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JULY/AUG. 2004 VOLUME 107 NUMBER 1 Class Notes

80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89

80 | As the summer rolls around, it's a great opportunity to stop by and see old friends en route to vacation. I hope to be getting to Boston to see some of the old crew. Those holiday letters are great, but don't make up for quality time. It is always a little strange to think that when we meet our old classmates, we have semi-grownup kids in tow. It seems as if we always picture classmates as they were on the Quad.

As for official news, we hear that Dan Dube, MBA '88, joined AHL Consulting Inc., a marketing and consulting firm serving the communications industry, as a vice president.He is also serving as commanding officer of a reserve unit supporting the Commander of Naval Forces in Europe.He can be reached at BigRed80@att.net. Dennis Cahill writes that he attended the Cornell Life Services Forum in Manhattan in March and reunited with his fraternity brothers Ron Frier '78 and Dr. Paul Soloway '79. He also serves on his tenant association and on the board of managers of Alpha Community Services. These keep him busy, so his book on homelessness is back on hold. He also visited the campus during orientation week and enjoyed showing his new girlfriend her first glimpse of Cornell.

A small flurry of news from class Delta Gammas has recently arrived in Jill Abrams Klein's mailbox. Now that summer is upon us (in the Northeast, we thought it would never arrive!), it is nice to hear that Missy Unkovic Jensen is tending to her garden design business in Carmel, CA. If you are like me, you probably get a little dirty in the garden, but not to worry--our class now has a laundry specialist in Barbie Stern, who writes: "I'm working in new business development for Fabric and Home Care for Procter and Gamble. In English that means I'm working on how you might do your laundry in the next five years; yep, I've left the janitorial closets and I'm doin' laundry! Some of the stories that people tell me about their laundry issues just make me laugh. It's completely unbelievable, but it's creative and fun and all about growth and learning--how cool is that?" Barbie also devotes time to Cornell in the areas of university life . . . and the Hotel school, of course! Down in Atlanta, Marlene Neville works as a nutrition support dietitian for a home infusion company (Coram Healthcare) with home nutrition support patients; she also teaches aerobics for one of the local YMCAs.

Get ready for Reunion 2005--it's our 25th! Who'd have thought we would get this far? Be there! Hope you all have a great summer! --Cynthia Addonizio-Bianco, caa28@cornell.edu; and Jill Abrams Klein, jfa22@cornell.edu.

81 | It's the summer of '04. Can you believe that we graduated from Cornell 23 years ago? The time has absolutely flown by. In two short years, we will be celebrating our 25th Reunion. Plan ahead . . . Reunion will be held on the weekend of June 8-11, 2006. Let's have a record showing from the Class of 1981!

Thanks to all of you who recently responded to our e-mail plea for news.We heard from so many people that we have enough news to fill the next three columns. We especially loved hearing from those who have never written before. You know who you are, and your news is right here, right now! Professor Arjun G. Yodh (yodh@physics.upenn.edu) is happily married to Lai Yee Hom, and they have three boys, Elliott, Jeremy, and Zachary. Arjun is the James M. Skinner Professor of Science in the physics and astronomy department at the U. of Pennsylvania. Sheila Bond Giglio lives in Acton, MA, with husband Mark '80 and their three children. Sheila maintains her solo practice in Lexington, MA, and she is already excited about Reunion in 2006!

Pat Yeh and husband Larry Lue have been living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan for many years. They have daughters Kelly, 12, and Jenna, 9. During the summer of 2003, they met up with many friends, including Barry Raskin, Mark Stephany, John Balest, and Bill Marshall '82. Pat still keeps in touch with Ingrid Amberg, Sally Furness Dawson, and Jane Bergen.

Douglas Perlman writes, "After years of working for top consumer products companies and high profile magazines, I decided to start my own company, Woozie Wear Inc.Woozie is my teacup Yorkshire terrier!"Woozie Wear is a fashion line for pups and their people. Check out the beautiful, brilliant styles at wooziewear.com! In Cupertino, CA, Bob Zeidman has just started his own software company, Zeidman Technologies (www.zeidman.biz). He and his team have come up with a new methodology for designing hardware and software. Their first product, SynthOS, uses "software synthesis" to automatically generate operating systems.

Doug Nelson,MS '84, lives in Watertown, WI, with wife Martha and children Christopher and Emily. Doug, an environmental engineer, is VP of Science and Engineering for Knight Treatment Systems in Wisconsin and New York.Doug also has older children Amber and Pat, who have already graduated from college and are entering the work world. This is simply not possible, is it, Doug? Ask Jinny Rudd, who has four grown kids, two in college and two already graduated from college. She has a daughter at Cornell, a son at Columbia, a daughter who just graduated from UMass, and a son who graduated from the College of Santa Fe in 2002. Larry Hall, a Hotelie and the CEO of Prosero (formerly FacilityPro), lives in Peachtree City, GA, with his family. His oldest son attends the Hotel school at Cornell and plays on the varsity baseball team. His second son will be attending the Ag college in the fall with hopes of becoming a veterinarian.

On Mar 1, '04, the US Army promoted Christopher Garcia, JD '90, to Colonel. In June, he moved from his position as "missile technology nonproliferation advisor to Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff" to Director of Legal Policy, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.We wish Colonel Garcia much success in his new role. Melissa Rosse Dobbyn sounds happy in New Canaan, CT, with husband Colm and children Amanda, 10, and James, 8.Melissa, who is taking a hiatus from the practice of law, now teaches yoga part-time and volunteers at the kids' school teaching art history.

David Boraks (david@boraks.net) covers bank mergers and financial scandals as a reporter for American Banker in New York.He writes, "I have the dream arrangement: I work out of my home near Charlotte, NC, which has become a big banking city with the headquarters of Bank of America and Wachovia."Dave's wife, Shelley Rigger, is a political science professor at Davidson College. The couple has children Emma, 7, and Mathilde, 3. The family will spend this summer in Washington, DC. Also in Charlotte are Dale and Mary Warner Webster. Dale is a regional manager for BASF, while Mary is a nurse-midwife. The couple has children Garrett, 10, Graham, 14, and Grace, who will soon be a sophomore at Southwestern U. in Georgetown, TX.

Andy and Gretchen Pankow Eberhart (eberharts@comcast.net) have lots of news. They have left Pittsburgh and are now located in Princeton, NJ. Gretchen recently accepted a position with a healthcare communications firm in Princeton, and Andy is now working for US Trust Bank in NYC. The Eberharts have daughters Linsday, 9, and Rachel, 6. In 2003, Rhea Floersheimer Kaston joined Barnes & Noble College Booksellers' corporate office in Basking Ridge, NJ, as director of employee relations. Rhea lives in Holmdel, NJ, with husband David and sons Jeremy, 7, and Brendan, 5.

Peter Schamel,MBA/ME '83, is currently SVP and CIO of iN DEMAND Networks, the largest provider of video-on-demand, pay-per-view and hi-def television programming. Peter also manages the steering committee for the annual Fire Island Dance Festival. He and his partner David Cantor reside in Manhattan and celebrated a religious and social wedding three years ago. They are active in promoting the legalization of same-sex civil marriage. John Tombari recently moved from Denver to The Woodlands, just outside of Houston, with wife Iris and four boys. John stays in touch with Andy Kessler '80, George Tousey '83, Stuart and Laura Baskes Litwin, and Howard Floyd.

Who says bars aren't good places to find romance? Theresa Crisafulli Kratschmer writes that she met husband Ernst at the Connection in Collegetown shortly after graduating from Cornell. The two have been married for 18 years and have two teenage daughters. Good news, she states: "The teenage years are not bad so far!" Both Theresa and Ernst work for IBM T.J.Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY. She does research in software defect analysis and requirement, while also chairing the 150-plus member organization,Watson Women's Network.

That's all the news that we can fit for now! If we didn't print yours, be assured that it will be in one of the next columns. Stay in touch and have a joyful, safe summer! --Kathy Philbin LaShoto, lashoto@rcn.com; Jennifer Read Campbell, ronjencam@aol.com; and Betsy Silverfine, bsilverfine@adelphia.net.

82 | Bob Ellis writes, "after 22 years of silence," that he is happily living in the greater Boston area and working at EMC to define and implement operations strategy. He married fellow Cornellian Jennifer Sidell Cornelssen '85 at Squam Lake, NH, in the summer of 2002. Bob's daughter Karla, 16, is very active in soccer, and his wife's daughter Libby, 10, is very active in drama. Bob and his family enjoy skiing (both snow and water), deep-sea fishing, and the outdoors, and were lucky enough to travel to central Europe last summer. Bob's dad, Robert Ellis '56, moved to Cape Cod in 2000 following the death of his wife Phoebe (Adams) '56 in 1998. Bob says, "Jen and I are semi-active in the Boston Cornell Club and with Jen's '85 reunion activities.We also plan to attend the Beta Theta Pi 150 at Cornell this fall."He may be contacted at bobellis13@comcast.net and would especially love to hear from "Beta classmates" so that he can encourage them to attend the Beta party.

Douglas Skalka (dss@npmlaw.com) mentions that he has been toiling as an attorney for the past 19 years, the last nine as a principal in the 20-lawyer firm of Neubert, Pepe & Monteith PC in downtown New Haven, CT.He lives in nearby Woodbridge, where many of his friends and neighbors are professionals or educators, some who attended Cornell and others who force him to listen to stories about life at Cornell's "peer institutions."He has been married to Susan Prince for nearly 19 years and has three daughters (9-year-old twins and a 6-year-old) with whom Doug spends time at soccer, basketball, and softball games, swimming meets, and so on. If he can break away from the kid routine, he hits the golf course, but Doug reports that his handicap was lower when he was at Cornell. Doug says that he met fellow Lambda Chi Steven Fakharzadeh '83 on vacation in Vermont in August 2002, Lambda Chi Randall Marcus, an attorney in Ithaca, NY, and Lambda Chi Brad Friedman '83, "a big shot class action lawyer for Millberg,Weiss in NYC" [Doug's description, not Brad's]. Doug also works with Henry McNulty '69 from time to time when Henry's local public relations firm is retained by Doug's firm.

Eric Bauer lives with wife Sandy and his children Lauren, 6, and Mark, 4, in Freehold, NJ. He is a group manager at Lucent Technologies for the software reliability team. Before children, he and his wife enjoyed owning and riding horses and took riding vacations all over the world. National Anthem singer Jeffrey Kidwell (Mar/Apr Cornell Alumni Magazine) reports that he has left Morgan Stanley after 21-plus years and was hired as managing director in charge of the Repurchase Agreement/ Securities Lending Department (trading and sales) at Cantor Fitzgerald. Repurchase agreements are contracts that give the seller of an asset the right to buy back the security at a set price on a given date. In a press release, Jeff was described as a "recognized figure in the fixed income industry, currently serving on the funding executive committee of the Bond Market Assn., as well as task forces for the Securities Industry Assn. and Risk Management Assn."

Two of my fellow Lambda Chi Marks checked in: Mark Portera (cbigred82@yahoo.com; that's the spirit!) lives in the Atlanta area with wife Kris and sons Andrew, 11, and Patrick, 9. He manages the eastern seaboard for Hershey Foods Vending, Fundraising, and Concessions group, having been with Hershey for about 20 years, the last two in Atlanta.When not traveling on business, he helps coach his sons in baseball and roller hockey (despite not skating himself). Mark Morrow (mbm25@cornell. edu) writes, "I'm currently living in Seattle and teaching high school chemistry.Who'da thunk it?!"

Alpha Phi Rosemarie Aurigemma (raurigemma@ncifcrf.gov) works at the National Cancer Inst. in Frederick,MD, as a program director in the biological resources branch within the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis. "I oversee cancer drug development projects involving the pre-clinical study and manufacturing of biological therapies that are destined for Phase I clinical trials.My work focuses mostly on gene therapy vectors, but our branch develops other biologicals as well, such as monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins. I also manage a repository that supplies free cytokines and monoclonal antibodies to researchers around the world (http://web.ncifcrf.gov/research/brb/preclin/). I wish I could say that one of the biological agents I am working on has cured thousands of people with cancer, but unfortunately the vectors are not that far along.Maybe by our 25th Reunion." She works with another Cornell alumnus, Dr. Toby Hecht '67. Rose lives in Ijamsville, MD. Her husband Michael Gammons works at Human Genome Sciences Inc., and they have daughters Kaleigh, 4, and Audrey, 1.

Paul Komor (paul.komor@colorado.edu) lives in Boulder, CO, where he recently spearheaded the effort to create a new graduate curriculum in energy technology and policy at the U. of Colorado. After leaving Cornell, Paul got a PhD at Stanford U., taught at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton U., and worked as a project director at the now-defunct Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, where he worked with both House and Senate Congressional Committees in preparing and evaluating energy legislation.His 1992 report, "Building Energy Efficiency," played a major role in the debates that culminated in the Energy Policy Act of 1992. He is now a lecturer on energy policy and technology in the Environmental Studies Program at the U. of Colorado, Boulder, and also works on projects for E SOURCE, a Boulder-based energy research firm. Paul's current research is on renewable energy technologies and policies and their relationship to electric utility restructuring. In 2001 he was awarded the Diebold Foundation Fellowship for European policy studies and spent the year as a visiting academic in the Environmental Policy Group at Imperial College, London. He recently wrote a book called Renewable Energy Policy, available on Amazon.com, that compares US and European Union experiences. It takes a pragmatic look at government efforts to promote renewable energy and shows what public policies have worked or not worked and why, showing how the best of policy ideas often end with unintended results.

Class Council member Michitaka Yamaguchi (michiyamaguchi@hotmail.com) has identified about 90 "missing"members of our class, and the updated list is available from him if you are interested in helping track them down. If you have any information, especially e-mail addresses, or any other useful clues such as jobs, last known addresses, etc., please let Michi know. Here are ten names to start things off: Arsia Alamir, Barbara Hardin Andersen, Alison Baldwin, Michael Barnes, J. Scott and Wendy Smith Baruch,Maureen Berkley, Ann Bigelow, Donna Bock, and Cynthia Burgess.We hope to get the updated list on our Web page (http://classof82. alumni.cornell.edu/) to replace the several-year-old one and will also publish more names in future columns. -- Mark Fernau, mef29@cornell.edu; and Nina Kondo, nmk22@cornell.edu.

83 | As I write in mid-April, our class mailbag is empty. Your responses to the annual request for News (and Class Dues) have yet to make their way to me and my fellow correspondent Dinah Lawrence Godwin, but we look forward to all of your updates. How 'bout it? News of children and . . . gulp . . . grandchildren? Weddings, job promotions, or classmate get-togethers? Ongoing educational endeavors or interesting travel adventures? Sage reflections as we collectively enter mid-life? Many classmates filled in the News Notes at our 20th Reunion last year, but there are others we have not heard from. If you haven't sent in your news yet, write us.We want to hear from you.

Last January's Mid-Winter Meeting of the Assn. of Class Officers (CACO) in New York City was very productive. I'm happy to report that fellow officers Lisa Esposito Kok, Andy Sosa, Abbie Bookbinder Meyer, Omar Saldana, and I, Dave Pattison, came up with a number of interesting ideas to increase class participation and fund-raising. To reiterate what we mentioned in the last column--and to introduce the idea to any of our new subscribers--one of these ideas is to publish a photo album on DVD of alumni pictures from reunion, as well as from our beloved days at Cornell.We hope you got the letter from our class historian, Omar Saldana, requesting that you send in photos, and will consider participating in this effort.We all thought this would be a great way to refresh those faded but fond memories and reconnect with the school that has enriched our lives in so many ways.

It's too bad we didn't have the advantage and ease of digital cameras back then, but tucked away in shoeboxes and photo albums there must be some treasured gems you can find: photos of friends you hung around with; memorable sporting events or concerts; Cornell and Ithaca scenes that may be no more. If you have digital photo files, please send them to me at d.pattison2@verizon.net If you have prints and you don't have a way to scan them yourself, please mail them to Andy Sosa at 4911 Magdalene Ct., Annandale, VA 22003 (e-mail, jas247@cornell.edu). Be sure to include a self-addressed, stamped envelope so they can be returned, but if they are priceless to you, make copies before you send them. Also, be sure to include a notation of the names of the people in the photographs (if known), time and place of the picture, relevancy, etc.

And don't forget to send your news! --David Pattison, d.pattison2@verizon.net; and Dinah Lawrence Godwin, dinahgodwin@msn.com.

84 | Sorry, folks, not much news this time. The next round of News Forms from our annual spring mailing have not reached me yet. If you haven't done so, please be sure to send in some news of your life--not just major events--or contact Lindsay or me directly at the e-mail addresses below. Your classmates want to know what's happening with you.

Jim and Terri Port McClellan took their son Harry to Disneyworld in February. Terri writes, "For the first time ever in my career, I had to go to Florida on business in the winter.We decided it was a great opportunity to tack on a family vacation.We spent seven days in the Disney parks from almost sunup to sundown. I've been there a bunch of times before, but it's a lot more fun when you see it through the eyes of a 5-year-old--although I don't ever need to ride the Buzz Lightyear ride again. I was in Ithaca last week, speaking to a group of students in the College of Arts and Sciences. The panel was about career options with a liberal arts degree. The funny thing is: 1) these students weren't even born when we were freshmen; 2) they don't know what life without a PC or a cellphone is, let alone typing papers on a typewriter; and 3) we actually got letters from our parents with a stamp on them!"

Joan Guilfoyle went on a cruise to the Panama Canal with her entire family to celebrate her parents' 50th wedding anniversary. Joan's son Christopher decided to take his first steps on the cruise, with the whole family on hand. Since the ship left from Fort Lauderdale, Joan had the chance to visit Cathy Raffaele Marino, who lives there with her husband Gary and two daughters. Anne Garrison Gill and John Kelly were married in April in Rye, NY. Anne will continue to use her name professionally. She is the corporate secretary and an assistant general counsel at the Ambac Financial Group, a company in New York that insures bonds and other securities. She received a law degree from Northwestern. John is the president of the Reformation Insurance Group, a company in New York that insures business loans. He graduated from Georgetown.

Cathy Lichter Futrowsky, a patent attorney, has joined the law firm of Suelthaus & Walsh PC. "With Cathy's impressive experience, knowledge, and drive, our presence in Washington, DC, will be an enormous benefit to the firm and our clients throughout the country on matters specifically involving the US Patent and Trademark Office," said John W. Kepler, chair of the intellectual property law department. Cathy represents clients in all aspects of intellectual property and technology protection law, including identification, procurement, transfer, and protection of inventions, brands, and original works of authorship. She also conducts IP due diligence for corporate transactions. -- Karla Sievers McManus, Klorax@comcast.net; Lindsay Liotta Forness, Fornesszone@aol.com. Class website, http://classof84.alumni.cornell.edu.

85 | I wasn't kidding a couple of months ago when I told you that my news bag was nearly empty. In fact, but for my travels on behalf of the Johnson School, I would have nary an item to report to you. The annual class News and Dues mailing went out this spring, so let me urge you to send in your news if you haven't done so yet, and to pay your class dues, too. Ed and I look forward to hearing from you.

In January, during the Johnson School's "Week on Wall Street" program, I reconnected with David Cooper, MD '89, MBA '01, who has three, count 'em, three Cornell degrees. David is now Chief Medical Officer for TriGenesis Communications, a Chatham, NJ-based division of MediMedia USA (www.medimedia.com), a $600 million global company that is the third largest in health care communications and education, including communications to physicians, patients, and managed care companies.

Another January alumni highlight was the Pan-Asian Banquet sponsored by the Cornell Asian Alumni Assn. Decked out in celebratory attire and ringing in the Chinese New Year were classmates Shaz Kahng, Linda Kao, Sandra Ng Cassidy, Barbara Eng Nitzberg, Leslie Nydick, and Kathy Chan Valgora. Congratulations to CAAA on a job well done.

After my trip to the City That Never Sleeps, I got to travel to the City of Lights for the Johnson School European Alumni Symposium, where I had the good fortune to run into Sharon Cape. Sharon is putting her English degree to most unusual use as executive assistant to the director of the European Space Agency, which is headquartered in Paris.We're all jealous of her ooh-la-la life, but she notes that it is virtually impossible to get decent chopped liver there. Thus, anyone traveling to Paris should bring Sharon a care package from Zabar's.

At a Johnson School Club of Boston event in April, I saw Paul Fuhrman, MBA '90, a partner with AXIA Limited, a management consulting firm. Paul was formerly a vice president and member of the executive committee with GEN3 Partners, where he led the development, commercialization, and funding of new business opportunities.He also helped establish and develop the strategy practice within the former Ernst & Young Consulting Services, which grew from 50 to more than 200 people globally, generating $60 million in revenue.

Greg Vojnovic, owner of Bridgetown Tropical Bar and Grill (www.bridgetowngrill.com), will be the host for our next Johnson School Club of Atlanta Entrepreneurial Roundtable. Greg has owned Bridgetown for seven years and has been awarded 36 Best of Atlanta awards and two national awards, and has received international recognition from the Foreign Minister of Barbados as an International Friend of Barbados. Visitors to Atlanta who are looking for great Caribbean food and special island drinks should definitely give Bridgetown Grill a try.

Now for news from the very end of my News and Dues stash: Harry Chiam sent greetings from Down Under.He is a business manager for tax services at Deloitte in Melbourne, and would love to hear from any classmates who are visiting Australia. He can be reached at chc9@cornell.edu. Closer to home, Joel Moses noted that he has joined a four-person private practice in infectious diseases medicine in Albany, and has been named Hospital Epidemiologist at Albany Medical Center. Also making a career transition is Carolyn Choh, who left Saatchi & Saatchi after three years as VP/Account Supervisor in pharmaceutical marketing and is now teaching as a visiting faculty member at St. Joseph's U. And this just in: Jan Wysocki and husband Steve Wilson welcomed their first child, Alden Bryce, on April 5, 2003. The Wysocki/Wilson family lives in NYC, where Jan is a private banker for JP Morgan. Classmates wishing to send congratulations (or otherwise chat with Jan) can reach her at janwysocki@hotmail.com.

David Lewandrowski and Barbara Eng Nitzberg were named new members of the Cornell Ag and Life Sciences Alumni Assn. Board. Congratulations! Kudos are also due to Christine Hamori, who has been inducted into the Cornell Athletics Hall of Fame. Christine was a four-time competitor in the NCAA Women's Fencing Championship, finishing fourth in 1982. She completed a 14-1 mark in dual matches during her junior season and finished 13th at the US Olympic Trials.

Those who would like to see Christine's Hall of Fame plaque in person should make plans now to attend our Class of '85 20th Reunion, June 9-12, '05. Our reunion co-chairs extraordinaire, Margaret Nagel Gnegy and Jennifer Sidell Cornelssen, are hoping that many of you will not only plan to join us back on campus, but also volunteer your services in the reunion planning process and at our class events. Involvement opportunities range from managing a meal event to sending out reunion mailings to your "affinity group" (e.g., sports team, Greek organization, student organization, etc.), to assisting with decorations and favors, to hosting an event at reunion. Time commitment varies from a few hours to 20 hours, and all assistance is warmly welcomed so that we can make our 20th Reunion a great success. Interested? E-mail Jen at jms81@cornell.edu or Margaret at mjn15@cornell.edu. Want more details? See our class website at http://classof85. alumni.cornell.edu/.

Send in your dues and your tidings. It means more inches of class column wit and wisdom next month.We love hearing from you, and your classmates love hearing about you. -- Risa Mish, rmm22@cornell.edu; Ed Catto, edcatto@hotmail.com.

86 | You never know where you might meet a Cornellian. I happened to be seated next to one in a tiny Thai restaurant in nearby Exeter, NH, while celebrating my 40th birthday in February. "I couldn't help but overhear your conversation about Ithaca," the stranger said as we were leaving. "Did you go to Cornell?"He was class of '72 and up from Boston on business. And then there were the Big Red lacrosse players I saw crossing the U. of New Hampshire campus last month, the day before I heard a detailed story on National Public Radio about the Cornell scientists behind the recent Mars explorations. Our school touches our lives no matter how long we've been gone.

For me it's been 12 years. So when a group of friends suggested an Ithaca rendezvous this year, I didn't think too long.We'll descend on campus the weekend of the 4th of July, with bunches of kids and spouses in tow. The group includes our fellow class correspondent Hilory Federgreen Wagner, as well as Lorraine Miano Fike, Mike Beller, and Larry Robiner. Neil Goldstein and Dave Immel '83,MArch '86, are rumored but not confirmed. The next challenge is deciding who will watch the kids when we hit Group Therapy at Dunbars!

Just a few news items to report this month, beginning with ILR grad Mitch Shapiro. "I recently resigned from the New York City law firm I founded almost ten years ago,"Mitch writes. The firm recently settled a landmark case (Wal-Mart et al. v.Visa and MasterCard) for more than $3 billion, he reports. After a brief sabbatical from lawyering,Mitch says he'll be ready for his next professional challenge later this year. Okay,Mitch,Group Therapy's on you. The nonprofit group Cure Autism Now recently named Peter Bell executive director and CEO. The organization is dedicated to funding autism research and accelerating the pace of progress toward a cure. Peter assumes his new role after 12 years with Johnson & Johnson.He and his family will relocate to Los Angeles from New Jersey.

I heard from my good friend and Tri Delt sister Margaret Jones Carpenter, who is teaching abroad in Hong Kong with her husband Dave and sons Sam and Max. The family's international experience follows teaching stints in Saudi Arabia and Scotland, as well as a couple of years "at home" in Virginia. And also in the "news from friends" category, Larry Robiner was recently promoted to vice president at Epsilon. He and wife Rachael have sons Alex and Sam and live outside Boston.

What's new with you? We need news from classmates to keep the column interesting, and an e-mail can be as brief as this one from Maureen Laffey Bills in Upstate New York: "Technology finally came a few more feet down the road, and the kids are bouncing around with wireless Internet on their laptops now. Life is good."

As for me, I stay busy with our daughter Elizabeth, 8, and my job writing and producing marketing materials for Liberty Mutual. I also lend an occasional hand in my husband's furniture and antique business. You can check us out on the Web at WingateCollection.com. And while you're on the 'Net, e-mail your latest to any of us at the addresses below.We need your news, so keep in touch! --Allison Farbaniec MacLean, aaf9@cornell.edu; Hilory Federgreen Wagner, haf5@cornell.edu; Jackie Byers Davidson, jackiekd@sbcglobal.net.

87 | To start this column, I have some news of my own: I graduated this spring from New York U. with a master's in social work. I think after many years I am finally done with school! Thank you to my dear partner Tom Tseng, ME '94, for saving me at the last minute with news for this column. In the most interesting job category, Tom heard from Kimberly Schulz, an assistant professor at SUNY Syracuse in Environmental and Forest Biology. She is a biological limnologist by training.What, you may ask, is a limnologist? Limnology is the study of inland aquatic ecosystems--lakes, streams, wetlands, and reservoirs. I didn't even know that you could major in that at Cornell! Hannah Buxbaum, JD '92, reports that she was recently granted tenure as a full professor at Indiana U. School of Law.

Tom recently attended a reception in the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, where President Jeffrey Lehman '77 and his wife, Kathy Okun, made their first official visit to the Bay Area. Christopher Heerin, VP for business development at the Exigen Group, was there, as well as Feleciai Favroth, who is a broker at Seville Real Estate, and Rana Glasgal, ME '92, director of institutional research at Stanford U. Other '87 classmates at the event included Jon Shuster; Elena Matsis, senior counsel at SBC SMART Yellow Pages West, Law; James Mock, president of Channel F; and Todd Raessler, who is working at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel as a general manager. Finally, also spotted by Tom at this event were Jessica Rothschild, a principal with Rothschild Schwartz Architects Inc.; David Salamon, who is presently working at Miraizon; Rebecca Wolff, who is practicing law in the San Francisco area; and Bart Schachter, a founding and managing partner of Blueprint Ventures. Bart recently headlined a forum for Cornell alumni working in downtown San Francisco who are interested in technology and entrepreneurship. His current investment focus includes wireless technologies, nanoelectronics, and communications semiconductors.

Phil Lam reports that he is parlaying his status as an unemployed dot-commer into a movie career! He is helping to raise financing for an independent film. Phil became a father for the second time on Feb. 28. His older child is 2. Phil reports that parenthood is great--tiring, but great! Randi Karmen Guttenberg e-mailed that she had another baby girl! Hannah Rose was born on Aug. 8, '03! Big sister Katie Bea is happy to have the company!

Margot Milberg e-mailed the following: "My family and I rang in the New Year with some fellow Cornellians, including Melinda Weir and husband Erik Sorensen, Heather McRay '86, and Ellen Rosefsky Cohen, BFA '88, and their families. Everyone had a great time, especially the four kids, who ranged from age 2- 1/2 to 4-1/2." Mark Mandarano recently served as guest conductor at the Houston Symphony. Additionally,Mark was named the principal guest conductor of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. His first residency will begin in the spring of 2004 and will include performances in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. He will conduct the first Russian performances of American works, as well as classical repertoire. -- Debra Howard Stern, dstern@acksys. com; and Tom Smith Tseng, ttseng@stanford.edu.

88 | Greetings, Class of '88! As I write this column, spring has sprung in New Jersey, and the daffodils, forsythia, and crocus are up all over the state. It has been a harsh winter in the Northeast, with record-breaking cold temperatures and snowfalls. You are probably reading this in early July, kicked back on a nice deck or patio, with a good book or iced tea in hand (Long Island or regular!).Wouldn't it be a great month to visit Cornell and Ithaca and our old stomping grounds? You're never too old for a road trip!

First, some fabulous news: our very own Kelly Smith Brown, MBA '92, past class president and current reunion chair extraordinaire, is now the proud mother of Sarah Grace, born in February. Kelly and husband Tim were on their way to Chicago for their baby shower, when signs indicated that they would soon be receiving the best present of all! Despite the difficult delivery, Kelly has fully recovered, and Sarah is also doing beautifully. Congratulations to the new family. Former Ithacan Bonnie Geller Weiner is now the proud mother of Melanie Faith. Bonnie and husband Scott welcomed Melanie to the world on her mom's birthday,March 3-- what a special gift!

Michael Shih reports the happy news that he and wife Melissa Marks-Shih '93 had their first child, baby girl Lindsay Ella, on Oct. 16, '03.Melissa has finished school at the Inst. of Culinary Education and is taking some time off to care for Lindsay, while Michael is working as an attorney for pharmaceutical company Eisai Inc. in New Jersey.Michael tells of other Cornellian news: Dale Fuchs lives in Madrid with husband Mario Tafalla. Dale is a journalist, currently writing for the New York Times as a foreign correspondent. Tom Yu works at Morgan Stanley and has two boys, Justin and Marcus. Dr. Maria Amaro Orr, DVM '92, is a veterinarian in Minnesota and runs a veterinary practice with her husband. The Orr family also includes son Michael and daughter Emily.

We have received word that Stephen Miles Jr., MBA '90, attended the reception in honor of Cornell's new President, Jeffrey Lehman '77, hosted by Steve Miles Sr. '57 and his wife Marilyn at the River Oaks Country Club in Houston, TX. The February event included 225 Cornellians from the Houston and Austin areas, and, it's reported, "the first couple was shown a real Texas welcome!" Stephen also attended the small dinner party held after the reception, also hosted by the Mileses. Dr. Josh Nosanchuk, MD '92, another former Ithaca "townie" and now New Jerseyan, and wife Pat, also a doctor, just got back from a trip to London. Josh gave a talk at a hospital there, then stayed a week longer to sightsee. Josh was recently honored with the Young Investigator Award from the Infectious Diseases Society of America for vaccine research, and remarked, "Yes, I am still considered ‘young!' " I guess that means the rest of us are, too.

Loren Gerlach reports that he lives in London with wife Susan and their two cats. Susan is a Web designer and part-time actress and says, "Our hobbies are theater, music (I play guitar in jam sessions at local Irish pubs), and travel (40 countries and counting)--for all of which London is a fab base." Loren spent the last 10 years in supply chain management (purchasing, logistics, and manufacturing) and European business development for a variety of companies. Highlights included: bringing Snickers bars into Siberia for M&M/Mars shortly after the fall of the USSR; buying rock quarries in Poland and Norway; acquiring and integrating a German electronics company for a British multinational; redesigning the production planning for a fire alarm factory in Transylvania (western Romania), and designing a purchasing department for America's biggest paper distributor. Then last winter Loren set up his own one-man consulting company, offering global project-management services, the activities for which have so far taken him all over the European Union, as well as to Mexico, in the Logistics and Procurement fields. Loren, please don't wait 14 years to write again--this is good stuff!

Loren also gives news on classmate Erik Dorfman. After several years doing Artificial Intelligence programming for NASA in Washington, Erik set up his own IT company several years ago providing A.I. and other advanced development services in the DC area. His clients so far have included Intelsat and the National Institutes of Health.When not at the computer, he and his girlfriend Deborah both produce an amazing variety of brilliant art, both the physical and the musical kind.

Alison Minton founded Maplemint Enterprises Inc. She actually started the company for event planning and fund-raising consulting, but when people wanted to buy the jewelry she had designed as a hobby, she started selling her designs and added Maplemint Designs as a subdivision. Now, Alison focuses more on the jewelry than the event planning! Alison's Cornell e-mail is arm33@cornell.edu if anyone wants to get in touch to say hi or order her fabulous creations! Alison is also still very involved in going to many charity events in the City (that's New York for anyone in the rest of the US!). She is the honorary co-chair of the Museum of Natural History's Junior Council, and attends a lot of events at other city museums like the Frick and the Met. Besides being a lot of fun, it supports the arts and is a chance to get really dressed up.

And last, but certainly not least, congratulations to my fellow correspondent Steve Tomaselli. Steve and wife Ann recently sold their home in Petaluma, CA, and purchased a new home in the East Bay town of Pleasant Hill. They should be fully moved in by the first week of May. Please keep the news coming--return the News Form from your annual class mailing, or write us directly. Let us know what you're up to, and who you keep in touch with! And don't forget to share with us your answers to our question: "If you could go back to Cornell and change one thing that you did, what would it be, and why?" --Suzanne Bors Andrews, smb6@cornell.edu; and Steve Tomaselli, st89@cornell.edu.

89 | Special thanks to those classmates who provided updates for this column as we wait to receive the latest batch of News Forms from our annual spring mailing. As I write, we are weeks away from our 15th Reunion, though you will read it long after the event has passed. Stay tuned to the September/October issue for a full Reunion Report.

Colin Spence sends news from California that he has been married to wife Nancy for almost four years and that he is a partner at Convergent Computing, a technology consulting company in Oakland, CA. "I do a variety of things, including technical consulting, technical writing, and project management. I co-authored a book entitled Microsoft SharePoint 2003 Unleashed that will be hitting the shelves soon."

In an official press release from The Bank of New York, we learned that Matthew Biben has joined the bank as managing counsel. He will be responsible for investigations and enforcement matters and the legal process department, and will serve as a member of the bank's Anti-Money Laundering Oversight Committee. This career move comes after time in the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where he was an assistant US attorney in its Criminal Division, and where he received the Attorney General's Director Award for superior performance. Prior to that, he was an assistant district attorney in the New York County District Attorney's Office. He is also an adjunct professor of law at the U. of Pennsylvania law school, a position he has held since 1995.

Lauren Kidder McGarry, husband Mike (yours truly), and kids had a great visit with Alisa Schmitz in Phoenix, AZ, where the two women enjoyed catching up, and a great dinner party with Peggy Siegel Hauter and husband Jason. This correspondent particularly enjoyed getting to know Jason and playing in Alisa's backyard with Peggy's beautiful daughters Emily and Isabella.

From the Windy City we get an update from one of my favorite people on the planet. Chuck Wimbley updated me as follows: "Well, can you believe that I, too, married someone from Cornell? Her name is Elizabeth (Minaya) and I met her on my prolonged stay at Cornell. She graduated in 1991 and went on to become a family doctor.We live in Chicago. I helped start a family advertising business in which we serve Fortune 500 companies in the area of television, print, radio, and Internet advertising.My claim to fame was that our company beat out a $2 billion dollar agency to launch the prestigious GMC Envoy SUV campaign during the entire 2000 Olympics. I just received my master's last June from Northwestern (magna cum laude . . . yes!) and will pursue a second master's within the next two years."

On behalf of husband Len, Amy Epstein Feldman '91 sent their most recent news. "We had our third, Eli William, on Jan. 14, '04.Maddie is 7-1/2 and thinks she's the mother hen. Benjy is 4, and does pretty much whatever Maddie says (I call it husband training). I'm working part-time at a company in Conshohocken, PA, about 15 minutes from our house. Len is working at a small firm in the city; he left the District Attorney's office about five years ago for private practice and we are in the process of building a house.We bought land with a small ranch house next to my parents' house (how's Len for a good son-in-law?), and we're building a second floor onto the existing house.We were hoping to be in by Labor Day--now it's looking more like Thanksgiving." That's all the news. -- Mike McGarry, mmcgarry@dma-us.com; Lauren Hoeflich, laurenhoeflich@yahoo.com; Stephanie Bloom Avidon, savidon1@hotmail.com; and Anne Czaplinski Treadwell, ac98@cornell.edu.

 

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