Tag: 1975

Spring is sprung, and the emails are blooming, and our 50th Reunion is a year away! I’m looking for at least 100 classmates to help me blow up the Wes record for 50th attendance.

I heard from several new or long-absent contributors. David Arrick calls his five grandkids under age four “my current joy.” After post-Wes years that included business school (UCLA), a CPA career, and 40 years of marriage to his late wife, Andi, the lifelong San Franciscan is trying out living in NYC—a new neighborhood with a new girlfriend. “Work thoughts are rapidly receding. Life is about connecting and reconnecting with friends, adventures, and health on both coasts. Happy to hear from any and all!”

Cindi Aronson Silverman and her husband of 45-plus years, Rick, were in business as owners and operators of a home decorating center in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, for over 35 years. They raised two sons and have three grandchildren. Cindi and Rick have been very involved in social/political action, immigrant resettling, and the Living Water Children’s Fund NGO. Cindi still plays piano, accompanying her synagogue choir and local community theater productions. Rooming freshman year with Ellen Kabcenell Wayne, started a 50-year friendship, and they surprised one another for [their] 70th birthdays last June and January.

Richard Hume wrote from the edge of semi-retirement after 41 years on the molecular, cellular and developmental biology faculty at the University of Michigan, where he ran the undergraduate neuroscience major, which graduates about 200 students a year. He plans to keep some lab space through 2025 to finish research projects. Up next? Travel (including the Paris Olympics with his wife, Lesley, and his brother, Martin Hume ’78) and spending more time with their kids and grandkids. He reports, “Our daughter, Rebecca Hume ’01, lives in Brooklyn and recently took a new job at Protectdemocracy.org. The group was founded by experienced members of both political parties who are committed to having the U.S. remain a functioning democracy. Rebecca is the leader for media design strategy. One of the co-founders of the organization is Ian Bassin ’98. Our son, Michael, and his wife, Ashley Murray, are both attorneys in Chicago. They had a daughter in April, and Mike has two kids from his first marriage, Jackson (11) and Olivia (9). Michael and his ex-wife have a 50/50 shared custody arrangement and live only about a mile apart, so the kids can play with friends regardless of which parent’s house they are at.”  

David Garrow writes, “I’ve been in Squirrel Hill (Pittsburgh) since 2011, after six wonderful years in Cambridge, UK. I stopped teaching at Pitt Law School several years ago, when I anticipated feeling stale in the classroom. My big 2017 pre-presidential Obama biography, Rising Star, made The New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists and was a WaPo Top 10 Books of the Year. Notwithstanding a major brain hemorrhage and emergency surgery in early 2022, I’ve continued to write quite regularly, mainly for WSJ and The Spectator, and I vet book manuscripts for various publishers at least monthly, so I’m not truly retired. This northwestern quadrant of Squirrel Hill is a gorgeous place, Pittsburgh public transit is free for seniors and academics, and it’s a great city for craft beer. My three years in CSS were a formative experience, and I’m probably the only ’75er who owns neither a car nor a cell phone!”

Charlie Stolper lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Christy, and near their son, Chad, and his family, which includes the Stolpers’ first grandchild. Charlie has had some health setbacks recently but is still pursuing as much travel and golf as possible.

John Cavadini, director of McGrath Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame, couldn’t resist my invitation to write. He is still professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, and also the director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life there. “I still live in South Bend. With six of our seven kids and all 18 grandchildren.”

Andy Barnes has been teaching history for the past 27 years as a professor at Arizona State University in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (SHPRS), where he will be taking over as head of the history faculty starting in June 2024. He has written three monographs and edited two anthologies, the latest of which, The Palgrave Handbook on Christianity in Africa from Apostolic Times to the Present, just came out in March 2024. Andy and his wife, Scarlett, have three sons. “I am still actively doing historical research and I hope to publish one last monograph before I retire.”

Karin Johnson has nice news: “My wonderful first grandchild was born in October and I’m having such a good time; looking forward to 50th!” Karen should snag the distance traveled award, as she’ll be coming from Tokyo!!

Nancy Luberoff is happy to say, “My partner and husband, Bruce Boehm, and I have been together nearly 50 years! We started as two and now we’re a family of 11, including four grandkids, all of whom are bilingual (German and English for the Berlin-based family; Spanish and English for the North Carolina family). We spend two months every year in Berlin and tackle two long-distance hikes in Europe every year. Much of our volunteer energy is focused on managing a small green Jewish cemetery.”

A note from Roger Weisberg brought news that he has significantly cut back his film production work during the past three years. “I didn’t want to be on the road during the COVID pandemic, and I needed to look after my frail elderly parents. Instead, I’ve been focusing on taking advantage of new distribution opportunities for the 33 documentaries I’ve made over the past four decades. Karen (Freedman) is still going strong. The law practice she founded, Lawyers for Children, celebrated its 40th anniversary in April. As the company’s president, she still manages much of the firm’s most important impact litigation involving children in foster care. Our three children—a lawyer, a doctor, and an art professor/administrator—all live within three blocks of one another in Brooklyn. And, between them, there are four grandchildren, and a fifth one is on the way. We are incredibly lucky to visit them all at least once a week.”

At Yale, where she did graduate work, Gina Novick teaches midwifery students, and her husband, Shelly Kagan ’76, teaches philosophy. Their three kids live in Boston and San Francisco. Gina and Shelly recently got to visit with Bobbie Spellman ’78 in Virginia and Michael Hardimon ’79 in San Diego. “I hope to see many of you soon!”

Clif Grandy retired in June 2023 after a career in the legal/judicial/court administration arena, and his wife, Nancy Lucas, retired in July 2023. Clif reports, “In May 2023, we hosted a brunch in D.C. for some 1975 classmates and college mates from ’74 and other classes. We reflected upon our Wesleyan experience and the need to support Wesleyan with financial contributions if able. Those who attended included: June Jefferies, Denise Fures, Karen (Seymore) Leftridge, Hampton Cross ’72, Robert “Bob” White ’72, Antonio “Tony” Michell ’74, Jerry Thomas ’74, Debbie Conner Mitchell ’74, and Hope Hill ’74. Another 2023 highlight was a December trip to see Purlie Victorious on Broadway. They also had a visit from Gail Robinson-Oturu, a classically trained vocalist who was with our class at Wes during freshman year and is now a music professor in Tennessee and Florida.

Jeff Morgan, founding winemaker of Covenant Winery, sent in an update: “With our 50th approaching, many of us have passed our 70th birthdays. I’m surprised at how young I (still) feel. My urban winery in Berkeley, California, produces about 8,000 cases of topflight wine per year. Alas, after nine years making Covenant wine in Israel as well as California, we stopped the Israeli program back in 2021. It had nothing to do with the current situation in Gaza and the Galilee, but rather, simple financials compounded by the COVID pandemic.  However, the isolation brought on by COVID inspired me to pick up my saxophone again after a 25-year hiatus. I played a gig with old musician friends at City Winery in New York last year.  More recently, I performed at a jazz club in Paris called Le Cercle Suedois with pianist Franck Amsallem’s quartet. Yes, I guess there is indeed life after 70. Both my daughters live nearby in Oakland, and each one recently made me and my wife, Jodie, grandparents for the first time! Feeling the love.”

Corinne Kratz submitted the final manuscript for her next book, Rhetorics of Value: Exhibition, Design, Communication, to Duke University Press, which should be out in early 2025. She’s just back from Cape Town for a workshop in the African Critical Inquiry Program that she helps to direct. She’ll be back there again for May and the next events in this year’s workshop series.

As for my own news, Deb Kosich and I are the youngest members of the class, as far as I know.  We always bring up the rear in the birthdays department. I celebrated my 70th in late March on a family trip to the Bahamas with my husband and kids. In addition to my birthday, we were celebrating the wedding of my only niece. It was a beautiful week, and we took full advantage of the warm weather, irresistible ocean, and island vibe. Our kids came up with the best birthday gift ever—my first SCUBA dive, a challenging and wonderful experience. Bob supported and watched our bubbles from the boat. The trip was dramatically capped off with a tropical storm and power outage on the day after the wedding. The other news we are celebrating the engagement of our son, Ethan; he and his fiancée, Amanda, plan to marry later this year.

I hate to turn to sad news, but Karen Sims, a resident of Waterford, Connecticut, since 1978, sent word that her husband of 48 years, Charlie Sedell ’76, died of ALS in January 2024.

Jeff Cox learned last winter of Don Perman’s death in December 2022. Jeff and his wife, Amy, knew Don from childhood and last saw him in early 2022. “He was as always full of plans—writing, learning a language, working on his drumming—and as always full of jokes and caustic comments on the world. He was always eager to hear about and joke about any latest excesses in higher education. He still loved his time at Wesleyan—but maybe not as much as he loved living in New York.”  Don worked as a brilliant copy editor for major publications including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and The New York Times.  He was a jazz lover and drummer, a creative writer, and even a comedian who performed on David Letterman. Infectious enthusiasm for life! There are some lovely tributes to him at Don Perman Obituary.

David Harrison passed away unexpectedly in March, just shy of his 71st birthday, while on vacation with his wife in Mexico. A friend wrote, “Smart, funny, athletic, generous, and a lifelong advocate for social justice, David ran his own criminal defense legal practice in San Francisco for over 35 years, focused primarily on representing indigent clients. He had just won a major case when he passed away. Before entering private practice, David worked for the San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation, Marin Legal Aid, and the Legal Aid Foundation of Long Beach, where he was a distinguished Reginald Heber Smith Fellow. He also served two terms on the board of the New World Foundation.

As a Wesleyan undergraduate, David played on the club rugby team that competed against other small colleges and helped friends put on popular campus rock concerts featuring the likes of Jackson Browne, Lou Reed, and Orleans. He was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, a diverse fraternity where “David fit right in with his progressive thinking,” said longtime friend Mark Allard ’74. In addition to his wife, Colette Brooks, David is survived by daughters Simone Harrison ’18 and Marie Claire Harrison.”  There was a memorial gathering for David in the Bay Area in May.

Where’s WES-O?  This is our detective game to locate and reconnect with classmates who have dropped off Wesleyan’s radar. So far, we’ve had two successes, but that still leaves a lot of missing persons. 

FOUND:  Deborah Appel in Burien, Washington, thanks to Jill Rips. Paul Margolin sent me on a hunt for Harris Pitnof, who I found.

STILL MISSING: We have 80 more classmates with NO contact information. They won’t be invited to Reunion unless we can find them. If you know or can find out how to reach anyone on this list via email, phone, and/or snail mail, please let me know! Even better: have them reach out to the Alumni office so they may update their current contact information (alumni@wesleyan.edu).

Debby Addis, Ramon Alonso, Steve Anderson, Mark Anderson, Robert Baratt, June Hatton Barr, Rita Bauersmith, Susan Baugh, Thomas Berry, Andre Bourque, Willie Brown, Terry Button, Jacob Calm, John Caro, Alice Clark, Elaine Bourret Coleman, Andrea Cramer, Arthur Curtis, John Daniel, Steve Dixon, Leroy Doar, Richard Eisenberg, Harriet Farah, Kevin Fickling, Leo Fuchs, Larry Goodwin, Arlene Harris, Juliette Haynes, Colette Marie Goedde Hernandez, John Hulsebos, Frank Isaacs, Chris James, Brenda Jimenez, Richard Johnson, William Johnson, Norah Jones, Michael Kannan, David Kellogg, Genevieve Kerr, Tracy Killam, Didi (Stephanie) Lamm, Victoria Lauren, Sojin Lee, Molly Leong, Leonard Linden, Laura Livingstone, Nikki Makris, Andrew Maxwell, June Melton, Niles Murphy, Carol Parker, Deborah Paul, Kirk Pawlowski, Robert Phelps, Roberto Powers, Maurice Reidy, Ramona Reyes, Steve Riegelhaupt, Susan Riley, Digna Riva, Frederika Robinson, Michael Robinson, Bob Rockefeller, Charles Rose, Alida Santiago, Charles Shippee, Bill Smith, Carl Stevens, Don Strachan, Doug Stuart, Margaret Sullivan, Andy Sussman, Deb Thomas, Mary Tibbets, Rachel Trubowitz, Erica Udoff, Joseph Vaccaro, Sue Wieser, Bonnie Williams, Randy Hunter. 

I’ve fallen down on the job a bit, but here’s your secretary back in action. Thanks to all who sent me notes in the bustle of winter holiday season. Gina Novick is MIA too, though for good reason—email autoreply says she’s on sabbatical from Yale, July 2023 to January 2024.

Dr. Dennis Chin sent photos of his tour of duty as a retired orthopedic surgeon in the Navy Reserves. In early December, he was in the Solomon Islands as part of the Pacific partnership 2024 on the USS Mercy hospital ship, with a stop at the 2023 Pacific Games.

A note from Jeff McChristian reported on his first year of retirement. He and Pat spent 2023 making up for travel lost to COVID. Their itinerary: A three-week trip to Steamboat Springs to see their son, daughter, and families. Then off to Guatemala, where Pat has participated in community mosaic projects since 2020. Jeff carries luggage and plays music for artists making beautiful mosaics to install along public streets in a small, traditional Mayan town. April was Italy, enjoying the pleasures of Rome, Florence, and Tuscany. Late June took them to Wisconsin’s Northwoods to see Jeff’s sister. Jeff celebrated his 70th at a weeklong guitar camp in Puget Sound in August (a gift from Pat), followed by 10 days of driving and hiking with Pat in nearby national parks. October found Jeff and Pat, with their daughter and son-in-law, exploring Morocco’s charms. In between trips, Jeff does projects around the house, sees friends and former colleagues, and has arbitrated a few cases. His summary? “Retirement suits me!”

It appears that after declaring retirement in December 2023, Judge J. D. Moore amended his decision within 30 days. In January, J. D. joined the Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice at Pullman & Comley, LLC in Hartford. With 10 years on Connecticut’s Superior Court bench, preceded by a career in litigation, he’ll bring vast experience to mediating or arbitrating a wide range of civil matters and family disputes. (With all due respect, J. D., this prompts the question of whether when a judge retires, one can say he has disrobed.)

Meanwhile, David Leisner is going strong as a performer and composer. Recent highlights include performing a program of Shakespeare readings with solo guitar music with actor Anthony Heald. September 2023 saw the world premiere of Wayfaring, David’s concerto for guitar and orchestra, commissioned by the legendary Pepe Romero. In October, David and soprano Katherine Whyte performed in a tribute to the late Wesleyan professor Richard Winslow. The tribute at Crowell Concert Hall was directed by Neely Bruce, who joined the Wesleyan music faculty in 1974.  David has a new solo recording coming out in February and is grateful for good health and 42 years with his husband, Ralph Jackson.

On another musical front, Bruce Weinraub closed his medical practice in Northampton, Massachusetts, to move to Clarksdale, Mississippi, home of the crossroads. He’ll work at the community health center and pursue his interest in blues. “Bennie Thompson is the congressman, Morgan Freeman has a club there, and 60 Minutes recently profiled the city— check it out!”

Some of us are getting a head start on reunions. Steve Levin sent a photo from fall 2023 “at Wes celebrating the 50th anniversary of our ECAC championship season in 1973.” Check out the formidable reunited team of Carl Cavrell, Mark Nickerson, Gary Steinel, Jeff Van Nest, Perry Cacace, and Steve:

Jill Rips and Carole Evans Sands, freshman roommates, did a road-trip reunion visiting New England museums, lakes, nature walks, a powwow, and Dana Asbury and her husband, Richard Levy, in Maine. Jill’s working in San Antonio with resettled Afghans who fled the Taliban.

Out on the Pacific fringe, Martha Faller Brown, Bruce Paton, and I have a get-together to hike and dine whenever Colorado-based Tim Brown ’72 and his wife, Rosie, visit their Bay Area grandkids. My husband, Bob, usually joins us.

I’m introducing a new game for the next year. It’s called (apologies to Waldo) WHERE’S WES-O?  A number of classmates seem to be hiding. Let me know if you find Debby Addis, Ramon Alonso, Steve Anderson, Mark Anderson, Deborah Appel, Robert Baratt, June Hatton Barr, or any other ’75ers who are out of touch with our class. There might be prizes at the 50th for our best detectives.

A great Reunion Committee has begun planning for our 50th. There’s still room to join this team, and we’d love to have you. See you in 2025!

Please send news and updates to your class secretary.

Spring is sprung as I write this on a rare sunny afternoon between rainstorms in Northern California—fitting for the vernal equinox.

Paul Bennett, seven years retired, keeps busy with nonprofit boards and home projects. “I have to chuckle when I reflect on my board roles—when heading for retirement, I promised myself I wouldn’t do board work, but that’s exactly what I’ve ended up doing. I spend a good bit of time on two organization boards—Cristo Rey De La Salle High School in Oakland and Berkeley Symphony. The COVID years have been an enormous challenge for both organizations (and for so many others). The symphony, of course, is a performing art. As we all know, audiences disappeared when COVID hit and have been slow to return. While Berkeley Symphony is now back to its normal performance schedule, we’re still well off on audience counts—and unsure what future trends will look like.  We’ve had to address all sorts of unique problems over the last three years—definitely stretched my brain. The high school has been hard hit by COVID, not only with the challenges of maintaining classes and academics during remote learning, but also because the Cristo Rey model depends on the students being employed one day a week in our Corporate Work-Study Program. When many of our employer companies went almost completely remote, many of the jobs for our students (largely clerical/administrative/IT support) disappeared—and with them, the crucial revenue we depend on. We’ve been slowly clawing our way back, but it’s been an enormous challenge. They didn’t cover this stuff at Wes when I was there.” On the personal front, Paul and his wife still live in Oakland; older son is in Brooklyn teaching high school math, younger son in SF working a tech job. Paul’s summary? “Healthy, happy and staying active—all good.”

Dave Rosenblum writes that he retired from Deloitte Consulting in 2013, but “flunked retirement and am reasonably busy with a couple of corporate boards, private equity work, and nonprofit boards. Sue and I live in LA, but we have an apartment in Manhattan and spend roughly three months a year there—babysitting and hanging out with two young grandchildren (and their parents), who live in South Orange, New Jersey, plus really taking advantage of all that NYC has to offer. Had dinner recently with Steve McCarthy, who came in from Connecticut, which was a lot of fun. We are fanatic Dodgers fans, so the best part of the year is soon upon us!”

Susan Gans reports that “after more than 35 years toiling as in-house counsel for various television production companies, I stopped working a few years ago and am enjoying retirement. Being an avid cyclist since my teens, I started riding a tandem bicycle with my significant other just before the pandemic hit, and the tandem has changed our lives.” They tandem toured the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany last spring and will be touring Japan, the Greek islands, New Zealand, and Spain with their tandem in 2023–24. On the home front, Susan started a Facebook group called SoCal Tandem Riders, which now has over 225 members, through which they’ve made many wonderful new friends. She adds, “I’m looking forward to seeing my classmates next year at our 50th Reunion!”

Cory Kratz sent word of her stay at the Bogliasco Study Center in in Bogliasco, Italy, near Genoa, working on a new book called Rhetorics of Value: Exhibit, Design, Communication, which will be published by Duke University Press. “I was with a great group of eight other fellows, each working on his/her own creative projects. An idyllic and productive time in the center’s villa and garden on the shore of the Ligurian Sea. In Cape Town, I’ll be hiking the Perlemoen Trail with friends before going to this year’s African Critical Inquiry Program Workshop, which is called Archiving Otherwise: Sound Thinking and Sonic Practice.”

John Cavadini writes that he is still a professor in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, and director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life (at Notre Dame). In another higher ed note, Bruce Weinraub, who lives and practices internal medicine in Northampton, Massachusetts, spoke on his experience in internal medicine to Wesleyan’s premed students in late March.

Janet Brodie is another classmate who appreciated a rare COVID gift—her regular Zooms with Risa Korn and Jane Hutchins. “They started out my college roommates and ended up my friends for life.” She loves the saying, “It takes a long time to make an old friend.” I want to point out that you all qualify, my friends, now that it has been more than a half century since we first met!

Bruce Tobey wrote, “I am still plugging away as an environmental attorney and business consultant. Living each month 60% of the time in Fort Lauderdale, I work with a remarkable wastewater technology entrepreneur and also avoid much of the winter cold (but also endure the summer heat). The other 40% is spent up in Gloucester, Massachusetts, with my wife Pat (Skidmore ’81).  Our four daughters (Emily, Dana, Melanie, and Pamela) all came back to Gloucester after earning bachelor degrees at Wagner College, Tulane University, Merrimack College, and Rollins College respectively. All are happily settled down, and they and their men have presented us with a brood of eight grandkids, with a ninth on the way.

My nine years as mayor (1993–2002) still color my life. In 1998 we had a yearlong celebration of Gloucester’s 375th anniversary, both for its own sake and as a warm-up for the 400thin 2023. Because no good deed goes unpunished, 25 years later, I am still at it, serving as president of the nonprofit that has spent the last five years organizing, fundraising, and event planning. The year is off to a fantastic beginning—if you’re in the neighborhood this summer, stop on by!

Dan Gold has a tale straight out of the movies. “Four years ago, with retirement looming on the horizon, my wife Nancy and I sold our Southern California house of 22 years and rented a neighbor’s small guest house. No more chickens, pigs, or horses. Time to downsize. Some of our belongings went into storage, but the important stuff came with us to the rental. Three weeks after we moved in, the Woolsey Fire came through the canyon and burned the little guest house to the ground. We got out okay, but much of the physical stuff of our lives was gone. It was disorienting. I felt as if I was adrift, off balance. It was like I had no anchor. We stayed in motels for a bit then Nancy’s cousin gave us her house for a month. The fire was a weird chapter in our lives and the strange feeling of it comes back occasionally. Like when I’m looking for a favorite T-shirt, then realize, ‘Oh yeah . . . it was in the fire.’ Fast forward a bit and we decided it was time to get serious about relocating. So, we moved to Ventura, a cool little beach town up the coast. I decided to do one more season on the TV series Grace and Frankie and then retire from 40 years of working in camera in the film business. We love our little house in Ventura. We can walk to the beach and walk to the shops and restaurants on Main Street. I have time for surfing, biking, and pursuing my former passion for still photography. I volunteer at the community bike shop in town and Nancy and I enjoy brewing beer together (I mostly wash the kegs). Every once in a while, I get together with Chris Vane and Dave Babcock, and it’s like old times.

Oh, I almost forgot! We have a grandson, Miles. He’s amazing. He’s such a smart, good-lookin’ kid. He really should have his own TV show.”

David Bickford is enjoying life in Los Angeles. “After reaching retirement age I’ve slowed down the pace a bit, but still acting and voice coaching and loving it. My wife and I often travel to Thailand to spend time with her family. I shot a nice supporting role in a film called Discussion Materials but I don’t know yet when it will be released.”

Stephen Blumenthal admits it took a long time for his first contribution to Class Notes. “Forty-eight years until my first peep!” He’s lost touch with classmates, except for Wendy Lustbader ’76 occasionally and Barbara Bachelder.  Here’s his interesting journey with a pivotal ’70s Wesleyan moment: “After 10 sweet years of teaching high school English and 12 years at a nonprofit, I was trained in the ’90s to provide psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and am heartened to see that modality helping more and more people now. Had my organic chem professor not introduced us to LSD, I might never have discovered the path I’ve taken. Thank you, Wesleyan! My partner James and I live in San Francisco and love hiking in the redwoods.”

Tom Wheeler and his wife Sondra Ely Wheeler ’79 spend lots of time away from their D.C.-area home, in New England and Pennsylvania. Those are the locations of their daughters and respective husbands (two doctors, a therapist, and COO of a climate change nonprofit) and five grandkids ranging from age nine to age four (an aspiring ballerina, engineer, artist, paleontologist, and princess-unicorn respectively). “While I’ve resisted the siren calls to return to work designing large-scale software and DB systems for the Feds, Sondra still teaches religious ethics and fills speaking engagements occasionally. Most of our time has gone to helping an old friend with accelerating dementia to get her house sold and get moved into a new living situation near us, and to fundraising for a Christian dalit orphanage in Bangalore, whose donor base was ravaged by COVID (full story at violetschildrenshome.com). We got mild cases of COVID from the grandkids last year, plan a long trip across the American West this spring, and a longer one through Spain and to Siena sometime afterward. We’d love to hear from any classmates passing through the D.C. area.”

Brian Steinbach lamented this winter’s lack of snow in D.C. (come on out to the Sierras, my friend!), and sent the following news at the very last moment: “I have to note the sad demise of the houses at 28 and 34 Lawn Avenue, apparently torn down for the new science labs, as an aerial view reached via a link from the recent Wesleyan Connection showed. Many great memories of parties at 28, which most recently was the ‘Community Engagements House.’ I shared this with Steve Pippin, who lived there with Jeff Cox, Phil Swoboda, and Bruce McClellan ’76  sophomore year. And Steve forwarded it to Jeff, who recalled it was ‘home to the Bite-Me Pumpkin and many raucous parties.’ Jeff, now University of Colorado ‘Distinguished Professor of English and Humanities,’ reports he is still teaching and also still chairs his English department ‘for my sins.’”

But if you want to and can still party like it’s 1975, plan to join us at the Class of ’75 50th Reunion, May 23–26, 2025.  While it’s hard to believe, it will be too good to miss.

Emerging from COVID lockdown has brought lots of news—three times what fits the printed magazine, but the full scoop is here with some photos to boot!

This is the column where I notice the balance of employed and retired classmates has dramatically shifted now that we are approaching the end of our seventh decade. To illustrate that point, I’ve separated these notes into two sections.

At Work

I successfully relaunched my nonprofit consulting practice in 2021. Last September, Bob and I spent most of our time on the road exploring the Southwest. We were on our way to a family wedding in eastern New Mexico and decided to drive via as many national and state parks as we could hit in Utah (nine) with stops at Mesa Verde and Aztec National Monument on our way through New Mexico. We picked up our son and daughter in Albuquerque en route to the wedding, and they made the return trip with us by way of Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley, and the Grand Canyon. We did a combination of tent camping and hotel stays and had an amazing trip despite some too-hot-to-hike weather. On our way home, we all had lunch with Joe Antolin ’76 who moved from Chicago to Albuquerque a few years ago.  Thanks to Brian Steinbach for letting me know Joe was there. Thanksgiving weekend brought Martha Faller Brown, Bruce Paton, and Tim Brown ’72 to my house for leftovers brunch.  Whenever Tim and his wife, Rosie Piller, come to the Bay Area—usually two or three times a year—we all get together for a hike or a meal or both.

Nancy Lippincott works at The Meadowbrook School, a progressive K–8 independent school in Weston, Massachusetts, as the school accountant and doing classroom work on literacy development with the youngest students, Junior Kindergarteners. “After successful sequential careers in human resources, then fundraising, and now elementary education, I am divorced and live outside of Worcester,” she says. “My three kids have finally all launched—two reside in Massachusetts and one in upstate New York—no grandkids but plenty of ‘grandpets.’” She managed to avoid COVID as of October 2022 and otherwise was enjoying an active life with her dog who is her best friend.

David Leisner says, “Right now, professionally, I’m on fire! So much going on. I have three albums coming out within a few months of each other. October saw the release of Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, in my arrangement for guitar, with baritone Michael Kelly, on the Bright Shiny Things label (on Spotify, Apple, and all streaming platforms, as well as for download and in CD form). November features the release of Letter to the World, a recording of four of my compositions for voice and various instruments, on the Azica label. The same label will release my latest solo album (digital only) in early 2023, with 19th-century gems for the guitar. This summer I wrote two commissioned pieces, one of which is a concerto for guitar and full orchestra, called Wayfaring, commissioned by guitar legend, Pepe Romero, who will premiere it at the new Hamptons Festival on Long Island next summer. Meanwhile, during the pandemic, I commissioned five excellent, well-known composer friends to write short pieces for me, and these beautiful pieces will be premiered on April 20 at the Morgan Library’s beautiful Gilder Lehrman Hall in New York, in a concert that will also include excerpts from my upcoming solo album. So, life is good on this end.” It was good to hear that things are going so well for David!

Another New Yorker, Don Perman wrote that he is delighted to have a job at The New York Times.  When I asked what he did, Don explained he’s with the group that moderates readers’ comments about articles. He sends best wishes to everyone.

Meanwhile on the West Coast, Jeff Morgan and his wife Jodie continue to operate their urban winery in Berkeley, California: Covenant. They have two adult daughters also working in the industry; one at Covenant and the other as the publicist for a celebrity chef and restaurant group. Covenant’s wines are distributed from Tokyo to California and the continental U.S., Canada, the U.K., Israel, Mexico, and beyond. Jeff invites anyone visiting the Bay Area to come visit their 9,000-square-foot winery right in West Berkeley’s “drinks district” at 1102 Sixth Street. On another note (pun intended) Jeff mentioned, “During COVID, I noticed my tenor saxophone was pretty dusty. (I hadn’t touched it for over 20 years. And my last gig in New York was at Gotham Bar and Grill in 1995.) So, I started practicing again. And now I’m playing out a bit, starting with a quartet at our winery’s jazz series last summer. Really nice for this Wes music major to have rediscovered the joy of playing music. Speaking of which, I’ve been in touch with Oliver (Ollie) Griffith ’76 who has retired from his day job as a U.S. consul abroad. His last post was in Paris, where he’s living today and playing his saxophone too.” For a few photos and an article on Jeff’s latest debut, see https://www.berkeleyside.org/2022/07/01/jeff-morgan-covenant-wines-jazz-west-berkeley

Another classmate still working while balancing his day job with music, is Bruce Weinraub. He is continuing his private internal medicine practice despite the rigors of dealing with COVID on a daily basis and says, “I’m a dinosaur in that realm” of not following the wave out of private practice. Bruce adds, “I’m having the privilege of studying with blues piano master Eden Brent from Mississippi via Skype. Check her out.”

Cathy Gorlin updated me that her son Ross has now graduated from medical school and started his residency in family medicine at Swedish Hospital in Denver. Their daughter Lauren lives and works at Google in D.C. During her “spare time” she’s working on her master’s in counseling and being mom to her son who is in first grade at the local Jewish day school. Cathy can’t believe he is already six years old. She makes lots of trips to D.C. and Denver, and she works remotely in Naples, Florida, from January to April, escaping from the cold Minnesota winters.

Corinne Kratz is on the move in early 2023. She spent January in a writing residency at the Bogliasco Study Center for Arts and Humanities in Italy working on her current book. Then she’ll head back to South Africa in March for the annual African Critical Inquiry Program Workshop. This year it is on the theme Archiving Otherwise: Sound Thinking and Sonic Practice.

At Play (Otherwise Known as Retired)

Janet Brodie reports that her regular Zoom calls with Risa Korn and Jane Hutchins were “a rare upside of the COVID pandemic.” Janet recently retired after 33 years as a creative arts therapist in the Psychiatry Department at Yale New Haven Hospital. She admits she “couldn’t walk away, so is still working two days a week.” Speaking of Risa Korn, she retired in early 2022 and welcomed her third grandchild, Robert James (Bobby) Neenan, born in October to her daughter Melanie and Ben Neenan. Risa’s youngest son, Sam, practices medicine in Washington State and is engaged to be married in 2023.  Risa and I had a wonderful time together on her way back to Boston from seeing Sam and visiting Jane Hutchins in Vancouver, B.C. We hiked, hung out, ate well, and had gorgeous California weather the entire time.

Jeff McChristian writes, “After 45 years practicing law in various firms in and around Hartford, I am ‘hanging up my cleats’ December 31, 2022. I have enjoyed it immensely and will miss the intellectual stimulation and many deep relationships I have forged with clients and colleagues, but it’s time to kick back and enjoy my ‘golden years.’ Retirement plans include catching up on traveling my wife Pat and I missed during the last 2 ½ pandemic years. We have already planned a cross-country road trip in January along the southern route, to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where my son Tyler and his wife Liz live. My daughter Erin and son-in-law Stephen, based in Greenville, South Carolina, are digital nomads who have spent the last three winters there working, living with, and skiing with Tyler and Liz. We’ll share a late family Christmas. So far, no grandbabies, and I’m jealous of classmates who are enjoying wonderful connections with theirs. In early February we’ll head to Guatemala, where Pat participates in her third community mosaic project in San Lucas Toliman, a largely Mayan community on the shores of Lake Atitlan; then off to Italy (Rome, Florence, and Tuscany) for three weeks in April; a self-guided cycling tour in Denmark or Provence in early June; an 11-day tour of Morocco with Erin and Stephen in October; and a two-week tour in Patagonia in January 2024. Gotta make hay while the sun shines, right? In between I’m sure I will find things to keep me busy around the West Hartford house we have lived in for 31 years, and plan to remain in for the foreseeable future (Dave Rosenthal’s sister, Diane Thomas ’78, is one of our many fantastic neighbors). Also on the list: remodeling our master bath, hanging out drinking coffee (and stronger stuff) and playing music with some of my buds who are already retired, and generally loving life. I really can’t wait!”

Russ Munson, living in Chester, Connecticut, retired last year after two decades in practice as a family physician there and two as a physician executive at hospitals and health plans in the region. He and Deb, married 45 years, spend a lot of time in traffic traveling to visit their daughter on New York City’s Upper East Side or their son in D.C., and the three grandchildren they have produced. Retirement allows Russ time for thrice weekly tennis and catching up on a backlog of nonmedical reading he’s been wanting to do. He keeps in touch with Roger Weisberg, Karen Freedman, and Harold Horowitz. For the past 40-plus years, Russ and Deb have spent most Februarys on Sanibel Island, which was devastated in the fall by Hurricane Ian. Russ reflects, “As sad as I am about likely missing a year or two, I feel very sorry for the folks who live there year-round and have lost a little piece of paradise . . . at least for the short term.”

Recently a number of our classmates ventured to New Hampshire as guests of the gracious Vin Broderick. According to Joe O’Rourke, “We had a terrific time reliving the good old days while catching up with our current news. It was great fun, but Vin made us hike to the point of exhaustion.” As you can see in the photo, the crew included Paul Margolin, Steve McCarthy, Dave Rosenthal, Joe, and Vin. J. D. Moore and Mark Flinchum had hoped to join this outing but were unable to make it.

Brad Kosiba has found beekeeping “intense this summer, as we tried to step up our game getting higher quality queens into our hives. Mercifully the church construction project is now complete and fading into memory and I am back to just leading maintenance. My house manager experience at Delta Tau has served me well!”  By the way, Brad and Dorothy married off two of their three sons in the spring of 2022, so it was quite a season of celebration for their family.

June Jeffries skipped a mid-October reunion planning meeting with the message, “Greetings all from the Mississippi Delta!” She was riding around, going to sites associated with Emmett Till, then to the B.B. King Museum. Her mother is from the Delta, and June has been going there for her whole life but has friends who had never been to Mississippi and were afraid to visit, so she became their tour guide and had a great time. On December 1, she topped that by attending President Biden’s welcoming ceremony for French President Macron in the Rose Garden. I insisted on pictures so she sent me one of her and the event swag, one of the two presidents mounting the podium, and a shot of the Bidens’ German shepherd romping in his fenced yard with a woman who she later realized was Jill Biden in exercise gear. June thinks her invitation to the event was due to her penchant for becoming a pen pal with presidents, starting with emails to Obama and most recently with one to Biden about the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson, to which he responded with a very nice letter in July. Stay tuned for June’s continuing adventures—after the Rose Garden visit, she wrote to Joe requesting to visit the Oval Office for five-minutes so she can see the bust or Rosa Parks that is there. Rosa Parks was a close friend of June’s, and June attended the National Gallery’s ceremony unveiling the bust.

Becky Peters-Combs is retired from teaching but she continues to direct plays (the count is up to 154 shows in the last 47 years). Becky relishes her time with her husband of 40 years, her four adult children, and her one grandson—all in Denver. Her other passions include her three koi ponds, gardening, tennis, travel, gratitude, and keeping in touch with her former students.

Ed Van Voorhees announced, “I must own up to another granddaughter born two weeks ago. I think this is the last. Linda and I are doing well and traveling more—France, Barcelona, and lots of domestic destinations.”  Meanwhile, John Tabachnick has been retired for a year now and says that he loves it. “Got to spend time with kids and grandkids. Doing some volunteer work and reading for enjoyment instead of medical journals. Not much travel yet but hope to do more this coming year.”

Richard Hume sent in a longer note. “I’m in my 40th year on the faculty of the University of Michigan, in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Development Biology. I just finished a nine-year stint directing our undergraduate neuroscience major, which graduates about 200 students a year. I’ll be phasing into retirement soon, with my final semester of teaching and university service in the winter term of 2024. Still active in research, with a major paper relevant to Parkinson’s disease published in Cell in June 2022 and just starting a new short-term project with a colleague.” In retirement, he and Lesley are looking forward to more travel, including visits with their daughter Rebecca ’01 in Brooklyn and their son Michael, an attorney in Chicago who shares custody of their two grandchildren, Jackson, 10, and Olivia, 8. Michael remarried last fall, and his second wife comes from a large family, so it sounds like Richard hopes more grandchildren will be coming.  Richard is looking forward to being at our 50th Reunion, which will also be a family affair, as it will be the 40th for his cousin Daniel Katz ’85. Daniel and his wife, Molly ’87, will also be there to celebrate the graduation weekend of their daughter Elizabeth who is named for Richard’s now-deceased younger sister. She succumbed to cancer at age 37 and started as an undergraduate at Michigan the year Richard joined the faculty. Richard recently endowed several awards for students in the University of Michigan honors program in her memory.

Rachel Hayes is delighted to report that she and her husband finally returned home after an 18-month displacement due to a major fire in their house. Although they were still living with daily visits to wrap everything up, they’ll probably be through even that phase by the time you read this and will be left with the joy of being home in their beautifully rebuilt home. With their son, Spencer, having completed his degree from Marist College, she can now sigh and say,  “All’s well.”

Carl Cavrell retired from teaching eight years ago and began working as a substitute teacher at his son’s school. Five years ago, he got divorced and is raising four sons. His oldest just started at Bryant University doing track decathlon, his youngest plays Premier soccer, and “the middle two boys unfortunately are playing football. Neither will end up with Belichick, I have to say!”

Ellen Kabcenell Wayne, who we haven’t heard from for years, took time to write from Alexandria, Virginia, tracing her path since she departed our class in 1974. Her entire story follows.

“I left Wesleyan a year earlier than most of you because I was in a big hurry to get married to Charley Wayne ’73, who had already graduated and was studying law at the University of North Carolina. From my current point of view, it seems like a silly thing to have done; I should have enjoyed all four years at Wes and then moved on to marriage, new location, etc. On the other hand, it’s hard to feel too bad about something that worked out in the long run. I spent my first year in Chapel Hill in a typing pool at the UNC Institute of Government (can’t say I liked it, but it was a good life lesson), overlapped with Charley in law school, then graduated and we moved to Alexandria, where we still live. I got a job in the employment section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice while Charley worked for a law firm in D.C. It was a great place for me to learn to litigate, but eventually a change in government administrations seemed likely to block us from doing the work we had focused on previously. So, I moved to a private firm that allowed me to continue the kind of litigation I enjoyed and valued.

“Life went on. Charley and I had three sons (two of whom are now Wes grads). I felt I’d spent enough time practicing law and decided to get a master’s in conflict management at George Mason University. After graduating from there, I got a challenging and fun job teaching graduate students at the University of Baltimore. Then a colleague I’d met while at the University of Baltimore called to tell me about a position in the General Counsel’s Office at the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). A friend of hers was looking to hire a lawyer with expertise in conflict resolution, and I was well qualified. DoDEA oversees the K–12 schools serving the children of DoD employees stationed overseas and on some of the U.S. bases as well. The office was 10 minutes from my home, and it also offered the opportunity to travel to the schools to provide trainings, etc. It gave me a chance to see places I might never have seen otherwise. I have now retired. We are fortunate to have two of our sons and their families living in this area, which gives us lots of opportunities to see them and the three granddaughters. Our eldest son lives with his wife and his son in Rotterdam, which is a lovely place to visit. I’m looking forward to our reunion and hope to see many of you when it comes around!”  We’ll be glad to see you too, Ellen!

Condolences

Ann Dallas sent me sad news. Her husband, David Ringold, died quite suddenly in early October. After 38 years of marriage, it’s been quite an adjustment for Ann. “But,” she says, “retirement has many benefits, including more time with our son’s family, and time to consider what the next steps might be.”  Ann has a one-year-old grandson, who I hope brings joy and light into this difficult time.

David Weinstock has been in Vermont since 1995. He is semi-retired, but reports on theater and opera productions for the local paper. He also leads the Otter Creek Poets weekly workshop, formerly a strictly local group, but now meeting in  “hybrid” Zoom mode (email david.weinstock@gmail.com if you’d like to join or visit). David’s poems will appear in Captaincy from Finishing Line Press in 2023. His wife, Ann Jones-Weinstock, retired from fundraising for Middlebury College, her alma mater, and is now working postretirement as executive director of the Trout Lily Foundation. Their older son Benjamin, 30, lives in Portland, Maine, pursuing digital art and working on a farm. In April, their younger son Daniel, a material science graduate student at Cornell, died unexpectedly at age 27. David says with poetic economy, “We are getting through that, each in our own way.” We wish David and Ann comfort.

Our class lost Jamie McNiff in May 2021. Wesleyan found out and notified me just this past fall. Thanks to Bill Devereaux for sending this memory: “Jamie was the epitome of a student-athlete. A good hockey player who played for the enjoyment of the sport, but an even better student. You could always count on him for an astute and often humorous observation of the absurdities of life.”

If you want to know what it’s like in Middletown these days, check out the November article in The New York Times that waxed almost poetic about our beloved and photogenic “Friendly and Reasonably Affordable” college town. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/realestate/middletown-connecticut-housing.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Better yet, mark your calendars now for our 50th Reunion weekend, coming May 25–28, 2025.  It’s snuck up on us quicker than we could ever have imagined.  We already have a committee hatching plans for a fabulous time, and we’re counting on a strong turnout. Don’t Miss It!

First word goes to folks who haven’t appeared in this column before. Corinne “Cory” Kratz sent news of her writing fellowship from the Bogliasco Study Centre for the Arts and Humanities to spend January 2023 in Bogliasco, Italy, finishing her book, Rhetorics of Value: Exhibition, Design, Communication.

Carl Cavrell retired from teaching in 2016. After tutoring and coaching gymnastics and soccer, he’s begun subbing at his kids’ school to prepare financially as the oldest of his four boys starts college this year. So much for having kids late!

Knox Cummin spent a few wonderful days with Jim Forster in Los Altos, California, remembering old times, talking about life since Middletown, and sailing on San Francisco Bay.

Sara Pasti is project director for Enlighten Peekskill, a public art installation of light-emitting sculptures, murals, and banners spearheaded by the Hudson Valley Museum of Contemporary Art, as part of downtown revitalization.

Brian Steinbach expects to be 95 % retired by October. Then he’ll convert a large collection of music tapes to CD, including a live performance by Tom Kovar ’76 that he considered lost! Brian told me Jane Hutchins returned to her Vancouver Island farm after a rare visit to Seattle to find her sheep had COVID. He also noted an uncaptioned alumni magazine photo of Wes’s first women’s hockey team includes Jane, Deb Kosich, and Diane Cornell.

The highlight of Brian’s summer was Bonnie Raitt’s Wolf Trap concert, who he first heard opening for Maria Muldaur at Wes around 1972.

Paul Margolin works in New Hampshire for BAE Systems, where he’s also developing Londonderry’s rail trail, keeping the neighborhood rotary garden blooming, and babysitting grandkids. The Margolins’ middle and youngest daughters live nearby and have provided two grandchildren with another coming soon. Their oldest is in Nevada studying PT after a fitness and dance career (Rockettes and Vegas stage). Paul and Linda are a font of travel news. In Chicago, they breakfasted with Karen and Mark Flinchum, retired and enjoying three grandchildren. In Denver, they visited Suzy and Dave Rosenthal at their new home. They’re also in touch with Joe O’Rourke (retired in West Hartford, awaiting grandchild #5); JD Moore (still in the Connecticut judiciary); Vinnie Broderick (retired and rehabilitating his house in central New Hampshire); and Dave Rosenthal and Steve McCarthy (see below).

Dave reports he and Suzy moved from Buffalo for mountain views, sunshine, and proximity to grandchild #1. Dave, editor of the Mountain West News Bureau, a regional collaboration of NPR stations, says, “I feel like a Wes freshman again, cramming to learn wildfires, drought, wolves, wild horses, and other issues.” In Denver, he welcomed Paul’s visit and reconnected with Becky Peters.

Steve McCarthy and Kathleen downsized from Rye to a Greenwich townhouse and welcomed their first grandson. Steve and partners at QE debuted their documentary on the late director Alan Pakula (Klute, All the President’s Men, Sophie’s Choice). Steve remains active as a Wes volunteer and looks forward to our 50th (?!#).

Lisa Anderson, Kathy (Kleinbard) Heinzelman, and Deborah (Marion) Brown remain close friends, meeting and talking regularly. In July they spent a weekend at Kathy’s home in Pound Ridge, New York, sharing joyous and difficult recollections of being early WesWomen.

Roger Weisberg and Karen Freedman welcomed twin grandchildren in April from son Daniel and his wife Jannine. Grandchildren through daughter Allison ’05 are Lionel (9) and Juno (6), who can’t wait to babysit! This fall, youngest daughter Liza got married. She’s an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center handling voter protection litigation. In June, Roger and Karen attended the Tuscany wedding of Shonni Silverberg’s ’76 and John Shapiro’s ’74 son. COVID slowed Roger’s film production work and exacerbated the traumas of foster children that Karen’s office, Lawyers for Children, represents.

Joost Brouwer reports his growing family is well, though a granddaughter’s cystic fibrosis is worrisome. In June, Joost was among four witnesses invited to meet with the Netherlands equivalent of the House Judiciary Committee. They explained what is wrong with the Dutch government’s policy against refugees from Afghanistan and Rwanda, who are unjustly accused  of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Joost has become an expert through his volunteer work assisting refugees.

Rachel (Adler) Hayes and husband John have a college grad looking for his first full-time position in fashion design—leads welcome! A May 2021 house fire displaced them. They hope to return home before November. They’ve learned a lot about the ugly side of insurance. Rachel completed a challenging term as synagogue president, featuring a senior rabbi’s retirement, selecting an interim replacement, the associate rabbi’s unexpected resignation, the first executive director’s hiring and resignation, community reactions to COVID, and massive transition, and raising more than $10 million. Time for a nap!

Ed Van Voorhees welcomed California granddaughter #3 from daughter Ellen and husband Carlos. Son Matt in Colorado used the COVID break to earn his MBA in finance. Kids and grandkids in D.C. and Nashville are fine. After two COVID years homebound and three tries, Ed and Linda traveled in France this spring—the Dordogne, Pays Basque, and a few days in Paris and Barcelona.

Cathy Gorlin and her husband spent three months renting and working remotely for the first time in Naples, Florida. Now that they know they can do it, next winter they’ll stay longer. Their son Ross graduated from med school and started a residency at Swedish Hospital in Denver. Their grandson starts first grade in D.C. this fall.