Class Notes

Though I am still not ready to accept that it has been 20 years since we have graduated from our beloved Wesleyan University, I am happy to say happy 20th Reunion to you all. It was absolutely fantastic and mind-blowing to see so many ’95ers in the house enjoying all the festivities, food and fun. And you all looked marvelous! It was also a joy to see the li’l ’95ers, the future Wesleyanites, having fun and meeting their parents’ classmates and families. I won’t begin to name all the folks who I ran into but I will say “thank you all for coming!” You made the 20th Reunion a huge success. And to those who could not make, well … sorry, and we hope you make it to our 25th. On to the notes…

Jason Wiser has an animation going up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC this summer. He is doing facial animation and skin texturing for The Return, a wild piece of interactive theater to celebrate the successful re-assembly of Tulio Lombardi’s marble “Adam” statue which fell and smashed into 28 pieces in 2002. The performances run all July 2015. Official announcement: on.wsj.com/1P8GqZ3

Gabriella Klien recently published a book of poems. It is called Land Sparing and was published by Nightboat Books. It was the winner of the Nightboat Poetry Prize.

Katy McNeill has been living in the Boston area for approximately 13 years “(probably with many of you close by but we just haven’t run into each other…), still working in the MIT libraries (same place but evolving role). I’ll look forward to seeing everyone at the Reunion; I’ll be bringing my family (wife, Sharie, and our two daughters (ages 9 and 5 now).”

Thanks to those of you for writing in with news to share. We hope to hear from many more of you for future issues. Please be in touch.

Keri Cascio writes, “I moved to Chicago in January to take a job as the executive director of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, a division of the American Library Association. I’m proud to be working for the ‘library mothership,’ and I’m enjoying everything Chicago has to offer.”

Aram Sinnreich writes, “I’ll be moving to Washington, D.C., this summer to start a new job as an associate professor with tenure at American University’s School of Communication.”

Tonya Ward Singer writes from Santa Rosa, Calif., “I’m having a great time raising my boys (7 and 10), and running a business that helps K–12 schools innovate for equity. My book, Opening Doors to Equity, was published this year (and is a Corwin Press bestseller).”

Brenda Frink is living in Portland, Ore., She is working as coordinating editor of Pacific Historical Review.

Hi, everyone! Here’s the latest news from some of your classmates:

Jessica Gutow Viner has been named associate director of admission and financial aid at The Harpeth Hall School in Nashville.

Karen Powell will be teaching a variety of tax law courses at Ohio Northern University School of Law starting in the fall. While she’ll still be in Montana for the summers, she’ll be looking to connect with Wes alums in the Ohio area or who are also teaching at law schools around the country.

Lori Vaughan writes, “On April 10th, my husband (John Ferguson) and I welcomed our third child, Lucas. (He joins big brothers Ethan, 9, and Noah, 11.)”

Julie Hanauer was recently promoted to full professor.

Dan Crane continues freelancing for The New York Times, and has turned his 2013 Times article about his home renovation and divorce into a screenplay, currently in development. He’s also writing a story for California Sunday magazine about Hopscotch, a new “mobile opera” by Yuval Sharon which will be performed in and out of 24 cars driving around Los Angeles, premiering in October. His latest band, Ray & Remora, just recorded their first full-length album, which will be out soon. The video for their cover of Pavement’s Gold Sounds features cameos by Kim Gordon, Jeff Goldblum, and Stephen Malkmus. It’s from their 1994 EP, which came out last year, and has covers of six songs that all came out in…1994. He’ll head to Oulu, Finland, once again in August to emcee the 20th annual World Air Guitar Championships.

Dina Kaplan writes, “I just launched a new company called The Path that teaches meditation to people. Come join us if you’re in NYC: thepath.com/nyc—and I’d love to see fellow classmates in the city in general!”

Jessica Sternfeld became tenured associate professor of music at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., where she teaches classical music history and musical theater. She and her husband also became parents, in the summer of 2014, to Zola (now 5) and Harper (4), their two little girls adopted from Taiwan.

Aaron Barr writes, “My wife, Anner, and I are currently in month seven of a round-the-world trip! We’re hoping to make it a full year or more…we’ll have to see how we’re doing after our late August horse trek in Mongolia! Amazing just to write those words… Anyway, we’re blogging at nomaprequired.com and updating facebook at facebook.com/nomaprequired.”

Ghassan G. Medawar and his wife delivered their newborn son, George G. Medawar, in March 2015. He was born at The Lindo Wing, St Mary’s Hospital in London and was named after his paternal grandfather.

Keith Hay writes, “My wife, Fran, and I live in Denver with our three kids, Sonya (10), Anna (7), and Isaac (7). While Colorado’s mountains are still full of snow, we are preparing for a summer of camping, hiking, and climbing. We climbed our first 14er (14,000 foot summit) last summer (Mt. Democrat) and are hoping to do another one this summer. When I am not in the mountains I serve as a senior policy adviser to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.”

Liza Kleinman lives in Portland, Maine, with her husband and their 10-year-old daughter. Her novel for young readers, Azalea, Unschooled, was just released by Islandport Press.
Jason Gellman writes, “I recently joined Snell & Wilmer, LLP (www.swlaw.com), practicing public utility, energy and natural resources law out of the Phoenix office. I also am the incoming co-chair of the ABA Section on energy, environment, and natural resources—energy and infrastructure: siting and reliability committee, and I am to take over the reins as president of the Phoenix Union Foundation for Education, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides scholarships and funding for student programs for students in the Phoenix Union high school district—the seventh largest in the country. I recently completed my second Tough Mudder in March and will complete the Spartan Trifecta with the 12-plus mile Beast in October in Lake Tahoe. Nothing like climbing up ropes, jumping off platforms, carrying buckets of gravel, sliding into 34-degree ice water and crawling under barbed wire through nasty-smelling mud in your 40s. Good times. Still here in the desert Southwest with my wife and three kids (10, 9, and 6). The kids keep me pretty occupied with grand performances and detailed explanations of upcoming events—on top of the other various activities. Busy times.”

Adam writes: Hi, all: It’s time for the next round of updates from the class of 1992!
First up is my frosh year roommate, James Wilton, who lives in Charlotte, N.C. He was recently named head football coach for sixth grade at Sun Valley Middle School. He is working for Collabera as an account manager, interfacing with Bank of America. James’s wife, Tracy, is enjoying being at home with their three children—Jack (soon a high schooler), Carley, and Lola.

Also on the former roommate front (the now gone A-1 LoRise 10-person unit), Darcy Dennett got married and just returned from a mini-honeymoon, which involved a few days of challenging hiking in Canyonlands, Utah.

In another blast from the A-1 past, Sarah Guernsey reports that she had a “college day” at her middle school. Teachers made signs completing the sentence, “when you go to college…” and shared pictures of themselves from college (she reports that it was really hard to find ones that could be shared with middle schoolers!). The whole experience got her excited for the fall when she will take her son Jake to Wes for “Sons and Daughters of Alumni” weekend for high school juniors.

Juan Luque and his wife, Marie, welcomed Eva Maria Luque, who was born on April 2, weighing 7 lbs., 11 oz. Juan is also leaving his tenured position at Georgia Southern University and starting a new position as an associate professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences and Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, beginning in August 2015.

Also welcoming a new addition, Stephanie Ivy Sanford and her husband, Junius Sanford, were expecting a baby in July.

Michele Eisenberg was host to a mini Wesleyan reunion at her daughter Elana’s bat mitzvah in April. Lara Small Laurence ’90, Jennifer Hammer ’91, Sarah Leavitt, and Jenny Simon Tabak ’93 were all there to sing “Havdalah” and dance the hora.

In February 2015, Shelly Gray was crowned Ms. Wheelchair Texas 2015. During her tenure she will make dozens of appearances and speeches, and compete for Ms. Wheelchair America in Des Moines in July. She is still practicing employment law with a State agency, and living with her 8-year-old son in Austin, Texas.

Vida Towne lives in Seattle with her husband, Andrew Chiodi, and their 9-year-old son, Dominic. Her days of Ultimate ended when her son was born in 2005, but she played high level Club Ultimate for many years, winning the World Championship with teammate Cory Pike ’89 in 1997 and 2002, and the National Championship in 2004. From time to time she runs into former Rugby teammate Corinne Drumheller, who has two young children and also lives in Seattle.

Shura Pollatsek is associate professor of costume design and technology at Western Kentucky University. She just had a sabbatical, during which time she began writing her first book, with the working title of Behind the Costume: The Art and Artists of Costume Design. The book is a collaboration with her husband, award-winning photographer (and DGA director and cinematographer) Mitch Wilson. She also did additional research and interviews in Paris (putting that French BA from Wesleyan to good use!). Shura also still does professional costume design, most recently for Christopher K. Morgan & Artists in the D.C. area.

Tamara O’Neil met up with Laurel Korholz and Greg Vinton in Princeton, N.J. for a terrific afternoon. Tamara is finishing her next-to-last tour in the Navy JAG Corps this September as senior counsel at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., and then she’ll be moving to the field of disability policy and law through the Secretary of the Navy’s Council of Review Boards at the Washington Navy Yard. Her husband, Cameron, is retiring from the Army in the next year, so they are both getting excited to join the civilian workforce.

Andrew Draper’s job in database implementation has a new home after his company was bought out. He still lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Chris Foster works at Harmonix, and is having fun working on Rock Band 4 with Greg LoPiccolo ’83 and Nicole Lewis ’96. In his spare time, he is also working on a videogame at home with his 6-year-old son.

Kevin Prufer’s new book, Churches, was cited in The New York Times Book Review as one of their “Ten Favorite Poetry Books of 2014.”

Abigail Smith Saguy was promoted to full professor of sociology at UCLA, effective July 1, 2015.

Finally, even given our advanced age, we have some adventurous folks making big changes in their life. Alfred Culliford went back to school and earned an MBA last year from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Currently he is director of plastic, reconstructive, and hand surgery at Staten Island University Hospital and site-director for the North Shore/Long Island Jewish Plastic Surgery Residency Program. Turning to the Northwest, Linda Perlstein is leaving the world of education and will be working for Amazon.

That’s all the news for now. But please send Paul and me your updates. We’d love to hear from you!

Dear Classmates, this summer issue of class notes laments the news of the passing of another star in our small constellation. Dr. Katharine Kellond Roth, known as Katy, died on Dec. 15, 2014, after a long struggle with seizure disorder and Behçet’s Syndrome (an auto-immune disease). A resident of Washington, D.C., since 1997, Katy was a determined and devoted hospice and palliative care physician.

Originally from Delaware, Katy was the daughter of the late Senator William V. Roth, Jr. (R-DE) and Jane Richards Roth, a federal judge. She is survived by her husband of 16 years, Chris Weston ’92, and her sons, Nicholas and William.

My apologies to family and friends for the delay in this posting. Please send memories and stories for posting in a later issue, or other news of note.

Hi, all. We start with a Reunion mini-summary from committee co-chair Nick Meyer, who writes: “Our 25th Reunion was held on a glorious May weekend in Middletown and it was great to see so many faces make it to campus. There were more than 155 of us there and it really helped our Reunion co-chairs Jen Wasserstein Daniels and Tom Tullio that our friend and classmate Chuck Fedolfi works at Wes! Thanks, Chuck, for all the work that made the weekend such a success. Some highlights included: a Friday night cocktail party in Olin, Saturday afternoon picnic and hanging out on Foss Hill—awesome!, and hearing my freshman hallmate professor Larry Jackson of Emory, give a lecture in Fisk, the Saturday evening shindig in Beckham Hall of Fayerweather (formerly known as the small gym). There was a really special vibe of people reconnecting and catching up on the quarter century that has passed since we left the cocoon of our collegiate experience. And being there graduation weekend was just a reminder of how special that place and time was for so many of us. For me, another really great highlight was seeing so many of us who spent the fall of ’88 in Madrid! Many more people we were all happy to see and hang with…but don’t think I would stay in the dorms again…nice idea in theory…and nothing makes you more convinced that you are resoundingly middle-aged than to run into an old friend like Sam Paik hanging out with his daughter, who is in the class of ’17. Wow. Thanks, again, to everyone who made it and those who didn’t or couldn’t spend Memorial Day Weekend on campus but were there in spirit. Was really fun.”

Also sharing what a great time he had at Reunion is Andy Siff, who attended with baby Pauline (two months), son Zeke (4), and his wife Dawn. “We enjoyed catching up with Nikki Boyle and her husband, Tim Boyle ’89, and their son Mitch, (16), who did a great job watching Zeke during family swim at Freeman. Also had a terrific brunch at O’Rourkes, where we caught up with Brad Whitford ’81. Enjoyed the Zak Penn/Owen Renfroe/Matt Greenfield panel on cinema and TV. Also spent time swapping stories with Gerry Grosz, Eric Greene, Brian Gottesman, Bill Sherman and of course, Reunion guru Tom Tullio.” Andy is still working in news (at WNBC) as a general assignment reporter with focus on mass transit issues.

Ruben (“Bengy”) Ballesteros, Ben Robertson and Zak Penn also each wrote to describe great Reunion weekends at Wes. Bengy remains a staff attorney at Legal Aid near Baltimore, specializing in juvenile law. Ben noted that “our classmates are doing amazing things” and that he “was surprised to learn that Denise J. Casper was the presiding judge in the recent case of Whitey Bulger in Boston.” Zak’s notes were (once again) unprintable but I can say that he and his wife, Michele Weiss, were happy to be at Wes with Jana Brainard Augsberger and Annie Shapiro Tirschwell.

Bummed to have had to miss Reunion (as I was as well) was Jonah Pesner, who, as many of you know, has moved with his family to D.C. for his big, new job as the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC), the Washington, D.C., advocacy and social justice arm of North America’s largest Jewish movement. As described on the Union for Reform Judaism’s website, Jonah is an “accomplished advocate with broad experience leading social justice campaigns” who “comes to the RAC with a mandate to deepen its advocacy work while mobilizing the Reform Jewish community and its allies.” Jonah noted how moved he was by all of the Reunion pictures on Facebook (which really were wonderful to see) and hopes that “2020 is a big year we all commit to!”

In other news, received before Reunion weekend, it was great to hear from Peter Brastow, who after “successfully giving birth to his nonprofit, Nature in the City,” took a job with the City of San Francisco’s Department of Environment as the senior biodiversity coordinator, “a job for which we have yet to find an equivalent in the U.S. Peter is responsible for convening agency, nonprofit, and community partners to pursue a vision of comprehensive ecological restoration and stewardship of San Francisco’s natural heritage. Carolyn Gencarella (AKA Peter’s better half), continues to teach elementary science at Alvarado School in San Francisco. Peter and Carolyn live in San Anselmo in Marin County, where they are raising two teenage rugrats who will be joining them for the 25th! Peter’s Foss 6 next door neighbor, Arieh Rosenbaum, is a hotshot doctor in San Francisco, who doesn’t actually practice. Instead he presides over the digitalization of medical records and other information for the entire Sutter Health Medical Corporation in northern California, and just keeps climbing the ladder of success. His wife, Barbara, is a terrific architect who designed their home set among some oak trees a hop, skip, and a jump from Peter and Carolyn. Andy Eig from NYC and his wife Dawn recently visited “the Brastows” in the Bay Area. Andy continues to be an accomplished Ph.D. adolescent psychologist. Peter and Carolyn get together sometimes with Maria Poveromo and Julia Erwin-Weiner—especially when Sue Rodrigue is in town—who live a bit south of San Francisco. The San Francisco crowd, Peter, Carolyn, Arieh, and Gerald Richards (CEO of 826 National), among others, continue to cherish the memory of Betsy Burton, fellow post-WES San Franciscan, whose passing was in December 2006.”

I hope you all have been enjoying the summer. That’s all for now.

Jonathan writes: Hey, all. Things seem to have been a little quiet for ‘89ers these past few months. Michele and I can’t believe that’s true, so please take a few minutes to drop one of us a line for the next issue. Please. Thanks, peeps!

Susan Turkel leads us off with her reflections on last year’s Reunion: “So much fun to see people and dance under the big tent!” She’s been working as a social sciences librarian for the last 17-plus years—14 years at Bryn Mawr College, and then three-plus years at the University of Michigan. Last summer she returned to the East Coast to be closer to family and help out her aging parents. She left Ann Arbor (although continuing to work remotely on a part-time basis) and now lives with her partner, Mark, in the Philly suburbs, where she’s taking art and writing classes, doing lots of contra dancing, spending time with friends and family, getting ready to start some volunteer pursuits, planning her parents’ 50th anniversary party, and thinking about what she’d like to do with the next chapter of her life.

Stephanie Dolgoff reports that she is “half dead and bald from the stress of a renovation, but with two tween girls, one bathroom wasn’t cutting it. Grateful to have such good friends and healthy kids. Love to all.”

Dan White is hard at work on his second nonfiction book, Under The Stars, which is going to be published by Henry Holt and Co. in the summer of 2016. It’s an embodied history of American camping, which means everything from survivalist camping (camping without any gear—or clothes—in mountain lion territory in the Santa Cruz Mountains for 24 frightening hours), to exploring the Everglades and “glamping” on an ersatz safari in Wine Country. Several of Dan’s Wesleyan friends, including James Shiffer, Sara Oh Neville and Bill Sherman ’90, have been giving encouragement, stories, and help along the way.
From Joel Jacobs, we learn that he has been continuing his “recent pursuit of acting, and has now been in four plays, most recently as Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird.” He’s also been coaching his younger daughter’s high school debate team. His older daughter, Aviva, will start at Pitzer College in the fall.

Mark Mullen’s big news is that he moved from Tbilisi to San Francisco.

Kate True digs out from the Boston winter to say she and her three daughters (Ona, Flora and Tess) made it to the promised land of spring. Ona ’19 will be a first-year student at Wesleyan in the fall! Kate recently completed a creative entrepreneur fellowship through the arts and business council and Discover Roxbury, and is busy with her art, portrait painting, and independent curating, as well as teaching part time at the Sudbury Valley School. Visitors are always welcome at her old Victorian home in Roxbury, which she is continually upgrading.

Finally, Betsey Schmidt and her husband hosted a lovely alumni event in March to honor Wesleyan President Michael Roth ’78 at their new(ish) apartment in Brooklyn.

Peter writes for this edition.

Sarah Rickless Baker reports that she has been studying and teaching at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., for the past 10 years. “I am now on the slow track to a PhD in writing and rhetoric. In addition to lots of teaching, last year I became director of the Northern Virginia Writing Project (nvwp.org), which runs and hosts programs for K–12 teachers and young writers. I live in Arlington, Va., have a 13-year-old daughter (we celebrated a bat mitzvah this May), and make good use as a teen-sitter of the older daughter of our one-block-down Wes neighbors Eric Lotke ’87 and Amy Mortimer ’87.

Kara Stern shares: “After a lifetime in NYC, my family and I are moving up to Woodstock, N.Y., where I will be head of school at Woodstock Day School (thanks to a tip from Adam Rohdie ’89). Would love to connect with Wes folks in the area!”

Justine Gubar’s new book, Fanaticus: Mischief and Madness in the Modern Sports Fan, hit bookstores June 16th. I pre-ordered it!

Rich Pham contributes: “I managed to catch up with Rob James in Las Vegas back in April. We had some great meals and spent most of the evening talking about Wes. As you may know, I have been living abroad for the past 20 years (Tokyo, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh, Singapore) and loving it. I now live in Ho Chi Minh and anyone stopping by should give me a shout. I managed to get on the cover of Esquire Vietnam. They did a cover story on me as a businessman with a unique hobby of racing. I have been racing formula and touring cars for the past nine years in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.”

Kellina Craig-Henderson updates: “I continue to enjoy my post heading the National Science Foundation’s regional office in Tokyo, located in the U.S. Embassy.”

Daniel Rosenberg writes from the Northwest: “Mai-Lin and I are finally back home in Eugene, Ore., after two years of academic adventures in Berlin, Germany, and in the SF Bay Area. Along the way, our 2-year-old, Milo, became 4 and fluent in German, and acquired a younger sister, Beatrice, now a year-and-a-half old. We’ve stayed in touch with old Wesleyan friends, including beloved mentors, Richard Ohmann, Henry Abelove, and Laurie Nussdorfer.”

Jacqueline Freedman Bershad lets us know that “Since graduation I lived in S.F., went to architecture school in N.C., and spent 20 years in Philly. There I grew up, married a nice guy named Joe, designed museums and zoos, and had a kid. Last year we moved to Baltimore. I was lucky to land a job at the National Aquarium as VP for capital planning and facilities.”

My fellow R.I. resident Gail Agronick advises: “My husband, daughters, and I are still in Smithfield, celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary, and Zoe is graduating from high school this week. Addie will be a sophomore in high school next year. She is curious about Wes, so I have hope yet.”

After 20-plus years in various marketing roles, Chris Pearson embarked on a career change, trading a desk job for building tiny homes. He and his wife, Susan, are somewhat dumbfounded that they are so old their eldest daughter, Paige, is now embarking for college. They also have an eighth-grader daughter and live happily in Santa Cruz, Calif.

Steve Morison lets us know that “after four lovely years in Jordan at King’s Academy, my wife and I have found a new home at St. Stephen’s School in Rome. We spend our summers in our cottage on Mount Desert Island in Maine. Next year, our daughter, Talia, will be a junior at St. Stephen’s. If you’re in the Eternal City for vacation, friend me on Facebook, and I’m happy to meet you for a drink.”

Majora Carter has launched a new 501(c)(3) incubator called Hometown Security Labs (www.hometownsecuritylabs.org).

John “Sparky” Ferrara happily reports, “All is moving forward here and life is good. The highlight of my year last year was watching Wesleyan baseball as an alumnus father of a Cardinal rookie, my son AJ ’18 (he is now also a XY brother). My daughter, Claudia, just finished her sophomore year in high school. My maniacal son Jack is just a banger—into football, lacrosse and wrestling. We just did a trip to the Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands, which, if you have never been, we would highly recommend as a bucket list box to check.”

David Silverberg is now the director of the Telego Center for Educational Improvement at Ashland University in Ohio, which provides university outreach to school districts across the country. He is president of the university’s chapter of Phi Delta Kappa International, the editor of the Ohio Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) Journal, and a faculty member of ASCD International’s professional development team.

Vivian Johnson is doing well. She resides in Oakwood, Ohio, with her 11-year-old adopted niece, Regina. For the summer, Vivian will be doing research at her alma mater, Harvard University, where she earned her Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

The YMCA of Greater New York announced Sharon Greenberger as its new president and chief executive.

Dear Classmates, I was lucky enough to see a lot of my favorite Wes people this spring. In May, Jeremy Mindich and I co-hosted a campaign fundraiser at my place for our beloved Senator from Colorado, Michael Bennet. Among those who came to support him were Brad Lubin, Lisa Abroms Herz, Dave Davenport ’88, Bill Shapiro, Michael Pruzan, Lucy Lehrer ‘85, Sarah Williams ’88 and Sharon Greenberger ‘88, as well as my sister Hilary Jacobs Hendel ’85. I also had a lovely long dinner and sleepover in NYC with Martha Sutro. I had at least two meals with Lisa Abroms Herz, and I got a great night out with Matt Paul and his (and Naomi Mezey’s) ever-fabulous kids. An embarrassment of riches!

Speaking of Naomi Mezey, starting this summer she will be the associate dean for the JD program at Georgetown Law. “The up side of taking on an administrative job like this is that I’ll get a chance to learn new skills (like being a decider) and think hard about legal education at a time when it is in flux. The downside of this job is that I won’t have much time for teaching or writing a book and that I’ll have to go into the office every single day of the week. I may also have to shower and wear nice clothes. I should note that the Wesleyan graduates who go on to become my students are uniformly awesome people.”

John Fitzpatrick was kind enough to write in about a Wes wedding that he had just been to. “Jeff McCarthy ’89 was married this past June in a beautiful outdoor ceremony in Park City, Utah. It was attended by Chris Olinger, Mike Pruzan, Mike Olinger ’89 and me. Jeff and Whitney organized a weekend of mountain biking, hiking, dancing the night away and general frivolity. A good time was had by all.”

After five years of living in Mexico City, Lucille Renwick moved back stateside (“for a little while,” she says) to N.Y. this summer, where her husband will work as a deputy sports editor for The New York Times and Lucille will look for work in communications/PR. She’s excited about reconnecting with Wes friends Sumana Chandrasekhar Rangachar, Amy Baltzell, Yvonne Ilton ’88, Sarah Williams ’88, Ruth Bodian ’88 and many more. Lucille is planning on running the 2015 NYC marathon to mark her return to New York and her upcoming 50th. She welcomes any Wes runners to help her keep pace.

Since graduating, Evelyn Shapiro “has been working in design and marketing, both in publishing and higher ed. At the same time, I’ve been teaching Alexander Technique privately to dancers, English teachers, and lawyers. This spring those two worlds came together when I wrapped up the design and development of my 75th title, a scholarly book called Alexander’s Way. Last fall I was honored to attend Clarinda Mac Low and Peter Stankiewicz’s beautiful wedding celebration in Brooklyn, where many a guest had Wes connections. Happily, my daughter made fast friends with the other kids there, including Chris Lotspeich’s girls. At home in Illinois, we are full on with a busy life including my partner, clarinetist Solomon Baer’s chamber music concerts, our son Mario’s (10) near-obsessive passion for soccer, and Hannah’s (7) intricate inner world of stories. We are looking forward to our second trip back to Guatemala, Mario’s birth country. I wish Kim Sargent-Wishart didn’t live so far away, but I relish her wit and wisdom and family pix from afar. I’ve also stayed in touch with our classmate Anna Luhrmann Dewdney, who is living her dream of painting kids’ books in Vermont.

Charles Grattan Baldwin is happy to report that he earned his PhD in literacy from the Rutgers Graduate School of Education and graduated this May. “I am now getting used to being called “Dr. Baldwin.”

Frank Barrett said it was “uplifting to catch up with Brad Vogt in NYC last month before we listened to Steve Genyk speak positively of his childhood friend and Wesleyan hockey teammate Ken Cain, during a 50th birthday party hosted by wife Susan Cain. Not long afterwards in Boston, Genyk and I had a ball connecting with old teammates Don Gillis ’84, Dave Blauer ’84, and Ed Colbert ’89. An uplifting night of reminiscing and laughter started on the back deck of the The Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, courtesy of host Ted Galo ’85, who is the museum’s site manager. Oddly, all former Cardinals mentioned here are “Little Three Champions” without a shared title, a feat that has been accomplished just twice in 44 years of Wesleyan men’s ice hockey. Steve Genyk also wrote in about the same party, saying how great it was to see everyone, but wondered where A.J. Salerno and John Brais ’86 were.

Steve Kaminsky writes that his daughter, Juliet Margot Kaminsky, arrived Friday, Feb. 27th. “We are over the moon! Oh yeah, and I turned 50 yesterday. Woah!”

Scott Pryce and his family are enjoying quality of life in suburban Washington, D.C., after a short stint (a second one) in São Paulo. He shuttles every week to Miami for work, and would love to connect with Florida-based classmates.

Oy, the spring after next will bring our 30th Wesleyan Reunion. So don’t make any plans for Memorial Day Weekend 2017! Or better yet, put it in your iPhones now!

Elaine Taylor-Klaus, writes, “When I was at Wes, I understood the value of “learning to think” in theory, but I never could have imagined how it would serve me in my life—as a parent and as an entrepreneur. No day goes by that I do not actively continue the extraordinary personal growth that started for me in the early ’80s—the ability to see a need in the world, the confidence to address that need, and the wisdom to call on the intelligence (of myself and others) to figure out how do it effectively.”

Lonnie Shumsky: “I live in the West and have now for half my life, but I love visiting my Wes friends back East. As a physician and parent, I spend a lot of my time taking care of other people. When I travel to NYC to see friends, I turn back into the former and less encumbered me, at least for a few days. Having friends, great friends, for over 30 years is pretty powerful stuff.”

Daniel Seltzer is still living in NYC with a wonderful woman and a lot of kids (who are now heading off to colleges). He is currently CTO at a FinTech startup, playing music as much as possible, and biking/running/boarding within the bounds of aging tendons.

Jaclyn Brilliant and Anthony Jenks ’85 have been in Brooklyn together for more than 25 years. One kid is one year out of college, and the other just wrapped up her first year at Wes! She is loving it, and her experience takes me back to the joy of my own Wesleyan friendships. I’m still in touch with Nina Mehta and Sarah Porter, and looking to reconnect with Ann O’Hanlon, Jinny Kim, and many others (hoping we might all be at our 30th Reunion).

Samuel Connor wrote, “My Wesleyan experience led me straight into the Peace Corps, where I served in West Africa for a few years. I got hooked on adventure, diversity, challenges, and to contributing meaningfully to improve our world, and have stayed on that social justice course ever since. World music remains a passion.”

Steve Price has become a mild mannered commercial appraiser in Seattle, still doing lots in the mountains and now learning how to race surfskis. His latest pro-bono work is PR and fundraising for a state-wide ballot initiative that would impose a carbon tax and then use those proceeds to directly reduce other state taxes in a manner to make the state tax system more progressive and transfer about $200M a year back into the wallets of the bottom 40 percent.

In terms of progressives, Hal Ginsberg is blogging for the group Progressive Maryland. He owned and operated liberal talker KRXA 540 AM in Monterey, Calif., but sold it last May, and returned east. “Currently, I am focused on building audience for my politics-based website where I webcast a three-hour live call-in show Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to noon, East Coast.”

In terms of performers, Lisa Porter comments on the irony: “In 1985, I played Maria in Twelfth Night at Wesleyan. Today I play Viola/Sebastian in Twelfth Night at the California Shakespeare Theatre. Thirty year span … don’t really feel that different.”

Sarah Nazimova-Baum works nights as a crisis counselor on the overnight shift for LifeNet, a mental health crisis hotline. “Of course, now that our son Raphael is 14 and heading to high school, our home life is abundant in crisis as well.”

Ellen Limburg Santistevan was fortunate to receive so many extraordinary blessings over the last year, and has also “come to rely on two friends I made my freshman year at Wes, Karen Escovitz and Bennett Schneider, for their sensitivity and generosity of spirit as my family goes through some profound changes; I am so incredibly grateful to Wesleyan for putting us all in the same vicinity so our lives could weave these complex patterns.”

Complex networks! Judith Hill-Weld has her private psychotherapy practice, specializing in developmental disabilities, and added “debate coach” to a roster of responsibilities. “My husband and I took our son to visit East Coast colleges this spring, and traveled for a few days with Arthur Haubenstock ’84 and Amy Whiteside ’84 and their son. We said hello to Rob Lancefield ’82 at the Davison, and enjoyed seeing Laura Radin ’83 and Charlie Barber ’85 and their son. In Philadelphia, we shared a fabulous seder with Andy Clibanoff. Tyche Hendricks and her daughter joined us to walk the West Village and the Highline in Manhattan.”

Zahara Heckscher writes, “Highlight of Wes Friendship: Driving to Middletown for 25th Reunion with Dana Martin and her daughter and my son—discovering a friend of the heart for life. Look forward to the drive for 30th Reunion with Dana, and discovering more new and ‘golden’ friendships. In that spirit, in the meantime, I invite any Wes-folk in D.C. to contact me for an informal SUP lesson on the Potomac, or just a walk or jog in Rock Creek.”

Not much is changing for Kathryn Lotspeich Villano: “My son, Wes, will be Wes ’19 and fourth generation on my side. (I swear I didn’t name him after the family’s alma mater!) Love to all and hope to see you for our 30th. I know most of you won’t be using it as an excuse to visit your child and it’s not as big as the 25th but the 25th was so fun, so come!!! Brian Pass and his wife, Pascale (French TA ’86), have a son who just graduated from Wes; he is lawyering away at Sheppard Mullin in Los Angeles, focusing on technology transactions in the Internet space.

Karen Escovitz wrote, “For all of its foibles, I’m grateful for Facebook and the opportunity it provides to maintain contact with lots of friends from Wesleyan. It’s gratifying to see our lives evolve, to share ideas and inspirations, and to see your beautiful aging faces from time to time. Old fondness sometimes sparks new and vital connections. Hope to see some of you in May!”

From the class secretary: Lucy Seham Malatesta wrote me to say that she missed our 25th and now will also miss the 30th—this time it’s to be her son’s commissioning at the United States Naval Academy. If you don’t come next May, I hope you have an equally good and valid excuse!