Class of 1969 | 2014 | Issue 1

Mike Terry retired from investment banking and is active in tobacco and smoking control. “Smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the US. Big Tobacco spends $10 billion a year on promotion.” His father, Surgeon General Luther Terry, issued the legendary report about tobacco dangers in 1964.

Harry Nothacker’s wife teaches English to immigrants. Son Keith developed and sells a breathalyzer that interfaces with an iPhone. Son Brian is a web architect at Vanguard. “I continue to enjoy Ironman training and competition—inspired by Jeff Galloway ’67, Amby Burfoot ’68, Bill Rodgers ’70, and Silas Wild.”

Now retired, Phil Wallas is “interested to see what identity I have outside work.”

Tony Mohr, vice chair of the ethics committee of the California Judges Association, says: “I preside over civil trials: personal injury, eviction, malpractice, and asbestos. I married Beverly Page last May and had an essay published in The MacGiffin.”

Jim Adkins attended his 40th med school reunion in DC. “Saw family and friends. To Manchester, N.H., to see son. Drove up Mt. Washington, spectacular foliage. Continue to work part-time, play trombone, and wonder where the time went.”

Jeff Richards produced an acclaimed revival of Glass Menagerie. “Upcoming, a musical, Bridges of Madison County, and an LBJ/Civil Rights play that vividly re-creates a time we are all familiar with.”

Doug Bell founded and operates Grasslands, a major farm and land appreciation investment in Uruguay. “The best priorities are family, friends, and keeping our health.”

Jim Martello wrote, “Gail, daughter Jennifer, and I are fortunate, well, and live in Vernon, Conn. I taught/coached 33 years and now operate a paint/wallpaper business. We own a place near Sarasota, where our son and his family live. Remember, 66 is the new 46.”

Howie Brown, fully retired, visited India and Hawaii recently. “The arts scene in DC is such that one could go to two performances daily forever—reminds me of London’s music scene in the ’70s.”

David Siegel is chief of medicine for VA Northern California Health Care System and professor of internal medicine at UC, Davis. “Last son at Albert Einstein in NYC. No retirement plans.”

Tom Goodman: “I’ve been in Philly for 35 years. One daughter, Mara. I taught photography at UT San Antonio and Philadelphia College of Art. Check out tomgoodman.com.”

Mike Fink said, “Daughter Jennie graduates in December and Katie in 2018. We see the light at the end of the tunnel. Still love my work as a real estate developer, so no retirement plans.”

Peter Cunningham is an independent photographer in the publishing field. “I’m re-issuing some old rock and roll photos and creating a book, One Word Poems, which matches photos of words with images that echo their meaning.”

Tom Earle’s married daughter Inga lives in Bangalore. “Her first child made me a first-time granddad. Tempus fugit.”

From Larry Feldman: “I’m reasonably healthy, kids doing well, working full time. I was honored by a group who deal with hazardous waste sites, a field I’ve worked in for three decades.”

Darius Brubeck’s granddaughter Lydia Elmer ’17 and Nathaniel Elmer ’14 continue the Wesleyan tradition. “I’m touring the UK and South Africa.”

Steve and Dave ’72 Knox’s family reunion in Seattle included both their daughters named Caroline. On Steve’s side, the children are involved with medicine. “Saw Sam Davidson’s [’68] famous art gallery in the heart of downtown.”

Eric Greene wrote, “Jeanne and I live in Greenfield, Mass. We love our online mineral business and have no plans to retire. I have fond memory of Joe Peoples’ Geology 101.”

John Mihalec saw Steve Darnell and David Burke at a Wes/Williams soccer game before watching Wes beat Bates in football 35–7.

John Wilson is back in Ann Arbor after Coda, an electric carmaker, went into Chapter 11.

John Crigler wished “the government would take more time off, so I could catch up. Work involves public radio, TV stations, and their Web-based spinoffs. My psychologist wife jokes that only one of us is in the caring profession.”

Charles Elbot reconnected with Al Wallace ’70 and Barb Watson ’70. “Eclectic holds many fond memories. I’m now an executive leadership coach for Denver Public Schools, have two sons nearby, and travel with my wife, Barbara.”

Charlie Morgan had dinner with Rick Cram, a fellow Gamma Psi, who also lives in Bonita Springs. “Any other Wes grads in the Fort Myers/Naples corridor? I research family history, do some consulting, and play tennis.”

From Paul Melrose: “Son Ian and wife Cindy have Maddy and Jersey. Wife Sue will retire from the ministry around Reunion. I do executive and clergy coaching. See Marge and Barry Checkoway and heard that Lanny Schiller survived Boulder flooding but house damaged.”

Dave Dixon helped develop a post-Katrina master plan for New Orleans that celebrates the city’s relationship with water and uses water-management strategies to solidify neighborhoods. Dave, who works for Goody Clancy, spoke at NYIT in New York City and was billed as “a leading thinker, doer, and visionary.”

Rameshwar Das wrote, “Two events came down the pike this past summer, one life-affirming, the other life-shattering. On June 15th our 14-year-old daughter, Anna Mirabel Lytton, was run over on her bike and killed in our hometown of East Hampton, Long Island, N.Y. On August 1st, my second book with Ram Dass, Polishing the Mirror, was published. Enjoy every moment.” Please look at ’83’s notes for a remembrance by Anna’s mother, Kate Rabinowitz ’83.

We need to add David Sullivan, Bill Lewis, Margorie Daltry Rosenbaum, and Anna to Ed’s list.

Think Reunion.

CHARLIE FARROW
1 Cold Spring Rd., East Haddam, CT 06423
charlesfarrow@comcast.net

Class of 2009 | 2014 | Issue 1

Four years after graduation, here is what some fellow 2009 grads are up to…

Elana Baurer graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in May. After taking the Pennsylvania and New Jersey bars she will be moving back home to Philadelphia to work at Duane Morris, LLP. She also hopes to start a juvenile advocacy nonprofit in Philadelphia.

Katie Shelly is publishing Picture Cook, which is a collection of more than 50 dishes that completely re-invent the traditional recipe format by rendering each recipe as a hand-drawn, flowchart-like illustration that uses a minimum of words. It will be published by Ulysses Press in October. The link to pre-order is on facebook.com/PictureCook

Aviva Tevah has been in NYC since 2009, working on reentry education issues with the non-profit service providers, city agencies, and academic institutions that constitute the New York Reentry Education Network. The Network is organizing its first conference, called “Pathways of Possibility: Transforming Education’s Role in Reentry,” which will bring together stakeholders to build a shared reentry education agenda moving forward.

Chris Goy spent the summer in Chicago as a management fellow in Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office and then returned to Philadelphia for his final year studying public administration at UPenn before starting a life out in the Rockies…or Hawaii.

Julie Neuspiel will be moving to Boston (living in Allston!) to begin a PhD in clinical psychology at UMass Boston mentored by Dr. Abbey Eisenhower. She will be studying the supportive roles of parent-child and teacher-child relationships in social emotional development, particularly within contexts of economic and developmental adversity during early childhood and the transition to school. Her training will be supported by Boston’s Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities fellowship which is funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the US Department of Health and Human Services through the 2006 Combating Autism Act. Max Wu ’08 is a second-year doctoral student in the same program, and Cara Herbitter ’03 is in her entering class as well! George Bennum is living in Boston, working as a GIS analyst for a civil engineering company. He is hanging out with Adam Nikolich a fair amount and brewing beer with him.

Sarah Gillig Sunu just wrapped up her first year of graduate school at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, where she is earning a master’s of environmental management with a concentration in coastal environmental management. Sarah has also changed her name to Sarah Sunu (maiden name at Wesleyan was Gillig); her husband, Steve Sunu ’08, is in North Carolina with her and is a freelance journalist.

Gabriel Fries has taken the four years since Wesleyan to do the “post-college wandering” thing. He has been a zombie in an episode of Good Morning America, passed out real estate flyers in a monkey costume, and been a tall skinny Toys “R” Us Santa, among other odd jobs. He has also gotten into teaching—teaching filmmaking for three summers at a camp in New Hampshire, teaching English, baseball, and hamburger eating (this is not a joke) at a place called American Village in France, and most recently, teaching English through theater with a traveling children’s theater company in Italy! It’s been a good ride, but now he is ready to stay in one place and start focusing more on depth than breadth

Ari King recently published his book, Now What?! Conversations about College, Graduation, and the Next Step. More information can be found on the alumni website., which is exactly what it sounds like—a night of veterans sharing their stor ies.

Dominic Ireland is leaving his position at Bridgewater Associates, taking a month to travel through Turkey, and then moving to Austin, Tex.

In 2012, Daphne Schmon finished her first feature documentary, Children of the Wind. So far, they have been to four festivals and won six awards, most notably Best Documentary and Best Emerging Filmmaker at X-Dance Film Festival, the world’s premiere action sports film festival. The film will be released this spring worldwide. Website and trailer can be found at: childrenofthewindmovie.com. Daphne is living in New York where she has founded her own film company, Seek Films. In addition to touring the festival circuit, she is in development for her next feature film project.

Chris Helsel has just arrived in Madrid where he will be completing a master’s (LLM) in international sports law this semester. Chris finished at Villanova Law this fall and will receive his joint JD/LLM degree when he finishes in Spain.

Karl Grindal and Laurenellen McCann have been living in Washington, D.C., for the last 3+ years and celebrated their first year of living together by getting a domestic partnership. Karl is a cyber-security consultant for the government and is helping a former professor write a history book on cyber conflict. Laurenellen is the national policy manager at the Sunlight Foundation and spends her days thinking about government transparency and open data. On the side, she runs a project about mapping public art and occasionally gets Karl to help her run The Alley of Doom, a pop-up game, funded by the Awesome Foundation, that allows passersby to pretend to be Indiana Jones.

 Jesse Coburn has been on the road doing his Mute Puppets show for the past three years. Drawing on his readings of mysticism and Martin Heidegger, he has developed a performance that bypasses the “Gerede” of the everyday, allowing (for once) silence to pour out of the furry mouths of puppets. Their frenzied gestures refer to a different language, one inscribed in the natural world. In ’13-’14 he will mostly be in Tennessee, West Virginia, and upstate NY. He is always dutifully polite upon meeting a fellow alum.

Zeeba Khalili is living in Somerville, Mass., and started an awesome new job as a program associate at Summer Search, a national non-profit that supports low-income youth to develop leadership skills and graduate from college. She is still waiting to find out if she can join the Mystical Seven.

Sam Ottinger is living in New Orleans and is now a licensed mortgage loan officer. He’s baking bread, brewing beer, and growing his own tomatoes. Come visit! Minimum of five drinks required per visitor.

Brittany Delany, based in the Bay Area, collaborates regularly with Wes Alums in art and performance projects. In February 2012, she danced with Shayna Keller, Samantha Sherman, and Sarah Ashkin ’11 at Movement Research at Judson Church in New York and also co-choreographed a dance sequence for a film directed by Nikhil Melnechuk ’07.

Delany runs a monthly arts program Ground Series in Oakland with Sarah Ashkin ’11. Ground Seriescreates a space where art and community find common ground. All of the programming prioritizes communal exchange of skills, resources, and experiences in order to strengthen and unite artist and neighbor. In January 2013, Britt and Sarah hosted Wes Alums Khalia Frazier ’07, Aaron Freedman ’10, Allison Hurd ’11, and Samantha Sherman with director Pedro Alejandro, professor of dance at Wes, to create a dance for camera in a Berkeley arts space and to develop a new work premiering at Wesleyan in April 2013.

Michelle Brown and Paul Boulat are wrapping up a wonderful year living together in Astoria, NYC, following a tradition starting at Wesleyan where they lived together for five semesters. Michelle graduated from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts with an MA in art history in May and is now looking to enter the museum professions. Paul is a manager for Vermont-based textile company Anichini. They are looking forward to staying neighbors, as both are staying in Astoria for the foreseeable future.

Ryan Walsh sends “a pic of me and Dino playing for the Eaton Vance hockey team. We worked together for most of the year until Dino left to work for a start-up, this is all we have for memories…. just in case you needed some ammo.” You can see the photo online: go to wesleyan.edu/magazine and click on “class notes.”

 

And finally, Sara Swetzoff, her spouse and her child have moved to Portland, Ore.

Alejandro Alvarado
ale.alvarado12@gmail.com