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I’m sorry to have to report the loss of two other classmates. Just as the last column was going to print, I received word that Bob Segal had died. Bob was a religion major at Wesleyan, then earned an MA and PhD in religion at Princeton. He went to Europe years ago after teaching at several colleges and universities in the U.S. He taught at several places in Europe, the last being the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. More information here and here.

During reunion, John Talbot wrote to let me know that his former roommate Calvin deGrasse had died on April 24. Calvin, you recall, was from St. Kitts. Here is a piece that I received from his widow, Elizabeth deGrasse:  

“Calvin Ivan deGrasse was born on December 15, 1946, to Doris Buchanan and Fred Crooke in the town of Sandy Point on the island of St. Kitts, in the British West Indies.

“A consummate learner from grammar school, Calvin earned the highest scores of his class and was subsequently featured in the local newspaper and radio station. He went on to earn admission into Wesleyan University in Connecticut during a time of great racial segregation and cries for equality and inclusion in the United States. At Wesleyan, he was among the first students of color to integrate the University, subsequently graduating in the Class of 1970.  In his later days, he would fondly remember the friends he made during his time at Wesleyan. Calvin continued to pursue his education earning a master’s degree in business administration from Columbia University in 1978. Bachelor of Laws with second class honors (lower division) in 2002 from the University of London.

“For a time, post-Wesleyan, Calvin returned to St. Kitts where he served his country as minister of communication under the Llewellyn Bradshaw administration. After leaving government, Calvin returned to the United States where he pursued various endeavors, including working at Mellon Bank, serving his community via his own company, Liamigua Shipping, and working at the New York Stock Exchange until his retirement.  

“Calvin was charming and charismatic. He had a great smile and a fantastic sense of humor. He was a natural leader and an excellent communicator. He could talk for hours, joyfully and passionately about history, politics, law, and family. He was loving, encouraging, supportive, and honest. He was generous with his time and resources, and he put the needs of his family and friends ahead of his own. He also loved to eat!

“After a long illness, Calvin transitioned to the ever after surrounded by his beloved wife and two children.

“He is survived by his wife of 22 years, Elizabeth deGrasse; siblings Jocelyn Tatum, Warrington Tyson, and Marlene ‘Pat’ Crooke; his daughter and son: Michelle deGrasse and Calvin deGrasse Jr.; nieces and nephews: Natasha Tatum, Warrington Tyson Jr., Tiffany Tyson, Brandon deGrasse, Lennox deGrasse Jr.; grandchildren: Daniella Semper, Hugh deGrasse, Jeremy deGrasse; and many in-laws and countless other family members and friends, some from his childhood days, who loved him dearly.”

We will miss him, as well.

Reunion was fun, although sparsely attended by classes celebrating post-50th reunions. The following folks made it to Middletown this time:  Bob Stone, Ralph Moore, Joel Adams, Jeremy Serwer, Josh Barrett, Pete Stein, Howie Borgstrom, Bob Ament, David Geller, Darwin Poritz, Jerry Schwartz, Jeffrey Elson, and me. As usual, there are new things to see and a variety of activities to attend. Two highlights were a presentation about what the future of the country looks like and a presentation by Wesleyan president Michael Roth. Dinners were with other post-50th classes.

Other news: Jerry Schwartz wins the brevity award. He commented about the reunion: “It was good to see everyone.” The second-place winner is Steve Masten. Steve wrote that he was “unable to attend Reunion because it coincided with (wife) Ann’s retirement celebration. Hope you all had a good time.” (We did!)

Right now, I want to urge everyone to start planning for our 60th Reunion. Let’s face it, folks, we’re not getting any younger. Let’s make the 60th Reunion huge!

In lieu of a standard news offering, Brad Matthews sent a very thoughtful miniessay about life, knowledge, curiosity, etc.: 

The wise man is one who, knows, what he does not know.—Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching.

“Perhaps like you. . .

“I increasingly recognize that I am no wise man, but I am enjoying feeling like I am getting a better understanding of this translation of Lao Tzu’s original words.

“I am focusing much of my remaining time collecting and linking information, seeing glimpses of patterns leading to flashes of understandings of existence.

“I incessantly cogitate on the increasingly obvious, unknowable, micro and macro expanse of reality—including, but in no way limited to, our bodies, minds, emotions, relationships, self-governance, societies, humanity, and our world, as well as the implications of quantum physics, quantum computing, AI, explorations of outer space, etc.

“I find myself noticing and reappraising the myriad of my life’s experiences—reconsidering and redescribing the particles and wholeness of my life. Relieving myself from judgements of past ‘should haves’ and current/future ‘shoulds’ is an enjoyable work in progress.

“As complexity and chaos are now more visibly outer and inner norms in reality, I find a kind of peace in coming to terms with the ying-yang of this life. Recognition, respect, acceptance, and appreciation for all that has been, is, and will be seems to bring me a calming sense of order. And so, I continue to function, similarly and differently than in times past. My functioning for hire as an international organizational development consultant has ended. Now, I focus my functioning almost wholly on my curiosity, caring about and with others (including my 14.5-year-old pup), peace of heart and mind, and maintaining my health to enable it all. I do not desire a long life. I just seek a rewarding life for whatever time I have left, hoping that at my completion I am relaxed and gently smiling.”

One of the pleasures of writing this column is the occasional appearance of someone who has been missing in action for years. This time, we welcome Andy Edlen. Andy’s email described a long career involving music, from working in Jimi Hendrix’s studio, playing backup for performers, “making music and sound effects for computer game companies, a brief appearance in a documentary about Hendrix, etc. Andy lives in the San Francisco Bay area. He writes:

“Apologies for my radio silence and nonparticipation. As the calendar careens forward, it seemed time to catch up. On the heels of graduation, thanks to a call Jeff Wanshel ’69 got from a high school friend of his, John Emulin, leader of a band called Lothar and the Hand People, who told Jeff of a job opening, I went to work at Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios on 8th Street in Greenwich Village, a bare week before Jimi’s sad passing. Over the next couple of years, I went from gopher (go fer this. . .) to night manager to staff engineer. Lots of brushes with fame and brushes with the greed and venality of the record biz. The ensuing decades were filled with a blur of bands, some time on the road backing up Bobby Freeman (‘Do you Wanna Dance’ and ‘The Swim’ in a kind of white-boy soul revue. :-}. Then a couple of decades making music and sound effects for computer game companies in the Bay Area, where I’ve resided since 19(gulp)73. And over the last decade, I’ve been doing IT at UC Berkeley.

“My brother Steve and I have a number of songs up on SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/user-568633504 that you and your readers might enjoy. And I escaped the cutting room floor in a movie about the studio’s early days, findable on Amazon as Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision. The editors kindly included my sentient moments from the interviews, and it’s a pretty fair time capsule of that window in the studio’s history.

“I’m in touch with precious few friends from the era, and I hope this Class Notes appearance may help remedy that.”

Had a note from Jerry Cerasale. Jerry wrote, “The only news I have other than my knees are talking to me every day is that I was re-elected to the Eastham, Massachusetts, Select Board and was elected by the board to be chair. It’s a bit late to start my political career!”

This from Steve Talbot: “Here’s an item, as San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen used to say, I’ve been up to some wildly disparate things: I spent nearly three amazing weeks in Vietnam in April as an invited guest to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the war. The trip of a lifetime. Emotional. Uplifting. Then I spent a weekend in LA in June reuniting, after 60-plus years, with Jerry Mathers (the Beaver) at a Hollywood autograph show, a first for me. It was nostalgic and a bit surreal. Came home to San Francisco to join an enormous, inspiring No Kings protest. What can I say? We keep on pushin’.”

Peter Ratner wrote from New Zealand: “Not much to report. As I think you know, we have sold Greytown [a gorgeous old country house] and are back in our old house in Seatoun [Wellington]. We miss the quiet of Greytown, but it is nice to be back by the sea.

“After almost 10 years of being tenanted, the house is looking a bit sad, so we are in the midst of a major renovation. Until that is finished our only significant outside interest is helping to look after our youngest grandchild.  

“We are planning to go to Scotland, London, and New York at the end of October for the wedding (after 20 years and two children) of our London daughter. Most of the kids will be there.

“Just saw the latest version of the Count of Monte Christo at the French Film Festival. When Edmond Dantes is in prison, the guards came along every day to bang on the bars and ask, ‘Are you alive?’, to which the prisoner responds, ‘I live,’ and gets his daily meal. I feel like this is now our version of the same ritual—I am pleased to be able to report, ‘We live.’”

Brian Silvestro wrote: “Retired after 50 years of practicing law effective January 1, 2025. Living in Black Rock, Connecticut. Our four sons live in San Diego and Colorado Springs and Chicago and Richmond. We have five grandchildren with another on the way. Jane and I can now travel as we please. And we are doing just that.”

Foremost Hawaii-water lawyer Bill Tam published a chapter on Hawaii water law (1973–2000) in Wai Wai (an anthology).  Bill, Hardy Spoehr ’66, and others organized the first Wesleyan alumni gathering in Hawaii in 10 years (Michael Roth is scheduled to address the group via Zoom).

Per Bill Tam: David Davis retired from a 29-year career at Oregon Public TV. Accolades from those Dave worked with and mentored are pouring in. His steady leadership and vision turned Oregon Public TV into the third-most powerful PBS station in the country, behind only New York and Washington, D.C. 

We have three offerings in our book department this time.

Jamie Kirkpatrick’s The People Game is the third in the Declan Shaw trilogy. It should be published by the time you read this. Here’s the synopsis:

“Declan Shaw is an Irish journalist who has just been named the Washington bureau chief of The Manchester Guardian. This follows his wartime assignments in Tunisia and Palestine, the settings of my two previous novels, This Salted Soil and The Tales of Bismuth.

“The People Game, the third novel in the Declan Shaw trilogy, begins in 1950 when Shaw arrives in Washington. Over the next two years, he covers multiple important events: the Korean War, the senatorial and presidential campaigns of 1952, the McCarthy hearings on Capitol Hill, and the civil rights movement in Washington, D.C. Declan also meets and interviews several important personalities, among them Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, American spymaster “Wild Bill” Donovan, Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Congressman Jack Kennedy, civil rights activist Mary MacLeod Bethune, and many others.

“Declan falls in love with Tay Riggs, scion of the eponymous Washington banking family. They marry just before Declan is offered a visiting fellowship at Washington College in Chestertown on Maryland’s bucolic Eastern Shore. Tay, Declan, and their infant daughter Phoebee decamp from Georgetown and move to Chestertown where Declan leads a seminar in ‘new journalism’ and uses his contacts in Washington to bring an array of noted speakers to campus.

“The People Game explores the events and people of an important era in American history. Moreover, its underlying theme is the story of Odysseus, his trials and tribulations after the fall of Troy, and his eventual homecoming, years later, to Ithaca. The People Game is the final chapter in Declan Shaw’s personal odyssey.

“The book is divided into 81 chapters, with a prologue and epilogue. There are also author notes.”

Steve Ossad’s new book is Chasing the Shadow: Mickey Marcus’s 200 Days of Destiny. Here is a brief description:

“More than just a citizen-soldiers’ biography, this book explores how local NYC hero Colonel David ‘Mickey’ Marcus helped shape U.S. civil affairs and military government policy during and after WWII, including the war crimes trials. Even more relevant today, from his visit to the just-liberated Dachau Concentration Camp to his appointment as Israel’s first general in 1948, Marcus’s last days dramatize the deep spiritual and national security ties between Israel and America. Chasing the Shadow offers a fresh perspective on shared military history, how legends arise, and the origins of American policy in the Middle East.” 

Steve wrote: “Attached is the press release for my third biography, Chasing the Shadow: Mickey Marcus’s 200 Days of Destiny, available on Amazon. My last book on General Omar Bradley won the Society for Military History Writing Award for biography.”

Press release:

“The life of David ‘Mickey’ Marcus has become the stuff of legends and myths (even fantasy), conspiracy, wild exaggeration, and untethered embellishment. The image of Marcus cast by the character portrayed by Kirk Douglas in the film version of his life still dominates most evocations of the man, for good or ill. And these days, reactions to the book or film rest mostly on the current headlines rather than the historical context of the struggle in which Marcus died, or the events that cast him as a real-life player in an event marked by destiny. 

“Chasing the Shadow: Mickey Marcus’s 200 Days of Destiny is the first comprehensive and balanced biography of David Daniel ‘Mickey’ Marcus, a founder of American Civil Affairs and Military Government doctrine and practice and a seminal figure in early Israeli military history. Far from merely a tribute to Mickey Marcus’s legacy, Ossad’s work serves as a critical tool for understanding the realities of mid-20th-century warfare in a postwar colonial struggle and the dynamics of U.S.-Israeli military and political relations in 1948, the critical year for Israel’s struggle for independence. Indeed, Chasing the Shadow is a valuable read for those interested in Middle East history, Jewish military history, and a fascinating character whose story is told in an engaging, informative, and insightful narrative.”

Stuart Frank wrote: “My only real news is that my latest book, 35-plus years in the making, titled Biographical Dictionary of Scrimshaw Artists, is scheduled to be published in August by Amazon Books through Scrimshaw Forensics®. It has 1,450 biographical entries, 9 appendices, and 12 indexes.”

There was a book launch on Cape Cod in August, and the book is available online at  Books@ScrimshawForensics.net.

A limited number of keychains/zipper pulls commemorating the 55th Reunion are available.  One side has a geographical information about Wesleyan in the format of a geophysical marker.  The other side has the reunion information. If interested, please contact me by email.

RUSS JOSEPHSON | russ_josephson@yahoo.com
P.O. Box 1151, Kilauea, HI 96754