C Council on the Environment and Climate Crisis, which I founded five years ago. We are building out a network of state and local democratic environmental caucuses, working to elect Dems, advocate for climate policies and candidates, and resist climate disinformation. I was also recently elected vice president of my area labor federation, AFL-CIO, and serve on several national boards and advisory boards related to the environment. My husband and I farm on 80 acres in southeast Michigan, where we’ve planted over 1,000 native trees and have rewilded five acres of native prairie grasses and flowers (yes, the edge of the prairies once extended this far east!)”

John Goldberg was named Harvard Law School dean in June. John has been a member of the faculty since 2008 and has held several positions at HLS, including chairing committees and serving as a deputy dean. Read the impressive article here: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/06/john-c-p-goldberg-named-harvard-law-school-dean/

Nancy Rommelmann shared: “My newest book, Forty Bucks and a Dream: Stories from Los Angeles, was released in September, and my podcast, Smoke ’Em If You Got ’Em, with Dallas journalist Sarah Hepola, just entered year three!” 

Glenn Lunden wrote: “In my retired/not retired state (I am back working part time for my former department at the New York MTA), I recently found myself serving for the very first time as an expert witness. Yes, I am indeed telling you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I spent a day in the New York County Supreme Court building (think Law & Order), testifying on behalf of the MTA about New York subway operations and history for the MTA in a civil trial. It was a fascinating and sometimes nerve-racking experience, and I learned a lot about how trials work—or don’t work. We lost, of course (New York juries never find for the MTA), but I’ve been told my testimony will end up being an important factor in the inevitable appeal. (Dah, dum!)”

Megan Norris said: “My family and I, like so many others, are trying to wrestle with feeling really fortunate in so many ways (good friends, fun travel, silly dogs, daughter who still tolerates us), and watching the world, or at least our part of it, seemingly go to hell in a hand basket. I was on campus for Reunion & Commencement weekend in May and recently saw a number of Wes friends at a function on the East Coast; and I always come away from those encounters with renewed spirit. But I am aware that so many are hurting or afraid, there is no immediate fix, and the worst is probably yet to come. What seemed unfathomable is now here, and for the first time in my life, I’m not sure we can turn this around. 

“But I take great joy watching Wes folk, known to me or, as one of my colleagues says when called for a reference, known by reputation, all over the globe (and some close by in Detroit) doing great things. Our daughter is now teaching science in the Detroit Public Schools, which is a handful. And for the first time in quite a while Howard and I took a trip overseas and managed to get caught in the Iberian Peninsula blackout, which was actually a fun adventure. So, we will carry on.”

Jay Ash let us know that “the Duke Snyder memorial service was extremely well attended by players from the 1970s through the 2000s. Duke influenced all of us as hockey players and young men. The bonds we formed during each of our four years on the team remain to this day, and it was a blast to see so many of my former teammates this past April. For fear of leaving someone out, I won’t try to list everyone that I reconnected with.” CAPTION: From left to right: Chris Kincaid, Kyle Vietze ’81, Paul Godfrey ’81, and Jay Ash.]

David Frankfurter contributed: “Anath (Golomb) and I still live in Durham, New Hampshire, enjoying the mountains for hiking and the coastline for kayaking. We are both happy in our jobs (respectively, private clinical psych practice in Portsmouth and professor of religion at Boston University), although [the current political climate] is putting new stresses on teaching and therapy both. Our children have recently moved back East: Sariel to teach writing at Princeton and Raphael to do his residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Raphi and his wife also have a toddler, Sidonie, whom we get to see quite often. Everybody also has dogs, which makes for boisterous visits.”

We are hoping that one or two of you will volunteer to become your class’s new secretary—it’s a terrific way to connect with fellow ’83ers. If you are interested, please email the Class Notes editor, Liz Taylor ’87, at classnotes@wesleyan.edu. Thanks!

I’m going to keep this long and in as many original words as they let me. It’s a time for all our voices to be heard as the years go quickly by. There’s a lot a change and tenderness in there and I hope you appreciate it.

I must start with the most delicious piece of news from Beck Lee: “I wanted to let our classmates know that I have gotten the ball rolling to do a WESeminar on O’Rourke’s Diner with my old boss, Brian O’Rourke, for an upcoming reunion.” I would travel for that.

Beck also sent this piece of history and remembrance:

“I wanted to let you both know that very recently Barbara Woike ’79 told me that she was enlisting the help of several friends to learn about the final years of one of Middletown’s most notable citizens—Katherine ‘Sissy’ Wells, who was by far and away Middletown’s ‘best hairdresser in town.’ Barbara had photographed Katherine for her senior thesis, and she asked me if I had ever seen or met her. ‘Met her?’ I laughed. . . . ‘She invited me to her room in the Arriwani Hotel! She had me over for tea!’

“Barbara’s focus was to get Katherine, who was a transgender pioneer in that she heroically lived her truth as a fashion-savvy woman in Middletown from the ’50s (when she closed her hair salon on Main Street) all the way to the ’80s, during which time she cut hair in people’s homes. Lots of homes!

“She was a ubiquitous presence on Main Street—tall, elegantly dressed at all times, in heels, with an astronomically big beehive hairdo. She was a regular at the Woolworth’s off Washington and also at O’Rourke’s Diner, where I met her and we became friends. Anyway, there’s a lot to report on this matter, but the main things are that Barbara hosted a gathering in Katherine’s honor at The Buttonwood Tree during Pride Week and has organized a ceremony to place a marker at her grave (which Barbara and her colleagues discovered) on August 29 and a play reading of a play about Katherine by Beth Harpaz (and directed by Diana Moller-Marino at CNTER). I’m so happy this all is happening. Truly Middletown is all abuzz about this. Hundreds of people have posted on Facebook vivid memories of Katherine. I’m so proud of Barbara. . . and of Katherine!”

From Terri Seligman: “Aside from the daily nervous breakdown when I read the news, I’m good. Still lawyering and still enjoying lawyering, remarkably enough. I did pass the reins for chairing my department, after 15 years of doing it, and that was an excellent decision—a lot less stress.” And more time for music: “I continue to play in two Brazilian percussion groups and love it. And I had the wonderful experience of running into Rob Levin ’81 at a music festival where we were both performing. I hadn’t seen Rob since African drumming class, where he was a huge inspiration for me. . . . Very cool to see him and hear him and his group play.” And Terri adds something many of us agree on: “Very proud of President Roth and his principled positions on the current political climate.”

Catharine Arnold writes, “I am still working as a rheumatologist in Guilford, Connecticut, although I take Fridays off now, as my husband, John Bozzi ’79, and I now have four grandchildren—Luca, William, Ellie, and Daphne. We babysit William and Daphne on Fridays and take the train down to Philadelphia to help out with Luca and Ellie every two months or so.” And some words worth reading: “The grandchildren are keeping us going, in these stressful times for our country, although it’s hard not to worry about what life will be like for them when they grow up.”

Gregory Ward, a physician in Baton Rouge, works daily to restore and enhance the functional abilities of individuals who have experienced brain injuries and was invited by the NFL Players Association and the NFL commissioner to discuss an innovative approach to brain recovery and rehabilitation, discussing “how chess analysis can play a pivotal role in aiding athletes’ recovery journeys—especially in the brain.” He was covered in this piece: https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/louisiana_health/chess-for-brain-injuries-in-louisiana/article_b8973998-b54c-4535-833d-94b243d36739.html

Liz Wilks sent a catch up: “Moved to Melbourne, Australia, in 2023, which I love, but finding it challenging to be so far from family and cherished friends. One daughter in is London, the other is in LA, so the three continents straddle is . . . a stretch. Still managing to keep Call to Adventure Media going and teaching TV writing at Melbourne University. I regularly catch up with many beloved Wes friends—Sasha Alpert all over the globe (pictured), Dan Greenberger in LA, and Peter Blauner and Diane Kolyer in NYC.”

Virginia (Ginny) Pye was brief! Perhaps a bit worn out from this: She has a new novel, Marriage and Other Monuments, coming out in February. Nice work, Ginny!

More publications, as Jeannie Gagne’sfourth book was released in May, with Berklee Press: Vocal Production and Recording. “It’s co-authored with Grammy-winning engineer, my dear friend, and Berklee colleague, Prince Charles Alexander. I’m still a voice prof at Berklee College of Music (Boston), 25 years later! Where do the years go?!! Spent time recently with dear friends Marcy Mariona (neé Neiterman) and Kim Traub Ribbens.”

On June 29, Steve Budd performed his solo show Oy, What They Said About Love, a Jewish take on love, romance, and marriage, in Cambridge. “Good friends from the Community Services House attended: David Preston ’81 and Janet (Lambert) Preston ’83, and Marc Gold ’81 and his wife, Alison Paul (they met at Wes when Alison spent her junior year there from Smith).” More to come.

Steven Maizes’ twins, Benjamin and Olivia, graduated from Brown and UCLA, respectively.

Maya Sonenberg writes, “John Robinson and I had the real treat of returning to Wesleyan for our daughter’s (Phoebe Robinson ’25) graduation in May. How much the place has changed; how much it’s stayed the same. An enormous military helicopter buzzed the ceremony during all the pro-democracy graduation speeches.” No helicopter buzzed our ceremony, if memory serves. Well, who knows, we were in the hockey rink.

Speaking of which, my COL classmate, Joe Fins, was honored by giving two commencement addresses this year. “The first was at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin and the second at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) where they gave me an honorary Doctor of Medical Science (DMSc), which was pretty cool. It was in the Panther Hockey Rink in Milwaukee, and it reminded me of our graduation when we were rained out on Dennison Terrace.”

Other honors and awards from Matthew Capece, also with meaning: “The Labor Employer Research Association awarded me, as a senior attorney for the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, the 2025 Practitioner Fellow Award countering wage theft and worker exploitation in the construction industry.” Bravo.

Sharon Marable, a primary care physician in Sharon, Massachusetts, writes that she has been honored by the Middlesex West District Medical Society and the Massachusetts Medical Society as its 2025 Community Clinician of the Year, celebrating physicians who make significant contributions to patients and the community.

A not-quite-retirement and a real retirement from Carson Milgroom, with some generosity at the end: “Most everything is the same. . . . still live in Newton, Massachusetts, not quite retired from a 20-plus year job in the waterproofing business, now as sales manager and project executive. Recently retired from a 25-year career in highly competitive adult baseball (yes baseball, not softball), playing lots of golf. Letting go of baseball made time and space for getting back into working with Insight Boston leading personal growth trainings; check out insightboston.org (see The Creating Success Program—CSP). I saw Steve Mooney ’81 this spring and threw a Frisbee with him after all these years. There was a Nietzsche Factor reunion (the Wes ultimate Frisbee club) on campus in May. I passed along an original team T-shirt I’d been stewarding for 40 years.”

Patty Smith writes, “The plan is to retire at the end of the school year, 2026. This will end a 40-year teaching career, I think it’s time! Otherwise, still living in Chester, Virginia, with my wife, Cindy. We love being grandmothers! (Our granddaughter turns seven in October). I had two knee replacements this spring/summer, one in March and the other in June! I hate that it’s my big news, but there you go.” I feel you on this, Patty.

An almost retirement from Danny Softness: “After sort of retiring during COVID after 30 years in the franchise and real estate world, my wife, Ellen, and I bought Strippaggio, a small olive oil and balsamic vinegar business located here in Atlanta. And suddenly, I’m not so retired and loving growing our new venture. And eating much better!” Lovely.

And a real one: “Hi! It’s Barbara Malley Chandler. I am fully retired from a career of newspaper publishing, freelance graphic design, and general wordsmithing, but still playing Scrabble with Lisa Greim ’81 (the one on the right in the photo). We met during my freshman year in Butterfield B’s East College when Lisa and her sophomore hallmates hosted a room-to-room cocktail party. Lisa made whiskey sours, and I made a friend for life. I still live on the East Coast (now in Plymouth, Massachusetts) and Lisa lives near Denver. Among the many blessings of age and retirement is more in-person time with distant friends.”

I got to have dinner with Sam Bender and Fred Pelzman in NYC, both still working (a lot!) as physicians. And Ellen (Friedman) Bender invited me to see Maybe Happy Ending, hosted by co-producer Jeffrey Richards ’69, along with her parents, Joe Friedman ’52 (pictured with me) and her mom, Barbara. I thought, “This has got to win a Tony. . . .” It won six.

It’s a delight to be able to hang out with your co-secretary, Laura, and her husband, Peter Eckart ’84 now and then in the Bay Area, even for impossibly old birthdays, and at the odd Wes events in San Francisco, too!

Greetings from Brooklyn!  I had the honor to meet up with Jenny Boylan ’80 at the launch of her latest book, Cleavage: Men, Women and the Space Between Us, at the main branch of the New York Public Library. It was a packed house.

Wayne Pepper “watched my niece, Rosa, graduate last May, and in the same visit had the great pleasure of taking my youngest son Scout on the grand tour, as he had never been on campus before: both theaters, ADP, including the infamous Grotto, and Olin.  Made sure to thank President Michael Roth ’78 for his leadership and activism.”

This was a general theme: most of you thanked President Roth for his leadership, activism, and advocacy, and I approve of these messages.

Jim Steiker is “winding down my long career as an employee ownership attorney and advisor and beginning a new chapter serving on boards of directors of employee-owned companies and teaching a course on ESOPs. My partner, Michael Golden, retired earlier this year. I’m still regularly in touch with Lisa Rudy, Clara Silverstein ’82, Cliff Meyer ’82 (started as ’81), and Cori Adler ’83 and can report that the Wes bonds are strong! I remain very proud to be associated with Wes, especially because of the advocacy of Michael Roth.”

Charles Newell is stepping down from his tenure at Court Theatre as senior artistic consultant. 

The Court Theater wrote in his honor:

“We would like to celebrate Charlie’s artistic legacy and thank him for his 30 years of leadership as the former Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director. He has directed more than 60 productions at Court — including An Iliad; Berlin; The Gospel at Colonus; The Adventures of Augie March; Satchmo at the Waldorf; Angels in America; James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’; Caroline, or Change; and The Triumph of Love, among many others—and his contributions have indelibly shaped our organization and the artistic ecosystem of Chicago. . . .” 

Livia McCarthy and Matt McCreight shared that David Resnick, Chris Lynch, and Paul DiSanto showed up at the memorial service celebrating the life of Colin Campbell Hon. ’89,in June. The photo here has four of the five of them. Livia writes that “it was wonderful to remember hidden memories about our formative years and the ways that a president, our president, could impact our lives.” Matt adds that he and Kathryn (Greene-McCreight ’83) “are doing well and still live in New Haven” and that he and his wife “also met up recently with Keith and Nancy Krakaur, and David Resnickand Cathy Klema—so wonderful to stay in touch with great friends.” Matt also says that he is “looking forward to seeing more great friends at our reunion next May. Put May 22–24, 2026, in your calendars now and plan on being there!”   

Referring to the memorial of President Campbell, Matt continues: “Speaking of great leadership, we should all be thankful for the stand Michael Roth is taking in defense of our democracy and the way in which he is doing so. Let him and Wesleyan know how much you value that stand—they need our support given all the pressures and funding cuts coming at higher education.”

Laurie Jacobs “celebrated the marriage of my daughter, Elizabeth Wojnar ’12, with Steven Sutro in March, with ’81 alums Susan Stone and Corinne Sternberg, and Laura Justice ’83, along with a bunch from 2012. I am still working as an associate dean and chair of medicine at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine in New Jersey and live in NYC where I see many alums!”

Jim Sullivan ’82, P ’19, Miriam Stern Sturgis, Gary Sturgis ’77, and Delcy Ziac Fox, got together in Dennis, Massachusetts, for a mini-reunion of InTown 21 residents. Jim and the Sturgises caught up with each other after not seeing each other for 40 years. Jim lives in Bourne, Massachusetts, and is inpatient medical director at High Point Treatment Center in Brockton, Massachusetts. Jim has one son, Owen ’19; Owen lives in Brooklyn, New York. Jim is chairperson of Bourne’s finance committee, a volunteer position. Miriam and her husband, Gary, live in Essex Junction, Vermont, and have three children and seven grandchildren. Miriam is retired and helps with her grandchildren. She volunteers for Ohavi Zedek in Burlington, Vermont. Gary is retired and enjoys bird and wildlife photography. He has coached a women’s rugby team for 20 years. Delcy now lives in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, year-round and is retired. She volunteers for the Center for Coastal Studies, New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance, and Provincetown Pride. 

Chris Graves and his wife, JoAnn Ward, “are celebrating our 40th anniversary year and will celebrate our younger daughter’s marriage in August. Our older daughter just got her master’s degree in data visualization.

 “JoAnn and I spent a month in France and Spain, starting with a truly once-in-a-lifetime event. We were invited by longtime pal and Wesleyan classmate Sam Selesnick to sit in the presidential box at the French Open tennis (Roland Garros). We got to witness close up the epic and historic (longest ever) men’s final. Sam is a world-renown surgeon and received tickets as gratitude for his lectures in Paris. We then headed to Provence, next westward to the ancient Cathar region near Andorra, then traveled all over northern Spain. In the fall, we will go hiking in Portugal and witness the tennis professional ATP tournament in Turin.

 “JoAnn retired from the Washington DC Public Library, and I retired from my longtime Ogilvy PR job (global CEO, chair, and founder of behavioral science unit). I founded a new company called The Resonance Code LLC (www.TheResonanceCode.com) built on some award-winning research that more effectively decodes the human sensemaking genome. I do quite a bit of pro bono work ranging from combatting vaccine hesitancy to trying to lessen homelessness with Community Solutions (largest nonprofit in this space) and working to build empathy for the Muhammad Ali Center.”

Lisa Shuchman shared that “my family and I spent a few days at Wes in May to see my son and his friends graduate as members of the Class of ’25. It was inspiring to see so much creativity, curiosity, and camaraderie. It made me feel there is hope for this country and the world. As the international editor responsible for overseeing coverage of the global legal industry for Law.com/ALM Media, I have been witnessing the rule of law at risk almost every day, and I am more convinced than ever that we need all these smart, well-educated, compassionate, creative, and driven Wesleyan grads. I’m confident they will be the ones who figure out how to fix things.” 

David Lynch has a new book: The World’s Worst Bet: How the Globalization Gamble Went Wrong (and What Would Make It Right), which at press time was scheduled to be published on September 9 by PublicAffairs, so it’s likely out by the time you read this. “The World’s Worst Bet, my second book,explains the nation’s journey from the 1990s’ enthusiasm for global integration to the rise of economic nationalism today.”

Ned Lerner tells us that “after working on games (Madden ’93, Sims, MLB The Show, God of War, Last of Us, . . .) and game platforms (PS4) for 40 years, including two start-ups with Paul Neurath, I retired last year. Now I’m trying to become a technology pundit. My Substack is https://nedlern.substack.com/ if you’re interested in what happens after phones or TV. And I’m an increasingly creaky runner. I came in second (in my age group) at the SF Marathon. :)”

David P. Miller adds that “for a variety of reasons, but partially because I thought it might take many months for the Trump appeals to be finally dismissed and Harris to be officially declared president, we signed up for a long cruise (January–June) last September. Obviously, the election did not go as I predicted. Nonetheless, Cathryne and I were out of the country till mid-June. I got talk to John Lyden, Kathryn (Moody) Benjamin ’82, and others from many time zones through Zoom. A dozen or so of us are having a virtual WesSF Club reunion on September 17 (47 years). How do we remember when the SF club had its first meeting? The premier of the original Battlestar Galactica, which was interrupted by the press conference of the Camp David Accords. 

Penultimately, I will reiterate what many of you have shared with me in your messages: We thank President Roth for his courage and integrity as he stands in defense of our democracy, and the way in which he’s doing so.

I end on a sad note: Leukemia took two of our classmates over the past few months.

Dan Haar wrote to let us know that Brian Ford passed away on June 25 after a brief bout with a very aggressive form of leukemia. “Brian was a philosophy major originally from Long Island. He did graduate studies in political science at Columbia and taught in the New York City schools for many years. He leaves a daughter who is a college frosh.”

And Livia McCarthy wrote on the very due date of these notes to let us know that Michael Toohey died on July 18, after an 18-month struggle with acute myeloid leukemia. Michael was a man of many careers. He moved from banking management consulting to nonprofit work, when he became COO of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the famous civil rights litigation and advocacy organization. 

Michael later became the CFO of George School, a boarding school in Newton, Pennsylvania, which he saw, as his obituary notes, “as the culmination of his career—a place where he could dedicate himself fully to the mission of education, while leveraging his financial and strategic planning skills to bring a much-needed perspective to the organization.”

This is the part of our notes that might be most important and the most difficult. I have used this before, but perhaps it is appropriate to repeat: I am hopeful for less-bidity. 

Our class had a small but spirited 45th Reunion in May. We first gathered as a class for the alumni parade:

We had our dinner in the new forum in the newly renovated PAC, now the Frank Center for Public Affairs. A great space!

Thirty-two classmates registered including: Jenny-Anne Horst-Martz, Mark Zitter, Laura Steinman Klapper, Marty Saggese, Art Feltman, Ken Freeman, Susan Thorne, John Usdan, Deborah Ehrenthal, Irwin Gelman, Ed Merritt, Thom Kleiner, Karen Murgolo, Steven Yermish, Joel Tillinghast, Andrew McKenna, Debbie Lipshutz, Carol Bumpus, Frederick Maynard, Julie Burstein, Deborah Dobin Robinson, Kim (Ofria) Selby, Freddi Wald, Walter Calhoun, Amy Rabinowitz, Nancy Stier, Matthew Penn, Jonathan Nimer, Mark Garfinkel, Nancy Rosenberg, and me, Jacqueline (Shanberge) McKenna, though not all were able to attend.

Our class’s first person to register was Carol Bumpus. The folks who traveled farthest were: four from California: Laura Klapper, Mark Zitter, Jonathan Nimer, and Deborah Robinson; and Andrew and Iflew in from safari in Tanzania! 

Aside from a delicious dinner and lots of chatting before, during and after, I welcomed the class to our 45th Reunion.

Kim Selby led a memorial minute for those classmates and those in our lives who have passed since we last gathered. Then Kim presented the Wesleyan University Service Award to honor our classmates who have devoted their time, talents, and treasures to support Wesleyan. This year, we recognized four classmates:

Frederica Wald-Sherman: Freddi has been a longtime volunteer for Wesleyan, serving as a WESeminar speaker, regional-event host, and, of course, an enthusiastic member of the reunion committee. She has done thoughtful outreach to classmates to encourage them to come back to campus. Her eagerness to help and obvious love for Wesleyan, as an alumna and parent, has made her a valuable part of the 45th Reunion efforts. 

Melissa Stern: Melissa has been a loyal Wes volunteer for many years. She and husband, Jim Friedlich ’79, were delighted that their son, Max Friedlich ’17, also came to Wes, and they have formed a terrific trio of Wes boosters and have been involved with many Wes events over the years, often as a family. Alums have flocked to her art shows, Max’s plays, and Jim’s involvement with panels and other events related to journalism. Melissa also was an effective parent volunteer and did the artwork for the Class of ’80’s regalia T-shirt design for our 35th Reunion that was an all-time favorite. 

Karen Murgolo: Karen has been volunteering for Wesleyan for nearly 25 years! She has served as a class fundraising volunteer (twice!), a parent volunteer, a WESeminar speaker, co-chair of the 35th Reunion Committee, and has been active reunion ambassador this year. 

Walter Calhoun: Walter has done a phenomenal job reaching out to classmates to reconnect and encourage them to attend Reunion. His enthusiasm and enjoyment of these reconnections have been infectious. 

And Jonathan Nimer read a note from a classmate who wasn’t able to attend.

Finally, Freddi reported on our class fundraising results: We blew past our participation goal with 137 donors. That’s a 20% increase over last year! And we raised $332,656 for the Wesleyan Fund, an 11% increase over dollars raised last year. Another fun fact is that we acquired 18 “new” donors—people who haven’t made a gift in over five years. Way to go class!

From the dinner, many of us went over to the tent in Andrus Field to dance well into the night with all the alumni and graduating class.

We are looking forward to a big group attending our 50th Reunion, so put that on your calendars for May 2030!

Hi all. Here is the news that our classmates have shared this time.

Denise Giacomozzi checked in with this submission: “Like many across our nation, I have been part of peaceful protests: Tesla Takedowns and Indivisible Hands Off and No Kings. I continue to volunteer for my church, including as stewardship elder, and enjoy hanging out as often as possible with our toddler granddaughter and her parents (Kristen May ’10 and her husband, Andrew Whittle). Quoth three-and-a-half-year-old Willow when my husband and I watched her so her parents could celebrate their ninth anniversary: ‘I’m sorry you’re exhausted, grandma.’ Kudos to Michael Roth ’78 for his principled leadership and standing up for democracy. He and Wesleyan deserve the support of all of us.”

Caroline Norden wrote a nice note on her continuing work with land protection and climate action and her busy life. “I retired from managing land conservation projects but am still actively involved in land protection work as a board member of a land trust and as a member of our town’s climate action committee. My daughter, Sarah Norden ’21, is working as a circus artist in Montreal. My son, Felix, is a rising college sophomore, studying forensics at a university in Ontario. I travel often to Canada to see them both. I am in touch regularly with a few Wesleyan friends, including Tom Paradis ’80 who lives nearby in Portland.”

Lehigh University has announced the following news about our own George DuPaul: “Lehigh University announced the establishment of a new university research center, the Center for Community-Driven Assistive Technologies. . . .  The Center (CDAT) aims to transform the lives of people with physical, cognitive, behavioral/emotional, sensory, and developmental disabilities through interdisciplinary research and cutting-edge emerging and existing assistive technologies. . . .  The interdisciplinary research conducted at CDAT will develop new and innovative approaches to empowering people with disabilities and expand opportunities in education, employment, and health by developing impactful solutions tailored to real-world needs. . . .  Partnering with an array of stakeholders, the center aspires to be a national leader in advancing independence, accessibility, and quality of life for people with disabilities. CDAT will be led by Vinod Namboodiri, Forlenza Endowed Chair in Health Innovation and Technology and professor of computer science and engineering, and George DuPaul, professor of school psychology. . . . DuPaul says the challenges faced by individuals living with disabilities affect their educational attainment, social relationships, employment, physical and mental health, and independent living. The mission of CDAT is to conduct research in partnership with community stakeholders, including people with disabilities and their families, that will design, evaluate, and disseminate novel assistive technologies to improve independent living and quality of life for people with disabilities from early childhood through all stages of adulthood.” 

Tremendous news, George. Your being tapped to co-lead the center is a recognition that is laudable, and the work you will be doing is so consequential. Truly an amazing accomplishment and a wonderfully impactful capstone to your tremendous career thus far at Lehigh!

Julie Hacker sent this update: “I am still working as a partner of Cohen & Hacker Architects LLC.  Our new book First Editions: Strategies for Adding On is now available on Amazon. Our work is also now part of the Art institute of Chicago’s collection: Model for the Grund House, Glencoe, Illinois | The Art Institute of Chicago and https://www.artic.edu/archival-collections/finding-aids/chicago-commercial-residential-and-landscape-architecture-post-wwii.

“My son Gabriel Cohen, a sculptor in Los Angeles, will be attending Oxford University’s MFA program in the fall; his work can be found at gabrielscohen.com/c-v. His work has been exhibited in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City, and he has had three solo shows.”

Thanks, Julie. Great accomplishments on all fronts. Congrats!

Michelle Morancie wrote a nice note on her work to help the people of Fulton County, Georgia.

“Something exciting that I want to share is that I will be running for re-election to the Fulton County School Board in Sandy Springs, Georgia, in 2026. During my first term, I have worked on expanding mental health and student support services, fought for equitable schools, and advocated for our most vulnerable students. But there’s much more that I want to accomplish. Moving forward, I will continue work on updating the district’s school closure and redistricting policy to make it more inclusive of community input. In addition, I will work on developing a policy that will introduce students to the board policymaking process and encourage civic and community service. I plan to officially kickoff my campaign in late September. I’m excited about it and hope for a positive outcome. There are many days when I can’t believe that I was such a shy girl when I entered Wesleyan. That was where I began to develop confidence that I could do something important to help children.” You are making a difference in those students’ lives, and it is very inspiring, Michelle! Thanks for sharing with us and for making such a meaningful contribution.  

Chris Austill writes: “I recently celebrated 21 years as a grant writer at the YMCA of Greater Boston. The work is tremendously rewarding, but recent government funding cuts have made the lives of the people the YMCA supports much more harrowing and have raised the level of stress in my work dramatically. I wish I had more time for friends and family. My daughter, Amalia, continues to fight the climate crisis, having worked for five years with the Sunrise Movement and now moving on to organize ‘noncooperation’ activities around the United States.” You and your daughter are doing such meaningful work. Congrats on your efforts and your commitment!

Steve Lewin-Berlin sent this note on his busy life in retirement: “Happily retired for six years now. Still living in Cohousing in Acton, Massachusetts, and I’m a proud grandpa of a two-year-old toddler. Really enjoyed the 50th anniversary of the Wes ultimate Frisbee team [earlier this year]. Keeping busy with dance (West Coast Swing) and drumming (West African Malian rhythms) and poker (PLO) and more. But my current focus is fighting for the constitutional rights of immigrants. It got my blood boiling when I personally witnessed armed, masked ICE agents refusing to identify themselves as they detained immigrants in my small town. In response, I’ve become active with LUCE, an immigrant-led Massachusetts organization that documents ICE activity and supports the impacted families.”

Willie Jones shared some updates on his retirement: “June 30, 2025, marks one year of retirement for me, and it’s been great. I’ve been traveling quite a bit to catch up with old friends and spend some time with my son, daughter-in-law, and grandkids in Fairfax, Virginia. The relocation bug has bitten, so I’m prepping my Charlotte home for November sale and will be moving later this year to a newly purchased home in South Carolina. I stay in touch regularly with Willie Sessions ’81. Lauren Steiner and I get together from time to time. I still regret having missed our 2024 reunion and look forward to the next one. Be safe and be well.” 

And last but certainly not least, Barbara Woike submitted a terrific story about a photo. She writes, “This June a photo I shot 46 years earlier for my senior thesis exhibition brought me back to Middletown to honor its subject—local transgender pioneer, Katherine “Sissy” Wells, who would be 108 years old this summer. My visit included an evening of recollections and reflections and the permanent installation of Wells’s portrait at the Buttonwood Tree Arts Center on the north end of Main Street, in the same building where Wells lived when it was a residential hotel. The next day I had a blast marching in Middletown’s Pride parade with 20-plus people carrying large signs featuring my 1979 photos of the fabulous Ms. Wells. 

“With her towering beehive hairdo, stylish dress, and regal bearing, Wells was unforgettable to anyone who encountered her walking, always in high heels, on Main Street. She was a high-visibility presence for decades, but what became of her in the ’90s was a mystery, and to this day she remains something of an enigma. 

“My inquiries about her on a Middletown Facebook page, where I posted her picture, prompted a flood of fond memories, stories of her dignified struggle to be true to herself, some unkind comments, but no answers. With a small team of dedicated researchers, we eventually discovered she died destitute in 1999 and was buried in an unmarked grave several towns away. She made the front page of The Middletown Press that weekend and fundraising for a headstone has begun. A proper graveside farewell is planned for August 29, 2025, followed by a 108th birthday celebration in Middletown of Wells. And a playwright in Brooklyn has jumped on her story now too. 

“And the catalyst for all of this was one photo taken when I was a photo major at Wesleyan.

“Three other Wes grads have been involved in rekindling the story of Katherine Wells:

Jesse Nasta ’07, assistant professor of African American studies who, a few years earlier, as director of the Middlesex County Historical Society, had already begun trying to find out more about the enigmatic Ms. Wells. And Brianna Skowera ’99, Middletown Pride commissioner spoke about her own trans journey in Middletown as she followed in Wells’s footsteps. (Both of them spoke at The Buttonwood.) And old friend Beck Lee ’81, who I only discovered recently also knew Wells, shared his memories in a lovely Facebook tribute to her.”

Thanks, Barbara.  Terrific story!  Much appreciated.

That’s it for this issue. Thanks for the submissions. Hope to hear from as many of you as possible for the next issue.  It is so nice to stay connected.

Susie writes for this issue.

Greetings, Classmates,

It’s the first of August as I pen these notes and summer is in full force, but by the time the Wesleyan Magazine arrives on your doorstep, autumn leaves will be falling. I hope you and your families are doing well. We have a mixture of happy and sad news to share in this go-around.

Lucy Mize wrote to share very difficult news for her and her family: “My news is unbearably sad as I have to report that my daughter, Belle Brown ’22, died by suicide on March 27 of this year. She was a bright star, and we are gutted and rudderless.” Lucy said there was a memorial for Belle in Vermont over the summer. It has been a tough year for Lucy, as she also lost her job at USAID. We extend our condolences to Lucy and her family on their loss. 

Elizabeth Weiss Ozorak has become a late-blooming competitive ice dancer. She sent a photo with her pro partner, Garrett Brockert, at the ISCC Open Competition in June where they won a gold medal. She would love to hear from any other adult skaters among us at eozorak@allegheny.edu.

After 37 years at her CPA firm, Jeanne Rosadina retired at the end of 2024, and she is loving her retirement. She still does volunteer work with the Gundalow Company, a Portsmouth nonprofit that protects the area’s maritime heritage and environment through education and action. Jeanne will be traveling to England this fall to visit with family. She sends best wishes to all and says, “Life is good!”

Tim Hollister had two news items to share: “First, my daughter, Martha ’15, is engaged to Callum Howell. They live in London, where Martha works for Deloitte and are getting married April 30, 2026, in Callum’s hometown of Bournemouth, England. Second, many of you will recall the passing of my son, Reid, in a car crash in 2006, which led to publication in 2013 of my book Not So Fast: Parenting Your Teen Through the Dangers of Driving (Chicago Review Press). A second edition, with co-author Pam Fischer, was published in 2018. But after a decade of progress, teen driver crashes and fatalities have increased throughout the pandemic years and since, so Pam and I have now written a third edition, to be published in October 2025, and this time in collaboration with the American Automobile Association, which will promote the book to its nationwide federation of clubs as the ‘parent piece’ of their teen-driver training classes. So, the public service resulting from Reid’s crash continues and will multiply.”

Jim Washington Jr. wrote to share news of his retirement from the admissions profession, in general, and as senior advisor to the vice president at Dartmouth College, in specific, after 25 years. Soon after his Wesleyan graduation, he worked at the University of New Hampshire, eventually as director of admissions for the Durham and Manchester campuses. He was proud to be the first African American to hold this position and remain the one and only. In between stints at UNH, he worked for three years at the Buckingham, Browne & Nichols School (Cambridge, Massachusetts) as director of college counseling, and Upper School English teacher.

He arrived at Dartmouth in 2000 and reconnected with Karl Furstenberg ’67, former Wesleyan dean of Admissions and Financial Aid who carried the same title at Dartmouth. Together they worked tag-team style on the mission to enhance undergraduate student diversity and excellence. 

Jim sent a photo from his Dartmouth retirement dinner in June, where he stands proudly between Lee Coffin, vice president and dean of Admissions and Financial Aid who capped his Dartmouth career, and Karl Furstenberg. Jim is enjoying his retirement and getting back into poetry writing, which he looks forward to stepping up to as a lifelong career. We wish Jim all the best in his next act.

As always, we love hearing from you (and so do your classmates!), so please send us your latest news.

Writing these notes amidst the summer heat, it is only fitting to hear about some great getaways from fellow classmates this year, to and from around the globe. Carol Cooper attended the Venice Architectural Biennale, truly one of my favorite places on earth. Carol has accepted a new board position with a public school journalism organization, Press Pass NYC, to establish strong school newspaper programs. Scott Director traveled to southern India (Madurai and Chennai specifically) for two family weddings. The events sound every bit as beautiful as one would imagine as Scott and his wife were treated like royalty. Wendy (Brown) Giardina, Richard Parad and wife, Judy, and yours truly met up in Paris earlier this year and followed that trip up with a get-together in London in June along with Jane Goldenring.As you can imagine this was a fun/lively group. Mike Coffey spent time with buddy Alan Poon ’76 in Tuscany, also visiting Sienna, Cesenatico, Venice, and Florence, enjoying great Italian vistas, food, and potent potables. lddy Olson and husband had a wonderful trip to Japan and South Korea enthralled in peak cherry blossom season. Otherwise, lddy is bringing her fine competitive nature to the pickleball courts, as well as enjoying time with her friends and family. Richard Radoccia recently traveled to Barcelona and was awed by another amazing architect, Antoni Gaudi. Richard is in touch with Claude Greengard and Rich Shulman. Rich assisted Richard with a video on the Civil War: American Civil War Retold (on YouTube). Steve McNutt has had several trips to Alaska and has hosted a 70th-birthday bash there for Steve Gold.

In other non-travel news: Buzz Cohen has been hard at work staging her 80th show for The Public Theater: Twelfth Night at the renovated Delacorte Theater/Shakespeare in the Park this past summer. Catherine Compton Swanson wrote about spending time at her lake house in northern Michigan designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, appealing to my architectural sensibilities. Francis Rath wrote in proudly regarding his wife’s business of buying, selling, and training event horses: www.greyfoxfarrn.com. Frances was inducted into the Loudoun County Combined Fire and Rescue System’s Hall of Fame for years of excellent volunteer service. Both John Fink and Susanna Peyton wrote that they are retiring and then unretiring from their respective careers in media consultation for the University of Hawaii (John) and Yale School of Nursing (Susanna). Susanna gives a big shout-out to Nancy Feldman and Sara Pasti ’75 as her forever friends. With no retirement until 2027, Doug Hauschild continues to practice optometry in western North Carolina. Doug sends best wishes to his OTO fraternity brothers and sisters. Jane Eisner’sbook Carole King: She Made the Earth Move, was published in September by Yale University

Press, part of the Jewish Lives series. Jane is traveling around the country speaking about the book, so she invites all to stop by to say hello! (“Check out jeisner.com for appearances.”)  Don Ryan, George Capone, and Cal Dysinger met up in Baltimore to attend the Gypsy Jazz Fest, which they highly recommend. Dan Ruberman has left Boston for Berkeley (much to my dismay). Details to follow. As many of my family have claimed the Bay Area as their home, there will be good visitation opportunities upcoming for me in the immediate future with Dan and wife, Ann.

Buddy Taft, Jim LaLiberty, and Don Lowery have been among a group of a dozen former Wesleyan hockey players who have been meeting regularly for the past several months to create a $1 million endowment in honor of beloved former coach Dave “Duke” Snyder, who passed away last fall at the age of 80. The endowment will be used to support the Wesleyan men’s hockey program. Despite the sad reason they have been brought together, the calls, and the memorial on campus this spring to honor Duke, have been a wonderful opportunity to reconnect and share great memories of experiences playing hockey at Wesleyan. Any former Cardinal hockey players and program supporters can contact Karen Whalen, kwhalen@wesleyan.edu, for more information about the endowment. 

Several members of our class have written in to express thanks and appreciation for the words and work of our University president, Michael Roth. I do not think it can be adequately expressed at this time in our history, how necessary it is having a steady, dignified response to the assault on liberal arts education, as well as how people treat and respect one another. For myself, and those who have written in, we take immense pride in being alumni of Wesleyan University thanks to Michael’s leadership.

Mark your calendars! The 50th Reunion will be held May 21–26, 2026. Because it’s our 50th, there will be special events on Thursday night just for our class. You have the option of staying in one of the dorms (or at a local hotel). Reservations for dorm rooms will open one day early for the Class of ’76. We should know late next winter/early next spring when we can register for rooms.

Changes to class notes: From this point forward, the alumni magazine (and, obviously, class notes) will be published only twice a year. Everything else remains the same, including the 800-word limitation for the published version. 

Nicolas Collins published a new book this year. This one wins my personal award for best title of 2025: Semi-Conducting—Rambles Through the Post-Cagean Thicket. You can find it on the Bloomsbury website. There’s a companion website featuring audio and video files mentioned in the book: https://www.nicolascollins.com/semi-conducting/.  

B.J. Buckley tells us about her latest book of poetry, Night Music: “My latest book of poems is just out in December 2024 from Finishing Line Press. It’s available on their website, on Amazon, and directly from me at wild4verses@yahoo.com. The gorgeous cover is by Wyoming artist Dawn Senior-Trask.”

Tom Kovar reports: “My son is now a college graduate. Oh, and I’ve run into Jay Kilbourn ’77, our former classmate (now ’77), a couple of times, as he now lives here in town. Other alums I’ve seen include Jonathan Gertler ’77 and Randy Austill ’81, who started as ’77. And John Daniel ’75 and Cynthia Ulman ’75. Maintaining email connections to a host of others, from ’75 through ’80.”

            Tom performed with his band, The Retroverts, at Luthier’s Co-op in Easthampton, Massachusetts, last April; Randy Austill  sat in and recorded the gig. You can hear them at https://bit.ly/Retroverts-2025-04-26_at_Luthiers. 

Matt Cartter writes: “My daughter Eileen is a staff writer at GQ magazine. Last week, she asked me if I would be willing to be interviewed for a Father’s Day article: “14 Style Rules GQ Editors Learned from Their Dads.

            “Eileen’s post, near the bottom of the article, starts with a photo of me and my brother, Chris, standing outside of the Butterfield Colleges in the fall of 1972. What a great Father’s Day present!”

            Thanks, Matt, for including the photo!

David Cohen writes: “I just published my book entitled Reflections on Goose Pond—Stories of a Berkshire Mountain Lake. This book was the culmination of a 50-year love affair with this little lake nestled high in the mountains of western Massachusetts—now very happily my full-time home.”

Tom Army tells us: “Dave ‘Duke’ Snyder died in October 2024, and the Wesleyan community, especially the ice hockey community, feel a great absence at the loss of such a remarkable coach, mentor, and friend. His memorial service was held in April in the Memorial Chapel. Don Lowery ’77 heads a committee of former players that established the David F. Snyder Memorial Endowment Fund to honor the legacy of Duke. We are very close to our million-dollar goal. My own family is well. My wife, Virginia ’79, and I live in Little Compton, Rhode Island, where Virginia serves as rector of the local Episcopal church. I continue to teach part time at a local community college. After retiring from the headmaster business, I went back to school full time and earned my PhD in history from UMass Amherst. Our five daughters, two granddaughters, and son-in-law are a constant source of joy and blessings.”

Susan Avitzour and Martha Meade had a mini-reunion! Susan was visiting family in Northern California and Martha made the most of the opportunity. Susan writes: “Martha Meade flew up here on Monday and stayed with us overnight. I hadn’t seen her since we graduated 49 years ago! We talked, inter alia, about our both being (kind of) refugees, albeit with good temporary homes and thus on the luxury track. Yesterday we went together to San Francisco MOMA. It was truly wonderful to have such a good chunk of quality time with her. Here we are at dinner Monday evening.”

Debra Haffner shares her good news with us: “My news is that I’m getting married to Joel Miller on October 19 this year in Boston. We are currently serving as the co-ministers of the First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton, Massachusetts, and I’d love to hear from Wes classmates in the Boston area!”

Elyse Grasso says: “I have started a small publishing company, Superior Magpie Press, mostly to publish my own stuff. So far this year I have published two fantasy novels: Heir of the Bindings: Elderkin Chronicles Volume I and Broken Oaths and Boundaries: Elderkin Chronicles Volume II. Both are available in e-book and POD paperback from most online books sources. The third book is progressing and may be out by the end of the year.”

Deborah Lyons tells us: “After 21 years of teaching at Miami University (in Ohio), and quite a few years bouncing around from one institution to another before that, I have retired. Sadly, all signs point to this being an excellent time to get out of academia, especially for those of us in ‘unprofitable’ fields like classics. The trend away from the humanities led to my university getting rid of nearly all the language majors. At the same time, the Ohio legislature has banned DEI, making it hard to keep teaching my courses on ‘dangerous subjects’ like sex, gender, and religion. I hardly need to add to this the all-out attack on higher ed carried out by the current administration. Amid these depredations, I have been heartened by the eloquent and courageous statements by Wesleyan’s own Michael Roth ’78. 

            “On a happier note, our long campaign to unionize bore fruit and we just got our first faculty contract. 

            “I plan to relocate to New England within the next year. I am considering my native Massachusetts but also Connecticut and Rhode Island. Middletown is on my list. Advice is welcome! (lyonsd@miamioh.edu).”

Pam Raab reports: “Warm greetings to my classmates of 1976, from Pam Raab, who came to Wesleyan on the Twelve College Exchange and stayed for the rest of the college ride. I’ve been ever more grateful and proud of my WesU heritage as the years have drawn on. I live in Manhattan and have been a practicing psychotherapist (now part time, as I cruise toward retirement) for 45 years. Special memories of living in Michael Millen’s crazy house and screenings of Casablanca organized by Jay Kilbourn ’77.”

Michael Sachs reports: “Met Jay Abramowitz at Love Coffee on Ocean Park 90405. He had a cappuccino. I had the drip.”

Elisa Davis writes: “One of the best film art houses in the country is the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, New York. They featured part of a video interview with me, [which was played] before some of the films shown in May 2025.

            “It’s on the main website right now (scroll down to the second video on the page), at https://burnsfilmcenter.org/support/connecting-our-community-film/ but after this month, I think the only way to see it is through this link: https://vimeo.com/1080226296

            “There’s also a tiny clip of me in this video, made for the year-end. Blink and you’ll miss me, but I can say I was in a video with Ron Howard:  https://vimeo.com/1032417262.

            “Last month in Philadelphia, I had a chance to have dinner and catch up with my Wesleyan roommate Connie Bodine McCann. What a treat!

            “In January 2021 (remember the pandemic?), I started a weekly virtual discussion group in which we each took turns choosing a film from the Criterion Channel to watch on our own and then discuss on Zoom on Friday nights. Remarkably, it’s still going on, more than four years later—although we now meet on Sunday evenings. There are a few Wes folks in the group, including David Low and Joe Reiff from our class, and my husband, Seth Davis ’72.

            “Here’s a link to the films we’ve seen: https://letterboxd.com/elisadavis/tag/criterion-film-club/films/.

          “Finally, Seth and I were delighted to host one of those Wesleyan alumni meetups in February. We had a light supper followed by a screening of Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows. None of the attendees were at Wes at the same time. They included Dylan Osborn ’05, Sabine Celestin ’00, Peter Treffers ’63, and Matthew Spain ’95. It was a wonderful evening, and I hope there will be another opportunity to do something similar.”

Nat Needle says: “At my piano students’ annual recital on June 7, 30 students, kids, teens, and adults, all brought their authentic personalities to the keyboard and made a lot of beautiful music. During our international potluck reception afterward, many students and their parents remarked on the sense of community they experienced within this artistic group. Naturally, I was pretty happy to hear that! The theme of genuine community continued over the July 3–6 events celebrating the 50th anniversary of Oddfellows Playhouse. I got to spend precious hours with old friends, most intensively with OP co-founder, Alida Jay Boye ’76, down the hall from me in the same lodging! For the Oddfellows Playhouse 50 documentary, reunion photos, and more: https://www.oddfellows.org/.”

Joe Fisher was named the 2025 Hinghamite of the Year:  https://www.hinghamanchor.com/joseph-fisher-named-2025-hinghamite-of-the-year-he-does-so-much-for-the-community/

See you in May 2026!

What a Reunion! The Class of 1975 beat Wesleyan’s attendance record for a 50th Reunion with 123 present! 

I can’t possibly capture and convey the weekend’s joy. It felt like the last week before graduation, when our time together seemed so precious because it wouldn’t be guaranteed once we left the Wes womb.

My apologies for not soliciting your news and Reunion stories in time for the Class Notes deadline, but my life’s been a whirlwind. My husband developed complicated vision problems requiring new doctors in arcane specialties and countless tests and visits. Our son’s wedding celebration in July—a beautiful event in an exquisite setting on a lovely day—required weeks of increasingly frenetic planning and errands in preparation to host dinners, brunch, and several houseguests.

So, this column shares some of my personal Reunion memories:

Driving into Middletown brought a wave of nostalgia . . . until I realized it’s not the Main Street I remember. It now bustles with offices, good restaurants, and shops, including the Wes bookstore located near where we hunted bargains at Bob’s Surplus.

Wesleyan is busy replacing or adding to buildings that it bragged about in 1970. Facilities staff led fascinating tours of the old, the refurbished, and the new. Highlights: the almost-finished Science Center; inside scoop on challenges and renovations at College Row and the Center for the Arts; evolutions in campus planning and architecture to promote learning and reduce costs and environmental impact.

In a lively co-education session, Bruce Tyson cracked us up reading from Where the Boys Are, a 1966 Mt. Holyoke/Smith pamphlet on road tripping. Erica Udoff observed that when she transferred in 1973, Wes felt like “it had always been co-ed.”  

Our welcome dinner started with a soggy bang under a tent at Pam and Paul Gionfriddo’s house. There were hugs, shouts, and lots of laughter as folks trickled in from the rain. No one sat still for very long; we were each trying to connect with everyone else at once.

Charlie Stolper had been absolutely determined to be at our 50th. Christy and their son, Chad, came along from Texas to help him navigate the weekend in a wheelchair. It was wonderful to have Charlie with us, and he was seated front and center in our 2025 class photo!

What those of us staying in the air-conditioned dorm atop Foss Hill most wanted was heat. Coats and umbrellas were essential with May rain and high temperatures barely reaching the 60s! After dinner each night, dorm dwellers, including Janet Brodie, Andrew Barnes, Martha Meade ’76 and Steve Miller, Karin Johnson, Risa Korn, Martha Faller, Susan Gans, Bruce Paton, Cutty Wilbur, Mark Nickerson, Jim Daly, Clif Grandy, his wife, Nancy, and others gathered in the common lounge for continuing conversation. There was probably a similar (but more comfy) scene at the hotel.

Friday morning we passed microphones around so that 100-plus of us could each share something from our lives. Stories were by turns inspiring, funny, sad, surprising, impressive, and profound. WESeminars provided opportunities to learn more about some classmates: how Jeff Morgan went from music major “dropout” to kosher winemaker; Beverly Daniel Tatum reflecting with Michael Roth ’78 about college presidency; Amy Bloom’s path as a writer and teacher; Roberto Powers’s foreign service career and life as an expatriate. Saturday breakfast featured short heartfelt talks from Andrew Barnes, June Jeffries, Paul Gionfriddo, Bruce Weinraub, Doug DeNatale, and Erica Udoff about the difference Wesleyan made in their lives and how Wes propelled some of them down unexpected paths. The ability to study and perhaps become anything one could imagine, plus the resilience to change directions and continue learning were frequent themes about Wesleyan’s impact. Another frequent comment was how much everyone enjoyed talking to classmates who they’d lost touch with or hadn’t known well.

For many folks, the most moving session was a WESeminar performance by David Leisner and Elissa Ely ’78, called “Kindness, Sadness, and Steadfastness.” It evoked laughter and tears by combining David’s guitar interludes with stories drawn from Elissa’s personal and professional experience as a community psychiatrist. A small group of us had a video call afterward with Joost Brouwer in the Netherlands, bringing him briefly to Reunion.

My two most surprising highlights? 

1. Lining up for the campus parade, I was surprised and delighted to run into my freshman-year boyfriend, Tom Wu ’72, for the first time in decades. 
2. A group of 2020 grads back for their fifth reunion stopped a few of us to chat. They noted we seemed surprisingly healthy and young—not something it would have occurred to us to say about the Class of 1930! Looks like we’ve held up rather well, after all.

Please share your memories, send me your news, and add your Reunion photos to our Google album.

Richard Orentzel ’73 retired from his FAA job a year ago, which included writing/editing material for government testing standards and aviation handbooks. Some serious safety-conscious people hammer out these publications, but their names never appear in print. He is currently spending more time writing poetry. Here are some samples:

how to feel good in the USA

a presidential helicopter

(Richard’s poems also include illustrations, but they couldn’t be transferred to this online note.)

Arthur Fierman received the Dr. Benard Dreyer Advocate for All Children Award presented by the Board of Directors of Children of Bellevue. This award was created in memory of Dr. Benard Dreyer, who dedicated his life to fighting for the well-being of children. Dr. Fierman worked closely with Benard for four decades and has deeply embodied the essential values that the award recognizes: kindness, equity, mentorship, and excellence in care.

The presenters of the award summarized Arthur’s work as follows: “Dr. Arthur Fierman is a distinguished pediatrician with more than 40 years of experience in general pediatrics at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Throughout his career, he has served in various roles as clinical leader, educator, and researcher, always dedicated to improving care for children and families living in poverty. His roles have included director of Pediatric Ambulatory Care and co-chair of the H+H Pediatric Council, where he championed innovative health care delivery models to enhance child health and development.

            “As director emeritus, Dr. Fierman continues to engage in scholarly activities, mentors the next generation of pediatricians, and advocates for asylum-seeking families, furthering his mission to improve pediatric health care in New York City and beyond. He recently returned from the American Academy of Pediatric annual meeting where he presented the 2025 plenary session Support for Asylum-Seeking Children and Families: A New York City Perspective, highlighting the work of pediatricians and other health care clinicians at Bellevue and NYC H+H in caring for these children and families.”

Fred Kessler reports, “After 47 years practicing law at the same law firm, Nossaman LLP, I am retiring at the end of this year. My work has predominantly been for public agencies, assisting them with innovative procurements and contracting for major infrastructure projects. This has made my career meaningful, helping to enable projects that broadly benefit the public.

            “My family home is in Pacific Palisades and, needless to say, was affected by the wildfire that devastated our wonderful community in January. Our home, built in 1929, is one of the few to have survived the flames, although it is currently uninhabitable, contaminated with soot, ash, and dust with elevated levels of lead and mercury. And our separate garage that served as my wife’s art studio burned down and with it years and years of her artwork, the saddest part of this experience for us. We are living through the plodding, difficult process of decontaminating the house, rebuilding the studio, arm wrestling with the insurer, and finding and dealing with consultants, architects, and contractors. We have lived in five different places since fleeing the fire, literally wandering Jews, currently nestled in Culver City. But we have our home to go back to someday, unlike many friends and neighbors who lost all. To put it mildly, Pacific Palisades is a surreal landscape, and we are living a surreal experience.

            Wishing all my classmates beautiful days ahead, with fire only in your fireplaces”. 

Charisse Lillie was honored by the Committee of Seventy in Philadelphia on May 14, 2025, at their fourth annual Women in Public Leadership event, with a Civic Leadership Award, focused on The Power of Mentorship: Celebrating Women Who Carry as They Climb. C70 is a nonpartisan organization founded in 1904 to combat corruption in Philadelphia, which is currently focused on work designed to improve democracy and government in Philadelphia.

Charisse’s family is doing well, and she is enjoying quality time with her grandchildren. She is still enjoying her work as a board member on several corporate boards, a couple of nonprofit boards, along with some consulting work.

Bob Baum was in the process of uploading a grant application to the National Endowment for the Humanities, when the grant window disappeared. They will no longer fund overseas research. Bob continues, “However, I was delighted to give the keynote address (in French) for a conference in Senegal marking the 80th anniversary of the death of a woman prophet named Alinesitoue, who was arrested by the French [and] detained in a prison camp at Timbuctou, where she was the only woman, and died within a year of scurvy.  I wrote a book about her. It was exciting to speak about her in a country that regards her as a national heroine.”

After 35 years in San Diego (interrupted by 10 years at various stints in D.C.), Rick Kronick and his wife, Amy, have relocated to Berkeley to be closer to their older daughter and her delicious seven-and-one-half and four-year-old sons. Leaving La Jolla and close friends was hard, but the move, especially because Amy has both MS and relatively advanced dementia, feels like a good decision. A side benefit is being marginally closer to their younger daughter and her scrumptious seven and three-and-one-half-year-old daughters in Seattle. Rick continues to do research and policy work on Medicare Advantage payment policy, is a member of the board of the California Office of Health Care Affordability, and fantasizes about writing about how the U.S. might implement and govern a less dysfunctional health-care financing system after he retires from UC San Diego in the not-too-distant future. He has largely recovered from a couple of bad bicycle accidents and other medical misadventures, is greatly enjoying exploring Berkeley and environs, and is working at making new friends and figuring out how to make life work without his partner of 44 years, especially challenging because he is still living with and caring for her (with the help of a spectacularly talented and loving caregiver). 

Monique Witt reports, “It’s been an unusually busy time. We hosted an event for Wesleyan alums in February on Park—an evening of jazz and conversation about improvisation with Roger Grant, from Wes’s integrated arts program, and my son, Ben, at his Steinway B (video and recording included in case anyone wants to view).  We had a dozen alums and spouses, through recent young musicians to members of our own class. Bill and Jane Pearson joined us, and it went long. In the months following, Jane and Bill joined Steven and me for a number of jazz nights round Manhattan, and Ben caught up with their son, Howe (also a musician), at the New Orleans Jazz festival, where Howe was playing with his regular big band and Ben was playing with Rickie Lee Jones (the hometown girl). Dev has been in an intense product- development phase and ExMachina is buzzing in preparation for NAM. 

            “I am still doing board work, and the changing regulatory climate has increased the time demands. I’m gardening a lot to compensate for the wet, cold, and compressed spring and entertaining more for Steven’s work. Steven is still working hard, but is traveling more to Ben’s events, not as far as he did to the Azores last summer, but in the U.S.” 

Michel de Konkoly Thege updates, “I had the great pleasure of recently reconnecting with our classmate Don Reid, who is a professor of modern French history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Don and I drove up together to Middletown in April, where I attended Don’s history Homecoming lecture on French conscripts in the 1960s. At this lecture, we also reunited with our mutual mentor, Professor Nathanael Greene, who was one of the hosts of the lecture. My wife, Harriette, and I subsequently hosted Don at a dinner at our New York City residence. This time with Don was the resumption of a valued friendship that has spanned much time and many mutual interests.”

Patricia Mulcahy shares, “I want to give a shout-out to Ellen Driscoll for organizing two protests on the steps of the New York Public Library. She was inspired by a March 7, 2025, piece in The New York Times that listed over 60 words and phrases that are now ‘disappearing in the Trump administration.’ On federal websites, no longer will you see the following: ‘environmental justice,’ ‘gender,’ ‘bias,’ ‘entitlement,’ ‘vaccines,’ ‘trauma,’ ‘peanut allergies,’ and ‘pronouns.’ Among so many others. 

“Ellen gathered a group of volunteers in her Brooklyn studio to paint these on placards that were then held up on the steps of the library. I didn’t paint, but I participated in both events at NYPL, along with Ellen and her husband, Steven, and members of a group called Rise and Resist. Claudia Catania joined us for the second one, a challenging session in a steady rain right before the No Kings march, punctuated by the chants of a passing parade of Hare Krishna adherents.  

            “Even in bad weather, we engaged the attention of passing tourists and others. And for the first one, some passersby even came up to join in. 

            “Ellen’s dedication to activism is consistent and unwavering. And that’s what gets results. 

            “Finally, I want to say that I’ve never been prouder to be a Wes grad than I am today. Michael Roth’s defense of intellectual liberty, free speech, and the values of democracy has been a complete inspiration.”

During Reunion 2025, we dedicated the bench and plaque celebrating our class of women who led Wesleyan’s return to co-education. The plaque reads, “In honor of the women of the Class of 1974 who led Wesleyan’s return to co-education. Given by the Class of 1974.” There were 20 to 25 at the event—women and men from our class, alums from other classes, and Wes staff. After I spoke, Phoebe Boyer ’89, chair of the Wesleyan Board of Trustees, spoke for a few minutes, thanking us for paving the way for women who came after us.

I attended the memorial service honoring Colin Campbell. It was an uplifting event held in the Campbell Reference Center in Olin Library. Speakers included Phoebe as well as Karl Scheibe and two of Colin’s daughters, Blair and Betsy. Nancy Campbell and Chip Campbell also attended. Colin is buried in the cemetery next to West College.