Tag: 1982

Always fascinating to see what my periodic call for updates from the Class of ’82 will yield. Some dispatches are strictly personal, others all-business—all always welcome, of course. And even the most cut-and-dried correspondents can sometimes be coaxed to give up a personal detail or two.

Beck Lee, for example, wrote to plug the work of Jim Brenner ’79, who is building “a sustainable community housing development in war-debilitated Liberia”—a project he’s helping promote.

“I’ve loved providing a small measure of marketing help for this worthy project, but boy, is the work blazing new trails out there unforgiving,” Beck writes. “Reach out to him whenever you can. And, go ahead and buy a home out there. It’s certainly a good value!”

Prodded for at least a modicum of news about himself, he added rather reluctantly (oh, okay twist my arm!) that he is “enjoying fatherhood for the first time.” (We journalists sometimes call that “burying the lead.” Congratulations, Beck!) “I’m starting this at a very late age, so I hope anything I say doesn’t sound like old news to our much more parentally established classmates,” he wrote. “My son is very cute, by the way.”

Bob Russo writes that he has not been up to anything “juicy” of late, although he, too, is reveling in the pleasures of fatherhood. “I have not just published a novel, I have not won any awards, I am not planning any expeditions and I have not started a new company/nonprofit/website,” he said. “The current excitement in my life is: my son Peter is teaching me how to make a traditional archery bow using hand tools and a hickory stave.”

He adds: “I am now chair of my town’s park and rec commission, and we have a new dog—a chocolate lab named Shelby who will retrieve a ball all day long. Oh, and I am taking up beekeeping.”

Emilie Becker—we knew her at Wes as Bunny Attwell—has been named acting medical director of Texas Medicaid and CHIP. “Our son started college and our daughter is faring well at a boarding school in Connecticut where she is on the equestrian team,” she writes.

Bill Stephan lives in Buffalo, and is in his 19th year in practice as a family doctor “with a special interest in complementary medicine,” he wrote, adding that he “recently passed board exam for holistic medicine certification.” Bill has four kids: Alexandria, 23, a graduate of St. Bonaventure, who is pursuing a possible opportunity to skate in a Disney on Ice show; Kathryn, 21, who is graduating this year from Fredonia; Billy IV, a sophomore at WVU; and Juliette, 18, a high school senior.

Congrats are in order for Laura Fraser, who writes that she has launched Shebooks, a new e-book publishing platform for women, founded with two other veteran publishing professionals. So far, they’ve published over 40 short memoirs, stories, and long-form journalism pieces by top-shelf women authors, including Wesleyan writers. The works can be downloaded individually, or via subscription at shebooks.net.

“I can’t believe that after 30 years of being a freelance writer, I’m a start-up entrepreneur,” Laura writes. “My big hope is that we’ll be successful enough that I can go back to being a freelance writer—with someplace to publish.”

Lavinia Muncy Ross is “presently living the very full life of a farmer, musician and blogger.” She shares that she is living with her husband, Rick Ross, on a small farm in the Cascade foothills of western Oregon, and blogs about her farming and music at salmonbrookfarms.wordpress.com.

The Association of Reform Zionists of America honored our own Peri Smilow at a New York City gala in April, “for involvement in more than 30 years of Jewish communal life and education, and for helping secure the future of Reform Judaism’s support for Israel.” ARZA hailed Peri as a musician and educator blessed with a “special gift” of sharing spirituality and inspiring social action through her music.

Julie Faude writes: “I continue to work as a clinical developmental psychologist, both in private practice and at an independent school focusing on pre-K through 2nd grade,” adding that she and her husband are also avid travelers. “I am writing this from PHL airport en route to the Dominican. Jeff and I love to travel and live for Airbnb. We are outside of Philly and we are always open to visitors!” Julie adds that one of her daughters is a freshman at the University of Southern California and that her older daughter is poised to graduate soon from Cornell. “Margot will be moving to Boston to work for the TJX companies,” she writes. “Anyone in Beantown with a great apartment for rent, let me know!”

Bill Jeffway writes that he has joined the Bioethics Research Institute at The Hastings Center in Garrison, N.Y., as director of marketing and communications, after a 30-year career at global advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather where he worked in their New York, London, Singapore, and Los Angeles offices. Bill was married last year to his longtime partner, Christopher Fook Hong Lee, in Milan, N.Y. Congrats!

Joshua Ehrlich has just published his first book, Divorce and Loss: Helping Adults and Children Mourn When a Marriage Comes Apart. “It is being published by Rowman and Littlefield,” he said. “It is designed for therapists who work with children, adolescents and/or adults dealing with divorce.”

Stephen Daniel, Alex Thomson, Kevin Foley, Jack Taylor, and Peter Frisch write in a jointly-penned missive that they continued their 20-year tradition of a family ski trip during Presidents’ Day weekend, although this year without the usual participation of John Mooney, Dan Hillman, and Bruce Crain.

Harold Bordwin, writes that he and Julie Broude Bordwin sold their house last summer after 25 years in Westchester County and have moved to New York City. They are the proud owners of a co-op in a 1910 building in Morningside Heights. “Our son, Jesse ’10, is in his third year of a five year PhD English program at UVA,” Harold writes. “Our son, Simon (Bowdoin ’13), lives with us in NYC and is working at a start-up, online art gallery, Uprise Art.”

Thanks for the dispatches, one and all!

Stephanie Griffith | stephaniedgriffith@gmail.com

Thanks to all of you who sent updates—they’re always eagerly anticipated and appreciated!

First things first: Somewhere in the cutting and pasting of e-mails, I managed to bungle Susan Budlong Cole’s name in my last class notes. (So sorry, Susan!) Susan is on her second retirement, having ended a 25-year career providing treatment for those with drug and alcohol addictions back in 2004, and now has wrapped up a seven-year career in financial planning and research. “I continue with my volunteer teaching at York Correctional Institution with Wally Lamb and the Inmate Writers’ Group.”

Anne Heller Anderson has settled in northern California. “I have not been back to Wesleyan since 1980, when I transferred to UC, Berkeley. But I am excited to say I will be back on campus again… with my daughter, Brooke, for the Sons and Daughters Program for high school juniors,” she writes. “I can’t wait to see the Usdan Campus Center, the organic farm, and Foss 6, my freshman dorm. Hope to see some of our 1982 classmates and their sons or daughters at the program!”

Lots of exciting career moves to report: Kweku Forstall in January becomes the Atlanta civic site director for the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Steven Maizes writes: “I am helping to open the new Los Angeles office for Guaranteed Rate mortgage, one of the largest mortgage bankers in the country. I have helped a lot of Wesleyan alumni get loans over the years in California, and we can now do loans in all 50 states.”

Joseph Dow is the senior compliance manager for the Boston Public Schools’ Office of English Language Learners. He has two sons, Aaron and Noah, ages 10 and 13. Joseph says that since leaving Wesleyan, he keeps in touch with his “classmate/former roommate and best friend, Douglas Borton, now the internationally famous writer, Michael Prescott.”

Carson Milgroom has been leading an “ordinary life on the plateau, happy and healthy, blessed” in Newton, Mass. He’s married and has two sons, 11 and 14, who are home-schooled. “I’m still playing hardcore amateur baseball around Boston,” he writes, “Just spent a week down in Fort Myers in a tournament my team won. Got to play at JetBlue Stadium/Fenway South.” Carson adds that he’s best reached at milgroom@gmail.com, and promises to send “another update in 20 years.”

Carl Schwaber writes that since 2009, he’s been living in Los Angeles and working as an actor. “Most recently, I booked and shot a co-star role on the TV series, Criminal Minds. I play a pimp who poses as a butcher in the episode that aired on Nov. 27, 2013, on CBS. More at carlschwaber.com

Congratulations to Jeff Phelon, who writes that he recently married JoAnn Sidor in Manchester, Conn.
“My brother, Pete Phelon ’85, was the best man. Paul and Fran Carroll Strumph from the Class of 1982 were also there to celebrate!” he says.

Wesleyan continues to beckon successive generations of Cardinals whose parents are alums.

“We (Robert Smythe and Susan Dinsmore Smythe) had a great time visiting campus with son Harry (hopes to be Wes ’18),” Susan writes, “Got to wander all around memory lane, including into the ’92 Theater, where I was happy to see posters on display of shows we were involved in along with Brian Snedeker. We were lucky enough to stay with Di Longley and Chris Diamond ’85, and also got to catch up with John Giammatteo ’81 and his lovely wife, daughter, and baby son! ”

Susan adds: “Robert continues teaching at Temple University and acting in Philadelphia and beyond. I continue to work as a project manager in facilities at Swarthmore College, and am finishing up eight years in local government.”

Alex Thomson says he, Kevin Foley, and John McIntyre ’86, “all enjoyed rowing together at The Head of the Charles this year in the Senior Masters Eights category.”

Julie Kraushaar Zurcher writes that she and her family now live in California, after returning from six years in Basel, Switzerland. “Am enjoying the convenience and customer-oriented aspects of life in America, and have re-connected with Michael Ostacher, who does return my e-mail but is busily living the Silicon Valley life, so I haven’t seen him recently. (But I still love ya, Mike!)” She is also good friends with Heyward Robinson ’80, who would have graduated with the Wes class of 1980 had he not decamped to Duke after two years.

Empty nester Dave Hessekiel makes a standing offer: “Classmates: Consider this an invitation to come on by for a visit to Rye!” Dave and wife Andi “miss our girls (Kira graduated from Tufts in May and is teaching English in France; Sophie is a sophomore at Vassar)” but they’re also enjoying their newfound freedom. Dave was on tour in Beijing, Seoul, and Ljubljana, Slovenia, for the book Good Works! which he co-authored last year.

Naomi Fuchs says she is enjoying life in Sebastopol, Calif., with her husband of 30 years, David Willson. “We have three grown children and two grandchildren with another on the way. I found my dream job as the CEO of Santa Rosa Community Health Centers, a community clinic providing primary care, mental health, and obstetrics to 40,000 low-income, underserved people in the greater Santa Rosa area.”

Peter Brooks is living in West Windsor, N.J., with his wife, two poodles, and the youngest of his four children. He has been CEO of a technology services company owned by Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania for the last 10 years, after stints at two engineering software firms and three years running his own software company in Cambridge, Mass. His two middle children are in college, and the oldest graduated and is living and working in Brooklyn. He writes that he “still loves music and plays the cello often.”

Greg Ward is a board certified physician specializing in rehabilitation and pain management, and is founder of the Louisiana Institute of Physical Medicine in Baton Rouge. He forwarded a bio stating that he is the proud father of two daughters and is an avid fisherman.

Bill Anschell, who lives in Seattle, recently served on a National Endowment for the Arts music panel. In 2013, he released his first CD of original electronica. He says that over the years, he’s had many of his compositions placed in TV and film by LoveCat Music, which is owned by Randy Frisch ’84.

Anne Hietbrink writes: “I’ve been out of touch with most of my Wesleyan connections for a while. I am living part-time on Lopez Island in Washington State and part-time near Monterey in California with my long-time partner and now spouse (yay!), Beth Shirk, and our two dogs. I am drawing, writing, and exploring pottery after a career working with outliers of various descriptions. I am an enthusiastic cyclist, fascinated by the physics and the fun of those wheels going round. I am curious about my beloveds from the Wesleyan years.”

Stephanie Griffith
stephaniedgriffith@gmail.com