Class Notes | 1980s

Michael Steven reporting this month. Jonathan Sadowsky, the Catele Professor of Medical History at Case Western Reserve, received a contract from Polity Books for his new book Depression: A History.

Michael “Misi” Polgar writes from a snowy valley in northeastern Pennslyvania, where he teaches sociology at Penn State while helping to raise three daughters. He writes about topics related to the Holocaust and human rights education.

Susie Kang Sharpe is enjoying life as a physician-artist in southwest Missouri. While practicing internal medicine she managed to be in 24 exhibits last year. Learn more at susiesharpe.net. She is grateful that both medicine and art continue to be fulfilling careers. She has become quite a world traveler and an avid tennis player.

Gail Farris has reached a milestone—her daughter, Kim’ 14, married her high school sweetheart in June. No grandchildren in the works yet! Kim is teaching biology at a local high school. Her other daughter, Jen ’16, works in Atlanta, but is hoping to change jobs to one that aligns more with her interest in urban planning and public health. Anyone have ideas? Her son, Dean, strayed from his Wesleyan lineage and is a sophomore at Harvard, where he is making a splash on the swim team. She loves keeping up with the pulse of Wesleyan by hosting the Wesleyan Spirits (men’s a cappella group) each spring as they make their way south for spring break.

Kari (Friedman) Collier has started writing and giving sermons at her place of worship, an Episcopalian church in the diocese of Ohio. She says that once the juices get flowing (writing juices, that is), it has been fairly easy, and very rewarding. Kari says “hello” to everyone who lived in Foss 4 with her, freshman year.

Our near-classmate Steve Bacher ’83 is running for Congress in the 8th District of Pennsylvania, in the Democratic Primary in May. Learn more about his campaign at stevebacher.com. He is being assisted by Mary Melchior ’83.

Anthony Mohl, who is running a permaculture adventure in the middle of the jungle on an island in Thailand, writes: “Soooo tired of the same positive only news…I’ve gone from investment banker and director of portfolio management at a Wall Street firm at 32, divorced with two kids at 35. At 36 was running the bank in Europe for six years. Never believed in marriage again and was in a relationship with a marathon runner and triathlete for nine years in Paris. For three years ran the bank and studied psychology with my girlfriend at René Descartes, Paris 5 (previously known as La Sorbonne). Gave up banking and graduated with high honors as a state group psychologist before being trained as a psychoanalyst for families and couples. This did not prevent my girlfriend and me from breaking up.”

That’s pretty much all the news.

Roger Pincus | rpincus84@wesleyan.edu

Michael Steven Schultz | mschultz84@wesleyan.edu

Hi, everyone. I hope these notes find you well. Our 35th Reunion is almost here! I hope you plan on coming back to Middletown May 25 to 27. Cori Adler, Carlton Barnswell, Ben Binswanger, Jeffrey Burack, Michelle Deatrick, Richard Eaddy, Yates Exley, Peter Gilhuly, Eve Hall, Paul Halliday, Darrick Harris, Lewis Ingall, Ruth Jaffe, Lisa Mould Kennedy, Tom McKibbin-Vaughan, Megan Norris, Orin Snyder, Kim Beede Soule, Paul Spivey, Adam Usdan, Mike Whalen, Michael White and Ellen Zucker have all been working hard to plan a wonderful weekend of activities. Get more information and register at wesleyan.edu/rc2018.

Eileen Kelly-Aguirre left her position at The Gunnery after almost two decades to take a job as executive director of School Year Abroad (SYA), with schools in France, Spain, Italy, and China. She has been running SYA’s school in Zaragoza, Spain, as interim resident director, and will return to the U.S. in the summer to a new position, her home, and her partner, Jack, in Washington, Conn. She is almost five years out from a colon cancer diagnosis, surgery, and chemo, and is feeling great. She urges all her Wesleyan friends to stay on top of those preventative screenings!

Andrea Smith is busy tending farm animals (goats, chickens, mini horses) plus dogs and cat with son Nathaniel and husband Patrick in New Jersey, while heading the department of anthropology and sociology at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., where she has worked since 1999. She is deep into settler colonial studies, and busily working on a book about the commemoration locally of the Revolutionary War.

David Steinhardt has edited the bestseller The Elegant and his fully credited name and editorial brand, Massive Publishing Enterprise, are now in two new books, Deviant Desires: A Tour of the Erotic Edge, and a history of Eurasia from Rowman & Littlefield by Dartmouth professor P. K. Crossley.

Karen Adair’s baby just turned 21 and is a junior at St. Lawrence University. Another offspring just turned 25 and the other three are slogging through their daily routines in the work world. Karen and husband and enjoyed the month of August in their place in Lake Placid and weirdly didn’t feel guilty with down time!

Heather Rae is pursuing a new career in genetic nutrition and wellness coaching. She launched The Wellness Spot in Maine in April and is very excited about the venture. She writes, “I finally found my calling in life. It certainly took a while!”

Nancy Rommelmann’s newest book is To the Bridge, a seven-year investigation into why a mother would drop her two young children from a Portland, Oregon, bridge. As the promo copy goes, “The case was closed, but for journalist Nancy Rommelmann, the mystery remained: What made a mother want to murder her own children?” It’s up for pre-sale now on Amazon.

Charlie Brenner writes from Iowa City that his metabolism research has taken off. He spent time with George Russell in New York last summer and will be in Hong Kong for a product launch. See aboutnr.com and truniagen.com for more information on Charlie’s work.

Ruth Jaffe is sending her youngest child off to college this year and is happy to be retiring from logistics management. Her middle son is a senior at Wesleyan.

Michelle Regalado Deatrick writes: “Daughter Elizabeth Deatrick ’14, after completing a master’s in science writing at Boston U, is a science writer/editor for the National Institutes of Health. Son Alexander is in his second year at Amherst. My husband, Steven Przybylski and I live near Ann Arbor, Mich., on an 80-acre farm. He’s a technical consultant. I write poetry, farm, and continue environmental and small farm rights activism. In a major life shift, I’ve become involved in party and electoral politics over the last three years as Michigan special projects director for the Bernie 2016 campaign, an elected DNC member, and vice chair of the County Board of Commissioners. I’m now running for State Senate.” Go Michelle!

Timothy Brockett writes, “The town I live in, Emigrant, Mont., is undergoing a gold rush. Places where I once panned for ’color’ are now taken over by commercial operators. So, I have traveled to the southern Rockies in search of better pickings. Last year, I found several promising silver and gold deposits in Nevada and Arizona. This spring I will explore those deposits further on my way to Mexico to study the lava fields in the Sonora desert that borders Arizona.”

I look forward to seeing many of you at the Reunion in May. Thanks to the committee for all their hard work. I started to read the Great Books series that Mortimer Adler created in the 1950s. They are a chronicle of Western civilization and absolutely fascinating. They remind me of my humanities and English studies at Wesleyan. A full set of 60 books costs less than a one-semester course back in the 1980s at Wesleyan so they are quite a bargain, too.

Laurie Hills | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu

Class of 1982 Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship

Matthew Aidan Frishkoff ’21, Philadelphia, PA

Greetings, classmates! I sent out my plea for notes right after the Women’s March and it was cool to hear that so many of you participated. Taking things a step further is Diane Kolyer, a founding director of NY4US, fundraising for progressive candidates running for state legislatures in battleground states …if you’d like to pitch in, visit ny4us.org.

Beck Lee is having a resurgent playwriting career; his Subprime will premiere at the Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis in May. Like his son, the play was born in Minneapolis and co-created with his ex-wife Andrea Iten Lee. Another classmate in theatre is Steve Budd, whose award-winning solo show, What They Said About Love, played at The Marsh in Berkeley last February and will be part of the Ottawa Fringe Festival in June. To put this in perspective, Steve turned down a role in a play at Wes at Theatre ’92 —Private Wars—because he was too nervous to perform. And, Sabina Brukner is the literary manager at the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene.

Naomi Fuchs is CEO of Santa Rosa Community Health in Sonoma County, serving low-income people with primary care, mental health, and dental services. Last October, when fire storms devastated the city, her organization lost its largest health center, which meant 24,000 people lost their medical home and 180 lost their place of work. “It has been a challenging time, to say the least,” she says. But they’ve made tremendous progress since rebuilding.

After spending his career working in refugee camps for the U.N., Steven Ablondi is now busy transforming Zamani, a town in post-apartheid South Africa. Memel.Global is helping neighbors build comfortable housing for the elders, and offering everyone access to organic, locally-grown foods, among other projects. Both Susan Sutherland and Michael Toohey ’81 will be visiting the project this year.

Karen Wise retired after 25 years from her position as vice president, education and exhibits, at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and now enjoys being a consultant. She went with Elizabeth Sands Petty to the new Museum of African American Culture and History in D.C., and caught up with Sheila Gaffney in NYC. She volunteers at Santa Monica High School and spends time supporting the congressional Climate Solutions Caucus, universal health insurance, and civil rights. “Relief comes from reading,” she says, “especially works by our classmates Suzy Berne, Peter Blauner, and now Patty Smith!”

Speaking of books, I sold my company, Shebooks, to SheWrites Press (no relation), which will keep the 75 e-books we published in print, including those by Ginny Pye, Jennifer Finney Boylan ’80, Bonnie Friedman ’79, and moi.

Jim Friedlander and wife Liz are busy with her U.N. work advocating for women’s rights and teaching yoga when she is not serving as general counsel for their firm, Arrangements Abroad. They travel extensively, frequently to Cuba for the Havana Heritage Foundation, trying to preserve the architecture of the city. Their oldest son is in his last year of med school.

Lavinia Ross is living and working on a small farm in western Oregon with her husband, Rick Ross, and nine cats. She’s still playing music, performing at the Spokane Fall Folk Festival in November. Those of you who are not allergic to cats can visit their farm at salmonbrookfarms.wordpress.com.

Michele Navazio is playing music, along with his wife, Rachel Ulanet, a Broadway diva he met when they were both in Les Miserables. Miki is a lawyer (running the buy-side derivatives practice for Sidley’s investment funds group), but most important, he says, they’re raising their daughters, Chiara and Alessia (12 and 9, respectively) to be “awesome, powerful (and kind and generous and brilliant) women.”

Also raising that kind of girl (he sent pix from the march) is Michael Ostacher, who had dinner in the Village with wife Laurie Ketter Ostacher, and Ellen Friedman Bender and Sam Bender, Michael Lucey and husband Gerry Gomez, “Everyone is older and nicer, which is lovely, don’t you think?”

Susan Peabody’s book Madeleine’s Children: Family, Freedom, Secrets, and Lies in France’s Indian Ocean Colonies has won the Society for French Historical Studies’ David Pinkney Prize for the best book on French history by a U.S. or Canadian author published in 2017.

More from the rest of you who wrote (thank you!) next time.

Finally, I’m so sad to report that our classmate, journalist Lisa Chedekel, passed away Jan. 12. The Hartford Courant, where she worked for several years, quoted colleague John Ferraro saying, “She searched for truth wherever it led. She was an advocate for the powerless and a thorn in the side of the powerful.” Lisa was a member of the team of Courant reporters who won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news covering a deadly shooting rampage. Several classmates attended her funeral. Among them, Catharine Arnold said, “She was an incredibly talented writer who wrote powerful articles that precipitated meaningful changes.” Mary Beth Bruno, who spend her first years out of college with Lisa at the New Haven Advocate, said, “She took to reporting like a reincarnated Nellie Bly. Fearless…”

I hope we can all strive to be fearless, in our own ways, in her honor.

Cheers,

Laura Fraser | laura@laurafraser.com

Greetings from the great Midwest! I have much news to report in these early months of 2018. Jeremy Kenner writes from down under: “No guns? No Trump? Sound good? Come to Australia!” Jeremy is currently living in Melbourne, has been in Australia for 17 years—and has no regrets. He still works for the government as an adviser in the field of health and research ethics. On a more personal note, he adds, he has reentered the world of childrearing and has five sons ages 31, 29, 27, 10 (step), and a 5-year old “as beautiful as they come!” Jeremy also invites anyone who is ever in the neighborhood to look him up.

Congrats to Gail Marowitz, who was nominated this year for her fourth Grammy (she actually won back in 2006)! This year it was for Best Recording Package for her art direction for Jonathan Coulter’s vinyl LP Solid State. Check out thevisualstrategist.com for more insights. Gail splits her time between a studio in the West Village and a 130-year old church along the river in the Hudson Valley.

Robin Frank enjoyed a fun evening catching up with Katy Ward Koch and Amy Curtis in the D.C. area. Robin is married to Geoff Megargee, a historian at the Holocaust Museum; they have a guitar-playing, skateboarding 15-year-old son named Ruslan. Robin writes, “I recently left a 30-plus year career in the federal service to became the associate general counsel for International Law at NASA, where some days, I do get to dance with the stars!”—not something that too many of us can say! Congrats, Robin!

Barbara Johnston wrote in from Rochester, N.Y., where she works as a city planner with an architectural and engineering firm. Her nights and weekends, however, are kept busy with her passion: percussion. “My main musical outlet is Brazilian Batucada, and the occasional Bossa Nova jazz or square dance gig.” Last November, Barbara attended the International Folk Music Film Festival in Kathmandu where, she writes, “I screened a short film in which I played drums. Hanging out with ethnomusicologists and listening to traditional music from around the world brought me back to Wesleyan roots!”

From the Bay Area, Ariel Rubissow Okomoto, a Wes Science-in-Society grad, writes of her family, “We are still helplessly West Coast, as my husband, Paul, and I continue to try and save the planet. Our daughters have picked up the vibe: Tira (24) is working on the San Francisco Pre-Disaster Challenge of Resilient Design and Mikki (20) is studying architecture with a focus on public urban projects.”

Brenda Zlamany, a painter who lives and works in Brooklyn, had an exhibition called Brenda Zlamany: 100/100, on view at the Derfner Judaica Museum from September to January. The exhibition featured 100 watercolor portraits of residents of the Hebrew Home at Riverdale.

Congratulations go out to David Lynch, who joined the Washington Post as their national and global economics correspondent, after a storied career at The Financial Times, Bloomberg, and USA Today. Dave, who has three sons, lives in northern Virginia with his wife, Kathleen. He is also author of the book, When the Luck of the Irish Ran Out: The World’s Most Resilient Country and Its Struggle to Rise Again.

Paul DiSanto wrote in with lots of news: Dan Haar has left his long-time job at the Hartford Courant to take on new challenges with the Connecticut Hearst Newspapers. In Denver, Paul caught up with Lisa Greim, Julie Richman, and Michele Vion who are all doing well. From KC, Lou Scimecca and Tony DiFolco send greetings, though the absence of our dear classmate Brad Toomey leaves a hole in the hearts of the KC crowd. Paul reports that several of our classmates left long-term careers for other pursuits, time with family, and retirement (!): Jim Baker retired from Unilever; Jon Duane, from McKinsey; Rick Ciullo, from Chubb. Tim O’Brien retired from Blue Cross of Massachusetts. Many Wes alumni attended an informal party for him in Narragansett, R.I., including classmates Bill Stack and Pete Pezzelli. On campus, Paul often runs into Sandy Herzlich and Barb Martin, Ellen Jewett, Ed Suslovic, Delcy Ziac Fox, Mark Molina, Nancy Parker Wilson, Diane Goldstein, and David Resnick.

David I. Block | david.I.block@gmail.com

Joanne Godin Audretsch | Berlinjo@aol.com

This is the year many of us turn 60. Happy birthday to all! A few of you wrote in January to share what you are doing to mark this milestone and to note other family and personal milestones. Thank you for writing. We all look forward to learning how others will celebrate the entrance to the decade of our 60s, as well as hearing about other milestones in the 38 years since our graduation. After reading this column, please write to me. There are only two more years until our 40th Reunion. Sharing the journey of our 60s together as we transform our roles and goals in the decade ahead will be enlightening and rewarding. We all look forward to hearing from you and seeing you on campus in 2020 when we can look back with perfect vision and ahead with vibrant hopes and dreams. My email is listed below.

Ellen Haller: “After 30 years as a full-time faculty member in the UCSF department of psychiatry, I will celebrate my 60th birthday by retiring at the end of June! To celebrate, I will ride my bike from San Francisco to LA for the sixth straight year as part of the AIDS LifeCycle to raise money to provide free healthcare for people living with AIDS (tofighthiv.org). I will then look forward to more bike trips, continued ice hockey playing (yep, I still play regularly!), and quality time with family.”

Tom Loder writes: “Fun news—my eldest son, Aaron, will be going to Wes this fall like many of your kids did (Amy Zinsser, Bob Ferreira, Walter Siegel, Ed Biester…). Don’t know that there is a better endorsement of a school than to ’let’ our kids go there, even if they would have taken our spots had we had to compete against them for a seat in the freshman class. Guess that insures I’ll be on campus for our 40th.”

Don Rosenstein writes: “Writing for the first time since…well, I guess 38 years! After living in the D.C. area and working at the National Institutes of Health for 18 years, my family and I moved to Chapel Hill, N.C., about a decade ago. I’m at UNC and provide psychiatric care for patients with cancer at UNC. I’ve stayed in touch with Amy Longsworth, Sam Liss ’78, Steve Greenberg ’78, and Ken Kramer ’78. Also, a UNC colleague and I published a book on widowed fathers (Oxford University Press).”

Alex Kolodkin writes: “Well, turning 60 is a milestone that seemed best celebrated from afar, and so my wife, Maria Rodriguez ’81, youngest daughter Talia (who is almost 16), and I traveled to Sicily, where we enjoyed the charms of southern Italy and somehow getting older seemed not so bad at all. I am in the department of neuroscience at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where I have been conducting research in neural development and regeneration since 1995, and Maria is a partner at Venable LLP here in Baltimore. With our elder daughter, Sasha, only one year out of college, and Talia not yet there, there is little time to ruminate on turning 60, and that seems all for the best.”

KIMBERLY OFRIA SELBY | kim_selby@yahoo.com

“When I was at Wes, I was initially opposed to bringing kids onto this crazy planet. But then, at some point, I decided that the most radical thing I could do was to raise great kids—kids who would be part of making the world a better place. It turns out, I was prescient beyond my years. Now in my ‘back 50,’ I feel particularly good that I’ve made the world a better place by bringing three extraordinary humans onto the planet—now fascinating young adults whom my radical, feminist former self would have loved!” Does anyone agree with these sentiments of Elaine Taylor-Klaus?

“I’ve had a super year fighting against this dumpster fire of an administration. Participating in the resistance movement has been a source of joy and inspiration the likes of which I haven’t experienced in over 30 years of activism. Whether joining the crowd of 750,000 at the LA Women’s march, or rallying with 75 people at the Kauai ‘Show Us Your Taxes’ protest, I’ve been overwhelmed by the camaraderie, patriotism, and creativity on display. And it’s a great way to catch up with fellow Wes alumni!” And maybe some agree with these sentiments from Lisa Rosen.

Carlie Masters Williams: “This has been an incredibly challenging year for us here in Washington, DC. We thought politics couldn’t get any worse and lo! We were wrong. But the protests have been incredibly invigorating. I am excited to see people speaking out about the things that matter to them. The Women’s March was a sea of pink hats and women speaking loud enough to be heard across the country. We hosted seven southern women I know through work and it was a beautiful thing. We will continue to shout about facts and data and science until we can drown out the voices of ignorance. As for physical feats? My office did the 100 push-up challenge this summer. As a group I am proud to say we did literally HUNDREDS of push-ups and had a good time doing it. I bought everyone a jump rope as a prize at the end. That requires a whole ‘nother level of coordination so I am not sure we are going to be doing Double Dutch anytime soon.”

Lucy Seham Malatesta was sworn in as a CASA (court appointed special advocate) on September 11 in Newark. “In this volunteer position, I advocate for children who have been removed from their families and are ‘in the system.’ With access to school and medical records and the right to contact teachers, professional providers, and visit the child at his/her residence, I present my findings to the court quarterly to help determine the best next steps. ‘To be for the child’ is my response to the current state of our country and our world.”

Jeff Liss: “My wife Susan and I love living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan since we became empty nesters (children number five and number six are now in college). I am currently between jobs, doing some independent consulting and also fulfilling one of my bucket list items as an adjunct professor, teaching digital marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology. I met up with Geoff Weinstein in San Diego during the summer. I also run into Dan Seltzer in the city every so often.”

Debbie Halperin: “While there is so much in the world that I don’t feel very good about, I also have a lot to be grateful for. I feel good about my family (celebrating 24 years of marriage this year to my husband Gil) and my kids who are in 11th and 12th grade. I feel good about the wonderful friendships I have formed over the years that sustain me, including those I met freshman year at Wes, Sarah Bosch, Nancy Cagan, Emily (Zaslow) Hourihan and Joanna (Feinberg) Miller. I feel good that my parents are healthy and close by. I feel good about relaunching my jewelry line, maycamehome.com after many years’ hiatus. Finally, over the summer we visited Tokyo for the first time and survived an emergency landing on the way home—so I feel good that those pilots were well trained!”

Tomas Mendez: “I’ve been in advertising for 50 years and it’s been pretty great. This year, for the first time ever, I’ve gone to the ‘client side.’ I’m at Dell EMC and really like it. It is so much less intense than the agency side. My wife Tracy (Juilliard ’96) came out of dancing retirement a couple of years ago and is so amazing—our son Daschle, 9, and I got back from seeing her perform about an hour ago (as I write this) and it was awesome. Over Labor Day we got together with Garth Battista ’85 and his wife Lilly in Maine. They sailed in on the boat Garth built himself and used my mooring near our family summer home on South Harpswell. At least 10 folks from ’86, ’87, ’88, and ’89 have been there so hopefully you guys are reading this. By you guys I mean Chris Gould ’87 (great chatting the other day!), Linnea Berg ’88, Mike Edson ’87, Bill Love, Mark Woodbury ’87, Lisa Bogan ’87, Anna Luhrman, Paul Sutherland ’85, Allegra Burton ’87, Michael Tomasson, and I’m sure a couple of others who my aging brain isn’t conjuring up. I stop at Wesleyan on the way up and back from Maine (live in New York) so I’ve been visiting Wesleyan twice a year for 30-plus years and for those who haven’t visited in a while, I highly recommend it. The place is insanely amazingly fancy and has so much more land, versus the lovely but humble physical plant and grounds we all experienced.”

Lydia Crawford learned to drive a manual as an adult (husband is British and he really wanted a manual transmission car, so she agreed to have him teach her—and they are still married!). “Our son Owen is happy as a sophomore at Lawrence University in Wisconsin (about a five-hour drive from Saint Paul where I have lived since finishing law school in Virginia) despite going through a college application and selection process that should not be emulated by anyone. Our 15-year-old daughter Vivian is willing to engage in fairly meaningful conversations with me somewhat frequently and has learned that rolling her eyes at her parents is not appreciated. I am able to keep pretty physically fit (despite back surgery last February), including going to a 6 a.m. workout class where I regularly see Beth Haney ’91. My husband and I adopted a stretch of state road in southern Minnesota (a Department of Transportation program) where we pick up trash periodically and now some friends are coming along to help. Who knew that picking up trash could be so social!”

A traveling summer for Ben Schneider: “Washington, D.C. for the National LGBT Resistance March and the Profession of Vows ceremony for the Washington D.C. Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, home to Maine for the Yarmouth Clam Festival with Dan Kolbert and Greg Wildes. Then to Seattle to officiate at a wedding, my 15th time. Then Lithuania to teach meditation. And, finally the North Carolina Smokey Mountains as the keynote speaker at the annual Fall Gay Spirit Visions Conference. Bought a bike, walked away from a serious car accident, and went to a doctor for the first time in 20 years. Still see Melinda Newman and Lisa Rosen all the time, as well as Kevin Pratt ’87.”

Sam Atkinson is still umbilically attached to Boston. Peter Hammond and Mark Woodbury ’87 made their annual pilgrimage last weekend to join him for a mini-reunion.  Sam sees Tom Matlack once a year at a big card game. He’s kept in touch with Tony Antonellis and Kevin Freund (his Clark 312 freshman roommates, along with Pete) and two close friends both from Cheltenham, Pa.: Paul Levitan ’85 and Margery Bank Bates ’87 (who is moving to Nantucket), but misses Liz Turner (“love you, Blue Lady!”) and “Chucker-V” Vuono.

Emily Hourihan: “Sorry, Wes. We are a Tulane family now (Avery ’14, Zoey ’15, and third daughter, Charlie ’21). Highlights: My 35-year-long friendships with Debbie Halperin and Laura Harrington. Seven wonderful years with husband, Todd Magazine. Boston Marathon in 2016, and, most recently, my first Ironman-70.3 in Atlantic City (6:37.13). Very proud of that one!”

Ellen Santistevan says: “If I am ‘halfway’ between graduation and retirement, I think I am way behind the curve. I spent most of the first ‘half’ odd-jobbing and raising my children. In the second half, now, I am learning to take care of myself, and studying to do things that I am really good at and enjoy. Deepening my studies and practice of craniosacral therapy is probably the most amazing thing I have ever experienced. I will probably always be in service to others, whether to my family or my clients or the various causes that I care about, but discovering that it’s ok to say no and to have good boundaries has been life-changing. Sounds simple, perhaps even dumb, and yet…”

Samuel Connor is also feeling good. “Feeling particularly good about my decision in 2015 to start my own business (running a consulting group focusing on innovative cause marketing). The variety of work coupled with the immeasurable value of flexibility to be with my three teenage sons has been super.” Kate McIvor also made a career change. “After working in public health in Helena, Mont., for 25 years, I now own a fabric store in Missoula, Mont. Learning how to run a very small business has been a welcome challenge for me. And, my core purpose remains the same: to uplift and empower people to be healthy. How does a fabric store help people be healthy? By providing the tools and materials necessary to slow down and create for ourselves and others; and, by reducing the need and desire to buy cheap, fast fashion.”

Steven Cohen feels great about finally getting married last year! “I met Müge on eHarmony. Our first date was an architecture lecture on the Guastavinos, a father and son from Spain who created beautiful tile ceilings and domes all around New York. Müge’s mother had worked as an architect on the design of Lincoln Center and can trace her lineage back to a Sultan and a sect that migrated from Spain to Ottoman Empire during the Inquisition. I’m also finding out how hard it is to learn to speak Turkish!”

Sue (Erikson) Bidwell took advantage of “local summer” at the Jersey Shore, otherwise known as when the vacationers go home. “I’ve spent my bonus time painting the outside of the house, and that is what I feel particularly good about. It’s my Zen time to contemplate the world while actually accomplishing something. I’m blessed that I can take my laptop with me and still work remotely as the office support for my husband’s company while enjoying these other perks at the shore.”

Zahara Heckscher:  “What I feel good about at this point in my life is having a son on the cusp of adulthood who is kind person, full of delight, and a husband who loves me despite my flaws. I had a long career doing nonprofit work but what I feel best about professionally are the books I’ve written and contributed to, including a little book of poetry I just published, and my father’s memoir about escaping the Nazis. Because of health challenges (breast cancer) my life has slowed down. I have a heart full of gratitude for the support of network around me including my sister and her family moved from Hawaii to be close to us. Life continues to be rich and meaningful. Life is good. I wish for classmates the ability to slow down and appreciate life, and focus more on what’s important—without having an illness that forces it!”

I think we can all agree to that.

Eric Howard | ehoward86@wesleyan.edu

Hillary writes for this issue. As always, great to hear your news!

Rob Wrubel’s new book is called Financial Freedom for Special Needs Families. The book is based on the financial planning work Rob does for families with a member with an intellectual or developmental disability.

Peter Bond writes: “After three great years in Rhode Island reconnecting with classmates Jim Maynard, Ollie Bennett, and Jeff St. Sauveur, I have accepted a new role as VP of consumer activation at Spins Ventures, a natural/organic products market research firm. My wife and I are relocating to Chicago and have a new home in the Bucktown neighborhood. We spent our last East Coast weekend across Long Island Sound at the summer residence of Stuart Ellman and his wife, Susan Ellman ’90.”

Trudy Martell-Olofinboba lives in Farmington, Conn. She is a staff anesthesiologist in Integrated Anasthesia Associates Partners. She and her husband will be celebrating 24 years of marriage and have one daughter.

Lisa Renery writes: “In June I was thrilled to attend the bar mitzvah of Brad Kramer’s son. I’m looking forward to spending time with the Kramer four at our 30th, among tons of others! Andy Laken, Denise Dupont, and Rannylin Dalley —missed you at our 25th. Please come this time!”

Majora Carter acquired a permanent easement on the historic Cass Gilbert-designed rail station in her South Bronx community of Hunts Point, and entered a joint venture to redevelop the unique site for commercial use. She’s looking for creative food tenants. Down the street, she is co-owner of the new Boogie Down Grind Café, the only locally-owned specialty coffee shop in the South Bronx and the first such establishment in the neighborhood in over 30 years.

Kate Hellenga writes: “I am living in San Francisco with my partner, Jason, my 13-year-old stepson, and my Taiwanese rescue dog. In September, I took a new job as staff psychologist for Jail Behavioral Health Services, a unit of the Department of Public Health. Corrections work was my ‘first love’ and I’m glad to be getting back to it after about 10 years away. Aside from that, San Francisco is beautiful, expensive, and hard to imagine leaving. So we indulge in cranky middle-aged nostalgia: ‘Remember 25 years ago when that pricey, curated, self-conscious _____ was a cheap/dive/arty ______?’”

Mark Miller is a founder, CFO, and CSO (Chief Sandwich Officer) of the recently opened Hex & Company, a board game café in NYC.

Beth Kaufman Miller ’86 is finishing her studies at the New School and teaching ESL at The Sanctuary for Families in downtown NYC. They are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their band, Spuyten Duyvil, with a Midwest tour and the making of a new CD of original music. The Ladle and the Fire-Pan is a follow up to 2016’s International Folk Music Awards Album of the Year-nominated The Social Music Hour, Vol. 1.

We hope to see you at our 30th Reunion!

Peter V.S. Bond | 007@pvsb.org 

Hillary Ross | hrossdance@yahoo.com

Dear Classmates, I made it up to school recently and saw Wesleyan in all its fall glory as the campus readied for the second-ever night football game on campus—it was pretty exciting and I don’t usually go for that sorta thing. Tailgating and everything. Anyway…

Nice to hear from some new correspondents like Jenifer Goldman Fraser. “Earlier this fall, my husband and I saw our son, Eli, off to the University of Vermont where he is majoring in environmental studies and enjoying the natural beauty of the Burlington area. Our daughter, Sasha, is a junior (who has Wesleyan somewhat on her radar) and youngest, Lily, is a fifth grader. I celebrated a delightful 52nd birthday in the company of Sarah Plagenz Liepert, enjoying the extraordinary chamber music of Julie Scolnik ’78. Her ensemble, Mistral, is extraordinary. If you live in the Boston area, go get your tickets now! Last fall, I got to see Nelly Taveras after many years on one of her trips to the Northeast to visit her daughter, Alina, now a sophomore at Brown.”

Great update from Liz Kromelow with an immediate reply: “Kirsten Edstrom and I are under an umbrella right now in Santa Monica sucking down some fruit beverages. Kirsten just came back from her surf sesh and we’re doing our best to help the LA economy, shopping and eating. Buying all the same stuff I could get in NYC at twice the price, plus shipping.”

Amy Baltzell was elected president for the Association of Applied Sport Psychology.

She has a book coming out with Springer—Mindfulness Power:  Mindfulness Meditation Training in Sport 2.0. “It’s a trade book with my mindfulness and self-compassion intervention in the appendix, a program I and others have been running and studying for the past few years. Also, I’m now a reiki master and find this approach to healing and balance incredibly powerful and helpful. Perhaps more importantly I am going to Sue Anthony’s birthday party tomorrow night. I am going with Bronwyn Malicoat Bois (as lovely, wise, and kind as ever). I hadn’t seen Sue in 25 years, but bumped into her at here on Cape Cod where we both live now. She has had a beautiful journey and now is a well-respected artist in Welfleet, Mass.”

John Phillips and his wife, Kate, “bravely moved into the adventure of being empty-nesters so we’re now gunning for a second career in film, musicals, or dance.  Until then, we look forward to news from our tax-paying children, Michael, 26, who is in real estate development in LA; Sophie, 23, a marvelous art therapist in Michigan working with children with autism and behavioral disorders; and Juliette, 18—or is it 35?—a freshman at Penn State.”

Rachel Richardson is a clinical social worker/psychotherapist in a community mental health clinic in St. Paul, Minn. “I love my work and have been there since 1993 when I finished graduate school and was hired from my internship. I moved to the Twin Cities in 1987 a couple months after graduation with my now-husband, Michael Deppe. He repaired and built string instruments for 12 years and then went back to grad school and has been an elementary teacher for the past 14 years. We have two daughters: Louisa, 22, who graduated from the University of Chicago this summer, and Charlotte, 20, who is at Grinnell College, incredibly busy and happy as a studio arts major. I have a life I really like with my husband, my children, extended family, my neighborhood, colleagues and friends. One of my daughter’s best friends just graduated from Wesleyan so I feel a little aware of the campus through him. I returned for campus tours for both daughters when they were looking at colleges and to see my dear former boss at the library, Margery May. It was so nostalgic to be there.”

And lastly, Jason Loviglio is chair of media and communication studies at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “I’m serving on the Library of Congress’s Radio Preservation Task Force, which is working to identify and save endangered collections of radio recordings for historians, educators, and archivists. Also serving as a judge for the Peabody Awards in the radio and podcasting area. Also, on the board of Wide Angle Youth Media, a Baltimore nonprofit that teaches Baltimore youth media skills.”

Here’s to a happy 2018 with less tumultuous times.

Amanda Jacobs Wolf | wolfabj@gmail.com

Hi, it’s Caroline writing this time.

Hilary Jacobs Hendel wrote in: “It has been an exciting year. I have a child who is graduating from Wesleyan this May. I became a step-grandmother. And, the New York Times article I wrote on depression and shame in 2015 led to a book that Random House is publishing in February 2018. The book is called It’s Not Always Depression, and, so far, it is also being published in the UK, mainland China, Taiwan, and South Korea. I am passionate about sharing education on emotions. I also started a blog on emotions with stories, education, and tips for wellness.” You can find Hilary on social media and visit her website for more on emotions, mental health, and wellness (hilaryjacobshendel.com).

Linda Friedner’s work intersected with Hilary’s: “As in-house counsel at Penguin Random House, one of my jobs is pre-publication review of non-fiction manuscripts. When I saw that our Spiegel & Grau imprint was publishing a book by Hilary Jacobs Hendel, I immediately said I wanted to work on it. The only thing that would have been better than my phone conversations with Hilary would have been if we could have had them sitting on Foss Hill.”

K.T. Korngold also has some exciting news: “I’m traveling to Vietnam in November to hold a five-day workshop for Montessori teachers. My organization, the Center for Montessori Education|NY, was the first to offer an American Montessori Infant and Toddler Teaching Credential and we hope to soon bring that training program to Hanoi. It looks like I will be training 100 folks with the workshop in November! We’ll be working with a translator, which is a challenge and a thrill. It certainly requires precision. While most of the participants are coming from Vietnam, we do have a few Americans flying over to attend the workshop.”

I heard from Jeanne LaVallee that her daughter, Frannie, is “thriving” as a junior at the UN International School and that her niece, Ciara O’Flynn ’20, is attending Wesleyan. Jeanne runs a nonprofit, Apple Village Arts, Inc., an afterschool studio arts program for children in the East Village.

Scott Sager writes: “My oldest daughter, Maia Nelles-Sager ’17 just graduated  and has moved out to LA to work in the film industry. Having her at Wes was a great experience for us and gave me an excuse to spend time on campus and reconnect with the place. My younger daughter, Calla, is in her second year at Wellesley College. My wife and I and the dogs live in Brooklyn, where we’ve been for a really long time. We got to spend a beautiful fall weekend in Vermont with John LaCrosse, whose daughter, Thea ’21, started her first year at Wes in September.”

Paula Kay Drapkin is “living in upstate New York in the beautiful Catskill Mountains. I have been married to Jonathan Drapkin for 23 years and we have two great kids. Jack is a fourth-year at Northeastern University in Boston, and my daughter, Jordan, is a second-year student at The Ohio State University. Seeing them at school brings back so many great memories of Wesleyan for me.” Paula is an attorney with her own practice; she’s really busy, but tries to “get to Cape Cod as much as possible.”

Charles Barber is a visiting writer in the College of Letters; he claims that he is “hardly a true member of the class of 1985, having only attended Wesleyan for a year-and-a-half, but I have perhaps made up for this by teaching writing, part-time, in the College of Letters, as well as stints in the psychology department and the Allbritton Center, for the last six years. Wesleyan is much changed physically and culturally—far more cosmopolitan, international, wonderfully diverse—and the students, certainly, did far better on their SATs than I ever did.” Charles is working on a new book, Citizen Outlaw: A Gangster’s Journey, that will be published by Ecco (HarperCollins) in the next year or two.

Wesleyan was well-represented at the Head of the Charles Regatta in October with Terry McClenahan, Dave Myers ’82, Mike Greenstein ’82, Greg Lewis ’82, Paul Slye ’84, Tom Policelli ’89, Steve Bragaw ’88, John Wiseman ’86, Kelem Butts ’89, Alex Thomson ’82, Phil Brackett ’81, Kevin Foley ’82, and Rob Miller ’82 participating together. Terry wrote, “We had a complete blast racing in the Head of the Charles Regatta this Saturday, October 21, in exceedingly beautiful October weather. Our Wesleyan crew raced as a Men’s Sr. Masters Four the event is for rowers over 50 years old. We placed placed 39th of 45, not too bad considering we’d practiced together once.

“I got to row with three of my best friends of all time, who I’ve known since freshman year. In aerial photo attached the start line is the basin at the upper right, the finish is outside the photo, past lower right. So the Charles River really curves a lot. Most spectators hope to see a few collisions.

“A real bummer: we clashed oars with another boat and our cox-box speakers cut out halfway through the 5k race. A boat had passed us—but then cut across our bow. What were they thinking? Our cox, Wesleyan sophomore Betsy Cole ’20, was simply amazing, steering the twisting course like a true expert. She comes from Boston so she literally knows all the good steering angles.

“So sadly without the amplifier we couldn’t hear her instructions. (We raced a lay-down four. The cox lies in the bow to distribute their weight more effectively, but faces away from the rowers.) And Wesleyan entered a Men’s Alumni Eight, guys who graduated the early and late 1980s. Racing against much younger teams, they placed ahead of a Middlebury crew.” More photos here.

I was relieved to see a post from Jaime Tome on Facebook after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico. Jaime, who lives in San Juan, said that his home and family had weathered the storm all right, but “the landscape outside is unrecognizable.” Communication is sporadic, but I know Jaime would appreciate his classmates’ good thoughts (and actions, if you can) for Puerto Rico’s recovery.

CAROLINE WILKINS | cwilkins85@yahoo.com

MARY BETH KILKELLY | mbkeds@yahoo.com

NEWSMAKERS | 1980s NEWSMAKER HILLARY WELLS ’84 Hillary Wells ’84, executive producer and director of youth media at WGBH, was honored with the 2017 Margret and Hans Rey/Curious George Producer Award. Each year WGBH gives this award—made possible through a bequest to WGBH from author Margret Rey through the Curious George Foundation—to an outstanding producer who works in an area that reflects Rey’s broad interests. Wells has more than 30 years of experience developing and producing multi-platform, multi-partner events, programs, and series. While at Wesleyan, Wells majored in English.

Roger is reporting this month…and here is our news:

Ruth Epstein and Chip Smith started a financial and strategic advisory firm called BGP Advisors to help companies in the emerging legal cannabis market navigate the space. Ruth finds these to be very exciting times, especially in California, and she and Chip are running as fast as they can to keep up with market opportunities. They are, of course, happy to talk to anyone interested or involved in this area.

On the personal side, Ruth’s son, Max, graduated from University of California, Berkeley in December with a double major in music and philosophy and is working as an SAT/ACT tutor. Son Alex is a junior at University of California, Santa Cruz, studying philosophy. Ruth would love to catch up with any classmates who find themselves on the left coast.

Chuck Schneider is very happy with a career change he made in May. He left his private practice of 22 years and returned to academic medicine as an oncologist at the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where he did his medical oncology fellowship training years ago. Chuck is a clinical professor of medicine with responsibilities that include teaching the fellows, directing clinical trials, and seeing patients.

Speaking of career changes, Rick Okuno has put an end to a 30-year career in financial services and is working as a freelance consultant in Tokyo. He encourages everyone to visit the weird and wonderful world of Japan.

Shakir Farsakh and his family moved to Dubai, where Shakir is the principal commercial officer for the U.S. Consulate in Dubai. The posting will last four years. They make their home in a villa by the beach, and Shakir’s daughter is starting at the Swiss Scientific International School, an IB program with alternating weeks of instruction in French and English.

Julie Reiss is the director of modern and contemporary art and the market, a graduate program at Christie’s Education, New York. The program trains students looking for careers in the art world.

Molly B. Willey Tierney has lived in Santa Cruz since 1987, acquired a husband, produced three kids, and owns a house, a car, and a dog. She works up the coast at a small elementary school. She loves living in a coastal town, near a big city, surrounded by redwoods.  Being a mom continues to be the most fantastic thing she’s ever experienced, and dancing is what brings her the most joy.

Michael Zelig has moved to Gulf Breeze, Fla., and is practicing gastroenterology at the Medical Center Clinic in Pensacola.

Francesca Jenkins’ third poetry chapbook collection, Autumn Rumors, has been accepted for publication by CW Books and is slated for publication next fall. Francesca writes and publishes poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Her latest blog, which is doing really well, was started in the wake of the 2016 election and features weekly interviews with poets, writers, and other artists; it was launched in an effort to keep inspiration and networks alive in the arts community: writersnreadersii.blogspot.com.

In other publishing news, Charles Huschle’s first book of short stories has been published and is available now on Amazon. Mother Firetrucker Riffs on Love is a collection of short, short stories that take snapshots of relationships, love, death, sex, and family. More info at charleshuschle.com/writing.

Finally, Heidi Ravis has inquired about having a tree on the Wesleyan campus dedicated to our late classmate and dear friend of many of us, Nancy Crown. The plan is to have a ceremony at our 35th Reunion in 2019. Funding for this is being handled by way of donations to Wesleyan. Heidi advises that if you would like to contribute, you can do so through the website, or by mail or phone. Just be sure to indicate that your donation is in memory of Nancy. A contact in the alumni office will track the donations. If you know of anyone else who might want to contribute, please share this information with them. Feel free to contact Heidi with any questions at hbravis@gmail.com.

Roger Pincus | rpincus84@wesleyan.edu

Michael Steven Schultz | mschultz84@wesleyan.edu