CLASS OF 1980 | 2019 | ISSUE 1
Our latest milestones and inspirations: Paul Singarella observed that most of our class celebrated 60th birthdays this past year. Happy birthday!
For career and personal milestones, Ellen Haller, M.D., and professor emeritus, retired from University of California, San Francisco department of psychiatry as of July 1, after 30 years on the full-time faculty. She is thoroughly enjoying spending time with her elderly parents, exercising like crazy, taking classes for fun, and mentoring a young kid in the San Francisco Public School system. Peter Scharf, president of The Sanskrit Library, is a visiting professor at the International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad where he teaches Indian linguistics.
Andrew McKenna has made a big change this year from renewable energy and energy conservation to aviation. He and a group of investors (including me) have bought the Boulder Municipal Airport’s Fixed Base Operator, Journeys Aviation, and the planes of Mile High Gliding. Andrew is now managing all the services at the airport including the powered and glider flight schools, the facilities, and providing pleasure rides.
Keith Sklar invites us all to the new exhibit, Suffering From Realness, at MASS MoCA. His work features a large-scale sculptural installation titled, Sitting down for a Drink With My Shadow. The show is on view until February 2020. He wrote, “If it hadn’t had a series of art history courses with John Paoletti, who knows what career path might I might have taken.”
Suzanne Sangree, senior counsel for public safety and director of affirmative litigation for the Baltimore City Department of Law was written up in the Maryland Daily Record’s 2018 Story of the Year for her work pursuing causes of action on behalf of the city. Read the story at thedailyrecord.com. Bob Stern, professor of neurology, neurosurgery, and anatomy and neurobiology at Boston University School of Medicine coedited and published the “Sports Neurology” part of the Handbook of Clinical Neurology series (Vol. 158), San Diego: Elsevier BV.
Jenny Boylan is the Anna Quindlen Writer in Residence at Barnard College of Columbia University, and writes a column on alternate Wednesdays for the op-ed page of the New York Times. Penguin Random House published her newest novel, Long Black Veil, in 2017. Jenny and Deirdre Finney Boylan ’82 celebrated their 30th anniversary last summer. Congratulations!
Major milestones of our children: Beverly Beers said that the best thing that happened in 2018 was her son Daniel (one of three sons) married in August. He had had health problems and had to take time off from college, but when he returned, he met his future wife. Both of Scott Price’s boys have graduated from The University of Texas and live in Denver. Scott said that he and his wife, Jenny, love it in Fort Worth. Scott has been running Fort Construction since 2005 and would like to hire recent Wesleyan graduates who have always wanted to be builders. Freddi Wald and I and our college-bound daughters met up at Wesleyan’s Sons and Daughters college admission program held on campus in November—a fantastic introduction to the madness of college admissions bringing some sanity to the process. Will Rowe (a principal at Booz Allen Hamilton in McLean, Va.) and Teresa Kosciuk-Rowe ’81 were inspired by their daughter, Misha. Misha persevered through four difficult abdominal surgeries at age 22 and is back in college adjusting to a new normal. She shared her story during Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week in December and inspired many. And Colby Sangree ’18 became the most recent generation of Wes grads for the Sangree family.
On a sad note, Scott Philllips and Richard Cohen ’81 both wrote about the loss of Stu Hendel, who passed away on Oct. 20, at the age of 60, after waging a courageous battle against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). They wrote that Stu, diagnosed in 2016, hosted two fundraisers in NYC that raised almost $3 million for Project ALS, with the funds going toward ALS drug testing studies being conducted at Columbia University and at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard University. Scott and Richard attended the 2018 fundraiser last January, and, while speaking was difficult for Stu at that point, they both reported a large smile instantly spreading across his face upon seeing them. It took Scott back to his days with Stu in 1976 in Clark Hall Freshman Year when they met for the first time and coined nicknames for each other that they used for more than 40 years. Stu will be missed by all who had the good fortune to have known him, but especially by his family, including his spouse of 28 years, Leslie, and their three children, Michael, Evan, and Lauren.
Ending on a positive note, Paul Edwards, William J. Perry Fellow in International Security at Stanford University, is inspired by the fact that renewable energy sources, especially solar and wind, are growing (and their costs declining) at exponential rates all over the world. On at least one day in 2018, Costa Rica, Portugal, Scotland, and Germany generated all of their electric power from renewables. And Alan Jacobs P’16 shared that the Parkland survivors turned a horrific tragedy into a march on Washington and revived a national movement in ways that only young people can. He said, “As I joined a March for Your Life event that day in Santa Monica, one of the dozens around the country, it was heartening to see that youth is not always wasted on the young.”
And, a big thank you to Kim Selby for her long and dedicated career as class secretary. Little did you know what you were in for when I asked for a volunteer, how many years ago?
Jacquie Shanberge McKenna | jmckenna@indra.com