CLASS OF 1985 | 2021 | ISSUE 1
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Tag: 1985
Richard P. Beal ’85
Richard P. Beal ’85 passed away on September 21, 2020 at the age of 57. A full obituary can be found here.
CLASS OF 1985 | 2020 | ISSUE 3
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CLASS OF 1985 | 2020 | ISSUE 2
Hello, Class of ’85! It was terrific to see so many of you at our Re-Zoom-ion this weekend. Even though the socially-distant format reminded us that we were far apart, it also allowed for some far-flung classmates who otherwise wouldn’t have attended to hang out for a while. (Looking at you, Paul Krystall, Al Septien, and Lisa Rosenblatt!)
At the reception held by President Michael Roth ’78 on Friday night, Patricia Calayag, Hiram Chodosh, and Bill Wrubel were honored for their service to and continued engagement with Wesleyan. Patricia lives in Stamford, Conn., and is an ob-gyn, among her other activities. Hiram, an internationally recognized specialist in mediation, currently serves as president of Claremont-McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. Bill is an Emmy-winning producer and writer of some very popular TV shows. He and Patricia also have served on many a Reunion committee!
After the president’s reception, our class had a social hour, and if you’ve ever imagined a Zoom meeting with 90 or so people, well, this was much more fun. In an effort to recreate the serendipity of running into people under the big tent on Andrus field, we landed in random breakout rooms, caught up with some classmates, and generally all agreed that we’ll try to get together in person as soon as we’re able. I was able to catch up with many folks, among them Crystal Turner-Moffatt. Crystal is the founder and president of a consulting firm that specializes in environmental health and safety; she’s also married and lives in Milford, Conn. Both Crystal and Amy Nash livened up our online happy hours with photos from our Wesleyan years; everyone was super polite and lied that we all look exactly the same!
On Saturday afternoon, there was a smaller gathering of those who competed in sports at Wes. I’m proud, of course, that four of us were from the crew, Margaret Bracken Thompson, Hillary Hess, and, the ’85 co-captains, Amy Clark and me. In the evening, there was a larger happy hour where we were sorted by our first-year dorms. It was very fun to see one another, even in an attenuated medium. Someone characterized the idea of gathering by dorm “inspired,” and having loved my first-year housemates, I agree.
Back before the pandemic, Hillary and I went west to visit Aram Schiffman in Eugene, Ore. After years in the Bay Area, Aram relocated to Eugene where he works for Thermo Fisher Scientific when he’s not working out or creating gorgeous pieces in his woodshop. We had a great weekend, drinking pots of coffee, taking in the scenery, listening to music, and cracking up. Aram’s daughter, Allison, is a math major at the University of Wisconsin.
Let’s keep staying in touch. Please write me if you have anything to share, and please think about coming to Middletown for a “consolation prize” reunion next spring.
CAROLINE WILKINS | cwilkins85@yahoo.com
CLASS OF 1985 | 2020 | ISSUE 1
In December, KT Korngold received the Wisdom of the Elders Award from the Montessori Accreditation Council of Teacher Education, for her work, writing, and innovation in education. MACTE is the accrediting organization for Montessori teacher education in the U.S. and abroad. In June, she was inducted into the Early Childhood Hall of Heroes, by the Child Care Council of Westchester and received a certificate of recognition from the New York State Legislature. In November, KT opened a new floor at her school, the Montessori Children’s Center in West Harrison, N.Y. KT adds: “I just returned from Hanoi, Vietnam, where I led of team of six teachers to kick-off our Montessori course in infant and toddler education for 35 future toddler teachers in Vietnam. A highlight of the course was hearing the adult learners compare Dr. Montessori to Skinner, Maslow, and Vygotsky in Vietnamese! Plus, I was able to squeeze in a visit to Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO world heritage site.”
Randy Accetta writes from Tucson: “Life is rolling along down here, but my knees hurt, my hair is beyond thinning, and my 11- and 12-year-olds call me “Boomer.” After getting a PhD in American Lit (thanks to Richard Slotkin for all his great Wesleyan courses), I’ve ended up teaching entrepreneurship at the University of Arizona. My wife and I own a family company, Run Tucson, that coaches runners nationally and produces running events in Arizona, including a half marathon at the Grand Canyon.” Randy also heads up a national coaching program and travels to about 25 cities a year, teaching run-coaching seminars. “Last year I had a great visit with Scott Rosenzweig while teaching in Bozeman!” Randy said, “If any Wesleyan folk are ever in Tucson, track me down and we’ll get together.”
Rob Menard is a practicing surgeon in Northern California. He “was in Paris at the International Society of Craniofacial Surgery meeting in September and got to hang out with Wesleyan best friend, Ethan Beardsley ’86. Rob also traveled to Myanmar in January to do cleft lip and palate surgery in NayPyiDaw.
Despite having been a government major, Dave Given has spent his career as a consulting actuary working on private pension plans. His wife, Irene, and he were married in 1990 and have lived in west of Boston since 1991. Dave writes: “No kids, but we have motorcycles, Golden Retrievers, and horses (Irene’s passion). We love the outdoors and along the way, fell in love with the Northern Rockies. Two years ago, we bought our eventual retirement home in Missoula, Mont. We plan to spend lots of time exploring and getting lost by any means possible.”
Marybeth Pytlik Ellison reports: “It was great to see Danny Weinstein, who took a break from sunny San Diego to come to Connecticut last summer and stay with us. He is using his considerable brain power for things outside the medical field these days. I am still in medicine, specifically developmental pediatrics.” Marybeth teaches at Yale School of Medicine. Her son is getting his PhD and her daughter also teaches. Marybeth’s husband retired from pediatric cardiac surgery and now sculpts full-time “which has much better hours.” She says they “travel internationally often, ski, dance, run, and truly enjoy life.”
Perhaps an excellent prescription for us all.
CAROLINE WILKINS | cwilkins85@yahoo.com
CLASS OF 1985 | 2019 | ISSUE 2
Hello, Class of ’85! As sobering as it is to find ourselves in the middle of the notes (hey, weren’t we on the last page just a couple of years ago?), our classmates remind us that we still have a few tricks up our sleeves.
Nancy Vélez is working as a senior director of major gifts at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she assists in the development and implementation of successfully fundraising plans to grow the college’s endowment and expand its programs. She directly secures philanthropic gifts for the college’s board and President’s Advisory Council. She has over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit and higher education sectors.
Dawn Watt-Stewart earned her master’s degree in electrical engineering from NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering. Congratulations!
My own news is that I’m training to become a certified yoga teacher. After almost 28 years teaching college students, I decided to add some flexibility, literally. If you’re in the D.C. area and want to practice with me, let me know.
CAROLINE WILKINS | cwilkins85@yahoo.com
CLASS OF 1985 | 2019 | ISSUE 1
Class of 1985 Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship
Matthew Querdasi ’21, Seattle, WA
Karen Kleinman and Ellen Campbell are saddened to share the news of the passing of our very good friend and former Wes roommate, Erica Frohman. Erica passed away on Oct. 3 after a courageous fight with an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Ellen writes: “Erica, Karen, and I met as freshman roommates at Wesleyan. We all came from different backgrounds: Erica grew up outside of Chicago, Karen outside of NYC, and I from Vermont. We bonded immediately and became fast friends for life. Karen and Erica lived together in the ‘Outhouse’ (Outing Club House) sophomore year, we all shared a place with Kim Johnson senior year.
“Erica, Karen, and I kept in touch as our lives evolved after college: marriages, careers and, most significantly, children. Erica’s sharp intellect and passion for life were always inspirational. She amazed us with her ability to take on new activities on top of a demanding career and a commitment to family. She touched many people with her strength, optimism, and intellect. Erica faced her cancer diagnosis with tremendous courage and stayed positive all along. We miss her so much but also feel her with us every day; it was certainly good fortune that our paths crossed so many years ago on the first floor of Clark Hall.”
CAROLINE WILKINS | cwilkins85@yahoo.com
CLASS OF 1985 | 2018 | ISSUE 3
Hello, ’85ers! Caroline writing this time.
First, I’d like to thank my co-secretary, Marybeth Kilkelly, for her wonderful columns and great energy working on the class notes for the past however many years. I’ll be pulling them together on my own from now on . . . unless one of you wants to volunteer (hint, hint).
Mary Duke Smith is living in Silver Spring, Md., with her husband of over 25 years, Philippe Varlet. She has been working as a personal trainer and wellness educator for the past several years and “finally feels like [she] has found [her] dream job.”
Paula Kay Drapkin writes, “I am happy to report that my son, Jack Drapkin, just graduated from the D’Amore McKim School of Business at Northeastern University. He is attending Major League Soccer’s sales training in Blaine, Minn., and will be interviewing for a full-time job with one of the MLS teams in October. My daughter, Jordan Drapkin, is a junior at The Ohio State University double majoring in business and sports industry.”
I heard from Rosalin Acosta, who shares my astonishment that we’ve been out of college for 33 years: “After graduating from Wes, I decided to move to Massachusetts and not my home state of New Jersey. I got married two years after graduation and began my journey into motherhood and a professional career in banking. I spent 32 years in banking in the Greater Boston area and more importantly had five beautiful children during that time. Today they range in age from 19 to 31. I was remarried in 2015 to Ed Lynch, and we live south of Boston. In June 2017, I was honored to be asked by Governor Baker to become the Commonwealth’s Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development. It’s been an extremely fulfilling journey so far; I’ve been able to combine my business experience with my passion for social impact. Spending a few years in the public sector has always been a dream of mine. Now that I’m there, it’s been exciting, rewarding, and truly a great learning experience. Ed and I love traveling and spending time in both Boston and Chatham.”
Finally, we lost our classmate Susan Eastman Allison to cancer in May. Susan majored in African Studies at Wes, and shortly after we graduated she started Ibis Books & Gallery in Middletown. Later, the shop became The Buttonwood Tree, a performing arts and cultural space which remains a fixture on Main Street. Best known for her poetry, Susan published three volumes with another forthcoming; in addition, she was the first poet laureate of Middletown. She is survived by her husband, Stephan Allison, and their son John. Her loss is mourned by all who encountered her light.
Keep in touch, ’85ers. Much love,
CAROLINE WILKINS | cwilkins85@yahoo.com
Susan Dale Eastman Allison ’85
Susan Dale Eastman Allison, the first Poet Laureate of Middletown, Conn., died May 15, 2018. She was 56. An African Studies major at Wesleyan, she had spent a year of climbing and traveling in East Africa. After graduation she opened Ibis Books & Gallery in Middletown’s North End. A community visionary, Susan oversaw the transformation of her bookstore in 1991 into NEAR (North End Arts Rising), Inc. The Buttonwood tree, which became an arts hub and performance space, still thriving today and providing an important gathering place in this economically-depressed part of town.
Also a gardener and a poet, Susan could often be found nurturing flowers and all sorts of plants—and writing. She held “office hours” in a local coffee shop in the last year and, as Middletown’s Poet Laureate, declared by Mayor Dan Drew, wrote to celebrate the city that was her home and the people who were her community. Annie Dillard calls her second book of poetry, Down by the Riverside Ways, “…the work of a talented poet.” Rennie McQuilken, Connecticut’s Poet Laureate and publisher, says, “Susan Allison has done for Middletown, Conn., what Williams did for Paterson, N.J.: she has seen past its pedestrian surface to its mythical underpinnings. She has written a book whose passion, honesty, and visceral style make it an important contribution to the world of poetry.” Susan has two poetry books soon to be published by Ibis Books: Poet Laureate of Middletown Proclaimed and Provoked and Be Full.
Susan is survived by her husband of 30 years, Stephan, and son, John; father Warren Eastman; sister Cynthia Eastman, her husband Angelo Farenga and their children Christopher Willis, Annie Musso, and husband Anthony and son Luca; Justine Pilar and husband Adam and children Madeline and Aiden; and brother Richard Eastman; her brother-in-law Fredrick Allison, sisters-in-law Gretchen Shannon and husband Terrence and children Sarah, and Jesse and his wife Kara; and Anne Brown and husband Steuart and daughter Allie and husband Joshua. Susan was predeceased by her mother Patricia Russell Eastman. A public celebration of Susan’s life took place on June 16 at the Community Health Center in Middletown. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Susan D. E. Allison Fund, Community Foundation of Middlesex County, 49 Main St., Middletown, CT 06457.
Please send remembrances to Wesleyan magazine editor Cynthia Rockwell at crockwell@wesleyan.edu to be shared with Stephan Allison, sent to class secretaries, and added here. Cynthia adds: “Susan was always a fierce advocate for all people in the community and a gentle soul. Middletown is much strengthened for having been the focus of Susan’s tender mercies.”
The Scott Whipple, of the Middletown Press, wrote about her passing: Middletown’s first poet laureate Susan Allison, a ‘visionary,’ dies at 56.
The Middletown arts community lost a woman this week many consider a visionary poetess who was also loved by all who knew her.
The city’s first poet laureate, Susan Eastman Allison, died at 56 after a battle with cancer, according to her husband, Middletown’s retiring Arts & Culture office coordinator Stephan Allison.
Her longtime friend Marcella Trowbridge, artistic director of Artfarm, a nonprofit, professional theater organization based in Middletown, said Susan Allison “carved out a nook and a haven in the North End for all kinds of folks.”
CLASS OF 1985 | 2017 | ISSUE 3
Hi, it’s Caroline writing this time.
Hilary Jacobs Hendel wrote in: “It has been an exciting year. I have a child who is graduating from Wesleyan this May. I became a step-grandmother. And, the New York Times article I wrote on depression and shame in 2015 led to a book that Random House is publishing in February 2018. The book is called It’s Not Always Depression, and, so far, it is also being published in the UK, mainland China, Taiwan, and South Korea. I am passionate about sharing education on emotions. I also started a blog on emotions with stories, education, and tips for wellness.” You can find Hilary on social media and visit her website for more on emotions, mental health, and wellness (hilaryjacobshendel.com).
Linda Friedner’s work intersected with Hilary’s: “As in-house counsel at Penguin Random House, one of my jobs is pre-publication review of non-fiction manuscripts. When I saw that our Spiegel & Grau imprint was publishing a book by Hilary Jacobs Hendel, I immediately said I wanted to work on it. The only thing that would have been better than my phone conversations with Hilary would have been if we could have had them sitting on Foss Hill.”
K.T. Korngold also has some exciting news: “I’m traveling to Vietnam in November to hold a five-day workshop for Montessori teachers. My organization, the Center for Montessori Education|NY, was the first to offer an American Montessori Infant and Toddler Teaching Credential and we hope to soon bring that training program to Hanoi. It looks like I will be training 100 folks with the workshop in November! We’ll be working with a translator, which is a challenge and a thrill. It certainly requires precision. While most of the participants are coming from Vietnam, we do have a few Americans flying over to attend the workshop.”
I heard from Jeanne LaVallee that her daughter, Frannie, is “thriving” as a junior at the UN International School and that her niece, Ciara O’Flynn ’20, is attending Wesleyan. Jeanne runs a nonprofit, Apple Village Arts, Inc., an afterschool studio arts program for children in the East Village.
Scott Sager writes: “My oldest daughter, Maia Nelles-Sager ’17 just graduated and has moved out to LA to work in the film industry. Having her at Wes was a great experience for us and gave me an excuse to spend time on campus and reconnect with the place. My younger daughter, Calla, is in her second year at Wellesley College. My wife and I and the dogs live in Brooklyn, where we’ve been for a really long time. We got to spend a beautiful fall weekend in Vermont with John LaCrosse, whose daughter, Thea ’21, started her first year at Wes in September.”
Paula Kay Drapkin is “living in upstate New York in the beautiful Catskill Mountains. I have been married to Jonathan Drapkin for 23 years and we have two great kids. Jack is a fourth-year at Northeastern University in Boston, and my daughter, Jordan, is a second-year student at The Ohio State University. Seeing them at school brings back so many great memories of Wesleyan for me.” Paula is an attorney with her own practice; she’s really busy, but tries to “get to Cape Cod as much as possible.”
Charles Barber is a visiting writer in the College of Letters; he claims that he is “hardly a true member of the class of 1985, having only attended Wesleyan for a year-and-a-half, but I have perhaps made up for this by teaching writing, part-time, in the College of Letters, as well as stints in the psychology department and the Allbritton Center, for the last six years. Wesleyan is much changed physically and culturally—far more cosmopolitan, international, wonderfully diverse—and the students, certainly, did far better on their SATs than I ever did.” Charles is working on a new book, Citizen Outlaw: A Gangster’s Journey, that will be published by Ecco (HarperCollins) in the next year or two.
Wesleyan was well-represented at the Head of the Charles Regatta in October with Terry McClenahan, Dave Myers ’82, Mike Greenstein ’82, Greg Lewis ’82, Paul Slye ’84, Tom Policelli ’89, Steve Bragaw ’88, John Wiseman ’86, Kelem Butts ’89, Alex Thomson ’82, Phil Brackett ’81, Kevin Foley ’82, and Rob Miller ’82 participating together. Terry wrote, “We had a complete blast racing in the Head of the Charles Regatta this Saturday, October 21, in exceedingly beautiful October weather. Our Wesleyan crew raced as a Men’s Sr. Masters Four the event is for rowers over 50 years old. We placed placed 39th of 45, not too bad considering we’d practiced together once.
“I got to row with three of my best friends of all time, who I’ve known since freshman year. In aerial photo attached the start line is the basin at the upper right, the finish is outside the photo, past lower right. So the Charles River really curves a lot. Most spectators hope to see a few collisions.
“A real bummer: we clashed oars with another boat and our cox-box speakers cut out halfway through the 5k race. A boat had passed us—but then cut across our bow. What were they thinking? Our cox, Wesleyan sophomore Betsy Cole ’20, was simply amazing, steering the twisting course like a true expert. She comes from Boston so she literally knows all the good steering angles.
“So sadly without the amplifier we couldn’t hear her instructions. (We raced a lay-down four. The cox lies in the bow to distribute their weight more effectively, but faces away from the rowers.) And Wesleyan entered a Men’s Alumni Eight, guys who graduated the early and late 1980s. Racing against much younger teams, they placed ahead of a Middlebury crew.” More photos here.
I was relieved to see a post from Jaime Tome on Facebook after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico. Jaime, who lives in San Juan, said that his home and family had weathered the storm all right, but “the landscape outside is unrecognizable.” Communication is sporadic, but I know Jaime would appreciate his classmates’ good thoughts (and actions, if you can) for Puerto Rico’s recovery.
CAROLINE WILKINS | cwilkins85@yahoo.com
MARY BETH KILKELLY | mbkeds@yahoo.com