Alumni Magazine CorneMarch|April2013 $6.00 OWNED AND PUBLISHED BY THE CORNELL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Grand Central Centennial Sam Roberts ’68 celebrates New York’s transformative train station UPDATE: Cornell acts to improve gorge safety cornellalumnimagazine.com Alumni Magazine In This Issue CorneMarch / April 2013 Volume 115 Number 5 11 26 40 96 40 Make ’em Laugh BRAD HERZOG ’90 Comedian Negin Farsad ’98 has an impressively hyphenated résumé: in addition to being an Iranian-American writer-performer-producer-director, she’s a comic-activist. Farsad is an anomaly on several counts—a female in a male-dominated profession, a Muslim in a post-9/11 world, and a comedian with ultimately serious intentions. On a tour dubbed “The Muslims Are Coming!,” she and her comic colleagues aimed to challenge stereotypes, one laugh at a time. “If you’re doing a joke about your mom in Wisconsin, it doesn’t seem political,” she observes. “But if you’re doing a joke about your aunt in Iran, that becomes a political joke.” 46 One-Track Mind BETH SAULNIER Sam Roberts ’68 is the longtime urban affairs reporter for the New York Times. He’s been a railroad fan since childhood, when an engineer let him “drive” a locomotive during a visit to Grand Central Terminal. Roberts combines those passions in Grand Central: How a Train Station Transformed America, an anecdotal history of the Manhattan landmark published to coincide with its centennial. Roberts takes CAM readers on an insider’s tour of the terminal, from the famed ceiling mural of the constellations to the whispering gallery to the priceless, four-faced clock in the Main Concourse. Yes, there is a “secret” platform; and no, Grand Central is not really a station. Website cornellalumnimagazine.com Photograph by Underwood and Underwood/Corbis 2 From David Skorton Fraternal orders 4 The Big Picture Architecture today 6 Correspondence Hip hop unhappy 8 From the Hill Gates Hall rising 12 Sports A bull’s-eye for Archer 14 Authors Time bandit 34 Summer Programs and Sports Camps 38 Wines of the Finger Lakes Seneca Shore Wine Cellars Muscat 53 Classifieds & Cornellians in Business 55 Alma Matters 58 Class Notes 94 Alumni Deaths 96 Cornelliana Thanks for the memories Currents 16 Safety First Preventing gorge accidents All Wet Clean water for Central America Digging Deeper A reporter on Katie Beers Hot Buns The erotics of bread Mooving Day WVBR escapes the “Cow Palace” Plus | Wild Things Modeling endangered amphibians Listen Up Wildlife library digitized Cornell Alumni Magazine (ISSN 1548-8810; USPS 006-902) is published six times a year, in January, March, May, July, September, and November by the Cornell Alumni Association, 401 East State Street, Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850. Subscriptions cost $33 a year. Periodical postage paid at Ithaca, NY, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Cornell Alumni Magazine, c/o Public Affairs Records, 130 East Seneca St., Suite 400, Ithaca, NY 14850-4353. March | April 2013 1 From David Skorton Realizing the Promise: A New Model for Greek Lifeith sixty-four fraternity and sorority able, and we are moving forward with plans to post information Wchapters involving nearly a third of our about infractions by all student groups on the Web so that poten- undergraduates, Cornell has one of the tial new members and their families can make better decisions largest Greek systems in the country. Countless alumni have about whether to join. Additional changes are being considered, benefited from the professional contacts, the lifelong friend- including live-in advisers in all chapter houses; standardized train- ships, and the experiences in leadership, philanthropy, and ing for live-in, chapter, and alumni advisers; and the establish- service they gained as members of a fraternity or sorority. ment of consistent academic standards for the Greek system. Unfortunately, some have also been harmed, physically or A critical component of our new system is alumni involve- mentally, by the hazing they endured as part of the member ment—through the various Greek alumni councils and through recruitment and education process. greater participation in the A. D. White Greek Leadership Sum- Our hazing.cornell.edu website states: “Hazing takes various forms, but typically involves physical risks or mental distress through, for example, humiliating, intim- idating, or demeaning treatment.” Hazing is a violation of University policy and New York State law. It is fre- quently associated with excessive alcohol consumption— a particularly deadly combination. During the past ten years, nearly 60 percent of Cor- nell fraternity and sorority chapters have been found responsible for activities that are considered hazing under the Campus Code of Conduct. As recently as this winter, we imposed sanctions on four fraternity chapters for recent violations, including hazing. Hazing is not exclusively a Greek problem. It has happened to members of Cornell athletic teams, military training programs, performance groups, and other stu- dent organizations. And it occurs in places and situations far beyond our university—from high school clubs to the workplace. Fortunately, our Greek chapters, in partnership with their alumni, national or international organizations, and Cornell faculty, staff, students, and administrators, are leading the way in setting the stage to remove hazing from the culture of Cornell. In August 2011, following ROBERT BARKER / UP the death of a student in a pledging-related incident that involved mit and other events for alumni volunteers. And alumni are step- alcohol and hazing, I directed our fraternities and sororities to ping up to the challenge. Dan Meyer ’87, president of the Cor- “end pledging as we know it.” A student-alumni task force, nell Alumni Interfraternity Council, wrote recently in the Daily dubbed RARE (Recruitment, Acceptance, Retention, and Edu- Sun: “Hazing, which has existed at our Alma Mater for well over cation), studied the issue for more than a year, and, acting on a century, is on the decline. Its practice has varied; its prevalence their recommendations and those from our Fraternity and Soror- has shifted between affinities. Remnants linger. Our goal is to ity Advisory Council, we have begun to implement a new system end what remains of hazing, and keep it off the Hill.” of member recruitment and education across the Greek system. This spring, alumni of the Cornell chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha Under the policies now in effect, fraternities and sororities (PIKE), in partnership with the fraternity’s national organization, must remove the “power differential” between members and ini- are beginning efforts to recolonize, after losing University recog- tiates, which often leads to coercive behavior during the initiate nition in 2010 because of a history of alcohol and hazing infrac- process, and instead construct a “membership development” tions. Alumni leaders have submitted a plan for new member model that focuses on the organization’s core principles and that recruitment and orientation for all members when the house extends from the intake period through graduation. reopens in fall 2014. PIKE is providing a model for how alumni In advance of recruitment at the beginning of the semester, can help transform Greek life at Cornell. Greek organizations were required to secure approval for orien- With your continued involvement, I believe Cornell’s Greek tation events from Cornell, their alumni, and their national or system can set the standard nationally and internationally for international organization; all complied. The new-member ori- creating strong, lifelong bonds among members and promoting entation period was shortened to a maximum of six weeks this positive values among fraternity and sorority members—with- year to reduce distraction from academic work; beginning next out hazing. year, it will be reduced to four weeks. — President David Skorton Chapters that do not follow the rules are being held account- david.skorton@cornell.edu 2 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com The Big Picture 4 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com Glass house: Milstein Hall has received an Institute of Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects, one of the profession’s highest accolades. The 47,000square-foot building, which extends over University Avenue and connects Sibley and Rand halls, was designed by the Rem Koolhaas firm OMA. Opened in late summer 2011, it features 25,000 square feet of flexible studio space. PHOTO BY BRAD FEINKNOPF ’86 March | April 2013 5 Correspondence Generation Gap Alumni disagree on hip hop appointment I found the article about the hip hop artist Mr. Bambaataa (“Beat Poet,” Currents, January/February 2013) very disturbing. How Cornell, with its long-standing history of academic excellence, can welcome such a culture to campus is baffling to me. I sometimes think I am living in another world, perhaps one of the Forties with its big bands led by Artie Shaw and Glenn Miller, World War II, hard work, and veterans only too happy to return to campus and get on with their lives. This has nothing to do with race—Duke Ellington was held in the same regard as the other musicians mentioned. I would be curious to know if the reaction of the younger alumni is much different than mine—realizing, of course, that times change. Herbert Lobdell ’48 Trumbull, Connecticut Ed. Note: Most of the feedback we’ve received about this article has been positive, including these comments at our website: I’m so glad Cornell is beginning to recognize the validity of the African American tradition. — Judith Hamer ’60 Have you used one of the electronic versions of Cornell Alumni Magazine? Take a look today. Website: cornellalumnimagazine.com Full editorial content plus commenting. Read an article and offer your thoughts, or engage in a dialogue with fellow readers. Many enhancements including videos, slide shows, links to related sites, and more. Digital Edition: cornellalumnimagazine-digital.com “Flippable” electronic magazine with all pages including advertisements. All Web addresses are hot links, and you can enlarge the type for easy reading. iPad, iPhone, and Android versions: links at cornellalumnimagazine.com Whatever your preference in mobile devices, you’ve got easy access to Cornell Alumni Magazine. Just download the free app and go. An interesting article, project, and appointment. . . . Well done, Jim Catalano! — Roger Davis ’78 As a witness to (and sometimes participant in) plenty of racially based protest and disharmony on campus, it’s so intriguing to see this appointment! It gladdens me—and I had no idea that CU has curated such an archive. The march of time and the arc of justice. Go Big Red. — Lee Lightbourne ’77, BS Eng ’78 Just Say No to Hazing Re: “Anti-Hazing Rules Approved” (From the Hill, January/February 2013). In 1959 I pledged a Cornell fraternity. During initiation, we were required to wear an onion around our necks on a string, drink some strange punch, and get paddled with a paddle of our own making. After a day of this, the pledge class decided they’d had enough and walked out. We said we would return only to be inducted into the fraternity. The fraternity officers balked and negotiated—but, in the end, gave in to our demands. We were inducted the next day, and the fraternity seemed to be none the worse for it. Stephen Gottlieb ’62, BArch ’69 New York, New York Ed. Note: See President Skorton’s column on page 2 for an update on recent efforts to eliminate hazing in the Greek system. Website cornellalumnimagazine.com Digital edition cornellalumnimagazine-digital.com Digital archive ecommons.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/3157 Speak up! We encourage letters from readers and publish as many as we can.They must be signed and may be edited for length, clarity, fand civility. Send to: Jim Roberts, Editor, Cornell Alumni Magazine, 401 E. State St., Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850 fax: (607) 272-8532 e-mail: jhr22@cornell.edu 6 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com Corne Cornell Alumni Magazine is owned and published by the Cornell Alumni Association under the direction of its Cornell Alumni Magazine Committee. It is editorially independent of Cornell University. Cornell Alumni Magazine Committee: Richard Levine ’62, Chairman; Beth Anderson ’80, Vice-Chairman; William Sternberg ’78; Andrew Morse ’96; Bill Howard ’74; Andy Guess ’05; Liz Robbins ’92; Charles Wu ’91; Sheryl Hilliard Tucker ’78. For the Alumni Association: Stephanie Keene Fox ’89, President; Jim Mazza ’88, Secretary/Treasurer. For the Association of Class Officers: Robert Rosenberg ’88, President. Alternates: Scott Pesner ’87 (CAA); Nathan Connell ’01 (CACO). Editor & Publisher Jim Roberts ’71 Senior Editor Beth Saulnier Assistant Editor Chris Furst, ’84–88 Grad Assistant Editor/Media Shelley Stuart ’91 Editorial Assistant Tanis Furst Contributing Editors Brad Herzog ’90 Sharon Tregaskis ’95 Art Director Stefanie Green Assistant Art Director Lisa Banlaki Frank Class Notes Editor & Associate Publisher Adele Durham Robinette Accounting Manager Barbara Bennett Circulation Coordinator Sandra Busby Interns Alexandra Clement ’16 Harmony Wright Web Contractor OneBadAnt.com Editorial & Business Offices 401 East State Street, Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850 (607) 272-8530; FAX (607) 272-8532 Advertising Display, Classified, Cornellians in Business Alanna Downey 800-724-8458 or 607-272-8530, ext. 23 ad41@cornell.edu Ivy League Magazine Network (631) 754-4264 Issued bimonthly. Single copy price: $6. Yearly subscriptions $33, United States and possessions; $48, international. Printed by The Lane Press, South Burlington, VT. Copyright © 2013, Cornell Alumni Magazine. Rights for republication of all matter are reserved. Printed in U.S.A. Send address changes to Cornell Alumni Magazine, c/o Public Affairs Records, 130 East Seneca St., Suite 400, Ithaca, NY 14850-4353. Alumni Magazine March | April 2013 7 Campus News From theHill LISA BANLAKI FRANK Construction zone: Gates Hall is rising at the corner of Hoy and Campus roads, adjacent to the baseball field. The future home of computing and information science is expected to be completed in December; to follow its progress, go to blogs.cornell.edu/gateshall. First Students Matriculate at Skorton Tapped for ClintonCornell Tech’s Chelsea Home Albright Global Nonprofit In late January, Cornell Tech welcomed its first class of students— eight people pursuing a one-year master of engineering degree in computer science. As the design process continues on its permanent home on Roosevelt Island, set to open in 2017, the program is holding classes in space donated by Google in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. Eventually, Cornell Tech’s academic offerings will expand to include graduate degrees in electrical and computer engineering, information science, and operations research, as well as a tech-oriented one-year MBA and a master of science in partnership with the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology. Says Dean Dan Huttenlocher of the inaugural class: “This group has the entrepreneurial spirit and technical talent to go out and make a difference in the world.” President David Skorton has been named to the steering committee of Partners for a New Beginning (PNB), a nonprofit, nonpartisan initiative that fosters renewed engagement with communities in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Co-founded by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in collaboration with the CEOs of Coca-Cola and the Aspen Institute, the group aims to build public-private partnerships that promote education, economic opportunity, scientific and technological advances, and more. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, chair of PNB, calls Skorton “a leading voice on educational diversity, academic and business partnerships, international outreach, and immigration reform” and praises him for his “broad experience, thoughtfulness, and energy.” 8 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com Straight Takeover Figure Steven Muller Dies at 85 A former Cornell administrator who played a key role in the 1969 Straight Takeover died in January at age eighty-five. As the University’s vice president for public affairs, Steven Muller, PhD ’58, helped negotiate a peaceful withdrawal of armed protesters from the Straight. A professor of government, he later helped found Cornell’s Einaudi Center for International Studies and went on to serve as president of Johns Hopkins University for eighteen years. “He was very collegial,” recalls government professor Ted Steven Muller, Lowi, “and had that quality of being PhD ’58 able to engage people to help them see others’ perspectives.” Muller’s family fled Germany during World War II; after immigrating to the U.S. he worked as a film actor in Los Angeles, earned an undergrad degree from UCLA, and won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford. Collegetown’s Last ‘Hangout Bar’ to Go Up for Sale Another Collegetown watering hole may be in danger of going the way of the late, great Johnny’s Big Red Grill. In the wake of the closures of the Royal Palm Tavern, Dino’s, and Johnny O’s, the owner of Dunbar’s announced that he’s putting it up for sale after the end of the spring semester. As reported in the Daily Sun, Dave Peppin plans to leave the bar business after thirty-three years. As he told the Sun, Peppin hopes that as “the only hangout bar left” in Collegetown, the establishment will stay open under new ownership. Dunbar’s twice hosted the Stanley Cup trophy when alumni hockey pros brought it to campus during its traditional victory tour, and the bar’s graffiti-covered walls have played home to countless late-night revelers. FRANK JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY Give My Regards To... These Cornellians in the News Computer science professor Doug James; University of California, Santa Barbara, researcher Theodore Kim ’01; and Sony Pictures Imageworks researcher Jeremy Selan ’00, MS ’03, winners of Academy Awards for technical achievement. James and Kim won for creating software that generates realistic smoke and explosions, Selan for designing sceneediting software. Finance professor Maureen O’Hara and Joshua Walsky ’98, MEng ’03, CTO of Broadway Technology, named to the list of the forty most influential people in trading technology by Institutional Investor. Professors Sheila Hemami (electrical and computer engineering), David Lipsky ’61 (ILR), and Karl Niklas (plant biology), named Weiss Presidential Fellows in recognition of outstanding teaching of undergraduates. Math professor John Guckenheimer, winner of the Steele Prize from the American Mathematical Society, one of the field’s highest honors. Cornell University, named a top employer for executive women by the National Association for Female Executives. Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor David Erickson, named a fellow of the Optical Society. Faculty members Anurag Agrawal (ecology and evolutionary biology), Edward Buckler (research genetics), Joseph Fetcho (neurobiology and behavior), Maria Harrison (plant research), Xin-Yun Huang (physiology and biophysics), Georg Jander (plant research), Daniel Kessig (plant research), Shahin Rafii ’82 (genetic medicine), and Margaret Rossiter (history of science), elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Molecular physiology professor Robin Davisson, winner of the American Heart Association’s Arthur C. Corcoran Memorial Award for distinguished research on hypertension. Weill Cornell surgery professor Fabrizio Michelassi, awarded the Grand Award of Merit from the American Society of the Italian Legions of Merit, its highest honor. History professor Isabel Hull, winner of the International Research Support Prize of the Max Weber Stiftung and the Historisches Kolleg, which includes a 30,000 euro stipend. Architecture professor Caroline O’Donnell, whose design was chosen for a summer pavillion in Long Island City as part of the MOMA’s Young Architect’s Program. Katrina James ’96 and Shana Chacko Mueller ’95, inducted as honory members of Cornell’s Sphinx Head Society. March | April 2013 9 From the Hill Longtime Finance Professor Jerry Hass Dies at 72 Jerry Hass, who taught Cornell MBA students for nearly half a century, died unexpectedly in January. He was seventy-two. Even after retiring with emeritus status in 2008, Hass contin- ued to teach at the Johnson School; he was scheduled to lead a finance course this semester. Hass was a nationally recognized expert in a vari- ety of fields including corporate finance, energy and regulatory economics, applied microeconomics, Jerry Hass security analysis and investment management, and business strategy. His publications include An Introduction to Managerial Finance, the seminal text on the subject. He is survived by his wife, Jo, five children, and ten grandchildren. UP Novel on Internment Camps Chosen for Reading Project Julie Otsuka’s novel When the Emperor Was Divine has been selected for next year’s New Student Reading Project. The 2003 work—which will be read by freshmen, transfers, and others in the Cornell community—describes a Japanese-American family’s experience in World War II internment camps. The novel will be the subject of class discussions and campus forums exploring a range of topics including immigration, exile, scapegoating, trauma and memory, civil liberties and human rights, the post-9/11 experiences of Muslims and Arab Americans, and more. R&D Kumar showed that people find more intense and longerlasting happiness from discussing experiences rather than material purchases. More information on campus research is available at www.news.cornell.edu Professors Doug James and Steve Marschner, PhD ’98, and grad student Steven An, MS ’10, are designing more realistic simulations of clothing sounds, like rustling and crumpling, for computer animation. In a five-year study published in Science, ecology and evolutionary biology professor Anurag Agrawal and colleagues chronicled how insects drive rapid changes in plant evolution. Cornell researchers have created an algorithm to map foodborne pathogens such as E. coli, Salmonella, and Listeria on individual farms. The information will allow growers to avoid high concentrations of the pathogens when planting food that is consumed raw. Teens in a physically or psychologically abusive relationship are more than twice as likely to be in one as a young adult. They’re also more likely to binge drink, smoke cigarettes, use marijuana, and have thoughts of suicide, says human development doctoral student Deinera Exner-Cortens, MA ’10. Financial aid offered to students to attend in-state colleges is not a determining factor in where they enroll or live after graduation, finds policy analysis and management professor Maria Fitzpatrick. She says that states should explore other ways to retain their best and brightest. According to marketing professor Brian Wansink, parents can promote healthier eating habits by giving kids “snack combos” of cheese and vegetables instead of potato chips. He found that children will consume up to 72 percent fewer calories and be just as satisfied. As postdoc Thomas Slewinski published in Plant and Cell Physiology, wheat and rice yields could increase by 50 percent when engineered with a gene, called Scarecrow, found in corn and grasses. The gene allows crops to be grown in hotter, dryer environments with less fertilizer. Women in relationships continue to have more household responsibilities than their male partners—regardless of employment, finances, or domestic goals. Policy analysis and management professor Sharon Sassler says men perceive household chores as a challenge to their masculinity. A new computer model predicts a possible outbreak of the chikungunya virus, carried by the invasive Asian tiger mosquito. Entomologist Laura Harrington is concerned that the mosquito, with its population increasing due to global travel and climate change, could infect about one in 5,000 New York City residents by September. Molecular physiology professor Robin Davisson has traced hypertension to a newfound cellular source in the brain. The work could lead to novel approaches to treating high blood pressure, the leading cause of heart disease. Researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research have found a genetic trigger to control ripening of tomatoes. Manipulating it could improve shelf life and quality, they reported in Nature. Studies by psychologist Thomas Gilovich and grad student Amit Cornell entomologists are studying how to eradicate the invasive spotted wing drosophila, a fly that infests ripening berries—causing up to $1 billion in nationwide crop and job losses in 2012. A combination of lures and low-toxicity sprays are being used until biological controls such as diseases or parasites can be found. 10 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com HERBERT F. JOHNSON MUSEUM / CORNELL One-man show: Rope (After Schjerfbeck), a 2008 diptych (ink, gouache, colored pencil, and charcoal on paper) by Storm Tharp ’92, is on display at the Johnson Museum through early April. Tharp is the youngest alumnus to have a monographic show of his work at the museum; according to the exhibit description, “he has become widely known for enigmatic portraits that investigate the performance of identity and abstraction.” Alumni Leaders Gather in Boston This year, the annual Cornell Alumni Leadership Conference (CALC) moved to Boston, where Cornellians gathered at the Marriott Copley Place in January to attend sessions on volunteering, learn from each other, honor their colleagues, and celebrate the University. Nearly 800 alumni were on hand, down from last year’s attendance of almost 1,000 in Washington, D.C., but there was no decline in enthusiasm. Robert Persons ’48—a longtime class correspondent—was feted as this year’s recipient of the William “Bill” Vannemann ’31 Outstanding Class Leader Award, and the Class of 2002 took home the prize as the winners of the first Cornell Alumni Association Cup. Alumni-elected trustee Sheryl Hilliard Tucker ’78 introduced a Friday evening panel that addressed the subject of “Health Care Today, Implications for Tomorrow,” and President David Skorton addressed the attendees at the Saturday luncheon. CALC will be held in Boston again next year from January 17 to 19. LINDSAY FRANCE/UP Second opinions: The headline event at CALC was a medical affairs panel discussion. It featured (from left) moderator Philip Reilly ’69 and panelists Ruben King-Shaw Jr. ’83, Weill Cornell Dean Laurie Glimcher, Gene Resnick ’70, MD ’74, and Katrina Firlik ’91. Said Resnick: “We are facing a shortage not just of research scientists, but also of family practitioners.” March | April 2013 11 Sports Sports Shorts HISTORIC TITLE With a 29-12 win over Columbia on February 2, the Big Red wrestling team secured its 11th straight Ivy League championship—the longest current title streak by any Ivy squad in any sport. At press time, the team’s record was 11-3, with convincing wins over all its Ivy opponents and a Number 7 national ranking. Once again, senior co-captain Kyle Dake is leading the way, with 13 straight victories so far this year. Dake is seeking to become the first wrestler to win NCAA championships in each of four weight classes. LEGENDARY LEADER Women’s basketball head coach Dayna Smith has been hon- ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS Dayna Smith ored by the Atlantic 10 Conference for her playing career at the University of Rhode Island. Smith was one of 16 women named to the inaugural Women’s Basketball Legends list for their contri- butions to their school’s basketball pro- gram. Smith was one of only 11 players in Division I history to collect more than 1,000 points and 750 assists and helped lead URI to the 1996 NCAA tournament. She has been head coach at Cornell since 2002 and led the team to its only Ivy League title in 2008. UP AND DOWN Forward Cole Bardreau ’15 earned a gold medal as a member of the United States team at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championships in Russia. Bardreau, a native of Fairport, New York, played in all seven games for the U.S., collecting a goal and two assists while anchoring a line that didn’t allow a single even-strength goal and serving on the top penalty-killing unit. Unfortunately, shortly after returning to the Big Red in January, Bardreau suffered a season-ending neck injury in a game against RPI. LAX PICKS Two men’s lacrosse players were selected in the Major League Lacrosse Collegiate Draft in January. Jason Noble ’13 was the 10th pick overall, going to the Hamilton Nationals in the second round, and Max Van Bourgondien ’13 was taken 43rd overall as a sixth-round pick of the Charlotte Hounds. The MLL, which starts its season at the end of April, holds its draft before the start of the college season so graduating seniors can immediately join their MLL teams at the end of their collegiate season. PATRICK SHANAHAN Top job: For the first time since 1997, Cornell has an alumnus at the helm of its football program. In January, David Archer ’05 was named head coach, becoming the youngest Division I head coach in the country. Archer spent the last six seasons as a Cornell assistant, most recently serving as recruiting coordinator and tight ends and fullbacks coach under Kent Austin, who left after three years to become general manager and head coach of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Canadian Football League. As a player, Archer was a three-year starter on the offensive line and served as a captain his senior year, when he won the team’s Enzo Montemurro ’85 Award for spirit and leadership and Jaime McManamon ’07 Award for hard work and diligence in strength and conditioning. MOST WINS With a 4-0 win over Mercyhurst at Lynah Rink, Doug Derraugh ’91 became the winningest women’s hockey coach in Cornell history, with 136 victories. Bill Duthie ’71, the program’s original coach from 1972 to 1984, held the old record. Now in his eighth season at Cornell, Derraugh was named the national coach of the year in 2010 after leading the Big Red to the first of three straight trips to the Frozen Four. A Bear for All Seasons Three alumni have launched a campaign to create a permanent memorial to honor Touchdown the Bear, Cornell’s first mascot. With seed funding from John Foote ’74 (author of Touchdown: The Story of the Cornell Bear), Joseph Thanhauser ’71, and Alon Mass ’08, a bronze bear cub statue has been commissioned to honor the four black bears that served as mascots in the early twentieth century. With a goal of $250,000, the campaign aims to place and maintain the statue at the corner of Campus Road and Garden Avenue, in front of Teagle Hall. If all goes well, the Touchdown statue will be unveiled at Homecoming in 2015 as part of the sesquicentennial celebration. To learn more and/or make an online gift to support the campaign, go to alumni.cornell.edu/touchdown. 12 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com Authors Of Time and the River The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway, PhD ’03 (Dutton) Nick Davenant, an aristocrat in Wellington’s army, jumps forward in time from a battlefield in 1812 to 2003, where he meets a secret society known as the Guild, which controls time travel. In 1815, the Guild enlists Nick to return to his former life to fight against a rival group, the Ofan. Nick’s neighbor, Julia Percy, discovers the ability to manipulate time. They join forces to solve the mystery behind the Guild, the Ofan, and a force from the future that threatens to put a stop to time. The Silent Epidemic by Alan H. Lockwood ’65, MD ’69 (MIT). Almost half of the energy used to generate electricity in the U.S. comes from burning coal, but that energy comes at a price. “Too few of us are aware of the relationship between coal and health,” writes Lockwood, an emeritus professor of neurology at the University at Buffalo. “The evidence linking coal and disease is strong and getting stronger each year.” He documents the effects of coal pollution on the respiratory, cardiovascular, and nervous systems, explores coal’s impact on climate, and discusses the policy implications for the future. The End of the Point by Elizabeth Graver, PhD ’92 (Harper). Graver’s elegiac fourth novel chronicles the lives of the Porter family from 1942 to 1999. For the Porters, Ashaunt Point, on Massachusetts’s Buzzards Bay, is more than just a place to spend summer holidays. Helen and her siblings live in a childhood idyll, but the death of her brother in combat during World War II shatters that quiet image. Years later Helen tries to restore Ashaunt’s sense of refuge, yet the social upheavals of the Vietnam War, encroaching development, and an oil spill threaten to destroy her fragile world. 14 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com The Boyfriend by Thomas Perry ’69 (Mysterious Press). Jack Till, a retired LAPD homicide detective, works routine cases as a private investigator until the parents of a murdered young woman ask for his help. The police seem uninterested in the woman’s case because she had worked as a high-class prostitute. Till discovers that several women in different cities were killed in the same way, and, like his clients’ daughter, all of them were strawberry blondes. But the murderer does not fit the pattern of most serial killers and becomes even more dangerous as the detective tracks him down. The Business of Baby by Jennifer Margulis ’90 (Scribner). Drawing upon interviews with mothers, doctors, and nurses who are concerned about the failings in America’s health-care system, a Schuster Institute fellow at Brandeis University guides parents through the baffling business of pregnancy, childbirth, and the first year of a baby’s life. “Though our tendency is to defer to the doctors and others in the medical establishment,” she writes, “it is we parents, and our babies, who actually know best.” She shows how to educate yourself, stand up to the system, and voice your concerns for the well-being of your baby. Poetry Whirlwind by Sharon Dolin ’77, PhD ’90 (Pittsburgh). In her fifth collection, the winner of the Donald Hall Prize explores the emotions of grief, rage, and regret in the breakup of a marriage. Vanishing Tracks by Jeff Schwaner ’87 (Black Stone River). A novelist and editor meditates on the landscape of Cape Cod, the vagaries of memory, the consolations of fatherhood, and the meaning of home. Fiction The Trouble with Charlie by Merry Jones ’70 (Oceanview). When Elle Harrison returns home to find her husband murdered, she can’t recall what she was doing at the time of his death. Stranger still, even though he is dead, she senses his presence. While she tries to prove her innocence, Elle puts herself in peril as she uncovers secrets about her husband’s life. Non-Fiction Cornell University by Richard H. Penner ’68, BArch ’69, MS ’72 (Arcadia). Using dozens of photographs from the University Archives, a professor emeritus in the Hotel school outlines the history of the university, writes about its founders, famous alumni, and notable teachers, and offers images of life on campus as it has changed through the years. A Whole New You by Brett Blumenthal ’95, MBA ’04 (Amazon). A wellness expert outlines a path for personal change and development, including ways to acknowledge habits and weaknesses while building selfconfidence and working toward selftransformation. How Difficult It Is to Be God by Carlos Iván Degregori, edited by Steve J. Stern ’73 (Wisconsin). Degregori was the world expert on Peru’s Shining Path Maoist insurgency and the architect of the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This first English translation of the anthropologist’s work includes an introduction by a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin. The Answer Machine by Susan E. Feldman ’67 (Morgan & Claypool). A vice president at International Data Corp. gives a practical overview of search and content analytics technologies, their current use, and their role in the future of computing. Treacherous Texts by Mary Chapman, PhD ’92 (Rutgers). Beginning with fiction and polemics from the 1840s and ending with memoirs from 100 years later, this anthology shows the wide variety of writing aimed at persuading Americans to support women’s suffrage. A professor of English at the University of British Columbia spotlights the work of writers such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Louisa May Alcott, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Djuna Barnes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Gertrude Stein. Before Pharmaceuticals by Will Fudeman ’72 (Bryce Cullen). An acupuncturist and counselor explores the use of Chinese medicine as a complement to psychotherapy in treating people who suffer from anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Documenting Intimate Matters edited by Thomas A. Foster ’91 (Chicago). Drawing on primary sources, an associate professor and chair of history at DePaul University traces the history of sexuality in America from colonial times to the present and shows the changes in how Americans understand sexual expression. The Origin of Sin translated by Martha A. Malamud, PhD ’85 (Cornell). A professor of classics at the University at Buffalo translates Hamartigenia, a poem about sin and judgment by the fourth-century Christian Latin writer Prudentius, and explores its influence on the work of later writers, especially John Milton. My Own CEO by Robert Bloch ’71 (Champlain College). The director of Champlain College’s Bring Your Own Business program follows nine young entrepreneurs as they develop their ideas, raise money, create startups, build their businesses, and change their lives. Buried Memories by Katie Beers with Carolyn Gusoff ’84 (Title Town). On the twentieth anniversary of her kidnapping, Katie Beers tells a television reporter for WCBS the story of her captivity and escape, and how she rebuilt her life. Children’s Ice! by Laurence Pringle ’58 (Calkins Creek). Before refrigeration, people relied on root cellars, salting, drying, smoking, and ice to keep foods from spoiling. But ice was a luxury for most people. In this story for younger readers, a science writer focuses on the ice harvesting industry at Rockland Lake, “the icebox of New York City.” A special advertising section Big Red Writers in the July/August issue of Cornell Alumni Magazine All Cornell authors— alumni, faculty, staff, and students— are invited to promote your book For more information, please contact Alannna Downey, Advertising Representative, at 800-724-8458 x23 or ad41@cornell.edu March | April 2013 15 Currents Safety First The sign in Fall Creek Gorge is neither small nor subtle. “Four people have died by swimming here,” it says. “Swimming is prohibited. No access beyond this point. VIOLATORS ARE SUBJECT TO ARREST.” And if words fail to sway hearts and minds, the placard bears a convincing visual: an artist’s rendering of the deadly conditions beneath the Suspension Bridge, complete with swirling currents, downed trees, a submerged shopping cart—and two trapped, drowning victims. Only one of the figures is wearing bathing trunks; the other is clad in a T-shirt, shorts, and sneakers, as though a hike has gone terribly awry. The warning was installed at the entrance to a popular Cornell swimming hole following a series of student deaths in the gorge in summer 2011; one young man fell during an off-trail hike, another drowned while swimming illegally near Ithaca Falls, and a third slipped while wading and was swept away. None of these were the deaths cited on the sign; those four— stretching from 1986 to 2008—came in addition to the most recent tragedies. “We’re trying to make it clear to folks why this is so dangerous,” says Todd Bittner, director of natural areas for Cornell Plantations and chair of Cornell’s Gorge Safety Committee. “And the reason is that there’s a thirty- or forty-foot hole underneath that waterfall; there are strong currents that change minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day; and hidden rock ledges that trap you underneath the water. Basically you get an undertow, just like in the ocean, that sucks you under.” While the signage was being designed, the University installed a test version and hired the Cornell-based Survey Research Institute to canvass visitors about its potential efficacy. “Sixty percent said that reading the sign didn’t make them any less likely to swim there,” marvels Bittner, standing next to the rushing waters of Fall Creek on a frigid January day. “And when we asked them, ‘What would make you more likely not to swim here?’ more than half said, ‘Nothing.’ The most likely thing was, ‘If I’d get arrested.’ They were more worried about something that’s more probable to them—to get arrested—than dying.” Mike Roberts ’10 got similar feedback in summer 2012, when he was one of the inaugural crop of gorge stewards—employees charged with educating visitors about the dangers of illegal swimming and off-trail hiking. “I can’t tell you how many people told me they never saw the sign,” he says, “which is amazing, because it’s big—like two feet by three feet.” Gorge safety has been a perennial concern at Cornell—ever since its founding brought thousands of young people to East Hill, a dramatic landscape cut through by steep cliffs and rushing waters. But in recent years, a series of deaths—both accidents and suicides—has spurred the University to aggressive action. After a trio of suicides in spring 2010 (and a total of six that academic year), Cornell erected fences on gorge bridges and convened a task force to study ways of preventing further deaths; 16 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com From scary signs to city fines, the University aims to prevent gorge accidents Nature hike: A portion of the Cascadilla trail between Stewart Avenue and Collegetown, damaged by Tropical Storm Lee, will be repaired this year. Right: Todd Bittner of Cornell Plantations installs a warning sign in Fall Creek gorge. PHOTOS BY UNIVERSITY PHOTO the panel’s recommendations—the installation of nets and security cameras—are currently being implemented. And another, parallel safety effort—intended to prevent people from losing their lives in the gorges by accident, not intention—has been under way since the deaths in summer 2011, including two on Fourth of July weekend alone. “Sadly, the tragedies focused the mind,” says vice president for student and academic services Susan Murphy ’73, PhD ’94. “It heightened the level of attention. Just speaking for myself: doing the same-old, same-old wasn’t going to work.” As with the suicide threat, the University created a steering committee to study ways to protect people from harm. Its recommendations, which President David Skorton accepted in late 2011, were four-fold: improving infrastructure to prevent accidents and curb access to potentially dangerous areas; educating the public about the hazards of illegal swimming and off-trail hiking, through such means as improved signage and the implementation of the gorge steward program; increased enforcement, including a stepped-up Cornell Police presence during the summer; and offering alternative recreational activities, like organized hikes and busing to legal swimming spots. “In some ways it’s a little like the way we approach alcohol—it’s harm reduction,” Murphy says. “How do we minimize the harm that comes to our students when they do something that is illegal? It’s illegal to swim in the gorge, but just telling students it’s illegal doesn’t get you anywhere.” Swimming in the gorges is both a violation of the Campus Code of Conduct and a fineable offense under Ithaca city law; it’s also an activity that has been enjoyed by generations of Cornellians and locals alike. “Despite the warnings, despite the memorials, people would be really irate that we were telling them it’s not a safe place to swim,” Roberts, the gorge steward, says of the spot where the dramatic danger sign sits adjacent to stones marking previous drownings. “The stereotypical reaction is that they’d roll their eyes; ‘Here’s another person harping about safety.’ There was more than one comparison to the ‘fun police,’ and I think someone even called me a Nazi once. To them, the short-term gain of being able to cool off in the gorges outweighed what they perceived as a slim chance of something terrible. It’s always going to come down to that moment when people are staring at a tempting pool of water and wondering whether it’s worth it.” The gorge stewards’ role is to educate, not enforce; if swimmers refused to comply, Roberts says, “we’d step away and quietly call the police and let them deal with it.” According to Bittner, most people—Cornell students, local highschoolers, Ithaca residents—eventually accepted the message without overt hostility. One constituency, though, proved surprisingly resistant. “The user group that was somewhat antagonistic to the gorge stewards was the alumni,” he says. “Most alums have phenomenally great memories of Cornell, and when March | April 2013 17 LISA BANLAKI FRANK Solemn site: The spot on the Cascadilla trail where a PhD alumnus fell to his death in December has become an impromptu memorial. they visit campus they want to revisit those experiences—and swimming in the gorges is one of them. They feel like they’re right and the gorge stewards are wrong. ‘I’ve been swimming here for however long, and I’m going to swim here again.’ The stewards got more attitude from the alumni than from any other user groups, and generally the least compliance.” During the planning weekend for Reunion 2013, Murphy appealed to class event organizers in no uncertain terms. “I said, ‘You have a responsibility to inform your classes it’s dangerous to be in the gorge,’” she told them. “‘Times have changed— and to see that, all you have to do is to live through the year we did, with three deaths within the space of a month.’” Alumni resistance aside, the University considers last summer’s enforcement and education efforts to be a marked success. The gorge steward program was launched in early July—and by the start of classes, Bittner says, it had already borne fruit. “In prior years on opening week, Friends of the Gorge and Cornell Plantations would hold hikes in Fall Creek for freshmen and their families, and we’d come down here and talk about gorge safety and the dangers of swimming, and there would be fifty kids out there—buff guys, girls in bikinis—and the kids couldn’t run to their dorms fast enough to change and come back here and go swimming,” he says. “This year, after two months of the gorge stewards, every hike we took down here, there were zero people swimming, even though it was sunny and eighty-five degrees. That was a real validation of the whole program.” Curbing swimming is just half of the gorge safety equation. The other is promoting safe trail use—an effort that took on new poignancy in early December with the death of a recent graduate alumnus. Alan Young-Bryant, PhD ’11, was visiting Ithaca to celebrate his girlfriend’s doctoral defense; after leaving the Chapter House, he died in an accidental fall from the Cascadilla gorge trail just below the Stewart Avenue Bridge. The spot where he fell has cracked, uneven pavement and a bent railing; the latter has since been patched with chain-link fencing, which became the site of an impromptu floral memorial. And while there may be contributing factors in Young-Bryant’s death—according to City of Ithaca documents, his autopsy detected amphetamines and barbiturates in his system, as well as a blood alcohol level of 0.22 percent—the accident emphasizes one of the challenges in keeping the trails safe: some of them are on city property, and Ithaca’s budget woes stymie maintenance and repair efforts. “It joins a long list, and we’re going to have to take a hard look at our budget both this year and next and see if we can afford to completely replace the railing,” says Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick ’09. “We’re talking about hundreds of miles of roads, trails, railings, and parking garages in our city infrastructure, and every year we can only afford to make an extremely limited investment—and it’s hard to know where that investment will best be put to use.” The City of Ithaca has representation on Cornell’s Gorge Safety Committee— whose creation was one of the steering committee’s recommendations to Skorton—and the possibility of the University helping to fund trail repairs on city land 18 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com Currents near campus is on the table. “The city is responsible for its own property,” notes vice president for human resources and safety services Mary Opperman, who cochaired the steering committee with Murphy, “but we are in conversations with them about how we can be supportive in our collaborative efforts.” The University has already earmarked significant money for gorge safety improvements, including $1.7 million for work on the Cascadilla trail, which has been partially reopened after years of closure; on top of that, Cornell recently received an $800,000 FEMA grant to repair flood damage to the upper portion suffered during Tropical Storm Lee in September 2011. In Fall Creek, the University has allocated $360,000 for trail repairs, fencing, and signage, as well as $300,000 for the development of “destinations,” several spots to be outfitted with seating and other amenities. Additionally, starting in fiscal 2013, Cornell will spend $150,000 on yearly trail maintenance in the two gorges—an annual budget item many see as long overdue. “These trails are going to be maintained now, and that makes them a lot more accessible for recreation, compared to when they were muddy and nails were sticking out of the fences,” says natural resources professor Marianne Krasny ’74, who spearheaded creation of Friends of the Gorges, a student-run group that promotes safe recreation. “It was as if Cornell didn’t care, and the fraternities used them as dumping grounds.” In general, Bittner points out, Fall Creek and Cascadilla gorges have different constituencies and challenges. The former is known more for recreation such as hiking and swimming, while the latter has shallower waters and a trail that many use to walk between campus and downtown— even when it’s closed due to storm damage or winter ice hazards. “People use it as a commuter line,” Roberts says. “There are a lot of people who walk it every day— grad students, professors, staff. I would catch them on a fairly regular basis hopping over a railing that’s clearly marked and going on their daily commute.” With the approval of the FEMA grant, the upper portion of the Cascadilla trail is aimed to be reopened by this fall, Bittner says. Over in Fall Creek, the University has installed new fencing, added lighting, repaired stairways, marked blazes, and rehabilitated trail beds. “They’re beautiful now,” Opperman says of the trails. “They really are the ‘Ithaca is Gorges’ bumper sticker.” With those and other amenities, University officials aim to balance safety and access—providing legal ways to enjoy the gorges that, they hope, will supplant the riskier ones. The dramatic natural landscape, after all, is one of the factors that sets the University apart from many of its peers. “I came to Cornell, basically, because it was a large university in a beautiful place,” Krasny says. “And we hear that a lot; the unique natural features of the campus are what attracts people.” She notes that there are demonstrable benefits to using the gorges—not just physical exercise but improved mental health and well-being—and cites a classic study showing that hospital patients recovered faster if their rooms looked out on trees and grass. Says Krasny: “There’s a huge body of research on the cognitive, social, and psychological benefits of access to nature.” And then there’s the fact that the University’s topography is an essential part of its character, as evinced by the first four words of the Alma Mater. “We’re trying to celebrate our positives while mitigating our risks,” Opperman says. “Being in this beautiful environment is one of the things that makes Cornell Cornell.” — Beth Saulnier March | April 2013 19 Currents All Wet Engineering students bring clear water to Central America PROVIDED BY AGUACLARA A drop to drink: A dam filter in El Cajón (left) and a study site in Las Vegas, both in Honduras Anyone who has traveled in developing countries has heard the admonition, “Don’t drink the water.” Environmental engineering major Julia Morris ’13 has visited Honduras—where just 30 to 40 percent of local residents have access to potable water—three times in the last four years. “Every time, I’ve gotten some sort of sickness from the water,” says the Florida native. “It’s not pleasant.” The queasiness fades within a week or so; what has lingered is an abiding commitment to do more than grab bottled water when she’s on the road. One billion people worldwide lack what most Americans take for granted: easy and affordable access to clean, safe drink- ing water. Many live in communities where electrical service is intermittent or nonexistent. Few have the financial and educational resources to build and maintain the kinds of sprawling, chemical- and energy-intensive municipal treatment plants common throughout the U.S. Over the last seven years, more than 400 Cornell undergrads have labored in a labyrinth of laboratories behind bright blue double doors in the basement of Hollister Hall to design gravitypowered, non-electric water treatment facilities for low-resource communities. They call the effort AguaClara—“clear water”— and provide both the plans and ongoing technical support free of charge. Their first design was built in 2006 for a 2,000-person community in central Honduras; today, some 30,000 people in seven locales have water that is so clean, Morris is happy to quaff straight from the tap. The project’s efforts were recognized with a 2012 Katerva Award, which honors the world’s best sustainablity innovators. “In other classes we just do projects, but this is real,” says Morris, who first earned credit for her work as a sophomore and now serves as the team leader, coordinating fifty students dedicated to sub-projects including hydraulics, filtration, 20 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com March | April 2013 21 and collection of real-time data from the plants. “It’s a cool way to learn hands-on engineering. Our research is actually improving people’s lives.” On a sunny afternoon in late October, sophomore Sarah Bolander clambers onto a lab counter to pour a solution of tap water and finely ground clay from a plastic beaker into a five-gallon bucket sprouting yards of surgical tubing. A simplified model of the portion of an AguaClara plant that removes sediment and other fine particles in the first treatment phase, the contraption sports myriad digital monitors, each transmitting data to a nearby computer. This morning, Bolander and teammates Mary John ’15 and Marianne Collard ’15 discovered a pool of clay and water spreading across their corner of the lab’s concrete floor, evidence of unintended consequences associated with their latest tweak to the system, meant to refine its performance. “Now we’re trying to debug the error,” says John, who started working on the team over the summer. AguaClara founder Monroe WeberShirk, PhD ’92, a senior lecturer in engineering and the course leader, happens by. “Get it running so we can see what’s happening,” he counsels. “I’d like to see a graph: what was the water turbidity doing as a function of time?” Behind him, juniors Owen Guldner, a mechanical engineering major, and Diana Kelterborn, an environmental engineering major, struggle to remove the fittings embedded in a clear plastic pipe, a component of the sand filtration system in the demonstration plant. Used to train Honduran plant operators and drum up financial support at outreach events, the conceptual model broke on the way to a conference for South Asian government officials that WeberShirk attended in Nepal at the invitation of the World Bank. “Would pliers work? A screwdriver?” muses Guldner. “I think you can just use a fingernail,” says WeberShirk, who needs the demo in working order for a Cornell trustees’ dinner in less than twenty-four hours. During fall semester alone, AguaClara fielded inquiries from communities in Kenya, Ethiopia, and India. Weber-Shirk and a handful of AguaClara alumni— including several who worked in Honduras after graduation—recently launched AguaClara Inc., a for-profit company intended to extend the project’s reach. Every January since 2006, Weber-Shirk has taken students on a two-week trip to visit plants and meet their operators. On the 2012 outing, Weber-Shirk and nineteen students visited the construction site of their eighth plant, which went online six months later. “I’m very hands-on and involved in Honduras,” he says. “But as we contemplate spreading out to more countries, there’s no way I can be handson with all of them.” No two AguaClara facilities are the same; each reflects the size and geography of its community, as well as the project’s evolving design sophistication. In 2008, the students posted online an automated tool—since revised more than 5,000 times—that converts flow rate and other parameters into detailed plans for plant construction. Local water agencies use the plans to raise money for construction; so far, CARE International, Rotary clubs throughout the U.S., and even an Italian NGO have stepped up to fund the building of plants, using local materials and labor. Last summer, the team began collecting real-time monitoring data from plant operators using text messaging, with the results available online. “You have to make things simple, cheap, and easy to use,” says Morris. “That’s been our main philosophy.” — Sharon Tregaskis ’95 22 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com Currents Digging Deeper Veteran TV journalist Carolyn Gusoff ’84 co-authors a memoir about one of Long Island’s most notorious child abductions The story hit the news in the waning days of 1992: just shy of her tenth birthday, a girl named Katie Beers had gone missing from a Long Island video arcade. The case sparked a media frenzy, as reporters and TV crews descended on the scene. Day after day, with Beers still nowhere to be found, increasingly disturbing details emerged about the girl’s wretched life: allegations of physical and sexual abuse; a lack of decent food, clothing, or even her own bed; and—like something out of Cinderella—a wicked godmother who kept her out of school, exposed her to two pedophiles, and forced her to act as a personal servant. Seventeen days later, the truth came out: the family friend who’d claimed to lose Beers at the arcade had hidden her in a bunker under his carport—a dungeonlike space he’d built especially for her. She was freed, to nationwide jubilation. And though her captivity was a horrific two and a half weeks of terror and abuse, it ultimately led to Beers’s salvation: she was taken into a loving foster family, underwent extensive therapy, graduated from college, and is now the married mother of two. As a reporter for News 12 Long Island, Carolyn Gusoff ’84 was among the throng of reporters jockeying to cover the Katie Beers story. Fifteen years later—after Beers had grown up shielded from the media, and Gusoff had become a fixture in Long Island TV news—the two began collaborating on a book about the case. Published this winter, Buried Memories unfolds in alternating first person—melding Beers’s tale of abuse, abduction, and captivity with Gusoff’s account of reporting the story. “The journalist in me wanted a logical ending and concise answers to broad questions,” Gusoff writes. “Does profound trauma destroy people or can they survive it? How do they recover? Does recovery from trauma come by remembering or by denying the horrors of the past? I had waited a long time to find out if this indelible story could possibly have a happy ending.” A double major in English and government on the Hill, where she was editor-in-chief for two volumes of The Cornellian, Gusoff currently covers the Long Island beat for WCBS. book, it was as if an entire community witnessed a hit-and-run, turned its collective head, and kept driving. CAM: Now that you’re intimately aware of the facts in the case, how accurate do you think the media accounts were at the time? CG: When we reported it twenty years ago, we only scratched the surface of what Katie Beers went through. The extent of the neglect and abuse she endured was dramatically worse than was reported by me or anyone else. We didn’t know Katie’s side; she now says she was raped by her godmother’s husband and that her godmother, who put herself out there as a loving caretaker, was treating her as a slave, emotionally and physically abusing her. But it’s very hard to size people up in a sound byte. Cornell Alumni Magazine: What it was like to cover the Katie Beers story? Carolyn Gusoff: At first, it was a story about a missing child that you thought would resolve by the end of the day, but it quickly evolved into what we in the business call a “giant.” A child missing from a video arcade is every parent’s nightmare, and it became a huge, very compelling story. It’s extremely competitive in the New York City television market, but at the same time we’re human beings, and it was emotional. Every day there were new, skin-crawling tidbits about this girl’s existence, and you couldn’t help but care about her. She was failed by everyone— her family, her schools, the police, the courts. As I say in the CAM: Were there lessons you learned in covering the story that have served you later in your career? CG: As a journalist, we’re supposed to have a healthy sense of skepticism. We question everyone and don’t take what people tell us for truth unless we test it. I think Katie’s story speaks to that. Everybody in her life was twisting the truth and manipulating this little girl. If ever there was an example of “question what you’re told,” this story screams it. CAM: Was this type of media frenzy unprecedented? Back then, was it a new phenomenon? CG: That’s an interesting question. It was the same general time March | April 2013 23 Currents 24 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com as the Joey Buttafuoco-Amy Fisher scandal. It was the birth of “tabloid TV”— Phil Donahue, Montel Williams, Sally Jesse Rafael, “Hard Copy.” This story was tailor-made for those kinds of shows. The characters in Katie’s life—never Katie herself—were wooed by the shows and the public ate it up. Every day, it was on the cover of the New York Post and the Daily News. CAM: What went through your mind when you found out that she was alive— and had been held in this bizarre bunker the entire time? CG: It was shockingly good news, which in my line of work doesn’t happen every day. Then the details emerged as to how she was concealed. She was right under our noses, literally; I had walked up that driveway many times. It was astounding. CAM: After she went into foster care, the district attorney appealed to the media to leave her alone—to give her a chance at a normal childhood. As a journalist, how did you feel about that? CG: I had mixed emotions at the time. As journalists, we resent being told how to do our job, especially by the elected officials that we cover; it’s our job to monitor their behavior, not vice versa. But looking back, it was the best thing that ever happened to her. The news vans that were circling her school, the reporters who were knocking on her foster parents’ door, slowly packed up and went away. It gave Katie the opportunity to grow up in anonymity, to reinvent herself, and to put the past behind her—and that made all the difference in her recovery. CAM: In the intervening years, how often did you revisit the story? CG: On anniversary dates, I would do the math in my head of how old Katie was and wonder how she was doing, but I never sought her out. On the fifteenth anniversary, I realized she would be grown up and could make her own decisions as to whether she wanted to tell her story, and that’s how the book began to take shape. CAM: What was it like to see her as an adult? CG: Katie Beers almost had a fictional quality to me. She was a name that I knew so well, yet I had never met her. Even seeing her name in my e-mail inbox had my adrenaline flowing; as a journalist, it was the ultimate exclusive. And as a human being and a mother, I was so happy that she had grown up, that she had survived and was a success story. I wanted to give her a hug—and then I realized, this girl doesn’t know me at all. CAM: In the book, you mention that in captivity she watched news stories about her abduction—so she’d actually seen you reporting her story. CG: The television inside the bunker was on twenty-four-seven, and it gave her hope, a connection with the outside world. Knowing I was part of that, and maybe it gave her strength, was tremendously gratifying. CAM: During your research you had access to audio tapes that her abductor had made of her in captivity. What was it like to listen to them? CG: That was the most difficult part of the whole process. To hear the voice of a child in misery was devastating—as a mother, as a human being, on every level. You’re a fly on the wall to a crime; you’re listening in real time to a child in torment, sobbing, crying, screaming, trying to soothe herself, conversations that she had with her abductor. It was profoundly disturbing, and yet it helped me understand the nature of the crime. I was in that bunker. CAM: If that was the hardest part of writing the book, what was the most gratifying? CG: There are seldom happy endings when you cover the news in eight sentences or less; I seldom get to look back at a story, in hindsight, with lessons learned. I make a point in the book to say that love was the missing ingredient in Katie’s life; it was as if the community came back tenfold and gave her what she lacked. I cover bad news often, so that’s very uplifting. Even in the most awful circumstances, people survive and scars heal. — Beth Saulnier Visit Cornell Alumni Magazine digital edition cornellalumnimagazine-digital.com March | April 2013 25 Currents Wild Things Vet student defends endangered amphibians—by becoming them Gabriela Wagner ’11 is a hybrid of glamour and gravity: she’s a former Miss Palm Beach County who finished college in three years, speaks fluent French and Spanish, and penned an honors thesis on the immunology and biochemistry of Listeria. Now in her second year at the Vet college, Wagner runs the nonprofit Gabby Wild Foundation, dedicated to raising awareness and funds for endangered animals. For her inaugural effort, Wagner invited designers—many alumni of the TV show “Project Runway”—to craft garments evocative of a dozen endangered species, from the Chinese giant salamander to the Sumatran tiger to the Kakapo parrot. She wore each for one month in 2012, organizing photo shoots in Ithaca-area gorges and gardens. Her resulting media appearances, including New York Times Fashion Week coverage, highlighted each animal’s circumstances. Wagner plans to auction off the gowns in 2013. “Most people will want them as collectors’ items,” she says of the size-zero garments, worth $1,000 to $2,000 in materials and labor alone. “Others will want to be able to say that they saved the Rondo dwarf galago or the Ganges river dolphin with their donation.” Her latest campaign, Metamorphosis, is a collaboration with Scottish-born conservationist, photographer, and author Robin Moore. The two connected via Twitter and PHOTOS BY ROBIN MOORE Human chameleon: Environmental activist Gabriela Wagner ’11 was made up as (clockwise from top left) a Vietnamese mossy frog, a Luristan newt, and a poison dart frog. discovered a shared concern for amphibians, at least a third of whom are currently threatened with extinction—but who have an image problem, lacking the charisma of birds or mammals. “I said, ‘I have a crazy idea,’” says Wagner. “‘What if you turned me into a frog?’ ” The resulting photos— created with the help of two award-winning Hollywood makeup artists—will be featured in a book co-authored by Wagner and Moore, slated for publication later this year. — Sharon Tregaskis ’95 26 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com Currents Hot Buns Baker Stefan Senders, PhD ’99, brings new meaning to an old come-on JAY WORLEY Crust and crumb: Anthropologist and baker Stefan Senders, PhD ’99, with the much-pilfered event poster from his Science Cabaret In a college town, the surest mark of a compelling poster is how often it vanishes and has to be re-hung. The ad for the January Science Cabaret —a monthly event intended to make science accessible, fun, and relevant— scored particularly well on that front. Against a neutral background, a tumescent golden baguette thrusts upward; at its base nestles a plump pair of dinner rolls. And then there was the event’s title: Nice Buns: A Dissertation on the Erotics of Bread. “Some people do seem to collect our posters,” says cabaret coordinator Karen Edelstein ’83, BS ’84, MPS ’01, “but this one was exceptionally popular.” Sex sells. But on the subject of bread, there’s more than a vapid come-on at play, says Stefan Senders, PhD ’99, who founded Wide Awake Bakery a few miles west of Ithaca in 2011. With a following of hundreds who prize his wares—which include a German-style 100 percent rye, a mixedgrain levain, and a French-style country bread featuring all locally grown and milled grains—Senders drew a standingroom-only crowd of home bakers, customers, and science aficionados to a downtown cocktail lounge. “Historically,” says Senders, whose graduate studies in anthropology investigated post-Cold War identity politics in West Germany, “bread has been a manifestation of a very grounded love relationship.” 28 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com Consider the earthy celebrations of peasant life, a fresh loaf at its center, in paintings by the European masters. In the wake of World War II, American bread underwent a transformation as mass-milled wheat and high-speed baking yielded infinitely reproducible, uniform loaves. “It’s like the difference between a real erotic relationship and pornography,” says the baker, who described for his audience the artisanal process he uses to coax wheat and water into a bouquet of flavor, aroma, and texture. “One is full of complexity, life, conflict, and death. The other is fantasy, an amplification of infantile desire.” And so the talk carried listeners on a romp through Senders’s self-described “cheap history” of pre- and post-industrial bread, from the Romans who dubbed the divine personification of the communal oven Fornax (think: fornication) to the modern-day conflation of bread and fertility in the phrase “a bun in the oven.” A collection of sexy bread advertisements— from old-school campaigns featuring the Pillsbury Doughboy to racier contemporary images—projected on a screen served as a backdrop. “We’ve been infantilized through industrial production,” says Senders, who underlined his point with a series of illustrations and photographs of infants and young children, slumbering on snowy mattresses and pillows of machinesliced loaves. Questions from the audience delved into the baker’s slow fermentation technique; Wide Awake’s custom-designed, wood-fired oven; and strategies for protecting each grain’s flavor profile in the finished loaf. “I appreciated his history of white bread and the infantalization angle—that’s where the scholar in Stefan came out,” says customer, home baker, and Department of Anthropology chair Nerissa Russell. “But if people were expecting something really lascivious, they might have been disappointed. He was talking about the desire for bread and the sensuous nature of making and eating artisan bread.” Senders credits the germ of the talk’s substance to a disgruntled customer, exceedingly rare in Wide Awake’s brief history. When the baker asked him whether he’d be renewing his subscription—now marketed as a “crust fund”— for a weekly loaf, the man answered emphatically in the negative. “It’s too good,” he said. “I eat the whole thing on the way home, then my wife gets really mad and I have a stomach ache.” As an anthropologist, Senders learned long ago to listen both to the stories people tell and the emotions simmering beneath the surface. In the wake of that first complaint, Senders started hearing from others similarly afflicted; inhaling a Wide Awake loaf seems to prompt a certain chagrin. “People worried they were being gluttons,” he muses, “and it frightened them.” Ultimately, he hopes, the passionate lust such customers experience in the presence of a perfect loaf will mellow into a lasting relationship full of love and complexity, imbued with a baker’s care. A vision for rich personal connections among producers and consumers underpins the bakery’s business model, with distribution primarily through partnerships with area farms, where customers can purchase the vegetables, cheese, meat, and cider that turn a loaf of bread into a meal. “It’s a pitch for encountering food more deeply and intensely,” says Senders. “What we do is incredibly intimate—we bake with our hands, our whole bodies. It’s very physical. You take this thing we create, put it in your mouth, and it becomes your cells.” — Sharon Tregaskis ’95 March | April 2013 29 Currents Mooving Day With a gift from Keith Olbermann ’79, WVBR will finally vacate the “Cow Palace” for better digs in Collegetown Since 2000, WVBR has rented space in a building near East Hill Plaza owned by the New York Holstein Association. But later this year, the station will be moving from the so-called “Cow Palace” to a new home in Collegetown. Thanks to a $935,000 capital campaign—a nod to WVBR’s frequency, 93.5 FM—the nonprofit Cornell Media Guild, which owns and operates the station, has purchased a building at 604 East Buffalo Street that will offer more space and closer proximity to campus. Within a few months of its launch, the campaign had already raised more than $550,000—a good chunk of it from VBR alum Keith Olbermann ’79. Olbermann’s gift—he declines to name the specific amount—secured naming rights to the new facility, which will be called Olbermann-Corneliess Studios in memory of his father, Theodore Olbermann, and longtime friend and VBR colleague Glenn Corneliess ’78, who passed away in 1996. “I’m sure Glenn would’ve objected to the ordering of our names,” says the former MSNBC political commentator and host of “Countdown,” “until I told him that this precludes any chance anybody will ever think there was a guy named JOHN ABBOTT Radio head: Keith Olbermann ’79 helped rescue WVBR from its decade-long isolation on the hinterlands of East Hill. ‘Corneliess Olbermann.’” Returning to Collegetown has been a goal of the Cornell Media Guild ever since the station had to vacate its longtime home on Linden Avenue nearly a decade and a half ago. “We’re far enough away from campus that you have to either drive or take a cab or bus,” laments Drew Endick ’14, the station’s current general manager. As far as Olbermann’s concerned, the current location might as well be in Siberia. “When I was at VBR we once took a very annoying fellow staffer out to dinner at a place in, or just near, East Hill Plaza, and we managed to leave him there,” he recalls. “Not a very gallant thing to do, but it got the point across, because I think it took him an hour to 30 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com walk back to the studios.” A couple of years ago, during his first visit to campus since giving the Convocation speech in 1998, Olbermann got a firsthand look at the Cow Palace. “I hadn’t really considered the implications of the new site,” he says. “I went out for a visit and was mortified to realize we were within a hundred yards of where we had ditched the guy at dinner thirty-plus years before.” That day, Olbermann e-mailed his friend Peter Schacknow ’78, a member of the Media Guild board of directors and chair of its alumni relations committee. “I told him we had to get together and get the station back into Collegetown,” says Olbermann, who had given the station $50,000 in memory of Corneliess in 1997. So far the campaign has drawn some 200 donors, including WBVR alum Jon Rubinstein ’78, MEng ’79, known as “the Podfather” for his role in inventing the iPod. “The idea is to have long-term sustaining financial support from alumni as well as the income the station generates,” Schacknow says. “That’s the model a lot of Cornell student organizations have followed over the years. It’s one we should’ve probably followed sooner, but I’m glad we’re adopting it now.” Located at the corner of Stewart Avenue and East Buffalo Street—a block from the Chapter House—the 2,500square-foot facility will have two modern studios for WVBR and its online sibling CornellRadio.com, including upgraded audio and video production suites, more office and work space for staff, a music library, a lounge, and a meeting room. A large multifunction room with a vaulted ceiling and proper acoustics will be used for broadcasting or recording live bands— a far cry from the current setup at the Cow Palace, where musicians cram into the broadcast studio across from the sound board and play through a couple of mics. “I particularly like the idea that the place is being designed for media VBR has yet to get into,” Olbermann notes, “or doesn’t even know it will want to.” Technological advances aside, Olbermann notes that the station can offer invaluable experience for students no matter their aspirations. “WVBR was just as much a training ground for people who didn’t go into broadcasting,” he says. “It was a professional work environment, without the pressures of making a living. All the dynamics and politics of any office anywhere were present. It’s thirty-four years since I left—and I still have yet to encounter anything in my career that I didn’t experience first at VBR.” — Jim Catalano Cornell Sheep Program BLANKETS Created from the wool of Cornell Dorset and Finnsheep breeds and their crosses, these blankets are ideal for football games and cold nights, and as gifts for graduation, weddings, birthdays, Christmas, and other occasions. Red stripes near each end and red binding accent the 100% virgin wool. Your purchase of blankets helps to support the Cornell Sheep Program, and $10 from each sale goes to an undergraduate scholarship fund. Each blanket is individually serial-numbered on the Cornell Sheep Program logo label and comes with a certificate of authenticity. Lap robe (60 x 48 inches, 3 stripes) $ 85 Single (60 x 90 inches, 3 stripes) $119 Double (72 x 90 inches, 3 stripes) $129 Queen (76 x 104 inches, 3 stripes) $155 King (120 x 90 inches, 3 stripes) $250 Add 8% New York State sales tax and shipping ($10 for lap robes, $15 for Single, Double & Queen, and $20 for King) Additional information about the blankets is available at www.sheep.cornell.edu (click on “Blankets”) Please visit our website, www.sheep.cornell.edu, to purchase by credit card at our secure site. Check or cash accepted at the Dept. of Animal Science (607-255-7712), 114 Morrison Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. Also available at the Cornell Orchards and the Cornell Plantations (prices may vary). March | April 2013 31 Listen Up The Macaulay Library puts its trove of wildlife recordings online MATTHEW MEIER In an editing suite at Cornell’s natural sound and video collection, wildlife documentarian Nat Taylor ’00 is cataloguing some high-def footage he shot a couple of years ago. “These are all underrepresented species dwelling in the llanos of Venezuela,” says Taylor, a lab volunteer who recently returned from a trip to the Himalayas to document the effect of a hydroelectric dam on the indigenous people. “There are red howler monkeys, hummingbirds, all sorts of stuff; some funky things, like the scarlet ibis.” Down the hall, some Brazilian researchers have reserved time to work on dolphin recordings; in another room, a “name that sound” project is in the works for an environmental film festival. There’s a ruffed grouse who sounds like a tractor engine; lemurs whose territorial calls resemble a violinist tuning up; male northern elephant seals protecting their harems with noises that recall a bizarre combination of a chainsaw, ribbiting frogs, and adolescent boys having a belching contest. Then there are insects, known as treehoppers, who make clicking sounds—inaudible to the human ear—with vibrations conducted through their legs and into tree branches. “A Cornell PhD researcher took a phonograph needle connected to a small amplifier and put it on the branch, and this whole system of communication was revealed,” says audio curator Loud and proud: The elephant seal 32 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com Currents Greg Budney ’85. “They have a repertoire. There are sounds that males make when they challenge one another, sounds that females make when they gather the nymphs in the face of a predator wasp. So these little bugs that you’d squash underfoot have complex and compelling lives.” Welcome to the Macaulay Library, the world’s largest and oldest collection of wildlife sounds. Housed at the Lab of Ornithology—though containing many species besides birds—the collection recently marked a milestone: as of this winter, it has digitized all 150,000 of its archived audio recordings. The collection, formerly known as the Library of Natural Sounds, expanded to include video about a decade ago; its oldest audio recordings date to 1929, when researchers Arthur Allen and Paul Kellogg captured bird songs in Ithaca’s Stewart Park. Back then, says director Mike Webster, PhD ’91, the library was also on the cutting edge. “It was started by folks who were experimenting with the new technology of the day,” he says, “which was talkie films.” The digitization project, he says, is vital not only for preservation but for making the collection open to all. “Now anybody can go to our website and put in their favorite bird or frog or insect, and they can hear it,” he says. “It allows people to access things they wouldn’t be able to without a very expensive plane ticket.” The library is free for researchers and the general public; those who use its recordings for commercial purposes pay licensing fees. Cornell’s audio has been included in Hollywood films ranging from Jurassic Park to the Harry Potter series, as well as smartphone apps and the work of such artists as Maya Lin. “One of our big goals is to help people appreciate nature through the senses they don’t normally use,” says Webster. “We’re visual creatures, but having these sounds online trains people to become active listeners. So the next time you go out in the woods, you’ll appreciate nature at a new level.” To listen to the newly digitized collection, visit macaulaylibrary.org WORKING WINERY & RETAIL SaleS Director e ivy league Magazine Network is seeking an experienced and highly motivated leader to develop and implement advertising sales strategies, tactical sales plans, and marketing programs to achieve target revenue goals. e ILMN is an association of nine alumni magazines with a total circulation of more than one million, operating with a network of national independent sales representatives. 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Real Estate Broker/Owner 315-246-3997 or 315-568-9404 senecayuga@aol.com www.senecayuga.com March | April 2013 33 Summer Programs & Sports Camps Exciting academic and athletic summer programs for children and young adults 34 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com March | April 2013 35 SUMMER PROGRAMS & SPORTS CAMPS Visit our digital edition for links to these camps and programs cornellalumnimagazine -digital.com 36 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com SUMMER PROGRAMS & SPORTS CAMPS March | April 2013 37 Wines of the Finger Lakes Featured Selection SENECA SHORE WINE CELLARS MUSCAT Of 752 wines entered in the 2012 New York Wine & Food Classic, only a twenty-acre Chardonnay vineyard on the west side of Seneca Lake. Initially, he sold his grapes to local wineries—but, he thirty received a double gold medal, says, taking a 1994 Cornell Cooperative indicating that all the judges deemed it Extension seminar gave him the inspira- worthy of gold medal status. Many of tion to start his own winery. DeMarco these wines were Rieslings, but several now has forty-five acres of vineyards other varieties were honored as planted with sixteen different vari- well—an indication that fine New eties. He attributes his recent success- York wine isn’t necessarily all about es to winemaker Shawn Verity, who Riesling. came on board in 2010. Verity, who One of these “other” wines was oversees production of more than two the Seneca Shore Wine Cellars dozen different wines, is particularly Muscat. While no vintage is named pleased by the Muscat, which he feels on the label, the grapes for this cur- is the most elegant wine in the Seneca rently available bottling were har- Shore lineup. vested in September 2011. It is With its floral, grapey aroma made primarily from Muscat and slightly honeyed finish, this Ottonel, which is the variety grown in Muscat is easy to enjoy. Try it as an Alsace, France, and introduced to the apéritif or serve it with savory dishes con- Finger Lakes by Dr. Konstantin Frank in the taining fruit, such as Chicken Veronique. It early Sixties. While most Muscat wines are is modestly priced at $11.99 retail and may either dry or very sweet, the delicately floral be purchased at www.senecawine.com. Seneca Shore version is only slightly sweet. — Dave Pohl Seneca Shore Wine Cellars is owned by Dave DeMarco, who left his job in New York Dave Pohl, MA ’79, is a wine buyer at City as an IBM engineer in 1993 to take over Northside Wine & Spirits in Ithaca. Muslim comic Negin Farsad ’98 challenges stereotypes, one joke at a time 40 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com PROVIDED ’eMLamaukgeh CBy Brad Herzog omedian Negin Farsad ’98 often begins her standup sets by walking onstage, grabbing the microphone, and taking the pulse of what is generally a predominantly white crowd. “Just by round of applause,” she asks, her voice rising enthusiastically with each word, “who in the audience is an Iranian-American Muslim female? Woo-hoo!” Farsad is an anomaly on several counts—a female in a male-dominated profession, a Muslim in a post-9/11 world, and a comedian with ultimately serious intentions. So she doesn’t only observe and question and quip; she also enlightens her audiences about an ethnicity and a religion that are perceived by many as mysterious, and are often misunderstood. Throughout the spring and fall of 2011, Farsad took her show on the road, far from her usual comfort zone of liberal-minded Manhattan comedy clubs. She performed in Gainesville, Florida, where a pastor made headlines by burning the Qur’an; in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where the opening of a new mosque was met with protests, lawsuits, and arson; in Tucson, Arizona, home to virulent antiimmigration legislation. The venues were carefully chosen as part of a tour in which a group of Muslim-American comedians aimed to use humor to humanize Islam, to shift the stereotype from Jihadist to jokester. They March | April 2013 41 traveled to places like Birmingham, Idaho Falls, and Salt Lake City—“places that, needless to say, love the Muzzies,” says Farsad, who, along with The comedians played ‘Name That Religion,’ Palestinian-American comedian Dean Obeidallah, co-directed the filming of the tour. They collected reading scripture and asking if it came from nearly 300 hours of footage, including interviews with everyone from gun shop owners Testament, or the and small-town imams to Jon Stewart and thQeuOr’ladnT.eCsotanmteesntat,ntthsereNpeewatedly attributed some Rachel Maddow, and distilled it into a feature-length documentary. The Muslims of the harshest passages to the latter—and were Are Coming! premiered to sold-out crowds in October at the Austin Film Festival, winning the Comedy Vanguard Audience Award and bolstering Farsad’s impressively hyphenated resume. Along with being an Iranian-American writer-performer-producer-director, she is very much a comic-activist. usually wrong. After a spike in anti-Muslim sentiment following the September 11 attacks, Farsad sensed that the hostility leveled off for a while, but she says it has risen again in the past few years. She sees it in the “birther” conspiracy claiming that President Obama is a foreign-born Muslim, an accusation she considers both uninformed and inherently anti-Islamic. She saw it when home supplies chain Lowe’s pulled its advertising from cable television’s “All-American Muslim” after the hitherto unknown Florida Family Association derided the show as “propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda’s clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values.” And she saw it in the darkly comic, truth-is-stranger-than-fiction incident last May, when four Muslim clerics were barred from their flights and thus arrived late to a conference . . . on Islamophobia. So, armed with some courage and comedy chops, Farsad and friends attempted to introduce themselves to red-state America. Besides offering free standup comedy, they fielded questions after each show, turning it into a town hall meeting of sorts. Between shows they set up sidewalk booths, inviting residents to ask them anything they wanted. They played “Name That Religion,” reading scripture and asking if it came from the Old Testament, the New Testament, or the Qur’an (contestants repeatedly attributed some of the harshest passages to the latter—and were usually wrong). They even held up signs that said “Hug a Muslim.” The comedians were a purposely diverse bunch, an attempt to reflect the variety in the Muslim diaspora. Obeidallah is half Sicilian. Kareem Omary is half Peruvian. Maysoon Zayid has cerebral palsy. Preacher Moss is black. As Farsad puts it, she wanted to convey that some Muslims are devout and others are “I’m Muslim, but pass me that ham sandwich.” Toward that end, she occasionally adopts a faux-naïve persona on stage. She’ll bring up the Arab Spring revolutions, for instance, and say, “I didn’t realize there were so many countries in the Middle East. I thought it was one big brown-violet blob. Next thing you know, they’re going to tell me there are different cultures and languages . . . Shut up! That’s crazy!” “The Muslims Are Coming!” was touted as a “laughing and listening” tour, but Farsad was somewhat surprised at many residents’ willingness to actually listen. And she listened to them, a reminder that nothing breaks down stereotypes—on both sides of the equation—like exposure to real people. On how Twitter and Facebook were credited with fueling the Arab Spring: “Where was Apple? Apple should have been out there like, ‘Are you trying to stage an opposition protest? There’s an app for that: i-skirmish.’” There’s a moment in The Muslims Are Coming! when a man in Georgia suggests that Farsad should stop referring to herself as Iranian-American. “My ancestors are from Holland, but I don’t claim to be Dutch-American,” he tells her. “If you want to be mainstream, then you’re no longer an Iranian Muslim. You’re American.” Smiling through gritted teeth, Farsad agreed to disagree. Months later, back home in Manhattan and her sixth-floor production offices overlooking Spring Street in SoHo, she explains, “I don’t think they realize that every time I pick up the phone and talk to my 42 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com parents, it’s in a completely different language.” Farsad’s family—father Reza, mother Golnaz, and older brother Ramin—emigrated from Iran in 1972 when Reza was accepted into a medical residency program at Yale (he is now a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon). Eight years later, when their only daughter was two, the Farsads moved to Virginia; they were one of two Persian families in Roanoke at the height of the Iran hostage crisis. When Negin was seven, they moved to Palm Springs. At home, the family conversed in Farsi and Azeri, a regional Turkic language. Although it wasn’t a strict Muslim household, there were cultural restrictions—no boyfriends allowed, for instance, and no leg-shaving, the latter being problematic for a dark-haired adolescent in sunny California. It was less of an issue 2,500 miles away in Ithaca, not only because of the weather but because Farsad and her parents adopted what she describes as an ongoing “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. At Cornell, her double major reflected an inner dilemma. On the one hand, she majored in government, the long-term plan being to return to Palm Springs, earn some political cachet, run for Congress, become the first female Muslim president, and end the nation’s religious divide. But she also majored in theatre arts, the short-term plan being to enjoy herself. In high school, she had acted in a production of Neil Simon’s play God’s Favorite. Farsad, a diminutive Persian girl with a high-pitched voice and a low tolerance for religious dogma, played God. The following year, after being mesmerized by a Skits-o-Phrenics performance during Cornell’s new student orientation, she auditioned and earned a spot in the sketch comedy troop. It was, she says, “twelve white dudes and me,” which was solid preparation for the world of professional comedy. Nearly as unusual as being a female Muslim comedian is the fact that she is atypically Type A. “I’m pretty boring that way,” she says. “I don’t really drink, just socially. I don’t do drugs. I don’t smoke. I wake up early. It’s like I want to get a good grade.” Whereas many standup comics riff and improvise, guided by only a few bullet points as an outline, Farsad is meticulous. She types up punch lines word for word, tests the material two or three times a week, records each set, examines why and where the big laughs came, removes the weak moments, then puts it out there again to see if it still works. A first-draft four-minute bit becomes a polished sixty seconds. For a while, Farsad crafted a non-comedy career just as meticulously. She earned two master’s Comic relief: Farsad on stage March |April 2013 43 degrees from Columbia (in race relations and urban planning) and landed a job as a policy adviser for the City of New York. For a year and a half she led a double life, spending her nights performing at comedy clubs. “I was always champing at the bit to leave the office and go do a show,” she says. In 2006, she quit her day job. Instead of changing the world through government work, she would do it one laugh at a time. On alcohol being banned in an Islamic republic: “Iran feels a lot like Prohibition-era United States. It’s literally the roaring thirteen-twenties over there.” Like most comics, Farsad mainly draws on personal experiences—dating strategies, family quirks, mom issues. But in her case, those experiences tend to suggest a more profound level of discourse. Jeff Foxworthy can do a gag about a redneck family reunion, and Billy Crystal has offered countless bar mitzvah jokes. But when Farsad embarks on a comedy bit about attending a family wedding—in an Islamic republic—it has more bite. “If you’re doing a joke about your mom in Wisconsin, it doesn’t seem political,” she explains. “But if you’re doing a joke about your aunt in Iran, that becomes a political joke.” Which is fine, because Farsad is a political junkie. Sure, she may toss in the occasional Justin Bieber quip, but she says it makes her feel bad about herself, “like I’m not doing anything to promote good in the world.” She is only half kidding. In fact, she spends much of her time marrying her two loves: public policy and theater. She calls it “satirical social justice.” After launching a production company, Vaguely Qualified Productions, Farsad wrote, directed, and produced her first feature film, Nerdcore Rising, a comedy about a subgenre of hip hop music performed by and for selfproclaimed nerds. She has since produced a variety of satirical Web videos and public service announcements for organizations such as the AFL-CIO and MoveOn.org. Her subject matter has ranged from health care to Citizens United to tax shelters in the Cayman Islands. Farsad was also asked, as part of a series commissioned by Queen Rania of Jordan, to produce a short video about Arab stereotypes. She created a montage of various people discussing the most offensive or absurd comments directed at them (“You’re Arab? That’s great. I love hummus!”). “Something satirical is going to be way more memorable and turn more heads than just a dry lecture,” says Farsad, as she prepares to run off to vocal lessons in preparation for a two-person musical she co-wrote called “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” In the show, a man named Jewlandia (“It’s a working title,” he explains) and she (“Palestine”) are accidentally assigned to the same convention booth in Geneva in 1948. “I don’t know why we can’t share until they sort this whole thing out,” says Jewlandia. “Um, okay,” says Palestine. “I can’t imagine it will take them that long.” After a botched one-night stand, Israel doesn’t call, Palestine gets angry, and conflict ensues. But, as Farsad explains on her website, “somewhere in the middle of all the chaos, in the middle of all the wars, and the embarrassing run-ins, rebound relationships, and pint-after-pint of ice cream therapy, Palestine and Israel may have found LOVE.” Farsad’s brand of comedy has earned her accolades aplenty. The Chicago Tribune hailed her “sharp, Janeane Garofalo wit.” A New York theater reviewer wrote that she “recalls a Tracy Ullman of Middle Eastern descent.” The Huffington Post named her one of its “fifty-three favorite female comedians.” The reviews from her parents are more complicated. “This is a completely different line of work than anything they’ve understood, and it’s not one of those I’m-proud-of-you households. I don’t even know how they would say that in Farsi. But I think they are,” she says, and then she pauses for a moment. “I know they are.” On dressing the part: “It isn’t decreed in the Qur’an that you have to be covered up; it is whatever your personal notion of modesty is. Mine involves cleavage.” On one of her first callbacks after embarking on the auditioning process as a comedic actor in New York, a casting director told Farsad, “You’re so great. But you’re too ethnic for the part. And if we went that route, you’re not ethnic enough.” He was essentially talking about the color of her skin— too dark on the one hand, not dark enough on the other. Add religion on top of race, and the obstacles grow even more imposing. In his book Islamophobia/Islamophilia: Beyond the Politics of Enemy and Friend, John Jay College sociologist Mucahit Bilici writes: “The discrimination, prejudices, and stereotypes from which other Muslims suffer are a godsend for the Muslim comedian.” However, there is another side to that coin—when the performers themselves encounter those prejudices. In The Muslims Are Coming!, comedian Colin Quinn marvels at the notion of a female 44 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com Muslim standing alone on stage and delivering occasionally racy material. “I can’t imagine,” he says, “the amount of stepping between raindrops that must entail.” In her standup, Farsad constantly walks a fine line— poking fun at the Muslim world while putting a friendly face on it, balancing the personal and the political, and constantly risking rejection both from those prejudiced against the Islamic faith and those who practice it. During the “Muslims Are Coming!” tour, one observer commented on an Internet forum, “I wish these folks the best. They may well be setting themselves up to be killed.” It turned out that the anti-Islamic response was subtler, at least sometimes. There were occasional driveby racist epithets and anonymous venom (a YouTube watcher responded to the movie trailer by asking, “Didn’t these guys play at the World Trade Center?”) Most frequent, however, was the query: Why don’t American Muslims do more to denounce terrorism? “You can redo that question in various different scenarios for different ethnic groups and different subcultures, and it’s always a dumb question,” says Farsad (and in fact, several interviewees in the movie point out that Catholics aren’t constantly asked to denounce pedophilia). “But I replied, ‘They do. But these people who committed these crimes aren’t real Muslims. They’re the nutsos.’” However, on occasion Farsad has also gotten negative responses from offended Muslims. Sometimes it comes in the form of hate mail, sometimes simply as silence. The first time she encountered such disdain was when she was invited to do a show at North- In hewestern University in her early standup days. The li r stanIranian Student Association had invited memne—p dup,bers of the local Iranian community to attend. pu oking Farsa“I had no idea that Persians would even think tting a fun a d conmy comedy was anything edgy or risqué,” pers frie t the stantlshe said, “until I started talking about sex r onal a ndly fa Musli y waland my dating life, and I heard crickets in ejection nd the ce on m wo ks a fthat room.” p it rld ineIf comedy were classified the way Muslim both f olitica , bala whileIslam categorizes food and sex—as fa rom l, an ncingeither halal (permitted) or haram (forith an thos d co thebidden)—Farsad’s jokes would d th e pre nstanmostly fall on the haram side of ose w judice tly rithings. In many Muslim cultures, the mere ho p d ag skingmention of sex is taboo. Yet Farsad isn’t averse to ractic ainststarting a comedy bit by saying, “I recently had to get an e it. theSTD test because I was a raging slut for a period of my life . . . that ended last week.” She mainly does it because it’s funny—particularly when she then delves into her mother’s reaction or offers an impression of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad doing a public service campaign for safe sex. (“Practice safe intergender flesh relations . . . and destroy Israel.”) But she also aims to convey that, as in all religions, Muslims have varying levels of secularism, observance, and tolerance. And, she admits, she likes to be provocative, to shock the audience a bit. Still, when a group of Hijab-wearing women walked out en masse during her set in Tucson last October, it stung. “Did it hurt my feelings? Absolutely,” she says. “It feels awful.” Farsad insists that such reactions just strengthen her resolve. So she continues her balancing act—dispelling stereotypes while confronting patriarchy, educating about Muslim diversity while taking on Islamophobia, plying her trade in an industry where cynicism has become a staple while believing that she can be an agent of change. She’s willing to do it one person at a time; she sees each viewing of The Muslims Are Coming! as a chance to reach hearts and minds. “This sounds kind of dorky,” she says, “but I feel like if people have never had a Muslim friend, I’d like for this movie to be their first.” c Brad Herzog ’90 is a CAM contributing editor. March | April 2013 45 monined-track 46 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com New York Times reporter Sam Roberts ’68 offers an insider’s tour of Grand Central Terminal I By Beth Saulnier t’s not technically a station. When it was built, it wasn’t central. But it’s undeniably grand. Those lessons and more can be gleaned in Grand Central: How a Train Station Transformed America, by veteran New York Times urban affairs reporter Sam Roberts ’68. The release of the book, an anecdotal history of the Manhattan landmark, coincides with the hundredth anniversary of the station’s opening in 1913. “When we came up with the subtitle, I thought, Am I really going to be able to live up to this? It’s only a train station,” Roberts says. “But the more research I did, the more I discovered that, in fact, it was transformative.” Sam Roberts ’68 FRANK ENGLISH The legal principle of air rights. Standard time, established to regulate train schedules. The civil rights movement, which saw its beginnings in the unionization of Pullman porters. The cause of landmarks preservation, which gained urgency following the loss of Penn Station—and ultimately saved Grand Central from the wrecking ball. “There are so many things,” Roberts says. “When you say, ‘My God, this place is like Grand Central Station,’ everyone knows exactly what you mean. It’s the hustle, the frenzy, the controlled chaos. I’ve always thought of it as an urban ballet; you stand on one of the balconies and look down and see this crazed choreography. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone bump into each other—which is remarkable, considering that the terminal is probably more crowded now than when it opened.” Roberts, bespectacled and white-mustachioed like a vintage train conductor from central casting, is standing in the station’s Main Concourse, next to what’s arguably one of the planet’s most popular meet-up spots: the marble-and-brass information kiosk, topped by the iconic four-faced clock. “There are urban legends that it’s worth ten to twenty million dollars,” he says. “I could not confirm that with anyone—but it clearly is priceless, made of opalescent glass. It’s just beautiful.” It’s early on a Friday afternoon—nowhere near rush hour— but the great hall is predictably packed: a throng of bag-toting travelers, photo-snapping tourists, uniformed cops, and quickstriding commuters, not to mention umpteen diners and shoppers bound for the station’s many retail venues, from the Apple Store to the Junior’s cheesecake bakery to the famed Oyster Bar. Along one wall is a series of flat-screen TVs with rotating ads; every few minutes, the cover of Grand Central is splashed across them. Quips Roberts: “It’s the closest my name will ever be to being in lights.” The cover features a vintage black-and-white image of this very hall, with shafts of sunlight angling ethereally down from the high windows. “Unfortunately, that can no longer be reproduced,” he laments, “because the buildings across the street block the sun.” Above his head is fodder for more Grand Central trivia: a small hole near the painting of Pisces (it was cut to anchor a rocket on display during the Cold War); a dark, rectangular patch in one corner (which was left to show how filthy the ceiling was before being cleaned in the Nineties). “It’s almost blackened, and they thought it must have been from the steam and smoke from all the locomotives,” Roberts notes. “But when they went up and inspected it, it turned out to be tar and nicotine from smokers.” But the ceiling’s most amazing factoid? The golden constellations, gloriously painted against a teal sky, are all backwards. “It’s not clear exactly why,” Roberts says. “A Columbia astronomer pro- Going places: The Main Concourse, in the decades before neighboring skyscrapers blocked the sun March | April 2013 47 UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD/CORBIS vided a sky chart and presumably thought they were going to hold it over their heads and paint them. Instead, they put it down—so what we have is a heavenly, sort of God-like view.” Roberts heads out of the Main Concourse and down to another of the terminal’s delightful idiosyncrasies: the whispering gallery formed by an arched vault. Stand facing one corner, have your companion do the same at the corner diagonally across, and you can conduct a highly idiosyncratic interview. “This is the best I’ve ever heard it,” Roberts says, his voice bouncing across the stone and arriving with astounding clarity. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” On the way back up, past the bookstore that has Grand Central featured prominently in the window, Roberts holds forth on the subject of ramps. “When the terminal opened, they had to explain what ‘ramps’ were, because no one had any idea,” he says. “They were put here by William Wilgus, the chief engineer, because he figured people were not going to schlep their luggage up and down staircases. The derivation is from ‘ramparts’; when Julius Caesar invaded an ancient city, they would build ramps up to the city walls so they could go over. Here, people walk on them every day and never realize they can go through this entire station without Rever using a flight of stairs.” oberts is a native New Yorker; when he was growing up in Brooklyn, his father would take him all over the city to see the sights. His love of Grand Central goes back to childhood—specifically, the day when he got to live out many a small boy’s dream. “I must have been about six or seven, and we were standing on one of the platforms, and I was gawking at a big New York Central locomotive. The engineer saw me, beckoned me up, and said, ‘Do you want to drive this thing?’ I couldn’t believe my ears,” Roberts recalls. “He sat me on his lap and put my hand on the throttle and we moved what seemed to be a mile, but was probably about two feet. There I was in Grand Central Terminal, driving Engine 371, which I remember to this day.” Grand Central Terminal. In his book, Roberts points out that because Grand Central is the end of the line, it’s technically not a station. “Yet all over the world, including in New York, it is known as Grand Central Station, which is really a misnomer,” he says. “Although I did discover in my research there are at least two genuine Grand Central Stations: the subway station and the post office. But this is Grand Central Terminal, for sure—although if you stop people on the street and try to get them to say it, fat chance.” It may surprise many—even some New Yorkers—that Grand Central isn’t publicly owned. As Roberts recounts in his book, it was built with Vanderbilt money and originally owned by the family’s New York & Harlem Railroad; now it belongs to a Delaware-based limited liability company called Midtown Trackage Ventures, and the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s MetroNorth Railroad has a lease that expires in the late twenty-third century. Despite the details of who may hold the title, though, Grand Central is a consummately public space. “It’s a glorious, majestic, cathedral of a building,” Roberts says, “and what’s so impressive is that it’s open to everyone.” By the way, speaking of the Vanderbilts: their stamp can be seen in a ubiquitous decorative theme. “I asked, ‘Why are there so many acorns here? It’s not a nature preserve,’” Roberts says, “and it turns out that acorns were on the Vanderbilt family crest.” Researching the book gave Roberts the chance to go behind the scenes at Grand Central, to the nooks and crannies the public doesn’t see—from the “secret” spiral staircase inside the infor- 48 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com mation kiosk to the little aerie behind the Tiffany glass clock, accessed via a rickety ladder. (Open the window at “VI” for a pigeon’s-eye view of Park Avenue.) He ventured to New York City’s deepest basement—ninety feet down, home to the cavernous room (rumored to have been targeted by Nazi saboteurs aiming to disrupt troop movements during World War II) where alternating current is converted to the direct that powers MetroNorth trains. “What’s so neat about that is they preserved some of the old transformers,” he says, “so you have these giant, black, rotary behemoths and next to them are quiet, humming computers doing the same thing.” Perhaps even neater: Roberts got to visit the terminal’s “secret platform,” known as Track 61, located under the Waldorf Astoria. “I always thought it was another urban legend, but I was able to confirm that it was used by FDR. The presidential train would go onto a siding and his car would be rolled off into a boxcar or an elevator and taken up to street level—for security purposes, for convenience, and to hide the fact that he had polio,” Roberts says. “What I didn’t know was that when any president is staying at the Waldorf, there’s a Metro-North train kept running for him to make an emergency exit from the city if necessary.” Once upon a time, Grand Central was the gateway to longdistance sleeper trains headed west; the term “rolling out the red carpet” was inspired by the décor on the platform of the luxurious 20th Century Limited to Chicago. (In scenes shot in the terminal, Cary Grant takes the train in North by Northwest, first calling his mother from a Grand Central phone booth.) Although that romantic era is long gone—the last Century straggled into Chicago in December 1967, half empty and nine hours late—the terminal doesn’t have to look backward to see its glory days. After narrowly escaping demolition in the Seventies to make way for an office building (thanks in large part to the efforts of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis), it underwent a $196 million, MTA-funded restoration and renovation. The quarry that had supplied the original Tennessee pink marble, closed since the Eighties, was reopened to supply an exact match; skylights painted over since the days of World War II-era blackouts were revealed to the sun; 65,000 square feet of prime retail space was added, including a dining concourse and a high-end food market; a grand marble staircase was built at the east end of the Main Concourse, balancing the existing one at the west end. (It hadn’t been included in the original design, Roberts says, because planners never imagined that travelers would want to exit toward the East Side; what was then a scruffy neighborhood of tenements is now some of the world’s most valuable real estate.) “They’re proud of this place, and justifiably so,” he says of the terminal’s overseers. “They spent a lot of money on it; they’ve made the retail space very valuable; they’ve kept it clean and maintained it well. One of the things I always test when I’m here is, do I see any light bulbs out? I’ve never been to anyplace in New York where a burned-out bulb is more rare.” Back past the information kiosk, on the way to view the vintage benches in the station manager’s office, Roberts is buttonholed by a Metro-North official. “Arrest this man,” the woman says with a smile. “He’s trespassing.” Her name is Marjorie Anders, and she’s one of the railroad’s media relations reps; Roberts calls her “my lifesaver, my godmother at Metro-North.” They talk about the whirlwind of interviews Roberts has done during the book launch, including a tour of the terminal for NPR’s “All Things Considered.” “It’s such a small town,” Roberts muses after she moves on. “That’s one of the funny things; if you stand here long enough, you’ll run into someone you know.” He briefly reconsiders. “Well,” he allows, “maybe not if you’re from Ithaca.” c In an excerpt from Grand Central, Sam Roberts ’68 chronicles the history of commuting NEAL BOENZI/THE NEW YORK TIMES Information, please: The central kiosk, topped with a aalbloardfour-faced clock, is a popular meet-up spot. If romantic long-distance trains defined the terminal in the first half of its hundred years, commuters have done so in the second half. Commuter trains never developed the cachet that their long-distance cousins acquired, but carrying passengers to and from New York’s suburbs—giving the city its “tidal restlessness,” E. B. White ’21 wrote—was becoming a larger share of Grand Central’s traffic. (White himself bought his first copy of the New Yorker in the terminal in 1925 and later recalled, “I practically lived in Grand Central at one period—it has all the conveniences and I had no other place to stay.”) In 1906, while the terminal was still being built, 10 million commuters rode the New York Central and the New Haven lines. By 1930, their ranks had more than tripled, to 36 million of the 47 million or so total passengers whom Grand Central This is an excerpt from GRAND CENTRAL: How a Train Station Transformed America by Sam Roberts. Copyright © 2013 by Sam Roberts. Reprinted by permission of Grand Central Publishing, New York, NY. All rights reserved. March |April 2013 49 Crossroads of the world: (Clockwise from top) Crowds in the Main Concourse watch John Glenn’s 1962 orbital flight; the terminal under construction; the famed ceiling decorated with the constellations; the view behind the Tiffany clock. 50 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com MTA METRO-NORTH RAILROAD/FRANK ENGLISH GOOGLE IMAGES OTTO NELSON/AVERY LIBRARY OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY In Grand Central, Roberts devotes a chapter to exploring some of the terminal’s little-known facts. Here’s a sampling: Why does such an elegant building have so many bare lightbulbs? When Grand Central opened in 1913, gaslight was still the norm in many places. The New York Central and the Vanderbilts were showing off. Not only had its trains been converted to electricity, but its entire new terminal was electric. What better way to dramatize modern technology, railroad officials figured, than to expose the bulbs themselves? And if you’re wondering how many people it takes to change every lightbulb in Grand Central, the answer is six: about 4,000 bulbs in public areas were switched from incandescent to compact fluorescent bulbs in 2008. Does anyone live at Grand Central and list 89 East 42nd Street as their address? No, unless you count any remaining “mole people” below it and train crews that occasionally sack out in bunk rooms. Nor did the financier John W. Campbell live there. He installed a corner office in 1923 that re-created a thirteenth-century Florentine palazzo. It was restored, after having been reincarnated in various lesser forms, including as a signalman’s office and small jail for miscreants arrested by the Metro-North Police, since Campbell died in 1957. Campbell was born in 1880, lived on Cumberland Avenue in a Brooklyn neighborhood now known as Fort Greene, and, without attending college, became senior executive and later president of his father’s credit-reference firm, Credit Clearing House, which specialized in garment industry finances and later merged with Dun & Bradstreet. In 1920, he was named to the board of the New York Central and later became chairman of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (now PATH). Among his other quirks, he hated to wear socks; and he insisted that his pants never be wrinkled, so he hung them in his humidor while he worked at his desk in his underwear. He kept a steel safe in the fireplace. While the 3,500-square-foot office was renovated in 1999 into a bar known as the Campbell Apartment (and included a pipe organ, a piano, a bathroom, and a kitchen), Campbell and his wife actually lived a few blocks away at 270 Park Avenue and later at the Westchester Country Club in Rye. Can you rent the terminal for private events? Vanderbilt Hall, the former main waiting room just south of the Main Concourse on the terminal’s south side, is available. Five gold chandeliers hang from the forty-eight-foot ceiling, and, Metro-North notes, their “light can be modified to create the ambience your event requires.” The starting price for renting all 12,000 square feet for a one-time event: $25,000. Is it true that you can actually see sunspots in the terminal? In midafternoon, when the sun shines straight up Park Avenue, place a white sheet of paper on the floor of the Main Concourse. The curlicued spaces in the semicircular grills on the terminal’s southern façade can produce the same effect as a pinhole camera, reflecting an image of the sun that is eight to twelve inches wide—complete with dark blemishes denoting sunspots. Someone said Grand Central has the “safest” restroom in the world. C’mon. Only if you define it as being safe from a speeding locomotive, then this is the place. The Lower Level restroom on the far western side of the terminal is buttressed by a crash wall several feet of concrete thick. It’s adjacent to the lower loop tracks on which incoming trains could turn around and head outbound. What does the centennial logo mean? The centennial logo, designed by a Westchester commuter, Michael Beirut, and his team at Pentagram (and drawn by Joe Marianek), features the concourse’s iconic brass, four-faced clock. The original self-winding mechanism was designed by two Brooklynites, Charles Pratt (who founded Pratt Institute) and Henry Chester Pond. Built by the Seth Thomas Company, the clock is aligned to true North. On the centennial logo, the clock is set at 7:13. In twenty-fourhour time, that is 19:13, which is the year Grand Central opened. March | April 2013 51 even when generalizations were more valid, each com- Set in stone: When the statues of Minerva, Hercules, and Mercury were unveiled, they were considered the largest sculptural group in the world. muter had an individual story to tell, and the mass of commuters, like the earlier waves of long-distance passengers, came to Grand Central, at least when they first arrived, with dreams. Jim Link, an accountant from Greenwich, his grandfather, a psychiatrist, and his father, an artist, commuted in tandem from the suburbs for a century. “For over 100 years,” he said in 2002, “one of us has been walking through Grand Central.” Another commuter, Herbert Askwith of Larchmont, was respon- sible for single-handedly nudging the railroad to set its MTA METRO-NORTH RAILROAD/FRANK ENGLISH clocks and timetables to daylight time. Commuting can foster a real camaraderie as fellow passengers celebrate passages into other life stages—peo- ple have been born and married in Grand Central and others have died there—or just enjoy a poker game or holiday cheer. By the middle of the 1930s, the impact of the Depression was beginning to fade, at least for well- heeled commuters from New Canaan, Connecticut. They petitioned the New York, New Haven & Hartford Rail- Terminal accommodated that year. road to restore the club car on the 5:12 from Grand Central with For well over a century, suburban commuters have been car- its white-coated attendant. “We’re not rich men,” said George H. icatured and uncharitably denigrated as elitist tree-huggers ren- Yuengling, an insurance broker. “We’re all hard working fellows dered zombie-like by their daily ritual. The New York of the who like relaxation and are willing to pay a little extra to avoid commuter, White acidly wrote, “is devoured by locusts each day the discomforts of ordinary commuting.” and spat out each night,” adding unapologetically, “The suburb Bill Geist, the CBS television commentator, once recalled the he inhabits had no essential vitality of its own and is a mere roost Christmas party on Car No. 8657 on the New Haven’s 5:20 where he comes at day’s end to go to sleep. Except in rare cases, from Grand Central to Westport. Regulars decorated the car and the man who lives in Mamaroneck or Little Neck or Teaneck, hired a six-piece band. Habitués of bar cars are no different from and works in New York, discovers nothing much about the city colleagues stopping at a saloon on the way home, except they except the time of arrival and departure of trains and buses, and are more likely to be excused for wobbling between stations. the path to a quick lunch. . . . The commuter dies with tremen- A whole genre—stragglers who miss the last train before the dous mileage to his credit, but he is no rover.” terminal closes at 2 a.m.—has developed a culture of stranded Few profiles were as eviscerating as Gail Sheehy’s in New “train wrecks,” some of whom wash away their tears in a local York magazine in 1968, when New Yorkers were beginning to bar or offer themselves up as “Cinderella fares” to lucky cabbies. feel a little defensive about their town and wondering whether, (In cold weather, one door on 42nd Street is staffed by a police in the middle of a transit strike two years earlier, the columnist officer who lets stragglers and the homeless into a makeshift Dick Schaap ’55 was engaging in bitter irony when, paraphras- lobby.) In 1932, Norman L. Holmes of Danbury was so deter- ing Mayor John V. Lindsay, he dubbed New York “Fun City.” mined not to miss his train home that he stole an ambulance Sheehy’s profile began: “They never stop moving. They come into from St. Vincent’s Hospital and drove it to Grand Central with Grand Central every morning off the eighty-six-seat sit-up its siren wailing (he crashed into a parked car on 44th Street and hearses. And every night the blank faces look out of Charlie was arrested). Brown’s bar at the Pan Am escalators and wait to go home at Other commuters managed happier endings. One man, a the same time on the same train in the same car with the same sixty-five-year-old lawyer from Queens who had no choice but ‘congenial group.’” to stand on a crowded train from Grand Central to White Plains, The daily tide of commuters might seem anonymous—even won a jury verdict against the New York Central of $11.80—a to their fellow passengers—but they fell into categories that refund of his $1.80 fare plus $10 in damages for “discomfort.” Sheehy acerbically described. They included the congenial Mad That was in 1947, and his victory before a civil court judge was Men going home to wives and families. “Avid agency and fash- his second against the railroad. A decade earlier, he sued the New ion geishas know they can learn from these men,” she wrote. York Central because he was forced to stand on a train to “Pick up the Avenue style, pick up a telephone recommendation Albany and won a precedent-setting verdict (a $2.80 refund and from a bar car titillation. They are known as Belles of the Bar $45 for discomfort) that established the principle that passengers Car.” The regulars included a less congenial character, she who purchased tickets for long-distance trains had to be guar- explained: “No one wants to become a Tunnel Inspector, a man anteed a seat. who sits alone, speaks to no one and—when the morning train Walter S. Titlar, an insurance man who had been commuting goes under at Park and 96th—races through to stand between the from Ossining to Manhattan for three months short of a half couplings of the two head cars.” Regardless of which category century, reaped his own reward after piling up 750,000 miles on the commuter belonged to, each shared the same fate, according the Hudson line. (When he started as a messenger for Metro- to Sheehy: “There is one inexorable inevitability about his life: At politan Life, his $7.20 monthly commutation fare was higher both ends of his day, like margins, is another train to catch.” than his $5 weekly salary. When he retired at sixty-five, he was John Cheever’s fictional Shady Hill was populated by des- making $300 a week and paying $30.95 for his monthly com- perate commuters, and Gregory Peck’s Man in the Gray Flannel mute.) In 1961, Titlar donned a visored cap and fulfilled a fifty- Suit was one. But changing demography has challenged the year boyhood dream, riding beside the engineer in the locomo- stereotypes (nearly half the commuters today are women). And tive of the 5:22 from Grand Central. c 52 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com Cornellians in Business Real Estate Real Estate & General Law Retained Executive Search Accommodations Samuel J. Gilbert ’60 Economics General Practice Lawyer Estates, Wills, and Trusts Financial and Real Estate Matters Pre-marital and Marital Separation Agreements Barter Transactions 280 N. Central Ave., Suite 480 Hartsdale, NY 10530 Tel.: (914) 946-6995 Fax: (914) 946-0803 cornellalumnimagazine.com Classifieds Rentals United States/Caribbean ST. JOHN, USVI—2.2-acre luxury estate. 3BR, 12' x 40' pool, spectacular views. Convenient to beaches, town. (340) 776-6805; www.estaterose.com. VILLA SOUTH PALM, ST. 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Assistant will have a private room (in a separate apartment with its own kitchen and private bathroom on a different floor from the family’s residence) in a luxury, doorman apartment building, and will be free to entertain visitors in privacy. We would welcome applications from writers, musicians, artists, or other candidates who may be pursuing other professional goals in the balance of their time. Excellent compensation including health insurance and three weeks of paid vacation, and no charge will be made for rent. This is a year-round position for which we would ask a minimum two-year commitment. If interested, please email resume to nannypst@gmail.com. PERSONAL ASSISTANT—Highly intelligent, resourceful individual with exceptional communication skills and organizational ability needed to support a successful entrepreneur. Primary responsibilities include coordinating a complex schedule, assisting with travel, and providing general office help in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. An active approach to problem-solving is essential. Prior experience assisting a high-level executive is a plus. We offer a casual atmosphere in a beautiful space, working as part of an extraordinary group of gifted, interesting individuals. Excellent compensation and benefits, with significant upside potential and management possibilities. Please email your resume to execucruiter@gmail.com. Please note that, due to the high number of respondents, we will unfortunately be unable to reply to every inquiry. March | April 2013 53 Cornellians in Business Ithaca Business Opportunities Dishwashers Wherever you go, Cornell Alumni Magazine is there with you. Website: cornellalumnimagazine.com Digital Edition: cornellalumnimagazine-digital.com iPad, iPhone, and Android: free apps; links at cornellalumnimagazine.com Digital Archive: ecommons.library.cornell.edu/ handle/1813/3157 Classifieds HIGH-LEVEL PERSONAL ASSISTANT NEEDED— Seeking highly intelligent and organized individual for high-level Personal/Executive Assistant role, with responsibility for keeping a busy professional and parent on track professionally and personally. This person will help oversee a small staff and assist in managing day-to-day operations and long-term projects. Duties will include researching and producing "bottom-line" reports for principal, managing communication and information flow to/from principal, and helping to coordinate staff activities. Strong project management, communication, and research skills are a must; previous managerial experience is a plus but not required. This is a year-round, full-time position with excellent compensation and benefits. Please e-mail your resume and cover letter to hlparecruit@gmail.com. Personals SMART IS SEXY Date fellow graduates and faculty of the Ivies, Seven Sisters, MIT, Stanford, medical schools and some others. More than 5,500 members. All ages. THE RIGHT STUFF 800-988-5288 www.rightstuffdating.com Advertising in Classifieds or Cornellians in Business Contact Alanna Downey (800) 724-8458, ext. 23 or (607) 272-8530, ext. 23 E-mail: ad41@cornell.edu The May/June 2013 space reservation deadline is March 15, 2013. The copy deadline is March 22, 2013. 54 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com almmaattersNEWSLETTER OF THE CORNELL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION www.alumni.cornell.edu Remembering a Cornell Student Who Never Attended By Scott Pesner ’87 I n 1994, Willie James Jones III looked forward to a promising future. The eighteen-year-old son of two hard-working parents living in a lowincome neighborhood in San Diego, he set an example to those around him by avoiding the gangs and drugs that so often attracted his peers. He was class valedictorian, student-body president, and a wrestling champion, competing in the state finals. He was courted by several top schools, decided on Cornell, and was admitted early decision. His plan was to wrestle, study biology in the College of Human Ecology, become an obstetrician, and return home to help the people in his neighborhood. He would urge his fellow graduates, according to the Los Angeles Times, “to never lose sight of their dreams.” As he and friends were leaving a graduation party—one that was chaperoned by parents and where alcohol was prohibited—a car drove by and sprayed the crowd with bullets. Jones was killed, just days before he was to leave for Cornell’s pre-freshman summer program. His funeral drew more than 1,500 people. Cornell’s wrestling coach, Rob Koll, attended. Jones was buried in his graduation robe. The story drew much attention in Southern California, where it took more than fifteen months before arrests were made in his murder. The street in front of his high school was renamed for him. An annual sports award for a local athlete is given in his memory. A wrestling tournament bears his name. In 1996, Stuart Lourie ’69 had just moved to San Diego when ABC News Fitting tribute: Willie Jones’s parents, Rosetta and Willie Earl Jones, with scholarship winner Calvin Lee ’15 aired a documentary on teens lost to gang violence, with the Jones story as its focal point. A couple of years later, when Lourie became scholarship chair of the Cornell Club of San Diego, he saw an opportunity to memorialize a young man who would have made an exceptional Cornell student. “What inspired us about the Willie Jones story is that he could have gone anywhere, but he chose Cornell,” says Lourie. “We had to do something to remember him, so we created what is believed to be the first scholarship fund in honor of a Cornell student who never attended.” March / April 2013 55 The Willie James Jones Memorial Scholarship was launched in 1998; since then, eleven students have been given financial aid to attend Cornell, thanks to the club’s efforts. The award offers $4,000 in aid for students in their freshman and sophomore years. The first time the award was given, the ILR school matched the scholarship amount. That recipient, Daniel Powell ’02, knew Jones; Powell’s brother was in the same honor society for black males and would often bring Jones to the Powell home. Powell told the San Diego (continued on page 56) Visit Cornell Alumni Magazine digital edition cornellalumnimagazine-digital.com Alma Matters 56 It’s Time to Cast Your Ballot B y now, you should have received information on this year’s slate of alumni-elected trustees. Alumni are asked to vote for two of the following four individuals: Nicole Bisagni DelToro ’91 Jason McGill ’88 Susan Rodriguez ’81, BArch ’82 Thomas Scavelli, DVM ’82 Statements from these candidates can be found at alumni.cornell.edu/ trustees. Cornell is one of the few major universities whose alumni elect members to its Board of Trustees. Each year, the Committee on Alumni Trustee Nominations considers a broad range of alumni leaders to be placed on the ballot. The committee is made up of alumni leaders representing a crosssection of the alumni body. This year’s committee was chaired by Rochelle Proujanksy ’71. The other members were: Renee Bayha ’80, DVM ’86; John Boochever ’81; Todd Builione ’96; Betty Eng ’92; Steven Flyer, JD ’91; Rolf Frantz ’66, ME ’67; Laura Fratt ’81; Stasi Lubansky Gordon ’78; Carl Jones ’03; Daniel Kaplan ’84; Carolyn Press Landis ’65; Susan Deitz Milmoe ’71; Scott Pesner ’87; Ruth Raisfeld ’77; Jack Richard ’50, MD ’53; Alan Rosenthal ’59; Arthur Snyder, MBA ’79, ME ’80; Charles Stuppard ’82; Lisa Skeete Tatum ’89; Cesar Tello ’93, DVM ’97; Michael Troy ’81; and Lynda Schrier Wirth ’82. (continued from page 55) Union-Tribune in 2009 that to him, Jones was a “rock star.” He admitted he was on the wrong path prior to Jones’s death, but was inspired to turn his life around. As Lourie recalls, when Powell got the scholarship, he said, “Willie couldn’t go to Cornell, but I’m going to go in his place.” Each year, Lourie works with the Development office to get a list of incoming freshmen from the San Diego area in need of financial aid. They ask potential recipients to write an essay about what they admired most about Jones; then Lourie, the scholarship committee, and Jones’s parents select the recipient based on the qualities the young man exemplified—leadership, scholarship, and community activity. Each summer, the Joneses attend the club’s annual student send-off to recognize the recipient. “Willie Jones was a first-class kid,” said Lourie. “He was the kid who was coming back to San Diego to change the world. His parents say to us, ‘Thank you for remembering our son.’ They had such high hopes for him.” Scott Pesner is a vice president of the Cornell Alumni Association. REPORTS OF OUTGOING ALUMNI-ELECTED TRUSTEES Honor and Privilege By Paul Salvatore ’81, JD ’84 I t has been my honor and privilege to serve as your alumni-elected trustee over the past four years. What a time in Cornell history! After being buffeted by the Great Recession, and courageously swallowing the tough medicine of austerity, Cornell is now sailing forward with the wind firmly at her back. Some brief highlights: Setting the course forward: Cornell developed its rigorous and comprehensive strategic plan—aiming to have Cornell ranked as a top-ten research university. The plan (www.cornell.edu/ strategicplan/) sets the bar high in critical areas as we approach the 2015 sesquicentennial. We are making steady, measured progress toward meeting our goals. Renewing our faculty: We are aggressively hiring the best and brightest upcoming scholars to replace retiring veteran faculty. Keeping Cornell affordable: By raising scholarship dollars, maintaining need-blind admission, and offering substantial financial aid, Cornell enables most students to graduate with less debt than those at peer schools. Winning Mayor Bloomberg’s technology competition: Cornell Tech will transform graduate engineering education and turbo-charge New York’s fastgrowing tech sector. There’s much more to tell than space allows. Be assured, Cornell is led by an extraordinary president and a fantastic set of deans and administrators— guided by a truly terrific, dedicated, and hardworking Board of Trustees. I’m humbled to play my part (vice chair, Audit Committee; member, Cornell NYC Tech Task Force; v i c e c h a i r, Cornell Ann u al Fund; and with my wife, Pamela, co-chair, Tower Club). Thank you for giving me this tremendous opportunity; it is a joy to serve our noble alma mater. Making Progress By Eileen McManus Walker ’76, MBA ’78 I n preparing to write my alumnielected trustee report, I looked back at the “platform” I ran on. My themes were: 1) Make Cornell more affordable. 2) Ensure that Cornell is the best choice. 3) Cornell must move faster and smarter. In the last three and a half years I have seen progress in all three of these areas. I joined the board in the summer of 2009, when the dominant topic of University business was the effect of the recession. Great care was taken to examine every area of the University and determine what actions were necessary to ensure that Cornell would remain a world-class research institution long into the future. In 2010, the University created a strategic plan that will make Cornell one of the ten most distinguished universities, accessible to all. The plan requires that Cornell will be the “best choice” not only for its students, but also for our faculty and researchers. Being the best choice for prospective students requires that affordability of a Cornell education be addressed. Progress on this is reflected in the highly competitive student financial aid programs Cornell offers. To be sure, the cost of a Cornell education is still prohibitive to many, and trustees and administrators continue to deliberate over this challenge. Attracting the best faculty and staff requires focus on endowed resources and facilities. The current campaign priorities are the best evidence of this support. “Moving faster and smarter” is best summed up by the expedited birth of Cornell Tech. In addition, the University is examining the potential role of online programming in education delivery. This would provide endless opportunities for individuals to access the worldclass learning that occurs at Cornell. We can truly be the “land grant university to the world.” It has been an honor to serve the alumni community as their representative. I have had opportunity to witness the dedication and boundless energy of so many that work for Cornell, including the many alumni volunteers. It has been a privilege to serve by their side. Thank you. March / April 2013 57 Class Notes 42 Joe Kandiko (Chanhassen, MN) celebrated his 90th “trip around the sun on Spaceship Earth” at his assisted living with cake and live music. “Next year maybe dancing girls!” His year was filled with art classes, Jacuzzi pool swims, card games, concerts, plays, the State Fair, and weekly threeand four-generation dinners. Joe is a really handsome great-great-grandfather of seven who wants to hear from all of you. Bill Webster (Commack Village, AR) also sent a Christmas letter of his 2012 happenings and his 92nd birthday. (Becoming 90 seems to get to everyone—age becomes a big thing.) His year started with his sixth trip to New Zealand. He also worked on a biography of a great-uncle based on letters written during the Civil War, passed on to him by his grandmother in 1931. After 80 years he got to work on it using his 90 books on the war as an aide. After help from other family members, in July he published A Vigo Volunteer Writes Home. A local bookstore sold 35 copies at 35 cents each on opening day. Bill then went to London for the 20th time to see the Olympics—which was difficult, walking-wise. But he toured with family members and friends in England and Scotland until returning home in late August and completed the trip. Certainly a year to remember. A phone call came from Jim Kraker (New Smyrna Beach, FL) (also 92). He always has family nearby and uses a cane (as I do) to get around. He’s fun to talk to and tells us, “Remember your youth.” Berle Neuwirth Geronemus (Hollywood, FL; J3942@aol.com) took 13 members of her family on a weeklong barge cruise on a canal in Burgundy, France, to celebrate her 90th birthday. Everyone had a great time. She still remains active in the Hollywood Scholarship Foundation, of which she was a charter member 40 years ago. Sadly, we remember Ruth Simes Morgan, who passed away in March. One of her fondest memories was waiting on Eleanor Roosevelt during FDR’s presidency at a luncheon for her in the “Green Room.” I remember the First Lady’s visit to the campus. Ruth was always fun and interesting to be with. Her son Larry ’70, MPS ’75, graduated from Cornell. Joan Bottstein Greenberg moved to Aventura, FL, to be near her son Robert Mirel ’70 and grandson Aaron. She sees several Cornell friends who live in Florida. Hope to hear more from her. Arleen Heidgerd Perry (Sarasota, FL) doesn’t air travel any more—as most of us don’t. Highlights are visits from her children. They use Skype to see them via the computer—a great idea. Ever faithful Ed Markham (Bainbridge, WA) and wife Yoshiko (“Rosie”), continue their interest in gardening. They intend to keep on “unless Mother Nature and age dictate otherwise.” They enjoy and sponsor some KCTS and KPLU programs, both listener-sponsored. They also lead local tours, do gardening at senior centers, and share garden produce from cabbages to cut flowers. Ed always appreciates hearing from Pres. Liz Schlamm Eddy. Jeff Tunison, nephew of classmate Roy Tunison, who is currently in a Bradenton, FL, care home, writes that his uncle always spoke very proudly of his years at Cornell. He also tells us that his own father, James Tunison ’44 (Roy’s brother), was killed in an auto accident in the 1960s. Jeff enjoys having his Dad’s Cornell drinking stein and says that Roy is still hanging in there at 92, but misses his college buddies. Thanks to those sending me such interesting accounts of your past and present. Do contact friends and keep on writing. If you haven’t seen your name here, please write—and include your e-mail addresses. c Carolyn Evans Finneran, 8815 46th St. NW, Gig Harbor, WA 98335; tel., (253) 326-4806; e-mail, Carolynfinn@comcast.net. 43 “Took a tumble,” writes Miller Harris. “Banged up some ribs. Not comfortable at the computer. See you next issue in this space. In the meantime, my editor-in-training, Adele Robinette, will do the heavy lifting.” Muriel Blum Lipman (Hamden, CT) writes, “I live in Whitney Center, a retirement home, and am chairman of the Art Committee. We have a teacher who comes to our studio and teaches two eight-week sessions a year. I’m also in charge of viewing (with a committee) art-related films (DVDs). We show them once a month. Am also consultant on a revolving art show designed by an artist connected with the New Haven Arts Council. I show residents art in an exhibit that is renewed every six months. I play regular and duplicate bridge every week and also enjoy regular visits with my granddaughter Carrie, an interior designer, and her daughters, ages 5 and 2. Whitney Center attracts retired professors and family from the various universities in the area, allowing for interesting dinner conversations and contacts.” Like Muriel, Esther Rosenbluth Freedman (Palm Beach Gardens, FL) plays a good deal of duplicate bridge. “Went on a bridge cruise and visited my four great-grandchildren. Also attend lectures at Florida Atlantic U. at their Lifelong Learning Society.” Susan Linz ’75 writes: “I am writing to inform you that my dad, Mike Linz, a proud member of the esteemed Class of ’43, passed away on October 14, 2012. One of my dad’s proudest accomplishments was being the father and grandfather of five Cornellians. The spirit of Cornelliana pervaded my parents’ home as my dad sang the Alma Mater in the shower for 70 years! He will be sorely missed at the graduation of his grandson, Daniel Sheiner ’13, which would have also marked my dad’s 70th Reunion.” Larry Kantor ’80 notified us of the death of his father, Herb Kantor, last June, and sends good wishes to the class. And Judy Campbell, daughter of Alan J. Gould, who died in September, remembers that her father was always proud of his two years at Cornell, particularly his work at the Daily Sun. Back to “normal” next time, when Miller is once again behind the desk. c Class of 1943, c/o Cornell Alumni Magazine, 401 East State St., Ithaca, NY 14850; Class Notes Editor e-mail, adr4@cornell.edu; S. Miller Harris, P.O. Box 164, Spinnerstown, PA 18968; e-mail, millerharris1@ comcast.net. 44 William Donaldson sends a news form from his home in West Columbia, SC, but no news. He did include an e-mail address, though, and friends may reach him at waulddonal@aol. vcom. Ed Fitchett (Poughkeepsie, NY; efsam314@aol.com) reports that distribution of his DVD “Army Memories 1945-46: After the Pacific War” has reached more than 150 copies. His 16mm color films show the devastation of Manila, as well as scenes of Gen. MacArthur on Independence Day and Japanese prisoners of war being returned home to a bombed Tokyo. The films have been digitized and edited—with Ed’s narration, sound effects, and music—into a onehour program. “I have received letters from veterans and their relatives all over the country who tell me their wartime experiences as they bravely defended our country. It has been overwhelming!” Learn more by visiting his website,, www.fitchettfilm.com. Renee Wolf Steinberg (Rye Brook, NY) writes with ongoing appreciation for the role of this column in keeping her informed. “Many wonderful people; many wonderful places.” Fellow Westchester County denizen Zelda Guttman Damashek (White Plains, NY; zeldagd@optonline.net) sent details of her latest goings on. “We sold our house in Scarsdale in 2005, just a few months before my husband passed away. Now I live in a lovely, bright apartment.” Zelda sends news of her family: daughter Sandy, a freelance author of children’s books, also creates educational TV content and toys in Manhattan. Zelda’s older son, Robert, lives and works in Virginia, where he is father to Samuel, 13, and Ruth, 9. Son Ronald, an attorney in Chicago, has two grown boys: Elliot, who graduated from Stanford, and Aaron, a junior at Stanford. A retired social worker, Zelda deploys the expertise she gained over nearly a quarter century working for the Westchester County Dept. of Mental Health as a volunteer for Aging in Place in White Plains, which seeks to help local seniors continue to live in their own homes. Art and Dorothy Kay Kesten (Westport, CT; dotkes10@optonline.net) report that despite limited travel, they managed to spend two weeks in West Palm Beach visiting daughter Lynn Kesten Coakley ’74. They also traveled to Nashville, TN, for a business convention. “Last, but not least,” Dotty writes, “we attended the Continuous Reunion Club (CRC) Reunion Weekend in June. The highlight was attending Art’s baseball reunion—the alumni game and luncheon barbecue. Of course we also attended the CRC Luncheon on Friday and the dinner on Saturday. We hitched a ride with son Dale ’72, BA ’75, who attended his 40th Reunion.” Bunny and Cal DeGolyer, BS Ag ’43 (Castile, NY) celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary in 2012 with a big party. Writes Bunny, “We are grateful to God for his many blessings and goodness to us. Our health is fair. Cal uses a cane and I a walker. We do get around, but we miss the Club ’44 cruises.” Durland Weale, MS ’53 (Addison, NY), echoes what we’ve all learned: “The first 90 years have gone so fast that accountability is difficult.” He adds, “Teaching and helping many has been gratifying. I am currently working for the township 58 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com to provide the annual property assessment roll, which is the basis for school, town, and county functions. Other times are spent with a large lawn and a garden that includes some 15 different colors and types of dahlias. And other times are spent rebuilding and maintaining a fleet of old Ford autos—the oldest being 93 years. Among those Fords is a ’67 Corvette. Sure looking forward to our 70th Reunion event!” Thanks for all your updates! More news to come in the next issue. c Class of 1944, c/o Cornell Alumni Magazine, 401 East State St., Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850. Dorothy Kay Kesten, 1 Crestwood Rd., Westport, CT 06880; e-mail, dotkes10@optonline.net. 45 The Class of ’45 Mini-Reunion was a memorable event attended by 12 classmates and several guests. Following breakfast on Tuesday we met with four student leaders for an update on Cornell 2012. They were happy with student life and still found they learned most in the classroom versus the Internet. The editor of the Daily Sun was told he had big shoes to fill—since, in our time, the editor was Kurt Vonnegut ’44, the future worldfamous writer. As for prospects for work after graduation, the class president was upbeat, saying that 90 percent get jobs and the word “Cornell” puts a candidate at the head of a 1,000applicant line! Next was a two-hour presentation by Karl Pillemer, Professor of Human Development and author of 30 Lessons for Living, a compilation of advice that members of our generation (the “Greatest”) have given to the younger generation. He elicited a lively discussion from our group and some of us gave personal testimony to his assistants. The main theme: that the advice and experience of those people who have lived through life is far more meaningful than that of newly minted psychologists, Dear Abby columnists, or millionaire evangelists. When he finished, some of us went directly to the bookstore and bought the book. In the afternoon we went to the library, a recent recipient of the greatest collection of Hip-Hop in the world. Ben Ortiz, associate curator of this collection, presented all aspects of this 30-year-old, born-in-the-Bronx musical and cultural genre. A few of our classmates recognized the songs and singers, but all caught his enthusiasm and have one more subject to show our grandkids that we are “with it.” Ed Cranch, PhD ’51, chaired the dinner, which extended for several hours, with singing, reminiscing, and even a bit of dancing. Ed played a recording that he and his son had cut of easy and difficult pop hits of the ’30s to mid-’50s for a “name that tune or artist” game. Several hip classmates named over 90 percent correctly. Barney Mayrsohn recounted his stay as a prisoner in Stalag 4 in WWII and being freed by the Russian Army. More than four decades later he visited that town and was miraculously reunited with the officer who freed him. Later, we each recounted how we selected Cornell. Our president, Maxine Katz Morse, attended a small girls’ boarding school and was so impressed with the diversity and size of Cornell on her first visit that she chose it at once. Bill Berley and Barney Mayrsohn enrolled in the Ag college because of the land grant status. They were required to work on a farm for the summer before starting college. The work was hard and the hours long. They became successful in businesses far from farming. Bob Frankenfeld, MD ’47, accepted a NYS and Cornell scholarship, although the only knowledge he had of Cornell was as a great football power. He then cancelled his admission in favor of a small Christian college named Bethany. Late in August 1941, Bob’s brother met two engineers who had just graduated from Cornell. They came to Bob’s home that night and forced him to change his mind. All of us thought that Cornell became a significant part of our lives no matter how much time we were here. Wednesday morning we were bussed to Lincoln Hall, where Prof. Steven Pond, chairman of the Music department, gave an illustrated history of the popular music of our youth. He said there was such poor reception given the Benny Goodman Band on its maiden concert tour from NYC to the West Coast that Benny considered disbanding the band. But the first concert in Los Angeles to a packed house of a cheering crowd with dancing in the aisles was the launch of its great success. The talk brought back memories of our great weekend parties and Barton Hall dances, where there was a name band at each end of the hall. My “import” to one weekend later became my wife, and for the next 63 years “our song” has been Claude Thornhill’s theme, “Snowfall,” first heard then. At our final dressy dinner, we invited our faculty speakers, the student our class supports, and former president Frank Rhodes, with his wife, Rosa. After each person was introduced we serenaded Pres. Rhodes with the song he first heard as a guest of our 60th Reunion dinner, “Don’t Send My Boy to Harvard, the Dying Mother Said,” which set the stage for fine food, more singing, and general bonhomie. After dinner we attended the Plantation Lecture sponsored by our class. The title was “Plant Molecular and Protein Changes with the Environment,” and lecturer Robert Russo, Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior, presented his basic science research in the field of adaptation. Afterward, a few of us repaired to the lounge for that last drink. Rounding out the reunion roster were: Gloria Marti with longtime friend Fred Ferguson, Libby Hemsath deProsse and Jack Rogers, MBA ’50, from Ithaca, Maxine’s daughter Beth Kiendl, Ernie Gosline, MD ’47, sporting a new cardiac aortic valve, Carol Baum Greenbaum, Helene Scheuer Rosenblatt, and Mort Eydenberg with daughter Susan Westlake. Mort sang every song from memory—no songbook needed. The plans, events, and original idea of these three enjoyable days were all the work of our class president, Maxine Morse, and Ed Cranch, for which we say thank you, thank you, and again, thank you. c Bob Frankenfeld, 6291 E. Bixby Hill Rd., Long Beach, CA 90815; e-mail, betbobf@aol.com; Julie Kamerer Snell, 3154 Gracefield Rd., Apt. 111, Silver Spring, MD 20904; e-mail, julie.snell@ verizon.net. 46 I did it again. I forgot to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year when I wrote my last column. Nothing like being belated—I get “behinder” more every day. It is mid-December when I’m writing this column, and I’m anticipating Christmas and the arrival of my Ohio family for the holidays—plus many Christmas cards and news notices from you. This is one of my favorite times of year: I hear from you, and once again I am that teenager who attended Cornell. Next time I hope to enclose more of your Christmas notes. In the meantime, here’s who has responded so far. Jean Davis Hinman (Punta Gorda, FL) wrote that her husband, Arthur ’49, died on Feb. 18, 2012. Ruth Rothschild Mayleas (New York City) is still a board member for the League of Professional Theatre Women. Ellen DeGraff Teller (Ann Arbor, MI) works out three times a week to keep active. In response to this year’s News Form poser—What did you bring with you as a freshman?—Ellen answered: one suitcase and one trunk. I’d have to add that we shipped my new trunk and I brought a large suitcase. The first thing we did was go to Rothschild’s department store to buy a floor lamp. Sorority sister Ann McGloin Stevens called to say that they already have room reservations for her grandson’s Cornell graduation in May. He is following in his grandfather Orrie, LLB ’48’s footsteps and going to law school. Charlotte Fry Poor sent her e-mail address. Write me! c Elinor Baier Kennedy, 9 Reading Dr., Apt 302, Wernersville, PA 19656; tel., (610) 927-8777; e-mail, mopsyk@ comcast.net. James Beckett (Highland Village, TX; james beckettjr@gmail.com) retired constructively. He writes, “In 1999, Jane and I returned from ten years in Hawaii to settle in Dallas and planned to continue volunteering with Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship Ministries. We began at a local jail, which led us to working with incarcerated juveniles. We were struck by these young men and their sad family situations, so we started a school to help them after their release. Though we are no longer involved day to day, the school is doing well. It has 21 students at a black Baptist church in South Dallas. Currently I mentor middle schoolers on probation—helping them read and comprehend their need for networking.” Jim hopes to hear from former roommate Bill Lawrence ’47, BCE ’46, and other Cornell friends. Russell Scott, BME ’45 (Richmond, VA; russell cscott@aol.com) posted sad news: former class officer Rod Stieff, BS ’45, died shortly before Thanksgiving. His memorial service was held November 23 in Baltimore. Russell reported, “Rod and I were roommates in Dorm 18, with both on the sailing team. He was a key member of varsity lacrosse and wrestling and may have captained one or both of them. Rod was also a Sigma Nu.” Don Ironside, BEE ’45 (Haverford, PA) fulfilled his promise. He prepaid founding Cornell president Andrew Dickson White’s autobiography to me in return for my promise to forward it, on the same terms, to the first classmate requesting it. Class president Lloyd Slaughter (Morgantown, WV; Lslaughter594@aol.com) is next in line. I found particularly interesting Pres. White’s narration of early decisions on fields to be covered. Aside from standard “classical studies” offered then, Cornell’s land grant status gave high priority to establishing Agricultural and Engineering curricula. Finding the right leaders for an “Agricultural school” and resisting attempts by other colleges and politicians to siphon off Cornell’s funding were challenges faced and overcome. One candidate to head the new Agricultural school was an elegant, well-recommended faker from an agricultural college in Ireland. At the last moment, the nominee ran off to Canada. Professors Gould, Caldwell, and Law filled the breach until appointment of a full-time head. Said Dr. White, “J.I.P. Roberts united the practical and theoretical qualities desired. I secured him, and thenceforward there was no more difficulty.” Prof. James Law, listed above, contributed mightily to Veterinary March | April 2013 59 Medicine, the university, the state, and the nation. Similar challenges arose in Electrical Engineering and Architecture. I’ll tell some of Dr. White’s adventures in future columns. Lloyd or I (see Lloyd’s e-mail address above; mine below) will happily place you on queue for the two-volume work on the terms described above. Don is captivated by the White/Cornell cooperation and is researching a monograph on the subject. To list your e-mail address in your submissions, e-mail me at the below address. Include your name, city, and state. Send news to: c Paul Levine, 31 Chicory Lane, San Carlos, CA 94070; tel., (650) 592-5273; e-mail, pblevine@juno.com. Class website, http://classof46.alumni.cornell.edu. 47 A batch of news arrived from Arlie just as I was finishing up the column, so stay tuned for the remainder of your recent updates in a future column. Writing a class column when little or no news has been submitted reminds me of the old “Seinfeld” TV series. If you recall, the series originated when Jerry and George made a sales pitch to potential producers and told them the proposed show would be about “nothing.” Well, history reveals that “nothing” turned out to be a prize-winning award show that lasted for many, many years. That said, the column will last for many, many years, but only if you all continue to send in your news. We want to know about your family and your hobbies, what you recall from the days at Cornell, news of your friends, etc. Writing about “nothing” is “nothing” short of impossible for me, so I look forward to hearing from you. Elizabeth Brown, BS ’46, MS ’53, is close to home base—she lives at Kendal at Ithaca. Barbara Everitt Bryant winters in Scottsdale, AZ, while spending the rest of the year in Ann Arbor, MI. She is emerita faculty at Ross School of Business at the U. of Michigan. Robert Schultz plays golf twice a week and sings in a chorus of 35 members that he organized 20 years ago. We also heard from Stu LaDow of Allison Park, PA, who keeps busy helping at church and in his neighborhood. Sy Yenoff Kingsly is in Longboat Key, FL, from January to April and home in Short Hills, NJ, the rest of the year. She and her hubby enjoy theatre, concerts, and lectures in New Jersey. The warmer weather in Florida has them walking, bike riding, and playing tennis. Their 23-year-old grandson is fluent in Mandarin and works for a Chinese company. Our best wishes go out to Yetta Haber Farber, who is, as I write, rehab’ing a hip replacement. She should be fully recovered by the time you read this. A note from Peg Chauvin Rinehart ’46 (Costa Mesa, CA) tells us that she is kept busy working at her local senior center and just doing household chores. Margaret Newell Mitchell, BS ’46, writes about a trip she took a while back to Glacier Park Lodge, where the lobby is supported by a series of tree trunks. I am still enjoying the remembrances of our Reunion, and only wish more of you could have attended. I know that the next reunion for our class will be in 2017 and that it will be even more difficult to attend as we age gracefully. However, it’s not too late or too early to start a good mental and physical regimen, with attending our 70th as a goal. I never thought I would attend our 65th, for various reasons—mostly physical—but once back on campus I felt better and younger, and made myself a promise to be back again in 2017. Hope your winter was a good one. Let me hear from you. c Sylvia Kianoff Shain, irashain1@ verizon.net; tel., (201) 391-1263; Arlie Williamson Anderson, arlie47@aol.com. 48 Hey! Spring is just around the corner. Don’t let the first weekend of June pass you by without migrating to Ithaca to commune with friends from semesters past and toast the healthy future of the Class of 1948 and dear alma mater Cornell. The Statler Hotel is the place to be for easiest transportation to all the events, and they are welcoming us (and the classes of 1938 and 1943) with open arms (for a fee). Call them now for a reservation: (800) 541-2501. Yours truly is booked for Thursday, June 6, to Sunday, June 9. Our stalwart, persevering reunion chairs Marty Clark Mapes, MS ’49, and Jean Genung Pearson have a great schedule planned for us, with a terrific speaker at our formal dinner. Read your mail this spring— don’t be left behind! A lady named Kate Mattern at Tufts Medical Center in Boston would like any HomeEc alumni to call her at (570) 417-9376 to discuss your experience with babies living at on-campus practice homes for a year before being put up for adoption. She’s doing independent research on this 1940s practice. Some personal news: In early December, I received a phone call from Carol Bagdasarian Aslanian ’63, of the Cornell Alumni Association, informing me that I was to be the recipient of the prestigious “Bill Vanneman ’31 Award” at the Cornell Alumni Leadership Conference (CALC) in mid-January. Bill was a better man than I and did a lot more for his Class of 1931 than I have for ’48, but I still have plenty of time to catch up. He lived to be 102; I’m only 87. Here’s your latest news, in the order received. Andre Jagendorf, Ithaca, NY: “The six kids are living in Brooklyn, Baltimore, and Jerusalem. I’m playing Solitaire, doing jigsaw puzzles, and reading good books. The kids are teaching, being go-between scientists and businesspeople, and working from one manual job to another.” Andre is prophetic in his class notes, predicting, among other things, “grim, severe depression, increasing violence from domestic hate groups, decline of agriculture due to decade-long droughts, and rising sea levels due to global warming inundating NYC subways, paralyzing the city.” (Ezekiel couldn’t have done a better job. —Ed.) “I voted for Maurice Hinchey in 2010, who is a thoughtful, reasonable, effective Congressman. Ithaca is the best place I’ve ever lived.” John Van Zandt, Winston-Salem, NC: “Married to Martha for 66 years. I walk a mile at the YMCA three times a week. Things look sad, but the US will make it. Four children, 14 grandchildren, ten great-grandchildren! No Cornellians yet. We have to stay focused and optimistic. I voted for Virginia Foxx every year to be my Representative in Congress. She follows the party line and is more of a Conservative than I am. I’ve been a moderate Conservative Republican for 70-plus years. Nicest place I lived was Cape May, NJ—for eight years.” Norm Bracht, Blue Bell, PA: “Reading. Four kids, zero grandchildren. Two Cornellians: Jeff ’76, ME ’77, and Phil ’78. They are all working!” Walter Henry, Eden, NY: “Gardening (a little), volunteering at times. Keep an eye on farm activities. No more travels or long trips, but host family visits. Can’t keep spending more than we collect on a national level. I’m concerned for the spiritual life of our population, but I’m pleased by the character and ambition still found in our youth and younger generation. I have five children, ten grands, and one great spread across much of the nation, and one family in Germany. Timothy ’77, Barbara Henry McDowell ’79, and Elizabeth Henry ’13 are also Cornellians. I did not vote for my Congressman. He’s a liberal and hews to the party line. Eden, NY, is the place to live. I was involved in a family farm business now operated by the fourth and fifth generations. I still volunteer as a gardener/supporter of two local nonprofits, and I enjoy the progress and activities of our extended family.” John Lillich, Charleston, SC: “Bridge and bocce ball at Bishop Gadsden, a luxury retirement community. Would like to see more harmony in politics and government. I have four kids, seven grands, and two greats in South Carolina, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Munich, Germany. I didn’t vote for my Representative in Congress. Our government is too socially conservative. I voted for Obama. I enjoyed living in West Lafayette, IN, and here in Charleston, where I moved in 2011 to be closer to my daughter. I like South Carolina except for its conservative government. My facility is beautiful, and the weather is ideal. I am not optimistic about our future with Republicans being so right-wing in their views.” Rita Lemelman Alper, Stony Brook, NY: “Working, shopping, traveling. Three kids, two grands, and one great: law, music professor, seafood distributor, and a 12-time Ironman competitor (surfing). The US will always be number one in the world. I voted for my Representative, Tim Bishop. Nicest place I lived was Framingham, MA.” 60 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com Bob Harnett, BEE ’47, BME ’48, Kettering, OH (rtharnett@roadrunner.com): “My years at Cornell were wonderful. When I arrived as a very young high school graduate, I thought I might be outclassed by the Ivy Leaguers, but I was able to prosper. Received two Engineering degrees and thought I would end up as an electrical manufacturer. Never did. Found my career in the budding computer field.” Lucy Woodruff Groh, Anchorage, AK: “Enjoying my children and three grands. We are in dire need of a grown-up occupying the White House. The country needs jobs and the pride it deserves. Self-responsibility needs to be returned, with safety nets for the ones who cannot help themselves—not the ones unwilling to help themselves. Three children, three grands, no greats. The kids ignored my advice and graduated from Harvard, the U. of the Pacific, and Williams U. They’re all working hard to raise children and help their communities. I’ve voted in every election. I also believe we have to get back to a citizen Congress, where no one should be allowed to succeed themselves in office. There should be no pension for officeholders. Certainly we owe our military a pension for 20 years’ service—but not a Congressman (they get one after holding office four years). Alaska is the greatest place to live, but I have to admit to enjoying the dry heat of the desert, January to March, in my later years.” More news in the next issue! c Bob Persons, 102 Reid Ave., Port Washington, NY 11050; phone and fax, (516) 7671776; e-mail, bobpersons48@gmail.com. 49 Our class now has another author of whom to be proud! Gerhard Loewenberg, PhD ’55 (Iowa City, IA), distinguished professor of political science emeritus at the U. of Iowa, has published a memoir, Moved by Politics, which includes a chapter on his first year at Cornell in 1945-46. In 1950 he married Ina (Perlstein) ’52 and received his PhD in Government under Mario Einaudi. His memoir is available from the Sheridan Press, P.O. Box 465, Hanover, PA 17331 (tel., (717) 6323535) or from Amazon. When the first Eagle Scout in the US, Arthur Eldred ’16, was honored by a Boy Scout parade in Rockville Centre, NY, in September, his children, Eagle Scout Bill Eldred and Patricia Eldred Hudson ’50 (Annapolis, MD), rode in the parade while Arthur’s grandsons and great-grandson, Eagle Scouts all, marched. Margy (Saecker) ’50, Bill’s wife, tells us that she and other family members sat in the bleachers. Paul Carver, MS ’57 (West Hartford, CT; carver pt@aol.com), a retired civil engineer, serves as a board member and is the director and marketing specialist of the NYCSHS—New York Central System Historical Society—and was co-chairman of the NYCSH-2011 Annual Meeting and Train Show in Albany last April. He tells us that he hears from Bev Prime Pearson, Paul Blanchard ’52 (with whom he was in Korea), Richard Riccardo ’52, his best man, and Jean Schultheis Brechter. Harold Baumer writes that he is living in Penfield, NY. Barbara Meldrum Vail (Southbury, CT) is enjoying the good life, including her five grandchildren. Her fondest memories of Cornell are walking across the bridge to go to classes and the Straight. Ann Sequin Hill (Kenilworth, NJ) is a retired elementary school teacher. She and husband Ed enjoy visiting their two daughters who live in New Jersey, as well as the plays and restaurants of New York City. They are active in the community church, library, and senior citizens club, where they are program chairmen. Ann has joined aerobics, line dancing, and Zumba classes. “It’s fun and keeps us busy.” She says that they celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary at Canandaigua Lake “with a large gathering of family and old friends. It was great to be back in my hometown of Canandaigua. Ed and I feel fortunate that we are active, healthy, and enjoying our family. I have fond memories of Beebe Lake: ice skating, swimming, and walks around the lake. Also, Japes on the way back to the dorm for hot chocolate, etc. Ed and I have spent the last several Cornell reunions with James and Toni Hallinan Ottobre, Michael and Roxanne Rosse Williams, and Jim and Shirley Nagler Coulter. Sadly, Jim Coulter died and was very missed at our 60th Reunion. Coulter Farms is Jim’s legacy and a tribute to his knowledge and love of farming. His son is maintaining the farm, and Shirley is there cheering them on.” Martha Coler Risch (Silver Lake, NH; mcisch@ aol.com) reports, “Painting on Monday, archiving on Tuesday at the church, and Wednesday at the library and being the chief financial officer for our Allegro Pines Association and the Friends of the Madison Library. It was fun to have a visit from John, JD ’49, and Ruth Davison Dorfman (Wayne, PA).” Martha’s fondest memory of her time at Cornell is “when the Hostess Committee sponsored a faculty/student Wild West Party, with desperadoes and dancing girls at Willard Straight Hall.” Stephen Profilet (Winona, MN; sprofilet5130@charter.net) is loafing, surfing the Internet, watching the Twins on TV in season, and working out at the YMCA. His “after-hours” activities are singing bass parts in the church choir, oratorio, and Barbershoppers. He’d rather be traveling in the US. Stephen remembers most fondly “the day I graduated and was warmly congratulated by Dr. Day, the president of Cornell.” Len Abraham, PhD ’52 (Belchertown, MA), retired, writes that he is busy with his AKC champion Basset hound and his small house. He sings in the church choir and says, “After a lifetime, my voice has settled into the bass parts. Wish I was in a quartet!” Len says he’d rather be playing tennis, “but one knee has deserted me.” His time on the track team is his favorite memory of Cornell, and he would enjoy hearing from anyone from school. Shirley Gleason Jones (Nashville, TN) has been taking care of her husband. “He had an aortic valve replacement, with complications.” She adds that she would rather be seeing more of her five grandchildren. She would enjoy hearing from Sally Walliser. Constance Hoffman Elsaesser (Cincinnati, OH) brought a wind-up Victrola to Cornell when she first came. She would like to hear from Miriam Burnett Uhlan. Beverly Prime Pearson (Litchfield,CT; epearson3@optimum.net) wrote that her husband, Ned, died on October 27, 2011, “two days before the fall snowstorm that created havoc with our state. I’m now adjusting to another change in life.” Rosemary Sheil Malia, MA ’51 (Fairport, NY) is reading, knitting, visiting children and grandchildren, singing in the church choir, lecturing in church, trying to stay on top of house repairs, doing crossword puzzles and word scrambles—”plus entertaining and visiting children and grandchildren. All of this keeps me active and, to some extent, current with today’s world.” What would she rather be doing? “Traveling to places I have yet to be, like China, Alaska, the Panama Canal . . .” Rosemary would enjoy hearing from sorority sister Bettie Neumann Byerly. Robert Matteson Hill (Medford, OR; rhillrvm@ charter.net), married to Mary April, is retired. He writes that he is “running tutorials, teaching company, etc., at Rogue Valley Manor, the best retirement spot in the US,” as well as traveling, reading, and studying. Bob’s fond memories of Cornell: “Getting married, having a son, swimming hard, and knowing swim coach Scotty Little and the Old Armory pool.” Captain of the swim team, he was also a member of Quill and Dagger. “I’m happily getting old.” Gordon and Margaret DeRycke Nesbitt ’50 live in Groton, NY. Gordon is retired and traveling in his after-hours. His fondest Cornell memory is of dances at the fraternity. The Rev. Will Porter (Mahopac, NY), married to Shirley, “retired” in 1989 but is still “pastoring a small country church (for the past 20 years) at age 85.” Will enjoys golf, bowling, and “a limited amount of travel” and serves on the board of trustees of the Town of Carmel Historical Society. Remembering his time on the Hill, Will writes that his experience in the Wesley Foundation, which influenced his call to the ministry of the United Methodist Church, was his fondest memory. He was also active in Alpha Zeta. Our class is saddened to hear of the passing of George “Skip” Freeman on September 21, 2012, in Toledo, OH. His son David ’86 writes that Skip was “a proud member of Chi Phi.” He is survived by his four children and nine grandchildren. His wife of 60 years, Lee, passed away in 2009. Thank you for all your news. Please continue to keep in touch. c Dee Mulhoffer Solow, 3608 N. Sunset Ave., Farmington, NM 87401; tel., (315) 717-6003; e-mail, winspeck@yahoo.com. 50 For some years now, our Class of 1950 has gathered in early May for a dinner in New York City. This year our annual spring dinner will instead be in April—Friday, April 19, to be exact—at 7 p.m., as usual at the Cornell Club, 6 East 44th St. To make a reservation, send $75 each to Stan Rodwin, P.O. Box 904; Scottsville, NY 14546. In Ithaca in September, during the Cornell-Yale football game over Homecoming Weekend, Walt Bruska (Shelburne, VT; wbruska@myfairpoint.net) was invited out on the field as honorary captain for the flip of the coin. Also on hand for the annual 1948-52 football team reunion and dinners were Frank Bradley from Cape Cod, MA; Joe Dwyer, JD ’52, from Olean, NY; Dick Loynd from Springfield, NJ, and Ithacans John Marcham and Ben Williams, our class treasurer. And in October, Marjorie Leigh Hart (New York, NY; marj.hart@verizon.net) delivered the annual Raymond G. Thorpe Lecture in Olin Hall. Named in honor of a former ChemE professor, the lecture series brings an alum to campus “who typifies exceptional professional progress and service to the Cornell community.” Marjorie had a long career as an executive with Exxon Corp., and her talk was entitled, “A Career in Energy: Window on Many Worlds.” There is now also a lecture hall in Olin named for Marjorie. In New York City, at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island, near the site of the future Cornell Tech campus, is a new NYS park named the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park. Its very existence is largely due to the efforts of former ambassador Bill van den Heuvel, JD ’52, who raised most of the $53 million needed. At the park’s dedication last October, attended by Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton, Roosevelt descendants, and other notables, Gov. Andrew Cuomo praised Bill, the New York Times reported, as a “juggernaut of determination.” March | April 2013 61 Class Notes Al, JD ’52, and Doris Neimeth (Melbourne, FL; acneimeth@cfl.rr.com) report that Hurricane Sandy so damaged their beach house at Breezy Point, on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, that it had to be demolished. “The water wiped out our first floor, flooded the basement and moved our house off the foundation,” Al writes. Bob and Jane Post (chiefpost@comcast.net) in Mantoloking, NJ, fared somewhat better. “Of the 520 or so homes in town, 137 are uninhabitable,” Bob reports. “We were lucky. We got only one to three inches of water in our ground floor. Still we had to get out all of the rugs and the insulation and ductwork under the house and cut out four feet of wallboard and insulation where the moisture had wicked up.” Patricia Eldred Hudson and her brother Bill Eldred ’49, LLB ’53, participated in a parade last September in Rockville Centre on Long Island, honoring the first Eagle Scout in the US, who happened to be Patricia and Bill’s father, Arthur Eldred 1916. There have so far been four generations of Eldred Eagle Scouts. Bill was one, and also two of Arthur’s grandsons and a great-grandson, who were also in the parade. In the stands watching was Bill’s wife Margy (Saecker) (Princeton, NJ). Dick Pogue (Cleveland, OH; rwpogue@jonesday.com) has been elected chairman of the board of trustees of the U. of Akron, which has about 30,000 students. Dick continues as a full-time senior advisor to the Jones Day law firm. Nancy deGroff (Montpelier, VT) is an “interpretive naturalist” who has worked “with school and adult groups in designing, helping build, and using nature trails.” Nancy now volunteers with the Vermont Inst. of Natural Science and the North Branch Nature Center. Ralph “Cooly” Williams, MD ’54 (Santa Fe, NM; coolypatch22@cybermesa.com) writes, “A group of my former students from Sweden, Denmark, and Norway recently invited me back to Malmo, Sweden, for a warm reunion. I took a side trip to Oslo later, and a colleague and I had dinner with Mari Lund Wright,” who lives in Oslo. On a recent visit to Cape May, NJ, my husband and I enjoyed a dinner with Bob Fite and his good friend Betty Steger. For years, Bob, a Hotelie, owned and ran the Colonial Hotel in Cape May, one of the grand old Victorian hotels on the beach. During Bob’s proprietorship, he built a modern, three-story addition and a swimming pool on the property. For the third year in a row, Bill Sharman, BArch ‘52 (WASII@optonline.net) won, at the age of 86, the Briarcliff (NY) Community Day senior footrace. Admittedly, the field was small (only two), and the prize was ice cream. Bill employs what he likes to call the “Sharman senior shuffle.” The newspaper photograph that he sent shows him wearing a jaunty Cornell cap and pushing along one of those big so-called rolling walkers, the kind with a seat. Nevertheless, Bill is hale and hearty enough that he is still practicing architecture in Briarcliff Manor. c Marion Steinmann, 237 West Highland Ave., Philadelphia, PA 191183819; tel., (215) 242-8443; e-mail, cjoiner@ ix.netcom.com; Paul H. Joslin, 6080 Terrace Dr., Johnston, IA 50151-1560; tel., (515) 278-0960; e-mail, phj4@cornell.edu. 51 I ate lunch with Fred Knight late last year after learning that he’s a classmate and a neighbor. He and Betty have a granddaughter, Elizabeth McCoy ’13, graduating this spring. Fred retired in 1988 as senior VP chemicals in Borg-Warner’s Chemicals and Plastics Division. Borg-Warner had an ABS plant in Parkersburg, WV, next door to the DuPont plant, which I left in 1990. His coup was taking B-W’s small petrochemical business (styrene) in 1962 to a major world position by 1988. From 1988 to 2006, the Knights shuttled back and forth each year among three homes: Vero Beach, FL, in winter; a fishing resort in Canada they owned and operated in summer; and the rest of the year in Marietta, OH. His biggest disappointment was not being accepted into Vet school at Cornell. His student career included working for meals at various fraternities, captain of the billiards team (with four cups to show for it), and singing “ditties” at fraternity parties. A very fond memory is Harry Buckman, PhD 1912, Professor of Agronomy, who saw him through graduation. Bob Siegfried, ME ’52, received the RESC (Regional Engineers and Scientists of Cincinnati) Lifetime Achievement Award in May 2012. Upon his return from Korea he joined Boeing in Washington and then became a project engineer for Procter & Gamble, working on a variety of product line startups in France, Venezuela, the Philippines, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the US. He holds four patents with P&G. He plays the piano, rows single shell on Lake Erie, exhibits old cars (for awards in 2005 and 2010), and has held a pilot’s license since 1953. An RESC member since 1996, Bob is a current board member, chair of the Hospitality & Health Watch committee, and liaison to the Evergreen Retirement Community. He and Helen have five children. Val Sabik Reid (Santa Rosa, CA) attended her granddaughter’s master’s award ceremony in the field house at Sage College. “Erin earned her BS degree, passed her internship exam, and received her master’s in dietetics (Val’s profession). All the family traveled from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast to rejoice with her. She loves the profession. I am proud of the work she has accomplished in her chosen field.” Reg, MBA ’52, and Alice Rice (Menlo Park, CA) have to decide whether to sell their house and move into a nice retirement home before Reg is 83. “Tough choice!” He doesn’t say why. “I just read a great book by Bob Ashton ’53, who is a fraternity brother of mine (a Delt). The book, titled This Old Man and the Sea, describes how his retirement turned into a ten-year sail around the world. Very inspiring and entertaining. Bob lives in New York now.” Ernest Sofis writes from Hingham, MA: “Grandchildren and family are a joy. Growing old is not. Regrettably couldn’t be at Reunion due to my back: a car accident—someone slammed into me.” The many good friends are his fondest memory of Cornell. Howard, MD ’55, PhD ’77, and Rosalind Feinstein (Ithaca, NY) had a great time hiking in the Sierras with son Jonathan and family in July 2011. Nancy Carver Shene (Morrisonville, NY) writes, “My family all came here last July for my 80th birthday. Even my daughter who lives in Hawaii came, and she brought Lia, my one and only great-grandchild. So far I have good health. I swim every day at a local pool in winter and my own pool in summer. I also garden a lot, with lovely flowers all over. I still get good news from Elisabeth Macareg Heine and Marian Roberts Woodhead.” Her fondest Cornell memory: Morris Bishop’s French Lit course and Sage Chapel singing. Sheela Mittelman Percelay (Pawtucket, RI) writes, “I am finally a grandmother since my sons were late bloomers in regard to marriage. My grandsons are 7-1/2 and 10—delightful boys whose mother is Swiss. Both parents have identical twin siblings. My husband, Merrill, and I keep quite active, exercising regularly at the YMCA besides my bicycling and swimming. I play bridge weekly and am active in a learning program for retirees. I visited with Fran Goldberg Myers a few years ago in Asheville, NC.” Fond memories of Cornell: “Good friends, stimulating faculty, and beautiful surroundings.” Mary Ann Doutrich Seipos (Harrisburg, PA) spent the first week of May 2011 touring San Diego to San Francisco, and the first week of December in Johannesburg and Kapama Game Reserve, South Africa. She visited Tahiti in 2010, complete with cyclone (missed Bora Bora). Mary Ann reports hearing from Shirley “Sherry” Flanders, BFA ’52, and about the death of Rema “Ricky” Reyes Symons ’52 in September 2010. Her fondest memory of Cornell: “That’s a secret! But my time working on the Cornell Sun is one of my best memories.” Please send your news to: c Brad Bond, 101 Hillside Way, Marietta, OH 45750; tel., (740) 374-6715; e-mail, bbond101@suddenlink.net. 52 Recently, the mailman brought 91 new News Forms. So the first order of business is a big THANK YOU to all who send news and class dues. The former keeps me going. The latter, our class and the alumni magazine. So, thank you. Among the news are updates from a few classmates I’ve never written about. Gretchen Lawson Bost (Newton, NC; glbost@charter.net), L. Richard Gons, BCE ’53 (Princeton, NJ; lrgons@aol.com), and John Lankenau, LLB ’55 (Tivoli, NY; lankenau.john@ gmail.com) just let us know that they are still there. Some of the news I get is sad. Jean Brown Craig (Gwynedd, PA; jeno1020@aol.com) writes, “My wonderful husband, Cassin, died on July 8 after a very long illness (MSA). It’s been a rugged four or five years, but he is finally at peace and in a much better place.” News from Florence Swenk Britting (Phelps, NY) begins, “I have Alzheimer’s disease and to date there is no cure.” It goes on to say that she has been in Clifton Springs Hospital since a stroke on April 15 and that she is trying to get better. She would rather be home. All of this is written first person, in a strong hand. Asked “What did you bring to Cornell?” her answer is: “A wonderful personality.” It turns out the form had been written by her husband of 60 years, John ’49, LLB ’53. Stephen Tauber (Lexington, MA; ejt-sjt@rcn.com) helped his son Andrew celebrate his 50th birthday in Oahu, then visited his older daughter Sharon on Lopez Island, WA. He adds, “I have been adjusting my life as best I can after losing the love of my life, Erika, after 51 years of marriage.” CALS advised that in November Alan Kligerman (Pleasantville, NJ) was recognized as an Outstanding CALS Alumnus. Alan, who grew up on a dairy farm near Atlantic City, has done extraordinary work in food research and development. In addition to his work at AkPharma, he has been nationally and internationally active in the area of food science. Donald Ross (Fulton, NY; dmeross@hotmail.com) writes that he plays a little golf, but spends most of his time tending and planting American chestnuts. “I am one of many trying to restore the American chestnut to our woods.” Jim Ling (Fort Collins, CO) is a companion volunteer for veterans in hospice care. He has been playing bagpipes at funerals. He says it is not his favorite gig, but that the survivors appreciate it. 62 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com Carol Harris Wood (Oviedo, FL; carollex@ bellsouth.net) reports that she and Lex are pretty much on the schedules of their eight children, ten grandchildren, and one great-grandson who are in six states and four time zones. The Woods travel a lot, mostly by car, but Carol does church work, crafts, and home projects. “I’d like more time to do more of the above. This is a wonderful time in our lives, and I feel truly blessed.” John Hartray Jr., BArch ’54 (Chicago, IL) writes, “Cutting classes to attend Nabokov lectures was the best part of my Architecture education.” He currently shows up at the office and erases his e-mail. He is also on the board of Lincoln Park Village, but he would rather be visiting Calabria, the home of his late wife Emma (Spada), MArch ’54. He claims he slept through the election. Not so others. Bill Taylor (Denver, CO; helen-bill@comcast. net) writes that he had been “managing to be Republican in a Democrat city.” He and Helen (Walker) spend time with family, and Bill has been reading, reading, reading. He would like to hear from Benjamin Johnson ’51. When Don Rodgers (Bethany Beach, DE) wrote last fall, he was “still praying that we may save our country in November. My minority view may yet prevail.” He did not identify the minority. Frederic Rubinstein, LLB ’55 (New York, NY; frubinstein@kelleydrye.com) attends to a few law clients and reads nonfiction (In the Garden of Evil; The Passage of Power), mystery, and spy-intrigue novels. He also plays with his 5-year-old granddaughter. The Rubinsteins recently traveled to France “for relaxation, good food and wine, and a change of culture.” He would most like to hear from his old roommate Paul Schlein, MD ’56. Howard Shima, BCE ’52 (Honolulu, HI) has been spending more time with wife Ethel, swimming for exercise, and helping fix son Michael’s townhouse. He’d rather be traveling, “but can’t do it anymore as Ethel’s health is declining.” Barbara Gale Wood (Portland, OR; bww42@ cornell.edu) sounds relaxed. How she’s spending her time: “I eat and sleep. I’m still unpacking books and finding where to stash things. (Downsizing? Ha!) Also: DAR, Colonial Dames, garden club, gardening (spelled: ‘weeding’), quilting, and genealogy (one really learns history as a side benefit). Planning what to do tomorrow—an eternal thing?” With all that, she says she would rather be “swimming in New Hampshire, where my grandfather started our summer routine in the 1920s.” John Geurtze (Selkirk, NY) is a farmer who still loves farming notes. “I was a two-year Special Aggie—I would like to get my BS degree.” Edwin Biederman Jr. (State College, PA) has been promoting his novel Polar 44, Ring 5. Ruth Marsey Blum writes that she can no longer walk, so spends time in bed reading and watching TV. She would rather be walking. Alison Bliss Graham (Wynnewood, PA; abcgraham@comcast.net) writes, “Work with local government, housing board, and League of Women Voters, trying to educate voters on new photo ID law! Chad and I are both working on a new comprehensive plan for our township. He is still teaching his department’s senior class at Penn.” She adds, “Super 60th Reunion! Good reason to visit our Cornell granddaughter, a junior in Engineering Physics.” Joan Cruthers Flood (Raleigh, NC; waflood@aol.com) reports, “Usually I’m outside gardening, playing with my two Westie terriers, zipping around on my garden tractor, or working in my greenhouse cursing the mosquitoes.” Joan has been recuperating from rotator cuff surgery “and forcing myself to dig out from under 42 years of ‘stuff ’ accumulated since moving here from Buffalo.” She’d rather be outside, doing anything. Ronald Gebhardt, BCE ’53 (Sewickley, PA; rongeb@aol.com) is on the Sewickley YMCA Board of Trustees, was chairman of the board of Sewickley Academy, and is a founding board member and fundraiser for Fund for Advancement of Minorities through Education (FAME), a consortium of six Pittsburgh-area private schools that boasts an excellent record of graduating minority students and sending them on to four-year colleges and universities. The Gebhardts travel (Germany and Luxembourg via Paris in October 2011!) and visit family. c Joan Boffa Gaul, joan gaul@verizon.net. Class website, http://classof 52.alumni.cornell.edu/. 53 June will be busting out all over the meadows and hills of Ithaca before we know it. So time draws near to check out the state of grey shades of ’53 with old and new (it’s not too late) friends from all over. As you may have heard from co-chairfolk Caroline Mulford Owens and Dick Halberstadt, we meet again June 6-9 at air-conditioned, elevatorequipped Mews, not far above Beebe’s waters, for our uncommonly compelling 60th Reunion. Besides community and were quick to encounter ’50 classmates Carl Strub (Bob’s Sigma Phi Epsilon brother) and Jack Rose, MD ’54, captain of the fine 18-7 Big Red basketball team of 1949-50. They managed trips to the Berkshires and Finger Lakes and to Vermont and northern New York for autumnal leaf peeping. Bob underwent back surgery in the fall. That means no more golf. The good news: medical bulletins indicate swift recovery. Family, friends, duplicate bridge reading, sailing out of City Island in the summer, religion classes, teaching first-year medical students at the U. of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, and the art of talking to patients (of their histories and physical exams) occupy Sam Cassell between things to do at the Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative. He admits that he misses the beauty of outdoor Cornell as well as the warm camaraderie of the swim team, which he managed for coach Scotty Little at the Old Armory. “I still hear yearly from Joe ‘Loosh’ Lucia, coach at the Teagle pool.” And, he adds, “I know I’m getting older when I turn to look at good-looking women with gray hair, and I no longer run to plunge into lakes, oceans, or pools.” Artist Al Raynor here: “I have left the warm climate of Florida to try ‘real winter’ living in Michigan (Lake Orion, just 45 minutes from Detroit to be precise). This will open the door for I am one of many trying to restore ‘the American chestnut to our woods. ’Donald Ross ’52 the ever-expanding menu of university-planned events, including tents, we offer Ornithology Lab, the rare books collection, and Athletics department tours. All meals will be indoors. Number one: more quality time with so many we knew so well when we were very young. Be there. Bring others. The unsinkable Claire Moran Ford (Westport, CT), who no longer drives but does get around with a new hip to replace her first replacement, was, in the waning days of December ’12, looking ahead once again to the revels of June. A hired hand at the wheel helps. So she has one— two days a week, “more if I have more medical appointments.” Not blinkin’ unlikely these days. Meanwhile, she keeps up with the Stamford Symphony, Book Club, Beach Bunch (not so much in the cold months or on other than clement summer days), Gourmet Group, “and a few other loosely organized collections of friends.” Barbara Querze Weinreich, MEd ’54 (Orlando, FL) received recognition for leadership and dedication during Women’s History Month with a mention in the Congressional Record. She’s chaired the Community Relations Commission of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando while serving on the board of the Holocaust Center. She says she knew she had chosen the right school when the chimes played Kol Nidre as she walked to Yom Kippur services at Cornell for the first time. “I felt included.” The first Christmas card of the year (immediately after seasonal greetings from those who deliver the newspaper just before morning milking time) came from Bob, BLArch ’54, BArch ’57, and Ann Louise Mann, lately of Lancaster, PA. They’re settling into the Willow Valley Squire retirement cross-country skiing! (All of us over age 80 need that, right?) This goes along with my other two sports, track and field and pickleball.” [Played on an outdoor court with table tennis-like paddles and a baseball-sized plastic ball.] My best year in track and field finished late last fall. I found myself undefeated (nationally!) in the hurdles and the triple jump. I often think back to my freshman year when I practiced against Charlie Moore ’51, who went on to become an Olympian—an undefeated hurdler. When I need to relax more, I play cards at the local senior center.” “Weird” rheumatic attacks of PMR, from the Greek “pain in many muscles,” was visited upon Chuck Juran (Prescott, AZ) last summer. Medics were able to control it, but Chuck considered it a wakeup call to tell him he had “no business playing softball at 81—cringing there at second base while guys 30 years younger take aim.” So he fell short of his goal to be the oldest player in the league—missed by two—”but certainly didn’t get cheated after 20 great seasons.” He was a mere 60-ish in his rookie year. At last report, he was nimble enough for masonry in these days of lengthening shadows. Julian Aroesty (Lexington, MA), retired from active patient care, continues to teach at Harvard, but admits he has more time for travel these days, not to mention doing as Vladimir Nabokov advised six decades ago: rereading Tolstoy. Julian has tackled Anna Karenina, War and Peace, etc., five times since. Bill Doll (Cobble Hill, BC) is out with his fifth book on educational thought: Pragmatism, PostModernism, and Complexity Theory: The “Fascinating Imaginative Realm” of William E. Doll Jr. He’s March | April 2013 63 Class Notes traveled the world, from China to Finland to South Africa to Brazil to Canada, with the Int’l Association for the Advancement of Current Studies (IAACS). He’s been in touch with Bill Gurowitz, who is retired in Kailua, outside Honolulu. From Irene Selmer Griffith (Torrance, CA): “Still serving as chair of Health, Nutrition, and Long-Term Care Committee of Los Angeles County Commission for Older Adults. Also Church Bereavement Ministry and weekly group. Happily celebrated 60th wedding anniversary and 80th birthday. Grateful for so many blessings and looking forward to more.” c Jim Hanchett, 300 1st Ave., #8B, New York, NY 10009; e-mail, jch46@cornell.edu. 54 There are still swimming tests as a requirement for graduation? Yep, the tradition continues; and with all the exceptional weather we have seen of late, perhaps the Dept. of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences has had a hand in its continuance. I was taken back in time when I read the piece in the Wall Street Journal and thus began to dig. Our tradition of requiring swim tests started in 1918 for coeds, but it was not until years later, and I found the dates confusing, that it was required for the men. Reading about the swimming test led to a conversation about yet another Physical Education requirement for women: the “posture test.” Comments? Do you remember, or have you purposely forgotten that gem? Nina and Stuart Loory, along with Jonnet and Peter Abeles, enjoyed their sail among the San Juan Islands this past summer. The weather and the scenery were outstanding and they avoided both bumping into whales or getting lost in the fog. Peter said it was a step up from Beebe Lake and a lot more fun. We always get inspiring notes from Lawrence Cohen, who has not ceased his extremely active lifestyle since moving to the Sunshine State. The motorcycle and single engine plane are still in retirement, but golfing, biking, hiking, swimming, and community activities fill his days in a most satisfactory fashion. Larry assists Jupiter Medical Center by his work as auxiliary motor aid, driving patients to and from appointments. In quieter moments he assists first graders with their reading skills. Bill, MD ’60, and Elaine Russell Webber said hail and farewell to the big 80 while cruising between Seattle and the cities of Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, and Victoria. Like the Loorys and the Abeles, they had great weather plus the added magnificence of the Glacier Bay vistas. Bill still rides 20 miles on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays through the Saguaro National Park with his cycling group, the Wobblies. He said being art editor of the Widow was great laugh therapy while struggling through pre-med. He even had one of his cartoons published a couple of years after graduation in Life magazine. Charles Saderholm (Chasshirl@gmail.com), writing from Tualatin, OR, would like to hear from Fred Jensen. William Lohman, retired from Wells Fargo, has lived most of his life in Minnesota, having moved there in 1956. He recalls fun days on the Hill with Alpha Chi Rho brothers Jack Lunger ’52, Bill Thurber ’52, and Tony Clough ’53. I enjoy getting news from Elisavietta Artamonoff Ritchie, as her book titles are intriguing and her poems a delight to read. To learn more about Elisavietta, do visit her websites (for example, http://www. washingtonwriters.org/authors/ritchie.shtml) or just search Cormorant Beyond the Compost or Tiger Upstairs on Connecticut Avenue. I wonder if she is speaking of my Sumatran Tigers at the National Zoo? They can be very loud when desirous of companionship. Elisavietta is currently the fiction editor at Washington Writers’ Publishing House. When not writing, editing, or translating, she leads a workshop called “Re-Write Your Life: Creative Memoir Writing” at her local library, mentors other writers (including high school seniors), and is part of the poet-in-the-schools program. It is a regret that we lost Robert Martin, JD ’60, in November. Robert has been our class historian for several years doing a most efficient job of gathering our fondest, frustrating, and sometimes fuzzy memories of our years on the Hill. We would love to have someone pick up that very talented quill and continue the task. Please email any of your class officers with your desire and interest in recording our thoughts. Having lived in California for 40 years, earthquakes were a common occurrence. But did you know that Cornell does extensive research for the National Science Foundation on earthquakes? I mention this, as perhaps they can locate the fault line that has swallowed all the notes I am used to receiving at this time of year. Missing the ordinary amount of news, which I have now learned will be coming to me shortly, may I take the time to suggest that if you are looking for classmates or other Cornell friends, go to CornellConnect, sign in using your NetID, and have fun searching. If you do not have a NetID, you can apply to the university and they will send you one. Great way to pre-plan get-togethers at our 60th Reunion in 2014! More on that from Dave, PhD ’60, and Mary Gentry Call in my next column. c Leslie Papenfus Reed, lesliejreed@me.com. Class website, http://classof54.alumni.cornell.edu. 55 First off, I want to send out an early announcement that many, many classmates are saying they plan to return to campus for our 60th Reunion! As we get closer to 2015, we’ll get a big list together. Ron Mulliken, noting that “it’s tough getting old,” says that he recovered great after open heart surgery: “My only problem is length off the tee.” Roger Metzger, MBA ’56, stays active, too, with golf, trap shooting, hiking, and fishing. James Liedell is working hard to see that renewable energy replaces fossil fuel use to generate electricity; for example, the “Cape Wind” project to obtain approval for, and construct, 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound. Priscilla Rice Oehl writes a monthly column for the Florida community where they live part-time (when not in Pittsburgh or Avalon, NJ). She’s published a small book, Random Thoughts, containing excerpts from many years of journaling. Pris uses journaling techniques in her work with hospice bereavement groups. Look for Marcus Reidenberg’s books of photographs, Hard Hats and Street Trades, Then and Now. Evelyn Barber Lance is still living in Hawaii, traveling worldwide on American Bar Association projects. Nancy Eisenberg Grabow has been doing a lot of cruising, and adds, “The Panama Canal is not to be missed!” We’ve lost a few classmates in the last months. I was notified that Martin Lee Sage has died. He was a professor of chemistry at Syracuse U. since 1967. Iris Garden Schwartzbaum’s husband, Jerry, informed us that Iris died last May. Marggy Doorty Kerr wrote that Joanne Burford Brown has died. Marggy remembers: “In sophomore year, Julia Scott Maser, BArch ’56, Joanne, and I were walking past Goldwin Smith Hall—and Joanne noticed a tall, handsome man on the other side of the quadrangle. It was John Brown Jr. ’50, EdD ’69, a Cornellian Julie and I knew from Hastings-on-Hudson, where we’d gone to high school. So we introduced them. They married and went on to have six children and 18 grandchildren!” A welcome note arrived from Dave Findlay, MBA ’57: “I have moved my art gallery to a new location: Fifth Avenue between 56th and 57th streets. You’re probably wondering whether I’m crazy at my age to do this. Anyway, I’m having fun!” Barbara Balsam Brown has fond memories of the year she lived in Risley with Helene Gellen Fried, enjoying “a beautiful view of the gorge from the tower room.” George Brayman remembers living in a freshman dorm with Tom Rooney, and afterwards at Sigma Nu. Fred McFarlin says his years at Fiji were great. Judith Ettl Hazen appreciated the home atmosphere at DG and her friendship with Pat Herrington Singley. Robert Mules wrote, “I enjoyed living in the dorm upstairs in the old Dairy Barn, which burned, and where the Vet college is now.” Bob received an associate’s degree, but has found that “even a twoyear degree like mine gives a person a leg up.” Elaine Rose Cerny particularly enjoyed Zoology 101, taught by Prof. Marcus Singer, PhD ’52, who was “inspiring.” She’s still working with her husband, Lawrence, seeking funding for their individualized freeze-dried blood service. Donald Demske remembers “mopping the Dairy Barn floors, planting trees, building fences in the apple orchard, shoveling manure at Rice Hall, and cleaning the diagnostic lab on the Vet School campus.” Don’s been retired since ’92, so now he’s “not worrying about receivables—only the size of the fish I catch.” His advice to new Cornellians: “Go for it: see the color in September, smell the air, get a tray and slide down Libe Slope in January, hear the chimes in April. There’s nothing better!” John Diggins forwarded the news that they’ve moved from Mesquite, TX, after 44 years of ranch life, to a waterfront home on Padre Island. John’s been a US Sailing senior judge, but is currently “on the beach.” That is, he explains, “I don’t have a boat at present, but I do have a boat lift and 70 feet of waterfront.” John would like to hear from old friend Baron Bernard. In November, Dave Schmidt wrote: “We recently returned from three weeks in the UK, where we did a house exchange with a couple from Castle Eaton. They came to our one-bedroom condo in Florida while we, and friends from Michigan, went to their four-bedroom, 1700s ‘cottage’ on the headwaters of the River Thames in the Cotswolds. We drove 3,000 miles, visiting Scotland, Wales, and England, seeing castles, cathedrals, and museums. Although we had only two days of full sunshine, we had a wonderful time.” The Schmidts and their friends visited Plymouth to see where the Mayflower set sail for America, toured the HMS Victory (Admiral Nelson’s flagship), spent the day at the Duke of Norfolk’s castle, and even took the “tube” into London to ride the Ferris wheel. Dave adds that he’s been getting together with Cornell friends for a monthly lunch at George Banta ’57’s Beekman Arms Inn, and “it looks like we may be reviving the Cornell MidHudson Alumni Association.” That sounds like a good plan, Dave. c Nancy Savage Petrie, nancy petrie@optonline.net. Class website, http://class of55.alumni.cornell.edu. 64 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com 56 The last few months have included a lot of calls from classmates, and some visits as well. I spent an absolutely marvelous weekend with Jerry and Nonnie Tarr, who live in Rutland, VT. We drove up and down steep mountains, saw a beautiful monastery, went to interesting towns, and had good food and many laughs. Nothing like being with a close friend of almost 60 years and his wonderful wife. Dan Silverberg’s wife, Linda, has just published a new mystery and is working on another under the name Linda Rocker. They are down in Florida for the winter where Dan plays golf. Curt and Pamela Reis took a cruise through the Panama Canal this past December on the Navigator. I love their letters about their travels. No one does it better and tells you more about the places they visit. Gail and I are going on a cruise this January to the Far East, but I know our correspondence will not be anything near theirs. Another snow bird is Ernie Stern, who will be spending the winter in North Palm Beach. He is a golf nut while his wife, Barbara (Lang), rides horses almost every day. When Dick Bulman, MBA ’57, wrote from New York City, he was back from summering in Southwest Harbor, ME, with all 14 of his family, including his new grandson, Luke. His other grandchildren are in college. (“How does that happen? My son waited until 47 to marry.”) Winter 2012 found him in Stockholm, St. Bart’s, and Florida. Dick celebrated a 55th Reunion with his Johnson MBA classmates last June and is still president of that class. Florida has a large contingent of classmates. E. Baxter Webb lives in Palm Beach. He is on the board of the English Speaking Union and a member of the Cornell East Florida Board as well. He traveled a lot last year in Georgia and North Carolina, and was in Paris for week, where he enjoyed a riverboat cruise to Normandy. In September, he and his wife spent two weeks in NYC and on Long Island and celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Sept. 22. Benny Klock, MS ’60 (Milton, FL) is retired after 23 years at Defense Mapping Agency. He adds that he’s a volunteer at his church in Pensacola, and that he went to his 60th high school reunion in February 2012, followed by a cruise to the Western Caribbean with his wife, Millie. Last summer he traveled to Cookeville, TN, to visit Burgess Falls, the highest in Tennessee. From Arcade, NY, we heard from Frank Vadney. “I sold my silo business to retire, but am still working part-time as a consultant/salesman for the company. Am also on the board of directors of the A.J. O’Dell Medical Center in Arcade. I golf as often as possible and spend winters in Florida.” Gideon Panter, MD ’60, makes his home in Palisades, NY. “I am enjoying my practice of gynecology and infertility in Manhattan, plus teaching at Weill Cornell Medical College.” Gideon’s son Jonathan ’12 graduated last May, and he hopes that his other three kids will also attend Cornell. Cardiologist Allen Unger (NYC) was once again honored by Castle Connolly as a “top doctor.” Joe, MBA ’58, and Sue DeRosay Henninger ’57 wrote shortly after returning from a wonderful Homecoming weekend last September. “The highlight for us was the Frank H.T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service awards dinner. This year, our own Percy Edwards Browning was a recipient— an honor well deserved, especially for all her years of service to our class. We were well represented among the 250 in attendance, with Ed Berkowitz, Jim Quest, Carole Rapp Thompson, and others. Percy is the fifth member of our class to receive this prestigious award.” Joe and Sue live in Akron, OH. Peg Jones Halberstadt, of Cincinnati, has been a docent at the Cincinnati Art Museum for 22 years. Husband Dick ’53 is chairing his class’s 60th Reunion next June, and their two oldest grandchildren will graduate from college this spring. Peg made her third trip to China last year, and her first to Taiwan. Virginia Seelig Lenz (Forest, VA) sent word that she attended a wonderful CAU session in Music Appreciation last July. She also had a one-week cruise to Alaska beginning in September. We are now on an “athletic scholarship,” playing golf and tennis constantly. He also serves on a number of volunteer boards. Bob, MBA ’59, and Liz Chapman Staley ’60 were honored with the Frank H. T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award last fall. Among classmates attending the awards dinner were Tony Cashen, MBA ’58, Ed Vant, Al Suter, MBA ’59, Bob ’55, MBA ’57, and Vanne Shelley Cowie, Marj Nelson Smart, Judy Richter Levy, LLB ’59, Joe ’56, MBA ’58, and Sue DeRosay Henninger, ‘ The Loorys and the Abeleses avoided bumping into whales or getting lost ’in the fog. Leslie Papenfus Reed ’54 sorry to report that she lost her husband, Richard (NYU ’60), in November 2011. Joan Hillsley MacKenzie (Redondo Beach, CA) works in outpatient adult and child psychiatry. She has been doing many timeshares in Las Vegas and Palm Springs, and is treasurer of the Desert Isle resort in Palm Springs. Joan is the mother of two and the grandmother of two. And lastly, were you wondering if we have an astrophysicist in our class? We do. Paul Gorenstein of Watertown, MA. Hope all of you reading this are in reasonably good shape. We are all hanging in because there are many years of joy and happiness ahead of us. Keep Phyllis and me posted. We try to get as much as we can on these pages. c Stephen Kittenplan, catplan@aol.com. 57 When Bob Shirley, Bob Black, and I played lacrosse, the coach was happy if we showed up on game day. Now, the Final Four draws 50,000 spectators, and recruiting is a year-round project. Blackie’s grandson, a sophomore at McDonogh in Baltimore, has committed to Notre Dame, and his granddaughter, a senior on the McDonogh team that has won 60 or so straight games, has received a scholarship commitment from Duke. Bob Shirley paid Harriett and me a visit in November, when he was in Louisville for a 4H convention. Both Blackie and Bob look as though they could suit up tomorrow. Our esteemed president, Phil McIndoo, received a note from Stuart Fischman, who taught at the U. of Buffalo School of Dental Medicine for 50 years before retiring to Israel, where he lives in Jerusalem and is a volunteer member of the faculty at the Hebrew U. Jerusalem in the dental medicine department. In December, Bob Watts went to San Diego, where he and Phil Monroe and Keith Stewart all commanded major installations at the Coronado Naval Air Station in the early 1980s. The main purpose of the trip was to observe the change of command of one of the Navy SEAL teams wherein a close friend of Bob’s son assumed that command. Bob was invited to tour the indoor firing range, where he fired most of the arsenal of handheld and shoulder-held weapons. Phil retired from the Navy in 1988, but stayed active in consulting and as a member of the Coronado Planning Commission and, for eight years, the City Council. He’s Stan ’55 and Nancy Krauthamer Goldberg and the above-mentioned Phil Monroe. John Herzog continues to have a major impact on people’s financial lives, having recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of his founding of the Museum of American Finance in New York City. As part of the celebration, he rang the closing bell at the NYSE. c John Seiler, suitcase2@ aol.com. Judy Richter Levy, LLB ’59, our intrepid New York City correspondent, sent an e-mail report about two big Cornell sports events last fall. There was the Cornell-Columbia football game, which was followed by the Big Red Band marching down Fifth Avenue from Rockefeller Center to the Cornell Club at 44th Street. The road was closed off for a half-hour band concert that ended with the Alma Mater. Then a small group joined Judy for dinner at the Cornell Club. Two weeks later Judy, along with Phil McIndoo, Ed and Adelaide Russell Vant, Irwin Schlossberg, and Gil Schlerf ’55, was helping to rock Madison Square Garden as Cornell beat Michigan in ice hockey. Judy was one of many classmates affected by Hurricane Sandy. She had to move out of her Greenwich Village apartment, which had no power for almost a week. Another NYC classmate, Ruby Tomberg Senie, BS Nurs ’75, lives further north in Manhattan so was out of the danger zone. Ruby had a delightful experience at Reunion. She writes: “It still remains a very pleasant memory. The campus is so very beautiful—even more so than when we were undergrads.” And she loved the convenience of the Campus-to-Campus bus that took returning alumni from the medical school to Ithaca. Presently Ruby is editing a textbook on the epidemiology of women’s health. Rita Feldman Cohen answered the e-mail call to “Share Your News.” Rita, who lives in Livingston, NJ, likewise experienced a storm power outage for a week, but fortunately her kids had booked a motel for Rita and her husband in advance. Carol Elis Kurzman and Sylvia Westheimer Goldbas are classmates with whom Rita keeps in touch. She is also active with the Cornell Club of Northern New Jersey, which plans concerts and dinners. Rachel Lawrence (Teaneck, NJ) has sent along the news that Judy Shields Anderson, who had been sharing a home with her daughter in Mebane, NC, passed away. March | April 2013 65 Class Notes John McDaniel ’82 wrote me last fall that while dining out on vacation in Plattsburgh, he had met someone from our class but couldn’t remember the fellow’s name! Here are the clues: he had a bright red Cornell jacket, was from New Jersey, and sat with his wife and her sister. They all had a “great conversation—lots of admiration for Cornell—and we discussed what a great school it is with just amazing opportunities.” John closes by relating that he was in awe of our class, having first met up with some of us at his fraternity’s 100th anniversary in 1978. His amazement was that a bunch of people 20-plus years out of college were still enjoying it. Wonder if he saw us at our 55th! c Judy Reusswig, 19 Seburn Dr., Bluffton, SC 29909; e-mail, JCReuss@aol.com. 58 As reunion approaches in but two months, we’ll update as much as we can on classmates from their recent news notes. Thanks to many of you for sending them in. Gladys Lunge Stifel reports that last September, four classmates joined members of the Cornell Club of Cape Cod for a luncheon at the Wianno Club in Osterville. All ’58ers who live on the Cape, the Islands, or Plymouth were invited. Classmates attending were Ken and Nancy Stone Jenkins ’59, Ray, MS ’58, and Marilyn Harper Labell, and Gladys. It was a beautiful sunny fall day to enjoy a fine speaker (a local wood carver of distinction) and the club’s panoramic view of Nantucket Sound. George Ubogy wrote that he’s reorganizing his study, now that he’s newly retired from medicine. George has been transcribing music for the Cornell Chimes, “because it’s good to know that music I love is being played on campus and that I had something to do with it. Additionally, I always make some little discovery about the music that I’m working on—a ‘Eureka!’ payoff.” Russ Taft wrote that his retirement continues well with the Maui Community Theater and choral groups, including work on The Producers and a 40-member chorale singing Haydn’s Creation, with all being successes and lots of fun. Russ adds that having spent the past two summers at yoga retreats in Tuscany, Umbria, and Majorca and getting to Alaska and Denali State Park and then a wonderful cruise touring the glaciers, he will break away for reunion this year. He adds, “At home on Maui I realized a long-term dream of mine by having a bridge built across a small gulch to access part of my property that had previously been unused and overgrown. I had the slope cleared and planted a small olive grove (30 trees of assorted variety), so in a few years I’ll be pressing the fruit into oil. I am trying to stay healthy and looking forward to seeing you, et al., next June.” Thanks and congratulations to Pete Stifel for his generous lead gift toward the new peony and perennial gardens at Cornell Plantations. Pete, now retired from years of teaching geology at U. of Maryland, has been a longtime supporter of the Plantations and other areas promoting environmental awareness and conservation, connecting people with nature. You can read more and see photos about Peter’s gift and what it will provide in Issue 4 of Verdant Views, the Cornell Plantations magazine (http://issuu.com/cornellplantations/ docs). From John Dettelbach comes a long note entitled “A Reunion to Remember,” about the “still-feisty men of ZBT and the party that the rambunctious pledge class of 1954” put on in D.C. last summer. It sounds like quite a blast and a great prelude to our campus party this June, with fine camaraderie and dining. Ret. Admiral Steve Yusem arranged a VIP tour through the maze of the Pentagon for the whole group to start off the weekend before festive dinners and other events, “flawlessly orchestrated by John Spivack, MBA ’60 . . . magical!” We hope to see all those ZBTs on campus soon. From Brookhaven, NY, comes word from Roberta Arvine Fishman (robbiefishman@optonline.net) about her continued efforts for the League of Women Voters, especially in areas of new citizenships and voter registration. She still blesses Prof. Clinton Rossiter ’39 for her solid background in Government, and Cornell in general for its cast toward nature and the environment. John ’55, BArch ’56, and Almeda Church “AC” Riley still reside in Saratoga Springs, NY, where AC enjoys “team efforts and just being outdoors with friends” (she was involved in three golf benefits last year). She “likes being a part of the community’s effort to help low income residents—teamwork!” She wants to continue conversations, especially political ones, with Linda Hansman Hanson from the 50th; OK, AC, can do at the 55th. Jack Kelly works with new veterans on a committee with that mission when he’s not on Park Ave. with J.P. Morgan Securities. He looks forward to coming back for the 55th and seeing old friends. Martin Steinberg continues as director of the Center of Excellence in Sickle Cell Disease at Boston Medical Center. He plans to stay in the Boston area for a few more years, “maybe longer if global warming helps the winters up here.” Patricia Bradfield Tillis still farms in Ohio with her husband, John. They raise beef cattle, sheep, and blueberries; lately, Patricia has been selling a lot of her own homemade goods. The Tillises spend the winter months in Cape Coral, FL. Julianne Gilbert Cohn, still in Atlanta, GA (cohn3496@bell south.net), participates in CAU and CAAAN and is recovering from cataract surgery. A big thank you from the Guilderland, NY, community is due to William Irwin for his 50 years of volunteer firefighting service. Nice going, William. The Rev. Bob and Peggy Chamberlain Beringer ’59 (Basking Ridge, NJ; beringermcb@ yahoo.com) recently bought a home in Casco, ME, to be near two sons and six grandchildren. Bob hosts a monthly men’s luncheon for 30-35 around topics of community interest. He also teaches a class of adults at a nearby retirement center and tutors Newark children in math and English. He recently retired as summer pastor of an interfaith chapel after 21 years. Bob adds, “My Cornell classes prepared me in an incredible way for graduate study at Princeton Seminary and later teaching there.” Bob wants to hear from Frank Russell, MBA ’60, the latter writing in his note that he still plays in three brass bands and is director of the Damascus (NY) Shriner Band, along with playing in a local symphony orchestra. Frank can be reached at frussel1@rochester.rr.com. With our allotted space running out we’ll end with hopes of seeing you all in June. c Dick Haggard, dhaggard@voicenet. com; Jan Arps Jarvie, janjarvie@gmail.com. 59 “Selling is like being in a ballgame; every pitch is a new adventure,” says Paul Marcus, MS ’60 (Greenwich, CT), who continues to work full-time. “Both of my kids, ages 23 and 26, are planning on graduate school and it is my intent to help them along. I do not believe in having them start their professional years burdened with big school loans.” Paul, director of Paul Charles Ltd., a food brokerage, says, “Working is a way of staying active, particularly working with associates— usually 25-30 years younger than I—who have a great deal of energy. My wife owns a chemical trading company and travels a good deal, both in the US and overseas. Makes selling foods a piece of cake!” In November, Jack Evans, PhD ’68 (Chapel Hill, NC), professor emeritus and former dean of the U. of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, was honored with the Business School Leadership Award at the school’s 14th annual Alumni Association awards ceremony—the only non-UNC alum among the seven award-winners honored in the ceremony. To the west, on a mountain in Fairview, NC, lives Ann Marie Behling, who skied for the last time last spring— “in order to be sure I will keep on playing tennis. I turned the skis, and those of a friend, into an Adirondack chair for my deck. And next year instead of skiing I’ll snorkel in Belize.” Ann Marie admits that tennis is her passion, but she also sings in the choir, plays bridge and other games, enjoys movies and the theater, and is in her 16th year as a tutor for the Literacy Council. She traveled to the Amazon and Machu Picchu last year and is in Nepal this March. After 45 years, Elias Kaufman (Amherst, NY) retired from his full-time position as associate professor and director of the pediatric dental clinic at SUNY at Buffalo. In addition to his courses and seminars, Elias was long involved in community outreach, directing the NYS Sealant Program for Underserved Children for more than 30 years. He helped solicit grants totaling $2 million that provided free dental exams and sealants for children in the public schools of western New York. An article in UBDentist notes, “Kaufman’s longtime interest in classic five-string banjo and subsequent scholarship of the genre—a style rooted in minstrel shows covering the era from the Civil War to WWI— resulted in his being named a senior research fellow in UB’s Center for Studies in American Culture.” In late November, Gladys Kessler (Washington, DC), a senior judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia, ordered tobacco companies to publicly admit, through advertisements and package warnings, that they “deliberately deceived the American public about the health effects of smoking.” Noted an AP story: As part of a case the government brought in 1999, “Judge Kessler ruled in 2006 that the nation’s largest cigarette makers had concealed the dangers of smoking for decades, and said she wanted the industry 66 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com to pay for ‘corrective statements’ in various types of ads. The Justice Dept. proposed corrective statements, which Judge Kessler used as the basis for some of the ones she ordered” in November. Marty Lehman, BArch ’60 (Sudbury, MA), who had a professional career in architecture for nearly 50 years, “rediscovered” the world of watercolor painting, and this past autumn showed recent works at the Scandinavian Living Center in West Newton, MA. The one-man show earned kudos from Dick Seegel (Wellesley, MA): “Marty has so much talent and his varied subjects made his work particularly exciting.” Marty’s personal essay for the show notes: “Watercolors have really become my passion, and painting is a special place where you can focus your creative energies and become so engaged in the process that you lose your sense of time. Sometimes I feel like I’m back at Cornell, in the design studio, sketching away long after midnight.” Paul Read, MS ’64 (Lincoln, NE) continues to serve as the resource person for Nebraska’s grape and wine industry, conducting research at the U. of Nebraska Viticulture Program vineyards. He also has led five study-abroad trips to Australia during winter breaks; last year’s trip focused on Tasmanian agriculture and natural resources. Classmates who participated in on-campus CAU programs this past summer included Marjory Leshure Marshall (Medieval Spain By Any Other Name). And on the first weekend in November, Ellie Applewhaite attended the 2012 Presidential Election seminar at Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, NY. “Your generosity is truly a blessing, so I will continue to not take it for granted and do my very best in all my future endeavors,” writes the current recipient of our class scholarship, Shamari Simpson ’14 (Norwalk, CT). Shamari spent the fall in the Cornell in Washington program, taking Government classes and interning with the Dept. of Education. In addition to schoolwork and volunteer activities, she is preparing for the LSATs, which she plans to take in June. c Jenny Tesar, 97A Chestnut Hill Village, Bethel, CT 06801; tel., (203) 792-8237; e-mail, jet24@cornell.edu. 60 Ken Iscol sent along the good news that a book by his wife Jill, Hearts on Fire: Twelve Stories of Today’s Visionaries Igniting Idealism into Action, has just been published by Random House. The book profiles young people intensely committed to helping others in all corners of the world, through initiatives such as founding orphanages in Afghanistan or using cell phone technology to improve health services in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. The two individuals who developed the latter project, called Medic Mobile, came to campus in Ithaca in October to join a roundtable discussion moderated by Jill and sponsored by the Iscol Family Program for Leadership Development in Public Service, which has been bringing distinguished community leaders to Cornell for more than a decade. The Iscols visit Cornell regularly for projects in which they are involved, which include the Center for Sustainability and the Leadership Development program. Ken also reports, “I am now happily retired for six years after a whirlwind 40-year career in telecommunications both in New York and the Texas Panhandle, where I owned and operated cellular networks.” The Iscols continue to move between homes in Pound Ridge, New York City, and Martha’s Vineyard, MA, and frequently find time for foreign travel. Also, says Ken, “I row a single scull in major regattas and own the Florida Rowing Center in Wellington, FL, where I train in the winter.” The Iscols’ son Zach ’01, a former Marine officer, is now involved with ventures focused on the employment of veterans and the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorders and will be competing in the Triathlon World Championships in Britain this year. Daughter Kiva ’03 works in real estate investment and competes in horse shows. Ken says he’d be happy to hear from “any and all old Cornell friends”; he can be reached at keniscol@zackiva.com. Peer Ghent, BCE ’61, who has been living in Los Angeles for almost 40 years, established a consulting practice there in 1989, which he continues today on a limited basis, working with small to mid-size businesses to improve management efforts in such areas as planning, market research, and raising capital. In 2005, Peer joined the City of Los Angeles Dept. of Transportation as a senior management analyst, and in recent years has been responsible for L.A. Express Park, which he describes as “an intelligent parking management system for downtown Los Angeles” that uses the latest technology to manage available spaces, employing such strategies as demandbased pricing. Angelenos will be happy to hear that the project includes smartphone apps—Parker and ParkMe—that help drivers to find open parking spaces in the city. Peer and wife Bobbie have a daughter who graduated from UCLA in June. His three children from his previous marriage also live in the Los Angeles area and have, he says, “given me six grandchildren and, this November, my first great-grandson!” Lois Tyler Benning writes from Clyde, NY, that she and Arthur ’58, along with John ’59 and Nancy Collins Sterling ’59, hosted a picnic at their place back in July that included at least ten Cornellians from the classes of ’58, ’59, and ’60, some of whom, says Lois, “I hadn’t seen in at least 50 years.” Among the group were Mary and Oiva Vesa of Trumansburg. During the picnic planning stages, Lois says, “it was great fun to reach people by phone and e-mail or letter. Some who couldn’t come sent pictures to share. A larger group is expected next year.” Sandi Nasar Gross sent word from East Lansing, MI, that she and Barry, MA ’62, are now spending half the year in Delray Beach, FL, where they have become involved with a Great Books group on a weekly basis and also go to regional meetings during the year. In May they traveled to Verona, Italy, to visit Sandi’s brother, and in October they spent time in London going to the theater. Their son Daniel ’89 is back writing on economic issues for Newsweek and, online, for the Daily Beast; in May he published a book about the American economy entitled Better, Stronger, Faster. Carol Sue “C. Sue” Hai says she is still working and enjoying the exciting projects that come her way, but is also “fitting in as much traveling as I can.” She recently took a trip through Southeast Asia, where she visited Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, as well as a “family roots trip with a niece and cousin to trace our family’s footsteps in Poland, Belarus, Russia, and Lithuania—bookended with Warsaw as the jumping-off point and Moscow as the finale. It was truly an amazing journey of a lifetime!” A highlight of the fall for Al Tripodi was traveling from Longboat Key, FL, to Ithaca during Parents’ Weekend to see his granddaughter Emily Tripodi ’16 play lacrosse for Cornell. “That,” says Al, “the spectacular scenery, and a good dose of nostalgia made it a special weekend.” He saw his former roommate, Doug Matousek, during his time in Ithaca, and the following week met with classmates Ernie Martine and Lou Ricci in Punta Gorda, FL. Bob Lockard of Glen Allen, VA, had a trip to St. John last fall, “to celebrate recovery from a rough health year.” He and Ellen are now in their 13th year as Disaster Action Team responders for the American Red Cross. Bob says they enjoy living close to their two young granddaughters, who are in Maryland. Steve Milman ’58, MBA ’59, wrote that his wife, Evalyn (Edwards), has established a Literacy Fellowship in her name at Teachers College, Columbia U., where she received a master’s degree almost 50 years ago. The fellowship will support Teachers College graduate students in their literacy research and practice. The Milmans, who live in Darien, CT, have previously endowed two professorships at Cornell, one in Early Childhood Education in the College of Human Ecology, and one in American Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. They have also provided an acquisition fund for the Johnson Museum of Art. Jim and Betty Abraham Dowd continue to live in St. Louis, MO, for part of each year, where Jim, retired from the ministry, serves in advisory positions at local Presbyterian churches and Betty is in the choir. They spend long summers in Dowagiac, MI, which Jim has been visiting since he was a child and where Jim and Betty spent their honeymoon more than 52 years ago. After many years of renting a cabin there when their children were young, the Dowds built a retirement home in Dowagiac, a small town on Dewey Lake known for its annual cultural celebration featuring writers, musicians, storytellers, and visual artists. The town also has the advantage of being not far from one of their sons and his family; one of their other children lives within range of St. Louis. Betty said recently, “We love retirement and grandchildren, but who doesn’t!” Send news! c Judy Bryant Wittenberg, jw275@cornell.edu. 61 Greetings again from coastal Oregon. Those of you who live east of the Cascade Mountain range should know what’s happening on the western coast since the earthquake that shook Japan in March 2011. The tsunami that resulted from the quake has brought debris of all sorts to the Pacific coast. A large deck washed up on the beach just north of Newport. Cleaning it of possible dangerous bacteria and then breaking it up to move it was quite a task. A floating fishing boat off the coast of Alaska was blown up to keep it from coming to the shore. One story was the finding of a soccer ball with a person’s name written on it. It was returned to Japan, perhaps to the owner. Volunteers regularly patrol the coasts to collect whatever bits and pieces are found. It keeps coming. The federal government provided some money to help—and it’s already been spent. Thought you might be interested. On to the class news. We received an informative letter from Erlinda Enriquez Panlilio (epanlil@gmail.com). She was proud to have gone to the Hotel school and was the first student from the Philippines. She writes, “Following my retirement from the family business of hotels, restaurants, and an airline catering business, I went back to college, to the U. of the Philippines, where I had graduated with a BS in foods and nutrition in 1959, to enroll in a master’s March | April 2013 67 Class Notes course in creative writing in the English department. I earned the MA in 2000 and published my mother’s biography as part of my thesis. The book was awarded ‘Best Biography’ by the Manila Critics Circle in the National Book Awards of 2001. Since then I have been editing anthologies on food, personal essays on widowhood (I was widowed in 1999), travel, etc. To date, I have edited six anthologies, and all except one were awarded ‘best’ in their respective categories. Am pleased to have reinvented myself. I have four children and ten grandkids, five of whom live in London, where my son and daughter live. Two children went to the Wharton School at Penn, and one went to UMass, Amherst.” Her favorite memory of Cornell: “Seeing my first snow! Looking out the window from my dorm in Sage Hall (it was a dorm for women then) upon waking, to be greeted by a blanket of snow. I rushed out to feel it and walk on it. What an exhilarating experience.” Erlinda would like to hear from Marion “Sue” Auchter ’63 and Myra Thim Tattenbaum ’62, and asks, “Where is Paul Auchter ’60, JD ’64?” Adelle Case Picking (adellep@earthlink.net) and husband Howard ’60, MBA ’62, are in Johnstown, PA. She writes, “I’m involved in fundraising and direction of Westmont Family Counseling Ministries, visiting grandchildren and children, biking, skiing, and other community activities. I recently chaired a dinner to raise funds for charity.” She’s just off the board of the Johnstown Symphony Auxiliary and is involved with church activities on Sunday. In addition she’s “working on cleaner streams in the area.” She’d rather have more leisure time to see grandchildren in Boston, Minneapolis, and Steamboat Springs. Bob (herner@ msu.edu) and Susan Spencer Herner live in Williamston, MI. “Because of Sue’s MS I have become the homemaker and caregiver. But I also have been reading and doing a lot of genealogy of both our families. Sue and I like to attend Broadway plays at Michigan State and plays at our local professional theater, as well as MSU BB games. After being retired and not teaching for 11 years, I have been teaching applied plant physiology for horticulture and crop science students at MSU. I am substituting for a faculty member who moved up the ranks. We also enjoy eating out at all kinds of ethnic restaurants.” So do I, Bob. Also in Michigan, Ira Firestone (aa1358@ wayne.edu) lives in Bloomfield Hills. “I’m winding down a long career as a psychology professor at Wayne State U. and volunteering at the local library and the Detroit Inst. of the Arts. Our two daughters have each had two daughters of their own, while our son completed a PhD in chemical biology at Stanford and works as a post-doc with his lady love at UC San Francisco.” Ira’s favorite Cornell memory is times spent at Watermargin. He would like to hear from his former roomie Monty Kingsley, BA ’63. Marilyn McCarthy Nutting has returned from a wonderful trip in France. “The first week was spent in a whirlwind visit of Paris enjoying the culture and food. The second week was spent bicycling in the Loire River valley near Sancerre as part of a bike and barge trip. The country villages, historic churches, castles, chateaux, gardens, vineyards, local markets, and food were indeed memorable. Bicycling was a great way to experience the countryside and get some exercise as well.” We all need exercise, don’t we? So take up your pen, or key us a message about your life and current thoughts. Ever your correspondents: c Susan Williams Stevens, sastevens61@gmail.com; Doug Fuss, dougout@attglobal.net. 62 Factoids from the Fabulous Fiftieth Reunion: 19 percent of our classmates in attendance were first-time reuners. There were 278 classmates joining in, with a total of 483 under the banner of ’62. It’s not too early to put the next one on your calendar for June 8-11, 2017. The Backtalk Band has already contracted to be there—you can, too! In the meantime, please remember to pay your class dues and bookmark the class website: www. cornellclassof62.org. Neil Schilke, MS ’64, is the reunion chair for our 55th in 2017. He welcomes your comments, questions, and suggestions at: neroschilke@aol.com. Preschool “subbing,” swimming, gardening, knitting, church activities, and helping husband Maurice with their metal recycling business occupy Virginia Swanson Neville in Millbrook, NY. In Prescott, AZ, Chuck Dann ’61, MEd ’64, and Faith Miller Roelofs (faithumr@msn.com) continue to teach adolescents in the outdoor science-based programs through the Highlands Center for Natural History. They travel to Seattle and Fairbanks to visit the kids and grandkids who don’t live in Prescott. A new book by Judy Shulman Weis (jweis@ andromeda.rutgers.edu) was published by Cornell University Press in November. You can learn about Walking Sideways: The Remarkable World of Crabs at this link: http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/ book/?GCOI=80140100864250. A plea from Joe Brennan ’63 to all Phi Gams: “I am compiling a Phi Gam e-mail list for the classes of 1960-66 in order to stay in touch as a group or as individuals. There are more than 80 Fijis on the list, and we welcome more. Please send an e-mail to jab296@cornell.edu.” Condolences go to Chris Breiseth ’64 of Ticonderoga on the passing of his wife, Jane (Morhouse), MEd ’67, in June after a valiant battle with cancer. She is also survived by three daughters, including Lydia Breiseth Vargas ’02, her mother, two grandchildren, two sisters, and her brother. A note from Margaret Sandelin Benson, MS ’66 (enz@psu.edu) explained that she and Tom, PhD ’66, missed Reunion due to family activities. Their daughter and son-in-law are both Cornellians at the grad school level, she with a PhD in Art History (’01) and he with a PhD in History (’07). “He is on the faculty at the Naval Academy, and she is on the faculty at St. John’s College, also in Annapolis. Our granddaughter was born in Dec. ’08, so we shall hope that she can be Cornell Class of ’32.” Their other daughter works at the U. of Vermont “and gets to enjoy one of the most beautiful spots on earth year-round. Tom and I are still working at Penn State and hope that we are making a difference in the lives of our students. For the past 12 years or so, every time we have talked softly to ourselves about retiring, the economy has taken a tumble, the money in our various savings has plummeted, and we have said, ‘Let’s wait until . . . ’ Now, with the economy so tenuously perched on a revival, I think we might jinx the whole thing if we talk about the ‘R’ word.” The “R” word applies to Peter Schaad ’59, DVM ’62 (maschaad@yahoo.com) of Southern Pines, NC, who specialized in equine medicine and orthopedics. Fred Kackmann enjoys his retirement in NYC and his country home in the Catskills, where he gardens, reads, cooks, and spends time with his family. Barbara and Jared Barlow (jbbarlow@ roadrunner.com) make their home in Grand Island, NY, from where they visit two sons and a daughter (plus three granddaughters) from Boston to Brooklyn. Jared, a retired anesthesiologist, is medical director of Upstate Clinical Research Inc. in Buffalo. He likes outdoor activities, including hiking, birding, and fifth-wheel camping. Several classmates participated in CAU’s travel programs last summer. Seven members of Steve Ashley, MBA ’64’s family went to Costa Rica; David, PhD ’70, and Carol Mowen Jordan went to Argentina; and Carol Lounsberry Boris went to Cuba. Stateside, George ’61 and Marcia Mugglin Seeley and Jim Moore’s family went to Maryland; George and Mary Jo Olsen went to New York City; and Henry Kaplan ’60, DVM ’62, attended the prereunion program in Ithaca. On-campus programs drew Otto Doering, PhD ’73 (classical music); Samuel ’61, MD ’66, and Judith Shapiro Greenblatt (medieval Spain); and Linda and Michael Miller (the dynamics of human attachment). Robert ’60, MS ’66, and Helen Tintle McAfoos participated in the study tour at Mohonk and also in the summer program on the seven deadly sins. There is truly something for everyone at CAU. “Ginger and I got in 65 days of skiing last year,” reports Jim Lansdowne, MBA ’65, of Evergreen, CO (jlansdowne@wispertel.com), a certified ski instructor at Loveland Ski Area. “I’ll take classmates on my free tour if they come to ski at Loveland.” The Lansdownes took a Mediterranean cruise after ski season ended. Software programming, property management, boards, travel, and sailing are all on Phil Will, BArch ’64’s list. Phil (phil@prodomus.com) and Karen live in Hartford, CT, where he sails the frostbite series on a Laser on the Connecticut River—”because I enjoy it, not because I win!” The children of Barbara and Austin Frishman, MS ’64, threw a surprise 50th anniversary party for their parents last August. Austin works part-time doing seminars on pest management throughout North America. The Frishmans live in Boca Raton, FL, where they golf and fish. Fishing and computing occupy Frederick Claus (alphaguy@fewpb.net) when he’s not building an N-scale model railroad layout in his garage in Frankfort, KY. He and Linda have four children. c Jan McClayton Crites, 2430 76th Ave. SE, Mercer Island, WA 98040; e-mail, jmc50@cornell.edu. 63 News from Reunion 2013! Our 50th is just about three months away. There are many exciting class events planned, along with all the university offers. Our class events include: a faculty symposium on worldwide food production issues; a classmate panel on revitalizing your retirement; a session to test your knowledge of Cornell during our years and now; a professional art show by our own classmates; and many meals with the best Ithaca caterers have to offer. You can check out more details on our class website: http://class of63.alumni.cornell.edu. Look for the packet of event descriptions, registration, and housing materials in our mailing to your address in mid- to late March. If you are still undecided about returning to the Hill, the 50th is the one you cannot miss, whether you have been back to campus many times or not at all. It will prove to be special. Contact our reunion chair, Paula Trested Laholt, at PLT9@cornell.edu, if you are interested in assisting in any of the events on campus in June. There is still lots to do. Jim Billings, MBA ’64, asks for willing people to serve on his Nominating Committee. “We have the responsibility of presenting a slate of officers to lead the class for five years beginning July 1, 2013. Undoubtedly, many of us who have 68 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com served over the years will remain active, but to the extent possible I would love to add new blood. Broadening the base and diversifying are my goals. E-mail me at jimbillingsat@gmail.com.” Marty Krasner is still working full-time as CEO of the company he founded almost 30 years ago. He develops programs and products for presentation and sale on QVC, including fashion jewelry with Kenneth Jay Lane and Heidi Klum, among others, Marie Osmond collectible dolls, and Dennis Basso fashions. He keeps in touch with Steve Krasner, Ira Levine, Richard Lumiere, MD ’67, Bob Davidson, Zack Fluhr, George Gorman ’62, Bob Pritsker, and Than Kwit. Marty and his wife, Stephanie, have two grown children and three grandchildren. They vacation together in the British Virgin Islands each year. Cynthia Raymond writes from New York City that she helped celebrate the 90th birthday of her friend Marv Rubinstein ’44, which took place last spring at the beautiful villa of Marv’s son Jon ’78, ME ’79, and his wife, Karen, in Punta Mita, Mexico. On her return home, Cynthia visited David and Debra Willen Stern in Los Angeles. Cynthia’s niece and family also live in Santa Monica; her husband is a writer on the TV series “Justified.” Joel Sachs (jsachs@kblaw.com) was recently presented with the George W. Perkins Award by the NYS Parks and Trails Association as a “pioneer in New York environmental law.” He also received a 30-year teaching award as an adjunct professor of environmental law at the Pace Law School in White Plains. He heads Keane and Bean PC’s Environmental Practice Group. Carol Anderson flew to Sydney, Australia, in February and boarded the MV Discovery for a three-month round-the-world journey (her third). MV stands for “Motor Vessel” and Discovery is a former Princess ship with 500600 passengers. She continues to live in Delray Beach, FL, with her daughter Ingrid and family. She will be at our 50th Reunion. Last spring was busy for Vivian Grilli DeSanto, who entertained Steve and Marjorie Walker Sayer at her home in Wilmington, NC. Vivian visited Hong Kong with her son Jim King ’87. They went for the Sevens rugby tournament. Upon returning home, she found her house had taken a direct hit from lightning while she was gone and while Marty was in Florida. Lots of damage, but no fire. Barbara Hartung Wade, MEd ’64, is busy with golf, church, and visiting timeshares in Aruba, Cancun, and Punta Cana, FL. Her daughter Kim and husband live with Barbara in Malverne, NY, on Long Island. Barbara has run the Babe Zaharias Breast Cancer Awareness Golf Tournament for the past 15 years and is secretary of the women’s golf board and on the WMGA team from her club. David and Annette Raddock took a Viking cruise last spring on the Yangtze River in China. They write, “David vows that he has bought the last piece in his Western contemporary and Chinese art collection since there is no more room in his house in Boulder, CO.” David also speaks Chinese quite well: “Some things become a lasting, integral part of the person.” He has written a memoir and commentary entitled “Finding My Way: An American Maverick in China.” Joel Lichtenstein has retired from the U. of Washington, where he was a professor of radiology since 2000. He and his wife, Jean, moved to a retirement center in San Antonio, TX, last May. Marcy Bergren Pine was excited about her trip to Cornell last April with her 17-year-old grandson, Patrick. They took a tour of the campus, met some students (one was a granddaughter of Mark and Carolyn Press Landis ’65), attended a lecture, and spent an hour with Ted Lowi. Prof. Lowi talked about the special people he has worked with over the years, and Patrick commented that Prof. Lowi spoke so fast, he wished he had a recorder to remember everything that was said. I am chairing a group of hosts to welcome classmates at the dorm and to host various events. Let me know if you want to help. c Nancy Bierds Icke, 12350 E. Roger Rd., Tucson, AZ 85749; e-mail, icke63@gmail.com. 64 Our 50th Reunion is a mere 15 months away (June 5-8, 2014). Hope you’ll join us for the fun! I begin this month’s column with class news that doesn’t involve a classmate, but is something to be proud of; to wit: our JFK Award winner for 2012, Christopher “Kit” Dobyns ’12, has been named one of but two Cornellians to receive a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. Patricia Seaver now lives in Wayland, MA— in her way of putting it, “returning ‘home’ to Metro West Boston.” Pat continues to maintain her psychotherapy practice for individuals, couples, and families, plus life coaching, participating in workshops, and giving lectures. She’s now a grandmother, thanks to her son and daughter, each giving her two grandchildren. Pat adds that she would “love to hear from local classmates.” Another classmate with a new address is John Leland Ferguson, who now lives in Round Hill, VA. Lee is otherwise making his first-ever appearance in this column. Last October, Joan Greenspan and classmates Sharon Kellerman and Ruth Odin Grunspan took what Joan termed a “Dickson Six” (freshman girls’ dorm in 1960), “fulfilling journey” to Israel, where they saw all the major sights and had a great time. Joan lives in NYC, where she’s still a volunteer at the Bottomless Closet, working at bringing underprivileged young women into the work force. Ann Sirine Rider, who lives in Ithaca, NY, was elected last year to the Enfield Town Board, in addition to continuing as president of the Enfield Community Council. She writes that she’s enjoying the “intellectual challenges” and contact with the community. Ann also substitute teaches in public schools, gardens, and, until Hurricane Sandy, enjoyed visits with her daughter and two grandchildren at the Jersey Shore. She writes, “I live in one of the most beautiful spots in the world, with access to one of the premier universities in the world.” Recently widowed, Fred Bellinger still lives in Indianapolis, IN, and is now a retired agricultural property manager. Richard and Joyce Payne Church of Freeville, NY, are both retired, but otherwise very busy with “full-time” volunteering. Richard is either president or a director of four organizations: Cornell’s local Alpha Zeta Corp. board, NYS’s Agricultural and Grange Societies, and the Dryden Grange. Joyce, meanwhile, is a facilitator of Dryden’s My Brother’s Keeper group, which makes sleeping bags (which are often called “ugly quilts”) for homeless people from donated materials. Last April, Joyce completed 20 years and 3,000 quilts’ worth of work for the society. She’s also active in church, the Grange, and Dryden Dairy Day. The Churches also keep busy visiting family, including four grandchildren, in New Mexico and Florida, where they now enjoy Jan. through March in a new home in Sun City Center, FL. Sonia Kosow Guterman, MS ’67, who lives in Belmont, MA, still finds being a patent attorney March | April 2013 69 Class Notes fascinating, “although I am slowing down and delegating most work to associates.” Away from her career, Sonia writes that her violin playing is “tolerable” enough for her to be invited to join a string quartet (she also plays the flute). Her principal activity is looking after the scholarship fund left by her late husband, Martin, PhD ’68. Sonia recently enjoyed a Danube River cruise with a friend; she also goes to St. Louis frequently to visit her daughter, a violinist with the symphony orchestra. She has one other daughter and three grandchildren. Stephen Crawford seems to be one of those not-quite-retired professionals. He writes that he’s a research professor at George Washington U.’s Inst. for Public Policy, and goes into the office two days a week; the other three workday mornings, he plays tennis. Steve and wife Liliane live in Derwood, MD, with their 13-year-old daughter. Steve is awaiting Senate confirmation of the President’s nomination to serve on the USPS’s Board of Governors, lamenting that “these things move slowly in Washington these days.” Dennis Sweeney, who lives in Orange, CT, with wife Maria, has been an active volunteer since retiring. He’s still financial secretary of his church and is into his 44th year of membership in the Rye Fire Dept. Dennis is also our class director for the Hotel school, is into his 36th year as a lecturer at the Hotel school, and has also chaired a restaurant panel for the school sponsored by Cornell Wall Street and the Cornell Entrepreneurial Network. Retired for 11 years, orthodontist Alice Schwartz Tobias, PhD ’67, who lives in Scottsdale, AZ, with husband Gerald ’60, DVM ’62 (who retired 16 years ago from veterinary practice), writes, “My job is to have fun!” The Tobiases’ activities include bridge, hiking, tennis, and traveling, recently to India, Albuquerque, and Denver. She’s also a Cornell Alumni Admissions Ambassador, involved in interviewing prospective students. Alice ran a successful Schwartz family reunion for 50 people in Las Vegas in December 2011. We hope to see her at our own 50th Reunion in June 2014! That’s all for now. Please take a few minutes to share your news via this column. Also be sure to visit our class website (www.cornell1964. org). Class webmaster Bruce Wagner, ME ’66, has many additions. Send news directly to me at home or online at: c Bev Johns Lamont, 720 Chestnut St., Deerfield, IL 60015; e-mail, blamont64@ comcast.net. 65 The countdown continues toward our 50th Reunion in June 2015, so please send your news so Joan and I can pass it on to our classmates in the meantime. Last June, Michael Sukin was in Madrid to present an international master class at Spain’s Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE). While the class was intensive, it was limited to current “hot” topics for international authors, composers, and publishers. Topics included the new EU term directive—Michael was a primary campaigner for this directive. Other topics addressed in the session included revival of non-US origin works and protection for non-US recordings prior to 1972. Michael’s firm, the Sukin Law Group, has offices in New York, London, and Nashville. I was carrying on an e-mail discussion with Jamil Sopher, ME ’66, who lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, Lynn. Jamil is retired from the World Bank, but still does some consulting for them. All three of their children live in D.C. Their oldest, daughter Margaret, is in her second year at Georgetown Law School. I remember Jamil and Lynn pushing around their twin sons Peter and Philip at our 25th Reunion. Peter is applying to grad school in a joint environment and business program. He is completing a two-year fellowship at the Environmental Defense Fund. After graduation, Philip did an internship in Paris. Hopefully, by the time you read this class column, he will be gainfully employed. I’m sure that other classmates hope this will be the case for their children or grandchildren. Howard Zuckerman passed along the following news from Pikesville, MD. He is keeping busy spending time with his three sons and their families—including six grandchildren. Golf also plays a big role in his life. Howard works part-time at two local golf courses. This allows him to play 36 holes each week. In addition, he still finds time for traveling, reading, volunteering at a hospital, and assisting a nonprofit in the area of finance. I’m worn out just writing about it. I believe that Howard had the most unique answer to the last question of the News Form—what he brought to Cornell when he first came: “My twin brother Nate.” When I opened the first issue of the ILR school’s magazine, ADVANCE, I was excited to see that one of our classmates was featured in its initial issue. Marilyn Epstein Berger, along with her husband, Albert ’63, were being recognized for creating the Marilyn J. and Albert J. Berger Internship Program. Her interest in this area came about as a result of a week she spent in the South through Cornell University Religious Work, “an experience she describes as probably the highlight of her college career.” This experience raised her interest in summer internships. Because she had to earn money during the summer she was not able to pursue unpaid internships with labor unions, even though these types of internships often ease the way to a job after graduation. The program that she and her husband Albert have established will provide financial assistance to students who otherwise would not have been able to take unpaid or low-paid internships because of the need to earn funds in the summer. Following graduation Marilyn earned a law degree at UC Berkley. She went into a career in law and legal education and presently is professor emeritus at the Seattle U. School of Law. The article in ADVANCE noted that she had been in Ithaca recently for the screening of the film Out of the Ashes: 9/11. The film, which she wrote, co-directed, and produced, was about the experiences families had with the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. G. Peter Bloom, MD ’69, sends the following news from Farmington, CT. Peter is still practicing surgery and teaching residents and students. He participated in a surgical mission to Milot, Haiti, where he led a team of surgeons, nurses, and anesthesiologists to provide surgical care to about 80 patients in an area where no other care of this type was available. For a change of pace, he partnered with some friends to purchase a Thoroughbred racehorse. Daughter Stephanie, who lives in New York City, has provided Peter with a granddaughter, Zoe—”a great kid.” Son David is an architect in Washington, DC, and was married last fall. Finally, from Providence, RI, is a short note from Dianne Zimet Newman. She and husband Martin spent Passover 2012 with their extended family at the Westin Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Cornellians there included Diane’s brother David Zimet ’69 and cousin Louis Chiron ’76. Everyone had a great time. Best of all, no cooking. c Ron Harris, rsh28@cornell.edu; Joan Hens Johnson, joanhpj@comcast.net. 66 Cornell reunions may take many forms. Last October, at the Princeton football game in Ithaca, there was a reunion of the1964 Cornell football team. As reported by team member Tom Guise, MBA ’72, other ’66ers in attendance included Dave Hanlon, Stan Kochanoff, Bruce Mansdorf, Joe Piperato, Phil Ratner, MBA ’71, Marty Sponaugle, and Doug Zirkle. The attending members of the ’64 team were introduced on the field at halftime; at the pre-game, they had formed a tunnel for the Big Red players to pass through. The day was especially enjoyable as Cornell won 37-35. Retirement has been quiet for Edward Lortz (eddieksf@gmail.com). He has been “pouring money” into upkeep and repair of a 1880s-era Victorian home in San Francisco. He maintains a very part-time bookkeeping business with five clients. His tech project for the year was to receive financial statements, bills, even ATM receipts, as PDF downloads, burning the reconciled information onto a CD, which he archives. Ed admits he has thus helped undermine the US Postal Service, but saved many trees. He obtains electricity from a solar-powered system, thus saving more trees. Robert Munch remains in Ithaca, where he spends much time caring for his elderly mother, who has late-stage Alzheimer’s. He reads and watches TV and would at some point like to be on a beach in Florida. Robert would love to hear from Patricia Hurley Davis ’63, BS HE ’66. He says a notebook and pen were the main things he brought to Cornell in ’62. Robert Fairchild writes that he continues to be active in organized veterans’ affairs, including his participation on the Joint Leadership Council of veterans service organizations in Virginia. He writes that in ’62 he arrived in Ithaca with a bicycle, books, and periodicals. Fred Little (freda little@aol.com) and spouse Tomaso Manca reside in Manhattan, where Fred is an active volunteer. He is involved with BAR (Braking AIDS Ride) and a homeless center for women. He recently helped crew for a 275-mile bike ride to benefit the homeless with AIDS. His hope is to see this disease be gone. He loves to travel to see museums and gardens and would one day like to see the Louvre. He writes that freshman year he arrived in Ithaca with naiveté, curiosity, and trepidation. Rick Ekstrom (rdekstrom@verizon.net) had a busy 2012. His daughter married, moving to New York City to work in publishing. This gets Rick and his wife into the City for regular visits. He recently became chairman of the board of directors of the Coro Center for Civic Leadership in Pittsburgh. Coro is a 75-year-old organization with centers in NYC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and St. Louis that offers a Fellows program in public affairs. Rick has published The Backwords Dictionary, a tool for Scrabble players, and is on a committee to restore the Westinghouse Memorial. This is a significant work of art and a tribute to one of America’s great entrepreneurs. Vincent Abbatiello (DRVJA@aol. com) is retired and enjoys golf, boating, and playing Grandpa. He also does fundraising for diabetes. Len Coburn (Lencoburn@gmail.com) is a docent at the National Gallery of Art and the Hillwood Museum. He teaches a summer course, Introduction to Energy, at Syracuse’s Maxwell School. He also works with the Aspen Inst. Len and Evelyn enjoyed a three-week trip to China, where they visited Yunnan 70 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com Province as well as Tibet. Len says it was an amazing experience and they learned a great deal about Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan culture. While still managing real estate properties in San Juan, PR, Cesar Carrero, ME ’67, and wife Mayra also managed to take two cruises last year—one to Portugal, Ireland, Scotland, and Germany, and a second to Italy, France, and Spain. Cesar loves the travel and the experiences relating to the travel. He wouldn’t change much, as he enjoys living San Juan. Bill and Betsy Bierds Schenkel celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this past September. Bill “suggests” that the secret behind marital longevity is Betsy living in Connecticut while he lives in New York. Only three years until registration forms for our 50th Reunion arrive! Plan now so you can join us in June 2016. If you have attended a ’66 reunion before, you know we have a great time. If you have never attended, now is the time to plan to go. c Susan Rockford Bittker, ladyscienc@ aol.com; Pete Salinger, pete.sal@verizon.net; Deanne Gebell Gitner, dgg26@cornell.edu. 67 Jonathan Cohen (Prior Lake, MN; cohen004@umn.edu) reports, “Just a year ago we went on the ‘trip of a lifetime,’ taking our daughter and s-i-l on a cruise to Antarctica and other points south, including the Falklands and South Georgia, where we saw Shackleton’s grave, and Cape Horn, where they had a weather shelter just like mine. The scenery and animals were awesome, including humpbacked whales, penguins, and seals. We also spent a few days in Buenos Aires and Iguassu Falls, which is in the jungle of Argentina and Brazil. I continue to volunteer with 3 Rivers Park District and write a weather column for our local paper, the Prior Lake American. Also continuing to play duplicate bridge. Daughter Ilana Cohen ’06 had our first grandchild, Nolan, with her husband, Craig Bierle ’06. He completed his PhD at the U. of Washington and she has about two years to go for hers there.” Jonathan keeps in touch with Barry Batzing. Amanyi Richardson, son of Marie and Henry Richardson, MArch ’70, MRP ’71, of Ithaca, NY, attended the 2012 Cornell Summer College Program. Mary Neufeld Johnson (mary.johnson3@ btinternet.com) reports: “I live with my husband, Mike, in a village near Stratford in England. For the last 15 years, I’ve worked for the Royal Shakespeare Co. as an arts educator. Earlier I was an actor and a secondary and university teacher. We’re contemplating full retirement with relish and looking forward to more reading, theatre-going, walks, singing, and gardening. Three stepchildren are all thriving with four grandchildren. I keep in touch with Ellen Stromberg Lautz and Penny Bamberger Fishman, and Gay Gibson Cima, PhD ’78, from my graduate days. I’d love to hear from former classmates.” Toby Tucker Hecht (Bethesda, MD; tthecht@ comcast.net) is a scientist working at the National Cancer Inst. and a short story writer. “I have just become a grandma again—another grandson.” Toby recalls “all the great times with my wonderful roommates: Joan Solomon Weiss, Phyllis Bell Jonas, and Francine Keller Fabian.” She’d like to hear from Marcia Ensinger Chernoff. Richard Tunick (Scarsdale, NY; rdtoonick@aol.com) writes, “Still running my investment advisory firm, R. D. Tunick & Co. LLC, playing duplicate bridge and golf once a week, working out, and spending about 12 weeks in Palm Beach, FL, each winter. I get together with Cornell roommates Van Greenfield, Alex Miller, and Mike Rattner about once a month for a poker game—a bunch of 60-plus-year-olds acting like adolescents. We would all like to find out about Gary Greenstein.” Richard reports that his daughter Erica ’04 was married last August. Gerald Killigrew (Canandaigua, NY; gmkilli grew@hotmail.com) is retired and involved in traveling, gardening, and volunteering, and adds that he’d like to do more traveling. He’s interested in hearing from Dave Jones. Barbara Boochever Lindh (Juneau, AK; barboo@alaska.net) writes, “I work two seasonal part-time jobs: instructor and workshop planner at the Eaglecrest ski area in the winter; and interpreter at the Mendenhall Glacier in the summer.” Barbara’s busy “skiing, hiking, biking, and having fun being a grandmother” and would like to hear from “anyone from the Cornell ski team, 1964-67.” Nancy Payne Kronenberg (Carlisle, MA; nancy@rosepath.com) is a “hand weaver (www.rosepath.com) and website developer; e.g., www.weaversguildofboston.org.” After recovering from power outages caused by various storms, Nancy is “weaving for a book the Weavers Guild of Boston is planning.” c Richard B. Hoffman, 2925 28th St. NW, Washington, DC 20008; e-mail, rhoffman@erols.com. 68 Ron Kopicki, MA ’71 (rkopicki@ gmail.com), who retired from the World Bank several years ago, continues as a consultant and adviser to developing countries and donor organizations, including the World Bank, the FAO, COSA, and the IFC, the World Bank’s venture capital arm. Over the past 20 years or so, he has worked in more than 100 countries endeavoring to find ways of stimulating private sector lead growth. For example, Ron was involved in reorganizing and privatizing stateowned enterprises in the former Soviet Union, China, and Latin America. In his “retirement,” he continues as an advisor to pursue opportunities in private sector lead development, and also as an investor and board member with enterprises based in Ethiopia and other parts of Africa, from his new home in St. Michaels, MD. Ann Ashby, his wife of 34 years, continues as the deputy director of the NIH Foundation in Washington, DC. They spend most of their weekends together in St. Michaels, which Ron describes as a lovely place because of its picturesque 18th- and early 19th-century architecture, its inspiring views of the Chesapeake Bay, and its active and socially engaged citizenry, slow pace, and small scale. It is also a particularly good place to fish, paint in oils, read, and exchange ideas with interesting people. Ron says he and Ann would love to catch up with classmates and friends from Cornell and open their home to them. Jane Frommer Gertler (jgertler@churchill school.com) and husband David ’67, ME ’68, joined Steve, MBA ’70, JD ’71, and Sharon Lawner Weinberg, PhD ’71, in harvesting grapes for Brunello at Il Palazzone in Montalcino. The Weinbergs, who have been doing this for years, invited the Gertlers to join in the fun this year. So, in about five years, if any of us has a drink of Il Palazzone Brunello, think about who might have picked those grapes! The Gertlers and Weinbergs all live in Scarsdale and work in NYC. John Seligman (JSeligman@dglaw.com) shares news of another Woodworth progeny wedding. Cornellians gathered at the marriage of Joyce and Pete Woodworth, MBA ’69’s son Jacob and his bride, Nora, at the summer camp in northern Minnesota where the March | April 2013 71 Class Notes couple met. Marge and Al Fidellow, Sally and Bill Austin, Laurene and John Wallace ’67, ME ’68, and John shared this special occasion. Looking forward to seeing all of you in Ithaca at our 45th Reunion, June 6-9, 2013. Send me your news! c Mary Hartman Schmidt, mary. schmidt@schmidt-federico.com. 69 Hope you all survived the winter and are looking forward to spring. Pamela Thurber Duncan, MA ’85, is now president of the Anne Arundel County Historical Society Inc. They run a historic house museum with a local history and genealogy research library. Don Verdiani, ME ’71 (dlverdiani@ cs.com) writes from Westtown, PA, that he volunteers locally and nationally for the American Red Cross and county emergency services. He still loves his fast motorcycles and would love to hear from Dana Haden. Rick Greenberg of Lexington, KY, spends his free time with his grandchildren, feeding carrots to his horses, and learning ballroom dancing. After 39 years living in Dearborn MI, Anina and Ben Bachrach, PhD ’73, sold their home and moved to Estero, FL. Enjoy the weather, Ben. On the northern end of the Eastern Seaboard, Michael Smith (smithisretired@gmail.com) retired and relocated to Maine from New Jersey, and tells us, “Everything is cheaper up here, even the beer.” He spends his time playing with cars in his garage “where nothing is easy or cheap.” He and girlfriend Liz spent two weeks October in London, Edinburgh, and the Highlands. “London and Edinburgh had been favorite stops during my Wall Street days, but this time we were able to do the tourist thing.” He adds, “Son James and wife Lilly are architects in Boston. Grandson Wyatt turned 2 in November and likes cars (must be genetic). I took him to see the women’s ice hockey team play BU and he was fascinated by the Zamboni. Daughter Dawn is a radiologist in Lewiston, ME, and keeps a micro-farm going in Scarborough.” Jerry Greene has been a resident of Telluride, CO, for 37 years, founded KOTO radio, and continues as an active volunteer and disc jockey. He is the operator of Baked in Telluride, a bakery/deli central to the Telluride community. “Following the catastrophic fire in 2010, we rebuilt and reopened in June 2011, in a beautiful building replica of the old one.” He has traveled extensively in Latin America, and speaks Spanish well enough to direct his largely Spanish-speaking workers. “I have met the President and keep in close touch with my US senators and representatives.” Jerry also keeps in touch with David Marshall, an attorney in Seattle, Steve Marx, currently living in Tampa, and Thomas Marchitto of Washington, DC. Congratulations to Adam Sieminski, MPA ’71, who recently sent this news: “In January of this year, and in a not-so-whirly whirlwind, I was nominated by President Obama to run the Energy Information Administration (EIA). In March, I resigned from Deutsche Bank and took up a post at the White House doing energy issues on the National Security Council. In late May, the Senate voted to approve my nomination and I started at EIA in early June. With 360 federal employees and another 140 or so contractors to supervise, I’ve got my hands (and calendar) completely full from early to late. I thought that things would start to settle down after six months, but that has not been the case. This new job is definitely a whirlwind.” Well done, Adam—lots of success to you. Jeanie Douglas Smith (jeanie4816@yahoo. of this award from our class! The identity of our com) writes from Des Moines, IA. “Big changes in winning classmate is a mystery at this point, so 2009, when I lost my job as VP of reimbursement I am asking for your help. If YOU are the award for a national home infusion company when our winner, please let me know so that I can pass company was acquired by another company. Long the information on to Cynthia. If you know who story short, I am now a candidate to become a the winner is, I would appreciate that info as vocational deacon in the Episcopal Church. After well. The Class of 1964 is hoping to complete about three years of study, I am expecting to be their archive of all the award winners since their ordained in spring 2013. Old dog, new tricks! Hus- graduation—and the 1970 winner is the missing band Bill, who still makes me laugh after 43 years, link! Thank you! is still employed full-time and travels a lot, both James Winchester (avionic@aol.com) has nationally and internationally, consulting on elec- managed to significantly grow his business at tric transmission issues. He’s probably the only per- Avionic Products and Eon Instrumentation Inc. His son I know of who’s been to Moldova three times!” companies design and manufacture equipment for Jeanie is board chair of the FreeStore, a local 100 military and ground-based vehicles. Recently he percent volunteer organization that collects “gen- has been acquiring new Avionic businesses. How- tly used” furniture and household goods and gives ever, he would like to be playing more golf. James them to domestic violence victims and their fam- would like to reconnect with classmate George ilies as they move from shelters into new safe en- Lutz, as he has recently with George Zakielarz. vironments. “We help them ‘shop’ in our warehouse He adds that his brothers at Phi Sigma Kappa had and then load their new belongings in our trucks the greatest impact on him during his years on and move them in! It’s a great organization and the Hill. He and wife Diana Ford live in Beverly one that all the local Hills, CA. Gregory Morse members of my family can participate in.” Jeanie has four kids: Tyson, 38, who teaches AP European history and economics in Iowa City; ‘ Gary Cottrell discovered (winterkp@CLTcomm. net) and wife Jean live in Clear Lake, WI. He writes that he has been spending some of his time on wild river canoe McB, 36, director of marketing for Landauer why it’s called trips in northern Wisconsin. After working Publishing; Marcy, 34, a language arts and social studies teacher in Des Moines; and TD, 28, assistant to the ex- ’Hell’s Canyon. Alex Barna ’72 several years as a maintenance tech in the dairy products industry (cheese!), Gregory was invited to ply his trade ecutive director of In- in an upstart plant that novation Electricity and will separate the area’s Efficiency when he isn’t participating in a D.C.- cheese plant whey into its three components: dry area theatre company or playing water polo and protein, lactose, and sugar and water (which is Ultimate Frisbee. called “kow water” in the industry). The $12 mil- Plans for Reunion 2014 are afoot, with co- lion plant will focus on 80 percent dried protein chairs Lee Moseley Kleinman and Linda Schwartz for worldwide consumption and will be automat- Negrin at the helm. We also hear from class pres- ed to the point of having 12 full-time employees. idents Steve and Ingrid Dieterle Tyler that we For six months, he has been helping with con- need more class council members. Please contact struction for Wisconsin Whey Protein. Gregory either of them at idt3070@gmail.com, if you’re would like to be in touch with Cornell friends Tom interested or would like more info. John Wilkens, Tower and Gerald Shoemaker. ME ’71, our class webmaster, informs us that our Naomi Gardner Kaffee (Rockville, MD; naomi website is www.Cornell69.org and that you can find kaffee@gmail.com) is an artist who likes to paint additional information about volunteering at www. oil portraits, figures, landscapes (plein air), and alumni.cornell.edu/volunteer/resources. Please still life. She studies painting at the Yellow Barn send lots of news to: c Tina Economaki Riedl, and enjoys her water aerobics classes as well. triedl048@gmail.com. Online news form: http:// Last spring she took second place in the Oil and www.alumni.cornell.edu/participate/class-notes. Acrylics category with a painting called “Flora” cfm. CAM Digital Edition: http://www.cornell in a juried art show at the Glenview Mansion in alumnimagazine-digital.com. Rockville. In January 2012 she traveled to the Bahamas with her painting teacher and 20 oth- 70 Greetings! Spring has sprung, or at least started to arrive, in most of the country. Hope your er artists, including her son Elliott, 29. As you can imagine, the scenery was wonderful to paint. In 2010, she traveled to Europe for two weeks with both her sons, Ethan, 33, and Elliott. She winter was not too cold and snowy and that you also has a daughter Betsy, 28. Naomi has been are enjoying the change in the weather. As battling lung cancer for close to five years and always, remember that our 45th Reunion will be thus spends considerable time with doctors and in just over two years, June 4-7, 2015. That year in hospitals. She would rather be spending the is also the sesquicentennial of the founding of time painting, swimming, and traveling. Naomi the university. 150 years of Cornell! It will be a is interested in connecting with Anne Shipman very special reunion celebration to be sure. Also, MacFarland ’72. be sure to check out our recently revised website Ellen Kotsones Kreopolides (elliek76@verizon. (thank you class webmaster Jeff Haber, ME ’71) net) lives with her husband, Michael, in Wellesley at: cornell70.org. Hills, MA. She is president of their business, I have received a message and request from Snackin’ Healthy, which features healthy, freshly Cynthia Wolloch ’64, chair for the Class of 1964 baked snacks. Ellen has been developing this busi- JFK Memorial Award. She is seeking out the winner ness and organizing for selective clients, as well 72 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com as continuing to learn on the computer, reading through her library, designing and crafting needleart pieces and garments, and creating cookbooks— all while she is a deaconess at her church and helping her family! Recently she has been doing research and development for their product line and redesigning their website. Ellen tells us that having a freshly baked product with no processed ingredients and no preservatives takes time. She would like to be sitting outside more often and just enjoying the outdoor activities that New England has to offer. She would like to hear from Kathleen Moore–Alpaugh and Marcia Bergtraum. Ellen recalls that she brought clothes and a typewriter when she was a freshman at Cornell. She adds, “We did not need a fridge since we could eat in the dorm dining halls. Noyes Lodge was always open and the Cornell food was excellent.” Joli Adams continues to live in France with her husband, Claude Bertout. She spends her time reading, sorting through books and papers (due to a recent move), and visiting with family and friends, usually by e-mail. She also spends time resting and waiting to get back to her job as an editor. Joli is in the midst of working through cancer treatments at the topnotch and humane Saint Louis Hospital in Paris. They have also gone through a move after selling their apartment in Paris and buying a home on the North Brittany coast. She is happy to be settled in their new location. Although she would rather not be going through chemotherapy, she says that it has been a mild preventive protocol. Very recently she received flying colors during a checkup and so is moving to easier treatment steps next. She enjoys time with her two daughters and their children on two continents. Meanwhile she has gardened a bit, kayaked, welcomed their Seattle family to Brittany, and greeted a fourth grandchild last September. Joli would like to hear from Megan Cornish ’69. One of her Paris friends is Daniele Fornier Dupuis ’71. It is a small world. She is also in touch with corridor-mates Linda Jackson, MAT ’73, and Lane McClelland, MBA ’73, JD ’74. When she arrived at Cornell in 1966, she flew across the country with one big suitcase! Again, if you have any information about the 1970 winner of the Class of 1964 JFK Award, please let me know. c Connie Ferris Meyer, 16 James Thomas Rd., Malvern, PA 19355; e-mail, cfm7@cornell.edu; tel., (610) 256-3088. 71 Our classmates continue to author and publish books. Dave Glenwick has been the editor of two books published within the past two years: A Physician Under the Nazis: Memoirs of Henry Glenwick (Hamilton Books) and Methodological Approaches to Community-Based Research (American Psychological Association). Dave is a professor of psychology at Fordham U. Meanwhile, Gary Cokins has published his sixth business book. His most recent book, which was written for the American Inst. of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), is titled Strategic Business Management: From Planning to Performance. Gary writes that he recently semiretired from SAS, an analytics software vendor. However, he has kept himself busy by founding his own advisory firm, Analytics-Based Performance Management LLC (www.garycokins.com). Look for news about additional alumni authors in our next column. The retirement bug is spreading! Lisa Fremont Freund and husband Sid ’70 recently moved from New York to Naples, FL. Lisa and Sid are planning to be “snowbirds traveling back and forth from here (Florida) to the Berkshires.” Michael Emen is retiring after a 38-year career in securities regulation, the last 14 of which have been at NASDAQ. Michael notes that attending our 40th Reunion in 2011 caused him to focus his attention on whether and when to retire. Michael jump-started his plans for extensive travel in the years to come by taking an amazing two-week trip to South Africa/Zambia/Botswana with his wife, Gayle. Speaking of travel, Dave Carlstrom reports that he commutes from Seattle (where he lives) to the Washington, DC, area as CEO of Air Serv Int’l, a not-for-profit provider of “last mile” air transportation services in support of humanitarian programs and disaster relief operations. Air Serv’s main operational base is in Entebbe, Uganda. An appetite for travel is definitely part of the Carlstrom gene pool. Dave’s older son, Jesse, is director of international tourism for the Alaska Travel Industry Association in Anchorage, AK. His younger son, Josh, recently made his debut as an Anchorage-based first officer (co-pilot) for Alaska Airlines. Then there’s the incomparable Sally Clark Shumaker, our class VP of networking. Always “on the go,” Sally travels nationwide from her home base in Port Townsend, WA, both for business and pleasure. She takes special care to keep up with her good friends Kathy Menton Flaxman, Sharon Kahkonen, MS ’75, and Marianne Saphra. Ken Margolies, MPS ’11, who lives in Cold Spring, NY, received a second master’s! Working through the Cornell ILR school extension office in NYC, he earned an MPS degree. Thomas Nally, BArch ’72, the planning director of A Better City in Boston (tnally@abettercity.org), was appointed by Boston’s mayor to serve on the 25-person Fairmount Indigo Initiative Corridor Advisory Committee. When he’s not working, Thomas enjoys baseball (watching the Boston Red Sox or his son play), visiting the family’s vacation house on Cape Cod, walking with his young wirehaired dachshund, and reading. He would love to hear from his Cornell friend Marty Wander, BArch ’72. We received brief notes from a few additional classmates, and we encourage them—and you—to write more. Rudy Mitchell, also in the Boston area (rmitchell@egc.org), and wife Sara took a wonderful trip to Malvern, England, to attend son Joel’s wedding to Mary Pole. Jean Heckadon McCormick, BS Nurs ’71, is living in Darien, CT. Scott Feiler said that he would enjoy hearing from Greg Schill. Please do use the online news form to send us updates on your life: http://www.alumni.cornell. edu/participate/class-notes.cfm. Your correspondent (Gayle Yeomans) survived the first year of retirement despite the excitement of the bridge to my Catskills home being swept away during Hurricane Irene in 2011 (months of climbing back and forth up the mountain until it was replaced) and a horseback riding accident (the horse was OK; I had 10 broken ribs and a nice stay in a Kingston, NY, hospital) several months later. My latest (and, so far, safer) venture is writing reviews for the Hudson Valley Bluegrass Association online newsletter. Just before submission of this column, we received a wonderful e-mail from Harry LeVine III. Harry reports that he and wife Melissa have been living in Lexington, KY, for over ten years. This past year, they spent five months in Sweden, where Harry was on sabbatical (from the U. of Kentucky) as a Fulbright Scholar in the Dept. of Chemistry at Linkoping U. in Linkoping, Ostergotland, about 200 km south of Stockholm. More on Harry in a future column. Write to us! c Gayle Yeomans (gyeomans@gmail.com); and Linda Germaine-Miller (LG95@cornell.edu). 72 If you are reading this, it means that the Mayans were wrong and the world did NOT end on December 21, 2012. I take great pleasure in announcing the birth of my second granddaughter, Olivia Rose. She joins big sister Kasey, 4, as a potential Cornellian. Kasey has already attended many Cornell NorCal alumni functions, including the local Slope Day celebration and the group outing at the San Francisco Giants game in May. Oh, for you people on the East Coast—in case you had not heard— the Giants won the 2012 World Series in a fourgame sweep of the Detroit Tigers. ESPN may have briefly mentioned this triumph between innings of one of their frequent Red Sox-Yankees telecasts or after their daily Tim Tebow update. Jane Friedlieb Greenman (jgreenman3@ gmail.com) resides in NYC with her husband, Charles. Jane is VP for worldwide human resources for CommVault. She keeps busy with lots of work and world traveling, including visiting her oldest daughter, Margot ’00, in Brazil. Jane also enjoys bicycling, tennis, and the theatre. Arnold Rosenberg, BA ’71 (arosenberg760@gmail.com) is assistant dean at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego. He spends his time teaching, writing, singing, and reading. As assistant dean, Arnold is director of the school’s online graduate program in international tax and financial services. In the fall of 2012 he served as a visiting professor at the U. of Oregon School of Law. Although he enjoys teaching, Arnold would rather be living on a beach. He writes that he misses his friend Jon Palewicz ’71, who passed away a few years ago. Gary Cottrell, MAT ’75 (gary@ucsd.edu) also resides in San Diego with his spouse, Joan Sagotsky Rich. Joan’s daughter Kate is in her third year of law school at Seattle U., where she is doing very well. Gary’s children, Kyle, 11, and Tess, 14, are exhibiting many teenage qualities. A major accomplishment of his was to finally convince Kyle to accept his “Friend” request on Facebook. Gary completed a backpacking trip in Oregon, where he discovered why it’s called Hell’s Canyon. He suspects that poison ivy is being grown there as a cash crop. Dianne Gwynne Berger (bergerdgalt@gmail. com) reports that she LOVED our 40th Reunion weekend (who didn’t!) and would love to stay connected with our classmates. Dianne remembers that when she first arrived as a freshman at Cornell she brought with her a typewriter, clock radio, table lamp, record player, and sewing machine. What, no laptop or iPad? I, too, took a portable typewriter and a clock radio on the bus to Ithaca in 1968. But I left my sewing machine at home. Dianne wrote that she would enjoy visits from any classmates to her Red Bank, NJ, apartment, but I sincerely hope she didn’t suffer any damage to that apartment during Hurricane Sandy. I also hope that those of you in the New York/New Jersey areas managed to escape the storm’s wrath. I checked on Tony Provenzano, MD ’76, in New Rochelle, NY, and Bob Tausek, outside of Philly, and they both avoided any major storm damage. Prior to Reunion, I received a call from Merle Ladd Silverman of Foster City, CA, who was not able to attend the 40th. Jeri Sielschott Whitfield, an attorney with the firm of Smith Moore Leatherwood in Greensboro, NC, was appointed chair of the North Carolina State Bar’s Board of March | April 2013 73 Class Notes Legal Specialization. The appointment reflects Jeri’s dedication to the North Carolina State Bar and commitment to the legal profession for more than 30 years. She previously held various leadership positions with the State Bar and has been recognized for her litigation in the trial and appellate courts. Her civil practice includes handling toxic tort and asbestos-related litigation and premises liability claims. Jeri attended both Duke U. and George Washington law schools and received her JD, with honors, in 1977. Every summer, many Cornell alumni attend CAU. In the summer of 2012, classmate Patricia Weiss attended the class Left, Right, and Center: The Major Issues of the 2012 Election. Lastly, our thanks to Carol Fein Ross for writing this column with Gary and me for the past five years. Send news to: c Alex Barna, ab478@cornell.edu; or Gary Rubin, glr34@cornell.edu. 73 Right off the top, let me remind you that our 40th Reunion is straight ahead (check it out at www.cornell73.com), which means that many of you will be experiencing the new upperclass dorms on the West Campus! Men, I hear they make the old University Halls look like the bunkhouses at a logging camp. Also, be sure to give “Cornell Class of 1973” on Facebook a “Like,” and sign up for the Twitter feed @cuclassof73. This is so much better than the Morse Code and cuneiform tablet updates we used to use. But more about reunion after a few career notes. Leading off the class news . . . It’s official: as of December 3, Lt. Gen. John Paxton Jr., ME ’74, became a four-star general as assistant commandant of the US Marine Corps (ACMC). John (“Jay” to his friends) has served at the Pentagon before. Most recently, he was director of operations for the Joint Staff. He’s also served as the Corps’ assistant deputy commandant for programs and resources and as commanding general of Marine Corps Forces Command in Norfolk, VA. Among his new responsibilities as ACMC, he leads the service’s Executive Force Preservation Board, which among other things puts him in charge of bringing hazing under control. He’s also famous in Iraq for hosting “Marine nights” at his quarters at the Camp Victory complex, the former palace in Baghdad that served as a primary headquarters for coalition forces and senior leaders. We hear that his grilled hamburgers were the best in the Middle East, and that the cigars and beer—non-alcoholic, of course—weren’t bad either. It all started with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Civil Engineering from Cornell, and his commissioning in 1974. He worked his way up from platoon commander to regiment and eventually took leadership roles in all three of the Corps’ active-duty combat divisions. As a four-star general, he joins an exclusive club of 46 Marines in the history of the Corps who have held that rank. General, I have no doubt that if you come to reunion you’ll be in the best shape of any of us— although if the opportunity presents itself, I’m pretty sure I could show you ten chin-ups and 30 push-ups. It depends on how much time you have. In other news, Janet Gayler Fallon lives in Elkton, MD, and works for Siemens. She unwinds by sailing, gardening, and reading—anything to avoid housework—and now keeps up with her kids by checking their Facebook pages, which include the stuff the phone calls leave out. She and classmate (and husband) Bob recently spent a week sailing around the Chesapeake, and they look forward to longer retirement trips to Florida or Maine. In answer to the question, “What did you bring to Cornell when you first came?” Janet answers: “My electric typewriter, a basic black dress (as advised in the ‘what to bring’ literature), my record player, and my saddle.” Janet and Bob would like to hear from old friends Bill Shaw, Sarah Elder, and Ellen Gordon Hollander. David Pesses reports from Gloversville, NY, that he’s still practicing medicine at Nathan Littauer Hospital there. His wife, classmate Christine (Dickieson), is a substitute teacher and president of the board of trustees at the local library—which makes her the only respondent this month who ranks higher than General Paxton. David and Christine spend their free time visiting their three daughters and their four AFS students. They’d like to hear from old Cornell friends Frank Morra and Ed Woroniecki. Rich Isaacman reports from Edgewater, MD, that he’s pretty excited about being a grandparent. In fact, it’s even more exciting than his three weeks on safari in Africa, which included cage-diving among great white sharks. That first grandson is clearly pretty special—as he should be, given that his parents are both ’05 alums of Cornell Arts and Sciences. Rich has spent his career at NASA, overseeing a large team of scientists and engineers who’ve been working on missions including the Mars Curiosity rover, which made that magnificent sky-crane landing last summer and became the first rover with its own official Twitter page. Rich’s answer to the question “What did you bring to Cornell as a freshman?” was: “Awkwardness, mostly.” That appears to have been fixed. Charles Massey, MPS ’75, checks in from Kennedy, NY, as follows: “I do what I want to do when I want to do it and how I want to do it.” These days that includes woodworking, motorcycle touring, hunting, and fishing. Live the dream! Which brings me back to our fast-approaching 40th Reunion. If you stay on campus, you will experience Keeton House, one of the new West Campus upperclass residences (did I use the word “dorm” earlier?). Thursday dinner will be at Keeton for early arrivals; Friday cocktails are at Milstein Hall, with dinner following at the new Physical Sciences Atrium that now connects Baker Lab and Clark Hall; and Saturday cocktails are at Schoellkopf Field Terrace, followed by dinner at the Statler. Sunday brunch is back at Keeton. We’ve also planned a picnic on Beebe Lake. And the biggest news: professors LaFeber, Polenberg, and Norton have agreed to join us for a class forum that will put our four years in perspective. And considering the caliber of the panelists, the organizing committee figured why be stingy? So the session is being opened to all the reunion classes. Don’t hesitate to join one of the affinity groups. As a Glee Clubber myself, I admit it helps break the ice to be in the company of people who launch into 19th-century football fight songs after the fourth beer. I attended last year’s reunion of our ’69 and ’72 European tours and joined the current Club to perform some of the old repertoire under the direction of Prof. Sokol, who took a break from retirement to assist us in what turned out to be a remarkably in-tune bit of time-travel. I admit I could even feel some of that teenage energy stirring as I watched the younger folks party . . . which felt strange, because I remember being their age and looking at older alums wondering if it was any fun to be that old. Now I know: it’s not so bad. Except for the part where you get sleepy at around 9:30. So if you haven’t registered yet, I hope you will. You’ll find that even if you don’t think you know your fellow reunionists, being stewed in the same kettle during those years will give you plenty to talk about. And if you’re eager to take on a leadership position—which according to the latest medical research is the key to a long and fulfilling retirement—Wayne Merkelson, JD ’75 (wayne.merkelson@novartis.com) or Marty Slye Sherman (mjsherman73@gmail.com) will be happy to help. See you June 6-9, 2013! c David Ross, dave@daveross.com; Phyllis Haight Grummon, phg3@cornell.edu; Pam Meyers, psmeyers@ fuse.net. Class website, www.cornell73.com. 74 President Obama recently appointed Alex Krieger, BArch ’74, to membership on the US Commission of Fine Arts, which is charged with advising the Federal government and District of Columbia “on matters of design and aesthetics as they affect the Federal interest and preserve the dignity of the nation’s capital.” Alex is a professor in the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he has taught since 1977. This included stints as chair of the Dept. of Urban Planning and Design (1998-2004) and director of Harvard’s Urban Design Program (1992-2000). He is also a founding principal of the architecture and urban design firm of Chan Krieger Sieniewicz. From 1994 to 1998, he served as director of the National Endowment for the Arts Mayor’s Inst. on City Design. His publications include Remaking the Urban Waterfront and A Design Primer for Towns and Cities. Congratulations to Alex! I am sad to report that James Connor lost his wife last January. He tells us that he is adjusting to life as a widower. He enjoys working, running, and spending time with his two adult children and their families—and says there’s nothing else he’d rather be doing. I am sure that he would like to hear from his classmates. Jim Hood reports from Westport, CT, that he is still doing strategy consulting for a variety of clients, and especially enjoys working with early stage companies. He is a mentor at the Yale Entrepreneurial Inst., which he finds rewarding because he helps teams achieve their dreams. He regards himself as fortunate, but muses that “a beach on Maui is calling.” Elliot Davis tells us that all he brought to Cornell as a freshman was a steamer trunk full of clothes. He adds that he enjoys reading about presidential races and loves his work. He would like to hear from Delridge Hunter, GR ’75-77. What Walter Howard, ME ’76, brought to Cornell as a freshman is also a far cry from today’s freshman and their possessions. Instead of an iPod, he brought a stereo and reel-to-reel tape recorder. Walter is married to Nancy (Baldini) ’75 and runs AlterNrg, a Canadian listed renewable energy company. Although he enjoys his work, and has recently traveled to China and Europe, he would sometimes rather be skiing. He looks forward to doing so soon in Calgary, where he has an apartment. Claudia Benack, MS ’75 (Gaithersburg, MD) is involved in genome and protein sequencing and molecular diagnostics. I look forward to hosting Cornell alumnae and students this winter, as part of the President’s Council of Cornell Women’s mentoring efforts in Los Angeles. Last year’s well-attended event reminded me of how able Cornellians are, and how widespread their contributions to many disciplines. 74 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com I look forward to repeating that experience with this year’s students and alumnae. Keep the news coming! c Helen I. Bendix, hbendix@verizon. net; Betsy Moore, emoore@cazenovia.edu; Jack Wind, jjw@MWHLawfirm.com. 75 There’s a lot of news, so let’s get right to it. Ann Welge Schleppi, ACHP-SW (acschlepp@embarq mail.com) is in Las Vegas with husband Craig. She reports that when she’s not working in the pediatric program at Nathan Adelson Hospice, she is into “heavy duty cardio”—including Zumba classes—along with weight training and healthy (organic) eating. With some (but not too much) implied regret, Ann says she can’t eat those Domino’s pizzas and drink beer every night like she used to. Ann works a lot and also earned her certification as an advanced certified hospice and palliative care social worker. She says she would rather be “RV-ing around the country, but we haven’t won the lottery yet,” as well as volunteering at animal shelters. Ann would like to keep in closer contact with Janet Rosen Zarowitz. In response to the question, “What did you bring to Cornell when you first came?” Ann says she brought two suitcases of clothes, her cassette player, a Raggedy Ann doll, and her typewriter. (With my two daughters, two suitcases would never remotely be enough. They would probably recoil in horror at the mere thought.) Steve Graves (steve.graves@doubletreesc. com) is general manager of the Doubletree by Hilton in Columbia, SC, and enjoying life with his new bride of four years, Lou. Kenneth Torino, ME ’76, writes from Colchester, VT. He has started his own company, K-Tor LLC, and also a new family with wife Victoria. They have a 1-year-old now. Kenneth is happy doing what he is doing, and would most like to hear from Bud Anderson. When Kenneth went to Cornell, he took a “big red trunk.” Myra Young Armstead (armstead@bard.edu) is in Poughkeepsie, NY, where she has published Freedom’s Gardener: James F. Brown, Horticulture, and the Hudson Valley in Antebellum America (NYU Press, 2012). Myra has been teaching and doing book-related lectures and new research. Twenty-six years ago, Bernie MacCabe, MBA ’79 (bam15@cornell.edu) founded a Cornell Club in Basel, Switzerland—which now has 150 members! (Check out their Facebook page for more information.) Bernie is a partner at Ernst & Young, and by the time you read this, he should be enjoying his retirement. He has also been on the board of the Gilbert & Sullivan Society, which is now 8 years old. Over the past couple of years, they have been transitioning from a pure music appreciation society to one geared to performance as well. Bernie belongs to the “appreciation” wing, but they are all working toward putting on their first full-scale production, Trial By Jury, in June 2013. As Bernie notes, “It is quite a challenge with no money and all work being done by busy volunteers.” Son Kevin completed his second year of law school at the U. of Basel, and daughter Kelly, who had been volunteering in Vietnam and taking language courses in France and Spain, is now on to the U. of Basel. Dick Simon (rsimon@rsiholdings.com) lives in Newton, MA, with wife Patty. Son Alex was a senior at GW in D.C. at last report (and very active in youth social enterprise); daughter Katie was a freshman at the Gallatin School of NYU (including a gap year that took her through Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East; and son Ben was a senior at Newton North High School (and “a passionate entrepreneur”). Dick reports, “Patty is a talented and fine artist, working on a You Are Loved-Pass it On project” (www.pattym simon.com). As for Dick, after a career as a serial entrepreneur, primarily in real estate development and investment, he and Patty took their kids, then 6, 8, and 10 years old, out of school and went as a family for a year traveling around the developing world (www.simonfamily.org). For the last ten years Dick has been co-founder of the Young Presidents’ Organization Peace Action Network, galvanizing CEOs in over 100 countries to make a difference in areas of conflict and need. Dick Karen Axtell Arnold ’74 and husband Marc, and Margie Axtell ’66 and husband Russ Stevenson ’63. Joanne also reports something utterly inconceivable when we were at Cornell: attending a wedding in Atlanta where the Atlanta-based bride met the German-based (American) groom as a result of a random Twitter connection, followed by numerous e-mails and Skyping. As Joanne aptly puts it, “What a world we live in!” She is still working hard and planning her next travel adventure, while staying busy with her volunteer work on the board of directors of an adult daycare program that specializes in providing services to those coping with the effects of strokes and other disabilities. ‘ We hear that General Paxton’s grilled hamburgers were the best ’in the Middle East. David Ross ’73 has also become passionate about photography (www.dicksimonphotography.com), “an interest originally kindled with many all-nighters taking a photo class at Cornell.” Paul Dionisio, ME ’76 (paul_dionisio@msn. com) was planning to tour the Seneca Lake wineries with David Roth and his wife, Elaine, and Fred Fontana, ME ’76, and his wife, Pat. Paul’s children have all graduated: Matt from Raritan Valley CC with his associate’s degree, Chris from Princeton with his master’s, and Kayla from Watchung Regional High School. Fred, MBA ’77, and Jennifer Schroeder Johnson, MBA ’79, have celebrated the 50th anniversary of Johnson Estate Winery in Westfield, NY. The winery has a renovated tasting room, Sunday morning vineyard walks, and other activities. Fred founded the winery 50 years ago after serving as a pilot in the Navy, graduating from Cornell, and working in international agriculture. The Johnsons are third-generation owners, all Cornell graduates. And, in addition to this business news, Jennifer reports that son Spencer ’10 graduated from Cornell and now serves in the Navy (training in Niceville, FL, where Felix Beukenkamp and family live). Daughter Blaine is attending Dartmouth. Joanne Meder (jmeder@fpclark.com) welcomed Deb Gellman’s request for news, “just as I needed a brief distraction from the never-ending demands of my job as VP/Planning at Frederick P. Clark Assoc. in Rye, NY, a consulting firm providing planning, environmental, and traffic engineering services in the New York Metro area,” where Joanne has been employed since 1984. During the past two years, Joanne celebrated her parents’ 60th wedding anniversary with a surprise party hosted by Joanne and her sister Marilyn Meder Montgomery ’78 and husband Scott, MS ’78; traveled to Tunisia (“pre-revolution”) and Papua New Guinea, part of her “exploring the world every chance I get with two other Cornellians, Sherry Carr ’67, MILR ’70, and Paula Fitz ’83”; attended the Indianapolis wedding of Julie Hammer, daughter of Ann Van Valkenburg Hammer and husband Rick, along with Elaine Johnson Ayres and husband Ken, Ann Goodrich Edgerton and husband Paul, Ellen Roche and husband Mark, Mike Rosepiler, ME ’76 (mrosepiler@gmail. com) retired to Charlotte, NC, in December 2010 after 34 years in the oil industry. He is busy decorating a new house and travels frequently visiting friends and family, including cruising the Caribbean with his significant other during his first week of retirement. Mike manages his investments, trains for future triathlons, and hopes to enroll in one of the local colleges for a few “fun” courses.” He would enjoy hearing from Brian Glover, ME ’76, his fraternity roommate. Keep the news coming! c Mitch Frank, MJFgator@ gmail.com; Karen DeMarco Boroff, boroffka@ shu.edu; Joan Pease, japease1032@aol.com; Deb Gellman, dsgellman@hotmail.com. 76 Greetings! I can’t believe that I have been sharing the writing of this column for 30-plus years! Always lots to tell, so here we go. John Sander, JD ’80, has joined the partnership at Jackson Lewis LLP in New York, one of the country’s largest and fastest-growing workplace law firms. John brings over 15 years of senior management experience in employment and labor counseling and litigation within the US and globally. In 2011, Ellie Friedland co-edited the book Come Closer: Critical Perspectives on Theatre of the Oppressed, published by Peter Lang Inc. Constance Tarasek has been lambing and working, and spends her leisure time motorcycling, snowmobiling, and raising sheep. Denise Fotopulos Zitzmann writes from Ohio. She and her husband, George, have started a marriage mentoring program at their church to help provide the tools to understand God’s design for marriage. Robert Gabel spends his time gardening, doing home repairs, growing orchids and other exotic plants, and traveling for work and pleasure. He is fixing up his primary home, as well as his vacation home in the Northern Neck area of Virginia, in anticipation of retirement in the next one to two years. Thomas Davis, BArch ’77, is at the U. of Tennessee College of Architecture and Design. He had his design work, and the work of his students, published in the book Moving March | April 2013 75 Class Notes Tennessee Forward: Models for Connecting Communities. The book demonstrates a range of transit-oriented development ideas for different communities in the Nashville region. Thaddeus Rutkowski, BFA ’76, has been awarded a fellowship in fiction writing from the New York Foundation for the Arts. He is the author of the innovative novels Haywire, Tetched, and Roughhouse. He teaches at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn and the Writer’s Voice of the West Side YMCA in Manhattan. Lillian Nawrocki is the chief forensic dentist for Suffolk County, NY. She is also a contributing author for the American Society of Forensic Odontology Manual of Forensic construction permit application and preliminary safety analysis report for submittal to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the first quarter 2013.” Alice Mascette (amascette@gmail.com) sends a hello back to former roommate Lisa Marshall! Please write to her at the above address. Alice adds, “I am still at the National Institutes of Health, as senior clinical science advisor in the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences. Stepson Sky is a mechanical engineering student at Virginia Tech (Go Hokies! Undefeated in basketball at the time of this note), and stepdaughter Maya is enjoying the transition to high school and wishes she could drive at 14.” I serve as chairman, which means I ‘sit in a chair . . . usually on a plane. ’Joe Lupica ’76 Dentistry. Cindy Powell has been president of the American Board of Medical Genetics for the past year. She works as chief of the Division of Genetics & Metabolism at UNC, Chapel Hill, where she teaches other medical students and residents, sees patients with genetic disorders, and does research. Her leisure time is spent hiking, traveling, and attending Tar Heels basketball games. Lucinda Antrim tells how she and her children have all survived their teen years, though one has just followed in his grandfather’s (Jack Antrim ’41) tire tracks and purchased a motorcycle! Lucinda stays engaged with the endlessly fascinating practice of psychoanalysis and, for one more year, with trips up to Cornell to visit daughter Tess ’13. George O’Connor (Little Rock, AR) writes that to help keep people happy in these troubling times, he sells beer. Kathryn Foss Castle manages a number of roundtables in various industries. She recently moved from Long Island to Manhattan and is busy exploring and enjoying life there. One of Kathryn’s daughters just got married and another will be getting married soon. Arden Handler is a professor of maternal and child health at UIC School of Public Health in Chicago, IL. She is also a member of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality. Steve and Kathryn Gollin Marshak live in Champaign, IL. Their two children and daughter-in-law are now Cornell alumni. After reconnecting with classmate and new neighbor Diane Baker, they have created a new alumni organization: Cornell Community of Central Illinois. Their most recent event was a summer send-off of local students, both incoming freshmen and current undergrads. Numerous local alumni joined them for an exciting gathering that included all ages. Maureen McHale is involved in nature photography and sells note cards made with her photos at her town’s farmers’ market. It’s a great way to socialize and get critiques of her work from other local photographers. In September, Brent Pogue, ME ’77, accepted a new position with SHINE Medical Technologies in Madison, WI—a bit divergent from nuclear power plant licensing, which is his usual consulting assignment. SHINE has developed a new, proprietary process for making molybdenum-99, widely used in medical imaging procedures. “The licensing work is for special nuclear materials and I am involved in writing the Watt Webb is at Barclays in Beverly Hills, managing portfolios for ultra-high net worth families, execs, and entertainers and is still living in Malibu. “Our son Wiley is a happy, productive freshman at Stanford, composing and performing EDM (electronic dance music) and studying computer science, symbolic systems, design, and entrepreneurialism. My wife, Wendy, is on the board of Jack in the Box, and looking at other boards and consulting. We’re beginning the process of spending more time in New Zealand and developing our businesses there.” Rebecca Lanxner Nebesar writes of her first novel, The Moon in the Morning. From Amazon: “Set in the present, this richly illustrated magical realism novel is a coming of age tale in the digital age. Harnessing the power of creativity in words, stories, music, and art, the heroine, a 12-year-old girl named Jean, learns important life lessons after her grandmother dies.” Lynda Gavigan Halttunen and husband Don went on a fabulous “till death do us part” 24-day cruise to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, and Montenegro. Lynda retired from Palomar College after 28 years. She and Don have two children, Alana, 16, and David, 26, who has started graduate school at San Diego State U. Joe Lupica, JD ’79, writes, “Thirty-three years after our wedding at Sage Chapel, I’m happily married to my college and law school sweetheart, Anne (Hinkley), JD ’79 (Vassar ’76). We are now empty-nesters, but both working hard. I’m still helping hospitals affiliate, merge, or resist either choice. Our new healthcare consulting firm is approaching its first anniversary. I serve as chairman, which means I just sit in a chair . . . usually on a plane.” Joe is still playing piano and doing a cappella singing (“Once a Waiter, always a Waiter”). Their son Charlie is a 2L at NYU’s law school, and daughter Katie is a theatre director/dramaturg/editor in NYC. “They get along so well that they share an apartment in the City.”Karen Krinsky Sussman, Krinsk54@gmail. com; Pat Relf Hanavan, patrelf1@gmail.com; Lisa Diamant, Ljdiamant@verizon.net. 77 Well into the New Year, and thoughts turn to . . . what are my Cornell classmates doing? Luckily for you, I have lots of information. From my former floormate on the first floor of Clara Dickson, John Spees reports that after 23 years working as a research specialist in entomology, specifically insect management in vegetables, for Virginia Tech, he switched his career in 2005 and has been working as a freelance translator. His son, Joshua, who is following in his footsteps, is currently working for Advanced Pest Control Services and is thinking about a master’s in entomology. Daughter Genevieve is a lawyer in South Carolina. John’s memories of Cornell: “Swimming in the Gorge, which I realize is now no longer allowed, and the pub at Noyes Center on Friday nights. Don’t know whether that’s still open.” West Campus has indeed had a complete makeover—the replacement of the U-Halls with beautiful residential houses, and a new Noyes Center. It’s unclear if there’s still a pub, but dining is now in the residential houses. John would like to hear from Karl Wittig ’76, ME ’77, and Otto Buchert. Ross Lanzafame, MPS ’79, has been named chair of the American Lung Association’s National Board of Directors, with the goal being to direct the national and regional associations to advance their mission of saving lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease. Ross was also recently elected to a three-year term on the board of directors of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. He remains a partner in the Harter Secrest & Emery LLP law firm, where his healthcare practice focuses on assisting hospitals and nursing homes with government regulatory and reimbursement issues. Karen Zelkind Buglass is in her eighth year of teaching fourth grade at Green Acres School, a progressive pre-K-8 school in the Washington, DC, area. Husband Ralph ’75 retired last year and is taking courses at American U. and serving as a “history host” at a restored one-room schoolhouse in Clarksburg, MD. Karen has been playing the dulcimer for six years and recently took up the autoharp and bowed psaltery (which I had to look up and which shows you my level of musical sophistication). Karen loves to attend summer music festivals and is yet another of our tremendously talented classmates. Daughter Amy (Ithaca College ’06) has begun a master’s degree at Goucher College in digital art and is a weekend DJ at MIX 107.3 in D.C. Jone Sampson lives in Lake Oswego, OR. She is an associate professor of molecular and medical genetics at the Oregon Health and Science U., as well as director of Clinical Cancer Center Genetics at the Knight Cancer Center. Daughter Lizzie is graduating from Colorado College in 2013, daughter Maggie is graduating from Catlin Gabel High School in 2013, and daughter Emma is a freshman at Lake Oswego High School. Jone’s favorite Cornell memory is the Sage Chapel Choir. Michael Thompson will be celebrating ten years as president/CEO and majority owner of Fair Oaks Farms LLC, a premium meat protein-based company with two manufacturing facilities in Wisconsin. His wife, Michele (Toppin) ’74, is doing well, as are his three children, Michael, 33, Kafi, 27, and Jeremy, 19. Their first grandchild is 3, with another on the way. Michael’s best Cornell memory is walking to class from North Campus and realizing that he was among the best and brightest students in the world (on behalf of your classmates, I thank you for this comment). He also has fond memories of playing varsity basketball for Cornell. Peter Wirth develops boutique hotels in unique locations. After leaving the Hassler Hotel in Rome, he was in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, and is now developing an alpine retreat, the 76 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com Artemis Hotel, in Saas-Fee in the southern Swiss Alps. (I was actually there as a kid and can tell you it is a really beautiful place with great hiking.) Son Nicholas ’10 has been there for a year and is being trained by Peter to take over the business. They are planning to develop two more hotels under management. If you are in the vicinity, stop by and check out Peter’s hotels and Saas-Fee. Peter’s favorite Cornell memory: when he transferred from the Lausanne Hotel School to Cornell in January 1975, there was no dorm space, so he slept on a foldout bed in the conference room of the Statler Hotel. He would like to hear from Hotelie Maurice Angers ’79. Bill Nye was recently tapped as an honorary member of the Quill and Dagger honor society and is a Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of ’56 Professor. For those who have been in hibernation for the past 20 years, Bill is known for inspiring generations of scientists and for his 100-episode PBS series, “Bill Nye, the Science Guy.” Bill was VP of the Planetary Society from 2005-10 and still sends out solicitation letters for support (which I do not throw out but respond to with alacrity). He worked with students and the Cornell administration to design and build a solar noon clock atop Rhodes Hall, which for those who graduated in 1977 and have not been back to campus recently, is on the Engineering Quad across from Hoy Field. Bill also participates in the NASA Mars Exploration Rover missions and, as my daughter can attest, will appear from time to time to teach Astronomy 101. Stephani Wilson Humrickhouse is a US Bankruptcy Court judge in the eastern District of North Carolina, with her office in Raleigh. Stephani spends her weeks in court and weekends traveling, cooking, and enjoying life with husband Scott. She is also learning how to speak Spanish and play bridge (both on her bucket list). She says that when she came to Cornell as a freshman, she brought a hot plate, a small rug, linens, pens, paper, and her naiveté. (Only the last item is still in abundance among freshman now.) Stephani would like to hear from Sam Rosmarin. A. Zoe Barrell Aicher lives in Medford, NY, with her husband, Robert. Daughter Ariel ’13 is graduating this year. Congratulations! I hope Zoe and Robert have made their housing and restaurant reservations. Fred Stellato, in Eldred, NY, works on landscaping and gardening and as a florist. Kenneth Myers, married to Marianne Elrick, is chief curator and curator of American art at the Detroit Inst. of Arts, an amazing place. If you are ever in Detroit, make sure to visit. Their daughter Sarah ’13 will also be graduating this spring. (There may be a mini-Class of ’77 reunion at this year’s Cornell graduation.) Congratulations in advance for this accomplishment. On a visit to his daughter, Kenneth also saw his old hiking partner from Cornell, Michael Hecht, who lives in Princeton, NJ. Michael is a professor of chemistry at the local university. Last but not least, John Molinda lives in Pittsburgh, PA, where he consults for energy companies and starts energy-related businesses. He enjoys watching his daughter play soccer for Penn State and has a daughter who is a Cornell alumna. He also enjoys biking, windsurfing, skiing, golfing, and going to Cornell reunions and Homecoming. He is getting more involved with Cornell alumni and related events and is reuniting with old mountain biking and windsurfing friends. He would like to be more involved with national and state energy policy activities and would like to hear from Hayward Zwerling. He remembers bringing a duffle bag of clothes and a backpack to Cornell as a freshman . . . and that was it. Please keep all of your news and views coming in to: c Howie Eisen, heisen@drexelmed.edu; Annette Mulee, annette@mulee.com. 78 Nancy Wilderspan Rogers, a plant sciences major at Cornell, recently became a master gardener. Although her day job involves working at the family security business, she would rather be working in applied plant sciences and pursuing this path to stay connected with the field and meet and teach others interested in gardening. Nancy would like to hear from Audrey Jaffa Grider. Look for Mark Rust in his first feature film, The Green Blade Rises, next year. Produced by Terrence Malick, it is the story of Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood. Called in to play hammered dulcimer for a dance scene, he ended up acting and playing fiddle, along with Jay Ungar (from the PBS “Civil War” series) in several other scenes, which may or may not be cut from the final production. Dave Guevara recently published two research notes on how to translate cost optimization initiatives into action. His days doing enterprise architecture research with Gartner feature calls with Mumbai and London in the morning, Australia and India in the evening, and parts in between during the day. He recently enjoyed a vacation in San Jose, Costa Rica. Bill Hines returned to Ohio when security became an issue after working in Mexico for six years. Bill has reached 34 years with Lincoln Electric, which he calls “one of the most interesting incentive-managed companies in the world.” His daughter Eva, in the master’s program at American U. in international studies and Arabic, interned for US Sen. Sherrod Brown. Son Jacob is at Emerson College in Boston studying audio postproduction sound design and is taking fan photos for the Celtics. Bill keeps in touch with Bryan Plude, Steve Gates, John Haynes, and Robert Connery. A consultant for nonprofit and local government organizations, Levend Beriker has decided to do less flying this year and spend more time at home in Victoria, Canada. His son is graduating from Queens U. in civil engineering, and his daughter is studying mechanical engineering at U. of Toronto. Levend is in contact with classmates Irene Anderson, Sunny Bates, Muharrem Kayhan, and Erhan Kudeki, PhD ’83. Living outside of Boston, Joyce Chiu enjoys the New England seasons with her husband, son, dog, and two cats. Her job leading global project teams to develop and launch products worldwide has her engaged in everything from contracts, capital projects, product specs, and testing to quality systems. Skiing the Alps and family travel have recently brought her to Italy, Amsterdam, Austria, Budapest, Andorra, and Barcelona. In 2011, she visited her native Taiwan with her parents, both healthy octogenarians, during the centennial celebration of the founding of the Republic of China. An avid photographer, Joyce published seven photography books using online self-publishing tools and serves as event photographer for the Boston chapter of the Int’l Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering. She is also a board member of the New England Association of Chinese Professionals; as editor-in-chief, she published a 100-plus-page book for the annual conference, in Chinese. Anne Holliday Jones has also been doing some world travel—along with scuba diving, cycling, and hiking—since retiring as a case manager for the Colorado Springs Teen Court Juvenile Diversion Program. Her daughter Haley, 25, is a flutist in the Navy Concert Band and working on a master’s degree in flute performance. Daughter Corinne is a senior at Miami U. of Ohio, on an athletic scholarship for diving. Another happy retiree is Melinda Dower, who said good-by to the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection with 33 years and a government pension. With both children out of college and employed, she is looking forward to some travel and R&R. Melinda recently joined classmate Patricia Reilly for the Frozen Apple pregame party and hockey game, where they met Cynthia Kubas and discovered that they had all played rugby at Cornell! Janet Bilton Reyes moved to Redlands, CA, in 2010 and now enjoys walking to work at Aerial Information Systems, where she and husband Ed make maps using GIS technology. Despite having mental health challenges, her older son, Matt, 21, lives independently in an apartment. Janet started a blog (climbingthecindercone.wordpress.com) to share resources with other families facing similar situations. Younger son Stephen, 19, is spending a year in Phoenix learning to be a motorcycle mechanic. Janet visited Janet Borkowski Grundy and husband David in Austin, TX, a few years ago and stays in touch with other Cornellians from Alpha Phi Omega. Ronni Chasin Roth spends her time teaching fifth graders in the Bronx, traveling, reading, and hiking. She’s excited to report that her niece is a freshman in the Ag college. Bob Lerner sent in an update on two more young Cornellians: his daughter Dana ’14 is a Theater Arts major, and son Jordan has been accepted to Arts and Sciences in the Class of ‘17. Your friends and classmates are looking forward to seeing you back on the Hill this spring for our 35th (gasp!) Reunion, June 6-9. If there are special people you would like to see, send them a reunion e-postcard at http://www.alumni.cornell. edu/reunion/postcards/. Meanwhile, send all your news and updates to me or Cindy at: c Ilene Shub Lefland, ilefland@snet.net; or Cindy Fuller at cindy@cindyjfuller.com. 79 The fall semester is drawing to a close and we are in the midst of the holiday season as I write this column. It has been a busy year for Bob and me. In March, we were in Boston and visited Dan and Joan Baker Scott. Dan continues to do financial management for a company that services student loans, and Joan is a middle school librarian in Northborough, MA, where they live. Their daughter Christie was trying out for the high school lacrosse team when we visited. Dan and Joan were also completing their purchase of a second home on Cape Cod, where they enjoy spending time in the summer. In June we spent a few days in Healdsburg, CA, with my old roommate, Denise Gilbert. She was a great guide for our visit to the wine country. Denise has become an expert in grooming Portuguese water dogs, thanks to her own dog, Carly. She is still active hiking and camping whenever the opportunity arises. In August we continued our wine tasting in Romulus, NY, with a visit to Goose Watch and Swedish Hill wineries, both owned by the family of Cornell classmate Dave Peterson. We also enjoyed seeing Brad and Mary Maxon Grainger, MPS ’87, and their daughters Aileen and Erin ’13 on this quick trip through New York. Aileen graduated with her master’s in teaching from Ithaca College and March | April 2013 77 Class Notes was preparing to start a new teaching job at Cayuga Heights Elementary School, and Erin was ready to begin her senior year at Cornell. The Graingers were preparing to visit their daughter Maura in Boston later in the month before she moved to Orange County, CA. Jeff Berg, ME ’80, MBA ’81 (JeffreyFBerg@ aol.com) reports that he is excited to have all his children graduated from college, employed, and out on their own. Blake (Syracuse ’12) is working for Turner Construction in NYC; Lowell (Ohio U. ’12) is in Syracuse working for IMG Certified Ticket Solutions; and Samantha ’09 is in San Francisco working for a mobile technology design agency. The Bergs plan to spend the winter at their home in Scottsdale, AZ, while their home in Westchester, NY, is on the market. Beth Silverman and Barry Kahn celebrated their son Elliot’s bar mitzvah this past fall in Newton, MA. Larry and Maura McCallen Barstow ’80, Jane Lowell Evans, ME ’80, Nancy Seidman ’80, Betsy Graham Keener ’80, and Karen Secular ’80 joined in the celebration. They recently heard that Chris Neill ’80 is doing research in Brazil and East Africa for the National Science Foundation as part of his academic position in the Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown U. They also heard from Holly Jander Williams ’80 that Martin Fisher is doing well and enjoyed visiting the Williams’s home in the Portland, OR, area. Bill Tanenbaum, JD ’79 (wtanenbaum@kaye scholer.com) writes from NYC that he is the chair of the Intellectual Property and Technology Transactions and the GreenTech and Sustainability Group at Kaye Scholer. He was named “Lawyer of the Year 2013” in Information Technology Law in New York by Best Lawyers in America and is ranked in the first tier in Technology and Outsourcing in New York by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. His recently published articles include “Big Weather and Cloud Computing: Lessons from (Hurricane) Sandy” in Law360 and “Election 2012 Lessons for the Business Use of Big Data” in the American Lawyer’s Law Technology News. His daughter, Kayla, is an undergraduate at Columbia, Class of 2014. Dennis Conway (bansheewail2001@aol.com) enjoys traveling when he isn’t teaching college, doing research, and reading and writing in Valdosta, GA. He published two articles last year in the Journal The British Are Coming Paul O’Shaughnessy ’79 I n his spare time, Paul O’Shaughnessy dresses up in eighteenth-century garb and runs around battlefields throughout New England. Such are the duties of a Revolutionary War re-enactor. The Lexington, Massachusetts, resident plays the role of a Redcoat officer who aims to quell the colonial revolt. He and his colleagues replicate the outfits that British soldiers would have worn in 1775—from uniforms and belts to bayonets and muskets—much of which they make themselves. After doing drills and taking on ranked roles within the regiment, they participate in mock battles. They stage about eight major re-enactments per year, with the clashes often taking place in or near their historical locations. “We’re taking history off the pages of a book,” O’Shaughnessy says, “and bringing it to life to show the public what the Revolution really looked like.” A quality assurance officer at a biotech company, O’Shaughnessy caught the re-enactment bug in the summer of 1972 when he took a summer job as a tour guide on the Lexington Battle Green, the site of the Revolution’s first conflict. After viewing a battle re-creation, the teenage O’Shaughnessy signed on with the Redcoats. While O’Shaughnessy’s current roles vary, he most often portrays Major John Pitcairn, a Royal Marine who served as a commander at Lexington and later died in the Battle of Bunker Hill. For O’Shaughnessy, the most rewarding aspect of the hobby is the chance to educate viewers, especially children, about the war’s historical importance. “We’re trying to get across a deeper understanding of how the events of those revolutionary days affect us today,” he says. “When people throw around words like ‘liberty’ and ‘freedom,’ we want them to know what they really mean—and the responsibilities that go with them.” — Monique Hall ’14 of Media Education: “Why Teachers Should Assign Mandatory Page Counts in Screenwriting Classes” and “Are Incentives From US State Film Offices to Media Productions Worth the Money?” Klaus Dimmler, ME ’80 (Klaus@dimmler. com) lives with his wife, Jeanne, in Colorado Springs, CO. He writes that he spends his time thinking of ways to improve the world, but would rather be hanging with friends on a tropical island. He enjoys scuba diving because he loves the underwater world. W. Scott Gould (Bethesda, MD; gouldws@verizon.net) serves as deputy secretary of the US Dept. of Veterans Affairs. He is working to increase healthcare access, eliminate homelessness, and process benefit payments to veterans. Landscape architect and writer Marc Peter Keane discussed his design plan for a new contemporary East Asian Garden at Cornell in November 2012. The garden is planned for Comstock Knoll adjacent to the Nevin Welcome Center at Cornell Plantations. In 2011 Marc designed the Tiger Glen Garden at the Johnson Art Museum. He has published several books on the design of Asian gardens and spent 18 years in Japan at the Kyoto U. of Arts and Design. During that time he was the chairman of Kyoto Mitate Int’l, an international NPO that was working to revitalize Kyoto’s traditional environment and unique cultural heritage. He is presently a research fellow at Cornell and the Research Center for Japanese Garden Art. When not traveling I have been working hard on completing my EdD in instructional technology. My husband, Bob Gould, marked his tenth anniversary as marketing manager at Snyders-Lance, and I have been teaching nutrition at Towson U. for seven years. We also keep busy helping our children Brandon and Allison with renovation projects in their new homes outside of Washington, DC. Brandon is an analyst for the Inst. for Defense Analysis and just completed his first semester of law school at George Mason U., and Allison is a communications professional in the Administrative Office of the US Courts. Please continue to keep in touch with us so that we can inform classmates about your news. You can also keep up with class events by joining CornellConnect (http:// www.alumniconnections.com/olc/ pub/CEL/homepage.cgi), our Facebook page (“Cornell University Class of 1979”), and the Cornell Class of ’79 LinkedIn group. As always you can submit news to us throughout the year at classof79@cornell.edu, or directly at: c Kathy Zappia Gould, rdgould@comcast.net; Linda Moses, mosesgurevitch@aol.com; or Cynthia Ahlgren Shea, cynthiashea@ hotmail.com. 80 Your scribe for this issue is between a rock and the Engineering Physics major. Thanks to an e-mail blast to our class from the Alumni Magazine staff, my trolling 78 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com of the Cornell Class of 1980 group on The Facebook, the faithful delivery of paper goods by the US Postal Service, the class notes form at alumni.cornell.edu, and an actual face-to-face conversation at the Cornell-Columbia football game last November, the notes pipeline is fully stuffed with your news. Therefore, per a stern directive from lead correspondent Dik Saalfeld, this article will contain no ripping yarns, shaggy dog stories, non sequiturs, tangents, or the requisite laudatory reference to our brilliant and accomplished lead correspondent, Dik Saalfeld. To your news! Classmates Beth Santa and Tim O’Connor were married last October in Redding, CT. An interesting facet of this romance is that Beth and Tim were first introduced to each other by our class president, Jill Abrams Klein, at our 25th Reunion. In attendance were Martha Bonthuis Sutyak, with husband John, Cathy Barto Meyer ’81, with husband Jack, and Meredith VandenHandel ’81. “Making a huge mid-life change,” reports another victim of Cupid’s arrow, Terri Ann Lowenthal. After reconnecting via Facebook with her Cornell-era beau, Terri has moved from Connecticut to Cayuga Heights to be with him and his three children. “It’s never too late for love or to start over again, and I’ll be living out my life far above Cayuga’s waters!” We switch from the beau to the bow. Jennifer Bord Martens is a mom and violin teacher living in Austin, TX. Jennifer has started a series of group string classes for beginners in rural areas without access to school orchestras. She has one son at the Whitman School at Syracuse, another studying architecture at Pratt, and two teens at home. Roberta Walter Goodman is officially retired, but staying busy. She teaches part-time at Vanderbilt’s Owen Management School, rides dressage horses, and travels, most recently to Taiwan and Israel. Oldest step-grandson Ezra is a junior at the U. of Chicago. Cornell’s Adult University has presented programs on every continent, led by incomparable faculty guides. For those less stricken with wanderlust, CAU offers on-campus summer sessions on diverse topics. Classmates Stacy Hoffman Herman, Barbara O’Mara Hinsley, Lucille Ircha, Lauren Miller, David Rivas, Monica Rogers Rothstein, and Jeffrey Taub headed back to campus last summer to attend classes on wine, wild weather, tennis, gorges, cuisine, and even math. We occasionally receive news of classmates facing life challenges, and many of those inspire us. This came to us from Andre van Hall in late December: “These last 18 months have had some of the most profound and significant changes in my life. Late last September, I abruptly lost my eyesight due to a non-arteritic ischemic optic neuropathy. Within two weeks of diagnosis, I was no longer able to drive, and had to rely on a cane for all my travel needs. That was compounded by a very difficult year at work with the board of directors. Nancy was driving me everywhere, so we decided to move closer to town, where I had more dependable transportation. We successfully sold our home and bought a beautiful duplex five miles from work and within walking distance to the light rail. The move went flawlessly. Both my kids graduated from college, a tremendous and uplifting experience for all of us. We enjoyed wonderful visits to the Bay Area that culminated with two weeks of training at Guide Dogs for the Blind, a terrific organization. My issues with the board culminated in my termination in late October. I am blessed to have had ten fantastic years at the Denver Athletic Club and know I have left it a much better place than when I started. I am now trying to reinvent myself, and look with enthusiasm to a future full of promise.” Jack McGowan is a project manager at Insyte Consulting, an economic-development purposed consulting firm in Buffalo. “I provide consulting services and business coaching to small and medium-sized manufacturing companies and tech startups in the areas of strategic and business planning, product development, process improvement, and startup financing.” Jack is also director of Buffalo Angels, an angel investment fund that supports Western New York startup companies. Debbie Palumbo-Sanders was the recipient of the 2011 Excellence in Integrated Pest Management award for the program she developed for Lucas Greenhouses in Fairport, NY. Ann Greenberg is a licensed clinical and school psychologist in Greenwich, CT, and is the author of the book How to Keep Your Child Out of Special Education, available on Amazon in paperback and in eBook format. Thanks to all of you who have sent news, and thanks for your patience as we work through the backlog. c Dana Jerrard, dej24 @ cornell.edu; Cynthia Addonizio-Bianco, caa28 @ cornell.edu; Leona Barsky, leonabarsky @ aol.com; Dik Saalfeld, rfs25 @ cornell.edu. 81 Well, the holidays are past and it’s the dark of winter as I write—and a brisk 65 degrees here! OK, it did rain in Southern California . . . along with some great surf! We had a busy fall with our daughter Caroline’s bat mitzvah and our son Tyler getting his driver’s license. We also celebrated the tenth anniversary of our business, Bogart’s Coffee House, in Seal Beach, CA, so we reached a lot of milestones this year! So much news to deliver! We learned that our classmate Rear Admiral Christopher Mossey, PE, CEC, retired from the US Navy as Commander, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Chief of Civil Engineers on October 26, 2012, having served for more than 30 years. Michael Hoherchak has taken a position with the consulting firm Decision Strategies Int’l (DSI), known for its expertise in strategic decision-making and managing uncertainty. “DSI provides customized programs to develop leaders to be more strategic, agile, and innovative,” writes Michael. He is heading up the Consumer Products and Related Industries Practice Group. Eric Alderman writes, “My wife, Liz (Meller) ’83, and I welcomed our son Jeremy ’16, a CALS freshman, home for fall break and it brought back memories of freshman year when, in November 1977, my U-Hall 5 Wine Cellar-mates and I started the ‘We Want a Week’ rally on the Dust Bowl that eventually led to Fall Break. In fact, my wife and I ran into Frank Rhodes on campus when we were there last September and reminisced about that fateful night, which he recalled with great fondness. Would enjoy hearing from my Wine Cellar-mates.” Classmate author Dave Stevens writes, “In an attempt to disprove the theory that engineers can’t write, my first novel, Resurrect, was published by Lion Hudson in August. It’s an apocalyptic thriller and is a Colorado Gold finalist for best action thriller of the year. It is also being considered for a movie by a major studio. The book’s been described as a cross between The Bourne Identity and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Dave notes that he enlisted the expertise of Cornell professor Joe Veverka, the principal investigator on this year’s Stardust-NEXT comet mission and former chairman of the Astrophysics department. Christine Ritenis writes, “After years of rejection (and some acceptance) in the world of I-do-it-for-love literary journals, I am thrilled to report that I am now a paid writer. My latest essay, ‘There is No Such Thing as a Perfect Waffle,’ will appear in the wonderful Brain Child magazine’s teen issue this spring.” Alxe Noden lives in Boulder, CO, with her husband and their two dogs and is a writer and photographer. Her newest book, Showing Kunga: From Pet Owner to Dog Show Junkie, was published in 2012. She is already working on her next book and (perpetually) on a novel, as well as doing freelance writing and editing. She and her husband/co-author/photographer have traveled the country lecturing and giving workshops on contemplative landscape design and landscape photography. Hartford, CT-based attorney Pamela Bulcroft Moore, the practice group leader of the labor and employment group at McCarter & English LLP, a Northeast regional law firm, has written a book entitled Connecticut Employment Law that was published by American Law Media. The book is a comprehensive handbook and a practical survey of the law that governs employer-employee relations in Connecticut. Lisa Tipton is living in NYC with her husband, Sebu Sirinian, a Romanian violinist, and their daughter Adrianna. Lisa has been working professionally as a violinist for over 25 years. She performed internationally with the Meridian String Quartet for 20 years, has played with the American Symphony Orchestra and the Amici New York Orchestra, recorded with jazz pianist Hank Jones, and played on Broadway in Spamalot, The Little Mermaid, Sister Act, Radio City Christmas Spectacular, and Phantom, among others. She is currently the director of the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program and on the faculty of School for Strings, and entered a doctoral program at the CUNY Grad Center. She enjoys keeping in touch with quite a few people from our class, including Sarah Murray White, Ginger Hardwick, Meredith Vanden-Handel, Elizabeth Orfan, and others. Paul Herrington writes, “I live in Niverville, NY, with Lisa, my wife of 25-plus years, our son, Luke, and our daughter, Leia. The kids keep us busy. We are very fortunate in that both are happy and healthy. Our main volunteer work is with our church, but I also serve on the steering committee for Leadership Columbia County, which helps teach the students about our county, as well as teaching leadership skills. In September I marked my 25th year of working for Farm Credit. This year I received the Accredited Rural Appraiser designation from the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. Life is good—no complaints!” Another illustrious classmate, Rob Ross, lives in Apple Valley, MN, and works as a Delta Airlines co-pilot. He flies around the country and often has opportunities to visit friends and family between flights. In his free time he enjoys gardening and playing the mandolin. Cheryl Spinner Kravatz (Plainview, NY) works at Sobel Law Group. She hopes to hear from classmates Ferne Decklowitz Moschella, MBA ’85, and Patrice Becker, BFA ’81. This past November, a fire destroyed the home of our friend and classmate Steven Ritchey. Luckily, he reports, “we are all safe and nobody was in the house at the time.” Also, as a casualty of Hurricane Sandy, a tree fell on the house of Melissa Chefec, creating a new March | April 2013 79 Class Notes skylight in the living room. Again, thankfully, no one was hurt! As some of you may be aware, Cornell’s Summer College offers an opportunity to high school students who have completed their sophomore, junior, or senior year and have the academic ability, maturity, and intellectual curiosity necessary to undertake college-level work. Please visit the website at http://www.summercollege.cornell.edu/ for details about all of the programs. Ryan, son of Cliff ’80 and Amy Warner Strat, and Howard, son of Daniel Weisz and Cindy Kaufman, were among the many talented high school students who attended the program in 2012. We would love to hear from you, so please write! c JoAnn Minsker Adams, joann@budadams.net; Barb Amoscato Sabaitis, beachba@hotmail.com; Betsy Silverfine, bsilverfine@comcast.net. 82 Our class continues to remain active—taking extraordinary steps to maintain ties with classmates and taking advantage of Cornell’s programs for its alumni and family members. Read on for a rundown of our many accomplishments and activities around the globe. In our most recent news we heard from classmates living in locales slightly more exotic than Ithaca, NY. Mark Stenzler has been living and thriving in Bern, Switzerland. His long-running radio show, “Blues Zeppelin,” which has been airing on Swiss Community Radio since 1989, is now being carried regularly on Ithaca Community Radio. Mark believes that this is the first time that a community radio show has been broadcast on two continents. Get in touch with Mark at Mark.Ste@ active.ch. Anyone looking to get in contact with Alan Stillman can reach him at astillman@kwik point.com. Eugene Bose (tokyomn@hotmail.com) is a retired lieutenant colonel in the US Marine Corps. He and his wife, Tomoko, live in Kaneohe, HI, and spend their days with friends and training for a half-Ironman triathlon. Eugene would like to hear from Bruce Barlow. From sunny South Florida, Beth Berman Zipper writes that she is living in Boca Raton with husband Jeffrey. Beth’s private practice nutrition office, Kids Weight Wise, focuses on children and obesity. She and Jeffrey have lately spent time traveling to Ithaca to visit their son Brandon ’13 at the AEPi house and vacationing in Israel with family. Their son Harrison ’10 is a CALS graduate. Beth would like to hear from other “Sperryites” and can be reached at jbzipper@comcast.net. From Silicon Valley, Charles CQ Tran (charlescq@ yahoo.com) is living in Fremont, CA, with his wife, Kieu Lien Dang, and their children Albert, 15, and Shanta, 17. Charles works for Com-Link Inc. as an enterprise/commercial/SBA network consultant developing technology innovations. He would like to hear from other graduates of the Engineering Physics program. Although perhaps not as exotic as Hawaii or Switzerland, our classmates living in the metropolitan New York area have been busy, and many write of successful careers. Carrie Haas Rubenfeld (carrie@ncouragecoaching.com) lives in Dix Hills, NY, with her husband, Terry. She devotes much of her time to developing her college and career coaching business, nCourage (www.ncourage coaching.com). She writes that her passion is “helping students, graduates, and those in job transition find productive, fulfilling careers that fit them.” Another Long Island classmate, Hanan Kolko (hkolko@msek.com), writes that he has couple of months ago. Our dear classmate Dana been enjoying a successful legal practice. He was Gordon was the administrator of the group and recently named to the New York Super Lawyers list upon notification of her passing, LinkedIn re- as one of the top attorneys in New York in 2012. moved the group. We have created another Hanan is a member of group, Cornell Universi- Meyer, Suozzi, English, and Klein PC, practicing in Garden City, NY. New Yorker Timothy Foxen (twfoxen@gmail.com) is a section manager for Con Edison Inc. In his free time, Tim competes in triathlons, serves as president of the NYAC Triathlon Club, volunteers ‘ Petra is an archaeologist’s ’Disney World. Roberta Zwiebel Farhi ’85 ty Class of 1983. Please look for it on LinkedIn and rejoin the group. On to the news. In 2012, Cornell’s Adult University had several participants from our class. This is something that should be on all of our to-do lists. Elizabeth Emlen was a participant in with Global Volunteers, the Natural History class; and visits our national Michael, ME ’84, and parks. He writes that someday he wants to be a Norine Ng Sedayao attended the Tennis class with history teacher and coach and get back into his their daughter Kira; and Michael Feiertag partic- bird-watching hobby. He would like to hear from ipated in the educational tour of Cuba. Greg Farley. Jon Felice (Old Brookville, NY; jbfelice@jb Anyone looking to get in contact with Robin felice.com) works as an attorney in Manhattan at Humphrey can reach her at rhmmlaw@aol.com. Newman Ferrara LLP. His dad went to Cornell and Another lawyer in our class, Tom Gagne (tgagne@ the Cornell Medical college, and his son has con- prodigy.net), is living in Simpsonville, SC, with his tinued the legacy, graduating from Cornell in 2011. wife, Judith. Tom has a busy law practice and en- What a great tradition! Recently Jon appeared in joys spending his free time with his family, swim- SuperLawyers Magazine, the New York Times maga- ming, and reading, as well as playing golf and zine, and Forbes. He also volunteers with Cornell tennis. Tom would like to hear from classmates through CAAAN and the Cornell college fairs. He David Blood-Deschamps and Osamu Uehara. keeps in touch with Matt Crowley, Keith Westphal, Cornell’s prestigious Summer College Programs and Jonathan Landsman ’81. In mid-December for High School Students is now more than 50 Brad and Dina Wolfman Baker (dinab1@verizon. years old and offers three- and six-week academ- net) moved to Boston from Philadelphia, where ic programs for talented sophomores, juniors, and they’d lived since graduation. Dina is taking a lead- seniors from around the world. Classes are offered ership role in marketing and communication at in a variety of fields including Architecture, Busi- Public Consulting Group, and Brad will develop his ness, College Success, Engineering, Hotel Man- landscape lighting design practice in the Boston agement, Law and Government, Medicine, and area while still doing some travel back and forth Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science. We re- to Philly to service clients there. Dina spent her ceived word that Karen Isberg’s son William was high school years in the Boston area, where her one of the many talented high school students parents were living, so it’s familiar territory. Daugh- who attended the 2012 program. Detailed infor- ter Audrey ’09 began her master’s program in Jan- mation about the program can be found at uary at the Cornell Inst. for Public Affairs. Son www.summercollege.cornell.edu/. Isaac will graduate in April from U. of Pittsburgh Many of our classmates are also familiar with and is applying to law schools. the fantastic programs offered by Cornell’s Adult Michael LaChapelle writes to us from Glen- University. CAU offers a variety of classes and trav- mont, NY, where he is a senior VP in marketing at el opportunities throughout the summer months. GE Capital, working primarily with private equity The off-campus Study Tours are led by talented firms. He had dinner with his Chi Phi fraternity Cornell faculty members who shape and guide the brothers Casey Keller and Jeff McPeek ’82 in intellectual itineraries. On-campus classes are de- Chicago and saw Owen McGettrick ’82, Kevin signed for people who may not have backgrounds Shrout ’82, and Terry Kent ’86 at Homecoming in the subjects. This past summer classmates Ed- this past fall. In fact, he has been visiting Cornell ward Cohen, Louis Schwartz, and Richard a lot lately. His son Daniel ’16 is in the Engi- Schrade participated in several classes, including neering college. Daniel is friends with Alison the Tennis and Golf clinics and a geology explo- Schonberg ’16, daughter of Michael’s fraternity ration called Gorgeous Gorges of the Finger Lakes. brother Mike Schonberg. In addition, Michael Visit www.sce.cornell.edu/cau for details on 2013 went to a brunch at Renee Miller-Mizia’s ’81 itineraries and classes. Please continue to keep us house over the summer and met up with a bunch abreast of your many activities and connections of his former GE Plastics colleagues. with our classmates. c Doug Skalka, dskalka@ Bob Nelson (bnelson@udel.edu) can usual- npmlaw.com; Mark Fernau, mef29@cornell.edu. ly be found in Drexel Hill, PA, but is on sabbati- cal this spring from the U. of Delaware’s hotel and 83 It’s only a few months until our 30th Reunion. Your class officers are working hard to make it the restaurant management school. His plans included teaching a week-long seminar in Lucca, Italy, in January, followed by a trip to Los Angeles for the American Lodging Investment Summit. For best and most memorable experience ever. Please most of the spring Bob will be in residence at plan to attend June 6-9. To facilitate communi- Cornell’s Center for Real Estate and Finance, where cation, we are expanding our social media. If he has a team working on indices and econo- you use Facebook, please “Like” our page at metric models to determine ROI for public sector www.facebook.com/CornellClassOf1983. For those investments to encourage hotel development. In of you that were part of our group on LinkedIn, May he travels to Thailand for a conference, where you may have noticed that it was removed a he will give a keynote address and present the 80 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com Best Paper award on behalf of an academic journal for which he has been serving as editor-inchief. Clearly he is making the most of his rare sabbatical opportunity! After graduation Elise DeVido (ead98@cornell. edu) went to Harvard to get her doctorate in history and East Asian languages. She then spent many years in Taiwan teaching history and traveling around Asia for research. She returned to the States a few years ago, but visits Taiwan as much possible. Her son Philip graduated from Georgetown (SFS) in 2011 and is working in Washington, DC. Since August she has been working at Cornell Law School. “It’s great to be back on campus,” she says. I guess we will see you at reunion, Elise! Kathy Orr Pomerenk and her family are delighted to share the news that their son Alex was accepted early decision to the Engineering Class of 2017. He took an Engineering course at Cornell’s Summer College after his sophomore year, and those weeks on campus clinched it for him. Keep the news coming, and don’t forget to contact me via e-mail, Facebook, or LinkedIn with your news— and with your selections for a music playlist for reunion. See you in June! c Alyssa Bickler, cousin alyssa@yahoo.com. 84 So far 2013 is looking bright for many classmates! Kathryn McCullough (www.kathymccul loughbooks.com) is having her second novel published by Random House in July 2013! Who Needs Magic? continues the marvelous story of Delaney Collins, F.G., a teenage girl who goes to live with her estranged father after her mother dies, and discovers that her father is a fairy godmother— and that she’s next in line. My family and friends loved the first book and I am sure they will love the second book too! Karen Ansbro Leone is still organizing women’s trips with her company, Go ’n Groove. Check out http://www.goandgroove.com/ fingerlakes.html for information on her most recent endeavor: three trips this summer, including cycling, in and around the Finger Lakes. You can also visit Karen’s blog, http://gongroove.blogspot. com, to read the story of her uphill battle to gather her final three PE credits, and how it led her to develop her first great bike tour 22 years later. Tim McGhee (tim.mcghee@mspsports.com) writes from Summit, NJ. “After spending the past 20 years working for others in the sports marketing industry, I made the leap into the world of the self-employed. In March 2012 I launched MSP Sports, a strategic consultancy advising brands and sports properties in all areas related to sports marketing. For the past 13 years, I’ve also been a volunteer coach in the Summit Lacrosse Club, a youth sports league with over 1,000 boys and girls in the program. I also serve on the board of the Atlanta Tipoff Club, which awards the Naismith Awards to the top men’s and women’s college basketball players and coaches.” Margaret Crupi Skelly (mcrouse-skelly@com cast.net) is also beginning a new chapter—and has a new appreciation for life. She writes, “I have two children, ages 15 and 10. After taking nine years off from being a litigator, I recently returned to the workforce to join edX, a joint venture by Harvard and MIT that offers free high quality online education. I wear two hats there: writing press and marketing and legal contract review.” Margaret is a recent Stage 3 esophageal cancer survivor and says, “I am grateful for every day I am here!” She is in touch with Christy Burns, Ann Trautman Spindler, and Lenny Cooper. After many years practicing in NYC, Dorian Gravenese (Dorian.Glick@gmail.com) has joined the Scarsdale Medical Group, a multi-specialty group near her home in Westchester County. Dorian is glad to have given up the commute to NYC! She adds that she celebrated her birthday with an amazing trip to Machu Picchu. Sandy Greenspan Lederman is “happily overwhelmed with piano accompanying and choir directing work in the DC/MD area. My daughter Abby’s fabulous experience at Cornell Summer College this year convinced her Cornell is the place for her. We’re thrilled she’ll be joining the Class of 2017 next fall. My son Josh, who opted for a small college, is a happy sophomore at Haverford.” Others who have taken part in Cornell’s Summer College program include Rebecca, daughter of Adam and Liz Zucker Barnett; Juliana, daughter of Diana Karnas and Abe Hughes; and Betsy, daughter of Robert and Jennifer Katz Goldwasser ’85. c Janet Insardi, insardij@hotmail.com; Karla Sievers McManus, Klorax@comcast.net. Class website, http://classof84.alumni.cornell.edu. 85 On Friday, November 9, CALS honored Kimberly Wagner as an outstanding alumna for her many dedicated hours as a volunteer and valued advisor for Cornell and CALS. She currently serves on the Cornell University Council and the Executive Committee of the Council’s Committee on Sustainability. She is a former member of the Life Sciences Advisory Board and the CALS Dean’s Advisory Council. Additionally, Kim has served on the board of directors and as president of the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County. She is a frequent visitor to the campus and has served on panels for both Entrepreneurship@Cornell and the Trustee Council Annual Meeting. Kim and her husband, Stephen Osborn ’84, also own and operate Stoutridge Vineyard LLC, a vineyard, farm winery, and distillery in Marlboro, NY. Their “slow wine” approach results in wines with a natural haze and sensory complexity.They also minimize the winery’s environmental impact with a solar array that produces enough electricity to meet the winery’s needs. Finally, Kim is also a senior partner and managing director at the Boston Consulting Group, serving clients in the pharmaceutical, specialty chemical,agribusiness, and food/nutrition services. Judy Marlinski Doyno writes in from Tokyo! Last fall, Judy and her husband dropped off their daughter Abbey ’16 for her first year at Cornell. The family has been living in Tokyo for the last nine years so their daughter is quite happy to finally be back in the US. The Doynos ran into other Cornell alum families who were dropping off their children for the new school year, including meetups with Frank Alvarez, Lesley Keene Verdi, MS ’88, MBA ’07, Bill and Anne Westa Cummins, and Laura Armstrong Falvey. Michele Tanenbaum is back to the East Coast from San Francisco and now residing in Brooklyn. Michele drove across the country with her adorable dog Lucky and posted great photos on Facebook of the various pet-friendly hotels she stayed at along the way! Michele is finally getting the opportunity to settle back into life in the big city! This should be an interesting year for many of us. If I am not mistaken, I believe most of the members of our class will be reaching the big 5-0 sometime this year. Please share with us how you will be celebrating this once-in-a-lifetime event. My first celebration was with Laura Weiner Siegal this January. And speaking of birthdays, my daughter Arielle turned Sweet Sixteen on 12/12/12! This summer, she and I vacationed in Israel with my brother Philip Zwiebel ’87 (Boca Raton, FL), his wife, Elissa, and my niece and nephew. We planned the entire trip ourselves and mapped out most of our daily excursions. Although initially reluctant to rent a car, our drive through the desert from Tel Aviv to Eilat was a real highlight. We also crossed over the border from Israel into Jordan to go to Petra for a day tour. The only negative was that it was about 120 degrees in the sun, so walking anywhere was a real challenge. Petra is an archaeologist’s Disney World. It was a wonderful experience and even more special to have shared it with my extended family. I am still driving to miscellaneous skating rinks in the Northeast to watch a 3:30-minute novice-level figure skating routine that is hopefully executed flawlessly by 15 girls doing a rather complicated series of synchronized circles, wheels, lines, and blocks. I am referring to the sport of synchronized skating— and believe it or not, Cornell has a synchronized skating team now as well! Send your news to: c Roberta Zwiebel Farhi, rfarhiesq@aol.com; Joyce Zelkowitz Cornett, cornett0667@comcast.net; Risa Mish, rmm22@cornell.edu. 86 This column is being written not long after Superstorm Sandy affected so many of our classmates on the East Coast. Carol Getz Abolafia went ahead with her daughter’s bat mitzvah in coastal New Jersey the Saturday after the storm hit. Attending were many Cornellians, including Beth Bruno Hyer from Buffalo and Sydney Solomon Neuhaus, whose home in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, stayed dry and served as a hotel for visiting Susan Seligsohn Howell and Laura Neiboer Hine, from Boston and Chicago, respectively. Susan drove down from Boston to attend the mitzvah despite the chance that she would not be able to re-fuel her car for the ride home. All went well at the mitzvah despite much storm damage in the neighborhood. While not in our class, many of us remember Mikey Craig ’85 (DU, Hotelie, very skinny guy), whose Washington Inn Restaurant in Cape May, NJ, was hit by the storm. He is now dry and repaired and already continuing the fine cuisine and service that garnered the distinction of a top 100 highest-rated restaurant in the country among Open Table users. While many from our class already have students enrolled at Cornell, some of us are sending our high school kids to Cornell Summer College. This program offers talented students who have completed their sophomore, junior, or senior year an opportunity to experience the excitement of college life, take college courses with our renowned faculty, and enjoy an “unforgettable, life-changing summer.” Maureen Casey Agid, Roger Bailey, Scott Crego, Julie Piccoli Kelleher, and Saroj Silwal all had a son or daughter attend one of the three- or six-week sessions this summer. In Ithaca year-round is Betsy Mead Noel, who, with husband and Athletic Director Andy Noel, acquired a lake cottage they affectionately call “Club Red.” Despite being a dentist, Girl Scout leader, human resources liaison for her sorority (Pi Beta Phi), and mother, Besty still managed to attend the away football game versus Harvard, where she also visited with Deirdre Maltais Heisler, Donna-Lee Gargano Selland, and Patricia Belden. Carleton Barbour writes March | April 2013 81 Class Notes that he is now an empty-nester but busy being an associate principal scientist at Merck Animal Health, where he leads the product development team for Activyl Tick Plus, a flea and tick medication for dogs that will be available for sale soon. In his spare time, Carleton enjoys music, time with the family, and golf. Jan Bernstein Chargin is the director of public information at Gavilan College and the board chair of the Gilroy Compassion Center, a startup nonprofit organization providing services for the homeless in an underserved area of California. Jan and husband Tom have twins Bettye and Ethan in the fifth grade. They are learning to play the saxophone and have welcomed new foster sister Marissa into their lives. “Got together with Cornell housemates Mike Grimm and Dave Freeman for a terrific evening.” Ted Inoue informs us that he and his business had a new Ford mini-van that was his “Waggin’ Wagon”—a mascot vehicle decorated to look like a dog for his business. Recently his business no longer needed the vehicle, so he donated the van to Pets with Disabilities in Prince Frederick, MD. No, he is not kidding. There are plenty of dog rescue organizations, but he thought his van was a perfect gift to this organization, which matches unwanted handicapped pets to loving homes. In a recent phone chat with Jimmy Schubauer ’87 (married to Maggie Holcomb Schubauer) I learned that their daughter Julia is a high school junior soccer player who is being heavily recruited by D1 colleges. She just gave her commitment to Cornell and looks forward to playing for the Big Red. Maggie and Jimmy’s oldest is a senior and former president of Kappa Kappa Gamma and is applying to graduate programs in journalism. I suggested she reach out to fellow Kappa Laurie Jennings Salman ’88, a three-time Emmy awardwinning reporter and the main anchor on the highest-rated news station in South Florida (Local 10 News), who received her master’s in journalism from Northwestern after Cornell. How do I know this, you might be wondering? Well, after marrying my Cornell sweetheart, Lori (Spydell), who was a Kappa, I have become friends with many of my wife’s sorority sisters, who stay in touch much better than many of my frat brothers and former football teammates. Lori and I went up to Homecoming this fall to watch the Big Red dominate Yale in front of a very full Schoellkopf. Homecoming’s Friday night activities included a fireworks and laser show. Shortly after the fireworks began, the skies poured rain. However, instead of leaving, the crowd of a few thousand simply crammed into the overhang section at the top of Schoellkopf to make for an even more festive and fun evening. The laser show was actually enhanced by the light beams shimmering through the sheets of rain. Afterward, much of the crowd went to the nearest bar, at the Statler, for what became perhaps the biggest alcohol sales night of the year for the hotel. Our decision to attend Homecoming was last-minute for Lori and me, and all the hotel rooms in Ithaca were full. So instead, we stayed with Jeff Winikow (now a judge in L.A.), who reserved a cabin in Buttermilk Falls that slept four. While the bathrooms and showers are located in a separate building in the park, the accommodations were great, and Jeff’s hospitality exposed us to a whole new lodging option we never would have considered. There is always more to discover in Ithaca! c Michael Wagner, michaelwagner@wowway. com; Holly Isdale, Isdale@mac.com. 87 Interesting news from our classmates! I’ll jump right in. Sue Kizer Petroulas shared news of her thrilling “debut” on center stage with the Alvin Ailey Dance Co. back in December. She wound up on stage during an audience participation piece. “Not entirely willingly—y’all know me (sitting on the aisle, thinking ‘Please don’t pick me!’). As it happened, I was selected by the lead dancer! What an amazing experience! I tuned everything out but my partner’s eyes, hands, and feet. For this committed non-dancer, that was my lifeline. It seemed to last forever. I did whatever he did. I faintly remember cha-cha-ing with him, him twirling me and lifting me up (!), and winding up at the footlights with the whole group. Then while he had us doing a slow dance, I didn’t notice all the other audience members had left the stage. Suddenly all the dancers collapsed, leaving me standing ALONE in the middle while the audience applauded.” In an interesting twist to this story, our co-class correspondent Whitney Weinstein Goodman witnessed the entire event without even knowing it was our classmate! Karen Alter Hanson writes that she is still a professor at Northwestern U., but she’s taken a permanent visiting professor position with the U. of Copenhagen Faculty of Law. The new iCourts Center has her in Denmark three times a year and supports her research, which has extended to Africa. Last year she was on leave with a Guggenheim fellowship and a Berlin Prize, which had her and her family living for five months in Berlin, at the American Academy of Berlin. Her kids, 14 and 11, went to a bilingual American-style German public school. Says Karen: “It was a great adventure for the whole family!” Karen Clifford Parker writes from Austin, TX: “I have been promoted to director of communications and human resources at Funeral Home Resource, an online marketing firm for the funeral industry. I commute between Funeral Home Resource’s office, in Austin, and Boston, where I run VIP Placement Services, placing veterinarians.” Steve Sinofsky tweeted that he is returning in spring 2013 to Harvard Business School as an executive-in-residence and will teach management courses and perhaps continue to write. From the West Coast comes news from Half Moon Bay, CA. Amy Benigno Fothergill writes, “I live in Northern California with my husband, two kids, and our cat. We love to travel to Lake Tahoe for skiing, hiking, and fun. After being in both the hospitality and software industries, I’m taking a break from the corporate world and focusing on my own business and family, very much tied together. I’m back in the food world, teaching cooking classes and consulting. My business is called the Family Chef, with a focus on gluten-free. I just published a gluten-free holiday e-cookbook and will be publishing a gluten-free cookbook in 2013.” E-mail Amy at amy@amythefamilychef.com for more information. Melissa Shapiro says that for her, 2012 will go down as a year of change and growth. She started a new position as development manager at Junior Achievement of Delaware Valley and moved to Roxborough in Philadelphia, PA. She also had some health issues, which she is happy to say have been finally resolved and which made her aware of her age and her resiliency. Melissa mentions that she is traveling to Paradise Island in the next two months for a yoga retreat and is hoping to take in the beach, sun, and relaxation on the shores of El Caribe. Several classmates had children participate in the 2012 Cornell University Summer College, a program for high school students here in Ithaca. On campus were: Jessica, daughter of Jeffrey and Christine Cernak; Matthew, son of Stephen and Yelena Baranova Crescimanno; Andrew, son of Roger ’86 and Lorena Molina Bailey; Jennifer, daughter of James and Allison Greenhut Godman; and Daniel, son of Carmen Castro, MBA ’87, and Juan Surinach. Future Cornellians? Stay tuned. Lastly, we weigh in with congratulations to former “Good Day New York” anchor Dave Price and his wife Jackie, who welcomed their first baby, a boy named Ellis “Eli” Harold on the auspicious date of 12/12/12. Dave was on the air at his job on Fox 5 when he received an e-mail from his wife telling him to come to the hospital immediately. I’ve never seen a TV host get up and run off screen, but Dave did. Mandy Patinkin, who was that day’s guest on the show, appeared to be more excited than anyone else, unable to stop saying, “Oh my god!” over and over. The whole episode can be viewed on YouTube. We all should have such a welcome reception on the day of our birth. Blessings to the Price family. Continue to send us your news. As usual, the male members of our class are more reluctant to communicate. Inquiring minds want to know, gentlemen! Contact us via e-mail, the link on our class Web page, or the handy yellow sheets sent out by Alumni House. c Heidi Heasley Ford, hhf6@cornell.edu); Whitney Weinstein Goodman, wwg5@cornell.edu); and Liz Brown, etb29@ cornell.edu). Online news form: http://www. alumni.cornell.edu/participate/class-notes.cfm. 88 Greetings! By the time you read this we will be well into 2013, and I hope that the year is off to a happy and healthy start for all our classmates. 2013 is a big year for the Class of 1988 as it is the year of our 25th Reunion! The big event will be taking place on the Hill June 6-9. If you have not yet received the official reunion mailing, keep an eye out for it. If you have already received it, then please give every consideration to attending. My wife, Ann, and daughter Grace (3-1/2 currently) and I will be making the trip from Northern California for reunion and an extended visit with family and friends in New York. I hope to see as many classmates as possible in Ithaca for all the reunion activities. Our reunion chairs are working hard to ensure the event is fun for all! Eric Way became the director of diversity and inclusion for the Volvo Group at their corporate headquarters in Sweden after 18 years in product planning. He continues to live in Lyon, France, but commutes to Gothenburg, Sweden, three days a week, where the company provides him with a second apartment. Eric says, “It’s like Second Life in real life. A bit complicated, but so interesting.” Eric enjoyed spending four weeks in Italy last year traveling from Apulia to Tuscany to Cinque Terre. He also started working on learning a fifth language in 2011 with an intensive course in Mandarin in Beijing, extending his education through life as any Cornellian would! A little closer to home and with an easy trip for reunion, Christine DelVecchio Croft is working as a local realtor in the greater Ithaca marketplace, having switched companies to Warren Real Estate in June 2012. Christine also joined the Lansing Sewer Committee last year, meeting weekly with leaders in the community to develop a new sewer district. She has been 82 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com keeping in touch with a number of Big Red alumni and recently reconnected with Andy Turner, MPS ’93. Janeen Rapp Pendergast completed graduate school, earning a master’s degree in nursing. She works as a family nurse practitioner. Daniel Cavicchi’s book, Listening and Longing: Music Lovers in the Age of Barnum (Wesleyan University Press, 2011) received the 2012 Deems Taylor Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and the 2011 Peter C. Rollins Book Prize from the Northeast Popular Culture Association. Daniel was appointed interim dean of liberal arts at the Rhode Island School of Design, a post be began in January. Another author in our class, Shaun Hawkins, MBA ’94, published his second book last year, a novel titled The Swan Diver, which is available on Amazon in book form or on Kindle/iPad. Shaun also informed us that his daughter Brianna is a senior at Bates College, where she is captain of the women’s basketball team. Kelly Smith Brown, MBA ’92, is very excited about our upcoming 25th Reunion and pointed out the “diversity of life stages” our classmates comprise—some with children graduating from college, others with children only graduating from pre-school. Kelly has an 8-year-old daughter and boy/girl twins who turned 6 late last year. In addition to her Cornell volunteering, Kelly is the vice chair for the board of trustees for the Cincinnati Ballet and serves on the development committee for the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. Kelly makes every effort to keep in touch with her Tri Delta sisters from Cornell. Class treasurer Chad Snee lives in Troy, OH, and is the editor of the Scott line of stamp catalogues providing values of US and worldwide stamps for collectors. As a collector himself, Chad says, “It’s a great gig, like getting paid to eat ice cream.” His oldest daughter, Katelyn, got her learner’s permit last fall and is learning to drive a stick shift, while her sister Charlotte is an honor-roll student in junior high school. Chad’s youngest, Margaret, “adores playing with the iPads in her third grade class.” Chad retired from the Navy on May 1, 2012, after 21 years of service. Alison Minton sent a note that she said should be filed under the category of “unusual hobby.” She and her 12-year-old umbrella cockatoo taped a segment for National Geographic’s “Spoiled Rotten Pets.” Chris (the cockatoo) and Alison filmed for seven hours all over Manhattan from Alison’s apartment on the East Side to Rockefeller Center and Fifth Avenue. The show was scheduled to air between January and March 2013, so perhaps it’s not too late to catch it. Classmate artist and photographer Stephen Sheffield, BFA ’89, completed a permanent corporate art commission for Brookfield Renewable Power. The work consists of nine large-scale art pieces for their headquarters in central Massachusetts. Images of the finished pieces are at http://stephensheffield. com/projects/50. Stephen comes from a long line of Cornellians, including parents David ’55, BArch ’60, MRP ’61, and Allison Hopkins Sheffield ’56, and sister Laurie Sheffield ’84, BFA ’85. Stephen resides in Boston’s Back Bay with his wife, Alison, and sons Milo, 7, and Finn, 4. Corrections Dept.: Apologies to Dawn LevyWeinstein for mixing up her husband’s name in a report on their trip to London in the Jan/Feb column. He is classmate Adam Weinstein. Once again, our 25th Reunion will be held June 6-9 in Ithaca. Look for me, notebook in hand, as I collect news for what will be my final Class Notes column. Help me make it a great one! If you’re reading this, please consider coming to reunion, and if you’re in contact with any other classmates, please encourage them as well. Until next time (or till I see you at reunion), I wish you peace. c Steven Tomaselli, st89@cornell.edu; Brad Mehl, bradmehl@gmail.com; and Sharon Nunan Stemme, sen28@cornell.edu. 89 Greetings! It is early January as I write this column in California. I hope everyone on the East Coast is doing well after the storms of last year. I am from New Jersey and was horrified by the footage of my hometown and elsewhere. The latest batch of news includes updates on businesses, bar and bat mitzvahs, military and government work, and much more. Leading with the potential next generation of Cornellians . . . three children of classmates were among the talented high school students who attended the 2012 Cornell Summer College program: Carolyn, daughter of Scott ’86 and Ann Marie Hopcroft Crego; Mandel, daughter of Jude and Linda Mandel Clemente; and Martha, daughter of Joe and Emily Farnham Mastrianni. Jamie Platt Lyons (jamieplattlyons@gmail. com) reports, “The first week in October 2012 my family (husband Jonathan and children Avi, 15, and Tali, 11) attended the bar mitzvah of Jacob Stillman, son of Amy Susman-Stillman. There were a number of Cornellians there, including Dina Weiss Linfoot and her daughter Jordyn, Lori Schain Hiller ’88, and Alena Tepper Margolis ’88.” Jeffrey Spector’s (rjspector@rcn.com) daughter Ellen also became a bat mitzvah in October 2012. In attendance were Peter ’85 and Dina Wisch Gold, Laura Koss-Goldberg, Randall Singer ’91, Dan Goldman ’91, and Robyn Welter Weiss ’95. Also in October, Martin and Deborah Silverman Shames and children Jonathan, Rachel, and Matthew celebrated Matthew’s bar mitzvah in New Jersey before the hurricane. Jennifer Gise Zeligson was in attendance with husband Andrew and sons. Deborah (deb@collegecoachdeb.com) is happy to report that her private college advising business is booming, as many of their friends’ kids are getting ready to apply to college. She works with both high school students and transfer students. She is also passionate about her job as the transfer admissions advisor for the Kaplan Leadership Program, which helps under-represented students transfer from community colleges in NYC to selective four-year schools. Martin, a finance director for PSEG, was heavily involved in power restoration efforts after Hurricane Sandy knocked out power to much of their area. Deb keeps in touch with classmates Stephanie Walsh Prato and Sandy Von Holden-Bitton. Andrew Poe (aap19@cornell.edu) is a professor of mathematics and computer science at Northern Michigan U. He was married on June 12, 2011, with two other Cornellians in attendance: Michael Goldberg and Kristen Conrad ’90. “While my Cornell a cappella group, the Class Notes, did not attend, the a cappella group at NMU, for which I am the faculty advisor, performed, among other things, a Class Notes song.” For their honeymoon, the Poes road-tripped from their home in Marquette County, MI, to the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area in Wallowa County, OR. They saw the Independence Day fireworks at Glacier National Park, explored Yellowstone and Mount Rushmore, and enjoyed some wonderful community theater in Minneapolis. Several classmates wrote to tell of their business ventures. David Johnson, MBA ’90 (johnson@ achatespower.com) is in California. He writes, “My company, Achates Power, is developing dramatically more efficient internal combustion engines. 2012 was a great year for us and 2013 will be even better. After eight years and $70M of research and development, we signed contracts with our first customers. One of these contracts is to design the next-generation engine for the US Military. It is great to see our military embrace stateof-the-art technology that will save money, save the environment, and maintain and extend our leadership position.” Michael Thomas (mthomas@ appianpartnersllc.com) lives in Maryland and is involved with iSonea Ltd. They recently announced the latest version of AsthmaSense, a comprehensive yet easy-to-use smartphone app designed specifically to help improve the way people live with and manage asthma. Brian Guernier, MPS ’89 (bmguernier@yahoo. com) is still in Orlando, FL, with his wife and two kids. He writes, “After spending several months looking for a business to buy, I decided to launch one on my own. I recently started Pillow-Fresh, which provides hotels with a Green alternative to tossing out their old pillows. A typical 300-room hotel has over 2,000 sleeping pillows that go to I just . . . K Published a book K Went back to school K Continued my lifelong learning K Changed my address KFound my calling K Saw the world K Started a business K Got married K Had a baby K Had another grandchild K Started my first job K Finished my last job Whatever you’ve been doing, we’d like to hear about it. www.alumni.cornell.edu/participate/class-notes.cfm Or send us an e-mail at: adr4@cornell.edu Or write us a letter and mail it to: Cornell Alumni Magazine Class Notes 401 East State St., Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850 Thanks for staying in touch! March | April 2013 83 Class Notes a landfill every couple of years. By cleaning the filling with the latest ozone and UVC technology and repacking it into a new cover, hotels can significantly reduce this waste while also saving a lot of money. The final product is a great ‘new’ pillow. The average cost to renovate a pillow is $5 versus the cost of buying new. So far the response has been very positive. Check it out at www.pillow-fresh.com.” We also have some classmates doing government work. Christine Harbaugh (tcechris@aol. com) is a Foreign Service Officer with the US Dept. of State. She has recently moved to Arlington, VA, after a three-year tour in Lima, Peru, as the human rights and labor officer in the political section at the embassy. She traveled throughout Peru and visited Colombia, Chile, Argentina, and Ecuador (including an amazing trip to the Galápagos Islands). She very much enjoyed wine tasting and outdoor activities! Chad Magendanz (chad@magendanz.com) spent 12 years in the US Navy and ten years at Microsoft and has been a software design consultant for the past eight years. He was recently elected to the Washington State House of Representatives and has served as the president of the Issaquah School Board (18,000 students). Last but not least, a good old small-world story. Roland Lange (RML718@gmail.com) lives in Brooklyn, NY, and works for YouTube (Google). He recently attended a conference and ran into Danny Stein ’92. They were in the same fraternity and had not seen each other in 20 years. c Lauren Flato Labovitz, lflato@comcast.net; Kimberly Levine Graham, KAL20@cornell.edu; Stephanie Bloom Avidon, savidon1@hotmail.com; Anne Czaplinski Treadwell Bliss, ac98@cornell.edu. 90 Happy spring, classmates! As Amy Wang Manning mentioned in the previous column, I was given the honor of joining the Cornell University Council and spent a fantastic weekend at the Trustee-Council Annual Meeting on campus last October. Before reporting about the trip, my own congratulations go to Amy, who became a directorat-large of the Cornell Association of Class Officers (CACO) in January. Her many talents will be invaluable to CACO’s mission to provide leadership training and guidance to alumni volunteers. After writing about him in the column for so many years, it was a pleasure to finally get acquainted with fellow Council member Samir Somaiya, MS ’92, MBA ’93, prior to a lecture about the new Cornell Tech campus project (learn more at http://nyc.cornell.edu). Currently chairman and managing director of Mumbai-based Godavari Biorefineries Ltd., Samir is a visiting Chemical Engineering instructor at Cornell and teaches a course every other year. He also serves as chairman of Somaiya Vidyavihar and the Somaiya Trust, organizations that are involved in education, healthcare, and rural development in India. Prior to the Trustee-Council Annual Meeting, he enjoyed catching up with his former Chemical Engineering senior design project teammates Sue Sofia (in Boston) and Mark Laser, who invited Samir to speak to his students at Dartmouth. While at a reception at the new Human Ecology building, I bumped into Trustee Ezra Cornell ’70 and his wife Daphne (Shelman), whom I hadn’t seen since undergraduate days when she was advisor to Chi Omega. She was thrilled to hear about Meredith Rosenberg ’92 being elected alumni trustee a year ago. I also gave her a brief update about other sisters who were longtime Cornell alumni volunteers such as Karen Mitchell, Elinor Langfelder Schwind, Alysia Sinrod Reid, Debra Schaffel ’89, and Christine Watters Stuhlmiller ’93 before we snapped a photo together. My unexpected reunion with Daphne was definitely one of the highlights of the weekend. Hurricane Sandy unexpectedly extended my stay in upstate New York by two days. The Cornell community set up a blog at http://relief.cornell. edu to get the word out about how to get assistance and how to help fellow Cornellians affected by the natural disaster. I relied on Facebook to tell me how classmates up and down the coast fared and was touched and proud to see how many Class of 1990 friends stepped up to help in their own ways. Despite recovering from knee surgery, Caroline Misciagna Sussman and her family organized a holiday toy drive for the children of Long Beach, NY. Her Facebook status said it all: “The power of nature was awesome, but even more powerful was the spirit and perseverance of these wonderful people!” Former Big Red tennis team member Dolly Chugh turned to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Long Winter for advice on how to stay warm during the power outage: hot potatoes as old-fashioned handwarmers! “Given that this is my first experience with natural disaster, I have definitely come to realize two truths that I am sure the survivors and rebuilders of New Orleans, Haiti, Florida, Indonesia, and Tuscaloosa, among others, have long known: 1) the devastation and recovery effort lasts much, much, much longer than the media coverage; and 2) bad as it looks on the news, it is even worse in person.” Encouraging friends to make donations to relief organizations, Dolly also offered to assist friends and neighbors when she was back on the power grid. Dan Fried’s wife, DeLaune Michel, collected baby care items and other disaster relief supplies at her Spoken Interludes literary salon event in Westchester. She has won accolades for her work with Spoken Interludes Next, a bi-coastal literary outreach nonprofit helping schoolchildren in Los Angeles and New York. If you would like to learn how to get involved, please visit www.spoken interludes.com. Their future Cornellians are Walter, 8, and Lucien, 5. The family traveled to New Hampshire to attend the bat mitzvah of the daughter of Noel ’91 and Trish Drobner Spear ’89. Dan also attended the Frozen Apple hockey game against Michigan at Madison Square Garden with ZBT brother Peter Sloane ’91, who recently started Leason, Ellis LLP, an intellectual property law firm in White Plains. Bonnie Gould Rothberg shared news of Cornellians leading the battle against cancer. At a conference for molecular cancer epidemiologists, she caught up with Ellen Goode ’91, Jennifer Martin Donahue ’89, and Peter Kanetsky ’88. “This concentration of Cornellians was uncommon. The meeting had no more than 300 attendees and the four of us each came from different institutions. While my own circuitous career route has me still as junior faculty from Yale, Ellen, Jennifer, and Peter are all senior faculty at their respective institutions: Mayo Clinic, Dartmouth, and Penn, respectively.” At the ’80s Night conference closing event, Bonnie had fun reliving old times with her sorority sister Ellen, whom she hadn’t seen since graduation. This column marks the two-year memorial of the devastating Northern Japan earthquake and tsunami. I ran in the Kobe Marathon again last November to raise money for Ashinaga Foundation’s Tohoku Rainbow House, which will provide educational and emotional support for children orphaned by the tragedy. The exertion and sore muscles were rewarded near the finish line when I got to high-five Sydney Olympic gold medalist Naoko Takahashi. There were a few hairy moments where I crossed timed checkpoints with less than a minute to spare, but I refused to throw in the towel, knowing that the Tohoku orphans continue to go through much more challenging times of their own. It’s a great comfort to know that whenever and wherever there are people in need, caring Cornellians are not hesitant to reach out and lend a hand. c Rose Tanasugarn, nt28@cornell. edu; Kelly Roberson, kelly-roberson@sbcglobal. net; Amy Wang Manning, aw233@cornell.edu. 91 One of the nice things about living in New York City is the large number of Cornell classmates who live or work nearby or are in town to visit. I recently saw Richard Hammer, Jane Mosco Ferrara, and Carolyn Richmond at a high school reunion, Laura North Pippitt visiting with her family to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, Robert Landau, JD ’94, in Long Island, and literally thousands of Cornell alumni of various classes watching the hockey game between Cornell and Michigan at Madison Square Garden. (You can imagine the roar of the crowd when Cornell won 5-1!) And there continues to be a buzz in the city about the future Cornell Tech Campus to be located on Roosevelt Island, which fortunately was not damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Many thanks to our classmates who have submitted news updates. I continue to be impressed by our class’s achievements, both personal and professional. Donald Barrick works as president and CEO of RMP Capital Corp., a nationwide provider of factoring solutions for small to medium-sized businesses, contractors working on public works projects, small trucking companies, and growing factoring companies in need of rediscount lines of credit. Don also serves as a board member of Life’s WORC (http://www.friendsoflifesworc.org), a Long Island-based agency servicing the needs of over 1,200 developmentally challenged individuals in its day programs and 36 residential homes. They recently announced the opening of their Family Center for Autism in Garden City, NY, which will provide family-based support to autistic individuals and the families who love and support them. Matthew Sherman (Melrose, MA) was recently named a principal at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, a 420-person consulting engineering firm. Matt leads the company’s structural materials practice and works nationwide. “Our daughter, Elizabeth, is in 8th grade and is starting to talk about being a second-generation Cornellian.” Arlene Edlund Lee (Earlysville, VA) has just published two books: Learn to Knit Doll Clothes: A Wardrobe to Fit 18 Dolls and LiLi Knits: Knitting Humor. She also has started a website, www.wordsto knitby.com, that promises to deliver humor, inspiration, learning, and knitting resources. As her site notes, “In knitting there are no mistakes, just creativity.” Arlene has three children. Her oldest son is attending the College of William and Mary, her daughter is a freshman at Cornell in Engineering, and her youngest son is a sophomore at Woodberry Forest School. Cristina Moeder Shaul was named public information officer of the Town of Davidson, 84 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com NC, in May 2012. She works at the Town Hall and handles all communications to citizens and the media. In fact, she gets to interact with David Boraks ’81, the founder and editor of DavidsonNews. net, an online news and information website, in an official capacity now. She believes that this job is a perfect match for her skills, and she really enjoys working for the town in which she lives. It’s nice to see that a Government degree is actually being put to good use in local government! Stephen Schwartz lives in Naples, FL, and serves as medical director at the Bascom Palmer Eye Inst. He has three children: Jessica, 11, Reid, 7, and Oliver, 2. Congratulations are in order for Eileen Bowden Feeley and her husband, who recently welcomed daughter Katherine Teresa to their family on August 23, joining big brother James, 2. They held her baptism before the end of the year; her godmother is Erica Calderas. Michele Mayer, MPA ’92, married Brad Ladner on August 3, 2012. They were married on Mackinac Island, MI, where Brad enjoyed many family vacations—a beautiful island with horses and bikes, but no cars permitted. Michele adds, “We live in Babylon, NY, and are now a family of five with three daughters, ages 8, 10, and 12. All is good.” Lee Winters (letmh44@ gmail.com) would like to hear from Jeri Maerz. Class president Bob Baca wrote about his latest adventure, which took him around the world to Thailand, where he was part of the US delegation at a United Nations meeting seeking to protect the ozone layer. Bob noted that multinational policymaking is a very interesting beast, as they sought to find common ground among vastly different interests. Outside of the meeting, he enjoyed lots of spicy food, rides on the canals, and touring the many old temples. He was also planning to attend a follow-up meeting in Switzerland. Christopher Eykamp has also been traveling quite a bit. Chris works in Luxembourg as an environmental researcher and notes that it is very easy to travel to France, Germany, Belgium, and other interesting places from his home location. He recommends traveling light, noting that it’s easy to take too much with you and rare that you actually need something you did not bring. High school student Andrew Wong, son of Thomas, MArch ’93, and Eileen Wong, followed in his father’s footsteps and enjoyed the Cornell experience this past summer by attending the 2012 Cornell Summer College Program. For further details about this program, please visit http://www.summercollege. cornell.edu. Keep the updates coming! You can submit class news anytime by visiting http://www. alumni.cornell.edu/participate/ class-notes.cfm. You can also visit our class website at http://cornell classof1991.com, and our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/ Cornell91, to stay up to date on news of our class. c Tom Greenberg, twg22@cornell.edu; Wendy Coburn, wmilkscoburn@me.com; and Charles Wu, ccwu@mac.com. 92 Congratulations are in order for new (and almost new) parents! Christine Lankevich Bui of Durham, NC, and her husband welcomed their first child, Amanda Elizabeth, in August 2012. Christine looks forward to Amanda’s future days on the Hill. Lisa Martin Henrickson welcomed her new arrival, Ethan Colin, in September 2012. Lisa is currently assistant general counsel for Verizon in the Enterprise Solutions segment, and she negotiates contracts with Verizon’s large enterprise customers for business and wireless customers. Two-and-a-half years ago Ellen Huang (Los Angeles, CA) gave birth to identical twin boys, Max and Theo. After Cornell, she enrolled in graduate school at the USC School of Cinema and graduated with an MFA in production. Ellen worked in the film industry for Helen Hunt and composer Hans Zimmer before starting a nonprofit, Queer Lounge, that promoted LGBT films at the Sundance Film Festival. She also began working several years ago at the Screen Actors Guild, now called SAG-AFTRA. She keeps in touch with Cornellians Anna Lovis, Debbie Kang, and Eduardo Rabel ’93, BFA ’93. Best of luck to all! Michelle Thevenin, MBA ’01, MILR ’02, writes in that in October 2012 she became the executive director of the Monadnock Humane Society in Swanzey, NH. She says this is her “dream job,” and she is very happy to be back in the Monadnock region, where she attended high school. She is currently living in Keene, NH, and welcomes visitors who are in the area. Anthony Langone lives in Brentwood, TN. In July 2012 he was promoted to associate professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt U. medical school. Congrats! Rey Hollingsworth Falu of Mount Vernon, NY, is a realtor with Houlihan Lawrence in Bronxville, NY. He is currently a board member of the Mt. Vernon Chamber of Commerce, which is planning its 100-year anniversary gala. They will be recognizing fallen rapper Heavy D and icon Dick Clark. Good luck with the gala! We received word from Cornell’s Adult University that classmate Shelly Perkins Newton participated in the Cuba study program. Susan Sperry has recently moved back to Baltimore, MD, where she is beginning the next chapter of her professional career. Susan writes that after a fulfilling ten-year career with Chicago architecture and design firm RTKL, in which she led a global communications and marketing team, she has “changed course” and started a new position as senior director of communications and marketing with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In addition to her new position, Susan is in the process of completing her second master’s degree at Georgetown U. in public relations and corporate communications. She keeps in touch Mud, Sweat, and Cheers Joe Desena ’90 J oe Desena’s idea of vacation doesn’t involve sitting on a beach or drinking a mai tai. During the decade when he worked on Wall Street, Desena used his breaks to compete in ultra-long-distance races, some of which covered more than 350 miles and took a week to complete. That inspired him to found Spartan Race, a company that hosts events designed to push competitors past their mental and physical limits. “When you’re sweating and out of breath and you feel like you can’t take another step—but you do—it’s an amazing experience and it recalibrates you,” Desena says. “When you get to the end and finish, it changes you.” Since hosting its first obstacle race in 2010, the Vermont-based company has expanded to dozens of events held annually at sites around the world. The races are offered at four levels of difficulty, from the Spartan Sprint (about three miles and fifteen obstacles) to the forty-eight-hour Spartan Death Race. Although the course isn’t announced beforehand—the unpredictability is part of the experience—obstacles can include scaling walls, carrying heavy objects, and scrambling up a grease-covered slope. As the company’s website puts it: “There is fire, mud, water, barbed wire, and occasionally Hell on Earth.” Desena says that although most competitors are males in their thirties with athletic backgrounds, he’s seen some inspirational exceptions. Race finishers include a seventy-five-year-old woman, a triple amputee, and a 700-pound man who came to train at Spartan Race headquarters and succeeded in slimming down to 270. “It’s more mental than it is physical,” Desena says. “Anybody can do it.” — Daniel Tsoy ’13 March | April 2013 85 Class Notes with classmates Catherine Corson, MPA ’94, Matt Hutcheson, MS ’95, Bob Pape, and Sejal Amin Patel. Thanks for sharing your news—keep it coming! c Lois Duffy Castellano, LKD2@cornell.edu; Jean Kintisch, jmk226@cornell.edu; Megan Fee Torrance, mtorrance@torrancelearning.com. 93 Happy spring, everyone! Hope you are making plans to be in Ithaca for our 20th Reunion, June 6-9—just a few months away. The festivities will include Friday dinner by Beebe Lake, catered by Dinosaur BBQ, a regional favorite. Canoes will also be available for classmates and families to paddle around the lake. The Saturday evening reception will give everyone an opportunity to see one of the newest buildings on campus, Milstein Hall, and Saturday dinner will be catered by Joe’s Restaurant—a little piece of the good ol’ days—outside of the Johnson Art Museum. Here’s to reuniting on the Hill to reconnect with friends, share memories, and make some new friends and memories. Now for the news. Australia! Prior to moving, the family took a fiveweek, cross-country trip, logging over 5,400 miles, crossing 14 states, and visiting seven national parks. During the trip, the Drezners saw many classmates, including: Robert Liubicic, Felix Gorrio, Wayne Phoel, ME ’94, George Conti, Jay Cammermeyer, Gregg Paradise, and Rebecca Wilson. Randall Wood, whose new book, The Dictator’s Handbook, was mentioned in the last column, is deputy resident country director for a $540M construction and engineering program in Senegal, West Africa. His family has been enjoying life in Africa (Benin, now Senegal) since 2006. Deborah Kump is also an author. Her publisher has just released her second novel, Disappearances, which she describes as “middle-grade suspense.” Deborah’s previous book is the apocalyptic thriller 7G. Kristin Sponaugle Kopp lives in Lancaster, PA, with her husband, Brian, and their sons Anderson, 4, and Davis, 2. Kristen works as the director of alumni affairs for her high school alma mater. Myfanwy Mattes wrote from Ithaca. She has a private consulting business that “sources grants and identifies various levels of ‘ Ellen Huang started a nonprofit, Queer Lounge, that promoted LGBT films at the Sundance Film Festival. ’Lois Duffy Castellano ’92 Several classmates are entrepreneurs. Adrian Sexton recently became chief developer officer for Dynamics Inc., a mobile payments company. He announced: “We’re launching a new ePlate- powered credit card that will revolutionize loyalty programs and rewards for leading retail, entertainment, and lifestyle brands.” The cards “light up” when customers press one of two buttons to activate instant reward “experiences.” You can check out the company and the card at www.dynamicsinc.com. Chris Fenton recently sold his company, H2F Entertainment, to Chinese media company DMG. He travels to Beijing four times per year as a result. Chris and his wife, Jennifer, host a wine-tasting fundraiser every year at their home for the Cornell Scholarship Fund. “It’s a great way to meet other amazing Cornell alums.” He’s also looking forward to the 20th Reunion! “I had an amazing combined family vacation last August with Ryan Melkonian ’92, Steve Salm, and Jon Russell, MBA ’94, in Southampton, NY. Looking forward to making that a tradition.” Chris, Jennifer, and their twins Dylan and Kaylie live in Los Angeles. Nicholas Bumstead launched a travel website and iPhone app, called Find. Eat. Drink., featuring insider recommendations from the professionals: chefs, bartenders, sommeliers, and food purveyors. Zachary Green is a product specialist and institutional sales executive for an asset management firm in NYC. “I was recently granted a patent on a rules-based trading and compliance algorithm, and a couple of institutions have expressed an interest in it. They seem to think it can change the way people invest in funds.” Zachary also dedicates time to community service and is on the board of the New York Chapter of the American Red Cross. Jay Drezner, his wife, Pamela, and their two children have moved from California to Sydney, community services. I am involved with my field in several capacities, although my career has become more of a hobby than an ambition.” Congrats to our classmates with babies! On July 12, 2012, Marc Axelbaum and wife Katherine welcomed Phoebe Alexandra into their family. Phoebe’s older siblings, Charlie and Cammie, have been doting on their baby sister, and Phoebe loves watching the big kids play. On November 17, 2012, David Baskind and his wife, Shoshana (Sperber), welcomed their third child, Sophie Yael. Big brother Jacob and sister Maya are excited and very proud. Shailesh Panth had a daughter, Sriya, in August 2012. “My 16-year-old son Srijesh’s wish to have a sibling was finally fulfilled!” Susan Kim had twins in April 2012. And Kimberly Powell Sendelbach has recently welcomed her fifth child, Katherine Jane. Kimberly has just joined pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk. Our area of New Jersey suffered a lot of damage during Superstorm Sandy. Thankfully, we were (basically) fine, and began a family tradition called “Gratitude Check-In,” where each day, we take a moment to reflect on our luck, acknowledge the suffering of others, and plan how we can help. Take care and please share. c Melissa Hart Moss, melimoss@yahoo.com; Melissa Carver Sottile, mtcsottile@yahoo.com; and Yael Berkowitz Rosenberg, ygb1@cornell.edu. 94 Last April, while we were all just, uh, doing our taxes, Jeffrey Gettleman won the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting for his “vivid reports, often at personal peril, on famine and conflict in East Africa, a neglected but increasingly strategic part of the world” (in the words of the citation). Belated congratulations are in order! A Philosophy major on the Hill, Jeffrey went on after graduation to further his studies at Oxford U., where he was a Marshall scholar. As the East Africa bureau chief for the New York Times, Jeffrey has focused on Kenya, the Congo, Somalia, Sudan, and Ethiopia. In 2007, he and his wife, Courtenay Morris, were abducted in Ethiopia and held for a week (in 2011, they spoke on campus about the experience). Nowadays, the couple has two sons and lives in Nairobi, where Courtenay is a law enforcement specialist for the Dept. of Justice at the US Embassy. Susan Bryan Hsieh (Ann Arbor, MI) wrote to tell us about her lovely-sounding position as the Rain Garden coordinator for the Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner’s Office. Says Susan, “Whew, that is a mouthful! I get to train volunteers and design gardens for a worthy environmental cause—water quality in our rivers and streams.” She also has a 2-year-old son, Hamilton. Continuing the socially conscious theme is Samina Choudhury Karim, who wrote about her family’s activities during the summer of 2012. “We volunteered with a children’s education nonprofit (Outreach360) in the Dominican Republic, near the northern Haitian border. It was a wonderful one-week experience for our three young children (ages 6, 9, 12) and an opportunity for them to learn about another part of the world and the value of service!” When she’s not volunteering, Samina is an assistant professor of strategy and innovation at Boston U.’s School of Management. Mark Bullard (Bainbridge Island, WA) wrote last fall that he was on the cusp of publishing his first book. “I am tremendously excited about the positive feedback I’ve received from so many people. Pillows For Your Prison Cell (www.pfypc.com) is an allegorical tale about a boy who discovers the secret to a mysterious prison in which people enter, but never leave. I’ve been working on it for three years and will finally have the book published and available online by the time you read this notice. Check out my Facebook page to learn more: www.facebook.com/pfypc.” Anne Cole Scuderi checked in from Fayetteville, NY, where she and husband Matthew ’93 live with their three children. Enterprising Anne has started abacus@home, a small business that makes handbags and home furnishings, among them the “Marvelous Mustache Pillow with Fabulous Fringe.” With a name like that, just admit that you’re going to check out her work right now! Go to abacusathome.etsy.com. Cornell’s Adult University hosted a couple of ’94ers at their summer 2012 program last year: Carlin MacDougall, MArch ’00, took a class called Picture Perfect: Photographing the Natural World, while Melody Wubbenhorst participated in Gorgeous Gorges of the Finger Lakes. Speaking of campus, there are a few things I regret not doing during my time at Cornell, like signing up for a course that was completely outside my comfort zone, taking the time to listen to a concert at the top of the clock tower, or traying (for a Canadian, the snow thing was old hat). The one thing I did right was spend a lot of time with the wonderful friends I made, and I don’t regret a single moment. I was reminded of that when I went back to Ithaca in October for a mini-reunion with my old U-Hall 4 pals Larisa Alonso, Kirstyn Cassavechia Smith, Elizabeth Gonzalez-Marcellino, Carol Rim Hanscom, and Praveena Nallainathan Swanson. (The U-Halls no longer exist, but thankfully, the friends still do.) 86 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com We pilgrimaged to Moosewood, admired the “new” Vladimir Nabokov lounge in Goldwin Smith Hall, and marveled at the fact that Olin Library has a café (it’s like Starbucks in there). Thanks to a fortuitously timed Facebook posting, we managed to bump into another U-Hall 4 alum, Sean Andersson, and his wife, Victoria Hom ’95, at Collegetown Bagels. (Yes, the poppyseed Mecca of College Ave. is still there, but bigger and better.) After graduation, Sean earned an MS in mechanical engineering from Stanford and a PhD from the U. of Maryland, College Park, and he is now an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Boston U. The proud parents of two children, Sean and Victoria were in Ithaca to celebrate their wedding anniversary. c Dika Lam, dikaweb@yahoo.com; Dineen Pashoukos Wasylik, dmp5@cornell.edu; Jennifer Rabin Marchant, jar1229@yahoo.com. 95 This is a column of two news worlds, one joyous and the other solemn. Let us start with the latter and end with the former. It is with a heavy heart that I write of the death of William “Will” Berry in August 2012. Will passed away unexpectedly while on a fishing trip with two of his brothers and his eldest son. Those who knew Will at Cornell remember him as a loyal friend, a fun guy, a hard-working engineer, and a gentleman. Will married the love of his life, Wendy Ernst, in 2000. I remember receiving his Class Notes update saying how much he enjoyed taking dancing lessons with Wendy in preparation for their wedding. Will and Wendy had five children together: Finnigan, Maxwell, Samuel, Cecilia, and Atticus. He purposefully modeled how to be a loving and devoted father and husband. For the past 16 years, Will worked at Intel as a technical marketing engineer and held several patents. He will be greatly missed by his family, friends, and Cornell classmates. Switching gears, inspired by an idea by his 6year-old son, Justin Berk developed and launched an app called Kid Weather. Justin writes, “Kid Weather is a real weather app, where avatars of kids and animals dress for the current weather and short-term forecast. There is an interactive feature where kids can change the conditions and see the avatars change their clothes accordingly. We also packed in over 400 items of trivia to learn something new for each day of a year and more. Kid Weather was picked three weeks in a row by Apple as ‘New and Noteworthy’ in the iTunes education section. Want to see it for yourself? The app can be found at www.kidweatherapp.com.” Agricultural news comes from Nathan Merrill of Stratham, NH. He and wife Judy are expanding their dairy farm by purchasing a nearby dairy that went out of business last summer. Their current farm is milking 250 cows and the new farm expansion will give them room to grow to over 350. Additionally, Nathan is part of CAAAN and feels it is both a great experience and good way to give back to Cornell. In July 2012, Nathan and Judy celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary. They have two children, Hannah, 15, and Sammy, 13. The Baltimore Running Festival, on October 13, 2012, served as both a race and a Cornell mini-reunion! James Boglioli ’94, Erica Chapman, Aylin Ozmelek Lewallan, Thelma RomanoKranyak, and Erin Harty all lived together at 901 E. State St. during their senior year at Cornell. Erin says, “All of us have separately gotten into running, so we decided to run the half-marathon in Baltimore together. And we all finished!” Winning! Speaking of other winners, Matt Pasca has chalked up several personal achievements. He is a high school English teacher who was named 2003 NYS Teacher of Excellence; and, more recently, his first book, A Thousand Doors, was nominated for the 2012 Pushcart Prize in Poetry. For a review of his book, check out the Sept/Oct 2012 Cornell Alumni Magazine (http://www.cornell alumnimagazine-digital.com). Matt’s sons and mini-presidential experts Rainer, 6, and Atticus, 4, have a little fame of their own. During the leadup to the presidential election, the boys appeared on “The Ellen Show” five times, attended both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, and interviewed Michelle Obama as well as Anderson Cooper. Go, Pasca men! Ending our column on a high note, Matt, ME ’96, and Alison Torrillo French welcomed Benjamin Joshua into the world on Saturday, October 20. He arrived ten days early, which, Alison adds, “ended up being a huge blessing given Hurricane Sandy’s arrival on October 29. Big sister Sarah, who turns 2 in January, loves her ‘Baby Ben’ and seems to find him hilariously funny too.” Thank you all for reading. Please send updates when you have the chance—and may the odds ever be in your favor! c Abra Benson Perrie, amb8@cornell. edu; Veronica Brooks-Sigler, vkbrooksigler@gmail. Class website, http://classof95.alumni.cornell.edu. 96 We’re temporarily low on news, but our next class mailing should bring a new supply sometime this spring. Send in the hard copy news form in the envelope provided, e-mail any of your correspondents at the addresses below, or check out the online news form at http://www.alumni. cornell.edu/participate/class-notes.cfm. The Class Notes section isn’t the only way to keep in touch these days, but it’s definitely a long-standing tradition. We’d love to hear from you. In the meantime, congratulations to David Greenberger (heidoanddave@mac.com) and his wife, who welcomed their second child, Jacob Hugh, on July 13, 2012. The Greenbergers live in New York City. Jennifer Tishman Willey (jenntish@ yahoo.com) wrote from Matawan, NJ. “I’m running national sales and strategy for RealAge—a media corporation that provides health information to consumers—and working again with my sophomore-year roommate Toby Reiter, who is at ShareCare, the new parent company of RealAge.” Jennifer mentioned two profs from the Communication department who had the greatest impact on her: Toni Russo and Brian Earle and his course on Business and Professional Speaking. Send your news to: c Ron Johnstone, raj6@cornell.edu; Carin Lustig-Silverman, CDL2@ cornell.edu; or Liam O’Mahony, liamom@yahoo. com. Class website, http://classof96.alumni.cornell. edu. Class Facebook page, https://www.facebook. com/groups/12473948039/?fref=ts (“Cornell Class of 1996”). 97 Remember those gray winter days in Ithaca, wondering if things would ever be green again? Here’s hoping spring has sprung in your neck of the woods! Woon Peng Ziady sends news of her recent work as co-owner of Springfisher, a company specializing in mobile and Web apps that engage and enrich the user community. Her update explains that Springfisher has created several games and educational apps that are currently enjoyed by over a million users. Based in Singapore, she is also an executive coach at Chai Coaching (chaicoaching. com), and in her spare time holds down a third job as mother to daughter Kira Viv Ziady, almost 1. Woon shared her favorite memory from her time on the hill: “Walking from Eddygate to the language lab in the evenings for Japanese audio practice—the scenery, the cold, the repetitions, the friendship . . .” What a great memory! Also remembering his time on the Hill is Roger Hom, BArch ’97, who is currently a freelance concept and storyboard artist for the television industry. Roger’s many nights pulling all-nighters in Rand Hall, as well as the whole Architecture program, has well prepared him for designing imaginary cities and environments in his work. He can’t wait to check out Millstein Hall on his return to campus and would love any leads from classmates as he hopes to break into the film and video game industries. Entrepreneurs abound in our class, and a number of them have seen some great successes. Jason Goldklang sends news of the company he co-founded, Hudson Global, being acquired by the DraftFCB agency network. Hudson Global, a pharmaceutical marketing company, became aligned with DraftFCB Healthcare and will continue to operate under its own name. Congrats to Jason, Executive VP! Engineering grad Saro Cutri and Ag alum Robert Morelli ’99 have co-founded villij.com, a site for exchange of recommendations within one’s social network. Taking recommendations sites one step further, theirs allows you to ask people you know for their personal recommendations, including food, hotels, movies, books, and more. Check it out if you have an opportunity— and congrats, Saro! Having business success across the pond for Procter & Gamble is MC Gasco-Buissonn. MC and husband Gerard relocated in 2011 and she has since been promoted to director of global marketing for P&G’s Prestige Fragrances business. They love being abroad and are truly enjoying all the opportunities for travel, for both work and pleasure. Also blending work with passion is Jontie Karden. Jontie and wife Kung Pik Liu have started Sakina Design, an online retailer of contemporary wall art. Sakina Design focuses on taking Islamic influenced art and giving it a contemporary/Western twist in order to market it to a wider audience in the US. In addition to his work with the company, Jontie is a physician, and he and his wife have a daughter. Check out their website at www.sakinadesign.com. Ever wonder what can happen when you follow your wildest dreams? Just ask Patricia Sexton, who quit work as a banker to become a foreign correspondent. She ended up working as a news anchor in Mongolia for their national television station! Currently she is a freelance correspondent for SinoVision and the author of LIVE from Mongolia! Her book explores what can happen when you follow your dreams and take that leap of faith in your career path. LIVE from Mongolia! is on Twitter, and Patricia is currently working on a blog about people who have taken unusual career paths. If that is you, she encourages you to contact her at patricia.sexton@gmail.com and tell her more! In her spare time, Patricia is Mom to daughter Jade Areta Phillips, born last summer. If you weren’t able to attend reunion last year, you can always plan your own mini-reunion—like Jason and Amy Blye Cohen. Those March | April 2013 87 Class Notes gathering at the couple’s home in Delmar, NY, were Stuart and Rikki Lober Bagatell, Meghan Work Boedges, Nikki Arvanites Deluca, Rachel Chansky O’Reilly, Rachel Laveman Manne, and 11 next-generation Cornellians! Jason is an attending physician at Albany Medical Center in the ED and ICU, while Amy (in her words) tries to keep sane while caring for their three children. Additionally, Amy sends a note to Katie Fallon, asking, “Where are you?” Send us your news! c Sarah Deardorff Carter, sjd5@cornell.edu; Erica Broennle Nelson, ejb4@cornell.edu. 98 By the time this column prints, we will be just three months away from our 15th Reunion. Please mark your calendars for June 6-9, and plan to be on campus! Visit our Reunion Facebook group, Cornell Class of 1998 - 15th Reunion, or e-mail cornell1998@gmail.com for more information. Hope to see you there! The weddings and babies keep coming for our classmates! Erica Wray writes that she married Steve Bulifant in Yosemite, CA, on September 2, 2012, and they spent their honeymoon in Paris and the French Riviera. They are living in San Francisco, CA, where Erica is working in real estate development with Mission Bay Development consulting firm, EnviroGroup Limited, and now works for Geosyntec Consulting in Albany, NY, as a senior environmental engineer. She still practices in the areas of vapor intrusion evaluation and mitigation throughout the world, environmental forensics, stakeholder negotiations, and risk communication. We’d love to hear your news! Let us know how you’re doing! c Molly Darnieder Bracken, mbd4@cornell.edu; Uthica Jinvit Utano, udj1@cornell.edu; or Karen Dorman Kipnes, kld8@cornell.edu. 99 Sometimes it seems impossible that almost 14 years have gone by since the Class of 1999 graduated. But when you hear what our classmates have been up to, you have to admit that we’re firmly entrenched in adulthood and that our undergrad days are long behind us. The good news is that like the fine wines we all learned about as seniors in the Wines class, we just keep getting better with age. These reports of weddings, babies, new jobs, and entrepreneurial ventures are proof. Rachel Sterling may be very busy with a new job, move, and toddler, but she hasn’t lost her sense of humor. She writes: “Rachel Sterling relocated to the Bay Area where she now works at YouTube headquarters. She recently accepted a role It was disturbing when my older son ‘asked if we were Mariners fans! ’Jason Weinstein ’01 Group. The Cornell friend Erica would most like to hear from is Alex Popov. Larry Boyd, MBA ’04, writes that he and his new wife, Meg Wagner, wanted to thank their friends, family, and the more than 20 Cornellians who helped them celebrate their wedding last summer. Denise Chu Lee welcomed her third child, Lincoln, on October 24, 2012. He joins big sister Danica, 6, and brother Preston, 3. Joe Schatz and his wife, Parsa Sanjana, welcomed their daughter Leila Amani into the world on February 24, 2012. Several of our friends and classmates are happy and settled in their lives around the world. Allyson Byrne wrote that she spends most of her time with her children, working, and running when she can. She has two boys, ages 9 months and 2 years. When asked on our news form what she’d rather be doing right now, she said, “Going back to college! It was a great time in my life!” Matthew West wrote from New York, where he spends his time loving his family and enjoying raising his two beautiful children, Emma, 4, and Ryan, 19 months. Matthew is the vice president and chief talent officer for the RCW Group. He remembers bringing a gigantic computer to Cornell for his freshman year, and says it was so large that it took up most of the back seat, which caused his sister to miss the trip! Lynne Gadkowski lives in Dublin, Ireland, where she works as the senior political advisor to the US Ambassador. US-Irish relations are at an all-time high following a visit by Secretary of State Clinton in early December. Lynne and her husband welcomed a son, Caleb, at the end of July, much to the delight of big sister Lara, 3. Susan Welt, MS ’99, writes that she sold her environmental as the new global sales training lead for video, where she will be developing and launching a program to educate the global business organization on how to best leverage YouTube’s ad products for their clients. Rachel moved with her husband, Jeremy Sharff, and their 2-year-old son Lucas, who is clearly a child prodigy and will win Wimbledon in 2029. They live on a suburban cul-de-sac in Belmont in a house that looks the same as every other house on the block. Her dog remains a menace and her best friend is still her cat.” Taber Sweet is happy to announce the launch of his new company. He writes: “I have teamed up with my longtime friend and celebrated designer Ariel Gelman to start Blu Design Group (www.bludesigngroup.com). Blu is in the business of creating environments where people connect, reconnect, and interact. Our designs create opportunity for people to re-engage one another in order to experience remarkable moments in life. In this age of over-active smart phones and social media, we believe in creating places that give people the chance to make a different choice. We take the ‘E’ out of everything and by doing so, allow people to find the ‘very thing’ they are yearning for. That’s the basis for our name: Blu . . . We even took the ‘E’ out of it.” Risa Chae McCarthy, who works in compliance at Morgan Stanley, has shared with us that her son, Colin Michael McCarthy Jr., was born on Oct. 28, 2012. The family lives in Scarsdale, NY. Marla Greco Decker and husband Erik welcomed their second son, Elliot Maxwell, on April 18, 2012. The family, which includes 3-year-old Sam, lives in Hoboken, NJ. Marla recently finished her maternity leave and is now back working as a lawyer for Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. Brad ’98 and Caryn Chase Rakov welcomed daughter Kylie Cathleen on August 31, 2012. Caryn writes: “She’s the light of our lives, even for big brother Brayden, who turned 5 in August. In October (six weeks after having Kylie) I had to have back surgery—a microdiscectomy for a herniated disc. Pretty rough, but it was a miracle and it relieved the crazy pain I’d been in for many months! Our tradition the past few years for New Year’s Eve is to spend it with Ryan Lisiak and family in Connecticut. We also spent time with Bill Stempel ’98 and family in New York City this past summer.” Claire Kimple married Jon Buttemere, a graduate of UC Santa Cruz, on December 29, 2012, in Nevada City, CA, in the Sierra Mountains. Plenty of Cornellians were in attendance, including dad Jack Kimple ’70, cousin Owen Kimple ’10, and friends Liz Mahoney, Maeve Reston, Kate Silva ’98, and Jim ’97 and Emma Lee Peacock Mutrie ’97. The couple went on a mini-moon in Hawaii and then will take a longer honeymoon in Italy this spring. Claire works as the director of marketing and entrepreneurial development at a nonprofit in Shasta County, CA, “way up in NorCal.” On October 6, 2012, in Austin, TX, Jessica Durst married Chris Cannon. Chris, who is the military legislative assistant for Sen. Kay Hagan, did his undergrad at Sewanee, and has an MBA from Indiana U. and an MPA from Harvard. Jessica is a pediatrician in South Carolina with the National Health Service Corps, and she’ll be moving to Washington, DC, to join Chris later this year. I, Liz Borod Wright, have been kept busy in NYC, not only by my very active 2-year-old son, but also with freelance writing assignments, including recent stories in Martha Stewart Living and Mashable. I’ve also gotten to work with some exciting clients for my social media consulting business. In early December, I went to DesignMiami/ to do the social media for Perrier-Jouet. During the summer, I donned a dirndl at many events when I was working on the social media component for the Austrian National Tourist Office’s Dirndl Temptation campaign. Please let your class correspondents know what you’re up to. Send your news to: c Liz Borod Wright, lizborod@ gmail.com; Taber Sweet, tabersweet@gmail.com; Melanie Grayce West, mga6@cornell.edu; or Beth Heslowitz, beth.heslowitz@gmail.com. 00 Meredith Haff and Erik Breiland were married in Stowe, VT, on November 17, 2012. Cornellians in the wedding included Lori Kramer Spector, Tatiana Gott, and Big Red rowers Kristen Stathis, Kimberly Rothman, Elizabeth Wilson, and Geoff Hoffman ’97. The bride and groom are active rowers with Green Mountain Rowing. Meredith currently works in marketing for Concept2, the leading manufacturer of racing oars and indoor rowing machines. Global law firm Proskauer shared news of Evandro Gigante’s recent promotion to senior counsel. Evandro, based in New York, focuses on labor and employment litigation, representing clients in a broad range of disputes, including allegations of race, gender, national origin, disability, and religious discrimination before federal and state courts, arbitrators, and administrative agencies. Olivia Fitch is completing a PhD in neuroscience from Baylor College of Medicine. She had a baby boy in September named Miguel Jeronimo Orozco. Matthew Botos and Adam Honig ’89 are part of 88 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com the team at Innoveer Solutions that was just named one of the Boston Globe’s “Top Places to Work.” Innoveer is a fast-growing, award-winning, cloud CRM and social business consulting firm. Benjamin Kuhn writes, “I am loving life as an associate pediatric gastroenterologist at Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania. After college, medical school, three years of pediatric residency at Penn State Children’s, and three years of a pediatric gastroenterology fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s, my wife, Kristy, and I spent the past couple of years settling down on our five-acre farmette and gorgeously renovated 125-year-old farmhouse. We also boast a beautiful 3-month-old daughter named Emma. We hope to attend reunions now that we are within a couple hours’ drive!” New Minnesota resident Minna Kwon Brooks recently relocated from Chicago. She shares that the area is a great place to be with husband Colin and daughter Corinne, 2. Minna continues to work at J. P. Morgan Private Bank and is enjoying the Minneapolis office. Gregory Sherman and his wife are living in western Michigan. Gregory is the site manager at a small pharmaceutical company, and his wife is a high school teacher. The couple recently welcomed twin boys, Grant and Finley! Pete Ballotta has spent the last eight years working with software startups in Silicon Valley to hire the best talent worldwide and build out their products. He recently joined CouchSurfing. org as their director of business operations. Pete says, “I will be helping to grow out the technical and leadership teams and working on new business partnerships. CouchSurfing recently received $15M Series B funding from top VCs including Benchmark and Menlo Ventures.” Pete also produces electronic music and hosts the Sick Moves show on Samurai.FM. He is also working on a children’s iPad/Kindle book to help young children learn about their emotions. Finally, this busy guy traveled to Tokyo and Hokkaido in the fall and will be embarking on a European tour for CouchSurfing in the spring. Jose Ometeotl writes from Glendora, CA: “I recently joined Willdan, a nationwide consulting firm specializing in delivering services to local government. I am leading the team assigned to providing real estate advisory services. My background is in real estate development, finance, and redevelopment. I have been a redevelopment consultant serving in the senior associate and principal capacity for over a decade and am presently charged with growing our presence in the Northeast, with particular focus on the New York City area.” Employed with the government of the British Virgin Islands, Linette Rabsatt keeps busy as a freelance writer, poet, and mother. She also serves on a pageant committee. Linette recently completed a certificate course in Effective Business Continuity Management. Jana Wilson lives in East Croton-on-Hudson, NY, and is studying to be a nurse, which she characterizes as “totally fabulous.” She said, “I consider my entire life to be volunteer work, trying to make the world a better place. I think I am doing it, one tiny step at a time.” Jana also reports running into Cornell friends randomly in places like Grand Central Terminal, which is always amusing! Christopher Buckstein and his wife, Marie, live in Huntington Beach, CA, with their two daughters, Lacey Alison, 1, and Ella Marie, 6. Lacey Alison is full of smiles and has a head full of red hair, and big sister Ella Marie loves to swim, do gymnastics, and go horseback riding. Christopher serves as the director of the Entrepreneurship Village and as an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Chapman U., located in Orange, CA. In this role he educates, advises, and mentors students about the entrepreneurial process through hands-on programming, and combines teaching responsibilities with administration of several independent study courses. In addition to his work at Chapman, Christopher serves as president of Dynamic Investments (www.disocal.com), a private investment firm specializing in launching new ventures in a variety of industries, including construction, restaurant, retail, wholesale, recycling, manufacturing, and financial service. He also serves as president of Dynamic Construction Services (www.dcssocal.com), a licensed and bonded general engineering contractor and electrical and instrumentation contractor that specializes in civil, mechanical, environmental, electrical, and instrumentation construction services. Thanks for sharing your news with us! c Christine Jensen Weld, ckj1@cornell.edu; and Andrea Chan, amc32@cornell.edu. 01 Wow, we’ve gotten lots of updates from the West Coast and overseas lately! Maybe Seattle isn’t so far beyond Cayuga’s waters after all. If this keeps up, my argument to Salil Gupte in favor of lots of Cornell shirts for our son “because they won’t accidentally go home with the wrong preschooler” will no longer fly. Speaking of flying, if you find yourself in the Seattle area this summer, the Cornell Club of Western Washington has an annual party to watch the Blue Angels air show and welcome the new freshmen. Hope to see more 30-something Cornellians there, including lawyer Jason Weinstein, who writes: “I left my ‘biglaw’ job in NYC to move my family out to Seattle in September for a job at Amazon. It’s great out here, but it was disturbing when my older son asked if we were Mariners fans! It’s certainly been an adventure, and now we get to spend weekends with my fellow Sun columnist Devin Smith ’01 and his wife, Robin Moore, and their twin boys.” Visit the CCWW website at http://cornellclubww.org or Google/Bing your own alumni chapters for information on upcoming Slope Day, community service, and “welcome freshmen” type events. Vicki Johnson, a PhD student at New Zealand’s Massey U., is now working on her thesis in San Francisco, researching disaster preparedness education for children. “My husband, Ryan, and I moved back to the US from New Zealand and married on October 20, 2012 in Washington, DC. We honeymooned in Spain and relocated to Nob Hill in San Francisco in November.” Vicki and Ryan have also launched ProFellow.com, dedicated to information on professional and academic fellowships, and plan to become actively involved in the Bay Area’s startup network and explore some national parks. Also in San Fran, Gilbert Tsai has joined the labor and employment section of Hanson Bridgett LLP, representing employers in discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination claims, union-related issues, and wage and hour disputes. Congratulations to Jim Alves, recently named to the Sacramento Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” business and civic leaders making a difference in their work and community. An economic development manager with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Jim leads a team that has helped attract and retain 17 companies and more than 4,000 jobs to their region. In his free time, he enjoys running 12 miles around Lake Natoma . . . and dreaming of running for office! After two years in the Hudson Valley, Peter Bronski has moved back to Colorado with his girls. He’s now the editorial director at Rocky Mountain Inst., a nonprofit “think and do” tank focused on energy efficiency and renewables. He and his wife, Kelli (Terry), have also released the second edition of their first cookbook, Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking, and are working on a new book due out in 2014. Down in Atlanta, Lyle Young is completing his fellowship at the Emory Spine Center, jogging in Piedmont Park, and dreaming about sailing down the Florida Keys. He’d like to get back in touch with Rob Dionisio and reminisce about all the sweatshirts, boots, gloves, and nerves we carried around Libe Slope back in the day. On that other big hill, Elizabeth Herman has joined Sen. Claire McCaskill’s staff as a tax counsel! Liz and I had dinner recently, and I couldn’t help but giggle when she spoke with great excitement about her scheduled meeting with the IRS; McCaskill is in good hands! Liz also sits on the board of the Cornell Club of Washington, which has lots of great social and community service events planned this year. Check out their website at www.cornellclubdc.org. Over in Lexington, MA, Alan Nawoj is making good time on his Cornell graduation goal: to run a marathon on all seven continents. (Gee, I was focusing on grad school!) He’s already completed 18 marathons on five continents and has been training for the Antarctica Marathon this spring. “I will be one of 100 runners from around the world who will be participating in this challenging event, where runners face bitter cold temperatures, high winds, an icy and hilly landscape, and unpredictable weather,” he writes. “Once I complete the Antarctica Marathon, I will have completed six continents with just Africa remaining. As part of this journey, I am also raising money for the Soles4Souls organization, to provide shoes to people in need.” The other winner for this column’s farthest-flung alum is Adrienne Harrison, who chimes in from Amsterdam to let us know that she’s thriving as a lawyer and plans to spend the rest of her days in The Netherlands. “If any Cornellians find themselves in NL, they should certainly reach out,” she writes. Got news? You can reach your correspondents at the e-mail addresses below, or tweet me @BeliefBeat. Between columns, stay connected via our Twitter feed (@Cornell2001) and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/Cornell2001). c Nicole Neroulias Gupte, NicoleMN6@gmail.com; Lauren Wallach Hammer, LEW15@cornell.edu. 02 We have a lot of news this time around, so I won’t be able to include it all. But as always, thanks for sharing, and if your news doesn’t appear this time, look for it in the next installment. Let’s kick it off with London-based research psychologist Laura Salter, formerly known as Laura Currin, now known as Dr. Laura Salter, or “Mum.” Actually, I made up the last part up. But if I were a mother living in England, that’s what I’d be called. Laura’s daughter was born on July 11, 2011. Benjamin Ragheb has cofounded a company called LogCheck, which produces a mobile app for building maintenance staff. The overarching goal of the technology is to engage the staff with the building’s equipment, resulting in March | April 2013 89 Class Notes better managed buildings that use energy more efficiently. LogCheck is in over 50 buildings in NYC and still growing. I’m been enjoying the names you’ve been giving your progeny. A lot of them are very fun, yet kind of sweet too. Zoey Elana was born on March 8, 2012 to Courtney Gang Smith. Courtney is a risk analyst at Citigroup and lives with her husband, daughter, and three crazy dogs in Buffalo. In Los Angeles, Lauren Eisenberg Krisch and her husband named their son Max Gerald. Max was born on November 25, 2011. Evy Ruth was born in March 2012 to Jennifer Nuchereno Tucker in Leesburg, VA. Jennifer is a lead associate with Booz Allen Hamilton and provides support for the National Institutes of Heath. She would love to hear from Kim and Margarite, her friends from the international humanitarianism seminar. Olivia Jade was born January 9, 2012 to Todd Muhlfelder in the great city of New York. And in Alexandria, VA, Danielle Martin Wynne, her husband, and 2-yearold Gregory welcomed Logan Andrew in April 2012. Danielle noted that in late September, she met up with former 206 College Ave. roommates Leah Doane Sampey, Staci Gruen Yablon, Emily Goldstein DeVito, and Rebecca Walker for a girls spa weekend. When she wrote in, she was planning to join Max Kotary and Matthew Kaplan in the Baltimore Running Festival Team Relay in October. In this race, each member of the team (“CU at the Finish Line”) runs a portion of the marathon course, varying in length from five to seven miles. Next, a piece of news from one of my best friends, Tamera Stover, writing from Berkeley, CA, where she is a PhD candidate in the sociology department at UC Berkeley and an empirical legal studies fellow. She writes, “Last year I was in Toronto, doing field work for my dissertation. Then during the summer I traveled in Asia for three months with my partner, Ben. We very awesomely got to meet up with classmate Jennifer Chunn and spent three weeks in Thailand, with a brief foray into Cambodia. It went by too fast and now I’m back in Berkeley, and Jen continues her adventures in the sea. I think she’s diving in Australia.” This update reminded me of a time freshman year with the same cast of characters. Tamera and I were in my dorm room, two doors down from Jen’s. We needed her for something, so we decided to call her room on the phone instead of shouting or walking. She wasn’t there, and her roommate answered. It turned out Jen was in the study room, way down on the other side of the floor. But did we stop her roommate from walking all the way down there, past my very door, to tell Jen she had a phone call? No we did not. I guess sometimes we just choose formal over efficient. While I’m on the topic of travel and memory, let me include a last piece of news from Jonathan Lu, who works for Procter and Gamble and says that his love for travel has brought him to visit 49 countries since graduation. Jonathan recently moved to Beijing with his new wife, whom he met on his last stint abroad. He remembers fondly his early morning workouts in Teagle “with the usual suspects.” As for friends he’d like to hear from, he writes, “Anyone who lived with us in the Olin Hall dungeon knows ‘exackley’ who you are.” Hit my word limit with that one. Please send in more news to us at: c Jeff Barker, jrb41@cornell.edu; or Carolyn Deckinger Lang, cmd35@cornell.edu. 03 Reunion is right around the corner, June 6-9! It’s going to be wonderful seeing everyone after ten years away from the Hill! Jamie Beilin Joseph writes from Tribeca: “Chris and I welcomed son Jack Barrett on Halloween (Oct 31, 2012)!” Congratulations! Also in New York, Lea Beresford is an editor at Bloomsbury and lives in Brooklyn. Alan Zhou (ez25@ cornell.edu) writes, “Upon graduating in 2003, I moved to NYC and worked as a consultant for four years. After paying NYC rent, traveling 100 percent of the time, and never getting to enjoy the overpriced apartment, I went back to school to get an MBA from Harvard Business School, only to graduate again in the middle of a recession (2009). Moved back to China after my MBA and spent a couple years at Google China before joining Lenovo in its corporate dev and M&A team in Beijing, where I’m living now. There are a good number of alums out here, and I enjoy attending events here and there. Can’t believe it’s been almost ten years since I left the Hill! Still remember all the good times in the library and trotting through the snow—yes, I loved every single moment of it!” Joao Castilhos (castilhos.joao@gmail.com) writes from Brazil: “Since graduation I have lived in Italy, New York City, Los Angeles, and, currently, Brasil. I received my master’s degree in 2012 from Loyola Marymount U. in general education, with a focus on educational products and media literacy. I currently focus on second language acquisition. I wrote a book in 2010, which will be I just . . . K Published a book K Went back to school K Continued my lifelong learning K Changed my address KFound my calling K Saw the world K Started a business K Got married K Had a baby K Had another grandchild K Started my first job K Finished my last job published around February 2013. The book is for young adults and is currently being looked at by Illumination Studios, a part of Universal, to be made into a film. I am currently the academic director at a language school in Itajuba, Minas Gerais, Brasil, and I teach English as well. My plans are to stay here, pursue the publication process and possible adaptation of my book (which is called “The Adventures of Q: The Gift”), and eventually manage the school where I currently work. I have no plans to come back to the US. However, if a worthwhile opportunity arises, or if the film project works out, I will gladly return.” Elizabeth Paddock writes, “I recently left Madison, WI, for the mountains of Montana to be part of the new Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana. This is a really neat opportunity to be part of a brand new resident (as well as federally qualified) health center that is involved in a number of interesting projects, including becoming the home for the residency (we will have our first class starting in July), building a schoolbased clinic at a local elementary school (with a homeless rate of 25 percent), running a healthcare for the homeless site, and doing most of the HIV care in Western Montana through Ryan White grant funding. My husband and I are excited about the outdoor paradise we have moved to! We are happily trail running, hiking, waiting for snow for XC and downhill skiing, etc.!” Out here on the left coast, Kaitlin Lavin (klavin20@hotmail.com) writes, “I recently moved to Los Angeles from New York City and started working for a sports marketing and athlete management company. In 2012, I explored more of the US with trips to Oregon and Texas and spent the summer living in San Francisco. I returned from a trip to Asia that included a stopover in Hong Kong and several weeks in Thailand.” Kaitlin keeps in touch with Cornell women’s lacrosse alumni “and several other AEM classmates both near and far!” Rachel Criscitiello lives in Berkeley, CA, and writes that she is an attorney working for a healthcare workers labor union, United Healthcare Workers West. Rachel completed her first Ironman triathlon in Nice, France, in June 2012. Congratulations, Rachel! Anne Marino Looney (Alooney2@gmail. com) and her husband welcomed their first child, daughter Bridget Mae, on August 30, 2012. The proud parents took Baby Bridget home to their new house in New Providence, NJ. Anne writes, “We are all doing really well adjusting to parenthood. Unfortunately, we had ten days with no power after Sandy, but consider ourselves lucky considering all the damage in New Jersey. See you at reunion! Can you believe it’s almost been ten years!” Thanks to those who shared their news. For more information about reunion, please visit: http://www.alumni.cornell.edu/reunion/. See you in June! Send news to: c Samantha Buckingham Noonan, swnoonan@gmail.com. Online news form, http://www.alumni.cornell.edu/participate/ class-notes.cfm. CAM Digital Edition, http://www. cornellalumnimagazine-digital.com. Whatever you’ve been doing, we’d like to hear about it. www.alumni.cornell.edu/participate/class-notes.cfm Or send us an e-mail at: adr4@cornell.edu Or write us a letter and mail it to: Cornell Alumni Magazine Class Notes 401 East State St., Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850 Thanks for staying in touch! 90 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com 04 Alex and Michelle CwirkoGodycki welcomed their first child, Tate Alexander, into the world on September 7, 2012. At the end of November, Tate was a 16-lb. bruiser with hopes of someday playing on the Cornell rugby team like his dad. Alexis Anderson Lavko welcomed son Raymond Kimball on Nov. 26, 2012—”a bit early, but he is doing very well!” Michael Mannarino married classmate Leah Wittman in August 2011 and the couple currently lives in Philadelphia, where Leah is a second-year MBA student at Wharton. Michael graduated from Columbia Business School in 2011 and now works at Boston Consulting Group. While they wait for some quiet time to actually take a honeymoon, they keep in touch with many former classmates. Drew and Leslie Flanagan Greenwood (Stamford, CT) were married in August 2012 at the Gramercy Park Hotel in NYC. “Over 25 Cornell alums ranging from Class of ’01 to ’10 were among those in attendance,” writes Leslie, “and helped make our big day one to remember! We honeymooned in South Africa, Mauritius, and Dubai.” Andrea Shaw is at Duke U. in Durham, NC. She is in the final year (fourth of four!) of a residency in combined internal medicine and pediatrics. Classmate Clarissa Black received CIGNA Foundation’s Go You Award for the second quarter of 2012. Clarissa is the Founder of the nationally recognized nonprofit Pets for Vets, which received a 2012 Newman’s Own grant at a ceremony at the Pentagon on September 20, 2012. Pets for Vets matches shelter dogs to armed forces veterans. As an animal trainer, she founded Pets for Vets after training elephants, dolphins, and dogs. She saw the positive effect a dog can have on veterans suffering from PTSD and other conditions, and Pets for Vets was born. Congrats, Clarissa, from your classmates at Cornell! c Anne Jones, CU2004Correspondent@gmail.com. Online news form: http://www.alumni.cornell.edu/participate/ class-notes.cfm; CAM Digital Edition, http://www. cornellalumnimagazine-digital.com. 05 Happy spring, Class of 2005! The last few months have been busy for all of us, including me! I (Hilary Johnson) have spent the past school year teaching US History at the Albany Academies. I also recently accepted a position as the school’s archivist and will be cataloguing and archiving the schools’ history and preparing for their bicentennial celebrations. Along with Doug Leuthold ’06 and Jesse Koehler ’06, MPA ’07, I was in the wedding party of Beau Brinker, who was recently married in a beautiful celebration at The Barn in Ithaca. It was a gorgeous day and I was so happy to be able to return to campus, the Commons, and the Farmers’ Market. Jamie Newberry Houston has been living in Las Vegas since graduation, so her “two-to-fiveyear plan” for Las Vegas is working out quite well. She will soon be recalculating her plan with her husband, Robert, who is completing his BA in game design from the Int’l Academy of Design and Technology in Las Vegas. The two were married this past October in a ceremony shared with friends and family in Aurora, OH. Sharon Rose married Prashanth Sreeramoju this past summer in the New York metropolitan area. They celebrated with family and friends in both Judaic and Hindu traditions. Adam Fischman was also recently married to his wonderful wife, Lauren. He has lived in Washington, DC, since 2005 and has worked as a political and technological consultant for many federal agencies. He recently started business school at Georgetown U. Elizabeth Holmes Warner has her dream job working as the family services coordinator for Habitat for Humanity of Tompkins and Cortland County. She works alongside Shannon MacCarrick ’06, who serves as the organization’s executive director. Elizabeth was recently married and welcomed the birth of her first child. Adrian Zurca, who has been working as a fellow in pediatric critical care at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC, also welcomed a new baby to his family. Adrian Chung Zurca III was born in February 2012. His big sister Lia (they are two years and one week apart) is doing great! We finally caught up with Dave Stanford, who wrote to us for the first time since graduation— after which he and his wife, Sarah Kirk, moved to the Norfolk, VA, area. He did four years of sea duty with the Navy, and Sarah worked at the USDA Farm Service Agency. In June 2009, after completing the four years to repay his ROTC obligation, he made the decision to stay in the Navy. In return for that commitment, the Navy sent him to 06 After graduation in December 2006, Jeffrey Zick spent five years managing Waltz Vineyards in Manheim, PA. “I love growing grapes, working with plants, anything agricultural, and being outside. Last November, my wife, my dog, and I moved to Healdsburg, CA, in Sonoma County. I am managing a vineyard three times the size and am really enjoying my new position— and my Spanish is improving. Our 3-year-old dog, Zoey, a rescue that was left on my parents’ farm in Pennsylvania, is doing well in California. She loves the beach, chasing jackrabbits, and hunting gophers in the vineyard. She has eagerly accepted the job as official winery greeter and meets everyone with a wagging tail and a wet kiss.” Jeff fondly remembers being the Cornell milkman for Our dog, Zoey, has eagerly accepted ‘the job as official winery greeter. ’Jeffrey Zick ’06 Monterey, CA, for three years of shore duty and paid for him to get a master’s degree at the Naval Postgraduate School and learn Mandarin Chinese at the Defense Language Inst. This past summer they (reluctantly) left the mild climate of California and returned to the East Coast for a ten-month training program to prepare him to return to sea duty. It included two months in Virginia, where they were able to catch up with his old roommate Brent Mazurek and his wife, Robin. In August they moved to Newport, RI. Although busy with work, Sarah and Dave found time to start a family. They have a 4-year-old daughter, Charlotte, and a 2-year-old son, James. The kids had a lot of fun at Homecoming last fall, seeing where Mommy and Daddy met and got married, and ever since taking in back-to-back Chimes and Big Red Band concerts, Charlotte has been humming the Alma Mater everywhere she goes. It was cute the first week, but is starting to get old, even for Dave! This March, they will move to Hawaii, where he will be stationed on a destroyer as the operations officer, one of the six department heads who report directly to the ship’s commanding officer. He is hoping there’s a Zinck’s Night in Honolulu! Robert Garrity has recently joined GEI Consultants as a senior consultant in their Ithaca office. He has a tremendous background in solar electric project development and is the founder of the Ithaca-based Finlo Solar Powers. He recently presented at the United Nations on the current state of solar project development and ownership in the US. Many of our classmates have been involved in the creation of the new company My Heads Up Inc. (MHU360°), a mobile shopping application that provides shoppers with access to all the savings and sales taking place at a Premium Outlet. Jay Vix, Bryan Rosenthal, Melody Mitchell, Verneda White, Sulayman Otori, Greg Vixama ’07, Jimmy Saurez ’09, Joshua Dickinson ’11 and Omari Powell ’15 are inviting all of us to download the app for free at http://www. myheadsup.com. We hope everyone is having a wonderful 2013 so far. We look forward to continuing to share your updates. c Hilary Johnson, haj4@cornell.edu; Johnny Chen, jc362@cornell. edu; Michelle Wong, mrw29@cornell.edu. five years and bartending at Dunbar’s. He would like to hear from anyone from CALS and anyone interested in wine and grapes. Hillary Gardner recently relocated to Palau, a tropical island nation in the South Pacific, to work as assistant attorney general to the Republic of Palau. Weddings! Amy Pettibone married Patrick Durkan on June 16, 2012 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, with a reception at the New York Athletic Club on Central Park South. Marisa Cohen and Angela Kim were bridesmaids, and other attendees from the Class of ’06 included Mark Blackman, Jonathan Kim, Brian Ginsberg, Patrick Delahoy ’07, BArch ’07, Michael Rapawy, Edric and Kim Biason Chitra (who were married on June 2), Michael Lerario and Casara FerrettiLerario (who were married in May), Erica Esparza, Dominik Naczynski, Cara Remmes, and Kevin Thompson, BS ’05. Family friend Robert Treadway ’61 sang the Alma Mater at the reception. On their honeymoon, Amy and Patrick went to London for the Olympics and then to Italy. Amy adds, “Patrick and I now live in midtown Manhattan. I manage the bionutrition research unit at Mount Sinai Hospital, and Patrick is a consultant and a fencing coach. We have two cats, Matsui and Reagan.” Erin McGonegle and Brian Crespi got married in Sage Chapel on July 14, 2012, followed by a reception in Trillium. The couple lives in New York City. Monica Schwartz Kaplan was married on September 30 at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. New husband Benjamin, a native of Greenwich Village, is a middle school teacher of students with learning disabilities. Last fall, Monica began her second year as the Upper School psychologist at Mary McDowell Friends School in Brooklyn, NY, a school for students with learning disabilities. Paul Ibrahim writes, “On September 1, 2012, I married my best friend, Lisa Shaia, with a dozen Cornellians in attendance. After honeymooning throughout France, we started our marital life in Fairfax, VA, where I run my law firm and she is a practicing optometrist. We plan on creating the next generation of Cornellians soon.” Congratulations to all! Send news to: c Katie DiCicco, kad46@cornell.edu; Nicole DeGrace, March | April 2013 91 Class Notes ngd4@cornell.edu; Tory Lauterbach, VML8@ cornell.edu. Online news form, http://www. alumni.cornell.edu/participate/class-notes.cfm; CAM Digital Edition, http://www.cornellalumni magazine-digital.com. 07 Arkadiy Maksimovskiy (arkadiy m@bu.edu) is in Medford, MA. When he wrote last fall, he had just enrolled in a PhD program at Boston U.’s School of Medicine to study behavioral neuroscience. Jan Ma, ME ’08 (jan.ma1027@gmail. com) is in Cambridge, MA, and started business school at MIT Sloan in June 2012. She adds, “I recently traveled to Nepal and trekked to Mt. Everest Base Camp. Upcoming trips are to Switzerland and Eastern Europe.” Janna Koretz (janna@ drjannakoretz.com) writes, “After completing my post-doctoral fellowship in clinical psychology at the MassGeneral Hospital for Children and becoming a licensed psychologist in the State of Massachusetts, I have opened my own clinical psychology practice in the Boston area. I am currently seeing children, adolescents, and adults for 08 Hey, classmates! We have a few quick updates for you—as well as a reminder! We know we keep saying it . . . but reunion is RIGHT around the corner. What better way to catch up with your fellow ’08ers than to attend! Make sure you are all prepped and ready for Reunion 2013. We hope you will join us June 6-9 in Ithaca. Settle into the dorms on North Campus as we rekindle old friendships and check out what’s changed on campus. And now for our updates, which come from across the US! Josh Perlin is working at MLB Advanced Media, bringing the best of MLB to mobile devices. “At MLB, we recently launched ‘ballpark music’ pages for every team on mlb.com, allowing fans to see the entrance music for their favorite players. Check out the site if you’re a baseball fan (http://mlb.mlb.com/fan_forum/ballpark_music. jsp?c_id=mlb)!” When he’s not working, Josh has been spending some of his free time playing in NYC’s Gotham Soccer League, as well as helping our class prepare for reunion. He has also been helping in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and just visited Israel in February. Michael Collis quit ‘ I have been living out my dream of working as a designer for the ’LEGO Group. Michael Psiaki ’09 individual therapy,as well as for neuropsychological and psychological assessments. Finishing my fellowship has allowed me to resume my hobbies, which include cooking, book club, baking, and running. Feel free to get in touch with me if you’re in the Boston area!” A little further north in New England, Kathryn Burns (kmb75cornell@gmail.com) writes, “I bought a house last summer and moved to Portsmouth, NH. While I don’t consider myself a city person, I love Portsmouth and look forward to finding the best local spots. I have many hobbies ranging from making music to sewing to home-brewing mead . . . and, of course, keeping up with the house.” Kathryn keeps in touch with classmates Stacia Eggelston, Stephanie Contino, Diana Taft, and Spencer Morgan. Justin Elliott writes from New York City. He recently left his position at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP to join Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP as an associate in their real estate group. Patrick Kavanagh (pgk7@cornell.edu) sends wedding news from a new home in Toronto, ON. He married classmate Caitlin (Branisel) in Chicago on October 27, 2012, with many other ’07ers in attendance. Cindy Ng, ME ’07 (cindy@huzidesign.com) started a brand called “huzi” in Hong Kong a year and a half ago. She writes, “Huzi is a collection of design objects that encourages playful kids and adults to stay curious. My first product launched on Kickstarter from December 14 through Jan 20.” Check out the “huzi” website at: http://www.huzi design.com/. Look for the annual class mailing this spring—in your e-mail or in your US Mail— and send news to: c Nina Terrero, nina.terrero@ gmail.com; Dana Sckolnick, dana.sckolnick@ gmail.com. his job as a financial services consultant after three years and decided to return to graduate school. After a year of post-baccalaureate work at Stanford, he’s now in the first year of his MS in computer science at Penn. Michael’s husband, Gabriel, is the Web editor for a D.C. political magazine and has recently begun working with his agent on his first book. Kasey Basch and Adam Christopher tied the knot on October 6, 2012 and were honored to be attended by maid of honor Margaret Sheehe and best man Jason Beekman, JD ’11, as well as many other wonderful Cornellians from across the globe! The entire Cornell performance group Anything Goes (from Kasey and Adam’s time at Cornell) attended the wedding, and sang and danced to a few of the songs they did in college at the reception. The wedding was on Long Island, but both Kasey and Adam are working on their careers at Yale. Kasey is getting a PhD in genetics while Adam does his medical residency. Kolene McDade graduated from Dartmouth Medical School last May and is now an intern in internal medicine at Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, CT. Kolene manages to keep in touch with a whole crew of Cornell ’08ers, including Tara Kaushal, Rebecca Gauthier, Joan Casey, and Michele Annibal. Jennifer Soffen is now studying for her MBA at Harvard Business School. She was headed to South Africa for her winter break on safari and to help a local company there. She still keeps in touch with her close friends Jessica Schisano, Melissa Goodman, Lauren Mikesell, Christine Liguori, and Gillian Casten. Hannah Kern Sandal has graduated from law school and started practicing law. She and husband Neela have moved to Tucson, AZ, for Neela to begin his family medicine residency program. Sarah Huang is currently working in finance in New York City. She keeps in touch with Eric Chang, who recently moved to London. Hayley Easton Neal, BS ’07, lives with her husband in State College, PA. They recently welcomed their beautiful daughter, Catherine Rose, on September 5, 2012. Congrats, Hayley! That’s all for now . . . or at least until our next issue! We look forward to catching up with all of you in June in Ithaca, but as always, please send us your news before that! c Libby Boymel, lkb24@cornell.edu; and Elana Beale, erb26@cornell.edu. 09 The Class of 2009 has been up to all sorts of exciting things, from traveling to starting their own businesses—and of course several weddings! This past May, Amanda Laufer graduated from Seton Hall U. School of Law, magna cum laude, with a JD degree. She passed both the New York and New Jersey Bar exams and is now working as an associate at Patton Boggs LLP in Newark, NJ. Jonathan Yale went through a Cleveland-based accelerator program for tech/Internet startups this past fall. A photo of him in a cowsuit pitching his concept to angel investors and venture capitalists was on the cover of the December 2, 2012 Plain Dealer (the main Cleveland newspaper). Jonathan is hoping to revolutionize the supply chain of food, specifically for farm-fresh meats. Andy Cochran was married in Ithaca on August 11, 2012 at Newpark! Donald Cerio is in Athens, OH, as a first-year PhD student at Ohio U., studying dinosaur paleontology and human medical anatomy in Ohio U.’s ecology and evolutionary biology graduate program. “I am also employed by the university’s biomedical sciences department as a research assistant under fellow alumnus Lawrence Witmer ’81, who heads a robust research laboratory at OU. In spring 2013, I will have additional duties as a teaching assistant. As a member of WitmerLab, I have taken part in outreach activities where one or more of the lab’s researchers interact with community members and teach them a little about science in general and more specifically about what we do in the lab. It is a prime goal of mine to help make science more approachable to the non-scientist community.” On the sillier side, Donald has taken up soup-cooking as a hobby. “I have also rediscovered a love for LEGO, and I remain a recreational reader of fantasy when I’m not reading textbooks!” Speaking of LEGO, Mechanical Engineering graduate Michael Psiaki spent three years working for BAE Systems in Nashua, NH. “Since August,” he writes, “I have been living out my dream of working as a designer for the LEGO Group.” He was hired in May, and in late July he and wife Karen (Ketsche), who were married in Sept. 2010, relocated to Denmark, where the company is based. In their free time they have begun to learn Danish (a notoriously difficult language to pick up) and have been exploring their small corner of Scandinavia. Vana Koutsomitis founded a company called The CityStreet, a networking company for financial professionals (www.thecitystreet.com). Avery Miller and fiancé Michael Rossidis are busy in New York City. Avery is finishing her last year of medical school at the Columbia U. College 92 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com of Physicians and Surgeons, and Michael is starting his first year at the New York College of Podiatric Medicine. Brian Donovan received his MS from Stanford in 2010 and moved to New York in the summer of 2011 after a brief stint at KLA-Tencor as an applications engineer. Currently he is working for IBM in Fishkill, NY, as a characterization engineer for its newest microelectronic technology moving into manufacturing. After many harsh winters, Jennifer Gonzalez relocated to sunny Austin, TX. She successfully helped lead the second annual Thanksgiving feast for the homeless in cooperation with the Mission: Possible! organization. Over 100 people were fed a Thanksgiving meal. Several classmates have let us know of their impending nuptials. Magazine rules prevent us from listing engagements in the class column, but please write again after the wedding—with all the details! Send your news to: c Caroline Newton, cmn35@cornell.edu; or Julie Cantor, jlc252@cornell.edu. 10 We’re temporarily low on news, but our latest class mailing should bring a new supply soon. Send in the hard copy news form in the envelope provided, e-mail Michael or me directly at the addresses below, or check out the online news form at http:// www.alumni.cornell.edu/participate/class-notes. cfm. The Class Notes section isn’t the only way to keep in touch these days, but it’s definitely a longstanding tradition. We’d love to hear from you. Elizabeth Hartley Bonisteel, whose business card reveals that she is the community development coordinator in the Dept. of Planning, Jefferson County, Watertown, NY, has been going to lots of municipal night meetings. “Ah, the life of a county planner! When not doing that, I play with my 3-year-old Vizsla, Maxwell.” Lately, she says, she’s been researching solar panels—”They have finally reached northern New York.” She keeps in touch with many of her Cornell friends, and sends greetings to Dick Booth at AAP. In reply to the news form question about what she brought to Cornell as freshman, Hartley writes, “Ha! I probably brought enough food to feed my entire floor for the first semester. My parents own a grocery store!” Send news to: c Rammy Salem, rms84@cornell.edu; Michael Beyman, mjb262@ cornell.edu. CAM Digital Edition, http://www. cornellalumnimagazine-digital.com. 11 Lauren Braun, the founder of Alma Sana, is looking forward to using her Grand Challenges Explorations Grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to lead child immunization efforts in Peru. As the president and founder, she will pursue an innovative global health and development research project, titled “Alma Sana: Immunization-Tracking Reminder Bracelet,” that aims to increase immunization rates in Peru and ensure that all children live to see their fifth birthday. Lauren writes, “Being selected as a Gates Foundation grant recipient is a tremendous honor. This project has been three heartfelt years in the making, and receiving funding to make it possible to test it is just a dream come true. Having lived in Peru and seen the excitement from the nurses and moms about the real potential of this project to improve their lives and the health of their children is what’s motivated me to keep advocating for it. With this grant I can realize the promise I made to them to see this project to fruition.” Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) funds individuals worldwide who are taking innovative approaches to some of the world’s toughest and persistent global health and development challenges. Initial grants of $100,000 are awarded two times a year. Successful projects have the opportunity to receive a follow-up grant of up to $1 million. marketing and sustainable manufacturing practices during a trip to Kenya shortly after graduation. James’s work on combining fashion and economic sustainability has recently been praised online at Ecouterre and Milkshake. Keep up the good work, James! As the special assistant to the Office of Environmental Management at the US Dept. of Energy, Erin Szulman has been blogging on DOE sustainability initiatives since ‘ ’Ah, the life of a county planner! Elizabeth Hartley Bonisteel ’10 Congratulations are also in store for Kathleen Sequeira, who recently gained her sommelier certification through the Court of Master Sommeliers on Oct. 31, 2012! She is currently living in Orlando, FL, working for Darden Restaurants as a supply chain sourcing analyst. After roughly a year and a half of the real world, Mac Bishop has decided to quit his corporate job and is spending time working on projects that he enjoys. Though he has less free time and money, he says it’s worth it since there’s more happiness. Gabe Sulkes is living in Chicago and working as a non-motorized transportation policy advisor (bicycle and pedestrian initiatives) in the Illinois Dept. of Transportation. His interest in biking also extends outside of the workplace. “After surviving a gnarly bike spill in 2011 (fractured jaw was wired for five weeks), I am gearing up for another winter cycling season with fenders, goggles, and a balaclava.” In additional to work and cycling, Gabe spends time with friends and his pet sea monkeys. Oliver Dudman, who’s from England, is working as a video editor in San Francisco for a sports media company, the Bleacher Report. The company was recently acquired by Turner Broadcasting Systems and is starting its own post-production house, where Oliver can put his English and Film majors to work. During his free time, he keeps in touch with many of his Cornell friends, explores the Bay Area, and has made some small trips to Los Angeles and England. Thomas Levine has also traveled quite a bit in the past year, partially facilitated by his attendance at various tech conferences around the world. He spent over two weeks in Buenos Aires, where he learned some Spanish, and also visited London, Sarajevo, and Prague. He has spent the past year doing some volunteer work. He writes, “I’m helping the Gulf Restoration Network collect and study wetland development permit applications.” Between his travels and volunteering, he’s also found the time to focus on his hobbies, which include studying the prevalence of middle names, creating websites, and exploring New York pizza establishments. Send your news to: c Lauren Rosenblum, LCR46@cornell.edu; Michael Stratford, mjs465@cornell.edu; Kathryn Ling, KEL56@cornell.edu. Online news form, http:// www.alumni.cornell.edu/participate/class-notes. cfm; CAM Digital Edition, http://www.cornell alumnimagazine-digital.com. 12 James Muna has been hard at work since leaving the Hill. As the founder and CEO of Bora Wear (http://www.borawear.com/), he began developing joining their communications team this August. She is enjoying her new home in Washington, DC, and has been exploring the culinary delights of the city in her spare time. Erin’s blog posts can be found at http://energy.gov/contributors/ erin-szulman. As an investment banking analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Phoebe Yu is extremely busy with the world of finance, but still has time to explore the crazy world of the City. The Class of 2012 is well represented as firstyear students at various law schools across the country. Classmates currently undergoing the law school grind include Sahar Shirazi at the U. of Virginia; Gerard Cicero and Alyssa McAnney at the U. of Michigan; Ariel Sodomsky at Fordham; Scott Flanz at Stanford; Minal Khan at UC Davis School of Law; Matt Danzer, Evan Preminger, and Steven Grant at Columbia; Phil Goldstein at Notre Dame Law School; and Kathryn Raneiri, Emily Xiao, Melanie Berdecia, Emily Cusick, and Kristen Spitaletta at Harvard Law School. (For all those 1Ls that we missed, write us and we promise to get your names in print in an upcoming column!) John Grant moved to NYC to attend law school, but his plans took an arguably more thrilling turn. After dropping out within the first couple of weeks, he is now preparing to take his SCUBA talents to the Belize Barrier Reef as a dive instructor in 2013. “Cornellians, let me know if you make it down here!” Olivia Boyd is enjoying her work as a page on Katie Couric’s new daytime talk show, “Katie.” Olivia has worked on many exciting episodes, but her favorites include Katie’s interviews with Chelsea Handler and Taylor Swift, a “Best New Ideas” show that featured entrepreneurs, and a Dove program called “Women Who Should Be Famous,” where women are recognized for doing good in their communities. Also in the world of entertainment, Ariella Weintraub has worked for ABC at “What Would You Do?” and is currently working for “20/20.” In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, members of the Class of 2012 in the New York and New Jersey area rallied together to volunteer in cleanup efforts in Staten Island, organized by Chloe Gatta. In the coming months, more volunteer opportunities will be presented for those interested in being a part of the relief effort. Please send us any updates on your life, big or small! We love finding out what each one of you is up to—and the more information, the better. Feel free to share your updates, information, and news via e-mail or on the Class of 2012 Facebook group (“Cornell Class of 2012”). c Peggy Ramin, mar335@cornell.edu; Emily Cusick, egc43@cornell.edu. March | April 2013 93 Class Notes Alumni Deaths To access the full-text Alumni Deaths section, go to: cornellalumnimagazine.com (Table of Contents / Alumni Deaths) To obtain a hard copy of the full-text Alumni Deaths, write to: Cornell Alumni Magazine, 401 East State St., Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850-4400 1930s ’30-32 SP Ag—Arthur A. Weiss, Meriden, CT, October 19, 2012 ’34 BS Ag—Ralph S. Wilkes, Canandaigua, NY, October 4, 2012 ’35 BA—Albert G. Preston Jr., Falmouth, ME, October 4, 2012 ’35 BA—Virginia Lauder Sayles, The Plains, OH, October 2, 2012 ’36 BS Ag—Eileen Larson Brady, Buffalo, NY, October 31, 2012 ’37 BS Ag—Theodore Epstein, New York City, August 30, 2012 ’37 BS HE—Dorothea Bentley Witherspoon, Port Charlotte, FL, Aug. 27, 2012 ’38 BA—Eugene Simonoff, New York City, October 8, 2012 ’39—Louis Grossman, Miami Beach, FL, October 15, 2012 ’39 MD—Hamilton M. McCroskery, Boca Raton, FL, June 17, 2007 ’39 BME—Richard G. Smith, Bloomfield, CT, October 23, 2012 1940s ’40 MA—Anna Boerke Green, Victoria, BC, Canada, September 22, 2012 ’40 BA—Robert Liebowitz, Boynton Beach, FL, October 17, 2012 ’40 BS Ag—Wilson S. Mitchell, Union Springs, NY, September 13, 2012 ’40 BA—Margaret Tammen Perry, Newark Valley, NY, August 15, 2012 ’40 BS Ag, MS Ag ’53—Carl R. Stevens, Port Byron, NY, Sept. 22, 2012 ’41—John F. Carr, Bridgewater, CT, May 14, 2012 ’41—Saul B. Chernoff, Waco, TX, October 10, 2012 ’41 BS HE—Betty Niles Gray, Durham, NC, September 2, 2012 ’41 BA—Charlotte Adelman Kotzen, Sarasota, FL, September 13, 2012 ’41—Marne Obernauer, West Palm Beach, FL, October 10, 2012 ’41—Eleanor Kaighn Scott, Amsterdam, NY, September 21, 2012 ’42 BA—Flora Mullin Briggs, Syracuse, NY, September 30, 2012 ’42, BA ’47, PhD ’50—William B. Coate, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, October 18, 2012 ’42-43 SP Ag—Donald S. Earl, Seffner, FL, October 6, 2012 ’42 BS Ag—Dorothy Pine Gleisner, Jamesville, NY, October 1, 2012 ’42 BA—Robert M. Hankin, Durham, NC, September 22, 2012 ’42 DVM—Hiram N. Lasher, Millsboro, DE, October 7, 2012 ’42-43 SP Ag—Herbert P. Monthie, Lake Mills, WI, September 18, 2012 ’43 BS Ag—Ralph C. Colson, Schenectady, NY, November 7, 2012 ’43 BA—Peggy Pierce Elfvin, Buffalo, NY, October 8, 2012 ’43 BME—John H. Eppler, Easton, MD, October 30, 2012 ’43—Alan J. Gould Jr., Montpelier, VT, September 14, 2012 ’43—Robert H. Grotke, Tampa, FL, October 11, 2012 ’43 BA—Herbert G. Kantor, Seattle, WA, June 19, 2012 ’43 BA—Lucille Jenks McGown, Mesa, AZ, August 26, 2012 ’43, BS Ag ’46—Edwin E. Motsenbocker, Penfield, NY, May 30, 2012 ’43 JD—Marcella Lipowicz Rosinski, Hamburg, NY, October 3, 2012 ’44 BS ORIE—Philip C. Collins, Wilmington, DE, September 26, 2012 ’44—Janet Buhsen Daukas, Glastonbury, CT, August 30, 2012 ’44 DVM—Arthur E. Davis, Delhi, NY, November 18, 2012 ’44, BA ’48, BArch ’50—Thomas L. Eschweiler, Milwaukee, WI, November 2, 2012 ’44, BA ’46—James G. Gridley, Austin, TX, September 16, 2012 ’44, BS Ag ’47—Clarence H. Hutt, Tonawanda, NY, October 3, 2012 ’44 BA—Frances Steyer Martinson, New York City, October 7, 2012 94 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com ’44 BA—Jeanette Pelletier Volckmar, Philadelphia, PA, January 2, 2012 ’44 BME—Walter H. Wells, Rochester, NY, September 13, 2012 ’45-47 SP Ag—Jack R. Chapell, Douglasville, GA, October 5, 2012 ’45, BCE ’44—Elliott Feiden, Mamaroneck, NY, November 17, 2012 ’45 PhD—Robert Kunkel, Pullman, WA, October 25, 2012 ’45—Ruth Gudat Mondolfi, Caracas, Venezuela, January 30, 2012 ’46—Ernest T. Orgo, Colts Neck, NJ, September 30, 2012 ’46, BS HE ’45—Nancy Hubbard Perryman, Rochester, NY, Oct. 5, 2012 ’47 BS HE—Helena Robinson Banks, Albany, GA, September 18, 2012 ’47 LLB—J. De Reu Crocker, Allentown, PA, December 13, 2010 ’47 BS HE—Janet Cook Dennard, Houston, TX, October 22, 2012 ’47 BA—Joan Coffey Ryder, Wauwatosa, WI, September 25, 2012 ’48 MS, PhD ’53—Richard H. Backus, Falmouth, MA, Sept. 15, 2012 ’48 BS Ag—Daniel Billen, Mount Pleasant, SC, October 16, 2012 ’48 PhD—Wallace C. Caldwell, Des Moines, IA, September 29, 2012 ’48 BA—Joseph C. Douglass, Miami Beach, FL, October 4, 2012 ’48 GR—Robert W. Jones, Madera, CA, December 19, 2008 ’48 MEd, PhD ’50—Albert J. Kingston Jr., Athens, GA, May 16, 2008 ’48-49 GR—Kenneth L. McCoy, Baton Rouge, LA, September 29, 2012 ’48 MA—Nancy E. Ryther, Oneonta, NY, September 25, 2012 ’48 MD—Warren G. Sarrell, Anniston, AL, September 27, 2012 ’48 BS HE—Martha Warren Stevens, Lansing, IL, September 13, 2012 ’48 BME—Thomas C. Trafzer, Carmichael, CA, July 2, 2012 ’48 BA, MBA ’49—Theodore F. Trumpp Jr., Fanwood, NJ, Oct. 18, 2012 ’49 BS Hotel—Charles H. Carr Jr., West Palm Beach, FL, May 27, 2007 ’49, BCE ’50—Lloyd L. Conable Jr., Benton, IL, September 14, 2011 ’49 BEE—Thomas V. DuVal, Winston-Salem, NC, October 8, 2012 ’49 BS HE—Jeanne McNulta Fox, Garden City, NY, October 11, 2012 ’49 BCE—George L. Freeman III, Toledo, OH, September 20, 2012 ’49 BS Ag—James C. Jerome, Bennington, VT, October 8, 2012 1950s ’50 BA—Robert W. Aguais, Cardiff by the Sea, CA, September 15, 2012 ’50 PhD—Glenn H. Beck, Leawood, KS, October 30, 2012 ’50 PhD—Frances Dunkle Coffin, Oberlin, OH, September 8, 2012 ’50 BA, JD ’52—Benjamin Franklin, Ithaca, NY, October 10, 2012 ’50 PhD—Richard W. Harris, Davis, CA, September 16, 2012 ’50 BS Ag—Robert G. Hindmarsh, Putney, VT, October 12, 2012 ’50-52 SP Ag—Charles C. Houghton, Trumansburg, NY, Sept. 20, 2012 ’50 BS Ag—Raymond F. McAllister, Lighthouse Point, FL, Sept. 17, 2012 ’50 BA, MD ’53—Thomas S. Morse, Northampton, MA, August 26, 2012 ’50 BA, LLB ’52—C. V. Stelzenmuller, Mountain Brook, AL, September 15, 2012 ’51 BFA—Florence Sweet Benzakein, Longwood, FL, September 14, 2012 ’51 PhD—Paul D. Drechsel, Gainesville, GA, December 8, 2009 ’51 JD—Charles R. Hann, Newtown Square, PA, September 15, 2012 ’51 BA—Arthur Kalish, Old Westbury, NY, September 3, 2012 ’51 PhD—Arnold Klute, Westminster, CO, October 15, 2012 ’51 PhD—Betty Hatch Landsberger, Chapel Hill, NC, Sept. 13, 2012 ’51, BEE ’52—Robert D. McLaughlin, Tinton Falls, NJ, October 9, 2012 ’52 BS HE—Leah Schumaker Chamberlain, Captain Cook, HI, October 23, 2012 ’52 DVM—William A. Davidson, Houston, TX, September 27, 2012 ’52 MS Ag—Leon S. Dochinger, Baltimore, MD, October 24, 2012 ’52 BS Ag—Stanton P. Parry, Mount Vernon, OH, September 17, 2012 ’52, BME ’53, LLB ’57—David W. Plant, New London, NH, September 26, 2012 ’52 JD—Stanley L. Rosen, Laguna Woods, CA, October 2, 2012 ’52 BA, JD ’57—Harold A. Seidenberg, Goshen, NY, October 17, 2012 ’52—Clifford E. Wade, Bainbridge, NY, April 24, 2012 ’53, BS Ag ’80—Patricia Johannsen Edlund, Towson, MD, Sept. 23, 2012 ’54—Wilbur R. Farney, Lyons Falls, NY, October 7, 2012 ’54 BA—Genevieve Hughes Houghton, Carbondale, IL, October 2, 2012 ’54 MS—H. Dale Johnson, Vancouver, WA, October 8, 2012 ’54—Pierre W. Joske, Sonoma, CA, May 8, 2011 ’54 LLB—Frank R. Monfredo, Pittsford, NY, September 29, 2012 ’54 PhD—Leonard E. Spiegel, West Long Branch, NJ, September 22, 2012 ’55, BCE ’56, MBA ’57—Edward F. Arps, The Woodlands, TX, November 19, 2012 ’55 BS Nurs—Delia Winfield Denson, Boca Raton, FL, Nov. 1, 2012 ’55—Margery Stricker Durham, Polson, MT, September 23, 2012 ’55 MEd—Mary Mayfield Eady, Greensboro, NC, March 19, 2009 ’55 BA—Marilyn L. Foley, Hopkinton, NH, September 13, 2012 ’55 MRP—Roberte L. Mashburne, Young Harris, GA, September 27, 2011 ’55 MS Ag—Charles H. Pyne, East Sandwich, MA, October 18, 2012 ’56—Robert L. Green, Yuma, AZ, September 13, 2012 ’56 DVM—Harold M. Zweighaft, New York City, October 18, 2012 ’57 BCE, MCE ’58—Nedret Berkay, Istanbul, Turkey, October 1, 2012 ’57, BS Nurs ’58—Hester Young Kenneth, San Francisco, CA, September 18, 2012 ’57 MS, PhD ’59—James H. Menees, Santa Ana, CA, August 13, 2012 ’57, BS Ag ’58—William C. Paddock, Savona, NY, September 27, 2012 ’57 BS Hotel—Ronald G. Roberts, Oro Valley, AZ, April 10, 2012 ’58—Samuel W. Bryant III, Woodland, CA, September 21, 2012 ’58 MME—Robert C. Burns, Sanford, FL, January 12, 2012 ’58 LLB—Chester G. Dann, Buffalo, NY, November 7, 2012 ’58, BCE ’59, MCE ’60—David N. Koppes, New Hope, PA, Oct. 8, 2012 ’59 BA—David G. Forman Jr., Sanibel, FL, October 6, 2012 1960s ’60, BME ’61, MBA ’62—Richard A. Kneen, Hillsdale, MI, Oct. 23, 2012 ’60, BME ’62—George H. Nukk, Franklin Lakes, NJ, September 17, 2012 ’60—Kevin P. Sheehan, Stamford, CT, September 14, 2012 ’60-61 SP ILR—Edwin P. Wilson, Edmonds, WA, September 10, 2012 ’61 BA—Katherine Taylor Bowker, Penn Yan, NY, October 8, 2012 ’61 BA—Patricia A. Dunning, Severna Park, MD, October 13, 2010 ’62 PhD—William D. Baasel, Athens, OH, September 26, 2012 ’62, BS Ag ’64, DVM ’65—Robert S. Dedrick, Nashua, NH, Oct. 7, 2012 ’62—Joseph Schlonsky, New Albany, OH, September 30, 2012 ’63 MS—Harold E. Bowman, Leesburg, FL, September 24, 2012 ’63 BS Ag—George C. Dorrance, North East, PA, November 11, 2012 ’63 MRP—Albert J. Elie, Ottawa, ON, Canada, June 5, 2010 ’63, BA ’64—Henry Orloff, Palestine, TX, September 23, 2012 ’64 BA—Gordon B. Berkey, Kuna, ID, September 27, 2012 ’64 BS Ag—David C. Brickell, Fairbanks, AK, September 18, 2012 ’65, BArch ’67—Peter H. Brown, Akron, OH, August 24, 2012 ’65 BS Hotel—Thomas F. Troy, Alexandria, VA, May 1, 2008 ’66 MEE, PhD ’69—Rao L. Boggavarapu, Bloomfield Hills, MI, December 9, 2010 ’66 PhD—Christopher F. Masters, Atherton, CA, October 2, 2012 ’66, BArch ’67—Charles S. Mock, San Antonio, TX, October 2, 2012 ’67 MA—Allan F. Archer, Jr., Jersey City, NJ, November 15, 2012 ’67 BA, MAT ’68—Tina Melman Babakian, Martinsville, NJ, October 19, 2012 ’67—Toni Ladenburg Delacorte, Stillwater, MN, October 5, 2012 ’69 BA—Karen Novick File, Fairfield, CT, April 17, 2012 ’69 MA—Ruth Gordon Hastie, Ann Arbor, MI, September 24, 2012 ’69 BS Ag—John E. Hopkins, Auburn, NY, September 29, 2012 ’69—Bruce A. Nelson, Midland Park, NJ, October 5, 2012 ’69 BS Ag—William W. Ortlieb, Herkimer, NY, September 21, 2012 1970s ’70, BS ’71—Gregory S. D’Arazien, Naples, FL, February 24, 2012 ’70 PhD—Bruce H. Fetz, Middleton, NJ, November 11, 2012 ’71 MS Ag—Barbara A. Atkins, Longmont, CO, November 2, 2012 ’71 MS, PhD ’74—Khosrow Bahrami, La Canada, CA, February 6, 2011 ’71 MS HE—Margaret Cox Boynton, Ithaca, NY, August 22, 2012 ’71 MS, PhD ’75—Robert M. Clegg, Urbana, IL, October 15, 2012 ’71 JD—John L. Crites, Tampa, FL, September 21, 2012 ’71—William G. Haddeland, Minneapolis, MN, September 23, 2012 ’71 BS HE, MA ’77—Carol Johns Holland, Ithaca, NY, October 8, 2012 ’71 MST—Richard J. Hughes, Ithaca, NY, October 2, 2012 ’71 MS, PhD ’72—David G. Koch, Elm Grove, WI, September 12, 2012 ’72-74 GR—Timothy E. Engelland, Indianapolis, IN, November 1, 2012 ’75—Eric R. Strahl, Clarendon Hills, IL, June 28, 2010 ’77 PhD—Nathan W. Damptey, Indianapolis, IN, August 3, 2011 ’77 PhD—Ernest F. Dube, New York City, August 1, 2012 ’79 BS Nurs—Martha Brown Kerr, Arlington, VA, September 22, 2012 1980s ’82 BS Ag—Elizabeth Hooks Forth, Loveland, CO, October 21, 2012 ’84 BS Ag—Patricia Hardy Bozzella, Westport, CT, October 6, 2012 ’84 BS Ag—James L. MacKenzie, Winchester, VA, October 15, 2012 1990s ’91 PhD—Seshu V. Musunuri, Hyderabad, India, May 27, 2011 ’94 BS Ag—Marsden T. Chen, Latham, NY, May 13, 2012 ’95 BS Hotel—Johan G. Isberg, Limhamn, Sweden, September 14, 2012 2000s ’00 MPS—Njeri Kui Mugo, Syracuse, NY, October 4, 2012 ’02 MS, PhD ’05—Melissa A. Mundo, Ventura, CA, September 24, 2012 ’06 BS Ag—Robin M. Harris, Leesburg, VA, September 21, 2012 ’09 BS Ag—Robert P. Tirrell, Los Altos Hills, CA, October 10, 2012 To access the full-text Alumni Deaths section, go to: cornellalumnimagazine.com (Table of Contents / Alumni Deaths) To obtain a hard copy of the full-text Alumni Deaths, write to: Cornell Alumni Magazine, 401 East State St., Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850-4400 March | April 2013 95 Cornelliana Past perfect: The Jennie McGraw Fiske effigy in Sage Chapel. Left: A portrait of President Charles Kendall Adams. Memory Lane Emeritus professor puts O Cornell history online n the Arts Quad, near the southwest corner more—has found Howland’s site particularly handy in providof McGraw Hall, sits a giant rock with a ing fodder for his lectures. “There were a number of things I plaque attached to one side and a seat wasn’t even aware of myself, like the chair in Sage Chapel that carved into the other. It’s a tribute to “scientist-writer-teacher” A. D. White brought back from England,” he says. “I’d seen it Ralph Stockman Tarr, a geologist who died in 1912. “This before, but never realized it was anything special.” boulder—a relic of the Ice Age—symbolic of his research in Howland got hooked on cataloguing Cornell memorabilia Glacial Geology and of the Enduring Value of his Works,” the after noticing an inscription, from a poem by John Greenleaf plaque reads, “is placed here as a memorial of their Friend and Whittier, above the entrance to Warren Hall. Curious, he did Advisor by his students.” some library research and found his way to a copy of Contribu- The tribute is the sort of thing that busy Cornellians rarely tions to Cornell History: Portraits, Memorabilia, Plaques, and notice or contemplate—one of the myriad memorials, plaques, Artists, a report by Elizabeth Baker Wells ’28 published by Devel- inscriptions, busts, portraits, and dedications that dot campus. opment’s Office of Special Projects in 1984. “This account has But Howard Howland, PhD ’68, an emeritus professor of neuro- been compiled with the hope of stimulating an awareness of the biology and behavior, thinks they deserve more attention. The variety and richness of the treasures displayed in and around Tarr stone, in particular, chokes him up a bit. “It’s a beautiful many campus buildings,” Wells wrote. “Too often we pass by in memorial,” he says. “You look and it and think, God, these stu- our daily round and see very little.” Howland was inspired to dents must have loved this guy. It really gets to you.” build on Wells’s work—which contained no images—and hired Thanks to Howland’s recent efforts, alumni around the world students to take rudimentary photos. So far, about a third of the can revisit such bits of Cornelliana via the Web. With support roughly 1,600 objects Wells catalogued appear on the new web- from the Arts college, the University Library, and the Cornell site, which also includes items not on her list. Association of Professors Emeriti, Howland spearheaded a proj- The collection leans heavily toward plaques and memorial ect to create an online repository of Cornell memorabilia. The benches, along with portraits of distinguished Cornellians— site (artifactsandart.library.cornell.edu) went live last fall; some from the vintage (the University’s second president, Charles 500 items have been catalogued so far, with more in the works. Kendall Adams, sporting magnificent whiskers) to the modern “It’s a wonderful resource for research, and it helps bring to life (former football coach Pete Noyes on the sidelines). But the site some overlooked historical gems around campus,” says Corey also features some items that make the collection hard to Earle ’07, associate director for student and young alumni pro- define: art like the Herakles in Ithaka statue outside the Statler; grams in Alumni Affairs and a longtime aficionado of University an ornate Russian bell in Uris Library; stained glass windows trivia. “So many people just walk by these and never take the in Sage Chapel; even some living vegetation (the Bradford pear time to read them. This puts it all in one place and helps you trees outside Stimson Hall). But each one, Howland notes, learn more about the campus around you.” Earle, who teaches offers insight into some facet of Cornell history. “Memorabilia a popular course on Cornell history—a one-credit class that is a collective name for all kinds of things,” he says, “so I don’t capped enrollment at 400 this semester and turned away scores think we’re cheating.” 96 Cornell Alumni Magazine | cornellalumnimagazine.com