Tag: 1976

Martha Meade has been a painter in Los Angeles for many years now. In January she reported: “A great start to the year! My painting, La Vie en Rose, has been accepted into the group show BLOOM @ Shoebox Arts @ The Brewery Artist Complex in downtown LA.”

Mike Greenberg was awarded an honorary degree at Wes’s commencement on May 26, 2024.  You can read about all the honorees and their impressive accomplishments here.

Charlie Sedell passed away on January 27. His obituary notes that he worked at Electric Boat as a welder for 37 years; his Facebook page reveals that he was a true artist, creating extraordinary historical replicas of useful objects. After retiring he worked with the Waterford Historical Society to restore their model blacksmith shop to a working shop.

Seth Lerer has two publications of note. In January The American Scholar published his lovely essay “Bicentennial Beginnings”; you can (and should, particularly if you studied with Richard Wilbur) read it here. Routledge Press just released Seth’s Introducing the History of the English Language, available at www.routledge.com. Seth retired from UCSD in June 2023 and decided to unretire in 2024. He will be a visiting professor of literature at Claremont-McKenna. The students are lucky to have him!

From Bob Craft: “Two years ago my wife and family moved to Portland, Oregon. We love Portland, it’s very green and wet. My son, William Craft, has been made the data editor of The Guardian (investigative journalism).”

From Tom Kovar: “As you know, I am celebrating my 70th birthday by retiring, shortly afterward! Can’t wait.”

From Jack O’Donnell: “I turn 70 this month of April and although I’m playing it down, my family insists on playing it up and I’ll be playing along. . . .”

Barb Birney was “planning to visit Carol Bellhouse in New Mexico and then drive to Camp Wood, Texas, via Carlsbad Caverns to view the eclipse directly in the path of totality.”

Ken Carpenter, astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, was selected in early 2024 as a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Fellow, to develop a mission concept for placing a UV/optical interferometer on the lunar surface, by leveraging off the Artemis moon base infrastructure. The NIAC Phase 1 Opportunity is among the most competitive in all of NASA with a roughly 4% success rate. The announcements of the Artemis-enabled Stellar Imager (AeSI) selection can be found at these sites:

https://www.nasa.gov/general/niac-2024-selections

https://www.nasa.gov/general/lunar_long_baseline_optical_imaging_interferometer

https://hires.gsfc.nasa.gov/si/aesi.html

From Deb Neuman: “As I march toward my 70th birthday in October, life is continuing to present new opportunities and challenges. It seems I will never retire! In March I accepted a new position as director of development for Safe Futures, whose mission is to stop abuse, restore hope, and save lives of people impacted by domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and trafficking in southeastern Connecticut. I’ll be working to raise the remaining $3 million needed to build the Center for Safe Futures Family Justice Center in Waterford, Connecticut.

“For me, this is like coming full circle from my first job in a nonprofit (after 22 years at IBM), heading external relations for CARE, the international poverty fighting NGO. I can’t think of a better cause to serve during the remaining years of my professional life.

“On the personal front, I am now in the fourth year living on my own after my husband’s death. I still miss him very much, but have found good friendships locally that make life rewarding. Our son, Josh, has moved to nearby Taftville, Connecticut, after many years in faraway locations. I’m glad to have him closer.

“My late in life hobbies, in addition to cycling, now include tap dancing and pickleball. I love pickleball, but unfortunately have developed my first sports injury—pickle elbow, aka, tendonitis.”

From Betsy Eisenmann: “In Chelmsford, south-side daffodils in full bloom took a March snowstorm in stride, with most still standing up once the snow melted. Have fingers crossed that the buds of flowering shrubs won’t get frostbitten before they bloom, as happened last year. The Big Seven-O on February 2 and took a (return—Dad was stationed in Pearl Harbor 1970–72) trip to Hawaii with family toward the end of the month. Note to self: jet lag is much easier to get through at age 18, than at 70.”

From Kyrie O’Connor: “My husband, Van Dittmer, and I left Texas in 2017, when I retired from newspapers, and moved to a log cabin on 20 acres in very rural Vermont. He makes and sells Shaker furniture. I just cause trouble. Between his kids and mine, we have five grandchildren living, literally, from Maine to California. We thought we’d have traveled more by now, but the pandemic knocked that into a cocked hat. This year, we’re getting rolling again. I’d love to hear from Wes folks.”

From Lenny Femino: “I have been blessed to have reached 70, still married to my beautiful bride with two daughters that are healthy, happy, and working in their respective fields. But it is the grandchildren that have blown me away. It has been such a gift that surprised us once they came into this world. I still work, but on easier matters so that I am around to enjoy the family and my precious grandchildren.”

From Chris Mahoney: “I am married to Joan Barrett whom I met at the Darden School (UVA). I retired (I was retired) from Moody’s in 2007. We split our time between Eleuthera and a farm near Gettysburg. Joan is the president the National Beagle Club (I’m not kidding) and has a pack of 24 beagles, which she hunts all the time. I have nothing to do with that activity. I collect cars, that’s my hobby.”

From Bruce Demple: “We experienced this year’s event from Wimberley, Texas, where our older daughter had a wedding celebration about a week earlier (more on that in a moment). In our part of Texas Hill Country, it was pretty cloudy, but we did get occasional glimpses with gaps in the lower clouds, and those became increasingly, with even a diamond ring effect before the actual one, thanks to the effects of the high clouds. We shuffled constantly between eclipse glasses, sunglasses, and no glasses. The abrupt appearances of the eclipse in progress were accompanied by simultaneous whooping from a few parties in the nearby hills. So, we had the sense of being in a bigger group even if we couldn’t see it. The clouds didn’t cooperate at all during totality, but it became almost pitch black with an astonishing speed. I came to realize that in 2017 out in crystal-clear Wyoming, there had been twilight all around, as though sunrise or sunset was occurring equally in every direction.

“But no beefing about that because the high point of our trip had already occurred: our older daughter Marie and her husband Latane’s celebration. They’d already gotten legally hitched at Brooklyn City Hall several months ago, but this event both had a big emotional impact on the whole crowd, not just Sue and me, followed by a party that was epic. Lots of musicians, and they know how to do that.”

From Nat Needle: “It’s April! My 32 piano students of all ages and I begin preparation in earnest for our annual recital, June 1 this year. All expect to perform; as of today, all have selected their music! As usual, it’s a lush mix of genres based on divergent interests, including original compositions and arrangements, and a few arrangements that I’ve had to create for them. In 2023–24, I engineered more opportunities for students to perform throughout the year, and encouraged some to perform at local ‘open mics,’ in their faith communities and in their schools.

“I still intend to go, as gracefully and harmlessly as I can, from teaching full time to half time so I can get into more public community activity. This includes performing as well as organizing events and projects in harmony with my friends here who are pointed in an evolutionary direction. Come find me nat@natneedle.com.”

David Harmin said: “Hi, everyone!  Still buzzed from seeing Monday’s totality in Monteplier, Vermont.  Have loved working in Mike Greenberg’s lab, but I’m looking forward to retiring at the end of the year.”   David and I are excited to be celebrating our 70th birthdays this fall by traveling to North Carolina for the wedding of his younger son.

From Marc Stier: “OK, since you asked. Ever since I heard that the CP USSR had a position called “chief ideologist” I’ve wanted to have that job for the Democrats. Last May I created a new organization called the Pennsylvania Policy Center that is the functional equivalent in Pennsylvania. We are working now on campaigns for tax justice, a higher minimum wage, and full and fair funding of our public schools.”

From Susan (Petersen) Avitzour: “On the personal level, things are good. Fred’s and my deferred chuppah is set to take place this Sunday – unfortunately after your deadline, so I can’t send photos from this wedding. I’ll be going to the chuppah wearing a sling, though, having fractured my shoulder last week—but fortunately the sling will match the color of my wedding dress!        

“All this feels somewhat frivolous, I know, given the general situation. Fred and I are desperately and perhaps quixotically hoping for a ceasefire and hostage/prisoner exchange, the sooner the better— even more quixotically—one that may lead to a just and lasting solution for all of us in this tortured corner of the world.”

From Gary Halberstadt:

“Hiya Class,

Never check in but after viewing otherworldly full eclipse in home in Indy why not?

Still solo pediatrics;

amazing wife of 39 years;

three kids, one grandkid, and one guard cat;

daily music food and outdoors;

will try to make 50th.”

Bob Osborne continues to enjoy teaching voice as a faculty member at Columbia University/Barnard College and Vassar College. He splits his time between New York City and the Hudson Valley, grateful to be able to attend the Met Opera one day and shovel manure the next. Still active as a baritone, he recently sang a recital in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Dusting off recipes from his days in Middletown, he actively replenishes his homemade granola stores.”

From Steve Goldman: “After 44 years, I am retiring as of May 1 from my law firm, Robinson + Cole. The firm, founded in 1845, consisted of 66 lawyers when I began in 1980, and its only office was in Hartford. It is now 255 lawyers with offices in nine cities. I have been fortunate to be able to grow with the firm and have taken on a wide range of roles, including serving as the managing partner for several years and starting an insurance coverage litigation practice that now consists of over 40 attorneys in multiple jurisdictions. My career has also allowed me to be inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American College of Coverage Counsel. The cycle of life continues—I’ve now concluded that it is time for the next chapter, and I’m very excited to take on new challenges. In a strange way, it feels like being a freshman at Wesleyan all over again: little terrifying but also incredibly exciting as I explore new things that I can get involved in. I continue to live in West Hartford with my wife, Kathy ’78, and our four children are all embarked on exciting careers of their own.”

From Meredith Bergmann: “In a few weeks, on the 15th and 18th of May 2024, we will be celebrating the unveiling and dedication of my first new work of public art since the 2021 unveiling of my FDR Hope Memorial on Roosevelt Island, NYC .

“This new work is a commission for the historic town center of Lexington, Massachusetts. The monument, the first to celebrate women as participants in this place—often referred to as the birthplace of American liberty—is a free-standing ceremonial bronze gateway standing 12-feet high on a circular granite plaza. Among symbolic animals and plants, portraits of 24 women from Lexington’s history are sculpted in relief, with 12 different women and girls portrayed on each side. Visitors can stand in the central gateway and join hands with them.”

The unveiling ceremony took place on May 15, and on May 18, there was a  “Meet the Artist” event followed by the dedication.

Last notes for 2023! I hope you all had a peaceful and healthy end to 2023 and the best possible start of 2024.

Debra Haffner was recently honored with the World Association of Sexual Health’s Gold Medal for Lietime Achievement at their biannual global meeting.  She is also happy to report that she is engaged to the love of her life. As she said in her email, “Life is a blessing!” Heartfelt congratulations and best wishes, Debra, for both life events.

From Robert Buccino, who kindly responded to my request for memories (as well as recent news): 

“I’m originally a ’76er who took a year off and graduated in ’77. I retired after four decades in advertising and now split my time between NYC and Salisbury, Connecticut, with my wife of 41 years. I’m spending a lot of time with music these days, performing on guitar and piano at open mic nights in Litchfield and Berkshire Counties. I fondly remember music at Wesleyan—impromptu jam sessions with Tom Kovar, marveling at Nat Needle’sragtime piano chops, enjoying the Marching Ant Stompers jug band, seeing Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne in MoCon, and Dave Mason and Mahavishnu McLaughlin at the skating rink. Oh, and Orleans, of course. My daughter, Nora, finished her MBA at Stern last year and now works at McKinsey, when she’s not running marathons. I miss Dave Apicella and the Eclectic folks; fond memories.”

From Ron Epstein (to whom I send much gratitude for taking the time to send in such a lovely note): 

“Having enjoyed 36 years as a family doctor in an urban academic setting in Rochester, New York, attending to patients who spoke any of 30 languages and spanning the socioeconomic spectrum, I stopped in 2019, shortly before the pandemic. I also did inpatient palliative-care consults for 16 years at the large academic teaching hospital, and stopped that, too, in December 2023, and now have left clinical practice entirely. A bittersweet transition. Yet, my patients’ illnesses, as varied and unusual as they could be, were never as compelling as their stories, and the stories continue to inspire my teaching, writing, and research.

“Starting in 1999, I’ve written articles and a book, Attending, about the inner lives of physicians, exploring how physicians can flourish, explore, and move toward what gives them a sense of purpose and meaning in their professional lives, develop community, and attenuate the epidemic of distress and burnout. With a Rochester colleague, I developed and continue to offer workshops in mindful practice for clinicians worldwide. My research focus has been on improving communication between clinicians and patients/families facing serious illnesses and navigating end-of-life care. Now, I spend most of my research time supported by an American Cancer Society professorship, mentoring younger researchers, enjoying, vicariously, the successes of mentees and junior colleagues as they grow and deepen their work. None of this could I have imagined in 1976.

“Stopping primary care enabled me to put music in a more central role in my life. About the time I stopped primary care practice, I was taken on by a fabulous harpsichord teacher who had just been hired at the Eastman School of Music, and I’ve been practicing daily and again giving small performances.

“My wife, Deborah Fox, continues her work as a freelance lutenist and founder and artistic director of Pegasus Early Music, which offers world-class performances in western New York State. Before the pandemic we both traveled a lot, often in different directions; Deb to perform, me to give talks and workshops. Now we travel together more of the time. Malka, our youngest, is finishing her second year as an OB/GYN resident and lives an eight-minute drive from us. In late 2019 we became a grandparents, and we spend considerable time with Eli, his wife, Qianqian, and Summer and Arlen, in Los Angeles.

“We are not the first to discover that, in the ‘troisieme age,’ after children are launched and before health and energy wane, letting go of ambition brings more creativity, generativity, discovery, and depth, an in-the-moment richness to the small moments of life, reveling in not knowing, directing passionate energy toward what really matters, and prioritizing love and friendship, regardless of the current state of the world.”

From Jim Rolston: “We did finally get to take the airstream to the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival and the Black Bear Festival! Here is a photo of the rainy night at Black Bear.”  (https://www.blackbearmusicfest.com/)

From Melissa Blacker: “Samara Louise Bonham-Rynick was born on September 2. She joins her big brother, Isaiah, who is close to turning five. And my husband, David Rynick ’74, and I continue to lead our Zen organization, Boundless Way Zen Temple, with its main center in Worcester, Massachusetts, and practice groups around the country and the world.” (www.boundlessway.org)

Byron Haskins and his wife, Gabrielle, have ended their adventure living in Montreal and have returned to Michigan (as he notes, “at least this time around”). If you’re on Facebook, find and “friend” Byron; he sometimes posts links to his music, and it’s worth hearing.

From Betsy Eisenmann: “As a now genuine ‘old person,’ my spouse and I went on two cruises in the past year—not to drink and carouse but see some sights we’d missed thus far. [In] June it was Alaska (Holland America) and in September the coast of Maine (American Cruise Lines, a riverboat type of ship). We had gone on their Snake River/Columbia River Cruise in 2022, which was excellent. Other than that, the spouse works part time as a driver for Audi of Nashua (some people just can’t entertain themselves after retiring!) and is the secretary of the town’s Recycling Committee—which entails not only attending meetings but overseeing and volunteering at the various drop-off events held during the year. As for me, I continue in my church choir and the church-associated Garden Committee and ‘Creation Care’ Committee (environmental, that’s the Diocese’s cute name in quotes). AND—pay attention, class—I just finished this year’s NaNoWriMo challenge, for the first time, with 64,984 words. (The minimum is 50,000 words in 30 days) My professors and other teachers can affirm that I can be quite verbose when writing.”

From Bruce Demple: “We had a combined Thanksgiving and (belated) birthday celebration for me, at a rental house that our daughters arranged, and it was outstanding. Both daughters got married recently, so we continued those celebrations. It was not without challenges: three-plus inches of snow on the evening we arrived, which forced one daughter to abandon a car at the foot of the very last hill… of course it got towed. On T-day itself, all was going smoothly until there was a local power outage when the turkey was only about halfway done. We kept the oven shut, and we were planning to get the outdoor grill going, when the lights returned after approximately two hours. So, we extended the cooking time, and nobody got sick! (It was also very good—one son-in-law gets to do the honors from now on!) The next day was for the birthday celebration, also a lot of fun. The photo is from that afternoon; for some reason, the instruction was to ‘look like you’re praying’; I’m not as good at the Vulcan sign as I once was. As one of the oldest members of our class, now clocking 70, I have always tried to share my wisdom and good judgement… Ha, ha, just kidding!”

From Sue (Feinstein) Barry:  “My husband, Dan Barry, and I moved to Arlington, Massachusetts, during the pandemic to help take care of our granddaughter. Now we’re looking forward to the birth of a second granddaughter in mid-January. My third book will be published on January 30, 2024, and is titled Dear Oliver: An Unexpected Friendship with Oliver Sacks.”

From Barb Birney:  “This year brought a special vacation. I took my niece and her father, Bob Birney ’81, on a tour of Northwest national parks, Oregon beaches, California redwoods, and Glacier National Park. As it was a camping trip, it was an overall comedic experience with much laughter. Apparently, I am to be gifted at Christmas this year with a mallet to assist with tent stakes in the future.”

From Susan (Petersen) Avitzour:  “I’ve had quite an eventful half year.

“First of all, this past August I got married, in a civil ceremony in Amsterdam, to Fred Landman. Like me, Fred (a native of Amsterdam) lost his wife in 2019 after a long marriage. Fred and I met in 2021, in cyberspace; we soon discovered that before her marriage to Fred, his late wife had been a friend of Daniel’s and mine—we later found some beautiful photos of Daniel dancing at their wedding.

“We were planning a Jewish ceremony in Jerusalem for October 15, but then came Hamas’s attack on October 7 and the ensuing war. Since then we’ve been living with sirens and explosions from far and from near. Both of us are lucky enough not to have relatives near Gaza or children (or grandchildren) in the army, but everyone here knows someone who has been and is being personally and intensively affected by this horrific war. And we know that once it’s over, our lives will probably be irrevocably changed.

“I expect to be coming out of retirement from my profession as a psychotherapist (specializing, interalia, in PTSD), in order to help some of those traumatized by the attack and its aftermath. In the meantime, I’m praying for the safe return of all the hostages being held in Gaza, as well as for the people of Gaza to be able as soon as possible to rebuild their lives.

“May I have better news for the next Class Notes!”

And now for some of those memories I mentioned . . .  in response to my mention of David Harmin’s memories of Harriman Hall, I received this:

Cathy Popkin: “Re: David and the broadcasts from his window—I have a vivid (and indelible) memory of the humpback whales…”

Tom Kovar: “Well, it’s [the memory] from the day I met David, which did indeed involve the windows. The big Trinity game was going on below, and somebody had hung a rude, insulting banner out the window. A group of big, angry Trinitarians pounded up the stairs to an anticlimactic conclusion. They got locked out. See if DAH has anything to add.”

And from David Harmin himself: “Recalling my freshman year living in the fourth-level Harriman Madhouse is like playing with magnets: I’ve got all the pieces but they can be stuck together in multiple magical ways. The normal pattern included Jay Hoggard’s vibes’ glorious tones sluicing down the hall, Ray Herrmann’s husky Boris getting all up in the business of the hall’s cat, Bernie Possidente and I blasting sonic experiments out our window across the field and over Foss Hill. Plenty of variations, such as. . .

“During that game that the Cardinals played against the Trinity Bantams, there was a long, wide banner that my hallmates had hung out and were threatening for at least the first two quarters to unfurl from a couple of windows at the field end of the building. This may have been proceeded by water balloons getting catapulted out the central window, thanks to an able piece of elastic someone (not me!) found somewhere and nailed to the jambs. I think that was the same day, probably was, and if so it must have riled the opposing supporters, in retrospect. Anyhow, despite the strong and reasonable objections and increasing alarm of our R.A., that banner wound up unwinding after all—a wisp of wind must’ve caught a corner—and jeez, it turned out to contain a message painted in a most legible font: ‘Bantams are cocks.’ A truism on the face of it. But in the event, more complicated.

“It surely did rile the Trinity fans. The clearest evidence of their displeasure came from the growling and pounding sounds quickly growing from down on the first floor. This was a different kind of threat; less cerebral. Glass may have been breaking below. We were saved, though, to the best of my recollection, by our goodwill ambassador Bob Thompson, who could charm anyone. Confrontation averted, sign removed, peace restored. And well, now I wonder whether that was the same day that the cat wound up outside that same window—not on the ledge but all the way down there on the sidewalk, unharmed but for the PTSD of being chased yet again by the dog.

“Actually, that was typical.”

From Nina Davis-Millis: 

“After 38ish years at MIT, I’ll be retiring from my position as director of Community Engagement for the MIT Libraries in January. My plans for retirement include helping to care for Christopher Millis’s and my first grandchild, Zoe Davis-Millis, born in September. Zoe’s other regular Wesleyan caregiver is her father, Simon ’12. I’m also hoping to step up my political activities, building toward the November ’24 election cycle, and who knows—maybe I’ll get back to some music making too. Christopher is immersed in translating the work of Armenian author Krikor Beledian, along with his longtime collaborator, Taline Voskeritchian. He’s also having a grand time selling all kinds of collectibles at a delightful Etsy store (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtandDesignMatters).”

From Maggie Heffernan, this very sad note: “It is with great sadness that I must tell you that Anita Hersh died suddenly on September 13. was happy to see Jeff Kahn in October when he came to NYC for Anita’s Memorial Service, which was held at the Union League Club on October 28. Anita was president and CEO of Lister Butler. She was an incredible intellect and extraordinarily generous with her friends giving of herself in every way. If you ever had a medical condition, Anita was the person to call because she always knew who the best doctors were. My family called her Dr. Anita! She was a great philanthropist and very generous with her synagogue, Jewish Center of The Hamptons, The Blue Card (an organization that supports U.S.–based Holocaust survivors and their descendants) and the Park Avenue Armory. Personally and financially she loved supporting young artists.”

You can find her obituary here:  https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/anita-hersh-obituary?id=53290102

From me!: 

In September we had a minireunion of some of the freshman East College folk. It’s funny what will trigger the most vivid memories, isn’t it? The little things struck me with greatest force—Beth’s smile, Janet’s laugh, everyone’s voice. We may not look entirely the same (although we’re still recognizable, I think), but we sound the same, and we still use the same mannerisms and inflections. A turn of the head or a particular gesture would immediately send me back to 1972. My only regret is that I was too discombobulated by being in college to understand what a fantastic group of people I was privileged to live with freshman year!

Thanks to everyone for such an enthusiastic response to my plea for notes! We’ve heard from several people who have never sent in a note before. Here’s the latest, in the order I received it:

From Don Fallati: “I have recently joined the Board of Trustees of Print Center New York (https://www.printcenternewyork.org/). It is the leading nonprofit exhibition space in New York dedicated to exploring the medium of prints. The Print Center offers interdisciplinary exhibitions, innovative scholarship, educational programming, and digital resources, and it has recently opened a new, ground-floor space at 535 West 24th Street. It’s in the heart of the Chelsea Arts District, and I encourage anyone interested to visit as the Center always has interesting exhibits.

“My wife (Ruth Pachman ’78) and I have been collecting prints and works on paper for many years, mainly focused on modern and contemporary artists. We are also excited about Wesleyan’s new art gallery being constructed in tandem with the renovations to the PAC. It will be a great new arts space in the center of campus and a showcase for the school’s significant art collection.”

From Nat Needle: “This might be fitting: my old Alpha Delt roommate, J. Mark Beamis ’77, came out from Boston for my birthday show in Worcester and recorded this. The evening revolved around accompanying eight different vocal soloists, so I only got to sing a couple myself [including] a 1931 tune I hadn’t done in maybe 40 years, a request from vocalist and erstwhile bandmate Tina Le, who prefers Perry Como’s more relaxed version.”

From Elyse Grasso: “The beginning of August saw ground being broken, finally, for the rebuild of my house that was burned to the ground in the December 30, 2021, Marshall Fire and wind event.”

From Tom Kovar: “I’m still pursuing three creative outlets (music, fiction, photography), and the photo is from a brief but outstanding family vacation on Cape Cod.”

From Merle Kummer: “I’m pleased to report that I’ve helped found the CoLAB High School Stem Career Collaboration, which just incorporated as a nonprofit in April 2023. We connect Watertown (Massachusetts) High School Students with local STEM professionals to inspire them to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math. Here’s our new website:  http://bit.ly/WHS-CoLAB.”

From Jaimee Kurfirst Mirsky:  “Not much new to report except a new granddaughter, Ruby. She is the fourth grandchild and first girl of the bunch. Jay and I are enjoying retirement—we both spend as much time as possible with the kiddos, and lots of time working in our garden. I’ve been part of an online classics book group since the beginning of COVID. I never wanted to join a book group before, but the time was right, and this one is pretty special—we actually read and talk about the books. 🙂 I’ve also been advancing my knitting skills and doing tutoring for a local literacy organization. Not exciting, but I’m fine with that at the moment. I’m including a photo of the family from a recent week on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.”

From Byron Haskins: “Gabrielle and I reconfirmed our wedding vows on August 12, after 20-plus years of everything you can imagine in a partnership during turbulent times (but I won’t get into the details that include getting her citizenship because she believed 2016 was the time for the first female POTUS and seeking a third act in Canada because it wasn’t). It was a joyful recommittal, small group of friends and family on our back patio. Tears shed, laughs laughed.  Also we sold the property in Quebec, are ending our apartment lease in Montreal, and consolidating in Michigan for the next leg of our journey. I will miss Montreal, as we made a few friends there and got a bit closer to Quebecois family during the last two years. I still volunteer sometimes with the Michigan Democrats as part of the Senior Caucus (one fight against ageism) and the county party organization, and continue my hobby of creating technology-assisted one-man-band esoteric music under the label of ‘the ignorant savants,’ which is a poke at how we Americans have a tendency to plow into things as if we are all-knowing when we actually generally keep heads-in-the-sand about the requirements of a common good, a common ethos, or a historical use of convention. It’s an end run around facing growth-enhancing cognitive dissonance. Also I’m keeping the door open on the Classmate Conversations for which you can contact me and Joanne Lukitsh about anytime— if any two or three classmates want to chat about something chat worthy, I’m willing to produce the video and post it on our Wes76Alum YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Wes76Alum.”

From March Boal: “Life is good! My two sons are grown and started on their careers. I just got back from a week on Cape Cod, where I worked several summers while at Wesleyan—it is still beautiful but considerably more crowded. I have not retired yet—I am still enjoying teaching economics at Drake University in Iowa. By the way, I have a message for any high school seniors daunted by the decline of affirmative action: we have empty seats here at Drake. We may not be as prestigious as Harvard, but our professors knock themselves out for students and our graduates do quite well in the job market.”

From Leslie Gabel-Brett: “I am feeling fortunate that I have love, health, and family in abundance. Carolyn and I took a great trip to Italy with our daughter and 15-year-old granddaughter. We are also enjoying summer vacation on Cape Cod with all our kids and grandkids—we made them play pickleball! I am keeping my creative brain cells active by developing a one-act play about Victoria Woodhull and Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. And I am happy to continue as a visiting faculty member at Wes, teaching a course on social activism and theories of change. I share with and gain inspiration from the next generations who will do their part to repair the world.”

From David Cohen: “I had my (roughly) annual reunion with Michael Greenberg and Matt Paul and our spouses in Boston this spring. Sadly, Stewart Shuman missed the affair this time. My wife, Sandy, calls these annual events “Seven Doctors and Me.” She only has a master’s degree, poor thing. As usual we walked many miles, ate, drank, and talked family, art, politics, Wesleyan, and science while touring the Boston Public Library and Mike’s famous lab. I’m recently semiretired to the Berkshire Mountains, woodcarving, and working on writing a book on some local history. Check out my COVID lockdown creation, a self-published children’s book called The Amazing Life of Squirt the Water Drop. It only took me 25 years to go from concept to publication. My youngest two kids live on Maui and are emotionally traumatized but physically safe!”

           Norm Kerner, who is retired from his long career as a record producer and recording studio designer/owner, now oversees operation of his two studios in Hollywood, California. Here’s a look at one of them.

           From Debra Neuman: “Barbara Strauss invited me to spend a week with her at Quisisana Resort in Center Lovell, Maine, in August, a place she and her late husband Jeff have loved for many years. It was a wonderful week and here’s a photo of us playing pickleball, a new passion.”

            From Cheryl Woodson: “Talk about how to ‘live out loud and age excellently!’ I’m 67. My Aunt Terri (in the middle) is 96, and her main runnin’ buddy, Miss Edna, is 103! I’ve been posting their wisdom on my Facebook and LinkedIn pages for the last couple months.

           “I’m also gearing up to offer two online courses in November (National Family Caregiver and Alzheimer’s Awareness Month) To Survive Caregiving—Yes, you CAN! offers info and insights from To Survive Caregiving: a Daughter’s Experience, a Doctor’s Advice that won first place in the 2022 Writer’s Digest awards for Best Self-Published Books—Inspirational/Motivational Category. Dementia: The ‘Slow Walk Home’ (thusly named by Bishop T. D. Jakes) covers the genetics, physiology, and pathology impact on people who live with Alzheimer’s and other dementias and the people who love them, treatments, and ways for everyone to cope.

           “I’m launching an updated website at www.drcherylwoodson.com [and] will begin social media marketing for the courses in September. Stay tuned!”

           From Lyle Weinstein: “I am not sure what people might be interested in reading, but my wife suggested that it might be helpful to people to mention the two books I have written on caregiving for dementia patients, The Alzheimer’s Family Manual, and, more recently, The Montessori Alzheimer’s Project. There are a few online videos of talks I have given on these topics, such as the recent one in Halifax, Nova Scotia at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elk5NVdt6E8.

“Other things I have edited and published include a four-volume series on Dissociative Identity Disorder and early childhood trauma entitled Engaging Multiple Personalities, several books on Tibetan Buddhism including Penetrating Wisdom by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Devotion by Lama Pema Tsewang, and others that are not sold on Amazon . . . .

           “I have retired from practicing law (which I did in Colorado and California) but still assist my wife, Riza, in the Montessori school community she established in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Throughout all these years, I have continued my study and practice of Buddhism, helping to establish some meditation and retreat centers in the United States and Canada, in particular, Thrangu Monastery in Richmond, British Columbia.”

           From Susan Mitchell and Sue Heller Clain: “We got together at Sue’s home in Media, Pennsylvania. Sue has retired from teaching economics at Villanova University. I was visiting my son and his family, including my 2-year-old grandson in Philadelphia. I am also at the very beginning stages of seeking ordination to the Episcopal priesthood in Maryland. We’ve been friends since being assigned adjoining suites in Lawn Avenue (CSS) in 1972.”

           From Meredith Bergmann: “I taught a workshop on ekphrastic poetry at the Frost Farm Poetry Conference [in August] in Derry, New Hampshire, and had a wonderful time. Participants came from all over the country, and were serious, enthusiastic, and irreverent—lots of interesting conversations and debates about all aspects of poetry, biography, and art.

           “On [August 21], we drove to Albany for the unveiling of the Ginsburg bust in the State House; photos from the event are at the link https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-unveils-portrait-carving-immortalizing-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-new-york.

           In late August “will be the ceremonial groundbreaking for my Lexington, Massachusetts, sculpture, Something Is Being Done. The bronze won’t be installed until next May—it’s at the foundry, in progress.” Meredith Bergmann and MA State Senator Cindy Friedman

           From Rob Williams: “I am currently living in Maui and working as a disease physician. I have been here since March of 2021. Although I didn’t get to see him, Elliot Epner was here and left right before I arrived. I have not seen his name listed in the oncology department. I missed him by about a month. I’ll be here until March of 2026. I’ll then be looking to retire.

           “I survived the Maui fires and we are very safe. The entire island is in mourning as we all know someone who has lost a home and/or family members. Recently heard from Pete McArdle. He is retiring after working many years as a veterinarian. More recently he was a research coordinator at Novartis. I have been very busy with the COVID-19 pandemic and retirement is looking very good right now.”

           From Polly Hays: “Greetings from Denver, where we had the rainiest June on record, and then in July and August are continuing to break heat records. I continue to enjoy the leisurely pace of life in retirement, and recently told someone that I am a homebody who likes to travel. This winter I made my way to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, for a singing and mediation retreat; we also enjoyed the reward of a spectacular view of the northern lights one evening. Yes, they were just like the pictures, and yes, it was cold out, about minus 20 [degrees] Fahrenheit. This summer, I had a totally different adventure in Atlantic Canada. Trip included hiking in Cape Breton Island National Park and experiencing the tides of the Bay of Fundy in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

           “Below are a few pictures from Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park in New Brunswick, where you can walk on the ocean floor at low tide, and kayak among the rocks at high tide. Now that was fun!!!”

             From Cindy Arnson: “The highlight of 2023 was the June wedding outside of LA of our son Micah to Maya Paz. The photo says it all. We were very happy! I should be easy to spot; others in the photo are my husband, Gerry; oldest son Zack (a U.S. Foreign Service Officer); and Micah’s twin sister Jeanne (a grad student at George Washington University, in clinical mental counseling). We’re sorry to have Micah and Maya on the West Coast, but since we racked up a lot of frequent flyer miles during the pandemic, we have a nice cushion for travel.

“After 30 years of not being in the classroom, over the summer I taught a class on Latin America for midcareer master’s students at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS, where I did my graduate work). I’ll continue in the fall of 2023 and accompany the group to Chile in mid-October. It’s challenging but rewarding and keeps me on my toes. So much for ‘retirement,’ but I’m very happy not to have to fundraise, attend staff meetings, fill out personnel evaluations, etc., all part of my previous job at the Wilson Center.  We feel blessed to be in good health, have kids we’re proud of, and additional time for hobbies like woodworking and fussing over our garden of native perennials!”

           From Douglas Morris: “Since I have never before sent in a note, let me boil down what I have done between graduating Wesleyan and retiring a year ago: Mostly I worked as a criminal defense lawyer for indigent defendants in federal court, largely trying to persuade judges to give my clients less time or keep them out of the hellholes of federal prisons altogether; I now am adjuncting at Brooklyn Law School, teaching a seminar on the Nazi legal system; I have also moonlighted as an independent legal historian writing two books on lawyers who resisted the Nazis (Justice Imperiled: The Anti-Nazi Lawyer Max Hirschberg in Weimar Germany [University of Michigan Press, 2005] and Legal Sabotage: Ernst Fraenkel in Hitler’s Germany [Cambridge, 2020]), and I am now finishing up a short book on the anti-Nazi Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, criticizing his badly flawed theory of resistance; I am married (happily, still getting along), and have two children and three grandchildren, each of whom I have tried early on to introduce to ideas of social justice by reading to them Yertle the Turtle, which I first came across in the 1973 Nat Needle production of Dr Seuss! at Wesleyan after I landed a minor role as a turtle, an oppressed turtle.”

           From Steve Smith: “I started at Wes with the Class of 1975 but took 1974 off and graduated in 1976. I married before senior year and we ran and lived in the Alumni Guest House, so I wasn’t too visible, either. But with friends in classes before and after mine, maybe someone will remember me.

“After graduation we spent 10 years in Oklahoma and have lived in the North Carolina mountains since then. No prestigious awards or inspiring work experiences, but 48 years married to my best friend and 52 together is worth a lot. Four years ago we both retired and haven’t looked back.

“Since junior high Jean has been an artist and I’ve been a ham radio operator. After retiring, we started going to state and national parks about once a week, where I talk to folks around the U.S., Canada, and Europe on a small radio and Jean paints two or three watercolors with pen-and-ink added in the two hours we’re usually there. Then we visit that park before looking for a mom-and-pop restaurant in the area and checking out a new-to-us town. So far, we’ve gone out 197 times to 142 parks in six states. It’s been fantastic, having a one-day vacation every week!

            “One photo is of my setup one day last year in South Carolina, with Georgia across the river.  I sometimes use a microphone but prefer Morse code using the WWII key shown. I talked with 97 people that day. The other photo (below) is a painting Jean did at a park last month. It’s been fun watching her progress in creating paintings quickly without knowing in advance what they would be.”

            From Desmond Whitney: “I don’t have much to report except to say that being nearly 70 is not anything like what I would have imagined when we were all together in Middletown. Without a doubt, the last decade or so has been the best chapter of my life (recognizing I can say that in part because I’m lucky to have continuing good health).”

           Notes from Facebook (provided here with permission):

           Seth Lerer retired from UCSD in June, after a stellar career as a professor of literature at Princeton, Stanford, and finally UCSD. Retirement hasn’t slowed down his productivity; this year he provided an essay for the recently published Textual Communities, Textual Selves:  Essays in Dialogue with Brian Stock, and next January his Introducing the History of the English Language will be published by Routledge Press.

           Jon Daniels has relocated to upstate New York after a long stay in Phoenix, Arizona. Welcome home!

           Marjorie Allen Dauster and her husband Rip ’74 met David Harmin and me for lunch at Rein’s Deli not so long ago; they regaled us with tales of their recent trips to Iceland and Italy and, to be honest, I can’t remember where else because they’re traveling so much! Both are in good health and are greatly enjoying their grandchildren. You wondered why I mentioned puffins in Iceland? This is why!

           From Melissa Blacker: “David and I are still living in Worcester, Massachusetts, which we call the spiritual center of the universe. At least, it is for us. We have moved out of the Buddhist Temple that we founded 14 years ago. The Temple is supported by the local and now national and international Zen community that we started 30 years ago, and though no longer living on site, we are still the guiding teachers. Our new official name is Boundless Way Zen Temple:  www.boundlessway.org. David and I live a 10-minute walk from the Temple, which was closed to in-person visits for the three years of the pandemic, but during that time we found a new life on Zoom. And now we’re once again open to the public. The Temple has an acre of gardens and winding paths in the backyard, with a koi pond and waterfall. If you’re ever in Worcester, feel free to take a stroll and enjoy the flowers, shrubs, and statues.

           “Our daughter and her husband are expecting their second child in early September, a girl, and are the happy parents of a four-year-old boy. He calls us ‘Baba’ and ‘Nana,’ and they live about an hour away, so we get to be with him once or twice each week. And we’re still together, enjoying our entry into aging.”

           From Jim Rolston: “We bought carbon-fiber gravel bikes when we retired just as COVID hit. Good way to be outside and away from folks. Studded tires for riding on ice! We did a bit over 1,000 miles on the rail trails that first year of COVID. Perfect time to retire and the perfect way to get fresh air, exercise, and stay away from people!”

           And, finally, from the Harmin household: “David is still working full time in Mike Greenberg’s lab at Harvard Medical School; it’s hard to retire when you love your work and your coworkers!  He is spending his spare time singing with the local Vox Lucens choir and walking our ancient, doddering dog around Cambridge. I am enjoying retirement more with every passing day and am keeping busy volunteering with the Weavers Guild of Boston.

         We both feel incredibly lucky to enjoy continuing good health, wonderful friends, and a home in the best neighborhood either of us have ever enjoyed. See you at the 50th! 

Susan Jung writes: “I’ve been happily retired for the last 10 years, doing the usual volunteering, genealogy, and traveling. I’m struggling to master Mandarin, which isn’t my family’s dialect, but beggars can’t be choosers. I live right next door to another Wesleyan alum, Robert Nick Anderson ’68.”

Cheryl Woodson shares that “The Democratic Women’s Caucus invited me to participate in their March 3 conference on issues that affect women. A five-woman panel of experts explained that caregiving is a women’s issue, and why the face of financial insecurity in aging is FEMALE. We recommended specific strategies to more accurately assess the needs of unpaid family caregivers and the poorly paid caregiver workforce and inform them of legislative progress.

“This month, Writers Digest will announce that the second edition of my first book, To Survive Caregiving: A Daughter’s Experience, A Doctor’s Advice, won first place in the 30th Annual Award for Best Self-Published Books, non-fiction, inspirational/self-help category (out of 1,192 submissions).

“My empty nest has become a temporary full house: both adult kids, my six-year-old grandson, and two cats. On the one hand, it’s been fun to have the band back together again, but it has also been a challenge for all of us. Come September, come!

“I’m back in high-intensity interval training to finally lose the COVID 20. I’m also polishing novel #2, which I finished while the sun came up over a balcony on the Smooth Jazz Cruise in February. My pseudonym is Teria Robens.

“I offer workshops for women, but I should also write a book about my experience dating over 60.

“That’s it for now. Anyone who wants to book me for an event or just give me a hug can reach me at cew[at]drcherylwoodson.com.”

Oliver Griffith is “happy to say that my request for French citizenship, which has been pending for over three years, was approved in February. Since I’ve been in Paris since 2007 and intend to stay in France, it makes sense. Moreover, I grew up in Germany, so it’s a homecoming to Europe of sorts.”

Jack O’Donnell writes: “As my career in law was winding down last year, I was fortunate that a longtime client, who was gravely injured by five New Haven police officers, wanted me to represent him in his civil case. What has made this such an amazing experience is that I brought Benjamin Crump in to assist me and together we are working toward an historic settlement with the City of New Haven. It is a tragic case of gross inhumanity toward an arrestee but in addition to getting our client full compensation, we are seeking major procedural and legislative changes. For example, retrofitting prisoner conveyance vans with seatbelts in New Haven and elsewhere and a medical civil rights law where detainees must be asked if they need medical attention and be provided it if requested. All in all, a rewarding way to end my career.”

Tom Kovar is “aiming for retirement in June of 2024. Counting the months but not yet the weeks or days. Still enjoying my various creative pursuits.”

B. J. Buckley says: “How are we doing with winter? This was Interstate 80 across southern Wyoming between Rawlins and Hanna. Four to 6 feet of snow fell, and then it drifted. They got FOUR rotary plows like this stuck, one after the other, also the huge tow truck that came to pull them out . . . took 18 hours to get everyone extricated. Parts of eastbound lanes near Evanston are still not open.

“Montana not much better, weeklong whiteout  (visibility at my place, about 6 inches in front of my face), 55- mph wind with gusts past 80 . . .  which DID blow some of the gravel roads near me completely clear, though you couldn’t actually SEE the road. ‘Course, now my yard has 10-foot drifts. And it’s snowing again.

“The Rocky Mountain states clearly need new names . . .  Wyarctica? Montundra? Coldorado? North and South Polekota?

“And then there are the nice folks who moved here during the pandemic who still do not have snow tires, never mind chains, and who set off driving to town (31 miles) in a blizzard wearing T-shirts and sandals. A coat? Nope. (No, we did not let them become ice sculptures. Yes, their car is still in the ditch. For their own protection.)”

Bruce Demple writes: “Last July, my wife Sue and I camped in northeastern Utah with Chris Thomas, who started with us in 1972. Chris drove from Chico, and we arrived via Salt Lake City. The first couple of days was in Dinosaur National Monument, which was superb, if hot as hell. Luckily, Chris arrived first and managed to get our campsite moved to a place with at least a little shade. We then drove up to the rim of Flaming Gorge Canyon (where the photo below was taken), for two to three much cooler days that were also great.

“Unrelated, Sue and I stopped in Newton, Massachusetts, the last weekend of February (2023) to spend a couple of days with Bonnie Katz ’77 and Rich Gallogly, which was a welcome reunion as always.  We were nearby neighbors in Newton for almost 20 years, so it’s always a reunion to spend time with them—and it’s always too short, at least for us!”

Debra Haffner shares: “For the next two years, I am serving as the interim minister at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Huntington, Long Island, and would love to welcome Wes friends at worship on Sunday mornings, in person or online. My long-term marriage ended during COVID, and I am now enjoying my life’s great love story with a new partner. Life is good!”

Ethan Bronner writes: “My wife Naomi and I moved to Tel Aviv a couple weeks ago where I will be Bloomberg Israel bureau chief and senior Mideast editor for the next few years. It was an unexpected offer from Bloomberg and we had to think a little bit about it because we now have a seven-month-old grandson, Hugo Bronner, son of Eli ’10 and daughter-in-law Maheshie. But we will visit, they will visit. And I couldn’t say no to a last foreign posting hurrah for this old man. It is my fourth tour in Israel as a correspondent, each for a different news organization (Reuters, Boston Globe, New York Times, and this one) and I plan to submit this fact to the Guinness Book of World Records. Israel is facing an existential identity crisis and it’s a heck of a time to be here.”

Joe Reiff says, “I am elated to announce the birth of my fourth grandchild and second granddaughter, Ivy Geraldine Reiff, born in Baltimore on March 6, 2023, to our daughter-in-law and son, Jenni and Joseph. Her middle name is after my mother, who died in February 2022. As my parents said long ago after the birth of our first child, ‘Grandparenting is great!’ I retired in 2020 after 30 years teaching religion at Emory & Henry College, and my wife and I remain in Abingdon, Virginia. I am keeping busy, including work on a book about the advent of clergywomen in Mississippi Methodism.”

Nat Needle is “still in Worcester, Massachusetts, deep into the musical growth of 40-plus piano students ages five to seniors. Teaching classical, jazz, gospel, calypso, popular (vintage to recently released and not just USA). Also composition, theory, self-accompaniment for vocalists, and music appreciation. AND improvisation, sometimes paired with improv storytelling! Just starting arc toward many fewer students, much more community engagement through performance, and much less income earning. Sons Asa and Noriyoshi are helping me complete the shift by the end of 2024. Please reach out to me: nat[at]natneedle.com. ‘Dr. Seuss’ alumni: 50th anniversary cast/crew reunion in November? What Say You?”

Meredith Bergmann is doing marvelous work! In The New York Times read “Million-Dollar Staircase Adds a New Face: Ruth Bader Ginsburg”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/12/nyregion/ruth-bader-ginsburg-albany.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

“And on March 8, an unveiling at the New York State Museum in Albany of the one-third-height model for my 2020 Women’s Rights Pioneers monument.”  http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/womens-history-month

Karen Gervasoni writes that “On May 11, I married my sixth-grade sweetheart on the beach in Kennebunk. It was a beautiful day, with just our kids, our priest (a friend from high school) and his husband, and a dear mutual friend and her husband. We spent our six-week honeymoon in the fall meandering cross country in our travel trailer. Life is good!”

And a bit of news from the Harmin household: After working at one thing or another since 1968, I stepped into full retirement and am enjoying the unknown luxury of unstructured free time. (Note that “unstructured” is not a synonym for “idle”—just ask Byron Haskins.)  David Harmin, however, continues to love his work as the in-house bioinformatician in Mike Greenberg’s lab, and has no plans for retirement any time soon. We recently discovered that the neighbors on each side of us are also Wesleyan alum, and there are pockets of alumni elsewhere in the neighborhood. We’re everywhere, it seems. . . .

And to end on a sad note, Susan Jung also noted the sad news of the death her Wes roommate Josette (Despotova) Hendrix. The details of Josette’s remarkable life can be found at https://tinyurl.com/f7tj8y5u.

What we lack in quantity of notes, we more than make up for in wonderful detail from the people who wrote. Thanks so much to Byron, Liz, and Cindy!

Byron Haskins writes:

“Gabrielle and I continue our adventure in Montreal which, other than spending almost the entire summer at our home in Michigan, involves living in one, and now a nicer, old apartment on the west side of the city.  But, like every other place coming out of the COVID hangover, we haven’t seen much of the city other than family. We did manage to help organize a tenant’s association before moving out. They really need one. Don’t get me going about real estate investment trusts as landlords . . . .

“And on another unpublishable topic, we are trying to sell her family property in Shefford—you can get the full story by going to my music website www.ignorantsavants.art. If you know anyone who wants a 1.2-acre riverside property with well and septic (the building needs a complete makeover or demo) for $200K U.S., this is the place! The ultimate plan is to return to a politically liberal Michigan and work to keep it a learned oasis of moderation in the upper Midwest.

“Meanwhile . . .  I’m using all my free time continuing to learn to make music in intentionally eccentric ways and posting the attempts on SoundCloud under the ‘ignorant savants’ moniker—and on www.ignorantsavants.art. My goal is always to take a work from a germ of an idea to a completed piece (sometimes with an accompanying video) in less than 48 hours. I always give credit to Carol Bellhouse for stopping by my house, showing me GarageBand, and asking me if I could create music soundtracks for her poetry-art videos (https://carolbellhouse.com/movies/). It’s just fun, and if I were not retired, I’d consider it all a waste of time. I call it keeping my neural networks functioning while my spouse continues to work in traditional ways.

“I continue to intend to do more for the classmate conversation videos and, one day, Joanne Lukitsh and I will have coordinated time to turn it into something really amazing.”

Liz deSchweinitz writes:

“I really did graduate from Wes U in 1976, tho’ I knew few from that class, having started out in the class of 1977. A year at Wes, a year at Bowdoin, a year at Wes, and out and off.

“The best memories of Wes? My freshman hallmates in Clark Hall, mothered by our RA Adrienne “Boom Boom” Bentman ’74, with a roommate (Kath Booth ’78) that later Eurailed around Europe with me, where we ran into another hallmate on a train in Norway, of all places (she had been visiting her Sicilian relatives). Delta Tau fraternity, where I had numerous friends and lovers. Being on the women’s crew team in 1975–76, rowing in the same shell as later Olympian rower Kathy Keeler ’78. The Cris Williamson concert at McConaghy. Impossibly finding the contact lens that popped out of my eye into the grass of the football field when playing tag football at night. Fellow students who introduced me to NYC jazz, rock climbing, consciousness raising groups, and more. Teachers who took the time to get to know their students, and introduce a science person to Chaucer, studio art, and economics. The satisfaction of getting a good education at somewhere other than Harvard or Yale, with more fun and less stress. Go Wes!”

Cindy Arnson writes:

“After 27 years at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars—16 of them as director of the Latin American Program—I ‘retired’ in May 2022. The word is in quotation marks as I’m still working a lot and look forward to staying engaged on Latin American issues—teaching, consulting, and especially traveling. So, to use Ruth Messinger’s words, it’s more like a ‘rewirement.’ My husband Gerry preceded me into retirement, so we definitely look forward to more time on the road! Our three adult children are a never-ending source of pride. Our oldest, Zack, is in the U.S. Foreign Service, currently posted in North Africa; our twins Jeanne and Micah are separated by distance but still close as only twins can be. Jeanne is a graduate student at GW in clinical mental health counseling (thank you, class of ’76 dear friend Wendy Lustbader, for all the advice and encouragement!); and Micah, in the tech world, has moved to LA with his fiancée Maya. The wedding is in June 2023. Life is full and we feel very blessed.”

Reminder that if you’re on Facebook, there are two groups that might be of interest to you:  “Wesleyan 1976” and “Wesleyan in the 70s” (the more active of the two).

Thanks to everyone who wrote in with notes!

Debra Hafner writes: “My life has changed pretty dramatically post-COVID. I’ve gotten divorced and I’m moving from Reston, Virginia, to be the interim minister at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington, New York, in August. I’m excited about the new possibilities ahead! Since our services are now online each week, I’d be delighted to have classmates join us at 10:30 a.m. EST on Sundays! I’d also love to connect with anyone who lives on Long Island. It’s a bit daunting to move at 67 to a new community!”

Mike Donnella reports: “My second attempt at retirement did not stick, and I just finished my first year teaching and running the Center for Compliance & Ethics at Temple University Law School. Though a different time and place from Wesleyan, I am enjoying the experience, despite the occasional flashback. Guest speakers are welcome at the Center. Let me know.”

Phyllis Bethel is “[e]njoying semi-retirement from music therapy. Our son graduated from Princeton and our daughter is a rising sophomore at Vassar. Tina and I are counting our blessings having avoided COVID thus far. Can’t believe I am going to my 50th high school reunion!”

Oliver Griffith: “I’m still living in Paris after retiring from the World Bank in 2016 and should get my French citizenship in the near future. I find France to be a far more rational country than the U.S. I continue to write freelance for NGOs, corporations, and international organizations, but am also doing a lot more performing in Parisian jazz clubs. I combine this with travel around Europe, which was great during COVID with far fewer tourists, and more recently worldwide in Club Meds (free vacations). A couple of months ago, I had dinner with classmates Alida Jay and Meg Walker, who had been with me in Paris 48 years (!!) earlier for the Wesleyan Program in Paris.”

Carol Bellhouse says: “We have snow on the mountains (August 10) so I’ll be heading back to my winter home in southern New Mexico soon. It’s been a great summer in Colorado—I’m attaching photos of the fresh snow, the moon in the aspens, and my waking view every morning. Love it here, but not so much when there’s 12 feet of snow on the ground!”

Barb Birney is ‘[l]ooking forward to celebrating my 50th high school reunion in Amherst, Massachusetts. Following that, I’ll be visiting my 97-year-old parents in Virginia. Dad is Bob Birney ’50. Post-COVID retirement activities are a lot more fun with restrictions lifted. Currently, I volunteer at the Mount St. Helen’s Forestry Learning Center. Interpreting a BIG BOOM story is always effortless.”

Rob Buccino is “[s]emi-retired and splitting time between Manhattan and northwest Connecticut, playing a lot of music, gardening, and daydreaming. Daughter Nora just got an MBA from NYU and started working with McKinsey. Shout-out to David Apicella and the Eclectic crew from way back when.

David Harmin and I have had a wonderful summer taking part in mini-reunions. We got together for lunch in Rockport with Karen Gervasoni and her new husband, Greg Horan, Mel Blake, Beth Penney Gilbert, and—of course!—Tom Kovar. (For me, it’s not a reunion unless Tom is there.) Everyone is well. We were evenly split between those of us who are still working and those who were retired. I have to say that the retired group made an excellent argument for joining them! Karen and Greg are taking off on a cross-country road trip in their camper van, seeing America before winter sets in. We’ve also seen Nina Rusinow Rosenstein, her husband Simon, Marjorie Allen Dauster, and Rip Dauster ’74 for our semiannual get-together; all are well and, once again, enjoying retirement.

Nic Collins sent in class notes! It’s his first time; I’m hoping other classmates will decide if Nic can do it, they can do it too. Here’s his report:

“This may be the first time I have ever submitted to the alumni magazine. Which puts me in a poor light indeed, considering the depth of my gratitude and affection for my Wesleyan experience. Given Karen’s carte blanche on length for this online issue, some background might be in order. I met Alvin Lucier on my third day on campus at the end of summer in 1972. I performed at his memorial service in New York two months ago. In the 50 intervening years, I dragged my family around the world on ‘nothing more than boops and beeps,’ in the words of one puzzled friend—despite our cheerful dean (Sheila Tobias?) calling me into her office in the fall of our senior year to confess, “Wesleyan doesn’t have a great job-placement record for electronic music majors.”

“Maybe not, but I survived (marginally at times, I admit) thanks to what Wes provided. I met Susan Tallman ’79 in the Arts Center, married her in Essex, raised said family with her (Ted, b. 1990 in NYC; Charlotte, b. 1995 Amsterdam), and we’re still together. I was lucky to grab a Watson Fellowship on the way out of Middletown, which sprinkled me around Europe for a year. San Francisco in the late 70s, NYC’s East Village in the 80s, Amsterdam and Berlin in the 90s. In 1999, running on freelance fumes with two kids in international schools, I accepted a teaching job at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I wrote a book on hardware hacking for music, now in its third edition (see http://www.handmadeelectronicmusic.com), whose resulting sounds would be familiar to anyone who took a class with Lucier.

“The pandemic coincided with a sabbatical that should have been spent back in Berlin but instead confined me to the old family summer house in West Falmouth, Massachusetts. I can’t complain, but it was not the most musically conducive location for an urbanite until, in those fraught months between the election and the inauguration, I somehow managed to produce this: http://www.nicolascollins.com/LuckyDip.htm.

“Not to finish on a down note but, speaking of fraught, I’ve never been as worried about the future of this country and the larger world as I have in the last five years. I’m keeping my Chilean passport current, renting a small apartment in Berlin, and hoping that one of these two lifeboats can float me if things get even grimmer. But what am I leaving to my children?”

And, finally, Seth Lerer sent me this lovely piece, entitled “Bicentennial: A Wesleyan Memory”:

“There were weeks when every day could be a poem. Sunrise, sunset, a great sandwich, or a blade of grass. My undergraduate ambition was to take the sublime and the stupid and turn it into poetry, to live a life rewarded in the verbal transformation of the everyday into the eternal. I’d spend hours looking for such inspirations, walking corridors, standing in the rain, or orchestrating crazy things to do that would be done just for the memory of having done them: a 2am mock Bar Mitzvah in the dorm, a drive to Montreal for breakfast, a staying-up-all-night reading the Aeneid out loud in Latin.

“In the spring of 1975, I realized that the opportunity was there, at last, for something lasting. I don’t know how I heard about it, or even if I knew what to expect, but I became convinced that spending April 18 on the common in Concord, remembering the ride of Paul Revere, the shots heard round the world—that this would be the moment that would make me a poet.

“Again, it was so long ago I don’t remember how I planned this trip or how I got there. But I do remember that I asked a girl to go along. Her name was Pam, and I cannot conjure up our friendship or why I asked her (did I ask her first or last?). But somehow, Pam and I got on the Peter Pan bus from Middletown, Connecticut, and made it to Concord on the night of April 18. I do remember that she wore bell bottom jeans and a white t-shirt with a sweater, and I dressed up in my tweed jacket and my button-down shirt, and as we both walked into Concord common—already, shortly after sunset, filled with people on the grass, playing guitars, having a picnic, dancing—we must have seemed like travelers from another time, beamed in to witness a great moment in history, except missing the date by 200 years.

“There were some speeches. Someone showed up in a tricorn hat. I don’t think Pam and I said much to each other, but by 10 pm or so we were both bored and hungry. Pam’s mother and her stepfather lived somewhere in the Boston area, and she suggested that we crash with them and cadge a meal. We got up off the grass, and walked away, and as we walked, our hands found each other, and our fingers interlocked. Like tendrils looking for a tree, I thought. And at that moment, even though we’d never kissed, we’d never talked romantically, we’d never done a thing—at that moment, it was the most intimate experience I’d ever had, unspoken, unrequested, two hands in the aftermath of a great historical anticlimax.

“We wound up, unannounced, at her house and without seeing her parents, Pam let me sleep in the guest room and she disappeared into what must have been her own, old room. The next morning, having showered but put on the same clothes from the day before, I met her stepfather at breakfast. He was a Chinese man in his 50s, reading the newspaper, and picking at what must have been last night’s chicken dinner. He looked at me, I sat down at the table, and without breaking eye contact, he picked up a whole chicken thigh with a pair of chopsticks and, through some trick of leverage, held it up and split the bone in half, the piece now hanging together by remaining bits of skin and meat, and I could hear that snap, and he brought the whole thigh up to his mouth and took a bite and put the rest down on the plate, and never stopped looking at me.

“Somehow, with or without Pam, I made it back to Middletown. I knew I had my poem in my head, and in an afternoon I wrote it down.

“Bicentennial”

Emerson, obsessed with pageantry,

Saw revolution in sunrise,

Doctrine at dawn.

He saw himself enmeshed in memory

Of dead for liberty

In Concord, crotch of history.

In the moment is the glory,

In the memory is the myth,

In the dream is history.

“I read it out loud to myself a few times, and then typed it up. It looked so clean on the good piece of bond paper, the ribbon from the typewriter, recently replaced, giving each letter a depth and heft that I could feel as I ran my fingers across the sheet. I typed up three or four more poems that day, ones I’d written in a class with Richard Wilbur— mannered, learned things about the clown Will Kempe in Bedlam and the pet fox kept by Stalin’s crony, Nicholai Bukharin, and a couple of translations from Old English. Still on a high, I folded them in thirds and took them to the library, where I found the current issue of The Southern Review and copied out the name and the address of the editor. I ran back to my room, typed up a cover letter and an envelope, put too many stamps on it, and mailed it. No self-addressed stamped envelope, no nothing else. Just the poems.

“Classes would be over in a month, and certainly, as I remember, before we were done, I got a letter in my postbox telling me that The Southern Review was going to run my poem, “Bicentennial,” in their Spring 1976 issue and that I would receive a check for $15 upon publication.

“I floated out of the mail room, walked up the hill and stood facing the football field, the May breeze catching the letter in my hand and making it flutter like a wing.

“A full year later, weeks before graduation, three copies of The Southern Review appeared in my mailbox, along with the check. There was the poem, my name, and my name again in the notes on contributors. I flipped through. There were unpublished poems by Delmore Schwartz, essays by Kermit Vanderbilt, Larzer Ziff, and Albert Guerard. There was a translation of something by Paul Valery and a review of a book of poems by the then barely known Geoffrey Hill.

“Fifteen dollars was a week of student groceries. A round of drinks for virtually everyone I knew. A round-trip ticket to Concord. I sent the poem to Richard Wilbur, ensconced in his pastoral in Cummington, Massachusetts, and he wrote back right away, letting me know how he ‘much liked the movement of Bicentennial’—such a Wilbur phrase, with its inverted word order and its alliterative push. Did he craft such sentences, or did he really think like that? And, rereading my poem, now, what made me think it literature? So full of adolescent overstatement. Who writes a poem with the word “crotch” in it? After over forty years of teaching, I can imagine how Wilbur must have reached deep to say something positive about such lines.

“I graduated, went to Oxford, to Chicago, and to teaching jobs at Princeton, Stanford, and the University of California at San Diego (where I served as dean of Arts and Humanities for five years that would fill a whole magazine, let alone a class note). I wrote a dozen books. I won awards. You would think all of this would have filled me with self-esteem. But then, they say there’s nothing like your first time.”