Hello, classmates. I hate to begin our Reunion notes with a sad note, but we just learned that Roger Pincus passed away in mid-February. Roger and I took over as co-class secretaries in 2013, and worked together until about a year ago; he was always pleasant, cordial, and efficient; we worked well together. At our banquet, he was on the in memoriam list and we’ve confirmed. It was a shock to me and it is a sad task to report it out to you.
Lisa Larson sent an e-mail just before the Reunion with more sad news. Linda Wienski ’83 passed away after a long illness and Lisa’s husband passed away several months ago.
With that said, it was wonderful to see so many of you at Reunion. I did not attend the Foss Hill roll, but I’m sure it was as successful as always. During the banquet, I passed around a notebook for people to jot down what they have been up to and got the following responses:
Jane Smith with Valerie Cotler and Suzanne Hodges
Jane Smith participated in the Five-Borough race in NYC, covering 40 miles along with Valerie Cotler and Suzanne Hodges.
Charlotte Sonnenblick is happy to have her son Henry ’21 at Wes. His twin sister Abott graduated from Columbia. Charlotte joined the Corcoran Group as a residential real estate broker in Manhattan after 17 years at Stribling & Associates.
Michael Feldman lives with Diane Holt ’86 in D.C. Son Manny is a high school junior. Michael is a principal at Transitions International, an arts policy and cultural diplomacy consulting firm, and is the co-facilitator of the Theatre and Policy Salon.
Stu Remensnyder resides in Amherst, Mass., with two teenagers and his wife (and poodle and cat). He is busy coaching youth hockey and teaching math at Loomis Chaffee school.
Rick Davidman is in New York with two teenage sons. He has been a financial advisor since 1984, working with many artists, including several Wesleyan faculty members. He closed his art gallery some years back and curates exhibitions in public and private venues.
Peter Stine, when not being kept busy by his 3-year-old son Milo, is chair of physics and engineering at Bloomsburg University and is a roller derby referee whenever he gets the chance.
Karen Rosenberg lives in Providence, R.I., and is retiring this summer from the UAW Union after 12 years as an international representative. Next up is a tour of the country in her Triumph Bonneville.
John Miya, who continues to identify as class of ’84 despite the extra year in Japan, lives in the “People’s Republic of Evanston.” He laments that his two sons (who are “coming off the family payroll this year”) would not go to O’Rourke’s with him.
Kate Heaton is living in Manchester, Vt., with husband and kids, managing the family business and trying to educate people on the climate crisis. Become a Facebook friend of hers, and she will keep you up to date. She reflected that returning to Reunions makes her realize what a special group of people we Wes graduates are.
A few classmates jotted down greetings, but no hard news. Laura Simon commented how quickly time has passed (but everyone still looked good); Dan Kinsey said how glad he was to greet our future selves together; and Bruce McKenna simply enjoyed reconnecting.
Before Reunion, I heard from several classmates who couldn’t make it to Middletown. Alison Hausman has started a new podcast called The Pledge, featuring short and inspiring profiles of ordinary Americans who are engaging in our democracy. The first season tells stories of six women in Alabama fighting for progressive change, which is timelier than ever. She also recommends SoundQs, a Seattle based podcast about the region hosted by Deborah Wang.
Simone Zelitch has published her fifth novel Judenstaat, which will be released in paperback in January. Her novel imagines a Jewish state established in Germany in 1948. She established the Creative Writing program at Community College of Philadelphia: simonezelitch.com.
Julia Lopez reports from Philadelphia that she is now the foundations and innovation program manager in the Mural Arts program. She will be the participating theater artist and poet at Hemispheric Encounter in Mexico City (associated with NYU); and will co-facilitate Artist Exchange with Indigenous Communities in Auckland, New Zealand.
Kees Davison writes from northern Virginia that he and his wife, Vera, became grandparents in 2015. Their son, Caio (father of young Byron) begins a doctoral program in physics at VCU in Richmond this fall. Kees retired from full-time work in the Foreign Service in late 2016, but continues to pitch in with the State Department on an intermittent basis to help fill staffing gaps abroad. His assignments as a part-timer have been to Athens, Luanda, Santiago, Maputo, and London.
And that is the news for a very busy month. See you all in five years, and I’ll keep you updated in the meantime.
Michael Ostacher writes: Thanks to fellow Clark Hall resident Laura Fraser for sharing her class secretary duties—I can only hope to do half as lovely a job. We got a lot of notes and hellos, more than our 800- words worth, and it’s wonderful to hear from classmates. We age and it is mostly about people, no?
Liz Keyishian is in LA writing (mostly) for children’s TV animation and teaching TV writing at USC. “I’m married to an Australian and have two daughters. I hang out primarily with Wesleyanites: Cary Bickley, Sasha Alpert, Dan Greenberger ’81, and Elyse Klaidman. When I get to NYC, with Susan Kim, Diane Kolyer, Jane Rosenberg, Deedee Finney, and Jane Hammerslough Palmer. I’ve left out a lot of people . . .”
Speaking of, Diane Kolyer and Phil Abraham are in NYC, where she is a producer at HBO Documentaries and Phil is directing, most recently for the second season of Amazon’s Jack Ryan. Their eldest son graduated from Northeastern and the younger is at Wes, class of 2020. “We are loving that he is loving it.”
Bob Russo and Carol Frueh Russo ’84 are looking forward to their younger son Dan graduating from Oberlin this spring. Bob reports, “The last tuition payment has been made! Yay!”
Tricia Beard Mosher is a consultant to child welfare and family service systems, spending time in two of her favorite places, Maine and California, and living with her spouse Doug in Orlando. “Yes,” she says, “He works at Disney and no, we can’t get you a private audience with Mickey.” Her eldest (newlywed) daughter is in California, her son graduated from Earlham College, and youngest daughter finished her first year at Loyola Chicago. She is happy to tell you privately about her youngest’s wild tour of Wesleyan.
Rachael Adler shares, “I’m thoroughly enjoying the last year-and-a-half raising my daughter before she leaves for college. I’m in script development with a colleague writing a television series. I’m coaching actors all over the Bay Area—at my own studio, at Berkeley Rep. A.C.T., and Mills College. I’ve had a daily meditation practice for going on 30 years. Loving life immensely!”
In an inspiring second act, Shelby Haverson finished a master’s degree in restorative practices, and after a legal career, took the final leap and started as an academic advisor in the College of Liberal Arts at Temple University. Her youngest graduated from Wesleyan in 2018.
Anne Hietbrink, now living on beautiful Lopez Island in Washington State with her spouse Beth Shirk, writes about her own second act. “I am mostly retired from a unique career of legal social work where I learned immense respect for human resilience and creativity . . . the philosopher poet in me is getting a chance to stretch while I build multimedia art pieces that I sell here on the island.”
Chris Garson also has a second career, as a writer, and most recently has released nine short story anthologies on Amazon titled Two-Bit Stories. “Each volume contains four stories of 1,000 words. They’re meant for people who love to read but can’t find the time.”
John Brautigam, an election lawyer in the U.S. and working on democracy reforms in his home state of Maine, served on U.S. delegation as an observer for the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election and reports, “The election was another step toward democracy in an area that has faltered.”
Many of you (because of my inexperience with the class secretary portal) already know that Lawrence Comras is living in the Los Cabos region of Mexico and is involved in a bioregeneration and water reclamation project. He says to get in touch!
From Joe Fins: “I was invited to give a talk at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences at a meeting on the ethics of personalized medicine and stayed at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, a hotel residence inside Vatican City where the Pope himself resides. It was otherworldly!”
Jeannie Gagné, professor of voice at Berklee College of Music, was on a panel at the last Wes Reunion with Dar Williams ’89, Randy Frisch ’84, and Brian McKenna ’04 on the music industry, then performed at the tent party.
John Mooney’s news startup, NJ Spotlight, was acquired by WNET Public Television to lead their digital presence in New Jersey. “It has been a fascinating exercise in melding cultures and journalism.” John, your father would have been proud. He goes on: “I have stayed close with the boys from Wes (Peter Frisch, Stephen Daniel, Kevin Foley, Dan Hillman, Jack Taylor, and Bruce Crain), all of us recently attending Alex Thomson’s daughter Sloane’s wedding in Vermont. A fabulous weekend full of family and laughs, and that was just the Wesleyan crew. These are my most cherished friendships to this day.”
This is Joanne sending greetings from Europe, where the pace of life is slower, and people really take time to enjoy the moment. Each year, this time, I have the privilege of accompanying my husband on his summer class to Augsburg and Bergamo. Every direction I look, I see people sitting: drinking a beer or sipping a glass of wine or maybe a summer cocktail; others are drinking coffee, eating cake or indulging in ice-cream—for no other reason than it’s a beautiful day! Some are with friends or family; others are alone, just savoring the moment. I think the Danish call it “hygge.” The trendy word these days in the U.S. seems to be “mindfulness” though I’ve yet to see it appear in this particular context. No matter what you call it, everyone looks a lot more relaxed and happierthan the average person you see on a U.S.street. So. . . I’m going to order an Aperol and enjoy the sunshine and atmosphere as I report on our classmates’most recent news. Cin-cin!
This being 2019, the majority of our class will be celebrating a “big” birthday this year so happy birthday to you! I have already made the transition and frankly, I don’t think 60 has ever looked this good or productive or healthy. I have determined it shall be a year of celebration, of reachingout to old friends, and taking the time to appreciate those whom I love and cherish. Over the years, it has my and David‘s duty to report not just the good news regarding our classmates’ accomplishments, but also sharing the sad news of their deaths, reminding us as we enter a new decade that life is shorter than we ever imagined, more precious with each passing day, and to be taken advantage of at every opportunity.
In late January, Kaylie Jones, author, teacher and editor, was in D.C.hosting a book event. Several area Wes bibliophiles were in attendance: Kathy Prager Conrad, Mary Downs ’82, Patty Smith’82, Jeff Tsu’82, and me.Jeff had to leave immediately so sadly I have no news from him. Mary has been living in D.C.for decades, doing some very interesting work (details of which I did not write down. . .so I cannot impart any further info. Sorry, Mary!) Patty and I enjoyed a sleepover and tried to catch up; we last saw each other in Paris, spring of 1983. We were up until the wee hours—and barely scraped the surface of ourmemories! Patty teaches high school outside Richmond, Va.,(English now, not French) and continues to write; her second novel is due out soon. The next night, Kaylie and her brother hosted a small dinner and just like the old days at Downey House on a Thursday night when Chris McEvoy (please write in with news, Mac!) would put on one of his special cassette mixes, Kaylie, Kathy, and I were kicking up our heels and dancing the night away! She has relocated to San Diego after decades in NYC, where she is thoroughly enjoying life on the other coast. Kathy, who visited me in Bloomington with her husband in April, is off on a new adventure: circumnavigating Mont Blanc this summer, which is an approximately 12-day hiking trip. When not off globe-trotting, she continues to enjoy her work in the field of technology and consulting in DC. Kathy reports that both daughters are doing well: Caroline’14 is still working and enjoying success in the film industry in NYC while Liza ’11recently relocated to Atlanta to work for Stacey Adams’ permanent staff.
In May, I had the great pleasure to spend a wonderful weekend of fun, good food, great cocktails and much reminiscence with John “Wally” Walden at the beautiful New Jersey home of Rick Ciullo and his wife Tammy. It’s pretty hard to believe that the three of us, friends since the first night freshman year, had not been all together since graduation! Nicest thing? It was as if no time had passed at all—the warm familiarity and good humor picked up where we’d left off; the only thing different was that both Rick and John have had exceptional careers and beautiful families in the meantime. (Rick has two daughters in college, and John has two sons, just a bit older and already out in the world.) John, who lives in London, Ontario,continues to work in the tech industry and Rick is still on top of his field in the world of insurance.
Livia Wong McCarthy writes that she will be spending some time with Belinda Buck in Newport, R.I.,in August before meeting up with Kathy Prager Conrad,Deb Chapin, and me for a now-we-are-all-60 weekend celebration there. We are looking forward to catching up and reenacting our Sunday coop dinner nights—but minus the Hearty Gallo Burgundy. For sure.
One day this spring, I was home eating lunch, listening to the BBC when suddenly I heard classmate Chrissy Winkelbauer Kelly being interviewed about her work in and personal experience with smell loss. She has been heavily involved in the creation of AbScent.org, a patient advocacy group and charitable organization that, says Chrissy, “will change the way people with smell loss adapt to their condition and help themselves achieve a greater quality of life.” At the time of this writing, an app, an international research project and more are in the mix. “I wouldn’t have done it without the help of Miriam Block, childhood friend and (web) coding genius,” she adds. Congrats to Chrissy for helping bring focus to and shedding light upon this underreported health issue.
Paul Robertson “attended the International Conference on Software Engineering this May in Montreal, which meant Icould drive to Albany from myhome in Amherst, Mass.,and take Amtrak—so much nicer than flying! At the conference I was presenting two papers about how my team at Sony does its work, developing software tools for the studios doing games for the PS4. The research and academic writing felt very odd after all these years!”
Brenda Zlamany continues to enjoy professional success in the arts world. 100/100: The Itinerant Portraitistwas chosen as an official selection at this year’s Berkshire International Film Festival. Brenda is also getting back on the road with the last two parts of her latest chapter, Climate in America. Part One took place earlier in Key West, Fla. Part Two took place in June in Sonoma, Calif.,where she was in residence at the Chalk Hill Artist Residency, working on portraits of vintners, seasonal workers, firefighters, and others who call Sonoma County home. Part Three will begin in August in Utqiagvik, Alaska,during the 2019 Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission Whaling Captains’Convention before she moves on to Denali National Park, where she has been awarded another artist’s residency. Check out Brenda’s website for further information.
Delcy Ziac Fox attended a function of the Wesleyan 1831 Society in NYC where everyone toasted Barbara-Jan Wilson and wished her a happy retirement. At the event, Delcy caught up with David I. Block, Liza Page Nelson, David Resnick, Paul DiSanto, Joe Fins ’82, andLloyd Parodneck ’83 and reports that a great time was had by all.
Congratulations to Allison Williams, who headed back to Wesleyan in July as the new vice president for equity and inclusion/Title IX officer. Allison has had a storied career which includes similar jobs at Denison University and Oberlin College. In addition to administration, she also worked as a chemistry faculty member for 24 years. Outside of work, Allison is a mom to two teenagers, a semi-professional oboist, and a die-hard fan of Cleveland and Ohio State sports teams. In an interview with the Argus, Allison said, “I’m really excited about coming back. I love Wesleyan!” One of the many things she is looking forward to is building on existing programs such as the Mellon program and WesMaSS and to “take those programs and the work that’s been done on (faculty) searches and support them and make them stronger.”
Alumni magazines, similar to Facebook and Instagram, are filled with our best news. But our class, as with all classes, at all schools, are living our lives with both challenges and successes. Life isn’t so perfect—some of our classmates are batting serious illnesses, others are rebuilding their lives after failed businesses or divorces, and still others are surviving natural disasters or struggling to keep their children on track. And some haven’t made it—we have sadly lost another class member, Retired Federal Judge Patricia (Patti) Minaldi who passed away in December. Patti earned her law degree from Tulane University before serving as an assistant district attorney in New Orleans and in Calcasieu. She served as a judge in the 14th Judicial District Court from 1996 to 2003 before being appointed by President George W. Bush in 2003 as a federal judge in the Western District of Louisiana, where she served until July 2017. So I salute all of us as we overcome the challenging times and losses and also hail our exciting successes and important milestones.
Here’s a toast to the classmates who reported in on their new careers (how inspiring!):
Cindy Ryan graduated last May (age 60!) with an MA in mental health counseling – expressive arts therapy from Lesley University. Cindy is now working at a residence for clients with brain injuries. Cindy said that while many of our peers are retiring, she’s finding this new late-life part-time career to be very meaningful. She has enjoyed counseling many wonderful clients and interning at some amazing organizations including a farm and a cancer-care center. She noted that creative arts, which includes movement, drama, music, and play therapy, prove to be a beautiful means to restore vitality and enhance emotional well-being. Cindy has been finding a new relationship with the power of creativity, in addition to painting. She said that her children, Juliet and Jonah, have been launched for some time, living in California and Canada respectively; both great places to visit.
Freddi Wald has spent her career in marketing, education, and the arts—working in creative businesses and start up creative ventures at Time Warner, Amex, and Pace University as chief marketing officer. Since Wesleyan, she has been committed to the arts (always her passion)—working as a volunteer and on boards in theatre, arts in education, and arts advocacy and policy. After taking a year off to consult, most recently Freddi started her new position (as she noted, “yes, you CAN get a new paying job at age 60!”) as head of membership at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Freddi is living in NYC with her husband of 25 years, Roger Sherman (Yale ’78) and daughter Nora, a high school rising senior. Freddi caught up with Jacquie and a few others at the November Wes weekend for Sons and Daughters—a great introduction to the admissions process and to Wesleyan for our daughters. Freddi hosted an evening of Wes Women in NYC with help from the development office to gather alumni classes of women 1975-1985 for conversation, wine, and cheese. Among old and new friends were Janet Grillo, Elise Wagner ’78, Trustee Anne Goldrach ’79, Charlotte Van Doren ’84. Freddi is in touch with Wes alumni in NYC but would love to hear from anyone from class of 1980, as we head into our Reunion year!
Mark Zitter and his wife, Jessica, recently participated in a life-planning workshop for couples to figure out what they want to do when they grow up.Meantime, Mark has big news! Feb. 1 was both the 30-year anniversary of the founding of his company, Zitter Health Insights (formerly The Zitter Group), and the day he sold it. It’s the second company Mark has sold to a private equity firm and he states that there will be no more startups for him. Mark took his Wes roommate, Scott Hecker, and Scott’s wife, Gail, out to dinner in La Jolla in January to celebrate Scott’s 60th birthday. Scott is still in charge of chemistry at biotech startups, inventing the next antibiotic to save the world. Mark is in frequent touch with Julie Burstein, who is working on a podcast project with Mark’s wife.
Mark has plenty to do, he just doesn’t get paid for it. He still owns a part of his former company and will serve on the board, though he won’t have any operating responsibilities. His nonprofit, Zetema Project, a group of U.S. healthcare leaders from both parties and all major stakeholder groups, is very active and will consume plenty of his time. Mark is the facilitator for an exciting initiative aiming to reform California’s health care system, and he continues to produce health care programs at the Commonwealth Club. Mark is now unemployed for the first time since Stanford Business School, and says happily so.
Mark’s daughter, Tessa Zitter ’21, finished her junior year at Wes, way overcommitted and loving it. Tessa is planning to triple major, twirls fire, sings a capella, choreographs fights for plays and films, co-writes a TV series, does chemo-analysis on Wesleyan’s mummy, serves as a tour guide, is on the Chabad board, and more. Son Sol is starting his senior year at Brown majoring in computer science and doing tons of swing dancing. His high school senior, Sasha, and their mini-poodle, Jinx, last summer were on the first U.S. team in dog agility to win a ribbon in international competition.
Our class has been significant contributors to the arts including:
Michael Bell, playing banjo and mandolin with his “class-grass” band Graminy, released this year in June their most recent album: Live at the Brink, which can also be found on Spotify. Mike is the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in the Department of Community and the Environmental Sociology, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, Religious Studies, and the Agroecology Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His most recent book, City of the Good: Nature, Religion, and the Ancient Search for What Is Right, was published in 2018 by Princeton Press.
Vic Tredwell, musician and radio maven, has come back to one of his Wesleyan interests, radio—he was a regular on WESU. These days, Vic is the operations manager at the Belfast Community Radio, WBFY, in Belfast, Maine.
Lisa Olsson still lives in Dobbs Ferry and teaches cello, currently at Hudson River School of Music, and Trinity School in NYC, and performs in the Yonkers Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hudson String Quartet. In addition to her music career, she began writing poetry about five years ago and has been published several times. This year, she was a winner in the Poetry in the Pavement contest in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., where one of her poems is inscribed in the new poetry walk. She also has a poem in Lumina, the literary magazine published by Sarah Lawrence College. Lisa showed her art for the first time in April, at the Blue Door Art Center in Yonkers, in a show of art made from recycled, reused, repurposed materials. Lisa’s daughter (19) just finished freshman year at Rice University, and her son (29) has started his own business in gems and minerals in Brooklyn.
Mike O’Brien played on May 24 for the Wesleyan Class of 1979 Reunion at Eclectic with a whole bunch of Wes alumni. The gig was organized by Jack Freudenheim ’79, and featured the following alumni musicians: Charlie Berman ’76,Ann Beutler Millerick ’77, Banning Eyre ’79, Jack Freudenheim ’79, Wil Galison ’81, Chuck Gregory ’74, Tom Kovar ’76, Robert Levin ’81, Bill Levinson’79, Win Lockwood ’78, Beth Masterman ’79, Jim Melloan ’77, Matthew Penn ’80, Greg Shatan ’81, Tom Valtin ’79, and Dirck Westervelt ’82. Mike sang 70s and 80s classics—pretty much the same type of stuff he sang on campus with The Bees, back in the day. Mike stayed with Kevin Markowski ’79 in his lovely Middletown home. Mike and Dave Stern still get together every year to play Beatles songs at the annual benefit Mike organizes in Northampton, Mass., for a local music school; most recently they got together in March, when, among many other things, they played a tribute song for Mike’s brother, Greg, who died last summer. Greg was not a Wesleyan student, but he was a member of Mike’s college band and had a lot of friends on campus.
Alan Jacobs(managing director of Archer Entertainment Group) is working on a big film about the first men to reach the South Pole, which is moving at an appropriately glacial pace despite major assists from Vicki Cohen and Brooke Elkin ’91. During a brief stay in Tel Aviv, Alan met up with classmate Jeff Green of High Street fame. Jeff visits a few times a year to work at an ER in Ashdod and plays music in the evenings at a club called Jessica, where Alan heard him. While Alan was in Tel Aviv, Alan’s sons, Matan Green ’15 and Ron Jacobs ’16, were meeting in Los Angeles to plot their takeover of the music industry. The legacy continues.
Alan Jacobs and classmate Jeff Green (in white) May 27, 2019
Alan said, “The four of us met for dinner recently, which was more trippy than any drug I took at Wes.” Alan’s four have all left the nest, and two of them are off the payroll. Alan added, “I don’t know what all this talk is about turning 60. Don’t you remember that elementary school student on campus? That was me. Okay, I celebrated my 60th birthday in December with close friends and family at a lovely Italian restaurant in downtown Manhattan, then we all walked to a Twyla Tharp performance at the Joyce Theater. It was heaven. Joining was my 85-year-old mother, who in the fall of 1975 barged into my high school physics class with an envelope from Wesleyan (opened, of course) and a big smile on her face. She dropped me off in Middletown a year later and said wistfully: ‘You’re on your own now and I won’t be interfering any more. You can be any kind of doctor you want.’ Hey, there’s still time.”
Irene Chu is doing well—her graphic design business has been rewarding for the past 30 years or so, but is wondering if and what a next step might be. Between that and having both her kids in high school, Irene felt like she could do more traveling on her own this past year. High points were visiting Barcelona, Marrakech, seeing family in San Francisco AND reconnecting with Mark Zitter(after 10-15 years of doing nothing more than exchanging holiday cards at best). When she heard from me in June, she said that same week; she was starting a family road trip south to look at colleges. Her daughter is a rising senior. And yes, they’ll be stopping by Wesleyan! Irene also has done a few more grown-up things locally. She said that kind of by kismet, she has gone with Sarah Liepert ’87 and Ilana Newell ’94 to a few Mistral chamber music concerts, with Julie Scolnik ’78 as the artistic director! Talk about small world. She said it was SO great to catch up with Mark Zitter,compare notes, and reminisce about things like bowling with coconuts in Ft. Lauderdale over spring break. She said she can’t always remember what she did yesterday, but it’s amazing some of the things they could remember from 39 years ago.
Keith Sklar is currently showing his art in Suffering From Realness, a major group exhibition, and as he noted, curated by the extraordinary Denise Markonish at Mass MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art). After years in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York, Keith has been living in Chicago since 2012. He said he had the miraculous fortune to meet his wife, Katie, in Chicago and they’re the proud parents of Nora, their 4-year-old daughter. Daily, Keith is happily shocked and wildly grateful that he is a fairly new parent at this point in life. Keith’s Mass MoCA show opened to the public on April 13 (he said the opening came and went fantastically) and will be on view through February 2020.
Keith’s artwork on display in “Suffering From Realness”
Keith continues to work as an artist and educator. After decades of an independent artist practice supplemented by grad and undergrad adjunct work, Keith teaches art at a private school. He added that in 2014, he was awarded a Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency Fellowship. Fellows don’t apply, they’re selected, and Keith was lucky enough to live and work with several other artists, writers and musicians for five weeks in the ecological paradise of the late artist’s studio complex in Captiva, Florida. Keith finished by saying it’s always a pleasure reading about the paths people have taken since our Wesleyan experience so many years ago.
Our class is pretty active in the international arena as well:
David Claman, along with his wife, Sunita, is coming to the end of another long stay in India. He has been on sabbatical from Lehman College-CUNY this year where he is an associate professor of music. David received a Fulbright-Nehru grant to go to Delhi and has been teaching at Delhi University’s Faculty of Fine Arts and Music since September. David is composing and collaborating with some excellent young Indian classical musicians and has also been studying the sarod, an amazing stringed instrument used mainly in Hindustani music that he’s wanted to learn to play for 25 years. He says it’s been great and the time has passed too quickly, but they are also looking forward to being back in New York City.
Andrew McKenna reported across the table that he would be on another expedition in August sponsored by National Geographic, continuing the search for Amelia Earhart on the South Pacific island of Nikumaroro, again with forensic dogs. Look for a potential National Geographic TV release this fall.
In June, Wendy Davis caught up with Peter Eisenhardt at a local pub the same week he was jetting off to Sydney, Australia, where, after 20 years of residence, she had lots of local knowledge to share. Wendy said as a late bloomer, she is currently waiting the result of several “mentorship” grants for disabled applicants (noting, one has to play to ones’ strengths). With a professional mentors’ sage advice, she hopes to improve and publish the manuscript of her recovery from a 2007 massive stroke and terminal cancer diagnosis. Wendy and her husband John relocated to Greenwich, London, from Sydney three years ago. They are returning to Australia in June for a couple months. They are back in the UK in September for their daughters’ graduation from University College London. Then they’ll travel across Europe until Christmas, which they will celebrate in America for the first time in decades. The last time Peter and Wendy met was in November; they had the last turkey burgers left after Thanksgiving celebrations—for a little taste of “home.”
James Lynch, working with the UN Refugee Agency, was out of town when I sent out the request for submissions, but in his automated response he includes a thought provoking quote: “Every year, refugees walk over two billion km to safety. Please join our solidarity movement to honour their resilience: stepwithrefugees.org.”
Scott Phillips, back in New York after working in London, says it’s a short bike ride to work for him, as he still works for Société Générale (23 years and going strong). Scott says that he and his wife Crystal are doing well—their fourth and youngest child is graduating University of Denver in June so they headed there with the whole family to celebrate the “last” graduation. Crystal and Scott are enjoying living on the upper West Side of NYC, which is close to two giant parks and all the entertainment and food a body can need. They don’t have any grandchildren but they see their grand children plenty and love that.
And a few classmates wrote in about their 30-plus year anniversaries—Congratulations!:
Gary Gilyard and his wife just celebrated their 35th anniversary in Paris. They have a grandson and another grandchild due in late October. Gary is planning on attending our 40th Reunion and says, hopefully many others will as well.
Will Rowe and his wife Teresa Kosciuk-Rowe ’81 are approaching their 29th year living in Annandale, Va. June marks 35 years since their wedding (they had 18 Wesleyan classmates with them that day in Meriden, Conn.). Will plans to be at our 40th Reunion.
This year Jennifer Boylan and her wife, Deirdre Finney Boylan ’82, celebrate their 31st wedding anniversary—12 as husband and wife, 19 as wife and wife. Their children are now in grad school and thriving. In 2019, after almost 30 years as a professional writer, Jennifer finally got a piece published in the New Yorker—“What ‘Peanuts’ Taught Me About Queer Identity,” (The comic strip’s lessons about unrequited love and self-acceptance.) Jennifer added that it was very cool, although she preferred her original title, “You’re Weird, Sir.”
Jenniferis in her fifth year as Anna Quindlen Writer in Residence and Professor of English at Barnard College of Columbia University. This has Jennifer in New York from January to May each year, after which she returns to her home in Belgrade Lakes, Maine, where she continues to live with Deirdre. Her writing life continues too: she writes a column for the op/ed page of the New York Timesevery other Wednesday. Last year Jennifer published a novel, her first for adults since 1999, Long Black Veil. And next year, 2020 will see a new memoir, which is a kind of memoir of masculinity, centered around the seven dogs she owned during seven phases of her life pre-transition. The title is: GOOD BOY: A Life in Seven Dogs. Jennifer is already thinking about our 2020 Reunion and hope everyone is doing okay. She is sending love to all her classmates in Wesleyan 1980.
Okay, amazing graduating class of 1980—Freddi Wald, Jacquie McKenna, and Kim Selby have committed to work on our 40th Reunion and they welcome fellow ’80 alums to join in the planning. Please let Jacquie know if you’re interested in joining our reunion committee or the Class of 1980 contact at Wesleyan, Kate Lynch ’82. Kate’s contact info: klynch@wesleyan.edu 860/685-5992.Kim suggested that all those who already are planning to come, think about the roommates, hallmates and others you may like to see in May 2020, contact those folks and start building a collection of groups who want to reunite!
Hi all. Diane LaPointe here. Gary Breitbord, after many years of valiant service as our co-class secretary, has graciously passed the baton to me. Thanks for all of your hard work over the years on this, Gary!
As I write these notes, it is a beautiful late May day. Our 40th class Reunion was last weekend, and what a great weekend it was. Weather was picture perfect, and a record breaking 108 of us returned to campus. If you were unable to attend, you were missed.
Jack Freudenheim was instrumental (no pun intended) in organizing a reunion Eclectic party. He recapped: “We had a blast organizing a reunion band made up of as many alumni from the class of 1979 (give or take 10 years) as we could get to commit. People came from as far as Seattle and South Florida, with rehearsals in the spring in Katonah and Middletown for those who could attend, and the rest being organized online. We named the band The Fossils of the Moon in tribute to our beloved dining hall, home to so many concerts we all loved and the fossils that adorned the walls upstairs. Thanks to all who cheered us on; we had a great time playing for you! The following people played or sang: Charlie Berman ’76,Ann Beutler Millerick ’77, Banning Eyre, Jack Freudenheim, Wil Galison ’81, Chuck Gregory ’74, Tom Kovar ’76, Robert Levin ’81, Bill Levinson, Win Lockwood ’78, Beth Masterman, Jim Melloan ’77, Mike O’Brien ’80, Matthew Penn ’80, Greg Shatan ’81, Tom Valtin, and Dirck Westervelt ’82.
The weekend included some great Weseminars including a well-attended session with terrific and extraordinarily accomplished panelists from our class, Laura Walker and Jim Friedlich. A shoutout to Rachel Christmas Derrick and Ann Schirrmeister Goldrach who compiled a photo montage slide show and accompanying sound track, respectively, for our class dinner. A great backdrop for our dinner conversation.
I think Seta Nazarian recapped Reunion best: “The proof that Wesleyan is unique lies in its people and the deep connection we share. That was proven this weekend. We never stopped loving each other; we only stopped seeing each other every day . . . ”
In other news, Deb Pearson-Woodhouse and John Woodhouse write: “Our son, John Pearson Woodhouse ’19, graduated from Wesleyan with a B.A. in math (major) and quantitative analysis (minor). We spent two full days packing up four years’ worth of accumulated items. We went on to enjoy the fabulous 40th Reunion (highlight: getting most of our dinner coop together at the dinner) and then of course seeing JP graduate on Sunday. It was a whirlwind weekend—but a great one.”
Jodi Daynard sent along the following: “I’d like to share that my family is well, and exciting things are happening: We just bought a cabin in Round Pond, Maine. My son, Alex, recently got his PhD in solar materials science from MIT and moved to California, where he’ll be working to save the world. Finally, my fourth novel, A Transcontinental Affair, is coming out Nov. 1, and it’s available for pre-order on Amazon. According to my publisher, it’s ‘A sweeping tale of adventure and danger, innovation and corruption, rivalry and romance on America’s first transcontinental train trip.’ Would love to hear from fellow Wesleyanites—you can write me via my author page on FB.”
I caught up with David Kendall at Reunion, and he is executive producing a sitcom for Netflix, which is starting production in July. It’s entitled The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia. He continues to live in Santa Monica, the proud dad of a 24-year-old daughter and 17 -year old twins (son and daughter).
Had a nice long conversation with Carol Churgin over dinner. She is making a difference in people’s lives (my words not hers) by working at a nonprofit in mental health and substance abuse, running a parenting workshop in her community, and providing a room in her home to a Rwandan refugee seeking political asylum. You inspire us, Carol!
Martha Bush wrote in to share the following: “After 25 years at SIGMA Marketing, a marketing analytics and martech firm in Rochester, N.Y., the last couple as oresident, I’ve jumped into the nonprofit world feet first. I’ve joined Foodlink, our regional food bank, as chief marketing officer. An amazing place with a mission to end hunger and build a healthier community. Rochester sadly has one of the highest childhood poverty rates in the country. I figure at our age it’s time to supercharge our pay-it-forward efforts!”
Jono Cobb updates us that he and his wife Suzzanne are looking forward to spending the summer at their Chappaquiddick house. He’s hoping to cross paths there with Banning Eyre during his annual family vacation.
Beth Masterman sent along a nice note: “I would like to express my heartfelt affection and appreciation for classmates who returned to our 40th Reunion. It was so worthwhile and so much fun! On the personal front, my daughter Amanda ’08 is expecting a baby in July, and as of January 2020, all of my three children will be married. My coaching business continues to grow, and I love it. Currently I serve as VP of events and logistics on the board of the International Coach Federation of New England. Through the ICFNE, I continue to learn, refine my skills, and meet great people.” She has lobbed a challenge for our 45th Reunion involving ukuleles. Space is limited here. More on this next issue.
Banning Eyre updates us on Afropop. “Afropop Worldwide is a Peabody Award-winning public radio series, launched by Banning and Sean Barlow in 1988. For the past 30-plus years, Sean, Banning, and their colleagues have been making field trips to Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Middle East recording and collecting music, interviewing artists, and shooting countless photographs and videos for the radio program and the website afropop.org. This summer, Afropop is moving this archive out of Brooklyn and up to Middletown where Sean and Banning now live. The idea is to organize and inventory all the media and begin digitizing the most at-risk materials. It’s a big step in a long process! Afropop has recently launched a GoFundMe campaign to underwrite this move and the early stages of protecting the archive.” Sounds awesome to me!
And finally, on a sad note, Casey Blake ’78 writes: “It is my sad duty to report that my friend and Wesleyan classmate, Karl Arnason, passed away in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on May 12 after a long illness. Karl majored in economics at Wesleyan and later took an MBA at the University of Albany. In addition to holding positions as a project analyst for the New York Banking Department and the State Department of Transportation, he had a significant career in cycling. He was New York State cycling champion in 1982 and was then named to the national team the same year. He is survived by his wife Donna Behen and their three children, Thomas, Elisabeth, and Daniel, as well as other relatives.” See his complete obituary. He clearly exemplified what we all garnered from our Wesleyan experience by being committed to leaving his mark while on this earth by affecting the lives of others. Our condolences go out to his family.
As I write this, I (Diane) am entering my final week of work, having announced my planned early June retirement two month ago. I am looking forward to becoming more tangibly engaged in nonprofits that align with missions that are most important to my husband and me. Now is the time to truly embrace the ethos of Wesleyan—giving back and making a difference. I am looking forward to it. We will be splitting our time between our homes in California and New York and seeing more of our two children who live on opposite coasts.
Please send us news for our next issue. We are part of a wonderful community as Seta put it so eloquently above. We should never forget that.
PepPep Bachman uses her operatic experience to teach presentation skills, specifically to female executives in the U.S. and Europe. As such she finds herself commuting between two very nice spots—San Francisco/Portland and the Austrian Alps.
Geoff Ginsburg is at Duke Medical School as director of the Center for Applied Genomics and Precision Medicine, and also runs a nonprofit company, Global Genomic Medicine Collaborative, as well as two enterprises which he founded, Predigen and MeTree&You. “Keeping busy, enjoying the North Carolina beaches except for Hurricane Florence. Best wishes to classmates.”
Lucy Mize travels worldwide in her work for USAID, adding Finland, Burma, and China this year to her log, additionally getting in some recreational travel when accompanying her husband Tim in his work with the World Bank. Stateside, she splits time between Vermont and the D.C. region. When in the latter, Lucy follows the MLB Nationals intensively with Bill Tabor, and reports she had nice visits there from Alicia Springer ’79 and Kathy Mintz.
David Ocean is executive vice president of sales for the Four Seasons Residences, in Surf Side, Fla.
Steven Peretz
Steven Peretz practices intellectual property law in Miami, where he both grew up and eventually co-founded his legal firm 10 years ago. His daughter Sarah works as a social media influencer in Los Angeles (“I have found that following her on Instagram is the best way to know what she is doing”); son Jonathan attends college in South Florida. Steven’s passion is flying. He has logged approximately 2,000 flight hours, particularly enjoying trips to the Florida Keys and the Bahamas.
Kurt Schwartz has retired from a long career in public service for the state of Massachusetts—as a police officer, EMT, state criminal prosecutor, the cabinet undersecretary, the homeland security adviser, and, finally, the emergency management director, during the past 40 years. He plans to do some homeland security and international disaster consulting, but has been “transitioning into retirement pretty easily,” enjoying travel and the freedom from the call, preparation, and response to “disasters and emergencies,” and is enjoying his newfound time with his wife, Susan, and their two kids (ages 25 and 29) who live nearby.
Jon Spector and his wife, Wendy, are happy in Woodstock, Vt., to where they moved from Boston four years ago. Jon stepped down from his CEO position at the Conference Board last year, for which he still provides some advising, and Wendy works part-time for the Sharon Academy. Their four boys “are doing well . . . one married, one engaged, all employed, only one off the cell phone plan.” They’re soon to equip their 200-year-old house with new windows and solar panels, “which is what passes for excitement in Vermont these days.”
Lynn Thomas went on a terrific trip to Morocco this past February with her daughter Carolyn Grace Kimberley Helaine Thomas (“…a royal name as she is royal to us!”), who is excitedly heading off to Ithaca College this year. Lynn stays busy with her consulting firm, which focuses on training, coaching, and working with companies to learn and integrate emotional intelligence (“responsible for 80 percent of our personal and professional success”) into their working culture.
James Washington and his wife, MaryLu, are into their first year of empty-nesthood. Jim is director of admissions for strategic initiatives at Dartmouth. He continues publishing poetry—in the digital Bloodroot Literary Magazine—and is studying for his second master’s degree, in creative writing, in Dartmouth’s Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program.
Gary Friedmann remains active in environmental and energy issues in his state of Maine, recently leading a coalition of statewide organizations to a State House meeting with the governor and other state officials regarding climate change action; this resulted in legislative passage of a bill seeking to make Maine energy-independent, as a net exporter of renewable energy, by 2030.
Thanks to all who wrote in regarding what is happening in their lives. It is great to read that so many folks are gathering with fellow classmates. Due to the quantity of updates, some will appear in our next issue.
Don Citak attended a mini class reunion in Manhattan accompanied by Don Lowery, Jeff Shames, Tom Roberts, Vanessa Burgess, and Dave Thomas. Everyone enjoyed drinks and dinner, catching up with one another. Don’s stories of attending Robert Kraft’s Seders and pictures of himself with Bon Jovi were among the highlights, as were Tom’s stories about his visits to college campuses, and Jeff’s stories about bouncing back and forth between Boston and New York to juggle his many commitments. Don C. just grinned as he showed pictures of his two grandchildren. There is nothing better!
Don Spencer wrote of undergoing treatment for appendiceal cancer for the past 10 months. First chemo, then major surgeries. It was a serious ordeal, but he is hopefully through the worst of it. Don wants to extend major thanks to the many family and friends, including Wes alumni, who supported him. Our thoughts and prayers are with you in your recovery.
John Fink may be onto a new job in Hawaii. His current e-mail is: johnfink808@gmail.com.
First-time contributor Gary Altman’s daughter, Jill, was married in December in Layfette, La., to her wife, Kate. Son Matthew and his wife had their first child, his first grandchild, Sara Annie. His law firm, Altman & Associates, continues to grow with no plans on slowing down. Gary was honored at a gala for Hope Connections for Cancer, a local charity that provides free cancer support groups to patients and families. Gary and wife Liz have been married for 15 years and live in an historic Potomac, Md., house, where they make gourmet pizza in a wood-burning pizza oven.
Jane Goldenring has been busy traveling in many directions to Charlotte to see Janet Malkemes, who is doing great, then heading to Wesleyan to teach a two-day class for the graduating film students, including a visit with Kate Seeger, then to NYC, where she caught up with Jane Eisner. Laraine Balk Hope came to meet Jane from D.C. The two went to see the new production of Oklahoma and hung out at the Met for good measure.
Jeff Gray celebrated his 40th wedding anniversary on Cape Cod with a crowd, including the Honorable Judge Bob Nastri and wife Kathleen, Dave Thomas with companion Gretchen Dowling, Tim O’Brien ’81 and wife Linda, Gary Breitbord ’79 and wife Colleen, and Mr. Kenneth J. Langley, Esq., who retired at the end of January of this year after many years of service as an attorney for the state of Massachusetts. Speaking of retirement, Jeff hung it up last June. Thirty-nine years in mortgage banking was apparently enough.
Felice Burstein and John Roxby have both retired and sold their house in Pennsylvania. They are planning to move to Concord, N.H., to be closer to kids and grandkids. The new home won’t be ready for a year, so they are taking advantage of a lack of home ownership to live “untethered.”
Jonathan Gertler’s family is doing great. His 15-month-old granddaughter, Jhie Hong Gertler, is a delight and his adult children are all thriving.
Linda Palmer retired from the law and now works at the Animal Rescue League of Boston. Her husband is an environmental advocate; her children live nearby in the Boston area.
Lisa Reitano was moving her mom and came across this gem from her dad, who was a CPA and kept track of every penny. He totaled up what Lisa’s Wesleyan education cost for all four years. The grand total of tuition, room and board, books, and phone calls was $21,494.34. As anyone who still has a kid in college knows, it is unbelievable.
Shalom Staub wrote that after 38 years in Harrisburg, Pa., it was time for a change. He has moved with his wife to Los Angeles, taking a new job as director of UCLA’s Center for Community Learning. He’s loving it! Still building new social networks though, so he’d love to connect to LA-based Wesleyan alumni.
Peter Guenther noted that there was recently a reception on campus for his old lacrosse coach, Terry Jackson. It was held at President Michael Roth’s [’78] home and hosted by Athletic Director Mike Whalen ’83 and Bill Belichick ’75. Among the many old lacrosse players who came out were some former teammates: Andy Darpino, Pat McQullan ’75, Mike Sanfilippo ’75, Carl Taylor ’78, Charlie Cocores ’74, Pete McArdle ’76, and Mark Fredland ’74.
Nice pithy note from Mary Jo Wade: “Downsizing. Less work (in theory). Grandchildren. Life is good for her and Jack (Gray).”
News from classmates covers the range of human experience and emotions, and this word-limited column cannot do justice to them. Perhaps it may cause some of us to reconnect with old friends.
In early April, Susan Avitzour lost Daniel, her husband of 42 years. Daniel held a PhD in pure mathematics from UC Berkeley, worked all his life as an inventor-engineer, and was a devoted husband and father. Susan is grateful to her seven children, friends, and religious community for support during this difficult time.
In June, Barbara Birney will help celebrate the 70th wedding anniversary of her parents Margaret and Robert Birney ’50. Her brother Bob ’81 also plans to attend.
Rob Buccino plans to spend three weeks this summer in France following the women’s world cup soccer tournament and bicycling along the Rhone. He is enjoying semi-retirement fully.
Betsy Eisenmann, a retired RN, exercises regularly and does volunteer work, including at her church’s thrift shop.
Ron Epstein found the memorial for Jon Barlow to be a wonderful opportunity to see classmates influenced by his work. Ron’s daughter is becoming a physician, and he continues to find purpose in palliative care and in the mindful-practice training he does for physicians.
Karen Gervasoni’s daughter is graduating high school and heading to Champlain College to major in film. Karen is downsizing, staying in Kennebunk, and wishes everyone well.
Joellyn Gray’s son Malcom’s movie 21 Bridges opens in late September. It is named for the 21 access bridges out of Manhattan, stars Chadwick Bozeman and is a psychological thriller.
Peter Hansen and his wife, Gail. live in DC and are consulting part-time. They regularly visit their granddaughter in NYC and daughter in Seattle and this spring traveled to Greece.
Byron Haskins just returned from Dublin, Ireland, where he attended the Project Management Institute Leadership Meeting. At the same time, his son Stephen was giving a TED-style talk at a medical conference in Belfast. Check out Byron’s music video hobby on YouTube.
Polly Hays retired from a 34-year career with the U.S. government, mostly with the Forest Service in water resource management. During her last years of work, she also spent much time helping her elderly parents to the end of life. She finds herself enjoying leisurely days at home with friends and family with time to pursue new interests.
Jim Johnson, to celebrate the 15th year of his company BikeTours.com and his 65th birthday, threw a free, full-day Bluegrass festival for his community which attracted 2,000 people and featured a farmers’ market and some of the region’s top bands. Jim recently started an organization called Chattanoogans for Responsible Development and has earned himself the names “community activist” and “flaming urbanist jackal.”
Sad to report that, on March 31, Nancy Kathan passed away. After Wesleyan, Nancy earned a fine arts degree from Yale. She was a leader in women’s issues and the arts and for the past 30 years, worked in Philadelphia with several theatre and film organizations.
Thomas Kovar plans to work another five years at the VA and is still doing plenty of music. In late May he performed at Eclectic for the ’79 Reunion.
Chris Mahoney and his wife, Joan, are on their second trip to Israel with plans to see the Galilee, the Golan, Jerusalem, the Negev, Eilat, Aqaba, and Petra.
Dave Eckert retired last year and moved back to Cincinnati. He recently had a hip replacement, his recovery is going great, and he hopes to be back on the tennis courts by mid-summer.
Jaimee Mirsky and her husband Jay retired last summer and are now grandparents to Jordan via their older daughter Joanna.
Nat Needle met for dinner with both of his sons in Worcester, Mass., and gave his first-ever piano recital for his students and their families and guests.
Debra Neuman’s son Josh will receive his master’s in agronomy at Oregon State in June. Debra enjoys her job as the executive director of a Catholic retreat center with a small addiction recovery residence for young men.
Jack O’Donnell’s daughter Maggie ’19 graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wes this May with a near perfect GPA. Congratulations!
Pam Swing ’75 and Marty Plotkin’s son, Ben, is getting married this fall. Pam is a resident scholar at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center and co-authored a play about the suffrage movement. Marty is a software development VP at Oracle. He plays the violin and is deeply involved in chamber music.
Gerry Rau received excellent medical care at modest cost from Taiwan’s socialized health care system. Gerry’s authored a textbook for engineering and science students that will be published in August.
Steve Smith and his wife Jean are retiring this summer and celebrating with a long, relaxing cruise.
Craig Tighe and his wife Ann live in San Mateo. Craig is a partner in the Silicon Valley office of DLA Piper where he works with technology startups. Ann is retired from an environmental nonprofit.
Mike Lehman, professor of biological sciences, joined Kent State University as the inaugural director of their new Brain Health Research Institute (kent.edu/brainhealth), joining Eric Mintz ’90 and Merri Rosen ’90, both key members of the new institute and its executive committee. “Great example,” Mike says, “of how Wesleyan alumni come together to innovate and lead in science and higher ed!”
Larry Greenberg writes from Martha’s Vineyard that he and his wife Debbie are finally grandparents, to Emelia, the first child of their eldest son Dan and wife Kait. Youngest son Stephen will marry in late June after producing the Stanley Cup Finals between the Bruins and Blue Jays. Daughter Sarah is traveling the world setting up and managing conference venues. Larry continues to practice orthopedic and sports physical therapy, with Debbie practicing occupational hand therapy in their clinic. Retirement is still a few years away.
Ed Van Voorhees kept his news short and sweet: “New grandchild, Jasper.”
Martha Meade ’76 and Steven Miller celebrated the anniversary of their son Leland’s Wes graduation. He got a degree in film (and the 2018 prize for Best Screenplay). They drove from LA to graduation via the southern route. The return trip with Leland and his gear was more complicated because the gear left no room in the car for passengers. Steve flew west with Leland’s gargantuan suitcase, while Martha and Leland drove to Minneapolis, where they met Steve to take the second leg of the trip, and Martha flew back to LA. “Stops included visits with Brad Kosiba and Tom Wheeler, each in their respective native habitats, as well as seeing relatives we’d never met before, several national parks, and local color like the UFO Museum in Roswell, N.M., and the moose we almost crashed into on a dark mountain road in Idaho.” Now life goes on, Martha is making fabulous paintings, and Leland went to China for six months to work on a film production.
Nancy Luberoff and her husband, Bruce, are enjoying semi-retirement, living on a lake in Chapel Hill, N.C. The best part is hanging out with their two baby grandchildren, one of whom moved to Berlin in July with his parents. Nancy inquires, “Any Berlin connections out there?”
Bruce “BB” Weinraub writes, “As the great musician Jesse Winchester once sang, ‘Do it, do it until you can’t do it no more’ and as our class notes march unrelentingly towards the front, I will now. going forward, write a note for every alumni magazine until I can’t do it no more. In the spring of 1973 while living on Hewitt 9, Jay Abramowitz ’76, introduced me to the record Gumbo by Dr. John (Rolling Stone Magazine’s 402 out of the greatest 500 albums). That record has had a profound influence on my musical life. As Dr. John just passed, I am motivated to thank Jay for that and to remember some of the musical greats that I saw at Wesleyan—The Byrds, Bill Monroe, Roosevelt Sykes, Mance Lipscomb, McCoy Tyner, John McLaughlin, Commander Cody, Bonnie Raitt, The Oso Family, Orleans, Weather Report, Pure Prairie League, and probably many more.” Does bring back memories of McConaughy and the hockey rink.
Paul Gionfriddo wrote, “I was pleased to give Roger Weisberg the Mental Health America’s 2019 media award at our annual national conference last week in D.C. for his documentary Broken Places, which will air nationally on PBS in 2020.”
Paul Gionfriddo and Roger Weisberg
A note from Brian Steinbach pointed me to a New York Times story about David Garrow’s article on Martin Luther King. Apparently, it stirred up quite the controversy in historical and civil rights circles.
Risa Korn provides me with a home-away-from-home almost every time I get to Boston, much to my delight. She is “bubbe” to two grandchildren, Arya and Theo, who live nearby with their parents David (Risa’s oldest) and Laura in the Boston suburbs. Her daughter Melanie, living in Brooklyn, is responsible for investor relations at American Express, and son Sam is completing his residency in Denver. Most recent news was Risa’s plan for a long weekend in NYC when Jane Hutchins comes down from Vancouver Island.
Bob and I were thrilled to witness our daughter Julia Daniel graduating with her master’s in computer science from Stanford last week. Now she’s off to Europe to visit friends and for a two-week teaching gig in Prague. Lucky us, we’re invited to celebrate her 25th birthday in Prague, and then we’ll travel en famille to Vienna, Strasbourg, and Paris. The only thing better would be if her brother Ethan could come too, but he’ll be deep in his penultimate semester of college.
Keep your news coming. It gets way too quiet between columns.
Cynthia M. Ulman | cmu.home@cmugroup.com 860 Marin Drive, Mill Valley, CA 94941-3955
Pat Mulcahy’s notes on our 45th Reunion: “Here’s a key to the effectiveness and great good spirits of our reunion: right after our panel, What’s Next, for which Claudia Catania, Harold Sogard, Lloyd Komesar and Bill Pearson joined me to discuss the so-called ‘retirement years,’ I got a text from a highly placed publisher I know at Random House. She was in the next room at another seminar put on by her class, there for their 40th. The laughter from our end could be heard through the wall.
“‘Sounds like you’re having so much fun!’ she said. ‘Can you meet me for coffee?’
“Then at our women’s group gathering, we were joined by a member of the class of 1979, who wanted to meet the women who’d paved the way for co-ed education at Wes. What she heard was honest and sometimes a little raw: there were bumps in the road as women arrived on a previously all-male campus. Many thanks to Sharon Purdie and Nancy Stack for organizing what is always a very worthwhile and touching session.
“Here’s my take overall: our class, which broke Reunion attendance records, is united by a dose of adversity, a commitment to social justice, public service, the arts, and to each other. Throw in a soupcon of goofiness.
“As Lloyd put it in a thank-you to Wes’s Kate Quigley Lynch ’82, P’17, ’19 for her efforts, “We are not an easy class to wrangle.” But we show up for each other and for the school—which has tremendous value. One of our number is even running for president. He, too, has our support and enthusiastic backing, because his values are our values.
“A shout-out to my old roomie Angela DiFranco Platt, there for her first Reunion ever. The students who checked us in were thrilled to see former roommates reuniting. So, what if she told everyone that I used to study in the shower? We had a blast.”
Pam van der Meulen shares, “I had a wonderful time at Reunion, and I think everyone else did as well. It was great to reconnect with old friends, and I feel like many of us are pursuing new friendships with classmates we never knew. I hope to see more NYC alumni in the future. And I was particularly happy to see Lindsay Wilson again, after 20 years! I was not able to make it to Flagstaff after Randy died last summer, so I was glad she made it to our 45th. And the two of us had a great time sightseeing in NYC after Reunion.”
Jan Eliasberg exclaims, “What a magnificent weekend, attending the class Reunion dinner and, the next day, my daughter’s graduation, Sariel Friedman ’19!
“Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see everyone, but I hugged and caught up with the irrepressible Lloyd Komesar, Bill Pearson, Claudia Catania, Ellen Driscoll, Jon Eddison, Bill Burton and our (perhaps) future President Hickenlooper and his lovely wife.
“My big news, along with my daughter’s graduation, is that I completed a novel which sold in a bidding war to Little Brown. It’s going to be their lead title for spring 2020. I called it Heart of the Atom; Little Brown seems to think that science will ‘scare readers away.’ It is titled Hannah’s War.
“They’re sending me on a major book tour so, if you have a great relationship with your local, indie bookstore, please let me know so I can visit and sign books.”
Janet Biehl‘s biography of her late partner, the social-ecological theorist Murray Bookchin, was published by Oxford University Press in 2015. Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin has since been translated into Spanish and French. Some 15 years ago Bookchin’s own writings, in Turkish translation, influenced the Kurdish freedom movement to adopt a new paradigm seeking democracy, anti-hierarchy, and ecology. As a result, Janet has been involved with that movement since 2011. She has translated several books about the Kurdish struggle from German into English (published by Pluto Press), including the three-volume autobiography of the founder of the Kurdish revolutionary women’s movement, Sakine Cansiz. Janet also translated into English Revolution in Rojava in 2016, which is about the gender-equal, democratic revolution that has been under way in northeastern Syria since 2012. She has just returned from her third visit to that area (April-May 2019) and is currently at work writing and drawing a graphic novel about her journey.
Mike Heard reports: “I am in my 12th year of doing volunteer work for the Los Padres National Forest near Big Sur, Calif., and it has finally dawned on me that I retired long ago but did not notice at the time. I’m preparing for another fire season, hoping to get in good enough shape to be able to pick up a little bit of money working as a casual hire on the inevitable wildfires. It was a real pleasure to reconnect with many of you whom I knew (and others that I didn’t) at the Reunion. Kudos to the Reunion committee for doing a bang-up job.”
Wayne Forrest reports, “I still work at American Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and recently became chairman of the American Indonesian Cultural and Educational Foundation. Through that organization I helped arrange for the Sultan of Yogyakarta to visit Wesleyan in November 2018. The highlight for me is that I joined his gamelan group in their performance in NYC and played both gamelan and tuba. There are special pieces in the repertoire that use Western brass and percussion. I still play tuba in and around NYC and so this coming together of my two worlds was very special. Retirement still seems a ways down the road; I am stilling having fun helping to broker good relations between the U.S. and Indonesia.”
Bruce Duncan’s big news is that as of June 29 he’ll be retired from Fitchburg State University. Since he has not put in enough time, he doesn’t qualify as Professor Emeritus. Instead he’ll be the Former Professor of Physics or the Erstwhile Professor of Physics or the Late Professor of Physics.
Doug Cole had lunch with Lloyd Komesar in Ol’ Pasadena during a visit to his daughter’s and her family (including two of six grandchildren). It was fun to catch up after all these years: neither had changed much. Lloyd was wearing a Grateful Dead tee shirt—Doug is listening to China Cat Sunflower / I know you rider, as he writes. They compared their heroics of intramural softball, etc. It was interesting to learn about Lloyd’s impressive career at Disney. We all know what he is up to now. Carolyn and Doug are deeply rooted in the Northwest; he expects to continue selling until 70; grandparenting is a joy. He just hopes the democracy and planet are still around for them.
Monique Witt reports, “My older son, Dev, breaks ground on the Soundworks building in Williamsburg, July 1, and has finished the new monitors for broad distribution this fall. My younger son, Ben, is touring again in Canada, and then the West Coast, followed by a European tour and a long stop to compose new material with friends in Croatia. He finished recording his third full release album, “The Nebula Project,” which is largely original materials for sextet format (Ben on accordion and piano with some of the finest young jazz musicians he knows) to be released early 2020. Steven and I are still working full-time.”
John McLucas will retire from the faculty of Towson University in June 2020.He has taught Italian and Latin there since 1984 and just finished a term as president of the Faculty Association.He recently completed the draft for his second novel, Spirit’s Tether, a sequel to his debut novel, Dialogues on the Beach(BrickHouse Books, Baltimore 2017).
Charlie Cocores has provided the link to his next build (Coco’s Constructores) in Puerto Rico in January of 2020 for the Fuller Center for Housing, which you can find here.
You’ve heard about our 45th Reunion and just how fantastic it was. Now, it’s time to start planning for our 50th! Save these dates: May 23–26, 2024. We’re going to spend the next few years trying to track down as many classmates as possible. Want to get involved? Come to Middletown for Homecoming and a Reunion planning meeting on Nov. 2 or contact Kate Quigley Lynch ’82, P’17, ’19 at klynch@wesleyan.edu or 860/685-5992.
