Monique Witt reports: “We are all still involved in music. Bill and Jane Pearson have joined Steven and me for a number of concerts, two stops with Rickie Lee Jones, while Ben tours with her and assorted jazz. Mike Minard ’75 shared a wonderful composition (he’s so talented), and I talk to Linda Bierer all the time, trying to start up our walks in the north woods again. Unfortunately, bitter cold in January, but spring always brings Central Park walks with friends. Ben is home between multiple tours, having circumnavigated the globe again. He toured Spain with Catherine Russell and the Midwest with his trio and Laura Anglade, and his third Nebula album is slated for release in February. Dev finished the last production details on new product lines for NAM and patent filings. Steven is going ‘of counsel,’ and I’m still doing board work when not at the sound labs. Looking forward.”
Howard Curzer writes: “After 45 years of teaching (mostly) in the Texas Tech University Philosophy Department, I retired in July of 2025. My wife (Anne Epstein) also retired from her solo practice as an internist and sleep medicine specialist. We left our home of 40 years and moved into a townhouse in Park Slope, Brooklyn, NYC, seven doors away from our daughter (Mirah), son-in-law (Josh), and granddaughter (Clara). I’m still doing research—writing papers and a book. Although I miss teaching a bit and might go back if I could find the right part-time position in NYC, I’m savoring the experience of not grading papers.”
Bill Bass shares: “In the first year of my retirement, I did little more than lay on a Florida beach. In the past 12 months, I’ve been a bit more active, traveling to Barcelona, Florence, Rome, Albuquerque, New Mexico, [and] Tulsa, Oklahoma, to deliver an address for the Cum Laude Society at my old high school; and then to Middletown for the alumni reunion where I stayed with Kathy Scholle Hale ’75 and her husband, John. Then on to Martha’s Vineyard where I visited with Rick Gilberg and his wife, Lisa, and followed that with a trip to London and more beach time in Florida.” Bill wrote this update from Toronto, and he flew back to Tulsa in January for his first solo art exhibition.
In our last class notes, Fred Kessler shared that on January 7, 2025, they evacuated from their home in Pacific Palisades ahead of the fire that swept through their wonderful community and changed it forever. Their house survived but is currently uninhabitable. They hope to move back in sometime next fall.
What else in 2025? On October 30 Fred had successful brain surgery to remove a benign tumor between the eyebrows that was causing increasing inflammation in “the Wesleyan-best-part of my brain.” The surgery was long and the recovery somewhat difficult, but they got it all.
Also in 2025, his daughter embarked on her new goal of becoming an interior designer by taking on that role for their home remodeling and rebuild of the garage/studio and by sojourning to London for a three-month course.
Fred sends greetings to our 1974 classmates and many thanks to those who reached out to them after the fire to check on how they are holding up.
Karla Bell and Mark Wallach ’71 had a wonderful vacation at Chautauqua Institution. The lectures were insightful, educational, and, at times, funny. They heard Doris Kearns Goodwin speak about presidents, including the qualities she believes are necessary for a great president, and a paleoanthropologist on the cause for the dominance of humans over other competing species, etc. Midweek they were joined by Mark’s son, Philip ’05, his wife, Vera ’05 (both Wes CSS), and their three daughters. It was a thought-provoking week and a great visit.
James Kempf writes: “My wife, Renate, and I moved into a continuing care retirement community called Enso Village in March last year, located in Sonoma County, California. Enso Village features ‘Zen inspired senior living,’ which means that unlike most CCRCs, the emphasis at Enso Village is not about turning away from the approaching end but rather turning toward it. There are many older monks from San Francisco Zen Center who have retired here, and there are many active Zen, Tibetian, and Vipassana meditation practitioners, as well as people who practice in the traditional Western religions of Judaism and Christianity. Moving here has been kind of like coming to Wesleyan as a freshman, there are so many interesting people to meet and such a broad variety of different activities to participate in.”
Charisse Lillie reports: “In December of 2025, I was honored by the Philadelphia Bar Association with its Justice Sonia Sotomayor Diversity Award, which recognizes individuals in the Philadelphia legal community who have made significant contributions to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the legal profession. In 2025, our two youngest grandsons, Kane and Cashel turned six and three respectively. My husband, Tom McGill, and I also have two sets of twin great-grandsons—Levi and Logan, who are three, and Nakoa and Jonas, who are one. Lots of joy and happiness during Christmas, Kwanzaa, and the New Year with the little ones!”
Harold Sogard notes that the increase in the number of our classmates giving to Wes during our 50th Reunion seems to be holding fairly steady, which is a wonderful thing. Especially in these tough times!
Larry Green has completed his first full year of retirement following 47 years of legal practice. He is devoting his time to nonprofit board service, consulting, writing, family, fitness, and travel. He wrote a short book under his Hebrew name, Lev, that was published by Page Publishing in late 2025 and entitled What If the Mystery of Dark Matter Has a Spiritual Solution? Larry and his wife, Denise, live in Ogunquit, Maine, and are now blessed with seven grandchildren.
Howard Shalwitz returned to direct his first play at Woolly Mammoth Theatre in D.C. since stepping down as artistic director in 2018. It ran from February 3 to March 1, 2026. The World to Come by Ali Viterbi focuses on the lively residents of a Hebrew home for the aging in California as the world around them is crumbling. Howard hosted a special performance and reception for Wesleyan alums on February 8.
From Milwaukee, Wisconsin Dana Barrows writes that he and “Holly Babbitt love living on the Massachussets SouthCoast for the past five years.” He says he continues working on his terms, year 51, as an estate and business planning specialist with Northwestern Mutual, working mainly through joint work partners with closely held business owners. He calls it “intellectually stimulating and fulfilling. We each have developed significant friendships here, and deep connection to various nonprofits and volunteer activities, including the Garden Club of Buzzard’s Bay, the SouthCoast Community Foundation, the Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust, Westport Conservation, and others. Our challenging course, Allendale CC, is less than a mile away, and we are surrounded by amazing hiking trails that lead down to the marshes and the ocean.” They feel that “Wesleyan and Connecticut College continue to courageously serve as a beacon of light and reason and leadership in these turbulent times.”
Jim Powers celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary (Martha Wettemann, Trinity ’73) at Rose Vineyards in Branford in May. He also presented on humanism in medicine in November at the annual meeting of the Gerontologic Association of America.
Dr. Michael Fossel writes that his new book, Reversal,came out in February. It reportedly is significant as a “unified model of aging that connects molecular biology and clinical medicine.”
From Nashville, we have a newsy note from Bill Williams. He writes that “my wife and I recently bought the dog a yard and left our Nashville condo for Ashland City, a little rural community about 40 minutes from the city. It’s slower, a whole lot quieter, and the dog now shares her yard with a friend.” He also notes “I have somehow gotten myself involved in public policy surrounding diabetes care. Having had type 1 for 65-plus years, I find that I have a good bit of credibility with legislators and their staffs. As a result of enormous improvements in insulin and diabetes technology, significant numbers of longtime type 1 diabetics are now reaching Medicare age” and he says there are serious challenges with services and care.
Bill also said, “I spent a day on Capitol Hill in October with a delegation from the grandly named Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition and am now involved in an effort here in Tennessee to make diabetes tech more available to Medicaid recipients in a fiscally sustainable manner. Stay tuned.”
Our faithful correspondent Dr. Mark Helfat sends a colorful note about his newest work. Mark says, “Retirement has permitted me to complete and publish my first (and last) novel; the culmination of a 15- to 20-year project. Are there literary awards for procrastination? A Vet’s Story (available on Amazon) is an easy read that follows the exploits of a veterinarian on a mission of revenge, which is interspersed with personal recollections and unique veterinary anecdotes. The names of several Wes friends and acquaintances appear throughout the book (misspelled to protect the innocent). The University also appears on pages here and there. My faculty advisor was Dr. Nicholas Knight, a Shakespeare scholar in the English department. While I took a slew of science courses to fulfill my veterinary college application requirements, I also completed an English major.”
Mark notes, “Dr. Knight didn’t know what to do with me as I appeared to have a split personality. That being said, we survived each other for four years and left on good terms. Perhaps he knew that one day those Faulkner and Alexander Pope lectures would come to the aid of this advisee’s confused aspirations.” The Beagle Book club gave his novel “4 Paws Up” a nice review on their Bad Biscuits review site.
Bill Corvo writes that his documentary, Max Corvo for Freedom—about his father Max Corvo, who was hailed as one of the heroes of World War II as head of the OSS in Italy—has won a series of awards, including a special film festival award. It is available through Amazon. Congrats, Bill, as a historian and your special work about your father. Bill’s work has also been featured in The Middletown Press if you would like to find out more about Bill and his dad.
Stephen Sullivan writes that he has spent the last year building a “final stage home” on a remote island in Washington State in the San Juan Archipelago. He says, “It is a relatively compact house on one level with bathrooms accommodating a wheelchair. As an architect for the last 40 years, it was challenging and fun to design the abode knowing that if I were lucky, I would die there, looking out on the meadows, the straits of Juan de Fuca, and the Olympic Mountains in the distance.” He also notes, “I would not have made this choice to build in this location were it not for the fact that my daughter and granddaughter live on our family retreat there. Its immediate proximity to Canada also feels comforting in our challenging moment in history. (I like the fact that the San Juan Islands are practically in Canada. The Pig War of 1872 redrew the international border to give these islands to the USA, rather than to the Crown).” Stephen says, “I have happily retired (95 %) from my architectural practice and I now plan to be the old potter I have always hoped to be, since seeing ancient potters in Japan during my 1973 Watson Fellowship making their simple wares. My big project is to replace the burners on my kiln, reminding me of the extraordinary art department faculty at Wesleyan when we were there, including Mary and John Risley who were lifelong mentors to me.”
We also heard from Mike Robinson who said that Bill Burke hosted him during a busy visit in which they went all over, from Bill’s home in Centennial to Breckenridge to downtown Denver. He said that Bill continues fundraising efforts for the Duke Snyder memorial endowment in honor of the late, longtime hockey coach. Bill told Mike there was also a memorable pond hockey tournament in early 2025 in Greentown, Colorado, that some spirited Wesleyan hockey alums took part in. For some, there is no age limit to what you can do.
The class has increased its activities outside of our quinquennial reunions (there is one coming next year…). Our quarterly class Zoom reunions, which actually originated with planning committee meetings for our 50th Reunion, continue, and all are cordially invited to join in. Announcements of these calls go out to the whole class mailing list, but if for some reason you are not receiving them, please send me a note, and I will see that you get them in the future. Dave Hagerty, Ron Ashkenas, and Bonnie Blair are continuing the work of the Reunion Program Committee and arranging more structured Zoom meetings, with speakers of interest from our class and the Wesleyan community in general discussing a wide range of interesting subjects. Again, if you are not getting notice of these, please let me know. And finally, the University is developing a new program for superannuated folks like us who have survived their 50th reunions—College Row Classes. As such, we are entitled to participate in special programs, both on campus and remotely. Plus, we get a special lunch and other benefits at the spring Reunion weekend. Since I am lucky enough to live close enough to drive up for the day, I have not missed a reunion in several years, and I encourage all of you to come as well.
John Manchester has released a new album—Bach Keyboard Works Arranged for Virtual Orchestra. It’s available on Apple Music, Amazon, and Spotify. I’ve acquired it and enjoy it a great deal. It’s very reminiscent of Stokowski’s orchestral transcriptions of Bach organ works, except this time the orchestra is virtual. As John describes it:
“When I returned to music five years ago after a long break, all I wanted to do was play J. S. Bach on the grand piano my wife found me. My old hands, neck, and back had other ideas—variations on “ouch!” I was halfway through learning the long, difficult G Major Fugue from book one of the Well- Tempered Clavier when I came to the terrible realization that I wasn’t going to make it to the end of the piece without my hands falling off. . .
“I’d been toying with the notion of returning to composing using the recently impressive digital tools of theVirtual Orchestra. If I couldn’t finish playing the G Major Fugue, I could arrange it for my glorified ‘band in a box.’ When I started inputting the piece to my computer, the results sucked. I’d made my own music with a computer in the past . . . I started on an album and gradually discovered why the fugue sounded wrong. My new digital tools were shiny and sharp but required new skills on my part to make decent music with them. . .
“Composing an album of my music was great fun. So, I did another. At that point, I felt I’d said what I needed to for the moment. Now that I’d mastered my new tools, what about that Bach fugue? I’d originally wanted to orchestrate it because I hate not finishing things I start. I had another reason— orchestrating this piece might reveal aspects to me and a listener that weren’t apparent when played on a keyboard. . .
“Aside from my own compositions, I only perform Bach. And I listen to a lot of it, mostly his vocal music. It does something for me that no other music does. It arouses the deepest feelings. The majority of his music is devoutly Christian, which might be enough to convert me if I didn’t know better.”
Steve Scheibe reports: “Angela and I recently returned from a month in Japan, and my Japanese continues at the level of my first trip in 1985. I was thinking now that I met up briefly with Connie (Sutherland) Hernandez on that first trip and have not had contact since, at least to my recollection. All good in California and still going back and forth to Brazil. Finally, I speak frequently with my brother, Karl, and he is doing well and has nice recollections of our class. Ha ha!”
I will leave it to the rest of you to interpret that “ha ha!”
Mark Lerner says, “On September 30, 2024, after 49 years of service, I retired from the U.S. Labor Department as a senior attorney in the Division of Occupational Safety and Health in the solicitor’s office. I get to spend time doing my wife Inna’s favorite activity—fitness. Our older son, Misha, is a graduate student at UC Berkeley, pursuing a doctorate in Slavic studies. Our younger son, Sammy, graduated from Washington and Jefferson College and is planning to pursue a career in genealogy.”
Warren White makes the following suggestion: “DMV residents should consider the Richmond, Virginia, Fan Historic District Holiday House Tour.As a volunteer docent for the past five years, I recommend a guided tour of the largest, intact, U.S. Victorian district while it is decorated for Christmas.”
Edward Swanson sent holiday cheer with a poem:
FOR MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY AT THIS HOLIDAY TIME!
Last Christmas I sent you a poem
It wasn’t too good, but it was my own.
This year, yet again pressed for time
I’m sending these words again in a rhyme.
It’s been a hard year here, I have to admit.
To get through these months has taken some grit.
The fire from Eaton nearly got our poor home
And though it was spared we had to leave it too long.
A broken arm made things quite hard for a while,
And deaths of good friends seemed to put sadness in style.
But all of you give me great comfort and cheer.
And I want to say thank you at this time of the year.
I have fond memories galore of places and things
And each of you is in there like a bright shiny ring.
Happy holiday, dear friend, may the new year bring you
From John Schimmel : “I remain the extreme opposite of retired. Still commuting to the UK to work as executive producer of narrative content for the video games Squadron 42 and Star Citizen; still teaching screenwriting at UC Riverside’s low-residency creative writing MFA program; still rolling spec projects up the hill. Managed (finally) to get my wife, Maureen, to the UK for a two-week, theater-and-museum holiday. . . .”
Harrison Rue “retired” in 2024, after 11 years leading Honolulu’s and then Hawaii’s transit-oriented development (TOD) programs. Before returning to Honolulu, he was a lead consultant to federal agencies under President Obama’s sustainable communities’ partnership. Hank is starting to draft his next book, but if you want to “focus local” on your own neighborhood, check out his “Real Towns: Making Your Neighborhood Work”—a free download on his LinkedIn page.
“After retiring from a 50-year stint in the rabbinate, I now reside with my wife, Helen, in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina,” says Brett Goldstein.
Dave Lindorff says, “I’m still ‘committing’ journalism, trying to expose the corruption, criminality, and mendacity of the U.S. government and the obscenely wealthy ruling elite who fund its leaders. Lately, Joyce and I have been spending half the year in Cambridge, where she is a lifetime fellow at Clare Hall, a graduate college there, and half the time home in the Philly area, where she’s still a Temple professor.” He also notes, “Unfortunately, we will be in Cambridge for the third term there, which starts on May 2 and runs through the end of June, so I won’t be able to make the epic 55th (!) Class Reunion in person. I hope there will be some opportunity to meet online.”
Joe Keller spends year in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, playing golf and boating. Still managing a commercial real estate portfolio—retirement is overrated. Continue to go to Wes Homecoming but amazed at how much Wes has changed ideologically in 55 years. Hoping DKE reopens—site of many good times and friendships.
“I was back on campus for Homecoming in October and really enjoyed the “past 50th Reunion Lounge in the PAC for the game. I am enjoying semiretirement in Denver after selling my business and am looking forward to our 55th Reunion in May. I have also invested in a start-up, which has added a new dimension to my workday. In my spare time I am trying to learn Japanese. It is the most challenging learning I have ever undertaken. I enjoy regular contact with Greg Friedman, Jim Tober,John Hastings, and Rich Suval via text and Zoom (courtesy of Greg), writes David Siegel.
“When I joined demonstrations against the government in ’68 and ’70, I never thought I’d be doing it again 58 years later. Never thought I’d be alive 58 years later, but that’s another story,” writes Stephen Voorhies.
Marvin Williams is alive and has nothing new to add.
Ran into Stephen Ferruolo at No Kings rally in La Jolla, California, where we both reside. He provided a picture of us on the corner. Been attending many of these rallies around the country—there always seems to be one everywhere I go, including red states!
Neil and Stephen
Take care everyone and remember the 55th Reunion is coming up May 22–24. Hope many of you can attend. Aloha.
Sadly, the Fall ’25 Issue of the magazine reported the deaths of five classmates. I had previously reported on the deaths of Bob Segal and Calvin deGrasse. Here are links to obituaries for Brian Dawe, Michael Mastergeorge, and Randy Miller.
Additionally, we lost Peter Miceli on October 31, 2024.
Russ Bradshaw (second from left) and Brian Dawe (third from left).
Russ Bradshaw wrote in memory of crewmate Brian Dawe, sending a team photo (at right). Also, Russ had an interview published in Wesleyan’s fall edition. He says, “It describes my experiences in a New Age group that worked for ‘inner and outer peace,’ based in Queens, meetings in NYC at United Nations. Unfortunately, the leader had a well-hidden ‘shadow side,’ of MeToo sort. . .” The experience resulted in a traumatic experience for Russ’s family, so he “decided to devote my efforts to exposing how cultic groups recruit and try to retain members.” I concur with Russ’s suggestion to read the piece (on p. 36) if you missed it.
Our very own Brooklyn cowboy, Jeremy Serwer, wrote: “Still living the country life here in northeast Connecticut—close enough to enjoy civilization when needed, yet far enough away to mostly be away from it. Working very part-time with one client; on three nonprofit boards; doing lots of volunteer work focusing on veterans, antisemitism, and equine pursuits. Mostly, working or riding horses three to five days a week. Had a decent 2025 Cowboy Mounted Shooting season. Wife, Nancy, is still flying for American Airlines as a first class purser out of Boston; finally starting to talk about retirement, maybe two years away. Works well, as I managed to rob the cradle anyway—43 years ago.
“We’re a chip shot off any highway Wes mates might travel between NY and Boston. It’s beautiful on our property. There’s a guaranteed lunch for anyone wishing to take a driving break (jeremy@theserwercompany.com). Last visit we enjoyed was from Chase Van Gorder ’71, Wes Beta bro. Great fun.”
By the time you read this, Jamie Kirkpatrick’s new novel, The People Game (Koehler Books), should be published. More information appeared in the Fall ’25 Issue.
(Dr.) John Yurechko caught us up on his news: “I have published two volumes of poetry, my first, titled Head Lines, way back in 2014; followed in 2025 with Second Thoughts.
“I retired from a 30-year government career in 2011. I have given lectures to various audiences on the Ukraine war, NATO, and other national security topics. I have written articles and contributed to books on Russian/Soviet military issues.
“I met my wife, Jane, a Wellesley graduate, when we were both in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. (I completed my PhD in history in 1980.) We settled in northern Virginia, then moved to a lakeside home in central Virginia in 2016.
“Alas, my rickety body demanded that I cease active participation in Revolutionary War (with the 1st Virginia Regiment of the Continental Line) and Civil War (28th Massachusetts Regiment) reenactments, although I continue to do living history talks for local school classes.
“Three daughters and a grandson named Wesley (pure coincidence!).
“I noticed in your most recent notes an update from Steve Talbot, remarking that he was just in Vietnam. Jane and I just finished a trip there and to Cambodia in October 2025. Vietnam was still decorated with flags and slogans celebrating the 50th anniversary. It was quite an experience.
“I get together with Chuck Caramello (who lives in Maryland) on almost a weekly basis to eat sushi and ‘chew the rice.’ Chuck, a professor emeritus of English, retired as a dean at the University of Maryland. He is working on his second book on equine and equestrian history. Jeff Nye (who lives in northern Virginia) joins us at times as well.”
Frank Waters is the equivalent of folks who call in to a radio show and introduce themselves by saying, “Longtime listener, first-time caller.” He sent a summary of his life since graduation: “My wife, Janet, and I have been married for 50 years and have two adult children and three grandchildren.
“I never left Connecticut after Wesleyan. I went to work for a Hartford insurance company after graduation and a few years later, bought a West Hartford property and casualty insurance agency (from Page Harman ’42, another Wesleyan alumnus), which I owned for 35 years. I sold it 12 years ago but remained active on a part-time basis in the insurance industry until last year. Now I just play a lot of golf, run a fantasy football league, which I have been commissioner of for 39 years, and babysit for our two younger grandchildren. Oh, I was also the varsity girls basketball coach at Avon, Connecticut, high school for 19 years (1997–2016), where I had a career record of 378–95, with 13 league championships and one state title.
“Wesleyan alums that I see most regularly include Brendan Lynch ’68, Jim Akin’72, John Papa ’79, and occasionally Gary Walford’71 and Brian Silvestro. I do get back to campus a couple of times a year for athletic contests and golf outings. And I promise to make our 60th Reunion if I am still sound of mind and body.”
Frank promised his father to write a book about his family’s experiences in WWII, and A Drumstick for Thanksgiving Please is now published. Frank’s description: “It is a true story of the Waters family journey, basically through the World War II years. The principal figures are my father, Frank Waters Jr. ’42, and my uncle, William Waters ’42, who were both Army Air Corps pilots and [Wes grads].”
“Frank’s debut literary work fulfills a 30-year-old promise he made to his father, a World War II fighter pilot. A Drumstick for Thanksgiving Please chronicles realities of life in the 1940s, not only for the faithful U.S. Air Force pilots, but also of their families during their absences.
“With multiple family members away in Europe, the Waters family corresponded, even when one of them ended up as a POW in a German camp. Their close relationships carried them all through the war and beyond, proving that family ties make a difference when faced with adversity.
“Follow the decades-long saga of one family who thrived despite the difficulties of a world at war.”
Edward HazenWalker, aka “Sachin Hazen,” wrote (I believe for the first time) and shared a lot of news and a fascinating story:
“After graduation, cum laude Phi Beta Kappa, I traveled across the country in a VW Bug. Came out as bi/gay in Berkeley, mingled backstage with Joan Baez and Mimi Farina, had my mind exploded in Monterrey, stayed up all night writing/channeling ‘the wisdom of the universe.’
“Returned to the culturally OCD East Coast to share New Age consciousness, failed miserably. Had a breakdown, found the will to live again by following my intuition to my ancestral homeland, the then Soviet Union. Had a successful career in IT, made a lot of money in real estate in Boston. Spent five years in an ashram in western Massachusetts, became a psychotherapist, manifested a beautiful home surrounded by forest in Connecticut.
“Contemplating the end of life, I moved to Mexico to the decadent Oaxacan Coast to relax and chill until death. Instead, my body got stronger and healthier and I had to recalibrate. As a spiritual teacher, I was invited to stay in beautiful homes in fascinating places, San Miguel de Allende, the Ansonia Hotel in Upper West Side Manhattan, and now the Mojave Desert.
“Along the way I had the freedom and encouragement to begin writing again. Short stories, often highly erotic, poured forth from me. After the death of my mother, I started to spend more and more time in the next dimension communing with her. This coincided with developing abilities as a shaman, and ultimately as a psychic and channel.”
Jerry Cerasale sent good advice (for me, at least): “At our age it’s time to retire.” He says, “I’m still enjoying my time on the Eastham Select Board. However, I’m continually amazed at the ‘pressing’ issues that citizens raise. Eastham is in the midst of facing a state mandate to put in sewers and a wastewater treatment plant, covering new bonds for installing a new water system (before 2020 there were no fire hydrants in town), and paying its part of a $170 million high school. The pressing issues from many citizens are pickleball courts and usage and dog walking. I’ve learned that many times it’s the little things that count.”
Tim Greaney’s new novel, Taking Up Life in Both Hands, is available on Amazon. It’s a satire about a large Catholic hospital system that has lost its way and fallen prey to profit-hungry executives. Information about his first novel, St. Sebastian School of Law, a satirical take on law teaching during the first years of Trump, can be found at www.timgreaney.net.
Peter Ratner wrote, “In my case, I would say no news is good news. We are back in Seatoun and hopefully finishing our house renovation by the end of the year. Did a trip to Scotland, London (where our daughter married her partner after 20 years and two children), and NYC in October. We look after our youngest granddaughter every Thursday. Other than that, we just keep on keeping on.”
From David Jones: “I’m now in my 38th year as president and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York, a nonprofit, and a member of the Board of the MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Agency of New York). Still not quite ready to retire but maybe in two or three years. Enjoying my three grandchildren: my 13-year-old Sophia in Boston and my five-year-old Acher and three-year-old Ren in Brooklyn.” He says that he had “a recent advocacy victory, after 10 years of effort, led a successful campaign called Fair Fares for half-priced fares on subways and buses for low-income New Yorkers. To date, more than 300,000 people have signed up. It’s this kind of work which keeps me going well after my expiration date. Best, David”
Bruce Williams sent an update: “I got a tick-borne bacteria, anaplasmosis, which upset my equilibrium —listing to port—which sent me falling down [the] stairs one hot midnight in July 2024, the eve of getting treatment, during which I broke my neck, hence my lengthy rehabilitation. I was working on a film at the time and was unable to bring it to something like a finished form until last spring, eight months, and I’m not completely happy with what I’ve done since my fall. Gives me something to aim for in between poems.”
For those of you who are a bit poetry-challenged like me, Bruce included this note: “Lots of pentameter / except the first line / iambs not so much).”
CLASS NOTES
Aloha, Oy Vey, Aye Bobo, and Howdy!
Last time I wrote to the class as a whole
was for our 50th Reunion book,
but I never got a copy. Maybe
there was some right-wing sabotage. Maybe
the post office was being set up to fail.
Maybe it was just your standard SNAFU.
Now our class moves ever closer to the
back page of the alumni magazine,
ever more onto obituaries.
I almost made it. Anaplasmosis,
fractured cervical vertebrae, rock star
neurosurgeon, a book load of nurses,
stuff of legends. My rehab goes well, but
I still list a bit to port. My left foot
still tends to drag. Common names escape me,
but I delight still in what I read, like
after lights out in the women’s lock-up
in Greenwich Village when a sister calls,
“Hey, Angela! What’s imperialism?”
Since my fall, A.I. has metastasized.
Still quite fallible, it says a friend died
two years ago. Wrong. It rightly says I
misremember what professor Davis
actually wrote. The correct copy is,
“Angela, what does ‘imperialism’
mean?” “Lock-up” in the House of Detention,
not “Lights out.” Same thing. Approximately.
Angela answers, teacher that she is.
What I remembered was more dramatic,
more cinematic, and where but in books
can one be a political prisoner
with Toni Morrison as editor?
How great is that? A happy Hollywood
ending too. She goes free as a spirit.
Stuart Frank sent an update on his book publishing: “Delighted to report that my book Biographical Dictionary of Scrimshaw Artists, the product of 35-plus years of research, has now been published in two volumes by Scrimshaw Forensics® and is available online at Amazon.com. This clears the path for me to look for a publisher for my next grand opus, The Herman Melville Song Book, a scholarly anthology and analysis of the authentic songs, ballads, tunes, and chanteys referred to in Redburn, White-Jacket, and Moby-Dick. In a way, it’s a follow-up to (or a follow-through) to my first book, Herman Melville’s Picture Gallery: Sources and types of the “pictorial chapters” of Moby-Dick (1986). Hints and contacts from classmates shall be greatly appreciated! (stuart.m.frank@verizon.net) Meanwhile my wife, Mary Malloy, has been lecturing occasionally at Wes and is busily engaged in writing articles and chapters on maritime history, Indigenous Northwest Coast art, a book about Americans in the Pacific in the 19th century, and her fifth novel (something about a female pirate in the post-Napoleonic era), while I continue as editor of the triannual journal Scrimshaw Observer and as founding director of the Scrimshaw Forensics® Laboratory. So, we’re both busy in retirement. And I expect you are, too.”
I heard again from Andy Edlen. In case you missed his saga online awhile back, here it is again: “On the heels of graduation back in the Pleistocene, Jeff Wanshel ’69 told me of a call he got from a high school friend of his, John Emulin, leader of a band called Lothar and the Hand People, about a job opening at Jimi Hendrix’ Electric Lady Studios on 8th street in Greenwich Village. I went to work there a bare week before Jimi’s sad passing. Over the next couple of years, I went from gopher (go fer this . . . ) to night manager to staff engineer. Lots of brushes with fame, amazing audio adventures and a ringside seat viewing the greed and venality of the record biz. The ensuing decades were filled with a blur of bands, work at West Coast studios and some time on the road backing up Bobby Freeman (Do you Wanna Dance and The Swim in a kind of white-boy soul revue. Then, a couple of decades making music and sound fx for computer game companies in the Bay Area, where I’ve resided since 19(gulp)73. And over the last decade, I’ve been doing IT at UC Berkeley.
“My brother Steve and I have a number of songs up on Soundcloud at https://soundcloud.com/user-568633504 that you and your readers might enjoy. And I escaped the cutting room floor (and was given some generous screen time) in a movie about the studio’s early days, findable on Amazon as Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision. The editors kindly included my sentient moments from the interviews, and it’s a pretty fair time capsule of that window in the studio’s history.
“I’m in touch with precious few friends from the era, and I hope this Class Notes appearance may help remedy that.”
And an update: “At Wesleyan, I translated Neruda and a number of Spanish Golden Age, 16th-century writers like Cervantes and Lope de Vega, and my Spanish is still in decent shape. . . .”
I continue teaching middle school, but plan on retiring next year. Vera, my wife of 38 years, and I live in our little dodecagon house with a two-year-old mini-Aussie dog in a quiet valley on Kauai. We deal with downed trees and rocks rolling into the “road” to pavement, along with flood watches. We plan to sell this house and get a place that’s paid-for elsewhere on the island. I want to finish writing some books, including one on sex education for middle schoolers, based on the questions my students have asked and my answers to them. (Would love suggestions for finding publishers.)
We recently traveled to Nevada and Utah where we visited Bryce and Zion National Parks and hiked around some other gorgeous places. Highly recommended, especially Bryce.
From Jim Dreyfus: “We spend most winters in Miami. Great to be out of the cold. Wes has had two historically great football seasons in a row. Sorry we didn’t get to see a game. The Giants and Jets are awful. Great turn around for the Patriots. Stay well and in touch.”
Bill Eaton wrote, “I met my wife, Janet, 53 years ago in Madison, Wisconsin, while I earned a PhD in sociology. We spent five years in Montreal where I taught at McGill. After five years at the NIMH in D.C., I worked as a teacher/researcher in mental health for 40 years at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where I chaired the Department of Mental Health for 12 years. I developed a one-page screening scale for depression disorder (CESD-r) that’s available on the web (cesd-r.com/) and has been translated into 15 languages; and edited a textbook, Public Mental Health, which was recently translated into Chinese. I have published 400 articles and chapters, written or edited eight books and monographs, and have a GPS h-index rating of 120. I retired in 2023. In retirement, to cope with boredom, I published a novella, Outward Bound.We live in Kendall Crosslands, a Quaker retirement community in Pennsylvania, in a country setting that includes lots of trees and deer. I make noise in a band called Sweet Potato Fries, reminiscent of my involvement in the Wesleyan jug band, Vulgar Boatmen. I enjoy supporting Michael Bennet ’87 for governor [of Colorado].”
Bill Eaton (back row, second from right, with guitar) with Sweet Potato Fries
Rob Pratt said, “I’m just finishing up,with four years and seven trips to the Solomon Islands in the Pacific, in developing solar, energy efficiency, and rural electrification projects with my most recent company.” Despite current energy policies, Rob is encouraged by the “progress that’s been made in the renewables, efficiency, and climate sectors over the past several decades. Companies and nonprofit organizations I’ve founded have developed/financed/implemented more than $500 million in hydro, wind, solar, energy efficiency, and policy projects while working in over 50 countries, so I take some comfort in that.
“My career in clean energy has been fulfilling and rewarding, and I take satisfaction in knowing that I’ve made at least some difference in founding/co-founding four companies and four non-profit organizations that have developed, funded/financed, and built/implemented renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainability, climate, and policy projects in many parts of the world.
“Vickie and I moved to Exeter, New Hampshire in 2019, which we’ve greatly enjoyed; [it’s] an hour from our daughter and her husband in the Boston area, and an hour from our cruising sailboat in Maine.
“Since we are getting up there age-wise, I’m now moving on to my latest gig . . . that is, talking to college students in not only discussing the global clean energy transition, but to urge them to consider a career in renewable energy, energy efficiency, climate, sustainability, and clean energy entrepreneurship. As you know, Wesleyan has the Patricelli Center for Entrepreneurship, and I’m offering to speak to Wes students in the coming semester, which should be fun. . . [College students are] an enthusiastic and appreciative audience!”
John Bach “is still Quaker chaplain at Harvard and lives a charmed, gifted life of social activism. Happy New Year. GO WES!”
Jim Drummond shared that he is “still practicing criminal defense in the Austin area, and my wife, Deborah, flourishes in her hypnosis practice and quantum health healing techniques (QHHT). Good health all around. I have been in touch with Cliff Saxton ’68, Jeff Richards, and Bruce Hartman with some regularity. Cliff has just published another book and is dividing his time between Missouri and Virginia. Jeff just won his ninth producer Emmy in NYC, and Bruce published his 12th novel and was invited to the Western Writers Awards Banquet in Lubbock, Texas.” Jim has eight grandchildren, four to 21 in age. “They are all athletic and way above average (apologies to Garrison Keillor). Our children are even more prosperous than ourselves, as is the natural course of evolution. None of us experience drama or trauma. We are truly an obnoxious lot.”
From Frank Putnam: “Best regards to all surviving ’69ers. I just published my fourth book, Old Before Their Time, describing the results of our 35-plus year study of the effects of sexual abuse on child development. The title says it all—we found numerous examples of accelerated biological aging from neuroendocrine stress response systems, to precocious puberty, to epigenetic changes in their DNA. (I characterize the book as a primer on child sexual abuse disguised as a memoir. It has gotten pretty good reviews so far. I’m now doing a lot of podcasts and learning about this whole world.) Personally, I’ve lived a remarkable 13 years diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer and learned that one has to make the most of every day.”
Ed Hayes wrote, “Hope the New Year is off to a good start for you and your family. . . I have started a late retirement that I hope allows time for learning to play the guitar and Spanish, at last! An activity before that has been working with a neighborhood group that celebrates our old D.C. community by restoring and colorfully painting rusty call boxes and inserting information about significant accomplishments. They look good. Warm regards to everyone.”
Ken and Viskha Kawasaki sent from their Buddhist Relief Mission, “Happy New Year. A good leader should be able, honest, upright, gentle, humble, frugal, tranquil, prudent, and courteous.”
Peter Arenella is still in a small, rural village in Mexico with wife, Mia. He says, “family wise, I am blessed.” His adult children are doing well in California—his son, David, lives in an adult group home and “holds down a part-time job. My daughter, Kat, married her partner last year and is teaching graduate students at a private LA university who want to secure their PhDs in clinical psychology. My only real complaint is that I can no longer walk even for a short distance because my right knee replacement has failed and both knees are very unstable. So, I spend all my days watching great films and posting on X.”
Bob Dombroski inquires, “Prior to my arrival at Wes U, while in high school across the river, I heard a rumor that Bo Diddley had stopped at a bar in Portland prior to a fraternity house party gig . . . anyone still around to confirm this distant memory?”
Charlie Morgan
Charlie Morgan has published another book: Truly Dumbfounded, Dismayed, and Delighted is “laced with humor and numerous cartoons [and] covers such vast topics as advice from my father and grandfather, perspectives on achieving success, and law school, lawyering, and courts. Also included are observations about life, marriages, and children, some hilarious and some shocking, along with observations about human behavior overall. (My first book, The Guarantees in the Massachusetts Constitution Imposing a Duty on Massachusetts Courts to Grant Standing to All Persons in All Actions, Including Derivative Actions by Private Parties with Respect to Charitable Organizations, has had some modest success.”
Charlie has received some nice reviews for his new book. Author Leigh Rivers said:
“As a writer, I’m struck by how deftly you balance laughter with reflection, the hilarious with the heartfelt. The inclusion of cartoons to illustrate the humor adds such a personal, inviting layer a visual nod to the idea that life’s lessons often arrive with a smile, even when they also carry a sting. Your journey from grandfather’s wisdom through courtroom realities to the intimate revelations of family and human behavior feels like an open‑handed sharing of what matters most: how we learn, how we love, and how we keep our sense of wonder intact.”
And Publisher’s Weekly noted:
“The title captures the spirit of this playful memoir from lawyer Morgan, author of a weighty tome about the intricacies of Massachusetts State law. Rather than deliver a straightforward autobiographical accounting of his life, Morgan instead offers a series of brief anecdotes and vignettes, many comic, loosely grouped around themes such as women, awkward moments, and philosophical musings. These prove refreshingly free of doctrine, revealing a mind open to possibilities. . . . Takeaway: Lighthearted memoir in anecdotes of law, life, love, and learning.”
Charlie Farrow
It’s light, then it’s dark. I look across the edge of a vast wetland to the holiday lights at the Monkey Farm, a much-loved Old Saybrook watering hole. The cookie bars I made earlier are inedible. I chisel them from the Pyrex.
Bill Heckman: “I am healthy and happy here in the Wild West, where I’ve been since 1980. Retirement is great and many cruises keep us fresh. Jayne and I spend six months is Scottsdale and six in our mountain home near Flagstaff, Arizona. Three kids (60, 57, and 41, plus four grand and one great-grand…) all independent and doing quite well. First half of my career was in retail, ending as senior vice president of Goldwater’s Department Store, and then as senior vice president, retail division, for a chain of specialty stores. The second half was as president of Heckman Marketing Associates Inc., until I hung it up at the young age of 71. Our world has certainly changed over the decades and every place I ever worked no longer exists with many thousands of career jobs now forever gone. I feel very blessed to have always been out in front of the changes and managed to succeed, plus also made time to do a lot of community volunteer work along the way.
“This past year my old bandmate, Dave Cain, reached out from his home in Pennsylvania, and he is doing well. He put me in touch with two other bandmates, Rick Hammer’69 (retired psychiatrist in Vermont) and Josh Barrett ’70 (retired lawyer in West Virginia). All three still play, and I’m trying to relearn my drum kit with friends here in Arizona. There is a band in us all if we take time to listen for the music.
“Farewell, live long, be happy and always keep on dancin’.”
David Webb: “This January, as things turn out, we are flying to ‘our second home,’ a condo in Fort Myers, Florida. (We will fly back to the Cape on April 15 . . . after all, we wouldn’t want to miss entirely Cape Cod’s absolutely most miserable month of April, when it sounds like spring, but because our ocean gets so very cold in the winter, spring comes unusually late to the Cape because we are surrounded by c-o-l-d water! In my humble opinion, April is the worst month on Cape Cod!) We bought a condo in a development my dad retired to in 1986, but he died in 1988 quite suddenly and unexpectedly (at age 63 . . . and here I am, a nonsmoker, and now at age 79, with my 80th approaching in March 2026), and my sister and I sold his unit quickly. Barb and I rented our unit to year-rounders in Florida for 29 years before we took it over 10 years or so ago and started using it ourselves. We feel very fortunate to have retired to Cape Cod and be able to spend a large chunk of our winters in Florida. We return from [Florida in November] to Massachusetts for the holidays and the month of December because our younger son lives here with his family and our two grandchildren (Sophia, a junior at George Washington University, will turn 21 in February, and Charlie [who] will graduate from Tabor Academy, his father’s school, in June). Aaron and his wife, Samantha, run two very successful breakfast and lunch restaurants in Hyannis that are open every day except for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. . . Aaron attended New England Culinary School (run then by our Wes classmate Rick Voigt’s older brother Fran (’62), also a grad of Wesleyan, ahead of us, and now, alas!, deceased), and he manages the kitchen and cooks at both spots, and Samantha manages the dining room and hostesses in the first of the two restaurants.”
Chris Palames: “It has been a bittersweet year. My wife, Judy, and I have been facing the daunting consequences of our daughter Lyza’s diagnosis with ALS and Judy’s identification as the genetic carrier with a high probability of onset increasing with age.
“I’m keeping my little home-based nonprofit, Independent Living Resources, puttering along—serving on a state anti-hunger work group charged by Governor Maura Healey with formulating recommendations in response to federal SNAP cuts and other food insecurity accelerants. I’m also on two disability policy commissions advising our Massachusetts attorney general’s office and another soon to be convened to advise the governor.
“A personal joy has been showing White Nine, a short documentary focused on the Center for Independent Living that I founded in 1974 at Mass General Hospital. The film, which was produced by Bill Martin, will have its festival debut in late February at the Southern Utah Documentary Film Festival. Once that debut occurs, the documentary will make the rounds of other festivals, and I’ll be able to share a Vimeo link more freely with classmates.”
Jan de Wilde: “My wife and I continue to divide our time among a house in a village near Geneva, a chalet in the Alps, and a house in East Hampton, New York. Silly, at our age, but it still works and keeps us near our two sons and families in Switzerland, and a son in New York.” Jan has been “astounded by the change in U.S. politics. . .” and says, “not much left to do but vote and pray, which I do at Anglican/Episcopal churches in Geneva and East Hampton.”
Bill Carter: “Just a note of appreciation to all of the Wesleyan graduates who have been and continue to be supporters of Ashoka: Everyone a Changemaker. Ashoka has elected five people to its fellowship who, later in their careers, have received the Nobel Peace Prize. The latest Nobel Prize recipient, Maria Machado from Venezuela, was elected to the Ashoka Fellowship in 1997 for supporting young people in the most extreme situations of risk on the streets and in the institutions of Venezuela.” Bill wishes everyone, “all the best.”
Richard Cavanagh: “I continue to fail retirement! I have two part-time gigs: teaching entrepreneurship at Harvard and advising a West Coast–family investment office led by three other WesTech alums (and current/former trustees). All of my other paid boards (BlackRock, Guardian Life, and the dreaded Educational Testing Service) have retired me in anticipation of senility.
“My Harvard students are extraordinary—three of them named as Forbes’ 30 Under 30 leaders; and over the past decade, nine of them have won the annual Harvard innovation competition (which raises ugly suspicions among the 35 full-time entrepreneurship professors at HBS that cheating is somehow going on). The answer to these jealous rumors—the Kennedy School admissions staff who find such exceptional talent that even a semester with me can’t stop them.
“I continue to volunteer with nonprofit service outfits (Ashoka, Boston Symphony, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Volunteers of America—the biggest charity you have never heard of). Not surprisingly, I have come to learn they treasure my financial support far more than my advice.
“Patricia ’79 and I agree we are proudest of our 28-year-old daughter who, despite her progressive left-leaning proclivities and ocean science education at Bowdoin, has turned out to be an accomplished international institutional investor!”
Bob Isard: “In August I retired for the third time. First was as president of a small bank in D.C., then as a regulatory consultant, and finally as a substitute teacher in Philadelphia. Over nine-and-a-half years, I worked my way up from daily assignments to, in the end, almost two years of my own special ed classroom.
“Three professional highlights: dinner with Jeff Loveland and Janis Joplin; my own NASDAQ hearing; and seeing kids with serious challenges do better in my classroom.”
Jim McConaughy: “After not being a familiar face on campus these past 50-plus years, I seem to have found my way closer to Middletown. After living in Andover, Massachusetts, since 2000, my wife and I recently moved to West Hartford to be closer to our two kids and our one-and-only grandchild, age two. He is keeping us young.
“My Wesleyan experience as a music major (for one semester I was the only one) got me interested in South Indian vocal music, which I pursued on campus and in Madras. That eventually lead to a gig off Broadway in a musical with Meryl Streep, where I played the caterpillar among other parts in a production of Alice in Wonderland. Then, after teaching, working for Bell Labs, and creating and enjoying a position for 27 years building bridges between communities surrounding Lawrence, Massachusetts, I got back to what first interested me, writing choral music. My shtick is setting the Psalms to music. After 56 compositions, I’m more than a third of the way to the finish line but in no particular hurry to get there.
“In Andover, I belonged to an Episcopal church with a very good choir. I haven’t quite figured out whether to join the local version of that persuasion or maybe do something different in greater Hartford. I was quite impressed to read about Don Logie and his success in a summer choir, by the way.
“A year or two ago, I decided that it was high time I learned how to ballroom dance and joined the local Arthur Murray affiliate. Having been in West Hartford only three weeks, I found a local chapter only seven minutes away. My goal is to get good enough to properly dance with my wife, who used to teach dance in high school and doesn’t need lessons.
“I last showed up on campus at our 40th Reunion and mourned the passing of our beloved freshman dining hall, a sentiment not shared by the decision-makers. Classmates I stay in touch with include fellow Hewitt niners: Jim Meadors, who has made a name for himself in the lute and guitar circles, and Dave Minugh, America’s gift to Sweden; also Matt Vinikas, who lives atop a mountain in Colorado but is a familiar face in the Connecticut Valley, and Andy Gaus, the stalwart Alpha Delt and brilliant musician, composer, and wordsmith.
“The big move we just completed provided the perfect opportunity to downsize. It would be an exaggeration to claim we shed our stuff proportionally to the size of our new smaller abode, but at least we tried. If anyone has suggestions about what to do with 150 pounds of choral and instrumental music scores (the music department didn’t bite), please call collect.”
Wallace Murfit: “The grand adventure continues; my life is remarkably unchanged. In November my wife and I celebrated 52 years of marriage with a trip to London. In March we celebrated her birthday with a trip to Sicily. Last February my ski posse went to Jackson Hole for a week, keeping my 61-year skiing streak alive. Next month to Whistler-Blackcomb. I am still working part time with two very interesting real estate consulting projects. In October I rowed my boat in the Head of the Charles Regatta. I play a little golf (badly), and I fool around with my small collection of sports cars. All of this is possible because (so far) my wife and I enjoy good health. I was fortunate to go to Wesleyan and Stanford Business School, but everything I really needed to know I learned at Lawrenceville.”
Bob Knox: “I am doing what I can to reach out and connect with family, friends, neighbors, and communities in a conscious effort to strengthen ties in our society during the current political climate. I am thoroughly enjoying my growing relationships with our classmates on a bimonthly Zoom gathering that we have created together since our last reunion. I also host a monthly acoustic music gathering of friends, old and new. Music and food are magic in creating community. I volunteer regularly at San Quentin prison as one of several coaches for an inmate running club that has been recognized in a documentary, 26.2 to Life, which you can see on many movie platforms including Delta flights. I am blessed by two sons, their wives, and four grandchildren who are constantly expanding their horizons, and we are all planning wonderful vacations together. And, importantly for these class notes, John Mergendoller and I are continuing to grow the relationship that we started at Wesleyan by
Let’s start with the increasingly inevitable obituary report. Our classmate, Jim Ruhlen, died on July 4, 2025, in Overland Park, Kansas. Jim transferred into Wesleyan as a sophomore from Baker University, a school in Kansas, and spent three years at Wesleyan, majoring in chemistry. He won a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to study chemistry at Caltech, but, after a year or two of that, decided to go to medical school. After earning his MD from the University of Kansas, he had a long career as a doc in the Kansas City area. Based on the many testimonials on the obituary website that I saw, he was much loved and appreciated by patients and colleagues. Jim is survived by his wife of 59 years, Leigh, two sons, two grandchildren, and many nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews. Dave Garrison did not know Jim at Wesleyan but came to know him later in life when Dave and his wife bought a condo in Prairie Village, Kansas, that was just a mile away from where Jim and his wife lived. Dave described Jim as “warm, generous, and kind.”
On a happier note, our classmate Anthony Caprio, who served as president of Western New England College for 25 years (from 1996 to 2021), was honored in September 2025 by the school with the Delbridge Family Spirit of Philanthropy Award. Among the many nice things said about Anthony as he received this honor, was this: “Few individuals have shaped the trajectory of Western New England University as profoundly as Dr. Caprio. His vision, relentless pursuit of excellence, and ability to bring ambitious ideas to life transformed not only the campus landscape, but also the institution’s identity and aspirations.”
I wrote about George McKechnie in the Fall 2024 Issue, noting that in addition to practicing clinical psychology, he had started some “home audio” businesses. He was the founder and president of Audio Excellence, Inc. and then two more audio companies, Axiom Home Theater and Sync My Home Inc. He now has a new enterprise, called SmartHomePlanner.com, a web business designed to help consumers understand smart homes, so they can make informed decisions about what to buy and how it can be custom-tailored to their specific needs.
McKechnie is clearly looking forward. I am looking back (and I should note, my wife and I still have a working rotary phone on our kitchen wall). Not long ago, I found myself thinking about the summer before our freshman year. I was pretty sure that the college sent us a book that we were supposed to read for a discussion that was to take place during orientation, but I didn’t read it (and, I remember, I was embarrassed about not having read it when my group—the first floor of Nicholson 5—met for a discussion led by anthropologist David McAllester). The book, I was almost certain, was Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, which I now realize caused quite a stir and created deep divisions, not only nationally but in the Jewish community. Arendt also wrote extensively about totalitarianism, and it occurred to me, in my dotage at age 80, that Eichmann in Jerusalem might be of greater interest to me now than it was when I was a teenager, given recent events in Israel, Palestine, and in the USA.
In order to check my memory, I sent emails to some classmates (Steve Sellers,Tom Drew, Gar Richlin, and Reuben “Johnny” Johnson) asking them if they remembered the college sending us Arendt’s book. I won’t reveal what each did and did not recall (the responses ranged from absolutely no recollection at all to some clear memories), but I will tell you that Reuben (who was in CSS) confirmed that I was right—the book was Eichmann in Jerusalem.
Reuben subsequently sent me a flyer showing that in 2013, in order to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of the publication of that book, there was a conference at Wesleyan. The promotional materials for the conference included the following: “Arendt completed writing her work on the Eichmann trial while she was a fellow at Wesleyan’s Center for Advanced Studies (now the Center for the Humanities) and first published it as a series of articles in The New Yorker in 1963. It immediately caused a controversy that has not fully subsided to this day; it also opened up a new chapter in the public awareness and understanding of genocide and played a crucial role in the emergence of the academic field of Holocaust studies.”
You guys remember receiving and reading (or not reading) this book?
Whether you do or not, I now have read the book and think Arendt had some valuable things to say about Israel, Palestine, and totalitarianism. As evidence that Arendt’s work is still, or once again, relevant, here is a link to an article that appeared in The Conversation in late January titled “Repeated government lying, warned Hannah Arendt, makes it impossible for citizens to think and to judge”: Hannah Arendt article.
We celebrate three of our classmates who have died: Percy H. Whiting III (August 22, 2025); Randolph A. Wedler (August 25, 2025); and Andrew J. Kleinfeld (November 7, 2025).
Percy, who majored in physics at Wesleyan and pursued for three-and-a-half years graduate work in physics in Germany, went on to a career in data processing. He lived in Portland, Oregon, where he participated in a Vietnamese community that became a “major part of my life,” being “privileged to assist, to a modest extent, in quite a few success stories among my young protégés.”
Pat Curry “knew Randy well as our lives dramatically intersected in the ’60s and ’70s.” Percy was a “brother of mine in KNK” and “graduated Phi Beta Kappa as a German major . . . In late spring of 1967, we hitchhiked for two-and-a-half months through Austria, Italy, and Greece sharing many adventures.” Pat goes on to write: “We met up again in New York City during the Vietnam antiwar tumult and the assassinations of King and Kennedy. We were both very antiwar and had avoided the draft successfully. Randy had turned his back on a likely position in the foreign service because he detested the war and found employment at an abortion referral service because he supported freedom to choose . . . Both of us became very involved with antiwar organizing . . . While others in our class were pursuing careers in medicine, law, and academia, Randy and I spent several years in the quixotic, failed quest for a new, more- left political alternative. Like many like us, we eventually had to cave into reality, leaving politics to pursue some sort of a living. Randy found a way to pay his bills by becoming an IT specialist. He married Barb, also an activist, and lived an extremely frugal life in Missouri. Somehow, they managed to send their five children to college, including two sons to Carnegie Mellon. . . .”
Andrew was a force of nature in our class, one of our most intellectually gifted members whom everyone seemed to know and admire. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he “intended to try to get a senate seat in Alaska. Nelson Polsby had shown us how this sort of thing is done.” That didn’t work out, but he found he enjoyed practicing the law in Fairbanks. After serving on the district court in Alaska, President Reagan having appointed him, the “first President Bush elevated me to the Ninth District Circuit Court of Appeals” where he served to the end of his life. I am one of the few who did not know Andy at Wesleyan, but I was fortunate to witness his intelligence, sense of humor, and common sense from participating with him in a monthly Zoom group convened by Rick Crootof. Though dying of prostate cancer, he bore it and the recent death of his wife, as Rick points out, “with realism, humor, and incredible calm.” As Rick wrote to Rachel (one of his three children), much to the delight of Andy, a Rhodes Scholar, your father “had a great life, career, and family, with universal respect and affection from all of his classmates, I’m sure at every level. I will always smile when I recall his surprise and modesty at how everyone in Fairbanks greeted him with friendly words and gestures.”
On to happier news. John Knapp had, on October 13, the “memorable experience . . . of attending Nat Greene’s seminar on the Spanish Civil War, giving my talk on Carpetbagger, and then a delightful dinner hosted by the History Department at a downtown restaurant. Rick Crootof drove me both ways, and Bob and Priscilla Dannies, and Tom Broker all attended . . . The seminar was just what you would have expected from Wesleyan students—thoughtful, somewhat argumentative, and well researched. Nat was excellent and a marvel at 90 plus. The talk went well to a smallish audience. I concentrated on how the book came into being rather than taking much time dissecting Mitchell’s life but did talk some about how clever he was in basing his lawsuit on the ‘equal’ provisions of Plessy and not the ‘separate,’ joined with his clever demand for equal accommodations that the railroads could not meet, a first-class Pullman ticket for Blacks. All seemed to go well, and the questions asked were stimulating. The dinner was a wonderful trip down memory lane, hosted by Cecilia Miller, the chair of the department . . . I did quote Spike Dartheny’64 in summarizing my Wesleyan experience: ‘The aim of education is to endanger one’s soul in an atmosphere of enlightened discourse.’ The mission hasn’t changed much in 60 years.”
Gene Bunnell,professor emeritus, Geography and Planning, the University of Albany, writes that he and “his wife, Lynne, have relocated from Albany, New York, to Rockaway, New Jersey.” In September 2024, SUNY Press published his book, Buffalo’s Waterfront Renaissance: Citizen Activists, NGOs, and the Canalside Project.
The highlight of Christmas 2025 for Robert Dearth was the assembly of his children, who came from around the world to celebrate in their new condo in Cabo San Lucas, BCS, Mexico—from Singapore, his oldest son Matt and his wife, Tracey; Sebastian from the NYC area; Nicholas (recently graduated from Gettysburg University) from Madrid; and Mateo from London. “Fishing and many dinners out together [were] planned amidst the sun and sand there.”
Paul Gilbert and his wife have recently moved to “a senior living center that provides a life-care setting for its residents.” They “worked for two months cleaning out our small house of everything we thought was surplus . . . When the day for moving in arrived, we both realized that we still had too much stuff. We turned our two bedroom, two bath, [and] living room into what looked like someone’s attic. My advice to anyone considering moving into a small living space: burn your house down and buy just what you need as new! Our cats have made an unhappy transition too. The female is fairly comfortable, but the male is making trouble for everyone. I had a long talk with him before we moved, but he just rejected all my comments. We’re now (after some months) all better adjusted, and we’ve made many new friends. I’m planning to write a book about this relocation . . . to offer some of my insights about late-age moving. I had a few surprises, even after working with aging seniors in my pastoral ministry.”
Bud Smith shares the good news that his sonnet, “Butterflies,” is a prizewinner in the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest.
Butterflies
Butterflies in Paris make weather here
(so chaos theory says) since sensitive
conditions dictate systems linear.
Minor perturbations are a sieve
for metaphor, as changing states affect
emotions everywhere. But don’t blame me
for scientific ways that interject
a pause in pretty scenes. Just let it be.
Edward Norton Lorenz and Poincaré
wrote the book on such esoteric stuff,
enlarging thought on how the cosmos works
while challenging the mediocre fluff
that passed for light but drowned in certain quirks.
Which means we’re left to weather on our own:
In sun or clouds or words close to the bone.
Bud has written a beauty, so much to admire. As I wrote to him, “I don’t know of a sonnet that begins most of its lines with a trochee. And who outside of the masterful brings in proper names and gets them to rhyme, well almost, ‘let it be’ ‘Poincaré.’ The theme of the poem is timely and moving. Did you take a class with Richard Wilbur? I think he is the one who pointed out to me that Frost wrote ‘disguised sonnets.’ I have a feeling and hope there are many who ‘Do not scorn the sonnet,’ who will read yours and delight in doing so. Congratulations!”
On perhaps a lesser note, Bud’s poem, “The Pool,” has been selected as a finalist in the One Condoms poetry contest, the winning entry to be on the boxes of condoms. Here is Bud’s poem, which I found by far to be the best among those trying to be the Poe of Prophylactics.
The Pool
The small
of your back
is a deep
still pool beneath
the waterfall
of your
spine.
David Luft’s writing career continues. Beyond States and Nations: Toward a Central European Intellectual History: Essays “has just been accepted for publication . . . I am also writing a book about my life, which I am calling An Education. The writing has gone very well . . . and I hope to finish it in the coming year. The third book on Czech intellectual history is a bit further off.” David ends with this note of nostalgia: “PS: Have I told you that when I was babysitting for Ohmann, I saw a book on the shelf called Silent Spring? The first I’d heard of it.”
Barry Thomas sends this good news: “2025 was an important year for our Dreaming for Change work in Burundi. The nutrition, health, preschool, primary school, and microfinance programs continued to grow, expand reach, and have increased impact on the lives of children and their families in the communities where we work. Most important, several new sources of support and funding have partnered with Dreaming for Change and made significant, multiyear funding commitments. What started eight years ago with provision of a daily cup of nutritious porridge to a few hundred malnourished children and their mothers has become a very substantial, well-organized, well-recognized, and sustainable community center dedicated to the improvement of human well-being in rural Burundi. I can say with pride that the U.S. friends of Dreaming for Change did a great job of helping to get it all started. Dreaming for Change is now providing a comprehensive and growing array of services that are helping a community of very poor people break out of their subsistence life. Education for children and adults is the theme that is driving all the programming. I cannot thank enough the Wesleyan classmates who have supported Dreaming for Change financially and with their thoughtful encouragement during these start-up years.” News to celebrate.
We end with a great update from Jonathan Peter Monroe. “As a retired landscape architect, I am enjoying volunteering to repair a local, city-owned historic cemetery here in Portland, Maine. It has involved me in jackhammering out concrete post bases so new fencing can be installed and cutting of and coring out rusty pins holding tombstones to bases, and re-laying slumping brick sidewalks. I love being outdoors and staying fit. Be well classmates.”
Gar Hargens writes: “Sold my office building last September; after 57 years there, I’m surprised I don’t miss it more. My firm, Close Associates, continues from my home office. I moved most of our remaining files to the University of Minnesota Northwest Architectural Archives, where I’ve established a foundation to support their work. Instead of fees, I’m asking current clients to contribute to the foundation. I’m working on houses and remodelings for friends and with a younger firm, reworking a residential development that includes assisted living and low-income housing.
“Missy and I attended a large wedding in Vermont this summer that brought family we hadn’t seen from near and far. We had several recent holiday family events with grandkids from California and [in] spring, college graduates we hadn’t seen for a while. Grandson Soren was just early admitted to Williams. I preached a different W but he’s a Junior Olympic Team cross-country skier, so no chance. Son James is working remote from New Haven as partner; Cara studies law there. Her summer internship is with our Minnesota attorney general, so we’re excited they’ll be here with us.
“Missy continues to chair the board of the Saint Paul Public Housing Agency. The PHA houses about 8% of Saint Paul residents, all low income, with 80% of funding coming from the federal government—it’s been extremely challenging. Time-outs at our lake house are ever more precious. Our door(s) are always open for anyone venturing into our demonized state. We decry what’s happening in Washington and encourage our representatives, with financial resources and vocal support, to do all they can.”
Arthur Rhodes writes: “Enjoying life after retiring five years ago from 50 years of medicine. Spending quality time with my spouse, Leslie C. Newman of New Orleans, taking care of my small home in Illinois, feeding the birds, and tolerating deer mooching the food in the bird feeders. Am painting with photography, showing my work on Instagram (ArthurRRhodes_Photography). Most of my six grandchildren are in or finished with college or getting ready to matriculate. Am still enjoying relatively good health for now.”
John Graves writes: “This has been a year of stimulating reunions with Blanche and Bob Bast and Mike and Rob Abel with us in Denver. Bob continues to teach, see patients, and do research at MD Anderson in Houston, as well as completing his tour of all U.S. national parks. Rob and Mike also joined us for an extended lunch, describing their international travels and their ongoing work in extending eye care and social justice. (Congratulations, Rob on your Distinguished Alumnus award!)
“Janmarie and I are both enjoying retirement and planning a visit to my brother, Charles, and his family in Geneva, Switzerland, following our visit to southern Italy and the Amalfi Coast. We’re enjoying our reading groups, and I’m continuing to write, study classical piano, hike, snowshoe, and fly-fish.
“I’ve become active in Colorado Faith Communities United to End Gun Violence and also participate on the vestry of a small Episcopal parish, with a focus on social justice with homeless and immigrant populations.”
Rob Abel, MD, writes: “I am teaching a course on How to Read the Mind through the Eyes this spring at Washington College. As president of Delaware’s Vision to Learn (VTL.org), we have made Nicholas Kristof’s 2025 donation-request list and will outfit a second mobile clinic van. The 27,000 children who have received free glasses have improved their classroom standardized test results.
“There is always more going on, such as our donation of AfroBrasilian art to three major museums. Wellesley’s Davis Museum will be sharing their expertise in this area with Wesleyan in the spring.”
Geoff Geiser writes: “Our family is thriving. Our two children, Lynn and Erik, are at the top of their game and getting close to retirement age. Our four grandchildren are likewise doing very well, and we were blessed recently with the birth of our first great-grandchild, Raelynn Tait. Carole and I celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary on June 12, and we still enjoy our home in Pennsylvania and summer home on Long Beach Island, New Jersey. Regards to all.”
Tony Accetta: “Having retired from a career chasing fraud and corruption as, first, a lawyer and federal and state prosecutor, then, as a fraud investigator with major Wall Street investment banks, I am safely retired in Colorado, enjoying the greatest wife in history, along with sons, stepdaughters, and six grandchildren. I’ve lost some mobility to nerve damage but am otherwise healthy and can still play some golf from an adaptive cart. No complaints. Ran 10 marathons in the day; happy to go around the block with a cane now. Active with OpWalk, a volunteer orthopedic group doing free surgeries in South and Central America and Mexico, and the Education Program of the Colorado Symphony.
“My book, You the Jury, How Wall Street Cashed in on the American Dream and Nearly Killed It, is an insider’s view of what really caused the mortgage crisis of 2007. In short, I was on the inside and know who did what. I recommended all my clients go to jail and then retired.”
Robert MacLean writes: “As fellow classmates follow the growth of their families combined with aging, they are relocating in bigger numbers. Nonetheless, I remain in touch with Phil Russell, Ralph Jacobs, and occasionally John Dunton of Wombat fame.
“On a personal note, I ended a 50-year full-time/part-time teaching career as a ski instructor, most recently with the Snowmass ski school in Colorado, now preferring to ski with friends here and abroad with my new reverse shoulder replacement—one of many skiing related surgeries.
“I also continue to be haunted by age with the FAA and the insurance world as a whole, as I continue flying personally, occasional charter, and as a CFI-I flight instructor.
“All in all, spending time with family and friends in the San Francisco Bay Area, Baja, California, and Basalt, Colorado, skiing, hiking, flying, and socializing while ‘giving back’ as a member of a few boards, has been more than rewarding in retirement.”
Tom Pomeroy writes: “Gretchen and I spent the holidays in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, where we have been going for 20 years. It’s sort of like summer camp for old adults: The same folks have been coming each Christmas, and we love spending time with them. Our kids enjoy their kids, and their grandchildren and ours have become good friends too. Pretty special.
“After many years on our HOA board, the last few as president, I was pleased to announce my complete and full retirement. A terrific experience, but one that should only be endured once!
“I appreciate that President Roth has been very outspoken about the role and importance of liberal education, and I am grateful for my experiences and friends at Wes. Best to all!”
Carl Calendar writes: “I am retired from my work as dean of humanities at Brookdale Community College and living happily in my condo in Red Bank, New Jersey. Two grandchildren, Devin and Luke.”
John Dexter writes: “Carol and I consider ourselves blessed when we see the challenges others of our age are facing. There’s nothing wrong with us that being 30 years younger wouldn’t fix! Still we’re making adjustments to address where we are in life.
“After 55 years of boating together, our last boat, which we appropriately named Finale, is on the market. After 34 years in the same house, we are exploring independent living facilities. We’re somewhat less interested in travel, although we are going to Mexico in February. We both participate in YMCA activities to keep fit. We also volunteer locally, which we both find rewarding.
“After all these years I still consider my scholarship to Wesleyan to be one of the most significant gifts I ever received. I had no idea how valuable a Wesleyan education would be while I was receiving it. Best to all.”
Lanny E. Walter writes: “I am still practicing law since 1971. I live in Saugerties, New York, about 100 miles north of NYC on the Hudson River, a beautiful place to visit. My oldest son, Benjamin (’88), is a Wesleyan graduate; my other two sons went elsewhere. My wife of 39 years, Carole Furman, is a Vasser graduate, as was our son, Ryan. The third son was a graduate of the University of Rochester. He had a mind of his own.
“My focus in 2026 is to fight against the Trump presidency, standing on street corners in protest of all the harm he is doing to our country. As best I can tell, Wesleyan is standing tall [in the current political climate]. My best to all survivors for the New Year.”
Clyde Beers has been enjoying visits with family: “We had visits with two of three children [and had been with the third recently] and nine of nine grandchildren. Eldest granddaughter has finished a really good education from a super place called Wesleyan—yeah! She now is employed in a research role with Penn Medicine (part of the University of Pennsylvania). Second eldest (grandson) is about to finish from Sycamore later this year (not yet clear where he will head, but very open with multiple options), and our third eldest (granddaughter) will start later this year at Wellesley. All I can say is we are ecstatic at all of their options and to-date results!
“None is into wrestling, but lots of terrific joint sports activity with lacrosse, field hockey, football, and basketball.”
