Tag: 1978

Greetings to all. This issue’s column has the uncanny privilege of featuring two of our classmates who have just released new books.

Elise Bean has just come out with Financial Exposure: Carl Levin’s Senate Investigations into Finance and Tax Abuse, which draws upon her 30 year of experience working as an investigator for Senate Levin (including 15 years of service on the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations). Notably, Elise mentions that a significant theme in the book involves the favorably bipartisan nature with which much of the congressional investigative work has taken place during her years there. She was recently back on Wes campus for Family Weekend to discuss the book in a Weseminar. Elise retired from her investigative congressional work in 2015 and remains in Washington, D.C., where she runs training programs for congressional oversight investigations and performs nonprofit work.

Helen Reiss has released The Empathy Effect: Seven Neuroscience-Based Keys for Transforming the Way We Live, Love, Work and Connect Across Differences. Helen is founder and chief scientific officer of Empathetics, Inc., and associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Congratulations!

Susie Muirhead Bates | sbatesdux@hotmail.com 

Ken Kramer | kmkramer78@hotmail.com

Summer greetings, classmates! Hopefully everyone is enjoying all the pleasures of the season. The most important news would be our successful and well-attended 40th Reunion over Memorial Day weekend. Thanks to a lot of organizational and creative effort on the part of our Reunion committee and university liaisons, all the activities went off without a hitch. Our first class gathering took place on Friday in the new resource center where the library was dedicated and named for the class of 1978, in honor of its generosity during its 40th Reunion year. A plaque commemorating our gift includes a quote by Toni Morrison, which reads, “If there’s a book you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” As to our generosity, it’s a pleasure to report that we met our 40th Reunion fundraising goal of $400,000 for the Wesleyan Fund and $5,000,000 in multi-year commitments.

Saturday kicked off with an organizing breakfast meeting for women athletes (thanks to Suki Hoagland and Fran Rivkin). An energetic group of ’78s rallied for the class march to Memorial Hall and many attended the box lunch under the big tent afterwards. Eclectic held an afternoon party with many ’78s in attendance. Our well-attended class dinner was held in the ’92 Theatre. Irma Gonzalez did a fabulous job of MCing the evening and we had a hot-off-the-press university update from Michael Roth. During our meal, the mic was passed around and classmates shared their Wesleyan experiences. An added bonus to the weekend took place off-site up in Foxboro, Mass., on Sunday where our own Men’s Varsity Lacrosse team competed in and WON the Division III National Championship! There were many alumni and students in attendance to watch the exciting game.

To the 63 classmates who were able to attend our Reunion, surely you are treasuring many special moments—and to those who weren’t able to attend, you were missed. For everyone’s enjoyment, Kathy Mintz put together a photo album. Thank you, Kathy.

Andrea Gabor sent in news of her new book, After the Education Wars, published in June by The New Press. Her earlier books include Einstein’s Wife, The Capitalist Philosophers, and The Man Who Discovered Quality. Andrea is Bloomberg Chair of Business Journalism at Baruch College.

Ken and I celebrate 15 years as co-secretaries and are on board for the foreseeable future. However, the columns are only interesting if you send us news!

Susie Muirhead Bates | sbatesdux@hotmail.com 

Ken Kramer | kmkramer78@hotmail.com

Class of 1978 Endowed Scholarship Fund

Matthew Richard Grimaldi ’21, Florence, MA

Alison Gilchrist is enjoying life on the coast of Maine. She volunteers at the Penobscot Marine Museum’s photo archive, as well as for the Midcoast Restorative Justice Project as a mentor. She’s catching up on her travels, and is appreciative of it all: “My kids are all doing well, I’m healthy, I have great people and family around, including brother Geoff ’92 and his family. I’m so lucky!” Nice.

Richard Order is serving on the board of the Mandell Greater Hartford Jewish Community Center and is co-chair of its Jewish Film Festival. He continues his work as a partner in the legal firm of Updike, Kelly and Spellacy, in Hartford, Conn.

Marisa Smith continues dual careers as both a playwright and a theater book publisher. Smith and Kraus Publishers have surpassed its first quarter century, with 700 titles in print. About 10 years ago she got the bug to write plays herself and has become an award-winning playwright. Upcoming productions include Sex and Other Disturbances in May (Portland Stage, Maine) and Venus Rising in January 2019 (Northern Stage, Vermont). Her oldest son, Luke, is married and works as an attorney in San Antonio, Texas, while second son Peter is a sommelier in Los Angeles.

Our 40th Reunion is coming up on May 25-27. Hope to see many of you there.

Susie Muirhead Bates | sbatesdux@hotmail.com 

Ken Kramer | kmkramer78@hotmail.com

Hello, classmates. In case you haven’t heard, we have a big reunion coming up next year! Please mark May 25-26, 2018 on your calendars and plan to be in Middletown to celebrate our 40th Reunion. I know what you’re thinking…How could it be our 40th?! Seems like graduation, or at least our 10th or 25th was only yesterday. No matter the year, we’re still going strong and looking forward so let’s make it the best reunion weekend ever! Also, let’s beat the 40th Reunion attendance record set by Class of ’77. We need at least 107 attendees. Hope you’ll be one of them!

In the meantime, please send us your news. The next issue would be the perfect time to tell fellow classmates your news and plans to attend reunion.

Onto the News: Lisa Alter made Variety’s inaugural “NY Dealmakers Elite” list which honors “power players” having a significant impact on Broadway, advertising, and the music business. Lisa is a partner at Alter Kendrick & Baron LLP in NYC and practices primarily in the area of copyright law, with a focus on domestic and international music copyright issues. She counsels composers, authors, musical estates, music publishers, and equity investors on a wide range of copyright and transactional matters, including music publishing, acquisitions, selling and administering copyright catalogues, and recapture of copyrights, among others. Lisa is the author of Protecting Your Musical Copyrights, which is now available in its third edition, and the recent Forbes article “Concord Bicycle Music Buys Imagem Music Group Heralding a Golden Age of Music Publishing.”

Jon Spector and wife, Wendy, enjoy life in Vermont. He commutes to The Conference Board in New York. “Wendy chairs our local arts organization and will be ski ambassador at Killington. My major accomplishment was participating in a one-hour art class and painting an image of a boat dock on a lake bordered by mountains—which according to several observers almost resembles a boat dock on a lake bordered by mountains. I feel a second career beckons.”

Rachael Pine has an empty nest in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with one daughter at Oberlin, and the second having graduated and now working as the food program coordinator at Oberlin Community Services. Her husband is general counsel of the Legal Aid Society and she works at a private foundation managing grantmaking related to health/healthcare and immigrant communities.

Bill Adler, our expat living and writing in Japan, says, “My cat, however, is indifferent to the view and thinks that the dim LED power lights that proliferate the apartment are a signal from the moon to make as much noise as possible at 3 a.m.”

Nancy Grossman sent her only child, Daniel, off to UMass Amherst with a “tentative” major of mechanical engineering. She says, “I am finding the empty nest so much easier to take when the boy is only four miles away!” Nancy practices acupuncture and publishes the occasional op-ed.

After 30 years of pastorate in the Atlanta area, Ken Samuel has been awarded a Lilly grant for a sabbatical. Among other things, he’ll be spending a month in the Philippines teaching at Silliman University.

 Gary Friedmann chairs the citizen grass-roots organization, A Climate to Thrive, which has the goal of making Mount Desert Island, Maine, energy independent by 2030. Their Solarize MDI initiative doubled the Island’s solar-generated power in 2017, and they aim to continue that trend, along with weatherization, local foods, recycling, electric vehicle, and student internship initiatives in the coming year.

Stefan Watson is the owner of Watson Custom Builders. He and wife Eileen Devereux ’76 have been rebuilding homes in downtown Albuquerque for 40-plus years. He writes, “All of our projects seem to take 10 to 12 years to complete—most recently a complete renovation of 8th and Mountain Road in downtown Albuquerque. We had acquired four corners 14 years ago thinking how nice it would be to own an intersection with six houses and an old gas station, now coffee shop.” Stefan completed a new floor design with artist Richard Tuttle for a Zahad Hadid Design home in Miami for real estate developer Craig Robbins. They’re working on a series of tile tables to be in Richard Tuttle’s gallery show later in the year.

David Rosenthal serves as co-head of the Global Capital Markets practice at Dechert LLP. He writes, “I’m very proud of my son, James ’08, who is following in my footsteps as a mid-level transactional associate at Willkie Farr & Gallagher in NYC, and my daughter, Elise ’11, who is following in her grandfather’s footsteps (inorganic chemistry freshman year ended any aspirations to become a doctor that I might have had) and is a first-year resident in ob-gyn at Montefiore in the Bronx.”

After many years at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Bob Kalb moved to Chicago to be the director of the Les Turner ALS Research and Patient Center at Northwestern Medicine and chief of Neuromuscular Medicine in the Ken & Ruth Davee Department of Neurology. He writes, “This promises to be a marvelous opportunity to both enhance the basic research in my lab and to foster translational medicine.”

Susie Muirhead Bates | sbatesdux@hotmail.com 

Ken Kramer | kmkramer78@hotmail.com

Bill Adler “waves to classmates from Tokyo,” where he has been living for the past three years. He reports: “I spend my days writing novels and my nights sleeping only when my cat thinks I deserve to. If you like time-travel fiction, pick up a copy of my novella, No Time to Say Goodbye. I’m currently writing a Japanese ghost story.”

Wolfgang Natter proudly announces the graduation of his son, Joseph ’17, an honors physics major who plans to extend this background to “social physics of the law.” Wolfgang has accepted the position of vice president of academic affairs at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minn. He welcomes contact from “any Wes alumni who reside at or near the borders of Lake Superior and Minnesota.”

Rich Order continues to litigate business disputes as a principal partner in the firm of Updike, Kelly, and Spellacy, in Hartford, Conn. He and Denise, his wife of 34 years, live in Simsbury, Conn. Their son Daniel, a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder, will be attending the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University this fall to pursue a master’s degree in documentary filmmaking.

Susie Muirhead Bates | sbatesdux@hotmail.com 

Ken Kramer | kmkramer78@hotmail.com

Class of 1978 Endowed Scholarship Fund

Vera Benkoil ’18, Psychology and American Studies

Greetings classmates! Hope 2017 is getting off to a good start for one and all. Susie writes for this issue. Seems many of us are enjoying celebrations of one sort or another these days. 60th birthdays (remember 60 is only a speed limit!), children’s graduations and marriages, not to mention arrivals of precious grandchildren.

Jennifer Atkinson says her biggest news was the birth of her first grandchild, Karlyn Ryan Steinberg, on New Year’s Eve. She added, “Next to her, everything else fades to near insignificance.” Jennifer, a professor at George Mason University, also published her fifth book of poems, The Thinking Eye, this past year.

Bloomberg Professor of Business Journalism Andrea Gabor sent greetings from Havana where she was leading her second group of Baruch College/CUNY journalism students on a study abroad trip exploring Cuba’s rich biodiversity and efforts at developing sustainable agriculture and fisheries. Their first trip was January 2015, just weeks after President Obama and Castro began their détente.

Bill Adler has been living in Tokyo, Japan, for the past two years and is enjoying life as an expat. He’s writing and occasionally publishing books. His novella, No Time to Say Goodbye, is coming out this spring.

Dave Wilson had some good success with his fourth and most recent album, from the Dave Wilson Quartet, There Was Never, which was released on the New York-based ZOHO Music Label in 2015. The album included original music by Dave, a saxophonist, and interpretations of some well-known tunes. The album received radio airplay in 40 different markets across the country, and in 2016 received a nomination for a Grammy by ZOHO for Best Instrumental Jazz Record. Dave lives with his wife, Lisa, in Lancaster, Pa., where in addition to his performance career, he teaches privately, and has a business buying and selling musical instruments. He can be reached at davewilsonmusic.org.

Elizabeth Weiss Ozorak is keeping herself busy and fit! One of her highlights for 2016 was winning the Bronze Freeskate at USA Adult Masters Games last July. She would “love to hear from any other late-blooming athletes and/or adult figure skaters out there!” [eozorak@allegheny.edu]

Jon Spector and his wife, Wendy, enjoy life in Woodstock, Vt., where they moved two years ago when they became empty nesters. Wendy is on ski patrol and is an EMT, while Jon is working in New York at The Conference Board. A small nearby airport allows Jon to make trips to and from the city fairly efficiently. At The Conference Board, he is joined by fellow Wesleyan alumni Moira James and Russell Morris ’87. Alan Dachs ’70 is a trustee and chairman emeritus.

Life in Duxbury is never dull with our toddler grandson (and his parents) living in town. Our oldest just moved to San Francisco and our youngest just graduated from college in December (a semester early!).  As we put our best and most positive feet forward in 2017, I’d like to sign off with these words by John Wesley: “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”

Please stay in touch,

Susie Muirhead Bates | sbatesdux@hotmail.com 

Ken Kramer | kmkramer78@hotmail.com

Gary Friedmann, vice chair of the Bar Harbor, Maine town council, has launched a project, A Climate to Thrive, the goal of which is to make Mount Desert Island energy-independent by 2030. In this program, six committees with dozens of volunteers work on climate solutions that strengthen the local community through initiatives in alternative energy, building efficiency, transportation, zero waste, local food, and public policy.

Geoff Ginsburg reports, “Life is good here in North Carolina,” where he continues his work in precision medicine and engineering as director of the Center for Applied Genomics and Precision Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. He has also started a company, Host Response, to bring novel disease diagnostics to the market, and a nonprofit company, Global Genomic Medicine Collaborative, an international organization aimed at fostering global partnerships to advance genomics in the practice of medicine. Geoff is “always happy to have visitors who are in the area” (twitter: @PersonalizedMed).

Tim Hollister’s daughter, Martha, is starting her senior year at Hampshire College, where she is studying video game design. His book, His Father Still, was an Oprah Book Club recommended summer read this July. The second edition of his previous book, Not So Fast: Parenting Your Teen Through the Dangers of Driving, will be published next September.

Lisa Landsman writes from Cabin John, Md., that she received her master’s in public heath from Johns Hopkins University and is heading back into the job market as a public health lawyer. Additionally, “my three kids are all doing well, and I have two adorable little grandkids.”

Mark Laser took a seven-week break this year from his obstetrics and gynecology practice in Trumbull, Conn., to participate in the ARC Europe sailing rally. He sailed across the Atlantic in his own boat with a crew of three, taking first place in all three legs. Preparation included obtaining a Coast Guard Master Captain’s license and learning celestial navigation, and the adventure included “30-knot winds and 20-foot seas, flying fish, dolphins and even a whale or two…one more item checked off the bucket list.”

Susan Loonsk has moved from Wisconsin to Shepherdstown, W.Va. She welcomes anyone regionally to contact her at art@loonsk.com.

Lucy Mize reports that she continues to love her work at the Asia Bureau of USAID, managing “a very strong health team” with programming in 17 countries. She traveled to Denmark and Bangladesh this year, making that “72 countries I have visited in the course of work or play.” Her son, Thaddeus  ’17, is a senior at Wesleyan where he is co-captain of the crew team. Her daughter, Belle, is a high school junior, and her husband, Tim, continues traveling extensively for the World Bank (they are hoping for his next assignment to be Mozambique). Her father, David Mize  ’51, continues to stay active traveling despite the passing of Lucy’s mother last year. Baseball is Lucy’s “best diversion.” She enjoys following her hometown Washington Nationals with Bill Tabor  ’79.

David Nussenbaum reports that “after 30-something years in the business world” he has assumed responsibility for the Bronx Arts Ensemble (bronxartsensemble.org), a nonprofit organization teaching music, dance, theater and art in more than 40 public schools, and producing professional concerts. He welcomes classmates to attend the shows, which have included Wesleyan music professor Jay Hoggard  ’76. He says that his wife, Betsy, and his daughter, Julia, “make me very happy and proud.”

George Raymond writes that, for the third year in a row, he and his wife took the TGV in June from their home near Basel—where they have lived for 27 years—to spend a weekend in Provence with his former Wesleyan economics professor, Peter Kilby and his wife. “We’ve managed to keep in touch ever since I handed in my last CSS paper.”

Harvey Silberman has just finished his 12th year on the bench in LA, where he serves as a judge of the Superior Court. He also directs and distributes indie films. His son graduated from Colorado College and now works for Disney Productions. At a Wesleyan event this past year in Beverly Hills, Harvey saw Peter Heller ’84 and Dana Delany, “whom I directed in Lion in Winter so many years ago…great to see them!”

Marisa Smith and her husband, Eric Kraus, have owned Smith and Kraus Publishers for the past 25 years, specializing in theater-related books, with over 650 titles in print. In recent years, “on a lark” Marisa began writing plays as well—which has turned into an unexpected second career perfectly timed with empty nest-hood. Her comedy Saving Kitty starred Jennifer Coolidge last summer in Cambridge, Mass., and Mad Love has been at Northern Stage in Vermont and the New Jersey Repertory Company. Sons Luke and Peter are, respectively, a law student at Wake Forest and a sommelier/chef in LA.

Jim Washington relays an overdue update, as “I think it might be nice for some and vex others that I’m still alive.” He and his wife, Mary Lu, celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary this year with a summer trip to Amsterdam followed by a cruise along the North Sea, stopping in Norwegian villages and crossing into the Arctic Circle. Jim continues to work in Dartmouth’s admissions office and will soon begin his inaugural year of board service for Boston Prep Academy, a charter school that draws students from urban areas familiar to Jim, such as his hometown of Roxbury, Mass. In the spring, Jim will return to the classroom in pursuit of a second master of arts degree as a student in Dartmouth’s MALS creative writing program. His latest published poetry can be found in the Main Street Rag summer 2016 edition.

Dave Wilson continues his work as a jazz saxophonist, band leader, and composer. His latest album, There Was Never, was released in November 2015, reaching #18 in the Nationwide Jazz Radio Countdown. Dave lives in Lancaster, Pa. with his wife, Lisa, and their four cats.

Susie Muirhead Bates | sbatesdux@hotmail.com 

Ken Kramer | kmkramer78@hotmail.com

Greetings classmates! Hope these notes find you all heading into a summer with sunny skies and plenty of time to relax and enjoy time with loved ones. Here’s what’s up with a few of your classmates:

Jennifer Atkinson lives in Virginia where she is a professor at George Mason University in the MFA/BFA programs in poetry. Her fifth book of poems, The Thinking Eye, is newly out. More details are at www.parlorpress.com/freeverse/the-thinking-eye. Jennifer lives just outside the Beltway and would love to catch up with old friends. If you are in or visiting D.C. she invites you to look her up.

David Weild IV contributed that he “had the wonderful experience of teaching two economics classes at Wesleyan for Prof. Abigail Hornstein in February: Investments and Corporate Finance from the perspective of how the evolution in low-cost electronic trading and capital markets structure is impacting these disciplines.” Among the students in his class was Paul DiSanto ’81.

Ruth van Eck-Rotholz sent a thoughtful, reflective letter, which began by describing Wesleyan as “a place for her to discover.” She felt its small size and flexibility allowed for “focus on the development of individual ideas.” She continued, “With this naive energy I continued to fulfill my dreams in my first years in the triptych of my life.” At 30, Ruth left the USA and became “an architect for the Supreme Court in Jerusalem where she met and fell in love with Swedish geophysicist Torild van Eck.” They moved to the Netherlands, had two beautiful daughters, Miriam and Rachel, and lived in the summers in Sweden. Sadly, Torlid died in his sleep in 2014, just days before his 65th birthday. Ruth reflected that “this was my own private earthquake and I still feel the aftershocks” and “feels that another transition in her life is occurring now” as she turns 60.

She advises all of us to “Listen around you, be patient, remain humble, and gather strength from Nature, and not from titles, prestige, degrees, or status. See the world as a whole and not divided by political forces but by moving plates. Imagine communicating what is essential without language. Realize that ultimately it is the forces of the earth and how we respect them that will prove to be our ultimate guides.” Ruth, thanks for your openness. I’m sure our classmates join me in wishing you all the best.

Mark Laser is preparing to leave on a challenging sailboat race across the Atlantic as part of the ARC Europe Rally on his boat, First Light. There will be a satellite tracker on board, tracking their progress in real time. Mark has done a lot of work in preparation for this “bucket list” item. He’s been Coast Guard certified as a master captain, 50-ton rated, as well as learned the ancient art of celestial navigation. To learn about the boat and crew and follow the journey, go to firstlight.deligent.com. Bon voyage, Mark!

Cheers to Pat and Nancy McCabe who in April celebrated their 150th Birthaversary; two 60th birthdays and a 30th anniversary all in one night. In addition to Pat and Nancy, other ’78s in attendance were Moira McNamara James and Jodi Wilinsky Hill. Other Wesleyan grads at the festivities were Nancy’s father, Herb Kendall ’48; Nancy’s brother, Richard Kendall ’74, Ellen Gerken ’77, and John Bennett ’79. “Wished we could have been there” came from other ‘78’s Jamer Breene, Hank Mathieu, Bill Tabor, and yours truly.

We know the Class Notes are most of your favorite part of the reading Wesleyan, but are the notes rather a disappointment if we don’t have anything to print? Please don’t be shy or bashful, e-mail us what’s new in your lives so we can share it with your classmates.

Until next time, wishing each of you all the best,

SUSIE MUIRHEAD BATES | sbatesdux@hotmail.com

Ken Kramer | kmkramer78@hotmail.com

Class of 1978 Endowed Scholarship Fund

Vera Benkoil ’18, New York, N.Y.

Nancy Chen is enjoying life in Boulder, Colo., where she is establishing a marketing strategy coaching business. Her daughter, Ariane, will be graduating this year from Chapman University in Orange, Calif., where she is majoring in environmental science. Her other daughter, Isabelle, is studying communications at Seattle University.

Glenn Heinmiller was inducted into the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) College of Fellows. Glenn is a principal at the architectural lighting design firm LAM in Cambridge, Mass. His expertise is in the production of high-quality electric and day-lighting solutions minimizing energy use and environmental impact, and he serves as chairman of the IALD energy and sustainability committee. He has received numerous awards for his lighting design work, about which he has written and lectured, and has taught at Boston Architectural College.

David Weild IV continues his work in the financial sector as CEO of Weild & Co., and continues his public policy working stemming from his contributions to the creation of the JOBS Act, as well. He was at the White House as a participant in the I Have a Dream Summit, and his work travels also took him to the G20 meeting in Istanbul and the Budapest Economic Forum. Dave will be doing some teaching in the Economics Department at Wes this semester; his sister actually teaches in the drama department. His children (“the joy in my life”)—Dave V, Michael, and Kelly—are all avid lacrosse players.

Bobbie (Barbara) Spellman recently published an article in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, about “the current crisis of replicability in the social and life sciences.” She proudly reports having, in its acknowledgement section, thanked no less than 11 of her Wesleyan professors “for influencing my thinking oh-so-long ago.” Bobbie has also recently published a book, The Psychological Foundation of Evidence Law.

SUSIE MUIRHEAD BATES | sbatesdux@hotmail.com

Ken Kramer | kmkramer78@hotmail.com