Tag: 1980

Freddi Wald (Sherman): “I continue to live in NYC with my husband, Roger, and beloved dog, Tuffy, and am so excited to see our daughter, Nora, a film major and Wesleyan senior graduating this spring with Wes Class of 2024! After almost four and one-half years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as head of membership (through COVID closures . . . don’t ask!) and a deputy chief officer in development, I’m thrilled to have switched gears and joined the Ackerman Institute for the Family, as chief of Development and External Affairs—overseeing marketing and all fundraising and board development for the institute. (Yes, you CAN get a new job at aged 65!) Ackerman is such a change from the big corporate and museum world I’ve experienced, but I’ve never felt so motivated and inspired by the great work we are doing, advocating for mental health services and new innovations in family therapy, serving all populations and communities in the five boroughs. I remain an avid enthusiast of musical theater and film and occasionally take modern dance classes, fondly remembering the Cheryl Cutler and Pam Finney classes from Wes—that kept me centered!”

Gigi Peeples (legally, Yvette): “I took early retirement in March 2022 after 23 years in the very demanding physician staffing industry (especially during COVID). Lots happened prior to this decision, including my father passing away after four years of caring for him and needing to take care of my mental and physical health. It was the best decision, although I find myself continuing to adjust to having so much free time (a good problem to have). After 27 years in Georgia, I am back in California along with my daughter, son-in-law, and nine-year-old granddaughter! We love it here! It was my son-in-law’s idea, then he and my daughter insisted I join them, which was an easy ‘yes’ for me. I still have lots of family and friends here from Marin County to San Diego and all points in-between. I sold my house of 17 years and downsized like CRAZY (donated a ton and had an estate sale). We arrived in June 2023 after a four-day cross-country trek, caravanning with three vehicles [and] four dogs and a cat and have since settled in nicely. We feel right at home and like true Californians . . . we are NOT loving the abnormal amounts of rain this past year, though it is good for drought recovery. My granddaughter made friends instantly and has a busy social life, as well as being a competitive dancer. My son-in-law has always been quite the entrepreneur and still has businesses in Georgia, which he and my daughter are able to run from California. He’s a custom home builder in Georgia and is looking into expanding that business to the West Coast. He and my daughter have made lots of new friends since we moved here, some of whom have expressed an interest in wanting to build homes. So, he’s starting the process of getting his California builder’s license. They also own 53 rental properties in Georgia and desperately need a property manager, so I’ve recently joined the ‘family business’ part time in that role. I hope to start traveling soon to see all my ‘peeps’ here in California and to Switzerland to visit my cousin.”

Randal Baron: “It feels like a traumatic year because of this fateful election and war, and on a more personal note, trying to find a place for my mother in her old age that she will accept. On a happier note, I have plans to see both Indonesia and Cuba in 2024 and to see our classmate, Michael Shulman.”

Melissa Stern: “My son’s (Max W. Friedlich ’17) play [Job] had an amazing off-Broadway run in the fall and winter. Seventeen weeks of performances, over 20,000 tickets sold. Wesleyan did a ‘friends and family’ night in October that included a talk back after the play with Max and producer Alex Levy ’08. We were all thrilled that so many WesTech folks showed up, both for that special night and over the course of the run! I am headed off to Portugal tonight for a two-week vacation. Hopefully it stops raining there. Unprecedented flooding and rain throughout the country. Oh fun!”

Mark Ritter: “I’m an entrepreneur advisor to ICI Fund, an Israeli venture fund focused on artificial intelligence (AI). I’m doing all I can to learn about the technology. It’s mind-blowing. Recently I’ve been researching and presenting on the use of AI in health care, which has tremendous promise but also plenty of risks. Many people would prefer to speak to an AI bot than a human provider because they find the chatbot more empathetic. Speaking as a human, this is disappointing and a bit creepy, but it also suggests opportunities to offer therapy and reduce loneliness.”

Best wishes to all Wes ’80 alums and your families.

Your class secretary writes: When soliciting entries for this magazine, I wrote to our class: “I just want to note that the class notes were pretty much sidelined as I have been pretty caught up in the support (hugs, listening, meals, dog walking, etc.) of good friends who just lost the father/husband of their family to glioblastoma (brain cancer). Life is so fragile and so unpredictable. My husband, Andrew McKenna, and I learned that personally when he was diagnosed this past year with kidney cancer. But we were sooooo lucky, it was stage one, operable so that his kidney was 85% saved, the cancer extracted with clean margins, and he is considered cancer free. One day you’re tripping along merrily, the next in a nightmare. And after hearing from many of you, I know these are not isolated experiences. There are so many wrenching stories. So, let’s set aside our differences and treasure what we have, treasure our family and our loved ones, our neighbors, and our dear friends.” Thank you all for your care and support and your responses!

Karen Klapper: “Still working as a hospice physician in Palm Beach County, as I have been for the past 32 years. When I am not working, I am having fun doing organic gardening, butterfly gardening, and attracting hummingbirds to my yard. These are  life-affirming activities, which help counterbalance me to keep taking care of the terminally ill. Plus, I read the comics daily!” 

Janet Grillo: “Very sorry about the loss of your friend and what an ordeal you and your husband have been through. Yes, as we are in our 60s, mortality looms large. Here is my update: I am enjoying my 11th year as [a] full-time faculty arts professor at NYU Tisch Undergraduate Film school. The third indie-fiction feature I directed, originally titled The Warm Season but retitled Alien Intervention by the distributor (because no one ever called it ‘show art’) played festivals here and abroad, won the Festival Director Award at the Boston Sci Fi Film Festival, Best Cinematography Award at Santa Fe Film Festival, and played to a packed house at Woodstock Film Festival (my adopted ‘hometown’). Film Threat said, ‘The universal becomes highly personal—and overwrought special effects take a welcome holiday—in Janet Grillo’s The Warm Season, a science fiction drama of human-extraterrestrial contact that impresses with humor and heart. Reviving a few character and plot elements from the likes of John Carpenter’s Starman and Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the film, made for under $1 million over a couple of dozen shooting days, comes into its own as a compelling genre entry that covers more themes of existential relevance than those two major-studio pictures combined.’Alien Intervention can be streamed via SVOD on Apple, GooglePlay, Amazon, and Vimeo.

Randal Baron: “I am so sorry for the loss of your friend. These losses make me try to live life, fitting in as much good as possible. Luckily my husband and I have been relatively lucky with health, though not unscathed. We got in a trip to the Philippines and to Egypt [in 2023], both of which were terrific. I cannot recommend either enough. The Philippines has hands down some of the kindest people I have ever met. Egypt was also very hospitable despite the war, which had started the day we arrived. Unlike many Muslim countries, non-Muslims are welcomed into all the mosques and beautiful places. In 2024, we plan to visit Indonesia. We are enjoying life in Philadelphia, which is finally approaching a post-pandemic normal. We are hoping the city will mobilize again to save us from tyranny. I saw a T-shirt that says, ‘Bad Things Happen in Philadelphia since 1776.’”

Kenneth Toumey: “Thanks for the great message. Life is precious, thanks for the reminder. . . .  I am semiretired, (working three days a week in a small but wonderful IT company servicing small businesses in northern New Jersey) , spending the ‘off days’ enjoying my coonhound, Clementine, my grandchildren, and playing guitar and bass in a band. Cherishing every moment! I am a lucky man. All the best to all of you from class of ’80!” 

Wendy Davis: “So true, Jacquie, and a big hug to you for your resilience and grace under pressure. I’d just add prayers for all those caught in crossfire of the Middle East. Love to Andrew and welcome to the cancer survivors club, a great group with no initial vetting and no annual fees. 100% happy with my experience. . . .  This will be our first Christmas in Devon  in our ‘new’ 16th-century Manor House . . . takes some getting used to  with no central heating; we’re improvising with fire in wood-burning fireplace [and] several superefficient and effective German heaters; body heat helps, too, after the months the house was empty before we moved in last January. Spring and summer were absolutely delightful in the garden as every day was a surprise with flowers blooming from previous owners’ planting. This year we’ll be looking forward to more of the same including the fish and frogs in the pond currently hibernating under ice (sincerely sorry for them).”

Peter Scharf: “Over the past year I continued teaching Sanskrit courses online (https://sanskritlibrary.org/courses.html) and writing books to support Sanskrit learning (https://sanskritlibrary.org/publications.html). My wife and I started a digital Sanskrit humanities program (https://sites.google.com/sanskritlibrary.org/courses/sanskrit-digital-humanities) to train students to help bring the vast Sanskrit literature into the digital medium.”

Mark Zitter: “Thanks for your message, especially the PS. We’re all at the age where various relatives and friends (as well as ourselves) are facing the health challenges you cite, with both tragic and magic results. They are a reality of life, and they test our character. For news: My wife and I were in Tel Aviv on October 7 when we awoke to sirens and rockets falling. From the bomb shelter I canceled the tour I was to host for 24 of my Stanford graduate school classmates. We were able to leave the country within a few days but ever since have been consumed with the conflict in Israel/Gaza and dismayed at the surging antisemitism in the U.S. As I write this in early December, it feels like a dark time for the world and for Jews. On a brighter note, in a few days Paul Singarella and Scott Hecker are flying into the Bay Area where we’ll head to the Napa Valley for a weekend of wine tasting, fine dining, and mud baths. We’ve been having Zoom calls every other month and decided it was time to get together in person. Meanwhile, I had Daryl Messinger at my house for dinner last Friday and spent an hour chatting with Paul Oxhom yesterday.”

Peter Feldman is currently living near Geneva, Switzerland, where his wife, Ritu, is a senior manager at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). They have one daughter who’s now 17 and in her final year of high school. Peter, who earned an MS degree in hydrology from the University of Arizona in 1988, has been working for over two decades in the international development and humanitarian response field as a water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) specialist. His geographic focus has been on Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. During the past year he was engaged on an assignment in Ukraine with the French NGO Solidarités International; and has recently joined IsraAID, an Israeli humanitarian NGO, as a senior technical advisor supporting programs in Africa as well as in Ukraine. He does want the E&ES faculty (past and present) to know that he still at heart considers himself a geoscientist and is prone to spending far too long studying road cuts, cliff faces, the geomorphic patterns of glacial terrain, and the polished stone used in any kitchen counter or, preferably, bar top.

Jonathan Needle: “A lot of us made it to 65 this year (2023), so hearty congratulations, and at this point you might consider trying to moderate your vaping as one of your New Year’s resolutions, as applicable. Another food for thought topic: there’s an open question whether all the microplastics in our American lives have adverse effects on humans, and possibly members of the plant and animal kingdoms generally. It seems like there’s little to be done about it (they are omnipresent) and the whole matter is still merely speculative. As to plastics in their many aggregated forms, consumer and plumbing products, for instance, I believe most of us in the U.S. have found them highly useful (but then few would cheer for a continuing blizzard of superfluous plastic packaging). With highest regards and wonderful wishes.”

Edwina Trentham: “I don’t have a note for the Class of 1980, but I just wanted to thank you for this beautiful message about the fragility of life and the importance of embracing it and treasuring our many blessings. [There is] a poem by Dane Cervine, which I recite every morning. I think you will like it.  Again, thank you for your beautiful and important message.” (Note: the poem is called Sin and it can be found online.)

Faith Elizabeth Fuller: “I am on the executive board of the National Prevention Science Coalition, working with researchers across the country to bring information on evidence-based programs and policies to government/public health—the premise is to create nurturing environments for young people will help prevent future crime, poverty, substance abuse, violence. I am leading a Credible Messenger project in California, whereby former gang members who have served long terms in prison become mentors to young people in communities experiencing high rates of gun violence. It seems to be working! And the mentors and mentees are endlessly interesting—personalities that bring a lot of humor to the work.” 

Cindy Ryan: “While many are enjoying the start of well-deserved retirement, I’m progressing in my third vocation as an LMHC (licensed mental health counselor) and have opened a private practice, which filled up rapidly, thanks to ways in which the pandemic destigmatized remote mental health treatment. I specialize in working with folks struggling with cancer, brain injuries, and other medical issues, so Jacquie’s message to our class resonated with me; my practice provides opportunities to deeply converse about existential realities we are starting to face. A few days per week I welcome the chance to work with lovely art students in the counseling center at MassArt in Boston. As for family, my son, Jonah, became a Canadian this summer, which I proudly witnessed. My daughter, Juliet, celebrated her 2020 pandemic marriage this spring and continues to work on her PhD in geology.”

Walter Calhoun had a Mexican fiesta/sushi dinner party at his home in Highland Park, Illinois, on October 25, 2023, for 10 people, and he was so fortunate Andrew and Elizabeth Parkinson were able to attend. Walter said, “It was so wonderful Andrew was able to bring me up to date on his Psi U friends like Bruce Bunnell ’81 and I was able to do the same with Chi Psi friends Stephen Freccero, Labeeb Abboud, and Scot Timmis ’82. Andrew’s wife, Elizabeth, is one of the most emotionally generous, empathetic, and wonderful women I have ever met and it was so great to see them both that night.”

THANK YOU, fellow alums from the Class of 1980!!! In response to my August ’23 request for submissions for this next Wes magazine (which will only be an online version for this issue), I’ve heard from a couple of completely new 1980 alums (YAY!!!!) and some of my stalwarts as well (YAY!!!!). Thank you all! I noted the following in my request: You don’t need to be a Nobel Peace Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner. I’d love to hear from you about you and your families and alum friends. Please send in your news on marriages, babies, graduations, retirements, publications, ideas, surprises, thoughts, concerns. Whatever you’d like to share. And PLEASE, those of you who haven’t written in for a while or haven’t yet taken the plunge, go ahead and make a stab at sharing. We’d love to hear from you! Also, what do you all think about President Roth’s elimination of legacy admissions? Send your thoughts in about that as well.

Sarah Slavick: Combining art and poetry, Family Tree features the work of four sisters: elin o’Hara Slavick (Irvine, California), Madeleine Slavick (Wairarapa, New Zealand), Sarah Slavick (Boston, Massachusetts) and Susanne Slavick (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). It premiered in 2021 (with its original title, Family Tree Whakapapa) at Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art & History in Masterton, New Zealand (https://www.aratoi.org.nz/exhibitions/2020-12/family-tree-whakapapa-elin-madeleine-sarah-and-susanne-slavick), traveled to the Wallace Arts Centre in Auckland (https://art.cmu.edu/news/faculty-news/professor-slavick-exhibits-in-auckland-new-zealand/), and is now touring the USA as Family Tree. It premiered last fall at SUNY Cortland’s Dowd Gallery (https://www2.cortland.edu/news/detail.dot?id=46013d3d-f8d1-4107-88e3-7392c3a4c036) and is now at the Erie Art Museum (https://www.erieartmuseum.org/family-tree) through November 17, 2023. Other tour dates include the Sordoni Gallery at Wilkes University and the Martin Art Gallery at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania in the first half of 2025.

The College Art Association CAA Committee on Women in the Arts chose Family Tree Whakapapa as an April 2021 pick with this summary:

“This exhibition brings together the artwork of four sisters living in different parts of the globe and focuses on the related but distinct ways they engage with the arboreal imagination. Tangled into their photographs, paintings, life histories, and political commitments, the trees in their artwork are intricate lines, bold shapes, diffuse traces, and stylized patterns. Defying the ease with which the genealogical and botanical connect in the figure of the family tree, the Slavick sisters make it a thing of wonder: rooted in the ground and multiplying in our imaginations, family trees are botany and biology written with longing, hope, history, and loss.

“As curators, painters, photographers and writers, we all have incorporated images of trees in social, political and environmental conditions—trees that stand as refuge and livelihood, consumed and consuming, under assault and triumphant, as historical record and as harbinger of things to come. The exhibition offers perspectives both unsettling and soothing as nature increasingly reflects salient issues of our times.

“In its beauty and bounty, nature is often regarded as benign and apolitical. We do not expect a tree to assume an editorial stance or embody ideology. The conceptual, analytical, and sensual intersect in Family Tree Whakapapa with works that probe the multitude of relations within and between trees and humans. Branching out to, and from, the world, the artists address a variety of concerns.

“A faculty member at Lesley University, Sarah Slavick lives in Jamaica Plain with her husband of 30 years.”

Anne Hanson: “My new book, Buried Secrets: Looking for Frank and Ida, is the true-history detective story about how I discovered the hidden past that my grandparents, Frank and Ida, took to their graves. When I finally unearthed their real identities, I learned that their tales were lies invented to conceal disturbing facts.”

Some blurbs for Anne’s book included: “It’s a page-turner that will captivate readers from beginning to end. A great read!” according to Elaine Tyler May, Regents Professor of American Studies and History at the University of Minnesota. And “Buried Secrets is as suspenseful as a detective novel,” the Akron Beacon Journal wrote on January 1, 2023, “an intriguing journey through the world of genealogical sleuthing.”  Also, it was the Twin Cities Pioneer Press “Literary Pick of the Week” for January 22, 2023.

You can read a sample chapter here: https://annehanson.com/chapter-to-read/.

Find out more about Anne and Buried Secrets here: https://annehanson.com. The book is available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Kenneth Miller: “After nearly four decades as a journalist (www.kennethmiller.net), I’m publishing my first book in October 2023. The title is Mapping the Darkness: The Visionary Scientists Who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep. It’s a history of sleep science, told through the lives of four pioneers who helped shape the field.

“The project grew out of an assignment for Discover magazine on slumber’s central role in regulating our physical and mental health. While I was reporting that story, everyone in my family began having serious sleep problems—and soon after it was published, my 87-year-old father dozed off at the wheel of his Prius and plowed into a tree. (He survived, despite serious injuries.) By then, I’d become obsessed with sleep science. And when I learned that no one had written a book for lay readers on the discipline’s evolution, I decided to do the job myself. I hope some of my classmates will find a place for it on their nightstands.

“On the domestic front, I’m hunkered down among the oaks, chaparral, and rattlesnakes in Topanga Canyon, California, with my wife, Julie Ries. We’ve got two kids—Leo, who recently graduated from UC Santa Cruz, and Samantha, who’s starting her sophomore year at Bard. Happy to report that both are guitar players, and that (in addition to whatever Gen Z bohos are digging these days) their tastes run to much of the same great stuff my Wesleyan pals and I were jamming to when we were their age. When they’re home, the strains of Dylan, the Dead, Nina Simone, Neil Young, Robert Johnson, the Stones, and Fairport Convention come wafting from the living room, delivered by a pair of scruffy youngsters with good hearts and interesting minds.”     

John Singer: “A couple of things to contribute. On the Wes front, Karen and I spent a long weekend with Daryl Messinger and her husband, Jim Heeger, at their lovely home in the Berkshires. We spent a couple of nights at Tanglewood and another at a revival of Cabaret and [also] went up to MASS MoCA [where] Karen and I stopped at the Dr. Seuss Museum in Springfield on the way to the Berkshires. Went somewhat spontaneously to Philadelphia to meet Brad Moss for an Orioles versus Phillies game. Ever the gracious host, Brad arranged for an O’s victory.

“On a personal note, our son Charlie got engaged in April. He’s been dating his fiancée, Kelly, for about four years and we’ve come to love her almost as much as Charlie does. Kelly conveyed me with an incredible honor and requested that I bake their wedding cake. Lots of practice baking in the Singer household. I view this a bit like the Apollo moonshot project with the goal of a soft landing of the cake on the cake table at the wedding!”

Jeff Green: “I continue to work ER shifts in Milwaukee and Ashdod. We spent the summer with our Australian grandchildren underfoot and nothing could be finer. Playing a lot of music and working on my oud skills. This is how I want to spend my golden years. I’m practicing now.”

Peter Scharf: “I’ve mostly recovered from my back injury last December. I just finished teaching the intensive first-year Sanskrit course in the University of Wisconsin’s South Asia Summer Language Institute. We also had a student in The Sanskrit Library’s intensive summer Sanskrit course. This fall The Sanskrit Library is launching programs to teach Sanskrit digital humanities.” 

Dan Connors: “Regarding legacy admissions, I’m all for getting rid of those. Legacies have enough advantages already. Hope Wesleyan’s commitment to diversity holds out for the next generation.

“As for me, I’m still writing and reading books to grow my brain . . . now up to 400 books read and reviewed on Goodreads. Find me there or at my blog, authordanconnors.com.”

Scott Hecker: “I just returned from a very Wesleyan reunion of our bands Praxis and Urban Renewal from back in the day. For several years running now, we’ve had an annual gig at The Guthrie Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. We gather on a Wednesday, rehearse for three days straight, and perform to a (usually) sold-out house on Saturday night. It was a blast! Attaching a picture; shown are Paul Spiro, Matt Penn, Joe Galeota MA ’85, Bryant Urban ’81, Carl Sturken ’78, Dave Samuels ’79, Billy Hunter ’78, Robert Levin ’81, and myself.  Also in the picture are non-Wesleyan ringers Liz Queler (a Tufts grad who knows Wesleyan folks through ultimate Frisbee) and her son Joey (both are professional musicians).”

Alan Jacobs: “My youngest of four, Guy, graduated from the University of Oregon in June, ending a streak of thirteen consecutive years with at least one child in college. So, for me, it was more like a Bar Mitzvah.

“As for President Roth eliminating legacy admissions, I applaud it. In my experience, and from what classmates have told me, Wesleyan always seemed ambivalent about accepting children of alumni unless the family made a major donation. Three of mine applied Early Decision, all as recruited athletes, and only one was accepted—which is pretty much the same rate as the general ED population at Wesleyan. This will help manage expectations.”

I haven’t written my own news for a while so here goes from me and my husband Andrew McKenna and our two daughters. Jacquie just drove down to St. Petersburg, Florida, to bring our younger daughter, Juliana, to Eckerd College. Juliana transferred from UCSC and is looking to major in marine science as a sophomore. Now being right on the water (not a 40-minute bus ride away), amongst 2,000 instead of 19,000 students who seem much friendlier, in sunny weather instead of nonstop rain, fog, and cold is already working much better for Juliana. Very empowering to recognize when something doesn’t work and daring to make the change. Jacquie heads back out at the end of August to drive with our older daughter, Xan, to Williams for her senior year. Xan spent her junior year in Madrid, Spain, and Santiago, Chile, having amazing experiences. She’s majoring in comparative literature and studio art (examples of her artwork: https://www.redbubble.com/people/xanmckenna/shop?asc=u). Andrew continues to run the services and flight school at the Boulder Municipal Airport, finding a bad bureaucrat can hamper one’s best-intentioned dreams. And finally me: I’m at a crossroads, wanting to leave the world of international development finance (after 40-plus years of working all over the developing world in project finance, focusing on renewable energy and sustainability) and not sure what the next chapter holds—open to ideas! And about eliminating legacy, we both think it’s the right thing to do at this juncture in Wesleyan’s history.

Sending a big thank you to all our wonderful classmates of Wes ’80 for all the enduring friendships, kindnesses, and contributions that you are providing to this world and to Wesleyan. Best wishes to all, Jacquie Shanberge McKenna, Wes ’80 Class Secretary

Susan Carroll (Managing Director): “I direct a joint international graduate program between Duke and UNC–Chapel Hill: the Duke-UNC Rotary Peace Center. It’s like a mini–UN (currently 19 fellows from 16 different countries), with a focus on peacebuilding and sustainable development.   Never a dull moment. . . .”

Jane Polin (Philanthropic Advisor in NYC): “I’ve done two start-ups during the past three years! The first is building pathways from HBCUs into the alternative asset management industry: see AltFinance.com. One of the three firms partnering to make AltFinance happen is Oaktree, where Wesleyan board chair John Frank ’78 serves in a leadership role. I’ve also returned to my career-long effort to advance the role of the arts in lifelong learning and thus had the great joy to launch The Misty Copeland Foundation, www.mistycopelandfoundation.org (aims to bring greater diversity, equity, and inclusion to dance, especially ballet, making ballet affordable, accessible, and fun!).”

Janet Grillo (Film Director): “I directed my third full-length independent indie-fiction feature film, The Warm Season, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiuZhkK0krE, which is playing the festival circuit, winning awards, seeking distribution, and receiving critical acclaim: Film Threat https://filmthreat.com/reviews/the-warm-season/. I continue to teach full time at NYU Tisch School of the Arts Undergraduate Film Program and alternate my time between NYC, mid-Hudson Valley (Saugerties) and jaunts to LA to see my son (who just turned 29—yikes!).”

Jessica Ziegler (Visual Artist, MBA): “I am now building a second career as an artist, although I am enjoying the painting part much more than the business part! I am also doing volunteer consulting for nonprofits through the Harvard Business School Club of New York, and for small businesses through The Acceleration Project. My daughter is in graduate school in NYC, so we get to see her often.”

Jim Kent (B2B Marketing): “Our daughter is in the graduate playwriting program at Columbia University and working part time help script doctor a Broadway play that goes up this spring. When I asked her about it, she quoted an 007 film: ‘I could tell you about it. But I’d have to kill you first, Mr. Bond.’”

Mike O’Brien (Software Engineer) and Ann Carlson (Genetic Counselor): “We were married 1987–2001. We welcomed our first grandchild into the world, Maxwell Dana King, born January 25, 2023, to our daughter Dana, in Melbourne, Australia.” So far Ann has been over to meet the little guy in person, but Mike has not!

Henri Lamothe (MD, CMSL, FAAEP): “I just spent the last weekend in NYC, supporting my daughter Austin (Trinity ’18) who participated in the NYC half marathon, along with my son Luke (Tufts ’12) all celebrating my 39th wedding anniversary with my dear wife Laura. In other family news, we are blessed with two grandchildren from daughter Brooke (Bowdoin ’10), Francis and June. We are continuing to adjust to the new realty in our lives with the passing of our son Matthew ’10. I continue on with my journey in medicine, now as a chief medical officer for the Upper Allegheny Health System in upstate New York. Miss my Wesleyan friends!”

Al Spohn (IT Expert): “I’ve been working in Mayo Clinic IT for 32 years, with 20 previous overlapping years in the air force. I was married in 2000 to Angela and we have three kids, 10, 14, and 17. The 17-year-old is eyeballing Wesleyan pretty heavily since all the online interest search mechanisms seem to be pointing her in that direction. Let’s hope admissions does legacy one more year! 😊.  Over the years I’ve been in touch with Jon Martin, Ralph Maltese ’79 and Ed Denton, among others.”

Melissa Stern (Artist): “I have three upcoming group shows. Two opening within days of each other in NYC. Pearls of Love opens April 27 at The Jewelry Library. An international group of artists asked to respond to “pearls” in any materials. Should be interesting. And on April 29 Out of Joint opens at The Boiler in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The gallery is in a 19^th-century Con Edison steam plant. The architecture is worth the subway ride. In August I am in an invitational in Newport, Rhode Island, called Exponential, a show of women artists at Jessica Hagen Fine Art. Other than that, enjoying being in NYC and seeing theater and art. . . .  People are out and about again and that feels great.”

Frederica (Freddi) Wald (Chief Development Officer): “I am living in NYC with my husband, beloved dog, and daughter (away at college), and thrilled to be celebrating my four-year anniversary as a chief sevelopment and membership officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Happy to see the resilience and rebuilding of the city’s activities. I continue to love Broadway, take a dance class every now and then (Cheryl Cutler’s lasting influence!), get immersed in the art world again and women’s advocacy causes! And I refuse to retire. . . .  Love connecting with Wesleyan alumni anytime!”

Mark Zitter (Nonprofit Entrepreneur): “I’ve been doing a good deal of travel lately. My wife Jessica and I were in Israel in January, Argentina and Antarctica in February, and London in March. I’ve moved out of the nonprofit I started seven years ago, the Zetema Project, and am in the process of creating a new nonprofit fellowship aimed at helping social sector leaders increase their effectiveness. I Zoom regularly with Scott Hecker, Paul Singarella, and Paul Oxholm, and have been in touch recently with Jane Polin and Irene Chu.”

Peter Scharf (Sanskrit Expert): “In the midst of the COVID lockdown, my wife and I went into near total isolation, and it proved to be very productive. I edited two volumes of papers in honor of my former professor at the University of Pennsylvania, finished writing and publishing my introductory Sanskrit textbook in another two volumes, and prepared a provisional version of a Sanskrit reader for second-year students. I also developed an interactive exercise platform based on the latter two works that provides detailed and informative feedback for every step of translating from transliterating from Devanagari script, analyzing prosodic sound changes, word lookup, morphological and lexical identification, syntax, and English translation evaluation. Both my wife and I launched online instruction in Sanskrit through The Sanskrit Library and have been busy teaching via Zoom since. In December I injured my back trying to lift a bulky, heavy box of books. I’m still recovering but able to continue most of my normal routine save for having to cut back on exercise and yoga. A few weeks ago, my mother passed away at the age of 92. For the last couple of years, she would ask repeatedly, ‘Why am I still alive?’ Two days before she passed, she asked my brother, ‘Why don’t you just choke me? I just want to go to God and rest.’ She shortly got her wish, passing away peacefully in her sleep the next night.”

Gary Gilyard (MD): “Our youngest daughter Shelby Gilyard ’16 is getting married July 8! She is our third and the other two are already married with children. Hoping I can get a prospective Wesleyan student from one of them, although Shelby is my best shot.”

Walter Calhoun (Nonprofit): “I have more or less permanently moved my time and efforts to my various outreach campaigns focused on the needs of my nonprofits. For example, as its only three-term past president and 35-year board member, the Auxiliary Board of Family Focus Evanston asked me for the 12th year in a row to handle the staff Christmas gifts. Since our Auxiliary Board has many different levels of resources, talents, and income, they allow me to solicit donations among our Board anonymously so no one knows what each other has given but me. For the 12th year in a row, our 11 Board members met my disclosed goal of raising $3,750 which allowed me to give each and every full- and part-time employee a record cash gift of $250 for the 12th year in a row. I am also lay leader and stewardship chairman of the North Shore United Methodist Church in Glencoe and am honored to share a birthday with the late Peggy Bird.”

Amanda Hardy Sloan (Landscape Architect): “I have been a landscape architect professionally for many years now and have found this profession satisfies my interests in helping the health of the earth, expressing myself artistically, working closely with people, teaching, and leaving a legacy somehow. After an entire career as a landscape architect focusing on native plants, rain gardens, parks, and dog parks, I have recently ‘semiretired’—like many of us at this age—right? I still do board work and landscape consultations. A board I’ve been on for many years is the Ecological Landscape Alliance—the best source of info about how to create a wonderful landscape while keeping it ecologically sustainable: www.ecolandscaping.org. My dear hubby Chris Sloan (Trinity College ’80) and I live in Sharon, Massachusetts. Our children are Anna (NYU 2008), who is a doctor of archeology (University of Oregon) and is the curator of the Southern Oregon Historical Society Museum and the Archaeology Laboratory director at Southern Oregon University; and Philip (Curry College 2015), who is finishing up his doctorate in counseling psychology at William James College. Both kids are married! We have a sweet grandson in Oregon, our dear little Elio James, whom we visit often (a cross-country flight!). I have a wonderful horse, whom I ride every two days for therapy and peace. She is a beautiful 22-year-old quarter horse. I think many more Wes people and ladies our age are involved with horses than we ever would imagine! This is an important part of my life.”

Paul Singarella (JD, MS, PE, Dad): “I’m now a Florida resident, which I heard is a good place for the back 9. I moved to Florida starting in 2020 to be closer to my kids, mom, and sisters during the pandemic. I ‘retired’ from Big Law in 2019 to focus on my water and energy projects. I’m incubating a portfolio of project opportunities throughout the West. I refer to them as my ‘hobbies’ until they come to fruition. (It takes an in-it-for-the-long-haul horizon to build infrastructure in the U.S.)  Mark Zitter, Scott Hecker,and I remain in close contact. I also keep in touch with Dave Bartholomew ’81,  Jack McGreen, Walter Siegel, Bob Garty, and, via a large email group, the DKE brotherhood. So, WesU remains an important part of my friendship group after all these years. For that I am most grateful. (Importantly, Dave B. piloted a mentorship program over the past few years for rising lawyers to be paired with a senior lawyer. The lawyers who participated in the pilot really benefited. Any WesU lawyers out there interested in being part of building this program from pilot to scale should contact Dave directly at d_bartholomew@yahoo.com. Spread the word!)”

Ellen Haller (Retired MD): “I’m thoroughly enjoying my retirement in San Francisco! The biggest decisions I face these days is whether to play pickleball, go on a bike ride, take a strength class, or suit up for an ice hockey game. (Yes, I still play regularly!) Outside of these endeavors, I help out my elderly parents, travel with my (still-working) wife, and enjoy occasional visits with our 26-year-old magician son. If any of you live in or are visiting NYC, check out his sophisticated, intimate sleight-of-hand card magic show! Yes, I’m biased, but it’s amazing; he’s appeared on Penn & Teller’s TV show and at LA’s Magic Castle. Info at danielroymagic.com.”

Tom Loder (JD): “I am here reporting in for Bob Ferreira and Jim Schor, our own ‘beach club’ consisting of huddling around a beer cooler near Bob’s and Amy Zinsser’s beautiful Connecticut home (with Amy’s gracious hosting, and with both she and Sharon Nahill wisely sitting out the festivities and endless retelling of fish tales about the days of our small gym, spring break, KNK, DKE, O’Rourke’s, and Williams Street capers. Still in touch with and thinking of many, including Larry Levy, Spence Studwell ’79, Barry Williamson ’81 (sort of), Walter Siegel, and a few Butterfield RA ‘advisees,’ if I can also include my Butterfield son Aaron ’22 among them (though the advisees taught me so much more than I ever taught them!).  Where’s Labeeb Abboud, Laura Nathanson, Linc Kaiser (Wes anthropology professor), Dave Miller ’81, Jeanette Talavera—the list is too long. Got to go huddle up on the beach with Bob and Jim and go to work on it!!”

Alan Jacobs (Filmmaker): “I fulfilled a dream by taking my children, Gil, Avia, and Ron ’16, to the World Cup in Qatar, where we saw three amazing games, including the Argentina-France final. Almost as satisfying is that after over a decade of delays, my film Down for Life will finally be released on major streaming sites (Apple, Amazon, etc.) on April 4. The U.S. Congressional Hispanic Caucus nominated it for the National Film Registry, which is both an honor and a reminder of how long ago we made it!”

Steve Mooney (Marketing): “In April, I will be retiring from my job in marketing after 33 years with the same agency. I joined thinking I’d stay two years and lasted 33. Yes, it can happen. At my last staff meeting, I shared some recent ChatGPT queries. I post them here as we contemplate an unknowable future alongside AI.

Me: Write me a six-word story on retirement.

ChatGPT: “Finally free, life begins at retirement.”

And then this follow-up query:

Me: Write me a six-word story on becoming a writer.

ChatGPT: “Pen to paper, a writer born.”

“And so it begins. Next chapter! Go Wes!!!

“One more tidbit. Posted this illustration I customized to a Facebook page dedicated to the sport of Ultimate and got two hundred comments about where various people learned to throw a disc. For me, I learned to throw on Foss Hill in 1979 with Nick Donohue ’81, Chris Heye ’81, and David ‘Nietzch Factor’ Garfield, and went on to enjoy a long career in the sport.”

Doron Henkin (Lawyer): “Husband Victor and I are in good shape and still plugging away, lawyering for me and work at Bryn Mawr Hospital for him. I still sing with several choirs and groups, which I owe to Wesleyan. I got to be there when son Gil recently married Alex Sanchez Espinosa in and of Barcelona, Spain. They are headed to Berlin, where Gil will be doing postdoc research on the malaria carrier organism at the Max Planck Institute. Son Dan and daughter-in-law Kaitlyn are closer to home, in Pennsylvania, and the proud parents of granddaughter Eleanor James Henkin, now 1-year-old. Dan works in engineering at the Philadelphia Naval Yard, and Kaitlyn is a nurse at Children’s Hospital. Daughter Hannah now works for Drawdown, the Climate Change Science nonprofit from her home base in Boston, and she still plays Ultimate every chance she gets. The ‘kids’ are of course also the ‘kids’ of my ex-, Ina Louise Shea, who lives nearby in Pennsylvania, and we are all still in regular touch and visits. We are so happy that the easing of the pandemic has brought more and more chances for family togetherness and travel.”

Wendy Davis (Writer): “In March, we celebrated our 25-year-old daughter’s handing in her MA dissertation to her supervisor  from Royal College of Art where her dad and two elder sisters received postdoc degrees (shouldn’t we have received a loyalty discount?)! Also in March, I received from Wesleyan’s American Studies Department an invitation to the: Slotkin Symposium celebrating the 80th birthday and new work of my former academic advisor Richard Slotkin. I had only just contacted the now retired professor last year for the first time since our graduation in reference to a historical novel I am writing, which opens in the Civil War, which is his specialty. His response was most helpful and encouraging, even after a gap of so many years. . . . Wesleyan connections certainly endure don’t they! We moved out of our studio residence (a historic Wesleyan Chapel) in Greenwich, London, September 2022, extending our return trip to Australia from three weeks to four months in Sydney,  September through January, due to my husband John’s major surgery and recovery. Finally, we have subsequently resettled in the British countryside very  near the Jurassic coast, good metaphor at our age! All of which has been incredibly disruptive to work and continues to suspend John’s practice as he must organize new studios working with Jo, the local handyman’s help. Interestingly we recently returned to London (approximately three hours by car) to see the Cezanne blockbuster at Tate Modern, in particular to revisit the remarkable portraits of Cezanne’s Gardner. One of our favorite paintings since we saw Seated Man at the then-new installation of the Thyssen Museum in architect Rafael Moneo’s renovation of the Palacio de Villahermosa, an 18^th-century neoclassical palace located alongside the Prado Museum in Madrid, where we were then living. I feel as if our own circle of human connection in our 16th-century Weycroft property may also compress to a small circumference of Gardeners, lawn mowers, handy mailmen, and one  efficient female cleaner (my disability precluding my ability to be of much physical assistance inside or out). All help has been sourced from the former team who helped the disabled WW ll–veteran proprietor residing here just before us (luckily for me there was a stair climbing chair for him already installed when we arrived)! The family and executors of the estate of the now deceased former owner have recently entrusted us with a treasure trove of original historical source material on the property dating back to Roman settlement. The property is listed in the Doomsday record  book (the parchment deeds still have red wax seals)! A local village boasts it’s the most rebellious village in England so perhaps when I finish with the American Civil War, I might be looking closer to our new home for inspiration! Whilst in Australia we increasingly worried about our choice to base ourselves in Britain with terrible regular reports from the BBC  about the strain on the NHS with life-threatening delays for ambulances and hand-over delays at A&Es across the country. It was especially distressing and confusing since we were experiencing such good care from our more familiar medical support team in Sydney. Fortunately, we have been very positively impressed  by our new local medical center here in Axminster, even better than our relatively recent experiences in Greenwich, but then we are fortunate to be presently in good health at the moment not testing the system. Long may it last! Good health and happiness to all of you dear friends and classmates!”

Sara Epstein (Psychologist/Poet):a practicing psychologist in the Boston area and first-time grandmother of baby Leo,has just published her first book of poems, Bar of Rest launched by Kelsey Books—see more on her website saraepsteinwriter.com.

Sara is a clinical psychologist who integrates mindfulness practices, including writing, in her psychotherapy work with children and adults. She also facilitates and teaches generative writing groups and classes. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry Quarterly, Amethyst Review, Chest Journal, Nixes Mate Review, Plainsongs, museum of americana, among others. Her book reviews have been published in Mom Egg Review.

I asked the Wes ’80 alums to tell us about their latest milestones, challenges, and insights into life, love, and the pursuit of happiness. And by the way, this isn’t a thankless job—I love hearing from fellow Wes grads because we all are doing notable things with our lives after having been launched by an amazing educational institution, and even sharing the everyday is comforting because we’re all going through some similar experiences. Wishing my fellow alums all the best for 2023, Jacquie Shanberge McKenna, Class Secretary.

This year, Paul Edwards has found his life dominated by his ongoing struggle with hairy cell leukemia, a rare disease. He noted, “I’m almost done with my second clinical trial at the National Institutes of Health. The first one bought me 12 years. This one has already eradicated the leukemia —levels are undetectable by any test, though that doesn’t mean it’s entirely gone. I am REALLY looking forward to a return to quasi-normal life in January when the treatment cycle is finally done.” Paul is the director of the Program in Science, Technology & Society at Stanford, also co-director of the Stanford Existential Risks Initiative. Gabrielle Hecht, his wife and colleague at Stanford, is a professor of history and nuclear security studies. She studies mining around the world, and issues of waste and discards more generally as well. She finished one book, Residual Governance, and got halfway into another, Inside-Out Earth, during the pandemic and is now back to traveling the world for research. She’s about to become president of the Society for the History of Technology for 2023–25. Their son Luka went to college in August, at Sarah Lawrence, where he is ecstatic to be done living at home but also super excited about the really innovative coursework in experimental animation, travel literature, and French colonial and post-colonial literature. Sarah Lawrence almost seems a Wesleyan by a different name! He’ll be a writer or an artist—already is one, really.

Jenny Boylan has had a whirlwind year. Her novel, Mad Honey, co-authored with Jodi Picoult, peaked at number three on The New York Times Best Sellers list, and stayed on that list for months. Jenny’s book tour took her from Seattle to Orlando, from Portland, Maine, to Houston, from Edinburgh, Scotland to London and many places in between. She saw many old Wesleyan friends during the tour—Steve Mooney and Virginia Pye ’82 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and David Block ’81 in New York City. Jenny spent academic 2022–23 as a fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, where she is hard at work on a new book, and spending time with the cohort of scientists, historians, musicians, and writers there. She gave the commencement speech at Sarah Lawrence College as well as the College of the Atlantic in the spring of 2022 and received honorary degrees from both institutions—a PhD from SLC and an MPhil from CoA.  She says that after 35 years coasting along on her MFA it meant a lot to finally receive the doctorate, even if honoris causa is actually Latin for “not for reals.”

Walter Calhoun wrote in at the end of July from Highland Park, Illinois, “which just weathered another madman’s tyranny over an innocent public with an assault weapon on a rooftop over our Fourth of July parade. I am presently co-lay leader and stewardship chairman in the North Shore Methodist Church in Glencoe, Illinois. Last Saturday, we handled a funeral for a longtime resident, Peggy Bird, who had recently settled in Hanover, New Hampshire, after a lifetime in Winnetka, Illinois. Peggy was survived by her three children: Tom, Andrew, and Nancy who all spoke most lovingly and openly about Lew Gitlin ’79,  about the bonds of community and hospitality they were able to form in their formative years across Jewish and Methodist lines. Such positive and glowing comments about Lew Gitlin did not surprise me since I learned much about Lew’s  outstanding character and empathy when we met at Wesleyan. Lew, wherever you are, please know how much you were missed at Peggy’s funeral, but how high you were held in esteem, in your absence, by Tom, Andrew, and Nancy Bird. One month earlier I was able to arrange a small dinner party at a mutual friend’s house in Kenilworth, Illinois, which was attended by Andrew Parkinson ’80 and Elizabeth Parkinson,  who were both so supportive and gracious to me when I came out of my one-month coma and six-month hospitalization after being hit by a car as a pedestrian on May 2, 2002; and after my 32-year-old son Daniel committed suicide while a first-year law student at University of Michigan Law school on November 5, 2019. Andrew and Elizabeth are the epitome of the empathetic couple who always looks out for their neighbors with a well-developed sense of community. It is easy to see why Lew and Andrew were such well-rounded fraternity brothers at Psi U when we were at Wesleyan.”

Ellen Haller: “Hi from San Francisco where I continue to love retirement! My days are spent playing pickleball (a new obsession!), riding bikes, and playing women’s ice hockey in a local league. (Plus, I do all the errands as my wife still works . . . ) Our son lives in NYC now and supports himself completely as a self-employed magician. He does sophisticated close-up card magic and has a ticketed show in the city. danielroymagic.com.”

Over 34 years ago, Tammy Sachs founded Sachs Insights, a strategic research consultancy that drives innovation in product and web development. She is currently the CEO of Sachs Insights and is an instructor at Rutgers University, teaching UX Research—from Co-Creation Focus Groups & Ethnography through User Experience Testing for the Mini-Masters and Advanced UXD Course.Tammy says her Wesleyan heroes are long retired—Jeanine Basinger and Karl Scheibe. Tammy has hired and trained hundreds of alumni.

Retirement in 2018, after over 30 years as a teacher librarian in Connecticut, has not meant slowing down for Cathy Andronik. She’s found her dream job: presenter for the Bureau of Education and Research, conducting both live and online seminars on young adult literature (one of the company’s flagship programs, What’s New in Young Adult Literature, Grades 6–12?) for teachers and librarians around the U.S. She is also an adjunct lecturer in the School of Library and Information Studies at North Carolina Central University, where her favorite course to teach is called Ethnic Materials for Children and Adolescents, exploring the wonderful recent growth of diversity in books for young people. That focus is also present in her application to enter the PhD program at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia; she intends to compare diversity, in particular indigenous authors, and characters, in recent young adult literature from Australia versus the U.S. When she’s not doing any of the above, she is enjoying her two Morgan horses, Reny and Gentry; her flock of companion parrots; and her getaway cottage in Midcoastal Maine.

Cheryl and Jim Green P’22 were thrilled to attend their son Mitchell’s graduation from Wesleyan in May. Mitchell was a double major in chemistry and earth and environmental science (chem tract). “Wesleyan does a wonderful job with graduation festivities and the ceremony. From the welcome lunch (where Jim and I were interviewed as Wes alums who met the first day of freshman orientation), to the after-graduation celebration, there is nothing like a Wesleyan graduation weekend (including the heat)!  It was a great end to a unique four years on campus. We are so thankful to the faculty, staff, and administration for all of their efforts in keeping everyone safe during COVID and giving the students in the Class of ‘22 the best possible college experience they could have had. It was also very bittersweet for us since we really reconnected with campus during Mitchell’s time there. We are looking forward to going to Homecoming celebrations with Mitchell in the future.”

Cindy Ryan: It’s been a year of changes, living in my own little house next to a lovely watershed pond in Concord, Massachusetts. I am learning beekeeping, loving the challenges and rewards (honey!). Also starting up my third business entity (when many of you are retiring) as a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) specializing in expressive arts therapy. Hopeful to balance part-time counseling with painting and dusting off music skills on my new guitar.

Mark Zitter: I started Zooming with old friends during the pandemic and haven’t stopped yet. Scott Hecker, Paul Singarella, and I have a monthly Zoom call that we’ve come to cherish. We decided to take a cruise to Mexico together and are planning another trip in the spring. Scott is chief scientist for a biotech company and Paul, a retired lawyer, is doing exiting work helping the world deal with water problems and other environmental challenges. Paul Oxholm and I also have been Zooming regularly. He is interim executive director for a museum in his town of Reading, Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, I just had dinner with Irene Chu, who lives in her hometown of Lincoln, Massachusetts. She continues to do freelance design work. Last summer my family rented a house in the Berkshires. We invited for dinner our classmates Daryl Messenger and Matt Penn. Along with my daughter, Tessa Zitter ’21, Wesleyan was well represented.  I’m in the process of concluding the Zetema Project, the nonprofit health-care organization I started six years ago. Its graduate fellowship program will live on with another management team. I’m now creating a new nonprofit organization aimed at improving the capabilities of social sector leaders.”

Irene Chu lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts, with her wife Cindy and continues to work on her own as a graphic designer. Her youngest just started his first year at Bowdoin and her elder is a junior at Barnard. Irene is in touch with a handful of classmates, including Page Starzinger, who had a poem recently published in the New Yorker.

Page Hill Starzinger: “I’m rubbing words together hoping for fire—and gathering kindling for others: the Starzinger Writing Center is now open at Emma Willard School (Troy, New York), a high school for girls. The kids just attended the Dodge Poetry Festival and chose poets they’d like to invite back to campus. I’ve endowed three creative writing scholarships/awards named for poet and English professor David Baker at Denison University. One scholarship is for recruitment—because why not recruit writers (not just athletes or science stars), one honors professors, one offers student experiences (mentorships, internships, etc). Remember the William Carlos Williams quote, ‘It is difficult to get the news from poetry but men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there’? (I actually disagree about the news–there is documentary poetry—but agree with ‘lack of what is found there.’) With the government giving $25 billion a year to universities for STEM, 2,532 books being banned just from June 2021–2022, and teachers being underpaid and undervalued (only 17% tenured now), I am doing what I can.”

Helianthus (Published in the June 27, 2022, New Yorker issue)

The farmers’ market has sunflowers again. It’s another

July, and bees scramble over the sticky chocolate

centers. My mother says, Hi, sweets,

but she died two years ago. I see her clearly—

wearing a drip-dry striped boys’ shirt, looking straight

at me. There’s something she’s waiting for. I

can’t figure out what it is—never could. Young

sunflowers track the sun until they mature,

then they are stuck facing east. I wonder when

memory is not a haunting, when disappointment is

not unlearned. The florets spiral, a Fibonacci sequence:

each number the sum of the two

preceding. A generation is supposed to be better

than the last, but my father once wondered, staring at

a portrait of his father if sons always disappoint. I

can’t remember what I said next, but it wasn’t true.

Anne Chamberlain: “At the end of the summer, I completed an EdM in educational policy, organization and leadership at the University of Illinois. This was entirely online and it was most exciting to learn with classmates of all ages and backgrounds from throughout the world. It was interesting to receive a diploma and Medicare card in the same week, but it’s been important to put aside preconceptions about aging, education, and work. After a long first career in management consulting, it’s hard to believe I am slowly moving toward the end of my second career, working on employment equity at a large university. I am also working with cross-industry organizations on the effective and inclusive use of technology to better match job seekers and employers. And I am still loving my life in New York.”

Dr. Andrew J. Kirkendall published his latest book, Hemispheric Alliances:  Liberal Democrats and Cold War Latin America, with the University of North Carolina Press. Check out the book at the UNC Press website here https://uncpress.org/book/9781469668017/hemispheric-alliances/.

In Hemispheric Alliances, Kirkendall explores how liberal Democrats sought to create new models for U.S.–Latin American relations that went beyond containing communism. In an age of decolonization and in response to the ideological challenge of the Cuban Revolution, the Kennedy administration introduced the Alliance for Progress, which promised large-scale socioeconomic reform and democracy promotion in Latin America—moral leadership over mere militarism. During the tumult of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s and early 1970s, liberal Democrats, in particular, embraced human rights.  Both the Alliance for Progress and human rights assumed a special U.S. responsibility for Latin America and significantly complicated foreign policy making.  Kirkendall finds that the Alliance for Progress and human rights emphasis left mixed legacies.  This Latin American focus of liberal Democrats was dissolved by the Nixon, Reagan, and Bush administrations who favored a more militant containment of communism. Andy continues to teach Latin American and World History at Texas A&M University.

Please write to your class secretary.

Thank you to our class contributors—new and old. It’s so wonderful for you to share your major achievements, your firsts, your lives postretirement, your family news, your challenges, and your joys.

Susan Gray ’81 has directed and co-written a shocking and informative documentary, Earth Emergency, on climate change and environmental feedback loops (which amplify the warming even further, something that is not being taken into account by policy makers). With captivating illustrations, stunning footage, and interviews with leading climate scientists as well as support from Greta Thunberg and Jane Fonda among others, this revealing film, narrated by Richard Gere, examines how human activity is setting off dangerous warming loops that are pushing the climate to a point of no return—and what we need to do to stop them. A clear immediate call to action. The film is available on PBS Passport, indefinitely for now. Even better, the film is divided into five segments, one for each of the climate feedback loops described, and you can find it for free on Susan’s website: www.feedbackloopsclimate.com. There is also the link to the launch with the Dalai Lama and Greta Thunberg on the events page (1:20mins), which included clips from the film and interviews with their scientists along with his holiness. You can find a free curriculum on the website so teachers can teach with the film. The film is being seen around the world on global television in places like Latin America (the Disney Channel), throughout Europe, and soon in Asia and Africa. It was shown to the astronauts on the International Space Station as they looked down at our fragile blue ball and to the British Parliament. The Smithsonian Natural History Museum did a summer film series based around the short films on the web, the International Rotary Club is using it . . . His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales (Charles) invited Susan and her team to COP26 to show it to his Terra Carta Sustainable Markets Initiative event in Glasgow. Please watch it and spread the word and think of what each of you can do to make a difference.

Janet Grillo noted that she is one of those people who has not contributed in a long, long time. She marked her 10th year as a full-time arts professor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Undergrad Film & TV Program, where she has had the privilege of instructing children of a few fellow alumni. She’s about to direct her third, independent, fiction-feature narrative film this summer and splits her time between Upper West Side and Upstate New York, mid-Hudson Valley, where there’s a thriving arts community and lots of great hiking trails. Janet is a critically acclaimed filmmaker, Emmy Award–winning producer, and former studio executive. She directed the award-winning Jack of the Red Hearts, and wrote/directed/produced the critically acclaimed Fly Away. Trailers can be seen on her website: www.feedbackloopsclimate.com.

For firsts, Alan Jacobs, managing director of Archer Entertainment Group: “I figured 62 is just the right age for my first marathon, so I ran New York in November 2021. Okay, ‘ran’ is a bit generous but I did finish and, pardon the very Wesleyan word, found the experience transcendent. Sadly, I am now hooked on this activity and about to run a half marathon at the Dead Sea with my daughter, Avia, who lives in Israel. Loving my new life in New York City, busier than ever with work, and launching a nonprofit to benefit Israeli filmmakers.”

Greg Brown is pleased to report that he retired on January 3, 2020, from his position as CFO of Swarthmore College, after over 40 years in government and higher education administration. He added, “My husband (Linton Stables, Rice ’74) and I look forward to decompressing, traveling, and doing volunteer work. I owe a debt of gratitude for my career to my Wesleyan mentor and work-study boss, Jean Shaw at the Center for the Arts, and to her husband Ralph (Biff) Shaw ’51. We try to visit with them whenever we’re in Connecticut.”

After a long career in IT (which actually makes money), Jessica Ziegler said, “I finally get to paint (which doesn’t make money but makes me happy).  I am living in NYC, about to celebrate my 26th wedding anniversary and apply for Medicare—clearly, lots of time has passed!  My daughter is in graduate school here and finally got to go back to in-person classes this semester.  My father died of COVID last year, just before the vaccine was available, but luckily everyone else in my family is fine.”

Mitch Nauffts: “First-time poster, longtime reader. After 27 years with the Foundation Center/Candid, I retired as publisher/editorial director of Philanthropy News Digest in June and am happily embarked on the next chapter of my life. My wife, Lisa Leventer (Brown ’82), and I live on the Upper West Side, our longtime home, and are lucky to have our two sons, Andy (Queens) and Pete (Brooklyn), nearby. Our apartment has a cozy guest bedroom, and we invite all—but not all at once—to visit.”

Will(y) Rowe: “I decided to retire from Booz Allen Hamilton in March 2021 after a 25-year run to rewire and refire. My wife Teresa ’81 and I are still in Annandale, Virginia, and were thrilled when Jon Nimer and his wife came by for a visit in the fall.  I host occasional Zoom calls with Jon, Dave Engstrom, Ken Freeman, Dave Loucky ’82, Rick Levine, Joel Tillinghast, and Dan Connors. If you’d like to join, please email me at rowewt@cox.net.”

Ellen Haller, MD, professor emerita, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences wrote, “I’m truly loving life as a retired person! My days are spent doing one or more of the following: pickleball, tennis, strength classes, cycling (California is gorgeous for riding—my favorite bike ride I’d have to say the AIDS/LifeCycle, which is a seven-day fundraising event from San Francisco to LA that I’ve done seven times so far. It’s been canceled the last two years, but we’ll be doing it again this coming June. It’s an epic ride with tremendous beauty and it’s an important cause. Typically, the event raises about $15 to $17 million, which goes to free health care for people with HIV/AIDS in San Francisco and LA), ice hockey (yep, I still play!), and fun classes on topics like opera, Broadway theater, and history. My wife is still working and is extremely busy as the chief of infectious disease at University of California San Francisco. (She says, it’s a shit show! The main thing is to just do everything one can to stay safe. She does think that things will improve this spring for sure but as to what comes next, she says who knows.) It’s been a full two years of ‘yikes!’ Our 25-year-old son is a professional close-up card magician and is quite successful in NYC and on YouTube. (danielroymagic.com)

Isabelle (Baudry) McDonald: “Hello from Falmouth, Massachusetts, in Cape Cod. My husband Tom McDonald ’79 and I (’79 as well, although I came in as ’80) are retired and living here full time since March 2019. I finally closed my private practice of many years as an educational therapist/learning specialist so that I could focus on doing more creative projects and taking care of my parents, who also moved here last year (my dad, Francis Baudry ’51, graduated when Wesleyan was still a men’s only college). Seems like there are not enough minutes in the day to do everything I’d like, although COVID has caused us all to slow down, and savor what we have right in front of us. . . .  Am so lucky to live a mile from the sea, am an avid pickleball player, gardener, and am teaching myself jazz piano and music theory, which has been on my list for many years.  My child Kamerin (Katherine) McDonald ’11 is living with their partner Jen in Amherst, Masssachusetts, teaching voice/piano/guitar out there. Life is going by way too fast. . . .”

Suzy Shedd: “I left my job coordinating accommodations for students with disabilities at Goddard College in November 2021. I’m now very happily back in private practice with friends of mine. We are a multidisciplinary team providing evaluations and therapeutic support for neurodivergent people and their families. Otherwise, I can say Vermont is a great place to live in a pandemic. My partner (Bob Purvis ’72) and I have had no trouble accessing our vaccines and boosters, and living in a rural area makes social distancing easier.

Meg Lyons shares her ideas on modernizing an 18th-century home in Connecticut Magazine and The Stamford Advocate (January 11, 2022 issue). Lyons, owner of Meg Lyons Architects, studied architectural history at Wesleyan. “I am at heart a modernist because I live in the 21st century, but at the same time, I have a love for the history of architecture and believe in honoring what came before,” she said. “Merging the historical and the modern together creates a sweet spot.” Also mentioned in the article is Marcia Santoni ’83, P’25.

Marty Saggese: “In January, I just passed my 20-year anniversary as executive director (CEO) of the Society for Neuroscience in DC. My whole career has been in government and nonprofits, though I never would have expected to be with one organization for so long. And surely, I would never have expected years 19 and 20 to be the most difficult. But since our main work is to organize an annual scientific conference for 30,000 attendees from around the world, because of the pandemic our annual meeting was cancelled in 2020 and we were forced to go all virtual in 2021, resulting in millions of dollars in financial losses in each of the past two years, and a real effect on the value we have been able to provide to our member-scientists. During the pandemic, as our 100-person staff has been working from home now for nearly two years, I’ve found mentoring my staff team to be the most rewarding part of my job at this point in my career. And it gives me the chance to give back some of the valuable mentoring that MY mentors gave me earlier in my career. This has given a focus to remaining connected to others in this crazy time, even when you don’t see them in person every day. Meanwhile, I’m staying safe and healthy so far. Here’s hoping to see Wesleyan friends at an in-person reunion at some point soon!”

Jim Kent: “This year I have mentored three Wes students on career ideas, and strongly recommend the experience.  They are so bright, energetic, and enterprising, it gives me hope for our otherwise polarized world. My daughter accepted an offer to join the MFA program at Columbia University in playwriting, now making our family a triple Columbia threat: My wife and I both did graduate work there, and in a twist of karma, my daughter found a 5th-floor walk-up (gasp) two blocks from where I lived as a grad student.”

Gary Gilyard: “My wife and I have been blessed with grandchildren #3 and #4 this past fall. Both girls, one 6 months and one 5 months, from our oldest and middle daughters. We are so fortunate to have them both move back so we see all four all the time and get to be a part of their everyday lives. My orthopedic practice is great, I’m still loving every day, and as of now have no plans to retire. Our youngest daughter Shelby ’16 is in San Francisco. I truly wish the best for everyone out there from the class of 1980.”

Jeff Green: “I am finally in Australia, where I met my first grandchild who was born in the beginning of the pandemic. I continue to work in emergency medicine in Milwaukee and Ashdod, Israel, and I started the application for an Australian medical license. I’m planning an endless summer kind of thing, but instead of surfing, it’s doctoring.”

John Singer told us that he and his wife Karen are enjoying their first winter as snowbirds at their place on the beach just outside of Charleston, South Carolina.  “Karen still practices law full time. I’m taking a sabbatical from teaching, and working on two projects. The first is creating a new curriculum and approach for teaching trial advocacy to law students. I’ve received invaluable assistance on this effort from classmates Brad Moss and Romi Albin as well as my CSS professor, Rich Adelstein. The second is a law review article addressing the need to classify personal care assistants as a necessity for disabled athletes who need assistance to get through the activities of daily life to be able to compete. The inspiration for the article is the blind-and-deaf swimmer who was a gold medalist in Rio and who trains where I do, Master’s Swimming in Baltimore. The swimmer withdrew from the Tokyo games after the U.S. Paralympic Committee refused to permit her to have someone help with critical activities that she is incapable of doing on her own, like getting from her room in the Olympic Village to the dining hall. I also had an abbreviated trip to Colorado to visit and ski with my son, Charlie, earlier this month.  I was actually skiing fairly well when I caught an edge, took a tumble, and tore some groin muscles (I could feel something give as I was falling). This resulted in my first trip in a ski patrol toboggan since I was 15 and training to be a junior ski patrol (I remember the trip being more fun when I was 15). Fortunately, there was no structural damage, and I should fully recover with time. That evening, while watching the Olympics and seeing Michaela Shiffrin fall, I commented to Charlie that I clearly was not the only person who caught an edge and fell while skiing that day. Charlie’s incredulous response was, ‘Dad, are you really seriously comparing yourself to Micheala Shiffrin?’ I replied that Michaela and I both: were skiing; caught an edge; and fell. I conceded that any comparison between our skiing pretty much ended there though. Nothing like children, even adult ones, to keep you humble.”

Wendy Davis Beard, “I am continuing to transition from full-time promoter of my husband’s practice as a full-time painter to me becoming a full-time writer of my memoir of recovery from both a massive paralyzing stroke and terminal cancer diagnosis in 2007. I continue to develop this account in poetry, prose, and pictures, with the most insightful encouragement and criticism of our classmate, New York–based, award-winning poet Page Starzinger (see her website, https://www.pagehillstarzinger.com,   for her poetry and link to published collections). Unfortunately, our plans to catch up with Page over New Year’s were postponed due to COVID.  John and I are currently putting our renovated Wesleyan Chapel studio residence up for sale with the intention of moving to the British countryside, where we loved spending most of last year in lockdown. I look forward to seeing more of you all in America, the UK, or even Australia, where we will continue to divide our time. This was just published on Associated Press’s blog for former AP staff, from my ongoing memoir of recovery from paralyzing stroke in 2007.”

The Story of Everest’88 Climb—and Her AP Scoop from Lahasa

In 1987, I was asked to join the support team of Everest’88 on its trek into Base Camp from Tibet in the spring of ’88. After leaving the AP I had been working full time on the promotion and fund raising to enable the team to accomplish its ambitious goal of establishing a new route up the northeast face of Chomolungma, without supplemental bottled oxygen, fixed ropes or sherpas, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Everest in 1953 by NZ Edmond Hillary and sherpa Tenzing Norgay, led by retired British Army Commander Lord John Hunt.

I ignorantly yet fortuitously asked him (not knowing the appropriate parlance of the climbing world) to be the honorary expedition leader of Everest 88 enhancing its link to ‘53 which was celebrated internationally for not only being the first to reach the summit of Everest, but for Jan Morris holding the news back to break – in London on the coronation day of Queen Elizabeth. Lord Hunt is quoted in Stephen Venables’ book: Everest, the Kangshung Face, that Hunt had been asked countless times to be the expedition leader of subsequent expeditions to Everest, but never an honorary Expedition Leader, which I had made up as I had the title of “medical director for medical student Mimi Zieman whose learned skills were put to the test at base camp as several climbers returned with badly frostbitten fingers, toes and in Venable’s case a nose (after spending a night exposed to the elements – not making it back to his teammates’ tent after his solo summit).

Whilst I was no longer working for AP, I got in touch with the Beijing office to invite them to a press conference with the team at our hotel before the team embarked on a trek through Tibet facilitated by an expensive permit from the Chinese Mountaineering authority – at a time when no Western journalists were allowed access to Tibet after news had surfaced of riots abductions, and violent loss of life in the Tibetan capital and spiritual home of the Dali Lama.

I agreed to make contact when the support team returned to Beijing ahead of the climbers who were still acclimatizing, making advance base camps and assessing their best window of opportunity for a push to the summit.

There was much interest in the support team’s inclusion of Tenzing’s son Norbu. Hillarie’s son Peter, an accomplished Alpinist in his own right, had declined an invitation to join the climbing team, it seemed on the grounds the plans to establish this new route seemed too dangerous if not impossible. Ed Webster, another American, Paul Teare, a Canadian-American, joined Robert Mads Anderson (an American NZ based expedition leader) and the British mountaineer Stephen Venables, who Lord Hunt had recommended as essential for this climb honoring the accomplishments of the very “British’ expedition of ’53.

After our progress had stalled due to heavy snowfall at the expedition’s pre-base camp where some of the Sherpa’s expressed their unwillingness to proceed with the risk to their precious yaks, the support team left the expedition to return to NY via Lhasa, but not before being stopped shortly before the capital by Chinese police who were most suspicious of Norbu’s passport as they incorrectly imagined he may be a foreign an agitator and or organizer. Fortunately, the Chinese mountaineering minder with us explained away the misunderstanding: rifles were lowered, passports returned, and we were allowed to proceed to the Holiday Inn for our first showers, pillows, mattresses and sheets in weeks where because of the clampdown on travel, the staff far outnumbered us, their only guests. When we went to dinner there would be several wait staff in line behind each chair.

But outside the situation was more ominous as army trucks paraded around Potala Palace with armed soldiers standing still and expressionless in the back, their rifles held close to their uniformed chests. Women would approach me, point to my camera and mime making a land line telephone call (as there were no mobiles then) imploring me, I assumed, to get the news out of what I’d seen, but without the language skills or real knowledge of any changes in Lahasa’s makeup. I could report nothing more than what I’d experienced with my own untrained reporter’s eyes, but when I returned to Beijing, the story came out as Wendy Davis says: “After bloodiest fighting in Lahasa” or something like that!

My good friend in NY AP Photos, Brian Horton, saw this on the wire and sent me a fax to our hotel (also mentioned in the feature, as the sight of our second press conference). Horton kindly and wisely warned me to be careful until I left China as I was still basically a guest of a foreign country until I returned to America. I had too much experience trying to beat UPI in picture placement to give anyone but AP a direct quote anyway! I also remembered our expedition leader Robert A. soberly advising me to hope for the best, yet prepare for the worst, which would obviously require me to return to China to sort out the repatriation of any dead or broken bodies, which we all know happens.

But, finally after weeks of waiting, for a reply to my faxes with the Chinese authority to confirm or deny the climbers were missing, as they were long overdue, I received the great news to share with the families sponsors and press that all were fine except the frostbite that Steamy Vegetables (aka Stephen Venables) had suffered after his successful summit bid with the support of Robert, Ed and Paul. While truly significant in the climbing world if not a must run story as international news. Stephen had not only taken a summit selfie holding up his climbing axe (before selfies were a thing) and before he began hallucinating which made for good illustrated copy on front pages of many British and European newspapers and subsequently in America after AP ran the photo and text. AP among others subsequently covered the final expedition press conference at the Explorers’ Club in NY where along with the climbers I had been made a member in relation to this expedition which carried a flag from the Explorers Club, as well as a flag from the United Nation’s as Miklos Pinther, senior cartographer from the UN, had joined the support team with the ambition of remeasuring Everest to put to rest the debate about its status as the highest mountain in the world.

With the conclusion of the press conference and team’s return appearance on Jane Pauley’s NBC morning news program, my career as an Alpinist support member and publicist was over. Good thing, as a major stroke in 2007 left me unable to even trek but still in good stead to write as well as walk and roll with a career in London! Robert has continued both his career on the mountains and marketing, lecturing across the US while Stephen, whom I meet up with in the UK, is a regularly published author now booked as both a lecturer and expedition leader of less ambitious expedition travel. Norbu Tenzing is Vice President of the American Himalayan Foundation which is based in San Francisco. He works closely with charities benefiting the Sherpa community. A couple years ago we met at the premier of “Sherpa” at the Sydney film festival, where he was as a special guest. I am still in touch with Miklos who has since retired from the UN after denied the opportunity to bring his measurement equipment to Tibet by the Chinese Authorities. Mimi is a pediatrician in NYC.

I have lost track of the others except aware that Ed who (long before Oscar-winning documentary Solo was made) established so many new routes across the US there’s a book documenting them. He lost a life-changing number of fingers to frostbite denying the same trail blazing solo climbing life he’d led before Everest ’88 when he put his bare hands on his metal camera to take a “once in a lifetime” photo. but has been quoted as considering his loss of fingers as a constant reminder of just what a tremendous team effort E’88 accomplished.

Most of us have married and had children, but this is the first time I have written about my first and last report from Everest and AP scoop from Lhasa in 1998! By virtue of our very exclusive access to Tibet!—Wendy Davis Beard

I am very sorry to inform the class of the passing of our classmate Greg Allcroft, on December 13, 2021. I received the news from Larry Levy who wrote, “He was a guy who was always in your corner and always had your back. His old Framingham pals including me, miss him.” Read his obituary here.

Forty-one-plus years after our Wesleyan graduation, our class is at such varied points in our lives. Ranging from enjoying our grandchildren, the graduations of our children, and retirement, to raising younger kids, starting new careers, furthering our education, and publishing books. After so much loss, isolation, and challenges during the pandemic, it’s wonderful to hear that though we still face challenges, we are a resilient, creative, and hopeful class with so much to offer each other, our families, our communities, and Wesleyan.

A sad loss: Sydney A. Francis ’78 sent in the heartbreaking news that her former husband and lifelong friend, Idris M. Diaz, passed away on, July 22, 2021, having succumbed to a rare form of leukemia. We are so sad to receive this news and grieve for her and all of our loss. For a major part of his career, Idris worked with USAID, joining in 2002 and retiring in 2019. Idris had a deep affection for the people, music, art, and religions of each of the places where he served or visited. He embraced diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as civil and human rights and justice from his days as a journalist—before entering public service—through to his time with USAID. Idris’s work, life, and worldview were rooted in his experience as an African American growing up in Queens, New York, and his avid interest in, and study of, diverse faiths, the martial arts, yoga, and meditation. Idris was especially proud to become certified as a yoga teacher last year. A memorial was held this past fall. For more information email Sydney directly at: sydallyson@gmail.com

The challenges: Melissa Stern spent a year of “Zooming” in at various art schools and institutions as a visiting lecturer and guest critic including: The Everson Museum of Art, Pratt Institute, NYU, the Pelham Art Center, and Indiana University. She said it was loads of fun, but like many of us, she longed for true, in-person contact. She noted that after a terrible slip and fall on the ice in the spring of 2021, which required major surgery to repair and eight weeks in a brace, she emerged in June with a wonderful 20-year retrospective of her work in Kingston, New York. The show has garnered great reviews and was just what her body and soul needed after a year of quarantine and recovery from the crazy accident. Entitled Stronger Than Dirt, the show has a theme of resilience. Jim Friedlich ’79 and Melissa are back and forth to the city each week, she’s still in intensive PT, but they hope to be full-time back upstate for August 2021.

Alan Jacobs spoke of post-pandemic silver linings: finally reading Don Quixote, As I Lay Dying, Things Fall Apart, and The Tale of Genji and weekly Zooms with my three best friends from high school. “I had a lovely dinner in Tel Aviv in May with my daughter, Avia, my girlfriend Dorit, and with Jeff Green—all of whom live in Israel. It was the first night after the rockets stopped so we each had bomb-shelter stories to share.”

The milestones: Gary Gilyard and his wife are expecting grandchildren number 3 (August) and number 4 (September) and are enjoying living in the same state (Michigan) as both of their daughters. Gary hopes everyone is vaccinated! When asked how the doc (Gary is a sports medicine orthopedic surgeon in Bingham Farms, Michigan) made it through the pandemic, Gary answered “COVID was challenging. Everyone has stayed safe. We shut down for about four weeks, then started telemedicine, then after about three months, slowly started operating again. So far it’s very busy and going well.”

Amy Natterson Kroll now has two grandchildren Max, 3, and Eliana, born July 7th. Otherwise, she says all is well and life continues. She’s still practicing law at Morgan Lewis, gardening, exercising, trying to keep a positive outlook, and looking forward to vaccines allowing us all to return to a “new normal.”

Mark Zitter celebrated the 2021 Wes graduation with honors in Archaeology and Classical Civilizations of his daughter Tessa. Mark noted, “it brought back many memories of my/our graduation in 1980. Tessa’s honors thesis was on war wounds in the Classical and Archaic eras, and one of her three readers was Professor Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, who was my freshman advisor 45 years earlier! After the ceremony we recreated a photo from 1980 where a hairier me was flanked by my parents versus one with Tessa between Jessica and me, with exactly the same buildings in the background. It was a very fun dual celebration of Tessa’s graduation and homecoming for me.”

Mark added, “BTW, although everyone joked that Tessa would never get a job in her obscure liberal arts fields, she confounded the pundits and did it. She’ll move from intern to a paid position for Julie Burstein ’80 on the podcast Live From Mt. Olympus that you mentioned in the prior Class Notes. Go Wes! Stay healthy!”

Frank White’s daughter graduated (in Philosophy) this spring from McGill and one son is headed to University of Colorado at Boulder in the fall; the other son is a rising sophomore in high school. Frank is taking an MFA in screenplay writing. Frank saw Christian Herold (in person) a couple of months ago.

Jay Borden said, “I spent most of COVID times hunkered down in my machine shop, welding and brazing custom bicycle frames (www.roulezcycles.com), my semi-retirement gig.  Everyone in the immediate family stayed healthy, and we’re all grateful to be vaccinated and on the other side.  With summer, I’m off to Vinalhaven until late September, kayaking and carpenting, and spending time with my oldest grandchild, who just turned five, and with the rest of our family.”

Randal Barron wrote in, “After having survived COVID in February of 2019, my partner and I have now both retired. We are taking a number of trips to see the USA and finally will be getting back to Europe in October. This last year has been an amazing roller coaster. I am grateful to have survived and that our democracy survived and that we are finally starting to address racism. I have learned so many things this year. I have been taking Zoom courses on Michelangelo and Leonardo as “gay” artists, Jewish Morocco, the architecture of Basilicata and Puglia, and a host of other obscure subjects that can now be found online.”

New ventures: Dan Connors shared that “after 20 years in retail, I launched a new career as a Certified Public Accountant in 2008.  Through all of that time I’ve also been a freelance writer, publishing articles and essays in magazines and my local newspaper, the St. Louis Post–Dispatch. Now I am in a new chapter of my life, publishing my first book, Skunked.  This book has been a labor of love and taught me a lot about writing, publishing, and storytelling.  The editing process has taken several years, but it’s been a blast. I continue to practice accounting during tax season and am amazed at the complex stories I’ve observed coming from my clients.  Thanks to all of you for letting me serve you. I’ve actually been more in touch with Wes folks via Zoom than in past years.  Regularly Zooming with classmates Ken Freeman, Jon Nimer, Joel Tillinghast, Rick Levine, David Engstrom and Master of Ceremonies Will Rowe. Saves a lot of money on airplane tickets!  Still thankful for my health and family and blogging on my website, authordanconnors.com.

Andrew McKenna left solar, which he worked in since graduating Wes, and just before the onset of the COVID pandemic, invested in with friends and started running Journeys Aviation, a private business providing all the services to the Boulder Municipal Airport (flight training, fuel, front desk/radio, facilities). He said that Journeys thankfully survived the pandemic with assistance from the federal programs (PPP, EIDL). And he’s still searching for Amelia Earhart with TIGHAR!

Wendy Davis Beard provided the following update: “My husband John and I rebased ourselves in the British countryside in October 2020 in preparation for his two solo exhibitions locally in Tisbury, Wiltshire. I have absolutely loved being in the country  and we are now planning to sell up our Wesleyan Chapel studio residence in Greenwich, London, to move around here. We have already met an interesting mix of writers and artists, some with ties like ourselves to Australia. While being in lockdown is not so different for us, as we both work in a kind of isolation wherever we are. I have found a market for my writing about disability and travel that has in turn circled back to creating a website as a vehicle to reach stroke survivors their caregivers, friends, family, and even medicos. This sharpened practical focus has diverted my attention from finishing my memoir of recovery, but then it adds to the content as well! We were both double jabbed by Easter, enabling us to see our 23-year-old daughter and her boyfriend for Easter (both had mild COVID in the first lockdown). I am leaving today for a short trip to Greece, possibly extended by quarantine upon return in the UK. We hope to return to Sydney in October for another exhibition—if Australia will let us in. . . then if the pandemic doesn’t clip our wings from flying into Boston, we hope to celebrate Christmas in Cape Cod with my 90-year-old mother, brothers, and our extended family! Until next time! Recently converted into a football fan of Euro cup and English supporter like London-based Peter EisenhardtSpace!(Who knew!?) Keep rolling!”

Contributions to the Wesleyan: Scott Price, CEO of Fort Construction in Fort Worth Texas, says, “I’ve been fortunate this summer to employ a future Wesleyan basketball star. Jared Langs (’25) is six foot ten and will be a freshman this coming season. He has worked for me as an Assistant Superintendent during the summer. It has been great fun to stay in touch with Coach Joe Reilly and provide a little support for Wesleyan basketball. My two boys both live in Colorado and are enjoying the lifestyle I hope to retire into—they outsmarted me!

And finally a blast from our past: Scott Hecker let us know that the combined personnel of Praxis and Urban Renewal joined forces and rocked the house with a two-night reunion concert July 23–24 at the Guthrie Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Under the musical direction of Robert Levin, participants included: Matt Penn, Bill Yalowitz, Dave Samuels ’79, Doug Cuomo, Billy Hunter ’78, Paul Spiro, Joe Galeota MA ’85, and Bryant Urban ’81.