Ilene Rosenthal reports, “I am excited that my educational software company, Footsteps2Brilliance, is partnering with PBS and SBCSS to create the first transmedia program that turns television from a passive to an active medium for young children. My company has also been hired to create a game-based financial literacy program for upper elementary students. This will help students learn and apply key principals so that they can make better financial decisions as an adult. My husband and I are thrilled that our Wes daughter (Alex Rosenthal Spencer ’17) and her Wes husband (Keith Spencer ’16) will be moving to D.C., where Keith will be starting his residency program at Georgetown Hospital. We live in D.C. so this will put them close to us.”
Lloyd Komesar enthusiastically shares, “Greetings to all my ’74 classmates! The Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival will be rolling out its 10th Anniversary Fest this August 21–25 in Middlebury, Vermont. Over the course of these five fun days, we’ll be screening 125 films on six screens, with 80-plus first- and second-time filmmakers in attendance from around the world, along with panels, presentations, special guests, happy hours and evening parties. Lots of parties. There are always many Wes grads who gather at the Fest, from ’74 and surrounding classes. We invariably have a damn good time. So, I extend an invitation to everyone who reads these notes to come join us in Vermont for our milestone 10th-anniversary celebration. If you have questions, contact me at lk@middfilmfest.org.”
Blaise Noto moved from Chapel Hill to upstate New York. He is living in Clifton Park/Halfmoon, halfway between Albany and Saratoga, to “semi-retire” and to be close to family. He is teaching part time at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, in marketing and public relations, and is thrilled being part of that college community! “Looking forward to seeing all my friends and my brothers at DEKE at Reunion!”
Willy Holtzman shares, “In 2012 my play, The Morini Strad, inspired by the esteemed violin maker (and my best friend) Brian Skarstad ’73, had its New York premiere. A German language production recently premiered in Vienna to rave reviews. I took a bow for us both while Brian continued his magic at the bench.”
Howard Curzer writes, “I am still teaching philosophy at Texas Tech University. Teaching is getting a bit more difficult each year as academia begins to buckle under various stresses, and I get older and crankier. On the bright side, my research is bearing fruit. Last year I published a book on ethics. This year I published another. It is entitled, Difficult Virtues: An AristotelianPerspective (Routledge 2024).”
Lee Coplan reports “Since retirement, my main commitments are music and bridge. I returned to playing the violin about 25 years ago when daughter needed a practice partner for Suzuki violin lessons. I’ve been playing in several klezmer groups for the past 13 years; since COVID hit only one group (KlezKonnection) is still operating. I played at a number of seniors’ homes, synagogues, city parks and bars, and several times at Toronto’s Ashkenaz Festival. I’ve also been playing in a community string orchestra (Strings Attached Orchestra) for the past 10 years, also with a mandate to play at seniors’ residences and schools, as well as community concerts twice a year. After a dry spell during the height of COVID, I’m happy to say that public performances are picking up again. It’s a pleasure to bring the joy of music into people’s lives.
“After a 45-year (or so) gap, I resumed playing bridge in fall 2019. I originally learned bridge as a freshman at Wesleyan along with many classmates. The game has transformed over the intervening years, so I started with some refresher lessons. I started playing duplicate at the Toronto Bridge Club in February 2020. After three live games, COVID ended in-person play, and I eventually started playing online through Bridgebase (Lee_TO). Now I’m playing a mix of online and in-person games/tournaments. I hope to achieve life master status— I’m 40-plus silver points and 40-plus gold/red points short, so I need to get to, and be successful at, enough tournaments. I plan to play a good bit at the NABC summer tournament in Toronto this July, so I hope that brings me closer to my goal. I’d love to hear from any Wesleyan folks who come for the summer tournament.
“Otherwise, I keep busy with theater, music, reading, etc. And, of course, I love to spend time with my sons and their families, including my two grandsons (two and nearly five) in Toronto and with my daughter either here or visiting her in Washington, D.C. Lydia and I also resumed traveling to a greater extent and look forward to doing a bit more over the next few years.”
Christine “Chris” Lees Jonientz of Hamden, Connecticut, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, November 7, 2023, at Yale New Haven Hospital, with her family by her side. Chris was born in Hempstead, New York, on May 29,1952. She graduated magna cum laude from Wesleyan University in 1974 with a BA in English. She earned a master’s degree in American civilization from Brown University in 1975 and an MBA from Temple University in 1985. Chris worked as a consumer banker and was a certified master gardener.
We have updates from some of our prolific film directors and reflections from our 50th Reunion.
After our reunion, Michael Shoob writes that he had not been back to campus since our graduation so he says, “it was quite a mind-bending experience for me. Being there for the first time in half a century reminded me of one thing: I felt lucky to have had the opportunity to come to Wesleyan, and I’m sure many of our classmates felt the same way.” Michael reports in early April that he had finished shooting Road to Everywhere, a new feature film that he was directing and writing. He says Road to Everywhere “is a follow-up nearly 30 years later to my film Driven, which I also wrote and directed, about a group of LA cab drivers. Driven premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 1996.” He says, “A number of the actors from the original film reprised their roles and they had a memorable experience shooting the movie in Los Angeles and on the Navajo Reservation in Page, Arizona.” He says they anticipate a festival run for the film starting in the fall and adds, “None of this would have happened without Wesleyan.”
Billy Burke says, “Occasionally, another warm memory from our wonderful 50th Reunion pops into my head. The President’s Dinner on Friday night was held in Beckham Hall, a beautiful venue. Highlights included remarks by President Roth, amiable bar staff who know how to make a gin and tonic (Mike Robinson was designated driver), and the musical stylings of Blackwall Hitch. Many thanks to our classmate, Paul Fletcher, and the other members of that fabulous band. The ’60s–’70s music and associated slide presentation choreographed to each song brought it all back.” Billy says he’s been having a great time working with his son and his son’s new law partner on messaging and marketing. They became best friends in the Marine Corps while serving two combat tours in Iraq. After their enlistments were up, they went their separate ways. Billy reports, “Each earned his BA and JD. They just formed a law firm right here in Centennial, Colorado. I’m very proud.”
Ron Medley says he has managed to use his “Middletown hideaway to pretty good advantage since our reunion. My brother and sister, Jim and Linda, had a wonderful time reenacting our last visit to Middletown together, which was over 50 years ago. Amanda Broulik and Lydia Casparie from Wesleyan met us with a golf cart and we had a blast tooling up and down Foss Hill on a beautiful July afternoon. And, I’ve had two meet ups with Rob and Rich Charney, solving the world’s problems and dissing the Oscars over pasta at Mondo’s. Coming soon: an oral history presentation before Professor Jesse Nasta’s African American Studies class on the racial history of Middletown.”
Marc Levin says he had two major film releases in April: On April 16 his latest HBO documentary, An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th premiered on HBO and MAX. He says, “The film looks at the evolution of political violence through the lens of the Oklahoma City bombing—from the roots in the early ’80s to the reverberations up to January 6. With the threat of political violence and civil unrest growing every day, this film is especially timely and relevant. It is the history of now.” Then on April 26, his feature film Slam, which won the Grand Prize at Sundance and the Camera D’or at the Cannes Film Festival, was re-released in a newly restored digital 4K version thanks to the the Academy of Motion Pictures, the Sundance Institute, and UCLA. The film was also featured at the UCLA preservation festival on April 6 (SLAM | UCLA Film & Television Archive).
Marc also has a documentary on guaranteed income, It’s Basic, traveling the festival circuit. He says it won best documentary at the LA Downtown Film Festival, and had a screening on April 9 at the Cleveland International Festival: https://www.clevelandfilm.org/films/its-basic.
He says, “Busy spring for us here at Blowback Productions.”
Dr. Michael Fossel, known worldwide for his work including his book, Reversing Human Aging, has a brief update, telling us that his new Academic Press textbook is out.
Finally, we are all deeply saddened by the loss of the spirited Dave Moffenbeier. As if it were yesterday, I remember his intelligence in the classroom and his talents on the Wesleyan football team. A group of us huddled up and recruited Dave to join us in the spring of senior year on the rugby fields. He was an integral part of that team that went undefeated. His middle name could have been “Invictus.” Class secretary Seth Davis’72 writes in his notes: “Another loss, although not from our class, but another good friend and Delta Tau brother, was that of Dave Moffenbeier ’73. Moff fought tenaciously against a vicious form of cancer for over 20 years before leaving us in February.”
Bob Medwid passed away this past Christmas Day, of a heart attack following some episodes of angina. In a lengthy chain of email correspondence among Delta Tau brothers and football teammates, the words “really good guy” recurred frequently, and I heartily concur. The always quotable Mike Carlson went further: “What a blow at the end of a tough year. I bonded with Bob early in freshman football, his end at East Meadow was a Carlson. He matured early: he might have been at his peak with the dirty dozen and a half. He was a perfectly controlled athlete in basketball, too, on our two intramural winners, and, of course, he was soon a married father too. As I matured very little, he was always a laconic counterpoint for me, and I wish I could remember where we started calling him ‘Hammer’ and if I was there, cause it fit so well. We didn’t see each other but a couple of times the rest of the way, but it was always a mature joy, and I could visualize him on the golf course every day, playing calm, collected, perfect golf. It’s hard to think of his going at all, much less that way.”
And this from Mike Kishbauch ’71: “Michael referenced our ragtag intramural Delt basketball team, which somehow managed to win two championships. My recollection is that happened because (1) Carlson stayed hot for two full seasons, throwing in Steph Curry bombs from all over Hell’s half acre (amid howls of protest from the rest of us) and (2) Medwid was easily the best pure passer of anyone I ever played hoops with, perfecting the no-look thing way before it became fashionable. I vividly remember my first game as Dwid’s basketball teammate. Because of my size (size, not height) I normally played center or low-post forward. At one moment, I found myself toggling back and forth in the low-post paint, with five or six guys (theirs and ours) between Bobby and me. Suddenly, without looking vaguely in my direction, he whips this pass threading between everyone, and it hits me square in the nose, nearly knocking me senseless. Whereupon . . . memo to Bowser: it appears there is NO pass this kid is unwilling to attempt, and it also seems like most/all of them will be on the mark; therefore, stay awake, lest you end up looking foolish; further, and for God’s sake, do NOT watch his eyes . . . they mean NOTHING in this context; just assume he’s watching you and nobody gets hurt! I miss him already. God knows he never missed me! . . . RIP.”
I should also add that Bob was particularly helpful to my wife, Elisa ’76, when she entered the Peat Marwick training program after graduation. Bob was a veteran of the program and always kept an eye out for Wes folk.
Another loss, although not from our class, but another good friend and Delta Tau brother, was that of Dave Moffenbeier ’73. Moff fought tenaciously against a vicious form of cancer for over 20 years before leaving us in February. I have particularly fond memories of visiting Moff while he was living in Holland in the ’80s.
Finally, I mourn the passing of my thesis tutor, mentor, and friend, Herb Arnold. I sent him a note of condolence on the death of his idol, Franz Beckenbauer, only to receive a note from his wife, Annemarie, telling me that Herb left us on the very same day. I had kept in touch with Herb, taking two Wasch Center seminars with him on medieval literature. A brilliant mind, a passionate and fervent soul, in many ways he epitomized what was the Wesleyan experience for many of us.
We just learned of the death of Bud Spurgeon on May 3. Bud’s memory will live on through his iconic photographs of the events of May 1970. He was also a major contributor to our legendary 50th Reunion and the ongoing class website. Those of us who worked with him in those efforts are greatly saddened by his passing. I will have more to say in the next issue.
Aloha, here are the emails I received for this time.
Alan Epstein writes: “Hope you and your family are doing well. I am still working full time at USC and am involved in two new start-up companies that will keep me pretty busy along with university work and a constant stream of students being trained in the laboratory. My son, Seth, is working part time in the lab with me and then coaches high school baseball and loving it. My other son, Aaron ’01, is now in private practice and has an active, four-office, OB-GYN [group] where he practices maternal fetal-care medicine for high-risk pregnancies. Busy like most with four grandchildren ages 9–16, which mostly keeps my wife very involved. Not much more to add except that I recently completed the best Indian Head cent collection, which is a lifelong hobby of mine that enables me to get my mind off research and make new friends. Looking forward to seeing the next issue of Wesleyan Magazine to see how everyone else is doing. All the best.”
From Dick Scoggins we hear: “Hopefully this is our last one. We moved from England to Los Angeles in 2012 after 20 years in the UK working with a mission organization for Muslims. Our son (Nathan Scoggins ’99) and his family had moved to Los Angeles in 2000. They live about 10 miles away from us. Our daughter and her husband had moved out here in 2005. They have three children and live with us in a multigenerational home. While I was in England I was struck by the fragmentation of family and felt that we needed to move back to the USA with our kids in order to build an extended family network. I continue to work in person with people here, and also online with people around the world, focusing on character building and building strong families.”
And from Anthony Wheeldin: “Retired from the bench in August 2023. Still work part time to cover various calendars leaving lots of time for grandchildren, family, and fun.”
Sadly, a transition from Jay Resnick: “Tough year for me. My wife was diagnosed with cancer and died five weeks later on August 30, 2023. I am continuing to learn Yiddish and just finished my first semester of Latin. Zay gezunt (Yiddish: ‘Be well’).”
John Schimmel sends this: “Biggest transition for us: my youngest is finally graduating her five-year college program. One friend translated that news as, ‘You’re getting a raise.’ Other than that, no major changes. Still married to Maureen Donley, still producing narrative content for Cloud Imperium Games and for my own projects, still teaching in UC Riverside’s Low-Residency MFA Creative Writing program.”
Neil Clendeninn and Mike Yamashita
Mike Yamashita: “Sorry, Neil, I’ve been flat out on multiple assignments since Lil and I met you for that memorable evening at your island paradise.
“Hokkaido: Made great progress on my book on Japan, getting the weather I wanted— two weeks of heavy snow. Hokkaido is normally the snowiest place on the planet, this year being the exception up until the blizzards we experienced in late February. The book will focus on my love affair with Japan from the first visit on a ‘roots’ trip after Wes graduation in 1971, to my first story for National Geographic on Hokkaido in 1979, up to the present, revisiting the 10 National Geographic magazine stories and three books I’ve done on Japan—working title, Full Circle.
“North Vietnam in March: Shooting for a Chinese cell phone company, capturing seasonal change from winter to spring in a country that loves flowers. Flowers were everywhere on the streets of Hanoi in February and March for Tet and International Women’s month celebrations, when bouquets are traditionally gifted. More photography for OPPO in Brazil in May.
“My retrospective book on China titled, East Meets West, is in the final layout stage, to be launched in June. It will be the first in a five-volume series entitled A History of China Through Foreign Photographers’ Eyes, mine covering the last 40 years to the present.
“Next trip: Leaving for Venice for the Biennale on April 17, with major events celebrating the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo’s death. A new edition of my book on Marco Polo is being published in Chinese, and a traveling exhibition is touring Italy. If anyone is in the Liguria Region in the vicinity of Genoa, please stop by Castelnuovo Magra; [it is on] display till October 13.
“I also have some speaking engagements coming up toward the end of this year and next in Des Moines and Kansas City. I will keep you informed as we get closer to those dates.
April 8, 2024: start of eclipse
I am an umbraphile! My fifth total solar eclipse was done on April 8, 2024, in Lake Placid, New York, the day after my birthday. It all started as a kid in Boston (number one)—cloudy, only experienced darkness. Number twp was in Oregon; number three in Chile; and [for] number four, I traveled to Antarctica and only saw darkness, but obviously a trip of a lifetime. And now the great North American eclipse and, of course, I had to find totality not just 99%. Totally lucked out in that it was a clear day but the moment the moon finished eclipsing the sun (or moon ole sol) it clouded up. But a total eclipse is so extraordinary and magnificent. Love it. So now off to the next one . . . more on that later.
Bob Apter wrote, “I’m continuing to enjoy life in Sedona, hiking and exploring new avenues of thinking about the universe!
“I’m still doing telemedicine for COVID with myfreedoctor.com but at a much-reduced level of activity, partly due the expiration of the COVID emergency, which previously allowed me to prescribe in all 50 states, partly due to COVID being less severe and less on people’s minds.
“I just did a presentation on COVID to an Arizona Senate committee at an intergovernmental conference. It was a four-and-one-half hour hearing, of which my presentation was about 30 minutes.
“As always, if anyone is visiting Sedona, please look me up and I should be able to show you around.”
George Nash is experiencing the effects of our extended years on the planet. I’m sure several of you can relate. “Old age is a bitch! Been plagued by back problems requiring surgery the past year. But otherwise just keeping on. Retired from active diversified small farming. Now just keeping enough animals around to amuse our Airbnb guests. Retiring also from full-time participation in the Christmas tree business after 49 years. Our youngest daughter is now doing a great job of managing it and cultivating several of our grandchildren for the next generation. Family keeps expanding. Nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. We’re expecting a few more in the next few years. Our family dinners are positively Brueghelian.”
Bi-stater Rob Baker wrote, “Sandra and I travel between Park City and Princeville [Kauai]. Our charitable work focuses on Green Mountain Valley School in Waitsfield, Vermont, The Namahana School in Kilauea, the Kauai Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, and Reef Guardians on Kauai. I hope to continue surfing, skiing, and riding my bikes for as long as possible.” (More power to you and thanks for supporting good island causes.)
Tony Balis is inspiring in continuing to work to improve the planet. He wrote, “The Humanity Initiative (www.humanity.org) is now entirely re-imagined. We are emphasizing the three primary challenges that confront humanity: ending war, solving climate change, and saving democracy.
“Also, we’ve added a new feature that allows people to customize donations to the top 35 NGOs across the continents. I’ve been working on THI for 37 years now. Finally feels that we are achieving substantial traction. Please take a look!
“Regards to all, Tony”
Connecticut resident Gordon Fain sent a memory-filled note: “In a quiet and persistent way, Seth Kaufman built our class into a real scholarship-fund powerhouse for over 25 years as class agent for ’70. Wesleyan wisely awarded him recognition. Seth was among many ’70 men who went to law school and he successfully did legal work in NYC.
“Sad to see loss of class secretary Lloyd Buzzell ’68, my crew ‘mate.’ Lloyd captained the Wes team that had a great Dad Vail Regatta showing in Philadelphia under Coach Calhoun (who is quoted about Lloyd in our magazine that just arrived). Among other crew members was Bob Carter, the junior varsity ‘stroke,’ Peter Etkin, JV coxswain, and more. Dr. Nason Hamlin ’68 and other seniors helped us with the spring crew camp at a Connecticut lake, Fred Coleman ’69, and others. Still today, both Trinity and Wes put fine eight-person crew teams on the Connecticut River.
“Hoping you and Dr. Neil Clendeninn ’71 can do an article on what Wesleyan tourists can best see and how to stay in the Hawaiian Islands. As I avoid plane rides beyond six hours without breaks, I’m unlikely to see ya in Hawaii, but think many readers of all classes would enjoy suggestions. For example, how get through high prices? [Tip: Do a stopover somewhere on the West Coast. Only five-and-a-half or six hours from there. Re prices: budget and enjoy savings on winter clothes.]
Colin Kitchens posts frequently on Facebook, often about animals in need of our support, politics, and film-related subjects. He wrote, “Life is quiet and full of dogs. I am trying to figure out how to be useful before they discover that discover that I’m not. Hearing issues have resulted in a cochlear implant, which limits being an air controller. I have been writing, along with all of the rest of you. I hope the rest of you are enjoying your families and psychotropic Rx.” [His favorite song is one of Jimmy Buffett’s last, My Gummy Just Kicked In. No, I just made that up. The favorite part; the song is real.]
One of our European residents, Ross Mullins in Geneva, sent some photos with Wesleyan friends.
May 2023: with my buddy, Nik Amarteifio (as jolly as ever), in Madrid
July 2023: with fellow econ major, Peter Goedecke (Class of 1971), in the Alps
March 2024: with Costa Rican econ professor, Claudio González, who led (with Robert Vogel) eight WesTech econ majors doing research in Costa Rica in the spring of 1969. This time in Madrid for a Real Madrid Champions League soccer match.
Brothers-in-law Steve Talbot and Dave Davis both wrote about a project they are doing. Steve described it as“a great opportunity for two old friends, Wesleyan classmates, and documentary filmmakers like us to work together. It’s also a chance for Dave and me to return to the city where we were born and raised and went to high school together.”
Here are the details: “Public TV in LA gave us an R&D grant to get started, allowing us to research the story and go through 30 boxes of photos, private letters, and newspaper articles about Clifford Clinton that are stored in the UCLA archives. It’s a real ‘Chinatown’ story—crime and politics! Now we are out hustling for production money. Stay tuned.
“While we were in LA, we were able to catch up with Wesleyan (and high school) classmate Guy Prevost, who is still chasing the Hollywood dreams, and remains as sharp and funny as ever.
“P.S.: March 28 will mark the one-year anniversary of the debut of my documentary The Movement and the ‘Madman’ on the PBS series American Experience. Anyone interested can catch it on PBS Passport, Amazon Prime, or Kanopy, the library streaming service.”
Dave’s email included a lot of details about their project: “Steve Talbot and I are in early stages of developing a television documentary based on the life of my grandfather, Clifford Clinton, who led a campaign against a corrupt mayor and police chief in LA in the 1930s. It’s a classic film noir tale, but all true.
“Here is a synopsis of the story: Arriving in Depression-era Los Angeles, a young entrepreneur, Clifford Clinton, opens two innovative, imaginative cafeterias he calls Clifton’s. They become very successful, welcome Black patrons during a time of de facto segregation, and provide free meals for the hungry and desperate. Asked to investigate fraud and spoiled food at the county hospital, Clinton uncovers a vast network of citywide corruption run by the mayor and a violent police lieutenant. Clinton and his allies become targets of newspaper smears, threats, and bombings, culminating in a sensational police trial and an unprecedented citizen’s movement that ousts the mayor.”
Dave added, “I am now semi-retired from my job at Oregon Public Broadcasting, after 28 years.”
Peter Traneus Anderson sent this: “Hello to the classmates I never knew. I entered Wesleyan as a junior transfer student, so missed freshman orientation, and buried myself in the physics department as a closeted-electronics engineer in Bud Bertman’s low-temperature research group. I retired out of a plant closing in 2010. Thanks again for Wesleyan 70 Fiftieth Reunion book from 2020. [Come to our reunion next May and meet the gang.]
Among the more healthy members of our class is Mark Geannette. Mark wrote, “My wife and I just returned from a ski trip in the Dolomite Alps of northeast Italy. Happy these legs can still do that! In May we head back to our apartment in Alghero, Sardinia, for two months. Best regards, Mark” [Thanks for the chance to live vicariously!]
Sweden resident Russ Bradshaw summarized life briefly, “I retired after 30 years teaching—associate professor Lehman College CUNY. Now live in Stockholm Sweden, with my wife (of 50 years), Gunilla. Presentation on social ‘influence processes’ at the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) in Barcelona in July: You’ll See It—When You Believe It: The Role of Belief in Cult Recruitment.” [Pretty timely, eh?]
Over on Oahu, Elbridge Smith continues practicing law. He shared some news from many years ago [better late than never!]: “I gave myself an early law school graduation present taking myself and my (then) wife to New Zealand for Christmas holidays in 1976–77.”
I’m reporting from Kalihiwai Valley, where we recently had three feet of water in the valley, enough to destroy a couple of vehicles we had parked by the (elevated) house. Replacing them with similar vehicle, which will be nearly the same models and years [an ’03 Jeep Wrangler and an ’06 Toyota Tacoma], but in (apparently) better condition. Appreciating a good insurance company. Meanwhile, getting through year 13 of teaching middle schoolers (think of herding cats and instructing chickens) while planning our June trip to New Zealand, including trying to learn more about photography with a mirrorless camera, and getting ready to sell our dream house so we can actually consider retirement.
Plan now for our reunion next spring, everyone. Let’s make it bigger than our delayed 50th.
Just heard that David Redden died recently. Please see the obituary here.
Ted Sanderson “directed Rhode Island’s Historic Preservation Committee for 40-plus years. Now, rehabbing a one-level modern home. With three children and three grandchildren, there’s plenty of visiting. Find us at the Newport mansions.”
Charlie Morgan published a book on Massachusetts’s constitution. “A bit of drama with the Mayflower Society and my HOA. Otherwise, healthy and busy with nonprofit and consulting clients.”
Steve Gleich “volunteers, teaches Buddhism, and admires his solar panels in rural Nova Scotia. Lily and I take care of each other and stay in touch with our foster son, Andrew, 42, and my brother, Dan ’72. Love to you all.”
Jerry Martin “retired to Vermont with daughters, Lyllah ’99 and Sarah, and four grandkids. On a sheep farm with ominous clouds of tyranny threatening, we are hopeful.”
From Ken and Visakha Kawasaki, “We continue our food distribution in unstable Sri Lanka. Be well, peaceful, and happy without enemies, worries, or troubles.”
Bill Eaton’s novel, Outward Bound, is available. Look for forests, murder, and love in a trip across the country. “We’ve been married over 50 years, with two sons and five grandchildren.”
Lynn Kozlowski is “fully retired from the University of Buffalo. I write 50-word stories and was in the running for a Story of the Year Award.”
Bill Demicco wrote, “Marie and I returned to St. Croix for the eighth time. Golf and gardening await better weather. Our daughter is a full professor of pathology at the University of Toronto. I spoke with Phil Wallas—he and Lynn just back from a month in Africa.”
Tony Mohr is now the managing editor of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Social Impact Review. Tony also wrote an essay, “The Last Carefree Summer,” which was published in the Loch Raven Review. Recently his memoir, Every Other Weekend—Coming of Age with Two Different Dads, which was published last year, placed second in the memoir category for the Incipere Awards. (In Latin, “incipere” means “to start” or “to begin.”)
Dave Dixon said he “spent a wonderful week with my two-year-old grandson and his father in Amsterdam and nearby cities, appreciating a life in which a car is truly an afterthought. Got together about two months ago with Jeffrey Richards, Rob Pratt, and Bruce Holstein ’70 for a Wesleyan benefit performance of Purlie Victorious on Broadway (produced by none other than Jeffrey Richards).
Jeffrey Richards ’69 (center) and Lin Manuel Miranda ’02 (right) with Leslie Odom Jr. backstage at Purlie Victorious. (Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Richards.)
Charlie Ingrao recently became an Italian citizen.
Fred Coleman said, “We are all well; Wendy and I, kids and grandkids [have] recovered from various ills.” Fred is still [working] with refugee programs, clinic consults, and Global Mental Health Learning Collective. In October he attended a conference in Entebbe, Uganda. “Other than a 52-hour plane delay (but that’s another story) it was great. Working on a project to use dignity as a lens for looking at human rights in mental health care. If any of you in health care, legal world, education, or other fields have reflections on dignity as a [central] ethical principle, please drop me an email.”
Barry Checkoway wrote that he his book, Youth Dialogues on Race and Ethnicity:Challenging Segregation, Strengthening Diversity, was just published by Oxford University Press.
Bryn Hammarstrom was “looking forward to 55th.” His “open-heart surgery in 2020 went well, and I’m back to chainsawing and splitting the firewood that heats our home all winter.”
Darius Brubeck didn’t make our ’69 Reunion. Instead, he was playing in Switzerland at Marians’ Jazz Room with his brothers, Chris and Dan.
Ron Reisner was in Baton Rouge for Easter with his wife to visit her son, a junior at LSU. “Last month we all went to Belize for spring break and a beach vacation. We leave here for Scottsdale to visit my high school basketball teammate and some golf dates there at McCormick Ranch. . . . Also spent some days in the fall at Pinehurst and golfed with my Wesleyan teammate, Fran Spadola. Fran . . . can still hit that golf ball a long way (after all he was a real slugger in the Red Sox farm system). Such an enjoyable fun day with a really class-act teammate and friend from Wesleyan.”
David Freedman spent the winter in Puerto Rico with his wife, Carmen. “We still have good friends there and enjoy the holiday party season and new restaurants that have sprouted post-pandemic.” He also wrote that he “worked on a potable water project sponsored by a local Rotary Club in Puerto Rico . . . there are pockets of poverty that don’t have drinking water. If any of our classmates have experience in this type of relief effort, please share. My email is lcdodavidfreedman@gmail.com.”
Paul Dickman died just before Reunion. He and Fran lived in Phoenix, where he led the pathology department at the Children’s Hospital. Paul was a re
Greetings, Class of ’68! Several of your classmates have shared for this issue:
Dave Gruol reported on two things. He is part of “a weekly Zoom that includes myself, Pete Hardin, Ray Solomon, Dick Emerson, Ron Schroeder, Craig Dodd, and Jacques LeGette . . . . [It]began during COVID as a way to ease the tension of a difficult time [and] continues to this day. Personal news and humor are encouraged, while politics, for the most part, is not. So far, so good.
“Craig Dodd and I will attend Jacques’s inclusion ceremony for the Baseball Wall of Fame on April 27. Unfortunately, because of a previous commitment, Jacques will not be able to attend himself. One of the things bandied about on a recent Zoom was whether or not Jacques had pitched to Steve Garvey, now the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in California. Steve played for Michigan State when we faced them in Florida in the spring of 1968. Of course, we had no idea at the time that he would go on to star for the Dodgers and Padres.”
Paul Spitzer wrote that he is well and is writing an ecologist’s memoir, entitled Dark of the Loon, about his 30 years of loon study along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. Paul says, “Christine and I have lived for 30 years in our old farmhouse by the Choptank River, Maryland Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake. We have a big garden and celebrate culture and nature in our region. I write about my lifelong bird ecology studies.” In April Paul was the keynote speaker at the Colonial Beach, Virginia, spring Osprey Festival. Paul also says that if you Google “Paul Spitzer Ospreys” or “Paul Spitzer Loons,” you’ll find his studies and teachings from across the years.
Paul, in the evening, by his Choptank River, Maryland, home.
Sam Davidson had some unfortunate news: “I wanted to let you know that Davidson Galleries was set on fire by a homeless person trying to keep warm in the alley behind my space on January 12. We are still trying to find the extent of work lost of the 14,000 works in inventory at the time. I hope that we can reopen in May or June. Onward!” http://www.davidsongalleries.com
Bob Knox wrote, “First, I want to honor Lloyd Buzzell as a friend for life. He contributed immensely to all of our lives, bringing us together for over 50 years with his constant good humor and diligence. I hope we can carry on with the cohesion that he created among us.
“Second, I want to share the news that following our wonderful reunion last spring, John Mergendoller and I have organized a bi-monthly Zoom gathering of classmates so that we can continue to share personal news, plans, and projects with each other. If you are interested in joining us, please email me at bob@robertfknox.com so I can send you the Zoom link for our next gathering. Cheers to all.—Bob”
Our classmate, Bernie Steinberg, died Sunday, January 14, 2024, age 78. Bernie grew up in St. Louis and majored in English literature at Wesleyan. After Wesleyan he went on to receive an MA from Brandeis and a PhD in Jewish philosophy from Hebrew University. He lived in Israel for 13 years and then worked at Harvard as the director of Harvard Hillel from 1993 to 2010. In 2012 he moved to Berkeley, California, where he was a vice president of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America and was a visiting scholar at the Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. According to one article that I read after he died, “Most recently, he lived in Chicago, where his son Avi is an author and lecturer in nonfiction writing at the University of Chicago. He is also survived by his wife, Roz; a daughter, Adena; and a granddaughter.”
In one obituary, a former student is quoted saying the following about Bernie: “I have rarely if ever met anyone so committed to the sacred art of nurturing young adults and encouraging them to blossom. Over and above the hundreds and hundreds of undergraduate students he guided and counseled . . . when I worked at Hillel there was always a steady stream of young Jewish professionals who would come to see Bernie—to get his advice, to receive his assurance, to be challenged to think differently and more deeply about whatever was on their mind. The list of people Bernie mentored is like a who’s who of Jewish communal leadership.”
As our 80th birthdays arrive, humor is called for—Jeff Nilson providing some, writing: “As part of my aging, I have been writing limericks lately. Like earworms, they occupy more and more of my consciousness. Oh well! Soon I will be turning 80, which has given rise to this verse:
Soon I will be turning 80,
An age when the world less weighty.
I have lost all my glam,
But I’ve learned who I am.
(Oh I forgot.) . . . I’ve had a lot of gas lately.”
Jeff apologized for sharing this “bit of doggerel” with an English professor, and I replied that “Edward Lear is a favorite of mine,” while pointing out that “Samuel Johnson defines ‘doggerel’ as an adjective: ‘Loosed from the measures of regular poetry; vile; despicable; mean.’ And as a noun: ‘Mean, despicable, worthless verses.’ Yours hardly falls under these definitions, and I rather imagine that Johnson admired a good deal of what at the time was thought of as being doggerel, quoting as an illustration of the word in use a passage from Addison’s Spectator: ‘It is a dispute among the criticks, whether burlesque poetry runs best in heroic verse, like that of the Dispensary; or in doggerel, like that of Hudibras.’ I say if age brings one to writing limericks, bring it on. I hope you won’t mind me including this in our next class notes. Your classmates, as I am, will be delighted.” I trust you are.
Jeff went on to write: “I haven’t thought much about Johnson or Addison over the past 50 years. It is most wonderful to think of these two giants tickling your brain. I vaguely remember Johnson’s definition of a fishing rod as a stick with a hook on one end and a fool on the other. Here on Cape Cod, one would never utter such a definition. There is a huge amount of money spent to transport fishing rods and their men into the waters around the Cape, so that they might catch a fish or two. Our granddaughter, Sarah, works at the Allen Harbor boatyard detailing and occasionally repairing boats costing between $20,000 and $100,000. During the summer, most sit idly waiting for their owners to take them out into Nantucket Sound.”
Jeff gives this update on the family: “Grandson Isaac will soon finish his second year at Wesleyan. Grandson William is exploring colleges with strong music programs. He told his mother, Elizabeth ’88, he didn’t see any point in finishing high school as all he wants to do with his life is to play music. He plays bass guitar, piano, and stand-up bass. Unlike his grandfather, he has a beautiful singing voice. Granddaughter Sarah has been accepted at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Marietta and our children are healthy.”
On March 7 Harold Potter wrote from Logan Airport that he and his wife, Lee, were “on our way to Lisbon tonight. The last time we were there was 1980. Bill Machen, a fellow classmate, was with us then. We are traveling with Lee’s roommate from Swarthmore this time.” Below is a photograph of Lee and Harold in the village of Carmona, Spain. “We are now in Ronda, which is in the mountains. Pretty spectacular. Granada and then Madrid next.”
Harold and Lee Potter in Carmona, Spain.
Harold “enjoyed the recent comments from classmates about MLK” and went on to spark a conversation by writing that he “remember[s] James Baldwin’s visit too.” Others have as well, Thomas Hawley writing “remembrance of James Baldwin . . . was one of the highlights of my too brief Wesleyan experience.”
David Luft chimes in that “I might never have known who Baldwin was if he hadn’t come to chapel. I learned a lot from him, especially about the experience of being Black. Interestingly, Ta-Nehisi Coates said roughly the opposite on some matters when he visited Oregon State, but he meant the same thing. Baldwin wanted me to be able to acknowledge his Blackness, while Coates didn’t want me to think I was white. My parents actually never told me I was white. But you didn’t meet a lot of Black guys in Allentown in those days.”David goes on to add: “I’m working on a Czech intellectual history and on a collection of my essays called Toward a Central European Intellectual History.”
David Griffith,who also had an “impromptu lunch with Martin Luther King . . . just the two of us, in the CSS dining hall,” gives us this gem: “I remember drinking with Mr. Baldwin, late in the evening in our dining room at what had been EQV. I’m taxing my memory to recall the conversation with him, Franklin Balch, and Willie Kerr, who were often visitors at or after dinner . . . . While Dr. King looked into my whole being with what seemed a benevolent interest in my family and Colorado Springs and the high mountains, during my unexpected lunch with him, Baldwin was the literate cognoscente, offhand, lubricated, smoking (I believe), and I felt regarded me with the regard that any civilized person would have for a guy in blue jeans from the Wild West.”
Peter Monro had a dazzling encounter with “James Baldwin not at Wesleyan, but rather at the American Protestant Church in Paris, where he was living in 1965. In that church’s crypt, I also sat across from Joan Baez, who had broken off her tour of England when Bob Dylan took it over. She borrowed a guitar to sing at one of the weekly hootenannies held down there.” Hard to top that! Peter goes on to write: “The one celebrity of interest I met on campus was Norman Thomas, the aging socialist. I recall Jimmy Sugar, who would become a National Geographic photographer, taking his portrait.” Peter “was already planning my overall, and ultimate, appreciation for my Wesleyan education, which I suspect is quite unlike most others in both content and consequences. Ultimate because a serious medical diagnosis for my wife assures that I will have little time to offer further comments.” Here is his account of a brave, adventuresome, life well lived:
“Essentially two of my undergraduate years were spent abroad: summers in Tours, France, and academic years in Paris, first with the College of Letters as a sophomore, then pivoting back to a regular curriculum to spend the next year in the Sweetbriar junior year abroad [program], rooming with classmate Stephen Giddings, among others.
“My fluency and knowledge of French culture did not lead to an academic career, nor to the diplomatic career as political analyst in a Francophone country for which I had hoped. I married and started a family too quickly to permit that, which is why I now have two wonderful daughters, Catherine, 55, an outdoor enthusiast in Burlington, Vermont, and Allison, 53, a marketing specialist in suburban Boston.
“My Wesleyan mates—few in number (Phil Shaver, Sam Carrier, Jim Brink), strong in persuasion—pushed me to graduate school. But I walked—quite literally—out of graduate school in Worcester, Massachusetts, and down the street to a first career in journalism. It was a wonderful choice, informing me about all manner of things I wouldn’t have otherwise known, especially the nature of civic community that I had missed moving every couple of years growing up.
“When I burned out of that field at 35–stress and alcohol fueled its demise—I moved near my two daughters in rural Vermont with only enough money to buy land. So together we constructed a homestead—a log cabin from slash, a two-story house off the grid, hauling water, chopping wood—think David Budbill’s Judevine Mountain—(I’ve just recovered photos of daughter Catherine hammering the outhouse together).
“It was a five-year project that segued into my second career—after another year of graduate school—as a landscape architect, a wonderful calling for me, complete with constructing my pencil designs with shovels and tractors, and conserving land in stunning places, mostly here in Maine.
“Over the decades, French has allowed me to fully engage with clients in the Acadian-infused folks in northern Maine, to hike isolated areas of France in the past 10 years, where I was more than once the first American locals had ever met, and to help asylum seekers from French-speaking African nations here in Portland.
“As a result of my years abroad, I lacked much contact with professors or students or the campus community in Middletown, but Wesleyan deserves a doff of my hat for its unique offering of a lengthy immersion in a wonderful foreign culture. (That undergraduate experience also convinced me I could learn other languages, so in the past decade I’ve spent one spring in Lucca learning Italian and two months hiking the Camino de Santiago after ramping up in Spanish.)
“One anecdote: In Paris of the ’60s, I befriended a plumber, who—despite being a Communist—bought a café where he one day accosted me with a pointed finger, saying, ‘Your capitalist society is dying!’ He was showing off for two mates in his Communist cell standing at the bar. I smiled and replied, ‘Yes, that’s why your daughter is studying English in London.’ He roared with laughter, introduced me to his pals, and gave me a free cognac.”
It finally happened: Tom Pulliam’sgranddaughter, Madeline, met Hardy Spoehr. Hardy writing: “We had a great visit with Tom Pulliam, his wife, Alice and . . . Madeline in January. Tom still looks like he can take the rugby ball from scrum over the goal line. Madeline is a student at our University of Hawai`i.” Hardy goes on to write: “Last month, February, I received a great call from Rick Crootof who, with his wife, Linda, gathered with his family on Kaua`i. . . . Great to catch up with both.”
Tom Pulliam corroborates the long-sought visit. “In February, finally got together with Hardy Spoehr and his wife, Joyce, in Honolulu. The occasion was visit to granddaughter Madeline, a sophomore at U. of Hawaii where she is studying marine biology and art. . . . She’s a self-taught surfer, so Hawaii suits her just fine. Was terrific seeing Hardy, who is still paddling in outrigger canoe races, and as it turns out, he has been competing in those races for years against an old rugby coach of mine, who also joined us all for dinner, which is how each found out: both recognizing the other as member of an opposition team.” Tom gave this further update on his ever-engaged, active life: “And speaking of rugby, one of the true highlights of the year was the return to rugby by oldest grandson, Evan, now a junior in high school, to play for his high school team, which resurrected its rugby team after being dormant for 100 years. He had stopped playing for couple of years to concentrate on MLSNext soccer, which forbids its players from playing any other sport. Evan couldn’t resist, though, and led his team to [a] six-game win streak, concluding a great season during which he played 9, the same position I played for several decades, and demonstrated skills that vastly surpassed any I possessed over a long career. An unexpected event: an action photo of Evan appeared on the cover of the national high school rugby magazine, but his MLSNext coaches undoubtedly never saw it. Evan will visit Connecticut College in a few weeks, which is interested in him playing soccer there, the same Connecticut College from our Wesleyan days (and nights), but not really the same at all. Wife, Alice, and I head to Italy at end of April for three weeks. Should be fun and probably a little different experience from my last visit to Italy in 1978 on a rugby tour. Still spending lots of time with daughter Amanda’s family. They live about seven minutes away. In addition to Madeline and Evan, there are Jay (14) and Ben (11 soon), who are also athletes. We spend many happy hours watching them compete.” Tom ends with this thought that no doubt many of us share: “Never planned a life this good. Never expected it. Has not stopped me from thoroughly enjoying it.”
Clark Byam writes that he has “nothing to report other than I’m now 80, still hiking. . . .” This led to a back-and-forth about the importance of staying active. I had no idea what an athlete Clark was and is, asking him innocently about his time on the Wesleyan swim team, and getting this: “I had a bad sinus infection my senior year at Wesleyan that kept me out of practice for three weeks. I came back for one week of practice and decided I no longer had the desire and quit the team. There was a biology professor who had spent a year in Japan and had also gotten his black belt in judo and was offering a class in judo. I took it, and it was a challenge but learned a lot from it. I also trained and boxed in the Golden Gloves my first year in law school before I went into naval aviation training in September of 1967. Later when I was a lawyer in Pasadena, I played a lot of tennis, over 10 years, at Cal Tech tennis courts with a client who was Cal Tech graduate and brilliant. Also played a lot of racquetball at a local gym. So, you might say I was a jack-of-all-trades and master of none, but I stayed active.” Whew! Keep it up, Clark! His parting words to all of us: “Stay healthy!”
Thanks to those of you who responded to the recent call for information.
Bill Brooks: “Hello, everyone! As I write this, I am preparing to teach an undergraduate class at Wesleyan. Yes, that Wesleyan—home, sweet home! The class is devoted to the music and thought of Richard Winslow, whom many of you will remember with fondness. You may know that Dick died in 2017, just four months short of his hundredth birthday. His family donated his papers to the Wesleyan archives just before the pandemic, and the archives prepared a preliminary finding aid based in large part on a database that Tracey Grinnell had constructed (thank you, Tracey!). If you’re interested, check it out: https://archives.wesleyan.edu/repositories/sca/resources/richard_k_winslow_papers.
“I’ve been going through the papers and refining the database, and an extended Winslow festival was launched in October 2023 with a high-profile concert in Crowell Hall. This spring (May 3, 2024) the festival continued with a choral concert in the chapel, and we hope to mount one or more of the big theater pieces in years to come. A Winslow publication series is in the works, probably to start with sets of his songs and his shorter choral works; and in the planning stages is an edition of his ‘collected writings,’ based not only on his manuscripts but also on video and audio recordings that are preserved in the archive.
“My plea to you: If any of you have anything pertaining to Winslow or to music at Wesleyan more generally, please get in touch with me. The archive will happily accept additional materials (I’ve already donated my own collection of scores and letters), and—as we prepare editions of the scores and papers—every single scrap of paper, every recollection, is valuable. Write me at w-brooks@illinois.edu (I check that daily). Stay well, search (and preserve!) your memories, and send me anything you have!”
Steven Halliwell: “I am continuing to write a newsletter on Russia and Ukraine called ‘Hot Money and Dirty Laundry’ on Substack, and a number of classmates are regular readers, including John Hall, Win Chamberlin, Bob Barton, Ted Dreyfus, Bill Knox, as well as Bill Hunt and Woody Sayre, with whom I have very regular communication. Subscriptions are free!”
Carl Hoppe: “My wife and I still work very part time as psychologists. Three daughters are all well, employed, and self-supporting.”
Arthur Rhodes: “My wife, Leslie, and I are enjoying ourselves, with me being fully retired after spending 50-plus years in medicine, and Leslie still doing her design work (SpaceDesign.com) on homes (designing top to bottom) with several clients. We travel to Louisiana to see her five grandchildren (20 months to 11 years), and I get to see my six grandchildren in Illinois, ages 12 to 22 years (three in college). Spending time with ‘painting’ using photography, showing my best work on Instagram (arthurrrhodes_photography). Am in relatively good health, hoping to stay alive for a while. Best to all of my classmates.”
Dutch Siegert: Still working six days a week as a lawyer in New York City. I am busier now than ever before. My granddaughter, who is only a 15-year-old sophomore in high school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is one of the top runners in the United States. She ran a 4:55 mile beating juniors and seniors. Her mother, my daughter, was the captain of Wesleyan’s track team back in 1996.”
