A long note from Hal Ginsberg: “Many thanks to Sandy Goldstein for organizing a Delta Tau Delta reunion in downtown Manhattan. A cross-section of mid-to-late-80s classes were there: Sandy and me, Rick Davidman ’84, Soren Pfeffer ’85, Steve Shackman ’87, Jim Freeman ’87, Bill Houston ’87, Ira Skolnik ’87, Dan Levy ’88, Scott Ades ’88, David Morse ’88, Ed Thorndike ’89, and Mike Marciello ’89.
“Atlantic seaboard Delts from Montpelier and Boston all the way to Palm Beach traveled by plane, bus, train, car, subway, and our own two feet to share memories and catch up on a Friday night. Some hadn’t seen others in well over 30 years. We started with drinks at a Union Square watering hole then proceeded to a nearby Italian restaurant where a multicourse repast was supplemented by numerous bottles of Tuscany’s (near) finest. Not wanting to end the evening, we moved on for a nightcap. Steve graciously hosted a lovely brunch the next day at his apartment. It was a great weekend!”
Hal was struck by the varied professions that we entered over the years. “Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of us went into finance. Others became doctors, lawyers, and business consultants. But one of us is a wine merchant, another is a real estate agent who doubles as a burrito shop owner, a third was an art dealer, a fourth a religious studies professor. I am now in my third and fourth acts. After practicing law then operating a radio station, I have been writing freelance and am acting as co-chair for the progressive group Our Revolution in Montgomery County, Md.”
Sally Spener writes, “In February, my husband and running partner, Sergio, and I completed our first marathon after taking up distance running in 2017 with the Jeff Galloway ’67 training group in El Paso, Texas. By press time, we will have completed the Ciudad Juarez Marathon as well. We enjoy weekend training runs along the Rio Grande.”
Hazlyn Fortune lives in Oakland and is an administrative law judge at the California Public Utilities Commission. “I’ve been at the Commission for over 18 years on a variety of energy and telecommunications issues. I’ve been a commissioner advisor and supervised a staff of nine implementing statewide energy efficiency programs. I love to garden, travel, dance, and cook, and look forward to hearing about everyone else in class notes update.”
Beth Kaufman and Mark Miller ’87 shipped their daughter off to her last year of college, packed up their life, sold the Yonkers house, and moved to Harlem. “It’s a year of transition and a new chapter. The move puts us closer to friends and family. It also puts us closer to Mark’s new board game café, Hex & Co., on the Upper West Side. I got my certificate to teach English as a second language and I’m aiming to find work near our new home. Finally, after deciding to put our music on the back burner for a bit, I’ll be taking my band down to Jamaica for one final show in late October.”
John Ephron’s younger son, Sam ’22, just started as a freshman at Wes, happily ensconced in Butterfield C. John says it was nice to stroll the campus, and he’s looking forward to getting back more often.
Jaclyn Brilliant’s daughter, Josephine ’18, graduated from Wesleyan in May. “It was a ton of fun for us to be back on campus for the celebration. My husband, Anthony Jenks ’85, and I got to briefly catch up with Ann O’Hanlon during a trip to D.C. over Labor Day—drinks, HQ online trivia game, and nostalgia prevailed. I like to think the spirit of Jinny Kim was with us.”
Jim Clark: “I’m running the World Technology Network, a global association of the most innovative people in sci-tech—helping our 1,500 elected fellows know about each other’s innovations, and convening conferences with the U.N. and others on such topics as renewable energy, the future of work, and the governance of A.I.
“In addition to consulting, I’m also involved in political work, especially over the past two Trump years. Divorced 10 years, with two still-keeping-me-busy daughters (now 19 and 23), I see a lot of movies, still dance at festivals, write/perform poetry, take photos, hang out with my BFF since Wes days, Peter Benson, and marvel at the speed of time.”
Andy Clibanoff and his wife, Denise, are thrilled that their children (Callie ’19 and Leo ’22) are at Wes. Both kids experienced “the Butts” just as Andy did when he became good friends with Tanya Kalischer ’85 and Chris Coggins ’85, whose son, Noah Kalischer-Coggins ’22, is also living there. Andy is active in Wesleyan’s Philadelphia area regional alumni group and planned a happy hour and concert by the Wes alumni duo, The Overcoats. He and Denise hosted the Philadelphia Summer Sendoff. Nearly 75 students and family members attended in August. Professionally, Andy is an organizational and leadership development coach serving the sports and entertainment, technology, health care, and entrepreneurial environments.
First, I’d like to thank my co-secretary, Marybeth Kilkelly, for her wonderful columns and great energy working on the class notes for the past however many years. I’ll be pulling them together on my own from now on . . . unless one of you wants to volunteer (hint, hint).
Mary Duke Smith is living in Silver Spring, Md., with her husband of over 25 years, Philippe Varlet. She has been working as a personal trainer and wellness educator for the past several years and “finally feels like [she] has found [her] dream job.”
Paula Kay Drapkin writes, “I am happy to report that my son, Jack Drapkin, just graduated from the D’Amore McKim School of Business at Northeastern University. He is attending Major League Soccer’s sales training in Blaine, Minn., and will be interviewing for a full-time job with one of the MLS teams in October. My daughter, Jordan Drapkin, is a junior at The Ohio State University double majoring in business and sports industry.”
I heard from Rosalin Acosta, who shares my astonishment that we’ve been out of college for 33 years: “After graduating from Wes, I decided to move to Massachusetts and not my home state of New Jersey. I got married two years after graduation and began my journey into motherhood and a professional career in banking. I spent 32 years in banking in the Greater Boston area and more importantly had five beautiful children during that time. Today they range in age from 19 to 31. I was remarried in 2015 to Ed Lynch, and we live south of Boston. In June 2017, I was honored to be asked by Governor Baker to become the Commonwealth’s Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development. It’s been an extremely fulfilling journey so far; I’ve been able to combine my business experience with my passion for social impact. Spending a few years in the public sector has always been a dream of mine. Now that I’m there, it’s been exciting, rewarding, and truly a great learning experience. Ed and I love traveling and spending time in both Boston and Chatham.”
Finally, we lost our classmate Susan Eastman Allison to cancer in May. Susan majored in African Studies at Wes, and shortly after we graduated she started Ibis Books & Gallery in Middletown. Later, the shop became The Buttonwood Tree, a performing arts and cultural space which remains a fixture on Main Street. Best known for her poetry, Susan published three volumes with another forthcoming; in addition, she was the first poet laureate of Middletown. She is survived by her husband, Stephan Allison, and their son John. Her loss is mourned by all who encountered her light.
Greetings to you all at the start of our 25th Reunion year. Hope to see some of you on Foss Hill from Friday, May 24, to Sunday, May 26, 2019.
My thanks to Roger Pincus for being co-class secretary these last few years. Roger has stepped down to concentrate on his now-empty nest, as daughter Jillian ’22 has started at Wesleyan, joining sister Heather ’19. Daughter Melanie is a sophomore at Brown and is referred to in Roger’s mail as “the family traitor.”
Laura Meyer is a professor of art history at California State University, Fresno, and husband David Lorey ’83 is a freelance consultant, working mostly with nonprofit organizations. Laura and David are celebrating 36 years together. She says, “Some of you may have wondered what the hell we were thinking having a baby (our daughter Lee Alex) during my senior year and generally behaving in an irrational, young-love-fueled way.” She is grateful to Wesleyan and to the fates. Lee Alex retired from the San Francisco Ballet after 15 years and is working toward a new career as a personal trainer and healer; son Robin is a senior at UCLA this year studying archeology. Laura thinks warmly of her many Wes friends who shared time with her, and even put up with her “stealing their sandwiches.”
James Glickman joined several classmates in their 19th annual baseball weekend, combining their love of baseball with their interest in historical sites (and food and beer). Along with Mark Randles, Michael Bailit, Bill Barry, and Hans Schweiger, they went to Atlanta to see the Braves and the MLK Center. Jay and Gail Jenkins Farris hosted them for a barbecue dinner, and Teresa Chin joined the festivities. Jim also joined Ellen Glazerman, who had just moved to Needham, Mass., for the 4th of July fireworks.
I was sent a picture of a group of classmates enjoying dinner at a Korean restaurant in New York. Randy Frisch, Monica Elias, Dan Motulsky, Sarah Jamison, Dana Sachs, Jeddy Lieber, Eileen Kelly, and Anthony Richter raised a toast to their being “not older, but better.”
David Rosenbaum is getting married in May (so may not make Reunion). He has been in the Boston area for 35 years, working as a senior solution architect at Acquia.
David also contributes a bit of sad news. Don Gillis has passed away. Don served in the Marines and taught at Brockton High School in Massachusetts. His full obituary is here: keohane.com/services/donald-s-gillis.
That’s pretty much all the news that’s fit to print, and a little that isn’t.
Happy fall! I hope these notes find you safe and dry. I don’t know about you all, but my summer was way too short. Although, I do welcome the cooler weather and changing colors. Here is what our classmates have been up to. Again, you all amaze me!
Cheri Weiss was ordained as a cantor in May from the Academy of Jewish Religion in Los Angeles. She is enrolled in their rabbinical school and hopes to be ordained also as a rabbi in May 2020.
Dave Grishaw-Jones writes: “I concluded a 16-year run as senior minister at Peace United Church in Santa Cruz. It’s been a delightful, challenging and exhilarating experience, start to finish! On Aug. 19, I’ll join my new friends at First Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, D.C.” His new e-mail address is david.grishaw.jones@gmail.com.
Patrick Roth just released The Me in Medicine, a roadmap for making medicine better for patients and for improving career satisfaction for professionals. He will be teaching a class at the Seton Hall School of Medicine on professionalism (where he is the chair of neurosurgery). He is halfway through a master’s in public health at Columbia.
Deirdre Black and husband, Fraser, are moving to Accra, Ghana, where they will live until September 2019. She encourages classmates visiting or living in West Africa to reach out.
Andy Hollander, his wife, Dorothy, and his teenage sons, Caleb and Sam, live in Chatham, N.J. Andy is an intellectual property attorney with K&L Gates. He is president of the board of trustees of the Library of the Chathams and passionate about supporting public libraries. He also teaches patent law as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall Law School. In his spare time, he plays guitar and writes songs. Original songs and poems are at andrewmerrillcrane.com. He would love to hear from old friends and folks who care about libraries and songwriters.
Alice Jankell writes and directs theater in NYC. She is developing and directing a brand new musical by the legendary folk singer, Si Kahn. Alice and her husband, Jess Shatkin, have two almost-grown kids: Daughter Parker is currently studying in Moscow, and son Julian is an actor whose newest movie, What We Found, will be out in 2019.
Jan Elliott says: “It’s lovely living back in my hometown of Woods Hole. The summer was busy and included several music gigs, a Morris dance tour in Maine, teaching at Pinewoods music and dance camp in Plymouth, family visitors young and old, and a weekend at the Toronto Morris Ale. I’m home and ready for school to start—I teach dance and music at Waldorf School of Cape Cod—a recent highlight was jumping off the bridge into the Woods Hole channel with friends after dancing, to swim around the pier to a pub amidst bioluminescent critters and curious fish.”
David Campanelli and Catherine Maguire just graduated their son from Brown University magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, in political science and history. Younger son Keegan is a rising junior at Vanderbilt in electrical engineering. David and Cat are counting on him to take care of them in their old age. Son #3, Bryce, goes to D.C. with Hamilton Place Strategies. Cat is a WAAV volunteer, interviewing prospective students and loves it.
Greetings from the Midwest. Alas, I (Joanne) have sad news to report—an indication of where we find ourselves along the path of this great journey we call life. But let me begin with happier news from a selection of our classmates.
I caught up with my old roommate Kathy Prager Conrad and her husband, Jamie. Kathy advises, counsels, and directs teams of talented young people in the tech sector in her job as director of digital government at Accenture, where she builds on the work that she did in the Obama administration to modernize government using digital services and technology. She finds time to travel, most recently to Croatia. Kathy’s daughter, Liza ’11, has relocated from Brooklyn to Atlanta to work as the deputy data and digital director on Stacey Allen’s gubernatorial campaign (results unknown at this time). Caroline ’14 is working in film as a writer, producer, and director, balancing “professional work” with pro bono work in areas of her passion. Kathy’s sister, Ellen Prager ’84, a renowned marine biologist and educator, will publish her book, Dangerous Earth: What We Wish We Knew, in December.
I caught up by phone with both Rick Ciullo and John “Wally” Walden ’82. Rick, who retired last year from Chubb Insurance still keeps involved in the insurance world in Hartford but remains in New Jersey, where he can better enjoy the company of his wife and his daughters, Meghan (a senior in high school) and Hannah (a sophomore in college). Wally, in Ontario, is happy in the world of technology and is enjoying life as empty nesters with wife Lisa while yet still trying to enjoy as much time as possible with his two sons.
Brenda Zlamany’s 100/100 is a stunning and poignant multimedia exhibition that includes 100 watercolor portraits, 100 photographs, and a short video of older and disabled residents of the Hebrew Home at Riverdale that the artist painted during 2017.
The paintings were exhibited at the Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection. She has received a Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant, a Fulbright Fellowship, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, a New York Foundation for the Arts Artists’ Fellowship in painting, and a Jerome Foundation Fellowship. Yale University recently commissioned two large-scale group portraits by her for permanent public display on campus. What an accomplished career!
Greg Shatan moved son Max Shatan ’22 into his old freshman dorm, Foss 1. Greg reminisced about a recent collective 60th birthday celebration and Urban Renewal band reunion. Many of the core members were there, along with special guest musicians: Rob Levin, Joel Kreisberg, Bryant Urban, Carl Sturken ’78, Joe Galeota ’85, Jeannie Gagné ’82, Liz Queler, Billy Hunter ’78, Scot Hecker, Matt Penn, Bill Yalowitz, and Paul Spiro.
Greg joined the law firm of Moses & Singer as a partner in their intellectual property and internet/technology practices and became president of the New York chapter of the Internet Society, a group that promotes the open development, evolution and use of the internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world.
Barry “Pono” Fried’s business Open Eye Tours was inducted into the Trip Advisor Hall of Fame and received their coveted Certificate of Excellence for seven consecutive years. He creates custom interpretive hands-on experiences to Hawa’i based on his 35 years of teaching, guiding, and cultural immersion.
Ned Lerner rates high on the list of cool dudes (my words, not his, after telling my sons). He has been in San Francisco since 1996; for the past 13 years he’s been director of engineering at Sony PlayStation, whose team did “a lot of the heavy lifting” for the PS4. Ned left to start his fifth start-up, Hearo.Live, a live audience for everything using the power of voice, video, and touch. If anyone is big on eSports, games, or streaming, Ned invites you to meet him in Hearo: Ned#4868.
Stephen Misarski received his Doctor of Ministry from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. His concentration was outreach and discipleship which resulted in his thesis-project, “Training for Evangelistically Effective Churches in New England.”
It is with great sadness that I conclude with news of the passing of Kevin Osborn on June 15 from complications of lung cancer. He was a devoted, creative, working, stay-at-home dad, as well as a gifted writer, producing more than three dozen books on topics ranging from classical mythology to medical literature to sports, as well as books on parenting and titles for young adults on justice and tolerance. He wrote as a futurist in his later years. He had an encyclopedic memory and a love of puzzles, was also a die-hard Mets fan, and a man of great optimism. He will be dearly missed by his friends and family. Our deepest sympathy goes out in particular to his wife of 29 years, Susan Kiley ’83, and their four children, Meghan, Ian, Molly and Casey. Donations may be made to Tri-Boro Volunteer Ambulance Corps, PO Box 204, Park Ridge, N.J. 07656.
Thank you, Wes ’80 for writing. There were so many first-time and return writers that I had to cut the print column to half the size of what was submitted. In the print version, I urged you to put that magazine down and I hoped you would pick up your phone, tablet, or laptop and go straight online to view the notes in their entirety. Here, online, you will learn more about the lives of our classmates and can click on a few links they sent. I hope that the level of engagement in writing for our class notes column is an indicator that there will be many who, for the first time, will join us “Reunion loyalist” and attend our 40th in May 2020—where we can look back with perfect vision to what one of our classmates who recently wrote called, “a simpler time.”
Cheryl Salden Green writes: My husband, Jim, and I are very excited that our son, Mitchell, was admitted to Wesleyan early decision this year and will entering as a freshman this fall. Mitchell fell in love with the school when we visited during Alumni Sons and Daughters Weekend during his junior year (in spite of the fact that Jim and I went there)! Jim and I met in Foss 7 the first day of freshman orientation in August 1976 (and got married 15 years later, after Jim finished his medical residency and I was out of law school). We have been on campus more during the college application process in the last two years than we have since graduation. I am a real estate attorney in Rhode Island working in-house for CVS Health. Jim and Mitchell (who recently became an eagle scout) are both active volunteers for Boy Scouts and other groups. We live in Foxborough (home of the Patriots). I would love to hear from some of our Wesleyan friends.”
Bruce Post writes: “My second novel, Eris Adrift, was published in May and is available at Amazon, as a paperback and also on Kindle.”
Nancy Stier writes: “I recently spent a wonderful evening here in NYC with classmates Art Feltman, Thom Kleiner, and David Kohane, a dinner we arranged to celebrate our big birthdays this year.”
Paul Edwards writes: “In July 2017, I moved to San Francisco with my family to take up a new position at Stanford University, where I am William J. Perry Fellow in International Security at the Center for International Security and Cooperation. I’ll be a lead author on the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, a four-year task that’s both an honor and a ton of work. My wife, Gabrielle Hecht, also took a Stanford position in the history department. Our 15-year-old son, Luka, is finishing his first year of high school, playing soccer, and writing poetry, fiction, and rap. Two sightings of the aggressively shaven Alan Jacobs, on his way to Norway to make a film about the 1911 race to the South Pole. (Memo to Alan: Norway is nowhere near Antarctica.)”
Jacquie and Andrew McKenna writes: “Greetings from Boulder, Colo. Our family is back in Boulder after our girls, Xan (16) and Juliana (14), lived for five months in Monteverde Costa Rica with local families and attended the Monteverde Friends School for a semester. They are both basically fluent in Spanish and much more aware of their own traditions after living in a very different culture. They also survived the eye of Hurricane (in Spanish “Tormenta”) Nate—cut off for a week from water and electricity, surrounded by mudslides in every direction but well taken care of by an amazing community.” During these five months, Jacquie and Andrew lived in Monteverde for a couple months volunteering with the local community on solar and conservation, traveled throughout Central America for a couple months and returned to the States for a month as empty nesters (very strange)! Speaking of empty nesters, we sure are aware how time is passing as our oldest daughter obtained her driver’s license this month and is talking about colleges and our younger daughter graduated from middle school and heads to high school next year. As we all say, “where does the time go?!?!” Before we know it, we’ll all be back at Wesleyan celebrating our 40th Reunion year—FORTIETH! Yikes!”
David Claman, PhD, writes: “I recently earned tenure at Lehman College in The Bronx, one of the senior colleges of The City University of New York. I teach music theory, composition, and electronic music. With tenure comes a much-needed sabbatical. I’ve fortunately been awarded a Fulbright-Nehru grant for research and teaching in India next year. So, in September my wife, Sunita, and I will once again relocate to India for many months, this time to Delhi. I will be affiliated with The University of Delhi, composing, teaching, and learning more about Hindustani music. The experience I had learning South Indian music at Wes with T. Viswanathan PhD’75, T. Ranganathan, and K.S. Subramanian PhD’86—among the finest musicians I’ve ever worked with—has stayed with me and continues to play a part in my life. But at this point I’m interested in learning more about music in North India which is significantly different.
“The rest of the time, we live in Jackson Heights, Queens, N.Y., with our dog named Boffin who was rescued off the streets of Delhi three years ago. I’m also in the final stages of putting together a CD of my music for Albany Records. Several of my compositions are posted here, as well as on YouTube and Spotify.”
Peter Scharf writes: “I continue my itinerate life as a visiting professor at various institutions. Last November I completed a three-year appointment at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, and at the end of July I take up an appointment in the Language Technology Research Center at the International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad. I’ll teach a course on Paninian linguistics for non-Sanskritists, the aim of which will be to get the future writers of machine translation of Indian languages to include concepts from their own currently neglected Indian linguistic traditions. In the meantime, I keep adding texts, lexical resources, and linguistic technology to the Sanskrit Library website.”
Jeff Green writes: “I started working part-time in the emergency department of a new hospital in Ashdod, Israel, and continue to work in a couple of ERs in Wisconsin sporadically, dividing my time between Israel and Milwaukee. Our oldest daughter is a doctor in Australia, our youngest is in the Israeli intelligence service, and our son (Wesleyan Class of 2015) just got a record deal in LA. Check out his tune—Bring Me Down by Double Twin.”
Walter Calhoun writes: “I presently live in Highland Park, Ill. I have not had steady employment since I was hit by a car as a pedestrian on May 22, 2002 when I was sent 30 feet in the air and suffered a severe head injury after landing on my head and face. Miraculously, I did not break any bones. I was, however, in a coma for close to 30 days and then further hospitalized for another six to seven months as I attempted to recover from my various injuries.
“After I was discharged from the hospital, I continued to try and develop civil defense business in the mid-size defense firm where I was a partner. Ultimately, I was no long able to try lawsuits to verdict like I had before and by 2008 left the practice of law for good. By that time, I was living with my daughter, Sammy, who had obtained her degree in religion from St. Anselm in Manchester, N.H., and had begun work at CDW Corp. We lived in Glencoe, Ill., together for three years until we were joined by my son, Daniel, who was then taking a break from college. Sammy has been working at CDW in Bridgeport, Conn., while living with her fiancé, Brian. They plan to marry on Oct. 12, 2018 art the Bronx Zoo in NYC. Daniel graduated from Lake Forest College in Illinois cum laude this past June and has accepted a position in finance at Ayco. I have tried to keep in contact with Steve Freccero who was nominated to serve as a California state judge after a position as an assistant U.S. attorney and becoming a partner in private practice and Labeeb Abboud who is a general counsel for a company in NYC Blessings in joy.”
Melissa Stern writes: “My mixed media installation project The Talking Cure just finished up a fabulous run in St. Louis at The Kranzberg Center for Contemporary Art. It goes back on the road again in a few months. Stay tuned for details on where and when. Right now ,I’m working like mad getting ready for my solo show at Garvey Simon Gallery in NYC, which opens in October. Hope to see some Wes Tech folks there. I also start teaching at Parsons School of Design this Fall, so it’s going to be a jam packed couple of months!”
Cindy Ryan writes: This May I received my second master’s in clinical mental health counseling – expressive arts therapy from Lesley University. Along the way I had the fortune to be supervised by Deb Madera ’95, who founded one amazing mental health treatment facility, Cultivate Care Farms, where I interned. Expressive arts therapy combines beautifully with animal and farm-assisted therapy! This past year I Interned at an exceptional integrative care facility with cancer patients and their families. As my two adult kids, Juliet and Jonah, have long since found their successes, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting back to the books, finding a new passion, and reinventing myself by harnessing the power of creativity to help others.”
Ellen Haller writes: “I’m writing this while completing my sixth AIDS/LifeCycle, a seven-day, 545-mile charity bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angles. I ride because I was in medical school in 1982 when the AIDS crisos first hit, and I’ve lost countless patients to this disease since those dark days. I ride because AIDS is still here. I ride because California is beautiful. And, I ride because I love cycling! My main news is that, after 30 years on the full-time faculty at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, I’ll be retiring as of June 30, 2018! I’m looking forward to more cycling and also to continued ice hockey playing; yep, I still play! Huge thanks to Wes where my hockey addiction first began.
David Luberoff, Jenny Boylan, Eric Segal
David Luberoff writes, “At the urging of Jenny Boylan, Eric Segal and I traveled down to Middletown on May 26to join her for the gathering of former Argus editors and writers that marked the paper’s 150th anniversary. We had a wonderful afternoon starting with lunch at O’Rourke’s and then a long stroll around the campus, highlighted by a visit to the Argus’ former home at the corner of Church and High Streets, which now houses the school’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (and looks a lot better than it did when it housed the Argus). After taking some selfies there, we strolled through the Butterfield dorms and around campus, including a recollection-filled hiatus sitting on Foss Hill, where we ruminated on the unexpected paths our lives have taken. We ended at Russell House for a reception where several decades of Argus alumni told similar tales of late nights, crises, take-out food, and a variety of important experiences and lessons that we’ve taken forward, even as most of us moved into non-journalism professions. All in all, a fun and touching day.”
Thank you, Wes ’80 for writing. There were so many first-time and return writers that I had to cut the print column to half the size of what was submitted. In the print version, I urged you to put that magazine down and I hoped you would pick up your phone, tablet, or laptop and go straight online to view the notes in their entirety. Here, online, you will learn more about the lives of our classmates and can click on a few links they sent. I hope that the level of engagement in writing for our class notes column is an indicator that there will be many who, for the first time, will join us “Reunion loyalist” and attend our 40th in May 2020—where we can look back with perfect vision to what one of our classmates who recently wrote called, “a simpler time.”
Cheryl Salden Green writes: My husband, Jim, and I are very excited that our son, Mitchell, was admitted to Wesleyan early decision this year and will entering as a freshman this fall. Mitchell fell in love with the school when we visited during Alumni Sons and Daughters Weekend during his junior year (in spite of the fact that Jim and I went there)! Jim and I met in Foss 7 the first day of freshman orientation in August 1976 (and got married 15 years later, after Jim finished his medical residency and I was out of law school). We have been on campus more during the college application process in the last two years than we have since graduation. I am a real estate attorney in Rhode Island working in-house for CVS Health. Jim and Mitchell (who recently became an eagle scout) are both active volunteers for Boy Scouts and other groups. We live in Foxborough (home of the Patriots). I would love to hear from some of our Wesleyan friends.”
Bruce Post writes: “My second novel, Eris Adrift, was published in May and is available at Amazon, as a paperback and also on Kindle.”
Nancy Stier writes: “I recently spent a wonderful evening here in NYC with classmates Art Feltman, Thom Kleiner, and David Kohane, a dinner we arranged to celebrate our big birthdays this year.”
Paul Edwards writes: “In July 2017, I moved to San Francisco with my family to take up a new position at Stanford University, where I am William J. Perry Fellow in International Security at the Center for International Security and Cooperation. I’ll be a lead author on the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, a four-year task that’s both an honor and a ton of work. My wife, Gabrielle Hecht, also took a Stanford position in the history department. Our 15-year-old son, Luka, is finishing his first year of high school, playing soccer, and writing poetry, fiction, and rap. Two sightings of the aggressively shaven Alan Jacobs, on his way to Norway to make a film about the 1911 race to the South Pole. (Memo to Alan: Norway is nowhere near Antarctica.)”
Jacquie and Andrew McKenna writes: “Greetings from Boulder, Colo. Our family is back in Boulder after our girls, Xan (16) and Juliana (14), lived for five months in Monteverde Costa Rica with local families and attended the Monteverde Friends School for a semester. They are both basically fluent in Spanish and much more aware of their own traditions after living in a very different culture. They also survived the eye of Hurricane (in Spanish “Tormenta”) Nate—cut off for a week from water and electricity, surrounded by mudslides in every direction but well taken care of by an amazing community.” During these five months, Jacquie and Andrew lived in Monteverde for a couple months volunteering with the local community on solar and conservation, traveled throughout Central America for a couple months and returned to the States for a month as empty nesters (very strange)! Speaking of empty nesters, we sure are aware how time is passing as our oldest daughter obtained her driver’s license this month and is talking about colleges and our younger daughter graduated from middle school and heads to high school next year. As we all say, “where does the time go?!?!” Before we know it, we’ll all be back at Wesleyan celebrating our 40th Reunion year—FORTIETH! Yikes!”
David Claman, PhD, writes: “I recently earned tenure at Lehman College in The Bronx, one of the senior colleges of The City University of New York. I teach music theory, composition, and electronic music. With tenure comes a much-needed sabbatical. I’ve fortunately been awarded a Fulbright-Nehru grant for research and teaching in India next year. So, in September my wife, Sunita, and I will once again relocate to India for many months, this time to Delhi. I will be affiliated with The University of Delhi, composing, teaching, and learning more about Hindustani music. The experience I had learning South Indian music at Wes with T. Viswanathan PhD’75, T. Ranganathan, and K.S. Subramanian PhD’86—among the finest musicians I’ve ever worked with—has stayed with me and continues to play a part in my life. But at this point I’m interested in learning more about music in North India which is significantly different.
“The rest of the time, we live in Jackson Heights, Queens, N.Y., with our dog named Boffin who was rescued off the streets of Delhi three years ago. I’m also in the final stages of putting together a CD of my music for Albany Records. Several of my compositions are posted here, as well as on YouTube and Spotify.”
Peter Scharf writes: “I continue my itinerate life as a visiting professor at various institutions. Last November I completed a three-year appointment at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, and at the end of July I take up an appointment in the Language Technology Research Center at the International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad. I’ll teach a course on Paninian linguistics for non-Sanskritists, the aim of which will be to get the future writers of machine translation of Indian languages to include concepts from their own currently neglected Indian linguistic traditions. In the meantime, I keep adding texts, lexical resources, and linguistic technology to the Sanskrit Library website.”
Jeff Green writes: “I started working part-time in the emergency department of a new hospital in Ashdod, Israel, and continue to work in a couple of ERs in Wisconsin sporadically, dividing my time between Israel and Milwaukee. Our oldest daughter is a doctor in Australia, our youngest is in the Israeli intelligence service, and our son (Wesleyan Class of 2015) just got a record deal in LA. Check out his tune—Bring Me Down by Double Twin.”
Walter Calhoun writes: “I presently live in Highland Park, Ill. I have not had steady employment since I was hit by a car as a pedestrian on May 22, 2002 when I was sent 30 feet in the air and suffered a severe head injury after landing on my head and face. Miraculously, I did not break any bones. I was, however, in a coma for close to 30 days and then further hospitalized for another six to seven months as I attempted to recover from my various injuries.
“After I was discharged from the hospital, I continued to try and develop civil defense business in the mid-size defense firm where I was a partner. Ultimately, I was no long able to try lawsuits to verdict like I had before and by 2008 left the practice of law for good. By that time, I was living with my daughter, Sammy, who had obtained her degree in religion from St. Anselm in Manchester, N.H., and had begun work at CDW Corp. We lived in Glencoe, Ill., together for three years until we were joined by my son, Daniel, who was then taking a break from college. Sammy has been working at CDW in Bridgeport, Conn., while living with her fiancé, Brian. They plan to marry on Oct. 12, 2018 art the Bronx Zoo in NYC. Daniel graduated from Lake Forest College in Illinois cum laude this past June and has accepted a position in finance at Ayco. I have tried to keep in contact with Steve Freccero who was nominated to serve as a California state judge after a position as an assistant U.S. attorney and becoming a partner in private practice and Labeeb Abboud who is a general counsel for a company in NYC Blessings in joy.”
Melissa Stern writes: “My mixed media installation project The Talking Cure just finished up a fabulous run in St. Louis at The Kranzberg Center for Contemporary Art. It goes back on the road again in a few months. Stay tuned for details on where and when. Right now ,I’m working like mad getting ready for my solo show at Garvey Simon Gallery in NYC, which opens in October. Hope to see some Wes Tech folks there. I also start teaching at Parsons School of Design this Fall, so it’s going to be a jam packed couple of months!”
Cindy Ryan writes: This May I received my second master’s in clinical mental health counseling – expressive arts therapy from Lesley University. Along the way I had the fortune to be supervised by Deb Madera ’95, who founded one amazing mental health treatment facility, Cultivate Care Farms, where I interned. Expressive arts therapy combines beautifully with animal and farm-assisted therapy! This past year I Interned at an exceptional integrative care facility with cancer patients and their families. As my two adult kids, Juliet and Jonah, have long since found their successes, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting back to the books, finding a new passion, and reinventing myself by harnessing the power of creativity to help others.”
Ellen Haller writes: “I’m writing this while completing my sixth AIDS/LifeCycle, a seven-day, 545-mile charity bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angles. I ride because I was in medical school in 1982 when the AIDS crisos first hit, and I’ve lost countless patients to this disease since those dark days. I ride because AIDS is still here. I ride because California is beautiful. And, I ride because I love cycling! My main news is that, after 30 years on the full-time faculty at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, I’ll be retiring as of June 30, 2018! I’m looking forward to more cycling and also to continued ice hockey playing; yep, I still play! Huge thanks to Wes where my hockey addiction first began.
David Luberoff, Jenny Boylan, Eric Segal
David Luberoff writes, “At the urging of Jenny Boylan, Eric Segal and I traveled down to Middletown on May 26to join her for the gathering of former Argus editors and writers that marked the paper’s 150th anniversary. We had a wonderful afternoon starting with lunch at O’Rourke’s and then a long stroll around the campus, highlighted by a visit to the Argus’ former home at the corner of Church and High Streets, which now houses the school’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (and looks a lot better than it did when it housed the Argus). After taking some selfies there, we strolled through the Butterfield dorms and around campus, including a recollection-filled hiatus sitting on Foss Hill, where we ruminated on the unexpected paths our lives have taken. We ended at Russell House for a reception where several decades of Argus alumni told similar tales of late nights, crises, take-out food, and a variety of important experiences and lessons that we’ve taken forward, even as most of us moved into non-journalism professions. All in all, a fun and touching day.”
Greetings from Brooklyn. We will start with an erratum: My fellow SiSPer Ariel Rubissow Okamoto wrote last issue that she is with her husband in the Bay area, which is decidedly on the left coast, not the east coast. I’m sure most of you had figured that out. And daughter Tira is working on the San Francisco Pre-Disaster Challenge of Resilient Design. Our apologies for sloppy proofreading.
Good news department: Paul DiSanto and Gordon Cooney joined former Wesleyan Lacrosse teammates Peter Guenther ’77, Dan Lynch ’80, Bruce Bunnell, and number-one fan Seta Nazarian ’79, along with thousands of Wesleyan faithful at Gillette Stadium, to watch the Cardinals win their first NCAA National Championship.
Joan (Fishman) Herrington is chair of the department of theatre at Western Michigan University. She works professionally as a director and dramaturg, with a recent stint at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
David Lynch joined the Washington Post in November as global economics correspondent and writes about trade and globalization, including the various fronts in the president’s trade war.
Steven G. Blum spends most of his time worrying about other people’s financial lives, teaching other people’s children (at Penn and Wharton), and fending off challenges from his own kids. He would love to hear from any classmates who live with teenagers and have any ideas whatsoever.
Lora Brown Premo is a freelance writer in Colorado Springs. “I have gotten it together again after being widowed in 2011 (my second husband).” She is very proud of her son, Jason, who spent six years in the Air Force as a cryptolinguist with multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He took six months off to run the get out the vote effort for Bob Kerrey of Nebraska’s Senate run in 2012. He attended Amherst College on a full scholarship and graduated in 2016, Phi Beta Kappa, with the economics department prize for best thesis. He double-majored in economics and math has accepted a full scholarship for the economics PhD program at Northwestern University. Makes a mother proud!
After five years enjoying all that Japan has to offer, especially the glorious hiking just a short train ride away and rambles by the river nearby, Elaine Kurtenbach has moved to Bangkok to continue as Asia business editor for The Associated Press. It’s a first time to live in and explore Southeast Asia after a career spent mainly in China and Japan.
Dan Greenberger won a third Writers Guild Award for his work on CBS, and by sheer coincidence, the award was presented by his Wesleyan roommate, Bradley Whitford. He said, “It really was one of the proudest moments of my life. Go Wes!”
Brenda Zlamany’s 100/100, an exhibit of 100 watercolor portraits of residents of the Hebrew Home at Riverdale,is scheduled to open on September 17 in NYC.
Charlie Spiegel reports on the June wedding of Nancy Traub Chirinos to Greg Larson. The wedding took place on Billy Goat Hill across from the couple’s San Francisco home. Nancy is a licensed marriage and family therapist. Happily, Charlie’s family law mediation office is only one block away from Nancy’s office. He’s also active in promoting resistry.net and travels to Republican congressional districts in California’s central valley once a month thrrought November. His partner’s grand=niece starts at WESU this fall so he expects to travel back in September
Picking up his daughter from her junior year at Hofstra, Charlie found himself saying, among other wishes for her senior year, that he hopes she graduates before her school has its mass gun shooting, a sentiment he wrote about to Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “Sigh. Resist.”
Alyson Myers directs a scientific team in the Gulf of Mexico to farm seaweed at large scale for carbon-neutral fuel, feed, and other products with the Department of Energy. She’s yet to be swept overboard in spring seas.
On a sad note, Mitch Briskin died on May 27, after a long illness. Mitch’s son, Will Briskin ’21, just completed his freshman year at Wesleyan. His wife, Laura Gardner, notes that “I lost the love of my life, the sharpest man I’ve ever known, the best companion ever. Our children lost a thoroughly devoted, fun-loving father, a constant in their lives (and occasional nudge). Friends lost one of the funniest and most dynamic intellectual sparring partners they’ve ever known. Yet we also gained insight into true courage and grace; how love eases even the worst suffering; how being present is all that is needed.”
Ellen Jewett, Katie Fox, Jessica Barton, Alyson Myers, and several of Mitch’s sophomore roommates, got together in D.C. Ellen said, “We toasted Mitch and all our fond memories of that year.”
Amidst this morbidity, I’m reminded that Annie Dillard called art “anti-entropic.” Things fall apart, yet art pushes back with creation of more things as others decay. We, too, fall apart. We decay. Yet many of us continue to create, through our work and our art. We become anti-entropic forces in our own right. And, we have procreated. Our children continue to defy entropy with their works and deeds, whether at Wes like Will Briskin and many others, or in cryptolinguistics, or in whatever your children do.
And, just before going to press, we also learned that Kevin Osborn and Peter Wojnar passed away. We will have a more complete entry on Kevin and Peter in the next issue.
Here’s to fighting entropy. And, to “less-bidity.”
Greetings, classmates! For those of you who have pondered what you can do with a degree in philosophy, Jonathan Weber has been named global industry editor, technology for Reuters—based in Singapore. To recap, Weber has had a string of tech journo jobs, including stints at the LA Times, editor of the Industry Standard, founder of New West Publishing in Montana when San Francisco’s first dot-com balloon burst (we’re waiting on the second), and founder of the nonprofit news startup, The Bay Citizen, in San Francisco. He joined Reuters in 2011 as West Coast bureau chief and then technology editor. Through all this, he has kept returning to San Francisco, which his friends there hope happens after this Singapore gig . . . but meantime, prepare the guest room; there’s a lot of Southeast Asia to explore.
Literary news: Peter Blauner has a new crime novel coming in September, Sunrise Highway, hard on the heels of his last book, Proving Ground, which came out last year and was the first novel he’d published after more than a decade of focusing on TV writing. Patty Smith’s novel, The Year of Needy Girls, is a LAMBDA finalist. She and her partner and are excited to become grandmothers in October; Patty teaches American lit and creative writing at the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School in Petersburg, Va. Chris Garson retired a few years back from Progressive Insurance and now writes fiction; his novel, Perk Noir, a cozy mystery, is about a retired NFL lineman who writes trashy spy novels but covets a Pulitzer. Virginia Pye’s collection of short stories, Shelf Life of Happiness, was published this fall. Suzanne Kay wrote “Not Talking About Race is Not Helping Any of Us” for the Huffington Post. Maya Sonenberg published a chapbook of fiction, nonfiction, and photos, After the Death of Shostakovich Père, with PANK Books this year. She is surviving her second stint as director of the creative writing program at the University of Washington and will be associate chair of the English department next. She and John Robinson are proud that their son has completed his first year at USC’s film school.
Josh Fischman wrote that in the midst of writing and editing about hurricanes and earthquakes (senior editor, Scientific American), he and his wife, Huichong, took in a dog that was displaced by the storms. Josh is in a cooking club with intrepid reporter, Tom Frank ’84, who is now on the investigative beat for Buzzfeed.
Anne Wise has been a staff physician at Neighborhood Family Practice, a community health center in Cleveland, Ohio, since 1995. They’re the designated refugee arrival provider for their county for families from Nepal, Somalia, Congo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, among others, and provide sliding scale coverage to patients without adequate insurance. She says her converted factory loft overlooking Lake Erie is so hip she should grow a beard.
Various tidbits of news: Bob Russo has become a certified archery instructor and teaches at his local Y. Carson Milgroom celebrated his 20th wedding anniversary and is still playing lots of amateur adult baseball in Newton, Mass., albeit on a shiny new titanium hip. Richard Klein celebrated his one-year anniversary as partner at the law firm Romer Debbas LLP, heading up its co-op/condo department. Jim Dray is chief information officer at an engineering firm called Thornton Tomasetti, based in NYC. Terri Seligman is a partner at the Frankfurt Kurnit law firm, practicing advertising and marketing law. She’s been married for over 30 years and she and husband, George Hagen have three kids—30, 27, and 17. Terri plays squash, does volunteer work, frets about the state of world, and occasionally sees Wesfolk: Sabrina Allan, Ellen (Friedman) and Sam Bender, Kathy Grunes, Elissa Jablons ’83, and Peter Blauner. Tricia Beard Mosher’s three children are launched, and she continues to have her own company consulting on child abuse and neglect systems in the U.S. Her empty-nest family (husband and two dogs) is happily enjoying Orlando without any snow in the forecast, but perhaps rising oceans. Susan Read is VP, portfolio administration, with an equipment leasing company, where she was the first employee when it started up in 1995 . . . which shows what you can do with a degree in social and cultural anthropology!
As for me, I recently danced in the Latin Dance Grooves contingent in San Francisco’s Carnaval parade. Studies show that dance is the best thing to keep you young, both mentally and physically, so I’m putting Intro to Dance with Cheryl Cutler MA’71 and a lot of African drumming and dancing to good use.
A great big thank you to our Reunion committee for planning the festivities: Cori Adler, Carlton Barnswell, Ben Binswanger, Jeffrey Burack, Michelle Deatrick, Richard Eaddy, Peter Gilhuly, Eve Hall, Paul Halliday, Darrick Harris, Lewis Ingall, Ruth Jaffe, Lisa Mould Kennedy, Tom McKibbin-Vaughn, Megan Norris, Orin Snyder, Kim Beede Soule, Paul Spivey, Adam Usdan, Mike Whalen, Michael White, and Ellen Zucker. I echo the sentiments in their class e-mail: “A good time was had by all. I would like to give a special shout-out to Ruth Jaffe, Matt Ember, and Laurie Ember ’84 for receiving Wesleyan’s Service Awards and Megan Norris for receiving Wesleyan’s Outstanding Service Award” (contact Kate Lynch ’82 for the e-mail: klynch@wesleyan.edu).
Ken Schneyer and Janice Okoomian have a college graduate (Phoebe from Marlboro College) and a high school graduate (Arek). Arek will attend Sarah Lawrence College in fall. Ken’s latest novelette, “Keepsakes,” appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact in November. He added an introductory logic course and a criminal procedure course to his teaching repertoire. Janice now uses Reacting to the Past in her gender studies teaching.
Eve Silverman is moving to the Mad River Valley in Vermont. Son Alex finished sophomore year at Tufts and daughter Libby will be a high school senior. She is looking ahead to the next chapter of empty nest life and is getting geared up to start a new career in wildlife conservation.
Kirsten Wasson is finishing a memoir about her midlife move to the West Coast. See her work at storytelling venues around LA. Find her hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains, camping in the Sequoias, walking the beaches of Malibu, and eating trendy fermented food in dark and silly spots around town. Weekends are spent with son Noah, who is recovering from addiction.
John Fixx is serving his third school, Country School (Madison, Conn.) as headmaster and cross-country coach. Living 20 minutes away from Middletown, John trains with alumni runners at Wes. He says, “Foss Hill is steeper than it was during the early 1980s!” Wife Liza owns Breakwater Books, an independent bookstore, in Guilford, Conn. Son Nat is an admissions officer at Belmont Hill School in Boston, and daughter Emily is a behavioral interventionist at Essex High School in Vermont. John wrote a children’s book, Things That Aren’t, illustrated by Abby Carter.
Anne Adelman’s edited book, Psychoanalytic Reflections on Parenting Teens and Young Adults: Changing Patterns in Modern Love, Loss and Longing, came out in March from Routledge. Anne lives in Bethesda, Md., and has a private psychotherapy practice.
Susanna Sharpe works for the Latin American studies institute and library at the University of Texas at Austin. She loves getting to know the activist-scholar students and publishing faculty and student writing in the annual review. She performs Brazilian music in Austin and lends her voice to the immigrants’ rights movement. She is the extremely proud parent of two student-musicians at the University of Texas Butler School of Music, Corina Santos (violin, ’19) and Paulo Santos (jazz saxophone, ’21).
Mark Kushner started an ed-tech company to help worldwide teachers teach better and save time by providing student online assessment data. He has two kids.
Jan Elliott has pieced together a career in teaching and performing. One foot is in early classical music, the other in folk and world music. She dances, plays, and coaches for several groups specializing in traditional Morris and sword dancing from England.
Mary Becker lives in Yarmouth, Maine. She is a partner in a physician group doing emergency medicine and palliative care. Her passion is improving communication skills between health care clinicians and patients and families with serious illness.
Anath Golomb is a clinical psychologist in New Hampshire, and David Frankfurter is chair of the religion department at Boston University. His fourth book, Christianizing Egypt, came out last fall. Son Rafael is in an MD/PhD program at Berkeley/UCSF and daughter Sariel will pursue a PhD program in dance at Stanford.
Stuart Servetar will be at Wes for Sons and Daughters Weekend with Kid 2. Kid 1 chose the University of Chicago instead. Wife Beth will start her second year as parent coordinator at East Side Middle School. Karen Adair Miller and classmates Tammy Rosengarten Darcas, Sue Stallone Kelly, Barb Bailey Beckwitt, and Gretchen Millspaugh Cooney got together in June. Shana Sureck had really hoped to attend Reunion, but as a photographer, Memorial Day weekend is one of her busiest weekends of the year.
Amy Appleton sent in a beautiful family photo. “From left to right, my brother, Bill Appleton ’88, my daughter, Charlotte Sarraille ’16, my brother’s wife, Jane Donahue ’88, my son, Ben Sarraille ’19, and myself, Amy Appleton.”
Megan Norris wrote, “It was great to see so many old friends at our Reunion . . . Weather ranging from 93 without a cloud in the sky to 53 with a cold drizzle made for many wardrobe changes, but Anita Hill challenging the graduating class to speak truth to power made sitting in the rain worthwhile.”
After completing these class notes, Laurie Hills feels quite ordinary with three relatively happy 20-somethings. She is five years post-divorce and back in the light, and is a data analyst at Elizabeth Public Schools in New Jersey.
On a final and sad note, classmate Daniel J. Taub passed away on April 11. After graduating from Wesleyan University and the University of Chicago Law School, Dan practiced law in Chicago as a guardian ad litem for abused and neglected children before relocating to Vermont in 1992. Dan leaves behind his wife of 39 years, Jean Bacon, and his daughters, Lily and Claire Taub.
A long note from Hal Ginsberg: “Many thanks to Sandy Goldstein for organizing a Delta Tau Delta reunion in downtown Manhattan. A cross-section of mid-to-late-80s classes were there: Sandy and me, Rick Davidman ’84, Soren Pfeffer ’85, Steve Shackman ’87, Jim Freeman ’87, Bill Houston ’87, Ira Skolnik ’87, Dan Levy ’88, Scott Ades ’88, David Morse ’88, Ed Thorndike ’89, and Mike Marciello ’89.
