Tag: 1974

Ilene Rosenthal reports, “I am excited that my educational software company, Footsteps2Brilliance, is partnering with PBS and SBCSS to create the first transmedia program that turns television from a passive to an active medium for young children. My company has also been hired to create a game-based financial literacy program for upper elementary students. This will help students learn and apply key principals so that they can make better financial decisions as an adult. My husband and I are thrilled that our Wes daughter (Alex Rosenthal Spencer ’17) and her Wes husband (Keith Spencer ’16) will be moving to D.C., where Keith will be starting his residency program at Georgetown Hospital.  We live in D.C. so this will put them close to us.”

Lloyd Komesar enthusiastically shares, “Greetings to all my ’74 classmates! The Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival will be rolling out its 10th Anniversary Fest this August 21–25 in Middlebury, Vermont. Over the course of these five fun days, we’ll be screening 125 films on six screens, with 80-plus first- and second-time filmmakers in attendance from around the world, along with panels, presentations, special guests, happy hours and evening parties. Lots of parties. There are always many Wes grads who gather at the Fest, from ’74 and surrounding classes. We invariably have a damn good time. So, I extend an invitation to everyone who reads these notes to come join us in Vermont for our milestone 10th-anniversary celebration. If you have questions, contact me at lk@middfilmfest.org.”

Blaise Noto moved from Chapel Hill to upstate New York. He is living in Clifton Park/Halfmoon, halfway between Albany and Saratoga, to “semi-retire” and to be  close to family. He is teaching part time at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, in marketing and public relations, and is thrilled being part of that college community! “Looking forward to seeing all my friends and my brothers at DEKE at Reunion!”

Willy Holtzman shares, “In 2012 my play, The Morini Strad, inspired by the esteemed violin maker (and my best friend) Brian Skarstad ’73, had its New York premiere. A German language production recently premiered in Vienna to rave reviews. I took a bow for us both while Brian continued his magic at the bench.”

Howard Curzer writes, “I am still teaching philosophy at Texas Tech University. Teaching is getting a bit more difficult each year as academia begins to buckle under various stresses, and I get older and crankier. On the bright side, my research is bearing fruit. Last year I published a book on ethics. This year I published another. It is entitled, Difficult Virtues: An Aristotelian Perspective  (Routledge 2024).”  

Lee Coplan reports “Since retirement, my main commitments are music and bridge. I returned to playing the violin about 25 years ago when daughter needed a practice partner for Suzuki violin lessons. I’ve been playing in several klezmer groups for the past 13 years; since COVID hit only one group (KlezKonnection) is still operating. I played at a number of seniors’ homes, synagogues, city parks and bars, and several times at Toronto’s Ashkenaz Festival. I’ve also been playing in a community string orchestra (Strings Attached Orchestra) for the past 10 years, also with a mandate to play at seniors’ residences and schools, as well as community concerts twice a year. After a dry spell during the height of COVID, I’m happy to say that public performances are picking up again. It’s a pleasure to bring the joy of music into people’s lives.

            “After a 45-year (or so) gap, I resumed playing bridge in fall 2019. I originally learned bridge as a freshman at Wesleyan along with many classmates. The game has transformed over the intervening years, so I started with some refresher lessons. I started playing duplicate at the Toronto Bridge Club in February 2020. After three live games, COVID ended in-person play, and I eventually started playing online through Bridgebase (Lee_TO). Now I’m playing a mix of online and in-person games/tournaments. I hope to achieve life master status— I’m 40-plus silver points and 40-plus gold/red points short, so I need to get to, and be successful at, enough tournaments. I plan to play a good bit at the NABC summer tournament in Toronto this July, so I hope that brings me closer to my goal. I’d love to hear from any Wesleyan folks who come for the summer tournament.

            “Otherwise, I keep busy with theater, music, reading, etc. And, of course, I love to spend time with my sons and their families, including my two grandsons (two and nearly five) in Toronto and with my daughter either here or visiting her in Washington, D.C. Lydia and I also resumed traveling to a greater extent and look forward to doing a bit more over the next few years.”

Christine “Chris” Lees Jonientz of Hamden, Connecticut, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, November 7, 2023, at Yale New Haven Hospital, with her family by her side. Chris was born in Hempstead, New York, on May 29,1952. She graduated magna cum laude from Wesleyan University in 1974 with a BA in English. She earned a master’s degree in American civilization from Brown University in 1975 and an MBA from Temple University in 1985. Chris worked as a consumer banker and was a certified master gardener.

Reminder: Hope to see many of you at our 50th Reunion, May 23–26. Attendance for the Class of ’73 at their 50th was 96. Let’s surpass that number! 

Charisse R. Lillie was chosen one of their 2023 Directorship 100 honorees by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). Charisse is recognized as one of the most influential directors in the boardroom and corporate governance community. 

(The 2023 D100 comprises 50 directors and 50 governance professionals and institutions who exemplify the knowledge, leadership, and excellence NACD promotes. Nominees play a significant role in shaping the greater boardroom agenda.) 

Monique Witt and her sons, Dev and Ben, are currently working on the mix and master of Ben’s sixth album. “This one is solo piano and accordion. He and Dev chose to re-record some of the accordion parts at Avidon Audio Labs, Dev’s production group, and at the satellite space at OneTrickDog. Dev has engineered over a hundred discs, a number with Grammy nominations, primarily jazz/blues/world, but also some classical. He has also produced all Ben’s albums. We hope also to record Ben’s third album with the Nebula Project (the Sextet plus guests) in March. We are seeing a large volume of streaming of Ben’s work recently, perhaps from his touring exposure, and A Thousand Pebbles was submitted for Grammy consideration this year by a member of the selection committee.

“Ben continues to compose and his touring schedule is as packed as ever. Dev will also be out on the West Coast for his business. 

“While my work on the album is limited to graphics, I’m also finishing a manuscript on aesthetic philosophy that I began during the pandemic with a running partner, who is a curator at one of the NYC art museums. It’s certainly not my field of expertise, but there are two academic publishers who have expressed an interest, so we’ll see. It’s mostly a pretext to talk about beautiful works.”

Gary Johnson writes, “Thinking of you . . . and the wonderful times on campus.”

Nancy Collins reports: “Brian Mahoney ’73 and I split our time between Arizona and Minnesota (guess which season is spent where) but we are Arizona citizens at this point. Brian’s physical issues limit our traveling so we are basically homebodies. My time is spent being a PCA when called upon, organizing two book clubs, taking care of two flower gardens in the summer, doing some outside work at both homes; in Rio Verde, playing with the Lady Putter’s once a week (no golfing experience needed), and mentoring a boy (I started with him in third grade) who is now in ninth grade. I exercise every day since I need to keep myself in some 71-year-old shape so we can stay in our two homes, while binge-watching all old seasons of NCIS and NCIS: LA. In the past four years, I have sewn by hand seven Christmas stockings and am working on my fifth Advent calendar for our five grandchildren. In between, I am increasing my knitting skills. In summary, I am increasing the amplitude of other Wes grads accomplishment. I love living in the slow lane and have decided I really was programmed to be like my mom, a stay-at-home wife, and not really meant for the working world. I love being retired.

“Brian and I returned to Wesleyan in late September for the announcement of the Phil Calhoun endowment funds for Wesleyan crew. I was so impressed with what Wesleyan is currently; it was so different it didn’t bring back any less-than-ideal memories. It was a strange experience to be talking to the very accomplished members of the women’s and men’s crews. The women were intrigued by the alumni stories of being the first women on campus in recent history and of what starting the women’s sports teams were like. And they were all so clean-cut in comparison to the students of the 70s!! A very impressive bunch.”

Ken Jacobs writes, “As a relatively late-in-life dad with two adopted kids, I’m at least 10 years behind most of our classmates. My younger daughter is still in college and my son is training as an apprentice plumber. They haven’t launched yet, but they’re getting there! Of course, that also means I’m still practicing real estate law at Smith Buss & Jacobs in New York. We’re up 400-plus co-op and condo associations as clients and 27 lawyers, whom I’m training diligently to help take over the reins. 

“I’ve kept up my two most intense college pastimes over the years—tournament bridge and dancing. Bridge took second place to raising a family but I still managed to get to some tournaments; now that I have more time, though, for some inexplicable reason my card sense isn’t quite as sharp as it was in my 30s. I’ve folk danced, contra danced, ballroom danced, and East and West Coast swing danced in New York and New Jersey for over 40 years—my only regret is that my wife, Sharon, with two knee replacements and a hip replacement, can’t join me anymore. 

“I still read the Class Notes, but I haven’t decided yet whether to attend the reunion. We’ll just have to see.”

Peter Welcher updates us: “Still living near Annapolis. I’m adjusting to being semiretired, eight  hours per week doing tech blogging, etc. We’ve continued some travel and hiking (Banff, Canada area, Delaware Water Gap, and Phoenix area); hope to do more in 2024. We have four grown kids (three UMD, one Elon grad), who each have a dog. Plus five grandkids (one [born] in ’21, three around January ‘23, number 5 on the way). One kid will be spending two to three years working in Rome as USDA/Foreign Service officer handling negotiations; their wife doing USDA management work remotely. Another, State Department lawyer, will be spending two to three years in The Hague; her lawyer husband will be working remotely or as EU presence. We look forward to traveling to visit them!”

Bill Pearson shares: “Greetings to all. Hope to see many of you  in May for our 50th. I’m still working, primarily as a management consultant with Contemporary Leadership Advisors, a team of behavioral scientists, and me. I’m also active with several not-for- profits—the Osborn, National Council for the Traditional Arts, City Lore, and the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival. 

“Our three boys, Nate, Howe ’12, and Henry, are thriving and far-flung—San Francisco, New Orleans, and New Jersey. CFO, musician, and middle school math teacher respectively. No one married yet, but that’s coming up next August.

“Jane and I are doing our best to have adventures—seeing the boys, NYC theater and music, hiking, fishing, and camping.”

News from Carolyn White-Lesieur: “Nothing spectacular to report except four spectacular grandchildren: two in Toulouse, France, and two in Pelham, New York. All terrific in my eyes, of course. My last volunteer activities were with the Board of the UU Church in Harvard Square while continuing to be active with NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) as teacher and trainer for the Family to Family classes. But it is time to taper off volunteering to travel the world, which I hope to do with my French husband. It is now or never! My forever activity is women’s doubles and, luckily, the Boston area has so many tennis opportunities. 

“My philosophy on life is simple: if I am upright and walking, it is a good day. 

“If you have never been to our Lloyd Komesar’s Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival in August, maybe this is the year to go? Great atmosphere and films. Great atmosphere and films. A small cadre of Wesleyan folks are always there, along with Lloyd, to welcome you. But, first, see you at Reunion? 

Wayne Forrest reports, “2023 was a year of blessings. My one offspring, Jamie, got married on a beautiful August day on a lake in northwest Connecticut, fulfilling a wish I made in 2018 when my wife, Jean, was diagnosed with breast cancer only to followed by ovarian cancer a year later. I’ve never been overly religious and have only a tenuous belief in a power outside ourselves, but I prayed then that she would survive long enough to see Jamie’s wedding. I missed the 2019 reunion and thankfully things have normalized, and the future looks very bright. I’ve been so pleased to work with others on the 50th Reunion committee to help create activities (such as a gamelan reunion concert) that will bring more of us together next May. My current state of mind remains optimistic about retirement, but I am not retired. COVID taught us how to work from home—and kept me from a daily 45-minute train ride into Manhattan—and that is keeping me employed. But I see the future and it includes playing lots of music, tennis, cycling on an e-bike, as much travel as possible, and being with friends and loved ones.” 

James Krantz reports that his son, Daniel ’11, is now a father. He’s become a grandfather. What a joy!

Arthur Fierman shares: “It has been a whirlwind of a year . . .  Starting with my work as chief of pediatric ambulatory care at Bellevue Hospital, we have been doing our best to provide medical care to the thousands of migrant children and families who have arrived in New York City to seek a safer, better life. Many of these children and their family members are housed in shelters near Bellevue, and many have experienced unspeakable trauma prior to and during their journeys in the form of threats, actual physical or sexual violence, the death of loved ones, and/or political persecution. Most come to Bellevue initially to update their immunizations for school entry and to receive other routine health maintenance, but they need so much more in the way of mental health and social services. A surprising number of the children are also in need of care for significant chronic illnesses, which sometimes could not be adequately addressed in their home countries. The challenge has been great, but as I head into retirement from full-time work in January 2024, it is good to know that Bellevue will still be there to support the families in their pursuit of a better life. I am looking forward to retirement, anticipating continuing some connections to NYU and Bellevue, but seeking new adventures!

“On the home front, my wife, Shelly, and I became grandparents in April 2023, when our son, Andrew, and wife, Danielle, brought Ellie Harper Fierman into the world. She is a joy and an inspiration! This past summer, as we have done for several years now, Shelly and I attended the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival. Produced by Lloyd Komesar, the fest has been a wonderful event, with over 100 amazing documentaries, shorts, feature-length films, interviews with filmmakers and actors, and great social events each year. Rivaling the event itself over the years is the opportunity to hang out with so many Wesleyan ’74 classmates and other Wes grads—including Wayne Forrest and wife, Jean Seibel, Claudia Catania and John Cady ’71, Sarah Cady and Bob Becker ’71, Wendy Starr and [husband] Jeff Kessler, Lyn Lauffer, Carolyn White-Lesieur and husband, Jean, Bill Pearson and wife, Jane, Bill Burton, David Weller and wife, Rochelle Zabarkes, Seth Davis ’72, just to name a few. If you have never been, you should really consider coming for the 10th annual festival in August 2024!”

Henry Avis-Vieira is “very pleased to inform that all financial markets articles I’ve published in El Exportador—a prestigious trade finance journal headquartered in Madrid—between 2005 to the present are now available online at academia.edu.

“Having a super time working on our 2024 class reunion with so many of my classmates and our fabulous Wes coordinators, such as Mandy Broulik, Lucy Diaz, Geralyn Russo, and others. A real pleasure.”

Fred Kessler reports: “I have been blessed with a great legal career at one law firm, where I have worked for over 45 years; 40 years as a partner.  I specialize in helping public agencies conduct procurements for major infrastructure projects nationwide (mostly in the transportation sector) through innovative contracting methods including public-private partnerships. It is gratifying to work on matters that make a positive difference for the general public and create good engineering and construction job opportunities. But I am eagerly anticipating cutting back next year and fully retiring in the near future, so that I can devote more time to family, reading, the outdoors, travel, community service, and relaxation. A shout-out to all my Deke brothers, wherever you are!”

Gray “Jon” Cox is enjoying traveling in person and via Zoom to give book talks on his SmarterPlanet or Wiser Earth? Dialogue and Collaboration in the Era of Artificial Intelligence that was recently published by the Quaker Institute for the Future. Since it is a dialogical book about dialogical reasoning, which has come out just as AI has become increasingly dialogical and everyone wants to talk about it, he is feeling a bit like a Plato at the Googleplex. He is also contemplating a miniconcert tour for the album’s worth of songs that are incorporated via QR codes as part of the argument of the book— including the show starter: “I’m gonna slow right down, so I can get there sooner. I’m gonna slow right down, so I can get there today. I’m gonna slow right down, maybe even come to a full stop. Maybe if I come to a full stop I’m gonna get there right away.” Besides Amazon, etc., it is available in an electronic Creative Commons form at www.smarterplanetorwiserearth.com. He continues to live in his hometown of Bar Harbor, teach at College of the Atlantic, and enjoy family life in the wilds of Maine. 

Reminder: Reunion dates: May 23–26, 2024. Consider joining our 50th Reunion Planning Committee. Participate as little or as much as your time and interest permit.  We have monthly Zoom calls. Also, continue providing ideas for our reunion. Contact me (Sharon Purdie, spurdie@wesleyan.edu), Lucy Diaz at (ldiaz@wesleyan.edu) or Mandy Broulik at abroulik@wesleyan.edu to join the committee or to suggest ideas.  See Pam’s review below to read what you have to look forward to!

Second Reminder: Please complete the short reunion survey if you have not done so.  You can access it here: 50th Reunion survey.

Pam van der Meulen’s review of  the Class of ’73 50th Reunion in May: “I attended the Reunion along with Sharon Purdie and Alfreda Gaither, to get ideas for our upcoming 50th. It was so much fun getting to know people and hanging out with them. It didn’t matter that I knew only one ’73 classmate at Reunion. Many had not seen each other in years, sometimes as many as 50 years, and they had a great time connecting and reconnecting. So, I am sure that our reunion will be so much fun, and I urge people to attend! I have also developed friendships with classmates I know only through reunions, and more recently through working on the Reunion Committee. It is not too late to join the Reunion Committee: it requires only a one-hour Zoom meeting every month—and like much at Wesleyan, these Zoom calls aren’t even required (and there are no grades). Hope to see more of you on the committee soon.”

Norma Williams was honored by the Real Property Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association as its Outstanding Real Estate Lawyer at an Installation and Awards Dinner on May 23, 2023. Norma has practiced as a transactional commercial real estate attorney for her entire career since her graduation from law school at University of California, Berkeley in 1977. The criteria for the award included excellence in practice, leadership, and contributions to the legal profession.

Monique Witt reports: “Professional demands have kept us all busy. Ben has been on U.S./European tour with Rickie Lee Jones and was featured with his sextet in the May issue of DownBeat magazine. He’s currently returning from [a] Midwest tour with his sextet (Nebula Project) and will join multiple Brazilian groups for NYC dates. Dev is working on new product development and joint ventures for ExMachina. Steven is traveling and I’m recovering from knee surgery following a sport injury.”

James Kempf updates us: “I am thinking of coming to the reunion next year but I am not sure since I live in California. My wife, Renate, and I have resolved to only fly every other year to reduce our carbon emissions and while next year is our flying year, we have another trip planned, to Europe where Renate’s family lives. I may take the train, it’s three days or so from California to Connecticut, but I could then visit with my family in Pennsylvania. Renate won’t come in any case; she does not enjoy gatherings where she doesn’t know anyone except me. And, actually, I have not been in touch with any other classmates since a year after leaving Wesleyan except for Bob Gershen. He and I have an interest in start-ups working on decarbonization.

“As for me, after a short stint in the Peace Corps subsequent to graduating from Wesleyan in 1974, I earned a master’s and PhD in systems engineering, with minor in computer science, at the University of Arizona; met in Arizona and married Renate in Germany; and we moved to Silicon Valley in 1984. I’ve lived there ever since, working for high-tech companies, primarily large companies like Sun Microsystems or Ericsson. I semiretired in 2020 and have been working on software for renewable energy companies and building decarbonization since, trying to move the energy transition forward. Right now I am the CTO at a start-up based in Seattle, building a virtual power plant system. I also am a member of an angel investing group for cleantech start-ups, and work with them on assessing start-ups with a decarbonization mission. In our spare time, we enjoy hiking, music (baroque and Renaissance as well as EDM Trance), theater, including baroque opera, and road trips in California and the West Coast.”

Blaise Noto has lived in Chapel Hill for the past 12-plus years, enjoying being back on the East Coast (via 10 years on Maui). While in Chapel Hill, he has taught communications, public relations, and digital media at a few North Carolina colleges including UNC School of the Arts, and is still actively involved in a number of committees in the motion picture academy, as well as in the Wesleyan Alumni Admission Volunteer Program. In September, he moved back to his native New York but this time upstate to the Clifton Park/Halfmoon area. (Retiring? He’ll see!) He is looking forward to coming back to Wesleyan for our 50th, catching up with friends, and the brothers at DEKE.

John McLucas is exploring options for translating his latest novel, The Boxer’s Mask, into Italian. It takes place in Rome during the pandemic and looks at the challenges of language acquisition and living abroad. He is also, at long last, correcting the proofs for his translation of Tullia d’Aragona’s epic Il Meschino (1560), forthcoming from the University of Toronto Press in its The Other Voice series, which publishes bilingual editions of books written by women in Renaissance Europe.

During a recent visit to New York, John had a wonderful lunch reunion with Jon Raskin ’73 and Steve Greenhouse ’73.

News from Gray “Jon” Cox is as follows: “I continue to enjoy teaching philosophy, peace studies, language learning, and AI-related stuff in the program for Human Ecology at College of the Atlantic in my hometown, Bar Harbor, Maine, and serve as clerk for the Quaker Institute for the Future. I am especially excited to be sharing my latest book, Smarter Planet or Wiser Earth? Dialogue and Collaboration in the Era of Artificial Intelligence, which is now available at all the usual online places as well as the publisher. Anyone interested in a review copy can download a PDF at www.smarterplanetorwiserearth.com for free or get a paperback if you are thinking of using it as a text or for reviewing it for a journal, newspaper, or newsletter. Write me at gray@coa.edu.

“I am continuing to enjoy writing songs and have included some in the book. I had a delightful time with a bunch of CSS folks in a Zoom call that Larry Green organized this year and look forward to more opportunities to reminisce and catch up as our 50th year reunion approaches!”

Christopher Moeller reports, “In late winter Carolyn White-Lesieur contacted me on behalf of the Reunion Committee. Although we had barely known each other at Wesleyan 50-plus years ago, her calls were a treat that I enjoyed immensely.

“On my request Carolyn provided my contact information to Cathy Barnes. Cathy and I exchanged several emails. Coincidentally, my wife and I had already scheduled a trip to San Francisco to visit one of her friends. The three of us met for dinner with Cathy and her husband, Peter Busch. Remarkably, Peter attended two years of high school with me in Dayton. Although we tried, it’s hard to cram 50 years into one evening!”

Rick Kronick and his wife Amy’s two daughters and their husbands moved across the street from them for a magical two years during the pandemic, one family coming from Philadelphia and the other from Seattle. Both girls had two-and-a-half-year-olds when they moved to La Jolla, and each girl got pregnant and delivered babies while in LJ. One set of in-laws also moved to a few blocks away, creating the La Jolla version of the shtetl. Sadly, everyone moved away in July 2022; the good news is that the Philadelphia family moved to Berkeley, where Dorothy is an assistant professor at the Goldman Public Policy School.

“Following the magical two-year interlude during the pandemic, it has been a tough year. I shattered my pelvis in a bike accident at the end of January (complete with surgery and 19 screws and plates), my 97-year-old mother died in March, and Amy has developed serious cognitive impairment along with her multiple sclerosis. The good news is that my recovery has gone well—back up to cycling 140 miles per week, some swimming, yoga, and even a bit of shuffling. I’m working at creating a new kind of partnership with Amy and looking forward to celebrating her 75th birthday on August 19 at a party with 20 of our friends.

“I’m not quite smart enough to retire from the faculty at the UC San Diego School of Public Health, and continue a bit of teaching, as well as my Don Quixote-like attempt to convince policymakers that Medicare Advantage plans are being overpaid to the tune of something on the order of $1 trillion over the next decade, which even by D.C. standards is a fair amount of money. Governor Newsom appointed me to the board of the newly created Office of Health Care Affordability, which promises to be an adventure.

“Although we did very little traveling in the winter when I was hopping around on a walker, we’re back to pretty regular trips to Seattle and Berkeley to visit our quite delicious and amazing grandchildren (not that I’m biased) and their parents.”

John Gardner is semiretired after 45 years of work as a teacher, coach, and administrator at Avon Old Farms School. He has continued coaching hockey—this will be his 49th year coming up—and doing alumni development functions. He has also started a new business in helping to get male and female hockey players into New England prep schools, pathwaytoprep.com.

Ron Cartin shares: “Still living in Costa Rica and working as an actuary in the Costa Rican Social Security. I still love tennis but had to quit playing some years ago because of a retina detachment. Would love to get in touch with some of my friends from the Class of ’74 (specially friends from the varsity tennis team in the years 1970–1974 and from the Eclectic fraternity).”

Scott Burson informs us: “It’s been at least 20 years since I have contributed anything to class notes, but preparations for our 50th Reunion have unexpectedly flexed a nostalgia muscle. This entry should hold for another 30 years. Wendy Liebow and I married in 1979, have two adult daughters, and have lived successively in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Seattle, Washington, and Lexington, Massachusetts. After graduating from law school, I practiced law for three years. Discovering how poorly socialized I was to law firm life, I escaped to get a degree in librarianship and a seven-year career as an academic law librarian. The career thing finally stuck when I became an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board, working in the Seattle and Boston regional offices over 31 years. I retired in 2018 after concluding that I did not need to continue to subject myself to the insanity of the Trump administration. Haven’t looked back. Haven’t looked forward or sideways, either, but I take well to leisure.

“Other than my retirement, the recent headline is the relocation of both of our now fully launched daughters. Allison ’07 now lives in Freeport, Maine, working for the East Coast Greenway Alliance; Esther (nominally 2010, but transferred and graduated from Swarthmore) has just started as an assistant professor of psychology at Smith College. I hope to see many of you at our 50th Reunion.”

Jill Fuller-Johnston reports: “In December 2020 I lost my husband (an English-French horn player) after a long and difficult period of increasing dementia. It was during the very strict lockdown in Germany, so it was a very lonely time for me. To maintain contact with the community, I continue to work, but with a somewhat reduced workload. I still teach cello three days per week at the music school and am playing chamber music with excellent colleagues—in a string quartet and a piano trio—so I still have to practice regularly. Still living in the Sauerland, one of the most beautiful regions in Germany. This summer saw me hiking from hut to hut in the Swiss and Italian Alps, followed by visits to Ticino (Italian Switzerland) and Vorarlberg (Austria.) Then the whole family finally came to visit: my daughter with her family from England and my son with his family from Bonn. Despite the fact that it rained the entire time, it was an enjoyable visit because the small children are all the same ages (two and six) and the adults also get along well.

“Since May 2022 a Ukrainian family has been sharing my house with me.”

Claudia Catania updates us: “Just returned from Lloyd Komesar’s ninth annual Middlebury New Filmmaker Festival, which served four days of fascinating films. I highly recommend it to all for next August. Some of the Wesleyan grads partaking were Wayne Forrest, Sarah Cady Becker, Arthur Fierman, Bill Pearson, Rick Gilberg, Steve Goldschmidt ’72, Mike McKenna ’73, Michael Arkin ’72, Todd Jick ’71, Bob Becker ’71, Janet Biehl, Caroline White-Lesieur, et al!

“On the home front, my husband, John Cady ’71, and I enjoy having our older son, Max, just back from New Zealand and now a STEM teacher at Design Tech in San Francisco. Our son, Gavin, owns and manages from afar his restaurant, 1000 Figs, in New Orleans even though he lives with his wife, and their one-, three-, and five-year-old sons in Denver. John and I are planning to live in Denver a number of months per year, so give a holler if you know any folks we should look up!

“I’m no longer leading Playing on Air, the audio drama series of short plays I founded (playingonair.org; you can stream it or go to the podcast), but am enjoying newfound freedom as I weigh a world of possibilities. Travel ranks high. Sempre Avanti!”

In August, the board of directors of The Music Center (https://www.musiccenter.org/) announced the appointment of several new board members including attorney Richard (Dick) Kendall. As one of the nation’s largest performing arts organizations, The Music Center presents world-class dance performances, nationally recognized K–12 arts learning programs, digital arts experiences, and free and low-cost public concerts and events. In addition, The Music Center manages four theaters, Jerry Moss Plaza, and Gloria Molina Grand Park, on behalf of the County of Los Angeles.

“Each leader of our newest cadre of board members has been positively impacted by the arts throughout their successful lives and storied careers,” said Cindy Miscikowski, board chair of The Music Center.

Dick attended his first opera, Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, when he was 12 years old. Accompanying his grandmother to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, he recalls how stirred he felt while watching the fabled production—the experience cemented his lifelong dedication to the arts. Dick, a partner at Kendall Brill & Kelly LLP, with more than 30 years of complex litigation experience, joins The Music Center’s board of directors alongside his wife, Lisa See. He has his finger on the pulse of the performing arts field; he serves concurrently as a board member of BroadStage. Having witnessed firsthand some of the challenges facing performing arts venues and theatrical stages following the pandemic, he is determined to help The Music Center and Gloria Molina Grand Park thrive. Dick is also a member of the Human Rights Watch Southern California Committee and has served on the boards of Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and Western Center on Law and Poverty. He holds a juris doctor from the USC Gould School of Law. He and his wife live in Brentwood.

Reminder: Consider joining our 50th Reunion Planning Committee. You can participate as little or as much as your time and interest permit. We have monthly Zoom calls.  Also, continue providing ideas for our reunion. Contact me (Sharon Purdie, spurdie@wesleyan.edu) or Mandy Broulik at abroulik@wesleyan.edu or Kate Lynch at klynch@wesleyan.edu to join the committee or to suggest ideas.

Harold Sogard updates us on his trying to start a new career as a voice actor: He was  signed by an agent in January and has started auditioning for a variety of interesting gigs. “Haven’t gotten hired for anything yet, but at least I’m getting some at bats!”

Monique Witt reports that the last few months were both sad and joyful. Ben got married on seven-day’s notice at city hall at noon; then he and Yoko drove to Baltimore an hour later for residence with the Baltimore Symphony. Dev has been doing IP for his new tech. Sadly, Steven’s father died at 99 and it has left a huge emptiness—the last living grandparent. OneTrickDog* has had four albums to get out, and the labs are very busy.  Ben’s official release of A Thousand Pebbles was at Smalls and was terrific. The reviews have been very strong. The CD release [includes] two sets from Smalls [and they] are up on YouTube and Facebook.

Jim Gilson sent in this report: “Two pairs of roommates assigned to 202 Washington Street our freshman year, along with their spouses, have continued to see each other over the years, including more frequently connecting on Zoom during the pandemic. Mark Decker still lives in northern New Jersey and works as general counsel for a large privately held company. His former roommate, Jim Gilson, relocated to Alexandria, Virginia, in 2016 when he retired as general counsel of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, though he continues to work on occasional nonprofit governance and law projects, including volunteering as a museum accreditation peer reviewer. Rip Dauster retired from a high school teaching career in southern Connecticut and, together with his wife Marjorie Allen ’76 (who recently retired from the Connecticut attorney general’s appellate division) has taken advantage of their time and Rip’s photography talent to share photos of their several trips to Europe. Paul Liscom continues to live in Boulder where he has greatly scaled back on his home-building business but continues to take on a few projects, including supervising and doing much of the labor on a major trail restoration and boardwalk enhancement in the upper elevations of the Rockies.

“Over the last year or so, the Zoom call group has been able to expand. Don Middleton—another 202 Washington Street ‘alum’—has joined in. Don continues to practice urgent care medicine and live in the south coast area of Massachusetts. Larry Green also has joined the calls; he still is practicing law at a Boston firm but has enjoyed being able to work more frequently from his house on the coast of southern Maine. Larry agreed to serve on the class reunion committee, helping to plan some panel discussions that already sound intriguing.

“As their time has become more flexible and COVID restrictions have lessened to some extent, couples in this group have been able to stop in on each during their travels and, health permitting, are hoping for a few times we all can be together even before the class reunion in a year.”

Howard Curzer recently published a book entitled, Virtue Ethics for the Real World: Improving Character without Idealization (Routledge 2023). A brief description of his book may be found here:

He is till teaching in the Texas Tech University Philosophy Department and is married to Anne Epstein. His daughter, Mirah Epstein Curzer, is an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. His grandson, Jonah (age four), is training for the Olympic cuteness competition.

Bob Baum recently returned from Senegal—from the same village he started going to the summer after we graduated from Wesleyan. He was adopted by a family there and he is now the oldest living family member. It was his first time back in four years. This summer he become chair of the new Department of African and African American Studies at Dartmouth.

Christopher Moeller shares, “My wife and I are still retired. The entire family is reasonably healthy. Finally, after three years of pandemic restrictions, we feel somewhat safe going out to concerts, dances, and other performances. I hope that trend continues! The only recent news (last August) is that our son Steffen and his wife have adopted a newborn and named him Owen, and they are thrilled.

“In February, Carolyn White-Lesieur, sent an email to me of the upcoming reunion and to offer to have ‘a conversation.’  She and I each sent a few emails, then had a lengthy phone call that covered many aspects of the last 50 years, or perhaps just a few. I asked Carolyn to pass my contact information along to a number of others who were significant to me during my year and a half in Middletown. Perhaps some will follow up!”

In February my husband Ted Sybertz and I went on a National Geographic expedition to Anarctica. The trip was fabulous and included  hiking, viewing lots of penguins, seals, whales, and icebergs, as well as kayaking, taking the “polar plunge,” and attending lectures by scientists conducting research during the expedition.

Our condolences to the family of Randy Brown who passed away on April 20, 2023, due to complications from a stroke that he suffered on Christmas Day of 2021. At his death, Randy lived in Boulder Creek, California. He was the author or coauthor of several books and pamphlets about the history of the greater Santa Cruz area and was a regular speaker at historical gatherings. He was also passionate about the history of baseball, in particular, the Negro leagues.

Reminder: Consider joining our 50th Reunion Planning Committee (https://www.wesleyan.edu/alumni/connect/class-pages/1974.html). You can participate as little or as much as your time and interest permit. Join us on our monthly Zoom calls and continue providing ideas for our reunion. Simply let us know via this form: https://mccdjnp6y05t8wfdqrbdfjcbwgc4.pub.sfmc-content.com/c3m3ac3lekq, or you can contact me (Sharon Purdie, spurdie@wesleyan.edu) or Mandy Broulik at abroulik@wesleyan.edu or Kate Lynch at klynch@wesleyan.edu to join the committee or suggest ideas.

Bill Gustus passed away on September 19, 2022. Bill double majored in government and sociology while at Wesleyan. He leaves his wife, Laura Caron-Gustus, and his nine children. My condolences to his family and classmates. His obituary can be read here and below.

William J. Gustus, of Lunenburg, Massachusetts, passed away in his home on Monday morning, September 19, 2022.

Bill was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on January 9, 1953, a son of the late Walter and Rita (Fleming) Gustus and grew up in Wilmington, Massachusetts. A graduate of Wilmington High School, Wesleyan University, and New England School of Law, Bill joined the Peace Corps and served in Malaysia for two years before embarking on a career in law and local government.

Bill owned and operated Settlers Crossing Golf Course in Lunenburg and the Westminster Golf & Country Club in Westminster with his wife and business partner, Donnie Lyons. Prior to his retirement he was the town administrator for the Town of Lynnfield, and the chief administrative and financial officer for the Town of Lunenburg. His career also included serving multiple roles in Middlesex County government, general counsel at Cummings Properties, and being appointed CFO for the City of Gloucester.

He enjoyed many years of worldwide travel with his wife Laura, family, and many of his closest friends.

Bill leaves his wife, Laura Caron-Gustus of Lunenburg; his 9 children, Casey Gustus and his wife Cathy of Wayland, Kelly Gustus and her husband Jeremy of Wayland, John Gustus and his wife Emily of Wrentham, Timothy Gustus and his wife Kara of Melrose, Michael Gustus and Jeffrey Gustus both of Woburn, his stepchildren, Jason Brailsford and his wife Mariah of Lunenburg, Tanya Eberlin and her husband Craig of Ashburnham and Kristin Trumble and her husband Matt of St. Clair Shores, Michigan; his brother, Stephen Gustus and his wife Tracy of Sommerville, 13 grandchildren, former wife Theresa Gustus of Wayland, and many nephews and nieces. He is predeceased by a brother Leonard Gustus.

Monique Witt reports: “Ben soft released his fifth album, A Thousand Pebbles (his second with the Nebula Project sextet) and debuted it at Ravinia. Dev hosted AES (American Electronics Show) at the ExMachina Soundworks space in Bushwick, Steven’s firm was involved in the Twitter purchase, and I’m dividing my time between three upcoming albums and the Soundworks.”

Chuck Gregory has enjoyed success as the Senior Warden at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in Fort Lauderdale, facing the dual challenges of a rector search and the COVID pandemic. The church is thriving with new rector, Grant Wiseman. Chuck’s term will finish in January 2023.

For our 45th Reunion, Chuck sang with a group of alumni at Eclectic. They called themselves the Fossils of MoCon. He hopes to be part of something similar for our 50th.

Dave Skinner, Rob Ingraham, and Doug Cole were among attendees at a celebration for Dave “Duke” Synder, their former hockey coach, during Homecoming weekend (November 5). See below for a picture of the three of them, along with Bill Burke ’73, with Duke and his wife Diane. John Gardner attended as well. It was a wonderful reunion of 40 or so former hockey players from the ’70s and ’80s teams. Duke was a great coach and mentor to them all

Arthur Fierman writes: “My wife Shelly and I had a great time in August with Wesleyan classmates and other grads at the eighth annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, produced by Lloyd Komesar. This was our fourth fest (one year remote due to COVID) —the films, interviews, and related events are amazing. It has been a great way to reconnect with classmates. Hope to see more of the Class of ’74 there next year!”

For the past few years, Harold Sogard has been taking classes in voice acting with the goal of starting a new career.  He’s now reached the point where he has produced demo tapes and is circulating them to agents in the hopes of getting signed and then getting some actual paying gigs. You can check him out at www.haroldsogard.com.

Pam van der Meulen updates us: “I enjoyed re-connecting with Sharon Purdie, Jean Barish, and Adrienne Bentman during Homecoming, following the 50th Reunion planning session with members of the classes of ’73 and ’72.  Adrienne spoke at the Title IX seminar that morning and was inducted later that evening into the Wes Athletics Hall of Fame. Congrats, Adrienne! On a personal note, we bought a vacation home in the Berkshires last spring, in the Otis Wood Lands, which we absolutely love, and I’ve started playing pickleball.”