Class Notes | 1970s

Let’s start with in-person encounters with classmates. In July, I traveled to Santa Fe for a conference, and had lunch with Bruce Throne and Larry Weinberg. Both of them find living there to be close to idyllic. Larry retired from an active GI practice, but is consulting with the University of New Mexico family practice residency program in Santa Fe. His daughter, Leah ’08, and her husband, Scott Horowitz ’07, have teaching jobs at the University of Denver—in musicology and chemistry and biochemistry respectively, so Larry expects to spend more time in that other Mile High City in the future.

I attended Lloyd Komesar ’74’s Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, which was, if anything, more fun than last year. Steve Goldschmidt had attended all three festivals, and this year he managed to get co-worker Mike Arkin to come, too. Many, many attendees from other classes, particular ’74. Any Wes grads in the Northeast in late August should consider going. There really is not any way to have more fun. (And wait until you see the alumni reception they throw—THANK YOU, Paul DiSanto ’81, et al!)

Jane Kent Gionfriddo and her husband, Michael ’73, had their 40th wedding anniversary last summer! They moved to Middletown from Cambridge, Mass., to the house in which Michael grew up. Jane taught for 34 years at Boston College Law School and, with a co-author, published a first-year law student textbook, Legal Reasoning and Objective Writing: A Comprehensive Approach (Wolters Kluwer, 2016). In December, she retired from BCLS as a professor emerita. Their daughter, Catherine Gionfriddo ’03, was a film major and now is a freelance editor in NYC (catherinegionfriddo.com).

This, verbatim, from Steve Alpert: “Greetings from my Adlerhorst in Amsterdam. Aside from good earthy living in British Columbia, Reimar Schefold and I have just completed another book. The last one, Eyes of the Ancestors, was an award-winning book that Sir David Attenborough called the best book ever written on Indonesian art. The latest, Toys for the Souls, chronicles my friend’s remarkable journey and 50 years of study among the Sakuddei tribe of Siberut in the Mentawai Islands off the coast of West Sumatra. It is also a catalogue raisonné of their remarkable arts. Never a dull moment, I am working on another book dealing with artistic masterpieces from different Dayak tribes in Borneo. Anyone out there who is interested in the gamelan orchestra or Indonesian culture, please contact me. We are trying to bring the Sultan of Yogyakarta to Wes Tech.”

Dave Hagerty started his own business, Berkshire Leadership Partners in 2016, specializing in executive coaching and leadership development. He coaches in the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. Dave and his wife moved to their second home of some 23 years in Great Barrington, Mass., in the Berkshires. They have four grandchildren ranging in ages from 6 to 9.

Ron Ashkenas’ tribe continue to increase.  He added three new grandchildren (one set of twins) and a new son-in-law to the family in the past year. The wedding (the last, he says) took place on the beach in Crete on July 4. “Our daughter and her now-husband live in Australia, and this was a relatively central location.” On the work front, Ron is retired from his firm, but still very busy with both paid and pro bono consulting.  He is writing a handbook on leadership for the Harvard Business Review—for which he interviewed Michael Roth ’78, who provided some wonderful insights.

Steve Berman spent five days with Randy Mastrangelo ’73 and his family, including Alexandra ’98. Tropical Storm Jose hung out the whole time Steve was there, depriving him of the sunshine to which he has become accustomed, and keeping Jim Shepherd was marooned on Martha’s Vineyard. But Mike Kaloyanides and wife Sheila did make it up. Mike provided the music for the processional and recessional at Randy’s wedding in 1972, and they hadn’t seen each other since then! Both agreed it was like they had seen each other yesterday.

Finally, I am saddened to report the passing of Andy Thomas. Andy graduated from the University of Idaho, College of Law, and spent his entire career with Idaho Legal Aid Services, providing free legal services to low-income people in housing, family, public benefits, and senior law cases. Andy appeared before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and the Idaho Supreme Court.   He served in many community organizations, including the Idaho Region III Mental Health Advisory Board, the Idaho Housing Coalition, the Intermountain Fair Housing Council, and the Idaho Homeless Coalition. He served as president of the Third District Bar Association and was held in high esteem by his fellow attorneys in the Third District.  Andy was a mentor and great friend to his colleagues at Idaho Legal Aid, both in Caldwell and throughout ILAS, which has seven offices across the state. In some respects, Idaho Legal Aid was Andy’s family, and his colleagues loved him dearly and will miss him immensely.

Seth A. Davis | sethdavis@post.harvard.edu
213 Copper Square Drive, Bethel, CT 06801

Aloha and a big mea culpa. I did not seek news for this issue so I feel a little guilty. But wait! There is nothing stopping you guys and gals from e-mailing things to me at anytime. The magazine comes out three times a year, so if you think of something, or something special happens in your life, drop me a short note.

I did hear from Jeff Kraines and David Rabban about the passing of our classmate, Rick Schenk. He was an MD and went to Stanford after Wesleyan. Jeff made the comment “Looking at class notes is like marching around Foss Hill in the alumni parade. We get closer to the front!”

As I have said in the past when I have little or no news, you get to hear about my life. I spent the summer in New York, where, incidentally, there was no summer weather. I am working on a new business idea combining healthcare, lifestyles, and the Internet. Anybody interested in the idea, please contact me for more details.

I did manage to go to Oregon for the solar eclipse. For those of you not in totality you really missed an experience of a lifetime. I am hooked. I plan on going to South America in 2019 to see the one there. You just can’t imagine the scene. It’s no wonder in older days, murders, slayings, and overthrows happened when they occurred.

I have been intermittently on Kauai, which is definitely still home. Still love the peace, serenity and beauty of the place. The community is also very engaging. It is just a place I appreciate more after several months in hectic-driven New York City.

Family-wise, my eldest son is working in Silicon Valley in recruiting and human resources. He is married and has two sons, 1 and 2-1/2 years old. I am not “Grandpa,” as I tell myself I am too young for that moniker, so they call me Puna, which is Hawaiian and short for Punahele which means “my favorite.” Of course, I will be when they come often to visit me on Kauai. My other son just finished his residency in anesthesia in Houston and is doing a fellowship in pain. He is getting married in March. My daughter is with Four Seasons Beverly Hills in hospitality.

I was working full-time until April, now just consulting with some biotech companies and looking for some board of director positions or advisory board position in oncology. Any of you in biotech, think of me if you hear of openings.

I will end this discussion about me. I am enjoying my life and its many changes. Keeps me occupied and traveling around. Life is good. Hope all of you are happy and content. And I hope this will make more of you send me your information so you don’t have to read about me again. Aloha.

Neil J. Clendeninn | Cybermad@msn.com
PO Box 1005, Hanalei, HI 96714

Aloha, all. Thanks to those who responded to the (again) delayed Lyris message requesting news. Seems Lyris doesn’t play well with Yahoo or Firefox or something.

First to reply was Steve Ingraham. Steve was off to Nepal with wife Sheila: “We will do some very comfortable trekking in the hills of the Annapurnas, eventually going off grid to the little hill village where I lived as a Peace Corps volunteer. Sweeping changes in politics and lifestyles in Kathmandu and other urban areas, but what about way off-grid, up in the hills? I’m excited to go back, back, back to the future. Retirement makes this bucket list trip possible. Wishing you and all of your loyal readers the very best!” Hope it was a great trip.

Roger Mann, who lives in Florida, wrote: “Tessa and I were dead on-target for Hurricane Irma. All of our relatives implored us to obey the mandatory evacuation order. The phone calls, texts, and e-mails were non-stop. We live on the ground floor of a two-story building less than a mile from the gulf. We were told to expect a 12-15 foot storm surge. In fact, the eye did pass right over us. There was wind damage and downed trees everywhere, but the storm surge never came to our neighborhood. We lost electricity, phone, cell, wi-fi, air conditioning, and potable water for a week, but Irma did not harm us.” Very good news. I hope you evacuate next time, though, just to be sure.

O’ahu islander Bill Tam wrote: “Retired from managing the Hawaii State Water Commission. Hiking in New Zealand, Nakasendo trail in Japan, Glacier National Park, Jasper, and, next month, in southern China. Wrestling my yard into shape, but forgot we are 69 and need a more thoughtful pace. Spent July in Oxford researching and writing chapters on water and natural resource management. Attended concerts almost nightly. Blackwells, the pubs, and the countryside were wonderful. Good health is everything. Aloha.” Thanks, Bill. Traveling vicariously. “I was so much other then. I’m younger than that now.”

Speaking of trying to keep fit, Marcos Goodman, who holds his high school shot put record and the number two spot at Wes, is really “going for it.” Check out his video here. Says Marcos, “In the video, I walked 15 miles and did 60 pull-ups in each of two consecutive days, touring Manhattan workout parks. The next week, I did 100 pull-ups in one day. Maybe I should figure out a better hobby?” I have a lot of tall grass, invasive trees, and nasty vines that you could attack.

KNK brother Jerry Cerasale sent a note. “I’m fine here on Cape Cod. Jan and I are expecting our first granddaughter in November to add to our four grandsons. We love visiting them. I have to run for the Housing Authority in Eastham again, but with the anti-incumbent sentiment who knows. No matter what, I’ll still love retirement.” Good luck. If you have any spare time, see if you can stop the people who send spam texts to our phones. Mahalo.

Cap’n Shef—aka John Sheffield—has a new career “getting off the ground slowly.” 

I know what you mean; getting up isn’t as easy as it used to be. Seriously, he’s a yacht delivery captain. So far, he’s had “…one voyage this year from Houston (before Harvey) to New Orleans to Key West to Marsh Harbor, Bahamas. Grandson-raising is a great joy. Great 70th birthday party for 25 alumni of high school Class of 1965 in Cooperstown, N.Y., and frequent contact with other family members.”

Always good to hear from Steve Talbot, another one of the few of us it seems who is still working. Says Steve, “An article I wrote for KQED-TV’s website…Leave it to Beaver and the U.S. war in Vietnam…during our years at Wesleyan (here). I’m still in San Francisco, still married (Pippa Gordon), and still working for public television—these days as a producer for ITVS, the group that runs the PBS documentary series, Independent Lens. Right on, Steve.

Had a long note from Maurice Hakim (still very busy with the beverage business:  organic teas and lemonades for high-end stores) that I need to edit pretty seriously for length. (Sorry, Maurice.)  He and Carol bought an 18th-century cottage in Clinton, Conn., near the beach. They spend a long winter in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Maurice keeps in touch with Nancy and Jeremy Serwer in Woodstock, Conn. (they just acquired a second horse), and with Dave Geller who is still in Brookline, Mass., and took Maurice and Carol to Fenway recently.

Maurice also sees Charlie Farrow ’69 and Phil Dundas “who spends a few months in Westbrook when he and his wife are not in Abu Dhabi or Korea. Just last night we had dinner at his beachside house, along with Jack Frost and his wife Carol “Chip” Frost. Jack is a retired banker and spends nearly all of his time helping the Special Olympics and working towards improving government programs for children with disabilities.”

Thanks for all the news, Maurice.

I wish all of you well in the upcoming year.  It seems that between natural disasters and insanity in the world, “stay safe” is broadly appropriate, too, unfortunately.

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

KPBS in San Diego, Calif. named Anne Wilson a community hero for her work in affordable housing as both developer and advocate (read more). Anne also attended Wesleyan’s 185th Commencement to celebrate Eero Talo ’17 graduation.  Congratulations, Anne!

Matt Okun writes in that he has so many reasons to rejoice:”My daughters, Nina Okun Furia and Lia Okun, both live in NYC, and visited me on my recent trip to D.C. Lia is a licensed psychologist, and Nina is a personal assistant, pregnant with her second child. My brother’s (Steve Okun ’82) son (Alex Okun ’20) just completed his freshman year at WESU. My wife, Annie Wong, has three children from her former marriage and already has two grandchildren. So, by the time you read this, I should have a total of four grandkids! I continue to work for the Seattle Public Schools as a teacher trainer and administrator with a focus on social justice.  I love everything about Seattle, except for how far it is from the East Coast. Just saw the band U2 live, playing music from 30 years ago. I am in my 39th year as a teacher. What a long, strange trip it’s been! My message to all is: Savor each moment of life; they can be beautiful, sweet, challenging, but are most certainly fleeting.  All my love, Matt”

Carol Churgin is semi-retired. She left public education and just finished another master’s—in Social Work. So on to another chapter…  She’s very proud her son is a licensed acupuncturist and diplomate of oriental medicine. Anyone living in San Diego who needs an acupuncturist, feel free to contact Carol!

Since the presidential election, Ann Kaplan has been volunteering as a teach-in organizer with a group of psychologists called Duty to Warn. “This national group of psychologists aims to have the president removed from office under the 25th amendment.

“I spent New Year’s Eve on a dive trip with three friends. This summer, we are heading to the Lembeh strait in Indonesia to dive.  I have also become immersed in a yoga practice and will be heading to a villa in Nice for a week-long retreat. We’ll be practicing, dining, and drinking wine. I don’t do austere.

“My daughter is a personal trainer at Crunch gym and a performance artist, focusing on pole dancing and silks. She also played a slice of pizza and a vengeful, tutu-clad pig in a magnificent production at Bushwick’s House of Yes.“

Earlier this year, Jake Walles retired from the State Department after more than 35 years as a foreign service officer, including tours as U.S. Ambassador in Tunisia and Consul General in Jerusalem.  He’s now living in D.C. and looking forward to new adventures outside the government.”

After 34 years as Wesleyan’s sports info director, Brian Kattan accepted early retirement on October 1, 2015. “The last 19 months have been delightful and I highly recommend retirement to all ’79ers. For fun, I coach a middle-school boys basketball team and umpire high-school baseball. I still follow Cardinal athletics religiously and am enjoying all the team successes including Eudice Chong ’18’s third straight national tennis title and men’s lax making the NCAA semis in 2017. Go Cards!”

Julie Hacker just got back from her son Gabe’s RISD graduation complete with marching band and belly dancer. A week before she attended her step-grandson’s graduation from Westpoint complete with marching band but no belly dancers. Opposite ends of the spectrum, but couldn’t be more proud! She has been busy practicing architecture, serving as a preservation commissioner for the City of Evanston, rewriting the design guidelines for Evanston, competing in triathlons, and is performing in a musical theatre class (“my singing is sub-par”). “I am still short, with short, greying hair, and wear black most of the time and of course round glasses—the uniform of architects. See my latest work at www.cohen-hacker.com and my son’s latest work at www.gabrielscohen.com .”

Bill Davies and Candy downsized two years ago to a 100-year-old home in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. “We moved in after five months of renovating. Poughkeepsie is becoming a trendy place for young artists with families who can’t afford living in NYC and we love the neighborhood we are in.  I retired from IBM/GlobalFoundries in May and will be spending the summer rowing, biking, and gardening.  We are also preparing for our daughter’s wedding, Kim ’07, in September.  This fall I plan to start volunteering at the local schools to help kids with math skills.  Candy continues her social work as a counselor at SUNY, New Paltz.“

Alan Saly is happy to report that his daughter, Elaine Saly ’09, has graduated from NYU Law, and is on her way to Seattle to be a criminal defense attorney in the public defender’s office. Any Wes lawyers out there for her to touch base with?

Jono Cobb is back on Martha’s Vineyard for the summer. “During the months following graduation, I shared a single bathroom house on the Vineyard with Maureen Walsh, Deirdre Manning, Bethany Kandel, Spence Studwell, Mike Connelly, Dennis Archibald, and Mike Riera, as well as his not yet house-broken puppy. We also got to see many of our classmates who made our living room their first night’s stop after disembarking from the ferry. Whenever I drive past Little Walden, as we named it, I’m reminded of that summer of 1979…”

Luis Vidal still resides in Bridgeport, Conn. He retired from the Department of Social Services in 2011. He is presently working for Family ReEntry, Inc. as group facilitator of domestic violence groups in Bridgeport, Norwalk, New Haven, and Waterbury. He would love to hear from Ines Navarro ’81 and MaryAnn Gonzalez ’82 who graduated a couple of years after he did, and is wondering how they are, what they are up to, etc.

Thomas Brody, at 63, is still trying to find himself. Wish him luck, he says.

Denise Giacomozzi has been coordinating the Syrian Refugee Project at her church in conjunction with New Vision United Church of Canada (Hamilton, Ontario) whose pastor is married to a friend of hers from high school. The goal is to raise $50,000 USD to bring two families of four to Hamilton. They are halfway there. Contributions can be made by check to Rockville United Church, Syrian Refugee Project, 355 Linthicum St., Rockville, MD  20851 or PayPal. “On a personal note, my mother passed away in March at the hospice where I have been working as a chaplain.  I am on leave as I mourn. Elaine Winic was there by my side for the memorial service, ever the faithful friend since our days as freshmen roommates.”

Ralph Maltese: “On October 22, 2016, my best friend from college, Alan David Avner, passed away after a two-year bout with cancer. Alan was an enigma—a happy loner, a fine musician, a good friend. He was the healthiest living person I’ve ever known, had a razor sharp eclectic intelligence, sarcastic wit, love of all things jazz, a respect for all people and other living things and lived his life with caring and humility. He recently moved to Florida to care for his aging father, giving up the life he loved in San Francisco. I never ever heard him brag about anything. Throughout all his ordeals he never complained. Alan was always there for me, as my friend, confidante, best man, the first person I told I had cancer, and someone I could rely on for good advice even when it was the advice I did not want to hear but needed. He was and will always be my friend.  He is survived by his father, sister, and her family.”

Gary Breitbord | gbreitbo@aol.com

Ann Biester Deane | abdeane@aol.com

Bill Adler “waves to classmates from Tokyo,” where he has been living for the past three years. He reports: “I spend my days writing novels and my nights sleeping only when my cat thinks I deserve to. If you like time-travel fiction, pick up a copy of my novella, No Time to Say Goodbye. I’m currently writing a Japanese ghost story.”

Wolfgang Natter proudly announces the graduation of his son, Joseph ’17, an honors physics major who plans to extend this background to “social physics of the law.” Wolfgang has accepted the position of vice president of academic affairs at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minn. He welcomes contact from “any Wes alumni who reside at or near the borders of Lake Superior and Minnesota.”

Rich Order continues to litigate business disputes as a principal partner in the firm of Updike, Kelly, and Spellacy, in Hartford, Conn. He and Denise, his wife of 34 years, live in Simsbury, Conn. Their son Daniel, a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder, will be attending the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University this fall to pursue a master’s degree in documentary filmmaking.

Susie Muirhead Bates | sbatesdux@hotmail.com 

Ken Kramer | kmkramer78@hotmail.com

NEWSMAKERS | 1970s NEWSMAKER MICHELE ROBERTS ’77 Adweek named Michele A. Roberts ’77, executive director—and first female leader—of the NBA hotlayers Union, to its “30 Most Powerful Women in Sports” list, which featured outstanding executives, athletes, and journalists, among others. Previously an attorney with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Roberts had begun her career as a public defender in Washington, D.C. In the June 26 article, Adweek’s Tim Baysinger noted that Roberts would be negotiating across the table from league commissioner Adam Silver when the two worked on a new collective bargaining agreement—and Roberts would be trying to avoid a lockout, something her two predecessors were not able to do. A government major at Wesleyan, Roberts earned her JD from the University of California at Berkeley. The negotiations now completed, Roberts noted, “The deal we worked out with the League contained a number of favorable provisions for our players, including a 45 percent across the board salary increase for those players whose salaries are pre-set. And, no lock-out!”

NEWSMAKERS | 1970s NEWSMAKER RICHARD MELCHREIT ’77 Richard Melchreit ’77, P’19, MD, is the recipient of the 2017 Charles G. Huntington III Award for his 30-year career in public health. The Connecticut Public Health Association presents this award annually to a Connecticut health care practitioner who has demonstrated public health leadership and a commitment to the health and well-being of the population. Beyond his career in positions with St. Francis Medical Center and the Connecticut Department of Health, Melchreit mentored dozens of undergraduate and graduate students and held leadership roles in the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, most recently on the Healthcare Associated Infections Subcomittee. Melchreit was a biology major at Wesleyan, and received his medical degree from the University of Connecticut.

Had someone asked me in my youth what a 60 (plus)-year-old would look and act like, I would never have imagined it to be any of the group assembled for our attendance-record-smashing 40th Reunion. It pleases me to be among folks who were happy to just be present in order to connect with fellow alumni. Gone are the days when we felt the need to impress with our professional and personal accomplishments. We all enjoyed hearing about the twists and turns in our individual histories. It was affirming to speak with those folks in our lives with whom we shared another pivotal developmental time in our lives: starting our college days in our late teens.

For most of us, Reunion began Friday evening with a reception that would soften the blow of a nasty commute to Middletown from just about everywhere. Driving into our Reunion class hotel lot, I was greeted by Felice Burstein and John Roxby, a perfect start to the weekend. Both are smitten with their granddaughters, and like most of us, are considering the next move after retirement. At hotel reception, I came across Arlene Lappen and Sue Rappaport Guiney. If meeting up with these two doesn’t put a smile on your face, I don’t know what does. Next I rode with Iddy Olson, soon to be the mother of the groom (my godson), to campus to formally check in. We attended President Michael Roth ’78’s reception and met up with Vanessa Burgess, Jerry Caplin, Sean McKeown, Bob Glasspiegel, Kathy Mintz ’78, and Steve Beauchamp. We then headed over to meet arrivals at the Reunion class reception. Wendy Brown Giardina and Laraine Balk Hope immediately greeted us. Enjoyed seeing Jim Lyons, Jim Melloan, and Mim Wolf at the reception. It was fun hearing Jim’s German inflection and was really impressed by his, as well as Wendy Giardina’s and other alums efforts, in making their way back to campus from far away. I celebrated a mini Newton High School reunion with Richard Parad, Sarah Kendall, and Paul Sheridan. Other notables at the party were Mike Coffey, Jane Goldenring, Claude Greengard, Betsy Hecker, Mary Jo Wade, Ron Bloom, Dave Levy, Jim Dowling, and expert t-shirt designer and graphic designer, Bonnie Katz. Also on hand were Lee Arnold, Lisa Brummel with son Noah, Cindee Howard, Helen Taenzer Lott, Earl Phillips, Lenny Stamm whose music I missed, Miki Saraf, and the first person I met my freshman year, Richard Swanson.

Saturday got rolling with seminars on campus led by many in our class. Sue Rappaport Guiney, Jane Kurz Klemmer, Michele Roberts (our well-deserved class Distinguished Alumni recipient), and Alan Steele held a panel discussion on mid-life and mid-career changes. Following this was a seminar on “Fake News and Real News: Journalism Today” led by Jane Eisner and Alex Kotlowitz, among others. This well-attended offering featured many classmates including: Doug Green, Susan Berger, and Rachel (Helfer) and Mike Balf. Heading over to the lunch tent I got to catch up with Janet Malkemes and Sharon Adler. A few folks arrived solely for lunch, needing to honor conflicting family weddings and such: Danny Ruberman and world-traveling educators Louise Hazebrouck and Steve Rome, who shared stories from their time in Asia. Photographer extraordinaire, Rick Dennett, was busy capturing shots of the assembled gang throughout the afternoon and evening. Kate Seeger and I got to share a fine walk through the art center. It is quite the head-scratcher that I need to return to Middletown to catch up with so many of the Boston-based alumni.

A short while later, a visit with the fine gentlemen of DKE took place at their house on High Street. The usual suspects there included: Jim LaLiberty, Steve Imbriglia, Don Citak, Jeff Gray, Ted Stevens, and Mike Coffey and Iddy. This led to our class dinner at Usdan, which was a great venue to celebrate the 100 participants who turned out. New folks with whom I got to visit included: Wes trustee Jeff Shames, Mark Beamis, Don Spencer (who survived his new house construction), Jerry Stouck, Dave Thomas, Tom Roberts, Liz and Will Sillin, Jim Udelson, and Dave Zabar. We all enjoyed Vanessa Burgess MC’ing the evening’s salute to our class that included a well-deserved Wesleyan Service Award to a very modest Don Ryan. Though regretting not chatting much with some, I saw from across the crowded room John Fink and his wife from Hawaii, John Gaebe, Jonathan Kliger, Don Lowrey, Marx Brothers aficionado, Hank Rosenfeld, Brad Burnham, Susan Shaw, Bob Rees, and Steve McNutt.

As expected, this was a memorable gathering which nourished the soul as we got to celebrate Friendship in its truest form: old and new. As I have recounted the weekend from memory after almost a week, I am sure that I may have left out other important names who attended. Please let me know that you were present so that I may give a proper shout-out in the next issue. In advance accept my sincerest apologies. To those classmates unable to join in for part of the weekend, we hope that you’ll find a way to meet up five years from now. If this Reunion was any indication, we all just keep getting better and better.

Gerry Frank | Gfrank@bfearc.com

For this issue, I asked about retirement plans and got varied and often non-committal answers.  To vary the line-up, the last shall be first.

Jody Binswanger Snider works in media, representing a creative branding and production company, and a small animation studio and filmmaker in NYC.  She serves on a family foundation concerned with homelessness and criminal justice reform. Her husband is a teacher and coach at Harvard Business School and Northeastern, and her two sons are working in NYC real estate.

Steve Smith and his wife moved to western North Carolina 31 years ago and that’s where they plan to retire in about two years. Their daughter just had her 10th Wes Reunion, and they plan to visit friends in Mexico later this year.

Joe Reiff won the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Nonfiction Award for 2016 with his book Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi’s Closed Society. Joe figures he has three more years before he hangs up his frock.

Jack O’Donnell has a daughter at Wes who plans to go to law school afterwards. Jack loves working as a criminal defense lawyer, and between that and the tuition bills, no retirement is in sight.

Connie Bodine McCann attended an all-day meeting of Wes emeriti trustees and watched Donna Morea do an excellent job as chair. Connie has a son at Wes, a daughter working in tech in San Francisco, and another son at a private investment firm in NYC. Connie has been elected to the Spencer Stuart worldwide board of directors and, after 24 years, is still enjoying her senior search work in financial services.

Jimmy Johnson reports that his bike touring business (BikeTours.com) is going strong and that he will be leading tours through Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, and Montenegro in the next five months. Electrically assisted bikes help it all work. (I tried one in California and our nonathletic group drew looks of disbelief as we sped up the hills.)

Leslie Gabel-Brett ended her 10-year tenure at Lambda Legal in NYC and now works as a consultant with Open Communities Alliance, an affordable housing group in Connecticut led by Erin Boggs ’93. In spring 2018, Leslie will be a visiting assistant professor of public policy at Wes teaching a course about social justice movements under the auspices of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life.

Joellyn Gray went to L.A. over Memorial Day weekend and visited her sons, Malcolm and Duncan ’09, who work for the Russo Brothers and Hulu respectively. She had dinner with my CSS classmate, Bob Craft, and his wife, Julie. Joellyn has considered retirement, but prefers working.

Jon Cleworth, who is fighting a nearly 40-year battle with MS, is still going strong and is grateful for his time at Wesleyan and the inspiration he gained there.

Karen Caplan says retirement is a nice idea, but she is not ready to give up her full-time hospital job as a clinical social worker on a palliative care consult team. Karen finds her work with people at the end of life wonderfully rich, meaningful, and rewarding.

Barbara Birney continues to enjoy the company of her 92-year-old father, Robert Birney ’50, as well as that of her brother Bob Birney ’81. Bob has just given up “Old Man’s Soccer” and is focused on getting the last of his kids through college.

Tom Kovar says he thinks about retirement but, with a 14-year-old still at home, he does not plan on it anytime soon.

Cheryl Alpert just started a new career as a full-time real estate agent focusing on Boston and MetroWest and is very active in national and local politics. Her older son, Eben, is working as a business analyst and her younger son, Chason, is graduating from Washington and Lee, and will be working in D.C. for Booz Allen.

As for me, my oldest daughter graduated with a master’s and my younger two from college this month, so tuition bills are no longer a driver. But I still like working and need to stay busy if I am going to stay in sync with my wife, who loves her job. Outlook: staying the course.

There are a lot of you folks who do not write in—especially, for some odd reason, those whose last names are in the second half of the alphabet. I wish you would.

Mitchell Marinello | mlmarinello@comcast.net

I love leftovers, and what follows are some “leftover” notes from late 2016 and early 2017 that did not make in to our in-print columns. I apologize to those of you who took the time to write. Please continue to do so early and often—it will give you a better shot at being in the first serving of notes, rather than the dessert course or later. Note that some of the ages and references to time may be off after all this time, and a few children may have changed jobs or cities, but the big concepts should still be right.

Ed Van Voorhees is gratified to work part-time with The Bootstraps Foundation that gives scholarships to young people who have “pulled themselves up by the…” Despite familial substance or physical abuse, mentally ill parents, or life-threatening disease or injury, each excels in school and expresses optimism. Ed also runs a little franchise. He and his wife, Linda, are reducing work commitments, playing tennis, and traveling a bit (to visit grandchildren, among other destinations). The kids are married and scattered: Ellen in charge of women’s ministries at a Neighborhood Christian Fellowship in LA, Matt in finance in Denver, Jessica is an internist in Nashville, and Ben is running a start-up in D.C.

Ben, the son of Pam Swing and Marty Plotkin ’76, would either graduate last spring or will this spring (they knew, I don’t). Pam is a resident scholar at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center. This is a wonderful center—very supportive and stimulating—with about 85 scholars engaged in a broad spectrum of research, art and activism. Pam wrote, “My current project is research on my militant suffragist grandmother, Betty Gram Swing, who worked closely with suffrage leader Alice Paul (one of five women considered for placement on the back of the 10-dollar bill.) My grandmother was jailed for picketing the White House and went on an eight-day hunger strike—all in all, she was jailed five times. She also burned President Wilson’s words and various other escapades. With the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment coming in 2020, I am writing a book, probably aimed at young adults, which will bring the suffrage movement to life through following my grandmother’s story.”

Pat McQuillan connected with Pam and Marty at Reunion last year. He got a kick out of discovering that her son and daughter both went to Sudbury Valley School, a very student-centered institution in Framingham, Mass., that Pat always presents to a curriculum theories class he teaches at Boston College. Pam came as a parent, to Pat’s class to recount how well her two children had done at the school and that her son, in fact, received a PhD in physics from U of Washington, even though he never took a math class at SVS. Pat may organize an entire day focused on student-centered learning and would invite Pam back to speak.

David Drake claims to have the best job in the world. After Wesleyan, he earned graduate degrees from UCLA and Harvard Graduate School of Education. In 1990, he started White Oak School in Westfield, Mass. White Oak is a state-approved nonprofit school serving great kids with dyslexia and related language-based learning disabilities. “It’s incredibly rewarding work,” Dave says, “and we’ve helped many hundreds of kids to read, spell, write, and generally come to believe in their potential to succeed and thrive.”

Larry Greenberg, reported from Martha’s Vineyard that he and his therapist wife, Debbie, were once again gearing up for the busy summer season in their physical therapy clinic there. Their oldest son, Dan who works as a VP at BlackRock in Manhattan, was getting married in Allentown, N.J., in September, while his daughter, Sarah, a corporate event manager in Waltham, Mass., got married in September 2014. His youngest son, Stephen, works as an associate producer for NBC Sports in hockey and football and was scheduled to cover volleyball at the Brazil Olympic Games with his girlfriend, who is also an associate producer for NBC Sports. They hope for a third September wedding in the coming years and anticipate cutting back their work schedule as retirement years approach.

Nancy (Robinson) Neff wrote, “My son, Sam, 24, works for SunPower in Richmond, Calif., as a mechanical engineer, mentors a high school robotics team, and loves blues dancing. My son, Jeremy, 22, graduated from George Washington University where he loves the ultimate frisbee team. He has directed some great student theater and will be interning with a theater company. My husband Robert is an electrical engineer with Keysight Technologies and loves bicycling. I am a regional volunteer coordinator with California Clean Money Campaign.” They were working to clean up money in politics, trying to pass the California DISCLOSE Act, which would require the strictest disclosure on political ads in the country.

David Lipton let us know he was excited that his third child, Gabriel ’16, was from Wesleyan with a government degree, joining Dave’s oldest, Anna ’08. Meanwhile, Dave had signed on for another five-year term as number two at the International Monetary Fund. When he started in 2011, he followed John Lipsky ’68, so Wesleyan has been having a long run at the IMF!

Russ Munson talked about a not-so-recent-anymore great day he spent in NYC at Karen Freedman and Roger Weisberg‘s place, catching up after way too many years with Tom Fox (who was traveling throughout the Northeast visiting engineering schools with his high school junior son). Tom is a German professor at U of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. Russ’s son and daughter joined the NYC party with their respective spouses.  Russ is married to Deb Quinn-Munson ’82, who is hard at work with pastel, watercolor, and oil painting. Russ spends his workdays in Wallingford, Conn., as chief medical officer for HealthyCT, one of the few remaining co-op health plans created by the ACA.

Tom Fox also saw Bob McNamara on that same New York trip. Bob added a few items to the previously reported details about Tom. Not only is Tom on the U of A faculty, but he is former chairman of the modern language department, and his daughter is attending school there. Last fall, Bob and his wife, Irene, had a nice brunch with Dave Quinn, who continues to run a marketing and communications business in New London. Bob said, “Dave’s relationships in the Connecticut marketplace built up over many years make him the go-to guy for all kinds of companies in the area. He seems to be adapting well to the digital age.” As for his own news, Bob writes, “Although I missed Reunion last year with an ailing father, I managed to get to a Wesleyan football game for a post-Reunion reunion with former roommate Bruce Weinraub. Irene and I are doing well and expecting our first grandchild in July. I am now managing partner at Mooreland Partners, a boutique investment bank advising technology companies on mergers and acquisitions.” Bob and I ran into each other at Wesleyan’s parent/child weekend in 2012. My eldest chose Stanford, and Bob’s third son wound up going to Williams, so Bob has split loyalties in the Little Three, and I just extended the grad school relationship I started with Stanford.

Dave Rosenthal spent a grueling, exciting year helping to lead The Baltimore Sun’s coverage of the death of Freddie Gray and the Baltimore riots, and then took a buyout from the company. “It was tough to leave my job as investigations editor, especially after being involved in coverage that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and had exposed police brutality in the city. But I felt the time was right.” He moved to a new job in a new place, leading a group of journalists at public radio stations in Buffalo, Cleveland, Rochester, and other cities in reporting on the Great Lakes. The regional initiative is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, so when you’re listening to NPR and hear a report on the lakes, think of Dave. He’ll be working from WBFO in Buffalo, so he and Suzy relocated and hoped to meet some fellow Wes alumni up north.

Randy Steer reinvented himself a couple of years ago as a cybersecurity expert after spending most of his career in policy and budgets for energy and climate-change R&D. (A Monty Python “And now for something completely different” career shift.) He wrote that he was on an assignment to the Under Secretary of Energy to coordinate cyber initiatives across DOE science and energy offices—with a side-benefit of exposure to R&D policy again. Not sure whether he is still there, with all the changes in D.C.

Brad Kosiba keeps himself busy with “a messy blend of beekeeping, veggie gardening, church maintenance, Boy Scout leader training, and some vaccine and biotech manufacturing consulting that is somehow keeping me off the streets. Dorothy recently started part-time at the local office of The Livestock Conservancy (heirloom farm animals) and their sons continue to labor in math, engineering, and theater tech. We have a cool ‘grand-dog’ sharing arrangement with our middle son who travels most weeks, lets us have a dog and leave it, too!”

Cynthia M. Ulman | cmu.home@cmugroup.com
860 Marin Drive, Mill Valley, CA 94941-3955

Peter Hayward reports the sad news that our friend and classmate, Robert Mankin, died in Paris, France on January 28, 2017, after a long illness. Robert was buried at the Cimetière Parisien d’Ivry.

Robert, who had lived in France since the 1980s, had a distinguished academic career there. At the time of his death, he was a professor of British history at the University of Paris, with particular expertise on the English historian and writer, Edward Gibbon (the subject of Robert’s doctoral thesis), and Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, David Hume, among many other interests.  From 2009 to 2013, he directed and breathed life into the University’s Research Laboratory on Anglophone Cultures, which became a university department as a result of his efforts.  Robert had also been serving for several years in Paris’s Cité Universitaire director of the Fondation Deutsch de la Meurthe, a graduate student residence and cultural center, which flourished under his leadership.

At Wesleyan, Robert was a College of Letters major (Peter believes his lifelong attachment to France began in his COL semester in Paris in the spring of 1972). He subsequently took additional time to travel and study abroad and graduated Wes in 1975. Robert was a member of Alpha Delta Phi and, in addition to his academic pursuits, he was an avid runner and club rugby player. Robert is survived by his wife, Danielle Torren, their son, Emile, and his mother, sister and brother in the United States.

Jerri Stroud and her husband, Mike Saville, will relocate to Seattle, Wash., later this summer, where they expect to have more chances to see 10 other Wesleyan ’74 alumni, including Charley Blaine and his wife, Chardel. “We’ve enjoyed seeing them on our trips there over the last dozen years.” Their son, Stephen Saville, is with Amazon, and they’ll be about 10 minutes’ drive from him and their granddaughter, Emily.

Monique Witt reports, “We are weathering a few serious family illnesses, but the music is going well. Two albums came home from press in May and three went to press soon after. We are excited about two particularly. My older son’s Grammy nomination has produced a great deal of work for the audio labs, so he’s very busy, having just returned from a late honeymoon in Paris and Nice.

“My younger son, Ben, has received exceptionally strong reviews for his first album Instead, including one from DownBeat Magazine, numerous U.S. reviews, as well as strong European reviews. He’s up on radio round the world, and has played jazz at Lincoln Center, The Blue Note, Mezzrow, Smalls, and played Carnegie Hall in late May, in addition to the summer festival season and his weekly gigs.  So he’s pretty busy as well.

“I’m keeping the label running and playing doubles with a woman who plays with the Canadian National Team, so she carries us. Steven is still lawyering. So all good, I guess, except that I find it hard to read the news (something I used to do religiously).”

Jaf Chiang provided the following update. “A little less than three years ago my wife, Jeanne Demko ’75, passed away very suddenly. We married shortly after I graduated—so a total of 40 years. We did our share of wandering and meandering, but unlike Moses, it was a blissful period for us. She did get to see the ‘promised land’ as she saw both our children grow up to be independent, productive and full of compassion, as she was.

“I am still finding it hard to adjust to this.  I still live in the same house in Avon (‘Home is so sad. It stays as it was left, Shaped to the comfort of the last to go, As if to win them back.’–Philip Larkin) and still teaching gifted students in math. My daughter will finish her residency in Maine Medical this year and move to Kentucky to begin her fellowship in infertility. My son just finished the PhD phase of his MD-PhD program at Washington University in St. Louis and will begin his last two years of medical school later in June. And I will soldier on as well.”

Jan Eliasberg states, “I have moved into a three story brownstone in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, and discovered a passion for interior design. I’ve been restoring fine details of the original architecture (ceiling medallions, floor to ceiling shuttered windows, five original marble fireplaces), as well as mixing in more contemporary influences: mid-century modern furniture; vintage rugs from Morocco, and art acquired during my world travels. There’s a fantastic garden with climbing roses, hydrangea bushes, honeysuckle, and wild raspberries ripe for the picking. A wonderful place to call home. There are three bedrooms so let me know if you need a place to stay while visiting NYC.

“This year I was lucky enough to direct several episodes of the new CBS hit show, Bull, with Michael Weatherly. The show shoots on stages in Brooklyn so I was, literally, 10 minutes from work. Great fun and a great privilege to work on a show in its first season, helping to shape and define the style and tone of the series.

“In June and July, I’m off to Pittsburgh to direct two episodes of another new show, NBC’s Gone, with ‘Mr. Big’ himself, Chris Noth. I’m looking forward to exploring Pittsburgh, which is apparently a really hip, up and coming city—lots of young artists, foodies, cafes and places to hear cool music.

My daughter, Sariel Friedman ’18, just finished her junior year at Wesleyan, with a double major in American studies and film. She’s spending the summer in Germany taking a class at the Frei University. She then has a paid internship working with Steidl Publishing. Wesleyan has proven to be as ideal an experience for her as it was for me.”

Harold Sogard, Marion Stoj, Linda Rappaport, and Sharon Purdie attended the Donors’ Reception during Reunion Weekend—good turn-out for our class! It’s always fun to catch up.

Sharon Purdie | spurdie@wesleyan.edu

From Williamsburg, Va., we have an update from one of my East College roommates from senior year, John Spike. John is still assistant director and chief curator for the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William & Mary, where, over the past five years, he’s curated four major loan exhibitions from the Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti, Casa Buonarroti, and other important Italian museums. The exhibitions have been devoted to original works by Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Leonardo da Vinci, and this year, Botticelli. All four exhibitions, after originating under his curatorship at the Muscarelle, have gone on to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. His wife, Michèle, teaches at the William & Mary Law School, where she has been promoted to visiting professor. He says last year his son Nicholas, now 34, and his wife, Marcela, gave John and Michele their first grandchild, a boy, Santiago Spike.

From Vermont, our intrepid, indefatigable, and ever-faithful correspondent David Feldman, AKA David Harp, just did three “speaking gigs” in three consecutive days in three somewhat widely separated places (after not having done too many lately)—Chicago, Springfield, Ill., and Burlington, Vt. He reports that the speaking component (two large events of about 70 minutes each with 300-plus attendees on harmonica-based mindfulness as it applies to people working in the mental health field, and one smaller event for CPAs) “felt fine.” He adds, “It’s a bit hubristic to say, but I felt pretty much at the top of my form, corporate speaker-wise. But the traveling felt awful. The airports and traffic in the cities bugged me more than usual—is road and air traffic getting busier and less enjoyable, or is it just me? Or both? Or perhaps it is just a function of living most of the time in rural Vermont.”

Sheryl Auerbach says Jerry Richter, her husband of 35 years, passed away almost five years ago. On December 13 of last year, she married Evan Feist, a widower, whom she met through JDate. Evan is a retired veterinarian, and they share a lot of interests, including golf (although she says she’s a mid 30s handicap and he’s single digit), bridge, and birthdays. Sheryl notes that her birthday is July 20, Jerry’s was July 23, and Evan’s is July 22.

From New York City, another one of my very colorful East College roommates from senior year, Edward “Eddie” Nathan, sends us a second note saying that “44 years feels about right to collect sufficient experience to sustain a brief note to my quondam classmates.” He has had two careers: first as an academic, then as a creative director in advertising, most of it in health and wellness. “It’s a living,” he says. He and his wife reside in Brooklyn, though his work is in Pennsylvania. “Two fine grown daughters, one of them in Finland.” He says his beautiful wife is also New York’s “most decorated dog groomer” (see her website, Soniaspetgrooming.com). For the record, he says he would like to note his “one enduring contribution to Wesleyan. No one will recall, except me, that I was the first to use the ‘Wes’ prefix in identifying our athletic teams for the Argus, e.g., Wescrew, Weslax.” He says he had the occasion a number of years ago to write a “Wescheck” in support of his daughter’s application to Wesleyan. “I claim credit as having inspired the name of this tariff, and fully expect to be telling this story, inflated with ever greater significance, as I continue to slide comfortably into senility,” he says. He sends “All the best to my Wesbros.”

Peter D’Oench | Pgdo10@aol.com