshop that lasts 15 years.”  She has also published five books of poetry. She’s looking to connect with “any Wesleyan folks who live or summer in Downeast Maine.”

Sandy Herzlich writes that he and his wife Barb Martin Herzlich are now successfully retired in Wayne, Pennsylvania. They have three grandchildren. Barb is a “very successful potter” and Sandy is coaching local HS football. They returned for Homecoming. He was “especially pleased to be able to catch up with our classmates Tim O’Brien, Tony Difolco, and Paul DiSanto. Tony and I had the privilege of serving as honorary co-captains for the football team in the game against Williams. Photos of the event make us look like old men being helped onto the field by strapping young players. Probably because that’s a pretty accurate rendering!”

Laurie (Conrad) Kramer retired three years ago from her job as a software engineer in the genomics department at Princeton University. “An interesting use of my English major!” She lives in central New Jersey “with my husband Phillip and our dog and keep busy playing competitive bridge. I’d love to hear from some of my Wes friends.”

Wayne Pepper attended Homecoming weekend this fall in order to visit his nephew Adam Pepper-Macias ’25.  He was delighted to see that Adam has followed in his footsteps by becoming a member of Alpha Delta Phi. Wayne gave Adam a tour of the CFA Theater, reminding anyone they encountered that he directed his senior thesis on the main stage.

Ariel Rubissow Okamoto launched a new San Francisco Bay Area climate resilience magazine called KneeDeep Times; we are indeed knee-deep in all kinds of challenges and messes these days. Ariel mentors emerging reporters, photographers, and artists. She is proud to report her daughter Tira is researching climate equity issues as a graduate student at Simon Fraser University, and her daughter Mikki is an architect in San Francisco. Ariel and her husband Paul continue their work to save the planet —he teaches sustainable design at the University of San Francisco. Ariel is also nearing completion of a memoir of her days as a Napa Valley vintner, for which she once appeared on the cover of Wesleyan’s alumni magazine. “Those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end . . . .”

Charlie Spiegel will be celebrating his 65th (ugh, but along with many of you! Medicare) birthday mid-April in beautiful San Miguel de Allende (SMA) Mexico, where he celebrated his 60th with among others, Nancy Chirinos (Traub).  “You are all invited, otherwise you will need to wait five more years, until we are, umm, well you do the math.” Attendees will include Nick Radcliffe  and Pam Bolton ’85. Laura Fraser ’82, who is hosting in absentia, met with Charlie and Kate Rabinowitz  ’83 to help plan the event.  Charlie says: “We’ll celebrate at an authentic Mexican restaurant in the chef’s carport near where my partner Lon has a small house. BTW, Anne Stevenson Yang and I met up recently to swap stories of current national (Nevada, with Action-SF.com, a group I help coordinate) and local (Connecticut) election volunteering.”

Chris Graves recently hosted a minireunion of classmates from both prep school and Wesleyan, including Professor Jim Terry.

Chris worked full-on throughout the pandemic on the behavioral science of vaccine hesitancy. “I fielded the country’s largest behavioral science-specific study to decode the ‘sensemaking genome’ of the many ways people are hesitant when it comes to vaccines. The Rockefeller Foundation and Milken Institute asked me to chair a work stream on a global task force seeking to craft a blueprint for a better pandemic early warning system. I supported the WHO, UNICEF, Save the Children, and the Chicago Department of Public Health as well with behavioral science insights.”

Willie Lee Jones shared a great article about him and good things happening in the Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Parks and Recreation Department, which he heads:

“County’s Park and Recreation Department and Director Receive Top Honors”

“The Charlotte American Institute of Architects recently awarded Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Director Lee Jones with the AIA Charlotte Citizen Architect Award at its 2022 Design and Service Award Ceremony.

“The AIA Charlotte Citizen Architect Award recognizes the work of architects who serve as elected or appointed officials, public administrators or institutional leaders and establish and contribute to the development of laws, regulations, policies, or initiatives that promote excellence in architecture.

“In addition to Director Lee’s award, the County’s Park and Recreation Department received the Great Public Space Award for Romare Bearden Park at the City of Charlotte’s Urban Design Awards. The goal of the local awards program is to recognize and celebrate quality urban design in Charlotte, while encouraging continued community discussion around what makes for unique and great places.”

Lauren Steiner sent us this update: “Smack in the middle of the pandemic, two years ago, I decided to move to Asheville, North Carolina, after 33 years in LA. I call it my third act. Act 1 in the Northeast. Act 2 on the West Coast. Act 3 in the South.

“I fell in love with this small city in the Appalachian Mountains 10 years ago and started seriously thinking about moving here five years later. It took the pandemic to light a fire under me. I moved with my 25-year-old son who easily found work in the restaurant industry in this thriving tourist town.  I love living on 2.5 peaceful, quiet acres on the top of Butler Mountain at 3,500-feet elevation where I am an easy 15-minute drive from downtown. I love the fact there is no traffic here and so much to do and see in the realms of art, crafts, music, beer, food and outdoor recreation.

“I am still doing political activism and am happy to report Madison Cawthorn is no longer my congressman, although we got a more intelligent Republican, who will probably be worse. My Facebook/YouTube interview show The Robust Opposition is six years old now.

“And because of the appreciated value of my LA house, I now have the privilege and pleasure of adding philanthropist to my roles and am happily supporting many local causes and organizations.

“If anyone should find themselves my neck of the woods, please don’t hesitate to look me up. Laurensteiner57@gmail.com.”

Michael Sills is still in Dallas working as a noninvasive cardiologist in a very large “hybrid” group. He has stepped down as managing partner but remains program director for their training program and the imaging department at Baylor University Medical Center. “I am continuing running distances when I can but am most proud of our four children who have given us eight grandchildren. I don’t see retirement in my future as I keep committing to new projects.”

Daphne Raz writes: “My husband Phil and I still live outside of Lexington, Virginia, and are entering the phase where work for money is optional. We think about moving closer to family, but this is a great place to be with climate warming, less great for the culture wars. Still, someone has to do it!”

Ben Solnit lets us know about happenings in his life. “I continue to work as a part-time lawyer for Connecticut Legal Services in Waterbury, Connecticut, doing consumer law for the elderly. Sadly, I am now older than the low end of our definition of ‘elderly’!

“I am president of Morris Land Trust, an all-volunteer conservation organization in our hometown of Morris, Connecticut. Check us out at www.morrislandtrust.org.

“My wife and I have recently volunteered with Washington Refugee Resettlement Program and New Milford Refugee Resettlement. Each is a co-sponsor with Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services of New Haven and each welcomed a family of six from Afghanistan to New Milford, Connecticut, in April of 2022. Audrey tutors them in English and I am working on their asylum applications.

“Our older daughter Rebecca is a human resources consultant for Veris Insights in Washington, D.C. and recently competed at the Women’s National Club Ultimate Frisbee Championship in San Diego.
Our younger daughter Anita is a licensed clinical social worker for Mt. Sinai in NYC, treating children and adolescents; she also is a volunteer with Mt. Sinai’s human rights program.”

Martha Bush shares: “This past spring, my husband John Tracey and I celebrated the marriage of our daughter Lauren. I ‘semiretired’ from being the chief marketing officer at our regional foodbank, Foodlink. I’m still doing a bit of consulting while trying to figure out this retirement thing.”

Peter Cherr sent us this wonderful update: “I shared a while ago about my ‘Haiku in the Time of Corona Virus’ Project that I began in March of 2020 when corona virus hit and it was truly bad. My hope for ‘Haiku in the Time of Corona Virus’ was, and is, that each day I might bring some inspiration to others, perhaps a bit of peace and calm, and even humor, during these trying, stressful times, perhaps offer some solace and give people a moment of respite from all the craziness around us . . . that it might be of help to people in some small manner.

“On April 12, 2020, the project officially began by launching on Instagram, posting a new haiku with an accompanying photo every single day, and by having a haiku (not put on Instagram and without a photo) from the project published by kindovermatter.com, who since then have continued to publish haiku pieces once a month. Since the launch of my project, despite having fallen and shattered my shoulder and losing much use of my left hand, I have not missed a day of writing a new haiku and posting one with a photo on Instagram. On November 1, I wrote my 1250th haiku for the project. If people would like to check out my project on Instagram, my page is @peter_c_cherr and the project is #haikuinthetimeofcoronavirus and they can find addition haiku pieces monthly in the Poetry Corner of kindovermatter.com.”

That’s it for this issue. Be safe and happy.