Tag: 1971

Aloha; just a little news this time. Many of you are recovering from a really bad winter, hope you fared well. It is any wonder why some of us left winter for permanent summer time, but I won’t rub it in.

Peter Michaelson says, “I don’t have any significant news for the class notes, as I think my comings-and-goings have been (too) well chronicled over the years. Becky and I were talking about you at dinner the other night, reminiscing on the fun time we had with you at the last Reunion, and we’re looking forward to the next one….” Yes the next Reunion is only two years away.

Ed Swanson writes, “I thought you might enjoy an article I wrote about the day that Leigh Ann and I fished on the River Itchen in England last fall. The Wilderness Fly Fishers was kind enough to publish the article in the March issue of Mending The Line.” If you enjoy fly fishing or even if you never have done it, the article is certainly enlightening. He talks about fishing on one of the best chalk rivers in England. If you have ever seen pictures of southern England’s rivers, they are crystal clear because of the limestone.

Heard from Vic Pfeiffer, who writes, “Like most other classmates, I intend to send you something, and then it never gets to the top of the list of ‘to dos.’ I just finished a really good book by Katy Butler called Knocking On Heaven’s Door. If you haven’t read it, you ought to. She combines the very touching story of her mother and father’s deaths—Jeffrey Butler was a Wesleyan professor—with the issues of dying and medicine in America today. Very well done and recommended to our classmates. I’m ‘retired’ (as of 2008) from a career consulting around health issues in Washington, DC, and now live on Maryland’s Eastern shore where I job coach (now just three days a week) adults with intellectual disabilities. My wife (33 plus years) and I have a 27-year-old autistic son, so we know the issues. Our daughter (Wesleyan ’06) lives in San Diego and we are expecting our first grandchild next summer. Wow! Thanks for doing the class notes job and for doing what you can to make them interesting. I missed our last Reunion, but perhaps 2016. The numbers get depressingly large.” So if you haven’t begun thinking about Middletown in May of 2016, know that at least two of your classmates are!

Leo Au and wife Melina are retired and hanging in SW Florida. “I am still actively involved with the Wes alumni association as co-vice chair and sit on a number of committees. Before the year is out, I wanted to pass along that in February that I attended Mike Yamashita’s talk at the Asia Society in N.Y., where I encountered our classmate Howie Dubner who has been working in the legal publishing business in New Jersey.” Well, that is it for this time. Aloha from paradise!

NEIL J. CLENDENINN |Cybermad@msn.com
PO Box 1005, Hanalei, HI 96714

Aloha. Thanks for your response to my pleas for news. I have too much, but here is a brief summary. Kip Anderson reports his first book of poetry was published, Mortal Soup and the Blue Yonder, White Violet Press, by C.B. Anderson. Harlan Stanley is “still working at LaSalle Investment Management, but found time to play golf with Frank Leone and Bruce Barit ’72 at Bandon Dunes in September.” He stayed with Burk Murchison in Dallas, who has three grandchildren. He and wife Peg have one granddaughter and another due.

On a sad note David Foster reports his wife, Linda Susan Foster, passed away Aug. 17, with her loving family and caregivers by her side. Rod Cash reports the passing of Gus Ayer on Feb. 13. “All of Gus’s friends at Wes remember him for his incisive comments on anything and everything and his wonderful sense of humor, accompanied by a beaming smile and the most infectious laugh ever. We also remember Gus for having a series of girlfriends all named Pat. Gus was mayor of Fountain Valley, Calif., in Orange County, and an environmental and political activist. He was an inspiring mentor for young progressives in Orange County. Gus is survived by his wife of 37 years, Verna, and sons Ethan and Eliot.” Marvin Williams reports that sadly his “wife of 34 years, Faye Williams, died this past June of cancer. She was brilliant, graceful, beautiful, and funny. I am spending part of Thanksgiving holiday in Grants, N.M., under 11,600 ft. Mt. Taylor with Herb Wilkins, my West College roommate, and his vivacious wife, Renee.”

Demetrie Comnas and his wife, Ann, returned a few years ago from almost 20 years in Europe (London and Athens), and settled in Villanova, Pa. “I am one of the senior partners in a UK–based consulting practice, The Principia Group, Ltd., and continue to serve on the review committee of the Fulbright Foundation for Greece, and as accounting warden of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Gladwyne, Pa.

Jay Wish writes, “After 34 years on the faculty of Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in Cleveland, I’m joining the faculty of Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis as professor of clinical medicine.” Jay Resnick is finishing his first semester of ancient Greek, and taking creative writing. He and wife Judy love their first year as grandparents. Fran Pawlowski is retiring in May after teaching at St. Michael Indian School on the Arizona portion of the Navajo Reservation since three months after leaving Wesleyan. Connie Balides won the Pedagogy Award for 2013 from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, an international professional organization of film and media scholars. She teaches film studies at Tulane University in New Orleans. Bob Baranoff is retiring as head of research for LIMRA, a research trade association for the financial services industry. His wife, Ronnie Kuzara, will be retiring from teaching art. They have bought a house in Arizona near their daughter, Rebekah, for the winters, and their son, Joshua, is getting married in June.

Another Wes-techer has moved to Hawaii: Andy Sutton. After 31 years as professor of music (ethnomusicology) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he retired in June and is now at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa: dean of the School of Pacific and Asian Studies and assistant vice chancellor for international and exchange programs. Ed Swanson’s daughter (a curator of Mellon Academic Programs at Williams College) gave birth to her second daughter, and his second grandchild, this fall. Budding chef in need of a job, Warren White earned a culinary arts technical certificate from Nashville State Community College.

Jim Rizza contacted his thesis adviser, Vito Modigliani, now professor emeritus, psychology, Simon Fraser University. Jim has three granddaughters—Ava, Aubrey, and Addison, ages 22 months to 4 years. Mary McWilliams continues to run a nonprofit that uses claims data on 3 million lives in Washington to report on the variation in quality and cost of various doctors and hospitals in the area and is focused on reducing the overuse, underuse, and misuse of health care services.

Katy Butler’s book, Knocking on Heaven’s Door, was just named one of the 100 best books of 2013 by Publishers Weekly and is a finalist for the “Books for a Better Life” award. [Ed note: See review, p. 18.] Jay Resnick, Mary McWilliams, and I read it and recommend it to all.

Sad news is that George Naylor passed away Nov. 8. He was the author of plays, short stories, and books about the counterculture and his time as a farmer.

Mike Thompson reports he keeps in constant touch with Jon Felt and Jake Weiss.

George Lehner is the chairperson at the Fund for Peace, a nonprofit that focuses on conflict resolution in fragile and failing states. He is also serving as counsel to the White House Correspondents’ Association in Washington. Henry Saunders practices internal medicine and hospice and palliative care in Conway, S.C. He and wife Donna married two years ago and live in North Myrtle Beach. They have a large combined family, including Henry’s daughter who just celebrated a same-sex wedding in Iowa to Wesleyan grad Kiera Mulvey ’00! He reports on two non-grads—Charlie Bell, who is a retired financier living in Thailand and Canada, and Jonathan Kramer, who has been on the faculty at N.C. State for years. Pam and Bob Kyrka report that Bob is retired, Pam is still teaching, Kristin ’04 is an immigration lawyer in Seattle, and Morgan is working and living in New Hampshire. That’s it! Thanks for the updates.

NEIL J. CLENDENINN
PO Box 1005, Hanalei, HI 96714;
Cybermad@msn.com