Class Notes | 1960s

Art Rhodes: “Sorry that I won’t be coming to Homecoming—too much going on in Chicago and New Orleans, homes of our extended family. I stopped seeing patients (Rush University Medical Center) in November 2019, after 20 years at that institution, and fully retired from medicine November 2020, after 50 years of academic medicine (Harvard, University of Pittsburgh, and Rush Medical College). Spending time with wife Leslie Newman (accomplished artist and designer), extended family, renovating a house in the Chicago suburbs, and getting back to photographic activities (see ‘Papazaydeh’ on Instagram for posted photographs). Leslie and I greeted our 11th grandchild on July 24, a vibrant and healthy boy. Two other grandchildren entered their freshman year in college, and a third grandchild entered their senior year in college. Wishing my classmates health and happiness in our remaining years during these tumultuous times.”

Peter Kelman: “What a strange last couple of years it’s been. So far, my wife (Therese) and I and most (but not all) of our family have managed to make it through two years of the pandemic without becoming infected (as far as we know). During the first two months of the pandemic, I wrote and published a blog that sought to deconstruct and clarify the mixed messages coming from public health officials, scientists, and self-proclaimed experts across the political and philosophical spectrum (like the OR doc from Wisconsin who scared everyone about touching anything that came into our homes). The blog had attracted some 600 subscribers by the time I closed it down in early May 2020, when our Vermont governor and State Department of Health began to hold twice-weekly press conferences in which they explained the science behind their recommendations and occasional edicts. In late June 2020, we bought a new, age-in-place suitable home in Montpelier and the following May we sold our prior sweet, little, but totally unsuitable, home on the other side of town. (In both buying and selling, we managed to time the crazy Vermont home sales market just about perfectly.) During the winter of 2021, when it seemed to many that the pandemic would never end, I organized and hosted a Zoom get-together of 100 members of my Staples High School graduating class for what would otherwise have been the year of our 60th Reunion; among the more than 20 excellent speakers were our Wesleyan classmates Jerry Melillo and Ted Dreyfus. In June, I celebrated my 78th birthday with a Zoom gathering of another 70 or so friends and relatives spanning most of my lifetime. Meanwhile, for the past two years, rather than despairing about the deterioration of civility and empathy in our nation, I’ve focused locally, organizing neighbors and other Montpelier residents around issues of concern regarding housing, homelessness, and growing inequality in our city and region. Lately, most of my reading has been written by contemporary, POC, hyphenated Americans, many of whom are women, rather than the dead white male authors we read almost exclusively during our years at Wesleyan. As a result, I am learning much that I never learned in all my 20 years of formal education, and I am becoming more aware of my own narrow understandings as a privileged white male. I particularly commend to you several works of fiction: How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue; The Sentence by Louise Erdrich; No-No Boy by John Okada; Passing by Nella Larson, and Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, as well two very important works of nonfiction—Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American, which I receive by email and read every morning, and last but not least The 1619 Project created by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, a compendium of Black history and culture that has shifted my understanding of America like no other book I have ever read.”

Bob Barton: “I want to share the story and image below. These help me stave off depression over the ongoing flood of negative realities—COVID, environmental disaster, Ukraine, the ease with which one man rallied millions to help him nearly destroy our democracy, the derailment of the Supreme Court, my arthritis, etc. Last year, before the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, Brian Resnick wrote: ‘The largest space telescope in history is about to blow our minds <https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/22664709/james-webb-space-telescope-launch-date-december-science-hubble>.’ He now considers his mind blown. NASA has finally revealed its first images from the space-based observatory. These images are decades in the making and come after years of delays and budgets being blown. <https://www.planetary.org/articles/cost-of-the-jwst#:~:text=The%20James%20Webb%20Space%20Telescope%20(JWST)%20is%20expected%20to%20cost,support%20five%20years%20of%20operations.> But they do not disappoint. Consider this fraction of the very first image released by the space agency: What makes this image so mind-blowing is how small it is, and how large it is, at the same time. It’s small in the sense that this image represents only a teensy tiny portion of the night sky.   Imagine you are holding out a grain of sand at arm’s length. The area of sky that grain covers— that’s double the size of the area captured in the above image. But it’s huge in the sense that nearly every object in this image is a galaxy (besides the bright spiky starburst, which is a star in the foreground). Think about that: In every pinprick of sky, there are thousands and thousands of galaxies, at least.”

An update for the Geoff Geiser family: “We are living the good retiree life. Carole and I celebrated our 56th wedding anniversary in June. We spend winters at our primary residence in Churchville, Pennsylvania (Bucks County). Our summer residence is in Long Beach Township, Long Beach Island, New Jersey. Our two children, Erik and Lynn, and their families, are doing well. Our four grandchildren are also thriving. Zachary will be the last to graduate from college, one more semester to go. We look forward to our get-togethers during the holidays and at the beach house. This can be difficult considering all of their busy schedules. If any classmate is in either area, give us a call. Stay well. Geoff”

John Graves: “Dear Classmates, it seems like ages since I reconnected with many of you during our 50th! We’ve managed to survive two presidential elections, an insurrection at our nation’s Capital, a rapidly evolving pandemic, and the sad losses of several of our teachers and classmates. I was particularly saddened to hear of the losses of Professor John Maguire and his protégé, our dear friend and classmate Ron Young, both of whom were truly inspiring leaders.

“Meanwhile, I published my memoir, Lessons on the Road to Hope: A Psychiatrist’s Journey, Stillwater River Press (2020), now available in paperback on Amazon. In early chapters, I describe how I suffered from my first depression in my sophomore year at Wes, which forced me to drop out of my pre-med classes (later completed at Columbia). I transitioned, while at Union Theological Seminary, to entertaining a vocation in the ministry, rediscovering my interest in medicine, entering medical school, doing research in transplant surgery, and ultimately choosing psychiatry.

“I’ve been happily retired since 2016 from a general adult private practice involving teaching residents, running outpatient groups for men and bipolar patients, consulting and taking leadership roles in several public and private agencies, and treating a fascinating variety of patients with an individualized, eclectic approach.

“I’ve also had the pleasure of reconnecting with Fred Joseph and his lovely wife Anne for some incredible fly-fishing last fall in Estes Park (thanks again, Fred). I relished the opportunity to attend a Zoom session with Rob Abel, his young Wes protégé, Zoe Garvey ’20, and Hugh Wilson focusing on various psychiatric and cognitive syndromes associated with eye diseases. Bob Bast and I spoke at length following his reading of my memoir. He, not surprisingly, reported that he is revising the 11th edition of his definitive oncology text and continues, in his late 70s, to see clinic patients and train residents and fellows at MD Anderson. What a distinguished career!

“After a recent scary experience of mini-strokes, carotid surgery, followed by COVID-19 contracted in the hospital post-op, and an infusion of monoclonal antibodies, I’m resuming my walks, piano playing, and looking forward to resuming fly-fishing next month, as well as visiting shut-ins from my church parish. Life is good and I feel blessed to be alive.”

Here is some news and updates from ’64ers.

David Skaggs writes: “Three-quarters of the legendary white-shoe law firm POSH (Puner, Oleskey, Skaggs & Howard) convened at Jim Howard’s home in LA in March. Nick couldn’t make it, but Steve, Jim, and I had a splendid weekend together. The law firm never actually existed, but our imagination of it has been rich. My wife Laura and I attended the opening of a wonderful exhibit of paintings by Stan Lewis ’63 in May at the Betty Cunningham Gallery in NYC. Stan was his usual irrepressible self, held in some check by his lovely wife Karen. Much reminiscence about times Smith and Wes chorus and glee club sang together under the direction of Dick Winslow and Iva Dee Hyatt.”

Ken Woodrow shares: “I’ve spent most of my post-Wes life in Northern California, practicing psychiatry and teaching at Stanford. While my wife Wendy and I do a little more traveling, I’m not quite ready to retire yet.

“My daughter Laura, also graduated Wesleyan in 1997 and is now practicing osteopathic medicine in Marin, California.”

From Russ Messing: “I am now officially retired from at least 40 years of being a clinical psychologist. Now I spend my time writing poetry. I am currently writing my fifth book of poetry, all self-published. (I am more than willing to send copies of them to anyone who asks.) I love writing (my senior thesis at Wesleyan was cleverly entitled “Eight Short Stories”).  Thank-yous to Joe and Kit Reed for supporting me in my first creative writing endeavors!

“These days I spend my Saturday mornings selling my award-winning olive oil at the Healdsburg Farmers Market—oil from our olive orchard of over 700 trees. Over 45 years ago my wife Arlene and I moved up to Sonoma County into a 30 x 30 log cabin (red-painted redwood logs and tin roof) onto a piece of remote land with a good-sized pond, redwoods, oak, and madrone. (We still split our own wood for our woodstove.) In the ensuing years we (Arlene is the visionary and the doer of this ‘project’) have created a true paradise—enlarging the house, having our two children born on the land, hosting kids from Synergy School (the elementary school that I co-founded in San Francisco) for their annual week of ‘Farm School.’ Now in my dotage, and no longer being a ‘shrink,’ I continue to write. I am a super-proud grandpa of six incredible ‘kids’ ranging from 21 to 4, and am embraced, taught, and supported by my/our three adult children.

“Right now a west wind sways the trees.”

Several classmates wrote in with news:

Jack Jarzavek said, “I thought I would write the following for the next issue of the alumni magazine.

WANTED: I bought paperback faculty picture books my freshman through junior years. These had pictures of the current faculty with their degrees and dates of beginning teaching at Wesleyan. When we moved from our house to our apartment, they got lost in the shuffle. If anyone has copies and is going to throw them away, please send them my way. Thanks, Jack Jarzavek

“Not a lot of news. There is now a second recipient of the Jarzavek Teaching Chair at the Rivers School where I taught for 40 years. We are still cooking up a storm and doing research on dance in 17th-century French baroque opera. My collection of 15,000 LPs and 5,000 CDs of opera and classical vocal recitals will now be digitized by National Archives and made available to libraries. I gave the collection to the Rivers Conservatory. Best, Jack.”

Len Edwards wrote, “My wife and I spend much of the summer in Truckee, California, a little north of Lake Tahoe. We hope that forest fires will not smoke us out as they did last summer.

“The San Francisco Bay Area continues to celebrate the Golden State Warriors and their surprising NBA title. Steph Curry and Klay Thompson are local heroes. The second edition of my juvenile court book is selling nicely—however, the audience is limited to judges and attorneys who work in juvenile court—not a large group. I continue to work with Health Management Associates in a project to reduce the impact of opioids in California. The death rates from overdoses continues to rise. My golf continues to deteriorate, but I haven’t given up. I’m hoping to attend our 60th next year, but need to know if anyone else will show up.”

Walt Pilcher sent in this update: “Carol and I moved to River Landing, a continuing care retirement community (CCRC) in High Point, North Carolina, in 2020 after 30 years in next-door Greensboro, and we are loving it. Some say it’s like being on a stationary cruise ship because there are five restaurants, a pool, a nine-hole golf course, a well-equipped fitness center and gym, planned excursions, and more activities than we can keep up with. No casino, of course, but we don’t miss that. Outside, I’m still on the boards of three faith-based nonprofits and preaching the occasional guest sermon at our church. Inside, Carol still paints and sold several pieces in an exhibition here in May/June, while I continue to write. My publisher is planning a big promotion in September involving a dozen of their authors, including me, with my comedy novel, The Accidental Spurrt: A Mark Fairley Mystery, and its follow-on in the series, Killing O’Carolan, which will have been launched by the time you are reading this. Both are hilarious and getting great reviews. I taught a three-session course on creative writing here last fall and this spring, which was a lot of fun. For me, as with many of us, this season of life has been vastly different from what I envisioned looking ahead from 1963. Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Russell E. Richey is dean emeritus of Candler School of Theology and William R. Cannon Distinguished Professor of Church History emeritus. He currently serves as visiting professor of Methodism at Duke Divinity School. Russ is on the editorial boards of Methodist History, Journal of Southern Religion, and New Room Books, and he is general editor of the online Methodist Review. Richey’s most recent books are Methodism in the American Forest, Oxford University Press, 2015, and A Church’s Broken Heart: Mason-Dixon Methodism, New Room Books/General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, 2021.

Don Sexton shared: “During the summer I had a major solo show of my paintings in lower Manhattan, Great Cities of the World—more than 50 works. Through 2023 I have several other solo shows scheduled for New York and for Connecticut. Please visit my website for dates and details: www.sextonart.com. I am also beginning a new career, stand-up comedy. I joined an improv group to stay alert during these later years, then started doing stand-up as well—have performed stand-up in midtown Manhattan and elsewhere. Great fun for me and—I think and hope—for the audience. My wife will retire soon from the NYC Department of Education and we plan a lot of travel, to favorite cities and to new places. We are considering moving to Paris although that would likely affect my stand-up career unless my French and my French sense of humor improve markedly.”

Dave Snyder writes: “Since retiring from my business (remanufacturing ink jets and toner cartridges) some 15 years ago, I’ve been involved with three nonprofits. The first, TCP Global, is involved in microloans in the developing world. We started out in Colombia, and then expanded into Guatemala, where my wife Sally and I had served in the Peace Corps, immediately prior to coming to HBS. Subsequently, we went into Peru, 11 countries in Africa, and Nepal. The second nonprofit is Casa Colibri. We work with the Mayans in northwest Guatemala. We built a medical clinic there in 2009 and continue to go there three times a year on medical missions. The third nonprofit, TGHI (The Thelma Gibson Health Initiative), works here in the Miami area providing a variety of services to underserved, low-income residents in the area.”

And from Thomas McKnight: “Nothing makes me happier than wrestling with my muse every afternoon to the accompaniment of my beloved bel canto operas—well-known composers like Bellini and Donizetti, but even rarer ones like Pacini and Marchetti. Like my art they are somewhat out of fashion and maybe that’s why we are on the same wavelength.

“Mornings I’ve been reading a lot about what happens after death and reincarnation—subjects speeding toward me like a train without an engineer. Evenings are for solace. During the pandemic my wife Renate expanded her cuisine repertoire, and we now feast on Japanese and Indian dishes along with her Austrian and Italian standbys. And then there is Netflix!

“Some paintings are currently in an exhibition at the Litchfield (Connecticut) Historical Society, Artists of Litchfield, a historical survey of which I am one of the most recent exemplars. More will be shown at a retrospective of sorts at the Mattituck Museum in Waterbury (Connecticut) opening in June 2023.”

Pandemic concerns cruelly limited in-person attendance for our 60th Class Reunion, but we were still well represented by Robin Cook (also there to celebrate the graduation of his son Cameron ’22, exactly 60 years after his own), Joel Teaford and his wife Maggie, and Hank Sprouse. Hank reports that attendance was very sparse for all the older classes, and that in the alumni parade he, Joel, and Maggie were second in line behind only three intrepid members from the Class of 1952.

Hank further reported that his sadness about the absence of old friends at the reunion was partially mitigated by “a wonderful feeling of comfort and sense of belonging” as well as gratitude for his experiences at Wesleyan. In passing he visited the beautiful wood carving of a pair of northern cardinals that he had presented to Wesleyan 10 years ago at our 50th Reunion, and which remains on display just outside the faculty dining room in the Usdan University Center.

(Ed. note: I can personally attest that Hank’s internationally recognized bird-carving career is still going strong, and for many examples of his work you can visit his impressive website at http://www.hanksduckdecoys.com.)

As partial consolation for our pandemic woes, Mike Schramm from the Office of Advancement graciously organized and monitored a Zoom “social hour” for interested classmates shortly before Reunion. The participants were Bruce Calder, Dick Dubanoski, Ray Fancher, Jim Gately, Bob Gelardi, Mike Hackman, Bob Hunter, John Huss, Dave Irwin, Bill Jefferys, Bob Krugman, Bruce Menke, Gene Peckham, Mike Riley, Bob Saliba, Joel Teaford, Rick Tuttle, and Len Wilson. Dick Dubanoski placed our meeting in historical context by noting that the 60th-year alumni he saw in our own graduation parade of 1962 had graduated in 1902 and been born around 1880, so collectively we represented nearly a century and a half of life experience. Everyone appreciated this opportunity to see and briefly hear from one another, and at the end, several asked if we could share email addresses. Mike Schramm replied that explicit consent was required for the sharing of addresses and started a list of those who provided it. The list has been passed to me, and now contains more than 30 names with addresses. Anyone wishing to be added to it—that is, to have their name and email address added to a list that will be shared with other classmates so inclined—should let me know.

In other class news, Robin Berrington reports that for him in formal retirement, cultural life continues unabated, and his activities have included serving as a docent offering public tours at D.C.’s National Museum of Asian Art; acting as a board member of the Contemporary American Theater Festival in West Virginia; and arranging at home in D.C. a successful showing and sale of contemporary Japanese prints brought down from New York by a friend. Upcoming in September is a tour of a Chinese rural folk house that was rebuilt near the Shenandoah River of West Virginia, and which hopefully will be used for cultural and educational exchange programs between the U.S. and China, “something that is keenly needed nowadays.” Finally, he is planning for next spring’s Japan Bowl, the nationwide competition for American high school students of the Japanese language. He reports that “the enthusiasm of the young students who come to D.C. for the finals rounds is very contagious and is something reassuring to see.”

John Hazlehurst writes, “Not much to report, other than my continuing gratitude for reasonable health, my fabulous spouse Karen, and our three dogs including two puppies. Still writing a weekly newspaper column and actually getting paid for it. Sorry to miss the reunion, but maybe we can all mega-geeze for the 70th!” I should add that John’s highly engaging columns are available online at https://www.csbj.com/users/profile/john%20hazlehurst/ and are definitely worth a look.

Dave Hedges reports that he and Ann sold their home in Rochester, New York, and now have a condo in Ft. Myers, Florida, (where they live for half the year), while also spending about three months in Corvallis, Oregon, (where Ann’s son has a house with a nice apartment for their use), and summer in their cottage on Raquette Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. Park and Judy Blatchford also have a summer home nearby, so he connects with them every year. The graduation from Gettysburg College of a granddaughter prompted visits with Phil and Janet Calhoun in nearby Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as well as with his close friend, fraternity brother, and Wesleyan roommate Ted Hillman, now living in unfortunately declining health in a retirement home in the Pittsburgh area. Dave remarks that “four of my six grandchildren have now graduated from college making me feel quite elderly”—a sentiment that will resonate with many of us.

Congratulations to Bob Gelardi, who chaired the Charity Relations Committee of the Destin, Florida, Charity Wine Auction Foundation as it raised “the largest amount ever, $3,700,000, to 16 local charities for children in need.” This was the third-largest wine auction in the nation, in a town of only 15,000 people.

Vin Hoagland, now retired from teaching chemistry at Sonoma State University, “loves living in Northern California after growing up in New England.” His wife is an accomplished dressage rider with an outstanding horse, while Vin finds his locale great for bike riding and normally covers about 250 miles a month doing errands or visiting friends. In July, however, he suffered a fall coming off a bike path onto a bike lane on a street, which restricted riding for several weeks but did not prevent him from continuing to teach AARP Safe Driver classes at local senior centers.

Charlie Murkofsky still maintains his full-time psychiatric office practice while also spending time visiting six grandchildren and their parents in dispersed places including Hawaii and Texas. He and his wife Susan “got lucky with COVID, which we both had pre-vaccine without severe illness.” He is “still trying, notwithstanding resistance from my lower back, to stay active with skiing and tennis and to keep the noggin going with French lessons and puzzles. I find it very sobering and sad thinking of our dwindling numbers.”

I must conclude with two sad notes. Bill Oliver reported that his fellow DKE brother and lifelong friend Jack McCarron passed away in March. His obituary can be found at:

https://godfreyfuneralhomes.com/tribute/details/2336/John-McCarron/obituary.html.

And many of you will already have learned of the passing of John Driscoll, who together with his wife Gina served Wesleyan so wonderfully for many years in the alumni office. For tribute and details go to:

https://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2022/06/27/driscoll-62-remembered-for-his-extraordinary-service-to-wesleyan/.

Greetings to my 1961 classmates from the cool and delightful Adirondack Mountains of New York State. I suspect that Steve Smith has been challenged with the heat of his summer location, writing: “I am still living with Mary Jane in Florida near the west coast. My chief activity is participation in Help to Home, a program for the provision of low-cost housing for struggling families.” Russell Mott tells us that he is “living now on the U.S. East Coast with my girlfriend. This latest chapter continues with unusual good fortune, as my life was saved by an extraordinary neurosurgeon at Tufts last November. That was the third time my life has been saved (first, by an 85-pound French Poodle named Tarr, when I was but 1-year-old, and second by a Kiwi international tugboat captain named Peter Scott in ’75, during the evacuation of several thousand Vietnamese, days before the North Vietnamese took the city of Da Nang). It is summer, and like 20 previous summers, I am at camp 24/7, in northeast Massachusetts, introducing ceramics to kids 8–15, having the time of my life. Bueno hasta siempre.— Mook (My camp name given to me over 70 years ago by another Eclectic brother, Jake Congleton, WES U class circa 1955.)”

Spike Paranya tells us: “Kathy and I continue to enjoy our retirement in Oneonta, New York. Our area offers lots of opportunities for community involvement close at hand. I still volunteer as a jumps coach for the Sidney High School track team and other top athletes at local high schools. I’ve done this for 40-plus years but not much longer! Just prior to COVID I had two athletes win state championships in the long jump and triple jump, adding to my previous champions in the high jump. I can no longer demonstrate these events to my athletes!  Since many of these kids also play in the band, I have enjoyed years of watching them play in their school concerts. Our band director just retired, and we figured out that at his last concert I was probably the only person in the audience who had been at his first concert 37 years ago! I also spent 30 years taking care of our church grounds and some building needs. I don’t miss that at all!  I still like to garden and, in addition to that, at our summer home in Princeton, Massachusetts, I have made walking trails through the 38 acres of woods we enjoy there. It seems to keep me healthy but not necessarily free of pain! Kathy is still young and sharp for which I am thankful. She spent a lot of time volunteering with the Catskill Symphony as they chose a new director. Also, as chair of a committee at our UU Church, she managed the installation of two new stained-glass windows in our church sanctuary. It was quite a process. They are beautiful! In the wider world, the war in Ukraine is so depressing. A group of my Slovak relatives live close to the Ukraine border and are involved helping fleeing refugees who have such sad tales to tell.”

A note has been received from Frank Stewart that reads: “Thankfully, we are healthy here in South Florida, but hating the politics. We have been here since my retirement from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2002. Diane is a volunteer, teaching English as a Second Language through the County Library, and I spend most days with the Lifelong Learning Institute of Nova Southeastern University, sitting in on lectures and auditing classes. So sorry to hear of John Driscoll‘s (’62) passing. He wasn’t ’61, but he was close.”

The warm summer weather appeals to Glenn Hawkes, who writes: “I’m finishing up my stay at our home in Rwanda, where one finds the best of summer weather year-round. In recent weeks I’ve visited with many of the high school graduates, for whom schooling was made possible, thanks to generous Americans, including our classmates Al Williams, Ed McClellan, and Bob Hausman.”

Nici and John Dobson took trips to Bora Bora, French Polynesia, Kauai, the Grand Canyon, and Sedona, Arizona, and then spent a month in Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands.

Peggy and Dave Hale spent a memorable 12 days in Iceland in May. More recently, they enjoyed a matinee at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.

Congratulations to Jay Levy! For World AIDS Day on December 1, 2021, the University of California–San Francisco honored him for the work conducted over many years by his research group on HIV/AIDS. At the event, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke highly of their achievements. A video of the ceremony is available on YouTube.

Dave Major and son Graham both presented papers at the virtual International Conference on Sustainable Development in September.

Bill Masterson reported that Linda, his wife of 61 years, passed away on February 27, 2022. She visited Wesleyan several times during 1959–60 before they tied the knot on August 6, 1960. She will be remembered for her devotion to family and love of music. My condolences to Bill and his family.

Loren H. Pate Jr. passed away on July 1, 2021. His most cherished memories of Wesleyan were of his fraternity brothers at Delta Tau Delta. He also found satisfaction in helping to resurrect the Wesleyan Film Society. Most of his career was devoted to hotel management. My condolences to his relatives and friends.

Alan S. Roberts passed away on April 18, 2022. As a tennis player at Wesleyan, he had an unsurpassed singles’ meet record of 37–1 over four years. He was inducted into the Wesleyan Athletics Hall of Fame in November 2022.

In addition, Al won the U.S. Tennis Association’s National Junior Boys’ Championship in 1957. He is survived by two sons (also tennis players), Daniel and Michael, and three grandchildren: Esme, Ryan, and Kensington. My condolences to his family and friends.

Nick Browning has “moved full time to Vermont, close to Woodstock where we have a 50-mile view to the east to watch the sun rise over New Hampshire mountains.  We love being here, but are thoroughly sick of the social isolation that this pandemic has imposed on us.  I’m still working about 25 hours a week, something I’m enjoying more than ever before despite having to do everything on the computer. My nearly lifelong correspondence with Peter Pfeiffer continues and is the closest I can come to having a brother in this life.

You know, Charlie, I was talking to a friend not so long ago and we were talking about our working lives.  I told him I could not remember, ever, getting up in the morning feeling that I wished I didn’t have to go to work that day.  Ever!  Perhaps this memory is not entirely true, but I think it’s close. I doubt very many people in the world can experience good fortune like this.  I am always interested and always learning.  You could put this in the note also if you’d like— it’s my preposterous good fortune, along with my wife and family.

Rob Pratt writes: “Greetings!  I hope you and your family are well. What an incredible time we’ve been living through. Here’s a brief update.

“At the request of Asian Development Bank officials, I’ve started a new company to help Pacific Islands address their renewable energy and energy efficiency needs. I was scheduled to travel in February to the Solomon Islands where I and my team members have been working with the electric utility, but a COVID surge has delayed the trip to late April.

“Because I know you are interested in clean energy, my new company (my fourth) is Pacific Clean Energy Partners (www.PCEPartners.com). I founded PCEP almost two years ago, but with the pandemic, it’s been really difficult to get approved for travel. This latest delayed trip was my third attempt to get to the Solomons (travel bans get imposed when COVID surges), but I’m a tenacious guy, so I will get there. The Solomons, as well as many Pacific Islands, are mostly dependent on diesel oil for their electricity generation, so accelerating the use of renewables and energy efficiency approaches is not only good for the environment and climate change but helps with the countries’ balance of payments. Another positive is that through our clean energy development, we will be creating jobs in countries where unemployment is often high. (Ironically, there’s a lot of clean energy funding committed to the Pacific Islands by the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, etc., but a good deal of it doesn’t get committed because of a lack of RE/EE developers.)

“I’m no longer CEO of GreenerU, my third company, which works with colleges and universities in implementing energy efficiency installations and climate action plans, but I do continue to serve as its chairman. While the pandemic halted our work on almost all college campuses during the early stages of the outbreak, the federal PPP Loan Program was literally a lifesaver, and GreenerU (www.GreenerU.com) has come through it okay. We’ve done a great deal of work with Brown, Brandeis, Babson, Dartmouth, Clark, WPI, Boston College, Yale, Smith, Wellesley, Mt. Holyoke, and many more (though we’ve never been able to crack Wesleyan in spite of numerous attempts!), and just received a $7M contract from Harvard Medical School. So, it’s been gratifying to see continuing progress with EE and colleges’ work in helping to mitigate their GHG emissions and become climate neutral.

“In addition to my clean energy work, I continue to sail Zephyr, our cruising sailboat, all over the Coast of Maine in the summer, taking off the entire month of August each year. This past summer we sailed from our home port of Falmouth, Maine, to the Penobscot Bay/Mt. Desert Island/Bar Harbor region. It’s wonderful to be able to sail to inhabited and uninhabited islands, interesting ports and peninsulas, which abound in Maine, which has more coastline than the rest of the East Coast combined!  With our home in Exeter, New Hampshire, I also do a good deal of skiing in the winter, both with my daughter and the Seacoast Ski Club. So far this year I’ve skied Cannon, Mt. Sunapee, Stowe, Sunday River, and Okemo.

“So, life is good, in spite of the pandemic and my worries about the national political situation and, of course, climate change. We seem to be rushing down a path with huge climate and environmental consequences, and it’s far worse than most people know. But I’m an optimist, and rather than getting depressed, I simply try to contribute where I and my companies and non-profit organizations (I founded the International Institute for Energy Conservation —www.IIEC.org—in 1984 and served as its chairman for many years) can help make a difference.

“Sorry for this long email. I got carried away on this Sunday morning. Best wishes to you and your family!—Rob”

Larry Feldman notes: “Still well, still working, three grandkids.”

Jim Drummond replies: “Deborah and I are healthy and I still practice criminal defense in Texas. Hope Colorado re-elects its two Wesleyan senators.”

Paul Dickman writes: “I have a new hip.”

Pete Pfeiffer laments: “John Bloomgarden died last October. A wonderful person. Quiet, delightful sense of humor, and a warm, generous nature.” I couldn’t agree more.

Pete continues: “Maine’s Jack London winters aren’t getting any easier, snow and sleet outside. I’m in the La-Z-Boy looking for the right words. Solastagia, second book, on Amazon.”

Ron Reisner reflects: “Mike Terry’s passing is sad. In spring 2020, he challenged lacrosse teammates to help Wesleyan improve. Positive, smart, beyond funny, he will be missed.” Mike used his talents as a writer, visionary, and humanist to set goals that benefit others.

From Ken Kawasaki: “We are happy to keep in touch with all, to hear from old friends, and to make new! With the continuing pandemic, we wonder when we will be able to meet anyone again in person, to welcome visitors, or to travel again. We are not in lockdown, but the virus is still spreading in Sri Lanka as everywhere, so, for the most part, we remain isolated at home. We’re grateful to be able to communicate online; we’re stronger together, even virtually! By the power of the Triple Gem, may you enjoy well-being.” www.brelief.org.

John Wilson is “well, thankful, and hunkered down in Ann Arbor. Read, exercise, forage for food. Love to grill.”

John Bach paints houses and counsels Quaker students at Harvard. “I’m going out with my boots on.”

Stu Blackburn recommends Helen MacInnes’ spy thrillers. “I can see signs of spring on England’s south coast. Enduring family dislocations because of COVID.”

“Boog” Powell writes: “New London, New Hampshire. Fully retired. Sail an Island Packet out of South Freeport. Oldest granddaughter Lizzie, a freshman at Berklee College in Boston.”

Barry and Kate Turnrose “welcomed a second grandchild, Tyler; parents are our son Eric and his wife Dawn. Living nearby, we see Tyler and big sister Jenna often.”

From Steve Broker: “Linda and I continue to reside in Cheshire, Connecticut, and Wellfleet, Massachusetts. We met in the Wesleyan MAT Program in September 1969.  A few years later, Linda completed a second master’s degree at Yale’s Epidemiology and Public Health, and in the early 1980s, I studied further at Yale’s School of Forestry & Environmental Sciences (now School of the Environment).  Linda’s career involved 32 years of academic administration at Quinnipiac University, while mine alternated between high school science teaching and graduate school administration at Wes (Graduate Liberal Studies Program) and Yale (Forestry). We have long pursued various activities (painting, gardening, and birding) in retirement.”

Mark Hodgson published an essay in Hippocampus Magazine.

Tom Earle says: “Fly fish for bass in Oahu’s jungle streams. Will visit Norway unless another variant emerges.”

Dave Dixon “made a career of planning urban renaissance projects across North America. In touch with Jeff Richards, Bill Edelheit, Rob Pratt, and Bob Feldman ’70. Still trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up.”

Charlie Morgan writes: “COVID in January; mild symptoms. Play tennis, do genealogical research, and act as an expert witness in lawsuits. Love from southeastern Florida.”

Paul Edelberg ’72: “My brother Jay died after a long battle with multiple myeloma. He was a natural leader and a nationally known emergency room physician. He was a kind and generous spirit.” Hear, hear! I remember Jay’s smile, which lit up a room.

Ed Sonnino’s political platform: “End poverty, homelessness, violent crime, addiction . . . .”

Rich and Evvy Kennedy ’71 note: “What a strange world. So unkind these days.”

Rick McGauley replies: “Cape Cod. Hanging in. Let’s keep in touch.”

Rip Hoffman shares: “At our assisted living facility, a very elderly man asked me my college affiliation. I said Wesleyan. ‘Communists,’ he shouted, laughed hysterically, and walked away. We hunker down. Meals delivered to our suite. Have had dinner with Bob Wylie ’49 and Bob Runk ’67, a member of Uranus and the Five Moons. We shared lots of late-60s memories. Stay positive, test negative.”

Steve Hansel states: “We downsized last summer. All best wishes.”

Bob Dombroski “had COVID. Fine now. Looking forward to two 50th reunions—wedding and law school.”

Dave Siegel, a physician, answered my question, “Why does COVID scare you?” His reply: “Many reasons. Even when we did not know the cause of AIDS, it was clear that avoiding high-risk behaviors made it almost impossible to get AIDS, unless you stuck yourself with a needle from an AIDS patient when drawing blood. Of course, if you were a sexually active gay man or an injection drug user, you would have difficulty avoiding these behaviors. Unlike AIDS, COVID can kill quickly and is a respiratory pathogen. It spreads in a stealthy way and one might not know when you are exposed. For medical people, working in the ED or ICU is especially scary. My son, not me, worked in the ICU in spring 2020 and we were scared to death that he would get sick. Many young doctors and nurses, especially in cities with medical centers, shouldered a huge part of the burden. Fortunately, between vaccines and treatments, things are a lot better.”

February snow swept through. The condos, small and massed, feel like Plimouth Plantation that first winter. COVID has changed me into an exotic animal on a large preserve.

The far horizon is pink, the high sky a very off light blue. The moon’s disc silhouettes the big oaks, and the far trees bunch like Brillo. These are Wyeth’s colors.

Love,

Charlie

Sam Davidson, whose exquisite art gallery is in Seattle, touched base with Dick Emerson, a Connecticut lawyer, about Wes’s NESCAC championship basketball team.

Noteworthy exchange: Bob Svensk: “Athletes row—everyone else just plays games.” Bob Isard: “Sorry to have to remind you: Rugby players eat their dead.”

I have had a tough stretch this summer/autumn: Took some falls; broke one hip and a couple of ribs; fractured the other hip. Operation, then extended rehab. Can’t really stand or walk much. Ended up in assisted living—not an easy adjustment (food is terrible).  But no one ever said life would be easy. Sustained by many friends and Judy has been a freakin’ saint. I am the beneficiary of her competence and love every day. I have a lot of limitations and have to figure things out, including how to best continue to serve as your secretary.

On top of that, my brother/only sibling died unexpectedly in December. The product of the same sad family and too harsh boarding school; we were very close.

 

Classmates,
In October 2021, Ted Smith emailed to ask if I had seen The New York Times obituary for former Wesleyan faculty member Dick Ohmann. Ohmann was in the English Department from 1961 until his retirement in 1996, and Ted wondered if I had taken a class from him. I wrote Ted that I had not (I copied my email to Larry Carver ’66, one of my two English major friends—the other, the late great Jim McEnteer, will have to read it from beyond).  I told Ted and Larry (and maybe Jim) that although I did not know Ohmann when I was an undergraduate, I did get to know him a bit four decades later when he asked me to write an article for a special issue he was editing for a lefty journal that he had helped to found in 1975.  The topic of the special issue was teaching about the socioeconomic class system in the USA, and I wrote a piece titled “Teaching an Interdisciplinary Course on the American Upper Class,” based on a course that I had taught periodically (the reading included Thorstein Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, C. Wright Mills’ The Power Elite, and more—the class was always fun to teach).  Ohmann was an excellent editor, a pleasure to work with, and we subsequently traded emails now and then, including a few in April 2021 about another article I had written (this one was titled “The Corporatization of the Liberal Arts College: Even the Class Notes!”).

Ted Smith, by the way, out there in San Jose, California, has survived earthquakes, droughts, fires, and some health issues, but he keeps on truckin’, fighting for social justice and environmental issues, sitting on the boards of some nonprofits.  Larry Carver, who is Class Secretary for 1966, has retired after a distinguished career as an English professor at the University of Texas, Austin, and now lives in Rico, Colorado, doing some teaching, some writing, a lot of hiking, and taking some amazing photographs of majestic views.

Our classmate Don Gerber has had two careers, one as a rabbi and the other as a furniture salesman.  He retired from his rabbinical career in 1999, though he still periodically sends out rabbinical email missives to a large, mostly Jewish, group of recipients. He has continued to sell furniture to retailers. For the past two years, unable to travel because of the pandemic, he has done so online.  He tells me that “Over the past two years, the housing industry has been booming, and ‘cocooning’ has become today’s ‘lifestyle.’  ‘Staycationing’ is more than a word, it is a macro-trend.”  So, stuck in his hardship home base in Newport Beach, California, with his wife Bonnie, Don continues to sell furniture (and to root for Syracuse teams).

My high school and Wesleyan friend, Brian Frosh ’68 (Walter Johnson High School, ’64) makes an early appearance (page 9) in Jamie Raskin’s riveting book, Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy.  When Raskin’s 25-year-old son, Tommy, committed suicide, just days before the seditionist January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, Brian, described by Raskin as “my friend, Brian Frosh, attorney general of Maryland,” helped expedite the process by which police shared with Raskin the heartbreaking suicide note that Tommy had left behind.  Another Wesleyan alum, Dar Williams ’89, makes a touching appearance later in the book.

A few sets of notes ago, in reporting on my decision to retire in the spring of 2020, I mentioned that Guilford College, the small, Quaker-affiliated, liberal arts college where I taught for 45 years, was struggling to survive the double whammy of economic woes and the pandemic.  A few months later the college’s administration and board were well on their way to eliminating most of the school’s liberal arts majors and firing a good portion of the faculty, but, amazingly, more than 3,000 alumni organized under the rubric of “Save Guilford College” and persuaded the board to reverse course.  Guilford College now has a new president, most of the former senior administrators have departed, there are some new members of the board, and the board has a new chair.  I have written about this, an article titled “Organizing during the Pandemic: The AAUP and ‘Save Guilford College,’” which now has been published in the journal Academe.

I hope you have survived delta and omicron, and that you are vaccinated and boostered for whatever comes next.

If you send me more stuff about you for the next set of notes, I’ll write less about me.  Stay safe.

We begin celebrating the distinguished career of Bill Dietz, his many years of clinical, metabolic, epidemiologic, and policy work devoted to helping us understand childhood obesity. Recently, Dr. William H. Dietz of George Washington University was “recognized as an Expertscape World Expert in health education,” a result of citations to Bill’s work, placing him “in the top 0.1% of scholars writing about health education over the past 10 years.” Well done, Bill!

A great story from David Griffith, inspired by Jack Knapp’s account in our last class notes about not being prepared for Wesleyan: “My first class on the first day, a lecture in philosophy that was part of the integrated program. The instructor, a newly minted assistant professor whose name I have forgotten, walks in, mounts the podium, and begins with words I will never forget: ‘I assume you all know the difference between a priori and a posteriori reasoning.’ I stared dumbly into space for a moment and then wrote in my notebook ‘Jack, you’ve made a big mistake.’” David, in the same class, remembers that the professor was Paul Reynolds and provides this reminiscence:

“One lovely autumn afternoon, the sun was streaming in the window of a seminar room in Fisk Hall, with a cardinal singing just outside, and bathed in that incomparable soft air of the Connecticut countryside, we slowly drifted in after lunch for a lecture in the freshman course on philosophy, part of the Freshman Integrated Program at Wesleyan in 1962. The original instructor, Mr. Shiman, had taken leave, I guess, and in any event that day the discussion and lecture were presented by Professor Reynolds, who was known and called ‘Rip Reynolds’ by the upperclassmen. Rip was a soft-spoken fellow, slight and thin and gray haired, with a little beard, in his 60s, and semi-retired from the faculty. He was noted for a paper he had published somewhere on Reverend Berkeley’s works on empiricism, and after our customary introductions, he launched into the talk that he gave from his paper, spread out on the wood table in that wood-paneled room, with 15 of us in attendance, seated on very comfortable armchairs. Rip’s delivery was as rumored, easy and light as a feather, slow and deliberate, reading more than speaking from knowledge, all on a topic that would hardly have stirred the heart to action or the mind to engage. As one might expect, as the lecture wore on, the combination of the afternoon, the armchair, and the soft tones of the speaker took their toll— first one student and then another slowly slumping into the chair and surrendering to the charms of Orpheus encased in quotations of Berkeley. Rip was not one to ask questions during a lecture or try to start a discussion, and he simply soldiered on, as one after another of my friends and fellows nodded off, until finally, about 45 minutes into a 55-minute lecture, even my friend Andy Kleinfeld drifted off, and then I no longer had it in me, and allowed my eyes to close. A public-school boy in a private school dominated class, I was diligently taking close notes on every class, trying to keep up with those privileged in their preparation for this college work, but I could not resist the day and the lecture, which was waning in strength. I suddenly opened my eyes and awoke from my light doze when there was no longer that soft droning speech to lull me to sleep, as happens when a sudden silence will wake a sleeper used to background noise; and as I opened my eyes, I realized with mild surprise that even Rip had fallen off, that he had indeed talked himself to sleep. It was somewhat gratifying to realize that I was the only one awake, that even the future valedictorian and master of all knowledge, Andrew J. Kleinfeld, had fallen off, and I was the witness. I kind of tapped on the table a little before the bell rang, which gave Rip a chance to bring up his head, shake off the afternoon nap, and stand to allow us all to leave. That was my only real experience with Rip or Berkeley, but I will never forget it. It was a signal to guide me, but I don’t know to what.”

Essel Bailey writes with the good news that “Our Knights Bridge Winery just opened a production facility in Knights Valley, California, and our wines got serious attention in this weekend’s Naples Wine Auction!” He and Menakka “recently acquired a property in northwest Connecticut where travel to Wes campus is very convenient.” And they have “reorganized our nursing care homes company, to become an ‘Employee Stock Ownership Plan,’ with all of our 1,600 employees as co-owners.”

Rick Crootof sees “Jack and Carla Knapp regularly since they are now living here in Wolfeboro, renting from friends of ours, from September to June, and 30 miles away in the summer. This is their second winter here and they are contracting for next winter again. Like you, they are former urbanites converted to the joys of small-town living. Many pleasant interactions conclude with ‘and this wouldn’t happen in Chicago!’” Rick also keeps up with Sandy Van Kennen, the two recently being “joined on a hike by Peter Monro.” Rick continues to enjoy Zoom “meetings with KNK brothers Jack, Dave Luft and Charlie Ingrao ’69,” where politics dominates. On the way to Sarasota for the winter, Rick and Linda spent a “night in New Haven with Bob and Priscilla Dannies.”

Received this inquiry from Tom Pulliam: “Do you happen to have email address for Hardy Spoehr? My granddaughter has been admitted to University of Hawaii and is interested in marine biology. I would absolutely love for her to meet Hardy, one of my all-time favorite people,” as he is for so many.

An update from Barry Thomas: “Connie and I are gradually getting back to a ‘normal’ pace of activity. Have been to a couple concerts—symphony and bluegrass. We have moved into a period of relative calm with the work in Burundi, striving to stabilize and make sustainable all building and program development activity undertaken during the past year. A third Department of State grant is providing opportunity to do more teacher training, which has to be done virtually. We hope that our return to Burundi is only delayed, and we will be able to travel to East Africa later in the year. The next big issue involves electrifying the Dreaming for Change Community Center, including the preschool. We are looking wherever we can to find an organization interested in supporting such a project.”

Let’s end on this uplifting note. Will Rhys writes: “Pandemic be damned, I did two performances in December of my one-man Christmas Carol and am now in rehearsal for Harry Townsend’s Last Stand, which will have a run in February at the Good Theatre in Portland, Maine.”