Class Notes

NEWSMAKERS | 1980s NEWSMAKER GLENN LIGON ’82 Glenn Ligon ’82, renowned conceptual artist, curated the exhibition Blue Black, a selection of pieces ranging from portraiture to African and American folk art, for the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, Mo. “The content of Glenn’s work is incredibly meaningful in the context of St. Louis, being the epicenter of the Black Lives Matter movement,” Pulitzer director Cara Starke told art critic Hilarie M. Sheets, writing for the New York Times. Ligon described an Ellsworth Kelly painting, “Blue Black” (2000), which hangs in the Pulitzer, as his inspiration, and he cited “a very funny aural hallucination where I kept hearing Louis Armstrong’s voice singing ‘What did I do to be so black and blue?’“ He used that color combination to explore questions about race, history, identity, and memory. An art major at Wesleyan, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of fine arts from the university in 2012.

Dear classmates, I’m having a déjà vu here, writing the class notes. After the marvelous Stephanie Griffith stepped down, it seems everyone else in the class stepped back, and I was left volunteered. That’s okay; it’s like studying an interesting longitudinal cohort, or having a niche reporting beat of a creative and, need I say, diverse group. Just please help me out by feeding me some tidbits now and then. Class notes are the original social media.

Our 35th Reunion was genuinely warm, entertaining, and thoughtful. The Reunion committee, spearheaded by Kate Quigley Lynch (clap, clap), pulled off not only a wonderful “Recommencement” show and shenanigans (thanks to Beck Lee, David Brancaccio, and Joe Barrett), but our class funded a Class of ’82 Endowed Scholarship, beating our $100,000 goal (kudos to Stephen Daniel for leading us). We made an enormous difference in the life of a kid who otherwise might not have the privilege we’ve enjoyed to go to Wes. We hosted Professors Richard Ohmann and Leon Sigal (both of whom had a huge influence on my understanding of media, from the outside and in, respectively) and Professor Andy Szegedy-Maszak. The other news from Reunion is that beneath the thin scrim of age, everyone looked fantastic, just like they used to, only better dressed. Also, the Douglas Cannon reappeared, mysteriously, and I personally touched it. More on that below.

David Brancaccio spoke at our “Recommencement,” digging deep, citing from texts on rituals and cultural meaning in higher education to support his point that “our graduation ceremony 35 years ago was a wonderful occasion and, at the same time, it sucked.” Indeed, he reminded us that June 6, 1982, was the worst storm in the area since a 1955 hurricane, dumping nearly a foot of rain centered on Middletown, forcing us to graduate in the hot, stuffy, inelegant hockey rink. The sketchy sound system kept us from appreciating the speaker, diplomat and novelist Carlos Fuentes. David unearthed the address and read a few gems, then conferred “recommencement” certificates on us with quotes from the speech (if you’d like the full text, just e-mail Kate at klynch@wesleyan.edu, easier than doing what David did, tracking it down in NYC library archives, taking photos, and transcribing).

Among his remarks, Fuentes told us, “I know that sooner or later, your generation will be facing, courageously and decisively, the human needs in this country: democracy not only in the voting booth, but in the working place; decentralization, reindustrialization, the stamping out of crime, better schools, thorough racial integration and sexual equality, the great technological breakthroughs that can only be achieved through the quality of higher education and investment in research, all of this inseparable from compassion and legislation favoring the poor, the elderly, the handicapped.”

Beck Lee, our witty MC, said Fuentes’ remarks were like a “message in a bottle…speaking to our future selves, when his words might hold the deepest meaning.” Fuentes’ words were prescient, and remind us, as Beck said, that “the spirit for rebellion that was engendered in us then, in the early Reagan years, would be needed now more than ever.”

And then there was the brief reappearance of the Douglas Cannon, which a few of us were lucky enough to see, though I am not at liberty to divulge the circumstances. As you might recall, the D.C. made a surprise appearance in the University’s sesquicentennial birthday cake in 1981 before it disappeared once again in 1982. I have it on strong authority that a few of our ‘82 classmates were the 1982 liberators of the D.C. and that following some extensive travel, they returned it to Wesleyan in good faith upon Colin Campbell’s last Commencement.

These “Doug Addicts” have communicated their strong wish that 1) Whoever is in possession of the cannon today has the responsibility and obligation to facilitate the cannon’s return to the Wesleyan community; 2) Every student should know the D.C. story and have the experience of seeing the D.C. sometime during their time on campus; and 3) Whoever has it currently or in the future, needs to record Douglas Cannon’s travels and locations so that the Wesleyan community stays updated on the adventures of the D.C., perhaps via Douglas Cannon’s Facebook page.

More news about our classmates in the next notes, stay tuned. But quick congrats to Deedie Finney, whose lovely introduction to the anniversary edition of She’s Not There, the memoir by wife Jennifer Finney Boylan ’80, proves JFB is not the only writer in the family.

And don’t miss Suzanne Kay’s new documentary film, Sullivision: The Ed Sullivan Story, which takes a surprising look at the man who was once television’s most influential personality and his little-known support of black artists at the dawn of television. Check out her FB page, Sullivision, for more info.

Finally, to you guys at the Reunion who suggested my new husband, Peter Eckart ’86, go for the record and not stop at marrying just two Wesleyan women: over my dead body. Then you’ll be stuck having to find another willing class secretary.

Respectfully submitted,

Laura Fraser | laura@laurafraser.com

Greetings, classmates! It’s Joanne, writing to you from the comfortable confines of a German high-speed train, sipping wine, and admiring the scenery, efficiency of travel, and simple good sense of a country, that has spent decades investing in public transportation as a means of improving the public good and imagining how wonderful this would be if I could travel in a similar manner in my own country…

But I digress! I often wax nostalgic every time I return to Europe, where I was fortunate enough to live for so many years. Not to say that I don’t appreciate my home country; it’s just that in this time of political unease and unrest, it is nevertheless hard to not look away and see how things “could” be if only we’d open our eyes as to how others live, work and establish their societies.

That is my hope for my middle son, James, who just graduated from Indiana University with a degree in computer science. His last class before he actually gets his diploma in hand takes place in Tanzania, where he is studying the geology, archaeology, and anthropology as well as the flora, fauna, and history of the Olduvai Gorge area and the Serengeti plains. My eldest son, Alex (a computer science engineer), is in the Seattle area and works as a consultant to some of the “biggies” like SpaceX and Microsoft. My youngest, Christopher, just finished his first year at Indiana University, where he plans a double major in math and (surprise!) computer science. This summer, he is continuing as an AI in computer science—and to think I barely made it through all those punch cards for my senior project (and that was WITH help!).

Judith Newman wrote with some exciting news. Some of you may have read her wonderfully insightful 2014; New York Times’ article describing her autistic son’s relationship with Apple’s Siri, and how beneficial it has been for her son’s emotional and social growth. This research led to the book, To Siri With Love, with a publication date from Harper Collins of late August, early September. Learn more at judithnewman.com or tosiriwithlove.com. [See page 80.]

Mark Saba shared that he, too, has two books coming out. David Roberts Books published a volume of Mark’s poetry, Calling the Names, moving and compassionate poems which Vivian Shipley describes as “creat(ing) the bridge between life and death we all will cross.” The second book, Ghost Tracks: Stories of Pittsburgh Past, is due out in late summer with Big Table Publishing. Mark has been writing since he left Wesleyan, publishing poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction (see marksabawriter.com). Mark is a painter as well! “I started working at Yale in 1990 as a medical illustrator in the medical school,” he shared. Mark has been at Yale for 29 years. He adds, “I am now still illustrating, but also doing graphic design, websites, and media walls for the whole university.”

To carry on with our literary trend, Kaylie Jones writes that when she is not spending time with her wonderful daughter, Eyrna, she continues to teach, lecture, travel, and publish. Her imprint, Kaylie Jones Books with Akashic Books, has added several new volumes from some very talented writers, including The Year of Needy Girls by Patty Smith ’82.

Diane Goldstein Stein writes that son Matthew ’16 graduated from Wesleyan last year and daughter Lisa ’21 will begin her freshman year at Wes this fall. Matthew is a software engineer in Mountain View, Calif., and plays with the Google orchestra. Matthew is a violinist, violist, and composer, and Lisa is a cellist and vocalist.

I had the pleasure of catching up with my dear friend and former housemate, Deb Chapin, on a trip to Boston. We had a lovely brunch downtown and reminisced about old times, past adventures, and the joys (and tribulations!) of raising teenagers. Plans are in the works for a get-together with the former Sunday night co-op group that also includes Kathy Prager Conrad and Livia Wong McCarthy.

According to Facebook, Wesleyan graduation saw many classmates in attendance. Katy Ward Koch celebrated the graduation of her niece, Hyunji Choi Ward ’17, along with her dad, Alan Ward ‘52, who enjoyed his class Reunion. Katy looks forward to another visit in a few years when her nephew, Hyunwoo Ward ’20, graduates. Chris Graves was also there to watch proudly as his daughter,  Julia Graves ’17 received her diploma. There he met up with Jim Friedlich ’79 and Melissa Stern ’80, whose son, Max ’17, graduated. Chris left a few days later for Belaggio, Italy, where he was back at the Rockefeller Center for a small U.N. summit on climate change. Ed Suslovic was also in attendance, and posted proud pics of himself with his daughter, Kate Suslovic ’17, resplendent in her cardinal-red robes. I know there are more classmates who had children graduating, but alas these are the only ones I happened to see.

Keep the news coming. David will be writing the next set of notes.

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

Joanne Godin Audretsch | Berlinjo@aol.com

Marty Saggese writes: “I am one of those investors who have benefited from Joel Tillinghast’s investment expertise. I had the chance to sit next to Joel at one of our Reunion dinners a few years ago, and said thank you to him in person. I am looking forward to reading his book!”

Charla Reinganum writes: “Dan, my husband of 30 years, and I are starting a new chapter this July, moving from the third coast (Chicago) to the West Coast (Napa) less than a week after our daughter, Rachel Schwartz ’11, gets married with unbridled support by bridesmaids Ilyana Schwartz ’13, Janine Petito ’11, Anne Calder ’11, and Joanna Schiffman ’11. Bunny Benenson and Jane Carleton will be celebrating with us. No, we are not retiring. Dan has taken a new position as head of a local progressive private school and I will continue serving as chief environmental engineer for FedEx Express. My commute soon will wend through vineyards instead of interstates. Love to catch up if you happen to be Napa-bound.”

Aleta Staton writes: “I’m thankful to be going into my sixth year with the faculty of the theater department at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. We are building a new theater space this year and look forward to a robust season of productions. I recently attended the Reunion for Wesleyan class of ‘81 with Carlia Francis ’82 (PhD and an August Wilson scholar) and ran into my good friend Beck Lee ’82 who happened to be the keynote speaker.”

Jon Martin, professor at University of Florida, writes: “I’m in the middle of a seven-week field expedition to Greenland. If anyone is curious, you can check out our Greenland project: grainfluxes.geology.ufl.edu.

Melissa Totten, content producer for MandCo.org, reports in from the Boston region, where she would rather not be living. She misses the desert chaparral and the vast southwestern skies. She remembers a life among like-minded adults. A prisoner of East Walpole, Ms. Totten has no access to culturally diverse people, lives, folkways, or foodways. Instead of writing the book she is outlining, she has become physically and emotionally dependent upon the consumption of cable television’s political coverage. Despite her stupor, she has become an accidental climate activist and an associate member of her hometown’s historical commission. In that position, she has great power. According to the town’s by-laws, the commission may issue a six-month demolition permit delay for “historically and/or architecturally significant buildings.” After six months of considering the value of preservation, an owner is free to pick up the demo permit from the building inspector and rip it all down to the earth below.

Melissa Hewey writes: “Alan Chebuske and I celebrated our first date at Wes 40 years ago in February. We now live in Portland, Maine, where Alan practices dentistry in between taking bike trips around the world. With two grandchildren, one living in Beijing, China (son of Cara Chebuske ’06 and Will McCue ’06), and another in Los Angeles, I am pretty sure the airlines are developing a new tier of elite status just for me.”

Mark Zitter writes: “My daughter, Tessa ’21, was accepted ED1 to Wesleyan and will begin this fall! She wants to double major in theater and chemistry, sing in an a capella group, and work in Admission as a tour guide to motivate visitors to apply to Wes. Proud to join the ranks of our classmates who are Wesleyan parents. Extremis, the short documentary featuring my wife and her ICU colleagues and patients, was nominated for an Oscar, so she got to go to the Academy Awards. (Couldn’t snag an extra ticket for me—my best shot to be arm candy!) I’m chairing both my company and The Zetema Project (zetemaproject.org), a group of U.S. healthcare leaders focused on policy issues. I’ve also found a second career as an interviewer at venues ranging from Stanford to the 92nd Street Y to the Commonwealth Club. I’ve hosted U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Obamacare architect Ezekiel Emanuel, palliative care doctor BJ Miller, and others. I joined the Board of the Commonwealth Club (commonwealthclub.org), America’s oldest and largest public affairs forum, which will move into a brand new facility on San Francisco’s Embarcadero this summer. This doesn’t feel like retirement, but it’s fun.”

Amy Kroll writes: “We are heading to Chicago for our son, Sam’s, graduation from the University of Chicago. We are thrilled for Sam (and ourselves—no more college tuition!), but wistful as this chapter of raising children closes. We are still in D.C., and I am a partner at Morgan Lewis & Bockius, LLP, watching the daily motorcades up and down Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and Congress. I hope that all our class members will give to the Annual Fund—I see the value of a Wesleyan education frequently, as young lawyers and law students who are Wesleyan graduates join our firm and consistently excel. I enjoy periodic catch-ups with John Singer and David Resnick ’81, among others.  

KIMBERLY OFRIA SELBY | kim_selby@yahoo.com

KPBS in San Diego, Calif. named Anne Wilson a community hero for her work in affordable housing as both developer and advocate (read more). Anne also attended Wesleyan’s 185th Commencement to celebrate Eero Talo ’17 graduation.  Congratulations, Anne!

Matt Okun writes in that he has so many reasons to rejoice:”My daughters, Nina Okun Furia and Lia Okun, both live in NYC, and visited me on my recent trip to D.C. Lia is a licensed psychologist, and Nina is a personal assistant, pregnant with her second child. My brother’s (Steve Okun ’82) son (Alex Okun ’20) just completed his freshman year at WESU. My wife, Annie Wong, has three children from her former marriage and already has two grandchildren. So, by the time you read this, I should have a total of four grandkids! I continue to work for the Seattle Public Schools as a teacher trainer and administrator with a focus on social justice.  I love everything about Seattle, except for how far it is from the East Coast. Just saw the band U2 live, playing music from 30 years ago. I am in my 39th year as a teacher. What a long, strange trip it’s been! My message to all is: Savor each moment of life; they can be beautiful, sweet, challenging, but are most certainly fleeting.  All my love, Matt”

Carol Churgin is semi-retired. She left public education and just finished another master’s—in Social Work. So on to another chapter…  She’s very proud her son is a licensed acupuncturist and diplomate of oriental medicine. Anyone living in San Diego who needs an acupuncturist, feel free to contact Carol!

Since the presidential election, Ann Kaplan has been volunteering as a teach-in organizer with a group of psychologists called Duty to Warn. “This national group of psychologists aims to have the president removed from office under the 25th amendment.

“I spent New Year’s Eve on a dive trip with three friends. This summer, we are heading to the Lembeh strait in Indonesia to dive.  I have also become immersed in a yoga practice and will be heading to a villa in Nice for a week-long retreat. We’ll be practicing, dining, and drinking wine. I don’t do austere.

“My daughter is a personal trainer at Crunch gym and a performance artist, focusing on pole dancing and silks. She also played a slice of pizza and a vengeful, tutu-clad pig in a magnificent production at Bushwick’s House of Yes.“

Earlier this year, Jake Walles retired from the State Department after more than 35 years as a foreign service officer, including tours as U.S. Ambassador in Tunisia and Consul General in Jerusalem.  He’s now living in D.C. and looking forward to new adventures outside the government.”

After 34 years as Wesleyan’s sports info director, Brian Kattan accepted early retirement on October 1, 2015. “The last 19 months have been delightful and I highly recommend retirement to all ’79ers. For fun, I coach a middle-school boys basketball team and umpire high-school baseball. I still follow Cardinal athletics religiously and am enjoying all the team successes including Eudice Chong ’18’s third straight national tennis title and men’s lax making the NCAA semis in 2017. Go Cards!”

Julie Hacker just got back from her son Gabe’s RISD graduation complete with marching band and belly dancer. A week before she attended her step-grandson’s graduation from Westpoint complete with marching band but no belly dancers. Opposite ends of the spectrum, but couldn’t be more proud! She has been busy practicing architecture, serving as a preservation commissioner for the City of Evanston, rewriting the design guidelines for Evanston, competing in triathlons, and is performing in a musical theatre class (“my singing is sub-par”). “I am still short, with short, greying hair, and wear black most of the time and of course round glasses—the uniform of architects. See my latest work at www.cohen-hacker.com and my son’s latest work at www.gabrielscohen.com .”

Bill Davies and Candy downsized two years ago to a 100-year-old home in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. “We moved in after five months of renovating. Poughkeepsie is becoming a trendy place for young artists with families who can’t afford living in NYC and we love the neighborhood we are in.  I retired from IBM/GlobalFoundries in May and will be spending the summer rowing, biking, and gardening.  We are also preparing for our daughter’s wedding, Kim ’07, in September.  This fall I plan to start volunteering at the local schools to help kids with math skills.  Candy continues her social work as a counselor at SUNY, New Paltz.“

Alan Saly is happy to report that his daughter, Elaine Saly ’09, has graduated from NYU Law, and is on her way to Seattle to be a criminal defense attorney in the public defender’s office. Any Wes lawyers out there for her to touch base with?

Jono Cobb is back on Martha’s Vineyard for the summer. “During the months following graduation, I shared a single bathroom house on the Vineyard with Maureen Walsh, Deirdre Manning, Bethany Kandel, Spence Studwell, Mike Connelly, Dennis Archibald, and Mike Riera, as well as his not yet house-broken puppy. We also got to see many of our classmates who made our living room their first night’s stop after disembarking from the ferry. Whenever I drive past Little Walden, as we named it, I’m reminded of that summer of 1979…”

Luis Vidal still resides in Bridgeport, Conn. He retired from the Department of Social Services in 2011. He is presently working for Family ReEntry, Inc. as group facilitator of domestic violence groups in Bridgeport, Norwalk, New Haven, and Waterbury. He would love to hear from Ines Navarro ’81 and MaryAnn Gonzalez ’82 who graduated a couple of years after he did, and is wondering how they are, what they are up to, etc.

Thomas Brody, at 63, is still trying to find himself. Wish him luck, he says.

Denise Giacomozzi has been coordinating the Syrian Refugee Project at her church in conjunction with New Vision United Church of Canada (Hamilton, Ontario) whose pastor is married to a friend of hers from high school. The goal is to raise $50,000 USD to bring two families of four to Hamilton. They are halfway there. Contributions can be made by check to Rockville United Church, Syrian Refugee Project, 355 Linthicum St., Rockville, MD  20851 or PayPal. “On a personal note, my mother passed away in March at the hospice where I have been working as a chaplain.  I am on leave as I mourn. Elaine Winic was there by my side for the memorial service, ever the faithful friend since our days as freshmen roommates.”

Ralph Maltese: “On October 22, 2016, my best friend from college, Alan David Avner, passed away after a two-year bout with cancer. Alan was an enigma—a happy loner, a fine musician, a good friend. He was the healthiest living person I’ve ever known, had a razor sharp eclectic intelligence, sarcastic wit, love of all things jazz, a respect for all people and other living things and lived his life with caring and humility. He recently moved to Florida to care for his aging father, giving up the life he loved in San Francisco. I never ever heard him brag about anything. Throughout all his ordeals he never complained. Alan was always there for me, as my friend, confidante, best man, the first person I told I had cancer, and someone I could rely on for good advice even when it was the advice I did not want to hear but needed. He was and will always be my friend.  He is survived by his father, sister, and her family.”

Gary Breitbord | gbreitbo@aol.com

Ann Biester Deane | abdeane@aol.com

Bill Adler “waves to classmates from Tokyo,” where he has been living for the past three years. He reports: “I spend my days writing novels and my nights sleeping only when my cat thinks I deserve to. If you like time-travel fiction, pick up a copy of my novella, No Time to Say Goodbye. I’m currently writing a Japanese ghost story.”

Wolfgang Natter proudly announces the graduation of his son, Joseph ’17, an honors physics major who plans to extend this background to “social physics of the law.” Wolfgang has accepted the position of vice president of academic affairs at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minn. He welcomes contact from “any Wes alumni who reside at or near the borders of Lake Superior and Minnesota.”

Rich Order continues to litigate business disputes as a principal partner in the firm of Updike, Kelly, and Spellacy, in Hartford, Conn. He and Denise, his wife of 34 years, live in Simsbury, Conn. Their son Daniel, a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder, will be attending the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University this fall to pursue a master’s degree in documentary filmmaking.

Susie Muirhead Bates | sbatesdux@hotmail.com 

Ken Kramer | kmkramer78@hotmail.com

NEWSMAKERS | 1970s NEWSMAKER MICHELE ROBERTS ’77 Adweek named Michele A. Roberts ’77, executive director—and first female leader—of the NBA hotlayers Union, to its “30 Most Powerful Women in Sports” list, which featured outstanding executives, athletes, and journalists, among others. Previously an attorney with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Roberts had begun her career as a public defender in Washington, D.C. In the June 26 article, Adweek’s Tim Baysinger noted that Roberts would be negotiating across the table from league commissioner Adam Silver when the two worked on a new collective bargaining agreement—and Roberts would be trying to avoid a lockout, something her two predecessors were not able to do. A government major at Wesleyan, Roberts earned her JD from the University of California at Berkeley. The negotiations now completed, Roberts noted, “The deal we worked out with the League contained a number of favorable provisions for our players, including a 45 percent across the board salary increase for those players whose salaries are pre-set. And, no lock-out!”

NEWSMAKERS | 1970s NEWSMAKER RICHARD MELCHREIT ’77 Richard Melchreit ’77, P’19, MD, is the recipient of the 2017 Charles G. Huntington III Award for his 30-year career in public health. The Connecticut Public Health Association presents this award annually to a Connecticut health care practitioner who has demonstrated public health leadership and a commitment to the health and well-being of the population. Beyond his career in positions with St. Francis Medical Center and the Connecticut Department of Health, Melchreit mentored dozens of undergraduate and graduate students and held leadership roles in the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, most recently on the Healthcare Associated Infections Subcomittee. Melchreit was a biology major at Wesleyan, and received his medical degree from the University of Connecticut.

Had someone asked me in my youth what a 60 (plus)-year-old would look and act like, I would never have imagined it to be any of the group assembled for our attendance-record-smashing 40th Reunion. It pleases me to be among folks who were happy to just be present in order to connect with fellow alumni. Gone are the days when we felt the need to impress with our professional and personal accomplishments. We all enjoyed hearing about the twists and turns in our individual histories. It was affirming to speak with those folks in our lives with whom we shared another pivotal developmental time in our lives: starting our college days in our late teens.

For most of us, Reunion began Friday evening with a reception that would soften the blow of a nasty commute to Middletown from just about everywhere. Driving into our Reunion class hotel lot, I was greeted by Felice Burstein and John Roxby, a perfect start to the weekend. Both are smitten with their granddaughters, and like most of us, are considering the next move after retirement. At hotel reception, I came across Arlene Lappen and Sue Rappaport Guiney. If meeting up with these two doesn’t put a smile on your face, I don’t know what does. Next I rode with Iddy Olson, soon to be the mother of the groom (my godson), to campus to formally check in. We attended President Michael Roth ’78’s reception and met up with Vanessa Burgess, Jerry Caplin, Sean McKeown, Bob Glasspiegel, Kathy Mintz ’78, and Steve Beauchamp. We then headed over to meet arrivals at the Reunion class reception. Wendy Brown Giardina and Laraine Balk Hope immediately greeted us. Enjoyed seeing Jim Lyons, Jim Melloan, and Mim Wolf at the reception. It was fun hearing Jim’s German inflection and was really impressed by his, as well as Wendy Giardina’s and other alums efforts, in making their way back to campus from far away. I celebrated a mini Newton High School reunion with Richard Parad, Sarah Kendall, and Paul Sheridan. Other notables at the party were Mike Coffey, Jane Goldenring, Claude Greengard, Betsy Hecker, Mary Jo Wade, Ron Bloom, Dave Levy, Jim Dowling, and expert t-shirt designer and graphic designer, Bonnie Katz. Also on hand were Lee Arnold, Lisa Brummel with son Noah, Cindee Howard, Helen Taenzer Lott, Earl Phillips, Lenny Stamm whose music I missed, Miki Saraf, and the first person I met my freshman year, Richard Swanson.

Saturday got rolling with seminars on campus led by many in our class. Sue Rappaport Guiney, Jane Kurz Klemmer, Michele Roberts (our well-deserved class Distinguished Alumni recipient), and Alan Steele held a panel discussion on mid-life and mid-career changes. Following this was a seminar on “Fake News and Real News: Journalism Today” led by Jane Eisner and Alex Kotlowitz, among others. This well-attended offering featured many classmates including: Doug Green, Susan Berger, and Rachel (Helfer) and Mike Balf. Heading over to the lunch tent I got to catch up with Janet Malkemes and Sharon Adler. A few folks arrived solely for lunch, needing to honor conflicting family weddings and such: Danny Ruberman and world-traveling educators Louise Hazebrouck and Steve Rome, who shared stories from their time in Asia. Photographer extraordinaire, Rick Dennett, was busy capturing shots of the assembled gang throughout the afternoon and evening. Kate Seeger and I got to share a fine walk through the art center. It is quite the head-scratcher that I need to return to Middletown to catch up with so many of the Boston-based alumni.

A short while later, a visit with the fine gentlemen of DKE took place at their house on High Street. The usual suspects there included: Jim LaLiberty, Steve Imbriglia, Don Citak, Jeff Gray, Ted Stevens, and Mike Coffey and Iddy. This led to our class dinner at Usdan, which was a great venue to celebrate the 100 participants who turned out. New folks with whom I got to visit included: Wes trustee Jeff Shames, Mark Beamis, Don Spencer (who survived his new house construction), Jerry Stouck, Dave Thomas, Tom Roberts, Liz and Will Sillin, Jim Udelson, and Dave Zabar. We all enjoyed Vanessa Burgess MC’ing the evening’s salute to our class that included a well-deserved Wesleyan Service Award to a very modest Don Ryan. Though regretting not chatting much with some, I saw from across the crowded room John Fink and his wife from Hawaii, John Gaebe, Jonathan Kliger, Don Lowrey, Marx Brothers aficionado, Hank Rosenfeld, Brad Burnham, Susan Shaw, Bob Rees, and Steve McNutt.

As expected, this was a memorable gathering which nourished the soul as we got to celebrate Friendship in its truest form: old and new. As I have recounted the weekend from memory after almost a week, I am sure that I may have left out other important names who attended. Please let me know that you were present so that I may give a proper shout-out in the next issue. In advance accept my sincerest apologies. To those classmates unable to join in for part of the weekend, we hope that you’ll find a way to meet up five years from now. If this Reunion was any indication, we all just keep getting better and better.

Gerry Frank | Gfrank@bfearc.com

For this issue, I asked about retirement plans and got varied and often non-committal answers.  To vary the line-up, the last shall be first.

Jody Binswanger Snider works in media, representing a creative branding and production company, and a small animation studio and filmmaker in NYC.  She serves on a family foundation concerned with homelessness and criminal justice reform. Her husband is a teacher and coach at Harvard Business School and Northeastern, and her two sons are working in NYC real estate.

Steve Smith and his wife moved to western North Carolina 31 years ago and that’s where they plan to retire in about two years. Their daughter just had her 10th Wes Reunion, and they plan to visit friends in Mexico later this year.

Joe Reiff won the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Nonfiction Award for 2016 with his book Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi’s Closed Society. Joe figures he has three more years before he hangs up his frock.

Jack O’Donnell has a daughter at Wes who plans to go to law school afterwards. Jack loves working as a criminal defense lawyer, and between that and the tuition bills, no retirement is in sight.

Connie Bodine McCann attended an all-day meeting of Wes emeriti trustees and watched Donna Morea do an excellent job as chair. Connie has a son at Wes, a daughter working in tech in San Francisco, and another son at a private investment firm in NYC. Connie has been elected to the Spencer Stuart worldwide board of directors and, after 24 years, is still enjoying her senior search work in financial services.

Jimmy Johnson reports that his bike touring business (BikeTours.com) is going strong and that he will be leading tours through Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, and Montenegro in the next five months. Electrically assisted bikes help it all work. (I tried one in California and our nonathletic group drew looks of disbelief as we sped up the hills.)

Leslie Gabel-Brett ended her 10-year tenure at Lambda Legal in NYC and now works as a consultant with Open Communities Alliance, an affordable housing group in Connecticut led by Erin Boggs ’93. In spring 2018, Leslie will be a visiting assistant professor of public policy at Wes teaching a course about social justice movements under the auspices of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life.

Joellyn Gray went to L.A. over Memorial Day weekend and visited her sons, Malcolm and Duncan ’09, who work for the Russo Brothers and Hulu respectively. She had dinner with my CSS classmate, Bob Craft, and his wife, Julie. Joellyn has considered retirement, but prefers working.

Jon Cleworth, who is fighting a nearly 40-year battle with MS, is still going strong and is grateful for his time at Wesleyan and the inspiration he gained there.

Karen Caplan says retirement is a nice idea, but she is not ready to give up her full-time hospital job as a clinical social worker on a palliative care consult team. Karen finds her work with people at the end of life wonderfully rich, meaningful, and rewarding.

Barbara Birney continues to enjoy the company of her 92-year-old father, Robert Birney ’50, as well as that of her brother Bob Birney ’81. Bob has just given up “Old Man’s Soccer” and is focused on getting the last of his kids through college.

Tom Kovar says he thinks about retirement but, with a 14-year-old still at home, he does not plan on it anytime soon.

Cheryl Alpert just started a new career as a full-time real estate agent focusing on Boston and MetroWest and is very active in national and local politics. Her older son, Eben, is working as a business analyst and her younger son, Chason, is graduating from Washington and Lee, and will be working in D.C. for Booz Allen.

As for me, my oldest daughter graduated with a master’s and my younger two from college this month, so tuition bills are no longer a driver. But I still like working and need to stay busy if I am going to stay in sync with my wife, who loves her job. Outlook: staying the course.

There are a lot of you folks who do not write in—especially, for some odd reason, those whose last names are in the second half of the alphabet. I wish you would.

Mitchell Marinello | mlmarinello@comcast.net

I love leftovers, and what follows are some “leftover” notes from late 2016 and early 2017 that did not make in to our in-print columns. I apologize to those of you who took the time to write. Please continue to do so early and often—it will give you a better shot at being in the first serving of notes, rather than the dessert course or later. Note that some of the ages and references to time may be off after all this time, and a few children may have changed jobs or cities, but the big concepts should still be right.

Ed Van Voorhees is gratified to work part-time with The Bootstraps Foundation that gives scholarships to young people who have “pulled themselves up by the…” Despite familial substance or physical abuse, mentally ill parents, or life-threatening disease or injury, each excels in school and expresses optimism. Ed also runs a little franchise. He and his wife, Linda, are reducing work commitments, playing tennis, and traveling a bit (to visit grandchildren, among other destinations). The kids are married and scattered: Ellen in charge of women’s ministries at a Neighborhood Christian Fellowship in LA, Matt in finance in Denver, Jessica is an internist in Nashville, and Ben is running a start-up in D.C.

Ben, the son of Pam Swing and Marty Plotkin ’76, would either graduate last spring or will this spring (they knew, I don’t). Pam is a resident scholar at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center. This is a wonderful center—very supportive and stimulating—with about 85 scholars engaged in a broad spectrum of research, art and activism. Pam wrote, “My current project is research on my militant suffragist grandmother, Betty Gram Swing, who worked closely with suffrage leader Alice Paul (one of five women considered for placement on the back of the 10-dollar bill.) My grandmother was jailed for picketing the White House and went on an eight-day hunger strike—all in all, she was jailed five times. She also burned President Wilson’s words and various other escapades. With the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment coming in 2020, I am writing a book, probably aimed at young adults, which will bring the suffrage movement to life through following my grandmother’s story.”

Pat McQuillan connected with Pam and Marty at Reunion last year. He got a kick out of discovering that her son and daughter both went to Sudbury Valley School, a very student-centered institution in Framingham, Mass., that Pat always presents to a curriculum theories class he teaches at Boston College. Pam came as a parent, to Pat’s class to recount how well her two children had done at the school and that her son, in fact, received a PhD in physics from U of Washington, even though he never took a math class at SVS. Pat may organize an entire day focused on student-centered learning and would invite Pam back to speak.

David Drake claims to have the best job in the world. After Wesleyan, he earned graduate degrees from UCLA and Harvard Graduate School of Education. In 1990, he started White Oak School in Westfield, Mass. White Oak is a state-approved nonprofit school serving great kids with dyslexia and related language-based learning disabilities. “It’s incredibly rewarding work,” Dave says, “and we’ve helped many hundreds of kids to read, spell, write, and generally come to believe in their potential to succeed and thrive.”

Larry Greenberg, reported from Martha’s Vineyard that he and his therapist wife, Debbie, were once again gearing up for the busy summer season in their physical therapy clinic there. Their oldest son, Dan who works as a VP at BlackRock in Manhattan, was getting married in Allentown, N.J., in September, while his daughter, Sarah, a corporate event manager in Waltham, Mass., got married in September 2014. His youngest son, Stephen, works as an associate producer for NBC Sports in hockey and football and was scheduled to cover volleyball at the Brazil Olympic Games with his girlfriend, who is also an associate producer for NBC Sports. They hope for a third September wedding in the coming years and anticipate cutting back their work schedule as retirement years approach.

Nancy (Robinson) Neff wrote, “My son, Sam, 24, works for SunPower in Richmond, Calif., as a mechanical engineer, mentors a high school robotics team, and loves blues dancing. My son, Jeremy, 22, graduated from George Washington University where he loves the ultimate frisbee team. He has directed some great student theater and will be interning with a theater company. My husband Robert is an electrical engineer with Keysight Technologies and loves bicycling. I am a regional volunteer coordinator with California Clean Money Campaign.” They were working to clean up money in politics, trying to pass the California DISCLOSE Act, which would require the strictest disclosure on political ads in the country.

David Lipton let us know he was excited that his third child, Gabriel ’16, was from Wesleyan with a government degree, joining Dave’s oldest, Anna ’08. Meanwhile, Dave had signed on for another five-year term as number two at the International Monetary Fund. When he started in 2011, he followed John Lipsky ’68, so Wesleyan has been having a long run at the IMF!

Russ Munson talked about a not-so-recent-anymore great day he spent in NYC at Karen Freedman and Roger Weisberg‘s place, catching up after way too many years with Tom Fox (who was traveling throughout the Northeast visiting engineering schools with his high school junior son). Tom is a German professor at U of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. Russ’s son and daughter joined the NYC party with their respective spouses.  Russ is married to Deb Quinn-Munson ’82, who is hard at work with pastel, watercolor, and oil painting. Russ spends his workdays in Wallingford, Conn., as chief medical officer for HealthyCT, one of the few remaining co-op health plans created by the ACA.

Tom Fox also saw Bob McNamara on that same New York trip. Bob added a few items to the previously reported details about Tom. Not only is Tom on the U of A faculty, but he is former chairman of the modern language department, and his daughter is attending school there. Last fall, Bob and his wife, Irene, had a nice brunch with Dave Quinn, who continues to run a marketing and communications business in New London. Bob said, “Dave’s relationships in the Connecticut marketplace built up over many years make him the go-to guy for all kinds of companies in the area. He seems to be adapting well to the digital age.” As for his own news, Bob writes, “Although I missed Reunion last year with an ailing father, I managed to get to a Wesleyan football game for a post-Reunion reunion with former roommate Bruce Weinraub. Irene and I are doing well and expecting our first grandchild in July. I am now managing partner at Mooreland Partners, a boutique investment bank advising technology companies on mergers and acquisitions.” Bob and I ran into each other at Wesleyan’s parent/child weekend in 2012. My eldest chose Stanford, and Bob’s third son wound up going to Williams, so Bob has split loyalties in the Little Three, and I just extended the grad school relationship I started with Stanford.

Dave Rosenthal spent a grueling, exciting year helping to lead The Baltimore Sun’s coverage of the death of Freddie Gray and the Baltimore riots, and then took a buyout from the company. “It was tough to leave my job as investigations editor, especially after being involved in coverage that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and had exposed police brutality in the city. But I felt the time was right.” He moved to a new job in a new place, leading a group of journalists at public radio stations in Buffalo, Cleveland, Rochester, and other cities in reporting on the Great Lakes. The regional initiative is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, so when you’re listening to NPR and hear a report on the lakes, think of Dave. He’ll be working from WBFO in Buffalo, so he and Suzy relocated and hoped to meet some fellow Wes alumni up north.

Randy Steer reinvented himself a couple of years ago as a cybersecurity expert after spending most of his career in policy and budgets for energy and climate-change R&D. (A Monty Python “And now for something completely different” career shift.) He wrote that he was on an assignment to the Under Secretary of Energy to coordinate cyber initiatives across DOE science and energy offices—with a side-benefit of exposure to R&D policy again. Not sure whether he is still there, with all the changes in D.C.

Brad Kosiba keeps himself busy with “a messy blend of beekeeping, veggie gardening, church maintenance, Boy Scout leader training, and some vaccine and biotech manufacturing consulting that is somehow keeping me off the streets. Dorothy recently started part-time at the local office of The Livestock Conservancy (heirloom farm animals) and their sons continue to labor in math, engineering, and theater tech. We have a cool ‘grand-dog’ sharing arrangement with our middle son who travels most weeks, lets us have a dog and leave it, too!”

Cynthia M. Ulman | cmu.home@cmugroup.com
860 Marin Drive, Mill Valley, CA 94941-3955

Peter Hayward reports the sad news that our friend and classmate, Robert Mankin, died in Paris, France on January 28, 2017, after a long illness. Robert was buried at the Cimetière Parisien d’Ivry.

Robert, who had lived in France since the 1980s, had a distinguished academic career there. At the time of his death, he was a professor of British history at the University of Paris, with particular expertise on the English historian and writer, Edward Gibbon (the subject of Robert’s doctoral thesis), and Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, David Hume, among many other interests.  From 2009 to 2013, he directed and breathed life into the University’s Research Laboratory on Anglophone Cultures, which became a university department as a result of his efforts.  Robert had also been serving for several years in Paris’s Cité Universitaire director of the Fondation Deutsch de la Meurthe, a graduate student residence and cultural center, which flourished under his leadership.

At Wesleyan, Robert was a College of Letters major (Peter believes his lifelong attachment to France began in his COL semester in Paris in the spring of 1972). He subsequently took additional time to travel and study abroad and graduated Wes in 1975. Robert was a member of Alpha Delta Phi and, in addition to his academic pursuits, he was an avid runner and club rugby player. Robert is survived by his wife, Danielle Torren, their son, Emile, and his mother, sister and brother in the United States.

Jerri Stroud and her husband, Mike Saville, will relocate to Seattle, Wash., later this summer, where they expect to have more chances to see 10 other Wesleyan ’74 alumni, including Charley Blaine and his wife, Chardel. “We’ve enjoyed seeing them on our trips there over the last dozen years.” Their son, Stephen Saville, is with Amazon, and they’ll be about 10 minutes’ drive from him and their granddaughter, Emily.

Monique Witt reports, “We are weathering a few serious family illnesses, but the music is going well. Two albums came home from press in May and three went to press soon after. We are excited about two particularly. My older son’s Grammy nomination has produced a great deal of work for the audio labs, so he’s very busy, having just returned from a late honeymoon in Paris and Nice.

“My younger son, Ben, has received exceptionally strong reviews for his first album Instead, including one from DownBeat Magazine, numerous U.S. reviews, as well as strong European reviews. He’s up on radio round the world, and has played jazz at Lincoln Center, The Blue Note, Mezzrow, Smalls, and played Carnegie Hall in late May, in addition to the summer festival season and his weekly gigs.  So he’s pretty busy as well.

“I’m keeping the label running and playing doubles with a woman who plays with the Canadian National Team, so she carries us. Steven is still lawyering. So all good, I guess, except that I find it hard to read the news (something I used to do religiously).”

Jaf Chiang provided the following update. “A little less than three years ago my wife, Jeanne Demko ’75, passed away very suddenly. We married shortly after I graduated—so a total of 40 years. We did our share of wandering and meandering, but unlike Moses, it was a blissful period for us. She did get to see the ‘promised land’ as she saw both our children grow up to be independent, productive and full of compassion, as she was.

“I am still finding it hard to adjust to this.  I still live in the same house in Avon (‘Home is so sad. It stays as it was left, Shaped to the comfort of the last to go, As if to win them back.’–Philip Larkin) and still teaching gifted students in math. My daughter will finish her residency in Maine Medical this year and move to Kentucky to begin her fellowship in infertility. My son just finished the PhD phase of his MD-PhD program at Washington University in St. Louis and will begin his last two years of medical school later in June. And I will soldier on as well.”

Jan Eliasberg states, “I have moved into a three story brownstone in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, and discovered a passion for interior design. I’ve been restoring fine details of the original architecture (ceiling medallions, floor to ceiling shuttered windows, five original marble fireplaces), as well as mixing in more contemporary influences: mid-century modern furniture; vintage rugs from Morocco, and art acquired during my world travels. There’s a fantastic garden with climbing roses, hydrangea bushes, honeysuckle, and wild raspberries ripe for the picking. A wonderful place to call home. There are three bedrooms so let me know if you need a place to stay while visiting NYC.

“This year I was lucky enough to direct several episodes of the new CBS hit show, Bull, with Michael Weatherly. The show shoots on stages in Brooklyn so I was, literally, 10 minutes from work. Great fun and a great privilege to work on a show in its first season, helping to shape and define the style and tone of the series.

“In June and July, I’m off to Pittsburgh to direct two episodes of another new show, NBC’s Gone, with ‘Mr. Big’ himself, Chris Noth. I’m looking forward to exploring Pittsburgh, which is apparently a really hip, up and coming city—lots of young artists, foodies, cafes and places to hear cool music.

My daughter, Sariel Friedman ’18, just finished her junior year at Wesleyan, with a double major in American studies and film. She’s spending the summer in Germany taking a class at the Frei University. She then has a paid internship working with Steidl Publishing. Wesleyan has proven to be as ideal an experience for her as it was for me.”

Harold Sogard, Marion Stoj, Linda Rappaport, and Sharon Purdie attended the Donors’ Reception during Reunion Weekend—good turn-out for our class! It’s always fun to catch up.

Sharon Purdie | spurdie@wesleyan.edu

From Williamsburg, Va., we have an update from one of my East College roommates from senior year, John Spike. John is still assistant director and chief curator for the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William & Mary, where, over the past five years, he’s curated four major loan exhibitions from the Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti, Casa Buonarroti, and other important Italian museums. The exhibitions have been devoted to original works by Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Leonardo da Vinci, and this year, Botticelli. All four exhibitions, after originating under his curatorship at the Muscarelle, have gone on to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. His wife, Michèle, teaches at the William & Mary Law School, where she has been promoted to visiting professor. He says last year his son Nicholas, now 34, and his wife, Marcela, gave John and Michele their first grandchild, a boy, Santiago Spike.

From Vermont, our intrepid, indefatigable, and ever-faithful correspondent David Feldman, AKA David Harp, just did three “speaking gigs” in three consecutive days in three somewhat widely separated places (after not having done too many lately)—Chicago, Springfield, Ill., and Burlington, Vt. He reports that the speaking component (two large events of about 70 minutes each with 300-plus attendees on harmonica-based mindfulness as it applies to people working in the mental health field, and one smaller event for CPAs) “felt fine.” He adds, “It’s a bit hubristic to say, but I felt pretty much at the top of my form, corporate speaker-wise. But the traveling felt awful. The airports and traffic in the cities bugged me more than usual—is road and air traffic getting busier and less enjoyable, or is it just me? Or both? Or perhaps it is just a function of living most of the time in rural Vermont.”

Sheryl Auerbach says Jerry Richter, her husband of 35 years, passed away almost five years ago. On December 13 of last year, she married Evan Feist, a widower, whom she met through JDate. Evan is a retired veterinarian, and they share a lot of interests, including golf (although she says she’s a mid 30s handicap and he’s single digit), bridge, and birthdays. Sheryl notes that her birthday is July 20, Jerry’s was July 23, and Evan’s is July 22.

From New York City, another one of my very colorful East College roommates from senior year, Edward “Eddie” Nathan, sends us a second note saying that “44 years feels about right to collect sufficient experience to sustain a brief note to my quondam classmates.” He has had two careers: first as an academic, then as a creative director in advertising, most of it in health and wellness. “It’s a living,” he says. He and his wife reside in Brooklyn, though his work is in Pennsylvania. “Two fine grown daughters, one of them in Finland.” He says his beautiful wife is also New York’s “most decorated dog groomer” (see her website, Soniaspetgrooming.com). For the record, he says he would like to note his “one enduring contribution to Wesleyan. No one will recall, except me, that I was the first to use the ‘Wes’ prefix in identifying our athletic teams for the Argus, e.g., Wescrew, Weslax.” He says he had the occasion a number of years ago to write a “Wescheck” in support of his daughter’s application to Wesleyan. “I claim credit as having inspired the name of this tariff, and fully expect to be telling this story, inflated with ever greater significance, as I continue to slide comfortably into senility,” he says. He sends “All the best to my Wesbros.”

Peter D’Oench | Pgdo10@aol.com