CLASS OF 1981 | 2024 | FALL ISSUE
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David writes for this issue.
Greetings from Brooklyn! And welcome to our digital notes, where you can share pictures and videos, and I don’t have to figure out how to squeeze it all into 800 words!
We’ll start with Ramon J. Pineda, who is “still in Corpus Christi; still working for Scripps TV; still living the dream! We’ve survived some storms (Alberto and Beryl), a crazy internet outage, the ‘spyware’ disaster that froze half the world, Trump’s assassination attempt . . . and 2024 is not over yet! Life is good, kids are good, and I am getting ready to sign up for Medicare—time flies! Sending you all my regards from South Texas. Be well!”
Matthew King announced that “after 40 years of government service, I retired this summer! From a naval aviator in the U.S. Marines after Wes, to DOJ as a trial attorney, to U.S. Customs/Homeland Security Investigations as a special agent and ending up at the Department of Homeland Security as the deputy assistant secretary of Law Enforcement Policy, it was time. Along the way I received the DHS Gold Medal for actions in Panama intercepting Russian weapons headed to North Korea; made the largest undercover seizure of Chinese automatic weapons in U.S. history; led a team of agents into Haiti after the earthquake in 2010; received two silver medals for other law enforcement issues; and upon retirement, was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal—the highest award DHS bestows.”
Congratulations Matt, on your prestigious awards, and thank you for helping to keep us safe!
Matt adds, “As a famous predecessor once said, ‘First 40 years for God and country—now I am a mercenary!’ I now look forward to my daughter’s, Isabelle ’16, wedding to Parker Wilson ’15 next spring and some lazy fly-fishing!”
Coincidence department: Matt concludes by letting us know that the Parker Wilson is our own Nancy Parker Wilson’s son—“small world!”
Small world indeed! Congratulations to Matt, to Nancy, and to your families!
More and more of us seem to be at the end of long and distinguished careers. After 30 years as a professor of environmental science, urban planning, and sustainable design at the University of Illinois, Daniel Schneider has joined the ranks of those retired and moved back East, “to the Taconic Hills near western Massachusetts, where I’m setting up a shop for my furniture making. My son, Jacob, is working in D.C. as an EMT/emergency room tech, and my daughter, Rose, has just started at Bard College.” He adds that “I can be reached through my old email, ddws@illinois.edu or my website, danielschneiderfurniture.com.”
Daniel shared with us a picture of him with his two children:
Delcy Ziac Fox, our tireless class agent, writes that the former residents of InTown 21 had a series of mini-reunions recently: Delcy herself met Jim Sullivan ’82, P’19 for dinner in Barnstable Village, Massachusetts; Jim and his son, Owen Sullivan ’19, met for dinner with Gary Shapiro in Brooklyn, New York; and Miriam Stern Sturgis, husband, Gary Sturgis ’77, and Delcy met for dinner in cyberspace.
Delcy tells us that she is retired now, as are Miriam and her husband, Gary. Gary Shapiro is still a teacher at Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences in Brooklyn, New York. Jim is inpatient medical director at a substance use organization, High Point Treatment Center, and son Owen is management consultant with Potomac Point Group.
The deadline for this edition of the notes was August 26, after the Democratic Convention and before the September debate, which at press time was still scheduled. We know that the Wesleyan community is a cross section of the country as a whole, and, if you remember the brilliant and remarkable virtual presentation our own Christopher Graves presented for our last reunion—in the context of vaccines—that our nation is very much segmented into four very different categories. He shared with us that we have much to learn about how to communicate not only with those who share our values but also with those who do not. The word “together” does not always apply.
That said, Will Galison wrote a song for the Harris/Walz campaign (you can find it on YouTube). He said, “my last overtly political video (much more ambitious) was in 2008, and it was made an official song of the Obama campaign, being played at fundraisers across the country.”
I end on a personal note, as I have the space to do so. I have joined the ranks of many of you now eligible for Medicare. I hit the big 65 on March 18, and my dear wife, Elizabeth, gathered my three children from the diaspora to join me for dinner at Jean Georges at Columbus Circle, in Midtown Manhattan.
In this picture, you can see yours truly, who forgot to take his napkin out from under his chin 😉 with my wife, Elizabeth, and my children behind us, in ascending order: my son, Lee, 20, who came down from upstate New York, is now in their junior year at the University of Rochester; my daughter, Soshannah, 35, who came down from Burlington, Vermont, and is now a Head Start teacher in North Providence, Rhode Island; and my son, Dan, 39, who is in marketing and came east from Scottsdale, Arizona.
I have enjoyed adding the pictures and not having to count the words. And speaking of counting, I just realized that we have less than two years to our next reunion. I’m looking forward to it already!
DAVID I. BLOCK | david.i.block@gmail.com
JOANNE GODIN AUDRETSCH | berlinjo@aol.com