Class Notes | 1980s

Please write to your class secretaries. 

Hillary writes for this issue.

Alisa Newman reports that her daughter fell in love with Wes after being convinced to take a tour, and she’ll be joining the first-year class this fall.

Steve Almond writes, “I’m living outside Boston, teaching creative writing at Wes, and excited that the paperback of my novel, All the Secrets of the World, will come out in spring 2023. Twentieth Century Fox has optioned the book for TV, and they’ve made another novel of mine, Which Brings Me to You, into a movie starring Lucy Hale.”

Rich Silverman has retired from the entertainment industry and is working as a real estate agent for Corcoran in NYC, which he’s finding fun and rewarding. “I’ve closed purchase, sale, and rental deals all over Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens and I seem to be a strong contender for rookie of the year.” In his free time, Rich loves discovering new restaurants and also enjoys attending book discussions. “Most recently, I listened to Wes alum, Andrew Meier ’85, discuss his new book, Morgenthau: Power, Privilege, and the Rise of an American Dynasty; Andrew was kind enough to sign my copy at the event. I had a wonderful time this past September at the annual Wesleyan football event hosted by Dave Thomas ’77, and it was gratifying to see the team perform so well. I’d love to connect with any Wes alums in NYC. I’ll always make time for a coffee meetup or a drink. My phone is (310) 413–6654 and my email is Rich.Silverman@Corcoran.com.”

Julie Lenner launched her own consultancy last year after 25-plus years in senior leadership roles in the nonprofit sector, including cofounding All Stars Project of Chicago. She’s happy to discover that helping multiple organizations simultaneously is just as gratifying as working to further one organization’s mission.

Paul Lewis reports, “After four years of work, my new book was just published, Manual of Biogenic House Sections (ORO Editions, 2022), which argues for how plant and earth-based materials can be a catalyst for a reinvention of how we build, by sequester carbon, engage regenerative life cycles, and create healthier spaces for living. It’s a follow-up to the book I wrote with my two partners in 2016, Manual of Section, which has now been translated into seven languages and is frequently found dog-eared on students and architects’ desks. We produced an exhibit about the new book and the problem of carbon released in the making of building materials, which has traveled from Princeton to the AIA NY Center for Architecture and is now at UVA, with many other venues planned for the coming year. I continue to teach at Princeton School of Architecture, and my firm LTL Architects recently completed a new residence hall at Carnegie Mellon University.”

Finally, after working at the Museum of the Moving Image for 34 years—the last 12 of which he served as executive director—Carl Goodman is now president and chief executive of the Florida Holocaust Museum.

Stay well and keep sending us your news!

Hello classmates! When I sent out an urgent request for notes because I lost the deadline in my inbox, you over delivered! Maybe this is a new strategy.

Gennifer Weisenfeld’s new book is Gas Mask Nation: Visualizing Civil Air Defense in Wartime Japan. She is the Walter H. Annenberg Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History at Duke. Her husband, Derek Jones, a principal at the architecture firm Perkins+Will, won an North Carolina AIA award for his library design.

Grattan Baldwin and his wife Cristina welcomed a baby girl, Maria Luce Frederica Baldwin, in March. Luce is strong and healthy, and her parents need sleep.

Hemanshu Nigam runs a new group at Venable LLP, an American Lawyer Global 100 firm in D.C. Venable Blue is a legal and consulting service that helps clients protect their reputation and manage risk online.

Did you see Daniel Rauch quoted in places like CNN, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal? Dan advocates for pediatric inpatient care nationally, bringing attention to the decades-long reduction in pediatric hospital beds, especially in rural and underserved communities.

Sebastian Bennett’s novel Seasons of Yen, based on his experiences in Japanese advertising, was published in 2021, and his story collection, A Taste of Heaven, hit shelves in 2022. Sebastian gave ChatGPt the same 1983 challenge West College gave us: Why is a mouse when it’s spinning? Sebastian suggested it was a trick question that required a creative answer, and the AI engine returned, “The answer to this classic riddle is: The mouse is spinning because it wants to turn into a rat-tat-tat!”

Simon Connor runs a psychotherapy group practice in Seattle, hangs out with his eight-year-old daughter Gemma, and plays in a rock band with David Goldberg, Louie Hallie (son of late philosophy professor Philip Hallie), and Josh Cohen (nephew of late psychology professor Jeremy Zwelling).

Dr. Leslie Cannold lives in Melbourne, Australia, writing a column in Crikey often focused on learnings from the U.S.’s fragile democracy. She joined the Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership as Head of Programs, working with Australia’s most senior public and private sector leaders.

Kim Wishart teaches anatomy and somatics to university dance students in Victoria, Australia. This brings her back to 1983, when she took Susan Lourie’s class at Pine Street studio. That class set her on a path of exploring and teaching movement through experiential learning, along with the general Wesleyan encouragement to experiment, create, and improvise. Skills for life!

Josh Bellin’s 2023 novel, Myriad, is a sci-fi thriller about a time-traveling law enforcement agent who goes back in time to stop crimes that have already been committed. This is his “adult” debut since he has published mostly young adult novels, but Josh says it is only for an older audience and not too salacious

John Dorsey’s younger child’s current housing lottery experiences remind him of the 1986 housing lottery. The group negotiations based on the size of the space; the thrill of getting a high number and perusing the offerings! John wound up in 2 and 4 Knowles Avenue, a house that no longer exists, on a street that has disappeared, with people who would continue to be part of his life—David Igler ’88, David Josephs, Holly Campbell Ambler, Sue Romeo Malestein, and Doug Koplow.

Lisa Pavlovsky works for a nonprofit called 10,000 Degrees, placing volunteer tutors in our country’s schools with the most need. She reports that Ron Fortgang continues to work in the field of negotiation; Elissa Wolf-Tinsman teaches at Colorado Academy; and Vivian Trakinski works at NYC’s Museum of Natural History, developing digital experiences. The museum’s newest wing includes a large-scale immersive venue called Invisible Worlds that Vivian’s been working on since Trump was elected president!

From London, Liz Rabineau says tourists are definitely back. She is a busy yet unofficial concierge service, greeting traveling family and friends. Liz enjoys the visits from President Roth ’78, who was hosted by 1987’s own Ian Rosen (also P’23) and his wife Sagra Maceria de Rosen in their Westminster home.

Shortly after the underwater volcano that sent a tsunami toward the island Kingdom of Tonga, Joe Crivelli linked up with friends Giulio Masasso Tu’ikolongahau Paunga  and Jon Hare, Zooming between Suva, Fiji, where Giulio was serving at the University of the South Pacific, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to catch Jon who is the Science and Research Director, Northeastern Fisheries Science Center, NOAA, and Vicenza, Italy, where Joe lives. They also connected Giulio to Jim Flynn (not the same Jim from our class of ’87) at Woods Hole where their researchers are doing important work in that region of the Pacific Ocean.

Josh Calder was featured in a Romper article called “What Our Kids Lives Might Look Like According to Futurists.” He told Molly Langmuir ’03, a fellow Wesleyan alum, that there are many positive paths forward, all enabled by not despairing. Google the article!

Thanks for the fast turnaround! Till next time.

Lots of work and life news from ’86ers:

Scott Michaud: “I have left my position as senior speechwriter to the director of National Intelligence, and I am now the senior speechwriter for the chief space officer, who serves as the director of the recently established U.S. Space Force. This is an exciting opportunity for me to help shape the culture and vision for this newest branch of the U.S. military. Semper Supra!”

Kate Nunn Mini said: “I have recently taken a job at Yale Health Pediatrics. In addition to providing primary care, I am working on several initiatives to address the pediatric mental health-care crisis. I was lucky to be able to see my son playing baseball on our field (sorry guys, he played for Williams). Feeling grateful for whatever chapter this is in my life.“

Ethan Knowlden contributed: “February 28, 2023, was my last day of employment; March 1 was my first day of retirement. I am choosing a little less work and a lot more life, perhaps a little earlier than most.  Twenty-plus years as a lawyer in pharma—the last five for a nonprofit—affords me this option and for that I am grateful. I won’t stop trying to help others, though; for some reason, I think helping to address homelessness in Arizona (where Leanne and I now reside) is my next challenge.”

Josh Pollock: “So life in Ann Arbor is good. I’m semiretired from Zingerman’s Bakehouse, which has given me the time I want to spend with my folks as they move on through their stages. It has even allowed me to get back into the book business (Schulers) where I spent 20-plus years (Ned’s, Shakespeare & Co., The Academy, Borders—about 16 years—and Nicola’s). I’m in sporadic touch with some old Wes friends who are dealing with their own transitional issues, and love hearing from [them] with every email or postcard. If folks are in the area (most likely kids applying or coming to U of Michigan), feel free to reach out.”

Coleman Bazelon shared that in early February he “coauthored a report, ‘Quantification of Reparations for Transatlantic Chattel Slavery,’ for the American Society of International Law’s Second Symposium on Reparations under International Law. I collaborated with my partner at The Brattle Group, Alexis Maniatis ’87.”

Erika Levy is still enjoying being professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is also enjoying her daughter Maya’s (’26) enjoyment of being frosh at Wesleyan—living in a dorm that didn’t even exist in the ’80s. Erika’s son is working hard as a high school junior. Erika just finished assisting with a fulfilling training of cleft palate speech practitioners and individuals with cleft palate in Mexico. She would love to hear from her Wesleyan classmates.

Tavy Ronen is still living in New York City and teaching at Rutgers University as a professor of finance. She also acts as an expert witness for securities class-action suits.

Hal Ginsberg: “I have returned to broadcasting. After nearly four years as national coordinator at Our Revolution, I resigned effective January 1 in order to build and develop my YouTube channel, Halitics.

“Recently, I have been enjoying virtual visits with Sandy Goldstein, Rick Davidman ’84, Bill Houston ’87, and Steve Shackman ’87. Truly, there are no friends like old friends.

“My family is doing well. My wife Mindy Burke is now into her third decade as a teacher in the Montgomery County Public Schools system. Michael (Georgetown 2020) is a congressional reporter. William (Maryland 2022), like his mother, is teaching in MCPS.”

Bennett Schneider shared: “I’m still a nun, going on 28 years with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Southern Illinois University brought me to their campus to perform and teach a workshop in October 2022. Nathan Gebert ’85 visited on his way from Japan to New York. Currently rehearsing another music educational show for schoolchildren with the Colburn School of Music in Los Angeles.”

Mike Sealander: “My news is that I started to relearn Japanese after my daughter decided to take it in college. We went to Japan last fall, and it was lovely being able to speak, if a little haltingly. I’m thinking about taking the JLPT N3 test in Japan this December.“

Tierney Sutton wrote: “This year I released my 13th album as leader, Paris Sessions 2. The album features guitarist (and my husband), Serge Merlaud, bassist Kevin Axt, and NEA jazz master, flautist Hubert Laws. Another project released this year was Chris Walden’s Missa Lubileum Aureum featuring me and Kurt Elling. The project is the first ever Catholic Latin Jazz Mass and features an all-star big band, choir, organ as well as Kurt and me as soloists. It’s glorious music and was in celebration of the 50th wedding anniversary of Ted and Laddie Hall.

“My touring and teaching schedule has picked up quite a bit postpandemic, and I’ve been touring all over the U.S. as well as in Europe and Colombia. In addition to teaching and producing private students, I’m currently on the faculty of The Didier Lockwood School in Paris, France. Since my marriage in 2019, I have split my time between Paris and Los Angeles.”

Ayelet Waldman wrote: “Exciting news on my end this time! My daughter, Sophie Chabon ’17 got married in September to Michael Massone ’14. It was a wonderful wedding in Maine, with lots of Wes friends and family.”

Hello, ’85ers! I had the good fortune to visit campus at the end of January to take part in a very fun mentoring workshop with current women athletes. The more Wes changes, the more it stays the same. I’ve reached that stage of my life where I visit places and say, “That used to be . . . .”  I found myself repeatedly noting, “That used to be a package store!,” which I thought was pretty funny.

I heard from Tim Clark that he, Larry Attia, and Steve Pace ’84 have continued their now 38-year-old tradition of watching a Mets road series together each year. “This year we will be traveling to Camden Yards for a Mets-Orioles set. We also upped the boys of summer ante a bit during the pandemic, with a weekly call on all things Mets and life (quite amazing how some codgers can talk about baseball passionately for an hour even in the off-season during the dead of winter). Two other happy items to report: my daughter Kyra ’23 will be graduating from Wes this coming spring; and I ran my first marathon in the fall (Marine Corp with a sub-4 finish).”

Stephen Schwartz writes that he returned last year to the U.S. after living and working overseas in Asia since 2004. He moved to Indonesia in 2004 as the IMF’s senior representative in Indonesia. In 2008 he left the IMF and moved to Hong Kong where he worked in a variety of banking and economics research positions, most recently with Fitch Ratings. Stephen now lives with his partner Jennifer in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where he has been enjoying hiking in the summer and cross-country skiing in the winter. He enjoys the relative peace and quiet after many years of living in the hustle and bustle of Asian cities.

Ellen Campbell is also planning a move to New England: “After a little more than 20 years in Tucson, my husband and I are putting our house on the market and ‘downsizing’ to Vermont. For the past few summers, we’ve been fixing up an old house adjacent to where I grew up . . . it will be our home base moving forward. It’s bittersweet leaving the Desert Southwest, such a lovely place! But new adventures lie ahead. I’ll have lots of barn space for a ceramic/painting studio in Vermont, and will continue teaching yoga classes in person and on Zoom. Winters? We may escape the Northeast (I’m a wimp!) . . . to be continued! Wishing everyone the best as we are so fortunate to be embarking on a new and exciting decade. How did that happen?!!” You can see some of Ellen’s work at www.ellencampbellart.com.

And, finally, it wouldn’t be the class notes without a cryptic yet lyrical note from Christopher Kylin: “Still conspiring to overawe reality with subtle genius and struggling against the bindings of inertia and ennui. In two years, I’ll be celebrated or dead.”

Let us all hope for the former rather than the latter. Take care, my friends, and keep in touch.

Hello again, Classmates. Let me share some updates from our far-flung WesFriends.

Dana Sachs has a new book coming out this year (All Else Failed: The Unlikely Volunteers at the Heart of the Migrant Aid Crisis, published by Bellevue Literary Press).    Much of her research was done while working with Humanity Now, visiting relief teams in Greece. (Her editor Erika Goldman ’81 also went to Wesleyan). Her travels have allowed her to cross paths with a number of friends, and she hopes to make it to reunion next year.

In other book news, Parul Kapur Hinzen will publish her novel Inside the Mirror, about twin sisters who aspire to become artists in 1950s India, to be published by University of Nebraska Press in early 2024. She won the 2022 AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) Prize, judged by Brandon Hobson. The novel touches on the art of Bharata Natyam, whom Parul studied at Wesleyan. She lives in Atlanta with her husband and son, after having spent a few years in Wallingford, Connecticut, among horses and old apple orchards.

Susie Kang Sharpe follows up on her November notes with an update that she has recently been accepted as a TEDx speaker and will deliver her speech at the University of Washington (Seattle) in April 2023 (which will already have occurred by the time you receive this).

Sally Bromage Suhr had a lot of news for us last time and wrote in again to report on her minireunion luncheon with Tammy Kahn and Liz Engelberg on a recent NYC trip.    She did not provide a picture, assuring us that the three of them are unchanged from their Wesleyan days.

Michael (Misi) Polgar provides more detail on his Open Educational Resource (OER) on the Holocaust, which we first heard about last August. It is associated with the Sh’ma Project and is free online at https://psu.pb.unizin.org/holocaust3rs/.

It is my sad duty to report the death of our classmate, Christopher Romeo, who passed on March 8. We learned of this from his sister, Susan Romeo Malestein ’87. His obituary at dignitymemorial.com speaks of his time at Wesleyan and the New England School of Law; of his love of fishing, trivia, and the Red Sox; and of his distinguished community service career on the Board of Selectmen and Board of Tax Assessors in Westford, Massachusetts.

I have some personal news of some import. My son Garrick having waited, with great frustration, through the pandemic for a chance to get his life started, has finally spread his wings. I am thrilled that he is now in Taiwan (Taoyuan City) teaching English. Mostly we get pictures of what he is eating.

Finally, I will say again how much I have enjoyed being class secretary for the last 10 years but will welcome a volunteer for the passing of the baton. If interested in details, email me at the usual place.

Until next time,

Michael

Greetings!

Thank you for the memories. Space is limited so I’ve edited a bit. I suppose if I asked all to share their memories, I ought to participate, too. Let’s see . . . happiest memories were hanging in the kitchen with my housemates at 77 Home Avenue, drinking horribly bad cheap wine (ladies, sending hugs) and singing with my freshman roommate at the top of our lungs in Foss 10. (Kitty, do you remember which songs?) Favorite class was Susan Foster’s modern dance, sophomore year. I remember morphing in and out of tableaus with my fellow dancers as if we were one spirit; it was electrifying. In memoriam, I salute sociology professors O’Gorman and Hyman. They are two kind souls who set me on my path—albeit with a short stint in business first. On the Shoulders of Giants, we follow. I bow to them in gratitude.

Tim Brockett reminisces: “The opportunity to connect with professors who were older, wiser, and in positions of power. It was my good fortune to enroll in a geology class taught by Professor Jelle de Boer one fall semester a long time ago. Professor de Boer was brilliant, articulate, knowledgeable, and tremendously caring toward his students. At his suggestion I traveled at my own expense to Costa Rica to work with a graduate student, Larry Lew, for a few weeks. We mapped the bedrock geology of a dense coastal jungle just south of the warring Nicaraguan border. We lived on the beach like Robinson Crusoe . . . . Another gray-haired professor invited me to a party at his home. I brought a lovely date and we danced with other Wesleyan students in his second-floor bachelor apartment. One young student I vaguely knew remained; she sat on the edge of his bed and appeared sad and a little frightened. I wanted to take her with me but she sat steadfast, almost frozen in place. Those were my happiest and most painful Wesleyan experiences.”

Paul Halliday gives a shout-out to a few of the many faculty who had a lasting effect on him including, Vera Schwartz (Modern Chinese Intellectual History) who, “in our first meeting, asked us to think of ourselves as intellectuals—lightning strike”; Richie Adelstein, Brian Fay, and Don Moon (three years of CSS colloquia) who, “modeled how thinking hard could be loads of fun; the ideas they shared remain fundamental to how I think about many things”; Roger Solie (orchestra conductor and chamber music mentor) who, “always conveyed the joy of music, and showed how that joy grows the more you work at it”; and Peter Kilby (Intro Econ) who touted, “Why take economics? You’ll always read the newspaper with a more critical eye.” Paul hears his voice every time he encounters poorly reported or badly misrepresented data, which is all too often.

Karyn Ellis shared a few memories and a bit of decadence: The primal scream after Reagan was elected (“Wow, did people let loose”); wandering the Olin stacks in an altered state and every book “we pulled off the shelves had incredibly deep meaning”; and the famed Taylor Estate parties for which our class is legend.

Mark Kushner remembers the “Come as You Aren’t” parties at Taylor Estate; co-op cooking with Ben Binswanger, Dave Loo, Steve Maslow, and others; dating the now long-married Aileen Mix; the 40 Plays in 40 Days modern drama class; and spring break in Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head with the tennis team.

Pivoting next to classmate news: Jeffrey Shear was promoted to first deputy commissioner at the New York City Department of Finance. Megan Norris writes “Professionally, my long-planned attempt at early retirement failed, and now I find myself as CEO of Michigan’s oldest law firm. A little surprising to my family, since I did not own a suit.” Her daughter, Taylor Matthew ’17, “is an incredibly independent kid who decided to live five blocks from us in Detroit. Though it won’t last forever, I am enjoying it while I can.” Megan adds she wishes AARP would quit sending things!

Roger Blissett is “excited to share that on May 9, 2023, I will be honored at the 25th Anniversary Gala for ExpandED Schools, a New York City based nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that all young people in New York City have access to enriching afterschool programs.” A link to the gala is here: Events – ExpandEd Schools.

On a sad note, we recently received notice our classmate Dunbar Gram passed away last August. His obituary can be read at gainesville.com/obituaries/pgai0294414.

Hope to see you at the 40th!

It’s really true that my memories of Reunion last year are fresh, but that’s probably because time flies by so quickly and May 2022 seems barely yesterday. I had a chance to see Michael Roth when he visited here at Stanford, and Wesleyan held a reception for him at the faculty club (hosted by Bill Greene ’86, P’20 and his wife Kera Greene). Michael joked that he was in town to discuss Stanford’s purchase of Wesleyan. In truth they have a plan for Wesleyan’s future and continued success and that was great to hear.

Ah, the marking of time: Kweku Forstall has good news to share. Grandparent news! “My wife Adrienne and I welcomed our first grandbaby into the world recently. Her name is Nora Marion Rash, born in Wilmington, North Carolina, to our youngest daughter Cailey Rash and her husband Caleb Rash.”

Ken Kaufman writes (after reading the last class notes) that he is suffering the ravaged of this passage of time, too, with health and life updates: “Lavinia Ross isn’t the only one. The only difference is that my cardiac incident waited till August. I even managed to shut down the D.C. Red Line for half an hour. In other news, I’m closing in on 15 years at the IRS and starting to cast an eye toward retirement.”

Mark Sirota writes that Anthony Pahigian came up from D.C. with his wife Gordana, and he met them, and some of their friends, at the Guggenheim in New York. “I can’t remember the name of the artist we went to see, but we had bagels for lunch.” My memory is like that too. No photos from Mark, but those sometimes help.

Steve Maizes (my second cousin, something I knew without the help of AncestryDNA or 23andMe) has career and class news: he recently joined CrossCountry Mortgage as the in-house lender for The Agency, the real estate brokerage in LA, which is notable because our classmate, Paul Lester, is partner there. “Excited to be working with Paul.”

Ginny Pye encouraged me to share my news, too, so I will relate a couple of things. I’ve had a chance to see Matt Solo a couple of times, and the last time I spoke with him, he was filling sandbags to help prevent his home from sliding off the hill into the valley. It still stands. Matt continues to work in television in LA. I also ran into my old friend Joe Barrett at the reunion. Our reconnection turned into a lovely working relationship. Because of my work in addictions, Joe invited me to join the board of Key Recovery and Life Skills Center, a nonprofit and the first residential drug and alcohol treatment center for substance use disorder in the Puget Sound region. (They have an innovative recycling center, too, Seadrunar, that partly funds their work.) It’s been really important work professionalizing the services they provide there under Joe’s leadership. Joe has just agreed to take over as the permanent CEO and he’s amazing! It is really meaningful work that they do, providing care to people and families in great need, and especially meaningful to be working with Joe, his partner Monica Ramsey, and an incredible board. What an enriching opportunity.

Laura and I continue to hope that you share your updates with us. With Class Notes now online, too, we can more easily keep people updated. Connections are so important, so please keep in touch.

Warmly,

Michael and Laura

Greetings from Zurich, where I am vacationing and spending some time with my middle son James, who has been living here for three years and currently works for Google. What a beautiful place, and what a wonderful lifestyle.

So much news this cycle!

Congrats to David Lynch who shared: “I’ve just signed a contract with Hachette Book Group for my next book, a history of what’s gone wrong with globalization over the past quarter century and a look at what comes next. Working title is The World’s Worst Bet: How the West Gambled on Globalization and Lost. It is scheduled to be published by Hachette’s PublicAffairs imprint in early 2025.” A timely topic—and a book we should put on our “to read” list in 2025.

Alyson Myers, president of the Fearless Fund, an organization dedicated to a healthy ocean and a transformational, productive, blue economy (www.fearlessfund.org) traveled abroad in February with Tory Estern ’82.  Alyson writes, “Tory called and said: ‘You wanna go to Egypt?’ I said, ‘Yes, why not?!’  It was that simple!”  They first traveled to Istanbul, then on to Cairo for a few days, after which they boarded a riverboat to Luxor before heading up the Nile ( south, actually) heading to Aswan. What an amazing trip!

Lisa Rudy wrote in from lovely Cape Cod, where she is now a juried master artist in photography. “I’ve also been writing and directing plays in local theaters,” Lisa says, “and you can’t get a much better view than the one we get from the performance space in the Woods Hole Community Hall looking out at the research vessels and Woods Hole passage! I’m still hard at work as a writer and consultant; have done a lot of work on autism inclusion at museums across the country, and our son (who is on the spectrum) is playing clarinet in the town band where his dad is the proud emcee. Meanwhile, our daughter Sara is graduating college . . . no grandkids on the horizon, lol!”

Barb Martin Herzlich and Sandy Herzlich are still living in the suburbs of Philadelphia but enjoying much more free time now that Sandy has fully retired. Barb is turning into one of the area’s premier potters. The only problem is that the pieces she likes she won’t sell because she wants to keep them. The pieces she doesn’t like she won’t sell because she thinks they’re not good enough. “Our home is bursting with ceramics!” Beyond the regular retirement activities of golf, paddle tennis, etc., Sandy’s filling his days coaching football at the local high school and working as a substitute schoolteacher. During Homecoming this past fall, Sandy was honored to be named, along with classmates Tony DiFolco and Tim O’Brien, to the 1980s All-Decade Football Team, followed shortly thereafter with a visit with Tony and his wife Linda at their home in Florida. “It was great to get back and see so many old friends.”

Elisha Lawrence, who is living in Redondo Beach and loving the LA life, shared that her son is getting his master’s in computer science at Stanford and her daughter, who is applying for her MFA, graduated Wesleyan Class of 2021. “That’s 40 years after me!” she writes. “It feels like it was just yesterday that I was studying in the reference room at Olin.” She is approaching 10 years working as AVP, Global Anti-Piracy for ABS-CBN, a large studio based in Asia that distributes their movies and TV shows into 190 countries. Elisha would love to hear from Wes people in the area; she has a Wes sticker on her car and routinely gets stopped by people asking what year she graduated. Apparently, LA is a hotbed of lot of Wes alumni!

Congratulations to Kathy Prager Conrad, who recently shared that she officially retired in March after an illustrious career of service in our nation’s capital. Her last job was at Accenture Federal Services.  In Kathy’s case, “retiring” means a shift from full time to flexible work on a few key projects and from occasional to more frequent personal travel, along with more volunteering and family time. She kicked things off with a trip to Costa Rica; I am looking forward to details.

Deb Chapin checked in from a ski trip to Banff, where she was nursing a knee injury that prevented her from taking on the slopes but thankfully NOT the apres-ski activities. Snowshoeing was also on the itinerary. Cheers to that!

David Miller sent us an introspective note:

“I tested positive for COVID at the beginning of March, being vaccinated and boosted, and fortunately my symptoms have been pretty mild. However, the enforced isolation has given me more of a chance to reminisce and contemplate some things.

“For a few years, starting about 45 years ago, I was able to spend many nights at VVO looking deep into the sky. At that time there were only a few faculty and even fewer astro students. Even amongst that small crowd, I was one of the few who wanted to look through the telescopes with my eyes. I signed up for every observing shift I could and only on the coldest nights containing the longest exposures; 30 minutes or more of quietly tracking a star for Dr. Upgren’s parallax project in the middle of winter, had me questioning my activities.

“For years afterwards, I correctly thought I was spoiled; I had a 20-inch refractor and a 24-inch reflector practically at my beck and call when I was an undergrad. While the intervening years have placed me in the same room with bigger telescopes, I was never able to look through them. While paging through the images at APOD and marveling at the results from the Hubble and Webb scopes, I was filled with the longing and majesty of viewing a dark sky filled with stars.

“Having retired and having the time and funds to indulge some of my whims, I’m able to play with the new breed of smart telescopes. My Wesleyan education allows me to understand what is being done. My graduate studies and subsequent technical experience give me the how. My life gives me the why.

“Seeing details emerge from the seemingly dark sky and seeing the stars strewn across the screen like dust as the details of the nebulae and galaxies emerge makes me feel like I’m 19 on Foss Hill on a spring evening. I do wonder what the current majors feel as they gaze up at the night sky.”

That’s it for now. Happy summer!

Sending a big thank you to all our wonderful classmates of Wes ’80 for all the enduring friendships, kindnesses, and contributions that you are providing to this world and to Wesleyan. Best wishes to all, Jacquie Shanberge McKenna, Wes ’80 Class Secretary

Susan Carroll (Managing Director): “I direct a joint international graduate program between Duke and UNC–Chapel Hill: the Duke-UNC Rotary Peace Center. It’s like a mini–UN (currently 19 fellows from 16 different countries), with a focus on peacebuilding and sustainable development.   Never a dull moment. . . .”

Jane Polin (Philanthropic Advisor in NYC): “I’ve done two start-ups during the past three years! The first is building pathways from HBCUs into the alternative asset management industry: see AltFinance.com. One of the three firms partnering to make AltFinance happen is Oaktree, where Wesleyan board chair John Frank ’78 serves in a leadership role. I’ve also returned to my career-long effort to advance the role of the arts in lifelong learning and thus had the great joy to launch The Misty Copeland Foundation, www.mistycopelandfoundation.org (aims to bring greater diversity, equity, and inclusion to dance, especially ballet, making ballet affordable, accessible, and fun!).”

Janet Grillo (Film Director): “I directed my third full-length independent indie-fiction feature film, The Warm Season, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiuZhkK0krE, which is playing the festival circuit, winning awards, seeking distribution, and receiving critical acclaim: Film Threat https://filmthreat.com/reviews/the-warm-season/. I continue to teach full time at NYU Tisch School of the Arts Undergraduate Film Program and alternate my time between NYC, mid-Hudson Valley (Saugerties) and jaunts to LA to see my son (who just turned 29—yikes!).”

Jessica Ziegler (Visual Artist, MBA): “I am now building a second career as an artist, although I am enjoying the painting part much more than the business part! I am also doing volunteer consulting for nonprofits through the Harvard Business School Club of New York, and for small businesses through The Acceleration Project. My daughter is in graduate school in NYC, so we get to see her often.”

Jim Kent (B2B Marketing): “Our daughter is in the graduate playwriting program at Columbia University and working part time help script doctor a Broadway play that goes up this spring. When I asked her about it, she quoted an 007 film: ‘I could tell you about it. But I’d have to kill you first, Mr. Bond.’”

Mike O’Brien (Software Engineer) and Ann Carlson (Genetic Counselor): “We were married 1987–2001. We welcomed our first grandchild into the world, Maxwell Dana King, born January 25, 2023, to our daughter Dana, in Melbourne, Australia.” So far Ann has been over to meet the little guy in person, but Mike has not!

Henri Lamothe (MD, CMSL, FAAEP): “I just spent the last weekend in NYC, supporting my daughter Austin (Trinity ’18) who participated in the NYC half marathon, along with my son Luke (Tufts ’12) all celebrating my 39th wedding anniversary with my dear wife Laura. In other family news, we are blessed with two grandchildren from daughter Brooke (Bowdoin ’10), Francis and June. We are continuing to adjust to the new realty in our lives with the passing of our son Matthew ’10. I continue on with my journey in medicine, now as a chief medical officer for the Upper Allegheny Health System in upstate New York. Miss my Wesleyan friends!”

Al Spohn (IT Expert): “I’ve been working in Mayo Clinic IT for 32 years, with 20 previous overlapping years in the air force. I was married in 2000 to Angela and we have three kids, 10, 14, and 17. The 17-year-old is eyeballing Wesleyan pretty heavily since all the online interest search mechanisms seem to be pointing her in that direction. Let’s hope admissions does legacy one more year! 😊.  Over the years I’ve been in touch with Jon Martin, Ralph Maltese ’79 and Ed Denton, among others.”

Melissa Stern (Artist): “I have three upcoming group shows. Two opening within days of each other in NYC. Pearls of Love opens April 27 at The Jewelry Library. An international group of artists asked to respond to “pearls” in any materials. Should be interesting. And on April 29 Out of Joint opens at The Boiler in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The gallery is in a 19^th-century Con Edison steam plant. The architecture is worth the subway ride. In August I am in an invitational in Newport, Rhode Island, called Exponential, a show of women artists at Jessica Hagen Fine Art. Other than that, enjoying being in NYC and seeing theater and art. . . .  People are out and about again and that feels great.”

Frederica (Freddi) Wald (Chief Development Officer): “I am living in NYC with my husband, beloved dog, and daughter (away at college), and thrilled to be celebrating my four-year anniversary as a chief sevelopment and membership officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Happy to see the resilience and rebuilding of the city’s activities. I continue to love Broadway, take a dance class every now and then (Cheryl Cutler’s lasting influence!), get immersed in the art world again and women’s advocacy causes! And I refuse to retire. . . .  Love connecting with Wesleyan alumni anytime!”

Mark Zitter (Nonprofit Entrepreneur): “I’ve been doing a good deal of travel lately. My wife Jessica and I were in Israel in January, Argentina and Antarctica in February, and London in March. I’ve moved out of the nonprofit I started seven years ago, the Zetema Project, and am in the process of creating a new nonprofit fellowship aimed at helping social sector leaders increase their effectiveness. I Zoom regularly with Scott Hecker, Paul Singarella, and Paul Oxholm, and have been in touch recently with Jane Polin and Irene Chu.”

Peter Scharf (Sanskrit Expert): “In the midst of the COVID lockdown, my wife and I went into near total isolation, and it proved to be very productive. I edited two volumes of papers in honor of my former professor at the University of Pennsylvania, finished writing and publishing my introductory Sanskrit textbook in another two volumes, and prepared a provisional version of a Sanskrit reader for second-year students. I also developed an interactive exercise platform based on the latter two works that provides detailed and informative feedback for every step of translating from transliterating from Devanagari script, analyzing prosodic sound changes, word lookup, morphological and lexical identification, syntax, and English translation evaluation. Both my wife and I launched online instruction in Sanskrit through The Sanskrit Library and have been busy teaching via Zoom since. In December I injured my back trying to lift a bulky, heavy box of books. I’m still recovering but able to continue most of my normal routine save for having to cut back on exercise and yoga. A few weeks ago, my mother passed away at the age of 92. For the last couple of years, she would ask repeatedly, ‘Why am I still alive?’ Two days before she passed, she asked my brother, ‘Why don’t you just choke me? I just want to go to God and rest.’ She shortly got her wish, passing away peacefully in her sleep the next night.”

Gary Gilyard (MD): “Our youngest daughter Shelby Gilyard ’16 is getting married July 8! She is our third and the other two are already married with children. Hoping I can get a prospective Wesleyan student from one of them, although Shelby is my best shot.”

Walter Calhoun (Nonprofit): “I have more or less permanently moved my time and efforts to my various outreach campaigns focused on the needs of my nonprofits. For example, as its only three-term past president and 35-year board member, the Auxiliary Board of Family Focus Evanston asked me for the 12th year in a row to handle the staff Christmas gifts. Since our Auxiliary Board has many different levels of resources, talents, and income, they allow me to solicit donations among our Board anonymously so no one knows what each other has given but me. For the 12th year in a row, our 11 Board members met my disclosed goal of raising $3,750 which allowed me to give each and every full- and part-time employee a record cash gift of $250 for the 12th year in a row. I am also lay leader and stewardship chairman of the North Shore United Methodist Church in Glencoe and am honored to share a birthday with the late Peggy Bird.”

Amanda Hardy Sloan (Landscape Architect): “I have been a landscape architect professionally for many years now and have found this profession satisfies my interests in helping the health of the earth, expressing myself artistically, working closely with people, teaching, and leaving a legacy somehow. After an entire career as a landscape architect focusing on native plants, rain gardens, parks, and dog parks, I have recently ‘semiretired’—like many of us at this age—right? I still do board work and landscape consultations. A board I’ve been on for many years is the Ecological Landscape Alliance—the best source of info about how to create a wonderful landscape while keeping it ecologically sustainable: www.ecolandscaping.org. My dear hubby Chris Sloan (Trinity College ’80) and I live in Sharon, Massachusetts. Our children are Anna (NYU 2008), who is a doctor of archeology (University of Oregon) and is the curator of the Southern Oregon Historical Society Museum and the Archaeology Laboratory director at Southern Oregon University; and Philip (Curry College 2015), who is finishing up his doctorate in counseling psychology at William James College. Both kids are married! We have a sweet grandson in Oregon, our dear little Elio James, whom we visit often (a cross-country flight!). I have a wonderful horse, whom I ride every two days for therapy and peace. She is a beautiful 22-year-old quarter horse. I think many more Wes people and ladies our age are involved with horses than we ever would imagine! This is an important part of my life.”

Paul Singarella (JD, MS, PE, Dad): “I’m now a Florida resident, which I heard is a good place for the back 9. I moved to Florida starting in 2020 to be closer to my kids, mom, and sisters during the pandemic. I ‘retired’ from Big Law in 2019 to focus on my water and energy projects. I’m incubating a portfolio of project opportunities throughout the West. I refer to them as my ‘hobbies’ until they come to fruition. (It takes an in-it-for-the-long-haul horizon to build infrastructure in the U.S.)  Mark Zitter, Scott Hecker,and I remain in close contact. I also keep in touch with Dave Bartholomew ’81,  Jack McGreen, Walter Siegel, Bob Garty, and, via a large email group, the DKE brotherhood. So, WesU remains an important part of my friendship group after all these years. For that I am most grateful. (Importantly, Dave B. piloted a mentorship program over the past few years for rising lawyers to be paired with a senior lawyer. The lawyers who participated in the pilot really benefited. Any WesU lawyers out there interested in being part of building this program from pilot to scale should contact Dave directly at d_bartholomew@yahoo.com. Spread the word!)”

Ellen Haller (Retired MD): “I’m thoroughly enjoying my retirement in San Francisco! The biggest decisions I face these days is whether to play pickleball, go on a bike ride, take a strength class, or suit up for an ice hockey game. (Yes, I still play regularly!) Outside of these endeavors, I help out my elderly parents, travel with my (still-working) wife, and enjoy occasional visits with our 26-year-old magician son. If any of you live in or are visiting NYC, check out his sophisticated, intimate sleight-of-hand card magic show! Yes, I’m biased, but it’s amazing; he’s appeared on Penn & Teller’s TV show and at LA’s Magic Castle. Info at danielroymagic.com.”

Tom Loder (JD): “I am here reporting in for Bob Ferreira and Jim Schor, our own ‘beach club’ consisting of huddling around a beer cooler near Bob’s and Amy Zinsser’s beautiful Connecticut home (with Amy’s gracious hosting, and with both she and Sharon Nahill wisely sitting out the festivities and endless retelling of fish tales about the days of our small gym, spring break, KNK, DKE, O’Rourke’s, and Williams Street capers. Still in touch with and thinking of many, including Larry Levy, Spence Studwell ’79, Barry Williamson ’81 (sort of), Walter Siegel, and a few Butterfield RA ‘advisees,’ if I can also include my Butterfield son Aaron ’22 among them (though the advisees taught me so much more than I ever taught them!).  Where’s Labeeb Abboud, Laura Nathanson, Linc Kaiser (Wes anthropology professor), Dave Miller ’81, Jeanette Talavera—the list is too long. Got to go huddle up on the beach with Bob and Jim and go to work on it!!”

Alan Jacobs (Filmmaker): “I fulfilled a dream by taking my children, Gil, Avia, and Ron ’16, to the World Cup in Qatar, where we saw three amazing games, including the Argentina-France final. Almost as satisfying is that after over a decade of delays, my film Down for Life will finally be released on major streaming sites (Apple, Amazon, etc.) on April 4. The U.S. Congressional Hispanic Caucus nominated it for the National Film Registry, which is both an honor and a reminder of how long ago we made it!”

Steve Mooney (Marketing): “In April, I will be retiring from my job in marketing after 33 years with the same agency. I joined thinking I’d stay two years and lasted 33. Yes, it can happen. At my last staff meeting, I shared some recent ChatGPT queries. I post them here as we contemplate an unknowable future alongside AI.

Me: Write me a six-word story on retirement.

ChatGPT: “Finally free, life begins at retirement.”

And then this follow-up query:

Me: Write me a six-word story on becoming a writer.

ChatGPT: “Pen to paper, a writer born.”

“And so it begins. Next chapter! Go Wes!!!

“One more tidbit. Posted this illustration I customized to a Facebook page dedicated to the sport of Ultimate and got two hundred comments about where various people learned to throw a disc. For me, I learned to throw on Foss Hill in 1979 with Nick Donohue ’81, Chris Heye ’81, and David ‘Nietzch Factor’ Garfield, and went on to enjoy a long career in the sport.”

Doron Henkin (Lawyer): “Husband Victor and I are in good shape and still plugging away, lawyering for me and work at Bryn Mawr Hospital for him. I still sing with several choirs and groups, which I owe to Wesleyan. I got to be there when son Gil recently married Alex Sanchez Espinosa in and of Barcelona, Spain. They are headed to Berlin, where Gil will be doing postdoc research on the malaria carrier organism at the Max Planck Institute. Son Dan and daughter-in-law Kaitlyn are closer to home, in Pennsylvania, and the proud parents of granddaughter Eleanor James Henkin, now 1-year-old. Dan works in engineering at the Philadelphia Naval Yard, and Kaitlyn is a nurse at Children’s Hospital. Daughter Hannah now works for Drawdown, the Climate Change Science nonprofit from her home base in Boston, and she still plays Ultimate every chance she gets. The ‘kids’ are of course also the ‘kids’ of my ex-, Ina Louise Shea, who lives nearby in Pennsylvania, and we are all still in regular touch and visits. We are so happy that the easing of the pandemic has brought more and more chances for family togetherness and travel.”

Wendy Davis (Writer): “In March, we celebrated our 25-year-old daughter’s handing in her MA dissertation to her supervisor  from Royal College of Art where her dad and two elder sisters received postdoc degrees (shouldn’t we have received a loyalty discount?)! Also in March, I received from Wesleyan’s American Studies Department an invitation to the: Slotkin Symposium celebrating the 80th birthday and new work of my former academic advisor Richard Slotkin. I had only just contacted the now retired professor last year for the first time since our graduation in reference to a historical novel I am writing, which opens in the Civil War, which is his specialty. His response was most helpful and encouraging, even after a gap of so many years. . . . Wesleyan connections certainly endure don’t they! We moved out of our studio residence (a historic Wesleyan Chapel) in Greenwich, London, September 2022, extending our return trip to Australia from three weeks to four months in Sydney,  September through January, due to my husband John’s major surgery and recovery. Finally, we have subsequently resettled in the British countryside very  near the Jurassic coast, good metaphor at our age! All of which has been incredibly disruptive to work and continues to suspend John’s practice as he must organize new studios working with Jo, the local handyman’s help. Interestingly we recently returned to London (approximately three hours by car) to see the Cezanne blockbuster at Tate Modern, in particular to revisit the remarkable portraits of Cezanne’s Gardner. One of our favorite paintings since we saw Seated Man at the then-new installation of the Thyssen Museum in architect Rafael Moneo’s renovation of the Palacio de Villahermosa, an 18^th-century neoclassical palace located alongside the Prado Museum in Madrid, where we were then living. I feel as if our own circle of human connection in our 16th-century Weycroft property may also compress to a small circumference of Gardeners, lawn mowers, handy mailmen, and one  efficient female cleaner (my disability precluding my ability to be of much physical assistance inside or out). All help has been sourced from the former team who helped the disabled WW ll–veteran proprietor residing here just before us (luckily for me there was a stair climbing chair for him already installed when we arrived)! The family and executors of the estate of the now deceased former owner have recently entrusted us with a treasure trove of original historical source material on the property dating back to Roman settlement. The property is listed in the Doomsday record  book (the parchment deeds still have red wax seals)! A local village boasts it’s the most rebellious village in England so perhaps when I finish with the American Civil War, I might be looking closer to our new home for inspiration! Whilst in Australia we increasingly worried about our choice to base ourselves in Britain with terrible regular reports from the BBC  about the strain on the NHS with life-threatening delays for ambulances and hand-over delays at A&Es across the country. It was especially distressing and confusing since we were experiencing such good care from our more familiar medical support team in Sydney. Fortunately, we have been very positively impressed  by our new local medical center here in Axminster, even better than our relatively recent experiences in Greenwich, but then we are fortunate to be presently in good health at the moment not testing the system. Long may it last! Good health and happiness to all of you dear friends and classmates!”

Sara Epstein (Psychologist/Poet):a practicing psychologist in the Boston area and first-time grandmother of baby Leo,has just published her first book of poems, Bar of Rest launched by Kelsey Books—see more on her website saraepsteinwriter.com.

Sara is a clinical psychologist who integrates mindfulness practices, including writing, in her psychotherapy work with children and adults. She also facilitates and teaches generative writing groups and classes. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry Quarterly, Amethyst Review, Chest Journal, Nixes Mate Review, Plainsongs, museum of americana, among others. Her book reviews have been published in Mom Egg Review.