CURRENT ISSUE | SUBSCRIBE | ADVERTISE | WRITE TO US | CORNELL AUTHORS | PAST ISSUES
| SEP./OCT. 2005 VOLUME 108 NUMBER 2 | Class Notes |
60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69
61 | As president of the Senior Executives Association, Carol Bonosaro heads up an organization that advocates for the interests of current and retired federal executives and promotes ethical public service. At the association's annual banquet honoring recipients of the nation's highest civil service award, she was reunited last spring with US Energy Secretary Sam Bodman '60, who dated and married her freshman roommate, the late Betsy (Little). Sam was the principal speaker at the event.
Henrik "Hank" Dullea, former vice president for university relations, is running as a Democrat for the Tompkins County Legislature. Hank, who has held several governmental positions, believes that he can make a major contribution to the Legislature. The primary is being held on Sept. 13. Debbi Robbins Wolf just published the 5th edition of her Garden State Golf Guide, which gives information about all of New Jersey's golf courses. She says she's learned a lot about both the book and golf businesses in the last ten years.
CliffWagoner and his wife Meg moved from the Bethlehem, PA, area to Davidson, NC, near Charlotte. Cliff tutors engineering students, and continues to dabble in his favorite activities, including ham radio, singing, and playing golf. Herb Altman and his wife have a permanent residence in Stratton, VT. Semi-retired from a career that involved trading securities and commodities, he sails in the summer and winters in Florida. Herb has been a private pilot since taking his first flying lessons at the Ithaca Airport as an Air Force ROTC cadet.
Bill Eaton and his wife Phyllis have ten grandchildren, one of whom graduated from Cornell. Bill is president of Cini-Little Int'l, a food service consulting firm. He spends about 25 percent of his time on Cornell-related activities, including working with the new dean of the School of Hotel Administration, assisting in Alumni Affairs and Development, and serving as president of the corporation rebuilding Delta Chi. In June, the Eatons hosted a crab feast for the Cornell Club of Maryland at their historic farm on Maryland's Eastern Shore. A number of Broadway entertainers helped Bobbi Horowitz celebrate her 65th birthday at a rooftop "Senior Prom" party in Manhattan in June. Arthur Kroll enjoyed a mini-reunion with Barry Protage, his Cornell roommate. Barry, who lives in California, was in the NYC area to visit his daughter. The two reminisced about how Arthur dissected animals as part of his pre-med lab experience while Barry was enrolled in a wine-tasting lab.
Ed Furtick is selling music at Borders in White Plains and taking in lots of jazz shows at the new home of Lincoln Center Jazz at Columbus Circle in NYC.His big dream still is to open a jazz "nite spot" in downtown White Plains. Gerald Fleming and his wife Judith enjoyed a CAU tour of Alaska from Fairbanks to Glacier Bay. Steve Frauenthal teaches math at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, NY. During the summer, he was director of a children's summer camp in the Adirondacks.
Marshall and Rosanna Romanelli Frank traveled to Caracas, where Marshall taught a one-week course on petrochemicals. The Franks attended the 45th Reunion of the Class of '60 along with other '61ers (with their '60 spouses). These included Ginny Buchanan Clark, Jan Powell Bidwell, and Pauline Sutta Degenfelder. The Franks were fortunate to be housed in the air-conditioned townhouses on North Campus during a steamy Ithaca weekend. They came away with a list of reunion "do's and don't's."
Walt, MBA '63, and Jeannie Springer Cottrell '63 recently returned from two weeks of hiking in the Czech Republic. The Cottrells were impressed with the hilly terrain and green forests, the beautifully restored medieval villages, and the Czech hospitality. The castles and cathedrals were spectacular as works of art and as engineering marvels,Walt reported. Since the end of Communism, the Czechs have been restoring their cities to their original appearances of centuries past. Charlie Hecht, LLB '63, was in Beijing in the spring as a sculptor-in-residence. One of his works is on exhibit in the famous Pickled Arts Center.
A pre-45th Reunion planning session will take place on October 28-30 in Carefree, AZ. Designed as both a working and a fun vacation, the weekend will feature receptions, dinners, and outdoor activities, as well as planning meetings. All classmates are invited to participate in what promises to be a fun-filled event. Residents of the Boulders Resort, Pat and Dick Tatlow and Mike '60 and Lassie Tischler Eicher, have offered to host events. Information about the schedule and motel accommodations will be sent upon request. -- David S. Kessler, dsk15@cornell.edu. Class website, http://www.cornell61.org.
62 | "I have just celebrated 40 years of marriage to Ethel (Hoffman) '63," writes Julian Decter (jdecter@yahoo.com), "and continue to live in Montclair, NJ, dubbed by the New York Times as the ‘far West Side of New York.' " Two children and four grandchildren later, the Decters regularly commute to Los Angeles to visit son Ben (Harvard '91), a musician and composer, and his wife Jackie (Harvard '90), a horse therapist and attorney, and their two children. "Daughter Cathy (Brandeis '93) lives in Montclair with her husband Ed (Harvard '93), a venture capitalist in New York. They have children Lucas and Skylar, who live a few blocks from us." Ethel is a clinical therapist at the Montclair Counseling Center. Julian has been practicing medicine as a hematologist/oncologist for 30 years and has just moved his practice to Weill Cornell Medical College at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital as a member of the clinical faculty. "This has been a wonderful and reinvigorating change. The fact that it is part of Cornell makes it all the more glorious and provides a nice bookend to my career."
Also celebrating a 40th wedding anniversary are Paul '60 and Helen Rabinowitz Anbinder (anbinders@verizon.net). "I was afraid retirement would be boring. NOT!" In 2004, they took a Caribbean cruise to celebrate; traveled through Scandinavia, including a six-day Norwegian coastal voyage on a combination cargo/passenger ship; flew to Seattle for Phil Bereano '61,MRP '71's son's wedding and flew from there to Calgary to take a bus and train tour through the Canadian Rockies; visited Paris ("a favorite haunt"); and took a barge cruise through Burgundy. Two of the other 16 passengers on the barge were another couple who met at Cornell in the '70s: Ray '77 and Sue Cady Bryant '76. This year Paul and Helen sailed on the QM2, visiting different Caribbean ports, and, for Paul's 65th birthday, traveled through northern Italy, including the Lake District. From their Dobbs Ferry home, they enjoy bike riding, reading, and attending opera, ballet, concerts, theater, and museums. Their son Jeff '94 is graduating from Cardozo Law School in June. Son Mark '89 lives in Ithaca, now ensconced in his own home, and is part of Cornell's Core Technologies Group in CIT.
The New Single Woman by E. Kay Trimberger (ktrim@berkeley.edu) is due to be published by Beacon Press in September. Col. Donald Boose's new book, US Army Forces in the Korean War, was published in April. He's been teaching at the Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, PA, for 15 years. Don (boosed@pa.net) and Lil visited Kazu and Bob Smith, MA '51 (prof. emer. of Anthropology Robert J. Smith) last fall. They often see Betsy LockhartWood '84, co-owner of a Carlisle bookstore, Susan Rose, PhD '84, and Lars English, PhD '03, who teaches at Dickinson College. Bob Crites '59 and I have just returned from Washington, DC, where we attended the ceremonies honoring our daughter Valerie Fowler as a "distinguished graduate" from the National War College. Val and Chip are off to their posting in Singapore, she as public affairs officer at the US Embassy there, he as head of the Naval Research Lab's Asian focus. Our passports are ready!
In one of those serendipitous coincidences, Don Juran (drj5@cornell.edu) stepped into the batter's box in an April senior softball game and the catcher asked Don if he was Cornell '62. He introduced himself as Andy Duymovic. "Andy and I have played against each other for several years now, but we had not been aware of each other's identities. Softball players barely know their teammates' last names, let alone those of their opponents."Andy and Don had not seen each other since 1959. From Castleton, NY, Enny Spieske Dufur writes that she and William are both retired. They traveled on the CAU trip to Sorrento with Judy and David Hill. The Dufurs' two daughters and their families both live on the East Coast. As of this writing, they have three granddaughters.
Marion Balsam retired from the US Navy as a Rear Admiral,Medical Corps (pediatrician) and is now working at NIH (in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) on the National Children's Study, a study of the effects of the environment on child health and development. She's back in Bethesda,MD, "enjoying the D.C. area and all it has to offer. Three of my children and my three grandchildren are well and living in various parts of the US. Sadly, my son Cliff died in a mountain climbing accident in May 2004. It's been a hard year."Marion would love to hear from classmates at karaokedoc@aol.com.
A note from Sam Fleming included an obituary notice for George Agle. George died suddenly on April 1 of a pulmonary embolism. Hundreds of George and Diane's friends and business associates, including many Cornellians, attended a service for him. Carl Volckmann '60, Bob Williams '60, John Foote '74, and Sam were the Sigma Chis in attendance. The notice described George's life and accomplishments as a leader in business and community service, most recently as chairman and CEO of Stonebridge Financial Corp. and Stonebridge Bank. A devoted family man, he and Diane have sons Grant and Gregory and granddaughter Gabrielle. The Agles live in West Chester, PA. The obituary also noted how important Sigma Chi was in George's life; a "Significant Sig," he was recently named Man of the Year by the fraternity. -- Jan McClayton Crites, 9420 NE 17th St., Clyde Hill,WA 98004; e-mail, jmc50@cornell.edu.
63 | I am writing this column while the temperature in Tucson is 104 degrees. This is our first summer here, but we won't be here for long.We leave for our Telluride summer home next week and return to Tucson in October.We just spent three weeks in France and England. The first part of our trip was a visit with John and Bonnie Simonson Suchet at their French farmhouse, "Tardan," located in southwest France and an hour's drive from the Pyrenees. Since John's retirement last year, they divide their time between their flat in London and Tardan. John and Bonnie have five sons between them. Bonnie's oldest, Alec, lives in London and raises money for charities. Her youngest, Hereward, lives in Grantham, Leicestershire, with his wife Peta Jane and 9-month-old Finn. Hereward manufactures and exports men's shirts. John has three sons: Damian, who is in audio-visual work, is married to Holly and has a 1-year-old daughter, Lily; Kieran and his wife Dorota ("Doris") are teachers in Oxford; and Rory lives in Atlanta and works for CNN. John is a retired television and news correspondent and anchor, and has broadcast on radio and TV and published books on the life and music of Beethoven.He continues to do research on the composer's life and work and gives talks around England about Beethoven and his own life as a globetrotting reporter. He hopes to develop a new talk on Johann Strauss and Vienna.
After our visit to France, we spent two great weeks traveling around England and visiting with friends.We had dinner a month ago with Dave '62 and Ginny Hoffman Morthland. Ginny promises to e-mail me some detailed news after she settles back in the Portland, OR, area for the summer. They are thinking about doing a sailing trip in the San Juans this summer. The Cornell Club of Tucson recently had its annual picnic and board meeting at the home of Jeff '62, MBA '63, and Karen Manning. About 30 people attended the potluck held in the Mannings' backyard--complete with pool. Some alumni went as far back as the classes of '47 and '48.
I got an e-mail from Nancy Flanders Lockspeiser. She and husband Les, a cardiologist, spent time biking in France in April. After returning from that trip they went to son Brett's graduation from Stanford. Nancy is now an artist, designer, painter of murals, writer, and massage therapist. Catamount Publishing just released her book Flexible You: A Cat's Quick Guide to Stretching and Self-Massage. Jean Marzollo, author of the I Spy books for children, wrote, "This little gem of a book is fun! You feel relaxed as a cat while you stretch in natural ways. The book is so small and light that you keep it in your purse and also you can pick it up easily to consult between moves. The artwork is charming and the instructions user-friendly."Nancy and Les plan to compete in the World Masters in cross-country skiing in Turin, Italy, in 2006, one week before the Olympics begin there.
Jim"Josh" Billings, MBA '64, e-mailed a few months ago with all kinds of news. He sold his seed business in 1998 after 30 years of living in Buffalo and moved to Sarasota, FL. Instead of retiring he began working as a consultant to many of the multinational companies engaged in plant biotech. One of his assignments included a sixmonth stay in Sweden. In March of this year, Josh got remarried--to Karin Schluter--at the home of David and Carol Costine, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean in Newport Coast, CA. His son Jay '98 acted as best man, though he was doing double-duty holding his 16-month-old during the ceremony. Both of Josh's children and spouses attended. Josh and Karin are in Sarasota for eight months of the year. They spent three months in Germany and will be spending the month of September in Canada. As he was writing his e-mail, classmate Charlie De Rose and wife Kelly were coming for dinner.
Frederick Craver has written his first book, Courageous Healing. It shows people how to fully and quickly recover from the after-effects of a traumatic experience, or how to put angry feelings behind.He predicts that it will be a blockbuster. Frederick lives in Watertown, MA. Please keep the alumni magazine in mind and e-mail me some of your news! That's all for now. -- Nancy Bierds Icke, 12350 E. Roger Rd., Tucson, AZ 85749; e-mail, icke63@msn.com.
64 | Autumn is almost here and will bring a variety of falling leaves. Fittingly, here is a variety of news from our classmates. Peter Jessel, MS '66's two children now have a total of four degrees from Cornell. Daughter Rebecca just earned a BS in Economics with honors in Arts and Sciences, while her brother Matt got his third, an MBA from the Johnson School.Matt began his Cornell trek as a member of the Class of '03 (CEE), then earned a master's in Engineering the following year. Peter, you may now retire! Peter lives in Scarsdale, NY.
Marshal Case spent last April 29 with President Bush. The occasion was an Arbor Day planting of the first American chestnut tree to grace the White House lawn.Marshal is president and CEO of the American Chestnut Foundation (TACF), a conservation group that sponsors research to develop strains of chestnut trees that resist a disease that has killed most of the species in the US. Each president chooses a tree species to plant, and Bush selected this one. For the ceremony,Marshal and the President were accompanied by Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns and the President's two "first dogs." The tree was planted on the north lawn. A full story of the occasion, with pictures, is posted at the TACF website: www.acf.org. There also was an op-ed piece on the ceremony in the April 30 New York Times. Marshal said of it all: "It was a great day for [the foundation] and for me personally."
Marian Levine Steinberg, who lives and works in White Plains, NY, writes that she's in her 23rd year of teaching social studies to emotionally handicapped adolescents, grades 7-12, at an alternative school on the grounds of Cornell's psychiatric hospital.Marian also told of seeing Arthur Groten and his wife Marge at a party honoring the birth of the first of the Steinbergs' two grandchildren. She also had a reunion with Sonia Kosow Guterman, MS '67, last December--at New York's Carnegie Hall no less. Both were there for Sonia's violinist daughter Beth's debut.Marian and Sonia hadn't seen each other since our undergrad days, when they formed a strong bond in Clara Dickson VI. The two got together again last February at Beth's master's degree recital at Juilliard.Marian reports, "Grandparenthood is all that people told us it would be, and more!"
Nathan Herendeen, MS '69, who has never been in this column, has nevertheless been noticed by Cornell. Nathan received an Outstanding Alumni Award from the Ag college alumni association last winter and was given an extensive write-up in the CALS magazine. He is a lifetime member of the ALS Alumni Assn., having served on its board of directors and as its president in 1998-99, was a member of the CALS Advisory Council, and is a current member of the University Council. He works as a field corps extension associate for the Northwestern New York team of the Cornell Cooperative Extension. In this position, Nathan provides education, advice, and recommendations to farmers in northwestern New York, and organizes educational sessions throughout the state on agricultural topics. He has more than 34 years' experience in field crop problem solving, integrated pest management training, stored grain management, manure nutrient management, cultural practices, and water quality issues. He also is annual meeting chair of the National Assn. of County Agricultural Agents conference held in Buffalo this past June. Nathan and wife Burniece live in Gasport, NY, and have three daughters.
Soon after I sent in the May/June column, Robert Strudler wrote that he was promoted last December to Chairman of the Board of Lennar Corp. Congrats! Bob and wife Ruth live in Houston, TX. Robert and Anne Snouffer Cochran '65, on the other hand, moved from Houston last year to Campton, NH, where they spend their time enjoying the mountains. Bob is retired, but spends winters teaching math at the ski school in Waterville Valley, NH.
Susan Margolin Lory,MAT '67, who is making her first-ever appearance in this column, retired from her private practice as a psychotherapist four years ago. A year and a half ago, she and second husband Earl, also retired, moved from New Jersey to Waymart, PA. Susan now has the time to enjoy reading, writing, gardening, their dogs, and music. Elliot Gordon opened his own consultancy on toxicology and graphics (advertising, copywriting, and photography) when he chose to stay in the NYC area after his company moved to Raleigh, NC. He still lives in Princeton Junction, NJ.
Charles Witherell, who was last in this column 17 years ago, is owner-director of the Windridge Tennis Camp in Vermont. He writes, "After 34 years, I still enjoy the 300 kids and 30 college-age counselors that make each summer exciting." He encourages all to "take a look" at the club's website, www.windridgetenniscamps.com.Wife Pam is the camp's business manager. The Witherells, who have two grown sons, live in Johnson,VT--on a street named for them.While tennis is Charles's main interest, he enjoys playing hockey and skiing during the winter and managing his farm year-round, which activities include raising beef cattle, sugar-making, and logging. In April, Charles received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Vermont Camping Assn.
Roger Skurski just retired from his position as a professor of economics after 36 years at the U. of Notre Dame.He now does expert witness testimony as a private economist and is active in the local Kiwanis service club. Roger and wife Maureen, who still live in South Bend, recently went to New Zealand for their 40th wedding anniversary. Jean-Noel Posner is a retired French customs official. For the last several years, he has been living in China and studying Chinese at Yunnan U. in Kunming, Yunnan Province. In his free time he enjoys biking and jogging.He recently traveled back to his native France and to Brazil. Evelyn Hall Tracy sends word that she and husband Ben '63 are now both fully retired. She says, "We find the laid-back Florida lifestyle to our liking." The Tracys live in Hudson, FL, which is north of Clearwater. She writes that while two of last year's three hurricanes passed directly over them, they incurred little damage.
That's all for now. Keep the news flowing--and be sure to visit our class website, http://classof64.alumni.cornell.edu. -- Bev Johns Lamont, 720 Chestnut St., Deerfield, IL 60015; e-mail, blamont@tribune.com.
66 | Hello, people! Here's some of the latest information coming to me from our classmates. Let's hear from more of you. It's really fun to get mail and e-mail from everyone. Jeffrey Collins is in Chapel Hill, NC (jjcollins@ampappas.com), and is VP, Transaction Advisory Group with AM Pappas and Assoc., a lifescience focused venture capital and consulting firm. He is traveling a lot, for both personal and professional purposes, and has been to India twice. Michael Davidoff writes from Rock Hill, NY, that he helped celebrate the 60th birthday of Randy Sherman at a party at the Gramercy Tavern in New York City. Classmates Hugh and Erin Fleming Starr are living in Makawao, HI, on Maui. They have had their own real estate firm there for over 30 years (www.MauiRanchLand.com). "We don't travel much," they write. "Why would we leave Maui? Erin has written several books of a metaphysical nature and is going to step into the work of publishing. Aloha." Charlie Rappaport is in Kingfield, ME, and has been retired for five years. In the summer of 2004, he visited Ithaca for a session at Cornell's Adult University (CAU); during the Maine winter, he went through 14 cords of wood!
Jerry Bilinski, DVM '69, is still practicing veterinary medicine on horses in North Chatham, NY (drbilinski@aol.com). He is the former chairman of the Racing and Wagering Board for New York State, and, as deputy to Senator Bruno, is a member of the Cornell Board of Trustees. Jeanne Brown Sander is living in Burke, VA (ebs17@ cornell.edu) and was the 2004 president of the Cornell Hotel Society ("only the fourth female to have this honor"). Jeanne reports that she sang the Cornell Alma Mater on the Great Wall of China as part of the Asia Regional Meeting of the CHS. The next president of the CHS is also a '66er: Leif R. Evensen, based in Oslo, Norway (lre4@cornell.edu).
Pete Salinger, MBA '68 (pas44@cornell.edu) is in Bethesda, where he and Ruth (Dritch) '67 are both enjoying retirement, busy doing volunteer work, and traveling to small towns and villages in Wales, Scotland, and Northern England. "Beautiful land; nice people," they write. Martin Schwartz, ME '67, is in Cupertino, CA (Rand MSchwartz@comcast.net), where he has been retired since April 2003 as president and CEO of Therma-Wave Inc., a semiconductor equipment manufacturer. He is volunteering, exercising, traveling, and taking art classes ("generally enjoying ‘stress-less' free time"). He wants to volunteer in a ChemE plant design course next year.
Stanley Sterenberg writes from New York City (sterenberg@chapin.edu) that he is teaching math at an all-girls independent school in NYC and has a son who is 9 and a daughter who is 6. Elinor Sverdlik Kron is in Bloomfield, CT, working as a radiologist, and has been married since last spring ("It's never too late to be in love!"). She is the only female radiologist at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, CT (ladyrad@comcast.net). Don and Sue Rockford Bittker's son Aric and his wife Bobbi are now the parents of Shoshana Leia, born June 1, 2005. Older brother Harry is 8, and sister Jordana is 4. Shoshana is Sue and Don's fourth grandchild.
Jeffrey Konvitz lives in Beverly Hills, CA (jkonvitz@aol.com), with one daughter who has graduated from NYU and another daughter in nursery school. Ronni Barrett LaCroute, from Yamhill, OR (rlacroute@willakenzie.com) is divorced from Bernard, but they are partners in the Willakenzie Estate Winery. Some of the best Pinot Noir in Oregon, people. She travels for the winery (there was a tasting here in Washington, DC) and spent a week kayak camping in the Gulf Islands of Canada, carrying a week's supply of food and water, along with the tents and kayaks.
Our 40th Reunion is coming soon! See you in Ithaca in the month of June--2006, that is. Please send us YOUR news, and make sure to check out the Class of '66 website, http://classof66.alumni.cornell.edu. Roy Troxel really does good stuff! --John Miers, john_miers@nih.gov; Susan Rockford Bittker, ladyscienc@aol.com, and Bill Blockton, bill@rbsfabrics.com.
67 | It's time for a quick wrap-up of classmates who've been continuing their studies through CAU--Cornell's Adult University. Three of us went on study tours in three sparkling venues: Donna Walker Batsford (with William '65) of New Haven, CT, chose For the Birds: Landscapes and Habitats of San Diego and the Southern California Coast, while for Robert Kuchinsky, LLB '67 (Flemington, NJ) it was a jaunt to Asheville, NC: The Biltmore, the Vanderbilts, and the Nineteenth-Century World of the Superrich, and RossWilliams, MIL '67 (Milan, NY) pursued Natural History of the Hawaiian Islands.
Meanwhile, back on the Hill, quite a few people participated in summer 2004's CAU program: Rae Andre (World Ecology); Richard Bailyn, MD '71, Highland Beach, FL (Wines); Lon Benamy '65, BS Ag '67, Brooklyn, NY (Outdoor Skills); Bruce Bender, Gasport, NY (World Ecology); Arnold Hoffman (Film Noir) (with Donna, Eclectic Ethnic); Michael Nolte, Ann Arbor, MI (Bookbinding) (with Glenina,Massage); Donald Rosenbaum, Tenafly, NJ (Wall St.) (with Lee (Flasterstein) '70, Dostoevsky); and Pat Minikes Siegel (with Lawrence '64), Great Neck, NY (Elections).
David Burak,MFA '80, Santa Monica, CA, was back at Cornell in April to co-chair a gathering at the Tompkins County Library's Borg Warner Room marking the publication of two new books by and about the late, great poet and Cornell teacher A. R. Ammons: Bosh and Flapdoodle, the first posthumous collection of his poems, and Considering the Radiance: Essays on the Poetry of A.R. Ammons, co-edited by Burak and Roger Gilbert, Cornell professor of English. Both titles were published by Norton in March 2005. "Archie had been a close friend, an adviser, a mentor, and an inspiration to me and many others," Burak commented at the program. "The reading helped to keep the Ammons spirit vibrant."
The panel also included Ken McClane '73, MFA '76, Cornell's W.E.B. Dubois professor of Literature; Alice Fulton, MFA '82, the A.S. Bowers professor of English at Cornell;Minfong Ho, author; Cory Brown,MFA '84, Ithaca College professor and poet; and Ingrid Arneson, an English language teacher at Cornell. Phyllis Ammons, wife of the legendary bard, joined an audience of about 50, who included James McConkey, the Goldwin Smith professor of English Literature emeritus; Alison Lurie, F.J.Whiton professor of Literature emerita; and Roald Hoffmann, the Frank H.T. Rhodes professor of Humane Letters. Ammons died in February 2001 at 75, having won virtually every major prize for poetry in the United States.
Please join in sending heartfelt condolences to our class president Margie Greenberg Smith and her children Robin '96 and Brian '95 on the sudden and untimely death in June of her husband Paul. -- Richard B.Hoffman, 2925 28th St.NW,Washington, DC 20008; e-mail, rhoffman@erols.com.
68 | I hope you have had a good summer. Like many of you, I was surprised to hear of the unexpected resignation of Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman '77. By the time this column appears, I imagine there will be more information and the search process will be well under way.
Turning to some class news, Bill Amon reports that he moved to the Washington, DC, area during the Vietnam War era, as a Coast Guard officer, and decided to stay upon completion of his reserve obligation. Bill completed a master's in computer science at George Washington U., and has worked as a government contractor providing information systems and network support to many agencies and commands. Bill says, "Unlike Al Gore, I can actually claim I helped build the Internet." Bill married his college sweetheart, Jinx, who attended Elmira College, and they have three children.
After 20 years as a litigation partner at Paul,Weiss in NYC, and four years as chief corporate counsel at Tyco, Mark Belnick has opened his own law firm in Manhattan. Mark concentrates on complex commercial litigation, white collar criminal defense, and litigation consulting.Mark and wife Randy have three children, and their two daughters graduated from the Arts college. Their son attends Syracuse.
A note from the university informs us that classmate Jay Waks, JD '71, has been elected chair of the Cornell University Council, an important body of the university, second only to the Board of Trustees. The council advises the university on a number of areas and consists of alumni and friends who are leaders in service to Cornell. Jay is the first ILR alum to hold this important position, and his election serves to recognize his many contributions to both the ILR and Law schools. I know firsthand of Jay's dedicated work for Cornell and it is a pleasure to congratulate him.
Alan Altschuler has stepped down as CFO of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and is attending acting school in NYC. This is obviously a career change. Alan intends to pursue an acting career and is also writing short stories. He says, "I am in no way ‘retiring.'" Herb Fuller reports his second mystery novel, Film at 11. This follows his previous book, It's a Wrap. Herb lives in the Boston area. Susan Selton Benjamin and her husband Bob '67 have both recently retired and still live in Los Alamos, NM. Sue continues her educational consulting in math and science. Their daughter Alana graduated from Princeton and is a medical student, and son Josh '99 is applying to med school. Sue and Bob see Jane Frommer Gertler and her husband David '67, ME '68.
Sally Best Bailey lives in Colorado Springs and is director of college counseling at Fountain Valley School. She also enjoys her four grandchildren. Tom Gibbs lives in Ormond Beach, FL. Another Floridian is Martin Solomon, who is an attorney with offices in Delray Beach and Boca Raton. Paul Chiu lives in Fremont, CA, and had lunch with Alpha Delta classmates Gordon Evans and Dave Teeters, MAT '69. Jim Gutman and his wife Kathy live in Laurel,MO. Jim is an executive editor and officer with Atlantic Information Systems in Washington.
Mike Melamed and his wife Ellen O'Donnell live in Ithaca.Mike has retired from his position with the school system in Binghamton. Emily Perlinski Friedman and husband Charles live in Los Angeles. Their son Jon is entering Cornell in the Class of '09, and daughter Sarah graduated from UCLA. Julius Gall lives in Somers Point, NJ, with wife Mary Wisniewski. Julius has been named a "Top Doctor of New Jersey" and the same of Philadelphia on several occasions. He is in family practice. Their daughter Elizabeth is Cornell '07.
Jeff Donahue and wife Anne live in Potomac, MD. Jeff retired as CFO of a large public real estate company and took over as head of the Enterprise Social Investment Corporation, a major private funder of low-income housing. Anne is assistant attorney general and general counsel of two state universities in Maryland. Jeff reports that Tom Horn is a psychiatrist in Massachusetts, JimHanna, MBA '69, retired from the World Bank, George Waldner is president of York College in York, PA, and Todd Kiplinger is vice chair of Kiplinger Washington Editors. I look forward to hearing from you. -- Gordon H. Silver, 2 Avery St., #26C, Boston, MA 02111; e-mail, gordon_silver@comcast.net.
69 | For 25 years, Gerald Appel has been a professor of clinical medicine at Columbia U.Medical Center and in charge of clinical nephrology (kidney disease). He says, "My job is getting interesting." Since the Sydney Olympics, he has been caring for Alonzo Mourning--the center for the US gold medal team and a seven-time NBA all-star--after he suddenly developed kidney disease. Jerry helped him get back onto the court, and ultimately play in another all-star game. Alonzo recently had a kidney transplant at Columbia and is playing in the NBA once more. Jerry reports that he has also been treating a baseball club owner and three former NFL players. "A rather exciting basketball and baseball combination keeps me tuned to the sports pages," says Jerry."Nephro-sports is an important part of my life," he adds. Jerry's son Jacob is at Columbia studying medicine after earning a degree in law a few years ago. His second son, Seth '00, married last year and practices law in San Francisco.
Another doctor with a sports connection, John Mitas worked with the Duval County Medical Society in Florida to prepare for a potential bio-terrorism threat at Super Bowl XXXIX. Previously, John was the medical director at a biotech company, designing trials for vaccines against bio-terrorism. For the past year, however, he has been deputy executive VP and COO of the American College of Physicians, the largest medical specialty organization in the world, with 118,000 members. Along with a change in career, John has changed his address and now lives in West Chester, PA. Suzanne Sacks has also made a move. She is back in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, after six years in Colorado and a ten-week around-the-world trip that emphasized the Far East. Suzanne's son David lives in Florida, where he is embarking on a graduate degree, and her daughter Elena recently graduated from NYU law school.
"Director, Corporate Advisory Services," reads the business card of Edmund Belak, who works for Laidlaw & Co., a New York investment bank.However, Edmund wrote to tell us that he was elected to the board of trustees of the New Canaan Nature Center. Alan Cody has joined the advisory board of ACCION New England, a micro-lender to moderate and low income small business owners in the US and the developing world. Kenneth Kohn works as a financial professional with the Mony Group, an AXA Financial Company and member of MDRT. Kenneth and his wife Patricia have three children. Jonathan is a Cornell '05 graduate, Kimberly was married last year at Oheka Castle in Cold Spring Hills, NY, and Scott resides in Charlotte, NC. In 2004,Malcolm Tom left his job as deputy managing director for the city and county of Honolulu and joined St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii to be their COO.
Harvey Leibin, president of Du Bose Associates Inc., tells us that his firm won two national awards for the Two Rivers Middle Magnet School for Science,Math, and Technology located in E. Hartford, CT. They won the top overall prize in the 2003 Metal Architecture Competition and grand prize in the School Planning and Management's Educational Design and Showcase Competition for 2004. Harvey also keeps us abreast of his family's activities. His son Brad,Washington U. '02, started a Master of Architecture graduate program at U. of Pennsylvania after working in the industry for a time. Kate, American U. '04, is in elementary education, teaching fourth grade, and Kara is at the U. of Wisconsin. Harvey's wife Florence teaches at Noah Wallace School in Farmington, CT.
Several classmates have continued their education by enrolling in Cornell's Adult University (CAU). They include Frank Casciano, JD '72, and his wife Diane (Jones) '70, Gary Gartenberg and his wife Deborah, Susan Burlingame Le Vangia and her husband Peter, IlesMinoff, and John Reilly. A flyer published by the Government department at Cornell advertised the lecture "Reinventing the Transatlantic Alliance" given by Richard Burt. He has had a distinguished career in diplomacy and national security and now serves as chairman of Diligence, a business intelligence and risk advisory firm, as well as being the international director of the government affairs firm Barbour Griffith and Rogers and an advisor to the Carlyle Group. -- Arda Coyle Boucher, 21 Hemlock Hill Rd., Amherst, NH 03031.