Class Notes | 1980s

Summer is over and the September back-to-school craziness finally subsided. Today I bought some mums and pumpkins to welcome fall. Thankfully, Hurricane Joaquin headed out to sea and all New Jersey had was lots of rain. I hope these class notes find you safe and warm enjoying the next change of seasons.

Harry Gural started a new job as Democratic staff director for the Joint Economic Committee, a House-Senate committee that produces reports and holds hearings on economic issues. Glad to be back on the Hill after a year-and-a-half working for a nonprofit on corporate tax policy, he writes, “The Senate is eerily quiet—guess I’ll always be a House guy. My four years with Barney Frank were about as good as it gets.” Harry sees David Hart, who lives just a couple miles from him in D.C. and speaks to Alison Neely and fellow head resident Marty Dobrow.

Helen Kohane Kobek published a new book Everyday Cruelty: How to Deal with Its Effects without Denial, Bitterness, or Despair. “It is a guide to understand what everyday cruelty is, how it affects us in body, mind, emotion, spirit, and behavior. The book explains what it is about everyday cruelty that makes it so hard for us to ’shake’ and then offers hundreds of tested, practical strategies for dealing with this challenging daily experience.”

David Steinhardt, also recently rewrote and published his honors thesis, once a novel, into a 46,000 word novella. It is a “psychological and political pilgrimage thriller of ideas, now called The Book of Paul or Yet Another Columbus Avenue Jaffa Gate Type Situation.”

Ken Schneyer’s latest story, “The Plausibility of Dragons,” will appear in Lightspeed Magazine in November. He teaches legal studies and literature at Johnson & Wales University in Providence. Spouse Janice Okoomian teaches gender and women’s studies at Rhode Island College and this term has a new course called The Whole Enchilada: Food, Gender, Identity, Power. Daughter Phoebe studies dance and Latin at Marlboro College in Vermont and son Arek’s passion is theater and creative writing in high school.

Nicholas Herold sent an update of his activities the past few decades. “In keeping with my lifelong disinterest in doing anything long enough to become an expert, or anyway, highly paid, I started working as an EMT in the Boston area…I’m riding in the back of an ambulance, having just dropped off an elderly man at a rehab center. He has had a full life himself, having been career Army and Air Force, and as a Navy careerist, provided coffee service to aliens in Roswell, New Mexico. He was kind enough to make me a sergeant. As for me, I was a bartender at a country club and a high end restaurant, worked to get Massachusetts’ universal health care law passed, did health care services research, was the business manager for a health care for the homeless organization, and fished 20 tons of herring out of the Bering Sea. For several years I’ve provided pro bono management consulting services to nonprofit organizations, most recently the Arlington International Film Festival.” Nicholas is close touch with David Eggers ’82.

Cheri Litton Weiss married Dan Weiss in 2012. Dan is a hospice and palliative care nurse studying for his doctorate in nursing (DNP). Cheri finished her second year at the Academy for Jewish Religion (AJRCA), where she is studying for the cantorate, her lifelong dream. She continues to run her real estate company, Top Coast Properties in La Jolla. Between selling homes, attending weekly classes in Los Angeles, and watching daughter Emma play water polo for UCSD all over California, she does a lot of driving and has discovered the beauty and entertainment value of audio books.

Matt Ember and Laurie Sklarin ’84 celebrated daughter Sydney’s wedding. Younger daughter Jamie Ember ’16 was maid of honor and accompanied by Arthur Halliday ’16. Classmates Glenn Duhl, Mark A. Armstrong, Melissa Duggan Pace ’84 and husband Chris Pace ’82, Jeff Resler ’84 and Ed Decter ’79 attended.

Brad and Lele Galer celebrated their 27th anniversary and are now empty nesters. Their sons are spread across the U.S. Alex is an editor for the comic book company BOOM! Peter is a senior at Vassar, and Simon is a sophomore at Connecticut College. Lele is an established artist (painting and steel sculpture) in the Brandywine area of Pennsylvania, and Brad is chief medical officer for Zogenix Inc. Brad and Lele founded in 2005 and run the Galer Estate Vineyard and Winery in Kennett Square, Pa., which has become a nationally acclaimed winery, winning more than 90 blind wine competitions in Napa, Sonoma, and the Finger Lakes. They invite Wes friends to stop by and share a glass on them!

Eileen Kelly-Aguirre finished her first year in new position as executive director of School Year Abroad, a high school study abroad program/school in its 50th year. Glenn Lunden is “now an official beggar on behalf of Wesleyan, courtesy of the ’This Is Why’ fundraising website at wesleyan.edu: thisiswhy.wesleyan.edu/home/story_detail/249.”

Rita Fernandez Lurito is an empty nester and travels a lot. Her youngest son is a junior at Wes and spent the summer in Japan. Rita and family developed and launched a free wine app to help select wine tailored to your taste and budget. “Corkscrew” can be downloaded from the Apple Store or directly at smarturl.it/Corkscrew.

Lynn Ogden dropped off daughter Emilie Ogden-Fung ’19 at Clark Hall after a two-week trip to France and London. Lynn joined Boyden Global Executive Search as partner in the San Francisco office for consumer and nonprofit clients and recently had drinks with Dan Vigneron. 

Mitchell Plave’s son, Aaron Plave ’15, graduated from Wesleyan this past May, majoring in computer science. Aaron works as a Web designer and computer programmer for the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena. Daughter Leah studies at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (CCM) with Yehuda Hanani, a well known cellist. Mitchell continues to enjoy the banking regulatory and legislative practice at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in Washington, D.C.

Karen Adair enjoys retirement but says she is busier than ever. She sits on the Wes Athletic Advisory Council and the Northwood School board in Lake Placid, N.Y. All five of her family members are off doing their own thing. Karen writes, “The book The Life Changing Art of Tidying Up has truly influenced my daily existence. Gotta tell you…all is cleaned out and tidied up. The poor kids will never recognize a thing!”

Thanks for the info on favorite books and volunteer activities. Until next time, namasté,

LAURIE Hills | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu

Newsmaker: Bonnie LePard ’82

Bonnie LePard ’82 was named executive director of Oatlands, a 415-acre self-supporting National Trust Historic Site and National Historic Landmark, in Leesburg, Va. Previously the founder and longtime executive director of the Tregaron Conservancy in Washington, D.C., LePard had worked with the community and the Historic Preservation Review Board in a successful effort to save Tregaron Estate, a century-old estate designed by renowned architect Charles Platt and famed landscape architect Ellen Biddle Shipman. Prior to her work at Tregaron, she was an environmental crimes prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice. An English major at Wesleyan, she holds a J.D. with emphasis on environmental law from New York University School of Law. She is a former Trustee of Wesleyan.

Our next Reunion is just around the corner in 2017 (35 years since graduation and counting!) but that hasn’t stopped members of the class of 1982 from taking part in “mini-reunions” when and where they can.

Bob Russo writes that he and Joe Barrett had a bunch of alums to his family cottage on Chappaquiddick in August. (Those from the class of ’82 were Bob, Anthony Pahigian, John Brautigam Tom Davis, and Mike Greenstein, along with Steve Davies ’83.) “We had a blast playing in the ocean and catching up,” he writes.

Vincent Bonazzoli enjoyed a recent mini-reunion as well: “Lyndon Tretter, Ilyse Tretter, my wife, Paula, and I met in Saratoga, N.Y., in August for four days of golfing, eating, drinking, bike riding, paddle boarding, laughing, dancing, and, yes, a little gambling at the track. We even won a few races,” he writes. “Plan to see them again in New York City in December. “

He writes that he and Paula traveled weekends this past fall to see their son Matt play football in Saint Paul, Minn., for the fighting Scots of Macalester College.

Donna Phillips let us know about a recent mini-reunion with Julie Broude-Bordwin and Harold Bordwin at the Fountainebleau Hilton. “After the mind-boggling realization that we had not seen each other since graduation, we spent a few hours catching up on the last 33 years!” she wrote. “Hopefully, it will not be another 33 years until we connect again, since as Harold pointed out, we will be 88 years old by then (gasp)! “Donna has been working for the past 22 years as a pain psychologist at the Rosomoff Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center in Miami. “I just celebrated 18 years with my life partner, Mariluce de Souza,” she writes. “We travel as much as work and finances permit, having been to Italy, Greece, Turkey and Brazil in recent months.”

Donna adds that she has become “an Instagram addict, connecting with people all over the globe through a mutual passion for photography and travel. You can find me @paindocmiami—or better yet, come find me in person the next time any of you decide to take a winter sojourn in Miami!”

Jim Friedlander writes that he and his wife, Liz Irwin, are “involved in all things Cuban.”

They chartered the first legal private yacht to Cuba from the U.S. since the Cuban Revolution in August. In October, they assembled a high-profile group of professionals and diplomats to found the Havana Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit organization designed to restore, protect, and preserve the city of Havana.

Separately, Liz has been appointed a representative to the United Nations for the Business and Professional Women’s Association and is advocating for women’s rights, as well as focusing on the issue of access to fresh water.

Cindy Rich, who lives in the Washington, D.C., area, works as a senior privacy adviser at Morrison & Foerster LLP, helping companies comply with privacy laws and regulations around the world. She writes that her son, Hugo Kessler ’19, started at Wesleyan this fall.

Cindy’s oldest child, André, is graduating in June from MIT and will work for SpaceX in Los Angeles as a software engineer. Her daughter, Mara, will start high school in the fall, so Cindy and her husband, Glenn Kessler, have four more years before they become empty nesters. She writes that she “enjoys traveling with her family to far-off places around the world such as Burma, India, Peru, Vietnam ,and Morocco.”

A “happy and excited” Anne Heller Anderson writes that her daughter, Brooke ’19, is a first-year student at Wesleyan. “I had the honor of being asked to make welcome remarks on Arrival Day to parents gathered to hear President Roth speak in Memorial Chapel. Very fun!” she writes.

Jim Sullivan is also the proud parent of a Wesleyan frosh, one of several from offspring from the class of 1982 to have enrolled in the class of 2019. “My son, Owen ’19, is a freshman at Wesleyan now,” he wrote.

Joe Fins writes that his new book, Rights Come to Mind: Brain Injury, Ethics and the Struggle for Consciousness, was published by Cambridge University Press in September. “I continue to teach medical ethics at Weill Cornell Medical College and am also serving as the Solomon Center Distinguished Scholar in Medicine, Bioethics, and the Law at Yale Law School.”

Fran Strumph writes that she and her husband, Paul Strumph, celebrated the wedding of their daughter, Caroline, to Michael Schnapp in August: “It was a beautiful, fun-filled weekend on Smith Mountain Lake. Wesleyan was well-represented—Jeff Phelon with his wife, Joanne, as well as my sister, Susan Carroll ’80, and Henrik Dohlma with his wife, Christianna Williams.”

Fran says their youngest child, Matthew, is a third-year law student at the University of Virginia. “Paul is head of diabetes clinical development at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, and is working on a very promising drug to treat Type 1 diabetes. I am enjoying retired (from teaching first grade) life at the lake, and traveling as much as possible with Paul.”

Double congratulations to our classmate Charita Cole Brown, the winner in October of a “pitch week” book prize for emerging authors at Vermont Writers’ Retreat. Charita’s memoir, Defying the Verdict: My Bipolar Life, follows her triumphant journey to overcome bipolar disorder—an illness that was diagnosed while she was a student at Wesleyan. She now enjoys a normal, asymptomatic existence, and is the mother of two grown daughters. Charita was one of several finalists chosen from dozens of candidates across North America. Her prize includes a publication deal with Curbside Splendor, a Chicago-based publisher, and a national book-launch publicity campaign led by Meryl Moss Media.

Many thanks for these updates. Keep those cards and letters coming!

Stephanie Griffith | stephaniedgriffith@gmail.com

Save the date: 35th Reunion, May 20th–22nd, 2016. We will have been out for almost twice as long as we were around before we went in!

Paul W. Godfrey, of Farmers Insurance, St. Paul, has been elected secretary of the Minnesota State Bar Association. The office, which he assumed July 1, puts Godfrey on track to become the MSBA president during the 2018–19 bar year.

Barry “Pono” Fried’s business, Open Eye Tours and Photos, received a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence award for their private tours of Maui. Congrats!

Jim Baker and his wife, Diane, are living in Ridgefield, Conn. Jim retired from Unilever after 32 years (directly from Wesleyan to Unilever) and is now working for a small medical supply company in Guilford, Conn. Jim’s oldest daughter, Carolyn, just got married and his youngest daughter, Kristina, lives in NYC and works for a startup called Class Pass. Jim and Diane spend a lot of time on Fishers Island, N.Y., in the summer.

Pete Congleton recently joined the development office at Vassar College as the director of leadership gifts and gift planning. This is a new, hybrid position that involves leading a team of leadership gift officers in concert with Vassar’s Gift Planning team. Pete is “glad to be back in the Northeast, closer to family and friends, and looking forward to putting his fundraising experience to good use at a prestigious college that often compares itself to Wesleyan.”

After 17 years in Richmond, Va., John Ravenal moved with his wife, Ginny Pye ’82, to the Boston area. He’s now the executive director of deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln. “I managed to arrive just days before the epic winter began, but I’ve had a summer to thaw out, get my director-legs under me, and settle into a new home in Cambridge with Ginny. Our daughter, Eva ’15, moved to New York to pursue an acting career after graduating last spring from Wesleyan. Our son is remaining in Richmond now that he’s finished high school, supporting himself and skateboarding with a team.”

Alison Williams has started a new position as the associate provost for diversity and intercultural education at Denison University (as of July 16). She lives in Granville, Ohio, in a five-bedroom farmhouse (“long story”) 20 miles east of Columbus. “I have lots of room for visitors, as long as you don’t mind woodchucks and deer in the yard! I’m looking for anyone from Wesleyan to help introduce me to the Columbus area. I’m also looking for opportunities to play my oboe. I’ve enjoyed hearing from Wesleyan East College classmates who have children touring the great liberal arts colleges of Ohio (Eric Pallant, Jon Mink) or delivering offspring to grad school (Sara Margolis). I also hear from Michelle Coleman, Pam Delerme, and Cathy Clarke regularly.”

Ellen McHale is pleased to report that her son, Ben McKeeby, is a graduate student at Wesleyan, studying planetary sciences. She is looking forward to spending more time on campus over the next few years! “I also have a book (my first), which is due to be released by the University of Mississippi Press on Oct. 1, 2015. Stable Views: Stories and Voices from the Thoroughbred Racetrack is the culmination of 14 years (and many hours) of ethnographic interviews in the stable areas of the thoroughbred racetracks of the eastern United States.”

Leslie Sundt Stratton and her husband are still happily living in Richmond, Va. Their eldest just graduated from James Madison University and their youngest is now halfway through William & Mary. “I am still an economics professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and looking forward to a research leave for the upcoming year–time split between Vermont and Australia. I am looking at how economic conditions (like the unemployment rate and housing prices) affect progress towards a college degree in the U.S. and Denmark. I will be looking at how couples divide housework time in Australia. I am hoping to see Diane Stein and her family this summer and very much enjoyed a trip to Boston to visit classmates Karen Zallen and Heidi Falk Logan—both married with children (Heidi’s husband is Chris Logan ’80).”

Steve Blum is still teaching at Wharton, and still running a small “wealth management” business and an even smaller law firm. His book Negotiating Your Investments recently cracked the “one millionth” level on Amazon. “Not a million sales,” he adds, “but, rather, there are 999,999 books selling more copies.”

Jeremy Kenner writes from Australia, where the seasons are upside down: “While continuing to make a living as an employee of the Commonwealth (in the agency equivalent to the NIH as an adviser in ethics), I watch my older children (oldest at 29) negotiate adulthood and my youngest (just turned 3) begin the journey toward personhood. Five boys/two generations: it is an unusual path, but one well worth treading. The only other interesting thing I’ve done down here in the Antipodes is build a cabin in northeastern Tasmania at a place called the Bay of Fires. Have a look on GoogleEarth sometime and consider visiting one of the more remote, if very civilised, corners of the planet.”

Neil Foote is starting his eighth year teaching at the University of North Texas’ Mayborn School of Journalism in Denton, Texas. He’s also become co-director of the school’s Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, entering its 12th year, which features keynotes and seminars from the nation’s top journalists, authors and storytellers. “I continue to do consulting with a variety of clients around the country, including the Tom Joyner Foundation, founded by the nationally syndicated radio personality with the same name. In family news, my wife, Jane, and I headed up to Cambridge to celebrate daughter Alexandra’s graduation cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in East Asian Studies. She’s currently pursuing her MSc in environment and development from the London School of Economics.”

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

Joanne Godin Audretsch | Berlinjo@aol.com

Paul Singarella writes in response to my seeing his family name on the firehouse in Beacon Hill: “That’s right Kim: The Singarellas, going back to my grandfather, were contractors and builders in the Boston area, building not only that sturdy firehouse, now a children’s center, but also part of Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo, part of the well-known Morrissey Boulevard, and the North Weymouth drive-in theater, which supposedly was the first one in the region. I, myself, am not a contractor, although that’s what I did during my summer vacations, starting at age 12. It does not feel like child labor when you are a 12-year-old driving a steamroller. These days, I am working as a lawyer on water scarcity issues, such as representing the State of Florida in its U.S. Supreme Court case against the State of Georgia, asking the Supreme Court to apportion enough of the river flow from upstream Georgia to protect the Apalachicola River and Bay of the Florida Panhandle, and the oyster that bears the Apalachicola name. Heather and I are empty-nesters in Irvine, Calif., with Nick (NYU 2013) living and working in the Bay Area, Natalie a junior at TCU, and Juliette a sophomore at Vanderbilt.”

Paul Oxholm writes: “Sarah, a Lehigh senior, is a double major in finance and marketing, with a psychology minor. Catherine is a Denison freshman with potential interest in one of nine majors. Karen continues to teach at school and coach the girls tennis team. I continue to run a small manufacturing company in central Pennsylvania, serve as a financial adviser for a few families, and watch my hair turn grey. Karen and I are entering a new phase as empty nesters with more anticipation than trepidation. Let’s hope that continues…”

Doron Henkin writes: “In October 2013, riding the joyous wave of advances in rights, I ’gay married’ Victor Hall at a ceremony on the eastern shore of Maryland, in a Jewish-Philippino-inclusive ceremony at Historic St. Martin’s Church in Berlin, Md. It was their first LGBT event, ditto for the reception hall in Salisbury. Nine months later our union was suddenly legitimized in Pennsylvania, when Governor Corbett declined to appeal from a Federal District Court ruling in Harrisburg in favor of the plaintiffs seeking marriage equality—which ended an odd period in which we were married in some states and on some tax returns but not others. Victor was born in the Philippines and worked in a number of nonprofits before going back to (culinary) school. He is now a dessert chef at a downtown Philadelphia restaurant. I continue my legal practice, focusing on business, bankruptcy and real estate matters. Children, Dan and Gil, have graduated college. Gil is in physics graduate school at McGill University in Montreal and Dan is looking for that first real engineering job after college. Daughter Hannah is a senior at the University of Michigan and played on Team USA (Women’s) at the recent 23-and-under Ultimate Frisbee World Championships in London, England.

Rebecca Hayden writes: “I am still living in the Cambridgeport section of Cambridge—I’ve been here since 1981 (with the exception of one year in Munich). My husband and I live a three-block walk from Central Square, which means he can bike to his job at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard, and I can walk the three miles to Brookline High School, where I am starting my 15th year teaching English. It couldn’t be a better match; I’m not surprised lots of BHS students go to Wesleyan. They are fun, challenging, quirky, sophisticated in all the right ways, and inspiring to teach. I still sing seriously and occasionally for money. Currently I’m in a large volunteer chorus and gig quite a bit at retirement communities. They enjoy my repertoire of parlor songs, vaudeville, operetta, spirituals, and the great American songbook. I was really fortunate the summer of 2014 to receive one of the last NEH grants awarded to high school teachers for foreign study—amonth in London studying The Canterbury Tales. It brought back great memories of Hope Weissman’s seminar on Chaucer. I am grateful for good health, a career I love, a happy marriage, and a circle of wonderful friends—many of them from Wesleyan: Almut Koester, Christian Herold ’81, Michael Shulman, and Suzy Shedd (with a shout-out to Randy Baron, too!).

Mark Zitter writes: “I’m the proud dad of three teens, including a high school senior and junior. Both of them are considering Wes as they look at colleges. I’m still running Zitter Health Insights but also am doing a lot with death these days. My physician-wife focuses on end-of-life issues in both her clinical practice and her New York Times columns, and we co-founded a telephone counseling service for dying patients that we sold a few years back. Recently I’ve chaired a series of interviews at the Commonwealth Club of California on dying, including one with Jessica. It’s fun to work together on this important issue.”

Dan Connors writes: “Still living in St. Louis and love our baseball Cardinals while hating our football team that wants to leave for LA. Got my CPA a few years ago and now writing financial articles while trying to help small businesses in the area. Two daughters near college age, neither likely to attend Wesleyan and asking me how crazy I was to go so far away knowing nobody… At work for nearly three years now on my novel, which I may just have to self-publish once I get it done. Looking for Wes grads (or anybody else bored enough) who would like to read and critique it.”

Janet Grillo is delighted to screen the feature film she directed, Jack of the Red Hearts, at The Rome International Film Festival, Alice nella Città, in October, after showing it at four American film festivals since May, and receiving 11 awards. Jack (starring Famke Janssen and Sophia Anne Robb) will open in 15 select AMC theaters across the country on December 4th.

KIMBERLY OFRIA SELBY | kim_selby@yahoo.com

Jonathan writes: Hey, all. Things seem to have been a little quiet for ‘89ers these past few months. Michele and I can’t believe that’s true, so please take a few minutes to drop one of us a line for the next issue. Please. Thanks, peeps!

Susan Turkel leads us off with her reflections on last year’s Reunion: “So much fun to see people and dance under the big tent!” She’s been working as a social sciences librarian for the last 17-plus years—14 years at Bryn Mawr College, and then three-plus years at the University of Michigan. Last summer she returned to the East Coast to be closer to family and help out her aging parents. She left Ann Arbor (although continuing to work remotely on a part-time basis) and now lives with her partner, Mark, in the Philly suburbs, where she’s taking art and writing classes, doing lots of contra dancing, spending time with friends and family, getting ready to start some volunteer pursuits, planning her parents’ 50th anniversary party, and thinking about what she’d like to do with the next chapter of her life.

Stephanie Dolgoff reports that she is “half dead and bald from the stress of a renovation, but with two tween girls, one bathroom wasn’t cutting it. Grateful to have such good friends and healthy kids. Love to all.”

Dan White is hard at work on his second nonfiction book, Under The Stars, which is going to be published by Henry Holt and Co. in the summer of 2016. It’s an embodied history of American camping, which means everything from survivalist camping (camping without any gear—or clothes—in mountain lion territory in the Santa Cruz Mountains for 24 frightening hours), to exploring the Everglades and “glamping” on an ersatz safari in Wine Country. Several of Dan’s Wesleyan friends, including James Shiffer, Sara Oh Neville and Bill Sherman ’90, have been giving encouragement, stories, and help along the way.
From Joel Jacobs, we learn that he has been continuing his “recent pursuit of acting, and has now been in four plays, most recently as Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird.” He’s also been coaching his younger daughter’s high school debate team. His older daughter, Aviva, will start at Pitzer College in the fall.

Mark Mullen’s big news is that he moved from Tbilisi to San Francisco.

Kate True digs out from the Boston winter to say she and her three daughters (Ona, Flora and Tess) made it to the promised land of spring. Ona ’19 will be a first-year student at Wesleyan in the fall! Kate recently completed a creative entrepreneur fellowship through the arts and business council and Discover Roxbury, and is busy with her art, portrait painting, and independent curating, as well as teaching part time at the Sudbury Valley School. Visitors are always welcome at her old Victorian home in Roxbury, which she is continually upgrading.

Finally, Betsey Schmidt and her husband hosted a lovely alumni event in March to honor Wesleyan President Michael Roth ’78 at their new(ish) apartment in Brooklyn.

Peter writes for this edition.

Sarah Rickless Baker reports that she has been studying and teaching at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., for the past 10 years. “I am now on the slow track to a PhD in writing and rhetoric. In addition to lots of teaching, last year I became director of the Northern Virginia Writing Project (nvwp.org), which runs and hosts programs for K–12 teachers and young writers. I live in Arlington, Va., have a 13-year-old daughter (we celebrated a bat mitzvah this May), and make good use as a teen-sitter of the older daughter of our one-block-down Wes neighbors Eric Lotke ’87 and Amy Mortimer ’87.

Kara Stern shares: “After a lifetime in NYC, my family and I are moving up to Woodstock, N.Y., where I will be head of school at Woodstock Day School (thanks to a tip from Adam Rohdie ’89). Would love to connect with Wes folks in the area!”

Justine Gubar’s new book, Fanaticus: Mischief and Madness in the Modern Sports Fan, hit bookstores June 16th. I pre-ordered it!

Rich Pham contributes: “I managed to catch up with Rob James in Las Vegas back in April. We had some great meals and spent most of the evening talking about Wes. As you may know, I have been living abroad for the past 20 years (Tokyo, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh, Singapore) and loving it. I now live in Ho Chi Minh and anyone stopping by should give me a shout. I managed to get on the cover of Esquire Vietnam. They did a cover story on me as a businessman with a unique hobby of racing. I have been racing formula and touring cars for the past nine years in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.”

Kellina Craig-Henderson updates: “I continue to enjoy my post heading the National Science Foundation’s regional office in Tokyo, located in the U.S. Embassy.”

Daniel Rosenberg writes from the Northwest: “Mai-Lin and I are finally back home in Eugene, Ore., after two years of academic adventures in Berlin, Germany, and in the SF Bay Area. Along the way, our 2-year-old, Milo, became 4 and fluent in German, and acquired a younger sister, Beatrice, now a year-and-a-half old. We’ve stayed in touch with old Wesleyan friends, including beloved mentors, Richard Ohmann, Henry Abelove, and Laurie Nussdorfer.”

Jacqueline Freedman Bershad lets us know that “Since graduation I lived in S.F., went to architecture school in N.C., and spent 20 years in Philly. There I grew up, married a nice guy named Joe, designed museums and zoos, and had a kid. Last year we moved to Baltimore. I was lucky to land a job at the National Aquarium as VP for capital planning and facilities.”

My fellow R.I. resident Gail Agronick advises: “My husband, daughters, and I are still in Smithfield, celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary, and Zoe is graduating from high school this week. Addie will be a sophomore in high school next year. She is curious about Wes, so I have hope yet.”

After 20-plus years in various marketing roles, Chris Pearson embarked on a career change, trading a desk job for building tiny homes. He and his wife, Susan, are somewhat dumbfounded that they are so old their eldest daughter, Paige, is now embarking for college. They also have an eighth-grader daughter and live happily in Santa Cruz, Calif.

Steve Morison lets us know that “after four lovely years in Jordan at King’s Academy, my wife and I have found a new home at St. Stephen’s School in Rome. We spend our summers in our cottage on Mount Desert Island in Maine. Next year, our daughter, Talia, will be a junior at St. Stephen’s. If you’re in the Eternal City for vacation, friend me on Facebook, and I’m happy to meet you for a drink.”

Majora Carter has launched a new 501(c)(3) incubator called Hometown Security Labs (www.hometownsecuritylabs.org).

John “Sparky” Ferrara happily reports, “All is moving forward here and life is good. The highlight of my year last year was watching Wesleyan baseball as an alumnus father of a Cardinal rookie, my son AJ ’18 (he is now also a XY brother). My daughter, Claudia, just finished her sophomore year in high school. My maniacal son Jack is just a banger—into football, lacrosse and wrestling. We just did a trip to the Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands, which, if you have never been, we would highly recommend as a bucket list box to check.”

David Silverberg is now the director of the Telego Center for Educational Improvement at Ashland University in Ohio, which provides university outreach to school districts across the country. He is president of the university’s chapter of Phi Delta Kappa International, the editor of the Ohio Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) Journal, and a faculty member of ASCD International’s professional development team.

Vivian Johnson is doing well. She resides in Oakwood, Ohio, with her 11-year-old adopted niece, Regina. For the summer, Vivian will be doing research at her alma mater, Harvard University, where she earned her Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

The YMCA of Greater New York announced Sharon Greenberger as its new president and chief executive.

Dear Classmates, I was lucky enough to see a lot of my favorite Wes people this spring. In May, Jeremy Mindich and I co-hosted a campaign fundraiser at my place for our beloved Senator from Colorado, Michael Bennet. Among those who came to support him were Brad Lubin, Lisa Abroms Herz, Dave Davenport ’88, Bill Shapiro, Michael Pruzan, Lucy Lehrer ‘85, Sarah Williams ’88 and Sharon Greenberger ‘88, as well as my sister Hilary Jacobs Hendel ’85. I also had a lovely long dinner and sleepover in NYC with Martha Sutro. I had at least two meals with Lisa Abroms Herz, and I got a great night out with Matt Paul and his (and Naomi Mezey’s) ever-fabulous kids. An embarrassment of riches!

Speaking of Naomi Mezey, starting this summer she will be the associate dean for the JD program at Georgetown Law. “The up side of taking on an administrative job like this is that I’ll get a chance to learn new skills (like being a decider) and think hard about legal education at a time when it is in flux. The downside of this job is that I won’t have much time for teaching or writing a book and that I’ll have to go into the office every single day of the week. I may also have to shower and wear nice clothes. I should note that the Wesleyan graduates who go on to become my students are uniformly awesome people.”

John Fitzpatrick was kind enough to write in about a Wes wedding that he had just been to. “Jeff McCarthy ’89 was married this past June in a beautiful outdoor ceremony in Park City, Utah. It was attended by Chris Olinger, Mike Pruzan, Mike Olinger ’89 and me. Jeff and Whitney organized a weekend of mountain biking, hiking, dancing the night away and general frivolity. A good time was had by all.”

After five years of living in Mexico City, Lucille Renwick moved back stateside (“for a little while,” she says) to N.Y. this summer, where her husband will work as a deputy sports editor for The New York Times and Lucille will look for work in communications/PR. She’s excited about reconnecting with Wes friends Sumana Chandrasekhar Rangachar, Amy Baltzell, Yvonne Ilton ’88, Sarah Williams ’88, Ruth Bodian ’88 and many more. Lucille is planning on running the 2015 NYC marathon to mark her return to New York and her upcoming 50th. She welcomes any Wes runners to help her keep pace.

Since graduating, Evelyn Shapiro “has been working in design and marketing, both in publishing and higher ed. At the same time, I’ve been teaching Alexander Technique privately to dancers, English teachers, and lawyers. This spring those two worlds came together when I wrapped up the design and development of my 75th title, a scholarly book called Alexander’s Way. Last fall I was honored to attend Clarinda Mac Low and Peter Stankiewicz’s beautiful wedding celebration in Brooklyn, where many a guest had Wes connections. Happily, my daughter made fast friends with the other kids there, including Chris Lotspeich’s girls. At home in Illinois, we are full on with a busy life including my partner, clarinetist Solomon Baer’s chamber music concerts, our son Mario’s (10) near-obsessive passion for soccer, and Hannah’s (7) intricate inner world of stories. We are looking forward to our second trip back to Guatemala, Mario’s birth country. I wish Kim Sargent-Wishart didn’t live so far away, but I relish her wit and wisdom and family pix from afar. I’ve also stayed in touch with our classmate Anna Luhrmann Dewdney, who is living her dream of painting kids’ books in Vermont.

Charles Grattan Baldwin is happy to report that he earned his PhD in literacy from the Rutgers Graduate School of Education and graduated this May. “I am now getting used to being called “Dr. Baldwin.”

Frank Barrett said it was “uplifting to catch up with Brad Vogt in NYC last month before we listened to Steve Genyk speak positively of his childhood friend and Wesleyan hockey teammate Ken Cain, during a 50th birthday party hosted by wife Susan Cain. Not long afterwards in Boston, Genyk and I had a ball connecting with old teammates Don Gillis ’84, Dave Blauer ’84, and Ed Colbert ’89. An uplifting night of reminiscing and laughter started on the back deck of the The Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, courtesy of host Ted Galo ’85, who is the museum’s site manager. Oddly, all former Cardinals mentioned here are “Little Three Champions” without a shared title, a feat that has been accomplished just twice in 44 years of Wesleyan men’s ice hockey. Steve Genyk also wrote in about the same party, saying how great it was to see everyone, but wondered where A.J. Salerno and John Brais ’86 were.

Steve Kaminsky writes that his daughter, Juliet Margot Kaminsky, arrived Friday, Feb. 27th. “We are over the moon! Oh yeah, and I turned 50 yesterday. Woah!”

Scott Pryce and his family are enjoying quality of life in suburban Washington, D.C., after a short stint (a second one) in São Paulo. He shuttles every week to Miami for work, and would love to connect with Florida-based classmates.

Oy, the spring after next will bring our 30th Wesleyan Reunion. So don’t make any plans for Memorial Day Weekend 2017! Or better yet, put it in your iPhones now!

Elaine Taylor-Klaus, writes, “When I was at Wes, I understood the value of “learning to think” in theory, but I never could have imagined how it would serve me in my life—as a parent and as an entrepreneur. No day goes by that I do not actively continue the extraordinary personal growth that started for me in the early ’80s—the ability to see a need in the world, the confidence to address that need, and the wisdom to call on the intelligence (of myself and others) to figure out how do it effectively.”

Lonnie Shumsky: “I live in the West and have now for half my life, but I love visiting my Wes friends back East. As a physician and parent, I spend a lot of my time taking care of other people. When I travel to NYC to see friends, I turn back into the former and less encumbered me, at least for a few days. Having friends, great friends, for over 30 years is pretty powerful stuff.”

Daniel Seltzer is still living in NYC with a wonderful woman and a lot of kids (who are now heading off to colleges). He is currently CTO at a FinTech startup, playing music as much as possible, and biking/running/boarding within the bounds of aging tendons.

Jaclyn Brilliant and Anthony Jenks ’85 have been in Brooklyn together for more than 25 years. One kid is one year out of college, and the other just wrapped up her first year at Wes! She is loving it, and her experience takes me back to the joy of my own Wesleyan friendships. I’m still in touch with Nina Mehta and Sarah Porter, and looking to reconnect with Ann O’Hanlon, Jinny Kim, and many others (hoping we might all be at our 30th Reunion).

Samuel Connor wrote, “My Wesleyan experience led me straight into the Peace Corps, where I served in West Africa for a few years. I got hooked on adventure, diversity, challenges, and to contributing meaningfully to improve our world, and have stayed on that social justice course ever since. World music remains a passion.”

Steve Price has become a mild mannered commercial appraiser in Seattle, still doing lots in the mountains and now learning how to race surfskis. His latest pro-bono work is PR and fundraising for a state-wide ballot initiative that would impose a carbon tax and then use those proceeds to directly reduce other state taxes in a manner to make the state tax system more progressive and transfer about $200M a year back into the wallets of the bottom 40 percent.

In terms of progressives, Hal Ginsberg is blogging for the group Progressive Maryland. He owned and operated liberal talker KRXA 540 AM in Monterey, Calif., but sold it last May, and returned east. “Currently, I am focused on building audience for my politics-based website where I webcast a three-hour live call-in show Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to noon, East Coast.”

In terms of performers, Lisa Porter comments on the irony: “In 1985, I played Maria in Twelfth Night at Wesleyan. Today I play Viola/Sebastian in Twelfth Night at the California Shakespeare Theatre. Thirty year span … don’t really feel that different.”

Sarah Nazimova-Baum works nights as a crisis counselor on the overnight shift for LifeNet, a mental health crisis hotline. “Of course, now that our son Raphael is 14 and heading to high school, our home life is abundant in crisis as well.”

Ellen Limburg Santistevan was fortunate to receive so many extraordinary blessings over the last year, and has also “come to rely on two friends I made my freshman year at Wes, Karen Escovitz and Bennett Schneider, for their sensitivity and generosity of spirit as my family goes through some profound changes; I am so incredibly grateful to Wesleyan for putting us all in the same vicinity so our lives could weave these complex patterns.”

Complex networks! Judith Hill-Weld has her private psychotherapy practice, specializing in developmental disabilities, and added “debate coach” to a roster of responsibilities. “My husband and I took our son to visit East Coast colleges this spring, and traveled for a few days with Arthur Haubenstock ’84 and Amy Whiteside ’84 and their son. We said hello to Rob Lancefield ’82 at the Davison, and enjoyed seeing Laura Radin ’83 and Charlie Barber ’85 and their son. In Philadelphia, we shared a fabulous seder with Andy Clibanoff. Tyche Hendricks and her daughter joined us to walk the West Village and the Highline in Manhattan.”

Zahara Heckscher writes, “Highlight of Wes Friendship: Driving to Middletown for 25th Reunion with Dana Martin and her daughter and my son—discovering a friend of the heart for life. Look forward to the drive for 30th Reunion with Dana, and discovering more new and ‘golden’ friendships. In that spirit, in the meantime, I invite any Wes-folk in D.C. to contact me for an informal SUP lesson on the Potomac, or just a walk or jog in Rock Creek.”

Not much is changing for Kathryn Lotspeich Villano: “My son, Wes, will be Wes ’19 and fourth generation on my side. (I swear I didn’t name him after the family’s alma mater!) Love to all and hope to see you for our 30th. I know most of you won’t be using it as an excuse to visit your child and it’s not as big as the 25th but the 25th was so fun, so come!!! Brian Pass and his wife, Pascale (French TA ’86), have a son who just graduated from Wes; he is lawyering away at Sheppard Mullin in Los Angeles, focusing on technology transactions in the Internet space.

Karen Escovitz wrote, “For all of its foibles, I’m grateful for Facebook and the opportunity it provides to maintain contact with lots of friends from Wesleyan. It’s gratifying to see our lives evolve, to share ideas and inspirations, and to see your beautiful aging faces from time to time. Old fondness sometimes sparks new and vital connections. Hope to see some of you in May!”

From the class secretary: Lucy Seham Malatesta wrote me to say that she missed our 25th and now will also miss the 30th—this time it’s to be her son’s commissioning at the United States Naval Academy. If you don’t come next May, I hope you have an equally good and valid excuse!

Roger Pincus is your reporter this issue. Here is the latest news from our classmates:
Linda Johnson Dougherty has let us know that her husband, Patrick Dougherty, was featured on CBS Sunday Morning on March 15. Linda made a brief appearance, too. The link is cbsnews.com/news/a-north-carolina-sculptor-branches-out/. Linda and Patrick live in Chapel Hill, and Linda recently celebrated 10 years at the North Carolina Museum of Art, where she is chief curator and curator of contemporary art.

Bruce McKenna was back on campus for Commencement, where he had the pleasure of watching his daughter, Madeleine ’15, graduate. Stephanie Oppenheim and David Weinstein were there, too, and were thrilled to watch their son, Matthew ’15, graduate.
Randy Frisch is a music publisher in New York City, working with music from around the world. The songwriters he works with include Gary Mezzi ’83 and Bill Anschell ’82.

Simone Zelitch’s fourth novel, Waveland, was published in May 2015; it focuses on Beth Fine, a Freedom Summer volunteer, and her experiences in Mississippi in 1964 and the years that follow. Another novel, Judenstaat, is forthcoming in June 2016 from Tor Books, a science fiction press. Judenstaat is an alternative history about a Jewish state established in Germany in 1948. Simone hopes to spread the word about these books and would love to reconnect with old classmates at szelitch@ccp.edu.

Michael Massen began work in January as a software developer for Continuum Analytics, doing front-end work on big data applications. The firm is based in Austin, but Michael is able to work for them remotely from New York City, where he lives. Michael also recently completed work on his second book on figure drawing, Figure Drawing in Proportion. It will be published by North Light Publications at the end of the year. Michael also enjoys leading workshops in figure drawing throughout the year as well, mostly at the Art Students League.

Laura Simon continues to live in Bethany, Conn., and works at her outpost as wildlife ecologist for the Humane Society of the United States. She is challenged to keep up with her son, Jack, who at age 12 is an avid citizen lobbyist and spends many of his waking hours lobbying for various animal protection and environmental bills at the State Capitol. Laura recently ran into Ted Kennedy Jr. ’83, who is now a Connecticut State Senator.

aura would love to hear from any old Eco House roommates: kealeylaura999@gmail.com.
Michael Lewyn is moving to Pittsburgh for a visiting professor position at the University of Pittsburgh’s law school, where he will be teaching property, wills, environmental law, and a land use law seminar.

Tyler Anbinder had a great time at Daphne Kwok’s Wesleyan Chinese New Year’s event back in March in Arlington, Va. The class of ’84 was well-represented, including by Rhonda Lees, whom Tyler met on his first day at Wesleyan in 1980. Tyler also enjoyed meeting Daphne’s parents at the event. In addition, as an American historian, Tyler is excited to be going to see Hamilton on the special Wesleyan performance night this coming October.

Cathy Reich had a busy spring surviving the hectic end-of-year events and crises of a combined junior/senior high school in rural Montana—proofreading the yearbook, folding graduation programs, pushing kids to graduate, dealing with emotional outbursts and teenage love gone awry, etc. In her spare time, Cathy has been attending monthly book club gatherings, participating in chair yoga and stability ball classes, eating weekly dinners with local seniors at the Senior Center, and keeping her geriatric pets in reasonable shape. Cathy is also active at her Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (Missoula), including by helping lead a service (Blessing of the Animals) and hosting the occasional vegan potluck. In her other spare time, Cathy has been participating in Energy Balancing Funshops and meetings (energybalancing.com). She is working on a Virtual Teacher certification on Coursera and teaches American English to students in Malaysia online and via e-mails.

Susie Kang Sharpe is still enjoying internal medicine practice in Springfield, Mo. She also has been doing a lot of art, music, and traveling. Through May, Susie had six exhibits of her watercolor and acrylic paintings displayed during 2015. She has a son in college (Washington University, St. Louis) and a daughter in high school, and reports that her post-divorce life has been wonderful.

Shakir Farsakh reports that as a recently minted diplomat, he is serving as the commercial attaché at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto, Canada. Shakir’s wife, Hasna, works in global banking for HSBC, and his daughter, Jenna, will be starting her second year at the Lycée Francais de Toronto in kindergarten.

Blake Nelson’s novel, Recovery Road, is being adapted into a television series for ABC Family—for more see: m.etonline.com/tv/164564_nashville_actress_lands_troubled_role_on_abc_family_drama/
Paul Baker’s current found-object sculpture series is about the connection between smell and memory: pbakerart.com. Paul recently had a near-brush with fame and just possibly, fortune, when one of his sculptures was accepted for an exhibit to be sponsored by Christopher Brosius, whom Brooklyn-based Wesleyanites may recognize as the self-appointed bad boy of perfumers. Brosius was relocating his store and was open to aroma-themed art to display in the new area. Paul had hoped to come out from San Francisco to see his sculpture installed.

Unfortunately the lease fell through and Brosius had to make do with a much smaller space—and no art. But if anyone else is interested in creating a show about the intersection of chemistry, art, and memory, Paul is open to it!

Lee McIntyre’s book, Respecting Truth: Willful Ignorance in the Internet Age, was scheduled for publication on June 28 by Routledge Publishers, with a book launch party set for July 19 at Newtonville Books in Newton, Mass. Lee states that the book fights back against “science denialism” on such topics as climate change, evolution, and vaccines.

Apologies for no class notes this issue. Life is a bit too busy: work, family, school, elderly parents, and summer converged (more like collided!) and as soon as I come up for air I will continue with the class notes. In the mean time, please continue sending your updates and I will compile them all for next time.