CLASS OF 1973 | 2026 | FALL ISSUE
1973 ARCHIVES | HOME
← 1972 | 1974 →
We are hearing from classmates across the country.
Rich Ladd says, after 17 years, he and his wife are still enjoying Washington state. They live near Olympia, and their children are not far away. He says, “Our US adventures are mostly by car, going as far as 2,000 miles from home. We focus on visits to family, national parks, auto museums, and military museums or battle sites. Stopped club auto racing in 2020 and now working on selling my military collections rather than adding to them. Now we just observe and absorb the rich heritage in this country.”
Ted Zuschlag lives in Albuquerque. His preferred social platform is the Fediverse, and he uploads pix to Flickr. He is finishing Barkskins by Annie Proulx. That enchanting read has helped to break the doomscrolling spell of “This news just in.”
Michael Fossel reports: “I’m pleased to share that the audiobook edition of my latest book, Reversal: Science, Medicine, and a Future Beyond Aging, is now available on Audible!” He says, “Reversal offers a Stanford MD/PhD perspective on the actual biological mechanisms—the ‘hardware’—of longevity, explaining why traditional approaches to age-related disease fail and how targeting cellular aging directly will enable us to treat the root causes of conditions like Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, and osteoarthritis.”
Brenda Kabel says she is “still enjoying retired life in transition. Pinball and golf are my main go-to activities these days. That will change as my wife is having her first knee replacement in a few days. Wish our body parts lasted a bit longer as we age. My son, Jay ’05, is doing well in Virginia. He bought me a new smoker, so smoked ribs and salmon are almost daily events now. [Yum!] My daughter is in Albania, still waiting for [a change in the political landscape] before coming home.” She says she has been in touch with her former roommate, Jim Hope. He is also in Connecticut, and they are planning a meetup soon.
Jim Powers says he continues to enjoy teaching gerontology and practicing at Vanderbilt and Veterans Hospital. He is currently consulting on Lifelong Tennessee, the multisector plan on aging for the State of Tennessee.
Class President Bill Quigley says, “We had the whole family here for the 4th of July (and my three-quarters-of-a-century birthday). Our daughter, son-in-law, and two grandkids (ages six and almost three) came from California. One son came from Puerto Rico, and the other son lives in Florida. It was a lot of fun but exhausting. Lots of swimming, boat trips, playgrounds, and great family times. It is amazing how much energy the grands have. They are constant in-motion machines. We closed our business in Puerto Rico, and Dee and I are putting our house there on the market soon. After taking a long hiatus during and after COVID, we have started planning to travel to places we have talked about going to for years. Hopefully, we start knocking them off our lists.” Bill adds he stays in touch with Peter Cross, Scott Schlieman, Mike McKenna, and Tom Kelly, although he hasn’t seen any of them in person since our 50th.
Tom Kelly says, “No big news. Thoroughly enjoyed the World Cup, now in Massachusetts at a mini-family reunion—two sisters, daughter and her family, niece and her family. Still busy with board work and volunteer work (teaching ESL and immigration preparation), plus some affordable housing advocacy. And enjoying the Red Sox surge!”
Robert Savage says, “Hello to the Class of ’73. I have entered a second childhood. After retiring from 35 years as a surgeon, and always an art history addict ever since taking Sam Green’s course in 1970, I started painting during COVID with no training at the age of 70. A few years later I am an old man having fun as a listed artist exhibiting all over the Greater Boston and Cape Cod areas.”
Billy “Poison” Burke and Timmy “Moons” Mooney report that they are working on a memory book to pay tribute to their coach David “Duke” Snyder, who passed away in October 2024. (Thankfully this project has no hard and fast deadline.) Seventy-two of Duke’s former players ranging from the Class of ’72—first varsity captain John Gay ’72—to the Class of 2006 have contributed their memories. In addition, the opus reviews the events leading up to Duke’s hiring, including the saga of the rink’s construction and Duke’s very active retirement. It also covers his memorial service, which took place in a packed Memorial Chapel in April 2025, followed by a reception in the Spurrier–Snyder Rink, and then an after-party dubbed the first “Wesleyan Hockey Family Reunion.”
Concurrent with the development of the Memory Book, Billy and Timmy joined numerous other hockey alumni to create and fund the David “Duke” Snyder Memorial Endowed Fund for Men’s Hockey. Karen Whalen, director of Athletic Engagement & Fundraising, provided this effort expert guidance for which all involved are most grateful. With a huge assist from current trustee Marc “Red Light” Casper ’90, the fund has raised over $1 million. Hopefully that will provide the wherewithal to improve the rink’s sound system and scoreboards, among other upgrades, as well as reduce the team’s annual fundraising burdens. (Anyone interested in learning how to support this effort, may do so through the Wesleyan Athletics website: athletics.wesleyan.edu).
Billy and Timmy are hopeful that the Memory Book will be ready for publication by the start of the academic year or soon thereafter and will follow up with instructions on how to order copies directly from the printer.
From Seattle, Stephen Sullivan writes, “The smoke from wildfires is reminding us all of climate vulnerability. My first year of retirement is going well. I have just completed a relatively small and simple house in which to let the ‘final stage’ unfold. One story. No steps. Grab bars. I am rebuilding my ceramics kiln this summer in order to be the old potter that I have always imagined that I would be. I look forward to making something tangible and useful—a cup—over and over, as a kind of creative meditation. Currently I have visitors from Japan, where I served as an apprentice potter after graduating from Wesleyan. My visitors are the adult grandchildren of my sensei, who invited me to be his student when I was traveling in Japan in the fall of 1973 as a Watson Fellow. I am touched by the lifelong connection with my Japanese community that grew out of this experience as a young person.”
He adds, “My eight-year-old granddaughter loves coming to my pottery studio to learn how to throw pots on the potter’s wheel. My studio looks out on a pasture with sheep, reminding me of the peace that animals express.
“I have been reading an amazing book by our classmate Lucy Knight ’72 about the life and work of Jane Addams, Jane Addams: Spirit in Action.”
Ron Medley reports, “On August 5, I spoke to a class of first-year students via Zoom on the subject of my AIDS activism in the 1980s and ’90s. It was part of Professor Jesse Nasta’s African American studies course on Black LGBTQ history. It was my third appearance in a little over a year before one of Jesse’s classes; the first two were in-person in Middletown. The kids couldn’t have been nicer. Far removed from the drinking, smoking, existential malaise of our day!”
I am still reporting at WFOR-TV, CBS News Miami, amid some very busy days in news.
Until next time.
PETER D’OENCH | pgdo10@aol.com