Tag: 1976

Class of 1976 Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship
Valerie Acosta ’20, Neuroscience and Behavior

Cheryl Alpert’s residential real estate business is taking off and she is working with families looking to “right size” in Boston and MetroWest. Husband Tom is an architect, son Eben is at PWC in NYC, and son Chason is with Booz Allen in D.C. Cheryl met up with Kathy Mintz in NYC at Jay Hoggard’s performance and sees Rook Van Nest ’75 and Jeff Dunn ’75 from time to time.

Sue Feinstein Barry is a professor emeritus at Mount Holyoke College, having retired in 2015. In November, her daughter, Jenny, and husband Dan welcomed Jessica Elizabeth, Sue’s first grandchild, into the world.

Andrea Grubb Barthwell, M.D., and Adam Usdan ’83 are initial members of the board of directors of the Foundation for Opioid Response Effort, a nonprofit dedicated to combatting the opioid crisis. Andrea chairs the board and Adam chairs the investment committee responsible for the Foundation’s $100 million endowment. Initial endowment funding was provided by McKesson, and Andrea was recommended to McKesson following a search by Paul Spivey ’83, a search consultant at Phillips Oppenheim cofounded by Jane Phillips Donaldson, a former dean of admission at Wesleyan.

Larry Davis reports that he flunked retirement. In 2018, he stepped down as president and managing director of Map Energy LLC but quickly was asked to become the senior advisor/chief scientist. In 2018, he and Ronna took a land trip to Finland, Estonia, and St. Petersburg and spent a week in London. Larry separately spent a week exploring the Andean region of Bolivia followed by fly fishing in the Amazon basin. During a trip to Palo Alto, he visited Alan Haus. Ronna and Larry are grandparents of Lorelei, 5, and Gabriel, 3, children of Ilana Sharpe ’06.

On Dec. 22, Lenny Femino and his wife, Rona, became proud grandparents of Julian, their first grandchild.

Jeff Frank has put his moving company up for sale and is retiring. He is looking forward to a new beginning filled with new activities.

After a long career in the State Department and World Bank, Oliver Griffith is working freelance in Paris as a professional writer for businesses and international organizations. Oliver is still playing music (his Wes major) in local venues and would be happy to see classmates in France.

Dan Henry provides tech support part-time to small businesses and homeowners. His wife, Jean, retired from Travelers in January, 42 years to the day after she started. In February they are meeting at Disney World with two of their sons, their son’s wives, and two preschool granddaughters.

Libby Horn is retiring in April when she turns 65 and is looking forward to spending more time singing, hospice volunteering, and participating in church activities.

Jaimee Kurfirst Mirsky retired after 19 years in her second career as a high school English teacher just in time to celebrate the arrival of her first grandchild, Jordan. Jaimee finds she has settled into retired life easily and enjoys trying new things after 40 years of career and family responsibilities.

For Ron Kirschner, 2018 was the 10-year anniversary of his being a board-certified medical toxicologist. March will be his 10-year anniversary as medical director of the Nebraska Regional Poison Center and a faculty member at the University of Nebraska Medical Center Department of Emergency Medicine. Ron was a history major at Wes. He did not plan on going to medical school and did not start the process until six years after graduation. Taking a circuitous route has given him some perspective on how his own daughter, who is a very creative chef and artist, needs to find her own way.

Debra Gottheimer Neuman has been living in Mystic for nearly four years and is enjoying her position as executive director of development and community engagement for Enders Island, an 11-acre island and home of a Catholic retreat that helps young men recover from alcohol and drug addiction. Debra’s work has made her aware of the severe opioid crisis. She enjoyed a great visit with her son, Josh, who was home from Oregon where he is completing a master’s degree in agronomy. Debra welcomes visitors.

Greg Palkot, a fellow resident of Nicholson 6 freshman year, is a journalist living in London (you’ve seen him on the box from time to time).

Michael Stopa has a new job as a senior manager of artificial intelligence and machine learning for Konica Minolta’s research division in San Mateo, Calif. He loves the Bay Area.

As for us, our oldest daughter, Samantha, was married in November and the event was wonderful. Old friends Robert Cox, his wife Maggie, Steve Goldman, and his wife, Kathy Rosenthal ’78, flew into town to help us celebrate. Meanwhile, daughter Lindsey moved to Silver Spring, Md., where she is working full time and taking engineering courses at John Hopkins. Daughter Michelle is working in the business office of a Chicago law firm and applying to grad school. And in late December, my mother moved to a ranch house to downsize a bit and be closer to my sister.

It is always great to hear from you. Stay in touch.

Mitchell Marinello | mlmarinello@comcast.net

Some great news from the ’76ers.

Jay Abramowitz lives in Santa Monica, Calif., and is married with three children. He used to write comedy for television and now directs live TV and writes stories. See the stories at: hollywooddementia.com.

Susan Avitzour and her husband Daniel’s sixth grandchild was born in June, her youngest daughter Ayala was married in August, and she is semi-retired though continuing her psychotherapy practice part-time. Daniel has a neurological condition that requires him to use a wheelchair much of the time, but their family has stepped up to help whenever needed.

Meredith Bergmann’s design was chosen for the Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Woman Suffrage Movement Monument in NYC’s Central Park.

Melissa Blacker and David Rynick ’74 have been together since 1977. Their daughter is expecting her first child and their first grandson in early February. They are both Zen Buddhist teachers and run a temple in Worcester, Mass. (worcesterzen.org). Everyone is invited to visit.

Matt Cartter, a state epidemiologist, loves the fact that he gets to combine his Wes education with his medical education. For an interesting example, see ctdigitalnewspaperproject.org.

Jon Cleworth is a physical fitness advocate and credits Wes Crew for instilling that in him. Jon is fighting MS and primarily uses a rowing machine to stay in shape.

David Cohen enjoyed his annual weekend with Steward Shuman, Matt Paul, and Michael Greenberg and their spouses on the south shore of Long Island.

Joe Cox‘s son, John, is a sophomore at Emory and runs for the cross-country and track teams. His daughter, Brooke, is finishing her senior year at the College of William and Mary (“WM”) and majoring in international relations. Her honors joint degree program with WM and the University of St. Andrews gives Joe and his wife Mary the chance to visit Scotland from time to time. Joe is with a small biotech company that completed its first human clinical trial last year (bolderbio.com).

Bruce Demple and his wife, Sue, just returned from a fabulous two-week trip in Brazil including five days in the jungle of Amazonia where one evening they scaled ropes 120 feet to get above the jungle canopy. Bruce spoke at two scientific conferences there, one in Sao Paolo and another in Foz do Iguacu.

Steve Duncan and his wife, Lynne Cohen Duncan ’78, sat out Hurricane Florence at home in Chapel Hill, N.C., and managed to miss all but some high winds and about 10 inches of rain.

Don Fallati and his wife, Ruth Pachman ’78, attended the graduation of their son, Mark, from Swarthmore in May. Mark made it to the NCAA tennis championships again this year, capping off a great college athletic career. Don and Ruth live in Larchmont, N.Y. Don has his own marketing consulting firm, and Ruth is managing director at a New York financial public relations firm.

Leslie Gabel-Brett is a consultant to the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy and recently traveled with spouse Carolyn to see some of the national parks in Utah. Leslie will be teaching a course at Wes again in the spring.

Joellyn Gray puts in a plug for Bob Craft’s son, Will, who writes an investigative journalism series in a podcast called In the Dark. Joellyn’s son, Duncan, has written some great movie reviews at theperpetualpresent.com.

Byron Haskins is in the midst of a four-week exploration of Italy with his wife, Gabrielle, whose father’s family heralds from Tuscany. They have visited lots of places and Byron celebrated a birthday with dinner at Momma Rosa’s in Milan. Byron is enjoying the respite from the U.S. 24-hour news cycle and is collecting ideas for future short stories that he plans to write.

Alan Miller reports that the News Literacy Project, a national educational nonprofit that he founded and leads as CEO, celebrated its 10th anniversary earlier this year. NLP’s Checkology virtual classroom is now used by middle and high school teachers in every state in the U.S. and 97 other countries. In August, Fast Company praised NLP and said that its courses, which discriminate between real and false news “should become a fundamental building block of our students’ education.”

Nat Needle is teaching piano to students of all ages and organizes and emcees an open mic that brings people with and without disabilities together as performers and audience members. He welcomes contact from old friends at nat@natneedle.com.

Debra Neuman took an amazing two-week trip to Italy last summer with three women friends. They hiked, biked, walked endlessly, and enjoyed great food and wine.

Jack O’Donnell’s daughter, Maggie ’19, is a senior at Wes and it has been a perfect fit for her. Jack says that she has taken full advantage of all the school has to offer.

Marc Stier is the director of a progressive research, advocacy, and organizing group, the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center. The Center is running a statewide issue advocacy campaign called We the People that is setting an agenda for state legislative elections in 2018 and beyond.

Barbara Strauss’ daughter, Rebecca Ingber, is a law professor at Boston University and in September testified about security and executive power issues at the Senate Kavanaugh hearings. Her son-in-law argued his first case in the U.S. Supreme Court this past spring, and her daughter, Hanna Ingber ’03, was appointed as the editorial director of the New York Times this year.

Becky Vose just retired from 20-plus years of being a lawyer for the Juvenile Rights Advocacy Project at Boston College Law School. She and her husband, Steve Schreckinger, have three adult children: Anna, a teacher in Colorado, Ben, a writer for Politico, and Michael, an analyst at the State Department.

Had dinner with Bruce Tobey ’75 in Chicago recently and went to a magic show with Nancy ’78, Larry Schulman ’78 and his wife, Chris, where Larry became part of the show. Also reconnected with Mark Allard ’74, Tim Donahue ’74, and Bill Zimmerman ’74 after many years as well as Ed Kenney ’75, George Surgeon ’72, Mark Willis ’75, and several other Wes grads.

Mitchell Marinello | mlmarinello@comcast.net

A great class came through on short notice.

Skip Adamek is enjoying competitive golf, tennis, and fishing in North Carolina, and looking forward to a visit from Steve Farrell, Jim Cornell, Paul McDermott, and, just maybe, Teddy Shaw.

Lois Becker, Mark Stratton, Joanne Lukitsh, and Reilly Shannon are traveling in Europe together where the first stop was the London production of Hamilton. Next up is Paris, Provence, and points east!

Jon Cleworth, former captain of the Wes crew team, is doing his best to stay in shape and keeps in touch with Jimmy Joy MALS ’72, former crew coach at Wes, who recently was honored by the NYAC.

Bruce Demple and his wife, Sue, met up in February with Rich Gallogly and Bonnie Katz ’77 for a long weekend of skiing at Sunday River Maine. Bruce’s daughter, Marie, lives in Brooklyn and works for Comedy Central, while his younger daughter, Zoe, has moved to Pittsburgh. Bruce published a complex NASA-funded research study on the unique qualities and toxicity of moon dust.

Mike Donnella was a guest on an NPR affiliate and was interviewed about his photography. Check out redriverradio.org.

Jeff Frank’s daughter got a fellowship to work for the education department in Israel for one year, and his son, George, is training to fly F-16s for the Air Force. His oldest son works for the FBI in D.C.

Joellyn Gray is just back from a 12-day tour of gardens and cathedrals in Southern England and is happy to share travel tips.

Peter Hansen and his wife, Gail, are in Madagascar for a month, visiting friends who work for the World Bank. They plan to stop in Kenya before coming home.

Libby Horn’s daughter, Stephanie, got married in April on the Oregon coast. She was an infant at our 10th Reunion!

Jeffrey Kahn, fellow CSS classmate, reports that on May 31, he retired from the Office of the General Counsel at the Department of Agriculture after 40 years of government service. Jeff is now traveling to Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Jeff, the Kazakhstan chocolate is great!

Tom Kovar had a June mini-reunion with Mel Blake, Karen Gervasoni, David Harmin, and Karen Williams Harmin at Mel’s house in Portsmouth, N.H. All are doing well.

Wendy Lustbader attended a psychotherapy training program in Seattle where the keynote speaker was Ron Siegel. Wendy thanks Ron for the advice and encouragement he gave her years ago and compliments Ron on his many achievements.

Peter McArdle went to Foxboro Stadium in May to watch Wes take on defending national champ Salisbury College in the Men’s NCAA Division III Lacrosse Finals, which Wes won! Dave Campbell ’75, Jeff Gray ’77, Charlie Cocores ’74, Jim Daley ’75, Pete Guenther ’77, Dave Thomas ’77, Gary Breitbord ’79, Jock Burns ’72, Mark Fredland ’74, and Pat McQuillan ’75 and his son Casey joined Pete for the game. Bill Belichick ’75 was unable to attend, but graciously hosted everyone in the Belichick family box. Pete also saw Jeff Nesson ’78 and Seta Nazarian ’79 there. A great win for Wes witnessed by a great group of folks. Just a week earlier, Pete and his wife Mary’s daughter, Brittany, graduated from Simmons College with a master’s in special education.

Jaimee Mirsky is about to retire from her second career as a high school English teacher, and her husband, Jay, is also retiring. They will have welcomed their first grandchild in July. Congratulations on both fronts!

Debra Neuman is enjoying what may be her final career chapter as the executive director of development for Enders Island, a Catholic retreat center in Mystic, Conn. Her son, Josh, is pursuing a master’s in agronomy at Oregon State, and Josh’s wife, Meagan, is enjoying her first nursing job in Corvallis.

Michael Stopa has moved to San Mateo to be a senior manager for artificial intelligence and machine learning research for Konica Minolta. Daughter Randy graduated from Oberlin last month, daughter Robin graduated from Haverford last year, daughter Kaileigh will soon be a junior at Tufts, and son Kip will be a high school senior.

Cheryl Alpert and her son, Eben, had a great time on a trip through Portugal to celebrate his 25th birthday. Eben is a business analyst with PricewaterhouseCoopers in NYC and younger son, Chason, is working in D.C. as analyst for Booz Allen Hamilton. Cheryl recently has changed firms and is now with William Raveis Real Estate in Brookline, Mass.

My personal news is slow right now, but a lot is happening in the next few months. I hope that you all enjoy the summer. If you meet up with a long-lost classmates, ask them to write in. Best regards.

Mitchell Marinello | mlmarinello@comcast.net

Class of 1976 Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship

Valerie Acosta ’20, Bronx, NY

Susan Avitzour and husband Dan returned from a trip to Tenerife, Canary Islands, where they went on a dolphin- and whale-watching boat trip. They have five grandchildren with a sixth expected in June. Susan is semi-retired and looking for a literary agent for her novel. Unfortunately, Dan is having some health problems.

Carol Bellhouse had dinner in LA with David Bickford, Chris Vain, Juliet Green, and Susan Gans ’75. She attended the Sundance Film Festival. She has five films in the works.

Richard Berka provided the sad news that his  wife, Carmen Valle, a physician, passed away in 2014 after a long battle with breast cancer. Their son, Richard, Jr., got his master’s in marine biology at James Cook University in Australia and is going to  veterinarian school in Perth. Their daughter, Della, is a sophomore at Yale. Richard is in-house counsel at Greenman-Pedersen, Inc., and lives in Brightwaters, N.Y.

Sidney Cohen and wife Carol live in Pleasanton, Calif. Sidney works for Medtronic in clinical research overseeing cardiovascular research. He recently became a grandfather and spends as much time as he can visiting his grandson and family in Philadelphia. Sid would like to hear from all: sidneyacohen@mac.com.

Lawrence H. Davis and wife Ronna visited Wes in October and enjoyed visiting the Earth and Environmental Sciences department. Last year, they visited Cuba and Spain, and this year Lawrence is planning a fishing trip to Bolivia and a trip to Estonia. Son Max returned to the U.S. after seven years in Israel, and daughter Ilana ’06, who is the mother of their two grandchildren, is continuing her law career.

Michael Donnella, who is living in El Dorado, Ark., had a Wesleyan football weekend in LA hosted by David Carlisle, who is the president of Charles Drew University. Mike reports that David has brought the university from the brink of closure to a thriving concern. Michael Bell and James Gaither ’77, and two of Mike’s children, joined him for the game. Mike enjoyed Christmas/Hanukkah with Ely Leichtling and Sally Merrell of Milwaukee.

Elizabeth Eisenmann learned carpentry while building a new studio in her basement for her collection of “vintage” Singer sewing machines and cabinets. She went on her first cruise to the Caribbean.

Ronald Epstein’s book Attending Medicine, Mindfulness and Humanity has just come out in paperback. See pp. 20–23 for more on his work.

Barry Fogel is beginning his 36th year in environmental law. Daughter Ella is a junior at Santa Clara University. Barry stays in touch with John Brainard, Eddie Sanchez ’74, and Steve Levin ’75, Jeff Van Nest ’75, Mark Nickerson ’75, and Jeff Prystupa ’75.

Jeff Frank is looking forward to selling his moving business and retiring in the next couple of years.

Karen Gervasoni says this column enabled her to get in touch with Larry Gilius, her old Wes boxmate. They discovered they both have adopted daughters—Lia from Vietnam and Linnea from China—who are high school juniors. Glad you could reconnect!

Debra Haffner, in her second year as the settled minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Reston, Va., has done her 14th protest march in D.C. since last year’s election.

Peter Hansen and wife Gail now call D.C. home. They are both doing part-time consulting, she in public health and he in construction marketing.

Josette Hendrix has been working in the Pacific Northwest through a small NGO that she founded which nurtures intercultural understanding (nwlacc.org). She has three children and is now a grandmother. She lives on Whidbey Island on a small biodynamic farm that welcomes young aspiring farmers to apprentice for a season. She hopes to reconnect with some classmates.

Jaimee Kurfirst Mirsky is finishing up her second 20-year career (first was in advertising TV production, then high school English teacher). Jaimee has been married for 38 years and has two children who teach. Her first grandchild is on the way.

Abe Yale‘s youngest son, Alex, married Amy Gold on New Year’s Eve in Boston. The newlyweds went gorilla tracking in Uganda, on safari in Tanzania, and relaxing on the beach in Zanzibar. Alex works for Facebook and Amy for Google, both in NYC. Daughter Alison is about to give birth to granddaughter number two. Congratulations, Abe!

My family spent Christmas in London where we visited our daughter, Lindsey, who is living abroad until June. It was great having everyone together. We had some fun, and I met up with my friend Paul Hannon, an Irish journalist with whom I shared a London flat the year after graduation.

The Wesleyan Chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon (Gamma Phi) had its 150th anniversary this year, and a lot of the brothers were back to celebrate. I was sorry that I had to miss it, but glad to see that so many of the old gang got together.

If you have not written in a while—or ever—please do. Nicholson 6, Harriman Hall, West College, Chi Psi: speak up!

Mitchell Marinello | mlmarinello@comcast.net

For this issue, I asked about retirement plans and got varied and often non-committal answers. To vary the line-up, the last shall be first.

Tom Kovar went to Professor Dick Winslow ’40’s funeral in Antrim, N.H. Dick, 99, was a mentor of Tom’s in the music department. Afterwards, Tom had dinner with Pam Swing ’75, Win Lockwood ’78, and others.

Cheryl Alpert is a real estate agent in the Boston area. Her son, Eben, is enjoying his work at PWC and her son, Chason, just started at Booz Allen.

Carol Bellhouse published two books and produced two films this summer. Burnt Orange is about three women at the end of the world. The second film is a pilot for an adventure race series; the first episode is about racing burros.

Carol Berger has retired from her career as a school psychologist. She and husband Ron live in Longmeadow, Mass., and have two married sons and three granddaughters. Carol stays in touch with Linda Borreson and Sue Feinstein Barry and hopes to get together with Nancy Cornwell Goeden.

Ethan Bronner, who writes on politics for Bloomberg, is investigating President Trump and Kushner business practices and keeping an eye on the federal probe into possible collusion with the Russians. Son Eli ’10 is the president of a startup called Careerlist, which links young marketing professionals with big companies.

Joe Carcillo is a pediatric intensive care physician in a children’s hospital at the University of Pittsburgh. His daughter is in her first year at Michigan and Joe is coaching the local girls’ Catholic high school rowing team.

Jon Cleworth enjoys being an uncle to one nephew and five nieces. He reports that Jimmy Joy MALS ’72, former crew coach at Wes, received an award this November at the New York Athletic Club for his outstanding career as an oarsman and his contributions to American rowing.

Ron Epstein’s book, Attending: Medicine, Mindfulness, and Humanity, is doing well and he has been traveling to talk about how doctors can practice more mindfully and achieve shared understanding with their patients.

Jeff Frank recalled his Wesleyan experience as encouraging free expression, tolerance of different opinions, and learning to persuade those with different outlooks to your point of view. Remarking on the news about universities shutting down what is labeled by the opposition as “hate speech,” Jeff hopes that the free discussion of ideas remains a part of the Wesleyan experience.

Karen Gervasoni’s daughter Lia is a high school junior and is dabbling in media studies. Son Cole is playing on his high school basketball team.

After transferring to and graduating from Wesleyan, Jamie Beck Gordon worked for Ed Koch and obtained a degree in international relations from Columbia. She volunteers for various charities and is on the board of The Neuberger Museum at SUNY Purchase. Married in 1985, Jamie has a son, 30, and a daughter, 27.

Joellyn Gray is on the board of the CTA Foundation, an offshoot of the Consumer Technology Association, the group that hosts CES, the world’s largest trade show for technology.

Oliver Griffith is working for an infrastructure fund in Africa and living in Paris.

Steve Gross and wife Meiyan are retired, she from the Sunnyvale School District and he from SanDisk. They renovated their home in Cupertino, Calif. Daughter Alexa attends Wellesley College. While visiting her, Steve stayed with Tim Hill ’75 and Jan Schwaner-Hill ’75, and caught up with Norbert Kremer in Boston.

Byron Haskins, recently retired from federal service, volunteers as a MoveOn Summer Resistance Mobilizer, focusing on preventing the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Grandson Zayer was born in August. Byron traveled enough to visit all six grandchildren within 30 days, including trips to Montreal and NYC.

Alan Haus and family vacationed in New Orleans, the Caribbean, and Mexico. While traveling, there were four actual or potential hurricanes in the region and a major earthquake in Mexico. Alan’s family lucked out and had perfect weather.

Maggie Heffernan reports that David Low moved to Manhattan and now lives in the same co-op as she does. They run into each other often and are both big Yankee fans.

Libby Horn is working as a FNP at a family practice, sings in two choruses and church choir, and volunteers at a hospice and a school-age reading program.

Jim Johnson brought the concept of “Ciclovia” to his hometown with the Chattanooga City Celebration closing down more than six miles of city streets to motorized traffic and connecting festivals in six neighborhoods for cyclists and pedestrians.

Michael Kennedy-Scanlon and his wife live in Barcelona and experience first-hand the Catalan independence movement, which he describes as highly emotional and intolerant.

Andrew McCulloch retired as president/CEO of Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Health Plan of the Northwest. After 10-plus years in this role, his organization was ranked as the highest quality, best service, and most affordable entity in the Pacific Northwest.

Jack O’Donnell had his first grandchild and traveled to London to meet him. Son Sam ’01 lives in London and Jack figures he will be making many trips there to make sure the little guy can play baseball. Jack’s daughter, Margaret ’19, is studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Hanoi, and Cape Town.

My oldest daughter, Samantha, is engaged and making plans to get married next year. Daughter Michelle is gainfully employed. And daughter Lindsey is studying Russian in Kazakhstan. I had a busy year, traveled around India in February, flew in a two-seat WWII fighter in June, and spent Labor Day weekend with Nancy in Asheville, N.C., with friends.

Mitchell Marinello | mlmarinello@comcast.net

For this issue, I asked about retirement plans and got varied and often non-committal answers.  To vary the line-up, the last shall be first.

Jody Binswanger Snider works in media, representing a creative branding and production company, and a small animation studio and filmmaker in NYC.  She serves on a family foundation concerned with homelessness and criminal justice reform. Her husband is a teacher and coach at Harvard Business School and Northeastern, and her two sons are working in NYC real estate.

Steve Smith and his wife moved to western North Carolina 31 years ago and that’s where they plan to retire in about two years. Their daughter just had her 10th Wes Reunion, and they plan to visit friends in Mexico later this year.

Joe Reiff won the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Nonfiction Award for 2016 with his book Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi’s Closed Society. Joe figures he has three more years before he hangs up his frock.

Jack O’Donnell has a daughter at Wes who plans to go to law school afterwards. Jack loves working as a criminal defense lawyer, and between that and the tuition bills, no retirement is in sight.

Connie Bodine McCann attended an all-day meeting of Wes emeriti trustees and watched Donna Morea do an excellent job as chair. Connie has a son at Wes, a daughter working in tech in San Francisco, and another son at a private investment firm in NYC. Connie has been elected to the Spencer Stuart worldwide board of directors and, after 24 years, is still enjoying her senior search work in financial services.

Jimmy Johnson reports that his bike touring business (BikeTours.com) is going strong and that he will be leading tours through Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, and Montenegro in the next five months. Electrically assisted bikes help it all work. (I tried one in California and our nonathletic group drew looks of disbelief as we sped up the hills.)

Leslie Gabel-Brett ended her 10-year tenure at Lambda Legal in NYC and now works as a consultant with Open Communities Alliance, an affordable housing group in Connecticut led by Erin Boggs ’93. In spring 2018, Leslie will be a visiting assistant professor of public policy at Wes teaching a course about social justice movements under the auspices of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life.

Joellyn Gray went to L.A. over Memorial Day weekend and visited her sons, Malcolm and Duncan ’09, who work for the Russo Brothers and Hulu respectively. She had dinner with my CSS classmate, Bob Craft, and his wife, Julie. Joellyn has considered retirement, but prefers working.

Jon Cleworth, who is fighting a nearly 40-year battle with MS, is still going strong and is grateful for his time at Wesleyan and the inspiration he gained there.

Karen Caplan says retirement is a nice idea, but she is not ready to give up her full-time hospital job as a clinical social worker on a palliative care consult team. Karen finds her work with people at the end of life wonderfully rich, meaningful, and rewarding.

Barbara Birney continues to enjoy the company of her 92-year-old father, Robert Birney ’50, as well as that of her brother Bob Birney ’81. Bob has just given up “Old Man’s Soccer” and is focused on getting the last of his kids through college.

Tom Kovar says he thinks about retirement but, with a 14-year-old still at home, he does not plan on it anytime soon.

Cheryl Alpert just started a new career as a full-time real estate agent focusing on Boston and MetroWest and is very active in national and local politics. Her older son, Eben, is working as a business analyst and her younger son, Chason, is graduating from Washington and Lee, and will be working in D.C. for Booz Allen.

As for me, my oldest daughter graduated with a master’s and my younger two from college this month, so tuition bills are no longer a driver. But I still like working and need to stay busy if I am going to stay in sync with my wife, who loves her job. Outlook: staying the course.

There are a lot of you folks who do not write in—especially, for some odd reason, those whose last names are in the second half of the alphabet. I wish you would.

Mitchell Marinello | mlmarinello@comcast.net

Class of 1976 Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship

Valerie Acosta ’20, Bronx, NY

In addition to personal news, one of the themes for this column is the volunteer work that class members are doing.

Susan Avitzour and her husband, Daniel, just had their fifth grandchild, Gabriel, and Susan has just finished writing a novel. It’s about an American woman who marries a Japanese diplomat, and finds herself posted to Burma/Myanmar when it was still ruled by a brutal military dictatorship. Susan volunteers as a therapist at Hadassah Hospital, which treats Jewish and Arab survivors of terror attacks, military clashes, and accidents who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Andrea Grubb Barthwell attended the Hamilton fundraiser in Chicago and saw many Wesleyan alumni and parents, and some members of the winning Cubs team.

Robert Briskin and his wife, Limor, had a good time at Reunion. Rob has a concierge medical practice and serves on Congressman Pete Sessions’ National Physicians Council for Healthcare Policy in D.C.

Ethan Bronner took a buyout from The New York Times two years ago and has been at Bloomberg ever since, writing, and editing political features. He heads up a team looking into President Trump’s family businesses here and abroad, and would welcome hearing from anyone who has any knowledge about it.

Jon Cleworth recalls his time at Wesleyan, as a rower and CSS member. Jon was a Chicago-area resident for several years. He now lives in Connecticut and is a great uncle with five nieces and a nephew. Retired, he stays in shape mostly by biking.

Oliver Griffith left the World Bank Group and works as a communications advisor for Africa50, an infrastructure fund focused on Africa. He is also freelancing in communications and foreign affairs.

Debra Haffner is the full-time settled minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Reston. She invites Wes folks to services at 10 a.m. on Sundays.

Daniel Henry’s son, Derrick, and his fiancé, Beata, were married in May. Dan also had his second granddaughter, Denni Jean Henry. Dan is the president of the Kiwanis Club of Newington, which runs a flea market that raises money for scholarships and to support local agencies and human services.

Daniel Herr and his wife, Kathleen, have four grandchildren. Katherine is continuing her work in disability, special education, and elder law, and Dan is in his second term as nanoscience department chair at the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, a collaboration between the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and North Carolina A&T State University.

Peter Hansen and his wife, Gail, have completed their move to D.C. after several years of Peter commuting between D.C. and Kansas. Peter does marketing consulting.

Libby Horn volunteers at a soup kitchen and at a hospice house. In the hospice, a dying person is admitted for the last three months of their life and receives care, mostly from volunteers, at no charge.

Jim Johnson’s Europe bicycle tour company is doing well, and Jim has been extending his love of bicycling with several volunteer endeavors. Jim serves on the board of Bike Walk Tennessee and is working on trail and greenway projects around Chattanooga, extending the U.S. Bicycle Route System across Tennessee and into adjacent states. The goal is to create a 50,000-mile network of connected on-road bike routes.

Norm Kerner has had a career in the music industry as a record producer, engineer, mixer, composer, and session musician. He runs his own studio, Perfect Sound Studios, in Hollywood Hills, and does real estate deals specializing in properties that have recording studios on site. Norm also volunteers for Food Forward, an organization that harvests California produce that otherwise would go to waste, and collects leftover produce at farmers’ markets for homeless shelters. To join the effort, e-mail him at norm@nkern.com.

Ely Leichtling is retired and volunteers in the Milwaukee public schools, tutoring several fourth graders in math, and teaching a seventh grade class focusing on a significant books like To Kill A Mockingbird. He also chaperones field trips. His wife, Sally, is also retired.

Susan Mitchell worked in railroad policy analysis after graduation, was a stay-at-home mom, and then went back to school and graduated with a master’s in pastoral care in 2000.  She spent 10-plus years working as a board certified hospice chaplain and is now semi-retired and volunteering at a continuing care facility, teaching bible study, and preaching at the ecumenical Christian services. Her son, Arthur, is a curator at the UPenn library and her daughter, Catherine, works in finance in D.C.  She stays in touch with Sue Heller Clain ’94.

Desmond (Stern) Whitney and his wife live in Minneapolis. They have a daughter who just graduated from college and a son with special needs. Desmond enjoys recording books for the blind each week.

This spring, Nancy ’78 and I have a daughter graduating from a master’s program and two others graduating from college. We both do volunteer work in our respective fields. Best wishes to everyone for 2017!

Mitchell Marinello | mlmarinello@comcast.net

Skip Adamek reminded me that he retired back in 2011. (Sounds like a good deal.) He is living in Raleigh, N.C. and rented a house in Cape Cod for September. Skip enjoyed a weekend with Paul McDermott and Steve Farrell  ’77.

Cheryl Alpert went to a niece’s graduation at Wes this past June. Just before, she tripped over her new puppy and fractured a vertebra, but she is fine now.

Jane Barwick shared the news that she ran for judicial office, won her election, and in 2015 became a judge of the Superior Court of Fulton County, Ga. Fulton County is the largest county in Georgia and contains most of the City of Atlanta.

Carol Bellhouse has 21 books in print, a movie in production, another in pre-production, and several in development. Fabulous!

Barbara Birney enjoyed tree zip-lining in Crater Lake National Park and reports that Peter Hansen is starring as the director in his local community theater’s production of The Chorus Line.

Matt Cartter’s daughter, Eileen, graduated from Kenyon College this past May with majors in English and American studies.

Elizabeth Eisenmann is in early retirement; her husband prefers to keep working. She is enjoying her twin granddaughters (now 3) and adopted a German Shepherd.

Ron Epstein, an academic family physician, has written a book entitled Attending: Medicine, Mindfulness, and Humanity that is being published by Scribner in January. The book mentions several of Ron’s teachers and mentors at Wesleyan, including Jon Barlow, Ken Maue  ’69, and Randy Huntsberry. Copies can be pre-ordered at: ronaldepstein.com/publications.

Don Fallati wants to thank everyone who attended the Reunion and for those whose work and support enabled a class scholarship to be established, especially Shonni Silverberg. Don also wants to thank his Reunion co-chair Connie McCann for her efforts, and the class panel that included Leslie Gabel-Brett, Jay Hoggard, Seth Lerer, and Laurel Cantor. Don gives special mention to Ethan Bronner and Michael Greenberg, who were awarded Distinguished Alumni Awards, and a personal note to Gary Eager and Abe Yale. Don continues to work in his own advisory practice focusing on healthcare technology and lives in Larchmont, N.Y., with his wife, Ruth Pachman  ’78.

Oliver Griffith retired as head of communications for part of the World Bank Group in Europe in January. “Have been fixing up our country place south of Paris and starting to do some consulting on development and communications. Still playing jazz when possible, my original career goal. Would be glad to hear from old classmates visiting Paris.”

Jeff Frank’s son, George, graduated from the Air Force Academy and is now a second lieutenant at flight school in Columbus, Miss. Jeff’s oldest son, Nathan, graduated from Carnegie Mellon, and then Quantico, and is now an FBI agent working in Virginia. Jeff’s daughter, Stephanie, lives in Hawaii and just started a new job with the Hawaii Department of Energy.

Byron Haskins reports that he and wife Gabrielle are about to be empty nesters as Gabrielle’s youngest just bought a house a few blocks away. Gabrielle is recovering well enough to travel again and her second grandchild, Thomas, was born in Montreal in March. Byron is enjoying retirement and not missing work at all.

Merle Kummer, recently empty-nested, moved from the suburbs to Cambridge in August and is consulting in the life science industry. She is also enjoying the time she now has for quiet reflection.

Chris Mahoney and his wife, Joan, visited Israel for the first time and had a wonderful trip.

Debbie Gottheimer Neuman has enjoyed spending the past year as a consulting director of development for Enders Island in Mystic, Conn. She welcomes all Wesleyan friends to get in touch if visiting Mystic. Deb and her husband, Paul, look forward to their son, Josh, completing his MS in plant pathology and daughter-in-law, Meagan, completing her MS in nursing clinical leadership this fall.

Jack O’Donnell’s daughter, Maggie  ’19, has started her sophomore year at Wes and is a member of the women’s crew team.

Rob Sloss is working at Parsons Corporation, an engineering and construction firm in Pasadena, Calif., as the vice president of tax. Ron works with a team on a large number of M&A and structuring projects in more than 70 countries, including projects involving missile defense, WMD removal, and the construction of train lines, bridges and tunnels. Ron lives with his wife and a very old cat.

Mike Stopa is living and working around Boston as a practicing nanophysics theorist. His company works on a new form of computer memory made from carbon nanotubes. Mike and his wife, Hiromi, have four kids. Kaileigh is a frosh at Tufts, Robin is graduating from Haverford this year, and Miranda has two more years at Oberlin. Their son, Kipling, is still in high school and pitches for the baseball team. Mike was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this year, and live-blogged the convention for The Boston Globe.

Barbara Strauss’ daughter, Hanna Ingber  ’03, is an assistant editor on the foreign desk at The New York Times. She recently gave birth to Aarav Jacob Yerasi, Barbara’s newest grandchild. Barbara’s daughter, Rebecca Ingber, is an associate professor of law at Boston University Law School in the field of international law and national security law, and has two daughters, Alma Rae and Tess Metlitsky. Barb mentions that she connected with Debbie G. Neumann and Catherine Thibault  ’77 at the Reunion.

Mitchell Marinello | mlmarinello@comcast.net

From all reports, Reunion Weekend was a hit. The weather was good, there were some excellent panel discussions, and enough classmates made it back to make the trip worthwhile. I could not make it, and I want to thank Elisa Serling Davis for sending me some notes about those who did. Folks mentioned were present unless stated otherwise.

Adele Miles Batchelder started her career in product marketing. She now teaches public preschool part time and volunteers. She has two children in their late ’20s and lots of hobbies, including yoga and dance.

Mark Berger, who is married to Jane Eisner ’77, attended with their daughter Rachel Berger ’06, who was attending her 10th Reunion. Mark and Jane have a second Wes grad who will attend her Reunion next year. After spending 30 years in Philadelphia, Mark and Jane are now living in NYC. Mark is VP of clinical research at Kadmon Corporation and Jane is editor of The Forward, a national Jewish newspaper.

Barbara Birney just returned from six weeks in Botswana, volunteering for the Cheetah Conservation group there. She attended with her brother, Bob Birney ’81, and she caught up with Linda Whitlock-Brown.

Mel Blake works as a talent agent representing authors and speakers. He and his wife, Rebecca, are about to sell their home in Lexington and move to Portsmouth, N.H.

Sidney Cohen and his wife, Carol, live in Pleasanton, Calif., where Sid works as a physician adviser for Medtronic. Their three children (Jacob, Rachel and Jonah) are busy as a CPA/controller, administrator at QVC and medical student, respectively. Sid’s hobbies include enjoying California’s great weather, tending to his fruit trees, photography, and amateur radio.

Many of you probably know that Wes has closed DKE. This is and will continue to be a sore point with many alumni, including myself. Alumni were permitted to have an open house at DKE this weekend, however, and some Chi Psi brothers joined in. Jim Cornell sent me a photo of himself, Dan Bellegarde, Paul McMahon, Pete McArdle, Stan Opalacz, and Rob Williams at the House and another that included Dennis Harrington, Wes Higgins, Paul McDermott, Jack O’Donnell, and Steve Farrell ’77 having dinner at Bread and Water. Alan Poon was also there but missed the photo shoot. You guys look great, and I am sorry I was not there to join you! Lenny Femino would have liked to attend but his daughter Leonora graduated from Grinnell that same weekend. Leonora graduated with honors and was a four-year starter on the varsity soccer team and a hurdler/captain in track. Congratulations, Len!

Leslie Gabel-Brett is enjoying her three granddaughters. She also has a book that will soon be published on the marriage equality movement.

Joellyn Gray and her husband, Kevin, have four sons, two in the film industry, one pursuing a medical career, and one in digital marketing in NYC. Kevin teaches real estate finance at Yale and Joellyn is the director of new business at Fujifilm. She was able to reconnect with Steve Duncan, Steve Goldman, Debbie Gottheimer, Tom Kovar, Merle Kummer, and David Low and to meet Ron Kirschner and Adele Batchelder.

Debra Haffner is going to be the next senior minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Reston, Va., near DC. All DC friends are invited to visit her congregation.

David Harmin and his wife, Karen Williams Harmin, live in Cambridge and they both work at Harvard Medical School in neuroscience research and administration, respectively. Karen is a former attorney and David is a former physics professor. They lived separate lives for 31 years and then got back together and wed.

Byron Haskins, who could not make Reunion, is putting an end to commuting, retiring from federal service and planning a more leisurely work life. Best wishes to you and your wife, Byron.

Tom Kovar had a great time at the Reunion and, in addition to working, is still gigging with his band, the Retroverts, about once a month.

Seth Lerer visited Wes for the first time since graduation. He spent time with Elisa Serling Davis, Connie Bodine McCann, Merle Kummer, and many others and participated in a very well-received panel discussion in which alumni presented their current work and the impact Wes had on them. After five-and-a-half years as the dean of arts and humanities, Seth is now the Distinguished Professor of Literature at UCSD. He also has a new book being published by Oxford University Press in August entitled Tradition: A Feeling for the Literary Past.

Alan Miller and Ethan Bronner, former housemates, teamed up again as part of a Wes seminar on news literacy: “Discerning Fact from Fiction in our Digital-Age Democracy.” The panel, which drew an overflow crowd, also included Rob King ’84 and Erika Franklin Fowler, an assistant professor of government at Wes. The moderator was Alberto Ibargüen ’66, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Alan is president and founder of the News Literacy Project, Ethan is a senior editor of Bloomberg News, and Rob is ESPN’s senior vice president for “Sportscenter” and News. Alberto and the Knight Foundation were instrumental in launching the News Literacy Project as well as the field of news literacy nationally.

For the next issue, I’d like to hear from more of you, particularly classmates whose names begin with a letter from the second half of the alphabet!

Mitchell Marinello | mlmarinello@comcast.net