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A few people wrote in regarding the reunion. Rhonda Lees was very happy to attend and see Jessica Seigel, among others. Rhonda keeps up with a D.C. contingent of alums—last year, I attended one brunch with Rhonda, Michael Feldman, and others.

Karen Wise was also on campus but was much more focused on seeing her daughter, Julie Wise ’24 graduate. The West African drumming at commencement transported her back 40 years to her own ceremony. Karen is still working as a freelance book editor (mostly cookbooks) and volunteering at various food pantries in her spare time.

Liz Solar wanted to share that after 35 years of living in Boston (and working for Harvard Law School for much of that time), she has relocated to Maryland where she is working at the University of Baltimore School of Law, which she says she absolutely loves. She was appointed by Governor Moore to serve on the Commission on Judicial Disabilities. Her twins are starting their second year of college, and she is looking for places to explore in Maryland, now that she is more of an empty nester. 

Michael Lewyn was promoted to full professor at Touro Law Center.

Some book news from our classmates:

Andrew Bridge has published The Child Catcher, the true story of the fight to rescue the children confined to a violent and secretive institution in the rural South. This was the most bitterly fought mental-health lawsuit in American history. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Bridge joined the small team of civil rights lawyers representing the children of the Eufaula Adolescent Center, a violent and secretive institution in the rural South, against the state of Alabama.

Eileen Kelly published her first novel, Small Wonder. At the reunion she spoke with Parel Kapur and David (Dwight) Santos Donaldson, both of whom also published their first novels in their 60s. Parel’s book, Inside the Mirror, was mentioned in a previous Class Notes, and Dwight’s novel, Greenland, was a finalist for the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

Eileen also shares some sad news that her mother, Mary Kelly, passed away in May.     From 1978 to 2000, Mary served as the administrative assistant to the Philosophy Department and the sole occupant of the department’s office on the second floor of Russell House. She sent two children to Wesleyan (Eileen and Stephen ’88), and Anthony Richter became her son-in-law. (Eileen’s grandfather, John Kelly, worked in Wesleyan’s Physical Plant from the ’40s to the ’60s.)

These notes will probably not arrive until after the election season, but it will not surprise anyone that our classmates are very active. As I write this, there is a Wesleyan call being organized by Ken Rosenberg, Maria Mead, Pagan Kennedy, and others to raise funds and to benefit an organization called the Movement Voter Project, which invests in grassroots organizations in swing states and districts that do voter mobilization, mostly targeting marginalized communities. 

MICHAEL STEVEN SCHULTZ | classnotes84@zmulls.com