JOSHUA KEMENY, 36, died Feb. 23, 2009. After graduation from Wesleyan, he worked in advertising in New York and Chicago and won a number of awards in 2003 and 2005. He is survived by his wife, Madeleine Klein, his son, two half-siblings, his mother, and his grandparents.
Danielle Pelletier Fiery: “I am still teaching math at my old high school, Pinkerton Academy, in Derry, N.H. I finally started a master’s program, at Plymouth State University, in neurodevelopmental teaching. I love it! I was back in Middletown several times last summer, taking a GLSP class in adolescent psychology. It didn’t take many trips for me to realize that it’s just too far away (three hours each trip) to take more graduate classes there.”
John Pollock writes, “I got married to Katie Rose in November in Alabama, where I’ve lived for the past seven years. I’m now the coordinator of the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, which I do through my staff attorney position at the Public Justice Center. In 1991, a group of Wesleyan students with a love of baseball gathered in a Lo-Rise unit to create the Jim Vatcher Fantasy Baseball Memorial League. In 2013, we had our 23rd fantasy baseball draft (23. Just let that sink in), and amazingly, we’re still going with a lot of the original or near-original members: Rob Harper-Mangels ’92, Rich Dansky ’92, Steve Karon ’92, Aaron Siskind ’93, and Chris Joyal ’95. My former Wesleyan roommate, Elizabeth Ehrlich, continues to crank out amazing recipes on her blog, feedemright.tumblr.com.”
Larry Sidney: “This past summer I moved out to Lake Tahoe to work with the Reno Tahoe Winter Games Coalition. We are working on bringing a future Winter Olympic Games to the region. I also just started an executive MBA program at UC, Berkeley.”
Tania Lisa Llambelis has been on sabbatical from her full-time teaching job with Oakland Unified School District in California. While she has been away from the classroom, Ms. Llambelis has traveled solo to Costa Rica, Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. Tania writes, “Patty Pion spent spring break with me in Rio de Janeiro; together we explored beaches, museums, and restaurants!”
Aram Sinnreich’s book, The Piracy Crusade: How the Music Industry’s War on Sharing Destroys Markets and Erodes Civil Liberties, was just released.
Jesse Hendrich writes, “I have left Bellevue inpatient psych and expanded my psychotherapy practice, which is growing steadily and feels great. As for Wes relations, I see Mark Ladov and Nicole Davis, since they both live in my neighborhood and our kids play together.”
Jeffrey Kwan: “I’m living in the S.F. Bay Area, in the town of Atherton, and working as a gastroenterologist at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. My three boys (ages 7, 4, and 1) keep me and my wife super busy and active.”
Maggie Nelson just finished a year as the Moseley Fellow in Creative Writing at Pomona. She also received a 2013 Innovative Literature Award from Creative Capital for her book in progress; her most recent book, The Art of Cruelty, went into paperback in 2012 and was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times. She lives in LA, where she has taught writing, art, literature, and theory at CalArts since 2005.
Sigrid Schmalzer writes, “Ferdinand’s baby brother, Winston Anarres Close, was born safely at home on May 28, 2013. The first and last parts of his name come from his dad, Winston William Close, and Anarres honors the anarchist-utopian society in Ursula Le Guin’s novel, The Dispossessed.”
Max Belkin shares this update: “I continue to practice psychotherapy in Manhattan and teach graduate courses at NYU. I recently completed psychoanalytic training at the William Alanson White Institute. Please check out my recent post for Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Action/Psychology Today: tinyurl.com/a2okq8y.”
Dan Brown writes, “My second book, Designing Together, was published in June 2013. The book expands on a game I created to help designers practice dealing with conflict. My Web design company is in its seventh year, and serves clients such as Marriott International, Yahoo!, and Cisco, among others. I’ve been lunching occasionally with David Belman ’90, who also owns a design firm in the D.C. area. Sarah and I have two kids: Harry, 8, and Everett, 2.”
Karen Gaffney writes, “I am an associate professor of English at Raritan Valley Community College in central New Jersey, where I currently serve as chair of the English Department. I teach composition, race and pop culture, and gender studies. Wesleyan sparked my interest in social justice, and I’ve been continuing that work ever since, both at the college and in the community. I’m also writing a book about how the stereotypes of ‘rednecks,’ ‘Asian overachievers,’ and ‘illegals’ serve the status quo by dividing and conquering us. I’m looking forward to next year’s Reunion!”
Aaron Passell: “My wife and I now have two boys, 8-1/2, and 8 months. We’ve been living in Philadelphia for the last few years and have been visited here by Seth Levin, Jesse Hendrich, and Scott Rosenberg. I’m teaching sociology at Furman University in Greenville, S.C. (and yes the geography is complicated). The chance to teach at a small, liberal arts college brings home exactly how much I got out of my time at Wes.”
David Drogin is an associate professor and chairperson of the History of Art Department at the State University of New York, F.I.T. He recently contributed a chapter, “The Bentivoglio: Art, Patronage, and Emulation in Fifteenth-Century Bologna” to the volume Bologna: Cultural Crossroads from the Medieval to the Baroque. His continuing work in Italian Renaissance art includes the forthcoming publications: Dialogue of the Doges: Monumental Ducal Tombs in Renaissance Venice, and The Mirror’s Illicit Secret.
Tracy Ferguson Pepperman: “Mike and I just welcomed our fourth boy, Gavin, who joins brothers Michael, Zachary, and Luke. The house is now full, fun, and chaotic! I’m still toiling away as a federal attorney, currently tasked with trying to save the U.S. Postal Service. I have bumped into Wes alumna and former U.S. Attorney’s Office colleague June Jeffries ’75, live around the corner from William ’91 and Katherine Wingfield Barry ’91, had play dates with Alison Bidwell Pearce, and spend a lot of time hanging out with my favorite Wes roommate, Wendy Weber, who is a doctor at the National Institutes of Health. Can’t wait for Reunion!”
Please mark your calendar for our Reunion and Commencement Weekend: May 22–25, 2014.
Jiyoung Lim Gilbreth and Ilana Wind Newell
94notes@gmail.com
ROBERT L. WILLIAMS, 38, a mediator at RESOLVE and The Meridian Institute in Oregon, whose long battle with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), a form of arthritis that primarily affects the spine, led him to become a spokesperson for the disease, died Oct. 26, 2009. He received his degree with honors from the College of Social Studies and later received an MS from Oregon State University. He was an active member and leader in the Association for Conflict Resolution, Environment and Public Policy Section. Despite his AS, he competed in triathlons and became a ranked amateur, ultimately qualifying three times for the national team and representing the U.S. in 2008 on Team USA, competing in the long course world championship in the Netherlands. In addition to raising funds for AS, he spoke at medical schools in order to make physicians more aware of the symptoms of the disease. His sister predeceased him. Among those who survive are his parents, five aunts and uncles, and numerous cousins, in addition to many supportive co-workers, teammates, and friends.
LEONARDO O. SMITH, a math and science tutor, and a dance performer, died June 5, 2006. He was 33. At Wesleyan he majored in physics. Among those who survive are his parents.
MATTHEW SHANE, a mathematics major at Wesleyan who received a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Boston University, died Dec. 11, 2006. He was 34. Predeceased by his father, he is survived by his mother, stepfather, and three brothers.
