Greetings, classmates! As I write, we are looking forward to our 35th Reunion and slogging through the dark days of winter in the U.S. Northeast. In anticipation of May’s Middletown events, the reunion committee hosted a Zoom social hour in the cold days of February. We split into first-year dorm breakouts and enjoyed reminiscing about when we were 18. And we brought some wonderful memories to life.
The Clark breakout talked about the noise of Olin construction and how it really upended morning sleep for many in the dorm—except for Michael Pruzan who is from New York City. To him, noise was noise. They laughed about the 8:30 a.m. weekly calls on the hall phone for Sue Romeo from her mom, who apparently hung on the line waiting for her, and Sue almost never arrived to pick up the phone. Then they remembered the amazing tip that Dave Perryman’s Clark roommates left him on his first lunch shift at Downey House. Amazing, that is, until he realized that Eric Apgar had rubber cemented all the coins and bills to the table. The group also discussed the great bathroom stall mystery of 1983–84, when some mischievous dorm mate stuffed a pair of blue jeans and shoes and propped it up in one of the stalls in the second-floor unisex bathroom. There, the solitary figure sat resolutely, maybe stolidly for several days. Like Rodin’s The Thinker, it was contemplating lofty principles, no doubt, until an intrepid group of students knocked on the stall door to see if everything was “okay in there.”
In the Butterfield group, Daria Papalia and I recalled Meteor Farm, a choral piece written by Professor Neely Bruce, that some of us performed in NYC’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine. This was a piece where each person in the choir sang an independent verse simultaneously, until the group joined together to sing METEOR FARM all at once. I demonstrated and people were surprised that I remembered my unique words and tune.
Sue Roginski told the Butterfield group that she had a bit of time on campus last fall with Molly Rabinowitz and Paul Blanchard. They walked around campus and through downtown Middletown together during a very rainy Homecoming weekend at Wes. During the pandemic, Sue has been working online, thanks to Zoom. The dance nonprofit she is a part of first paused during 2020, and then moved their dance events to the virtual platform in 2021. What has evolved because of that work is now the first-ever dance film festival in the Inland Empire. Hope you all can check that out on June 25th (www.placeperformance.org)!
The Butterfield group was entertained when Dave Robinson showed us all Chris Roellke’s commemorative bobblehead. I’ll let Dave take it from here. He writes: “For those that missed it (i.e., anyone who hasn’t come across one of Chris’s many social media sites), Chris Roellke became the 10th president of Stetson University on July 1, 2020. That’s right, “Rolks” is now a university president. To be honest, much like the grade he got in Constitutional Law at Wesleyan, he owes his presidency largely to me and my backroom maneuvering on his behalf. All kidding aside, due to the pandemic, the celebration of his presidency was postponed for more than a year, but on November 6, 2021, Chris was appropriately honored with an official inauguration. I had the privilege of contributing a short video testimonial that was played alongside other testimonials, including one from Wesleyan’s own president, during the ceremony on the Stetson campus in DeLand, Florida. In recognition of my contribution, I received a limited-edition Chris Roellke bobblehead. I’m sure Chris tried to convince the school to put him in a baseball or basketball uniform; alas, the bobblehead is decked in the traditional cap and gown. Nevertheless, go Rolks, go Hatters!”
The reunion committee had one more of these calls in the spring. It was a great build up to our 35th! I hope you were able to make more memories of our time on campus if you were able to go back in May.
Our class is still looking for one or two volunteers to be Class Secretary and gather stories to share with our classmates. If interested, write to me or to Liz Taylor ’87 at classnotes@wesleyan.edu.
We didn’t get many submissions for Class Notes or many volunteers to serve as secretary. Via our Facebook group (255 members), we asked for submissions, and Emily Zaslow Hourihan commented, “I got nothing!!! Ha ha. Xox,” to which Steve Cadigan replied, “C’mon. I don’t believe you,” and she then said, “I’ve been in my bathrobe for three years!” Also on Facebook, there was a lot of discussion about William Garson Paszamant, better known as Willie Garson to his many fans and throughout the entertainment industry—stage, film, and television. Best known for his role in the iconic HBO television series Sex and the City, he died of pancreatic cancer last September.
In case you missed it, the prior issue of the alumni magazine had a full-page picture of Michael Bay accompanying a story about the future of film and a full-page article by Steve Cadigan about his book on the future of work. Because Steve had been LinkedIn’s first HR officer, I went to LinkedIn and discovered that several classmates have a great relationship with their employer. Later this year Becca Golden will be celebrating her 30th anniversary with the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, where she oversees national grant-making programs, and Forrest Maltzman will soon be celebrating his 30th year as a professor of political science at George Washington University. Via Facebook, Steve also noted he had a chance last summer to visit Tony Zimmerman and his wife Anne at his home in Hartford, has been in regular touch with Gus Conroy who is in Houston—comparing notes on life and work—and also met up with Scott Donohue, who humbled him in a tennis match and then asked if Steve wanted to go on a bike ride up a steep mountain with him . . . no thanks.
How are the rest of you doing with your aspirations? I also know that some have retired, while others are moving on in different ways. Bridge Growth Partners, a leading technology investment firm, announced in November that it had appointed Jonathan Harber as senior advisor to identify and evaluate investment opportunities. He has expertise, insights, and relationships from more than 30 years as a pioneer in education technology. He recently was CEO for Pearson K12 Technology, overseeing a business unit with 1,000 employees and serving over 25 million students. Another job change was Noah Pickus, who after 25 years at Duke University, joined the Minerva Project as chief academic officer and their associated university in the role of professor of social sciences.
Lastly, David Hill deserves our deep thanks, as he continues to serve in a leadership role in the university-wide Alumni Association.
Aaron Gershenberg has transitioned to Angel and Impact Investing, based in Park City, Utah, leaving Silicon Valley Bank (and SVB Capital) behind after 23 years. (He continues on as founding partner emeritus for SVB.) He is looking forward to spending more time in Africa and Israel, and to looking for sustainable economic development models.
Michael Llewyn had an exciting fall running for borough president of Manhattan on the Libertarian Party line (despite not being a registered Libertarian). He got 1.8% of the vote, focusing on “less zoning, more housing, lower rents.” You can find “Manhattan Borough President General Election Debate” on YouTube. In and around the campaign, Michael got married in 2019 and lives in midtown Manhattan; he teaches at Touro Law Center, and blogs about land use issues at planetizen.com and marketurbanism.com. You can find his law review articles at http://works.bepress.com/lewyn.
Shawn Dove, who felt (like so many of us) that 2021 was an “intermission,” is facing the third act of his life with our shared milestone birthday. His major takeaway from the pandemic is to “stop lamenting my irretrievable and start loving my future self.” “Sage”-ing instead of “age”-ing. He has sunsetted the not-for-profit Campaign for Black Male Achievement, and has launched the Corporation for Black Male Achievement—a publishing and consulting firm that curates “community building and leadership development engagements that elevate stories of loving, learning and leading Black men and boys.” His book, co-authored with Nick Chiles (a Yalie, but all is forgiven), I Too Am America: On Loving and Leading Black Men & Boys was published at the beginning of the year. And he has started as managing partner of venture philanthropy firm New Profit. The firm’s mission is “investing in breakthrough social entrepreneurs by employing the rigor of venture capital and the humanity of the nonprofit sector. Excited about the focus of supporting Black and Brown social entrepreneurs.”
Ophelia Papoulas threw herself a rockin’ in-person party for her milestone birthday (in the lull between delta and omicron), and she appreciates her excellent timing. She adores her career in molecular research, which has allowed her to see real people in the lab every day. We have mentioned Ophelia’s needlework-for-charity endeavor (dundysisters.com), which she runs with her sister Bettina; they have been donating proceeds of their work to mental health charities, as COVID has made needs in this arena skyrocket. On the home front, her son has turned 18, and after battling ADHD, OCD, and other mental demons, he has started at community college and is doing well. She continues to see her longtime boyfriend, local musician/bandleader and Samsung recruiter David Cornell Hurd. She continues to care for her aging mother-in-law, whose dementia has worsened. She will be found around and about Austin, Texas (aka Musk-ville or Texla).
Forty years ago, we were navigating our first years at Wes! I’m grateful that so many of us have remained friends over the decades. Here’s news from some of those friends:
Marc Stein’s fifth book, Queer Public History: Essays on Scholarly Activism, was published by the University of California Press in March. “The intro includes some autobiographical reflections on our years at Wesleyan!”
KT Korngold has been accepted into a Montessori doctoral program through the University of Wisconsin–River Falls. She is part of the first cohort of this inaugural program, which began in May 2022. KT continues to direct the Montessori Children’s Center and Center for Montessori Education in West Harrison, New York.
Christopher Kylin dared me to include this note: “Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary has happened to [me] for over 2,133 days; [I anticipate] continuing this streak for at least another 7 days.”
Barbara Schwartz writes: “I hope everyone is doing okay in these crazy times. I have been doing okay. I am finally leaving the agency where I worked for 32 years. I was director of a therapeutic after-school program for homeless and at-risk children. I am now just doing counseling and supervision in private practice. I still feel so young that it’s hard to believe we are headed toward 60 soon. My partner and I still hike every summer in a national park. I would love to hear from anyone who remembers me from Wesleyan. I still have such fond memories.”
Joan (Edelman) and David Landon live in Walpole, Massachusetts. Dave is an archaeologist with UMass Boston and Joan is drug safety analyst with Harvard Medical School. They are empty nesters but are “expecting our first grand baby at the end of February and could not be more excited! We know everyone has had their own share of sadness over the course of the pandemic but we hope there has been some light as well.”
Amy Nash and I saw one another IN PERSON in Minneapolis in October. She is still working from home, coming up on 25 years as communications manager at MSR Design, a nationally recognized architecture firm. “I did manage to travel to NYC and Martha’s Vineyard last summer. While in NYC, I had dinner with Mike Groseth ’83. During last summer, I also had the pleasure of seeing Beth Purnell Gartman and Tim Dyke’86 who were visiting Minneapolis on separate occasions. And last fall, I caught up with Caroline Hale-Coldwell and Nancy LaMarca Gordon, two other Wesleyan alumni who live in the Twin Cities. It was a great year for reconnecting with classmates even if it was a challenging year in every other way.” Amy also continues to write poetry.
Nancy Vélez, a fundraiser with over 26 years of experience in the nonprofit and higher education sectors, is the principal gift officer at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Nancy lives in the Bronx.
Bill Wrubel is “very excited to report that my daughter Maisie will be a [first-year student] at Wesleyan this fall, where she will be in the class with Andy Meier’s daughter Oona! They were both one-year-old babies on campus at our 20th Reunion in 2005.”
Hilary Jacobs Hendel works as an emotion-centered psychotherapist. Her 2018 book, It’s Not Always Depression, has sold over 100,000 copies worldwide. Hilary runs Emotions Education 101 classes on Zoom and published the Emotions Education 101 Turnkey Curriculum. Hilary also has many free resources on emotional health at hilaryjacobshendel.com.
That’s all for now. Write me anytime with your news and updates. Take care, my friends.
Greetings! Time marches on and despite this never-ending pandemic, our classmates continue to thrive. I have spent the last two years working in urban education and when not putting out fires, reading, cooking, meditating, and trying to make sense of it all. I send everyone fond wishes for a happy and healthy new year.
Charlie Brenner left the University of Iowa, where he was head of biochemistry for 11 years, to become the inaugural chair of a new Department of Diabetes and Cancer Metabolism at City of Hope in Los Angeles. He started a virology project in the lab, met President Roth and Peter Gilhuly at the home of Luke Wood’91 and Sophia Nardin ’91, and saw Brad Whitford ’81 play Ebenezer Scrooge. Living in Pasadena, Charlie works out on the Mirror and jousts on Twitter!
Franky De Poli lives in Argentina and owns and runs a company that sells equipment to fuel cars, planes, ships, and trains across Latin America. Franky remarried nine years ago and is delighted to announce the arrival of a new baby girl (Mia) in April. A true “modern family,” he has three wonderful children from his first marriage, two grandchildren, and all get along great, including his ex-wife. Franky remains in close contact with Paul Gross’84 and met up on campus with Mike Whalen and Paul DiSanto ’81 when he last visited.
Judy Korin hunkered down at home in LA this past year and finished producing a documentary film many years in the making—Rebel Hearts. The movie premiered at Sundance and after a nice festival run, the film is now streaming globally on Discovery+. She enjoyed telling the colorful story of a group of progressive Catholic nuns in 1960s’ Los Angeles who stood up to the patriarchy of the church. Judy is excited to share it with the world!
Heather Rae sold everything and relocated to southeastern Florida to build out her functional health and genomics practice (cutting-edge science to assess root chronic health conditions: environmental toxins, nutrient levels, variants in enzymes (genes) of inflammation and detoxification, cellular voltage, and membrane lipids). Way to go Heather! Having just started to see an integrative and functional health doctor to address assorted ailments associated with growing older, I salute you!
Nancy Rommelmann launched a media company, PalomaMedia.com, in November, and is working on a book that includes her coverage of the 2020–2021 protests in Portland. She currently splits her time between NYC and Houston.
Despite being quarantined for most of 2020, Janet Binswanger managed to make the best of it, and got married on a beautiful sunny evening in September. She writes, “Neil and I have a blended family of 6 kids and are extremely happy together. I have the greatest job at Vynamic, a health-care management consulting company as their curator; curating all their events, team experiences: aka ‘Director of Happiness.’”
David Frankfurter and Anath Golomb shared their activities during the “plague year.” They (1) adopted a second puppy (of diverse breeds) brought up from Houston; (2) held in-class university teaching, while simultaneously managing Zoom students; (3) saw psychotherapy patients by Zoom from home, while said Houston dog barks at UPS trucks; (4) dined outdoors in 45-degree windchill; (5) enjoyed overly international Zoom seders; and (6) not getting COVID!
At the end of February, Megan Norris began a new position as CEO of Miller Canfield, the law firm for which she has been practicing for 35 years. She writes, “Taking on the position as we come out of the pandemic is a bit of a baptism by fire, and 200 attorneys are a lot of cats to wrangle, but I have spent my entire career here and it is very satisfying to finish it out this way.” At the beginning of the pandemic, Megan’s daughter, Taylor Matthew ’17, moved back to Detroit from Boston for grad school. With an MA in teaching, Taylor begins her career as a teacher in the Detroit public schools.
Karen Miller Zoomed with a bunch of her field hockey/roommate crew: Gretchen Millspaugh Cooney from Pennsylvania, Sue Stallone Kelly from New York, Barb Bailey Beckwitt from Colorado, and Tammy Rosengarten Darcas from Australia. While a couple of them may have had a glass of wine, Tammy, being in Australia, enjoyed her morning coffee. Karen’s daughter finally got married after postponing it for a year and resides in Latvia while her husband plays hockey for the KHL of Russia. Her two other daughters moved back to the Connecticut area to be with their brother.
Glenn Duhl (with wife Peggy), Matt Ember, and Laurie Sklarin Ember ’84 had a couple great days together in California.
Lastly, I wish everyone a happy 60th. Many have wrote of their celebrations: Taya Glotzer and Michael Sommer, Tom Donnelly (and Heidi), Peter Jankowski (and Dottie), Frank Moll’84 (and Diana), and Melanie Peters had a reunion to mark the occasion.
Hard to believe our 40th is upon us. Big thanks to fundraising superstar Joe Barrett and Virginia Pye for hosting a happy hour to reconnect us before we saw each other IRL at the reunion (yay!).
You sent some great book recommendations. I’ve already devoured Elizabeth Feigelson’s suggestion, We All Need New Names by Zimbabwean NoViolet Vulawayo, and Ginny Pye’s, Still Life by Sarah Winman, set in Florence. Ginny has a new book coming out, but that’s hush-hush til the deal is inked.
Charita Brown’s memoir, Defying the Verdict: My Bipolar Life (2018), is particularly relevant now because of the uptick in mental-health illness diagnoses during the pandemic. Charita is on the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) board of directors, was featured in a NAMI short doc, Shattering Racial Stereotypes to Defy the Verdict (on YouTube), and was awarded the Baltimore group’s 2021 Marcia G. Pines Lifetime Advocacy and Service Award. Congratulations!
The wait is almost over: The novel Peter Blauner started writing in 2002, Picture in the Sand, will be out early next year from Minotaur/St. Martin’s Press. Meantime, he’s writing shorter pieces for the New York Daily News and Nancy Rommelmann’s ’83 website Paloma Media. He says Christ in Concrete by Di Donato is an overlooked knockout read.
Speaking of the devil, Matthew Capece writes that while he and his wife Alexis were sipping port and eating nata in Portugal, he read Blauner’s Highway—“a disturbing and gutsy novel.”
David S. Parker, too, has a book out in May: The Pen, the Sword, and the Law: Dueling and Democracy in Uruguay (McGill-Queen’s Press). Yes, he says, it’s a history book from an academic press about a faraway place, but it’s written for the nonexpert with a good mix of jaw-dropping storytelling to balance out the historical-legal explanation of why Uruguay was the only country in the world to legalize dueling, between 1920 and 1992. I must know!
Maya Sonenberg’s third collection of short stories, Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters, received the Richard Sullivan Prize and will appear in August 2022 (University of Notre Dame Press). Her daughter is a freshman at Wes, and she met up with Sam and Ellen (Friedman) Bender at Homecoming/Family Weekend in October, when she also picked apples at Lyman Orchards, ate at O’Rourke’s, and hiked at Wadsworth Falls. She recommends In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova.
Jonathan Weber is back from Singapore with a new job, editor in chief of an ambitious online news start-up called The San Francisco Standard. He’s delighted to have teamed up with executive editor Heather Grossmann ’98 to reinvigorate local news.
Congrats to Rachael Adler, who married twice this year (to the same guy)—a COVID wedding at a clerk’s office during the pandemic, then August with the whole family. They moved to Oakland, launched her daughter to college, and she just completed her first semester of graduate school in psychology at the Wright Institute. Whew!
Rob Lancefield retired early from a 27-year career in museum work, most recently as head of IT at the Yale Center for British Art. While continuing some service with professional organizations, Rob is enjoying a simpler life with very little Zoom. He looks forward to reacquainting himself with his favorite guitar.
No sooner did Karen Paz move permanently to her summer house in Maine than she was elected a town selectperson. She recommends The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave.
Patty Smith was appointed to Virginia Governor Northam’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board. She and her wife Cindy married on April 4, 2020, in an early Zoom wedding. She recommends Brian Castleberry’s Nine Shiny Objects, and Stephanie Grant’s ’84 memoir Disgust.
Other book recommendations:
Emilie Attwell: The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish. (“She was told as a girl she could either see a psychiatrist or go to a comedy camp!” says Emilie, who, being the former, had to laugh.)
Karen Wise: Amor Towles’s A Gentleman of Moscow.
Jim Dray: The Prince of the Skies by Antonio Iturbe, based on the extraordinary life of Antoine De Saint-Exupery (The Little Prince).
Dena Wallerson: Kliph Nesteroff’s We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans and Comedy.
Susan Cole: The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste by Isabel Wilkerson.
Paul Meltzer: Japanese movies from the 1950s, especially those directed by Ozu, Kinoshita, Naruse, Ichikawa, and Kobayashi.
Jon Philip Rosenberg (who just finished writing the second edition of Atlas Shrunk): Dirty Love by Andre Dubus III and Red Notice by Bill Browder.
Finally, a shout-out to my co-secretary Michael Ostacher, for exceptional achievement in macaroon making (especially the ones dipped in dark chocolate). My husband Peter Eckart ’86 pronounced, “Everything in the world that is perfect is encapsulated in a macaroon by Michael O!” Indeed.
I’m seeing themes in this edition of our notes. Many of us are going strong, as we continue to do what we do, while others are winding down, and even retiring.
For example, Paul Robinson tells us that he was recently notified “I’ve been granted a patent (for you computer techies, it’s related to the Spectre vulnerability reported a few years ago). This is my fifth patent overall but my first solo, which is a nice career capstone.”
John Hester reports that he is happily retired and enjoying traveling. He landed in Summerville, South Carolina.
Dave Smith writes that “After 32 years of federal service, I retired from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. I plan a combination of loafing, strategic environmental consulting, travel, and home projects going forward. While I enjoyed my time with EPA, having real time for nature, family, my guitars, and novel reading is a wonderful change. Best to all!”
Meanwhile, Michael Getz and his wife Tiziana is delighted that their daughter Melissa “had a wonderful, carefree, pre-omicron wedding in early December of 2021.”
That’s where we are in life, I guess, as we trudge deeper into the second half of our first century: winding down, retiring, and marrying off our children.
Others of us are still going strong with our careers as well. Ramon Pineda writes that he is happy to have changed jobs and is now working for E.W. SCRIPPS in Corpus Christi, Texas. “With NBC, CBS, CW, and Telemundo affiliates, we produce more news than any other broadcaster in the area.” Ramon adds, “News matters to us and we are always looking for great journalists who wish to join our family in Corpus Christi or the other 40-plus markets we serve.” If you know a journalist in the area, please let him know.
Barry “Pono” Fried continues to offer his unique tours of Hawai’i’s culture, nature, history, language, music, food, wildlife, sacred sites, beauty spots, and less visited country villages, on Maui, Kaua’i, and the Big Island of Hawai’i.
Belinda, Livia, and friends in Tanzania
Some of us travel and get together, which we cannot take for granted these days. Belinda Buck Kielland, Livia Wong McCarthy, and friends celebrated Belinda’s 60th birthday two years late in Tanzania this October, “when there was a small window of opportunity to travel. There’s nothing better than the gift of time with dear friends and roommates.” B and Liv wrote that they hope to see more Wes friends soon.
Delcy Fox also wrote that she was “fortunate to celebrate Christmas with my family in the Netherlands, where my son is on a two-year assignment. Since the country was on total lockdown, we took day trips to Germany and Belgium. In November 2021, I enjoyed viewing the Jasper Johns exhibit at the Whitney Museum in NYC with Gary Shapiro. We reminisced about when Jasper Johns came to Wesleyan. In January 2022, I had a Zoom dinner with Miriam Stern Sturgis and her husband Gary Sturgis ’77. Miriam and Gary recently welcomed their fourth grandchild, Adina Clare Paulsen. Throughout 2021, Miriam and I did Israeli Dancing together (via Zoom) every Sunday.”
As for myself, I can’t leave well enough alone. Like many of you, I suppose, I can’t seem to stop learning about all sorts of things and accumulating more and more certifications within my craft. After decades of work as a financial professional, I am now a recently minted CFP® Registrant (who does that at 62?). I have also become a certified tax coach through the American Institute of Certified Tax Planners. I also continue to help on the Emergency Committee for Rojava, as they continue to be under threat of ethnic cleansing, and worse, from both Turkey and ISIS. My 17-year-old is still deciding where to go next fall, which has a lot to do with why I’m not joining others of you in winding down quite yet.
Zlamany with portrait
The weekend before these notes were due, my wife and I saw a dance performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music of T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets.” Yes, the idea is audacious, and was accomplished brilliantly. I came home to an email from fellow Brooklynite and classmate, Brenda Zlamany, letting me know that her portrait depicting five pioneering women scientists from Rockefeller University will be permanently installed at Rockefeller University, with an unveiling scheduled on April 14th.
And that’s seems to be our world: finding windows of availability for travel, seeing friends and classmates in person, or using Zoom and other remote means to get together, moving our work and careers forward, or winding down (by choice, I hope). In our 60s, I am keenly aware that entropy works. As B and Liv remind us, let’s not take things for granted, and work, against entropy, as much as possible, in gratitude.
Thank you to our class contributors—new and old. It’s so wonderful for you to share your major achievements, your firsts, your lives postretirement, your family news, your challenges, and your joys.
Susan Gray ’81 has directed and co-written a shocking and informative documentary, Earth Emergency, on climate change and environmental feedback loops (which amplify the warming even further, something that is not being taken into account by policy makers). With captivating illustrations, stunning footage, and interviews with leading climate scientists as well as support from Greta Thunberg and Jane Fonda among others, this revealing film, narrated by Richard Gere, examines how human activity is setting off dangerous warming loops that are pushing the climate to a point of no return—and what we need to do to stop them. A clear immediate call to action. The film is available on PBS Passport, indefinitely for now. Even better, the film is divided into five segments, one for each of the climate feedback loops described, and you can find it for free on Susan’s website: www.feedbackloopsclimate.com. There is also the link to the launch with the Dalai Lama and Greta Thunberg on the events page (1:20mins), which included clips from the film and interviews with their scientists along with his holiness. You can find a free curriculum on the website so teachers can teach with the film. The film is being seen around the world on global television in places like Latin America (the Disney Channel), throughout Europe, and soon in Asia and Africa. It was shown to the astronauts on the International Space Station as they looked down at our fragile blue ball and to the British Parliament. The Smithsonian Natural History Museum did a summer film series based around the short films on the web, the International Rotary Club is using it . . . His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales (Charles) invited Susan and her team to COP26 to show it to his Terra Carta Sustainable Markets Initiative event in Glasgow. Please watch it and spread the word and think of what each of you can do to make a difference.
Janet Grillo noted that she is one of those people who has not contributed in a long, long time. She marked her 10th year as a full-time arts professor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Undergrad Film & TV Program, where she has had the privilege of instructing children of a few fellow alumni. She’s about to direct her third, independent, fiction-feature narrative film this summer and splits her time between Upper West Side and Upstate New York, mid-Hudson Valley, where there’s a thriving arts community and lots of great hiking trails. Janet is a critically acclaimed filmmaker, Emmy Award–winning producer, and former studio executive. She directed the award-winning Jack of the Red Hearts, and wrote/directed/produced the critically acclaimed Fly Away. Trailers can be seen on her website: www.feedbackloopsclimate.com.
For firsts, Alan Jacobs, managing director of Archer Entertainment Group: “I figured 62 is just the right age for my first marathon, so I ran New York in November 2021. Okay, ‘ran’ is a bit generous but I did finish and, pardon the very Wesleyan word, found the experience transcendent. Sadly, I am now hooked on this activity and about to run a half marathon at the Dead Sea with my daughter, Avia, who lives in Israel. Loving my new life in New York City, busier than ever with work, and launching a nonprofit to benefit Israeli filmmakers.”
Greg Brown is pleased to report that he retired on January 3, 2020, from his position as CFO of Swarthmore College, after over 40 years in government and higher education administration. He added, “My husband (Linton Stables, Rice ’74) and I look forward to decompressing, traveling, and doing volunteer work. I owe a debt of gratitude for my career to my Wesleyan mentor and work-study boss, Jean Shaw at the Center for the Arts, and to her husband Ralph (Biff) Shaw ’51. We try to visit with them whenever we’re in Connecticut.”
After a long career in IT (which actually makes money), Jessica Ziegler said, “I finally get to paint (which doesn’t make money but makes me happy). I am living in NYC, about to celebrate my 26th wedding anniversary and apply for Medicare—clearly, lots of time has passed! My daughter is in graduate school here and finally got to go back to in-person classes this semester. My father died of COVID last year, just before the vaccine was available, but luckily everyone else in my family is fine.”
Mitch Nauffts: “First-time poster, longtime reader. After 27 years with the Foundation Center/Candid, I retired as publisher/editorial director of Philanthropy News Digest in June and am happily embarked on the next chapter of my life. My wife, Lisa Leventer (Brown ’82), and I live on the Upper West Side, our longtime home, and are lucky to have our two sons, Andy (Queens) and Pete (Brooklyn), nearby. Our apartment has a cozy guest bedroom, and we invite all—but not all at once—to visit.”
Will(y) Rowe: “I decided to retire from Booz Allen Hamilton in March 2021 after a 25-year run to rewire and refire. My wife Teresa ’81 and I are still in Annandale, Virginia, and were thrilled when Jon Nimer and his wife came by for a visit in the fall. I host occasional Zoom calls with Jon, Dave Engstrom, Ken Freeman, Dave Loucky ’82, Rick Levine, Joel Tillinghast, and Dan Connors. If you’d like to join, please email me at rowewt@cox.net.”
Ellen Haller, MD, professor emerita, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences wrote, “I’m truly loving life as a retired person! My days are spent doing one or more of the following: pickleball, tennis, strength classes, cycling (California is gorgeous for riding—my favorite bike ride I’d have to say the AIDS/LifeCycle, which is a seven-day fundraising event from San Francisco to LA that I’ve done seven times so far. It’s been canceled the last two years, but we’ll be doing it again this coming June. It’s an epic ride with tremendous beauty and it’s an important cause. Typically, the event raises about $15 to $17 million, which goes to free health care for people with HIV/AIDS in San Francisco and LA), ice hockey (yep, I still play!), and fun classes on topics like opera, Broadway theater, and history. My wife is still working and is extremely busy as the chief of infectious disease at University of California San Francisco. (She says, it’s a shit show! The main thing is to just do everything one can to stay safe. She does think that things will improve this spring for sure but as to what comes next, she says who knows.) It’s been a full two years of ‘yikes!’ Our 25-year-old son is a professional close-up card magician and is quite successful in NYC and on YouTube. (danielroymagic.com)
Isabelle (Baudry) McDonald: “Hello from Falmouth, Massachusetts, in Cape Cod. My husband Tom McDonald ’79 and I (’79 as well, although I came in as ’80) are retired and living here full time since March 2019. I finally closed my private practice of many years as an educational therapist/learning specialist so that I could focus on doing more creative projects and taking care of my parents, who also moved here last year (my dad, Francis Baudry ’51, graduated when Wesleyan was still a men’s only college). Seems like there are not enough minutes in the day to do everything I’d like, although COVID has caused us all to slow down, and savor what we have right in front of us. . . . Am so lucky to live a mile from the sea, am an avid pickleball player, gardener, and am teaching myself jazz piano and music theory, which has been on my list for many years. My child Kamerin (Katherine) McDonald ’11 is living with their partner Jen in Amherst, Masssachusetts, teaching voice/piano/guitar out there. Life is going by way too fast. . . .”
Suzy Shedd: “I left my job coordinating accommodations for students with disabilities at Goddard College in November 2021. I’m now very happily back in private practice with friends of mine. We are a multidisciplinary team providing evaluations and therapeutic support for neurodivergent people and their families. Otherwise, I can say Vermont is a great place to live in a pandemic. My partner (Bob Purvis ’72) and I have had no trouble accessing our vaccines and boosters, and living in a rural area makes social distancing easier.
Meg Lyons shares her ideas on modernizing an 18th-century home in Connecticut Magazine and The Stamford Advocate (January 11, 2022 issue). Lyons, owner of Meg Lyons Architects, studied architectural history at Wesleyan. “I am at heart a modernist because I live in the 21st century, but at the same time, I have a love for the history of architecture and believe in honoring what came before,” she said. “Merging the historical and the modern together creates a sweet spot.” Also mentioned in the article is Marcia Santoni ’83, P’25.
Marty Saggese: “In January, I just passed my 20-year anniversary as executive director (CEO) of the Society for Neuroscience in DC. My whole career has been in government and nonprofits, though I never would have expected to be with one organization for so long. And surely, I would never have expected years 19 and 20 to be the most difficult. But since our main work is to organize an annual scientific conference for 30,000 attendees from around the world, because of the pandemic our annual meeting was cancelled in 2020 and we were forced to go all virtual in 2021, resulting in millions of dollars in financial losses in each of the past two years, and a real effect on the value we have been able to provide to our member-scientists. During the pandemic, as our 100-person staff has been working from home now for nearly two years, I’ve found mentoring my staff team to be the most rewarding part of my job at this point in my career. And it gives me the chance to give back some of the valuable mentoring that MY mentors gave me earlier in my career. This has given a focus to remaining connected to others in this crazy time, even when you don’t see them in person every day. Meanwhile, I’m staying safe and healthy so far. Here’s hoping to see Wesleyan friends at an in-person reunion at some point soon!”
Jim Kent: “This year I have mentored three Wes students on career ideas, and strongly recommend the experience. They are so bright, energetic, and enterprising, it gives me hope for our otherwise polarized world. My daughter accepted an offer to join the MFA program at Columbia University in playwriting, now making our family a triple Columbia threat: My wife and I both did graduate work there, and in a twist of karma, my daughter found a 5th-floor walk-up (gasp) two blocks from where I lived as a grad student.”
Gary Gilyard: “My wife and I have been blessed with grandchildren #3 and #4 this past fall. Both girls, one 6 months and one 5 months, from our oldest and middle daughters. We are so fortunate to have them both move back so we see all four all the time and get to be a part of their everyday lives. My orthopedic practice is great, I’m still loving every day, and as of now have no plans to retire. Our youngest daughter Shelby ’16 is in San Francisco. I truly wish the best for everyone out there from the class of 1980.”
Jeff Green: “I am finally in Australia, where I met my first grandchild who was born in the beginning of the pandemic. I continue to work in emergency medicine in Milwaukee and Ashdod, Israel, and I started the application for an Australian medical license. I’m planning an endless summer kind of thing, but instead of surfing, it’s doctoring.”
John Singer told us that he and his wife Karen are enjoying their first winter as snowbirds at their place on the beach just outside of Charleston, South Carolina. “Karen still practices law full time. I’m taking a sabbatical from teaching, and working on two projects. The first is creating a new curriculum and approach for teaching trial advocacy to law students. I’ve received invaluable assistance on this effort from classmates Brad Moss and Romi Albin as well as my CSS professor, Rich Adelstein. The second is a law review article addressing the need to classify personal care assistants as a necessity for disabled athletes who need assistance to get through the activities of daily life to be able to compete. The inspiration for the article is the blind-and-deaf swimmer who was a gold medalist in Rio and who trains where I do, Master’s Swimming in Baltimore. The swimmer withdrew from the Tokyo games after the U.S. Paralympic Committee refused to permit her to have someone help with critical activities that she is incapable of doing on her own, like getting from her room in the Olympic Village to the dining hall. I also had an abbreviated trip to Colorado to visit and ski with my son, Charlie, earlier this month. I was actually skiing fairly well when I caught an edge, took a tumble, and tore some groin muscles (I could feel something give as I was falling). This resulted in my first trip in a ski patrol toboggan since I was 15 and training to be a junior ski patrol (I remember the trip being more fun when I was 15). Fortunately, there was no structural damage, and I should fully recover with time. That evening, while watching the Olympics and seeing Michaela Shiffrin fall, I commented to Charlie that I clearly was not the only person who caught an edge and fell while skiing that day. Charlie’s incredulous response was, ‘Dad, are you really seriously comparing yourself to Micheala Shiffrin?’ I replied that Michaela and I both: were skiing; caught an edge; and fell. I conceded that any comparison between our skiing pretty much ended there though. Nothing like children, even adult ones, to keep you humble.”
Wendy Davis Beard, “I am continuing to transition from full-time promoter of my husband’s practice as a full-time painter to me becoming a full-time writer of my memoir of recovery from both a massive paralyzing stroke and terminal cancer diagnosis in 2007. I continue to develop this account in poetry, prose, and pictures, with the most insightful encouragement and criticism of our classmate, New York–based, award-winning poet Page Starzinger (see her website, https://www.pagehillstarzinger.com, for her poetry and link to published collections). Unfortunately, our plans to catch up with Page over New Year’s were postponed due to COVID. John and I are currently putting our renovated Wesleyan Chapel studio residence up for sale with the intention of moving to the British countryside, where we loved spending most of last year in lockdown. I look forward to seeing more of you all in America, the UK, or even Australia, where we will continue to divide our time. This was just published on Associated Press’s blog for former AP staff, from my ongoing memoir of recovery from paralyzing stroke in 2007.”
The Story of Everest’88 Climb—and Her AP Scoop from Lahasa
In 1987, I was asked to join the support team of Everest’88 on its trek into Base Camp from Tibet in the spring of ’88. After leaving the AP I had been working full time on the promotion and fund raising to enable the team to accomplish its ambitious goal of establishing a new route up the northeast face of Chomolungma, without supplemental bottled oxygen, fixed ropes or sherpas, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Everest in 1953 by NZ Edmond Hillary and sherpa Tenzing Norgay, led by retired British Army Commander Lord John Hunt.
I ignorantly yet fortuitously asked him (not knowing the appropriate parlance of the climbing world) to be the honorary expedition leader of Everest 88 enhancing its link to ‘53 which was celebrated internationally for not only being the first to reach the summit of Everest, but for Jan Morris holding the news back to break – in London on the coronation day of Queen Elizabeth. Lord Hunt is quoted in Stephen Venables’ book: Everest, the Kangshung Face, that Hunt had been asked countless times to be the expedition leader of subsequent expeditions to Everest, but never an honorary Expedition Leader, which I had made up as I had the title of “medical director for medical student Mimi Zieman whose learned skills were put to the test at base camp as several climbers returned with badly frostbitten fingers, toes and in Venable’s case a nose (after spending a night exposed to the elements – not making it back to his teammates’ tent after his solo summit).
From left: Everest ’88 support team members Wendy Davis and Norbu Norgay, son of Tenzing Norgay; Mimi Zieman, medical director, and Robert Mads Anderson, elite Alpinist and leader of Everest’88. With two Tibetan boys.
Whilst I was no longer working for AP, I got in touch with the Beijing office to invite them to a press conference with the team at our hotel before the team embarked on a trek through Tibet facilitated by an expensive permit from the Chinese Mountaineering authority – at a time when no Western journalists were allowed access to Tibet after news had surfaced of riots abductions, and violent loss of life in the Tibetan capital and spiritual home of the Dali Lama.
I agreed to make contact when the support team returned to Beijing ahead of the climbers who were still acclimatizing, making advance base camps and assessing their best window of opportunity for a push to the summit.
Everest’88
There was much interest in the support team’s inclusion of Tenzing’s son Norbu. Hillarie’s son Peter, an accomplished Alpinist in his own right, had declined an invitation to join the climbing team, it seemed on the grounds the plans to establish this new route seemed too dangerous if not impossible. Ed Webster, another American, Paul Teare, a Canadian-American, joined Robert Mads Anderson (an American NZ based expedition leader) and the British mountaineer Stephen Venables, who Lord Hunt had recommended as essential for this climb honoring the accomplishments of the very “British’ expedition of ’53.
After our progress had stalled due to heavy snowfall at the expedition’s pre-base camp where some of the Sherpa’s expressed their unwillingness to proceed with the risk to their precious yaks, the support team left the expedition to return to NY via Lhasa, but not before being stopped shortly before the capital by Chinese police who were most suspicious of Norbu’s passport as they incorrectly imagined he may be a foreign an agitator and or organizer. Fortunately, the Chinese mountaineering minder with us explained away the misunderstanding: rifles were lowered, passports returned, and we were allowed to proceed to the Holiday Inn for our first showers, pillows, mattresses and sheets in weeks where because of the clampdown on travel, the staff far outnumbered us, their only guests. When we went to dinner there would be several wait staff in line behind each chair.
But outside the situation was more ominous as army trucks paraded around Potala Palace with armed soldiers standing still and expressionless in the back, their rifles held close to their uniformed chests. Women would approach me, point to my camera and mime making a land line telephone call (as there were no mobiles then) imploring me, I assumed, to get the news out of what I’d seen, but without the language skills or real knowledge of any changes in Lahasa’s makeup. I could report nothing more than what I’d experienced with my own untrained reporter’s eyes, but when I returned to Beijing, the story came out as Wendy Davis says: “After bloodiest fighting in Lahasa” or something like that!
My good friend in NY AP Photos, Brian Horton, saw this on the wire and sent me a fax to our hotel (also mentioned in the feature, as the sight of our second press conference). Horton kindly and wisely warned me to be careful until I left China as I was still basically a guest of a foreign country until I returned to America. I had too much experience trying to beat UPI in picture placement to give anyone but AP a direct quote anyway! I also remembered our expedition leader Robert A. soberly advising me to hope for the best, yet prepare for the worst, which would obviously require me to return to China to sort out the repatriation of any dead or broken bodies, which we all know happens.
Everest’88
But, finally after weeks of waiting, for a reply to my faxes with the Chinese authority to confirm or deny the climbers were missing, as they were long overdue, I received the great news to share with the families sponsors and press that all were fine except the frostbite that Steamy Vegetables (aka Stephen Venables) had suffered after his successful summit bid with the support of Robert, Ed and Paul. While truly significant in the climbing world if not a must run story as international news. Stephen had not only taken a summit selfie holding up his climbing axe (before selfies were a thing) and before he began hallucinating which made for good illustrated copy on front pages of many British and European newspapers and subsequently in America after AP ran the photo and text. AP among others subsequently covered the final expedition press conference at the Explorers’ Club in NY where along with the climbers I had been made a member in relation to this expedition which carried a flag from the Explorers Club, as well as a flag from the United Nation’s as Miklos Pinther, senior cartographer from the UN, had joined the support team with the ambition of remeasuring Everest to put to rest the debate about its status as the highest mountain in the world.
With the conclusion of the press conference and team’s return appearance on Jane Pauley’s NBC morning news program, my career as an Alpinist support member and publicist was over. Good thing, as a major stroke in 2007 left me unable to even trek but still in good stead to write as well as walk and roll with a career in London! Robert has continued both his career on the mountains and marketing, lecturing across the US while Stephen, whom I meet up with in the UK, is a regularly published author now booked as both a lecturer and expedition leader of less ambitious expedition travel. Norbu Tenzing is Vice President of the American Himalayan Foundation which is based in San Francisco. He works closely with charities benefiting the Sherpa community. A couple years ago we met at the premier of “Sherpa” at the Sydney film festival, where he was as a special guest. I am still in touch with Miklos who has since retired from the UN after denied the opportunity to bring his measurement equipment to Tibet by the Chinese Authorities. Mimi is a pediatrician in NYC.
I have lost track of the others except aware that Ed who (long before Oscar-winning documentary Solo was made) established so many new routes across the US there’s a book documenting them. He lost a life-changing number of fingers to frostbite denying the same trail blazing solo climbing life he’d led before Everest ’88 when he put his bare hands on his metal camera to take a “once in a lifetime” photo. but has been quoted as considering his loss of fingers as a constant reminder of just what a tremendous team effort E’88 accomplished.
Most of us have married and had children, but this is the first time I have written about my first and last report from Everest and AP scoop from Lhasa in 1998! By virtue of our very exclusive access to Tibet!—Wendy Davis Beard
I am very sorry to inform the class of the passing of our classmate Greg Allcroft, on December 13, 2021. I received the news from Larry Levy who wrote, “He was a guy who was always in your corner and always had your back. His old Framingham pals including me, miss him.” Read his obituary here.
Timmy “Fitz” Fitzgerald contributed that the members of the All-Decade Team gathered for a great evening of celebration this past October 29th. A nice dinner was followed by a few speeches and the presentation. Members of the team from 1979 are as follows: Tony Basilica, Kevin Bristow, Joe Britton, Neil Fitzgerald, Tim Fitzgerald, Bob Latessa, Dennis Robinson and John Papa. Dennis Robinson gave an eloquent speech about our pal, Joe Britton. It was an outstanding night!
Jono Cobb sorrowfully wrote that he lost his wife of 32 years, Suzzanne, last July after a long battle with cancer. So sorry for your loss, Jono.
In case you didn’t know, Laura Walker was named the 11th president of Bennington College in August of 2020. She writes, “It’s been an honor and it’s been a privilege to be president of a great college and I always look to Michael Roth for inspiration and hope as we define the future of this extraordinary college!!”
Clifford Hendel is staving off retirement by maintaining his practice as a commercial, sports, and investment arbitrator—handling cases in Spanish, French, and Portuguese as well as in English. Additionally, he occasionally forays into nonlegal writing, including a short article in the current issue of NY Litigator (a publication of the New York State Bar Association’s commercial and federal litigation section) about the relationship between Alexander Hamilton and George Washington.
Steve Koplowitz has a new book! On Site: Methods for Site-Specific Performance Creation, published by Oxford University Press, will be available this spring (April–May). “It chronicles best practices and methods in creating site-specific performance, something I’ve dedicated over thirty years of my career. It covers many topics of production and navigating the world of art-making aiming to support artists both young and experienced. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/on-site-9780197515242?cc=us&lang=en&#. And after 15 years of living in Los Angeles, Jane and I are moving back to NYC in May to start new adventures and projects.” Welcome back!
Denise Giacomozzi’s daughter, Kristen May’10, gave birth to their first grandchild in October, Willow Autumn Whittle-May. “My husband and I spent an extended time nearby and have been able to get to Colorado again recently. (Altitude is a challenge for me unfortunately.) I continue to volunteer for the COVID Grief Network, which provides free grief support for young adults who have lost a loved one to COVID. The support is via 8-week grief groups on Zoom and has participants from the U.S. and abroad. I also volunteer for my church’s COVID Task Force.”
Matt Okun and his wife Annie Wong took a leap of faith and sold their home in Seattle. They packed up their stuff and sent it to DC. They moved to be closer to their grandkids (2 in Alexandria, Virginia; 2 in Philadelphia.) By last July, it all came together and they landed in Aspen Hill, Maryland, where Matt is a staff developer at a middle school in Kensington. They love living in greater DC and are sure it will even be more fun when and if the COVID restrictions are lifted. Matt has seen Casey Dinges and a bunch of high school friends. Matt is looking forward to being at Wes U in June when his nephew, Alex Okun ’21 and his brother Steve Okun ’82 will be there for Alex’s delayed graduation.
Afropop Worldwide, the Peabody Award–winning public radio program that Sean Barlow and Banning Eyre have produced for the past 34 years, has won another honor. globalFEST, the New York–based presenter and promoter of global music, has awarded the program its Impact Award, a recognition from the professional community for sustained commitment and, well, impact! https://afropop.org/articles/afropop-wins-globalfests-impact-award. The news arrives just as Banning is heading off to French Polynesia to lecture about music on a small ship. COVID be damned!
Jim Friedlich wrote that his extremely talented wife, Melissa Stern ’80, is on quite an artistic roll: Her drawing and sculpture exhibition, Does She or Doesn’t She (art about women and their hair), opened in Chicago in the autumn of 2020. A 20-year retrospective called Stronger than Dirt, ran in Kingston, New York, throughout last summer, and a show called Housebroken, of work done during the pandemic, debuted in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, this fall. Next up is The Talking Cure, at the Fullerton Museum outside of Boston in Brockton, Massachusetts. The Talking Cure, which marries sculpture with spoken word art, has been traveling to museums throughout the U.S. for over a decade. Come visit if you are in the Boston area.
After 12 years of being your co-class secretary, it is time to pass the pen. This is my last issue and I thank you all for sharing your excitements, sorrows, challenges, and triumphs. If you are interested in becoming the next co-secretary, please reach out to either Diane LaPointe, myself, or Liz Taylor at classnotes@wesleyan.edu.
Greetings friends. As I write these notes, Russia has just invaded Ukraine and the world stands in disbelief. Maybe you, like me, are hoping and praying for a more peaceful world as we go into very challenging times. It’s unbelievable to hear words like World War III just as we were beginning to enjoy pre-C0VID activities such as family visits, travel, and celebrations. When this Wes magazine lands on your doorstep in a few months, who knows what will be going on but for now, I hope you and yours are healthy and safe. Here’s what some of your classmates are up to:
Kevin Rose and his wife, Annie, downsized right before the pandemic from their home in Ipswich to a condo in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Their son, Danny ’19), was part of a cyber software start-up in Boston that got bought up and has relocated to NYC.
Lucy Mize is based more in Vermont than Virginia this year. She is still at USAID but also started a doctoral program at Indiana University in Global Public Health Leadership and her daughter expects to graduate from Wes this year.
Pete Lewis attended the memorial service for Coach Peter “Kosty” Kostacopoulos in Machias, Maine, in July 2021, where there were about 50 attendees split between family, neighbors, and Wesleyan alums, including: Tom Miceli ’81, Robb Sansone ’79, Todd Mogren ’83, and Frank Hauser ’79. Pete said there were many nice words spoken and a few laughs (including the eulogy line that “no umpires chose to attend”!).
Sadly, Sheryl Ann Smith, PhD died suddenly and unexpectedly just after Valentine’s Day 2022. Sheri, as she was known to her Wesleyan classmates, teammates, and friends, was loved by many and will be greatly missed. Here are several tributes to her memory: Jodi Wilinsky Hill, a former roommate, shared, “Sheri was a cherished wife, mother, friend, and sports psychologist. She was a talented, accomplished athlete, gardener (her orchids flourished in her Wesleyan dorm room—no small feat), and beloved daughter, sister, and community member. Sheri was blessed by beauty and grace, patience when needed, the ability to compete equally well individually or as part of a team and had an infectious laugh. She will be missed beyond measure.” Maureen Walsh ’79 wrote, “Sheri was one of the original trailblazers in women’s athletics at Wesleyan, and in one of the relatively early coed classes. She stood out as a loyal and generous teammate and friend. Sheri played on several ‘first’ female teams: ice hockey, soccer, outdoor track, and lacrosse. In ice hockey, she took her beautiful and accomplished figure-skating skills to become a fearsome ice hockey player during a time when the ability to skate backward with confidence put you on the first line.” Suki Hoagland, Sheri’s skating partner at Wesleyan and longtime, close friend, wrote:
“Dear Wesleyan family of 1978,
I write with a heavy, heavy, heart to share that our dear, wonderful, amazing, Sheri Smith-Schneider passed away this week. I am writing this remembrance hoping to celebrate Sheri’s extraordinary life but knowing I must first express my profound grief. To say a bright shining light has been extinguished is such an understatement. Life can be so unfair, cut way too short, delivering a gut punch you never saw coming. We have all weathered so much, and now this. Sheri’s death is still so raw I can barely think, and I imagine class notes are not supposed to be the forum for expressing such overt emotion, but as Dr. Sheryl Smith-Schneider would have surely counseled, ‘let it out, acknowledge, communicate . . . it’s ok to not be ok.’
“So, I want to share my journey with Sheri, as just one person of the thousands she surely touched. And while I feel awkward centering this note on my life, I hope it sheds light on Sheri’s gifts and you can revel in all the ways she gave to you.
Sheri and Suki
“When I arrived at Wes, fall of ’74, I had just bid farewell to my figure-skating career. I had trained up until the day I left for Middletown and the adjustment was hard. Early on I ventured to the rink and found Sheri. Having been a pairs skater I missed the joy of sharing the ice, feeling the air breezing across my face, gliding fast, holding on to someone else. Sheri picked this up right away and offered a perfect solution. We would choreograph a similar pair routine and perform it in between periods of hockey games. Which we did and it was fun! It helped me let go of one life and embrace a new one.
“Four years later, at graduation, I was holding it all together. I had loved my time at Wesleyan so much, sharing an incredible journey with all of you. I was sad, but eager to start my new life. Do you remember that glorious day, blue sky, bagpipes as we processed in celebratory red robes across Andrus Field? After the ceremony, as we hugged and took pictures and relished our accomplishments . . . I saw Sheri and burst into tears. How could I ever thank her for all she had given me? I would miss her so very much. I just sobbed.
“We kept in touch, delighting in each other’s lives—marriage, motherhood, doctorates, careers . . . . But by our 30th Reunion, I had used myself up and was struggling with debilitating mental illness. My depression was so overpowering I could barely move. I had flown all the way from Switzerland, and I wanted to enjoy our gathering, catch up, reconnect, celebrate, but I simply could not. Sheri saw through my façade, knew I was struggling, knew I was sick, knew I needed help. She scooped me up, left our reunion, drove me to her home, snuggled me into bed with a warm blanket, closing the curtains, turning off the lights and whispering, ‘It is ok, just rest.’
So, dearest Sheri, I guess it is your time to rest. I could never thank you enough.
“During the past few years, as we both recovered from our illnesses, Sheri’s stage-four cancer and my bipolar disease, we were exuberant about ‘getting our lives back.’ We connected often, more grateful, and keenly aware of how precious every single day is. But . . . I just spoke to Sheri the other day. She was just a phone call away. . . and now she is gone. We have lost a treasure. So, to all of you, let us celebrate this extraordinary life and ensure Sheri’s legacy lives on.—Suki Hoagland”
