Class Notes

Hi! New class secretary here! Thanks to Amanda Jacobs Wolf for her work in this role over the years, and thanks to all who sent me good wishes. The Class of ’87 will always be 20-somethings to me, which makes these notes so mind-blowing. We’re raising kids, working hard, and still checking in with classmates. Read on!

Anne Undeland has been playwriting in the Berkshires, where she gets the chance to see Dan Bellow and Elena Pappalardo-Day ’86 from time to time. Her latest effort, Lady Randy, about Winston Churchill’s extraordinary American mother, is being produced by WAM Theatre in Lee, Mass., in April. Anne says it would be an understatement to say she’s more than thrilled.

We heard from Holly Campbell Ambler in Cambridge, Mass. She and her husband, David Ambler, are experiencing their first empty-nest year as their youngest daughter graduated from high school in June and is now traveling the world on a gap year. Their other daughter is a ballet dancer in Rhode Island. Holly keeps busy working as a child and family social worker, both in a clinic and in a K-12 school in Boston. Happily, she sees Wes friends regularly, Trish and John Dorsey, Dennis and Karen Mahoney, and Doug and Michele Koplow.

In December, Ben Waxman and his wife made the trek to Wes for their 16-year-old to suss it out. Student intern Sam in the admissions office made Wes shine in her eyes. The campus did its thing. And they enjoyed lunch at O’Rourke’s. Steamed cheeseburgers all around!

Chris Roellke and I connect on Facebook, where I get to cheer him on during the annual Vassar College faculty vs. student basketball game. If you want to catch up with his famous enthusiasm, Chris broadcasts the VC women’s basketball games live on the web. Chris is on sabbatical after completing his second term as dean of the college. He is writing a book on the policy and practice of American higher education and working on a project with Jeremy Mindich and Sarah Williams ’88 to support classroom teachers in urban schools.

Kim Greenberg Roellke’s veterinary practice in Millbrook, N.Y., is great, and they have lot of news about their daughters to share: Emma is applying to med school. Liv is an avid equestrian. Julia is a senior at Vassar and on the basketball team there; she took the fall of her senior year off to study food justice in Ecuador, Malawi, and Italy.

If you are a fan of horror films, you have no doubt been aware of Brad Fuller’s work. He produced A Quiet Place which is enjoying success during this year’s awards season. The First Purge was released in 2018, too. Recent TV work includes The Last Ship, The Purge, and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. Brad serves on the board of councilors at the USC School of Dramatic Arts.

Karen Craddock is a visiting scholar at Wellesley College. She is continuing her research and action to elevate the lives and voices of women of color. She is primarily focusing on Native American/indigenous women and African-American/black women—and in particular emotional health, mental health, and overall wellbeing. Karen is working on domestic violence prevention and wellness promotion for Native American women. She is chairing the domestic violence advisory board of the Wampanoag Tribe Women’s Center on Martha’s Vineyard. They are now in the third year of operation, addressing and preventing violence against Indian women.

In the last issue of this magazine, a few lines of my note were dropped in a page turn, and the outcry was muted, to say the least. For those of you who want the whole story, here’s what I reported: Rebecca Zimbler Graziano met up with Steven Shackman and Ira Skolnik to see a Mets/Red Sox game in Boston in September. As seniors in 1987, they may have gone to opening day at New York’s Shea Stadium, but Rebecca is the only one who remembers it. They had a surprise reunion at Citifield during the 2015 playoffs. During their recent Boston weekend, Ira, a licensed town of Concord tour guide, drove them to see the sights in town including Thoreau’s home and gravesite. Lifelong Mets fans, Rebecca, Steve, and Ira are looking forward to seeing the Mets in the playoffs again soon. Rebecca’s son, Sam, is at American University, and she visits Amy Mortimer-Lotke and Eric Lotke frequently when she gets to campus. Amy and Rebecca were lucky enough to grab a day with Grier Mendel in D.C. last April, too.

I hope it’s warmer in the USA by the time you read this. Looking forward to hearing from you. Keep us posted.

Rebecca Zimbler Graziano | rebecca.graziano@hotmail.com

Remember the on-campus music scene in the 1980s? The Olin Library Archives has a unique collection of student music performances. Seventy-nine audiocassettes recorded by Dana Walcott and Stephen Porter ’87 during our time at Wes. The library is willing to digitize the collection and make it available on the Internet. Some financial donations from members of our class (or other classes) could move this project toward the head of the line. To make a contribution, call the Alumni Office (860/685-2200) and specify that your donation is to support this project. Get a link to the collection here.

From the East Coast, Virginia “Ginger” Murphy writes: “An auspicious series of events has led me to my new job working as a constituent services advisor for our newly-elected Pennsylvania Rep. Melissa Shusterman. Very excited to be participating in the wave of newly elected leadership our voters sent to Harrisburg this past November. Not to mention more female leadership that ever now in our state government!” The district is about 30 miles from Philadelphia and includes the Valley Forge National Historic Park.

Also on the East Coast, a story from New Jersey that it’s never too late to exercise. Emily Zaslow Hourihan is now an Ironman (Ironwoman?): “I completed my first full Ironman in Cozumel, Mexico, last November; a 2.4-mile ocean swim, a 112-mile bike race, and a marathon for dessert. My time: 14:08. Perfect day in paradise. Can’t wait for the next one.”

And from Los Angeles, Brian Pass left the big, safe law firm at the end of the year (on his 55th birthday!) and hung out his own shingle (brianpasslaw.com): “I’m enjoying newfound freedom to continue my practice (commercial transactions in tech and new media) on a more personal level that’s more flexible and more efficient for my clients and more exciting for me.”

So, what’s up in your life? Share with me or reach out to classmates you haven’t talked to for a while (or ones you don’t really know at all—although I never knew him on campus, I’m having a beer with George Justice in a few weeks because I’ll be in his hometown).

Eric Howard | ehoward86@wesleyan.edu

Class of 1985 Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship
Matthew Querdasi ’21, Seattle, WA

Karen Kleinman and Ellen Campbell are saddened to share the news of the passing of our very good friend and former Wes roommate, Erica Frohman. Erica passed away on Oct. 3 after a courageous fight with an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Ellen writes: “Erica, Karen, and I met as freshman roommates at Wesleyan. We all came from different backgrounds: Erica grew up outside of Chicago, Karen outside of NYC, and I from Vermont. We bonded immediately and became fast friends for life. Karen and Erica lived together in the ‘Outhouse’ (Outing Club House) sophomore year, we all shared a place with Kim Johnson senior year.

“Erica, Karen, and I kept in touch as our lives evolved after college: marriages, careers and, most significantly, children. Erica’s sharp intellect and passion for life were always inspirational. She amazed us with her ability to take on new activities on top of a demanding career and a commitment to family. She touched many people with her strength, optimism, and intellect. Erica faced her cancer diagnosis with tremendous courage and stayed positive all along. We miss her so much but also feel her with us every day; it was certainly good fortune that our paths crossed so many years ago on the first floor of Clark Hall.”

CAROLINE WILKINS | cwilkins85@yahoo.com

Hello, classmates! This month we feature a Class of ’84 book club.

Lee McIntyre has a new book coming out in May entitled The Scientific Attitude (MIT Press, 2019), which concerns how to think about what is distinctive about science, with an eye toward defending it against science deniers. The blurb on Amazon reads: “Attacks on science have become commonplace. Claims that climate change isn’t settled science, that evolution is ’only a theory,’ and that scientists are conspiring to keep the truth about vaccines from the public are staples of some politicians’ rhetorical repertoire. Lee McIntyre argues that what distinguishes science from its rivals is what he calls ’the scientific attitude’ caring about evidence and being willing to change theories on the basis of new evidence.”

Francesca Jenkins (who writes under the name Arya) announces her short story collection, Blue Songs in An Open Key, was published by Fomite Press in November. Reviewing it for Booklist, Mark Levine noted, “These are powerful stories with appeal to more than just jazz aficionados.” Besides her literary goals, she had a rich experience as a disaster volunteer with the Red Cross, deployed to help those impacted by hurricanes in North Carolina.

Michael “Misi” Polgar teaches at Penn State Hazelton and has written Holocaust and Human Rights Education, published by Emerald. The book addresses “crucial questions” of how to explore the narrative of the Holocaust by “exploring the way in which we teach and learn about [it].”

Julie Reiss has edited and published an anthology on art and the environmental crisis titled Art, Theory and Practice in the Anthropocene (Vernon Press, 2018).

Apart from the book announcements, we heard from Paul Baker who got his bachelor’s in art history at Wes and went on to a master’s in 1987 at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Paul is a professional sculptor in San Francisco, working in the medium of “found objects” in his own studio.

Paul is working on an elaborate project based on The Grand Tour as it was taken by the upper class in the mid-1890s, heavily inspired by his History of Photography course. He imagines a fictional character, an amateur photographer, whose steamer trunk full of camera gear is stolen on the way to Constantinople; then goes around to the bazaars in the city and buys old lenses and other gear—and builds his own cameras. Paul is constructing the most elaborate and beautiful and creative “cameras” using a wide variety of found objects. You can see some of his work at c-clampstudios.com. He was strongly influenced by Prof. John Risley’s Visual Connections and wood working studio and the ambience of the “monolithic” CFA.

Paul would love to hear from alumni whose relatives made the Grand Tour, especially to exotic locales like Egypt, Greece, Turkey, and the Holy Lands. You can visit his website or write to me and I’ll put you in touch.

We got word that Doris Barry passed away on June 11, 2018. Ricardo Granderson sent a loving tribute: “She had a 30-year career on Wall Street where she managed and inspired staff while battling lupus. A woman of faith who loved her family and friends, Doris was a member of Delta Theta Sigma and on the board of trustees at Concord Baptist Church, where she inspired many of the church’s best and brightest to attend Wesleyan. Doris loved Wesleyan, and her legacy will be evident in the scores of students who attended Wes because she was the university’s number-one cheerleader, especially for first generation students of color.”

Finally, a public service announcement from the Reunion committee, who want to remind everyone to head to campus May 24-26 for our 35 Reunion, featuring a ’84 dance party with “Kung Fu,” a Foss Hill Roll, and the requisite cocktails and dining. I will be there this year and will look for “live news feeds” from you all.

Michael Steven Schultz | mschultz84@wesleyan.edu

Greetings. Having just shoveled in preparation of freezing temperatures and the coming ice storm, I’m now warm and cozy inside compiling these notes. You are an amazing group of individuals—Go, Class of 1983!

Mary Freeman’s husband, Andy Levin, was elected to the U.S. Congress to represent Michigan’s 9th District! Lots of her Wesleyan friends followed the campaign and cheered them on. They’re excited to be a part of this next chapter in U.S. history.

Michael Sommer and Taya Glotzer are empty nesters in northern New Jersey. Michael is a trial lawyer at Wilson Sonsini in Manhattan and Tanya practices cardiac electrophysiology. Her hospital system opened a new medical school: Hackensack Meridian-Seton Hall School of Medicine, and she now works with medical students—a new challenge and opportunity. Their son lives in LA and is a software engineer for Hulu. Their daughter is a third-year medical student at Hofstra on Long Island.

Cheri Weiss was ordained as a cantor/hazzan by the Academy for Jewish Religion in May and is studying in the school’s Rabbinic program. She founded the San Diego Outreach Synagogue, an independent Jewish congregation blending tradition and creativity (sdo-synagogue.org) and the San Diego Jewish Community Choir (sd-jewishcommunitychoir.org).

Kate Rabinowitz lives in East Hampton, N.Y., and appreciates the alumni events, especially in New York theater! She runs the Anna Lytton Foundation (annalyttonfoundation.org) with husband Rameshwar Das ’69 in honor of their 14-year-old daughter who was killed in 2013. Kate runs arts and wellness programs in local schools in her daughter’s honor. Her son is graduating from Skidmore in environmental science and geology. Kate is grateful for her time at Wesleyan and what a privilege it is to have an education, tools, and ability to make a difference in the world.

Charlie Brenner writes from Iowa City, where Nancy Rommelmann visited for a book reading. Charlie has done a lot of travel associated with the science of nicotinamide riboside (NR) and launches of Tru Niagen in Hong Kong, Singapore, and New Zealand. His new scientific story about NR addresses the metabolic stress associated with pregnancy and postpartum. A mouse on NR has increased lactation, weight loss, and babies more developed and capable. He is excited to see the clinical trials.

Eileen Kelly-Aguirre, back from running School Year Abroad’s school in Spain after serving three years as executive director, is happily living in her hometown of Washington, Conn., with her partner, Jack.

Janet Binswanger has the greatest job ever: The Curator; affectionately called the director of happiness for Vynamic; a health care industry management consulting firm, based in Philadelphia, with offices in London and Boston. She is aggressively hiring in 2019, so if you know folks who might be interested in joining this dynamic group, e-mail jbinswanger@vynamic.com.

Kirsten Wasson lives in LA, working as a college counselor and internship coordinator at a private high school. She performs stories at events around the city and publishes poetry and nonfiction in literary journals. Hiking, biking, paddle-boarding, and biannual trips to Mexico keep her relatively sane.

Glenn Lunden is obsessed with trains and was named acting deputy chief of rail planning for NYC Transit. He is in charge of planning and scheduling the operations of the New York subway.

Sue Peabody’s book, Madeleine’s Children: Family, Freedom, Secrets, and Lies in France’s Indian Ocean Colonies (Oxford 2017), won three book prizes, including the Society for French Historical Studies’ Pinkney Prize for the best book in French history published by a North American author. Sue is a professor of history at Washington State University Vancouver since 1996.

Jeff Scott practices law in LA at the international law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, where he is co-chair of the firm’s litigation practice. He sees Patrick Dooley ’84, Steven Maizes ’82, Steve Marenberg ’77, John Keaney ’84, and Judy Korin—all of whom are in LA, too. He took his boy/girl twins to Wesleyan for the Sons and Daughters program, and bumped into a few old friends: Paul DiSanto ’81, Mark Molina ’81, Bill Frischling ’86, and Pat Ryan ’85. He was pleased about how enthusiastically his kids were about Wesleyan.   

Sheila Spencer was unable to attend the 35th Reunion because her daughter graduated from high school. Her son attends Reed College in Portland, Ore., and her daughter attends Sarah Lawrence College. She met up with Janice Okoomian and Kenneth Schneyer at SLC parent weekend.

Namaste,

Laurie Hills | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu

Class of 1982 Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship
Matthew Frishkoff ’21, Philadelphia, PA

First off, thanks to Michael Ostacher, whom I was pleased to see after 25 years (yes, we both look exactly the same), for volunteering to share the class secretary job. Michael is at Stanford doing psychiatric research, treating veterans, and teaching undergraduate courses on addictions and the opiate epidemic; he and his wife have a daughter in high school and a son at American University. Which explains why he has all that spare time to do the notes, i.e. the goodness of his heart.

Thanks also to Ginny Pye (check out her lovely new book of stories, The Shelf Life of Happiness), Walter Massefski (a nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopist working as core manager at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute), and Danielle Rudess (neé Nancy Kornbluth) for offering to share the job. I caught up with Danielle after her keyboardist/composer husband Jordan’s world tour, and persuaded her to come salsa dancing.

Jeannie Gagné has had a busy year, completing her 19th season as voice professor at Berklee College of Music, teaching a course online (check it out if you’d like to improve your pipes), as well as teaching and performing in Kenya, China, Hong Kong, and Santa Fe. She sang at the Urban Renewal reunion party with musicians Rob Levin ’81, Joel Kreisberg ’81, Bryant Urban ’81, Joe Galeota ’85 (also a Berklee prof), and many others. Her family renovated the top of their barn in eastern Massachusetts, once a hay loft, into a recording and workshop space, where her son, Dylan Wolff, is recording an album, and Jeannie is writing new songs.

David Loucky, professor of trombone and euphonium at Middle Tennessee State University, performed at the 100th anniversary of the premiere of Igor Stravinksy’s A Soldier’s Tale with Nashville’s new music ensemble, Intersection, along with Wynton Marsalis’ companion piece of the same instrumentation, A Fiddler’s Tale.

After 25 years in magazines, Janet Wickenhaver Allon has a new gig working for NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, as associate commissioner of marketing and communications of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (perhaps she will use her editing skills on that title, formerly known as the Film Office, but now encompassing film, TV, music, publishing, advertising, digital content—and, get this, the Office of Nightlife). Janet lives in Dumbo and just sent her youngest off to college.

Sabina Brukner is the literary manager of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, now in its 104th consecutive year bringing Yiddish theater to audiences in New York and beyond. She served as a Yiddish coach and script supervisor for Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, directed by Joel Grey.

Suzanne Kay is producing a documentary about Ed Sullivan’s little known support of racial justice and the impact of his show on American culture. She is also part of Daughters of the Movement, working with others whose mothers were on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement (in her case, mom Diahann Carroll) to put together a podcast and speaker series.

Matthew Capece has been admitted to the DC bar and honored with the Samuel Gompers Award from the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions.

Clara Silverstein published her fifth book and first novel, Secrets in a House Divided (Mercer University Press), about the complicated relationship between two women, one white and one African-American, in Civil War Richmond. Clara and her architect husband George Schnee ’80 are living in the Boston area and traveled to Indonesia last year to meet their son, who was studying gamelan and linguistics—bringing them full circle, as they met in the gamelan group at Wes.

Denise Joseph married Jonathan Watson in Newton, Mass., on July 14. Alice Apley, Beth Ross ’83, Laurie Trupin, Heather Baker, Liz Feigelson, Kay McCabe ’83, Marion Wilson ’83, Andrea Smith ’83, Deborah Schneider ’78, Clara Silverstein, and George Schnee ’80 attended, providing a wonderful song/dance rendition of “I’ll Be There.”

Finally, we end with sad news. Ed Goss wrote, “I am very sorry to say that Bob Marraffa died on Dec. 6 of pancreatic cancer. He was truly grateful for his tremendous life, which included a great four years at Wesleyan, where he was a government major, captain of the football team, played two years on the hockey team, an assistant coach of the women’s hockey team, and president of DKE. He leaves his wife, Jackie ’84, whom he married 34 years ago in the Wesleyan Chapel; three sons; Bob Jr., Jack, and Nick ’18; and a grandson named Robert (for him). Bobby started his own very successful business 30 years ago, and his oldest son, Bob Jr., will continue as president. Many Wesleyan friends were present at the memorial service, including Dr. Mike Rosenblatt ’80, who coincidentally oversaw Bob’s medical care at the Lahey Clinic outside of Boston, where Mike is the chief medical officer.”

And, we were sorry to hear that longtime newspaperman Alvin Morris, who was an older classmate of ours—he was a 39-year-old freshman—has passed away. He is survived by his family including his wife, Mary ’77.

Laura Fraser | laura@laurafraser.com

David I. Block writes: Hi, all. Greetings from Brooklyn! While you are likely reading this in the spring, these time-capsule class notes were due on the Monday of Martin Luther King’s birthday weekend, by which time the government had been shut down for a month. With any luck, as you read this, the government has been up and running for a little while, at least.

As you read this, tax season is over. As I write this, it is about to begin, with IRS workers who are not getting paid. My office just moved 20 blocks south down Broadway, after 22 years on West 57th Street. I finally bit the bullet and will become a Certified Financial Planner by November (I am already licensed to supervise stockbrokers), and I’m doing business, financial, and general coaching on the side. That gives me three full-time jobs. I joke that “people come in to have their taxes prepared, and leave feeling better about their moms.” My 14-year-old is in ninth grade and has come to enough Reunions that they are already scheming to figure out how to get into Wesleyan via early admission.

Alvin Peters writes, “Hurricane Michael (Oct. 10, 2018) has substantially destroyed my neighborhood in Panama City, Fla. Ironic, that climate change helped heat up the Gulf and magnify this storm into a major destructive force in a county that voted 75 percent for Trump.”

Paul Godfrey writes that his son, Charlie, is in grad school at UW. Paul is the president of the Minnesota State Bar Association and coaches a community team of high schoolers.

Michele Choka joined the board of Boingo Wireless, Inc. as an independent board member.

Barnaby Dinges has a memoir that is being published this spring called Ragged Run. “It covers my brother, Casey ’79, and my challenging childhood in Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s dealing with the deaths of our parents and subsequent struggles. It includes sections from my mother’s journal, which I found in a warehouse during the WesU years. It’ll be available on Amazon. Special thanks to Phyllis Rose ’82, Larry Zuckerman, and Mary Murphy for their help with the manuscript.”

Barry “Pono” Fried’s Open Eye Tours, which offers custom private tours on the beautiful island of Maui, has won the 2018 Trip Advisor Hall of Fame Certificate of Excellence. He has been “enhancing Hawaiian journeys with fascinating cultural interpretation and a 100 percent personalized itinerary, since 1983.” Congrats, Pono!

On a more somber note, in the last note I wrote, I hoped for “less-bidity,” yet we lost two more classmates since the last issue. We lost Michael Kucinskas on Oct. 16. He majored in theology, played on the football team, and was a Chi Psi brother. He worked as an information technology consultant for Mass Mutual, and then Cigna, before becoming a partner of Factorum, Inc., a computer consultant company. He loved golf and was an advanced scuba diver. He is survived by his wife, Carol Petruff, M.D., two brothers, and a large extended family. We will miss his presence and his wit.

And then Steven Hiscox passed away on Nov. 20. Michael Trager and Tom Miceli attended a wonderful memorial tribute, which celebrated Steve’s life “the way he would have wanted it—filled with heartfelt tributes, and plenty of food and beer.”

Tom recalls that “Steve was the prototypical Wesleyan student—academically smart in the usual ways, but with wide-ranging and unexpected interests. Steve was a music major who composed and played classical music for course credit, but then listened to rap music for pleasure, well before it was hip to do so. He made college look effortless—he was at once scholarly and down to earth, serious and affable. I well remember the time when he pulled an all-nighter to read Gone with the Wind in one sitting! His passions included pick-up basketball (he was a beast) and cars. He devoured Hot Rod magazine the minute it hit the newsstand and spent countless hours under the hood of his car acquiring the skills and knowledge that eventually led to his life’s work as the owner of an automotive training school. I regret that I did not stay in close touch with Steve after Wes, but I will always cherish our friendship during that formative time in our lives.” He is survived by his wife, Tammy, and a large family that includes his brother, Dave Hiscox ’79.

Here we are, at 60 or close to it. That once seemed old. Sometimes it still does. Yet too many of us did not make it this far. In two years, we have another Reunion. I hope we all make it there in good health . . .

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

Joanne Godin Audretsch | Berlinjo@aol.com