Tag: 1984

Hello, Classmates,

As I write to you, we have just crossed over into 2026, though you won’t read these notes for some months.

I start with some sad news about two classmates. We have learned of the December passing of Adrian (Menapace) Quattlebaum, of ovarian cancer, from her sister Gianna ’86.  Her obituary is found here.

We have also learned of the passing of Andy Hodges last September. He was mentioned on the In Memoriam list in the last issue, but we wanted to be sure you were aware. His obituary is here.

Karen (Rothblatt) Zilberstein writes that she was honored at the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute’s Angels in Adoption Celebration in Washington, D.C., in recognition of her research and clinical work with children and families involved in the child welfare system. The award was presented by Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA), who nominated her for the honor. Her book on clinical work with child welfare–involved families will be published by Guilford Press in fall 2026. On a personal front, two of her three children are now married, with a granddaughter on the way.

Joel A. Fein chimes in with his “30-plus-year update.” He is a pediatric emergency medicine doc at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and a professor of pediatrics at Penn. His research and advocacy have been in the area of violence prevention, and he founded and co-directs the Center for Violence Prevention at CHOP. His wife, Vicki, is a fellow pediatrician, and they have three sons. (His eldest just turned 30—my own son is hitting that milestone this year.) Typical Wes detail, Joel has a hospital-based, eight-piece Beatles cover band called Osler Circle that raises money for CHOP (his Wes band was Bad Habits);  www.oslercircle.com. Joel celebrates his “wild and fulfilling ride!” 

Publishing news! Eileen Kelly says that Kirkus Reviews named her novel, Small Wonder, a Best Book of 2025 and one of the Top 100 Indie Books of the Year. And while she did not write in to plug her book, I want to give a shout-out to fellow Alpha Delt Pagan (Pamela) Kennedy, whose nonfiction book, The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story, was one of NPR’s “Books We Love” of 2025.

I’ll also mention my own work, a new CD of songs co-written with Michael G. Ronstadt (under my pen name of Z. Mulls), entitled Less Hospitable Terrain. You can find it on Michael’s Bandcamp site.

I hope this note finds you well, wherever you are.

Hello, Classmates!  

Now that we are only publishing notes twice a year, there will be a long lag between sending me your updates and their appearing in print.

My apologies to Rick Okuno, who sent in an update last December, and I missed including him in the notes that were about to be published. Rick is in Tokyo with his wife and two daughters. He left a late-career government position with the Financial Services Agency last year and joined a mental health organization. He reflects that Japanese society struggles with a lot of stigma related to mental health, so he is finding being an advocate to be a fascinating challenge. Rick is happy to host an authentic Japanese meal for anyone who wants to look him up when visiting Tokyo!

Eric Caplan was back on campus after 40 years to teach, as a volunteer, a winter 2025 course on the history of psychiatry. His class of 45 students—athletes, artists, and others, covering 15 different disciplines—made his return a meaningful experience. Eric felt like Rip Van Winkle, waking to find the (Wesleyan) world has gone on while he was asleep. He was living in a house just off campus and reliving his Wes years by attending student events (cheering the men’s basketball team in the Final Four, going to student theater, and sitting in on lectures).    

Finally, my Gingerbread housemate, Melissa (Duggan) Pace, is publishing her debut novel with Henry Holt Books and Macmillan: The Once and Future Me. It’s a psychological thriller about a woman who wakes in a 1954 mental hospital with no memory; just a menacing little voice in her head she tells no one about, convinced she couldn’t possibly be the delusional schizophrenic doctors say she is—or something else entirely. Melissa wonders if she is the oldest debut novelist ever (or just feels like she is).

My Wes news is also LA based. I visited my son in Taiwan this year and used LA as my to/from launching pad. I lingered in LA for a couple of days and had a great lunch at the fabled Nate ’n Al’s deli with Al Septien ’85 and Bennett Schneider ’86. Al is off to Mexico City to co-executive produce a series for MGM and Amazon, El Gato, based on the Richard Dominguez comic book.

That’s it for this issue. Talk to you all in six months.

Hello, classmates, and welcome to 2025. As one of this month’s correspondents signed off, “Hold onto your hats.”

David Boyd Booker left French bank Credit Agricole CIB after 15 years to take the position of head of legal and compliance at CastleOak Securities, a New York–based broker-dealer and boutique investment bank. He still lives in Manhattan (on the Upper East Side) with his wife, Lisa, and son, Conrad (currently a frosh at Northwestern; no, he did not consider Wes).    

Robert Leland is still that “crazy Californian dude you met back in 1980.” His life has taken him everywhere else, even spending five years in China, but in 2000 he ended back in his hometown with his wife. His two children are finished with college, and Robert is considering Europe for retirement. He has enjoyed being an independent financial planner much more than the 20 years he spent doing it with a corporate firm. You can look up Robert in San Francisco.

Murrey Nelson is enjoying retirement and doing lots of volunteer work. She wrote to tell us about her travels to the East Coast in October. She met up with Maureen McSherry ’87 for lunch and a stroll on the High Line in NYC, and with her old friend, Lea Barth, whose youngest just graduated from college. In Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, she and a high school friend met up with Robert Smythe ’82 and Susan (Dinsmore) Smythe ’82 at Robert’s “phenomenal” bakery, Pastry Pants. Robert and Murrey knew each other in high school. Robert, you may remember, started Mum Puppet Theatre at Wes, and he branched out locally into acting before starting the bakery during the pandemic.

Murrey also visited last year (in May) with Stephanie Grant, her NYC roommate following graduation. Stephanie continues to write and teach, while also launching her twin daughters into adulthood.

David Knudsen was issued two patents last fall as part of the intellectual property created at his company, Everything Set. He thanks the firm academic foundation he got at Wesleyan for his success. David’s company focuses on cybersecurity, especially in terms of “smart” home devices. If you’d like to read more about David’s patents, you can find more information on the U.S. Patent Office site: https://www.uspto.gov/. The patent numbers are US-12149543-B1 and US-12081518-B1.

Stephanie Fleischmann continues a successful career as an opera librettist and has several premieres and workshops coming up: In a Grove, music by Christopher Cerrone, will be done at the Prototype Festival at La Mama; The Pigeon Keeper (music by David Hanlon) will be in San Francisco at the Opera Paralèllle in March; Remedios Varios, with music by Carlos Carrillo, will be in concert at Chicago Opera Theater in April; and Claude and Marcel, with music by Alyssa Weinberg and commissioned by West Edge Opera, receives its first workshop in the fall.

A few people wrote in regarding the reunion. Rhonda Lees was very happy to attend and see Jessica Seigel, among others. Rhonda keeps up with a D.C. contingent of alums—last year, I attended one brunch with Rhonda, Michael Feldman, and others.

Karen Wise was also on campus but was much more focused on seeing her daughter, Julie Wise ’24 graduate. The West African drumming at commencement transported her back 40 years to her own ceremony. Karen is still working as a freelance book editor (mostly cookbooks) and volunteering at various food pantries in her spare time.

Liz Solar wanted to share that after 35 years of living in Boston (and working for Harvard Law School for much of that time), she has relocated to Maryland where she is working at the University of Baltimore School of Law, which she says she absolutely loves. She was appointed by Governor Moore to serve on the Commission on Judicial Disabilities. Her twins are starting their second year of college, and she is looking for places to explore in Maryland, now that she is more of an empty nester. 

Michael Lewyn was promoted to full professor at Touro Law Center.

Some book news from our classmates:

Andrew Bridge has published The Child Catcher, the true story of the fight to rescue the children confined to a violent and secretive institution in the rural South. This was the most bitterly fought mental-health lawsuit in American history. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Bridge joined the small team of civil rights lawyers representing the children of the Eufaula Adolescent Center, a violent and secretive institution in the rural South, against the state of Alabama.

Eileen Kelly published her first novel, Small Wonder. At the reunion she spoke with Parel Kapur and David (Dwight) Santos Donaldson, both of whom also published their first novels in their 60s. Parel’s book, Inside the Mirror, was mentioned in a previous Class Notes, and Dwight’s novel, Greenland, was a finalist for the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

Eileen also shares some sad news that her mother, Mary Kelly, passed away in May.     From 1978 to 2000, Mary served as the administrative assistant to the Philosophy Department and the sole occupant of the department’s office on the second floor of Russell House. She sent two children to Wesleyan (Eileen and Stephen ’88), and Anthony Richter became her son-in-law. (Eileen’s grandfather, John Kelly, worked in Wesleyan’s Physical Plant from the ’40s to the ’60s.)

These notes will probably not arrive until after the election season, but it will not surprise anyone that our classmates are very active. As I write this, there is a Wesleyan call being organized by Ken Rosenberg, Maria Mead, Pagan Kennedy, and others to raise funds and to benefit an organization called the Movement Voter Project, which invests in grassroots organizations in swing states and districts that do voter mobilization, mostly targeting marginalized communities. 

Hello, classmates! By the time this issue comes out, Reunion will have come and gone, so next time I hope to share some stories from our 40th.

Arthur Haubenstock recalls the major earthquake that he experienced the day after he arrived in San Francisco. That did not dislodge him from the West Coast, but his new position in D.C. as chief strategy advisor for the Department of Energy’s Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains Office did. Art is helping to “fix the foundation for today’s energy system and ensure it is strong enough to support the clean, equitable energy transition we all want for our future.” His newest daughter was born in D.C., and he has enjoyed mini-reunions with Andy Tauber and Lisa Rein.

Last year Susie Sharpe shared the news about her TEDx talk and many opportunities opened up for her. She has retired from internal medicine and moved across the country to Sarasota. Susie met Michael Murphy in Sarasota and was thrilled to find out he was a fellow classmate. Susie was recently featured on the cover of Ranch Magazine.

Gail Farris and husband, Jay Farris, met up with Marmie Bowman and her husband, David Hunter, in Maryland last fall. And her three-year-old grandchild, Killian (daughter of Kim ’14), loves to sing the Wesleyan fight song.

Joe Pieropan does not have news but sent in a picture of his red-and-black Mazda Miata with vanity plate WESU84.