Class Notes

Hillary writes for this issue.

Hello classmates,

Steve Pike, who teaches public diplomacy and public relations at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor. He retired from the U.S. Department of State in 2016, after a quarter century as a diplomat, in order to take up research and teaching at Syracuse. In 2023 he published the paper What Diplomats Do: U.S. Citizen Perspectives on the Work of Public Diplomacy in Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, as well as a chapter on the management of public diplomacy in A Research Agenda for Public Diplomacy, (Eytan Gilboa, ed.).

Andy Goldman lives in Spokane, Washington, and says, “I teach at Gonzaga University, where I’m a professor in the history department (and surrounded by basketball fanatics). I’m currently on sabbatical and have just returned from several weeks in western Sicily, where I’ve been working as part of an international archaeological survey project studying an ancient marine battle site off the Egadi Islands. I do love my job sometimes: handling 2,250-year-old objects from off the seabed (90 meters down!) makes for a pretty phenomenal field trip (as does Sicilian cooking). I’m very pleased to announce that I have a book in press right now, the third edition of Ancient Cities (Routledge), written with my close friend Charles Gates and available in February 2024. Life in the Pacific Northwest continues to be lovely; we bought a new house two years ago and—with lots of room and several large pets—welcome anyone passing through. Last spring I had a wonderful visit with old Argus-mates James Shiffer ’89 and Kirsten Delegard ’90, who both gave lectures at Gonzaga.”

Alisa Newman shares that she enjoys visiting Wes where her daughter is a first year living in Clark (with a groundhog outside the window!). “The new buildings look great without taking away from the character of the campus I remember. Main Street has so many more options now! I think there used to be exactly ONE restaurant we would ever go to.”

More info from Middletown comes from Jen Alexander, who lives “a few blocks from campus with my husband Mark Masselli (Hon. ’09); our four kids have grown and (mostly) left the nest. The Kidcity Children’s Museum just celebrated our 25th anniversary, and in addition to the magical experience of making exhibits with our classmate, Scott Kessel, I have gotten to work with Wes students in every generation, since we are a work-study site. I’m grateful for Doug Mackenzie ’89 who, between his music and body work, is kind of a one-man analog Facebook, as he travels the country and brings me news of the Wes alums he visits.”

Another empty nester is C. C. (Crichlow) Clark, who has a college grad and a college junior, and reports from Arlington, Virginia: “I went back to Wes for the first time in 15 years for a Black alumni weekend. It was phenomenal to spend time with so many Black alumni and students. Many from the Class of ’88 were there, including Ingrid Gordon, Majora Carter, Maurice Willoughby, Marc McKayle, Al Young, and Fred Montas. I’m still basking in the glow of the weekend and looking forward to the next one.”

Christie Trott had a busy year in Northern California: “My daughter has been applying to colleges, and my son is hot on her heels, prepping for college applications. My sister, Shelley ’91, went to the recent Homecoming and had a blast seeing some other Wes alum. I transitioned to being an admin at the school I helped start during COVID, and I’m completely out of the classroom for the first time in many years. Sadly, I also broke my foot and had to have surgery, so I’ve been hobbling around on a scooter, crutches, my butt, and even crawling like a baby when necessary. All in all, life is good, and I try hard to be in gratitude despite the absurdity of the world we live in.”

Finally, we have sad news from Ellen (Shandling) Burgess: “It is with a heavy heart that I share that Katy Shander-Reynolds passed away October 20, 2023, after a long battle with lung cancer. She is survived by her loving husband and four children.” Katy’s obituary is located at https://katyshander.com/obituary/.

Best wishes,

Hillary

Hello, classmates!

Here’s some exciting news you’ve shared with me recently.

Eileen Deignan reports that she has two kids at Wesleyan now. Her son, Evan, is a senior, and her son, Andrew, is a frosh. They are having a great time experiencing Wes together.

            Around Thanksgiving, Eileen returned from a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She went on a month-long expedition to Antarctica with an international group of 85 women leaders in STEM fields. The sponsoring organization is Homeward Bound Projects. She is “still wrapping my head around all that we learned and saw there.” What an experience!

Chuck Taylor reports that he and his wife, Liz Martin Taylor, got together with Jay Valley recently. Jay remains a step ahead of the rest of us, having already mastered the snowbird routine between Massachusetts and Florida despite not being retired from his job as product development manager at Greenlee Diamond Tool Co. Jay and Chuck saw Elvis Costello and the Imposters in concert the first day of his visit, and on the next day they went to Wesleyan.

            It was Jay’s first time on campus this century, so as they wandered, Liz resumed her former role of Cardinal Key tour guide and pointed out the changes for him. And while they decided to skip the Freeman Athletic Center, which sits where the senior year house where Jay and Chuck lived once stood, they managed to get into all but one of the places they wanted to revisit. They were only caught when Jay decided he wanted to see whether the Language Lab was still where he left it. It wasn’t, but the employee who Jay and Chuck surprised when they barged in kindly tolerated them rather than contact Public Safety. As a former Language Lab employee, I can say that I went looking for that place during reunion, too. Who wouldn’t want to see the place where people studying Japanese or French would record their dictations aloud?

Johanna Maaghul writes in to give us a lot of news! First, she and her husband, Rich, spent the bulk of the pandemic in Switzerland working on their education platform, ODEM.IO. They split their time between there and traveling the U.S. by car, where they had the opportunity to see many different perspectives on what the COVID crisis has brought to our country and the health and economic challenges many are now facing. They are excited to have their education platform be part of the solution of rebuilding.

            Johanna is also continuing an almost 10-year career as a literary agent with a focus on nonfiction health and healing. She still thanks Julia Druskin for teaching her the role and value of literary agents!

            She is currently agenting a screenplay that she is very excited about. She is eager to be in touch with Heather Rae ’83, and she is happy to review any nonfiction projects with big aspirations from any of us. Finally, Johanna enjoyed having dinner recently with Sara Walpert Foster. 

Amanda Jacobs Wolf spent five wonderful days in Washington, D.C., this past November, staying with Matt Paul and Naomi Mezey. They cooked a lot and laughed a lot, and Naomi even let Amanda braid the challah she so skillfully made. And then to “top” the long weekend off, Mitchie Topper joined the group for dinner one night, as she was also in town. Such a fun Wes reunion. Everyone is thrilled Matt and Naomi’s daughter will start Wes next fall, keeping the dream alive for some future Foss Hill hangouts.

Grier Mendel has successfully moved from Seattle, Washington, to Longmont, Colorado, and is beginning her retirement. Grier is volunteering at a farm rescue and getting to know her new surroundings. Great new adventures ahead for Grier!

Pauline Frommer ’88 is getting a lot of our classmates into the music scene as her daughter’s band, Melt, tours the country. Jim Witz saw them in Denver, Trish Dorsey saw them in Boston, and Bruno Oliver ’88 was disappointed that the Los Angeles show was canceled.

Finally, I have the sad job of reporting that Brad Vogt died unexpectedly this fall, and so many of his classmates have fond memories of him. Frank Barrett wrote that Brad was a terrific and decent family-first person and sports enthusiast. Brad was an admired friend of friends who Frank ran into in the best ways at many parties and establishments. Beth Pitcher also said that Brad often traveled with her between D.C. and Wesleyan and felt that she couldn’t have asked for a better companion for the numbers of times her car broke down on the journey. Sending love to his family and those who knew him at Wesleyan.

Wishing everyone well as I wrote a message in December that you will read in the new year!

Bennett Schneider said on June 16, 2023, the Los Angeles Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence received the Los Angeles Dodgers’ community hero award on the team’s annual LGBTQ Pride Night at Dodger Stadium. Bennet, as Sister Unity, was one of the members to accept the award on the group’s behalf. “The award recognized our group’s 27 years of work as activists and fundraisers in the LA LGBTQ community,” he said. Unfortunately, he added, there were “2,000 protestors right outside the stadium, and three weeks of back-to-back press interviews and news coverage, positive and negative.” Bennett also noted that the garment he wore at the event was “hand sewn and every single red AIDS ribbon—about 100—was sewn on by Lisa Rosen.

“A month afterward, Lisa and I dined al fresco with Amanda Marks ’88. . . . Still see Nathan Gebert ’85, who now winters in Japan every year and stops off here in Southern California to visit on his way to and from.”

Rich Koffman writes, “My wife, Jacqueline, and some friends (including Rich Monastersky and Victoria Nugent ’91) and I recently formed a private sponsorship group under the State Department’s Welcome Corps program. The program allows groups of private citizens to sponsor and help resettle refugees in the United States. Our group was matched with a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who arrived here in late September after more than two decades in a refugee camp in Tanzania. With some guidance from the folks at HIAS, who provide resources for private sponsorship groups nationwide, we have helped him find an apartment, register for government benefits, and sign up for English classes, and we are working to find him employment. It’s been a challenging, eye-opening, and rewarding experience thus far. I’ve even learned a little bit of Swahili! I highly recommend the program to anyone who may be interested in helping refugees establish themselves in the United States.”

Kate Nunn Mini wrote,“I am now practicing pediatrics in New Haven. Yale Health is a wonderful place to work! Although I continue to see patients, my focus over the last few years has been pediatric mental health, specifically, integrating behavioral health into primary care. My kids are doing well out in the world, so it’s a great time for me to dive into this work!”

Emily Cowan said, “Big changes for me in the last 18 months: I bought a condo on the northern edge of Concord, New Hampshire, and I started a new job at a community mental health center. I’m glad to be working for a big organization again, especially one with tech help and administrative support. Middle age has not improved my abilities in these things. My daughter is a lifty at a ski resort out West, and I’m holding off on getting my next dog because I travel to see my parents. They are both 90 and they are marvels.

Dana Walcott wrote,“After working at the same place for almost 25 years, I have a new job. I had been unhappy at the old place for the last one to two years. I could not do the same old stuff any longer. I needed something new. I needed a change. I found a new job working at a world-class loudspeaker manufacturer 10 miles from my house here in Massachusetts. I could not be happier.”

Jeff Liss said, “My wife, Susan, and I have now moved full time to the East Side of Manhattan, finally selling the house in the Philadelphia suburbs. I ran into classmate Nina Mehta on the street shortly after moving in! I recently left my job in big consulting to be the global VP of Customer Experience at a large provider of solutions for health-care professionals. In the last few years, I have crossed paths with old friends: Tim Harvey ’85, Dan Seltzer, Carrie Normand ’87, Majora Carter ’88, and the newly elected first selectman of Fairfield, Connecticut, Bill Gerber. I am also now the board chair for a great nonprofit called the Josephine Herrick Project (www.jhproject.org) and work closely with our executive director, Miriam Leuchter ’85.”

Roger Lebovitz reports that his latestbook,Obscure Blessings, will be published by Fomite Press in 2025.

Kris Bluemel shared she was recently appointed to the position of interim associate dean of the McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey. The last time she worked in a normal office environment, Monday through Friday, was in 1988 when she was a marketing assistant at the University of Georgia Press. She is still involved with publishing and books as professor of English and Wayne D. McMurray Endowed Chair of Humanities at Monmouth. Her latest book, Enchanted Wood: Women Artists, Rural Britain, and the Twentieth-Century Wood Engraving Revival, is due out from the University of Minnesota Press this year.

Ethan Knowlden wrote he is “making good on my retirement pledge to get involved in ending homelessness here, I am now on the board of the Arizona Housing Coalition, the state’s largest housing stability advocacy organization. I’m also interning at a local law firm that focuses on affordable housing transactions for nonprofit and for-profit clients. And I fill the rest of my time serving as president of my local community council while we commence a $10 million expansion of our community center.”  

Steve Berliner contributed that he is“alive and well and retired (with no regrets), living in New Orleans with my fiancée of 10 years, Laura. Two kids—Felix ’25 and Rebecca, a senior in high school—dog Rudy and cat Wiley, and Laura’s son, Christopher, a musician living in Oakland. I spend most of my free time enjoying retirement with Laura, visiting with my kids (they live in Brooklyn with their mom), tying flies, swing dancing on Frenchmen Street, and tinkering around the house (a historic side-hall shotgun built in 1836). Need to do more fishing with those flies. Taking an online computer programming class and enjoying that a lot too. I still talk now and again with my college buddy, Andrew Bennett—saw him a few Thanksgivings ago in D.C., which was great. Went vegan in 2020 and am enjoying my vegetables!”

Happy New Year, ’85ers!

I’m writing this from my desk in the English department at the University of Maryland. I’m procrastinating on finishing my grading! Anyone who knew me at Wes recalls that I have some next-level procrastination skills. . . .

Speaking of people who knew me at Wes, Hillary Hess and I just had a night out with our husbands (Peter Gimlin and Michael MacDonald, respectively) to see Velocity Girl at the Black Cat in D.C. A super fun evening!

John P. H. Vigman wrote that he’s still in Japan, having worked for Veolia for “well over a decade, going from head of legal to [the] VP of Business Development Major Projects for Japan and India,” adding that he’ll be in Tokyo for another couple of years, so “if anyone is in the area, look [him] up.”

I also heard from Bradley Solomon who has retired from the California Attorney General’s Office and is now a different kind of counselor: “I’ve . . . started a new career as a private college counselor, helping students and families apply to college.” We can check out his new venture, Solomon College Advising, online.

Ben Wenograd ’85.5 was selected deputy mayor of West Hartford, Connecticut, in the November 2023 election. He previously served on the town council for eight years. His service has focused on affordable housing.

If you don’t want to email when I send out my quarterly appeals for class notes, you can send me your news anytime via FaceBook or Instagram. Wishing yours peace and health.

Hello, Classmates,

A short update:

Tyler Anbinder, who you will remember from last issue, is publishing a book in March about the Irish emigration to New York and reports he hears regularly from Jeddy Lieber and Leah Chang ’95.

Ophelia Papoulas had the pleasure of attending her first Burning Man this year. She had a wonderful time, despite the difficult circumstances of the final couple of days. She’d like to know if there are any Wes folk who have gone or are planning to go.

Parul Kapur Hinzen’s debut novel, Inside the Mirror, about twin sisters who struggle against family and society to become artists in 1950s India in the aftermath of Empire, will be published by the University of Nebraska Press in March 2024. The novel won the AWP Prize for the Novel, judged by Brandon Hobson, who called it “a beautiful and ambitious work of fiction.” Parul fondly remembers her first creative writing course with Professor Phyllis Rose and abides by George Eliot’s adage: “It is never too late to be what who you might have been.”

Susan Howard, along with Jessica Posner ’09, created a role-playing video game called Go Nisha Go, based on her Indian mother’s decision to delay marriage and choose education.     It won the Best Learning Game at the 2023 Games for Change Festival in New York City, out of 340 entries. The game was developed by Howard Delafield International, cocreated with adolescent girls in India, with the input of several partners in many fields. The contributing organizations include Girl Effect, headed by Jessica. Susan is developing a companion game for boys.

Michael Lewyn continues his career as a law professor at Touro Law Center, and blogs on urban planning issues at planetizen.com. He is pleased to announce that he is now married, making him a stepfather.

Finally, Stephanie Fleischman caught us up with her latest project. She wrote the libretto for the new opera, Tevye’s Daughters, with composer Alex Weiser, based on the Isaac Bashevis Singer short stories that inspired Fiddler on the Roof. It had a first workshop in November 2023 in New York City.

Reunion approaches!

Wintertime in New Jersey is not my favorite time of the year. I don’t mind the cold, and I do like the snow, however, the long dark days are, well, dark. The notes below took me away for a bit; thank you everyone for submitting.

Cat Maguire released her new book, Making Meaning with Machines: Somatic Strategies, Choreographic Technologies, and Notational Abstractions through a Laban/Bartenieff Lens. She coauthored the book with Amy Laviers and it is published by MIT Press. The text is a rigorous primer in movement studies and notation for designers, engineers, and scientists that draws on the fields of dance and robotics. The book offers a refreshingly embodied approach to machine design that supports the growing need to make meaning with machines by using the field of movement studies, including choreography, somatics, and notation, to engage in the process of designing expressive robots. 

Gary Mezzi and his band, Bronson Rock, performed at a raucous alumni event in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in November. Tim Dibble ’86 hosted the event at his music club, The Cantab Lounge. The band blasted through two sets of music, with special guest, President Roth, on keyboards and vocals for an impromptu version of “Money (That’s What I Want).” Gary’s album, Alligator Shoes, is available on all the streaming platforms.

In June, the guys in Dr. Mezzi Fights Infection got together at Gary’s home in Connecticut for an all-day reunion with instruments. All six members of the band (Steve Levere, David Bondy, Rick Velleu, John Keaney ’84, Michael Canarie, and Gary) played for the first time since our 25th Reunion in 2008. If you squinted hard enough, it almost felt like a Thursday night at Downey House. The group hopes to play again next summer. (Gary, email me at triosmom@hotmail.com and I can send out an email blast with details of the event.)

Tim Brockett traveled back East to visit friends and family. While there he paddled down the Connecticut River from Canada to southern Vermont/New Hampshire. It reminded him of earlier journeys in 1979 when he paddled the entire river by himself in an inflatable kayak, hitchhiked solo to Nain, Labrador, and later applied to Wesleyan. His essay describing his travels gained him an acceptance letter to, and a full scholarship from, Wes. Now back in Montana he is busy exploring the Colorado River during the winter months, gardening in the summers, and hiking and enjoying the rural pace of life.

Cheri (Litton) Weiss is the rabbi-cantor of Temple Emanu-El in Honolulu, the largest Jewish institution in the state of Hawaii. She moved there in July 2022 with her husband, Dan, and dogs, Hope and Josie. In addition to serving her wonderful congregation, she has amazing opportunities to meet and work with faith leaders of many religions. Cheri included some photos:

Harry Gural and Maria Antonaccio were married in Maria’s hometown of Chappaqua, New York, on August 5, 2023. As reported by The New York Times, the happy couple met while taking care of their respective moms in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where Maria is a professor at Bucknell and where they continue to live happily today.

Karen Adair, Barb Bailey Beckwitt, Sue Stallone Kelley, and Tammy Rosengarten Darcas had a fun roommate reunion last summer in Lake Placid, New York. “We had a fabulous time enjoying the lake, hiking, watching the ski jumping, bobsledding, and skating in the Olympic oval! (Though we missed having Gretchen Millspaugh Cooney with us!)”

Kate Rabinowitz attended the Class of ’82 Reunion. She writes, “It was so fun to see people and remember my first WESU year . . . then I became class of ’83 after the year off to work in occupational therapy and study art in France . . . that time included a silent, solo Thoreau retreat in the countryside of Provence.” The journey continues. Now Kate runs an arts and wellness foundation for young people, makes art, teaches yoga, and is working the land. She is grateful to Wes for “the intensity of education, which is a way of life.”

Nancy Rommelmann writes for The Free Press, Reason, and other publications. She reported in the past year from Ukraine and Israel and various U.S. cities. She also cohosts the podcast Smoke ’Em If You Got  ’Em, in which she discusses media, journalism, and culture. Nancy had Thanksgiving with Tory Estern Jadow ’82. 

Ken Schneyer has at least two new stories coming out in 2024: “Winding Sheets” in Lightspeed Magazine, and “Tamaza’s Future and Mine” in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. This is his third sale to Lightspeed and his first to Asimov’s. He still teaches humanities and legal studies, and Janice Okoomian still teaches gender and women’s studies. Ken is now chair of the Interdisciplinary Curriculum Committee where he approves student-designed majors—a more Wes-type job he cannot imagine. 

Wishing you a happy and healthy new year and praying for peace,

Laurie

Just a little bit of news from a few Class of ’82 folks. Elon Musk says he’s glad to live in interesting times, so I guess we can all decide if it is a curse or not.

Book news from two of our classmates: Virginia (Ginny) Pye writes, “I’ve had an active fall with book events for my new novel, The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann—a Gilded Age story of a dime novelist who sues her Boston publisher for underpaying her as a woman. And I’d be happy to visit book clubs, in person or virtually, of any fellow Wes alumni!” Michael Lucey was nominated for the Modernist Studies Association book award and took honorable mention for his quite incredible work about what happens when we talk, What Proust Heard: Novels and the Ethnography of Talk.

Carlos Hoyt, with a PhD and MSW in social work, teaches, practices, and leads in the Boston area. He is doing amazing work on race and other identity constructs, and shares that he had the good fortune of being featured (with an old family photo!) in this Washington Post article, “Race isn’t real, science says. Advocates want the census to reflect that.”

Emilie Attwell writes, “I am still working via telepsychiatry for the Harris Center (the huge multicenter place that covers Houston). I saw today a mother and her two daughters that have autism and ADHD. It boggles my mind to have one daughter that is nine years old and still needs help taking a bath, much less two, and to have to do it as a single mom. . . . Thank God the punitive heat from the summer has abated, and the plants can take a breather.” Thank God for your work, Emilie.

Diana Moller-Marino was an acting professor/director for over 20 years at the Hartt School, University of Hartford. “Loved preparing actors for the profession. Recently left there to teach privately out of my home. I’ve loved teaching students of all ages. Don’t miss the university setting one bit. Still work at Wes every year, guiding monologues written by current students on issues of identity (In the Company of Others) as a key part of new student orientation. It’s wildly appreciated and I find it both satisfying and weird to be back in the Jones Room. I recently directed my first documentary about folks who hang out by the soup kitchen: folks dealing with housing insecurity, addiction and/or mental illness.” You can see her Meet the Streets (about Middletown!) on YouTube.

Steve Maizes has been keeping in touch. “Michael Zeller, Vincent Bonazzoli, and our respective spouses enjoyed a fantastic night of ping-pong, swimming, weightlifting, nostalgic reminiscing, and delicious Italian food around a campfire.” Weightlifting? I didn’t do that at my last alumni get-together, but I read that we will all age better if we do that.

I will report that your co-secretaries spent Thanksgiving together in San Miguel de Allende, with Laura’s husband, Wes alum, Peter Eckart ’86, and with my wife, Laurie, and our eldest. My first Thanksgiving out of the country and it was lovely. After finally figuring out together that pumpkin and pecan pies cook quite differently at 6,200 feet of elevation, a sense of peace finally arrived.

I decided not to write about what I learned about so many of you from your out of office replies: what programs you run, that you are retiring, etc., and decided only to include what you’ve intended to share with the class. Perhaps I’ll have the courage (or guile) to do that next time. The years pass so swiftly, so please stay in touch, especially during these interesting times.

Greetings from the Heartland!  As I write this, the winter solstice is fast upon us. I hope that by the time you read this, spring will be in full bloom, war behind us, and New Year’s reflections manifesting themselves into positive energy and actions.

I received a wonderful update from Debbie Underberg Mueller. After a very successful and satisfying full-time career as an OB/GYN, Debbie relocated to Wolfeboro, New Hampshire to work part time solely as a gynecologist; she is using her free time to pursue her newfound passion—painting. A moment of serendipity in 2016, during a visit to her mom, resulted in her discovering a new talent—one that has become more than “just a hobby.” Debbie wrote, “I had, up until this point, felt very confident that I was someone who was completely artistically challenged. At the end of an hour, I had created a pretty horrible painting, but loved the way that I felt during the experience of creating it. It was meditative, focused, productive—the closest activity that produced this same feeling was performing surgery, but of course, the stakes are a bit higher with that! When I got back from that trip, I bought a box of acrylic paint, and my life as an artist began.” As her skills improved, she entered competitions, resulting in a multitude of accolades and prizes. “This year I received first place in the Art2Life International Juried Exhibition, from a field of over 5,000 submissions.” And Debbie shared that “also this year, Modern Impressionist Magazineran a feature story about me and my work. I show . . . in numerous galleries and have had several opportunities to mount solo exhibitions.” Check out some more of her stunning work at www.debbiemuellerart.com.

David Miller, who is still hosting an online science fiction book club, shared that he and wife Cathryne took a two-week cruise down the Mississippi River from St. Paul, Minnesota, to New Orleans, Louisiana.  “In Saint Louis,” Dave writes, “I  had a chance to spend the day with Linda (Hornby) Shogren ’83, who is also in the science fiction book club, and her husband David.”

Dave continues, “We got [in] a couple of concerts by Ethan Leinwand ’05, covering ragtime and early blues. There were concerts every night, but these were some of the best.  Surprising to me, the second half of the trip was the most enjoyable. Perhaps this was because of the music. . . .  Perhaps it was due to the cruise line’s careful choosing of ports. Or, perhaps, (because) I was just a visitor and didn’t live there. Anyway, I learned a lot (including a bunch of history which may no longer be taught in Florida), heard some great music and stories, ate some wonderful foods, and generally had a good time. Highly recommended if you’ve got the resources, enjoy blues and jazz, and can learn when you hear about some of the horrendous things Americans have done in the past.”  

John Ross wrote in with news of what sounded like a super-fun get-together with some of his Williams Street 10-person roommates: Greg Andris, Alan Mairson, and Sean Moran, who all joined Peter Gryska on his West Texas ranch recently for a long weekend of skeet shooting, wild boar tracking, fossil hunting, a “Friday night lights” high school football game, mesquite barbecuing, and general merrymaking, “Peter, who lives in Houston, is a director at SPECS, an iconic Texas retail chain. John is working on his sixth book and runs a food pantry in Bethesda, Maryland, which he founded, often assisted by Sean, a staff scientist at the military medical school at Walter Reed. Greg, who lives in Miami Beach, owns and manages a luxury resort in St. Lucia. Alan works on various media projects after a long career writing and editing at National Geographic. Much discussion revolved around what the other members of the 10-person—Anne Standley, Barb Parrot Katz, Leora Freedman, Mary Dowd, and Carol Muller—are up to.” Please—write me and let me know!

Felicia Angus reported in from northern New Jersey, where she and her husband of 34 years, Mike, have lived for several decades after spending the first third of their marriage living and working in England. She writes, “I still work in the city on Wall Street, funding Mike’s retirement. Our kids are grown and living in NYC and Vancouver. A whole lifetime has passed since we’ve graduated . . . yet there’s not much else to report!”

Congratulations to Laurie Jacobs on her new job! She wrote in to share that she “remains happily living with Bob in NYC despite the Jersey commute to my new role as associate dean for faculty development at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. My kids, Liz (Wojnar) ’12, is in Brooklyn, Julia in Buenos Aires, and Ben in Los Angeles, but all make it home often. I saw Susan Stone and Laura Justice ’83, as well as Corinne Sternberg on a Seattle visit. Life is good.”

I do concur with Laurie. Despite the curveballs that life throws us, let us continue to focus on the positive—on the beauty around us

Your class secretary writes: When soliciting entries for this magazine, I wrote to our class: “I just want to note that the class notes were pretty much sidelined as I have been pretty caught up in the support (hugs, listening, meals, dog walking, etc.) of good friends who just lost the father/husband of their family to glioblastoma (brain cancer). Life is so fragile and so unpredictable. My husband, Andrew McKenna, and I learned that personally when he was diagnosed this past year with kidney cancer. But we were sooooo lucky, it was stage one, operable so that his kidney was 85% saved, the cancer extracted with clean margins, and he is considered cancer free. One day you’re tripping along merrily, the next in a nightmare. And after hearing from many of you, I know these are not isolated experiences. There are so many wrenching stories. So, let’s set aside our differences and treasure what we have, treasure our family and our loved ones, our neighbors, and our dear friends.” Thank you all for your care and support and your responses!

Karen Klapper: “Still working as a hospice physician in Palm Beach County, as I have been for the past 32 years. When I am not working, I am having fun doing organic gardening, butterfly gardening, and attracting hummingbirds to my yard. These are  life-affirming activities, which help counterbalance me to keep taking care of the terminally ill. Plus, I read the comics daily!” 

Janet Grillo: “Very sorry about the loss of your friend and what an ordeal you and your husband have been through. Yes, as we are in our 60s, mortality looms large. Here is my update: I am enjoying my 11th year as [a] full-time faculty arts professor at NYU Tisch Undergraduate Film school. The third indie-fiction feature I directed, originally titled The Warm Season but retitled Alien Intervention by the distributor (because no one ever called it ‘show art’) played festivals here and abroad, won the Festival Director Award at the Boston Sci Fi Film Festival, Best Cinematography Award at Santa Fe Film Festival, and played to a packed house at Woodstock Film Festival (my adopted ‘hometown’). Film Threat said, ‘The universal becomes highly personal—and overwrought special effects take a welcome holiday—in Janet Grillo’s The Warm Season, a science fiction drama of human-extraterrestrial contact that impresses with humor and heart. Reviving a few character and plot elements from the likes of John Carpenter’s Starman and Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the film, made for under $1 million over a couple of dozen shooting days, comes into its own as a compelling genre entry that covers more themes of existential relevance than those two major-studio pictures combined.’Alien Intervention can be streamed via SVOD on Apple, GooglePlay, Amazon, and Vimeo.

Randal Baron: “I am so sorry for the loss of your friend. These losses make me try to live life, fitting in as much good as possible. Luckily my husband and I have been relatively lucky with health, though not unscathed. We got in a trip to the Philippines and to Egypt [in 2023], both of which were terrific. I cannot recommend either enough. The Philippines has hands down some of the kindest people I have ever met. Egypt was also very hospitable despite the war, which had started the day we arrived. Unlike many Muslim countries, non-Muslims are welcomed into all the mosques and beautiful places. In 2024, we plan to visit Indonesia. We are enjoying life in Philadelphia, which is finally approaching a post-pandemic normal. We are hoping the city will mobilize again to save us from tyranny. I saw a T-shirt that says, ‘Bad Things Happen in Philadelphia since 1776.’”

Kenneth Toumey: “Thanks for the great message. Life is precious, thanks for the reminder. . . .  I am semiretired, (working three days a week in a small but wonderful IT company servicing small businesses in northern New Jersey) , spending the ‘off days’ enjoying my coonhound, Clementine, my grandchildren, and playing guitar and bass in a band. Cherishing every moment! I am a lucky man. All the best to all of you from class of ’80!” 

Wendy Davis: “So true, Jacquie, and a big hug to you for your resilience and grace under pressure. I’d just add prayers for all those caught in crossfire of the Middle East. Love to Andrew and welcome to the cancer survivors club, a great group with no initial vetting and no annual fees. 100% happy with my experience. . . .  This will be our first Christmas in Devon  in our ‘new’ 16th-century Manor House . . . takes some getting used to  with no central heating; we’re improvising with fire in wood-burning fireplace [and] several superefficient and effective German heaters; body heat helps, too, after the months the house was empty before we moved in last January. Spring and summer were absolutely delightful in the garden as every day was a surprise with flowers blooming from previous owners’ planting. This year we’ll be looking forward to more of the same including the fish and frogs in the pond currently hibernating under ice (sincerely sorry for them).”

Peter Scharf: “Over the past year I continued teaching Sanskrit courses online (https://sanskritlibrary.org/courses.html) and writing books to support Sanskrit learning (https://sanskritlibrary.org/publications.html). My wife and I started a digital Sanskrit humanities program (https://sites.google.com/sanskritlibrary.org/courses/sanskrit-digital-humanities) to train students to help bring the vast Sanskrit literature into the digital medium.”

Mark Zitter: “Thanks for your message, especially the PS. We’re all at the age where various relatives and friends (as well as ourselves) are facing the health challenges you cite, with both tragic and magic results. They are a reality of life, and they test our character. For news: My wife and I were in Tel Aviv on October 7 when we awoke to sirens and rockets falling. From the bomb shelter I canceled the tour I was to host for 24 of my Stanford graduate school classmates. We were able to leave the country within a few days but ever since have been consumed with the conflict in Israel/Gaza and dismayed at the surging antisemitism in the U.S. As I write this in early December, it feels like a dark time for the world and for Jews. On a brighter note, in a few days Paul Singarella and Scott Hecker are flying into the Bay Area where we’ll head to the Napa Valley for a weekend of wine tasting, fine dining, and mud baths. We’ve been having Zoom calls every other month and decided it was time to get together in person. Meanwhile, I had Daryl Messinger at my house for dinner last Friday and spent an hour chatting with Paul Oxhom yesterday.”

Peter Feldman is currently living near Geneva, Switzerland, where his wife, Ritu, is a senior manager at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). They have one daughter who’s now 17 and in her final year of high school. Peter, who earned an MS degree in hydrology from the University of Arizona in 1988, has been working for over two decades in the international development and humanitarian response field as a water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) specialist. His geographic focus has been on Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. During the past year he was engaged on an assignment in Ukraine with the French NGO Solidarités International; and has recently joined IsraAID, an Israeli humanitarian NGO, as a senior technical advisor supporting programs in Africa as well as in Ukraine. He does want the E&ES faculty (past and present) to know that he still at heart considers himself a geoscientist and is prone to spending far too long studying road cuts, cliff faces, the geomorphic patterns of glacial terrain, and the polished stone used in any kitchen counter or, preferably, bar top.

Jonathan Needle: “A lot of us made it to 65 this year (2023), so hearty congratulations, and at this point you might consider trying to moderate your vaping as one of your New Year’s resolutions, as applicable. Another food for thought topic: there’s an open question whether all the microplastics in our American lives have adverse effects on humans, and possibly members of the plant and animal kingdoms generally. It seems like there’s little to be done about it (they are omnipresent) and the whole matter is still merely speculative. As to plastics in their many aggregated forms, consumer and plumbing products, for instance, I believe most of us in the U.S. have found them highly useful (but then few would cheer for a continuing blizzard of superfluous plastic packaging). With highest regards and wonderful wishes.”

Edwina Trentham: “I don’t have a note for the Class of 1980, but I just wanted to thank you for this beautiful message about the fragility of life and the importance of embracing it and treasuring our many blessings. [There is] a poem by Dane Cervine, which I recite every morning. I think you will like it.  Again, thank you for your beautiful and important message.” (Note: the poem is called Sin and it can be found online.)

Faith Elizabeth Fuller: “I am on the executive board of the National Prevention Science Coalition, working with researchers across the country to bring information on evidence-based programs and policies to government/public health—the premise is to create nurturing environments for young people will help prevent future crime, poverty, substance abuse, violence. I am leading a Credible Messenger project in California, whereby former gang members who have served long terms in prison become mentors to young people in communities experiencing high rates of gun violence. It seems to be working! And the mentors and mentees are endlessly interesting—personalities that bring a lot of humor to the work.” 

Cindy Ryan: “While many are enjoying the start of well-deserved retirement, I’m progressing in my third vocation as an LMHC (licensed mental health counselor) and have opened a private practice, which filled up rapidly, thanks to ways in which the pandemic destigmatized remote mental health treatment. I specialize in working with folks struggling with cancer, brain injuries, and other medical issues, so Jacquie’s message to our class resonated with me; my practice provides opportunities to deeply converse about existential realities we are starting to face. A few days per week I welcome the chance to work with lovely art students in the counseling center at MassArt in Boston. As for family, my son, Jonah, became a Canadian this summer, which I proudly witnessed. My daughter, Juliet, celebrated her 2020 pandemic marriage this spring and continues to work on her PhD in geology.”

Walter Calhoun had a Mexican fiesta/sushi dinner party at his home in Highland Park, Illinois, on October 25, 2023, for 10 people, and he was so fortunate Andrew and Elizabeth Parkinson were able to attend. Walter said, “It was so wonderful Andrew was able to bring me up to date on his Psi U friends like Bruce Bunnell ’81 and I was able to do the same with Chi Psi friends Stephen Freccero, Labeeb Abboud, and Scot Timmis ’82. Andrew’s wife, Elizabeth, is one of the most emotionally generous, empathetic, and wonderful women I have ever met and it was so great to see them both that night.”

Peter Campbell sent a nice update. “My wife, Joyce, and I are living in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. Still spend plenty of time in Boston or on Cape Cod. At the most recent Homecoming, Jeff Nesson ’78 shared a picture of Joyce and me at a DEKE Christmas Party, so we go back a ways. I have retired from the corporate world but am involved in a more entrepreneurial venture that keeps me in it a bit. In the last few years, I have reconnected with friends from Wesleyan, many who I had not seen for a long time (you know, life gets in the way) but who I have always held close. Folks from those four years are overrepresented in my list of dear friends; I was lucky that way.”

Willie Jones shared news on his continued involvement with a special venture in the Charlotte area. He writes: “I’ve been very busy as the director of the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department. We are continuing to work on how we interpret and share the stories of the enslaved at some of our historic and cultural resource sites that were formerly plantations. In November of 2023, I received an Excellence in Leadership Award from the Charlotte Mecklenburg Branch of the NAACP for my efforts on the Historic Latta Reimagined Project. We’ve taken an innovative approach to community engagement that was required for this project. When the county opted not to renew its contract with the 501(c)(3) that had previously operated the site for decades, I worked with other county staff and community stakeholders to engage in a holistic assessment of best practices for interpreting difficult historic stories, including slavery. The guiding values developed for the Latta Project—Truth, Transparency, Compassion, Transformation, and Unity—have proved to be useful as Park and Recreation staff work side by side with community partners to plan for the site’s reopening in 2026. We’ve taken a major step forward but still have a long way to go.”

And here is a great article about an honor he recently received:

“County’s Park and Recreation Director Honored with Charlotte’s Men of Change Award”

“Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Director Lee Jones recently received the 2023 Charlotte’s Men of Change Award from the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture and the Levine Museum of the New South.

“Charlotte’s Men of Change recognizes Black community leaders for their work as business owners, teachers, political and justice activists, trainers, and visionaries. The Smithsonian Institution’s traveling exhibition Men of Change: Power, Triumph, and Truth inspired this local annual honor. Charlotte’s Men of Change was on display at the Levine Museum and the Gantt during 2023.”

Kudos, Willie.  Amazing work and a great recognition!

Reminder: We are heading toward our 45th Reunion next May. Please save the date May 23–26, 2024. Our class has historically had record or near record attendance levels at our earlier reunions, so it should be fun! If you are interested in becoming a reunion ambassador to help with planning or would like to update your contact information to stay informed, please email Destiny Lopez (dlopez@wesleyan.edu) or Gina Driscoll (gdriscoll@wesleyan.edu).

That’s it for this issue. Thanks for the submissions!