CRC
The robins return to chirp on the Arts Quad every spring, to be followed shortly by the Continuous Reunion Club, which busts out all over the campus in early June. CRC (est. 1906, without any of its present members) was here before the Straight, Schoellkopf, Balch, and in fact most all the buildings we now know. It is composed of 300-something alums for whom just one reunion every five years won't do. So they turn up every year or almost. Most of the faithful made it one more time, the gas and other travel expenses of June '08 notwithstanding.
After settling into their familiar reunion home-away-from-home, the Holland Int'l Living Center Low Rise 8 on North Campus, a CRC crew answered the call to the traditional Savage Club show at the Statler. Our Ithaca Savages grew out of the Savage Club of London, founded in 1857. They sing, perform magic tricks, play Dixieland and heavy metal, and otherwise divert. CRC Savage Ernie Hardy '53, PhD '69, sang this year, as did the Cayuga's Waiters of the Fifties, with whom we shared our North Campus quarters.
Some arose early for golf, or bird-walking, or a college breakfast. Most found their way to the Statler ballroom for CRC's annual luncheon. There they reunited with friends from the coaching staff, previously the only exceptions to the rule that only CRC members could attend. This year, for the first time, non-Cornellian wives and fellow travelers were welcome to the lunch. The mysteries of CRC were not revealed to them. (Of course, there aren't any.) From all appearances, lots of them will be back for more in years to come.
Retired baseball and football coach Ted Thoren, honorary (and senior) CRC member, traced his recollections of the history of the organization up to the latest breakthrough. CRC presented a check to a deserving Cornell team, the Ivy League champion women's basketball bunch. Their coach, Dayna Smith, accepted it with warm wit. Men's coach Steve Donahue reviewed his Ivy championship year. (Reminders: no Ivy team other than Penn or Princeton has won the title since 1988, when Cornell won it. This was the Big Red women's first Ivy championship season. The Cornell men are the nation's only team to improve its record each of the past six years.) Director of Athletics Andy Noel honored his outstanding group of coaches and hailed the role of alumni in building better programs.
Gerry Grady '53 concluded the session with our traditional financial report. He called for a silent time in memoriam for members lost in the past year: John Babcock '45, Seaward Sand '45, PhD '55, Barry Nolin '51, Glen Woolfenden '53, Jack Murphy, JD '68, and Dave Griffin '71, MPS '73. Later in the afternoon, members gathered at Schoellkopf for the annual reception sponsored by the Cornell Football Association.
On Saturday morning, you had your choice of the Alumni Baseball Game or President David Skorton's State of the University address or this or that—after Grady's time-honored milk punch social, of course. Those who chose gracious dining at the Ithaca Country Club Saturday night were once again delighted by the serenade of Jon Wardner '79 and his alumni Hangovers, besides the elegant cuisine. At Cornelliana Night, which followed, CRC members were called upon to stand and be recognized for persistent reuning. Bill Vanneman '31, there for his 77th Reunion, was warmly applauded. Visits to the tents ended the evening, although a few, back from the dancing, wound up the night with a last sip with the Waiters in HILC8 residence.
Connie Santagato Hosterman '57 is to be commended and richly thanked for tireless help with the details that make reunions work. Similarly: Cathy Hogan '70 and Kelly Woodhouse of Alumni House and our excellent class clerks Nwanyinma Nnodum '08 and Henry Kaweesi '11, here from Uganda.
Jim Hanchett '53, 300 1st Ave., Apt. 8B, New York, NY 10009; e-mail, jch46@cornell.edu.
33
GREETINGS from the Intrepid Three of '33! Bea Alexander Weingart, Sarah Ellis Ward, and Gene Gould Huntoon were the lucky ones to attend our 75th Reunion. Each of us was accompanied by a handsome/attractive son or daughter, and our sextet was graciously included in the '38 gatherings—and we didn't even feel older!
Cornell went all out to make things not only enjoyable but comfortable. Deluxe buses took us from the Statler to all areas of the campus, and even to the Arboretum, where we heard a great informal concert in a tent! Highlights of the weekend were front-row seats for two great concerts in Bailey Hall. Especially touching was recognition of the three of us from the stage, and a conversation with President Skorton and his charming wife.
Cornell was even more beautiful and inspiring than we remembered. Our thanks to all who made our 75th so special.
You classmates who couldn't make Reunion were really missed! Just for fun, get in the mood by singing your favorite Cornell song, then write me your news. It's about time we got back our SPACE in Cornell Alumni Magazine! Bea Weingart shared her thoughts with the alumni magazine during the All-Alumni Lunch at Barton Hall on Friday afternoon. A graduate of the Ag college, she remembers being the only female in her Engineering classes. When she arrived at Cornell her advisor was on sabbatical, so she chose all her classes on her own—upper level courses! She managed to succeed in class, but had to go back and take all the entry-level courses during her final year.
To help pay tuition, Bea rose at 4:30 every morning and delivered the daily paper to the residents of Risley Hall. On the weekends, she and her friends took the trolley downtown to the department store. After graduating, she taught for 20 years and says her Cornell degree opened many doors for her. Now retired, she has had the opportunity to do a lot of traveling over the years, including a trip to Madagascar with her daughter to see Haley's comet, to China in 1979, and to Antarctica twice. Bea has been living in Southern California for 64 years.
Here's my address. Send me your news!
Eugenia Gould Huntoon, 650 N. Williamsbury Rd., Bloomfield Vlg., MI 48301. Class Notes Editor e-mail, adr4@cornell.edu.
38
Fifteen members of the Class of '38, along with 15 devoted companions, returned to the Hill for their 70th Reunion. Among other activities, the group enjoyed the All-Alumni Lunch at Barton Hall on Friday afternoon, and several classmates shared their thoughts with us.
Eleanor Walbridge Morgan lives in New Hampshire. She got married during her second year at Cornell, and graduated from the College of Human Ecology. Henrietta "Bobbi" Miller Brannin of Long Island noted the differences between life at Cornell today and student life in the '30s. All students lived in the dorms back then, she said, and there were, of course, separate dorms for the men and women. The freshman curfew was 9 p.m. on weeknights, and seniors could stay out until midnight. Bobbi was an English major in the Arts college, and tuition was $400 per year. During her four years, one of her most memorable moments was a seven-country tour she and her classmates took with a professor. She particularly remembers Germany and France. Other Cornellians in Bobbi's family include her father, who graduated from the Engineering college in 1911, and her brother, a Hotelie from the Class of '48.
Charles Lounsbery writes: "It was a privilege to be able to go to the 70th Reunion at Cornell. Friday night I went to the class reception, picture-taking session, and dinner. What a wonderful time! My memories of Cornell would fill volumes: Farm and Home Week, multiple events at Bailey Hall, the farewell for Daisy and President Farrand, walking around campus while wearing a "freshman cap," and ROTC in Barton Hall (wearing a uniform with high-laced boots) and not being able to load the old cannon! What memories!" Charlie now lives at Kendal at Ithaca, which, he says, "is in many ways just a progression of Cornell." He keeps busy with gardening, lectures, discussion groups, musical performances, and watercolor classes.
If you were at Reunion, please do send in your thoughts and let us know what you did during the weekend. If you weren't able to make the trip, don't hesitate to send a news update at any time. Your classmates want to hear from you!
Class of '38, c/o Cornell Alumni Magazine, 401 East State St., Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850; Class Notes Editor e-mail, adr4@cornell.edu.
43
Dizzy Dean once said, "If you done it, it ain't braggin'." We done it. We really done it. Four score and six years old, we gathered on the Hill—40 classmates plus a gaggle of spouses, children, and children's children—for what Caroline Norfleet Church rated "a bang-up weekend." Energy level was through the McGraw Tower roof. Same for camaraderie. Ditto esprit de corps (no pun intended).
This from Barbara Wahl Cate: "Going back to Cornell for Reunion is not without its cares. Worries on Wednesday: Will I know anybody? Will anybody know me? And how will I look to them? And how will they look to me? With whom will I sit? What will I wear? But then, Thursday, happily, found me ensconced in the Statler with Shirley Wurtzel Jacobs (an old sorority sister), who told me she'd been uneasy about coming to Ithaca until she read my gung-ho letter in the '43 column. She thanked me. Well, for heaven's sakes! It was glorious! One of the best times in my life! Once again I could hug Edy Newman Weinberger and Ruthie Ohringer Frank. And I got to know Caroline Norfleet Church and Jane Adams Wait. Miller, do you realize that this was all your fault? If you hadn't published the "Compendium of Memoirs of the Class of '43," and if I had not read every word of it and thereafter become your e-mail buddy, I would have missed Cornelliana Night at Bailey Hall. Attention, classmates," she finishes, "reread your Compendium. It's more fun than a barrel of freshmen."
In the event that you were otherwise engaged and 1) missed our 65th but 2) are interested enough to endure a spate of asides by reticent Resident Class Correspondent Hisself, stick around. And if you want to read about those events open to all reuning classes, leaf back a few pages. I'm sure CAM covered them superbly.
Sorely missed were the housebound, among them reunion chair Bob Larson, bedridden ten miles distant, alas, with pneumonia. Among those Hillbound, our vote for best preserved and nattiest: Stan Levy, Jane Wait, Ruth Frank, and Jes Dall.
Thursday evening Rosa and President Emeritus Frank Rhodes joined us for dinner: a coup and a treat. Cogent and eloquent, as always, Dr. Rhodes "helped us remember," in the words of John Detmold, "what it was like for all of us on the Hill when WWII broke out. Many of our classmates, the younger faculty, and staff dropped what they were doing and signed up. It must have been tough to keep the University going. And we know that many of those who went off to war (38 from '43) never made it back." Tottering under its heft, Larry Lowenstein delivered to our silver-haired-messenger ex-boy-ex-Prexy a check the size of Schoellkopf's scoreboard, payable to Cornell U., and notable for the numbers thereon: $1,544,421, which is a lot of money even if you say it fast. Thanks go to 174 donors of the okey-dokey Class of '43, and one Nancy Nickerson.
Friday evening we dined—and Jerry and Dorothy Batt danced—to the strains of the Molly MacMillan Trio's rendition of the ballads and jazz of the '30s and '40s, still the best ever. Saturday eve I learned from Bill Dickhart how Carl Arnold came to be called Sam: he was forever singing "Sam, Sam, the lavatory man / Chief inspector of the out-house clan . . . ," a song I learned in Boy Scouts, but which Bill sings in lyrics better suited to a truck stop or, with all due respect, a Sigma Nu beer party. At dinner we asked him to come to the mike and do it again. He did and delivered the highlight of a weekend of highlights. True, he's lost a step legging out grounders, but the vocal mechanics remain intact. Carol Bowman Ladd approached the podium to retell, as requested, the story of the day she arrived early to anatomy class where she was introduced by Hope Ritter to her very first embalmed penis. Husband Bob tried to change the subject with a tale of war exploits. Our view: Carol carried the day.
At the table Shig Kondo gifted me with a flask of English body lotion pilfered from his hotel in Hawaii. The label: "Miller Harris." Google, dear reader, James Lorie, MA '45, or William Leuchtenburg, for instance, and bask in the redolence of their achievements. Google me and inhale four pages of fragrance ads.
At Sunday's Q&D breakfast, we were asked to stand in turn and recite for the assemblage our accomplishments on the Hill and after. Steve Hawley: "I played on the polo team, served in the Army, and raised a family and lots of horses and sweet corn in western New York State." Guess Who rises and chimes in: "Steve neglected to tell you that for 20 years he served in the New York State Legislature and was only one prostitute away from becoming governor." S. Miller Harris, P.O. Box 164, Spinnerstown, PA 18968; e-mail, olchap@comcast.net.
48
Saturday, June 7, after our 60th Reunion cocktail reception and "formal" dinner in the Willard Straight Memorial Room, we all witnessed the most dramatic sunset ever created over the hills west of Ithaca. One might possibly see such a sight at Dartmouth, but never at Harvard, Brown, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, or Penn. The chimes were ringing and the weather was splendid (nice and warm—hot!).
In 1948 there were 1,836 people who received degrees and/or otherwise chose to call themselves '48ers. As of May 16 there were 695 of those known to be deceased, and 233 with "bad addresses" (non-mailable, "lost," "strayed," "stolen"). That leaves 908 of us still breathing and hobbling along on various replaced body parts. Our class set the all-time 60th Reunion record for alumni returning—93—which is 10.24 percent of the known living. We can't list their names, but you can see them on our class website, http://classof48.alumni.cornell.edu.
The 93 returnees were members of the following disciplines: 27 Arts and Sciences, 16 Hum/Home Ec, nine ME, eight CE, seven Ag, six EE, and four each of Chem E, Hotel, ILR, and ORIE. The latter two are supposed to keep all of us other degree holders "organized and toeing the line." In addition, there were four "others" ("hard knock" degrees), making it 93 total.
There were many enlightening and entertaining panel discussions, demonstrations, and other "discovery" events in addition to the standard "banquets, parties, and balls." Many thanks to our hard-working all-Ithaca reunion committee of Martha Clark Mapes, MS '49, John "Skeeter" Skawski, EdD '57, Jean Genung Pearson, Marian Lang Blanchard, and the folks at the Alumni Office.
Our new class officers for the next five years to our 65th Reunion in 2013 are: John "Skeeter" Skawski, Ithaca (president); Bob McKinless, Alexandria, VA (vice president); Bill Copeland, Hamilton, OH (Cornell Annual Fund chairman); Jean Pearson, Ithaca (treasurer and class webmaster); Patricia Kerwin Herman, Washington, DC (Reunion 2013 chairperson); Bob Persons, Port Washington, NY (correspondent, columnist, and networking curmudgeon); and the following regional VPs: Anatole Browde, St. Louis; Margaret Smith Brown, Lincoln, NE; Bill Gibson, Danville, CA; Sylvia Kilbourne Hosie, MNS '49, Northport, NY; and John Kent, Yardley, PA.
The men in our class are of many different ages, due to WWII. I think the oldest is mechanical engineer Tom Clements, 92, who lives in Annapolis, MD. The youngest are guys like me who went right into the Navy V-12 officers training program upon graduation from high school in January 1944. This reunion was dedicated to all those vets who served and would have graduated in earlier classes had they not been engaged in "military sabbaticals." Many submitted remembrances, which were posted at Reunion Headquarters, and Jean Pearson is compiling them for the Archives. They will be available to classmates. At her urging, I sent her a ten-page description of how I helped win WWII by fighting the battle of "Guadalcornell" as far away as anyone could get from the front-line action. "They also serve who only stand and wait" (John Milton).
Please note that our new leadership team is 100 percent Marines, so there will be absolutely NO FOOLING AROUND! And we will all be expected to care for each other and stick together until at least 2013.
Did you know that we have a Nobel Prize-winner in our class? He's Bob Fogel of Chicago, IL. You can Google him. Cornell BA, Johns Hopkins PhD. His field is econometrics. I'm trying to get him to pay his dues and/or send me his thoughts on where the economy is headed. If he sends me any pearls of wisdom, I'll pass them on.
Here's continuing news from some Reunioners and others. Bob McKinless, Alexandria, VA: "Climbed up 2,400 feet on Old Rag Mountain for the 41st (and last) time in May 2006. Have turned over this Cornell Club event to Clint Brass '90. He arranged for a surprise 80th birthday party for me at the summit. My son, daughter, and grandson were there too. They lugged cake, a poster, and souvenir M&Ms and T-shirts to the top, all unknown to me until the last moment. Also took a five-day bike trip (maybe my last) in Wisconsin in August 2007." Anatole Browde, St. Louis, MO: "Writing another book. Attend concerts. Work at church. Fondest memory is graduating. Have been to Newport Beach and Chappaqua, NY. Busy updating computer programs. Would rather be sleeping. Plan to travel more, stay well."
Harold Vroman, MS '52, Cobleskill, NY (summer), Plattsmouth, NE (winter): "I send change of address forms twice a year to keep me connected with the real world." Hamilton Miller, Longview, TX: "Still cutting out and painting small wooden cars for the children in our two hospitals and the Shriners Hospital in Shreveport, LA, plus the women's shelter. Remember tobogganing on the Library Slope and ice skating on Beebe Lake, and the ice sprayed on Delta Tau Delta tennis court." Claude Stone, Morton, IL: "After 55 years, my wife Mary passed away on April 1, 2007 following a severe stroke and coma. She missed the birth of her great-grandson on October 18, 2007. Mary was a 'wonder mother and wife.' " Murray Rucker, Beverly Hills, CA: "Busy marketing and playing tennis. Fondest Cornell memory is establishing Watemargin." Bob Persons, 102 Reid Ave., Port Washington, NY 11050; phone and fax, (516) 767-1776.
53
Mature citizens, of an age to have been in junior high when Latin was almost universally mandatory, proudly wore shirts emblazoned LIII in June. Those Roman numerals revealed them as Cornell '53. (Some people are reluctant to wear class numerals at this time of life.) It was Mort Bunis, JD '55's good idea, and he and co-chairperson Claire Moran Ford had many of them for our LVth at air-conditioned Mews dormitory on the like-new freshman campus (elevators provided, too).
There were those among the first to register on Thursday who settled in around the reception area to check out the refreshments the management had provided, see who was turning up, and find out what was new with old friends over the five years since last we convened. Some classmates had donated '53 sweaters (large-ish), belts (variably sized), chapeaux, ties, and a few little-used reunion beer jackets. At the price (zero), they flew off the rack.
Others went on a class tour to the Plantations for a look at the Container Gardens that '53 had donated (they're flourishing). Peony gardens were at a June peak. Extensive herb gardens spiced up the visit. Independent types set out on their own in a wide array of pursuit, individual Finger Lakes winery tours included.
The first class meal was a buffet in a building named for classmate Bob Appel, just a few steps from Mews. Some went back to Mews to join Tom Foulkes '52 at the piano. Quite a few chose the annual Savage Club show. The Savages are jugglers, magicians, musicians, and such who entertain at Reunion and have been doing so in three centuries. Ernie Hardy, PhD '69, one of the nobler Savages, sang this time. So did Jack Brophy and his Cayuga's Waiters from the Fifties, a triple-or-so quartet that included Jim Galusha, John Nixon, and Al Packer.
People were still showing up Friday, in time for dozens of delights on Mater's menu, from bird walks to college breakfasts to innovative uses of handheld computers to an ROTC reception to a lecture on how to save the world to Olin Lecturer and ABC newsperson Claire Shipman's views along the "Road to the White House 2008." To name but a few. Philip and Roz Zalutsky Baron presented a '53 art-and-craft show featuring the impressive talents of artist David Gatti, photographer Dick Halberstadt, Jane Little Hardy, Lois Crane Williams, MEd '60, Don Christiansen, and Jan Giarrusso (Vinnie's wife). Roz and Phil displayed a gallery in their oils of '53 rogues like Rich Jahn, Jim Blackwood, Mort Bunis, Dave Rossin, and, well, moi.
President emeritus Frank H.T. Rhodes and wife Rosa joined '53 at the cocktail hour at the Statler. He mingled with many. Some had traveled with him to faraway places. Others presented him with new faces. He greeted all equally with that amazing grace of his. President David Skorton and his wife, Robin Davisson, came to the Statler dinner. Our major gifts team leaders John and Lea Paxton Nixon gave him a make-believe check for an honest-to-goodness $22-something million. (More was to follow.) That was about four times any other class gift this year and about 40 percent for all classes overall. Skorton told those assembled that he'd like to be an honorary member of '53. Done, by acclamation. The evening ended with the singing of the Alma Mater, for which our newest classmate picked a quartet to lead (himself, Robin Davisson, Nixon, and, well again, moi. Geez.)
Traditionalists then adjourned to the Arts Quad tents. Tom Foulkes was back at the Mews keyboard. He played, and most of those present sang, old favorites (even though most of us need to have printed copies of the songs we knew so well). There was a soloist, Ann Gleason Sequerth, seen and heard in campus musicals back then. The room belonged to her "Bill," "Summertime," "Over the Rainbow," and "Till There Was You." Yep. She was in voice. Still. And it was clear that Bruce Johnson, MBA '54, hasn't lost his touch on the washboard/necktie. Late night songsters presented a full-throated rendition of "The (Private) Life of the Camel."
Gerry Grady whipped up a batch of his time-honored milk punch to open Saturday morning eyes in time for Skorton's State of the University address. Nobody would call that punch sockless. Vince Giarrusso looked at least as sprightly as David Ortiz around first base in the 13th annual Alumni Baseball Game. The memories lingered on as the Waiters returned for a Saturday lunch buffet serenade at Duffield Hall on the newish Engineering Campus. The class saluted outgoing treasurer Judy Resnik Chabon, then voted to replace her with Bill Bellamy, MBA '58, JD '59. A class council was endorsed by the electorate, as well as a slate of returning officers: Dorothy Clark Free (historian), Caroline Mulford Owens (secretary), the Nixons (Annual Fund reps), Jim Blackwood (VP for membership and planned giving and webmaster), Roz Baron (VP), David Gatti (VP), Dick (Reunion Transportation Czar) Halberstadt (VP), Jane Hardy (VP), Joyce Wisbaum Underberg (VP), Claire Moran Ford (first VP), and moi (class correspondent and prez). It was announced that a classmate had named Johnson Museum Gallery Number Five for the Class of 1953.
The class dined at Alice Cook House, part of the new upper class area on the West Campus, before a huge TV screen, big enough to show Big Brown maintain the tradition of favorites failing to win the Belmont Stakes and thus horse racing's Triple Crown. Buses conveyed those so inclined to refurbished Bailey Hall for Cornelliana Night—and recognition for our fiscal generosity. The Arts Quad tents were a stop on the way to Mews from Bailey, and there dancing was perpetrated and some conversation. Meanwhile, back at the dorm, Foulkes continued to please the crowd around the piano, along with Louis Pradt on the clarinet and Johnson on the washboard. We said our "Till we meet agains" on Sunday during brunch-for-the-road at the Ithaca Country Club.
This was a real fine reunion, all hands seem to agree. We must thank and salute Mort and Claire, Deanna Quvus and Susan Doney at Alumni House, and, of course, our clerks:Hali Booker '08, Catherine Lange '10, Ilea Malaney '11, Jonathan Pomboza '10, and Angelica Torres '09. Let's do it again in MMXIII. Jim Hanchett, 300 1st Ave., Apt. 8B, NYC 10009; e-mail, jch46@cornell.edu.
58
Wow! How fast 50 years flies by! Our reunion was wonderful, and somehow, when we're back on campus, those years seem to disappear and we can pick up where we left off. The weather was sunny and a bit warm (the Northeast heat wave), but we didn't skip a beat. We had more than 500 people back, and I think a good time was had by all. Old friendships were renewed and new ones made. Singing groups performed at many of the functions—the Sherwoods, Cayuga's Waiters (where Liz Fuchs Fillo sang the parts of her recently deceased brother), and the Tag-a-longs. There was even a ragtag band that occasionally wandered the campus. The Olin Lecture, by Claire Shipman of ABC News' "2008 Road to the White House," was a highlight—another insight into the interesting times we have ahead of us. The State of the University address by President Skorton was outstanding, and with such a great leader, I know the university is in great shape.
Our own class "Forum on the Arts," hosted by Liz Fillo and featuring our award-winning lighting designer and classmate Jennifer Tipton, was a huge success. After the discussion, our class fundraising chairs Glenn and Maddi McAdams Dallas, presented the university with a check for more than $7.5 million. Congratulations, class, and our sincere thanks to the Dallases. Our class honored them by having a "Maddi and Glenn Dallas Graduate Scholarship in Public Garden Leadership" given to Barbara Conolly '08. Maddi wanted to convey a message to the class and wrote, "Our wonderful 50th Reunion was truly a memorable event for Glenn and me. We are grateful for this honor and look forward to having Barbara share her progress with us and the class." Our late classmate artist Elsie Dinsmore Popkin was also honored. The Hotel school had a brief documentary on Elsie at work, and then guided viewers through the hotel's display of her vibrant pastels of various Cornell locales. Her works are in collections at the Johnson Museum of Art, as well as many other public and private collections.
How many of you remember "Yeagerburgers" at Obies? I finally met the man it was named after—Marcia Fogel Yeager's husband Bob '55, BArch '57! A very special thanks to Marcia and Bob, an architect, for designing all our venues. They made a special trip to Ithaca last March to check things out. Thanks also to Jim and Annette Fogo Harper, our wordsmiths, and to all the others who worked so hard on Reunion and made it a huge success!
The AEPhi's and a few others had a lovely cocktail reception at the home of Don '55, PhD '68, and Iris Marcus Greenberg, MST '64. Donny designed the house, which overlooks beautiful views of Cayuga Lake. The house was built from wood, glass, and stone, and is magnificent. It was nice to see so many of the sorority sisters back, including one who hasn't been back for many years, Judy Phillipson Warsh. Mary Moragne Cooke ventured back to Reunion from Hawaii, and I don't think she came the farthest. Not sure who that honor goes to.
Some news from classmates that didn't return. Tom Spooner, BCE '60, is retired and doing a lot of traveling—much with the Cornell Sherwoods. He sings with them two to three times a year and gets to hear from old Cornell friends often. He resides in California. Ann McGinnis Daiber is a volunteer church lady and plays in a recorder group that travels around New England. Mimi Smith Hardy is retired and enjoys volunteering and helping with her grandchildren. She is enjoying life in the beautiful college town of Middlebury, VT. Herb Meltzer is a professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at Vanderbilt U. School of Medicine. He presents talks in Japan and Argentina and consults with pharmaceutical companies. He also enjoys doing research and playing with his grandkids. One of his fondest memories of Cornell is walking back to his dorm room on a beautiful spring night!
Art Shostak is in his third year of retirement after 42 years of university teaching, writing (31 books), and research. He is doing a lot of traveling and is working on three new books. He's anxious to finish the books so he can begin his memoirs for his grandchildren. One of his fondest memories of Cornell is taking a course at the ILR school that spent a day each week at a work site (e.g., a coal mine, shoe factory, etc.). John Herman is retired, but teaches third- and fourth-year medical students at UCSF in outpatient ambulatory care. He is also a diabetologist for a summer camp for diabetic preteens and teenagers, and has been on the board of directors of the Diabetes Society since 1969. He also does some landscaping and maintenance for his daughter Erica '92. Charles Thorn, MS '60, does barbershop harmony and is quite the political activist. He sings baritone with the Harbor City Harmonizers in Melbourne, FL.
I received an e-mail from Bruce Marshall who, unfortunately, missed Reunion due to a family wedding. He sent the sad news that Harvey Fein, a ChemE '59 classmate who earned his PhD from MIT in '63, passed away in June. During his time at Atlantic Research, their NASA and military rockets put up a lot of intelligence, scientific, and commercial satellites in the earliest days of the space age. During the first gasoline crunch of the '70s he directed preliminary design of coal gasification and liquefaction projects at TRW Energy Systems. Later he managed assessment of commercial fuels projects at US Synthetic Fuels Corp. Harvey considered his greatest achievement his 50-year battle with muscular dystrophy diagnosed in his early 20s. Jan Arps Jarvie, jjarvie@sbcglobal.net; Dick Haggard, dhaggard@voicenet.com.
63
Warren Icke '62 and I have just returned from our 45th Reunion. Thanks to chairperson Marijane Beattie Watson and her committee (Carol Westenhoefer Anderson, Judy Clarke Bennett, Paula Trested Laholt-Oeste, Gwen Sibson Porcaro, Retta Presby Weaver, and Nancy Cook McAfee), those of us who attended were kept comfortably busy. Matching 90-degree temperatures and humidity accompanied us as we moved around campus attending lectures, college breakfasts, Barton Hall Alumni Lunches, a picnic at Beebe Lake, and dinners at Ithaca Country Club, Appel Commons, and the Statler.
Our Class Symposium was held Friday morning and was led by honorary classmate Ted Lowi, the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions. Saturday morning Bob Epstein led a class panel entitled Five Years, Five Minutes: Reflections of Classmates. Panel members Russ Stevenson, Dee Abbott Youngs, Jim Billings, MBA '64, Mary Falvey, Dick Lynham, BME '65, Sara Mills Mazie, and Bill Wycoff covered life/death experiences, concerns about our changing environment, politics, and personal life changes.
A reception was held at the Carol Tatkon Center Friday afternoon, where Ed Butler presented our class gift check for $150,000 to endow a seminar room in the freshman center created in the old Balch dining room. Memorabilia from our days at Cornell, including a slide rule, 45 rpm record, the Freshmen Register, and a computer card from our days at Cornell, were collected and are in permanent display in a showcase in the seminar room.
At our Friday night dinner at Appel Commons, the following class officers were elected: President, Carol Bagdasarian Aslanian; Vice President, Joe Stregack, PhD '70; Treasurer, Vivian Grilli DeSanto; Secretary, Marjorie Walker Sayer; Cornell Fund Representative, Dick Lynham; 2013 Reunion Chair and Webmaster, Paula Trested Laholt Oeste; and myself as Class Correspondent. Class Council Representatives will be Ed Butler, Pat Kelly Poggi, Zach Fluhr, Peter Lee, Marcy Bergren Pine, and Jim Billings. Thanks to all for volunteering for the next five years.
Carol Aslanian was given the 2008 Helen Bull Vandervort Alumni Achievement Award at the College of Human Ecology Reunion Breakfast. The award is given annually to alumni who have demonstrated outstanding service to the college and to the university in professional and volunteer roles. Her bio of activities would take up most of this column, but two highlights: Carol is president of the Cornell Association of Class Officers and a lifetime member of the University Council. Congratulations, Carol!
Nancy Chu Woo and her husband were attending her first reunion. Two of Nancy's paintings were on display at the Johnson Museum of Art. One of them was in the lobby and the other amidst the Chinese art on the fifth floor. Nancy is an artist and lecturer in Hong Kong. The Reunion Run took place on Saturday. Cornell Dawson placed second in the five-mile run in the age 60-69 category. Dick Lynham was second in the two-mile run in the same age category. Chuck Skinner, MME '69, timer extraordinaire at the Class Panel, lives in Cleveland. He retired from management consulting in 1999 and keeps busy managing his assets. Son Jeff '00 works for Cornell, and daughter Melinda is a lawyer married to a lawyer living in New York City.
Bill and Debbie Seyl Wycoff live in Pittsburgh, where Bill continues to work as a trial lawyer. Debbie and Bill love to play golf, and travel to find places to do that. Class Panel moderator Bob Epstein works in entertainment law in New York City and is learning how to be a librettist for musicals. During the panel, he showed some 1960s stereo equipment and the iPod of today to show the changes in how we listened to music. Roger '60, PhD '65, and Mary Lou Moore West, MS '65, were at reunion from New Jersey. Mary Lou received a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation to bring graduate students into the K-12 classrooms. The focus is on improving communication and attitude, especially at the middle school level.
I'll have a lot more from people at reunion in the next column. Meanwhile, Linda Eakin Rakowski '64 wrote in April with the sad news of the passing of her husband and our classmate Bob, ME '66. He had undergone heart surgery in October 2007 and was planning to retire from Ohio U. this year. Bob had worked in medical school physiology departments for his whole career, which included several years as chair of physiology and biophysics at the Chicago Medical School. An opportunity to chair at an undergraduate institution, Ohio U., took them to Athens, OH, in 2000. A fund has been established in his name at the university. Donations may be sent to: The Ohio University Foundation, P.O. Box 869, Athens, OH 45701. Be sure to name the fund: Robert Rakowski Award for Outstanding Research. Linda plans to move where they had both intended to be together: Falmouth, MA. Bob had worked summers at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Falmouth.
Many thanks to Ed Butler for his five years of leading the Class of 1963. Nancy Bierds Icke, 12350 E. Roger Rd., Tucson, AZ 85749; e-mail, icke63@gmail.com.
68
It's hard to believe, but it's true! Forty years have passed since our graduation from Cornell! To celebrate the event, a hardworking group of classmates helped plan and run an amazing reunion, June 5-8. I have personally attended EVERY reunion of our class since graduation. Therefore, I can tell you firsthand that the 40th was clearly the best ever. Maybe it was the wonderful class events or the fabulous weather or the great lectures or the Reunion Run, golf tournament, and class barbecue. Or maybe it was the fact that by the 40th, people are relaxed and mellow and more interested in catching up with old friends and meeting new ones than announcing their own success. There were many reasons—and it was a great weekend!
Before getting into details and who was there, let me first thank some of those involved. Special credit goes to our hardworking reunion chair Henry Siegel, who went all out for the class, and the amazing Nancy Nystrom Frantz, who handled registration. Pete Woodworth, MBA '69, was in charge of favors, Kathy Maney Fox did the great decorations, Joel Kurtzberg handled affinity communications, and Jim Gutman put together a collage of Cornell Sun stories from our years on the Hill.
On the important fundraising front, class campaign chairs Jay Waks, JD '71, and Peter Orthwein, MBA '69, were assisted by the Class of '68 40th Reunion Major Gifts Committee, who helped the class raise more than $1 million for Cornell and also set a record for Tower Club members (the Tower Club recognizes those who give $5,000 or more in a year). Check out the class website, http://classof68.alumni.cornell.edu, to see the new slate of class officers elected at Reunion, and many thanks to the outgoing officers for all their work over the last several years!
Two Reunion highlights: At our special Class Forum, Ross Brann, the Milton Konvitz Professor of Judeo-Islamic Studies, provided a fascinating update on Mideast affairs. At the class barbecue at the beautiful Cornell Plantations, former president Hunter Rawlings welcomed the class, and Dean Koyanagi '90, BS '01, coordinator of Cornell's sustainability efforts, described the university's efforts to preserve the environment.
I won't try to list everyone who attended, since there will be follow-up columns, but will mention a few as space permits. Alan Altschuler made a special effort to recruit friends from Tau Delta Phi to return, and it was wonderful to see Rich Kasdan, Art Kaminsky, Joel Turok, Jon Ellman, Rich Cohen, Jay Berke, and others. That included my freshman roommate Dave Heiden, who came from San Francisco. I had some great conversations with Rich Felder about life in Aspen in the summer and the many activities that he and his wife do to support music in the area. Jay Goldstein, a dermatologist in Natick, MA, is also involved in music in his spare time—in a local band. I look forward to attending their concerts.
On the athletic front, special recognition goes to Joel Negrin, Len and Ronna Rappe, and, I believe, Tina Forester Cleland, who made great time on the Reunion Run. Steve Steinhardt excelled on the tennis court. It was wonderful to see Joe Gellert, MBA '71, and wife Ellen. Joe lives in the NYC area and is in the cheese business. He enjoys going to the longtime family farm in Hillsdale, NY. Tracy Sillerman was at Reunion with his friend Jessica Harris. Tracy is a real estate partner with the Kramer, Levin law firm and is expert in permitting and development issues in NYC. In his spare time Tracy collects maps and rare books. He seemed as athletic as when he was on the 150-pound football team at Cornell.
Other lawyers at Reunion included Pete Smith, JD '71, accompanied by his wife Debby (Kates), MA '71; John Seligman with wife Susan; Mary Hartman Schmidt—our new class correspondent—and her husband Bill, who is also an attorney (and a great fellow even though he went to Yale); Jay Waks, who practices labor law in NYC and has received great recognition for his important work in the municipal area; and John Gross, JD '71, a widely recognized labor attorney on Long Island. Barry Shaw was there with wife Annette. Barry has an orthodontics practice in Binghamton, NY. I had a very pleasant dinner with Linda Saltzman Farkas, who presently lives much of the year in the Hamptons. Walter Schenker, a hedge fund manager who lives in New Jersey, attended with his wife Susan.
It was great talking with Les Kristt and his wife Amy, who live in Monticello, NY. Les runs a busy office supply business. Also wonderful to see the always vivacious Susan Zodikoff Berke, as well as Susan Leibowitz, who lives in the Boston area. Also near Boston is Herb Fuller, who attended with wife Martha. Herb is a manager of building facilities at the Center for Behavioral Sciences at Harvard. Elliott Meisel continues with the New York law firm of Brill & Meisel, which he founded a number of years ago. On the weekends he can be found at his home in the Hamptons, where he is a local expert on zoning matters. He enjoys flying his own plane. Judy Winter Andrucki, MST '69, is an attorney in Lewiston, ME, and enjoys her summer home on the amazing island of Islesboro on the Maine coast.
More on the Reunion in next issue. I have greatly enjoyed writing our column for the last 25 years or so, and am now turning it over to Mary Hartman Schmidt for the next five years. Gordon H. Silver, gordon_silver@comcast.net.
73
A hot and humid weekend greeted us on our arrival in Ithaca and it didn't let up—95 degrees, easily 75 percent humidity, few clouds, and no rain. Made me wish I could still go skinny-dipping in the reservoir. Fortunately for my companions, I knew I just shouldn't go back that far in recapturing my campus experiences.
Even without rain we knew where we were: on campus with more than 170 classmates in attendance. Not quite a 35th Reunion record, but we did break another record: the highest number of contributors to the Cornell Annual Fund by a 35th Reunion class. At the end of Reunion Weekend, we were at 823! Our generosity was exemplary, with 77 Tower Club donors—a class best—and a total contribution to the university at press time of $3,294,122. During our class events, I wandered around and interviewed classmates I didn't know and some I did. Here's a compilation of what I learned about people who come to their 35th Cornell Reunion.
They are exceptionally proud to have a child or grandchild who goes to Cornell. Sara Weiss has two of three children in the ranks of Cornellians, a 2007 grad and one slated for 2011. Pat Zimmer and his wife Arlene (Finkelstein) '75 have Jennifer Zimmer Nitkowski '02, an actuary living in Ithaca, and John '06, a Hotelie who now works for Lehman Brothers.
The range of our lives spans several gorges and the entire globe. Elizabeth Lau Yim came from Hong Kong; Jon and Michelle Kaplan from Palo Alto; and Dave and Pat Miller Ross '72 from the shores of Puget Sound. Marge Smigel tears up the floor with the tango, ballroom dancing, and other creative passions. Jeffry Daniels lives in Ann Arbor, MI, and works at the U. of Michigan. We traded a few stories about the "Big House" and the intimacy of Cornell football in comparison. Bruce Davis is in Maine, working to bring a reagent process to market that would easily and quickly type infections so that antibiotics could be targeted more accurately. Steve Mayeri and his wife Patricia Tierney have two children, 5-year-old son Eoin, and Ava, their 18-month-old daughter. Steve has just made a career switch. He retired from 20 years as an emergency MD in Chicago (I guess the U-Halls do prepare you for some things in life) and is now at Yale U. studying psychiatry. I was glad to see fellow psychology major Ann McComb attending reunion again. She came from Florida, so I'm not sure she saw much relief in coming north for a few days.
Before too much more reminiscing, let me personally thank the class officers and reunion committee for the outstanding efforts to make Reunion Weekend a delight. There was plenty of flextime between the class events to just do what you wanted. So, hats off to Thilde Peterson, Marty Slye Sherman, MPS '75, Paul Cashman, Larry Taylor, and many, many more. I was delighted to meet the other class correspondents in person after five years of electronic exchanges.
Mostly, I enjoyed hanging with my friends from Cornell: Ellen "Rocky" Rosenthal, Wendy Jennis, Judith Goldman Nunez, Margaret "Migs" Friedman, Ed Schechter, MBA '74, Gerry Concannon, MCE '75, Paul Harnick, Robert Cooper, Dan Flerlage, and Simeon Moss. Paul remains a fit and successful cardiologist. Ed brought his delightful wife Wendi, who graduated from Syracuse U. (my backyard growing up). Ellen and husband Rick Whiteman brought their retired selves to the party. They left the National Labor Relations Board after more than 30 years of service each. I've known them for a long time and hope to continue. Migs's husband is pursuing his DO in Kentucky, while she lives in the Phoenix area. Judith and Abel live in Taos, NM. Cooper provides international medical and dental referrals and travels to Thailand, when not playing with his band. Dan remains an outstanding science teacher in the Ithaca School District, where his wife Judy is a counselor. Simeon, like Susan Murphy, PhD '94, VP of Student and Academic Services, plays a key role at Cornell as the head of the press office. His wife Moira is a teacher in Ithaca also. She's the sister of another classmate who couldn't attend: Jeff Lang. Moira reports that Jeff is doing well. We all visited Castaways, known as the Salty Dog when we danced there to Orleans.
So, what did I learn at this reunion? As tough as it sounded at the luncheon, facing the reality that we had, at best, six more reunions (30 years . . . 86 . . . let's not do the math). The question I was asked the most was where the triplets ended up. Even after each triplet made the dean's list his/her first year in college, we remain terrified. How did we get so lucky? Broke, sure, but blessings and a charmed life have surely been Dave's and mine. Anna is at Stanford U., Christine is at Grinnell College, and Mitch, after giving us a transition year by going to Michigan State U., is heading out to Los Angeles to go to Occidental College. His sister Kate and her husband Ben live a half-hour away (on a good traffic day). So we'll finally really have an empty nest, although I can assure you that the other theme I heard at the reunion was that the nest can quickly refill.
Well, I'm pushing Cornell for graduate school. While I remain un-retired, there is still money and hope for someone else becoming a Cornellian. Send your news and musings to: Phyllis Haight Grummon, phg3@cornell.edu. See you in five years!
78
Despite nearly record-high temperatures, the Class of '78 knows how to throw a cool reunion. Many thanks to Mary Bowler Jones and Suzanne Bishop Romain, our co-chairs, and other class officers for the hundreds of hours of planning that went into the weekend. A special thank-you goes out to our retiring class officers. Pepi Leids, DVM '82, was class correspondent for an amazing 25 years; Chip Brueckman also served as class correspondent; and Jeanne Arnoldschwetje served as secretary and VP and membership chair over the last ten years.
Many classmates came for their first reunion. Among the first-timers were Diana D'Amelio, who is a physician's assistant at a reproductive medicine clinic in Connecticut, and Lena Chung Mei, who lives in Nashua, NH, and works for Morgan Stanley. Honors for the "farthest flyers" go to Ed Harris and his wife Apilai from Tokyo, and Eugenie Shen from Hong Kong. Ed's son Brian, a student at Hobart, joined the class for Saturday dinner. As far as returning fraternity members go, Kevin Wandryk convinced 12 other brothers of Phi Sigma Epsilon to come back for reunion, including Dave Millman, Mark Pavia, Steve Weiner, and David Bilmes.
Thursday night's informal dinner was held at the Sage Hall atrium. Cynthia Kubas actually got to see fellow Honolulu resident Dave Monahan, rather than just e-mailing or phoning him. Both are active members of the Cornell Club of Hawaii. Liz Granitz lives in Sag Harbor and teaches economics at Long Island U./C.W. Post. After dinner, several classmates attended the Savage Club show and flashed their cell phones (the 2008 equivalent of cigarette lighters) during the rock ensemble performance. Who knew the Savages would play "Smoke on the Water"? Other Thursday night exploits included a futile search for the Hot Truck by Doug and Anne Hamilton Johnson. They live outside Philadelphia and just attended their daughter's graduation from Princeton. (One hopes they got a PMP on Friday night, since the Hot Truck was parked near the Arts Quad tents.)
Friday night dinner was held at Trillium, with special guests Frank and Rosa Rhodes. We presented the class reunion campaign "check" of over $4.3 million. (As another plug, the class has a memorial scholarship that benefits children of classmates as first and second priority. The 2007-08 recipient was Melinda Mathis '09, daughter of Andi Rosenstein Mathis.)
We heard about several interesting careers. Bryan Plude lives in Davis, CA, and is working to clean up the San Francisco Bay wetlands. Former roommate Suzanne Tougas Snedeker has written three videos on environmental estrogens and breast cancer, targeted toward younger women. To see the videos, the URL is http://envirocancer.cornell.edu/ research/endocrine/videos/. Among the career- or job-changers, Lorraine Heffernan has been accepted to the library science program at Rutgers. Candy Warner Herring lives in Quebec and is diving back into design after raising a family. Fellow Seattleite Todd Johnson was recently named VP of facilities at Children's Medical Center after holding the same position at Virginia Mason Medical Center. Matt Sadinsky brought daughter number three to campus with him. He is president and CEO of System Operations Success in Charlotte, NC.
Boston-area classmates were well represented at Reunion. Toby Brown Gooley writes and edits a magazine for supply chain professionals. Andre Martecchini has served as a selectman (city council member) for 12 years in Duxbury. Robbin "Robbi" Warner Goulet works for the FAA, where she is responsible for the safety of aircraft engines. Suzanne Bishop Romain's daughter Jess rowed on the UMass crew team this year.
Conversations around headquarters and meals were wide-ranging, from election-year politics to eating "dangerous amounts of sushi" (Jonathan Honig) to children. Bruce Clements bragged that his daughter was accepted into the Ag college, "and she got a scholarship!" Randall Nixon's teenaged son sounds like a great candidate for the Cornell Entrepreneur Network. He's started three businesses since he was 15. I ran into Kathy Rich Oscarlece in the newly renovated Mann Library on Saturday afternoon. She lives in Fayetteville, NY, and was passing through town en route to meeting her son's future in-laws.
At Sunday brunch, the following slate of officers was approved by the classmates in attendance: Roger Anderson, President; Mary Bowler Jones, Vice President, Membership; Sharon Palatnik Simoncini, Vice President, Regional Events; Joanne Wallenstein Fishman, Secretary/Treasurer; Laura Day Ayers, MBA '86, and Suzanne Bishop Romain, Reunion Co-Chairs; Paul Bonner, Webmaster; Cindy Fuller, PhD '92, and Ilene Shub Lefland, Class Correspondents; Angela DeSilva, Marie Hagen, JD '81, and Suzanne Solomon, Cornell Fund Representatives; and Nina Silfen, Historian.
I'm sure Ilene will have more news from Reunion in the next column. The two of us will make an interesting team for correspondents, since she works in public relations and I am in scientific writing (grants and manuscripts). Until next time: Cindy Fuller, cjfuller@mindspring.com; Ilene Shub Lefland, ilnee@cjpcom.com.
83
"Everything has changed . . . and nothing has changed." Spoken by President David Skorton during his State of the University address, this phrase sums up my impressions of our 25th Reunion last June. The campus is so different from how it was when we first graced the Hill. Yet the energy and vibrance—of the campus, the students, the faculty, and staff—are the same as always. 298 of our classmates, 102 adult guests, and 149 children converged on North Campus June 5-8 for our quarter-century reunion celebration. The most unexpected reunion guest was the insufferable heat wave that actually made the return to my Houston hometown pleasant! As we checked in at Mary Donlon on Friday, we were chagrined to find that all available box fans had been rented and we were out of luck. It was very toasty in our sixth-floor dorm rooms, but we survived and had a great time. Reunion chairs Susan Wasserman Guerin and Andy Sosa did a terrific job and didn't let the heat dissuade them from stepping up to the plate once again to chair our 30th Reunion in 2013!
As we drove onto campus early Friday afternoon, we stopped at a Cornell information booth to ask the young attendant where to park in order to make it to the Olin Lecture on time. He blithely replied that of course we should park in the parking garage. My blank look must not have been enough to give away my age, so I had to ask, "What parking garage?" After he explained (it's adjacent to Schoellkopf Field, by the way), he asked, "You do know where Bailey Hall is, don't you?" Nice to know that the generation gap is alive and well on the Cornell campus!
The Olin Lecture featured Claire Shipman, senior national correspondent for ABC's "Good Morning America." She delivered a personal glimpse into "The Road to the White House 2008" and shared numerous charming anecdotes about covering today's major political figures. Friday night our class held a barbecue dinner on the shores of Beebe Lake, followed by an ice cream social in the delightfully air-conditioned lounge back at Donlon. I was able to catch up with Dana Gordon and fiancé Steve Dzik, as well as Karen Chin Chang and husband Andrew '74. Karen has made it to most of our reunions so far, but missed our 10th while living in Hong Kong, where she worked in direct marketing for an English-language Thai-owned magazine. Karen is now a stay-at-home mom of three beautiful kids.
Saturday morning, I stopped by the College of Arts and Sciences breakfast and the talk by Dean Peter Lepage. Husband Griff then took our girls (Anna, 17, and Sarah, 13) to the admissions information session, and I'm happy to report that Anna has now added Cornell to her short list of schools to which she plans to apply. Lisa Esposito Kok and I attended President Skorton's State of the University address at Bailey Hall, where many questions were posed regarding campus development and building at Cornell. President Skorton assured alumni that Cornell has a master plan in place and is working hard to meet the needs of the Cornell community while maintaining the integrity of the campus.
After a side trip for pizza at the Souvlaki House (one of just a few old haunts left in Collegetown, along with the Nines, Ruloff's, and Collegetown Deli), we rejoined our classmates for some "Fun in the Sun" on the Arts Quad, where kids and adults alike had the chance to slip, slide, and bounce on giant waterslides and inflatables. Saturday evening brought us to Cornell's beautiful new athletic facilities, where we enjoyed a reception on the terrace and some brief remarks by President Skorton. Classmates then crowded into the basketball arena for our class photo, followed by a delicious sit-down dinner in Bartels Hall as we watched our kids climbing the walls (literally!).
Reunion wouldn't be Reunion without Cornelliana Night at Bailey Hall, where the Alumni Glee Club and Cornell Chorus delighted the packed auditorium with old fight songs and sentimental Cornell favorites. Cornell Association of Class Officers (CACO) president Carol Bagdasarian Aslanian '63 announced the class reunion gifts to the Cornell Annual Fund. With 767 campaign donors, 667 duespayers, and 54 Tower Club members (a class best!), the Class of '83 had 39 percent combined participation in fundraising and raised nearly $1.4 million dollars for the university! At Cornelliana Night, we were also inspired by the presence of one member from the Class of '31 and three members from the Class of '33. Here's hoping we have many dedicated classmates trekking back to campus for our 75th (and beyond) Reunion! Meet you in 2058, OK?
The weather cooled enough by Saturday evening to enjoy the tent parties on the Arts Quad, where you could choose between dancing to the tunes of a DJ, a classic rock band, or a 1940s-style Big Band. Those who were still hungry were able to get snacks from the Hot Truck conveniently parked outside Goldwin Smith. (Why couldn't it have been located there 25 years ago?) Arts Quad revelers had the opportunity to enjoy the 25th Reunion gig of the Bourgeois Blues Band (minus harmonica player Roy Passer), with classmates Tom Helf (drums), Rob Smith (piano, vocals), Ira Langstein (guitar), and Mark Censits (bass, vocals). Quips Tom, "The highlight was during our last song (Creedence Clearwater Revival's 'Fortunate Son') when Rob jumped off the stage and danced with the crowd. I think he would have attempted crowd-surfing had we arranged beforehand for paramedics to be present."
During a "Noyes-style" Sunday brunch at Appel Commons, we elected our slate of class officers for the next five years: President, John Skawski (whose dad just finished a term as president of the Class of '48); Vice Presidents, Carin Lewis Evans and Linda Krasnopolsky Newman; Membership Chair, Barry Cohen; Treasurer, Mark Rhodes (for the second term); Secretary, Diane Barsky; Webmasters, Dana Gordon and Martha Galli-Leslie; Cornell Annual Fund Representatives, Jean Parker Hill, Phil Rickey, and Mark Wolcott; Class Council Members, Nicole Cormier, Catherine Fallis, Miriam Barasch Fleming, Lisa Esposito Kok, Abbie Bookbinder Meyer, Tom Navasero, and Benny Yih; Reunion Chairs, Andy Sosa and Susan Wasserman Guerin; and Class Correspondents, Alissa Gaines-Russell and Lorinda Buffamante Schwarz. David Pattison and I are happy to pass the class correspondent torch on to Alissa and Lorinda, and want to thank all of you for keeping in touch with Cornell through your news submissions over the last five years. See you in 2013! Dinah Lawrence Godwin, Dinah.godwin@earthlink.net; and David Pattison, dpattison@earthlink.net.
88
Greetings, classmates! After much planning and anticipation, our 20th Reunion is now one for the history books. How was Reunion? Fun-filled and loaded with moments for reconnecting with old friends. I must say that hot and humid also apply. Yes, the heat was not what most of us associate with Ithaca and our days at Cornell. But while the stickiness we experienced walking around campus may have dampened a few T-shirts, it did not dampen our spirits as we enjoyed the weekend. Our class owes a tremendous amount of gratitude to our reunion chairs Lisa Pasquale Semmes and Kelly Smith Brown, MBA '92. They did a fabulous job planning the reunion for our class. Lisa was on campus only a scant five weeks after giving birth to her sixth child, daughter Juliet, and she had four of the five other kids with her as well! Also deserving special recognition is Angelica Watson Botkin, who served as our reservations/rooms coordinator and went above and beyond contributing to reunion planning while Lisa was getting closer to her due date. All other class officers pitched in as well, helping out in Ithaca as meal and event hosts, doing their best to make things run as smoothly as possible. A big thank you to everyone who helped out! We had a turnout of nearly 650, including 331 classmates and their spouses, guests, and children. We hope to see everyone back in Ithaca again for our 25th in 2013! For the reunion campaign, our class reached a total of 733 donors, including 42 Tower Club members, a record for '88ers. The total dollars raised by the class was more than $716,000.
As always after reunion, we have a new slate of officers volunteering to serve our class for the next five years. Incoming president is Alan Riffkin, who ends a term as VP of fundraising. Alan is a banker with Lazard Freres and lives in Manhattan with wife Anne and their children Kelsey, Hallie, and Carson. Incoming VP for the Cornell Annual Fund is Susan Kuniholm Potter, with Lilli Siegel Roth as Cornell Fund representative. Incoming reunion chairs are Pam Darer Anderson, who has handled that job before, and the aforementioned Angelica Botkin. It was fun for me to learn more about Angelica during reunion. On the day before commencement in 1988, she married classmate Brad Botkin, whom she had met freshman year. They live in Lorton, VA, just outside Washington, DC. Brad is a financial manager at the Pentagon, while Angelica is a full-time mom and inspirational speaker. She also volunteers to aid Navy enlistees with personal budgeting. Just before reunion, their son Alexander '11 completed his freshman year at Cornell, where he lived in Low Rise 9, the same freshman dorm as his mom. Perhaps his siblings Michael, Christian, and Arcadia may one day follow suit.
Suzanne Bors Andrews will be retiring from her role as my co-correspondent, but will continue to serve the class as our new treasurer. I must extend a personal thank you to Suzanne, who has been fantastic to work with for the past five years. I will miss her columns and her warm sense of humor. Joining me as correspondents are Brad Mehl and Sharon Nunan Stemme. As much as I will miss Suzanne, I welcome Brad and Sharon and look forward to working with them. Rounding out the class leadership are Howard Greenstein as VP, communications and Jason McGill, BArch '89, as VP, membership. Last but not least, past class officers who will continue to serve as class council members are outgoing president Rob Rosenberg, outgoing reunion chairs Lisa Semmes and Kelly Brown, and Paul Kitamura. A big thank you to all class officers past and present!
I spoke to many classmates with pen in hand during Reunion. Following is some of the news I gathered, in no particular order other than perhaps the order in which I met people. I apologize for making these short and sweet, but I do want to mention as many as I can. My fraternity brother Walter Swearingen is a commercial litigation attorney with the firm Levi, Lubarsky & Feigenbaum in NYC. Walt currently lives in the Parkchester neighborhood of the Bronx. Deborah Giannoni Johnson is a manager of an office furniture company in Houston. She and husband Gary, MBA '93, have children Carlo, Audie, and Alice. Michael Moore '87 lives in Hillsboro, CA, and has worked in software consulting for 11 years with Seibel, now part of Oracle Corp. Stephanie Ryan Zerilli is a single mom of three children, living near Ithaca in Lansing, NY. Doug Ringel is a patent attorney in D.C. and is married to Deborah Goldstock '90, also an attorney. They have children Sam, Emily, and Danny. Doug and Michael Moore have ridden together in the Twin Forks MS150 bike tour, a two-day bike ride to raise funds for the fight against multiple sclerosis. Their team, "CU Later MS," is captained by classmate Doug Moore and includes fellow Cornellians Eric Bobby, Bart Codd, Ken Dearden '89, John Ehman '87, Dave Feldman '89, Tim Goodman, Tim Harrison, Dave McGinley, Rob Mosher '89, and Mark Rosing.
My long-ago seat neighbor in Intro to Wines and Spirits Amy Tietjen Smith lives in Lebanon, NH, with husband Bruce '89, MS '98. Bruce works for Dartmouth and could not be at Reunion as Dartmouth had their commencement the same weekend. Amy was accompanied by her children Tristan and Avery. She also introduced me to her freshman-year roommate Julie Masterman Mendosa, who lives in Vienna, VA. Julie is an intelligence analyst for the Drug Enforcement Administration, where her husband Larry is a section chief. Julie and Larry have children Matthew and Morgan.
It was a pleasure to run into Carla Liberatore, a classmate I met in freshman year and had not heard from for many years. Carla is an ob/gyn living in Syracuse with her husband and fellow ob/gyn Sargon. They have three children, Sargon, Luciano, and Sofia. Another physician and freshman-year dorm-mate is Maggie Ho. Maggie is an anesthesiologist in northern New Jersey whose husband Kevin did his residency at Cornell Med. They have children Max, Alex, and Jaden.
Attending her first reunion was Susan Redick Gruber, a fellow churchgoer when we were on the Hill. Sue lives in Kentucky with husband Terry, a pilot for Delta Airlines, and their children Ben and Katharine. Sue was at Reunion with Melissa Beisheim Benno. Melissa lives in Rutgers, NJ, and is now a full-time mom to two boys, after spending 12 years in market research. Also at her first reunion was Tobe Mellman Rubin, MD '92. Tobe is an ophthalmologist living in Boca Raton with husband Joshua, MD '93, a gastroenterologist. Tobe and Joshua have kids Jacob and Kayleigh. At our brunch on Sunday, I met Victor Seidel, who teaches business at Oxford U. and has a 1-year-old son Corbin. Victor was attending his first reunion, but is a third-generation Cornellian. One evening, he wore the blazer of his great-uncle who was the Class of 1931.
Whew! Well, that's about my limit for this column. I apologize if I missed anyone I met while at Reunion. But you always have the opportunity to get news to your classmates by writing to me or my new co-correspondents. It will be my pleasure to hear from you and serve our class for the next five years. Until next time, I wish you peace. Steven Tomaselli, st89@cornell.edu; Brad Mehl, bam62@cornell.edu; and Sharon Nunan Stemme, sen28@cornell.edu.
93
Hello, Class of '93ers! Having just come back from our 15th Reunion, I have to say what a fantastic time it was. While temperatures topped out in the 90s (and our dorms did not have air conditioning!), a cool time was had by all. Our co-chairs, Lauren Bailyn Sapira, MBA '94, and Christine Watters Stuhlmiller, and our registration chair, Stacie Heck Fitzgerald, along with the rest of the Reunion team, did a phenomenal job. Despite the sweltering heat, we were treated to great events, meals, and activities across the campus. Some of the highlights included dinner Friday night at Appel Commons on North Campus, a fun-in-the-sun carnival on the Arts Quad, and dinner on Saturday night at the new Noyes Center. They also managed to keep an ever-running supply of cold drinks and snacks at our headquarters in Low Rise 9.
It was great to see campus and how much has changed. North Campus is almost unrecognizable, with dorms dotting what used to be open fields, and Bailey Hall has been renovated and is now much more comfortable than what I recall from Psych 101! But of course the best part was hanging with old friends. Lauren was there with her husband Valdi Sapira and children Josh, 4, and Samantha, 2. They live in Hoboken, NJ, where Lauren is a media editor for Wiley and Sons. Chris and husband Dave Stuhlmiller '92, were there with daughter Sarah, 2. Chris is working at the U. of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey. Stacie was at Reunion with husband Justin Fitzgerald and son Jordan. She lives outside of Ithaca and works as a social worker in the ER.
My husband Sandy Rosenberg and son Jonathan, 2, made the trip from our new house in White Plains, NY, where we have just moved after my almost 15 years in New York City (yup, moved there right after graduation). I'm still working as a healthcare actuary at Buck Consultants (where I've also been since graduating). We had loads of fun, although I will note that it was quite a different experience walking around campus with a 2-year-old in tow! We were sharing a dorm wing with Scott and Lisa Ness Seidman and their children Hannah, 8, and Matt, 3. The Seidmans live in East Brunswick, NJ, and Lisa is in-house counsel for National Starch and Chemical Co. I also got to see Rob Fromberg of New York City, Irene Argue Christy, husband Tom, and son Perry, and Mark '94 and Allison Waxberg Milgrom with their 10-month-old daughter Alexandra.
There was a big AEPi contingent at Reunion. That crew included: Eric Feig, wife Heidi, and children Hannah and Jordan; Matt Krakowsky; Josh Frank and wife Julia; Craig Gordon; Scott and Jacqueline Lurie Liebman; Scott Fink, wife Amy, and daughter Ilana; and Aron and Tho Mai Izower and their boys Asher and Xander. Also included were Seth Kestenbaum, who is living in NYC and working in real estate, and Jeff and Galit Cohen, who were there without their three daughters for the weekend. They live in Tea-neck, and Jeff is working for Bloomberg in New York City.
Staci Mayer and her husband Will Friese '88 did double-duty at the classes of '93 and '88 reunions. They and their three girls live in Phoenix, where they are both doctors. Jennifer Abeles e-mailed to say that she was not able to make it to Reunion this year because she had her hands full with her newborn son Aidan. She has been married to Paul King '92 since 1998 and has an older son Ryan, 4. Jennifer and Paul live in Williamsville, NY, and she is a doctor practicing internal and pediatric medicine in Buffalo. Jennifer wasn't the only one tending to a new baby. Amy Miller Moore is a stay-at-home mom and wrote, "My husband and I recently added to our family with the birth of our son Paul Moore Jr. in February. PJ, as he is called, joins older sisters Leah, 10, and Sophia, 6. Three future Cornellians in the making!" Charles and Monica Prasad Hayes welcomed Paige Clementine Prasad Hayes on Sept 5, 2007. Monica is an assistant professor of gynecologic oncology practicing at Mount Sinai Medical Center, and Charles recently left Credit-Suisse and is now a portfolio manager at S.A.C. Capital Advisors LLC. Congratulations!
Finally, I'd like to thank our outgoing class officers for all their hard work these past five years and welcome aboard (or back) the new class officers for the upcoming term. A special thank-you to my co-correspondent Erica Fishlin Fox—I've enjoyed working with you! Keep the news coming and enjoy the fall! Yael Berkowitz Rosenberg, ygb1@cornell.edu; Melissa Hart Moss, melimoss@yahoo.com; and Melissa Carver Sottile, mtcsottile@yahoo.com.
98
"I know how much you have suffered at sea, and how ill you have fared among cruel savages on the mainland, but that is over now, so stay here, and eat and drink till you are once more as strong and hearty as you were when you left Ithaca." (Homer's Odyssey)
This June, 527 of us set sail for Ithaca to tell tales from the past ten years, and to relive some of those happy, hearty days during possibly four of the best years of our lives.
"Is this place that I have come to really Ithaca?"
Ithaca is a little different from what we remembered. The sun shines brilliantly. A drive/stroll through Collegetown reveals the addition of Starbucks. Chariot's has disappeared. Beer at the Palms is not as cheap as we remember it to be (and no Old Mills!). The U-Halls on West Campus, where many of us spent our first Ithaca months, have gone. Now there are bigger buildings and a Jensen's that features facilities of a university in the 21st century. Hard as it is to imagine, we belong to a different century, a different generation of Cornellians compared to those that meet and greet us over Reunion Weekend. And we, too, are a little different from when we last gathered together on the Hill. There is a significant increase in the number of spouses and strollers at this reunion compared to the last. Whereas at the 5th Reunion many of us were still in school, about to go back to school, or having just graduated from more school, this time around many of us are newlyweds or new parents or have reached new heights in career developments.
"They seemed as glad to see me as though they had got back to their own rugged Ithaca, where they had been born and bred."
Some things, fortunately, do not change. Hot Truck still runs (and there is lots of it over the weekend!). Over the years we may have forgotten how awesome it is to be in the company of Class of '98ers, but Reunion Weekend puts all those doubts aside. Old friendships are rekindled, and new ones are made. Old stories from freshman year are revealed and retold, along with more recent news and happenings. Seeing tents on the Arts Quad, and having to wear a big shiny name badge (well, button) at all times brings us back to 1994, when we first arrived for Orientation Week (moving in large herds to the nearest party). The events that the university and our reunion co-chairs (thanks to Shana Elberg, JD '01, and Erik Weinick, JD '01) have planned are plentiful and well-organized, ranging from breakfasts, cocktail hour, and Dinosaur BBQ by Beebe Lake (yum!) to wine-tasting, campus tours, and lectures. With the intense heat, though, many of us sought refuge in the gorges, in Collegetown, or at the Dairy Bar. The majority of our class stays in Risley, with overflows spilling into Anna Comstock and Balch. It feels familiar and odd at the same time—it was well over ten years ago when we last donned nothing but a towel in the hallway between communal bathrooms and our extra-long single beds. Next time, we should all remember to bring along shower caddies.
With all the fun that occurred back on the Hill, we unfortunately found out some sad news. We are extremely sorry to learn of the death of Prof. Bill Rosen in the College of Human Ecology, who died of brain cancer a week before Reunion Weekend. He was a great teacher and mentor, and both Gregg and Erica had the pleasure of studying with him. Among other things, he taught us a few fundamentals in life: how it should be equal parts work and fun, and how politics and economics can all be boiled down to simple terms and principles that are much more easily digested with the help of pizza and beer.
"But I am not struck by your appearance, for I very well remember what kind of a man you were when you set sail from Ithaca."
Before we descend onto Beebe Lake for our class BBQ, it is time for a class picture on the lawn in front of Risley. For effect, and in true Ithaca fashion, it starts drizzling. The photographer kindly reminds us that ten years past graduation, we are now looking our best.
On that note, and as we finish our 30th column, we would like to thank everyone for sharing your news over the years (and on a personal note, Gregg and Erica had a blast working with each other over the last five years!). However, we look forward to continuing to read about your lives in the class column. From now on, please send your news to the new class correspondents (Molly Darnieder, Uthica Jinvit, and Karen Dorman Kipnes). It has been a real pleasure getting to know so many of you, and we look forward to seeing everyone again at our next reunion! Erica Chan, hc31@cornell.edu; and Gregg Herman, gdh5@cornell.edu.
03
A big thank-you to Nicole Manning and Jaime Hanlon for all their work putting together Reunion 2008. Many of our classmates gathered together in Ithaca the first weekend in June to reminisce, catch up, and have fun. A number of folks arrived Thursday evening and checked into our class headquarters at Clara Dickson Hall, and most everyone else trickled in throughout the day on Friday. Many of the early birds spent much of Friday on the official Class of 2008 wine tour, which from all reports involved, not surprisingly, lots of wine and a great time.
Others stayed on campus and attended some of the official campus activities, including the Olin Lecture, held in the newly renovated Bailey Hall. Thankfully the renovation included air conditioning! Ithaca's summer weather was in full force with over 90 degrees and 80 percent humidity. No wonder classes get out in May; studying in that heat would have been near impossible! Thankfully the lectures and sessions during Reunion were engaging and in air-conditioned rooms. Many folks opted to hang out in the gorges, play Frisbee on the Quad, or nap in the sun.
Saturday night, former Cornell president Hunter Rawlings joined our class for a meal at RPU. Classmates used this time to reconnect and find people they hadn't seen in years (and remember names). From there, many went to Cornelliana Night and joined in with the Chorus and Glee Club. Bailey Hall was filled with the voices of Cornellians singing the Alma Mater, along with some of the other fun songs, including an entertaining rendition of the "Song of the Classes." People made their way on to the Arts Quad afterwards and enjoyed snacks and drinks in the warm Ithaca night. Though I only stayed until 1:00 a.m., rumor has it that the party continued long into the night with many in our class choosing to stay up all night in the tent out front of Clara Dickson Hall.
While much has changed on campus (new dorms, renovated Bailey Hall, new section of the Statler), much has stayed the same (Hot Truck, Frisbee on the Quad, the chimes). However, five years out means that many of our classmates had much to share. Kate Nelson Schoenberg was back on campus taking in the sun. She and her husband moved back to Ithaca for graduate school. Meanwhile, Matt Haistings finished another tour in Kuwait and has settled back into life in North Carolina. He found time during Reunion to meet up with many other Hotelies and reminisce about how different the Hotel school experience is from the "normal" Cornell experience.
Michael Cody, Steve Harasim, and many other ChemE majors were back in full force; many of them went on the Friday wine tour and had a great time! Samyukta Bhowmick, Priyanka Nishar, and Shruti Garodia also took a break from their busy lives to return to campus. Tamara Crepet was on campus and updated us on her life. She's a public defender in North Carolina. Diana Schatz, Megan Groh, and Piper Corp spent the first part of reunion figuring out who in their group had been smart enough to bring along swimsuits, and then spent much of the rest of their time in Ithaca enjoying the cool air of the gorges.
We invite you to share your Reunion stories and pictures on our Facebook group: Cornell Class of 2003. Those of us who were able to make it back had a blast, and there are many new Cornell memories to share with the classmates who weren't able to come. I'm sure there are many Reunion stories to report, so please keep us posted so that Sam and I can share them with you! E-mail us at: Sudha Nandagopal, sn58@cornell.edu; Sam Buckingham Noonan, swb9@cornell.edu.