Tag: 1970

Aloha, all. We don’t have a lot of news this time, unfortunately, but here’s what we have:

Stephen Policoff (“The Poet is In”—Hewitt Hall, 1966) wrote what sounds like a heart-wrenching tale of problems with our health care system. Here’s Stephen’s news: “My memoir about my late wife’s journey through New York Hospital Hell, Sixteen Scenes From a Film I Never Wanted to See, was published by Monkey Puzzle Press last January (and yes, it is just as frothy a read as it sounds). An excerpt from my second novel is in the current (summer) issue of the hipster dad magazine Kindling Quarterly. Another excerpt is in the upcoming issue of Provincetown Arts. The novel itself, Come Away, will be published in November by Dzanc Books.” Thanks for the news, Stephen. My heart goes out to you.

This time around we have a double first for this column, in my memory, at least. Two of you sent photos. It’s a sign of the times, for sure. Look for them online at classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu/.

One of the photos is from Jeff Sarles. Seems he and Gary Hill took in a Yankees-White Sox game. Says Jeff, “Russ: Attached is a photo of Gary Hill (on the left) and me (on the right) (both class of 1970) at a Yankees-White Sox game on August 23 at Yankee Stadium. If you run this, please be sure to note that Gary is a Mets fan and that I’m a White Sox fan so that no one mistakes us for Yankee fans.” Consider that gauntlet thrown down, Jeff. You didn’t mention the score, but I checked and it was 5-3 Yankees. As it happens, I watched a White Sox-Orioles game in June in Baltimore. With the storm break in the middle, the game went into 12 innings before the Os took it 5-4. Fourth row, just past third base. Great game! (Last-minute word:  Congratulations to S.F. Giants fans for winning a well-played World Series against the K.C. Royals.)

And speaking of baseball, turns out fellow fan Ted Reed exercised his editing powers helping our own Dr. John (Yurechko) write the following piece, accompanied by a photo: “How I Spent the 4th of July 2014:

“My Revolutionary War re-enactment unit participated in the July 4th festivities at Mt. Vernon, Va. I assumed guard duty near a strategic storage shed. I had my photo taken more than 300 times. Photos first with the wife, then husband. Photos with families of two, no three, four, five children. Mass photos with busloads of teenagers and busloads of veterans. People from China, France, the Philippines, India, numerous African nations, even Canadians and Brits. People who claimed to be relatives of John Paul Jones, Genghis Khan, the Saracens and rock’n’roll stars. Tall people, short people, fat people, skinny people. White, black, brown, tan, red people. Pregnant women. Women who wanted to be pregnant and women who did not want to be pregnant. Little old ladies who pinched me, wanting two . . .’C’mon Sweetie’ . . . no three, four pictures. Grandfathers who did not know how to take a cell phone photo. Boys with dreadlocks in attitude poses, arms crossed, chests puffed out. I did ‘Selfies’ with pre-pubescents. Action shots with bearded guys and blond gals wearing baseball hats or football jerseys. People from every state in the Union and a good percent of the United Nations. Kids with mothers threatening: ‘Bradley! Stand next to that nice soldier for a picture or else you won’t get any food for three weeks!’ Or ‘I’m a state senator from Illinois. How about a picture?’ One couple insisted I pose with their two dogs. What was I supposed to say? No? Sixteen tourists asked me if I was George Washington. Four of those asked me where my tomb was. ‘Did anyone ever tell you look like George Washington?’ Only two people asked me where the toilets were. There were Catholics, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, atheists and polytheists. Click, click, click! I was dragged into a portrait shot of an extended family from Puerto Rico, with me in the middle. I was captured by every type of camera imaginable: old Polaroids, Instamatics, brightly colored cell phones and lap tops, disposables, $3,000 professional lenses. That storage shed stood at a crossroads for a procession of All of Humanity. I’m now posted on various crannies of the Information vacation world—your very own July 4th photograph. That nice soldier who was not George Washington.” [Signed] “John Yurechko (Class of 1970), 1st Virginia Regiment of the Continental Line, McLean, Virginia.”

John, that’s a terrific account. I never understood reenactments—still don’t—but I was totally transported by your piece.

Expecting Steve Ingraham in a few weeks. News on that in the next column.

I thought we had more news this time, but I’m not finding it on my computer, so I guess I’ll end with best wishes for the upcoming fall season. Not too soon to plan to attend the class Reunion next May. Unless some miracle occurs, I can’t see making it; it falls close to the end of our school year, but I hope many of you will get there.

Don’t forget we have a Facebook page and that you can post news on WesConnect.

Take care of yourselves and don’t forget: We like visitors.

Russ Josephson | russ_josephson@yahoo.com
P.O. Box 1151, Kilauea, HI 96754

Aloha, all.

Again, I have the sad duty to report the loss of two classmates, Paul Macri and Doug Maynard.

We lost Paul to leukemia on April 9th. After Wesleyan, Paul graduated from the University of Maine School of Law, where he was an editor of the Maine Law Review. He then clerked for the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. To quote from his obituary, “It is widely thought to be true among members of the Maine Bar that he argued more cases before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court than any other private practitioner in Maine history.” (MORE ONLINE)

Charlie Holbrook said of Doug Maynard, “He was my roommate freshman year. Doug was a great lacrosse and soccer player and always fun to be around. He will be missed by all who had the privilege to know him.” I regret that that’s all I know. Our condolences to the family.

Charlie also wrote: “This summer I will be auditing a graduate history course from Professor Nat Greene. This will be the fourth graduate course I have taken from him.” (MORE ONLINE)

Tony Balis writes that “The Humanity Initiative soon will launch a grassroots effort to end war by 2020. Comments and suggestions from Wes classmates are more than welcome (tony@humanity.org). The intent is to encourage tens of thousands of monthly tea gatherings in villages and towns across the continents to create their own action agenda around ending war. THI has trademarked “humanitea, an infusion of peace” and is sourcing our first tea from a sacred mountain in Sri Lanka, where 80,000 people have died in a recent civil war. 100 percent of the revenue will be returned to Sri Lanka to establish interfaith councils of young leaders dedicated to the dialogues of peace, rather than the monologues of war. The new web site is humanitea.org.” My hat’s off to you!

Ted Reed (class correspondent emeritus), wrote up his news. Thanks, Ted. “Early this summer, Ted Reed had lunch with Mark Mintz in Hoboken, Jeff Sarles in Charlotte, and John Yurechko in Charlotte. Ted was preparing to fly on the first non-stop flight ever from the U.S. to Chengdu, the fourth largest city in China, on a United press junket on June 9th.” (MORE ONLINE)

Heard from Steve Talbot, who reports his married son Dash lives in L.A. and is working as a lawyer for the nonprofit Children’s Law Center, where his clients are all kids. . . . Daughter Caitlin, runs a yoga studio in Hollywood (Asks Steve: How Southern California can you get?) and acts as often as she can. Thula, a short narrative film she produced with her friends in Cape Town, was just accepted into this July’s Durban International Film Festival, the biggest and oldest in South Africa. Wife Pippa enjoys retirement and, “I’m still happy to be making documentaries and news stories for PBS and other broadcasters.” Check out his sister Margaret’s book about their father. It’s called The Entertainer: Movies, Magic and My Father’s Twentieth Century. (MORE ONLINE)

I missed two visits from classmates. KNK brother Michael Hunter visited Hawaii in December while I was on the Mainland and Mark Geannette wrote: “Just got back from the Pride of America cruise of the Hawaiian Islands. . . . My wife, Gloria, and I are trying to fit full-time jobs around lots of travel. . . . “ (MORE ONLINE)

Old KNK brother and Meriden boy Jerry Cerasale wrote, “At last I retired!” He testified before the Senate Commerce Committee on his last day at work. “Jan and I now live on Cape Cod and love life without alarm clocks. As I say, ‘If you’re lucky enough to have a house at the beach, you’re lucky enough.’” Enjoy!

Better Late Than Never category: John (Jack) Ingraham wrote, “I graduated from Fordham Law School in 1975, where I shared an apartment with cousin Steve Ingraham and Bruce Hearey ’72. After a couple of brief stints in the public sector (law clerk to a federal judge in Tulsa, Okla., and assistant district attorney in New York County, N.Y.), I settled into private practice with Conner & Winters, in Tulsa, Okla. (1980 to present), specializing in trusts and estates law. My wife, Judy, and I have three children, Andy (31), Rob (28) and Nicole (15). The boys are living out my college fantasy as budding rock stars with, respectively, Bravo Delta, based in Las Vegas, and The Revivalists, based in New Orleans.” Thanks for the update, Jack.

Another classmate sent me ready-made info, and has my thanks. “Gerald Everett Jones has already had one humorous novel published this year, Farnsworth’s Revenge, which was released (appropriately enough) on April Fool’s Day. It’s the third screwball saga in what he calls the Rollo Hemphill Misadventures series. Another novel, also humorous but based on a true story, will come out in early September. Mr. Ballpoint is about the consumer craze over the introduction of the first ballpoint pen in the United States in 1945. Some critics have compared Gerald to Kurt Vonnegut and the wry tone of his humorous fiction to John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces. Gerald blogs about male-centered comic fiction at boychiklit.com.” Thanks for the news, Gerald. (For those who may not know, boychik is Yiddish for “boy” or “young man.”)

Yiddish lesson #2 as Mark (Marcos) Goodman wrote that he’s “returned to living in Buenos Aires where he’s been obsessed with dancing salsa and rueda de casino [a kind of salsa round dance] every day. Lots of moves to learn and young girls who smile at the alter kacher!” My research defines that as an old complainer. In this case, maybe a bit meshuggenah to be dancing that much? Watch your back, boychik.

Also heard from Prince Chambliss that he was in Cambridge, Mass. recently “for the Harvard College graduation of the daughter of a law school classmate. Harvey Yazijian was kind enough to drive in from Wayland so that we could visit for a few hours.” Reliving hitching days in college and reminiscing, Prince plans to attend our upcoming 45th Class Reunion next year and urges you to attend. He plans to have another book ready for the occasion, while hoping the first book may be made into a movie.

A note from Bill Rodgers indicated that he, Amby Burfoot ’68 (and Boston Marathon Champ of 1968), and Jeff Galloway ’67 (and American Olympian) “joined well over 1,000 runners and walkers at the first Legends Run Half Marathon in Middletown on April 6th. A number of folks from Wesleyan joined us at this terrific new event!” A big salute to all of our age or older who can run without pain!

In February 2013, John Sheffield made an unusual move, from St. Simons Island, Ga. to New York City. John reports he retired from a career in tennis coaching and administration in December 2012 “only to turn around and start up a new self-employed career as a yacht delivery and charter captain.” He’s enjoying his first grandchild (Ryan), born in New York City in March, 2013, and reports he’s “[s]till happily married to my high school sweetheart, Bunny. Two daughters live in New York City and Wellington, New Zealand, respectively.”

Thanks to Barry Gottfried who wrote to say that “on February 11, 2014, my wife and I became the proud grandparents of Charles (‘Charlie’) Royce Gottfried, born to David Gottfried ’04 and his lovely wife, Elizabeth Barrett Topping, Dartmouth ’02. We’re enjoying every minute of it!” Congratulations!

Until next time, I wish you all safe and productive lives. Write if you have news or if you’re coming to Kaua’i. Full column at classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu or on WesConnect.

Russ Josephson | russ_josephson@yahoo.com
P.O. Box 1151, Kilauea, HI 96754

Aloha, all. As I’m writing, the coincidence of Thanksgiving and Hannukah, which I understand will not occur again for 70,000 years—and thus I predict none of us is going to be around to celebrate it!—is nearly upon us, giving us the formal occasion to ponder major issues and to stop our busy lives long enough to be thankful. Personally, I’m glad to be vertical and in reasonably good shape. And, yes, I think about the alternative when I’m up early to exercise and walk in the dark. Glad I can still fell trees and move rocks around in preparation for actually beginning to build our little house. I’m learning patience with the process, although I have to say patience is waning as I continue to teach 7th graders.

On to true happiness: Gus Spohn reports, “I am blissfully retired now from my position as director of communications and publications at Yale Divinity School, from which I received my M.A.R. in 1973. After graduation I worked as a reporter for the Bristol (Conn.) Press, followed by seven years as Protestant editor for Religion News Service, then took the position with YDS in 2004. My wife, Sarah Clark ’73, and I have two children, Julia Clark-Spohn ’02 and Katy Clark-Spohn Botta ’05. (Katy is married to Robert Botta ’05.) I am the proud grandfather of Wilder Gustav Botta, born in February. Sarah and I have lived in Hamden, Conn., since 1980 but are likely to relocate (who knows where?) in the next year or two.” Congratulations, and enjoy!

Elbridge Smith shared this: “I seem to have missed the Wesleyan get-togethers scheduled this fall in Honolulu—but it’s been so long in between, I’m not sure I’d know anyone going. Our son ‘E.Z’ (Elbridge Zenichi Smith) has joined my law firm as a law clerk, while he awaits the bar exam results, which may be out within the week. After three years in Boston, which they loved, he and his long-time girlfriend, Jill, are back home, he to work and she to work on her PhD at University of Hawaii Med School (a research biology area I cannot pronounce). Our daughter, Meredith, had also gone back to school and has now received her master’s in teaching from University of Hawaii in May; she is now teaching fifth grade at Pearl Harbor Kai Elementary School; and in September she married chef James Word. All four of them live with us in Kailua now, with our multiple dogs and cats. In addition to our family trip to Boston, we made another short trip to Cobleskill (upstate), N.Y., to take my Mom back for the rest of summer after the wedding and enjoyed some great apples, fresh corn, a couple of 36–38 degree nights, and the beginning of fall leaves turning.

“I thought all this graduation and employment by the kids meant I would get to think about easing towards retirement and cruising in my ’55 Chevy, but since we have to expand the house to accommodate all, I may have to continue working, not just to keep the world safe for democracy (aka filing federal employment cases) but paying a mortgage. I could go on (what lawyer couldn’t?) but that seems like the more ‘da kine’.”

Nathan Heilweil reports he’s “still working, visiting my three grandkids, 5 years to 6 months old, playing tennis almost every afternoon in summer and three nights a week in the winter, and enjoying a great steak and vodka (extra cold, shaken—not stirred—with extra olives) with Suzanne, my wife of 40-plus years. Still feels like our first date!” Nathan’s looking forward to seeing everyone at our 2015 Reunion, as am I.

The art world is that much richer because Bruce Williams remains very active in it. He shared a couple of links. The first is video of one of the artists with whom he has worked: vimeo.com/ileife/artis. The second is a film he made several years ago: vimeo.com/ileife/optica.

Among those classmates who’ve opted for climes warmer than Connecticut is Roger Mann, who writes: “I have been living in Naples, Fla., for 13 years, operating a swimming pool service business. This summer I sold the business and retired. I can now play tennis and nap during the day and stay up past 10:00 p.m., when necessary. My wife, Tessa Tilden-Smith, is still working.”

I love this report from Robby Laitos: “On Sept. 19, 2013, Mark Fuller drove from Aspen, Colo., and I drove from Fort Collins, Colo., to attend a book-reading/signing by Katy Butler ’71 at the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver. Katy’s new book, Knocking on Heaven’s Door, has emerged on the NYT’s nonfiction best-seller lists, and in late September 2013, it was No. 8 in the Denver Post’s nonfiction best-seller lists. After an outstanding reading and discussion of Katy’s book at the bookstore, Katy, Mark, Brian (Katy’s partner), and I repaired to a local watering hole in Lower Downtown Denver for some adult beverages and serious laughter and reminiscing about ‘Wesleyan West’ in Aspen in the early 1970s. Katy looked and sounded great, and is obviously (as she puts it), ‘an overnight success at age 64.’ Mark Fuller is a true environmental pioneer and powerhouse in western Colorado, and is presently executive director of the Independence Pass Foundation, doing incredibly innovative work on high-altitude revegetation. Mark also has successfully combined efforts from the U.S. Forest Service, Colorado Department of Transportation, and local governments to preserve some of the most pristine land in the Western U.S. I am fine (just getting older) and try to stay active, primarily by trying to keep up with Mark in his outdoor pursuits. In the winter, I have skied with Mark down ‘Roberto’s Run’ in Upper Snowmass, the only ski run I have done in 49 years of skiing that truly terrified me (Mark eats this stuff for breakfast), and in the summer of 2013 I gamely followed Mark on a successful climb up the East Ridge of Shimer’s Peak outside of Aspen, another heart-in-your-throat adventure. I also enjoy watching Sponge Bob Square Pants with my 7-year-old (true story).”

Word arrived here that Stuart Frank won the Historic New England Book Prize for 2013 recently for Ingenious Contrivances, Curiously Carved: Scrimshaw in the New Bedford Whaling Museum, published in Boston by David R. Godine. According to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, “[t]he book is also the recipient of the Boston Bookmakers Prize for the year’s best work in the pictorial category.” Also from the website, we learn that Stuart earned master’s degrees at both Yale and Brown, as well as a Ph.D. in American civilization at Brown. He is the author of a number of books, including Herman Melville’s Picture Gallery (1986)—awarded the John Lyman Book Award of the North American Society for Oceanic History, and the Dictionary of Scrimshaw Artists (1991), which also received the John Lyman Book Award. His Scrimshaw and Provenance was published this year by Mystic Seaport. Additionally, he has written many monographs and articles. For those who remember Stuart playing guitar in stairwells around campus, it will come as no surprise that he also has toured four continents performing historical and nautical music. (See the website for more: whalingmuseum.org). Congratulations, Stuart.

Heard from Michael Hunter. Here’s an update, maybe his first ever: Mike couldn’t decide on a major and ended up changing it twice, resulting in staying on for a year after graduation to “take enough music courses to have the equivalent of a BA in music, then stayed another two years to get my MA in music (choral conducting and organ performance). I think I was the first ever Wesleyan MA in Western music. . . .” Continuing, “I got a job on Main Street, Middletown, at The Church of the Holy Trinity in the fall of 1970, and I’ve been an Episcopal Church organist and choirmaster ever since. After my dad died (here in Tampa) in 1997, I moved down to look after Mother, who died in 2004. I was appointed to my current position in October 2003, and have loved every minute of it. I’ve just been given a five-month sabbatical to round out my 10th year on the bench at St. Andrew’s…” Mike then did some traveling and is about to come to Hawaii as I write. He also shared that he’s been growing orchids for a long time: “I tried growing them under lights in Connecticut, but never had much success. Now I have about 200 plants on my screened patio (as you probably know, we call them ‘lanais’ here), and they are all flourishing. In fact, one of my projects for these early days of my sabbatical is to divide and repot them… should take about two weeks, if I only stop to eat and sleep.”

And, finally, Maurice Hakim sent this interesting bit of news: “As co-captain of the 1969–70 Road Trippers Society, I am very pleased to see something is still going well at Wesleyan.” To prove his point, he attached the following link: glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/smitten/2011/09/the-25-horniest-colleges-in-th.html.

I’ve just created a Facebook page called Wesleyan Class of 1970 after discovering we don’t have one. If you want to sign up for it, please send me a friend request. Thanks. And, as they say here, a hui hou (until we meet again).

Russ Josephson
P.O. Box 1151, Kilauea, HI 96754
russ_josephson@yahoo.com