Tag: 1972

We started planning our 50th Reunion about four years ago. At that time, before such things as COVID became part of our lives, the reunion seemed a very long way away. Then, somehow, the day came and it happened. And now it’s over. Ignoring the sad fact that we’ll never get so many of us together again, we can all rejoice in the fact that our committee put together a wonderful event, which all present seemed to enjoy. Plus, we had at least 94 class members there, which has been officially acknowledged as the new record for attendance at a Wes 50th.

We are going to do whatever possible to keep this spirit going. Some committee members are looking into starting our own class website, featuring photos, videos, updates to the class book, anything of interest. We will be holding a series of periodic Zoom get-togethers. And I, living fairly close to Middletown, plan on attending future Reunion weekends and urge the rest of you to do likewise.

The key observation of the weekend was that of Bruce Hearey, who was amazed that they had added so many hills to the campus since our time. I agreed. The days when I would happily jaunt between Lawn Avenue and the Center for the Humanities are now ancient history. Going from place to place at our reunion, following similar efforts a few weeks before at the ’70–’71 belated 50th, gave me a set of foot, back, and leg issues that led me to make some great new friends among the western Connecticut podiatry and physical therapy community. I am now happy to report that it all worked and am now no longer acting my age. I’ll be ready for next year!

I had not realized that Maxon Davis had left Wesleyan until I looked to the left of me at graduation and saw someone else sitting there. I had a great chat with him prior to the Alumni Parade, and he sent me the attached update, which I have shortened somewhat:

“I left Wesleyan one week into the second semester of our sophomore year, and drove out to Berkeley, California, in late March 1970, to enroll there for the spring quarter 1970. It was of course just a few weeks before the invasion of Cambodia and Kent State. I listened with interest to the discussion at Reunion of the strike at Wesleyan that spring. By contrast, all hell broke loose in Berkeley. There were riots and a reactive heavy police presence on campus. After having been tear-gassed twice, I decided that prudence dictated that I keep a respectful distance from the more active protesters. Classes were canceled, and I received multiple Bs for minimal effort that first quarter at Cal.

“Even though I had taken a leave of absence from Wesleyan, I decided to stay at Cal, for multiple reasons, one of which was of course the fact that Cal was fully co-educational. Along that line, I met my wife Kristina during the winter quarter of 1972—my senior year. She was the third woman whom I asked out in our agricultural economics class (in which I had enrolled mostly because it fit nicely between a PE class and the UC Lacrosse Club’s practice). I would show up for that class in my infrequently laundered workout clothes, with my lacrosse stick and a duffle bag of gear. Out of respect for my classmates, I sat by myself in the back of the room. The first two girls in the class whom I asked for a date wouldn’t go out with me. Being the product of a Catholic girls’ school in San Francisco, Kristina had no idea what lacrosse was and foolishly asked me about the strange wooden ‘club’ I was bringing to class. I explained and invited her to watch me play the coming weekend in San Francisco. Since she was looking for a ride home that Saturday, she accepted. After the game, she asked me to take her home and invited me in for dinner with her family, which she claims was more out of being polite than affection. The truth was probably in-between. We married in August 1974. Two kids and one grandchild later, I am happy that she asked me about my lacrosse stick.

“After a relatively aimless year, I applied to law schools in 1973. I did so not out of any long-standing desire to be a lawyer. Rather it seemed like a suitable means to postpone the inevitable decision about what I would do for the rest of my life. I applied to six or seven geographically dispersed law schools with the overriding criterion being that it be the best law school in its area, so I would have a good chance of getting a job when I graduated. On that basis I elected to attend the University of Montana Law School, in Missoula (being that it was—and is—the only law school in Montana). Academics again had nothing to do with that decision. I drove up from Berkeley in September 1973, and essentially have never left. I quickly fell in love with Montana.

“I accepted a position at a three-man law firm in Great Falls in 1976. The third lawyer in the firm left 60 days after my arrival. Since there was then work enough for four lawyers, I enjoyed a true baptism under fire. Forty-six years later, I am the senior guy in the same firm, now with six lawyers and named (since 1996) Davis, Hatley, Haffeman and Tighe, PC. I have the most diverse law practice of anyone whom I know. I love what I do and have no plans to retire.

“Kristina and I live on 4 acres on the Missouri River, 6 miles south of Great Falls. In my spare time, I ski, fly-fish, and hike (along with seemingly never-ending yard work May–October).

“Looking back over the span of 50-plus years, I concede that I have made a number of decisions in my life for what were—simply put—the wrong reasons. (That does not include asking Kristina to marry me.) That said, even if my motivation to act has been wrong numerous times, the results have  been uniformly positive. (That very definitely does include marrying Kristina.) So, life has been and remains good.”

Paul Edelberg sent us an update, most of which follows:

“First, the most important moment of my adult life was marrying my college sweetheart, Laura, who was introduced to me by the one and only Leon Vinci. We have had a beautiful marriage, especially because she has put up with me for all those years! Laura and I have two wonderful daughters, one in NYC and one in Seattle. Both doing well and still have a tight grip on my heartstrings. The one in Seattle is getting married this fall, so much excitement in the Edelberg household. The only bummer is that my brother Jay, class of ’69 (for those of you who knew him at Wes), passed away last fall and will be sorely missed at the wedding.

“The only dilemma with my daughter’s wedding is that she is marrying a Yankees fan. I am an avid and fanatic Red Sox fan. I had ‘prohibited’ my daughter from marrying a Yankee fan, but there is where my influence over my younger daughter stops. Not only is her fiancé an avid Yankee fan, he runs baseball marketing for T-Mobile, one of the biggest sponsors of Major League Baseball. However, he has bribed me with playoff tickets and tickets to the first row of the Green Monster, and it is working! My relationship with my future son-in-law is starting to be defined!

“I have been a practicing corporate and finance attorney in NYC and Connecticut all these years, which is somewhat ironic for those of you who knew me at Wes. I wasn’t the best behaved during my years there. In fact, when I took the bar exam in Connecticut, a fellow Wes grad ran into me and said I was one of the last people he expected to see taking the bar exam! So, things change! There is not a lot of glamour, nor many exciting events, in practicing corporate and finance law, so no great stories to tell. So, I’ll share just a couple of more recent experiences.

“I have been fortunate to have enjoyed my legal career, at which I am still hard at work.  In the last 20 years, I expanded my practice to an international corporate practice, with a specialty on China business matters. I became co-chair of the China Committee of the International Law Section of the American Bar Association and write and lecture on China, which until the pandemic I visited frequently. I also am the former president on the Connecticut China Council, which is responsible for handling Connecticut’s sister state relationship with Shandong Province. So, if any of you have an interest in China, we can share thoughts and experiences over the weekend.

“Most recently I have gotten involved in the International Law Section’s special committee to help Afghan lawyers and judges who have fled Afghanistan become acclimated to the practice of law principally in the U.S. but also in other Western countries. I was incredibly moved by the efforts of two female U.S. federal judges who had been involved in training female Afghan judges pre-Taliban, only to see some of these Afghan judges executed by the Taliban for trying male defendants. These two U.S. federal judges were able, through the International Women Judge’s Association, to extract approximately 150 of these female judges out of Afghanistan, with more still there. I was fortunate to meet one of these two U.S. judges at a recent event. I also met a male Afghan lawyer who had assisted the U.S. Army in Afghanistan and who had just arrived in the U.S. after being in hiding for six months, with the Taliban FaceTiming him with the message that they were looking for him. Interesting and suspenseful story on how he got out. It puts our cushy lives in perspective. The section’s committee is focused on all Afghan lawyers and judges, although I am going to try to focus on helping in my small way the female Afghan judges resettle. Some are still trying to get out of Afghanistan.”

Harry Glasspiegel sent the following, to remind us that he is, or at least was, a literary man:

“I wrote a one-line poem for Richard Wilbur’s amazing poetry class our senior year. The title was ‘Muse’ and it read simply, ‘an us inside me’ (realized sitting in Clark Hall trying to think of a poem to turn in for the class that the word muse has ‘us’ inside ‘me’). I wrote Professor Wilbur 40 years after we graduated, mentioned the poem to him and how much I appreciated his class. A few weeks later I received a postcard back from him (he was in his late 80s/early 90s, retired in Cummington, Massachusetts, at the time). Typed with his signature IBM typewriter, it began, ‘It was just the other day that I cited without attribution the us within the muse . . . .‘”  😊

Lex Burton sent us the following sobering note. I have to say that Lex looked as well as ever at the reunion, and I hope it continues:

“As with most of us, our time at Wesleyan was pivotal in our lives. Some of you may remember, I was on the five-year plan. At the beginning of our junior year, I realized I was mostly dubbing around academically, and left school to be a subject in a study of ‘high-ability’ college dropouts at Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia. I needed some time to mature and grow some confidence in myself in areas other than athletics; I was reasonably successful; successful enough to be more focused and productive when I returned to Wesleyan a year later.

“In my first two years at Wesleyan I made good friends, played some sports, had some dates, listened to great music, etc. Though I don’t regret those experiences, I do regret the many missed learning opportunities. On my return to Wesleyan, positive experiences continued but this time, accompanied by academic focus. Enough so that I was able to graduate. High points of my four years were the friendships I made, some of which continue and many more I wish had/would. There were the ball games, concerts, late-night cards, pool, room parties, and many stimulating/challenging conversations. I was excited by many of my courses as well. During my first two years I regularly went on road trips to socialize. I made no road trips my last two years. While I expect most small New England colleges would have provided a positive experience, I do think Wesleyan is unique.  It is an environment of acceptance. Any angst I had was mostly of my own doing and not from other students, faculty, or administration. My son who graduated in ’04 had a similarly positive experience.

“After graduation, I spent time in Portland, Oregon, as a salesman, not my cup of tea. Then I taught at a Quaker school in Atlantic City. I realized I liked being an educator, especially of the needier, more challenging students. Subsequently, I then got a doctorate from Rutgers in school/child psychology, where I studied my ass off. I moved to Vermont, worked for 10 years at a community mental health center, and later, had an active private practice for 10 years. I spent the next 15 years consulting with schools regarding students with academic and behavioral needs. It was hard work, especially dealing with educators and bureaucrats who did not see things as clearly as I did, naturally. Mostly it was fulfilling and I looked forward to going to work each day, which is a blessing.

“I was married in 1979, settled in Randolph, Vermont, and had two children, Matt and Ian, with my first wife Corky. Twenty years later, we divorced, and a few years after that, I met my present wife Cathi. Cathi was totally infatuated with me, and riding on that ego high, we quickly became nearly inseparable. Little did I know she’d be nothing but a pain in the ass. My sons tried to warn me, but I didn’t listen. (My wife inserted this when she edited my first draft and she is not a pain in the ass, she is a pain in the neck).

“My son Matt teaches at the University of Pittsburgh, and Ian is working on careers as a musician or a forester, whichever flourishes first. As I am sure those of you who have kids would agree, the birth of children is a seminal moment in one’s life. Ian and his partner, Emily, just shared that experience themselves, welcoming their first child, and my first grandchild, Adrienne. My son Matt and his wife (more so his wife) are also pregnant.

“Another seminal moment in my life was being diagnosed with terminal cancer two and a half years ago. The initial prognosis was 6 to 9 months, later changed to 12 to 18 months.  It is a strange and time-consuming business preparing for death; emotionally, financially, socially, physically. In an instant, my life, previously focused on achievement, changed to a desire to strengthen and expand relationships with family and friends.

“Currently, I am not cancer free, but my oncologist is making no predictions. I get scans every couple of months and we are hoping I am tumor free for many years to come.”

And this, from Michael Arkin:

“The Kiss Me Kate National Tour concluded in June 2002. I returned to New York to the still smoking pile of rubble of the World Trade Center. It was clear the world of my hometown, and the feeling that we were isolated from the troubles of the world, were gone, never to return. My life as an actor was also changing. There were some commercials, some TV and film work, a summer spent in Aspen, Colorado, in a musical Lies & Legends, the songs of Harry Chapin—that was a blast. But by 2005 I realized a reinvention was in order. Morag was buying, renovating, and selling houses in Hudson. The real estate market was on fire in NYC. I enrolled in a real estate course and got a license to sell property. At a seminar in the spring of 2006, the panel featured an actress I had been in an off-Broadway play with 20 years before. I went to her office to talk about real estate companies I was considering joining. She added her firm to my list and introduced me to the owner, Fred Peters, who offered me a desk at Warburg Realty in Tribeca. My first day on the job there was an email in my new inbox from a guy named Steve Goldschmidt saying, ‘You must be the Mike Arkin I went to Wesleyan with!’ Thus began a wonderful adventure selling apartments in co-ops, condominiums, and townhouses, in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. As a boy raised in the Outer Boroughs, and as an actor in a street theater company that played all over Brooklyn, I know a great deal about many parts and aspects of New York City. “Winning the confidence of buyers or sellers is an art, a function of demonstrating not just knowledge, but using my actor skill set to understand my clients’ character, their dreams and fears, and to translate that into a coherent plan. I get to see Steve a lot and that is fun; he has been a great friend. Morag moved on from the renovation business and now sells real estate in Hudson where she lives mostly full time. We have a flat in Long Island City where I camp while plying my trade in town. This was written after attending the 50th Reunion. The return to campus and Middletown, reconnecting with so many dear, good former classmates and their partners, was such a joy. We are so glad we were there to join in the laughter, tears, and life stories, and to reminisce about that formative time 50 years ago. Love, peace, and all good things attend you all.”

Scott Sprouse must be old-fashioned. He sent me a handwritten update. So much for cutting and pasting. I am not going to retype the whole thing, but since it is replete with Sprousian aphorisms I am going to scan it and you will be able to peruse it in this all-electronic edition. But here are some highlights:

Scott went to Yale Graduate School at Wes, writing his MA thesis on “The Essential and the Existent: The Two-fold Source of Knowing in Aristotle’s Metaphysics.” However, in view of the discouraging job markets for PhDs, Scott got his MBA from Columbia (“the finishing school for sociopaths”). He worked in New York for Wharton Econometrics (really the Penn Economics Department), where he was the top salesman, taking away 79 accounts from competition while losing only four in a three-year span (“But who’s counting?”). Scott’s Colombian wife had their son and daughter playing soccer (“dance with a purpose”), so they got athletic scholarships, and are now, respectively, a lieutenant commander in the navy and a marketer with white-shoe law firms. Scott says they are still of liberal disposition and points out that his stepdaughter is a bad-ass union organizer. Scott has had some health issues but is “still above the ground” in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.

Finally, some bad news. Frank Benson passed away this summer. He had recently retired from his career as a physician in Decatur, Alabama, where he specialized in addiction medicine, among other things. Various friends on Facebook remembered him as a hardworking premed student, and as the “Mississippi Mover” on WESU.

I am writing this at an exciting time in our class’s literary history.  Paul Vidich’s latest novel, The Matchmaker: A Spy in Berlin, has been receiving rave reviews, and is indeed a great read. Geoff Rips’s latest novel, Personal Geography, is a most absorbing and skillfully written book. As I have mentioned frequently, I am totally in awe of the literary fecundity of my classmates and salute these two authors and all the rest of you. Paul has also been making the virtual bookstore circuit.

Mike Bober reports that Geoff Rips recommended some of the “oral history” interviews on the Wesleyan website to him:  “What I didn’t know about the place! The years before we got there, the turmoil of our own brief time, and the ongoing conflicts of the subsequent 50 years are described from various points of view by faculty members who saw it all and are now uniquely positioned to reflect upon it. We were lucky to have known many of them. I guess this means I’m looking forward to the reunion.” I, too, heartily recommend those faculty oral histories, which you can find at https://digitalcollections.wesleyan.edu/object/wessca-ohp.

Mike hears often from Mark Gelber, whose last 50 years living in Israel and extraordinary travels over the world on behalf of Ben Gurion University would make for a very different “oral history.” Last Mike or I heard, he is unlikely to attend, which means he just might.

I’m sorry to report two classmates left us last summer. Rob Rich on July 31 and Peter Phinny on August 13. Our sincere condolences to their families and classmates. Their full obituaries can be found online at classmates.blogs.wesleyan.edu/obituaries.

I have been spending a LOT of time working on our reunion—working on the class book, planning events, contacting classmates.  By the time you read this, our reunion will have happened.  I do hope that if you made it, you had a great time.

The countdown to our big 50th Reunion is measured now in months rather than years.  May 19.  Be there!!

To add to tales of prolific class authors, Art Vanderbilt just had a website go online,  arthurvanderbilt.com, which chronicles what he’s been doing since writing weekly papers at the CSS! Let me particularly recommend Fortune’s Children, an eminently readable and entertaining history of the Commodore and the other slightly more famous members of Art’s family.

Our wonderful Class Agent Bob (“I Love Wesleyan”) White has been writing about the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis for some years now, and his work appears to be nearing fruition. He had a letter to the editor of the Washington Post published last July urging Black Americans not to shun vaccines because of the Tuskegee study (letter).  He is working on two other manuscripts, one of which has been accepted and the other one is in peer review (“This one should be a paradigm breakthrough,” he writes).  “And there is a third manuscript that I am finishing up and tweaking. This manuscript may be exposing some shenanigans in the field.  I have no idea what to call what I stumbled on (it must be because of all those math and science courses I took at Wes Tech, i.e., 25–27 courses). But what I can say is that now I may be getting that CSS experience that I couldn’t fit in.”

Bob Purvis sends some good news from Vermont.  Three years have passed since his lung surgery and chemo and he is still cancer free. If his August scan is negative he’ll go to annual checkups. Bob is still working full time as director of the Turning Point Center of Central Vermont, a peer addiction recovery center, the longest he’s been in any job in his life “and certainly the most rewarding.” He plans to stay in this work for another couple of years, at least, in order to finish a few major things he’s started, such as moving into a new facility that doesn’t reflect the pervasive social stigma of their origins. But the day is coming when he will need to step aside for someone younger who has new vision to carry the programs forward in this evolving field. Bob claims to be enjoying his brief elevation to the solid middle class, with Social Security added to my salary. “My best to all in our class who are still with us,” he adds, “and I look forward to seeing folks at our 50th next year.”

Geoff Rips’s second novel, Personal Geography, will be out in September of this year.  In the course of contacting classmates for Reunion, Geoff learned that the Wesleyan agriculture curriculum has really paid off. After retiring from his medical practice, Burt Feuerstein is now a gentleman farmer in Arizona, growing apricots and peaches.  Jim Trump (no relation) is one of the largest macadamia producers in Hawaii.  Burt says that he’ll come to Reunion if he can find someone to take care of the fruit.

Charlie Smith is a true polymath.  He has just finished his third year of “official” retirement from Western Kentucky University but has been keeping active through various writing projects, including his eighth and ninth books:  2019’s An Alfred Russel Wallace Companion (University of Chicago Press), and a novel, Many Miles Away (named after a line in an old Malvina Reynolds song, “Morningtown Ride,” a big hit in England for The Seekers in 1966.  The novel is about an alien being and his family who suddenly show up one day in upstate New York (with no memory of their former circumstances, nor having a stated mission), and his following Earthly reception.  A bit of “unfantastical” science fiction/paranormal, but more particularly, social criticism “(an allegory, as well—note the link at its beginning to a nearly perfect cover of the Reynolds song by the Australian classical crossover singer Mirusia: I don’t think we’ve quite reached our destination . . .).” Charlie also continues to write shorter analyses, especially on Wallace (but also some actual science, and musicology). Beyond that, from 2018 to 2020, he did a genealogy project on his ancestral lines in this country and found out some interesting things; including that of all the sum of about 15,000 first-generation settlers of 17th-century New England, close to 10 percent were nth generation great-grandparents of his!  This turns out to be not that strange or even rare. A couple of years back Charlie was a featured speaker at a Sherlock Holmes conference (he says there is a strong connection between Wallace and Doyle, beyond the fact they are both usually known by three names!). Charlie adds that he will come to Reunion IF one of our many class screenwriters will turn his novel into a screenplay.

Bruce Hearey reports that Robbie Brewster and Bruce Throne, within a few months of each other acquired one new ankle and two new hips among them.  They jointly offer a toast to joint replacements!

Bonnie Krueger has finally retired after 41 years of teaching at Hamilton College. She is now Burgess Professor of French Emerita. Various publication projects will keep her busy for the next few years. She is finally hoping to get together with her far-flung children and grandchild, whom she has not seen since January 2020.

The Class of ’72 achieves another milestone: We will be the first 50^th Reunion Class to meet face-to-face after 2019. Keeping in stride with innovation, our Reunion will run from Thursday to Sunday, May 19–22. That means, fellow alums, to plan your travel accordingly.

Events include an exclusive wine tasting on Thursday evening, a Friday dinner hosted by President Roth, the Alumni Parade, our traditional festive Reunion Celebration on Saturday, and a Sunday brunch. Commencement follows on Sunday, as well. For those of us who arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday, tours to revisit the campus and see the new buildings will be available. Throughout Reunion several Wes alum seminars will be offered, ranging from the Music of Our Time to Life-Altering Events of the ‘70s.