Tag: 1986

Greeting Class of 1986,

We, Deb Alter-Starr and Scott Michaud, are thrilled to be the new class secretaries for the Class of 1986! And we’ve got lots to cover, especially since 2026 is our 40th anniversary . . .  seems like yesterday we were celebrating Zonker Harris Day on Foss Hill!

For more about me (Scott), see this relatively recent Wesleyan Magazine article. I’ve also attended a happy hour with Susannah Goodman ’87, and talked with Sarah Tilly, Kristin Bluemel, and Ellen Santistevan.

Debbie here. I loved reading classmates’ accomplishments, abundant humor and memories shared. It’s fun to reconnect with my friend Scott from our infamous WestCo dorm, now, allegedly, a hotbed of nudity! I was treated successfully for triple negative breast cancer in 2024, uncovering a BRCA1 gene in our family. (Happy to network on this.) I retired from medical social work, have a nonprofit, Napa Valley to Ukraine, and resumed volunteer work as a Latino community ally, mobilizing our agricultural community to protect immigrants.

On to the news!

To start with, several of us made it to campus for Nietzsch Factor’s 50th anniversary reunion (which was great!) this spring. Over 100 Nietzsch Factor alumni descended upon WESU for a long weekend of reminiscence, celebration, and oh-so-much good-natured heckling. Attendees included 1986 classmates David Weber, Bill Wehrli, and Arnie Cachelin, and Andy Norman ’85/’86.

As an aside, Wesleyan’s women’s Ultimate team—the Vicious Circles—won this year’s D-III national title, playing brilliantly (Go Vicious Circles!)—this is a first for Wesleyan, men or women.

Some sad news:

Sue Erikson-Bidwell shared: “It is with great sadness that I am writing to inform you that I have learned of the passing of a dear classmate of ours, William (Bill) Lanza. Bill passed away in the late winter/early spring of 2022 and leaves behind his loving wife and son, as well as many friends that will miss him. Bill lived a successful and low-key life as an attorney, family man and expert pool player. I have fond memories of freshman year watching late-night TV (M*A*S*H, Twilight Zone, etc.) with Bill and his hall mates from Foss 7. I don’t recall seeing many class notes from the rest of that crew and I hope they are all doing well. After graduation, I have great memories of Bill convincing my husband and I to join his competitive pool team in the Hartford area. In my case, they just needed another warm body to fill out the team. Luckily Bill’s expert playing would cover for my not-so-good skill, but either way it was always a fun night out with friends. It will be a sad reunion year without Bill there to join us.”

The family of William (Bill) Gerber shared unfortunate news in a press release last July: “We are heartbroken to share that our beloved father and husband Bill Gerber passed away at Yale New Haven Hospital at 4:11PM today. . . .  To say that there is now a gaping hole in our lives is an understatement. . . . [P]lease take a moment to remember and celebrate someone who was so selfless and who loved his friends, family, job and his hometown of almost 30 years so much. Despite the physical issues he was experiencing as a result of what was determined to be a large, aggressive, malignant brain tumor, he worked long days and attended evening meetings up until the day before he went into the hospital. The Town of Fairfield was incredibly lucky to have him as its leader. And our family was beyond blessed.—Jessica, John and Gillian Gerber”

Bill was the first selectman in Fairfield, Connecticut, and served in public office there for 10 years. He lived there with his wife, Jessica ’90, raising three children, John, Gillian, and Teddy. Teddy died in 2010 from a rare cancer at the age of nine. Since his son’s death, more than $1.6 million for pediatric cancer research has been raised in his honor, according to Bill’s obituary.

Danial “Dan” Handelman passed on April 17, 2025. His friend Dave Calem ’89 said that“Dan really lived the values he learned at Wesleyan.” Dan was known in Portland, Oregon, as a “pioneer of police oversight” and was the co-founding member of Peace and Justice Works, a nonprofit organization that promotes nonviolent conflict resolution. There were many articles written in tribute of Dan. Here are a few:

Remembering Dan Handelman | Portland.gov

Portland lost its top police accountability advocate. Who will fill Dan Handelman’s shoes? – OPB

Remembering Dan Handelman: The Radical Keeper | Street Roots

Portlanders Mourn the Loss of Dan Handelman, Pioneer of Police Oversight – Portland Mercury

Portland Police Watchdog Dan Handelman Dies at 60

Read WW’s Earliest Interview With Dan Handelman

Now some good news:

From Lucy Seham Malatesta: “My husband and I retired this spring and have moved from New Jersey to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, effective last [July]! It’s a big shift after 32 years in the same suburban New Jersey home where we raised our three kids, but we are looking forward to all the nature and culture the Berkshires has to offer. My recent Class of ’86 sightings include traveling to Philadelphia to enjoy Karen Escovitz in her amazing band, BlocoFunk. It was a blast. I also had a lovely reunion with Sarah Tillyas we toured the Morgan Library in NYC and caught up on each other’s lives.”

From Kevin Williamson: “I’ve spent the last three years making a documentary about my neighborhood called The Price of Progress, LAX and Its Neighbors. It’s about all these neighborhoods around LAX that were built in the ’40s and ’50s and were then torn down in the ’60s when LAX expanded. They left all the streets and sidewalks and just leveled the houses, leaving us with all these ghost towns. I’m currently entering it in festivals and am looking for a distributor who can pay for the finishing costs.” Kevin shared the link to his film with us.

From Erika Levy: “I’m still living in New York and loving my work at Teachers College, Columbia University, as a professor of communication sciences and disorders, despite all of the recent turmoil at Columbia. Am receiving fun invitations to present my work in person in Brazil, among other destinations to which we will travel. Both children are in college now, with our daughter graduating from Wesleyan in spring 2026. I definitely plan to be at our 40th(!) Reunion and am very much looking forward to connecting with my classmates there!”

From Ellen Santistevan: “I’ve been doing more motorcycling this year than I have in a long time. I hope one day to understand the internal combustion engine.”

From Bennett Schneider: “I chatted with Michael Roth ’78 about art and activism at the annual Film & Theater Alumni get-together in Los Angeles this June. I went to the event with Lisa Rosen and Wan Yeung MA ’17. Wan and I live very near each other in LA and have dinner together several times a week. I had lunch recently with Al Septien ’85 and Michael Steven Schultz ’85. In my own news, having been teaching workshops on Combining Art & Activism, including one at the Faculty of Arts of the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEMéx) in Mexico City. Accordingly, attended the No Kings protest dressed as a hot dog and carrying a rubber chicken. Lastly, does anyone know of a Wesleyan World of Warcraft guild?”

From Lisa Porter: “I am living in NYC where my day job is currently the voice and dialect coach for the national tour of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I [was] in the Bay Area in August and September playing Suzanne again in an original cast remount of Eureka Day. I recently hiked the Camino in Spain with my sister. I see Shawn Cuddy, James Hallett, and Melinda Newman very often.”

From Hal Phillips: “What ho, WesKids. Sorry to have been aloof but a surfeit of WesExposure of late, and our pending 40th Reunion, moved me to write. And yes, he added selfishly, Bloomsbury will publish another book of mine in January 2026. Sibling Rivalry: How USA vs. Mexico Became the Most Contentious, Co-Dependent Derby in World Futbol arrives just in time for the 2026 World Cup. Fear not: No punches pulled on the politics. Also, the primary editor on this book [is] the inimitable Stephen McDermott Myers ’87.

“Meantime, I experienced a fairly wondrous hang at the April 2025 100 Years of Wesleyan Soccer gala. Total delight to spend time on campus again with David Perryman ’87, David Slade ’87, my co-captain Rob Macrae, Sean Kelley ’85, Bruce McKenna ’84, David Carnoy ’87, Adam Rohdie ’89, Andrew Lacey ’89, John Nathan ’84, Scott Kessel ’88, Eric Apgar ’87, and Vinnie Caride ’85. Let me also report that, early in COVID, the vaunted WesGolf team started holding reunion rounds that engendered, as only golf can, marvelous six-hour hangs with the likes of Ted Galo ’85, Rich Gibbons ’87, John Brais, Stu Remensnyder ’84, Jon Gould, and Matt Shatz ’89.

“I find the irony here to be pretty thick. Sports were so very low-key at Wesleyan during our shared time there, to the point of manifest dismissal. That soccer and golf have helped preserve all these relationships so well strikes me as a notable riposte. Another observation: I can still identify these old men by their postures, their gaits, and laughter. Playing sports together, spending so much time as part of a pack, is a lasting form of intimacy. They don’t talk about that sort of thing in Lord of the Flies.

“I’m in closer touch with five of my Butterfield C, 530C, freshman hall mates: Dr.David Rose lives north of Melbourne with his Australian wife, Dr. Sharon Davis. He got a PhD in biology but has since applied his work life to bioinformatics. . . . Dennis Carboni lives with his wife, Barbara, on outer Cape Cod. He earned a master’s in ecological landscape design but today works boutique construction, manages ice rinks (inclusive of Zamboni driving) and DJs for the cool kids in Provincetown. . . . Dr. John Sledge lives in LA with his wife, Dr. Isabella Sledge. He practiced orthopedic surgery, but today he’s chief scientific officer at a lab that develops blood tests for the early diagnosis of cancer. . . . Dave Terry lives in White Plains, New York, with his wife, Alexandra. He taught high school Spanish for years but today provides translation services to the New York State court system. . . .  I live in southern Maine with my wife, Sharon Vandermay. After 10-plus years in daily newspaper and magazine worlds, I continue to operate the content/digital marketing agency I founded in 1997, though I’m slowly transitioning to the more chill, 60-something acts of writing books, visiting my kids in Montana, fronting an alt-country band, and playing the world’s top 100 golf courses (70-odd down, 30 to go).”

Michael Levin wrote: “With profound sadness, we share that Mark Hill passed away in September.

“Friends including Steve Cadigan, Gus Conroy, Jeff Dorsey ’85, Art Horst (and wife, Martha), Jerry Hourihan, Jeremy Mindich ’87, Ralph Savarese, Tina Varone Zimmerman (and husband, Peter), and Tony Zimmerman (and wife, Ann), and I—many of whom had lived with Mark in Foss 10, Foss 6, or at 151 Church Street—traveled from across the country and even overseas to attend his funeral. Over the weekend, we shared memories, tears, laughs, and hugs and exchanged stories with each other and with Mark’s family, including his wife, Jackie, children Erica and Nick, his mother, and five older siblings. In celebration of Mark’s life, Gus Conroy spoke eloquently, poignantly, and humorously, recalling moments as Mark’s roommate at Wesleyan, living together in Taiwan after college, and, most recently, hosting Mark at his home near Houston when Mark was being treated for cancer at MD Anderson, as well as invoking Buddhist teachings learned in one of several classes they took together at Wes. Since Mark’s death, we have communicated more frequently by group text, and we are already looking forward to being together for Reunion weekend in 2026 (when two Horst children and one Mindich are scheduled to graduate from Wesleyan) and hoping also to gather at some point in 2025.

“We encourage classmates, teammates, people who attended parties at 151 Church Street, and anyone else who wants to share memories of Mark to email classnotes@wesleyan.edu or offer condolences to his family via michaeljlevin@yahoo.com.”

A link to Mark’s obituary can be found online at classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu.

Marc Rosner shared: “I got married to Diane Gross in January, retired from teaching science in June, and incorporated Hudson Valley Numismatics. This includes pro bono appraisals and home visits for seniors, vets, and those in need. Met Dave Warne for dinner to catch up; he looks the same as he did back in Clark. 

Grace Huschle Delobel, a first-time contributor to the ’86 Class Notes(!), sent in this news: “Since graduating, I’ve had the chance to live an ordinary life in some extraordinary places—Nepal, Tanzania, Pakistan, the Philippines, and for the past 25 years, France. I raised three kids, adopted a bunch of pets, and work as a scientific translator. Living overseas has its ups and downs, especially losing touch with people, but I’m trying to change that (starting with this Class Notes entry . . . ). On the flip side, living in Europe offers some valuable advantages. Due to recent events in the USA, I decided to launch a new venture, Onsite Insight France (www.onsiteinsightfrance.com), to share my experience with anyone toying with the idea of relocating abroad. I tried to convince Tamar Rothenberg, Dana Martin, Lyndsey Layton, and Susannah Goodman ’87 to take the leap during a Thanksgiving trip to the U.S. No luck yet, but I am working on it.—Grace”

Hi ’86ers! Some news from classmates:

Monica Jahan Bose had a very busy spring 2024: “In March, I had an exhibition in Dhaka, Bangladesh, as part of a U.S. Art in Embassies visit. The exhibition was a three-channel video installation with collaborative saris about climate change and its impact on farmers in Bangladesh and around the world. In June, I created a temporary public art project called Swimming in front of a D.C. public school and pool, looking at inequities in access to water and swimming. Also in June, Michael Scott Bennett ’87 and I celebrated our 30-year wedding anniversary and visited our daughter, Tuli, in Portland, Oregon, where she just started a Doctor of Nursing Practice/Midwifery program at OHSU. Our younger daughter, Koli, is a junior at Bryn Mawr College this fall. Sending love to our friends in Classes of ’86 and ’87!”

Steve Elbaum wrote to remind us of Bill Gerber’s victory last November to be first selectman in Fairfield, Connecticut. Steve said, “he had a lot of financial and moral support from Wes alums from the mid and late ’80s and won by 37 votes (out of about 18,000 cast) in a state-mandated recount. He and his wife, Jessica ’90, have long been elected officials in Fairfield.”

Ernest Friedman-Hill: “I was recently promoted to distinguished member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories, where I’ve worked for 32 years (remotely from the East Coast for over 25 years!). Although I enjoyed my time as a chemistry major at Wes and went on to get a PhD in chemistry (MIT ’92), I’ve been working as a computer scientist almost the whole time I’ve been at Sandia. I’ve written a few books and worked in a range of areas from rule-based systems to graphical programming environments and automated workflow. Stacia ’85 and I will celebrate our 35th anniversary in the spring.

George Justice: “I am entering my third year as provost at The University of Tulsa and excited to participate on a junket—er, a Fulbright Fellowship to France this October. I’m also on my own this year, with wife, Devoney Looser, on a full-year fellowship at the Huntington Library; son, Carl, a senior at Pitzer College; and son, Lowell, a freshman at Wes. We loved coming to campus together in April for WesFest, which sealed the deal for Lowell.”

Lisa Porter: “Hi all: I have moved from San Francisco to NYC, where I am currently the voice and dialect coach for the national tour of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. With the closing of the MFA program at the American Conservatory Theater, where I was the head of acting and dialects, it was time to start a new chapter. I am having a wonderful time seeing Wes friends. Just last week, Shawn Cuddy, James Hallett, Mary Beth Kilkelly ’85, and I went to see Frank Wood ’83 in his show, The Meeting: The Interpreter. In May, Melinda Newman and I went to NOLA for Jazz Fest and saw The Rolling Stones.” 

Marc Rosner: “It happened! I retired from teaching science after 37 years. Diane and I are now working full time at Hudson Valley Numismatics doing estate consultation and sales. Much of our work is helping seniors and their families downsize and find a home for possessions and treasure.”

Ellen Santistevan: “Like most of us in the Class of ’86, I am turning 60 this year and doing a few things to celebrate myself. The biggest thing was that I got to take a dream trip (focused on volcanoes) to Iceland in August with a group of alumni from New Mexico Tech, where I got my master’s degree. Getting to spend 10 days in a land that constantly and consistently reminds you that you are small, and the world is so big, was exactly the restorative dip into nature that I needed, among a group of friends and acquaintances that share a deep bond of the Tech experience. For a future trip, I am lobbying for the volcanic islands of Greece (where I did my undergraduate fieldwork with Joop Varekamp) and/or Italy.”

Lastly, Bennett Schneider says: “It was an extremely busy Pride Month in June. One of the highlights was being asked by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to bless the raising of the Pride Flag over all county buildings. I was asked to create the blessing, which invoked LGBTQ deities from spiritual paths all over the world. Have been seeing Lisa Rosen, Melinda Newman, Cobina Gillitt ’87, Nathan Gebert ’85, Al Septien ’85, and a bevy of others. Went to Palm Springs with Melinda Newman for my 60th and she made it a truly special birthday celebration. Performed my 19th wedding and my third memorial service as a spiritual

Bill Gerber sent in this update: “Steve Elbaum and his wife, Jill, was part of a group that recently acquired Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Waterbury, Vermont, near Stowe. Still practicing law in Stamford, Connecticut, Steve and Jill spend many weekends at the mill. John McIntyre, John Brais, Dave Patterson, and I visited [recently] and we were incredibly impressed by how fluent Steve has become in cider production! While there we FaceTimed with Nic Pifer.”

Tavy Ronen shared: “I am still happily living in Manhattan, near Lincoln Center. I have been at Rutgers for almost three decades and am a professor of finance, specializing in market microstructure and corporate bonds. About 10 years ago, I launched a set of Business of Fashion programs for Rutgers Business School, and I get to occasionally hang out with fashion executives and attend New York Fashion Week events. 😊 My daughter is still in grad school nearby, so I feel very lucky to get to spend a lot of time with her. She is, by far, my most notable single-authored work.

            “As we collectively approach our 60th birthday, I think often of Sara Williams, whom so many of us loved dearly. As most of us know, she died so young and tragically. Last month I sat in the Key Park at Gramercy Park, beneath the building she grew up in, and wondered where she would have been now.”

Marc Rosner wrote: “In just one month: 60 candles, wedding bells, and a retirement incentive from Hastings-on-Hudson schools. Four decades supporting science is enough; Diane and I are retiring to build appraisals, restoration, and sales at Hudson Valley Numismatics. (Who knew WESU senior Silversmithing would ignite a second career?) Recently had lunch with Amy Grossman ’88. Always texting Alex Rothman, Andrew Zeller, and Dave Warne.”

And speaking of Alex Rothman, he wrote: “How time flies. Somehow Nina and I are now entering our 30th year in Minneapolis; long enough that our two sons are now off and have found their way (back) to the East Coast. Fortunately, life does lead me back to New York, and on a trip this past March, [I] had a great day eating and wandering about NYC with Dave Warne and Andrew Zeller.

Tierney Sutton updates us too:“The last few years have found me continuing to record and tour with several projects. The Tierney Sutton Band is still going strong and  we’ve opened up to some wonderful new personnel. (My last run in New York featured the great Lenny White on drums [Chick Corea and Return to Forever]). I have also done several tours of the U.S. and Europe with the Paris Sessions trio, which features my husband, Serge Merlaud, on guitar. (We split our time between Paris and Los Angeles when not on the road.)

“March 1, 2024, I released a new album, Good People, which is a collaboration between me and the San Gabriel Seven, a horn-based band that has done projects with many other artists. Eight of 10 tracks were either written or co-written by me, so this is a big departure. I’m especially excited about the title track, Good People, for which I produced a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLq6CqzmTvY). It’s essentially Schoolhouse Rock! for systemic racism in the U.S. I’m planning to create a series of songs and videos to address U.S. history that is too often overlooked.”

Erika Levy shared: “I’m still enjoying my work as professor of communication sciences and disorders at Teachers College, Columbia University. My daughter is now a sophomore at Wes, having as great a time as I did, and it’s fun to visit her. My son is waiting to hear college decisions, and soon my husband and I will be empty nesters. My job keeps me very busy, but I try to squeeze in work with refugees and practice speaking languages. Always happy to connect with my Wesleyan classmates.”

Bennett Schneider said on June 16, 2023, the Los Angeles Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence received the Los Angeles Dodgers’ community hero award on the team’s annual LGBTQ Pride Night at Dodger Stadium. Bennet, as Sister Unity, was one of the members to accept the award on the group’s behalf. “The award recognized our group’s 27 years of work as activists and fundraisers in the LA LGBTQ community,” he said. Unfortunately, he added, there were “2,000 protestors right outside the stadium, and three weeks of back-to-back press interviews and news coverage, positive and negative.” Bennett also noted that the garment he wore at the event was “hand sewn and every single red AIDS ribbon—about 100—was sewn on by Lisa Rosen.

“A month afterward, Lisa and I dined al fresco with Amanda Marks ’88. . . . Still see Nathan Gebert ’85, who now winters in Japan every year and stops off here in Southern California to visit on his way to and from.”

Rich Koffman writes, “My wife, Jacqueline, and some friends (including Rich Monastersky and Victoria Nugent ’91) and I recently formed a private sponsorship group under the State Department’s Welcome Corps program. The program allows groups of private citizens to sponsor and help resettle refugees in the United States. Our group was matched with a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who arrived here in late September after more than two decades in a refugee camp in Tanzania. With some guidance from the folks at HIAS, who provide resources for private sponsorship groups nationwide, we have helped him find an apartment, register for government benefits, and sign up for English classes, and we are working to find him employment. It’s been a challenging, eye-opening, and rewarding experience thus far. I’ve even learned a little bit of Swahili! I highly recommend the program to anyone who may be interested in helping refugees establish themselves in the United States.”

Kate Nunn Mini wrote,“I am now practicing pediatrics in New Haven. Yale Health is a wonderful place to work! Although I continue to see patients, my focus over the last few years has been pediatric mental health, specifically, integrating behavioral health into primary care. My kids are doing well out in the world, so it’s a great time for me to dive into this work!”

Emily Cowan said, “Big changes for me in the last 18 months: I bought a condo on the northern edge of Concord, New Hampshire, and I started a new job at a community mental health center. I’m glad to be working for a big organization again, especially one with tech help and administrative support. Middle age has not improved my abilities in these things. My daughter is a lifty at a ski resort out West, and I’m holding off on getting my next dog because I travel to see my parents. They are both 90 and they are marvels.

Dana Walcott wrote,“After working at the same place for almost 25 years, I have a new job. I had been unhappy at the old place for the last one to two years. I could not do the same old stuff any longer. I needed something new. I needed a change. I found a new job working at a world-class loudspeaker manufacturer 10 miles from my house here in Massachusetts. I could not be happier.”

Jeff Liss said, “My wife, Susan, and I have now moved full time to the East Side of Manhattan, finally selling the house in the Philadelphia suburbs. I ran into classmate Nina Mehta on the street shortly after moving in! I recently left my job in big consulting to be the global VP of Customer Experience at a large provider of solutions for health-care professionals. In the last few years, I have crossed paths with old friends: Tim Harvey ’85, Dan Seltzer, Carrie Normand ’87, Majora Carter ’88, and the newly elected first selectman of Fairfield, Connecticut, Bill Gerber. I am also now the board chair for a great nonprofit called the Josephine Herrick Project (www.jhproject.org) and work closely with our executive director, Miriam Leuchter ’85.”

Roger Lebovitz reports that his latestbook,Obscure Blessings, will be published by Fomite Press in 2025.

Kris Bluemel shared she was recently appointed to the position of interim associate dean of the McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey. The last time she worked in a normal office environment, Monday through Friday, was in 1988 when she was a marketing assistant at the University of Georgia Press. She is still involved with publishing and books as professor of English and Wayne D. McMurray Endowed Chair of Humanities at Monmouth. Her latest book, Enchanted Wood: Women Artists, Rural Britain, and the Twentieth-Century Wood Engraving Revival, is due out from the University of Minnesota Press this year.

Ethan Knowlden wrote he is “making good on my retirement pledge to get involved in ending homelessness here, I am now on the board of the Arizona Housing Coalition, the state’s largest housing stability advocacy organization. I’m also interning at a local law firm that focuses on affordable housing transactions for nonprofit and for-profit clients. And I fill the rest of my time serving as president of my local community council while we commence a $10 million expansion of our community center.”  

Steve Berliner contributed that he is“alive and well and retired (with no regrets), living in New Orleans with my fiancée of 10 years, Laura. Two kids—Felix ’25 and Rebecca, a senior in high school—dog Rudy and cat Wiley, and Laura’s son, Christopher, a musician living in Oakland. I spend most of my free time enjoying retirement with Laura, visiting with my kids (they live in Brooklyn with their mom), tying flies, swing dancing on Frenchmen Street, and tinkering around the house (a historic side-hall shotgun built in 1836). Need to do more fishing with those flies. Taking an online computer programming class and enjoying that a lot too. I still talk now and again with my college buddy, Andrew Bennett—saw him a few Thanksgivings ago in D.C., which was great. Went vegan in 2020 and am enjoying my vegetables!”