Class Notes

Guillermo Prada-Silva wrote, “Norma and I went to Italy on a pilgrimage with a priest and church members from Holy Spirit Church in San Jose. Attended a general audience in St. Peter’s Square and stood within 20 feet of the Pope. Visited the Amalfi Coast and hiked Cinque Terra before returning.”

Tom Goodman posted several new portfolios on his website. One is a series of images based on letters written by his parents to each other. “I recommend the mysteries and other stories written by Bruce Hartman.”

Phil Wallas said, “George Creeger had a huge influence on me, a major part of why I became an English major. I remember an evening at his barn, drinking imported beer, and listening to opera. Just spent a month in New Zealand. Hiked, met locals, enjoyed long views from mountains, lakes, and shores. Hope to hold on to that perspective as normal life returns.

Tony Mohr’s essay “The Angry Red Planet” is in Mojo and his essay “Rainy Day Schedule” in DIAGRAM.

Harry Nothacker “had dinner with Silas Wild, a Navy roommate, who had been hiking in Mallorca and skiing in Austria. When Amby Burfoot ’68 won the Boston Marathon in 1968, Silas also ran and finished respectably. Son Keith had his Breathalyzer App approved for the Apple watch. He started his alcohol measuring devices company, BACTrack, as a student at Penn.”

Fred Coleman wrote, “Great year. First grandchild, Charlie. Went to Cambodia as part of our work with Khmer refugees. Visited schools we helped start. Will take part in the Parliament of World Religions this fall. Wendy and I are still working and love it. Favorite hiking areas—Adirondacks, Rockies, and Tucson range.”

Rob Pratt is “semi-retired, no longer CEO of GreenerU, which helps higher education facilities with energy efficiency. Vicki and I sail more in Maine, and I love not going into the office. Still GU chairman, overseeing International Institute for Energy Conservation, which I founded in 1984. The IIEC is based in Bangkok and works on energy efficiency policy, mainly in Asia. Daughter Eliza teaches an ESL kindergarten class in Somerville, Mass. We’re happy to see her regularly. Vicki’s not sure how ‘semi’ my retirement is. Maybe this is the ‘new retirement.’”

David Siegel wrote, “After over 40 years as a practicing physician, I can say with great confidence that the U.S. health care system is a mess: inequitable, uneven in quality, and ruinously expensive. Now that our class is enjoying the benefits of Medicare, join me in supporting a U.S. single-payer health care system—Medicare for all. I’m working with Physicians for a National Health Program. There is lots of work to do to change things for the better.”

From Doug Bell: “Still farming in Uruguay. European connections developing. I love being engaged in the conversation about feeding the planet. I work in agriculture, livestock, and forestry management for those desiring an investment program in South America.”

Paul Melrose lives in Madison, Wisc., sees Fred Coleman and the Rev. Charlie Berthoud ’86.

Steve Mathews said, “Susie and I have lived in Nashville over 40 years. This state capital is a destination city. High-tech, major healthcare, 30-plus colleges and universities, world-renowned music. My immediate crusade is to awaken employees to the looming ‘Senior Tsunami.’ Forty percent of today’s households care for a senior or disabled family member. Business owners can’t ignore this reality. Best wishes to my classmates.”

Happy Father’s Day from rainy Hadlyme. Every leaf turns up in supplication. In the past month I spent a week in South Carolina with Liz, Josh, Abby, and Benton, a weekend in NYC with Annie and Jeff at a family wedding, and just back from four days with Deb’s older brother and his son and fiancé. Family Month more like it. Family and farm are my life now—painting, reading, cooking, cleaning. My love to you all.

2018 is not really that far off—at our age, we know how the years fly by—and yet that is our 50th Reunion, the big one, the Last Hurrah. To pull it off properly, there are a million things that need to be thought through and taken care of and, in all candor, we haven’t done much of anything. (Unfortunately, there is no group, unbeknownst to you, secretly organizing the event and my clear sense is we need to get in gear.) To that end, we are putting out a general call for volunteers of all stripes. If you would like to lend your talents to make this a truly memorable event, please contact Stuart Ober (ober@stuartober.com) or Sandy See (seescape@verizon.net), who have been kind enough to step forward and help identify a working group or Reunion council.

John Ashworth, after a doctorate from Harvard and a post-doc at MIT, has had an adventuresome career in renewable energy, starting in what is now the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The lab grew from 50 to 900 staff in a few short years and he worked with a variety of state governments initially and then helped set up an international program for assisting developing countries to create their own programs. There he met his wife, Nancy, and they were married in 1982. When the Reagan administration took a meat ax to the program, he joined a small consulting firm in Vermont that focused on technical assistance for the developing world. For five years, he did a great deal of travel for USAID and the World Bank, during which time he witnessed two coup d’états and spent countless nights in airport lounges. After which, he was delighted to find domestic work with a consulting firm in D.C., but his heart was not really into life in the Beltway.

In 1994, John joined a start-up software-driven environmental education firm in Phoenix and ended up running the environmental group. There he got a great deal of hands-on experience with desert plants and drip irrigation as they slowly landscaped a good-sized property in Paradise Valley. But the summers got to them, and they happily found a way back to Colorado through a job offer from his first employer, NREL, where he headed up their biofuels partnership development team for 11 years until he retired in May 2013.
In retirement, “Life is good”—in a smaller one-story house with a greenhouse and a koi pond. John works at the Denver Botanical Garden, has been teaching himself blues guitar and is working on his outdoor photography. He skis every week during the winter and they do a good deal of traveling when Nancy can fit it into her schedule as a certified executive coach.

Bob Svensk and Peter Swain ’71 have been partners for the past five years in a trade finance venture that was recently sold to Allied World Assurance. Bob reports that “Peter has moved to NYC and now works at corporate headquarters. I remain in Southport as an ‘independent consultant’—whatever that means.” Peter started Wes with us but finished in 1971. When I reached out, he kindly gave me “the bare bones of life since Middletown”: Taught art and history at Midland School in Los Olivos, Calif., 1971–75. Got his MBA at Wake Forest, where he met his wife, (Anne) 1975–1977. Worked at First National Bank of Maryland in their international and ship finance division with responsibilities that brought him all over the world (and for over five years in the 1980s he was very happily London-based), 1977–2000. This was followed by stints at Riggs Bank and as a partner in a small trade finance shop in Baltimore before receiving a call from Bob making him an offer he couldn’t refuse. The important stuff for Peter is Anne and three great kids: a psychologist, a med school student and “the third doing her thing.”

In April Rick Voigt taught a non-credit adult education course at Wesleyan that Don Logie attended. (Rick said Don was a disruptive student, continually asking questions that exposed the instructor’s limitations.) Since graduation, Rick taught at Miles College in Birmingham, Ala., a predominately black college that played an important role in the civil rights movement in that city. Then to the University of Virginia law school, where he met his wife, Annemarie Riemer. After law school, he worked for eight years in Washington, D.C., in the Solicitor’s Office for the U.S. Department of Labor, basically as a federal prosecutor under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Then he moved to Hartford to go into private practice, where he has been ever since. In the process of retiring, he is pursuing other interests, which for years had been on back burners. He is working in the Academic Support Center at Manchester Community College assisting students with writing, working with the Knox Foundation on urban “greening” and beautification issues, serving as a parajudicial officer (settlement officer) with the U.S. District Court for Connecticut, and teaching continuing education courses. They have two sons, both of whom live in Boston and have beards. From time to time, he sees Brendan Lynch, who deserves much credit for his civic work in the Hartford community.

Paul Spitzer forwarded a note he had gotten from Brian Frosh’s office. (Brian, you’ll recall, was recently elected Maryland’s Attorney General.) Some excerpts: “The death of Freddie Gray, or any person in police custody, is a tragedy… Baltimore is and always has been the very heart of Maryland. I know we feel compassion for our neighbors and friends, sadness over destruction and damage, and a shared commitment to rebuild and grow for the future…” Brian has been in the midst of things and, while lamenting the Baltimore that burned at night, he is uplifted by the Baltimore where residents help one another “and march together peacefully and with great purpose.” Let us keep Brian and Baltimore in our thoughts and prayers.

Some good news, and some sad news.

First the good news, about my friend Tom Drew. It turns out that the medical staff at the Rhode Island Hospital, where Tom has worked as a cardiologist since 1977, honored him with the Milton W. Hamolsky Outstanding Physicians Award, the highest honor that the hospital gives. According to the chief medical officer at the hospital, “Dr. Drew is an extraordinary physician who has inspired other physicians through his dedication to excellence, unparalleled medical skills and compassionate care.” Sounds to me as if that chief medical officer got it just right, not only about Tom but about what one would hope for in a physician: dedication, skills, and compassion.

After finishing medical school at Columbia University, Tom did his internship and residency at Beth Israel in Boston, and has lived in or near Providence ever since. He and his wife, Carolyn (formerly the president of the International Institute of Boston, an organization that has provided, since 1924, services for immigrants and refugees), as of this writing (mid-May 2015) have four kids and seven grandchildren (with an eighth due any day).

In addition to his work at Rhode Island Hospital, Tom was also a clinical associate professor of medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
In early 2015 he wrote that he was “officially retiring in March” but wasn’t sure it would take. (“Think it is more likely a six-month sabbatical. We will see.”) He and Carolyn were dividing their time between their home in Westport, Mass., and Sarasota, Fla., “spending some time on a boat, lots of time with grandkids.”

The sad news is that after a year-long bout with multiple myeloma, amyloidosis, and end-stage renal disease, Andy Barada died in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Feb. 8, 2015, a few weeks shy of his 70th birthday. After finishing medical school at UVA, an internship at the University of Wisconsin, a stint as the chief of medicine at Fort Defiance Indian Hospital on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, and a residency back at UVA, Andy served the Durham (N.C.) community as a rheumatologist for more than 30 years. According to the obituary in a Durham newspaper, he had been the president of the medical staff at Durham Regional Hospital and president of the N.C. Rheumatology Association. He also helped to found Project Access of Durham County, which provides medical care for the uninsured. He is survived by his wife of 46 years, Placide Noell Barada, two children, and four grandchildren.

Andy’s senior year roommate, David Webb ’68, who retired in 2012 after 42 years as a teacher and dean at Choate, told me in an e-mail that he had stayed in touch with Andy through the years, especially during the years Andy’s daughter was a student at Choate. Andy—who played tennis and squash at Wesleyan, and was an avid athlete throughout his life—kept encouraging David to read The Boys in the Boat, which he finally did. “Our final phone call,” he told me, “was about the 1937 Olympic champion crew team, The Boys in the Boat. On several occasions, Andy had urged me to read it, and when I finally did: What a book! I called Andy that last time to thank him for that!”

Aloha, all.
By the time everyone reads this, summer will be a remembrance of the past. Hopefully, everyone has had their fill of “soda, and pretzels, and beer.”

This is late in coming, but first I want to recognize our classmate Bill Dietz, who has joined the ranks of our retired after a long and very distinguished career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). I personally need to thank Bill for his helpful thoughts and advice to a diabetes program I was directing in Hawai`i a number of years ago…a big mahalo, Bill, and welcome to our ranks!

The big news for us is that our 50th is now well over the horizon! Our classmate Rick Crootof has been hard at work twisting elbows and peering in various neighborhoods to put together a great Reunion Committee. The committee is already beginning its work and includes: Rick and Dave McNally as our co-chairs; Jim Andrus, Essel Bailey, David Bartlett, David Boyle, Howard Brodsky, Tom Broker, Al Burman, Frank Burrows, Clark Byam, Graham Colville, Gary Conger, Donald Craven, Pat Curry, Bob Dannies, Bill Dietz, Jeffrey Evans, Steve Giddings, Paul Gilbert, Al Ibargüen, John Knapp, David Luft, Jim O`Leary, John Neff, Irv Richter, Sandy Shilepsky, Pete Spiller, yours truly, Sandy Van Kennen, and Dale Walker and Wes staff Pam Vasiliou, Mark Davis ’96, and Nicky Bennett. Thank you one and all for serving. Rick has notified us that Professor Rob Rosenthal has agreed to be one of our class guests and did a great seminar at our 30th Reunion comparing the top 10 songs of 1966 with those of 1996….Can you imagine what that comparison would look like now? Now it’s up to all ’66ers to do the right thing and to start planning now on attending next year’s gathering. Let’s make singing our old Wesleyan Fight Song at least one more time together a reality on the steps of North College…see you there! And maybe even the Douglas Cannon will show up for another appearance!

The Committee has already been at work and invited Don Russell to join us, and he has accepted. Speaking of sports…congratulations to the Wes baseball team and Coach Mark Woodworth ’94 in winning its second consecutive NESCAC championship, and a welcoming to Dan DiCenzo into the head football coaching position. Thank you, Mike Whalen ’83, for a great job and congratulations in your new athletic director positon.
A final note, and one more somber, is the concern I know we all have for the seemingly ongoing gun tragedies across our nation. This is not meant to be a political statement, I simply want to call to mind how we of the ’60s era at Wesleyan were all so privileged to have lived at a time which witnessed Wesleyan’s involvement in race relations bringing together us as students and Middletown youngsters in tutorial programs; serving as a hub for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s efforts in the Middletown/Hartford area and evenings in the Foss Hill dining hall; sending its students to Washington, D.C., to march and to Tuskegee to learn. It also brought future Dean Edgar Beckham ’58 to Wesleyan, whose legacy on campus lives on through the Edgar Beckham Social Justice Award. Let us remember those days for, in many ways, they formed the glue which has cemented us as the class of ’66.

As with other Notes – a final Hawaiian `olelo:
Aia no ke ea i ka puka ihu: “There is breath still in the nostrils”—a reply when someone asks how a friend or relative is.

And so, ’66, our breaths live on!!!

We laughed, we cried, we hugged, we danced, we told stories and said things about ourselves not said before—in short, it was an extraordinary Reunion!

Many thanks to the committee who put it all together and to the 93 classmates—a 50th Reunion attendance record—who returned to our beloved campus.

The university honored a number of our own:

Hugh Wilson: Distinguished Alumnus Award for his remarkable achievements as a mathematician, philosopher, biologist, chemist, physicist, researcher and professor.
Mark Edmiston: Outstanding Service Award for his many years of service to Wesleyan as a trustee and alumni association leader.

Rob Abel, Don Crampton, and John Hall: Wesleyan Service Award for sustained service to the college as fundraisers, alumni club leaders, donors and admission volunteers.

Joseph’s Robe, the ’65 award for meritorious service to the class, was presented to: Gary and the Wombats (John Dunton, Steve Flance, Brooke Jones ’64, Leon Robinette ’64 and Richard Smith), and to Reunion juggernauts Dave Dinwoodey and Bob Barton. (To further sway the judges’ votes in their favor, The Wombats put on a spirited performance on Friday night and we all danced like it was 1965 once again!)

The festivities, which began on Thursday, featured a nice mix of seminars, time for socializing and sports (some of us played golf, tennis, and basketball), and space in the schedule just to relax and walk the expanded and beautiful campus. We also had three enjoyable banquets: a Kickoff Reception/Dinner on Thursday evening; the President’s Reception/Dinner in our honor on Friday, featuring Michael Roth’s ’78 remarks on the state of the University and his vision for its future; and Saturday’s celebratory Class Dinner with Professors Anne and Nathaniel Greene, and Wendy and Karl Scheibe; Coach Don Russell and his son, Andy; long-time administrator John Driscoll ’62 and his wife Gina; and special guest, Linda Burton, widow of Mike Burton.

Seminars and panels featuring the ’65 family included: “Butterfield 2020” organized by Bob Barton, which explored the reasons Wesleyan went from one of the wealthiest colleges in the country to the verge of financial crisis in the 10 years after we graduated.
“Our Times” was an interactive discussion among classmates moderated by Tony Schuman concerning the turmoil of the ’60s—the civil rights movement, Vietnam, the social revolution—and its influence on our lives.

“Skills for the New Economy,” a WESeminar organized by Kirt Mead examined the skills that Wesleyan grads will need in a new economy dominated by technology and rapid change. Presenters included Kirt, who consults throughout the United States and Europe on business leadership and strategic planning, and Molly Barton ’00 (Bob’s daughter), who is a leader in digital publishing.

“Architect as Artisan and Community Activist,” was a WESeminar presented by Steve Badanes regarding his decades of work in community-based architecture and design. Steve is a noted speaker, author, itinerant designer/builder and the Howard S. Wright Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington.

“Global Warming: What the World’s Climate Scientists and Policy Leaders Now Know, Fear, Hope and Plan,” moderated by Bill Blakemore, featured classmate Jerry Melillo, along with Wes Professor Gary Yohe, a leading climate-impact economist. Bill began writing about global warming for ABC News in 2004, and Jerry chaired all three government National Climate Assessments and served as environmental adviser to the President.

(In this regard, a number of classmates attended an informal meeting afterward to discuss ways to encourage University initiatives, such as focusing endowment investments in cleaner energy rather than fossil fuel companies. For more information, please contact Woody Sayre; Robert.Sayre@u-pem.fr

Another major highlight were the three “’65 WesShorts” sessions designed for classmates—scripted or not—to speak briefly about their lives, professions, passions, families, and reflections on their Wesleyan experience. They were organized and moderated by Bob Barton, Hugh Wilson and Tony Schuman and were extremely varied and entertaining. (Most of them were filmed and will be available to the class online—details to be announced.)

Ron Young came back and spoke several times with eloquence and passion. Ron left Wesleyan to pursue a career in civil rights, world peace, religion, and education. He developed a lifelong relationship with Professor John Maguire and met the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., on numerous occasions. Here are excerpts from a message he sent to the class following the Reunion: “Warm thanks for welcoming me in the class, despite my not graduating until 1986…. Connecting and reconnecting with many of you, experiencing Wesleyan’s wonderfully diverse community, learning in the Wes Seminars…. listening to the WesShorts…were incredible and very emotional for me. Reading the Remembrances about guys I knew and others I didn’t brought tears…

“Given how significantly my taking off from Wesleyan affected my life, I don’t regret what I did, but I do have a much deeper personal appreciation for what I missed.”

Ron wrote a memoir concerning his work in support of civil rights, opposition to the Vietnam War and efforts to foster peace among Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians, entitled Crossing Boundaries in the Americas, Vietnam and the Middle East.

In addition to the Reunion committee, individual kudos to: Rob Abel and Bob Barton for producing a marvelous 50th Reunion class book;

David Dinwoodey, editor, and the many contributors for their efforts in putting together the touching Remembrances booklet containing personal memories of deceased classmates;

Don Crampton for his tireless and long-time work on the class’s support of the Wesleyan Fund and his committee, for their efforts, as well;

Hal Gorman, Bill Knox, Mike Maloney and Hugh Wilson for their donations of some truly fine wine for our enjoyment throughout the weekend;

Peter Kelman, expert in Web communications, who spearheaded the critical effort to locate lost classmates and to urge all to attend.

Now, thanks to Peter’s ongoing wizardry, coupled with Bob Barton’s wes65stories website, we are well-positioned to build on the relationships renewed and begun at our 50th. And, later this summer, all of us will receive the Class Book Addendum, and those who missed Reunion will also receive the tribute to deceased classmates and Peter Whiteley’s fabulous ’60s CD. (Thank you, Peter! I listen to it all the time!)

This will not be our last class gathering or Reunion! We have a great opportunity to continue to make new friendships, renew old ones and engage each other in beneficial ways for years to come. So, save Nov. 6–7 (Homecoming), the dates for our next get together. Details to follow!

Here I go again, putting together class notes for another issue of our alumni magazine. Where will my thoughts take me, and in keeping with the “this is why” at Wesleyan, I’m looking at our class, a half-century removed from undergraduates, to lend some perspectives to the conversation. I would like to believe that we were led into our future by Wesleyan to have integrity, responsibility, and generosity in the various domains of our lives. I have been back to each Reunion and have been recording my notes on a quarterly basis so that I declare our mission accomplished.

There is a broad range of contribution to the world when you look at the paths we all followed. I’m thinking of our 50th Reunion class book and what was shared about life after graduation. I’m impressed by the physicians, lawyers, judges, and politicians who emerged from the “storied halls;” educators, philosophers, business leaders, and activists who transformed the lives of others.

Recently, I looked at the addendum to the class book and reviewed the comments of Norman Daniels, Richard T. Smith, Jr. (Chip), Joel J. Johnson, The Honorable Frederick J. Motz and Oliver E. Wood Jr. (Chips). Norm Daniels and Chip Smith took the path of social justice in theory and application to the leaders at Harvard University, in Norman’s case, and the labor workforce and union concerns in Chip’s world. Norman studied psychology and philosophy at Oxford for two years. Chip received a degree in economics from Temple University.

Fred Motz graduated from the University of Virginia Law School in 1967 and spent time as an assistant United States attorney, followed by working in a law firm in Baltimore. In 1985 he was appointed a United States District Judge in Maryland by President Reagan and continues to serve his community.

Joel Johnson was originally in the class of 1964 and didn’t graduate until 1965 when his CSS project was extended one year. He spent two years at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School. He would be a source of interesting perception in the world of commerce, having worked for the federal government—State Department, Treasury, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee, participating in such activities as UN conferences on Trade and Development. He eventually left government employment and focused on international aspects of aerospace and defense trade and industrial cooperation.

Chips Wood got an MBA in international business at the Wharton School, went to Navy OCS training in Newport, R.I., and served for three years. He joined the Levi Strauss International Division and eventually rose to regional general manager, Asia. He later formed Wood Consulting International to assist companies entering foreign markets, including an enterprise in Russia.

We didn’t have women in our class, but in reviewing the notes on our wives, there is a powerful group of ladies who have been most valuable: Chip Smith’s wife, Kim, a neurosurgeon; Fred Motz’s spouse, an appellate court judge; Norman Daniels’, a neuropsychologist; and Chips Wood, a botanical artist.

Norman Daniels came away from Wesleyan wanting to learn theory acceptance in science.

Joel Johnson remembers Vic Butterfield’s advice to have four exciting years at Wesleyan but not the best years of our lives. Chip Smith was amazed at how much he learned after the first month of freshman year and the intellectual habits he developed. Fred Motz “being grateful not so much for the knowledge that was imparted to me, but for being taught to try to ask good questions.” For myself, I learned to trust my ability to be taught and took on four years at Albany Medical School and earned an MD degree. At Wesleyan I also learned how to be a catcher on the baseball diamond, giving me the tools to be an obstetrician and “catch” thousands of babies.