CLASS OF 1982 | 2017 | ISSUE 1
Hello, mates! Let’s start with Rob Miller, who is living in Chappaqua, N.Y., “on the other side of the tracks from the Clintons” and has two sons: Joshua, 13 and Daniel, 9. “I had my own entertainment agency for the past 12 years representing production companies mostly in the television world.” He sold the company at the end of 2015 to Creative Artists Agency. “The new pressure is not running a business, but rather my wife bugging me to retire,” he says.
He’s taken an annual Wesleyan ski trip with Thomas Parkinson, Andrew Parkinson ’80, Bruce Bunnell ’81, Earl Mix ’80, Greg Makoul, Danny Softness, Gordon Cooney ’81, Ed Stearns, and Bruce Crain, for more than 20 years, and says, “the competitiveness and camaraderie remain ever present.”
Vincent Bonazzoli has been named a Massachusetts Super Lawyer, an honor given to only the top five percent of attorneys in the state. Vinnie, who specializes in estate and elder law, lives in Swampscott, Mass., with his wife, Paula, and their two children.
Roger Hale has published a new novel, New Watering Holes, that explores the cultural intersection between India and China. As Roger describes it on the book jacket, the story delves into “some of the complexity of interpreting culture and cultural artifacts: Who has the right to interpret the culture of others?”
Toby Ewing writes, “After some 20 years working at Iowa State University, I moved to the Seattle area and now work for the Climate Corporation, a leader in digital agriculture.”
Laura Fraser and Peter Eckart ’86 were married at San Francisco City Hall on March 24. Laura says she wonders why she didn’t have the sense to marry a Wesleyan guy a few decades ago, but better late than never. After the ceremony, they partied at a neighborhood wine bar with friends including Wesfolks Mary Roach ’81, Jonathan Weber, Lawrence Comras, Maria Mead ’84, and John Baker ’84. Then they took off for an undiscovered beach in Mexico which they will not reveal.
Kaja McGowan wrote from Cambodia after wrapping up a “transformative” two weeks teaching a course for Cornell, where she is an associate professor. The course, Performing Angkor: Dance, Silk, and Stone, took Kaja and her students to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, including a visit to the religious site, Kbal Spean.
After writing for television for a decade, Peter Blauner has a new novel coming out, Proving Ground, which he says has gotten “kind words” from the likes of Stephen King, Richard Price, and Dennis Lehane. “It’s a modern day Hamlet revenge story set in Brooklyn,” he says. Reach him at slomoriot@gmail.com.
Beck Lee writes glowingly of later-in-life fatherhood and of his 6-year-old son, Truman, a Cub Scout, vegetarian, and animal lover, with two geckos, a fish and a frog. “My hat’s off to those with kids who’ve graduated college already, some of whom I daresay have kids of their own who are older than my Truman. But, I get to enjoy my son’s development in my dotage. There’s nothing better.”
Jennifer Rosenberg is in private psychiatry practice two days a week. “I live in Cleveland and will have been married to Samy Rosenberg for 30 years this August. Our oldest son, Eitan, lives in NYC and works for Spotify, our daughter, Michal, lives in Chicago and is pursuing a doctorate in clinical psychology, and our youngest is a junior at Barnard.”
Martin “Chip” Shore writes, “After becoming a certified financial planner last year, I’m working on integrating financial planning into investment management. My wife, Shari, is practicing orthodontics in Brookline. Our son graduated from Vanderbilt last year and is gainfully employed in Chicago as a management consultant. Our daughter decided to go back to my roots and is in her first year at Colorado College. I’m looking forward to Reunion this spring and catching up with everyone!”
Congrats to Jim Stutz and his wife, Rosemary, soon to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary. Jim has been on the move, taking in various “awesome” music concerts with his kids (Guns ‘n’ Roses and Bonnie Raitt). His recent exploits included a scuba diving trip in Cozumel, Mexico, in 2015 and an African photo safari in February.
Matthew Capece and wife Alexis traveled to Crete for a friend’s wedding and were waylaid in Heraklion, where they passed the time amiably at a local taverna. “Live traditional Greek music,” Matt wrote. “Best flight delay in my life.”
Margaret Morton says she is “working at Eversource Energy and having the time of my life.”
Richard Klein is “a partner at the firm Romer Debbas LLP in Manhattan, heading up their co-op/condo and litigation practices.
John Johnson is the director of the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club in Brooklyn, serving over 300 kids a day. He is involved with the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), speaking to school groups and civic organizations. “Having lived with the diagnosis of bipolar disorder since age 17, my message of coping with and overcoming obstacles is a message of hope and acceptance,” he writes.
He keeps in touch with many Wes grads from our class, including Kweku Forstall, Ron Comrie, Cheryl Stevens, Robyn White, Kim Holt, and Billy Stephens.
Friends, I am signing off as your class correspondent. It’s been an honor and a pleasure to hear from old friends and to make new ones via these notes. Keep sending; I’ll keep reading!
Stephanie Griffith | stephaniedgriffith@gmail.com
[Ed. Note: We thank Stephanie for five years of service to Wesleyan, and we warmly welcome Laura Fraser as she returns to her role as class secretary. Laura can be reached at laura@laurafraser.com.]
Nicole Curvin ’90 was promoted to director of undergraduate admissions at Middlebury College in Vermont. Since 2014, she has been associate director of admissions and coordinator of multicultural recruitment. Previously, Curvin worked for many years with a variety of student populations, from high school students and adults returning to school to artists and designers at the New School (Parsons and Eugene Lang College), Marlboro College, New York University, and the University of Vermont. At Wesleyan, Curvin majored in English, and she holds a master’s degree in education from Harvard University.
Glenn Ligon ’82, renowned conceptual artist, curated the exhibition Blue Black, a selection of pieces ranging from portraiture to African and American folk art, for the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, Mo. “The content of Glenn’s work is incredibly meaningful in the context of St. Louis, being the epicenter of the Black Lives Matter movement,” Pulitzer director Cara Starke told art critic Hilarie M. Sheets, writing for the New York Times. Ligon described an Ellsworth Kelly painting, “Blue Black” (2000), which hangs in the Pulitzer, as his inspiration, and he cited “a very funny aural hallucination where I kept hearing Louis Armstrong’s voice singing ‘What did I do to be so black and blue?’“ He used that color combination to explore questions about race, history, identity, and memory. An art major at Wesleyan, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of fine arts from the university in 2012.
Adweek named Michele A. Roberts ’77, executive director—and first female leader—of the NBA Players Union, to its “30 Most Powerful Women in Sports” list, which featured outstanding executives, athletes, and journalists, among others. Previously an attorney with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Roberts had begun her career as a public defender in Washington, D.C. In the June 26 article, Adweek’s Tim Baysinger noted that Roberts would be negotiating across the table from league commissioner Adam Silver when the two worked on a new collective bargaining agreement—and Roberts would be trying to avoid a lockout, something her two predecessors were not able to do. A government major at Wesleyan, Roberts earned her JD from the University of California at Berkeley. The negotiations now completed, Roberts noted, “The deal we worked out with the League contained a number of favorable provisions for our players, including a 45 percent across the board salary increase for those players whose salaries are pre-set. And, no lock-out!”
Richard Melchreit ’77, MD, is the recipient of the 2017 Charles G. Huntington III Award for his 30-year career in public health. The Connecticut Public Health Association presents this award annually to a Connecticut health care practitioner who has demonstrated public health leadership and a commitment to the health and well-being of the population. Beyond his career in positions with St. Francis Medical Center and the Connecticut Department of Health, Melchreit mentored dozens of undergraduate and graduate students and held leadership roles in the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, most recently on the Healthcare Associated Infections Subcomittee. Melchreit was a biology major at Wesleyan, and received his medical degree from the University of Connecticut.