Heidi Mastrogiovanni reached out with the following note about a recent honor:
“I’m delighted to have been named co-ambassador for the Los Angeles chapter of the Authors Guild, the nation’s oldest and largest professional organization for published writers.” Congrats, Heidi. Great news!
Michael Livingston shared this news with us: “Retiring and adjusting.”
Jake Walles reports:
“I’ve been retired from the State Department now for about six years. I keep myself busy as a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, writing and commenting on Middle East affairs. I stay in regular contact with Jim Sheehan and Al Spohn ’80 and look forward to catching up with other Wesleyan folks at our reunion next year.” Sounds like an interesting and enjoyable way to keep engaged and still be able to enjoy retirement, Jake!
And last but certainly not least, this news from our former class secretary, Gary Breitbord.
“He’s baaack. Just when you thought you’d never have to read another Breitbord Bloviation, I have submitted the following for your reading (dis?) pleasure. My wife and I are enjoying our fully retired life in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Living in paradise where every day is Saturday. Or as my cousin says, ‘Every day is blursday.’
“There have been many gatherings of the DKE brethren and other assorted cohorts. Had a great Red Sox opening day and Bruins game extravaganza with George DuPaul, Peter Campbell, Frank Hauser, and Jeff Gray ’77. A great time was had by all. I have seen the aforementioned Dr. DuPaul and his lovely bride many times, even got to meet his new grandson, Colin. They purchased a wonderful place right downtown in Falmouth Village. Perfect spot to venture into town to partake of the library, many fine shops, restaurants, ice cream parlors as well as numerous summer events. We had another wonderful ‘boys’ gathering at the Breitbord abode that included George, Jack Buckley, Bill Conley, and the Grays. The weather cooperated, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
“Had a great round of golf with Messieurs Dave Thomas ’77 and Paul Fichera ’77 along with Wesleyan’s head football coach Dan DiCenzo. (As an aside, Dan has graciously accepted the role of faculty advisor to the undergraduate DKE brothers.) It was a gloriously beautiful Cape Cod day filled, of course, with many stories of which some, I believe, were actually true. I’d like to say my golf game held up to the level of fun we had, but ain’t no way that could happen.
“The true highlight of the summer was our trip with the Buckleys to Montana to visit with the estimable Jeff Laszlo ’78 on his ranch near Ennis. We all agreed it was a trip of a lifetime that we plan to do on a regular basis. Jeff was the consummate host, taking us on tours of the remarkable 15-year (and counting) restoration project he has completed and continues to improve every day through his diligent stewardship of the family’s 13,000 acres. The Granger Ranches have been in his family for four generations. Laz took over the operations from his mom. He has managed to use modern ranching techniques—it is a working ranch with over 450 head of cattle, coupled with extensive wildlife preservation techniques including humane fencing and shared grazing. On any given day, you can see true diversity of flora and fauna. To get a glimpse of this massive effort, the largest restoration project in Montana, check out Stewardship with Vision as well as some pictures below.
2,000 acres of Jeff Laszlo’s restored property
Laz’s house half way into the property
Jeff Laszlo ’78
“Many more summer and fall events planned (Jono Cobb we will get together) after I write this, but that’ll have to wait for another time.”
Thanks, Gary, for a fun and informative update!
That’s it for this issue. Thanks for all the submissions! Be safe and happy.
If you’re reading these notes, then you successfully found our “online only” Wesleyan Class Notes for Fall 2023. Hope you are well and enjoying a beautiful autumn wherever you are. Here’s what several of your classmates are up to:
Susan Southard, author of Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War (Viking, 2015) writes that she will be traveling to Taiwan and Japan for a five-city book tour in mid-October through early November. In addition to the United States, Nagasaki has been published in England and in translation in Denmark, Spain, Taiwan, China, and Japan. This trip, her lectures will be in Japanese. While she’s in Nagasaki, Susan will give the keynote address at the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall. She suggests that if you ever have a chance to visit Nagasaki, the Peace Memorial Hall is an exquisite architectural structure—inside and out, every inch designed to honor the memory of those who died in the Nagasaki nuclear attack and in the decades since.
Kate Probst and her husband moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn, in August after living in the Washington, D.C., suburbs for over 35 years. She describes it as “an experiment with no decisions beyond living there through June 2024.” They rented a furnished apartment that allows cats and dogs, and rented out their house in McLean, Virginia. They are enjoying their new life with all their errands on foot (which has greatly increased their daily step count) and only using a car sparingly. They also enjoy being a 10-minute walk from their daughter and her fiancée, walking and eating—the two major NYC pastimes—as well as going to the theater, museums, and walking in Prospect and Central Parks. They are much closer to friends in the Northeast, so have many visits planned. And while they miss their friends in D.C., so far don’t miss living there.
Ralph and daughter, Cassie
Ralph Rotman was recently recognized on Forbes’ 2023 Top Financial Security Professionals “Best-In-State” list alongside his daughter and business partner Cassie Rotman. In 2018 they started Power 10 Advisory Partners, a premier wealth management and financial planning firm in Boston. With a unique blend of intergenerational insights, the Rotmans have successfully merged traditional financial wisdom with contemporary strategies. Ralph included this photo of he and his daughter.
Bruce Phillips is happy to report that he retired in August 2022 from 36 years working as a family physician and delivering babies in Plainville, Massachusetts. He had a wonderful career and is very appreciative of his patients and colleagues who trusted him for so many years. He enjoys retirement doing all the same things he did while he was working: yoga, gardening, tennis, biking, developing his spiritual practice, and enjoying time with his family. Now he just has more time and space to do all these things. This fall he will teach new medical students one afternoon a week the basics of being a doctor, including skills such as listening, expressing empathy, and learning how to do a physical exam. Bruce enjoyed visiting Wesleyan for our 45th Reunion. He found “being on campus created a nice warp in time.” Bruce added this recent photo of he and his wife, Judy Kaye.
Bruce and Judy
Please keep in touch! We love receiving and sharing your news, photos, and updates.
Our latest class updates range from Hawaii to Paris (France) as well as points in between. Folks are clearly making up for lost COVID time by traveling the globe. Starting in Paris: Arlene Lappen, Joan Goldfeder, Joe Tringali, Nancy Milburn, and Wendy Giardina met up for what was, for most, a reunion of their “junior year abroad.” The photo below was taken by a hotel receptionist in Paris.
From left to right, Arlene, Joan, and Wendy
As I could well imagine, the gathering was a mix of great food and drink coupled with stories past and present. Joan is visiting Boston for a wedding, at which time we have plans to dine at one of my favorite French restaurants. In this way I get to feel like I was one of the earlier Parisian participants.
Wendy writes further that she had dinner with freshman roommate Lou Roberts (Mary Louise Roberts). She is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin. They’ve met a few times over the years when Lou comes to Europe—as she is frequently in Paris doing research.
Wendy’s summer included a week-long residency with an eclectic and eccentric group of artists/musicians/ academics/writers in a tiny town in Piemont, Italy, where the author of the book she translated lives. The book is an “objet d’art” of limited edition (Poutresse by Jérôme Karsenti), so she got to see the finished book as well as do some readings of her own writings.
John Fink made an East Coast swing in first quarter of this year, allowing for the opportunity for a nice time in Boston, where he got to see old pal Bruce Springsteen in concert with Jim Udelson, dined with Jim and Jeff Shames, and then dined on consecutive nights in New York City with Peter Guenther and Rick Dennett.
John Fink and Jim Udelson
Cathy Compton Swanson writes that she and her husband, both retired, have been enjoying their lake house in northern Michigan, which was designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright in 1953 and that has been in the family for 70 years. They are hard at work maintaining the house as well as enjoying the lake.
David Dranoff retired after 40-plus years as a finance attorney at Goldberg Kohn in Chicago. He will remain with the firm in a counsel capacity, primarily to conduct associate training sessions, but otherwise is heading off into the employment sunset. The big plans are to visit his kids in San Fran, New York, and Chicago. He is doing some volunteering and plans to pursue a variety of interests and play a lot of tennis! They are staying in Oak Park, Illinois, with no plans to move anywhere else.
Jane Goldenring graced the Boston area earlier this year. We managed to celebrate our Taurus birthdays despite the soggy weather. Her New England swing included receiving the Distinguished Alumni Award from her high school, Hopkins School, in New Haven. She got to speak to the entire student body about her career as a film executive and producer. I read and watched the speech, which was quite good.
Helen Taenzer Lott writes that both she and her husband are doing well. Helen’s new email is dcbags@sbcglobal.net.
Many folks, notably Andy Darpino and Jeff Gray, wrote to me to report the death of Steve Beauchamp, which appears to have been quite sudden. Steve and I go back to our first day at Wesleyan. He was living on my Butterfield suite freshman year. To say that Steve was a force of nature with his infectious laugh is a gross understatement. Steve possessed good acting chops as both teacher and performer. Plus, I remember almost dropping to the floor when I first heard Steve sing opera—an amazing voice. As Jeff wrote: “Steve leaves a legacy of love and passion that touched many. We are all better for having known him. He will be missed but not forgotten.”
Wendy wrote a line in her notes that has stayed with me about how lucky one is to have old friends, family, and be able to enjoy them. Throwing in good health, these are great things to appreciate.
Thanks to everyone for such an enthusiastic response to my plea for notes! We’ve heard from several people who have never sent in a note before. Here’s the latest, in the order I received it:
From Don Fallati: “I have recently joined the Board of Trustees of Print Center New York (https://www.printcenternewyork.org/). It is the leading nonprofit exhibition space in New York dedicated to exploring the medium of prints. The Print Center offers interdisciplinary exhibitions, innovative scholarship, educational programming, and digital resources, and it has recently opened a new, ground-floor space at 535 West 24th Street. It’s in the heart of the Chelsea Arts District, and I encourage anyone interested to visit as the Center always has interesting exhibits.
“My wife (Ruth Pachman ’78) and I have been collecting prints and works on paper for many years, mainly focused on modern and contemporary artists. We are also excited about Wesleyan’s new art gallery being constructed in tandem with the renovations to the PAC. It will be a great new arts space in the center of campus and a showcase for the school’s significant art collection.”
From Nat Needle: “This might be fitting: my old Alpha Delt roommate, J. Mark Beamis ’77, came out from Boston for my birthday show in Worcester and recorded this. The evening revolved around accompanying eight different vocal soloists, so I only got to sing a couple myself [including] a 1931 tune I hadn’t done in maybe 40 years, a request from vocalist and erstwhile bandmate Tina Le, who prefers Perry Como’s more relaxed version.”
From Elyse Grasso: “The beginning of August saw ground being broken, finally, for the rebuild of my house that was burned to the ground in the December 30, 2021, Marshall Fire and wind event.”
Tom Kovar
From Tom Kovar: “I’m still pursuing three creative outlets (music, fiction, photography), and the photo is from a brief but outstanding family vacation on Cape Cod.”
From Merle Kummer: “I’m pleased to report that I’ve helped found the CoLAB High School Stem Career Collaboration, which just incorporated as a nonprofit in April 2023. We connect Watertown (Massachusetts) High School Students with local STEM professionals to inspire them to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math. Here’s our new website: http://bit.ly/WHS-CoLAB.”
Jaimee Mirsky and family
From Jaimee Kurfirst Mirsky: “Not much new to report except a new granddaughter, Ruby. She is the fourth grandchild and first girl of the bunch. Jay and I are enjoying retirement—we both spend as much time as possible with the kiddos, and lots of time working in our garden. I’ve been part of an online classics book group since the beginning of COVID. I never wanted to join a book group before, but the time was right, and this one is pretty special—we actually read and talk about the books. 🙂 I’ve also been advancing my knitting skills and doing tutoring for a local literacy organization. Not exciting, but I’m fine with that at the moment. I’m including a photo of the family from a recent week on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.”
From Byron Haskins: “Gabrielle and I reconfirmed our wedding vows on August 12, after 20-plus years of everything you can imagine in a partnership during turbulent times (but I won’t get into the details that include getting her citizenship because she believed 2016 was the time for the first female POTUS and seeking a third act in Canada because it wasn’t). It was a joyful recommittal, small group of friends and family on our back patio. Tears shed, laughs laughed. Also we sold the property in Quebec, are ending our apartment lease in Montreal, and consolidating in Michigan for the next leg of our journey. I will miss Montreal, as we made a few friends there and got a bit closer to Quebecois family during the last two years. I still volunteer sometimes with the Michigan Democrats as part of the Senior Caucus (one fight against ageism) and the county party organization, and continue my hobby of creating technology-assisted one-man-band esoteric music under the label of ‘the ignorant savants,’ which is a poke at how we Americans have a tendency to plow into things as if we are all-knowing when we actually generally keep heads-in-the-sand about the requirements of a common good, a common ethos, or a historical use of convention. It’s an end run around facing growth-enhancing cognitive dissonance. Also I’m keeping the door open on the Classmate Conversations for which you can contact me and Joanne Lukitsh about anytime— if any two or three classmates want to chat about something chat worthy, I’m willing to produce the video and post it on our Wes76Alum YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Wes76Alum.”
From March Boal: “Life is good! My two sons are grown and started on their careers. I just got back from a week on Cape Cod, where I worked several summers while at Wesleyan—it is still beautiful but considerably more crowded. I have not retired yet—I am still enjoying teaching economics at Drake University in Iowa. By the way, I have a message for any high school seniors daunted by the decline of affirmative action: we have empty seats here at Drake. We may not be as prestigious as Harvard, but our professors knock themselves out for students and our graduates do quite well in the job market.”
From Leslie Gabel-Brett: “I am feeling fortunate that I have love, health, and family in abundance. Carolyn and I took a great trip to Italy with our daughter and 15-year-old granddaughter. We are also enjoying summer vacation on Cape Cod with all our kids and grandkids—we made them play pickleball! I am keeping my creative brain cells active by developing a one-act play about Victoria Woodhull and Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. And I am happy to continue as a visiting faculty member at Wes, teaching a course on social activism and theories of change. I share with and gain inspiration from the next generations who will do their part to repair the world.”
From left to right: Mike Greenberg, David Cohen, and Matt Paul
From David Cohen: “I had my (roughly) annual reunion with Michael Greenberg and Matt Paul and our spouses in Boston this spring. Sadly, Stewart Shuman missed the affair this time. My wife, Sandy, calls these annual events “Seven Doctors and Me.” She only has a master’s degree, poor thing. As usual we walked many miles, ate, drank, and talked family, art, politics, Wesleyan, and science while touring the Boston Public Library and Mike’s famous lab. I’m recently semiretired to the Berkshire Mountains, woodcarving, and working on writing a book on some local history. Check out my COVID lockdown creation, a self-published children’s book called The Amazing Life of Squirt the Water Drop. It only took me 25 years to go from concept to publication. My youngest two kids live on Maui and are emotionally traumatized but physically safe!”
Norm Kerner, who is retired from his long career as a record producer and recording studio designer/owner, now oversees operation of his two studios in Hollywood, California. Here’s a look at one of them.
Debra Neuman (left) and Barbara Strauss enjoying pickleball in Maine.
From Debra Neuman: “Barbara Strauss invited me to spend a week with her at Quisisana Resort in Center Lovell, Maine, in August, a place she and her late husband Jeff have loved for many years. It was a wonderful week and here’s a photo of us playing pickleball, a new passion.”
From left to right: Cheryl, Terri, and Edna
From Cheryl Woodson: “Talk about how to ‘live out loud and age excellently!’ I’m 67. My Aunt Terri (in the middle) is 96, and her main runnin’ buddy, Miss Edna, is 103! I’ve been posting their wisdom on my Facebook and LinkedIn pages for the last couple months.
“I’m also gearing up to offer two online courses in November (National Family Caregiver and Alzheimer’s Awareness Month) To Survive Caregiving—Yes, you CAN! offers info and insights from To Survive Caregiving: a Daughter’s Experience, a Doctor’s Advice that won first place in the 2022 Writer’s Digest awards for Best Self-Published Books—Inspirational/Motivational Category. Dementia: The ‘Slow Walk Home’ (thusly named by Bishop T. D. Jakes) covers the genetics, physiology, and pathology impact on people who live with Alzheimer’s and other dementias and the people who love them, treatments, and ways for everyone to cope.
“I’m launching an updated website at www.drcherylwoodson.com [and] will begin social media marketing for the courses in September. Stay tuned!”
From Lyle Weinstein: “I am not sure what people might be interested in reading, but my wife suggested that it might be helpful to people to mention the two books I have written on caregiving for dementia patients, The Alzheimer’s Family Manual, and, more recently, The Montessori Alzheimer’s Project. There are a few online videos of talks I have given on these topics, such as the recent one in Halifax, Nova Scotia at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elk5NVdt6E8.
“Other things I have edited and published include a four-volume series on Dissociative Identity Disorder and early childhood trauma entitled Engaging Multiple Personalities, several books on Tibetan Buddhism including Penetrating Wisdom by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Devotion by Lama Pema Tsewang, and others that are not sold on Amazon . . . .
“I have retired from practicing law (which I did in Colorado and California) but still assist my wife, Riza, in the Montessori school community she established in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Throughout all these years, I have continued my study and practice of Buddhism, helping to establish some meditation and retreat centers in the United States and Canada, in particular, Thrangu Monastery in Richmond, British Columbia.”
From Susan Mitchell and Sue Heller Clain: “We got together at Sue’s home in Media, Pennsylvania. Sue has retired from teaching economics at Villanova University. I was visiting my son and his family, including my 2-year-old grandson in Philadelphia. I am also at the very beginning stages of seeking ordination to the Episcopal priesthood in Maryland. We’ve been friends since being assigned adjoining suites in Lawn Avenue (CSS) in 1972.”
Sue Heller Clain is on the left; Susan Mitchell is on the right
From Meredith Bergmann: “I taught a workshop on ekphrastic poetry at the Frost Farm Poetry Conference [in August] in Derry, New Hampshire, and had a wonderful time. Participants came from all over the country, and were serious, enthusiastic, and irreverent—lots of interesting conversations and debates about all aspects of poetry, biography, and art.
In late August “will be the ceremonial groundbreaking for my Lexington, Massachusetts, sculpture, Something Is Being Done. The bronze won’t be installed until next May—it’s at the foundry, in progress.” Meredith Bergmann and MA State Senator Cindy Friedman
Meredith Bergmann and MA State Senator Cindy Friedman
From Rob Williams: “I am currently living in Maui and working as a disease physician. I have been here since March of 2021. Although I didn’t get to see him, Elliot Epner was here and left right before I arrived. I have not seen his name listed in the oncology department. I missed him by about a month. I’ll be here until March of 2026. I’ll then be looking to retire.
“I survived the Maui fires and we are very safe. The entire island is in mourning as we all know someone who has lost a home and/or family members. Recently heard from Pete McArdle. He is retiring after working many years as a veterinarian. More recently he was a research coordinator at Novartis. I have been very busy with the COVID-19 pandemic and retirement is looking very good right now.”
Polly Hays
From Polly Hays: “Greetings from Denver, where we had the rainiest June on record, and then in July and August are continuing to break heat records. I continue to enjoy the leisurely pace of life in retirement, and recently told someone that I am a homebody who likes to travel. This winter I made my way to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, for a singing and mediation retreat; we also enjoyed the reward of a spectacular view of the northern lights one evening. Yes, they were just like the pictures, and yes, it was cold out, about minus 20 [degrees] Fahrenheit. This summer, I had a totally different adventure in Atlantic Canada. Trip included hiking in Cape Breton Island National Park and experiencing the tides of the Bay of Fundy in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
“Below are a few pictures from Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park in New Brunswick, where you can walk on the ocean floor at low tide, and kayak among the rocks at high tide. Now that was fun!!!”
Arnson Family wedding photo
From Cindy Arnson: “The highlight of 2023 was the June wedding outside of LA of our son Micah to Maya Paz. The photo says it all. We were very happy! I should be easy to spot; others in the photo are my husband, Gerry; oldest son Zack (a U.S. Foreign Service Officer); and Micah’s twin sister Jeanne (a grad student at George Washington University, in clinical mental counseling). We’re sorry to have Micah and Maya on the West Coast, but since we racked up a lot of frequent flyer miles during the pandemic, we have a nice cushion for travel.
“After 30 years of not being in the classroom, over the summer I taught a class on Latin America for midcareer master’s students at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS, where I did my graduate work). I’ll continue in the fall of 2023 and accompany the group to Chile in mid-October. It’s challenging but rewarding and keeps me on my toes. So much for ‘retirement,’ but I’m very happy not to have to fundraise, attend staff meetings, fill out personnel evaluations, etc., all part of my previous job at the Wilson Center. We feel blessed to be in good health, have kids we’re proud of, and additional time for hobbies like woodworking and fussing over our garden of native perennials!”
From Douglas Morris: “Since I have never before sent in a note, let me boil down what I have done between graduating Wesleyan and retiring a year ago: Mostly I worked as a criminal defense lawyer for indigent defendants in federal court, largely trying to persuade judges to give my clients less time or keep them out of the hellholes of federal prisons altogether; I now am adjuncting at Brooklyn Law School, teaching a seminar on the Nazi legal system; I have also moonlighted as an independent legal historian writing two books on lawyers who resisted the Nazis (Justice Imperiled: The Anti-Nazi Lawyer Max Hirschberg in Weimar Germany [University of Michigan Press, 2005] and Legal Sabotage: Ernst Fraenkel in Hitler’s Germany [Cambridge, 2020]), and I am now finishing up a short book on the anti-Nazi Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, criticizing his badly flawed theory of resistance; I am married (happily, still getting along), and have two children and three grandchildren, each of whom I have tried early on to introduce to ideas of social justice by reading to them Yertle the Turtle, which I first came across in the 1973 Nat Needle production of Dr Seuss! at Wesleyan after I landed a minor role as a turtle, an oppressed turtle.”
From Steve Smith: “I started at Wes with the Class of 1975 but took 1974 off and graduated in 1976. I married before senior year and we ran and lived in the Alumni Guest House, so I wasn’t too visible, either. But with friends in classes before and after mine, maybe someone will remember me.
“After graduation we spent 10 years in Oklahoma and have lived in the North Carolina mountains since then. No prestigious awards or inspiring work experiences, but 48 years married to my best friend and 52 together is worth a lot. Four years ago we both retired and haven’t looked back.
“Since junior high Jean has been an artist and I’ve been a ham radio operator. After retiring, we started going to state and national parks about once a week, where I talk to folks around the U.S., Canada, and Europe on a small radio and Jean paints two or three watercolors with pen-and-ink added in the two hours we’re usually there. Then we visit that park before looking for a mom-and-pop restaurant in the area and checking out a new-to-us town. So far, we’ve gone out 197 times to 142 parks in six states. It’s been fantastic, having a one-day vacation every week!
Steve Smith’s setup
“One photo is of my setup one day last year in South Carolina, with Georgia across the river. I sometimes use a microphone but prefer Morse code using the WWII key shown. I talked with 97 people that day. The other photo (below) is a painting Jean did at a park last month. It’s been fun watching her progress in creating paintings quickly without knowing in advance what they would be.”
Jean’s drawing
From Desmond Whitney: “I don’t have much to report except to say that being nearly 70 is not anything like what I would have imagined when we were all together in Middletown. Without a doubt, the last decade or so has been the best chapter of my life (recognizing I can say that in part because I’m lucky to have continuing good health).”
Notes from Facebook (provided here with permission):
Seth Lerer retired from UCSD in June, after a stellar career as a professor of literature at Princeton, Stanford, and finally UCSD. Retirement hasn’t slowed down his productivity; this year he provided an essay for the recently published Textual Communities, Textual Selves: Essays in Dialogue with Brian Stock, and next January his Introducing the History of the English Language will be published by Routledge Press.
Jon Daniels has relocated to upstate New York after a long stay in Phoenix, Arizona. Welcome home!
Marjorie Allen Dauster and her husband Rip ’74 met David Harmin and me for lunch at Rein’s Deli not so long ago; they regaled us with tales of their recent trips to Iceland and Italy and, to be honest, I can’t remember where else because they’re traveling so much! Both are in good health and are greatly enjoying their grandchildren. You wondered why I mentioned puffins in Iceland? This is why!
From Melissa Blacker: “David and I are still living in Worcester, Massachusetts, which we call the spiritual center of the universe. At least, it is for us. We have moved out of the Buddhist Temple that we founded 14 years ago. The Temple is supported by the local and now national and international Zen community that we started 30 years ago, and though no longer living on site, we are still the guiding teachers. Our new official name is Boundless Way Zen Temple: www.boundlessway.org. David and I live a 10-minute walk from the Temple, which was closed to in-person visits for the three years of the pandemic, but during that time we found a new life on Zoom. And now we’re once again open to the public. The Temple has an acre of gardens and winding paths in the backyard, with a koi pond and waterfall. If you’re ever in Worcester, feel free to take a stroll and enjoy the flowers, shrubs, and statues.
“Our daughter and her husband are expecting their second child in early September, a girl, and are the happy parents of a four-year-old boy. He calls us ‘Baba’ and ‘Nana,’ and they live about an hour away, so we get to be with him once or twice each week. And we’re still together, enjoying our entry into aging.”
From Jim Rolston: “We bought carbon-fiber gravel bikes when we retired just as COVID hit. Good way to be outside and away from folks. Studded tires for riding on ice! We did a bit over 1,000 miles on the rail trails that first year of COVID. Perfect time to retire and the perfect way to get fresh air, exercise, and stay away from people!”
The Rolstons’ bikes
A work in progress
And, finally, from the Harmin household: “David is still working full time in Mike Greenberg’s lab at Harvard Medical School; it’s hard to retire when you love your work and your coworkers! He is spending his spare time singing with the local Vox Lucens choir and walking our ancient, doddering dog around Cambridge. I am enjoying retirement more with every passing day and am keeping busy volunteering with the Weavers Guild of Boston.
We both feel incredibly lucky to enjoy continuing good health, wonderful friends, and a home in the best neighborhood either of us have ever enjoyed. See you at the 50th!
Reminder: Reunion dates: May 23–26, 2024. Consider joining our 50th Reunion Planning Committee. Participate as little or as much as your time and interest permit. We have monthly Zoom calls. Also, continue providing ideas for our reunion. Contact me (Sharon Purdie, spurdie@wesleyan.edu), Lucy Diaz at (ldiaz@wesleyan.edu) or Mandy Broulik at abroulik@wesleyan.edu to join the committee or to suggest ideas. See Pam’s review below to read what you have to look forward to!
Second Reminder: Please complete the short reunion survey if you have not done so. You can access it here: 50th Reunion survey.
Pam van der Meulen’s review of the Class of ’73 50th Reunion in May: “I attended the Reunion along with Sharon Purdie and Alfreda Gaither, to get ideas for our upcoming 50th. It was so much fun getting to know people and hanging out with them. It didn’t matter that I knew only one ’73 classmate at Reunion. Many had not seen each other in years, sometimes as many as 50 years, and they had a great time connecting and reconnecting. So, I am sure that our reunion will be so much fun, and I urge people to attend! I have also developed friendships with classmates I know only through reunions, and more recently through working on the Reunion Committee. It is not too late to join the Reunion Committee: it requires only a one-hour Zoom meeting every month—and like much at Wesleyan, these Zoom calls aren’t even required (and there are no grades). Hope to see more of you on the committee soon.”
Norma Williams
Norma Williams was honored by the Real Property Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association as its Outstanding Real Estate Lawyer at an Installation and Awards Dinner on May 23, 2023. Norma has practiced as a transactional commercial real estate attorney for her entire career since her graduation from law school at University of California, Berkeley in 1977. The criteria for the award included excellence in practice, leadership, and contributions to the legal profession.
Monique Witt reports: “Professional demands have kept us all busy. Ben has been on U.S./European tour with Rickie Lee Jones and was featured with his sextet in the May issue of DownBeat magazine. He’s currently returning from [a] Midwest tour with his sextet (Nebula Project) and will join multiple Brazilian groups for NYC dates. Dev is working on new product development and joint ventures for ExMachina. Steven is traveling and I’m recovering from knee surgery following a sport injury.”
James Kempf updates us: “I am thinking of coming to the reunion next year but I am not sure since I live in California. My wife, Renate, and I have resolved to only fly every other year to reduce our carbon emissions and while next year is our flying year, we have another trip planned, to Europe where Renate’s family lives. I may take the train, it’s three days or so from California to Connecticut, but I could then visit with my family in Pennsylvania. Renate won’t come in any case; she does not enjoy gatherings where she doesn’t know anyone except me. And, actually, I have not been in touch with any other classmates since a year after leaving Wesleyan except for Bob Gershen. He and I have an interest in start-ups working on decarbonization.
“As for me, after a short stint in the Peace Corps subsequent to graduating from Wesleyan in 1974, I earned a master’s and PhD in systems engineering, with minor in computer science, at the University of Arizona; met in Arizona and married Renate in Germany; and we moved to Silicon Valley in 1984. I’ve lived there ever since, working for high-tech companies, primarily large companies like Sun Microsystems or Ericsson. I semiretired in 2020 and have been working on software for renewable energy companies and building decarbonization since, trying to move the energy transition forward. Right now I am the CTO at a start-up based in Seattle, building a virtual power plant system. I also am a member of an angel investing group for cleantech start-ups, and work with them on assessing start-ups with a decarbonization mission. In our spare time, we enjoy hiking, music (baroque and Renaissance as well as EDM Trance), theater, including baroque opera, and road trips in California and the West Coast.”
Blaise Noto has lived in Chapel Hill for the past 12-plus years, enjoying being back on the East Coast (via 10 years on Maui). While in Chapel Hill, he has taught communications, public relations, and digital media at a few North Carolina colleges including UNC School of the Arts, and is still actively involved in a number of committees in the motion picture academy, as well as in the Wesleyan Alumni Admission Volunteer Program. In September, he moved back to his native New York but this time upstate to the Clifton Park/Halfmoon area. (Retiring? He’ll see!) He is looking forward to coming back to Wesleyan for our 50th, catching up with friends, and the brothers at DEKE.
John McLucas is exploring options for translating his latest novel, The Boxer’s Mask, into Italian. It takes place in Rome during the pandemic and looks at the challenges of language acquisition and living abroad. He is also, at long last, correcting the proofs for his translation of Tullia d’Aragona’s epic Il Meschino (1560), forthcoming from the University of Toronto Press in its The Other Voice series, which publishes bilingual editions of books written by women in Renaissance Europe.
During a recent visit to New York, John had a wonderful lunch reunion with Jon Raskin ’73 and Steve Greenhouse ’73.
News from Gray “Jon” Cox is as follows: “I continue to enjoy teaching philosophy, peace studies, language learning, and AI-related stuff in the program for Human Ecology at College of the Atlantic in my hometown, Bar Harbor, Maine, and serve as clerk for the Quaker Institute for the Future. I am especially excited to be sharing my latest book, Smarter Planet or Wiser Earth?Dialogue and Collaboration in the Era of Artificial Intelligence, which is now available at all the usual online places as well as the publisher. Anyone interested in a review copy can download a PDF at www.smarterplanetorwiserearth.com for free or get a paperback if you are thinking of using it as a text or for reviewing it for a journal, newspaper, or newsletter. Write me at gray@coa.edu.
“I am continuing to enjoy writing songs and have included some in the book. I had a delightful time with a bunch of CSS folks in a Zoom call that Larry Green organized this year and look forward to more opportunities to reminisce and catch up as our 50th year reunion approaches!”
Christopher Moeller reports, “In late winter Carolyn White-Lesieur contacted me on behalf of the Reunion Committee. Although we had barely known each other at Wesleyan 50-plus years ago, her calls were a treat that I enjoyed immensely.
“On my request Carolyn provided my contact information to Cathy Barnes. Cathy and I exchanged several emails. Coincidentally, my wife and I had already scheduled a trip to San Francisco to visit one of her friends. The three of us met for dinner with Cathy and her husband, Peter Busch. Remarkably, Peter attended two years of high school with me in Dayton. Although we tried, it’s hard to cram 50 years into one evening!”
Rick Kronick and his wife Amy’s two daughters and their husbands moved across the street from them for a magical two years during the pandemic, one family coming from Philadelphia and the other from Seattle. Both girls had two-and-a-half-year-olds when they moved to La Jolla, and each girl got pregnant and delivered babies while in LJ. One set of in-laws also moved to a few blocks away, creating the La Jolla version of the shtetl. Sadly, everyone moved away in July 2022; the good news is that the Philadelphia family moved to Berkeley, where Dorothy is an assistant professor at the Goldman Public Policy School.
“Following the magical two-year interlude during the pandemic, it has been a tough year. I shattered my pelvis in a bike accident at the end of January (complete with surgery and 19 screws and plates), my 97-year-old mother died in March, and Amy has developed serious cognitive impairment along with her multiple sclerosis. The good news is that my recovery has gone well—back up to cycling 140 miles per week, some swimming, yoga, and even a bit of shuffling. I’m working at creating a new kind of partnership with Amy and looking forward to celebrating her 75th birthday on August 19 at a party with 20 of our friends.
“I’m not quite smart enough to retire from the faculty at the UC San Diego School of Public Health, and continue a bit of teaching, as well as my Don Quixote-like attempt to convince policymakers that Medicare Advantage plans are being overpaid to the tune of something on the order of $1 trillion over the next decade, which even by D.C. standards is a fair amount of money. Governor Newsom appointed me to the board of the newly created Office of Health Care Affordability, which promises to be an adventure.
“Although we did very little traveling in the winter when I was hopping around on a walker, we’re back to pretty regular trips to Seattle and Berkeley to visit our quite delicious and amazing grandchildren (not that I’m biased) and their parents.”
Rick Kronick and his grandchildren
John Gardner is semiretired after 45 years of work as a teacher, coach, and administrator at Avon Old Farms School. He has continued coaching hockey—this will be his 49th year coming up—and doing alumni development functions. He has also started a new business in helping to get male and female hockey players into New England prep schools, pathwaytoprep.com.
Ron Cartin shares: “Still living in Costa Rica and working as an actuary in the Costa Rican Social Security. I still love tennis but had to quit playing some years ago because of a retina detachment. Would love to get in touch with some of my friends from the Class of ’74 (specially friends from the varsity tennis team in the years 1970–1974 and from the Eclectic fraternity).”
Scott Burson informs us: “It’s been at least 20 years since I have contributed anything to class notes, but preparations for our 50th Reunion have unexpectedly flexed a nostalgia muscle. This entry should hold for another 30 years. Wendy Liebow and I married in 1979, have two adult daughters, and have lived successively in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Seattle, Washington, and Lexington, Massachusetts. After graduating from law school, I practiced law for three years. Discovering how poorly socialized I was to law firm life, I escaped to get a degree in librarianship and a seven-year career as an academic law librarian. The career thing finally stuck when I became an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board, working in the Seattle and Boston regional offices over 31 years. I retired in 2018 after concluding that I did not need to continue to subject myself to the insanity of the Trump administration. Haven’t looked back. Haven’t looked forward or sideways, either, but I take well to leisure.
“Other than my retirement, the recent headline is the relocation of both of our now fully launched daughters. Allison ’07 now lives in Freeport, Maine, working for the East Coast Greenway Alliance; Esther (nominally 2010, but transferred and graduated from Swarthmore) has just started as an assistant professor of psychology at Smith College. I hope to see many of you at our 50th Reunion.”
Jill during her summer hiking tour of the Alps
Jill Fuller-Johnston reports: “In December 2020 I lost my husband (an English-French horn player) after a long and difficult period of increasing dementia. It was during the very strict lockdown in Germany, so it was a very lonely time for me. To maintain contact with the community, I continue to work, but with a somewhat reduced workload. I still teach cello three days per week at the music school and am playing chamber music with excellent colleagues—in a string quartet and a piano trio—so I still have to practice regularly. Still living in the Sauerland, one of the most beautiful regions in Germany. This summer saw me hiking from hut to hut in the Swiss and Italian Alps, followed by visits to Ticino (Italian Switzerland) and Vorarlberg (Austria.) Then the whole family finally came to visit: my daughter with her family from England and my son with his family from Bonn. Despite the fact that it rained the entire time, it was an enjoyable visit because the small children are all the same ages (two and six) and the adults also get along well.
“Since May 2022 a Ukrainian family has been sharing my house with me.”
Claudia Catania updates us: “Just returned from Lloyd Komesar’s ninth annual Middlebury New Filmmaker Festival, which served four days of fascinating films. I highly recommend it to all for next August. Some of the Wesleyan grads partaking were Wayne Forrest, Sarah Cady Becker, Arthur Fierman, Bill Pearson, Rick Gilberg, Steve Goldschmidt ’72, Mike McKenna ’73, Michael Arkin ’72, Todd Jick ’71, Bob Becker ’71, Janet Biehl, Caroline White-Lesieur, et al!
“On the home front, my husband, John Cady ’71, and I enjoy having our older son, Max, just back from New Zealand and now a STEM teacher at Design Tech in San Francisco. Our son, Gavin, owns and manages from afar his restaurant, 1000 Figs, in New Orleans even though he lives with his wife, and their one-, three-, and five-year-old sons in Denver. John and I are planning to live in Denver a number of months per year, so give a holler if you know any folks we should look up!
Claudia Catania
“I’m no longer leading Playing on Air, the audio drama series of short plays I founded (playingonair.org; you can stream it or go to the podcast), but am enjoying newfound freedom as I weigh a world of possibilities. Travel ranks high. Sempre Avanti!”
In August, the board of directors of The Music Center (https://www.musiccenter.org/) announced the appointment of several new board members including attorney Richard (Dick) Kendall. As one of the nation’s largest performing arts organizations, The Music Center presents world-class dance performances, nationally recognized K–12 arts learning programs, digital arts experiences, and free and low-cost public concerts and events. In addition, The Music Center manages four theaters, Jerry Moss Plaza, and Gloria Molina Grand Park, on behalf of the County of Los Angeles.
“Each leader of our newest cadre of board members has been positively impacted by the arts throughout their successful lives and storied careers,” said Cindy Miscikowski, board chair of The Music Center.
Dick attended his first opera, Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, when he was 12 years old. Accompanying his grandmother to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, he recalls how stirred he felt while watching the fabled production—the experience cemented his lifelong dedication to the arts. Dick, a partner at Kendall Brill & Kelly LLP, with more than 30 years of complex litigation experience, joins The Music Center’s board of directors alongside his wife, Lisa See. He has his finger on the pulse of the performing arts field; he serves concurrently as a board member of BroadStage. Having witnessed firsthand some of the challenges facing performing arts venues and theatrical stages following the pandemic, he is determined to help The Music Center and Gloria Molina Grand Park thrive. Dick is also a member of the Human Rights Watch Southern California Committee and has served on the boards of Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and Western Center on Law and Poverty. He holds a juris doctor from the USC Gould School of Law. He and his wife live in Brentwood.
Class president Bill Quigley writes that the 50th Reunion was “poignant and healing.” He said there were great seminars, including the Two Nations Now One: 50 Years of Shared Love for Wesleyan, hosted by Wayne Barber, Rich Jasper, Ron Johnson, James “Diego” Howard, Josh Boger, along with Dean [Stephen] Butler on Zoom. “There were 50 Blacks and Latinos in our class—25 of them identified as premed when they came to Middletown. Twenty-three of the 25 became doctors. Many were first generation to attend college and Wesleyan changed their lives as it did for many,” he says.
Bill writes, “Most poignant for me was when Mike Shoob told his story of personally living TheNew York Times article our freshman year, “The Two Nations at Wesleyan University,” during that seminar. When Mike went to tell his suite mate on Lawn Avenue, Charles Trahan, to turn down his stereo, he got punched in the face. He never talked to Charles again at Wesleyan but always felt bad about that. He then handed the mic to Charles who was sitting behind him. Charles said that he always felt guilty about what he did and apologized to Mike. They hugged. Pretty dramatic and it felt like real closure for our turbulent years at Wesleyan. I ended up flying with Charles Trahan on my first leg home and we had a great time talking about the reunion.”
Bill also says the film from Donald Zilkha, Steve Goldschmidt ’72, and Granderson Hale showing the incredible behind-the-scenes work they did for so many concerts at Wesleyan was very special, and I had no idea how much they had to juggle.
He also says the 50th Reunion ’73 book was “extraordinary—kudos to Mark Helfa, John Huttlinger, and Jim Powers. In keeping with one of our themes of the last couple of reunions (I Never Knew You), I have kept the book on my desk since reunion and read it often—fascinated by the lives and thoughts of our classmates. Kate Quigley Lynch, Amanda Broulik, and Lucy Diaz did an incredible [job] organizing and facilitating the reunion.”
My East College roommate from freshman year, Timothy Bahti, says, “My word to our classmates, such as it is, is that it was a pleasure to see them all again, and to get to know—belatedly—a number for the first time. I look forward to seeing them again—when? At the 60th Reunion? I encourage us all to give to the Dean Stephen Butler Fund, in honor of our freshmen dean and in the service of financial support for first-generation Wesleyan students. To those of the class going to the world rugby championship in France this fall: enjoy Paris!”
Dr. Jonathan Raskin writes, “Very sorry to have missed the 50th Reunion but was on a trip in Egypt . . . third time trying to get there due to COVID . . . and family members really wanted to go, so we did visit and had a really great trip. I hope others have a visit there on their ‘bucket list.’”
He says, “My news is that I have been made a clinical professor of medicine in the Mount Sinai Health System . . . an honor capping off decades of the commitment to teach, publish, and care for others . . . something I still do embracing hard effort and humility.”
Mike McKenna says it was wonderful to connect with so many friends at the 50th Reunion. Over the weekend he caught up with Rick Edwards and his wife, Jackie, Dave and Sheila Bong, and Mark Eaton. He writes, “Really enjoyed seeing Tim Warner and Charlie Wayne who were first-year roommates and lived across the hall from me on Foss Hill. Both are also Western Reserve alums and Tim later served as the Reserve Board chair for years. Had lunch with Tim last week at the faculty club at Stanford where he is in the administration and colleagues with Condoleezza Rice. Also loved catching up with distinguished alumna Claire Reade and her husband the great Dr. Earl Steinberg. Talking with Rich Jasper about the work he continues to do advising young lawyers with clients on death row was also inspiring.”
Mike adds, “Inspired and humbled is a good way to sum it all up, I guess. I was particularly happy that so many Black classmates made the effort to come back. Learning about their family and career successes (so many doctors!) since our graduation made me feel so grateful for Wesleyan and the time we shared together. My overall thought was that I left campus this time, if not exactly feeling old, feeling aware of being part of a unique generation. Raised by parents who went through the Depression and World War II and their values, we hit an exciting period of history that changed all of us and shaped who we later became. I feel genuine affection for those who shared the experience.”
Bill Burke flew to Connecticut from Colorado for our reunion and says, “The Reunion Committee, guided by an outstanding team from Wesleyan, did a terrific job. Sincere thanks to Mandy Broulik, Kate Quigley Lynch, and Lucy Diaz.” I agree.
Bill also says, “Our memorable reunion combined with Homecoming events last November (reunion planning meeting; reception for hockey coach Dave Snyder and his wife, Diane; catching up with hockey teammates; and beating up on the Williams football team) has been my best Wesleyan experience since graduation,” adding, “How do you follow up on a best 50th Reunion ever?”
My West College roommate from senior year, Dr. Brian Mahoney, says he was sorry to miss our 50th but “I had total knee surgery and would not have been able to make the trip nor move around Wesleyan had Nancy Collins ’74 and I had made it.”
Brian writes, “There is some fun news for all Wesleyan crew participants over these decades. On Saturday, September 30, at the halftime of the home game with Hamilton football they [announced] the NCAA Regatta Finals Silver Medal winners of both the men’s and women’s crew. They [also announced] the establishment of the Calhoun ’62 Men’s Crew Foundation and the so-far unnamed Women’s Crew Foundation. That afternoon George Surgeon ’72 and I [sponsored] a banquet in Beckham Hall to honor the legacy of Phil Calhoun ’62 for reinvigorating—first by rowing, then [by] coaching—the men’s crew (there were no women undergraduates in 1969, so women’s crew did not start until 1972, with my bride, Nancy Collins, rowing). Phil did this as an avocation while he worked in President Etherington’s administration. . . . Phil Calhoun coached me for two years and George for three years. The successful men’s and women’s crews of today were built on the granite bedrock legacy of Phil Calhoun. Contact Wesleyan Giving if you would like to donate to either/both of these 503 c-1 qualifying funds.”
Brian eloquently spoke about what Wesleyan has done for him. He says, “I graduated Wesleyan with three life-changing gifts. Number one, my bride Nancy and I are going strong after 52 years. I got the education that led to my career path in medicine at the programs of my choice. [And] crew taught me the value of lifelong fitness to which I adhere to to this day.”
It was an honor to see so many of you at the very special reunion. My daughter Dana and I shared some nice moments with my former East College roommate, Eddie Nathan, and his lovely wife at dinner. He seems not to have aged and is as colorful and articulate as ever, as are so many of you who I saw on that memorable weekend in Middletown.
“How do we follow up on that?” as Billy Burke asked. I’m sure we will.
Finally we received word that our esteemed classmate Lloyd Mueller died on June 10. Lloyd had retired as the senior supervising epidemiologist for the Connecticut Department of Health and is remembered by many for accomplishing a great deal for public health in Connecticut. He had been a member of the New Haven Quaker Meeting Association and Yale Humane Association. He is survived by his wife, daughter, and two sons, and we will miss him and his notes to us over the past 50 years.
Bob White’s most recently published article on his research into the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis can be found at https://ojin.nursingworld.org/table-of-contents/volume-28-2023/number-3-september-2023/articles-on-previously-published-topics/eunice-rivers-rn/. Bob analyzes the historical treatment of Eunice Rivers, an African American public health nurse who was involved in the study and was generally assumed to be the only woman in a staff position in the infamous study. He shows that several white women authored articles on the study, and Miss Rivers was not, in fact, the only woman involved.
“Only identifying the black public health nurse, when there were white women involved, is inequitable, and thus a race issue. Only identifying the nurse, when there were statistical, administrative, and medical personnel involved, is inequitable, i. e., a class issue. In sum, all women who had roles in the TSUS should be revealed, because they matter.”
Bob’s article is a compelling and disturbing read. He makes a very strong case that Miss Rivers was herself victimized by the public treatment of the study and should have been included in President Clinton’s apologies to those wronged by the study, which included Tuskegee University itself.
“Between the Scylla of federal law and the Charybdis of limited funding, we have a narrow field in which to make recommendations. Running this task force now occupies a large proportion of my time. We are committed to making meaningful, yet achievable, recommendations.”
Mark Gelber sent further details about his visit to the Connecticut Valley last fall, previously briefly reported here. Before his talk at Wesleyan on Kafka— https://german.site.wesleyan.edu/2022/11/03/distinguished-grst-and-col-major-mark-h-gelber-72-on-china-judaismand-franz-kafka/—Mark spoke at a conference on Ruth Klueger at UMass Amherst. A small Wesleyan reunion was held at Amherst, attended by Burt Feuerstein and his wife, Janet Shalwitz, Michael Bober and his wife, Rosalina (still teaching at Amherst College), Howard Shpetner, and Marjorie Melnick. Mark admits to not really knowing Marjorie, who taught music at UMass for many years, but Burt sang with her in the Wesleyan choir. “I did not recall that there was one,” observes Mark. In Middletown he saw Krishna Winston and Vera Grant, meeting Krishna for coffee at the Wasch Center, of which she is now head. Mark recalls her giving a tutorial in German translation to him and Burt, and admits that Burt, a retired physician now living in Phoenix, is “a much better translator” than Mark. And finally, while he was “lingering” outside 60 High Street, where he lived senior year, Mark was invited in by the current owner, who proudly showed off the remodeled premises. My memory of 50 years ago is that remodeling was definitely called for even then.
Leon Vinci has been appointed as a board member of the Virginia Western Community College (VWCC) Scholarship Advisory Board. On behalf of the Virginia Western Educational Foundation, Inc., Leon’s responsibilities include awarding annual scholarship disbursements to eligible students.
Dennis Kesden and his wife, Sherry, have been surviving the Scottsdale heat wave.
“My thrice weekly golf goes on all summer (starts 7:00 a.m. in 90s, ends 10:00 a.m. at 105 [degrees] or so). We continue our biking and workout classes. My 44-year-old physicist son is applying for his full professorship at UT Dallas and is very involved with his research, teaching, and faculty/university politics. He is president of the Texas section of the American Physics Association this year. My daughter here in Phoenix is busy planning my grandson’s Bar Mitzvah next month. My niece just graduated from Wesleyan and is working in NYC. My siblings (both Wesleyan graduates) are alive and well in California. We traveled to Sherry’s 50th MIT reunion and had a blast in Boston. Always in touch with Mike Busman—we met him in Quebec City this summer and had a wonderful time.”
Dan Gleich, on the other hand, has been particularly glad to live in San Francisco, where the temperature has been a steady 74. He’s “almost retired” with wife, Pat, daughter, Ginger, and her family right in town. Two grandsons, four-and-a-half and eight months. His son is a first-year public school teacher in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
“The members of the Quad County Association: myself, Peter Stern, Morgan Muir ’73, and Jack Fritz ’73, continue to get together with our now multigenerational families for a rotating quarterly dinner. I’ve also been working on a writing project with Richard Hood and hope to have some news about that next time around. For now, it’s all very hush-hush.
Paul Vidich’s latest novel, Beirut Station, should be in the bookstores by the time you read this.
Finally, we lost Jon Berk in August after a long battle with dementia. Jon had a successful legal career at Hartford’s Gordon, Muir & Foley, alongside Bill Gallitto. He argued several cases before the Connecticut Supreme Court, but apparently was better known for his prodigious collection of comic books. See https://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2017/05/30/berk-72-puts-rare-comic-and-art-collection-up-for-auction/. Jon is remembered particularly fondly by his teammates on Wesleyan’s rugby team.
Aloha, classmates. Here is the recent news from those who emailed me with their transitions or news. Enjoy.
Nancy Binkin writes: “Love the new column! I saw that you are spending part of your time in La Jolla. Let me know if you ever have time to come over for dinner. I’m in Talmadge (San Diego), which is usually only about 20 minutes down the road, and I love to cook. We could also see if Stephen Ferruolo and his wife wanted to come.”
Nancy, Stephen and I have gotten together several times to talk and reminisce about old times and discuss new times. In fact, me the science guy will be lecturing a class of Stephen’s at USD law school about biopharmaceutical companies and regulations. Should be interesting.
Blake Allison asks to change his email from his old email at Dingman Allison, which is no longer in service. Please use his new email: Blakeallisonarch@gmail.com. He also tells us that he and Bob Yaro met. “Bob took a break from his battle royal with the Army Corps of Engineers and sailed his beautiful wood cruising sloop Iolanthe, a replica Newport 29 designed in 1914 by Herreshoff, to Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard, where he and [I] were able to rendezvous, as [we] had planned last year at the reunion. A memorable sail on Nantucket Sound and a sunset visit at [my] Chappaquiddick Island home ensued. Bob’s choice of designer for his boat is no accident, as he is the head of the board at the Herreshoff Museum in Bristol, Rhode Island.”
From Andy Glantz: “Thanks for continuing to do this thankless task. I am not undergoing any transition, save the slow and ineluctable slide toward the abyss—which I have managed to hold at bay, at least for the time being. Can you mention that I spent two weeks working on a kitchen on the Big Island, I will have moderated a panel discussion at a large trade show (AWFS) in Las Vegas on July 24, and will be teaching again at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking in September. Otherwise, life is good and Roberta and I are thankfully healthy and whole. Love to hear from classmates: andy@zenith-design.com.”
And transitions from Katy Butler: “I’m having the strange experience of NOT writing a book, NOT living in my head, and not feeling guilty about not writing a book. Instead, I’m living in the material world: pulling out the Makita drill my late father gave me, hanging mirrors and curtain rods, buying an orbital sander to refinish two beautiful Japanese end tables I found on the street, and fixing (or, rather hiring people to fix) our weathered deck and tippy paving stones. (More to come: repainting, reroofing, bathrooms, etc.)
“I successfully remodeled the kitchen two years ago, knocking out a wall and bringing in light. Now I’m pondering how to bring more Arts and Crafts touches into our 1970s blocky spec house. I have a lot of overdue nesting to do. Brian and I finally married a few years ago, after two decades of cohabiting, and finally I feel this house is really ‘ours’ rather than ‘his.’ The work transition was tough. I spent months in a liminal COVID and post-COVID space, with my speaking engagements dried up and the book project I had in mind shot down by my fancy New York agent Binky Urban. I theoretically wanted to write, but on the rare occasions that I did, the work depressed me. But now that I have given up thinking I can both write and remodel at the same time, I feel joyous.
“After decades in a male workaholic headspace (my father’s realm), I’m exploring the female. (My mother was an extraordinarily beautiful woman, a gifted amateur artist, and as anyone who visited their home in Middletown can attest, a fabulous designer and manager of home. Her taste was mid-century modern, but fashionable as it is now, I lean towards coziness, half-inch trim, the not-so-big house, and the work of Christopher Alexander, and the Arts and Crafts movement.)”
Grant Hawkins writes: “I hope all is well. I retired from the Marion Superior Court bench last September after almost 22 years. In December I had a knee replaced and on the theory that anything worth doing was worth overdoing, I overstressed during exercises. I am almost healthy enough to get active in the community.”
And from Anthony Wheeldin: “After 32 years as a lawyer and 12 years on the bench, I am retired as of August 2, 2023. I recently listened to a symposium featuring Professor Richard Slotkin . . . as impressive was he was in 1969 when the late James Horton ’71 and I had a tutorial with him on Mark Twain.”
A literary work from Jonathan Kramer: “The second edition of my world music textbook, What in the World Is Music? has been released by Taylor and Francis. It’s dedicated to Wes icon David McAllester. Nearly 20 years in the research and writing. Now transitioning into old age, but still teaching part time (emeritus) at NC State. Got a few kinks but basically sound.”
Well, that is all the news sent to me. For me, spending time on Kauai and fixing up my new townhouse in La Jolla. Interesting job when you actually get a new place but have nothing to move into it. An air mattress for a bed seems like life after college. Hmmm, another transition but backward I guess. 😊!
Aloha, everyone. Lots of news and plenty of space because this column is digital.
Some of your classmates were traveling during the past several months, perhaps most notably Elliot Daum and Marcos Goodman, who both embarked on months-long expeditions all over Europe.
Peter Ratner wrote: “Not much to report. Retirement is still working out for us. Am attending to some medical issues (cataract surgery), so have been a bit slack with my conservation work. [Peter volunteers on projects regularly.]
“Looking forward to Australia in August to see my daughter and then four weeks in Alsace (to visit places in Germany where my ancestors lived), Normandy with two of our daughters, England, and the US of A.”
While some of us would like to retire, at least one of us intentionally isn’t. Had this from John Rinehart: “As I was getting ready to retire, a new job opportunity presented itself, so as of March of this year, I became the director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. After almost 40 years in private practice, the return to an academic position has been interesting. I would say that for those of you who have grandchildren who are considering medicine as a career, the future of medicine is exciting. Combining AI with molecular biology offers opportunities that cannot even be imagined. How long this leg of the journey will last, I don’t know but so far it is interesting.”
From Rob Baker: “We have a new grandson. Spent some time enjoying Nicaraguan hospitality and, of course, waves. We are still enjoying time on Kauai.”
Robert Baker surfing in Nicaragua.
A long letter from Bob Apter: “I am continuing to enjoy Sedona, even the summer when it frequently gets to 100 degrees! I usually hike three times per week, and I have no trouble keeping busy the rest of the time with the year-round film festival here, and lots of dining and entertainment options unusual for a small community.
Oak Creek swimming hole
“I visited the Oak Creek swimming hole in the picture yesterday with a friend. It was a perfect place to swim in the heat, with cool but not too cold water! The swimming hole was amazingly more than 100 yards long (we never reached the upstream end of the swimmable pool) and about 25 yards wide. The area near the rock wall in the picture is 12 feet deep! Although Sedona is known for crowds, because this place is little known and a bit difficult to get to, we didn’t see another person the whole six hours we were out. It is similarly relatively easy to find incredible places to hike that tourists will never see!
“The picture of Coffee Pot Rock in the snow got 26,000 likes on a landscape photography site, probably a combination of Coffee Pot being an iconic symbol of Sedona, and the amount of fresh snow was quite unusual. I took the picture from the street a few doors from my house! All these pictures are taken with my iPhone.
Coffee Pot Rock
“Brenda and I separated at Thanksgiving and are in the process of divorce. But condolences are not in order! I feel very liberated and newly able to explore what Sedona has to offer. I am now in a new relationship with Anngwyn St. Just. She is well- known in a small circle of practitioners of Systemic Constellations. You can learn a bit about her work by Googling her. She has written 10 books, several of which have been translated into Spanish and German.
“I have been utterly amazed at the number of people I have met in Sedona with psychic abilities. Some of them I have met through Anngwyn, but others just by meeting people and their friends. I do believe the phenomena they describe are real, at least for the most part, and I am exploring this new (for me) realm. Sedona, with its vortexes and red rocks, is truly a magnet for such people.
“I am still doing a bit of telemedicine work for COVID, but my workload has dropped way off because of the ending of the emergency status (which means I can no longer prescribe for COVID in states where I am not licensed), and the easing of the pandemic. I am still involved in a lawsuit against the FDA for suppressing use of ivermectin for COVID and fending off medical licensing boards who want to take my license away for having had far better treatment results than they can account for, by ignoring all of the mainstream narrative advice, which I consider to be corrupt lies. I have done something like 15,000 patient consultations for COVID. In the first month I did this (April 2021), I had two high-risk patients not respond well, and they went to the hospital where they worsened and died. I adjusted protocols, and since then I have not had any deaths, and very few hospital visits in patients I have treated.
“Because of my divorce, I am not yet in a permanent housing situation, but I would love to get together with anyone who might be coming through Sedona! And if you like, I can guide you on one or more hikes to incredible places.”
And this from the elusive Harvey Bercowitz: “Picture of me, wife Lynn, and dog Sadie (our fourth Komondor) at home in Virginia Beach. We love living by the ocean. Still happily retired. Traveling a bit more. Just back from visiting Bob Feldman, wife, Kathy, kids, and grandkids vacationing in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. He remains busy writing and updating psychology textbooks and doing special projects for UMass, Amherst where he was most recently vice chancellor. Hope to see you in ’25!”
Harvey, Lynn, and dog Sadie
Peter and Emi Kalischer have moved from Japan to Honolulu, where their condo has an ocean view.
Jeremy Serwer sent in photos to show us “how simple and fun life can be at 75. . . . Where else can you invest a $100 or so, plus gas and tolls, pulling 8,000 pounds, and get a quarter to half of it back? And enjoy a favorite pastime, the Old West?” He said he’s not sure if our Wesleyan education “prepared me for when it comes to this stuff, though I bet it gave me the right frame of mind. . . .”
Jeremy at the Vermont State Fair shoot, August 19, 2023
We moved into our Kalihiwai Valley (Kaua’i) home in February. There is much to do to finish it, including redoing some things that the second general contractor screwed up. He abandoned the project, so we were left with a lot of basic things to handle. The bulk of those is done, but it’s proving difficult to get the electrician and the plumber back to finish the last of their work. Still, with only one neighbor in this end of the valley, a beautiful waterfall view behind some invasive trees to be felled, and a lazy river nearby that leads to a gorgeous bay, we don’t have much room to complain. Now for interest rates to fall to the level at which the place will be affordable.
The Josephson house in Kaua’i
The waterfall as it will look once the trees in front of it are felled.
On another front, because of the building costs and our underpaid jobs, Vera and I don’t really travel except for very special family occasions. But we’re planning a trip to New Zealand for next June. Very fortunately, we have been able to book flights on Alaska Airlines miles via Fiji Airways, one of their partners. With a stop on Christmas Island for one hour (“How’d you like to spend Christmas on Christmas Island?”—Leon Redbone) and two days in Fiji on the way to Auckland, it should be fun. We’re digging out the warmer clothing for the New Zealand winter weather and scouring guidebooks and the internet for ideas. Tried an AI search for an itinerary based on hot springs, short hikes, and scenery. An interesting experiment.
And that about does it for this round. In case you are as spacey as I am, go right now and put our 55th Reunion on your calendar for May 2025.
