Rumors of Jim Hoxie’s retirement have been greatly exaggerated. Hox has been named co-director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for RNA Innovation. Jim has conducted NIH-funded research on the Penn campus for nearly four decades. As a professor of medicine in the Hematology-Oncology Division, he became an emeritus professor in 2020 and will rejoin the faculty as an adjunct professor of medicine in the Hematology-Oncology Division at Penn Medicine. Since the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, Jim has been recognized internationally for his research accomplishments into basic mechanisms of HIV and SIV entry and interactions with CD4 and cellular co-receptors and understanding how the viral envelope glycoprotein contributes to immunodeficiency and evasion from host immune responses in viral pathogenesis. Jim has and continues to serve on and chair advisory committees in many academic institutions across the country and at NIH and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Jim is currently the chair of international Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), which will be held in February 2023. In his role as an oncologist at Penn, Jim has had long-standing interests in interdisciplinary approaches to address the growing public health burden of HIV-associated malignancies. He also served as an attending physician on the HUP Oncology Unit since the early 1980s, specializing in leukemia and bone marrow transplantation. Jim is perhaps best known at Penn for being the founding director of the Penn Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), and he directed this center for 17 years. The Penn CFAR, which brings together HIV/AIDS researchers across Penn, CHOP, and Wistar, continues to be a national leader in basic, clinical, behavioral, and social sciences related to the ongoing AIDS pandemic.
Blake Allison crossed the border from New Hampshire to attend the Wesleyan-Middlebury football game along with Steve Goldschmidt,Mike McKenna ’73, Lloyd Komesar ’74, and respective spouses. As Blake reports:
“The outcome was not in our favor, Middlebury prevailed 24-10, but Lloyd made a noteworthy score off the field. As we of our particular Wesleyan era know, more recent grads refer to their alma mater as ‘Wezleyan.’ We pronounce it ‘Wessleyan.’ After all, the great Methodist theologian, and our college’s namesake is John Wesley, not John ‘Wezley.’ Not surprisingly, Middlebury’s announcer used the ‘modern’ pronunciation. It annoyed Lloyd enough that at half time he went up the announcer’s booth and schooled him on the correct way to annunciate our beloved college’s name. Imagine our delight when, five minutes into the second half, the announcer referred to Wessleyan! He was inconsistent thereafter, backsliding into Wezleyan but clearly Lloyd’s intervention had an impact as Wessleyan was heard numbers of times. Now, if that would just take hold on campus in Middletown.”
Below is a view of the game in its idyllic surroundings. The Cards are wearing white.
Wesleyan vs. Middlebury, fall 2022
Jocko Burns was honored at Homecoming weekend by being inducted into the Wesleyan Athletics Hall of Fame. Well deserved!
Mark Gelber came home to Wesleyan to give a lecture on Kafka at the Chabad House. Mike Busman was there and said it was wonderful. I, unfortunately, had to preside at a homeowners’ association meeting, so the fact remains that I have not seen my good friend Herr Doktor Gelber since graduation.
Bonnie Krueger was blessed with two weddings in her family within four months. Daughter Maude ’07, was married in southwest France during a historic heatwave to Benoit Alegre, the charming father of their three-year-old son, Oren. A wedding that was delayed for three years because of COVID, which Bonnie contracted as soon as she arrived in France, so she missed the civil ceremony at the town hall but attended the dinner party and personal vows the next day. Four months later, son Julian married Simeon Grazivoda, his partner of seven years, in Vienna, where they both live and work. Bonnie et al. attended the town hall ceremony in the 16th District with about 50 family and friends from all over Eastern Europe. No COVID, but exuberant Balkan-style celebrations followed, lasting till dawn.
She said, “This means that two of our kids will live in Europe, for whose survival under democratic conditions we pray (same as for the U.S.). There must be some long German word for missing your kids who live too far away. Whatever it is, I have it! (Austin, where Tristan ’15 lives is not much closer by flight time.) Otherwise, what a beautiful mild fall on Cape Cod! I am fully retired but writing two books.”
Geoff Rips has begun working with his old friend Ernesto Cortes Jr., to help him write a book about community organizing in the U.S. Ernie has been the founding organizer of 30 community organizations across the South and Southwest. Geoff first met him when he was starting to organize San Antonio’s Communities Organized for Public Service in 1974. He’s a MacArthur genius and the most well-read person Geoff knows. And that includes all the rest of us.
We are not sure if he is the one of us to claim the honor, but Bob Wahl is now a great-grandfather! Deklan Robert Burgener was born in July.
Jack Walkenhorst, a veterinarian near Cincinnati, died suddenly in November.
Paul Edelberg has been very active in the American Bar Association’s International Law Section’s efforts to gather resources to protect Afghani lawyers and judges in the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal. This project was discussed quite often at the August meeting of the House of Delegates, which I attended.
And continuing in the category Famous Pauls, Paul Vidich’s sixth novel, Beirut Station, was purchased by his long-time U.K. and U.S. publishers for release in November 2023. (So given the familiar Wesleyan publication timetable, you should be ready to buy it real soon now.)
In September, Matthew Palmer’88, deputy chief of mission in the U,S, Embassy in London, hosted a dinner for Paul and his wife Linda at Wychwood House, his official residence in South Kensington. He used it as an opportunity to bring some Brit writers together, so there were several well-regarded English spy novelists at the dinner: Ken Follett, Alan Judd, Henry Porter, and Adam LeBor, in addition to Baroness Cathy Ashton. Palmer himself is the author of four highly acclaimed novels. His father, Michael Palmer ’64, was a doctor and also a well-regarded Wesleyan novelist. The Vidichs had their fourth grandchild, Remy, on September 4.
Please be sure to check out our unaffiliated class website, A Virtual Downey House, at www.wesclass72.com. You can keep up with classmates without having to wait for the magazine to come out and share your own news.
Aloha, Here are the more extensive notes from classmates emails. Most following the new guidelines for talking about their transitions after work life. Each entry is followed by the classmate who contributed. Enjoy!
Dave Morley Foster, Michael Pratt, and Jay Resnick
Jay Resnick, of the Hewitt 8 Delaware guys, sent in this photo. Comments about it came from John Wheat, David Rabban, and Michael Brewin:
“Hope you had fun! Looks cold [or wet] for September (jackets)—climate change here has turned the Pacific Northwest into a hot place, even in October (70s–85 degrees F);
“Idea: might be cool for someone to host a live, one-hour Zoom ‘happy hour’/Wes get-together event, one to two times per year;
“P.S.: Here’s a concert music track (at Seattle Center) for chilling out (and a shout-out to my music bros, Richie and Warren): Stolen Moments.” NB: You might need to download the file and use iTunes, Apple Music, Google Play, etc. for your listening pleasure.
“The documentary film whose story I discovered and researched, found the sources for, and produced, along with co-producer Mark Mitten and director Steve James, was completed this summer, funded in full by Participant Films, and was one of two documentaries chosen for the first time for world premieres at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, where it got a five-minute standing applause from the 1000-seat full house at the Aliedo on September 2. The U.S. debut at Telluride, a day later, also played to full houses. A Compassionate Spy, about teenage Manhattan Project physicist Ted Hall who became a Soviet spy at Los Alamos to prevent a U.S. monopoly on the bomb, should be released next spring. The whole project has been an exciting journey as I’ve spent my whole career as a print journalist. Got to see our grandson Jacob finally on his second birthday in Oxford where daughter Ariel is now an associate professor when the film premiered in the U.K.”— Dave Lindorff
“Well, I don’t know if this is good news or bad news but I’m not really in a period of transition— well except that I have entered what I call the ‘used car’ phase of life in which parts need to be replaced, in this case a hip. But otherwise, I still produce content for a video game company and so am required to spend a bunch of time in the U.K.; I still teach screenwriting through a low residency program as part of UC Riverside, I still produce and write the odd film, I still consult for a preschool . . . . So, retirement is not really part of the picture. Nor are any of my three kids showing much interest in giving me grandkids. The truth is my work life is always challenging in a good way and my family life is wonderfully gratifying. SO, I’m more than okay with the lack of transition.”—John Schimmel
“Missing Wes and DKE more than ever. It really was an incredible time in our life and a transformation for generations to follow. I’m not entirely proud of how it all went down but would love to go back knowing what we know now. Doing all the mundanities of 73-year-olds, including golf, grandparenting, and drinking good wine.
“Need the ‘fountain of youth,’ before we have another civil war. Miss the rock concerts.”—Joe Keller
“Hope you and Class of ’71 are doing well! I am prep cooking one day per week at Feed More and training to give tours at VMHC.”—Warren White
“After almost 40 years of doing commission furniture design and construction, I am now concentrating on designing and making pieces for our home—no more commissions! I also photograph these pieces and write them up for publication in one or more of the trade journals if I feel that it is applicable. I have been teaching more and enjoying it—last spring I had Jay Resnick’s son Eli as one of my students in a class in Indiana! It’s all very rewarding and I am enjoying it.”—Andrew Glantz
“Neil, I’m avoiding ‘transitioning’ until I come up with something worth transitioning to. Until then, I am still practicing law, albeit at a slower pace than when I was half my current age. Karla and I have downsized (a hideous word and concept) into a condominium, and I’ll consider retiring from my law practice when I find the right next step. I’m really looking for something related to climate change, but that isn’t easy to find.”—Mark I. Wallach
“Unfortunately, I could not go to our reunion. For my transition, I am remaining active as a senior partner at Blair and working with some clients, portfolio managers, and also marketing. I am also on a number of Boards of Trustees including Wesleyan. I am trying to spend a lot of time with my children and grandchildren which has been very rewarding. Finally, I am playing more golf, hiking, and taking a few online courses. So far it has gone well.”—Phil Rauch
“I decided to respond right away before I forget to follow up (another sign of aging).
What’s made my life more fulfilling may not be instructive to others due to my personal circumstance. However, the experience may be replicated by some, as well as give others hope.
“After being widowed in 2000, I finally found the second love of my life six years ago. I am now in a long-term, committed relationship with a wonderful man with whom we share our love for one another and for travel, bicycling, dining out, winters in the desert, our respective board experiences, new friends, and an extended family—all in greater abundance than were feasible while I was single.”—Mary O. McWilliams
“I’ve been practicing law in New York for small firms and large firms. For the past six years, I’ve been a sole practitioner, working out of my home and eliminating a 3 ½- to 4-hour commute. After I set up my solo practice, I practiced in the estates and trusts area and handled small- to medium-size deals such as purchase and sale agreements, structuring and documenting financial arrangements, and a variety of other business matters. About five weeks ago, I handled a transaction in which two partners who operated an accounting firm for 35 years were separating. I represented the withdrawing partner in what was supposed to be a friendly deal between two old friends. I warned my client that when money is involved, old friendships and years of working together usually mean nothing, as each partner jockeys for his own best deal.
“The attorneys representing my client’s partner were from a large midtown firm, with a senior partner and a junior partner working together. Both attorneys were extremely dismissive of me, were terribly rude, refused to even consider comments from me, and lied about the execution document. On the day of the closing, the big firm attorneys emailed to me the final, execution documents, and a marked copy of the execution documents, showing the changes from the prior draft of the document. I went through the documents and discovered that they had removed from the agreement one section which was very important to my client and hadn’t marked it. They probably figured that I would just go over the redlines and wouldn’t notice that they had omitted this very important provision. But, as an old-fashioned attorney, I read every word of the redline and discovered their effort to cheat. I called the junior partner, asked about the redline, and let him have it. Failing to mark a change under these circumstances is unethical and violates the unwritten gentlemen’s understanding among attorneys that the marked copy of the document accurately shows all changes to the document. But I caught these sons of bitches in a lie.
“The junior partner wrote me a two-page letter explaining that the copy-room clerk had made a mistake, and his assistant made a mistake, and as a result they sent the wrong document to me. It was everybody’s fault except the junior partner’s. I emailed the senior partner about this and he told me that they thought my client wanted the important clause to be removed.
“That was it: my moment of disgust. I didn’t want to deal with slimeballs like these two lawyers anymore. I didn’t want to do deals and take middle-of-the-night phone calls anymore. I didn’t want to do the things I had been doing for close to 50 years. So at that moment of disgust, I stood up, retired, and began to wind down my law practice. I’m pivoting into becoming an advocate for people who have a brain illness and have been caught up in the criminal law system. I am excited to learn about the laws and procedures that govern when a person with a mental illness commits a crime, is caught by the police, and goes to jail. If this person is determined by the court to be dangerous, as determined by the court and the district attorney, and as approved by some old men who are unaware of the advances that have been made by psychiatrists and psychologists, the person is placed in a secure forensic psychiatric hospital for an unknown period of time, possible the rest of his life, until the DA, the court and the old men in Albany agree that the person is no longer dangerous. There are no objective standards for a person to achieve in order to be no longer ‘dangerous.’ The residents of the hospital receive little treatment, and spend days at a time with nothing to do but sit in their rooms and try to entertain themselves, especially during the pandemic. I’d like to change this system. This piece may be a little too long for your column, but it felt good to me to get it out.
“Be well, stay safe and enjoy life!”—John Wagner, Esq.
“Neil, I think this is a great idea. I will not be retiring until next August but the consideration of alternatives and options is creative for us all. Look forward to reading the notes and hearing about what others are into.”—Anthony Wheeldin
“Neil, here is my response to your request for what I am doing since undergoing the transition brought on by retirement.
“I was obliged to retire from paying work in 2005. Since [then] I have done music, visual art, studying and writing on topics that aim to reveal the heart of what is, both mystical and rational, learning to fly airplanes, and I have spent a great deal of time helping family and friends in a variety of ways.
“In addition to playing music on the guitar and doing semi-serious photography, metal work, woodwork, and other art, my passion has been revealing the true nature of reality. This has entailed reconciling and relating mystical revelations about reality with theoretical thought systems like quantum physics which attempt to do the same.
“Extending peace.”—Jim Rizza
“Neil, we have finally decided to emerge from our COVID hibernation, so here we are in Italy again, this time for about three months. My wife Lindsay speaks fluent Italian, and I’m working on it. Luckily we have Italian friends in Florence and Rome who we stay with—la vita e bella! Hope all is good with you.”—Blake Allison
“Still working full time at USC in Los Angeles doing cancer immunology research and loving it. On off time, I went back to collecting a fine set of Indian Head cents, enjoying coin shows and my grandchildren, and reading a good book about every two weeks. One of my MD/PhD students, as a present for training her, recently bought a first edition, signed copy of The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann for me after hearing about this fabulous work and the Freshman Humanities Course at Wesleyan. I plan on going back to read some of the books from the humanities and German and Russian lit classes such as The Magic Mountain, The Glass Bead Game, Steppenwolf, Crime and Punishment, etc., since they are cherished memories of my Wesleyan experience. I truly miss Wesleyan and hope to visit soon. So glad my son, Aaron ’01, was able to have his own time at Wesleyan. He is in private practice doing maternal fetal care and doing very well. Finally, my wife and I enjoy seeing British mysteries on PBS some nights and my younger son Seth is working with me in the lab while he instructs youngsters in baseball after a short but exciting professional baseball career when he was younger.”—Alan Epstein
“While surfing for something else, I found this. The tip-off was Brooks Edwards’s mustache in the preview frame. I think it was posted only a few weeks ago, so apologies if you’ve already seen this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGjg56e_9N8
“It’s all homemade and cliché free. Contemporary cinematographers would go to school on this. I met an episodic TV director who was hired to shoot a Tampax commercial set at Woodstock. Her husband had been a member of the Hog Farm, so it was closer to the vibe than usual, but it still looked too polished. Like studio musicians trying to sound like a garage band. Some music producers I know gave up and started to hire garage bands to lay down the tracks.
“Some political rants included, but not Aly Sujo’s discourse on bodily functions. Acoustic set opens with Deep Elem, Garcia and Weir apparently playing at the same tempo, but different time signatures. Or maybe it’s a tech glitch. Garcia’s steel solo on Last Lonely Eagle is a triumph of musicality over limited technique. Too Hard to Handle achieves critical mass—Booker T on acid.”—Mark Paul
Dave Foster commented on a series of emails on O’Rourke’s, initiated by Jay Resnick, concerning the Amazon book that can be ordered about the diner. Then there were further comments from John Wheat and Michael Brewin.
Kip Anderson says, “Thanks for the prompt. Nowadays I get much satisfaction from spending time with my three grandchildren. And all along I’ve continued to write poems and see them published in various print and electronic journals. For example, there’s this one published in The Lyric:
Old Friends Remembered
My once-long hair’s been slowly thinning
For going on some thirty years,
But friends I’ve known from the beginning
Are with me as my exit nears.
I’m powerless to turn the tide
That’s always surging toward the finish,
Yet age-old bonds I hold inside
Are something time cannot diminish.
It’s fair to say I was a loner
On many drear and foggy days,
But now I am the happy owner
Of memories that dispel the haze.
And finally, I have not transitioned, I guess. I retired at 52 years old. Decided I missed an opportunity and became an architect/city planner. Worked on improving the built environment in the town of Lihue, Kauai, Hawaii. I can actually see things changing, albeit it has taken 20 years. While doing that I became a hospice palliative care physician and started the Palliative Care Program on Kauai that became a test site for CMS of the government. Then I went back to full-time chief medical officer for a biotech company and am now on my second full-time company job. Luckily, I can work remotely so I spend most of my time on Kauai and the rest in La Jolla at my second home. One day I promise myself I will just go to the beach every day on Kauai, but not yet. 😊!!!!
Until next time. All stay safe and healthy and let me know how your transitions are going.
Stephen Policoff writes: “My third novel, Dangerous Blues, was just published by the small but admirable Flexible Press (November 1, 2022), https://www.flexiblepub.com/dangerous-blues. Available at Amazon! Bookshop.org.! Your friendly local bookstore!
“My daughter Jane recently graduated from NYU and is working at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. I am still teaching at NYU and live amongst the looming towers of the university.”
Miles Siegel sent in a photo of Robby Laitos, Mark Fuller, and himself in Yosemite Valley in October. What a great place for a minireunion!
From left to right: Robby Laitos, Miles Siegel, and Mark Fuller at Clark Point in Yosemite Valley—Half Dome is in the background—in October 2022.
George S. T. DeBolt writes: “Fifty-two years after graduation, at age 74, I have become—in the words of Pittsburgh’s KDKA-TV—a virtual internet sensation. I give tours of Pittsburgh. A visitor made a video of one of them, posted it on TikTok, and it has received over 2.5 million views and thousands of likes. I thought I would share the link and the article, which resulted from it for kicks:
Alex Knopp wrote: “I recently completed six years as president of the Norwalk, Connecticut, public library board and continue to serve as a member of the Connecticut Law Tribune Editorial Board and the Connecticut Retirement Security Advisory Board. Very proud that my wife Bette just had her fourth book of fiction accepted for publication (two novels and two short story collections). I recently had a gratifying opportunity to get back in touch with Steve Talbot ’70 who is working on a PBS documentary about how the Vietnam War peace movement succeeded in preventing President Nixon from vastly escalating the war during the fall of 1969. Steve and I were part of the group of Wesleyan students who sought to block military recruitment on campus in 1968–69. He’s been a PBS Frontline documentary filmmaker for the past 30 years. As our 50th class reunion seminars demonstrated, it’s quite amazing how much the anti-war movement and the Vietnam intervention has linked so many of us together even after so many years!”
Ron and Chryssa Reisner’s 2022 dance card had them traveling all over the eastern U.S. It felt daunting to read: March: Wesleyan for NCAA basketball game and same-day lacrosse game; April: Durham, North Carolina, for Duke law 50th reunion, with a side trip to Pinehurst for golf; May: NYC for one-year wedding anniversary and Middletown again for the men’s basketball golf outing “with the ‘sixties dekes’ tee sponsors—Richard ‘Blade’ Emerson ’68, Jack Sitarz, Steve Knox, Andy Gregor ’70, and me)”; April, May, and October: New Orleans, Baton Rouge (Chryssa’s son is a sophomore at LSU); August: summer vacation in Boston, Maine (Rockland, Vinalhaven, and Ogonquit), Saratoga Springs (racetrack), and Poconos (Chryssa’s vacation home).
Rip Hoffman is having fun as pastor of St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, New Canaan, Connecticut.
Darius and Cathy Brubeck published Playing the Changes. He said, “Cathy and I have finally submitted the manuscript of our co-authored book, Playing the Changes, which we began in 2017, with publication planned for May. In February we will travel to LA for two performances of Dave Brubeck’s The Gates of Justice, and for related panel discussions and teaching at UCLA. (https://schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/event/music-and-justice-concert-featuring-dave-brubecks-the-gates-of-justice). Our grandson Nathaniel is getting married in New York in June (I like it). Meanwhile, The Darius Brubeck Quartet is still busy in the U.K.”
Tom Earle read The New York Times report on Middletown’s rejuvenation. “Was it run down in our era? Chas Elbot and I did bail on a Main Street rental.”
Tony Mohr’s memoir, Every Other Weekend—Coming of Age with Two Different Dads, is a Koehler Books imprint.
Jeff and Cheryl Powell “have eldest granddaughter east from Wisconsin. She’s a freshman at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Summers we cruise the coast of Maine in our island sloop.”
Stu Blackburn’s new book is All the Way to the Sea. “Just back from Delhi; our son lives there. Nice, warm, but the pollution is terrible. All the best.”
Jeremy Serwer ’70 revealed that Michael Roth ’78 played jazz keyboard and sang at Reunion. Check YouTube. Jeremy’s commercial real estate company is based in East Woodstock, Connecticut.
Rich Kennedy ’71 rides his bike daily. “Golf often. Have writer’s block. Imagination on vacation. Reading Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet. Next is Worth of Water. Rabbits, crows, slugs, and elk still haunt last year’s garden.”
Ken and Visakha Kawasaki deliver food to the needy and sick in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
Maurice (’70) and Carol Hakim continue to polish an antique home in Clinton, Connecticut. Some consider Mo Connecticut’s resident gadfly.
Steve Currie wrote: “Shey and I are still happy in Vermont. I retired in 2005 and we came back home to Vermont, to Rutland. Golf, skiing, motorcycling and Vermont outdoors in general, along with many various community services, have filled our time over the last 17 years. Currently I’m in my second year as president and rules chairman of the Vermont Golf Association. I’m also a USGA Certified Expert rules official/referee and I work VGA, NEGA, and USGA tournaments and events all over New England. Still reasonably healthy although a replaced knee and total hip replacement has slowed the skiing down a bit—as well as just getting a bit too old (maybe a bit fearful?) to ski the steep terrains as aggressively as I always have when younger. . . . So, we are beginning to think about moving south when my VGA term and responsibilities are finished. We sometimes see classmates and other Wes alums up here in summer for golf and winter for skiing.”
Jim Dreyfus “went to Homecoming and saw Wes beat Williams 35–21. A new building is going up near PAC and Olin, as well as a science one near Shanklin. A developer bought Beta House, though his plans are not yet public.”
Dave Dixon is “an urban designer for Stantec, Boston. I’m optimistic about the future of city planning. My husband and I divide our time between Boston, Brooklyn, and Salisbury, Connecticut.”
John and Linda Andrews “reside in Crosslake, Minnesota, about 150 miles north of Minneapolis. Having left the local city council, I have more time to visit family in Florida, Texas, and California.”
Mike Fairchild “still teaches elementary school. I’m a freelance photographer and lead history book discussions at the library. Son, Scott ’00, is chief of staff for Senator Masto, Nevada. Glad tidings to all.”
Pete Pfeiffer wrote, “It’s painful to watch the lights go out for our classmates. This was probably my last winter logging campaign. A new book, Solastalgia, is available at Levellars Press and Amazon.”
Wayne Slitt played pickleball with Bob Ziegenhagen ’68. “We spent time at a time-share in Cabo with KNK roommates Charley Ferrucci and Bob Tobias and their wives. We live near Tampa and spend summers in Connecticut. I coach a girls’ travel softball team and referee youth ice hockey.”
Fran Dickman wrote for Paul, who “retired from Phoenix Children’s Hospital, April 2021. He attended his 57th high school reunion, has two nieces at Wes, and works on a textbook of pediatric bone, soft tissue, and joint tumors.”
Steve Hansel “settled into a far smaller house in New Orleans. Back playing tennis after a long layoff.”
Fred Coleman said, “A good year despite COVID—we stayed safe most of the year with great care, vaccines, boosters, masks, care about activities. Then got COVID two weeks ago and are recovering with increased sleep and tiredness. . . . On better notes, worked with and attended our 10th Easy Africa Mental Health Conference in Uganda (missed the Ebola areas). We went back to a combination of in-person and online hybrid model. It was great to see good friends and colleagues. Hiked in the Adirondacks, Rockies, Sedona with various people. Two Viking cruises. A two-year delayed southern France-Lyons-Avignon-Rhone River- and Paris [trip] with my wife, and a likewise delayed Prague-Elbe River-Berlin [trip] with best friend.
“The new year will bring a grandchild (youngest daughter), first child for her and for us [our] third grandchild. We lost my brother-in-law to cancer and various friends and colleagues to COVID.
“Life is short. Live well and be with the ones you love!”
John Wilson anchors life in Ann Arbor.
John Bach’s wife’s cancer battle has brought him enlightenment.
On my desk is a pen and ink of the arched bridge over the Concord River. Young, in Boston, I walked the storied venues of the American Revolution so much they entered my dream life. Dressed as a Minute Man, I hid behind stone walls as musket balls exploded around me. When the British were too close, my arms became wings and I hovered over the skirmish.
Next is a print of Childe Hassam’s Summer Evening. A red geranium, a window frame, a young woman in white. What does she see in the flatland stretching to the horizon?
See a studio portrait of my sister Kate. We meet at shoreline restaurants and laugh at the silly, terrible things that preoccupied our parents. And photos of the grandchildren—Eloise, Benton, and Ozi.
Cornered Joel Lang, author/journalist (four decades at the Hartford Courant), now semiretired in Bridgeport. One of his last projects at the Courant was a special, 80-page section on slavery in the North, which sounded like a precursor to the NYT, Pulitzer-winning 1619 Project. Became a book, Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery, which was both critically acclaimed and given four or five stars by 95% of its Amazon readers. Joel researched 19th-century logs of the British Navy’s pursuit of illegal slavers at Olin. Acknowledged indebtedness/inspiration to professors Richard Slotkin of American Studies and English’s George Creeger. Noted Middletown was a busy port in the slave trade and home to a large population of enslaved people.
Dave Losee observed you have to have something to retire to, not simply from: An attorney still working one big case, he is now a beekeeper—30,000 new friends in his backyard (in Camden, Maine) is how he puts it. Chris Thomas, a retired family doc in Meadville, Pennsylvania, and an astronomer, “feels very much at one with the night sky . . . who often stops to think someone in that galaxy is in my eyepiece looking back at me.” His son shares his passion. Wallace Murfit rowed in two of the world’s greatest regattas: England’s Royal Henley Regatta and the Head of the Charles in 2022.
John Carty (a self-employed attorney and businessman) agrees with Trump on one point— “When you retire, you expire”—and is redoing his house to age in place. Lives near Villanova where he participates in their Senior Enrichment Program and various cultural offerings. A heart surgery graduate who, if he’d known how much fun grandchildren were, would have skipped children completely. Wheelchair bound, Lloyd Buzzell has been in assisted living well over a year now. Pleasant enough if you don’t think about what you’d rather be doing. Like you, playing the cards he’s been dealt as best he can. Karl Norris reported his programming experience in the College of Quantitative Studies led him, when drafted, to a computer research group and on to a career in corporate IT. Retired and in Bloomfield, Connecticut, enjoying the blues harmonica, online courses, one indulgent wife, two daughters, one granddaughter, and five “grandpets.” He plans to move to Edinburgh if things get much crazier here. Stuart Ober’s son, Alexander, is a member of Wes’s class of 2026. Lovely lunch with Chris and Gary Wanerka ’62, a retired pediatrician. Going strong: They went on a Memphis-to–New Orleans cruise.
Good chat with Rich Kremer ’69: Wonderful kids and grands spread around the world—North Carolina, Denver, London, and South Korea—so he is somewhat cuddle deprived. We laughed: When Andrea retired from Dartmouth, her department gave her the august title of “visiting scholar” (so she can use the library). He’s been part of a religious discussion group for 18 years, via Zoom of late.
These notes appear months after I write them, so my coverage is always dated but: Ken Kawasaki ’69, after time in France and some teaching in Japan, has, with his wife Visakha, long headed the Buddhist Relief Mission in the hill country of Sri Lanka and reports their area suffers from “serious shortages of petrol, cooking gas, rice, other staples, and medicines . . . regular power shortages. On top of this, inflation is rampant. People, hungry and angry, are protesting every day. Because COVID-19 is still spreading, we are basically staying home, but still connected with good folk, who are helping us provide dry rations and basic medicines for those who are in great need.” For information on their work, contact kawasaki@brelief.org.
The boys in the boat—John Lipsky, Wallace Murfit, Coach Phil Calhoun ’62, MALS ’69, Bob Svensk, Nason Hamlin, Harrison Knight, Karl Norris, and myself—celebrated restarting the crew, and enjoying more success than we had any right to, by reuniting in Middletown in October. Sandy See lost his son Karl, 51, in September to cardiac arrest. Karl was a charming, loyal friend and colleague with an endearing sense of humor who had a fulfilling career in development for nonprofits and loved all aspects of New England’s outdoors. Our condolences. Terry Fralich is “doing well on this little piece of paradise that surrounds our home” (in Saco, Maine). I have visited and that is an accurate characterization of his place. Has two homes on the property, one for Terry and Rebecca, the other for his sister and her partner. Semiretired, Terry, informed by Tibetan Buddhism, counsels half-time and teaches at a mindfulness center.
Sometimes I worry about my adolescent enthusiasm for Wes Tech. Passed up some big names when I chose Wes because I thought I would be treated with more respect and kindness there. And I wasn’t disappointed. Got you guys—the most diverse, interesting, and accomplished group of characters with whom I’ve ever associated—as a bonus.
Classmates, Sad news. Len “Bergy” Bergstein died Monday, October 17. His sudden death was apparently caused by a heart attack. In 2002, after attending our 35th Reunion, I wrote my first set of class notes. A week or so later, I got an email from Bergy that began, “Richie—somehow, during the weekend I missed the point where Pat Dwyer and you did a body exchange . . . well they say miracles happen at events like this. I truly enjoyed the chance to get re-connected.” He then caught me up on what he had been up to since our graduation: “As for me—I moved to Oregon in ’72 after completing NYU Law School. I joined Legal Aid and got involved with an urban political crowd . . . this led to political involvement as a campaign manager for two Democratic candidates for statewide office. When my candidate for governor won in 1974, I went to work for him in the statehouse—probably due to poor staff work, he only lasted one term. Five years later I was working for the Portland mayor, Neil Goldschmidt, when he was asked to join the Carter cabinet as U.S. secretary of transportation—so I joined his staff in Washington, D.C. In 1981, I headed back to Portland and set up my own public affairs company, called Northwest Strategies, which I have been doing ever since. It’s a nice mixture of government, media, and community relations for clients with complex issues. No two clients are the same . . . I have helped site large scale projects with challenging environmental issues [modern landfills, gravel mining reclamation project, etc.]; helped a Native American tribe establish a positive image to offset the negatives of casino gambling; have gained public approval of development projects and ballot measures; and currently am assisting a large-scale agriculture and dairy enterprise become established on 93,000 acres of land in Eastern Oregon. Oregon’s relatively small population and reputation for livability/quality of life issues makes this an attractive place for me to practice . . . .” When I learned that Bergy had died, I looked online and found that he had become very well known in Oregon, not only for the active role he had played in political life throughout the state, but also because he was a frequent commentator on local television in Portland, known for, as one article put it, his “wit and wisdom.” The accolades rolled in, from both senators (one, Ron Wyden, said, “Len was instrumental with my start in public life”) and from various other prominent Oregonians (if that is what they call themselves). He clearly was well loved and well respected. One of Len’s obituaries, with photos, appears here: https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2022/10/longtime-oregon-political-strategist-len-bergstein-dies-at-76.html. He is survived by Betsy, his wife of 38 years, two brothers, three children, and four grandchildren.
(Poaching alert!) Brian Frosh (Walter Johnson High School, ’64, Wesleyan, ’68) was in the news again, this time in an article that included his (stern but distinguished looking!) photo in TheNew York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/18/us/baltimore-priest-sexual-abuse.html). The attorney general of Maryland—Brian—filed a request that a judge release a 456-page document based on a criminal investigation that Frosh’s office initiated in 2019. It details decades of sex abuse of more than 600 victims by clergy in Maryland. According to the filing, “The sexual abuse was so pervasive that victims were sometimes reporting sexual abuse to priests who were perpetrators themselves.” The Times writes that the report “is one of the first major investigations completed by a state attorney general on sexual abuse in the Church since a scathing report on six dioceses in Pennsylvania shocked Catholics across the nation in 2018.” Brian was scheduled to leave office in January 2023.
“A bit hard to digest that it was 60 years ago that we started at Wesleyan,” begins this inspirational update from Dave McNally. “The 1960s were a different world, exciting like an erupting volcano, and I for one am extremely grateful to have come of age in that era. I am also grateful for the innumerable learning opportunities Wesleyan offered—in the classroom and beyond—although I regret not having taken advantage of more of them. Like many of you, I suspect, the older I get the more often I think about friends and experiences from years ago. I recently have happily reconnected with several friends from elementary school with whom I had no contact for nearly 70 years. And I have reread with pleasure the journals I kept on world travels over many decades. One of the innumerable benefits of retirement for me is having time for such reflections.
“Despite being afflicted with an unusual variant of ALS that has caused me to lose the use of my arms and hands—and which will inevitably spread and lead to my demise—I am a very happy camper, due to my incomparable wife, best friend, and (increasingly) caregiver, Michelle. We love our Williamsburg-style home outside Alexandria, Virginia, though we spend much of our time at our log house deep in the woods of the West Virginia Panhandle. There Michelle has created what I call ‘Mount Palomar East,’ an observatory with a 22″ Dobsonian telescope housed in its own dome. After three years and prodigious technical assistance from the Cumberland (Maryland) Astronomy Club, Michelle finally got the telescope and dome working perfectly just before Thanksgiving. The views may not quite compare to those from the James Webb Space Telescope, but they are pretty awesome.”
Though Barry Thomas and Connie’s “return to Burundi has been delayed until 2023, the good work continues there. A well-integrated set of programs—with focus upon nutrition and food security, early childhood education, keeping teenage girls in school, and women’s entrepreneurship—are now well established. The very dedicated Dreaming for Change staff are being challenged by the day-to-day requirements for preparing and serving cups of porridge to 400 children and mothers, tending to 147 children in the preschool and first primary grade, supporting 125 women engaged in the Savings and Loan Program (a type of microfinance), and working with over 225 families who participate in the Kitchen Garden Program. On top of the daily challenges, the leadership is really being challenged by the rigors of finding funding to cover the now ongoing and growing operating costs for this broad array of service programming.
“I will give specific mention to the Acute Malnutrition Program that was started in November 2021. We had become aware that the daily porridge and the other family nutrition programs were not doing enough for the children suffering from an acute level of malnutrition. The level of under-five child mortality is improving in Burundi, but it remains among the worse in the world. With kind and generous support from a couple of our Wesleyan classmates along with support from a local church in Boone, North Carolina, we were able to put together a more intense program for these really destitute children and their families. The Dreaming for Change nurse administers the program. Our U.S. organization provides funding for the food and the specialized medicine. Personnel from a nearby government health clinic provide medical diagnosis and oversight as well as referral when necessary. There are over 60 families in the program. Community women who have been responsible for cooking the daily porridge have now received additional training and are going out to identify and serve families that live greater distances from the village center. They are called ‘Light Mothers’ in French. It is quite an innovative way to bring a basic level of care to the more remote rural population. Of course, the current state of global economics and geopolitics, ultimately, cascades down to affect the very poor, such as, in Burundi, most severely.”
Tom Pulliam writes: “Granddaughter Madeline is settling in very nicely at University of Hawaii, studying marine biology and surfing in her spare time. My wife Alice and I will eventually visit Oahu to see her and connect with our classmate Hardy Spoehr. Madeline’s younger brothers have begun playing MLS Next soccer, the highest level of youth soccer in the U.S. It is sort of the same game they have been playing for years, but the level of skills of all players is amazing as is the pace of play. In September our Pleasantville High School class reunion convened in Healdsburg, California, and it could not have been better: incredible energy from a couple of dozen senior citizens who remembered events from 60 years ago as though they just happened (though remembering what they ate for lunch that day was more troubling). Just finished making plans to head to Vancouver, Canada, in March for HSBC Rugby 7s World Series event there and will be joined by one of my original Stanford teammates. I am still thoroughly enjoying helping coach Stanford women in rugby and coaching 11-, 12-, and 13-year-olds in rugby for the San Francisco Golden Gate Rugby Club. I started rugby at Wesleyan when my fraternity brothers insisted I play at Williams because they were short a player. I resisted mightily (anticipating my 130-pound carcass would not survive) but they prevailed. That decision turned out well over the years.”
Phil Shaver attended “my 60th high school reunion in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, last month. I hadn’t been back for years. Of our class of 1962 (about 300 people), a third have died. Of the living, many have lost a spouse to death or dementia. So even though I had just undergone knee surgery for a torn meniscus, I felt grateful to be alive, generally healthy, and mentally sharp. My main research collaborator and I have two new books in press. My wife is still a full-time workaholic professor, in good mental and physical health. Our 26-year-old twin daughters are thriving. I’ve been taking watercolor painting classes for a couple of years and am enjoying it and getting better. I’ve actually sold a couple of paintings and had one on display at a local gallery. We’re all concerned about the unhealthy state of our country but can’t figure out what to do about it.”
Another high school reunion and more, Bob Dearth writing that the “Post COVID-19 lockdown lifestyle reset is proving a challenge. Our plans for a visit to Portugal gave way to a higher-priority hip replacement surgery for my wife Barbara to correct both a stress fracture and arthritic deterioration in her right hip, which I understand is a pretty common surgery these days. Recovery is in progress. Have downsized vacation properties in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, moving to a modest three-bedroom condo versus the big custom-vacation property with pool. So far, not a bad trade-off. Anticipate hosting one son and grandkids this coming December after Christmas. Will continue to enter the smaller of the billfish tournaments in early October this fall, weather cooperating. Have traveled to Lake Erie for walleye and smallmouth bass fishing recently. Lots of fun and fresh fish fillets to share. Sixtieth high school reunion in June was fun too but too few attended.”
This autumn found Essel Bailey and his wife, Menakka, in California, “having finished the harvest in Knight Valley and our Knights Bridge wines are on the lees! We came out from Ann Arbor after beating Michigan State in The Big House and listening to Wynton Marsalis and his jazz group in three separate presentations. Moving around still and enjoying it!”
And this update from Barry Reder. “I retired from the practice of law (helping businesses of all sizes, ranging from banks and insurance companies to chefs and entrepreneurs with a dream) at the end of 2006 and have not figured out how I maintained a seven-day/six-night law practice while doing all the ‘stuff’ that endlessly has kept me busy ever since. Ann has struggled with the afterlife of getting two new knees simultaneously more than a year ago, and we walk most days to try to improve things. Each of our two daughters has a boy and a girl and live in San Francisco. After 43 years in a wonderful house in the Richmond District (a suburb in the city), we downsized last spring into a wonderfully urban, quite new three-bedroom apartment. It took six months to clear the house out but only two days to sell it. When it was completely empty, it was strangely devoid of the emotional content I had expected; when empty, it was just a house, no longer the home where we had raised our kids and celebrated holidays and life. We spend half the year in the city apartment and the other half on our wonderful acre and a half on a hill in Sonoma with five table grapevines, a meadow, a putting green, and a pool. My handicap had its nadir at 9 and, despite diligent practice almost daily, is now 20+. Though nearly every weekly calendar has at least one medical entry, we feel endlessly fortunate and hope to enjoy stasis for a while.”
We end with two celebratory notes. Jeff Nilson’s grandson, Isaac Ostrow, Wesleyan Class of 2026, has become a member of Wesleyan Crew. Rick Crootof and Linda celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary on September 4, 2022.”
This column will be devoted to reporting on our class’s well-attended Homecoming gathering on Friday, November 4, and Saturday, November 5.
Kudos to Hugh Wilson, Mark Edmiston, Bob Barton, and to the other members of the committee (and to Mark Davis ’96 and his Wesleyan colleagues) who made it all possible.
On Friday, we met at the new advancement office in the former post office on Main Street. (Just another example of Middletown/Wes collaboration, along with the attractive Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore on the next block, north.)
After a nice buffet lunch provided by the college, we were treated to presentations by Hugh Wilson and his wife Fran Wilkinson (Optimizing Cognitive Fitness during Healthy Aging), and Steve Halliwell and Wes professor Peter Rutland (Update on Russia and Ukraine). Very fine remarks, followed by a lively question-and-answer session.
Bob Barton then led an “open-mic” Wes65 Real Stories centering on comments around climate change and our democracy at risk. (Articles by Jerry Melillo and Phil Russell regarding climate change—its causes and what we can do about it—were provided as well. They can be emailed to you. Just let me know.)
We then got down to “serious business” with an enjoyable wine reception hosted by Fran and Hugh. The class then went to an excellent new Middletown restaurant, Esca, for dinner (hosted by Wesleyan and some generous ’65 classmates).
On Saturday, many of us went to the celebration of John Driscoll’s (’62) life in Memorial Chapel. John’s legendary service to Wesleyan and to our alumni was recounted by a number of speakers, all of whom highlighted the reasons he will be long and fondly remembered.
Later that day in front of a large crowd on Andrus Field/Corwin Stadium, the Cardinals beat Williams in an exciting game for the Little Three title (Wesleyan beat the Mammoths in overtime at Amherst in October).
To cap off the day, Rich Smith led a Gary and the Wombats recorded celebration of melodic memories with pizza and dancing. Once again, let the good times roll!
Those in attendance (in addition to those already mentioned) included: Donna and Clyde Beers, Jim Bernegger (and his brother Lloyd), Bill Blakemore, Lee and Win Chamberlin, Georgeanne and Marsh Cusic, Mary Ellen and Dave Dinwoodey, Lisa and Mark Edmiston, Joe Garrison, John Hall, Anne Halliwell, Carolyn and Bill Knox, Jeff Lea, Mary Anne and Mike Maloney, Alex and Major Moise, Cynthia Rockwell MALS ’19, Elizabeth Smith, and Mary and Gary Witten.
Finally, we all agreed that those of us who can make it should gather every Homecoming and make plans at that time.
And we all agreed it was wonderful to be back at alma mater.
Nick Puner penned a follow-up to David Skaggs’s note from the Fall Issue. He said, “Indeed, I did miss the POSH (the fictional law firm of Puner, Oleskey, Skaggs, and Howard) reunion at Jim Howard’s in June. But, nothing daunted, OSH insisted on another such event, this time at Steve Oleskey’s in Brookline. And so, it occurred, October 30 to November 2. Among our activities was a trip to the JFK Library and Museum. Oh, how that brief moment in our history, both of our youth and of our nation, still plucks at my heartstrings.
“Somehow, we POSHies have stayed cohered—to the point where our next event is already incubating.”
Matthys Van Cort wrote a tribute to Chris Wallach, who died on June 4, 2022, in hospice in Orange Park, Florida. Matthys said, “Chris was an amazing human being. Brilliant, ever curious, incredibly funny, a wacky polymath. Although we were COL colleagues starting in the fall of 1961, I got to know Chris better only after I moved to the John Wesley Club in the fall of 1963. I had a six-string guitar and a couple of Lightin’ Hopkins records. Chris had a 12-string and introduced me to Lead Belly, Robert Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Willie McTell, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and other blues greats.
“After Wesleyan, he continued to read broadly. At our 30th Reunion in 1994, Chris was the only one, to my knowledge, who had actually read Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, the book that lead to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s fatwa against him. Twenty years later Chris suggested that I might benefit from reading Epictetus.
“Chris and I had a number of adventures while we were at Wesleyan and then during several years after graduation, after which we were out of touch for a time. In his last years we emailed intensely if not steadily. I will miss him terribly.
“In 2017 Chris wrote to me:
‘I’ve spent a lifetime failing to find out what to do with a lifetime, and in the process have been a race-car mechanic, small business owner, software developer and programmer, data-logger inventor and manufacturer, and so on. I retired in 2004 for a liver transplant, and discovered in the years following that I wanted to be just an inventor and fiddle around with stuff. I patented an idea for a wind turbine, but have sinfully procrastinated on finishing a working prototype. https://patents.google.com/patent/US8410622B1/en.
‘All in all, I find myself more content than I ever thought possible, proof again of the power of shit luck.’
“Bruce Kirmmse, CSS class of ’64, had been for years in very regular contact with Chris, including almost daily emails and Chris’s visits to Bruce’s summer house in New England. On June 4, 2022, Bruce wrote to tell me that Chris had died. Among other things, he said: ‘He was a good, witty, and thoughtful friend, and my life is seriously diminished without him. Chris had for some months been in a care facility in Orange Park, Florida.’”
From Jim Dresser: “I am still living in Salisbury, Connecticut, where we sold a large house and built a small bungalow in the backyard just before COVID hit. It is indeed better to be lucky than smart.
“I spend most of my time trying to build affordable housing in this expensive enclave of Connecticut, which got more unaffordable after the pandemic influx from NYC.
“I was honored that Gina asked me to be one of the speakers at John Driscoll’s ’62 celebration of life in the chapel at Homecoming. I then got to sit in Corwin Stadium in shirtsleeves and reflect on John, Wes’s most ardent football fan, while the Cards beat the Ephs handily to win the Little Three.
“I continue to be amazed by the time and effort required ‘to alleviate the many ills to which the flesh is heir,’ but I am defying the odds so far.”
John B. Jarzavek wrote: “I was pleased to see that there is a memorial challenge to remember our classmate, Colby Andrus. As was our wont in the ’60s, most of us knew only our fraternity fellows and course classmates. I got to know Colby our junior and senior years when we were both on the Board of House Presidents. He was always soft-spoken but full of energy and suggestions. After graduation we kept in minimal contact. However, his son John enrolled in the Rivers School (’96) where I had been teaching since 1965. I taught John in art history, in which he continued at Wesleyan after he graduated from Rivers. While he was at Rivers, his mother Alice was a school trustee. I got to see the Andrus family regularly, and we became close friends. We discovered that we were all Italophiles. Norman and I bought our Italian apartment in 2001—we sold it in 2021—and Colby, Alice, and we met often in Italy in those years. Colby and Alice and their two boys had also lived in Italy for a year in the ’80s. His Boston business was importing and selling Italian furniture. We traveled Italy together and ate great food over the years. My closest Wesleyan friends were fraternity brothers Bob Martin, Bob Sloat, and my fraternity “big brother” Hill Panitch ’62. Thankfully, Colby joined that crew. I can still see his smile.”
David Landgraf contributed: “Ten plus years into retirement and haven’t had yet to return to paid employment. Have kept my law license active just in case. Have kept busy with church work, yardwork and gardening, catching up on casual reading, and providing unsolicited advice to children and grandchildren. Am still living in the house in Southern New Jersey (greater Philadelphia area) to which my late wife Linda and I moved with two small children in 1977, but it is becoming an increasing burden. My son and his family (two children, ages 11 and 9) live about an hour away near the New Jersey shore, and my daughter and her family (three children, ages 17, 15, and 9) are in Frederick, Maryland, about three to four hours away by car. See both frequently. I have been trying to take one or two trips each year, but that schedule was interrupted by COVID-19. My middle brother and I did take a Rhine River cruise, which included a performance of the passion play in Oberammergau, Germany, this past summer. Looking at a possible family trip next summer, if kids’ sports schedules and the college entry and visits for the oldest allow.”
And from Frederick Taylor: “Visited Lew Whitney and his wife Yoli in LA in early September. He is well and still sailing. It was great to see him and trade memories, some of which may have actually occurred. We exchange book ideas and discuss the various authors we enjoy. We plan to see each other annually as Carole and I travel from New York to see our daughter Liesl and family in Manhattan Beach and perhaps a granddaughter in college on the West Coast.”
