TheLehmanLegacy - eCommons@Cornell

September/October 2005 $6.00

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TheLehmanLegacy

JEFFREY LEHMAN ’77CORNELL’S ELEVENTH PRESIDENT

How will he be remembered?What did he accomplish?

Why did he resign?

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2 Letter From IthacaThe long, hot summer

4 CorrespondenceFeelings of resignation

8 From the HillRedbud resolution. Plus:The search ison, the woodpecker speaks, Ithacareturns to the sky, and uncorking NewYork State wine.

13 SportsPoker face

16 AuthorsEnd of the road

18 Wines of the Finger LakesFeatured: 2004 Thirsty Owl Dry Riesling

58 Classifieds & Cornellians in Business

61 Alma Matters

64 Reunion Notes

75 Class Notes

110 Alumni Deaths

112 CornellianaTake it to the bridge

1SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2005

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2005 VOLUME 108NUMBER 2

Contents

20 Currents

HOT FUN | Scenes of Reunion 2005

LET’S MAKE A DEAL | Student fund managers at Big Red Ventures try to pick a winner

TENDING THE LIBERTY TREE |Arborist-politician turns over a new leaf

STORYTELLER | Is he the most prolific writer in Cornell history?

URBAN LEGEND |A war hero’s last campaign

Plus |A flack gets to be a star, and a big idea pays off

alumni magazine

Features

Cover photograph by Frank DiMeo /University Photography

2

38 Fortune Before Fortune,Life Before LifeRONALD OSTMAN AND HARRY LITTELL

Before photojournalist MargaretBourke-White ’27 found fame in theDepression-era pages of Life magazine,she was a struggling Cornell studentpaying her way through school by selling prints of campus scenes for a quarter apiece. Bourke-White’s eye forlandscape and composition was shapedby her years on the Hill, and the themes she explored with hercamera would echo in the iconic images of her later work.

44 The Lehman LegacyTHE CAM STAFF

It was the briefest presidential term inUniversity history, but the two years thatJeffrey Lehman ’77 spent in Day Halldidn’t lack for drama. In the wake of theresignation that stunned the campus, wetry to address the multitude of questionsthat still linger.What will be Lehman’slasting impact on Cornell? What did heaccomplish? Why did he resign? Plus: aninterview with Lehman by higher educa-tion journalist Scott Jaschik ’85.

52 The Leading IndicatorSUSAN KELLEY

In the dot-com days of the 1990s,investment analyst Abby JosephCohen ’73 built a reputation as theplainspoken Wall Street oracle whomade fortunes for her clients.Thenboom turned to bust, and criticsturned on the stock guru who stayedbullish too long. But behind thescenes, the Abby Factor can stillmove markets.

38

44

Cornell Alumni Magazine (ISSN 1070-2733; USPS 006-902) is published six times a year, in January, March, May, July, September, and November, by the Cornell AlumniFederation, 401 East State Street, Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850. Subscriptions cost $30 a year. Periodical postage paid at Ithaca, NY, and additional mailing offices. POSTMAS-TER: Send address changes to Cornell Alumni Magazine, c/o Public Affairs Records, 130 East Seneca St., Suite 400, Ithaca, NY 14850-4353.

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s UMMERTIME AT CORNELL: A RELAXING SEASON when the sun shines almost every day, there are only a few people on campus, the pace of life slows down,

and—as the song says—the livin’ is easy. Not this year.Summer had not even officially

begun when we were jolted by thenews of President Jeffrey Lehman’sresignation. Once the shock hadpassed and we had rushed a last-minute report into the July/Augustissue, there was a prolonged periodof inquiry and discussion in our office.What had actually happened? How shouldwe investigate it, and what should wereport? Who were the best people totalk to? Calls and e-mails came infrom alumni, faculty, and students,most of whom were just as puzzled andconcerned as we were.

In the end, we decided to interviewa cross-section of the Cornell com-munity and prepare a retrospectivereport on President Lehman’s two-yearterm. We knew that it could not be the lastword—it’s too early for that—but we wanted it to be a first stepin providing a fair accounting of what he had accomplished andwhat his presidency may mean for the future of Cornell. We alsowanted to speak with Lehman himself, so he could offer his ownthoughts. We were fortunate that he agreed to talk with us, andeven more fortunate to be able to assign the interview to ScottJaschik ’85, a talented journalist who was an editor at the Chron-icle of Higher Education for twenty years and is one of thefounders of the well-respected Inside Higher Education website(http://insidehighered.com).

In early July, as the interim presidency of Hunter Rawlingsbegan, one ongoing controversy continued unabated: the conflictover a proposed parking lot on a West Campus site known asRedbud Woods. Our coverage of this flap stretches back to theMarch/April 2003 issue, where we ran an opinion piece by KateLunde ’84 in which she encouraged the University to consideralternative plans for the lot. (The cover story in that issue, coin-cidentally, was “A Conversation with Jeffrey Lehman”—our intro-duction to the incoming president.)

Along with the Daily Sun, the Ithaca Journal, and other localmedia, we have reported on the controversy ever since. As wenoted in our last issue, the confrontation escalated over the pastfew months, with students staging a brief occupation of the pres-

2 CORNELL ALUMNI MAGAZINE

Letter From Ithaca

ident’s office in Day Hall and demonstrators, including faculty,blocking construction work. The stand-off was finally resolved onJuly 18 with the signing of an agreement in which the Universitymade some concessions to the protestors in exchange for theirdeparture from the site (see From the Hill, page 8).

The terms of the agreement were criticized by some “Red-buddies,” who felt the University had offered too little in returnfor an end to the demonstrations, and also by members of thepro-Day Hall faction, who felt the protestors had gotten off tooeasily. In the end, the trees came down but nobody looked like awinner—and the national publicity generated by the furor washardly the kind of coverage that Cornell needed, especially in thewake of the Lehman resignation.

On top of that, in late July a group of scientists announcedthat they did not believe there was sufficient evidence to prove theexistence of the ivory-billed woodpecker, knocking the wind outan announcement made by Lab of Ornithology director JohnFitzpatrick earlier in the year. It was threatening to be a reallyglum summer—but then Fitzpatrick presented recordings of thebird’s characteristic “knock-knock” rapping, convincing the skep-tics that the ivory-bill was, in fact, alive and well. Let’s hope thatwas a portent of more good things to come.

— Jim Roberts ’71

Trying TimesTHE SUMMER OF OUR DISCONTENT

MARTIN MAYO

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Another ConnectionI ENJOYED YOUR ARTICLE ABOUT Cornell connections with Ithaca Collegeand wish to let you know about another(“The South Hill Connection,” July/August 2005). In 1980, with the support offellow students and faculty at both insti-tutions, we developed an exchange pro-gram of sorts to benefit meteorologymajors at Cornell and communicationsmajors at Ithaca College. The idea was togive prospective weathercasters a chanceto develop on-air television skills whileacquainting IC-trained journalists withbasic meteorology in the event they wereever called upon to give a weather report.

It should come as no surprise that theparticipants have achieved great profes-sional success: Cornell meteorologists arenow reporting the weather in major mar-kets across the country, as well as onnational cable networks. And many televi-sion careers, including mine, started atIthaca College’s WICB-TV.

Kevin Williams ’81Rochester, New York

Ed. Note: Kevin Williams is the director ofmeteorology for WHEC-TV in Rochester.

Redbud RepercussionsIT IS PERHAPS IRONIC THAT YOURsummary of the Redbud Woods fiasco(“Not Out of the Woods Yet,” From theHill, July/August 2005) arrived on the dayon which the New York Times carried astory accompanied by a photo of InterimPresident Rawlings signing what shouldcertainly be called the instrument of sur-render. That story identified two of theprotesters as twenty-two years old; others,being upperclassmen, must be eithertwenty-one or nearly there. At what agedoes Cornell feel that these people shouldbe treated as adults and held responsiblefor their actions, which have cost the Uni-versity hundreds, perhaps thousands, insecurity, clean-up, and other costs—money which might have gone for moreconstructive purposes?

Isn’t Cornell saying, by this action, thatregardless of laws and other rules, regard-less of the rights of everybody else, anysmall group of “activists”—a polite word


Correspondence

Whither Cornell?CONSIDERING THE LEHMAN RESIGNATION

AS A LONGTIME SUPPORTER OFCornell and a former class president,I read with concern about the depar-ture of President Jeffrey Lehman ’77(“Lehman Resigns,” From the Hill,July/August 2005). I was sad that suchan energetic and brilliant personwould no longer lead our university,and distressed that his departure wasshrouded in mystery.

If, in fact, he left due to disagree-ments about how the University canbest realize its long-term vision, it certainly seems that we are owed amore detailed explanation regardingthe substance of this disagreement.If there are divergent views on the Uni-versity’s plans significant enough tolead to the president’s resignation, thenalumni, students, and the entire Cornellcommunity should have these views madepublic to discuss and even debate.

The absence of substantive informa-tion has caused lengthy discussionsamong many of my fellow alumni, andthe creation of a vacuum has led to a vari-ety of unfounded and unpleasant conjec-tures. I propose what my husband, LeeLevitt, a noted public relations profes-sional, would recommend to the Board ofTrustees: “Transparency!”

Marian Fay Levitt ’59New York, New York

IT WAS A MISTAKE AT THE OUTSET TOput into office a specialized lawyer who wasweak in general management. Placing hiswife in a senior position in Day Hall reflectspoor judgment. Losing Inge Reichenbachto the competition at Yale after twenty-fiveyears of service is unconscionable.

The outside search firm involvedshould be asked for 50 percent of the feereturned and never used again. This firmdid a poor job of vetting, as did the searchcommittee, in not discerning the differ-ences between the candidate and the

Board of Trustees’ strategy for Cornell’slong-term vision.

Peter Replogle ’55Westtown, New York

THIS WAS NOT SIMPLY A DISAGREE-ment where Mr. Lehman chose to stepdown. Everything points to the fact that hewas bluntly told he had no future at Cor-nell. The real question is how he managedto get to that point in two short years. Inthe men and women comprising theBoard of Trustees, Cornell has extremelybrilliant people with a diversity of businessand educational skills. They deserve to becommended for taking this action quicklyand efficiently.

Andrew Dickson White and Ezra Cor-nell dreamed of a university far differentfrom the Cornell of Mr. Lehman’s vision.Anyone who wants to run this great uni-versity would do well to look at theirunique concepts of an education systemand compare it with present-day Cornell.Under people like Mr. Lehman, Cornell’suniqueness will quickly ebb away.

Jen Gage Sage ’83Etna, New York

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SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2005

Cornell Alumni Magazine is owned andpublished by the Cornell Alumni Feder-ation under the direction of its CornellAlumni Magazine Committee. It is edito-rially independent of Cornell University.

CORNELL ALUMNI MAGAZINE COMMITTEE: Aric Press ’71,Chairman; Kevin McEnery ’70, MBA ’71, Vice-Chairman; CarolAslanian ’63; Betty Eng ’92; Linda Gadsby ’88; William Howard’74; Richard Lipsey ’89; Cristina Shaul ’91; Sondra WuDunn ’87.For the Alumni Federation: Rolf Frantz ‘66, ME ‘67, President;Mary Berens ’74, Secretary/Treasurer. For the Association ofClass Officers: Kevin McManus ’90, President. Alternates: Mic-ki Kuhs ’61 (CAF); Robert Rosenberg ‘88 (CACO).

EDITOR & PUBLISHERJim Roberts ’71

ASSOCIATE EDITORDavid Dudley

ASSISTANT EDITORSChris Furst, ’84–88 Grad

Susan KelleyEDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Kate HollanderCONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Beth SaulnierSharon Tregaskis ’95

ART DIRECTORStefanie Green

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ADVERTISING SALESAlanna Downey

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EDITORIAL INTERNSMichael Morisy ’07Julie Zeveloff ’07

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C O R R E S P O N D E N C E

for “agitators”—can, by being sufficientlynoisy, destructive, and generally obnox-ious, get away with almost anything—andnot only that, but stick somebody elsewith the cost?

David Kopko ’53Nantucket, Massachusetts

Corrections—July/August 2005“One Rare Bird,” pages 36–41: Tim Gal-lagher of the Lab of Ornithology contactedus regarding inaccuracies in our articleabout the rediscovery of the ivory-billedwoodpecker. Some of these arose frominformation provided by our sources, whosometimes used descriptions and termi-nology that Gallagher regards as incorrect.The following errors should be noted:

• The Singer tract, where Jim andNancy Tanner saw an ivory-billed wood-pecker in the early 1940s, is in northeastLouisiana, in what is now the Tensas RiverNational Wildlife Refuge; the AtchafalayaSwamp is farther south in Louisiana.

• The correct date for the press confer-ence when the bird’s recent rediscoverywas announced was April 28, not April 29.

• Kevin McGowan is a member of theLab of Ornithology birding team, but notits captain.

• Van Remsen organized a search forthe ivory-billed woodpecker in 1999, butdid not lead the search himself.

“The South Hill Connection,” page 43: Wethanked Fred Antil ’55 for giving us theidea for the article but misspelled his lastname, which we greatly regret.

“The South Hill Connection,” page 46: Inour profile of Andrew and Nancy Ramage,we wrote, “Andrew even subbed for Nancyat IC during her sabbatical year.” That’sbackwards; Nancy taught at Cornell whenAndrew was on sabbatical.

“Finger Tips,” page 93: We wrote that Dr.Alejandro Badia ’85 is an alumni brotherof Alpha Phi; that should have been AlphaSigma Phi.

Speak up! We encourage letters fromreaders and try to publish as manyas we can. They must be signedand may be edited for length,

clarity, and civility. Send to: Jim Roberts, Editor

Cornell Alumni Magazine401 E. State St., Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850

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8 CORNELL ALUMNI MAGAZINECORNELL ALUMNI MAGAZINECORNELL ALUMNI MAGAZINECORNELL ALUMNI MAGAZINE

From the Hill

News from Campus

LISA FRANK

Last StandPARKING LOT BATTLE ENDS

ABOUT AN HOUR AFTER INTERIM PRES-

ident Hunter Rawlings announced thatthe University intended to proceed withthe razing of Redbud Woods, Jeff Purcell’05 lay belly-down in the dirt, his armlocked into a steel pipe buried in theground. “We did everything we could toavoid this,” he said.

In July, the battle over a 176-spaceparking lot to be built on two acres of awooded slope along University Avenuereached its conclusion, with the student-led Redbud Woods Working Groupextracting a series of concessions aimed atreshaping Cornell’s parking and trans-portation policy. In return, the Universitywould get its new parking lot.

The agreement, signed by Rawlingson July 18, ended years of escalating legal

conflict over the disputed territory, oncethe back lawn of the Robert Tremanestate. The City of Ithaca Planning Boardhad attempted to block Cornell’s plans bydenying approval for the lot in 2001, butthe University successfully appealed thedecision in court. A redesign that incor-porated more extensive landscaping andan improved storm-water retention sys-tem failed to stem a growing tide of stu-dent and community opposition, a move-ment that climaxed in this summer’sstandoff between the University anddozens of determined protesters. Usingtactics borrowed from West Coast envi-ronmental activists, students erected treestands and fastened themselves to “lockboxes” sunk into the earth in an effort tostymie construction. Some 380 faculty

members joined the fray by adding theirnames to a list assembled by the RedbudWoods Faculty Working Group, and morethan 500 alumni signed a petition of sup-port during Reunion weekend.

The confrontation entered itsendgame on Wednesday, July 13, whenplastic fencing was erected around thewoods in anticipation of an announce-ment from Rawlings, who was then meet-ing with faculty members. The area soonfilled with students, faculty, residents, andonlookers, and Cornell was faced with apublic relations nightmare as cameracrews arrived and protesters dug in. ByFriday, police began ticketing individualsfor trespassing, and a chain-link fence waserected to seal off the perimeter. Negotia-tions between student leaders and admin-istrators continued over the weekend.

An accord was reached on Mondaythat incorporated a number of the Work-ing Group’s demands, including the for-mation of a faculty advisory committeeon environmental issues and the contin-ued hire of an intern to work on sustain-ability issues. Cornell also agreed to pro-vide free bus passes for all new studentswho do not request parking permits andgranted legal amnesty to student signersof the agreement, including those chargedwith trespassing in an April occupation ofthe president’s office. But the studentgroup’s key request—a six-month mora-torium on construction while alternativescould be explored—was rebuffed.

After the amnesty deadline passed onMonday, a handful of activists continuedtheir vigil, but by the end of the week itwas all over: both the trees and the tree-sitters had been taken down, and aboutforty of the site’s eponymous redbudshrubs sat in pots, free for the taking, bythe side of University Avenue.

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9SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2005SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2005 9

Fly Big Red: Northwest Airlines began service at Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport in May.

Committee NamedDIANA DANIELS ’71 TO LEAD

PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH

ON JULY 1, HUNTER RAWLINGS MOVED BACK INTO THE

corner office in 300 Day Hall, taking over as Cornell’s interimpresident. Rawlings, who had served as president from 1995 to2003, subsequently issued a statement noting that he had metwith senior administrators and trustees, and they had “agreedupon the need to maintain and indeed to enhance Cornell’s cur-rent academic priorities during this interim period, and to buildmomentum for Cornell’s coming capital campaign.”

Four days later, Peter Meinig ’61, chair of the Board ofTrustees, announced the formation of the search committee thatwill nominate a successor to Jeffrey Lehman ’77. It will be chairedby Diana Daniels ’71, who is vice president, general counsel, andsecretary of the Washington Post Company. She has been atrustee since 1995. The other trustee members are Ezra Cornell’70; C. Morton Bishop III ’74; Robert Blakely III ’63, BME ’64,MBA ’65; Elizabeth Earle (faculty-elected trustee); Michael Espos-ito, MILR ’03 (employee-elected trustee); Samuel Fleming ’62,

BChemE ’63; Blanche Savin Goldenberg ’74; Paul Gould ’67;Robert Harrison ’76; Myra Maloney Hart ’62, MBA ’81; JoshuaKatcher ’06 (student-elected trustee); Robert Katz ’69; PeterMeinig; Doug Mitarotonda ’02, MEng ’03 (student-electedtrustee); Elizabeth Moore ’75; Edwin Morgens ’63; and Jan RockZubrow ’77. The non-trustee members are Antonio Gotto Jr.(dean of the Weill Cornell Medical College); Susan Murphy ’73,PhD ’94 (vice president for student and academic services); JurisHartmanis (Read Professor Emeritus in Engineering); and LauraBrown (Anderson Professor of English). One-third of the mem-bers served on the search committee that selected Lehman, whichwas chaired by Morgens, while the others are new to the role. Thecommittee has three advisors—former board chairs Harold Tan-ner ’52 and Stephen Weiss ’57, and trustee emeritus Sanford Weill’55, who is also the chair of the Weill Cornell Medical CollegeBoard of Overseers—and will be assisted by the national execu-tive-search firm Korn/Ferry International. Information about thecommittee and its work is available at www.cornell.edu/presidentsearch. The committee encourages all alumni to sendrecommendations and suggestions; messages may be sent to:Presidential Search Committee, P.O. Box 4380, Ithaca, NY 14852-4380; e-mail: [email protected].

Up, Up, and AwayBETTER DAYS AT THE

ITHACA AIRPORT

LESS THAN A YEAR AGO, AIR TRAVEL TO

and from Ithaca seemed on the verge of acrash landing. US Airways, then the city’sonly carrier, had entered Chapter 11 forthe second time in twenty-five monthsand cut its daily flight schedule at theIthaca Tompkins Regional Airport. Facedwith few choices and high ticket prices,Ithacans headed for airports in Syracuse,Binghamton, or Elmira about two-thirdsof the time, according to the TompkinsCounty Air Service Task Force.

Since then, the picture has brightenedconsiderably. Northwest Airlines beganservice to Ithaca in May, with direct flightsto and from its hub in Detroit. Thisimmediately boosted daily traffic by 17percent, but the real advantage is betteraccess to the West Coast and Pacific Rim,says airport manager Robert Nicholas.And US Airways, now on more solidfinancial footing, continues to offer flightsto Philadelphia and New York City’sLaGuardia Airport.

To further enhance customer service, anew website—www.flyithaca.com—wasestablished to help travelers search for and

book the lowest fares. The site also pro-vides comparisons to out-of-town flights,calculating the mileage expense, parkingfees, and other costs associated with driv-ing to competing airports.

The flying public seems to be

responding. During the first month ofservice, Northwest’s flights were 72 per-cent full, exceeding projections by 17 per-cent—and in June passenger traffic at theairport was up by 30 percent compared tothe previous year.

TONY RUDY

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10 CORNELL ALUMNI MAGAZINECORNELL ALUMNI MAGAZINECORNELL ALUMNI MAGAZINE10 CORNELL ALUMNI MAGAZINE

R&DMore information on campus research is available at

www.news.cornell.edu.

The bigger the serving, the more preschoolers will eat, reports DavidLevitsky, professor of nutritional sciences and psychology. His findings,published in the June issue of Appetite, indicate that parents and care-givers are largely responsible for controlling children’s weight by over-seeing portion size.

New evidence of a dusty torus, a ring of gas that surrounds active galac-tic nuclei, has been discovered by Lei Hao, research associate in thedepartment of radiophysics and space research. The study, which veri-fies the unified theory of active galactic nuclei, was published in theJune 1 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Organic farming of corn and soybeans produces the same yields as con-ventional farming methods, but uses 30 percent less energy, less water,and no pesticides. David Pimentel, PhD ’51, professor of ecology andagriculture, published his findings in the July issue of Bioscience.

The ability to digest milk depends on whether one’s ancestors were ableto raise dairy herds, according to a study by Paul Sherman, professorof neurobiology and behavior. Of the adults he studied who were lac-tose intolerant, most had ancestors who lived in climates that can’t sup-port dairy herding, such as Africa and China. The findings were pub-lished in the July issue of Evolution and Human Behavior.

Violent teenage boys who grow up in unsafe neighborhoods are lessdepressed than counterparts living in safe neighborhoods, according toRaymond Swisher, assistant professor of policy analysis and management.The study, published in the Journal of Community Psychology’s May issue,posited that their aggressiveness is an adaptive strategy to preserve asense of control in a volatile environment.

On the JobNEW ADMINISTRATORS APPOINTED

APPOINTMENTS ANNOUNCED DURING THE LATE SPRING AND

summer include:• Michael Johnson, dean of the School of Hotel Administration,

effective July 1, 2006. Sheryl Kimes, professor of hospitality facil-ities and operations, is serving as interim dean.

• Harry Katz, dean of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations.• Michele Moody-Adams, vice provost for undergraduate

education.• Stephen Kresovich, vice provost for life sciences.• Richard Coico, vice provost for inter-campus affairs.• David Harris, vice provost for social sciences.• Ronald Seeber, vice provost for land grant affairs.• Salah Hassan, director of the Africana Studies and Research Center.

Going to TownCORNELL RELOCATES OFFICES TO

DOWNTOWN ITHACA

IN AUGUST, MORE THAN 300 CORNELL EMPLOYEES—THE

majority of them from Alumni Affairs and Development—relocated to Seneca Place, a new hotel and office complex indowntown Ithaca. Cornell is the anchor tenant of the $30million project at the corner of Seneca and Tioga streets,occupying 71,000 square feet of office space on the second,third, and fourth floors of the nine-floor building. A HiltonGarden Inn is the primary tenant on the first floor; its 104hotel rooms are located on the top four floors. Seneca Placealso houses a Smith Barney office and several not-yet-deter-mined retail tenants. At 121 feet, it is the tallest building inIthaca—one foot higher than the Holiday Inn across town.

The move not only alleviated a space crunch at the Cor-nell Business and Technology Park on Brown Road, wheremost of the employees were previously located, but repre-sented the culmination of town-gown efforts aimed at spark-ing economic growth in the downtown area.

Justice at LastLONG-AWAITED CONVICTION CLOSES

A PAINFUL CHAPTER

FORTY-ONE YEARS AFTER MICHAEL “MICKEY” SCHWERNER

’61 and two other civil rights workers disappeared on a sum-mer night, a Mississippi jury convicted Edgar Ray Killen ofmanslaughter for orchestrating their deaths. Killen, an eighty-year-old sawmill operator and preacher, was sentenced inJune to sixty years in prison, twenty years each for Schwerner,James Earl Chaney, and Andrew Goodman.

In 1964, Schwerner and his wife, Rita, moved from Man-hattan to Meridian, Mississippi, to join the effort to registerAfrican-American voters. Chaney was one of Schwerner’s col-leagues and a close friend; Goodman—the son of CarolynDrucker Goodman ’36 and Robert Goodman ’35—hadarrived in Mississippi the day before they disappeared.

Local police arrested the trio, allegedly for speeding, andjailed them while Killen gathered twenty other Ku Klux Klanmembers and directed them to kill the men after they werereleased. Forty-four days later, FBI agents found their bodiesburied in an earthen dam.

In 1991, the Class of 1961 dedicated a stained-glass win-dow in Sage Chapel that honors the men for their sacrifice.Schwerner’s widow, Rita Bender, as well as relatives of Chaneyand Goodman, joined Schwerner’s classmates at the cere-mony. After the Killen trial, Bender emphasized that the con-viction only begins to address the State of Mississippi’s com-plicity in decades of race-based crimes. “The Klan, lawenforcement, and government officials were often one andthe same,” she says. “It is a horrifying example of governmentrun wild. We need to understand what occurred if we hopeto prevent repetitions.” Killen is appealing the conviction.

008-012CAMSO05fth 8/17/05 11:12 AM Page 10

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I Hear You KnockingIT’S OFFICIAL: THE IVORY-BILL LIVES

THREE PROMINENT ORNITHOLOGISTS WHO CHALLENGED

the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker announced byCornell researchers in April (see “One Rare Bird,” July/August2005) have changed their tune. After listening to audio record-ings made in January and provided by the Lab of Ornithol-ogy, the dubious experts acknowledged that they had heard apair of birds exchange characteristic double-knocks and nasal“kent” calls and were therefore convinced that at least twospecimens of the ultra-rare woodpecker still lived inArkansas’s White River National Wildlife Refuge and CacheRiver Refuge. “We were very skeptical of the first publishedreports and thought that the previous data were not sufficientto support this startling conclusion,” Yale ornithologistRichard Plum said in a statement. “But the thrilling newsound recordings provide clear and convincing evidence thatthe ivory-billed woodpecker is not extinct.” Plum withdrew acritical paper he had been preparing with Jerome Jackson ofFlorida Gulf Coast University and Mark Robbins of the Uni-versity of Kansas. “It’s all moot at this point,” he told the NewYork Times. “The bird’s here.”

Cheers!NEW YORK OK’S WINE SHIPPING

THE LENGTHY BATTLE OVER DIRECT SHIPPING BY NEW

York State wineries ended in June, when the state legislatureapproved a bill allowing wine producers to send their prod-ucts to retail customers in other states. Regulations had pre-viously allowed shipments only within the state’s borders, buta U.S. Supreme Court ruling in April forced the legislature’shand, requiring New York to either allow both intrastate andinterstate shipping or neither.

New York winery owners had been pushing for thechange, arguing that the restriction was harming their busi-nesses; liquor wholesalers opposed it, claiming that it wouldlead to tax evasion and underage purchases. It would also, ofcourse, cut into their business. Peter Saltonstall ’75, the ownerof King Ferry Winery on Cayuga Lake, was one of the mostoutspoken producers, and he risked the wrath of the whole-salers by challenging their position. Now that the law haschanged, he says, there are still some bad feelings. “But I’mhoping that, over time, [the wholesalers] will see that this willhelp everybody—it will help every segment of the industry.”

The new law allows a winery to ship up to thirty-six casesof wine to an adult customer each year, although producerswill need to obtain permits to ship into some states and a few,including New Jersey, have banned both intrastate and inter-state shipping. “It’s confusing,” says Saltonstall, “but everybodyis getting orders, and we’re all scrambling to keep up with thechanges. I’m excited, though—there’s a lot of interest, and I’vetold people that in a short period of time I should be able toincrease my sales by 10 percent.”


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

Simon Levin, adjunct professor of ecology and systematics and direc-tor of the Center for Biocomplexity at Princeton University, winner ofthe 2005 Kyoto Prize for his work in establishing the field of spatialecology, which uses mathematical models to describe the biosphereas a complex adaptive system.

Leah Ward Sears ’76, sworn in as Georgia’s first female chief justice.

Don Randel, former Cornell provost and president of the University ofChicago since 2000, named president of the Andrew W. MellonFoundation.

Robert Ramin ’82, MBA ’85, named executive director of the NationalAquarium in Washington, D.C.

Carol Anderson, professor emerita of human development, recipientof the Distinguished Service Award from the American Association ofFamily and Consumer Sciences for her work in human and familydevelopment.

Steven Grinspoon ’83, the 2005 winner of the American Federationfor Medical Research’s Outstanding Investigator Award for excellencein biomedical research.

Marianella Casasola, assistant professor of human development,awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engi-neering for her research on infant language and thought.

Colleen Clancy, assistant professor of physiology and biophysics atWeill Cornell Medical College; Brian Crane, assistant professor ofchemistry and chemical biology; Erich Mueller, assistant professorof physics; Camil Muscalu, assistant professor of mathematics; andAnders Ryd, assistant professor of physics, each awarded a SloanFoundation Research Fellowship.

Michal Lipson, assistant professor of electrical and computer engi-neering, recipient of a National Science Foundation Career Award fornew faculty to support her research in photonics.

Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Committee, recipient of the2005 Perkins Prize for Interracial Understanding and Harmony for itscontribution to furthering the ideal of the university community whilerespecting the values of racial diversity.

Elisabeth Becker ’06, awarded a Harry S. Truman Foundation Schol-arship for graduate study in public service.

Lauren Donovan ’03, Julia Guarneri ’02, and Jaffa Panken ’05, eachawarded an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship for doctoral study. Dono-van will pursue research in the classics, Guarneri will study history,and Panken will work in gender studies.

Kevin Joon-Ming Huang ’06, awarded a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar-ship for further study in materials science and engineering.

008-012CAMSO05fth 8/17/05 11:12 AM Page 12

BANNER YEAR The 2004–05 academic year was one of the bestever for Cornell athletics, with Big Red teams winning a school-record eightIvy League titles. Cornell squads captured championships in men’s icehockey, wrestling, lacrosse, volleyball, men’s indoor and outdoor track andfield, and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field. In addition, men’spolo won the national championship, the baseball team won the IvyLeague/Gehrig Division title for the first time, and the softball, golf, andmen’s basketball teams all had strong years to finish in second place. Theeight Ivy titles moved the Big Red up to fourth place on the all-time IvyLeague championship list, with 156.

INDUCTEES Eleven new members will be welcomed into the CornellAthletic Hall of Fame during the twenty-eighth annual induction ceremonyon October 7. They include seven new members who earned All-Americanhonors during their collegiate playing careers: Bob DeLuca ’66, men’sbasketball; John Sponheimer ’69, football and men’s basketball; Joe Mui’76, men’s soccer; Adley Raboy ’80, men’s track; Bob Cummings ’87,men’s lacrosse; Caroline Hahn ’87, women’s polo; and Laura WoellerBaker ’95, women’s cross country and track. They will be joined by DaveThomas ’62, football; Joanne Powell ’80, women’s lacrosse and fieldhockey; Allison Goldwasser Blunt ’88, women’s soccer; and Mike Teeter,who has volunteered his time to Cornell athletics for more than 40 years.Among other things, Teeter has served as an equipment manager and goaljudge for the men’s hockey team, an equipment manager for the men’slacrosse team, and a sideline official at home football games since 1973.

MORE HONORS Hockey great Ken Dryden ’69 was inducted into theCollege Sports Information Directors Association (CoSIDA) Academic All-America Hall of Fame in Philadelphia on July 6. Dryden joins fellow Cornell-ians Joseph Holland ’78 and Ellen Mayer Sabik ’84 in the CoSIDA Hall ofFame. Norman Engelke ’81 will be inducted into the National LacrosseHall of Fame on November 12. Engelke was a two-time second-team All-American at Cornell before winning four national club championships withthe Long Island Lacrosse Club and four United States Club Lacrosse Asso-ciation all-star honors.

ROYAL ROWERS After going 8-1 during the regular season andfinishing second in the nation at the Intercollegiate Rowing AssociationRegatta, the Cornell lightweight men’s crew earned an invitation to theprestigious Henley Royal Regatta in London. The Big Red opened itsHenley trip with a win over Dublin’s University College in the first round,and then beat Abingdon School by a boat length in the second round. Inthe quarterfinals, they lost to Oxford Brookes by three-quarters of alength. It marked the Big Red’s first appearance in the Henley RoyalRegatta since 1992.

Big GameJULY 15, 2005

PAUL HANNUM


Sports

SPORTS INFO

In the World Series of Poker’s No Limit Texas Hold ’em Tournament,held in Las Vegas, Brad Kondracki ’03 surpassed the efforts of5,610 other high-stakes players to reach the final table. Kondracki,who majored in computer science on the Hill and is now a law stu-dent at the University of Pennsylvania, finished in eighth placeoverall, taking home a cool $1.15 million. His $10,000 entry feewas paid by the Pokerstars.com website after Kondracki won anonline tournament that he had entered for $160. Highlights of thetournament will be broadcast on ESPN in November.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SPORTS INFO

Hall of Famers (left to right): Bob DeLuca ’66, Allison GoldwasserBlunt ’88, and Adley Raboy ’80

ON THE AIR Cornell football fans will once again have a chance towatch the Big Red on television when the YES Network telecasts Cornell’sOctober 29 game with Princeton. YES will air five Ivy League games dur-ing the 2005 season, and there’s a chance that the November 19 finaleagainst Penn could also be picked up by the network. The YES Network isavailable on cable systems throughout New York, New Jersey, and Con-necticut, as well as parts of Pennsylvania. It is also available on DirecTV(channel 622).

013-014CAMSO05sports 8/17/05 11:38 AM Page 13



S P O R T S

alterra

FIRST ROUND Defenseman Sasha Poku-lok ’08 became the first Cornell hockey playerto be selected in the first round of the NationalHockey League entry draft when he was chosen14th overall by the Washington Capitals. “It is agreat honor for Sasha and a great accomplish-ment for our program for him to be drafted thathigh,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86. In 26games last year, Pokulok scored three goals andhad seven assists.

NEW HEAD COACHES Chris Wilsonhas been named head coach of women’s crewafter serving as interim coach, and Iryna Dol-gikh has come to the Hill as head fencingcoach after serving as an assistant coach atPenn State. Wilson had previously served asassistant to the athletic director for special proj-ects and freshman rowing coach at Cornell. Anative of Kiev, Dolgikh was the 1976 women’sfoil world champion and won a gold medal inthe 1977 World Cup competition. While at PennState, she helped guide the Nittany Lions to apair of national runner-up finishes.

AQUA MAN John Kenny ’02 keeps onswimming and swimming and swimming. Theholder of Cornell’s second-best mark in the1,650 freestyle, Kenny won the U.S. National25K Open Water Championship on June 2 inFort Myers, Florida. Kenny covered the 25-kilometer Gulf of Mexico course in 5 hours, 29minutes, and 44 seconds, finishing more thanfour seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.Kenny won the 1999 25-kilometer national titleand was third in the world championships thatyear; he also won the national 10-kilometer titlein 2001.

Sasha PokulokDARL ZEHR

013-014CAMSO05sports 8/17/05 11:38 AM Page 14

Cornell University and its University-wideEntrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise (EPE) Program

are pleased to announce

Robert Toll ’63as Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year 2005

Toll Brothers, founded in 1967 by Robert Toll and his brother Bruce, is the nation’s leading builder of luxuryhomes. Toll Brothers is the only national home building company to have won all of the most coveted awards inthe home building industry. In 2005, with Mr. Toll as CEO & Chairman, Toll Brothers, Inc. joined the Fortune500. The company ranked 36th among all companies in ten-year earnings per share growth, 107th for net profitmargin, 264th for net income, and 477th for revenues.

Mr. Toll has won numerous accolades and awards. Most recently he was named one of Barron’s Top 30 CEOsworldwide; in a related article, the magazine called him the undisputed king of high-end housing. Anotherrecent award was Builder Magazine’s CEO of the Year.

Wednesday, November 2, 2005Public address by Mr. Toll at 4:30 PM in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium

(reception to follow)

Free and Open to the Public!

For further information please contact the EPE Office at 607/255-1576 or visit www.epe.cornell.edu

015-015CAMSO05EPEad 8/17/05 11:39 AM Page 1


SIGNING SMART WITH BABIESAND TODDLERS by Michelle E.Anthony and Reyna Lindert ’94(St. Martin’s Griffin). By usingsign language to communicatewith a hearing child, parents caneliminate much of the frustrationand missed communication thatcomes as children’s speech devel-ops. Signing children eighteenmonths old know an average ofseventy-nine signs and 105 spo-ken words, compared to the developmental norm of ten to fifteenwords. Developmental psychologists Anthony and Lindert showhow signing brings the added benefits of building language skillsand enhancing closeness.

EMPIRE OF NATIONS by FrancineHirsch ’89 (Cornell University Press).Before the Bolsheviks seized power in1917, they advocated national self-determination for all peoples in theRussian Empire. But when the Bolshe-viks were faced with building the SovietUnion, they reconciled their anti-impe-rialist position with their desire to holdonto as much territory and as manyresources as possible. Hirsch, an assis-tant professor of history at the Univer-sity of Wisconsin, Madison, examines how ethnographers fromthe former tsarist regime conducted censuses, drew up internalborders, and helped shape the formation of the Soviet state.

RESPONSIBLE MEN by EdwardSchwarzschild ’86 (Algonquin). InSchwarzschild’s debut novel, MaxWolinsky, a salesman and small-timeswindler, returns to Philadelphia on theeve of his son’s bar mitzvah in anattempt to be a good father and son. Ashe tries to pull off one last scam to helpout his father and uncle, he meetsEstelle, a woman who just might keephim honest.

THE LION OF ST. MARK by ThomasQuinn ’73 (St. Martin’s Press). This his-torical novel begins in 1452, one yearbefore the fall of Constantinople, as twopowerful Venetian noble families vie forsupremacy. The conflict between Cap-tain Giovanni Soranzo and volunteermarine commander Antonio Zianiplays out against the backdrop ofVenice’s fifteenth-century war againstthe Ottoman Turks, who are intent oncrushing the city’s power and wealth.Both men must learn to put aside their animosity when theirrepublic’s survival is at stake.

AT THE END OF RIDGE ROAD by Joseph

Bruchac ’64 (Milkweed Editions). “Some circles

are so large that you have to walk a long distance

before you realize that you’re returning to the

place where it all began,” Bruchac writes. His

memoir moves full circle from his childhood near

Saratoga Springs, New York, to his first poetry at

Cornell to teaching in West Africa and back to his

grandfather’s house. Storyteller, novelist, poet, and

editor of the Greenfield Review Press, Bruchac

shows how the stories of his Abenaki ancestors

and other Native Americans can teach us lessons

in social justice and responsibility to place, and

remind us that we are meant to be keepers of the

earth. (For more on Joseph Bruchac, see page 29.)

16 CORNELL ALUMNI MAGAZINE16 CORNELL ALUMNI MAGAZINE

In Brief

Authors

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016-017CAMSO05authors 8/17/05 11:41 AM Page 17

Accolades should go toany fledgling winery inthe Finger Lakes region

that excels in the production ofRiesling wine. Charles Fournierand Dr. Konstantin Frank, pio-neers of vinifera (European)viticulture in the Finger Lakes,first planted Riesling vines inthe region in the 1950s. Areawineries have since had somuch success making high-quality wine from Rieslingthat it’s now routinely tout-ed as the Finger Lakesregion’s pre-eminent grapevariety.

The Thirsty Owl WineCompany & Bistro in Ovid,which was founded in 2002and produces about 6,000cases annually, enjoys someof the oldest Riesling vineson Cayuga Lake. Accordingto winery owner JonathanCupp, they were planted aquarter-century ago by Dr.

Winesof the

FingerLakes

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4024 State Route 14Watkins Glen, NY 14891

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www.lakewoodvineyards.com

Robert Plane, an educator and viticultur-ist who served as Cornell’s provost from1969 to 1973. Older vines tend to be,among other things, lower yielding,which is widely thought to have a positiveimpact on wine quality. Therefore, it’snot surprising that while Thirsty Owl’swines are solid across the board—thanks to the winemaking talents ofShawn Kime and Nancy Newland—the Rieslings are indeed special.

The 2004 Thirsty Owl DryRiesling (about $11) possessesforthcoming, peach-laden aromas,ripe, round flavors, and good butnot overbearing acidity. A touch ofcitrus on the palate complementsthe wine’s peachiness, and the finishis clean and lengthy. Try it with stir-fries, smoked trout, chicken in acreamy sauce, or pheasant. Savingsome for the owl is optional.

— Dana Malley

DANA MALLEY is a wine buyer andthe manager of Northside Wine &Spirits in Ithaca.

2004 THIRSTY OWL DRY RIESLING

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Currents

Hot FunTEMPERATURES AND SPIRITSSOAR DURING REUNION 2005

CHRIS HALLMAN / UPCHRIS HALLMAN / UP

HALLMAN / UP HALLMAN / UP

2 3

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020-037CAMSO05currents 11/14/06 3:24 PM Page 20


e VEN HOT, HUMID WEATHER AND PRESIDENT LEHMAN’S ANNOUNCEMENTof his resignation could not dampen the enthusiasm of the 4,038 alumni whoreturned to campus for Reunion 2005 on the weekend of June 10–12. They were

accompanied by 2,228 spouses, kids, and assorted hangers-on, pushing total attendancewell beyond 6,000. The Class of ’80 made a big splash in their twenty-fifth year with 22.3percent first-timers, and the Class of ’55 marked their fiftieth year since graduation with26.4 percent attendance—the highest for any reunion class. Ten classes topped their pre-vious donation totals, with three—1950, 1955, and 1975—setting records for theirreunion years. One of the weekend’s many highlights was the Olin Lecture by PresidentEmeritus Frank H.T. Rhodes, whose subject was “On Coming Home: Reunion with anElderly Parent,” an address about reconnecting with both Cornell as alma mater andEarth as terra mater.

1. Roger Abell ’30, wearing his original Cornell baseball uniform, lines a single tocenter during the alumni baseball game.2. Ginny Buchanan Clark ’61 and WillisClark ’60 go ’round and ’round to thesounds of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra onSaturday night.3. Ed Wardwell ’40 and Bob Wood ’40, MD’43, catch up on old times at the Class of1940 luncheon at Barton Hall.4. Everybody smiles . . . well, almost every-body . . . for the Class of 1990 group photo.

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t HE SEVEN VENTURE CAPITAL-ists, all wearing crisp button-downsand fiddling with slick laptops, aresilent as the lights go down in a Sage

Hall conference room. They watch theprojection screen, where a website displaysan advertisement for an amazingly lifelikediamond that shimmers and sparkles in3D. The new technology behind the imagecould revolutionize advertising media,from buses to affinity credit cards, if BigRed Ventures (BRV) backs the technology’sowners. It’s a gamble that could fizzle—orstrike gold.

MBA candidate Justin Grimm leansback in his chair. “The technology’s prettyneat,” he admits. And the CEO, based inNew York State, has forty years of indus-

have VC funds, none but the JohnsonSchool hands full management responsi-bility to its students, says fund advisorDavid BenDaniel, professor of entrepre-neurship. “It’s a practicum of the highestorder.”

With $500,000 in start-up capitalprovided in 2000 by Rob ’69 and TerryWehe Ryan ’69 and Rich Marin ’75,MBA ’76, BRV has invested its fund infive companies in exchange for partownership. In June, it put $40,000 intoNovaSterilis, a Lansing, New York, start-up that sterilizes biomedical materials,like human transplant tissue, with carbondioxide. Other investments include Sight-Speed, whose technology turns any com-puter into a videophone using software

try experience and a handful of blue-chipclients. But he lacks a sales or marketingbackground—and, perhaps, is overly opti-mistic. He predicts that the company willrake in over $200 million in revenue infour years. “If it hits on all cylinders, OK,”Grimm concedes. “But, I mean, that’s a lotof money.” Fellow Johnson School studentMike Ye agrees. “Yeah, it’s inflated.” Andhow would the company manufacturesuch different media as credit cards andbillboards at the same time? “Are theygoing to do it in-house?” Grimm asks.“How much capital does that take?”

It’s all in a day’s work for BRV man-agers, the only MBA students in the coun-try who run their own venture capitalfirm. While about six other universities

CORNELL ALUMNI MAGAZINE

Let’s Make a Deal FOR THE COUNTRY’S ONLY STUDENT-RUN VENTURE CAPITAL FIRM,

REAL MONEY MEANS REAL BUSINESS

Crunching the numbers: MBA candidate Mike Ye discusses venture capital investments with other members of Big Red Ventures.ROBERT BARKER / UP



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developed at Cornell.The nine second-year managers troll

the Cornell community for alumni, stu-dents, and professors with small compa-nies based on novel ideas and technology.They investigate more than 100 businessplans each year, looking at competition,market size, and other indicators ofpotential, with the help of about fifty first-year MBA students. BRV may refer theentrepreneur to its sister organizations: BRIncubator, which develops marketingstrategies and business plans; and BRLegal, which helps set up corporationsand establish trademarks. After months ofreview and nail-biting, the managers decidewhether to invest. “In the back of yourhead, you always have the thought thatmaybe we’re killingthe next eBay or thenext Google,” saysTravis Parsons, MBA’05. “And maybe we’rehanging onto some-thing that is going tobe a total flop threeyears or five yearsfrom now.”

The venture capi-tal game is notori-ously risky. One-thirdof all VC deals failand another thirdbreak even, according to the National Ven-ture Capital Association. But the rest makemoney—sometimes a lot. Microsoft andFederal Express, for example, were origi-nally backed by VCs. So far BRV’s hold-ings have, at least on paper, earned a 24percent annual rate of return; most fundsearn 15 to 26 percent in ten to twentyyears.

After BRV invests, the real workbegins, says Sam Tingleff, MBA ’05. “Wecome in and provide capital and somelabor—maybe have an intern help write amarketing plan—and take them to thepoint where they can take their productsto market and seek another round offunding.” Rouzan Agadjanian, MBA ’05,developed a marketing plan and analyzedthe competition for Medical Care Corpo-ration, whose test detects early signs ofmemory loss due to Alzheimer’s diseasewith 98 percent accuracy. And as a boardobserver, she witnessed the company’s

Rouzan Agadjanian

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inner workings firsthand. “That’s an expe-rience that I would not have had until tenor twenty years out of business school,”Agadjanian says.

Ten to 15 percent of the JohnsonSchool’s 500 students participate in eitherBRV or BR Incubator, a rate that haschanged the school’s culture significantly,BenDaniel says. “Students are talkingabout this deal and that deal. This is stuffthat no other business school has.” TheJohnson’s MBA applications have jumpedby about 9 percent for the past two years,while those at many peer institutions havediminished, says Ann Richards, actingdirector of admissions and financial aid.“Is it exclusively because of BRV? No. Butwas it a factor? Definitely.”

That said, BRV isn’t a perfect replicaof a “real world” venture fund. First, BRVmanagers have day jobs—as students.“Sometimes I would have rather focusedon this rather than on Core Accounting,”says Agadjanian. Second, while most VCshelp run their start-ups for five to tenyears (if the company stays afloat thatlong), BRV managers do so only for ayear, with the aid of advisors includingbenefactors Marin and Ryan.

But the biggest difference is the size ofBRV’s fund. It not only prevents studentsfrom participating in later, more expen-sive, rounds of investment, it also putsthem at the mercy of richer funds. (In2003, the average venture fund was $145million.) “A guy that’s coming to the tablewith a million dollars can control the val-uation and can sometimes urge or requirerewriting of the initial terms,” BenDanielsays. “It’s frequently referred to as theGolden Rule: ‘He who has the gold makesthe rule.’ ” Students are attempting to raiseanother $5 million, which, like the initial$500,000, would be donated to the John-son School. Two alumni recently kicked in$450,000. Any gains will go into thefund—not donors’ or students’ pockets—preventing lawsuits should the invest-ments go south.

Nonetheless, managing even a modestfund gives students a thrill that they can’tget at the chalkboard. “You can take some-thing away from any class,” says MBA can-didate Alan Christensen. “But when it’sreal money, it’s different.”

— Susan Kelley



C U R R E N T S

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serve on boards and com-missions, and improvedrelations with the Univer-sity of Virginia. After hewas elected to the statelegislature in 1980, repre-senting Charlottesville andpart of the surroundingcounty, he made use of hisbackground and educa-tion to serve as chairmanof the agriculture commit-tee. In that role, he helpedtobacco farmers transitionto alternative crops andbrought them togetherwith members of thehealth-care communityfor a series of forums.

Throughout his longcareer, Van Yahres has beenan advocate for those withlittle power or influence,championing such causesas establishing a publicdefender’s office andrestoring the voting rightsof felons whose convic-tions were long in the past.Van Yahres says that whathe has always tried to do,especially when publicizingwhat others may believe tobe an insignificant prob-

lem, is “plant a seed.” His challenge for hisgovernment colleagues to try a welfarediet, for instance, was later picked up bylocal churches and an interfaith council.“All of what I’m doing is trying to sensitizepeople,” he says.

For his efforts, Van Yahres has earnedthe admiration of colleagues on both sidesof the aisle. “Nobody can quibble withhim sticking by what he believes in,” fel-low delegate Rob Bell, a Republican, toldthe Charlottesville Daily Progress in March.“He has been true to his core principles,both when they were popular and he was


m ITCHELL VANYahres ’49 hasbeen a liberal

stalwart throughout nearlyfour decades of politicallife in Virginia. To make apoint about inadequatehousing to his con-stituents, he once had ahome from the slumsmoved to a shopping cen-ter parking lot. And lastyear he challenged his fel-low lawmakers in the Vir-ginia House of Delegatesto live for two weeks onthe same amount of gro-ceries allotted to food-stamp recipients. Now hislong political career isabout to end: Van Yahreshas announced that hewill step down later thisyear, saying it is time for“new blood” in the Demo-cratic Party.

The veteran legislator,who turns seventy-nine inOctober, says he neverplanned on a politicalcareer when he enrolled inthe College of Agricultureto become an arborist. “Ihad no [political] aspira-tions whatsoever,” he recalls. His fatherowned and operated a tree service onLong Island, and “Cornell was about theonly place I could go” to study for thefamily business, he says. After graduating,he headed to Charlottesville, Virginia,where his dad already had a few clients, toset up a branch of the Van Yahres TreeCompany.

Almost two decades later, in 1968,after Van Yahres had built the business andraised a family with wife ElizabethFranklin Van Yahres, MS ’49, he ran for aseat on Charlottesville’s city council. “It

Tending the Liberty TreeARBORIST-TURNED-LEGISLATOR MITCHELL VAN YAHRES ’49

was kind of a quick thought at the time,”he recalls. “Being a liberal, I didn’t figureon winning.” To his surprise, he waselected, taking a seat as the only Democraton the five-person council. He quicklybecame an advocate for social justiceissues, especially low-income housing. In1970 two more Democrats won seats, andVan Yahres was elected mayor of Char-lottesville by council vote. “It was quite abaptism,” he says.

As mayor, Van Yahres helped to diver-sify participation in city government,naming many women and minorities to

Man on a mission: Virginia legislator Mitchell Van Yahres,an advocate for the poor since 1968

COURTESY MITCHELL VAN YAHRES



C U R R E N T S

28

in the majority and when they wereunpopular and he was in the minority.”

A devout Catholic, Van Yahres hasopenly integrated his faith with his polit-ical beliefs. “The housing was the thing,”he says. “Working with low-income peo-ple and building those units, that was thebeginning—unconsciously, I would say—of my melding politics with religion, or‘values,’ as the buzz term is these days.”Van Yahres says it wasn’t hard at first toreconcile his faith with his political beliefs,but it became more difficult later when hehad to work out his stand on abortion. “Itook the position that I, as a Catholic, havea commitment against abortion,” he says,“but I also felt, as a legislator, that I had noright to inject my moral values on myconstituency.”

What does Van Yahres think of hislegacy? “My candor was one thing,” hesays. “People understood exactly where Istood. I was willing to take a stand, and I


didn’t back off from unpopular stands.”Van Yahres sadly notes that such opennesshas become rare as the political atmos-phere has changed in recent years. “We’relosing the Jeffersonian concept of gov-ernment,” he says. “Politics is an honor-able profession, but people are trying toohard to [retain] their incumbency, tobecome professional legislators—thosefor whom it’s a full-time job, making ittheir source of income. They are trying tosatisfy too many people. I think you haveto stand for your own values and let thechips fall.”

Van Yahres hopes his seat will be filledby David Toscano, a lawyer and law pro-fessor who also served on the Char-lottesville city council and as the city’smayor in the 1990s. Toscano won a three-way primary earlier this year and is theDemocratic nominee in Van Yahres’s dis-trict. “There will never be another Mitch,”says Toscano, who notes that he feels hon-

ored to think that Van Yahres is passing thetorch to him. “He has served this area forso long as a principled fighter for causes hefeels are important and that will advancethe goals of equality and social justice. Iwill seek to carry on his legacy ofapproachability while recognizing thechallenges in doing so.” Van Yahres,Toscano says, was viewed by his fellowDemocrats as the conscience of the House.“It is hard to imagine who will emerge totake this role,” he says, “but someonemust—it’s too important a function toignore.”

While Van Yahres is leaving the legisla-ture behind, he plans to remain active inthe community. “I’ve considered myself [ashaving had] four careers, and I’ll be look-ing for a fifth,” he says. “I don’t know whatit’s going to be—although my wife sug-gested that I’m perfectly qualified to be agreeter at Wal-Mart.”

— Joe Wilensky


29

j OSEPH BRUCHAC ’64 IS GIVING Atour of his back yard in GreenfieldCenter, New York, a small town nearSaratoga Springs. With one massive

hand, he points out the garden where hismaternal grandfather, Jesse Bowman,found an arrowhead when Bruchac was aboy. “He didn’t really say anything aboutit,” Bruchac recalls. “Just handed it to me.I didn’t know what it was, but I just kindof felt that it was a connection to some-thing much older than me.”

In fact, it was a remnant of his and hisgrandfather’s Abenaki ancestors, whosetales and history are now Bruchac’s lifework. But it wasn’t until he was a teenagerthat it dawned on him that his grand-father was part Abenaki, Bruchac says. “Iknew my grandfather acted different andlooked different—he had dark skin—butwhen you’re a kid, your grandparents arejust your grandparents. It didn’t reallymake an impact on me until I was oldenough to make comparisons.”

Since then, Bruchac has celebrated hisAbenaki heritage in 108 books (with fivemore on the way) of contemporary andtraditional American Indian stories, manyof them for children, that often revisit con-ventional history from the Native Ameri-can perspective. With that output of non-fiction, poetry, tales, and novels, he may bethe most prolific author to come out ofCornell, says James McConkey, professoremeritus of English, who taught Bruchacfiction writing. “Many well-known writershave attended Cornell, either as under-graduates or graduate students in ourMFA program, but I doubt if any of themhave sold as many books as Joe.”

Bruchac’s prose has been stronglyinfluenced by Nigerian author ChinuaAchebe, who was Bruchac’s dissertationadvisor at Union Institute and University’sdistance-learning PhD program duringthe early 1970s. Achebe’s novel Things FallApart, the subject of this year’s New Stu-dent Reading Project at Cornell, depictsthe Igbo people’s take on British colonialrule in Nigeria during the late nineteenthcentury. “He used the language and thepoint of view of his people,” Bruchac says.“He used stories and proverbs to tell theother side of a story that had been por-trayed very badly.”

Bruchac’s novel The Winter People uses

a similar approach to portray the Abenakiversion of Rogers’ Raid, when Britishtroops attacked Odanak, Quebec, in 1759.Like most of his work, the book is basedon historical records and interviews withdescendants of survivors. “It’s a 180 fromthe typical Indian captivity story,” Bruchacsays, “where white people are taken cap-tive by Indian. In this case, Indians aretaken by white—and that did happen.”His novels Dawn Land, Long River, andThe Waters Between depict Abenaki lifebefore European colonization, while CodeTalker tells the Navajo side of the WorldWar II secret message corps.

Bruchac also disseminates American

Indian culture as a professional storyteller,performing at forty to sixty schools andfestivals each year. And through theGreenfield Review Press, the small pub-lishing company that he and his wife,Carol Worthen, started in 1971, he’s putout the first books of several other influ-ential American Indian writers, such asLeslie Silko and Linda Hogan. The pressstemmed from the Greenfield Review,their multicultural literary journal. In1998, Wordcraft Circle of Native Writersand Storytellers named him both Writerof the Year and Storyteller of the Year.A year later, the Native Writers Circle ofthe Americas, an international literary


StorytellerJOSEPH BRUCHAC ’64 REVISES AMERICA’S

HISTORY, ONE TALE AT A TIME

Digging deep: Author Joseph Bruchac, pictured here with Toni, draws onhistorical and modern sources for his stories about Native American life.

SUSAN KELLEY


C U R R E N T S


association, awarded him its LifetimeAchievement Award. “When you look atthe scope of what he’s done on so manydifferent fronts, he is not just one of theleading scholars but I would say also trans-lators of American Indian culture to main-stream America,” says Laura Donaldson,professor of English and American Indianstudies at Cornell.

Equally as important, Bruchac’s workcombats stereotypes by putting native sto-ries and spiritual traditions in context, saysDonaldson. “You can’t always go out and

live in a native community, but throughhis fiction, you might be able to get at leasta sense of what that means, and in mymind that’s definitely a form of activism.”

Bruchac agrees that his work is politi-cal—“How can it not be?” It’s an approachembedded in his family’s history. For threegenerations, Bruchac’s maternal family hidtheir Abenaki ethnicity, with varying suc-cess. (His father’s family is of Slovakdescent.) His grandfather called himselfFrench-Canadian as a matter of survival,Bruchac says.“Some people were physically

h otel school grad Ali Zweben comesfrom a long line of New Jersey restau-rateurs—her grandfather owned eater-ies along the Jersey shore, and her

father, Robert Zweben ’71, runs the famedShadowbrook banquet facility in Shrewsbury. Sowhat’s she doing schmoozing with P. Diddy onMTV?

In October 2003, Zweben ’02 startedwork at Lizzie Grubman Public Relations(LGPR), the New York City PR firm whosefounder became infamous in 2001 after shebacked her SUV into a group of Hamptonsclubgoers. The incident injured sixteen peopleand landed Grubman in jail for thirty-eightdays in 2002. Post-incarceration, Grubmanrebuilt her business and re-emerged as a reality show star. Early in 2004, MTV beganproduction of “PoweR Girls,” featuring Grubman as the Trump-esque mentor of foursexy young flacks, including Zweben, who tackle various camera-friendly PR tasks.

The “PoweR Girls” shoot was filled with “things I never thought I’d do,” Zwebensays. She baby-sat the teenage Gotti boys, filled in as a swimsuit model at a partyfor rapper Fabolous, kicked back in the Florida Marlins’ ballpark hot tub during a tripto Miami for the MTV Video Music Awards, and coached an up-and-coming popgroup on red-carpet etiquette for a Teen People party. Eight months of filming weredistilled into the show’s six episodes, which debuted in March 2005 (to predictablyhostile reviews).

Outside the watchful eye of MTV cameras, Zweben juggles a modest roster ofless-glitzy corporate PR clients, including a wallpaper company and a porn star. Shealso keeps her hand in the hospitality industry by handling LGPR’s restaurant busi-ness. Ultimately, Zweben has aspirations of one day transitioning from flackdom tofood writing. “If [former New York magazine restaurant critic] Gael Greene is lookingfor a protégé,” she says, “I hope she watches MTV.”

— Peter Bronski ’01

Power PlayHOTELIE CATCHES FLACK ON MTV

JAMIE MCCARTHY / WIREIMAGE.COM


31

harmed for being Indian. Murders tookplace in the Adirondacks and in New Eng-land and no one was ever prosecuted forthem, not just in the 1800s but even intothe 1900s. The Abenakis had severalchoices. One was to leave. The other wasto try to blend in—hide in plain sight—and that’s what a lot of people did andcontinue to do.”

Bruchac was raised by his grandpar-ents, who ran a gas station and marketadjacent to the house where Bruchac andWorthen live now. He had a close relation-ship with his grandfather, who taught himto hunt and garden. His grandmother,Marion Bowman, who was one of NewYork’s first female lawyers, gave him a tastefor poetry. Those interests deepened atCornell, where he first majored in zoology,eventually switching to English, and was avarsity heavyweight wrestler. As Bruchacgrew as a writer, he also discovered polit-ical activism. He marched in Mississippifor civil rights, gave public poetry readingsagainst the Vietnam War, and protested aspeech at Bailey Hall by ambassador-at-large Averell Harriman, who was defend-ing the U.S. government’s actions in Viet-nam. After graduation, Bruchac earned amaster’s degree in English at SyracuseUniversity, studying with Grace Paley.

While at Syracuse, he began to activelyembrace his heritage. He often rode hisHarley motorcycle to the Onondaga Indianreservation in Upstate New York. “AnOnondaga elder named Dewasentah—Alice Papineau—would say, ‘Let me tellyou a story, because the kids aren’t listen-ing to the stories, but I know that you’llpass them on.’ And I have.”

He’s also passed them on to his sons.He has co-authored several books withJim, thirty-seven, who teaches traditionaloutdoor skills like animal tracking at theseventy-acre Ndakinna Wilderness Edu-cation Center across the road from hisparents’ house. Jesse, thirty-three, a Webdesigner named for his great-grandfather,is the family’s most fluent Abenakispeaker.

“I think a lot of what I’ve done in myadult life is seek out the stories my grand-father never told me,” Bruchac says. “Imade sure that what I passed on to Jimand Jesse was passed on very clearly.”

— Susan Kelley





C U R R E N T S


worked several part-time jobs to pay hisway through Cornell. A member of theROTC, Urban was called to active duty fivemonths before Pearl Harbor, reporting toFort Bragg, North Carolina, and the 60thRegiment of the 9th Infantry Division.

He began as a morale and special serv-ices officer, but by 1944—when his sev-enth severe battlefield wound finally senthim home—he had risen to the positionof battalion commander and military leg-end. During twenty months of front-lineaction in six major campaigns in Europeand North Africa, Urban’s reputation forbravery was such that even the Nazi sol-diers knew him well. They called him“The Ghost,” presumably because no mat-ter how many times they thought they

i N HOLLAND, MICHIGAN, THE SMALLcity on the eastern shore of LakeMichigan where Matt Urban ’41spent the last years of his life, you can

steer your car down Matt Urban Driveand exercise at the Matt Urban SportsComplex. Despite these honors and thearray of medals he won on the battle-fields of Europe, some believe that Lt.Colonel Urban remains vastly underap-preciated. But if the Polish-AmericanCongress has its way, the nation will soonbestow its stamp of approval uponhim—literally.

Matthew Urbanowicz was the son ofPolish-American parents and a native ofBuffalo, born just after World War I. Hebecame a star high school athlete and then

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had killed him, he always returned to fightanother day.

There was the time in Renouf, France,for instance, when Urban grabbed abazooka, exposed himself to enemy fire,and destroyed two tanks that had beenraking his unit’s position. His companymoved forward, routing the Germans, andit wasn’t until later that evening thatUrban was evacuated for treatment of thetank-gun shrapnel in his leg. He wasshipped back to England, but within sixweeks he was back at the front, havinglimped out of the Army hospital andhitchhiked his way to St. Lo. There heresumed command of his men, who werepinned down by enemy fire. Urban ranacross open ground, dodging bullets untilhe reached an abandoned American tank.He climbed in, returned fire, and againhelped turn the tide of battle.

A couple of months later, Urban andhis unit were in Belgium, trying to securea crossing point on the Meuse River, whenhe received a serious neck wound. Hecouldn’t speak above a whisper—and,indeed, would be raspy voiced for the nextfifty years—but Urban refused evacuationuntil the river crossing was secure.

“The one through my neck finishedme,” Urban would later say, meaning hiscombat career was over. It was a stint thatbrought him twenty-nine combat ribbonsand a chestful of medals for valor—including seven Purple Hearts, a BronzeStar, a Silver Star, a Legion of Merit,France’s Croix de Guerre, and the BelgianFourragere. The only thing missing: aCongressional Medal of Honor, America’shighest decoration for valor.

Only forty-nine Medals of Honor wereawarded to soldiers from World War II,and a letter recommending one for Urbanwas sent to 9th Division headquarterssome six decades ago. Somewhere alongthe line, the letter got lost in the bureau-cratic shuffle. It wasn’t until 1980 that theoversight was discovered and PresidentJimmy Carter draped a Medal of Honoraround Urban’s neck. The citation con-cludes: “Urban’s personal leadership, lim-itless bravery, and repeated extraordinaryexposure to enemy fire served as an inspi-ration to his entire battalion.”

After the war, Urban got married andsettled in Monroe, Ohio, where he became


C U R R E N T S

36

a s an animal science major, Vanessa Spero ’00 never thought of herself as apeople person. That changed once she volunteered for two years in the PeaceCorps in Niger, then moved to the rainforests of Uganda to intern with the

Jane Goodall Institute, where she taught natural science to schoolchildren. “When youstart to work with the kids, you meet their families,” Spero said. “We spent a lot oftime with the women, and they were incredibly motivated.” To help pay for their chil-dren’s school fees, mothers had organized a cooperative through which they wovegrass baskets, purses, and table mats and sold them piecemeal.

But they lacked a building in which to market their work to tourists. “I was try-ing to find a way to get the women funding,” Spero says. “But as one person, noone was going to give me any money.”

Inspiration hit when she returned home to Pomona, New York, and saw anadvertisement for Ideas Happen, a contest sponsored by Microsoft and Visa foryoung people’s ideas. Spero entered, proposing that the prize fund a market inUganda. “We are ready,” she wrote in her essay. “We just need a building.”

Then she persuaded everyone she knew to visit the contest’s website and votefor her idea. She convinced her running group to post an announcement on itswebsite, and contacted the local newspaper, which published a story about herquest. “I was a waitress,” Spero says, “and I would slip the newspaper article intomy customers’ checks.”

The gambit worked. Spero’s idea beat out 19,000 entries, winning $25,000.But she didn’t stop there. With the prize money, Spero has created a nonprofitorganization, Education Creates Opportunity, which aims to foster economic oppor-tunity for Ugandans through environmental education in crop rotation, business,ecology, and park ranger skills. “Something changed in me after I started workingwith people who don’t have the opportunities we have,” says Spero, who is nowpursuing a master’s degree in environmental education at Florida Institute ofTechnology. “It became so simple and so gratifying to try to effect change, on eventhe smallest of scales.”


Growth Spurt AN IDEA TAKES ROOT IN UGANDA

COURTESY VANESSA SPERO

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director of the community center. Hemoved to Michigan in 1962, living first inPort Huron and then Holland. In 1989,the year when Urban retired as the city’srecreation director and published hisautobiography, The Matt Urban Story, theGuinness Book of World Records identifiedhim as “The Most Combat-DecoratedSoldier in American History,” a title moreoften associated with Audie Murphy.Sources differ on who actually won moremedals, but Murphy clearly received moreacclaim, even starring in a Hollywoodmovie about himself. In 2000, twenty-nineyears after his death, Murphy was honoredwith a commemorative stamp from theU.S. Postal Service.

That’s where Urban’s supporters comein. They think he deserves a stamp, too,and soon after his death in 1995 his friendRichard Pearch wrote to the postmastergeneral. Pearch’s efforts came to the atten-tion of Anthony Bajdek, president of thePolish-American Congress of EasternMassachusetts, who has since collectedsome 60,000 signatures on a petition—not to mention many passionate lettersfrom men who served under Urban. “Hadit not been for the misplacement of hisrecords, he would have gained as muchnotoriety as Audie Murphy,” says Bajdek.

Postal regulations state that a personmust be deceased for at least ten yearsbefore he or she can be considered forplacement on a stamp, making 2005 thetime for action. Bajdek says that a U.S.Postal Service advisory committee—which usually recommends only abouttwo dozen new commemorative stampsout of thousands of suggestions it receiveseach year—appears somewhat uninter-ested in the movement, so he is also spear-heading an effort to introduce a joint res-olution in the U.S. Congress.

“As the memory of World War II getsdimmer and dimmer, and as the numberof living participants in the war dimin-ishes,” says Bajdek, “it’s not going to be toomany years now when we won’t have any-thing left except memorials. Matt Urbandeserves to be remembered.”

— Brad Herzog ’90

To sign the Matt Urban petition, go towww.paceasternmass.org and click on“Links.”

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Fortune before Fortune,

LifebeforeLifeThe Early Photography of Margaret Bourke-White

By Ronald Ostman and Harry Littell

038-043CAMSO05MBW 8/17/05 11:48 AM Page 38



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Foreshadowing: The aesthetic of Margaret Bourke-White’s mid-1920s Cornell photographs, such as the Cascadilla Creek shot on the facing page, was echoed in later industrial images like

this dramatic 1928 photo taken in Cleveland’s Otis Steel mill.

038-043CAMSO05MBW 8/17/05 11:48 AM Page 39


Photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White ’27, renowned for her For-tune and Life magazine work,became a serious photographerwhile at Cornell. During her time

on the Hill, she experimented with style, perfect-ing motifs she returned to throughout her career.New research and little-known images from theJohnson Museum of Art and Syracuse University’sBourke-White archives have shed light on thedevelopment of her early work—and the photo-graphs on these pages show how Bourke-White’sCornell images influenced her later work.

Margaret White was born in 1904 in New YorkCity, the second daughter of Joseph and MinnieWhite. Her father, on whom she doted, was a taci-turn mechanical genius who tinkered with printingpresses and automobiles. He was also an avid pho-tographer, and young Margaret assisted him in com-posing and developing many of his images.Throughout her life, Bourke-White seemed reluctantto reveal the origin of her interest in photography,apparently wanting others tothink of her talent as the natu-ral expression of an inborn gift.

After high school, Bourke-Whitebegan art studies at Columbia. Duringher first year, her father suffered a fatalstroke, leaving the family in a precariousfinancial condition. There was justenough money for Bourke-White tocomplete the spring semester, duringwhich she took a course from ClarenceH. White (no relation), a leader of thePhoto-Secession movement that pro-pounded pictorialism—artistic effectsrendered in gauzy soft focus and withmoody atmospherics. White taught herthat good photographs were meticu-lously planned and controlled, thatabstraction and patterns mattered, andthat artistically successful photographsrequired balance: dark against light,shape against shape, solid against void.

Bourke-White transferred to the

University of Michigan in 1922, initially intending to study her-petology. But she soon drifted back to photography, taking pic-tures of campus buildings for the yearbook and working in thedarkroom for the university museum. Chronically depressed,Bourke-White suffered a nervous breakdown in the summer of1923. She began therapy and returned to Michigan in the fall, but

suffered several relapses. She found tem-porary happiness when she marriedEverett “Chappie” Chapman, an engineer-ing student whose serious demeanor andmechanical interests reminded Bourke-White of her father. Chapman was a pho-tographer of considerable technical abil-ity, and for a time the couple worked as ateam. But by the time Bourke-White wastwenty-two, the couple had separated andshe had enrolled at Cornell, chosenbecause she had read that it had waterfallson campus.

“Striding across the old campus quad-rangle . . . she wore a magenta hat, a crim-son coat with fuzzy fur, and she swungalong the crosswalk with her left arm wav-ing behind her like a rudder. . . . I saw hereyes . . . deep Irish, capable of going intoScotch mists of tenderness, and they sur-mounted a wide smile.” This was the waySam Horton ’27 later described her in aradio broadcast. “Starting with me,” hesaid, “Peg captivated plenty of men on the

Rising star: This publicity photo ofBourke-White was taken by Berenice

Abbott around 1930.

BERENICE ABBOTT

HERBERT F. JOHNSON MUSEUM OF ART

038-043CAMSO05MBW 8/17/05 11:48 AM Page 40


Two towers: Bourke-White’s hazy shot of McGraw Tower in winter (left) exemplifies the “pictorialist” style of her Cornell work. While she later rejected this style in favor of a more hard-edged approach, its influence

can still be seen in this photograph of Cleveland’s High Level Bridge and Terminal Tower.

038-043CAMSO05MBW 8/17/05 11:48 AM Page 41


campus, and none of these affairs lasted long, because to PegWhite, the job, the art she had in her mind, always transcendedthe interest she had in any individual male. . . . She took picturesof the campus that knocked the spots off anything that photog-

raphers twice her age had achieved.”To help pay her way through school, Bourke-White sold her

campus images. “Here I was in the midst of one of the most spec-tacular campus sites in America,” she wrote in her autobiography,Portrait of Myself, “with fine old ivy-covered architecture andCayuga Lake on the horizon and those boiling columns of waterthundering over the cliffs and down through the gorges. Surely

Behind bars: Bourke-White shot the image of Cayuga Lake on the left from the top of McGraw Tower, contrasting the distant lakewith the iron grillwork in the foreground. Her 1928 photograph of the Terminal Tower in Cleveland featured a similar approach.

there would be students who would buy photographs of sceneslike these.”

The range of Bourke-White’s Cornell images showed thepromise of a budding professional. The photographs boast the

strong composition and control oflight essential to her aesthetic—and she made no bones about herreliance on soft focus. “In thosedays,” she wrote, “to be artistic, apicture must be blurry, and theexact degree of blurriness was oneof the features over which I toiledduring the long nights in the dark-

room, diffusing, printing. . . . When I opened my little sales standoutside the dining hall in Prudence Risley Dormitory, my pictureson display looked as much like [the work of French painter Jean-Baptiste-Camille] Corot as my old cracked camera lens plus somesheets of celluloid had been able to make them. And if I heardsome admiring student murmur, ‘Why, these don’t look like pho-tographs at all,’ I took it as a compliment.”

‘Here I was in the midst of one of the most spectacular campus sites in America,’ saidBourke-White.‘Surely there would be students whowould buy photographs of scenes like these.’

HERBERT F. JOHNSON MUSEUM OF ART

038-043CAMSO05MBW 8/17/05 11:48 AM Page 42

Light and shadow: In a photograph of West Campus(top), Bourke-White used an archway in the foregroundto frame the view looking west. Another of her 1928 shots

of Cleveland’s Terminal Tower (bottom) featured a similar compositional approach, placing the tower

within an arch of a railroad trestle.

Bourke-White was adept at marketing her work. Prices rangedfrom twenty-five cents for a small contact print to three dollarsfor an 11x14. In time, she hired a sales staff to hawk prints to thestudents. And she found additional outlets, including the Cornell-ian and the Cornell Alumni News.

Fresh from Cornell in 1927, Bourke-White moved to Cleve-land, where both Chapman and her mother were living, andpounded the pavement on the trail of professional connections.She owned little photographic equipment and developed film inthe kitchen sink of her tiny studio apartment. Eager to succeed ina profession dominated by men, she counted on admirers andfriends for technical assistance and financial support. After her sep-aration became a divorce, she created her professional identity by adding her mother’smaiden name to her own.

Bourke-White’s Cor-nell portfolio openeddoors and helped her toobtain her first commer-cial assignments. She grad-ually abandoned architec-tural and garden imagesand turned to a loveinspired by her father:industrial photography.Bourke-White did notinvent industrial photog-raphy, nor was she the firstto explore the subject mat-ter; she followed like-minded artists in creating an aesthetic to cel-ebrate the machine age. In less than a year, she would be a suc-cessful professional photographer, selling her images of Clevelandindustry for $100 apiece.

Bourke-White’s break into photojournalism came courtesy ofTime publisher Henry Luce. He was impressed by her Clevelandphotographs, particularly those of the Otis Steel mill; they wereexactly what he had in mind for his new business publication,Fortune. Within a decade, Bourke-White would shoot the famedinaugural cover of Montana’s Fort Peck Dam for Luce’s newestcreation, Life magazine.

As Bourke-White’s career unfolded, her style evolved fromsoft-focus nature shots to hard-edged, crisp industrial subjectswhere men were creating wealth and abundance by taming mas-sive structures and machines. Her mature photojournalistic workfor Life depicted the human face and form with a humanitariansensibility. She captured images of people, famous and obscurealike, that were sometimes newsworthy, often dramatic, andalways brimming with human interest.

By the mid-1950s, Bourke-White was afflicted with Parkin-son’s disease and increasingly unable to use a camera. Her lifeended quietly in 1971 in Stamford, Connecticut. Now, when welook at her photographs—and there are nearly a quarter-millionof them—we realize they are inseparable from her sensibilities,from the interior landscape of an audacious mind.

Adapted from Margaret Bourke-White: The Early Work, 1922–1930 by Ronald E.Ostman and Harry Littell. Reprinted by permission of David R. Godine, Publisher.Essay copyright © 2005 by Ronald E. Ostman and Harry Littell. Photographscopyright © by the Estate of Margaret Bourke-White.


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The speech—the second Commence-ment address of his young adminis-tration—was vintage Jeff Lehman. Asa crowd of some 40,000 faculty, grad-uates, and family members inSchoellkopf Field shaded their eyesbeneath a spring sun, President

Lehman ’77 stood in his carnelian robe and deliv-ered a serio-comic reverie on the slippery nature ofgood and evil. Weaving pop-culture references andphilosophical inquiry, he embarked on a literaryanalysis of two works by Thomas Pynchon ’59,played a sound clip from “The Simpsons,” andtalked at length—and with what was clearly an afi-cionado’s grasp of the material—about Star Wars.

This, by now, was a familiar formula. Lehman’s first publicspeech on campus, the Convocation address in August 2003, wasbuilt on an extended riff from The Big Lebowski, and Cornell’s

Assessing the Short, Surprising Term ofCornell’s EleventhPresident

By the CAM Staff

president wasted few opportunities to remind students and youngalumni that he was one of them—a wide-eyed former freshmanwho grew up to run the place, a big kid brimming with enthusi-asm about the world and Cornell’s place in it. But even veterancampus observers were struck by the curious intensity of thisyear’s Commencement address. Behind his Yoda impression,Lehman clearly had serious things on his mind.

He began with a question: “How can you be sure that you donot go over to the Dark Side?” After a thorough explanation ofthe term in the George Lucas cosmology, he added his own defi-nition. “Think of it not as evil, but as good people run amok.Yielding to a certain kind of wholly understandable temptation,in a way that ends up . . . damaging to the larger community.”Lehman went on to further refine the notion by raising the issueof “fanaticism’s much milder cousin: tunnel vision.”

“People afflicted with moral tunnel vision recognize a good,something that carries a positive benefit for the world,” he said.“They see a path to the good. And they become so committed topursuing that path that they lose sight of the costs to other valuesthat might be associated with going down that path. These are thekinds of blind spots that can undermine communal life and col-lective progress.” He gave several examples—soldiers who use tor-ture in wartime, businessmen who ignore workplace safety in pur-suit of profit. “The temptations of moral tunnel vision areeverywhere we look,” he said. “Think of the university leaders whoare tempted to deform their institutions in hopes of rising in themagazine rankings.”

Less than two weeks later, Lehman gave another speech, andhis cryptic statements at Commencement took on more signifi-cance. In his State of the University address during Reunion 2005,Lehman stood at a lectern in Newman Arena and reiterated manyof the ideas he had expressed throughout his presidency—hisvision of his alma mater as both “revolutionary” and “beloved”;his now-familiar definition of Cornell as a “transnational” uni-versity. He praised Cornell for its accomplishments during thefirst 140 years of its history. And then he announced that becausehe and the Board of Trustees had “different approaches to how

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Full house: President Lehman presided over his second—and last—Commencement at Schoellkopf Field on May 29.

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the University can best achieve its long-term vision,” he wasresigning as president, effective nineteen days later.

The announcement drew a multitude of questions fromstunned alumni, faculty, students, and staff about the reasonsbehind Lehman’s abrupt departure. Some of those reasons maynever be revealed, hidden as they are behind a legal separationagreement that binds both Lehman and thetrustees to silence about the specifics of their dis-pute. But since then, a clearer picture has gradu-ally emerged: Lehman’s term was cut short by agroup of trustees whose differences with thepresident—over issues that ranged from personalchemistry to achieving the mission of the Uni-versity—proved too intractable to overcome. Bythe time Lehman delivered his Commencementspeech, his resignation was a foregone conclu-sion, and he seized the opportunity to indulge insome thinly veiled commentary on the forcesthat had doomed his presidency.

Still unanswered, however, is a larger ques-tion, one that we will begin to address here: how will JeffreyLehman’s term as the eleventh president of Cornell be remem-bered? Some presidential legacies, like that of Andrew DicksonWhite, involve lengthy lists of academic initiatives and physicalimprovements—colleges and programs started, faculty membershired, buildings constructed, quadrangles created. Others, like thatof James Perkins, have been defined by a single event. Today, onlya few months after Lehman’s departure, the substance of his pres-idency is all but overshadowed by its troubling conclusion. Butthere was more to it than a resignation. Only time will providethe full picture, but to get a better sense of what Lehman accom-plished and how his ideas and actions will affect the future ofCornell, we polled faculty, administrators, students, staff, andalumni—some in lengthy formal interviews, others in informalconversations.

When asked about President Lehman’s legacy,many members of the Cornell communitymention two things: the Call to Engagementand Lehman’s characterization of Cornell as a“transnational” university.

The Call to Engagement grew out of the inaugural address, inwhich Lehman asked a series of questions about Cornell’s mis-sion. Those inquiries became codified in a set of eight questionsthat Lehman posed to his fellow Cornellians. “He will definitelybe remembered for the Call to Engagement,” says Rolf Frantz ’66,ME ’67, president of the Cornell Alumni Federation. “I enjoyedgetting his request and thinking about the questions, as well as thetime I spent jotting down some thoughts and participating in dis-cussion sessions. Other alumni have told me that they also appre-ciated being invited to share their thoughts, opinions, and sug-gestions, and some suggested that it was precisely because Jeff wasan alumnus that he was asking other alumni for their ideas.”

Lehman catalogued and collated the hundreds of responsesto the Call, and in his October 2004 State of the University speechon Trustee-Council weekend, he announced that the suggestionshe had received had led him to formulate a plan for addressingthe three great challenges he saw facing humanity, which he

defined as “life in the age of the genome, wisdom in the age ofdigital information, and sustainability in the age of development.”He concluded by saying: “For each of these challenges, I haveasked Provost Biddy Martin to work with deans and facultymembers to develop a long-range strategic plan.”

Lehman’s challenges became known on campus as “the threethemes,” and they proved to be both a stimulusfor inquiry and a source of confusion. “In someof the early discussions with faculty, the human-ists said, ‘What has this got to do with us?’ ”reports Charles Walcott, PhD ’59, dean of thefaculty. “But after an hour of discussion, theybegan to see what it had to do with them andbecame interested and in some cases enthusias-tic about thinking through the issues that thesethemes posed.”

Stewart Schwab, dean of the Law school,notes that Lehman proved a persuasive advocatefor his causes. “He was a good listener, andpatient,” he says. “You need buy-in from the fac-

ulty for a new initiative, or it’ll just be a bureaucratic pain in theneck. The whole academic side of the university was becomingcomfortable with these three themes and where they figured intothem. Part of it was the idea that these [themes] were not thewhole university.”

Similarly, Lehman’s characterization of Cornell as a “transna-tional” university produced both animated debate and puzzle-ment. “I would give him credit for identifying the transnationalrole,” says Austin Kiplinger ’39, chairman emeritus of the Boardof Trustees. “It’s not unique to Cornell, and it’s not new—Cornellhas been in this business since I was an undergraduate. My room-mate was the son of the Chinese ambassador. But Jeff gave it anew kind of packaging concept, of what it means to be transna-tional. It means a whole new structure that looks out over theworld as a unit.” Others found the concept of Cornell as a uni-versity that transcends national boundaries intriguing but hardto grasp, and Lehman spent a great deal of time explaining it, evenwriting an article called “Why‘Transnational’?” that was pub-lished in the January/February2005 issue of this magazine.

“He not only talked aboutit,” says Walter LaFeber, theTisch University Professor and amember of the history facultysince 1959, “he did a lot toimplement his vision for whatCornell should be, internation-ally.” Lehman’s advocacy oftransnationalism led to jointacademic programs withTsinghua University and Peking University in China, and to newagreements in Singapore and India as well as the ongoing devel-opment of the medical college campus in Qatar.

Lehman also sought to improve Cornell’s image in the world.One of his first moves as president was to dissolve the Division ofUniversity Relations—removing its head, Vice President HenrikDullea ’61, even before taking office—and divide it into two newdivisions: Communications and Media Relations (later renamed

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University Communications) and Gov-ernment and Community Relations.The communications division, underVice President Thomas Bruce, under-took a sweeping remake of Cornell’simage. The “Big Red Box” logo installedunder President Hunter Rawlings wasdumped in favor of a more traditionaldesign, the University’s website got atop-to-bottom redesign, and key publi-cations such as the viewbook sent toprospective students were revamped.More than one observer has noted thatmany of these changes were driven bythe recommendations of the student-run Image Committee, but Lehman getscredit for making the makeover a prior-ity, says committee leader Peter Cohl’05. “He was very responsive to theImage Committee’s concerns regardingCornell’s ranking and its place in theworld. Lehman gave Cornell a huge shotof really vibrant energy. I think he reallyinspired us.”

To enhance media relations, Brucereorganized the Cornell News Service, with former News Servicedirector Simeon Moss ’73 heading the newly created Press Officeand veteran science writer David Brand taking over as News Ser-vice director. A plan to expand and redesign the Cornell Chroni-cle was initiated, and much greater emphasis was placed on rapidelectronic dissemination of news, with a steady stream of pressreleases and news summaries flowing out of the Press Office daily.

The increased emphasis on press coverage was accompaniedby an internal outreach effort that sought greater involvementwith faculty and students. “There was genuine intellectual engage-ment with the faculty,” says Walcott. “Every time I went to a partywith Jeff, he was talking with faculty—and it was talk with somekind of substance. As a result, I think many faculty felt he wasinterested in their work and interested in the academic side of theUniversity.”

Student leaders largely echoed these sentiments. “Jeff was veryengaging,” says student-elected trustee Doug Mitarotonda ’02,MEng ’03, a graduate student in economics.“He asked a lot of goodquestions, and you could tell that he was really trying to make theeffort to learn more.” Interfraternity Council president Alex Deyle’06 lauded Lehman’s approachability. “He was very accessible,” hesays.“It’s an expectation that students from hereon will have.” Alex Shapero ’06, president of theJewish Student Union, recounts how the presi-dent once showed up unannounced at a Latin-Israeli dance practice—“he put more energyinto it than I could have”—and had “a stronginterest in what students were doing and whatthey really cared about.” Not every studentleader was impressed, however: former DailySun editor Andy Guess ’05 characterizesLehman as a “lovable dork with big ideas” whofailed to follow through on the schemes in his“grandiose speeches.”

Lehman stumped tirelessly for those schemes, traveling widelyin his first year to meet with alumni at both domestic and inter-national events—again, in the name of outreach and engagement.“Jeff was well-liked by just about every alumna and alumnus I’vemet,” says Frantz. “He was ‘one of us,’ and because of that peoplewere willing to give him a little extra time.”

This, too, led to criticism, though: Lehman was accused ofbeing out of Ithaca—and thus out of touch—too frequently. Thedemands of his daily schedule and frequent campus absenceswere such that some faculty noted a lack of personal communi-cation with Day Hall. “Looking back,” says Schwab, “it might havebeen nice if there had been more direct contact between the deansand the president.”

As Lehman began his second year aspresident, it appeared that many ofhis initiatives were moving aheadsmoothly. Cornell’s transnationalrole was taking shape in the new aca-

demic agreements with universities in China andelsewhere. The three themes were being coordi-nated with existing programs such as the New LifeSciences Initiative and helping to spur plans fornew programs and facilities in a wide range offields, from computer science to the humanities.And Cornell was embarking on the “quiet phase”of a major capital campaign that would seek toraise more than $3 billion over the next seven years.

(continued on page 50)Austin Kiplinger ’39

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Clarification: Provost Biddy Martin (right) told the Faculty Senatethat President Lehman’s “three themes . . . are the way in which[he] feels universities can make transformative contributions.”



ious about what really happened. But he fears that providing specificsabout those differences might make it more difficult for a future president.“I have stayed away from a public discussion of the details of the dis-agreements,” he says, “because I honestly think that a new president mightfind it more difficult to follow the approach I was advocating if the boardhas been put into any kind of defensive posture.” The other thing he’ll sayis that when board leaders and a president have a split, there’s no ques-tion about who needs to take the high road and leave: the president. Andso Lehman will decamp in the fall to Washington, D.C., where he will spenda year at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

If Lehman is hesitant to talk about his departure, he has no suchreluctance in talking about how he was recruited to the presidency, hisCall to Engagement, and his priorities as president.

“I remember it quite well,” he says, recalling the day when he realizedhe might be a candidate to lead Cornell. “I was on vacation on Long Islandand was looking at e-mail, and there was a message from one of themembers of the search committee,” he says. “I was asked if I was willingto talk about the search.” Lehman was intrigued and a bit puzzled, tryingto figure out if the committee just wanted to brainstorm or whether it wasan invitation to become a candidate.

He had been approached about other presidencies, Lehman says,and he had always said no. “This was different. This was my alma matercalling, and I was thrilled,” he says. “This was my school, my university.This was the campus where I started down the road toward adulthood.”

He had “fourteen or fifteen hours of very intense conversations” withthe search committee. Those discussions, he says, were based on the ideathat Cornell was “fundamentally healthy and sound,” and that the newpresident would be called upon to help it realize its full potential. The top-ics on which Lehman says he remembers spending the most time in theselection process were those he spent the most time on as president:international education, integrating different disciplines, race relations,scientific developments, and promoting cooperation between the medicalschool and the Ithaca campus. “I certainly sensed in the room a greatdeal of agreement and excitement,” he says.

After becoming president, one of Lehman’s first moves was to announcethe Call to Engagement, in which he asked students, faculty, alumni, andanyone else who cared to participate to submit ideas about the future direc-tion of Cornell—either by responding to a set of detailed questions or byoffering up their own vision. “One of the things I perceived [early on] wasthat it had been a long time since the entire community was given theopportunity to pause and to look up from their desks and to think togetherabout very large questions of institutional priorities,” he says.

From the Call, Lehman says he gained a better sense of the way Cor-nell’s departments and units could work together to truly reshape ideas.He cites the many scholars who work on issues of sustainability as anexample. “There is a deep, humanistic impulse here—the idea that the realpurpose of this great university is to serve humanity.” Less noble issues alsobecame top priorities, in part because Lehman heard so much about themin the Call. Many alumni felt that the University didn’t get its due in the

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Exit InterviewJeffrey Lehman Reflects on His Presidency

By Scott Jaschik ’85

If Jeffrey Sean Lehman ’77 is bitter about the conflicts that cost himhis job as Cornell’s eleventh president, he’s not letting on. A weekafter leaving the position, he was full of enthusiasm during an inter-view to discuss his presidency, the first by a Cornell alumnus and theshortest in the University’s 140 years.During his two years in office, Lehman was rarely at a loss for words.

The issues about which he spoke with passion—Cornell’s international role,race relations, science and technology, a university’s obligations to betterthe world—are subjects on which Lehman remains eloquent. And he can’ttalk for more than a few minutes about any of them without talking aboutCornell’s many accomplishments, praising this researcher or that studentgroup. The only hesitation comes when he corrects himself on tenses, real-izing that he’s said “we are doing . . .” or “my goal is . . .” and then remem-bers that he needs to speak in the past tense.

The last sudden departure for a Cornell president was in 1969, whenJames Perkins quit in the wake of the Straight takeover. At that time, therewas no question that the University was divided and in crisis. Lehman’sdeparture shocked the campus precisely because there is no apparentcrisis. Looking at the measures by which college presidents tend to bejudged—fundraising, applications, research awards—Cornell has been set-ting records, not faltering.

So why did he quit? Lehman won’t answer—at least not in any detail.He says that there were differences of priorities with key trustees and thatthey related to the capital campaign that was in the planning and start-up stages during his presidency. “Even though different members of theboard embraced different parts of the strategic direction I pushed,” hesays, “I failed to persuade the board that the full priorities would producea [successful] fundraising campaign.”

Lehman realizes that his vagueness makes people all the more anx-



media, and Lehman made public relations a priority, even noting Cornell’sincreased press coverage in his resignation speech. As for the priorities hehad going in—international education and race relations, among others—Lehman says that the Call helped make his plans more specific, but did-n’t really change the course on which he and the trustees had agreed.

International education is an issue on which Lehman devoted con-siderable time. He started his inaugural in Qatar, at the medical school’scampus there. He visited China twice as president, negotiating exchangeagreements and joint-degree programs. His major project for the next yearat the Wilson Center is to research and write about the transnational uni-versity, one of his favorite concepts.

Being a transnational university means more than just having cam-puses abroad, Lehman says. Citing Thomas Friedman’s book The World IsFlat, Lehman says that the world has indeed been flattened in culture, sci-ence, and economics. “Our children today move around the world and willwork and play with people from other countries in ways that were almostunimaginable when I was growing up. So what should a great universitybe doing to prepare this generation for their adult lives?”

There are two main things, according to Lehman. First, “we should benurturing within every one of our students a transnational perspective onthe human condition, and by that I mean that they should understandtheir own national identity and they should cherish it, but they should notbe afraid to move easily across national boundaries, to immerse them-selves in other cultures, to see the human endeavor as a shared globalendeavor everywhere.” Second, he says, “great universities need to embracethe idea of working in close, multilateral partnerships with a set of peerinstitutions worldwide in order to facilitate the easy movement of peopleand ideas from institution to institution. It’s important because the greatwork that is being done today in so many different fields is collaborativework and is being done across national boundaries, whether it is in agri-culture or nanoscience or information science.” Lehman sees these goalsas closely related, so he talks about the exchanges with Chinese univer-sities and also about the importance of making a key hire in Ithaca toteach Chinese history.

At Cornell, as at many large universities, presidents don’t do much hir-ing of faculty or organizing of courses—deans and faculty focus on theseissues. Lehman describes the president’s role as one of starting andencouraging a discussion, not dictating specifics. “Cornell is highly decen-tralized, so this notion of a transnational university needed to be assessedby the faculties of each college,” he says. “My role was to put forward anidea, and each school and college would then have the discussion abouthow that fits.” Lehman says that he’s proud of the extent to which the var-ious colleges have in fact done so, noting discussions currently takingplace in the Engineering college about the issue, on top of more obviousexamples of transnational activity like the growth of the Qatar program.

Another area where Lehman frequently spoke out was race relations.As the dean of Michigan’s law school, he played a key role in successfullydefending that institution’s admissions policy, which used affirmative action,in a crucial Supreme Court case. Cornell has its own history with race rela-tions, not all of it positive. As a result, Lehman’s willingness to talk aboutissues of race frequently won him praise from those who believe that toomany college administrators would prefer to stay away from the issue.

Lehman says that one of the qualities about Cornell he most admirestoday is the willingness of more people to talk about race, but he acknowl-edges that the University’s past is both a help and hindrance. “I think thelegacy of the Straight takeover in many ways enables Cornell to confrontissues of racial tension in ways that are more direct and forthright thanmany other institutions. That’s the potential that’s there,” he says. “The flipside is that there is a sense of anxiety about that aspect of our history,and that causes people to be afraid and to back away from conversation.”

Cornell is also hurt, he says, by its history after the Straight takeover,

in the 1970s and ’80s, when diversity was increasing as measured by num-bers but many alumni of all races don’t remember true integration on thecampus. “But if you talk to students today,” he says, “there has been a greatdeal of progress—and there’s more progress to be made.” He adds: “WhenI have spoken on campus, I talk about an ideal, which is that every stu-dent of every race, every day, would experience an ebb and flow betweencommunities where they feel comfortable and safe and surrounded by peo-ple who are similar to themselves, and communities that are new and excit-ing and where they feel like a true minority; that kind of daily movementback and forth is what a Cornell makes possible. I think the culture herevalues that kind of movement, and that is the thing I am most excitedabout. But that is not to say that the ideal has been realized.”

One of the most striking things about talking with Lehman is that manyof his priorities do not translate obviously into categories of a multi-billion-dollar capital campaign. Like any college president these days, he spentcountless hours on financial matters—but he makes a point of questioningthat role.“I spent a huge amount of my time focused on budgets, on fundrais-ing, on working with the State of New York on appropriations,” Lehman says.“But I believe that if universities come to be described by their presidentsand understood by the public as being first and foremost about dollars, then we will have lost one of the great institutions of human civilization.”

He adds: “I think we always need to be financially responsible insti-tutions, we need to deal with the resources we’ve been entrusted with incareful, responsible ways, and we need to do everything we can to securethe commitment of resources that enables us to do great things in theworld. But in order to do that, we have to articulate a vision of higher edu-cation that is compelling, that is worth investing in. If we say that the pur-pose of the university is to raise money, we will not raise money.”

That of course poses the question of where Cornell fits in the worldof higher education. Lehman says he wants Cornell to be known to itsalumni, faculty, and students (current and prospective) as both “beloved”and “revolutionary,” the two qualities he spoke of in his inaugural address.Looking back, he says that his vision for the University was very muchbased on that idea. “It’s a commonplace, especially among graduates,that Cornell is a beloved institution. My heartfelt belief is that Cornell’sbeloved quality is deeply intertwined with its revolutionary quality. Part ofwhy so many people treasure Cornell is that it opened the door for themthat other institutions might not have been willing to open. Cornell, fromits founding, was committed to this notion of ‘any person, any study.’ And‘any person’ was something that was way ahead of its time.”

That “any person” quality comes out, he says, in Cornell enrolling ahigher percentage of lower-income students than the handful of U.S. insti-tutions that are wealthier. Likewise, he says the “any study” concept sep-arates Cornell from universities that are more strictly practical or morestrictly theoretical.

Advances in science, Lehman says, are the perfect illustration of whythe Cornell model works. “Many of our Ivy League peers have always won-dered why we are proud of our land-grant tradition,” he says. But with thegenomic revolution, the combined strength and approaches of Cornell’sscholars in engineering, scientific disciplines, agriculture, medicine, andveterinary medicine “makes us the envy of the others.”

As Lehman goes on about how Cornell compares favorably to thisuniversity or that, it’s hard not to wonder if he’s really at peace with hisresignation. “I am sad that my presidency did not last longer than twoyears,” he says. “I love this university. I really do. I think that the opportu-nity to serve as its president was one of the greatest gifts I could everreceive, and that is not something to be bitter about.”

SCOTT JASCHIK ’85 is the former editor of the Chronicle of Higher Educa-tion and one of the founders of the online journal Inside Higher Educa-tion: http://insidehighered.com.



the trustees from airing the reasons for their disagreement. Butit’s clear from discussions with campus observers that theReichenbach resignation was the “defining moment,” as Austin

Kiplinger put it, in a deteriorating relationshipbetween Lehman and the trustees who eventu-ally forced him out.

Insiders attribute Reichenbach’s departureto two factors. First, as Lehman brought newpeople into his administration, her rolechanged from what it had been under HunterRawlings. Lehman had his own way of workingwith senior administrators and a different deci-sion-making style. More important, Reichen-bach’s personal relationship with the presidentgrew increasingly strained—a matter of “chem-istry,” according to one source.

The tension was heightened by Reichen-bach’s discomfort with the part that Lehman’swife, Kathy Okun, was playing in the adminis-tration. As one person close to Lehman com-

mented, “She didn’t like it.” Okun had been an associate vice pres-ident for development at the University of Michigan. After shecame to Cornell, she was named “senior university advisor,” aposition created for her by the Board of Trustees in recognitionof her previous administrative experience. Although Okunfocused largely on faculty recruitment and community relations,Reichenbach was reportedly unhappy about her presence in DayHall.

Reichenbach’s displeasure finally reached the point where shedecided to accept an offer from Yale. That Lehman would allowher to leave Cornell early in a major campaign was deeply dis-concerting to many members of the Board—although Meinigdenies that it was the reason for their dispute.

The trustees also believed, accordingto Kiplinger and other sources, thatLehman was relying too much on a smallinner circle of key administrative associ-ates. This “kitchen cabinet” included hiswife and Barbara Krause, JD ’86, who hadserved as Cornell’s judicial administrator,associate university counsel, and execu-tive secretary of the search committeethat had selected Lehman. Krause hadcome to know Lehman well while over-seeing the transition between the Rawl-ings and Lehman administrations, and inSeptember 2003 Lehman named her“senior advisor to the president.” ToLehman’s consternation, the trusteesforced him to diminish Krause’s role inApril.

Some trustees were troubled by whatwas seen as Lehman’s excessive emphasison Cornell’s transnational role and theeffect it was having on his schedule. Theyreportedly told him that his journeysabroad were distracting him from morepressing issues in Ithaca, including initia-tives that were key to the capital cam-

But behind the scenes all was not well. What follows is anaccount of the events that led to Lehman’s resignation, compiledfrom interviews with multiple sources, all ofthem highly placed and well-informed mem-bers of the University community. Almost allspoke on the condition that their names not beused in the story.

Board of Trustees Chairman Peter Meinig’61 and other trustees were growing troubledabout Lehman’s stewardship of the Universityand losing confidence in his leadership. Theirconcerns revolved around a perception of theway he was making decisions and the effectthose decisions were having on both day-to-dayoperations and the capital campaign. Lehmandid not agree with this perception.

Publicly, little evidence of these concernsemerged until Inge Reichenbach, vice presidentfor alumni affairs and development and ahighly successful fundraiser during her twenty-five years on theHill, announced in April that she was resigning to accept a posi-tion at Yale. Reichenbach was close to many of the trustees, whomshe had cultivated for years as major donors; in return, theyenjoyed her company and greatly admired her skill as a fundraiser.

Many of the trustees were shocked by Reichenbach’s resigna-tion, and according to reports several traveled to Ithaca to try topersuade her to stay. Lehman also asked her to reconsider. Sherefused.

Reichenbach did not respond to inquiries from CAM and hasrefused to comment on the reasons behind her departure whenasked by the New York Times and other publications. And, asnoted, the terms of the separation agreement prevent Lehman and

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Controversial role: President Lehman’s wife, Kathy Okun, was named “senior university advisor,” which reportedly caused friction with some other administrators.

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paign, such as nanotechnology and the life sciences.Similarly, there were questions about how the three themes fit

with the campaign—especially “sustainability in the age of devel-opment,” which reportedly left some trustees perplexed. At a Fac-ulty Senate meeting on April 13, Provost Biddy Martin announcedReichenbach’s resignation and then responded to a question aboutthe direction of the campaign. “You think . . . that the threethemes are sort of the guiding principles of the campaign,” shesaid, according to the minutes of meeting. “That, I think, is some-thing that many people have worried about, including ourtrustees.” Martin went on to tell the senate that the three themes“are the way in which, I think, this particular president feels uni-versities can make transformative contributions beyond the tra-ditional ways in which we organize our disciplinary knowledge . . . but they are by no means the bulk or the dominating focus ofour campaign strategy.”

The relationship between the president and the trustees bot-tomed out shortly before Commencement. A deal was struck:Lehman would resign, in return for which he would receive com-pensation and both sides would agree to a non-disparagementclause—they would not reveal the reasons for their dispute orspeak ill of each other.

Lehman’s announcement of his resignation did not offer anyreasons beyond a vague statement about “different approaches.”The official University statements have not expanded upon that.Hunter Rawlings, in an e-mail sent to alumni after the approval ofhis appointment as interim president, stated: “President Lehmanand the Board of Trustees have agreed that his and the institution’sbest interests will be served by foregoing more open discussion.”

Many in the Cornell community disagree—not only becausethe silence makes it difficult to come to terms with the resigna-tion of a leader who appeared to be succeeding on many countsbut also because it has fueled so much speculation, some of it out-rageous. The wild rumors are unfounded, says Austin Kiplinger.“There wasn’t anything dishonorable,” he emphasizes. “That needsto be said over and over again. All parties acted in good faith.”Kiplinger characterizes the dispute as “not so much a differencebetween the president and the Board of Trustees as between thepresident and the ongoing structure of the University.” He believesthat Lehman did not develop the necessary “symbiotic relation-ship” with the institutional structure of Cornell.

Another chairman emeritus, Stephen Weiss ’57, says, “Theobvious question is: should we have had a more experienced per-son? Hunter Rawlings had run the University of Iowa, and FrankRhodes had had a significant position at Michigan [as vice pres-ident for academic affairs] before coming to Cornell. Jeff ran thelaw school very well at Michigan, but I don’t think anyone wouldargue that that’s a major administrative position.” President Emer-itus Dale Corson concurs: “While Jeff was eminently qualified forthe position, he came from a deanship, and it’s a fairly big stepfrom a deanship to being president of an institution—and Cor-nell is a very complex university.”

Looking beyond the possible reasons for the resignation,many are asking if the lack of information aboutLehman’s departure will be a problem in the search forCornell’s twelfth president. “I would think every candi-date would want to know what he or she was getting

into,” says Kiplinger. “You’ve got to know if you’re coming into ahornets’ nest.” The role of the Board in overseeing the presidentis sure to be a topic of discussion, and there is general agreementthat candidates will want to know more about the specifics ofLehman’s disconnect with the Board. “People who are serious can-didates will want to talk about what the issues were—and theywill want to talk to [Lehman] about that, as well as to thetrustees,” says President Emeritus Frank Rhodes. Even so, he adds,“Cornell remains an immensely attractive university, capable ofrecruiting really top-notch players, world-class players, into thatrole. It’s an enormously challenging position but also a veryattractive position.”

There is also a needfor reassurance about theadequacy of the searchprocess itself. “There area lot of faculty andalumni who are not clearabout what’s happened,”says LaFeber. “It seems tome that all this makes itdoubly important thatthe Cornell communityhas confidence in thesearch process.”

Even with the uncer-tainty that still hangs inthe air, Meinig is optimistic that Cornell can find a strong candi-date who will continue the initiatives now under way, be an effec-tive leader for the capital campaign, and clearly articulate the Uni-versity’s mission as it approaches its sesquicentennial in 2015.“The institution is strong and will survive this unforeseen andunfortunate departure,” says Provost Martin. “It is sad that Jeff ’stenure ended up being shorter than expected, but he made endur-ing contributions while he was president. If you think of it his-torically, consider the ongoing involvement of other former pres-idents, and take into account the contributions that Jeff made, wecan look forward with a great deal of confidence.”

Others are less sanguine about Lehman’s future role at Cornell.“I hope that the University gets the value out of him that we getout of our other three emeritus presidents,” says Schwab. “We’dlose a resource and opportunity if we’re not able to convince Pres-ident Lehman to play a similar role. He’s talented, articulate, andvery committed to Cornell—we should take advantage of that.”Lehman remains a tenured faculty member, though his immedi-ate post-presidency plans involve a year-long appointment at theWoodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washing-ton, D.C. Schwab says that he has discussed the possibility ofLehman’s return to campus to teach at the Law school in 2006.“Wecould certainly use him,” he says. “But he’s weighing his options.”

Many feel that Lehman’s legacy will be more fully appreciatedas time passes and the controversy over his resignation fades. “Ithink it would be a tragedy for Cornell to write off his two yearsbecause of his resignation,” says Weiss. “Jeff worked very hard, heloved the place, and he did a lot of good things. . . . I don’t thinkthis is a good guy/bad guy situation, but one where the chemistrydidn’t work for a lot of reasons. He’s a good guy and will be bet-ter in his next position than he was here—and Cornell will selecta great president.” C

Inge ReichenbachUP



AFTER THE CRASH SHE DIDN’T SEE

COMING, ABBY JOSEPH COHEN IS

STILL ONE OF WALL STREET’S MOST

POWERFUL PROGNOSTICATORS.

IS SHE PLAYING IT SAFER THIS TIME?

DON’T BET ON IT.

theleading

indicator

It’s been a few months since investmentstrategist Abby Joseph Cohen ’73 moved heroffice from the forty-seventh to the forty-fifth floor of 1 New York Plaza, a skyscraperbalanced on the southern edge of Manhat-tan. Cohen, a partner-managing director and

chief U.S. investment strategist at Goldman, Sachs& Co., glances around her office. “I don’t knowwhere my business cards are,” she says with anaccent that offers more than a hint of her Queensupbringing. Fifty-three years old and solidly built,she stands about five feet tall, dressed in a conser-vative black pantsuit, turtleneck sweater, andsturdy lace-up shoes. She points to a tidy stack ofcardboard boxes. “They’re somewhere in there.”

Not so long ago, she practically didn’t need them. In the late1990s, with the stock market roaring, the unpretentious econo-mist became something of a media star when she predicted Amer-ica’s longest bull run since World War II. With her uncanny abil-ity to pull meaning from a chaos of economic statistics and giftfor plainspoken investment advice, she was a familiar face on thefinancial pages and on television. But when the bubble burst in2000, she, along with other high-profile pundits, were caught inthe backlash.

Though she spends a lot less time in the spotlight these days,Cohen is still an influential financial authority who advises theworld’s largest institutional investors, corporations, and govern-ments where to invest their billions. She has met in recent monthswith officials in Washington, Tokyo, London, Beijing, Jerusalem,Kuwait City, and Canberra to discuss subjects ranging from pen-sion reform to capital market structure, accounting, and economicpolicy. Forbes recently named her the nineteenth most powerfulwoman in the world, citing CNBC and Reuter’s assessments thather 2003 and 2004 equity market forecasts were the most accu-

BY SUSAN KELLEY

052-057CAMSO05AJC 8/18/05 11:46 AM Page 52



rate provided by any of the major investment firms. “She’s at leastas good as the very best, over and over again,” says Charley Ellis,founder of Greenwich Associates, a research consulting firm forfinancial institutions.

Cohen tends to brush off such praise, just as she brushes offthe headlines that once heralded her as an “oracle,” a “guru,” anda “soothsayer.” She prefers “data wonk”—which is a little bit likesaying Alan Greenspan is “good with numbers.” She says she hassucceeded in the financial industry because she takes her work

seriously, but doesn’t take herself seriously—for a reason that anyparent can appreciate: “I have children.”

And in a male-dominated industry rife with flash and brash-ness, Cohen remains unassuming. “She is cordial and gracious toeveryone. She has no airs whatsoever,” says Lauren Rublin, anassistant managing editor at Barron’s, where Cohen has beencommentator on an annual roundtable since 2000. One of themost powerful women in American business is also a nice ladyfrom Queens.

JOHN ABBOTT

052-057CAMSO05AJC 8/18/05 11:46 AM Page 53


In 2000, the New York Times ran a tongue-in-cheek columnthat wistfully imagined Cohen extending her influence to aworld “badly in need of her guidance.” (Teen pregnancyrates would drop. She’d win the World Series of Poker. Tai-wan and China would reunify.) Such was Cohen’s perceivedsway in the late ’90s, when an energetic economy was rock-

eting the stock market to dizzying heights. Throughout the bullmarket’s ten-year run, from 1990 to 2000, most financial punditsmisread the economic data and insisted that the party couldn’tlast. But Cohen, then co-chair of Goldman’s investment policycommittee, read the tea leaves differently. Factors like the low rateof inflation, investment in new technologies, and gains in corpo-rate productivity and earnings all indicated to her that the econ-omy was strong and the market would maintain its screamingpace. It did.

And the media noticed. In 1998, Fortune named her the ninthmost influential woman in corporate America (althoughthe magazine also said that herpower within Goldman sufferedbecause she hadn’t yet madepartner—a status that sheacquired in 1998). InstitutionalInvestor ranked her the number-one strategist from 1997 to 1999.For twelve years running, from1990 to 2002, Greenwich Associ-ates would rank her the top strate-gist as well.

Cohen was forecasting—as shestill does—for financially savvyGoldman clients with long-terminvestment horizons, but noviceinvestors grasping for a daily stockpick were also listening. At the time,employers were shifting their retire-ment programs into 401(k) plans,allowing employees to make their owninvestment decisions. As the stock mar-ket soared and cocktail-party talk turnedto the killings that could be made inupstart Internet companies, neophyteinvestors dove head-first into the market.

Enter Cohen, who could translate sophisticated economicconcepts into easy-to-understand language. She compared theU.S. economy to a supertanker—a big ship on an establishedcourse that can only be turned or stop slowly. She described inter-est rate increases as flu shots—medicine that would hurt at thetime but in the long run protect against inflation. “They aredeceptively simple metaphors that make her work accessible topeople who are not professional investors,” says Rublin.

Her influence grew to the point that her word could movemarkets. When she urged her clients to increase the amount ofstocks in their portfolios in October 1997, the Dow Jones Indus-trial Average shot up 337 points. She became a regular on televi-sion news programs such as “Wall $treet Week with LouisRukeyser,” which inducted her into its hall of fame in 1997. In1998, Business Week plastered her face on its cover with the head-

line “The Prophet of Wall Street.”In March 2000, the market turned south, just as Cohen urged

her clients to reduce the stocks held in their portfolios—but notby enough. Some criticized her for being too optimistic. Otherscharged that her sell signal had actually catalyzed the downwardspiral—and lost billions for technology- and stock-heavyinvestors. CNBC, under its ticker, called it “The Abby Effect.”

“Look, she had a rough spell,” says Steve Einhorn, Cohen’sformer boss at Goldman and vice chairman of Omega Advisors,a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund. “She stayed constructive on themarket in 2000, 2001, and 2002, and the market was down inevery one of those years.”

Cohen downplays the criticism. “It is unrealistic to expectforecasts of any type to be perfect,” she says. “In financial marketprojections, getting the direction right is often a notable accom-

plishment and extremely valuable to investors. InMarch 2000, on the day the S&P 500 peaked inprice, we advised our clients to sell some stocksand to be especially wary of the highly pricedtechnology stocks. In retrospect, we should haverung the alarm bell more loudly.” And her 2001projections, she says, were scuttled by the Sep-tember 11 terrorist attacks. In the summer of2001, she told clients that the recession wasending and therefore much of the decline inthe stock market was over, she says. “We nowknow that the economy and profits hadindeed begun to improve that summer, butthat growth came to an abrupt end in theaftermath of the September 11 attacks.”Cohen also contends that the media oftenoversimplified her 100-page reports intosound bites, sometimes with the wrongmessage.

Professionals in the field, while con-ceding that Cohen made mistakes, saythat she was also a victim of excessivehype.

“I know Abby well enough to know thatshe didn’t want the media attention when it was going up, and

was a big enough person to swallow it when it was coming againsther,” Einhorn says. “She did her work, she presented her views,and most intelligent users of market research understand that attimes a strategist will be wrong. As long as they represent them-selves fairly, analytically, and clearly, that’s all you can ask for.”

While Cohen lost a little cachet on Main Street, she’s still heldin high esteem at Goldman, where her job and responsibilitieshave grown, especially in the past two years. In May, she addresseda conference at the United Nations with Al Gore and Ted Turneron the role of institutional investors in environmental matters.Some people, clearly, still have confidence in her analyses.

People in Abby Joseph Cohen’s position typically require anestate in the Hamptons and another in Greenwich. Not Cohen.What’s the one thing she cannot live without? “Well, that’s a per-sonal question,” she says. She pauses. “Intellectual stimulation. Forme, the thrill of the chase, the puzzle that I get to solve on a reg-ular basis, is just very exciting.”

Fortune and fame: The cover of Business Week, June 1, 1998

052-057CAMSO05AJC 8/18/05 11:46 AM Page 54


We asked Abby Joseph Cohen for her assessment of the U.S. economy. Here’s what she told us:

I would describe the United States as being “in the middle,” using several different perspectives. First, the U.S.economy is now in the middle of an expansion. Although we are well past the last recession, we are still a considerable distance from the next recession. I also believe that the financial markets are in the midst of theiradjustment to economic fundamentals that are encouraging stock prices to rise further and bond prices to decline (that is, interest rates are expected to rise).

Second, the United States is “in the middle” in terms of our relative position in the world. We are central tomuch of what is happening elsewhere, given the size of our economy—the world’s largest—and the size of ourcapital markets—also the world’s largest. There are few developments here that don’t affect other nations. TheUnited States is also affected, directly and indirectly, by conditions elsewhere.

Third, the global economy is currently in disequilibrium, and because that is not sustainable in the long run,we are in the midst of changes. Specifically, the U.S. economy is growing well, yet many other senioreconomies are not. There is a notable gap in the growth rates of the major industrial economies, with theUnited States growing about twice as fast as Europe and Japan. Our corporations are enjoying solid profits,have repaired their accounting and their balance sheets, and have cash to hire more workers and invest in newequipment. The contrast to the weaker picture in other major economies is worrisome, and it has implicationsfor foreign trade and currencies. The United States is the world’s largest trading nation, and to the surprise ofmany, is usually the world’s leading exporter. However, other industrial economies are our primary customersand, if they are growing slowly, they won’t be actively buying our exports. This impedes our growth as well.

STATE OF

THE UNION

052-057CAMSO05AJC 8/18/05 11:46 AM Page 55


She also integrates Goldman’s research on specific companies andindustries. “Often we’ll pick up trends in company informationbefore we’ll see it in the governmental data.” Cohen’s outstandingmemory for facts and statistics and her formidable command ofeconomic analysis enable her to speak with authority on a rangeof financial topics, Rublin says. “She’s ferociously intelligent andshe works extremely hard.”

Cohen typically arrives at her office at 7 a.m., puts in a twelve-to-fifteen-hour day (and often works on the weekend), and gets200 to 300 e-mails each day. Lately, she’s cut her travel down toseventy-five days per year. “The days are frenetic, so I do a lot ofmy reading, thinking, and writing either in the evenings or on theweekends,” she says. “I also work on long airplane flights. I findflights to faraway places to be very productive, because there is notelephone or computer.”

Cohen bolsters her analytical powers with diverse interests.She and her two daughters often visit the Museum of Modern Art

(she is a Paul Klee fan). She will devour two orthree books at a time—recent reads include Wed-ding of the Waters, Peter Bernstein’s chronicle ofthe Erie Canal (“It was good, but it needed moremaps”), and Brian Greene’s The Fabric of the Cos-mos. She and a group of Goldman women meetmonthly with a rabbi to study European history.A trustee of the Jewish Theological Seminary, shefacilitated a panel there discussing the inclusionof women in the rabbinate. She is also a Cornelltrustee, serves on the Board of Overseers of theWeill Cornell Medical College, and often speaksat the Johnson School.

Her wide-ranging interests can inform herwork, she says. “Sometimes the biggest insightcomes from looking at something totally differ-

ent from what you look at during the course of the day.”All this helps Cohen advise people how to make money—lots

of it. Since she joined MOMA’s investment committee (whichincludes such financial luminaries as Leon Black, Pete Peterson,and Robert Menschel) in 1999, its endowment has grown from$200 million to $475 million. “People really respect her judg-ment,” says James Gara, MOMA’s chief operations officer, “andyou’re talking about the key titans of the investment world whosit on this committee and look forward to hearing Abby’s pointof view and are often swayed by Abby’s point of view.” Should shefind herself in a disagreement, Cohen is loath to give ground, Ellissays. “Abby is always gracious and thoughtful without ever back-ing away—she never talks down, and never soft-pedals.”

Cohen still lives in Queens, near thehouse where she was raised. Hermother, Shirley Joseph, emigratedfrom Poland in the 1920s with herfamily, leaving behind relatives whowould later be killed in the Holo-

caust. At a time when few women worked outside the home,Joseph held a position at the comptroller’s office of GeneralFoods, but left shortly before Cohen’s elder sister, Sharyn, was

That puzzle is also diabolically complex: predicting the long-term performance of the global economy. She tries to solve it witha muscular intellect and a healthy skepticism of the economicindicators that others accept as gospel.

Although she oversees nine employees in Goldman’s globalinvestment research department, she herself spends several hourseach week poring over statistics such as inflation rates, grossdomestic product, and labor productivity published by the Con-gressional Budget Office and Federal Reserve Board. “I find thatwith my experienced eye,” Cohen says, “I may pick up trends orpatterns that other people who don’t have the same number ofyears in place may not pick up.”

Rather than take those statistics at face value, Cohen, who hasa master’s degree in economics from George Washington Univer-sity, factors in how the sampling and surveying techniques onwhich they are based might skew outcomes. It’s her way of fight-ing “the tyranny of a lot of data,” as she calls it. “There is often a

presumption that just because there is a data item and it’s pub-lished—heaven knows, if it’s on a computer—it must be right,”she says. “The data, number one, are not necessarily all that pre-cise; number two, are subject to revision; and number three, mightbe irrelevant.”

She learned the value of skepticism at her first job after grad-uating from Cornell, at the Federal Reserve Board’s research divi-sion. The team on which she served as a junior member tried toidentify ways in which the Fed’s sophisticated econometric modelwould not work. They discovered that its forecasting ability wasseriously impeded during periods of high inflation because it hadbeen developed before the worrisome inflation of the 1970s, shesays. “So, if you relied only on the model, you didn’t get quite theright answer.” She applied that lesson at Goldman in the 1990s,building her own projections of corporate earnings from scratchby analyzing every quarterly earnings report of every company inthe S&P 500—rather than relying on data published by publiccompanies.

To get an accurate read on the economy, Cohen also examineswhat she calls “critical variables,” like the health of the labor mar-kets, corporate accounting and governance, and the Bush admin-istration’s budget deficit. Increasingly, she also delves into the eco-nomic health of other countries. “We are the world’s largesttrader,” Cohen says. “Everybody forgets that. One of the criticalvariables that emerges from that is, well, how is Europe doing?How is Japan doing? They are major customers for our products.”

WHAT’S THE ONE THING SHE CANNOTLIVE WITHOUT? ‘WELL, THAT’S A PERSONAL QUESTION,’ SHE SAYS. SHE PAUSES. ‘INTELLECTUAL STIMULATION. FOR ME, THE THRILL OF THE CHASE, THE PUZZLE THAT I GET TO SOLVE ON A REGULAR BASIS,IS JUST VERY EXCITING.’

052-057CAMSO05AJC 8/18/05 11:46 AM Page 56


born. Cohen’s father, Raymond Joseph, was born in Brooklyn toparents who had recently come from Poland. He became anaccountant with the firm J.K. Lasser, now part of Deloitte &Touche, and eventually worked for one of its best clients, Essencemagazine. Both parents encouraged their daughters to cut theirown paths, just as they had.

At her public high school, Cohen thrived in an honors scienceprogram that was two-thirds boys. She chose to attend Cornellfor its Nobel Prize winners in physics,the breadth of its courses—and its pio-neering role in co-education, she says.“I thought, the world is co-ed, theworkforce is co-ed. This is something Ineed to do.”

She entered Cornell as a physicalchemistry major, but became increas-ingly intrigued by the new field ofeconometrics, which used computers toapply mathematical and statistical con-cepts to economics. She also studiedcomputer science and operations research, subjects that, in theearly 1970s, weren’t available at most universities. In her secondyear, she switched her major to economics. (It was in her Eco-nomics 101 class that she met her husband, David Cohen ’73, whois assistant vice president for administration at Columbia Uni-versity Medical Center and was previously Columbia’s laborlawyer.) Cornell offered the opportunity to learn both economicprinciples and applications, she says. “For me, the fact that I wasable to do my theoretical work in economics and then walk overto the Engineering Quad and implement what I was studying the-

oretically was critically important. At the time, it made me partof a very small group that was able to do that.”

Of that small group, few were women. She doesn’t remembermany in her electrical engineering courses or in the economicsdepartment; some buildings even lacked ladies’ rooms. “In a way,my Cornell experience prepared me for my career because thegender mix was similar when I got to the workplace,” Cohen says.

With her background in mathematical economics and com-puter science, she began to hire herself out to graduate students,building databases and doing econometric analyses for their dis-sertation research. After she graduated, Cohen was flooded withjob offers. She and her husband moved to Washington, D.C.,where she joined the Fed and got her master’s degree. In 1976, shesigned on as an applied economist with T. Rowe Price, a research-oriented money management firm.

It was only then that she encountered the undisguised genderdiscrimination of the corporate world. On several occasions, shewas initially refused entry into meetings at clients’ offices becauseshe was mistaken for a secretary. When she hosted a luncheon ata private club, she was given a tiny room without air-condition-ing and told that women were not allowed on the other floorsuntil evening.

In 1978, she was named the youngest vice president at T. RowePrice at the time—and then denied health insurance for her hus-band. “I was told that men, not women, were the primary wageearners of their families, and only they were entitled to the bene-fit,” she recounted in a Harvard case study of her career. The firmreconsidered when Cohen’s husband gave her a case that showedthe policy was illegal. When a senior male executive found outthat Cohen had a daughter and then told her that he thoughtmothers shouldn’t work, she let headhunters know she wantedout. In 1982, she and her family returned to Queens, near her par-ents, and she took a job as an equity strategist for Drexel Burn-ham Lambert. In 1990, Drexel collapsed in a scandal. That year,Cohen joined Goldman.

Fifteen years later, she’s still the exception to the male rule. AtGoldman, she is one of about 200 female managing directors out

of 1,150. But Cohen istypically understatedabout her role on thefinancial world’s genderfrontier. “My way ofapproaching change hasbeen to be the best pro-fessional I can be,” shesays.

It’s a strategy thathas paid off hand-somely. In a business

that makes cruel distinctions between its winners and losers,Cohen has made a name for herself by getting the “right” answeron the market time and again. Although she is fastidious aboutlaying out the assumptions behind her forecasts, and although sheappreciates the absurdity of trying to be 100 percent accurate 100percent of the time, in the end, clients still want to know the mostlikely outcome. “The joke about an economist is that the mostdangerous thing is, ‘. . . but on the other hand,’ ” she says. “HarryTruman said what he really wanted more than anything else wasa one-armed economist. And that’s what we try to do.”

The budding economist: Abby Joseph, 1973 Cornellian

C

REV057-057CAMSO05AJC 8/22/05 4:02 PM Page 57


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munity College ofPhiladelphia, Marciarecalls an anxiousstudent who ap-proached her one dayafter a class. The stu-dent had just been in-vited to apply toCornell and soughtMarcia’s guidance byinquiring whether sheknew anything aboutthe school. In thebest CAAAN tradi-tion, Marcia sharedher excitement for her alma mater andencouraged the student to apply. Thestudent eventually became a 2000graduate of Cornell, and Marcia is nowproud to call her a colleague on thefaculty at the community college.

Marcia began her leadership inCAAAN as chair of the Southern NewJersey committee in the mid-1970s,when CAAAN went by a differentname and had a different mission. Af-ter moving to Philadelphia in 1979,she continued to lead the localCAAAN organization. During hertenure, metro Philadelphia has grownto comprise fifteen individual CAAANcommittees and receives up to 700freshman applications a year. Marciaspeaks with pride about the accom-

plishments of greater Philadelphia’sCAAAN network, and the leadershipof such alumni as Connie Case Hag-gard ’58, Jim Lansing ’53, Amy Norr’82, and the other twelve committeechairpersons who all keep the organi-zation going at full speed.

Besides providing a rewarding ex-perience, serving as a CAAAN ambas-sador can help promote personal andprofessional development. When JeffLee ’89, ME ’90, arrived at Cornell asa new computer science student fromthe Bronx High School of Science, hewas “a bit shy” and “almost nervousmeeting new kids.” (The “almost” issignificant, because he met his futurewife, Debbie Squires-Lee ’91, at his

(continued on page 63)

Cornell’s Ambassadors: On the Front Lines

Two devoted CAAAN volunteers assist the University—and grow in the process

By the CAAAN Advisory Committee

When a high school stu-dent approaches theCornell table at a col-lege fair, the first Uni-

versity representative that sheencounters is often a Cornell AlumniAdmissions Ambassador Network(CAAAN) volunteer. More than 6,900CAAAN alumni around the world as-sist the Cornell admissions commu-nity in recruiting superior under-graduatestudents. Each year, they staff hun-dreds of college fairs and conduct morethan 12,000 informal meetings withapplicants.

Even more important is the per-sonal introduction to Cornell that theyextend to prospective students.CAAAN’s mission is to provide local,helpful guidance to students navigat-ing the application process and to of-fer insight into the benefits of life atCornell. Volunteers offer a human andcalming touch to this stressful time inthe applicant’s life. Their personal in-troduction to Cornell and the talksthat follow can be the deciding factorin the student’s decision to attend.

That was the case in a story relat-ed by Marcia Goldschlager Epstein ’64,who has served as CAAAN’s generalchair for the Philadelphia metropolitanarea for more than two decades. A pro-fessor of behavioral sciences at Com-

Marcia Goldschlager Epstein ’64 and Jeff Lee ’89, ME ’90

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Calendar of EventsSeptember 15 – November 15

For updated information, call the Office of Alumni Affairs, (607) 255-3517 or visit us online at www.alumni.cornell.edu

New York/OntarioCAA/Central New York, Sept. 29—CAAAN dinner.Contact Jim Miller, 315/422-4818.

CC/Genesee-Orleans, Oct. 21—Fall dinner meeting:a night at Batavia Downs. Contact Jennifer Henry-Smith, 585/768-4213.

Metro/New YorkCEN/New York City, Oct. 25—Guest speaker MarkBelnick, former general counsel of Tyco Corp., at 6:30p.m. Contact Justine Schaffner, [email protected],607/254-6412.

CEN/New York City, Oct. 25—Guest speaker ReneeSiegel, the Cornell Club, at 7:30 a.m. Contact Jus-tine Schaffner, [email protected], 607/254-6412.

School of Hotel Administration, Nov. 14—CornellHotel Society reception at the International Ho-tel/Motel & Restaurant Show, Bryant Park Grill, NewYork City. Contact Ilya Cherepakhin, [email protected].

NortheastCC/New Hampshire, Sept. 18—First annual Merri-mack Valley family picnic and potluck, Bedford. Con-tact Dan and Tracy Atlas, [email protected],603/880-0607.

CC/Boston, Sept. 20—Club membership apprecia-tion party, Jimmy’s Harborside Restaurant. ContactPaul Hayre, [email protected], 781/772-1778.

CC/Rhode Island and Bristol County, Sept. 24—Club membership appreciation party, Newport Din-ner Train. Contact Mitchell Edwards, [email protected], 401/457-5122.

Northeast Regional Office, Sept. 24—Concert bythe Sherwoods 12-man a cappella singing group,Boston. Contact Laura Little, [email protected],617/557-4168.

Office of Alumni Affairs, Sept. 24—Cornell celebra-tion at Yale with President and Mrs. Hunter Rawlings.Contact the Northeast Regional Office, 617/557-4168.

CC/Berkshires, Oct. 2—Millbrook Vineyards and Win-ery tour. Contact Toby Levine, [email protected].

CC/Cape Cod, Oct. 5—Luncheon. Contact JudithCarr, [email protected], 508/539-0809.

CC/Greater Hartford, Oct. 11—Human Ecologyspeaker. Contact John Eckel, [email protected], 860/651-1716.

CEN, Oct. 11—CEN forum featuring Jill Tarter of theArecibo Observatory. Contact Justine Schaffner,[email protected], 607/254-6412.

CC/Greater Hartford, Oct. 15—Hike to Heublin Tow-er, Talcott Mountain State Park. Contact Amy Fairchild,[email protected], 860/693-1317.

CC/Boston, Oct. 16—Annual bus trip to Cornell.Contact Jeff Lee, [email protected].

CC/Greater Hartford, Oct. 24—Board meeting. Con-tact John Eckel, [email protected],860/651-1716.

Cornell Annual Fund, Oct. 24—Boston Cornell An-nual Fund Phonathon. Contact Jeff Lee, [email protected], 781/749-9990.

Cornell Annual Fund, Oct. 25—Vermont Cornell An-nual Fund Phonathon. Contact Walt Bruska, [email protected], 802/985-4121.

CC/Boston, Oct. 27—Cornell Professional Network-ing event, with Rene Robert on “Entrepreneurism inthe Financial Sector.” Contact Paul Hayre, [email protected], 781/772-1778.

CC/Greater Hartford, Nov. 4—Men’s hockey vs. Yalein New Haven. Contact Harry Woodward, [email protected], 203/284-1257.

CC/Rhode Island and Bristol County, Nov. 5—Men’shockey vs. Brown in Providence. Contact Mitchell Ed-wards, [email protected], 401/457-5122.

CC/New Hampshire, Nov. 5—Cornell football vs. Dart-mouth in Hanover. Contact Jill Mayo, [email protected], 978/373-5728.

CC/Cape Cod, Nov. 9—Board meeting, ThirwoodPlace. Contact Judith Carr, [email protected],508/539-0809.

Cornell Annual Fund, Nov. 9—Hartford Cornell FundPhonathon. Contact Shara Freeman, [email protected], 617/557-4168.

Northeast Regional Office, Nov. 10—Boston youngalumni happy hour. Contact Shara Freeman,[email protected], 617/557-4168.

CC/Boston, Nov. 11—Cornell men’s hockey vs. Har-vard. Contact Alexis Riedl, [email protected],617/947-4203.

CC/New Hampshire, Nov. 12—Cornell men’s hock-ey vs. Dartmouth. Contact Jill Mayo, [email protected], 978/373-5728.

MidwestCC/Minnesota, Sept. 20—Reading group, AmoreCoffee, St. Paul: The Metaphysical Club: A Story ofIdeas in America by Louis Menand. Contact JudyMorgan, 651/688-6113.

SoutheastCAA/Atlanta, Sept. 24—Volunteer at the AtlantaCommunity Food Bank. Contact Frank Goldman,[email protected].

CEN, Sept. 29—Robert Strudler of Lennar Corp. on“Real Estate Development in Miami: Where It’s Beenand Where It’s Going,” Hyatt Regency Miami. ContactJustine Schaffner, [email protected], 607/254-6412.

INTERNATIONALSPIRIT OF

NIGHTOctober 20, 2005

Join thousands of other Cornellians around the world celebrating the2005 International Spirit of Zinck’s Night. This is an opportunity toremember good times on the Hill and honor the spirit of Cornell University and Theodore Zinck!

For details on the nearest Zinck’s event, please visit: www.alumni.cornell.edu/zincks

Ωinck’s

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(continued from page 61)fraternity’s first party of the year.) Twoyears after earning his master’s degree,he joined CAAAN’s Committee #34in Queens, New York. In 1998, Jeffand Debbie moved to Boston, wherehe transitioned from a committeemember to committee chair, eventu-ally rising in the ranks to become thegeneral chair for Eastern Massachu-setts and a member of the CAAANAdvisory Committee.

In that time, meeting and inter-acting with young people who are ap-plying to Cornell has honed his“people skills,” which he uses everyday in his position with Citigroup, Jeff

says. CAAAN involvement has alsoincreased his self-confidence and lead-ership skills, which are evident in hisrelated Cornell activities: coordinatingthe Cornell Book Awards, the Fresh-man Send-Off, and the Cornell Clubof Boston’s annual bus trip to theIthaca campus. He has also chairedthe Boston Cornell Fund Phonathonfor several years.

Jeff ’s involvement in CAAAN alsoprovides him with a way to give backto the University, he says. “I feel likeI owe a lot to Cornell.” Not only didhis Cornell degrees (and a Cornellconnection) land him on Wall Streetand in Boston with Citigroup, but his

son Jesse was born at Weill CornellMedical Center in New York, deliv-ered by Joan Kent ’80, MD ’84.

CAAAN ambassadors like Jeff andMarcia are enthusiastic, informed vol-unteers who put a personal face onCornell by answering applicants’ ques-tions and providing them with infor-mation about the University and itsstrengths. Their work benefits stu-dents and Cornell—and the rewardsbenefit them as well.

To learn more about CAAAN, or tovolunteer, please visit http://caaan.admissions.cornell.edu or call the Ad-missions office at (607) 255-5020.

Come Home to Cornell!Celebrate Cornell’s Homecoming October 15

The Cornell campus will be infull swing with a variety of pro-grams that promise to keepyou busy from morning tonight! Attend a stimulatingHomecoming forum Saturdaymorning. Join alumni andfriends from several collegesand departments at the LynahRink parking lot tent for achicken barbecue with infor-mation tables, giveaways, mu-sical entertainment, and more.On Saturday afternoon, cheeron the Big Red football teamin Schoellkopf as they take onGeorgetown University. Andyou won’t want to miss theGlee Club’s Fall Concert atSage Chapel in the evening.

For more information, please visit:www.alumni.cornell.edu/homecoming/

or contact the Office of Alumni Affairs at 607-255-7085. For football and

parking information, contact the Athletics Ticket Office at

607-254-BEAR.

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CRC There have been Cornell re-unions when snow fell on theexurban hills of Ithaca, but this

wasn’t one of them. June busted out with roast-ing hot dog days of spring ’05, and when therains came by Friday for the mandatory reunionappearance, they were actually welcome. None ofthe 100 or so Continuous Reunion Club memberswho turned up for our 99th Reunion objected toa break in the global warming of Ithaca.

CRC returned to its North Campus home,the Holland International Living Center namedfor Brud Holland ’39, a hotbed of good conver-sation and the merriment of convivial old (andnew) buddies. Some checked out the SavageClub Thursday night at the Statler Auditorium.Others visited friends in neighboring classes. TheArts Quad tents don’t open until Friday thesedays, but you could hear our Dave Dingle ’50 atthe piano in his nearby 55th Reunion headquar-ters. Or you could hear pianist Tom Foulkes ’52and clarinetist Lou Pradt ’53 jamming, or rather,rehearsing, at Holland. They don’t get togetheroften, but when they do, a groovin’ sound ismade. At HILC, they were preparing to cut atape. It will become available. Stay tuned.

There were early bird walks at the Laboratoryof Ornithology, a golf tournament, an engineer-ing breakfast, and classes Friday morning. Mostof CRC found its way to the Statler for the annuallunch with Director of Athletics Andy Noel andhis coaching staff. There it was revealed that tenbottles of beer had been delivered to us at thebeginning of the weekend. That was one for eachcase ordered. (The situation was rectified.)

Retired Cornell Athletic Hall of Fame base-ball and freshman football coach Ted Thorenhelped the revelers ease into the spirit of theweekend with his own Thoren-y wit and wisdom.“I’m glad we brought football coach Jim Knowles’87 home,” said Ted.

The members learned that the new holderof the Cornell Tradition Fellowship named forthe late Joe Driscoll ’44, MBA ’49—Kelsey Dow’09, of Bristol, PA—was settling into the life of aCornellian. CRC announced a gift to the men’sand women’s squash teams, coached by Markand Julee Devoy. “We want athletes to have apositive experience,” Julee told the members.The men’s team beat Princeton for the first timein 39 matches and finished sixth in the nation-als with two All-America players. The womenwere ranked 10th nationally.

Andy Noel reviewed an athletic year inwhich the Big Red’s three-year total of IvyLeague championships reached 22. Knowlestook the football team from a 1-9 record in 2003to second place in the Ivy League last year. “You

are our strength. You are our heart,” he told thefriends of Cornell football present. Noel intro-duced the new women’s rowing coach, ChrisWilson. “Cornell is an exciting place for womanathletes,” she said. Vice President for Student andAcademic Services Susan Murphy ’73, PhD ’94,“makes us feel important.”

Gerry Grady ’53 gave the financial report,then called for a moment to honor the memoryof CRC members lost in the past year: FrankO’Brien ’31, Chuck Sweeney ’42, William Hagar’41, Roy Unger ’43, Robert Smart ’57, and SamBookbinder ’57.

In the afternoon, some heard former Presi-dent Frank H.T. Rhodes’s Spencer T. and AnnW. Olin Foundation lecture. Others gathered atSchoellkopf Field for the Cornell Football Asso-ciation reception. The rain drove them indoors,but they did see the inside of the new Schoell-kopf Memorial Hall, home of a state-of-the-artlocker room, new office space for Knowles andhis staff, a rebuilt Hall of Fame Room, and aTradition Room, where recognition will be madeof the great days of Cornell football.

In the evening, many took our own StanRodwin ’50 and his class up on the offer to danceto the music of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (asinterpreted by Buddy Morrow) at Barton Hall.

Many were drawn to President JeffreyLehman ’77’s State of the University addressafter Grady’s ice cream social at Class of ’55headquarters Saturday morning. Others went tothe tenth annual Alumni Baseball Game, put onby Thoren and current coach Tom Ford, at HoyField. Harry Merker ’51, Pete Plamondon ’54,and Art Kesten ’44 suited up. They call Art theowner, but he goes beyond George Steinbrenner,depositing cash money under the bases. If youhit a triple, they pick up the bag and you pick upthe money. Public address guy Dave Wohlhueterread out the name of your correspondent whileannouncing the lineups before the game, so Itrotted out along the first base line with the teamin white to hear the umpire sing the nationalanthem. An unforgettable moment: Roger Abell’30, aged 97, came out in his vintage wool uni-form on a 96-degree day, stroked a sharp linedrive to right field, and ran safely to first.

Leaving Hoy Field, your correspondentencountered Jim Hazzard ’50. “Did you hear thenews?” he asked. I hadn’t. “Lehman quit,” sayshe. “You’re always pulling my leg,” says I. “I’mnot,” he goes, and he wasn’t. That provided thesubject for considerable conversation through-out the rest of the weekend, including a healthyexchange of misinformation.

CRC enjoyed superb country cuisine atDempsey’s, out Route 34, Saturday night. Singers


Reports of Reunion Classes

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Exuberance: Robert Wallace ’45 struts his stuff at Barton Hall during Reunion 2005.

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of the Alumni Hangovers, led by Kenyon Erick-son ’81, serenaded the diners. And so to thetents, or Cornelliana Night.

Once again CRC relished the kind of Cor-nell quality time that keeps its members comingback every year—or almost. And once again,that’s thanks to the efforts of Margaret Gallo,Cathy Hogan, Kelly Woodhouse, and many oth-ers of Alumni House, and Noel, John Webster,and Kathleen Bolton of the Athletics department.This time, there are extra thanks for the Reunionclerks for efforts far above and beyond the call ofduty. So thank you kindly, Alyssa Simon ’05 andAmanda Magee ’08. Jim Hanchett ’53, 300First Ave., Apt. 8B, New York, NY 10009; e-mail,[email protected].

Our 65th Reunion was indeed aHOT affair—both figurativelyand literally! Ithaca poured onthe heat and humidity, so we

were indeed grateful to be headquartered in theair-conditioned and convenient Statler Hotel.Unfortunately, the large events like the All-Alumni Lunches and the big lectures ended up inBarton Hall, and the Newman Arena in BartelsHall (a new athletic building with large basketballcourts). Those venues are so huge as to be totallyun-air-conditionable! But we all survived andenjoyed the many Reunion offerings. Our goodchairmen Bumper Baird and Toni Saxe Stewartand the university did a great job!

Thirty-four stalwart members of the Classof ’40 attended, along with a few spouses and/oroffspring. That’s not a 65th Reunion record, butabove average! Unfortunately, Carol Petrie, atthe last minute, had some health problems andwas unable to attend. Hence, I was abruptlydrawn into the task of writing this column—andI apologize for its inadequacies. Carol feels herhealth problems may persist and, besides, thatit’s time for a change. She’s been doing our classcolumns more years than anyone can count. So,PLEASE, someone volunteer! A man would beespecially appreciated! There are only sixcolumns a year, and the alumni magazine staff isvery helpful. Anyone willing to try can contactme or Adele Robinette at the magazine (401 EastState St., Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850).

Our opening event was a joint reception inthe Statler for all the “senior” classes housedthere, and was attended by President JeffreyLehman ’77 and his wife. The Savage Club pro-gram and Cornelliana Night were wonderfulold-time pleasures. Cornell’s former presidentFrank Rhodes gave a very interesting Olin Lec-ture, and President Lehman surprised the wholegroup in his State of the University address whenhe announced he was stepping down at the endof June, as covered elsewhere in this magazine.At our class dinner, ’40’s longtime trustee ChuckStewart and his trustee wife Pat (Carry) ’50 gaveus some interesting insight into life on thatboard. Our own John Thatcher entertained usat a couple of dinners with his still elegant tenorvoice. Bus tours of the Plantations and aroundthe campus let us get some feeling for all thechanges. There were many who commented, likeLarry Cook, MEd ’51, that with all the newbuildings it’s hard to find one’s way around! ButI can report that the Arts Quad is not muchchanged and Andrew White and Ezra Cornellstill face each other across its middle!

We are still an active group. Bob Wood, MD’43, once again participated in the All-AlumniRun through the Plantations on that hot Satur-day morning. Paul Fox, BArch ’47, and his wifecontinue to live in their home on Lake Ontarioat Sodus Bay, wintering in Naples, FL, in theircamper. At Sodus Bay, Paul owns considerableacreage, which he’s developing into small lots—a hobby, he says! He’s looking forward to our70th and 75th reunions! Toni and Jack Stewart

Ellen Albertini Dow, MA ’38, of WoodlandHills, CA, was attending her first reunion ononly her second trip to Ithaca since graduation.She talked about her work at Cornell with Prof.Alexander Drummond and her continued devo-tion to the dramatic arts—with conspicuoussuccess. LCL Bill Barden of Falls Church, VA,brought his daughter Bette and his son Bill Jr.,MBA ’75, who celebrated his 35th Reunion atthe business school. (Sadly, the university receivedword that Col. Barden died on July 22.—Ed.)Esther Major Batchelder, who recently movedto Doylestown, PA, and has been “downsizing”for six months, came alone.

Helen Berdick Freedman (Catonsville, MD)was accompanied by her daughter Marianne.Reeve Dean (East Aurora, NY) was with wifeMary, son Reeve Jr., and daughter-in-law Jeanette.Elizabeth Williams Stavely (Mendocino, CA)was met by her son Keith and daughter Kath-leen. Dr. Tevis Goldhaft (Haverford, PA) wasaccompanied by his daughter Judith ’61, wholives in California. The dean of the Vet collegehad asked Tevis to speak at their banquet Satur-day night, so he missed our gathering. KittyMorris Lockwood (New Rochelle, NY) haddaughters Katherine and Barbara as her guests.

Alvin Mintz, MD ’38, and his wife Beatricelive in Morristown, NJ, where Al is a retiredpediatrician. Murray Socolof and wife Joan areretired in Franklin Lakes, NJ. Ruth HarderDugan (Hamburg, NY), who still plays tenniswith a contemporary group, brought her son,Dirk ’72, an orthopedist, who keeps the Cornellhockey team healthy. Lucy Schempp Jacoby(Hastings, MI) brought her daughter JennanePelon. Virginia Yoder Briggs, MEd ’66, who livesin Ithaca, was with us on Saturday night. Sherecalled that when we were at Cornell, thewomen had a separate entrance for WillardStraight Hall.

Wil Kelly spent Saturday morning on theInlet, where he pulled number two oar in analumni shell without making any mistakes. Heleft for Vermont happy. Viola Henry Miller-Mullane was very much in evidence duringReunion and has been working with AlumniHouse for the last year. We all owe her a greatvote of thanks. Her son Robert Miller ’61, MBA’63, was with her Saturday night.

A class photo was taken during the cocktailhour, followed by a short class meeting at whichthe undersigned was reelected president, ViolaMiller-Mullane was elected vice president andtreasurer, and Florence De Remer, who has beenvery helpful in class matters requiring a secre-tary, was elected secretary. It was a pleasure tohave longtime honorary class members Presi-dent Emeritus Dale Corson and his wife Nelliewith us for Saturday dinner. Dale described tous some of the problems he faced from alumniafter the return of the university to stability.

At the Cornelliana Night celebration later,Ellen Dow was honored for attending her firstreunion, her 70th. The Class of 1935 set a 70thReunion record for number of donors to theCornell Fund, and a record for the percentage ofclass participation in the Fund—59 percent! Albert G. Preston Jr., 252 Overlook Dr.,


The weather in Ithaca was hot andmuggy, unlike June days you mayrecall. All of our breakfasts anddinners were held in the Statler

Hotel and our sleeping rooms were also pleas-antly air-conditioned. The only cost of Reunionfor classmates with one companion was theirtravel to and from Cornell. It was the best bar-gain in 70 years. We had a lively group of 19classmates, with 21 or so family or companions.As usually happens, there were last-minute can-cellations, for which we were sorry.

Lunches were nearby in sun-baked BartonHall, where iced drinks hit the spot. Our firstofficial event was a combined reception with theClass of 1940 in the Statler Ballroom, at which Iwas asked to introduce President Jeffrey Lehman’77 and his wife, Kathy Okun. After that, thepresident and his wife made the rounds of theroom, greeting the alumni, who were pleased tomeet them. Less than 48 hours later, in a talk onthe State of the University, Lehman shocked theaudience by announcing his resignation as pres-ident of the university at the end of June.

We were fortunate in having as Thursday din-ner guests President Emeritus Frank H. T. Rhodesand his wife, Rosa. They knew many members ofthe class and it was a pleasant evening. His wordsof wisdom were outstanding, as was the choco-late dessert prepared in his honor. One of the acappella groups opened the meeting with theAlma Mater. Florence Nusim Greville played thepiano, when it finally arrived, for the “EveningSong,” which ended the meeting. PresidentRhodes was scheduled to deliver the Olin Lec-ture on Friday afternoon and was planning on“burning the midnight oil.” At 7 a.m. Friday, asit would on Saturday and Sunday, the Statlerstarted serving a beautiful breakfast buffet unlikeanything seen at any previous 1935 reunion. Wewere really living.

The cocktail hour and dinner on Fridaywere well attended. Wilfred Kelly from Ver-gennes, VT, brought Jeff Rehbach ’75, MA ’82,who is in the music department at MiddleburyCollege. He helped Florence Greville with thepiano. Wil Kelly and Mike Cantor (Scarsdale,NY), who had arrived with his daughter JaneKauffmann, helped with the singing of Cornellsongs. Everyone present had an opportunity toreminisce or describe what they have been doingin the last 70 years or part thereof.

Greenwich, CT 06830; tel., (203) 869-8387; e-mail, [email protected].

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’38, JD ’40, tend four gardens while enjoying lifeat the Kendal retirement community in Ithaca.They also celebrated the arrival of their thirdgreat-grandchild as our Reunion was starting,and were looking forward to their fourth later inthe month. Others with great-grand news wereBette Limpert Mayhew, whose first one arrivedin July ’04; Edna Isaacs Lowe, whose first arrivedlast January; and Jeanne Titterton Lewis, whohas two. Jean did not attend Reunion, but sent avery informative letter. In other news, BettyRussell Owings has moved from sunny Califor-nia to sunny Florida (1473 Goldrush Ave., Mel-bourne, FL 32940-6501).

That’s all for now! If you have any news,reunion or other, please send it to me. Don’t for-get we need that VOLUNTEER if you want morecolumns! And, like Paul Fox, start looking for-ward to our 70th! Ellen Ford, 300 WestminsterCanterbury Dr., Apt. 416, Winchester, VA 22603.

he loved that song and had never heard it before,so co-president Maxine Katz Morse (Rye, NH)led us in an encore.

Saturday was the annual All-Alumni Lunch-eon at Barton, where once again we were the onlyclass to march around the perimeter, led by a fineband playing suitable military marches. Duringthe afternoon, most fraternities and sororitiesheld receptions (the largest fraternity contingentwas four Betas: Robert “Smoke” Adair (Calgary,AB), Roy Hughes (The Woodlands, TX), yourstruly, and William Hoffmann (Annapolis, MD),whose boss, Mary Lib (Mershon), gave him aliberty pass), and that evening we again enjoyedthe superb cuisine at the Statler, with the beau-tiful piano accompaniment of Thelma EmileHunter (St. Paul, MN) to the violin of ErnestGosline, MD ’47 (Clinton, NY). Co-presidentTod Knowles, MBA ’49 (Annapolis, MD) waspage-turner. A short business meeting elicitedthe information from treasurer Mort Eydenberg(Roslyn Heights, NY) that we are solvent, andwas followed by a presentation of mementos ofappreciation to our co-chairs. I sat with JerrierHaddad (Briarcliff Manor, NY) and his wife Carol,looking great after a recent illness, and was ableto thank him for taking on the job of class web-master. If you haven’t seen his still-in-progresshandiwork, go to http://classof45.alumni.cornell.edu and send any suggestions to Jerry, which hewill welcome.

Sunday morning we enjoyed a full, hot break-fast and held an “election” (aka railroad) at whichall current officers were re-elected, except VP DickFrost (Cranberry Township, PA), who declinedand was replaced by former Engineering dean andpresident of Worcester Polytechnic Inst. EdmundCranch, PhD ’51 (Ithaca). Secretary Ann LynchPape (Garden City, NY) could not serve again andthe post is open. Volunteers, please!

Not too many of us oldsters went tentinguntil 1:00 AM, but a lot took advantage of otherevents, like the Savage Club show, Olin lecture byPresident Emeritus Frank Rhodes, a Sage Chapelconcert by the Cornell Chorus, dancing in Bar-ton Hall to the “Tommy Dorsey” orchestra, Cor-nelliana Night in Bartels, the university memo-rial service at Sage Chapel, and trips during theday to places such as the stunning 2-year-old Labof Ornithology at Sapsucker Woods.

We had plenty of time to look over the mem-orabilia organized by class historian Elizabeth“Libby” Hemsath DeProsse (Ithaca) and to social-ize with old friends; I was particularly pleased tosee William Rothfuss (Greenville, SC), who losthis wife a few months before I did, a year ago,and to discuss with him the handling of wid-ower status. Bill had his son William “Will”Rothfuss ’72, BA ’75 (Stroudsburg, PA) with him,whose big claim to fame was beating out the lateChristopher Reeve ’74 for a part in a major playwhile at Cornell. After returning home, it waswonderful to hear from Richard T. Stacy, BSME/BS ORIE ’49 (Hilton Head, SC) that hisloneliness has ended with marriage to a recentwidow, Natalie, and that they are “blissfullyhappy,” as also appeared to be recently marriedattendees Bob, MD ’45, and Sherry MadisonDevers Wallace (New Hartford, NY, and Tucson,

AZ). One slightly sour note was struck on Satur-day night when an ambulance transported JamesMonroe (Covington, KY) to the sick bay to betreated for what, fortunately, turned out to be anintestinal infection, which affected him brieflyuntil the antibiotics took hold. He stayed over-night and went back home the next afternoon. Prentice Cushing Jr., 713 Fleet Dr., VirginiaBeach, VA 23454; tel., (757) 716-2400; e-mail,[email protected].

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Our 60th Reunion is history andthose who attended enjoyed mak-ing it so, thanks to superlativeplanning and constant attention

to detail by co-chairs Gloria Urban (Maspeth,NY) and Stan Johnson (Mantoloking, NJ). Wenumbered 108, not a bad percentage for over-80s, given that university records claim we startedwith 1,681 freshmen, and a tad more than 500have died. Our headquarters was Hurlburt House,a rejuvenated facility with air-conditioning—most welcome in view of the 90-degree temper-atures. It’s at the far northern end of Ithaca, offTriphammer Road, and the start of bus service forreunion events, meaning that there were alwaysseats. In addition, we had two of our own vans,always available for any side trips or reasonablerequests, driven by our most helpful and cheeryyoung reunion clerks. A large tent was set up inthe yard behind, where we enjoyed excellentdaily continental breakfasts and our supper onThursday night, with guests President JeffreyLehman ’77 and his wife Kathy Okun. He deliv-ered a short speech praising the “greatest gener-ation” and other such complimentary remarks.This made an interesting prelude to the bomb-shell he dropped on Saturday in his State of theUniversity report at steamy Bartels Hall, whenhe announced his departure. During the after-noon a tour of new campus facilities was fol-lowed by a reception at the Johnson Museum,with a viewing of the modern art collectiondonated by Bill Berley (NYC).

Friday luncheon was in another tent, thistime at Cornell Plantations, pet project of Wayneand Maralyn Pritchard Winsor Fleming (Ithaca),with good musical entertainment and directorDon Rakow, who gave a brief talk on changesthat had occurred (some funded by our class)and raising a few eyebrows when he mentionedsome that had happened “way back in the ’70s.”That evening we had a first-rate dinner at theHotel Statler, where former chimesmaster BobFrankenfeld, MD ’47 (Long Beach, CA) led usin a few songs, ending with “Don’t Send my Boyto Harvard.” Our honored guest and speaker,former president (and now interim president)Hunter Rawlings III, said, in his short talk, that

Hats off, or something similarlycongratulatory, and genuinelythankful, to Stan Rodwin, ourclass officers, and anonymous

others who planned and superbly contributed tothe success of our 55th Reunion last June. Also,sincere thanks to the five delightful students who,with significant competence, patiently dealt withthe idiosyncrasies of our advancing dotage—whoran the office, transported us in the vans, told uswhen and where we had to be, and, with capti-vating charm, answered the same dumb ques-tions over and over: Latoya (“Toya”) Schultz ’05,John (“Bruno”) Bruno ’07, Kassandra (“Kassie”)Frederique ’08, Caroline (“Carrie”) Richards’05, and Tanya Bachniak ’05. Also, the other stu-dents who waited patiently for us to return fromevening events to serve us the only three flavorsof ice cream we knew as kids—chocolate, va-nilla, and strawberry. All of these good peoplegood-naturedly helped 105 classmembers and57 spouses or friends adapt to the unusually hightemperatures and humidity.

Latent images. The Savage Club of Ithacashow with the emotional reading of John Green-leaf Whittier’s poem,“Barbara Frietchie,” the stir-ring rendering of “Music of the Night” fromPhantom of the Opera, and other unique andentertaining acts. The new Imogene Powers John-son Center for Birds and Biodiversity at the Cor-nell Lab of Ornithology, appropriately namedfor its chief donor, Imogene ’52, wife of ourbeloved Sam Johnson. The big picture of Samin our class’s reception area, inscribed with theirrefutable truth, “I’m still with you.” The classgift of over $7,000,000, which maintains ourclass’s all-time record giving. The in-the-roundseminar, “Classmates, Rewired not Retired,” withfascinating and poignant personal reports ofhow so many of us have ably jumped across theretirement line into new and different challengesand accomplishments. The new book by Mar-ion Steinmann and the Women of the Class of1950, Women at Work: Demolishing a Myth ofthe 1950’s—the myths that for college-educatedwomen of the ’50s, life was gray, dull, and bland,the options limited to nursing, teaching, theconvent, or housewifing and childrearing. TheState of the University address by President Jef-frey Lehman ’77, in which he reported on howthe university has chosen sustainability as a 21st-century goal and then announced his suddendeparture from the presidency, to be replacedJuly 1 by former President Hunter Rawlings.

Thanks also to those who patiently informedthis correspondent: Newt Thomas, track teammanager who substituted for athletic directorBob Kane ’34, BS ’36, and took the track team to

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Oxford, England. Carl Strub, who taught methat Mackinac, as in Mackinac Island, is pro-nounced Makinaw. Harry Merker ’51, Las Vegaslyricist who thanked us for inviting all classes tothe Friday night dance with music by the TommyDorsey Orchestra. Walt Bruska and Joe Dwyer,JD ’52, who identified the three unnamed play-ers in the front row of the yearbook football pic-ture as John Jaso, Paul Girolamo ’46, BS Ag ’50,and Henry Drost. Tom Burke, avid handballplayer, who taught me about surviving cancer.Bob Bitz ’52, who taught me about verticallyintegrated farming with half a million turkeys.Dave Dingle, pianist and conservator of thegood old Cornell songs of long ago, who pro-duced a collection of the songs in print and oncompact disc. And, especially, banquet-mateArthur Kahn, Manhattan resident, who knewthat Iowa is more than mere space on a US map,but rather a forward-looking state with high-tech industries and nationally leading financeand insurance institutions, and represented inCongress by two influential senators from oppo-site ends of the political spectrum.

News of other attendees for whom we hadnews cards on hand: Ed Kinne, MS ’55, Pitts-burgh, PA, is a part-time consultant to the Soci-ety of Automotive Engineers and says, “Age isonly two numerals.” George Casler, MS ’59,Ithaca, NY, with wife Pat, enjoyed a two-weekgrand tour of Italy. Returning from dinner oneevening, George heard from the back of the busa familiar “To the tables down at Morey’s . . .”and discovered Tom Bryant, JD ’53, Bend, OR,whom he had not previously known.

Dave and Susan Dingle have moved to NewSuffolk, NY, in the friendly, rural area at the east-ern end of Long Island. Richard Prybyl, Ithaca,NY, is using retirement to travel by land, air, andsea. Just prior to Reunion he and wife Flo cruisedthe Amazon River. Lawrence Greenapple, JD ’52,reports that he and Emily are retired and livingin Berkshire County, MA. Jim Tregurtha, SanDiego, CA, says his number is in the phone bookand invites classmates to visit him in “America’sFun City.”

Nelson Schaenen Jr., MBA ’50, Madison, NJ,with wife Nancy, took the Sea Cloud I ship on abird-watching excursion in the Caribbean, spon-sored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Theyalso enjoyed three weeks in Southeast Asia,mostly in Myanmar (Burma). Bob Wood, PacificGrove, CA, retired last June as professor of aero-nautics at the Naval Postgraduate School inMonterey. With wife Cheri, he plans to keep hishome in Pacific Grove and to spend summers atHarvey’s Lake in West Barnet, VT. Class president

Anne Morrissy Merick and her husband Don,Robert, MBA ’57, and Vanne Shelley Cowie ’57,and Hilly McCann Dearden.

Friday morning our Class Forum drew a bigcrowd, and that afternoon many classmates vis-ited the Johnson Museum to view the collectionsof Jay Hyman, DVM ’57, and Dan Nadler ’54.From there to the Olin lecture, where hundredsof alumni braved the heat in Bartels Arena tohear President Emeritus Frank Rhodes talk about“Terra Mater,” the earth on which we all depend.Friday night we were back in our tent outsideCourt Hall, enjoying a barbecue and the foot-tapping music of a Philly-based jazz duo. We werehonored to welcome President Lehman and hiswife, who joined us for dinner. A wave of nostal-gia washed over the crowd when Cayuga’s Wait-ers from the classes of the ’50s serenaded us onceagain. Fran DeSylva Barry was spotted cheeringin the front row of fans. Thanks to all, includingour own ’55 Waiters Carl Fuchs, Dave Schmidt,and Charlie Wolf. You can own their newly re-mastered CD (22 tracks taken from two albums)for just $10 plus postage. Also, we have someCornell ’55 jackets ($33) and umbrellas ($12) leftand available for purchase. E-mail me for details.

Were you up for the Ice Cream Social (akamilk punch party) that the indomitable GerryGrady ’53 put together for us on Saturdaymorning? Lethal as ever! Afterwards we enjoyeda delightful catered lunch at the Plantations, fol-lowed by a tour and the Alan Hosie TremanMemorial Concert. Waiting on line for their boxlunches were Ithaca High School classmatesLarry Phillips and Charles Shipman and someof the Tri Delt contingent (Sue Spooner Olsen,Libby Milliken Klim, Ruth Clarke Hawkins, andPat Van Mater Wheeler). Saturday evening beganwith an elegant reception in the atrium of newlycompleted Duffield Hall. Carl Young and BillBoyle, MBA ’56, former Phi Kap brothers, triedto top each other’s stories of life as expatriates;Carl and Lynne (Waller) lived in Ireland, and theBoyles were in England for many years. DaveFindlay, MBA ’57, told us about his gallery inNew York City, Ginny Wallace Panzer and hus-band Hal Wiener checked in with friends, GerriSobel Katz reported that she’s working on herbridge and tennis in Boca Raton, and Renie AdlerHirsch brought us up to date on life in Israel.

Tall classmates—for example, Dick Mathew-son, Ned Arps, MBA ’57, Don Maclay, DickStrazza, Max Mattes, Bob Malatesta, Joe Silver-man, and Fred Antil—were easy to find in thecrowd! Among those looking not a day older wereSue (Streeter), MS ’57, and Clark Phillips, MS’57, Hilda Bressler Minkoff, Peggy BlackburnRobinson, Frank Hano, and Marggy DoortyRichenburg. Spotted in the dorms were Mary LuDuPuy Whitlock, Toni Eaton, and Mary AnnMeyer Adams, who was on campus for the sec-ond 50th Reunion in a row; last year, husbandBob ’54 celebrated his 50th. On the elevator weran into Art Yelon and saw Al Brezinsky strollingthrough Collegetown. Bill Moyer turned up atthe tents, as did Janet Senderowitz Loengard andNorm Nedde. Some couples captured on film byDon Maclay were Rob and June Stotz, Ted andDonna Wilcox Buckenmaier ’57, Larry Way and

Ralph “Cooly” Williams, MD ’54, Santa Fe, NM,received the Gold Medal Award, the highesthonor bestowed by the American College ofRheumatology, for his 50 years of investigativework on the causes of lupus and rheumatoidarthritis and also for training 30 departmentheads in the US, Europe, South America, andJapan. He and wife Mary (Adams) attended the50th Reunion of the Class of 1955 of the WeillCornell Medical School.

Short reports from other classmates: AbeSchweid, MD ’53, Seattle, WA, sent in a newscard but had no news to report. Arlene LeBeauBranch, Saranac Lake, NY, celebrated her 75thbirthday in June 2004 and is still working as adietitian. William McCullough reported only thathe had a new address in Monroe County, NJ. EvaPotter Lee, Cape Elizabeth, ME, still enjoys livingin Maine, especially with lots of golf and theactivities of four grandkids. John Keeffe, Somers,NY, with wife, Fran, has an “all-WestchesterCounty family” of three married daughters andspouses and eight “perfect” grandchildren. Hesays he is still vertical!

At the Saturday night banquet and businessmeeting, class officers were elected for the nextfive years: President, Richard Pogue; Vice Pres-idents, Jo Kessel Buyske and Stan Rodwin; VicePresident of Words, John Marcham; Treasurer,Ben Williams; Class Correspondents, Paul Joslinand Marion Steinmann. The positions of Cor-nell Fund representative, Major Gifts chair, andreunion chairs will be filled by appointment later.The Class Council consists of Bruce Davis, MBA’52, Dave Dingle, Jane Wigsten McGonigal, PhD’84, Jack Rose, MD ’54, and Marion Steinmann;it will be expanded to 15 members. If interestedin serving on the Council, please volunteer to JackRose or Dick Pogue. For addresses, contact oneof the correspondents. Paul Joslin, 6080 Ter-race Dr., Johnston, IA 50131; tel., (515) 278-0960;e-mail, [email protected]; or Marion Steinmann,237 W. Highland Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19118; tel.,(215) 242-8443; e-mail, [email protected].


Our 50th! Can you believe it?Excitement was running high onThursday afternoon as classmatesbegan arriving at Court Hall to

check in. Some went directly on the wine tour oron the Cayuga Lake cruise, while others settledinto their rooms. Drinks and dinner were servedin our tent, and afterwards the warm weatherkept many people outside to sit around in casualgroups and catch up on the last five years’ news.Spotted pulling their chairs into a circle were Joeand Vera Simon, William and Patricia Doerler,

‘The surprising heat and humidity and occasionaldownpour served as a reminder of what oneclassmate called “the f ickle Ithaca weather.”’

JUDY BRYANT WITTENBERG ’60

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Barbara Ramsey Adsit, and Norm Harvey andBarry Hart. You guys still look great!

We moved on to dinner at Barton Hall, every-one doing their best to be good sports about theoppressive heat and humidity. Class presidentJoan Steiner Stone welcomed the class, and paida graceful tribute to her co-president Otto Schnei-der, who died just months before. Otto, you weremissed. The dinner was excellent, and so was thelive band playing Tommy Dorsey’s music fromour favorite Big Band era. My good-sport hus-band Ed agreed to a few turns on the dance floor,as did the Urbans, Pfanns, Cernys, Lents, Harveys,Mullikens, Peltzes, and many others. We enjoyedcatching up with the Simons, Rooneys, Petersons,and Van Burens, who were seated at our table.

Liz Rothermel Hopwood wrote to com-ment on the beautiful flowers in class head-quarters and in Barton Hall, which were givento the class by Sue Hurd Machamer. “She startedeach plant from seed, and planned the bloom-ing especially for our weekend,” Liz explained.Buses waited outside Barton to whisk us to Bar-tels Arena for Cornelliana Night, at which ourclass brought home the big awards for bothattendance and giving. Dick Estey, MBA ’60, didus credit with his solo in the “Song of theClasses.” His verse went like this: Oh, we are the70-year-olds, a-taking our pills / When Cornellcomes calling to be remembered in our wills / Weask your indulgence, we enjoy being alive / Andproud to be part of Cornell ’55. The hardier soulsamong us continued singing on into the night.

Sunday morning we began to say goodbye,but not before enjoying a wonderful breakfast atour class tent, during which we tuned in to FredAntil’s program on the local radio station. Hisguest was our own Joan Stone, who brought usback to our undergrad days on the Hill, with ref-erences ranging from houseparty weekends to thefloats on Beebe to curfews and “minutes.” Joan feltthat the freshman beanie requirement was “not abad idea,” as it helped foster class unity. Thanks toeveryone who participated in the memorial serv-ice to honor the memory of the many classmatesnow gone from us. At the class meeting closingout the weekend, our slate of class officers for theupcoming five years was approved, and we wel-comed Hilly McCann Dearden’s daughter LaurelGardiner as an honorary member of the Classof ’55. Laurel was a tireless dynamo all weekend,pitching in to lend a hand wherever needed.

Finally, and most importantly, well-deservedkudos go to Phil Harvey and Dick Estey, ourreunion co-chairs, and to the members of theircommittee, Joan Weisberg Belden, Bill Doerler,Hilly McCann Dearden, and Ann Overbeck.You gave us a wonderful weekend we will longremember. Joy to all we love the best / Love tothee, our fair Cornell. Nancy Savage Petrie,[email protected]. Class website, http://classof55.alumni.cornell.edu.

as a reminder of what one classmate called “thefickle Ithaca weather,” the group was comfortablyhoused in the air-conditioned Townhouse Com-plex on North Campus.

The Reunion Committee members did yeo-man’s work overseeing the complex arrangementsfor the weekend and were all on hand by Wednes-day, hard at work on last-minute details and readyto welcome the classmates who began turning uparound noon on Thursday. New arrivals werealso greeted by the startling sight of two man-nequins wearing clothes of the late 1950s suchas saddle shoes, cashmere sweaters, and a Classof ’60 blazer. Dinner Thursday night was in theclass tent at the Townhouses, and the food wasexcellent, as always, thanks to the highly compe-tent oversight of Bill Fisher, PhD ’68, whose longcareer in hospitality management has benefitedthe class during several reunions. The evening’sentertainment was provided by Bob Cohen, whohas now spent more than a decade as a success-ful cabaret singer, and Joy Wells Coombs.

Friday was filled with stellar events, beginningwith a morning lecture by Prof. Glenn Altschuler,PhD ’76, who described life on campus while wewere students there and how the dissension ofthe late Fifties, such as the 1958 riot over thecancellation of apartment privileges for women,led to the much more violent demonstrations ofthe Sixties. That was followed in the afternoonby former president Frank Rhodes’s excellent“state of the earth” lecture, which emphasizedthe need to maintain the world’s fragile balancewith great care. Classmates were also privilegedto have a special late afternoon tour of the John-son Museum, which featured the art collectionsof Alan Siegel, well known for his acquisition ofphotography by major figures such as Arbus,Adams, Penn, and Weegee, and of Les Stern.

Although Saturday will be forever remem-bered for President Jeffrey Lehman ’77’s stunningannouncement, during his State of the Universitylecture, of his resignation and imminent depar-ture, the day included other memorable events,such as lunch on Libe Slope and a lecture onJames Joyce held at the Kroch Library, where theendowment from our 25th Reunion gift has sup-ported the preservation of works in the extensiveJoyce collection, one of the finest in the world.Saturday evening’s highlights were a gala recep-tion at the new Alice Cook House, followed by afine dinner that was accompanied by a perform-ance by the Cayuga’s Waiters alumni that includedclassmates Kevin Seits, JD ’63, Bob Cohen, andJohn Smith. Nostalgia was abundant as the Wait-ers energetically sang several old favorites.

At Sunday’s farewell brunch, the businessmeeting focused on the election of class officers forthe next five-year term. We’re happy to welcomeseveral new faces on the Class Council: vice pres-ident Carl Johnson and members-at-large DanBidwell, MBA ’61, Emil Cipolla, MBA ’63, WillisClark, Tom Dandridge, MBA ’62, Alan Garfinkel,and Dick Penny. They join returning officers SuePhelps Day, MEd ’62, president; Bill Fisher andPhyllis Pugatch Schecter, VPs; treasurer FrancesPennisi Giruzzi, class correspondent Judy BryantWittenberg, class historian Gail Taylor Hodges,and members-at-large Carolyn Carlson Blake,



More than 200 classmates andguests gathered to celebrate our45th Reunion, and it was enthu-siastically judged a great success

by all who attended. Though the surprising heatand humidity and occasional downpour served

I’m sure that our reunion chairsGeorge Arangio, MD ’69, andGrace Hershberg Morgenstein andregistration chair Myron Jacobson

didn’t plan quite everything that occurred at Cor-nell the weekend of our 40th Reunion. It turnedout that our 40th had a little more excitementthan we had expected—and that was beyond thehot, muggy weather we experienced while wewere in Ithaca. For the approximately 160 class-mates and another 100 attendees, we very likelywill never forget how we learned that PresidentJeffrey Lehman ’77 had announced his resigna-tion as president of the university. Thanks to cellphones, the word spread quickly from the site ofhis announcement to the lobby of the HerbertF. Johnson Museum of Art, where many of uswere waiting for lunch following a program atthe museum in the morning. More on this later.After lunch, President Lehman was scheduled toaddress the class, so there was a great deal ofinterest during the meal as to whether he wouldjoin us—and he did. Following a short address,which featured the experiences and events dur-ing our time on the Hill, he and his wife KathyOkun joined us on the Johnson Museum lawnfor the class picture.

Although President Lehman created themost excitement over the weekend, it was theoutstanding work of our co-chairs that made thisreunion something to remember—the traditionalway. It was truly a great weekend, beginning withthe Italian dinner Thursday evening under thecourtyard tent of our headquarters at the BalchBed and Breakfast—also the site of our Fridaynight bash with the the Backtalk Band. The Classof ’65 showed the younger classes, as they headedto the campus, that they knew what to do on thedance floor. Among the highlights of the weekendwas the program at the Johnson Museum, whereon display was Matisse’s Jazz series, donated to themuseum by our classmate Bruce Eissner and his

Gale Jackson, Linda Jarschauer Johnson, MS ’63,Irene Kleinsinger, Carrie Warnow Makover, Mar-garet McPhee Miano, MS ’61, and Ginny Seipt.

A special welcome was extended to severalclassmates who were attending reunion for thefirst time. These included Merrill Burr Hille,who came all the way from Seattle, WA; ReneeSack of Woburn, MA; John Smith of Far Hills,NJ; Sydney Reeve Leach of Morris Plains, NJ;David Friedman of New York City; and RalphMiller of Berne.

The Class of 1960, under the leadership offund-raising committee members Dave Wechs-ler, Tom Pedulla, Ted Donson, Carl Johnson,and Peter Giles, managed to raise $13,416,673 inthis reunion year, which is a record amount forour class! The officers were also pleased to reportthat 60 percent of our class members have beenactive participants this year as either donors orduespayers or both.

Look for a complete recap of Reunion 2005in the Sounds of Sixty newsletter, which will arriveearly this fall, replete with photos and the annualrequest for News and Dues. Keep the news com-ing! Judy Bryant Wittenberg, 146 Allerton Rd.,Newton, MA 02461; e-mail, [email protected].

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in active duty—those least likely to receive a visitfrom Santa. If you would like to learn more,please visit their website at www.Santa-America.org. I did, and it’s a good one.

Finally, Joan Elstein Rogow and I would liketo welcome the newest member of the Class of’65 correspondent troika, Terry KohleriterSchwartz, and personally thank our retiring classcorrespondent Dennis Norfleet for the great jobhe did over the past five years—many thanks.Joan, Terry, and I look forward to serving you forthe next five years. To do that, we need your help.Please send your news with the annual News andDues notice, or contact us directly. RonaldHarris, 5203 Forestdale Ct., West Bloomfield,MI 48322; tel., (248) 788-3397; e-mail, [email protected]; Joan Elstein Rogow, 9 Mason FarmRd., Flemington, NJ 08822; tel., (908) 782-7028;and Terry Kohleriter Schwartz, 36 FoundersGreen, Pittsford, NY 14534; tel., (585) 383-0371;e-mail, [email protected].

H.T. Rhodes, who spoke about our planet andour relationship with her. As President JeffreyLehman ’77 said, Frank is one of the great ora-tors of our time and it is a great privilege to hearhim speak on any topic, especially geology andMother Earth.

There was NO tent on the Engineering Quadas advertised; rather, our Friday night events wereheld in the cool, air-conditioned atrium in thenew Duffield Hall. Rosa and Frank Rhodes joinedus. Frank graced us with extensive remarks aboutour class, both as alums and undergrads. He evenreminded us that our graduation was the onlytime that the Cornell mace was used for the pur-pose for which it was intended! Martin Tang,one of the four Cornell trustees from the Classof 1970, reported that our class had raised over$5,290,000. We have some 620 donors from theclass, of which 39 are Tower Club members (giv-ing at least $5,000 per year). Congratulations tothe class, and many thanks to the campaigncommittees headed by Kevin McGovern, CindyJohnson O’Malley, Julie Mather Schnuck, andMartin Tang. Next, the Class of 1955 celebratedtheir 50th Reunion by hosting the Tommy DorseyBig Band at Barton, where Bill, ME ’71, and GailPost Wallis were sighted dancing up a storm.

Saturday started out cooler, but things heatedup on campus, figuratively and literally, by latemorning. At the State of the University addressin steamy Bartels Hall (near Lynah Rink), JeffreyLehman, Cornell’s 11th president, announcedthat he would resign effective June 30. He dearlyloves Cornell and loved being the university’spresident, but cited unresolvable differencesbetween himself and the Board of Trustees. Itwas a stunning and surprising announcement.

Our BBQ Luncheon later that day honoredthe memory and life of Hank Brittingham andother classmates who have died. Various peoplespoke about Hank, as well as about Jeff Baer, ourvery own Cornell Big Red Bear. We were visited bythe Big Red Bear himself (or was it herself?) andwere all delighted to see the new bear costumethat our class had funded for the Cornell mascots.

That evening we celebrated at the Straighton the Terrace (as advertised!) with dinner in thelovely and warm Memorial Room. Our own EzraCornell gave a talk from his heart about fresh-man year and before and beyond. It was won-derful and appreciated by everyone present. ThenEzra was joined by fellow trustees David Crolland Kevin McGovern for a brief discussion aboutthe resignation of President Lehman. The eventwas completed by a challenge pledge of $100,000to the upcoming Cornell Fund Scholarship Cam-paign by our classmate Mike Waters.

Reunion festivities ended on Sunday after wewere serenaded by the Sherwoods at Okenshield(the cool equivalent to the Ivy Room) at ourbrunch. The group sang to Susie Brittingham—a fitting tribute to her and to Hank and a greatending to our 35th Reunion. You can see the listof attendees on our website and the new slate ofclass officers and class council members, too(anyone interested can let me know).

P.S. Our reuning classmates who traveledthe furthest were Eileen and Toby Marion andMartin Tang—all from Hong Kong—and Nick


Ours was a hot Reunion Week-end, with air conditioning scarcein the older buildings on cam-pus. And far too few fans could

not conquer the heat in Barton, the MemorialRoom, or our weekend home, Cascadilla Hall.Regardless of the weather (it was, after all, Ithaca),a good time was had by those attending our35th Reunion. Reunion co-chairs Sandy Schorr(and her husband Chuck Breckheimer, MA ’69)and myself arrived at Cornell on Tuesday eveningto prepare the headquarters for the arrival ofreuners. Carole Peck Fishman was a fantasticregistrar and worked tirelessly before Reunion.Jeff Haber, our class webmaster, worked on theclass website (http://classof70.alumni.cornell.edu)before and after Reunion to keep us updated. Wehad four wonderful student clerks to help usthroughout, Morgana Carter ’07, Emory Mort’05, Diane Rodriguez ’05, and Sabeen Virani’05. Robyn Meyer ’97 came to Ithaca to volun-teer her time and assistance for our reunion, too.Our HQ was in the heart of Collegetown andright next to Cascadilla Gorge.

Susie Labarre Brittingham ’71, widow ofour classmate Hank, joined us on Wednesday tohelp with the decorating and organizing, and itwas great to have her with us for the weekend.Folks started arriving at noon on Thursday andkept coming in a steady stream through Satur-day. Thursday afternoon and evening were acasual time to greet old friends and meet newfriends, too.

After breakfast on Friday our classmates andthe Class of 1965 joined together for Part Oneof our Reunion Forum. Demographer Brad Ed-mondson spoke about what we can expect in ourimmediate (and distant!) baby boomer future.Next, after lunch at Barton Hall, Part Two was atalk by Carol Kammen, author of Cornell, Glori-ous to View, about the history of Cornell. A livelydiscussion followed about our years at Cornell,and the takeover of the Straight in particular,and the effect those times had on us as individ-uals and on the Class of ’70 as a whole.

The highlight of Friday afternoon was theOlin Lecture given by President Emeritus Frank

wife Judith. Andrew Weislogel, PhD ’00, assistantcurator and master teacher, explained to us theunique technique that Matisse used to create thisseries. Reunion came to an end on Sunday morn-ing at brunch when we approved our Class Con-stitution and elected a slate of officers for the nextfive years. Leading the class will be co-presidentsBarry Cutler and Sharon Hagerty Williams.

The football team had a very good turnoutat the Class of ’65 Athletics Reception. The fol-lowing classmates were present: Monte Estes,ME ’66, Joe Ryan, Jack Rentz, Bob Baker, LouFerraro, Dave Mellon, Walt Gadkowski, DaveMiles, George Norman, Joe Schneider, DukeGrkovic, Clarence Jentes, MBA ’67 (captain),and, of course, George Arangio.

Now, some news from classmates who madeit to Ithaca in June. Shortly before Reunion Week-end, the Cornell News Service issued a press re-lease about a project that Maddy Gell Handlerand husband Phil ’62, MArch ’65, have beenworking on. For the past six years Maddy andPhil have come up on Reunion Weekend andpresented “unique, personal films about alumni.”These films have thrilled reunion participants aswell as campus historians. For this year’s ReunionWeekend they had prepared two videos: the first,a 30-minute film called “True Big Red,” wasabout Donald Greenberg ’55, BS C&E E ’58,PhD ’68, the Jacob Gould Schurman professor ofComputer Graphics; the second, “Journey fromSibley,” was a 20-minute film profiling recentlyelected trustee Jill Lerner ’75, BArch ’76, a prin-cipal at the firm of Kohn Pedersen Fox Assoc. Jillhad been a student of Prof. Greenberg.

Ron Schendel, BS ChemE ’67, ME ’68, andDan Stern, PhD ’71, shipped their motorcyclesfrom Manhattan Beach, CA, to northern New Jer-sey, where they visited Dan’s brother, then rodethe bikes to Ithaca for Reunion. They planned todrive the motorcycles back to California by thenorthern route. Dan is retired, while Ron, whohappened also to have been my classmate at PS87 in Queens, NY, is semi-retired. Asher Levitskyand Sharon, his wife of one year, live in Manhat-tan, where Asher is still practicing law. He becamea grandfather for the second time last September.Sharon, an avid runner, was the only woman inher age group that competed in, and completed,the five-mile run on Saturday morning. DianneZimet Newman and her husband Martin live inProvidence, RI. Dianne is attending Roger Wil-liams U., working on a master’s degree in publicadministration as she switches careers from thecorporate world to the world of nonprofits.

One member of our class looked the role henow plays. Ernie Berger, on whom we reportedin this magazine’s Nov/Dec 2004 issue, still sportsa white beard and a full head of white hair in hisposition as president and executive director ofSanta America Inc., a not-for-profit service com-pany that recruits, background checks, trains,and refers real bearded Santas in 34 states andthree foreign countries. Funding for Santa Amer-ica comes from grants and contributions, andErnie’s Santas serve children and families in hos-pice care, children with chronic pediatric ill-nesses, and children of parents serving in thearmed services who have been wounded or killed

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For most of us, our 30th Reunionroughly marked the beginning ofthe last third of our lives. There’s athought. And it’s probably not a

coincidence that of all six of our reunions, thoseattending this one cared the least (by far) abouttheir classmates’ money, job status, or achieve-ments. These were prime, almost driven areas ofattention at earlier reunions. The focus this timewas much more on sharing life experiences andcurrent views with old friends and new acquain-tances (210-plus classmates and 130-plus guests).

This is not to say that the stories were allrosy. Many were, but many were not. The Classof 1975 is not immune to divorce, estrangement,death, and job loss. Those telling these stories,however, really connected, and were obviouslyglad to be there. So, for those of you reading thiswho didn’t come because you weren’t happy withwhere you were in your lives, and didn’t want tohave to talk about it, you both stayed away unnec-essarily and missed a great time. The camaraderiewas fantastic. Three decades of years melted away.Before the advent of PCs, I described Cornell tothose who asked as a hard, wonderful place withenormous pressures (scholastic, social, and envi-ronmental) that shaped much of who I am now.Talking with classmates, as well as hearing a dis-cussion panel of eight of our College of AAP’erson “How Cornell Life Influenced Where We AreToday” (among 30 who came), confirmed that infeeling this, I was not alone. Put in more modernterms, Cornell hard-wired us.

However, as we stunningly found out on Sat-urday, Cornell may not have hard-wired PresidentLehman. Those of us in the lunch tent by BeebeLake thought our legs were being pulled whenclassmates came back from his State of the Uni-versity address and told us that at the end of ithe announced his resignation (including some-thing about a trip to Bali, if I recall correctly).Only the night before, at our dinner reception atthe new Alice Cook House on West Campus(think U-Hall 2’s location), he told me what hemost hoped to say he had achieved after 15 or20 years in office. As one classmate said, onlypartially amused, “We enjoyed being up here forthe quitting of the president.”

Someone who definitely did not quit isCindy Johnson Giambastiani, married to hus-band (and four-star Admiral) Ed. Cindy de-scribed having raised her kids alone while Ed wason months-long submarine duty or otherwiseassigned, as well as having packed and moved herfamily numerous times. It was clear from talkingwith her, although she was far too modest toadmit it, that without her efforts Ed would neverhave risen to (at this writing) having been nom-inated for Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff, the second-highest post in the US military.Cindy’s story illustrates for undoubtedly manyCornell women that devotion, effort, and success

(along with an evident sense of fulfillment) isn’tdemonstrated or achieved solely in the workplace.

Steve Sauter, recently married to Leah andnow the proud stepfather of Christy, Michelle,and Kim, lives in Needham, MA, and is admin-istrator for Parkwell Nursing & RehabilitationCenter. Steve looks great and still plays seriousbasketball at 52, an amazing feat. George, ME’76, and Joanne Roller live in the Rochester area,with George working for Xerox and Joanne aheadhunter par excellence. Every year they vaca-tion in Maui, which, if you’ve never been there,is to die for. Todd Teitell, wife Betsy, and daugh-ter Heather (one of their three children) camefrom Dallas, where Todd works at his insurancefirm and prays daily that all of his children choosecolleges with in-state, non-private tuition. (Canyou believe that when we started, total tuitionfor freshman year in ILR was $850?)

The Honorable Jan Adler, recently appointeda Federal Magistrate in San Diego, looked farmore relaxed than he ever did when he was prac-ticing hard-core, big firm, l-o-n-g hours civil law.“I’m also making a lot less money,” Jan noted,“butit’s definitely worth it.” Wife Karen and daughtersRachel and Aliza are doing well, he reports.Jamie Duke, JD ’79, is married with one daugh-ter and working as general counsel for AccountSolutions Group in Amherst, NY (near Buffalo).Jamie remains the ultimate optimist, wishing theBuffalo Bills will soon (someday? ever?) win theSuper Bowl. Loretta Graziano Breuning camefrom Oakland with husband Bill, and ready tostart her second career after 22 years teachinginternational business at Cal State East Bay. Hav-ing last year published her book Greaseless: Howto Thrive Without Bribes in Developing Countries,Loretta is an expert on the Foreign Corrupt Prac-tices Act and looks forward to doing training andconducting anti-corruption workshops for busi-ness, government, and NGOs. Bill works in heavyion fusion at Lawrence Livermore Lab.

Wendy Roxin Shinay and Gary Wicks, BSAEP ’77, PhD ’81, came from Rochester, whereboth now work for the U. of Rochester. Wendy’sdaughter Britney is a superbly graceful balle-rina—we saw her in the Nutcracker last year.Joanne Werntz came from Winter Park, FL,where she practices hand microsurgery, alongwith children Sarah and Raymond. We commis-erated about having three hurricanes go over ourhouses in six weeks last year, with Joanne losingpower for days and Winter Park losing fully one-third of its tree cover. Kimberly Christy-Gordonlives near Albany and brought five daughters, twosons-in-law, and one granddaughter to Reunion.Kimberly still has that southern accent that slayedthe president of my fraternity freshman year. Anicer family you’d be hard-pressed to find. DianeKopelman VerSchure ’74, who our class hasclearly adopted because she knows so many ofus, lives in Natick, MA. Kope, now a fantastic-looking grandmother, works for her dad’s com-pany and is Vice Chair for Synchronized TeamSkating with the US Figure Skating Assn.

Great lines heard at Reunion, sans names,reflecting memories and current events: “Fresh-man year I lived with a suiteful of psychoticwomen.”“It was like Cinderella; every night right

It was a hot, hazy day—a day likeno other that we remembered atCornell. Group by group weassembled at Mary Donlon Hall

to celebrate our 25th Reunion. At the time, Ithought that all we would remember from theweekend was the oppressive heat, a torrentialdownpour, and the surprise resignation of uni-versity president and alumus Jeffrey Lehman’77. Actually, though, the overwhelming memo-ries were the good times, and the weather onlymade them more memorable! Many thanks toNancy MacIntyre Hollinshead and Jodi DiehlNestle for organizing a super weekend. They tire-lessly manned the registration desk and were ourgraceful hostesses.

I caught up with my old roommate SuePoschmann and her husband Joe. And I had tolaugh when we met up with one of our old HighRise 5 friends Keith Cunningham and his firstquestion to me was,“Where’s Sue?” (Some thingsnever change.) Keith is still working at ConEd ascustomer project manager after 20-some yearsand had convinced his cronies Mark Galezo andBob Rossi to make it to Reunion also. Markmarried Alice Akin ’82 and has three daughters.Bob and his wife Debbie have two daughters andreside in New Jersey. I have to agree with KirstiWastrom and her girlfriends—they ran intoKeith at Bartels Hall and unofficially voted hishair the best at the 25th Reunion!

It was great to also see our old suitemateKathy Horning Greenberg with her husbandDavid ’79 and daughter Becky. Glad we had thisexcuse to get together because I had forgottenjust how enjoyable they are to be around. Suealso got to see the old EE crew Dan Simpkins,



outside NC 9 we watched him open the car doorof his white Mustang on her side so she couldget home just before midnight.” “We experi-enced a return to dorm life—we’d prefer not torepeat it” (re: our class being put in Highrise 5with no AC, generators going outside for con-struction, and 85- to 90-degree weather; at our35th we WILL have AC). “What I would want tobe able to say is that Cornell played an activerole in becoming an even greater part of anincreasingly interconnected world.” “Every yearwe would vote on two things, whether to allowalcohol in the sorority, and whether to allowmen above the first floor. Every year, these voteshad to be unanimous. Every year, they were.”“Tothe scoring judges at DG, thanks for the 12.”

Howard ’74, MBA ’75, and Randy FriedmanFreedman laughingly recounted how Howard hadto settle both himself and his fraternity brotherwanting to go out with Randy—via a coin toss.Howard lost and his brother went out with Randyfor a year. The day after they broke up, Howardcalled—and they’ve been married 30 years.

More on the stories of who was there in thenext column. Check our class website, http://classof75.alumni.cornell.edu, for a list of (most of)those who were there, and the events of theweekend. Mitch Frank, [email protected];Joan Pease, [email protected]; Deb Gell-man, [email protected]; Karen DeMarcoBoroff, [email protected].

Alexandridis from Athens, Greece. Our youngestreuner was Susan Perry’s adorable 2-year-olddaughter Sarah, whom she adopted from China.Have a happy and healthy fall. Connie FerrisMeyer, 16 James Thomas Rd., Malvern, PA19355; e-mail, [email protected].

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ME ’81, Lenny Sanders, and Rob Tucker andtheir families. All look great!

Nayla Rizk made the trip from Californiawith her son Peter, who took advantage of theweekend to check out the campus. Hard tobelieve that we have kids ready for college! Thepopular consensus was that, as a rule, none of uslooked our age (much younger, of course). Naylaran into old OR&IE classmates Denise Rempeand Phil Leinbach, ME ’81, MBA ’82, and TriDelt sisters Barb Rae, Lynda Hershey Spalding,Christin Sparagana Marcatili, Joann D’Emilio,Gail Collins Khosla, and Nancy MacIntyre Hol-linshead. Tri Delts that were missed were KathyLeskovec Splett, ME ’81, and Kathy BiondolilloValliere. Chuck D’Angelo arrived with his fam-ily from Texas. They made a vacation of it and allparticipated in the Challenge Course, amongother activities. Glad they survived—the coursesounded a bit intense, especially in the heat.

Miriam Leeser made the trip from Massa-chusetts, as did Beth Silverman ’79, even thoughshe graduated a year ahead of us. Miriam is anengineering professor at Northeastern U., andBeth is working with hybrid electric vehicle drivesystem technology for Azure Dynamics (formerlySolectrica), north of Boston. I reconnected withEileen Gelblat, who seems happy with bothcareer and family, and Joyce Rosen, who agreedthat it would have been nice to see JeannetteLurier. Maybe next time.

I was glad that Ivan Lustig, ME ’81, MBA’82, could make it, after he threw the big pre-

reunion party in NYC this spring. I also ran intoTomás Kadala, and we wondered what ever hap-pened to his buddy Karim Mrowa. Tomás hap-pened to be sitting near Nate Weiss and his wifein Uris Hall to hear Prof. Squyres talk about theMars Rover program. He reminisced about fallingasleep in Econ class. As a matter of fact, Nate hadto get up and take a breather to prevent his recur-ring soporific state brought on by the locale.

I talked to Nancy Twombly, Nancy Brass,and Karen Vecchio Simons at breakfast. Glad tosee the posse is still going strong and everyonelooking so happy. Lauds to Mark Brozina, whotraveled from Pennsylvania with his wife. He hasbeen spending his spare time sitting on numerousCornell councils and boards. David Ayers arrivedsolo, leaving his wife Laura (Day) ’78, MBA ’86,and daughter at home to finish high school finals.Peter Henry and his wife were able to attend thefestivities, and he reminisced about ROTC. EstherElkin Mildner traveled upstate and we got achance to talk over old times in Low Rise 7.

From Dik Saalfeld (one of our new corre-spondents): “Jim Dake bemoaned the cost ofsending kids to college, a common theme of theweekend. Peter Aufrichtig seconded this line of

The unseasonably balmy weather in Ithaca didn’tstop the Class of ’85 from catching up with somefamiliar faces. Lindsey Wickham climbed to thetop of the “Vine” in the Central New York winescene, but now represents the farming commu-nity in Albany politics. Lindsey is notoriously dis-missive of e-mail and phone calls, and prefers tomeet face-to-face. At reunion, alumni saw first-hand how Lindsey’s easygoing charm and affablepersonality never goes out of style. The Class of1985 had an impressive author’s table set up atheadquarters, and in person were KatharineFiduccia and Jon Miller. Jon, practicing law inAlbuquerque, NM, reports that his new legalthriller, Volcano Verdict, should be out by the endof the year. His last novel, Crater County, hassold very well.

Some classmates made a great effort to bepresent: Rosemary Stasek won the “farthest dis-tance traveled” award, coming all the way fromAfghanistan; and Donald, ME ’86, MBA ’87, andChristiana Haldopoulos Staffin ’88, MBA ’92,bravely brought their triplets, along with little sis-ter Ariel. Paul Faber, MS ’86, of Orlando, FL,recently left engineering to become a consultant.Paul was overheard saying to fraternity brotherSteve Bloom, “I don’t remember these hills beingso steep 20 years ago.”

John Ramsey enjoyed the weekend, andcourageously ran five miles each morning, despiteclosing down the tent parties each night. KenIslehart and wife Adrienne especially loved theclass dinner at the Plantations, and report thattheir two children couldn’t bear to leave the Cor-nell Kids Program when the weekend was over.Mike Greenberg and his wife Joyce (Kottick) ’87were fascinated by the grandeur of CornellianaNight, and even brought Josh, 9, and Emily, 11,to the show. Afterwards, they were surprised bya visit from Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity brotherMike Riley ’87, who has worked at Cornell forthe past 15 years.

Chris Jordan, along with wife Andi andchildren Meghan, Matthew, and Rachel, usedReunion as the first leg of their East Coast tour.Chris has spent the last dozen years in LakeOswego, OR, after retiring from the Office ofManagement and Budget in Washington, DC.Jim Joseph and Dave Bloom surprised all theirclassmates with their last-minute, unexpectedappearance at the Saturday night tent party. “Wejust couldn’t stay away,” laughed NYC marketingguru Jim. The wild women of Mary Donlonreunited, as Suzanne Alexander Romero, Toni-ann Melodia McKeown, and Lisa Bluesteinwere inseparable again, enjoying Collegetown,tent parties, and everything in between.

Greig Schneider, who hasn’t missed a re-union yet, says the whole family had fun—wifeKristen (Daly), MBA ’94, daughter Katarina, andson Garrett. Linda Kao and Erin O’Conner lovedstaying in the new Alice Cook House, but wist-fully missed the “old days” in Balch Hall. Kennyand Melissa Lattimore Entenmann left their chil-dren in nearby Auburn, and Kenny surprisedhimself by winning the class golf tournament.Allen Wong led the class on an amazing winerytour. Mike “Boomer” Bloomquist and Annie cel-ebrated their 15th wedding anniversary during

pointless whining, but Chas Horvath, ME ’81,still has a few years to go, although his two boysmay worry him to death before then, as they areattracted to dangerous sports and activities. Oneof these activities is playing the bass (the realkind, not the cool kind), which you might notthink of as dangerous until you try to cram oneinto Chas’s car. Chas, a wood-chipper would letyou put that sucker in the glove box. Tom Berg,who just retired from the Navy, couldn’t attendReunion because he has a real job now and theymade him work. He, too, would have spent theweekend skipping rounds and pleading povertybecause his daughter is off to college in the fall,so it’s probably just as well.”

I’m not sure if Karen Kennan made it back tothe Hill, but she wrote to say that she was lookingforward it. She has been living in California for thepast 25 years and has twin girls. She is the directorof fund development for Pacific Autism School forEducation in Sunnyvale, CA. Neil Weinsteinreports that he and his Danish wife are living on ahouseboat in Sausalito, CA. Neil is a lawyer, buthas been traveling on volunteer assignments inZimbabwe, Thailand, and India. Glen and ShirleyChin Bassett write that their daughter is in hersecond year in the Arts college, as well as the AAPcollege. Their son is in high school. Lynne Hewittis married with two daughters. She recentlyreceived tenure as associate professor of commu-nication disorders at Bowling Green State U. inOhio and credits her Cornell undergrad degree inlinguistics as an “invaluable asset” to her career.

On a sobering note, one of the hardest thingsto do as correspondent is to publish sad news.Along with all of our Reunion memories, I amsorry to report the passing of one of our class-mates, Damon Simonelli, PhD ’87, who diedunexpectedly of a heart attack in December. Hissister Danelle writes, “He had been serving as asenior research associate at the NASA Jet Propul-sion Laboratory in California. His most recentwork as a planetary scientist focused on theCassini spacecraft’s mission to Saturn and theplanning of a future NASA mission to Pluto. Sev-eral of his friends from Cornell spoke at hismemorial service in California in December.” Asecond service was planned at Cornell in thespring. I am sure that all who knew him join inmourning his loss. Cynthia Addonizio-Bianco,[email protected]; Leona Barsky, [email protected]; Dik Saalfeld, [email protected]; DanaJerrard, [email protected]; and Tim O’Connor,[email protected].


As you can imagine, with the Class1985 celebrating its 20th Reunion,we have an abundance of news, aswell as a special Reunion Report.

‘I don’t remember these hills beingso steep 20 years ago.’

PAUL FABER ’85

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Reunion Weekend, along with daughters Katieand Meghan. Class president Mark Sheraden,MBA/ME ’92, did it all during the weekend—everything from introducing speakers to teach-ing his three daughters a little Cornell history.

Margaret Gnegy and Jennifer Cornelssen,after diligently masterminding such a wonder-ful reunion, were looking forward to eitherbathing in the afterglow of alumni school spiritor collapsing from exhaustion. Retiring class co-correspondent Ed Catto dragged his daughtersto Reunion—Lacy, Tessa, and Cassie, the oldest,who afterwards studied extra hard for finals, hav-ing been bitten by the “Cornell bug.” Also pres-ent was fiancée Kathe Day, who hadn’t been backto campus in 15 years. Bill Catto ’59 stopped bySunday morning to celebrate Father’s Day early.Also retiring, after 15 years on the job, is class cor-respondent extraordinaire Risa Mish, JD ’88. Risawas recently promoted to a new position at theLaw school. Everyone repeat after me: “Thanksfor all the columns, Risa!”

In other news, Eileen Bartol is living inThousand Oaks, CA, and loves being a mother—so much so that she just resigned as an executivesales representative for GlaxoSmithKline to be afull-time mom for her 2-year-old GenevievePaige. Jim “Tyz” Tyznik, VP and CFO of TellingIndustries in Cambridge, OH, tells us “life isgood,” especially the time he spends with wifeBridget, son Colin, and daughter Chloe. He’salso stayed in touch with Steve “Walt” Garrison,Bill Goldy, Steve Dadourian, Mike Jones, andJaan Janes. Ellen Baum Rabinowitz is spendingall her time keeping up with family activities,from 7-year-old Brent’s sports to 10-year-oldSonia’s fencing and Hebrew class. She also fin-ished her second year as president of the school’sPTG. She recently was surprised by a visitor toher Passover Seder: Roberta Zwiebel Farhi. Yourclass correspondent can’t help but note what aterrific fencer Roberta was freshman year.

Jim Ritchey celebrates “hope over experi-ence,” as he recently married Nathalie Buchet inJanuary ’05. He still enjoys traveling to Europeand central Asia for pleasure. Jim is also a mar-keting manager for Instron Corp. Liz Dolinarmoved to Harrisburg, PA, to work as a gardensdirector for a resort. It’s owned by a private cou-ple, so it seems more like working on a privateestate, notes Liz. More recently, Liz has adopteda pet rabbit, Sophia, that keeps her hopping.Michele Sherman-Kalish recently traveled toDublin to see a U2 concert. She just moved to a100-year-old house and is renovating it in hopesof attracting some Cornell visitors!

Deborah Shondorf Novick is happy toannounce the arrival of Jenny in February 2004,who joins siblings Rebecca, 6, and Emmett, 3.After 20 years on Wall Street, Deborah has retiredto begin a new entrepreneurial career with “Show-case Your Space.” This business helps consumersprepare their house for selling. It seems like justyesterday to Stephen Garrison that he was mar-ried in Sage Chapel, but it was actually 19 yearsago. Since then, he and Lisa have had two beau-tiful daughters, Carly, 14, and Kristy, 9. They livein Orlando, where Stephen works for MarriottVacation Club with several other Cornellians,

Ah, Reunion! This past June,173 classmates returned to rem-inisce, reacquaint, and bravetempestuous weather. For those

of us who liberally used the word “Ithacation”during our time at Cornell and recall not-so-balmy weather, the record-breaking heat wasnovel, but the rain was not.

Friday night’s reception started off with abang (literally) as the shindig had to move insideto stay out of a sudden lightning storm. How-ever, the rain provided welcome relief from theheat, especially for the many classmates stayingat Ujaama (Low Rise 10), which, despite themodernization of the nearby and newly con-structed North Campus housing, is still not air-conditioned. The reception was a great opportu-nity to reconnect with old friends, as well as putour Reunion goodies to use: a few classmatesmanaged to smuggle some beers out of thereception in the very snazzy cooler backpacksthat were part of the class Reunion package.Thanks to Reunion co-chairs Carolyn DeWilde-Casswell and Nadine Magac, MBA ’01, for thethoughtful planning.

Registration chair Elinor Langfelder Schwindbrought her family with her, including her newdaughter Haylee Brooke, born on May 26, 2004.Big brother Matthew is 4-1/2. Not surprisingly,she was not the only classmate with children intow. In fact, 81 children, 64 guests, and 30 non-class alumni made an appearance on campusover the weekend. With so many children joiningin on Reunion, organizers thoughtfully arrangedfor a kid’s refuge, one of the few air-conditioned

areas that we enjoyed during the weekend. Theroom was well stocked with toys graciouslydonated by Scott Whitney, who works for Has-bro. Scott was unable to make Reunion, butrequested that all the toys find “good homes”after the weekend wound down.

Saturday morning, the class enjoyed a pan-cake breakfast in one of the new buildings, AppelCommons, with former Cornell president FrankH.T. Rhodes and his wife Rosa. Rhodes remi-nisced about the breakfasts that he used to spon-sor while we were students. Meanwhile, some ofour more athletically inclined classmates andspouses participated in the Reunion Run, whichstarted at Barton Hall. The Class of ’90 made afine showing, with four classmates taking homemore than a T-shirt in the 30-39 age category. Inthe men’s five-mile race, Val Sribar led the packin first place, followed by Alex Ruiz. In the men’stwo-mile race, Melanie Rebak Schwartz’s hus-band Stephen ’91 ranked second; and in thewomen’s two-mile race, Lisa Scibetta also rankedsecond. Congratulations, runners!

During the day, the class gathered in tentson the Arts Quad for “Fun in the Sun,” whichincluded circus-style entertainment, face paint-ing, and other amusements for the children.Despite the wilting sun, the bulk of the groupstuck around for the class photo, many withstrollers parked in the shade. Eric Hagburg, ME’92, was sporting a double stroller for his twingirls. Eric and wife Anke welcomed Charlotteand Kristina on January 6.

Saturday evening, the class enjoyed leisurelycocktails and dinner at a “beach party” by BeebeLake, and some diners braved canoe trips throughthe murky waters. During the festivities, we dis-covered that Scott Hayes and his wife Rachelrecently opened the first Carvel Ice Cream Shopin Los Angeles in Torrance, CA. Scott assured usthat Cookie Puss has a different mold fromFudgie the Whale. Cookie Puss and Fudgie arelisted separately as “spokescakes” on the Carvelwebsite, supporting Scott’s claim but raisingother questions. While Scott has kept his dayjob, his wife is now devoting her full efforts totheir budding ice cream empire. Good luck!

Jennifer Sipple married Nathaniel Binzenon June 26, 2003. Still seeking creative ways tocombine the two names, they are taking any andall suggestions. Paul Rudick, in keeping withfamily tradition, still does not have any girlbabies. Keep trying, Paul! Brad Herzog, whoshied away from reporting any news because offrequent appearances in the Class Notes, held abook signing at the Campus Store for his recenttravel narrative. He has also written four chil-dren’s books, and he and wife Amy (Hillsberg)’91 have two children.

Sunday, the remaining group got togetherfor a farewell brunch and concluded the weekendby singing the Alma Mater, or at least as much ofit as they could remember. Kudos to those whoremembered that there was a second verse.

While many of us were gathering on cam-pus, we received news of fond thoughts of Cor-nell from Dmitry Oleynikov, who is now anassistant professor of surgery and director ofminimally invasive and robotic surgery at the U.



including Dan Autiello, Brian Miller, DamianoAlbanese ’86, and Derek Baum ’88.

Anne Aberbach recently left her law prac-tice to join her husband as a real estate agent forColdwell Banker. They also raise two childrentogether, Jordan, 9, and Olivia, 6. Paul Ivanschaired the e-marketing Pharma Conference inJune. His son Paul, 5, loves T-ball, and Heather,3, likes to draw—just like their freelance artistmom! Alejandro Badia, MD, is chairing the Int’lHandsurgery Arthroscopy and Athroplasty Con-ference in Miami.

Bruce Rubin and Kim Mussman ’90 teachhumanities together at the Professional Perform-ing Arts School in Manhattan. They recently wona grant from New Visions for Teachers to travelto Tibet and India to study the Tibetan Buddhistdiaspora. They’ll also hike to base camp at Mt.Everest. Andrea Kling is general counsel of FirstData Merchant Services, a division of First DataServices. She also enjoys time with Ariel, 15, andstepdaughters Brittany, 18, and Megan, 15. JeanDarlington writes in to tell us that she loves herjob as a high school math teacher in New Hart-ford, CT. Robert Monteiro notes he has becomea “soccer dad” to his 10-year-old son Malachi.Sally Rubins Kenler keeps busy with husbandAdam Scott, MD ’88, as well as Madeline, 11, andMichael, 7. Ed Catto, [email protected];Risa Mish, [email protected]. New corre-spondents: Leslie Nydick, [email protected]; andJoyce Zelkowitz Mingorance, [email protected].

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When you think of Cornell, whatcomes to mind? Cramped U-Halldorms with shared bathrooms?Hanging out with friends outside

the dorms till the wee hours? Hot Truck? Theseemingly interminable trek up Libe Slope? Winetasting? Listening to the a cappella groups singon campus or at the Plantations?

For some, these are just memories from asomewhat distant past. For roughly 500 otherswho attended our 10th Reunion, June 9-12, theyare far more recent. From Tompkins County toAfrica, our classmates came to share in the fes-tivities, rekindling old friendships and reminisc-ing about how young we all once were. EllenLeventry only had to travel a few miles down theroad from her Ithaca home, where she is a free-lance writer, while Tulio Hochkoeppler madethe journey all the way from Uruguay, SouthAmerica, where he works for Four Seasons. Onestop was made on his trip—in New York to meetup with dad, Axel ’55, headed up to the Hill forhis 50th Reunion. Tulio might have set the recordfor the longest distance traveled had ElizabethLeff not come from Egypt, where she works forBooz Allen Hamilton on a consulting project forthe Ministry of Finance.

At Ruloff ’s bar night and Collegetown Bagelbreakfasts and barbecues at our class headquar-ters and in numerous other places, I had theopportunity to hear all the diverse things ourclassmates are doing and meet their significantothers and children. Among them: Barbara Ruhsowns a nutritional consulting company in Cam-bridge, MA, where she is also working on herPhD in psychology at Harvard. Claudia Trujilloworks for Colgate and lives in Westchester, NY,with husband Peter Steed, with whom she is cel-ebrating six years of marriage. Alissa Kozuh livesin Seattle, where she does Internet marketing forNordstrom. Rhonda Stewart is a journalist forthe Boston Globe. Virginia Emily Applegate is afourth grade teacher in Saratoga, NY.

Alan and Cindy Shafer Feiler, DVM ’99,live in the mountains of North Carolina andhave two beautiful daughters, Julia and Logan.Matthew and Lisa Powell Fortna also enjoyedintroducing their newest addition, Jack, bornAugust 23, 2004. The couple keeps busy withJack and their twin daughters Julia and Jane, andMatthew is in his final year of an orthopedicsresidency at Penn. Other Philadelphia-area

I am thrilled to report that ourdear alma mater is just as weleft it (well, almost)! With theexception of some new dorms

and more parking, our lovely Cornell campus isjust as green and hilly as we remembered . . . andthe most unchanged were the beautiful faces ofour classmates, who made being at Cornell themost memorable four years of our lives.

Let me first congratulate our newly appointedclass officers, who have volunteered to dedicatethe next half a decade to serving our class. Ourfearless leader, class president Emanuel Tsourou-nis, JD ’03, is a real estate attorney for AkinGump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. And whenEman isn’t counting his billable hours, he is dec-orating his fabulous apartment in New YorkCity! Betsy Stein Kelder is our VP of internaloperations, and Sarah Striffler, my previouspartner-in-crime, will be executive VP. SinceSarah is no longer writing the column with me,she has found tons of spare time to train for theNYC Marathon—Go Sarah! Go Sarah!

Judy Seltzer will be continuing as our classsecretary; after many years of schooling, she isfinally a full-fledged vet! Other returning officersare the super, hard-working Cornell Fund rep-resentatives: Barrett Yates (Executive Chair),Rebekah Gordon (Major Gifts), and Nina LeeTorkelson (Participation), who have diligentlyraised a phenomenal amount from our class!And who can forget our remarkable reunionchairs Andrea Wasserman-Marbach and MelissaBersofsky. They planned a fun-filled weekendfor us with events such as a Welcome Back BBQ,dinner at RPU, and awesome after-hours featur-ing Mama T’s and Flavor Ice! As for me, I will becontinuing as your class correspondent andClass Council member. I’m in my third and finalyear at Brooklyn Law School, and trying to enjoylife before the Bar!

On behalf of all us old-timers, I would like towelcome the newest additions to our crew: Eliz-abeth Kang (membership contact), ElizabethKronk (treasurer), Christine Jensen Weld (mynew co-class correspondent), Jennifer McGowan

residents spotted pushing a stroller around cam-pus were Brett and Jen Blum Feldman, show-ing daughter Talia the wonders of Cornell. Lastlyin baby news, Andrew Slocum and his wife wel-comed their second daughter, Jane Anne, onJanuary 14.

I also learned of some neighbors in my ownplace of residence, the Washington, DC, area,including Chester Fung, who works for ICF Con-sulting; Demetrios Kotsikopoulos, employedwith Gartner; and Joseph Capuano, at SAIC. Asa consultant myself, it’s always interesting to notethe number of classmates in our nation’s capitalwho do this kind of work, particularly as it relatesto the government. Then, of course, there are thelawyers for the government, such as Troy Barsky,who lives in nearby Silver Spring, MD, with wifeSonia, who is pursuing a nursing degree atGeorgetown U. Moving north, Lisa Fried is alsoa lawyer, but for the firm of Pillsbury WinthropShaw Pittman in New York City. Nearby, Susie Sudoes events for a Manhattan wine retailer.

Eric Christensen, DVM ’99 ([email protected]), with whom I caught up at our “Taste ofthe Nations” class dinner, had sent me news ear-lier this year that on September 18, 2004 he mar-ried Cory Murphy, MILR ’03, just outside ofHanover, NH, with more than 40 Cornellians inattendance (Eric, I think you broke Matt’s andmy record!). The couple honeymooned in Belizeand now lives in northern New Jersey. Eric alsoshared that in March he had a “pre-reunion” ofsorts in Vermont with Chip Rollinson, Steve andAlexi Grenadier Conine ’96, Mike O’Hara, andbrother Ken Christensen, MBA ’02, and sister-in-law Susie (Welgos), MILR ’02. After watchingCornell outplay Harvard for the ECAC Champi-onship, the group created an “ice Jacuzzi” out offrozen Lake St. Catherine. According to Eric, “Allwho jumped in survived!”

Another highlight of Reunion was our Sat-urday reception with former President Frank H.T.Rhodes and his wife Rosa. Warm and charmingas ever, the Rhodeses took the time to meet andgreet nearly every classmate in attendance, takinggroup photos and reminding us how close theyfeel to our class, having “graduated” together.

Alas, some classmates were unable to joinus, but all with good reasons. Jeff Diener ([email protected]) recently moved from L.A. to Tokyo,where he still practices law, now focusing more onfinance. Writes Jeff,“My son Jack is having a blast,but he wonders where the beach went!” Anotheralum unable to attend was Anne Catlin Johnson,who gave birth to Natalie Grace on May 25. Annereports that Natalie was 7 lbs. 1 oz. and 21 incheslong and is so cute,“her Dad is already worried!”Seth Traum was also otherwise occupied—withhis 15-month-old son Zachary in New York City,where he (Seth, not Zachary!) works at SmithBarney as director of product management for agroup called Stock Plan Services.

There is, of course, plenty more news fromclassmates who attended Reunion, but, unfortu-nately, the old memory is not as sharp as it usedto be and fails to retain everything all of you toldme—particularly when it happened during oneof our open bar events! But I do encourageeveryone to send in their updates because there


are always more columns coming up! Also, in the last bit of space left in this col-

umn, I would be remiss not to offer a hugeTHANK YOU to our class officers and reunioncommittee who made such a fabulous time pos-sible, particularly our reunion chairs DanaYogel, Allison Halpern, and Peter Quagliaroli.Thanks are also due our outgoing class presi-dent, Eva Loh, who worked tirelessly these pastfive years for our class. Congratulations toShawn Hecht, our incoming president. Pleasesee our class website for the complete slate ofofficers for the next five years (and, yes, Abraand I will be continuing as your class corre-spondents!), as well as to see pictures fromReunion. If you would like to become moreinvolved in the planning for the 15th or in anyefforts over the next five, please let us know viae-mail—and, of course, keep sending in thatnews! Alison Torrillo French, [email protected]; Abra Benson, [email protected]. Classwebsite, http://classof95.alumni.cornell.edu.

of Nebraska Medical Center. “Although I will notbe able to attend Reunion, I will break out theclass yearbook and reminisce about old times!”He moved to Nebraska four years ago, aftercompleting fellowship training in minimallyinvasive surgery in Seattle. He and his wifeSonja, who is an ob/gyn at the medical center,have children Maxim, 6, and Nina, 4. Dmitryreports enjoying life in the Midwest, although hestill travels frequently to both coasts to visit fam-ily. “As we are exactly in the middle of the coun-try,” he says, “no one is claiming that we areplaying favorites.” Tamiko Toland, [email protected]; Amy Wang Manning, [email protected]; and Kelly Roberson, [email protected].

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(Cornell Fund volunteer coordinator), PhilipKing (webmaster), Howie Goldsmith (historian),and Philip Ballard, Aimee Hua-maw Hsiung,and Erick Lavoie (Class Council members). PhilKing is working at eBay in San Jose, CA, as aninteraction designer. Phil Ballard is doing anti-terrorism/force protection for the MissileDefense Agency in Washington. And last but notleast, Howie and his fiancée Jennifer Ossakowwill soon be leaving my neighborhood (Brook-lyn Heights) to study in Jerusalem. I’ll miss see-ing you two in Starbucks!

But let’s not forget the hundreds of otherclassmates who attended Reunion this year!Jason Satran drove a caravan of our classmatesup to Ithaca, including his fiancée Waina Cheng,Julie Rodriguez, Linda Nicoll, and Evan Gross-man. Jeremy Brauer is finishing up his third yearat Penn for medical school, and often gets to seethe cute couple Manny Porat and Gail Bursteinin Philly. Manny is an orthopedic surgery internat Jefferson, while Gail is in her second year ofresidency at Temple. Scott L. Weiss also enteredhis second year of residency, but at Children’sHospital in Boston. Dave Feldstein just gradu-ated from Fordham Law and even attended a Barclass during Reunion. Now that’s dedication! JeffNg and Jill Lustbader were the king and queenof volleyball at Reunion, even with Jill’s brokenarm! Balch girls Jen Tom, Airani Sathananthan’99, Megan Wolfe, and Alexia Burnett were hit-ting all the Reunion events! And Lillian RokhsarNerayoff introduced us to her husband Steven,whom she married in November 2004. Anotheradorable couple, Gogi and Seana RichardsonGupta, were caught ordering DP Dough after alate night in Collegetown. So yummy!

I also ran into a bunch of people shoppingfor Big Red paraphernalia! At Bear Necessities, Iwas happy to bump into Sara Richey, DaveChipurnoi, and Howie Katzenberg, who will befinishing up his graduate degree at Wharton. Andthen at the campus store, I spotted Liz Mahler,ME ’01, Dave Cohen, Pat Murphy, and CarrieVicens. Carrie looked better than ever—marriedlife must be treating her well! I also saw KristenKeesee and Paige Goodman picking up someCornell gear at the CU store. Speaking of Thetas,Meg Cavanaugh, Kate MacKenzie, Ryen Dy, JenSmith, Lara Gelbwasser, Erica Allgyer, CorrineKeane, and Andrea Sharfin enjoyed drinks atRuloff ’s Friday night, while Stephanie Gutleberand Tracey Lubin were at my personal favorite,Dino’s. The bar itself looks different, but all theregulars were there, such as Caroline Eichberger,who recently moved to NYC, Lindy Van Dalen,Ishika Majumdar, Mandy Krauthamer, andSarah Zornetzer, who is still living and workingin D.C. (And for those who haven’t been back toDino’s, Pendy is gone, but Nick is still there!)

Before I finish, I would like to thank BillVanneman ’31 for his inspiring words at ourclass meeting, and the Class of 1931 for their gen-erous donation to our Reunion. We couldn’t havedone it without you! And on behalf of myself andnew correspondent Christine, we love hearingfrom you and we love writing for you. See youin 2010! Andrea Chan, [email protected];Christine Jensen Weld, [email protected].


It is pleasing to see the names ofour departed classmates live on atCornell and in its activities. Formany years we have had the “Sy

Katz Parade” down Fifth Avenue in New YorkCity after the Columbia football game (throughthe enthusiastic support of the Katz family); andtennis coach Laura Glitz’s position is named the“Carl H. Meinig ’31 Head Coach of Women’sTennis” (through the generosity of the Meinigfamily). Our own Hal Craft is being remem-bered in the retirement of his son and namesake,Hal ’60, PhD ’70: 34 years of service to Cornell,early on supervising the construction or rehabil-itation of buildings and facilities worth nearly$1 billion (from the Arecibo radio telescope toDuffield Hall), and subsequently as vice presi-dent and chief financial officer of the university.

“. . . and now there are four”— class officersremaining, that is (not that it matters very much,as our duties have largely been taken over by theAlumni Office). Back in April, Peggy Gordon’60 advised us that her father Len Gordon, ourlongtime vice president, associate reunion chair,and faithful attendant at CACO meetings, hadfinally lost a bout with the old man with thescythe. Peggy said Len had “suffered a heartattack in Nov. 2003, and his doctor had put himin a hospice because of his condition.” That wasno problem to a tough ’31der like Len. Tenmonths later he took a “vacation” from the hos-pice and went on a Caribbean cruise—and thenon a second one! The second time out, accord-ing to Peggy, “he tripped, fell, and broke his hip.”He survived the surgery to repair the hip, butapparently he could not dodge a pulmonaryembolism. Before retiring to Florida, Len hadextended his criminal defense legal career by tak-ing on a traffic violation judge’s job in New YorkCity. He once told me he was waiting for a class-mate to be brought before him, so he could“throw the book” at him. I am sure the “book”Len would have thrown would have excused theviolation, and the judge would then have quietlysuggested that the miscreant classmate send theamount of the fine normally due—or a multiplethereof—to Cornell University.

I attended Reunion 2005, staying at the Con-tinuous Reunion Club headquarters. With a lotof help in transportation (without which myarthritic knees would have stranded me severaltimes), provided by Margaret Gallo ’81, MBA’81, and her cohorts in the Alumni Office, Ijoined the Class of 2000 at their first quinquen-nial reunion, and the 40th Reunion of my sonBill ’65. I am very pleased to report that ourdonation to the Class of 2000, to help finance thepromotion and functions of this initial gathering

as alumni/ae, was very clearly money well spent.There was a large, lively crowd present, and theywere obviously having a good time with eachother. They were extremely grateful for our help.This class is off to a good start, just as we in-tended. At their class meeting I was privileged totell them that they were already a distinguishedclass, as it would be 995 years till the next “triple0” class, but that it was up to them to add to thisdistinction by working with the Alumni Officeand the Cornell Fund to become “the Great Classof 2000” during their tour as alums.

You ’31ders will remember that at our 65thReunion, ours was the first stop for the then-newPresident Hunter Rawlings and his wife Elizabeth.On Saturday morning it was announced that for-mer president Rawlings will act as interim presi-dent until the appointment of a new CEO for theuniversity. Let us hope it is a good omen that theirfirst visit to a class reunion event in their renewedcapacities was to that of the Class of 2000. It wasexhilarating to watch the exchange between themand the class officers at the table. This latest gen-eration of alumni is ready to carry on the tradi-tion of the truly GREAT CLASSES of Cornell!

The 40th Reunion of the Class of ’65 washeadquartered in Balch, and was a classic nos-talgia trip for a ’31der—Has Forman’s son hadjust sent me a slide photo of Sy Katz’s teepee setup in the Balch Courtyard at our Reunion there.It was great fun watching these still very vigor-ous 60-year-olds carry on like they were halfthat age, just as we had done in our day. One oftheir dinners was held in a big tent on the Beebebeach, and the big difference I observed was thelake-full of wine that was consumed vs. the hardstuff in our time. Cornell reunions are still verystimulating events—and GREAT FUN! BillVanneman, 237 No. Main St., #250, S. Yarmouth,MA 02664-2088; tel., (508) 760-4250; e-mail,[email protected].

My apologies to Ruth FisherRosevear (527 McAlpin Ave.,Cincinnati, OH 45220) for notbeing able to include her news in

a previous column. For over 25 years she hasbeen giving demonstrations of pairs of experi-mental rats showing the effects of good diets andjunk food diets. When an article about her andher rats that appeared in her local newspaperincluded her age, “requests to show the rats fellto zero.” Not fair! But she still continues to write

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weekly for her church’s Nutrition Gazette. Here’san edited version of the article that appeared inthe Cincinnati Enquirer:

“Ruth Rosevear specializes in nutrition andrats. She enjoys taming and raising rats, butRosevear, a licensed dietician who will be 90 inDecember, is not doing it for fun. The rats arepart of her decades-long effort to teach people theimportance of good nutrition. She always has apair of rats, and they’re always named Goodieand Junkie. Her husband, Francis ’33, PhD ’37,drives her to schools and health fairs where sheshows the rats and tells how Goodie thrives onhealthy food, while Junkie’s junk food diet—white flour and sugary foods—makes him asickly shadow of his roommate. The Goodiesalways grow bigger, with better fur, muscles, andbones. Junkies have ratty fur and they’re restlessand not at all healthy.” After 12 weeks the Junkiesget good food so they won’t die and are givenaway as pets. She has been doing this since 1979,and she is now on her 108th pair. She has traveledthe world studying nutrition, including ten daysin Copper Canyon, Mexico, in 2002 studying anIndian tribe known for its excellent diet andhealth. Wonderful story, Ruth, and I’m sure manypeople are better off because of your work.

In the same vein, Dr. Ralph M. Heinicke(1124 Rostrevor Cir., Louisville, KY 40205) is stillworking hard selling us his “magic juice,” Noni.“At a talk I gave in Mexico, I was blinded by thespotlight and walked off the stage. After bounc-ing a few times, they led me back to the stage,where I told the audience that this was a feat Ionly performed for special audiences. This con-vinced them that Noni actually works.” Ralph,are you offering free samples for those of us whomake our 70th? Wendell J. Wheeler (211 Wood-bury Ave., Mount Dora, FL 32757) writes that hiswife of over 60 years passed away about fouryears ago and he is now remarried to WilmaVogt. They live in Waterman Village, a “premierretirement community” about 30 miles north-west of Orlando, where there are several otherresidents with past connections to Cornell.

Sally Clark Shumaker, networking VP forthe Class of ’71, has sent us this report on hermother, Helen Harding Clark. “Our family hada wonderful 90th birthday party for her at thehome of my nephew and his wife, who live inWhitney Point, NY. All four of my mom’s daugh-ters were there, and four of her grandchildrenand four of her great-grandchildren, as well asher brother, age 82. It was a fantastic familyevent. My mom has lived for the past five yearsat Garden House, an adult home in Binghamton,NY. She sends her best to all Class of ’36ers!” Wealso have heard from Marcia Crockett, who tellsus that her mother, Sarah Jane Wilder Silcox,

Howard Jarvis has also been traveling—to Hawaiito visit her daughter; to Barcelona, Spain, to visither granddaughter; and to China to produce aTV documentary covering 30 years ago to thepresent, “China, Then and Now.”

From last fall in Los Angeles, CA, HelenO’Brien Cyran reported “heavy, heavy rains andwonderful flower growth—over 50 stems of or-chid buds!” Another source of delight: two great-grandchildren. Helen serves on the board of theAssistance League of Southern California, enjoysart at L.A.’s great galleries, and sends greetings toall. William and Elsie Harrington Doolittle writefrom Glastonbury, CT, that they never gave athought to being “greats,” despite granddaughters’weddings in 2001, 2002, and 2003, but they nowhave a new great-grandchild, born in April (bring-ing their clan up to 21). Their youngest child livesin Connecticut and runs a retirement home forelderly horses. Bill still builds ship models (whichsuperseded mini-railroads), and Elsie is in her19th year as a docent at the Wadsworth Atheneumof Art in Hartford. They plan a trip to California,Michigan, and Peru, NY, this summer.

We sadly report two deaths. Roy Lockwooddied in February 2004. Roy was a civil engineerand worked at Mobil Corp. from the mid-1940sto the mid-’70s. He worked briefly on the ShastaDam construction project in 1938, helped bomb-proof the Panama Canal locks in anticipation ofhostilities in 1939, and worked on governmentbuilding projects supporting the Norfolk NavalStation during WWII. Roy’s other activities in-cluded being a communicant at his church andmembership in the Knights of Columbus and theNassau Club of Princeton, NJ. He also had astrong interest in genealogy and could trace hisroots back to 1630.

Coleman D. Asinof’s son Robert wrote thathis father died last December in Quechee, VT. Aveteran of WWII, Coleman made landings inNorth Africa and Italy early in the war, and latersaw combat in France, Belgium, Holland, Lux-embourg, and Germany, including the Battle ofthe Bulge. Coleman participated in many Cor-nell alumni activities and loved golf, downhillskiing, squash, and tennis. He was also an avidreader and Boston Red Sox fan.

Robert C. Hickey, MD ’42, and his wife Rose,a well-known sculptor, have five children and fivegrandchildren. Two of their daughters live in Scot-land. While at Cornell, Robert worked at the NYAg Experiment Station in Geneva, NY, helping todevelop a test for water contamination. This tech-nique is now being used in Iraq to test the watersof the endangered Tigris River. Evelyn ThomasWood reports in from Roanoke, VA, and MaryNardi Pullen sends greetings from Orono, ME.

William A. Kumpf, MS ’50, says he is gettingused to having moved from Rochester, NY, to ElkCity, OK, except for the food: “From haddock tocatfish and sweet corn to okra—ugh!” Robert A.Shaw observes, ”When the Motor Vehicle dept.issues an operator’s license to an 87-year-old foranother eight years, they have already receivedtheir legacy! However, I am looking forward tothe time when I can renew again! We are fortu-nate to have a daughter residing in the Washing-ton, DC, area, so that we could visit the WWII

passed away last April. She is survived by herhusband of 64 years, Hampton G. III. She was amember of Delta Delta Delta sorority, and gother nursing degree from Presbyterian HospitalSchool of Nursing, where she was a night nurs-ing supervisor and then a graylady at AbingtonMemorial Hospital for over 35 years. Robert C.Winans has moved to the nursing home at ShellPt. Village, 15071 Shell Pt. Blvd., Room 328, FortMyers, FL 33908. His son and wife live nearby“when they aren’t cruising.”

Now for some brief class business. I receiveda letter from the editor of this magazine, sayingthat the price of the alumni magazine will beincreasing by one dollar. As you know, our mag-azine subscriptions are paid through our annualclass dues, the level of which is set by our classadministration. I wrote our president, DorothyGreey Van Bortel, MS ’41, suggesting that wekeep our dues the same as they have been forsome time and let our class treasury “eat” theadditional $1 cost. At this writing I haven’t heardfrom her, so apparently she agrees and every-thing will stay as it is.

One final personal note. Just as so many ofyou have done before me, I have lost my wife.After 38 years of marriage, she passed away only

a week before this was being written. She hadbeen in intense pain for almost two years due toa badly repaired broken hip, with no prospect ofimprovement, so she had nothing but pain in herfuture and her heart finally decided it had hadenough. In that sense it was a true blessing forher. Bill Hoyt, 8090 Oakmont Dr., Santa Rosa,CA 95409; e-mail, [email protected].


‘Ruth Fisher Rosevear specializes innutrition and rats.’

BILL HOYT ’36

Mable Levy Gerhart, MA ’39,writes from Perkasie, PA, that shekeeps busy attending to a three-acre property in the woods with

two acres of lawn and landscaping—she lovesgardening and her flower beds. Reporting on thewet summer of 2004 with an abundance of weeds:“I’m not a friend of chemical weed killers, so itseems I was weeding by hand every day some-where.” Unlike this year, that summer was toocold or rainy to use the swimming pool, and shemissed her daily water exercises. She did, however,take two trips: to Madrid and Malaga in April, andto Munich last fall, arriving there just as Oktober-fest was ending. “I had studied in Munich at theuniversity right after graduation in 1938, andthough I’ve been to Munich several times sincethen, I did a more thorough sightseeing this time,visiting the house where I lived in 1938 and theuniversity buildings again, and reminiscing. HowMunich has changed in the intervening years. Ofcourse, so has the rest of the world. Sometimes Iwonder whether it is all for the good.” Lucille


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Memorial, which took so long to become reality.” Class of ’38, c/o Cornell Alumni Magazine,401 East State St., Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850.

We send our sincere good wishes and con-dolences to Evelyn Zimmerman Linowitz (Tonito us) and her family, whose husband Sol, JD ’38,passed away March 18. Sol was a gifted man,CEO of Xerox, US Ambassador to the Organi-zation of American States, international diplo-mat, co-negotiator of the Panama Canal treaties,recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom,and much, much more. His life of service to ourcountry should make every Cornellian proud.

Be well, be happy, and don’t forget to write! Ruth Gold Goodman, 103 White Park Rd.,Ithaca, NY 14850; tel., (607) 257-6357; e-mail,[email protected].

Dance,” “Avalon,” and “It Had to be You.” EltonBorden lives in a house on his brother’s farm.His second home is a travel trailer—he spendsweekends with his camping club. The trailerserves as home in the Orlando, FL, area Decem-ber through February. “We are in fairly goodhealth. We still square and round dance andhave traveled in Europe.”

Malcolm Vail retired in 1995 and spends sixmonths in Ephraim, WI, sailing out of the localYacht Club. He is a director at Delnor Hospital.His three children, five grandchildren, and sevengreat-grandchildren are all in good health anddoing just fine. “Betty and me? At age 86, we’restill quite active and in pretty good shape for theshape we’re in.” Class president Bill Webber hasa new address: 408 Stoutenburgh Lane, Pittsford,NY 14534. “After major surgery in 2003 and2004, I sold my house and moved into a newhome located in a multi-care facility. I travel tovisit four children and grandchildren. I lookforward to the 65th Reunion.”

Robert Haase and wife Arlene moved intoVilla Medici, Apt. 110, 9534 Ash Street, OverlandPark, KS 66207. “We have a beautiful backyardwith a large patio and a stream for fishing. Theyard is cared for by the community, includingsnow removal. I am still a courier at the banktwice a week and enjoy it.” Jack Sterling and wifeHil downsized to a villa at 76 Jillian Circle, WestHartford, CT 06107. They plan a trip to China, aswell as a fall reunion with Tom and Barb Shreveand Dave and Sally Ketchum. John and MickeyBorst also went through a similar experience.They sold their home of 25-plus years in Hamil-ton, NY, and moved to a lifecare community inLeesburg, FL. “Our greatest loss was the passingof Bart Bartholomew, a beloved friend and ThetaDelta Chi brother. Our sympathy and prayers goto his wonderful wife Eddie (Burgess).”

Fred Rosekrans and wife Mary moved toNaples, FL, in September 2004 and love it. Theywere in New York City for the wedding of theiroldest grandson, and Fred hopes to have dinnerwith his cousin Jean Way Schoonover. Sad notefrom Anthony Pennock: “My wife died last yearafter 59 years of marriage. She had diabetes andAlzheimer’s. I’ve been going on Elderhosteltrips.” Robert and Elsie Harley have been mar-ried 61 years. Robert writes, “I wish I could walkbetter. Elsie is a fantastic caregiver. So muchenergy and ability.”

Businessman, engineer, loyal Cornellian, andactive classmate Chuck Lake died on June 7 inHinsdale, IL. I received a long and informativeobituary last summer and will share more aboutChuck’s life in the next issue. Ralph Antell,Beaufort Towers, 7015 Carnation St., Apt. 408,Richmond, VA 23225-5233.


C L A S S N O T E S

Reunion Weekend 2005 has comeand gone. It was notable for twothings: one, the hottest, driestweather I can remember, and two,

the surprise resignation of President JeffreyLehman ’77. The alumni, the campus, and thetown buzzed all day Saturday, June 11, and thespeculation still goes on. I doubt whether weshall ever find out the real story because so manypeople on campus are gifted with the evasive lan-guage of academe, but I do know he was verypopular with the students. I think the shockwaves will go on for a long time.

Ithaca’s first really tall building is almost fin-ished. It was built with the help of Cornell, whichwill use the bottom floors for several hundredoffice workers from campus, and house a hotelon the top floors. It’s a cooperative effort betweenCornell and the City of Ithaca to boost the localeconomy. As usual, there were many complaintsabout the height of the building—typical of atown of highly vocal people—but now, I think,it looks fine and fits in very well.

The news letters which some of you sentwith your dues are petering out. While you aredoing your end-of-summer activities, why notsend me a note to help me out, please?

Jane Davison Fast claims she doesn’t see orwalk well or drive, but she manages to do a lotwith the help of family and friends. She goes tochurch and AAUW and eats out “a lot.” Shehelps with her church newsletter and works herphone for good causes. She finds audio booksand satellite TV a blessing and says since noth-ing hurts, she can’t complain! She sent a photoof her granddaughter’s wedding party and looksvery good to me, even though she calls herself “atired old lady.” Can’t imagine why!

Evelyn Wilson Monroe’s daughter Elizabethasked me to remind you that, though she haslost vision, she loves to get e-mail at [email protected], so all you computer-savvy women,gather ’round! Virginia Hoyt Hammond stillwalks, still drives, still maintains a vegetable gar-den. That seems to be the magic word—STILL.

Another active classmate is Margaret DoleChandler, who, with her husband Webster, MS’40, walks a mile daily. Webster was recently hon-ored for 20 years’ service to “Meals on Wheels.”They both volunteer at the local hospital, andPeggy is still in music, singing and playing two-piano concerts and organ-piano duets in church.Obviously, she’s another classmate who has notime to grow old.

Our Reunion Chair Elizabeth Luxford Web-ster writes regularly, which I appreciate. The sagaof the amount of traveling she and Bill ’42 arestill doing is amazing. Last year, they drove toStratford, Ontario, for the theater; to Baltimorefor piano camp for Bill (Leezie says she has notalent); to the Adirondacks, where she found outshe could still get into a canoe—but not out;and to Maine, Wyoming (where some of herkids live and work), and Vermont. Seeing Amer-ica is something they do well.

Phil (Lawrence P.) Young and his wife Wyonawill celebrate their 60th anniversary in July. Heonly attended Cornell for one year and then wentwith Michigan Bell Telephone Co. in Detroit. Heretired 42 years later, including spending threeyears in Australia with the Signal Corps. He wasbrought up in Trumansburg, NY, but now livesat 10810 Old Charley Rd., Gravette, AR 72736.

John Hull and his wife Astrid do a lot oftraveling, in spite of both having limiting healthproblems. They got caught in a snowstorm nearSteamboat Springs, CO, last winter, and then vis-ited Naples, FL, and Charleston, SC, on their wayhome to Dewittville, NY. Later this year they planto be in Sweden. Rev. Frederick Turner, JD ’41,started off studying law, then became a Methodistminister, initially serving at several churches nearNew Albany, PA, until his retirement in 1980. Heand his wife now live at Bethany Village in Horse-heads, NY. He is currently compiling a book abouthis father and his life in the Canadian/AmericanOld West. George DeWitt lives in Lino Lakes, MN,but didn’t send any additional news this time.

Glenn Robinson, a Sp Ag student in themid-’30s, has moved to 21 Tudor Road, still inBrockport, NY, to the home of his daughter andson-in-law. He’ll be living in a specially designed“pad” that had been used by his grandsons dur-ing their high school and college years, with livingroom, bedroom, kitchen, and bath. A chairlift tothe upstairs will mean he can help with meals.He writes, “This is a perfect arrangement as I move into my 90s.” Phil Twitchell, 1963Indian Valley Rd., Novato, CA 94947; e-mail,[email protected].

It is our sad duty to report thedeath on July 20, 2005 of RalphAntell, the good-spirited, steadfast,and tireless correspondent for the

Men of the Class of ’41. As Ralph was always con-scientious about supplying your updates to us, nomatter the deadline, his news reports will continueto appear in the next couple of issues. He wrote thefollowing column late in the spring. We send ourheartfelt condolences to his wife Anne and theirfour children.—Ed.

To get in the mood, I am playing a BennyGoodman CD—real swing music, like “Let’s

The class column for this issuecan be found with the Reportsof Reunion Classes, whichbegin on page 64.R

Eleanore Wearne Holderman, of Orange,CA, is well and lives happily in a retirementhome. She has family nearby, and two daughterslive in Northern California. She is proud to haveten grandchildren. Dorothy Newman Seligmanand husband Donald live in Somers, NY. They arewell and healthy, keep busy, and have a full andinteresting life. Donald still works part time, butthey play tennis and golf. Dorothy does volunteer


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work and is on several boards and committeesat the condominium where they live. She andDonald travel often; this year they are going toBarcelona and surroundings. Her children areboth Cornellians, and the children and grand-children all live nearby.

Martha Perkins Melfi of Liverpool, NY,reports she has no health problems. She takeslots of bus trips. She took two trips to Europe lastyear—one to France and Italy and one to centralEurope. She plans to go to the 756 Tank Battal-ion Reunion with her daughter. Three childrenlive close by in Liverpool, Syracuse, and Cato.She does a lot of reading and makes rosaries asa hobby. Ruth Kessel Butterly lives in New YorkCity and is still very active as a volunteer at theNew York Public Library. Among her variousjobs are cataloging the menu collection, whichis extensive and dates from the mid-nineteenthcentury, filing various gallery notices and articlesof the art and architecture division, and servingat the information desks. This work gives hergood contact with various fields.

Betty Bourne Cullen is moving to an inde-pendent living facility in Fort Collins, CO, withfamily close by, lots of activities, and no morecooking. She says it will be wonderful to be nearchildren, grandchildren, and great-grandchil-dren. We received word that Maja Cavetz Stampdied in Vienna, VA, on April 13, 2005 after along illness. She majored in Floriculture andenjoyed working in her beautiful gardens whenshe lived in Ithaca. Dorothy Talbert Wiggans,415 Savage Farm Dr., Ithaca, NY 14850; tel.,(607) 266-7629; e-mail, [email protected].

so it was a wise move. Stop by when you are inthe area.” Robert and Doris Lee Zabel (Webster,NY) were happy to be moving to a cottage in anewly built retirement community in early sum-mer. “We are busy clearing out our home ofmany years.” Jean Hammersmith Wright (Shel-burne, VT): “I sold my Heritage Hills condo inSomers, NY, to the first prospect (lovely lady)who entered, and I moved to Shelburne in July2004—my 17th and final move! I am extremelypleased. Wake Robin is a really fantastic place,now ten years old and modeled after the residen-tial care units of Kendal at Ithaca. Situated onLake Champlain, 20 minutes from Burlington, itsbreathless views of the Adirondacks are just oneof its many virtues. I watch magnificent sunsetsfrom my third-floor apartment. Come see, oneand all, and you’ll agree I made a good decision!”

Mary Jo Borntrager Ray (Dallas, TX): “Justbefore Christmas 2003, I tripped over a suitcase atthe airport [bad decision] and broke my neck (theodontoid C3—the same one Christopher Reevebroke). By some miracle, I had no paralysis, andafter three months in a very uncomfortable collar,I bounced back and resumed all my usual activi-ties. We recently sold our home of 30 years andare enjoying life in a lovely apartment in a Hyattresidence here in Dallas, not far from our formerhome. What a job of down-sizing!” John A. Van-derslice (Valencia, PA): “We’ve moved to theWoodlands at St. Barnabas, a retirement center forindependent living. We look forward to the 65thon the Hill.” Bob Hutton (West Grove, PA): “Mywife Sue (Cassedy) ’46 and I have sold our homein Somerset, MA, and sometime in early Decem-ber will move to Jenner’s Pond, a beautiful retire-ment community located near our family. Reasonfor the move is two-fold: I was no longer able toperform the minor repairs in our home [In allthose years you never taught Sue?], and we missedbeing close to our family. Our friends tell us wemade the right decision and we agree.”

Mary Honor Crowley Rivin (Santa Fe, NM,red state): “I have recently learned to play Mah-Jongg. Two or three tables of us at our retirementcenter play one morning a week. Husband Arnoldand I don’t travel abroad anymore, but still dostateside trips to visit family and friends. I amactive (fairly so) in the local League of WomenVoters, mostly in voter registration and education.Last fall, of course, was extremely active.”

Hope Ritter (Athens, GA): “Linda and I vis-ited son Michael (Princeton ’03) in GreenwichVillage [blue state] a couple of months back.Michael hopes to enroll in Cornell Law’s specialprogram—two years Ithaca, two years in a Parisinternational law firm. He speaks French fluently,so it would be an ideal arrangement—if hisLSATs measure up. My first contact with KnoxBurger since our 60th was by telephone andfailed to reach face-to-face because our stay wastoo brief. Sounds like he’s been through the mill,a challenge he is handling with sheer Knox guts.”

Sim Gluckson (New York, NY): “Have justfinished my tenth year of teaching political scienceat Marymount Manhattan College in its Centerfor Living and Learning; I should have taken moreliberal arts at Cornell. Have been asked to returnnext fall, and I will give it a try. I just received the

senior center. “Tyny” is proud of her grandchildMike, who made the National Honor Society forOutstanding Academic Achievement at Clayton,NY’s Thousand Island High School.

Here’s some old news: Virginia StockamoreHenry (Albany, NY; [email protected]) volunteers at the AMC Hospital, the RedCross, and the Albany Inst. of History, but hasn’ttraveled outside the US recently. Gladys Mc-Keever Seebald (Wyomissing, PA) reminisceswith her former roommate Kathryn “Kiffie”Fiske Weikel (Pottstown, PA) and they hope toget together. Gladys and Henry attended his vet-erans’ reunion, and she keeps busy with bridge,crossword puzzles, and solitaire on the computer.

Sadly, we report the passing of Glenn Bots-ford (Ithaca) the day after his 86th birthday.Glenn took graduate studies at the universities ofWichita and Washington. He learned to fly inIthaca and enlisted in the Navy in 1942, where hequalified as a naval aviator. He flew with TWA andwas later a test pilot with Boeing, retiring as anaeronautical engineer in 1984. He and his brotherHal climbed Mt. Rainier in 1967. He was a char-ter member and docent of the Seattle Museum ofFlight. He and Margaret moved to Kendal in 2002with plans to attend all the university events, buthis health interfered with such pleasures. His largefamily will miss him, as shall we all.

We also regret the passing of John Hogg(Grove City, PA), who was awarded the PurpleHeart for the loss of his arm in WWII. And hestill played golf. He is mourned by Louise, his wifeof 62 years, and his five children, 11 grandchildren,and 16 great-grands. Jane Holub sadly reports thepassing of her husband and our classmate Edward(Media, PA) last July. Our sympathies to all.

It was reported to me by a Penn graduatethat Cornell is the “last Ivy League school to havewhat we remember as a ‘marching band.’ Therest have raggle-taggle outfits of mismatchedboys and girls straggling around as their spokes-person spouts censored words in tune with theirmarching and tooting.” Cornell’s teams arereflecting this good spirit. And did you knowthat you can go to Cornell in NYC to receive amaster’s degree? A New Yorker magazine ad pro-motes this accommodation.

Amazing fact: May 19, 2005 marked threeyears and eight months after 9/11—the samedistance of time between the attack on Pearl Har-bor and the end of WWII. That war seemed tolast forever, and time since 9/11 has just flown by.And the last word: Name two men who changedthe world with a mouse. Walt Disney and BillGates. Don’t forget to send news, pictures, etc., forour class website, http://classof42.alumni.cornell.edu, and also for this column. Write or e-mailme. Carolyn Finneran, 8815 46th St. NW, GigHarbor, WA 98335; tel., (253) 265-6618; e-mail,[email protected].


A Cornell Alumni Magazine storyreminded me of the job I had assecretary of the History depart-ment during WWII. One of the

professors I worked for was Mario Einaudi, whobecame the first president of Italy after the war.His nephew Franco Einaudi, PhD ’67, is nowpresident of the American Meteorological Soci-ety and director of the Earth-Sun ExplorationDivision at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.So don’t fail to read the interesting articles inevery issue.

Doris Stone Hanrahan (Montauk, NY) calledwith news of her military family. Her son-in-lawis a Navy commander stationed in Bahrain, andher son is an Army general stationed in the US.Her Florida home, unfortunately, is in PuntaGorda, an area that has made the news for notgetting the houses repaired following last year’shurricanes. Stonie’s house still lacks its roof. Shebelieves that Jim Goodwillie (York, PA) mightalso have a home there and she’d love to hearfrom him. She also states, “I have always felt Imust finish reading any book I start, and thatwas put to the test regarding The Trial. To put itsuccinctly, I hated it—and with no apology formy lack of appreciation.” Stonie, please send yourMontauk address.

Evelyn VanTyne Morrison (Nedrow, NY)belongs to the Cornell Women’s Club of Syracuseand enjoys spending time at her home in theThousand Islands near the bridge to Canada. Shealso takes part in activities and classes at her local

Dept. of Splendid Decisions.Patricia Rider Huber (Cromwell,CT): “As you can see from theaddress change, I have moved to

the Covenant Village retirement community incentral Connecticut. I hated to leave beautifulCape May, but I am much nearer my offspring,


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distinguished service medal from the BrooklynBotanic Garden, their highest award for a volun-teer. My first grandson, Dan, son of CornelliansCarrie (Gluckson) ’73 and Ron Gale ’72, ME’73, arrived this fall. Deeply distressed over RoyUnger’s death. He was a fraternity brother, afriend, and an all-around great guy. As for 150s,with two new hips and a laminectomy in the lastten years, I wouldn’t dare suit up. It would be ahelluva lot of fun, but impossible. I still see StanLevy, Arnie Rosenstein, and Jerrold Lieberman,MD ’46. Thanks for the column. Keep it up.”

Charles Harris (Island Heights, NJ): “Mychildren are as old as I used to be. I’m busy lead-ing a sheltered, selfish life—like a second child-hood—trying to understand now what I learnedat Cornell, but didn’t understand then. My travelis currently confined to the Internet, a containerholding all the information in the world—whata tool! I have 1,000 remaindered copies of a bookI wrote and Harper & Row published 30 yearsago. The prison system said they had a loadingdock—I would ship at my expense; but whenthey discovered it was hardcover, they refused—prisoners make weapons of hardcover books. I’dappreciate any constructive ideas.” [Armor forHumvees?] S. Miller Harris, P.O. Box 164,Spinnerstown, PA 18968; e-mail, [email protected].

Husband Bob was recorded six hours on PhoenixTV by Arizona State U. and City Managers OralHistory Program, telling of his work in sixcities—Minot, ND, Milton-Freewater, OR, Elgin,IL, Chicago, Ft. Collins, CO, and Phoenix. Rudywas honored by 60 Arizona mothers at theirannual American Mothers Association meetinglast year. The Bruntons have three daughters, whoare successful teachers, and a son, a financial plan-ner, all with happy families active in communityaffairs and causes. Rudy and Bob claim eightgrandchildren and three great-grands. Tom Dentof Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, hasn’t been able tocruise with Club ’44 because of health problemswith his legs. He does volunteer work as a statis-tician for the Tarrytown affiliate of Literacy Vol-unteers of America. Wife Geraldine is Director ofTutoring Programs for non-English-speakingimmigrants. “This is our way of trying to retainEnglish as the official language of our state andcountry.” Dan Morris, BA ’76, reports from Ithacathat football coach Jim Knowles ’87 asked him tocoach kickers at the summer sports camp.“Greatfeeling to know I can still do it.” His son Gregory’87 is editor-in-chief of a new magazine, Greens,slanted toward minorities who play good golf andenjoy good living. Daughter Misty Morris Fearon’89 is the physical therapist for the city of Ithaca’sSpecial Children’s Center, and son Christopher’96, a maritime archaeologist, coached Cornellwomen’s rugby while on furlough.

Jacqueline Graff Courtenay has been danc-ing for several years, taking ballroom lessons andentering competitions each year. She has doneshows on cruises, one from A Chorus Line andone from Chicago, and is having a great time.Priscilla Young Waltz of Sea Cliff, NY, still paints,has shows, and gets to Maine for her annual fly-fishing adventure, despite problems with post-polio syndrome. Lucille Jones-Grey Halifax ofVenice, FL, says she isn’t a big donor to Cornellbecause the three other colleges she attended (U.of Miami, Rollins, and U. of Florida) and herfour children’s colleges keep her on their lists.She enjoys Cornell alumni meetings in Sarasota.She’s still living independently and often seesJean Quick Bryant ’43 and husband Dr. Henrywho live nearby.

Charles Williams writes from Scottsdale, AZ,that he and Barbara will celebrate their 60th wed-ding anniversary on Sept. 15, 2005. A daughternow works for Frontier Airlines, enabling themto fly anywhere in the US—standby, of course.They have already taken one happy trip and planon many more. Lew Mix of Virginia Beach lostsix trees to Hurricane Isabel, but his house wasnot damaged. He and Connie (Avery) ’48 attended

two grandchildren’s college graduations. DonCrandall lived in the Walsh Hotel in Medina, NY,for almost a year while his sons worked on win-terizing his house. He had all the equipment, butsays he was too old to do the work himself. HerbEskwitt invites everyone who lives in or visits theBerkshires to join the Berkshire Cornell Club. Nancy Torlinski Rundell, 20540 Falcons LandingCir. #4404, Sterling, VA 20165.


C L A S S N O T E S

Seven loyal ’44s—Hugh Aron-son, Doris Holmes Jenkins, Artand Dotty Kay Kesten, JerryLevitan, MBA ’48, Don Middle-

ton, and Mort Savada—braved a blizzard in NewYork City on January 22 to attend the celebrationof the 100th anniversary of CACO (Cornell Asso-ciation of Class Officers). Dotty then sent a two-page report on class business to all classmates. Artcontinues to add to the website. He loves doing itand says classmates are funding his effort.

This is being written in June—the end of thenews and dues year, and time to wrap up lastyear’s communiqués. Virginia MacArthurClagett describes her ride home from Reunionwith Dunbar King in his 1926 Ford. He shiftedgears, worked floor pedals, and, in the rain, hand-turned the windshield wipers. She spent twodays, eight hours a day, “sitting in a comfy seat,enjoying the bucolic countryside, mooing at thecows, and waving at teens getting off buses in themiddle of nowhere.” Andi Capi, MD ’46, andSherrill flew from Reunion to their summer homein Portugal. There they stayed for their usual twomonths, deciding to sell Casa Capi, which theyhad built 34 years ago. An English couple whowanted to use it only in fall, winter, and spring,snapped it up. The buyers are allowing them freeuse of it every summer. Says Andi,“You can haveyour cake and eat it, too!” Bill Felver, BA ’47, MA’50, of Isle of Bute, Scotland, has a daughter whois an opera singer. He has heard her in Berlin,where she sang as a Valkyrie in a Wagner opera(four performances), and in Dortmund, as sheperformed 16 times in the title role in Puccini’sTurandot. As she awaits contracts, he calls it a“precarious profession.”

Ruth Caplan Brunton sends a detailed Christ-mas letter describing family accomplishments.

Kathryn Foote Shaw, BS HE’45 (Penfield, NY) added a sixthgrandchild last July. The onlygirl, she joins her brother, age

10, plus four other grandsons. The baby’s parentsare also Cornellians: Brian, JD ’88, and MarjorieHodges Shaw, JD ’91. I also heard from froshfriend Louise Carmody Wiley (Naples, FL). Louhas four children, eight grandchildren, and fourgreat-grands. She enjoys going to her home inFlorida for three months in the winter. Jan Bas-sette Summerville (Sackets Harbor, NY) reportedon three grandsons: John became an Eagle Scoutlast December; Bryan graduated from OklahomaState and is working in Oswego; and Garrett is asenior at the U. of South Carolina.

I got a newspaper clipping of our past Prezand Reunion Co-chair Mavis Gillette Sand (EastAurora, NY) about her award from the UnitedWay: the Community Hero Award for Servicesto Families. Mavis worked for 16 years with theAurora Healthcare System as a dietician at thenursing home. She presently serves as food pantrymanager for FISH (an interdenominational Chris-tian ministry) and is chairperson of the MissionCommission of her church. Seaward “Sandy” ’45,BA ’47, PhD ’55, and she have six children. Theirdaughter Natalie Sand ’76 is working on her mas-ter’s in philosophy at the U. of Wisconsin, Mil-waukee. Grandson Raymond Miller was marriedlast year in Laredo, TX. Mavis wrote that she, classpresident Lloyd Slaughter, and Alumni Fundchair Dick Turner attended the Mid-WinterMeeting of the Cornell Association of Class Offi-cers (CACO) in New York City. (Next year’s meet-ing will be in Philadelphia. Maybe more of us canmake that one—I’m hoping to, so join me.)

September kick-off meetings will be held inIthaca for next year’s reunion. Past Prez LouiseGreene Richards, BS HE ’45, PhD ’65, TreasurerRuth Critchlow Blackman, Reunion Co-chairBill Farrell, Dick Turner, and Mavis plan to be

‘Football coach Jim Knowles ’87 askedDan Morris to coach kickers at the

summer sports camp.’NANCY TORLINSKI RUNDELL ’44

The class column for this issuecan be found with the Reports ofReunion Classes, which begin onpage 64.R


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there. In the meantime, Bill is working on ourupdated reunion website. Louise wrote fromIthaca that she enjoys being near classmates andother Cornellians who live at Kendal (CarolynUsher Franklin, BS HE ’45, Marion MoultonMcPheeters, and Nancy Stephenson Bond ’45),and also Binghamtonites Dottie Tinker Powell,BA’45, MD ’50, and Rayma Carter Wilson, andWaterlooite Bea O’Brien Contant. She wrote, “Ienjoy driving through campus and seeing stu-dents scurrying around—and am glad I don’thave to scurry anymore.” Bea taught locally from1946 to 1980. Since the 1990s she has been thevillage historian and has helped plan a horse-and-wagon tour on Memorial Day Weekend.Bea’s quote: “Waterloo is recognized as the birth-place of Memorial Day.” Harry and Mary LouRutan Snowden (Madison, WI) moved to aretirement community and love it. They havethree daughters and five grandchildren. “Livingin a university town makes me nostalgic forCornell, and I might take some courses nextyear. I’m interested in hearing of any Cornelliansnearby.” Elinor Baier Kennedy, 9 Reading Dr.,Apt. 302, Wernersville, PA 19565.

was also there to celebrate his granddaughterWhitney Patross ’05’s graduation. Robert Loeperwill likely be there soon, as one of his grandchil-dren will start Cornell this fall, while the husbandof another granddaughter will earn a doctorate atnext spring’s graduation. Robert Olney, BA ’46,has surely spent many a May afternoon in Schoell-kopf, since he has had three sons, two grandsons,and a granddaughter graduate from Cornell. JaneJohnson McCombs and her husband Bob ’51also squeezed in a graduation during a two-weektrip through Texas, where they attended the wed-ding of their oldest grandson, the 23rd birthdayof their oldest granddaughter, and another grand-son’s high school graduation. W.R. “Bill” Davies([email protected]), who lives in Ukiah,CA, reports that his grandson, who just finishedSan Diego U., is applying to Cornell’s JohnsonGraduate School of Management.

Congratulations to Robert Haggerty, BA ’46,MD ’49 ([email protected]),of Canandaigua, NY, who was recently honoredfor his life’s work with children’s health care.Robert was the chair of the U. of Rochester’s Med-ical School’s Dept. of Pediatrics for more than tenyears and served as president of the AmericanAcademy of Pediatrics and the executive directorof the Int’l Pediatric Association. He was also thefounding editor of Pediatrics in Review (andserved as editor for 25 years). In addition, hewrote more than 150 papers, 200 book chapters,editorials, and abstracts, and also edited threebooks. He has been described as “likely the mostprominent leader in pediatric medicine in thesecond half of the 20th century.” Robert was apioneer in facilitating access to medical care forlow-income families, including migrant workers.In recognition of his work, he received the AlfredI. DuPont award for excellence in children’s healthcare. In addition, the Robert J. Haggerty ChildHealth Services Research Laboratories have beendedicated at the U. of R.’s Strong Memorial Hos-pital. Many congratulations to you!

Others in our class have had careers in highereducation and some continue to teach. HarryRubin, DVM ’47 ([email protected]), teachescell biology of cancer to upper division studentsat Berkeley and also writes review articles in hisfield. Israel Milner ([email protected]) is an ad-junct professor of environmental science at Tem-ple U. Barbara Everitt “Bimby” Bryant ([email protected]) is working with the U. of MichiganBusiness School as an adjunct research scientist.

Bimby sent a funny story with her newsform. “Several years ago there was an article inthe Cornell Alumni News about students usingscrapbooks from the ’20s and ’30s as researchresources. The article ended, ‘Apparently after the’30s, nobody kept scrapbooks—but the rarebooks library would like them.’ Well, I made ascrapbook for each of my four years. I reviewedthem one last time—including pictures of men Ididn’t marry—and shipped them to the library.Imagine my surprise last June when the CornellWomen’s Chorus came to perform in Ann Arbor.One of the chorus members let out a cry whenshe saw my nametag. ‘My roommate used yourscrapbooks for a term paper!’ She quickly calledher roommate, a member of the chorus—who

favored brothers being more mobile and/or alivein three years than in five.

Robert J. Nist (Trinity, FL; [email protected]), who was known as Joe at Cornell, sent sadnews. His son Robert A. Nist died suddenly inDecember 2004. “Dr. Bob, a Phi Beta Kappa,practiced endodontistry and was a professor ofendodontics at Ohio State U. We often look backto the times his mother would hug Bob and pro-claim,‘You will not be an engineer like your fatherand struggle in the workplace as a Cornell-trainedengineer.’ ” Joe hopes to reune with us in 2006.

Our class historian, Pat Kinne Paolella (Lake-wood, NJ), is sequencing all of Elinor’s and myarticles to display at our “60th in ’06” and addthem to the ’46 cache at the main library. Patand Sal are thrilled to finally rate the Statler forreunion and would hate to miss that. They aregetting used to their “adult residence” life, whichfrees them from many household chores.

Let’s keep working for a mammoth “60th in’06” reunion turnout and each of us call a class-mate and ask him or her to join us on the Hillin June of ’06. TO PUBLISH YOUR E-MAILADDRESS, e-mail it to me. Include your nameand city and state of residence. Send news to: Paul Levine, 31 Chicory Lane, San Carlos,CA 94070; tel., (650) 592-5273; e-mail, [email protected]. Class website, http://classof46.alumni.cornell.edu.


We arrived on the Hill with the country atwar / Saw entries and exits, a revolving door /There is no disputing that front lines are hell / Butnear purgatory’s mech lab at Cornell.

The verse above is from a ’46 parody of the“Song of the Classes.” It may have influenced thelate Bob Nagler ’50 to create a tradition. He ini-tiated Pi Lam’s combined reunion of classes from’41 through ’55 in New York City. But beforelong, the attendees were nearly all from the“revolving door” classes of ’43 through ’52, whenbrothers were leaving for and returning fromarmed service commitments and bonded in theirefforts to keep the house going. To my knowl-edge, of the brothers listed below, only LarryLowenstein ’43 graduated with his original class.

After several reunions in New York restau-rants and hotels, Bob and Larry changed thevenue to the New York Cornell Club. Bob beganwith annual reunions in the early Eighties thatattracted brothers and their wives from all overNorth America. Bob retired from chairing thereunions in 1991 and they lapsed. Shortly beforehe died in 1997, he fanned the flame of renewaland passed the torch to Rick Diamond ’50.

Rick’s successful “last hurrah” in 2000 cre-ated a demand for more “hurrahs” by the broth-ers. Bob Asher ’48 chaired the 2005 edition. Heshared credit with Rick, Barry Cohen ’47, StuSherman, Larry Lowenstein, and Shelly Joblin’48, BA ’47, MBA ’48, whose contributions werecrucial. Those assembled voted not to wait fiveyears for the next gala. They decided the odds

I am sorry to announce thedeath of John Ayer on June 11in Ithaca. John and Helen (All-muth) have always been active

with the university and our class. John was classpresident and a Cornell Fund representative, andboth he and Helen helped with reunions. BarlowWare and Margie Schiavone Berens attendedthe memorial service. If any of you would like tomake a donation in his honor, John and Helen’schildren have requested that donations go to the

Cornell Fund and that they be mailed to BarlowWare (55 Brown Rd., Ithaca, NY 14850). Thefamily will decide later how to allocate the dona-tions. Our class also recently lost Allen E.Dekdebrun, who lived in North Fort Myers, FL.Many of you will remember Dek’s mighty skillsas a CU quarterback.

Thank you for all the blue forms loadedwith news! I can picture so many of you as Iread them and remember shared experiencesfrom long ago. I will dole out the news over thenext few columns, so don’t be concerned if yournews isn’t included this month.

It seems that a few of our classmates were atgraduation last spring. Alan Markham was thereto see granddaughter Joanna Britten-Kelly ’05graduate. Robert Flickinger ([email protected])

‘We needed four to f ive formal gowns for allthe dances then—not just blue jeans.’

BARBARA EVERITT “BIMBY” BRYANT ’47


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had never expected to meet the author of thescrapbooks. Her term paper was about collegestudents in wartime. I asked her if she hadn’t hada good laugh over all the pressed dried corsages.She admitted she had. We needed four to fiveformal gowns for all the dances then—not justblue jeans, I told her.”

Thanks for help on this column to mydaughter Beth Anderson ’80, who called mefrom her 25th Reunion in June to tell me thenews of President Jeffrey Lehman ’77’s resigna-tion. What a shock! Arlie Williamson Ander-son, 238 Dorchester Rd., Rochester, NY 14610;e-mail, [email protected].

100 Most Notable Cornellians, was on campusfor a public lecture last October, followed by acelebratory dinner attended by about 40 facultymembers from around the campus.

Tom Trafzer, El Dorado Hills, CA: “My jobis trying to master conversion of vinyl records toCD, golfing handicap chairman, and generalhome factotum. Would rather be relaxing inFlorida. Problem: Iraq. Solution: Illigitimus noncarborundum. Have learned at a trust seminarthat tearing a document into two pieces is anaccident, into four pieces is a revocation.” JohnG. and Dr. Merilyn Baron Woods, Philadelphia,PA: “We are pleased to report that our grandsonMichael Lis ’08 is in Cornell Engineering. OtherCornellians in our family: John’s sister Mary ’52,our daughter Anne ’73, and Anne’s husbandNeil Sonenklar ’73.”

Sidney Law, Ormond Beach, FL: “Churchchoir, rental home in Palm Coast, Zone NetMLM, keeping in touch with large family in US,Holland, Finland, and Germany all keep me busy.Spent a week in a Florida hospital (lots of good-looking RNs). Spent last July-Sept. in Northeast.Have three time-shares in Tennessee and one inFlorida. Today’s world problem is price of gaso-line. Solution: more public transportation, likeEurope.” Ed De Gasper, Williamsville, NY: “Prac-ticing retirement. Reading up on it. Plan to spendfour months in Florida pool. One son, five daugh-ters, five grandsons, 13 weddings, eight divorces.(The girls keep getting re-singled.) Problem:staying on top of the daisies. Solution: keepbreathing and start getting ready for our 60thReunion in 2008. World’s problem is under-standing grandsons. Solution: give up and stopbuying green bananas.”

Greta Adams Wolfe, Lake Stream, WA:“Keeping up old house, old garden, old self. Nap‘after hours.’ Would rather be hibernating fromholidays. ‘KOKO’ (Keep on keeping on). Dr. L.M. MacDaniels’s motto: ‘DIP’ (Die in peace).Mine: ‘HIT’ (Hang in there). Today’s problem:too many people; too many cars; greed. Don’tknow solution.” Jim Rea, Forest, VA: “Keepingmy virus scan up to date. Caught a snook (fish)in Naples, FL.” (Photo of Jim, fish, and son-in-law was enclosed, all three looking good.) “Havefour great-grandchildren, two in Houston, twoin Brazil. World’s most pressing problem todayis respect. Solution: offer it. I’ve learned thateach day is a new experience and you catchmore fish using son-in-law’s tackle and bait.Problems happen, but not to worry. My motheralways told me, ‘It will be all right, Jim.’ ” BobPersons, 102 Reid Ave., Port Washington, NY11050; tel., (516) 767-1776.

understood and were pleased to hear questionedby President Emeritus Frank Rhodes in his re-marks at the class banquet in the Statler. Thecocktail hour was held in the new Statler Atrium,and we wandered into the Richard Brown LectureHall and shared a Banfi with him in spirit. I toldhim how much we miss him. He responded withhis famous “honk” and I felt better.

Reunion weather was extremely warm andcontinued to be so, long after the last SUV left theMEWS. In fact, the high was 90 degrees on June13, matching the record set on June 13, 1949,which happens to be the day we graduated as aclass. Barton Hall was hell on earth and many sto-ries have been told about the clothing (or lack of)worn under gowns that day. We will not go there,but 1950 might reconsider its positioning. Forty-niners remain the “hottest” class to graduate!

Time was spent with classmates Bill Eldred,LLB ’53 (Princeton, NJ), and Ken Murray (NorthRiver, NY) (who also married into the Class of’50), and we saw Don Sutherland (Wilmington,DE) and Don Roberson (Niagara Falls, NY) atCRC (Continuous Reunion Club). Of course, thebiggest moment was seeing Char Bullis Pickett’47, nicely recovered from a minor stroke andgiving me “what-for,” as always.

Strange conversations occur at reunions. Agroup was trying to recall the names of the movietheaters of our time. They did very well with theState, Ithaca, and Temple, but had trouble withthe other one and retreated to the “Near,” Far,”“Far Far,” and “Armpit.” Movies bring to mindthat another sequel to “Barber Shop 3” should befilmed in Ithaca at the Community Corners Bar-ber Shop, where we understand that three ’49ersin sequence filled barber Al Thornton’s chairrecently. Bob Dean was followed by Jack Gilbert,who preceded Barth Mapes. The conversationswere lively, and the tonsorial results were a thingof beauty. Other classes of the era are challengedto put three male members in a row in the samebarber’s chair—all of them needing a haircut!

Just before Reunion, Helen Hoffman Casey(Old Saybrook, CT) informed us that the classhad no website at cornell.edu. We passed this onto Class Prexy Jack Gilbert with understandablepleasure. Can’t blame me anymore! Besides, Jackhas retired as treasurer of the Tompkins CountyLibrary Board so he and Inger can enjoy Big Redfootball and all the theatre opportunities inIthaca. We recall that at this time last year theywere viewing the fireworks display in Newport,RI, while aboard the QE2. Now they have re-turned from their Norway trip.

Ned Bandler (Bridgewater, CT) ended a 45-year career with Unilever and US affiliate LeverBrothers Company by retiring as a senior VP anddirector. Chris Larios (Hurley, NY), who will beremembered as chair of Spirits and Traditions andfor a number of sorties to renew Cornell spirit inthe post-war era (such as painting statues red atthe US Naval Academy and changing the direc-tion of signs “to Ithaca” from Hamilton follow-ing a football game—lots of “late” minutes werechalked by coeds and WSGA), has son Dennis ’76and granddaughter Sarah ’03. We will save someof his other news for the future, as it is personal.

One of the pleasures of being back on the


C L A S S N O T E S

Harold Vroman, MS ’52, Cobles-kill, NY: “Retired. Always lots todo. Going to Florida with thehelp of my sons. Problem is stay-

ing alive and keeping ‘up-to-date.’ Friends help.The world’s problem is knowing what’s right andwrong. Solution is to read the Bible every day.Have recently discovered that the ‘right way’ isbetter.” Claire Girard Peterson, Sunnyvale, CA:“Exercise at spa, help son, travel.” Vincent Greci,Olympia Fields, IL: “Retired. I talk to three chil-dren about their investments, watch the tube,golf, and take care of my wife (brain aneurysm,but doing better now). Interesting to see that ‘val-ues’ was the major factor influencing the last elec-tion. I’d like to see more 18- to 30-year-olds getinvolved in American politics. The world’s prob-lem is to love and respect one another every day,regardless of faith difference, worth, political per-suasion, etc. I read the book The Purpose-DrivenLife by Rick Warren. I recently learned that it’s awaste of time being mean, jealous, or envious.”

James Bostwick, Lakewood, CA: “Trying toclose down a business I’ve been active in for 53years. Enjoying life as a grandpa— six kids, 11grandchildren, one great-grandson, and stillcounting. All grandchildren are now in collegeor graduated. Can’t believe I made only $5,000my first year out of college. Now trying to make$5,000 a month to retire on. Settled for 15 centsmore than I could spend. Took up coin collect-ing. They are pretty and still seem to increase invalue. I’ve tried to encourage the children andgrandchildren to do things on their own, maketheir own decisions, follow through, help others,learn from mistakes, always finish what youstart, be responsible for what you do, and don’tforget to thank those who helped you. Problemis to find enough time to do everything I should.Solution is to tackle most important and diffi-cult items first. The rest comes easy.”

Carmel Along Fischer, MPS ’49, communityactivist and volunteer in Cinnaminson, NJ, washonored and given the key to the city by theTownship Board of Education for her more than40 years of service to the township. She is a found-ing member of her church and a two-term mem-ber of the Township Committee, and pushed forcreation of a senior program with workshops onthe Federal Discount Prescription cards, griefcounseling, personal finances, and computertraining. She also worked with the Sheriff’s Acad-emy. Robert Fogel, professor at U. of Chicago,Nobel Laureate in economics, and on the list of

To celebrate Independence Day(as I write this column), we tookour red pill, our white pill, andthen our blue one. Spring and

early summer have been a wicked combo of rain,heat, and humidity here, so we packed up andwent to Reunion with the Class of 1950 for theirbig one (Ithaca has to be cooler, was the thought).So I followed wife Joan (Noden) and became aPi Phi with what is billed as the “Class of theCentury”— a bit of puffery that we never fully


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Hill was to visit the Lab of Ornithology (knownvariously in our time as Sapsucker Woods or Seer-sucker Woods). The new lab is wonderful and theviewing much easier. We do miss the bird soundsbeing piped in, however. Now, there is a class gift!

A favor, please. We have found some burieditems for the next column, which may have hada long life before I got my hands on them. To besomewhat up to date and save red faces, we suggestthat you can make life easier for all if you just e-mail a few words to the address below. Do it today!

Current Obtuse Observation: Most peopledon’t know what they’re doing and a lot of themare really good at it. We just read the CornellWidow again from April 1949. Hey, if we paid aquarter for a magazine, we didn’t throw it out!The ads, both local and national, are interesting,and the editorial staff was either brave or crazedfor notice because the humor elements weresigned. For example:There was a young maiden—a Sioux / As tempting as any home brioux. / Shedisplayed her cute knees / As she strolled pastteepees / And the braves they all hollered, Wioux,wioux! Signed .....r dog.

Could this have been Red Dog? Oh well. Staywell. Stay happy. Be proud to be a ’49er. DickKeegan, 179 N. Maple Ave., Greenwich, CT 06830;tel., (203) 661-8584; e-mail, [email protected].

Howard L. Hyde, Clarks Summit, PA, writesthat he has “reached the grand old age of 84 andis still in good health.” Helen and he report threechildren, three grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Howard retired as a partner after40-some years with Burkavage Design Associ-ates. Now he participates in Rotary, Habitat forHumanity, choral singing, hiking, and sculpturein his spare time. He’d like to hear from his fel-low classmates.

Barry Nolin’s Class of ’51 Web page ishttp://classof51.alumni.cornell.edu. Please sendyour news to Brad Bond, 101 Hillside Way,Marietta OH 45750; tel., 740/374-6715; e-mail,[email protected].

NY. Bill Messina, Maitland, FL, checks in with achange of e-mail address, but no news.

Mary Ann Doutrich Seipos, Harrisburg,PA, and Sanibel, FL (winter) writes that she’s offto New Zealand via Elderhostel on October 22;back November 6. “Anyone want to join me?”she asks. Paul S. Jones, Atherton, CA, is tryingto put his life back together after the death of hiswife Nancy (Francis) ’52 ended 53 years of mar-riage. Paul took his seventh (the first by himself)CAU trip, to Armenia and Georgia, in May.Theodora “Todi” Frizzell Frick, Charlotte, NC,says she’s fighting her way into old age with asecond hip replacement and looking forward toreunion next year.

Leonilda Altman Farrow, Highlands, NJ, isletting us know why we haven’t heard from herlately.“Some years ago, I sent news of my contin-ued professional work, including a scientific pub-lication. All of this was carefully ascribed to myHUSBAND (!), thus reinforcing the sexual stereo-types I have had to combat all my life. So pleasedo not expect any more news from me.” It’s hardto say where, in the process of writing and editingthe class column, this error occurred, but all I cansay is sorry, and it wasn’t me. I haven’t heard fromLeonilda in the four years I’ve been doing this. Shemajored in Engineering Physics while at Cornell.

Frances Goldberg Myers writes that herhusband Nat ’49 died of complications after sur-gery due to emphysema. Frances is keeping activein Asheville’s College for Seniors and the NorthCarolina Center for Creative Retirement and vol-unteering at the Asheville Art Museum (daugh-ter Pamela ’78 is the director). Son Kenneth isnow Curator of American Art at the Detroit Inst.of Art. Son Chip ’82, DVM ’87, is an internist-veterinarian in Pittsburgh with partner DanaKellerman ’85, DVM ’90. Frances enjoyed a win-ter break on St. John, VI, and plans to travel toBerlin with the Asheville Art Museum tour inSeptember. She visited NYC with MarjorieTucker Sablow, Hartsdale, NY, and ShelleyEpstein Akabas.

Rudy ’52 and Florence Jessup Beaujoncontinue to live in Maineville, OH, near Para-mount’s Kings Island (Cincinnati area), whiletheir six children are scattered among six states:Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan, Illinois,and Maryland. They have seven grandchildren,ages 13 to 25. When they celebrated their 50thwedding anniversary in Ithaca several years ago,Florence was returning to where she grew up. Anote to Dottie Hull Sturtevant, Ithaca, recalls asummer in Vermont and their senior year in highschool. She also reports enjoying visits with Jim’48 and Sally Bame Howell, Post Falls, ID, andArnold ’52 and Betty Ann Brundage Huntress’54, Midland, MI, in the summer and fall of 2004.

Charles and Dorothy Ahrend report that adaughter and her husband recently retired from24 years in the US Air Force and have movedback to the Singers Glen, VA, family farm. A sec-ond daughter lives in Raleigh, NC, and their sonis a chiropractor in Morgantown, WV. Charlesis in his 18th year as an elected county supervi-sor and is active in county affairs and cooking—pork, beef, and turkey. “See you all in June 2006at Cornell,” he says.


The class column for this issuecan be found with the Reportsof Reunion Classes, which beginon page 64.R

George S. and Linda Evans, Nor-walk, CT, renewed their weddingvows at the “Little Church Aroundthe Corner” in New York City to

celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Thenthey were off to Naples, FL, for three months inthe sun. “It beats working,” he says. George man-aged international government relations forGeneral Electric while working.

Mary Osborn Gallwey, PhD ’58, divides hertime between her former home in Pullman, WA,and her new-to-her home in Seattle, doing yardwork in both. She’s planting a bamboo barrierfor a Chinese garden in Seattle, and reports threepears from an Asian pear planted in spring 2004.February blooms, however, provide hopes for abig crop this year. She’s still raising money for theAmerican Civil Liberties Union of WashingtonFoundation.“People are very concerned about theerosion of civil liberties under ‘W’.” Contact withJoan Falconer brought news of Gloria BrooksDegling, and it turned out that the ex-mother-in-law of the chef whose restaurant they use for“homeless cooking” is Patricia Steele Wilson.“Small world! We’re now feeding over 200 peoplefrom preschoolers, in a family shelter, throughteenagers, and on to men and women of all ages.”

Bill McKinnon, Michigan City, IN, is stillworking with a literacy volunteer group. Hereports sending pictures of Ralph Gasparello(Hingham, MA) and George Vlahakis ’52 takenat a resort where they all worked one summer toErnest Sofis, also of Hingham, MA. Ralph ismarried to Joan (Circola). Leonard Feldman,LLB ’54, checks in without news from Syosset,

First, news from those not heardfrom before. Judith RosenbergBernstein, MA ’54, Albuquerque,NM, writes that she has “traveled all

over the world in the last 15 years in conjunctionwith international library conferences and physicsconferences.” In 2004, she and husband DanielFinley spent two months in Ireland, Scotland, andEngland, and four months on sabbatical in Madrid.Active members of the Cactus and Succulent Soci-ety, growing and showing, they travel by camperthroughout the Southwest and Mexico. They havesix children scattered across the US. Judy retiredas director of the business library of the U. of NewMexico a few years ago and was inducted into theHall of Fame of the Special Libraries Association.

Bob Jensen, Catonsville, MD, writes, “Afternearly five years living in the Charlestown Retire-ment Community, I was able to locate four otherCornellians among the 2,300 retired residentshere.” Helen Berdick Freedman ’35, MildredPhillips Ramsdell ’41, Mary Close Bean ’43, DeanTuthill ’49, and Bob met for a get-acquaintedlunch in March and hope to get together again.Helen Freedman planned to attend her 70th Re-union with her daughter.

We travel and keep in touch. Aliza Gold-berger Shevrin, Ann Arbor, MI, writes that herhusband Howard, PhD ’54, was taking his fur-lough year before retirement from the U. of Michi-gan, as follows: December to May ’05 in New YorkCity; and September to February ’06 in Cam-bridge, England. They had just spent five weeksin Italy. Aliza was about to start another SholemAleichem translation. She reported a great visit withWinnie Wallens Siegel in San Francisco. Lewis B.Ward-Baker, Rochester, NY, writes that a largegroup of alumni from the Tau Epsilon Phi house,from the late Forties through the mid-Fifties, spentan October weekend at Saratoga Springs organ-ized by Bernard Schapiro. “He summarized ourdiscussions about the future of the university ina fine letter to President Jeffrey Lehman ’77.”

Mary Alice Newhall Mathews, MD ’56,Newton Center, MA, is busy with family, work,and other things. When she wrote in October shewas in rehab, having fallen off a ladder cleaningthe gutters.“Usually I go out the window.” She stillworks two days a week and seriously gardens. Shetakes two vacations a year to do underwater pho-tography in Southeast Asia and was aiming for theGreat Barrier Reef and Wakatobi, Indonesia, in2005. Further, she and Deedy Sargent make


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annual visits to the Boston MFA. Last year theysaw Ann Woolley Banks ’53, whom Mary Alicehad not seen in 50 years. “Wow,” writes MaryAlice.“Wow,” say I. If you’re inclined to see whereyour old friends are, the online Alumni Direc-tory, https://directory.alumni.cornell.edu, acces-sible to all Cornell alumni, is a good bet. You’llneed your Cornell ID, which is on most mailingsfrom the university, to access the site.

Richard C. B. Clark, Osterville, MA, and wifeSandy were in Portugal and Spain in October. Thetrip included seven days on the M.S. Duoro Prince,a 46-passenger ship that cruised the Duoro River.They returned to Bermuda for their 12th Christ-mas there and were looking forward to Februaryin Palm Springs, CA. Rik wrote, “Volunteer re-sponsibilities continue to keep us busy and in-volved, but we also work hard to save time forkids and grandkids, travel, golf, biking, and othersatisfying activities.” Arthur Reader, Arden, NC,volunteers as webmaster for the Cornell AlumniAssociation of the Blue Ridge Mountains (http://caabrm.alumni.cornell.edu). Art would be happyto help with a class website, computer graphics,and so forth. He writes, “Otherwise, thanks to anexcellent medical establishment in the Asheville,NC, area, I am still ticking three years after a ‘sud-den cardiac death’ episode.” Walter Bortko andwife Rosemary (Manno) ’55, Bonita Springs, FL,are “busy with what most 70-year-olds do. Volun-teer work, travel, golf, exercise, tennis, and doctorsappointments.”Walter remains super-enthusiasticabout their first grandchild, Ethan, and feels Cor-nell should recruit him for Class of 2024 football.

Still working is James H. Ward, Washington,DC, who has moved his information technologybusiness, Symbiont Inc., to 1320 Fenwick Lane,Silver Spring, MD. Bud reports that 2005 marksSymbiont’s 20th anniversary. Congratulations,Bud. In Lancaster, PA, John and Elizabeth Huns-berger Craver are both busy. Jack as chair of theResearch and Professional Grants Committee ofthe American Hotel and Lodging EducationalFoundation, and Lib as an instructor with Lan-caster County Therapeutic Riding Inc.

Ina Perlstein Loewenberg asked that I men-tion the death of her friend Martina Feist Broutin Brussels in 2004 after a yearlong struggle withbrain cancer. Some of you may remember Mar-tina, who did not graduate from Cornell. Shelived in Brussels with her family, where her hus-band taught physics at the university, and isremembered as a good wife and mother. Sadly, Imust also mention the death of Peter Schurman,the husband of my sorority sister Judy (Calhoun).I ran into Peter during the 1980s when—in addi-tion to everything else he did—he was active withthe New Haven Local Education Fund, an organ-ization that worked hard for better public schools.Pete was an all-around good guy and is missed. Joan Boffa Gaul, 7 Colonial Pl., Pittsburgh, PA15232; e-mail, [email protected].

irreconcilable difference with the trustees—hisresignation? That is rather less common. A rep-resentative assemblage of ’53 classmates were atBartels Hall for Jeffrey Lehman ’77’s fare-thee-well. The 99th Reunion of the Continuous Re-union Club (est. 1906) attracted Jim and SandyBlackwood, Ernie, PhD ’69, and Jane LittleHardy, Bill, MBA ’58, JD ’59, and Nancy Bel-lamy, Clark and Claire Moran Ford, Gerry andSue Grady, Bill Sullivan, Lou Pradt, and moi onemore time. Gerry presided over the Class of ’55’s50th Reunion Saturday morning ice cream social.

“Although long in the tooth,” Martin Gins-burg submits briefly,“I continue full-time teach-ing (tax courses) at Georgetown U. Law Center. Iam also counsel to the D.C. office of a large NewYork firm, where I practice a little of what I preachat school. In December 2004, the 38th edition ofMergers, Acquisitions, & Buyouts, an exciting four-volume treatise I co-author with a smart non-Cornellian from Chicago, was published by Aspen.I am currently without hobbies.” Daughter Janeteaches law at Cambridge U. in England. SonJames has received Emmy nominations for classi-cal music CDs he produces.“Spouse Ruth (Bader)’54 is occupied full-time in the judging business.”Bob Ashton (NYC) returned (in 2002) from anine-and-a-half-year circumnavigation of theglobe in his 40-foot sailboat.“I did not race.” He’sbecome involved with a large retiree study groupdoing such things as history and philosophy,“items largely absent from the Cornell mechanicalengineering curriculum. I also bike, walk, ski, andtravel as time and money permit.” Ray Handlan(Greensboro, GA), whose wife Scharlie (Watson)’47, MEd ’58, died a day short of her 78th birthday,married Kathryn Medley,“a southern lady whomI met here at Reynolds Plantations,” last spring.

“Maybe I’ll retire next year,” says great-grand-mother Ruth Christoff Landon (Indianapolis).“This year I’ve been teaching a CDA class andthree parenting classes in addition to everythingelse.” (There was a Christmas conclave of 20 fam-ily members under the Landon roof—so “hus-band Bill ’52 and I went to the Hilton nearby.”) Ifshe did retire, Chris would join Bill,“who is semi-retired and finding lots of things to do around thehouse. But I find work and little children fun.” Onthe other hand, Marguerite Goetke Larsen (Mid-dletown, NJ) is growing accustomed to retirementwith, for instance, a cruise to Europe via Green-land, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, and Greece, andcourses in creative writing. Now that she’s nolonger practicing medicine, she says she’s “gettingused to the 21st century as a patient.”

Claire Nagel (North Cape May, NJ) is “in-volved in Federation of Democratic Women,helping to produce a forum on Social Security”last spring and serving as campaign manager fora local woman. She’s been participating in “anti-war demonstrations and vigils” besides contin-uing as a New York Life agent and registeredrepresentative. “In my spare time,” she says, “Igarden, manage my rental units, and enjoywatching the dolphins in the bay.” Retiree Rose-mary Smith (Palm Springs, CA), is “enjoyingleisure (by) helping a friend produce a book onthe memories of an early aviatrix and her con-tributions to aviation,” besides volunteering at


C L A S S N O T E S

What is so rare as a day in June?Well, there are 30 of them everyyear. What is so rare as a day inJune when a university president

ends his Reunion State of the University address,generally viewed as rosy, with a declaration of

55Years!

Cornell Class of 1951

Come back toIthaca next

June for Reunion

Reflect &

Reconnect—Again

June 8—11, 2006

How many classmates doyou want to call . . . aboutplans to meet them there?

Check our class website:www.alumni.cornell.edu/

orgs/classes/1951

Watch for the March mailing:Registration—Fees—Program

ContactDottie Sturtevant(607) 272-3317

E-mail: [email protected]

George Bantuvanis(607) 272-2140

E-mail: [email protected]

’51


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the local public library and information center.Hilary Levin Mindlin (Pembroke Pines, FL)rejoices in grandchildren (“at last”). GrandsonJared arrived on her 50th wedding anniversary.A little girl was born last March. “We live twodoors away, so we get to share in all the fun.”

Good news for Julian Aroesty (Lexington,MA): Last son Adam was accepted to the U. ofMichigan bioengineering program. Also: “He hasinformed me that he intends to go on to a PhDor MD afterwards (at $40,000 a year). No won-der I am still working. Still doing research, prac-ticing cardiology at Harvard Med. Mainly cyclingfor exercise, 10-15 miles at a time. Knees will nolonger tolerate downhill skiing very well, so I didnot even try this year. Otherwise mainly in goodhealth, looking back on the wonderful years atCornell, but also the effect of my military servicein Korea, when I decided on medicine and hadto return to the U. of Rochester to take pre-medcourses. I never would have thought it as I wasgoing through it, but my two years in the USAFwas also a positive experience . . . it was instru-mental in my decision to change my life workfrom research chemist at Eastman Kodak. I havenever regretted it for a moment.” Leo Buxbaum(Whittier, CA), when most recently heard from,was continuing the practice of gastroenterology.

Sheila Olsen Chidester, MEd ’54 (Madison,NJ) lost husband Lawrence to a stroke last fall.“Children are all well, deo gratias. I was able, dur-ing his final illness, to do what needed to be doneand enjoy the days and the friends. That’s a major

News was low in early summer asI sat to write the column for thisissue, so let me take this opportu-nity to encourage you to return

the annual News and Dues forms as quickly aspossible—pay your class dues and send in somenews. Don’t know what to write? How about giv-ing us an answer to one or more of these ques-tions: What is your present “day” job? What areyour “after-hours” extra-curricular activities? Whathave you been doing recently . . . and is theresomething you’d rather be doing? What do youremember most fondly from your time at Cornell?

The News and Dues letter should be arrivingin your mailbox in a few short weeks and I lookforward to getting your updates. E-mails directlyto me or to the online news site (see below) alsowork well and may mean that you see your name



R

When I was a young lad, not toomany years ago, my father’s veryfavorite writer was Ogden Nash,who wrote wonderful light verse

for the New Yorker (one of his most-quoted linesis “Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker”). An oldfriend of mine from my freshman year, DouglasParker, LLB ’58, has left the law and moved toSouth Orleans, Cape Cod. After settling down, hebecame active in community theater, and hasgiven lectures and courses on the Supreme Courtat local libraries. Most important of all is thatwith the encouragement of his wife Angela, heset out to write a biography of Ogden Nash. Ithas been very favorably reviewed. Doug wouldlike to hear from his classmates, and particularlyhow they liked Ogden Nash: The Life and Work ofAmerica’s Laureate of Light Verse.

Gordon Davidson of Santa Monica, CA, isretiring from his long-held position in Los Ange-les as head of the Center Theater Group, whichincludes the Taper, the Ahmanson, and the newKirk Douglas Theater for new and experimentalplays. He has led this group since 1967 and is alegend in his home city. This is a $42 million-a-year program, world famous for exciting andinnovative theater. Sylvia Gingras-Baker ofBloomfield, CT, is a partner at Hartford FamilyInst. She is a psychotherapist and is still thrivingin her work.

Lyn Thomas Kennedy (Elm Grove, WI)returned to Cornell for her husband Don ’55’s50th Reunion, as well as the 30th anniversary ofHotel Ezra Cornell in April. Their most recenttrip was to Prague and the Czech Republic. Glo-ria Specter Greenberg (Greenbrae, CA) retiredlast year from the College of Marin in California,where she was professor of learning disabilities.She remarried last September to Peter Marks. Thefather of two girls, Joseph Carrier splits his timebetween Cape Canaveral, FL, and Little Egg Har-bor, NJ. He and his wife love cruises and car trips.

We are sad to report the passing of our class-mate Dr. Leo Rubinstein earlier this year. He wasa clinical psychologist and had a varied and verysuccessful career. We send our heartfelt condo-lences to his family. We are sorry to learn thatDan Silverberg’s mother passed away last April.She was a fine lady. Dan and his wife Lindarecently took a house in Tuscany with Don ’55,BS CEE ’58, PhD ’68, and Iris Marcus Green-berg ’58, MST ’64, and Ernie and Barbara LangStern. They all reported that it was a super time.Dan also took a cruise recently to South Amer-ica, and splits his time between Cleveland andNorth Palm Beach, FL.

gift.” The pursuit of knowledge still sends ’53classmates all over the world. In the not too dis-tant past, Cornell’s Adult University (CAU) tookBob Abrams to Sicily, Jim and Nancy Bowmanto Alaska, Jay Brett to NYC to see what was hap-pening in the theatres of Broadway, and David,MD ’57, and Nancy Gluck to Provence.

Fletch Hock forwarded the New York Timesnotice of the passing of documentary filmmakerCharlotte Kempner Beyers, Bob’s widow, inMarch. Her works were among the first to intro-duce students to the realities of AIDS, the Timessaid. Jim Hanchett, 300 First Ave., Apt. 8B,New York, NY 10009; e-mail, [email protected].

in print even sooner. Have a good fall! LesliePapenfus Reed, 500 Wolfe St., Alexandria, VA22314; e-mail, [email protected]. Class web-site, http://classof54.alumni.cornell.edu/. OnlineClass News, http://www.alumni.cornell.edu.classes.htm. Cornell Directory, https://directory.alumni.cornell.edu/.

A Fiftieth ReunionA Fiftieth Reunion

The Class of 1956

If you’re going to attend any reunion, this should be the one!Save these dates: June 8–11, 2006.

Plan now. It will be here before you know it.If you want to help, contact the reunion co-chairs:

Percy Browning at [email protected] • Jim Quest at [email protected] our president, Ernie Stern, at [email protected]

Watch your mail and Cornell Alumni Magazine for updates.


85

I hope that by the time this reachesyou, the weather will be cooler andthe leaves starting to turn. What a great time to send Dick or me


C L A S S N O T E S

The old chimesmaster of the Libe Tower fromour class is still continuing his interest in chimes.John Hoare Jr., MBA ’57, just moved to a newtownhouse in Bridgewater, NJ. Dick Miller, MBA’58, has also recently moved—to Rockford, IL. Heretired from his consulting practice last year andreunes with the Cayuga’s Waiters whenever he can.

Please keep those notes coming to PhyllisBosworth and me. Don’t forget that our 50thReunion is coming upon us. If you want to help,please e-mail me and I will be happy to get thenews to Ernie Stern. Stephen Kittenplan,1165 Park Ave., New York, NY 10128; e-mail,[email protected].

“Hurrying to catch a pan that I hadleft burning on the stove, I trippedon one of my needlepoint rugs andwent flying across the living room,

arms outstretched, to land hands-first on theceramic tile floor.” So begins a belated Christmasletter from Judy Madigan Burgess. Long storyshort, it was the day before Thanksgiving and asJudy lay on the floor watching the smoke gatherfrom the heated pan and wondering if it wouldset the house on fire, her son walked in the doorjust in time to call 911 and turn off the burner onthe stove. Judy wound up in the hospital with twobroken arms and rotator cuff injuries, but aftertreatment was able to be back home the next dayto supervise all the family helpers as they preparedthe Thanksgiving feast. A few days later she re-turned to the hospital for surgery, then into rehaband therapy, and finally came home a week beforeChristmas. Judy is now back on her own again,and in May visited with Bob ’53 and Susan AlderBaker on her way to Vancouver and an Alaskancruise. This fall Judy is off on a 10,000-mile roadtrip to Atlanta, Nova Scotia, and Tennessee tovisit family and friends. She is fully insured.

Linda Wellman Stansfield traveled with aCornell group to Iran. She describes Persepolis(555 BC) as “glorious and so impressive in itsmagnificent condition.” Barbara Timen Hol-stein visited her daughter in London last year,where she got to see her newest (fifth) grand-child. Then it was on to Prague to see her otherdaughter, who is producing a movie. Judy Birdhas left Pawley’s Island, SC, to live permanentlyin Hawaii; and Bob ’56 and Mimi Hester Ridg-ley have a new home in Camas, WA.

On campus in June were a number of class-mates whose husbands were celebrating the 50thReunion for the Class of ’55: Adele PetrilloSmart, Grace Wohlner Weinstein, Jo Field Bleak-ley, Harriet Merchant Shipman, Sue SuttonMoyer, Barbara Haglund Schlerf, Gwen BarreraHart, Myrna Lacy Rooney, Nancy KrauthamerGoldberg, Sue Westin Pew, and Vanne ShelleyCowie, among others. The Continuous ReunionClub (aka CRC) gathers each year to enjoy Re-union Weekend, and among those who made itthis year were Joe ’56, MBA ’58, and Sue DeRosayHenninger, as well as Connie Santagato Hoster-man. Marcia Wishengrad Metzger celebratedwith the Law school Class of ’60 at their 45th. Justtwo more years and it’s our turn to tread the Hillonce more. Judith Reusswig, 19 Seburn Dr.,Bluffton, SC 29909; e-mail, [email protected].

Jim Broadhead and Paul Tregurtha hosteda reunion in March for several members of theirChi Psi Class of 1957. Attendees included PeterBuchanan, Tom Criswell, Guy Henry, WaltGundel, Doug Love, Chuck Slater, and ClintWalker. Only Brad Wright and Steve Smethurstwere not able to attend. A Friday night dinnerkicked off the festivities, and a Saturday eveningreception was held at the home of Jim and SharieBroadhead. This was followed by a Sundaybrunch at the home of Paul and Lee AndersonTregurtha ’59. Golf, tennis, biking, and lolling onthe beach were high priorities during the day. Itseems that no one has changed, and the singingvoices were in great shape.

I received a delightful e-mail from JasonWright, a member of the Class of 2002. Hegraduated this spring from the Ohio State U.Moritz School of Law, and passed on to me hisgreat respect for Sheldon Halpern, LLB ’59, theC. William O’Neill Professor of Law and JudicialAdministration. Jason took copyright, trademark,and defamation courses from Sheldon, and it wasthe highlight of Jason’s experience at Ohio State.In his 21 years at the school, Sheldon has distin-guished himself in many ways, notably in the caseof McFarland vs. Miller, involving the unautho-rized use of the name of George “Spanky” McFar-land, the actor in the television show “Our Gang.”

Another outstanding teacher was SanfordLowe, who died in March. He taught religiousstudies at Santa Rosa Junior College in Califor-nia. Ordained as a Reform rabbi at HebrewUnion College in New York, and having earneda doctorate of ministry from the Pacific Schoolof Religion in Berkeley, Sandy became a muchbeloved professor, known for his expertise andinterpretation of the Christian Bible. He taughtat Santa Rosa for 30 years, retiring in 2001.

Class president Bob Watts has served hiscountry, our class, and Cornell with great dis-tinction, and the following is a quote from Jef-frey Lehman ’77: “I am very pleased to notifyyou that the Board of Trustees has elected you tothe Cornell University Council for a four-yearterm beginning July 1, 2005. You were nominatedby the Council for membership because of theleadership and outstanding service you havedemonstrated in your profession, in society, andespecially for Cornell.” (Special thanks to Joe ’56and Sue De Rosay Henninger for finding outand forwarding this wonderful news.)

I recently visited Tony, MBA ’58, and GailLautzenheiser Cashen at their farm south ofAlbany, where my grandson, 5 years old and alock for Cooperstown, lives. Tony is retired to thepoint of doing pro bono-only headhunting, andGail is active in several community organiza-tions. The highlight of the visit was Tony’s four-wheeler thrill ride, with the future Hall of Famerhanging on remarkably well. At least two wheelswere on the ground at all times. John Seiler,221 St. Matthews Ave., Louisville, KY 40207; tel.,(502) 895-1477; e-mail, [email protected].

some news! Phil Getter is still an eligible bache-lor around New York City, often taking care of his10-year-old son and four nephews and nieces.During the day he is an investment banker andsits on a bunch of public and private companyboards. Nights are spent mostly in the arts and atthe theater as one of the administrators of theTony awards. Another New Yorker, David Gold-stein, JD ’60, underwent brain surgery on Jan. 25,2005 at Weill Cornell’s NewYork-PresbyterianHospital in NYC. He has retired from his publicposition as the NYC Tax Commissioner repre-senting Manhattan. Before that, he was NYCAlcohol Beverage Control Commissioner andchairman of its board. He and wife Rena havebeen married since 1969. Unfortunately, their firstchild, Scott, who was born in 1972, passed awayin 1988 after a long illness. David wrote “Scott’sMemoir” in 1988. He would love to hear fromany classmates via cell phone at (917) 886-1920.

Last July, Michael Isaacs and his wife relo-cated to San Francisco, CA. They reunited withtheir daughters, who both love the Bay Area.Meyer Gross’s daughter Dana was married lastNovember at the Hudson Theater on Broadway.Both Meyer and Dana sang on a Broadway stage!Meyer and his wife planned to travel last Januaryto Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam with a busi-ness/vacation stay in Bangkok. Byron Golden,Myron’s best friend at Cornell and the personwho introduced him to his wife, died last sum-mer. Peter Klem also relocated to be nearer to hisdaughters and grandchildren. He now lives inDurham, NC. He is writing a book to end allbooks on basic philosophical questions. He keepsin touch with Arthur and Susi Gruen Pfeffer’59, who have retired in splendor to San Marcos,CA. Robert Dunn is another Californian andjust bought the car of his dreams—a Ferrari 355GTS (still a kid at heart).

Charles Marshall writes, “Our family busi-ness, Mr. Stox Restaurant, in Anaheim, CA, wasselected to the Nation’s Restaurant News FineDining Hall of Fame in 2004—one of 180 restau-rants worldwide to have received this recognition.The restaurant also received Wine Spectator’sGrand Award for its wine list—one of 84 restau-rants worldwide to receive this award.” Recently,he has visited with Tom Tuttle ’57. Tom is retiredfrom the Air Force and is still an outstandinggolfer! Don Alpaugh recently retired to the SouthCarolina coast, where he built a new home in agolf community. He is enjoying retirement, travel,and golf, with a little consulting thrown in.

Do keep us posted on your news! JanArps Jarvie, 6524 Valley Brook Dr., Dallas, TX75254; fax, (972) 387-0160; Dick Haggard, 1207Nash Dr., Ft. Washington, PA 19034; e-mail;[email protected].

In May, Publish America releasedJoel Goldberg’s first novel, Mis-fits. Joel, who writes under thepseudonym Joshua Grant, notes

that his second novel, Shaman, will be publishedin 2006. Next up will be The Zoo, in 2007. Youcan read the first chapters of the novels atwww.joshua-grant.com. When Joel retired at theend of 1998, he moved to Alto, NM. (He has


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career that involved trading securities and com-modities, he sails in the summer and winters inFlorida. Herb has been a private pilot since tak-ing his first flying lessons at the Ithaca Airportas an Air Force ROTC cadet.

Bill Eaton and his wife Phyllis have tengrandchildren, one of whom graduated fromCornell. Bill is president of Cini-Little Int’l, a foodservice consulting firm. He spends about 25 per-cent of his time on Cornell-related activities,including working with the new dean of theSchool of Hotel Administration, assisting inAlumni Affairs and Development, and serving aspresident of the corporation rebuilding Delta Chi.In June, the Eatons hosted a crab feast for theCornell Club of Maryland at their historic farmon Maryland’s Eastern Shore. A number ofBroadway entertainers helped Bobbi Horowitzcelebrate her 65th birthday at a rooftop “SeniorProm” party in Manhattan in June. Arthur Krollenjoyed a mini-reunion with Barry Protage, hisCornell roommate. Barry, who lives in California,was in the NYC area to visit his daughter. The tworeminisced about how Arthur dissected animalsas part of his pre-med lab experience while Barrywas enrolled in a wine-tasting lab.

Ed Furtick is selling music at Borders in WhitePlains and taking in lots of jazz shows at the newhome of Lincoln Center Jazz at Columbus Circlein NYC. His big dream still is to open a jazz “nitespot” in downtown White Plains. Gerald Flemingand his wife Judith enjoyed a CAU tour of Alaskafrom Fairbanks to Glacier Bay. Steve Frauenthalteaches math at the Hackley School in Tarry-town, NY. During the summer, he was directorof a children’s summer camp in the Adirondacks.

Marshall and Rosanna Romanelli Franktraveled to Caracas, where Marshall taught aone-week course on petrochemicals. The Franksattended the 45th Reunion of the Class of ’60along with other ’61ers (with their ’60 spouses).These included Ginny Buchanan Clark, JanPowell Bidwell, and Pauline Sutta Degenfelder.The Franks were fortunate to be housed in theair-conditioned townhouses on North Campusduring a steamy Ithaca weekend. They cameaway with a list of reunion “do’s and don’t’s.”

Walt, MBA ’63, and Jeannie Springer Cot-trell ’63 recently returned from two weeks of hik-ing in the Czech Republic. The Cottrells wereimpressed with the hilly terrain and green forests,the beautifully restored medieval villages, and theCzech hospitality. The castles and cathedrals werespectacular as works of art and as engineeringmarvels, Walt reported. Since the end of Com-munism, the Czechs have been restoring theircities to their original appearances of centuriespast. Charlie Hecht, LLB ’63, was in Beijing in thespring as a sculptor-in-residence. One of his worksis on exhibit in the famous Pickled Arts Center.

A pre-45th Reunion planning session willtake place on October 28-30 in Carefree, AZ.Designed as both a working and a fun vacation,the weekend will feature receptions, dinners, andoutdoor activities, as well as planning meetings.All classmates are invited to participate in whatpromises to be a fun-filled event. Residents of theBoulders Resort, Pat and Dick Tatlow and Mike’60 and Lassie Tischler Eicher, have offered to

since returned to the East Coast, to Hockessin,DE, to be near his family, including his six grand-children.) While Joel was in Alto he becameinvolved with Big Brothers/Big Sisters and “bigbrothered” a boy who, with his older brother andyounger sister, was living in a foster home whiletheir mother was in prison. Misfits is based onJoel’s experiences—good, bad, often traumatic—with the three kids. The book, notes the pub-lisher,“is a story about a group of boys who grewup in dysfunctional families; boys whose cries forhelp went unheeded . . . Forced to be loners, theykept to themselves, refusing to talk about theabuse they’ve suffered. Moved from one fosterhome to another, there was no love in their lives,only dispassionate provision of the most basicnecessities of life. They were misfits . . . Theydressed differently, failed every subject, skippedclasses, fought, had no interest in girls, and werein trouble with school authorities and the police.These boys formed a bond of friendship isolat-ing themselves from everyone, relying on eachother for emotional support and security. Theydevelop a plan—an almost foolproof one—to geteven. And they successfully execute the plan.”

Favored retirement activities of Dick Marks,MILR ’61, JD ’76, of Bonita Springs, FL, includeplaying golf—“poorly”—and riding his HarleyDavidson—“proficiently enough to have riddenthrough 41 states to date without a tumble.” Heplans to ride through the remaining 9 states by theend of 2006. Dale Rogers Marshall and husbandDon ’58 of Piedmont, CA, “love retirement.”When Dale concluded her 12 years as president ofWheaton College in mid-2004, the college hon-ored her in many ways, including raising a milliondollars to create the Marshall Fund, naming abuilding the Marshall Multicultural Center, andgiving her an honorary degree at commencement.

Susan Mattison Fraser and husband Bill,longtime residents of Greensboro, NC, are activein their church and community and “travel asmuch as possible.” In 2004 they went to Antarc-tica, the Canadian Rockies, and Wyoming, andBill went to Uganda. Motor-sports consultantTheodore Goddard of Perkinsville, VT, has cutback on his largest client, New Hampshire Int’lSpeedway. “After 28 years I was tired of working24/7 for 30 weeks of the year.” He continues to bevery active in SCCA performance rallying in NewEngland. Donna Mason Drummond of Portland,OR, continues to enjoy downhill skiing, hittingthe slopes in Canada, Utah, New Mexico, and the“usual” Oregon and California venues earlier thisyear. During the off-season, she’s “on the bike!”

Sylvia Rich Alderman and husband Edwinof Palo Alto, CA, are both retired—she after 11years as a middle school librarian, he after a careeras an academic cardiologist. Sylvia has discoveredthe pleasures of quilting, and they both enjoy theoutdoor life, including camping, hiking, and bird-ing. Last March, Dave Warner of Kiawah, SC,was among the 25 alumni and guests at the firstevent of the newly formed Alumni Interest Groupfor the “Low Country” area of South Carolina.The luncheon, held at a well-known restaurantin historic downtown Charleston, featured guestspeaker Prof. Joseph Hotchkiss, chairman of Cor-nell’s Department of Food Science. Classmates



As president of the Senior Execu-tives Association, Carol Bonosaroheads up an organization that advo-cates for the interests of current and

retired federal executives and promotes ethicalpublic service. At the association’s annual banquethonoring recipients of the nation’s highest civilservice award, she was reunited last spring with USEnergy Secretary Sam Bodman ’60, who dated andmarried her freshman roommate, the late Betsy(Little). Sam was the principal speaker at the event.

Henrik “Hank” Dullea, former vice presidentfor university relations, is running as a Democratfor the Tompkins County Legislature. Hank, whohas held several governmental positions, believesthat he can make a major contribution to theLegislature. The primary is being held on Sept.13. Debbi Robbins Wolf just published the 5thedition of her Garden State Golf Guide, whichgives information about all of New Jersey’s golfcourses. She says she’s learned a lot about boththe book and golf businesses in the last ten years.

Cliff Wagoner and his wife Meg movedfrom the Bethlehem, PA, area to Davidson, NC,near Charlotte. Cliff tutors engineering students,and continues to dabble in his favorite activities,including ham radio, singing, and playing golf.Herb Altman and his wife have a permanentresidence in Stratton, VT. Semi-retired from a

who enjoyed CAU Off-Campus Study Tours thispast spring were Alan Rosenthal (The Biltmore,the Vanderbilts, and the Nineteenth-CenturyWorld of the Superrich, in Asheville, NC) andWilliam Tafuri (April in New York: A SpringTheatre Weekend).

Barbara Specht is the town historian of Har-rison, NY. “Since our family has a long history inHarrison, this is a ‘natural’ for me. I’m enjoyingeducating the children about their local historyand bringing history alive for them.” Barbaraenjoyed a three-week trip to Provence and Brit-tany last March, delighting in old historic placesand the extremely friendly people. Harvey Weiss-bard of Maplewood, NJ, is “still thrilled at thechance to influence the law on one of the busiestappellate courts in the country. Two and a halfyears to mandatory retirement.”When he’s not onthe bench or in Virginia enjoying being a grand-parent, he’s “consumed” by his book collecting.

Vic and Diane Samuelson moved to HiltonHead Island, SC, last December. “It feels verymuch like home, since we have been coming herefor 37 years and have owned property here for 35years,” writes Vic. He finished up working for TEC(The Executive Committee), but continues to pro-vide executive advice, consultation, and facilitationservice to CEOs and senior executives of small tomid-sized companies. “Enjoying life!” says CarolRafferty, who retired from Parade magazine,where she was VP Human Resources, and movedfrom Manhattan to Wayne, NJ. Jenny Tesar,97A Chestnut Hill Village, Bethel, CT 06801; tel.,(203) 792-8237; e-mail, [email protected].


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host events. Information about the schedule andmotel accommodations will be sent upon request. David S. Kessler, [email protected]. Classwebsite, http://www.cornell61.org.

a “distinguished graduate” from the National WarCollege. Val and Chip are off to their posting inSingapore, she as public affairs officer at the USEmbassy there, he as head of the Naval ResearchLab’s Asian focus. Our passports are ready!

In one of those serendipitous coincidences,Don Juran ([email protected]) stepped into thebatter’s box in an April senior softball game andthe catcher asked Don if he was Cornell ’62. Heintroduced himself as Andy Duymovic. “Andyand I have played against each other for severalyears now, but we had not been aware of eachother’s identities. Softball players barely knowtheir teammates’ last names, let alone those of

their opponents.” Andy and Don had not seeneach other since 1959. From Castleton, NY, EnnySpieske Dufur writes that she and William are bothretired. They traveled on the CAU trip to Sorrentowith Judy and David Hill. The Dufurs’ two daugh-ters and their families both live on the East Coast.As of this writing, they have three granddaughters.

Marion Balsam retired from the US Navy asa Rear Admiral, Medical Corps (pediatrician) andis now working at NIH (in the National Instituteof Child Health and Human Development) onthe National Children’s Study, a study of the effectsof the environment on child health and develop-ment. She’s back in Bethesda, MD, “enjoying the


C L A S S N O T E S

“I have just celebrated 40 years ofmarriage to Ethel (Hoffman) ’63,”writes Julian Decter ([email protected]),“and continue to live

in Montclair, NJ, dubbed by the New York Timesas the ‘far West Side of New York.’” Two childrenand four grandchildren later, the Decters regularlycommute to Los Angeles to visit son Ben (Har-vard ’91), a musician and composer, and his wifeJackie (Harvard ’90), a horse therapist and attor-ney, and their two children. “Daughter Cathy(Brandeis ’93) lives in Montclair with her hus-band Ed (Harvard ’93), a venture capitalist inNew York. They have children Lucas and Skylar,who live a few blocks from us.” Ethel is a clinicaltherapist at the Montclair Counseling Center.Julian has been practicing medicine as a hema-tologist/oncologist for 30 years and has justmoved his practice to Weill Cornell Medical Col-lege at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital as a mem-ber of the clinical faculty. “This has been a won-derful and reinvigorating change. The fact that itis part of Cornell makes it all the more gloriousand provides a nice bookend to my career.”

Also celebrating a 40th wedding anniversaryare Paul ’60 and Helen Rabinowitz Anbinder([email protected]).“I was afraid retirementwould be boring. NOT!” In 2004, they took aCaribbean cruise to celebrate; traveled throughScandinavia, including a six-day Norwegiancoastal voyage on a combination cargo/passengership; flew to Seattle for Phil Bereano ’61, MRP’71’s son’s wedding and flew from there to Cal-gary to take a bus and train tour through theCanadian Rockies; visited Paris (“a favoritehaunt”); and took a barge cruise through Bur-gundy. Two of the other 16 passengers on thebarge were another couple who met at Cornell inthe ’70s: Ray ’77 and Sue Cady Bryant ’76. Thisyear Paul and Helen sailed on the QM2, visitingdifferent Caribbean ports, and, for Paul’s 65thbirthday, traveled through northern Italy, includ-ing the Lake District. From their Dobbs Ferryhome, they enjoy bike riding, reading, and attend-ing opera, ballet, concerts, theater, and museums.Their son Jeff ’94 is graduating from CardozoLaw School in June. Son Mark ’89 lives in Ithaca,now ensconced in his own home, and is part ofCornell’s Core Technologies Group in CIT.

The New Single Woman by E. Kay Trim-berger ([email protected]) is due to be pub-lished by Beacon Press in September. Col. DonaldBoose’s new book, US Army Forces in the KoreanWar, was published in April. He’s been teaching atthe Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, PA, for15 years. Don ([email protected]) and Lil visitedKazu and Bob Smith, MA ’51 (prof. emer. of An-thropology Robert J. Smith) last fall. They oftensee Betsy Lockhart Wood ’84, co-owner of aCarlisle bookstore, Susan Rose, PhD ’84, andLars English, PhD ’03, who teaches at DickinsonCollege. Bob Crites ’59 and I have just returnedfrom Washington, DC, where we attended the cer-emonies honoring our daughter Valerie Fowler as


D.C. area and all it has to offer. Three of my chil-dren and my three grandchildren are well and liv-ing in various parts of the US. Sadly, my son Cliffdied in a mountain climbing accident in May2004. It’s been a hard year.” Marion would love tohear from classmates at [email protected].

A note from Sam Fleming included an obit-uary notice for George Agle. George died suddenlyon April 1 of a pulmonary embolism. Hundreds ofGeorge and Diane’s friends and business associ-ates, including many Cornellians, attended a serv-ice for him. Carl Volckmann ’60, Bob Williams’60, John Foote ’74, and Sam were the Sigma Chisin attendance. The notice described George’s lifeand accomplishments as a leader in business andcommunity service, most recently as chairmanand CEO of Stonebridge Financial Corp. andStonebridge Bank. A devoted family man, he andDiane have sons Grant and Gregory and grand-daughter Gabrielle. The Agles live in West Chester,PA. The obituary also noted how important SigmaChi was in George’s life; a “Significant Sig,” he wasrecently named Man of the Year by the fraternity. Jan McClayton Crites, 9420 NE 17th St., ClydeHill, WA 98004; e-mail, [email protected].

trip in the San Juans this summer. The CornellClub of Tucson recently had its annual picnicand board meeting at the home of Jeff ’62, MBA’63, and Karen Manning. About 30 peopleattended the potluck held in the Mannings’backyard—complete with pool. Some alumniwent as far back as the classes of ’47 and ’48.

I got an e-mail from Nancy Flanders Lock-speiser. She and husband Les, a cardiologist, spenttime biking in France in April. After returningfrom that trip they went to son Brett’s graduationfrom Stanford. Nancy is now an artist, designer,painter of murals, writer, and massage therapist.Catamount Publishing just released her book Flex-ible You: A Cat’s Quick Guide to Stretching and Self-Massage. Jean Marzollo, author of the I Spy booksfor children, wrote, “This little gem of a book isfun! You feel relaxed as a cat while you stretch innatural ways. The book is so small and light thatyou keep it in your purse and also you can pick itup easily to consult between moves. The artworkis charming and the instructions user-friendly.”Nancy and Les plan to compete in the WorldMasters in cross-country skiing in Turin, Italy, in2006, one week before the Olympics begin there.

Jim “Josh” Billings, MBA ’64, e-mailed a fewmonths ago with all kinds of news. He sold hisseed business in 1998 after 30 years of living inBuffalo and moved to Sarasota, FL. Instead ofretiring he began working as a consultant tomany of the multinational companies engaged inplant biotech. One of his assignments included asix-month stay in Sweden. In March of this year,Josh got remarried—to Karin Schluter—at thehome of David and Carol Costine, which over-looks the Pacific Ocean in Newport Coast, CA.His son Jay ’98 acted as best man, though he wasdoing double-duty holding his 16-month-oldduring the ceremony. Both of Josh’s children andspouses attended. Josh and Karin are in Sarasotafor eight months of the year. They spent threemonths in Germany and will be spending themonth of September in Canada. As he was writ-ing his e-mail, classmate Charlie De Rose andwife Kelly were coming for dinner.

Frederick Craver has written his first book,Courageous Healing. It shows people how to fullyand quickly recover from the after-effects of atraumatic experience, or how to put angry feel-ings behind. He predicts that it will be a block-buster. Frederick lives in Watertown, MA. Pleasekeep the alumni magazine in mind and e-mailme some of your news! That’s all for now. Nancy Bierds Icke, 12350 E. Roger Rd., Tucson,AZ 85749; e-mail, [email protected].


I am writing this column whilethe temperature in Tucson is 104degrees. This is our first summerhere, but we won’t be here for

long. We leave for our Telluride summer homenext week and return to Tucson in October. We

just spent three weeks in France and England.The first part of our trip was a visit with Johnand Bonnie Simonson Suchet at their Frenchfarmhouse,“Tardan,” located in southwest Franceand an hour’s drive from the Pyrenees. SinceJohn’s retirement last year, they divide their timebetween their flat in London and Tardan. Johnand Bonnie have five sons between them. Bonnie’soldest, Alec, lives in London and raises moneyfor charities. Her youngest, Hereward, lives inGrantham, Leicestershire, with his wife Peta Janeand 9-month-old Finn. Hereward manufacturesand exports men’s shirts. John has three sons:Damian, who is in audio-visual work, is marriedto Holly and has a 1-year-old daughter, Lily;Kieran and his wife Dorota (“Doris”) are teachersin Oxford; and Rory lives in Atlanta and works forCNN. John is a retired television and news corre-spondent and anchor, and has broadcast on radioand TV and published books on the life andmusic of Beethoven. He continues to do researchon the composer’s life and work and gives talksaround England about Beethoven and his own lifeas a globetrotting reporter. He hopes to develop anew talk on Johann Strauss and Vienna.

After our visit to France, we spent two greatweeks traveling around England and visiting withfriends. We had dinner a month ago with Dave’62 and Ginny Hoffman Morthland. Ginnypromises to e-mail me some detailed news aftershe settles back in the Portland, OR, area for thesummer. They are thinking about doing a sailing

Autumn is almost here and willbring a variety of falling leaves.Fittingly, here is a variety ofnews from our classmates. Peter

Jessel, MS ’66’s two children now have a total offour degrees from Cornell. Daughter Rebeccajust earned a BS in Economics with honors inArts and Sciences, while her brother Matt got histhird, an MBA from the Johnson School. Mattbegan his Cornell trek as a member of the Classof ’03 (CEE), then earned a master’s in Engi-neering the following year. Peter, you may nowretire! Peter lives in Scarsdale, NY.

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Marshal Case spent last April 29 with Pres-ident Bush. The occasion was an Arbor Dayplanting of the first American chestnut tree tograce the White House lawn. Marshal is presi-dent and CEO of the American Chestnut Foun-dation (TACF), a conservation group that spon-sors research to develop strains of chestnut treesthat resist a disease that has killed most of thespecies in the US. Each president chooses a treespecies to plant, and Bush selected this one. Forthe ceremony, Marshal and the President wereaccompanied by Secretary of Agriculture MikeJohanns and the President’s two “first dogs.” Thetree was planted on the north lawn. A full storyof the occasion, with pictures, is posted at theTACF website: www.acf.org. There also was anop-ed piece on the ceremony in the April 30 NewYork Times. Marshal said of it all: “It was a greatday for [the foundation] and for me personally.”

Marian Levine Steinberg, who lives andworks in White Plains, NY, writes that she’s in her23rd year of teaching social studies to emotionallyhandicapped adolescents, grades 7-12, at an alter-native school on the grounds of Cornell’s psychi-atric hospital. Marian also told of seeing ArthurGroten and his wife Marge at a party honoringthe birth of the first of the Steinbergs’ two grand-children. She also had a reunion with SoniaKosow Guterman, MS ’67, last December—atNew York’s Carnegie Hall no less. Both were therefor Sonia’s violinist daughter Beth’s debut. Mar-ian and Sonia hadn’t seen each other since ourundergrad days, when they formed a strong bondin Clara Dickson VI. The two got together againlast February at Beth’s master’s degree recital atJuilliard. Marian reports,“Grandparenthood is allthat people told us it would be, and more!”

Nathan Herendeen, MS ’69, who has neverbeen in this column, has nevertheless beennoticed by Cornell. Nathan received an Out-standing Alumni Award from the Ag collegealumni association last winter and was given anextensive write-up in the CALS magazine. He isa lifetime member of the ALS Alumni Assn., hav-ing served on its board of directors and as itspresident in 1998-99, was a member of the CALSAdvisory Council, and is a current member ofthe University Council. He works as a field corpsextension associate for the Northwestern NewYork team of the Cornell Cooperative Extension.In this position, Nathan provides education,advice, and recommendations to farmers innorthwestern New York, and organizes educa-tional sessions throughout the state on agricul-tural topics. He has more than 34 years’ experi-ence in field crop problem solving, integratedpest management training, stored grain man-agement, manure nutrient management, cul-tural practices, and water quality issues. He alsois annual meeting chair of the National Assn. ofCounty Agricultural Agents conference held inBuffalo this past June. Nathan and wife Burniecelive in Gasport, NY, and have three daughters.

Soon after I sent in the May/June column,Robert Strudler wrote that he was promoted lastDecember to Chairman of the Board of LennarCorp. Congrats! Bob and wife Ruth live in Hous-ton, TX. Robert and Anne Snouffer Cochran’65, on the other hand, moved from Houston last

year to Campton, NH, where they spend theirtime enjoying the mountains. Bob is retired, butspends winters teaching math at the ski school inWaterville Valley, NH.

Susan Margolin Lory, MAT ’67, who is mak-ing her first-ever appearance in this column,retired from her private practice as a psychother-apist four years ago. A year and a half ago, she andsecond husband Earl, also retired, moved fromNew Jersey to Waymart, PA. Susan now has thetime to enjoy reading, writing, gardening, theirdogs, and music. Elliot Gordon opened his ownconsultancy on toxicology and graphics (adver-tising, copywriting, and photography) when hechose to stay in the NYC area after his companymoved to Raleigh, NC. He still lives in PrincetonJunction, NJ.

Charles Witherell, who was last in this col-umn 17 years ago, is owner-director of the Wind-ridge Tennis Camp in Vermont. He writes, “After34 years, I still enjoy the 300 kids and 30 college-age counselors that make each summer exciting.”He encourages all to “take a look” at the club’swebsite, www.windridgetenniscamps.com. WifePam is the camp’s business manager. The With-erells, who have two grown sons, live in Johnson,VT—on a street named for them. While tennis isCharles’s main interest, he enjoys playing hockeyand skiing during the winter and managing hisfarm year-round, which activities include raisingbeef cattle, sugar-making, and logging. In April,Charles received a Lifetime Achievement Awardfrom the Vermont Camping Assn.

Roger Skurski just retired from his positionas a professor of economics after 36 years at the U.of Notre Dame. He now does expert witness tes-timony as a private economist and is active in thelocal Kiwanis service club. Roger and wife Mau-reen, who still live in South Bend, recently wentto New Zealand for their 40th wedding anniver-sary. Jean-Noel Posner is a retired French cus-toms official. For the last several years, he hasbeen living in China and studying Chinese atYunnan U. in Kunming, Yunnan Province. In hisfree time he enjoys biking and jogging. He recentlytraveled back to his native France and to Brazil.Evelyn Hall Tracy sends word that she and hus-band Ben ’63 are now both fully retired. She says,“We find the laid-back Florida lifestyle to ourliking.” The Tracys live in Hudson, FL, which isnorth of Clearwater. She writes that while two oflast year’s three hurricanes passed directly overthem, they incurred little damage.

That’s all for now. Keep the news flowing—and be sure to visit our class website, http://classof64.alumni.cornell.edu. Bev Johns Lamont,720 Chestnut St., Deerfield, IL 60015; e-mail,[email protected].

Jeffrey Collins is in Chapel Hill, NC ([email protected]), and is VP, Transaction AdvisoryGroup with AM Pappas and Assoc., a life-sciencefocused venture capital and consulting firm. Heis traveling a lot, for both personal and profes-sional purposes, and has been to India twice.Michael Davidoff writes from Rock Hill, NY,that he helped celebrate the 60th birthday ofRandy Sherman at a party at the Gramercy Tav-ern in New York City.

Classmates Hugh and Erin Fleming Starr areliving in Makawao, HI, on Maui. They have hadtheir own real estate firm there for over 30 years(www.MauiRanchLand.com). “We don’t travelmuch,” they write. “Why would we leave Maui?Erin has written several books of a metaphysicalnature and is going to step into the work of pub-lishing. Aloha.” Charlie Rappaport is in Kingfield,ME, and has been retired for five years. In thesummer of 2004, he visited Ithaca for a sessionat Cornell’s Adult University (CAU); during theMaine winter, he went through 14 cords of wood!

Jerry Bilinski, DVM ’69, is still practicingveterinary medicine on horses in North Chatham,NY ([email protected]). He is the former chair-man of the Racing and Wagering Board for NewYork State, and, as deputy to Senator Bruno, is amember of the Cornell Board of Trustees. JeanneBrown Sander is living in Burke, VA ([email protected]) and was the 2004 president of theCornell Hotel Society (“only the fourth femaleto have this honor”). Jeanne reports that shesang the Cornell Alma Mater on the Great Wallof China as part of the Asia Regional Meeting ofthe CHS. The next president of the CHS is alsoa ’66er: Leif R. Evensen, based in Oslo, Norway([email protected]).

Pete Salinger, MBA ’68 ([email protected])is in Bethesda, where he and Ruth (Dritch) ’67are both enjoying retirement, busy doing volun-teer work, and traveling to small towns and vil-lages in Wales, Scotland, and Northern England.“Beautiful land; nice people,” they write. MartinSchwartz, ME ’67, is in Cupertino, CA ([email protected]), where he has beenretired since April 2003 as president and CEO ofTherma-Wave Inc., a semiconductor equipmentmanufacturer. He is volunteering, exercising,traveling, and taking art classes (“generally enjoy-ing ‘stress-less’ free time”). He wants to volunteerin a ChemE plant design course next year.

Stanley Sterenberg writes from New YorkCity ([email protected]) that he is teachingmath at an all-girls independent school in NYCand has a son who is 9 and a daughter who is 6.Elinor Sverdlik Kron is in Bloomfield, CT, work-ing as a radiologist, and has been married sincelast spring (“It’s never too late to be in love!”).She is the only female radiologist at St. FrancisHospital in Hartford, CT ([email protected]).Don and Sue Rockford Bittker’s son Aric and hiswife Bobbi are now the parents of Shoshana Leia,born June 1, 2005. Older brother Harry is 8, andsister Jordana is 4. Shoshana is Sue and Don’sfourth grandchild.

Jeffrey Konvitz lives in Beverly Hills, CA([email protected]), with one daughter who hasgraduated from NYU and another daughter innursery school. Ronni Barrett LaCroute, from


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Hello, people! Here’s some ofthe latest information comingto me from our classmates. Let’shear from more of you. It’s

really fun to get mail and e-mail from everyone.

The class column for this issuecan be found with the Reportsof Reunion Classes, which beginon page 64.

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Yamhill, OR ([email protected]) is di-vorced from Bernard, but they are partners inthe Willakenzie Estate Winery. Some of the bestPinot Noir in Oregon, people. She travels for thewinery (there was a tasting here in Washington,DC) and spent a week kayak camping in the GulfIslands of Canada, carrying a week’s supply offood and water, along with the tents and kayaks.

Our 40th Reunion is coming soon! See youin Ithaca in the month of June—2006, that is.Please send us YOUR news, and make sure tocheck out the Class of ’66 website, http://classof66.alumni.cornell.edu. Roy Troxel really doesgood stuff! John Miers, [email protected];Susan Rockford Bittker, [email protected],and Bill Blockton, [email protected].

Sally Best Bailey lives in Colorado Springsand is director of college counseling at FountainValley School. She also enjoys her four grand-children. Tom Gibbs lives in Ormond Beach, FL.Another Floridian is Martin Solomon, who is anattorney with offices in Delray Beach and BocaRaton. Paul Chiu lives in Fremont, CA, and hadlunch with Alpha Delta classmates Gordon Evansand Dave Teeters, MAT ’69. Jim Gutman and hiswife Kathy live in Laurel, MO. Jim is an executiveeditor and officer with Atlantic Information Sys-tems in Washington.

Mike Melamed and his wife Ellen O’Donnelllive in Ithaca. Mike has retired from his positionwith the school system in Binghamton. EmilyPerlinski Friedman and husband Charles live inLos Angeles. Their son Jon is entering Cornell inthe Class of ’09, and daughter Sarah graduatedfrom UCLA. Julius Gall lives in Somers Point, NJ,with wife Mary Wisniewski. Julius has been nameda “Top Doctor of New Jersey” and the same ofPhiladelphia on several occasions. He is in familypractice. Their daughter Elizabeth is Cornell ’07.

Jeff Donahue and wife Anne live in Potomac,MD. Jeff retired as CFO of a large public real es-tate company and took over as head of the Enter-prise Social Investment Corporation, a majorprivate funder of low-income housing. Anne isassistant attorney general and general counsel oftwo state universities in Maryland. Jeff reportsthat Tom Horn is a psychiatrist in Massachu-setts, Jim Hanna, MBA ’69, retired from theWorld Bank, George Waldner is president ofYork College in York, PA, and Todd Kiplinger isvice chair of Kiplinger Washington Editors. Ilook forward to hearing from you. Gordon H.Silver, 2 Avery St., #26C, Boston, MA 02111;e-mail, [email protected].

emerita; and Roald Hoffmann, the Frank H.T.Rhodes professor of Humane Letters. Ammonsdied in February 2001 at 75, having won virtuallyevery major prize for poetry in the United States.

Please join in sending heartfelt condolencesto our class president Margie Greenberg Smithand her children Robin ’96 and Brian ’95 on thesudden and untimely death in June of her hus-band Paul. Richard B. Hoffman, 2925 28th St.NW, Washington, DC 20008; e-mail, [email protected].


It’s time for a quick wrap-up ofclassmates who’ve been continu-ing their studies through CAU—Cornell’s Adult University. Three

of us went on study tours in three sparkling ven-ues: Donna Walker Batsford (with William ’65)of New Haven, CT, chose For the Birds: Land-scapes and Habitats of San Diego and the South-ern California Coast, while for Robert Kuchin-sky, LLB ’67 (Flemington, NJ) it was a jaunt toAsheville, NC: The Biltmore, the Vanderbilts, andthe Nineteenth-Century World of the Superrich,and Ross Williams, MIL ’67 (Milan, NY) pur-sued Natural History of the Hawaiian Islands.

Meanwhile, back on the Hill, quite a fewpeople participated in summer 2004’s CAU pro-gram: Rae Andre (World Ecology); Richard Bai-lyn, MD ’71, Highland Beach, FL (Wines); LonBenamy ’65, BS Ag ’67, Brooklyn, NY (OutdoorSkills); Bruce Bender, Gasport, NY (World Ecol-ogy); Arnold Hoffman (Film Noir) (with Donna,Eclectic Ethnic); Michael Nolte, Ann Arbor, MI(Bookbinding) (with Glenina, Massage); DonaldRosenbaum, Tenafly, NJ (Wall St.) (with Lee (Flas-terstein) ’70, Dostoevsky); and Pat Minikes Siegel(with Lawrence ’64), Great Neck, NY (Elections).

David Burak, MFA ’80, Santa Monica, CA,was back at Cornell in April to co-chair a gath-ering at the Tompkins County Library’s BorgWarner Room marking the publication of twonew books by and about the late, great poet andCornell teacher A. R. Ammons: Bosh and Flap-doodle, the first posthumous collection of hispoems, and Considering the Radiance: Essays on thePoetry of A.R. Ammons, co-edited by Burak andRoger Gilbert, Cornell professor of English. Bothtitles were published by Norton in March 2005.“Archie had been a close friend, an adviser, a men-tor, and an inspiration to me and many others,”Burak commented at the program. “The readinghelped to keep the Ammons spirit vibrant.”

The panel also included Ken McClane ’73,MFA ’76, Cornell’s W.E.B. Dubois professor ofLiterature; Alice Fulton, MFA ’82, the A.S. Bow-ers professor of English at Cornell; Minfong Ho,author; Cory Brown, MFA ’84, Ithaca College pro-fessor and poet; and Ingrid Arneson, an Englishlanguage teacher at Cornell. Phyllis Ammons, wifeof the legendary bard, joined an audience of about50, who included James McConkey, the GoldwinSmith professor of English Literature emeritus;Alison Lurie, F.J. Whiton professor of Literature

I hope you have had a good sum-mer. Like many of you, I was sur-prised to hear of the unexpectedresignation of Cornell President

Jeffrey Lehman ’77. By the time this columnappears, I imagine there will be more informationand the search process will be well under way.

Turning to some class news, Bill Amon re-ports that he moved to the Washington, DC,area during the Vietnam War era, as a CoastGuard officer, and decided to stay upon com-pletion of his reserve obligation. Bill completeda master’s in computer science at George Wash-ington U., and has worked as a government con-tractor providing information systems and net-work support to many agencies and commands.Bill says, “Unlike Al Gore, I can actually claim Ihelped build the Internet.” Bill married his col-lege sweetheart, Jinx, who attended Elmira Col-lege, and they have three children.

After 20 years as a litigation partner at Paul,Weiss in NYC, and four years as chief corporatecounsel at Tyco, Mark Belnick has opened hisown law firm in Manhattan. Mark concentrateson complex commercial litigation, white collarcriminal defense, and litigation consulting. Markand wife Randy have three children, and theirtwo daughters graduated from the Arts college.Their son attends Syracuse.

A note from the university informs us thatclassmate Jay Waks, JD ’71, has been elected chairof the Cornell University Council, an importantbody of the university, second only to the Boardof Trustees. The council advises the university ona number of areas and consists of alumni andfriends who are leaders in service to Cornell. Jayis the first ILR alum to hold this important posi-tion, and his election serves to recognize his manycontributions to both the ILR and Law schools. Iknow firsthand of Jay’s dedicated work for Cor-nell and it is a pleasure to congratulate him.

Alan Altschuler has stepped down as CFOof the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and isattending acting school in NYC. This is obviouslya career change. Alan intends to pursue an actingcareer and is also writing short stories. He says,“Iam in no way ‘retiring.’” Herb Fuller reports hissecond mystery novel, Film at 11. This followshis previous book, It’s a Wrap. Herb lives in theBoston area. Susan Selton Benjamin and herhusband Bob ’67 have both recently retired andstill live in Los Alamos, NM. Sue continues hereducational consulting in math and science. Theirdaughter Alana graduated from Princeton and isa medical student, and son Josh ’99 is applyingto med school. Sue and Bob see Jane FrommerGertler and her husband David ’67, ME ’68.

For 25 years, Gerald Appel hasbeen a professor of clinical med-icine at Columbia U. MedicalCenter and in charge of clinical

nephrology (kidney disease). He says, “My job isgetting interesting.” Since the Sydney Olympics,he has been caring for Alonzo Mourning—thecenter for the US gold medal team and a seven-time NBA all-star—after he suddenly developedkidney disease. Jerry helped him get back ontothe court, and ultimately play in another all-stargame. Alonzo recently had a kidney transplant atColumbia and is playing in the NBA once more.Jerry reports that he has also been treating a base-ball club owner and three former NFL players.“Arather exciting basketball and baseball combina-tion keeps me tuned to the sports pages,” saysJerry.“Nephro-sports is an important part of mylife,” he adds. Jerry’s son Jacob is at Columbiastudying medicine after earning a degree in law afew years ago. His second son, Seth ’00, marriedlast year and practices law in San Francisco.

Another doctor with a sports connection,John Mitas worked with the Duval County Med-ical Society in Florida to prepare for a potentialbio-terrorism threat at Super Bowl XXXIX. Pre-viously, John was the medical director at a biotechcompany, designing trials for vaccines against bio-terrorism. For the past year, however, he has beendeputy executive VP and COO of the American


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College of Physicians, the largest medical specialtyorganization in the world, with 118,000 members.Along with a change in career, John has changedhis address and now lives in West Chester, PA.Suzanne Sacks has also made a move. She is backin Palm Beach Gardens, FL, after six years in Col-orado and a ten-week around-the-world trip thatemphasized the Far East. Suzanne’s son Davidlives in Florida, where he is embarking on a grad-uate degree, and her daughter Elena recentlygraduated from NYU law school.

“Director, Corporate Advisory Services,” readsthe business card of Edmund Belak, who worksfor Laidlaw & Co., a New York investment bank.However, Edmund wrote to tell us that he waselected to the board of trustees of the New CanaanNature Center. Alan Cody has joined the advisoryboard of ACCION New England, a micro-lenderto moderate and low income small business own-ers in the US and the developing world. KennethKohn works as a financial professional with theMony Group, an AXA Financial Company andmember of MDRT. Kenneth and his wife Patri-cia have three children. Jonathan is a Cornell ’05graduate, Kimberly was married last year atOheka Castle in Cold Spring Hills, NY, and Scottresides in Charlotte, NC. In 2004, Malcolm Tomleft his job as deputy managing director for thecity and county of Honolulu and joined St. Fran-cis Healthcare System of Hawaii to be their COO.

Harvey Leibin, president of Du Bose Associ-ates Inc., tells us that his firm won two nationalawards for the Two Rivers Middle Magnet Schoolfor Science, Math, and Technology located in E.Hartford, CT. They won the top overall prize inthe 2003 Metal Architecture Competition andgrand prize in the School Planning and Manage-ment’s Educational Design and Showcase Com-petition for 2004. Harvey also keeps us abreast ofhis family’s activities. His son Brad, WashingtonU. ’02, started a Master of Architecture graduateprogram at U. of Pennsylvania after working inthe industry for a time. Kate, American U. ’04, isin elementary education, teaching fourth grade,and Kara is at the U. of Wisconsin. Harvey’s wifeFlorence teaches at Noah Wallace School inFarmington, CT.

Several classmates have continued their edu-cation by enrolling in Cornell’s Adult University(CAU). They include Frank Casciano, JD ’72,and his wife Diane (Jones) ’70, Gary Garten-berg and his wife Deborah, Susan BurlingameLe Vangia and her husband Peter, Iles Minoff,and John Reilly. A flyer published by the Govern-ment department at Cornell advertised the lecture“Reinventing the Transatlantic Alliance” given byRichard Burt. He has had a distinguished careerin diplomacy and national security and nowserves as chairman of Diligence, a business intel-ligence and risk advisory firm, as well as being theinternational director of the government affairsfirm Barbour Griffith and Rogers and an advisorto the Carlyle Group. Arda Coyle Boucher, 21Hemlock Hill Rd., Amherst, NH 03031.

Yes, classmates, it’s time once againto think about reunion. So markyour calendars accordingly—June8-11, 2006. More information

about reunion planning is included later in thiscolumn. First, we should catch up on someclassmate news that is still fresh enough to print.And more refreshingly, much of the news thismonth comes from folks we haven’t heard fromin a long time.

In the leadoff spot is a news item about a’71 classmate, James Shannon, who made a dif-ference to a recent Cornell graduate. Each springthe deans of the seven undergraduate divisionshonor 36 graduating seniors as Merrill Presi-dential Scholars because they have demonstratedoutstanding scholastic achievement, strong lead-ership ability, and potential for contributing tosociety. The scholars in turn honor the teacherswho have inspired their scholastic development.Merrill Scholar Paul G. Bakken ’05 said this inhis nomination essay: “From the first week ofAP Chemistry class, Jim Shannon knew how tokeep his students’ attention . . . Far from beinggimmicky, Mr. Shannon’s innovative teachingtechniques prepare his students excellently . . .Mr. Shannon’s most lasting impact on my life isnot the course material he taught me, but ratherthe unbridled enthusiasm he has for scientificdiscovery and the art of teaching . . . Though my

major, Development Sociology, is a far cry fromchemistry, Mr. Shannon’s exuberance and pas-sion for learning have been an influence on mydecision to pursue an academic career.” Thanksgo to David Beale for forwarding the story, JoeWilensky of the Cornell News Office for for-warding the essay, and Paul Bakken for allowingme to use it here.

Karen Erskine Biddle writes, “After 30 yearsin the wonderful world of advertising and mar-keting in New York and London, I am actuallyusing my mathematics degree by teaching mathin the Center City Philadelphia public school sys-tem.” Karen and husband Anthony ’70 are enjoy-ing life in Philadelphia with three children. Withher eldest a Cornell undergrad, the Biddles areamong the legion of classmates enjoying thedelights of offspring who are attending or havegraduated from Cornell. Vermonter DeborahGale says that she is still an admissions officer atthe U. of Vermont. Deborah’s mission is diversityrecruitment. She coordinates relationships withpartner high schools in New York City and pro-vides college awareness opportunities for stu-dents, starting in the 9th grade. After hours, Deb-orah is involved with a group in central Vermontcalled Reading to End Racism.

Michael McFarren wrote in from Dalton,OH. He and his wife Robin have three grown

children and four grandchildren. Michael pre-sides over a thriving congregation as pastor ofthe Living Water Community Church. An avidlong-distance cyclist, he is planning to bike acrossAmerica when he retires. In the meantime,Michael reports that his travels have taken himto Kenya several times. Africa also beckons Dar-lene Rugis Heller. Citing her personal goal, “towork in Africa,” Darlene reported that she hasbeen to Malawi several times to do mission work.She is still In-service Educator at the ClintonCounty Health Dept. She and husband Paul havethree grown children in Plattsburgh, NY. Sur-prisingly, the Hellers also found time to travel toNorway in the past year to visit friends and hikein the mountains.

Infectious disease expert Robert Capparellis an epidemiologist at St. Joseph’s Hospital inAtlanta, GA. Bob wrote that he was named oneof the “Best Doctors in America.” When he isn’tdealing with epidemiology, Bob loves to golf andplay poker. He and wife Sandy have two chil-dren. Independent filmmaker Linda Harrar ishard at work on a new PBS “Nova” global healthproject titled “Rx for Survival.” Linda writes thatit will air November 1-3, 2006. Linda won a CineGolden Eagle Award for her “World in the Bal-ance” (also for “Nova”) that was released in2004. She and her fiction writer husband Georgelive in the Boston area.

Flora Kuykendall Parker checked in fromMesa, AZ, having moved from WashingtonState. She is currently indulging her passion for reading, dancing, and music. Another Arizo-nan, Joanne Trifilo is still practicing immigra-tion law. She met up with Kristin VandenbergWhitfield in Boston last spring at a collaborativelaw convention.

Finally, here is the planning information Ipromised about Reunion 2006. Kathy Flaxman([email protected]) is our reunion chair. Sheis ably assisted by Naomi Katz Mintz, as well asGilda Klein Linden, Laurie Berke-Weiss, andElisabeth Kaplan Boas. Dale Cohen ([email protected]) will coordinate publicity anddesign work. Those who want to help with pub-licity are welcome. Class historian Marsha Ack-ermann is compiling results from a class survey.It was distributed this year. Co-presidents JerryDay, MBA ’78 ([email protected]) and DavidBeale ([email protected]) are planning a pre-reunion event at the Yale-Cornell game in Sep-tember. Cornell Fund chair Mike Kubin isramping up for our class gift. And Rick Furbush([email protected]) is planning to get the entirefootball team back for a game in June 2006. Asalways, we look forward to hearing from you. Matt Silverman, [email protected]; and LindaGermaine-Miller, [email protected].


C L A S S N O T E S

The class column for this issuecan be found with the Reportsof Reunion Classes, which beginon page 64.

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‘Michael McFarren is planning to bikeacross America when he retires.’

MATT SILVERMAN ’71


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Congratulations to the CornellAthletics department for the excel-lent performance of our sportsteams this past spring. The Big

Red hockey team won Ivy League and ECACtitles and came within one goal (in overtime) ofadvancing to the NCAA Frozen Four. The base-ball team won the Lou Gehrig Division of the IvyLeague with some outstanding pitching duringthe final two weeks of the season, before droppingtwo close decisions to Harvard in the Ivy Leaguedivision playoffs. The men’s lacrosse team wonthe Ivy League championship and advanced tothe NCAA quarterfinals for the third year in arow. The most impressive performance may havebeen by the wrestling team, which finished fourthin the NCAA championships (missing third placeby only one point). It was the best finish by anyIvy League wrestling team in 50 years. The ath-letes and coaches of these championship squadsdeserve a hearty “Well done!”

After an eight-year tenure as a real estatemanager for Home Depot, Stephanie HarrisMorgan resigned to take a position with a newcompany, Life Time Fitness (LTM), based in Min-neapolis. After going public last summer, theydecided to expand to the East Coast. Stephaniewill open an office in New Jersey as the seniordirector of R&D, covering the New England andMid-Atlantic markets. Her husband Joel has athriving neuropsychology practice in Madison,NJ. Daughter Freddie, 14, just entered Millburn-Short Hills High School. Her favorite sport is bas-ketball. Joel’s favorite sport is to upgrade the fam-ily’s home electronics. Stephanie is trying to locateMimi Schneider Trudeau ’74, MPS ’93. Mimi, ifyou read this, contact Stephanie at [email protected]. Donna Muffoletto Campbellwrites from Winchester, MA, that daughter Katieis a freshman at Hobart and William Smith Col-leges in Geneva, NY, where she plays on the ten-nis team. Son Brian made the varsity tennis teamas a freshman at Winchester High School. Bar-bara Wood Wages of Amelia Island, FL, reportsthat son Braden Wages ’05 graduated from theHotel school, and daughter Page graduated fromthe North Carolina State vet school. Barbaraproudly announces the birth of her first grand-baby, Caden Albert Wages, on April 5, 2005.

Keith Friedman and wife Elizabeth reside inbeautiful Santa Barbara, CA, with children Sarah,Phillip, Chelsea, Ari, and Ian. Corrine MeredithCummiskey worked one year for Key Bank in amanagement training program after graduation.She then moved to Denver to take graduatecourses at Denver U. After moving back to Syra-cuse to attend nursing school at SUNY UpstateMedical Center, Corrine worked as a registerednurse at University Hospital, Crouse Hospital,

dentist. Daughter Malka is in third grade at HillelDay School. Donald Kovalevich reports that wifeBarbara Garrity won election to the school board.Son Nick, who graduated from Columbia in 2004,is in China teaching at a university while master-ing Mandarin. Son Alex is deciding whether toattend the Cornell ILR school, and daughterKaren is a junior in high school.

Dr. Nancy Kollisch reports the sad news thatKaren Bier passed away on Jan. 5, 2005. She issurvived by her parents, Ruth and Bud Bier, 14Holly Lane, Plainview, NY 11803. Gail Povar is inprivate internal medical practice in Bethesda, MD,and serves as a preceptor for students and resi-dents from the George Washington School ofMedicine. Husband Lawrence Bachorik ’71 is stillat the FDA, but has moved into the area of inter-national affairs. Son Justin is a junior at Brown,and daughter Alexandra, 16, attends high schoolwhile trying to decide where she wants to go tocollege. Walter Molofsky is chief of pediatric neu-rology at Beth Israel Medical Center in NYC. WifeBrenda is a pediatric endocrinologist at NYU.Daughter Danielle graduated from Columbia in2004 and worked under Dr. Judith Folkman atHarvard Med School, performing cancer research,before starting Tufts med school. Daughter Nicoleis a junior at Barnard and worked this summerfor Bear Stearns in a fixed-income internship.Send news to Alex Barna, [email protected]; or Gary Rubin, [email protected].

and now at Tecumseh Elementary School as aschool nurse. She and husband Joe are extremelyproud of son Ryan Joseph Cummiskey ’09, whoentered the College of Engineering this fall. Ryanloves sailing, boating, skiing, and driving cars.

Lee McDaniel of Darlington, MD, is chair-man of the board of trustees of Harford Com-munity College, as well as serving as VP of theMaryland Association of Soil Conservation Dis-tricts. Richard Neubauer reports that despite suf-fering from peripheral neuropathy from amyloid-osis, he continues working and enjoying his workfor the American College of Physicians (ACP). Hestarted a three-year term on the ACP Board ofRegents in April. Son Julian graduated from U. ofMontana, and daughter Erin finished high schoolat St. Michael’s U. School in Victoria, BC. She isattending Colorado State U. in Fort Collins, CO.

The Philadelphia intellectual property lawfirm Caesar, Rivise, Bernstein, Cohen & Pokoti-low Ltd. announced that ten of its partners were

named to this year’s “Pennsylvania Super Lawyer”list, including James J. Kozuch, who was namedin the intellectual property law section. The listwas compiled by Law and Politics magazine andwas published in the June 2005 issue of Philadel-phia magazine. James joined the firm in 1998 andfocuses his practice on litigation, client counseling,and patent prosecution in the fields of mechan-ical engineering and business methods. A licensedprofessional engineer, he is on the National Rosterof Neutrals of the American Arbitration Associ-ation (AAA), and is a member of the AmericanSociety of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Inaddition his BSME from Cornell, James receivedhis JD from Temple U. and an MBA from LehighUniversity. Mark Dickerson is working as a proj-ect manager with NASA at the Dryden FlightResearch Center near Lancaster, CA. His sonJonathan completed his MBA at Syracuse andnow lives and works in Denver. Daughter Keishajust turned 8 and loves to read. Mark says he keepsin regular touch via e-mail with Clyde Hanks,MS ’76, who generates excellent Web humor.

Several classmates participate every year inCornell’s Adult University (CAU). During therecent spring session Nitza and Avery Ellis expe-rienced Cultural Crossroads: A Walking Tour ofWestern Sicily, while Pauline and David Hard-ing, PhD ’83, viewed Landscapes of the LastFrontier: Alaska from Fairbanks to Glacier Bay.

Ann Freedman and husband Robert Spoontpractice dentistry together in Boca Raton, FL.Ann’s specialty is pediatric dentistry, while Bobdoes general dentistry. They also have an ortho-dontist and three other dentists working forthem. Son Josh is at U. of Florida College of Law,Adam is at NYU, and Ben is at Duke. Ben plansto follow in the family footsteps and become a


‘Just look for a dragon sliding downLibe Slope with a can of paint.’

PHYLLIS HAIGHT GRUMMON ’73

As I prepared to write this column,word reached me that PresidentJeffrey Lehman ’77 had resigned.Choosing to leave an institution,

especially one that is close to your heart, iswrenching. Of course, we’ll never know the pri-vate reasons Jeff left, and the public ones havebeen thin, murky, and couched in politeness, asperhaps they should be. How well does each of usthink we’d do as president of Cornell? What ban-ners would we carry, what ones let drop, whatones fold into our knapsack in hopes of a betterday? As the trustees, all 64 of them, ponder andinterview, I hope they listen to all of us and notjust the big donors. We probably all have ideas ofwhat it takes to deliver on the multiple demandsof the job. What we’d want in a president . . .

First, have a sense of humor. Honestly, themore years I have under my belt, the more I appre-ciate folks who keep life in perspective throughlaughter. A president with a sense of humor wouldlook great as the Green Dragon, would have paintfor the Quad footsteps, and would find a way togo sledding on Libe Slope, even with a ban. Sec-ond, remember what it is like to be a kid and espe-cially an undergraduate. Put yourself back in yourold sneakers. The world is right out front waitingand nothing is behind you. Terror and joy mix ona regular basis as dating, studying, and intellectualchallenge arrive daily. Your sneakers are filled withemotion and experience; treasure them. Third,have plenty of friends who let you keep your hairdown. Privacy is required no matter how publicthe life. Friends who remind you which leg to putin your pants first are invaluable. Your friends arethere for what you want and need and what yougive them—those are the exchanges that last.


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Of course, presidents also have to do all thosetasks listed on the job description, just like therest of us. What are the chores of a presidency?They must include raising money, making peaceamong warring factions, keeping Cornell on aneven keel through managerial magic, balancingthe books, lobbying the legislature, shaking count-less hands, and keeping a very public face in per-fect order, no matter what. Oh, and perhaps beingan intellectual leader who keeps faculty and stu-dents pointed toward the future. Impossible evento think of all those jobs without the humor, per-spective, and the friendships that come first. I justwant to tell the trustees to find someone who isreal and authentic, and who maybe isn’t at the topof every headhunter’s list. Just look for a dragonsliding down Libe Slope with a can of paint.

Well, our lives have all continued to blossomand here’s the proof in my news pile. MichaelStein lives in Miami, FL, where he’s joyfullyengaging in simply growing older and watchinghis children graduate from universities and begintheir professional lives. Michael moved fromHilton Int’l to Korn Ferry Int’l as managing direc-tor of their Miami office. The Wisconsin Societyof Certified Public Managers voted Mark Evansthe 2004 Wisconsin Manager of the Year. Heenjoys time with his wife, Robin Bloom. Mark’sstepson is a graduate of Case Western Reserveand now a customer consultant and softwaredeveloper for Epic Systems. His stepdaughter isin a doctoral program in sociology at the U. ofTexas, Austin. Janine Jamieson Huff suffered thedeath of her husband five years ago. Her childrenDouglas, Reedy, and Ira remain a light in her life,as does preserving the Seneca language. Janineteaches Native studies to K-5 students whileworking on her doctorate. She’s also godmotherto Jonnise Marsh Conanan’s daughter Court-ney, who is now a public school teacher.

Rich Isaacman sent plenty of “fodder” forthis column. He writes,“Our older son Sibren ’05graduated this spring with a degree in Physics,which I guess makes me officially over the hill.We attended graduation in Ithaca.” Sibren’s stay-ing Ivy, though; he’ll begin graduate studies inelectrical engineering at Princeton this fall. Rich’syounger son Gabriel continues to flourish at Wes-leyan U. as he finishes up his sophomore yearwith a double major in chemistry and environ-mental science. Rich and his wife fell in love withCosta Rica on a visit a few years ago, and justreturned from their second trip. They scuba-dived and visited Arenal volcano and the PaloVerde National Park. The highlight was a literalrush on a zip line rainforest canopy tour, glidingover treetops on quarter-mile-long cables, 200feet (yes, that’s two hundred feet) above the for-est floor. Quite an unforgettable experience!

Please keep writing us with your experi-ences—they’re all unforgettable when you readthem here! Send your news to Phyllis HaightGrummon, 1531 Woodside Dr., E. Lansing, MI48823, or [email protected].

at least in the wording of the insurance coveragedocuments, awarding WTC leaseholder anddeveloper Larry Silverstein as much as $4.6 bil-lion in insurance (pending appeal), $1.1 billionmore than if the attacks were a single incident,and giving Silverstein more leverage in redevel-oping the site. Joseph Boardman was nominatedby the White House in March to head the FederalRail Administration. He is now commissioner ofthe NYS Dept. of Transportation; Sen. CharlesSchumer (D-NY) called Boardman “an excellentpick to re-energize the slumping [FRA].”

Kendall Minter, JD ’76, of Stone Mountain,GA, was appointed general counsel of Fo YoSoul Entertainment, the record and entertain-ment company of Grammy Award-winner KirkFranklin (“The Nu Nation Project”). Kendall isalso president of P-19 Media LLC, a new faith-based media and ad agency that’s a joint venturewith the Loomis Agency in Dallas. In Anchorage,AK, pilot Jacqueline Dolat reported “spendingmy spare time this winter rebuilding my 1977[Piper] Super Cub.”

John Arnold of Southwick, MA, says, “Ispent most of 2004 building and establishing anew shade leaf [tobacco] processing company inSanto Domingo, Dominican Republic. The oper-ations got started on time, and all is going well.”Reporting in from Reading, MA, is ChristineSchleck Exner and husband Paul. They are proudof their younger daughter Natalie for winning afull scholarship to Boston U., which she willattend this fall. They are going ahead with a long-planned backyard patio landscaping project toavoid getting “empty nest” syndrome. (Plus theymay have a little more time on their hands.)

Nancy Newcomer Vick of Bedford, NY, haskids Jane and Charlie, now in ninth and tenthgrades. She reports, “Next spring break will becollege visits; in fact, we have had dueling Big Redand Carolina Blue sweatshirts in this house sincebirth.” From Columbus, OH, Jodi SielschottStechschulte writes, “Lynn is off to Cornell nextyear and will be going into Arts. John ’06 is therein Engineering. Lisa ’04 graduated from Arts lastyear. Paul will be a high school senior and isdetermined to follow a different path. Laurenwill be in fifth grade. I am on the long-term pro-gram of parenting!”

At the other end of parenting, Mark andWendy Zurn Allen announce that their oldestson Chris ’98 (who’s 29!) is getting married thisfall. Chris was a free safety at Cornell (a footballposition to those in the know). Wendy managesa chiropractor’s office, and Mark is VP Sales forMagid Glove and Safety Mg. Wendy adds,“I knowthis is one year late, but it was GREAT seeingeveryone at Reunion last year. I just didn’t haveenough time to talk to everyone! Jack Corrigan,former football player and fraternity brother ofMark’s, and his wife Lisa are still enjoying life inthe mountains of Aurora, CO. He’s now in histhird year of broadcasting Colorado Rockiesbaseball games, after 17 years in Cleveland withthe Indians. Jack notes that he has written a newlyreleased baseball-related novel, Warning Track.

Daniel Fried of Washington, DC, announcesthat he has taken a new position as Assistant Sec-retary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.

Saide Altinsan of Reno, NV, is a psychiatrist atthe Mojave Clinic; her husband Joseph Bovill isan anesthesiologist for a V.A. Medical Center.They have two daughters in high school, 15 and18. Saide hopes to travel to Kazan, Tatarstan, Rus-sia, to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of Kazan.

From Las Vegas, NV, Michael Milano writesthat he works as an investment advisor for theGirl Scouts of the Frontier Council. He’s alsoactive in other councils and boards, such as theNorth American Federation of Temple Brother-hoods. Michael has children Sarah, 19, at UNLV,and Gabriel, 15, in high school. Mark Goldstein,DVM ’78, and wife Kristina enjoy living in SanDiego, CA, and have been married 26 years.They have daughters Lauren, 23, and Nicole, 19.Mark is president of the San Diego HumaneSociety and SPCA.

David Wickersham of Mendham, NJ, reportsthat he “retired from DuPont in 2003 after 23years to accept a position with Honeywell Inter-national as Global Director of Remediation andEvaluation Services.” In another slant on “retire-ment,” Lee Schear notes that he has becomesemi-retired after his employer, a private com-pany, was bought out by a public company. Hesays,“Before, I was barely working but felt guilty;now the guilt is gone.” Lee and his wife have fourchildren, three still at home and one son in col-lege. He reports that Scott Bigelow is “still hidingout in North Carolina.”

John and Laurie Eastman Veal enjoy livingin beautiful Newburyport, MA. As Laurie wroteit, they “have plenty of time to contemplate itsunique appeal as they each sit in traffic for wellover two hours each day, but that’s a small priceto pay in exchange for a short ride to the beach orwalk to destination restaurants and shops fromtheir front door. Laurie and John weathered thedot-com downturn by applying their softwareproject experience to in-house programs. Lauriehas been working as the assistant chief projectmanager for an enterprise software implementa-tion program at MIT since 2001, and John is asenior Oracle DBA for Welch’s in Concord, MA.”

Mary Ready Stanley reports that she and hus-band Bruce reconnected with the Veals at reunionlast year, and have since gotten together for tripsto Cape Cod and a visit to the Stanley residencein Middleville, NJ. She notes that her career as ahospital clinical social worker has been enor-mously enriching, providing her an opportunity“to help people help themselves.” Bruce is a socialworker for the State of New Jersey, working pri-marily with veterans and their families. Mary’sson Luke, 25, resides with his wife in Pasadena,CA, and attends Fuller Theological Seminary. Herdaughter Mary, 23, will begin medical school atKansas City U. of Medicine and Biosciences, herfather Walter Grote’s med school alma mater.

Michael Delikat was recently appointedmanaging director of the litigation division atOrrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Michael overseeslitigation practice for this firm of 300-pluslawyers and lives in Greenwich, CT. He notes thathis daughter Stacey ’04, who served as one of theon-air anchors for the Cornell Campus InsightsTV show, has been promoted to a news staffposition at CNN in NYC. Paul ’75 and Marcia


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A US District Court jury agreedwith Eric Roth’s client that the9/11 attacks on the World TradeCenter were two separate incidents,


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Langwell Morris of Oradell, NJ, recently met upwith Frank ’73 and Peggy Cangilos-Ruiz to seePeggy’s nephew perform a set of songs at Man-hattan nightclub CBGB.

According to her business card, DianeKopelman VerSchure (Natick, MA) is chair ofthe Collegiate Program Committee for the USFigure Skating Association. As I recall, she servedour class early on as reunion chair. For the pastyear or so, Diane has been nobly and repeatedlytrying to organize a cruise for interested ’74sorority sisters of Delta Gamma and Kappa Psi(now KKG). Although it has proved very diffi-cult to find a cruise time compatible with every-one’s busy schedules and their kids’ upcominghigh school graduations, this combined e-maillist has proved to be a substantial source ofupdated news items, more of which I hope toharvest for upcoming class columns. If anyoneelse has an ongoing “chain letter” based on affin-ity, we class correspondents would love to mineit for news. Betsy Moore, [email protected]; Steve Raye, [email protected]; and BillHoward, [email protected].

Thanks for writing, folks. Best wishes to all. Karen Krinsky Sussman, [email protected];Pat Relf Hanavan, [email protected]; Lisa Diamant,[email protected].

Brown U. in the fall, where her late husbandLarry Read graduated.

Mike Marine is a CPA and CFO of Pre-CastSpecialties Inc. in Pompano Beach, FL. He isworking diligently on a plan to quit his day job.Beginning in May 2005, he is putting on a liveSaturday morning show for children ages 6 to 11with an emphasis on exercise and nutrition.Check out his website, www.thepigclub.com.Steve and Michele Brand Medwin write fromBinghamton, NY. Steve is manager of advancedresearch at the Raymond Corp., a manufacturerof forklift trucks. He just graduated from theExecutive MBA program at Binghamton U.Michele has been the rabbi at Temple Concord inBinghamton for the past four years. Their daugh-ter Rachel just graduated from George Washing-ton U., and their son Dan recently completed hisfirst year of rabbinic studies in Jerusalem at theHebrew Union College.

Ann Barnes has been labor relations direc-tor for the Baltimore Sun newspaper for threeyears. The paper is 70 percent organized, with avery dynamic labor environment—it keeps heron her toes! Ann is also very proud to reportthat her daughter has been accepted as a Scienceof Natural and Environmental Systems major inthe Ag college. Bill Belter lives in Houston, TX,and has been employed in the forest productsand paper industry for the last 29 years. He wasa bi-vocation pastor of a Southern BaptistChurch for five years and active in Wycliffe BibleTranslators Associates. He is currently workingon his book, “A Walk Through Eternity. ”

Alain Bertrand writes that he is in charge offinance, administration quality, and organizationat Terre des Hommes Foundation, a medium-size NGO based in Lausanne, Switzerland, whichdevelops and promotes social programs for chil-dren’s rights, nutrition, and healthcare, and is ac-tive in 30 countries. He finds this to be very re-warding work. He lives in Lausanne on the LemanLake (Lake Geneva). His daughter Candeice, 14,just started a 10-month educational stage, whichincludes contributing to a humanitarian projectin Senegal, Africa. His stepson Alban, 16, enjoyshigh school and theater, and looks forward to histechnical studies. Alain states that Switzerland isreally a very quiet island in this somewhat agitatedworld. Barbara Grindrod Warner’s daughterElizabeth Barker ’08 is in the School of HumanEcology. Her family had a grand trip down mem-ory lane when they moved Elizabeth into BalchHall (Aug 2004) and visited the campus for Par-ents Weekend. They survived their first SpringBreak and had the pleasure of several “Balchettes”visiting their farm in North Carolina.

Marcia Pechenik McCraw Horwitz writesthat she was recently appointed by President Bushto serve a five-year term on the US HolocaustMemorial Museum Council. She also recentlyjoined the Nathanson Group, a law firm special-izing in the real estate side of assisted-living care.Bill Gullickson’s son Eric graduated from the U.of Maine in May. His daughter Emily is at St.Lawrence U. up in Canton, NY, where she had agood first year on the swim team. He and hiswife Susan are empty nesters, and he says it is tooquiet around their house.



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Greetings! I hope this finds youall well. Getting right to the newsfrom our classmates . . . AmyLubow Downs is living in Brook-

lyn, NY, with her husband and two sons, ages 11and 14. She is a customer service representativefor a computer software publisher in Manhattan.Her husband is a middle school art teacher anda wedding photographer. She wishes to say helloto anyone from Cornell who may remember her.

Peter C. Di Giulio, ME ’77, writes, “I’m de-lighted to share with you all that I was marriedthis past Dec. 26 to Jacqueline Leurquin. Duringour Cornell years, I met Jacqueline in Bostonwhile she was visiting from Belgium; she is pro-foundly the first love of my life. The distanceand changes in our lives kept us apart and welost track of each other some 25 years ago. How-ever, four years ago, my curiosity got the betterof me and, with a gentle, persistent nudge of thisguiding force that we have come to know as ourcosmic angels, I found her in Brussels 18months ago. It is a long, wonderful story that inso many ways is still just beginning.” Peter addsthat Jacqueline has a wonderful teenage son.

Carla Holder is working as Manager, Finan-cial Planning & Analysis for Mosaica EducationInc., a small private firm that starts and managescharter schools. She adds that she has joined theCatholic Church, is in the local choir, and singsin a chant group. She has now added ballroomdancing to the Scottish country dancing that shehas been doing for years. Carol Ann Nelson,BArch ’77, writes that she is still working withthe Diocese of Providence overseeing a numberof large construction projects on churches andschools. She has been with the Diocese since 1997.Her daughter Katherine Read graduated fromLincoln School in Providence and is attending

Relatively sparse news this month,classmates, but what we lack inquantity we make up in quality.Stephen Kessinger lives in Ovie-

do, FL, where he was promoted to group man-ager of AT&T Government Solutions Inc. inOctober 2004. Congratulations, Steve. He is amember of the Assoc. of US Army (AUSA), theInt’l Test and Evaluation Assoc., and the ArmedForces Communications-Electronics Assoc., aswell as on the Board of Directors of the NationalDefense Industrial Assoc. He has childrenMichael, 26, Jonathan, 25, and Sarah, 23. Whennot working, he enjoys sailing, reading, wood-working, and traveling.

Nicholas D’Ambrosio Jr. has been includedin The Best Lawyers in America. Nick is managingpartner of the Albany office of Bond, Schoeneck,and King PLLC, and is a labor and employmentattorney who represents employers in anti-discrimination proceedings, affirmative actionmatters, employment litigation, and other issues.After receiving his BS degree from the ILR school,Nick graduated summa cum laude from the Syra-cuse U. College of Law, where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review, president of the Justin-ian Honorary Law Society, and awarded theOrder of the Coif. Kudos to you, Nick.

Jay Walker, founder of Priceline.com andthe man most responsible for William Shatner’scareer comeback, spoke to a standing-room-onlyNew York audience in April 2005, telling themthat the “age of muscle is ending and is beingreplaced by the age of the mind.” Jay was address-ing 225 Cornell alumni and guests at the CornellTheory Center’s Manhattan offices. He was intro-duced by Robert Constable, Cornell Dean ofComputing and Information Science, who notedthat Jay’s innovations include not only Priceline.com, but also one of the world’s leading inven-tions management companies, Walker Digital. Jaymade three predictions: that people will widelyuse the Web for voice communication; that chipsable to communicate with the Web will becomepart of clothing; and that people themselves willbecome part of the network.

Finally, Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman’sState of the University address on June 11, 2005culminated with his announcement that he wasresigning at the end of the month. He said:“Thereis today an important obstacle to Cornell’s abilityto realize its full potential. Over the past fewmonths, it has become apparent to me that theBoard of Trustees and I have different approachesto how the University can best realize its long-termvision. These differences are profound and it hasnow become absolutely clear that they cannot beresolved.”Since, as he said, Cornell is “meant to fly,”and because he and the board could not agree onthe strategic direction to be taken on behalf of theuniversity, he had decided to step down as presi-dent. Peter Meinig ’61, Chairman of the CornellBoard of Trustees, announced that former presi-dent Hunter Rawlings III would serve as interim


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president until a permanent replacement washired. Jeff is the former dean of the U. of MichiganLaw School and the first Cornell alumnus to serveas Cornell president, a source of pride to all Cor-nellians in general and to our class in particular. Hewill continue to teach at the Cornell Law school.We wish Jeff the best in his future endeavors.

That’s it for this month. Please forwardnews and views to either Lorrie or me. HowieEisen, [email protected]; and LorriePanzer Rudin, [email protected] [email protected].

son Dan, who studies at RIT, and Liza, 13, who isin high school. Jeanne Arnold Schwetje lives inMattituck, NY, with her husband John. They havea rock band and perform locally. John teachesglobal studies in high school. Their daughter Katiemarried an Englishman from Dublin last year.They live in NYC where Katie attends NYU. Theydid some home renovating in time for all the rel-atives from across the Atlantic to stay with themfor the wedding. Jeanne and John went to Anguillalast winter over the holiday break. They are look-ing forward to enjoying time together in their“empty nest” and plan to go sailing and play gigs.

Laura Howe Czekaj ([email protected]) re-ports that her daughter Claire graduated from theU. of Delaware with a BS in mathematics. Her

daughter Katie is at Rutgers, majoring in English.Laura visited the Cornell campus with her sisterFrancey and husband Bill Welker ’73, MBA ’75,to hear their son Stephen sing with the Glee ClubHangovers. Gary Holcomb ([email protected]) and his wife Julie live in New Jerseyand have children David, 14, and Mary, 12. Garyhas accepted a position as CEO of Coining ofAmerica LLC, a manufacturer of specialty mate-rials for the semiconductor industry in SaddleBrook, NJ. Pamela Savage-Roglich ([email protected]) is a vice president at J.P. MorganSecurities Inc. in Chicago. She and husband Mar-ion Roglich, MILR ’76, have two children, Made-line, 9, who plays soccer and softball, and Evan,11, who plays basketball, baseball, and lacrosse.

It is with great sadness that we report thepassing of Helen Marts Murphy, who died ofcomplications of cancer. She is survived by herhusband Paul and children Keith and Julia. Helenwas an IT manager for various high-tech firmsin New Jersey. She was an enthusiastic supporterof the arts and was president and board memberof Luna Stage Company in Montclair through-out the 1990s. Helen was a painter, sculptor, andamateur musician and a member of the HobokenRenaissance Singers; she enjoyed ballet, theater,reading, and travel. Our class mourns the loss ofone of our members.

Marguerite Blythe ([email protected]) livesin Cincinnati with her husband Douglas Katchen.Marguerite, who practices psychiatry, was namedthe Doctor of the Year at Mercy Hospital West-ern Hills. She graduated from Cornell’s New YorkHospital School of Nursing and went to medicalschool at the U. of Cincinnati. She says that thebest training for being a physician is being a nursefirst. Mary Rose Gallagher ([email protected]) lives in Fairfield, IA, and is working insocial services. Larry Skoczylas ([email protected]), along with his partners, built a new oral andmaxillofacial surgery center. It doubled theircapacity and will allow the dentists to do more

types of surgery in the office than they couldbefore. Larry and his wife Kathleen had a son,Mitchell David, last year. He joins siblings Tom,12, and Erin, 10. They reside in Midland, MI.

Our class is looking for volunteers for classofficers. It is a great way to reconnect with oldand new Cornell friends and keep in touch withwhat is happening on campus. Ken Mogil’sdeath left us without a permanent class presi-dent. This sounds like a daunting task, but it isin fact very manageable. We are also looking fora new webmaster. That position gets good sup-port from the Alumni Affairs office and assis-tance is always available.

We’d like to thank Eileen Brill Wagner for heryears of dedicated service as a class correspondent.

She has resigned from that position, which leavesjust one of us to write the column. Please let meknow if you are interested in the job of co-classcorrespondent. Diane Elliott has volunteered tohelp gather information from e-mails and for-ward it. You can contact me at the e-mail addressbelow, or Tina Gourley in Class and ReunionPrograms at Alumni House (e-mail, [email protected]). Thanks for considering the opportunity toserve your class, have some fun, and reconnectwith Cornell. Pepi F. Leids, [email protected];Diane Elliott, [email protected].


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Robert Sues ([email protected]) would love to hear fromclassmates. His oldest son Jaredis a freshman in Engineering at

Cornell. Robert is CEO of Applied ResearchAssociates and has moved to Fairfax, VA, afterhaving lived in Raleigh, NC, for 18 years. SharonCerasoli ([email protected]) is asocial worker in the emergency and critical caredepartment of Rochester (NY) General Hospi-tal. She has also been involved with a project toincrease the number of organ donors. She urgeseveryone to sign an organ donor card and “donatelife.” Joseph Vidich ([email protected])lives in Wall, NJ. He and his wife Leslie have threechildren. Joseph is a general partner in the Man-alapan Oracle Advisers LLC and is a registeredinvestment advisor. He reports that Mark Halper’77 ([email protected]) lives in Bristol, Eng-land, with his wife and two children.

Mike Schwartz ([email protected]) andhis wife Cass live in Houston, TX, with their chil-dren Mitchell, 10, and Lauren, 4. Mike is a princi-pal with KPMG in Houston. Mary Gallo Tucker([email protected]) and her husband Clark,MIL ’78, met while they were ILR students in1978. They married a year later and have twochildren. Son Robert ’07 is an ILRie and was anRA on West Campus; daughter Lizzie ’09 is alsoin ILR. Now that is a Cornell family for sure!

Diana “Sunshine” Lorenz Weggler visitedher son Ryan ’06 while he was studying in Romeduring his semester abroad program. She writes,“I wish I had had that opportunity as an under-graduate, but in some ways it’s more fun nowsharing the experience with my own child.” Herhusband Robert received a master’s degree ineducational leadership from Vermont College.He continues to enjoy coaching the Norwich U.rugby teams and would love to hear from for-mer CU ruggers at his e-mail address, [email protected]. The Wegglers contacted classmateStephen Cushman out of the blue via e-mail. Hehas been an English professor at the U. of Vir-ginia for 23 years. Stephen and his wife Sandra(Bain) ’79 have two sons, ages 14 and 18.

Gary Graziano, BArch ’79 ([email protected]), was promoted to VP of marketing for theHigh Concrete Group companies (www.highconcrete.com), re-elected secretary to the Altus-group Inc. board, and elected secretary to theboard of United Disabilities Services. As if all thatdoesn’t take up enough time, he is president-electof the Philadelphia chapter of the Product Devel-opment and Management Association. Gary andhis wife Nancy Ann live in Lititz, PA, with their

‘Marguerite Blythe says that the best trainingfor being a physician is being a nurse f irst.’

PEPI F. LEIDS ’78

Welcome back to fall, and all thatit entails. For some of you, itmeans getting to drop off yourkids at Cornell. Please send us e-

mails letting us know where your kids are goingto school and how they are finding college life.

Wayne Meichner ([email protected]) of NewCanaan, CT, is married to Lisa, and they havechildren Jared, 9, and Justin, 6. Wayne is the pres-ident of retail for Polo Ralph Lauren, which isbased in Manhattan. Deb Doncov doesn’t havechildren of her own, but loves her involvementover the past 15 years with the Big Brother/BigSister organization.“It is the most unselfish thingI have ever done,” writes Deb, and she urgesclassmates to consider becoming a Big Sister orBig Brother. Matthew Shapiro, an orthopaedicsurgeon based in Eugene, OR, was elected to theboard of directors of the American Academy ofOrthopaedic Surgeons in February 2005. Matthewwill serve as secretary to the Board of Councilorsof the 28,000-member organization. He has pub-lished articles and authored a book chapter in hisfield, and has given many scientific presentationsboth nationally and internationally. PresidentBush has declared the years 2002-2011 NationalBone and Joint Decade. The academy is workinghard on global initiatives to raise awareness ofmusculoskeletal health, to stimulate research, andto improve people’s quality of life.


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Marcie Gitlin ([email protected]) isembarking on a new life adventure this fall. Sheis matriculating as a full-time graduate studentat Yeshiva U.’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work.Marcie was accepted with a $10,000, no-strings-attached, merit scholarship, which was basedpartly on her Cornell academic record. One of herthree references was Cornell professor W. PeterWetherbee, with whom Marcie studied Chauceras a freshman. When Marcie completes the two-year master’s program, she hopes to work in oneor both of two fields: immigrant/internationalsocial welfare and/or elder/end-of-life care. Mar-cie continues to travel to Asia. She has been toBurma twice and hopes to celebrate her 50thbirthday—and the awarding of her master’sdegree—with a third trip to Burma and first-timevisits to Laos and Cambodia. While in New YorkCity, Marcie practices yoga daily and is in regu-lar touch with Judith Sherman, Paula Fuchs-berg, Jane Sabin Sklar ’78, Peter Coy, and AlanPosklensky ’77, MBA ’79, as well as her brotherSaul Gitlin ’84, his wife Aviva, and their childrenGuy and Cali.

Donna Wiesner ([email protected])writes that she has married for the first time (toDavid Keene, chairman of the American Conser-vative Union) and joined a presidential admin-istration for the third time (second time was atthe Dept. of Education). Donna and David’s bignews is that they decided to rent their PointMountain house near Snow Shoe in West Vir-

ginia, and bought a Dearborn River house tomatch their Missouri river house in CascadeCanyon, MT. They rent the houses for fly-fishingand hunting when they cannot be there them-selves with, preferably, a slew of pals. Donnanotes, “It’s like Texas without my mother!”Donna concludes by noting that politics maynot be what the Hotel school educated her for,but that it has been invaluable as a fund-raisingresource, and exceptionally helpful in puttingtogether a retirement portfolio.

When you get your dues notices this fall forclass membership and for receiving this maga-zine, please take a few moments to write us anote with your news. Back when we were all inthe throes of getting graduate degrees, findingspouses and partners, having children, and start-ing new careers, we class correspondents receiveda lot more mail than we get these days. Pleasesend an e-mail or a postcard and let us knowwhat is going on in your lives. You can write us [email protected], or directly at: CynthiaAhlgren Shea, [email protected]; KathyZappia Gould, [email protected]; and CindyWilliams, [email protected].

scuba dive and have seen manta rays and bar-racuda; they even had an uncomfortably closeencounter with a 70-foot whale while 90 feetdown and 10 miles off the coast of North Car-olina. From Boca Raton, FL, Richard Lovelywrote that he joined Tyco Int’l in September 2004as VP Human Resources for the Fire and SecurityDivision, which has 90,000 employees worldwide.

Gabe Diaz-Saavrdra is building a new homeon a one-acre lot in Bradenton, FL, near Sara-sota. The hurricane season held up the process,but he hopes to move in by early next year. Thispast February, he accepted a position as South-eastern US regional manager with Nature Safe, adivision of Griffin Industries, and is responsiblefor sales and marketing of meal-based OMRIcertified organic fertilizers. Congratulations toBruce McWilliams of Alexandria, VA! Bruce e-mailed to announce that he and his wife Susanhad their second daughter, Lindsay Jane, onApril 25. Older daughter Madison Grace is 2-1/2.Bruce received his doctorate in economics thispast May. Tyrone Taborn of Reisterstown, MD,also received at honorary doctorate this pastMay from Morgan State U. Tyrone is presidentand CEO of Career Communications Group inBaltimore, MD.

We also received an e-mail from Jay Ghosh,who has been working and living in Tokyo,Japan, for the past two years. He works for OpenTV Asia-Pacific, deploying software solutions fordigital interactive TV. Work has taken him toJapan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Aus-tralia. He met up with Paul Werbaneth ’79, whotravels to Japan frequently on business for asemiconductor equipment processing company;Jay also saw Julie Fernandez ’79, who was ableto take two weeks to visit in Japan to view theplum blossoms.

Our class webmaster, Jordan Strub, wrote inbefore a recent move: “I’ve spent the last six yearsdesigning better slot machines in Las Vegas, butsome corporate changes have undone most ofmy work. Meanwhile, my wife Michele has beencommuting for three or four years to her officein San Diego (as a regional general manager forProgressive Insurance). We have decided to moveback to Colorado Springs, where she can take anew position with Progressive with much lesstravel, and where we can spend more time to-gether and with old friends. I will hoist my ‘Soft-ware Consulting, Cheap!’ banner once again.”Jordan can be reached at [email protected].

Karen Ansbro Leone ’84, from Rochester,NY, wants to put the word out to the group ofHotelies that called themselves HOTEL COL-ORADO: she is planning a Hotel ColoradoReunion during the summer of 2006. For moreinformation, contact her at [email protected], or go to www.goandgroove.com.

For those of you who don’t know how toreach us, you can send your news directly to thee-mail addresses below, or use the website http://www.alumni.cornell.edu/classes.htm. Please letus know your news and update your e-mailaddress. Thanks! Jennifer Read Campbell,[email protected]; Betsy Silverfine, [email protected]; and Kathy Philbin LaShoto,[email protected].


The class column for this issuecan be found with the Reportsof Reunion Classes, whichbegin on page 64.

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My heart went all a-flutter when Ireceived the white envelope with theyellow Class News forms—you musthave some news for us! You will

soon be receiving information about our 25th Re-union, coming June 8-11, 2006. I haven’t missedany reunions thus far, and I have to say that asthe years advance, they are more fun. My kids areeven talking about it a year ahead of time!

Jared Aldern is looking forward to reunion,too. He reports that he’s still living in Ranchita,CA, with his wife, daughters, and three chihua-huas. He left his public school teaching positionto start a nonprofit called the Land Conversa-tion, working on environmental history researchand ecological restoration in collaboration withAmerican Indian tribes, natural resource agen-cies, and universities. He reports that his oldestchild is studying microbiology at UCLA, his 13-year-old is the spelling bee champion, and his 2-1/2-year-old is a cutie! Nat Comisar had his ownmini-reunion and sang with a group of alumniCayuga’s Waiters at Spring Fever in Ithaca thispast April. Nat lives in Cincinnati, OH, andrecently moved his restaurant, Maisonette, to amore suburban location. You can read up on hisnew place at www.maisonette.com.

Ted Halpin lives about an hour from Ithacain Avon, NY. He trains firefighters nationwide forCornell in farm rescue and firefighting. Farmedic(www.farmedic.com) is part of the Vet college’sAgricultural Health and Safety Program. Thisprogram blends Ted’s farm and firefighting back-grounds to educate rural fire and rescue crews.During the summer Ted went to Europe to trainfire instructors there. After a ten-year teachingstint at the UNAM in Cozumel, Mexico, TinaHolman moved with her son Nicholas, now 14,to Fort Lauderdale, FL, where she has lived forthe past five years. Tina is teaching ESL and inter-cultural communications at the Art Institute.Last summer she enjoyed attending Cornell’sAdult University (CAU) with her son, and highlyrecommends it.

Stephen Ward is also residing in Florida, inKeystone Heights with his wife Robin and theirthree children. He is a sales rep for ConsolidatedSystem Inc., a manufacturer of metal deckingused for building construction. He also has beena part-time actor on “The FBI Files,” “The NewDetectives,” “Diagnosis Unknown,” and “TheProsecutors” TV shows. Steve and his wife love to

‘Did you catch Jeff Kidwell singingthe National Anthem for the Boston

Red Sox this past summer?’NINA KONDO ’82


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Happy fall! Did you happen tocatch Jeff Kidwell singing theNational Anthem for the BostonRed Sox this past summer? Jeff

writes that his day job is still at Cantor Fitzger-ald, but he finds time to present at industry con-ferences and perform. He even sang with Earth,Wind & Fire last October! You can reach Jeff [email protected]. Or if you were in Cleve-land, did you see Bill Henry’s photographs?They were at the Cleveland Museum of Art’sNEO Show, July 10 to September 4, 2005, themain exhibition for the summer of 2005. Bill’swork was one of 80 pieces of art selected fromnearly 1,300 applications. Bill writes that theshow featured artists working in all media.

In the Boston area is Kathleen TempletonMacVarish, who is living in Braintree. She leftthe municipal public health field to work in aca-demia; she now manages a New England Work-force Development project at Boston U. Schoolof Public Health. Kathleen writes, “My soccerplaying days are long over, but I love readingabout the team and hearing about how well theyare doing.” Mark Hyman ([email protected]) is in Housatonic, MA, and the author ofUltraprevention, a New York Times bestseller, TheDetox Box, and The Five Forces of Wellness. Hiswebsite is www.drhyman.com, where you canlearn more about Mark and his work, includingeditor-in-chief of Alternative Therapies, medicaleditor of Alternative Medicine magazine, facultyand board of directors of the Inst. for FunctionalMedicine, and advisory board of Food as Med-icine and Center for Mind-Body Medicine. Hisfamily includes wife Pier Boutin and childrenRachel Hyman, Misha Hyman, and Thor andAce Brantly Boutin.

Mike Marrero writes from Manchester, MA,that wife Cathy (Caliguire) ’84 is doing a great jobof keeping him and sons Tyler, Trevor, and Troy“headed in the right direction.” Soccer, basketball,and lacrosse keep the older boys busy while Mikekeeps busy as president of his radiology group,Advanced Diagnostic Imaging. He has also starteda medical billing company with two of his radiol-ogy partners and is happy to report that it’s “thriv-ing.” Earle Weaver, ME ’83, MBA’84, is presidentof White-Rogers in St. Louis, an Emerson ClimateTechnologies company. He writes,“Spouse Beckyis a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and stillenjoying it; Sarah, 8, loves competing in Irishdance; Tommy, 6, plays hockey, soccer, and base-ball; Joey, 4, excels in bugging his siblings; andPeter, 2, plays a great game of chase.” Joe Allegrowrites that kids Nadia, 15, Maya, 11, Eric, 9, Ser-ena, 8, and Remy, 6, are interested in sports includ-ing soccer, baseball, and karate. Dorothy MeekerWolfe is president of Global Resources Optionsand is “trying to interest our daughter in Cornell.”

Randall Smith ([email protected]) e-mailed from Livermore, CA, that he is VP ofmarketing and sales for Aprio Technologies Inc.of Santa Clara, CA, an electronic design automa-tion (EDA) company. Randall writes that he’s“been in this industry, including time off duringmy undergrad, for 25 years now. I’ve been anofficer or founder of three companies that havebeen sold, the normal liquidation strategy in this

area (plus one other company as director ofJapan sales).” He adds that he’s been married 21years and has three children. Henry Herz wrotefrom San Diego that he recently left ComputerSciences Corp. to become the director of tech-nical services at TechFlow, a small Web portaland eProcurement services firm. Also in SanDiego is Peter Linz, a captain in the medicalcorps of the US Navy and named chairman ofthe Dept. of Medicine at the Naval Medical Cen-ter San Diego, and David Knowles who, afterfour years as VP of engineering of Cymer Inc.,is now VP of marketing for new business devel-opment. He writes, “It’s a welcome change thatbrings new challenges and a lot more interna-tional travel.”

The message from Lynn Stefanowicz([email protected]) is, “After living in achurch rectory for nearly ten years, my husbandand I purchased our first home in Old Bridge,NJ.” Her husband, David Hermanson, began aPhD program in theology at Drew U., and shebegan a new position as manager of businessoperations for behavioral health services forMeridian Health Care in Monmouth County,NJ. Outside of work, Lynn and David spend timewith son Noah, 9, playing basketball and baseball.She adds, “To round out the new house experi-ence, we adopted a 3-year-old boxer, named Lexi.”

Congrats to Randolph Hunt, who wasnamed Civil Engineer III for the New York StateDept. of Transportation, having served as actingcivil engineer for the NYS DOT. Randolph is alsoa member of the board of directors of the BaruchCollege Alumni Association and NYC InteragencyEngineering Council. Kristan Peters-Hamlinjoined the international law firm of Fulbright &Jaworski as a partner in their New York office;she had previously been at Pillsbury Winthrop.Janice Pegels is in Binghamton, with husbandJames Jewell and children Adrian and Marcella,where she is a doctor at Complementary Medi-cine and Healing Arts.

Angelo Alberto, BArch ’83’s firm, Alberto &Associates, specializes in urban redevelopmentand traditional architecture and urban design.He has redevelopment projects in Trenton, Wild-wood, Bayonne, and Gloucester City, NJ. Headds that daughter Elizabeth, 16, is the New Jer-sey state tennis champion (high school). Angelois in occasional contact with Richard Econo-makis, MS ’96, a professor at Notre Dame,Michael Lykoudis ’77, BArch ’80, dean of theschool of architecture at Notre Dame, JenniferKnapp Crawford, BArch ’83, Dan Heyden ’81,and Fred Schmitt, BArch ’83, MArch ’87.

Clare Ludgate started her own hedge fundconsulting business in London, with clients inSweden, Austria, France, and Switzerland. She doesa lot of traveling and loves it, and also joined theCornell Club of London, “which does wonderfulevents, including a Thanksgiving dinner for ushomesick expats!” Write to Clare at [email protected]. And on the other end of the spectrumis Mary Ellen Hawker Hartwick, who writes, “Iretired from full-time work at the ripe old age of 51 and love it. Now I can do whatever —whenever.” Nina Kondo, [email protected];and Mark Fernau, [email protected].

It’s a wonderful problem to havetoo much news for one column.Our mail cup runneth over thistime, thanks to the myriad of news

submissions with your class dues payments, youre-mail updates, and my co-correspondent DavidPattison’s e-mail blast from this past spring. We’restill trying to catch up with all the reports fromour classmates, so without further adieu . . .

Brad and Dina Wolfman Baker are delightedthat their oldest child, Audrey, will be makingCornell a family tradition when she enters as afreshman in the fall. Dina and Brad, who live insuburban Philadelphia, look at this as a greatexcuse to visit campus more often. Proud mamaKim Leffert announces the birth of her firstchild, Daniel Isaac, on February 13. Kim and hus-band Ed Silverstein “can’t wait to bring Daniel tothe next reunion!”

Ken Balick writes that he, wife Eve (New-man), JD ’87, and their daughters Lara, 8, Julia,6, and Caroline, 3, recently moved to Kinnelon,NJ. Ken’s consulting work focuses on interna-tional business development, helping companiesexpand to Asia and Europe via cross-border part-nerships. Says Ken, “I’d love to reconnect andhear from old friends—time goes by like a blinkof the eye.” Ken can be reached via e-mail [email protected]. Michelle Wildi DaValleand husband Dennis are busy raising their threechildren (Austin, 11, Brandon, 8, and Madison,5) in Lake Forest, IL, but found time to catch usup on old friends Karen Carruthers, also rais-ing three kids in suburban Illinois, and KarenWright, who lives in the South of France.

From John “Ralph” Russek Jr., we hear thathe was recently promoted to general design divi-sion manager at the Pidcock Company, a civilengineering firm in Allentown, PA. In January2004, Ralph retired from the Navy Reserves as acommander after more than 20 years of service.Ralph and his wife Dawn, a country line-danc-ing enthusiast, have two children. Daughter Erin,16, enjoys riding and showing her quarterhorse“Herbie Goes Solo,” while 13-year-old Erik isfascinated by Cornell men’s ice hockey, in addi-tion to the toughest video games.

Penny Nemzer, DVM ’87, confesses, “Thereis a bit more stress in my life as my 16-year-oldson Eric is now driving.” Penny and spouse DanTaitz, JD ’86, live in Scarsdale, where she is a vet-erinarian and avid gardener. In December thefamily traveled to Costa Rica, where they cele-brated daughter Sarah’s 14th birthday in PuntaIslita. Twins Alec and Zachary, 10, round out theNemzer-Taitz family. Stewart Glickman andwife Sarah have children Daniel, 4, and Rachel,3, and the family is still growing. Stewart worksfor PricewaterhouseCoopers, and in his sparetime serves on the board of the South MountainYMCA in Maplewood, NJ.

Thresa Mosely Gibian and husband Stephen’79 have made their home near Ithaca, whereThresa is an interior designer and active com-munity volunteer with organizations such as theCascadilla Boat Club and Historic Ithaca Inc.They have children Anya, 15, and Galen, 12. Iraand Sari Glass Langstein, along with childrenSamantha, 12, and Joel, 8, live in the Westchester


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suburbs, where Ira is a dentist and Sari is anattorney for IBM. Writes Jesse Hammerman,“Middle-aged life with a 16-year-old daughter,13-year-old son, beautiful wife of 19 years, andmy own business for 20 years gives me a lot to bethankful for.” Jesse lives in Westport, CT, and ispresident of H&H Woodworking Inc., an archi-tectural and custom cabinetry firm.

After taking off five years to raise Eli, 5, andReuben, 9, Ellen Ilivicky Siegman has returnedto the workforce part-time and is now a certifiedcourt mediator for Florida’s Pinellas and Paseocounties. Ellen would love to hear from her formerSigma Delta Tau sisters at [email protected]. Laura Berkowitz Lokker, JD ’86, also took afew years off from practicing law to focus on herfamily and rethink her career. She decided to returnto school and is pursuing a doctorate in clinicalpsychology at Rutgers. Says Laura, “Although theNew Brunswick campus is not as scenic as Ithaca,being surrounded by the vitality of a large uni-versity has reminded me of the many good timesI had at Cornell, both as an undergrad and lawstudent.” Laura and husband Brian live in Mont-clair, NJ and have three children ages 12, 9, and 6.

Steven Ciabattoni, a radiologist at NYUMedical Center and chief of radiology at the Man-hattan V.A. Hospital, keeps in touch with severalold school chums, including Susan Ades, who livesin Washington, DC, with her husband and twodaughters and works for the National Zoo; KatyKeib Johnson, an attorney in Syracuse and motherof three; and Andy Hahn, JD ’86, a New York Cityattorney with two children. Steven has lost touchwith some of his buddies and would love to hearfrom Mark Morrissey and Andy Schrauth.

Jane Serling is living in San Diego with hus-band Neil Sjoholm, daughter Naomi, 16, and sonDaniel, 2. She is enjoying being a toddler’s momagain and works as an epidemiologist for RTI Int’l.Jane interviews Cornell applicants in San Diegoand is amused that they always ask her, “Exactlyhow cold is it in Ithaca?” Jane says she reallymisses Cornell at times and finds herself think-ing about college often, now that she has a daugh-ter approaching college age. Mark and KimberlyOsborn Rhodes pass along some sports newsfrom Westfield, NJ. Seventh grader Amanda playson a year-round regional soccer team and was alsoselected to play on a summer Super-Youth LeagueNew Jersey team. Eighth grader Chris was an all-star running back for his league champion foot-ball team this past fall and will be playing lacrossethis spring. Mark and Kim try to keep up by play-ing competitive tennis. This summer, Mark (asScoutmaster) will join Chris and other area sen-ior Boy Scouts on an eight-day trek through theWhite Mountains of New Hampshire. In theirspare time, Kim is finishing up her fifth year onthe Board of Education, and Mark is internalcounsel for the mergers and acquisition practiceat Citigroup’s investment banking department.

From Columbia, SC, Andrew Walsh reportsthat he is happily married to a Boston girl andlives with two Labs whom he treats like children.Andrew works as dispute resolution director forthe South Carolina Bar, and in his spare timeenjoys organizing and hosting occasional Cornellget-togethers with his fellow South Carolina

freelances as a photographer and is finally train-ing for her bat mitzvah! Dennis Mitchell wasrecently promoted to assistant dean, ColumbiaU. School of Dental and Oral Surgery. Dennislives in Teaneck, NJ, with his wife Bridgette.

Lew Senft writes from Land O Lakes, FL (it’snot just a brand of butter!) that he had a verybad accident in 1999 when a steel door fell onhim. After four operations he is back on his feet.He moved down to Florida in 2003 and is mak-ing contributions to “church, people in need, andgetting politicians elected for the good of oursociety.” Lew is working full time for PublixSupermarket. He met President Bush at a cam-paign rally in New Port Richey and has a posi-tion as a precinct representative for the PascoCounty Republican Party. Lew has seen AllenRolli, Michael Vinson, and Emil Manzo, all ofwhom send their best wishes to the class.

Peter Kaufman just started a new documen-tary film production company called IntelligentTelevision. Peter and wife Ellen are raising theirchildren Sophia, Henry, and Charlie in New YorkCity. Gregory Jamrosz, DVM ’93, lives in Whites-boro, NY, and married Joanne Vassallo on April9, 2005 in Utica, NY. Robert Pancotti worked for18 years in the journal and book productiondepartments of the medical publisher LippincottWilliams & Wilkins (formerly Raven Press), butis now a senior development editor in the med-ical book division of McGraw-Hill. In his sparetime, Robert takes drawing classes and volunteersat the American Museum of Natural History. LisaRosen Sonek joined Microsoft a couple of yearsago as a business development manager, after 20years in sales and business development in hightech. Lisa is enjoying the experience of being atsuch a world-class company. She lives in Lynn-field, MA, with her husband Greg, PhD ’86, aprofessor of electrical engineering, and theirdaughter. Lisa and Greg met at Cornell 22 yearsago when Greg was finishing up his PhD.

Michelle Ehrenreich Haigh and I both hadsons in the same school here in New Jersey, butMichelle and her family are moving to Cam-bridge, MA, where her husband John is the newexecutive dean of the Kennedy School at Harvard.Michelle is taking a sabbatical from the world ofemployment to help the family of four make thetransition to Beantown. Dan Caloras wins theaward for hardest writing to read! Dan is happilymarried to a busy physician wife, Sheila Kendrick,and they have two children who came into theirlives from Ethiopia four years ago. The familyenjoys skiing and gardening. Dan and Sheila prac-tice general medicine together in a rural town inNew Hampshire on the Connecticut River. In hisspare time, Dan is medical director of a localhospice agency. Dan is also affiliated with Dart-mouth, teaching medical students.

News from points West of the Mississippiand from outside the US: Patricia Shin Ranunkellives in Paris with husband Charles and childrenOlivier and Béatrice. Patricia is a partner in theEuropean equities firm Cheuvreux and enjoysgolf, skiing, sailing, and squash. Robert Geisethoroughly enjoyed reunion last year. Since then,he has been developing his infectious disease/HIV practice in Monterey, CA. Robert and his

Cornellians. Rebecca Slivka, MArch ’86, has alsoencountered a number of Cornellians, thanks toher growing involvement in competitive Scrab-ble events, and hung out with John Karris ’85and David Weiss ’82 at a tournament in Renolast January. Rebecca has been director of Seat-tle’s Scrabble Club since 2001. After five years aschair of the art department at Smith College,John Davis is taking a leave of absence to spenda semester as a visiting professor of Americanstudies at Doshisha U. in Kyoto, Japan. I was alsoglad to hear from another Texan in our midst:Andrew Bucki lives in Dallas, where he is direc-tor of design for FedEx Kinko’s.

Lindsay Ruth writes, “When I was a student,I never dreamed I’d be working for CornellAlumni Affairs and Development 22 years later!After a career in public libraries, I have returnedto Cornell and am thoroughly enjoying workingfor the university. Feel free to contact me if I canever provide any assistance related to Cornell([email protected]).”

I’m out of space for this column, so if youdon’t see your news here, please be patient; it willappear soon. Keep on sending your updates to: Dinah Lawrence Godwin, [email protected]; or David Pattison, [email protected].


Since quite of bit of class newscomes from East of the Missis-sippi, the first part of the columnhails from such places. Scott

Eskwitt has been appointed Chief Counsel, RiverDevelopment LLC in Red Bank, NJ. Scott is areal estate developer involved in redevelopingundervalued New Jersey properties. Scott’s fam-ily includes daughters Kate and Clara, who playsoftball and lacrosse. Congratulations to StaceyFried, MS ’94, who ran in the More Marathon inNew York City’s Central Park on April 10, 2005.

Saul Gitlin is an executive VP of Kang & LeeAdvertising in New York, putting his linguisticand cultural prowess to work. Saul has also justcompleted a manuscript for his first children’sbook, about China. Saul and his wife Aviva, a psy-chologist, live in White Plains with their son Guyand daughter Cali. The Gitlin family traveled toAviva’s home country of South Africa in Marchand to China in the summer. I still rememberwhen Saul practiced Chinese on the wipe-offboards on our dorm doors in Donlon! Saul writesthat he would love to hear from old friends andacquaintances from Cornell at [email protected] Nieves was recently promoted to a full pro-fessorship in information technology and com-puter science at Lord Fairfax Community Collegein Warrenton, VA. Jose is also teaching doctoral-level courses at Capella U.

Marcy Dubroff is in touch with EstherRubin ’86 and other former Sun photographers.Marcy also stays in touch with Karen A. Johns-ton, DVM ’90, and they swap kid and dog stories.Marcy is entering her 12th year in Lancasterwith husband Steven Ulrich, and at Franklin andMarshall College. When she’s not at work, she’sbusy chauffeuring Ryan and Caroline to theirvarious activities. She’s actually thinking of acareer change to the limo business! Marcy still


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partner Tim welcomed the arrival of their daugh-ter, Lucy Elizabeth Gleason-Geise, who was bornon Father’s Day, June 19. Baby and both dads aredoing well. Norma Poole is the owner of Wineand Vine Ways, a wine education and customizedtour business in the Napa Valley (www.wineandvineways.com). Now that the movie Sidewayshas made headlines, I will bet that business atWine and Vine Ways will be booming!

Cedric Leighton is still in the USAF andreceived a Bronze Star for work in Operation IraqiFreedom. He will relinquish command of the316th Training Squadron in July and return to thePentagon, going to the Joint Staff after two yearsin West Texas. Cedric is married to Amy and theyhave a young son, Samuel. Kathy McCulloughwrites that Marty Heebner is co-writing two craftbooks, Beading with Wire and Vintage JewelryDesigns, and is featured in a third Designers’ Bookof Wearable Shoes. Kathy attended the Austin FilmFestival in 2004 to head two screenwriting semi-nars at their screenwriting conference, and anotherconference in July 2005 in Las Vegas,“How to Beatthe Odds in Hollywood.” Keith Friedenberg,founder and past president of the Libe Slope Tan-ning Society, 1981-1984, writes that he started asolo practice in gastroenterology in November.Keith and wife Belinda live in Kirtland, OH, withtheir newest child, Shane, born July 4, 2004, whojoins siblings Bryn, Ryan, and Reid. LindsayLiotta Forness, [email protected]; and KarlaSievers McManus, [email protected]. Classwebsite, http://classof84.alumni.cornell.edu.

and the couple welcomed daughter Amelie Eliz-abeth last October.

New arrivals to our Cornell classmates in-clude Danielle Epstein, born last year to Andrewand Allison Epstein. Andrew writes that he has athriving commercial and civil litigation practicein Fort Myers, FL, and describes his daughter as“the greatest addition to our world.” JohnPakutka spoke with equal joy about his sonNoah Alan, who was born this year. According toJohn, he and his wife Joyce have experienced lit-tle but sheer joy since Noah’s arrival. John is alsobusy with his company, the Crescent Group LLC,which works with hospital systems, law firms,and politicians interested in health policy. Johnsays they have developed a sizeable practice help-ing clients with research in mass toxic tort casesand healthcare organization bankruptcy cases.

Steven Getman is the Seneca County Attor-ney and is helping the public in a different way.

According to a news article published in a localnewspaper, Steven’s office, in conjunction withother agencies, collected over half a million dol-lars for taxpayers in 2004. Steven’s office isresponsible for the prosecution and defense ofall civil actions and proceedings brought by oragainst Seneca County.

Apart from exciting careers, some classmatesreported fantastic vacations. Lisa Korfhage Pannellwrote about an outrageous Outward Bound tripshe made with her husband Phil this year. The pairtook a trip in their home state of Minnesota, whichincluded four days of dogsledding and six hoursof cross-country skiing. The couple camped innear-zero temperatures and awoke to snow driftson their sleeping bags. Lisa reported jumping intoan icy river through a hole cut in the ice. Whatdoes Lisa do on a regular day? She invents newproducts for the Yoplait division of General Mills.I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear about a newfrozen concoction in their product line sometimesoon! Lisa is also a mom to their 4-year-old son.

Other inventors in our class include BethLucey, MBA ’96. Beth was the leader on theredesign of the French’s mustard bottle, whichobtained a design patent. After that, she exitedcorporate America and is now working in realestate and studying to become a soul-focused(energy) healer. Beth also shared the sad news ofthe passing of her father, longtime Cornell agron-omy professor and department chair RobertLucey. Her family is selecting a tree to be plantedin the Cornell Plantations in memory of her par-ents. Beth lives in Pompano Beach, FL, and getsto see longtime friends Debbie Goodman Fer-encsik, mom to daughter Olivia, and Marty andPeg Hall Rauch, who have four kids!

Denise “Didi” Barcomb Frechette is motherto four children: Hannah, 15, Nate, 14, Laena, 11,and Isaac, 2. Didi writes that she lost her sonLuke at age 4 to pediatric cancer. Her family hasbegun the Lukie’s Soul Foundation with the goal

of raising $100,000 for a teaching classroom atthe new CNY Children’s Hospital. To learn more,visit the website at www.lukiesoul.org.

In other exciting news, Eve Seaman Edwardsperformed Violetta in La Traviata and DonnaElvira in Don Giovanni this May with the AmiciOpera of Philadelphia. Eve is a soloist with theBel Canto Lyric Opera Company and SymphonyOrchestra. Melissa Lea is EVP, Director of Busi-ness Development for Mullen, a top advertisingagency in Boston. She recently co-chaired a sym-posium for the Boston Ad Club, which hostedthe global chief marketing officer of McDonaldsand the publisher of the New Yorker. Melissa ismom to children Kelsey, 4, and Spencer, 1-1/2.She also shared news of Sharon Longaker Vib-ert ’87, who is living in a Paris suburb with herhusband and three sons. And Margaret Tockar-shewsky is getting her master’s at Columbia inhistoric preservation.

Other news from Boston comes from my oldfriend Kenan Nacar, who is working as a finan-cial planner for American Express. I caught upwith Ken last fall at the bar mitzvah of Michaeland Lisa Manaster’s son (a very proud momentfor their family and a fantastic party!). Ken wasaccompanied by his then-girlfriend Stephanieand the pair looked so happy that it was no sur-prise that their engagement ensued a week later.Lisa and Michael attended their wedding in PalmBeach last weekend and said it was a beautifulaffair. Also attending were Ken’s fraternity broth-ers Steve Georgaklis ’87 and George Gavris ’85.

Michael Wagner reported that wedding bellsrang for Jennifer Braman last year. Jennifermoved back to Honolulu from Cleveland, whereshe had spent the last eight years. She practiceslaw at Roeca, Louie and Hiraoka, and just becamea mom to son Jack. Michael and his wife Lori(Spydell) live in Shaker Heights, OH, and havechildren of their own. The Wagners keep tabs ona great number of Cornell friends. Lori recentlycelebrated her 40th birthday with Carol GetzAbolafia, Sidney Solomon Neuhaus, and LauraNieboer Hine in Miami. Laura lives in Illinoiswith her twin boys, 12, and daughter, 7.

On a very sad note, Michael reported thedeath of Donny Howell ’85. Donny was living inMaui, HI, where he managed the sales end of avacation ownership project for Marriott. He diedof a heart attack in his sleep while attending JazzFest in New Orleans. A service was held inHobart, IN, and was attended by over 20 Cornellfriends. Mike shared that Donny was an accom-plished sales professional, surfer, music aficionado,cook, and close friend to many. Michael also filledus in on Martin Schulz, who works as an inter-national equity portfolio manager for NationalCity Corp. Martin is a major in the Army Reservesand has been deployed in Haiti, Afghanistan, andother Central Asian and Middle Eastern nations.Thank you, Martin, for helping to keep us all safe.


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When Lisa Hellinger Manaster,our class president, asked me tobecome a class correspondent, Icouldn’t refuse. I was reminded of

so many conversations we had as college room-mates, when one of us would invariably convincethe other to do something. (“Let’s go study up atUris.” “We have to go to that after-hours party.”“Let’s rent that house on Linden Avenue.”) Whiletime marches on, there is comfort in knowingthat some things never change and my friend of20 years can still get me to say yes.

What I didn’t anticipate is how great itwould be hearing from classmates I have notseen in decades. Your news reflects how well somany of us are doing in our personal lives andcareers. All the stories are interesting, and someare even newsworthy. Gayle Reichler Mazlishwas featured in an article published in the Col-lege of Agriculture and Life Sciences magazine thiswinter. Gayle is the inventor of Gayle’s Mira-cles—30-calorie, all natural, gourmet chocolatetruffles. Gayle has also authored two books onnutrition, Active Wellness and Active Wellness:Feel Good For Life, and a cookbook, Gayle’s Feel-Good Foods. If too many sweets find you in needof a dentist, you can look up Betsy Mead Noel,who lives in Ithaca and has joined the dentalpractice of Richards and McCutcheon. HusbandAndy is Cornell’s very own Director of Athletics,

‘No commute or pantyhose! Home off ice!’JUNE D. BELL ’87


West Coast friends, especially Brian Parmelee ’86and his wife Susan (Stiff). I am excited to be cel-ebrating our big birthdays with Lisa More Bien-stock, Elyse Harney Morris, and Emily SawersBerlinghof ’86 in Palm Springs in April 2005.”

In the Bay Area, June D. Bell and husbandNeil Mendelson have been married and living inFoster City since 2001. Their son Samuel cele-brated his second birthday in March 2005. Junesent in her news with a spiffy business cardattached. She is a freelance writer for the NationalLaw Journal, Dallas Morning News, and othernewspapers and magazines. What is so greatabout being a freelance writer, you ask? “No com-mute or pantyhose! Home office!” is June’s retort.In a recent e-mail from Rana Glasgal, ME ’92, Ispotted a new job title in her signature block:“’Tis true! I got promoted after my boss’s retire-ment in February. I now have two jobs! I’mresponsible for all the institutional research dutiesI had before, plus oversight of the decision sup-port systems database and tools, two analysts,and a 200-strong user community.” Rana is nowknown around Stanford as Associate Vice Provostfor Institutional Research and Decision Support.She and husband Bruce are avid ice hockey fansand play in local leagues several times a week. Thispast spring, as the Big Red men’s team was play-ing in the ECAC and NCAA tournaments, Ranaand Bruce hosted viewing parties at their hockeyclub. Over 20 alumni of different years showed upto root for Mike Schafer ’86 and his squad.

This past summer Rana celebrated turning40 in style by jetting to Europe with SarahBreinig Saul, Vicki Davis Spencer, and AlexaCoin Florence. The gals rented a villa in Italy. Ladolce vida! And speaking of new jobs, formerSeattle resident Brent Vallat, ME ’89, quit his oldjob back East on March 11. “Today marks theconclusion of my 14-year career at AmericanExpress. I have decided to focus my energies inthe near term on pursuing a new career in finan-cial services out on the West Coast.” Brent is nowsenior VP in the consumer credit group of WellsFargo Bank’s strategic risk management division.

In the Rockies, David Ehrlich was namedone of the 25 most powerful people in Coloradoby 5280 magazine. The former executive withKroenke Sports has branched out: he is an execu-tive VP with the Bonham Group and has formeda new sales company within the firm. Daviddescribed the new venture as a strategic sales andconsulting company focusing on issues that comealong only every so often, like a naming-rightsdeal, for example. Also in the sporting world,Phoenix Suns president Bryan Colangelo washonored as the NBA’s Executive of the Year bythe Sporting News in May, after emerging fromhis father’s shadow to engineer the third-biggestturnaround in league history. It was the first timea father and son have won the award. Bryanplayed for three years on the men’s basketballteam and earned a varsity letter during the 1986-87 campaign.

Over in the Midwest, Karen M. Rowehl, MS’92, of St. Louis Park, MN, has been working asa registered dietitian for the Eating DisordersInst. at Methodist Hospital since March 2004. InKansas City, MO, Allen Wright is married to

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Would you e-mail me if you know of anynewsworthy Cornellians who are living in LongIsland? I am a partner at Elements, a regionallifestyle magazine launched three years ago, andam always looking for compelling stories on indi-viduals and businesses of interest on Long Island.My work e-mail is [email protected]. That’s it for now. Please be sure to writeme or Hilory with any news. We look forward tohearing from you! Donna Mandell Korren,[email protected]; Hilory Federgreen Wag-ner, [email protected].

soccer goalie and my fellow U-Hall 5 residentHugh O’Gorman now makes his home in CulverCity, CA. His lovely French wife Nathalie is a prin-cipal architect in the L.A. firm of William Hefnerand Assoc. Their daughter Lila was born October24, 2004. Hugh is the head of acting with the Cal-ifornia Repertory Theatre Company at Cal StateLong Beach, where he oversees the BA and MFAacting programs. About 12 miles south, you willfind Liz (Kallenbach) and Peter Bell ’86 in Man-hattan Beach.“Peter and I have left the East Coastafter 12 years outside Philadelphia to allow him topursue the career of his heart in L.A. No, not act-ing! Peter is now CEO of Cure Autism Now, anonprofit dedicated to funding research into thecauses of and treatments or cures for autism, arapidly growing developmental disorder that nowaffects one in every 166 kids born in the US. I vol-unteer for CAN and manage our kids Avery, 6,Derek, 10, and Tyler, 12, who has autism. We areadjusting to L.A. traffic and enjoying seeing our


Where were you and what wereyou doing when you first heard thatCornell’s 11th president had quit?I actually heard it from my wife,

who was in New Orleans, and she had learned thenews from a Cornellian in Scotland the day before!How is that for a global Cornell community!

Out here on the West Coast, former Big Red

Blues TravelerDAN DUBELMAN ’87

m any musiciansin college bandspack up their in-

struments for good aftercommencement. However,for Dan Dubelman, Cornellwas only the starting pointof a long and colorful musi-cal career. For the past sixyears, he and his wife,Vickie,have toured the country inan RV performing in theirband, Betty Dylan. Theyplay more than 100 gigs ayear and are currently re-cording their sixth album,Don’t I Know You from theFuture. The band has playedvenues from New York to Nashville andeven performed at Farm Aid 2004, wherethe Dubelmans joined Neil Young andWillie Nelson onstage. In each city, theduo picks up local musicians to fill outthe band.“We sound different in Lexing-ton, Kentucky, than we do in L.A.,” saysDubelman, who defines Betty Dylan’sstyle as “roots-based bluesy rock withcountry influences, but a little funkier.”

The Nashville-based singer-song-writer began to compose and perform asan undergraduate. Although he startedout as a theatre major, he soon foundthat fiction was his calling and switched

to English. His college band, Lay QuietAwhile, played at Ithaca bars and fratparties. “I used to tell long stories overthe music,” he says.“We would jam, andI would just start improvising lyrics.”

This fall, Betty Dylan will return toits roots with a concert at the Ithacamusic club Castaways. For Dubelman,the gig isn’t just a homecoming—it’shis way of supporting his alma mater.“Alumni think about giving money, butit is important to give back to the cul-ture of Ithaca,” he says. “Otherwise, itwill be gone.”

— Julie Zeveloff ’07


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Stacey (Strassberg) ’90. Allen wrote about theirthree children: “Jared, 10, Trevor, 8, Owen, 5, andEric, 3, now have the coolest parents around.Stacey and I recently opened an inflatable partyzone in Shawnee Mission, KS. Stacey has re-entered the work force to run the business whileI continue to manage a call center for FordCredit. If all goes well, the glimmer of hope thatis early retirement could become a reality.”

Outside of Columbus, OH, fellow class offi-cer Amy Janower Weinstein was busy packing upher brood to move back to New York: in May,husband Sam was named chief of pediatric car-diac surgery at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx.Melinda G. Weir dropped us a note from theBig Apple: “Had a big get-together this April inNYC as my husband Erik Sorensen and I cele-brated our 40th birthday with a bunch of Cor-nell friends. Since we met in U-Hall 2 in 1983,we have now officially spent more of our lifetogether than apart! The following classmatesjoined us: Ellen Rosefsky Cohen, Margot LefflerMilberg, Deborah Mei, Kathy Taylor Calhoun,Gregg and Jill Barnett Kaufman, Adam andLisa Lederman Kaufmann ’92, Karen Hirsch’85, DVM ’89, Randy Karmen Guttenberg, andBob Litkovitz (as well as other Cornellians fromdifferent classes). A good time was had by all.”

Elsewhere in the Empire State, Mark Fruchtis married to Lori (Rothstein) ’90. Mark writesthat he joined Bank Hapoalim, Israel’s largestbank, as CFO for their US operations in Novem-ber 2004.“Twins Matthew and Samantha turned6 in the spring.” They live in Plainview, NY. AmitBatabyal reported in from Upstate: “I am theArthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics at theRochester Inst. of Technology. I like my job atRIT and I enjoy living in Rochester, NY, with mywife Swapna and daughter Sanjana.” Amit alsopublished his third book, entitled StochasticModeling in Range Management: Selected Essays.

Former state assemblyman Daniel J. Fes-senden has been named the executive director ofthe Cornell Agriculture & Food Technology Park(CAFTP) in Geneva, NY. Dan took the helm inSeptember a year ago, having worked for theCarrier Corp. in Syracuse from 1999 to 2004. Tenyears ago, he received the ALS Alumni Associa-tion’s Young Alumni Achievement Award. PhilipBobbs ’05, the recipient of our class TraditionFellowship, has established a Tradition Fellow-ship in his own name and made a contributionof $500 to the Save the Music Foundation, aspart of the senior recognition program under theCornell Commitment program.

We will have a wrap-up report from Ithacaon the July “39 Again” gathering in our next col-umn. Send falling leaves and your news to Tom S. Tseng, [email protected]; or DebraHoward Stern, [email protected].

during the State of the University address duringReunion Weekend in June, surprising those inattendance. Needless to say, this has sparked muchconversation and conjecture within the Cornellfamily of students, alumni, faculty, and staff.While I do not want to use this column as aforum for expressing personal views, I believe itis important for classmates to know where theycan get more information on this event, the roleand responsibilities of the board, and contactinformation for making their views known.

With that in mind, please allow me to referyou to the website for the trustees at http://www.cornell.edu/trustees as a starting point. From thispage, you can find links to the university’s char-ter and bylaws, as well as listings of trustees andcommittee chairs. If you would like to reviewnews about what happened back in June, try theCornell news site at http://www.news.cornell.edu.Use the menu item labeled “News” near the topof the page to get to the “Monthly Index.” Theindex page will allow you to access news bymonth and year going back as far as 1996.

Now, for classmates news. Let’s start in myneck of the woods, the Bay Area. Marc Cohenwrites that he has been living in San Francisco for15 years, the past eight of which he has workedas a software instructor for a company calledZephyr-TEC. Marc teaches speech recognitionsoftware to students with physical injuries orother disabilities that render them unable to usea computer keyboard and mouse. Marc’s workhelps these students keep their jobs or return tothe job market if they have been out of work. Inhis personal life, Marc participated in a historicevent at San Francisco City Hall last year whenhe married his partner of five years, Dave. Fam-ily and friends gathered at City Hall for the occa-sion, and a few months later, Marc’s brother andsister-in-law in New Jersey hosted a celebratoryparty. Classmate Shu Costa (née Shu Foo) at-tended the party, and Marc and Shu had a won-derful time catching up. Marc and Dave were dis-appointed when the same-sex marriages werenullified by the state courts the following August,but they and their families and friends still con-sider themselves a married couple. Marc keeps intouch with many San Francisco-based Cornell-ians, including fellow ’88er Nick Daniels.

Also living and working in San Francisco isMeea Kang. Meea is the president of DomusDevelopment LLC, a real estate developmentcompany specializing in innovative affordable/sustainable communities. She and her husbandof six years, Gary Ahuna, welcomed their firstdaughter, Alana Tae-Su Ahuna, into their familyin November 2004. In keeping with new babynews, we have Richard Colvin who has beenstaying up late with his wife Helen Raynham andtheir third child, daughter Claire, born in Marchof this year. Next is a note from Julie Friedman,JD ’93, who, with husband Bob Negris, broughttheir second child, Jonah Anthony, into theworld on St. Patrick’s Day. Julie was taking a six-month maternity leave before returning to herwork with the Mental Hygiene Legal Service inAlbany, NY. She says that taking care of two smallchildren (son Luca turned 3 in April) makes col-lege and law school “seem like a breeze.” Our last


C L A S S N O T E S

Hello, fellow classmates. As I writethis, the Cornell community isstunned by the news that JeffreyLehman ’77 is stepping down

from his post as Cornell’s 11th president due toirreconcilable differences with the Board of Trus-tees on how to best execute a strategy for Cornell’sfuture. President Lehman made his announcement

item of baby news comes from Kristina LamontKramer. Kristina and her husband Scott wereexcited to announce the arrival of son Aaron inNovember 2004. Kristina says that Aaron’s bigbrother Alex, who will be 3 in August ’05, is veryhappy to have a playmate.

Back on the Hill, we have word from KristinKroll Ramsay that she, her Michigander husband,and their children Joshua, 6, and Makenna, 4,moved back to Ithaca in November 2004. Kristinsays that Ithaca is the perfect location for her busi-ness, Seneca Crunch: The Finger Lakes’ FinestGranola! She is also working as a temp in admis-sions for Cornell while she ponders whether tocontinue as an entrepreneur or return to full-timeformal employment. Another classmate who hasgone “independent” in business is Laureen Pot-tynski. Laureen became a business owner in Octo-ber 2004 when she purchased (with her best friendand associate) the Springfield, PA, animal hospi-tal where she had worked for the past 11 years.

One classmate with an interesting combina-tion of professional pursuits is Delaney Ruston.Delaney is an academic physician, with a focus onmedical ethics. She is also a documentary film-maker, whose current project is a personal docu-mentary about reconnecting with her schizo-phrenic father. Interested classmates can visitwww.unlistedfilm.com for more information.Delaney is married to Dr. Peter Small and has twoyoung children, Chase and Tessa. Continuing withother classmates in medicine, regular writer JoelGoldberg reported that he and wife Hilary leftthe U. of Minnesota to return to Boston in Julyof this year. Both Joel and Hilary accepted posi-tions at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Hilaryas a pulmonologist specializing in lung trans-plant, and Joel as a colorectal surgeon. CathleenSkelly Whelan, MD ’97, is an “overworked pri-mary care physician.” Cathleen wrote in Maythat she and husband Joseph have a daughternamed May, who was 20 months old at the time.

Thomas Bottoni lives in Tidewater, VA, andpractices emergency medicine at a busy commu-nity hospital. In March, Thomas was appointedassistant medical director for the Port WarwickEmergency Department for Peninsula EmergencyPhysicians. Thomas has been married to wifeDawn since leaving the US Navy in 2002. Another’88er who served in a branch of the military isSusan Nyquist Houston. Susan retired from theUS Air Force and now volunteers at her daugh-ter’s school and is a Girl Scout Brownie leader.Susan’s husband Greg teaches at the AFNORTHInternational School, which provides educationfor children of Allied Forces Northern Europe.

That’s all the news for now. Next time, myfellow correspondent Suzanne should have someof your responses to the questions she posed inher “We Want to Hear from You!” e-mail fromlast April. By the time you read this, my wife Annand I will have attended Cornell’s Adult Univer-sity (CAU) in July. I’m taking a class titled Meri-tocracy in America, led by economics professorRobert Franks. With the resignation of PresidentLehman still quite recent, I expect there will bevery lively discussion both within and outside theclassroom at CAU. I look forward to reportingon the experience, which will hopefully include


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Robert G. Williams and his wife Melissaannounce the birth of their son ChristopherLouis on April 18. Christopher joins sister Caro-line Brooke, who is 20 months old. These days,Rob is putting his English degree to work bydeveloping a writing program for the 160 junioranalysts and associates in the Lehman Brothersequity research department. Jeffrey Zola, ME ’92,is living in Portland, OR, with his wife Julie andtwo boys Matthew, 6, and Sam, 3. After 13 yearsas a process engineer in semiconductor manu-facturing, Jeffrey recently became registered topractice before the US Patent and TrademarkOffice in patent matters and has started a newcareer as a patent agent at Kolisch Hartwell PC,an intellectual property law firm in Portland.

Cristos Goodrow and his wife Elizabeth(Toole), JD ’97, write of the birth of their fourthchild, Eve Elizabeth, on March 5, 2005. WendyFuhr writes that she is working full-time in fam-ily medicine in Collegeville, PA. Wendy is also inan all-female, traditional folk/Celtic/Americanagroup called Full Frontal Folk, which played inIthaca on the nationally syndicated radio coffee-house Bound for Glory, a show that is recordedin front of a live audience in Anabel Taylor Hall.Wendy sends out greetings “to any other formerTouchtones reading this.”

Jennifer Chuang VanderMarck finished herMBA in May 2004 and was married to a Stanfordgrad on August 28, 2004 in Sonoma, CA. Cor-nellians in attendance included: Kana Muraki,Michelle Casey Krakora ’93, Matt ’92 and IngerHultgren Meyer ’92, Randy ’92 and HeatherNelson Koch ’92, Lisa Lutz ’92, Ed Barry, LizFlynn ’93, Eric ’92 and Anne Tevebaugh Baur-meister ’92, Eric Brinkley ’93, ME ’95, and Chris’90 and Jennifer King Hartung ’92.

Jeremy Sarachan is a visiting instructor ofcommunication/journalism at St. John FisherCollege in Rochester, NY. He and his wife Mariehave a 4-month-old daughter Lillian. MarciaDelanty and her husband Caleb Brown havegraduated (May 2005) from the U. of ArizonaJames E. Rogers College of Law. In between car-ing for their son Darius, born June 2, 2004, bothMarcia and Caleb will be taking the Bar exam inJuly. Stephen Merz was recently promoted to VP,Administration at Yale-New Haven Hospital.Stephen’s responsibilities include managementof most non-clinical operational areas of thehospital, as well as its psychiatric hospital.

Lori Attanasio Woodring writes that she andhusband Patrick ’90 were blessed with twin girlson December 12, 2004. Isabella Maria and TessaJolee should be graduating from Cornell in 2025.Dave Koch and his wife Sara are living in NewCanaan, CT, with 2-1/2-year-old son Griffin and9-month-old daughter Payton. Therese Duaneand Jeffrey Tessier welcomed son Xavier Duane-Tessier on July 1, 2004. Xavier joins brother LukeJohn, born October 21, 2004. Stephen Shimonyreports that he and his wife Stacy welcomedtheir first child, Rebecca Morgan, on September13, 2004.

Richard Levy is working as a research ana-lyst for the National Multi-Housing Council inWashington, DC. In addition to his job, Richardparticipates in frequent piano recitals. He recently

and Sharon Washington). She’s also busy as aprofessor at NYU’s Graduate Acting Programand a member of the Workshop Co. at the Actor’sCenter. Jeff Spector lives in Bethesda, MD, andworks for MCI. He was promoted to senioremployment counsel in August 2004. His wifeRobin continues to work as an attorney at theFederal Trade Commission, Bureau of ConsumerProtection. When he wrote his news in May, theirdaughter Ellen was 5 and finishing Kindergarten,and son Avi was 2-1/2. Jeff recently renewed con-tact with Dave Scher through work. Dave worksfor Kroll Ontrack. Jeff also works with JeffRackow ’88 at MCI and keeps in touch with DanGoldman ’91 and Randall Singer ’91.

Rounding out the news pile are a couple ofmarriages. Susie Kupferman provided somemore details about her marriage last summer toMike Raskin, mentioned by a friend in a previ-ous issue of the magazine. Their wedding tookplace on August 1, 2004, in Newport, RI. Mike isa real estate developer from Seattle. Susie finishedher urogynecology fellowship and has started herown practice and is making a new home in Seat-tle. Karen Kugal Goodman was succinct abouther own marriage, writing, “I got married inOctober to a wonderful man!” Her news formyields the information that the mystery man isLarry Goodman and they live in East Meadow,NY. Congratulations to both couples, and thanksfor sharing your news. Enjoy the fall, classmates,and stay in touch! Anne Czaplinski Treadwell,[email protected]; Mike McGarry, [email protected]; Lauren Hoeflich, [email protected]; and Stephanie Bloom Avidon,[email protected].


Many of us have been celebrating20th high school reunions thissummer and some classmates arealready thinking ahead to 2009

and our Cornell 20th! Stacey Chervin wroterecently, “Now that we are done having babies,we should make it to the next class reunion.”Stacey’s now-completed family includes husbandEric Sigda, daughter Lauren, and new babyCaitlin Tess, born last October. Stacey reportsthat Lauren and Caitlin have already become bestfriends. Stacey was promoted this year to seniorVP and associate general counsel at Sotheby’s, theart auction house.

Congratulations to all those ’89ers who wel-comed babies in the last year! There are severalother new arrivals to report. Dana Post Adlerwrote, “My daughter Eliana Chloe was born onAugust 13, 2004. She was two months early,weighed a mere two pounds, seven ounces, andspent nine weeks in the NICU at EnglewoodHospital. She is now 7 months old, smiling,happy, and big! Her brother Harrison, 8, and sis-ter Caroline, 5, are truly enjoying her.” On Sep-tember 2, 2004, Rob Lis and wife Alicia had theirthird daughter, Sophia Ann. Rob reported fromAmbler, PA, “Her big sisters Taylor and Devonare thrilled!” Rob works as the VP of sales andalliances at Synygy Inc., a Philadelphia-based soft-ware company. Steve Sinaiko also celebrated abirth in September. He wrote from New York City,“My wife Jessica and I welcomed a son, NathanElijah, on September 16, 2004. He is a great joy!”

Josh Gibson wrote this spring from SanFrancisco, where he’s a clinical faculty memberin psychiatry at UCSF, that he and his wife Tanya(Egan) had a little daughter, Dylan Amelia, onMarch 9, 2005. Bruce Zolot wrote from NYCthat he and wife Joan now have two children ages3 and 1. Stacy Baskin Paton kept us updatedwith the news that she and husband Craig andtheir daughter Jordan, 7, and son Jeremy, 5, havemoved from New Jersey to Glenview, IL, aChicago suburb.

Tami Seaman is working as a family physi-cian in a group practice in Troy, NY. She andhusband Mark Fountain have kids Emma, 5, andAdam, 2-1/2. Elizabeth Petri wrote, “I’m veryhappy to have retired from banking and to havebeen running my own business full-time foreight years.” Elizabeth’s business, the Petri Schoolof Irish Dancing, experienced some excitementthis year. Her student, Gabriella Wood, 13, wonthe 2005 World Championships of Irish Danc-ing last spring in Ennis, Ireland, only the fifthAmerican woman ever to achieve that honor.Elizabeth was the co-chair of the 2004 NorthAmerica Irish Dance Championships in Philadel-phia, a five-day event attended by more than4,000 Irish dancers from all over the world.

Antoinette LaVecchia starred in two off-Broadway shows in 2004, both critically ac-claimed: Magic Hands Freddy (opposite RalphMacchio and Michael Rispoli) and String ofPearls (opposite Ellen McLaughlin, Mary Testa,


There is a lot of news, so ratherthan editorialize about the recentannouncement by Jeffrey Lehman’77 that he has resigned after just

two years in office as university president (a bigloss), or the recent heat wave that has hit thenortheast (too hot for June), or the price of gaso-line (getting cheaper), or the war in Iraq (nocomment) . . . let’s get right to it.

Joel Freundlich and his wife Karen happilyannounced the birth of their son Kyle Robert.Kyle was born on December 30 and is doinggreat. Kyle’s sisters Grace and Madeleine are veryexcited to have a little brother. Joel is working asa medicinal chemist at Jacobus Pharmaceuticalsin Princeton. His research is focused on noveltherapeutics for malaria. He can still be foundrunning on the roads and trails of Princetonearly in the a.m. Chiara Puffer Shah and herhusband Sunish celebrated the birth of daughterKayla on October 12, 2004. Chiara reports,“Withher big brother Kiran, now almost 5, our familyis complete. We have happily settled in centralNew Jersey, where Sunish continues to work inthe telecommunications industry, and I will bestarting graduate school this summer. In twoyears I should be teaching high school English.”

contact with fellow ’88ers. Until next time, I wishyou peace. Steve Tomaselli, [email protected];and Suzanne Bors Andrews, [email protected].


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attended the wedding of his freshman-year room-mate Marc Bloomstein. Ted Mason and his wifeHolly have a 2-year-old daughter Sophia. Ted ispracticing otology and neurotology in Spring-field, MA, where he is the only specialist of hiskind. Ted started a cochlear implant program atBaystate Medical Center, bringing hearing to deafchildren and adults.

Lia Belanger Book, DVM ’95, and husbandGlen, DVM ’95, have finished a two-year reno-vation of their 100-year-old farmhouse. Theyhave sheep, peafowl, a donkey, dogs, and cats. Inaddition to their farm animals, the Books alsohave two children, Miles, born November 3, 2000,and Avery, born February 16, 2004. ChristineMontenegro-Okezie writes that she marriedTobenna Okezie (a Princeton alum—egad!) inSeptember 2001 in NYC. They have one son,Chinwe Tristan Okezie, born July 9, 2003.

Cristina Moeder Shaul and husband Mattmoved to Charlotte, NC, in April, where shepromptly joined the Cornell Alumni Association.The Shauls have a 2-year-old son James. Cristinawrites, “The weather is great and the floweringtrees are gorgeous, but I still miss my friendsback in Connecticut.” Jean Signorelli Spiegel hasbeen working for Kohl’s department store fornearly seven years. Jean, husband Bruce, andtheir 3-year-old daughter Lauren recently relo-cated from Maryland to Albany and are lookingforward to exploring the Capital District and sur-rounding areas and getting to Ithaca and CayugaLake this summer. Michael Maltenfort reportshis wedding last September to John Glover.Michael is teaching math at one of the City Col-leges of Chicago and developing his skills as asquare dance caller “as a sideline.”

And last but certainly not least, I had thepleasure of attending the wedding of EvanKanew and Joanna Cohen in New York City onJune 18, 2005. Evan’s wedding brought togetherfriends not only from Cornell, but also fromsummer camp, elementary school, and highschool—a true testament to the kind of friendEvan is. It was a wonderful occasion and we wishhim the best of happiness in his marriage. Oh,and I left a small crumbled piece of paper behindthe third tile to the left in the main room thatreads, “EK was here in 2005.” I’m hoping Evanwill go back and retrieve it around 2030.

Congratulations to all the newlyweds, newly-hireds, new parents, and parents for the second,third, and fourth times. Hope you had a goodsummer! Nina Rosen Peek, [email protected];Dave Smith, [email protected]; and CorinneKuchling, [email protected].

Sears, who both have children and live in Cali-fornia and Hawaii, respectively.

James ’91 and Christina Ching Skrockimoved to Flagstaff, AZ, and are enjoying lifewith their children. Christine Duncan marriedWilliam Wilson on September 11, 2004 on LongIsland. In attendance were Danielle Austen,Thomas James “TJ” Lepore, Jennifer Miner,Shannon O’Barr Decker, Andrew Yonteff,Christoper Ortiz ’93, and Alexander Ortiz ’93.Christine is currently practicing ob/gyn in LakeSuccess, NY.

Can you believe that Lisa Burton Radzelyforgot to send us news that she had a second sonon Jan 2, 2004? Devin and his 5-year-old brotherBrendan were among the crowd that cheered onCornell’s hockey victory over Clarkson on Jan.29 at a D.C. sports bar. Lisa wrote, “My kids get

credit for being the youngest ones cheering forthe Big Red. Brendan screamed for Cornell, andDevin clapped at goals and other good plays. Youcan never start too young!” Jody Kraft and hus-band Kevin Mills ’93 are raising their boys Joey,5, Andy, 3, and Sammy, 2, in Torrance, CA. Jodypractices family medicine as medical director at acommunity clinic in Wilmington, CA. Also hardat work, Michelle Witt Pattison keeps busy withher husband Scott and 2-year-old Kennedy.

Lisa Everts spent a weekend at Disney Worldlast December with Karen Miu, PhD ’98, and herhusband Justin Miller ’95, ME ’96. She also vis-ited Vicky Lattone in New Jersey last summer.Congratulations to Lance and Amy BonsallHarry on the birth of their son Baden on Jan. 5.Amy is a realtor in Rhode Island and Massachu-setts and handles local real estate sales. She alsohelps with relocation placement nationally. Speak-ing of relocating, Jeannine Polito Centanni andher family moved from New Jersey to Charlotte,NC, last spring. “Although the move far fromfamily was a little hard, we really like Charlotteand do not miss the winters in the Northeast!”Jeannine and her husband have daughters Abby,6, Carly, 3, and Bailey, who was born on March21. Jeannine is home with the girls for now, but isconsidering starting a home-based business.

Maher and Candis Griggs Hakim have adaughter Layla Elizabeth, who was born Aug. 16,2004. They embarked on a two-week trip toSyria earlier this year so Layla could meet herArab family. Candis said she studies Arabic, andthey hope to raise Layla to be bilingual. Cur-rently Candis is on hiatus from her museumcontracts as an object conservator. She hopes toget back to archaeological fieldwork somedaysoon, but for now is plenty busy with herdaughter. Chris and Christy Jordan King arethrilled to announce the birth of their secondson, Collin, who was born on Mar. 21. Older son

Brendan is 4-1/2. Christy continues to work atQA1 Precision Products Inc. as the executive VP.The company manufactures high performanceshock absorbers and bearings.

Rajiv and Aaanchal Jain live in Getzville, NY,and Rajiv is a team physician at the U. of BuffaloSports Medicine Inst. Also in upstate New York,just south of Rochester, is Steven Barber, anassociate VP with Wachovia Securities. He wrotethat he moved from crowded Long Island to a25-acre horse ranch.“[I was] last seen driving offin my new tractor.” Sharon Boyle resigned fromDell so she could follow a new career path. Sheplans to work in the area of Christian global mis-sions and disaster relief. She lives in Austin, TX.David Wuosmaa has a new job as a researchassociate in the tomato breeding program forReady Plants in Estero, FL.

Paul and Amy Osenar had their first child,Torin Riley, in October. Paul co-founded Pro-tonex Technology Corp. They received a secondround of venture capital and are 20 employeesstrong, focused on building fuel cells for portablemilitary devices. Sadi Erfani is finishing his sec-ond year of a plastic surgery fellowship at the U.of Texas, Houston. He and his wife Gail have a 2-year-old son Zachary.

If you’d like to see your news here, pleasesend it to us. Just remember that we can’t reporton pregnancies or engagements, but we do loveincluding info on new births and weddings. Wealso enjoy sharing most any kind of news aboutyou and our classmates, so send in the news ofjobs, vacations, home projects—whatever youthink your classmates should know! ReneeHunter Toth, [email protected]; Debbie Fein-stein, [email protected]; WilmaAnn Anderson, [email protected].


C L A S S N O T E S

Our classmates continue to bebusy building their families,advancing their careers, and fol-lowing their passions. Here’s the

latest. Lisa Cindolo Grace wrote that she andher husband Keith live in New Jersey with their1-year-old daughter Olivia. Lisa is the managingeditor of Quick & Simple magazine, a women’sweekly that launched this summer. Her husbandpractices family law. Lisa reports she is still bestfriends with her two Cornell roommates, Can-dis Griggs Hakim and Danielle Cleveland

Hello, everyone. Happy Septem-ber! Thanks to those who filledout their News and Dues updatecards and to those who send info

through e-mail. Please keep it coming! Now onto the news. Alison Schroeer writes that she iscompleting an MS in medical illustration fromthe Medical College of Georgia in May 2005. Fol-lowing graduation she will begin a private prac-tice medical and scientific illustration companyin Chapel Hill, NC. She recently adopted an Aus-tralian shepherd/sheltie mix, Abby. Ann Wangwrites that she is living in San Francisco and lov-ing it! She is working at Merrill Lynch as part ofa wealth management team. She just purchasedher first house and first rental property.

Alison Amsterdam e-mailed that she lec-tured at Cornell for Dr. Parrot’s human sexualityclass PAM 350 (aka, the old HSS 315) on April12, 2005. She spoke on “sexuality and cancer,”

‘I was last seendriving off in my new tractor.’

STEVEN BARBER ’92


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and focused on the effects of a cancer diagnosison sexual function. It went so well that she will bedoing another lecture in the fall and hopes tomake it an ongoing gig! Eileen Adamo, DVM ’97,and her husband Jim Cotter ’92, ME ’93, havecontinued to keep their lives busy with the addi-tion of another daughter, Madeleine Mary, bornMay 27, 2004. Older daughter Elizabeth Dono-van turned 3 in May and is enjoying her role asthe big sister. Jim is still CEO of his software com-pany, CNS Digital Systems, though there may bea buy-out on the horizon. Eileen opened “TheCat Doctors,” her own feline-exclusive veterinaryhospital, in November 2003 in Penfield, NY, witha fellow Cornellian, Mary Lummis ’81, DVM ’85.

She writes that it has been an amazing experi-ence! If you have any cat questions, you can reachthem at www.thecatdoctors.com.

David and Shoshana Sperber Baskind ’96e-mailed to say that they welcomed their firstchild, Jacob Philip, on March 15, 2005. Dave, a1996 graduate of Cardozo Law School, is aninsurance defense litigator with the New Jerseyoffice of Traub Eglin Lieberman Straus LLP, andlives in East Brunswick. Christine RobillardIsaacs and husband Jonathan are the proud newparents of daughter Cary Sophia (Cornell classof 2026!). Christine is an ob/gyn, and Jonathanis an orthopedic surgeon. Both are on the fac-ulty at Virginia Commonwealth U. MedicalCenter in Richmond, VA.

I recently caught up with David E. Cohen,who has been working in a new job for about ayear. He’s now at JPMorgan in their equitiesresearch group. David, his wife Janine, and theirson Evan are living on the Upper East Side. He toldme that Eric Hausman and his wife recently hada baby, and I went straight to the new father toconfirm it. He did so via e-mail, writing, “EmmaOlivia was born on Dec. 8, 2004 and is providingendless fun for Dad and Mom.” His old house-mate Neal Stern also welcomed a baby in the fallof 2004—a girl, Kayla Hannah, born September15, 2004. She joins brother Aaron who is 3 yearsold. Neal and his family are living on Long Island,and he is working as a lawyer at Cap Gemini.

In May, our class sponsored an alumni pic-nic for the classes of 1990 to 1995 in CentralPark. We had a beautiful day and I walked overfrom the West Side to attend. It was a greatopportunity to catch up with some old friends.Lauren Bailyn Sapira, MBA ’94, was there withher husband Valdi and their son Josh. Now thatDave ’92 and Christine Watters Stuhlmiller havemoved back to the area, it was great to see themand have them at a local event. Our class presi-dent Todd Rethemeier, MBA ’95, was there, and

mother of 4-year-old Elizabeth and 2-year-oldEmily: “I am a stay-at-home mom, although Irecently started working part-time at a local,independent toy store. I’m accredited as a LaLeche League leader, helping other mothersbreastfeed their children.” In the Boston suburbs,Jill Levine Bradford is enjoying her childrenAdam and Jessica. “They keep us busy, but alsohelp us maintain our sense of humor! After tak-ing a four-year hiatus to spend time with my kids,I am going back to practicing corporate law part-time at a small boutique firm in Wellesley, MA.”

Legal eagle Jeffrey Anbinder reported hisgraduation from the Benjamin N. CardozoSchool of Law in New York City; back in June, hewas studying for the Bar exam and job hunting.Another member of the Big Red/Big Apple nexusis Osman Ali, who wrote, “After completing myresidency at Weill Cornell Medical College, Istayed in the city to do a fellowship and then tobuild a private practice in psychiatry. I would loveto hear from fellow Cornellians in NYC who areinterested in career advice or social or professionalnetworking.” Also in the medical field is JenniferAltamura Namzy, an allergist at the Scripps Clinicin La Jolla, CA, who is enjoying the mild weatherwith her husband (whom she wed in Dallas in2000) and finding time to catch up with her oldroommate Jessica O’Toole. As for screenwriterJessica, her handiwork can be seen in the movieMaterial Girls, slated for release next year. The filmstars Hilary Duff and Anjelica Huston.

From Phoenix, AZ, Christopher Alt andChristiana Moss ’93 e-mailed to announce thetwo-year anniversary of Studio Ma, their architec-ture firm. Some recent clients include the HeardMuseum, which showcases Native culture (partic-ularly of the Southwest), and the Arizona State U.bookstore. You can also entrust your real estate toDerek Bloom, BArch ’94, who lives in Marble-head, MA, with his wife Eliza and son Aidan. Herecently founded Derek Bloom Architects.

And now for the latest from the Midwest(sadly, news from the Heartland has been sparse).After graduating from Harvard with a PhD inRomance languages and literature, Maggie Flinnrelocated to Urbana, IL, with Patrick Bray ’98and cats Lucy and Simon. Among the corn andsoybean fields, Maggie is enjoying her first yearas a tenure-track assistant professor at the U. ofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she teachesin the French and cinema studies departments.

Another career update comes from CynthiaBartok, the associate director for the Center forChildhood Obesity Research at PennsylvaniaState U., where she is investigating “the role ofearly feeding practices in the prevention of pedi-atric obesity.” She and husband Jonathan Olsoncelebrated their tenth anniversary in July and arethe parents of 4-year-old Jordan and 1-year-oldAriana. Also hanging his hat in Pennsylvania isGreg Lingo, who lives in Kennett Square withhis wife Valerie.

Adam Binder checked in from Florida, wherehe lives with his wife and son and works as thehead of sales and marketing for American CoachLines. He recently caught up with the Klugherzfamily (Seth, Jolee (Rosenau), and their daugh-ters Rayna and Dara) at Disney World. Hopping

VP Courtney Erickson came in from Albany.Elise Rosenberg came up from downtown Man-hattan, and Pippa Loengard came over from theEast Side, as did Kathy Nielsen. Allison Waxbergand her husband Marc Milgrom ’94 also stoppedby to say hello. Brett, MS ’95, and Fern WeinfeldSilverman ’94 and their daughter made the tripinto the city from Long Island. Lori DenenbergHerz and husband Eric met up with MaryannO’Connor Child and her husband Rick ’90,MBA ’94, who brought their girls. There were anumber of other classmates there, as well as Cor-nellians from the classes of 1990 to 1995. It wasa lot of fun and we hope it’s something we’ll beable to do again!

Have a great fall and keep sending in yournews! Yael Berkowitz Rosenberg, [email protected]; and Erica Fishlin Fox, [email protected].


‘Remember that special time in life—pre-mortgage, pre-parenthood,

pre-responsibility.’SHERYL MAGZAMEN ’96

This season’s column opens withthe latest gifts from the stork. InMay, Christina (Dougan) andJonathan Blocksom welcomed

their second son, Amory. According to the proudpapa, the baby weighed 11 pounds, 9 ounces, and“was the biggest baby her doctor ever delivered.”Also in May, Scott Behson and his wife Amy Grif-fin were ecstatic at the birth of their son Nicholas.Earlier in the year, Chris and Ralane RandolphBonn celebrated the birth of daughter Alexandra.

Liza Brown Somilleda, the mother of Noahand a teacher of middle school English and his-tory in South Los Angeles, checked in with moreupdates of newly minted parents. Congratula-tions go out to Sandip, ME ’95, and Carly Pow-ell Tarafdar, whose daughter Satya was born inApril. Last October, Laurie Taylor and husbandJohn McKernan welcomed baby Caroline, whileJane Gorayeb Kiernan and husband Tom hada second boy named Alex. Liza mentionedKathy Burdette Shields, who bought an oldhouse in Newton, MA. “They have made someamazing renovations to it—doing lots of thelabor themselves!”

Speaking of labor, Allison Hamilton-Rohegave birth to a daughter, Adelia Anne. The newfamily now has a little extra wiggle room in theirnew house in Jersey City, NJ. Also in the NewYork area is Sanket Akerkar, who moved fromCalifornia to Westchester with his wife anddaughter Sejal. He now punches the clock atMicrosoft. In Manhattan, Hemda Mizrahi isbusy fixing up her new apartment and runningher own counseling/coaching business, Life &Career Choices Inc. If you’re looking for jobadvice, check out www.lifeandcareerchoices.com.

In Fairport, NY, Eileen Sierk Adams is the


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the pond to Europe, Todd Beck and his wifeSusanna found time to sail with six friends alongCroatia’s Dalmatian coast, winding up in pictur-esque Dubrovnik. Matt Schaab crossed severaltime zones recently, roaming in Cambodia andSouth Africa. Dika Lam, [email protected];Jennifer Rabin Marchant, [email protected]; Dineen Pashoukos Wasylik, [email protected].

and is encouraging Dave to start conditioninghim for Big Red football.”

Shoshana Sperber Baskind and husbandDavid ’93 welcomed Jacob Philip into the worldon March 15, 2005. Shoshana might have had theultimate experience in new-mom training: shereceived her doctorate in child clinical psychol-ogy from NYU in 2003. She is now working as aschool psychologist in Marlboro Township, NJ, inaddition to seeing children and families in privatepractice. Hannah Alessandra Quigley was born toproud parents David ’95 and Angela WhiteheadQuigley. And just in the nick of time for the col-umn, Ilana Preuss Susskind and husband Hadarwelcomed daughter Ana into their family on July3, 2005. Ilana, Hadar, Ana, and new big brotherYoav live in Takoma Park, MD. Congratulationsto all of our classmates on their new arrivals!

Becca Schader provided us with some greatcolumn news. She writes, “I am still a writer/producer for HBO, and they are keeping me asbusy as ever. I finished last year by working on the‘Six Feet Under’ and ‘The Wire’ campaigns, andbegin this year by promoting the show ‘Carni-vale’ (which stars another Cornell alum, CarlaGallo ’97!). However, the best thing to happen atHBO this month was learning that I had won agold medal for my ‘Sex and the City: A Farewell’show at the New York Festival 2005 (an interna-tional competition for the promo world). Thebest thing to happen to me this year—by far—isthat the new magazine I work for hit the standswith Jennifer Garner as our first cover; I’m theentertainment editor for a new college magazinecalled Co-Ed Magazine, which is now availableat more than 1,000 college bookstores (includingCornell!), in addition to places like Wal-Mart,Target, and Borders, etc.” Becca recently got achance to catch up with many of her old friendsduring her 30th birthday party in January. ’SixersElizabeth Rand, Christina Cellini, MD ’00, GailRosenberg Deutsch, and Susanna Klein, plusMarc Levin ’95 and Elise Rosenberg ’93 allhelped Becca ring in her fourth decade.

On a closing note, I just want to make surethat everyone is sufficiently fired-up for our 10th(that’s right, count ’em, TEN) Reunion, June 8-11,2006. It’s a fantastic chance to experience Cornellfrom somewhere besides the confines of MannLibrary (oh, I’m just kidding!). Reconnect withfriends, visit old haunts, and remember that spe-cial time in life—pre-mortgage, pre-parenthood,pre-responsibility in general. (And if you, like me,anticipate still having to show your ID at the doorof your favorite C-town spots, just remember thatat our advanced age, it’s a compliment.) Lookingforward to seeing you in Ithaca! Sheryl Magza-men, [email protected]; Allie Cahill, [email protected]; and Courtney Rubin, [email protected]. For updated class events, news, andresources, visit http://classof96.alumni.cornell.edu.

CEO of the Charter School Policy Inst., a thinktank that promotes quality public school choicelegislation, in January of this year. Jonas alsobought his first house, which he shares with his pitbull River, in the great city of Austin, TX. Our classtreasurer, Ken Olsen ([email protected]), is working as a financial advisor atMorgan Stanley in Garden City, NY. He invitesanyone needing help with a 401k rollover or re-tirement plan to contact him. Thanks, Ken!

Getting Married! Mary Carmen Gasco([email protected]) tied the knot in her nativeDominican Republic on September 4, 2004. Bymarrying Gerard Buisson at the Casa de CampoResort, she became Mary Carmen Gasco-Buisson.She was also promoted to brand manager at Proc-ter & Gamble, which has allowed for travel toSan Francisco, Miami, Los Angeles, New York,and London, to name a few. Sounds like a busyyear—but not too busy to keep up with friends.Classmates Yomarie Socarras, Kety Esquivel,and Kristin Boekhoff attended the nuptials,making it all the more special. Also in 2004, BethRothenstein ([email protected]) mar-ried Matthew Harman on May 23. Many class-mates attended, including bridesmaid Julie Lef-fler Schultz and husband Andrew, bridesmaidEllen Goodman Stiefel and husband Marc,bridesmaid Yvette Nick Montvelisky, and brides-maid Samantha Youngman Meiler. Beth has keptbusy as a speech pathologist working at Man-hattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital (MEETH)and works with some private clients on the side,while Matthew runs a hedge fund in the city.Beth also attended the wedding of Marisa Wald-man and Michael Matays in October 2004 andupdated us that Julie and Andrew Schultz had ababy girl, Emily Celia, on September 15, 2004.

The sunny state of Florida was the site ofthe December 4, 2004 wedding of Brian Peiser([email protected]) and Lisa Strunc. Attend-ing the nuptials in Captiva were classmates Ran-dall Brater, Randall Martel, MS ’98, JonathanKruszynski, Robert Del Fierro, Kristin Loberg,Nancy Doon, and Danielle Ledoux. Brian andLisa live in Chicago. Colleen Zampier ([email protected]) married Michael Casey in Troy, NY,in December of 2003. Guests included classmatesHeather Rauf, Julie Platt, and Mindy Shaw-Lund. Scott Hatherley ([email protected]) andStephanie Licht tied the knot on September 11,2004. Scott reports that the weather was great andperfect for a wedding. Classmate Brad Hopperattended the nuptials at the Weekapaug Inn inWesterly, RI. The couple honeymooned in Hawaiifor two weeks. Scott also passed along news ofBrad Hopper’s recent addition. Brad and his wifeLaura welcomed Olivia Katherine on May 21,2005. On March 26, 2005, Michael Pine ([email protected]) married Shari Krumper onLong Island. Cornellians attending were Dan Uryand Sankha Lahiri ’02. Michael and Shari live inScarsdale, NY, where Michael is the director ofglobal business development for Organon Int’l,a mid-sized pharmaceutical company. Shari staysbusy as a speech language pathologist doinghome care for young children. Congrats to all!

Having Babies! Shoham Filhart and MarisaDolled-Filhart ’00 welcomed their son Sapir in


C L A S S N O T E S


R

Greetings, ’Sixers! I hope this col-umn finds you well. Tell me if youhave recently experienced thisthirty-something dilemma . . .

I recently was walking around my apartmentand wondering if it was still, for lack of a betterinterior design term, too “college.” There are noposters of rock stars, pithy inspirational sayings,or the periodic table. No overstuffed Seventiescouches, dying ficus trees, or well-worn indus-trial carpeting. I’ve also managed to graduatefrom IKEA—woo hoo! However, I still haven’tquite gotten my feng shui on. I have things to siton, there are several pieces of art and tapestriesthoughtfully hung on the walls, and I do vac-uum once in a while, but the place still has thatnot-quite-lived-in feel. I would venture to saythat maybe it’s “shabby chic” (is that still in, bythe way?), but if any of you folks with a hanker-ing for design want to write in and give me a fewtips, I’m all ears. Otherwise, I’ll still wait for oneof those myriad home design shows to comeknocking on my door. Thanks for letting meshare my most recent existential dilemma. Hereare your Class of ’96 notes.

Andy and Jessica Brief received a very spe-cial anniversary present this year: daughter Jor-dana Ivy was born on January 2, 2005. Andy, Jes-sica, and Jordana reside in New York City, whereAndy is completing his residency in orthopedicsurgery at NYU, and Jessica is an elementaryschool teacher. Gina Saline Accordino recentlywrote, “Here’s one from me. After moving fromapartment to apartment in NYC, Tom and Ifinally moved out to the ’burbs. We bought ahouse in Chappaqua, NY, and honed our man-ual labor skills doing renovations. We plannedon finally moving in on January 17, but insteadwe went straight to the hospital, as Julia MaryAccordino had other plans—our little bundle ofjoy arrived early! We had lots of fun moving intoa new house in snowstorms with a newborn—especially when the heat went out and the pipesburst. Ugh! Now that things have settled down(and Julia’s been sleeping through the night), wehave had a chance to enjoy our beautiful babygirl! It’s so weird, though . . . new house, newbaby—we feel way too grown up!”

David Rickell is an area VP with WaffleHouse Corp. and resides in Spartanburg, SC, withhis wife Kate. Dave and Kate welcomed a babyboy, Charles Elliott, into their family on March 1,2005. Kate wrote,“He’s a big, healthy baby; TerryKoza has nicknamed him ‘Touchdown Charlie’

As fall approaches, it is time tothink back to some of our firstdays in Ithaca. It is also time tolook forward. What has the Class

of ’97 been up to lately? Well, they’ve been . . .Getting Promoted! Jonas Chartock (jchartock

@charterschoolpolicy.org) became president and


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August 2004. Marisa describes him as a lot of fun,with a great personality. He’s even been to see aCornell versus Yale hockey game! Shoham worksin finance for General Electric, while Marisa isfinishing up a PhD in genetics at Yale. The familyenjoyed a vacation to Israel and can’t wait to takeSapir up to Ithaca. Rebecca Cantor Amster sentin news of the birth of her son Jacob Alexander onFebruary 27, 2005. Rebecca says everyone is doingwell and is very sleep-deprived! Husband Matt ’95is graduating from U. of Miami Law School andwill sit for the Florida Bar in July, while brotherAri ’05 was set to graduate from the Hotel school.

Chris Braceland ([email protected])and wife Christine welcomed daughter Jacque-line Eleanor into the world on April 14, 2005.Chris says that everyone is doing great. Anotherfuture Cornellian is Rowen Nyah Keister, daugh-ter of Drew Keister ([email protected]).Rowen entered the world on November 9, 2004and is thriving, but sad to be far away from Cor-nell while her parents serve out their Air Forcecommitment in Omaha, NE.

In the hubbub of putting together this col-umn, information sometimes inadvertently getsleft out. This happened last column to my co-correspondent, Erica Broennle Nelson. Thus, itis with great honor that I get to announce thebirth of Adair Juliene Nelson to Erica and herhusband Lathrop. Adair first graced us with herpresence on March 21, 2005. Both mom andbabe are doing well. Congratulations to all ournew parents, and welcome to all the future Cor-nellians! Maybe we’ll see your names on thesepages in 25 years!

Reunion is just two years away. Send us yourupdates when you get your annual News andDues mailing this fall, and let us know who you’dlike to see in June 2007! Sarah DeardorffCarter, [email protected]; Erica Broennle Nelson,[email protected]. Class website, http://classof97.alumni.cornell.edu.

his second year at MIT’s Sloan MBA program.Agnes Galvez wrote that she was expecting herMS in nutrition in June 2005 from Cal State U.,Northridge. She will start her PhD nutrition pro-gram in August 2005 at Oklahoma State U., Still-water. Last but not least, Karen Ruenitz reportsthat she is living in Oakland, CA.

To be continued. Until the next column, pleasekeep on sending us news and updates on what’sgoing on in your world! Erica Chan, [email protected]; Gregg Herman, [email protected].

Elyse Weidhorn Everett is married to Scott ’97,and their daughter Hannah Rochelle was bornNovember 3, 2004. They moved into their newhouse in Westfield, NJ, on December 13. Lots ofCornellians visited Elyse at the hospital, includ-ing Lauren Israel Segal, Joshua and PennyKramer Hecht, Alissa Isikoff Dorfmon, AlizaKirshenbaum ’99, Kevin Ellenwood ’97, andMatt ’97 and Kara Levy Zlotnick.

Anoop, MMH ’98, and Bindia Patel havedaughters Arti, 5, and Dharma, 3. Nathan andBarbara Craft Blesy have been married since1998. They now have five children: Alexandra,born in June 2000; Ashley, born in May 2002;and triplet boys Matthew, Brett, and Timothy onSeptember 21, 2004. Congratulations! Nathanworks on the family partnership dairy farm withhis father, and Barbara is teaching biology at alocal high school.

Grey’s Anatomy. Christian P. DiPaola is inhis second year as an orthopedic surgery residentat Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY.He married Cara Lunbascram, a St. John’s gradwhom he met while in med school, on Nov. 20,2004. She is a recent law school graduate andpassed the New York Bar. Three other Cornellianswere in the wedding party: Matthew DiPaola(best man and twin brother), Kip Melstrom ’99,MD ’03, and Buck Briggs ’76. Matthew is in res-idency in Philadelphia at Jefferson, and is also inorthopedic surgery. Ryan Smart is living in Mil-ford, CT, and is matched at Yale U. for orthope-dic surgery residency. Wow, three orthopedic sur-geons in a row. No sweat if you ever break a bone!

The Newlyweds. Kenneth Dai, ME ’99, livesin Baltimore, MD, and is married to AudreyChan ’97. Mark and Sarah Long Wetzstein weremarried on October 3, 2004 in Beverly Hills, CA.Over a dozen Cornellians attended the wedding,including Michelle Nagle Grow (and husbandMat), who had a baby girl, Katie, in May; FranciPearlman Ollard, whose baby Gabriella cele-brated her first birthday on January 26; andSamantha Frankel, who married Ari Friedmanon New Year’s Day in Miami, FL, and had aboutas many Cornellians at the wedding as Mark andSarah. Michelle Houle married Scott Hitz onValentine’s Day 2005 in a small ceremony intheir home in Brooklyn, NY. Michelle and Scottmet at the Vineyard Theatre, where Michelle isthe director of development and where Scottfreelances regularly.

Globetrekker. Jeff Williams returned to NewYork this year after completing a graduate pro-gram at Oxford and a Fulbright exchange inOslo, Norway. Jeff is working as a manager ofeconomic and research policy at Pfizer in NYC.James Roberts was dispatched by his companyto a few cities around the country, and he wasexcited to share his alumni encounters (thankyou!). He started in San Francisco, where hecaught up with classmate Anthony Jones, a firstyear Stanford Business School student. In spiteof the curriculum, Anthony remains dedicatedto the program’s social activities. He also had thechance to visit Seattle, Dallas, Miami, Philadel-phia, and Boston on his way back to New York.On his last stop (through Boston), he was happyto run into his old friend Erik Yazdani, who is in


It is the beginning of the sum-mer when we write this column,which means we have just fin-ished watching all the season

finales of the latest television series. While weknow full well we can’t possibly compete withTivo, here we bring you some snapshots of truereality. Are you ready? Here we go: “Real World2005: Cornell Class of ’98.”

The Apprentice(s). Daniel Cane started thecompany CourseInfo while at Cornell. It had itsIPO, and it is now known as Blackboard. Tim Chi,John Yang, John Knight, and Stephen Gilfus’97 all still work with Daniel at Blackboard. Whomight the apprentice be? Daniel and wife Debrahad a son, Connor, last year. Teodor Todorovgraduated from Harvard Business School in June2004, where he was in the same section with VikPunwani and Danielle Blumberg. Last July herelocated to London, where he is working forMorgan Stanley. Jennifer Brokaw is a financialadvisor with Goldman Sachs in New York City.

The Baby Channel. Kelsey Leigh, new babydaughter of Brendon and Cindy Moore Har-rington ’99, arrived May 25. A week later Brendonstarted a new job with UrbanTrans Consultants.

So, I don’t have kids or a dog, Idid not marry the captain of thefootball team, and I certainlydidn’t invent the Post-it Note.

But when I show up for my 10th high schoolreunion this fall, I can feel victorious because: a)the braces are no more; and b) the word “bangs”is no longer part of my vocabulary (nor is theRave hairspray that kept them in place). Thank-fully, it seems that the past ten years have treatedmany in the Cornell Class of ’99 well.

Maile Goldstein Gilmore, for one, is marriedand has a dog. Koa, the beagle, is a new additionto Maile’s family in Atlanta, where she works forSeyfarth Shaw LLP in the labor and employ-ment group. Eric Pannese, too, has adoptedChance, a poodle/sheepdog mix, and lives withhis wife in their newly built San Diego home,from which Eric commutes to the MBA programat the UCLA Anderson School.

As far as kids go, we’ve got ’em. BenjaminFish and his wife welcomed Jacob into their livesthis January. Benjamin also kicked his real estatebrokerage job up a notch by opening his ownfirm—and if you’re interested, he’s giving dis-counts to Cornellians. Crew-woman AllysonSpahr and Leard Huggins ’00, BS ’01, had a lit-tle one, Maggie Lauren, in January. I hope Mag-gie will be learning how to handle an oar soon!Sarah (Hultquist) and Scott Roby in OrangeCounty are on child numero 2. Natalie Gaylewas born in April and is named in honor of“Aunt Rach,” Rachel Gayle Plasky, MILR ’02.Kate Zutt Bruno in Charlottesville, VA, has asuccessful nutrition and fitness company, OnTrack Nutrition. She and husband Tony have a1-1/2-year-old, Virginia Elizabeth, who “keepsus very busy and entertained.”

We have school “sweetheart” stories, too.After working as an aquatic biologist—drivingairboats and wrestling manatees—for the state ofFlorida, Lisa Ahijevych married Cornell sweet-heart Jonathan Griffin ’97 in October ’03. Theirwedding took place at Anabel Taylor chapel, andthe reception was held at a local vineyard. Atten-dees included, but were not limited to, AnnieKoehne de Gonzalez, Alison Juozokas, LauraBaccash Franzon, and Molly Warsh. After grad-uating Columbia dental school, Greg Millermoved to San Francisco to do a residency atUCSF in orthodontics, where he met and mar-ried a fellow orthodontist. Millers, I hope yourkids have the straightest teeth on the block.

In my high school reunion registrationform, I was asked to buy a “commemorative dig-itized copy” of our senior yearbook. Really?Who’s behind this madness? As much as I fondly


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remember my high school Debate Team days, Idon’t think anyone needs to be reminded howone looks in an oversized suit with shoulderpads. Believe you me.

Missy Globerman, a fellow South Floridadebater, would commiserate. Missy has moved toD.C. for the Vilar Inst. for Arts Management atthe Kennedy Center, after three years of manag-ing the Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet in San Fran-cisco.“In” are the sharp suits for gallery openingsand the opera; “out” are the shoulder pads. Itseems like Darcy Partridge has stayed close toher science honors high school days—throughher post-doc, she’s researching peanut diseases atVirginia Tech’s Tidewater Agricultural Researchand Extension Center near Virginia Beach.

Scott Levine hasn’t given up the guitar heplayed in high school. He’s working as a Webdeveloper for Staples in Boston, having finishedhis master’s in visual and media arts at Emerson,and can be seen all over the Northeast playing inbands such as the Beantown Project, the VelvetStylus, the Spacnips, and 7 Coyotes. StefanLawrence and Alex Zalben are still enjoyingimprov-ing—their sketch comedy group Ele-phant Larry was reviewed in the New York Timesas “a hilarious multimedia mix of the deadpanand maniacal . . . they ricochet fearlessly fromsubtly savvy to aggressively lowbrow.” Carl Win-ter writes from Brazil that not only is he fearfulof his high school reunion, he’s responsible forplanning it. How could a reunion in Brazil bedreadful, thought I? But no, he has to leave histropical paradise to fly back to Kansas for thetwo-day affair.

While the Post-it line has already been usedby Lisa Kudrow, we have some stories that rankup there (and two include chocolate). MargaritaRodriguez has moved to Glendale, CA, to con-tinue to work for Nestle USA as a strategic sourc-ing manager. Her job involves travel throughCentral and South America. And CourtneyHodge is working in the family business, EchoFarm Puddings, which she started with her sisterwhile at Cornell. The puddings are sold through-out the Northeast and just hit the refrigeratorsection of Whole Foods in Southern California.

But I think my favorite story to tell at re-union comes from Peter Polidoro: “Since grad-uating from Cornell, I fell out of a window inItaly and broke both of my arms, drove an oldcar to Central America and dumped it in CostaRica, drove up to Alaska and slid my truck intoa lake, hiked to both the highest and lowest ele-vations in the lower 48, and got chased on Alca-traz Island for camping overnight illegally withfellow Cornell ’99er Greg Aloe.”

There you have it, class. Throw away thosescrunchies, cozy up to the 11th grade crush, stayfar away from the digitized yearbooks, and gobrave those ten-year reunions. Good luck outthere. Jess Smith, [email protected]; MelanieArzt, [email protected]; or Jennifer Shel-don, [email protected].

It’s hard to image that just overeight years ago the orientationcounselors in their red T-shirtswere helping us move into our

dorm rooms. We will soon have the opportunityagain to reside within those halls during our firstclass reunion, June 8-11, 2006. Until then, takethe initiative to get back in touch with classmatesyou’ve lost touch with, and if you would like tohelp in any way with reunion preparations, pleasecontact Audra Lifson at [email protected].

This fall, Lauren Feldman began graduateschool to study playwriting at Yale. Before par-ticipating in the World Interplay this past sum-mer in Australia, Lauren worked as a DownstageMiami Playwright Fellow under the mentorshipof Arthur Kopit and Tina Howe. Her recent workin the South Florida theater included playingCatherine in Proof, Catherine in The Memory ofWater, and Rose in A Bad Friend. Checking infrom Maryland, Jay Ronquillo, ME ’03, is cur-rently working at the NIH in Bethesda. RichardCober is living in Manhattan, KS, where he is athird-year veterinary student at Kansas State U.College of Veterinary Medicine.

John Kent sends his warm regards from Ft.Benning, GA, where he is currently stationed withthe Army and enrolled in officer candidate school.Last August he attended Ben Ruder’s weddingand saw Ben and Kate McGill McClintic, BrianDonohue, and Julia Joh. John would like to hearfrom people, as letters are an extremely importantgateway to sanity in Georgia. He can be reachedat the following address: Officer Candidate JohnKent, Class 02-05, 3rd PLT, A Company, 3rd BN(OCS), 11th IN REGY 7480 Riordan St., Ft.Benning, GA 31905-4410.

Congratulations to Steven Engelbrecht andSamuel Bradford ’02 for winning the ForbesOnline “Best of the Web” awards. Their company,Sitation LLC, is the Web development firm thatcreated CustomGolfVacations.com, which wonthe award. They received their award alongsidetravel giants Expedia, Fodors, Priceline, and Or-bitz. Steven was quoted as saying,“It’s an honor tosee our technology listed with some of the mostrecognized names in the travel industry.” Stevenfounded Sitation five months after graduatingfrom Cornell’s Computer Science program. In2002, he contracted with Custom Golf Vaca-tions, which sells worldwide golf vacations, tocreate its booking engine and website. Steve andSam look to expand Sitation by developing newsoftware and leveraging its existing software tohelp businesses make better use of the Internetand achieve greater return on their technologyinvestments. Congratulations also to Laurel Freas

on being awarded the Physical Anthropology Sec-tion’s J. Lawrence Angel Award by the AmericanAcademy of Forensic Sciences last February. Sheis a graduate assistant in the C.A. Pound HumanID Laboratory in Gainesville, FL.

Following graduation, Jim Alves worked inmerchandizing for Abercrombie and Fitch inColumbus for six months before accepting aposition with an investment bank in Sacramento.Jim now finds himself working for the Dept. ofFinance in the Schwarzenegger Administration,

where he recommends policy actions based onfiscal impact and assists in the development of thegovernor’s annual budget for health and humanservices. In addition to his demanding employ-ment obligations, Jim serves as the youngestmember of the Ag and Life Sciences AlumniAssociation (ALSAA) Board of Directors, repre-senting the Western US. Jim is also assisting theCALS administration office’s recruitment activ-ities in California and looks forward to continu-ing his relationship with the university.

Unlike most of the Class of 2001, Laura LeePeyton has had the same job since graduation,happily working for Houston’s restaurants sinceSeptember 2001. Last April she was promoted tokitchen manager at Bandera in Brentwood, CA.She has been fortunate enough to be in L.A. theentire time, spending her days off at the beach,and can honestly say that she hardly misses thecold and snowy Ithaca winters. Her Cornellfriends inevitably ask about her dog, Thatches,so for those wondering, she still has him and heis as lovable as ever.

Congratulations to Brad Schmidt ’00 andAngela Bourne on celebrating their second wed-ding anniversary on June 21. Brad is pursuing hisPhD at Cornell in Electrical and Computer Engi-neering and recently published a paper in the sci-entific journal Nature titled “Micrometre-scaleSilicon Electro-optic Modulator.” Angela contin-ues to try to understand what her husband doesfor a living, and is busy studying for the GMATs.Last October 17, Natalie Martinez and MatthewLeopold were married at Mohonk MountainHouse, New Paltz, NY. Matthew is pursuing hismaster’s at Cornell.

On April 16, Timothy Hentschel marriedJulie Shandy at Stonepine Estate Resort, Carmel,CA, which is owned and operated by his parents.The couple now resides in Newport Beach, CA,where Timothy is CEO/President of the onlinecompany HotelPlanner.com and Julie is a salesmanager for the Hyatt Hotel. Nicole Longa-necker and Leon Charkoudian were marriedJune 4, 2005 in San Antonio, TX. Nicole gradu-ated from Vanderbilt School of Medicine and


C L A S S N O T E S


‘Angela Bourne continues to tryto understand what her husband

does for a living.’TRINA LEE ’01


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Leon from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.They are continuing their residency training atthe Hospital of the U. of Pennsylvania, Nicole ininternal medicine and Leon in ophthalmology.Send news to Trina Lee, [email protected];or Lauren Wallach, [email protected].

naval flight officer, which he completed in July2004. Upon graduation he received orders toVAQ-129 at Naval Air Station, Whidbey Island,WA, to learn how to operate the electronic war-fare system onboard the EA-6B Prowler. “Wow,what a job!” he exclaims. “I’m loving everyminute of it and can’t wait to go to the carrier.Joining the Navy was one of the best decisions Iever made! My transfer from Florida to Wash-ington also gave me an opportunity to see a lotof the country, including the Grand Canyon,where I ran into a ’92 alumna with whom Ishared a picture. I also partied with fraternitybrother David Ladd in Las Vegas and Los Ange-les, and visited with classmates Pete Ippel, JasonLitchney, ME ’03, and Manny Alvarez in SanFrancisco. So far I am loving the Northwest andI look forward to an exciting naval career!”

We should not be surprised at the fabulousand honorable awards recently bestowed uponour classmates. Congratulations to RichardBollinger, who is one of 14 students to receive aJohn F. Steinman Fellowship. The John FrederickSteinman Foundation selected 14 students pursu-ing advanced degrees in mental health fields asrecipients of 2005 fellowships. These fellowships,which carry a total value of $48,000, are namedfor John F. Steinman, former publisher of Lan-caster Newspapers Inc. Richard, of Lititz, PA, isworking toward a doctorate in clinical psychologyat Rosemead School of Psychology at Biola U. inLa Mirada, CA. Per the e-mail I received, prefer-ence is given to those who obligate themselves topractice their profession for at least the number ofyears fellowship support is received, in a locationserving residents of Lancaster County, PA. Con-gratulations to Julia Guarneri, who was one of 85students nationwide to receive the 2005 AndrewW. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies,awarded by the Woodrow Wilson National Fel-lowship Foundation. The Mellon fellowships aredesigned to help exceptionally promising studentsprepare for careers of teaching and scholarship inhumanistic disciplines. It covers tuition andrequired fees for the first academic year of gradu-ate school, including a stipend of $17,500. ABrooklyn, NY, resident, Julia will enter a PhD pro-gram at Yale in fall 2005.

Some of you are still chipping away at grad-uate school or have landed outstanding positionssince graduating. Nathan Pettit, MPS ’03, spentthe summer between his two-year graduate pro-gram at Columbia U.’s Teachers College workingat Citigroup in their organizational effectivenessdepartment. “Though wearing a suit every day isno fun, I certainly enjoy the free air conditioningduring the summer in New York City,” he reports.“Since obtaining my MS in Food Science at Cor-nell I’ve been working for Pepsi R&D in Valhalla,NY, as a food scientist, where I develop juice bev-erages for Tropicana Int’l,” writes Jen Gruner,MS ’04. Jen also wrote in to tell us that AdamSchoenfeld is in his last year of medical school atSUNY Upstate in Albany, NY. Amy Liesenfeldspent her summer as a law clerk at the Dept. ofJustice and entered her second year of law schoolat William & Mary this fall.

Thanks to Samantha Buckingham, corre-spondent for the Class of ’03, for forwarding the

replied. It’s funny, every time I’ve met a celebrity,I am always baffled by the fact that they don’tknow who I am. And then I remember—oh yes,I’m not famous. Then she hurried down the hallmumbling something about having to make cur-few. Still, she was quite radiant in person and itwas a thrill to meet her.

I offer up my full admiration to our class-mates currently engaged in various global andintensive military pursuits. After graduation,Phil Godemann joined the Navy and reportedto Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, FL.“That lasted three months,” he writes, “afterwhich I was commissioned an ensign.” Follow-ing OCS, Phil began flight school to train as a


A Climb to RememberTAMAR MELEN ’03

t amar Melen was diagnosed withHodgkin’s lymphoma during hersecond semester at Cornell. Butshe is determined to outlive, and

outclimb, the disease. This July, shescaled Mount Rainier in Washington toraise $10,000 for cancer prevention.Melen and thirty-seven climbers fromaround the nation participated inClimb Against the Odds, sponsored bythe Breast Cancer Fund, a San Fran-cisco-based organization that aims toeradicate the environmental causes ofbreast cancer.

Melen accomplished her goal ofraising $10,000 by organizing commu-nity events, including a screening of adocumentary film about an earlierClimb Against the Odds and a presen-tation on the environmental linksbetween health and disease. The fund-raising, Melen said, posed an evengreater challenge than the physicalpreparation.

After her own fight with cancer, shebecame involved in health activism andbegan to study the environmental linksto disease. Since then, Melen, who is nowin remission, has participated in physi-cally challenging fundraisers includingthe American Cancer Society’s Relay forLife and the Leukemia and LymphomaSociety’s Team in Training Marathon.This was her first mountain climb. Aspart of her training, she spent two weeksmountaineering in Alaska with the Cor-nell Outdoor Education Program. “I’ve

always been active and athletic, and Iliked the idea of these physical challengesthat are metaphors for challenges we facein health issues,” she said.

The metaphor extended to her ownexperience on Rainier. After nearly twodays of climbing, Melen was only twentyminutes from the mountain’s 14,410-foot summit when a flash thunderstormforced her team to turn around.

“It would have been nice to havehad a beautiful sunny day to hike to thetop,” she said. “But the reality is, youdon’t know what is going to happen.You just have to take it one step at atime and deal with what comes up.”

— Julie Zeveloff ’07

After five months of interningthis past spring, I finally metMartha Stewart face-to-face lastweek. She was rushing down the

hallway toward me with her entourage and I justcouldn’t help myself. “I have to stop you; I havebeen dying to meet you for months!” I exclaimed.“Who are you?” she bluntly, yet somehow politely,

AARON LANES


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following news from her friend (and our class-mate) Tamera Lee Stover. Tamera will be attend-ing Berkeley in the fall to pursue a PhD in soci-ology. She says she’ll miss all of her Cornell D.C.crew. She writes, “I was recently promoted to ananalyst at the Corporate Executive Board. InMarch, I visited brother and sister-in-law Matt’95 and Sonya Hand Stover ’96 in London.”Tamera also sent updates on several other class-mates: Mary Lovejoy will be attending the U. ofChicago to pursue a JD; in her free time in D.C.,she sings in the Thomas Circle Singers andteaches LSAT classes at Kaplan. Jen Chunn isexcited to be working for Cornell U. Inst. for Pol-icy Research in D.C.’s Dupont Circle. Nina Frantwill be attending Howard U. in the fall to pursueher JD. Vanessa Ulmer has been shuttling backand forth between D.C. and Europe, working atthe German Marshall Fund. Last, but not least,Mikush Schwam-Baird will be attendingOxford U. in the fall as a Marshall Fellow. He’slooking forward to vacationing with his familyand girlfriend, Vanessa Ulmer, in Italy. CarolynDeckinger, [email protected]; or ElizabethRichards, [email protected].

refreshing departure, although I probably couldhave done without being mugged just a monthafter moving here.” Peter can be reached [email protected]. Carlos Vargas was marriedon June 5 on Long Island. His bride, Karen Lee’01, graduated from Buffalo Medical School inMay and started her residency at Stony Brook.

Thanks so much to those of you who foundthe time to write and keep me updated with allthe changes going on in your lives. I always enjoythe diversity and reading about our shared expe-riences. Thanks again and please keep contribut-ing! Samantha Buckingham, [email protected]; and Sudha Nandagopal, [email protected].

world, while Galen’s finish places him within thetop 20. (For official rules on the beer mile, pleaserefer to www.beermile.com.) Tour guide extraor-dinaire Katie Wickham also went for distance, butrather than run, she drove from Horseheads, NY,to Palo Alto, CA. She is working at an in-housePR office and has given herself the title of “Min-ister of Free,” due to the amount of company-logo-emblazoned pens and pencils she lordsover. Although she’s currently living in company-provided housing, she’ll be moving soon into aposh apartment of her own, which—unfortu-nately for Katie—also means paying her own rent.

After surviving Reunion and spending twomonths working with Class and Reunion Programsat Alumni House, Mike Allen has also moved toNorthern California. He’s house-sitting for a fam-ily friend while searching for a job in the Bay Area.Though signed up for Cornell’s NorCal Alumni listserve, Mike also welcomes potential employers tocontact him at [email protected]. Melissa Zgolaand Julia Meier ’04 are also headed west, stoppingwhere there is sun and ice cream. Embarking ona post-baccalaureate road trip, they plan to dosome soul-searching, beach-bumming, and pony-farming. While the trip is loosely sketched, theduo would like to visit California, Oregon, andAlaska before settling into their true (see some-what predictable and tame) “adult” status.

Speaking of predictable and tame, MattTyhach recently became a working stiff at Ray-theon, advancing the company’s radar systemproducts, and feverishly maintaining his hard-line conservative stance in the blue state of Mass-achusetts. When not taking in the summer sightsof downtown Boston with his girlfriend Lea,Matt enjoys watching Fox News with roommateand fellow Republican Kevin Wolfe ’04. AndyRiesenberg also made the jump from East Hillto Boston, to join Marketing and Planning Sys-tems, one of the city’s consulting firms. He’ll beputting his recently earned “research distinctionhonors,” and CPRS background to work as aresearch analyst. Most likely to be seen bummingaround town with Andy (i.e., people who havealso moved to Boston) are Philip Lane and MattNagowski. Phil is continuing his atmosphericscience studies while pursuing a PhD at MIT.Matt is employed as a research assistant at theFederal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Congratulations go to Dhipthi Devaboseand Michael Mulligan, who were recently wed ina beautiful ceremony at the Renaissance Vinoy inSt. Petersburg, FL. After the honeymoon, Michaelbegan working on missile systems at Lockheed-Martin, while Dhipthi started studying medicineat the U. of Florida. When not blowing things up,or memorizing infectious diseases, the happy cou-ple enjoys spending time in their ridiculouslylarge house with their equally as ridiculously largehome theater system, both on loan from Dhipthi’sparents while the couple is in the Orlando area.

Finally, I’d like to encourage all of you tosend updates as you finalize your post-Cornellplans, especially if you are attending (or knowsomeone who is attending) graduate school orparticipating in the Teach for America program. Matthew Janiga, [email protected]; andMichelle Wong, [email protected].


C L A S S N O T E S

Summer is in full swing as I writethis column. Having just arrivedon the West Coast a month ago,I find myself living in Edmonds,

WA, working as a food and beverage outlet man-ager at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in downtownSeattle. I started my trip by driving from the navalbase in Norfolk, VA, to my parents’ place in Con-necticut for a brief visit before continuing northto Ithaca, where (only after loading up on Weg-mans snacks for the car and a new Moosewoodcookbook) I said my good-byes to Cornell andformally started my ten-day cross-country jour-ney. Along the way I was fortunate enough tospend a few nights in Las Vegas visiting ZachConine, who graciously let me crash at his place.Zach is working as a manager of strategic plan-ning at the Golden Nugget—he is working hardand planning large, as usual! Another fellow Ho-telie, Molly Hoyne, is here at the Olympic withme, in the same department, as a manager. Shehas been at the hotel since graduation and recentlymet up with Ilene Wolf here in the Emerald City.

I recently heard from Esther Tang ’04 aboutKeith Menin’s success with his boutique hotel,Sanctuary Sobe, located in Miami, FL. Keith was interviewed about the property by HotelNews Resource. The article lauded Keith’s inno-vative management: “Each suite at Sanctuary em-braces modern luxury. Bianca Calacatta marble-countertop kitchens feature glass-fronted beveragecenters, microwave ovens, and deluxe espressomakers. A 42-inch, flat-screen plasma TV, cus-tom-designed seating, and CD stereo completethe living room. Bathrooms are mini-retreats,with Lapis Lazuli blue terrazzo tile and RainHead showers.” You can check out the hotel on-line at http://www.sanctuarysobe.com/.

Peter McFerrin writes, “I just finished anMA in economics at U. of Southern California,where I will be staying to begin a PhD in urbanplanning this fall. After four years in Ithaca, thepast 18 months in Los Angeles have been a

First, CONGRATULATIONS toVikrant Nanda, who marriedSandhya Kumar in New Delhi,India, on December 30, 2004.

They are based out of the First State working forJPMorgan Chase & Co. Jiaeh Kim is a graduatestudent at Columbia U.’s School of Internationaland Public Affairs. She is specializing in inter-national finance and business. Sharon Ericksonis working as a manager of destination servicesat the Pointe South Mountain Resort in Arizona.

Medical school is luring Cornellians. YusukeTeraski is in Ghana teaching science at a localhigh school. He will be there with the PeaceCorps until 2006. Yusuke is also applying tomedical school next year, and Brian Changlaienrolled at the St. George U. School of Medicinethis past January. Emiley Fong is attending med-ical school at Temple U.

Anne Jones writes, “Hi everyone! I’m havinga fun and challenging year as a first year studentat the U. of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jer-sey’s School of Osteopathic Medicine. I think backlongingly to the Hill time and time again, but I’mhaving a great time remembering Cornell throughthe alumni network here. Now, more than ever, Iam fully seeing the prestige that Cornell garnersoutside of Ithaca, and I’m constantly meeting peo-ple who have some familial or friendship tie toCornell (or have a love of hockey!). Go Big Red!”

Former grad student John Ngunjiri, ME ’04,writes, “I had previously worked for a smallercompany and upon graduating from Cornell lastMay, it scared me to join a large corporation suchas ExxonMobil. While the world out there con-tinually points fingers at oil companies, I decidedto join in and find out the truth for myself. Dis-covery: although working with petrochemicalsis a risk in many ways, the lengths to whichpetrochemical companies go to ensure safety areunmatched the world over.”

I hope you all had a great summer! Tell meabout it. Send in your updates. Also, join theCornell 2004 group on both friendster.com andthefacebook.com. Vanessa Matsis, [email protected].

The class of 2005 kicked off thesummer by making running his-tory. With several recent gradscheering them on, Emory Mort

and Galen Reeves finished first and second,respectively, in an Ithaca beer mile. Emory’s timewas the eighth fastest recorded beer mile in the


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’49 BS Hotel, MS Ag ’50—Ray W. Hurd of Boul-der, CO, January 29, 1999. Phi Kappa Sigma.Wife, Angelina (Wessels) ’41.

’49 BME—John T. Synnestvedt of Bryn Athyn,PA, October 8, 2004; patent and intellectualproperty attorney; active in professional and reli-gious affairs.

’50 BCE—Roger D. Brown of Columbus, OH,April 25, 2004; civil engineer; retired exec. vicepresident, Central Nat’l Bank; veteran; active incommunity affairs. Alpha Delta Phi.

’50 PhD—Norbert J. Foecking of Chardon, OH,May 16, 2004.

’50 BS ILR—Robert B. Grider of PomptonLakes, NJ, March 21, 2004; active in alumniaffairs. Lambda Chi Alpha.

’50 BS Hotel—Kenneth O. Short of Denver, CO,September 5, 1978. Pi Kappa Phi.

’51 BA—Mary Mundy Arillo of Allenwood, NJ,December 6, 2002; homemaker; active in reli-gious affairs. Kappa Delta.

’51—Robert H. Boynton of San Mateo, CA,June 9, 2004; food broker.

’51—Reo A. Hall of Williamstown, NY, Febru-ary 19, 2003.

’51 BS Ag—Donald M. Robinson of Hamp-stead, NC, November 20, 2004; engineer, BorgWarner Corp. and Federal Paper; veteran; bag-piper; active in community and religious affairs.

’51-52 GR—Philip Shuchman of Hollywood,FL, November 28, 2004; emeritus professor, Rut-gers U. School of Law, Newark; expert on empir-ical research.

’51—Clyde D. Tomboulian of Lincoln, AR,October 20, 2002; electrician; plumber; active incommunity and religious affairs. Wife, Norma(Lamb) ’51.

’51 PhD—George Q. Williams of Lewes, DE,August 11, 2004.

’52 BS HE—Mozelle Rumery Coe of Norfolk,VA, September 1, 1988. Alpha Phi. Husband,Robert S. Coe ’51, BME ’53.

’52, BCE ’53, MCE ’57—Herman A.J. Kuhn ofMadison, WI, November 5, 2004; forensic sci-entist; professor emeritus, civil and environ-mental engineering, U. of Wisconsin; veteran.Tau Beta Phi.

’52 MArch—Albert L. Williams Jr. of Mont-gomery, AL, January 11, 2004; architect; owner,Albert L. Williams Assoc.; active in profes-sional affairs.

’54 BS Ag—Edward H. Barton of Eustis, FL,August 27, 2002; district sales manager. Sigma Nu.


’21 BS Ag, PhD ’25—Luther S. West of Mar-quette, MI, December 1, 1985.

’28 BA—Dorothy Sloan Cohen of Oakland, CA,October 1, 1998.

’28 BA—Eva Effron Goldin of Morristown, NJ,May 8, 2004; librarian.

’29 BA—Kathryn Mcguire Williams of Plain-field, IN, December 23, 1993.

’33, ’34 BA, MD ’38—Frederick S. Kinder of SanJuan Capistrano, CA, May 13, 2003; physician.Kappa Delta Rho. Wife, Mary (Mitchell) ’35.

’34 PhD—Harold L. Haley of Hamilton, OH,August 19, 1997.

’35—Russell J. Anderson of Rochester, NY, Sep-tember 7, 2002. Beta Theta Pi.

’35 BEE—Frank R. Conace of Scottsdale, AZ,January 7, 1995; electrical engineer. Pi Kappa Phi.

’35 BA—Eleanor Bernhard Laubenstein ofMuskogee, OK, formerly of Scarsdale, NY, July31, 1998. Pi Beta Phi.

’35—Carl B. Whiskeman of Chesterfield, MO,July 28, 2004. Lambda Chi Alpha.

’36-37 GR—John A. Freeman of Beckenham,UK, December 1, 2003.

’36-37 GR—Gerald N. La Grange of Westport,NY, February 23, 2003; retired headmaster, RyeCountry Day School; teacher; active in commu-nity and professional affairs.

’38—Kenneth J. Clinch of Vernon Center, NY,November 27, 2003; active in civic, community,and religious affairs.

’38 JD—Charles W. Sutton of Loudonville, NY,August 2, 2004; attorney; veteran.

’39, BA ’40—Alice Kennedy Ahern of Storrs,CT, May 8, 2004; former researcher, Assn. ofNat’l Advertisers. Delta Gamma.

’40—J. Winthrop Brown Jr. of Lakewood, CO,December 31, 2001. Wife, Barbara (Warner) ’40.

’41 MS, PhD ’51—Franklin S. Blanton ofGainesville, FL, April 29, 2004; medical ento-mologist; professor emeritus, U. of Florida; vet-eran; author; active in professional affairs.

’42 MEd—John E. Bills of Rochester, NY, March24, 2002.

’42 BS Ag—F. Philip Hoag Jr. of Wingdale, NY,June 1, 2001.

’43 BA, MA ’45—Mildred Schulman Ross ofChatham, NY, September 7, 2003. Husband,Michael Ross ’42, DVM ’45.

’43—Everett R. Schieven of Webster, NY, Feb-ruary 14, 2004; building contractor; WebsterSchool employee; veteran.

’43 BEE—Douglas B. Whitney of Lexington,MA, September 22, 2004; electrical engineer.Theta Xi. Wife, Elspeth (Paterson) ’40.

’44 BME—William S. Brucker of Baltimore,MD, May 8, 2004. Kappa Delta Rho.

’44, BS Ag ’47, PhD ’55—Charles R. Freitagof Cheverly, MD, January 31, 2002; retiredbotanist.

’45—Franklin W. Broadwell of Waterport, NY,August 22, 2004. Alpha Zeta.

’46—Jerry E. DuMont of Malone, NY, October25, 2003.

’46 MEd, EdD ’56—Harold J. Keeler of NewBraunfels, TX, formerly of Jacksonville, AL, Feb-ruary 24, 2004; retired educator, SUNY Oswegoand U. of South Florida, Tampa.

’46 BA—Stephen A. Tower of Houston, TX,November 7, 2000; petroleum entrepreneur;founder, Ranger Markets; attorney; veteran;active in civic, community, professional, andalumni affairs.

’46 MS HE—Alice Collings Ward of Oakland,CA, August 12, 2004.

’48 MS, PhD ’51—Kenneth P. Coffin of Oberlin,OH, May 9, 2004; retired from NASA LewisResearch Center. Wife, Frances (Dunkle), PhD ’50.

’49 MS HE—Edna E. Busekist of Mankato,MN, July 4, 1999; home economist.

’49-50 GR—Donald F. Clapp of Rochester, NY,August 16, 2002.

’49 JD—James J. Clinch Jr. of Westbury, NY,October 24, 1999; retired professor, NassauCommunity College.

Alumni Deaths


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’55 BA—Judith L. Greenfield of New York City,November 21, 2004; news researcher, New YorkTimes; active in alumni affairs.

’56 M Ed—Angela Delleplane Block (Mrs.James D., PhD ’54) of New York City, November7, 2004; retired psychologist.

’56 GR—Carmen Daines Fredrickson of Logan,UT, January 3, 1983.

’57, BS Hotel ’58—Samuel C. Bookbinder Jr. ofKing of Prussia, PA, December 24, 2004; restau-rateur; owner, Bookbinder’s 15th Street SeafoodHouse in Philadelphia; partner in many seafoodrestaurants; veteran; active in civic, community,professional, religious, and alumni affairs. PhiDelta Theta.

’57 MS HE—Morell Johnson Darko of Rome,GA, June 12, 2004.

’57 BA—Lois Ernstoff Stekler of Bethesda, MD,November 25, 2004; active in religious andalumni affairs.

’58 BA—Mary Coombs Florentine of CherryHill, NJ, February 25, 2004; worked for Wee Love.

’59 BS HE—Ann Byrne Miniutti of Bryn Mawr,PA, November 8, 2004; director, Lehigh U. Cen-tennial School. Husband, John R. Miniutti ’58,BME ’59.

’59 PhD—Herbert Rosenkranz of Boca Raton,FL, formerly of Pittsburgh, PA, November 27,2004; biochemist; pioneered predictive toxicol-ogy; former chair, dept. of environmental andoccupational health, U. of Pittsburgh; alsotaught at Columbia, Case Western Reserve, andFlorida Atlantic universities; active in profes-sional affairs.

’59—Richard G. Talboys of Miami, FL, June 20,2000. Pi Kappa Phi.

’63 BS Ag—David W. Nickles of Ghent, NY,June 13, 2004.

’64-66 GR—Peter D. Mollemet of Memphis,TN, November 18, 2004; engineer; nationalbridge tournament director; manager of inter-net services, American Contract Bridge League.

’65, BS Ag ’66—Frank C. Brundage Jr. ofRushville, NY, November 30, 2004.

’66 PhD—Michael Cohen of San Francisco, CA,May 19, 2004.

’67 PhD—H. Lewis McKinney of Lawrence, KS,February 5, 2004.

’68 BA—Thomas A. Bodden of Wailuku, HI,February 29, 2004; attorney. Alpha Delta Phi.

’69, BArch ’70—Joel L. Bostick of Syracuse, NY,November 8, 2004; professor, Syracuse U. Schoolof Architecture.

’69 PhD—John L. Edwards Jr. of Burlington,NC, August 4, 2003; microbiologist; veteran.

’70 PhD—Frederick C. Drake of Peterborough,Ontario, June 18, 2002; history professor, Brock U.

’72—Brenda J. Fitzgerald of Richmond, VA,November 18, 2004; retired project manager,AVAYA Systems.

’73 BEE, MEE ’74—Richard N. Wilson of Shel-burne, VT, November 24, 2004; electrical engi-neer, IBM; active in community affairs. Delta Chi.

’73 JD—Sherwin V. Wittman II of ColoradoSprings, CO, November 5, 2004; attorney.

’74 PhD—Cyril E. Sagan of Volant, PA, Septem-ber 22, 2004; professor emeritus of chemistry, Slip-pery Rock U.; veteran; active in professional affairs.

’79 MS Ag—Jerry H. Mulcahy of Crompond,NY, November 21, 2004; owner, Mulcahy’s Gar-dening Service.

’79 PhD—Kenneth W. Schaar of Ruston, LA,December 1, 2003; professor, Louisiana Tech.

’81—David E. Choquette of Foster, RI, July 17,2002. Alpha Sigma Phi.

’81 JD—Joseph T. Rotondo of Phoenix, AZ,November 28, 2004; real estate attorney, City ofPhoenix, AZ.

’86 PhD—Juan A. Pastor of San José, CostaRica, November 29, 2004; associate professor, U.de Costa Rica; expert on high-strength concrete;owner, banana plantation; active in professionalaffairs. Chi Epsilon.

’87—Nimish V. Oza of Houston, TX, Septem-ber 15, 1994.

’87 BS Ag—Jonathan S. Weinstein of Doyles-town, PA, November 28, 2004; owner, homeentertainment system business; active in com-munity affairs. Delta Phi.

’89 PhD—Robert J. Carsky of Washington, DC,November 6, 2004; soil scientist and cropresearcher; worked on humanitarian aid in IvoryCoast and other West African countries; formerPeace Corps officer; active in community affairs.Wife, Rebecca (Khelseau), PhD ’85.

’89 BS Ag—Jeffrey J. Seymour of Buffalo, NY,January 15, 1997.

’89 BS Ag—Philip A. Zach of Spencer, NY,December 20, 2004.

’03—Jordan A. Ressler of La Jolla, CA, Novem-ber 7, 2004; film studies major; worked for LaJolla Playhouse.

’04 GR—Nilanjan Banerjee of Ottawa, Ontario,Canada, November 26, 2004; Johnson Schoolgraduate student.


A L U M N I D E A T H S

Wherecan you turn?When the advice matters,look to your alma mater.

Cornell UniversityOffice of Trusts,

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Cayuga SocietyHonoring those who haveremembered Cornell in theirwill or through a planned gift.


once marched across in close order.By 1959, Wyckoff ’s bridge was finally

deemed unsafe and dismantled. The cur-rent bridge, which opened in January 1961and cost $75,000, proved to be a majorupgrade. Designed by civil engineeringprofessor Solomon Hollister and built byBethlehem Steel—the same firm thaterected San Francisco’s Golden GateBridge—it was a stout 270-foot span sus-pended on two-inch-thick main cablesfrom twin forty-one-foot towers, with aconcrete walkway wide enough to accom-modate snowplows in winter. “I doubtthat so much high-level talent was everspent on such a small bridge,” said engi-neering professor William McGuire, MCE’47, an assistant on the project, in 2001.

The modern bridge’s reassuring solid-ity and safety railings may inspire moreconfidence, but some of the romance anddrama seems to have disappeared withWyckoff ’s old creation, as a Daily Sun edi-torial opined in 1961: “I mean, you knowyou’re going to make it before you startout. So why bother?”

— Michael Morisy ’07


Cornelliana

Brand newspan: The refurbishedsuspensionbridge and itscirca-1900predecessor

Suspense StoryTHE SWINGING LIFE AND TIMES OF THE

FALL CREEK SUSPENSION BRIDGE

dential neighborhood. (Wyckoff suppos-edly drew up the plans as a project for anengineering course—which he failed.)While more robust than its predecessor, itsheight, tendency to sway, and narrowwalkway—half as wide as the modernbridge—made for unsettling passages.Henry Jacoby, a turn-of-the-century engi-neering professor, supposedly refused tocross it, instead trekking to the sturdierCollege Avenue bridge. Others were lesscautious: according to the March 1961Alumni News, an entire ROTC company

a NIGHTTIME CROSSING OF THEFall Creek suspension bridge goesa long way toward explaining the

mythology that surrounds it. A pair offloodlights casts a web of shadows over thearcing span, surrounded on all sides bydarkness. It is a distinctly eerie passagefrom the Arts Quad on one side to CornellHeights on the other, steel cables quiver-ing as water rushes 138 feet below. Cam-pus legend has long insisted that a mid-night kiss shared here marks a couple formarriage. Rebuffing an advance can be justas perilous. “Everybody knows that if yourefuse a kiss, the bridge will collapse,” onecoy female student says. “A guy told methat, and I didn’t really believe him, butbetter safe than sorry.”

This past summer, the bridge receivedsome preventive maintenance to ensure itwill remain safe for years to come. Work-ers replaced rusting cover plates, applieda slip-resistant surface to the deck, andgave it a fresh coat of blue-gray paint. Thefacelift is the first major work done on thebridge since the late 1970s, according toUniversity structural engineer GaryKachinsky.

Three bridges have spanned Fall Creeksince the University’s founding, the first alow-slung structure sited 500 feetupstream of the current position. Around1900 it was replaced by a delicate-lookingsteel suspension bridge designed andfinanced by Edward Wyckoff 1889, thetypewriter heir who was then developingthe farmland across the gorge into a resi- LISA FRANK

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