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Our classmate, Robin M. Burns, died on February 5, 2015. Recently his wife, Rena Grossfield, wrote: “February 2025 marks the10th anniversary of Robin’s passing. I thought this would be an apt moment to pass on information that has come to light in the years since he died. It turns out that Robin’s cancer and death resulted from his many months working at Ground Zero after 9/11. He was one of four on-site project managers of the cleanup for the NYC Department of Design and Construction. (For details, see his page in the 9/11 Memorial and Museum Registry: https://registries.911memorial.org/#/workers/list/term=Robin%20Burns). He was one of many ‘second responders’ who were active at the site until it was officially closed in May 2002. Since learning of the full extent of his work there, I applied for and received a settlement from the Victims Compensation Fund, which will be used for our two grandsons’ college educations. It would have made Robin happy to know that despite not being here to watch the boys (now 17 and 15) grow up, he is still caring for them. I am writing this so his friends at Wesleyan—and not just our grandsons—know that their ‘Pop’ was a hero.” If you wish to reach out to Rena, here is her email: rgrossfield@gmail.com.
Barry Thomas writes: “The work in Burundi continues. Going on seven years. Does not seem that long ago that we sent a few hundred dollars to a young man with a mission of service and a big vision to accomplish change in his country after decades of conflict, violence, and reinforced poverty. The purpose was to help buy porridge materials, cups and spoons, so that he could provide a nutritious meal to malnourished children in a really poor, rural community. He expected 50 children to come with their mothers. About 250 appeared. The work of accomplishing change toward a better life for these very poor people has been steadily growing and rewarding, but yet an unfinished journey. As programming has expanded, buildings have been added, and the numbers of children and women both receiving help and helping themselves, the caring and generosity of people in our home community in the mountains of North Carolina, as well as from old and new friends around the country, has been heartwarming. I cannot express enough appreciation for the support provided by members of our Wesleyan class community.”
Barry goes on to write: “We have progressed from the start-up phase and have emerged during the past year into more of a growth-and-development phase. The health and nutrition programs have progressed from the simple provision of nutritious porridge to longer-term focus on family nutrition and income generation using more modern methods of agriculture and family nutrition. The school program is now composed of a preschool and a growing primary school through grade 3. A tutoring program has been of great importance for the high school girls whom we are helping to stay in school. They are now performing quite well on the national exams in comparison with the city girls. The women’s vocational training and microfinance programs have over 600 participants. The organization is well-established and results are being witnessed.
“I will add that there are now 178 children in the community school program; the women’s vocational training and microfinance programming has participants approaching 1,000. Complementing the porridge and kitchen garden programs, D4C has initiated a first community farm program. Land has been acquired and 25 women who originally came to D4C with their malnourished children for a cup of porridge are now cultivating the land for the first of three growing seasons in the year. A friend and farmer from our local community in the mountains of North Carolina has provided funding for the start-up and is providing guidance. A group of North Carolina medical professionals have come together to support the organization and training of a team of community health care workers. This team will be reaching into the homes in the D4C rural community with the implementation of a ‘Where There Is No Doctor’ type of program. Finally, two young women, who originally joined the D4C program to help high school girls stay in school, passed the required national exams, and are now in the first year of university. Juliet is studying accounting and Ann Marie expects to become a nurse/midwife. They are the first young women from this rural community to attend university. Really exciting! Our original purpose was to find ways to help these really poor children overcome their malnutrition and get a head start on their education so they could gain access to possibilities for a better life. Making progress!” I’ll say!
John Neff has a new grandchild: Remy!
Sad news from Jon Clark: “Lost Andrea, my wife of 47 years, to ALS in August,” a disease that haunts our class. And good news: “Thanks to our new ‘work remotely’ culture, our three kids, all Wes grads, were able to spend considerable time with us, especially during the final year. My granddaughter, Isabel Levine-Clark ’23 [was] the sixth generation Clark to [graduate from Wesleyan]. Adjusting to living alone and have begun traveling again. Still living in Branford, Connecticut. Wish good health to all as we enter our 80s.”
As for those 80s, David Luft asks, “Is it possible that people in their 80s are less active and out and about in the world? I’m leaning toward swearing off trips to Europe and conferences. I don’t even visit my mother-in-law in Palo Alto.” David is, nevertheless, keeping active. “I am writing three books, and I think my writing keeps getting better.”
On the theme of books:
Mine on the work of John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester (1647–1680), Rochester and the Pursuit of Pleasure, was published in June. The London Review of Books just reviewed it:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n24/clare-bucknell/the-readyest-way-to-hell.
We end with a great book story. Many of you no doubt took a course with Professor Nathanael Greene. Jack Knapp went further, “taking every course that Professor Greene offered . . . marveling at his preparation and style. . . . What impressed me most . . . was that he wanted you to disagree with him, provided you had evidence to support your point of view.” How many of you know that Professor Greene is alive and well and still teaching at Wesleyan? Jack does, having kept up a “60-plus-year friendship.” Jack’s book, Carpetbagger in Reverse, has just been published. “It’s a biography of Arthur Mitchell, the first Black democratic congressman and a most interesting fellow. Possessed of an almost photographic mind and able to quote stoic philosophers from memory, he was also politically incorrect in many aspects of his behavior. Born in Alabama, where he spent the first 40 years of his life, he later moved to Chicago because he saw that the Windy City’s First Congressional District was the only place that could elect a Black Democrat to Congress in 1934. But he only represented his Chicago constituents to the extent that he followed the machine’s orders, largely serving as a funnel for patronage. His real purpose was to represent the interests of the disenfranchised Blacks of the South. Hence the title. The book details the ups and downs of his career, which culminated in his being the first Black to argue successfully before the Supreme Court when that body found unanimously in his favor in Mitchell v. United States (1941), the case that began the long undoing of the Jim Crow transportation system in the South.”
In November Jack wrote to Professor Greene:
“Hi Nat. Happy Thanksgiving. The book is coming out December 3–10, but I’ll need your address to send it to the dear friend to whom it is dedicated.”
Professor Greene responded:
“Hi Jack, Wonderful news! And Happy Thanksgiving to you as well. This is an undeserved honor, but I will cherish it. . . . Hope you are well. My seminar this fall went very well, with really outstanding students. I am scheduled for two courses in the spring. . . . The new PAC is working very well for all. Best, Nat.”
Carpetbagger in Reverse is dedicated “to Nathanael Greene and all the Wesleyan students who benefited from his teaching.” As Jack puts it so well: “My exchange with Nat Greene. A 60-plus-year friendship. That’s what Wesleyan was all about.” I hope still is.
LARRY CARVER | carver1680@gmail.com
P.O. Box 103, Rico, CO 81332 | 512/478-8968