CLASS OF 1971 | 2025 |SPRING ISSUE

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Aloha! Here is a more extensive and unedited notes and pictures I received from our classmates:

I’m sorry to report the passing of Dave Reynolds, as was reported in the class note for 1967. His friend, Ned Preble ’67, wrote: “Dave Reynolds ’71 died on Sunday, June 30, 2024, at his home in Hampden, Massachusetts, after yearsof illness stimulated by Agent Orange during his service in Thailand. His wife, Heather, his son, Nat, and his wife, and Dave’s sister were with him. He and I stayed in touch from September 1963 until he died. He was a doctor, having pursued his MD and career conscientiously, from postgraduation through his ER tech job in the army, more pre-med courses and health care jobs. There will be a celebration of life October 6, 2024, featuring Steely Dan music. I will never forget his wise laugh and his broad shoulders that once kept NYC subway doors from closing on me.”    

An obituary can be found here.

Jay Resnick sadly reports David Foster died on September 2, 2024, of pancreatic cancer. An obituary can be found here.

Sorry to report that I also learned of the passing of our classmate, Robert Wienner, on June 26, 2024. His obituary can be read here.

Stephen Ferruolo: Re: “Work to Do After the Election” by President Michael Roth. Steven says: “I have never been prouder to be a Wesleyan graduate.” Here is the link to the letter from President Roth, written last November: Work to Do After the Election.

Katy Butler:

“Dear Friends,

“I am writing to share my new, very personal article, published today in Tricycle Magazine called ‘Abortion and the First Precept; Understanding Abortion as the Alleviation of Suffering.’ This is my own story of two pregnancies and my ‘choice,’ as I saw it, between abortion and ruination. 

“Only now, since the U.S. Supreme Court dismantled a national right to abortion, have I thought back 50 years and examined my actions in the light of the precepts and my values. I offer a moral defense of abortion by situating this commonplace, difficult event not in an ideal universe but within the lives of real women, including mine.

“I hope you enjoy it and pass it on to anyone you think might find it helpful.

“I am grateful to Tricycle for lifting their paywall. Please feel free to forward this free link to anyone who might enjoy it, and feel free to share it on social media.”

I recommend downloading the article and read it. It is very illuminating.

Ed Swanson sends a poem and thoughts:

‘Tis twelve nights before Christmas
(Where has the time flown?)
And I’ve finally decided
To jot some words down.

Each year I play poet,
Or at least give it a try,
So I can playfully tell you,
And without any lies, 

That I find you quite special
And I want you to know
That I treasure your friendship
(Even when it don’t show).  

There’s a glow in my heart

As I remember each one

Of my family and friends

And the good times—such fun!

This season’s quite special

And the time’s flying by

So I’ll wish you these words

Ere it’s time for good-bye:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL

AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

Ed says, “Slowing down but still working and still loving the weather of California versus Connecticut; not looking forward to the next four years; great memories of Wes.”

Alan Epstein writes: “Hope you and your family are doing well and thriving. I do have some news to [share,]my wife and I switched homes with my son, Aaron ’01. He now lives in our large house in Pasadena, and we took over his apartment, one mile away, in order to downsize our living experience. He is a very successful ob-gyn physician/expert in maternal fetal care with four offices in Los Angeles area.  My other son, Seth, is working for me in the lab half a day, and then in the afternoons, he is a coach for the La Canada High School baseball team, where he also gives lessons. Both are happy, which is a real positive. My granddaughter is now applying to college and is hopeful that she will get one of her first choices. On a very positive note, my wife has now been declared free of cancer five years after diagnosis with ovarian cancer and treated at City of Hope Medical Center. I am still working full time at USC Keck School of Medicine and am excited with my research there. I am close to completing studies on a universal tumor vaccine and an oral treatment to quench major mechanisms of tumor-elicited immunosuppression. When both treatments are used together, we see complete regression in triple negative breast cancer mouse models. I am now working to get these products into a start-up company and hope to do the first clinical trials here at USC. This research will be the culmination of my research career, and I am very hopeful that this work will be a substantial contribution. Thanks so for relaying this into your notes. All the best.”

David Barrett ’71, MAT ’72: “I am years into retirement now, devoting my time to civic work in Hartford, where I have lived more than half a century (transitioning into a tidy condo after my wife passed away. Didn’t need a big house and garden any longer.) I am chair of the Board of Directors of Hartford Public Library and also serve on a Hartford Foundation for Public Giving committee that awards community grants in Hartford. Both are rewarding volunteer opportunities.”

Dave Lindorff: “No transition yet. This year is different and exciting though, as my wife, Joyce, is on a year’s sabbatical leave, which she’s taking at Cambridge University. She’s been named a fellow at Clare Hall, the only graduate-level college in Cambridge and is a visiting professor of Early Keyboards at the university’s Department of Music. I am along as spouse, and it’s the perfect opportunity to do more research and update and expand a paperback edition of my latest book, Spy for No Country, that came out in hardcover in December 2024. I’m getting access to six file drawers of teenage, atomic spy Ted Hall’s writing and correspondence that was discovered last year in the family home by his surviving daughters as they were clearing it out to put it on the market. The files were found after their mother, Ted’s widow, died a year ago last June; [they were] in her bedroom closet. I’m hoping it will be a goldmine of insights into Ted’s thinking during his spying and in the years afterward. We are thinking about finding a way to stay here with [my wife] continuing as the music department’s harpsichord teacher, and me continuing with my journalism. We’ll see. . . .”

Ian Hunter: “Both my daughters have gone into academia. One teaches at Boston College, the other at University of New South Wales (Sydney). Both teach statics. Two grandchildren so far, both boys. Have yet to retire but getting closer.”

Scott Gilbert and Anne Raunio ’72 moved to Portland, Oregon, to help raise their granddaughters. Scott, a developmental biologist, says that retirement is like metamorphosis: some structures grow, some structures are jettisoned, and some structures are repurposed. Now without an office, he writes his books from his granddaughters’ playroom, watched over by Barbie and several Disney princesses. “Best wishes!”

William H. Boulware:“Hello, Neil. First, thank you for keeping the lines of communication open all these years for our class. I’m in relatively good health, but still my body often reminds me I’m getting old, especially my short-term memory. I need a new hard drive for my brain. Does anyone out there know where I can find one? And I always thought getting older [meant] I would have fewer responsibilities, instead I seem to have more. I blame my wife.”

Jay Resnick: “Transitions in my life: The most significant transition was the death of my beloved wife, Judy Sarubin, in August 2023. Sending you best wishes for a healthy and happy 2025.”

Anthony Wheeldin: “No real news, but I did want to thank you for serving as class secretary for all these years.”

Bill Bruner: “Not much has changed for me as I’m still practicing medical ophthalmology here in Cleveland half time, transitioning to full retirement at 90! I have four grandchildren ranging from two to eight years old. I’m still married to my wife, Susan, and it will be 50 years this coming June. We have a small vacation home on an island here in Lake Erie called Kelleys Island. We call it a ‘poor man’s Martha’s Vineyard’! Best greetings to all my classmates and hope to see you all at our 60th Reunion! I’ll try to make that one!’

Dick Scoggins: “I am living in Los Angeles with my wife and my daughter and her family. My son and his family live 10 miles from us. Quite a change after my wife and I lived in England for 16 years. Lots of Wesleyan people out here in the industry. My son graduated from Wesleyan and that is what led him into the TV/movie industry out here. Quite a journey!”

Jeff Mojcher: “Nothing special to report as yet, but soon to retire!” Jeff, write some more! We have not heard from you in a long while.

Malcolm Cochran: “After seven years of extensive renovations to property I bought in 2017, my lifelong dream of having my studio and living together has materialized. I celebrated on October 5, 2024, with an open studio and a poetry reading by my friend of 59 years, Wesley McNair. Family and friends totaling more than 65 attended on a glorious warm, sunny, fall day. I capped off the month with a two-week trip to Italy to research compositions at an archive of music composed in the WW II concentration camps that I will adapt for an upcoming installation project.”

Above and below are three photos from Malcolm’s open studio held on October 5, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio.

“Thank you for serving so long and diligently as class secretary—Malcolm Cochran.”

NEIL J. CLENDENINN | cybermad@msn.com
PO Box 1005, Hanalei, HI 96714