CLASS OF 1975 | 2025 | SPRING ISSUE

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Sometimes it’s fun to watch the sausage being made, so to speak! That’s how I am feeling about Reunion planning. We have a fantastic, dedicated committee of classmates working incredibly hard to have the best 50th ever. By the time you read this, I hope you have registered and made your travel plans to come to Middletown.

With any luck, you have already received the Class Book that Susan Gans, Cathy Gorlin, Arthur Gaither, Ellen Wayne, and I are devoting countless hours to developing. Clif Grandy has also been a great resource. It’s the yearbook we never had, filled with topical essays, photos from then and now, Argus clippings, bios of as many classmates as we could entice, cajole, and nag into writing (a record number!), and remembrances of some who are no longer with us.

Until then, here’s the pre-Reunion news:

Congratulations to Deborah Marion Brown and Mitch Brown ’73, who celebrated 50 years of marriage in October with a joyous family weekend that started with their eldest grandson’s Bar Mitzvah. The next day, all four children, with their spouses, and all seven grandchildren held the chuppah while the rabbi blessed Deborah and Mitch. Then Deborah headed off (sans Mitch, who doesn’t like group travel) on a congregational trip to Morocco.

Juliet Schor (who we were glad to see on our January virtual social event) still lives in Newton, Massachusetts, with her husband. They both teach at Boston College, and Juliet has recently finished a book on the four-day workweek after three years of research. (Was that three years of four-day weeks?) Check out her TED talk on the subject. She’s also speaking at Wesleyan in February. It was great to see another Massachusetts alum, Rachel Adler Hayes, at our January Zoom as well.

Emely Karandy retired in 2023 as Thanksgiving host, and now one of her kids invites her to the annual celebration. She says, “Somehow this feels nearly as good as getting them through college!” Emely is planning to be at Reunion and looks forward to seeing folks who haven’t been back in a while.

The news is unusually slim this time because so many of you were busy writing your bios for the Class Book and because my request came amid the Thanksgiving to New Year’s swirl.

But back to the pre-Reunion sausage making. It’s been a joy to socialize or work with many old friends and acquaintances. Karin Johnson, who has lived for most of her post-Wesleyan life in Japan, surprised us by calling into the January Zoom . . . from Sweden. Pat McQuillan delivered a great 11th-hour essay after we talked on the phone about needing something on football and DKE in the Class Book. Thanks to persistent Book Committee members, Karen Seymour Leftridge and David Terry both came through with bios and photos at the last minute. I enjoyed year-end phone calls with Joost Brouwer and Brad Kosiba to seek and follow up on book submissions and hear their year-end reports.

Thanksgiving weekend brought an extra and very welcome visitor this year. Susan Gans was in the Bay Area to spend the holiday with family. After all the online time we’d spent by then on Reunion planning, she accepted my invitation to drop by for our family’s traditional post-Thanksgiving leftovers potluck. We had a great time, and I expect her attendance may become an ongoing part of the tradition. 

More recently, I reached out to Susan Moldaw, who I knew lived in the Bay Area but hadn’t seen in decades. After several emails and a video call, we decided to get together for lunch.  Turns out we live 20 minutes apart, and we have a mutual friend who was formerly married to (and is still friends with) Henry Schumaker. It is, indeed, as small a small world as the Disneyland song says!

Steven Miller and Martha Meade ’76 lost their home in the Pacific Palisades fire in January. Fortunately, they are safe and grateful to be able to live in Steve’s mother’s former house that they were going to put on the market.

Looking forward to seeing many of you in Middletown!

CYNTHIA M. ULMAN | cmu.home@cmugroup.com
860 Marin Dr., Mill Valley, CA 94941-3955