Tag: 1962

Robin Berrington last May made his annual trip to Japan for the Noguchi Foundation meeting and afterward went on an expedition to Takayama, Kyoto, and the Kii Peninsula “meeting interesting Japanese, going to fantastic tiny restaurants, including one memorable sushi place along the coast, and explored some ancient, primitive shrines.” Back in the US, he made an annual journey to Louisville, Ky., for its theater festival, and to Shepherdstown, W.Va., where he sits on the board of the Contemporary American Theater Festival. He visited an old friend in Telluride, Colo., at the time the Telluride Film Festival was going on, and writes, “We even bumped into Meryl Streep on the streets one night! How can you beat that?”

David Fiske writes: “On a personal note, after writing in this column for many years about classmates’ grandchildren, Mary Ann and I joined your ranks in May with the birth of granddaughter Quinn, to Kati and son Ben in Washington, D.C. I am still enjoying retirement at the beach and keep busy with free-lance writing of press releases, newsletters, etc., for numerous local businesses and organizations, editing of World Bank papers, and am on the board of the Rehoboth Beach Museum. Oh, yes, and now frequent trips back to D.C. to see Quinn!”

Naftaly (“Tuli”) Glasman retired as professor of educational leadership emeritus and dean emeritus from the University of California, Santa Barbara. During his 45 years there, he published 12 books and 170 articles and book chapters, and chaired 73 doctoral dissertations (mostly PhD and a few EdD). He is now doing volunteer work as a peer counselor with the elderly; teaching Hebrew one-on-one at his home, free of charge; and sitting on a foundation board that distributes funds to clinical psychological research, scholarship and practice. He has just finished a biography titled To Die as an Israeli-American: The Case of Multiple Identities. He writes: “Having lived with a bipolar mental condition that was diagnosed at age 50 and treated since then with medication and therapy, I am now studying and writing about the condition and its stigma. I hope to begin soon to speak about these topics to a variety of audiences.”

Dave Hedges took a trip to the Rhine and Moselle rivers in June, and plans to spend the winter in Florida. He and Ann got together for dinner and golf with Judy and Parker Blatchford in the Adirondack Mountains, where they both have summer homes, and visited Ithaca, N.Y., and Finger Lakes wineries with Julie and Ed Rubel.

Charles Murkofsky writes that he is “still enjoying full time psychiatric practice in NYC.” In his leisure time, he reports on “fighting to hold onto some semblance of tennis and skiing skills,” enjoying four grandchildren, studying French and Italian online, and “otherwise pursuing NYC’s myriad cultural and culinary opportunities.”

Steve Trott shares an interesting anecdote. He writes, “Because of my Highwaymen background, the good folks here asked me to be on the Philharmonic Board. (They may have thought I had deep pockets from the days of the 45 rpm record, remember those?) I ended up loving the stuff, and they put me to delivering the pre-concert lectures. Recently, Esther Simplot, the wife of the billionaire who at one point furnished McDonald’s with every French fry it sold-—hey, we live in Idaho-—honored my service to the Philharmonic with the first Jack and Esther Simplot Award…for eating more potatoes than the Brass Section combined. You have to love this great state!”

Fran Voigt sent in two interesting reports. The first is the news that his wife, Ellen, was selected in September to receive a MacArthur Foundation scholarship award. This prestigious program awards “unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.” She is a founder and senior faculty member in the limited residency MFA program in creative writing at Warren Wilson College. Go to: macfound.org/fellows/950/#sthash.uprD8vKL.dpuf for more details. Secondly, Fran reports that his son is the coach of the Nigerian national basketball team, which after winning the 2015 Pan-African basketball tournament has received an automatic bid to the summer Olympics in Rio. It turns out that his son had coached two star Nigerian players on a previous US team. They recommended him for their country’s national team position, and he got selected from among 20 finalists worldwide.

Fran himself remains involved with NECI (New England Culinary Institute) as a board member, occasional consultant, and owner. We still remember those fabulous dinners at several Reunion weekends that Fran and his staff came down from Vermont to prepare for us. He says the school continues to have a “unique niche” with the training “modeled after aspects of medical school education, military boot camp training, progressive education, and the European apprenticeship tradition.” Sounds about right for someone from Wesleyan!

Finally, a sad note to report: the passing last summer of Hal Wyss. After earning his PhD from Ohio State University, he was a professor of English since 1970 at Albion College, where he also undertook a number of administrative posts. After his retirement in 2005, he was active in the college’s Lifelong Learning Program. In his leisure time, he was an accomplished fisherman and birder. We extend our condolences to his wife, Melissa, and his family.

DAVID FISKE | davidfiske17@gmail.com

17 W. Buckingham Dr. Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971

Travel seems to be the theme for our brief class notes this issue. Bruce Corwin reports that he is renting a house in southern Spain for the entire Corwin family, including nine children and grandchildren, to celebrate his 75th. Apparently family togetherness only goes so far, because he and Toni are following that with a seven-day cruise on their own from Athens to Venice.

Bill Everett and Sylvia this year toured ancient monuments on the Nile. In addition to seeing the Great Pyramid and the temple of Abu Simbel, they joined Egyptian archaeology expert Zahi Hawass in exploring ancient village and tomb sites. They then went on to Cyprus where he continues to work conserving the Skouriotissa copper mine where his grandfather worked and his mother lived as a girl. In non-travel news, his book Sawdust and Soul: A Conversation about Woodworking and Spirituality was published this year.

Finally, Steve Trott reports that Steve Butts and Marian spent three to four months in Paris. No word on whether he made it across the pond for some Irish folk music jam sessions. Steve recently was awarded the Idaho State Bar Association’s first Distinguished Jurist Award.

If anyone has any other tales of memorable 75th birthday celebrations this year, we’d love to see them in the next issue.

Robin Berrington spent three weeks last year touring castles in Japan, and attended an opera festival in Dresden, where he discovered that nearby Leipzig is a new “with-it” city. Back home, he took on new duties as a docent at the Washington, D.C., Freer-Sackler gallery, and became co-chair of the Freer Friends Council, in addition to continuing to serve on the boards of the International Student Conference and the Post Classical Ensemble. Each year he joins friends in the Hudson River Valley for the Bard College Musical Festival.

Bruce Corwin reports good health news—a new working kidney donated by his son, David. Bruce is active on the Board of the Martin Luther King Foundation, and is proud that they opened a new hospital in southern Los Angeles. He reports he is in touch with Jay Levy ’60, Dave Sherman ’61, Steve Trott and Rick Tuttle, “all of whom are doing well.” Walt Fricke reports that he is busy skiing, and continuing to both race and officiate at Porsche Club events. This summer he and his brother, Al ’66, are going to circumnavigate Vancouver Island.

Bob Gause is “still working at my first job, now going on 40 years, in pediatric orthopedics in Bangor, Maine.” However he has managed to avoid Maine winters by sailing a catamaran he keeps at Bocas del Toro, Panama, where he also has written four novels, and is working on his fifth. You can check them out on Amazon or Kindle. With daughter Kathryn’s upcoming May wedding in Montana, he and his wife Nancy “are doing the clockwise RV tour of the USA in a 24’ camper as a test of marriage.”

Bruce Menke and his wife, Karen, moved from Houston to Athens, Ga., to be closer to their two sons, both professors at the University of Georgia, and four grandchildren. He says that UGA has a very active program of Lifelong Learning Institute classes and activities for retirees. He says “our welcome mat is out” for classmates in the area, which is only an hour and a half from Atlanta. He can be reached at kbmenke@earthlink.net.

Charles Seibert, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Cincinnati, is teaching at the university’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

Hank Sprouse is using his wood carving talents to help two groups of veterans: He conducts two wildlife carving classes in the Arts in Healing Program at the Veterans’ Hospital in West Haven, Conn.; and he carves Golden Eagle heads, which are placed on walking canes for the Wounded Warriors.

Steve Trott has been on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for 27 years. He’s now in part-time “senior status” but says he may “hang it up completely at the end of the year.” He notes that he performed his first same-sex marriage last November, and commented, “Did I ever think we would come this far this fast over the last five years?”

Richard Whiteley reports on continuing his work of “helping individuals and organizations rediscover their spirit,” which he says has included four sets of activities: writing books (four to date, #5 in progress); speaking to groups (over the years close to one million people in 30 countries); sitting on boards; and conducting a healing practice in Boston using the techniques of shamans. He said he is “blessed” that he and partner Catherine Gerson have “warm, caring relationships” with his three sons and four grandsons, all of whom live within 15 miles. Sports are still important, but he shares everyone’s lament that “results on the courts and courses are significantly diminished.” Richard revealed that for the past nine years, he’s been dealing with the presence of Parkinson’s Disease, but says that in his case the progression has been “glacial” and that he is looking to the future “with a positive attitude.”

Finally, a sad note. The wife of Peter Nuelsen, Joyce Morral, informed us that Peter passed away Dec., 31, 2014. Our condolences go to his family.

DAVID FISKE | davidfiske17@gmail.com
17 W. Buckingham Dr. Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971

Carl Crossman writes that his successful 1991 book, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade (published in 1991) is being translated into Chinese by the Commercial Press of Beijing, a distinguished press founded in 1897. He says the book had great reviews all over the world. He attended book openings in London, Hong Kong, New York, Boston, and Salem, and writes, “After several trips to the Orient over the past years I have to wonder if I would attend a book signing there.” The book is actually his second book on the subject. He says his 1972 book “had a great review in the New York Times, sold out in a month, went through three further editions, and was picked up by the Book of the Month Club, one of the few art books they ever did.” Addressing retirement, he said, “For an old Yankee whose family came over to New England in the 1630s, living in Florida was not what I had in mind.”

John Hazlehurst writes, “Just as I may have been the last of our class to join the reality-based community and get a job, I may be the last to retire.” He still is working as a full-time reporter and columnist for the Colorado Springs Business Journal and the Colorado Springs Independent. He reports that he and Karen have six kids, 18 grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter scattered around the globe—Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio, Kentucky, Las Vegas, and Tahiti. He says he keeps fit “with long bike rides through the high country, most recently the Copper Triangle, an 80-mile ride over four mountain passes.” He writes that he is looking forward to the 55th Reunion in 2017, and asks, “How did we get this old, anyway?”

Morrie Heckscher has retired from the Metropolitan Museum of Art after an illustrious career there of 45 years. However, they didn’t let him go completely. He is curator emeritus, with an office, and he says he’s involved in “a number of interesting ongoing projects.”

Dave Hedges and Ann moved from Canandaigua to Fairport, a suburb of Rochester, “to be closer to all the city has to offer,” with winters in Ft. Myers. A new knee was scheduled “to replace the one I originally injured playing freshman football at Wesleyan. Old age caught up with it.”

Jon Scheinman offered a Tweet-sized summary of “the whole picture since 1962”: “U. of Ill. MD, resident pediatrics and fellowship pediatric nephrology 1962–1971; academic pediatric nephrology, U. MN 1971–1983; Duke U. Medical Center 1983–1993; Virginia Commonwealth U. 1993–1999; tenured professor U. Kansas 1999–2009 (from which I was ‘proudly’ removed for whistleblower activities on behalf of faculty rights), and president KS Conference AAUP; took part time “Locum Tenens” physician substitute positions in pediatrics and pediatric nephrology 2009–2012 in ME, NC, NH, OR, VA, and WA); 70-plus publications and 20-plus chapters; Retired 2012, but continuing in intermittent telemedicine; other activities include gardens, very frequent tennis, extensive travels with partner Anita, visiting children and grandchildren in N.C. and Pa., and windsurfing in Outer Banks of N.C. from our house in Avon on Hatteras Island.”

DAVID FISKE | davidfiske17@gmail.com

Bob Gelardi is on the board, and chair of the Charity Relations Committee, of the Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation in Miramar Beach, Fla. In 2013, the charity donated nearly $1.4 million to a dozen charities supporting children and was ranked as the #6 Charity Wine Auction by Wine Spectator, which Bob wrote, “for a small town known as ‘The Luckiest Fishing Village in the World’ isn’t bad.” He urges anyone interested to check out the website dcwaf.org

Dave Hedges reports that in February, Betsy and Ted Hillman and Janet and Phil Calhoun flew down to join Ann and Dave at Dave’s place in Naples, Fla., and “they were all glad to escape the cold and snow of up north.” Dave explained, “It was a reunion of the boat charter we three couples took in the British Virgin Islands eight years ago when we were younger and more agile. We enjoyed lots of fun, laughter, relaxation, and too much good food. Always good to get together with good friends from our Wesleyan years.”

Bob Saliba retired Jan. 1st after 47 years of practicing law. Bob practiced estate law in Morristown, N.J., and was the author of numerous publications on estate law.

DAVID FISKE | davidfiske17@gmail.com
17 W. Buckingham Dr. Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971

Robin Berrington continued his international travel with trips to Japan, the Baltic Republics and Slovenia. He saw the area in Japan devastated by the earthquake and tsunami and commented, “Sadly, much remains to be done there.” He also said, “The other two trips were in the fun category and I encourage all of you to consider them when thinking of European travel. Slovenia in particular was quite something—clean, orderly, and with friendly people all of whom speak English very well. But Lithuania was also a revelation to this old cold warrior. So parts of East Europe are just not what they used to be!”

Bruce Corwin reports that he took his two sons back for Homecoming to be there in person to watch Wesleyan’s football team beat Williams to win the Little Three “for the first time in 43 years!”

Jim Gately also noted the success of the football team in this year’s Little Three championship. Jim may have set a class record for retirement—three times from the company he worked for his entire career. After his first retirement from the investment company Vanguard, he was pressed back into service to launch Vanguard International and helped oversee its growth in many countries around the world. (He passes on this “Note to Robin Berrington: my course with Professor Abosch on Japanese culture and history paid big dividends some 45 years later!!”) Following his second retirement, he was then asked to return again to serve on the Board of the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, a donor-advised fund organization. In September, he offered his third retirement from the company. He said he and Kay intend to remain engaged in several non-profit ventures in the Philadelphia area and try to keep active with “travel, family, and the like.”

Naftaly “Tuli” Glasman retired as professor emeritus and dean emeritus from the University of California, Santa Barbara, after 44 years of teaching, research, and publications, including the just-finished My 75 Years of Managing Mental Disorders and Coping with Life. He volunteers at the Center for Successful Aging in Santa Barbara, which provides counseling services “to seniors who are facing the challenges of the aging process,” and is on the Board of Advisors of the Rieger Foundation, which offers scholarships to Israeli students studying in clinical academic disciplines. He also says he is active in helping his grandchildren coach soccer.

Bob Hunter is now senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He was just made an “Honorary Anciens,” (a sensitive term for classmates now well past our 50th college Reunion!) of the NATO Defense College in Rome, and serves on Secretary of State John Kerry’s International Security Advisory Board. Shireen continues to teach at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, and has just finished her 16th book.

Scott Lowden has published a comprehensive guide to U.S. customs law and import practices, Import Transactions and Customs Compliance.

Steve Trott reports on a trip east where he spent time with Cathy Burnett in Providence, and Marion and Steve Butts in New York City. He noted an unsuccessful attempt for them to go to Carnegie Hall because the stagehands were on strike. Steve commented on news reports that the stagehands struck despite earning $400,000 per year, and offered an editorial comment that he “may have discovered a great way to burn off student loans. Join the stagehands union for four months, work at the hall watching from the wings, and you’ll be debt-free and full of culture!”

DAVID FISKE
17 W. Buckingham Dr. Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971
davidfiske17@GMAIL.com