Class Notes | 1980s

Before we get to all the awesomeness going on with all you awesome people, Michele and I want to remind everyone that our 35th REUNION is coming up this spring! Clear your schedules, reserve your rooms, and prepare to descend on Foss Hill en masse! Now to our updates.

Alex McClennen Dohan got into the sheep spirit, writing: “Well, I don’t baaa-lieve I have anything too quirky to report, but Dave Dohan and I just celebrated 30 years of marriage in June. Our lambs are grown—daughter is an attorney and son a grad student—and our current home flock consists of a dog (part shepherd!) and a cat. Vacations are more fun than work, but we are both still happy in our jobs—me knitting various programs together in the Education Department of Mass Audubon, and Dave spinning along as a physician.”

Amy Redfield is loving living in Lisbon. Holler if you’re in town.

Marisa Cohen still works at Hearst with Stephanie Dolgoff, even though the chatbots keep threatening to take all the magazine jobs. Her daughter, Bellamy, graduated from Williams last spring and is living at home while launching a journalism/songwriting career (another daughter, Molly, is a junior psych major at Bowdoin). She and her husband have been spending more weekends in the Berkshires. (If you’re near Richmond, Massachusetts, look them up!) She’s also been making up for lost theater time during the pandemic by seeing a lot of Broadway shows this year, often with Sarah Chumsky, and David Averbach when he’s in town.

Sam Glazer was featured in an article in The Wall Street Journal entitled “Sex, Drugs and Spreadsheets.”

Karen (McClafferty) Jarsky is living in Acton, Massachusetts, with her husband and son, who is headed off to college in the fall. She is loving teaching writing (remotely) for UCLA. Her local friends include a surprisingly large number of Wes alums ranging from Class of 1983 to Class of 2016. Clearly age doesn’t matter when you have Wesleyan in common!

David Levine convened with Stu Berman, Neil Blicher, and Alan Cohen, at Rick Kotler’s beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, for their annual summer retreat. Joe Biden was a no-show and no classified documents were found in Rick’s garage. They nonetheless had a good time commiserating about how old we are. Likely more was discussed, but who can remember?

John Hlinko is still living in Georgetown in an old church that was converted about 100 years ago. It’s right next to a park that used to be a cemetery and given that property lines weren’t that well delineated a century ago, he’s been urged “don’t dig too deep” when planting stuff in the yard. Amazingly, the house doesn’t seem to be haunted.  His wife, Leigh, is an architect and has written two books—The Green Workplace and The Healthy Workplace (especially relevant in the COVID era). They also collaborated on Pandemic Pickup Lines, which has raised funds for pandemic-related relief efforts.  One daughter is a high school senior looking at colleges and the other still has a ways to go for that. He is still working with Left Action, an activist community aimed at promoting good causes and candidates, and opposing things like fascists overthrowing democracy. It is likely to be a very busy year, with 2024 elections coming up quickly. . . .

In the same vein, Chris Zurn just published a book entitled Splitsville USA: A Democratic Argument for Breaking up the United States (Routledge: 2023). He makes the argument that there is a real danger of the end of basic electoral democracy in the United States in the next few years and suggests that the only way to avoid that is to negotiate a peaceful political divorce of our single nation and reconstitute several new nation states in its place.

Jessica Glass writes: “Hard to believe it’s been two years since we lost our beautiful comrade, Dominique Jones ’91. That was a very sad thing about 2021. But getting together at Lewis Canfield’s (’90) home in NYC to celebrate Jonesy’s life and memory helped a little. Drove to Brooklyn and cried in Deirdre Simon’s (’90) car. Commiserated with members of her family, and many Wes friends from several different graduating classes. Dominique had an amazing way of transcending age, race, class, whatever divides. She had a spirit that was genuine and positive and truly interested in people. We all remembered her interest in fashion and artistry in knitting, her deep appreciation of books and libraries, magazines and reading, her love and support of her friends, her infectious laugh. Many folks who knew and loved Dominique have made donations to a fund at the Brooklyn Public Library called Shine on Me, a program that supports unhoused adults with life coaching and resource advice. Dave Raymond ’87 and I trundle on with our historic sheep farm in northern Connecticut, with 60 adult woolies and 30 lambs each year. Producing wool blankets, sheepskins, and our inimitable Hildred’s Farm Sheep Calendar keeps us busy when we’re not producing video and engineering audio. Sheep on Earth, Good Wool to all!”

Camille Kotton reports having a wonderful visit with Sandeep Wadhwa when he came to stay with his daughter when they were touring colleges. Same when David French was touring with his son. She is on the CDC advisory committee on immunization practice (ACIP) and has been making national decisions on vaccination for the past three years.

Dave Keller released his 10th (!) album, It’s Time to Shine, featuring a bunch of new original soul- and blues-inspired songs. He’s also going to be featured in a full-page story in the French edition of Rolling Stone! Away from the rockstar world, he is preparing to be an empty nester, as both daughters will soon be in college; the oldest at Bard, the youngest at New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. He has a three-week East Coast tour in November. Details at www.davekeller.com.

Stephan Kline reports on his daughter Batya ’23 just graduated from Wes, joining her brother Noah ’21 as an alum. Batya will remain in Middletown for the next two years for a Wesleyan master’s program in ethnomusicology. She is excited to continue her studies on guitar and percussion and they are excited that her tuition is waived for this world-class program and she receives a stipend.

If you’re in the Philly area, drop Josh Drew a line. He is living there with his spouse of 20-plus years who is a Philly local, three kids, ages 16, 16, and 17, two elderly cats, and a pandemic-adopted mutt. They relocated about three years ago after a four-year expat stay in Amsterdam, which coincided neatly with the period 2016–2020. He is practicing law with a Washington, D.C., firm, after spending most of his career with the government and in house. They are visiting campuses, including Wes, helping their high school senior with the daunting college application process. He is in regular contact with Greg Berman, Carolyn Vellenga, Kelem Butts, Mark Saudek, and Kevin Majewski; would love to hear news of others.

Peter writes for this issue.

Elaine Tassy reports that following her surgeries related to a brain tumor and a detached retina back in 2017, her road to recovery culminated in 2022 with a return to her professional passion of journalism. She is now working as a senior reporter at Colorado Public Radio where she covers race, diversity, and equity and where she has won several reporting prizes. Elaine is in the process of buying a new home in the Denver area.

Steve Almond writes that he is living outside of Boston with his wife and three kids while enjoying teaching Wesleyan students. A film of his novel, Which Brings Me to You, will be out in late fall or winter. His most recent novel, All the Secrets of the World, has been optioned for TV by 20th Century Studios and his forthcoming novel, Truth is an Arrow, Mercy is a Bow, will be released in spring 2024.

Andrew Campbell shares sad news: This past July he was in Hawaii at the side of Tim McCallum when Tim finally succumbed to pancreatic cancer. The night before Tim passed, Chris Gentili ’90 had helped organize a group Zoom call involving many of Tim’s friends and Chi Psi fraternity brothers where they had a chance to speak with Tim and share with him how much impact he had on their lives.

More sad news: Two classmates passed away last April. Kellina Craig-Henderson died on April 21. The National Science Foundation, her employer for many years, said she was “a dedicated leader. . . [who] worked tirelessly to engage underrepresented groups in science.” Her obituary can be read here. And Rob James passed away on April 29 in Phoenix, Arizona. Many may remember Rob from his four years playing basketball for Wesleyan. After graduating, Rob went to medical school, eventually working as a primary care physician and later a pediatrician. His obituary can be read here.

Hello Class of ’87. August was winding down as I wrote this, and you had news to share!

John Barney had a recent intergenerational Wes moment in Albuquerque when he ran into Quinn Mendelson ’17 at an urban agricultural garden cleanup and public meeting. Quinn is a team leader for Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, and John is the planning manager for Bernalillo County Parks and Recreation. They are working together with many other local stakeholders to re-create urban alleyways as green spaces and safe spaces for the unhoused in the International District—the densest and most ethnically diverse zip code in New Mexico.

Michael Morris reports that he had the great fortune to grab a cup of coffee and a bagel while reconnecting with his awesome classmate and former tennis partner, Jeremy Mindich, in NYC in May. They caught up on 35 years and had a great time laughing about their time together back at Wesleyan.

Rebecca Bratspies published a book titled Naming Gotham: The Villains, Rogues, and Heroes Behind New York Place Names. It is a fun, gossipy history that raises some serious questions about who gets to decide what counts as history.  As the founding director of the CUNY Law School Center for Urban Environmental Reform, Rebecca is the author of a comic book series, The Environmental Justice Chronicles. The EPA awarded the series, made in collaboration with artist Charlie LaGreca-Velasco, its 2023 Clean Air Excellence Award for Education/Outreach. She also reports that she has a rising senior looking at colleges, and her Allen continues to compose while recovering from an illness.

Steven Kaminsky and his family recently moved back to Charlottesville, Virginia, after 20 years in Los Angeles. Steven continues to work in the movie business. His wife, Leslie Repetto (UVA ’96), works in advertising PR. Their daughter, Juliet, is in third grade and absolutely loves living in the country as much as he does.

In June 2022, Ken Mathews retired from 35 years in public education. Ken ended his career as the math supervisor for New Haven Public Schools, one of Connecticut’s largest and most economically challenged school districts. Ken’s wife also retired and they’ve done a bit of traveling. They hiked the Canadian Rockies at Banff National Park and they are regularly enjoying time in Punta Cana. Still, Ken didn’t rest for long! In September, Ken began work as a practitioner in residence at University of New Haven, teaching calculus. Ken has made good use of technology, filling his syllabus with hyperlinks to support his students. Instead of Khan Academy, he’s thinking he is more Ken Academy. (And that’s Kenough?) On the family front, Ken’s got a full house with three 20-somethings. In November, his son Alex, who moved out five years ago, will be moving back home. His daughter moved back in April, and the middle son never left. Ken is looking for advice from anyone who has more successfully mastered the art of getting their kids to leave permanently.

For many years, in her role with AARP, Grier Mendel lived in Seattle but worked on Washington, D.C., time. She retired from her position as communications manager in June and is testing out a life where she wakes up at home without worrying what time it is on the East Coast. This cavalier awareness of the clock didn’t last long as her daughter started school at Loyola University Maryland in the fall.

In March, Grattan Baldwin and his wife, Cristina, welcomed their daughter, Maria Luce Baldwin, into the family. He will be spending this fall on paternity leave. When he’s not on leave, Grattan works at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore where he is an associate professor of education.

As for me, I was re-orged out of a job during COVID. I started my own business, RZG Editorial Solutions, in 2020. I mostly work in educational publishing and I have done research, writing, and editing work on K–12 social studies and literacy programs for various clients. I’m expanding my base to include work with start-up nonprofits and really enjoying the work. I’ve also been doing some rewarding volunteer teaching with an organization that helps first-generation college students make the move from college to career. During each semester, I facilitate a cohort of students during a course to help them learn about networking, interviewing, and creating resumes and cover letters.

Finally, I have sad news to report: We recently learned that Joy M. Lambe passed away on May 3, 2018. Joy kept a journal that has been published as the book Finding Joy on the Path of Divine Health and Wholeness, documenting her experience with a terminal illness. Sending love to all who knew Joy.

As we were going to press, I received news that Brad Vogt passed away unexpectedly on September 20, 2023. His obituary can be read here. Condolences to his wife, children, and extended family.

Hope everyone is well. Go Wes!

Several updates to share from ’86 classmates:

Hal Ginsberg reported: “I’m not sure if you heard the sad news about Sandy Goldstein. He died on June 27 after battling ALS for two years. Throughout his illness he received love and support from the many Wesleyan Delta Tau Delta brothers to whom he remained close in the 37 years since graduation. He leaves behind his beloved wife, Marla, and children, Steven and Sarah.

“Regarding me, I am focusing on my YouTube Livestream @halitics, where I critique both major political parties from a progressive perspective Monday through Friday.”

Sarah Bridges wrote: “Hi to all. After graduating from University of Minnesota with a PhD in psychology, I embarked on a career consulting to organizations and nonprofits. I started my own firm 25 years ago and love the work and our team. I currently live on a farm outside Minneapolis, near my four grown children. We have a slew of rescue animals and are transitioning the land to organic space. I see Nina Russo ’87 regularly despite the distance (she is in upstate New York) and we did our doctorates together at the U. Life is really good—a lot of writing, reading, and time outside.”

Mike Sealander said: “I’m still living in eastern Maine. Most of my free time is taken up with gardening and studying Japanese. I have a daughter in a PhD biology program, a daughter starting a master’s in electrical engineering, and a son in college. Although my town is quite rural, there happens to be a couple Wes alums, and we’ve traded notes about Zonker Harris and whatnot.”

Sally Spener transferred to the San Diego, California, office of her longtime employer in late 2022, after 23 years in Texas. Her husband of 32 years is university professor/administrator across the border in Tijuana, Mexico. Sally does water policy work along the U.S.–Mexico border.

Andy Clibanoff retired from executive coaching and is beginning his next chapter when he turns the page. His son, Leo ’23, graduated this past May and is launching his professional career. Andy is in contact with Randy MacLowry, especially when visiting Middletown. He also added that his wife, Denise, and their daughter, Callie ’19, co-hosted an alumni event, with concert by the Wes band the Overcoats (Hana Elion ’15 and JJ Mitchell ’15), in the Fishtown section of Philly.

James Dearborn expressed gratitude for “the completely unexpected emotional support I received from fellow classmates John McIntyre and John Wiseman. They arrived unexpectedly at my mom’s funeral in Castine, Maine—a remote village in Down East Maine. I will be forever grateful for the lengths they went to be there for me and my family, including my son Andrew ’22. The friends you make at Wesleyan truly do last forever.”

Eric Heinze shared: “My 2022 book with the MIT Press, The Most Human Right: Why Free Speech is Everything, went into its paperback edition in September. It was nominated in the UK for The Next Big Idea (Season 18) and was featured at the Oxford Literary Festival 2023.

Here’s a link to the paperback: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262547246/the-most-human-right/.”

Eric was also “invited as a speaker in the UK Parliament Group on accountability in Iran, July 2023, organized by Association of Anglo-Iranian Women in the UK and Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran (JVMI); [and I was] invited as keynote speaker at Danish Parliament, The Future of Free Speech, December 2022.”

Eric Howard updated: “After spending 16 months in New Hampshire running the Timber Framers Guild, I am back in Maine as the executive director of the Environmental & Energy Technology Council (E2Tech.org). When considering the shift, I polled my kids and asked if I should do more in terms of sustainability, climate action, and decarbonization, and they all said ‘yes.’  I was working on climate change in the 1980s, so it’s a return to my roots.” Eric’s other developments are earning the Certified Fundraising Executive credential and completing his doctoral dissertation on knowledge-sharing practices of entrepreneurs.

George Justice is beginning his second year as provost at The University of Tulsa and is settling into that strangely interesting city. He continues to teach, do research, and participate in his company, Dever Justice LLC, which focuses on leadership development for faculty.

Doug Polaner contributed that he “recently saw Jonathan Harber and John Bogosian plus their lovely families. Happy to report, all doing well! Bogo is living the dream in Boulder, Colorado, where we also left our youngest son for his freshman year at CU Boulder. Our oldest, Mason, is starting his final year at Wesleyan. Has loved it, of course! He is captain of the swim team and holds three school records for the 100-, 200-, and 500-yard freestyle. As for me, still hocking wine here at Polaner Selections—2024 will be our 25th year in business! Time flies. Meanwhile, happy 60th birthday to all our classmates celebrating now/soon. See you all in 2026 for the 40th Reunion.”

Jonathan Harber also had some news: Rick Segal ’75, Aysha Khan ’20, and he have embarked on a mission to revolutionize education in New York City through a visionary initiative, Runway Green at Floyd Bennett Field. Nestled within the heart of Brooklyn, Floyd Bennett Field is a national park, holding unique historical significance as New York City’s inaugural airport. Today, Runway Green is poised to transform it into an immersive, experiential learning campus. Jonathan is also the founding chairman of Launch, an expeditionary learning middle school in Brooklyn, and Aysha recently joined to help manage special projects, including the opening of a Launch high school on the Floyd Bennett Field campus.

Hello, Class of ’85!

I hope you had wonderful summers. I’m guessing you were busy because I only heard from THREE of you.

One was Dave Pontrelli who joked that rather than “exhorting” you to write in, perhaps I should extort you! He might be onto something. . . .

I also heard from Rich Stoller. Rich is on the faculty at Penn State, in the Latin American Studies Program. He wrote: “I hope to retire next year from academic administration (not as glamorous as it sounds, and it doesn’t even sound glamorous), to devote myself to gardening, travel, and indecorous social media posts. We toured the Wesleyan campus with my then-high school student two summers ago and she asked why there weren’t any flowers on campus. I told her the students wouldn’t permit it as long as there was any suffering in the world, and at least for a moment she believed me, so Wes’s reputation remains intact although I *would* like to know why there are no flowers on campus.”

Lee McIntyre ’84 reported the sad news of Jonathan Haber’s passing in 2022. Remembrances can be read here:

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/jonathan-haber-obituary?id=34816401

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2022-05-15-remembering-jonathan-haber-who-taught-so-many-to-think-critically

I hope to hear from more of you next time!

Hello, Classmates,

Thank you for all your news updates. Please read to the end for some upcoming changes.

As I reported in my email to the class, we note the sad passing of classmate Leah Rugen, husband of Anthony (Andy) Boral, in January 2023. Leah was a high school English teacher, and found her way to education reform, creating engaging project-based curricula. She was a lay leader at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Brookline, and played classical and folk guitar in her private time. Her obituary is found at this address: https://www.faggas.com/obituary/leah-rugen.

We have also just been informed of the passing of Gloria Golus Ford in early September, in Midlogian, Virginia. Gloria retired from a career as a medical relations officer for Social Security Disability, and in retirement turned her sewing hobby into a small business (Peapod Stichery). She is survived by her husband of 29 years, Martin, and their son and daughter-in-law. Her obituary can be read here.

Gail Farris reports and she and Jay have two future Cardinals with the arrival of granddaughter Caitlin in March to their daughter, Kim Farris Buckley ’14. Their two-year old grandson, Killian, loved having the Wesleyan Spirits in Atlanta in early March and enthusiastically says, “GO WES!” at the end of The Fight Song. (Can’t start early enough!)

Murrey Nelson is happy to say she has finally retired. After 20 years in the corporate world (publishing and fashion) and 17 years as a nonprofit fundraiser, she decided she was ready to have a life of freedom. While she has no big plans at the moment (other than taking the time to enjoy San Francisco and all it has to offer), she is planning to travel and expand her volunteer activities.

Scott Pearson and his wife, Diana Farrell ’87, have relocated from D.C. to Mountain Village, Colorado (a beautiful ski town right next door to Telluride), now that their children are long out of the house. He has been elected as mayor pro tem and has already started to dig into the most pressing issues: affordable housing, quality health care in a rural setting, and climate change.

Book announcements:

*Jonathan Sadowsky notes that his last book, The Empire of Depression: A New History, has been translated into Chinese, Spanish, French, Russian, and Turkish. He is also co-editor for the six-volume Cultural History of Madness, forthcoming from Bloomsbury Press in 2025.

*Andy Behrman is working on a sequel to his first book, Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania, published by Random House. The sequel will be about mental health, love, marriage, and divorce and just slightly more risqué than the first book. 

*Tyler Anbinder is publishing Plentiful Country: The Great Potato Famine and the Making of Irish New York (Little Brown) in March 2024. The book uses the newly digitized and indexed census records (like the kind you see on Ancestry.com) to trace the lives of hundreds of famine immigrants and argues that the immigrants, thought to have had few opportunities to advance in America due to discrimination, poverty, and their lack of education, actually had a lot of upward mobility.

(Tyler also informs us that he regularly has lunch with Forrest Maltzman ’86, his former colleague at George Washington University, and frequently sees his neighbor, Leah Chang ’95, whose own new book, Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power, is fabulous and came out in August. Tyler’s niece, Rebecca Baron ’23, just graduated from Wes.)

Last time, we reported that Susie Sharpe had given a TED Talk, but now we can share with you (months after the fact) the URL, so you can give it a watch:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3WWnhgasvo.

Besides his book news, Andy Behrman (longtime resident of Los Angeles) is fundraising for the Democratic Party in several key congressional races across the county. His daughter, Kate, is beginning her freshman year at Trinity College, where she was named the Hillel Scholar of the Class of 2027, for demonstrating academic excellence and a commitment to Jewish community through leadership. Her sister, Emma, is 16, but still wears a Wesleyan sweatshirt.

And finally, Andy has also asked to take over secretary duties for our class. As this summer marks my 10th year at this post, it is the perfect time to turn it over. For the next notes, Andy and I will work together, and I will say my farewells then.

Until next time,

Michael

Greetings everyone,

Wow, is it me or is time whizzing by? Summer began and now it’s over. We just had our 40th Reunion and that is surely a milestone. I didn’t make it back to Wes but I heard it was great. If you have any pics, please send them for the next issue.

In response to the question, “If you had one wish, what would it be?”

If I only had one wish

Turn back the hands of time

No regrets as I veer from destiny

Ride without reason or rhyme

If I only had one wish

Change that which will be

I wouldn’t have to search

For what I now can’t see

But since I’ve only one wish

It’s simple and true

I’ll live it right now

and spend it with you

—Steve Avezzano

“I wish that we would all care about each other enough to actually help each other—especially the poor, hungry, and marginalized.”—Kenneth Schneyer

“My one wish is to move to Boston . . . oh wait, I just did that on August 1. Watch out Hub-based Wes people!”—Ben Binswanger

“Perfect tempos every time.”—George Balanchine courtesy of Jan Elliott

And now the news . . .

Bob Gordon road-tripped to the reunion with Ellen Zucker from Boston and had lots of time “to marinate in the memories.” Ellen is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, representing plaintiffs in employment discrimination and whistleblower litigation. At the reunion Bob reconnected with three of his Wasteland hallmates—Brad Galer, Willie Alago, and Dave Ackman ’84. All three are accomplished physicians. Brad (still married to his frosh-year love, Lele) is chief medical officer at a Boston-based pharma company developing pain medicine; they own and operate an award-winning winery in Pennsylvania. Dave advises a large insurance company on medical coverage policy matters; and Willie is a radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York. Bob also caught up with Amy Appleton, Kivi Goldsman, and Ben Binswanger and is in close touch with Bruce Glassman and Tracy Hughes ’84 who are still in San Diego. Tracy has a clinical psychology practice, and Bruce and Matt Arkin ’82 co-founded a business manufacturing and distributing an alcoholic spirit called Batch 22, an American Aquavit, that makes an awesome cocktail. Bob recently visited Chuck Schneider ’84, an oncologist at the Hospital of U. Pennsylvania. Chuck lives just outside Philadelphia with his wife, Dessi. In the fall Bob is getting married and “couldn’t be more excited.”

Jean Weille lives in NYC with her husband, Bob, and cat, Boris. She is a licensed clinical social worker with a private psychotherapy practice. She works part time at Weill Cornell’s Geriatric Psychiatry Department in an innovative research program investigating psychotherapy modalities for older adults who are victims of crime and elder abuse. Her son just married his high school sweetheart, and her daughter lives in Brooklyn.

This fall Steve Avezzano will be returning to WESU to accompany his son, Picasso, who is a member of the class of ’27. “It took me over 40 years to get there, but despite what Thomas Wolfe once wrote, apparently you can go home again.”

Alice Jankell’s new play, The Sweet Spot, will premier off Broadway this winter. Alice just had a raucous dinner with Eileen Kelly-Aguirre and Bennet Heart.

Kenneth Schneyer sold his story called Winding Sheets to Lightspeed Magazine and it will be published in 2024. This is his third sale to Lightspeed (several more stories are currently under submission to various magazines, and several others are in various stages of drafting and revising). This fall he is teaching both the American Constitutional Law seminar and the advanced Shakespeare seminar at the same time. “Con Law is going to take quite a bit of revising, since the last time I taught it was before the bombshell Supreme Court decisions of 2022 and 2023.” His spouse, Janice Okoomian, teaches English and gender and women’s studies at Rhode Island College, and has several research and writing projects in the works. Their eldest, Phoebe, recently played Feste in a production of Twelfth Night in Brattleboro and their youngest, Arek, is finishing his Sarah Lawrence College degree.

Eric Heinz ’86 attended Wes for two and a half years in the class of 1983, then studied abroad, and graduated in 1986. He is a professor of law and humanities at the School of Law, Queen Mary, University of London, and executive director of (CLDS) Centre for Law, Democracy, and Society. He has authored several books including: The Most Human Right: Why Free Speech is Everything, Hate Speech and Democratic Citizenship, and The Concept of Injustice.

And a few photos:

Stay well, be happy, and do good!

Greetings, classmates,

It’s never too late to keep learning: Rachael Adler just graduated with a master’s in marriage and family therapy from the Wright Institute in Berkeley and is now training at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. Richard LeComte recently received an MA in arts administration from the University of Kentucky, where he works as a writer. Congrats, both!

If you’d like to learn more about screenwriting and storytelling, check out Liz Keyishian’s calltoadventure.media, a writers’ development company. She’s sourcing a bunch of her mentors for upcoming writers’ retreats from her friends at Wes, including Peter Blauner, Dan Greenberger ’81, Cary Bickley ’82, and me (Laura Fraser). She’s planning on tapping a lot more Wes talent “because they are the best people I know,” she told me from her apartment in Melbourne . . . and she’s offering a friends and family rate for Wes grads who’d like to attend her workshops in Breckenridge, Melbourne, and other great locales (contact liz@calltoadventure.media).

Fresh off his smokin’ solo performance What They Said about Sex, Steve Budd has a new show, Seeing Stars, that premiered at the San Francisco Fringe in August, which explores family dysfunction, mental illness, and father-son relationships. He also published a piece of creative nonfiction that connects baseball and Judaism in The Under Review, https://www.underreviewlit.com/issue-8-summer-23/remove-contents-and-pray.

Cheryl Stevens has semiretired and traded in her litigator card for the role of a neutral, arbitrating disputes and labor and employment cases for the American Arbitration Association. She says her new role has given her more time to create mugs, plates, and other things in clay—though not satisfied with puttering as a potter, she agreed to become the president of the board of directors for the Berkeley Potter’s Studio and editor of their member newsletter. When not up to her elbows in clay, she sings backup with an R&B band of mostly lawyers, a developer, and a judge–the Coolerators.

Emilie “Bunny” Attwell has retired from her job with the state and is working remotely with the Local Mental Health Authority in Houston, as well as writing psychiatric reports for the Texas Medical Board.

After 33 years, Larry Selzer is still with The Conservation Fund, a national nonprofit that buys land for conservation. They recently completed their 4,000th project, protecting 9 million acres across all 50 states!

David Brancaccio, who hosts public radio’s Marketplace, recently revealed that his inspiration for getting into radio was not CBS legend Edward R. Murrow, but, as he wrote in a Wall Street Journal essay for the 50th anniversary of the George Lucas movie American Graffiti, Wolfman Jack. David is also having fun with a streaming video series, Skin in the Game, looking at what video games can teach us about the economy, personal finances, and tech careers. (If you want to know what video games can teach you about the possibilities of love and creativity, read Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zavin, a book Liz Keyishian recommended to me).

Kim Traub Ribbens is scaling back her massage practice, but still working on a 102-year-old client she’s seen for 20 years, which probably explains her longevity. She traveled in New Zealand and Australia with Marcy (Neiterman) Maiorana, who was at Wes for two years, and spent time meeting people in the Maori community and learning about their culture. She also recently had dinner with Gene and Tamara (née Haigh) Lanza when they came to Savannah, catching up on each other’s lives.

Among his other pursuits, including being a councilperson in Denton, Texas, Paul Meltzer has a podcast, Turn Up the Yummy, about making delicious food while avoiding everything your doctor wants you to avoid . . . . Susan Smythe is also active in her local government, serving on her local borough council again after her previous term ended in 2016. Her husband Robert Smythe is about to open a bakery, Pastry Pants, featuring everything yummy your doctor wants you to avoid.

My husband, Peter Eckart ’86, and I ventured down the peninsula for a delightful dinner with Christian Vescia and his wife, Lucia Sanchez, as well as my class notes co-conspirator, Michael Ostacher, and his wife, Laurie. Christian has retired and created an amazing rose garden, and Lucia is still working as a pediatric physical therapist. Peter and I are excited that we’ve successfully lured Michael and Laurie down to Mexico for Thanksgiving to eat some pavo and a bunch of other things your doctor wants you to avoid.

Bon appétit! Til next time!

Greetings from Brooklyn!  Welcome to the digital edition of the Class Notes, with lots of pictures! Thank you for all the pictures.

I write this in August. You know by now that it was hot. And fires. Lots of fires. And, of course, Maui, where my wife and I honeymooned right after 9/11, is well, at press time, authorities were still trying to find the missing and the dead. Tragic.

Greg Davis and his wife moved to Maui in 2021. He wrote this summer:

“We live in South Maui, and the devastating fires that destroyed buildings and homes in Lahaina and Kula were in West Maui. Maui is a very small island, so nothing is very far from anything else, but we were not directly impacted by either of those fires.

“There was, however, a third brush fire in Kihei, where we live. It’s not the first time we have had to contend with smoke, road closures, and power outages from brush fires in our area, but it was the first time we had to evacuate our home. The flames from the Kihei fire came very close to homes that are a few blocks away from us. And flying embers can set homes on fire when the winds are as strong as they were on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“We evacuated our home on Tuesday night with our seven cats. When we got the evacuation notice, we tossed the cats into their carriers and then drove to the evacuation center we were told to go to, but when we got there, we learned that the center was being shut down because the fires were too close. So, we got back in the car and drove south, away from the fires, until we found an empty parking lot at an upscale shopping center in Wailea where we could spend the night in our car. The security guards there told us that management had told them to let people stay in the parking lot and in the public areas of the shopping center, and to keep the bathrooms open. We watched the news all night and saw what was happening in Lahaina but couldn’t get any news about our area. So, when the sun came up, we decided to drive back to our house to see if we still had a house.

“Fortunately for us, the winds had shifted after we left and the fires stayed in areas of vacant fields. There was no damage to our house or to any of our neighbors’ houses.

“The damage, death, and destruction in Lahaina is apocryphal, however, and it will take many, many years for Maui to recover from that. Many, many people have lost their homes, businesses, and their jobs, and at least 93 people have died from the fires [as of his note on August 14th].

“Right now, we are just grateful that we were spared. We are trying to stay out of the way of rescue efforts so that first responders can continue to do their jobs. The fires around Lahaina are not out yet. Eventually, we will try to find a way to help those who have lost so much.”

On a happier note, Lisa Greim retired from Xcel Energy last November, and has been doing contract writing and editing for them and others since then. “Telecommuting for two pandemic years spoiled me—I still want to work, but not the way virtual work expands into your whole 24/7 life.”

She adds, “It’s been a good compromise so far and has allowed me and my husband, Chris Varner, to scuba dive in Fiji, river cruise in the Netherlands and Belgium, and ‘festivate’ at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. We had the perfect pandemic wedding in August 2020, featuring a masked appearance at the courthouse to do the paperwork and a wedding picnic with our grown kids, boxed charcuterie, cupcakes, and canned beer.”

She saved the important part for last: “Chris is a lovely human being, my kids are both fledged, and life is sweet. Since photos are allowed, I’ll attach one from wreck diving in Sint Eustatius in 2021.”

Luis Taveras has a new book, The 90 Day CIO. “Available on Amazon. All proceeds go to charity. Thanks.” Congrats to Luis!

Brenda Zlamany is excited to announce, as are we, that she is “The winner of  the Worcester County Mechanics Association’s competition for the monumental portrait of William Brown and Martha Ann Tulip Lewis (Brown). William was a successful 19th-century businessman in Worcester involved in the Underground Railroad, and Martha was his partner in life and abolitionist work, as well as a community leader. This painting is one of three portraits of impactful Black Americans of the 19th century commissioned for the awe-inspiring Great Hall Portrait Gallery.”

https://mechanicshall.org/portraits-project/

On June 3, Brenda’s portrait of Elga Wasserman, commissioned by Yale University, was unveiled and permanently installed in its final location at Bass Library, 10 Wall Street, New Haven, Connecticut. https://news.yale.edu/2023/06/06/yale-unveils-portrait-our-very-own-mother-bear

“I am thrilled,” she adds, “to be a visiting artist at the prestigious American Academy in Rome for the month of September 2023!”

Brenda also had a series of Group exhibitions this past spring:

—A Painting is a Painting is a Painting, April 15–June 4, 2023,  at Artport, Kingston, New York

—Undue Burden: Privacy, Protection, and Politics, March 18–April 18, 2023, at City Lights Gallery, Bridgeport, Connecticut

—Five Points: A Convergence of Dreams, April 6–29, 2023,  at Equity Gallery, New York, New York

Mark Saba has a new book of poetry, Flowers in the Dark, which was published in January by Kelsay Books.

At the end of 2022, Mike Trager became a retired partner at Arnold & Porter, where he had been a senior partner and part of the firm’s leadership. Mike began his career as a U.S. government attorney but spent most of the past few decades in private practice in Washington, D.C.  And, thanks to a presidential appointment, Mike has returned to government, where he is vice chair of the Department of State’s Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and a member of its Executive Committee. The board has the statutory responsibility for independently supervising the global Fulbright Program. Led by the U.S. government, in partnership with more than 160 countries worldwide, the Fulbright Program promotes mutual understanding among the peoples of the United States and other countries to provide for a more secure and peaceful world. The comprehensive program is a primary means for facilitating international cultural diplomacy and soft power.

Mike is thoroughly enjoying retirement with his bride of 36 years (Mariella, who is Washington Circle Chair of Refugees International). They are the proud parents of Nick ’11, who has spent the past seven years living in London while working for State Street Global Advisors, and Alex, who lives in NYC and works for Microsoft. His parents, Ina and Phil Trager ’56, Hon. ’08, are doing well. In this picture, taken in June at the U.S. Embassy in Rabat, Morocco, Mike is in the middle, joined by embassy staff, the executive director of the Moroccan-American Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange, and MACECE board members.

Alison Williams writes that she had a great time traveling to Togo, West Africa, in January for two weeks. “I stayed in Notsé, spent a lot of quality time under the mango tree getting to know the neighbors, did some science labs/workshops with high school students, and really immersed myself in Togolese culture. It was wonderful. I took the plunge and am now an independent diversity, equity, access, and inclusion consultant, working with schools (secondary and higher ed), civic groups, trade organizations and nonprofits). I’m ‘up for hire’ if anyone would like to inquire!  I’m managing to play my oboe a lot—a good antidote to the mad times we live in. I’ve been fortunate to have been in touch with lots of classmates in the past six months—too many to list and feel grateful for the friendships that have stood the test of many decades since our student days.”

David P. Miller sent some wonderful photos, including this amazing shot. “In late February, my wife (Cathryne) and I went on a cruise to Northern Norway, to hopefully see the aurora borealis. We were joined on this trip by the Benjamins (Kathryn Moody ’82 and Lee Benjamin). We had three nights of good aurora viewing, over a week of great meals, and a generally wonderful time. The photos below show the aurora over Alta, Norway, and the four of us at dinner.”

In July David went to Omaha, Nebraska, to visit “my good Wesleyan friend, John Lyden. John is now chair of the Religion Department at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. I got to spend several days with him and his wife, Liz, who I found out graduated from Brown in ’82 (we know several people in common). Omaha seems like a wonderful place and I also got to see ‘the greatest office in the world.’ The photo below is of the three of us in Memorial Park in Omaha.”

David adds, “I also regularly see Linda Hornby Schogren ’83. She’s a regular attendee of our monthly Zoom SF book club. I also see Bob Seiler ’82 regularly on our biweekly retired engineers Zoom meeting. One (perhaps the only one) good thing to come out of the lockdown was a massive improvement in video conferencing. I wish Wesleyan continued it today for seminars and updates—for those of us not in traveling distance to Middletown.”

I will leave you with this: stay safe, stay cool, stay out of harm’s way, and may the road rise to meet you—unless you live over a fault.

THANK YOU, fellow alums from the Class of 1980!!! In response to my August ’23 request for submissions for this next Wes magazine (which will only be an online version for this issue), I’ve heard from a couple of completely new 1980 alums (YAY!!!!) and some of my stalwarts as well (YAY!!!!). Thank you all! I noted the following in my request: You don’t need to be a Nobel Peace Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner. I’d love to hear from you about you and your families and alum friends. Please send in your news on marriages, babies, graduations, retirements, publications, ideas, surprises, thoughts, concerns. Whatever you’d like to share. And PLEASE, those of you who haven’t written in for a while or haven’t yet taken the plunge, go ahead and make a stab at sharing. We’d love to hear from you! Also, what do you all think about President Roth’s elimination of legacy admissions? Send your thoughts in about that as well.

Sarah Slavick: Combining art and poetry, Family Tree features the work of four sisters: elin o’Hara Slavick (Irvine, California), Madeleine Slavick (Wairarapa, New Zealand), Sarah Slavick (Boston, Massachusetts) and Susanne Slavick (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). It premiered in 2021 (with its original title, Family Tree Whakapapa) at Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art & History in Masterton, New Zealand (https://www.aratoi.org.nz/exhibitions/2020-12/family-tree-whakapapa-elin-madeleine-sarah-and-susanne-slavick), traveled to the Wallace Arts Centre in Auckland (https://art.cmu.edu/news/faculty-news/professor-slavick-exhibits-in-auckland-new-zealand/), and is now touring the USA as Family Tree. It premiered last fall at SUNY Cortland’s Dowd Gallery (https://www2.cortland.edu/news/detail.dot?id=46013d3d-f8d1-4107-88e3-7392c3a4c036) and is now at the Erie Art Museum (https://www.erieartmuseum.org/family-tree) through November 17, 2023. Other tour dates include the Sordoni Gallery at Wilkes University and the Martin Art Gallery at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania in the first half of 2025.

The College Art Association CAA Committee on Women in the Arts chose Family Tree Whakapapa as an April 2021 pick with this summary:

“This exhibition brings together the artwork of four sisters living in different parts of the globe and focuses on the related but distinct ways they engage with the arboreal imagination. Tangled into their photographs, paintings, life histories, and political commitments, the trees in their artwork are intricate lines, bold shapes, diffuse traces, and stylized patterns. Defying the ease with which the genealogical and botanical connect in the figure of the family tree, the Slavick sisters make it a thing of wonder: rooted in the ground and multiplying in our imaginations, family trees are botany and biology written with longing, hope, history, and loss.

“As curators, painters, photographers and writers, we all have incorporated images of trees in social, political and environmental conditions—trees that stand as refuge and livelihood, consumed and consuming, under assault and triumphant, as historical record and as harbinger of things to come. The exhibition offers perspectives both unsettling and soothing as nature increasingly reflects salient issues of our times.

“In its beauty and bounty, nature is often regarded as benign and apolitical. We do not expect a tree to assume an editorial stance or embody ideology. The conceptual, analytical, and sensual intersect in Family Tree Whakapapa with works that probe the multitude of relations within and between trees and humans. Branching out to, and from, the world, the artists address a variety of concerns.

“A faculty member at Lesley University, Sarah Slavick lives in Jamaica Plain with her husband of 30 years.”

Anne Hanson: “My new book, Buried Secrets: Looking for Frank and Ida, is the true-history detective story about how I discovered the hidden past that my grandparents, Frank and Ida, took to their graves. When I finally unearthed their real identities, I learned that their tales were lies invented to conceal disturbing facts.”

Some blurbs for Anne’s book included: “It’s a page-turner that will captivate readers from beginning to end. A great read!” according to Elaine Tyler May, Regents Professor of American Studies and History at the University of Minnesota. And “Buried Secrets is as suspenseful as a detective novel,” the Akron Beacon Journal wrote on January 1, 2023, “an intriguing journey through the world of genealogical sleuthing.”  Also, it was the Twin Cities Pioneer Press “Literary Pick of the Week” for January 22, 2023.

You can read a sample chapter here: https://annehanson.com/chapter-to-read/.

Find out more about Anne and Buried Secrets here: https://annehanson.com. The book is available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Kenneth Miller: “After nearly four decades as a journalist (www.kennethmiller.net), I’m publishing my first book in October 2023. The title is Mapping the Darkness: The Visionary Scientists Who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep. It’s a history of sleep science, told through the lives of four pioneers who helped shape the field.

“The project grew out of an assignment for Discover magazine on slumber’s central role in regulating our physical and mental health. While I was reporting that story, everyone in my family began having serious sleep problems—and soon after it was published, my 87-year-old father dozed off at the wheel of his Prius and plowed into a tree. (He survived, despite serious injuries.) By then, I’d become obsessed with sleep science. And when I learned that no one had written a book for lay readers on the discipline’s evolution, I decided to do the job myself. I hope some of my classmates will find a place for it on their nightstands.

“On the domestic front, I’m hunkered down among the oaks, chaparral, and rattlesnakes in Topanga Canyon, California, with my wife, Julie Ries. We’ve got two kids—Leo, who recently graduated from UC Santa Cruz, and Samantha, who’s starting her sophomore year at Bard. Happy to report that both are guitar players, and that (in addition to whatever Gen Z bohos are digging these days) their tastes run to much of the same great stuff my Wesleyan pals and I were jamming to when we were their age. When they’re home, the strains of Dylan, the Dead, Nina Simone, Neil Young, Robert Johnson, the Stones, and Fairport Convention come wafting from the living room, delivered by a pair of scruffy youngsters with good hearts and interesting minds.”     

John Singer: “A couple of things to contribute. On the Wes front, Karen and I spent a long weekend with Daryl Messinger and her husband, Jim Heeger, at their lovely home in the Berkshires. We spent a couple of nights at Tanglewood and another at a revival of Cabaret and [also] went up to MASS MoCA [where] Karen and I stopped at the Dr. Seuss Museum in Springfield on the way to the Berkshires. Went somewhat spontaneously to Philadelphia to meet Brad Moss for an Orioles versus Phillies game. Ever the gracious host, Brad arranged for an O’s victory.

“On a personal note, our son Charlie got engaged in April. He’s been dating his fiancée, Kelly, for about four years and we’ve come to love her almost as much as Charlie does. Kelly conveyed me with an incredible honor and requested that I bake their wedding cake. Lots of practice baking in the Singer household. I view this a bit like the Apollo moonshot project with the goal of a soft landing of the cake on the cake table at the wedding!”

Jeff Green: “I continue to work ER shifts in Milwaukee and Ashdod. We spent the summer with our Australian grandchildren underfoot and nothing could be finer. Playing a lot of music and working on my oud skills. This is how I want to spend my golden years. I’m practicing now.”

Peter Scharf: “I’ve mostly recovered from my back injury last December. I just finished teaching the intensive first-year Sanskrit course in the University of Wisconsin’s South Asia Summer Language Institute. We also had a student in The Sanskrit Library’s intensive summer Sanskrit course. This fall The Sanskrit Library is launching programs to teach Sanskrit digital humanities.” 

Dan Connors: “Regarding legacy admissions, I’m all for getting rid of those. Legacies have enough advantages already. Hope Wesleyan’s commitment to diversity holds out for the next generation.

“As for me, I’m still writing and reading books to grow my brain . . . now up to 400 books read and reviewed on Goodreads. Find me there or at my blog, authordanconnors.com.”

Scott Hecker: “I just returned from a very Wesleyan reunion of our bands Praxis and Urban Renewal from back in the day. For several years running now, we’ve had an annual gig at The Guthrie Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. We gather on a Wednesday, rehearse for three days straight, and perform to a (usually) sold-out house on Saturday night. It was a blast! Attaching a picture; shown are Paul Spiro, Matt Penn, Joe Galeota MA ’85, Bryant Urban ’81, Carl Sturken ’78, Dave Samuels ’79, Billy Hunter ’78, Robert Levin ’81, and myself.  Also in the picture are non-Wesleyan ringers Liz Queler (a Tufts grad who knows Wesleyan folks through ultimate Frisbee) and her son Joey (both are professional musicians).”

Alan Jacobs: “My youngest of four, Guy, graduated from the University of Oregon in June, ending a streak of thirteen consecutive years with at least one child in college. So, for me, it was more like a Bar Mitzvah.

“As for President Roth eliminating legacy admissions, I applaud it. In my experience, and from what classmates have told me, Wesleyan always seemed ambivalent about accepting children of alumni unless the family made a major donation. Three of mine applied Early Decision, all as recruited athletes, and only one was accepted—which is pretty much the same rate as the general ED population at Wesleyan. This will help manage expectations.”

I haven’t written my own news for a while so here goes from me and my husband Andrew McKenna and our two daughters. Jacquie just drove down to St. Petersburg, Florida, to bring our younger daughter, Juliana, to Eckerd College. Juliana transferred from UCSC and is looking to major in marine science as a sophomore. Now being right on the water (not a 40-minute bus ride away), amongst 2,000 instead of 19,000 students who seem much friendlier, in sunny weather instead of nonstop rain, fog, and cold is already working much better for Juliana. Very empowering to recognize when something doesn’t work and daring to make the change. Jacquie heads back out at the end of August to drive with our older daughter, Xan, to Williams for her senior year. Xan spent her junior year in Madrid, Spain, and Santiago, Chile, having amazing experiences. She’s majoring in comparative literature and studio art (examples of her artwork: https://www.redbubble.com/people/xanmckenna/shop?asc=u). Andrew continues to run the services and flight school at the Boulder Municipal Airport, finding a bad bureaucrat can hamper one’s best-intentioned dreams. And finally me: I’m at a crossroads, wanting to leave the world of international development finance (after 40-plus years of working all over the developing world in project finance, focusing on renewable energy and sustainability) and not sure what the next chapter holds—open to ideas! And about eliminating legacy, we both think it’s the right thing to do at this juncture in Wesleyan’s history.