Class Notes

Hopefully, by the time you read this, the lockdown that has been in effect since mid-March will be over. But who knows! I’ve hobbled around with a broken foot for most of the year, so for me, the lockdown has been well-timed. I hope you all have fared well during these difficult times.

In any case, the lockdown doesn’t stop news, so here we go!

Eric Leach-Rodriguez and his husband are among the many New Yorkers who stayed in the city to shelter in place. As Eric notes, it was some comfort to have 20 years as a nurse practitioner in HIV/AIDS before facing the current pandemic. Also in the city, Grant Brenner hunkered down in lower Manhattan, continuing as a psychiatrist running a large practice and doing nonprofit disaster mental health.

Darcy Dennett spent some time down in New York City for 60 Minutes Australia on the front lines in the fight against COVID-19 but then retreated two hours north in Connecticut, editing in the country. She and her husband, Paul, a lawyer for the MTA, are preparing to return to New York as soon as they can.

Lisa Turner Laing released her third novel, Love Me Not, under the pen name Lisa McLuckie. Rick Barot’s fourth book of poems, The Galleons, was published by Milkweed Editions. He won the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America. He directs the MFA program in creative writing at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash.

Kevin Prufer is writing books and teaching in the graduate creative writing program at the University of Houston. For the last 10 years, he has also been directing a literary-archaeological project called The Unsung Masters Series, a book series that discovers, considers, and reprints the work of great lost writers of the past (unsungmasters.org).

Ruthbea Yesner lives in Brookline and is the VP of Government, Education and Smart Cities research and consulting. Also in the greater Boston area, Zoe Singer Fishman is practicing primary care pediatrics with Charles River Pediatrics in Natick, Mass., living in Newton with her husband, Craig Fishman, and their two sons Sam (13) and Jacob (17). Jacob will head to D.C. in the fall to be a freshman at American University.

Also on the college track, Karen Cacase Flynn and Mike Flynn ’93 are planning to send their daughter, Sophia, to start at Wesleyan in the fall.

Stefanie Trice Gill runs IntWork, a diversity recruitment agency she founded that provides engineering, tech, and executive search. She’s in Portland, Maine, sheltering in place with her husband, Mark, their 10-year-old son, and her 80-year-old-mother.

On the front lines of the current crisis, Jacky Jennings is an infectious disease epidemiologist in the throes of COVID-19 research, including launching a seroprevalence study in Baltimore City, Md., to measure the true burden of disease as well as the social and economic impacts of the crisis.

Abigail Saguy is sheltering at home in West Los Angeles with her husband, Dotan, and their kids Claire, 18, and Jonah, 15. During the pandemic, she has become a Zoom pro: teaching via Zoom, giving Zoom seminars, Zoom writing sessions, Zoom faculty meetings, Zoom cooking classes, and Zoom cocktail hours. Just before we all went into lockdown, she published a new book, Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are (Oxford, 2020).

In the last notes, there was mention of a book Richard Deitrich co-edited. In early February, an accompanying exhibit opened at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, called A Collector’s Vision: Highlights from the Dietrich American Foundation.

For those of you looking for entertainment, our classmates are happy to help! Tim Ellis is doing a comedy and music show, Rock Soft with Tim Ellis, every other Friday at 8 a.m. live on Facebook Live. And Susan Kleinman’s improv group, Brownies for Everyone, is doing a free show every Saturday (see improvmarin.com). When not doing shows, she is busy helping her nonprofit clients raise money and distribute cash assistance and food to individuals and families in crisis.

And though it seems like a lifetime ago, some of our classmates had exciting travels to report. In December 2019, William Kim attended the Nobel Prize Ceremony (Stockholm, Sweden) in honor of his post-doc mentor, Dr. William Kaelin, who shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology. A small part of Bill’s post-doctoral research contributed to this finding, so he was especially excited. And he got to wear “white tie” (I can vouch for it—I’ve seen photo evidence).

Finally, on a sad note, I am sorry to report that our classmate Kristian Dahl passed away on Feb. 10.

That’s all the notes for now. Please keep Paul and me updated with your news!

Adam Berinsky | berinsky@mit.edu 

Paul Coviello | coviellop01@alum.darden.edu

We begin with the very sad news that our classmate Thea Trachtenberg passed away on April 12. Good Morning America, where Thea had worked for over 20 years, did a lovely tribute to her on pagesix.com.

As Rebecca Rossen wrote: “It’s such a tragedy. She was so smart and funny. The ABC tributes are testaments to her amazing career, and just how respected and loved she was.”

Nina Grekin recalls getting together with Thea not long after the election of 2016 on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. “We had (a lot of) oysters, wine, and conversation that has held me to this day. She shared the reasoning of responsible journalism…She even indulged the volume and passion of my…ranting with curiosity, humor, and patience. We laughed loud and hard. In Judaism, we say, ‘May her memory be a blessing.’ And so, with my heart dropped down so deep, I can’t even hold it up…I will embrace my memories of Thea Trachtenberg and let them be a blessing.”

Sharene Azimi started a private Facebook group in memory of Thea and shared that “Thea became my best friend in college after we met the first day of freshman year in Foss 5. We lived together in Foss 8 and in High Rise and then lived three blocks apart on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Together we traveled to Italy, Egypt, and the weddings of various friends. We frequently spoke about everything and nothing—a continuous conversation that lasted for 33 years…. Thea was fierce and funny and independent, and I’ll remember her that way.”

Julie Doar-Sinkfield’s family is planning to relocate to Atlanta, Ga., from Weston, Fla. “We were supposed to move in July, but now, who knows? If the kids are in online school still or the real estate market tanks or whatever happens in this world the move might be as late as December. But Atlanta is the plan now.”

Lara Small Laurence writes that the “quarantine, while challenging, has created weekly connections with Wes folks. When I moved back to New York after grad school, a few Wes people and I, along with some other friends, started meeting regularly for Friday night services at one of the synagogues and for dinner. We continued meeting weekly until my kids were in elementary school, and almost everyone married and moved to the burbs.” The Shabbat group had a ritual where each person shared “Sweet Things of the Week.” Now, in quarantine, they are zooming with their families each Friday evening before Shabbat to share their sweet things. In the group are Michelle Elisburg ’92, Jennifer Hammer ’91, Shira Koch Epstein ’98, Tzvi Mackson ’89, and Jenny Simon Tabak ’93.

Lara said, “This time has become a highlight of my week. Currently, I’m hunkered down on Long Island, working as a learning specialist via Zoom, with my husband, Aviv (Vassar ’90), and my three children.”

Mark Hsieh sends greetings from Taiwan, “where early precautions have allowed us to contain the COVID-19 virus effectively and carry on life as usual with restrictions. I was particularly happy that Kazutoshi Ohkubo was able to visit Taiwan with his family before the whole pandemic made international travel next to impossible. I am glad to have had a nice coffee in Washington with Edward Ungvarsky when I attended the Invest USA Conference last year!” Mark sends wishes to everyone to stay safe during the pandemic and included photos of his and Kazu’s family in Taiwan and of him with Ed in D.C.

Lara Goldmark sent an update to recognize the late Mike Mahon ’89, a fellow Wesleyan swimmer, and the group that gathered virtually with him a month ago and then again on May 22 to honor his passing: Jen Zoltners ’91, Dana Schultz ’91, Steve Jackman ’89, Dave Griffiths, Bill Fabbri ’91, Doug Bothner ’91, Jil Zilligen, Mark Mullen ’89, Mark Seasholes ’89, Courtney Fahy ’89, Karen Smolar ’88, Greg Lesser ’90, Dave Kane ’92, Morgan Bain ’92, Jono Marcus ’88, Dana Hoey ’89, swim team manager Nadine Angress ’90, friend of swimmers Ed Brown ’90, and Assistant Coach Diane Callaghan, who read a message from Coach John Ryan ’82. Lara has started a company called Just Results (justresultsllc.com). Summer internship positions were just filled, but Wes students are welcome to apply for the fall.

Netania Steiner writes from Brooklyn, “Sad that we’ll miss our Reunion but happy for the Wes friends who keep me sane. One silver lining of the stay-at-home life has been weekly Zoom parties with the Aloha Deck—my sophomore hall of Jon Bakija, Peggy Lionberger, Dan Gilman, Alan Busby, and Brett Terry.” Netania also speaks regularly with Amy Redfield ’89, who lives in St. Louis with her husband, Scott, and their dog Josie. “The Mutt to my Jeff, Rob Daniels ’88, lives in NYC with his wife, Laura Sherman ’88, and their two daughters.”

Finally, in May, our class celebrated its first-ever Virtual Reunion, or “ReZOOM-ion,” as it’s been called. While nothing can replace on-campus Reunion, the weekend was surprisingly fun and gave us a great opportunity to reconnect with classmates. We heard updates, broke into first-year residence halls, “met up” on Foss Hill, and participated in a deeply moving panel discussion with Professor of Psychology Emeritus Karl Scheibe, Carolyn Clark, Joy Challenger Slaughter, Deborah Gahr, and Andrew Siff. As successful as it was, remember that we WILL have a real Reunion on campus next year: May 28-30, 2021. Mark your calendars now!

Vanessa Montag Brosgol | vanessa.brosgol@yahoo.com

Peter writes for this issue.

David Silverberg advises, “I started a podcast focusing on how the pandemic impacts the field of education, which features interviews with superintendents, professors, authors, and other leaders (apple.co/2LLwcW0). Great if you want to spread the word to others in our class—or to Wesleyan grads in general—who might be interested in listening or, perhaps, being interviewed.”

Michael Taylor writes, “I am serving as the music director for St. Joseph Parish in Stuart, Fla. Since the middle of March, the church has been closed to the public, but we began live-streaming our services. Although we can’t have our choirs and praise bands participate, we still have music (a singer and me). Happily, they are still keeping me on the payroll, although it’s certainly strange celebrating Mass for an almost empty church. In our abundant spare time, we’ve been reading more, trying to exercise, and, like so many other musicians, amusing ourselves by coming up with coronavirus-related song parodies. Here’s a link to our latest silliness: youtu.be/JIrE_vX3Ems.”

Sue Haiken Parmet shares, “Some good news in the midst of the chaos, my daughter Sara will be (hopefully!) heading to Wes this fall. She was accepted into the Class of 2024, and we’re all very excited. I hear there may be some others with kids who will be joining the Class of 2024. Hopefully, they’ll let you know themselves!”

Rob Wrubel ’88, MA ’89 notes, “My children and I had a New Orleans food day yesterday—beignets for breakfast, shrimp po’boy sandwiches for lunch, and jambalaya for dinner. They watched The Princess and the Frog, and we listened to NOLA inspired music all day. I finished my next book and am waiting for it to come back from the editor before publication this summer/fall.”

Keith Seibert reports, “We are fine and riding out the pandemic in Palo Alto. We are very fortunate that the Bay Area began the sheltering-in-place process early, it really saved lives. That also meant we experienced panic buying and hoarding early on—I still regret not grabbing the Purell bottle off my office desk! A silver lining in this has been reconnecting with a number of friends across the country and keeping in close touch, exchanging news and humor by text.”

Tim McCallum shares from Hawaii, “I am the busiest unemployed person I know. My Pilates studio shut down for now, but I am helping a friend create an off-grid homestead in the jungle on the North Shore. I’m also doing shopping trips for a few families and some seniors (we call them “kupuna” here), so they don’t have to risk the virus at Costco. Keeping my 3-year-old son, Logan, busy at the beach, and trying to lay my hands on enough bailout money to keep my biz afloat until our All-Knowing Leaders decide the coast is clear, pandemic-wise. Full of gratitude that Hawai’i got a very mild case of pandemic (14 dead). Now, if I could just get Logan to potty-train!”

Greg Wolfe tells us, “Had a great Zoom call with Raph Worrick, Wayne Reiss ’86, and Helen Reiss ’87 last week. Our youngest, Ben, started Syracuse University School of Visual and Performing Arts with a concentration in theater lighting design but had to exit campus in March. His older sister, Emily, graduated from the University of Michigan in May 2019, and after extensive travel in east Asia with Michigan friends, is also back home in Connecticut. We’ve been writing songs, learning songs, and playing music together during the quarantine, which has been great. Everyone’s healthy here and hoping for better days ahead for all.”

Gail Kahan writes, “I live in Maryland and opened my estates and trusts practice about 15 years ago. I’m a solo attorney with two paralegals who are integral to providing friendly, competent service to my clients. We, Kahan Law ladies, are working from home and anticipate that this horrible tragedy will last far longer than anyone would like. I’ll be married 30 years this May, have two almost-grown kids, both of whom are home and attending school via Zoom. Husband Jeff (Oberlin ’88) also works from home with no discernible change in his work life. The four of us feel incredibly lucky to be healthy and together in our little capsule. Wishing all who read this good health.”

Peter V.S. Bond | 007@pvsb.org 

Hillary Ross | hrossdance@yahoo.com

Hello, Class of ’87! I am writing to you in May, while many governors are weighing the risks of opening back up. This has been an unimaginable part of our lives, and the notes I am reporting reveal the strangeness of this time in quarantine.

Giles Richter reports that he is hunkered down with his wife in San Mateo, Calif., having returned from Tokyo in January. He works at Stanford for a Japanese language intensive program. Giles worked to move the program online to keep it running despite the crisis. He has kept tabs on classmates sheltering in New York, including Anne Dunham, Adrienne Fitzgerald, Becca Gallagher ’90, Jack Levinson, Jeremy Mindich ’87, MALS ’89, and Vivian Trakinski.

Gabrielle Sellei was sworn into the New York Bar from her front porch in May. She is an entertainment lawyer, getting increased interest from New York-based clients. She’s now a Pennsylvania-New York-New Jersey triple threat.

Amy Baltzell shares a little joy in a time of so much dark news: Shayna, her oldest daughter, is attending Wesleyan this fall. She will be joining the rowing team. Amy says she is overwhelmed with gratitude and excitement for her to have the chance to experience Wesleyan.

David Josephs and his family relocated from London back to Chicago in March, arriving at O’Hare on the first day of newly-instituted customs procedures at O’Hare Airport. It took them six hours to get through immigration. They have moved back into their home in the Chicago suburbs and are happy to be closer to their daughter and families now. David took a new job as CEO at daVinci Payments, after five years with Visa. Living in London was fantastic, including a visit from David Igler ’88, MA’88.

After 26 years in Chicago, J.B. Davis and his wife, Rachel, moved their family Josiah (18), Eli (15), Abby (13), puppy Booker, and cat Billie to Cleveland three years ago. Rachel is an administrator at Cleveland State University, and J.B. is the director of engagement and marketing at Suburban Temple – Kol Ami, a reform synagogue.

Hemanshu Nigam has built a career working on the safety initiatives in the public space and cyberspace. Recently, he developed an app called Syndesy (syndesy.io), offering protections including connecting emergency alerts to contacts and the ability to track negative interactions in a verified form. The app has a recently-added check-ins feature that makes it easy for users to voluntarily capture where they have been and when, and inform family and friends should they be diagnosed COVID-19 positive. This feature provides an approach to contact tracing, balancing civil liberties and privacy with the ability to protect society.

The pandemic pushed Wendy Blum’s dance education work online. She has been designing and teaching remote curriculum for pre-K through fifth grade in New York City public schools. She enjoys the upsides of technology, such as the ability to use the media of masterworks made available during the pandemic. However, teaching physical dance via video has been challenging. During the stay-at-home order, Wendy interacts with many Wespeeps via multiple digital platforms. She took a Zoom dance class alongside Molly Rabinowitz, had Jody Sperling ’92 as a guest artist in her GoogleMeets classroom, and has met virtually with Kim Sargent-Wishart (Australia), Sue Roginski (California), Evelyn Shapiro (Illinois), Darya Mead (California), Pauline Frommer ’88 (New York City), Eddie Zas (New York City), Dave Cole (Illinois), Debby Hamilton (California), Andrew Grimaldi (Massachusetts), Steve Morison ’88 (Bulgaria), Nancy Nachbar ’89 (Maryland), Steve Kullback ’89 (Georgia), Christie Trott ’88 (California), and Paul Gosselin ’88 (France).

Ian Rosen and his family are persevering in London. He finds himself grateful for the opportunity to work hard from home. He’s busy in sustainability across three businesses—investment management in renewable energy, a technology company in electric-vehicle charging, and property development. His daughter finished her Wesleyan frosh year from home in London. In his role as alumni rep, Ian is planning virtual gatherings given physical ones seem a way off.

Josh Calder works as a futurist, offering support across many industries. Years ago, his company sent out a prediction about the possibilities of a pandemic and its deep effects. Josh said that even being intellectually prepared, he was not inoculated against how weird the pandemic is. In the kind of news a class secretary delights in, Josh reports a previous column of class notes informed him that his sons’ peace teacher is our classmate Linda Ryden, who lives five houses down from him in Northwest D.C.

Finally, we got news in early April that Willie Greeke had died from COVID-19, a stunningly cruel disease. Willie was remembered on Facebook by his classmates for his activities at Wesleyan, and for the good guy that he was. The world is a little darker for this loss.

In addition to news of their activities during the pandemic, our classmates wrote in to send best wishes and love to their Wesleyan friends. I sincerely hope this message finds you and your family safe and healthy.

Rebecca Zimbler Graziano | rebecca.graziano@hotmail.com

First: Our 35th Reunion is in 2021, so we will have virtual celebrations this winter and spring, and (if all goes well) an in-person celebration in Middletown in late May. Please watch your email or our Facebook page for updates. If you haven’t been receiving emails from Wes, please let me know.

Earlier this year, many of us had children who were graduating from college or high school. Sue Bidwell’s comments about a senior week and virtual commencement were true for many of us. She said replicating senior week at home was a bit of a challenge, but “on the positive side, family members from around the country were able to participate virtually. Whereas even if there were no pandemic, they would have been unable to attend in person, so it was nice to be inclusive of the whole family—and best of all, we could all attend commencement in our PJs!”

Erika Levy wrote from NYC, where she’s an associate professor of communication sciences and disorders at Teachers College, Columbia University. Erika and her colleagues recently received a $1.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education for a program fostering collaboration between speech-language pathologists and teachers of children who are deaf and hard of hearing. Erica is in regular contact with Craig Hetzer and Liza Baron.

Also, in New York, Jeff Liss has been spending this pandemic time cleaning and organizing his basement and garage. “In other news, I spent the last year losing 75 pounds and can now fit into the Wesleyan sweatshirt I bought in December 1981 the weekend after I was accepted! In December, I joined the Board of Trustees for a small nonprofit that has been making headlines recently as a result of all of the COVID-19 deaths in New York City—The Hart Island Project. You can learn all about it at hartisland.net.”

Dennis Carboni wrote a long email; some extracts are below. Dennis has become a certified ice technician, meaning he operates and maintains a Zamboni ice resurfacer. “I use my engineering skills and art skills every year when we install the ice, layout, and then paint all the hockey markings. It’s hard to describe how much fun, joy, and peace I get out of physically working on the ice.” He’s in regular contact with David Rose and Hal Phillips; in fact, this spring, they’ve been doing a video call every Saturday night. Carboni’s son and daughter are both in their mid-20s and good in their post-college lives. Although Dennis never smoked or chewed tobacco, in recent years his right upper lung lobe and one-eighth of his tongue were removed because of two separate cancer diagnoses, but “I’ve been fine ever since.”

My inbox also had notes from, among others, Elena Scharnoff (“I have my own consulting business, and work continues to flow in”), Charlie Berthoud (a pastor for a Presbyterian congregation in Madison), Steve Price (one of many in our five-year club—those who started Wes in 1981 and graduated with us), Melany Kahn (near Keene, N.H., and very active in progressive politics), Shawn Cuddy (who referred to her husband, James Hallett), and Ann O’Hanlon (we are all fighting the passage of time, eh?), and Ester Amy Fischer (who like many of us, was wondering about the next chapter in her life).

I also acknowledge the new fellowship among many of 50-or-so classmates who participated in one or more of our video conferences earlier this year. It was a great way to learn about the interesting things that our class members are doing with their lives (and look into their private lives, as we saw their backyards and living rooms). The larger gatherings had about two dozen classmates, with some living only 20 miles off campus and some joining us from hundreds or thousands of miles away (the distance winners were Melbourne and the South Pole—each being about 10,000 miles from Middletown).

Our three class agents—John Gannon, David Hill, and Michael Levin—and I look forward to seeing you online or in-person in the coming months. If you would like to volunteer a few hours in the coming months to help support the university or help make the Reunion program a success, please let me know.

Eric Howard | ehoward86@wesleyan.edu

Hello, Class of ’85! It was terrific to see so many of you at our Re-Zoom-ion this weekend. Even though the socially-distant format reminded us that we were far apart, it also allowed for some far-flung classmates who otherwise wouldn’t have attended to hang out for a while. (Looking at you, Paul Krystall, Al Septien, and Lisa Rosenblatt!)

At the reception held by President Michael Roth ’78 on Friday night, Patricia Calayag, Hiram Chodosh, and Bill Wrubel were honored for their service to and continued engagement with Wesleyan. Patricia lives in Stamford, Conn., and is an ob-gyn, among her other activities. Hiram, an internationally recognized specialist in mediation, currently serves as president of Claremont-McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. Bill is an Emmy-winning producer and writer of some very popular TV shows. He and Patricia also have served on many a Reunion committee!

After the president’s reception, our class had a social hour, and if you’ve ever imagined a Zoom meeting with 90 or so people, well, this was much more fun. In an effort to recreate the serendipity of running into people under the big tent on Andrus field, we landed in random breakout rooms, caught up with some classmates, and generally all agreed that we’ll try to get together in person as soon as we’re able. I was able to catch up with many folks, among them Crystal Turner-Moffatt. Crystal is the founder and president of a consulting firm that specializes in environmental health and safety; she’s also married and lives in Milford, Conn. Both Crystal and Amy Nash livened up our online happy hours with photos from our Wesleyan years; everyone was super polite and lied that we all look exactly the same!

On Saturday afternoon, there was a smaller gathering of those who competed in sports at Wes. I’m proud, of course, that four of us were from the crew, Margaret Bracken Thompson, Hillary Hess, and, the ’85 co-captains, Amy Clark and me. In the evening, there was a larger happy hour where we were sorted by our first-year dorms. It was very fun to see one another, even in an attenuated medium. Someone characterized the idea of gathering by dorm “inspired,” and having loved my first-year housemates, I agree.

Back before the pandemic, Hillary and I went west to visit Aram Schiffman in Eugene, Ore. After years in the Bay Area, Aram relocated to Eugene where he works for Thermo Fisher Scientific when he’s not working out or creating gorgeous pieces in his woodshop. We had a great weekend, drinking pots of coffee, taking in the scenery, listening to music, and cracking up. Aram’s daughter, Allison, is a math major at the University of Wisconsin.

Let’s keep staying in touch. Please write me if you have anything to share, and please think about coming to Middletown for a “consolation prize” reunion next spring.

CAROLINE WILKINS | cwilkins85@yahoo.com

Hello, classmates!

What can we say in times like these? I heard from a few of you, who had nothing to report but just wanted to respond in some way. Michael “Misi” Polgar, Marc Sholes, and Michael Murphy all send their greetings, and Dave Blauer writes from Cape Cod that he wishes everyone and their loved ones health, happiness, and security.

Robert Leland writes from his Los Altos Hills, Calif., perch above Silicon Valley. He’s 15 miles from Google, Apple, and Cisco, but his cell service “completely sucks.” He describes this “strange place to live—billionaires here and there and then on the street El Camino outside of Stanford University are 40 broken down RVs where workers live in them.” His son, Davis, is enrolled in CAL next year. He is feeling his age (aren’t we all?), and offers that Wesleyan is known in California as the “Berkeley of the East.”

Scott Pearson reports he will be leaving his job with the DC Public Charter School Board after eight-and-a-half-years. After spending months dealing with shutdowns and keeping students connected (even providing devices to families), he reflects on the extraordinary giving spirit he has seen. The most exciting action, Scott says, is in public service at the state and local level, where a mayor or governor can make an “immediate and positive difference.” He is looking forward to some fun times—sailing, skiing, hiking, cycling, reading, learning, and celebrating his marriage of 25 years to Diana Farrell ’87. Even though neither of his children opted for Wesleyan, they turned out happy and healthy despite it all. Scott is grateful for his time at Wes and his dear friends, helping to navigate this crazy world.

Rick Davidman ran into Jennifer Watkins in early March, at the Art of Paper Fair in New York (resulting in a mini-Gingerbread House reunion). Rick, former head of DFN Gallery, was curating a booth, and Jennifer was there representing her Boston-based firm, PSG Framing.

Karen Wise is tickled pink she will be able to add P’24 next to ’84 in the alumni listing, as her daughter enrolled at Wes in the fall. Status of the all-campus opening is unclear at this time, though her son hopes to be entering his senior year at Colby, and her daughter hopes to be teaching elementary school in the fall (having completed her master’s at BU). Karen has worked full-time at home for decades—editing cookbooks and other “trade non-fiction” (parenting, self-help, health, entertainment, memoir, etc.)—so her work life has not changed much since the pandemic began.

Jonathan Sadowsky let us know that his book, The Empire of Depression: A New History, will be available from Polity Books in November.

Kari Friedman Collier is back to work at reduced hours at Barnes and Noble, and is grateful for that. She had been scheduled to give a lay preacher’s sermon during Lent, but like many events, it was canceled. She is filling the time, reading a lot of Longfellow and other early American writers.

Michael Feldman is working and studying at home in D.C. His wife, Diane ’86, is working for Bloomberg Law as team lead for transactions. Son Harry was accepted to Washington University in St. Louis, and of course, is waiting to hear if the campus will be open. And fortunate timing, a new puppy was welcomed into the household just before the pandemic hit. Read Michael’s piece that he was asked to write for the Foreign Service Journal about his theater and policy work at afsa.org.

And that’s the news this time around. Best to all of you.

Michael Steven Schultz | mschultz84@wesleyan.edu

I sit here in disbelief, thinking about what the new normal will be. I must admit I feel frozen. While those fortunate can resume work online or safely maintain social distancing at work, many I know are newly unemployed and worried about staying afloat. I am somewhere in the middle. Two in the morning is my least favorite time of day as my monkey brain jumps through too many what-if scenarios. I wish by the time you read these notes, the worst is behind us. I pray we have pressed the reset button to create a just and fair society for all.

Kirsten Wasson sends good vibes, “This is a scary time for all of us. I live alone—not easy. But it’s an excellent time to meditate on what’s really meaningful about life: observation of nature, appreciating friendship, gratitude for health.” Cori Adler started a Zoom dance craze in Seattle and declared Sundays 5:45-6 p.m. (Pacific time) as a Zoom Garden Dance Party. Ken Fuchs writes, “With all of Hollywood shut down, Kate and I enjoy our 18-month-old baby, Bella. She fills every day with laughter and love, which helps make these strange times quite bearable.” Jonathan Chatinover had “a Wesleyan swimming alumni Zoom chat in early May with Kay Robertson, Martha McNamara, Carol Freuh Russo ’84, Josh White ’84, Al Spohn ’80, Margot Schwartz ’85, Lisa Rosenblatt ’85, and former coach Pat Callahan ’71 and his wife, Anne Goodwin ’79. Kenny Gordon received the “Top Doctor 2020: NJ Top Docs Award” for his dedication, accomplishments, and devotion to patient care. Wayne Logan is sheltering in place in lovely Tallahassee, Fla., where he’s lived for the past 12 years teaching at FSU Law.

Life goes on, albeit remotely. Michele Deatrick is “chair and founder of the DNC Environment and Climate Crisis Council. I’ve transitioned from non-stop travel on a national listening tour to doing the same virtually. I’m leading the Council’s effort to craft bold, ambitious recommendations for the climate and environment planks of the 2020 Democratic Party Platform. As for shut-down activities, the highlight this week was growing alfalfa and radish sprouts. Son Alexander is taking a leave from Amherst to run Arati Kreibich’s campaign in New Jersey’s 5th congressional district, and daughter works at NIH specializing in infectious diseases.” Sheila Spencer writes, “Thankfully we are all healthy. I have continued volunteer work remotely, assisting first-generation and low SES students with college applications and career development through the community-based Neighborhood Youth Organization. I started my first Coursera class, Career Decisions, taught by the director of Wesleyan’s Career Development Center. I look forward to gaining insights for a career pivot as well as those that I can share with others. During these strange new times, I am thankful that social media has enabled me to reconnect with COL classmates Beth Ross, Sue Peabody, and Ann Wise ’82.”

Andrea Smith is a professor of Anthropology at Lafayette College, Easton, Pa. She and her son, Nathaniel ’13, live on a farm in rural New Jersey where they have spent the past several months mostly outside as they develop a minor egg and poultry business: building duck houses and turning their living room into a chick and duckling hatchery. Andrea writes, “While shifting classes to remote learning has led to some hilarious glitches, moving faculty meetings to Zoom has been surprisingly smooth and even welcomed.” Craig Edwards and family (wife Mary K, a tenured professor of English at UConn, 27-year-old son Jesse who lives nearby, and 24-year-old daughter Annie living at home) have weathered the pandemic in remarkably good shape, but as a full-time musician in a niche area (American roots music—traditional styles from Appalachian fiddling, blues) his income has taken a big hit. He is developing online lessons and performances and marveling at the tools available for such things. Additionally, he is gardening seriously for the first time in years. He started two Hugelkultur beds, “a form of permaculture based on old European sustainable farming practices. Once planted, tilling, weeding, and watering are minimal because the bed holds moisture like a sponge. Pretty cool!”

Emily Zhuvkov writes, “Before COVID-19, I spent my time between Panama and Berlin, where I was working on a series of cast bronzes. I am also in pause mode on a large sculpture commission here in Panama, waiting for things to reactivate. Meanwhile, I have moved online in my teaching roles as an adjunct art professor at Florida State University-Panama and head of the visual arts department at the International School of Panama. I design and facilitate residencies and workshops between artists and scientists, with the nonprofit association Estudio Nuboso, a nomadic platform for exchange between art, ecology, culture, and society.”

Catherine “Cat” Maguire and David Campanelli’s son, Keegan, graduated from Vanderbilt University School of Engineering. He has worked on projects in microgrids, grid modernization, renewable energy, and their intersection with software and cyber-physical systems.

Lastly, two-thirds of my trio graduated from grad school and are looking for jobs in public education.

Laurie Hills | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu

Dear classmates, thanks to all of you who joined Michael and me at our first Class Notes Live. Special thanks to talented performers Bill Anschell, Steve Budd, Ron Mendelsohn, Jeannie Gagné, Beck Lee, Ginny Pye, and Danielle Rudess’s husband, Jordan Rudess. Happy 60th, all!

Not surprisingly, news has been a little scant. We’re all Zooming with friends, watching the roots of our hair grow, cooking, drinking too much, and maybe reading that pile of books by the bed.

But a few updates: Suzanne Kay has been in New York. “Many of my friends are working on the front lines helping the black and brown communities of this city, which are hardest hit, the epicenter of the epicenter.” Last October, Suzanne’s mother, Diahann Carroll died. “She was a pioneer in the entertainment industry as a black woman. I held a beautiful memorial for her at the Helen Hayes Theater with dear friends like Lenny Kravitz, Cicely Tyson, and Laurence Fishburne.” Suzanne is working on a memoir, as well as a documentary of her mother’s life, “based on both her personal journey and the historical times in which she lived, from the civil rights movement through the Sexual Revolution all the way up to our first black president.”

Susan Bodnar has also been in New York and recovered from likely COVID. She and her husband have been sheltering with her daughter, a sophomore at Northwestern; their son, a rising senior at UChicago, is fresh off the Buttigieg campaign and sheltering in Iowa with campaign friends. “It feels weirdly normal, but some days I’m hit with the rush of how abnormal and crazy this all is.” She is working clinically via Zoom, trying to keep sadness and loss at bay. So glad you recovered, Susan.

Stephen Daniel responded to the pandemic by setting up the Chatham Impact Fund to help local families. Chatham is a resort town, the type turning away cars with out-of-state plates. Stephen had a different idea: Why not start an emergency relief fund to help local people, and finance it with donations from summer people? He and his wife, Mary Beth, seeded the fund, which raised over $270K in two weeks, dispensing grants to residents in need. Stephen has been having Zoomtails every Saturday night with Alex Thomson, John Mooney, Peter Frisch, Kevin Foley, Bruce Crain, Dan Hillman, Jack Taylor, and their wives and children who are all friends.

(I glimpsed Peter Frisch when I crashed a Zoomtail party with my husband, Peter Eckart’s [’86] class, and spied another ’82 lurker there, Beck Lee. Nice to see all those faces!) Meanwhile, Bob Russo has been doing the Hollywood Squares thing with John Brautigam, Joe Barrett, Nettie ’84 and Mike Greenstein, Steve Davies ’82 and Laurie McFarlane, Anthony Pahigian, Tom Davis, Mike Levine, and Mark Sirota.

Lyndon Tretter celebrated his 60th birthday via a Zoom cocktail party with Mike Plotnick, Vin Bonazzoli, and Fran Hack and their respective spouses. Lyndon’s daughter, Rachel Tretter ’12, helped curate the online party with photos of the birthday boy over time streamed to the tune of Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ in the Years.” Lyndon noted that the juxtaposition of the video montage with live, present-day images of himself and his William Street 10-man suitemates “neatly and poignantly drove home the ravages of age.” Thanks for that.

Susan Budlong Cole ’82, MALS ’97, an Etherington scholar who graduated with us at the age of 42, has been retired for 16 years, but secured a part-time position in finance (after a 25-year career in substance abuse prevention and treatment, 16 of them as a volunteer teacher with author Wally Lamb at York Correctional Institution in Niantic). “Of all the things I miss during this crisis while being ‘locked down,’ it is the women’s prison and the remarkable and talented women there with whom we have forged bonds.” She says a number of the women participating in their writers’ workshop also participate with the Wesleyan college behind bars program.

Kweku Forstall’s youngest daughter, Cailey, married Caleb Rash in Kannapolis, N.C., on Jan. 4. Joining her and her family at the celebration were members of their WESU Crew from the Class of ’82: Ron Comrie (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), John Johnson Jr. (Far Rockaway, N.Y.), Cheryl Stevens (Oakland, Calif.), and via WhatsApp, Nasser Ega-Musa, class president (Nairobi, Kenya). Nasser is the director of the United Nations Information Centre in Nairobi.

Matthew Capece is spending his time at home fulfilling a lifelong dream assembling a woodworking shop in the basement when he’s not working for the carpenters’ union from his laptop.

Weirdly, I got my first full-time job ever during the pandemic as a “wordsmith,” working with MacArthur fellow Saul Griffith, a physicist and inventor, helping him to write about climate change, so that feels useful. How great would it be if we could keep these clear skies and clean air after COVID by switching to a decarbonized economy? Meantime, Peter and I are riding electric bikes and don’t care if anyone thinks it’s cheating. They flatten the curves in San Francisco.

Cheers to all of you.

Laura Fraser | laura@laurafraser.com

Michael Ostacher | mostacher@gmail.com

Greetings from Brooklyn! Like many of you, I have been working remotely from home as a financial professional. A friend joked, “Has my curve flattened?” Why, yes, it has. This was the quietest April 15 ever. While I love my commute, I don’t like having to console widows with young kids and have to help them figure out how to sell the business they suddenly inherited from their husbands but lack the license to operate. I’m sure you all have stories of loss from the pandemic. I truly hope, without much optimism, that by the time you read this, the world will be back to some kind of “normal.” One can hope.

Speaking of hope, before the quarantine, I was at a meeting of the Emergency Committee For Rojava, recalling the first time I met Murray Bookchin, whose ideas inform the egalitarian, ecological, ecumenical, feminist, liberatory laboratory of participatory democracy that is Kurdish Rojava, the allies we notoriously betrayed, and that Turkey’s trying to ethnically cleanse.

I met him, Murray (“only the FBI calls me Mr. Bookchin”), the night before our ECOSFair: Conference on Social Ecology, May 1981, where he and Winona LaDuke would be two of our keynote speakers.

“Wait. What school did you say you went to?” I was asked, at that meeting, by a woman roughly my age.

“Wesleyan.”

“I thought so,” she said. “I thought I recognized you.”

“What year were you?” I asked.

“1981.”

“I co-write your class notes.”

And so, I became reacquainted with Erika Goldman-Giraudets. We do what we can, little as it may be, to help. As I write this in May, Turkey is shelling Rojava daily while disrupting their water supply.

In other news, Peter Gryska is enjoying “quarantinis” in Houston, keeping Texans in good spirits as the director of grocery at Spec’s Spirits, Wines and Finer Foods. “Caviar, peanuts, pâté, tonic, soda water, and margarita mix make the day go by quickly. Meanwhile, back on the ranch, really, we are clearing additional acreage for soybean planting and will rotate into winter wheat in the fall. Cattle prices have tanked with the pandemic, so we will be growing out the herd this year. Our native cattle herd has reached a milestone. It has been 100 years since new heifers have been introduced to the gene pool. Family is all well, and we wish all Wesleyan folks good health.”

Joan Herrington is excited to have had the opportunity to direct a show for the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park this past winter. Created collaboratively with the award-winning Universes theatre ensemble, Americus exposes the harsh realities of what it means to be in America today. Joan had two new books published recently, How Playwrights Teach Playwriting 2 and When the Promise Was Broken, a collection of plays she edited based on the songs of Bruce Springsteen. She serves as chair of the department of theatre at Western Michigan University.

David P. Miller writes that “like most people, I have spent the vast majority of the past couple of months in my apartment. In 2018, I became a program director at NSF through an IPA from my university. My apartment in Alexandria is only a couple blocks from NSF, but I wonder if I will make it back to the NSF building before heading back to Norman in a year (or if I’ll be able to get back to my house in Norman—I had been making monthly trips, but those stopped in March). I work online, have happy hour, and otherwise socialize online. Things could be much worse. I’m employed, Cathryne is here, and between Amazon, Hello Fresh, and a little help from our friends, we have food and toilet paper. I hope everyone stays safe and healthy,”

Pete Congleton is now the director of planned giving for Hartford Hospital and is proud to announce the birth of his first grandson, Crew Fox Congleton, who was born on May 3, 2020, in Augusta, Maine.

Elisha Lawrence moved back to Manhattan Beach, Calif., where she raised her kids, after the last five years in San Francisco. “Loving every minute of being back here. I’m in my seventh year as AVP of Global Anti-Piracy for a large studio. Other news: I got married last May to a lovely guy who is a physician. My daughter is finishing her last year at Wesleyan, and my son has two years to go at Stanford. One thing about being an alumna who has a child at Wes is reliving moments of those wonderful years. I showed my daughter my favorite spot in Olin’s Reference Room, where I spent most of my four years studying. She loves studying there too! I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Wesleyan!”

David I. Block | david.I.block@gmail.com

Joanne Godin Audretsch | Berlinjo@aol.com

Ed.’s note: In the last issue, we misspelled Kerry Burnstein’s last name.