Tag: 1972

Bob Medwid passed away this past Christmas Day, of a heart attack following some episodes of angina. In a lengthy chain of email correspondence among Delta Tau brothers and football teammates, the words “really good guy” recurred frequently, and I heartily concur. The always quotable Mike Carlson went further: “What a blow at the end of a tough year. I bonded with Bob early in freshman football, his end at East Meadow was a Carlson. He matured early: he might have been at his peak with the dirty dozen and a half. He was a perfectly controlled athlete in basketball, too, on our two intramural winners, and, of course, he was soon a married father too. As I matured very little, he was always a laconic counterpoint for me, and I wish I could remember where we started calling him ‘Hammer’ and if I was there, cause it fit so well. We didn’t see each other but a couple of times the rest of the way, but it was always a mature joy, and I could visualize him on the golf course every day, playing calm, collected, perfect golf. It’s hard to think of his going at all, much less that way.”

And this from Mike Kishbauch ’71: “Michael referenced our ragtag intramural Delt basketball team, which somehow managed to win two championships. My recollection is that happened because (1) Carlson stayed hot for two full seasons, throwing in Steph Curry bombs from all over Hell’s half acre (amid howls of protest from the rest of us) and (2) Medwid was easily the best pure passer of anyone I ever played hoops with, perfecting the no-look thing way before it became fashionable. I vividly remember my first game as Dwid’s basketball teammate. Because of my size (size, not height) I normally played center or low-post forward. At one moment, I found myself toggling back and forth in the low-post paint, with five or six guys (theirs and ours) between Bobby and me. Suddenly, without looking vaguely in my direction, he whips this pass threading between everyone, and it hits me square in the nose, nearly knocking me senseless. Whereupon . . . memo to Bowser: it appears there is NO pass this kid is unwilling to attempt, and it also seems like most/all of them will be on the mark; therefore, stay awake, lest you end up looking foolish; further, and for God’s sake, do NOT watch his eyes . . . they mean NOTHING in this context; just assume he’s watching you and nobody gets hurt! I miss him already. God knows he never missed me! . . .  RIP.”

I should also add that Bob was particularly helpful to my wife, Elisa ’76, when she entered the Peat Marwick training program after graduation. Bob was a veteran of the program and always kept an eye out for Wes folk.

Another loss, although not from our class, but another good friend and Delta Tau brother, was that of Dave Moffenbeier ’73.  Moff fought tenaciously against a vicious form of cancer for over 20 years before leaving us in February. I have particularly fond memories of visiting Moff while he was living in Holland in the ’80s.

Finally, I mourn the passing of my thesis tutor, mentor, and friend, Herb Arnold. I sent him a note of condolence on the death of his idol, Franz Beckenbauer, only to receive a note from his wife, Annemarie, telling me that Herb left us on the very same day. I had kept in touch with Herb, taking two Wasch Center seminars with him on medieval literature. A brilliant mind, a passionate and fervent soul, in many ways he epitomized what was the Wesleyan experience for many of us.

We just learned of the death of Bud Spurgeon on May 3. Bud’s memory will live on through his iconic photographs of the events of May 1970. He was also a major contributor to our legendary 50th Reunion and the ongoing class website. Those of us who worked with him in those efforts are greatly saddened by his passing. I will have more to say in the next issue.

I’ll try for better news next time.

I attended the wonderful celebration of Jon Berk’s life in Middletown. His family and friends superbly covered all the various aspects of his life, and speakers included our own Bill Gallitto (Jon’s law partner for many years), a particularly eloquent Mike McKenna ’73, and the long-absent Pat Bailey. Pat, asking to be referred to as “Paco,” shared memories of his and Jon’s time in Madrid with the Wesleyan-Vassar (emphasis on Vassar) program. Also present were Tom Halsey and Steve Goldschmidt. As Yogi Berra said, be sure to go to your friends’ memorials or they won’t go to yours.

Pat Bailey told us how he had flatlined for seven minutes during a recent medical procedure but was apparently (and most palpably) revived. He is taking it in stride, now having a second birthday to celebrate. He continues to live the good life in his native Virgin Islands, heavily involved in sailing, as evidenced by his business card, which reads, “World Sailing International, Judge; World Sailing International, Technical Delegate; Pan Am Sailing Vice President; Caribbean Sailing Association Vice President.” Something to ponder while shoveling snow this winter.

While I am always looking for news from classmates like Pat, from whom we haven’t heard in a while, I am delighted to share some very significant news items from several regular contributors.

Andy Feinstein was recently honored by the Connecticut Special Education Legal Fund with an award. For many years Andy has devoted himself to the noble and essential cause of representing students with special needs and their parents in efforts to get the appropriate education the law supposedly assures them. As the father of two successful products of the special ed system, I particularly value Andy’s efforts. He was introduced at the function by Senator Chris Murphy, and I encourage you to view the video at https://vimeo.com/878373470/5a87ed8bff. Watch it and be proud.

Bob White, famed class agent and researcher of medical history, was inducted into the 2023 Newark Athletic Hall of Fame in commemoration of his wrestling career at Weequahic High School. Bob loves Wesleyan and also loves that the Weequahic High School Alumni Association bought an ad in his honor. 

Lucy Knight, renowned biographer of Jane Addams, was a featured “talking head” in a new documentary about Jane Addams produced by Chicago Public Television (WTTW). It was broadcast in October as part of their Chicago Stories, all of which are now streaming on the station’s website. In the new year she will give a Zoom talk about the Grimke sisters and petitioning for the Frances Willard House Museum in Evanston, Illinois, the city in which she lives.

During the past few months, Leon Vinci attended “a few” public health meetings, visited universities where he presented on climate change and disease vectors, climate and the nexus with media communication portrayals, and citizen science. The list includes Benedict College, Columbia, South Carolina; Stetson University; Southern Connecticut State University; National Environmental Health Association Educational Conference, New Orleans; One Health International Conference, Montego Bay, Jamaica; American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta; Interstate Environmental Health Symposium, Jekyll Island, Georgia. “And I’m in the queue to give an international Zoom lecture with Drexel University, (after my knee replacement next month [yuck]).” Leon had two children get married in 2023 (Doug and Laura) and received the 2023 Presidential Citation Award from President Gary Brown of the National Environmental Health Association at their annual educational conference in hot and humid New Orleans in August.

Stay well and keep those honors and recognitions coming!

Bob White’s most recently published article on his research into the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis can be found at  https://ojin.nursingworld.org/table-of-contents/volume-28-2023/number-3-september-2023/articles-on-previously-published-topics/eunice-rivers-rn/. Bob analyzes the historical treatment of Eunice Rivers, an African American public health nurse who was involved in the study and was generally assumed to be the only woman in a staff position in the infamous study. He shows that several white women authored articles on the study, and Miss Rivers was not, in fact, the only woman involved.

“Only identifying the black public health nurse, when there were white women involved, is inequitable, and thus a race issue. Only identifying the nurse, when there were statistical, administrative, and medical personnel involved, is inequitable, i. e., a class issue. In sum, all women who had roles in the TSUS should be revealed, because they matter.”

Bob’s article is a compelling and disturbing read. He makes a very strong case that Miss Rivers was herself victimized by the public treatment of the study and should have been included in President Clinton’s apologies to those wronged by the study, which included Tuskegee University itself.

Andy Feinstein has been named co-chairman of the Connecticut Task Force to Reform Special Education Law, along with the head of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents. https://ctexaminer.com/2023/04/11/faced-with-continuing-staff-shortages-state-special-ed-task-force-seeks-solutions/

“Between the Scylla of federal law and the Charybdis of limited funding, we have a narrow field in which to make recommendations. Running this task force now occupies a large proportion of my time. We are committed to making meaningful, yet achievable, recommendations.”

Mark Gelber sent further details about his visit to the Connecticut Valley last fall, previously briefly reported here. Before his talk at Wesleyan on Kafka— https://german.site.wesleyan.edu/2022/11/03/distinguished-grst-and-col-major-mark-h-gelber-72-on-china-judaismand-franz-kafka/—Mark spoke at a conference on Ruth Klueger at UMass Amherst. A small Wesleyan reunion was held at Amherst, attended by Burt Feuerstein and his wife, Janet Shalwitz, Michael Bober and his wife, Rosalina (still teaching at Amherst College), Howard Shpetner, and Marjorie Melnick. Mark admits to not really knowing Marjorie, who taught music at UMass for many years, but Burt sang with her in the Wesleyan choir. “I did not recall that there was one,” observes Mark. In Middletown he saw Krishna Winston and Vera Grant, meeting Krishna for coffee at the Wasch Center, of which she is now head. Mark recalls her giving a tutorial in German translation to him and Burt, and admits that Burt, a retired physician now living in Phoenix, is “a much better translator” than Mark. And finally, while he was “lingering” outside 60 High Street, where he lived senior year, Mark was invited in by the current owner, who proudly showed off the remodeled premises. My memory of 50 years ago is that remodeling was definitely called for even then.

Leon Vinci has been appointed as a board member of the Virginia Western Community College (VWCC) Scholarship Advisory Board. On behalf of the Virginia Western Educational Foundation, Inc., Leon’s responsibilities include awarding annual scholarship disbursements to eligible students.

Dennis Kesden and his wife, Sherry, have been surviving the Scottsdale heat wave.

“My thrice weekly golf goes on all summer (starts 7:00 a.m. in 90s, ends 10:00 a.m. at 105 [degrees] or so).  We continue our biking and workout classes. My 44-year-old physicist son is applying for his full professorship at UT Dallas and is very involved with his research, teaching, and faculty/university politics. He is president of the Texas section of the American Physics Association this year. My daughter here in Phoenix is busy planning my grandson’s Bar Mitzvah next month. My niece just graduated from Wesleyan and is working in NYC. My siblings (both Wesleyan graduates) are alive and well in California. We traveled to Sherry’s 50th MIT reunion and had a blast in Boston. Always in touch with Mike Busman—we met him in Quebec City this summer and had a wonderful time.”

Dan Gleich, on the other hand, has been particularly glad to live in San Francisco, where the temperature has been a steady 74.  He’s “almost retired” with wife, Pat, daughter, Ginger, and her family right in town. Two grandsons, four-and-a-half and eight months.  His son is a first-year public school teacher in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

“The members of the Quad County Association: myself, Peter Stern, Morgan Muir ’73, and Jack Fritz ’73, continue to get together with our now multigenerational families for a rotating quarterly dinner. I’ve also been working on a writing project with Richard Hood and hope to have some news about that next time around. For now, it’s all very hush-hush.

Paul Vidich’s  latest novel, Beirut Station, should be in the bookstores by the time you read this.

John Manchester has a YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq4gg_vD2EzRUMWhn_zyGlw.  A new video comes out every two weeks. Recently John featured lovely paintings by Eric Kaye.

Finally, we lost Jon Berk in August after a long battle with dementia. Jon had a successful legal career at Hartford’s Gordon, Muir & Foley, alongside Bill Gallitto.  He argued several cases before the Connecticut Supreme Court, but apparently was better known for his prodigious collection of comic books. See https://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2017/05/30/berk-72-puts-rare-comic-and-art-collection-up-for-auction/. Jon is remembered particularly fondly by his teammates on Wesleyan’s rugby team.

Roger Day sent a note to both Peter D’Oench ’73 and me, daring us to fight over which class gets him. Since Peter is probably swamped with reunion-related stuff, I hereby claim Roger. This “duel” status stems from the fact that while he entered with the class of 1973, Roger earned sufficient credits to graduate with us, a fact that came to his attention while he was sitting high on Foss Hill (his words, not mine) on May 24, 1972, and heard his name called in our commencement ceremony. Well, we missed you in the D section, Roger. Roger will soon celebrate 40 years married to his “sweepotato Abby,” with whom they “issued three fascinating children.”

“My retirement from University of Pittsburgh Biostatistics and Informatics (& Cancer Institute) is far in the rearview mirror. Lots of kooks in academia. The teaching was my favorite part. Now I tutor kids from Central America . . . I love that even more. My creativity goes into tuba playing . . . . ‘Music is my medicine. And I am heavily medicated.’  Down from 50 shows a year to about six, all outdoors now, due to COVID. My favorite CDs are with the Blues Orphans: Hystericana and More Fake Blues. Pure fun the lyrics. Great tuba sound engineering. The YouTube channel, professorbeautiful, documents some of the crazy variety of music I have played. Cumbia, Andean, Cuban, bossa, jazz, R&B, klezmer, Croatian, Fado, Irish, lounge . . . . Currently at 20 movements of Bach Cello Suites/Bellow Cheeks, all on the professorbeautiful channel. Sixteeen to go, then Brandenburg 3. Body parts, don’t fail me now!”

You can see more about Roger’s music at professorbeautiful.org. As I have played some of those Bach suites on the instrument for which they were intended, I had to check out how they would sound on a tuba, and, well, it’s a unique experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YZOjJFbfZA&list=PLnw3n9JWwFxG7xbJy8qe0wDlv–beo7SP

Steve Schiff wrote me about the time of the Writers Guild of America Awards, at which he was nominated for two awards for his writing on Andor. Steve previously had four nominations and two wins for The Americans, not to mention a Peabody Award, a Golden Globe, two Emmy nominations, an AFI Award, a Producers Guild Award, a Critics Choice Award, and a Television Critics Association Award. What do they have in common? “They’re all heavier than they look. I thinks it’s a requirement.” (Steve asked me not to quote him but rather to provide my own pithy summary. Sorry, but I can’t top that.)

Blackwall Hitch, the band that played our last two reunions, will be playing once again at the class of 1973’s 50th. The group includes Michael Kaloyanides, Blake Allison, and Steve Blum, as well as Mike Kishbauch ’71 and Paul Fletcher ’73. Blake has found these performances to be a:

“Blessing of, at a late time in my life, being able to reunite and spend meaningful time with dear friends. You may not know that for Blackwall Hitch, to perform at our 45th and 50th Reunions, we gathered for a Monday-to-Thursday stretch before each reunion, practicing six plus or minus hours a day. Just being together and making music with cherished colleagues for an extended period of time was such an unexpected, but very much welcomed and gratifying, blessing.”

If you didn’t get enough about Jim Hoxie’s recent exploits in the last issue, you can see him give the opening remarks at the recent Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, of which he was program chair at www.croiconference.org/preliminary-agenda/. Let me commend to you the short film on the work of the organization at about 1:44, followed by a speech by and presentation of an award to Anthony Fauci.

Rob Gelblum’s glide path toward retirement from environmental law is just about over, and some venues actually calendar him for musical gigs. “And my wife and kids still put up with me! And I receive wisdom from our classmates RS&B—the Rips, Schultz, Bober Conspiracy.”

Finally, we lost Harry Glasspiegel to a stroke in December. Another luminary of the first floor of Clark Hall. Harry had a prominent career developing the concept of outsourcing, first as a lawyer and then as a consultant. In a 2015 interview with Who’s Who Legal, Harry gave this bit of guidance, which those of us still in the trenches should take to heart:

“I’ve seen and experienced the damage to clients and organizations of adversarial behaviors, tone, communications, and relationships, and conversely, have seen the benefits of having likeable, sensible people guiding the discussion and build process.”

Likeable and sensible. Harry will be missed.

Rumors of Jim Hoxie’s retirement have been greatly exaggerated. Hox has been named co-director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for RNA Innovation. Jim has conducted NIH-funded research on the Penn campus for nearly four decades. As a professor of medicine in the Hematology-Oncology Division, he became an emeritus professor in 2020 and will rejoin the faculty as an adjunct professor of medicine in the Hematology-Oncology Division at Penn Medicine. Since the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, Jim has been recognized internationally for his research accomplishments into basic mechanisms of HIV and SIV entry and interactions with CD4 and cellular co-receptors and understanding how the viral envelope glycoprotein contributes to immunodeficiency and evasion from host immune responses in viral pathogenesis. Jim has and continues to serve on and chair advisory committees in many academic institutions across the country and at NIH and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Jim is currently the chair of international Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), which will be held in February 2023. In his role as an oncologist at Penn, Jim has had long-standing interests in interdisciplinary approaches to address the growing public health burden of HIV-associated malignancies. He also served as an attending physician on the HUP Oncology Unit since the early 1980s, specializing in leukemia and bone marrow transplantation. Jim is perhaps best known at Penn for being the founding director of the Penn Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), and he directed this center for 17 years. The Penn CFAR, which brings together HIV/AIDS researchers across Penn, CHOP, and Wistar, continues to be a national leader in basic, clinical, behavioral, and social sciences related to the ongoing AIDS pandemic.

Blake Allison crossed the border from New Hampshire to attend the Wesleyan-Middlebury football game along with Steve Goldschmidt, Mike McKenna ’73, Lloyd Komesar ’74, and respective spouses. As Blake reports:

“The outcome was not in our favor, Middlebury prevailed 24-10, but Lloyd made a noteworthy score off the field. As we of our particular Wesleyan era know, more recent grads refer to their alma mater as ‘Wezleyan.’ We pronounce it ‘Wessleyan.’ After all, the great Methodist theologian, and our college’s namesake is John Wesley, not John ‘Wezley.’ Not surprisingly, Middlebury’s announcer used the ‘modern’ pronunciation. It annoyed Lloyd enough that at half time he went up the announcer’s booth and schooled him on the correct way to annunciate our beloved college’s name. Imagine our delight when, five minutes into the second half, the announcer referred to Wessleyan! He was inconsistent thereafter, backsliding into Wezleyan but clearly Lloyd’s intervention had an impact as Wessleyan was heard numbers of times. Now, if that would just take hold on campus in Middletown.”

Below is a view of the game in its idyllic surroundings. The Cards are wearing white.

Jocko Burns was honored at Homecoming weekend by being inducted into the Wesleyan Athletics Hall of Fame. Well deserved!

Mark Gelber came home to Wesleyan to give a lecture on Kafka at the Chabad House. Mike Busman was there and said it was wonderful. I, unfortunately, had to preside at a homeowners’ association meeting, so the fact remains that I have not seen my good friend Herr Doktor Gelber since graduation.

Bonnie Krueger was blessed with two weddings in her family within four months. Daughter Maude ’07,  was married in southwest France during a historic heatwave to Benoit Alegre, the charming father of their three-year-old son, Oren. A wedding that was delayed for three years because of COVID, which Bonnie contracted as soon as she arrived in France, so she missed the civil ceremony at the town hall but attended the dinner party and personal vows the next day. Four months later, son Julian married Simeon Grazivoda, his partner of seven years, in Vienna, where they both live and work. Bonnie et al. attended the town hall ceremony in the 16th District with about 50 family and friends from all over Eastern Europe. No COVID, but exuberant Balkan-style celebrations followed, lasting till dawn.

She said, “This means that two of our kids will live in Europe, for whose survival under democratic conditions we pray (same as for the U.S.). There must be some long German word for missing your kids who live too far away. Whatever it is, I have it! (Austin, where Tristan ’15 lives is not much closer by flight time.) Otherwise, what a beautiful mild fall on Cape Cod! I am fully retired but writing two books.”

Geoff Rips has begun working with his old friend Ernesto Cortes Jr., to help him write a book about community organizing in the U.S. Ernie has been the founding organizer of 30 community organizations across the South and Southwest. Geoff first met him when he was starting to organize San Antonio’s Communities Organized for Public Service in 1974. He’s a MacArthur genius and the most well-read person Geoff knows. And that includes all the rest of us.

We are not sure if he is the one of us to claim the honor, but Bob Wahl is now a great-grandfather! Deklan Robert Burgener was born in July.

Jack Walkenhorst, a veterinarian near Cincinnati, died suddenly in November.

Paul Edelberg has been very active in the American Bar Association’s International Law Section’s efforts to gather resources to protect Afghani lawyers and judges in the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal. This project was discussed quite often at the August meeting of the House of Delegates, which I attended.

And continuing in the category Famous Pauls, Paul Vidich’s sixth novel, Beirut Station, was purchased by his long-time U.K. and U.S. publishers for release in November 2023.  (So given the familiar Wesleyan publication timetable, you should be ready to buy it real soon now.)

In September, Matthew Palmer ’88, deputy chief of mission in the U,S, Embassy in London, hosted a dinner for Paul and his wife Linda at Wychwood House, his official residence in South Kensington. He used it as an opportunity to bring some Brit writers together, so there were several well-regarded English spy novelists at the dinner: Ken Follett, Alan Judd, Henry Porter, and Adam LeBor, in addition to Baroness Cathy Ashton. Palmer himself is the author of four highly acclaimed novels. His father, Michael Palmer ’64, was a doctor and also a well-regarded Wesleyan novelist. The Vidichs had their fourth grandchild, Remy, on September 4.

Please be sure to check out our unaffiliated class website, A Virtual Downey House, at www.wesclass72.com. You can keep up with classmates without having to wait for the magazine to come out and share your own news.