Tag: 1978

Greetings Classmates,

If you’re reading these notes, then you successfully found our “online only” Wesleyan Class Notes for Fall 2023. Hope you are well and enjoying a beautiful autumn wherever you are. Here’s what several of your classmates are up to:

Susan Southard, author of Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War (Viking, 2015) writes that she will be traveling to Taiwan and Japan for a five-city book tour in mid-October through early November. In addition to the United States, Nagasaki has been published in England and in translation in Denmark, Spain, Taiwan, China, and Japan. This trip, her lectures will be in Japanese. While she’s in Nagasaki, Susan will give the keynote address at the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall. She suggests that if you ever have a chance to visit Nagasaki, the Peace Memorial Hall is an exquisite architectural structure—inside and out, every inch designed to honor the memory of those who died in the Nagasaki nuclear attack and in the decades since.

Kate Probst and her husband moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn, in August after living in the Washington, D.C., suburbs for over 35 years. She describes it as “an experiment with no decisions beyond living there through June 2024.” They rented a furnished apartment that allows cats and dogs, and rented out their house in McLean, Virginia. They are enjoying their new life with all their errands on foot (which has greatly increased their daily step count) and only using  a car sparingly. They also enjoy being a 10-minute walk from their daughter and her fiancée, walking and eating—the two major NYC pastimes—as well as going to the theater, museums, and walking in Prospect and Central Parks. They are much closer to friends in the Northeast, so have many visits planned. And while they miss their friends in D.C., so far don’t miss living there.

Ralph Rotman was recently recognized on Forbes’ 2023 Top Financial Security Professionals “Best-In-State” list alongside his daughter and business partner Cassie Rotman. In 2018 they started Power 10 Advisory Partners, a premier wealth management and financial planning firm in Boston. With a unique blend of intergenerational insights, the Rotmans have successfully merged traditional financial wisdom with contemporary strategies. Ralph included this photo of he and his daughter.

Bruce Phillips is happy to report that he retired in August 2022 from 36 years working as a family physician and delivering babies in Plainville, Massachusetts. He had a wonderful career and is very appreciative of his patients and colleagues who trusted him for so many years. He enjoys retirement doing all the same things he did while he was working: yoga, gardening, tennis, biking, developing his spiritual practice, and enjoying time with his family. Now he just has more time and space to do all these things. This fall he will teach new medical students one afternoon a week the basics of being a doctor, including skills such as listening, expressing empathy, and learning how to do a physical exam. Bruce enjoyed visiting Wesleyan for our 45th Reunion. He found “being on campus created a nice warp in time.” Bruce added this recent photo of he and his wife, Judy Kaye.

Please keep in touch! We love receiving and sharing your news, photos, and updates.

Warmly,

SUSIE MUIRHEAD BATES | sbatesdux@hotmail.com

KEN KRAMER | kmkramer78@hotmail.com

Nancy Chen has moved from Bozeman, Montana, to Calgary, Canada, with her husband Jack. Her daughters live on the West Coast: one soon finishes her PhD program in water conservation at UC Irvine, and the other writes fiction based on Greek mythology and history. Nancy writes that entering her elder years, she has pivoted her leadership coaching toward her passionate niche of emerging elderly women.

Geoff Ginsburg reports that he has finished his tenure at Duke Medical School and has moved to the National Institutes of Health where he is chief medical and scientific officer of the All of Us Research Program.

Barry Gross has retired from his 30-year career in the high-tech industry in Silicon Valley and has moved with his wife Pam “to a great mid-century in Stony Creek, Connecticut, with a koi pond in the middle. Middletown is just up the road, so what comes around goes around I guess!”

Lucy Mize reports that she and her kids have all been separately traveling—she to Spain to deliver a paper at an urban health conference; son Thaddeus ’17 to Amsterdam; and daughter Belle ’22 to the Annapurna Loop Trail. Lucy is finishing a coaching certificate at Georgetown, significantly along in her doctoral degree program in public health, and still working full time, “and doesn’t feel like the work has slowed at all.” Lucy included Wes pictures of her kids, herself, and her father David Mize ’51:

Dave Wilson continues his jazz saxophone career, releasing his sixth recording as a leader last year—Stretching Supreme—a tribute to John Coltrane, which reached a high of #31 in the Jazz Weekly countdown. He remains in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with his wife Lisa.

Cynthia Aaron left the medical directorship at the Michigan Poison and Drug Information Center in Detroit after 17 years and is currently semiretired. She moved to Dover, New Hampshire, because she missed New England and is enjoying living closer to family.

Julie Scolnik writes that it is enormously gratifying to finally see her memoir, Paris Blue, in print after 40 years of wanting to share this story. She loves the emails from her readers who tell her that they couldn’t put it down and that it brought back stories of their own. She recently won the Pencraft Award’s first place in memoir. Wesleyan figures prominently in the story, in her post-school, year-abroad experience. In October 2022, she returned to Reid Hall in Paris (where she first arrived to take classes in 1976) to play a concert and give a talk on her book. Julie also just released a CD with her daughter, pianist Sophie Scolnik-Brower, of the complete flute sonatas of J.S. Bach.

J.D. Solomon reports that he just published a historical novel set in 1928 in his hometown of Bay Shore, New York. Home News involves ruthless bootleggers, a trouble-prone war veteran, a cub reporter at a struggling small-town newspaper, and a popular police lieutenant assigned to a case that no one wants solved.

Doug Quint spent 35-plus years as faculty at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor and transitioned to emeritus professor of neuroradiology and MRI last summer. He plans to continue tennis, bicycling, and old guys softball.

Be sure to mark May 25–28, 2023, on your calendars; it’s our 45th Reunion! More information is sure to follow, and please keep sending your news our way.

Jennifer Atkinson reports a very pleasant ’22 in which she and Eric welcomed a second grandchild, celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary, and accordingly went on an Alaskan cruise where “icebergs and mountains and whales were the perfect antidote to COVID cabin fever.” Naturally they caught COVID from the cruise, but with Eric on sabbatical and Jennifer recently retired from George Mason University, were able to easily recuperate with rest and reading. Jennifer also reports that her sixth book of poems, A Gray Realm the Ocean, will soon be available. It combines a conversational style along with visual arts and won the Poets Out Loud Prize from the Fordham Poetic Justice Society/Fordham University Press. She plans to do upcoming readings, from Washington, D.C., on north.

Marilyn Fagelson, who I get the benefit seeing along with her husband Tony, here in New Haven, writes: “In May, Ruth Pachman and I traveled to Positano to join Elise Bean for the last week of her five-week stay in Italy. We have visited one another many times over the years, but the views and the food were so much better in Positano. Elise continues to support Congressional investigative work in Washington, D.C.; Ruth is a strategic communications consultant in New York; and I am practicing law in New Haven. Thank you Wesleyan for giving us these and other lifelong friendships!”

Lucy Mize is thrilled to report that her son Thaddeus Brown ’17 married Alex Aaron in July on their farm in Vermont. Sister Belle ’22 took care of the photography; all in all,  “a great Cardinal representation despite being a small event.” Lucy recently finished her first year of a doctoral program, “so while the number creeps up, still active at work, school, and play.”

Dave Wilson continues his successful jazz saxophone career, releasing his sixth recording as a leader this past January. The work, Stretching Supreme (Dave Wilson Quartet), is a tribute to John Coltrane, and reached #31 in the Jazz Weekly Radio Charts and #4  in the Downloads in the Play MPE Rankings. Dave continues to reside in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with his wife Lisa.

Greetings friends. As I write these notes, Russia has just invaded Ukraine and the world stands in disbelief. Maybe you, like me, are hoping and praying for a more peaceful world as we go into very challenging times. It’s unbelievable to hear words like World War III just as we were beginning to enjoy pre-C0VID activities such as family visits, travel, and celebrations. When this Wes magazine lands on your doorstep in a few months, who knows what will be going on but for now, I hope you and yours are healthy and safe.  Here’s what some of your classmates are up to:

Kevin Rose and his wife, Annie, downsized right before the pandemic from their home in Ipswich to a condo in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Their son, Danny ’19), was part of a cyber software start-up in Boston that got bought up and has relocated to NYC.

Lucy Mize is based more in Vermont than Virginia this year. She is still at USAID but also started a doctoral program at Indiana University in Global Public Health Leadership and her daughter expects to graduate from Wes this year.

Pete Lewis attended the memorial service for Coach Peter “Kosty” Kostacopoulos in Machias, Maine, in July 2021, where there were about 50 attendees split between family, neighbors, and Wesleyan alums, including: Tom Miceli ’81, Robb Sansone ’79, Todd Mogren ’83, and Frank Hauser ’79.  Pete said there were many nice words spoken and a few laughs (including the eulogy line that “no umpires chose to attend”!).

Sadly, Sheryl Ann Smith, PhD died suddenly and unexpectedly just after Valentine’s Day 2022. Sheri, as she was known to her Wesleyan classmates, teammates, and friends, was loved by many and will be greatly missed. Here are several tributes to her memory: Jodi Wilinsky Hill, a former roommate, shared, “Sheri was a cherished wife, mother, friend, and sports psychologist. She was a talented, accomplished athlete, gardener (her orchids flourished in her Wesleyan dorm room—no small feat), and beloved daughter, sister, and community member. Sheri was blessed by beauty and grace, patience when needed, the ability to compete equally well individually or as part of a team and had an infectious laugh. She will be missed beyond measure.”  Maureen Walsh ’79 wrote, “Sheri was one of the original trailblazers in women’s athletics at Wesleyan, and in one of the relatively early coed classes. She stood out as a loyal and generous teammate and friend. Sheri played on several ‘first’ female teams: ice hockey, soccer, outdoor track, and lacrosse. In ice hockey, she took her beautiful and accomplished figure-skating skills to become a fearsome ice hockey player during a time when the ability to skate backward with confidence put you on the first line.” Suki Hoagland, Sheri’s skating partner at Wesleyan and longtime, close friend, wrote:

“Dear Wesleyan family of 1978,

I write with a heavy, heavy, heart to share that our dear, wonderful, amazing, Sheri Smith-Schneider passed away this week. I am writing this remembrance hoping to celebrate Sheri’s extraordinary life but knowing I must first express my profound grief. To say a bright shining light has been extinguished is such an understatement. Life can be so unfair, cut way too short, delivering a gut punch you never saw coming. We have all weathered so much, and now this. Sheri’s death is still so raw I can barely think, and I imagine class notes are not supposed to be the forum for expressing such overt emotion, but as Dr. Sheryl Smith-Schneider would have surely counseled, ‘let it out, acknowledge, communicate . . . it’s ok to not be ok.’

“So, I want to share my journey with Sheri, as just one person of the thousands she surely touched. And while I feel awkward centering this note on my life, I hope it sheds light on Sheri’s gifts and you can revel in all the ways she gave to you.

“When I arrived at Wes, fall of ’74, I had just bid farewell to my figure-skating career. I had trained up until the day I left for Middletown and the adjustment was hard. Early on I ventured to the rink and found Sheri. Having been a pairs skater I missed the joy of sharing the ice, feeling the air breezing across my face, gliding fast, holding on to someone else.  Sheri picked this up right away and offered a perfect solution. We would choreograph a similar pair routine and perform it in between periods of hockey games. Which we did and it was fun! It helped me let go of one life and embrace a new one.

“Four years later, at graduation, I was holding it all together. I had loved my time at Wesleyan so much, sharing an incredible journey with all of you. I was sad, but eager to start my new life.  Do you remember that glorious day, blue sky, bagpipes as we processed in celebratory red robes across Andrus Field?  After the ceremony, as we hugged and took pictures and relished our accomplishments . . . I saw Sheri and burst into tears. How could I ever thank her for all she had given me? I would miss her so very much. I just sobbed.

“We kept in touch, delighting in each other’s lives—marriage, motherhood, doctorates, careers . . . . But by our 30th Reunion, I had used myself up and was struggling with debilitating mental illness. My depression was so overpowering I could barely move. I had flown all the way from Switzerland, and I wanted to enjoy our gathering, catch up, reconnect, celebrate, but I simply could not. Sheri saw through my façade, knew I was struggling, knew I was sick, knew I needed help. She scooped me up, left our reunion, drove me to her home, snuggled me into bed with a warm blanket, closing the curtains, turning off the lights and whispering, ‘It is ok, just rest.’

So, dearest Sheri, I guess it is your time to rest. I could never thank you enough.

“During the past few years, as we both recovered from our illnesses, Sheri’s stage-four cancer and my bipolar disease, we were exuberant about ‘getting our lives back.’ We connected often, more grateful, and keenly aware of how precious every single day is.  But . . . I just spoke to Sheri the other day. She was just a phone call away. . . and now she is gone. We have lost a treasure. So, to all of you, let us celebrate this extraordinary life and ensure Sheri’s legacy lives on.—Suki Hoagland”

Sheri’s obituary can be found here.

Carpe diem and please send us your news.

Marc Abrams is in his 20th year at the Oregon Department of Justice, where he heads the employment litigation team. He was asked this year to lead a team of attorneys at the Department of Justice to defend Oregon Governor Brown’s executive orders protecting against COVID, which were under legal challenge by private schools, churches, and tattoo parlors. “It’s been a particularly fascinating year . . . I did a number of oral arguments in federal court on Zoom, in tie, jacket, cargo shorts and bare feet.”

Andrea Gabor is Bloomberg Chair of Business Journalism at Baruch College of the City University of New York. Her chapter “Media Capture and the Corporate Education-Reform Philanthropies” is currently being published in the book Media Capture: How Money, Digital Platforms and Governments Control the News (Columbia University Press). Andrea has previously authored the book After the Education Wars: How Smart Schools Upend the Business of Reform, published in 2018.

John Rose and his family have been spending most of their time in northwestern Connecticut since “retreating there from NYC in March of 2020.” John is a senior partner at Boston Consulting Group, and “had the unique opportunity over the last 15 months to support New York State in its response to COVID” from the standpoint of setting up industry guidelines and vaccination programs. John’s daughter is in the class of 2023 at College of William and Mary, his son in the class of 2023 at Wesleyan. His wife Elizabeth recently ended her service as deputy chancellor for operations at the NYC Department of Education, and is now chief financial officer for an educational non-profit agency.

Ralph Rotman has been recognized by the Boston office of Northwestern Mutual, where he has been for 43 years, by being inducted into the company’s elite membership, the Forum Group. Ralph’s daughter, Cassie, has joined him in the business.

Julie Scolnik reports that Koehler Books has published a memoir she had been working on for decades—Paris Blue—a “fairy-tale memoir,” which begins in Paris in the late 1970s, reflecting her musical career, “love at first sight,” and eventual heartbreak. Wesleyan has its place in this book, which has received a favorable review from author John Irving.

Carl Taylor wishes everyone good health and well-being from West Hartford, Connecticut, where he continues to live with his wife and son. He reports that the winter was spent caring for her following surgical treatment for a ruptured colon, from which she has recovered well “thanks to a great surgeon, very good care, and strong Russian genes from a couple of generations past. She is back to gardening, her prime hobby in good weather. Nurses and healthcare workers do not get paid enough (good man Carl)!” At a recent visit to Maine they celebrated her allowance for lobster rolls at Red’s Eats, and then took in the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay. Carl has just completed his 38th year coaching youth lacrosse in his hometown, where “three players were children of some of my former players, the father of one serving as his assistant coach.” He continues to serve as a superior court judge in New Britain, Connecticut, “periodically dealing with children, grandchildren, and in one case, the great-grandchildren of people that I dealt with as an assistant state’s attorney in New Britain. No, I’m getting old!”