Cornell Alumni Magazine - January/February 2011

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January | February 2011 $6.00

Photos Bridge Ithaca’s Past and Present

Ghost World

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January | February 2011 1

CorneIn This Issue

2 From David SkortonMoney matters

4 The Big PictureA big blow-up

6 CorrespondenceSuicide prevention

9 Letter from IthacaShirt off their backs

10 From the HillOh, the humanities!

14 SportsWrestle mania

17 AuthorsIt’s all right

24 Summer Programs and Sports Camps

40 Wines of the Finger LakesSwedish Hill Cynthia Marie Port

54 Classifieds & Cornellians in Business

55 Alma Matters

58 Class Notes

95 Alumni Deaths

96 CornellianaConserving a conservatory?42 Through a Glass, Darkly

FRANKLIN CRAWFORD

Urban renewal was kinder to Ithaca than to some Upstate cities, but over the past cen-tury many stately buildings have still been lost—from Ezra Cornell’s Free CirculatingLibrary to Alonzo Cornell’s mansion to the grand old Strand Theatre. In a series ofphotos recently exhibited at the History Center of Tompkins County, former visitingprofessor Mark Iwinski captures the ghostly images of bygone structures superimposedover what stands in their place. Often, it isn’t pretty.

48 Vegging InBETH SAULNIER

When the Moosewood Restaurant served its first meal thirty-eight years ago this month,the owners were still trying to figure out how to run the steam table (and the entréewas two hours late). But with a menu of tasty vegetarian cuisine, plus the success ofthe Moosewood Cookbook, the humble Ithaca eatery has grown to be one of theworld’s most famous natural-foods restaurants. Now, Cornell’s Rare and ManuscriptCollections is home to Moosewood’s historical archives—a trove of photos, businesspapers, fan mail, and much more.

January / February 2011 Volume 113 Number 4

Cornell Alumni Magazine (ISSN 1548-8810; USPS 006-902) is published six times a year, in January, March, May, July, September, and November, by the Cornell Alumni Federation, 401 EastState Street, Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850. Subscriptions cost $30 a year. Periodical postage paid at Ithaca, NY, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes toCornell Alumni Magazine, c/o Public Affairs Records, 130 East Seneca St., Suite 400, Ithaca, NY 14850-4353.

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Currents

Cover photograph by Mark Iwinski

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Flour PowerMilling the old-fashioned way

Starry NightsCosmic storyteller

Eat DifferentPromoting a plant-based diet

Learning CurveA prof’s cultural tasting menu

Scoop DreamsSweetest job ever?

California GreeningFarmers’ market maven

Plus | Tweet MusicA bountiful bird book

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A mong the many things that make serv-ing Cornell such a joy is the enormoussupport—unrivaled in my thirty years’

experience in higher education—that Cornellians offer.Those of you engaged with the University devote thou-sands of hours each year to advisory councils, boards,alumni mentoring, admissions interviews, guest lec-tures on and off campus, reunions, class and club pro-grams, and myriad other volunteer activities. And Cor-nell alumni, parents, and friends have been remarkablygenerous with financial support, even in these difficultfinancial times. Of the top 400 charitable causes com-piled yearly by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Cornellconsistently ranks in the top 10 percent, and in themost recent tally—based on fiscal year 2009 data—weranked twenty-seventh overall and third among highereducation institutions.

In a period of uncertainty and austerity, and withso many opportunities to help lift the world’s burdensor improve lives in a tangible way through philanthropy, why doso many people—including Cornellians—choose to supporthigher education?

Certainly, many alumni feel great pride in their alma mater,and their desire to preserve and promote its distinction is a wor-thy reason for philanthropy. Alumni pride, expressed throughphilanthropy, has strengthened Cornell in countless ways.Another reason, in my view, is that contributions to higher edu-cation represent faith in the future: a belief that we haveadvanced as a civilization through the discovery, acquisition, dis-semination, and application of knowledge, and that we need topass on that opportunity to succeeding generations. At a timewhen nearly half of all Americans polled in a recent telephonesurvey feared that the nation’s best days are behind us, invest-ment in higher education is a singularly optimistic act.

Thanks to the leadership of our trustees, overseers, and manyother alumni, parents, and friends, Cornell ended the 2010 fis-cal year with new gifts and commitments up 77 percent over therecession-driven declines of the previous year, for a total of $466million. Last year, in fact, Cornell had the top results in the IvyLeague for new gifts and commitments. Last year, too, the Cor-nell Annual Fund recorded its eighth consecutive year of growth,up 12 percent, with $27.3 million given by more than 32,000donors. And while large, transformational gifts make news andare deeply appreciated, all gifts—regardless of size—matter.

As we announced at an alumni event in Boston last Novem-ber, Cornell recently reached the $3 billion mark in the $4 bil-lion Far Above campaign, launched in 2006. Very few universi-ties have ever raised that amount in a campaign. This support isa testament to the loyalty and commitment of those engaged withCornell.

Much more important than the sheer size of the monetarycontribution to higher education is what the generosity makespossible. Private philanthropy is a critical piece of the fundingmix at most colleges and universities. At Cornell, for example,in FY 2010, payout from the endowment accounted for 10 per-cent of our $3 billion operating budget. This included a $35 mil-lion endowment payout for financial aid, which helps us ensurethat academically talented undergraduates from families of lim-ited means will not incur a crushing burden of debt. In addition,gifts to be used in the current year accounted for an additional5 percent of the operating budget. In sum, nearly one dollar insix contributing to Cornell’s operation comes from philanthropy.

Equally important, philanthropy provides the edge for excel-lence at even our best universities. At Cornell, our greatlyenhanced need-based student financial aid, the new facultyrenewal initiative, the many professorships that will follow, andfunding for critical, carefully selected capital projects all dependon robust fundraising, combined with our continued progresstoward a balanced budget that includes judicious growth.

I am grateful for the many ways—financial and otherwise—so many of you have chosen to support Cornell. I do not takeyour phenomenal generosity for granted. I invite you to continueyour involvement in the years ahead to ensure that our univer-sity realizes the aspiration we set for ourselves in the strategicplan: to be widely recognized as a top-ten research university inthe world, and a model university for the interweaving of liberaleducation and fundamental knowledge with practical educationand impact on societal and world problems. That is the prom-ise and the opportunity of our Cornell.

— President David [email protected]

From David Skorton

ROBERT BARKER / UP

Why Support Higher Education in Tight Financial Times?

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The Big Picture

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Gas Bag

On December 10, a balloon twenty-five feet indiameter was inflated at the Johnson Museumto herald the upcoming “Unpacking the Nano”exhibit. The balloon represents one year ofemissions from the Tata Nano, the celebrated“people’s car” that is the brainchild of Indianindustrialist and Cornell trustee Ratan Tata ’59,BArch ’62. The exhibit runs from January 15 toMarch 27. JASON KOSKI / UP

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like to respond to this clever parody of awell-known slogan by describing a per-sonal event from my freshman year—which will, I hope, explain why I supportthe University’s plan.

I clearly remember the day whenphysics prelim grades were posted on abulletin board in Rockefeller Hall. Ieagerly scanned the list, fully expecting tohave exceeded the mean while secretlyhoping to have aced the test and brokenthe curve. Much to my horror, next to myID was the number 36. No way—thirty-six out of a hundred?

I was mortified as the reality of thisgrade sunk in. My body seemed to freezeand shake at the same time, in a combi-nation of shock, shame, disbelief, depres-sion, and devastation as I stood in frontof that bulletin board. Countless negativethoughts flickered in and out of my head:I am an utter failure. I will surely flunk


Correspondence

Means & EndsAlumni express support for the efforts to prevent suicides

I am writing in praise of BethSaulnier’s “Barrier Method” (Cur-rents, September/October 2010).This extremely informative pieceartfully explored the many aspectsof Cornell’s bridge dilemma inlight of the recent suicides, fromthe difficulty in designing a barrier that delivers both func-tionality and aesthetic appeal to adiscussion of the true ability offencing to prevent bridge-basedsuicides based on psychologicalstudies and statistics on suicidalindividuals.

Cornell could have chosen tokeep a lid on publicity followingthe unfortunate rash of suicides in2009–10, but it has elected to pur-sue a much higher path and bringthis issue to the forefront so theUniversity can publicly acknowl-edge this distressing problem andinvolve the entire community in itsresolution. I am proud of Cornell for thestrong position it has taken on this diffi-cult subject, and I have full confidencethat the team of experts the University isbringing together to address this matterwill converge on a creative, positive, andprudent solution—one that will serve as amodel for other schools and organizationsstruggling with the same concern.

Susan Bloom ’89Chester, New Jersey

During a recent visit, I noticed green-and-white “Ithaca Is Fences” stickers placedon the temporary bridge fences, whichappear to be an expression of oppositionto the University’s plan to replace the tem-porary fences with long-term meansrestriction. While I am in full support ofthis right of protest and can relate to theargument that the fences disturb thebreathtaking views from the bridges, I’d

out. Life is miserable and hopeless. I can’thandle it here. Cornell is too competitive.Everyone else here is much smarter thanme. I am worthless. Why bother anymore.Should I jump?

Dazed and confused, I wanderedaway and headed toward Collegetown.Fortunately, I collected myself and some-how put my test result into perspective.The negative images that had consumedmy brain began to be replaced by positiveand optimistic thoughts. Jumping was astupid idea. How could I even think that?I realized that I was still just a teenager,with much to contribute to the worldahead of me. Plus, I reminded myself,there are worse things in life than a badtest grade—so get over it.

Although the thought of suicide hadflashed through my brain just a few min-utes prior, my mind was far removed fromthe act of jumping by the time I calmlystrolled across the College Avenue bridge.I had already decided to schedule a meet-ing with the professor to learn what wentwrong and move on from there. As itturned out, the grade was entirely myfault: I had misread a question that calledfor an analysis of positive ions and insteadgave an answer for negative ions. Profes-sor Donald Holcomb was compassionateand helped me to salvage a respectablefinal grade in the course.

In retrospect, I believe that the distancebetween Rockefeller Hall and the CollegeAvenue bridge was, in effect, a fortuitousbarrier that may have saved me from pos-sibly becoming another statistic. This dis-tance may have served a function similarto the intended purpose of the University’splanned long-term means restriction—todelay a person from acting on an impul-sive thought. And, luckily for me, fromthen on I have never again had even theslightest thought of suicide, even though Ihave since had to endure situations in my

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Cornell Alumni Magazine Committee: Richard Levine’62, Chairman; Beth Anderson ’80, Vice-Chairman;William Sternberg ’78; Linda Fears ’85; SondraWuDunn ’87; Julia Levy ’05; Liz Robbins ’92; CarolAslanian ’63; Sheryl Hilliard Tucker ’78. For the AlumniAssociation: Nancy Abrams Dreier ’86, President;Chris Marshall, Secretary/Treasurer. For the Associa-tion of Class Officers: Robert Rosenberg ’88, Presi-dent. Alternates: Sally Anne Levine ’70, JD ’73 (CAA);Nathan Connell ’01 (CACO).

Editor & PublisherJim Roberts ’71Senior EditorBeth SaulnierAssistant EditorChris Furst, ’84–88 GradEditorial AssistantTanis FurstContributing EditorsBrad Herzog ’90Sharon Tregaskis ’95

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life that were far more egregious andharmful to me than failing a prelim.

Stan Tso ’83Short Hills, New Jersey

Liberal ArtistHow refreshing to read Gerald Howard’spaean to a liberal arts education (“TheEnglish Major Who Got Away with It,”Letter from Ithaca, November/December2010). Like Howard ’72, I’m a liberal artsgraduate who has traveled a circuitousroute to my current incarnation as agerontological social worker. And whilemy personal and professional interestshave changed over the decades, I continueto reflect on how important my Cornellundergraduate education was, is, andsurely will remain, to my life path. Inthese times of economic and social tur-moil, it’s important to remember that aliberal arts education is not “vanity”learning, but, rather, a much-to-be-desiredand invaluable investment in one’s future.

Marcie Gitlin ’79New York, New York

Record BreakerI enjoyed your article on Max Seibald ’09(Sports, November/December 2010), one

of the best collegiate lacrosse players inhistory, and its mention of his introductionto the sport at Camp Starlight. Starlight isone of about twenty-five neighboringeight-week summer camps in northeastPennsylvania, all of which field boys andgirls travel teams in many sports. My sonMatt attended nearby Camp Wayne aboutfive years later. It is a source of both prideand amusement in our family that Mattbroke Max’s single-season camp leaguerecord for goals scored.

Perry Jacobs ’74Mamaroneck, New York

Older. . . and Wiser?Re “University Launches $100 MillionFaculty Initiative” (From the Hill,November/December 2010): As a Cornellalumna as well as a sixty-three-year-oldprofessor at another Ivy League school, Iwas dismayed to read the lamentationover the fact that “in 2008–09, nearlyhalf the faculty was fifty-five or older, andnearly a third was sixty or older.” Whyassume that these professors are “set toretire over the next decade”? Why suggestthat this age distribution is a barrier tofaculty excellence? Ageism is an unattrac-tive neologism, but views like this showthe need for it.

Felicia Nimue Ackerman ’68Brown University

Providence, Rhode Island

Author’s RequestA group of alumni has started an oral his-tory project to record and preserve,through a collage of mini-memoirs, thehistory of political activism at Cornell inthe Sixties and Seventies. It is their hopeto collect these accounts into a book anddonate the original material to the Uni-versity archives. If you are interested incontributing your remembrances or knowan activist alumna/us who might be,please contact Bill Schechter ’68 [email protected]. He has also created aFacebook page for the project, with addi-tional information and more specificguidelines, which can be found at:http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=157712324258770&ref=ts.

Corrections—November/December 2010“Safe Haven,” page 30: The ducks referredto as mallards are actually Moulard ducks.And Hilda, the animal rescued from astockyard in 1986 by Farm Sanctuary co-founder Gene Baur, MS ’96, was a sheep,not a cow. Our apologies to the misidenti-fied animals.



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Letter from Ithaca

Some people probably didn’t notice the change. But for manywho’ve been filling the Lynah stands for decades, it’s a jarringdifference. After all, even Lynah itself didn’t change much whenthe storied rink underwent major renovations a few years ago,since most of the alterations were outside the “bowl” of wooden-bench seats bolted to cement steps.

A few fans have speculated that the new design was an acci-dent. Others think it might be a scheme to save money—figuringthe unique Cornell jersey had to be pricier than one that’s usedby several other teams. Or could the change have been intendedto make the men’s and women’s jerseys more similar? Whateverthe reason, the new design hasn’t gone over well. In Lynah’s cor-ridors and online discussions, fans have contemplated giving backthe game-worn jerseys from past seasons they’d bought as keep-sakes so current players can wear them, or even collectively donat-ing the thousands of dollars a re-order would cost. (Fortunately,the all-red road uniforms have not been changed.)

There are no immediate plans to replace the home jerseysnow that the season is well under way—but a new batch will beordered for 2011–12, as they are every year. Will the team stickwith the new version, or will it return to the beloved old design?“Oh yeah,” says Schafer. “We’re going back.”

— Mark Anbinder ’89

KEVIN ZEISE

If you were to describe the Big Red men’s ice hockey homejersey of recent vintage, you’d probably say it was mostlywhite with a red stripe at the waist, and white and red

sleeves. If you were to describe this season’s jersey, you’d prob-ably still say it was mostly white with a red stripe at the waist,with red and white sleeves. But the devil, as they say, is in thedetails, and a change to the jersey design this fall—making thesleeves mostly red—has the Lynah Faithful in a tizzy.

The players have worn special jerseys in recent memory: pinkversions to raise money for cancer charities, commemorative onesbearing the names of legendary Cornell players. In fact, headcoach Mike Schafer ’86 plans another limited-edition jersey,based on the laced sweater of the early Sixties, to be worn forone game and then auctioned off to support the team’s servicetrip next year. But after these one-offs, the Big Red has alwaysgone back to the familiar design.

Taken at face value, the change isn’t drastic—the jersey is stillmostly white, and the CORNELL on the front is the same. But thechange came without the hoopla you might expect after manyyears of an essentially unchanged design—and the scuttlebutt onthe ELynah.com online forum was that they bore a strikingresemblance to those worn by the Detroit Red Wings. Or, worse,by Boston University.

Out of Fashion?Lynah Faithful ponder the case of the Big Red jerseys

Then and Now: The traditional home hockey jersey (left) was all white, with a red stripe and red numer-als on the sleeve. This year's model has red sleeves, with a white stripe and white numerals. Some ofthe team’s longtime fans don't like it.

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From theHill

Campus News

Green gateway: The Brian C. Nevin WelcomeCenter, dedicated in lateOctober, is a visuallystriking entry to theCornell Plantations. Inaddition to offering exhibits and amenities, itwas designed to qualifyfor LEED gold certifica-tion. The center is opento the public, with agrand opening ceremo-ny to be held in May . . .when it’s warmer.

LINDSAY FRANCE / UP

Skorton Advocates for the HumanitiesIn his State of the University address to a packed Statler Auditorium during Trustee-Council Week-end in October, President David Skorton declared his desire to “make a special case for our efforts tobolster the arts and humanities.” Noting that many acknowledge the importance of the humanitiesin teaching critical thinking to scientists, engineers, and other professionals, he went on to say that“we must also recognize and support the value of the humanities as a discipline of research andcritical analysis in its own right and on its own terms. The events and creations of the past cannotchange, but our knowledge of them can be enhanced through rigorous study and research.”

The other key theme of his address was the need for recruiting new faculty to replace the manyexpected to retire over the next decade. “Faculty renewal in the context of academic priorities andsubstantial retirements is the number one priority in Cornell’s new strategic plan,” Skorton said.“We need to demonstrate our commitment to faculty renewal across the university, taking fulladvantage of the unique opportunity we have to be the university we want to be—and to get outin front on faculty hiring before many of our peer institutions are in a position to do so.” Theeffort is being supported by the $100 million Faculty Renewal Fund. Skorton’s address wasattended by about 600 members of the Board of Trustees, University Council, and other Cornellconstituencies.

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LINDSAY MYRON / CORNELL DAILY SUN

Rallying cry: Students gathered outside Day Hall to oppose theplanned merger of the Africana Studies and Research Center withthe College of Arts and Sciences.

Student Killed in NicaraguaA graduate student in natural resources was stabbed to death inan apparent robbery in Nicaragua in November. Thirty-two-year-oldFlorida native Ryan Crowder, MPS ’04, was studying sustainablelobster harvests and marketing collectives in a remote part of thecountry, but was visiting the capital city of Managua when he waskilled. Since he carried a gun permit but no firearm was found onhis body, its theft was considered a possible motive for the crime.

$80 Million Gift Funds Sustainability CenterThanks to the largest single gift to the Ithaca campus from anindividual, Cornell will have a permanent center for sustainabilityresearch. In October, President David Skorton announced thatDavid Atkinson ’60 and his wife, Patricia, had given $80 million tofund the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future. Originallyestablished in 2007 as the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Futurewith $3 million in support from the Atkinsons, the center involvesfaculty from more than fifty departments in research related to theenvironment, energy, and economic development.

In other environmental news, Cornell received an A– grade inthe Sustainable Endowment Institute’s annual “green report card”rating of colleges and universities. Cornell was one of fifty-threeinstitutions to qualify as an Overall College Sustainability Leader.Two Ivy League universities, Brown and Yale, received an A; Cor-nell was one of five schools rated A–, while Columbia trailed thepack with a B+.

Faculty and Students ProtestAfricana MoveOn December 1, Provost Kent Fuchsannounced that the Africana Studies andResearch Center—which has been, since its1969 founding, an independent unitreporting to the provost’s office—would bemerged with the College of Arts and Sci-ences, effective July 1. “As with similarchanges I have made regarding other pro-grams that previously reported directly tomy office,” said Fuchs in a statement, “mygoal in making this change is to providethe robust level of academic support thatsignificant programs, such as Africanastudies, have a right to expect.”

Protests immediately erupted. ProfessorRobert Harris resigned his post as the cen-ter’s director, and Africana studies professorJames Turner stated that “in my forty-oneyears of service to Cornell, I’ve never seenanything like this.” Two days later, Harrisrescinded his resignation at the urging ofthe Africana faculty, and a group of facultyand students marched to Day Hall. Manyobjected not only to the move but to theway it was done, saying that the provost hadfailed to consult with Africana faculty andstudents before announcing his decision.

Fuchs insisted that the merger was for

the best, stating that the Arts collegecould provide better academic support forthe Africana Center and that it would beable to establish a PhD program “that willstrongly increase the national prominenceof Africana studies and bolster Cornell’s

ability to attract superb faculty and stu-dents.” As of press time, Harris was contin-uing to act as the center’s director, but hetold the Daily Sun that remaining in thatposition was “contingent on what under-standing I can develop with the provost.”

Far Above Campaign Hits $3 Billion MilestoneCornell’s capital campaign has passed the $3 billion mark. At anevent in Boston in November, campaign co-chairs Jan Rock Zubrow’77 and Stephen Ashley ’62, MBA ’64, made the announcement toan appreciative throng of alumni and friends. The public phase ofthe Far Above campaign was launched in October 2006 with anannounced goal of raising $4 billion by the end of 2011.

CALS Education Departmentto Close in Two YearsAfter what was described as an “extensive review of options,” theCALS administration announced in October that it would close theDepartment of Education over the next two years. Current studentswill be allowed to complete their degrees, while faculty and staffwill be transferred to other departments. “We are determined tomake this transition with as little disruption to programs, faculty,staff, and students as possible,” said CALS dean Kathryn Boor ’80.

After some students reacted angrily to the announcement,CALS senior associate dean Max Pfeffer held two open forums. Inwhat the Daily Sun characterized as “heated exchanges” with stu-dents, Pfeffer attempted to explain the financial and educationalrationales for the decision. The closing is part of the strategic“reimagining” process at CALS, which has seen the college cut itsnumber of departments from twenty-six to twenty-two over thepast year.

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Give My Regards To...These Cornellians in the News

Fiction writers Rattawut Lapcharoensap ’00, BA ’01, and LydiaPeelle ’00, winners of $50,000 Whiting Writers’ Awards.

President David Skorton, Rob Dyson, MBA ’74, and Howard Mil-stein ’73, named to governor-elect Andrew Cuomo’s transitionteam for their expertise in finding leaders of New York State’seconomic revitalization.

Music professor Joseph Lin, named first violinist of the JuilliardString Quartet.

Superglue inventor Harry Coover, PhD ’44, awarded the NationalMedal of Technology and Innovation from President Obama.

Duke University psychology and neuroscience professorAvshalom Caspi, PhD ’86, who shared the $1 million JacobsResearch Prize for work on how genes predict the later effectsof childhood stress.

Irene Rosenfeld ’75, PhD ’80, CEO of Kraft Foods Inc., andSupreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’54, named toForbes’ annual list of the most powerful women in the world.Rosenfeld was ranked second, Ginsburg thirty-first.

David Vann, MFA ’94, winner of the Prix Médicis étranger for hisnovella Sukkwan Island, which was a best-seller in France. Theonly other American on the prize’s 2010 longlist was ThomasPynchon ’59.

Astronomy professor Rachel Bean, winner of a Presidential EarlyCareer Award for Scientists and Engineers for her work in cos-mology and theoretical astrophysics.

Cornell Students Against Sweatshops, honored by the AmericanLabor Museum for its work to promote fair labor practicesamong companies that make University-branded apparel.

Chemistry professor Hector Abruña, winner of the FaradayMedal from the Royal Society of Chemistry’s ElectrochemistryGroup.

The Cornell Chemical Engineering Car team, which won theAmerican Institute of Chemical Engineers’ student car competi-tion with its entry, Zoidberg.

ROTC member Isaac Todd ’11, ranked seventh among the morethan 5,000 cadets nationwide on the Army’s Order of MeritList, based on such factors as GPA, physical fitness, and lead-ership skills.

English professor, poet, and novelist Robert Morgan, named tothe Literary Hall of Fame in his native North Carolina.

Ratan Tata ’59, BArch ’62, chairman of India’s largest conglom-erate, and William Rosenzweig ’81, managing director of PhysicVentures, winners of Oslo Business for Peace Awards.

President David Skorton and Joseph Fins, MD ’86, chief of theDivision of Medical Ethics at Weill Cornell, elected to the Insti-tute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies.

Grad students Lucian Leahu, MS ’08 (computing and informa-tion science), Steven Tin, MS ’09 (electrical and computerengineering), and Shuang Zhao (computer science), awardedIntel PhD Fellowships.

Pomona College anthropology professor Ralph Bolton, PhD ’72,winner of the Franz Boas Award for Exemplary Service toAnthropology, the field’s highest honor.

On the page: Artist Werner Pfeiffer, who grew up in Nazi Germany, “destroys” books to offer insights into the dangersof censorship. His work is on display in Kroch Library through February in the exhibit “Book-Objects and Artist Books.”

University NamesTwo New CIOs In November, Cornell announced theappointment of a new chief investmentofficer and the creation of a new admin-istrative position, chief information offi-cer. Michael Abbott is now the chiefinvestment officer, having taken over forJames Walsh, who resigned in June. Anative of London, Abbott was previouslyCEO of Robeco-Sage, a hedge-fund group.He will oversee the University’s $4.4 bil-lion endowment and other investments.

The chief information post will befilled by Ted Dodds, currently vice provostat the University of British Columbia. Thecreation of this VP-level position is partof the University’s effort to coordinateinformation technology service across thecampus. Dodds is scheduled to beginwork in mid-January.

DIVISION OF RARE AND MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS / CARL A. KROCH LIBRARY / CORNELL

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R&DMore information on campus research is available at www.news.cornell.edu

In exploring electrons called “heavy fermions,” physical sci-ences professor J. C. Séamus Davis has discovered why theymove through conductors so slowly: they take extra time tointeract with uranium atoms.

Increased choline consumption by pregnant or nursingmothers may improve the cognitive and emotional abilitiesof children with Down syndrome, reports nutritional sciencesprofessor Barbara Strupp, PhD ’82.

Aiming to design an effective robotic gripper, mechanicalengineering professor Hod Lipson and colleagues have usedsome unlikely components. Their device, known as a univer-sal gripper because it conforms to the shape of the items itgrabs, is made from coffee grounds and a latex party balloon.

Global warming will alter the maple syrup industry over thenext century. Ecology professor Brian Chabot has determinedthat by 2100, tree sap will begin flowing in the Northeast afull month earlier than it does today.

After analyzing public opinion surveys from 1952 to 2006,government professor Peter Enns has found that as financialinequality rises, low-income Americans become more politi-cally conservative. Since conventional wisdom says that awider income gap would prompt the poor to support govern-ment policies favoring social programs, he notes that “it’s abit of a conundrum.”

Obesity accounts for 16.5 percent of the nation’s medicalcosts—twice what was previously thought, says economistJohn Cawley. His research found that the annual price tagfor treating obesity-related illness is $168 billion.

Under the direction of classics professor Sturt Manning,undergrads and grad students have been working at archeo-logical sites on the island of Cyprus. Their findings—thathunter-gatherers began to form agricultural settlementsthere some 500 years earlier than previously believed—werepublished in the journal Antiquity.

With a $3.2 million USDA grant and $1.7 million in corpo-rate matching funds, researchers at Cornell and seven otheruniversities aim to develop a $100 million broccoli industryon the East Coast over the next decade. Currently, 90 per-cent of the broccoli sold in the East is grown in Californiaand Mexico.

With intensive case management, most nursing facility resi-dents could return to their homes. In evaluating a pilot pro-gram in Syracuse, Human Ecology’s Rhoda Meador found thatconcerted efforts to overcome medical, psychosocial, andlogistical hurdles allowed 60 percent of residents to moveback home.

Recent Graduate CommitsSuicide in State ParkThe barriers installed on bridges on and near campus last springcouldn’t prevent the latest suicide to strike the Cornell commu-nity—that of a recent graduate who jumped to her death from abridge at an area state park in early December. The body of forty-year-old neurobiologist Tine Rubow, PhD ’10, was recovered from acreek in Taughannock Falls State Park, a popular destination witha waterfall and hiking trails located about twenty minutes fromcampus. Born in Denmark, Rubow grew up in the San FranciscoBay Area and earned an undergraduate degree from Northern Ari-zona University.

Alumni Elected (or Re-Elected)to U.S. CongressSeven alumni won or retained congressional seats in the Novemberelections. Re-elected were Rep. Rob Andrews, JD ’82 (D-New Jersey), Rep. Bob Filner ’63, PhD ’73 (D-California), Rep. GabrielleGiffords, MRP ’97 (D-Arizona), and Rep. Kurt Schrader ’73 (D-Oregon). Newly elected were Hansen Clarke ’84 (D-Michigan), ChrisGibson, MPA ’95, PhD ’98 (R-New York), and Mark Kirk ’81 (R-Illi-nois), who won Barack Obama’s former senate seat.

Law Student Found Dead in Ithaca ApartmentSecond-year law student Daniel Ferrero passed away in his Ithacahome in mid-December. The twenty-six-year-old, who was fromBrooklyn, died of natural causes. He is survived by his wife, par-ents, and two sisters.

Gift Supports Chilean Telescope ProjectAn $11 million gift from retired businessman Fred Young ’64, MEng’66, MBA ’66, will help support an ambitious telescope projectplanned for Chile’s Atacama desert. Set to begin construction in2013, the Cornell-affiliated Cerro Chajnantor Atacama Telescopewould be the largest, most precise astronomical facility in theworld; located on a mountain 18,400 feet above sea level, itwould also be the highest. Young, a foremost benefactor of theUniversity, is the retired owner and CEO of Young Radiator Co.

Eye in the sky: A rendering of the Cerro Chajnantor Atacama Telescope

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Sports

Mack Lewnes

FOOTBALL STARS The first freshman to start at quarterback for the Big Red, Jeff Mathews’14, is also the first Cornell player in more than 20 years to earn Ivy League Rookie of theYear honors. (Derrick Harmon ’84 won the award in 1981, as did John McNiff ’91 in1989.) Mathews, who took over the starting job in the second game, threw for 1,723 yardsand seven touchdowns, both school records for a freshman. Drew Alston ’11 was alsohonored by the league, earning a spot on the All-Ivy first team as a punter after leadingthe league in net average (34.8 yards) and punts inside the 20 (26). Emani Fenton ’11was a second-team All-Ivy pick at cornerback, and linebacker Zack Imhoff ’12 receivedhonorable mention.

Sports Shorts

Big Meet December 3-4, 2010

Cornell’s wrestling team—ranked Number One in the country—dominated the Las Vegas Invitational, placing first in a 36-team field. The individual winners were Mack Lewnes ’11 (174pounds), Steve Bosak ’12 (184), and Cam Simaz ’12 (197).For Lewnes, the top-ranked wrestler in the country in hisweight class, this was his third straight win at the Las Vegas

Fall TeamsFinal Records

Field Hockey 11-5; 5-2 Ivy (T-2nd)Football 2-8; 1-6 Ivy (7th)Sprint Football 5-2; 3-2 CSFL (T-3rd)Men’s Soccer 4-8-5; 0-5-2 Ivy (8th)Women’s Soccer 6-8-1; 1-5-1 Ivy (8th)Volleyball 4-20; 2-12 Ivy (8th)

meet. Justin Kerber ’10 was second at 165 pounds, and theother wrestlers who placed were Frank Perrelli ’11 (fifth at125), Chris Villalonga ’14 (eighth at 141), and DJ Meagher’11 (sixth at 157). The Big Red accumulated 140 points, farahead of second-place Wisconsin (101.5) and third-place BoiseState (100).

LINDSEY MECHALIK

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ICE HOCKEY STARS As part of its 50thanniversary celebration, the ECAC HockeyLeague is honoring its top 50 players of alltime—and it’s no surprise Cornell is wellrepresented at the top of the list. Ken Dry-den ’69 was one of the first five playersnamed, and Joe Nieuwendyk ’88 was inthe second group of five. Dryden earnedfirst-team All-America honors three straightseasons at Cornell while posting a 76-4-1record with 14 shutouts and leading the1967 team to Cornell’s first NCAA hockeychampionship. Currently a member of theCanadian Parliament, Dryden went on towin six Stanley Cups with the MontrealCanadiens. Nieuwendyk, who is now gen-eral manager of the Dallas Stars, was theECAC Rookie of the Year in 1985 and Playerof the Year in 1987 before embarking on a20-year NHL career that included StanleyCup championships with three differentteams and four all-star seasons.

FIELD HOCKEY STARS Cornell’s field hockeysuccess continued as the Big Red matcheda school record with 11 wins in 16 gamesand secured its fourth second-place IvyLeague finish in the last five seasons.Catie De Stio ’11 closed her career as oneof the school’s greatest offensive perform-ers, leading the team with 12 goals and 29points. She was named a second-teamMideast Region All-American, the secondCornell player to earn such honors in threestraight seasons. De Stio also became thesecond Cornell player to win first-team All-Ivy laurels in three straight seasons. Shewas joined on the All-Ivy first team bygoaltender Alex Botte ’12. TeammatesMattie Prodanovic ’11 and StephanieSanders ’11 were second-team selections,while Kate Thompson ’11 earned honor-able mention and Hannah Balleza ’14 wasnamed the league’s co-rookie of the year.

Catie De Stio

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Black Yanks in the Pacific by MichaelCullen Green ’99 (Cornell). Facing a tightjob market at home after World War II,many African Americans chose to join themilitary. “African American men understoodvoluntary service primarily as a means tosecure stable employment during uncertaineconomic times,” writes Green, a graduatestudent in history at Northwestern Univer-sity. Although they found greater economicopportunities abroad, they also experienced prejudice in Japanand Korea. “Notions of Afro-Asian solidarity attracted fewadherents in the post-war years because they conflicted withthe interests and outlooks of thousands of black servicemen liv-ing on overseas bases,” concludes the author.

Global Cosmopolitans by Linda Brimm ’64(Palgrave). “The global demands of themodern world have changed not just theface, but also the age, work, and socialclass of people living internationally,”writes Brimm, a professor emeritus oforganizational behavior at the InstitutEuropéen d’Administration des Affaires.“The result has been a recent and massivegenerational shift in the highly educated,globally mobile workforce.” On the plus side, global workers easily adapt to new ways of thinking; on the down side, theirlack of shared culture may cause them to question their identity.

Authors

The Word Heard ’Round the World

D espite the fanciful stories that attrib-ute the origin of the expression“OK” to the Choctaw Indians,

African languages, or a Revolutionary War coun-tersign, the American word used ’round theworld had its start as a jokey abbreviation for“all correct” in the Boston Morning Post in1839. Several chance occurrences saved OK frombecoming yet another linguistic footnote: duringthe presidential campaign of 1840, President VanBuren became OK because of his nickname, “OldKinderhook”; the Tammany Society sent mem-bers of its O.K. Clubs to break up Whig Partymeetings; and a hoax about Andrew Jackson’spoor spelling proved impossible to eradicate.

The Great Wall by Carlos Rojas ’92, BA ’95(Harvard). The claim that the Great Wall isthe only man-made structure visible fromspace is just one of the myths surroundingit. Cultural representations of the Wallshape the ways it has been understoodthroughout history, asserts an assistantprofessor of Chinese cultural studies atDuke University. “The Wall is frequentlyimagined as an unthinkably massive barrier,yet the material structure itself no longerretains any strategic function, and even at its peak effectivenessits significance often lay more in its status as a symbol of the bor-der than as an actual barricade.”

From Microsoft to Malawi by Michael L.Buckler ’96 (Hamilton). Before he joinedthe Peace Corps, Buckler did everythingthat was expected of him—went to thebest schools, married, and became a topattorney—but felt he was living everyoneelse’s American dream. He left his comfort-able life to teach in a Malawian village,where he found that the people had muchto teach him. As he writes in this memoir,“Simultaneously uplifting and depressing,welcoming and foreboding, liberating and oppressive, cruel yetundeniably vivacious, Malawi gets in your blood, inhabits yourdreams, and dares you to be smitten by its charms.”

OK by Allan Metcalf ’61 (Oxford)

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FictionCaribou Island by David Vann, MFA ’94(Harper). In his first novel, the author ofLegend of a Suicide tells the story of Garyand Irene, a couple who try to build acabin in the Alaska wilderness as theirmarriage unravels.

Murder Your Darlings by J. J. Murphy ’92(Obsidian). Dorothy Parker enlists RobertBenchley, Alexander Woollcott, and otherfamous wits from the Algonquin RoundTable to solve a murder and remove suspi-cion from a young William Faulkner.

Non-FictionIntellectuals Incorporated by Robert Van-derlan ’88 (Penn). Publisher Henry Lucehired Archibald MacLeish, Dwight Macdon-ald, James Agee, and other writers to workfor Time, Fortune, and Life. A visiting pro-fessor of history at Cornell argues thatrather than selling out, they thrived in theworld of mass-market magazines.

Anarchy Evolution by Greg Graffin, PhD ’03,and Steve Olson (It Books). Graffin’s role asthe frontman of the punk group Bad Reli-gion and his current work as a teacher ofevolution at UCLA may seem poles apart,but he makes a case for the close connec-tion between art and science while remi-niscing about his days as a rocker.

Emerging Markets by M. Ayhan Kose andEswar S. Prasad (Brookings Institution).The BRIC countries—Brazil, Russia, India,and China—weathered the recent eco-nomic downturn better than most industri-alized nations. Prasad, the Tolani SeniorProfessor of Trade Policy at Cornell, dis-cusses the potential of these new eco-nomic powerhouses for sustaining long-term growth.

The Word on the Street by Harvey Teres ’72(Michigan). An associate professor of Eng-lish at Syracuse University finds thattoday’s critical culture is disconnected fromthe concerns of ordinary people. He callsfor a return to the earlier model of thepublic intellectual who is accessible to all.

Columbia Rising by John L. Brooke ’76(North Carolina). A professor of history atOhio State University examines the evolu-tion of civil society and party politics inthe Upper Hudson Valley from the Revolu-tion to the Age of Jackson (1815-41).

Investments by Jerald E. Pinto ’75 et al.(Wiley). Members of the Chartered Finan-cial Analysts Institute offer a guide to theprinciples of portfolio and equity analysis.



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Currents


Flour PowerAn Ithaca-area business mills grainthe old-fashioned way

Folks at the hardware store in Trumansburg, a vil-lage a few miles north of Ithaca, figured Greg Mol’08 for a drywall finisher, or maybe a mason. The

clues were all there: the work-worn hands; the white dust embed-ded in jacket, knit cap, and battered canvas pants; the frequentvisits for building supplies.

They could be forgiven for having failed to guess his true call-ing: the former agricultural economics major is one-third ownerof Farmer Ground Flour and its full-time miller. Practitioners ofthe trade—which moved west and went high-tech more than acentury ago—are a vanishing breed, and Mol’s on-the-job train-ing has combined extensive experimentation with late nights ofporing over historic accounts of nineteenth-century operations.Starting with a twenty-inch pair of millstones, he’s built a RubeGoldberg-esque system in the corner of an unheated, 150-year-old, timber-framed warehouse on the outskirts of town. In Octo-ber, Farmer Ground Flour produced ten tons of products—corn-meal, polenta, and four kinds of flour (wheat, rye, buckwheat,and spelt). “We put up the money and Greg has put in sweatequity,” says mill co-founder Thor Oechsner ’87, who boughtthe grindstones four years ago with fellow organic grower ErickSmith, MS ’76, PhD ’93. “Although he came in not knowinganything, he’s really getting good at it.”

The businesses that convert grain into the makings of bread,pies, and pasta were once common in Upstate New Yorktowns—even ones as small as Trumansburg. In 1835, a decadeafter the Erie Canal opened to speed goods to market, there weretwenty-one mills in Rochester alone, earning it the moniker“Flour City.” But in the twentieth century, economies of scaleand the pursuit of product uniformity propelled grain cultivationfrom the Northeast to the Great Plains. Today, justa half-dozen mills remain in all of New York State.

Forty-five-year-old Oechsner has been farmingsince he was a teen; Smith, two decades his senior,came to it later in life. In the late Nineties, eachsaw an opportunity in the wave of organic dairyconversions sweeping the region: all those cowsneeded organic feed, and the two independentlybegan growing for the market. Over time, two-legged consumers started looking like a viable cus-tomer base. “The closer you get to a finished prod-uct,” Oechsner points out, “the more of the sellingprice goes directly to the farmer.” Smith started fill-ing an Ithaca taqueria’s standing order for 500pounds of black beans per week and both farmersbegan contributing to a local natural food store’sbulk bins. In recent years, they’ve managed a com-bined 1,000 to 1,300 acres—big for the FingerLakes, but small-time compared to the 8 millionacres of grain fields in Kansas. Oechsner notes thatwithout the deep pockets of locavores at urban

farmers’ markets, Farmer Ground Flour may never have gottenoff the ground. “A lot of the interest and enthusiasm has beenin New York City,” he says. “The bakers there want quality, fla-vor, local production, and a connection with the farmer, andthey’re more interested in paying the little extra it costs to pro-duce our flour.”

Keith Cohen, owner of the hundred-year-old Orwasher’sBakery on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, developed his UltimateWhole Wheat loaf to feature the trio’s handiwork. Speckled withsunflowers, flax, rye, sesame, oats, and millet, the baker’s two-pound boule packs five grams of fiber in every slice and sells for$7.50. “Farmer Ground Flour is great—in terms of the flavorprofile, it’s better than anything else out there,” he says. “There’sa certain nuttiness, earthiness, and lightness.” Unlike the prod-uct of large-scale mills with in-house labs to insure uniformity,Farmer Ground Flour keeps a baker on his toes. “It tests yourability,” says Cohen. “While each batch behaves differently, itmakes terrific bread.”

Ithaca-area baker Stefan Senders, PhD ’99, has been testingFarmer Ground Flour in pasta and bread as long as Mol hasbeen milling it. He and his wife plan to open a bakery this win-ter, in partnership with Oechsner. “We may think of farming asa simple—if risky—practice, but it’s an art,” says Senders. “Thefarmer has to make a whole range of judgment calls about whento harvest.” And timing is just part of the equation; an improp-erly adjusted combine, for example, can wreak havoc on thegrain, damaging starches and leading to problems like excessivewater absorption. Says Senders: “Everyone—the farmer, themiller, and the baker—has to treat the grain with a little respect.”

— Sharon Tregaskis ’95

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Whole grains: Greg Mol ’08in Farmer Ground Flour’sTrumansburg mill



picture on the giant screen. The entireprojection surface essentially amounts towhat Wyatt calls “the largest computermonitor in the Academy,” meaning thedome can serve as a blank canvas for var-ious digital media.

In a conventional planetarium, audi-ence members surround the star projector,as if sitting around a campfire, leaningback and craning their necks toward theheavens. But Morrison’s dome resemblesa steeply sloped movie theater, with theaudience facing in the same directionbeneath a dome that is tilted at a thirty-degree angle. “It’s comfortable, and youfeel like you’re flying through space, soit’s more of a shared theater experience,”says Wyatt, sitting in his tiny office sur-rounded by books with titles like Galileo’s

Ryan Wyatt ’90 vividlyremembers his first expe-rience peering up at aman-made sky. He was

seven years old, having made the trip fromhis native Indiana to the Adler Planetar-ium in Chicago. “I was terrified, becauseI learned that the sun was going to die,”he recalls. “That was a little distressing.”

These days, with the evocative title ofDirector of Morrison Planetarium and Sci-ence Visualization at the California Acad-emy of Sciences, it is Wyatt’s job to createsimilarly memorable experiences (thoughhopefully more edifying than terrifying).His mission is to design eye-popping toursof the universe while offering a captivat-ing storyline; it’s science as show business.His inaugural production—“FragilePlanet,” a half-hour round trip to theouter reaches of the universe—was nar-rated by none other than SigourneyWeaver, star of Alien and Avatar.

Located in San Francisco’s GoldenGate Park, the planetarium made history

Starry Nightsin 1952 by introducing the nation’s firstopti-mechanical star projector. In 2008,about eighteen months after Wyattarrived, a $20 million reconstruction putit once again on the cutting edge. The newtheater, Wyatt says, “has the potential tomake an extraordinary mark on the planetarium field in general.” Morrison’s seventy-five-foot-wide screen, housed in aninety-foot-wide dome, matches GriffithObservatory in Los Angeles as the largestin North America. But it isn’t just size thatsets it apart; it’s the immersive experience.

Traditionally, planetariums have useda star projector and lasers to emblazon anight sky on the dome. But there are nolasers here; Morrison is the world’s largestall-digital planetarium. Images from sixvideo projectors are blended to form one

WINNI WINTERMEYER | 3AM.NET

With roots in astronomyand journalism, Ryan Wyatt’90 tells cosmic tales at San Francisco’s high-techplanetarium

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Daughter and God Created the Integers.“Getting the science right is part of it, butyou also want to tell a good story, some-thing that carries people along intellectu-ally and emotionally.”

In doing so, Wyatt calls upon theskills he learned on the Hill—not just asan astronomy major but also as a DailySun staffer. He was a news reporter, musicreviewer, and editorial cartoonist—all ofit useful as he writes a script, chooses asoundtrack, and oversees the translationof scientific data into convincing imagery.In his previous position, as science visual-izer at the Rose Center for Earth andSpace at the American Museum of Nat-ural History in New York City, Wyattwas part of a team of experts—with expe-rience in television, visual effects, andcomputer graphics—that produced showson topics ranging from cosmic collisionsto extraterrestrial life. That teamapproach, which has been replicated atMorrison, was one of the primary attrac-tions luring him to the Bay Area, thevisual-effects capital of the world. In fact,many of the people recruited to work forhim are Hollywood special-effects gurus—taking time off from, say, digitally pol-ishing Iron Man’s armor to craft a fly-through of the Milky Way.

Wyatt was also enticed by the oppor-tunity to help design Morrison’s infra-structure with an eye toward flexibility,conceiving new ways it could be used tosupport the myriad interests of the Acad-emy of Sciences—a research institutionwhose public face includes a natural his-tory museum, an aquarium, and anindoor rainforest. Thus, the audiencemight find itself flying through a DNAmolecule or cruising along a Californiafault line. “We’re trying to expand theidea of what you see in a planetarium—not just astronomy, but geology and biol-ogy,” says Wyatt, who earned a master’sin space physics and astronomy from RiceUniversity. “We’re addressing a muchwider range of topics.”

Indeed, his latest turn as writer-director—“Life: A Cosmic Story,” whichpremiered in November—discusses howall life on Earth has common origins in thematter that made up the first stars some13.7 billion years ago. Narrated by JodieFoster, the production takes the audienceinside a cell of a redwood leaf and thentransports viewers through time and spacethrough the Big Bang to explore the large-scale structure of the universe. “Science isa truly human endeavor,” he says. “Seeingit as a process, rather than an outcome—that’s what I find most compelling.”

— Brad Herzog ’90


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The irony has been pointed out morethan once. T. Colin Campbell, PhD ’62—who has spent decades studying thehealth dangers of animal-based diets—grew up on a dairy farm.

The Jacob Gould Schurman ProfessorEmeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry,Campbell is best known for the China-Oxford-Cornell Diet and Health Project,a two-decade-long study that New YorkTimes health columnist Jane Brody ’62called the “Grand Prix of epidemiology.”The first in his family to attend college,Campbell earned an undergrad degreefrom Penn State; at Cornell, he did hisdoctoral dissertation on more efficientways to produce high-quality animal pro-tein. But field work in the Philippines—originally focused on ensuring that chil-dren got as much animal protein aspossible—took both his research and hislife in an unexpected direction: he realizedthat the kids who ate the most animal pro-tein were most likely to get liver cancer.

That discovery has spurred a career’sworth of investigation into the perils ofconsuming animal products, and theattendant benefits of a whole-foods,plant-based diet. The work has not beenwithout controversy—especially on aland-grant campus where dairy and live-stock interests have a strong presence. In2005, Campbell alleged interference fromthe dairy industry when his popular Veg-etarian Nutrition course was pulled fromthe catalog, sparking a dispute with nutri-tional sciences administration that lastedseveral years; more than 1,000 studentssigned a petition to reinstate the course,and a version of it is now offered online.

Campbell’s best-selling book, TheChina Study, was published in 2006. Itwas co-written with his son, ThomasCampbell II ’99—a former actor whose

work on the project inspired him to go tomedical school.

Cornell Alumni Magazine: Your workfirst came to widespread attention througha 1990 cover story in the New York Timesscience section entitled “Huge Study ofDiet Indicts Fat and Meat.” Did the head-line say it all?T. Colin Campbell: At the time, it both-ered me a bit, that it was sensationalizing.I wouldn’t have gone quite that far—andI had to ask myself, am I really willing tosay something like this? And the more Ithought about it, the more I realized, yes

I am. I guess I was a little skittish, becausewhat I was saying was so controversial—especially challenging our reverence foranimal protein.

CAM: From a scientific standpoint, why isanimal protein more likely to cause cancer?TCC: Plant proteins tend to be limiting inone of their amino acids, which makesthem less efficient in promoting bodygrowth rates. That was why they werealways called “low quality.” But in fact,they also hold back cancer growth. Ani-mal proteins increase blood cholesterollevels, but plant proteins hold it back—so

Eat DifferentAt seventy-six, professor emeritus T. Colin Campbell, PhD ’62, continues his quest to publicize the benefits of a plant-based diet

ANDY FRIEDMAN




animal proteins promote heart disease andplant proteins don’t. We’re seeing thesame thing with cancer.

CAM: Nowadays, most people see theconnection between diet and conditionslike diabetes and heart disease. Do youthink they’re open to your message aboutthe relationship between food and cancer?TCC: The public is confused about nutri-tion—for good reason, because if you’vegot different industries telling different sto-ries, they’re not going to tell you the truth,they’re just going to tell you about theirproducts. Nutrition is a powerful effectorof cancer, but most people don’t under-stand that; they think it’s caused by chem-icals in the environment. And thoughsome chemicals can cause genetic damageto create an “infant” cancer cell, that’s notthe only event that determines develop-ment of the disease. This occurs by ouruse of inappropriate levels of nutrients, asfoods, which act like fertilizer to growthese cells.

CAM: How did you come to do theChina Study?TCC: In 1980 and ’81 we hosted the firstsenior scientist from China to visit theU.S.—he worked in my lab for eightmonths, and while he was here, welearned that his government had justreleased beautiful, color-coded maps ofhow much cancer existed in 2,500 coun-ties all over the country. The differencesbetween counties were substantial, so wewent to China to do a big survey to findout why; we had access to rates of abouta dozen cancers, and eventually to aboutthree dozen other diseases as well. MyChinese colleagues went to 130 villagesand collected blood, food, and urine sam-ples and asked questions, and together wecame out with this massive document.The body of data was absolutely huge.

CAM: What were the findings, in a nut-shell?TCC: In general, as we increase our animal-based food consumption, we getinto trouble. It increases heart disease,cancer, and all kinds of other ailments andproblems.

CAM: One of your most famous fans isformer President Bill Clinton. How did hecome to follow your dietary guidelines? TCC: When his daughter Chelsea’s wed-ding was coming up, she wanted him tolose some weight; also, he was about toget another stent and didn’t want to. Heended up losing twenty-four poundsbefore the wedding, and I got a phone call

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from one of his close associates who toldme, “He was there with your book, andhe was telling everybody about it.”

CAM: He took the book to the wedding? TCC: That’s what I was told—that hewas raving about it at one of the dinners.And what he said later in an interviewwith Wolf Blitzer was absolutely spectac-ular, because it was very clear. He said,“I’m off all meat, all dairy. I eat a littlefish, but I follow a plant-based diet.”

CAM: Why do you prefer the term “plant-based” to “vegetarian” or “vegan”?TCC: Because I don’t like the way “vege-tarian” and “vegan” are interpreted. I didn’t do this research to prove that veg-etarianism or veganism are good ideas. Iwanted the argument to rest on science,not ideology.

CAM: But don’t vegetarians and vegansalso follow plant-based diets? TCC: Ninety percent of vegetarians stillconsume dairy and eggs, so the nutritionalcomposition of their diet is not that differ-ent; vegetarians have traded off meat formilk, more or less. Vegans don’t eat anyanimal foods, so you’d think they’ve got itall together. But many of them do it forideological reasons, and they don’t knowmuch more about the health aspects thananybody else. Their diets can be prettyhigh in processed foods, sugar, and fat.

CAM: So just being plant-based is notenough?TCC: It’s whole, plant-based foods—whole grains, the leaves and fruits andnuts and so forth. My interpretation ofthe evidence is not to use white flour orsugar products, not to add fat, and not touse fried foods. If we eat this way, thehealth effects are amazing. There’s noth-ing in medicine that comes close to it.

CAM: But isn’t it hard to make food assatisfying with those limitations?TCC: In baked goods, my wife uses driedfruits like bananas or prunes to give it theconsistency of fat. If a recipe calls for

‘ If we eat this way,the health effects areamazing. There’snothing in medicinethat comes close to it.’




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sugar, she cuts that back about two-thirds,sometimes to none—just uses fruit sourcesfor sweetness. I don’t think I’m rational-izing, but I really believe that food is moretasty to me than it’s ever been. And partof that comes from the fact that we knowthat fat and salt have an addictiveresponse that causes changes in brainchemistry and covers up the natural tastesthat can be so appetizing.

CAM: Since you’re enjoying good healthat age seventy-six, do you see yourself asliving proof of the benefits of plant-basedeating?TCC: Absolutely. There is heart disease inmy family, and I’ve already lived, on aver-age, ten years longer than my father andhis father and brother. I still jog.

CAM: So do you want everyone to eatlike you do?TCC: This is not a diet, it’s a lifestyle. Idon’t like to preach or proselytize. Peoplehave to make their own decisions. As I sayin the book: you don’t have to believeme—just try it.

— Beth Saulnier

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P rofessor Shawkat Toorawa, alias Dr. T, paces like an expectant dad infront of a huge, unearthly blue screen in the Tatkon Center’s lecture hall.He checks his watch. Checks the wall clock. Silence. More pacing.

Stragglers shuffle in, shedding backpacks. There is a cellophane crackle as someonereaches for a shortbread biscuit. Toorawa sips tea from a paper cup, double-checks thetime: 5 p.m. Spot on.

“For the next thirty minutes we’re going to learn a little bit about Stephen Biko, alegendary but less-well-known South African anti-apartheid activist and hero, MargaretAtwood, a Canadian author who writes very, very good books—her novels are not shortbut you ought to read at least one or two of them; I suggest starting with The Hand-maid’s Tale, which was made into a film not well worth watching, but the soundtrackby the Eurhythmics wasn’t bad—and lastly...” He pauses for dramatic effect. “Romu-

lans! Enemies of the good guys, the Feder-ation. From Romulans you will learn whatconstitutes villainy and treachery, and fromthe Federation, the stuff of heroism.”

Barely two minutes have passed; theclass has grown to about thirty studentsof various majors and grade levels. Thescreen fills with an image of rocker PeterGabriel, live in concert, introducing his1986 hit song, “Biko.” “Have any of youheard of Peter Gabriel?” Toorawa asks. Asmattering of hands go up. “How aboutStephen Biko?” Fewer hands.

All right, then. Travelers, your ship isabout to set sail.

Welcome to the “Dr. T Project: A Cor-nell Hitchhiker’s Guide to Culture”—weekly drop-in sessions where, at warpspeed, Toorawa lectures on three topics hethinks students ought to know about, butprobably don’t. His presentations are non-linear, and the items may or may not bethemed. It’s a twenty-first-century twist onan ancient tradition: a master offering hisstudents pearls of wisdom from unex-pected sources.

Since launching the sessions in Sep-tember, Toorawa has covered music bypop icon Lady Gaga and Spanish classicalguitarist Narciso Yepes, and films byJapanese master Akira Kurosawa andHollywood auteur Tim Burton. He’s dis-cussed the architecture of Frank LloydWright and the portraiture of Velázquez,traced the French roots of Frank Sinatra’s“My Way,” and pondered the meaning ofwords like sinan—Arabic for spearhead,but also the name of an Ottoman archi-tect whose most famous work is theSuleiman Mosque in Istanbul. “This is nota prescriptive exercise,” says Toorawa, aprofessor of Near Eastern studies. “Thereis no pressure. It’s a chance to introducestudents to cultural items that are notsomething they necessarily need to know,but rather something they might want toseek out.”

The chance to garner knowledge forits own sake plus the lure of free PG Tipstea and Walkers Shortbread seems to be awinning formula. It works for Cornelleconomics major Aleksey Boytsov ’12,who has attended every Tuesday session.“I like to collect random bits of eruditecultural knowledge—and I love tea,” hesays, tilting his cup. “Each time, I learnsomething from Dr. Toorawa that I wouldnot have known otherwise.”

Toorawa is short, bespectacled, andbearded. He thrums with energy that fuelsa stream of silvery chatter flavored with aLondon accent. Students find his methodand his fiery manner engaging. “I went tohis program as part of freshman orienta-

Learning Curve

Professor Shawkat Toorawa offers intellectual snacks in a weekly, three-course tasting menu(plus tea and biscuits)

FRANKLIN CRAWFORD

Teachable moments: Professor ShawkatToorawa lectures on everything fromStephen Biko to “Star Trek.”









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tion,” says Amy Kasman ’14. “It was sodifferent from everything else that I keptcoming back. It’s a great way to learnabout things that aren’t on my radar.”

Dr. T navigates from high-brow tolow-brow culture without hitting turbu-lence. To explain Biko’s role as a martyrwhose death at the hands of prison guardsin 1977 spurred the anti-apartheid move-ment, Toorawa employs not only theGabriel song but YouTube clips from themovie Cry Freedom and quotes from awell-thumbed Dictionary of Global Cul-ture. As he tools along, he shares his excite-ment at learning something new. “Did youknow Biko popularized the phrase ‘Blackis beautiful’?” he asks. “I didn’t.”

The Hitchhiker’s Guide has been a hitsince its origins as part of the 2010 newstudent orientation program, says CarolGrumbach ’78, JD ’87, director of theTatkon Center. The center itself, locatednext to Balch Hall, is billed as “an intel-lectual, cultural drop-in center” for allfirst-year students. “I look forward to hisweekly talks,” she says. “I’ve learned a lot.”

Like what?“Like what an autarky is,” she says.

“Do you know?”

This reporter wracks his brain. Mat-ing dance of a flightless bird from NewZealand?

“I didn’t know either,” she says witha wry smile. “Look it up.” (A later con-sultation with Professor Wikipedia re-veals it to mean “the quality of being self-sufficient.”)

In an outcome-driven world, Dr. T’s

sessions are an oasis in a desert of grind-ing in-depth study, and since studentturnout has been solid—especially consid-ering the hour—the course will continueinto spring semester. Toorawa has alsoinvited some guest speakers, including phi-losophy professor Scott MacDonald ’78,

PhD ’86, who presented three things thathe loves: the Miles Davis recording Kind ofBlue, a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins,and two Jackson Pollock paintings.

Back to the action: With less than tenminutes left, Toorawa is on a roll. Havingdispatched Biko and Atwood, he handsaround a manual on how to identify var-ious Romulan warships. “Always knowyour enemy,” he says and discusses theimportance of identifying bad guys, learn-ing their tactics, and—with help fromYouTube and Captain Picard of the star-ship Enterprise—facing them down.

In a climactic showdown with theRomulans, led by Commander Tomalak,the Enterprise is surrounded. Tomalakdemands surrender. The intrepid Picardcounters that he’s willing to die if thecause is “just and honorable”—and he’lltake Tomalak along with him.

“The good guys win,” notes Toorawa,a diehard Trekkie. “They have to. It’s afranchise, and they were contracted toreturn for the following week’s show.”

Toorawa has his own show to comeback to the following Tuesday. And noteven Dr. T knows exactly what it will be.

— Franklin Crawford

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The latest book from the Lab of Ornithologycould be a field guide . . . if you’re a giant.Published this fall by Chronicle Books, thehardcover Bird Songs Bible weighs in at tenand a half pounds, is two inches thick, andeven comes with its own carrying case. It cov-ers all 747 breeding birds in North America—not only their images and vital statistics, butmost of their songs as well.

Organized by region, the $125 coffee tablebook includes a built-in MP3 player with 728individual recordings, most taken from thelab’s Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds. Tosummon up a clip—the call of an alarmedfemale spectacled eider, say, or a blue-throated hummingbird in song—the userpunches a three-digit code into the numberpad. “There’s no fuss, no muss,” says GregBudney ’85, the library’s curator of audio. “Youdon’t have to load a disk or go online and

access a file. You have these wonderful portraits, many of which are almost life-sized, anda player that is thoughtfully executed, so you can access the sounds rapidly.” In the genreof audio bird books, he says, “this is probably the best user experience to date.”

Some two years in the making, the hefty volume includes hundreds of original paint-ings of the birds, as well as information on their geographic distribution, habitat, andbehavior. Budney hopes that the finished product will appeal to a wide audience—andwith its vibrant images and interactivity, he sees it as a great way to get children inter-ested in nature. “As beautiful as the illustrations are,” he says, “the element that reallytransports you is the fact that you can make the voice come alive as though the bird weresitting there on the table beside you.”

For Budney, choosing the audio clips meant diving deep into the collection of theMacaulay Library, the world’s largest repository of animal sounds and video. For example,the library has more than 800 recordings of the red-winged blackbird, which is foundthroughout the U.S.—so which regional “dialect” should represent the species? “Most ofthe recordings were already in the library,” he says, “but what hadn’t been done was goingthrough the multiple examples that might exist for a species and determining, say, thebest ‘witchity-witchity’ call for the common yellowthroat that fit the running time.”

In addition to choosing the clips, Budney and his colleagues faced the challenge ofsqueezing them all onto the book’s memory chip. Although most last less than fifteen sec-onds, that still meant some serious data compression. “And when you data compress,you’re basically throwing bits of information out, and that can dramatically affect thefidelity of the sound,” Budney says. “The resulting product, if not dealt with carefully, cansound pretty abysmal.” Making it work, he says, required an understanding of human psychoacoustics. “What bits of information does the human ear need to receive,” theyasked themselves, “for this to sound like what we might hear outdoors?”

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Tweet Music

The Lab of Ornithology’s new coffee table book capturesthe sounds of more than 700 species








November | December 2010 33


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Don’t hate her because she’s beauti-ful—or because she has one of those jobsthat’s guaranteed to hijack the conversa-tion at parties. In fact, sometimes thetwenty-four-year-old Schimoler prefersnot to tell strangers her profession,because “I design ice cream for Ben &Jerry’s” tends to send the chat in a pre-dictable direction: once people realizeshe’s not making it up, they start suggest-ing new flavors (or complaining aboutthe ones that have been discontinued).Then there’s the task of explaining whata product developer is in the first place.“Overall, everyone is like, ‘That’s thecoolest thing ever,’ ” Schimoler says. “Butsometimes you just don’t want to talkabout it, because you have to devote atleast five minutes to explaining it. I tell

BETH SAULNIER

You’ve heard of the Fresh-man Fifteen. But whatabout the Ben Ten?

That’s the risk you runwhen you join a company whose officialemployee perks include three free pints ofice cream a day. But thanks to a solidunderstanding of nutrition and an activelifestyle, Kirsten Schimoler ’08 has man-aged to avoid packing on the pounds.“I’ve actually lost weight since I got toBen & Jerry’s,” the petite blue-eyedblonde says, sounding a little amazed. “IfI’m eating ice cream all day, I’m probablygoing to go home and have vegetablesoup or a salad, not sit down to a bigbowl of carbonara alfredo. When you’reeating ice cream for a living, you have toknow moderation.”

Scoop DreamsKirsten Schimoler ’08 invents ice cream flavors for a living (yes, it’s a real job)

Cone zone: Kirsten Schimoler ’08 behind the counter at Scoop University, the working ice cream shop at Ben & Jerry’s headquarters in Vermont

people, ‘Walk into the grocery store, andbehind pretty much every product—whether it’s Doritos or Ben & Jerry’s orbreakfast cereal—is someone like me.’”

To get to the Ben & Jerry’s headquar-ters, you drive to an office park in SouthBurlington, Vermont, and enter a lobbyemblazoned with a mural of blue sky,green grass, fluffy clouds and—natu-rally—black-and-white cows. Speaking ofwhich, there’s a life-sized fiberglass bovineagainst one wall, under a photo of thebrand’s hippyish founders. Across theroom, next to the vintage Wurlitzer organ,is a freezer filled with frozen treats. Onone corner, a small laminated card makesa demure appeal to dietary restraint:“Please, only one ice cream novelty perperson.” Down the hall, past the twisty



red slide that runs from the second floorto the first, is a maze of cubicles andoffices as well as the gym, the nap room,the Comfy Couch Area, the lab, the “sen-sory room” for taste-testing, and ScoopUniversity, the working ice cream shopwhere new franchisees get eight days ofhands-on training. Conference rooms arenamed after flavors, from Vanilla toPeanut Butter Cup. The closest thing tojack-booted corporate culture is the signsternly declaring, “No food or dogs areallowed in the Zen Den.” Today, thewhole place smells like brownies.

Yes, Ben & Jerry’s is now owned byfood giant Unilever—but Schimoler isquick to point out that the company hasheld onto its alternative, liberal-mindedcorporate culture. Each employee gets aweek’s paid leave per year to do volunteerwork; a wellness program offers free yogaclasses and personal trainer sessions; theCommunity Action Team organizes serv-ice projects, like building cabins at a campfor kids with cancer; the Joy Gang pro-motes employee unity with mini-golf out-ings, barbecues, and other social events.The woman who arranges media inter-views signs her e-mails “PR Chick.” Any-one wearing a suit to the office is mostlikely a visitor, or maybe they’re on theirway to a funeral. “Casual day is everyday,” says Schimoler, sitting in the Straw-


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berry-Kiwi Room clad in jeans, a flannelshirt, and flip-flops. “Everyone is superhappy to be here, and they love what theydo. If you look at the slide, that’s prettymuch our MO. It’s fun all the time, butwe get a lot of work done.”

A food science major in CALS, Schi-moler started working for Unilever aweek after graduation, beginning in itsNew Jersey corporate headquarters devel-oping frozen “skillet meals” for theBertolli and P. F. Chang’s brands.Although she hadn’t planned on workingfor a giant firm—she’d envisioned herselfat “some little organic granola com-pany”—she decided to give it a try, withan eye toward eventually transferring toBen & Jerry’s. When the job opened up,Schimoler—who grew up within walkingdistance of the company’s factory inWaterbury, Vermont—jumped at it. “Askids we’d go on the tour over and over,because it’s free if you’re under twelve—and Waterbury’s a small town, so there’snot much else to do,” she recalls. “So I’dsay that was my biggest qualification: I lit-erally grew up on Ben & Jerry’s.” Thejob, she says, “is my dream come true,way earlier than I thought.”

In the year or so that she’s been at thecompany, her biggest project has been

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tsdeveloping two flavors sold exclusively atTarget stores as part of Scoop It Forward,a campaign to promote volunteerism. Theflavors—Berry Voluntary, raspberry-cheesecake ice cream with white chocolatechunks and a raspberry swirl, andBrownie Chew Gooder, caramel-vanilla icecream with brownie pieces and a caramelswirl—were planned as limited-edition,but since being introduced in late Junethey’ve sold so well that Target is stockingthem indefinitely. Schimoler would love tosee them on freezer shelves herself—butthe chain has no stores in Vermont. “Tomake people happy via ice cream is prettyawesome,” she says. “I just wish we hada Target so I could go and say, ‘Those aremy flavors.’”

Despite the gustatory rigors of herday job, Schimoler swears that she stillenjoys ice cream in her off hours. So whatflavors does the ice cream designer favorfor her weekly allotment of—do the math—fifteen gratis pints? She names CherryGarcia, Chunky Monkey, Coffee Heath BarCrunch, Chubby Hubby, and Mint Choco-late Cookie. “Those are my five favoritepints. Coffee Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz! is onlyin the scoop shops, but I do love that,” shesays. “I can’t say there’s a flavor I don’t like.”

— Beth Saulnier



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I t’s mid-day and mid-week in SantaMonica, California, but several cityblocks are closed to cars. Instead,

the crowds are trafficking in a seeminglyendless selection of exotic fruits and veg-etables, from spicy Hungarian peppers toHosui Asian pears. Laura Dingle Avery’70 strolls among the vendors’ stalls,inquiring and directing as if she runs theplace. Which, in fact, she does.

Avery asks a few farmers how they’vebeen selling and accepts a sample fromone of them. “Mmmm,” she says. “That’sa good peach.” She takes a call from aproduce purveyor (“Hi, Sharon. Yeah, sheran out of mangoes. . .”), and then asks awoman to kindly remove her dog fromthe premises; no canines amid the sweetambrosia cantaloupes, please. A farmerapproaches Avery and apologizes for for-getting his payment check for his prizedmarket stall. She waves it off, telling himnext week is fine. Then she approachesanother vendor. “So the pomegranates arejust starting, huh? People are asking.” Shesnaps a quick photo. “For my blog,” sheexplains.

As supervisor of Santa Monica Farm-ers Markets, Avery has become the guruof what is—quite literally—a growthindustry. When the Santa Monica Wed-nesday Market began thirty years ago, itcovered a single city block and featuredtwenty-three farmers. Today, eighty farm-ers are peddling their goods across a four-block area. The program has added threemarkets under Avery’s supervision—twoon Saturday (one focusing on organicfoods and another in a largely Latinoneighborhood) and a Sunday event thatincludes everything from pony rides tolive music. Combined, the markets drawan estimated 20,000 shoppers each weekand gross some $13 million a year.

As supervisor, Avery acts as both apublicist (discussing seasonal produce ona Saturday morning radio show) and aneducator (hosting quarterly panel discus-

California GreeningAmid piles of pomegranates and an ocean of arugula, Laura Avery ’70 oversees one of the nation’s top farmers’ markets

sions at the Santa Monica Public Libraryon subjects ranging from sustainability tosmall-scale meat production). But occa-sionally she has had to take on unex-pected roles. Sometimes she’s an investi-gator, banning vendors upon determiningthat they hadn’t actually grown the pro-duce that they were selling. A few yearsago she found herself acting as mediator,diffusing a conflict that erupted whenlocal chefs felt they were being muscledaside by wholesale produce companies

buying in bulk. And in 2003, Avery wasforced into the role of crisis manager afteran elderly driver’s runaway car barreledthrough the market, leaving thirteen deadand dozens injured.

Avery’s involvement goes back to1982, when she was hired to manage theWednesday Market a year after it opened.She was an unlikely candidate, a native ofthe Midwestern suburbs—Shaker Heights,Ohio—with no agricultural expertise. AtCornell (where she followed grandfather

Natural woman: Laura Avery ’70 oversees one of the biggest,busiest farmers’ markets in America.

BILL JOHNSON




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Howard Dingle 1905 and father JohnDingle ’42 and preceded daughter AveryDeVenanzio Mathy ’03), she had been aFrench lit major and a member of thewomen’s fencing team, after which shehad spent a peripatetic decade in a seriesof jobs. Upon arriving in Santa Monica,Avery’s only experience with her neigh-borhood’s fledgling market was browsingthe stalls while pushing a stroller. But shewas drawn by the vibrancy of a Wednes-day wonderland. “It wasn’t so much thatI was interested in food, because I wasn’ta great cook,” she recalls. “It was the feel-ing that, wow, the street is closed, some-thing is happening. It was an excitingplace to be.”

Avery was hired largely because hernow ex-husband worked with the ex-husband of the previous manager. “Wewrote our own rules,” she recalls. “Webasically made it up as we went along.”Nearly three decades later, she has beentouted by Los Angeles Magazine as oneof the city’s 100 most influential people.And the Wednesday Market—whichTravel + Leisure has listed among thebest in America—is the largest all-farm-ers’ market in California.

While there are more than 300 certi-fied farmers’ markets in the state, Averyexplains that most are “indistinguishablefrom a swap meet, because at least half ofthe vendors are non-farmers.” However,all the products sold at the WednesdayMarket are farm-grown (which can meannot only Shunkyo radishes and Adriaticfigs, but chicken, cheeses, and worms forvermiculture). Thus, it is a true farmers’market, an opportunity for small familyfarms to reach consumers directly, offer-ing high-quality produce at competitiveprices. “I’m happy that the small farmersare able to come here and thrive,” saysAvery. “I think that’s what I’m proudestof.” As if on cue, a man selling orangeswalks by and offers his two cents: “I’d beout of business if it weren’t for this.”

But the market has also been a boonto customers, garnering accolades for thevariety of its produce. Indeed, Averybelieves farmers’ markets are the best wayto maintain genetic diversity of crops. “Ifconsumers are just going to take whatevercomes out of a grocery store, they’regoing to be out of options,” she says,walking past stalls offering everythingfrom Persian cucumbers to French sorrel.As a result, many of L.A.’s most re-nowned chefs frequent the Wednesdaymarket. “It inspires them,” says Avery.“They say it reminds them of why theygot into cooking in the first place.”

— Brad Herzog ’90


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Featured Selection

W hen wine enthusi-asts in UpstateNew York think ofthe Finger Lakes

region’s finest wines, wineries onSeneca Lake or perhaps KeukaLake often come to mind. How-ever, a winery on Cayuga Lake isthe only New York winery to havewon the Governor’s Cup—awarded to the state’s best wine—in three different years. That dis-tinction belongs to Swedish HillWinery, located in Romulus on thewest side of Cayuga Lake, whichwon this coveted award in 1994,2008, and 2010.

Founded in 1986, SwedishHill is known for producing alarge variety of wines in many styles.For nearly two decades, the wineryhas experimented with the production ofPort, a sweet fortified red wine made by theaddition of grape brandy before the wine’sfermentation is complete. This processleaves a significant amount of residual sugarin the finished wine.

Swedish Hill made their first Port fromthe 1991 harvest. Their current release is the

Cynthia Marie Port, named for CindyPeterson, who owns and operates the win-ery with her husband, Dick, and son,Dave. It is the product of wines from the

2003 and 2004 vintages, blended bywinemaker Ian Barry.

The combination of grape varietiesused for this Port is distinctive: 44 per-cent Cabernet Sauvignon, 20 percentChambourcin, 19 percent Corot Noir,and 17 percent Cabernet Franc. Thepresence of Cabernet Sauvignon is evi-dent in the cedar notes and cassis-tingedfruit present in the rather elegant flavorand aroma. The wine’s 7.3 percentresidual sugar is balanced by smooth,supple tannins, contributed in part bythe Corot Noir, a grape developed byCornell at the Agricultural Experiment

Station in Geneva, New York.This richly flavored wine is sweet but

not cloying. Enjoyable on its own, it wouldalso make an excellent partner for a cheesecourse or rich desserts such as a chocolatetorte or cheesecake.

— Dave Pohl

Dave Pohl, MA ’79, is a wine buyer atNorthside Wine & Spirits in Ithaca.

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Like every city, Ithacais filled with ghosts.

Along the shoreof Cayuga Lake, the

flamboyant silent film star PearlWhite poses for publicity shots inher roadster. Downtown, the Cornell Free Circulating Librarystands as a temple to knowledge,while the Temperance Fountain onTioga Street bubbles frothy warn-ings against the sins of demon rum.Shoppers crowd Rothschild’sdepartment store on the corner ofAurora and State streets. Trolleyschock full of Cornell students jostleup and down the Buffalo Street hill.The City Hall at the corner ofSeneca and Tioga streets offers astately backdrop for officials busilymanaging the affairs of the day.

In a series ofhaunting images,Ithaca’s past andpresent collide

By Franklin CrawfordPhotographs byMark Iwinski

Through a


Past perfect: A film still is superimposedover a modern-day shot of Williams Houseon North Cayuga Street in downtownIthaca.

042-047CAMjf11histpix 12/16/10 10:35 AM Page 42



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Bygone buidings: The site of the former Strand Theatre onEast State Street (above) is now a parking lot. Below: Anethereal image of the Cornell Free Circulating Library coversthe modern corner of Seneca and Tioga streets.

Look again. Those willow trees behind Ms. White were

not there in her time. Tompkins ConsolidatedArea Transit buses glide alongside trolleys. TheSeneca Street parking garage looms atop a CityHall no longer in existence.

In “This Was Now,” an exhibit of images byformer Cornell visiting professor Mark Iwinski,the past and present exist side by side. On viewlast fall at the History Center of TompkinsCounty—itself housed, appropriately, in a con-verted Mayflower Moving and Storage buildingnow known as the Gateway Center, at the footof East State Street—the images feature vintageshots superimposed over modern downtownstructures in situ. They contrast the “busy hum-ming of the bustling town” with modern ver-sions of the same sites, few of which comparefavorably with the oldies.

The photos—or “re-photos,” as theartist calls them—highlight changesin society reflected through an

altered urban landscape, and their effect is bothinstructive and haunting. For example, it isstriking to see the bygone, Victorian-era CityHall superimposed over the existing parkinggarage and bus stop—or, right across the street,Ezra Cornell’s handsome Free Library atop whatis now a drive-through bank and parking lot.The photo of Alonzo Cornell’s former mansionon Seneca Street, once a promenade of lovelyVictorian homes, includes vague apparitions oflong-dead citizens; in contrast, a modern-daywoman crosses the street, shielding her eyes

against the morning sun. Iwinski’s approach allows the viewer

to see the old Ithaca in all its nineteenth-century splendor, yielding to socio-economic forces that tore across the coun-try. While they evoke nostalgia, the imagesalso cast a cold eye on the present. Con-sider that the site of the grand old StrandTheatre, torn down nearly two decadesago, is now just a gravel parking lot.

Mingling history with art, the showdrew the attention of Johnson Museumdirector Frank Robinson, who went to theopening. The exhibit, he says, takes a“highly interesting approach to using artto get us to think more deeply about howwe do things with the world around us.It’s a great reminder that what we holddear to our eyes is perishable.” Iwinskititled many of these shots “Terrains ofAbsence,” and while they can serve as acultural critique, local historian and Cor-nell lecturer Carol Kammen says it’simportant to consider the bigger picture.“Urban renewal was somewhat gentlerhere than in other Upstate cities,” she



Ghost maps: Where the Old City Hall (top) once stood at the corner of Seneca and Tiogastreets, there is now a parking garage. Bottom: In “When Tioga Street Went Through,” Iwinski layers a vintage shot of the street atop an image of the Commons pedestrian mall.




says. “Look at Auburn, Rome, andGeneva, where there is little trace of thecity’s downtown.”

Ah, but see the once-thriving StateStreet—with its barbershops, tailors,shoe stores, and groceries—where todaystands the Commons, for better orworse. And the Strand, which—evendilapidated and full of pigeon drop-pings—had people fighting for itspreservation until it finally succumbedto the wrecking ball. And the wonderfulold Lyceum Theater, once one of morethan a dozen grand performing housesdowntown. As Morris Bishop 1913,PhD ’26, writes in A History of Cornell:“The president of the streetcar systemhad a private car, mahogany fitted, withcurtained red glass windows. On the-atre nights it brought the cream ofIthaca society to and from the Lyceum,

arresting all traffic for commoners if theperformance was prolonged.”

To create the images, Iwinskistudied downtown mapsand the History Center’svintage glass photo plates.

With the help of the center’s archivist,he developed a sense of downtown as ithad been a century or more ago. Armedwith transparencies made from theplates, he set up shop where the originalphotographer had stood. Giving theterm “handheld” a new spin, he claspedeach transparency—his fingers are oftenvisible—and lined them up so they over-lapped perfectly with the current view.“I got a lot of comments from peoplepassing by,” Iwinski recalls. “Many ofthem who had no idea of local history

were upset, and even angered, bychanges the so-called city fathersallowed.” Iwinski says that his layeringconcept was greatly influenced by thewritings of Roland Barthes—the Frenchliterary theorist, philosopher, and criticwho came to photography late in lifeand saw in still images “the return ofthe dead.”

Downtown Ithaca, architecturalhodge-podge though it may be, is notdead—though its relationship to Cornellstudents has changed dramatically. Kam-men notes that its shops, restaurant, andbars were once a magnet for undergrads,but today there are many more ameni-ties on campus and in Collegetown.“I’ve spoken to freshman students whowere here for an entire year and neverwent downtown,” she laments. “Theydon’t have to anymore.” c

Lake views: At Stewart Park on the southern tip of Cayuga Lake, Iwinski captured vintage images of an airplane (opposite, top) and silent film star Pearl White in her roadster (bottom). Above: The old Ithaca Hotel seen against a modern two-story building.


vegging in


By Beth Saulnier

The University acquires the archives of the famed Moosewood Restaurant

048-053CAMjf11moose 12/17/10 10:45 AM Page 48



Josh Katzen ’70 is a Boston-areareal estate developer. He holds alaw degree from Penn. He has, ashe puts it, “a lot of conservativeactivities on my résumé.” Whenhe was hired to teach real estate at

Brandeis, he recalls, those right-leaning creden-tials ruffled some feathers. “Some professorswere saying, ‘Why is he here? He’s a Zionist,conservative, right-wing guy,’” Katzen remembers. “And then somebody finally says,‘Look down his résumé. He started theMoosewood Restaurant. He might be OK.’”

Nearly four decades ago, Katzen and a handful of friendstook an empty space on the bottom floor of a former junior highschool in downtown Ithaca and created what would become oneof the world’s most famous natural-foods restaurants. A localcarpenter built the original thirteen tables in exchange for freemeals; a friend sewed the batik curtains. The idea, he says, wasto create something warm and welcoming—the opposite of thestereotypical, self-serious vegetarian eatery that was the culinaryequivalent of a hair shirt. “We served beer,” he notes. “We def-initely did not do seaweed.”

It wasn’t until shortly before it opened—on January 3,1973—that they finally settled on a name for the place. Theycalled it Moosewood, after the dog in Hugh Prather’s trippy self-help book, Notes to Myself. “There were a lot of guys withponytails and colorful clothes,” Katzen recalls. “It was a veryfriendly place. Everybody knew everybody. It was like living thecover of a record album—like, ‘Our house is a very fine house.’That’s what Ithaca was like in those days, and Moosewood wasthe place everybody came.”

Flash forward thirty-eight years. Moosewood, now tripledin size, is still doing a brisk trade in Ithaca’s Dewitt Mall—nosmall feat in the notoriously Darwinian restaurant industry. TheMoosewood Cookbook, that landmark guide to vegetarian cui-sine written by Katzen’s sister and fellow Moosewood founderMollie Katzen ’72, has taught generations of twenty-somethingshow to tell their tofu from their tabouli. Subsequent cook-books—penned by the restaurant’s current owners, known asthe Moosewood Collective—have become best-sellers and twicewon the James Beard Award, the genre’s Oscar. Bon Appétitcalled Moosewood one of the thirteen most influential restau-rants of the twentieth century. A line of Moosewood-brandedfoods, including frozen soups and entrees, is sold in upscalesupermarkets around the country. In short, the Moosewoodname has spread far beyond one small Upstate New York city—occasionally rivaling a certain university on the Hill for bragging

rights as Ithaca’s most famous institution. “Whenever I travelanywhere and I mention I’m from Ithaca, half the people whorecognize the city’s name will say ‘Cornell,’” says UniversityLibrarian Anne Kenney. “But equally as many will say, ‘Oh yeah,Moosewood Restaurant.’”

Like chickpeas and tahini, Moosewood and Cornell go wayback. In addition to the Katzens, many of the founders (and sev-eral current members of the nineteen-person collective) arealumni. Faculty and staff have always comprised a hefty portionof the restaurant’s customer base, and Moosewood is a go-tospot for legions of visiting parents. (Just try getting a table onCommencement Weekend.) “Ithaca and the Cornell communityhave contributed to our success because they’re populations thatare adventurous when it comes to food,” says Joan Adler ’72, acollective member who started working at Moosewood as a wait-ress in 1974. “If it weren’t for our regular diners we wouldn’thave been able to try everything we’ve tried.”

Last year, those town-gown ties became more formalized,when the Moosewood Collective made Cornell’s Rare and Man-uscript Collections the official repository of its archive. Housedin four boxes in Kroch Library—two full filing boxes and a cou-ple of oversized containers for large-format items—the archivecontains a wide variety of material, from vintage photos and earlymenus to handwritten cookbook drafts to glossy mock-ups ofproduct packaging. “There’s so much in those four little boxes,”

Salad days: The archive includes vintage images of Moosewood staff. Above: The restaurant today.

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says Kroch curator Brenda Marston. “There are records of a localbusiness, and there’s the whole angle of their success as a collec-tive. They represent that movement in the Seventies to think aboutdifferent ways of doing everything. There was such a desire to trynew ways that were less hierarchical. And what’s great about theirstory is that they were successful as a business, too.”

Marston and others see the archive as appealing to scholarsinterested in everything from local history to the evolution ofvegetarian cooking to the joys and pitfalls of collective owner-ship. “This is a great case study of a bunch of people who didn’thave much experience but learned to run a business, one that hasbeen successful for going on four decades,” says Hotel professorMary Tabacchi. “That’s a food and beverage entrepreneurshipstory that has to be told, and the papers are there for someone

Hotel school professor Mary Tabacchi came to Ithaca in 1972, and she’s been aMoosewood fan ever since the restaurant opened the following year. “To start avegetarian restaurant in the Seventies was a smart thing to do,” says Tabacchi,who teaches a course on healthy cuisines. “When I came to Cornell a lot of mystudents were going vegan or vegetarian, and the food really was bad; I think

they thought that the worse it tasted, the better it was for you. So when Moosewood came alongand made great vegetarian food, it started a movement. They were pioneers in that sense—theAlice Waters of the East Coast.”

Moosewood is still Tabacchi’s favorite Ithaca eatery, the place she goes when she doesn’t feel likecooking but wants something nutritious. “They put together the most savory flavors in town,” shesays. “It’s a cross between health food and comfort food.” Nowadays, many of the ideas that Moose-wood pioneered—eschewing meat in favor of vegetables and whole grains, seeking locally sourcedingredients, changing menus according to what’s in season, creating complex flavors through theinnovative use of herbs and spices—have gone mainstream. But back in the day, what we’d now callthe natural food movement was downright avant garde. “It was fringy—it was definitely fringy,” saysMoosewood Collective member Joan Adler ’72. “Vegetarians were seen as eccentric.”

Here’s a little-known fact: although Moosewood is often called one of the world’s most famousvegetarian restaurants, it didn’t start out vegetarian. (And technically, it isn’t vegetarian today,either; its menu includes fish.) “We didn’t think we could make it if we were vegetarian,” recallsMollie Katzen ’72, one of the restaurant’s original seven founders and author of the MoosewoodCookbook. “We thought it would be too narrow. And yet none of us really knew how to cook meat.”

Katzen vividly recalls the restaurant’s first meal; Moosewood opened for dinner a couple of daysafter New Year’s 1973. That time of year is notoriously dead in the restaurant industry, but thefounders had invited their friends, and the place was packed when it opened at 6 p.m. Unfortu-nately, the main dish wasn’t ready. “We had two moussakas, huge pans of them, one meat and onevegetarian,” she remembers, “and it was eight o’clock before they came out of the oven.” They’dplanned the moussaka to be the main course, with stir-fry and brown rice as an alternative, butsince the casseroles weren’t cooked she and two other chefs found themselves madly frying vegeta-bles to order. That kind of seat-of-the-pants improvisation was standard operating procedure inMoosewood’s early days, says Katzen’s brother, fellow founder Josh Katzen ’70. “The day the restau-rant was opening, we were still trying to figure out how to run the steam table,” he says with alaugh. “We really didn’t know what we were doing.”

As Mollie Katzen remembers it, that first dinner also included a vegetable salad with vinaigrettedressing and stacks of complimentary bread from a popular whole-grain bakery down the hall; fordessert there were brownies, yogurt-cream cheese pie, and maybe apple crisp. She also recalls that

Loyal Order of Moose

Looking backat the birth of a veggie phenomenon

Galley kitchen: Chefs fed legions of diners from atiny space that was expanded during Moose-wood’s first renovation, in the Nineties.




who wants to do it.” But you don’t have to be an academic to graze the archive’s

offerings. Like all of Cornell’s collections—the University hasworld-class holdings on topics from Icelandic sagas to the FrenchRevolution to hip-hop music to witchcraft—it’s available toeveryone. “We’re open to the public,” notes University ArchivistElaine Engst, MA ’72. “You don’t need to be a serious scholarto look at this. You just have to be interested.” After making arequest in advance, you take a trip underground to Kroch—accessed through Olin—stash your belongings in a locker, andenter the Rare and Manuscript Collections’ reading room, a med-itative space where pens are banned but pencils are kosher.

Even a cursory poke around the Moosewood collection yieldsa treasure trove of memorabilia, a colorful peek into the not-so-distant past. One of the favorite items among the archives’ staffis a document from the mid-Eighties entitled “The Moosers’Book of Harmonious Functions or, More Succinctly, MoosewoodPolicy Notebook (and More).” The manual is a combination of

the restaurant’s coffeemaker may well have been cadged from adumpster, and that no one had thought to get change for the cashregister, the kind of ancient model you’d find in an old-time bar-bershop. “It was either the first night or very shortly thereafterthat we realized we were open to the public and not just to ourfriends,” she says, “and that was a big shock.”

Moosewood soon became a popular spot, not only among mem-bers of Ithaca’s burgeoning counterculture but—with lunch pricedat $1—with downtown workers looking for a hearty, affordablemeal. Those early customers included Adler, a Human Ecology gradwho was working at the public library for “what I thought was agap year, which turned into my life.” She ate there so often shebecame friends with the staff. “That was my introduction to inter-national foods,” she recalls. “I grew up in a family where the foodwas plentiful, and it was very good, but it was meat, vegetables,and potatoes. Suddenly I was having mulligatawny and tabouli,things that are standard now, but at the time there were all ofthese flavorings and seasonings that I’d never come across.”

By 1974 Adler was waiting tables—and since the jobs wereshared, she also got to work in the kitchen. “That is where Ilearned to cook, where most of us learned to cook,” she says. “Wetaught ourselves and we taught each other and we learned frombooks. Our bible in the beginning was Anna Thomas’s The Vegetar-ian Epicure, because she was the first person who brought to thenational consciousness that there was a way of cooking vegetarianfood that could draw on all these ethnic traditions and be savoryand wonderful and adventurous. We used Indian spices like fenu-greek and cumin and coriander. We’d never heard of tamarind pastebefore—or Asian ingredients like hoisin sauce, fermented blackbeans, and fresh ginger. We began to understand how differentcombinations created different flavors. It was really eye-openingand stimulating.”

Of the original seven founders, only Mollie Katzen had formalrestaurant experience. After two years on the Hill, she’d transferredto the San Francisco Art Institute and then gone to work atShandygaff, a cutting-edge vegetarian eatery in the city. (“Weknew it was a cool restaurant,” her brother notes, “because Crosby,Stills, and Nash ate there.”) When Moosewood was getting readyto open, Katzen returned to Ithaca to join the group. “We had norecipes, which is why I wrote the book—it was originally a loose-leaf notebook that we kept in the kitchen,” she says. “We hadthese talented cooks who could make something delicious and

we’d deconstruct it later, so we could make it again and so wecould give the recipes to customers.”

The first incarnation of the Moosewood Cookbook was aboutseventy pages long, spiral bound, photocopied, and collated byhand—as Katzen puts it, “like you would a flier for the PTA.”Priced at $4, it was sold at a local bookstore, where the initial 800copies flew out the door in two weeks. “It was a local phenome-non,” she says. “It was amazing.” Another 2,000 copies wereprinted; those sold out in six months. She printed another 2,000,fielding mail orders from Ithaca-esque cities like Berkeley, SantaCruz, Seattle, and Madison. Just as she was about to sign a con-tract with Doubleday—which wanted to print a more buttoned-down version, without her distinctive hand-lettering and draw-ings—she got a call during the lunch rush, on the pay-phone thatdoubled as the restaurant’s business line. It was the owner ofBerkeley’s Ten Speed Press, who wanted to publish the cookbook,complete with its quirky look and chatty, accessible voice. “Hesaid, ‘I’ll FedEx something to you,’ ” she recalls, “and I said,‘What’s FedEx?’ ”

The Moosewood Cookbook came out in 1977; by then Katzen hadleft the restaurant. (A dispute over the book’s ownership led to yearsof legal wrangling; in the end, Katzen got the copyright but the col-lective retained the rights to the Moosewood name.) In the late Sev-enties, the original seven owners sold their interests in the restaurantto the newly created collective, and none of the founders remaininvolved—though several members of the current group have beenaffiliated with Moosewood since its first year or two of operation.

Over the years, the restaurant’s business model has becomemore conventional. “We used to meet once a month and decideeverything from the color of the carpet to which waste disposalcompany we’d work with,” Adler says, but now such decisions aremade by subcommittees. Rather than having everyone share everyjob, collective members specialize in areas like menu planning,publicity, and finance. The collective employs staff to run many ofthe day-to-day operations, and some members—like Adler, a preg-nancy options counselor at Planned Parenthood—have outsidecareers. “We didn’t have a long-term vision at all,” Adler says,reflecting on the early days. “That is so antithetical to today,when everyone is so much more business savvy from such an earlyage. But we were taking it a day at a time, doing what we enjoyedand learning the business as we went along. We didn’t set out tobe restaurateurs, but that’s what happened.”

practical edicts (“no bikes in the locker room”), legalese (proce-dural rules and bylaws), and quirky gems (“try to be polite totake-out customers even if they’re not deserving of it and it’s adrag”)—capturing the ethos of a group of people trying to runa business with progressive principles in a particular time and

An Eighties-era policy manualadvises, ‘Try to be polite totake-out customers even ifthey’re not deserving of itand it’s a drag.’



Maple-Glazed Root Vegetables3 tablespoons olive oil1 teaspoon dried thyme1 teaspoon rubbed sage1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary12 cups vegetables cut into chunks or slices somewhat biggerthan bite-sized, in any proportion you’d like. We suggest:

3 medium sweet potatoes3 medium carrots3 medium beets1 large onion1 medium red bell pepper

Maple Glaze2 tablespoons pure maple syrup2 tablespoons cider vinegar or rice vinegar1 tablespoon olive oilsalt and ground black pepper

1) In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, thyme, sage, androsemary. Toss the vegetable chunks with the herbed oil untilwell coated. Spread evenly in a single layer on an unoiled bak-ing sheet. In a 400-degree oven, roast the vegetables for 30minutes. Remove from the oven and stir. Return to the ovenand roast until the vegetables are tender, 10 to 15 minutes.

2) Meanwhile, make the maple glaze; in a cup or small bowl,stir together the maple syrup, vinegar, and oil. When the veg-etables are tender, drizzle them with the glaze, sprinkle withsalt and pepper, and stir until well coated. Roast for another10 minutes.

Taste TestA sampling of recipes from the latest Moosewood cookbook,Cooking for Health

Silken Chocolate Pudding1 cake of silken tofu (about 16 ounces)3 tablespoons confectioners sugar8 ounces semisweet chocolate6 tablespoons water3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1) In a food processor, whirl the tofu and confectioners sugaruntil well blended. In a double boiler or a small pan on lowheat, or in a microwave oven, warm the chocolate, water, cocoa,and vanilla until the chocolate melts. Stir until thoroughlymixed. Pour the chocolate sauce into the food processor withthe sweetened whipped tofu, and whirl again until very smoothand silky.

2) Spoon the pudding into 6 serving cups. Chill for at least an hour.

REPRINTED, WITH PERMISSION, FROM MOOSEWOOD RESTAURANT COOKING FOR HEALTH BY THE MOOSEWOOD COLLECTIVE; SIMON & SCHUSTER,

PUBLISHER, NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 2009.

GREEN




Mealtime memories (clockwise fromleft): A flyer for brunch on Mother’sDay 1984; a dress code that permitted “wild outfits” but banned garlic breath; and the original restaurant space, complete withbatik curtains.

place. Witness the official Moosewood dress code, as determinedon June 12, 1983:

Cleanliness and good taste are highly recommended. Wildoutfits are fine, as is leg and armpit hair, and neat facial hair.Cooks have the most leeway in dress since they are least visibleto customers. Waits, omnis, and bussers are asked to be moreconscious of work appearance. Clean pits, breath (garlic andsmoke offenders beware), nails, hair, and necks. Spruce-up mate-rials in the locker room. In summer especially, no hot shorts, too-mini skirts, or too-distracting tops. Please no paint-spatteredjeans or patched items. Weekend nights it would be nice to dressa little on the spiffy side if you are in the dining room.

Of course, many restaurants have policy manuals (thoughmost aren’t anywhere near as entertaining). But how many havea handwritten guide to waitressing that advises against lettingcustomers over-order, since it’s unethical to waste food? Or keepa journal in which staff members record restaurant-relateddreams? The archive includes excerpts from the latter, includingthis one, by a woman named Susan:

I was in the dining room at night, waiting on tables, withthat weird fishbowl feeling when it’s dark outside. All of a sud-

den sirens and church bells sounded all over town. Everyonewent outside and there was a parade—Albert Einstein was wav-ing from a float. He was covered with leis of flowers and he wasbeaming. It seemed that world peace had been declared and weall felt quite excited and hopeful and relieved. Then it wasannounced that everyone in the world had to adopt an orphanbaby and we were all to report immediately to the Women’sCommunity Building to receive the children chosen for us. Soworkers and customers forgot about dinner and we lined upbefore a conveyor belt which the babies were coming down.Flora was ahead of me in line and she was given a baby orang-utan, which I knew was intended for me. I recognized this as myreal child, but she wouldn’t trade.

The archive also contains dozens of thank-you letters andpieces of fan mail from around the world (including a note fromFred Rogers on official “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” stationery).A 1996 postcard from a couple on vacation at Lake Titicacaopens, “Dear Moose, Please do not let this go to your heads.. .”and goes on to describe meeting an English couple living in Chile.“When we exposed ourselves that we were from Ithaca,” it reads,“they immediately asked us if we knew the Moosewood.” c



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In September, Cornellians gatheredin Ithaca to honor this year’s re-cipients of the Frank H. T. Rhodes

Awards for Exemplary Alumni Service.Named in honor of Cornell’s belovedninth president, this highest of honorsrecognizes individuals and couples whohave donated their time to better Cor-nell. Said Alumni Association presi-dent Nancy Abrams Dreier ’86: “TheFrank H. T. Rhodes Award winners arespecial because in addition to provid-ing the University with invaluable in-sights and expertise, they have alsodemonstrated a unique ability to in-spire hundreds of other Cornellians—including alumni leaders, students,staff, and faculty—to follow their leads,exponentially increasing the value oftheir precious gifts of time and talent.”This year’s winners are:

Carol Bagdasarian Aslanian ’63Carol Aslanian has devoted her life tosupporting higher education. Profes-sionally, she has been a research assis-tant at Harvard University’s School ofEducation, a master teacher in thePeace Corps Training Program, and anassociate director of Future Directors fora Learning Society. As a volunteer, shehas served as president of the Class of1963 as well as chair of its 40th Re-union major gifts committee, a mem-ber of the President’s Council of CornellWomen and the University Council,president of the Cornell Association of

Highest HonorCAA presents the 2010 Rhodes Awards

By Scott Pesner ’87

(continued on page 56)

almamatters

N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E C O R N E L L A L U M N I A S S O C I A T I O N

www.alumni.cornell.edu

January / February 201155

Class Officers and the Cornell Alum-ni Association of New York City, andchair of the Committee on AlumniTrustee Nominations. One Cornellvolunteer called her spirit and en-thusiasm contagious. Another saidshe inspires her every day to do morefor the Cornell community.

In accepting her award, Aslanianrecalled her first trip to Cornell. “I re-member the cold day in February of1958, trekking from Syracuse toMartha Van for that interview to ex-plain why I wanted to attend theCollege of Home Economics. En-rolling in the college and this institutionwas the best decision of my life.” Themother of two Cornell alumnae, Aslan-ian said, “I truly believe that it is I whohas been the winner, having gained somuch from Cornell in so many wayswith a fifty-year relationship with thisinstitution. This award is an honor thatI will cherish forever.”

Nancy Radick Lynk ’52 andBob Lynk ’54, DVM ’61

For Nancy Lynk, her relationship withCornell is longer than her relationshipwith her husband, a co-recipient of theRhodes Award. But together they haveworked to create the foundation for theCornell Club of the Greater CapitalRegion in the Albany area, in both pro-gramming and running regionalphonathons. While Bob has also beeninvolved with the Vet college, Nancy

was able to use her community con-nections as a member of Cornell’s gov-ernment affairs staff in Albany to givealumni access to behind-the-scenestours and attend events featuringprominent alumni. Said Nancy: “Cor-nell is one of the best things that hashappened to us.” Recalling his moveinto a boarding house on Dryden Roadto start his freshman year at Cornell,Bob said, “I had no idea I was startinga lifelong relationship with the Uni-versity.” Now, he said, “an award thathas Frank Rhodes’s name attached toit is as good as it gets.”

Keith Kennedy, MS ’41, PhD ‘47In her remarks about Keith Kennedy,Dreier said that he “has played somany roles at Cornell and has changedthe lives of so many Cornellians that it

Crystal clear: One of the Frank H. T. Rhodes Awardsfor Exemplary Alumni Service given last fall

JON REIS PHOTOGRAPHY

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http://www.alumni.cornell.edu

Alma Matters56

(continued from page 55)is wholly appropriate that this campuswill continue to bear his name for fu-ture generations through the buildingnamed in his honor, Kennedy Hall.”An alumnus, professor, and ultimate-ly provost during Rhodes’s presidency,as well as a lifelong Cornell volunteer,“his clear and gracious managementstyle resonated deeply with so manyacross campus, influencing the careerpaths of some of today’s most effectiveand beloved staff, faculty, and volun-teers,” said Dreier.

In accepting the award on behalfof Kennedy, vice president for studentand academic services Susan Murphy’73, PhD ’94, said, “As one of themany people who have had the privi-lege to call Keith their mentor, he sodeserves this recognition. He’s em-barrassed that the Alumni Associationis recognizing him in this way. I toldhim that it was not a mistake, thatthere would be a room full of peoplewho know that the Alumni Associa-tion had made the wisest of choices.”

Nels Schaenen ’50, MBA ’51Cornell wasn’t even on Nels Schaenan’smind when his father, a member of theClass of 1923, sent him an applicationwhile Nels was serving in the Navy.And his relationship to Cornell as a vol-unteer didn’t begin until his 15th Re-union, when past Rhodes Awardwinner Patricia Carry Stewart ’50 askedhim to be class vice president. He wasthen on the road to donating his timeto Cornell, culminating in terms spentas a member of the Board of Trusteesduring the Seventies and Eighties. He

has also spent time raising major giftsfor his reunion campaigns, workingwith Athletics, the Johnson Museum,and his fraternity, Delta Upsilon. “Cor-nell and her supporters have a wonder-ful way of gradually and quietlyinvolving you without you ever realiz-ing it,” said Schaenen. “Working withso many talented trustees has been oneof the most enriching experiences of mylife.” About his time spent serving theUniversity, Schaenen said, “Volunteer-ing for Cornell is a partial repaymentfor what Cornell has done for me.Whatever I’ve given to Cornell has beenreturned to me many-fold.”

Jay Waks ’68, JD ’71One of the most significant memoriesJay Waks has of his time at Cornell iswhen he was called in frontof the dean of the College ofArts and Sciences to explainwhy he wanted to transferto the School of Industrialand Labor Relations. “Hetried to convince me that Iwould be wasting my Cor-nell education and ruiningmy life,” Waks recalled. “Butit only stiffened my resolveto be a credit to myself andmy family.”

“Great Cornell volun-teer” doesn’t even begin todescribe Waks’s commitmentto the university. He is a de-voted alumnus to both ILR

and Cornell Law School. For ILR, Wakshelped to establish an initiative that in-creases understanding of internationalcultures and the world of work, and hehas been just as avid a supporter of theLaw School. In addition, he has been anactive member of the University Coun-cil, serving as its president as well as thechair of its Committee on Admissionsand Financial Aid, and has played a piv-otal role with the Cornell Black Alum-ni Association’s annual Alvin Aileyfundraiser in New York City.

Accepting the award brought backa flood of memories for Waks, espe-cially about professors he had in theArts college, ILR, and Law, such as Al-lan Bloom and Alice Cook. “My forty-six years of random Cornell adventures

Mentors remembered: Waks spoke about theprofessors who most influenced him.

The winners: Present at the ceremony were (front row, from left) Nancy Lynk ’52, Carol Aslanian’63, Rosa Rhodes, Kristen Rupert ’74, and Nancy Abrams Dreier ’86. Back row: Bob Lynk ’54,DVM ’61, Jay Waks ’68, JD ’71, Frank Rhodes, John Foote ’74, Nels Schaenen ’50, MBA ’51,and President David Skorton.

Dedicated Cornellians: Rupert (right) and Foote celebratewith Dreier after the ceremony.

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Conference CallAlumni Leaders to Meet in D.C.

January / February 201157

More than 800 volunteer lead-ers are expected to attendthe second annual Cornell

Alumni Leadership Conference inWashington, D.C., January 28–30. Lastyear’s inaugural conference was a hugesuccess, and the program has been ex-panded to include more alumni groupsand diverse offerings.

Class leaders, regional club leaders,admissions ambassadors, and collegealumni board members are expected toattend the three-day meeting, whichfeatures panels focusing on the funda-mentals of volunteer leadership. Thesesessions will concentrate on volunteermanagement techniques; balancinghome, career, and volunteering; careeradvice; event marketing; and how toleverage social media. In addition, apanel of alumni-elected trustees willdiscuss their responsibilities, while sen-ior University administrators will befeatured on a panel discussing diversi-ty initiatives at Cornell.

The broad and varied array ofalumni groups in attendance will of-fer specific sessions for their con-stituents. Club and class sessions will

look at developing events through cre-ative collaboration, as well as at thedues-free initiative for clubs. Sessionsfor Cornell Alumni Admissions Am-bassador Network (CAAAN) volunteerswill explore best practices, understand-ing the world of financial aid, and aninsider’s look at admissions commit-tee meetings.

In addition, this year Greek alum-ni are invited to the conference andtheir sessions will explore how theycan collaborate to keep their member-ship connected to Cornell. Other ses-sions will be presented by the CornellHotel Society and the President’sCouncil of Cornell Women (PCCW).Reunion leaders will have a specialplanning session to finalize details forReunion 2011.

The conference kicks off on Fridaywith a luncheon featuring best-sellingauthor Jon Gordon ’93. His talk willfocus on creating a culture of greatnessin organizations through optimism,excellence, vision, love, and passion.After individual break-out sessions,the day will be capped with a townhall panel with leading faculty and

alumni, followed by a networkingevent using innovative technology toconnect leaders with each other.

Saturday morning will begin with abreakfast session featuring vice presi-dent of student and academic servicesSusan Murphy ’73, PhD ’94, discussingthe University’s mental health initia-tives, while President David Skortonwill be the luncheon speaker. Saturday’ssessions will conclude with a panel ofalumni currently serving in Congress,as well as faculty, discussing the currentstate of politics in the U.S.

Despite this rich schedule of ac-tivities, there will be plenty of time tosocialize. Many organizations will holddinners on Friday, and there will be ayoung alumni party on Friday evening,as well as a special viewing party forthe Cornell-Harvard hockey game onSaturday night. Several D.C. tourswith a Cornell twist will be offered onFriday afternoon and Sunday morning.

The conference will again be heldat the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.Registration is available at alumni.cornell.edu/calc.

Giving back: Schaenen called volunteeringhis “partial repayment” to the University.

are now in sync, crowned by this year’sFrank Rhodes Award,” he said. “I em-brace this award as much for its deeppersonal meaning, as well as for theability to be here, my second home, forthis occasion.”

Kristen Rupert ’74 andJohn Foote ’74

You must have graduated from Cornellat least thirty-five years ago to receivethe Rhodes Award. Kristen Rupert andJohn Foote—a couple described as “con-summate Cornell”—are among the fewever to receive this award in their firstyear of eligibility. And for Kristen, it’seven more special: she is the first-eversecond-generation recipient, as her fa-ther Jack Rupert ’49, JD ’51, won theaward in 1995, its inaugural year.

Whether it is their leadership ofthe Class of 1974, the Cornell Alum-ni Association, the Cornell Clubs ofBoston and Philadelphia, the Planta-tions, Cornell Athletics, or Sigma Chi

fraternity, these two Cornellians giveit their all. And beyond their timecommitment is their ability to findunique ways of supporting the Uni-versity. John is the author of Touch-down, the Story of the Cornell Bear,whose proceeds go to benefit Cornell.And their house in Ithaca is a placewhere alumni are always welcome.

In her award acceptance, Rupertgave advice to both current and futurealumni. “Expect the unexpected,” shesaid. “Be receptive to new ideas. Stayflexible. Look for opportunities to workwith new volunteers, new staff mem-bers, and new programs. Discover apart of Cornell you don’t know about.Push for what you believe in. MakeCornell better and better still. In theend, it’s all about the students. They’rethe ones who make our volunteer ef-forts worthwhile. Making this placestronger, broader, and better is thegreatest gift we give our students.”

In his acceptance, Foote para-phrased his favorite poem, Ithaka by theGreek poet C. P. Cavafy: “Cornell hasgiven me the beautiful voyage; withouther, I would never have taken the road.”

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Class Notes

38 James McKay (Chevy Chase, MD;[email protected]) has inventeda word game called “be-twixt.”

He has a patent pending, and when he wrote, heanticipated its issuance within six months. “Ihave lined up a marketer who will help me sellthe game. I also have published three novels, andhave tried to market them. Unfortunately, I havebeen unable to get an agent. People who read thebooks claim to like them.” In the volunteer realm,he has provided pro bono legal work, represent-ing veterans in their efforts to get disability com-pensation from the V.A. “The choice was easy,”he explains, “because I am an attorney and wasin the Navy during WWII for four years.” BernardGartlir (Roslyn, NY; [email protected]) stillpractices law in New York and Florida. “Part-timein both,” he writes. “Reside in Florida and NewYork—six months or more in each. Still commut-ing!” Like James, he provides pro bono legal aid.

Charles Lounsbery (Ithaca, NY) writes, “Ikeep endless doctor’s appointments and enjoy sun-rises and sunsets and time in between. Stayingawake at boring meetings—’tis a challenge.” If anywere still available, he says he might consider re-locating to the boondocks. Walter Tatum (Con-cord, CA) won’t be moving either. “At my age Ihave to remain close to those in my family whocan drive me around (doctors, food, friends).” Hiswife, Bertha, resides in a nursing home, but Wal-ter says he is still in good health. “I am writingfiction novels and hope to get published as soonas they are ready for Vantage Press.” He adds thesememories from Cornell: “I was the sprinter on thevarsity track team and a member of Sigma Phi Ep-silon. Track meets have since held my attention. Iwas also Cornell’s fastest backstroke swimmer.”

“I like to read, and just living one day at atime is a real challenge,” writes Helen O’BrienCyran (Los Angeles, CA). The lessons she masteredat Cornell remain an influence, especially the abil-ity to survive difficulties and difficult times. “Cor-nell gave many challenges to live through or fail.”Helen volunteers with the Assistance League ofSouthern California, which last year helped 100,000people. “I choose ALSC as effective and honest.”John Clement (Toledo, OH; [email protected]) keeps active working out on a stationary bikefive days a week. Like Helen, he writes that “everyday is a challenge.” He remains active with Rotary,of which he has been a member for 58 years, andhas no plans to move from the house he has livedin for more than 35 years. “My granddaughter is asenior in Engineering,” he adds, “and I have comeback to Cornell on several occasions.”

From Alvin Meyrowitz (Palm Desert, CA): “I’m92 and still have a business on the telephone. Ican’t play golf or bridge anymore because I haveRP—retinitis pigmentosa—and I’m blind. This isdefinitely a challenge, but I’m coping. I readmany books on tape.” Alvin would be happy tohear from Marvin Tanenhaus ’40, LLB ’42. LucyHoward Jarvis (New York, NY; [email protected])is still an active producer with Jarvis ProductionsLtd. “Now working on a documentary about peo-ple aged 85 to 105,” she writes. “I was just award-ed the ‘Women Who Make a Difference’ honor bythe Int’l Women’s Foundation at their annual

meeting in Montreal.” Lucy is active in the Presi-dent’s Council of Cornell Women and on the HumanEcology alumni board. She credits her involvementin both PCCW and the IWF to those organizations’scholarship funds and dedication to global educa-tion. Happy 2011 to all. Send news to: Classof 1938, c/o Cornell Alumni Magazine, 401 EastState St., Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850. ClassNotes Editor e-mail, [email protected].

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([email protected]) lives in Tucson, AZ. HerNews Form doesn’t include additional updates, butwe’d love to know more when you have a momentto write. Joseph Dell (Delmar, NY) has moved tothe Good Samaritan Lutheran Healthcare Center.His wife, Mildred, reports that he has been deal-ing with Alzheimer’s disease.

Gabrielle Sichel Rosenbaum (Haverford, PA)has moved to the skilled nursing unit of her re-tirement community. She remains active withswimming and bridge, though she reports thatthese activities are becoming more difficult forher. Estelle Wells Evans (Georgetown, NY) keepsin touch with friends from her high school days inRiverhead, on Long Island, and from Cornell. “The70th Reunion was fun. I have good memories ofour senior ball with two famous bands—GlennMiller and Guy Lombardo,” she writes. Speaking ofReunion, Elizabeth Schmeck Brown, MS ’45 (Skill-man, NJ; [email protected]) sent aphoto from Reunion Weekend featuring Nancy andFrank Tetz ’55, MBA ’56, formerly of Princeton,NJ, and now of Saratoga Springs, NY, along withElizabeth and her son David Brown ’67, whochauffeured her to Ithaca. David spent a year oncampus as an Engineering student before beingdrafted to Vietnam. He finished up at Temple,then earned an MBA at Lehigh.

Elizabeth Gates Whitchurch (Clarence Center,NY) writes, “I enjoy birdwatching in our backyard,visiting my sister Ruth Gates Fisher ’35, and driv-ing my handicapped neighbor to the library andgrocery stores.” When she wrote, Elizabeth had justclosed up the summer cottage on Lake Ontario andwas headed to Harrison, ME, to visit her son andhis wife. Best wishes for 2011 to all members ofthe Class of 1940. Send news anytime of year to:

Class of 1940, c/o Cornell Alumni Magazine,401 East State St., Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850.Class Notes Editor e-mail, [email protected].

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40 Robert Knowlton’s detailedreport arrived from Little Comp-ton, RI, just as our last issue

was going to press. He writes, “I recall BurgesSmith walking on the handrail—many times—going from behind the Engineering buildings,across the Fall Creek gorge, to Ridgewood Roadand Beta Theta Pi house, of which we were mem-bers. At that time, the handrail was about fourinches wide and would vibrate by people crossingthe gorge. He did this usually at night, when I wasthe only person around. He did it without anyconcern; quite a feat, and good balance. I doubtif anyone else then or since has crossed the gorgethis way.” Burges was head of the Glee Club anda member of an honorary club, Bob adds. “Aftergraduation, he became a pilot in the Navy, flyingtwo-engine planes, rescuing downed fliers in thePacific, and instructing pilots up to four-engineplanes.” Burges died in 2008. Of himself, Bobwrites, “No news here; in good health. We havestopped moving—from West Hartford, CT; to Peru;Vermont for 14 years; to Camden, SC; and nowback to Rhode Island.” Bob has been an amateurartist (watercolors) for 60 years and has nowtaken up piano. Many thanks for writing!

Paul Merz has retired from business and livesin a retirement home. He spent five years in theNavy during WWII and reports that he travels ex-tensively. John Thatcher checked in again fromManchester, NJ, and continues to sing in his ca-pable (“luckily”) tenor voice with his 90-year-oldpianist partner. “I have been at this for some 30years and truly enjoy doing it. It keeps meyoung!” Jordan Severinghaus (Shreveport, LA)wrote to add that he and John were two-quartersof a 1936-37 quartet that also included the lateRay McElwee and Paul Eckley. “We even toured:to Danby.” Jordan sent a glossy photo of thequartet, which we regret can’t fit in these pages.He adds, “I sang with the Shreveport Opera andGilbert & Sullivan, but at age 91 no longer do.Now and then I warble a little at Shreveport YachtClub Friday bring-a-dish gatherings. Would beglad to hear from John Thatcher.”

Jack ’38, JD ’40, and Toni Saxe Stewart(Ithaca, NY) report that they’re moving slower.“Use walkers when outside,” Toni writes. “I stillenjoy gardening, with help from a Kendal resi-dent—a retired farmer. We have three gardenbeds, each 4 ft. x 40 ft.” The Stewarts get seasontickets for Cornell football home games. They arecontent living at the Kendal at Ithaca continuingcare community just miles from Cornell’s NorthCampus and have no plans to relocate. Toni knitscaps for newborns at the local hospital and re-ports seven great-grandkids. Kathryn Moore Ring

41 As I begin to write this report onOctober 1 and try to mentally jumpover November 4, Thanksgiving,

Christmas, and January 1, 2011, I must try topicture some of our lives in our reunion year. Ishall hope that your Christmas messages will fillin some of these gaps and that reunion plans areon your new calendars.

Several weeks ago I had a delightful call fromMarjorie Lee Treadwell (Grosse Ile, MI) concern-ing a book she had just finished reading, The Ir-repressible Henry House by Lena Grunwald. I won’tgive it away except to say it chronicles the lifeof a young man who spent his first year as a“University baby” before later adoption. Those ofyou who, like Marge and me, lived in the MarthaVan apartment and “mothered” the baby in ourcharge would find the book fascinating and some-what disturbing, as have certain colleges. Theprogram ended at Cornell in 1969. I must admitthat I have a vague but pleasant memory of myexperience and invite any of you to tell of yoursand what you think of the book. Many thanks toMarge for “opening a door on our past.”

Gretchen Fonda Gagnon (Cohoes, NY) is thefirst to say she hopes to attend our 70th! She is

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an active great-grandmother who still drives andenjoys her nearby great-grandchildren. She hada terrific time at her annual family vacation inWells, ME. Gretchen, I will hope to see you andyour lovely daughters next June! Gloria BrownMithers (Oceanside, CA) is justifiably proud of hertalented grandchildren. Melissa, 17, editor of theprizewinning newspaper at Crossroads Schools, hasbeen awarded first prize from Columbia School ofJournalism for the best high school humor arti-cle. Her cousin Cole, 13, is a gifted cartoonist andpromising clarinet player. Gloria is saddened byher shrinking circle of friends (like all of us) butdid reune with her last two Cornell contacts—Norman ’42, BS Ag ’47, and Lillian StrickmanHecht—in March. Keep on truckin’, Gloria!

Elsie Armstrong Harley (Decatur, AZ) writesthat husband Bob Harley would be pleased toknow that she still supports his Class of ’41 andthat she contributes to the Crew: “They need allthe help they can get.” Bob’s one-man shell isstill in good use in South Carolina. Elsie, I shallnominate you as an honorary member of ourclass. The best to all of you in 2011! ShirleyRichards Sargent Darmer, 20 Haddington Lane,Delmar, NY, 12054; e-mail, [email protected].

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meet you. How about reunion? Warner Lans-ing, 6065 Verde Trl. S., Apt. G310, Boca Raton, FL33433; tel., (561) 487-2008; e-mail, [email protected].

c Bands so exciting. And the wonderful dancing.Wonderful to see.

Please send in your dues and news, if youhaven’t already. Can’t have a column withoutyour help. Thanks. Carolyn Evans Finneran,8815 46th St. NW, Gig Harbor, WA 98335; e-mail,[email protected].

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In his latest returned News Form, JohnWeikart (Hockessin, DE) reminds us, “Many of usreached the 90-year milestone in 2009.” Then hegives the names of four more Chem Es he knowswho have this distinction: Bill Nicoll, JulianSmith, Bob Herrman, and John Powers. He con-tinues, “I’m sure there are other ChEs who crossed90 in 2009. Who are they? We survive and enjoy.Best to all 90-year-olds.” John, I wish I knew ofa way to answer your question, but I don’t. JackWeintraub (Sarasota, FL), while recording histhoughts on a News Form, was evidently also ru-minating over numbers and dates—when he wasborn, when he graduated from Cornell, when hemarried, etc. Coming to his progeny, he wrote,“First child, son, just turned 64. When the devildid he get so old so fast?” Jack, I’ve recently hadthat very thought about my son.

We have received another nice letter fromHerb Abrams (Palo Alto, CA). He has cut back onhis work at Stanford Medical School, as well as hisother professional activities, but still plays tennisthree times a week. He and wife Marilyn continueto make the trip each summer to their other homeon Martha’s Vineyard, to be with their childrenand families. They have moved their residence fromthe Stanford campus to a Hyatt retirement com-munity nearby and they like the change. He plansto visit the East Coast again to attend a HarvardMedical School lecture given in his name and aWashington meeting of the Inst. of Medicine ofthe National Academy of Sciences. He closes bysaying that he looks forward to our reunion, and,“If I’m still hanging around the planet, I’ll bethere.” I’d say that’s a good bet!

Bill Turin (Indian Wells, CA) reports that helives comfortably in the California desert andcontinues in good health except for the usualarthritic ills of the aged. I’d say he is doing verywell indeed—he plans to make his usual visit tohis son and family in Switzerland this year!Werner Schroeder (Lake Alfred, FL), from whomwe’ve heard before, sums it all up: “Been retiredsince June 1976. Have enjoyed the last 34 yearstraveling (Europe, Canada, 49 states.) Enjoyedscenery, trout fishing, jazz festivals. Just restingnow.” Werner, how about making one more trip?Our paths on campus never crossed; I’d love to

42 Pres. Liz Schlamm Eddy (NewYork City) enjoyed a big familycelebration of her 90th birth-

day. The entertainment was provided by her step-granddaughter Sharin Edwards’s band, which hadjust returned from touring Europe, as well asmany others in her family. Congratulation, Liz, onthe Big Day. Liz also remembers Kurt Vonnegut’44 coming to the Women’s Office of the CornellDaily Sun to pick up the Women’s page. Kurt isbeing honored in Indianapolis with the openingof the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library. It willinclude the first editions of his books, a replicaof his writing studio, his Purple Heart from WWII,and an art gallery featuring his line drawings, aswell as a gift shop. Another famous graduate,Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’54, was married to Martin’53, a resident of my hometown, Rockville Centre,NY. Martin passed away last summer.

Jean Pardee Cole (St. Louis, MO) keeps busywith the activities at the retirement home she’senjoyed for the past five years, and visits from hersons from Houston, Jupiter, and Port Washington.Son Peter accompanied her to Connecticut for avisit during the summer. She’s also trying to getorganized and get rid of excess belongings. She’sastonished at all she has collected over the years.And aren’t we all? Bill Webster (Cammack Village,AR) lived an interesting year visiting New Zealand,where he had fun driving a support convoy for acycle team’s 160-mile dawn-to-dusk drive acrossthe width of South Island. He also entertained aguest from Cape Town, South Africa, who was veryimpressed with life in the US. Bill suffered from anE. coli attack, and before his guest left, they ex-perienced a horrible accident in his Prius (gettingblind-sided by a postal delivery truck) that senthim to the hospital for a month of treatments andneck operations, followed by a month of homecare, before he got back on his feet. They both stillsuffer from hearing problems. Bill remains positiveand even has hopes to visit Cape Town next spring.

Dr. Tom Flanagan (Norwich, NY) wrote of thesad passing of Dorothy Marshall Henderson, wifeof classmate Al, LLB ’47 (Peoria, AZ). Al metDorothy on a blind date arranged by Tom, andthey married a few years later. Tom and Estherhave seven sons; six are Cornell graduates (threelawyers), and one inexplicably went to Syracuse.Most live near them—how lucky they are. I alsolearned from Jim Kraker (Gouverneur, NY) that heis now in New Smyrna Beach, FL, although heprefers the wintry weather of New York. His tripdown was typical of today’s air transportation, andhis two sons helped him out, one by driving hiscar down (he continues to drive locally) and theother by going with him on the plane. It turnedout that the flight was so bad (they had to takea taxi from Gainesville) that the driver beat them.His son also drove him to his sister’s 87th birth-day party in Detroit. He gets around and sees peo-ple and also sings in his local church choir, butair transportation is a problem for all of us.

Have you watched Michael Feinstein’s “Amer-ican Song Book” on public TV? The songs ofWWII have been featured and are so wonderfulto hear again. And the words come back as thefamous singers of those days perform. Songs ofthe ’40s and ’50s were so beautiful and the Big

43 Gerry Bowne (Sidney, NY) apol-ogizes for not writing sooner,“but my wife—Barbara (Hall)

’44—and I have had a few health problems. Doingbetter now.” Good for you guys. Cheers, in fact,for all geezers reading about the Bownes right thismoment. Which segues to the knees of LarryLowenstein. His 17-year-old replacement left kneewas upgraded again last January. Now the rightaches to be made new. Rotate them, Larry, liketires. If, when I die, I told the wife—Mary Louise(Snellenburg) ’45—the autopsy shows that I needa knee replaced, send me to the Rothman Clinic.As for those of you not my wife, in lieu of teddybears, please enroll me in the Pastrami-on-Rye-of-the-Month from Carnegie Deli—(212) 757-2245.

A while back we set a Class of ’43 goal of150 dues payers for 2009-10. Today we’re pleasedto report that 181 classmates came up with thelong green for a performance (120 percent ofgoal) among the very best of 78-some classes.We’re indeed “pleased”; “delighted” would callfor you hold-outs to pry open the moth satchel.Operators are standing by.

Re: the current Russian wheat shortage: In1966, you will recall, Leonid Brezhnev, GeneralSecretary of the USSR, while delivering his five-year plan to the Commissariat, proclaimed thatRussia was going to surpass the US in every facetof human endeavor. “In five years, I say, in fiveyears every Russian family will have its own air-plane!” Lowly parliamentarian gets to his feet, wayin the back: “Commissar Brezhnev, why will everyfamily want its own airplane?” “Suppose, Comrade,you live in Minsk, and there’s bread in Kiev.”

My good friend Harry Petchesky ’59 recentlygifted me with a DVD of the 2009 Romp-n-Stompperformance in Bailey Hall, the centerpiece of the50th Reunion of the Class of 1959. The focus,probably not planned, turned out to be on thatnoble and lovable soul, Peter Yarrow ’59 of Peter,Paul & Mary. Great evening. Spirited fun. (Romp-n-Stomp was the nom-de-guitar-pick for Prof.Harold Thompson’s wondrous tour through Amer-ican folklore, English 355-356. In our day a small-ish class met in the basement of Goldwin Smith,down past all those plaster nudes, where we wereenchanted to inhale the vigorous joy of the liv-ing, breathing, singing ex-convict Leadbelly (Hud-die Ledbetter), Alan Lomax and his Library ofCongress recordings, and like that, all of whichmany years later enhanced our enjoyment and un-derstanding of CAU’s 2009 marvelous MississippiRiver journey to the birthplace of the Blues withjam sessions by Prof. Steve Pond on the drums,our son Miller Jr. on the Blues harmonica, andold smoothie David Skorton on the flute.

Prof. Thompson, whose eyesight was so weak,poor soul, he had to squint at the world throughlenses thick as the bottom of a Coke bottle, wasan exhilarating teacher and lifelong friend. I oncewrote a short piece about him in the Sun, endingwith: “He takes attendance after class by goingaround the room to feel which seats are warm.”

Gene Saks, our one-time roommate, calledfrom the Hamptons the other week to 1) bask in







the sunlight of our golden baritone, and 2) askwho among his old Cornell buddies were still abovethe sod. That didn’t take long. Sorrow here. Alas.Broadway stage and silver screen actor/directorGene has these days turned his talents to thegraphic arts—brushes, palette, easel . . . theworks. But closeted in our lavish digs at Edgecliffin the ’40s, Gene chopped away at the eveninghours—taking along my grade average—by de-livering side-splitting impressions of members ofthe faculty. He’ll be hilarious doing Monet. S.Miller Harris, P.O. Box 164, Spinnerstown, PA18968; e-mail, [email protected].

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ties include daughter Laurel Brandt ’72, MA ’74,and grandson Harrison Leavens ’04, as well as hiswife of 62 years, Barbara (Bookstein) ’48.

Andre Capi, MD ’46 (Ft. Lauderdale, FL; [email protected]) shares a bit of hard-wonknowledge: “After postponing surgery for much toolong a time, I had a left anterior hip replacementin mid-May. I was walking with a walker the nextday! I mention this because the new anterior ap-proach does not cut through muscle as does theusual posterior approach. As a physician, I wasamazed that it is not more available. It requires aspecial operating table and uses a Stryker replace-ment. At present, there are only two hospitals inSouth Florida where this is performed, but I’m suremany others in the nation provide this procedure.Hip surgery is so often needed in our age groupthat I’m passing this information along and hopeyou will do the same. Feel free to contact me.”Chuck McCoy, B Chem E ’48 (Orinda, CA) alsoshares a bit of 20-20 hindsight. “As they say, ifI had known I would live this long, I would havetaken better care of myself,” he writes. “Likeskipping some of those Cornell beer parties.”

Bob Miller suggests a class trip: a ten-daytrain ride from Toronto to Calgary. He had justreturned from such a journey when he filled outhis news form and reports that the trek was “verynice.” Alice E. Garmezy, an honorary member of theclass whose husband Robert Garmezy, BEE ’43,BME ’45, died in 2005, sent class dues from herhome in Ithaca, along with a family update. “Mybrother’s granddaughter graduated from ILR andhas a job with Google in human resources startingin September. Twenty-four of us enjoyed dinner thenight before, all of us closely or loosely related toher except one son of family friends. Seventeen ofus cheered for her at the ILR commencement cer-emony after the main ceremony in the stadium.”Alice hosted daughter Lorena Garmezy ’86 andher husband, as well as daughter Carrie GarmezyHrousis ’92, MAT ’93, and granddaughter Rena, 8,“and everyone else dropping in at various times,”she writes. “A little hectic, but great fun.” Aliceadds that she occasionally sees Bob Miller, BA’47, a fellow denizen of Kendal at Ithaca. “He islooking well.” Send news to: Class of 1944,c/o Cornell Alumni Magazine, 401 East State St.,Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850. Dorothy Kay Kesten,1 Crestwood Rd., Westport, CT 06880; e-mail,[email protected].

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our Cornell years and will be donating her collec-tion to the University Archives as she retires fromthe post. I chatted with Maralyn Winsor Flemingat the picnic and learned her family has donatedsignificantly to the Plantations and the CornellBells. Those gifts endure for centuries. Photosfrom classmates David Nimick and Henrietta Bur-gott Gehshan, BS HE ’44, dating from our yearson campus, also came to the Archives.

Other classmates who made reunion memo-rable were: Marguerite Moore Baker with hus-band Mac ’43, BArch ’43, Carolyn HendricksonCummings, Jean Hall Dinsmore, Mort Eydenberg(with daughter Susan Westlake), Walter Hamil-ton, BS Hotel ’49, and wife Barbara (Rapp) ’48,Dan Hartley, BME ’44, MS ’47, and wife Phyllis,Lois Georgia Humphrey, George Karp, BA ’47,Madelaine “Chickie” Ring Kent, Robert Leach,Richard Legge, Marjorie Marks Boas Levins withhusband Jack, Anna Huttar MacDonald, PhyllisAvery Olin, BA ’44, Ann Lynch Pape, BS HE ’44(with daughter Margaret Pape Kraseski ’75), He-lene Scheuer Rosenblatt, BS HE ’94, Bruce Weir,and Mary R. Wright.

Mildly sour note: All commercial flights fromthe Ithaca Airport were canceled between noonand 7:00 PM on Sunday due to “bad weather”—although there was neither wind nor rain and pri-vate planes were taking off and landing frequently.Some had to stay in motels overnight and fly outMonday. In that group were yours truly and Glo-ria Marti, a loyal reunioner here with longtimefriend Fred Ferguson.

Henrietta Burgott Gehshan, BS HE ’44, is aco-teacher of an adult class at the EpiscopalChurch of the Redemption in Southampton, PA.She also prepares meals for elderly shut-ins andis a member of Delta Kappa Gamma, an honoraryteachers organization, as well as the PennsylvaniaAssociation of School Retirees. She has a 7-month-old great-granddaughter in Brooklyn, whom she’dlike to be holding. Some of the photos she re-cently gave to the Archives (mentioned above)are of the practice room in Martha van Rensse-laer Hall. Her fond memory is meeting her futurehusband at the Wesley Foundation.

Richard Weishaar, BA ’49, MD ’52 (Machi-pongo, VA) left the campus in December 1942and returned in 1946, so had a considerable de-lay in his career start because of the war. He mar-ried Marie and had 32 years in a solo ob/gynpractice. James Carley, PhD ’51 (Tucson, AZ) sayshe would rather be snorkeling in a warm oceanpopulated by gorgeous creatures (also those onthe beach). His memorable moment at Cornell waswhen his miniature plant for making dimethylanaline ran beautifully on its maiden run aftermonths of redesign and tinkering. He would liketo hear from those who entered the ChemE classin 1941, joined V-12, and returned in 1946.

Doris Fenton Klockner ’43 (Denville, NJ) tellsus of husband Joe’s hopes to go fishing or justhang around on the Jersey Shore. They have beenmarried 65 years and met in Willard Straight Hall.William Berley, BS Ag ’48, enthuses, “There is nobetter city than New York City to be retired in—the botanical gardens and zoo, parks, restaurants,courses at NYU, 92nd Street Y, theatre, opera, bal-let, art galleries, museums, and movie choices.”But hold on: Bill also fits in two Cornell campuscourses and a CAU London Theatre trip! Any class-mate care to top that for retirement activity?Marjorie Fine Albert (Danville, CA) is VP/secretaryat Digiray Corp., which manufactures a high reso-lution digital X-ray system that can “see” bones,

44 Ed Fitchett (Poughkeepsie, NY)had fun this past year workingon the 70th Reunion of his

Poughkeepsie High School graduating class. Of300 graduates, they received 42 reservations forthe mid-June luncheon. “Not bad, considering ourage,” he writes. “We’ve been using a ‘People Find-er’ program to locate lost classmates and tele-phoning our invitation to them. The responseshave been heartwarming. Even though many can-not come, usually because of health, they greatlyappreciate being remembered and enjoy the op-portunity to talk about high school friends. I feelthat our reunion is about more than just the at-tendees.” Margaret Pearce Addicks (Washington,CT) was Ed’s fellow Cornell representative.

Cal De Golyer, BS Ag ’43, reports that he re-mains in his home of 62 years in Castile, NY, onthe farm. “The property has a splendid view of theGenesee River Valley and Letchworth State Park,”he notes. Fellow Rochester-area resident TaylorKeller, BME ’47 (Naples, NY) writes that he’s hada quiet, enjoyable year in a modest ranch houseon a small cul-de-sac in a scenic, hilly suburb.“We are the most senior,” he writes. “Most of ourneighbors are still employed, and two coupleshave kids living at home. Our pride and joy is ourvery modest, updated, 125-year-old cottage ona large lot on the west shore of CanandaiguaLake. We’d be pleased to have any of our Cornellfriends visit us for a meal or two, a swim, and asmall boat ride, sail, paddle, row, or motor. Weare particularly proud of our far-flung family ofthree kids and their spouses, our six grandkids,and two great-grands. The closest live in Madi-son, WI. The others are spread along the WestCoast from Lopez Island, north of Seattle, toIrvine, CA. Our traveling days are about over, ex-cept for Thanksgiving in Connecticut; we’ll dependon friends and family visiting us.”

Mary Lee Stroud Laird (Little Silver, NJ; [email protected]) reports that Jack ’42 died onDec. 21, 2009, very peacefully in his sleep. He was90. “My best friend is gone after 68-1/2 very goodyears,” she writes. “Cornell, WWII, births, deaths,adventures on the sea and in the air. He was anavigator and airplane pilot and owner, business-man running Laird & Co., owned 225 years, samefamily. I can go on and on. We have four great-grands: three boys and one girl, the princess. Oneson, John III, and one daughter, Bonnie. Life goeson.” Bill Falkenstein, BS Hotel ’47, writes withnews of his real estate dealings. He and Barb soldtheir house in Norwalk, CT, and now rent a verynice condo in a golf course community in FlatRock, NC, an Asheville suburb in the mountains.“We are negotiating for a condo on the golf course.We’ll keep in touch.” Norman Brandt, BCE ’47(Roslyn Heights, NY) says “hello” to all who knowhim. He’s fighting Parkinson’s disease. His Cornell

45 We are saddened to note thesudden but peaceful death ofRobert A. Olmsted on August

16, 2010, devoted husband of 61 years to Pauline;loving father of Larry, Alan, and Elizabeth ’74;and proud grandfather of Nicholas ’12, Timothy,and Andrew. He was former planning director ofthe MTA of New York City and a veteran of WWII.Bob had a 60-year friendly argument with the latePrentice Cushing, BEE ’44, about the status ofthe Second Avenue subway, whose constructionwas begun in 1929, but then had many starts andstops. He was honored at its most recent restartin 2007 as its most faithful champion, and prom-ised us, “Classmates will travel up to 96th Streeton this subway on their 70th Reunion!” He was alongtime stalwart of our class and came to our re-cent reunion, where he was chairman of the nom-inations committee and assumed the position ofclass historian from Libby Hemsath deProsse.

Final notes on reunion: Libby de Prosse, classhistorian for ten years, exhibited memorabilia from









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tissue, and even hair at a faster and lower dosagethan conventional machines. She still has time inher off-hours for an active social life, reading,playing the drums in a small jazz band, and grow-ing fruits, veggies, and flowers in her garden. Shewould like to hear from Norma Goldsmith Baum’46, her super-delightful roommate.

Flash: We now have our own website man-aged by Jerry Haddad. Check it to read the in-troductory letter by Class Prez Maxine Katz Morseand my supplementary report of Reunion (http://classof45.alumni.cornell.edu). We may speedsome news by using it and get those classmateswho don’t receive the Alumni News to become in-volved. Write us of your doings. Bob Franken-feld, 6291 Bixby Hill Rd., Long Beach, CA 90815:e-mail, [email protected]; or Julie KamererSnell, 3154 Gracefield Rd., Apt 111, Silver Spring,MD 20904; e-mail, [email protected].

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also be able to see the progress of the Johnson’sspectacular new wing from the existing Johnson’supper floors. But, greatest of all, Dr. Robinson hasagreed to take ten to 15 members of our classon a personal tour of the Johnson. As one of thelucky 40 on the SFMOMA tour, I guarantee a once-in-a-lifetime experience to those who avail them-selves of one of Frank Robinson’s last acts beforehis retirement from Cornell. To reserve a slot onthe tour, e-mail me at [email protected]. Reser-vations will be recorded in the order received.

Drs. Walter and Jean Krumwiede Boek(Washington, DC; [email protected]) are farfrom retired. Walter is president of InternationalGraduate U. and chair of the Democracy Hall ofFame Int’l. Two of his recent books are The Evolu-tion of a Democracy: This Country is Our Country,the United States of America and How to Establisha Democracy or Improve the One You Now Have.Additionally, he has published nearly 100 articlesin scientific journals. Jean is dean of the Collegeof Democracy and has published many articles andbooks, including Society and Health. Walter valueshis experience as editor-in-chief of the CornellCountryman, as master of the Grange, presidentof the Extension Club, the winner of an impor-tant speaking contest, and presiding officer ofthe Cornell University Council. Jean has played aleading role in the designing of the ninth to 12thgrade University High Public Charter School.

Allen Boorstein (New York, NY; [email protected]), a life member of the Cornell Coun-cil, had his hands full running the Harvard Busi-ness School’s 60th Reunion in September 2010.But it all worked out. He’s proud of wife Jane’sfamily planning program. She developed and im-plemented it successfully in Ethiopia. Now it’s amodel for other African nations and developingcountries. Allen thinks he and Jane will be on theHill for our reunion in June. He’d love to hear fromChuck Nicolson, Arthur Bernstein, LLB ’50, StanLondon, and Rodney Stieff, BS ME ’45.

TO PUBLISH YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS, e-mailme. Include your name, city, and state. Sendnews to: Paul Levine, 31 Chicory Lane, SanCarlos, CA 94070. Tel, (650) 592-5273; e-mail:[email protected]. Class website: http://classof46.alumni.cornell.edu.

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great. Natalie’s granddaughter Leigh Morehouse’11 is now a senior at Cornell. Also in her familyis daughter Ellen Rosenstock Morehouse ’72,daughter Joan Rosenstock, MRP ’83, and son-in-law John Morehouse ’72. She ends her submis-sion with these words: “We’ll always love Cornell.”

Ray Fox, PhD ’56, is working hard at gettinghis yard and garden back in shape after nine yearsof neglect. His cat, Kitty, keeps him company—and the mice at bay. He is looking forward to our65th Reunion. Marjorie Knapp Barron, BS HE ’46,now lives with her sister Helen Knapp Ingerson’44 in a condo in Florida and also in a home inRochester, NY. Marjorie loves to travel and hastoured Europe and South Africa. She had lived andworked in eight states, mainly in the health field.Marjorie Helgans Hughes, MD ’50, has movedinto a retirement home in Falls Church, VA. It islocated only two blocks from Arlington, where shelived for almost 56 years. She has six childrenand 12 grandchildren. Marjorie extends wishes forhealth and happiness to all.

Lillian Gorton Spiece is still loving and livingin Tucson, AZ, especially when seeing the weath-er back East. She loves reading news about herformer classmates. Richard Leonard says that lifereally began for him when he met his future wife,Barbara, at a Cornell vs. Columbia football game in1946 in NYC. She was attending with her sister PatDemarest ’46, who was engaged to John Brace’48, PhD ’53, the Cornell band manager. Richardwas playing in the band and wrangled an intro-duction from John. They married in 1951 and hadfour children, three of whom went to Syracuse andone, Dean ’76, who went to Cornell. After livingin Kentucky and New Jersey and working for GE,

46 2011: Our big year is here. Ihope to see many of you at our65th Reunion in June. By now

you’ve received the News and Dues letter from ourpresident, Lloyd Slaughter, encouraging you tosupport the class with your reunion attendance.You’ve also probably received the Annual Funddrive notice asking ’46 members to give moremoney to help us surpass previous 65th Reunionclasses. We hope you consider this request . . .but regardless of the amount you give, WE WANTTO SEE YOU IN JUNE.

I heard from Hazel Brill Brampton (Ithaca)this summer. “I am a volunteer at the TompkinsCounty History Center, plus I enjoy all the playsand conferences available in Ithaca. LouiseGreene Richards, PhD ’65, also lives in town andwe have reconnected. I am still living in myhouse, but like you, will eventually move to a re-tirement home or condo.” Otherwise, my mailboxis empty, but not for long, as your news formswill reach me soon.

My sons are planning on bringing me to re-union, as I just had a third stroke in August. Ispent my 86th birthday in the Reading Hospital,returned to the Phoebe Health Care Unit, and fi-nally to my apartment. Once again, my speechwas affected and I lost my appetite. However, Iwouldn’t miss this opportunity of seeing you, soI will be at the Statler with cane, walker, andwheelchair come June. HOPE TO SEE YOU! Elinor Baier Kennedy, 9 Reading Dr., Apt. 302,Wernersville, PA 19565; tel., (610) 927-8777; e-mail, [email protected].

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Last September, 40 Cornell alumni were treat-ed to a tour of the San Francisco Museum of Mod-ern Art by Frank Robinson. Dr. Robinson, directorat Cornell’s Johnson Museum for 19 years, alongwith SFMOMA’s curator of Painting and SculptureJanet Bishop ’85, gave an exquisite look insidethe museum’s permanent collection—ranging from17th-century Dutch to Fauvism and Cubism to PopArt and Abstract Expressionism, Conceptualism,German Expressionism, and the art of California.Several of the lucky 40 were of our vintage: IdellCarey Donnelly ’50, Paul Levine, and MarthaMerrifield Steen ’49.

Dr. Robinson has many more treats in storefor us during reunion in June 2011. Scheduled atthe Johnson are exhibits of icons (such as MarilynMonroe and Andy Warhol), Goya’s etchings, andphotography donated by members of reuning class-es with presentations given by the donors. We will

47 You never know, so don’t assume. . . as in the following amusingstory from my son, Steven Shain

’77, who lives in Petaluma, CA. He met a manwho was wearing a white cap with a big red “C”on it. He approached the man and said, “I seethat you went to Cornell.” “No,” the man replied,“Colgate.” The university, not the toothpaste.

Jay Milner tells us that he and Edith are do-ing OK and planning their umpteenth cruise. Heis fully retired from his professorial stint after 30years at Temple U. Our Pete Schwarz, BEE ’46, andJay were V-12 dorm-mates way back when. Edithand Jay were also present when Pete received thecoveted Vanneman Award last year as “outstand-ing class leader.” Walt Fedirko (Hillsborough, NJ)made his second move after living in a home inWatchung, NJ, for 50 years. Four married daugh-ters with nine grandchildren helped. He hopes totravel again after a lapse of two years.

Natalie Mann Rosenstock now lives in Boyn-ton Beach, FL, and recently met Carol ShapiroSiegler and Carol Cole Rothenberg, BA ’46, forthe first time since 1947. She sent along a pic-ture of the three of them and they all looked


http://classof45.alumni.cornell.edu














Philco, and Fedders, Richard retired from UnitedEngineers and Construction in 1987 and moved toNaples, FL. In 2008 he and Barbara moved to Cal-ifornia to be nearer to son Dean and his family.

Renee Brozan Goldsmith is an active golfer,duplicate bridge master, and licensed interior de-signer. Her husband, Donald ’42, BArch ’47, is alsoactive in tennis, in addition to being an architect,interior designer, and licensed realtor. Their daugh-ter Cathy ’71 lives in NYC and is VP of RandomHouse Children’s Book Division. Their two otherchildren graduated from the U. of Rochester: Mar-alyn is a therapist in Illinois, while son Steven isan attorney in Boca Raton, FL. Edward Wells livesin Cincinnati, OH, and was married to MargaretJean (Bradley) ’45. He is active in nonprofit res-idential work, rehabbing or replacing abandonedhomes. He also chairs a campaign for a retirement

community that is working to build a chapel andwellness center. The chapel is to be named afterMargaret, who passed in 2004.

Frances Mulry Baran and husband John ’50,MBA ’52, have moved to a new apartment in thesame continuing care community in Needham,MA. Walter Cohan and wife Nancy are living inVero Beach, FL, and have been married for 62years. They have five children and ten grand-children. After Cornell, Walt had a career in mar-keting, only to be interrupted by the Korean War.Walt would love to hear from Marines who werein the V-12 unit at Cornell. Maxine Stern Moore,BA ’46, MS ’48, is living in Princeton, NJ. RogerBroeker writes from Naples, FL, that he is cele-brating his 90th birthday and has been marriedto wife Martha for 62 years. He says he is look-ing forward to the 65th Reunion in 2012.

A last piece of info from Roger says it all:Long life, long marriage, and looking to the future.None of us knows what lies ahead, but we can allplan to attend our 65th Reunion on June 7-10,2012. Remember, we all want to know about whatyou are doing, where you have been, family, etc.,so write, call, or e-mail. Sylvia Kianoff Shain,653 Primrose Lane, River Vale, NJ 07675; tel.,(201) 391-1263; e-mail, [email protected];Arlie Williamson Anderson, 238 Dorchester Rd.,Rochester, NY 14610; e-mail, [email protected].

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were History with Prof. Frederick Marcham, PhD’26, and English with Prof. David Daiches. Theywere both tough courses and demanding teachers.I write this news after traveling to California andhaving Thanksgiving dinner there. Expect to trav-el in southern Europe with daughter, son-in-law,and grandchildren. I drive a Toyota Corolla (no re-call yet). Good on gas and durability. Last spring,I traveled to Morocco. I’m now trying to get somework done in connection with board duties. Mostmemorable events are the birth of children anddeaths of family and friends. I have much to learn,but that’s been true ever since I can remember,although I keep on forgetting and re-learning it.Life’s meaning is an enigma because we try todiscover it with questionable information and in-adequate capabilities (so what else is new?). (P.S.I used to draw sailboats in class.)”

Dana Keller, Ralston, NE: “BSF ‘Bible Fellow-ships.’ Being a Nebraska licensed P.E., I can re-view and stamp electrical plans. Federal debt istoo high. Stop Congress from spending so muchmoney! I’m thankful for my Electrical Engineeringeducation at Cornell, which made my profession-al life very good. I’ve been doing the same thingfor years—religion, golf, and helping grandchil-dren.” Dianne Shapiro Gasworth, Palm Beach,FL: “Tennis and bridge. Retired from law practicein New York and Florida. US situation is static. Iwas good at raising children (three lawyers) andgrandchildren (two lawyers), but the world con-ditions baffle me. Just visited doctor. Old age isnot golden, it’s rusty. Tomorrow: tennis, bridge,and theatre (to see ‘Brighton Beach’). I drive aJaguar. I don’t care about clothing or jewelry, butlove cars. It looks like no other car on the road.Happy where I am, trying to stay healthy. Hap-piest times were children’s weddings.”

Joanne Norton Mayer, Marblehead, MA: “Vol-unteer work. Couple of board director jobs in lo-cal charitable organizations. Things are improving.I’m an optimist—but I think we had the best oftimes. After Christmas 2009, I spent the rest ofthe winter skiing at Sunday River in Maine. I drivean Acura. It starts! It’s fine, and it likes wintermountain driving. I’ve lived in this house 50 yearsand I love it!” Gerald Sallus, Culver City, CA: “At-torney and board president, WLA College Founda-tion. The country is deteriorating. We are in adepression and Congressional Republicans arepreventing any meaningful legislation. Favoritecourse and teacher: Electrical Transmission Sys-tems, Prof. Joseph Tarboux ’22, PhD ’37. All En-gineering courses were tough. I drive a Saturn.It’s most comfortable for my wife. Went to SantaRosa in it over Labor Day. Happy here in CulverCity. Visited Alaska on a cruise last May/June,Yosemite in October, and Albuquerque in Novem-ber. Highlight of life is the birth and growing upof our children. Nothing worrying me. For somelucky reason I am alive and in good health—sofar! Keep on truckin’!”

Charlie Hallagan, Newark, NY: “Getting closeto the point where I can shoot my age on the golfcourse. Suggestion: As a stimulus payment, howabout selling Miracle Gro to the marijuana grow-ers in California. Might help Gov. Schwarzeneggerbalance the budget.” Earl and Pat Chasteney Saw-in, Sanibel, FL: “Two children, four grandchildren,and four great-grands. Retired from graphic artsbusiness in Philadelphia and moved to Sanibel Is-land 11 years ago. Patricia volunteered for 30years at the ‘Trading Post,’ with all proceeds goingto the Inst. for Cancer Research in Philadelphia.She was also VP and treasurer of the women’sboard at the institute. We still flub around thegolf course every week, but I’m more comfortableworking out at the local recreation center on theisland. We’ve pretty much traveled around theworld and are content to visit our memories. I wasrecalled to active duty with the Marines for theKorean conflict and still work with the military byassisting returning vets from the current conflicts.This is our 60th wedding anniversary.”

John Snedeker, Savannah, GA: “Yes, the Pi-rate House Restaurant is alive and well in Savan-nah. It is the venue for the monthly luncheonmeetings of our Propeller Club. I am a memberof the Citizens Advisory Board of the SavannahRiver Site near Aiken, SC, where weapons-gradenuclear materials were produced in the 1950s and’60s. The reactors have all been de-commissionedand the mission is now cleaning up and dispos-ing of the radioactive waste.” (Ed. note: The Pi-rate House is famous for its Chatham ArtilleryPunch—very explosive—which takes several daysto concoct. Your curmudgeon-in-chief made abatch in 1986 and succeeded in getting thewhole Reid Ave. neighborhood plastered.) BobPersons, 201 Reid Ave., Port Washington, NY11050; phone and fax, (516) 767-1776; e-mail,[email protected].

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‘We’ve pretty much traveled aroundthe world and are content to visit our memories.’Earl and Pat Chasteney Sawin ’48

48 Richard Brown, Rockville Centre,NY: “Retired; serve (if that’s theword) on one board of directors;

eat breakfast while reading the New York Times, oc-casionally writing letters to same; travel; sail andswim (summers only). The country is static. Eco-nomically, we’re better off than a year ago, but it’squestionable whether improvement will continue,and we need a better grip on our foreign policy.Solution: watch less TV and read more non-fictionbooks; get more realistic about goals and expec-tations; develop and improve our capacities forsustained intelligent thought. Favorites at Cornell

49 What is the one thing you re-member most fondly from youryears at Cornell? For our class,

the answer is that one thing is not enough. Mostof us have answered with several. Friendships ledthe list, followed, not in any order, by great cours-es, great professors, and the beauty of the cam-pus! For Wadsworth Stone (Natick, MA; [email protected]), friendship with brothers atKappa Sigma fraternity is the answer. He also tellsus that he would most like to hear from RobertRussell. Waddy is with Combustion Installationsof New England Inc., specialists in combustionand associated equipment, an industrial processheating systems business. He enjoys golf andtravel and volunteers with the Alzheimer’s Associ-ation in Boston. A fighter pilot during WWII, Wad-dy is now a private pilot. He’s recently been flyingout of Hanscombe Air Force Base in Bedford, MA,and he’s eager to do more!

George Weikart (Pasadena, MD; [email protected]) observes that “old age ain’t for sissies”and tells us that most of his old Cornell friendsare gone. He fondly remembers “wandering aroundthe beautiful campus and gorges in spring of mysenior year with friends and classmates.” George,married to Anne, has been retired for 26 years anddoes volunteer work. He’s been watching finances,doing yard work, traveling, and keeping a “closeeye on investment performance and the market.”He’d rather be sailing, he says, and notes that hesold his boat in 2007. Joseph McAuliffe (Shore-view, MN) reports that, retired, he engages in










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community activities “of the usual kind.” Howev-er, there were many special events held as part ofhis induction into the National 4-H Hall of Fameas the nominee from New York and South Dako-ta; the governor of South Dakota declared aJoseph McAuliffe Day in his honor. With Dr. Har-lan Copeland he completed, published, and dis-tributed Windows to a Wider World, a study ofPayne/National 4-H Fellows 1931–1969, and inOctober 2008 held a reunion of Fellows at the Na-tional 4-H Conference Center in Washington, DC.Asked what he’d rather be doing now, he replies,“Not a thing—except to move faster, as when 25years old. Slow at 83.” His fondest memories ofdays on the Hill are the “knowledge and teach-ing ability and friendliness of Cornell faculty.” Heenjoyed hearing from Don Briggs ’51 (Hurley,NY), a member of Alpha Zeta.

Herm Harrow (Monterey, CA; [email protected]), married to Noreen, plays tennis fiveor six times a week and volunteers at the localhospital. Noreen raises money for the local sym-phony. They have established the Harrow FamilyScholarship Fund, which has provided annualscholarships for ILR students, and donate yearly tothe Tower Club. Herm and Noreen regretted beingunable to attend the 60th Reunion because ofother priorities, but look forward to our 65th!Donald Singer (Evanston, IL; [email protected]), married to Ruth (Horwit) ’58, is clinicalprofessor of medicine (cardiology) at the U. ofIllinois at Chicago. He writes that his favoritememories of Cornell are the interaction with hisdiverse classmates and with many faculty mem-bers, particularly with Dr. Mario Einaudi. He isworking, writing manuscripts, traveling, and “loaf-ing in Boca.” Don visits a condo in Boca Raton,FL, and says that he “would like to meet someCornellians, ’49ers and others, for socializationpurposes. I would be glad to hear from any/allCornellians in Chicagoland, particularly those liv-ing on the North Shore.”

Edgar Galson (Syracuse, NY; [email protected]) plays the piano, skis, swims, plays tennis,hikes, and travels, mostly on “very adventuroustrips.” Married to Eva, he has traveled to Argenti-na, Iceland, Greece, and Bhutan, and has takennumerous trips skiing in the West. He also enjoyscourses and is active in the community, attend-ing concerts, plays, movies, and much more. Hesays, “I am doing now what I wish to do.” He re-members fondly the beauty of the campus and theintellectual ferment at Cornell. Edgar would enjoyhearing from Jerry Grey ’47, MS ’49. John R.Jones (Grand Blanc, MI; [email protected]) has fond memories of “the inspiring teach-ers/professors” at Cornell. He tells us that his wife,Phyllis, has Alzheimer’s. “Her care and mainte-nance have been overwhelming for the past fouryears.” Patricia Kendall Shotwell (Weston, MA;[email protected]), retired, manages elderlyhousing. She is president of the Weston Friends ofthe Council on Aging, and is a member of Welles-ley Meeting of the Society of Friends. She tells usthat she is doing what she’d rather be doing. Pat,married in 1948, believes that she was the first“very pregnant senior” at Cornell! Her twins wereborn in June, a week after graduation! David Elow(Hilton Head, SC; [email protected]), married toBobbie, is retired. He plays golf and is a memberof the board of friends of the Hilton Head Library.

We should appreciate hearing from anyone whocan tell us the name of our classmate, a retiredmechanical engineer, who lives in Cranberry, NJ.We received his Class of ’49 news form, but he had

not signed it. His wife died in December 2008. Heengages in woodworking, shooting, and sports,and adds that he wishes to get in touch with LoisOnofrio Glamm ’48. We are saddened by the newsof the passing of Bob Dean, whose obituary in theIthaca Journal on October 5 was sent to us by classpresident Jack Gilbert (Ithaca, NY; [email protected]). Bob, an Electrical Engineering student,played football for the Big Red, setting recordsfor kicking and the longest play from scrimmage.He was the Sun’s Athlete of the Year in 1949 andwas admitted to the Cornell Hall of Fame in 1986.Bob was active with SAE and the Cornell Counciland served as a Village of Cayuga Heights trustee.He was also trustee and past board chairman ofIthaca’s First Presbyterian Church and participat-ed in other civic and professional organizations.He is survived by his wife, Maxine, four children,and nine grandchildren. Thank you for your news.Please let us hear from all of you. DorothyMulhoffer Solow, 1625 Lilac Lane, Crescent, PA15046; tel., (724) 784-0371, (315) 717-6003; e-mail, [email protected].

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the Johnson School Hall of Fame. He is also anemeritus member of the Athletics Advisory Coun-cil. In honor of his daughter, Nels endowed theWendy Schaenen ’79 Volleyball Head Coach posi-tion. Nels and wife Nancy reside in Madison, NJ,and have children Wendy ’79, MD ’83, Douglas’82, and Shelly. He and Nancy are members of theJohnson Museum of Art Advisory Council. Nels isretired from his investment firm and stays occu-pied with several nonprofit organizations, espe-cially the New York Downtown Hospital, which isthree blocks from the World Trade Center site andreceived the most victims of the 9/11 attack.

As did many of us, Will Joy, our Class CaperPerpetrator and gifted writer, dearly loved theCornell Chimes so easily heard in campus resi-dences below Library Hill. He befriended thechimesmasters and spent many hours with themin Libe Tower. After graduation Will returned toCentralia, IL, to assume editorship of the familynewspapers. His enthusiasm for carillons inducedhim to travel widely to hear the great carillons ofthe world. Several years before his untimely deathin 1988, he was able to have built in Centralia a65-bell carillon—one of the finest in the world—and to entice from the Netherlands Carlo van Ulft,one of the most accomplished carillonneurs in theworld. A CD of that fine Centralia carillon is nowavailable. To purchase one, you can send a checkfor $11.25 to Carlo van Ulft, Centralia Carillon,P.O. Box 1, Centralia, IL 62801 (e-mail, [email protected]). Free souvenir booklets ofthe Cornell Caper Convocation at our June reunionare also available from your correspondent.

Lawrence Lodico (Ithaca, NY; [email protected]) recalls a poignant campus incident fromwartime 1942. To ready ROTC recruits for soon-to-be active duty, the campus physical educationroutines had been beefed up to quasi-military-type exercises. Fencing coach Monsieur GeorgesCointe had been given charge of an obstaclecourse, which he in his catlike agility easily mas-tered. But it was a significant challenge for flab-by, out-of-shape freshmen. As Lawrence reports,“We scrambled and scrabbled to no avail, at first.But we all succeeded when goaded on by Cointe’sFrench-accentuated exhortation, ‘You can do eet,fat boy!’ ” That became a common rallying cry,which carried on through the war and beyond. ForLawrence it became a functional stimulus that inlater life helped him through troubling situationsincluding a fall that nearly killed him.

Harold Mason (PhD, Wisconsin) (Walnut Creek,CA; [email protected]) was a navigator in the AirForce in WWII. Howard is retired from Chevron,where he was a research manager. He reports trav-eling widely and keeping mentally active studyingastronomy, botany, history, and geology. JeanKrag (Santa Barbara, CA; [email protected]) is a re-tired psychiatrist and currently volunteers withUnited Cerebral Palsy and reads for the blind. Sheenjoys travel, reading, and entertaining her grand-children. Paul Joslin, 6080 Terrace Dr. John-ston, IA 50131-1560; tel., (515) 278-0960; e-mail,[email protected]; Marion Steinmann, 237 W.Highland Av., Philadelphia, PA 19118-3819; tel.,(215) 242-8443; e-mail, [email protected].

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50 Class News: The annual mid-winter class banquet will be at7:00 p.m. on Friday, January 28

at the Metropolitan Club, 1700 H St. NW, Wash-ington, DC, in conjunction with the annual CornellAlumni Leadership Conference. All classmates areurged to attend. Reserve by sending a note andcheck for $85 per person to Stan Rodwin, P.O. Box904, Scottsville, NY 14546. Another get-togetheris planned in New York City in April or May.

On September 25, four classmates attendeda gala banquet at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in NewYork City celebrating the 130th anniversary of theCornell Daily Sun, “America’s Oldest IndependentCollege Daily”: John Marcham, editor-in-chief inour day; Dick Pogue, managing editor; Eve Wein-schenker Paul, associate editor; and MarionSteinmann, features board. Eve was the Sun’sfirst female associate editor and a speaker at thebanquet. She had gone through the scrapbookshe kept of the editorials she had written and“found it remarkable” that the Sun had publishededitorials, many with progressive positions, onsuch a wide variety of national and internationalissues, including so many still prevalent today.Eve earned a law degree from Columbia in 1952.She did legal research and worked as legal coun-sel for major firms and served for 20 years as gen-eral counsel to the Planned Parenthood Federationof America. She is one of three female classmateswho has served as a Cornell trustee.

On September 24, 2009 the board of direc-tors of the Cornell Alumni Association honoredNelson Schaenen Jr., MBA ’51, with its Frank H.T.Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award for hissustained and eclectic contributions to Cornell. Apresidential councilor, Nels retired from the boardof trustees in 1995 after a 24-year tenure, butcontinues as a trustee emeritus. He served on nu-merous critical board committees and chaired theboard’s executive committee from 1983–1995. Hehas been a continuous strong supporter of theJohnson School, where he and his mother, Rose,established the Rose and Nelson Sr. revolvingloan fund. His support for the renovation of SageHall is recognized by the naming of the Rose andNelson Schaenen Amphitheater. A member of theJohnson School Advisory Council since 1969, Nelschaired the school’s campaign committee from1990–95. Both he and his father were named to

51 Richard and Billie Jean Manion(Grovetown, GA) have eight chil-dren, 21 grandchildren, and eight

“greats,” with five living in Florida and one eachin South Carolina, Kansas, and California. Dick isin the Montclair “Who’s Who.” Recent travel
























includes Hawaii, Ireland, and Israel, “all on chil-dren’s inheritances!” Annual reunions since 2007—the last in Old Williamsburg—keep him in touchwith Alpha Chi Rho brothers. His fond memoriesare classes with Clint Rossiter ’39 and Prof.Cushman. “Yes, and the Wells and Elmira girls!”Rosalind and Howard Feinstein, MD ’55, PhD ’57(Ithaca, NY) made a once-in-a-lifetime trip toCairo for a wedding and then to Petra and TelAviv. Granddaughter Isabel, on a visit, settled intoa chair at the A. D. White Library looking as com-fortable as a Cornell freshman—looking into thefuture at age 12! Howard is a distinguished lifefellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

Dorothy Crawford Bayern (Bozeman, MT) ispreoccupied with grandchildren graduating fromcollege and fond memories of meeting Larry ’49at Cornell. They have four children in four states—Montana, Washington, Oregon, and Texas. “Grand-children are even more dispersed!” She fondlyremembers dances at Barton Hall, parties, andwatching Larry play polo. Joseph Bertino (Bran-ford, CT) still works as associate director of theCancer Inst. of New Jersey in New Brunswick. Heand Patricia now have eight grandchildren ages3–21. John Roberts (Sedona, AZ) reports thatgrandson Derek is getting his doctorate at U. ofWashington in organic chemistry, and grandsonJohn Evans spent a one-year breather at Leeds U.to return to finish restaurant and hotel adminis-tration studies at Northern Arizona U., Flagstaff,AZ. All three daughters now have their master’sdegrees. John spent a day with Bob Mealey atSandy, OR, in fall 2006. The Mealeys and theirmenagerie of dogs, cats, and birds were fine. Bobhas a farm that he tends with huge success. BobNelson (Kennett Square, PA) lost his wife, Joanne(Clark) ’57, “a loyal Cornell graduate,” to cancerin late 2009. She was employed at Tower HillSchool in Wilmington, DE.

Jeanne MacLeod Berry (Arlington, TX) writes,“I did finally get to a Cornell function at the Nash-er Sculpture Museum in Dallas, sponsored by Elliot’53 and Karin Hartell Cattarulla ’55. I stay incontact with Dorothy ‘Dani’ North Zirkle ’52(Round Pond, ME). She visited me last year. I keepbusy with the church altar guild, hospital volun-teering, local woman’s club, book discussion group,and quilting. I have one granddaughter graduat-ing from LSU and one attending U. of Texas, SanAntonio. I meet regularly with four Alpha Phis—from four different states. My last travels havebeen to Egypt and a trip through the PanamaCanal with a group of my ’47 Michigan classmates.Life is busy and good! I like the Student ReadingProject. I probably would never have read theirchoices—interesting!” Valerie Sabik Reid (SantaRosa, CA) says, “Each memory that surfaces is very‘fond’; some of them are fondest for varying rea-sons, but not just one of them for all reasons.”

Alvin Ries (Highland, IN) reports that wifeBetty Ellen (Wood) ’49, MNS ’50, passed awayin August 2008. Alvin has been singing in theLake County, IN, Chorus of the Dunes, a chapterin the Barbershop Harmony Society, for 27 years.He is also in the Hoosier Grandpas Quartet. “Wecan’t count—there are 12 men in the group.” It’sa triple quartet. Dancing with Betty in WillardStraight and in the Armory are his fondest mem-ories of Cornell. Michael Chayes (Amsterdam,Netherlands) is “in combat against despotic bu-reaucrats who, from the cover of new health carelegislation, use electronic information technologyto destroy professional confidentiality between doc-tor and patient. We physicians and psychologists

are ‘delinquents’ under the threat of heavy finesif we do not register personal information aboutour patients.” An update: “The court of appealsjust gave us a victory with their verdict from ahearing March 23: the Dutch ‘Care Authority’ hasbeen declared in the wrong for not having de-voted sufficient care and attention in their rulesto protection of the privacy of our patients; theywill have to devise new rules taking this into ac-count. It has been a big fight, but it has paidoff to not take this lying down.”

Don and Ann McNamara (Ponte Vedra Beach,FL) visit their four children (in New York, Califor-nia, and Minnesota) at least once a year. “Theyvisit us once a year in Florida, plus reunions withall children every two years, usually in Mexico.Cruised British Virgin Islands in January; will cruiseNew England in July. Military reunions in 2010 in-clude 18th Fighter Wing in Las Vegas in May; Ko-rean War Veterans Association in Washington, DC,in July. Golf with Fred Eydt ’52 in Ponte Vedra;dinner with Ed Coene’s wife in January; telecomwith Bob Mangan and Don Auty. I see DavidWeatherby ’50 and Gerry Grady ’53 frequently.”

Spring and reunion are just around the cor-ner! Please send your news to: Brad Bond,101 Hillside Way, Marietta, OH 45750; tel., (740)374-6715; e-mail, [email protected].

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writes that she has been babysitting “two darlinggrandchildren,” walking miles with her husband,and reading the New York Times. The Engels movedto Massachusetts to be near their youngest daugh-ter and youngest grandchildren. At Cornell, Norawould have “studied more, not skipped so manyclasses.” Her mother went to Cornell, as did twoof her daughters. She hopes the tradition willcontinue. She cites Prof. Cushman as having thegreatest impact. “He and the other professorswho taught the course sparked my interest in go-ing to law school and becoming a lawyer.” I alsohave a note from Walter Bortko, who was thensick and has since died. He listed his wife Rose-mary (Manno) ’55 as having the greatest im-pact on him at Cornell.

George Vlahakis (Nashville, TN; [email protected]), now widowed, has been “workingout at the YMCA six to seven days a week, watch-ing my weight.” He is down to 198 from 244 afew years ago, feels great, and has no physicalproblems yet. Recently, he has been maintaininga healthy routine, getting plenty of exercise,watching what he eats, and thanking God everyday. At Cornell, he would have studied harder.Myrtle Ericson, Food and Nutrition professor atthe Hotel school, had the greatest impact. Eve-lyn Hoffmann Huffman (Kansas City, MO) spendstime “running around, still trying to get organ-ized and get the house cleaned. Hopeless! Painta few paintings now and then.” She had recent-ly traveled to Canada and New York State andheartily recommended a Bloomsbury exhibit atthe Johnson Museum. At Cornell, “I would havetaken every English or French course—especial-ly from Nabokov or Morris Bishop ’14, PhD ’26.”Greatest impact: curdling a huge vat of mayon-naise in Quantity Cookery and realizing that thatprofession was not for her. However, one of herroommates taught her to make lasagna, whichhas been a cause of lasting happiness.

Gerald Read ([email protected]) summers inPrattsburgh, NY, winters in Bradenton, FL, and isbusy maintaining two homes. He travels, gardens,and enjoys his family. He had taken time out fora pacemaker installation. He wouldn’t have donemuch different at Cornell. He cites “the teachingstaff of rural education” as having the greatestimpact. Rick Clark (Osterville, MA; [email protected]) seemed to be in pretty good shape. InAugust 2009 he participated in his 17th Pan-MassChallenge, cycling his road bike 86 miles in thisfundraiser for Dana Farber Cancer Inst. Rick wasthe fifth oldest cyclist. Apart from that, he playsgolf, travels, reads, builds model boats, does yardwork, and volunteers. He would have preferred toenter Cornell as a freshman rather than as a jun-ior. Impact? His fraternity brothers at Sigma Chi.

Joan Boffa Gaul, [email protected]. Classwebsite, http://classof52.alumni.cornell.edu/.c

52 This column begins with a warn-ing and a bit of a whine. Asthere is a great backlog from fall

2009, and as there is a lag before the new newsreaches me, what follows is essentially old news.If anyone’s is really out of date, please e-mail me.Which brings me to the whine: The news and duesletter asked that you send your news directly tome rather than with your dues check to the uni-versity. If you do/have done that, it may take awhile to reach me, as the address in our class di-rectory is no longer valid. However, as one itemhas already been forwarded, it can be done.

In September 2009, Jim Ling (Ft. Collins, CO;[email protected]) reported spending time “keep-ing up with our adopted daughter, who’s now afreshman in high school. Also gardening and play-ing bagpipes.” He is on the board of the sanita-tion district and president of the NorthernColorado chapter of the Military Officers Associa-tion. Looking back, Jim would have “gone to theHotel school, where I could have had fun andslept late.” Influences were his ChemE classmatesand Prof. Frederick Marcham, PhD ’26, his box-ing coach. Elaine Rose Ruderman (San Diego, CA,[email protected]) sings alto with a 130-voicechorale in Rancho Bernardo at two concerts a year,plays bridge “like a beginner,” leads a monthlyfood and nutrition study group, and travels when-ever possible with companion John, “visiting manyclassmates on the way.” Right now she’d ratherbe playing tennis, hiking the Canadian Rockies,and riding a motorcycle. At Cornell, she had “toomany wonderful instructors to list.”

Miguel Abizaid (Broomfield, CO; [email protected]) spends his time “going fromdoctor to doctor and taking care of Barbi (Broth-ers) ’53 and myself.” He’d rather be on his yacht.(Wouldn’t we all?) Miguel reports, “I had a beau-tiful time at Cornell. Quite innocent and rewarding,my Cornell education gave me the strong base onhow to tackle life with confidence.” Impact? “1)Prof. Watson in thermodynamics; 2) Kiki Cuervo’50, TKE; and 3) Andy Feiner, my roommate.” NoraWalden Engel (Dedham, MA; [email protected])

53 And so, here it is—2011—theyear most of us will become octo-genarians. May this and those to

follow smile upon us all, including such gentlereaders as are not of the Class of MMLIII. It is nowa mere two years and change until our 60th(count ’em, 60th) Reunion—June 6-9, 2013. We’reready to receive applications for the role of re-union chairs. Alumni House is ever more helpfulin view of advancing years, but there is plenty ofroom for compeers who are inclined to participate.

Homecoming 2010 drew a cast of thousandsto sunny Schoellkopf, with hordes of red-shirted










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freshpeople on hand for freshpeople-on-the-fieldday. The dawning of the era of head football coachKent Austin was somewhat greyly overcast, owingto a loss to Yale, but was not without bright Sep-tember moments on the turf. Todd and NanSokolowski Kolb were back to represent ’53 atthe annual reunion of the 1948-52 teams. FormerCornell Prez Dale Corson told those present, “I’dlike to have you back as a football team.” (Don’tforget, they were twice unofficially champions ofthe Ivies and did mash mighty Michigan.) Amongthe Cornell Athletic Hall of Famers who camehome again: Jeff Fleischmann ’51, MEd ’55,Dick Loynd ’50, Hal Seidenberg ’52, JD ’57, RipHaley ’51, Walt Bruska ’50, Frank Bradley ’50,Jack Rogers ’45, BCE ’49, MBA ’50, and DickClark ’51, as well as Carolyn Sampson, spouse ofthe late Harvey Sampson ’51.

In the evening, it turned out that we wereabout as familiar as ever with those seven oldladies (locked in the convenience—”and nobodyknew they were there”). But pianist Tom Foulkes’52 wisely provided copies of the sing-along li-bretto. A group of regulars: the Jim Blackwoods,the Bob Manns, the Bill Bellamys, Jim and Car-oline Mulford Owens, Bob ’52, MEd ’55, andJudy Resnik Chabon, Jane Little Hardy, and moidined graciously with members of other Fiftiesclasses at the Country Club of Ithaca, thanks asever to the efforts of impresario Paul Blanchard’52 (but he’s in our ’53 Cornellian yearbook. En-gineer, you know.)

Aspiring novelist Bob Neff, JD ’56 (Pinehurst,NC) was, in mid-spring ’10, hopingthat a new literary milestone wouldhave been reached about now. Hehad a title picked early in theprocess—”Uber Alles.” We don’tknow for absolute sure that it’sabout, or set in, Deutschland. Butthe completion of the compositioncould be either in hand or at hand.Bob says, “I’m spending my pro bonotime as vice chairman of the Alliancefor Bonded Term Limits.” The con-cept appears from here to be unique:to get “Congressional candidates (to)undertake promises to limit terms inoffice and bond them with signifi-cant commitments if the promise isbroken. Nonprofit, nonpartisan.Growing in popularity.” That seemsunderstandable, even more so thesedays. It appears to be one out ofmany areas in which those of vary-ing views seem to see eye-to-eye.Meanwhile, Bob has stepped downfrom chairmanship of the PrincetonTennis Program, at the opening ofits new tennis center. (“Appropri-ate,” says he, “inasmuch as we havemoved to North Carolina. But it wasa rewarding five-year activity.”)

Naomi Leith Smith, who cameto Big Redsville from Wyoming—notthe state but the upstate New Yorkvillage by that name (2000: popu-lation 513)—continues to pursuematters agricultural (or should thatbe agricultural maters?) in Lexing-ton, KY. She raises registered Finnsheep to produce breeding stockand wool for spinners. The ewes arehelpful. The breed, says Wikipedia,is known for multiple births. The

record, established in Finland, is nine little livelambs. Three or four in a litter are common.There’s also time for Naomi to do travel counsel-ing at the Lexington Visitor Center.

Wanderlust is upon many of us. EugenieGilbert Taub, MEd ’54 (Westfield, NJ) recommendsElderhostels. More or less lately: Chicago for artmuseums and theater, Philadelphia for music andart history, and Scandinavia for river cruising.What’s in the Dailey news? I’ll tell you what’s inthe Dailey news. Glad tidings of great company inOsprey, FL. Bob and Lou Schaefer Dailey ’54 tellof sightings of a number of notables at diverseoccasions: the Alan MacRossies, John ’52 andPeg Livingston Smoots, Dean ’52, MBA ’56, andBarbara Green Bock, Rosemary Seelbinder Jung’54, Nancy Ranck Lee, Carol Reid Lyons ’54, andClancy ’54 and Barbara Gavin Fauntleroy ’55.The Daileys note that they’re very much at homeon the left coast (of Florida) and glad they heed-ed the call to “come on down” 15 years ago. Timemarches on.

Don Ewart (Charlotte, NC) reports on whathe saw at a local wine-testing session. (“Why dideveryone look so young?” There’s a lot of thatgoing around.) He says he looks forward to that60th. An oncology nurse for more than threedecades, Nancy Sokolowski Kolb offers sound ad-vice in her warmly received book, The Breast Can-cer Companion: A Guide for the Newly Diagnosed.Described by professionals as “much needed,” “itreally is a gift of compassion and a fabulous re-source,” one reviewer wrote. Check it out on

54 I think I shall call this my Octo-ber bulletin instead of column,as the flood of expected fall

news forms has not yet (as of this writing) sweptthrough the door. However, our intrepid world trav-eler Bert Rosen saved the day, as he does manytimes, with his summer travel scenario. He endedup with a different destination this summer fromthe one he had carefully planned. Off the docketwent South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and therest of the South African landscape when he felland broke a bone in his hand. The delay broughtabout a change of plans, destinations, and direc-tion, but, never fear, Bert always finds an adven-ture no matter where in the world he lands. Familyvisits to Palm Beach and Los Angeles, where withhis producer cousins he was treated to a LanaTurner Schwab Drug Store-type encounter, werefollowed by a scenic drive up the West Coast—which the lifelong Easterner found enlightening,filled as it was with magnificent vistas from hill-tops and houses surrounded by redwoods. We shallhave to wait another year for his Africa report.Knowing Bert, he will find more elephants inNamibia than I did on my last visit.

As a former class scribe, Lou Schaefer Daileyknows the value of news at this time of year, andright on schedule dispatched an e-mail north. Shewrites that while Sarasota, FL, is famed for its

Get with the ProgramVic Wintriss ’53, BEE ’54

M any kids like to play video games, but Vic Wintriss wants his students to designthem, too. The former electrical engineer is the founder of Wintriss TechnicalSchools, Inc., a San Diego nonprofit that teaches Java, a popular computer pro-

gramming language, to children as young as fourth graders. Beginning with simple games likePong and tic-tac-toe, Wintriss and his volunteer team of professional programmers offer small,

hands-on classes to students who otherwise might not learnprogramming until high school.

After Cornell, Wintriss joined the Navy, where he taughtflight training and computer programming. He spent morethan three decades at various electronics and computerfirms before he parlayed his Navy teaching experience intoWintriss Technical Schools, which he founded four yearsago. The school initially offered free lessons, but is nowfunded by tuition and grants.

Operating out of a single classroom, the school has noformal syllabus. New students begin by designing basiccomputer games, but are free to learn at their own paceand develop their own projects. “It’s individually tailored—there’s no beginning or end,” Wintriss says. “You keep ongoing as fast as you can learn.” Projects tackled by his stu-dents include a father-son team’s Asteroids game releasedfor Android phones and robots programmed for the school’sannual autonomous robotics competition. In the future,Wintriss hopes to secure more grants so he can codify a cur-

riculum and establish other locations. “Many parents tell me that their kids wake up andsay, ‘Today’s computer day!’ ” Wintriss says. “They want to go to school.”

— Marc Campasano ’11

Amazon. Jim Hanchett, 300 First Ave., #8B,10009; e-mail, [email protected].

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weather and its culture, one of its best attributesis the fabulous Cornell Club. It is a very activebunch with its monthly meetings and many socialgatherings. At any given time you are liable torun into both Lou and Bob Dailey ’53, Dean ’52,MBA ’56, and Barbara Green Bock ’53, past pres-ident Ro Seelbinder Jung, Carol Lou Reid Lyons,Don ’53, BCE ’55, and Eloise Mix Unbekant,Arnie ’52 and Betty Brundage Huntress, NancyRanck Lee ’53, Jesse ’51 and Betsy Zobel Han-nan ’51, Sandy and Dave Rossin ’53, and the listgoes on. It is worth planning your visit southaround their schedule of events. Lou said theywould all be raising a toast to the Hill on Zinck’sNight. In November Lou can be found in Tortolaand St. Thomas and the annual boat show. TheSarasota group may have seen a few reunions, butthey remain very active and busy.

Hopefully my next column will contain moreof your adventures, as I know many of us are stillvolunteering, working, traveling, teaching, andplanning for tomorrow. Les Papenfus Reed,[email protected]. Class website, http://classof54.alumni.cornell.edu.

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Jankowitz. When Phil Harvey was vacationing inPhoenix, he and a friend drove to Tucson for a dayto see the marvelous Sonora Desert Museum. “Thistook us right past Marana, the small town whereLarry Lattomus lives with his wife. We made athree-hour detour to visit with Larry and took himto lunch. He remains remarkably positive in hisoutlook, despite having been confined to a wheel-chair for more than 40 years as a result of a 1960sauto accident. Larry and I had been freshmandormmates in Mennen Hall.” Most of you willremember that Larry was on the Cornell relayteam, which won at the big-time Penn Relays.

Phil noted that Fred Weicker, MBA ’56, whowas listed as “missing” on our class list, actuallydied not too long after graduation, after taking offfrom an aircraft carrier. Fred’s sister, Bea WeickerBaldauf, was also a member of Class of ’55. Phil iscurrently writing his memoirs, which revolve aroundthe high number of unlikely coincidences thathave occurred to him and his family over theyears. Big news from George Cohen, LLB ’57: “Afunny thing happened on the way to the forum—President Obama appointed me director of theFederal Mediation and Conciliation Service.” AfterSenate approval, George was sworn in last fall, and“the new adventure has been even better than ex-pected!” Mediators serve as impartial facilitatorsof collective bargaining disputes between laborand management, and George is responsible for theactivities of 175 mediators throughout the US.Congratulations to you, George, on this presti-gious appointment—and to both you and Phyllis(Goody) ’57 on your 50th anniversary.

“Attached is a letter from my favorite UncleMo, which might be of general interest,” writes

55 Rishon Stember is still enjoy-ing a light private medicalpractice of allergy/immunology

and lives in Westport, CT, with his wife, Nancy, aportrait artist (“39 years of marriage—hard tobelieve!”). He is the chair of his NYU medicalschool class, which celebrated its 50th Reunionlast spring in NYC, and has been in contact withCornell and NYU medical school classmates Har-vey Gordon, Greg Siskind, Al Greisman, and Abe

56 A reminder to all that our 55thReunion will be June 9-12, 2011in Ithaca. Secondly, check out

our website at http://classof56.alumni.cornell.edu. And thirdly, let us know your e-mail address.The website will be continually updated and weneed your e-mail address so we can reach you withnew information regarding our reunion.

Howard Brandwein. The advice to young peoplemay be as relevant today as it was in 1951. “Allthe forks in the road and the inevitable stumblingblocks are small incidents in a journey that hasa definite destination and an inevitable arrival.Fraternities, schedules, socials, dances are the in-teresting scenes in the road that you must pass,dwell upon, or give just a passing glance on thistrip. In any event, the course will not be changedmuch. For it is my belief that you have a directionprompted by the character built up by the hard la-bor of your parents, friends, and yourself. This be-ing my assumption, I was quite unperturbed bythe reports of the earth-shaking doings of frater-nities, the novelty of living away from home, andthe considerable impact of college life in general.”Uncle Mo concludes, “I have confidence in yourability to handle it all and arrive safely.” Nearly 60years later, Howard still cherishes this letter.

The last word we had from Karl Wendt, BArch’61, was in 2008. He’d been spending a montheach winter in Costa Rica for 13 years and visit-ing his old buddy Jorge Borbon. “I finally saw thePanama Canal from a two-seat helicopter.” RickHort has been retired for 16 years. Rick and Vir-ginia spend summers at their townhome in PagosaSprings, CO, and winters in Sierra Vista, AZ. “Nowis our time to visit children and grandchildren [inChicago, Fort Collins, CO, and Seattle],” Rick says.Golfer Barbara O’Connor Kenny and archer AnnBusch Githler were invited to campus in the springof 2008 for a weekend honoring WAA members.That was the year, you remember, that bothbasketball teams (women’s and men’s) won theIvy League. The dinner held at the Statler was “abeautiful affair,” Bobbie reports. Attendees rep-resented a wide range of different classes andsports, and all received Pendleton wool blanketswith a big “C,” just like today’s varsity team mem-bers do. Bobbie’s only complaint, and a valid one,was that “they still don’t have a women’s golfteam. Unbelievable!”

We were sorry to learn that Donald Huenewas widowed when his 50-year marriage to An-nette (Spittal) ’56 ended with her death. Don-ald still practices orthopedic surgery and breedsand races thoroughbred horses. He also traveled“around the Horn” in South America. We also sendour sympathy to Dick Stanton, MBA ’58, whosewife, Ann (Acklin) ’59, died in January 2010.

Bob ’54 and Wendy Witherell Hill stay ac-tive with “family, Lake George, camping, biking,hiking, skiing, cutting wood, school board, trav-eling, and seeing friends.” Wendy looks forwardto a bike trip, now that she’s come through hip-replacement and rehab. We were pleased to seeLibby Milliken Klim, BFA ’55, at Reunion. Hav-ing had “a bumpy year, healthwise,” Libby writesthat she found good medical care at Mass Gener-al Hospital and is doing “lots of R&R, as well asmy art, and gathering friends for visits.” In fact,“friends near and far are the best medicine!”Hope you continue to do well, Libby. NancySavage Petrie, [email protected]. Classwebsite, http://classof55.alumni.cornell.edu.

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57 A note from Judy Tischler Rogersincluded a photo of herself andBeth Ames Swartz at one of two

exhibits of Beth’s paintings in Los Angeles lastyear. The first exhibit was at the Lawrence AsherGallery; later in the year the collection was alsodisplayed at ACA Galleries in New York City. InAugust, Judy took a 22-day music tour of CentralEurope—a trip she planned in order to see placeswhere many of the composers she most enjoyslived and worked. Major cities she and friends vis-ited were Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg, Prague, Dres-den, Leipzig, and Berlin. In addition to historicalinterest and cultural treasures in each city therewas at least one concert. The musical highlights

included Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival,works by Beethoven at the Semper Opera Housein Dresden, and the Schumann Mendelssohn Fes-tival at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. Judy alsoreports that her oldest son, Adam Goldstein,president and CEO of Royal Caribbean Int’l, wasa keynote speaker at the Cornell HospitalityResearch Inst. last October.

Also traveling abroad last summer were Dave’54, MS ’55, and Carol Cobb Diver. It was a Cor-nell-organized trip to the Lake District in Italy.Dave and Carol live in Savannah, GA, and are in-volved in many volunteer organizations. “We stillthink we’re young, like only in our 60s.” The ma-jor focus of Carol’s free time is the study of em-broidery and the stitching involved—she loves it.In September, a number of classmates gathered inthe Kinkeldy Room of the Uris Library to honorSteve Weiss. A portrait of Steve was unveiled.Present for the ceremony were Dori Goudsmit Al-bert, Marj Nelson Smart, Mary Hobbie Berkelman,Gail Lautzenheiser Cashen, Marcia WishengradMetzger, JD ’60, Marty Ballard Lacy, Connie Santa-gato Hosterman, Nan Krauthamer Goldberg,Vanne Shelley Cowie, Adrienne McNair, MEd ’61,and Judy Richter Levy, LLB ’59.

Some 25 years ago I received a note from GilSchlerf ’55 requesting the address of one of ourclassmates, someone he had dated at Cornell.Since I am unable to pass on such informationwithout permission, I sent the note on to the in-tended recipient, Barbara “Bobbie” Haglund. Well,she and Gil got together, married, and had whatGil describes as “this wonderful love story.” Bar-bara was secretary of the class from 1987 to 1992and subsequently served the class as a regionalvice-president. Gil and Barbara were regular at-tendees at all our reunions. Sadly, Barbara passedaway in September from the effects of a strokeshe had suffered earlier in the year. Our sympa-thies go out to Gil, Barbara’s two sons, and herextended family. Judith Reusswig, 19 SeburnDr., Bluffton, SC; e-mail, [email protected].

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hands-on service, equipment, education, and one-on-one training to healthcare personnel aroundthe world. In the 11 years since its inception, JHIhas sent almost 200 teams to consult with ap-proximately 50,000 physicians and healthcareproviders in every corner of the world.

After the crash of 1987, John Herzog found-ed the Museum of American Finance in NYC to pre-serve, exhibit, and teach about the nation’sfinances and financial history, including the Sal-ad Oil and Teapot Dome scandals and memorableindividuals such as Charles Ponzi and Bernie Mad-off. John has stepped down as chairman, but willremain on the board and reports that the new lo-cation at 48 Wall Street attracts thousands of stu-dents and tourists to its many fascinating exhibits.Joe ’56, MBA ’58, and Sue DeRosay Henningervisit the campus often, recently for the Frank H.T.Rhodes Awards ceremony. They commented on thebeauty of the surroundings, especially the terrif-ic view of the lake from the Kinkeldey Room.

John Seiler, [email protected]

Roy Curtiss III (Paradise Valley, AZ) reportsthat earlier this year he took a round-the-worldtrip with visits and lectures in Israel, India, andChina. He gave the keynote address at the WorldCongress on Vaccines in Beijing and was appoint-ed an honorary professor at the East China U. ofScience and Technology, where he will collaborateon developing vaccines to prevent infectious dis-eases of fish. Following that, Roy and his fami-ly spent five weeks in South Africa attending 25of the 32 matches of the participating teams. Heappeared on South African TV.

Paul Shane (Philadelphia, PA) is a professorof social work at Rutgers U. in Newark, NJ. Healso serves on several boards for Jewish charitiesin Philadelphia. Alice Platt Brooks (Vestal, NY)retired from the Broome County Dept. of socialServices in 1997. She has been very active in herlocal League of Women Voters, serving in manycapacities. She reports on a birthday celebrationfor the three roommates in the corner room onthe second floor of Sage: “Barbara Barron Starr(and husband Bob), Margot Lurie Zimmerman(and husband Paul), and I celebrated Margot’sbirthday at dinner earlier this month, sharing thefood as we did those many years ago in thedorm’s dining room.”

Ed Berkowitz (Washington, DC) volunteershis time at the Smithsonian, teaching the manyvisitors from all over the world the true facts ofAmerican history. At one of his encounters in theAmerican Civil War exhibit, he met a Spanishtourist, whom he asked if Spain had a museumabout their Civil War. The Spaniard thought aboutit and explained that, no, it was just too soonin their history to think about doing that. Edspends time supporting Cornell’s Outdoor Educa-tion program, and traveling with his wife, Lois.While catching up at dinner here in NYC withJudy Frankel Woodfin, another Cornell group wasseated at the next table, including Joann Klein-man Silverstein and Elaine (Goldberg) ’57 andHirschel Abelson ’55, MBA ’56. At the time shewrote, Barbara Rapoport was off on her annualsojourn in Paris. We’ve heard from Cidney Bran-don Spillman (Bethlehem, PA), whose family nowlives in Seattle, Santa Fe, and Eugene, OR. She issaving her mileage to visit all of them.

Joe Manelski (McLean, VA) received Cornell’s2010 Outstanding Alumni Award from the Collegeof Agriculture and Life Sciences and the CALSAlumni Assn. As you have seen mentioned in thiscolumn, Joe continues to help Cornell’s SolarDecathlon program and host Cornellians in hishome at many interesting events. Stephen Kit-tenplan and I would love to hear your news itemsfor our future columns. Phyllis Bosworth,[email protected].

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Following up on Judy’s column, the dedica-tion of the portrait of Steve Weiss in theKinkeldey Room in Uris Library last fall was a mostmemorable occasion. In attendance were TonyCashen, MBA ’58, Dick Lacy, Phil McIndoo, Char-lie Parker, BME ’59, Paul Tregurtha, Bob Watts,Bob Staley, BME ’58, MBA ’59, and Jim Broad-head. It also brought together Cornell presidents(current and emeritus): David Skorton, FrankRhodes, Dale Corson, and Hunter Rawlings, a mostrare occurrence indeed. Steve served on the Boardof Trustees for 28 years, eight of those as chair-man. Dr. Rhodes detailed his close personal andprofessional relationship with Steve, touching inparticular on our classmate’s talents of intellect,patience, wisdom, and leadership. Suzanne thensummed up what was in her and all our hearts—our individual and collective memories of Steveand how much she enjoyed being a “member ofthe class.” Following remarks by Dori GoudsmitAlbert and Bob Watts, the ceremony concludedwith a rousing rendition of the Alma Mater.

Ted and Pat Raab spent nine weeks atChatauqua Inst. last summer for its annual sea-son. Two of those weeks were in the company offive children and seven grandchildren. Ted plays alot of golf and tennis when at home in Ft. Lauder-dale. At its summer meeting in Atlanta, JewishHealthcare Int’l elected Stuart Fischman as chair-man, overseeing the mission to coordinate and de-ploy volunteer healthcare professionals to provide

58 This will be a rather short col-umn, as I do not have muchnews. Thanks to all of you who

have sent in a News Form—because of the longlead times on these columns, they just hadn’treached Dick or me as of this writing. I do havea new e-mail address ([email protected]), sofeel free to send me updates at any time. (Pleaseinclude “1958 Cornell News” in the subject line.)

Albert Caines writes that he still loves fish-ing and raising wild animals. He has a pet raccoonthat rides in the car with him and sits on his lapto watch TV. He also enjoys hockey and lacrosse.He still lives in Pennellville, NY, but may relocateto the South when his grandson—a star highschool basketball player—graduates high schoolin 2011. Ronni Schulbaum Strell has a grandsonborn in January ’09. She has done a lot of knit-ting for him and volunteers teaching knitting ata lifelong learning group. Joyce Halsey Lindleywas doing a maternity-leave substituting job asan ESL teacher and helps a lot with her fourgrandkids who live nearby. Her other free time isspent volunteering as a progressive activist. Shealso volunteers for her local library.

Woody Bliss has retired from his third career—34 years at IBM, eight years as a consultant, andfour terms (eight years) as first selectman of West-on, CT. (That title is Connecticut-talk for “may-or.”) He says his courses in Government helped inhis political career, and Computer Science, crudeas it was, landed him at IBM. Donald Summerlives in Boca Raton and had open heart surgeryat the Cleveland Clinic in June ’09. Recovery wasslower than he expected, so he no longer goesto Buffalo several times a month and only doeswork he can do from Florida. Eleanor DeMovSchaffer has been recovering from breast cancer.She says she is now fine after chemo and radia-tion and enjoys trips to Florida with her husbandand spending time with her family, which in-cludes eight grandchildren. She volunteers for thelibrary and synagogue.

In March 2010 Barbara Avery, MA ’59, retiredfrom her position as director of the Ohio ReligiousCoalition for Reproductive Choice. She is now at-tending a physical anthropology class at OhioState. She remembers fondly Myer Abrams’s class-es on British literature. She visited him in 2008to tell him how uplifting his class was during herjunior year, after she had learned of her mother’s







breast cancer. That’s it for now! Please send news!Jan Arps Jarvie, [email protected]; Dick

Haggard, [email protected]

ago, Brooke moved to Rowayton, a nearby villageon Long Island Sound. She sold real estate, main-ly in Rowayton and Darien; “it was very success-ful for me and I enjoyed finding the home peopleloved and could afford.” She has a condo on thewater in Vero Beach, FL, and tries to squeeze inas much travel as possible. In the past three yearsshe has been to Japan, China, Kenya, and SouthAfrica. ”At home it seems golf and duplicate bridgeare starting to fill my days, and fortunately I havemet some amazing friends through both. Idropped the skiing, shooting, and SCUBA this pastyear, deciding my body wasn’t as agile as it oncewas. I have 12 amazing grandchildren, includingone Amherst graduate and three at Dartmouth. In-terestingly, those four all took a gap year beforecollege. They explored the world, did amazingthings, and had unbelievable experiences.”

Diana Drake Cleland (Sarasota, FL) also en-joys bridge, travel, and grandkids (and their par-ents). Her recent travels included a return toAmman, Jordan, and Beirut, Lebanon, with a sidetrip to Petra. “Nostalgia everywhere,” she recalls.Diana and her daughter are fashion consultantswith Doncaster, which sells designer women’sclothing and accessories. “Inquiries welcome!”she says (www.doncaster.com/ddcleland).

A recent Class of 1956 column presented abucket list of 55 things to do before the 55th Re-union. Let’s create our bucket list: send me itemsthat are on your hope-to-do list and I’ll put to-gether a list for an upcoming column. JennyTesar, 97A Chestnut Hill Village, Bethel, CT 06801;tel., (203) 792-8237; e-mail, [email protected].

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Browne, “who lives in Santa Barbara, CA, with herhusband and comes east each year to a cottage onLake Winnipesaukee for the summer, but the tim-ing wasn’t right this year for them to come to Itha-ca,” and from Nan Jackson Richart (Ann Arbor, MI)who, says Pat, “is married to an amazing golfer andI think spends a lot of time at golf tournaments.”Pat and Jack enjoy traveling and in late Octobermade a trip to Greece and Turkey, for which sheprepared by “reading all summer about Turkey,Gertrude Bell, Mustafa Kemal,” and other relevanttopics. She added, “I was happy I don’t have tobe able to recall all that I read for a prelim!”

Someone who didn’t put his or her name onthe news sheet reported having visited AntigoneKofou Godi in Thessaloniki, Greece, recently.Antigone has retired from Anatolia College, a sec-ondary school where she taught psychology andwhere her daughter Eleni is now a history teacher.Antigone’s son owns a European translation busi-ness, says my anonymous reporter, and she alsohas three young grandchildren. Gail Krantz Glick-man writes from Sarasota that she “is enjoying lifein Florida. I work part-time as a human resourcemanager for Informa Support Services Inc., playtennis, and take classes in jazz and modern andballroom dance.” Mohammed Sa’id Berigari hasretired after a long career as a soil scientist do-ing research and teaching in Iraq, Libya, and theUS. With a master’s in natural product chemistryand a doctorate in soil chemistry, Sa’id holds atleast one US patent, has been listed in the Who’sWho of American Inventors, and belongs to nu-merous professional and honor societies, includ-ing the American Society of Agronomy, the SoilScience Society of America, Phi Kappa Phi, andSigma Xi. Now an emeritus professor, Sa’id livesin Burke, VA, with his wife, Widad, a math teacherin the Fairfax County Public Schools.

Steve Davis, MD ’64, writes, “I had a 40-yearcareer as an orthopedic surgeon and tried to re-tire four years ago. One shot at the ‘Today Show’left me scarred and I immediately looked for morerewarding challenges. I am now working full-time,providing education to attorneys on orthopedictopics, so as to facilitate the resolution of diffi-cult medical-legal issues. My time is also occu-pied with grandchildren, sailing, skiing, golf, andrecent election into the Society of American Ma-gicians.” Steve and wife Debby have lived forseveral decades in the Denver area.

I am deeply saddened to report the loss oftwo classmates who were with us in June for re-union. Sandra Epstein Solomon (Pittsfield, MA)died on September 10 after a long illness. A hear-ing specialist, Sandra was the founder of Solomon-Shotland Audiology, as well as a devoted wife,parent, and grandparent. Her survivors include herhusband of 50 years, Alan, three children, andfour grandchildren. Michael Marks (Cherry HillsVillage, CO) died on October 5. According to MikeGlueck, who sent along the sad news, “He foughta determined and courageous fight against bonecancer (multiple myeloma) for the last six years.He was the toughest and bravest patient I eversaw. I had spoken to Mike several times in his lasttwo weeks and he was able to maintain his witand a positive attitude. He had lived most of hisadult life in Honolulu, where he served for over30 years as general counsel, senior VP, and treas-urer for Alexander and Baldwin—the largest com-pany in Hawaii. He is survived by his many closefriends, classmates, and colleagues.” Mike had re-tired to the Denver area in order to be closer tohis three godsons and to cancer specialists with

59 Some six years ago Paddy Hurleyrelocated to Ivoryton, CT, after14 years teaching in Scarsdale,

NY. “I am finally settling into a fairly balanced lifeof teaching, performing, and studying,” she writes.“I continue to perform with the Norwalk (CT) Sym-phony Orchestra and Salt Marsh Opera as well aswith my brass quartet. I re-affiliated with the mu-sic school that I founded 26 years ago, and start-ed a beginning band for adults in 2009. The bandis part of the New Horizons Program begun in1991 at the Eastman School of Music (where I gotmy MM). There are 140 loosely affiliated chaptersof this organization around the country. My firstgroup consists mostly of folks our age, with a cou-ple of young moms as well. I have done begin-ning bands in my career, but there is a differentlevel of challenge with these folks, as arthritis andvision issues present some problems, but all areenthusiastic and dedicated.” Paddy and two class-mates in a French grammar and literature coursetraveled to France in June, spending a week inParis, then a week at a friend’s chateau in Nor-mandy. “The highlight of the time in Paris was areunion with Paul and Mimi Niepold Horne, whomI had not seen for at least 20 years. We met intheir lovely apartment on Quai Montebello, just be-hind Notre Dame. They now reside in Alexandria,VA, but spend considerable time in Paris and oth-er European cities due to Paul’s consulting busi-ness. After our week near Fecamp on the EnglishChannel, we stopped at Arromanches and OmahaBeach, which I found especially moving; the sitesare so hauntingly beautiful that it is almost hardto wrap one’s head around what happened there.”

Those jackets from our 50th Reunion camein handy several months ago when Ron and Sal-ly Schwartz Muzii (Miami, FL) and Dex and Lin-da Pritchard Kimball (Roswell, GA) were part ofa Cornell “invasion” of Eastern Europe. Sally sentme a great photo of the four longtime friends—fraternity brothers and sorority sisters, too—cladin their jackets as they strolled around Vienna.The foursome enjoyed a river cruise on theDanube, stopping in Hungary, Slovakia, Germany,Austria, and the Czech Republic. Ron still has hisbusiness, Muzii & Associates, and checks in eachday; he is a consultant in the hotel travel busi-ness and represents various hotels in theCaribbean and Florida. Sally does some comput-er programming (“under duress!”) for Ron’s of-fice and a few accounts in North Carolina.“Mainly,” she says, “I play golf and tennis—everyday or when my back and knees permit. Ron Jr.’83 is part-owner of the Bridge Hotel in Boca Ra-ton. Mark is head of risk management for Hoot-er’s of America, and Greg ’88 is a CPA in Miami.Our grandchildren range from kindergarten ageto Chris, who is getting his master’s in interna-tional business at the U. of Florida.”

It’s always lovely to hear from a classmatewho hasn’t appeared in a class column for a longtime. Brooke Morrison Megrue finished one yearat Cornell with us, then took off to raise her chil-dren. She eventually went to Yale to finish her BA,graduating in 1992. After a vagabond life that in-cluded living in several states as well as Scotlandand England, the family settled in New Canaan, CT.After all the kids graduated from high school, theymoved to neighboring Darien. Then some ten years

60 Heartening news that the cre-ative energies of some class-mates have not been affected

by the passage of time: Bob “Tiger” Foltin sentword that he has published his fifth book ofpoetry, a volume of love poems entitled A-Dor-Ed.Bob, who lives in Latham, NY, also manages toplay basketball and softball three times a weekand to work on one or two major hazardous wasteengineering jobs a year. We received an announce-ment that in September, Jill Weber (Brookline,MA) had a one-person show of her recent paint-ings at the Bromfield Gallery in Boston. Called“Structural Improvisations,” the work reveals theextensive influence of her architectural training.Jill won the 2004 Maud Morgan Prize from theMuseum of Fine Arts Boston and has also exhib-ited in New York at the Stephan Stoyanov Gallery,where she will have a solo show later in 2011.

An e-mail exchange and a visit to PatriciaErb Reohr at the light-filled house in Orleans, MA,on Cape Cod, where she and Jack ’57 spend fivemonths each year, elicited a raft of news aboutother classmates and the Reohr family. Pat andJack, both retired, have five children, all married.“Three of our four sons live in the Boston area,”says Pat, “another son lives in Ridgefield, CT, andour only daughter, a physician, lives in Colorado.”They have produced 18 grandchildren, some ofthem now in college. “We are thrilled with eachand every one,” she writes, “[though] just send-ing the birthday cards takes a fair amount oftime. They come to the Cape to visit us often dur-ing the summer.” Pat reports having had great funat Reunion and good conversations with many, in-cluding Alys Chew Yeh, Johanna “Toddy” Dwyer,Tussie Abbott Williams, Judy Rothenthaler Pot-ter, Anne Woolf Oney, Gail Taylor Hodges, andDacey Latham. She also hears from Sue Foote






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expertise in his disease. In the words of MikeGlueck, “He was a bigger than life character andwill be missed.” Please send your news to: Judy Bryant Wittenberg, [email protected].

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location. Marlene Alpert Tein still resides in BocaRaton with husband Arnold. “Life at Camp Boca isgood. We enjoy time with our children (one a Cor-nell grad) and grandchildren who live in the area.We keep busy with golf and water aerobics. I sawDale Abrams Rakusin and she looks terrific! Dur-ing my ‘off season,’ I volunteer through AARP andprepare income taxes for lower-income families. Atthe same time, I still have a small private tax prac-tice.” Judy Rojas Bennett sent the following:“Jim ’60, JD ’63, and I are both semi-retired, jug-gling three homes: one in Florida and two in NewYork (Garden City and Shelter Island). Both of usare playing lots of golf. I still manage to get intothe club championships, but for the past two yearshave lost in the 36-hole final to an opponent 53years younger than I and at least a foot taller, too!Expect to see her on tour after her golf scholarshipto college is over. I am still waiting for our club

to have a senior’s event for the women! Jim is ‘ofcounsel’ and still manages to go to his various of-fices several times a week. We travel, but have lim-ited our forays to the US as of now. Just returnedfrom the state and national parks out west: Zion,Bryce Canyon, Arches, Dead Horse Canyon (whichis a sleeper, but worth the detour). Looking for-ward to reunion, but let’s forget the number.”

In closing, our class co-correspondent for thelast four-and-a-half years, Joanna McCully, is re-tiring. Joanna is resolving some personal mattersand reluctantly giving up her responsibilities asclass columnist. Joanna and I have worked wellas a team starting with our 45th Reunion. I willmiss her, but will still be encouraging all of youto continue your input. Regards to all. DougFuss, [email protected].

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(1972), 15th (1977), and 45th (2007) reunions.Please send to [email protected].” Judy and hus-band Bruce ’60 planned a respite from her manyhours on the history project to visit their daugh-ter in London in October. Stacey ’93 is a vicepresident at Morgan Stanley there and spends herweekends biking “long distances up very big hills.Her absolute favorite ride is tracing the route ofthe Tour de France in the French Alps.”

Financial planner Frank Sundstrom, MBA ’64,and wife Judith live in Fairport, NY, from whencethey enjoy travel, tennis, and gourmet cooking.A recent highlight was a riverboat trip on theSomme in France. Retired writer Barbara DeanStewart ([email protected]) also calls Fairporthome. She is recovering from a July 2009 strokeand spends lots of time with her daughter, Whit-ney. Barbara’s fond memories of Cornell includefield hockey. Memories for Julie Peck Burmeister

([email protected]) include singing inSage Chapel choir, walking on the beautiful cam-pus, and using different libraries. Julie teachesscience in a New York inner city high school andenjoys gardening and mentoring a robotics team.

Classmates recently elected to life member-ship on the Cornell Council include Nancy SchlegelMeinig, Alex Vollmer, MCE ’64, Dick Levine, CharJones Collister, Fred Hart, Margo Hebald, BArch’63, Rudy Muenster, Steve Ploscowe, LLB ’65,Nancy Williams Clark, MEd ’64, Frank Quirk,MBA ’64, Neil Schilke, MME ’64, George Slocum,MBA ’67, John Sullivan III, BArch ’63, StephenEttinger, DVM ’64, Ruth Zimmerman Bleyler,John Neuman, and Bob Wood.

A “part-time family doc,” Nona Okun Rowatdescribes herself as “full-time flake/hiker/reader.”She and Peter divide their time between Vancou-ver, BC, and La Jolla, CA, and also enjoy skiing,biking, and music. The business card of ElizabethPomada and Michael Larsen ([email protected]) statesthat they have been helping writers launch careerssince 1972. They are literary agents and membersof the Assn. of Authors’ Representatives. Elizabethis director of the San Francisco Writers’ Conferenceand the Writing for Change Conference. GeorgeTelesh, MD ’67 ([email protected]) reports thathe planted 15 citrus trees in his yard four yearsago and all are now fully productive. A retired Navycaptain, George is chief orthopedic surgeon forFlorida Health Care Plans. He and Madelyn oftenspend time at their place in East Waterboro, ME.

That really was our own Pete and Ruth Zim-merman Bleyler you saw in October’s Money mag-azine, with a photo of the couple hiking andsome text in an article about best places to re-tire (Hanover, NH). In Ruth’s words, “It’s a nicearticle about Hanover and, all told, took aboutthree hours of our time with the photographerand support staff (makeup, wardrobe, etc.) for theone little photo.” Phil, BArch ’64, MArch ’65, andMaddy Gell Handler ’65 visited their son and hisfamily in Seattle in October ([email protected];[email protected]). Their daughter Alyssa ’92lives with her family in Beverly, MA, closer to the

61 Our 50th Reunion will be held June9-12, 2011. Time creeps up on usrapidly and this premier event is

now but a few months away. In my first classcolumn following our 45th Reunion I reported,“Temperature 40 degrees F—feels like 37!” Withglobal warming, we should fare better for our up-coming event.

Continuing the reunion planning process,Doug Uhler, one of our reunion co-chairs, sent arecap of the meeting held in mid-October inScottsdale, AZ. “Dick and Pat Tatlow hosted acocktail party and dinner at their beautiful homeat the Boulders near Scottsdale, AZ, on Friday, Oc-tober 15. It was great to spend time with friendsand to catch up on new and old news. The fol-lowing morning was spent in a class meeting heldat El Pedregal in the Boulders Convention Center.Reunion chairs Carol Gittlin Franklin, Neil Gold-berger, and Doug Uhler discussed the June 9-12,2011 reunion planning schedule. Co-chair PaulineSutta Degenfelder was missed, but excused, asshe and husband Joe ’60 had just returned froma China trip that included a Yangtze River cruise.Pauline has been very active with the planning.Others who are involved with the planning areclass president Marshall Frank; Jay Treadwell andRosanna Romanelli Frank with Food; Pat LauxRichards with Affinity; Jan Powell Bidwell withRegistration; Janet Ballantyne, PhD ’76, withMarketing; Ed Goldman and Jon Greenleaf withthe yearbook; Lassie Tischler Eicher with ourquestionnaire; and Larry Wheeler with our web-site. We still need some volunteers to assist PatRichards with the various affinity groups and tohelp Jan Bidwell with registration. If you are will-ing to help us have a great reunion, please con-tact me, Doug Uhler, at [email protected].”

Doug continues: “After our reunion discussion,Marshall held a class meeting. The afternoon wasspent by many with golf at the Boulders, arrangedby Dick Tatlow. A class dinner followed at the Ton-to Bar & Grill in Cave Creek on Saturday evening.Dinner was on the patio terrace and we were vis-ited by a herd of javelinas. The weekend endedwith Sunday breakfast at the El Pedregal Bakery.”

In early October, Jack Neafsey, BME ’62, MBA’63, wrote, “Last week, Phil and Jane Hodges,Pete and Donna Whiskeman, Robin Bissell, andWarren and Beth Newell Spicka ’62 joined usat our home on Cape Cod for golf, beach, lobster,fishing, and fun. Good to all be together. Nextweek, Oct. 4-8, ’61 Phi Gam’s Pete Meinig, KenBlanchard, PhD ’67, Robin Bissell, Dick Tatlow,Phil Hodges, John Sobke, Warren Spicka, PeteWhiskeman, and I will journey to St. George, UT,for our 11th annual fall golf outing. In yearspast, we have been to Pinehurst, Pebble Beach,Williamsburg, and Myrtle Beach, to name a few.The golf gets worse, but the stories get better be-cause we all know ‘where all the bodies are buried.’We’re looking forward to a great time!”

Two new class news forms arrived from Itha-ca shortly before deadline. Donald Coleman writesfrom Kansas City that he is still piloting AngelFlights for the Mid-America chapter and has beenelected president of the Riverside/Quindaro BendLevee District. He and wife Diane have moved intoa new home on Weatherly Lake and enjoy the new

‘Albert Caines has a pet racoon thatrides in the car with him.’Jan Arps Jarvie ’58

62 Happy New Year! I can now saythat our big 50th Reunion isnext year! Put June 7-10, 2012

on your calendar today! Up-to-date class and 50thReunion information can be found on our classwebsite: http://classof62.alumni.cornell.edu/.

Co-class historian Judy Prenske Rich reportsthat our history project is moving full speed ahead.“We already have more than 300 responses in handand I suspect more will dribble in before we arefinished researching, compiling, editing, and de-signing this material,” she writes. “Our vision forthis project is broad in scope, ranging from ouryears at Cornell up to the present, and will include,in addition to classmate profiles and photos, asumming up both in text and visually of our en-tire class history: gifts, leadership, reunions, andlegacy. Classmates have shared thoughtful, mov-ing, and funny stories of their lives, families, andexperiences out in the real world and back on theHill. Curiously, we (Judy and co-historian PeterSlater) are missing a few class reunion photosand hope someone can send us high-quality scansor provide the originals (which will, of course, bereturned) for us to scan. Specifically, we’re insearch of the class group photos taken at our 10th













in public school (and astronomy and physical sci-ence in college), I now teach chemistry at the lo-cal Catholic girls’ school. Because chemistry is arequired [course], I have the privilege of teach-ing every girl in the school!” Lois also writes thathusband John ’63, MS ’69, still works as an en-gineer for Raytheon. In addition to still being ac-tive in careers (“our jobs are our hobbies”), theConrads, who live in Thousand Oaks, CA, and havetwo daughters and four grandchildren, also findtime to travel. In 2009, they celebrated their44th anniversary with breakfast in Venice fol-lowed by dinner in Rome. They also visited friendsin France, Spain, and Holland. For good measure,they threw in a Princess cruise to Antarctica. Thispast August, Lois and John celebrated their 45thanniversary in Sedona, AZ, at the wedding of theson of a Vietnamese family they had sponsoredin 1980. The bridegroom’s American name, David,was chosen by the Conrads at the behest of theyoung man’s parents at the time he was born.Lois is also active with Cornell. She’s been aCAAAN member since 1980 and has guided sev-eral of her students to Cornell.

Retired father of three Tom Mueller, ME ’66(Reston, VA) writes that the Washington, DC, areais a “wonderful place to live because classmateslive here and visit here.” Case in point: a reuniondinner last May with Tom’s fraternity brothers in-cluded Pete Kuck and Ron Baldridge, ME ’66, plusSteve Hand ’65 and Bob Strahota ’62, MBA ’64.Beth Corson Wagner, who lives in Venice, CA, withhusband Wayne, writes that she continues to en-joy her “passion” for photography, and that herson (they also have a grown daughter) even gaveher a self-named website to display her work.Stephen Koli reports a new address: P.O. Box AT277, Achimota Market, Accra, Ghana, West Africa.He is a retired agronomist, but still engages insmall-scale farming of corn, oil palms, cocoa, andoranges. Stephen and wife Alice have two grownsons. He enjoys swimming and church activitiesand travels for his Rotary Club to Togo and theIvory Coast. Barbara Conway Scheaffer writesthat she “loves being retired”; her husband, Nor-man, ME ’67, still does land development engi-neering and CAD on a part-time basis. Barbara andNorm are very active in their respective hobbies;she in several aspects of quilting, he in model rail-roading. The Scheaffers, who live in Bellingham,WA, and have two grown daughters, spent 18 daysin England in October 2009; the trip included ahike along a portion of Hadrian’s Wall.

Ron Madaras, MS ’65, retired last April fromthe Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He hadworked there 35 years doing basic research as ahigh-energy elementary-particle physicist. Ron wasa senior scientist, so participated in physics ex-periments at Stanford and Fermilab in addition tohis work at Lawrence Berkeley. Most recently, heparticipated in the ATLAS experiment at the CERNLarge Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzer-land. Ron writes that he will continue to partic-ipate in ATLAS, although at a reduced level. Heand wife Karen sold their Berkeley house upon hisretirement and bought a townhouse in NewportBeach, CA, to be closer to their two daughters and“our adorable, delightful granddaughter.” Ron con-tinues to run and bike; they both enjoy travel.

As 2010 was the year for us to celebrate our50th high school reunions, I hope many of you hadas good a time at yours as Jim and I did at minein New Jersey. I especially enjoyed seeing highschool and Cornell classmates Pat Greene Bates,BFA ’64, and Pete Marsac. Pat and husband Jerry


Handlers’ home in West Hartford, CT. Alyssa prac-tices internal medicine at Beverly Hospital.

In October, Stephen Ettinger, DVM ’64, wasrecognized with the Daniel Elmer Salmon Awardfor Distinguished Alumni Service by the Associ-ation of the College of Veterinary Medicine atCornell. The annual award recognizes and honorsVeterinary college graduates who have distin-guished themselves in service to the profession,their communities, or to the College. The award isnamed in honor of Cornell’s first DVM graduate(1876), who is remembered for pioneering work incontrolling contagious animal diseases in the ear-ly 20th century. He was awarded the first DVM de-gree to be earned in the US. Steve is a member ofCornell’s Board of Trustees and the college’s Dean’sLeadership Council. He is a fellow of the AmericanCollege of Cardiology, the American Heart Associ-ation, and the American College of Veterinary In-ternal Medicine (Cardiology and Internal Medicine).He serves as senior editor of the Textbook of Vet-erinary Internal Medicine. Steve partnered with sev-eral veterinarians to open the first group specialtyreferral practice in the nation in California in 1971.

Jan McClayton Crites, 9420 NE 17th St., ClydeHill, WA 98004; e-mail, [email protected]

charity, Miami Bridge Youth and Family Services,an emergency shelter for kids. According to thearticle, she wants to get her pilot’s license next!From one of my “regular” contributors, MadeleineLeston Meehan, BFA ’63, comes this news: “I stillhave two land line telephones and use snail mail—still a ‘dinosaur,’ but best friends forced me ontoFacebook to show some of my ‘Mostly Music Art.’”Madeleine still divides her time between the USVirgin Islands and East Hampton, Long Island. Shecruises the Caribbean, “chilling with friends, paint-ing, and exhibiting ALWAYS. Cornell friends inIthaca helped revive my joie de vivre.”

John Kennedy, BME ’64, MBA ’65 (Morrisville,NC) writes that his beloved wife, Marylou, diedthree years ago. His immediate family numbers 24;nine children and their families are thriving. Canyou believe that when his last child graduated fromthe U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, the event con-cluded 22 consecutive years of Kennedy childrenin college? All nine of John’s children have bach-elor’s degrees. There are 11 grandchildren. Johnhad a trip to Italy last spring with a daughter andson-in-law. Last January he spent three days inPebble Beach with three of his sons. His leisureactivities include golf at Prestonwood Country Clubin Cary, NC, fitness, community and church in-volvement, babysitting, and the North CarolinaSymphony. Last year he saw classmates and PhiGamma Delta fraternity brothers in Sarasota, FL.

Richard, DVM ’65, and Kathy Thackaberrylive in Stratford, CT. Dick is retired and had a kneereplacement, but still likes to row and sail. Theywent to the Galapagos this past April with FrankQuirk ’62, MBA ’64. Dick and Kathy have twograndchildren. Yunus Aslan is retired and con-tinues to live in Çesme-Izmir, Turkey. Çesme is asmall seaside town 70 kilometers from Izmir. Dur-ing the high season he works as a part-time con-sultant at the Piril Hotel. He also lecturessometimes at the EGE University in hotel man-agement. He likes to keep in touch with his stu-dents in the hotel business. His daughter lives inLondon with her children Fuad, Diya, and Sara.Yunus’s wife helps her daughter with the house-keeping. Tom and Caren Newman live in Tucson,AZ. Tom retired from practicing urology, is on thedean’s board for the U. of Arizona College of FineArts, and is active on the Jewish CommunityFoundation board and the board of the AmericanIsrael Public Affairs Committee. He also plays golfand takes adult education classes at the U. of A.Travels included northern Spain and Normandy andWashington, DC, with a granddaughter. That’s allfor now. Nancy Bierds Icke, 12350 E. RogerRd., Tucson, AZ 85749; e-mail, [email protected].

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63 As I write this column I amenjoying the beauty of theaspens changing color in Tel-

luride, CO. I encourage you all to send me an e-mail or write to me with news.

This is old news by now, but I heard from Mar-jorie Walker Sayer, BFA ’63, whose paintings willbe displayed at the Vermont Artisan Designs andGallery 2 in Brattleboro, VT. The opening receptionwas October 1, 2010. Marjorie and husband Stevehave a permanent home in the area. Larry andNancy Caughey LeVine are in Poughkeepsie, NY.Larry is a retired financial advisor for Questar Cap-ital and keeps busy gardening, reading, cross coun-try skiing, and winemaking. He and Nancy’s recenttravels were to Ewing Island, Georgian Bay, in On-tario, Canada. Son Christopher ’93 is married toErin Pender-LeVine and they have three children.The LeVines’ other children are Caren ’96 andJoseph ’02. Elenita Eckberg Brodie wrote thatin June she took a scuba trip to Saba, a Dutchisland near St. Martin. “It was a wonderful trip—pinnacle diving, different from anything else I’vedone.” Elenita worked with the census and foundit fascinating to see how the process works.

Sue Pozefsky Tepperberg, MS ’86, is unwillingto give up her career as a travel writer just yet,although print outlets are disappearing. She hasreleased her app “Greenwich Village Insider” onApple iTunes. Sue has visited four continents sincebeing widowed in 1999. Daughter Suki Tepper-berg Stolow ’89 is a physician in Boston, whereshe lives with her husband and two sons. Sue hasfour other children and two granddaughters wholive in Manhattan and keep her busy when she isnot traveling. James and Elaine Collora live inCoronado, CA. James retired in April 2008 andspends his time woodworking, bicycling, rowing,sailing, and playing the piano and guitar. The Col-loras have three children and four grandchildrenand had a family get-together and bike ride overthe July 4th weekend in Bar Harbor, ME.

Judy Fischer Reinach (Key Biscayne, FL) waswritten up in the Miami Herald last summer for do-ing a 60-second free fall after jumping out of aCessna at 13,500 feet. She said she likes adven-ture, but she also raised $17,000 for her favorite

64 It’s winter. Depending on whereyou are, you’re buried in snow,basking in sun, or somewhere

in between. This column reflects the month:something for everyone.

Congrats are in order for several classmatesserving Cornell. Thomas Kahn and Nancy TaylorButler have been elected to the Cornell Univer-sity Council, Nancy as a life member. Continuingmembers, until 2013, are: Kenneth Campia, BartMills, and Bruce Wagner, MEE ’65. Life members,besides Nancy, are: Marcia Goldschlager Epstein,Stanford Goldman, JD ’67, Emmett “Mac” Mac-Corkle, and James Munsell.

Lois Beach Conrad, MEd ’65, has that rarityamong alums our age: a new career. She writes, “Af-ter 40 years teaching physics and physical science





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in a six-month period. To quote Barry, “Grand-parenting is the only job in the world that isn’toverrated.” Recent travels included a business tripto San Francisco, a trip to Seattle for their grand-son’s birthday, and Ithaca for our 45th Reunion—which was “wonderful.” In Ithaca, he and SharonHegarty Williams passed on the presidency of theClass of 1965 to George Arangio, MD ’69. At Re-union, Marika met her cousins Griscom “Chip,”ME ’66, and Patty Gros Bettle.

From Maricopa, AZ, Carlton Curtin reportsthat he is a retired United Methodist pastor. Heand wife Alma Jean have two children—a sonwho works for Whole Foods in White Plains, NY,and a daughter who is a stay-at-home mom inIllinois. They enjoyed an Alaskan cruise last June.Carlton recently saw Byron Brought.

It has been a busy year for your reporter RonHarris and wife Marcia. Since becoming grand-parents in December 2008 (triplets in Bethesda,MD) and April 2009 (a grandson in Chicago, IL—Noah’s dad is Andrew ’98) our world has changed.Splitting the year between West Bloomfield, MI,and Lake Worth, FL, we’ve found time to get toBethesda and Chicago as well as hosting visits byour grandchildren to our homes in Florida andMichigan. In fact twice last year, with the assis-tance of daughter Elana’s mother-in-law, webabysat David, Allison, and Zachary while Elanaand husband Jonathan Schanzer were out of town.Taking care of the “trips” was quite an experience.In addition to grandchildren-related travel, Mar-cia and I took a Caribbean cruise in February andan exciting trip to Eastern Europe (Budapest, Vi-enna, and Prague) this past summer with friendsfrom Florida. Ron Harris, [email protected];Joan Hens Johnson, [email protected].

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’63 are in the process of moving from Alexandria,VA, to Williamsburg, VA. Pete and wife Peggy stilllive in the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield, MO.

That’s it for this issue. Please be sure to visitour class website, http://classof64.alumni.cornell.edu, and to send me news at: Bev JohnsLamont, 720 Chestnut St., Deerfield, IL 60015;e-mail, [email protected].

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65 I’d like to start by welcomingJoan Hens Johnson as my fel-low class correspondent for the

next five years—leading up to our 50th Reunionand Cornell’s 150th birthday. Much of this columnwas prepared by Joan.

By the time you read this, in the middle ofwinter, our very successful 45th Reunion will bejust a memory. However, we would like to start thiscolumn with a report from Maddy Gell Handler in-volving a number of AAP grads (BArch ’66). DellWorn Mitchell, Tad Mann, and Warren Schwartz,joined Maddy and husband Phil ’62, BArch ’64,MArch ’65, on the “Voices of 1965: A 2010 Re-union Event,” which she spearheaded with Phil. Inpart because of this project, almost half of all theliving members of the college’s Class of 1965 at-tended reunion. Ron Bogley, Jonathan Stoumen,Joel Perlman, BFA ’65, and Peter Rosen, returnedand spoke extemporaneously after the screeningof a 40-minute documentary about the AAP ex-perience produced by the Handlers’ Fly on the WallProductions. Also in attendance at the screeningwere non-Architecture classmates Carol SacksSekura, Francine Grace Plaza, and Steve Appell.

Jill Munroe Fankhauser and husband Davidhave a small farmstead in the Cincinnati area. Jillis an adjunct associate professor in the history ofscience and the history of music at the U. ofCincinnati. She also teaches piano. She reportsthat their best vacation was a trip to westernTurkey, Troy, and Istanbul. They also loved Italyand enjoyed Macedonia. Jill would like to hearfrom Davida Fineman, Paul Epstein, Ann Snitow,Francine Grace Plaza, Nancy Rosen Sorkin, Mari-lyn Kaplan Eisenberg, Bruce Bennett, and TrishGeppert Woolcott. Judy Alpern Intraub and hus-band Saul split time between homes in Killington,VT, and Florida. They love the outdoors in bothplaces. For fun they like to birdwatch, play ten-nis, swim, and kayak. Michael Gimbrone Jr. andwife Mary (Jamaica Plain, MA) traced family rootsin Sicily and enjoyed a cooking school programwith Joe and Nancy Schaap Silvio ’66. Mike is aprofessor of pathology and chairman of the pathol-ogy department at Brigham and Women’s Hospitalin Boston, part of Harvard Medical School. Theywould like to hear from Julianna Ricci, PeterJutro, PhD ’75, “Hat” Serafini, Larry Levinson,Natalie Teich, and Wes Baumgardner.

Christy Reppert Sacks and husband Stephenare retired. Christy sings in a community chorusand is a volunteer tutor and citizen lobbyist. Sheis also learning biblical Hebrew. Donald Weiss,an adjunct professor at the entrepreneurship pro-gram at Columbia’s Graduate School of Business,lives with wife Alison in New York City. DavidDunn and wife Nancy live in Macungie, PA. Davidcontinues to practice law—focusing on taxes andwills, bankruptcy, and business law. Barry Cutler,the immediate past class co-president, still prac-tices law in Washington, DC. Barry and wife Mari-ka spend most of their weekends at their getawayin West Virginia. But they may be spending lesstime there since they became grandparents twice

66 Hello, everybody. As most of usshiver through winter (is it ascold and snowy as Ithaca win-

ters?), we look ahead to our June 9-12, 2011 re-union. This month, we received one news item,plus two thoughtful notes: one from classmatesJohn, MBA ’68, and Mary Loosbrock Miers, andone from Alice Katz Berglas, our class co-president.First, the news. Paul Anderson ([email protected]) has moved to Vancouver, WA. Paul isenjoying his new home and is planning to par-ticipate in various university programs with a su-permarket executive focus. He wrote that he wentback to Alaska this year, after last working therein 1986. This time, he was even able to get toDenali, something he had never been able to dobefore because of his work schedule.

We turn now to John and Mary’s note:Dear Class of 1966: Reunion is coming . . .

and coming soon! June 9 (my birthday) throughJune 12, 2011. I don’t have a countdown clock,but I’m starting to watch my radio-controlledwall clock. Are you coming? I hope so! My wife,Mary, and I were at Reunion in 2006, and we hada wonderful time. There were people to catch upwith, places to visit, areas to shop, times to eat,and times to have fun, especially with othermembers of the class—some newly discovered,some friends from years past.

You may remember that Mary and I had a caraccident on the way home that year. We hit a treein upper Pennsylvania. I don’t know if it’s stillthere; we haven’t been able to bring ourselves togo that way again—but we will in June 2011. Itwas awesome how many e-mails were sent to usafter the accident. Thanks again for all your con-cerns. And those white Class of 1966 jackets (I











think we got them for our 25th Reunion) . . .Mary and I each had ours on during the acci-dent, and they had to be cut off in order to getus out of the car. The EMT apologized to us forthat. When Mary was still in the hospital, I sentan e-mail to Alice Berglas and Rolf Frantz, ME’67, explaining just what had occurred, andasked if we could buy new jackets. Well, theycame. Dry cleaned and on hangers. Someonegave them to us—some one of you. You knowwho you are. We still don’t. This is a belatedthank you to you—and a belated thank you tothe entire Class of 1966. We will wear those jack-ets to the 2011 Reunion. See you there! Johnand Mary Loosbrock Miers.

And now, a word from co-president AliceBerglas:

I’m adding a bit of California news to this col-umn. It’s mid-October, and I am spending a weekvisiting my granddaughters in Berkeley. My daugh-ter Nancy is back at her doctoral program in pub-lic health at UC Berkeley, and my son-in-law is apolitical science professor at UC Davis. Life here isfilled with fabulous vegetables, wine, sky, family,and little girls all in pink and purple. I also hadtime for two long lunches, one with Richard, PhD’74, and Nan Wendt Rideout, and the other withJohn, PhD ’70, and Meg Warne Monroe, MS ’68.After solving world peace, we spent time catchingup personally, laughing, and thinking about theupcoming Reunion Weekend. What is truly won-derful for me is that of all the class officers andClass Council, I think I knew only four of five ofthem way back when. If you think your class of-ficers are some long-formed clique—not true! Re-union brings friendships not dreamed of.

I missed out on a free lunch with ChuckWeiss (he offered me “meat on a stick” and saidI would like it), but caught up with Art Purcellon a late-night call from San Francisco to L.A.,and exchanged long e-mails with Bruce Mans-dorf, also in L.A. Amazing how much easier it iswhen everyone is in the same time zone. Most ofall, it felt great to connect and to look forwardto sharing the East Coast time zone of Ithacanext June. If we have learned anything thesepast years, it is to let our feet take us where ourheads would like to be: and to do it NOW. Andso: Reunion. Come back because it’s Cornell.Come back because it’s ’66. Come back becauseit’s our 45th. Come for the old friends. Come forthe Reunion friends you have made or will make.Come back because it’s a university . . . Better:it’s YOUR university. And the energy and intel-lect and fun and constant rhythm abounds. Comeback for the one reason that matters most: it’syours—right now. Come back for the NOW. Seeyou there! Alice.

Check our website often for updates on Re-union Weekend (June 9-12!), our class gift, andour 45th Reunion Campaign (http://classof66.alumni.cornell.edu). Registration materials willbe in the mail in March. Thank you to each ofyou who are serving on committees and con-tacting friends/classmates. E-mail Alice ([email protected]) if you would like to lend a hand. Pete Salinger, [email protected]; Susan Rock-ford Bittker, [email protected]; and DeanneGebell Gitner, [email protected].

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Come on out and help!” As I write, they’re pre-dicting yet another disaster for this troubledcountry—Tropical Storm Tomas. Here’s hoping itturns out to be as insipid as my namesake a fewweeks back: T.S. Richard. On that, I never recallthat there were enough storms in the past to getto the R, much less the T—maybe it’s because theynow alternate between male and female names.

Senetta Hill Koch (Manhasset, NY; [email protected]) observes, “I can’t believe wehave been retired for four years—probably thebest four years of our lives! We take cruises, trav-el on our own, and spend more time with familyand friends. Betty Chao and I have been ex-changing e-mails. I am active in CAAAN. Wouldlike to hear from Reva Noskowitz Potter.” NoelRelyea, PhD ’73 (Cupertino, CA; [email protected]) writes, “My husband, William Wood ’70, andI joined our local volunteer fire department, whichinvolves lots of training on both structural andwildland fires and also first-responder emergencymedical aid. We have continued to expand ourwinery activities and expect to harvest late thisyear due to the cold summer weather. We sold outof our first (2008) vintages at a release party lastspring. We continue to work with pygmy villagesin Rwanda and are supporting three students forthe upcoming school year.”

“I was appointed president of Just MouldingFranchising LLC in Gaithersburg, MD,” reportsRichard Hayman (Potomac, MD; [email protected]). “Reconnected with my freshman room-mate Dennis Kakol, ME ’68. Just Moulding hosteda Cornell intern this summer. She was an inter-national student from France who spent the lastyear at Cornell.” Liz Fein (Brooklyn, NY; [email protected]) “retired from the NYC Dept. of Ed-ucation on July 1, 2010 after 25 years of service.Now I’m devoting myself to screenwriting.” RitaSiegel Freedman (Silver Spring, MD; [email protected]) reports: “My husband, Joel ’66, and Imet with Arnie Berger ’66, PhD ’71, when wewere in Seattle, WA.”

Richard Moore, ME ’68, MBA ’70 (Groton, NY;[email protected]) writes that he “retired fromthe Hotel school in 2002 as an emeritus profes-sor. Kay and I have a choose-and-cut Christmastree farm eight miles north of Ithaca. I am pres-ident of the National Christmas Tree Association.Kay and I were in Germany this June to discussthe 500th anniversary of the decorated Christmastree ‘celest’ celebration with the Christmas TreeGrowers Council of Europe. The first recorded dec-orated Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia, in1510.” Chuck Butler (Helena, MT; [email protected]) reports that he’s been involved in “somemedia, communications, health policy, and PRconsulting. I also do lots of volunteer work. Work-ing in Helena with youth and our grandchildren,ages 3, 4, 7, and 8.”

I made it to the 130th Daily Sun dinner inNYC in September, but missed Zinck’s Night thistime. We might just be the last class or so to re-member munching on a roast-beef-on-weck ac-companied by appropriate liquid refreshment atthe last Zinck’s next to the Ithaca Hotel, also R.I.P.

Richard B. Hoffman, 2925 28th St. NW, Wash-ington, DC 20008; e-mail, [email protected]

69 Thanks for the great responsevia News Form and e-mail! DougWright writes, “I’m a senior tax

partner with Holland & Knight here in Atlanta. I’vebeen here 32 years after law school, the Navy, Viet-nam, etc.” Donald Tofias, BArch ’70, has the life—spending winters in St. Barts and the Caribbeanand summers in the Atlantic, sailing his “beauti-ful two W-76 yachts Wild Horses and White Wingswith lots of guests and wonderful regattas. Justlaunched our new W-37 Race Horse. She is like theothers: cold molded wood built at Brooklin BoatYard in Brooklin, ME, by Steve White, the grandsonof E.B. White ’21.” Looking for any crewmembers,Donald? Son Michael is a poli-sci professor at theU. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Daughter Alissa livesand works in Manhattan in Internet advertising.Kenneth Kohn is a financial professional—finan-cial, estate, and insurance planning—and findstime to play on two softball teams, one for play-ers 40-and-over, another for 50-and-over. Daugh-ter Kimberly lives in Ridgefield, CT, with her hus-band and Kenneth’s grandson Zachery, who willbe 2 at the end of July. They will be expandingtheir family shortly. Son Scott resides in Charlotte,NC; Jonathan ’05 resides in New York City.

Alan Cody reports that he is busy promot-ing micro-lending to low- and middle-income en-trepreneurs as chair of the New England AdvisoryBoard of ACCION USA, a nonprofit engaged in mi-crofinance and financial literacy education. Healso works frequently with ACCION’s VP of devel-opment, Valeria Perez-Ferreiro ’89. Pete Coorshas lots of news. His seventh grandchild arrivedrecently—he now has three girls and four boys—and he now serves as chairman of both MolsonCoors Brewing Co. and millercoors LLC. Wife Mar-ilyn (Gross) is an associate professor in ethicsand genetics at the U. of Colorado Health Sci-ences Center. They keep track of Cornell primari-ly through sons Peter ’99, ME ’00, and David’04. David is a player/coach of Team 21, alacrosse team composed of Cornell players inmemory of George Boiardi ’04 (#21).

Bill Robinett, MRP ’71, proudly reports: “Mybiggest news is that we finally became grand-parents with the birth of Tate Oliver Morgan, onApril 6. He is the first child of our older daugh-ter, Susie. Our son, Charlie, has taken a new po-sition with EMC, with lots of travel to Army basesall over the country. He lives in the D.C. areawhen he’s home, if ever. Younger daughter Lau-ra has one more year of college at Drury U. inSpringfield, MO.

Larry and Nancy Jenkins Krablin ([email protected]) are very busy. Nancy still teachesmiddle school science and over the summer wastrying to complete as many “residential archae-ology” projects as possible. She writes, “I keepfit and sane by riding a bicycle to anything lessthan 15 miles from home, including work, untildarkness or ice make that unsafe,” and also con-tinues in her role as CAAAN No. 245 chair. “Lar-ry continues to enjoy solving problems at Unisysand (finally) mentors a few new hires after theyears of lay-offs that he survived. Our new pas-sion is kites—flying them (we are improving), ac-quiring them (this is all too easy), and makingthem. Perhaps if we ever retire . . . ?” Nancy addsthat chairs at the Baker Inst. for Animal Researchwere dedicated in honor of her parents, Dubois,DVM ’43, and Doris Holmes Jenkins ’44, shouldanyone visit that auditorium just off campus.Happy New Year to all! Keep in touch at: TinaEconomaki Riedl, [email protected].

c67 Thomas Lambiase, MBA ’72 (Fair-fax, VA; [email protected])notes under the “doing recently”

spot: “Haiti relief work (LazarusProjectHaiti.org).

68 No column this time, but moreto come in the March/April issue.Happy New Year to all, and best

wishes for 2011. Send news to: Mary HartmanSchmidt, [email protected].

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70 Can we really be into 2011 al-ready? Seems like just yesterdaywe were all so worried about

Y2K and here we are 11 years down the road, soto speak. I hope you all had a wonderful holidayseason and will have a great and blessed andhealthy new year!

Barbara Smith Kantor ([email protected])lives in Boulder, CO, with husband Michael. In an-swer to our query about what you remember mostfondly about our time at Cornell, Barbara says therewas a new idea and a new person every day. Youjust could not avoid broadening your mind, views,and heart. And you only realize this in its entire-ty a few generations out! She would like to hearfrom Belen Samper. Rich Schneider ([email protected]) lives with wife Sue in Swampscott,MA. Although he retired as an active partner fromDeloitte Consulting in the summer of 2009, Richremains active in several arenas. He is on the ad-visory council for the Johnson School at Cornelland on the part-time faculty there as a visitinglecturer in strategy. Rich is also an MBA coach atHarvard Business School. In addition, he is a di-rector with Sage Partners, a firm that does exec-utive counseling and venture development. Richand Sue have lived in the Boston area for 35years. Their older son, Geoff, is in law school andtheir younger son, Cory, plays professional icehockey with the Vancouver Canucks in the NHL.

Joan Ellen Schmukler Posner ([email protected]) is a family court judge for DutchessCounty in New York State. She is also an inte-grated domestic violence court judge (actingSupreme Court judge presiding over this part).She lives in Poughkeepsie with husband David,who is managing partner with McCabe & Mach.Their daughter, Elizabeth, 31, is deputy directorof development for foundation relations at HillelInt’l in Washington, DC. Their son, Michael, 28,was studying for the New York Bar examinationafter his graduation from Harvard Law School in2010. He works at the counsel’s Office of Hous-ing and Urban Development, also in Washington,DC. Philip McNutt ([email protected]) is anattorney with Hughes & Bentzen PLLC in Wash-ington, DC. He specializes in commercial and realestate litigation, bankruptcy, and creditors’ rights.He resides in Ashburn, VA, with wife Mary. “Afterhours,” Philip is active with the Gonzaga DC Clas-sic Basketball Tournament, a national high schoolcontest for charity in the nation’s capital.

Harry Brull ([email protected])reports that he is now officially half-retired, andthat although he is doing a lousy job of it, it isnice to be wanted. He and his wife, Myra Barrett,PhD ’71, did move their “center of gravity” fromSt. Paul, MN, to Salida, CO, a lovely mountaintown with a population of 5,500 just 100 mileswest of Colorado Springs. When work doesn’tbeckon, Harry spends his days bicycling. Salidasits at 7,000 feet and all rides involve climbing.Now their airport commute is three hours to Den-ver, when it was a mere eight minutes in St.Paul. They have grandkids in Minnesota and Ore-gon and all their children are gainfully employed.Life is good! Naomi Gardner Kaffee (Rockville,MD; [email protected]) was a first-timereunion attendee and had a wonderful time at our40th Reunion last June. She enjoyed renewingfriendships as well as seeing original Rembrandtetchings at the Johnson Museum on campus. Af-ter Cornell, Naomi married Stephen ’69, and hadthree wonderful children. Ten years ago, after 30“dry” years, she started to paint again! Two years

ago, she separated from her husband and dis-covered that she had advanced lung cancer. Sheis in a clinical trial at Johns Hopkins and doingvery well now. In the meantime, she still paints(had a solo show of her work), swims, and takesyoga classes.

Harry ’69, PhD ’76, and Ruth Sauberman Wa-chob live in San Jose, CA, and have children Seanand Rebecca. Sean had his second daughter, Dy-lan, in December 2009, and Rebecca had her firstchild, daughter Malia, in July 2009. Malia was onlyfour-and-a-half pounds at birth, but is doing verywell now. Ruth continues to be a teacher/directorof the state preschool for low-income children forthe Cupertino Union School District. Due to budg-et cuts from the State of California, the districtwill not continue the program, so Ruth will haveto decide between changing grades or retiring in2011. Harry is looking for a new job after Xoftdownsized. In the summer of 2009, Ruth and Har-ry traveled in southern England (Oxford, theCotswolds, Bath, Windsor) and did a 12-day RickSteves tour of northern France. Highlights includ-ed seeing the Eiffel Tower twinkle at night fromtheir hotel, watching the tides come in at MontSaint-Michel—as well as the abbey lit up againstthe night sky—being awed by Stonehenge andAvebury, and photographing Monet’s gardens atGiverny. Connie Ferris Meyer, 16 James ThomasRd., Malvern, PA 19355; e-mail, [email protected].

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headquarters and main housing at the West Cam-pus Flora Rose House. Check out our website(http://classof71.alumni.cornell.edu) and watchyour snail-mail for news of pre-reunion regionalevents, as well as reunion events and speakers.For more info, you can contact reunion co-chairsGilda Klein Linden ([email protected]) andDavid Beale ([email protected]). We also inviteyou to help improve our collective memory andTop 40 memories list by recalling “40 ThingsAbout Your Cornell Experience.” E-mail your rec-ollections to [email protected].

We have some unreported news from the lastbatch of news and dues forms, so let’s get to it.A few Massachusetts residents wrote in. VictorCurran, BA ’73 (Maynard, MA; [email protected]) reported that his work takes him toNew York City on a regular basis and he would en-joy connecting with classmates in the area. Victoris East Coast representative for Illinois-based Pre-cision Graphics, a design studio that specializesin educational and technical publications and mul-timedia. In nearby Sherborn, MA, Wayne Jaquith([email protected]) runs the Peace Phil-anthropy Project and recently married Marcia Zais.He reported that the slowdown in philanthropicactivities has meant more leisure time for him,which he has been spending with his new wife andtending to his growing garden. Over in the Berk-shires, Robert Brandt (Leeds, MA) is a privatepractice clinical psychologist who is spending moretime at the beach on Cape Cod. He enjoys Tai Chiwhen he isn’t furnishing his new beach house.

Fellow clinical psychologist Edward Hoffman([email protected]) spent fall 2009 as a visitingprofessor at the U. of Tokyo, reporting it as “a won-derful experience.” He is a New York City resident

71 As we wish a Happy New Year tothe Class of 1971, we’d like toencourage all our classmates to

“Return, Renew, and Reconnect” at our 40th Re-union on June 9-12, 2011. We’ll set up our class





















and a member of the Yeshiva U. faculty. In hisspare time, Edward loves swimming and playingthe flute. Melany Scherzer Whitney, BFA ’71 ([email protected]) is president and founder ofthe Whitney Center for Permanent Cosmetics. Sheis a nationally recognized expert in the applica-tion and art of permanent makeup and has beenfeatured on many TV news and feature broadcasts.Melany now works out of Boca Raton, FL. JannaShaffer Lamboy (Geneva, NY; [email protected]) is associate professor of horticulture atFinger Lakes Community College, where she de-veloped the new viticulture and wine technologyprogram. In her spare time, she grows cut flowersto sell at farmers’ markets. Color designer MaryMcMurray ([email protected]) helpspeople choose colors and designs for homes andbusinesses. In a recent project, she created de-signs for a restaurant with locations in six states.She and husband David live in Portland, OR.

Frequent contributor Elisabeth Kaplan Boas([email protected]) and husband Art Spitzer([email protected]) wrote in with their news.Art continues as legal director at the ACLU in D.C.Elisabeth reported that the past year was busywith travel to the Far East, including Vietnam,Laos, and Cambodia, as well as Russia and Mon-golia. She stays busy with leadership roles in lo-cal organizations in and around the couple’s homebase in Chevy Chase, MD. Elisabeth is a memberof the Montgomery County Community Foundation,her local synagogue board of directors, and sev-eral Cornell groups. She was elected to the CornellCouncil and serves on the Library Advisory Coun-cil and the Washington Cornell Club Board.

Reports of Cornellian and classmate sightingsarrived from class president Laurie Berke-Weiss([email protected]) and my co-correspondentLinda Germaine-Miller. Laurie reported that hertravels have included visits with many Cornellians.She writes, “My husband, Brian Berke, and I vis-ited with Lori Schaffer and husband Brian Col-man at their home in London. At the end of thesummer, Brian and I visited our daughter AlexBerke ’06 in Oregon, where Cheryl Horton ’06,an environmental educator, guided us around thegorgeous Oregon coast.” At the wedding of Deb-bie Korenblatt Matz’s daughter Hayley, Laurie sawRichard ’70 and Sandra Livingston Goldberg,Beth Shapiro Stroul, and Lynne Goldstein Sil-verstein, BFA ’71. Debbie, by the way, is chair-man of the National Credit Union Administration.Linda Germaine-Miller and husband Joe Miller ’69have been in touch with Bob Baumwoll and hiswife, Martha. Bob is a physician at Harvard Van-guard Medical Associates in Boston.

This time of year we have little or no newsleft. So watch your e-mail for the annual winterplea for news. Or you can avoid the winter blahsand punch up a newsy e-mail today. Send it toLinda or me. Matt Silverman, [email protected]; Linda Germaine-Miller, [email protected].

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“For those of you looking for a breastfeeding bookfor your daughter or daughter-in-law, I like tothink there’s never been a better one!” she says.Laurence ([email protected]) and Deborah LongTaylor ([email protected]) are still hardat work at their respective institutions. Deborahis starting her 35th year at Colby-Sawyer College,where she is the academic vice president anddean of the faculty. Larry is a professor of psy-chology at New England College, starting his34th year, and was chosen this past year as theprofessor of the year. “We kayak, sail, and chaseour new grandson around when we are in hisvicinity. Life is good,” Larry says.

Jody Uttal, BFA ’73 ([email protected])still lives in the Venice Canals with husband JeffGold. Her youngest daughter recently began stud-ies at Reed College, and her oldest just graduatedfrom Reed and is headed to NYC for an internshipat SculptureCenter. Susan Farber Straus (OwingsMills, MD) is a clinical psychologist working withchildren who have experienced abuse and neglect.She traveled to Italy and Korea last June, contin-ues to be involved with a drama club and playingpiano, and has a granddaughter Charlotte, 2.

Andrew Topus ([email protected]) writes:“SmartPrice Sales & Marketing Inc. (smartpricesales.com), which I founded nine years ago todevelop and market food products sold in the ex-treme value retail ($1.00 Store) channel has beennamed by Inc. Magazine for two consecutive yearsas one of the fastest growing private companiesin America (number 71 in 2009 and number 311in 2010). We will attend the Inc. 2010 awardsconference and banquet this year in Washington,DC. It appears my BS degree in Food Marketingand Distribution has paid off.” Andy and wifeSarah have welcomed four grandchildren into theworld during the past 18 months.

Margaret Geppert Walter, BA ’71 (Hochdorf,Germany; [email protected]) has beenfondly recalling her years at Cornell and sent anupdate. Margy married Dietmar ’65 during hersophomore year at Cornell, in January 1970. Af-ter she graduated in 1972 they moved to Germany,intending to stay “only ayear,” since they thoughtthey were headed to Indiafor work in the Peace Corps(Margy’s major was AsianStudies). But the trip to In-dia never worked out. Theyended up staying in Ger-many, where they’ve livedand worked happily for al-most 40 years. Dietmarworked in various softwaredevelopment jobs; Margystarted out mastering Ger-man and then doing transla-tion work. Their childrenwere born in 1981, 1984, and 1986. By then bothDietmar and Margy were full-time freelancers, hein software consultation and she in German-Eng-lish translations. Now their children are grown andout of the house. Daughter Carrie is a lawyer inEngland specializing in environmental law and thisyear married a British barrister; son Ingo studiedgeology in Munich and is now pursuing an ad-vanced degree in Salt Lake City; and son Steve isa cellist who studied first in Oslo/Norway andnow in Germany—he also founded a classical mu-sic festival in nearby Esslingen (see bilingual web-site at www.podiumfestival.de). Dietmar andMargy still work almost full-time, but enjoy daily

long bike rides to keep in shape and love goingto classical music concerts in the Stuttgart areanear where they live. They return to the USAonce or twice a year to visit family.

Robert Wolpert ([email protected])tells us: “Both our children have graduated fromCornell now—Genevieve ’07 spent her spring andsummer doing relief work in Haiti and is now inmedical school at UNC; Kyle ’10 has moved to thePark Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn and is ex-ploring medical and bio-tech opportunities in NewYork. Luckily I’ve started collaborating with someCornell faculty members, giving us an excuse togo back to Ithaca now and again even though thekids have moved on.” Steven Seifert ([email protected]) writes: “My wife, Sandy Mishkin,is a UW-Madison alumnus. I, of course, am a Cor-nell alumnus. Our daughter, Sara ’07, did herfreshman year at UW-Madison before transferringto, and graduating from, Cornell. Last year’s men’sNCAA basketball tournament match-up betweenCornell and UW-Madison (which Cornell won!) ex-posed the problem of divided loyalties within afamily. Fortunately, ‘Go Big Red’ works well in thatsituation.” Gary L. Rubin, [email protected];Alex Barna, [email protected]; Carol Fein Ross,[email protected].

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72 Harvey Teres ([email protected])is an associate professor of Eng-lish, director of the Judaic Stud-

ies Program, and a member of the board of trusteesat Syracuse U. His book The Word on the Street:Linking the Academy and the Common Reader willbe published by the U. of Michigan Press in No-vember. Diane Rockcastle Wiessinger, MS ’78([email protected]) is one of three co-authorsof The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (8th edition),published last summer by La Leche League Int’l.

73 Since “life happens,” occasional-ly your class officers cover forone another. Hence this column

is being written by your class president insteadof one of your regular correspondents. It’s a goodchance for me to bring you up to date on thelatest class plans. By the time you read this, our60th birthday celebrations will have begun acrossthe country. The first event was held in Oakland,CA, at the home of Irene Kohan Yesowitch. Ofcourse, in typical ’73 fashion, we weren’t simplyinterested in getting together for drinks; we alsohad a moderated discussion on “What do I wantto do in the next stage of my life?” coordinatedby Jon Kaplan, MBA ’74. The discussion wasstarted by Alex Friedman, PhD ’80, Jacqui

Preziose Bower, MS ’75,and David Felderstein,who, along with Jon, de-scribed their life changesand approach. In additionto the four discussion“starters,” others enjoyingthe get-together in Oak-land were: John Cowan,MFA ’80, Bette CaanMansbach, Sharon Brook,Chuck Geber, Peter Yim,Bill Welker, MBA ’75, andIrene Yesowitch. Alex saidthat the discussion afford-ed him the opportunity to

compose his own statement—and that he walkedaway with a number of thoughts, particularly that“plans are useless, but planning is essential.” Itwas also a chance to hear how differently thosewho had retired reacted to the change. Irene’scomment was that if an event is planned in yourarea, “don’t miss it!”

Additional birthday celebrations are beingplanned—e-mails and flyers will be sent to class-mates in the various locales. If you travel, or areinterested in knowing about the others, check theclass website (address below) for the latest. Up-coming cities/areas include: Boston, NYC, North-ern New Jersey, Boca Raton, Atlanta, Southern

‘Plans areuseless, butplanning isessential.’Alex Friedman ’73















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http://www.podiumfestival.de









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California, Chicago, Philadelphia, and D.C. (whichwill be held in late January when Cornell hoststhe annual Cornell Alumni Leadership Conferenceand the class officers will be present). If you areinterested in helping organize one of these eventsin your area (or one of those listed), please con-tact Jon Kaplan ([email protected]) or FranMinnock ([email protected]).

The class officers were together in Ithaca inmid-September to begin the initial planning forour 40th Reunion and campaign. Those attendingwere: Rick Saltz, MBA ’74, Joan Spielholz, PaulCashman, Larry Taylor, Eliot Greenwald, FranMinnock, Carl Ferrentino, MCE ’74, Susan Murphy,PhD ’94, and Marty Slye Sherman, MPS ’75; BaerConnard and Danielle Lombardo Trostorff dialedin. When we retired to the Statler Regent Loungelater, we encountered the die-hards from the Sprint(150-lb.) football team reunion, including DanMichel, Mark Clemente, MPS ’77, and Jim Seeley’75. Dan hasn’t been involved with the class at all,even though he lives in central New York, so weconvinced him to give it a try. Mark has served onthe Class Council in prior years and is always avail-able to lend a hand (or raise a glass at reunion!).Mark and Wendy have a home on Cayuga Lake, buthe said that his practice is so busy he isn’t ableto spend as much time in Ithaca as he’d like. Allof us would have liked to stay on campus longerfor the poetry event at the Johnson Museum ofArt featuring award-winning poet Mary Gilliland,MAT ’80, a retired faculty member of the KnightInst. for Writing in the Disciplines.

Your class officers have been busy mappingthe course of our activities for the coming years.Hard to believe it’s time (although we are turning60!), but the class legacy has been debated thor-oughly, with the result that we are taking a three-pronged approach: scholarship, mentoring, andpublic service. These are areas where we can andare making a difference at Cornell and in our com-munities. In the scholarship realm, did you knowthat there is a Class of 1973 Scholarship? We estab-lished it in 1987, and although we’ve never madea big deal of it, the contributions that have beenmade (mostly in conjunction with the paymentof class dues), have added up to a respectable$119,000! To show the value of an endowment,over the years we’ve been able to grant $147,000to 15 students with financial need—often formultiple years! Our most recent recipient is Lu-cas Chang ’13, a Biology major in A&S. We arealso assisting Juan Castellanos ’10, a fifth-yeardouble major in Architecture and CALS. A numberof us have met these students and are continual-ly amazed at the difference a Cornell education ismaking in their lives. Officers are mentoring thesestudents as they navigate Cornell and will be work-ing with them (including inviting them to theLeadership Conference in D.C.) to aid their tran-sition from student to involved alum. There is alsoa Class of 1973 Book Fund (again primarily fund-ed through additional contributions made at thetime of dues payment), which has provided moniesto Cornell libraries since 1993. The endowmenthas allowed the libraries to purchase researchmaterials/manuscripts they would not otherwisebe able to acquire, primarily in Religious Studies.

You’ve heard some about our quest for mem-bers of the class who have made a difference intheir community (or the world!) through their ca-reer and/or volunteer involvement. Rich Stearns,featured in the Sept/Oct issue of this magazine,is one such individual—making a difference inHaiti, Myanmar, and other countries devastated

by natural disasters through his leadership atWorld Vision. But there are other classmates whoare contributing at the local level, through theirinvolvement in food pantries, youth programs,services to the elderly, etc., and we’d like to knowwho they are. Please identify fellow classmates(or yourself) by e-mailing Phyllis Haight Grum-mon ([email protected]). These acts of publicservice don’t have to have world impact, just im-pact on a classmate’s world. We are creating aforum for recognizing these classmates as theyexhibit public service (the third prong of our lega-cy). Already on our class website we have start-ed to showcase these contributions. Stay tuned.And stay in touch—news is always welcome! Marty Slye Sherman, [email protected]; PhyllisHaight Grummon, [email protected]. Class web-site, http://classof73.alumni.cornell.edu/.

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or for gravity to turn off—your choice.” Ben re-cently enjoyed a beer with Dana Williams, whoteaches math at Dartmouth. I remember Benfondly; he took pity on me in freshman Chemistrywhen I did not know how to use a slide rule.

Eric Roth remembers sitting behind me inDavid Danelski’s course on Constitutional Law. Ericis a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz inNew York, and specializes in corporate and secu-rities litigation. He is happily married to Laurie(Michael) ’75. Laurie and Eric have two childrenwho are Cornellians and have followed their fa-ther in the law. Jason ’05 is a litigation associ-ate at Willkie Farr & Gallagher in NYC. Ariel ’08is a second-year law student at Harvard and willwork this summer at Simpson Thacher & Bartlettin NYC. Eric has remained active in the Cornellcommunity. He is a member of the Cornell Uni-versity Council and engages in fundraising as amember of the President’s Circle Committee. Heand his wife have established a scholarship in theCollege of Arts and Sciences, and he encourageshis classmates to do the same. He reports that itis gratifying to meet one’s scholarship recipientsand know that one has made a difference by pro-viding them with the means to attend Cornell.

Cornell has been a recurring theme in Mo-hammad Iqbal Qamar, MCE ’76’s life as well. Heearned his undergraduate and post-graduate edu-cation in Engineering, has sent two of his childrento Cornell (Natasha Renée ’06 (A&S) and ShaanIqbal ’08, ME ’09), and is co-chair of CAAAN Com-mittee 861 in Pakistan. Over the years, Moham-mad and wife Renée have traveled in Pakistan, theUS, Nairobi, London, and Turkey (visiting Cornell-ians), and hope to continue to do so in the yearsahead. They live in Ithaca, where their third child,Sonya Renée, is in tenth grade at Ithaca High. Mo-hammad describes his connections to Cornell andIthaca as “central” to his life. Stephen Banker haspracticed law in NYC in the mergers and acquisi-tions department of Skadden Arps for more than33 years. For two years, he was part of Skadden’sTokyo office. His daughter, Meredith, is pursuingan acting career in L.A. and his son Benjamin isenjoying sixth grade. Stephen and wife Susantook a biking trip to Burgundy. He, too, wouldlove to hear from fellow Cornellians. Brian Beglinreports that in April, he relocated to BinghamMcCutcheon’s Tokyo office, and will move nextspring to open his law firm’s office in Beijing.

In August, the American Council of Engi-neering Companies (ACEC), the nation’s largestbusiness association for the engineering industry,reported that the ACEC Business Insurance Trustappointed Gary Loesch, ME ’75, as a trustee. TheTrust is responsible for overseeing a program thatprovides ACEC member firms with business andprofessional liability insurance coverage. Gary isexecutive vice president of the H2M Group (Holz-macher, McLendon & Murrell PC, H2M Labs Inc.,H2M Associates Inc., and H2M Architects & Engi-neers). Berta Esperanza Hernandez-Truyol teach-es at the U. of Florida Levin College of Law, whereshe focuses on human rights. Her latest book isJust Trade: A New Covenant Linking Trade and Hu-man Rights (with Stephen J. Powell), publishedin 2009 by the NYU Press. Her son, Nikolai, hasstarted first grade. Berta’s partner, Vivian, teach-es Spanish and science at Nikolai’s school. Bertacannot wait to hear from her classmates. WendyGoldberg-Hammond, BFA ’74, curated, designed,and installed the art exhibit “Drawing From Lineto Shadow,” a 13-artist drawing show in SanRafael, CA. She reports that her work is included

74 Thank you for all of your newsitems. Our numbers include award-winning writers and artists, philan-

thropists, historians, engineers, lawyers, teachers,and consultants, among many other professions,all reflecting the cornucopia of educational op-portunities we experienced at Cornell. Consistentthemes in your news items are a love of Cornellthat has been passed down to your children anda desire to hear from classmates. So here goes.

Although Jim Schoonmaker lives in theWashington, DC, area, he has returned to Cornellsix times since last year. In April 2009, he touredthe campus with daughter Annalise and hismother, Ethel Potteiger Myers ’35 (Hum Ec). Heattended our 35th Reunion while his mother, age97, attended her 75th. The high point of hismother’s reunion was when her class was recog-nized during Cornelliana Night in Bailey Hall, asshe was called by name and asked to stand andwave. Annalise is now part of the Class of 2014.Jim and family attended the gathering for newstudents at Chateau Rupert/Foote. When he isnot at Cornell, Jim works for Alhurra TV, the US-financed network that broadcasts in Arabic to theMiddle East from the Washington, DC, area.

David Smiley sends greetings from Dubuque,IA, where he works for IBM. He fondly remembershis friends from Cornell and would like to hearfrom them. He enjoys his contacts with GailGrooms Lyon and her family in New Jersey. DavidEng would also like to hear from his classmates.He vacationed with his family on the big islandof Hawaii and would like to share information onvacation destinations. Susan Niner Janes museshow often Cornell is mentioned in the movies. Forexample, in Up in the Air, George Clooney’s effi-cient assistant had an MBA from Cornell. In Des-perate Housewives, Bree’s son-in-law went toCornell Law. And in Starman, the main characterwent to Cornell. Ray Milland’s drunk in The LostWeekend had a Cornell degree, too. Susan usedher DEA background to create Petal Pairs, her pa-per craft punches for Tonic Studios. Her son is co-music editor of the Cambridge Student newspaper.Her daughter is an art student.

R.L. “Ben” Brungraber, a self-described “en-gineer/worrier,” reports from Rhode Island that hisolder son finished his doctorate in structures (thethird generation in what Ben describes as “thismadness”) and lives in San Diego. Ben’s youngerson is, in Ben’s words, “dangerously” single and lov-ing life in NYC. Ben describes his repair consult-ing work as a fight with gravity. “We can wait forthe economy to turn around to fix this building,









in the Achenbach Collection of Prints and Draw-ings in the San Francisco Legion of Honor Muse-um, the Haas Family Collection, Genentech Corp.,the New York offices of Berkman, Bottger & RoddLLP, and the viewing program of the DrawingCenter. She adds that a book of her images,Drawing Out the Light, was published by Blurb.Wendy would love to hear from other ’74 gradu-ates of AAP.

Jim Grossman has moved from his positionas VP for research and education at the NewberryLibrary in Chicago to become executive director ofthe American Historical Association. He is espe-cially interested in increasing the role of historyand historians in public culture and welcomes mes-sages from classmates with an interest in history.He solicits suggestions as to how the AmericanHistorical Association might attract the interestof readers of history who are not professional his-torians. Stay tuned for more of your news itemsin our next column. Helen Bendix, [email protected]; Betsy Moore, [email protected]; Jack Jay Wind, [email protected].

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they ultimately plan to retire. Jim Thul (Fleming-ton, NJ) spent a large portion of this past springtraveling with wife Lorna to see son Garrett playlacrosse as a freshman at West Point. Army ad-vanced to the NCAA playoffs until they met upwith Cornell! However, Garrett was chosen by In-sidelacrosse.com as the first-ever National Rook-ie of the Year! Daughter Lauren graduated fromGettysburg and lives and works in Boston.

Lisa Jensen Wingate, MA ’85, reported onthe fun she and husband Ken ([email protected]) had during Reunion; it was a time for tour-ing campus and reminiscing, while the kids rolledtheir eyes since they couldn’t imagine their par-ents had lives before marriage! While Ken playedgolf with Dexter Dyer, Lisa and the kids canoedon Beebe Lake and checked out the gorges. Theyall made sure they visited the fabulous Dairy Bar.Ken was able to connect with his FIJI frat broth-ers, while Lisa visited with grad school friends whostill live in Ithaca. The Wingates live in EllicottCity, MD, where Ken is president of North PointBuilders. Jim Blumling (Dix Hills, NY; [email protected]) attended reunion with wife Shel-ley. Jim designs radar systems for telephones. Heand Shelley have finished up with major renova-tions on their house and landscaping. DaughterChrissy ’02 was married in August 2009 and theirson is at UC San Diego, getting a PhD in bio-engineering. Gwenn Tannenbaum Canfield (Haver-straw, NY; [email protected]) is a vocationalrehabilitation counselor for the NYS Dept. of Ed-ucation and active with CAAAN. She has two sons:a TV cameraman and a patent attorney. Lisa Lin-der ([email protected]) is an eye surgeon who ownsan ophthalmology practice in Newtown Square, PA.She and husband Louis Glass are proud parents ofStephanie ’12, an AEM student, and Eric, a fresh-man at Penn State. Ken and Elaine JohnsonAyres live in Rockville, MD. She works at NIH inhealth information technology, while he is an at-torney with Jones Day. Son Jay ’04 is married andliving in Boston, and son Brad ’06 works for Mor-gan Stanley in NYC.

Betsy Grover ([email protected]) came toIthaca from across the country. She retired as VPof human resources of VERITAS Software and nowenjoys her free time in Palo Alto, CA. She teach-es spin classes at the local Y (frankly, I am to-tally intimidated by the spinners in my gym!) andtakes classes through Stanford continuing stud-ies. She went on an archeological tour in Pompeiilast year and to England this year. Her daughtergraduated from Yale in ’09 and her son is a soph-omore at Cornell. Renee Meredith (Jamesville,NY; [email protected]) has re-enteredthe field of dietetics. She was thrilled to attendthe mini-reunion of the Nutrition majors held atour reunion and loved reconnecting with herKappa sisters. She has sons Christopher ’05, MS’09, and Jeremy, a sophomore in high school. PegBurgess, DVM ’79 (Southampton, MA; [email protected]) works at a small animal veterinary practice.Her family includes husband Mark Freise, sonWilliam, who graduated from UMass, and daugh-ter Jennifer, at Dartmouth.

Martha Wild ([email protected]) is ascientist at Anaphone, a small biotech startup.She calls contra dances, plays piano, rollerblades,and boogie boards in the summer. Her favoritememories of Reunion were canoeing, going on thezip line, bird watching at Sapsucker Woods, andfinding a good dancer to swing dance with in thetents! Barbara Koenig Kahn (Briarcliff Manor,NY; [email protected]) is a counselor at

Eastchester High School; husband Jim ’74 isdeputy university counsel at Weill Cornell MedicalCollege. Son Adam is a PhD student in communi-cations at USC, son Peter is a post-production/assistant editor in L.A., and son Zachary is a re-search analyst at the Center for Effective Philan-thropy in Cambridge, MA. Barbara stays in touchwith Fran Melton-Levine, Lisa Grapek Drillich,Leslie Canfield Perlman, and Merrie Atlas. Sheloves coming to reunion, as it reminds her of thewonderful education and emotional-social expe-riences that have helped shaped the adults wehave all become. She can’t wait to come back forour 40th! I couldn’t express it any better.

There is a bit more reunion news from agroup of Sperry Hall alums who reconnected thatweekend—that will wait for the next column!Keep your news coming and hope to see many ofyou before the next reunion. Deb Gellman,[email protected]; Mitch Frank, [email protected]; Karen DeMarco Boroff, [email protected]; Joan Pease, [email protected].

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75 It’s only been a short time sinceReunion and I have more newsremaining from the notepad I

carried around! Right before Reunion, DebbieReading Mace ([email protected]) finished herlast exam (are we still going to school at our age?)and is now a Hotelie with a master’s in architec-ture. She and husband Ed ’73 live in Colorado’s VailValley. She doesn’t ski, but lives for summers andgolf. Her son Casey graduated from Georgetownand works for the State Dept. Son Patrick ’01,MBA ’09, and daughter Courtney ’03 followed Momand Dad and both became Hotelies! Fellow HotelieCaren Whiteman Kline (Dallas, TX; [email protected]) and husband Peter ’69, MS ’71 (anotherHotelie!) have daughters Catherine and Christina.Caren is a community volunteer and was very help-ful at Reunion with fashion tips for me! VickieThaler Vaclavik ([email protected]) also lives in Dallas with her husband. She hasthree children, earned her PhD, and teaches at theU. of Texas. Hotelie Kathleen Kelley lives outsideof Boston, where she owns a small hotel andrestaurant and likes to go rowing and swimming.She says she has “nudged” many a young personto attend Cornell. Keeping with the Hotel school,Jeff Zimmerman ([email protected]) lives in BucksCounty, PA, with wife Susan (Feinberg) ’76. Theirdaughter Sarah ’04 is married to Ian Hegarty ’03,MRP ’04. Jeff likes to cycle, play golf, and read.

Steffi Feit Gould (Hewlett, NY; [email protected]) is married to Perry ’74. She works atRockville Racquet Club, plays tennis, is learninggolf, and serves as president of the Hewlett-Wood-mere Board of Education. Son Andrew ’05 lives inSeattle, WA, and works for Amazon, which is veryhelpful to Steffi, an avid Amazon customer. SonJason is a second-year law student at St. John’sin NYC; son Keith is a senior at Wisconsin, study-ing computer programming. Mark and Ting MagillKamon (Chester Springs, PA; [email protected]) have grandchildren Matthew and Abby viason Jake. Son Mike finished his Army tour of dutyafter graduating from West Point and now worksfor Booz Allen. Daughter Emily received her mas-ter’s in school psychology and has started her firstposition in a school district outside of Harrisburg,PA. Mark is VP at Carpenter Technology. He hasfinished building a fiber art studio for Ting at theirhome on the eastern shore of Maryland, where

76 Thank you to those of you whofilled out your News and Duesforms for the past (almost) 35

years! Reunion is coming up, June 9-12, and itgives us all another chance to catch up and tocelebrate.

Kathryn Gollin Marshak’s present day job isas a freelance editor; her husband, Stephen, isprofessor of geology and director of the Schoolof Earth, Society, and Environment, U. of Illinois,Urbana-Champaign. Kathryn has been involvedin the Osher Lifelong Learning Inst. and enjoysgardening and traveling. Stephen writes collegetextbooks and also enjoys traveling and photog-raphy. Their youngest child graduated from Cor-nell in May and they had one more wonderfulvisit to Ithaca. From her time at Cornell, Kathrynremembers the spectacular campus, growing in-tellectually, and being challenged with inde-pendence. She would like to hear from friendsHelen Anderson ’78 and Mary Taylor.

Richard Neff left Geenberg Glusker, a well-known L.A. entertainment law firm, where he head-ed the tech and IP group, to found his own firm,Neff Law Firm, established in February 2010. Theoffice is near his home in Manhattan Beach, CA.He represents tech, e-commerce, Internet, and me-dia companies, and so far it is going well. He skieda lot this past winter at Lake Tahoe and Mammothwith his three children. Richard learned how toski as his Cornell P.E. requirement at Greek Peak.Both his skiing and the mountains have improvedmarkedly. Also, he has published articles on tech-nology and copyright and he invites you to see hisblog at www.Nefflaw.com. He thanks professorsLeFeber, Kammen, Polenberg, and Altschuler forhis lifetime commitment to the study of history.As a board member of the Technology Council ofSouthern California and chair of the L.A. chapter,Richard puts together programs and events on thefuture of media, social networking as businessstrategy, trends in games, etc.

Gale Climenson Walters’s present day job isMidwest sales manager for a food ingredient com-pany, and she has been traveling more for work.She would rather be having a family vacation. Shealso cares for three dogs, runs, and does yoga andPilates. Two things that she remembers fondly fromher time at Cornell were learning cutting-edge sci-ence in the food processing arena and the amaz-ing family feel of the Human Ecology program. She








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would like to hear from Lily Ramphal ’75, who wasin the medical program and is now a doctor.

Wendy Alberg, BA ’78, graduated A.A. in en-vironmental science with a 4.0 GPA from theSchoenbrodt Honors program at Howard Commu-nity College in June, receiving one of the twoawards to the 4.0 GPA students with the mostchallenging course load. She completed HowardLegacy Leadership in the Environment (HOLLIE)training in February 2010 and got a HOLLIE place-ment for 150 hours of volunteer service with thenatural resources division of Howard CountyRecreation and Parks. Her summer projects in-cluded teaching workshops on stream health tofourth and fifth graders and conducting streamhealth surveys in the Middle Patuxent environ-mental area. Wendy remembers fondly the SageChapel Choir and Cornell Chorus from her years oncampus. Some extracurricular activities for PaulKeenan are playing golf and preparing meals forpatients at Hope Lodge in Pennsylvania. He ispresident of Keenan Cohen & Howard PC. Paulrepresents rail and motor carriers in commercialand interstate commerce matters. He would ratherbe playing golf at his place in Florida.

Ann Rosovsky Beaton is associate professorat SUNY College of Optometry. She is on the boardof trustees and chair of the religious school com-mittee for Congregation Rodeph Shalom. She isalso the secretary for the co-op board of 250 East87th Owners Corporation. A blue poison frog stick-er and smiley face stickers decorated EliahuHalpern’s News and Dues forms, along with someinteresting comments—including dissatisfactionwith the current political leadership. He would liketo hear from classmates and writes that we should“keep the faith!” I think this is the first news formI’ve ever seen that was decorated. Thanks, Eliahu.It made me smile. Lisa Diamant, [email protected]; Karen Krinsky Sussman, [email protected]; Pat Relf Hanavan, [email protected].

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write a screenplay and send my son to highschool.” Her husband, Harry Fox, is an executiveat Kaiser-Permanente. The entire family are ded-icated basketball fans; they follow the Big Red(“of course”), as well as the Washington Wizards,their hometown team.

Family and cosmetic dentist David Hauss(Long Beach, CA) has been visiting colleges withhis son, a senior in high school. A recruitedswimmer, he was invited to Harvard, Princeton,and Northwestern; the Big Red wasn’t part of theequation. In his spare time, David volunteerswith a clinic that provides free medical and den-tal services in Los Angeles. Lawrence Cooper([email protected]) lives nearby in Bev-erly Hills. “I was recently in the South Pacificalong the Sydney, Australia, coast, catching king-fish, which were practically jumping into theboat,” he writes. “Successfully grabbed dozens ofwild salmon. Quite a treat!” He’d like to reconnectwith Mark Underberg, JD ’81. Kenneth Myers(Detroit, MI; [email protected]) serves as chief cu-rator and Curator of American Art for the DetroitInst. of Arts. His daughter Sarah ’13 majors inNatural Resources in the Ag college. He, too,would welcome news of Mark Underberg.

Mark Mayrsohn made a ten-day trip to Scan-dinavia, where he saw Viking ships, the Van GoghMuseum, and Swedish castles. He sailed fromCopenhagen to Oslo on the North Sea. “Still keepin touch with my friends from the Cayuga’s Wait-ers,” he writes, “and still sing and play 12-stringguitar—mostly oldies.” He’d be happy to hear fromfellow Waiters and Phi Sigma Epsilon brothers. At-torney Jonathan Thau, JD ’79 (New York, NY;[email protected]) sent dues but no news.Deborah Rose has been working on her 11th chil-dren’s book, All the Seasons of the Year, scheduledto be published last fall by Abrams Books forYoung Readers. “My first book, The People WhoHugged the Trees: An Environmental Folktale, is nowbeing included in a reading collection for school-children in South Africa. I remember the beautyof nature all around during my time at Cornell,and this has influenced the books I write.” SteveKranish (Beverly, MA; [email protected]) writes,“My children Samuel, 17, and Shoshana, 15, bothattended Cornell Sports Camps last summer andreally enjoyed the experience. At the same time,I was riding the Bon Ton Roulet, a week-long bi-cycle ride around the Finger Lakes. I was able tovisit with them on campus, which brought backa lot of memories—even though so much haschanged! Both children are attending CheshireAcademy in Connecticut.”

John Longstreet is president and CEO ofQuaker Steak & Lube in Sharon, PA. Rememberour first business cards? No e-mail, no websiteURL. John’s card even includes a plug for hiscompany’s Facebook page. How times havechanged! That was the theme of the letter Johnsent with his News Form. Last year, he took ear-ly retirement from ClubCorp, started HospitalityLeaders Group, and landed some solid consultingcontracts. Then the board of Quaker Steak—whichruns 40 casual dining restaurants—asked John totake on its presidency. “After 27 years in the samecity and 25 years in the same house (that maybe Guinness Book-worthy for someone in the ho-tel industry), Brenda and I packed up our Texashome and moved to Sharon, PA, north of Pitts-burgh, where the company is headquartered.”Their kids had a mixed response to the upheaval.“John Longstreet III ’07, in Manhattan as a sen-ior analyst with Credit Suisse, was excited that

his parents would now be within ‘driving distance.’Liz ’08, a senior seafood buyer with Dardenrestaurants in Orlando, wasn’t quite so excited—like all of us, she had become very attached toour Plano home.” The Longstreets kept their placeon Cayuga Lake. Over graduation weekend, theyhosted Vera and Larry Reinstein and Cindy andBill Grant. Over Labor Day, Mary Kay and MarkWoodworth, MPA ’78, visited; Greg Norkus, MS’87, and Prof. Jack Corgel and wife Connie Col-bert ’76 came by for a cookout and campfire.

Jeff Earickson, MS ’80 (Waterville, ME;[email protected]) serves as a senior adminis-trator for UNIX Systems at Colby College. “I get touse my Civil Engineering degree again as a trusteefor the Kennebec Water District, the oldest pub-lic drinking water district in the US,” he writes.“Also went to Reunion last June and stayed withthe Class of ’80.” Jeff responded emphatically tothe News Form question about plans to relocate:“No way, José,” he wrote. “Maine is a great placeto live.” Howard Schechter ([email protected])is president and CEO of ID8 Systems in New YorkCity, where he lives with wife Jill. His businesscard omits a plug for Facebook, but does includehis Skype address. ID8 is a software startup that,according to the website, uses social networkingtools to create and manage ideas. In his offhours, Howard coaches his son’s football teamand volunteers at his kids’ school. Thanks for allyour news! More to come in future issues. Sendupdates any time of year to: Annette Mulee,[email protected]; Howie Eisen, [email protected].

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77 Entrepreneur Jim Farrell, ME ’80(Orinda, CA) spoke at the Hotelschool in September as part of the

Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Inst. for Hospital-ity Entrepreneurship. Afterward, he was scheduledto dine with a group of students and meet the nextday with students, staff, and faculty. Jim is presi-dent of f ’REAL! Foods, a company he founded topromote a new approach to frozen blended bev-erages. There are now more than 5,000 of hiscompany’s patented blenders in retail locationsin all 50 states and in Canada. Jim previouslyserved as a general manager at Dreyer’s/Edy’sGrand Ice Cream and was a consultant at McKin-sey & Co. Jim’s first company—founded immedi-ately after earning his two Cornell degrees in Agri-cultural Engineering—designed and manufacturedinsulation systems for commercial greenhouses; hereceived a patent for the design of the system inpartnership with Cornell’s technology transfer office.

Nancy Mayer (Durham, NC) wrote that shehad plans to retire from the EPA on New Year’s Day.She has a private law practice she’s been manag-ing evenings and weekends, and post-retirementshe expected to focus full-time on the business.For fun, she teaches classes for the Red Cross,helps with disaster relief, and enjoys gourmetcooking. Her husband, Dave Salman, and GailLacy also work for the EPA. Also embarking on apost-retirement career, Debbie Demske (Potomac,MD; [email protected]) sent an update: “Iretired after 26 years with Hewlett-Packard to

78 Happy 2011 to all! I’m currentlybetween writing grant proposalsand abstracts for scientific meet-

ings. Believe it or not, writing the class columnis a good decompression activity for me. Some-times, writing about migraine can give one aheadache—especially when we submitted a grantproposal to the National Institutes of Health withTEN MINUTES to spare.

Ann Marie Warner Lill, DVM ’82 (HoneoyeFalls; [email protected]) and husband Charles ’79have two sons in CALS and two children still athome. Former hockey player Diana “Sunshine”Lorenz Weggler (Northfield, VT) got to see the cur-rent women’s team beat Harvard last winter. She’san editor in the office of development and alum-ni relations at Norwich U. “I have to say that myEnglish degree has come in handy,” she reports.In preparation for the soon-to-be-empty nest, sheand husband Bob adopted two rescue dogs.

Sometimes news forms give your correspon-dents a chance to bring long-lost classmates to-gether. April Fischer Kates (Rockville, MD; [email protected]) has been teaching her son todrive, painting her townhouse, and “schleppinginto D.C. on the cranky Red Line.” One of the Cor-nell friends she wanted to hear from was MargieFerris-Morris. Coincidentally, one of the newsforms in my stack to incorporate into this columnwas from Margie ([email protected]), who now lives inSwitzerland; her husband, Peter Morris, MPS ’99,works at the World Health Organization. Oncethey became empty-nesters, they took their 25thanniversary trip to New Zealand. April would alsolike to hear from Judy Yourish-Maurer ’79 andLilian Tang Soohoo; unfortunately, I don’t haveany news forms from them—yet.

Not everyone is of the empty nest persuasionthese days. Beth Cooper Kubinec (Lancaster, PA)






















and husband John, JD ’73, have three older kidson their own and a fourth grader. Beth is a MaryKay beauty consultant and will stay put until heryoungest graduates from high school. She enjoyedseeing her DG sisters at our 30th Reunion andwould like to get in touch with Leslie Cancilla.Eric Shakin (Great Neck, NY) is an ophthalmol-ogist who says his time is occupied by “family,family, and more family.” Pam Savage-Roglich isdeep in the college search with her high school-aged son. Gary Smotrich (Titusville, NJ) enjoystelling his sons (aged 10 and 14) “to consider ca-reers other than medicine.” Gary has a plastic andreconstructive surgery practice, specializing inhand and microsurgery. He was elected presidentof the New Jersey Society of Plastic Surgeons.

Karen Wilk Rubin (Cooper City, FL) is a pedi-atric dietitian at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospi-tal in Hollywood, FL. She was quoted in the April2010 issue of South Florida Parenting magazineregarding food dyes and children’s behavior. Backin New York, Brian Meagher was named presidentof the Chautauqua County Medical Society. He’s aradiologist in Jamestown. In addition to his prac-tice, he went to Steamboat Springs and Whistlerfor ski vacations.

Former class correspondent Andre Martec-chini, ME ’79 (Duxbury, MA; [email protected]) finished 12 years of service as a Dux-bury selectman. He’s “still involved in many com-mittees and loving public service.” His day job isas an engineering consultant. Holly HoffmanBrookstein (Larchmont, NY) is a fundraiser for ahospice and teaches English as a Second Lan-guage to people of Hispanic descent. She’d liketo get in touch with Abbe Goldberg Kuhn. JordPoster (Boston, MA; [email protected]) has started a national fundraising platform.He keeps in touch with many of his Sigma Phibrothers in the Boston area.

In April, my former roommate Anne Sierk(Shaker Heights, OH) and her husband, KurtStange, were in town en route to a meeting inVancouver. We knew they were coming, so we gavethem the locals’ tour of the city. The hospitalwhere Anne practices pathology was assimilatedinto the Cleveland Clinic system in 2010. She wasvisited over the summer by our other roommatefrom the summer of ’77, Suzanne Tougas Snedek-er, as Suzanne was schlepping son Daniel to hisfreshman year at Indiana U. Suzanne and husbandJeff live in Cayuga Heights, and Suzanne volun-teered to assist with new student orientation atCornell this year. Speaking of Ithaca, SusanneSolomon has moved from Cincinnati to Ithacaand now works at Cornell.

Sue Panetta (Whitesboro, NY) writes that shehas been diagnosed with leukemia and is doingall of her treatments “alternative.” She was in-volved in the women’s community, Campus GirlScouts, and the Cornell Catholic Community whenwe all were undergrads. She’d most like to hearfrom Carol Thayer ’77. Sometimes you run intopeople you knew when you don’t expect to doso. Back in August we were at the Cornell Clubof Western Washington annual picnic to watchthe Blue Angels air show over Lake Washington.I didn’t see any ’78ers there (and why not?), butI ran into Patricia Enggaard Betz ’79, who wasin Theatre Arts 280 with me back in the day. Shelives just north of Seattle in Mill Creek, WA, withher husband and two children. That’s all the newsfor this go-round. Keep posting on LinkedIn! Cindy Fuller, [email protected]; IleneShub Lefland, [email protected].

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Lawyer” for entertainment and sports and intel-lectual property law by various publications.

Leslie Lewit Milner and husband Larry areexperiencing “empty-nesting,” since all four oftheir kids are in college. Leslie’s son Jacob is afreshman at the U. of Pittsburgh (a GREAT cityto explore). She has three stepdaughters: Dianne’11 is a senior at Cornell, Mariel is a sophomoreat the U. of Wisconsin, and Lindsay is a freshmanat the U. of Michigan. Leslie juggles her job asan interior designer with her volunteer work as theVP at Temple Sinai of Roslyn and as a Roslyn VPfor the East Williston Roslyn Community Coalition,an organization working to prevent drug and al-cohol use among children and educate parentsabout the drug trends their children face.

Mark Hallock reports that the brothers ofLambda Chi Alpha had a 1970s and 1980s reunionon Homecoming weekend. The Class of 1979 waswell represented with Denis Barone, Mark Hal-lock, Scott Jacobs, Joe Kane, Mark Mendelson,and Ray Yasson in attendance. On Friday, therewas a golf outing followed by dinner and drinksin the Willard Straight Hall with their wives andgirlfriends. Lots of tailgating at the football gameon Saturday, along with inspecting the drinkingestablishments in Collegetown, made for a mem-orable weekend for all. David Litman, JD ’82, andBob Diener, JD ’82, have started a new onlinehotel business, Getaroom.com. They offer amaz-ing hotel rates in dozens of US and Europeancities. David invites classmates to check it out andlet him know our thoughts. He and his wife livein Dallas, where their youngest is a junior in highschool; their other two kids are off at college.David would be thrilled to hear from classmatesat [email protected]. RichardStearns and his partners are opening up theirthird real-estate brokerage company, Partners TrustResidential, in Beverly Hills. They initially openedan office in September 2009 in Brentwood andopened a second office in 2010 in Santa Monica.

Isabel Weiss Wacker and husband Tom live inPark Slope, where Isabel is renovating their home,volunteering at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, andplaying squash for exercise. Their oldest daughteris a sophomore at MIT and their youngest daugh-ter is a high school junior. Isabel retired from thelegal profession ten years ago. In the summers,she is in Cutchogue on the North Fork of Long Is-land and would love to catch up with old friends.Kathryn Gleason returned to Cornell in 1996 toteach Landscape Architecture and Archaeologyand research ancient gardens of the Mediter-ranean. Her work takes her on digs from Italy toIsrael and Jordan and even India. She received anational honor award in research from the Amer-ican Society of Landscape Architects. Kathy livesin Ithaca with husband Jeff Zorn and their son,Noah. Please keep the news coming! CynthiaAhlgren Shea, [email protected]; KathyZappia Gould, [email protected]; LindaMoses, [email protected].

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79 Thanks to everyone who an-swered my e-mail request fornews. If your update is not be-

low, please look for it in the March/April column.The outpouring of response is appreciated!

Ginny Hoyt provided news for the first timeever—what a treat to find out that she has anadventure/fantasy book trilogy under way foryoung adults and middle schoolers that adults liketoo! The first book, The Last Crusaders, is nowavailable for purchase online at Amazon andBarnes & Noble. The second book is finished, andGinny, writing under the name V. L. Hoyt, is work-ing on the third/last one. According to kids whohave read the first book, if you like the Harry Pot-ter and/or Percy Jackson series, you’ll love thesebooks. For more information, see her website:www.hoytbooks.com. Ginny hasn’t given up herday job (yet) as vice president, labor counsel forNBC Universal. Ginny is married to the love of herlife, Tom Paccioretti (13 years); they live in San-ta Monica with their golden retriever Roxy, 5.

Sounds like quite a few classmates have kidsattending Cornell and that the October ParentsWeekend was a lot of fun. Margie Wang’s sonAlexander ’14 and daughter Marlene ’11 are bothin the College of Arts and Sciences. While on cam-pus, Margie attended the Ithaca Aid concert atStatler Hall, which was sponsored by Tri-Delt andTKE for the benefit of St. Jude’s Hospital for Chil-dren. Margie saw Ginger So and her husband,who have a freshman daughter at Cornell. Margiementioned that she met up in NYC with SallyWeir Fundakowski and Young Mi Park. Sally livesin the San Francisco area and Young Mi is inWestchester. Margie also keeps in touch withWendy Schaenen, MD ’83, Amy Runsey Clark ’80,and June Hamilton Paul ’80.

David and Jody Weiner Kauffman ’81 tooktheir younger daughters, Erica and Jennifer, to Par-ents Weekend and they all visited with daughterMelanie ’14, a freshman in Engineering. BrettCohen, his wife Kelly, and son Cody visited withson Brandon ’12, who will be studying in Barce-lona this spring. Howard Goldman and wife Amy(Tayer) ’83 of Needham, MA, have been back tocampus to watch their son Nathaniel ’14 (Artsand Sciences) play rugby. Amy Soudan visited herniece Kelsey Karys ’12. Fred Frank has threechildren at Cornell: Meaghan ’11, Gretchen ’12,and Kyle ’14. The family winery, Dr. KonstantinFrank Wine Cellars, is winning awards in compe-titions, and Frank recently received the Out-standing Alumni Award from CALS.

David Halberstadter checked in to say thathe and his Kappa Sig fraternity brothers WayneMeichner, Bruce Rogoff, and Brett Cohen enjoygetting together and laughing about the “stupidthings we used to do on campus” and how theyhope their kids don’t follow suit. David also seesRobert Kruger, a friend from elementary schoolright through Cornell, who has a consulting com-pany that provides analysis of legislation and rule-making activities that impact companies whosebusiness involves intellectual property (software,entertainment, and media content). David is anattorney in Los Angeles, focusing exclusively onlitigation and advice to motion picture studios,production companies, TV networks and produc-ers, and internet/new media companies. David hasreceived various accolades for work in his field,including being recognized as a “Power Lawyer”on the Hollywood Reporter’s list of the 100 mostinfluential entertainment lawyers in the US andbeing listed as a Southern California “Super

80 Tubas. Big, shiny tubas. I’vebeen thinking about tubaslately, ever since I razzed fel-

low correspondent Dana Jerrard, an accomplishedtubist, just before one of the many tuba recitalshe gives. (As an irrelevant aside, my spell-checkersuggests “tubbiest” instead of “tubist.” I supposeI could look into this, but I don’t care enough.)It’s a wonderful instrument, and deserves betterthan the ridicule I am wont to dish out. Plus, it’s






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fun to say: tuba, tuba, tuba. Try it. Anyway, huga tuba player today. But wait until she or he putsdown the tuba.

Julie Moline writes that she left Manhattanafter 30 years to take up small-town life inSalem, NY, near the Vermont border. She formeda new venture, Avenue Three, a marketing com-munications business. She’s on the board of theHistoric Salem Courthouse Preservation Society.The 18th-century village is worth a visit, and sitsamidst natural splendor. Michael Totta remem-bers Cornell as a university “with a big soul.” Heis a physician treating spinal and occupationaldisorders. He rows and participates in regattasnear his home in coastal Yarmouth, ME. He wouldlike to hear from Michael Mulhern. East of Maineis Nova Scotia, home of Kristin Bieber Domm, afaculty member at Mount Saint Vincent U., nearHalifax, where she teaches undergraduate writ-ing courses and graduate education courses. Shewrites children’s books and plays bassoon in theWyndrock Quintet. Her latest book, Eagle of theSea, is the story of the eagle in Canada.

Grace Sharples Cooke is the director of de-velopment for Family Support Services, a nonprofitsocial services agency near Philadelphia. Shewrites that she maintains a conservation easementon her family property, where she labors to rid the38-acre parcel of invasive plants. She enjoys lis-tening to her son play the piano and serves onthe boards of the William Penn Charter School andthe Friends School Haverford. John, BArch ’80, andKim Tracy Prokos ’78 live near Boston, whereJohn is an architect with the Gund Partnership, anationally recognized leader in the design of sus-tainable and innovative buildings. He is interest-ed in designing performing arts centers. He writesthat he attended a Cornell 30th Reunion partyhosted by David Saltzman ’79, BArch ’80, in theBoston area. He didn’t say if the giveaways wereas cool as the ones we got at the official reunion.I had to stop wearing my Cornell ’80 shirt in ourneighborhood in Washington, DC, becausestrangers would say “Hey! Cornell Class of ’80!”and I, having forgotten I was wearing the shirt,would try desperately to remember the name ofsome random person I had never seen before.

Kendall Newman is a US magistrate judge inthe Eastern District of California, where he liveswith wife Patricia (Lafrate) ’81, who writes chil-dren’s books. Check out Patti’s website at http://patriciamnewman.com/. Her latest book is Nug-get, about a naval aviator. The Newman children,Elise ’11 and Scott ’14, carry on the Cornelllegacy. Joan Scott, an artist in Tucson, complet-ed a well-received show called “Abstractions andLandscapes.” Several of the pieces shown werefrom her time in upstate New York. StephanieGoldpin writes that she is an ob/gyn in privatepractice in Stamford, CT. Her News Form is goinginto the Class Notes Hall of Fame. Under “ex-tracurricular activities” she writes “college-boundson’s football draft agent, bar mitzvah planner,dog handler, and bouncer at teenage son’s spon-taneous parties.” She would rather be “rowing aboat on Beebe Lake.” She reminisces about “themagnificent campus, the suspension bridge, theroad to Collegetown, and the chimes.” Here’s myfavorite part: her online username is “piggybones.”There’s a story there, and I wish I knew it.

After I wrote the above material on the tuba,I read an article in the Washington Post about thecontrabassoon, which is very unlike the bassoon.It turns out that, ridicule-wise, the tuba is to thecontrabassoon as George Clooney is to Pee-Wee

Pond and the Tides Beach Club. Both propertieswill open in May. Debbie and her young familyenjoyed a trip to Disney World during Thanks-giving week. She stays in touch with MaryannFaccenda Simmons and Lorraine Brennan.

Paul Lyons and Mary Ellen Galante ’80 areempty-nesters for the first time and live in Cam-bridge, MA. Daughter Hannah is a junior at Har-vard and son Isaiah is a freshman at Yale. I haveto quote what Paul wrote, because it made me cry:“We are constantly asked, ‘What is it like?’ Parentswith young children, hoping that someday theywill be free from the burden of having toddlersaround the house, expect us to say, ‘It’s great!Hang in there!’ Older couples wonder if there willbe some big change in our relationship. I can’ttell if they are holding their breath . . . All youdo is smile and say, ‘It’s different.’ When the chil-dren were young, they broke our backs with theconstant chores and urgent cares. Now they havemoved out and they break our hearts. We missthem terribly and look forward to their next visit.”Having the kids in college has inspired Paul andMary Ellen to apply to graduate school and theyare busy studying for the GREs. Living in Torontofor nearly 30 years, Marianne Van Sicklin Knightis the mother of kids ages 28, 26, and 24. She isan IT director for a nonprofit organization provid-ing services to individuals with developmentaldisabilities. Marianne would love to hear fromclassmates or alumni in the Toronto area.

Other empty-nesters are Kim ’82 and SandyMitchell Kelly, who live in the D.C. area. They werethrilled to watch their son Brett ’10 as his class’sbanner bearer for the School of Hotel Adminis-tration. Brett now works in NYC for Lazard, anddaughter Shawna (UNC ’08) works at the PediatricAIDS Foundation in D.C. Sandy took an early outfrom Freddie Mac in 2008 and has been consult-ing, traveling, and enjoying life. She reports hav-ing had dinner with Renee Miller-Mizia. JoanKleinman continues to serve as district directorto Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen. Sheand husband Sam Witten have kids Ben at U. ofRochester, Ari at U. of Maryland, and Molly, ahigh school sophomore. In October, Joan spenta weekend in the Berkshires with her senior-yearroommates Amy Selwyn, Mindy Roseman ’82,and Donna Avrach Rosen ’82, MBA ’83. It was thefirst time they had been together since 1985! JimKent spends lots of time driving from Virginia toIthaca, where son John ’13 is a sophomore. Jimwrites, “We’re anxiously waiting for hockey season,7as John has season tix again. Daughter Eleanoris possibly interested in ‘anywhere warmer’ thanCornell. Ha!” Jim is active in the Cornell Alumni

81 Happy New Year! Our 30th Reunionis only six months away. We hopeyou plan to visit gorgeous Ithaca

during the weekend of June 9-12. Thanks to allof you who responded to my e-mail request withyour exciting news.

Here in the New England area, Andy Koenigs-berg is the lead applications developer for Ever-green Solar and helped the firm get their factoryup and running. Andy keeps in touch with Chan,MS ’84, and Nancy Huang Verbeck via Facebook.Chan works for Microsoft and they have a daugh-ter at Cornell. Via LinkedIn, Andy contacted hisfreshman roommate, Patrick Schnable, who isnow a professor of plant genetics at Iowa State.Marc and Roberta Karon Laredo ’82 live in New-ton, MA, where Roberta is a dietitian in privatepractice and Marc is a partner in the law firm ofLaredo & Smith LLP. They have children Josh, ajunior at U. of Maryland; Matt, a senior in highschool; and Emma, in kindergarten. In beautifulKennebunkport, ME, Debra Lennon and her hus-band have become owners and operating partnersin two new resorts. They currently own the Ken-nebunkport Inn and will now be part of Hidden

Herman. If you Google “contrabassoon” and “flat-ulent” you get nearly 10,000 hits. You band andorchestra people probably knew this, but the restof us wallowed in ignorance. Tuba people won’teven sit next to contrabassoon people on the bus(the violin people ride in limos; the sopranosteleport). Also, contrabassoonists cut their ownreeds for concerts—hundreds of them!—and mostof the reeds don’t work. Contrabassoonists throwout most of their reeds; it’s just part of contra-bassoonery. Being a contrabassoonist is probablya thankless job—and think of all the times you’dhave to explain your business card.

Karen Benz Merns is a supervising psychol-ogist at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York. Shewrites that she has been spending time with heradult children Jillian, Daniel, and Olivia, and thatshe enjoys reconnecting with old friends. She re-cently saw Debbie Zimmerman Frankel ’79 andValerie Litwin Meyers ’79 and would like to hearfrom Bonnie Kanders ’79.

Thus spake Dik. Dana Jerrard is up next, solook for his column in the March/April issue. Ru-mor has it he is working on a new album of tubafavorites, including “Stairway to Heaven.” DikSaalfeld, rfs25 @ cornell.edu; Dana Jerrard,dej24 @ cornell.edu; Cynthia Addonizio-Bianco,caa28 @ cornell.edu; Leona Barsky, Leonabarsky@ aol.com.

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http://patriciamnewman.com/







Admissions Ambassador Network and is trying toget more students from his part of Virginia in-terested. In Bucks County, PA, Rich Lovely is VPof global human resources for Houghton Int’l, aspecialty chemical company. Rich and wife Don-na, a fine arts photographer, have two teenagechildren. His daughter is a star trombone playerwho plays in multiple bands.

“Kids in college?! Mine is in first grade,” re-ports Peggy Kump, BS HE ’84, whose beautifuldaughter, Annie, was born in China. DeborahJeon writes that her daughter, Karenna Laufer,7, won first prize in a contest asking students todesign bookmarks on the theme of conflict res-olution. Tim Lewis and his business partners atChesapeake Corporate Advisors just celebratedtheir fifth anniversary. Planning a month-longvacation with her mother in February, Iris Korenwill cruise the South China Sea and tour Cambo-dia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar. InPalo Alto, CA, Eduardo Llach is CEO of KromePhotos, the fourth company he has founded sincegraduation. Eduardo relived his ’81 bike rideacross the US by joining a four-man relay teamon the Race Across America, where the groupcame in first in their age group of 50-plus.

There was a very Cornell wedding in Steam-boat Springs, CO, in 2010. Leslie Rosenthal andScott Jacobs ’79 were the proud parents of thebride, Lauren Jacobs Benjamin ’05. The groom

was Joshua Benjamin ’99, son of Robert ’67 andSusan Selton Benjamin ’68. Jonathan Lands-man and Katrina Wyman are the proud parentsof son Jeremiah born in January 2010. Jonathanand Katrina married in June 2008. Cornellians inattendance included Jonathan’s sister, PhyllisLandsman Schatz ’74 and her partner Ray Ben-zinger ’74, Stephen Orel, Vincent Gentile, Neiland Shari Rabinowitz Reig ’83, and James Lo-prest ’82. Jonathan formed his own law practicein Manhattan in 1993 after six years with a largefirm. Katrina is a professor of law at New York U.School of Law.

Will Lindenmayer and wife Jennifer havebeen married for 18 years and live in St. Louis.Will, a former golf professional and cancer survivor,started his own private equity firm in 2008. TheLindenmayers have a 10-year-old daughter who isdiagnosed with autism. Will writes, “She has amind like a steel trap, a beautiful singing voice,an imagination that would put most fiction writ-ers to shame, and never met a person she can’tbefriend instantly. While living with her specialissues is a challenge, honestly there is nothingthat I would change about her if it meant herunique qualities would be compromised.” Willlooks forward to our 30th this summer . . . Seeyou then! Kathy Philbin LaShoto, [email protected]; Jennifer Read Campbell, ronjencam@com; Betsy Silverfine, [email protected].

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82 Tracy Stone brought us up tospeed regarding what she’s beenbusy with these past 20 years:

she’s the principal in her own architecture firm,which she opened in Los Angeles in 1991. Theyare a full-service architectural firm emphasizingsustainable design in a modernist context. In ad-dition, she organizes the yearly Frogtown Art-walk, teaches design at Woodbury U. in the interiorarchitecture department, and is one of the cur-rent chairs of the AIA Committee on the Envi-ronment. In response to what she would ratherbe doing now, Tracy mentions camping in DeathValley and Saline Hot Springs (as long as it’s notsummer!). Writing from her home in Skokie, IL,Shoshanah Sabban Seidman sent a short updateto tell us that she’s working in the NorthwesternU. library, where she specializes in Jewish studiesas well as cataloging foreign language books. Inaddition, Shoshanah volunteers in two librarianassociations and a Jewish women’s organization.She notes that while they haven’t moved in sometime, she wouldn’t mind getting an apartment inNYC to be closer to her son, Eytan, who was mar-ried this past March in New Rochelle.

Stephen Lamboy splits his time betweenCanandaigua and Brescia, Italy. He’s managing aconsulting business focusing on marketing andproduct development and wants the current ILRstudents to know that the Economics and Col-

lective Bargaining courses he tookas a student continue to play a rel-evant role in his professional life.Lisa Avazian Saunders works as amedia and publications specialist inMystic, CT, where she moved in Julydue to a job transfer with Pfizer forhusband Jim ’81. Making an an-nouncement that I’m seeing with in-creasing frequency in our class, Lisatold me that their daughter Jackiewas married in September. SusanSpanton Blum lives in Armonk, NY,with husband Bruce. In December,she changed the name of her prac-tice from the Center for NutritionalMedicine to the Blum Center forHealth and relocated from WhitePlains to Rye Brook. With this namechange comes an expansion, includ-ing a lifestyle education center,where they will teach cooking, nu-trition, and mind-body classes.

Manuel Choy reports fromSaratoga Springs, NY, where he liveswith his wife, Cynthia, and sons Ori-on, 17, Halley, 15, and Hunter, 11.Professionally, he’s busy working asa wealth management advisor atDLG Wealth Management in CliftonPark, NY, but notes that he’s carefulto make the time for vacations andcoaching, specifically his sons’ teamsin soccer, basketball, and baseball.This summer, his family made a won-derful trip to Yosemite National Parkthat included time in San Franciscoand a train ride from California toChicago. Now he’s back at home andis hip-deep helping Orion make hiscollege plans. Manuel shouts out toGreg Hilt and Nancy Butler ’83,from whom he’d like to hear. ScottFerguson lives in lower Manhattanwith wife Beth Dary and their son,

Drumming Up BusinessMark Feldman ’84

W hen Mark Feldman was thirteen, he heard a solo by Led Zeppelin drummer JohnBonham—and he “freaked out.” “I thought it was the coolest thing in the world,”he recalls, “and I just had

to learn how to do it.” Now, as thefounder and sole instructor at Bang! TheDrum School, Feldman hopes to cultivatethe same enthusiasm in his students.Located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, theschool attracts a wide variety of aspiringmusicians; on an average day, Feldmanmight teach a nine-year-old who dreamsof playing jazz at Lincoln Center and asixty-year-old who hasn't touched thedrums in thirty years.

On the Hill, the CALS economics ma-jor worked for the Cornell Concert Com-mission and played drums in a studentband called the Naked Eye. During hisprofessional career, he played with blue-grass star Alison Krauss, singer-song-writer Marshall Crenshaw, and “SaturdayNight Live” bandleader G. E. Smith. After earning an MBA from Columbia, Feldman spent adecade at Columbia Records, promoting artists like Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, and Aerosmith.

Feldman left the business side of the music industry as it began to decline with the riseof illegal downloading—but he notes that today, a different kind of technological innovationis fueling his career. He says that many of his students are inspired to learn the drums by play-ing Rock Band, a video game that features simplified versions of instruments. “People aren’tbuying records like they used to,” he says, “but they’re still excited about music.”

— Mark Fischer ’08







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83 I hope everyone had a great hol-iday season! We have plenty ofnews for this New Year’s edition.

There were a number of Cornell events that class-mates wrote in about, as well as news on reloca-tions, marriages, new business ventures, promo-tions, and even some 25th wedding anniversaries!

The Classes of the ’80s Homecoming TailgateParty on the Hill this past autumn was wildly suc-cessful. Fun was had by all. Classmates spent theday catching up on old times and swapping newstories. The Class of ’83 was well represented byJohn Skawski, BS ’85 ([email protected]), Markand Kim Osborn Rhodes ([email protected]), Jim and Wendy Prout and their freshmandaughter, and several other classmates and theirfamilies. International Zinck’s Night in Octoberalso brought many classmates together across thecountry. If you’ve got any stories about recon-necting with old friends and classmates at Zinck’s,please let us know!

Linda Lovero-Waterhouse ([email protected])and Nancy Gilroy ([email protected]) attendedthe One Day University held at the Hilton Hotel inNYC last autumn. It was a fun and interesting daywith noteworthy speakers from top universities.Nancy Gilroy and Dana Gordon ([email protected])attended the presentation entitled, The Moose-wood Restaurant and Its Role in the VegetarianMovement, sponsored by the Cornell Library Salonat the Fashion Inst. of Technology in NYC. Moose-wood has donated its earliest menus, cookbookdrafts, drawings, and ads to the Cornell Library.

On the international front, Bryan Mundell,PhD ’94 ([email protected])moved from Italy to Switzerland with his wife,Anna, and daughter Sabrina, 12. He left his facul-ty position at Bocconi U. Graduate School of Man-agement in Milan a few years back and now worksfor an investment fund. He is also an inventor ofenvironmental board games. Adventerra Gamesteach about energy and water conservation andthe recycling of solid waste. Bryan says Luganofeels a lot like his hometown of Ithaca (exceptfor Cornell, of course!). Jeffrey “Jay” Solomon([email protected]) moved to Denver 12years ago with wife Emily (Robin), MS ’97, andthey absolutely love Colorado. Jay has opened histhird restaurant, Jay’s Hot Ticket Café, at the Den-ver Center for Performing Arts. Jay and Emily havefour children ages 10, 8 (twins), and 1. Jay keepsextremely busy between his restaurant businessand coaching youth baseball and soccer.

Ronald Dreifuss ([email protected]) waspromoted to director of interventional radiologyat St. Luke’s Hospital in NYC and associate direc-tor of the fellowship program. He still maintainshis private practice through offices in the Colum-bus Circle and Union Square areas of Manhattan.He finished decorating his new penthouse in thePunta Pacifica Region of Panama City, Panama, andlooks forward to practicing his Spanish on vaca-tions. Aric Lasher, BArch ’84 ([email protected]) became director of design and CEO at Ham-mond Beeby Rupert Ainge Architects in Chicago.Aric joined the firm in 1985, and also pursued anMFA degree in film from the U. of Southern Cali-fornia. Over the course of his tenure at the firm hehas designed sets for several motion pictures andcollaborated on the Bass Library at Yale and theUS Federal Building and Courthouse in Tuscaloosa,AL. He also co-authored Plans of Chicago, pub-lished last year by Architects Research Foundation.

Nancy Braun ([email protected])has been in real estate for the past 14 years, since

9, but plans to move soon to Dumbo in Brooklynto re-take his view of the NYC waterfront, whichwas stolen by the construction of a new building.He’s been producing films for theater and televi-sion, most recently winning an Emmy Award for“Temple Grandin,” which he produced for HBO.Scott credits Cornell with planting seeds of ideasthrough nearly every class he took, but wants toespecially mention the class that changed his life:16mm filmmaking with Marilyn Rivchin, MFA ’91.Whenever possible, Scott likes to bring his newfilms to Cornell to benefit Cornell Cinema and tomentor students and graduates interested in filmcareers. David Phelps, if you’re reading this, Scottwould like to hear from you.

Rich Berkowitz and wife Bobbie have relo-cated to Manhattan after 28 years in Seattle.Bobbie accepted the dean of nursing position atColumbia while Rich, who is director of Pacificcoast operations for the Transportation Inst., willcontinue in this position as he begins the life of abi-coastal commuter. Speaking of nursing, I heardfrom Andréa Sonenberg, who is an assistant pro-fessor of nursing at Pace U. Andréa is busy teach-ing undergraduate and graduate nursing and nursepractitioner students. She’s also developing aframework for introducing new healthcare deliverymodels in developing countries. Andréa and part-ner Carlos Pereira live in Putnam Valley, NY. LeonSmart, BS HE ’84, is program director at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical College,Columbia University Medical Center, and HarlemChildren’s Health Project. It is for this latter posi-tion that he was featured in the Spring 2010 issueof LINK, the Human Ecology alumni magazine.Through the project, Leon aims to address thehealth disparities affecting kids who live in Harlem.

Steve Thomson appears to be living proofthat while Hotelies had loads of fun while at Cor-nell, they’re still having fun. Steve lives in Bermu-da and has returned from Kathmandu, where hemade an eight-day charity hike through the Hima-layas. He also attended Hotel Ezra Cornell at theHotel school, where he had a fabulous time bring-ing back many old memories. Cornellians whomSteve sees often include Tracey Thatcher ’83, TimTerceira ’79, and Steve Martin, MPS ’78.

Lastly, since I seem to have a bit of space left,I’ll note proudly that my oldest daughter, Lindsey’10, graduated in May; my wife, Lisa MummeryCrump, and I were able to spend a wonderfulweekend in Ithaca celebrating that occasion. Whileperhaps not the highlight of the weekend, it wasnonetheless memorable to see Speaker Pelosiemerge from a fully tinted black Suburban, flankedby large men wearing sunglasses and dark suits,pressing the heels of their hands to their ears,as she arrived at Schoellkopf to give the Convo-cation address. I began looking around for WillSmith, Matt Damon, or some other action figure,but had to settle for President Skorton.

Later in the summer we were able to seeAndy Bjork, Rick Eno, and Nina Kondo, too. Ricktold me that in May he was in Ojai, CA, for ChrisGardner’s wedding reception. Chris, who is CEOof Vitesse Semiconductor, had just married LynnJones in the Seychelles. Other classmates presentfor Chris’s wedding were Craig Wheeler, MS ’84,Neil Robertson, and Bill Snow. Rick made theobservation that he plays golf better when hegoes three years between rounds. To all of ourclassmates out there, please keep the news com-ing. Steven Crump, [email protected]; MarkFernau, [email protected]; and Douglas Skalka,[email protected].

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84 A nor’easter is lashing New Yorkas I rush to finish this column.Tamara Pulsts has no such

problem in sunny Larkspur, CA. She is presidentof ecoReserve, a company based in San Francis-co. According to the fabulous website Tamara haslaunched (www.ecoreserve.org), “[T]he missionof ecoReserve is to restore and protect endan-gered land, support sustainable livelihoods, andspawn a new grassroots movement for micro-con-servation by providing an engaging online plat-form for individuals of any means to create theirown nature reserves around the world.” Whenshe’s not devoting herself to micro-conservation,Tamara is hiking around the mountain in herbackyard and tasting wine in Sonoma. She hasfond memories of the film club and working atthe Cornell Daily Sun.

Brenda Simon Smith (Oak Ridge, NJ) teach-es child development at the high school level.When she’s not working, she’s sewing, gardening,and doing lots of home projects. She still playsvolleyball whenever she can, has fond memories ofWilderness Reflections, and continues to enjoy hik-ing, canoeing, and camping. She volunteers at thePine Ridge Indian Reservation, which she describesas “a beautiful area with small mom-and-popbusinesses that could use your tourist dollars!”E-mail her at [email protected] if you’d like

practicing law and owning a restaurant. In 2008Nancy opened her own real estate company inCharlotte, NC. It’s growing, with four divisions (gen-eral brokerage, foreclosure properties, short sales,and property management). She is in the processof opening a second office. Marilyn Wilson-Lund(Arroyo Grande, CA; [email protected]) andhubby Victor are busy launching a new onlineportal called RETechnology.com, a one-stop shopfor information and support for real estate tech-nology serving the residential market. Marilynwould love to hear from friends from the classand Pi Beta Phi.

Judi Binderman (Mesa, AZ; [email protected]) is the proud grandmother of six (ages 1through 15)! She was married last May, honey-mooned in Hawaii, and then traveled cross-countrywith her new hubby. Judi is interim CMIO ofCatholic Health Initiatives. Kathleen “Kate” Daly([email protected]) and hubby Bob Stelletello(Wheaton, IL; [email protected]) celebratedtheir 25th wedding anniversary. They threw a bigparty for family and friends and fellow Cornell bud-dies in Chicago. Both Kate and Bob keep busy withwork and their kids, ages 20, 17, and 14. AliciaBerthoud Torrey ([email protected]) and husbandCarl ’83, BA ’86, MBA ’05 ([email protected]) alsocelebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. Aliciaserves as director of the Cornell Alumni-StudentMentoring Program and Carl as associate directorof development for the Cornell Law School. Theyhave children ages 23, 20, and 13.

Wendy Ford (Eustis, FL; [email protected]) was a finalist in the Florida Star singingcompetition. She has been a music teacher inLake County for some time. Her sons, 13 and 11,have returned from visiting their dad in Australia.Linda Newman ([email protected]) wroteto update her e-mail address. She’d love to hearfrom classmates and old friends. Keep sendingyour news and contact information to either meor Alyssa. Wishing you a healthy, happy New Year!

Lynn Buffamante, [email protected]; AlyssaBickler, [email protected]














http://RETechnology.com

http://www.ecoreserve.org


















85 As we march ever onward towardthe milestone of our half-centurybirthdays (gasp!), we can take

modest comfort in the fact that we’ve a handfulof medical experts among us who will always haveour backs . . . or whatever else it is that starts toail us. Nicholas Theodore is chief of the spine sec-tion in the Division of Neurological Surgery at theBarrow Neurological Inst. in Arizona. Dr. Theodore’sown spine is apparently in fine fettle, because,when not running after kids Costa and John, heplays “sand volleyball” and treks through MachuPicchu and the Galápagos Islands. The classmatehe’d like to hear from is the ageless Tim Norris.(I’m hoping that last bit of shameless flattery willmake up for the kerfuffle that Tim and I had aboutDrew Brees vs. Tom Brady. Probably not, though.)

G. Michael Ortiz is a urologist with CapitalRegion Urological Surgeons in Saratoga Springs.Michael describes himself as a “soccer and lacrosse

86 Are you ready for our 25thReunion? It’s fast approachingon June 10-12. Join the Class

of ’86 Reunion Facebook page to see who’sattending. You can also get Twitter updates attwitter.com/CornellClass86.

Kevin Crooks will be there. Last summer,Kevin was further from home, spending the sum-mer in Hong Kong with his wife and two teenageboys. Back on the home front, Kevin is a manag-ing director at State Street Bank. Elisabeth vanden Brink-de’Ath reports that some of our class-mates had their own mini-reunion last summer atMichael Malaga’s marriage to Jasmine Stirling inTiburon, CA. The wedding party included Elisa-beth’s husband, Nigel, as well as Duncan Wood,Kevin Cornacchio, Mike Lally, and Steve Poz-zobon. The best man was Scott Malaga ’89. Itwas a gorgeous ceremony on a beautiful day,with the reception at the Corinthian Yacht Cluboverlooking the bay. John Conti gets to enjoythe California weather year-round. He lives in Se-bastopol, CA, with wife Debbie and kids Sophia,12, Sam, 10, and Marco, 5. He is a VP for MSCIInc., managing North American sales for the fi-nancial engineering associates business.

I recently heard from a couple of classmatesworking at US military hospitals abroad. SusanCarter Davis is an environmental engineer work-ing on the drinking water program at the US ArmyCenter for Health Promotion and Preventive Med-icine in Europe. In her free time she enjoys vol-unteering with the Red Cross to teach their CPR/babysitting course. Kathleen Raffloer Nishidahas been living in Japan, where she volunteeredas a nurse-midwife at the US Naval Hospital inYokosuka. She was also adjunct faculty at St.Luke’s College of Nursing in Tokyo. Recently, sheand husband Wataru relocated to Philadelphia,where Kathleen is pursuing a PhD in nursing.When not tending to others, Kathleen enjoysashtanga yoga and drinking green smoothies.Neonatologist Melissa Tsai lives in NYC with hus-band Joshua Kraus; she would love to hear fromDeborah Kreiss.

Check out our classmates’ latest non-fictionpublications: David Dudar had travel dispatcheson Nicaragua, Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, andMexico published on travelojos.com and latinflyer.com. Carolyne Call, PhD ’04’s first book, Spiritual-ly Healthy Divorce, was published by Skylight PathsPublishing. The book includes first-person narra-tives from qualitative research Carolyne conductedduring the last academic year. Carolyne is director

more information. She would love to hear fromMeghan Willis ’84. Anne Mattson Czymmek andhusband Karl ’86 are renovating their 1860s farm-house in Lansing, NY, and raising three children,ages 10 to 15. Anne also teaches for Head Start.She enjoys working with the children and finds theorganizational structure challenging. She volun-teers at the Lansing United Methodist Church andstill attends sporting events (lacrosse, hockey, andbasketball) and theatrical performances on the Hill.

Milagros Valentin is a psychiatrist for theDept. of Defense and loves her work in Columbia,SC. She treats post-combat soldiers and consid-ers it an honor to work with the servicemen andwomen. She has fond memories of the culturalgroups at Cornell, the diversity she was exposed to,and the global view it gave her. She would love tohear from Janet Pagan Sutton and Jose Rodriguez.

Brian DeLahunta is now a director of proj-ect procurement for Related Companies in NewYork, NY. Is he leaving Las Vegas? No matter, be-cause what happens in Vegas—well, you knowthe rest. He is working on the construction of anew UK-based luxury pod hotel consisting of in-frastructure design, business center concept anddesign, and hospitality systems consultation andownership representation. New York City-basedVanessa Noel Ginley, BFA ’86, is a hotelier anddesigner and manufacturer of gorgeous shoes(www.vanessanoel.com) who puts the design skillsand painting she studied at Cornell to quite ex-tensive use. She has two retail stores: one in NewYork City and one in Nantucket, MA. Her fabulousdesigns are on the feet of Gwyneth Paltrow andfamed shoe-lover Sarah Jessica Parker. Once youcheck out the website, you’ll want them on yourown feet, too! Her signature design, the Bell, is achic 1-1/2-inch-high slide that comes in a lot ofdifferent fabrics, including a suede leopard print.Vanessa has two boutique hotels on Nantucket Is-land (Vanessa Noel Hotel, www.vanessanoelhotel.com, and Hotel Green, www.vanessanoelhotelgreen.com) and is the owner of the Seven Seas Gallery,also on Nantucket.

Tomorrow I am off to Atlanta for a girls’weekend with Jeanne Richards Timmons, Glen-nis Barr ’83, and Rosemarie Aurigemma ’82.Just wish I had some new shoes to take with me!To all who sent news, many thanks. To all whohave not yet sent in news, please send it on! Janet Insardi, [email protected]; KarlaSievers McManus, [email protected]. Classwebsite, http://classof84.alumni.cornell.edu.

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dad” who is “attending too many meetings” andwould rather be doing “anything outdoors.” He’dlike to hear from Sean Kenny. Mindy ManleyComstock is a cardiac rehabilitation nurse in Texas;she spends much of her “spare” time chauffeuringher children, Joey and Hannah, to and from hock-ey practice and games. (Here’s hoping she hasn’tyet taught her young children the Lynah Rinkchants!) Mindy has vacationed in nearby SouthPadre, TX, but she reports that, on the whole,she’d “rather be in Paris.” Moi aussi, mon amie.

Jesse Wagner, MD ’89, shared two pieces ofgreat doctor news: he was named vice chairmanof the Dept. of Medicine at Middlesex Hospital inConnecticut and was also named a senior fellowof hospital medicine by the Society of HospitalMedicine. Bravo, Dr. Wagner! Jesse may be a sen-ior fellow, but he still had a junior fellow’s youth-ful energy when he “biked all over Ithaca andaround Cayuga Lake” last June. This nostalgictour prompted a wish to hear from Jerri Kraus,Judy Loitherstein Kalisker, and Jeff Lebowitz.For those classmates who’d like to fight the ag-ing process altogether, Dr. Julie Jerome McCallenmay be the answer. Julie practices “age manage-ment medicine” with Genegenics in Denver. Thecurious are invited to see her website—www.genegenics-drmccallen.com—which explains thatage management is “an individually designed pro-gram of nutrition, supplements, exercise, and bio-identical hormone balancing designed to increasevitality, cognitive function, and physicality.”

Honestly, who among our middle-aged legioncouldn’t use a little increase in “vitality, cognitivefunction, and physicality,” especially when chas-ing kids around all day? Even the ever-vivaciousCarolyn Walter Calupca wrote this in response toall three of our questions about “day job,” “ex-tracurricular activities,” and “what I’ve been do-ing recently”: “Mother of boys, 4 and 6, and wifeof the third ‘boy.’” That, indeed, is a full-time job,hobby, and preoccupation, so when Carolyn saysshe’d like to hear from Elizabeth Leach Buckley,we should cross fingers and toes that Elizabethwill pick up the phone and give Carolyn a respite,STAT! Marjorie Riemer Setchko stumped me forabout 30 seconds when she listed her “day job”as “SAHM to four amazing kids, ages 10, 8, 5, and1.” Employing the critical thinking skills that I ampaid to teach to impressionable students here atCornell, I finally deduced that this meant “Stay AtHome Mom.” (Please hold your applause until theend of the performance.) Marjorie notes that sheis teaching herself “how to cook beyond hot dogsand mac ’n cheese” and teaching her kids how to“clean a bathroom and fold laundry.” You’re myhero, Marjorie. I hope you get your wish to re-connect with Nancy Byrne Connolly and MaureenSherry. Whether it’s four kids or one, a mother’swork is never done. Learning firsthand the joy be-hind that truism is Laura Clark, who manages bothinvestment portfolios for clients and maternal du-ties for son Jack. Laura notes, “While many of mycollege roommates are on the college-tour circuitwith their children, I’m on the pre-K tour circuit!”

One way to streamline that “college tour cir-cuit,” of course, is simply to hum the Alma Materceaselessly to your child while he or she is still inthe crib stage and then hope the subliminal mes-saging takes so that you only have to visit onecampus—the best. I’m guessing that’s what Dave’83 and Marnie Olt Mertz and Scott Bookner did.Marnie and Dave note that they will be in Ithacathis summer because their “high school junior sonhas Cornell on his short list.” Scott already visited

campus with his daughter, Ilana, and claims thathe “felt the presence of some ghosts walkingthrough Uris Library.” I’m not sure what this saysabout recreational activities in which Scott mighthave indulged as a youthful undergraduate, but I’llgo ahead and give him the benefit of the doubthere, seeing as how he is a responsible and suc-cessful Scarsdale, NY, pediatrician, dispensing kind-ness and smart advice to kids and parents alike.

That’s the great thing about contemporarymiddle age, isn’t it? We have enough experienceto be at least a little wise, and yet we are far fromgiving up the ghosts. As Emily Dickinson beauti-fully put it, “We turn not older with years, butnewer every day.” Please send us your new talesof derring-do. We look forward to hearing them.

Risa Mish, [email protected]; RobertaFarhi, [email protected]; Joyce Zelkowitz Cor-nett, [email protected]

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http://www.vanessanoel.com

http://www.vanessanoelhotel.com

http://www.vanessanoelhotelgreen.com




http://twitter.com/CornellClass86

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http://latinflyer.com

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of the Office for Civic and Social Engagement atSaint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, IN. After yearsworking in the NYC financial industry, ChristineO’Sullivan, MBA ’92, has relocated to Boston andlaunched a new career as a project manager for BluHomes (www.bluhomes.com). The company buildsenergy efficient, pre-fab green homes. I look for-ward to connecting with Christine, as my husband,Steve Howell ’84, and I also work in this industryin the Boston area. We own a custom home build-ing company and have become Certified Green Pro-fessionals as well as independent representativesfor Timberpeg, a company that creates post-and-beam homes (one of the oldest forms of sustain-able construction). In our free time, Steve and Iare members of the board of directors for our lo-cal Habitat for Humanity. We’re enjoying workingtogether on on-site builds in Lawrence, MA, aswell as participating in the business planning fora soon-to-open Habitat ReStore. ReStore is a homeimprovement outlet store that sells used and newmerchandise to the public at 75 percent off retailprices. Especially exciting is that the store willsignificantly impact local recycling efforts by so-liciting donations of usable surplus, slightly dam-aged, and used building materials, diverting theseitems from local landfills. All proceeds are put to-ward affordable housing in our local area.

That’s all the news to date. I look forward toseeing everyone in June! In the meantime, pleasesend your updates to: Susan Seligsohn Howell,[email protected]; or Laura NieboerHine, [email protected].

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outdone by his good friend Gabriel Boyar, Daveand his wife are hoping for at least seven kids.

Phil Lam sent along his latest news: “Aftera few years trying my hand at producing inde-pendent films, I went back to my roots in the in-teractive world, joining digital design companyHot Studio (www.hotstudio.com) as principal andgeneral manager for New York. Our focus is onhigh-stakes design challenges focused on Web andmobile applications. Have spent a lot of time inthe San Francisco Bay Area (where Hot Studio isheadquartered) and have kept in touch with KarlTownsend, who is now a big shot hardware en-gineer in Silicon Valley. Also got together withMark and Elizabeth Hwang Levenson in Washing-ton, DC, for the first time since graduation morethan 23 years ago—thanks, Facebook! Am alwaysinterested in reconnecting with old classmates. Ilive in Closter, NJ, and work in New York City.”

Kevin and Karen Morel Joostema have relo-cated to Great Falls, VA, for Kevin’s new job atVolkswagen of America; they spent the previous 18years in Southern California. Fred Barber reportsthat he helped out with interviews for the TellurideAssociation Summer Program this past spring.“TASP was my introduction to Cornell in the sum-mer of 1982, but I hadn’t done anything for theAssociation in the past 25 years. It was a very re-warding experience meeting some bright highschool juniors.” Based on his experience in SouthAfrica, Fred was asked to put together a panel ondemocratic social change in the developing worldfor a Telluride summer seminar on Democracy andDiversity and spent two fun-filled days in Ithacaas a result. As one of the participating studentswas from Macedonia, he pulled Gligor Tashkovich,MBA ’91, onto the panel. From Gligor himself

comes this news: “I traveled to Bosnia from Sep-tember 28 to October 5 on a secondment from theState Dept. to the Organization for Security andCooperation in Europe (OSCE, www.osce.org/odihr)to monitor the elections in Bosnia on October 3.Then it was back to Washington on October 8 formy first meeting of the Int’l Council of the Bret-ton Woods Committee.”

Heather Behn Hedden (Carlisle, MA) sendsnews that she published a professional book, TheAccidental Taxonomist (Information Today Inc.,2010) in May 2010. Additionally, Heather starteda new job, as taxonomy manager at First Wind, awind energy company in Boston, this past June.Kellie Reynolds Bosenberg writes that she andher family relocated to Guilford, CT, in 2008. “Myhusband took a job at Yale, so we are now Elis.Kids hated us for the first year of our move(daughters 16, 14, and 10), but seem to haveadjusted to our new life with new friends in Con-necticut. I’m still a stay-at-home mom contem-plating the next phase of my life!” Ann MadiganCampbell and husband Steve, MBA ’95, won a$50,000 Pepsi Refresh Everything grant for a com-munity playground project located in Corning, NY(an Ithaca Leathers Associates project), which wasconstructed in early October. Ann also participat-ed in a two-day workshop, sponsored by Pepsi,called “How to Turn a Place Around.” Writes Ann:“It’s been a wild ride, but we are thrilled to havespearheaded such an amazing community project.”

Well, that’s all for now. Continue sending usyour news through the link on our Class of ’87website, through our Facebook Group, “CornellUniversity Class of 1987,” or by filling out andmailing those nifty forms that Alumni Affairssends out when they solicit your dues. Heidic87 Lots of news this month. From

Albert Chu: “We very much en-joyed our first trip to Beijing this

past summer. For two weeks, I think we saw andate everything possible. More recently, I traded my6-year-old Motorola cell phone (I think that qual-ifies as an antique) for an iPhone so I can com-municate with my daughter via text messaging.”

Liza Pflug Burney (Portland, OR) writes thather present day job involves being a practitionerof prantic healing. Through her business, Heart toHeart Healing, Liza works with animals, people,and environments and helps individuals understandtheir amazing capacity for self-healing. Check outher website at www.heart-to-heart-healing.com.Liza enjoys riding her Dutch Warmblood horse,Wally, both in local dressage shows and out on theopen trail. Rich Friedman dropped me a line totell of attending a surprise 45th birthday party forGail Stoller Baer, put on by her husband, Mike’88, MBA ’89, at Lucky Strike Bowling in Man-hattan. Also in attendance were Lisa NishmanKnoop, Doug Mazlish ’86, Craig Geller ’88, An-drew McDonald ’88, Andrea Meadow Danziger’88, and Wendy Myers Cambor ’88. Rich still hashis own company, Friedman & Partners, a man-agement consultancy to the design and environ-mental consulting industries, and lives in Wayland,MA, with his girls Arielle and Lindsey.

Via Facebook Bob Clendenin ’86, BS ORIE ’87,writes, “Right now I’m enjoying a recurring gueststar role on ‘Cougar Town,’ playing the slightly off-center neighbor Tom. I also had a lovely write-upin the Sept/Oct issue of this magazine.” LisaGaines coaches a team of eighth grade girls forDestination Imagination, raising funds for theFriends of the Beachwood Orchestra, selling real es-tate in Northeast Ohio, and raising kids ages 8, 10,and 13. Our own Dave Price finally tied the knotwith Jacqueline Klinger in August 2010. Not to be


http://www.bluhomes.com



http://www.heart-to-heart-healing.com

http://www.hotstudio.com

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Heasley Ford, [email protected]; and BrennaFrazer McGowan, [email protected].

BS ’93, and my brother-in-law, David Bullock,MBA ’91.” A September reception followed withKaren Leshowitz Colonna and Dianne NersesianMcGuire, as well as Mike McGowan ’86 and BillEaton ’61.

An update from Jill Kasprowitz Vizza: “Aftera long hiatus at home with the three kids, I de-cided to re-enter the workforce—as an elemen-tary school teacher! I received my MS Ed fromPenn last May and started this fall as a fifth-gradeteacher in Central Bucks School District, outsidePhiladelphia. It has been an adventure greaterthan running a $50M marketing division!”Michelle Fried Berti (Hong Kong) works for JPMorgan and enjoys dragon boat racing and yogain her spare time. She welcomes the opportunityto get together with fellow alums in Hong Kong.Rob O’Keefe and his wife, Lynn Ann Casey, havea daughter, 5, who lights up their lives. Rob andLynn own Arc Aspicio, a management and tech-nical consulting company focused on homelandsecurity, which was ranked in the Inc. 500 list offastest-growing private companies in the US.

Alan and Jamie Ottenwaelder Roberts movedfrom Rochester, NY, to Waunakee, WI, where Alanis now director of financial planning and analysisfor Covance’s food and nutritional chemistry busi-ness. Alan wrote, “My boss here has the best lastname in the world: Cornell. We have a 12-year-oldice hockey defenseman named Jim who debateswhether Cornell or Wisconsin hockey camp is bet-ter. We also have a 10-month-old, 100-poundNewfoundland named Isa who comes from anIthaca-area breeder and bloodlines. Jamie stays athome and enjoys tutoring kids in math.” CathleenMartin Sheils, MPS ’99, became director of under-graduate admissions for Cornell’s ILR school lastApril, and e-mailed, “Love being a part of my almamater on a daily basis and working to recruit thosewho will become Cornell alums in the future.”Karen Dahlby Tallentire sent a short, sweet e-mail:“I’m very busy with three boys 5 and under. ButI’m also having the time of my life!” Tom Nemethproudly reports that he is still a better violinistthan his daughter, Lucy, 8; they have both beentaking lessons for three years. “That she will sur-pass me is inevitable, but I am determined to staveher off as long as possible.” Videos of both are onYouTube so you can verify his claims, if you like.

A couple of e-mails highlighted a stage manyof us are entering. Susan Ward writes, “I’vereached the stage in life where I’m looking at col-leges for my kids. My daughter is a high schoolsenior and my son is a junior. Of course we wouldlove for them to go to Cornell, but from a financialperspective they will probably go to a stateschool. During our college visits, I’ve been im-pressed with the services and scholastic programsthe schools had to offer. It made me want to goback! Another update my fellow Cornellians maybe interested in is that we’ve decided to go so-lar.” Tracey Souza Cook reports, “I just came backfrom visiting my daughter in Jameson Hall (I onlyknew this as one of the High Rises) over FallBreak. She is a freshman, Class of 2014, in theCollege of Engineering. Some highlights: ate boburger at RPCC (formerly RPU) and ate the fresh-est bagel at Collegetown Bagel; lowlights: CornellDairy was closed for refurbishing and the new ex-press cafe that sells Cornell ice cream was closedfor Fall Break and I couldn’t find the great Greek-style pizza in Collegetown. The weather was ab-solutely fantastic, though!”

Now some classmates who could have childrenin the class of 2032: Congratulations to Dina Stein

88 It is the middle of October asI write this column and thechange of seasons is truly beau-

tiful in Connecticut. It makes me think that Ithacamust be truly magnificent right now. Of course, bythe time you read this we will be buried in snow,and Ithaca no doubt will be as well. The otherday at one of my children’s schools, the principalsaw me wearing my Cornell jacket and asked if Ihad gone to school there. She has been going tosee her son play football at Ithaca College, andasked: “What is there to do in Ithaca?” I gave hersome things to do and places to go, and I havebeen more nostalgic than ever.

We’re low on updates since it has been awhile since our last class mailing. But there arenow many ways to communicate with each oth-er, and we would love to hear from you. It is stillfun to sit down and read this magazine and seeyour name or your friends’ names in print. Lookfor the annual News and Dues mailing coming thisspring, and send us your news on the enclosedform. Or write any of us at any time of year atthe addresses below.

In California, Meea Kang, BFA ’92, is thepresident of Domus Development and living inSan Francisco. Malcolm Humphrey and hisspouse, Dawn, are in Pleasanton. From Palo Alto,Aileen Cleary Cohen reported that she just gotback from three weeks of hiking and visiting inSwitzerland and Austria. She volunteers at Stan-ford Children’s Hospital as an attending physicianin the pediatric oncology clinic. From the EastCoast we got news from Simon Miller, a partner-ship lawyer. He has joined the New York office ofThompson Hine LLP as a partner in the BusinessLitigation practice group.

Have you ever seen the show “Healthy Ap-petite” on the Food Network? Well, one of ourown, Ellie Krieger, is the nutrition guru and hostof that show. She is also the 2010 recipient of theNutrition Science Media Award from the AmericanSociety for Nutrition. The award honors a personfor his or her achievements in helping to fosterthe public’s understandingof current nutrition issuesbased on science. She is alsoan author and has appearedas a guest expert on manyTV programs.

Cynthia Knudson Creechworks at OnX Enterprise So-lutions Ltd. in Atlanta, GA:“After a short break fromworking during which I gotcertified to teach yoga, I amback at it in I.T. sales.” Pertheir website, OnX designs,builds, and operates com-plex computing and datacenter solutions, helping organizations optimizetheir use of technology. Cynthia and husbandRon live in Alpharetta, GA.

Have you reconnected with someone throughFacebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn? Let us know aboutit! What have you been up to, and who wouldyou like to hear from? Stay in touch and let usadd your news to the class column. SharonNunan Stemme, [email protected]; StevenTomaselli, [email protected]; and Brad Mehl,[email protected].

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89 Lacking news, I was going to fillthis column with a discussion ofthis year’s New Student Reading

Assignment, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,but our editor’s brilliant mass e-mail idea filled myinbox with updates. (If you’re interested in thebook discussion, go to www.reading.cornell.edu.)Thanks to all who wrote in! If you don’t see yournews this time, it’s been saved for the next issue.

First, news from the two classmates who tookthe trouble to write on one of those green forms,put it in an envelope, and lick a stamp. DouglasGirgenti (Yorktown Heights, NY) works in vaccineclinical research development at Pfizer, as theclinical lead of the Staphylococcus aureus vaccineprogram. His Cornell coursework in Microbiology,Genetics, and Biochemistry remains essential tohis work. His friends from Phi Sigma Kappa remainclose. Debra Schneider Toy (Niskayuna, NY) says,“With boys ages 14, 11, and 6, I spend most ofmy time on either the baseball field or the soc-cer field. Last summer, our family visited Alaska,which was a wonderful experience I highly recom-mend.” Debra enjoys being part of her children’sreligious education by volunteering at their syn-agogue and substitute-teaching religious school.

Now to those who hit “reply” to send theirnews. Gregory Poulos is a director at V-Bar, along-standing wind energy consultancy (www.v-bar.net). “A fantastic industry!” he raves. AudreyChin Palma moved to Maine with her husband,Joe, and children Samantha, 8, and Amanda, 7.The Palmas opened a yoga studio, Maine StreetYoga Inc., in Brunswick, and Audrey hopes tostart a Maine Cornell Alumni chapter. DeborahSilverman Shames wrote, “We celebrated the barmitzvah of my oldest son, Jonathan, last March.Cornellians attending included my parents, Robert’60 and Toby Jossem Silverman ’60; my aunt Su-san Jossem Mitloff ’67; my cousin Jeff Tartikoff’91; my brother Steven ’92 and his wife, HeatherNelson Silverman ’92; and friends Irina KrislavKamis ’91, MS ’95, Jennifer Gise Zeligson, andMike ’85 and Joyce Kottick Greenberg ’87. Mytwo younger ones (Matthew, 11, and Rachel, 7)happily joined in the festivities and can’t waitfor their turns! My private college counselingbusiness (www.CollegeCoachDeb.com) keeps me

busy! My husband, Martin,still works as a financemanager at PSEG in NewJersey; in his free time heruns the Boy Scout pro-gram in our town of UpperSaddle River, NJ.“

More e-mails: ArmandVelez is a prosecutor inNew Mexico and has han-dled more than 60 jury tri-als in the last seven years,including homicide andother serious violent crimes.He has served as chair forthe Southern New Mexico

Cornell Alumni Admissions Ambassador Networkfor the last two years. Lynn Weidberg Morgan haslaunched Morgan Language Services (www.mor-ganlanguages.com), a small, woman-owned busi-ness that specializes in written translation, oralinterpreting, and website translation. ShannonGallivan was married in August in Nags Head: “Itwas awesome—most wonderful day of my life. Imarried Dave Bol and was lucky enough to marryhim and his children, Katie and Connor. Cornel-lians there were my brother, Ryan Gallivan ’94,

‘I think wesaw and ateeverythingpossible.’Albert Chu ’87







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Propp and husband Doug, who welcomed theirthird child, Daniel Nathan, on May 14, 2010. Hejoins sister Ilana, 6, and brother Jeremy, 5. Andto Alan Hirzel, MS ’91, MBA ’97, who e-mailed,“My wife, Valerie, and I just had our first childrenand did it in grand fashion with twin boys. Weare smitten. Life continues well for us in Lon-don.” Anne Czaplinski Treadwell Bliss, [email protected]; Lauren Flato Labovitz, [email protected]; Kimberly Levine Graham, [email protected]; Stephanie Bloom Avidon, [email protected].

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Heading into the interior: George Fogg andwife Vanessa live in Michigan, where George is apediatric infectious diseases subspecialist at He-len DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids.George says his life has been “mainly working,”as a new children’s hospital is being built inGrand Rapids, with a scheduled 2011 opening.When not working, he’s busy “wrangling”—hisword!—his 3- and 5-year-old children. He hasvivid memories of one course I’d rather forget:Chem 207. Or rather, he has memories of “beingconsistently late to Chem 207, having to sit inthe nosebleed section, and looking down at theempty second-row seat Wendy Chung, MD ’98,dutifully saved for me.” In Missouri, David Olsonand wife Amy are raising sons ages 15, 12, and 8(as of last May). David is IT manager for Monsan-to and is involved in charitable activities aroundSt. Louis, in his parish, and for the archdiocese.He fondly remembers football in the snow andwould like to hear from Dave Dembouski. Head-ing westward for a Rocky Mountain High: Jen-nifer Agnello Long owns the Red Lion restaurantin Vail, CO. She keeps busy with golf, skiing,cooking, and parenting. Her favorite Cornell mem-ories include Willard Straight Hall.

Alumni on the Left Coast! In Fresno, CA,Michael Gen is a cardiologist and chairman of car-diology at Cardiovascular Consultants Heart Center.He relaxes with tennis, racquetball, cycling, andgames with the kids. He fondly remembers friends,fraternity (Sigma Nu), and sports from his time atCornell. In Menlo Park, CA, Kimberly Bazar is onthe clinical faculty in the Stanford School of Med-icine’s Dept. of Dermatology. She learned to surfin Hawaii over her son’s spring break!

I have to stop there, but watch this space formore news—and keep it comin’! Amy WangManning, [email protected]; Rose Tanasugarn,[email protected]; Kelly Roberson, [email protected].

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with whom she worked at Cornell’s UndergraduateAdmissions Office, and Betsy Mead Noel ’86, wholives and practices dentistry in Ithaca.

Simon Atkins has been busy: first, from hishome base in Montana, he has added premiummaterial to his global weather site; there’s alsoa free membership level at www.AFCrisk.com;second, he started a spiritual institute with atwist centered on how to optimize one’s abun-dance, at www.Lhatong.org; and third, sincestarting his doctorate in alternative medicine in2004, he’s finally on the dissertation stage andwill finish in October 2011 with a trip to Indiato receive his degree and trek into Nepal. Hisdissertation is on biometeoelectromagnetics, andcombines the future of medicine—energetics—with spiritual health and climate change. If youfigure out how those three fields are related, e-mail Simon at [email protected].

Katrina Schreiber Firlik is co-founder andchief medical officer of HealthPrize Technologies(www.HealthPrize.com), an Internet-based softwarecompany that addresses the $290 billion-a-yearproblem of poor compliance with prescription med-ications. After perfecting the art of brain surgery,she decided to take on the more difficult challengeof getting people to follow doctors’ orders and ac-tually stick with their medications. Deb MoreauDihel launched a new app for Android Smartphonescalled GeoReader, which reads aloud historicalmarkers as you drive by them. It also allows youto make your own talking points and share yourknowledge about local landmarks and events. Youcan download the free app at Android Market. Forher day job, Deb is a food scientist with ConAgraFoods developing new French fries. Megan Elias isa research associate at the Five Colleges Women’sStudies Research Center. She is working on a his-tory of American cookbooks and food magazinesand enjoys the beautiful (but not as beautiful asCornell) Mount Holyoke campus.

Geoffrey Moskowitz recently celebrated 13years in Moscow with a record heat wave andchoking smoke. He and wife Madelaine continueto build their industrial cleaning empire. Tip-TopIndustrial Solutions has provided hi-tech clean-ing for factories for seven years. Kids Ivan, 10,and Mikaela, 8, are native Russian speakers whonever understood American TV or Taco Bell. TheMoskowitz family looks forward to our reunionand is ready to stand in line to buy tickets! RichLevy has lived and worked in Washington, DC, forthe past 12 years. Rich is director of research atthe National Multi Housing Council. He keeps intouch with Shara Kabak, who lives nearby. Lastsummer, Rich visited freshman roommate MarcBloomstein and his family in the Boston area,and Mark ’92 and Jessica Benjoya Mandell ’93and their family in the Roanoke area.

Geneva Chong and husband Dave Barnett havemoved to Boulder, CO. Viva works for the US Geo-logical Survey, Northern Rocky Mountain ScienceCenter, based in Jackson, WY. Their son Bard wasborn on April 16, 2009. Viva won’t make it to ourreunion because she will be in Ithaca for her sis-ter’s graduation from the Hotel school, and shecan’t stay that long. She hasn’t returned since 1991and hopes to visit roommates Pamela Mischen ’90and Danielle Haynes Feerick, who live in the area.

Class of ’91 families continue to expand. OnApril 27, 2009, Howard Wolkow welcomed daugh-ter Abigal. In March 2010, Eileen Bowden Feeleyand husband David welcomed James Colm. OnMarch 26, 2010, Nancy Beninati and her husbandwelcomed twins William and Zachary. Nancy is a

90 Once again I bring news ofyour classmates near and far.We’ll start this time close to

the alma mater. Keith Dayton is Cortland Countypublic defender. And that’s all he wrote, exceptthat he lives in Dryden. Also in the Finger Lakesare Ted and Anna Henderson Endreny, MAT ’91,who live these days in Syracuse. Ted is a profes-sor of water resources at SUNY’s College of Envi-ronmental Science and Forestry. Anna is chair ofthe science department at Jamesville-Dewitt Mid-dle School. They have two kids and a puppy. Alittle farther north, Buffalo is home to MariamLandau Goodrich, who describes her job as “col-lege instructor, science educator.” Sorry to hearthat last August Mariam was recovering from a caraccident—hope she’s fully healed now. She fondlyrecalls biology professor Joe Novak and wouldlike to hear from Alice Roberts ’88.

Moving south to the Big Apple, home to abig corps (har!) of Cornellians: Neera Rellan Sta-cy is counsel at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Out-side the office, she enjoys baking and spendingtime with son Declan, 7, and husband Michael.Dermatologist Michael Eidelman is medical di-rector of Chelsea Skin & Laser, a private practicedermatology center that he designed and opened.Michael is also raising twins Katie and Connor, 4,with his partner, AJ Vincent. In answer to thequestion “What is the one thing you remembermost fondly from your time at Cornell?” Michaelwrote, “The great friendships I have made.” MarcGoldman is executive director of the career de-velopment center at Yeshiva U. He and wife CaraSmith welcomed Ian Benjamin Goldman-Smith totheir family. Marc writes, “Big sister Olivia Cateis thrilled to have a little brother. And she can’twait to teach him the ‘Let’s Go Red’ chant!” Inthe next state over, Aileen Cahill Blass is a man-ager at Project Solutions Consulting and lives inSummit, NJ, with husband Brett.

Up in New England, Claudia Eisinger Candidolives in Colchester, VT. “Consultant—qualitativemarketing research and practitioner of holdingand facilitating groups. Using ‘Art of Convening’:strategic planning, creative inspiration, plan im-plementation.” She’s also part of the UnitarianUniversalist Congregation’s Vermont Interfaith inAction group, which is trying to obtain affordableand universal access to healthcare in Vermont.She and husband Joe are boat owners and whenshe wrote in April, she was looking forward tosailing in the British Virgin Islands. She fondlyremembers Friday and Saturday nights in College-town. Jennifer Harlan Sisca lives in Northamp-ton, MA, with spouse Joy Rain. Jennifer is directorof training solutions at Column 5, whose websitedescribes it as “a consulting firm that helps CFOsreinvent how they plan and manage their busi-ness.” Jennifer says her favorite memory of Cornellis “everything.”

91 I received an overwhelming re-sponse to my e-mail blast seekingnews, including two first-time up-

dates. Douglas Kelly earned an MBA from theYale School of Management in 2000 and receivedthe Dept. of Defense Information AssuranceScholarship Award in 2005 to pursue research atthe Center for Cyber Security & Research onWright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) in Day-ton, OH. In 2009, he earned a PhD in computerscience from the Air Force Inst. of Technology.Douglas is now Cyber Team Lead for the Air ForceResearch Laboratory on WPAFB, where he con-ducts cyber defense science and technology re-search and development and manages programsto enhance or create new military capabilities. Inearly 2010, Douglas traveled to the Philippines foran “all-in-one 25-year friendship celebration, hostfamily and in-law reunion, wedding/reception/honeymoon, and mini-vacation.” He married hisquarter-century friend and five-year sweetheart,whom he met in 1985 when he was a Rotary Ex-change student. Douglas, Marilyn, and their sonMark, 4, reside in Dayton, OH.

Morgan Rider has lived in Portland, OR, since1993 and works for Ecology & Environment, an en-vironmental consulting firm, with Eric White ’89and Jonathan Russell ’93, MBA ’94. At the timeshe wrote, Morgan was looking forward to visitingKathleen Novak Murray in Boston during an up-coming business trip. Morgan hopes to attend re-union and looks forward to seeing Judy Small,















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deputy attorney general for the California Attor-ney General’s Civil Rights Enforcement Section inOakland, CA. Doug Fambrough and Kimberly Moywelcomed their second child, Torin Douglas, onAugust 30, 2010. Kim is at home with the kidsand Doug is CEO of a small biotechnology com-pany in Boston.

Start making plans for our 20th Reunion, theweekend of June 9-12! Check out our Cornell ’91page on Facebook for the latest updates and tolet us know how we can make it the best reunionever! If your news didn’t make it into this col-umn, please look for it in the next. ArianeSchreiber Horn, [email protected]; SharlynCarter Heslam, [email protected];Kathryn Kraus Bolks, [email protected].

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other publications. She’s also appeared in The BestAmerican Essays 2009. She specializes in person-al essays and memoirs in nature and science, his-tory, travel, health and medicine, and food.

Congratulations are in order to MatthewGoldberg, who was elected to the Cornell Univer-sity Council for a four-year term beginning July 1,2010. Council members are elected based upontheir leadership in Cornell volunteer activities,business and professional endeavors, and com-munity and charity involvement. Many thanks goto our classmates who are continuing as membersof the Council. They are Stephen Mong, ME ’93,MBA ’02, Meredith Rosenberg, Petula Brown,Terrance Horner Jr., PhD ’98, and Betty Eng.

Class president Karen McCalley spent fiveweeks studying at Oxford U. this past summer aspart of her graduate program with the Bread LoafSchool of English. She followed that with a weekin Germany visiting old friends in Berlin. When shereturned, she visited Jessica Aronofsky Schwartz-berg in Ocean, NJ. She and husband Paul are busywith their kids, Hannah and Daniel, and house ren-ovations. Karen’s not the only one going back toschool. Pete Wahl has moved his family (wifeParul Desai ’91 and children Vijay and Maiya) upto Boston to pursue a belated doctorate in phar-macoepidemiology at Harvard School of PublicHealth. He’s finding that being a student againis both exciting and a bit humbling. If that’s notenough, he hopes to publish a novel next summer!

David Atkins is now a Korean Buddhist monkknown as Myong Haeng Sunim. He serves as viceabbot of the Korean temple Chogyesa in Manhat-tan. Their website is www.nychogyesa.org. KathyHouggy Ross and her family moved from Atlanta,GA, to Barrington, IL (near Chicago), in Augustwith her company, ADP. Kathy is now the generalmanager for the Midwest Small Business PayrollServices division, based in Elk Grove Village, IL.The Ross family faces the daunting challenge ofadjusting to Midwest winters! And speaking of lifeadjustments: Lisa Martin Henrickson and hus-band Roy welcomed daughter Madelynn Michelleon May 26. She’s a type A like her parents—rollingover, cutting teeth, and crawling on or ahead ofplan. After her maternity leave, Lisa returned towork as assistant general counsel at Verizon Busi-ness, where she negotiates large, complex serviceand outsourcing agreements for Verizon’s largecorporate customers.

After recruiting for 13 years, in March 2009Lisa Nelson Rangel launched Chameleon Re-sumes (www.chameleonresumes.com), a resumewriting job search consultancy to help job seek-ers land their next position. She says that entre-preneurship has its own set of challenges, but shewouldn’t trade it for anything else. Azhar Khanhas got serial entrepreneurship down to a science.After graduation, he joined a startup called Itha-ca Software that was bought by Autodesk. Hethen started Cubus, which got bought by Citadon/Soward Group. Then he started Riya/Like.com,which was bought by Google in August 2010. Nowhe serves on the advisory board of Cornell’s Dept.of Materials Science and Engineering and is start-ing a new company called ChallengeDating.com.As if this weren’t enough to keep one busy, Azharmanaged to get a master’s at Stanford BusinessSchool, worked in London and Bangalore, andmarried Zainab. The Khans have children Riya andRafay and live in San Francisco.

Keep the news coming, if for no other reasonthan that it will help me keep my mind off thetarantula in our house. Megan Fee Torrance,c

93 Happy New Year! Welcome to2011. This is the year many ofus will turn the big 4-0! Are you

looking forward to it? Dreading it? Doing some-thing special to celebrate? Let us and your class-mates know!

We start off by catching up on six years ofnews for J.P. Freeley. He writes, “My wife, Kasia,and I were married in Warsaw, Poland, in August2004. We have wonderful kids Claire, 3-1/2, andAndrew, 1. I’m president of my own company,BlueBlastMedia, an out-of-home marketing firmthat provides technology to Fortune 500 out-of-home campaigns. We recently upsized our homein Forest Hills (Queens) for our expanding familyand are enjoying the process of making it ourown. This past summer, my family visited withlongtime friend (since freshman orientation) andbest man Dan Erickson, his wife Dr. MelissaBrandes-Erickson, and their two kids at theirhome near Burlington, VT. It was a quick butlong-overdue trip that everyone enjoyed.”

Congratulations go out to a few of our class-mates with some recent accomplishments. JonLabovitz e-mailed to say that he left private prac-tice in July 2010 to become an associate professorand department chair of medicine, surgery, and bio-mechanics at the new College of Podiatric Medicineat Western U. of Health Sciences. In September2010 he was elected into the National Academiesof Practice. An official induction will follow inWashington, DC, in March 2011. Seth Kestenbaumcontinues to live in NYC and work in the real es-tate advisory services world. He was named one ofCostar’s “Power Brokers” and he continues to teachreal estate finance as an adjunct professor throughvarious CUNY undergraduate and graduate pro-grams. Seth has rediscovered cycling and spentthe summer and fall preparing for a century ridethat he hoped to make this past November. Con-gratulations also go out to Wayde Jester, whoin October 2010 finished the Denver Rock ’n RollMarathon in a great time of 3:08.45!

David Kroll sent in a professional update,along with some news of a recent reunion. Hewrites, “I finished my MBA at the U. of Nebraska,and Angie and I moved with our kids Howie, 9, andJohanna (‘Joey’), 6, from Nebraska back to Ohio.Currently, I work as a project manager for CargillFlavor Systems, and Angie and I are helping ourfriend Stacey market and manufacture a boardgame case called ‘Game Hero.’ You can learn moreabout it at www.beginnerbusinesswoman.info. Iwas just back for Homecoming last month, alongwith (coincidentally) 93 other trombone playersand their families. Eric Jones, Craig Bloom ’91,BS ’93, and Andy Vitolins were there with theirfamilies, as well as a few dozen alumni from ear-lier and later classes. Aside from the tailgate andfootball game, we sailed, hiked, went to the sci-ence center, and toured the wine trail. The high-light for me was the new distillery on the east sideof Seneca.” David, did you know that Finger LakesDistilling was co-founded by Brian McKenzie ’99?

We continue to add to our ever-expandingClass of ’93 descendants. Anastasia “Stacey” Mala-cos Lafollette (Mamaroneck, NY) is director of theNew York Meetings Program at the Council on For-eign Relations in New York City. In October 2009,she welcomed daughter Vera. She also has a son,

92 Thanks to all of you who re-sponded to our e-mail requestfor news. Wow—what a lot we

all have going on. Keep it coming. As I write, myhusband John Torrance ’90 and I are planning afall trip back to the Hill to visit the Dept. of En-tomology’s annual Insectapalooza event. Ourdaughter, budding arachnologist Emily, 8, sincerelyhopes to return from Ithaca with a tarantula. I’mnot sure I’m ready for this.

Lots of news from New Jersey! My formerapartment-mate Linda LaMagra Holmes is a sen-ior financial analyst at Honeywell. Her childrenJustin, 7, and Jamie, 3, have their mom’s eyes andmanage to keep her busy! If the kids are lucky,their mom’s still as good a cook as she was 19years ago. Paul Matz is a pediatrician in MullicaHill, NJ, which probably serves him well as he hasthree daughters now: Rebecca, 5, Eliana, 2, andbaby Lilah. In May, Annie Rojas had a son, Ale-jandro Jerome Jacobs. It has been a whirlwind ofdirty diapers, sleep deprivation, and unbridled joyever since. (It gets even better, Annie!) She andher husband live in Collingswood, NJ, just overthe bridge from Philadelphia.

In other former roommate news, Mitch Hart-ley lived with my husband at AGR back in the day.Now he’s in Maine with wife Gabrielle (Mollo)and their two sons. Mitch works for the US Fishand Wildlife Service; Gabrielle is a lawyer. Basedon the rest of his e-mail to me, Mitch is pursuingan alternate career in comedy writing. Ahem. But,mark his words: the Hartleys will “most definite-ly” be at our 20th Reunion. Our class has somereal writers, too. Case in point: John Murphy hasa mystery novel coming out in January, MurderYour Darlings. “One morning, legendary wit DorothyParker discovers someone under Manhattan’sfamed Algonquin Round Table. A little early for be-ing passed out drunk, isn’t it? But he’s not deaddrunk—just dead. When a charming writer fromMississippi named Billy Faulkner becomes a sus-pect in the murder, Dorothy decides to dabble ina little detective work.” Find out more at John’swebsite: www.roundtablemysteries.com. Sue Eisen-feld (Arlington, VA) is the recipient of the 2010Goldfarb Family Fellowship for nonfiction writersat the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. The fel-lowship is a two-week residency awarded annual-ly to the top creative non-fiction applicant. She’llbe one of about 25 fellows working on their owncreative projects at this working retreat for visualartists, writers, and composers. Kind of like beingon campus, but with no schedules, obligations, orprelims! Sue’s work has appeared in the New YorkTimes, the Gettysburg Review, Potomac Review, theWashington Post, Washingtonian, and a number of

[email protected]; Lois DuffyCastellano, [email protected]; Jean Kintisch,[email protected].





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Nicholas, 4-1/2. Kelly Bey Lind, JD ’96, and hus-band Daniel, MPS ’94, welcomed son Mark Josephon July 24, 2009. Kelly Horl and husband Rich wel-comed daughter Grace Florence on June 10, 2010.She writes, “Her big brother, Ryan, 3-1/2, is beyondthrilled that she is here and very much enjoyingbeing a big brother. Just spent this last weekendin Pittsburgh with Sima Asad Ali, Laurie AppelBarkman, and Jackie Finkel Kauff. Sima, Jackie,and I joined Laurie at her home for a visit.”

I had my own mini-reunion in October 2010.I got together with Lauren Bailyn Sapira, MBA’94, Greg, DVM ’94, and Andrea Sarkany Riskin,and Gabriel and Tammi Miller Fox ’94 and theirfamilies at a park in New Jersey. Lauren and hus-band Valdi live in Hoboken, NJ, with Josh, 6, andSamantha, 4. Lauren changed jobs and now com-mutes into New York City to work for the McGraw-Hill Companies as a senior online editor. Andreaand Greg live in Fair Lawn, NJ, with their childrenDeborah, 11, Michael, 7, and Eden, 3. Andrea is apsychologist at both West Bergen Mental Health-care and at Advanced Psychological Specialists.Tammi and Gabriel live in Montebello, NY, withsons Zeke, 4, and Micah, 2. Tammi still works forJP Morgan, but changed departments and is nowa VP of project management. As for me, I’ve beenin White Plains for about 2-1/2 years. I am a prin-cipal at Buck Consultants in NYC, doing health-care consulting and I love spending time with mythree guys—husband Sandy and sons Jonathan,4, and Ari, 1-1/2. I’ll turn 40 in May, but with twolittle boys in the house, I haven’t had too muchtime to even think about it. I had a great 30thbirthday and it kicked off a great decade, so here’sto another great decade for all of us! YaelBerkowitz Rosenberg, [email protected]; MelissaHart Moss, [email protected]; Melissa CarverSottile, [email protected].

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promoted to Eastern Regional Director for Nation-al IPA, a startup that helps governmental agenciessave money with volume-priced contracts. Daveenjoys the quality of life Nashville has to offer andloves the music offered all around. It’s not justcountry! Locally, Dave visits Dan McGuinness, a lo-cal Irish pub operated by another Hotelie, QuinnO’Sullivan ’96, and sees Jan Freitag ’97 often.

Kaila Colbin is keeping busy running a “virtu-al world for good green kids,” www.minimonos.com. She reports that the site “has been growingby leaps and bounds as 7- to 14-year-olds aroundthe world discover it.” Kaila currently callsChristchurch, New Zealand, home, though she islooking forward to a stateside visit in February.Donald Patterson, ME ’95, is a professor at UCIrvine. His areas of research interest lie at theintersection of artificial intelligence and ubiqui-tous computing and he has applied this work totransportation and activity assistance. He also

reports that he recently adopted a son from thePhilippines and that his after-hours extracurric-ular activities now consist of “running kidsaround to their extracurricular activities.” I amsure that sounds familiar to many!

Rachelle Bernacki and John Schmucker ’84of Cambridge, MA, got married this summer, andit was a very Cornell wedding indeed. Rachelle re-ceived her MD from the Johns Hopkins School ofMedicine and an MA from the U. of Chicago. Sheis currently a faculty member at Harvard MedicalSchool and director of quality initiatives in theDept. of Palliative Care at Dana Farber Cancer Inst.and the Division of Aging at Brigham and Women’sHospital. After graduating from Cornell, John re-ceived an MBA from the U. of Chicago GraduateSchool of Business. After working for Compaq andSiemens in Munich, Germany, for a decade, he isnow an independent business consultant based inCambridge, MA. The Cornellians in attendanceranged from the law school Class of 1953—themother of the groom, Jean Glenn Schmucker, JD’53—to the Class of 1997. Lou Bergholz, DaveBerger, Allison Fishman, Cindy Morrison Phoel,Rik Wehbring ’93, ME ’94, John Folger, ME ’95,and Pete Joson ’93 also attended.

Finally, the folks at Cornell’s Adult Universitypassed along the news that Carlin MacDougall,BArch ’99, MArch ’00, took a tennis clinic throughCAU this past summer. What a fun way to practiceskills and spend some time on campus! Send usyour news! Dineen Pashoukos Wasylik, [email protected]; Dika Lam, [email protected];Jennifer Rabin Marchant, [email protected].

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fish (Jeff made me give the turtle away before ourtrek)—from the North to the South, and our liveshave changed in strange and wondrous ways. Wenow have Mardi Gras as a holiday because it is notlike anyone in New Orleans is going to work thatday or the day after, and I also respond to any andall questions with “Who dat!” Mardi Gras is a per-fect time to buy books from Maple Street BookShop (www.maplestreetbookshop.com), where I amnow a bookseller and social medium (coined thisone myself). In my spare time (ha!), I teach onlinehigh school and middle school English through theVirtual Learning Academy Charter School/VLACS(www.vlacs.org), perform an occasional weddingceremony, and am supposed to be working on mynovel’s sequel. Jeff is a professor at Tulane.

One of the many perks of living in NOLA ishaving had the opportunity to spend time withChristopher “Bazooka” Morris ’96, who gave myhusband and me a tour of restoration projects on

which he was working for the National World WarII Museum. This is a must-see, should you visitNOLA (www.nationalww2museum.org). Christopheralso attempted to super-size us at one of Emer-il’s restaurants.

The power of social media continues to enthrallme, Malcolm Gladwell’s commentary aside. Weren’twe the first class to have e-mail accounts? Iplanned my reunion interactions via Facebook (notwith the raptors, though), and we even had a Twit-ter hashtag going for tweeters to report on theirreunion activities. I met up with Jeff Kline, Ker-ry Duffy, Patrick and Angela Ruggieri Omilian’97, Tom Hughes and his wife, Kelly Gonzalez-Hughes ’96, and Eric Krug and Rebecca Zielinski-Krug (Texas A&M). Most of us met when we livedin Ecology House our freshman year; Kerry is anAlpha Phi sorority sister who nearly took out thisclass correspondent with her VW Beetle.

Tom and Kelly introduced me to the beautifultwins they adopted from Ethiopia right before Re-union. We hung out at the Ithaca Farmers’ Marketfor a couple of hours. Tom and Kelly will never letme babysit the girls because of my inability tofeed them tiny-human-sized portions. While at-tending Reunion, Alison Torrillo French and I werethrilled when Stephanie Campbell Kosier linkedup with us on Facebook, as we had been search-ing for her for a while. Leaving Cornell, I tookfond thoughts and a paint-stained pair of pantsI had worn to our class craft table. Ithaca seemedbigger than I remembered it, by the way.

One of the first people to send news my waywas Micah Donahue: “After graduating Cornell,Micah got his start in advertising in Minneapolis.After moving back East to Boston, he met andmarried wife Kristen Shea (Middlebury) in 2001.Micah and Kristen bounced around Cambridge andBoston’s North Shore before settling in Newbury-port, MA. The family includes Max, 3, and Lucy,born Sept. 3, 2010. Micah is a principal at Me-chanica (www.mechanicausa.com)—a boutiquebranding/marketing firm based in Newburyport—and a home improvement addict.” Micah’s latest

94 Ready to feel old? The mem-bers of the Class of 2011 wereborn during our senior year of

high school. Yipes! In the meantime, our class-mates continue to bring new future Cornelliansinto the world. My freshman year roommate,Sharmi Das Skipper, and her husband, Anthony,welcomed son Damien Reese on July 21, 2010.Damien also has a big sister, 2-year-old Jordan.By the powers of Facebook, I was inspired to digout all of the Cornelliana my sons had been gift-ed as babies and pass them on to a good Cornellhome, and now Damien and Jordan both havesome additional outfits to carry on the Big Redtradition. Lisa Keswick welcomed a son, Elliot,on April 21, 2010. She proudly reports, “He is agreat baby and we are delighted parents.” Lisacontinues to enjoy practicing pediatrics in RhodeIsland. Hooray for the legacies of the Class of(ready to feel even older?) 2031!

Psychologist Cara Mendelow reports that shehas relocated her practice to 41 Park Avenue inNYC. Describing her practice, Cara writes, “I provideindividual and group psychotherapy services, andalso offer mind-body interventions including yoga,meditation, and other stress-reduction strategies.I work with many Cornell alumnae living and work-ing in NYC and the surrounding suburbs who areseeking to enhance their personal and professionaldevelopment and am available for consultationaround issues related to health, career, family, andrelationships.” Dave Goodridge has now been inNashville for ten years and would love to visit withclassmates traveling in his area. He was recently

‘Azhar Khan has got serial entre-preneurship down to a science.’Megan Fee Torrance ’92

95 I have some Big Red shoes tofill since Alison Torrillo French(now our president) passed her

half of the class correspondent duties to me. Inthe midst of accepting this new responsibility, myhusband of five years, Jeff Sigler (UVA/Yale), andI have moved—with three cats and a Seussian





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projects have included “installing a new waterheater, adding radiant floors, and installing 15(only six to go) new windows.” He has also hada few Chevy-Chase-as-Clark-Griswold momentswith a family of squirrels, but he has won thebattle, for the time being.

Suzanne Ehlers, while carrying her secondfuture Cornellian, Dahlia Louise, born on June 3,2010, became president and CEO of PopulationAction Int’l (www.populationaction.org). ThusSuzanne could not attend Reunion. PAI, whereSuzanne has been working for seven years, is “an

international nonprofit working in family plan-ning and reproductive health.” Dahlia Louisejoins big sister Paloma Rose, 3, who is, Suzannereports, “delighted with her new role as big sis-ter.” Suzanne, her girls, and husband LaurentAbelin (Antioch) reside in Washington, DC, whichseems to be a Cornell South of sorts.

Your class officers have been phone confer-encing to debrief about the 15th Reunion and,of course, to plan for the coming 20th (already!).One of the exciting things on the horizon is theclass council we are developing. Being an officercan seem like an overwhelming commitment, andthe class council will provide people with an op-portunity to get involved at their particular com-fort levels. Stay tuned for more information; ifyou think you are interested, please let Alisonknow at [email protected].

Thanks to those of you who shared thechanges in your world. You can find our classwebsite here: http://classof95.alumni.cornell.edu, and we also have a Facebook page. Searchfor “Cornell Class of 1995.” Your correspondentsawait more news. Veronica K. Brooks-Sigler,[email protected]; and Abra Benson Per-rie, [email protected].

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never had enough tread on them.” She invitesanyone traveling to Vegas or Southern Californiato be in touch if you want to catch up in person.

Eric Helmy ([email protected])is in Portland, OR, with his wife, Heather. He isa managing partner at Northwest Business LawGroup, which does business litigation, intellec-tual property, employment, and tax law. In hisspare time he is a dad and trains for the Ironmantriathlon! Michael Kelly (Denver, CO; [email protected]) married wife Erin in No-vember 2009. He is a gynecologic oncologist at

the U. of Colorado Health Science Center in Au-rora, and after hours he runs, hikes, and spendstime with his family. Michael and Erin welcomeddaughter Rose Elizabeth on June 2, 2010. Writes,Michael, “I am enjoying the ‘Colorado life.’ ” Lau-ren Wein Mank ([email protected]) ishappy to report that she and husband Rob hadtheir third daughter in June. Baby Olive joins sis-ters Sadie, 5, and Tessa, 3. They are living in NewYork City where Rob is a news producer and Lau-ren is a book editor.

Heidi Mochari ’97 and Dave Greenberger([email protected]) welcomed their firstchild, Emma Ruth, in New York City on Septem-ber 17, 2010. Lisa Drayer ([email protected])also writes from New York, where she is enjoyingmotherhood with her beautiful 9-month-olddaughter Brooke Sadie. She and her husband areplanning Brooke’s first birthday party at the Cor-nell Club in New York! Ali Davis ([email protected]) has been living in NYC since 2007and works for Arup as an urban transport planner.She reports, “I just got back from two and a halfweeks in southern Africa—South Africa, Botswana,and Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, I just missed JoshFriedman, JD ’99, in Victoria Falls (he now livesin Harare, Zimbabwe). Back in August, I traveledto France to celebrate the wedding of Nick Gregoand Anne Marceau. Other Cornell attendees wereRob Wininger, ME ’97, Jose Machuca, ME ’97,Chetna Bansal, ME ’97, and Aravind Narasimhan’97. The wedding was in Fertreve, a small townin Burgundy, so we were able to put our winesknowledge to good use.”

Monica Rodriguez Quirch, BArch ’96, is liv-ing in Miami, where she welcomed a fourthchild—a daughter (“finally, after three boys”)named Cecilia, in November 2009. She and herhusband spent their summer fishing, spearfishing/diving, wakeboarding, and paddleboarding in theBahamas. Carolyn Broadhead ([email protected]) also wrote in from the SunshineState: “My year in Florida turned into five years!My daughter Heidi is 8, and the two of us enjoybeing close to my parents. I work part-time forPalm Beach Public Relations doing marketing andevents. I love the flexibility (lots of volunteerwork!), but I miss my days as a recruiter! I trav-eled quite a lot in 2010 for work and play andhope to fill 2011 with lots of skiing!”

Christopher P. Morris ([email protected])is based in Ithaca and on deployment for the US

government, presently on disaster operations inthe Gulf Coast. After-hours he is volunteering tohelp restore the P.T. 305 at the National WWIIMuseum. Paul Lester, ME ’98 (Nutley, NJ; [email protected]) works for Prudential Financial. He ismarried to Yue Zhang. Constance “Tanzi” WeheCraig ([email protected]) is developing a newwebsite, SoloParentsGuide.com. She envisions itas a community forum and resource for parentswho are running households solo. Tanzi is also“building a partnership with a wine-tasting com-pany that provides turnkey fundraiser events forlocal schools and nonprofits. I was recently ap-pointed to the Alumnae Advisory Council for anew Pi Phi chapter at Johns Hopkins U. The girlsremind me of myself in the early 1990s. It’s funto see how times have changed. Future Cornell-ians and Pi Phis Amanda and Alli have busyschedules, too, so running around to their schoolsand activities takes up the rest of my time.”Thanks, everyone, for writing with all of your up-dates! Carin Lustig Silverman, [email protected]; Courtney Rubin, [email protected]; RonJohnstone, [email protected]. Class website,http://classof96.alumni.cornell.edu.

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‘The power of social media continues to enthrall me.’Veronica K. Brooks-Sigler ’95

96 I hope you all had a wonderfulholiday season and a Happy NewYear. Just because we are com-

ing upon our 15th Reunion doesn’t mean that weare old! Paul Belcher ([email protected]) isliving in San Francisco and is the assistant VP ofunderwriting for ACE Ltd. He is training for his fifthseason of triathlons (!) and hopes to be an age-group contender this year. Recalling the wonder-ful Ithaca climate, he remembers “walking to classin weather that shuts down many major cities.”Paul got married on September 6, 2009 in the his-toric Presidio of San Francisco and then honey-mooned in Japan and Indonesia. Justine Harrison([email protected]) writes from a new address inLas Vegas, where she recently decided to take along sabbatical to travel and volunteer. She is cur-rently training for a half-marathon with AndreaFoster and recently traveled to reconnect withfriends in the South and along the East Coast, toAlaska for hiking and dog sledding, and to Francefor the summer. Her most prominent Cornell mem-ory: “My eyelashes freezing together while trudg-ing up Libe Slope in the winter, wearing shoes that

97 Once, our biggest choices werewhether or not to show for that 8a.m. class or which bar/restaurant

to frequent in Collegetown. As we’ve moved fromthe Hill, we’ve seen our options expand as well.Where should we live and work? Where shouldwe travel? Should we go back to school? Read onto see some of the decisions your classmatesare making.

Renu Giyanani Schmoyer sent news of a re-location to Vicenza, Italy. She and her husbandare excited about his overseas assignment, butwill certainly miss friends in Washington, DC. Shehad one last celebration stateside in NYC withKristin Powers Goppel, Jenny Kapelyan, DivyaGupta, Foram Desai, Shailee Lala, and SuchiSanagavarapu. She reports that everyone is do-ing great. Best of luck, Renu, in your transition!The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foun-dation reports that Kristen DiNorscia Jellisonhas received a 2010 Lindbergh Grant in waterconservation and health for her project “Opti-mizing the Biosand Filter for Treating HouseholdDrinking Water in Developing Countries.” Kristenis an assistant professor in the Dept. of Civil andEnvironmental Engineering at Lehigh U. andearned her doctorate from MIT. The Lindberghgrants are awarded in the amount of $10,580—the amount it cost to build Charles Lindbergh’splane the “Spirit of St. Louis”—and focus onprojects that balance nature and scientific inno-vation. Congratulations go out to William Tren-chard on his new appointment to the CornellCouncil and to Liz Everett for her continuationon the Council.

A few classmates sent in news of trips over-seas. Mike Alsko and wife Gillian celebrated theirtenth wedding anniversary with a cruise in theeastern Mediterranean. The pictures were breath-taking—congrats on ten years! Nick Halversonhas been splitting his time between Minnesota andCosta Rica since he now owns a 150-acre real es-tate development there (www.VillageCostRica.com).When he is back stateside (about six months outof the year) he has the chance to see Doug Has-sell, who is also in Minnesota, and has evenbeen around enough to be elected president ofthe Cornell Club of Minnesota. Congrats, Nick. It


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sounds like you are staying busy. Journeying acrossthe Atlantic from the UK is Meghan Thompson,who joined us stateside for the October 11 wed-ding of Patricia Sexton in the Catskills. Meghanis staying busy as mom to Conall, who just turned1, and as a writer for rebelmom.com.

Heather Ziegler Weitzel and husband Brian’99 welcomed daughter Hannah Christine in Sep-tember 2009. Hannah joins big brothers Noah andEthan, bringing some much welcomed estrogento a house full of boys! Heather has decided totake a break from teaching in the Pittsburgh areato stay home with the kids while Brian is study-ing for his executive MBA at Katz Business Schoolat the U. of Pittsburgh and working at Westing-house Electric Co. Congrats, Weitzel family! Alsowelcoming a new addition is Mary Anna Denman.Daughter Caitlin Marie Ching joins big brotherJohn in keeping Mary Anna on her toes. The fam-ily is still in Portland, OR, and loving the PacificNorthwest. Lastly, congrats to fellow Theta Hol-ly Gurian on her June 2010 wedding in Cape Cod.Alison Weick, Heidi Dillmann Davis, and RubyHuang joined the celebration, as did RebeccaFraioli ’96. Thanks to the power of Facebook, Iwas able to see some great pictures from thewedding! Holly has gone back to school part-timeto work on her law degree. Best of luck!

Send in some news—we always want toknow what you are up to! Did you take a fun trip?Change jobs? Relocate? Make it back to Ithaca re-cently? Sarah Deardorff Carter, [email protected]; Erica Broennle Nelson, [email protected] website, http://classof97.alumni.cornell.edu/; Facebook: Cornell Class of 1997.

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Program. “Four years ago we launched the Be-ginning Farmer Project in response to a resur-gence in interest by new farmers, and late lastyear were thrilled to receive a $750,000 grantfrom the USDA to continue and expand our sup-port for new farmers,” she writes. Erica, husbandCraig Modisher, and daughter Rowan, 3, are start-ing their own diversified farm in Caroline, south-east of Ithaca. Erica was happy to share newsabout her friend Julie Sherman, who opened herown graphic design studio in Brookline and is ex-periencing great success. Check out her businessat: http://jshermanstudio.com.

Liz Levin writes that she is a senior produc-er at the “Colbert Report” with Meredith Scardi-no, BFA ’98, who is a writer for the show. VicciLau has been busy since graduation! She is backin her native Hong Kong after studying law in theUK at Cambridge U., where she earned a secondbachelor’s degree. She works for Morgan Stanleyin the transaction management group, fixed in-come division. Vicci and husband Kelvin have aboy, 2, and a girl, 6 months. Raeanna Cranbournewrites that she finished her third half-Ironmantriathlon in the Philippines in August and wasbusy training for her third marathon, the MarineCorps Marathon in October. She has been on va-cation to Osaka and Kyoto, Japan, for a week togo temple-hopping, and will go to Vientiane andLuang Prabang, Laos, in October for the CornellHotel Society Asia Pacific annual meeting. She isbusy with work, developing luxury resorts andrestaurants in the Philippines. She says, “Anyonecoming to visit Manila, let me know!”

Christopher Gruszczynski, JD ’08, and wifeLydia Barker (daughter of Prof. Randy Barker ’53of the Ag school) celebrated their first anniver-sary. They were married in Sage Chapel on July4, ’09. Christopher is an associate in the corpo-rate department at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLPin New York, where he has been since graduat-ing from the Law School. Amy Peterson and herfamily still live in San Francisco, where she start-ed a new job as a project manager in engineer-ing at SAY Media, an online media company.Daughter Avery (Class of 2031?) will turn 2 onThanksgiving and Amy says, “I can’t believe she’sthat old already!” Amy had a mini-Cornell re-union in June with Jon, PhD ’03, and GabbySfiligoi Hughes, DVM ’02, and Michelle Pang-born. “We had a great time and laughed a ton,but we really missed all our other friends. We arealready planning another mini-reunion in Cali-fornia in June 2011!”

Also in California: Brendon Harrington andwife Cindy (Moore) ’99 moved this summer af-ter living almost ten years in Denver. Brendon isa transportation programs manager, overseeing anumber of programs including the day-to-day op-erations of Google’s famous employee commutershuttle program. The Harringtons welcomed sonColin this past February and report that his big sis-ter Kelsey, who started kindergarten this fall, adoreshim greatly. Finally, the biggest news of the year!Devika Patel has a new cell phone. She hates it.

Keep sharing your news—we absolutelyadore printing it! Molly Darnieder Bracken,[email protected]; Uthica Jinvit Utano, [email protected]; and Karen Dorman Kipnes, [email protected].

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is reading his Class Notes column and learns thathis classmate and fellow a cappella member Broc-coli Rob has been jamming with Trey Anastasio.At first Andy gets jealous, but then he gets mo-tivated to spend time working on his music, histrue passion. After learning about all of the greatachievements of the Class of ’99, I hope you’llfeel inspired too.

Dana Chieco (Washington, DC) received amaster’s in urban and environmental planningfrom the U. of Virginia in 2006. Since graduateschool, she has worked in economic developmentand land use planning for the District of Colum-bia government, the Urban Land Inst., and abusiness improvement district. She is currentlyemployed by the Brookings Institution’s metro-politan policy program as a development special-ist. Kristin Schmidt and husband David Hickshave relocated to Bandung, Indonesia, where theyboth work as chiropractors who specialize in cor-recting scoliosis. “We are really enjoying the ex-perience of the Indonesian culture,” Kristinwrites. “The people are sooo friendly and life isso much simpler here.” Peter, ME ’00, and Mered-ith Glah Coors moved from Denver to Pasadena,CA, last year for Peter’s job as packaging qualitymanager at the Irwindale Brewery for MillerCoors.Meredith stays at home with their kids: Peter, 7,Caroline, 5, Maggie, 3, and James, 1. Meredithwrites: “We are doing great, enjoy seeing otherCornellians around L.A., and recently traveled toBalloon Fiesta in New Mexico with Barrett Yates-Mack ’00 and Tim Mack.

Greg Sawicki lives in Durham, NC, with wifeKatia Koelle. They met in grad school at the U. ofMichigan, Ann Arbor in 2003 and married in Oc-tober 2009. They are now both assistant profes-sors; Greg is a member of the biomedicalengineering department at UNC-Chapel Hill/NCState and Katia teaches biology at Duke. On Sept.20, 2010, lawyer Kevin Law Orloski became afirst-time dad when wife Maraleen Shields gavebirth to a son, Cole Law Orloski. The new parentswere feted at a baby shower in August, whereguests included Christa Fossee Johnson ’93, whoattended Pitt Law School with Kevin and Maraleen.Also in attendance were Kevin’s brother, RichardLaw Orloski ’94, his wife, Alicia Forward, andtheir daughter Isabel, 9 months old. Karen WeigelEverett (Ashburn, VA) gave birth to a beautifulson, Cash Nelson, on Sept. 8, 2010.

Melissa Trepiccione Losquadro fills us in onwhat she and husband Bill have been up to: “Ourbig news is that we just relocated back to NewYork from Chicago. Bill finished a fellowship therein facial plastic surgery and joined a practice inWestchester as a facial plastic surgeon. A longroad, but definitely exciting to be on this part ofit now! Our daughter Lia has turned 2, and weare all definitely enjoying being back in NewYork, closer to family and friends.” Caryn ChaseRakov and husband Brad ’98 also moved back totheir home state of New York. They’re happy tobe in the beautiful Hudson Valley area, afterspending two years in Quantico, VA, and a six-year tour in Okinawa. Brad, an aircrew trainingofficer in charge, is a KC-130 pilot with the Ma-rine Corps. Caryn is a part-time teacher at NatureCenter, where son Brayden, 3, goes to preschool.She’s also teaching online with American MilitaryU. as a professor of a foundations of onlinelearning/writing/research class.

Kate Velasquez-Heller was married last springto Luis Fernando Velasquez-Garcia. Kate is an en-vironmental attorney at Goulston & Storrs and

98 Congratulations to the Class of1998 on submitting more newsthan we have space to print! In

honor of that, I will get straight to the businessof sharing it.

Matthew and Amy Adams Nieman (Ashburn,VA) had a daughter, Samantha Adams Nieman, onDec. 22, ’09. Matt and Amy celebrated their tenthwedding anniversary in December. Matt is an at-torney at Jackson Lewis LLP and Amy is a seniormanaging consultant with IBM, but when shewrote, she was on a leave of absence to spendtime with Samantha. Congratulations!

Mary Goll has started as a faculty member inthe developmental biology program at Sloan-Ket-tering Inst. in New York City, with a joint ap-pointment at Weill Cornell. Congratulations, Mary!Meredith Negrin is also in NYC, working as aschool guidance counselor at Stuyvesant HighSchool, from which she is “proudly sending up to50 grads each year to Cornell!” Meredith is alsoadjunct faculty in the Teachers College’s counsel-ing psychology program and enrolled in HunterCollege’s School Leadership program. She does pri-vate SAT tutoring and college counseling on theside and regularly sees Laura Lopez Keegan, DyanKempe Shenn, Anissa Karp Klein, Elyssa CohenGaffin, Jennifer Sandler Shrier, Shari Dickstein,Jordan Alpert, and Amy Wilcox Voigt.

We heard from Abraham Burickson, anartist-in-residence at Cornell University! How coolis that?! In April, he will put on a 24-hr. per-formance in New York City with his group,Odyssey Works. Abraham was selected for theBest New Poets 2008 anthology, and his chap-book of poems, Charlie, is available now on Cod-hill Press (Codhill.com). Erica Frenay is also inthe Ithaca area, working for Cornell’s Small Farms 99 On an episode of “The Office,”

fictional Cornell alum AndyBernard (the hilarious Ed Helms)


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Luis is a principal research scientist at MIT. Katesays that they plan to stay around the Bostonarea, but make regular visits to Colombia, whichis where Luis’s family resides. On Sept. 9, IlanaKubel Engel (Sands Point, NY) presented her son,Joshua, 2, with a little sister, Sydney Rebecca.Ilana says that she feels very lucky to have oneof her old roommates, Amy Nathanson Nash,right in town. Amy’s kids Zach and Gabe are bestbuddies with Josh and Sydney. When asked whatshe’d rather be doing, Ilana responded: “Nothing!Life is pretty good right now, although I do missthe Palms and Hot Truck.” What does she re-member most about her time from Cornell? Heranswer is certainly familiar to anyone with youngchildren: “I remember sleeping way more than Ido these days!”

Marissa Tannenbaum McClintock sent thisupdate: “After Scott, MBA ’08, finished at theJohnson School, we moved back to the Bostonarea. On May 26, 2010, I gave birth to our sec-ond son, Alex. He joined us, Finley, 2, and ourdog, Cayuga, whom we got from the SPCA inIthaca. I am busy chasing the kids and have alsoreturned to work part-time as a physician assis-tant, while Scott works up the street at Nexamp,a renewable energy startup. We are all doing welland love catching up with our Cornell friends (andtheir children) as often as we can.” Send yournews to: Liz Borod Wright, [email protected]; Brady Russell, [email protected]; Melanie Grayce West, [email protected];or Taber Sweet, [email protected].

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group worked side-by-side with local villagers torebuild a primary school that had gone unnoticedby the government and was on its way to collapse.Erin is currently raising the $15,000 needed forbuilding materials for this project, and encour-ages people to check out the cause at http://www.facebook.com/l/02b2e;nepalprimaryschool.chipin.com/shree-bhawani-primary-school. If any-one is interested in volunteering their time, e-mailErin ([email protected]). This is amaz-ing work you do, Erin. You make Cornell proud!

Allison Binnion was in touch as well. Untilrecently, Allison lived in Seattle, selling both ofHyatt’s luxury properties—the Grand Hyatt Seat-tle and the brand new, LEED-certified Hyatt atOlive 8. It was a great adventure for her to openSeattle’s and Hyatt’s first truly “green” hotel.Once those doors were open Allison knew it wastime to take the next step in her career, so shemoved to San Francisco where she is selling theHyatt Regency San Francisco at the Embarcadero.According to Allison, “It’s been a crazy transitionmoving from luxury business hotels to a con-ventional ‘big box’ hotel, but every day I learnsomething new.”

Hotelies aren’t the only ones making head-lines. We also have award-winning writers in ourmidst. Both Rattawut Lapcharoensap and LydiaPeelle received a 2010 Whiting Writers’ Award onOctober 27, 2010 at a ceremony in New York City.This prestigious $50,000 award recognizes tenyoung writers for their extraordinary talent andpromise, and is one of the most coveted prizesfor up-and-coming writers. Rattawut’s collectionof short stories, Sightseeing (Grove, 2004), wonthe Asian American Literary Award and was a fi-nalist for the Guardian First Book Award. He waschosen for the National Book Foundation’s inau-gural “5 Under 35” honor and was named byGranta Magazine as one of the Best Young Amer-ican Novelists. Lydia Peelle’s stories have ap-peared in Granta, Orion, and The Sun, amongothers, and were collected in Reasons for and Ad-vantages of Breathing (Harper Perennial, 2009).She has won two Pushcart Prizes and an O. Hen-ry Award and has twice been included in Best NewAmerican Voices. The Whiting selectors admired“her beautiful prose, gorgeous sentences, andflawless ear.” What a fantastic achievement—kudos to you both!

Finally, it is with immense sadness that Iwrite you about the death of Jonathan Page andhis wife, Yulin Wang. The couple died together ina tragic car accident on September 10, 2010. Thetwo had met while Yulin was a graduate studentat Cornell and Jonathan was working at Cornell’sHigh Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS). Aftertheir time at Cornell, the couple moved to Cali-fornia’s Silicon Valley to establish their careers.Both engineers, Yulin went into chemical engi-neering, while Jonathan worked on projects insatellite communications. One of Jonathan’s mostrecent tasks was developing microwave equipmentused to protect Navy ships. “His work was so im-portant for the world. He was saving lives,” hismother, Nancy, said. “They had a wonderful, won-derful life.” To the Page and Wang families, onbehalf of the entire Cornell community, we offerour deepest and most heartfelt condolences. It istruly a great loss for us all.

To our classmates, we love hearing from youand we love writing for you, so, as always, pleasekeep in touch. Andrea M. Chan, [email protected]; and Christine Jensen Weld, [email protected].

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01 Happy New Year, Class of 2001!We hope that the New Year findsyou well and that you’re off to a

great start!Congratulations to Dana Cohen ’00, BS HE

’01, who completed a residency in psychiatry atUpstate Medical U. in Syracuse, which is alsowhere she went to medical school. She met herhusband, Vadim Izgur, in the residency programand they transitioned smoothly from dating toengagement to wedded bliss! They both servedas chief residents of the program and after grad-uation moved to Long Island, where they havebegun their full-time jobs as attendings. Dana isworking as an outpatient psychiatrist at theNorthport Veterans Administration Hospital. Inaddition to their new jobs and new house, Danagave birth on July 14, 2010 to their son, AriDaniel Izgur. So many life changes—and so muchto appreciate and enjoy!

Anna Chung checks in with us from Los An-geles. She graduated from Columbia BusinessSchool last year and married James Stockdale,who works in the hotels group at Jones LangLaSalle. They were married over New Year’s lastyear in Pasadena, CA, at the Langham Hotel. Theceremony was in the outdoor gardens and thedinner reception in the Georgian Ballroom. Theyhoneymooned in Bora Bora, French Polynesia, andstayed at the Four Seasons Resort. When Annawrote, she and James were looking to buy theirfirst home together and hoped to stay in thePasadena area, where they currently live. Annaworks in Wells Fargo’s Hospitality Finance Group.

Congratulations to husband and wife veteri-narian team Drs. Jed and Laci Schaible on thelaunch of www.VetLIVE.com. This brings in a newstandard in pet care by offering an opportunityfor pet owners to ask questions, get a secondopinion, or chat live from the comfort of theirown home, whenever they want, all at an afford-able price. They saw the need for such a serviceand decided to fill that need. Together, throughthe experience of navigating the confusing andcostly hospital healthcare system after learningtheir beloved family dog Madison had terminalcancer, Jed and Laci realized how overwhelming,confusing, and expensive veterinary medicine canbe for pet owners. “Six months after Madisondied, we realized there was a need for pet own-ers to have a way to communicate and interactwith veterinarians without the drawbacks that aretied to an office visit,” writes Laci. “There was aneed for pet owners to have sound, unbiasedguidance for their pet’s health care beyond theirbusy veterinarian with office hours.” One coreprincipal to the VetLIVE mission is charity.VetLIVE offers pet owners the opportunity to do-nate one dollar or more at checkout. These fundsare collected and donated to charities that petowners choose from a list that includes Days EndHorse Rescue, the American Humane Association,and World Vets. Jed and Laci met when he inter-viewed her for a job. She got the job and theysaid their vows in Santorini, Greece, one year lat-er. The couple agrees it was love at first sight.They reside in Bethlehem, PA, and their only chil-dren, yet, are the four-legged kind.

Such great news from all of our classmates.Please share your good news too! E-mail us [email protected]. We hope that all is wellwith each of you—and let us know about it! Wish-ing everyone a happy, healthy, prosperous, and ex-citing start to 2011! Lauren Wallach Hammer,[email protected]; Trina Lee, [email protected].

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00 Here’s to a new year, Class of2000! We’ve got lots of excit-ing news to get 2011 started

off with a bang. Shelby Nariss Younge is nowenjoying life in Lakewood, IL. After living forseven years in the big cities of Denver, L.A., andChicago, Shelby and her family made a big moveto the outskirts of the Chicagoland area. Theylove having so much more space. Her daughterAvery has turned 2 and son Evan is almost 5, sothe kids keep Shelby very busy. Shelby and hus-band Bryan ’98 still made time to attend our10th Reunion back in Ithaca last June, and thetwo had an absolute blast catching up witheveryone. They ran into lots of old friends andspent the majority of the weekend with Shelby’sold roommates on Eddy Street: Liz Branning,Megan Everett, Natalie Hagee, Cindy Levine, andTaryn Rosenthal. The group had fun wine touring,reminiscing, and eating their way through theweekend. According to Shelby, the Palms hasn’tchanged one bit!

In addition to her own news, Shelby sharedlots of great updates about all of the Hotelies inour class who are moving, shaking, and makinggreat waves in the business world. First was Shel-by’s freshman roommate in Class of ’17, MelialaniJames. Meli’s company, Nirvino, launched a wineiPhone application called “Wine Ratings Guide”that helps make wine buying easy. It has been the#1 wine app since it launched six months ago; Meliwas featured on ABC7’s “View from the Bay” inSan Francisco! Erin Guttenplan just founded Edgeof Seven, a nonprofit that sends American volun-teers to Nepal, India, Thailand, and Cambodia. Shehas spent the last five months in Asia researchingexisting projects that are both sustainable andpossess a genuine need for Edge of Seven sup-port. Erin wrote us from Cambodia last year aboutEdge of Seven’s first big project in rural Nepal. The




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02 Happy 2011! We received wordthat Michael Bronstein wasnamed a “rising star” by Poli-

tics Magazine, as well as one of Pennsylvania’s“Top Ten Political Consultants” by PA2010.com.Congratulations, Michael! Elisabeth Cohen wrotein from Princeton, NJ: “My husband, JonathanSaari, and I moved here so I could attend grad-uate school.” Thad ’98 and Jane Terrell Paulwelcomed their first child, Henry Gordon, onJuly 6, 2010. David Boyce recently moved fromWestchester County, NY, to Boston, MA. Perhapshe can meet at Boston Beer Works for a drinkwith Craig Gaites and Melanie Vanderhoof ’04.Craig writes: “Melanie and I recently moved toBoston, MA. She has started a doctoral programat Clark U., and I have started a new job as amanagement consultant at Bain & Co. BothMelanie and I are looking forward to reconnect-ing with our friends from the Cornell track andcross country teams.”

Joseph LeVine moved back to Brooklyn lastsummer after taking a year off to travel and skiin Jackson, WY, and the Chugach Range of Alas-ka. “Now that I’m back in NYC and workingagain, I’ve begun studying improv comedy andperforming at the PIT Theater. I love Brooklyn,but also miss the mountains.” Joseph also madea point to mention how the Hotel school con-tinues to impress him with its alumni network.From another side of Brooklyn, we got a quickhello from Matthew Murphy and his wife, Mau-ra Rockcastle, BFA ’02. (We’ll take it!) Just a fewstops north on the L, Amit Gupta attached hisRBC Capital Markets business card. He is an as-sociate in investment banking here in New York.Soon to leave the Big Apple, Sara Roccisano wasrecently promoted to director of the InvestmentBanking Dept. at UBS Investment Bank and willbe transitioning to their Global EnvironmentalAdvisory Group based in London. “This is a dreamjob for me,” exclaimed Sara. “I’ve also traveledthe world scuba diving; I’ve been to the Mal-dives, Costa Rica, Colombia, and the Cayman Is-lands in 2010, where I swam with manta raysand whale sharks.”

Susan Cohen and David Davidson are happyto announce their marriage on July 4, 2010 inNew York. Cornellians in attendance were SarahMann, Katie Hurley, Sarah Miller, Lauren Mc-Sherry, Erica Levin, Carolyn Deckinger, JeremyLang ’00, Marc Kaplan ’01, Liz Kaplan ’03, andRuss Agdern ’99. Susan and David reside in As-toria, NY.

And, as we have known each other since1986, it is keeping with tradition that I soon fol-lowed my dear friend Susan. Carolyn Deckingerand Jeremy Lang ‘00 were thrilled to have mar-ried each other on September 11, 2010 inWestchester, NY. We were lucky to have many ofmy Theta sisters and our Cornell Tae Kwon Dofight teammates with us that day from across theUS, including maids of honor Marise D’Souza andAmanda Sena ’01, bridesmaid Sherry Lai ’01,ME ’02, studly groomsmen Phil Yen ’98, ME ’99,Conway Yee ’00, Patrick Parault ’00, ME ’01,and Parag Patel ’00, and a killer entourage withSusan Cohen, Nathan Pettit, MPS ’03, Ellen Bro-sius, Joanna McNeil, Mehreen Yousaf ’01, AmyLiesenfeld, Jen Kohler, Mao Fujisaki Hughes,Julia Ramey Serazio, Kate Bennett, Alice Cho,Corey Worcester ’99, and Yasmine Legendre’01. Best day ever. Send news to: CarolynDeckinger, [email protected]; Jeffrey Barker,[email protected].

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03 Greetings, Class of ’03! As I sithere and write, I can’t help butlook out the window and admire

a gorgeous fall day. There is a brisk chill to the air,the sun is out, and the leaves are bursting withcolor. I hope all of you enjoyed the beautifulautumn as you headed into the holiday season!

I had the pleasure of briefly catching up withYujin Chung, ME ’04, and Sudha Nandagopal.Yujin has joined Andreessen Horowitz in the BayArea and was traveling through Seattle. It is al-ways so great to see familiar faces from Cornell!Another Cornellian living in Seattle, Alexa Bar-ron ([email protected]), reports, “I amstill living in Seattle and working for Microsoft.I’ve also started a company, www.lexcosmetics.com, that allows fans to create the colors—andI give $1 from each bottle to a nonprofit thatthe creator chooses.”

Nina Kryuk Grigoriev ([email protected]) and husband Dmitry live in Staten Island, NY.Nina wrote, “I received a master’s in public policyat the U. of Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain,and am currently seeking international develop-ment, regional public policy analysis, or commu-nications work. The courses on human sexualityand human bonding in HumEc played a large rolein my decision to go back for graduate work. Iam a co-founder of the Charcoal Project (www.charcoalproject.org), a nonprofit that dissemi-nates information about issues regarding energypoverty. I’d love to hear from Martin Skup ’02.”Jamie Beilin Joseph ([email protected]) isa senior associate at Corcoran Group Real Estatein New York City. She wrote, “I got married overMemorial Day weekend to Chris Joseph, in NapaValley, CA. The wedding party included Julie Feld-man, Susie Snyder, Nicole Ware Slavitt, HeatherBoose-Weiss, Brian West, David Newman, andBrett Goldblatt.” She adds, “I volunteer for theNew York Junior League and the Spence School(where I attended K-12).”

Rachel Barnes Denton (Kansas City, MO;[email protected]) wrote, “Even thoughI’m about 1,500 miles away from many Cornell-ians, I do my best to keep in touch. MichelleFinnegan, Michelle Upton ’04, Sara LenetStauber ’04, and I took a girls’ trip to Vegas inJanuary 2010. This past September, my husband,Jeff, and I, along with Michelle Finnegan andDaniel Lewis, spent a long weekend in New Or-leans. Although I’m far from Ithaca now, reunit-ing with Cornellians always takes me back—itseems as if we never left!” Piper Titus ([email protected]) shared that she has “been pro-moted to CFO from controller at Page Transporta-tion. Sales have grown 20 percent this summerand keeping pace has been a challenge. We’vealso purchased a new home in Baldwinsville, NY.The education courses at Cornell continue to playa part in my life; I’m still being a teacher in myroles. Regarding volunteer work, I was appointedcontroller to our community recreation board. It’svery fulfilling giving back to the community.”

Daniel Luzer shared news of the marriage ofLuke Collin to Victoria Wilson on Oct. 9, 2010 inExeter, NH. The wedding party included MatthewCollin ’07, Daniel Luzer, and Justin Peters. Oth-er guests included Maryrose Anthes-Washburn,David Collin, JD ’75, Alexa Mills, CarolineHegarty Mahoney, MS ’04, Sarah Martin, BrianPerusse ’01, and Lauren Sommer. ElizabethVassallo-DeLuca ([email protected])also attended the Collin-Wilson wedding and re-ports, “It was great to see our Cornell crew.”

Elizabeth has been busy working on her residen-cy in internal medicine at UMDNJ-NJMS inNewark, NJ, which she started in July. ElizabethPaddock ([email protected])wrote that she has “nine months left of a familymedicine residency in Madison, WI. I ran my fifthmarathon in a personal best of 3 hrs., 2 mins.,10 secs. I was married (to Tim Caramore) and gotto see a few great friends at the wedding: AliciaSmith, DVM ’07, Lauren Putnam, Lena Matthews’02, and Mandy DeRoche ’00. We love being inMadison. I’m staying one year longer to do anacademic fellowship and am unsure of the nextlocation!” Congratulations, Elizabeth!

Kate Cornell (Washington, DC, [email protected]) wrote, “I’m currently in my second yearat Georgetown U.’s McDonagh School of Business.My fiancé, Scott Harvey, is also in businessschool. The women’s equestrian team and DeltaGamma sorority are still very important organi-zations in my life.” Simon Tanksley (Columbia,SC; [email protected]) wrote that he plansto relocate upon completion of his residency atPalmetto Health, Family Medicine Center, and hasbeen busy volunteering at a free medical clinic.Many thanks again to all those folks who sharednews for the column. We hope you will keep intouch! Samantha Buckingham Noonan,[email protected]; and Sudha Nandagopal,[email protected].

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04 ’Tis the season! Cheers to somany of our classmates whoare tying the knot—at Cornell,

no less! In addition to class president Jessi Pet-rosino MacMeekin, check out these couples whorecently said “I do.”

On Saturday, June 5, 2010, Carissa Mirasoland Kevin Nee ’05 were married at Sage Chapelby Father Dan McMullin. The reception was heldat the Alice Cook House atrium on West Campus.Former varsity athletes for the Big Red, Carissawas an All-American field hockey player and Kevinwas an All-Ivy lacrosse player. Their wedding par-ty included former teammates and friends JessiPetrosino MacMeekin, Kimmy Gardner, KaitlinTierney, Brandon Ross, David Pittard, and KyleMiller ’06. Carissa is pursuing her master’s degreein public communication at American U. and worksat BAE Systems on a federal government contract.Kevin is pursuing his MBA at the U. of Marylandand works with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC.Carissa and Kevin reside in Washington, DC.

Your correspondent, Anne Jones, married TomLeeson in Sage Chapel on the crisp autumn after-noon of Oct. 9, 2010. Father Dan McMullin of theCornell Catholic Community led the ceremony withuniversity organists Annette Richards and DavidYearsley leading virtuosic musical selections. Thewedding party sang Anton Bruckner’s “Locus Iste”to commemorate their time singing with the Cor-nell University Chorus. Members included LisaStechschulte and Kristin Dermody Maggi, as wellas Chorus alumnae Jacqueline Conti ’05 and AjaFalker ’05. Guests at the wedding and the StatlerHotel reception included Robert Shapiro, MeganLemley ’03, Julie Markant ’02, Cailin Wilke ’06,Kim Rice ’06, and Julie Huang ’05. Anne andTom are family medicine physicians who work andreside in Maine. Tom proposed to Anne on theSuspension Bridge during her 5th Reunion.

When Ronya Foy, MPA ’05, wrote last July,she was excited to be working as a student em-ployee for the Dept. of State. “I'm living, working,


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and going to school in Washington, DC . . . awayfrom home sweet home NYC. I graduated with myMSW in May 2010 and am entering my third yearof the PhD program at Howard U.’s School of So-cial Work. My concentration is international so-cial work and community development throughwomen’s social entrepreneurship. I traveled toCape Town, South Africa, on an Int’l Service Learn-ing program and gathered some good informationfor future research. While in D.C., I became aboard member of the newly formed Banneker CityLittle League in D.C.’s Ward 1 (BannekerCityLL.org).I also planned a fundraising event for the non-profit NGO Basics Int’l, operating in Ghana, WestAfrica, and dedicated to alleviating child traf-ficking (BasicsInternational.org). That’s what’sbeen going on!”

Liz Fish, DVM ’08, recently started her ownveterinary practice, Shadowrock Equine VeterinaryServices PLLC, in Dutchess County, NY. “My fi-ancé, Brian Pinkey, is the brother of my bestfriend, fellow veterinarian and classmate KimPinkey.” Zachary Hollander wrote us in July: “Iam currently a student at the Kellogg School ofManagement at Northwestern U. in Chicago,where I am the president of the student body.”At the time, he was also a summer associate atBain & Co. in New York City.

Paul El-Meouchy ’03, BA ’04, and his moth-er, Lina, planned to participate in the ING NYCMarathon on Sunday, Nov. 7, ’10. They were to runwith Team Animal League for Sari, Jaja, Soukha,Lucky, Apollo, Princess, Leo, Maui, Snowflake, Bla-co, Minyon, and the other animals that havetouched their lives. They spent the weeks andmonths leading up to the event raising funds tosupport North Shore Animal League America, theworld’s largest no-kill animal rescue and adoptionorganization. Since 1944, North Shore AnimalLeague America has been working to rescue, nur-ture, and adopt pets into permanent, loving homes.To date, they have rescued close to 1 million dogs,cats, puppies, and kittens. Congrats, Paul and Lina!

Sara Parker writes, “I defended my PhD inmaterials science and engineering from the U. ofIllinois in April and then promptly moved to cen-tral New Jersey. I’ve already started my new jobas a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers U., whichshould transition to a position at the startupcompany that is currently funding me. And some-where along the way, I got married! Congrats toall who are finishing a degree, a school year, orjust starting a new chapter in their lives!” Con-grats to you too, Sara!

Our very own Esther Tang was instrumentalin planning the first “Promise of a GenerationChina-UAE Forum,” June 26–July 1. Directly fromthe press release: “The forum, held in Beijing andShanghai, will build new cross-cultural relation-ships and enhance understanding between Emi-rati and Chinese leaders of tomorrow. The missionof Promise of a Generation (POAG) is to facilitatethese goals through a new, open exchange ofideas, experiences, and concerns designed to ful-fill the promise of every generation to improveour world. POAG will build on a wide array ofgovernment-to-government commitments referredto as ‘a strategic step for the future’ by PresidentHu Jintao of China and His Highness Sheikh Mo-hammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Princeof Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander ofthe UAE Armed Forces, during an official statevisit in Fall 2009.” While they were both in Chi-na, Esther and Sara Pettengill got to meet up!

Anne Jones, [email protected]

05 Happy New Year, Class of 2005!I am happy to begin this year’sClass Notes by introducing you

to two new co-class correspondents: Johnny Chenand Hilary Johnson. I am excited to work withthem! Allow me to let them introduce themselves.From Johnny: “Since graduation, I’ve been work-ing with L’Oreal USA. I started off in Little Rock,AR, as a project engineer, designing and purchas-ing automation equipment for Maybelline lipstickpackaging lines. Then I was a logistics planner,managing component inventory for Maybellinepowders and subcontracting products. Then Itransferred to Cincinnati, OH, as a productionmanager overseeing Garnier/L’Oreal shampoo andconditioner packaging line operations. In 2009,I transferred to Somerset, NJ, as a processingmanager and overseeing all L’Oreal/Maybellinecosmetic manufacturing operations.”

From Hilary: “I moved to Seattle, WA, from Al-bany, NY, in January 2009. I have since started amaster’s in teaching program at Seattle U., a smallJesuit university. The program focuses on social jus-tice in education. I will graduate in June and willbe endorsed to teach grades 5-12 in social stud-ies. I am also currently the director of operationsat SeattleRentals.com, a highly trafficked websitefor housing rentals in the Seattle metro area. Thecompany handles all of the relocation services fornew Microsoft, Amazon, and Boeing employeesrelocating to the area. I have also become highlyinvolved in the North American Scrabble PlayersAssociation and the Seattle Scrabble Club and havebeen competing in national Scrabble tournamentsin Washington, British Columbia, and New York.”

Now on to other updates from our classmates,who are up to equally exciting things, both pro-fessionally and personally. Dave Mack is the ad-ministrative assistant to the dean of the School ofTheater at the California Inst. of the Arts. He is alsothe associate producer of a TV pilot, “The Princeof New York”; the managing director of Watts Vil-lage Theater Co.; and the founder/CEO of ArtistMagnet LLC, an online social network for theatrepeople. Savneet Singh founded Gold Bullion Int’l(GBI), a physical precious metals service that en-ables financial advisors and investment funds tobuy and store specific bars of gold, silver, plat-inum, and palladium in an efficient, secure, andcost-effective manner. Savneet writes, “GBI’s op-erating platform makes acquiring physical pre-cious metals as seamless as purchasing a stock orbond.” He is very proud that the firm is led by in-dustry veterans and advisors including retired gen-eral Wesley Clark, former House Majority LeaderRichard Gephardt, and former SEC chairman ArthurLevitt. Kelley Rowe (ILR) has started the MBAprogram at the Wharton School at the U. of Penn-sylvania and will graduate in 2012. He is doublemajoring in entrepreneurial management and fi-nance. As a native Philadelphian myself, I amhappy to report that Kelley loves Philly so far!

Alexandra Tursi was named a “Rising Star” byVermont Business Magazine. The list comprises 40winners under the age of 40 who were selected bya panel of judges for their commitment to businessgrowth, professional excellence, and involvementin their communities. Alexandra is a senior publicrelations associate at Kelliher Samets Volk, whereshe manages PR and social media campaigns forclients. She also continues to sing and has joinedthe Vermont Symphony Orchestra Chorus. She is ex-cited that the Cornell Chorus will visit Vermont inMarch 2011. Fitz Collings writes, “Nicole Browneand I are in our last year of law school at William

& Mary; next semester we will be studying abroadin Australia and New Zealand. In the meantime, I’mcontinuing work on the Law Pod, a series of iPhoneand Blackberry apps for lawyers and law students(www.thelawpod.com), now in its third year.” Aspart of the Johnson School’s Marketing Associa-tion, Naijia Huang helped plan last October’s “Bat-tle of the Brands” marketing competition, whichfeatured keynote speaker Scot Safon, MBA ’84,the executive vice president of CNN Worldwide andgeneral manager of HLN. Naijia pointed out thatthis was Scot’s first return to campus since grad-uation. Scot spoke about “Marketing in the DigitalAge.” Congrats on planning a great event!

A belated congratulations goes out to BasilNewburn, who married his Cornell sweetheart,Jessica Snyder ’07, in Dana Point, CA, on June26. Guests included fellow Cayuga’s Waiters LamarNewburn ’03 (the groom’s brother), best manJohn Johnson, and David Todd, BFA ’06, as wellas several of Jessica’s teammates from the women’ssoccer team. It was a beautiful Southern Califor-nia day overlooking the ocean and the groom’s un-rehearsed evening rendition of James Brown’s “GetUp” with the reception band won over his newfamily, prompting the mother of the bride to con-clude, “I’m so proud my new son-in-law is a . . .well, you know . . . ” After a Caribbean honey-moon, Jess and Basil returned to their home in theSan Francisco area. Michelle Wong, [email protected]; Hilary Johnson, [email protected],Johnny Chen, [email protected].

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06 The babies are coming! Dennisand Ashley Adler Dunegan wel-comed adorable Lucas Ezra into

the world on Sept. 16, ’10. As Dennis says, “Man,can he scream!” Just a few days before Lucas Ezrawas born, on Sept. 11, 2010, Patrick Neville,MILR ’06, and wife Neida Doctolero, MBA/MILR‘07, welcomed beautiful son George Mateo.

Silvia Korchumova worked as a paralegal forthe US Attorney’s Office in New York City for twoand a half years after graduation, then spent fourmonths teaching documentary film to youth inBulgaria, her native land, through a project inwhich the students made short films about press-ing community problems. In 2009, Silvia went backto school and began a two-year master’s in pub-lic administration at Columbia’s School of Int’l andPublic Affairs in New York. This summer she didan internship in management consulting for thefederal government with Deloitte in Washington,DC. Silvia graduates from Columbia in May and therest is still to be decided. Mike Lerario started hisneurology residency at NewYork-Presbyterian/WeillCornell and lives in NYC. Mike’s fiancée, CasaraFerretti, is working as a research coordinator forthe psychiatry department at Montefiore Hospitalin the Bronx. Bryan McGowan is back at Cornellfor his MBA. Scott James is finishing up lawschool at Northwestern and will be taking a jobwith a law firm next fall. Matt Thomas and LauraSchoenle were married on July 10, 2010.

Meghan Kappus moved to Lund, Sweden, inAugust 2010 to begin a two-year master’s in in-ternational development and management fromLund U. She plans a five-month field study inSub-Saharan Africa to look at microfinance andsmall business development efforts. She stillworks as a contractor for a social enterprise con-sulting firm called Community Wealth Venturesin Washington, DC, where she has worked for thepast four years. Josh Katcher works in NYC as a


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litigation associate at the law firm of Cadwalad-er Wichersham & Taft. He has been appointed tothe alumni board of directors for Sigma Pi. Healso ran and completed his first Warrior Dash.Josh Keegan lives in New Haven and is a YaleEmergency Medicine intern.

Adam Kerin was fortunate enough to com-plete an international rotation managing Intel’sperformance lab for Europe, the Middle East, andAfrica. He has since returned to the company’sHQ in Silicon Valley, leading the mobile perform-ance team. Adam is always looking for brave soulsto join the kiteboarding club! Ryan Morris, ME’08, lives in Ithaca and New York, running an in-vestment partnership, looking for deep value inmisunderstood companies. He is also working onVideoNote, which he founded in 2008 to recordlectures at Cornell and make them searchable on-line. Congratulations, Ryan! Guillermo Malvaezlives in Santa Barbara, CA, where he works for arobotics company called InTouch Health. AliciaMacklin graduated from USC Law School in 2009,took and passed the California Bar, and nowworks as an associate at Arnold & Porter LLP indowntown Los Angeles. She plans to stick aroundL.A. for a few more years and then maybe headto San Francisco or Denver.

After three years of consulting at OliverWyman’s financial services group, Anna Rosen-man decided to head to business school. “I’m inmy second year at MIT Sloan, Class of 2011,” shewrites. Paul Ibrahim has happily established PJILaw in Fairfax, VA, and writes, “I warmly welcomeCornell alums in particular to my practice. It is alot of hard work and is keeping me busy, but Ihaven’t looked back.” John Rawlins III, underthe stage name “JRtheThird,” released “Prelude,”his contemporary R&B/Pop EP, as an independentrelease. He produces, writes, and records for him-self and other artists. He continues to develop hislive show performances and looks forward to per-forming in the spring. Visit jrthethird.bandcamp.com for a free download of his EP featuring col-laborations with Cornell undergraduates and grad-uate students. He works as the assistant directorof the Office of Student Engagement and Multi-cultural Affairs at Ithaca College, as well as thedirector of worship/minister of music at CalvaryBaptist Church in Ithaca.

After finishing her master’s in economics atthe U. of Copenhagen in Denmark, JenniferRobinson works as a competitive intelligencespecialist for Lundbeck A/S, a global pharma-ceutical company. She lives with her Danishboyfriend in the heart of Copenhagen, does a tonof bikram yoga, and loves life in Copenhagen.After Alex Lee discovered an undergrad degreein psychology doesn’t take so well in the realworld, his full-time hobby of programming turnedinto his full-time career. Though Alex loves hisneighborhood now (Park Slope in Brooklyn), hecan’t help but feel a bad case of the Hipster com-ing on. Nicole DeGrace, [email protected];Kate DiCicco, [email protected].

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they had raised about $4,000, the equivalent of36,000 lbs. of groceries for families in need. Inaddition to making a charitable contribution, theyset out to highlight inequalities and give voice toAmerica’s hungry. You can read more about theiradventure at www.milesformeals.net.

Post-graduation, Cassandra Beatty workedwith an environmental engineering company de-signing municipal wastewater treatment plants inPortland, OR, for about a year and a half. Shiftinggears, she decided to head back to school andearned a master’s degree in petroleum engineer-ing from Texas A&M. She is currently pursuing aPhD in petroleum engineering at Texas A&M. Eri-ca Ogoe returned from Peace Corps service in Mo-rocco in May 2010. She lives in the greater D.C.area, where she is working on a master’s in pub-lic policy at the Georgetown Public Policy Inst.Nate Beach-Westmoreland spent last summer inItaly, where he interned at the American embassyin Rome. He is finishing his master’s in interna-tional relations at Yale’s Jackson Inst. for GlobalAffairs. In Boston, Janna Koretz is a fourth-yeardoctoral student in clinical psychology at Mass-achusetts School of Professional Psychology, spe-cializing in adolescent major mental illness andneuropsychology. Georgia Giannopoulos worksas a clinical dietician at NewYork-PresbyterianHospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and saysshe “absolutely loves it!”

In June 2010 Kate McGinnis married ErfanParvez, BS ’06, at Sage Chapel. Kate and Erfanhad frequently reminisced about Ithaca and wereoverjoyed to have a mini-reunion of some of theirCornell friends at their wedding. The happy cou-ple lives just outside Washington, DC; both workin the aerospace industry. Daniel Herr has beenextremely busy since graduation. He has devel-oped a 2,177-acre residential resort property,chased tornadic supercells in Oklahoma withOwen Shieh, surfed throughout Maui, coachedhigh school junior varsity and varsity basketballfor two years, backpacked through New Zealand,and now works as VP of engineering and opera-tions for his third startup business. Started inApril 2008, Clean Energy Center LLC is based inReno, NV, and focuses on design, engineering, in-stallation, and operation of wind, solar PV, solarthermal, ground source heat, and hydro-electricrenewable energy systems in northern Nevada andCalifornia for residential, commercial, and com-munity markets. Daniel is also a founding boardmember of Life More Natural, a nonprofit with agoal of “making it cool to volunteer.” Life MoreNatural has promoted more than 1,000 local vol-unteer hours over the past two years. Daniel says,“I am glad to be getting back to the basics andfocusing on what really matters and establishingorganizations with a real triple-bottom-line.”

Since graduation, Megs DiDario has workedin the magazine publishing industry for Time Inc.,in their consumer marketing department. She spentthe first two years in Stamford, CT, and transferredto the NYC headquarters last year. This past yearshe has kept busy training for the NYC marathonon Nov. 7. Jesi Bender had her very first chap-book of poetry, Glossolalia (MFG Imprint, 2010)published last year. Jesi is attending Pratt Inst. inNew York City for a master’s in library and infor-mation sciences. Self-proclaimed foodie KathrynJose eases her work stress by sampling NYC restau-rants and wine bars a few times a week, takescooking classes, and attends festivals such as theVendies in New York or the Phantom Food Festi-val in Boston. Her 9-to-5 is a sales management

position for eMarketer, a company that providesbusiness intelligence specific to digital media andmarketing. She has been working primarily withstartup businesses, and Kathryn says she is in agreat environment for learning since she has tobe accountable for just about everything.

Since her move back to NYC in the fall,Christina Chang has been enjoying running intoCornellians all over the city. She works as an as-sistant buyer for Bloomingdales. Prior to her move,Christina was working in finance and studying in-ternational business management in Londonthrough the Mountbatten Inst. postgraduate pro-gram. Following graduation, David Eisler was com-missioned as an officer in the US Army through theCornell Army ROTC and then assigned to the 2ndStryker Cavalry Regiment in Vilseck, Germany. Thefollowing year he served as a platoon leader inDiyala, Iraq, then returned to Germany until 2010.In June, David was deployed to Zabul, Afghanistan,where he is a captain serving as explosives intel-ligence cell leader for a combined team of Amer-ican and Romanian soldiers as part of the Int’lSecurity Assistance Forces (ISAF). David says, “It’scertainly a far cry from my undergraduate back-ground [in Astronomy], but the experiences I’vegained and the lessons I’ve learned have made mea better person and given me a perspective on theworld that I otherwise would not have had.”Thank you for sending in your updates for our col-umn, and please keep ’em coming! Just shoot ane-mail anytime to your class correspondents: Marianna Gomez, [email protected];Deborah Sckolnick, [email protected].

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07 4,262 miles, 71 days, ten states.That’s the distance two Cornell-ians cycled this past summer to

support a worthy cause. David Drabkin and ElliotSinger ’08 took to the TransAmerica Trail to raisefunds for Feeding America, a nonprofit that workswith a network of food banks to feed America’shungry. The journey took David and Elliot bikingfrom Astoria, OR, to Yorktown, VA; at last count

08 Happy 2011! January finds usat the two-and-a-half-year marksince graduation; we are offi-

cially halfway to our first reunion! Mark your cal-endars and save the date for June 6-9, 2013—fiveyears will have passed before you can sing “Hail,all hail, Cornell!”

The news from our classmates writing from farand wide features some common themes: the Classof 2008 is working hard, playing hard, and con-tinuing to move at a million miles a minute! Ma-rina Pushkash (Brooklyn, NY) is “nearly finishedwith an accelerated nursing program, where sheis getting a bachelor’s degree in nursing,” and sheeven manages to “babysit in what little sparetime” she has. As an incentive to get her to theprogram’s end, she’s planning a post-graduationcelebratory trip to Europe. Being back in an aca-demic setting has made her wistful for Cornell. Sheremembers two things most fondly about her timeon the Hill: “watching a hawk swoop down on afield mouse during a walk to Morrison” and, ofcourse, that irresistible landmark near MorrisonHall, the Dairy Bar. Marina also writes that she’drather be lying on the beach, a sentiment sharedby many classmates, including Jennifer Soffen.Jennifer is a Googler, living in San Francisco andworking in marketing. She has launched a websiteabout installing fiber in communities, (http://www.fiberforcommunities.com), which allows commu-nities to apply for Google to build and test ultra-high speed broadband networks in their location.Her “Thank You!” video for the Google Fiber forCommunities project has had more than 60,000views on YouTube. When she’s not at work inMountain View, Jennifer keeps busy with Spinstersof San Francisco, teaching tech classes at com-munity centers, helping senior citizens learn howto best utilize technology, and running. She also


http://jrthethird.bandcamp.com



http://www.milesformeals.net

http://www.fiberforcommunities.com



http://jrthethird.bandcamp.com

http://www.fiberforcommunities.com


misses her time at Cornell and fondly remembersher connections with her professors.

Kinnari Shah (New York, NY) would rather be“sitting on a beach somewhere with white sand,with a piña colada in my hand” right now! In herday job, Kinnari is the director of New York cater-ing sales at Ome Caterers. Although she’s work-ing a lot, she is also planning “a big Europeanwinter vacation.” When she’s not at work, her “af-ter hours” extracurricular activities include CornellHotel Society New York, boxing, and cooking. Kin-nari has managed to stay connected to Cornell,but she still misses her time at the Hotel school—“especially Giuseppe,” she writes—and she’d loveto hear from Rebecca Ruiz. New Yorker HotelieChristopher Gleason, BS Hotel ’07, writes fromAstoria, NY, that he reflects often on “the strongbond of Hotelies and the numerous great peoplewho were both friends and mentors at the StatlerHotel and the School of Hotel Management.” He’dlove to hear from “all of his friends from his timeon the Hill.” Chris was until recently the seniorrestaurant manager of Maze by Gordon Ramsay andthe London Bar at the London Hotel, NYC, whichis a luxury resorts company. He was promoted tothe director of in-room dining and private diningat the London Hotel. Although he has no time forextracurriculars (when not working, he sleeps),Chris has moved from New Jersey to Queens andis enjoying city life; he went on a cruise toBermuda last August. He’d also rather be takinga food or restaurant vacation right now.

Alanna Beckman (New York City) is a pro-gram assistant at the Families and Work Inst., “anonprofit, non-partisan think-tank.” As of lastfall, she was “working on a report that will in-form and promote the nationwide expansion ofschool-based healthcare as part of the work thatwe do to connect low- to middle income familieswith public and private supports.” Arthur Maasis collaborating with four other Cornell alumni tocreate Distinguished Social Ventures, a businessthat will hire people employers often overlook—those who have been incarcerated or are chroni-cally homeless. The team has built a business thatrecycles mattresses, and Arthur says that he’sfound that “people really have a desire to helpwith a cause that can have a tangible and directimpact on marginalized people and their fami-lies.” Keep up the noble work, guys!

Adam Fleisher (Budd Lake, NJ) is a highschool chemistry teacher in Chester, NJ. NatashaKostek would rather be working as an elementaryschool teacher at a charter school right now, buther current day job is as a sessions assistant atMemorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Whenshe’s not working, she finds time to “sample NYC’sextraordinary cuisine, visit various museum ex-hibits, frequent the ballet and Broadway, and en-joy several free summer activities!” Natashamanaged to keep busy this summer by visitingKevin Dieterle, BS HE ’07, in Washington, DC,going tubing with Cornell friends in Pennsyl-vania, and taking beach trips with family. Natashalongs for late-night Wingz Over Ithaca runs andwould love to hear from Kelly Kosco. The greatClass of 2008 is up to amazing things. Share themwith us: Elana Beale, [email protected]; andLibby Boymel, [email protected].

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2010 she got accepted to Cornell’s Vet college andpromptly returned to good ol’ Ithaca. She’s veryhappy to finally learn everything there is to learnabout the dog . . . literally, everything. MariaDebye-Saxinger is working on her final year ofher Master of Landscape Architecture at theRhode Island School of Design. Over the summershe worked on a historic preservation projectdocumenting an old Cabot Estate called GreenPlains in Virginia as part of a fellowship with theGarden Club of Virginia. She can’t wait to gradu-ate in the spring and finally get a job.

Katerina De Vito is currently a master’s stu-dent in the Dept. of Society, Human Development,and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health.Over the summer she did consulting for a doctor’soffice and evaluated their billing department pro-cedures; she also designed and implementedstrategies to increase efficiency and raise insur-ance claim approval. Last year she taught mathand science at St. Martin de Porres Academy, amiddle school dedicated to providing a tuition-free education for girls and boys from low-incomefamilies in the New Haven, CT, area. If there areany Cornellians in Boston or Cambridge, shewould love to meet up!

Brian Donovan is a week away from finish-ing his MS in materials science and engineering atStanford and will be starting a job as an applica-tions engineer for KLA-Tencor in Silicon Valley. Al-though it is nice to be living in warm, sunnyweather and to have a winning football team, hestill misses Cornell hockey and living in Ithaca.Amber Mathews has opened her own veterinaryconsulting practice in Western New York. Her dayis filled with all types of animals. She is gratefulfor the information she learned during her timeat Cornell’s pre-Vet program!

Elizabeth Hartmann is an analyst at an en-ergy consulting firm in San Francisco, CA. Sheworks with utilities companies across the US andabroad on various issues, including curbing elec-tricity demand to prevent blackouts and esti-mating impacts of the adoption of plug-in hybridvehicles. She was fondly reminded of her senioryear at Cornell recently when her revised honorsthesis was published in the September issue of theSocial Science Research Journal with Prof. Sassler.Send news to: Julie Cantor, [email protected]; Caroline Newton, [email protected].

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have ever done. My students provide me with dai-ly inspiration—even the students who challengeme.” Zoë’s fellow TFA corps members includeAntony Kironji (Baltimore, MD); Clara Ng-Quinnand Chris Basil (New Orleans, LA); KristinaWeems (Atlanta, GA); and Nick Diaz, Albert Lee,and Micah Bell (Miami, FL). Not to be forgotten:Rachel Mack, Aleshadye Getachew, AmandaColon, Christian Owusu, Meaghann Noelle Law-son, Cara Rader, and Drew Milligan also answeredthe call and joined the TFA corps to educate theunderprivileged children of America.

Of course, you don’t have to be a member ofTFA to answer the noble call of teaching. TimFasano is molding kindergartners in Westport, CT.A tad more remote, Logan Pierce and Alia Jonesare in South Korea teaching English. Even moredistant, Forrest Elliot went “straight from home-coming to Philadelphia to his departure forMozambique, where he will be a math teacher.”Last but not least, Marc Hem Lee teaches NewYorkers how to save others. He writes, “I’m coor-dinating CPR classes through the FDNY, across thefive boroughs. We plan to raise awareness abouthow important and valuable a quick first responseis to sudden cardiac arrest.”

Teachers are useless without students andmembers of the Class of 2010 have flocked to theclassroom to further advance their education. We’rewell represented at NYU Law by Chad Sandler andVanish Grover. Plaudits also go to Vanish on hiselection as the 1L student representative. JeffreyShane is a first-year master’s student at the U. ofMichigan, “staying busy and keeping out of trou-ble.” Vinay Patel, BS ’09, staying true to the BigRed, has enrolled in Weill Cornell Medical College.Hyunjin Kim, BS ’09, is in Seoul as a first-yearmedical student. Many graduate students can’tescape the siren call of Ithaca’s East Hill: ChasKossar, BS ’09, is studying for his master’s inAerospace Engineering, and Sarah Khatibzadeh isworking hard at Cornell’s Vet college.

Learning, of course, isn’t confined to theclassroom and some of the Class of 2010 is learn-ing that first-hand. Alma Aldrich and ShelbyRajkovich have joined the Peace Corps in Niger.Alma will serve as a community health agent,and Shelby will work as an agroforestry extensionvolunteer. Sea Sin is attending the Youth With aMission Discipleship Training School. He writes,“I will spend two months overseas in either Thai-land or Burma. On the outreach front, I will in-teract with and help street kids, sex slaves, AIDSorphans, slum communities, and refugees.” Emi-ly Goldsmith will serve as a natural resourcemanagement volunteer in Togo.

Many Class of 2010ers are learning on thejob as well. Raihan Faroqui works as a researchassistant at the Multiple Sclerosis Research Cen-ter of New York. Adam Escalante researches for-mulation drug development for RegeneronPharmaceutical. Moira Ceconi is based in NewYork City, but travels the globe for her consultingwork. Camille Emma has joined managed marketsservices at IMS Health, focusing primarily on gov-ernment and commercial pricing and contractingin the healthcare industry. Lastly, Alyson Intihar,after traveling out west, learned that she lovesNew England; she lives in Boston and works forthe IT security company RSA.

Your class correspondents have learned a lotwriting this column, but would, of course, like tolearn more. Send your notes to: Mike Beyman,[email protected]; and Rammy Salem, [email protected].

c09 Lillie Davis took a year offafter graduating and worked asa veterinary assistant at a small

animal practice in New York City. In the winter of

10 As of late, your faithful correspon-dents have been unpacking ourwinter clothes, stricken both with

sadness and relief that yet another Ithaca winterdoes not await us. Gone are the days of flash-frostbite upon leaving Uris Library or planning amorning route that requires walking through everysingle building on the Engineering Quad in orderto arrive, warm, in the Hotel school. Yet fear not;if the season chills you to the bone and you yearnfor a cup of hot apple cider from the CornellOrchards, perhaps news of your fellow classmateswill warm you on a cool and dreary day.

We start this note by taking a look at Cornell-ians who have joined the ranks of the unsung he-roes of America: the teachers. Numerous membersof the Class of 2010 have traded their studenttextbooks for faculty editions and joined Teach ForAmerica. Charlotte, NC, TFA member Zoë Samuelwrites, “I teach sixth grade language arts at anenormous middle school. The work is very chal-lenging and I work harder than I ever have be-fore, but it is also the most rewarding thing I












Alumni Deaths

’35 BS Ag—Joseph J. Davis of Frederick, MD,October 25, 2008; active in alumni affairs.

’38 BEE—John A. Pistor of Marco Island, FL, Au-gust 28, 2010; worldwide coordinator, MotionPicture and Education Market division, Kodak;helped develop the bombsight for the Enola Gay;active in civic, community, and professional af-fairs. Phi Gamma Delta.

’43 BS Ag, PhD ’48—Everett W. Jameson Jr. ofRoseville, CA, August 11, 2010; zoology profes-sor, UC Davis; expert on chiggers; veteran; author;falconer; active in professional affairs. Delta Phi.

’43, BArch ’47—Bertrand C. Johnson of Chatham,NJ, August 14, 2010; architect; veteran; active incommunity and religious affairs. Phi Kappa Tau.

’44 MD—George Knauer Jr. of Naples, FL, May12, 2008; ob/gyn; partner, Elizabeth ObstetricGroup; assoc. professor of obstetrics and gyne-cology, New Jersey College of Medicine; chair,dept. of ob/gyn, Elizabeth General Medical Cen-ter; veteran; active in community, professional,and religious affairs.

’44—Frances Lucha (Sister Mary Englebert) ofLatham, NY, August 23, 2010; sister of St. Josephof Carondelet; therapeutic, dietetic, and clinicalinstructor, St. Mary’s Hospital; supervisor of di-etary dept., manager of crafts, and staff in cen-tral supply, St. Joseph’s Provincial House; activein religious affairs.

’44—Edmund J. Talott of Saint David, AZ, No-vember 12, 2008. Theta Xi.

’45 BME—Mason Britton Jr. of Southport, ME,August 12, 2010; founder, Britton Industries andBritton of Southport; also worked for GrummanAircraft and Cincinnati Milling Machine Co.; vet-eran; active in civic and community affairs. Kap-pa Sigma.

’45—Nancy Clark Cox of Lakeland, FL, Novem-ber 14, 2008.

’45—Charles R. Eble of Homosassa, FL, October4, 2008. Sigma Nu.

’45, BS Chem E ’44, B Chem E ’47—Harry L.Hilleary Jr. of St. Louis, MO, August 18, 2010;partner, Flaming Pit steak houses; attorney; alsoworked for Standard Oil; veteran; active in alum-ni affairs. Beta Theta Pi.

’45, BEE ’48—Winthrop E. Mange Jr. of Pomp-ton Plains, NJ, August 19, 2010; retired PSE&GVP of corporate services; veteran; active in com-munity affairs. Lambda Chi Alpha.

’45, BCE ’46—Robert A. Olmstead of JacksonHeights, NY, August 16, 2010; former planning di-rector, MTA; veteran; active in alumni affairs.

’45—John H. Updegrove of Easton, PA, August21, 2010; chief of surgery, Easton Hospital;

veteran; active in community, professional, reli-gious, and alumni affairs. Phi Delta Theta.

’46 MS HE—Velma J. Laird of Lockport, NY, Au-gust 21, 2010; home economics teacher; activein civic, community, professional, and religiousaffairs.

’47 DVM—Calvin B. Roper of Menlo Park, CA, Au-gust 11, 2007; veterinarian; veteran; active incommunity and professional affairs. Beta Theta Pi.

’48 MA—Donald P. Dietrich of Ithaca, NY, Au-gust 1, 2007.

’48 BS Hotel—Viola K. Kleindienst of Belling-ham, WA, August 11, 2010; real estate broker;chair of physical education, U. of Maine; assoc.professor, U. of Missouri; asst. professor, U. ofMontana; instructor, Connecticut U.; publicschool teacher; veteran; active in civic and com-munity affairs.

’49 BEE—William R. Elmendorf of Frederick,MD, August 31, 2006. Acacia.

’50 BS Hotel—John J. Carr of Bridgeville, PA,August 10, 2010; hotel and restaurant manager;veteran.

’50 BEE—James M. Meeker of Spring Lake, NJ,August 10, 2010; business owner; electrical en-gineer; veteran. Pi Kappa Alpha.

’50 BA—Alphonse A. Satkus of Ventnor,NJ, March 25, 2007; insurance adjustor; artist;veteran.

’51 BS Ag—Donald W. Burton of Ithaca, NY, for-merly of Cobleskill, NY, August 13, 2010; real es-tate agent; professor of horse science, SUNYCobleskill; extension agent; veteran; active inalumni affairs. Wife, Doris (Van Eps) ’50.

’53-54 SP Ag—Ruby McDonald Price (Mrs. FloydW., ’53-54 SP Ag) of Meridian, MS, August 24,2010; elementary school teacher; United Meth-odist missionary; active in community and reli-gious affairs.

’53 BS Ag—Henry C. Shapley of Stafford, TX,January 22, 2006.

’53—Alan A. Steinberg of Bala Cynwyd, PA, De-cember 2, 2006; worked for American Steel Engr.Co. Beta Sigma Rho.

’53, BCE ’54—Robert Strehlow IV of Captiva, FL,and Bainbridge Island, WA, formerly of Miami, FL,and Peoria, IL, August 17, 2010; president, V.Jobst and Sons; also worked with HCB Contrac-tors; active in civic, community, professional, andalumni affairs. Beta Theta Pi.

’55 BA—James L. Freeman of Tryon, NC, August15, 2010; president, Connecticut Printers; certi-fied financial planner; also worked for R. R. Don-nelley & Sons, Houghton-Mifflin, and W. A.

Krueger; jazz musician; active in civic and com-munity affairs. Acacia.

’56 BS Ag—Barbara Woods Russell of Ashland,OR, formerly of Arcata, CA, June 13, 2006. PiBeta Phi. Husband, John B. Russell, PhD ’56.

’58 BA—Jay L. Cunningham of Las Vegas, NV,November 5, 2007. Theta Xi.

’59 BS HE—Roberta Harvey Cuddy of Bath, NY,July 15, 2010; worked at Dresser-Rand; active incommunity affairs. Pi Beta Phi.

’60 BA—Stephen G. Rothschild of Alamo, CA,August 11, 2010; senior VP and portfolio manag-er, Salomon Smith Barney; CEO, Arneson Products;also worked for Procter & Gamble, Warner Lam-bert, Hunt Wesson, American Cyanamid, and DelMonte; veteran; active in community and religiousaffairs. Alpha Epsilon Pi.

’60 PhD—Bhag S. Sidhu of Winston-Salem, NC,August 22, 2010; retired professor of biologicalsciences, Winston-Salem State U.; plant breedingexpert, UNESCO; also taught at Punjab U.; com-petitive race walker; active in community, pro-fessional, religious, and alumni affairs.

’61 PhD—J. Richards Chase of Carol Stream, IL,August 20, 2010; former president, Wheaton Col-lege; president and speech professor, Biola Col-lege; also taught at Tyndale Seminary; active incommunity, professional, and religious affairs. Al-pha Sigma Phi.

’61-62 GR—Keith P. West of Broomall, PA, Oc-tober 22, 2008.

’65 MD—Richard F. Greminger of Leesburg, FL,August 26, 2010; chief of plastic surgery, Memor-ial Hospital West; associate professor of plasticsurgery, U. of Albany; author; repaired cleft palatesfor the poor in South America; active in civic,community, professional, and religious affairs.

’65, BS Ag ’66, DVM ’68—Kenneth P. Seeber ofGlenfield, NY, August 23, 2010; equine veterinar-ian; leading trainer of harness horses; founder,Adirondack Cattle Co.; raised Wagyu cattle; activein community and professional affairs. Chi Phi.

’70 MS Ag—Theodore J. Szymanski of Trumans-burg, NY, August 21, 2010; mathematics profes-sor, Tompkins County Community College; taughtscientific journalism at Cornell U.; adjunct in-structor, NYS Academy of Fire Science and Nat’lFire Academy; also taught at George Junior Re-public and Ithaca High School; active in civic,community, and professional affairs.

’72 BA—Allen M. Kalik of Manchester, NH, Au-gust 14, 2010; president/owner, Professional Tele-data; active in community affairs. Zeta Beta Tau.

’78 BS Ag—Paul J. Sadowski of Webster, NY, wasmistakenly listed as deceased in the November/December ’10 issue of Cornell Alumni Magazine.

’85 BS Hotel—William A. Levine of Valley Vil-lage, CA, August 13, 2010; CPA.

’13—Khalil King of Charlotte, NC, August 29,2010; sophomore student in Architecture, Art andPlanning; rapper; dancer; artist.

058-095CAMjf11notes 12/16/10 12:25 PM Page 95

Extending from the Plant Science Building towardTower Road, Purple Conservatory No. 1023Ais remarkable for its curved eaves and overlap-ping rows of windowpanes bearing love notes

and other sentiments rubbed on the whitewashed glass. But onthe crooked front door, a more official note states it is closedindefinitely. And by the time you read this, it may well be on itsway to the junk heap.

A glimpse through window cracks doesn’t tell the viewermuch, except that Purple Conservatory No. 1023A is in anadvanced state of neglect. The rarest and most valuable plants havebeen moved, but less lucky flora are toppled over or hanging interra cotta pots that dangle like relics from a bygone colonial age.

Despite the ignominious title and sorry state of disrepair, thebuilding is the conservatory of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hor-torium—a term coined by the famed Cornell botanist as a “placefor the scientific study of garden plants, for their naming andtheir classification, and for their documentation.” Today, thecurved glass panes that give the building its distinctive shape havesuccumbed to time and the elements. The cypress molding isdecayed, paint is peeling, metal frameworks and mechanicaldevices rusting. But before Ithaca’s weather had its way, the con-servatory’s collections were a marvelous teaching exhibit of rareplants from around the world. A vast array of species werehoused here—ferns, lycopods, horsetails, and of course Bailey’sbeloved palms, which reached the peak of the two-story-highconservatory. In fact, partly owing to Bailey’s specimens, Cor-nell’s experts wrote the definitive taxonomy of palms; not bad

Cornelliana

Glass HouseFor Liberty Hyde Bailey’s vintage conservatory,the end appears near


for a college in the middle of post-glacial New York. Botanists like Bailey considered these spaces “living labora-

tories.” Under his direction as dean (1903–13), the original Col-lege of Agriculture built more than a dozen greenhouses. But onlytwo plant conservatories—structures that differ from greenhousesboth in size and height to accommodate shrubs and trees—everexisted on campus. The first was a grand structure attached toSage Hall that resembled, in miniature, the facilities at London’sKew Gardens; it was torn down without much fuss in 1923.

Purple Conservatory No. 1023A was built in 1931 by premierAmerican conservatory architects Lord & Burnham. It was Bai-ley’s baby, but planned in keeping with the times. “He was a veryfrugal man, and—aware of the Depression—kept the buildingmodest,” says CALSresearch support spe-cialist Edward Cobb’73, who has enrolleda growing list of sup-porters hoping to savethe conservatory. “Weare working hard toensure that Bailey’svision remains centralto the campus.” Cobbhas sent out mass e-mailings, includingone in mid-Novemberthat appealed for helpto save the conserva-tory “for future gener-ations.” “If enough money can be raised, the best situation wouldbe to totally renovate the conservatory greenhouse,” he wrote.“This is an historic structure.”

Historic to Cornell, yes. But the greenhouse is not on theState Historic Preservation Office’s list of designated landmarks—so Cobb is spearheading an eleventh-hour battle to put it there.

CALS has $1.8 million available for a new greenhouse on thesite of Purple 1023A, and bids to restore the original came in attwice that. Even Cobb concedes that the conservatory is dilapi-dated. But in addition to fearing that the structure will be torndown, he and his supporters worry that a replacement would belocated on the outskirts of campus, far from plant science’s teach-ing and research center.

The college’s administration is clear that the building “willbe razed,” says senior associate dean Jan Nyrop. However, headded, “CALS is committed to providing a greenhouse conser-vatory in close proximity to the Plant Science Building,” and isnow studying its feasibility. But in a Q&A on the CALS website,administrators hedged their bets. Given the overall need to renewCALS greenhouses, it says, “rebuilding the conservatory on itscurrent site may not be the best option or the best use of funds.”

— Franklin Crawford

Growing pains: The BaileyHortorium is facing thewrecking ball. Left: A Thirties-era ad for architects Lord &Burnham.

FRANKLIN CRAWFORD

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Cornell Alumni Magazine - January/February 2011

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Transcript of Cornell Alumni Magazine - January/February 2011