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<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
Fall 2012<br />
TODAY<br />
Good<br />
Chemistry<br />
James J. Valentini<br />
Transitions from<br />
Longtime Professor<br />
to Dean of the<br />
<strong>College</strong>
your<br />
columbia<br />
connection.<br />
the perfect midtown location:<br />
• network with <strong>Columbia</strong> alumni<br />
• Attend exciting events and programs<br />
• Dine with a client<br />
• Conduct business meetings<br />
• take advantage of overnight rooms<br />
and so much more.<br />
COVER STORY<br />
Contents<br />
FEATURES<br />
40 The Home<br />
Front<br />
Ai-jen Poo ’96 gives domestic<br />
workers a voice.<br />
By Nathalie Alonso ’08<br />
28 Stand and<br />
Deliver<br />
Joel Klein ’67’s extraordinary<br />
career <strong>as</strong> an attorney,<br />
educator and reformer.<br />
By Chris Burrell<br />
18 Good Chemistry<br />
James J. Valentini transitions from longtime professor of<br />
chemistry to Dean of the <strong>College</strong>. Meet him in <strong>this</strong> Q&A<br />
with CCT Editor Alex Sachare ’71.<br />
apply for<br />
membership today!<br />
15 West 43 street<br />
neW york, ny 10036<br />
tel: 212.719.0380<br />
in residence at The Princeton Club<br />
of New York<br />
34 The Open<br />
Mind of Richard<br />
Heffner ’46<br />
The venerable PBS host<br />
provides a forum for guests<br />
to examine, question and<br />
disagree.<br />
By Thom<strong>as</strong> Vinciguerra ’85,<br />
’86J, ’90 GSAS<br />
www.columbiaclub.org<br />
COVER: LESLIE JEAN-BART ’76, ’77J; BACK COVER: COLIN SULLIVAN ’11
3 Within the Family<br />
4 Letters to the<br />
Editor<br />
6 Around the Quads<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> hosts Dartmouth<br />
at Homecoming on Saturday,<br />
October 20.<br />
16 Roar, Lion, Roar<br />
DEPARTMENTS<br />
Celebrate Homecoming 2012 on Saturday, October 20.<br />
Like <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> on<br />
Facebook: facebook.com/<br />
columbiacollege1754<br />
Follow @<strong>Columbia</strong>_CCAA<br />
on Twitter<br />
Join the <strong>Columbia</strong> Alumni<br />
Association Network on<br />
LinkedIn: alumni.columbia.<br />
edu/linkedin<br />
44 <strong>Columbia</strong> Forum:<br />
<strong>College</strong>: What It W<strong>as</strong>,<br />
Is, and Should Be<br />
A reflection on college and<br />
the role it should play in our<br />
challenging times.<br />
By Andrew Delbanco<br />
49 Message from the<br />
CCAA President<br />
Kyra Tirana Barry ’87 on<br />
the successful inaugural<br />
summer of alumnisponsored<br />
internships.<br />
50 Bookshelf<br />
52 Obituaries<br />
56 Cl<strong>as</strong>s Notes<br />
85 Alumni Sons and<br />
Daughters<br />
Alumni Profiles<br />
70 Robert Shlaer ’63<br />
91 Macky Alston ’87<br />
99 Alexandra Epstein ’07<br />
Robert Shlaer ’63<br />
WEB EXTRAS<br />
ALUMNI NEWS<br />
5 More Minutes with Robert Y. Shapiro<br />
Listen to Performances by Anthony da Costa ’13<br />
Ai-jen Poo ’96 Speaks Up for Domestic Workers<br />
Gallery of Daguerreotypes by Robert Shlaer ’63<br />
Watch the Trailer for Macky Alston ’87’s<br />
Documentary Love Free or Die<br />
Overtime with Football Coach Pete Mangurian<br />
Thank You to Our Fiscal Year 2012 Donors<br />
college.columbia.edu/cct<br />
104 Alumni Corner<br />
Ben Ratliff ’90 rediscovers<br />
the haven of Butler Library,<br />
especially the stacks.<br />
Pete Mangurian is the 10th head football coach since<br />
I came to <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>as</strong> a freshman in 1967. (Yes, we<br />
were “freshmen” then, not “first-years,” and we even<br />
wore beanies during Orientation — but that’s a story<br />
for another time.) Since then, <strong>Columbia</strong> h<strong>as</strong> compiled<br />
exactly three winning records in 45 se<strong>as</strong>ons of football.<br />
So what makes Mangurian think he can succeed where Buff Donelli<br />
(with the 1961 championship team — al<strong>as</strong>, before my time —<br />
<strong>as</strong> a striking exception); Frank Navarro; Bill Campbell ’62, ’64 TC;<br />
Bob N<strong>as</strong>o; Jim Garrett; Larry McElreavy; Ray Tellier; Bob Shoop;<br />
and Norries Wilson largely did not?<br />
“I’ve been doing <strong>this</strong> for 33 years,” Mangurian<br />
said in August <strong>as</strong> he prepared for the start of his<br />
first se<strong>as</strong>on at <strong>Columbia</strong>. “I’ve been fortunate to be<br />
around some very successful programs. I’ve been to<br />
what people in the football world would consider<br />
the pinnacle, the Super Bowl, and I’ve worked in<br />
organizations that are arguably the best in football.<br />
Hopefully, I’ve picked some things up along the way.<br />
“One of the biggest lessons you learn in <strong>this</strong><br />
game is to evaluate the situation objectively, have a<br />
clear idea of where it is you actually want to go and<br />
what you want to accomplish, then use your experience<br />
and the experience of others to put together a<br />
road map to get there.”<br />
Mangurian, a former <strong>as</strong>sistant coach with five<br />
NFL teams and head coach at Cornell from 1998–2000, is not<br />
about to accept the status quo.<br />
“I’m not a believer in ‘That’s just the way it is and it’s always<br />
going to be that way,’” he declared. “I’m not really interested in the<br />
pitfalls and the things that have come before. Believe me, every day<br />
I face, ‘Well, that won’t work’ or ‘That’s not the way it is’ or ‘Those<br />
people won’t cooperate with you.’ It’s myriad things every time<br />
we turn around. My answer to that at <strong>this</strong> point is, ‘Why?’ And I<br />
usually don’t get a very good answer, because the person I’m talking<br />
to w<strong>as</strong>n’t even around when that problem took place.”<br />
One example, he said, is the misperception that the <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
faculty does not support athletics.<br />
“That’s not true,” he said. “The faculty is more than willing to<br />
help reach the objective, which is to make sure that these young<br />
men get the education they need and have experiences they need<br />
and still be successful at football. They have no problem with<br />
that. There’s no difference between going to practice and doing<br />
your homework — you’re practicing for the test. When you put<br />
things in that perspective, it’s e<strong>as</strong>y to see.”<br />
Mangurian, whose Cornell teams went from 1–6 in Ivy play<br />
in his first se<strong>as</strong>on to 5–2 in each of the next two years, values the<br />
journey <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> the destination.<br />
“If there’s anything that really defines how I approach things,<br />
it would be <strong>this</strong>: It’s great to have a goal, everybody h<strong>as</strong> them,<br />
but the real work is how you get there. A lot of times we focus<br />
so much on the goal, we don’t focus on how we are going to get<br />
W I T H I N T H E F A M I L Y<br />
Déjà Vu All Over Again or<br />
The Start of Something New?<br />
PHOTO: EILEEN BARROSO<br />
there, the methods to achieve that goal. The goal will happen if<br />
you do the other things along the way.”<br />
Still, there’s no substitute for the goal, what Mangurian calls<br />
the “W word.”<br />
“The bottom line is winning,” he said. “I’m not going to mince<br />
words on that. It’s winning. That’s life. I have three kids and I’ve<br />
been through <strong>this</strong> ‘everybody gets a trophy’ deal. And I get it,<br />
to a certain extent. But the real world doesn’t work that way. It<br />
doesn’t work that way in business, it doesn’t work that way in<br />
the cl<strong>as</strong>sroom. You get an A or you get a B, and it’s hard to get an<br />
A. A’s are special.<br />
“It’s about winning. It’s about being successful.<br />
But what everybody h<strong>as</strong> to understand is that if<br />
you do win, then you learned a lot and accomplished<br />
a lot along the journey. It w<strong>as</strong>n’t just the<br />
destination.”<br />
The Lions began their journey with 12 days of<br />
spring practice, where Mangurian got to see returning<br />
players firsthand, and continued through<br />
prese<strong>as</strong>on training camp, where he focused on the<br />
32-member cl<strong>as</strong>s of first-year players. His objective<br />
in both, rather than to install specific schemes or<br />
plays, he said, w<strong>as</strong> to find out which players he can<br />
depend upon.<br />
“We put a lot more emph<strong>as</strong>is on finding out who<br />
we could trust,” he said. “Who’s going to do the<br />
things we <strong>as</strong>k him to do when we <strong>as</strong>k him to do it? Who can we<br />
count on? We believe in putting more pressure on them in practice<br />
than they’ll probably have in a game. I guarantee you there will be<br />
a little bit of relief when these guys get to go out and play and we’re<br />
not standing right behind them, getting on them. But I think you<br />
have to harden them. You have to put them on the anvil and hit<br />
them with the hammer and make them harder, so that when it gets<br />
tough they’ll be able to respond. It’s no different from a professor<br />
who teaches his or her cl<strong>as</strong>s and makes them study. It’s no different.”<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong>’s first exam, if you will, comes against Marist on<br />
September 15, with its first Ivy League test against Princeton on<br />
September 29, both at home. The offense figures to revolve around<br />
quarterback Sean Brackett ’13, the team’s leading rusher <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong><br />
p<strong>as</strong>ser l<strong>as</strong>t se<strong>as</strong>on. Mangurian is hoping some of his young players<br />
will bolster a defense that features linemen Seyi Adabayo ’13<br />
and Josh Martin ’13 and linebacker Zach Olinger ’14, but which<br />
allowed 32.8 points per game l<strong>as</strong>t se<strong>as</strong>on.<br />
The Lions were 1–9 l<strong>as</strong>t se<strong>as</strong>on, the lone victory being a 35–28<br />
decision over Brown in two overtimes in their se<strong>as</strong>on finale.<br />
“We’ll be better,” Mangurian said. The journey will determine<br />
how much better.<br />
For more from CCT’s interview with Mangurian, go to Web Extr<strong>as</strong> at<br />
college.columbia.edu/cct.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
3
Volume 40 Number 1<br />
Fall 2012<br />
EDITOR AND PUBLISHER<br />
Alex Sachare ’71<br />
EXECUTIVE EDITOR<br />
Lisa Palladino<br />
MANAGING EDITOR<br />
Alexis Tonti ’11 Arts<br />
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT<br />
Karen Iorio<br />
FORUM EDITOR<br />
Rose Kernochan ’82 Barnard<br />
CONTRIBUTING WRITER<br />
Shira Boss ’93, ’97J, ’98 SIPA<br />
DESIGN CONSULTANT<br />
Jean-Claude Suarès<br />
ART DIRECTOR<br />
Gates Sisters Studio<br />
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS<br />
Eileen Barroso<br />
Leslie Jean-Bart ’76, ’77J<br />
Randy Monceaux<br />
Daniel Portalatin<br />
William Taufic<br />
Published quarterly by the<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Office of<br />
Alumni Affairs and Development for<br />
alumni, students, faculty, parents and<br />
friends of <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong>.<br />
Address all correspondence to:<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Today<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> Alumni Center<br />
622 W. 113th St., MC 4530, 1st Fl.<br />
New York, NY 10025<br />
212-851-7852<br />
E-mail (editorial): cct@columbia.edu;<br />
(advertising): cctadvertising@columbia.edu.<br />
Online: college.columbia.edu/cct.<br />
ISSN 0572-7820<br />
Opinions expressed are those of the<br />
authors and do not reflect official<br />
positions of <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
or <strong>Columbia</strong> University.<br />
© 2012 <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Today<br />
All rights reserved.<br />
Letters to the Editor<br />
The Obam<strong>as</strong><br />
I recognize the justifiable pride the <strong>College</strong><br />
community and even the broader University<br />
community takes in the fact that President<br />
Obama is an alum [Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1983].<br />
However, I am getting a bit tired of the<br />
obsessive articles on the President and the<br />
many <strong>College</strong> alums who participate in<br />
Democratic politics or “progressive” political<br />
activity. The item that put me over the<br />
edge w<strong>as</strong> the [Summer 2012] cover story<br />
on The Obam<strong>as</strong>.<br />
There seems to be an <strong>as</strong>sumption on the<br />
part of the editor and contributing writers<br />
that the <strong>College</strong> community is composed<br />
wholly of political participants from one<br />
side of the spectrum. I am sure that one<br />
can find alums who participate and contribute<br />
meaningfully from the other side<br />
of the spectrum. And yes, I am a Republican.<br />
I know of such people.<br />
The <strong>College</strong> and my education have<br />
been instructive to my p<strong>as</strong>t and current activities<br />
in politics and public policy work.<br />
I would think there would be others if one<br />
were inclined to try to find them.<br />
Scott Miller ’82<br />
Annapolis, Md.<br />
Wally Broecker ’53<br />
I w<strong>as</strong> delighted with the Summer 2012 article<br />
by Timothy Cross ’98 GSAS about Wally<br />
Broecker ’53, ’58 GSAS. I w<strong>as</strong> aware of his<br />
work, early on, not through <strong>Columbia</strong> but<br />
through my work in the Atomic Energy<br />
Commission, its short-lived successor the<br />
Energy Research and Development Administration<br />
and then the Department of<br />
Energy. Most of my years there I worked in<br />
the office supporting b<strong>as</strong>ic research in universities<br />
and our national laboratories.<br />
I always wondered why I never ran<br />
into Wally in the <strong>College</strong> whenever I w<strong>as</strong><br />
reminded on paper that he w<strong>as</strong> a member<br />
of my Cl<strong>as</strong>s of ’53; I w<strong>as</strong> delighted to learn<br />
why in the article. Professor [J. Laurence]<br />
Kulp and the registrar “did good” — but he<br />
should have had to p<strong>as</strong>s the swimming test!<br />
One of Wally’s important contributions<br />
beyond his research is his outstanding ability<br />
to communicate his work, its results and<br />
its significance to society. I suspect he often<br />
w<strong>as</strong> faced with significant frustration in<br />
dealing with bureaucracies <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> with<br />
those who, even today, do not accept the<br />
facts.<br />
What prompted <strong>this</strong> letter w<strong>as</strong> the deserved<br />
recognition given to [Lands’ End<br />
founder] Gary Comer for his significant<br />
contribution to <strong>Columbia</strong> in support of<br />
Wally’s outstanding scientific work and<br />
continuing contribution to society.<br />
While the deserved recognition for Wally’s<br />
work, the National Medal of Science, is<br />
properly highlighted, the significant sup-<br />
Wally Broecker ’53, ’58 GSAS spoke of<br />
his teaching experiences at a celebration<br />
in 2010 at the Lamont-Doherty Earth<br />
Observatory.<br />
PHOTO: COURTESY LAMONT-DOHERTY EARTH<br />
OBSERVATORY<br />
port for research supported by the federal<br />
government through the years is not noted.<br />
I’m guessing that the opportunity Professor<br />
Kulp had to support a research <strong>as</strong>sistant<br />
in his radiocarbon counting lab in the early<br />
’50s may have been due to an AEC contract<br />
he had. What if the budget cutters were active<br />
then?<br />
David M. Richman ’53, ’56E<br />
North Bethesda, Md.<br />
Former Students<br />
As usual, I found much more to read in the<br />
Summer 2012 <strong>issue</strong> of CCT than I thought<br />
I would. However, with great respect, I<br />
take exception to the term “former students”<br />
for “alumni” in [CCAA President]<br />
Kyra Tirana Barry ’87’s message. She does<br />
attribute the term to Dean Valentini (congratulations<br />
to him!), so I must take exception<br />
to his use of the term <strong>as</strong> well.<br />
One of the many things that came out of<br />
my education at <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> in the<br />
early 1960s is the notion that <strong>as</strong> intelligent<br />
and educated people, we are students until<br />
we die. Indeed, that sense probably is present,<br />
perhaps not yet consciously, in everyone<br />
admitted to the <strong>College</strong>, and probably<br />
h<strong>as</strong> something to do with their admission<br />
in the first instance. While we no longer<br />
regularly attend cl<strong>as</strong>ses and don’t work for<br />
grades, we always are disposed to learn<br />
things from anyone and everyone who<br />
knows something that we don’t know,<br />
who may have an insight that may be interesting<br />
or worthwhile, who may have<br />
experiences from which we might benefit<br />
from knowing about. And just <strong>as</strong> a teacher<br />
sometimes learns something from his or<br />
her students, so we sometimes enlighten<br />
those from whom we learn <strong>as</strong> well.<br />
Let’s ple<strong>as</strong>e stick to “alumni.”<br />
Ed Steinberg ’64, ’66 Arch.<br />
White Plains, N.Y.<br />
[Editor’s note: Valentini explains his preference<br />
for the term “former students” in <strong>this</strong> <strong>issue</strong>’s<br />
cover story.]<br />
An Alumnus’ Thanks<br />
On May 1, former dean of Barnard Dorothy<br />
Denburg and I were honored by the<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong>/Barnard Hillel and the Kraft<br />
Center at their annual dinner. During the<br />
course of my few words of appreciation in<br />
accepting the honor, I referenced my education<br />
at <strong>Columbia</strong> (Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1953) and it<br />
w<strong>as</strong> suggested to me that I send you what<br />
I said about that education.<br />
I owe so much to <strong>this</strong> great university<br />
for the wonderful education I received. The<br />
Jack Beeson<br />
PHOTO: WILLIAM E. BARKSDALE<br />
world of western civilization opened before<br />
me in the Contemporary Civilization<br />
and Humanities courses. Through them, I<br />
formed intellectual relationships with some<br />
of the greatest minds in human history. My<br />
Art Humanities course w<strong>as</strong> a revelation<br />
to me, <strong>as</strong> I w<strong>as</strong> a virtual ignoramus in that<br />
field. My Music Humanities course with<br />
Professor Jack Beeson, then just an instructor<br />
and not yet a famous composer, and my<br />
opera course with Professor Otto Leuning<br />
— I will never forget his long arms waving<br />
<strong>as</strong> a conductor in his discussions and dramatizations<br />
of opera — greatly enhanced<br />
my natural talent in, and love for, music,<br />
and gave me a deeper understanding of<br />
music that enriches my life to <strong>this</strong> day.<br />
I had the opportunity to be taught by<br />
great faculty such <strong>as</strong> Professor Irwin Edman<br />
(Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1916) in philosophy, Professor<br />
David Truman in government and, for<br />
me, the most wonderful of them all, Professor<br />
Henry Graff ’49 GSAS in American<br />
history. Professor Graff is one of the few<br />
people who still calls me Hacky. We formed<br />
a lifelong friendship and <strong>as</strong>sociation. He<br />
h<strong>as</strong> been to my synagogue any number of<br />
times to discuss the presidency and, occ<strong>as</strong>ionally,<br />
a forthcoming election. It would<br />
have been worth coming to <strong>Columbia</strong> just<br />
to meet him.<br />
Rabbi H<strong>as</strong>kel Lookstein ’53<br />
New York City<br />
Corrections<br />
The Spring 2012 feature “The Full Spectrum,”<br />
profiling FCC Chairman Julius<br />
Genachowski ’85, contained three factual<br />
errors. Genachowski majored in history,<br />
not art history; his son attends Kenyon,<br />
Henry Graff ’49 GSAS<br />
not Michigan; and he did not ever share<br />
an apartment with former Rep. Anthony<br />
Weiner.<br />
The Alumni Corner about Lou Gehrig<br />
’25 in the same <strong>issue</strong> incorrectly listed the<br />
date of his famous “luckiest man on the<br />
face of the Earth” speech, due to an error<br />
in editing. The speech took place at a ceremony<br />
in Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939.<br />
CCT regrets the errors.<br />
Manage Your<br />
Subscription<br />
If you prefer reading CCT online, you<br />
can help us go green and save money<br />
by opting out of the print edition. Click<br />
“Manage Your Subscription” at college.<br />
columbia.edu/cct and follow the domestic<br />
instructions. We will continue to<br />
notify you by email when each <strong>issue</strong> is<br />
posted online. You may be reinstated to<br />
receive the print edition at any time by<br />
sending a note to cct@columbia.edu.<br />
CCT welcomes letters from readers about<br />
articles in the magazine but cannot<br />
print or personally respond to all letters<br />
received. Letters express the views of<br />
the writers and not CCT, the <strong>College</strong> or<br />
the University. Ple<strong>as</strong>e keep letters to 250<br />
words or fewer. All letters are subject to<br />
editing for space and clarity. Ple<strong>as</strong>e direct<br />
letters for publication “to the editor” via<br />
mail or online: college.columbia.edu/cct/<br />
contactus.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
4<br />
FALL 2012<br />
5
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
AROUND THE QUADS<br />
AROUND<br />
THE<br />
QUADS<br />
Homecoming 2012 Pits<br />
Lions vs. Dartmouth<br />
Campbell Sports Center benefactor William V. Campbell ’62, ’64 TC and Athletics Director<br />
M. Dianne Murphy at the center’s groundbreaking at Homecoming 2011.<br />
PHOTOS: EILEEN BARROSO<br />
Campbell Sports<br />
Center Dedication<br />
11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.<br />
All Homecoming attendees are<br />
invited to the dedication of The<br />
Campbell Sports Center, the new<br />
cornerstone of the revitalized Baker<br />
Athletics Complex. The center will<br />
foster <strong>Columbia</strong> spirit and transform<br />
the student-athlete experience by<br />
creating an attractive year-round<br />
hub for student-athletes, coaches,<br />
staff and administrators. The center<br />
honors, and is made possible by, one<br />
of <strong>Columbia</strong>’s most accomplished<br />
athletics alumni: captain of the 1961<br />
Ivy League Champion football team,<br />
former Lions head football coach,<br />
“Coach of Silicon Valley” and chair<br />
of the University trustees, William V.<br />
Campbell ’62, ’64 TC.<br />
Schiller To Be Presented 2012 Alexander Hamilton Medal<br />
The Lions take on the Big Green at Homecoming on Saturday, October 20. The day features fun activities for <strong>Columbia</strong>ns of all ages.<br />
Baker Athletics Complex will<br />
be the site of Homecoming<br />
2012 on Saturday, October 20,<br />
featuring the pregame picnic<br />
lunch under the Big Tent, the<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> Homecoming Carnival and the<br />
Lions taking on the Big Green. An extra<br />
highlight <strong>this</strong> year will be the dedication<br />
of The Campbell Sports Center (see box<br />
at right).<br />
The festivities start at 11 a.m. with a<br />
hearty barbecue buffet, open until 1:30<br />
p.m. Picnic tickets are $20 for adults and<br />
$10 for children under 12 if purch<strong>as</strong>ed<br />
online by Thursday, October 18: college.<br />
columbia.edu/alumni/homecoming.<br />
Picnic tickets also are available on site:<br />
$22 for adults and $12 for children.<br />
Each ticket includes an all-you-can-eat<br />
lunch, soft drinks and admittance to the<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> Homecoming Carnival. Beer,<br />
wine and cocktails are available at an additional<br />
cost. There also will be limited<br />
c<strong>as</strong>h-and-carry items. The <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
Alumni Association will sponsor halftime<br />
refreshments under the Big Tent.<br />
The <strong>Columbia</strong> Homecoming Carnival<br />
opens at 11 a.m. and stays open until 3 p.m.<br />
with face painting, balloon making, magic,<br />
games, prizes and interactive activities.<br />
The Ivy League football matchup, the<br />
first Homecoming game for new Lions<br />
coach Pete Mangurian, kicks off at Robert<br />
K. Kraft Field at 1:30 p.m. To purch<strong>as</strong>e<br />
football tickets, which are separate from<br />
picnic tickets, call 888-LIONS-11 or<br />
purch<strong>as</strong>e online: gocolumbialions.com/<br />
tickets. Premium chairback seats are $25<br />
and reserved bench seats are $15.<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> University Athletics will<br />
sponsor complimentary shuttle buses<br />
from the Morningside campus to and<br />
from Baker Athletics Complex beginning<br />
at 11 a.m. and returning immediately following<br />
the game. Campus pickup will be<br />
from the gates at West 116th Street and<br />
Broadway.<br />
Fans also may use m<strong>as</strong>s transit. The A<br />
and 1 subways <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> the M100, Bx20<br />
and Bx7 buses stop near Baker. If traveling<br />
by Metro-North Railroad, the Marble<br />
Hill station is on the north shore of Spuyten<br />
Duyvil, just across the Broadway<br />
Bridge from the complex.<br />
On-site preferred parking is available<br />
only to those making qualifying gifts to<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> football. Single-game parking<br />
p<strong>as</strong>ses are not available. Fans without<br />
on-site preferred parking p<strong>as</strong>ses will be<br />
directed to public parking facilities.<br />
For more information about game day,<br />
the picnic and parking, visit www.go<br />
columbialions.com/footballgameday.<br />
Jonathan Schiller ’69, ’73L will be presented<br />
the 2012 Alexander Hamilton<br />
Medal on Thursday, November 15,<br />
at the Alexander Hamilton Award<br />
Dinner, an annual black-tie event<br />
in Low Rotunda. The medal, the highest<br />
honor paid to a member of the <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong> community, is awarded by the<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Alumni Association<br />
to an alumnus/a or faculty member for<br />
distinguished service to the <strong>College</strong> and<br />
accomplishment in any field of endeavor.<br />
Schiller, a University trustee and a<br />
member of the Dean’s Council of the Law<br />
School, received a John Jay Award for<br />
distinguished professional achievement<br />
in 2006. He w<strong>as</strong> a member of the 1967–68<br />
Ivy League Championship b<strong>as</strong>ketball<br />
team and w<strong>as</strong> inducted with that squad<br />
into the <strong>Columbia</strong> University Athletics<br />
Hall of Fame in February 2006.<br />
The Jonathan D. Schiller Endowment<br />
in International Human Rights w<strong>as</strong> created<br />
in 2006 at the Law School by the<br />
Schiller family and provides funding<br />
for summer fellowships in international<br />
human rights. Schiller’s most recent commitments<br />
to the <strong>College</strong> include establishing<br />
the Jonathan Schiller Scholarship<br />
Fund in June 2011.<br />
As co-founder and managing partner<br />
of Boies, Schiller & Flexner, Schiller h<strong>as</strong><br />
more than 35 years of experience trying<br />
c<strong>as</strong>es throughout the United States and<br />
is recognized <strong>as</strong> a leading practitioner in<br />
international arbitration. He w<strong>as</strong> elected<br />
a fellow of the American Bar Foundation<br />
and appointed to the Milan Chamber of<br />
Commerce Club of Arbitrators. He also<br />
w<strong>as</strong> appointed to the Board of Trustees of<br />
the Supreme Court Historical Society in<br />
W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C.<br />
Schiller w<strong>as</strong> recognized by Who’s Who<br />
Legal <strong>as</strong> one of the most highly regarded<br />
individuals, “the real deal,” in its listing<br />
of the Top Ten International Commercial<br />
Litigators for 2011. He also w<strong>as</strong> recently<br />
cited by Lawdragon <strong>as</strong> one of its “500<br />
Leading Lawyers in America” for the<br />
sixth consecutive year. Chambers and<br />
Partners, a legal research organization<br />
that publishes annual peer-reviewed<br />
evaluations of the world’s leading law<br />
firms and lawyers, recognized Schiller “<strong>as</strong><br />
a leading practitioner in the field of international<br />
arbitration,” and The US Legal<br />
500 2010 Guide to the World’s Leading Lawyers<br />
named him <strong>as</strong> “one of the premier<br />
international arbitration attorneys in the<br />
world” and “a se<strong>as</strong>oned practitioner with<br />
an impressive reputation.” He also w<strong>as</strong><br />
named “Litigator of the Week” by American<br />
Lawyer earlier <strong>this</strong> year following<br />
Barclays’ successful trial defense against<br />
$13 billion in claims sought by Lehman<br />
Brothers bankruptcy estates.<br />
Schiller is married to Marla Prather ’88<br />
GSAS, who earned a m<strong>as</strong>ter’s in art history.<br />
Their sons also are <strong>Columbia</strong> alumni:<br />
Zachary ’01, Joshua ’08L and Aaron ’06.<br />
For more information on the dinner,<br />
contact Robin Vanderputten, <strong>as</strong>sociate<br />
director, <strong>College</strong> events and programs:<br />
robinv@columbia.edu or 212-851-7399.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
6<br />
FALL 2012<br />
7
AROUND THE QUADS COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY AROUND THE QUADS<br />
Encyclopaedia Iranica Project Reaches Milestone<br />
Ehsan Yarshater knows something<br />
about dedication. After four decades<br />
of work on the monumental<br />
Encyclopaedia Iranica, he announced<br />
the reference work h<strong>as</strong><br />
reached the midpoint of its completion: 15<br />
published volumes, reaching into the letter<br />
K. Yarshater, the Hagop Kevorkian Professor<br />
Emeritus of Iranian Studies, also h<strong>as</strong><br />
been the project’s primary fundraiser, successfully<br />
lobbying individual donors and<br />
the National Endowment for the Humanities<br />
(NEH) <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> contributing art and<br />
rare books for sale from his personal collection.<br />
Most recently, with the economy<br />
down and funding becoming scarce, he let<br />
go of a prized Rodin sculpture to support<br />
the cause.<br />
CCT first profiled Yarshater,<br />
who conceived the research and<br />
publishing project in 1972, in<br />
November 2003. At that time,<br />
the Encyclopaedia w<strong>as</strong> at letter<br />
H and its editors had started<br />
publishing entries online, out<br />
of alphabetical order. Now, all<br />
previously published volumes<br />
have been digitized into a free,<br />
searchable online version of the<br />
encyclopedia (iranicaonline.org)<br />
with 6,500 entries, including<br />
more than 850 entries published<br />
digitally in advance of eventual<br />
inclusion in the print volumes.<br />
“At a time when accurate<br />
information about Islam and<br />
Iran is overlooked by Americans<br />
in place of simplifications and<br />
sound bites, the editors of [Enclyclopaedia<br />
Iranica] are performing<br />
a public service by making authoritative<br />
articles by eminent academics freely available,”<br />
a reviewer for NEH wrote l<strong>as</strong>t year.<br />
“The quality, clarity and detail of the articles<br />
is remarkable. It is, bar none, the most<br />
accurate and trustworthy online resource I<br />
know of for information on Islam.”<br />
The Encyclopaedia covers not only Islam<br />
and the modern-day country of Iran but<br />
also the history, culture and science of all<br />
the lands that speak or once spoke any<br />
Iranian language. Another NEH reviewer<br />
called it “unequalled in the scholarly<br />
world for its depth, breadth and accessibility<br />
to academic and non-academic audiences<br />
alike.” At completion it will rival the<br />
length of some general encyclopedi<strong>as</strong>, but<br />
B y Shira Boss ’93, ’97J, ’98 SIPA<br />
Ehsan Yarshater, seen here in his office, h<strong>as</strong> dedicated 40 years to<br />
the Encyclopaedia Iranica project.<br />
PHOTO: MARCUS YAM/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX<br />
its anticipated 32–35 volumes are unique<br />
in their dedication to one country and one<br />
culture.<br />
The Encyclopaedia contains extensive<br />
essays on art, literature, religion, philosophy,<br />
geography, customs, architecture,<br />
flora and fauna. But even those labels are<br />
too broad: flora and fauna, for example,<br />
are considered not only in terms of botany<br />
and zoology but also in terms of the<br />
uses of plants and animals in folklore and<br />
popular medicine. More than 40 languages<br />
and dialects have been covered thus<br />
far, with explanations of their grammar<br />
and sample vocabularies. Various calendars<br />
and festivals are catalogued; the<br />
stars and constellations are explored <strong>as</strong><br />
<strong>as</strong>tronomy, <strong>as</strong>trology and folklore. Clothing<br />
through the er<strong>as</strong> and across provinces<br />
is described, not just the style but also the<br />
material, and not just the cloth but also<br />
the actual weaving (the subject spans 28<br />
articles). Entries extend right up to present-day<br />
topics, including Iranian cinema,<br />
ecology and feminist movements.<br />
The Encyclopaedia is limited in its progress<br />
by the scarcity of experts to cover such<br />
v<strong>as</strong>t ground. Scholars must be ferreted out<br />
globally and invited to write entries one at<br />
a time; more than 1,500 have contributed<br />
work so far. “If we had 2,000 scholars<br />
ready to write for us, the encyclopedia<br />
could finish in 1½ years,” Yarshater says.<br />
As it is, the project is expected to take nearly<br />
another decade. Moreover, the number<br />
of Iranian scholars is declining by attrition<br />
— Yarshater says today’s students cannot<br />
go to Iran to study <strong>as</strong> readily under the<br />
Islamic government, so they turn to other<br />
are<strong>as</strong> of the world. “The Encyclopaedia<br />
Iranica is not repeatable, because a number<br />
of elements came together and made it<br />
possible,” says Yarshater, who founded<br />
the University’s Center for Iranian Studies<br />
in 1968 and w<strong>as</strong> chair of the Department<br />
of Middle E<strong>as</strong>t and Asian Languages and<br />
Cultures from 1968–73. He founded the<br />
project at <strong>Columbia</strong> (before the 1979 Iranian<br />
revolution) out of frustration that there<br />
w<strong>as</strong> not an impartial and comprehensive<br />
pre-Islamic reference work in the field.<br />
The Encyclopaedia is among the longest<br />
continually funded projects (33 years)<br />
supported by the NEH, and<br />
private donors once generously<br />
supported it <strong>as</strong> well. In the recent<br />
recession, however, NEH<br />
funding h<strong>as</strong> been reduced to<br />
half what it once w<strong>as</strong> (though<br />
the project receives the current<br />
maximum amount possible for<br />
its category, $300,000 for two<br />
years). Private donors have<br />
largely snapped their purses<br />
shut, and gala benefit dinners<br />
— which used to raise a half<br />
million dollars at a time — have<br />
been on hold since 2007.<br />
Through the years, Yarshater’s<br />
own donations of books<br />
and art have been made via the<br />
Persian Heritage Foundation,<br />
which he formed in 1983 to<br />
support research on all <strong>as</strong>pects<br />
of the Iranian world. He’d resisted,<br />
however, when a representative of<br />
Christie’s auction house, who w<strong>as</strong> visiting<br />
his apartment on Riverside Drive, <strong>as</strong>ked<br />
if he would be interested in selling The<br />
Kiss, a Rodin sculpture he bought from a<br />
Rockefeller at a 1975 auction. But in 2009,<br />
Yarshater changed his mind: “We needed<br />
money to run our project. I thought, the<br />
time of the Rodin had come.”<br />
The 34-inch-high sculpture h<strong>as</strong> a<br />
lovely patina and is what Christie’s described<br />
<strong>as</strong> an “extremely rare bronze c<strong>as</strong>t,<br />
known <strong>as</strong> the Milwaukee version, one of<br />
only five created during the artist’s lifetime<br />
from the pl<strong>as</strong>ter model of the cl<strong>as</strong>sic<br />
sculpture.” The auction house catalogue<br />
estimated it would bring $1.5–$2 million.<br />
Yarshater w<strong>as</strong> working on the encyclopedia<br />
in his office when a Christie’s representative<br />
called with news of the final<br />
hammer price: $6,354,500.<br />
“Within a matter of weeks, the money<br />
w<strong>as</strong> fed into our account, and our editors<br />
and other staff could be paid,” Yarshater<br />
says. “Rodin came to our rescue.”<br />
The sale allowed the encyclopedia<br />
staff to expand by two editors; it now h<strong>as</strong><br />
eight. Yarshater, 92, works full-time <strong>as</strong><br />
the project’s volunteer general editor. In<br />
recent years he h<strong>as</strong> also conceived and is<br />
general editor of another definitive reference<br />
project, the 20-volume A History of<br />
Persian Literature.<br />
“I am hoping that with the help of my<br />
colleagues we can bring the Encyclopaedia<br />
project to the end of its first edition in<br />
2020,” says Yarshater. “If we succeed, a<br />
great project, in fact the greatest academic<br />
project ever conceived and carried out in<br />
the field of Iranian studies — and one that<br />
contributes to a variety of fields in the humanities<br />
— will have been achieved.”<br />
Shira Boss ’93, ’97J, ’98 SIPA is contributing<br />
writer to CCT and a graduate student at<br />
the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter<br />
<strong>College</strong>.<br />
“<strong>Columbia</strong> is like<br />
one of my children–<br />
and my estate<br />
plans reflect that<br />
connection.”<br />
—Lisa Carnoy ’89 CC<br />
University Trustee<br />
Popkin, Yao To Receive<br />
Great Teachers Award<br />
Cathy Popkin, the Jesse and George<br />
Siegel Professor in the Humanities<br />
and professor of Russian, Department<br />
of Slavic Languages, and David Yao,<br />
professor of industrial engineering and<br />
operations research at <strong>Columbia</strong> Engineering,<br />
have been named the recipients<br />
of the 2012 Great Teachers Award. The<br />
awards will be presented at the Society<br />
of <strong>Columbia</strong> Graduates Awards Dinner in<br />
Low Rotunda on Wednesday, October 24.<br />
Popkin joined <strong>Columbia</strong>’s Slavic department<br />
in 1986 and is a scholar of literary<br />
theory and 19th- and 20th-century<br />
Russian prose, specifically Chekhov. A<br />
mainstay of the Literature Humanities<br />
faculty, she is known for hosting reunions<br />
with her former Lit Hum students when<br />
they are graduating seniors. Described by<br />
one student <strong>as</strong> “one of <strong>Columbia</strong>’s prized<br />
jewels,” Popkin also is a recipient of the<br />
2012 Distinguished <strong>Columbia</strong> Faculty<br />
Award.<br />
Yao joined the Department of Industrial<br />
Engineering in 1983. After a three-year<br />
“P<strong>as</strong>t generations transformed<br />
my experience here,” says<br />
Carnoy. “Now it’s my turn to<br />
invest in tomorrow’s <strong>Columbia</strong>.”<br />
Join Lisa Carnoy in the 1754<br />
Society— alumni and friends<br />
making a difference through<br />
bequests and other planned gifts<br />
to the University.<br />
stay at Harvard, he returned to <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
<strong>as</strong> a full professor in 1988. His teaching<br />
and research interests focus on the<br />
analysis, design and control of stoch<strong>as</strong>tic<br />
systems such <strong>as</strong> manufacturing systems,<br />
supply chains and communication networks.<br />
He h<strong>as</strong> been the principal architect<br />
of several academic programs at<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> Engineering, including the m<strong>as</strong>ter’s<br />
program in financial engineering.<br />
The Society of <strong>Columbia</strong> Graduates<br />
established the Great Teachers Award in<br />
1949 to honor outstanding members of<br />
the faculty teaching in the <strong>College</strong> and<br />
Engineering. Recipients have included<br />
Jacques Barzun ’27, ’32 GSAS; Mark Van<br />
Doren ’21 GSAS; Lionel Trilling ’25, ’38<br />
GSAS; Kathy Eden; Alan Brinkley; Andrew<br />
Delbanco; and Mark Mazower.<br />
For further information, contact<br />
Gerald Sherwin ’55: 917-763-7061 or<br />
gs481@juno.com; or Peter B<strong>as</strong>ilevsky<br />
’67, ’72L: 212-818-9200 or pb<strong>as</strong>ilevsky@<br />
ssbb.com; or visit the society’s website<br />
(socg.com).<br />
Make <strong>Columbia</strong> part of your legacy<br />
To learn more, e-mail gift.planning@columbia.edu or call 800-338 - 3294.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
8
AROUND THE QUADS COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY AROUND THE QUADS<br />
Robert Y. Shapiro, who specializes<br />
in American politics,<br />
is a professor and former<br />
chair of the Department of<br />
Political Science. His most<br />
recent books include The<br />
Oxford Handbook of American<br />
Public Opinion and the<br />
Media (edited with Lawrence<br />
R. Jacobs) and Selling<br />
Fear:Counterterrorism,<br />
the Media, and Public<br />
Opinion (with <strong>Columbia</strong>’s<br />
Brigitte L. Nacos and<br />
Yaeli Bloch-Elkon). Shapiro<br />
earned a B.S. from MIT and<br />
a Ph.D. from Chicago; he h<strong>as</strong><br />
worked at <strong>Columbia</strong> since<br />
1982 and l<strong>as</strong>t sat for “5 Minutes<br />
with” in summer 2008.<br />
You recently returned from<br />
Egypt. Tell me about that.<br />
I w<strong>as</strong> invited to speak at<br />
the American University in<br />
Cairo by the president of the<br />
univer sity, Lisa Anderson,<br />
who is a former dean of<br />
SIPA. She in vited three of<br />
her successor department<br />
chairs, including myself, to<br />
run a 3 ½-day workshop on<br />
research methods in political<br />
science for the purposes of,<br />
<strong>as</strong> I like to say, jumpstarting<br />
interest in quantitative approaches<br />
to political science<br />
and studying political <strong>issue</strong>s<br />
relevant to the students and<br />
faculty.<br />
How did it go?<br />
It went well; we got people’s<br />
attention. We talked about<br />
big-picture <strong>issue</strong>s that were<br />
quite relevant to what’s<br />
been happening in Egypt —<br />
things like the relationship<br />
between democracy and<br />
economic development, the<br />
relationship between Islam<br />
and democratization, the<br />
relationship between Islam<br />
and oil, and the empowerment<br />
of women in the Middle<br />
E<strong>as</strong>t and elsewhere and<br />
then, also, the relationship<br />
between democratization<br />
and political conflict, civil<br />
wars and things like that.<br />
Will you be involved with<br />
the U.S. presidential election<br />
<strong>this</strong> fall?<br />
As of now, I don’t have any<br />
plans to be. The l<strong>as</strong>t election<br />
I w<strong>as</strong> involved in w<strong>as</strong> doing<br />
exit poll analysis for ABC<br />
News, in 2008. But I do follow<br />
the data regularly and more<br />
so <strong>as</strong> the election nears.<br />
And what are you seeing?<br />
One, polls show that the upcoming<br />
election is going to be<br />
a close election — you don’t<br />
have to be a political science<br />
expert or professor to get a<br />
sense of that. But to put it in<br />
historical context, the competitiveness<br />
of politics is very<br />
different now from the latter<br />
part of the 20th century, when<br />
both parties were competitive<br />
for control of the White House<br />
but the Democrats, for a big<br />
chunk of the post-war period,<br />
controlled the Senate and the<br />
House of Representatives. That<br />
changed beginning in 1980<br />
when the Republicans won<br />
the Senate on Ronald Reagan’s<br />
coattails and then continued<br />
in 1994, which w<strong>as</strong> a very important<br />
election — the Republicans<br />
were finally able to get<br />
control of the House of Representatives,<br />
which they hadn’t<br />
done in 40 some-odd years.<br />
The other pattern is the<br />
overall nature of partisan<br />
conflict in the United States.<br />
The parties are divided at the<br />
level of political leadership<br />
and you find the same thing<br />
at an unprecedented level in<br />
m<strong>as</strong>s public opinion, where<br />
Democrats and Republicans<br />
more consistently think of<br />
themselves and call themselves<br />
liberals and conservatives<br />
and take identifiable,<br />
predictable patterns of liberal<br />
and conservative opinions<br />
on policy <strong>issue</strong>s in a way that<br />
they hadn’t in the middle of<br />
the 20th century.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
10<br />
What are you focusing on<br />
these days with regard to<br />
your own research?<br />
I recently worked with some<br />
undergraduates, looking at<br />
American public opinion<br />
trends toward the Mide<strong>as</strong>t<br />
conflict, focusing on the Israelis<br />
and the Palestinians. And<br />
then I’m also working on a<br />
Five Minutes with ... Robert Y. Shapiro<br />
higher-priority book project<br />
with my recent collaborators,<br />
Nacos and Bloch-Elkon, looking<br />
at the Tea Party movement<br />
and the Occupy Wall<br />
Street movement — how they<br />
were covered by the media<br />
and how they, in turn, used<br />
the m<strong>as</strong>s media and social<br />
media in their efforts. And<br />
what broader effects <strong>this</strong> h<strong>as</strong><br />
had on American politics.<br />
Would you anticipate that<br />
the Tea Party and Occupy<br />
Wall Street will continue<br />
to have <strong>as</strong> much influence<br />
moving forward?<br />
What movements are successful<br />
at, if not persuading people<br />
to adopt the opinions they<br />
adopt, is to make <strong>issue</strong>s visible<br />
and more salient. With the<br />
Tea Party, things had settled<br />
down for a while — the party<br />
seemed to have lost some of<br />
its luster — but things are<br />
now heating up in the current<br />
election, and the Republican<br />
party is a stronger<br />
conservative party because<br />
of the Tea Party movement.<br />
As for the effect of Occupy,<br />
the big question is, had they<br />
not become active in the way<br />
they were, would the<br />
Democrats and<br />
Obama have<br />
used the <strong>issue</strong><br />
of economic<br />
inequality<br />
the way<br />
they are in<br />
the current<br />
campaign?<br />
We can’t run the experiment,<br />
but I suspect they may have<br />
not.<br />
What does your middle initial<br />
Y stand for?<br />
Yale. H<strong>as</strong> nothing to do with<br />
the university. It’s an Anglicized<br />
and greatly shortened<br />
Yiddish name.<br />
Is there anything else<br />
you think we should<br />
talk about?<br />
I still like pizza. [laughs]<br />
That’s right. You mentioned<br />
that the l<strong>as</strong>t time you sat<br />
with CCT.<br />
The funny part w<strong>as</strong>, when my<br />
wife read the interview, she<br />
said she learned some things<br />
about me that she didn’t<br />
know. She didn’t really fully<br />
appreciate how much my favorite<br />
food is pizza.<br />
Did she know about your<br />
dream of being shortstop for<br />
the Yankees?<br />
No, but anybody who knew<br />
me when I w<strong>as</strong> young would<br />
understand that.<br />
Interview: Alexis Tonti ’11 Arts<br />
Photo: Eileen Barroso<br />
For more conversation with<br />
Shapiro, go to Web Extr<strong>as</strong> at<br />
college.columbia.edu/cct.<br />
Virginia W. Cornish ’91 Named Helena Rubinstein Professor<br />
Virginia W. Cornish ’91, the first<br />
<strong>College</strong> alumna to become a<br />
tenured professor at the University,<br />
h<strong>as</strong> been named the Helena<br />
Rubinstein Professor of Chemistry.<br />
The Helena Rubinstein Foundation created<br />
a $2 million endowed professorship in<br />
support of the advancement of women in<br />
science at <strong>Columbia</strong>, and Cornish w<strong>as</strong> announced<br />
<strong>as</strong> the inaugural appointee of <strong>this</strong><br />
chair on June 5 at the Northwest Corner<br />
Building, the site of her laboratory. Working<br />
at the interface of chemistry and biology,<br />
Cornish’s lab brings together organic chemistry<br />
and DNA technology to expand the<br />
synthetic capabilities of living cells.<br />
Trustees Chair Emerita G.G. Michelson<br />
’47L, longtime chair of the Helena Rubinstein<br />
Foundation, and Diane Moss, president<br />
of the foundation, were instrumental<br />
in working with <strong>Columbia</strong> to identify an<br />
appropriate and enduring recognition of<br />
Rubinstein’s legacy. Rubinstein often said<br />
that her “fortune comes from women and<br />
should be used to benefit them and their<br />
children, to better their quality of life”<br />
and “to encourage women to undertake<br />
higher education and to pursue nontraditional<br />
careers.”<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>ses<br />
1943<br />
1948<br />
1953<br />
1958<br />
1963<br />
1968<br />
1973<br />
1978<br />
1983<br />
1988<br />
1993<br />
1998<br />
2003<br />
2008<br />
C O L U M B I A C O L L E G E<br />
ALUMNI REUNION WEEKEND<br />
Make plans now to return to New<br />
York City and the <strong>Columbia</strong> campus<br />
for Alumni Reunion Weekend 2013.<br />
The weekend will feature:<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s-specific activities, cocktail receptions and dinners<br />
planned by each cl<strong>as</strong>s’s Reunion Committee;<br />
“Back on Campus” sessions featuring Mini-Core Courses,<br />
Public Intellectual Lectures and more <strong>as</strong> part of Dean’s<br />
Day on Saturday;<br />
New York City entertainment options including an art<br />
gallery crawl, Broadway shows and other cultural activities;<br />
All-cl<strong>as</strong>s programs including the Wine T<strong>as</strong>ting and the<br />
Starlight Reception, with dancing, champagne and sweets<br />
on Low Plaza; and<br />
Camp <strong>Columbia</strong> for Kids, ages 3–12.<br />
Virginia W. Cornish ’91 is joined at the announcement by her colleague and mentor, University<br />
Professor Ronald Breslow (left), and Joseph Dougherty ’95 GSAS, who also worked<br />
in Breslow’s lab.<br />
PHOTO: SUSAN COOK<br />
In an effort to reduce costs and be environmentally friendly,<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Alumni Affairs and your cl<strong>as</strong>s’s Reunion<br />
Committee will communicate with you via email <strong>as</strong> much<br />
<strong>as</strong> possible. Be sure you don’t miss out on reunion details!<br />
Update your contact information at reunion.college.<br />
columbia.edu/alumniupdate.<br />
Watch your mail and email for details.<br />
Questions? Ple<strong>as</strong>e contact<br />
Fatima Yudeh, alumni affairs:<br />
fy2165@columbia.edu<br />
or 212-851-7834.<br />
COLLEGE<br />
COLLEGE<br />
COLUMBIA ALUMNI REUNION<br />
WEEKEND<br />
SAVE THE DATE THURSDAY, MAY 30–- SUNDAY, JUNE 2, 2013
AROUND THE QUADS COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY AROUND THE QUADS<br />
ALUMNI IN THE NEWS<br />
n Ronald Weich ’80, former <strong>as</strong>sistant attorney<br />
general for legislative affairs in the<br />
Department of Justice and former chief<br />
counsel to both Senate Majority Leader<br />
Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Edward<br />
Kennedy (D-M<strong>as</strong>s.), w<strong>as</strong> named dean of<br />
the University of Baltimore School of Law<br />
in April. In a press rele<strong>as</strong>e announcing<br />
Weich’s appointment, University of Baltimore<br />
President Robert L. Bogomolny said,<br />
“Ron Weich is the right person to continue<br />
the growth and transformation of the UB<br />
School of Law. During <strong>this</strong> time of considerable<br />
transition in legal education and<br />
the legal profession, it is important to have<br />
leadership with integrity and vision. Ron<br />
Weich embodies those qualities.”<br />
n The Vatican hired Fox News correspondent<br />
Greg Burke ’82, ’83J <strong>as</strong> its senior<br />
communications adviser in June. His appointment<br />
comes in the wake of a series of<br />
public relations <strong>issue</strong>s, including attacks<br />
by international media on the lack of transparency<br />
at the Vatican bank and the leak of<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>sified documents, claiming corruption<br />
within the Vatican, by Pope Benedict XVI’s<br />
butler. In an interview with The New York<br />
Times, Burke compared his new role to that<br />
of the White House press secretary: “It’s<br />
a strategy job. It’s very simple to explain,<br />
not so e<strong>as</strong>y to execute: to formulate the<br />
message and try to make sure everyone<br />
remains on message,” he said. The first<br />
communications expert hired outside the<br />
Roman Catholic media, Burke covered the<br />
death of Pope John Paul II and the election<br />
of Benedict for Fox News, where he had<br />
worked since 2001.<br />
Greg Burke ’82, ’83J<br />
PHOTO: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/GETTYIMAGES<br />
n ESPN reported in August<br />
that entrepreneur<br />
Randy Lerner ’84, ’87L h<strong>as</strong><br />
reached an agreement to<br />
sell the NFL’s Cleveland<br />
Browns to truck-stop magnate<br />
Jimmy H<strong>as</strong>lam for<br />
more than $1 billion. He<br />
now will focus on another<br />
of his sports properties,<br />
the Aston Villa soccer<br />
team in England’s Premier<br />
League. Lerner inherited<br />
the Browns from his father,<br />
Alfred Lerner ’55, namesake<br />
of <strong>Columbia</strong>’s Alfred<br />
Lerner Hall student center,<br />
who died in 2002. Al Lerner<br />
purch<strong>as</strong>ed the then-inactive franchise<br />
from the NFL in 1998 for $350 million.<br />
n A July New York Times article praised the<br />
unconventional self-promotional strategies<br />
of venture capital firm Andreessen<br />
Horowitz, co-founded by Ben Horowitz<br />
’88. The article notes that while “most<br />
venture capitalists operated under levels<br />
of secrecy typically reserved for Swiss<br />
banks,” Andreessen Horowitz h<strong>as</strong> worked<br />
to brand itself <strong>as</strong> a top firm, featured on<br />
the cover of Fortune and Wired magazines<br />
and in Vanity Fair’s 2011 “New Establishment”<br />
list of the year’s top influencers.<br />
The Times reports: “All that pitching seems<br />
to have paid off. In just three years, the<br />
firm h<strong>as</strong> raised $2.7 billion — more than<br />
any other venture capital firm in that same<br />
time span.” Horowitz’s public persona<br />
includes a blog (bhorowitz.com) on which<br />
he presents business lessons alongside<br />
lyrics from hip-hop songs. The<br />
Times also reports that Horowitz<br />
w<strong>as</strong> invited to speak at Harvard’s<br />
hip-hop archives and rapper Snoop<br />
Dogg, now known <strong>as</strong> Snoop Lion,<br />
h<strong>as</strong> requested a meeting with him.<br />
n The Radio Television Digital<br />
News Association presented Phyllis<br />
Fletcher ’94 with a 2012 National<br />
Edward R. Murrow Award in Audio<br />
Feature Reporting for her story<br />
“Secrets of a Blonde Bombshell,”<br />
which originally aired in September<br />
2011 on Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen.<br />
A reporter and editor for Seattle’s<br />
KUOW public radio station,<br />
Fletcher uncovered that the subject<br />
of her story, the “blonde bombshell<br />
bandleader” Ina Ray Hutton of<br />
FALL 2012<br />
12<br />
Phyllis Fletcher ’94<br />
PHOTO: JOSH KNISELY<br />
1930s swing band fame,<br />
w<strong>as</strong> actually part black and<br />
had been p<strong>as</strong>sing <strong>as</strong> white<br />
since childhood. Hutton,<br />
who conducted, sang and<br />
tap danced in her all-female<br />
band the Melodears,<br />
died in 1984 having never<br />
acknowledged her black<br />
heritage. The story also<br />
received a Gracie Award<br />
for Outstanding Portrait/<br />
Biography from the Alliance<br />
for Women in Media<br />
Foundation. In a KUOW<br />
press rele<strong>as</strong>e, Fletcher said,<br />
“I’m thrilled for the late Ms.<br />
Hutton and her family that<br />
<strong>this</strong> new telling of her life story h<strong>as</strong> been<br />
acknowledged with a Gracie Award, and<br />
h<strong>as</strong> shone new light on Hutton’s contribution<br />
to music history.”<br />
n In June, Institutional Investor magazine<br />
named Rick Nardis ’98 of UBS to its list<br />
of hedge fund rising stars. Nardis joined<br />
UBS in 2001 <strong>as</strong> a senior investment officer<br />
working at one of the company’s fund-ofhedge-funds<br />
businesses. From the time<br />
he came on board until 2008 when he w<strong>as</strong><br />
named co-CIO, the group’s <strong>as</strong>sets grew<br />
from $900 million to $48 billion. Despite<br />
losing ground during the financial crisis,<br />
Nardis’ group h<strong>as</strong> climbed back to $28.5<br />
billion and went from being one of six<br />
fund-of-hedge-funds companies at UBS<br />
to its only remaining one. According to<br />
Institutional Investor, “Hedge fund managers<br />
and investors alike say they have<br />
the utmost respect for Nardis.”<br />
n Maggie Gyllenhaal ’99 stars alongside<br />
Viola Davis in the film Won’t Back Down,<br />
a drama in which two mothers stand<br />
up against a powerful bureaucracy to<br />
transform their children’s failing innercity<br />
school in Pittsburgh. Inspired by true<br />
events, the film focuses on trigger laws<br />
— which currently exist in four states and<br />
are being considered in a dozen more<br />
— through which parents can demand<br />
changes to, or even a complete restructuring<br />
of, their children’s schools if a majority<br />
sign a petition. USA Today reported<br />
in August, “It’s rare that a Hollywood<br />
movie actually gets out in front of a social<br />
trend, but when Won’t Back Down premieres<br />
<strong>this</strong> September, it may well spawn<br />
reams of petitions from fed-up parents.”<br />
Karen Iorio<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Fund Exceeds FY12 Goal, Raises $16.3 Million<br />
The <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Fund exceeded<br />
its $16 million Fiscal Year<br />
2012 goal, raising $16,296,000, or<br />
$650,000 more than FY11. More<br />
than 11,350 alumni, parents, students and<br />
friends of the <strong>College</strong> contributed to the<br />
<strong>College</strong> Fund, which raises money for<br />
financial aid, the Core Curriculum, student<br />
services and summer internship stipends.<br />
The FY12 total includes donations<br />
received from July 1, 2011–June 30, 2012.<br />
The <strong>College</strong> Fund comprises several<br />
sub-categories, each of which built on<br />
FY11’s successes.<br />
The Parents Fund raised a record $2.86<br />
million from almost 1,550 donors, representing<br />
a 30 percent incre<strong>as</strong>e in dollars and<br />
a 26 percent incre<strong>as</strong>e in donors <strong>as</strong> compared<br />
to FY11.<br />
The reunion Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1962 presented<br />
a $1.13 million Cl<strong>as</strong>s Gift to the <strong>College</strong><br />
Fund — the largest reunion Cl<strong>as</strong>s Gift<br />
ever given by a 50th-anniversary cl<strong>as</strong>s.<br />
Also setting fundraising records for their<br />
respective reunions were the Cl<strong>as</strong>ses of<br />
1982, 1987 and 1992, and the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1967<br />
had the best fundraising year in its cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
history.<br />
Travel with <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
Learn more. Stay connected<br />
alumni.columbia.edu<br />
Recent alumni, representing the Cl<strong>as</strong>ses<br />
of 1992–2001, raised more than $1.3 million,<br />
a 60 percent incre<strong>as</strong>e <strong>as</strong> compared<br />
to FY11. And the Young Alumni Fund,<br />
representing the Cl<strong>as</strong>ses of 2002–2011, w<strong>as</strong><br />
well over its goal of $317,000 for the year,<br />
with almost $375,000 raised. This group<br />
also set a participation record with nearly<br />
1,800 donors, an incre<strong>as</strong>e of about 370<br />
from FY11.<br />
Seniors, who are encouraged early to<br />
forge a connection with the <strong>College</strong> by<br />
giving back, showed their support <strong>as</strong><br />
well. More than 750 participated in the<br />
Senior Fund — raising more than $17,000<br />
— and 235 signed up for the Dean’s 3-2-1<br />
Challenge, for which they agreed to give<br />
at le<strong>as</strong>t $20.12 for three years, to <strong>as</strong>k two<br />
friends to do the same and to have their<br />
gifts matched 1:1. (This year, Gene Davis<br />
’75 matched the gifts.) By reaching its<br />
Senior Gift goal, the Senior Fund secured<br />
a $100,000 gift from Charles Santoro ’82 to<br />
the <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Fund.<br />
“The remarkable success of the <strong>College</strong><br />
Fund is directly attributable to the<br />
outstanding leadership and generosity<br />
of alumni, parents, students and friends.<br />
Their dedication to alma mater helps make<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> the greatest undergraduate<br />
experience available in the world,”<br />
said Allen Rosso, executive director of the<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Fund.<br />
To make a gift to the <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
Fund in FY13, give by credit card at col<br />
lege.columbia.edu/giveonline or by calling<br />
212-851-7488, or mail a check, payable<br />
to <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Fund, to <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong> Fund, <strong>Columbia</strong> Alumni Center,<br />
622 W. 113th St., MC 4530, 3rd Fl., New<br />
York, NY 10025.<br />
Hire <strong>Columbia</strong>ns<br />
Who better to hire <strong>Columbia</strong> students<br />
than <strong>Columbia</strong> alumni? That’s the idea<br />
behind “Hire <strong>Columbia</strong>ns,” a campaign<br />
by the Center for Career Education to<br />
get <strong>Columbia</strong> alumni to hire students<br />
for internships or full-time positions.<br />
For more information, go to careered<br />
ucation.columbia.edu/hirecolumbians.<br />
EGYPT &<br />
THE ETERNAL NILE<br />
MARCH 13–29, 2013<br />
Discover the tre<strong>as</strong>ures of Egypt from antiquity to modernity on a unique<br />
adventure from March 13 -29, 2013. Our journey begins in Cairo with its<br />
renowned ancient sites: the Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, Memphis,<br />
Sakkara, Old Cairo, and the Egyptian Museum. Cruise on Lake N<strong>as</strong>ser,<br />
where the country’s f<strong>as</strong>cinating Nubian history unfolds. Visit ancient temples<br />
and monuments salvaged during the construction of the Aswan High<br />
Dam, including Abu Simbel, dating to the 13th century b.c. Travel along<br />
the Nile from Aswan to Luxor, with its acclaimed temples and tombs and<br />
explore the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens on the Nile’s<br />
West Bank. On the E<strong>as</strong>t Bank, visit Karnak, the greatest temple complex of<br />
them all. Depart from Luxor for the final leg of your journey in the Mediterranean<br />
port of Alexandria, one of antiquity’s most illustrious cities.<br />
For more information about any of our trips, visit alumni.columbia.edu/travel or call 866-325-8664.
AROUND THE QUADS COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY AROUND THE QUADS<br />
Folk singer and songwriter<br />
Anthony da Costa ’13 w<strong>as</strong><br />
just 13 when he started frequenting<br />
open mics near his<br />
hometown of Ple<strong>as</strong>antville,<br />
N.Y., in Westchester. He had not yet<br />
reached his next birthday when he<br />
branched out to venues in New York<br />
City, including <strong>Columbia</strong>’s iconic Postcrypt<br />
Coffeehouse. And by the time<br />
he enrolled in the <strong>College</strong> itself,<br />
he’d performed around the country,<br />
recorded several albums and distinguished<br />
himself <strong>as</strong> the youngest<br />
winner of several prestigious folk<br />
competitions.<br />
“He lives and breathes it,” says<br />
Fred Gillen Jr., a Hudson Valleyb<strong>as</strong>ed<br />
folk artist who h<strong>as</strong> produced<br />
three of da Costa’s albums. “He<br />
also is not afraid to try something<br />
new if it turns him on, whether it<br />
is commercially viable or not. This<br />
is important and he gets it. Some<br />
artists have success with one thing<br />
and they do it over and over and get<br />
stuck there. Anthony is constantly<br />
moving forward and changing.”<br />
In April, da Costa rele<strong>as</strong>ed his<br />
ninth album and fifth studio production,<br />
Secret Handshake, which he<br />
calls his best <strong>as</strong>semblage of songs.<br />
“Every song I’ve ever written is a<br />
love song in some way, shape or<br />
form,” says da Costa, who describes<br />
his style <strong>as</strong> a blend of folk, rock,<br />
pop, country and Americana. “I get<br />
influences from my own life, my<br />
friends’ lives. Sometimes I’ll make<br />
something up completely.”<br />
One of his older songs, “Poor Poor<br />
Pluto,” speaks of the former planet’s<br />
demotion. “But even that is a love<br />
song,” he says.<br />
Da Costa credits his parents for exposing<br />
him to music. He attributes his<br />
p<strong>as</strong>sion for folk specifically to his mother,<br />
who encouraged him to join the local<br />
church choir at 5. He started taking<br />
guitar lessons when he w<strong>as</strong> 10. “I never<br />
wanted to look at the book. I wanted to<br />
learn songs, so my teacher would just<br />
give up and teach me a new Beatles<br />
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT<br />
Anthony da Costa ’13 Juggles Academics and Music Career<br />
B y Nat h a l i e A l o n s o ’08<br />
song every week,” he says. “Especially<br />
with folk music, I’ve learned more by<br />
doing and being out there and learning<br />
from other writers and actually playing<br />
for people.”<br />
The late New York City disc jockey<br />
Pete Fornatele branded da Costa a “very<br />
young man with a very old soul,” yet <strong>as</strong><br />
a teenager breaking into a musical style<br />
By the time Anthony da Costa ’13 enrolled in the <strong>College</strong>,<br />
he w<strong>as</strong> a familiar face at Postcrypt Coffeehouse,<br />
where he h<strong>as</strong> been performing since he w<strong>as</strong> 13.<br />
PHOTO: ERIN FOSTER<br />
<strong>as</strong>sociated with a more mature crowd,<br />
da Costa had to dig deep to prove himself.<br />
“I w<strong>as</strong> always a lot younger than<br />
most of the people I played shows with,<br />
people two or three times my age,” he<br />
says. (He w<strong>as</strong> 16 when he won the Kerrville<br />
Folk Festival New Folk and the<br />
Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Emerging<br />
Artist competitions.) “It w<strong>as</strong> e<strong>as</strong>y to<br />
wonder, ‘What can <strong>this</strong> kid even write<br />
songs about?’ To that I’d say, ‘I’m a human<br />
being, too, and I’m still experiencing<br />
things.’”<br />
In high school, da Costa leaned toward<br />
attending music conservatory for<br />
his next step. He switched tracks in part<br />
because a mentor, the late singer-songwriter<br />
Jack Hardy, encouraged him to<br />
seek a more comprehensive education.<br />
“He said, ‘Gr<strong>as</strong>shopper, you’ve spent<br />
enough years putting stuff out there,<br />
it’s time to put some stuff back in,’” da<br />
Costa recalls. “It felt like the right thing<br />
to do. I can learn enough [about<br />
music] from traveling and playing.”<br />
During the school year, da Costa<br />
plays shows off-campus every week,<br />
sometimes embarking on weekendlong<br />
trips. In the summertime, he<br />
performs across the country, <strong>as</strong> a solo<br />
act <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> part of the trio Elliot,<br />
Rose, da Costa. His 2012 tour included<br />
his first performances in Canada<br />
and a three-week tour of Denmark.<br />
Since his first year in the <strong>College</strong>,<br />
da Costa also h<strong>as</strong> devoted whatever<br />
spare time he h<strong>as</strong> to helping run<br />
Postcrypt. Established in 1964, the<br />
acoustic-only, 30-seat venue in the<br />
b<strong>as</strong>ement of St. Paul’s Chapel features<br />
live entertainment on Friday and<br />
Saturday nights during the academic<br />
year. Da Costa typically hosts one<br />
night a month, books talent, serves <strong>as</strong><br />
emcee and is involved in planning the<br />
coffeehouse’s annual Folk Festival.<br />
“There’s nothing like it,” he says<br />
of Postcrypt. “The atmosphere is<br />
wonderful; it’s all student-run. The<br />
vibe h<strong>as</strong> always been really nice.”<br />
Da Costa is majoring in history<br />
with a focus on cl<strong>as</strong>sical studies.<br />
Though his academic course load<br />
and performance schedule leave little<br />
time for sleep, da Costa h<strong>as</strong> never considered<br />
a hiatus. “I want to get an education,<br />
but I can’t stop playing music,”<br />
he says. “I need to do it.”<br />
To view videos of da Costa performing, go<br />
to Web Extr<strong>as</strong> at college.columbia.edu/cct.<br />
View his website at anthonydacosta.com.<br />
Nathalie Alonso ’08, from Queens, is a<br />
freelance journalist and an editorial producer<br />
of L<strong>as</strong>Mayores.com, Major League<br />
B<strong>as</strong>eball’s official Spanish language website.<br />
Sreeniv<strong>as</strong>an Named Chief Digital Officer<br />
Sreenath Sreeniv<strong>as</strong>an ’93J, former<br />
professor and dean of student affairs<br />
at the Journalism School, h<strong>as</strong><br />
been named the University’s first<br />
chief digital officer and started work in<br />
the new position in July.<br />
As CDO, Sreeniv<strong>as</strong>an will lead the<br />
University’s efforts in digital media and<br />
online education both on and off campus.<br />
“Sree’s portfolio will cover a broad range<br />
of <strong>issue</strong>s at the intersection<br />
of technology, education<br />
and digital media,” Provost<br />
John Coatsworth said in announcing<br />
the appointment.<br />
Technology incre<strong>as</strong>ingly<br />
h<strong>as</strong> been incorporated into<br />
courses on campus, and<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> h<strong>as</strong> used elements<br />
of online education<br />
for some time at the Engineering<br />
School, Journalism<br />
School and School of Continuing<br />
Education, among<br />
others, and in departments<br />
that work with the <strong>Columbia</strong> Center for<br />
New Media Teaching and Learning, an<br />
innovator in the field. But looking ahead,<br />
Coatsworth said, “The goal is to ensure<br />
that we deploy new tools and technologies<br />
in interactive and distance learning<br />
to ensure the richest and most dynamic<br />
learning environment possible for <strong>Columbia</strong>’s<br />
students.”<br />
There are at le<strong>as</strong>t three ways universities<br />
now are being affected by online<br />
education, Sreeniv<strong>as</strong>an says: through<br />
open online cl<strong>as</strong>ses, which make lectures<br />
available for free to the public; through<br />
hybrid cl<strong>as</strong>ses, which combine days in a<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>sroom with the rest of the time online;<br />
and through online education meant to<br />
enhance the cl<strong>as</strong>sroom experience for<br />
Have You Moved?<br />
To ensure that you receive<br />
CCT and other <strong>College</strong><br />
information, let us know if<br />
you have a new postal or<br />
email address, a new phone<br />
number or even a new name.<br />
Click “Contact Us” at<br />
college.columbia.edu/cct<br />
or call 212-851-7852.<br />
PHOTO: JOSEPH LIN ’09J<br />
existing students in residence.<br />
“We’re studying all of them,” Sreeniv<strong>as</strong>an<br />
says. “There’s a lot of buzz about <strong>this</strong><br />
stuff — we haven’t decided what we’ll<br />
pursue.”<br />
Sreeniv<strong>as</strong>an h<strong>as</strong> taught at the Journalism<br />
School since he graduated — his<br />
specialty h<strong>as</strong> been new media and digital<br />
journalism, and more recently social media<br />
— and for the p<strong>as</strong>t seven years also<br />
h<strong>as</strong> been a dean. He h<strong>as</strong><br />
led workshops in digital<br />
journalism and social media<br />
in newsrooms around the<br />
world, been an on-air tech<br />
commentator for local TV<br />
stations in New York and<br />
is a frequent guest speaker<br />
for journalism groups. He<br />
also h<strong>as</strong> been an informal<br />
consultant on campus for<br />
developing platforms for<br />
online education, websites<br />
and using social media.<br />
“Before, I’d get calls and<br />
be a sounding board or answer questions<br />
<strong>as</strong> a favor. Now it’s part of my job,”<br />
Sreeniv<strong>as</strong>an says.<br />
One of Sreeniv<strong>as</strong>an’s mantr<strong>as</strong> regarding<br />
technology is, “Be an early tester, a<br />
late adopter.” He plans to promote that<br />
philosophy University-wide. “We’re all<br />
trying to figure out what works. We want<br />
to be thoughtful and strategic about it<br />
and not jump into one thing right away.<br />
Across 250 years at <strong>Columbia</strong> we’ve figured<br />
out how to teach and how to learn<br />
really well. How do we use some of the<br />
new technologies and techniques to build<br />
on that, without affecting what’s been<br />
working so well? There’s no rush to announce<br />
anything big.”<br />
Shira Boss ’93,’97J,’98 SIPA<br />
Marching Band<br />
Exhibition<br />
The history of <strong>Columbia</strong>’s marching,<br />
concertizing and pranking<br />
music-makers will be explored<br />
<strong>this</strong> fall in a special exhibition, “The Cleverest<br />
Band in the World: Marching and<br />
Playing for <strong>Columbia</strong>,” at the <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
Alumni Center, 622 W. 113th St. (between<br />
Broadway and Riverside Drive).<br />
The <strong>Columbia</strong> University Band<br />
Alumni Association h<strong>as</strong> collected a<br />
range of memorabilia to tell the story<br />
of CU bands from 1904 to today. An<br />
accompanying video will highlight band<br />
activities from serious to zany, with a<br />
soundtrack that includes recorded music<br />
by the group not heard in decades,<br />
including pieces performed at Carnegie<br />
Hall in the 1960s. The exhibition will<br />
open at a pre-Homecoming reception<br />
for band alumni and current members<br />
on Friday, October 19, at the Center,<br />
and run through the end of the year.<br />
The band alumni <strong>as</strong>sociation still<br />
is accepting donations and loans of<br />
“bandiana” for the exhibition and for<br />
a permanent band history archive. To<br />
contribute items, contact J. Donald<br />
Smith ’65, former band head manager<br />
and coordinator of the exhibition: jdon<br />
aldsmith65@comc<strong>as</strong>t.net.<br />
Become a fan of CCT (facebook.<br />
com/columbiacollegetoday) and<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> (facebook.<br />
com/columbiacollege1754).<br />
Read the latest <strong>issue</strong> of CCT,<br />
keep in touch with fellow alumni and<br />
get all the latest <strong>College</strong> news.<br />
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FALL 2012<br />
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FALL 2012<br />
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COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY ROAR, LION, ROAR<br />
Roar, Lion, Roar<br />
Runner Erison Hurtault ’07 led Dominica’s delegation on July 27 in the opening ceremony of the London 2012<br />
Olympic Games.<br />
PHOTO: CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/GETTYIMAGES<br />
Olympics: One Gold Medal, Many Memories<br />
Seven <strong>Columbia</strong> alumni, two students and two coaches<br />
represented the United States, Croatia, Dominica<br />
and Egypt in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.<br />
Three-time Olympian Caryn Davies ’13L, a<br />
member of the crew team that won a silver medal in<br />
2004 and a gold medal in 2008, added another gold<br />
medal to her collection <strong>as</strong> part of the U.S. women’s<br />
eight that crossed the finish line in 6:10.59, more<br />
than a second ahead of runner-up Canada. The U.S.<br />
women are five-time world champions.<br />
Erison Hurtault ’07 w<strong>as</strong> the flag-bearer for his<br />
father’s native country, Dominica, in the opening<br />
ceremony. He competed in the 400 meters, and although<br />
he ran a se<strong>as</strong>on-best 46.05 seconds in the l<strong>as</strong>t<br />
qualifying heat, it w<strong>as</strong> not f<strong>as</strong>t enough for him to<br />
advance to the semifinals. He also ran for Dominica<br />
in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.<br />
Lisa Stublic ’06 represented her father’s native<br />
country, Croatia, in the women’s marathon. She w<strong>as</strong><br />
just one second behind the leader at the halfway<br />
point before fading to finish 52nd out of 118 competitors<br />
with a time of 2:34.03.<br />
Nzingha Prescod ’15, Nicole Ross ’11, James<br />
SCOREBOARD<br />
219<br />
Anticipated<br />
Williams ’07, ’09 GSAS and Jeff Spear ’10 competed<br />
for the U.S. fencing team. The women’s foil team<br />
with Prescod and Ross placed sixth and the men’s<br />
sabre team with Williams and Spear came in eighth.<br />
Meanwhile, Sherif Farrag ’09 competed for Egypt,<br />
where he w<strong>as</strong> born, in men’s foil. The Egyptian<br />
squad lost to host Great Britain in the round of 16.<br />
Nick LaCava ’09 rowed with the men’s lightweight<br />
four, which placed second in the B final<br />
behind France. LaCava’s boat won the repechage in<br />
6:00.86 but w<strong>as</strong> eliminated from medal contention<br />
when it finished fifth in the semifinals.<br />
Michael Aufrichtig, <strong>Columbia</strong>’s head fencing<br />
coach, coached the fencing portion of the men’s modern<br />
pentathlon, which also includes horseback riding,<br />
swimming, shooting and running. And Caroline<br />
Nichols, an <strong>as</strong>sistant field hockey coach, competed on<br />
the U.S. women’s field hockey team that placed 12th.<br />
Finally, David Barry ’87 w<strong>as</strong> the Greco-Roman<br />
Team Leader for USA Wrestling. Barry, who recently<br />
w<strong>as</strong> named USA Wrestling’s Myron Roderick Man<br />
of the Year, h<strong>as</strong> been the Greco-Roman Team Leader<br />
since 2009. The U.S. team did not win a medal.<br />
firstyear<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong><br />
studentathletes.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
16<br />
17<br />
New coaches<br />
on the Lions’<br />
staff for<br />
2012–13.<br />
Campbell Sports<br />
Center To Be<br />
Dedicated<br />
October 20<br />
The Campbell Sports<br />
Center, which <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
Athletics is hailing <strong>as</strong><br />
“the cornerstone of a<br />
revitalized Baker Athletics<br />
Complex,” will be<br />
dedicated on Saturday,<br />
October 20, prior to the<br />
Homecoming football<br />
game against Dartmouth.<br />
All Homecoming attendees<br />
are invited to attend<br />
the ceremony, which will<br />
begin at 11:30 a.m.<br />
The center, at 218th<br />
Street and Broadway, will<br />
serve <strong>as</strong> a year-round hub<br />
at Baker for studentathletes,<br />
coaches, staff<br />
and administrators. It’s<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong>’s first new athletics<br />
building since the<br />
Marcellus Hartley Dodge<br />
Physical Fitness Center<br />
w<strong>as</strong> built in the mid-1970s.<br />
The center honors, and<br />
w<strong>as</strong> made possible by,<br />
William V. Campbell ’62,<br />
’64 TC, chair of the University<br />
trustees and captain<br />
of the 1961 Ivy League<br />
champion football team.<br />
The Campbell Sports<br />
Center will provide student-athletes<br />
and coaches<br />
with a state-of-the-art<br />
facility featuring a theatrestyle<br />
meeting room, conference<br />
rooms, a strengthand-conditioning<br />
center,<br />
a student-athlete lounge<br />
and study center, a<br />
hospitality pavilion and<br />
coaches’ offices.<br />
6Home football<br />
games <strong>this</strong> se<strong>as</strong>on<br />
(out of 10 games<br />
overall).<br />
Kraft, LeFrak, Rohan Among Hall of Fame Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2012<br />
New England Patriots chairman Robert K. Kraft ’63,<br />
distance runner Caroline Bierbaum LeFrak ’06, the<br />
late b<strong>as</strong>ketball coach Jack Rohan ’53, ’57 TC and the<br />
1933 football team that won the Rose Bowl headline<br />
the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2012 that will be inducted to the <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
University Athletics Hall of Fame. The induction<br />
ceremony will occur in Low Library on Thursday,<br />
October 18. This is the fourth cl<strong>as</strong>s to be inducted to<br />
the Hall of Fame.<br />
Other members of the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2012 include former<br />
major league pitcher Frank Seminara ’89, <strong>College</strong><br />
Football Hall of Famers William Morley (Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
of 1902) and Harold Weekes (Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1903), the<br />
1988 NCAA champion men’s fencing team, fourtime<br />
All-American fencer Emma Baratta ’06 and<br />
eight-time Ivy League 400-meter champion Erison<br />
Hurtault ’07, who ran for Dominica in the 2008 and<br />
2012 Olympics.<br />
The Hall of Fame Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
of 2012 consists of 14 men,<br />
eight women and two<br />
teams representing 10<br />
sports <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> an administrator<br />
and an alumnus<br />
(Kraft) being honored<br />
in a special category for<br />
individual achievement.<br />
Nominees were eligible<br />
from both the Heritage Era,<br />
spanning 1852–1957, and<br />
the Modern Era, 1957–present.<br />
Kraft h<strong>as</strong> turned the Patriots,<br />
whom he acquired in<br />
1994, into one of the model<br />
franchises in all of professional<br />
sports, winning three<br />
Super Bowls along the way.<br />
LeFrak w<strong>as</strong> a five-time All-<br />
Caroline Bierbaum<br />
LeFrak ’06 runs in the<br />
2006 Heptagonals.<br />
PHOTO: GENE BOYARS<br />
American in cross-country<br />
and track and field in the<br />
mid-2000s. Rohan served<br />
two stints <strong>as</strong> men’s b<strong>as</strong>ketball<br />
coach, ranks <strong>as</strong> <strong>Columbia</strong>’s<br />
winningest b<strong>as</strong>ketball coach and led the Lions<br />
to the Ivy League championship in 1968.<br />
The 1933 <strong>Columbia</strong> football team w<strong>as</strong> 6–1 during<br />
the regular se<strong>as</strong>on, losing only to Princeton, then<br />
defeated Stanford 7–0 in the Rose Bowl on a rainy<br />
January 1, 1934. Al Barab<strong>as</strong> ’36 scored the game’s<br />
only touchdown on a 17-yard run in the second<br />
quarter, taking a handoff from Cliff Montgomery<br />
’34 on a misdirection play called KF-79.<br />
28<br />
Ivy League championships<br />
represented in the Hall of<br />
Fame Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2012 (includes<br />
individual and team titles).<br />
Robert K. Kraft ’63 with the Patriots’ three Super<br />
Bowl trophies.<br />
Intercollegiate athletics at <strong>Columbia</strong> can be traced<br />
to the mid-1800s, with some records indicating that<br />
the first intercollegiate sporting event in which <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
participated w<strong>as</strong> a rowing race in 1852.<br />
“The members of the <strong>Columbia</strong> Athletics Hall of<br />
Fame Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2012<br />
are among the brightest<br />
stars in the history<br />
of our athletics program,”<br />
says Athletics<br />
Director M. Dianne<br />
Murphy. “Each of<br />
these tremendous<br />
individuals — and<br />
our celebrated teams<br />
— are truly deserving<br />
of induction.”<br />
Tickets to the<br />
black-tie dinner and<br />
induction ceremony<br />
are available by calling<br />
Cathleen Clark,<br />
Athletics’ <strong>as</strong>sistant<br />
director of development<br />
and alumni affairs:<br />
212-851-9610.<br />
Jack Rohan ’53, ’57 TC<br />
PHOTO: NICK ROMANENKO ’90<br />
For the latest news on <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
athletics, visit gocolumbialions.com.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
17<br />
2012 Hall of<br />
Fame Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
Male Student-athletes,<br />
Heritage Era<br />
Horace Davenport ’29,<br />
rowing<br />
William Morley (Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
of 1902), football<br />
Robert Nielsen ’51,<br />
fencing<br />
Barry Pariser ’55, fencing<br />
Harold Weekes (Cl<strong>as</strong>s of<br />
1903), football<br />
Male Student-athletes,<br />
Modern Era<br />
Neil Farber ’65, b<strong>as</strong>eball/<br />
b<strong>as</strong>ketball<br />
Ted Gregory ’74, football<br />
Steve H<strong>as</strong>enfus ’89,<br />
wrestling<br />
Erison Hurtault ’07, track<br />
and field<br />
Frank Seminara ’89,<br />
b<strong>as</strong>eball<br />
Des Werthman ’93, football<br />
Female Student-athletes<br />
Danicia Ambron ’94,<br />
swimming<br />
Nora Beck ’83 Barnard, ’89<br />
Arts, ’93 GSAS<br />
b<strong>as</strong>ketball<br />
Emma Baratta ’06, fencing<br />
Caroline Bierbaum LeFrak<br />
’06, cross country/<br />
track and field<br />
Monica Conley ’03, fencing<br />
Caitlin Hickin ’04, cross<br />
country/track and field<br />
Shannon Munoz ’07, soccer<br />
Team, Heritage Era<br />
1933 football team<br />
Team, Modern Era<br />
1988 men’s fencing team<br />
Coach, Heritage Era<br />
James Murray, fencing,<br />
1898–1948<br />
Coach, Modern Era<br />
Jack Rohan ’53, ’57 TC,<br />
men’s b<strong>as</strong>ketball,<br />
1961–74, 1990–95<br />
Athletics Administrator<br />
Marion R. Philips,<br />
former chair, physical<br />
education, Barnard<br />
Special Category for<br />
Individual Achievement<br />
Robert K. Kraft ’63,<br />
chairman and CEO,<br />
New England Patriots,<br />
and owner and CEO,<br />
The Kraft Group
Good<br />
Chemistry<br />
James J. Valentini Transitions<br />
from Longtime Professor<br />
to Dean of the <strong>College</strong><br />
Dean James J. Valentini is joined by (left to right) Michael Cadiz ’14,<br />
James Ramseur ’13 and Stephanie Grilo ’13 in Van Am Quad.<br />
PHOTO: LESLIE JEAN-BART ’76, ’77J<br />
FALL 2012<br />
18
GOOD CHEMISTRY COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY GOOD CHEMISTRY<br />
James J. Valentini, a professor of chemistry at<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> for more than two decades, w<strong>as</strong><br />
named the 16th Dean of the <strong>College</strong> and the<br />
second Vice President for Undergraduate<br />
Education on June 11, after serving in those roles<br />
on an interim b<strong>as</strong>is for nine months. Valentini also<br />
now is the Henry L. and Lucy G. Moses Professor.<br />
Valentini earned a B.S. from Pittsburgh, an M.S.<br />
from Chicago and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, all in<br />
chemistry. He worked at the Los Alamos National<br />
Laboratory and taught at UC Irvine before joining<br />
the <strong>Columbia</strong> faculty in 1990. He w<strong>as</strong> chair of the<br />
chemistry department and director of undergraduate<br />
studies for chemistry, h<strong>as</strong> been a member of the<br />
University Senate and h<strong>as</strong> sat on numerous University,<br />
<strong>College</strong>, and Arts and Sciences committees,<br />
including the <strong>College</strong> Committee on Instruction, the<br />
Committee on the Core Curriculum and the <strong>College</strong><br />
Committee on Science Instruction.<br />
He is married to Teodolinda Barolini, the Lorenzo<br />
Da Ponte Professor of Italian at <strong>Columbia</strong>, and h<strong>as</strong><br />
three sons.<br />
Valentini’s term <strong>as</strong> interim dean proved popular<br />
with various constituencies, including students. “If<br />
there’s such a thing <strong>as</strong> a populist dean, James Valentini<br />
is it,” declared Spectator, citing among other<br />
examples his having personally matched gifts at the<br />
kickoff event for the Senior Fund, his support of the<br />
Student Wellness Project and his embrace of the<br />
student-coined nickname “Deantini.”<br />
In July, Valentini sat down with CCT editor Alex<br />
Sachare ’71 to introduce himself to the global community<br />
of <strong>College</strong> alumni — or former students, <strong>as</strong><br />
he prefers to call them — and to speak about some of<br />
his plans.<br />
For the many <strong>Columbia</strong>ns who are just beginning to get to<br />
know you, what would you say are your strengths?<br />
While I w<strong>as</strong> interim dean for less than a year, I’ve been a professor<br />
at <strong>Columbia</strong> for almost 21½ years and I’ve been involved in the<br />
<strong>College</strong> in many different ways over almost that entire time. I think<br />
I’ve served on every <strong>College</strong> committee at le<strong>as</strong>t once, some of them<br />
multiple times. I w<strong>as</strong> director of undergraduate studies in chemistry<br />
for many years before I became dean and I’ve taught literally<br />
thousands of students in chemistry and other science cl<strong>as</strong>ses. So I<br />
have a lot of experience to bring to <strong>this</strong>. I think that can justifiably<br />
be considered a strength; it’s certainly an advantage.<br />
I love the <strong>College</strong>, I Iove the students in it. I feel a great sense<br />
of responsibility and obligation to them, and a similar sense of<br />
obligation and responsibility to the faculty. The faculty and the<br />
students, they are the <strong>College</strong>. Without faculty and students there<br />
wouldn’t be a <strong>College</strong>. The dean’s role is to make sure that the<br />
experience that faculty and students have in interacting, which<br />
is the essence of college life, be <strong>as</strong> good <strong>as</strong> it can possibly be. I am<br />
thrilled to be involved with former students, current students, future<br />
students and the faculty who will be teaching them and the<br />
staff in the <strong>College</strong> who will be supporting them. Fundamentally,<br />
I like dealing with all the people I get to deal with, and that’s really<br />
the great thing about being able to be Deantini.<br />
(Top left and bottom) Valentini<br />
addressed guests and<br />
spoke with students at the<br />
Dean’s Scholarship Reception<br />
in February.<br />
(Top right) Valentini began<br />
Alumni Reunion Weekend<br />
2012 by mingling with Paul<br />
Cooper ’62 (left) and Jerry<br />
Speyer ’62 at the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of<br />
1962 Opening Reception,<br />
held at the President’s<br />
House on May 30.<br />
PHOTOS: EILEEN BARROSO<br />
How do you feel about the Deantini nickname?<br />
I read Bwog [an online student publication: bwog.com] for the<br />
first time on the day that the president <strong>as</strong>ked me to be dean,<br />
because he and someone else said, “Don’t read Bwog.” And of<br />
course, being an adolescent at heart, the first thing I did w<strong>as</strong> go<br />
read Bwog. So I stumbled upon <strong>this</strong> competition to nickname the<br />
dean. I found that they had nicknames for the president and other<br />
people, I saw the competition, I saw that the prize w<strong>as</strong> a sandwich<br />
from Milano [a deli near campus]. This w<strong>as</strong> 3 o’clock on a<br />
Sunday morning. I decided to post on Bwog and I said that <strong>this</strong><br />
w<strong>as</strong> far too important to me to let it have a mere prize of a sandwich<br />
from Milano, and that the<br />
winner of the competition could<br />
have his or her Milano sandwich<br />
with the dean in the Dean’s Office,<br />
we’d get a plaque with the dean’s<br />
nickname engraved on it and the<br />
winner would have his or her<br />
picture taken with the dean. Now<br />
maybe it w<strong>as</strong> because it w<strong>as</strong> 3 a.m.<br />
on a Sunday that I did that, but I<br />
thought it w<strong>as</strong> really interesting<br />
that they had nicknames for people<br />
and I just kind of intuitively and instinctively<br />
got involved in it. It w<strong>as</strong> r<strong>as</strong>h in some ways because I<br />
hadn’t carefully read the Bwog page. Some suggested nicknames<br />
were listed on a bar at the right of the page, and some of them,<br />
you wouldn’t express that to your mother or your children. I<br />
should have realized that students here are sensible enough not<br />
to choose such a nickname, although they might suggest it. But I<br />
like Deantini. It’s a good nickname. I’m happy with it.<br />
It seems to build a connection, to take away some of that “us<br />
vs. them” relationship that can exist between students and<br />
administrators.<br />
Yes, you’re right. There is a distance between anyone who h<strong>as</strong> an<br />
administrative title and faculty, and there is a distance between<br />
anyone who h<strong>as</strong> an administrative title and students. So anything<br />
FALL 2012<br />
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FALL 2012<br />
21
GOOD CHEMISTRY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
GOOD CHEMISTRY<br />
you can do to diminish that and to personalize the person — to<br />
personalize the dean or personalize the president — so that they’re<br />
more than a title, I think is a really good thing. This isn’t just in the<br />
minds of students. My wife, whom I’ve known for 18 years and<br />
been married to for 11, said to me when I w<strong>as</strong> <strong>as</strong>ked to be dean,<br />
“Now you’re going to become one of them,” meaning you’re going<br />
to become an administrator and not a faculty member. Faculty<br />
members started talking to me differently. Even after 21 years and<br />
knowing lots of people and I had a reputation, when you become<br />
dean you’re a different person. The dean or the president can be<br />
seen <strong>as</strong> a somewhat distant figure, someone who sits in a fancy<br />
office and doesn’t have much to do with students or faculty. That’s<br />
not how I conceive of the job, and I think having a nickname is a<br />
good way of documenting that that’s not how I think of the job.<br />
Having been a faculty member for more than 20 years, even<br />
though you were heavily involved in committee work, how much<br />
of what you just mentioned went into your thinking about <strong>this</strong><br />
job? Did you <strong>as</strong>k yourself, “Is <strong>this</strong> something I really want to do?”<br />
That’s a good question. I had never actively sought positions like<br />
dean, vice president, president, provost, anything with a title,<br />
even though people had said to me, “You’d be really good at<br />
<strong>this</strong>.” Every job I’ve ever<br />
gotten w<strong>as</strong> offered to me;<br />
I love the <strong>College</strong>. I love<br />
the students in it. I feel<br />
a great sense of responsibility<br />
and obligation to<br />
them, and a similar sense<br />
of responsibility and<br />
obligation to the faculty ...<br />
Without faculty and<br />
students, there wouldn’t<br />
be a <strong>College</strong>.<br />
someone came to me and<br />
said, “Would you like to<br />
do <strong>this</strong>?” That’s how things<br />
have worked out well for<br />
me. I w<strong>as</strong> willing to become<br />
dean because the president<br />
<strong>as</strong>ked me and people<br />
thought they needed me to<br />
be dean. W<strong>as</strong> I sure I wanted<br />
to be dean permanently?<br />
No, I w<strong>as</strong>n’t. So in some<br />
ways being interim dean<br />
w<strong>as</strong> advantageous for me,<br />
because it gave me an opportunity<br />
to do something<br />
without having to make a<br />
long-term commitment.<br />
To follow up on that, what were the advantages of spending<br />
nine months <strong>as</strong> interim dean?<br />
Let me start by saying it had disadvantages, because any time<br />
you have a position where the word “interim” appears in your<br />
title, it diminishes people’s commitment to what you want<br />
to do because you’re temporary. That’s what interim means:<br />
We’re giving you <strong>this</strong> job temporarily. People aren’t going to<br />
be <strong>as</strong> committed to what you want to do. You can’t undertake<br />
anything that’s long-term, you can’t really guide things in a<br />
different direction, because in effect you’re temporary.<br />
But you’re also not making the same commitment. It gives<br />
you an opportunity to try it out. It’s like when businesses hire<br />
temps — it gives them a chance to see whether they like the<br />
job you are doing and it gives you a chance to see whether<br />
you like them. I w<strong>as</strong>n’t thinking about any of that when I w<strong>as</strong><br />
<strong>as</strong>ked to be dean; I did it out of a sense of duty and responsibility<br />
and loyalty to the University. That w<strong>as</strong> the only re<strong>as</strong>on I did<br />
it. They needed a dean, I w<strong>as</strong> <strong>as</strong>ked to be dean, they thought<br />
I could do it, I thought I could do it, so I said I would do it. I<br />
w<strong>as</strong>n’t thinking long-term at all.<br />
I understand that you were the first in your family to graduate<br />
from college.<br />
I w<strong>as</strong> indeed, yes. My father didn’t even graduate from high school.<br />
My mother did. My grandparents didn’t finish grade school.<br />
And now you’ve had a long and successful career in academia.<br />
Yes, and my brother’s a professor, too. It’s remarkable, not in the<br />
sense of trumpeting achievement, but to have two professors like<br />
that is pretty interesting from a family where no one really had<br />
an education.<br />
What about academia w<strong>as</strong> so attractive to you?<br />
When I went to college, I really didn’t know much of anything. I<br />
grew up in a small town [Lafferty, Ohio] and didn’t know anyone<br />
who had gone to college, except for the nuns and priests who<br />
taught at my school. So I didn’t have a vision of what you go to<br />
college for. I did it because I had two choices: I could go to work<br />
in a coal mine or I could go to college. This w<strong>as</strong> not a hard choice.<br />
People were killed in the mines, including people in my own<br />
family. Practically every adult male I knew who w<strong>as</strong> over the age<br />
of 60 w<strong>as</strong> suffering from black lung dise<strong>as</strong>e. The life prospects for<br />
<strong>this</strong> were not great. So <strong>this</strong> w<strong>as</strong> not a hard choice.<br />
In many ways I consider the life I had so disconnected from<br />
the life I have here, it’s hard to talk about it. Obviously <strong>as</strong> a kid I<br />
w<strong>as</strong> a good student, but I didn’t really have any intellectual pretensions.<br />
I liked school and I worked hard at it because I knew<br />
that w<strong>as</strong> the only way out of <strong>this</strong> town. And I w<strong>as</strong>n’t alone in<br />
that thinking; probably half my high school graduating cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
went to college, which for a backward, depressed area like that<br />
w<strong>as</strong> pretty remarkable at that time. But it w<strong>as</strong>n’t until I got to<br />
college that I began to really enjoy learning stuff. I went to college<br />
with an interest in science and w<strong>as</strong> taking all the courses<br />
needed for a chemistry major, but early on I took a philosophy<br />
course and thought I would be a philosophy major because I<br />
found philosophy really, really interesting. I took several more<br />
philosophy courses, then I got to <strong>this</strong> course on Kant and I<br />
couldn’t understand a word the guy w<strong>as</strong> saying — it w<strong>as</strong> impossibly<br />
difficult — so I said to myself, you’re not smart enough<br />
to be a philosopher, choose something e<strong>as</strong>ier. I w<strong>as</strong> doing well<br />
in my chemistry courses and I liked them, so I stayed with that.<br />
It w<strong>as</strong> a good decision. I w<strong>as</strong> valedictorian of my cl<strong>as</strong>s.<br />
I got interested in science in college, but I didn’t really decide<br />
to go to graduate school until I w<strong>as</strong> about a junior. And<br />
I went to graduate school because I liked studying science. I<br />
didn’t have an intention of being a professor, I didn’t have an<br />
intention of being anything in particular except a scientist. In<br />
grad school I worked with Yuan Lee, a fant<strong>as</strong>tically energetic<br />
and brilliant guy, who later won the Nobel Prize. I believed<br />
I could never be of that caliber, so I hesitated in becoming a<br />
professor myself. I became a professor because another Nobel<br />
Prize winner, Sherry Rowland, came to Los Alamos where I<br />
w<strong>as</strong> working and he said to me, “Would you like to come to<br />
[UC] Irvine?” Well, I always wanted to live in Southern California<br />
so I thought, let’s check it out. So I went and I became a<br />
professor. It w<strong>as</strong> not entirely by accident, but certainly it w<strong>as</strong><br />
not by design. And I’ve always liked being a professor. There<br />
are two things about it I’ve really liked. One is interacting with<br />
graduate students <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> undergraduates, which you don’t<br />
have when you work at a place like Los Alamos. It w<strong>as</strong> a wonderful<br />
lab with many more scientists than exist at any university,<br />
but you didn’t work with students. And you didn’t teach.<br />
I really like teaching.<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> h<strong>as</strong> always prided itself <strong>as</strong> being a<br />
place of opportunity for first-generation college<br />
students. How important is that to the nature of<br />
the <strong>College</strong> and, if it is important, how do you<br />
preserve that?<br />
I think it’s very important. I think a lot of other<br />
people think it’s very important <strong>as</strong> well. Just having<br />
the dean think it’s important isn’t sufficient; there<br />
h<strong>as</strong> to be a larger commitment to that. It speaks to<br />
what the role of the university is in the larger society<br />
and what our social obligation is. Part of that social<br />
obligation is to make available to everyone who is<br />
qualified <strong>this</strong> opportunity. I’ve said lots of times that<br />
the <strong>College</strong> should look like America. I don’t mean<br />
visibly, I don’t mean you line up all the students and<br />
then say, “Ah, that looks like America.” I mean it<br />
represents what America is. And a large me<strong>as</strong>ure of<br />
what it represents is opportunity. I became Dean of<br />
the <strong>College</strong> from an unusual place; do deans of the<br />
<strong>College</strong> start that way? Probably not. But in America<br />
you can. It really is possible.<br />
Providing opportunity to people is important,<br />
but first-generation students also contribute to the<br />
lives of everyone in the <strong>College</strong>. Students learn <strong>as</strong><br />
much or more from one another <strong>as</strong> they do from<br />
professors. You don’t want everyone in the <strong>College</strong><br />
to be alike. You learn by being around people<br />
who have different points of view, different life experiences.<br />
It’s why we try to get students from all<br />
over the United States, why we have international<br />
students, why we recruit scientists, athletes, writers,<br />
people interested in theatre. We want people with a<br />
wide range of backgrounds, interests and experiences contributing<br />
to the education of students in the <strong>College</strong>. Everyone benefits from<br />
that. And first-generation students bring a particular perspective.<br />
The day I had a first discussion with the president about being<br />
dean w<strong>as</strong> August 31, 2011, when we had the academic resources<br />
fair, where every department sets up a table in Roone<br />
Arledge Auditorium and students come and talk about studying<br />
in those departments. Because I w<strong>as</strong> the director of undergraduate<br />
studies in chemistry, I w<strong>as</strong> there for chemistry. A young<br />
woman comes up to me at the end, when all the other kids have<br />
left, and she clearly had some reluctance to talk to me, but she<br />
said, “You know, I’d like to be a chemistry major, but I grew up in<br />
a small town in Georgia where there were no research opportunities.<br />
Since I’ve been here I’ve talked to all these kids who have<br />
done all <strong>this</strong> research and have had all these experiences and I<br />
don’t really think I can be a chem major.” I said to her, “No, to be<br />
a chem major you just have to be really interested in chemistry<br />
and willing to work hard, and that’s all that really matters. That<br />
previous experience doesn’t matter, and besides, those other kids<br />
aren’t <strong>as</strong> smart <strong>as</strong> they think they are.” That day, I talked to the<br />
president about being dean and I talked to her, and I’m not exaggerating,<br />
talking to her w<strong>as</strong> more important to me than talking to<br />
the president. I don’t know if she w<strong>as</strong> a first-generation student,<br />
but <strong>Columbia</strong> attracts students like that. We give students an opportunity.<br />
That’s really important to me.<br />
Did she become a chem major?<br />
We don’t know yet, because she’s a rising sophomore and students<br />
don’t declare majors until the second semester of their<br />
sophomore year. But I’m going to find out.<br />
Valentini and his wife, Teodolinda Barolini ’78 GSAS, chair of the Department of<br />
Italian and the Lorenzo Da Ponte Professor of Italian.<br />
PHOTO: EILEEN BARROSO<br />
Financial aid is an important piece of the puzzle. Recently there<br />
h<strong>as</strong> been a significant change in how financial aid is going to be<br />
administered at <strong>Columbia</strong>, taking the responsibility from Arts<br />
and Sciences and moving it to the Office of the Provost. What<br />
does that mean and how does that impact the <strong>College</strong>?<br />
I’d like to put that slightly more broadly. For many months, starting<br />
around Christm<strong>as</strong>time, when there w<strong>as</strong> discussion about<br />
administrative realignment within Arts and Sciences and the<br />
<strong>College</strong>, I argued that financial aid w<strong>as</strong> an expression of the University<br />
fulfilling its sense of social responsibility and social obligation,<br />
and <strong>as</strong> such it w<strong>as</strong> an institutional obligation. Therefore,<br />
it w<strong>as</strong>n’t re<strong>as</strong>onable, given that it w<strong>as</strong> an institutional obligation<br />
being expressed here, that the financial responsibility should be<br />
carried by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences or Faculty of Engineering.<br />
It should be carried by the University.<br />
The undergraduate part of any institution is the most visible, the<br />
most public. When people say <strong>Columbia</strong> or Harvard or Berkeley or<br />
the University of Tex<strong>as</strong> or Caltech or whatever, they’re really thinking<br />
about undergraduates. All those places are famous for their<br />
graduate education and professional schools and research. But when<br />
people talk about a university in general conversation, they’re talking<br />
about the undergraduate part of the institution because that’s<br />
the part people are most concerned about. Because of that, when the<br />
University is expressing its sense of social obligation, which it does<br />
in part and in a very significant way through financial aid, that’s an<br />
institutional responsibility. And that’s why I argued that the financial<br />
sourcing should be matched to that, because it’s viewed <strong>as</strong> a social<br />
responsibility. By having it effectively be a faculty responsibility,<br />
you’re <strong>as</strong>king faculty to make really hard choices about how they<br />
deploy resources for teaching and scholarship <strong>as</strong> opposed to benefit-<br />
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COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
GOOD CHEMISTRY<br />
ing students more directly <strong>as</strong> in financial aid. That’s a tough position<br />
to put faculty in. And that’s why I argued that the financial sourcing<br />
of financial aid should be matched to the social responsibility — it’s<br />
an institutional responsibility.<br />
You mentioned the restructuring that involved the Faculty<br />
of Arts and Sciences. Let’s turn to that relationship, which is<br />
a complex one but an important one for the <strong>College</strong>. Can you<br />
describe the relationship, and how it might change with your<br />
being part of the new three-person Arts and Sciences executive<br />
committee?<br />
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences w<strong>as</strong> created about the time I came<br />
to <strong>Columbia</strong>. It’s kind of an odd structure, and I use the word<br />
“odd” carefully. We have a collection of schools [<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong>,<br />
the School of General Studies, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,<br />
the School of the Arts and the School of Continuing Education]<br />
that have students and deans but no specific faculty, and then<br />
we have <strong>this</strong> body called the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which<br />
contains all the faculty but no students. It’s kind of a curious thing.<br />
This kind of separation between schools and faculty, organizationally,<br />
suggests difference and separation that functionally doesn’t<br />
really exist. I mean, if people go into a cl<strong>as</strong>sroom and teach, you<br />
don’t really think about<br />
whether the students are<br />
in the <strong>College</strong> or General<br />
Studies or wherever. You’re<br />
a faculty member teaching<br />
a bunch of students and developing<br />
a faculty-student<br />
relationship. The fact that<br />
<strong>as</strong> a faculty member you<br />
are a member of the Faculty<br />
of Arts and Sciences, while<br />
the students are enrolled in<br />
a school and not enrolled in<br />
the Faculty of Arts and Sciences,<br />
doesn’t really come<br />
into play. It only comes into<br />
play when you talk about<br />
how you make decisions; it’s an administrative dichotomy that<br />
is not really a functional dichotomy.<br />
And the deans of all the schools have reported to the vice president<br />
[of Arts and Sciences]; that’s what it says in the statutes of<br />
the University. That h<strong>as</strong> certain complications. It inevitably leads<br />
to certain kinds of differences of opinion about what should be<br />
done and how things should be done, because there are different<br />
representations. The vice president represents a different set of interests<br />
from the deans of schools, so there are always going to be<br />
disagreements about what should be done. The structure didn’t<br />
allow for the most effective way to make decisions. So now we’ve<br />
created an Executive Committee of Arts and Sciences, which consists<br />
of the Dean of the Graduate School, the Dean of <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong>, who is also the Vice President for Undergraduate Education,<br />
and the Vice President of Arts and Sciences, who also is<br />
the Dean of the Faculty. In my view, that’s a much better way to<br />
make decisions because it combines representation of the three<br />
major constituencies in our enterprise. We have faculty interests,<br />
graduate student interests and undergraduate student interests<br />
— they’re not in opposition, but they’re not identical. So you put<br />
them all together and that group of three people h<strong>as</strong> to come<br />
up with decisions about how to deploy resources, about faculty<br />
appointments, capital projects, budgets, development efforts —<br />
Students learn <strong>as</strong> much or<br />
more from one another <strong>as</strong><br />
they do from professors.<br />
You don’t want everyone<br />
in the <strong>College</strong> to be alike.<br />
You learn by being around<br />
people who have different<br />
points of view, different<br />
life experiences.<br />
all the major things that you need to decide are now made by a<br />
group of people who can effectively represent all the points of<br />
view of all constituencies who make up <strong>this</strong> part of the University.<br />
That’s a much more effective way of making decisions.<br />
It’s been functioning since mid-April, so we don’t know exactly<br />
how it will work out, but so far it’s worked out pretty well.<br />
It might be transitional, it might l<strong>as</strong>t only a short time or it might<br />
l<strong>as</strong>t well beyond my tenure <strong>as</strong> dean. Something else will replace<br />
it someday, something else always does. But I think <strong>this</strong> is much<br />
better than what we had.<br />
It always struck me <strong>as</strong> odd that the Dean of the <strong>College</strong> couldn’t<br />
hire a teacher in the <strong>College</strong> …<br />
Yes, it is odd, isn’t it [laughing]? Well, we started out with a college<br />
and then we added these other schools, and each of them<br />
had a faculty. Functionally, faculty were teaching different students<br />
but had an appointment in one school. That w<strong>as</strong> kind of<br />
awkward, so we created <strong>this</strong> one overall faculty. And that w<strong>as</strong><br />
awkward, too. There were dichotomies that were artificial and<br />
we tried to correct those by having something else that’s slightly<br />
artificial. But you’re gradually trying to remove artificialities. I<br />
have a 170-year-old house in New Jersey that I’m working on all<br />
the time, trying to make it a more functional house. The challenge<br />
isn’t that it’s 170 years old, it’s that people have added things or<br />
changed things all along that weren’t always done so well, so you<br />
gradually try to go back and make it right. That’s essentially what<br />
we’re trying to do here.<br />
One thing that’s l<strong>as</strong>ted for a while, with changes and additions<br />
along the way, is the Core Curriculum. It’s the <strong>College</strong>’s signature<br />
academic sequence and a bond among alumni. What is<br />
your vision of the place of a core curriculum in a liberal arts<br />
education, and how do you see <strong>Columbia</strong>’s Core evolving?<br />
I’ll answer the l<strong>as</strong>t part first. The Core, with a capital “C,” h<strong>as</strong><br />
existed for almost 100 years but it h<strong>as</strong>n’t existed for all 100<br />
years in exactly the same form. When Contemporary Civilization<br />
started, it used a textbook, written by people at <strong>Columbia</strong>,<br />
which included parts that dealt with industry and agriculture.<br />
Today, we don’t teach anything about industry and agriculture<br />
in Contemporary Civilization, yet everyone views the Core <strong>as</strong> a<br />
permanent part of the <strong>Columbia</strong> educational experience. And it<br />
is. The idea that there is a certain intellectual experience that every<br />
undergraduate is going to have and it’s going to represent a<br />
collection of ide<strong>as</strong> that the faculty feel is really important. That’s<br />
the permanent part.<br />
Exactly what those ide<strong>as</strong> are and what form that takes have<br />
been evolving. I mean, that CC textbook is really interesting. It<br />
is contemporary civilization of 1919; contemporary civilization<br />
of 2012 is a different thing. I think we ought to teach something<br />
about industry and agriculture, but that’s just my view because<br />
students don’t know anything about that and it’s still part of life.<br />
But the curriculum h<strong>as</strong> evolved and it will continue to evolve. We<br />
try things; some don’t work and we replace them. The names get<br />
changed. There w<strong>as</strong> Humanities A and B, <strong>this</strong> became Art Hum<br />
and Music Hum, <strong>this</strong> changed, that changed. There w<strong>as</strong> Major<br />
Cultures and that led to the Global Core, Frontiers of Science w<strong>as</strong><br />
introduced, there w<strong>as</strong> Logic & Rhetoric, now we have University<br />
Writing. Intellectual life moves forward, we learn new things and<br />
new things develop.<br />
The Core, fundamentally, represents a commitment to an idea<br />
that at any one time there is a kind of collective intellectual experience<br />
and a body of knowledge, information, ide<strong>as</strong>, that we want<br />
Professor at heart: Valentini chats with students outside Low Library <strong>this</strong> summer including (top, left to right) Annel Fernandez ’16, Xi<br />
Wang ’16 and Lorenzo Gibson ’16.<br />
PHOTOS: LESLIE JEAN-BART ’76, ’77J<br />
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GOOD CHEMISTRY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
GOOD CHEMISTRY<br />
all the students to be exposed to, to learn, to experience for two<br />
re<strong>as</strong>ons. One, we view that <strong>as</strong> essential to being an educated person.<br />
That’s our expression <strong>as</strong> an institution, to say that to be an<br />
educated person we think you need to do <strong>this</strong>. But it’s also the way<br />
we build an intellectual community at <strong>Columbia</strong>. All students here<br />
have taken Lit Hum, CC, Art Hum, Music Hum — it is part of the<br />
common dialogue, the b<strong>as</strong>is on which they can relate to each other<br />
whatever else they’ve done. It builds a community, an intellectual<br />
community, and it also builds a social community. And it h<strong>as</strong> created<br />
a trans-generational community, uniting former students,<br />
current students and future students. [Trustee Emeritus] George<br />
Van Amson ’74 said that what we want is for our kids to read the<br />
books that we were supposed to read when we were undergraduates.<br />
Of course, he said that in jest, but even though the curriculum<br />
evolves, there are some commonalities that do persist over long<br />
periods. It’s not that it changes so much that it’s a completely different<br />
course than it w<strong>as</strong> 20 years ago or 40 years ago. It is something<br />
that links people. There are certain ide<strong>as</strong> that we still believe<br />
are important for students to understand and be exposed to. We’ll<br />
add new things, we’ll modify things, but there will be some that<br />
we definitely will continue to consider are important.<br />
It’s also an expression of what <strong>Columbia</strong> considers an appropriate<br />
undergraduate<br />
The Core Curriculum<br />
represents a commitment<br />
to an idea that at any one<br />
time there is a kind of<br />
collective intellectual<br />
experience and a body of<br />
knowledge, information,<br />
ide<strong>as</strong>, that we want all the<br />
students to be exposed to,<br />
to learn, to experience.<br />
education. At the opposite<br />
end are some peer institutions<br />
that have little if<br />
any fixed required curriculum.<br />
That’s an expression<br />
of a different philosophy. I<br />
won’t say that one’s inferior,<br />
but we’ve made a decision<br />
that there are certain<br />
things everyone should do.<br />
I have always agreed with<br />
that. Even though I came<br />
here to be a chemistry professor<br />
and the Core w<strong>as</strong>n’t<br />
why I w<strong>as</strong> recruited, I considered<br />
it valuable. I do<br />
think there are things everyone should be exposed to and that’s<br />
what the Core provides. I don’t care if everyone studies chemistry,<br />
I don’t think that’s important. I do think everyone should<br />
study statistics, and if I ruled the world I would have statistics <strong>as</strong><br />
part of the Core Curriculum. But I don’t rule the world, and no<br />
one singlehandedly decides what goes into<br />
the Core.<br />
Meet the Dean<br />
Not on campus but still want a<br />
chance to meet the new dean?<br />
Come join Dean James J. Valentini<br />
in the following cities <strong>this</strong> fall,<br />
with more to come in the spring.<br />
September 20 New York City<br />
October 4 W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C.<br />
November 1 San Francisco<br />
November 5 Los Angeles<br />
For further information, log on to<br />
college.columbia.edu/alumni.<br />
This year at reunion we introduced a new<br />
event, an open house in the Richard E.<br />
Witten Center for the Core Curriculum,<br />
where alumni could see what is taught in<br />
the Core today and meet some of the Core<br />
chairs and faculty. The turnout w<strong>as</strong> amazing.<br />
It w<strong>as</strong> one of the weekend’s most<br />
popular events.<br />
It’s not just a fetish, either. It could be e<strong>as</strong>y<br />
for some people from a distance to think<br />
<strong>this</strong> is some sort of talisman and it’s not really<br />
substantive. But they’re wrong. It is the<br />
thing that former students almost uniformly<br />
mention to me <strong>as</strong> the most important or<br />
one of the most important parts of their experience.<br />
It’s not that they just mention it, they actually explain<br />
to me why it w<strong>as</strong> <strong>this</strong> valuable in their lives and how it informed<br />
their adult lives, and they speak very cogently about <strong>this</strong>. When I<br />
went to see Rob Speyer ’92, one thing he wanted to tell me about<br />
w<strong>as</strong> Jim Mirollo teaching him Lit Hum. There w<strong>as</strong> a segment of<br />
The Divine Comedy that they were reading, and he remembers it<br />
so well and how important that cl<strong>as</strong>s w<strong>as</strong> to him. He can tell you<br />
why it w<strong>as</strong> important, why it had value in his life. I think it’s really<br />
important that current students talk to former students about<br />
the value of the Core, because it h<strong>as</strong> a value in the lives of former<br />
students. Dede Gardner ’90 w<strong>as</strong> one of the five alumni presented<br />
with a John Jay Award [for distinguished professional achievement]<br />
<strong>this</strong> year. When I called her shortly before that, she wanted<br />
to talk about Lit Hum and how useful it w<strong>as</strong> to her. She’s a movie<br />
producer, and she wanted to talk about how important Lit Hum<br />
w<strong>as</strong> to her. Former students talk about majors, too. But there are<br />
lots of different kinds of things you can major in; the Core is the<br />
common currency of everyone who went to the <strong>College</strong>.<br />
When I w<strong>as</strong> director of undergraduate studies in chemistry, I<br />
would <strong>as</strong>k students who were about to graduate what w<strong>as</strong> the<br />
best part about being at <strong>Columbia</strong>, what w<strong>as</strong> the worst part, what<br />
w<strong>as</strong> important, what w<strong>as</strong>n’t and what w<strong>as</strong> the most important<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s they took. Now, I had actually taught most of these students<br />
and many of them still needed letters of recommendation, so<br />
you might think they would say, “Oh, Professor Valentini, your<br />
course w<strong>as</strong> the most important.” But hardly anyone ever said my<br />
course, even though I’m a good teacher. More of them, in fact the<br />
overwhelming majority of them, would cite a Core course — and<br />
then they’d explain why that w<strong>as</strong> important to being a scientist.<br />
It h<strong>as</strong> real value, genuine value in students’ intellectual lives and<br />
in their subsequent professional lives. That’s not a small thing.<br />
What role should alumni play in the life of the <strong>College</strong>?<br />
I prefer to call alumni former students because certain words acquire<br />
connotations that then become locked to them. Alumni is a<br />
term that implies a kind of distinction that’s greater than I think<br />
is really warranted. If you think of people <strong>as</strong> former students, you<br />
think of them <strong>as</strong> continuing on in a connection that’s different<br />
and yet the same. My middle son is in the Marine Corps, and I’ve<br />
learned that there are no ex-Marines. They say once a Marine, always<br />
a Marine — that’s it. It’s a culture, a group of people. There<br />
are active duty Marines and inactive duty Marines but there are<br />
no ex-Marines. Once you are, you are. From my perspective,<br />
once you’ve been a <strong>Columbia</strong> student you’re always a <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
student, you’re just in a different category.<br />
You’re an inactive student, although we<br />
don’t use the word “inactive”; I say you’re a<br />
former student.<br />
Former students bring real value to the<br />
University because they have a lot of life experience<br />
from which they can tell you how<br />
their time at <strong>Columbia</strong> w<strong>as</strong> valuable, so we<br />
can see how what we do for undergraduates<br />
adds value to the lives of those students<br />
when they become former students and also<br />
how it contributes to society. We’re not just<br />
educating people for the sake of educating<br />
people. We hope that that actually produces<br />
something. We hope it produces satisfying<br />
personal lives for former students, the ability<br />
to make a living — that’s not a small thing<br />
— and to make a contribution to the larger<br />
world. Who can tell us most effectively whether<br />
we’ve actually achieved that? The people who<br />
actually have been students and have gone out<br />
and done things. They can help current students<br />
visualize what lies ahead for them in a way that<br />
faculty and the dean can’t communicate to them,<br />
because the dean and faculty are just one small<br />
segment of society with limited experiences.<br />
Former students of the <strong>College</strong> have been involved<br />
in lots of different things, so they carry<br />
a lot of valuable information about what we’re<br />
doing well and what we’re not doing well.<br />
They’re also <strong>this</strong> huge army of 46,000 people<br />
— even if only 10 percent of them are really committed<br />
to the <strong>College</strong>, that’s a lot of people who<br />
can work on behalf of the <strong>College</strong> and the University,<br />
at no cost to us. They may make financial<br />
contributions, that’s obviously important to us<br />
and to any institution, but they also commit their<br />
time and their energy to helping make the lives<br />
of current students better, to helping make the<br />
institution stronger by working on its behalf in<br />
many different ways. Former students participate<br />
in ARC [the Alumni Representative Committee]<br />
by interviewing prospective students.<br />
That in itself is a very important thing. Former<br />
students know <strong>as</strong> well or better than anyone<br />
what it’s like to be in the <strong>College</strong> and what kinds<br />
of students are going to do well in the <strong>College</strong><br />
and can help applicants understand whether<br />
they really should be in the <strong>College</strong>. There’s no<br />
way for the <strong>College</strong> itself to do that. We couldn’t<br />
afford to hire enough people to do that. And that’s just one thing<br />
— there are a lot of valuable things former students can do for<br />
the <strong>College</strong> and the University, supporting everything that we<br />
do and contributing their time and effort to getting things done.<br />
They are a phenomenal resource.<br />
Projecting five or 10 years ahead, how would you evaluate your<br />
success or failure <strong>as</strong> dean?<br />
If former students, current students and faculty say, “The <strong>College</strong><br />
is a better place now than it w<strong>as</strong> five years ago or 10 years ago,”<br />
then I’ll consider it a success. I’d certainly consider it a success if<br />
I feel it’s a better place. But what does that really mean? Is there<br />
anyone who ends a term <strong>as</strong> something and doesn’t think it’s a<br />
better place, rightly or wrongly? Probably not.<br />
There certainly are specific things we’d like to do, but they<br />
take a lot of explaining and don’t have the same kind of emotional<br />
impact. I’ll give you one example: I’d like us, both <strong>as</strong> a <strong>College</strong><br />
and a University, to be financially more secure, by which I mean<br />
less dependent on tuition and revenue that we can bring in every<br />
year, so that we’re less sensitive to the vagaries of economic life. If<br />
we had an endowment big enough to pay for everything that we<br />
want to do, that would be really great. Is that an achievable goal?<br />
No. In the same way that when I say the goal for the <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong> Alumni Association is 100 percent alumni engagement<br />
and everyone in development cringes because you can’t get to<br />
that — but we can work toward it. It’s a destination. But that’s<br />
technical, it doesn’t have an emotional component. I’d like there<br />
to be an opportunity for every student to have an internship or<br />
a summer research fellowship. But that too is kind of specific.<br />
There are a lot of things we can do, specific things, some of which<br />
Valentini and CCAA president Kyra Tirana Barry ’87 at the Alumni Reunion Weekend<br />
2012 Dean’s Continental Breakf<strong>as</strong>t on June 2.<br />
PHOTO: EILEEN BARROSO<br />
will work, some of which won’t, some of which may work but<br />
won’t actually lead to people thinking it’s a better place, in which<br />
c<strong>as</strong>e they were interesting to do but not actually all that productive.<br />
So how would I judge it being a success? If former students,<br />
current students and faculty consider it a success, then I will, too.<br />
One l<strong>as</strong>t question: What is one thing about you that would surprise<br />
our readers?<br />
That’s interesting … let me think about that. L<strong>as</strong>t September,<br />
when we had an all-staff meeting, I said there are three things<br />
that are important in my life: my family, the <strong>College</strong> and cars,<br />
in that order. I don’t think people expect professors to be interested<br />
in cars. But if you turn around you can see what’s in my<br />
display c<strong>as</strong>e — six model cars, all of which were gifts from current<br />
students or former students who know how much I like<br />
cars. There are also two statues of Buddha. I like to think of the<br />
different ways we can express something important, to surprise<br />
people with the unexpected comparison or unanticipated analogy.<br />
The Buddha and cars provide an example. The Buddha is<br />
supposed to have said, “There is no way to happiness, happiness<br />
is the way.” I repeat that to myself each morning. Now there w<strong>as</strong><br />
for a while a poster in the entrance to the service area at the BMW<br />
dealer in Manhattan that said, “Happiness isn’t just around the<br />
corner, happiness is the corner.” It is the same thing. Any car guy<br />
would agree. And I tell chemistry students that the Second Noble<br />
Truth of Buddhism and the Second Law of Thermodynamics say<br />
essentially the same thing. I hope that surprises you, but you will<br />
have to wait for an explanation — or better yet, try to figure it out<br />
for yourself.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
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FALL 2012<br />
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COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
Stand and Deliver<br />
Joel Klein ’67 looks back on extraordinary<br />
career <strong>as</strong> attorney, educator, reformer<br />
B y Chris Burrell<br />
Joel Klein ’67 w<strong>as</strong> 16 when he made the leap from William Cullen Bryant<br />
H.S. in Queens to the <strong>Columbia</strong> campus, just a 6-mile car ride from one<br />
borough to the next but a world away from the public housing apartment<br />
where he grew up.<br />
In that first week, then-dean of the <strong>College</strong> David Truman sat Klein<br />
and his father down for an advising session and tried to dampen the<br />
freshman’s academic expectations. “My father w<strong>as</strong> a postman, and it<br />
w<strong>as</strong> a pretty daunting experience to meet with the dean,” says Klein.<br />
“Truman said to me that given my background, I could expect — if I did<br />
really well — to graduate in the middle of the cl<strong>as</strong>s at <strong>Columbia</strong>.”<br />
Such a prognosis didn’t sit too well with the younger Klein, who piped<br />
up with <strong>this</strong> rebuttal: “I said, ‘I don’t know where I’ll graduate, but my<br />
teachers at Bryant H.S. didn’t send me here to graduate at the middle of<br />
the cl<strong>as</strong>s. They sent me to graduate at the top.’”<br />
The brazenness took his father aback, and afterward he <strong>as</strong>ked how<br />
Klein could say that to the dean.<br />
“I said, ‘Well, Dad, that’s the truth.’ Anyhow, Truman and I became<br />
good friends.”<br />
FALL 2012<br />
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JOEL KLEIN ’67<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY JOEL KLEIN ’67<br />
“I still feel like America is falling down in<br />
education, particularly for the most challenged kids.”<br />
The year w<strong>as</strong> 1963, and the ambitious teenager w<strong>as</strong> just<br />
beginning to display the drive that later would empower<br />
him to challenge monoliths and monopolies,<br />
from mighty Microsoft to powerful teachers’ unions.<br />
That moment almost 50 years ago also exposed Klein’s n<strong>as</strong>cent<br />
appreciation for the transformative power of education.<br />
Decades later, <strong>as</strong> chancellor of the New York City Department<br />
of Education, the nation’s largest school system, that appreciation<br />
gave rise to a conviction to champion kids — much like himself<br />
— whose only foothold out of tough circumstances could be<br />
found in a cl<strong>as</strong>sroom. But education, while Klein’s signature <strong>issue</strong>,<br />
represents only one facet of an extraordinary and somewhat<br />
dizzying career. He h<strong>as</strong> morphed from Beltway Democratic insider,<br />
vetting a Supreme Court justice for the Clinton administration<br />
and taking on Bill Gates in a monumental anti-trust c<strong>as</strong>e, into<br />
one of the country’s leading and most controversial educational<br />
reformers — only to vault early l<strong>as</strong>t year into the executive towers<br />
of the conservative-leaning media titan Rupert Murdoch.<br />
“My resume looks like it kind of got mixed and matched from<br />
three or four people,” the 65-year-old Klein says while taking a<br />
break over a cup of hot tea in his Midtown office at News Corporation<br />
headquarters.<br />
He began with law, graduating from Harvard in 1971 and<br />
working <strong>as</strong> a law clerk, first for David Bazelon, chief judge of the<br />
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of <strong>Columbia</strong> Circuit, and<br />
then for Justice Lewis Powell of the U.S. Supreme Court. Following<br />
work at several law firms, in 1981 he co-founded a boutique<br />
D.C. firm, where he made his mark <strong>as</strong> a litigator: Klein argued 11<br />
c<strong>as</strong>es before the Supreme Court, and won nine of them.<br />
When people talk about Klein, they describe a man who<br />
thrives amidst adversity, all the more when many eyes are trained<br />
on him. One of the people who worked in Klein’s law firm in the<br />
1980s w<strong>as</strong> Peter Scheer, now the executive director of the First<br />
Amendment Coalition.<br />
“What he’s especially good at is being able to think very clearly<br />
in the midst of a crisis, where there’s a lot of pressure and the world<br />
is watching,” Scheer told Politico l<strong>as</strong>t year. “He’s able to stay focused,<br />
and he’s almost stimulated by all that pressure and media<br />
attention.”<br />
Those attributes are likely what caught the eye of President<br />
Bill Clinton in 1993 when he convinced Klein to become deputy<br />
White House counsel, t<strong>as</strong>king him with guiding the nomination<br />
process of Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’59L to the Supreme Court. He<br />
also oversaw the Clinton White House’s responses to the Whitewater<br />
inquiry.<br />
Being tapped by Clinton caught Klein off-guard. “It struck me<br />
<strong>as</strong> strange because I’m not a political guy,” he recalls. “There w<strong>as</strong><br />
a certain amount of apprehension. I mean, the White House is a<br />
very hothouse place and [the people there have] very sharp political<br />
elbows.”<br />
Klein’s ability to more than hold his own in such a setting<br />
would come into play in his next posting, in 1995, to the Justice<br />
Department. Within two years he w<strong>as</strong> named chief of the antitrust<br />
division, where he challenged Microsoft’s monopoly in<br />
what Forbes magazine called “one of the largest and most dramatic<br />
antitrust battles in the nation’s history.”<br />
In June 2000, after a federal judge ruled to break Microsoft into<br />
two parts, Klein sat with Jim Lehrer of PBS and reflected upon<br />
the victory. “I do think the notion that anything goes, even in the<br />
new high-tech economy, is a notion that is very corrosive and insidious,”<br />
Klein said. “It will be harmful to our markets, harmful<br />
to our consumers and ultimately harmful to our economy. When<br />
you use economic power to coerce people to stay out of the market,<br />
to b<strong>as</strong>ically tie up distribution channels, when that occurs ...<br />
you can count on the United States Department of Justice and I<br />
believe the federal courts [should] put a stop to it.”<br />
The victory w<strong>as</strong> reversed on appeal, and by then the Bush<br />
administration had no interest in pursuing the c<strong>as</strong>e. But Klein’s<br />
reputation <strong>as</strong> the guy who went toe-to-toe with a corporation<br />
then valued at $619 billion — more than Apple is today — never<br />
waned. In his four years at the head of antitrust, he established<br />
a record to stand on: Through 220 criminal price-fixing c<strong>as</strong>es, 52<br />
executives were sent to prison, corporations paid $1.7 billion in<br />
fines and individuals paid an additional $21 million. Klein also<br />
blocked or altered about 170 proposed mergers.<br />
The Los Angeles Times dubbed Klein a “giant killer.” And in <strong>as</strong>sessing<br />
his legacy at the Justice Department, The New York Times<br />
heaped praise on him in a September 24, 2000, editorial: “Mr.<br />
Klein blocked a series of mergers — between Lockheed Martin<br />
and Northrop Grumman, WorldCom and Sprint, and Northwest<br />
and Continental — that had the potential to harm consumers. He<br />
also broke up price-fixing cartels, notably between international<br />
vitamin companies. He h<strong>as</strong> not forged bold new antitrust principles<br />
or direction. What he h<strong>as</strong> done is take antitrust enforcement<br />
seriously. For that alone he warrants the nation’s gratitude.”<br />
For many years while the high-powered lawyer w<strong>as</strong> racking<br />
up legal victories toiling in W<strong>as</strong>hington, he also played<br />
on a different court with the same tenacity. The b<strong>as</strong>ketball<br />
league at the W<strong>as</strong>hington Y had a roster of lawyers that included<br />
Larry Lucchino, now CEO of the Boston Red Sox.<br />
“We played in a serious league,” says Klein, who stands 5-foot-<br />
6. “I’m lucky I didn’t break a leg.”<br />
Between hoops and law, Klein kindled his p<strong>as</strong>sion for education,<br />
teaching at Georgetown Law School. Unlike most adjunct<br />
professors, Klein didn’t opt for an evening seminar; he taught a<br />
daytime cl<strong>as</strong>s in civil procedure to first-year students.<br />
One of his students w<strong>as</strong> Michael K. Powell, who later w<strong>as</strong><br />
chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and is the<br />
son of former Secretary of State Colin Powell. “Joel w<strong>as</strong> an extraordinary<br />
teacher who had a m<strong>as</strong>tery of complex subjects and<br />
the ability to make them simple,” Powell told The New York Times<br />
in 2002.<br />
Teaching w<strong>as</strong> not new for Klein. When he w<strong>as</strong> at Harvard in<br />
the late ’60s, he had taken a short leave to take education cl<strong>as</strong>ses<br />
at NYU and to teach math to sixth-graders at a public school in<br />
his old Queens neighborhood. But despite these leanings toward<br />
the cl<strong>as</strong>sroom and a chalkboard, he says he w<strong>as</strong> flustered when<br />
he answered a phone call in 2002 and heard the voice of New<br />
York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, <strong>as</strong>king him to consider tak-<br />
ing the post of schools chancellor.<br />
“I said, ‘Mike, you must have the wrong name. You clearly got<br />
one name too few in your Rolodex.’ He said, ‘No, no, we were<br />
thinking of people outside the box,’” Klein recalls.<br />
At 56, the former corporate lawyer and trustbuster found his<br />
calling: To take charge of a public school system of 1.1 million students<br />
and to grapple with the complex realities and controversies<br />
of urban education.<br />
“He h<strong>as</strong> the leadership skills,” Bloomberg said at a news conference<br />
introducing Klein in summer 2002. “He h<strong>as</strong> the intergovernmental<br />
skills. He h<strong>as</strong> the feeling and comp<strong>as</strong>sion for people.<br />
He is incorruptible. He is a visionary. And I believe that he will<br />
deliver to <strong>this</strong> city what we promised, a quality education for all<br />
of our children.”<br />
Bloomberg handed Klein the reins of a school system beleaguered<br />
by low test scores, high dropout rates and a shortage of<br />
teachers — a tough <strong>as</strong>signment that struck a chord not only with<br />
Klein’s politics but also with his own p<strong>as</strong>t.<br />
“I still feel like America is falling down in education, particularly<br />
for the most challenged kids,” Klein said recently, when<br />
<strong>as</strong>ked to look back on his tenure <strong>as</strong> chancellor. “And <strong>this</strong> w<strong>as</strong> a<br />
chance to really give back to the city and the school system that<br />
had given me so much. I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for<br />
what teachers in Astoria did for me.” (Klein in fact credits his<br />
physics teacher, Sidney Harris, with changing the arc of his life:<br />
“In my junior year, he took me <strong>as</strong>ide and said, ‘You’re doing fine,<br />
but you can do better. Why don’t you stay after school and we’ll<br />
study Einstein’s theory of relativity, which will prove to you that<br />
you can play <strong>this</strong> game at a different level.’” Harris also pushed<br />
him to apply to the <strong>College</strong> rather than the obvious choice of<br />
CUNY’s campus in nearby Flushing.)<br />
As schools chancellor from 2002–10, Klein gave more power to<br />
principals and pushed for accountability, stamping schools with<br />
A-through-F grades in annual report cards, taking a stand against<br />
the widespread practice of social promotion of students up the<br />
grade levels and making city schools a model for data-driven<br />
teaching and policymaking. He also created more than 300 new<br />
small schools and charter schools for parents to choose from.<br />
“I’m a big, big believer, whether it’s for my children or anybody<br />
else’s children, that people want choice,” Klein says. “I used<br />
to <strong>as</strong>k people all the time, ‘Of the 1,500 schools in New York City,<br />
how many would you send your own kids to?’”<br />
Time and again, he hit on <strong>this</strong> point, allying himself with the<br />
schoolchildren and their parents’ hopes and dreams for them.<br />
“Whose kids should go to the schools we wouldn’t send our own<br />
kids to?” he <strong>as</strong>ks. “Whatever community you live in, whatever<br />
your economic circumstances, you want your kid to have a shot.<br />
And education is one of those places where you can change lives.<br />
The politics of W<strong>as</strong>hington — those sharp elbows — served <strong>as</strong><br />
the ideal boot camp for the intensity, unrelenting media scrutiny<br />
and controversy that came with leading a huge public school system.<br />
Not one to shy from confrontation, Klein attacked the city’s<br />
Klein participates in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the opening of a school in Middle Village, Queens, in 2010.<br />
PHOTO: COURTESY JOEL KLEIN ’67<br />
FALL 2012<br />
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FALL 2012<br />
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JOEL KLEIN ’67 COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY JOEL KLEIN ’67<br />
“Being able to fight to change the world for kids is really<br />
for me personally <strong>as</strong> rewarding a thing <strong>as</strong> you can do.”<br />
Klein spoke at the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1967’s reunion dinner on June 2, leading a lively discussion<br />
about education.<br />
PHOTO: MICHAEL DAMES<br />
educational establishment, from teachers’ unions to bureaucracy.<br />
“The b<strong>as</strong>ic challenge w<strong>as</strong> changing a very complex organization<br />
that h<strong>as</strong> a strong centrifugal force toward the status quo,” he<br />
explains. “I w<strong>as</strong> running a school system at $22 billion. There are<br />
a lot of people in that system who benefit from the way it’s structured.<br />
So when you come along and say we’re going to do things<br />
differently — for example, we want to pay more for performance<br />
and not guarantee [teachers] automatic tenure, but actually do<br />
evaluations — it’s inevitable that there will be resistance.”<br />
A Times editorial in November 2010, <strong>as</strong>sessing Klein’s eight<br />
years at the helm of city schools, credited him for improving<br />
graduation rates, creating higher-performing small schools and<br />
ending a policy that allowed senior teachers to transfer to other<br />
schools and bump younger teachers out of the way: “Future<br />
schools chancellors in New York City will benefit from several<br />
important reforms put in place during the tenure of Joel Klein.<br />
Carrying out the mandates of the mayor, Mr. Klein helped to create<br />
clear lines of authority in a once-byzantine system and gradually<br />
cleared away a pernicious bureaucracy that had outl<strong>as</strong>ted all<br />
of their predecessors.”<br />
In some ways the city’s schools are still reverberating from the<br />
Klein shake-up. In February, under pressure from local media<br />
outlets, New York City schools rele<strong>as</strong>ed those teacher evaluations,<br />
so-called “value added” reports that were meant to me<strong>as</strong>ure<br />
a teacher’s impact on his or her students’ standardized test<br />
scores. Bill Gates chimed in on the op-ed pages of the Times, calling<br />
it a “big mistake” and “a public shaming” to reveal individual<br />
teachers’ scores.<br />
Klein agreed that publicizing teachers’ scores should not become<br />
a shaming exercise but also adopted the perspective of parents, citing<br />
their right to know how teachers’ performance might affect their<br />
children’s learning, at le<strong>as</strong>t <strong>as</strong> me<strong>as</strong>ured in standardized tests.<br />
“What Bill Gates wrote about is fair,” Klein says.<br />
“But I’ve talked to parents, and they think it’s valuable.<br />
They want to make sure their kids are getting<br />
the education they need. It enriches the discussion<br />
and empowers parents.”<br />
For Klein, who still writes op-ed essays and<br />
book reviews about education in newspapers such<br />
<strong>as</strong> The W<strong>as</strong>hington Post and The Wall Street Journal,<br />
the records’ controversial rele<strong>as</strong>e strikes at a core<br />
theme of his own reform gospel. “We need ways<br />
to fairly evaluate teachers,” he says. “Ultimately,<br />
those who really perform at the top are seen <strong>as</strong><br />
truly the heroes, and those who consistently underperform<br />
should be in another line of work. Nobody<br />
wants a teacher for his or her kid who isn’t<br />
up to the t<strong>as</strong>k.”<br />
Sizing up his years <strong>as</strong> chancellor, Klein conceded<br />
that some things he tried simply didn’t work or<br />
were rushed, but he takes solace in a quote from<br />
Teddy Roosevelt that he carries in his wallet, attesting<br />
to <strong>this</strong> reality for change-makers: “Not everything<br />
is going to fly.”<br />
“Those eight, nine years working with Mike and<br />
the city were really the most exhilarating and the most important<br />
professionally,” Klein adds. “Arguing Supreme Court c<strong>as</strong>es and<br />
teaching law school, those things rang my bell … But being able<br />
to fight to change the world for kids is really for me personally <strong>as</strong><br />
rewarding a thing <strong>as</strong> you can do.”<br />
After nearly a decade <strong>as</strong> schools chancellor, Klein’s next<br />
act came <strong>as</strong> something of a shocker: In January 2011,<br />
he stepped into the corporate towers of Rupert Murdoch’s<br />
NewsCorp, an international media behemoth<br />
he had once taken a swing at in his antitrust days.<br />
As surprised <strong>as</strong> some of Klein’s friends and followers may<br />
have been to see <strong>this</strong> Democrat begin working for the parent company<br />
of FOX News, there were ingredients from his experience <strong>as</strong><br />
chancellor that shaped and informed <strong>this</strong> twist in his plot line.<br />
Education w<strong>as</strong> the obvious link. Murdoch’s offer made Klein the<br />
e.v.p. in charge of NewsCorp’s fledgling educational technology<br />
division, appealing to his p<strong>as</strong>sion for metrics and data <strong>as</strong> levers<br />
to revolutionize teaching.<br />
“In an organization like <strong>this</strong>, I don’t look through a political<br />
lens,” he explains. “My friends said, ‘Why are you going to<br />
NewsCorp? You’re a lifelong Democrat.’ The answer w<strong>as</strong>, Rupert<br />
gave me an opportunity and w<strong>as</strong> willing to make a big bet on<br />
something I cared about. I’ve never had a discussion with him<br />
where I didn’t learn something.”<br />
While schools chancellor, Klein had learned a lesson in former<br />
foes becoming allies. He tells an anecdote from a day spent at a<br />
high school in the Bronx in 2003. Bloomberg w<strong>as</strong> there, but more<br />
importantly, so w<strong>as</strong> Gates, the man he targeted in the highly publicized<br />
antitrust c<strong>as</strong>e.<br />
“It w<strong>as</strong> the first time I had seen Bill after the litigation,” Klein<br />
says. “I w<strong>as</strong> very nervous and apprehensive … and the event<br />
goes <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> it could have gone. Bill gave us $51 million that<br />
day, and I get off the stage really breathing a sigh of relief. One of<br />
my principals tugs at me and says, ‘Chancellor, $51 million, that’s<br />
a really good day’s work. Think of what Bill Gates would have<br />
given you if you hadn’t sued him.’”<br />
Speaking <strong>as</strong> the educational reformer, Klein says that most<br />
schools are not intelligently using computer technology. “I think<br />
you can reduce education to two fundamental concepts: how<br />
good is the incoming and how much of it a kid absorbs. If the<br />
incoming is mediocre, even if a kid absorbs it all, you haven’t<br />
achieved much. And if the incoming is terrific and a kid doesn’t<br />
absorb it, you haven’t achieved much, either.”<br />
Klein notes that a program to teach the Gettysburg Address<br />
can be customized to individual students, <strong>as</strong>king provocative<br />
questions, engaging them with games, social networks and rewards,<br />
and me<strong>as</strong>uring their responses. “Why should we have<br />
every teacher try to figure out those questions?” Klein <strong>as</strong>ks.<br />
NewsCorp formally unveiled its education business, called<br />
Amplify, in July along with plans, in collaboration with AT&T, to<br />
introduce tablet-b<strong>as</strong>ed programs for teachers and students starting<br />
<strong>this</strong> fall. The company’s stated mission is to reimagine K–12 education<br />
by creating products and services that empower teachers,<br />
students and parents in new ways. “I know that some are skeptical<br />
that a private company can bring needed change to public education,”<br />
Klein, who now is Amplify’s CEO, wrote in a blog post on<br />
its newly launched website. “But if we are going to see the kind of<br />
transformation that our teachers, students and parents deserve, I<br />
believe strongly that there is a much-needed role for private sector<br />
partners and providers to help place the big bets.”<br />
Prior to the launch of Amplify, however, much of Klein’s attention<br />
w<strong>as</strong> shifted from education to the company’s main focus<br />
— newsgathering, and specifically a phone-hacking scandal<br />
that had erupted at its tabloid newspapers in Britain. Murdoch<br />
turned to Klein to oversee the company’s internal investigation<br />
into illegal activities by executives, editors and reporters at the<br />
newspapers.<br />
Klein made it clear that he wouldn’t<br />
answer questions for <strong>this</strong> story about<br />
the scandal or NewsCorp’s management<br />
and standards committee, which<br />
he led up until June, but he did say<br />
that part of his job during that period<br />
w<strong>as</strong> an early start to his day — 6 a.m.<br />
— so he could communicate with people<br />
in London about the investigation.<br />
Among those who know Klein and<br />
watched him shoulder <strong>this</strong> new and<br />
unexpected role <strong>as</strong> Murdoch’s defender,<br />
confidante and strategist in the<br />
midst of a headline-grabbing scandal<br />
w<strong>as</strong> Howard Wolfson, one of Bloomberg’s<br />
deputy mayors.<br />
“Joel is a wartime consigliere. He’s<br />
very tough,” Wolfson told Politico. “He<br />
would be somebody you would want<br />
in a foxhole.”<br />
While Klein demurs when <strong>as</strong>ked<br />
about the scandal, he eagerly engages<br />
on the topic of the news media, his<br />
dealings with the press and some<br />
of his frustrations during his time <strong>as</strong><br />
schools chancellor.<br />
“I woke up every morning feeling so blessed to fight for kids,<br />
and then I’d sit down and read the papers, you know,” he said,<br />
laughing and shaking his head. “I don’t miss that.”<br />
He once raised the <strong>issue</strong> with a New York Times reporter.<br />
“I w<strong>as</strong> complaining to him, ‘We tried a few things that worked<br />
really well, and now you want to keep writing about <strong>this</strong> thing<br />
that didn’t work <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> we had hoped. Why would you do<br />
that?’” Klein recalls. “He said, ‘In our business, we don’t write<br />
about the planes that land.’ But I said that in K–12 education, it’s<br />
the planes that land that are the news and not the planes that<br />
cr<strong>as</strong>h, because we’ve cr<strong>as</strong>hed for so long.”<br />
That’s the eternal questioner inside Klein, and it’s almost<br />
ironic to picture <strong>this</strong> skeptic of the media occupying the highest<br />
echelons of the NewsCorp empire.<br />
“I am more sympathetic to the subjects of the story just because<br />
I’ve been the subject of a lot of stories. You get used to<br />
thinking maybe there’s more to <strong>this</strong> story than you thought,”<br />
says the man who’s been in the crosshairs of so many headlines<br />
and news reports. “It always bothers me that people think what<br />
you read in the paper is accurate. It doesn’t mean that it’s inaccurate,<br />
but there is a kind of belief and so I always say to people<br />
when they read a story, ‘Maybe.’”<br />
Overall, though, Klein seems content with the path he’s followed,<br />
and with the direction toward which it is leading <strong>as</strong> CEO<br />
of Amplify.<br />
“Finding a new hill to climb, an opportunity to do something<br />
new and exciting, always appealed to me,” he says. “And fortunately<br />
for me, in no small me<strong>as</strong>ure because of the education I got<br />
at <strong>Columbia</strong>, I’ve had those opportunities.”<br />
Chris Burrell is a freelance journalist and illustrator b<strong>as</strong>ed in E<strong>as</strong>t Boston,<br />
M<strong>as</strong>s. He h<strong>as</strong> contributed stories to The New York Times, The<br />
W<strong>as</strong>hington Post, Boston, PRI’s The World and WBUR-Boston. His<br />
illustrations have appeared in The New York Times, The W<strong>as</strong>hington<br />
Post and CCT.<br />
Klein jokes with President Clinton and attorney (now senior U.S. District judge) Charles Breyer<br />
in the Oval Office in 1994.<br />
PHOTO: COURTESY WILLIAM J. CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY<br />
FALL 2012<br />
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FALL 2012<br />
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COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
The Open<br />
Mind of<br />
Richard Heffner ’46<br />
Veteran PBS interviewer provides forum for guests<br />
to examine, question, disagree<br />
B y T h o m a s V i n c i g u e r r a ’85, ’86J, ’90 GSAS<br />
It w<strong>as</strong> quite a celebratory lunch. Here<br />
were NYU President John Sexton and his one-time counterpart<br />
at Brown, Vartan Gregorian. There were p<strong>as</strong>t New York State<br />
Chief Judges Sol Wachtler and Judith Kaye ’58 Barnard. The<br />
New York Times Book Review editor Sam Tanenhaus mingled<br />
with former Nation editor Victor Nav<strong>as</strong>ky. Joan Ganz Cooney<br />
of the Children’s Television Workshop and prolific producer<br />
Norman Lear were on hand, too. So were three-term New York<br />
City Mayor Ed Koch, legendary Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau,<br />
famed First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams, journalist Bill Moyers ....<br />
(Opposite) An Open Mind staff member prepares the set for Richard D. Heffner ’46, ’47 GSAS to interview Dr. Peter Bach,<br />
director of the Center for Health and Policy Outcomes at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.<br />
PHOTOS: RANDY MONCEAUX<br />
FALL 2012<br />
34
RICHARD HEFFNER ’46<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY RICHARD HEFFNER ’46<br />
Heffner circa 1930 on Broadway and West 108th<br />
Street, near his childhood home, and (right) in his<br />
<strong>College</strong> graduation photo.<br />
PHOTOS: COURTESY RICHARD D. HEFFNER ’46, ’47 GSAS<br />
Heffner and his wife of 62 years, Elaine ’51 SW, at the<br />
1949 Tanglewood Music Festival, a year prior to their marriage,<br />
and on vacation in Sydney, Australia, in 1996.<br />
PHOTOS: COURTESY RICHARD D. HEFFNER ’46, ’47 GSAS<br />
Then, too, circulating through the crowd, shaking hands, quietly<br />
accepting congratulations, w<strong>as</strong> the courtly, slightly stooped,<br />
silver-haired fellow who had interviewed them all — and hundreds<br />
of others.<br />
The celebration at the Mutual of America building in midtown<br />
Manhattan on June 30, 2011, marked the 55th anniversary of the<br />
weekly, half-hour PBS talk show Open Mind, the unique legacy of<br />
Richard D. Heffner ’46, ’47 GSAS. From its debut on May 7, 1956,<br />
Open Mind h<strong>as</strong> been a forum where guests, <strong>as</strong> the opening narration<br />
once put it, are “free to examine, to question, to disagree.”<br />
For Heffner, that philosophy h<strong>as</strong> animated him across two<br />
professional generations and multiple media identities: communications<br />
consultant, broadc<strong>as</strong>ting expert, network executive,<br />
public affairs adviser. At his core, however, he is one thing.<br />
“I’m a teacher,” he says. “I’m a talker. I’m a speaker. I’m a<br />
preacher. That’s who I am.”<br />
His Subaru station wagon even sports a license plate reading<br />
OPENMIND.<br />
“He is one of the most intelligent, sensitive interviewers I have<br />
ever had in my life,” says Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel,<br />
who h<strong>as</strong> logged nearly 30 Open Mind appearances. “On every<br />
subject that he chooses — war, politics, literature — he manages<br />
to humanize it and bring it up, rather than bring it down. He’s the<br />
Grand Inquisitor in the best sense.”<br />
Heffner likes to te<strong>as</strong>e Abrams — whose 35 appearances on<br />
Open Mind make him his most frequent guest — that he is “a First<br />
Amendment voluptuary” because he is so p<strong>as</strong>sionate about free<br />
speech. And Abrams is happy to te<strong>as</strong>e Heffner right back.<br />
“Like Inspector Clouseau and Cato, Dick and I have sparred<br />
so often that we have no tricks left with which to surprise each<br />
other,” he says. “He thinks, I do not know why, that I’m some sort<br />
of knee-jerk First Amendment absolutist. I think — and I know<br />
why — that he’s too prepared to sacrifice core First Amendment<br />
principles to accommodate his social/political predilections.<br />
What I’m sure of is that I can’t imagine anyone I’d rather argue<br />
with, and that we are all in his debt for his extraordinary contributions<br />
to public thoughtfulness.”<br />
Heffner is more modest: “I’m a person of rather limited talents.<br />
I don’t dance, I don’t sing.” He refers wryly to “the 37 people who<br />
are watching the program.” One of them, a cab driver, once deliberately<br />
barreled down on him on Fifth Avenue.<br />
“I thought the end w<strong>as</strong> near — <strong>as</strong>s<strong>as</strong>sination by taxi!” he remembers.<br />
“Instead, a wonderfully smiling youngish driver thrust<br />
a wildly waving arm out his open window, hollering, ‘Open Mind!<br />
Open Mind!’ W<strong>as</strong> I ever grateful for a viewer.”<br />
It is taping day in the small studio at the CUNY Graduate<br />
Center on Fifth Avenue and E<strong>as</strong>t 35th Street. Beneath a blaze<br />
of overhead lights is Open Mind’s intellectual battleground:<br />
a polished, round wooden table and two chairs. In the green<br />
room, amid a plate of cookies and a big-screen TV, Heffner reviews<br />
notes and consults with Daphne Doelger-Dwyer, his <strong>as</strong>sociate<br />
producer of more than 30 years. (“I’ve often thought Dick is<br />
the re<strong>as</strong>on they invented Boss Appreciation Day,” she says. “Just<br />
the same, I wish he would stop <strong>as</strong>king me to try to find articles he<br />
wrote during the Kennedy administration or yet another elusive<br />
piece on the National News Council.”)<br />
Today, Heffner will record four segments. First up is NYU<br />
professor Kim Phillips-Fein ’05 GSAS, discussing her new book<br />
Invisible Hands: The Businessmen’s Crusade Against the New Deal.<br />
Then he will greet Dr. Peter Bach of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering<br />
Cancer Center, whose subject will be caring for the dying. Next<br />
comes Heffner’s youngest guest ever, his grandson, budding<br />
journalist Alexander, a 22-year-old Harvard senior whose topic is<br />
America’s young electorate.<br />
Finally, there is Frances Hesselbein, former president of Girl<br />
Scouts of the USA and president and CEO of the Frances Hesselbein<br />
Leadership Institute (formerly the Leader to Leader Institute).<br />
Attractively accoutered in black jacket and gold and black<br />
Hermès scarf, she also h<strong>as</strong> brought along a jacket with bold tan<br />
and black stripes, which she shows to her host.<br />
“I didn’t know if you wanted something more like <strong>this</strong>,” she says.<br />
“You look gorgeous,” Heffner replies.<br />
She smiles and says, “I may never go home.”<br />
An hour later, after the taping, Hesselbein will engage in a few<br />
minutes of small talk. “I loved all your questions,” she tells her<br />
host. “There w<strong>as</strong>n’t one superficial one.”<br />
That’s no accident. “There are comparatively few subjects on<br />
Open Mind that are likely to throw me because I don’t choose subjects<br />
that I know I don’t know enough about,” says Heffner. “I<br />
owe it to my viewers, and I owe it to my guests, not to be dumb.”<br />
Heffner h<strong>as</strong> been playing smart ever since he w<strong>as</strong> a child suffering<br />
from rheumatic fever of the heart. “It w<strong>as</strong> in defense that<br />
I became bookish,” he told The New York Times in 2003. “I w<strong>as</strong><br />
sickly, so I w<strong>as</strong>n’t allowed to play sports.” (Perhaps presaging his<br />
role <strong>as</strong> a moderator in a number of capacities, he w<strong>as</strong>, however,<br />
permitted to umpire b<strong>as</strong>eball games.)<br />
The boy who buried himself in books w<strong>as</strong> the son of a man<br />
who made book: Al Heffner w<strong>as</strong> a prosperous New York City racetrack<br />
tout who lost everything during the Depression. “His very<br />
wealthy customers were big bettors. They would bet $100,000 on<br />
a race. And when they were gone, my father went broke.”<br />
After attending DeWitt Clinton H.S. in the Bronx (“greatest<br />
high school in America”) with Paddy Chayefsky, Richard Avedon<br />
and James Baldwin, Heffner became a devotee of historian<br />
Dwight Miner ’26, ’40 GSAS; literary critic Lionel Trilling ’25, ’38<br />
GSAS; and philosopher Ernest Nagel ’31 GSAS at the <strong>College</strong>.<br />
Outside of cl<strong>as</strong>s he w<strong>as</strong> one of the earliest on-air voices for the<br />
fledgling <strong>Columbia</strong> University Radio Club, delivering a weekly<br />
current events report while future University Professor Fritz<br />
Stern ’46, ’53 GSAS made faces at him through the studio window<br />
(something Stern h<strong>as</strong> consistently denied).<br />
As chairman of the <strong>College</strong> War Relief Drive, Heffner also successfully<br />
approached University President Nichol<strong>as</strong> Murray Butler<br />
(Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1882) in his Low Library office to <strong>as</strong>k him to address<br />
a bond rally. Heffner recalls, “He w<strong>as</strong> a large man sitting at a large<br />
desk, raised on a large platform at the end of the room <strong>as</strong> one approached.<br />
I learned later that that w<strong>as</strong> what Mussolini did.”<br />
Heffner, who majored in history, earned an M.A. in the subject<br />
in 1947 under Richard Hofstadter ’42 GSAS but stopped short of<br />
a Ph.D., considering himself “a teacher, not a scholar.” And teach<br />
he did, at Sarah Lawrence, UC Berkeley, Rutgers, The New School<br />
and his alma mater, where from 1950–52 he taught Contemporary<br />
Civilization. But he craved a larger audience. In 1952, <strong>as</strong><br />
Heffner began editing A Documentary History of the United States,<br />
a still-popular paperback collection of vital documents such <strong>as</strong><br />
the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address, he<br />
knew he wanted to discuss human events in a broader context.<br />
“I believe history is the synthetic subject,” he reflects. “I think it<br />
is the historian who embraces everything. The story of the p<strong>as</strong>t is<br />
the story of the present.”<br />
The chance to explore that link came in 1953, when Heffner decided<br />
to create a radio documentary marking the eighth anniversary<br />
of the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. “I went to every station<br />
in New York and they all said, ‘Who are you? You’re a professor.<br />
You’ve got <strong>this</strong> book but that doesn’t make you a broadc<strong>as</strong>ter.’”<br />
Finally, WMCA consented. The highlight w<strong>as</strong> an interview with<br />
FDR’s widow, Eleanor, in her stone cottage at Val-Kill. Dis<strong>as</strong>ter<br />
FALL 2012<br />
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FALL 2012<br />
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RICHARD HEFFNER ’46<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY RICHARD HEFFNER ’46<br />
nearly struck when an engineer accidentally wiped the tape but<br />
Heffner w<strong>as</strong> able to sit down with her again, <strong>this</strong> time at the Park<br />
Central Hotel in Manhattan. “Instead of hearing the chimes of the<br />
clock in the background and the fireplace, you heard cars going<br />
from first gear into second and then third, 17 stories below.”<br />
Street noise notwithstanding, the effort went over well and<br />
WMCA gave Heffner a syndicated weekly half-hour program, History<br />
in the News. Even before the show had finished its run though,<br />
toward the end of 1954, Heffner w<strong>as</strong> looking ahead. Through California<br />
Gov. Earl Warren — the father of one of his students at Berkeley<br />
— he met Edward R. Murrow, whose signature sign-off, “Good<br />
night and good luck,” Heffner still uses to conclude Open Mind.<br />
“Murrow liked me. He immediately called Stuart Novins, the<br />
head of CBS radio news. Novins offered me a job <strong>as</strong> a producer at<br />
CBS News. And I said — here is the ham in me — ‘Can I be on the<br />
air, also?’ And he said no. And I said, ‘Thanks, but I want to be on<br />
the air.’ Maybe it w<strong>as</strong> stupid. Maybe I would be president of CBS<br />
News today.”<br />
In the end, he got his way. WRCA-TV, the predecessor to NBC,<br />
gave him Man of the Year, a public affairs show, in 1955. That led to<br />
All About Men-All About Women and Of Men and Ide<strong>as</strong>, <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> radio<br />
stints with Listen, Listen, Listen and Collector’s Item. But The Open<br />
Mind, which originally aired on WRCA, remains the sine qua non of<br />
Heffner’s broadc<strong>as</strong>t life, the product of a fundamental realization.<br />
“We’re talking about 1956,” Heffner says. “America had real<br />
problems. But they were laid over with c<strong>as</strong>h and comfort of the<br />
wonderful suburban ’50s. I had the feeling that there were comparatively<br />
few places where Americans were confronted with<br />
important exchanges about important challenges that faced us,<br />
and that’s what I wanted to be doing.”<br />
Soon enough, Open Mind w<strong>as</strong> delving into such hot-button are<strong>as</strong><br />
<strong>as</strong> alcoholism, integration, homosexuality, anti-Semitism and blacklisting<br />
— so much so that a 1956 Newsday column w<strong>as</strong> headlined<br />
“Open Mind Moderator Denies Show Seeks Sensational Topics.”<br />
But if the subjects were controversial, the guests were stellar.<br />
In the decades that followed, they have included Margaret Mead<br />
’23 Barnard, ’29 GSAS; Joseph Heller; Martin Luther King Jr.; Max<br />
Frankel ’52, ’ 53 GSAS; Robert Redford; Max Lerner; Isaac Asimov<br />
’39, ’41 GSAS; Gloria Steinem; Rod Serling; Norman Cousins ’37<br />
TC; Eli Wallach; Ruth Westheimer ’70 TC; and Malcolm X.<br />
In 1959, CBS chairman William S. Paley appointed Heffner<br />
secretary of the network’s editorial board, “whipping the<br />
owned-and-operated CBS television and radio stations into<br />
doing editorials on a local level,” <strong>as</strong> Heffner says. Though his<br />
power to set guidelines and write the editorials made him “very,<br />
very unpopular” among station managers, he did not suffer their<br />
disple<strong>as</strong>ure for long. Within a year he became a special consultant<br />
to the National Educational Television and Radio Center, which<br />
led to his being named general manager of New York’s first public<br />
television station, WNDT, the forerunner of today’s WNET.<br />
For NETRC, the e<strong>as</strong>y part about organizing the n<strong>as</strong>cent station<br />
w<strong>as</strong> raising the necessary $6.2 million in seed money. Rather<br />
more difficult w<strong>as</strong> actually getting on the air. At the time, all seven<br />
coveted VHF stations in the New York area were already in use.<br />
So with the approval of the Federal Communications Commission,<br />
NETRC purch<strong>as</strong>ed station WNTA, Channel 13, in Newark<br />
— much to the consternation of New Jersey Gov. Robert Meyner,<br />
who sued in federal court to block the takeover.<br />
“Meyner w<strong>as</strong> a strange man,” Heffner recalls. “He said, ‘You<br />
are raping the sovereign state of New Jersey. You are taking its only<br />
VHF station.’ And it w<strong>as</strong> perfectly true. But it w<strong>as</strong> a bankrupt station.<br />
It w<strong>as</strong> a distress sale, because it owed so much money.”<br />
Once the sale cleared, and the purch<strong>as</strong>ers incorporated <strong>as</strong> the<br />
Educational Broadc<strong>as</strong>ting Corp. (EBC), Heffner began a “pretty<br />
goddamned busy, pretty goddamned exciting” ph<strong>as</strong>e of his life<br />
<strong>as</strong> WNDT went on the air on September 16, 1962. Often working<br />
from 6 a.m. until midnight, Heffner dealt with staff <strong>issue</strong>s,<br />
logistics, budgets, programming and the occ<strong>as</strong>ional emergency<br />
— like when hordes of parents howled after he canceled a festival<br />
of previously unaired Charlie Chaplin films in favor of coverage<br />
of the Cuban missile crisis.<br />
Not surprisingly, he w<strong>as</strong> shattered when EBC fired him the<br />
following April amid conflicts over policy and the very nature of<br />
what w<strong>as</strong> then called “educational television.” Heffner favored a<br />
wide range of programming, especially expensive cultural fare;<br />
EBC, led by president Sam Gould, envisioned WNDT <strong>as</strong> a cheaper<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>sroom of the air, specializing in instructional programs. The<br />
New York Times covered the developing drama on its front page;<br />
some 50 non-union WNDT staff members offered to take a 10<br />
percent pay cut to retain their boss.<br />
“I’m a teacher. I’m a talker. I’m a speaker.<br />
I’m a preacher. That’s who I am.”<br />
As WNET prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary <strong>this</strong> fall,<br />
the memory still stings. “As you can imagine, having spent those<br />
years in making a reality of something that had been a dream of<br />
mine. … How did I feel when suddenly the ground w<strong>as</strong> pulled<br />
out from under me? Godawful.”<br />
But the morning after he w<strong>as</strong> sacked, Rutgers president M<strong>as</strong>on<br />
Gross called and offered him a tenured faculty position; today,<br />
he is the University Professor of Communications and Public<br />
Policy. A few days later, pollster Elmo Roper provided him with a<br />
secretary, an office and an appointment with AT&T.<br />
“He said, ‘You have lunch with them, respond to their questions,<br />
and be yourself.’ I went down, had a very nice — though<br />
institutional — lunch and gave them some advice on communications<br />
matters they thought terribly pressing. I came back, went<br />
into Elmo’s office and said, ‘OK, Elmo, what do I do now?’ And<br />
Elmo said, ‘Send them an invoice for $10,000.’”<br />
It w<strong>as</strong> the beginning of the consulting firm Richard Heffner Associates,<br />
whose clients came to include Time, American Airlines<br />
and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.<br />
Heffner often quotes John Milton’s Areopagitica: “Who<br />
ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open<br />
encounter?” But having spent decades in the trenches,<br />
Heffner also knows how the world works. A good<br />
example occurred in 1987, when Judge Wachtler <strong>as</strong>ked him to<br />
chair a commission to determine whether camer<strong>as</strong> should be permitted<br />
in New York state courtrooms. Years before the spectacle<br />
of Court TV and the O.J. Simpson trial, Heffner said no, concluding<br />
that networks would simply pluck juicy bits out of context.<br />
“They were eager to put on the air attractive, sensational materials<br />
from trials. They were not eager to teach lessons.”<br />
In 1974, he got an even more bracing lesson<br />
in media reality, when he w<strong>as</strong> named<br />
chairman of the Cl<strong>as</strong>sification and Ratings<br />
Administration (CARA) of the Motion Picture<br />
Association of America at the personal<br />
request of its president, Jack Valenti. Before<br />
long, he had become what the Los Angeles<br />
Times called “the le<strong>as</strong>t known, most powerful<br />
man in Hollywood.” As such, he w<strong>as</strong><br />
at the center of major ratings controversies<br />
over the violence in such movies <strong>as</strong> Cruising<br />
and Scarface (directed by Brian De Palma<br />
’62); at one point he cl<strong>as</strong>hed with United<br />
Artists chairman Arthur Krim ’30, ’32L<br />
about Rollerball. Heffner felt it should be rated<br />
“X,” prompting Krim to thunder, “This<br />
man’s predecessor w<strong>as</strong> a fanatic about sex;<br />
<strong>this</strong> man is a fanatic about violence!”<br />
Heffner enjoyed many <strong>as</strong>pects of the<br />
job, though. As he told film critic Charles<br />
Champlin in an exhaustive series of interviews<br />
for the <strong>Columbia</strong> Center for Oral History,<br />
“There were times when the picture<br />
w<strong>as</strong> over and I would say to my colleagues,<br />
‘You know, <strong>this</strong> really makes it all worthwhile.’<br />
And I meant it.”<br />
But there w<strong>as</strong> also endless wrangling with Valenti and industry<br />
professionals who often cajoled, persuaded or pressured Heffner<br />
and his board to <strong>as</strong>sign a family-friendly “PG,” rather than an “R”<br />
or a dreaded “X.” Almost weekly, Heffner commuted to and from<br />
California to screen movies and meet with the board, refusing to<br />
move there because he feared that constant socializing with actors<br />
and directors would corrupt his integrity.<br />
Not long after he w<strong>as</strong> appointed, Heffner began to suggest<br />
to Valenti — “always with the utmost politeness” — ways of<br />
improving the system. He especially wanted to provide better<br />
ratings explanations and more fully fleshed out guidelines to<br />
distinguish between younger and older teenagers. At one point,<br />
he pushed for an “RR” category between “R” and “X,” signaling<br />
that the content w<strong>as</strong>, <strong>as</strong> he put it, “really rough.” In the end, “PG-<br />
13” w<strong>as</strong> added in 1984 and “NC-17” supplanted “X” in 1990.<br />
By the time he stepped down in 1994, Heffner had grave<br />
doubts about the effectiveness of the self-imposed system. Immediately<br />
upon leaving CARA, he became a senior fellow at the<br />
Freedom Forum, at that time located on campus at the Journalism<br />
School. In the year that followed, Heffner attempted to sort<br />
out and put on paper the lessons he had learned in Hollywood<br />
(or, <strong>as</strong> he put it, “in GaGaLand”). He remains conflicted about<br />
voluntary ratings for films and, by extension, for TV shows, recordings<br />
and video games.<br />
But he is convinced of one thing at le<strong>as</strong>t, probably much to<br />
the distress of his friend Abrams: “In a society so largely b<strong>as</strong>ed<br />
upon free speech and free thought, and in a society that is <strong>as</strong><br />
much b<strong>as</strong>ed upon the almighty dollar <strong>as</strong> ours is, a larger degree<br />
of regulation is necessary.”<br />
Every Saturday at noon — except during pledge weeks<br />
— viewers can tune to Channel 13 and be greeted by the<br />
sight of two simple, intersecting human profiles with<br />
brain-shaped holes cut in them, slowly revolving amid<br />
the eerie strains of World Without Time by the Sauter [<strong>as</strong> in Edward<br />
Sauter ’36]-Finegan Orchestra. Although graphic designer<br />
Heffner studies his notes in preparation for a taping of The Open Mind.<br />
PHOTO: RANDY MONCEAUX<br />
Lee Moss designed Open Mind’s iconic logo, it w<strong>as</strong> Heffner who<br />
chose the accompanying theme, which he describes <strong>as</strong> “mental<br />
health music.”<br />
How much longer will it continue? At 87, Heffner is hardly<br />
unaware of his mortality; he h<strong>as</strong> even spoken with Alexander, his<br />
grandson, about taking over the program. Open Mind, however,<br />
is not just another venue for talking heads; its roster of guests and<br />
topics, its low-key, probing, intellectual give-and-take, constitutes<br />
a personal expression of the host himself.<br />
Indeed, from 1959–67, when Heffner w<strong>as</strong> busy with various<br />
ventures and put the Princeton historian Eric Goldman in the moderator’s<br />
chair in his stead, he w<strong>as</strong> unhappy with the result. He felt<br />
that Goldman, a cultural adviser to the White House, w<strong>as</strong> pushing<br />
a political agenda with the show. “He used his invitations to<br />
feather the nest of the Johnson administration. As far <strong>as</strong> I w<strong>as</strong> concerned,<br />
they weren’t The Open Mind. That’s why, now, I’m much<br />
more honest about it. I call it Richard Heffner’s Open Mind. It’s not<br />
anyone else’s.<br />
“How long I’ll be able to keep doing it, or how long my voice<br />
or my mind will l<strong>as</strong>t — who knows?” he says, lounging in the<br />
book-crammed study in his Riverside Drive apartment, his dog<br />
C<strong>as</strong>sie resting on the couch. “Would I like to continue? Yes. I’d<br />
like to continue to the point at which I know I’m no longer doing<br />
what I did and others also feel that way. Then I hope I have the<br />
good grace to say, ‘Good night and good luck’ a final time.<br />
“Sure, maybe somebody can do Bill Moyers’ Open Mind, or Alexander<br />
Heffner’s Open Mind, or whatever. But nobody’s going to<br />
do what I did. I am who I am. And that’s all that I am. I’m Popeye<br />
the sailor man.”<br />
He smiles and looks semi-serious. “Remember that.”<br />
Former <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Today acting editor Thom<strong>as</strong> Vinciguerra<br />
’85, ’86J, ’90 GSAS is executive editor of This Week From Indian<br />
Country Today, a regular contributor to The New York Times and<br />
the editor of Backward Ran Sentences: The Best of Wolcott Gibbs<br />
from The New Yorker.<br />
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Ai-jen Poo ’96 co-founded<br />
Domestic Workers United<br />
and now is director of the<br />
National Domestic Workers<br />
Alliance. She identifies with<br />
the tiger, her Chinese zodiac<br />
sign, and draws upon what<br />
she calls her “inner tiger”<br />
for courage <strong>as</strong> she works<br />
to better conditions and<br />
benefits for nannies,<br />
housekeepers and<br />
caregivers.<br />
PHOTO: MAX VADUKUL<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
The Home Front<br />
Ai-jen Poo ’96 gives domestic workers a voice<br />
B y Nat h a l i e A l o n s o ’08<br />
Ai-jen Poo ’96 spent her formative<br />
years <strong>as</strong> a <strong>Columbia</strong> Lion, but <strong>as</strong> an advocate for domestic workers she identifies more closely<br />
with the tiger, her Chinese zodiac sign. So much, in fact, that she had its likeness tattooed on<br />
her right arm when she w<strong>as</strong> in her mid-20s.<br />
Baring no teeth, Poo’s tiger sports a penetrating stare that conveys inner strength rather<br />
than ferociousness. The unexpected image mirrors the stalwart yet heartfelt approach with<br />
which Poo, one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world for 2012, h<strong>as</strong><br />
procured legal protections for nannies, housekeepers and caregivers to the elderly. This overwhelmingly<br />
female workforce h<strong>as</strong> historically been excluded from labor rights laws, making<br />
its members — most of them immigrants, legal and illegal — vulnerable to underpayment,<br />
inhumane working conditions, exploitation and har<strong>as</strong>sment.<br />
“The women who do domestic work — whether they are nannies or caregivers for the<br />
elderly — really take pride in the work that they do. They love the people they take care of,”<br />
says Poo, who in 2000 started Domestic Workers United (DWU, domesticworkersunited.<br />
org), an organization that mobilizes immigrant domestic workers in New York City, and<br />
now is director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA, domesticworkers.org).<br />
“We believe it’s their work that makes all other work possible. And so it’s really important<br />
that it be recognized and respected <strong>as</strong> dignified, professional work.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
41
AI-JEN POO ’96<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY AI-JEN POO ’96<br />
“Fear often gets in the way of our taking risks necessary to<br />
make real change in the world,” Poo adds. “The tattoo is a reminder<br />
to draw upon my inner tiger and to be courageous in the<br />
face of uncertainty in the service of a vision for a better world.”<br />
DWU w<strong>as</strong> the major force behind New York’s Domestic<br />
Workers’ Bill of Rights, which took effect on November 29, 2010,<br />
three months after then-Gov. David Paterson ’77 signed it into<br />
law. The country’s first, it entitles domestic workers to overtime<br />
pay, one day of rest a week, three paid days off a year after one<br />
year with the same employer and inclusion in the state’s Human<br />
Rights Law, which protects against sexual har<strong>as</strong>sment and discrimination.<br />
The law applies to all domestic workers regardless<br />
of legal status (there are an estimated 200,000 domestic workers<br />
in the New York metropolitan area, according to DWU). California’s<br />
state legislature is considering a similar bill.<br />
“It w<strong>as</strong> a breakthrough moment,” Poo says. “We forced the<br />
state of New York to recognize domestic work <strong>as</strong> real work that<br />
deserves inclusion and protection, and reversed a legacy of exclusion<br />
and discrimination.”<br />
the 1996 protests that called for more culturally diverse course<br />
offerings. Three years later, <strong>Columbia</strong>’s Center for the Study of<br />
Ethnicity and Race w<strong>as</strong> established.<br />
“We were all working together with one really strong message<br />
to push the University to recognize <strong>this</strong> piece of intellectual<br />
work that is so important to how <strong>this</strong> country h<strong>as</strong> unfolded,”<br />
Poo recalls. “We wanted to send a message of how important it<br />
w<strong>as</strong> for students to have access to that information.<br />
“Students really worked together across communities. That<br />
w<strong>as</strong> one of the things that w<strong>as</strong> so powerful about it. It w<strong>as</strong> a really<br />
exciting time. It informed how I understood how change happens<br />
and gave me a sense of the potential of organizing.”<br />
Born in Pittsburgh to Chinese immigrants, Poo transferred to<br />
the <strong>College</strong> after a year at W<strong>as</strong>hington University in St. Louis,<br />
where she had enrolled with plans to become a potter. “I missed<br />
reading books, literature in particular,” says Poo, whose father,<br />
Mu-ming Poo, w<strong>as</strong> a pro-democracy activist in Taiwan and<br />
taught in <strong>Columbia</strong>’s Department of Biological Sciences from<br />
1988–95; her mother is an oncologist.<br />
“Ai-jen makes the possibility for radical change palpable.<br />
She not only believes in the b<strong>as</strong>ic goodness of all people but also<br />
that we all inherently want fairness and equality to prevail.”<br />
For more than five years after Assemblyman Keith Wright<br />
(D-Manhattan) and Sen. Diane Savino (D-Brooklyn/Staten Island)<br />
introduced the bill into the state legislature in 2004, DWU<br />
staffers drove workers to Albany to lobby. Poo estimates that<br />
she made upward of 50 trips herself. Among those who shared<br />
their stories with lawmakers, she notes, w<strong>as</strong> a Colombian woman<br />
in her 60s who cared for a disabled child in order to afford insulin<br />
for her own son. She worked more than 100 hours a week<br />
for about $3 an hour, cooking, cleaning, w<strong>as</strong>hing and ironing for<br />
the family of six, only to retire at day’s end to a b<strong>as</strong>ement with<br />
an overflowing sewage system. She w<strong>as</strong> fired suddenly without<br />
severance pay. Other workers testified to humiliations and<br />
sexual har<strong>as</strong>sment by male employers.<br />
“I’ve been fortunate to be a part of many collective efforts that<br />
involved sacrifice, spirit, heart and commitment on the part of a<br />
lot of domestic workers,” says Poo of DWU’s work. “It w<strong>as</strong> never<br />
me alone.”<br />
Domestic workers are excluded from the National Labor Relations<br />
Act, which protects the rights of most other private workers<br />
to form unions, strike and bargain collectively. Nonetheless,<br />
DWU h<strong>as</strong> close to 7,000 members who pay $5 a month in dues<br />
in return for free legal <strong>as</strong>sistance, immigration advice and help<br />
with resume building and job searching. Funding comes mostly<br />
from private foundations. The organization’s board comprises<br />
nine members who collaborate with director Priscilla Gonzalez<br />
’98 Barnard, herself the daughter of a domestic worker.<br />
“Ai-jen makes the possibility for radical change palpable,” says<br />
Gonzalez. “She not only believes in the b<strong>as</strong>ic goodness of all people<br />
but also that we all inherently want fairness and equality to prevail.”<br />
Poo realized the power of gr<strong>as</strong>sroots activism <strong>as</strong> a <strong>College</strong><br />
student. She w<strong>as</strong> arrested in April 1995 for blocking<br />
the Manhattan Bridge <strong>as</strong> part of a city-wide protest<br />
against police brutality. She also w<strong>as</strong> among the students<br />
who occupied Low Rotunda and Hamilton Hall during<br />
“I w<strong>as</strong> excited about having New York City <strong>as</strong> a place to learn<br />
and grow,” she adds.<br />
Within a year of her arrival, Poo shifted her focus from art to<br />
women’s studies. “I’ve been really p<strong>as</strong>sionate about women’s<br />
<strong>issue</strong>s since high school,” she says. “When I got to <strong>Columbia</strong>,<br />
the women’s studies department offered the opportunity to explore<br />
the intellectual work that had been done around women’s<br />
rights and how gender h<strong>as</strong> shaped our world and our history.<br />
“There are a lot of strong women in my family tradition,” adds<br />
Poo, whose family includes sister Ting Poo ’00, a post-production<br />
film editor. “My grandmothers and my mom are very important<br />
role models for me.”<br />
Soon after arriving in New York, Poo began staffing a hotline<br />
<strong>as</strong> a volunteer at the New York Asian Women’s Center, a<br />
domestic violence shelter for Asian immigrant women, where<br />
she got her first t<strong>as</strong>te of women’s activism. She later became involved<br />
with the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, where<br />
she w<strong>as</strong> promoted to paid staff member upon graduation. Poo<br />
co-founded DWU with colleagues from CAAAV, where she had<br />
spearheaded an initiative that sought to empower Asian immigrant<br />
women employed in low-wage service industries.<br />
Poo met her husband, attorney Tony Lu, while recruiting volunteers<br />
for CAAAV at NYU Law School, where Lu earned a J.D.<br />
Lu now works for Pro Bono Net, a nonprofit that uses web technology<br />
to incre<strong>as</strong>e access to justice for people who cannot afford<br />
lawyers. The couple lives in Queens.<br />
Poo now heads the NDWA, a coalition she helped establish<br />
in 2007. It encomp<strong>as</strong>ses more than 30 member organizations nationwide<br />
that seek respect and fair labor standards for domestic<br />
workers. Though b<strong>as</strong>ed in New York, Poo travels frequently to<br />
meetings and public speaking engagements.<br />
The NDWA celebrated in June when delegates to the International<br />
Labour Conference — the annual meeting of the member<br />
states of the U.N.’s International Labour Organization — adopted<br />
the Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. The<br />
While Poo credits the collective efforts of fellow advocates for her groups’ success, she still is on the front line and speaking out.<br />
PHOTO: COURTESY AI-JEN POO ’96/NDWA<br />
international treaty for the first time entitles domestic workers to<br />
fundamental labor rights and is binding for the states that ratify<br />
it. Though the United States h<strong>as</strong> not done so, the NDWA worked<br />
with the Department of Labor to draft the federal government’s<br />
response. (The NDWA also had sent a domestic worker to the<br />
conference <strong>as</strong> a voting delegate.)<br />
In 2011, Poo’s groundbreaking work earned her the American<br />
Express NGen Leadership Award bestowed by Independent<br />
Sector, a leadership network for charities and foundations. The<br />
award recognizes nonprofit leaders under 40 who have had a significant<br />
impact on a societal need. The $3,000 grant h<strong>as</strong> gone toward<br />
training and capacity building for domestic worker leaders.<br />
“Ai-jen is a leader of the present and future,” says Mikaela<br />
Seligman, Independent Sector’s v.p. of nonprofit and philanthropic<br />
leadership and practice. “The way she sees leadership is<br />
that her role is not to be out in front publicly or privately, somehow<br />
leading the charge, which is really a model of the p<strong>as</strong>t. Her<br />
role is fundamentally to mobilize resources to achieve a goal. She<br />
does that ably, she does that graciously and she does it with love.”<br />
In 2009, the Center for Social Inclusion awarded Poo the<br />
$25,000 Alston-Bannerman Fellowship for Organizers of Color,<br />
which allowed her to take a four-month sabbatical, part of which<br />
she spent re-energizing in Hawaii, a logical destination once she<br />
mentions her affinity for the outdoors and “places where mountains<br />
and ocean meet.” Poo’s husband and a few friends accompanied<br />
her for part of the trip, but she also spent time alone practicing<br />
yoga and sleeping at le<strong>as</strong>t eight hours each night, which<br />
she rarely gets to do. Moreover, she used the time off to convoke<br />
a national meeting of female organizers. That same year, Crain’s<br />
New York Business named her one of its “40 Under 40” rising stars.<br />
Then came Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” list<br />
<strong>this</strong> spring.<br />
Ever-humble, Poo is quick to attribute such accolades to her<br />
cause rather than her aptitude. “It’s really recognition of both the<br />
importance of domestic work in society today and the significance<br />
of domestic workers organizing, advocacy and leadership<br />
in the social change arena,” she says. “I feel proud to be a part of<br />
a movement that inspires so many people.”<br />
To view videos of Poo, go to Web Extr<strong>as</strong> at college.columbia.edu/cct.<br />
Nathalie Alonso ’08 is a freelance journalist and an editorial producer<br />
of L<strong>as</strong>Mayores.com, Major League B<strong>as</strong>eball’s official Spanish language<br />
website. She also writes Student Spotlight for CCT.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
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FALL 2012<br />
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COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY ANDREW DELBANCO ASKS, WHAT IS COLLEGE FOR?<br />
PHOTO: DAVID WENTWORTH<br />
Andrew Delbanco, the Mendelson Family Professor of<br />
American Studies and the Julian Clarence Levi Professor in<br />
the Humanities, w<strong>as</strong> named “America’s Best Social Critic”<br />
by Time magazine in 2001. The director of American<br />
studies at <strong>Columbia</strong> and the 2011 recipient of the National<br />
Humanities Medal, Delbanco also h<strong>as</strong> won accolades for<br />
his teaching, most notably the 2006 Great Teacher Award<br />
from the Society of <strong>Columbia</strong> Graduates. His wide-ranging<br />
writings include numerous articles in The New York<br />
Review of Books and The New Republic, and books<br />
that span much of American history, from the early age (The<br />
Puritan Ordeal) to our own (Required Reading: Why Our<br />
American Cl<strong>as</strong>sics Matter Now).<br />
The following essay is taken from Delbanco’s newest book,<br />
<strong>College</strong>: What It W<strong>as</strong>, Is, and Should Be (Princeton University<br />
Press, $24.95), a reflection on college and the important role it<br />
should play in these challenging times.<br />
[ COLUMBIA FORUM]<br />
Andrew Delbanco Asks,<br />
What Is<br />
<strong>College</strong> For?<br />
Rose Kernochan ’82 Barnard<br />
FALL 2012<br />
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One of the peculiarities of the teaching<br />
life is that every year the teacher<br />
gets older while the students stay the<br />
same age. Each fall when cl<strong>as</strong>ses resume,<br />
I am reminded of the ancient<br />
Greek story of a kindly old couple<br />
who invite two strangers into their<br />
modest home for a meal. No matter<br />
how much the hosts drink, by some<br />
mysterious trick their goblets remain<br />
full even though no one pours more wine. Eventually, the guests<br />
reveal themselves <strong>as</strong> gods who have performed a little miracle to<br />
express their thanks. So it goes in college: every fall the teacher<br />
h<strong>as</strong> aged by a year, but the cl<strong>as</strong>s is replenished with students who<br />
stay forever young.<br />
For <strong>this</strong> and many other re<strong>as</strong>ons, the relation between teacher<br />
and student is a delicate one, perhaps not <strong>as</strong> fraught <strong>as</strong> that between<br />
parent and child, or between spouses or siblings, but sometimes<br />
<strong>as</strong> decisive. Henry James captured it beautifully in a story<br />
called The Pupil, which is not about a college teacher but about a<br />
private tutor who h<strong>as</strong> come to love the child whom he is trying to<br />
save from his parents:<br />
When he tried to figure to himself the morning twilight<br />
of childhood, so <strong>as</strong> to deal with it safely, he perceived that<br />
it w<strong>as</strong> never fixed, never arrested, that ignorance, at the<br />
instant one touched it, w<strong>as</strong> already flushing faintly into<br />
knowledge, that there w<strong>as</strong> nothing that at a given moment<br />
you could say a clever child didn’t know. It seemed<br />
to him that he both knew too much to imagine [the child’s]<br />
simplicity and too little to disembroil his tangle.<br />
Embedded in <strong>this</strong> p<strong>as</strong>sage is the romantic idea that the student<br />
possesses latent knowledge of ultimate things, and that the<br />
teacher’s t<strong>as</strong>k is to probe for the lever that rele<strong>as</strong>es knowledge<br />
into consciousness.<br />
In trying to make it happen, even — perhaps especially — a<br />
good teacher can sometimes seem brutal. The famously demanding<br />
Joseph Schwab, for example, who taught for years in<br />
the “Biological Sequence” course at the University of Chicago,<br />
w<strong>as</strong> known for “putting one student in the hot seat for a while<br />
… working that person <strong>as</strong> thoroughly and creatively <strong>as</strong> possible<br />
before moving on to another.” One Chicago alumnus, Lee<br />
Shulman, former president of the Carnegie Foundation for the<br />
Advancement of Teaching, recalls that sitting in Schwab’s cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
“fostered clammy hands, damp foreheads” and, to put it mildly,<br />
“an ever-attentive demeanor.” This figure of the “tough love”<br />
teacher — think of Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker or Professor<br />
Kingsfield in The Paper Ch<strong>as</strong>e — h<strong>as</strong> become a cliché of our<br />
culture, and like all clichés, it contains some truth, though doubtless<br />
simplified and unduly generalized. It also seems less and less<br />
pertinent to the present. At most colleges today, a student experiencing<br />
such anxiety would likely drop the cl<strong>as</strong>s for fear of a poor<br />
grade (compulsory courses of the sort that Schwab taught have<br />
become rare), and the teacher would risk a poor score on the endof-semester<br />
evaluations.<br />
Whatever the style or technique, teaching at its best can be a<br />
FALL 2012<br />
45<br />
generative act, one of the ways by which human beings try to<br />
cheat death — by giving witness to the next generation so that<br />
what we have learned in our own lives won’t die with us. Consider<br />
what today we would call the original “mission statement”<br />
of America’s oldest college. The first fund-raising appeal in our<br />
history, it w<strong>as</strong> a frank request by the founders of Harvard for financial<br />
help from fellow Puritans who had stayed home in England<br />
rather than make the journey to New England. Despite their<br />
mercenary purpose, the words are still moving almost four hundred<br />
years after they were written:<br />
After God had carried us safe to New England, and we<br />
had built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood,<br />
reared convenient places for God’s worship, and<br />
settled the civil government, one of the next things we<br />
longed for and looked after w<strong>as</strong> to advance learning and<br />
perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate<br />
ministry to the churches, when our present ministers<br />
shall lie in the dust.<br />
These mixed sentiments of faith and dread have always been<br />
at the heart of the college idea. They are evident at every college<br />
commencement in the eyes of parents who watch, through a<br />
screen of memories of their own receding youth, <strong>as</strong> their children<br />
advance into life. <strong>College</strong> is our American p<strong>as</strong>toral. We<br />
imagine it <strong>as</strong> a verdant world where the harshest sounds are the<br />
reciprocal thump of tennis balls or the clatter of cleats <strong>as</strong> young<br />
bodies trot up and down the fieldhouse steps. Yet bright with<br />
hope <strong>as</strong> it may be, every college is shadowed by the specter of<br />
mortality — a place where, in that uniquely American se<strong>as</strong>on of<br />
“fall and football weather and the new term,” the air is redolent<br />
with the “Octoberish smell of cured leaves.”<br />
But what, exactly, is supposed to happen in <strong>this</strong> bittersweet<br />
place — beyond sunbathing and body-toning and the competitive<br />
exertions, athletic and otherwise, for which these are just the<br />
preliminaries? First of all, it should be said that the p<strong>as</strong>toral image<br />
of college h<strong>as</strong> little to do with what most college students experience<br />
today. A few years ago, Michael S. McPherson, president<br />
of the Spencer Foundation and former president of Macalester<br />
<strong>College</strong>, and Morton O. Schapiro, former president of Williams<br />
Teaching at its best can be a generative act, one of the<br />
ways by which human beings try to cheat death.<br />
<strong>College</strong> (now of Northwestern University), pointed out that “the<br />
nation’s liberal arts college students would almost certainly fit<br />
e<strong>as</strong>ily inside a Big Ten football stadium: fewer than one hundred<br />
thousand students out of more than fourteen million.”<br />
Since then, the number of undergraduates h<strong>as</strong> grown by<br />
nearly a third, to around eighteen million, while the number in<br />
liberal arts colleges — by which McPherson and Schapiro meant<br />
a four-year residential college that is not part of a big university,<br />
and where most students study subjects that are not narrowly vocational<br />
such <strong>as</strong> nursing or computer programming — remains<br />
about the same. Many college students today, of whom a growing<br />
number are older than traditional college age, attend commuter<br />
or online institutions focused mainly on vocational training.<br />
Often, they work and go to school at the same time, and take<br />
more than four years to complete their degree, if they complete it<br />
at all. Five years from now, undergraduate students in the United<br />
States are projected to exceed twenty million, and President
AROUND MICHAEL ANDREW THE DELBANCO GERRARD QUADS ’72 ASKS, WHAT IS COLLEGE FOR?<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
Obama wants to accelerate the growth. But only a small fraction<br />
will attend college in anything like the traditional sense of the<br />
word.Whatever the context, the question remains:<br />
what’s the point? My colleague Mark Lilla<br />
put the matter well not long ago when he<br />
spoke to the freshmen of <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
near the end of their first college year.<br />
He w<strong>as</strong> talking, of course, to students in a<br />
college commonly described <strong>as</strong> “elite.” Divided roughly equally<br />
between young men and women, these students were more racially<br />
diverse than would have been the c<strong>as</strong>e even a few years<br />
ago. About one in ten w<strong>as</strong> born abroad or h<strong>as</strong> some other claim,<br />
such <strong>as</strong> a parent with a foreign p<strong>as</strong>sport, to be an “international”<br />
student; and, though it’s hard to tell the financial means of the<br />
students from their universal uniform of tee shirts and jeans,<br />
roughly one in seven (a somewhat higher rate than at other Ivy<br />
League colleges) is eligible for a Pell grant, a form of federal financial<br />
aid that goes to children of low-income families.<br />
As they filed into the lecture room, they gave each other the<br />
public hugs that signify new friendships, or, in some c<strong>as</strong>es, the<br />
mutually averted eyes that tell of recent breakups. They seemed<br />
simultaneously fatigued and at e<strong>as</strong>e. Once they had settled into<br />
their seats, out came the iPhones and laptops, some of which<br />
stayed aglow for the whole hour, though mostly they listened,<br />
No college teacher should presume to answer <strong>this</strong> question<br />
on behalf of the students, though, too often, he or she will try.<br />
(Requiring discipleship h<strong>as</strong> always been a hazard of the teaching<br />
profession.) Instead, the job of the teacher and, collectively, of the<br />
college, is to help students in the arduous work of answering it<br />
for themselves.<br />
To be sure, students at a college like mine have many advantages.<br />
Elite institutions confer on their students enormous benefits<br />
in the competition for positions of leadership in business,<br />
government, and higher education itself. As soon <strong>as</strong> they are admitted,<br />
even those without the prior advantage of money have<br />
already gotten a boost toward getting what they want — though<br />
not necessarily toward figuring out what’s worth wanting. In<br />
fact, for some, the difficulty of that question rises in proportion to<br />
the number of choices they have. Many college students are away<br />
from their parents for the first time, although in our age of Facebook<br />
and Skype and Google Chat and the like, they are never really<br />
away. Their choices may seem limitless, but powerful forces<br />
constrain them, including what their parents want them to want.<br />
Students under financial pressure face special problems, but students<br />
from privileged families have problems too.<br />
<strong>College</strong> is supposed to be a time when such differences recede<br />
if not vanish. The notion of shared self-discovery for all<br />
students is, of course, a staple of exhortations to freshmen just<br />
coming in and valedictions to seniors about to go out — an idea<br />
invoked so often that it, too, h<strong>as</strong> become a cliché. In other cultures,<br />
however, it would be an oddity. The American college<br />
h<strong>as</strong> always differed fundamentally from the European university,<br />
where students are expected to know what they want<br />
(and what they are capable of) before they arrive. That is true<br />
even at the ancient English colleges of Oxford and Cambridge,<br />
to which students apply around age seventeen to “read” <strong>this</strong><br />
or that subject, and once arrived, rarely venture outside their<br />
chosen field of formal study. By contr<strong>as</strong>t, in America — in part<br />
because of our prosperity, which still exceeds that of most of<br />
the rest of the world — we try to extend the time for second<br />
chances and to defer the day when determinative choices must<br />
be made. In 1850, when Herman Melville, whose formal schooling<br />
ended at age seventeen, wrote that “a whaleship w<strong>as</strong> my<br />
Yale <strong>College</strong> and my Harvard,” he used the word “college” <strong>as</strong><br />
the name of the place where (to use our modern formulation)<br />
he “found himself.”<br />
The American college h<strong>as</strong> always differed<br />
fundamentally from the European university.<br />
rapt. And when Lilla made the following surmise about how<br />
and why they had come to college, they reacted with the kind<br />
of quiet laughter that meant they knew he w<strong>as</strong> telling the truth:<br />
You figured, correctly, that to be admitted you had to exude<br />
confidence about what Americans, and only Americans,<br />
call their “life goals”; and you had to demonstrate that you<br />
have a precise plan for achieving them. It w<strong>as</strong> all bullshit;<br />
you know that, and I know that. The real re<strong>as</strong>on you were<br />
excited about college w<strong>as</strong> because you had questions,<br />
buckets of questions, not life plans and PowerPoint presentations.<br />
My students have convinced me that they are far<br />
less interested in getting what they want than in figuring<br />
out just what it is that’s worth wanting.<br />
A few years ago, I came across a manuscript diary — also, <strong>as</strong><br />
it happens, from 1850 — kept by a student at a small Methodist<br />
college, Emory and Henry, in southwest Virginia. One spring<br />
evening, after attending a sermon by the college president that<br />
left him troubled and apprehensive, he made the following entry<br />
in his journal: “Oh that the Lord would show me how to think<br />
and how to choose.” That sentence, poised somewhere between<br />
a wish and a plea, sounds archaic today. For many if not most<br />
students, God is no longer the object of the plea; or if he is, they<br />
probably do not attend a college where everyone worships the<br />
This 1902 poster<br />
w<strong>as</strong> drawn by John<br />
E. Sheridan, who<br />
created covers for<br />
The Saturday<br />
Evening Post and<br />
other magazines,<br />
and produced by<br />
Deutz Lithograph<br />
Co. in New York.<br />
same god in the same way. Many American<br />
colleges began <strong>as</strong> denominational institutions;<br />
but today religion is so much<br />
a matter of private conscience, and the<br />
number of punishable infractions so small<br />
(even rules against the academic sin of<br />
plagiarism are only loosely enforced), that<br />
few college presidents would presume to<br />
intervene in the private lives of students<br />
for purposes of doctrinal or moral correction.<br />
The era of spiritual authority belonging to college is long<br />
gone. And yet I have never encountered a better formulation —<br />
“show me how to think and how to choose” — of what a college<br />
should strive to be: an aid to reflection, a place and process<br />
whereby young people take stock of their talents and p<strong>as</strong>sions<br />
and begin to sort out their lives in a way that is true to themselves<br />
and responsible to others.<br />
Excerpted from COLLEGE by Andrew Delbanco. Copyright © 2012 by<br />
Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
46
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
THE HIDDEN REALITY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
Alumni<br />
News<br />
South Field in 1897, when<br />
it w<strong>as</strong> still farmland.<br />
PHOTO: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY<br />
ARCHIVES<br />
49 Message from the<br />
CCAA President<br />
50 Bookshelf<br />
52 Obituaries<br />
56 Cl<strong>as</strong>s Notes<br />
104 Alumni Corner<br />
MESSAGE FROM CCAA PRESIDENT KYRA TIRANA BARRY ’87<br />
CCASIP Enjoys Success in<br />
Inaugural Summer<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
Alumni-Sponsored<br />
Internship Program<br />
2012 Employers<br />
Alvarez and Marsal<br />
AOL Ventures<br />
Carlisle Development Group<br />
Comprehensive Cardiology<br />
Due West Education<br />
First DataBank<br />
Judge Alvin Hellerstein<br />
Met Council<br />
NBC Universal<br />
Nutrition 21<br />
NYC Government Political<br />
Campaign<br />
Peppertree Engineering<br />
Public Art Fund<br />
Sidley Austin<br />
StormHarbour<br />
The Conference Board<br />
The Jed Foundation<br />
The Kitchen<br />
TZP<br />
U.S. Court of Appeals for the<br />
3rd Circuit/Judge Joseph<br />
Greenaway Jr. ’78<br />
Each fall brings the promise that comes with the start of a<br />
new school year. The <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Alumni Association<br />
Board of Directors is particularly energized for<br />
the Dean Valentini era. The board w<strong>as</strong> busy <strong>this</strong> summer<br />
planning for the current year and brainstorming<br />
how we can help improve the <strong>Columbia</strong> experience for all students,<br />
current and former.<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> students were hard at work <strong>this</strong> summer<br />
<strong>as</strong> well, expanding their intellectual horizons or applying some<br />
of their new skills in the workplace. The CCAA is proud to have<br />
played a part in facilitating <strong>this</strong> opportunity for the 27 students<br />
who participated in the first year of the <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Alumni-<br />
Sponsored Internship Program (CCASIP), which w<strong>as</strong> developed<br />
in response to students’ desire to interact more with alumni and<br />
with CCAA’s conviction that the alumni network is one of <strong>Columbia</strong>’s<br />
strongest <strong>as</strong>sets.<br />
This joint Center for Career Education (CCE) and CCAA board<br />
program w<strong>as</strong> spearheaded by CCAA’s Career Education Committee<br />
and its then–co-chair, Michael Behringer ’89. A group of<br />
alumni leaders reached out to fellow alumni to <strong>as</strong>k them to host<br />
a student intern for the summer. The response w<strong>as</strong> overwhelmingly<br />
positive. Through every step of the process — from the high<br />
numbers of students who applied<br />
for the positions to the<br />
enthusi<strong>as</strong>tic feedback from the<br />
interns, their employers and<br />
their mentors — it w<strong>as</strong> clear<br />
that the students relished the<br />
engagement and commitment<br />
of <strong>College</strong> alumni. Thank you<br />
to everyone who participated.<br />
We look forward to expanding<br />
<strong>this</strong> program for summer 2013.<br />
Another committee initiative<br />
inaugurated <strong>this</strong> p<strong>as</strong>t year<br />
is the Alumni Dinner Series, in<br />
which an alumnus/a hosts a<br />
dinner with 10–25 students to<br />
speak about his or her career<br />
and life track. John MacPhee<br />
’89, Dan Futterman ’89 and Jared<br />
Hecht ’09 spoke to students<br />
about careers in medicine/<br />
pharmaceuticals, the arts and<br />
entrepreneurship, respectively.<br />
Students were grateful for the<br />
opportunity to learn directly<br />
from alumni about their careers,<br />
and expressed hope for continued<br />
engagement with alumni.<br />
Alumni interested in hosting<br />
a student in the workplace<br />
next summer or hosting students<br />
at a career-focused dinner<br />
should contact Kavita Sharma,<br />
CCE dean: ks2173@columbia.<br />
edu or 212-854-3561.<br />
Career Education<br />
Committee Members<br />
Michael Behringer ’89<br />
Adam Beshara ’96<br />
Ganesh Betanabhatla ’06<br />
The 2012–14 Career Education<br />
Committee is co-<br />
Stephen Buchman ’59<br />
Gerrard Bushell ’83<br />
chaired by Sherri Pancer<br />
Wolf ’90 and Eric Mendelson Eugenio Cano ’95<br />
’87, ’89 Business. The committee Frank Cicero ’92<br />
works with CCE and the Alumni<br />
Office to develop, advise on Eric Mendelson ’87<br />
Jess Drabkin ’79<br />
and promote career programming<br />
and to facilitate opportu-<br />
Neda Navab ’08<br />
Michael Novielli ’03<br />
nities for interactions between<br />
Ted Schweitzer ’91<br />
alumni and students. The committee<br />
meets regularly to review Gerald Sherwin ’55<br />
programs, to identify alumni for Andrew Sohn ’04<br />
programs and to support CCE. Sherri Pancer Wolf ’90<br />
The committee welcomes nonboard<br />
participation.<br />
Wolf h<strong>as</strong> been a member of the CCAA board since 2000 and<br />
a committee co-chair since 2011. She w<strong>as</strong> a member of her 20th<br />
Reunion Committee and the Dean’s Alumnae Leadership T<strong>as</strong>k<br />
Force, and a <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Women mentor. She is a member<br />
of the New England Regional <strong>Columbia</strong> Club and h<strong>as</strong> been a<br />
member of the Alumni Representative Committee since 1996.<br />
Wolf brings to the committee more than 15 years of experience<br />
with start-ups in a variety of financial and operational roles. She<br />
is the CFO at JOOS, a rapidly growing nutrition and wellness<br />
business. Wolf lives in Boston with her husband, Doug Wolf ’88,<br />
and their three children.<br />
Mendelson lives in Miami Beach with his wife, Kimberly,<br />
and their three children. A member of the CCAA board since<br />
2008, Eric, his brother, Victor ’89, and father, Laurans ’60, ’61<br />
Business, and their families recently endowed the Mendelson<br />
Family Professor of American Studies. Mendelson is co-president<br />
of HEICO Corp. (NYSE:HEI) and h<strong>as</strong> been an employee of<br />
the aerospace company since 1990.<br />
Although neither lives in the tri-state area, both Sherri and<br />
Eric have a meaningful impact on the <strong>Columbia</strong> community,<br />
with the CCAA board and on <strong>Columbia</strong> students. <strong>Columbia</strong>’s<br />
reach is growing around the world and we encourage all<br />
alumni to be an active part of the <strong>Columbia</strong> family. This summer,<br />
alumni hosted students in locations ranging from Beijing,<br />
China, to Chelsea, NYC. I encourage each of you to join us <strong>this</strong><br />
year in advancing career opportunities for the next generation<br />
of <strong>Columbia</strong> graduates.<br />
SUMMER 2012<br />
48<br />
FALL 2012<br />
49
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
BOOKSHELF<br />
Bookshelf<br />
The Napoleonic Image in Hardy<br />
and Tolstoy: A Dual Repudiation<br />
of the “Great Man” Theory<br />
of History by Raymond Marcus<br />
’39. Marcus, a former high school<br />
English and journalism teacher,<br />
examines the impact of Napoleon<br />
Bonaparte’s legacy on the works<br />
of Thom<strong>as</strong> Hardy and Leo Tolstoy<br />
(Vantage Press, $28.95).<br />
Epigenetics in the Age of Twitter:<br />
Pop Culture and Modern Science<br />
by Gerald Weissman ’50. Weissman<br />
considers modern social media<br />
through the lens of epigenetics, a<br />
branch of science that attempts to<br />
explain how our genes respond to<br />
our environments (Bellevue Literary<br />
Press, $18.95).<br />
Understanding Social Networks:<br />
Theories, Concepts, and Findings<br />
by Charles Kadushin ’53. Kadushin<br />
explains online and offline social<br />
networks through a sociological<br />
lens, breaking them down for<br />
the non-mathematically inclined<br />
(Oxford University Press, $99).<br />
Forgotten Voices: The Expulsion of<br />
the Germans from E<strong>as</strong>tern Europe<br />
after World War II by Ulrich Merten<br />
’53. Through firsthand accounts and<br />
primary documents, Merten gives<br />
voice to the millions of German<br />
citizens persecuted by totalitarian<br />
Russia and their own Nazi state in<br />
the aftermath of WWII (Transaction<br />
Publishers, $49.95).<br />
The State of the Jews: A Critical<br />
Appraisal by Edward Alexander ’57.<br />
Alexander, a professor emeritus of<br />
English at the University of W<strong>as</strong>hington,<br />
describes the threat Jewish<br />
people face from contemporary anti-<br />
Semitism and hostility toward Israel<br />
(Transaction Publishers, $34.95).<br />
The Other Side of the World by Jay<br />
Neugeboren ’59. From the rainforests<br />
of Borneo to the streets of Brooklyn,<br />
Neugeboren’s novel follows adventurer<br />
Charlie Eisner and provocative<br />
writer Seana O’Sullivan on an<br />
epic journey in memory of Charlie’s<br />
late friend Nick (Two Dollar Radio,<br />
$17).<br />
Working for Peace and Justice:<br />
Memoirs of an Activist Intellectual<br />
by Lawrence S. Wittner ’62.<br />
Through a series of vignettes,<br />
Wittner chronicles his life <strong>as</strong> an<br />
activist for peace, labor rights and<br />
racial equality (The University of<br />
Tennessee Press, $29.95).<br />
Hypertension: A Companion to<br />
Braunwald’s Heart Dise<strong>as</strong>e, 2nd<br />
Edition by Dr. Henry R. Black ’63 and<br />
William J. Elliott. An update to the<br />
authors’ cardiology reference book,<br />
<strong>this</strong> edition provides doctors with<br />
the most up-to-date clinical tools to<br />
treat hypertension (Saunders, $169).<br />
Strangers & Pilgrims: A Centennial<br />
History of The Laymen’s Club<br />
of the Cathedral of Saint John<br />
the Divine by Francis J. Sypher Jr.<br />
’63. Sypher chronicles the Laymen<br />
Club’s 100-year history of sponsoring<br />
the famous Morningside<br />
Heights cathedral <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> the<br />
club’s contributions to its construction<br />
from the 1920s through the<br />
1990s (The Laymen’s Club of the<br />
Cathedral Church of Saint John the<br />
Divine, $35).<br />
Treacherous Beauty: Peggy Shippen,<br />
the Woman Behind Benedict<br />
Arnold’s Plot to Betray America<br />
by Mark Jacob and Stephen H. C<strong>as</strong>e<br />
’64. In their biography of Arnold’s<br />
wife, Jacob and C<strong>as</strong>e reveal her<br />
pivotal role in the tre<strong>as</strong>onous plot<br />
that nearly sabotaged the American<br />
Revolution (Lyons Press, $24.95).<br />
Torture and Impunity: The U.S.<br />
Doctrine of Coercive Interrogation<br />
by Alfred W. McCoy ’68.<br />
McCoy, a history professor at the<br />
University of Wisconsin-Madison,<br />
writes a history of torture tactics<br />
used by the U.S. government and<br />
details how torture affects our culture,<br />
morality and laws (University<br />
of Wisconsin Press, $24.95).<br />
Whole Notes: A Piano M<strong>as</strong>tercl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
by Armen Donelian ’72. A holistic<br />
approach to instrumental study<br />
— including advice on physical,<br />
mental and psychological challenges<br />
that need attention — from<br />
an internationally respected jazz<br />
pianist, composer and educator<br />
(Advance Music, $32.50).<br />
The Good, the Bad, and the Economy:<br />
Does Human Nature Rule Out<br />
a Better World? by Louis Putterman<br />
’76. The author grapples with the<br />
conflict between self-interest and<br />
social cooperation <strong>as</strong> he seeks to address<br />
the re<strong>as</strong>ons we’ve been unable<br />
to build a more equal and nurturing<br />
world (Langdon Street Press, $17.95).<br />
Black Tulips: The Selected Poems<br />
of José María Hinojosa by José<br />
María Hinojosa, translated by Mark<br />
Statman ’80. Spanish poet Hinojosa’s<br />
surrealist work — translated<br />
into English for the first time since<br />
his 1936 <strong>as</strong>s<strong>as</strong>sination — celebrates<br />
love amidst war and suffering<br />
(Uno Press, $18.95).<br />
Pledges of Jewish Allegiance:<br />
Conversion, Law, and Policymaking<br />
in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-<br />
Century Orthodox Responsa by<br />
David Ellenson and Daniel Gordis<br />
’81. Ellenson and Gordis consider<br />
a wide array of legal opinions<br />
by European Orthodox rabbis<br />
to determine what constitutes a<br />
legitimate conversion to Judaism<br />
(Stanford University Press, $30).<br />
The People’s Pension: The Struggle<br />
to Defend Social Security Since<br />
Reagan by Eric Laursen ’82. In <strong>this</strong><br />
history of Social Security, Laursen,<br />
a financial and political journalist,<br />
explains how the program’s<br />
existence h<strong>as</strong> been threatened by<br />
both political parties and lays out<br />
a strategy to protect it (AK Press,<br />
$27)<br />
Barack Obama [’83]: The Story by<br />
David Maraniss. The author, an <strong>as</strong>sociate<br />
editor at The W<strong>as</strong>hington Post,<br />
draws on hundreds of interviews to<br />
uncover the influences on the personal<br />
and political life of President<br />
Obama in <strong>this</strong> biography (Simon &<br />
Schuster, $32.50).<br />
The Secret War Between <strong>Download</strong>ing<br />
and Uploading: Tales of<br />
the Computer <strong>as</strong> Culture Machine<br />
by Peter Lunenfeld ’84. The author<br />
analyzes our digital culture, warning<br />
that p<strong>as</strong>sive consumption, instead<br />
of active creation, h<strong>as</strong> become<br />
the main way we use technology<br />
(The MIT Press, $21.95).<br />
New Cl<strong>as</strong>sicists: Richard Manion<br />
[’84] Architecture by Stacie Stukin.<br />
This vivid portfolio of work by<br />
Richard Manion ’84 features<br />
projects from around the world including<br />
signature homes inspired<br />
by English country houses, French<br />
châteaux and Italian vill<strong>as</strong> (Images<br />
Publishing, $90).<br />
Race and America’s Immigrant<br />
Press: How the Slovaks Were<br />
Taught to Think Like White<br />
People by Robert M. Zecker ’84.<br />
Zecker, <strong>as</strong>sociate professor of<br />
history at Saint Francis Xavier<br />
University in Nova Scotia, studies<br />
how immigrant newspapers<br />
covered American racial <strong>issue</strong>s in<br />
the 19th and 20th centuries (Continuum,<br />
$130).<br />
The Shape of Green: Aesthetics,<br />
Ecology, and Design by Lance<br />
Hosey ’87. Architect and designer<br />
Hosey outlines principles of design<br />
for products, cars, buildings and<br />
cities that incorporate sustainability<br />
(Island Press, $30).<br />
Sexual Types: Embodiment, Agency,<br />
and Dramatic Character from<br />
Shakespeare to Shirley by Mario<br />
DiGangi ’88. Building on feminist<br />
and queer scholarship, DiGangi<br />
demonstrates how sexual types<br />
such <strong>as</strong> the bawd, the sodomite and<br />
the citizen wife can be vilified but<br />
also serve <strong>as</strong> dynamic, resourceful<br />
characters who upend the limitations<br />
of their archetypes (University<br />
of Pennsylvania Press, $65).<br />
The Career Within You: How<br />
to Find the Perfect Job for Your<br />
Personality (Japanese edition) by<br />
Elizabeth Wagele and Ingrid Stabb<br />
’91. In a new edition of their 2009<br />
book, Wagele and Stabb offer<br />
unique advice for job hunters in<br />
the Japanese market, using the Enneagram<br />
personality model to help<br />
find a job that fits one’s sensibilities<br />
(HarperOne, 575 Japanese Yen).<br />
The House of Velvet and Gl<strong>as</strong>s by<br />
Katherine Howe ’99. The bestselling<br />
novelist’s latest blends romance,<br />
the supernatural and a family’s secrets<br />
during the tumultuous period<br />
spanning the sinking of the Titanic<br />
and WWI (Voice, $25.99).<br />
Sovereign Wealth Funds and<br />
Long-Term Investing edited by<br />
Patrick Bolton, the Barbara and<br />
David Zalaznick Professor of Business;<br />
Frederic Samama; and Joseph<br />
E. Stiglitz, University Professor.<br />
This collection of essays explains<br />
and examines the implications of<br />
sovereign wealth funds, stateowned<br />
investment funds with<br />
combined <strong>as</strong>set holdings that are<br />
approaching $4 trillion (<strong>Columbia</strong><br />
University Press, $20).<br />
Storable Votes: Protecting the Minority<br />
Voice by Alessandra C<strong>as</strong>ella,<br />
professor of economics. C<strong>as</strong>ella<br />
brings the tools of economics to<br />
politics, presenting a system in<br />
which citizens can budget their<br />
votes, c<strong>as</strong>ting multiple votes when<br />
they consider a decision more<br />
important (Oxford University<br />
Press, $29.95).<br />
<strong>College</strong>: What It W<strong>as</strong>, Is, and<br />
Should Be by Andrew Delbanco,<br />
the Mendelson Family Professor<br />
of American Studies and the<br />
Julian Clarence Levi Professor in<br />
the Humanities. Delbanco traces<br />
the evolution of higher education<br />
in America from early Puritan<br />
colleges to modern research universities<br />
and calls for a return to a<br />
broad, humanistic undergraduate<br />
education (see <strong>Columbia</strong> Forum in<br />
<strong>this</strong> <strong>issue</strong> for an excerpt) (Princeton<br />
University Press, $24.95).<br />
Ignorance: How It Drives Science<br />
by Stuart Firestein, professor of<br />
neuroscience and chair of the<br />
Department of Biological Sciences.<br />
Citing examples from an array<br />
of scientific disciplines, Firestein<br />
claims scientists often make their<br />
best discoveries by embracing<br />
what they don’t know (Oxford<br />
University Press, $21.95).<br />
A Brief History of Justice by David<br />
Johnston, professor of political science.<br />
Johnston’s survey on justice<br />
covers the ancient law codes of<br />
Babylon and Greece <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong><br />
contemporary questions about the<br />
nature of justice (Wiley-Blackwell,<br />
$29.95).<br />
The Age of Insight: The Quest<br />
to Understand the Unconscious<br />
in Art, Mind, and Brain, from<br />
Vienna 1900 to the Present by Eric<br />
R. Kandel, University Professor and<br />
the Kavli Professor of Brain Science<br />
in Neuroscience. Nobel Prize Winner<br />
Kandel traces an intellectual<br />
revolution in psychology, brain<br />
science, literature and art to the<br />
cultural epicenter of Vienna in 1900<br />
(Random House, $40).<br />
Perpetual War: Cosmopolitanism<br />
from the Viewpoint of Violence<br />
by Bruce Robbins, the Old Dominion<br />
Foundation Professor in the<br />
Humanities. A theorist of cosmopolitanism,<br />
the shared morality of<br />
humanity beyond provincial loyalties,<br />
Robbins applies the concept<br />
to our era of constant U.S. warfare<br />
(Duke University Press, $23.95).<br />
Democracy, Islam, & Secularism<br />
in Turkey edited by Ahmet T. Kuru<br />
and Alfred Stepan, the Wallace S.<br />
Sayre Professor of Government.<br />
In <strong>this</strong> collection of essays, a range<br />
of experts explore the historical,<br />
social and religious factors that<br />
inform Turkey’s politics (<strong>Columbia</strong><br />
University Press, $27.50).<br />
Refiguring the Spiritual: Beuys,<br />
Barney, Turrell, Goldsworthy by<br />
Mark C. Taylor, professor of religion.<br />
Through a critique of four contemporary<br />
artists, Taylor reveals the<br />
spiritual dimensions in their work<br />
that often are overlooked in the<br />
commercialized art market (<strong>Columbia</strong><br />
University Press, $27.50).<br />
Benjamin Gittelson ’15 and<br />
Karen Iorio<br />
FALL 2012<br />
50<br />
FALL 2012<br />
51
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
OBITUARIES<br />
Obituaries<br />
Leo Rangell ’33<br />
1933<br />
Leo Rangell, psychoanalyst and<br />
emeritus clinical professor of<br />
psychiatry, Los Angeles, on May<br />
28, 2011. Rangell w<strong>as</strong> born on<br />
October 1, 1913, in New York. He<br />
earned a scholarship to <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
and studied medicine at Chicago,<br />
graduating in 1937. Rangell practiced<br />
psychiatry and neurology in<br />
New York until WWII, then spent<br />
the war years <strong>as</strong> a psychiatrist in the<br />
Army Air Forces. After the war, he<br />
moved to Santa Monica and studied<br />
at the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic<br />
Institute. He became a leading psychoanalyst<br />
who argued forcefully<br />
that theoretical fads and factions<br />
threatened to erode consumer<br />
confidence in the field. Rangell w<strong>as</strong><br />
a clinical professor of psychiatry at<br />
UCLA and UCSF, wrote more than<br />
450 published papers <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> several<br />
books and twice w<strong>as</strong> president<br />
Obituary Submission<br />
Guidelines<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Today<br />
welcomes obituaries for<br />
<strong>College</strong> alumni. Deaths are<br />
noted in the next available<br />
<strong>issue</strong> in the “Other Deaths<br />
Reported” box. Complete<br />
obituaries will be published in<br />
an upcoming <strong>issue</strong>, pending<br />
receipt of information. Due<br />
to the volume of obituaries<br />
that CCT receives, it may<br />
take several <strong>issue</strong>s for the<br />
complete obituary to appear.<br />
Word limit is 200; text may be<br />
edited for length, clarity and<br />
style at the editors’ discretion.<br />
Click “Contact Us” at college.<br />
columbia.edu/cct, or mail<br />
materials to Obituaries Editor,<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Today,<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> Alumni Center,<br />
622 W. 113th St., MC 4530,<br />
1st Fl., New York, NY 10025.<br />
of the American Psychoanalytic<br />
Association and the International<br />
Psychoanalytical Association.<br />
Rangell w<strong>as</strong> seeing patients until<br />
shortly before his death. His chief<br />
contribution to the field w<strong>as</strong> championing<br />
a comprehensive theory<br />
of psychoanalysis to counter the<br />
waves of new schools of thought<br />
that emph<strong>as</strong>ized one approach over<br />
all others. Rangell w<strong>as</strong> predece<strong>as</strong>ed<br />
by his wife of 58 years, Anita, and a<br />
son, Richard. He is survived by his<br />
daughters, Judith Alley and Susan<br />
Harris; son, Paul; sister, Sydelle<br />
Levitan; seven grandchildren; and<br />
six great-grandchildren.<br />
1940<br />
Hermon W. “Hy” Farwell Jr.,<br />
retired speech professor, Pueblo,<br />
Colo., on April 6, 2011. Farwell<br />
w<strong>as</strong> born on October 24, 1918. At<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong>, he w<strong>as</strong> a member of the<br />
crew team. Farwell enlisted in the<br />
Army and then transferred to the<br />
Air Force in 1944. He retired from<br />
military service in 1966, taught Air<br />
Force ROTC and earned a m<strong>as</strong>ter’s<br />
from Penn State. He then moved<br />
to Pueblo to begin a second career<br />
<strong>as</strong> a professor in speech at what<br />
w<strong>as</strong> then Southern Colorado State<br />
<strong>College</strong>, retiring in 1984 <strong>as</strong> professor<br />
emeritus from the Department of<br />
Speech Communication at USC.<br />
He continued to write and speak to<br />
many organizations throughout his<br />
retirement. Farwell w<strong>as</strong> well known<br />
for his work in parliamentary procedure,<br />
about which he published<br />
several books. He w<strong>as</strong> a member<br />
of a number of local organizations.<br />
Farwell w<strong>as</strong> preceded in death by<br />
his two siblings and one grandson.<br />
He is survived by his wife of 69<br />
years, Martha; son Gardner and his<br />
wife, Cindy; daughter Linda and<br />
her husband, Rick Hammer; daughter-in-law,<br />
Margie; four grandsons;<br />
and seven great-grandchildren.<br />
Edmund W. White, retired chemical<br />
engineer, Silver Spring, Md., on<br />
March 5, 2011. White w<strong>as</strong> born in<br />
Philadelphia on July 8, 1920, and<br />
raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. He earned<br />
three degrees from <strong>Columbia</strong>: a<br />
B.A. from the <strong>College</strong>, and then<br />
a B.S. and M.S. from Engineering<br />
in 1941 and 1942, respectively.<br />
White earned a Ph.D. from Lehigh.<br />
He retired from the David Taylor<br />
Research Center in Annapolis, Md.,<br />
in 1995. White w<strong>as</strong> active in the<br />
American Society for Testing and<br />
Materials, the Potomac Curling<br />
Club and the National Active and<br />
Retired Federal Employees Association.<br />
He is survived by his wife, Nathalie;<br />
children, Christine, William,<br />
and his wife, Cheryl, Thom<strong>as</strong> and<br />
James; and one grandson. Memorial<br />
contributions may be made to the<br />
Ed and Bill White Junior Curling<br />
Fund at the Potomac Curling Club,<br />
13810 Old Gunpowder Rd., Laurel,<br />
MD 20707, or to American Diabetes<br />
Association, PO Box 11454, Alexandria,<br />
VA 22312.<br />
1942<br />
William Pfeffer Jr., pediatrician,<br />
Randolph, N.H., on September 25,<br />
2011. Born on April 25, 1921, Pfeffer<br />
w<strong>as</strong> a graduate of Harvard Medical<br />
School in 1944 and w<strong>as</strong> inducted<br />
into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor<br />
Medical Society that year. While<br />
in medical school, he served in the<br />
Army and then completed his internship<br />
and residency at Children’s<br />
Hospital, Boston. Pfeffer w<strong>as</strong> one<br />
of the early practicing authorities in<br />
pediatric exchange transfusions and<br />
one of the first to recognize maple<br />
syrup urine dise<strong>as</strong>e, a genetic metabolic<br />
disorder. He went into private<br />
practice in Wellesley, M<strong>as</strong>s., in 1952,<br />
and for more than 30 years w<strong>as</strong><br />
the consulting pediatrician to the<br />
Children’s Mission (Parents’ and<br />
Children’s Services). Pfeffer married<br />
Jean Wilkinson in 1943. In 1985,<br />
the couple retired to their summer<br />
home in Randolph, N.H. Following<br />
Jean’s death, Pfeffer married Angela<br />
Chakalis in 2001. Pfeffer w<strong>as</strong><br />
a skilled photographer, watercolor<br />
artist, writer, musician and woodworker.<br />
In 1999, he founded the<br />
Randolph Art Show and w<strong>as</strong> the<br />
curator and organizer for 11 years.<br />
He is survived by his wife; son William<br />
and his wife, Anne; daughter<br />
Jane Jerry and her husband, George;<br />
two grandchildren; a niece; and a<br />
grandniece. Memorial contributions<br />
may be made to the Benevolence<br />
Fund, Randolph Church, c/o Mrs.<br />
Mark Kelley, 98 Randolph Hill Rd.,<br />
Randolph, NH 03593.<br />
1943<br />
Martin S. James, professor emeritus<br />
of art history, Ann Arbor, Mich., on<br />
October 11, 2011. James w<strong>as</strong> born in<br />
London, England, on July 7, 1920,<br />
and raised in Paris, France, where<br />
he attended Lycée Janson de Sailly.<br />
He honed his p<strong>as</strong>sion for modern<br />
art both at <strong>Columbia</strong> under Professor<br />
Meyer Schapiro ’24, ’35 GSAS<br />
and <strong>as</strong> an <strong>as</strong>sistant and translator to<br />
artists and architects including Kurt<br />
Seligmann and Le Corbusier. He<br />
earned an M.A. (1962) and Ph.M.<br />
(1973) from GSAS. Subjects of<br />
Martin S. James ’43<br />
scholarship included Ad Reinhardt<br />
’35, Fernand Leger and Sigfried<br />
Giedion, with a special emph<strong>as</strong>is on<br />
Piet Mondrian, about whom James<br />
wrote several books and articles.<br />
While teaching at Brooklyn <strong>College</strong><br />
from 1949–85, James created one<br />
of the first collegiate programs<br />
on urbanism with Professor<br />
Charles Ascher ’18, ’21L <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong><br />
other interdisciplinary programs in<br />
indigenous and public art. James<br />
also fought to make urban renewal<br />
adopt what he called a “human<br />
scale” throughout New York City.<br />
James w<strong>as</strong> married twice and w<strong>as</strong><br />
predece<strong>as</strong>ed by both wives, the<br />
former Betty Barr<strong>as</strong> ’46 Barnard<br />
and Jan Henry, and is survived<br />
by his children, Elisabeth and<br />
Stephen; stepdaughter, Deborah;<br />
and two grandchildren. Memorial<br />
contributions may be made to the<br />
National Parkinson Foundation<br />
(parkinson.org).<br />
1944<br />
William W. Baines Jr., retired sales<br />
representative, Owings Mills, Md.,<br />
on May 26, 2011. Born in Brooklyn,<br />
N.Y., on November 17, 1922, Baines<br />
interrupted his time at <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
to fight in the Pacific in WWII on<br />
the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Belleau<br />
Wood. Upon his return from the<br />
Navy, he w<strong>as</strong> part of the <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
varsity b<strong>as</strong>ketball team that won<br />
the Ivy League Championship in<br />
1947. After graduation, he worked<br />
for Wilson Jones, selling stationery<br />
supplies. Married in 1949, he spent<br />
much of his adult life in the Baltimore<br />
area and volunteered a great<br />
deal of his time in his community,<br />
both in the church and within local<br />
civic groups, winning honors from<br />
PennMarVa and others. Baines<br />
also dedicated much of his time to<br />
coaching sports in his hometown<br />
of Pikesville, Md., and w<strong>as</strong> named<br />
Man of the Year in 1974. He is<br />
survived by his wife of nearly 62<br />
years, Carol; four children and<br />
their spouses; 10 grandchildren;<br />
and two great-grandchildren.<br />
1946<br />
Charles H. Arnoldi Jr., retired surgeon,<br />
University Park, Fla., on April<br />
26, 2011. Arnoldi w<strong>as</strong> born in West<br />
Hoboken, N.J. At the <strong>College</strong>, he w<strong>as</strong><br />
a member of the V12 program. In<br />
1949, he graduated from Georgetown<br />
University <strong>College</strong> of Medicine<br />
and w<strong>as</strong> a practicing surgeon in<br />
Orange and South Orange, N.J.,<br />
for more than 50 years. He w<strong>as</strong> a<br />
member of the American <strong>College</strong> of<br />
Surgeons and the American Medical<br />
Association, and w<strong>as</strong> a p<strong>as</strong>t president<br />
of the Essex County Medical<br />
Society. Arnoldi w<strong>as</strong> a Navy veteran<br />
of the Korean War and served in the<br />
Naval Reserves for many years. He<br />
is survived by his wife, Jane; son,<br />
Jeffrey; daughters Amy, and Karen<br />
Costello; sister, Alma Torello; and<br />
four grandchildren. Arnoldi w<strong>as</strong><br />
predece<strong>as</strong>ed by his first wife, Avis,<br />
and a daughter, Janice.<br />
1948<br />
Richard van Frank, retired editor,<br />
Montclair, N.J., on July 4, 2011. Born<br />
and raised in New York City, van<br />
Frank completed a pre-med degree<br />
after serving <strong>as</strong> a U.S. Army medic<br />
in Italy and North Africa during<br />
WWII. He did graduate studies at<br />
Harvard in vertebrate paleontology<br />
and worked at the American<br />
Museum of Natural History and at<br />
Harvard’s Museum of Comparative<br />
Zoology. Van Frank had a long<br />
career <strong>as</strong> an acquisitions editor in<br />
academic publishing, concentrating<br />
on textbooks and journals in the<br />
biological sciences. His retirement<br />
activities included visiting art<br />
museums, attending Shakespeare,<br />
probing cl<strong>as</strong>sical Greek and comparative<br />
Indo-European linguistics<br />
and reading (and writing) science<br />
fiction. Van Frank is survived by his<br />
wife, Leslie; daughters, Katherine,<br />
and Jennifer and her husband, Barat<br />
Dickman; and two grandchildren.<br />
Memorial contributions may be<br />
made to the Cancer Center of Clara<br />
Ma<strong>as</strong>s, 1 Clara Ma<strong>as</strong>s Dr., Belleville,<br />
NJ 07109, or to the Overlook Hospital<br />
Foundation, 36 Upper Overlook<br />
Rd., PO Box 220, Summit, NJ 07902.<br />
1949<br />
Ross J. Wilson, retired actuary,<br />
Hilton Head Island, S.C., on September<br />
23, 2011. Wilson w<strong>as</strong> born<br />
on February 16, 1925, in Flatbush,<br />
Brooklyn, N.Y. At age 18, he enlisted<br />
in the Army Air Corps <strong>as</strong> an<br />
aviation cadet, serving <strong>as</strong> a first<br />
lieutenant bombardier in the 15th<br />
Air Force during WWII. After the<br />
<strong>College</strong>, Ross entered the actuarial<br />
training program at Home Life<br />
Insurance Co., in New York City.<br />
He later joined the small actuarial<br />
consulting firm of David G. Stone<br />
in Newark, N.J., where he became<br />
a partner with the then-named firm<br />
Stone, Young and Associates. The<br />
group merged into Watson Wyatt<br />
Worldwide Consulting Actuaries in<br />
the early 1980s, and he retired from<br />
it in 1987. Ross w<strong>as</strong> a member of the<br />
American Academy of Actuaries, an<br />
<strong>as</strong>sociate of the Society of Actuaries<br />
and, while actively consulting, a fellow<br />
of the Conference of Actuaries<br />
in Public Practice. He is survived<br />
by his wife of 61 years, Geraldine;<br />
daughter, Leslie R. Degenaars; sons,<br />
Keith and Craig; seven grandchildren;<br />
and one great-grandchild.<br />
Memorial contributions may be<br />
made to Hilton Head Island Deep<br />
Well Project, PO Box 5543, Hilton<br />
Head Island, SC 29938.<br />
1950<br />
Arthur S. Campbell, retired<br />
psychiatrist, Upper Saddle River,<br />
N.J., on July 9, 2011. Campbell<br />
interned at Se<strong>as</strong>ide Memorial<br />
Hospital in Long Beach, Calif., and<br />
did a residency in internal medicine<br />
at Walter Reed Army Hospital in<br />
W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C., graduating in<br />
1954. He continued studies with a<br />
two-year fellowship in cardiology,<br />
followed by a final residency in<br />
psychiatry. After returning from<br />
his first European tour, he and his<br />
wife, Astry ’48 Barnard, ’49 GSAS,<br />
and their three children settled in<br />
Short Hills, N.J., where Campbell<br />
practiced psychiatry. A dozen years<br />
later, Campbell did a second stint in<br />
Europe, and returned stateside <strong>as</strong><br />
an Armay colonel. He w<strong>as</strong> chief of<br />
psychiatry at three Army hospitals:<br />
Frankfurt, Heidelberg and Landstuhl,<br />
Germany. Campbell ended<br />
his Army career <strong>as</strong> a psychiatrist at<br />
West Point Military Academy. He<br />
then became a staff psychiatrist at<br />
Valley Hospital and later opened<br />
his own practice in Ridgewood,<br />
N.J., from which he retired in 2011.<br />
Campbell is survived by his wife;<br />
children, Brenda Leigh Haynes, A.<br />
Scott and Laura; and five grandchildren.<br />
Memorial contributions may<br />
be made to the Valley Hospital Hospice<br />
Care, 15 Essex Road, Paramus,<br />
NJ 07652.<br />
John D. “David” Suomi, retired<br />
dentist, New Wilmington, Pa., on<br />
May 8, 2011. A native of Brooklyn,<br />
N.Y., Suomi earned a D.D.S. in<br />
1953 from the Dental School and<br />
an M.P.H. in 1962 from the School<br />
of Public Health. He w<strong>as</strong> in private<br />
practice in Tuxedo Park and Suffern,<br />
N.Y., before joining the U.S. Public<br />
Health Service in 1962; he retired in<br />
1983 <strong>as</strong> a captain. Suomi served with<br />
the Division of Dental Health, the<br />
Office of the Assistant Secretary for<br />
Health and the National Institute of<br />
Dental Research. Suomi’s research<br />
studies were important in estab-<br />
Andrew Sarris ’51, ’98 GSAS, Film Critic<br />
and Longtime School of the Arts Professor<br />
Andrew Sarris ’51, ’98<br />
GSAS, one of the country’s<br />
most influential<br />
film critics and a longtime professor<br />
at the School of the Arts<br />
(SOA), died on June 20, 2012.<br />
Described <strong>as</strong> indispensable and<br />
insightful, erudite but down<br />
to earth, Sarris w<strong>as</strong> known for<br />
his reviews in The Village Voice<br />
and The New York Observer <strong>as</strong><br />
well <strong>as</strong> for popularizing auteur<br />
theory, the notion that directors<br />
are the true authors of their<br />
films. He w<strong>as</strong> 83 and lived in<br />
New York City.<br />
Sarris w<strong>as</strong> born on October<br />
31, 1928, in Brooklyn, N.Y., to<br />
Greek immigrants. He grew up<br />
in Ozone Park, Queens, and<br />
attended John Adams H.S.<br />
By his own admission, Sarris<br />
w<strong>as</strong> entranced by movies<br />
from an early age and, after<br />
college and several years in<br />
the Army Signal Corps, he immersed<br />
himself more deeply<br />
in the medium. During a year<br />
in Paris in the 1950s he got<br />
to know New Wave directors<br />
Jean-Luc Godard and Francois<br />
Truffaut and w<strong>as</strong> introduced<br />
to the theories he would later<br />
espouse.<br />
Sarris started writing about<br />
film in Film Culture magazine,<br />
but his career’s catalytic<br />
moment came with his first<br />
review for The Village Voice,<br />
in 1960. Sarris praised Alfred<br />
Hitchcock’s Psycho and, more<br />
notably, took the director<br />
seriously <strong>as</strong> an artist at a time<br />
when he w<strong>as</strong> dismissed <strong>as</strong><br />
entertaining but commercial.<br />
It w<strong>as</strong> an incendiary point of<br />
view among the newspaper’s<br />
readers, and angry letters<br />
poured in; thus began a 29-<br />
year career with the paper.<br />
In 1968 Sarris wrote his<br />
landmark book, The American<br />
Cinema: Directors and Directions<br />
1929–1968. It included<br />
essays on film and evaluated<br />
hundreds of directors, ranking<br />
them in order of importance.<br />
Among those in his pantheon<br />
were Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin,<br />
Howard Hawks, John Ford<br />
and Orson Welles, selections<br />
that underscored his belief<br />
PHOTO: DAVE KOTINSKY/GETTY<br />
IMAGES<br />
that m<strong>as</strong>terpieces could be<br />
made in Hollywood commercial<br />
cinema.<br />
Sarris’ philosophy put him<br />
in opposition to critic Pauline<br />
Kael, who valued the individual<br />
experience of movie-going<br />
over one shaped by prescribed<br />
schools of thought. The two<br />
sparred famously over the<br />
years, and their followers<br />
divided into camps called the<br />
Sarristes and the Paulettes.<br />
Among Sarris’ later books<br />
are Interviews With Film Directors;<br />
Confessions of a Cultist:<br />
On the Cinema 1955/1959; and<br />
You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet:<br />
The American Talking Film: History<br />
& Memory: 1927–1949.<br />
Sarris began teaching at <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
in 1969 and the School<br />
of the Arts’ annual distinguished<br />
alumnus award is named in his<br />
honor. In 1998, he earned an<br />
M.A. in English and comparative<br />
literature from GSAS.<br />
As SOA Professor Annette<br />
Insdorf wrote in tribute: “One<br />
cannot overestimate the<br />
importance of Andrew Sarris<br />
to movie criticism <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong><br />
film studies in the United<br />
States. … If we refer today to a<br />
‘Hitchcock movie’ or a ‘Hawks<br />
film,’ it is because Sarris provided<br />
the vocabulary and the<br />
methodology for <strong>this</strong> kind of<br />
approach.”<br />
Sarris married film critic<br />
Molly H<strong>as</strong>kell in 1969; she survives<br />
him.<br />
Alexis Tonti ’11 Arts<br />
FALL 2012<br />
52<br />
FALL 2012<br />
53
OBITUARIES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
OBITUARIES<br />
lishing the link between poor oral<br />
hygiene and periodontal dise<strong>as</strong>e. He<br />
w<strong>as</strong> a recipient of the PHS Meritorious<br />
Service Medal. Suomi w<strong>as</strong> a life<br />
member of the American Dental<br />
Association and the American Association<br />
of Public Health Dentistry <strong>as</strong><br />
well <strong>as</strong> a diplomate of the American<br />
Board of Dental Public Health.<br />
During WWII, he served with the<br />
Army in Europe. Survivors include<br />
his wife, Anne; daughters, Susan<br />
OTHER DEATHS REPORTED<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Today also h<strong>as</strong> learned of the following deaths. Complete obituaries will be<br />
published in an upcoming <strong>issue</strong>, pending receipt of information. Due to the volume of obituaries<br />
that CCT receives, it may take several <strong>issue</strong>s for the complete obituary to appear.<br />
1936 Malberry Smith Jr., attorney and former state legislator, Savannah, Ga., on June 11, 2012.<br />
1938 Howard G. Law Jr., retired attorney, Oak Harbor, Fla., on May 14, 2012.<br />
1943 Walter A. Petryshyn, retired otolaryngologist, Sar<strong>as</strong>ota, Fla., on May 15, 2012.<br />
1945 Thaddeus J. “Ted” Czarnomski, retired technical director, Scotch Plains, N.J., on July 10, 2012.<br />
David R. Hays Jr., physician, Finc<strong>as</strong>tle, Va., on May 23, 2012.<br />
1947 Edward N. Costikyan, political adviser and University trustee emeritus, Mount Ple<strong>as</strong>ant, S.C., on<br />
June 22, 2012.<br />
1948 George J. Poris, retired advertising executive, Haworth, N.J., on May 29, 2012.<br />
1949 Howard J. Baker, engineer and project manager, B<strong>as</strong>king Ridge, N.J., and Greenacres, Fla., on<br />
February 22, 2012.<br />
Stephen Jarvis Jr., mathematician, Bandon, Ore., on June 17, 2012.<br />
Walter H. Mitton, retired engineer, San Diego, on February 27, 2012.<br />
1950 William H. Dickie Jr., retired, Dougl<strong>as</strong>ton, N.Y., on October 5, 2010.<br />
F. Theodore “Ted” Reid Jr., physician, Ajijic, Mexico, on July 15, 2012.<br />
1951 Arthur Schon, musician, singer and endodontist, West Palm Beach, Fla., February 27, 2012.<br />
1952 Jay R. Carver Jr., retired, Atlantic Beach, Fla., on May 25, 2012.<br />
Mark Flanigan, retired naval officer, W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C., on May 26, 2012.<br />
Albert K. Roemermann Jr., Middletown, Conn., on April 22, 2012.<br />
1953 Charles M. Fainsbert, retired CFO, Somerset, N.J., on April 23, 2012.<br />
1954 Peter D. Ehrenhaft, attorney, W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C., on July 25, 2012.<br />
Edward G. Holteen, retired dentist, Ambler, Pa., on July 13, 2012.<br />
Melvin Goldstein, chemist, Beer Sheva, Israel, on May 13, 2012.<br />
1955 Samuel Astrachan, novelist, Gordes, France, on August 5, 2012.<br />
James J. Phelan, bank executive, New York City, on May 21, 2012.<br />
1956 David E. Boyer, civil engineer and project manager, West Caldwell, N.J., on July 8, 2012.<br />
Leonard M. Florentino, retired, Hartford, Conn., on July 19, 2012.<br />
Charles B. Grace Sr., dentist, Manchester, N.J., on June 29, 2012.<br />
Michael I. Spiegel, attorney, San Francisco, on August 3, 2012.<br />
1960 Leonard Lustig, real estate practitioner, Stony Brook, N.Y., on April 1, 2012.<br />
Nelson S. Lyon, screenwriter, New York City, on July 17, 2012.<br />
1961 Thom<strong>as</strong> E. Bratter, psychologist, Salisbury, Conn., on August 3, 2012.<br />
Edward R. Hotelling, retired pilot, Somis, Calif., on May 21, 2012.<br />
Barry H. Jacobs, eye surgeon, New York City, on May 9, 2012.<br />
Louis R. Tomson, attorney, New Scotland, N.Y., on May 8, 2012.<br />
1962 Charles R. Miller, bookseller, Salem, Ore., on May 10, 2012.<br />
1963 William M. Guttman, retired attorney and professor, Palm Beach, Fla., and New York City, on<br />
July 13, 2012.<br />
Charles J. Piera, retired supervisor of volunteer services, Sundown, N.Y., on August 1, 2012.<br />
Robert T. Schiro, land developer, Bergenfield, N.J., on April 28, 2012.<br />
1964 Peter K. Shack, attorney and singer, Davis, Calif., on July 3, 2012.<br />
1967 James N. Woodruff, legislative specialist, W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C., on April 5, 2012.<br />
1977 Marcel D. Desbois, sales manager, Scarsdale, N.Y., and Bangor, Pa., on May 1, 2012.<br />
1980 Brian F. Smith, teacher, Norwich, Conn., on April 17, 2012.<br />
1991 Juan J. Calderon, attorney, San Antonio, Tex<strong>as</strong>, on June 12, 2012.<br />
1992 Robert A. Ray, management consultant and attorney, Tampa, Fla., on June 26, 2012.<br />
Herchenroether and her husband,<br />
Peter, and Linda Bethke and her<br />
husband, Paul; and four grandchildren.<br />
Memorial contributions may<br />
be made to the Suomi Scholarship<br />
Fund c/o Westminster <strong>College</strong>, New<br />
Wilmington, PA 16142.<br />
1953<br />
Rolon W. Reed, retired attorney,<br />
former mayor, Mount Dora, Fla., on<br />
September 18, 2011. Reed w<strong>as</strong> born<br />
in Pittsburgh on April 8, 1931. An<br />
<strong>as</strong>piring journalist, while in junior<br />
high school and high school his<br />
sports writing appeared in The New<br />
York Times. At the <strong>College</strong>, Reed w<strong>as</strong><br />
on the Spectator staff, rising to managing<br />
editor. He also participated<br />
in the editorial decision to endorse<br />
Adlai Stevenson for President during<br />
the 1952 campaign. Stevenson’s<br />
opponent, Dwight Eisenhower,<br />
w<strong>as</strong> <strong>Columbia</strong>’s president at the<br />
time, which made the endorsement<br />
controversial. Reed w<strong>as</strong> a member<br />
of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.<br />
After graduating from Yale Law, he<br />
joined Simpson Thacher in 1956,<br />
where he w<strong>as</strong> named partner and<br />
remained until his 1984 retirement.<br />
He also took part in government<br />
service in the Village of Dobbs<br />
Ferry, N.Y., his home from 1963–89.<br />
Entering local politics in 1974, Reed<br />
successfully ran for Village Trustee<br />
<strong>as</strong> a self-proclaimed “irate taxpayer.”<br />
After twice being re-elected,<br />
he accepted an appointment by<br />
New York Gov. Mario Cuomo to<br />
serve <strong>as</strong> a Justice of the Westchester<br />
County Court. Following his court<br />
service, Reed and his second wife,<br />
Diana, relocated to Florida. Reed is<br />
survived by her; his three children<br />
from his first marriage, Rolon ’82,<br />
Hilary Yeo and Jennifer Simon; and<br />
four grandchildren.<br />
1955<br />
Denis A. Haggerty, retired executive,<br />
Melbourne, Fla., on July 11,<br />
2011. Haggerty w<strong>as</strong> born on May<br />
26, 1933, in Brooklyn, N.Y., and<br />
grew up in Saint James, N.Y. He<br />
attended <strong>Columbia</strong> on a Hayden<br />
scholarship and played football.<br />
Haggerty served two years in the<br />
USMC <strong>as</strong> a reserve officer. He lived<br />
much of his life in Suffolk County,<br />
Long Island, working in the electronics<br />
industry <strong>as</strong> an owner of<br />
TX Sales and then <strong>as</strong> v.p. of JACO<br />
Electronics. He retired to Titusville,<br />
Fla., in 1997. Haggerty w<strong>as</strong> active<br />
in the Big Brothers of Brevard and<br />
w<strong>as</strong> a member of the Stony Brook<br />
Yacht Club and the St. George Golf<br />
Club, both on Long Island, and<br />
the LaCita Golf and Country Club<br />
in Titusville. He is survived by his<br />
wife, Jacqueline; children, Timothy,<br />
Peter and his wife, JoEllen G<strong>as</strong>ior,<br />
and Lynn Haggerty King and her<br />
husband, David; four grandchildren;<br />
and sister, Patricia Stoddard.<br />
He w<strong>as</strong> predece<strong>as</strong>ed by a son,<br />
Christopher. Memorial contributions<br />
may be made to Hospice of<br />
Saint Francis, 1250-B Grumman Pl.,<br />
Titusville, FL 32780 or the American<br />
Cancer Society.<br />
1956<br />
James S. Williams, retired executive,<br />
Fallbrook, Calif., on May 22,<br />
2011. Williams w<strong>as</strong> awarded a<br />
Varsity C in b<strong>as</strong>eball in 1955 and<br />
1956. He joined the Marine Corps<br />
following graduation and w<strong>as</strong><br />
honorably discharged with the<br />
rank of captain. Williams spent<br />
his early years in the advertising<br />
business on Madison Avenue,<br />
then moved to Denver in 1977. He<br />
founded Evergreen Resources, an<br />
oil and g<strong>as</strong> exploration company,<br />
with Terry Dreisewerd, his longtime<br />
business partner. Evergreen<br />
w<strong>as</strong> sold in 2004 to Pioneer Natural<br />
Resources. Throughout his life,<br />
Williams entertained family and<br />
friends by playing the piano. He is<br />
survived by his wife, Shirley, and<br />
her children, Ken Plattner, Paul<br />
Plattner and Kelli Garecht; his children,<br />
Mitch ’80 and Erin Hurley;<br />
and seven grandchildren. Memorial<br />
contributions may be made to<br />
Nadia’s Gift (nadi<strong>as</strong>gift.org).<br />
1957<br />
Frederick W. Korz, retired educator,<br />
horologist, Middletown, Conn.,<br />
on April 4, 2011. Born on October<br />
26, 1935, in New York City, Korz<br />
w<strong>as</strong> raised in New Hyde Park. He<br />
graduated from Sewanhaka H.S. in<br />
Floral Park, N.Y., and received a full<br />
Joint Industry Board of the Electrical<br />
Industry Scholarship to the <strong>College</strong>,<br />
where he w<strong>as</strong> president of Delta<br />
Phi. Korz earned an M.A. in history<br />
from Teachers <strong>College</strong> and w<strong>as</strong> a<br />
history teacher and administrator<br />
in Lawrence H.S., Cedarhurst, N.Y.,<br />
for 34 years. He did further graduate<br />
work at Hofstra, earning a degree in<br />
administration. The author of articles<br />
on history and teaching, Korz also<br />
w<strong>as</strong> on the faculty of Long Island<br />
University, where he taught in the<br />
Arts and Antiques Institute. Long<br />
an active horologist and appraiser,<br />
he w<strong>as</strong> the author of a major work<br />
on antique clocks and consultant<br />
to various museums and historical<br />
societies. He is survived by his wife,<br />
Virginia; sons, Frederick ’93E, ’94E<br />
and Charles; brother, Alan ’61 and<br />
his wife, Margaret; sister-in-law,<br />
Barbara Nielsen; brother-in-law,<br />
Richard Wagner; and numerous<br />
nieces, nephews, great-nieces and<br />
great-nephews. Memorial contributions<br />
may be made to the <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong> Fund (college.columbia.<br />
edu/giveonline).<br />
1958<br />
Joachim Neugroschel, literary<br />
translator, Brooklyn, N.Y., on May<br />
23, 2011. Neugroschel w<strong>as</strong> born in<br />
Vienna on January 13, 1938, and immigrated<br />
to Rio de Janeiro in 1939.<br />
His family arrived in New York<br />
City in 1941. The son of Yiddish<br />
Galician poet Mendel Neugroschel,<br />
he took an interest in translating<br />
from Yiddish and translated more<br />
than 200 books — from that language<br />
<strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> from French, German,<br />
Russia and Italian — including<br />
the work of Nobel Prize-winner<br />
Eli<strong>as</strong> Canetti. Neugroschel’s Yiddish<br />
anthologies, The Shtetl and Yene Velt,<br />
reached a wide audience, and his<br />
translations of S. Ansky’s play The<br />
Dybbuk and Sholem Asch’s drama<br />
God of Vengeance were produced.<br />
Neugroschel also w<strong>as</strong> a critic and<br />
poet, and he founded and edited<br />
the poetry journal Extensions, which<br />
w<strong>as</strong> published from 1970–75. He<br />
is survived by his former partner,<br />
Aaron Mack Schloff.<br />
1959<br />
George R. Carmody, biology professor<br />
and DNA evidence expert,<br />
Ottawa, Ontario, on June 13, 2011.<br />
Born on March 29, 1938, in Brooklyn,<br />
N.Y., Carmody w<strong>as</strong> educated<br />
at Brooklyn Technical H.S. and<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong>, where he earned a Ph.D.<br />
in 1967 from GSAS in biological<br />
sciences. He w<strong>as</strong> a post-doctoral<br />
fellow at Chicago and in 1969<br />
joined the Department of Biology at<br />
Carleton University, Ottawa, where<br />
for 42 years he taught courses in<br />
evolutionary biology, population<br />
genetics and forensic science. He<br />
also w<strong>as</strong> <strong>as</strong>sociate dean of science<br />
and head of Carleton’s Integrated<br />
Science Program intermittently.<br />
Carmody developed an interest<br />
in forensic DNA and statistical<br />
biology, and became a consultant<br />
to government agencies, testifying<br />
on DNA evidence <strong>issue</strong>s at trials<br />
in Canada in the 1990s <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong><br />
<strong>as</strong>sisting with 9-11 and Hurricane<br />
Katrina. He lectured internationally<br />
and <strong>as</strong>sisted with victim identification<br />
efforts in Chile and Guatemala.<br />
Carmody enjoyed photography,<br />
jazz, vintage Cadillacs, railroading,<br />
fine dining and ethnic cuisine, and<br />
w<strong>as</strong> an amateur mechanic. He is<br />
survived by his wife, Zoë; sons,<br />
Chios and Ian; daughter, Daphne;<br />
and two grandchildren. Memorial<br />
contributions may be made to the<br />
George Carmody Memorial Award<br />
for Forensic Biology, Department of<br />
University Advancement, 510 Robertson<br />
Hall, Carleton University,<br />
1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa ON<br />
K1S 5B6 (carleton.ca/giving).<br />
1961<br />
Arthur D. Friedman, retired professor<br />
and publisher, San Diego, on<br />
October 24, 2011. Born in New York<br />
City on April 24, 1940, Friedman<br />
earned an M.S. (1962) and a Ph.D.<br />
(1965) in electrical engineering from<br />
the Engineering School. After doing<br />
research in computer science-electrical<br />
engineering at Bell Telephone<br />
Laboratories, he joined the faculty at<br />
the University of Southern California<br />
and then moved to the George<br />
W<strong>as</strong>hington University, where he<br />
taught for more than 20 years. The<br />
author of numerous articles and<br />
books, Friedman w<strong>as</strong> elected a fellow<br />
of the Institute of Electrical and<br />
Electronics Engineers. In 1974, he<br />
and his wife, Barbara, founded Computer<br />
Science Press, which published<br />
more than 100 text and reference<br />
books and w<strong>as</strong> recognized by Inc.<br />
500 magazine several times <strong>as</strong> one of<br />
the nation’s 500 f<strong>as</strong>test growing, privately<br />
owned companies. Survivors<br />
include Friedman’s wife; sons, Michael<br />
and Steven ’01 Business, and<br />
their wives; four grandchildren; and<br />
a brother, Stanley ’54, ’62 GSAS. Memorial<br />
contributions may be made<br />
to the Cardiac Treatment Center at<br />
David Rakoff ’86, Humor Essayist and Actor<br />
PHOTO: PAUL ROOSIN<br />
David Rakoff ’86, a<br />
prizewinning humorist<br />
whose essays examined<br />
everything from a 1996 stint<br />
portraying Sigmund Freud in a<br />
window display at Barneys New<br />
York to his battles with cancer<br />
more than 20 years ago and<br />
again soon before his death,<br />
died on August 9, 2012. He w<strong>as</strong><br />
47 and lived in New York City.<br />
Rakoff w<strong>as</strong> born in Montreal<br />
on November 27, 1964, and<br />
raised in Toronto. His <strong>College</strong><br />
degree w<strong>as</strong> in E<strong>as</strong>t Asian studies<br />
and after graduating he<br />
worked in Japan <strong>as</strong> a translator<br />
with a fine arts publisher,<br />
though his stay w<strong>as</strong> cut short<br />
by a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s<br />
lymphoma. He moved back to<br />
Canada for 18 months of treatment<br />
and remained cancer-free<br />
for two decades.<br />
Returning to New York,<br />
Rakoff worked <strong>as</strong> an editor and<br />
publicist for various publishers<br />
before becoming a full-time<br />
writer in 1998. A letter Rakoff<br />
wrote to humor writer Davis<br />
Sedaris in the early 1990s, after<br />
hearing him on the radio, and<br />
Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla,<br />
PO Box 2669, La Jolla, CA 92038; or<br />
the American Cancer Society, 2655<br />
Camino del Rio North, Suite 100, San<br />
Diego, CA 92108.<br />
1969<br />
Joseph J. Okon, physician and<br />
medical educator, Norwalk, Conn.,<br />
on May 6, 2011. Born in New York<br />
City, Okon earned an M.D. at the<br />
Albert Einstein <strong>College</strong> of Medicine.<br />
He devoted his career to obtaining<br />
funding for the advancement of<br />
medical education and devoted his<br />
life to his family and his friends. A<br />
Sedaris’ subsequent support<br />
of Rakoff’s work led to<br />
Rakoff’s own radio career. He<br />
became a frequent contributor<br />
to “This American Life” on<br />
public radio, and his books<br />
include Fraud: Essays and<br />
Don’t Get Too Comfortable: The<br />
Indignities of Coach Cl<strong>as</strong>s, The<br />
Torments of Low Thread Count,<br />
The Never- Ending Quest for<br />
Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other<br />
First World Problems, both of<br />
which received Lambda Literary<br />
Awards. Another book, Half<br />
Empty, received the Thurber<br />
Prize for American Humor.<br />
[Editor’s note: See Bookshelf,<br />
September/October 2010.]<br />
Rakoff’s print essays, which<br />
appeared in, among other publications,<br />
The New York Times, GQ,<br />
Details, Salon and Slate, formed<br />
much of the b<strong>as</strong>is of his books,<br />
which wryly detail his real-life<br />
escapades. In 2009, he contributed<br />
a piece to a New York<br />
Magazine selection of essays<br />
titled “My First New York,” in<br />
which he wrote about his arrival<br />
at <strong>Columbia</strong> and in New York.<br />
Rakoff also acted, appearing<br />
in several plays by Sedaris<br />
and his sister, Amy, <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong><br />
in bit parts on several television<br />
shows. He appeared in the<br />
2005 film Capote and wrote the<br />
screen adaptation for, <strong>as</strong> well<br />
<strong>as</strong> starred in, a 20-minute film,<br />
The New Tenants, a comedy<br />
about a horrendous New York<br />
rental experience. It won the<br />
Academy Award for best liveaction<br />
short film in 2010.<br />
Rakoff is survived by his<br />
father, Vivian; mother, Gina<br />
Shochat-Rakoff; brother,<br />
Simon; and sister, Ruth.<br />
Lisa Palladino<br />
lifelong philanthropist, he w<strong>as</strong> especially<br />
dedicated to spreading a Jewish<br />
education to those in need. Okon<br />
w<strong>as</strong> a member of several boards of<br />
directors, including the UJA Federation<br />
and Bi-Cultural Day School. He<br />
is survived by his sons, Benjamin,<br />
Ezra and Alexander; friend, Sandy<br />
Samuels; and late brother Paul’s<br />
family. Memorial contributions may<br />
be made to the Okon Family Philanthropic<br />
Fund II (2474) of the Jewish<br />
Communal Fund, 866-580-4523.<br />
Lisa Palladino<br />
FALL 2012<br />
54<br />
FALL 2012<br />
55
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s Notes<br />
25<br />
40<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Today<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> Alumni Center<br />
622 W. 113th St., MC 4530<br />
New York, NY 10025<br />
cct@columbia.edu<br />
Sol Fisher ’36 sent a clipping from<br />
the San Francisco Chronicle about<br />
the 35th Awards Dinner of the Exploratorium,<br />
the city’s museum of<br />
science, art and human perception,<br />
which w<strong>as</strong> held in May. Among<br />
other things, the dinner paid tribute<br />
to all 90 honorees in the awards’ history<br />
— including longtime Chronicle<br />
science editor David Perlman ’39,<br />
’40J. The article notes that David<br />
w<strong>as</strong> “perhaps the first reporter<br />
to write about the Exploratorium<br />
before its 1969 premiere.”<br />
The <strong>Columbia</strong> University Band<br />
Alumni Association is preparing a<br />
history of bands at <strong>Columbia</strong> and<br />
would love to be in touch with any -<br />
one who played during the mid-’30s.<br />
If <strong>this</strong> includes you, or if you know<br />
of a cl<strong>as</strong>smate who fits the bill,<br />
ple<strong>as</strong>e contact CCT Managing Editor<br />
Alexis Tonti ’11 Arts: alt2129@<br />
columbia.edu or 212-851-7485.<br />
CCT hopes that you enjoy a<br />
wonderful fall. Send us an update,<br />
whether by email, good old U.S.<br />
Postal Service or via our e<strong>as</strong>y-to-use<br />
webform (college.columbia.edu/<br />
cct/submit_cl<strong>as</strong>s_note). Your cl<strong>as</strong>smates<br />
want to hear how you’re<br />
doing and what you’re up to.<br />
41<br />
Robert Zucker<br />
29 The Birches<br />
Roslyn, NY 11576<br />
rzucker@optonline.net<br />
Louis Cohn-Haft died in June 2011<br />
in Siena, Italy. When he came in<br />
for our 50th reunion, he had been<br />
working <strong>as</strong> a professor in Chianti;<br />
he eventually retired in Italy.<br />
On May 3 one of our most active<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates, Jack Beaudouin, p<strong>as</strong>sed<br />
away. Jack received permission early<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s Notes are submitted by<br />
alumni and edited by volunteer<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s correspondents and the<br />
staff of CCT prior to publication.<br />
Opinions expressed are those of<br />
individual alumni and do not<br />
reflect the opinions of CCT, its<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s correspondents, the <strong>College</strong><br />
or the University.<br />
in his senior year to leave school<br />
to take a significant position with<br />
Reader’s Digest but still graduated<br />
with our cl<strong>as</strong>s. For most of his career<br />
he w<strong>as</strong> president of the Reader’s<br />
Digest Condensed Book Club.<br />
A letter from Suzanne Dettmer<br />
’46 SW (wife of the late Bob Dettmer)<br />
bemoaned the fact that her<br />
grandson, who had a 4.0 average in<br />
a community college, w<strong>as</strong> not accepted<br />
to <strong>Columbia</strong>. Unfortunately<br />
many factors combine to make<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> much more difficult<br />
to enter than it w<strong>as</strong> in our time.<br />
When 450 male students, primarily<br />
from the New York metropolitan<br />
area and almost exclusively white,<br />
were admitted to the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1941,<br />
the population of the United States<br />
w<strong>as</strong> approximately 40 percent of<br />
today’s total. Today’s <strong>College</strong> h<strong>as</strong><br />
no borders and is multi-racial —<br />
some 57 percent of the members<br />
of the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2015 self-identified<br />
on the Common Application <strong>as</strong><br />
being of color. More than 50 foreign<br />
countries are represented in each<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s and the male component generally<br />
is slightly less than one half. A<br />
much larger percentage of the U.S.<br />
population goes to college than in<br />
our day and transportation is e<strong>as</strong>ier.<br />
Applicants know that to be considered<br />
today they must be in the top<br />
10 percent of their high school cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
and have high college boards. With<br />
all of <strong>this</strong>, the CC and Engineering<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>ses of 2016 received a combined<br />
total of almost 32,000 applications.<br />
42<br />
Melvin Hershkowitz<br />
22 Northern Ave.<br />
Northampton, MA 01060<br />
DrMelvin23@gmail.com<br />
On a chilly, rainy morning on April<br />
22, I w<strong>as</strong> ple<strong>as</strong>ed to receive a warm,<br />
friendly telephone call from Warren<br />
Lane ’50E, in Huntington, N.Y., on<br />
Long Island. Warren, who had his<br />
92nd birthday on March 18, thanked<br />
me and our Alumni Office for the<br />
invitation to our 70th reunion luncheon,<br />
held June 2. Although he w<strong>as</strong><br />
unable to attend, Warren said he had<br />
warm memories of his days on campus<br />
and enjoys reading our Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
Notes, which reflect our emotional<br />
attachment to <strong>Columbia</strong>. Warren<br />
earned a B.S. in civil engineering in<br />
1949 and an M.S. in civil engineering<br />
in 1950, then embarked on a 43-year<br />
career at Grumman Aircraft <strong>as</strong> an engineer<br />
and operations analyst. Warren,<br />
a member of Tau Beta Pi, earned<br />
numerals and a letter <strong>as</strong> a member of<br />
the freshman and varsity swimming<br />
teams. On behalf of cl<strong>as</strong>smates and<br />
our Alumni Office, I thank Warren<br />
for his thoughtful call.<br />
The San Francisco Chronicle noted David Perlman<br />
’39 w<strong>as</strong> “the first reporter to write about the Exploratorium”<br />
before its 1969 opening.<br />
Leo Reuther sent an email on<br />
April 23, reporting that he had his<br />
90th birthday on March 14 and w<strong>as</strong><br />
still ambulatory “unaided.” With<br />
regrets, Leo said he would not be<br />
attending our reunion luncheon,<br />
<strong>as</strong> he now tries to avoid flying <strong>as</strong><br />
much <strong>as</strong> possible. Leo, one of the<br />
many heroes in our Great Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
of 1942, w<strong>as</strong> an ace fighter pilot<br />
in WWII, so he certainly earned<br />
his sabbatical from getting in and<br />
out of airplanes. After WWII, Leo<br />
had a career in the FBI, retiring in<br />
the 1970s. At <strong>Columbia</strong>, Leo won<br />
numerals for freshman b<strong>as</strong>ketball<br />
and w<strong>as</strong> on the varsity swimming<br />
team. He participated in The<br />
Varsity Show and w<strong>as</strong> a member<br />
of <strong>Columbia</strong> Players, the Rifle<br />
Club, the Newman Club and the<br />
Dolphin Society. We salute Leo <strong>as</strong><br />
a loyal <strong>Columbia</strong> alumnus and<br />
distinguished member of our cl<strong>as</strong>s.<br />
Professor Morris Grossman ’60<br />
GSAS called on April 24 to report<br />
that he w<strong>as</strong> planning to come to the<br />
reunion luncheon. Morris, a retired<br />
professor of philosophy — he’d<br />
worked at Fairfield University<br />
in Connecticut — had his 90th<br />
birthday on March 11. He sounded<br />
much younger than that on the<br />
phone, though he confessed to<br />
various physical ailments, none of<br />
which prevented his attendance<br />
on June 2. Morris earned an M.A.<br />
from the Graduate Faculties in<br />
1949 and a Ph.D. in 1960. He taught<br />
at Penn State and Portland State<br />
(Oregon) before coming to Fairfield,<br />
and now is seeking a publisher for<br />
his recently completed book, Art<br />
& Morality, a collection of various<br />
papers that he published during his<br />
long career. Morris is an authority<br />
on philosopher George Santayana.<br />
At <strong>Columbia</strong>, Morris showed his<br />
intellectual prowess <strong>as</strong> chess team<br />
manager and won a Silver Crown.<br />
On April 24, I received an email<br />
from Arthur E. Smith, sending<br />
regrets about not being able to<br />
come to our reunion. Art, who had<br />
his 91st birthday in October 2011,<br />
w<strong>as</strong> a member of our great crews<br />
in 1940 and 1941 and h<strong>as</strong> kept in<br />
touch with the coxswain of those<br />
crews, Bob Kaufman, who lives in<br />
Scarsdale, N.Y. Art took graduate<br />
courses at the Business School in<br />
1947 and earned an M.B.A. at NYU<br />
in 1948. At the <strong>College</strong>, Art earned<br />
his Varsity C, w<strong>as</strong> a member of the<br />
Crewsters and w<strong>as</strong> awarded the<br />
Bang’s Cup Medal. I’d previously<br />
heard from Art in 2007, when he<br />
reported attending the graduation<br />
of his grandson, Jeff ’07 SIPA. Art’s<br />
son, Arthur Jr. ’71, also is a <strong>Columbia</strong>n,<br />
which means that Art started<br />
a three-generation legacy when he<br />
joined our Great Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1942.<br />
Judge Leonard Garth sent an<br />
email message on April 25 with<br />
regret at his inability to attend the<br />
luncheon on June 2. I have written<br />
about Len’s extraordinarily long<br />
and distinguished career in the Appellate<br />
Judiciary in prior <strong>issue</strong>s of<br />
CCT. He is one of our most famous<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates (Supreme Court Justice<br />
Samuel Alito w<strong>as</strong> one of Len’s law<br />
clerks), and he remains cognitively<br />
intact, despite impaired mobility.<br />
Len sends his greetings and warm<br />
regards to all cl<strong>as</strong>smates.<br />
On April 28, I had a long phone<br />
chat with Donald Seligman, living<br />
in Somers, N.Y. Don called to say<br />
he w<strong>as</strong> sorry to miss our reunion<br />
luncheon; he w<strong>as</strong> unable to travel<br />
because of various physical ailments.<br />
He had his 90th birthday<br />
in July 2011 and remains perfectly<br />
lucid. We had a warm conversation<br />
about <strong>Columbia</strong> and our mutual<br />
friends. Don played freshman and<br />
varsity football and served in the<br />
Marines in WWII. I l<strong>as</strong>t saw Don<br />
several years ago, when we both<br />
spoke at the memorial service<br />
in St. Paul’s Chapel for our dear<br />
friend Jack Arbolino, a Marine<br />
hero in WWII. After the war, Don<br />
had a long career <strong>as</strong> a leader in the<br />
women’s f<strong>as</strong>hion footwear industry<br />
before retiring to Somers.<br />
Old friend Arthur “Wizzer”<br />
Wellington sent a note on April 30<br />
with family news and regrets that<br />
he would not be able to come from<br />
Elmira, N.Y., for our reunion. Art<br />
(92 on May 17) helped celebrate the<br />
65th birthday of his eldest son with<br />
a family golf outing at their country<br />
club, where Art rode in his golf cart<br />
to follow the proceedings. We had<br />
our annual discussion about handicapping<br />
the Kentucky Derby and<br />
discussed Art’s trifecta choices for<br />
the race. (Art is a charter member<br />
of the <strong>Columbia</strong> chapter of the Degenerate<br />
Horseplayers Club, along<br />
with <strong>this</strong> writer, Don Mankiewicz<br />
in Monrovia, Calif., and the late<br />
Don Dickinson, who died several<br />
years ago in L<strong>as</strong> Veg<strong>as</strong>.) Art did not<br />
c<strong>as</strong>h any of his derby wagers, but <strong>as</strong><br />
Frank Sinatra once sang, “Here’s to<br />
the losers, bless them all.”<br />
On May 2, Immanuel “Manny”<br />
Lichtenstein ’43E sent a cordial<br />
email to say he would be coming<br />
to our reunion. Manny, who had<br />
his 90th birthday in February,<br />
still is active in his long career<br />
<strong>as</strong> a special expert in metallurgy<br />
and mining engineering, and h<strong>as</strong><br />
continued to work all over the<br />
world, including in E<strong>as</strong>tern Turkey<br />
and Southern Idaho. He earned a<br />
B.S from Engineering in 1943 and<br />
an M.S. from Stevens Institute in<br />
1953. At <strong>Columbia</strong>, Manny rowed<br />
on the freshman lightweight crew.<br />
He now lives in Princeton, N.J.,<br />
with his wife, the former Nancy<br />
Rabi ’52L, daughter of our famous<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> physicist, I.I. Rabi ’27<br />
GSAS. (Nancy w<strong>as</strong> a Law School<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smate of Judge Leonard<br />
Garth.) Manny h<strong>as</strong> been a loyal<br />
alumnus for many years, and says<br />
he much prefers our <strong>Columbia</strong> lion<br />
to the Princeton tiger, which he<br />
sees in profusion in his hometown.<br />
Paul Hauck sent an email on May<br />
5, expressing regret that he could<br />
not attend our reunion luncheon<br />
because of physical infirmities that<br />
preclude travel from his home in<br />
Naples, Fla. Paul, who had his 92nd<br />
birthday on April 16, w<strong>as</strong> a brilliant<br />
student among many in our cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
and w<strong>as</strong> a member of Phi Beta<br />
Kappa. He earned an M.B.A. from<br />
The George W<strong>as</strong>hington University<br />
in 1964 and had a long career <strong>as</strong> an<br />
economist and consultant to the<br />
Navy and Department of Defense<br />
before his retirement. He recalled<br />
coming to the Admissions Office<br />
in 1938 with two other cl<strong>as</strong>smates<br />
from Jamaica H.S. in Queens for<br />
his pre-admission interview with<br />
Bernard P. Ireland ’31, ’35 GSAS,<br />
and w<strong>as</strong> happy to be admitted. Paul<br />
enjoys reading our Cl<strong>as</strong>s Notes in<br />
CCT and sends warm regards to all<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates.<br />
On May 12, Kenneth von der<br />
Porten sent an email with regrets<br />
that he would not be able to attend<br />
our reunion. Ken, who had his 91st<br />
birthday in November 2011, had<br />
been living in Boynton Beach, Fla.,<br />
where he had a series of unfortunate<br />
falls, leaving him dependent on a<br />
walker for ambulation and support.<br />
He sold his home in Florida and<br />
now resides in an <strong>as</strong>sisted living<br />
facility near his daughter in Connecticut.<br />
Ken w<strong>as</strong> a metallurgist, and<br />
retired <strong>as</strong> v.p. of Ledoux & Co. in the<br />
1980s. He is a member of Phi Kappa<br />
Phi and the American Institute of<br />
Mining Engineers. Ken sends kind<br />
regards and good wishes to all old<br />
friends and cl<strong>as</strong>smates. He can be<br />
reached at kvonderporten@att.net.<br />
As for our 70th reunion luncheon,<br />
it w<strong>as</strong> held June 2 in the handsomely<br />
refurbished Core Conference Room<br />
in Hamilton Hall, where, <strong>as</strong> incoming<br />
freshmen in 1938, 74 years ago,<br />
we had our first Humanities and<br />
CC cl<strong>as</strong>ses. Cl<strong>as</strong>smates present were<br />
Immanuel Lichtenstein, Morris<br />
Grossman, Arthur Graham, Robert<br />
Kaufman, Dr. Bernard Small and<br />
<strong>this</strong> correspondent. Morris w<strong>as</strong> accompanied<br />
by his loyal friend, Janet<br />
Jurist. Bob came with his effervescent<br />
and irrepressible wife, Susan. Bernie<br />
came with his lovely spouse, Sheila. I<br />
came with my highly accomplished<br />
designated driver and son-in-law,<br />
Steve Hathaway, who joined us for<br />
the luncheon and discussions. (See<br />
my comments above about Morris<br />
and Manny.)<br />
Arthur lives in White Plains,<br />
N.Y., having retired from his long<br />
career <strong>as</strong> an engineer/management<br />
consultant. Bob, who is retired in<br />
Scarsdale, N.Y., had a remarkable<br />
career <strong>as</strong> v.p. and legal counsel at<br />
ABC television network, where<br />
with Roone Arledge ’52, he helped<br />
establish innovative coverage of<br />
the Olympic Games and Monday<br />
Night Football. Bernard, a retired<br />
dentist, lives in Tenafly, N.J., and<br />
Montauk, N.Y., and is a longtime<br />
generous donor to the <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong> Fund.<br />
We were delighted to welcome<br />
Dean of Academic Affairs Kathryn<br />
Yatrakis, who joined us for lunch<br />
and gave an excellent talk on the<br />
history of the Core Curriculum<br />
and its prospects. At the end of the<br />
luncheon, we remembered some<br />
of our dece<strong>as</strong>ed cl<strong>as</strong>smates, whose<br />
friendships meant so much to us at<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> and in the years that followed:<br />
Dr. Herbert Mark, Gerald<br />
Green, Jack Arbolino, Donald<br />
Dickinson, Philip Bayer (a Marine<br />
hero, killed at Peleliu in WWII),<br />
Charles F. “Chic” Hoelzer Jr. and<br />
our immediate p<strong>as</strong>t president<br />
and intrepid leader, Victor Zaro.<br />
We thank our devoted CCT and<br />
Alumni Office staff members, Lisa<br />
Palladino, CCT executive editor,<br />
and Nick Mider, event coordinator,<br />
for joining us at <strong>this</strong> luncheon<br />
and for their outstanding efforts in<br />
making <strong>this</strong> a memorable occ<strong>as</strong>ion.<br />
We look forward to meeting<br />
again at Homecoming on Saturday,<br />
October 20. [Editor’s note: See<br />
Around the Quads.]<br />
Warm regards and good wishes<br />
to all.<br />
REUNION WEEKEND<br />
MAY 30–JUNE 2, 2013<br />
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS<br />
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Fatima Yudeh<br />
fy2165@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7834<br />
DEVELOPMENT Valentina Salkow<br />
vs2441@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7833<br />
43<br />
G.J. D’Angio<br />
Department of Radiation<br />
Oncology<br />
Perelman C. A. M.<br />
Philadelphia, PA 19104<br />
dangio@uphs.upenn.edu<br />
No news from ’43ers. I haven’t had<br />
any takers on my offer. For those<br />
of you who missed it, any 1943<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smate who contacts me at the<br />
above email address is invited to<br />
join me for lunch at a Philadelphia<br />
restaurant of his choosing.<br />
The spring w<strong>as</strong> notable for me<br />
because my granddaughter, Sara,<br />
graduated from the VA Theological<br />
Seminary in May. She and her<br />
husband then left for a parish in<br />
the Rochester, N.Y., area. Two of<br />
their seminarian friends there came<br />
to stay with us in March. They are<br />
a French couple, here because she<br />
wishes to become an Episcopal<br />
priest, and there are no Episcopal<br />
seminaries in France. They were<br />
Bernard Goldman ’46 received the Halstead Memorial<br />
Award from the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.<br />
but two among the welcome parade<br />
of 10 visitors of all ages to our<br />
“B&B” in the spring.<br />
Another trip: went to Covington,<br />
Ky., in June for the installation of<br />
my son, Peter, in his church there.<br />
My wife and other son and his family<br />
also are devout Episcopalians; I<br />
am an island in an ecclesi<strong>as</strong>tic sea.<br />
Another event in the spring w<strong>as</strong><br />
my 90th birthday. People <strong>as</strong>k how<br />
it feels to be <strong>this</strong> age, and I answer,<br />
“About the same <strong>as</strong> being 89.”<br />
My wife, Audrey, is “horse mad”<br />
and (<strong>as</strong> of <strong>this</strong> writing) h<strong>as</strong> made<br />
plans to attend the Olympics in<br />
London <strong>this</strong> summer. Tickets were<br />
hard to get, and she and a friend<br />
consider themselves fortunate to<br />
have secured tickets to two of the<br />
three events that interest them.<br />
In October, my wife and I will<br />
both be in London for the annual<br />
meeting of the International Society<br />
of Paediatric Oncology (or SIOP,<br />
<strong>as</strong> its French acronym goes). I have<br />
missed only one of these in the 44<br />
years of its existence.<br />
I’m sad to report that Sidney<br />
Warschausky, a retired educator<br />
who lived in Ann Arbor, Mich.,<br />
died on April 9, 2011.<br />
In just nine months, we will celebrate<br />
the 70th anniversary of our<br />
<strong>College</strong> graduation by gathering<br />
on campus for Alumni Reunion<br />
Weekend. It’s never too early to<br />
save the date, so mark your calendars<br />
for Thursday, May 30–Sunday,<br />
June 2, 2013.<br />
As always, cl<strong>as</strong>s members are<br />
encouraged to join the Reunion<br />
Committee to help plan the weekend’s<br />
events. If you’re interested in<br />
participating, contact the appropriate<br />
Alumni Office staff member<br />
noted at the top of the column. You<br />
need not be in the New York area<br />
and can participate in meetings via<br />
conference call.<br />
More about reunion will follow in<br />
<strong>this</strong> column during the next year <strong>as</strong><br />
well <strong>as</strong> arrive at your home via mail<br />
and email. To ensure that <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
h<strong>as</strong> your correct contact information,<br />
update it online (reunion.college.<br />
columbia.edu/alumniupdate) or call<br />
the Alumni Office (212-851-7488).<br />
44<br />
Henry Rolf Hecht<br />
11 Evergreen Pl.<br />
Demarest, NJ 07627<br />
hrh15@columbia.edu<br />
What does it take, dear cl<strong>as</strong>smates,<br />
to convince you to share some of<br />
your happenings with your fellow<br />
’44ers? We still have some vibrant<br />
members — with vibrant experiences<br />
— so ple<strong>as</strong>e let your friends<br />
hear of them. You can reach me<br />
by phone (201-750-7770) or by the<br />
email or snail mail addresses at the<br />
top of the column. Ple<strong>as</strong>e do.<br />
As for <strong>this</strong> round, the only news<br />
that reached me w<strong>as</strong> the alumni<br />
obituary report, sadly noting the<br />
departure of Mort Lindsey, our<br />
laureate composer and conductor,<br />
and of educator John Brereton.<br />
I can, however, share a bit of<br />
firsthand experience. In June, my<br />
wife, Hattie Parks, and I traveled<br />
to the W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C., area to<br />
participate in the commemoration<br />
of the 70th anniversary of<br />
the opening of the Camp Ritchie<br />
Army Military Intelligence Training<br />
Center in the Blue Ridge foothills<br />
of Maryland, between Frederick<br />
and Hagerstown. I trained<br />
there in spring and summer 1944<br />
— in fact, I w<strong>as</strong> on a field exercise<br />
that June when, <strong>as</strong> I learned much<br />
later, Dr. [Nichol<strong>as</strong> Murray] Butler<br />
(Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1882) awarded me my<br />
bachelor’s in absentia.<br />
While in the area, I visited retired<br />
FALL 2012<br />
56<br />
FALL 2012<br />
57
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
booming voice of a by-then blind<br />
Nichol<strong>as</strong> Murray Butler (Cl<strong>as</strong>s of<br />
1882) — but graduated in ’47. I w<strong>as</strong><br />
in cl<strong>as</strong>ses with and had friendships<br />
with others from those cl<strong>as</strong>ses<br />
but also the Cl<strong>as</strong>ses of ’46 straight<br />
through the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of ’50, many on<br />
the GI Bill. I’ve attended a few ’47<br />
reunions and one or two for ’48.<br />
“I lived in Livingston (now Wallach)<br />
Hall during the war years,<br />
and my friendships were drawn<br />
mostly from those who lived on<br />
the seventh and nearby floors, all<br />
from many cl<strong>as</strong>ses and schools.<br />
Bob Kerker ’49 and I used to dream<br />
of a Livingston Hall reunion, and I<br />
once suggested to an alumni relations<br />
officer that the Alumni Office<br />
run a special ‘war years’ reunion.<br />
But I’m afraid Bob w<strong>as</strong> lost to us a<br />
couple of years ago. He had kept in<br />
touch with the fortunes of most of<br />
the Livingston Hall group. Most of<br />
the names I remember were from<br />
that venue.<br />
“In addition to Bob, I maintained<br />
a friendship with Marshall<br />
M<strong>as</strong>cott and Joe Adamczyk ’50<br />
for many years until they p<strong>as</strong>sed<br />
away. I am in touch with Alan Berman<br />
’46 and Peter LaForte ’47.<br />
“After graduation I worked for<br />
various government agencies.<br />
When programmable computers<br />
became available I did one of the<br />
early Monte Carlo studies and w<strong>as</strong><br />
offered a professorship at NYU in<br />
the Department of Industrial Engineering<br />
and Operations Research.<br />
This w<strong>as</strong> followed by several years<br />
<strong>as</strong> the founder and proprietor<br />
of a computer service bureau. I<br />
started an eponymous hedge fund<br />
10 years after my wife, Sue, and I<br />
married, and have managed it for<br />
the 44 years since.<br />
“I moved to Florida with my<br />
family in 1978. My children Carol<br />
and Laura live here, and Tommy<br />
is in Idaho. I have four grandchildren<br />
and two great-grandchildren<br />
(who have been living in Okinawa<br />
but came to Florida in mid-June).<br />
“I have been doing a lot of boating<br />
in Florida and brought the boat<br />
to Philadelphia and then to New<br />
York l<strong>as</strong>t summer. A great trip! My<br />
other special avocations are birdwatching<br />
and the environment.<br />
Among other environmental activities,<br />
I am chairman of Defenders<br />
of Wildlife, a national organization<br />
b<strong>as</strong>ed in W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C.<br />
Recently I had the honor of having<br />
a nature center in South Miami<br />
named for me.<br />
“Some years ago, I also founded<br />
a named scholarship at the<br />
<strong>College</strong>. It’s amazing how many<br />
things one can do in a lifetime if<br />
one is lucky enough to be given<br />
the years.”<br />
Dr. Alvin N. Eden writes, “I<br />
practice pediatrics, teach medical<br />
students and am revising and upforeign<br />
service officer Albert Seligmann<br />
and his bride, Bobbie, outside<br />
Alexandria, Va. They had just<br />
returned from vacationing in the<br />
scenic Dordogne area of southwest<br />
France. Bobbie is the sister of Dr.<br />
Martin Beller, who, she reports, is<br />
happily retired in Gaines, Pa.<br />
45<br />
Enoch Callaway<br />
87 Barbaree Way<br />
Tiburon, CA 94920-2223<br />
enoch.callaway@ucsf.edu<br />
I’m happy to report some very<br />
interesting conversations of late.<br />
I spoke with Howard Brooks<br />
’48E, who served <strong>as</strong> an Air Force<br />
radio operator before returning to<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> for his second degree,<br />
a B.S. in electrical engineering.<br />
Afterward he worked for General<br />
Electric <strong>as</strong> an electrical engineer,<br />
retiring in 1987. He married May<br />
Sue in 1953 and they have a son, a<br />
daughter and two grandchildren.<br />
His hobby is photography.<br />
Howard claims his life h<strong>as</strong> been<br />
calm and uneventful but on urging,<br />
he recalled a time when he w<strong>as</strong> sent<br />
by GE to board a submarine and<br />
solve a technical problem. Although<br />
the sub w<strong>as</strong> in harbor, he had to<br />
board her from a lifeboat. Howard<br />
recalls his fear of slipping <strong>as</strong> he<br />
crawled aboard.<br />
I also chatted with Betsy (née<br />
Jones), the wife for 59 years of<br />
Bruce Hayes, who brought me up<br />
to speed on his lifelong adventures.<br />
(Bruce, unfortunately, is too deaf for<br />
phone conversations.) He attended<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> for 1½ years before joining<br />
the Navy; after coming back, he<br />
graduated from Hamilton <strong>College</strong>,<br />
where he w<strong>as</strong> a DKE and where he<br />
w<strong>as</strong> happy not to have a two-hourplus<br />
commute from Brooklyn.<br />
According to his wife, Bruce is an<br />
avid reader of CCT.<br />
Bruce and Betsy married in 1965,<br />
and they have two children and<br />
three grandchildren, all of whom<br />
live in western M<strong>as</strong>sachusetts.<br />
During the war, Bruce flew off<br />
the carrier U.S.S. Randolph in the<br />
Pacific. He received five Air Medal<br />
citations and the Distinguished<br />
Flying Cross, though the catapults<br />
probably didn’t do much for his<br />
hearing; the males in his family all<br />
have suffered marked hearing loss.<br />
Bruce spent the rest of his career<br />
in retail sales. For a time after he<br />
retired, he and Betsy traveled extensively,<br />
but now they are content<br />
to stay home and enjoy time with<br />
their family. They live in their<br />
house of 46 years in Longmeadow,<br />
M<strong>as</strong>s.<br />
Jean C. Chognard ’46E, ’48L,<br />
whom you can reach at jchognard<br />
@comc<strong>as</strong>t.net, sent a snail mail.<br />
He writes, “After graduating from<br />
the <strong>College</strong>, I obtained a B.S. in<br />
electrical engineering and a law<br />
degree, both from <strong>Columbia</strong>. I then<br />
worked in the patent field in New<br />
York and Boston until, in early<br />
1958, I joined Hewlett-Packard in<br />
Palo Alto, Calif. It had just finished<br />
the 1957 fiscal year with sales of<br />
about $26 million and about 1,000<br />
employees. The m<strong>as</strong>sive use of<br />
transistors and integrated circuits<br />
w<strong>as</strong> yet to come and Silicon Valley<br />
did not exist. As the company<br />
grew, I became general counsel and<br />
later v.p. for patents and licenses. I<br />
retired in 1985; it w<strong>as</strong> a most exciting<br />
time.”<br />
Exciting indeed! And incidentally,<br />
<strong>this</strong> report w<strong>as</strong> done on an<br />
HP computer.<br />
Finally, on a sad note, I leaned<br />
from his wife that Dr. Bill Bikoff<br />
h<strong>as</strong> died. Our condolences and<br />
thoughts are with his family.<br />
46<br />
Bernard Sunshine<br />
165 W. 66th St., Apt. 12G<br />
New York, NY 10023<br />
bsuns1@gmail.com<br />
Dr. Paul Marks ’49 P&S’ distinguished<br />
career <strong>as</strong> dean of P&S,<br />
president (now emeritus) of<br />
Memorial Sloan-Kettering and<br />
researcher who developed a cancer<br />
drug makes him uniquely qualified<br />
to respond to the question I<br />
posed: “What are the three most<br />
important challenges confronting<br />
medicine today?”<br />
Paul responded, “I would say 1)<br />
advancing our ability to control and<br />
cure cancers; 2) better understanding<br />
and more effective intervention<br />
for neurodegenerative dise<strong>as</strong>es, in<br />
particular Alzheimer’s dise<strong>as</strong>e; and<br />
3) infectious dise<strong>as</strong>e — the development<br />
of resistant bacterial strains<br />
and viral strains continue to pose<br />
a major health problem, for which<br />
new and better antibiotics must be<br />
developed.<br />
“I would add that perhaps the<br />
greatest challenge to healthcare in<br />
<strong>this</strong> country is access to affordable<br />
healthcare. This will become more<br />
so <strong>as</strong> we move toward expanded<br />
healthcare. A neglected area is<br />
developing funding — federal<br />
funding — for health professional<br />
training to meet the incre<strong>as</strong>ed<br />
population that should have access<br />
to healthcare, through healthcare<br />
reform legislation.<br />
“In the area of cancer in particular,<br />
but in medicine in general, the<br />
rapid advances in molecular and<br />
genetic diagnosis are establishing<br />
a new paradigm in diagnosis: that<br />
no two patients’ cancers are exactly<br />
the same, even though they have<br />
the same clinical diagnosis. What<br />
is emerging is that identifying the<br />
molecular defects in a particular<br />
patient’s cancer is providing targets<br />
for therapy that are personalized<br />
to the particular patient — incre<strong>as</strong>ingly<br />
more effective with fewer side<br />
effects.”<br />
Paul, thanks for your meaningful<br />
insights.<br />
[Editor’s note: See CCT’s profile<br />
in the May/June 2007 <strong>issue</strong> or,<br />
more recently, the cover story in<br />
the Spring 2012 <strong>issue</strong> of <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
Medicine.]<br />
Bernard Goldman’s collection<br />
of awards and honors continues<br />
to grow. He recently received the<br />
Halstead Memorial Award from<br />
the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association<br />
“for services to the sport of<br />
skiing in the Rocky Mountain Division.”<br />
Bernie said, “To be included<br />
with the list of previous recipients<br />
is overwhelming.” When <strong>as</strong>ked if<br />
he still skis, he replied, “Is the pope<br />
still Catholic?”<br />
Lawrence Ross writes that<br />
having been <strong>as</strong>sociate editor<br />
of the ’45 <strong>Columbia</strong>n yearbook<br />
prepared him to be a reporter<br />
and then news chief in 8th Army<br />
HQ in Yokohama. (As <strong>Columbia</strong>n<br />
editor, I remember his wonderful<br />
drawings.) We can add Larry to<br />
our list of cl<strong>as</strong>smates who have<br />
Dr. Robert S. Jampel ’47, ’50 P&S is emeritus professor<br />
of ophthalmology at Wayne State University<br />
School of Medicine.<br />
changed careers. After 14 years of<br />
pediatric medicine, he went back<br />
into residency at New York Hospital,<br />
now Weill Cornell Medical<br />
Center, in radiology. Now retired,<br />
Larry paints (he’s a talented artist)<br />
and, with a new shoulder and<br />
new hip, plays golf, but he gave<br />
up tennis.<br />
Stuart Tears in Ft. Worth, Tex<strong>as</strong>,<br />
recalls corresponding with Richard<br />
Heffner in 1985 when Stuart w<strong>as</strong><br />
on the Dall<strong>as</strong> Motion Picture Cl<strong>as</strong>sification<br />
Board rating movies. Dick<br />
chaired the Cl<strong>as</strong>sification and Ratings<br />
Administration of the Motion<br />
Picture Association of America in<br />
Hollywood for 20 years.<br />
Dick is creator and host of TV’s<br />
The Open Mind, a university professor,<br />
author and now, we learn, h<strong>as</strong><br />
ties to Hollywood, too? Wow! [Editor’s<br />
note: See feature on Heffner in<br />
<strong>this</strong> <strong>issue</strong>.]<br />
Dr. Herbert Hendin w<strong>as</strong> honored<br />
by Suicide Prevention International<br />
(SPI) with a Lifetime Achievement<br />
Award at a full-house luncheon at<br />
the University Club in Manhattan.<br />
Herb is not resting on <strong>this</strong> or his<br />
previous awards and distinctions.<br />
The Bristol-Meyers Squibb Foundation<br />
recently awarded him and SPI<br />
a major grant for a project to reduce<br />
suicides among combat veterans of<br />
the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. [Editor’s<br />
note: See the Spring 2012 <strong>issue</strong>.]<br />
As reported in a San Francisco<br />
newspaper, “Herb Gold, the famed<br />
writer of Russian Hill, is a great<br />
walker. He takes on the Filbert<br />
Street steps daily without g<strong>as</strong>ping<br />
for air. No wonder he looks so good<br />
at 87.”<br />
Dr. Irwin Nydick ’48 P&S w<strong>as</strong><br />
honored on June 7 at the graduation<br />
of medical residents of the<br />
Weill Cornell Medical Center. The<br />
hospital created “The Irwin Nydick<br />
Voluntary Attending of the Year<br />
Award,” to be awarded annually<br />
to the member of the Voluntary<br />
Attending Physician Faculty who<br />
best contributes to the residents’<br />
professional development. He w<strong>as</strong><br />
further honored at graduation by<br />
the young medics who demonstrated<br />
their regard and affection<br />
by presenting him with a beautiful<br />
crystal piece engraved with “For<br />
his tireless commitment to instilling<br />
in each of us a spirit of lifelong<br />
learning, and inspiring us to be the<br />
best clinicians we can be.” After<br />
retiring in 1998, Irwin continued to<br />
teach and tutor. The CC ’46 Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
Notes in the November/December<br />
2010 <strong>issue</strong> carried the story of what<br />
have come to be known by residents<br />
at the hospital <strong>as</strong> “Nydick<br />
Rounds.”<br />
John McConnell’s wolf sightings<br />
in Post Falls, Idaho; Bernie<br />
Goldman’s Colorado mountains;<br />
Herb Gold’s San Francisco hills ...<br />
it would be fun to read about your<br />
“backyards.” Are alligators sunning<br />
on Collins Avenue in Miami?<br />
Drop me a line and we will run it<br />
here.<br />
47<br />
Frank Iaquinta<br />
620 Pelhamdale Ave.,<br />
Apt. 15<br />
Pelham, NY 10803<br />
fiaquintamd@aol.com<br />
[Editor’s note: CCT is ple<strong>as</strong>ed to<br />
welcome Dr. Frank Iaquinta <strong>as</strong> the<br />
new CC ’47 cl<strong>as</strong>s correspondent.<br />
Ple<strong>as</strong>e send your news to him at<br />
the postal or email addresses above<br />
or via CCT’s e<strong>as</strong>y-to-use webform:<br />
college.columbia.edu/cct/submit<br />
_cl<strong>as</strong>s_note. The webform will go<br />
right to him.]<br />
Dr. Frank Iaquinta attended the<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s’ 65th reunion in June, <strong>as</strong> did<br />
William Kahn and Lawrence<br />
(Larry) Friedland. The three joined<br />
six members of the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1942<br />
for a luncheon celebrating both<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>ses on June 2.<br />
Three other cl<strong>as</strong>smates sent news<br />
to CCT <strong>this</strong> summer.<br />
Dr. Robert S. Jampel Ph.D. ’50<br />
P&S is emeritus professor of ophthalmology<br />
at Wayne State University<br />
School of Medicine. After P&S he<br />
finished residencies in ophthalmology<br />
and neurology at the University<br />
of Michigan, where he also earned<br />
a Ph.D. in neuroanatomy. From<br />
1960–70 he w<strong>as</strong> on the faculty of<br />
the Institute of Ophthalmology of<br />
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> University Medical<br />
Center.<br />
In 1970 Robert w<strong>as</strong> appointed<br />
professor and chairman of the<br />
department of ophthalmology at<br />
Wayne State and director of the<br />
Kresge Eye Institute. He served<br />
in that capacity from 1970–93.<br />
During his tenure, Robert recruited<br />
a distinguished faculty of clinicians<br />
and scientists. He planned<br />
for and raised the funds for the<br />
construction of a new building to<br />
house the Kresge Eye Institute and<br />
supervised the training of more<br />
than 130 ophthalmologists. In 2000,<br />
the School of Medicine established<br />
the Robert S. Jampel M.D., Ph.D.,<br />
Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology<br />
to support a research scientist.<br />
Robert lives in Bloomfield Hills,<br />
Mich., with his wife, Joan. They<br />
have four children and 12 grandchildren.<br />
Former poet laureate Daniel<br />
Hoffman shared an article, A<br />
Poet’s Busy Maundy Thursday, which<br />
ran in the April 12 <strong>issue</strong> of The<br />
Swarthmorean:<br />
“This year’s Maundy Thursday<br />
(April 5) w<strong>as</strong> a day Dan Hoffman<br />
of Swarthmore isn’t likely to forget.<br />
“At 2:30 he donned his academic<br />
gown in Irvine Auditorium on the<br />
Penn campus. Then, following a<br />
bag-piper, and Dean Michael A.<br />
Fitts of the law school and Supreme<br />
Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Dan<br />
led the law school faculty single file<br />
through the thousand spectators to<br />
the stage.<br />
“After the dean’s introductions,<br />
Dan began the ceremony to dedicate<br />
the law school’s new Golkin Building<br />
by invoking ‘the Founding<br />
Grandfather of our Commonwealth,’<br />
—<br />
“‘Before there w<strong>as</strong> a Philadelphia<br />
“‘There w<strong>as</strong> a Philadelphia<br />
lawyer,’<br />
“William Penn, hero of his book<br />
Brotherly Love, whose initial code<br />
of laws set forth the ideals we have<br />
since striven to live up to.<br />
“Justice Sotomayor said she<br />
wanted first to become a lawyer<br />
after reading [Nancy Drew books],<br />
then a detective and judge, after<br />
watching the TV series Perry M<strong>as</strong>on.<br />
According to Dan, she spoke about<br />
her career and ‘responded to students’<br />
queries with eloquence that<br />
gave credence to her empathy and<br />
dedication.’<br />
“After the ceremony, Dan joined<br />
a march to Golkin on Sansom<br />
Street for ribbon-cutting, a reception,<br />
a photo session, and a d<strong>as</strong>h by<br />
taxi to 30th Street to catch a train to<br />
New York.<br />
“In NYC, he hailed a cab to the<br />
Cathedral [Church] of St. John the<br />
Divine and the 19th annual reading<br />
of cantos from Dante’s Inferno,<br />
a tradition begun when Dan w<strong>as</strong><br />
Poet in Residence of the Poet’s<br />
Corner. An organ recital filled the<br />
huge cathedral at 2 a.m., following<br />
which there w<strong>as</strong> a reception in the<br />
chapter house.<br />
“It w<strong>as</strong> quite a day for an octogenarian<br />
(actually any) poet.”<br />
Read more about the event at<br />
law.upenn.edu; search for “Dedicating<br />
Golkin Hall.”<br />
Dr. Irving Moch Jr. ’49E, ’50E, ’56<br />
GSAS of Wilmington, Del., shared<br />
his biography: “I received my undergraduate<br />
and graduate chemical<br />
engineering degrees following an<br />
Army discharge in WWII.<br />
“For the l<strong>as</strong>t 30 years I have<br />
been <strong>as</strong>sociated with water<br />
purification. I founded my own<br />
consulting organization, specializing<br />
in all facets of water treatment,<br />
including design, operations and<br />
projects, and troubleshooting,<br />
providing both on-site plant visits<br />
and teaching seminars. Before<br />
consulting, I spent more than<br />
40 years with the DuPont Co. in<br />
various capacities in marketing,<br />
manufacturing, engineering, and<br />
research and development.<br />
“My activities have included<br />
being former director, chair of the<br />
Publications Committee and editor<br />
of the International Desalination<br />
Association; director emeritus<br />
and p<strong>as</strong>t International Liaison<br />
Committee chair of the American<br />
Membrane Technology Association<br />
(AMTA); and currently being<br />
a member of the American Water<br />
Works Association’s Membrane<br />
Standards and Water Desalting<br />
Committees and chairman of the<br />
American Society for Testing and<br />
Materials D19 t<strong>as</strong>k group on water<br />
treatment membranes, leading the<br />
effort for writing standards for<br />
U.S. industry. I’m also involved in<br />
the health effects protocol adopted<br />
within the United States <strong>as</strong> a<br />
member of the Joint Committee,<br />
Water Additives-Health Effects<br />
NSF International, Standards 60<br />
and 61 under the auspices of the<br />
Environmental Protection Agency<br />
and American National Standards<br />
Institute, and, together with the<br />
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation,<br />
developed a CD-ROM water treatment<br />
cost model for membrane<br />
and thermal desalting processes<br />
that is employed <strong>as</strong> a standard<br />
for estimating plant capital and<br />
operating costs. A holder of patents,<br />
I have published extensively<br />
throughout the world in the field<br />
of water resources and am on the<br />
editorial board of the International<br />
Desalination & Water Reuse Quarterly.<br />
As an expert witness I am<br />
listed in the National Directory of<br />
Experts and American Chemical<br />
Society, also on the Project<br />
Advisory Committee, Middle E<strong>as</strong>t<br />
Former poet laureate Daniel Hoffman ’47 read a<br />
poem at the dedication of Golkin Hall at Penn Law.<br />
Desalination Research Center.<br />
“A recognized expert in water<br />
treatment, I have been elected to<br />
the AMTA Hall of Fame, received<br />
the Pakistan Desalination Association<br />
Lifetime Achievement<br />
Award and am listed in Who’s Who<br />
in Science and Engineering, Who’s<br />
Who in Finance and Industry, Who’s<br />
Who in the E<strong>as</strong>t and American Men<br />
& Women of Science. In addition, I<br />
have been elected to membership<br />
in Phi Lambda Upsilon and Sigma<br />
XI, honorary chemical and research<br />
societies, respectively. I also<br />
hold membership in the American<br />
Institute of Chemical Engineers,<br />
American Chemical Society and<br />
the American Association for the<br />
Advancement of Science.”<br />
Thank you to those who got in<br />
touch! Ple<strong>as</strong>e share what’s going<br />
on in your life. Your cl<strong>as</strong>smates<br />
want to hear from you.<br />
REUNION WEEKEND<br />
MAY 30–JUNE 2, 2013<br />
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS<br />
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Fatima Yudeh<br />
fy2165@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7834<br />
DEVELOPMENT Valentina Salkow<br />
vs2441@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7833<br />
48<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Today<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> Alumni Center<br />
622 W. 113th St., MC 4530<br />
New York, NY 10025<br />
cct@columbia.edu<br />
It seems appropriate to begin <strong>this</strong><br />
column with correspondence from<br />
Alan W. Steinberg ’50E, who shares<br />
his first Cl<strong>as</strong>s Note in 65 years.<br />
“Well, just missed my 65th<br />
reunion, more or less. I w<strong>as</strong> a war<br />
year student, admitted <strong>as</strong> Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
of ’48 — to greetings from the<br />
FALL 2012<br />
58<br />
FALL 2012<br />
59
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
dating one of my childcare books,<br />
Dr. Eden’s Healthy Kids: The Essential<br />
Diet, Exercise, and Nutrition Program.<br />
Also still play tennis. Any of my<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates ready to take me on?”<br />
John Kuhn shares, “Now in<br />
Mississippi (Gautier, near the Gulf<br />
Co<strong>as</strong>t c<strong>as</strong>inos). Lost most of my sight<br />
so don’t get around much. Married<br />
again; lost first wife in 1989.”<br />
Dr. Bob Mellins, Professor<br />
Emeritus of Pediatrics and Special<br />
Lecturer at <strong>Columbia</strong>, recently w<strong>as</strong><br />
named Distinguished Practitioner<br />
of the Year by the Society of Practitioners<br />
of the <strong>Columbia</strong>-Presbyterian<br />
Medical Center. In addition to<br />
seeing patients, Bob remains active<br />
in research and teaching. He is a<br />
p<strong>as</strong>sionate figure skater and skier,<br />
and on weekends and with his wife,<br />
Sue, is an active gardener and tennis<br />
player at a weekend retreat in<br />
North Salem, N.Y. Their son, David<br />
Mellins Ph.D., is a Sanskrit scholar<br />
and is working on digitizing that<br />
ancient language. Their daughter,<br />
Claude Ann Mellins Ph.D., is a professor<br />
of clinical psychology in psychiatry<br />
and sociomedical sciences<br />
at <strong>Columbia</strong>, currently focused on<br />
HIV in mothers and children.<br />
Bob serves on the boards of<br />
the Louis August Jon<strong>as</strong> Foundation,<br />
which operates an international<br />
outdoor summer leadership<br />
program with an emph<strong>as</strong>is on<br />
service, and of the Arnold P. Gold<br />
Foundation, promoting humanism<br />
in medicine.<br />
Walter (Wally) Wallace w<strong>as</strong> a<br />
sociologist at Northwestern from<br />
1962–71, at the Russell Sage Foundation<br />
from 1969–71 and at Princeton<br />
from 1971–2001. Now he holds<br />
emeritus status and is working on<br />
an essay revising Freud’s theory<br />
for application in social sciences.<br />
He h<strong>as</strong> a son and two daughters<br />
and lives in Princeton. Contact him<br />
at wwallace@princeton.edu.<br />
Retired but active, Dr. Sidney<br />
Fink is a member of the Virginia<br />
Medical Reserve Corps. He lives in<br />
beautiful Hampton, Va., where he<br />
enjoys hiking and gardening, and<br />
spent many years raising oysters<br />
for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.<br />
Robert DeMaria ’59 GSAS<br />
checks in from Spain: “I wrote my<br />
first novel <strong>as</strong> an undergraduate.<br />
I am now writing my 40th here<br />
in Mallorca, where I had a house<br />
built 25 years ago. Not all of my<br />
books have been published, but<br />
many have, followed by very good<br />
reviews. [I have worked with] St.<br />
Martin’s, Macmillan, W.W. Norton,<br />
Random House, Holt, Bobbs-<br />
Merrill and others <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> W.H.<br />
Allen in the United Kingdom. Some<br />
of my books have been translated<br />
into Spanish or Italian. Many of my<br />
books are offered by Amazon in<br />
paper and Kindle editions.<br />
“It would take a book to describe<br />
my life but, to put it in simple<br />
terms, my father w<strong>as</strong> a printer and<br />
I w<strong>as</strong> born speaking adult English<br />
without ever learning it. Perhaps<br />
I w<strong>as</strong> eavesdropping from the<br />
womb. I wound up being an editor<br />
in New York, then a college professor<br />
(Ph.D. from <strong>Columbia</strong>), then the<br />
<strong>as</strong>sociate dean of The New School<br />
for Social Research, then an expatriate<br />
with many literary friends who<br />
also wrote and painted and smoked<br />
and drank their way through life. I<br />
started a magazine that published<br />
the likes of Robert Graves and<br />
Tennessee Williams. I also started<br />
a publishing company called The<br />
Vineyard Press.<br />
“At the moment [mid-June] I<br />
am in my house in Spain trying<br />
to write a book called Palm Trees<br />
in Greenland. I don’t see my life<br />
in categories such <strong>as</strong> young, old,<br />
middle age or whatever. I am what<br />
I am from the beginning to the<br />
end. I think it is a big mistake to be<br />
locked into an age category. And<br />
I don’t play golf. You can look up<br />
my books on Google to find out<br />
more.<br />
“I have been married twice and<br />
have four grown children and<br />
three grandchildren. I split my<br />
time between Port Jefferson, N.Y.<br />
(Long Island), and Deià, Mallorca.”<br />
Robert Steiner shares, “In retirement,<br />
I keep busy with my two<br />
Mets. I give guided tours for the<br />
public at the Metropolitan Museum<br />
of Art (both highlights and medieval)<br />
and also give backstage tours<br />
at the Metropolitan Opera. Life in<br />
Manhattan is always stimulating.”<br />
In nine months, the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of<br />
1948 will celebrate the 65th anniversary<br />
of its <strong>College</strong> graduation<br />
by gathering on campus at<br />
Alumni Reunion Weekend. Mark<br />
your calendar for Thursday, May<br />
30–Sunday, June 2, 2013. To ensure<br />
that <strong>Columbia</strong> can get in touch<br />
with you about the event, ple<strong>as</strong>e<br />
update your contact information<br />
online (reunion.college.columbia.<br />
edu/alumniupdate) or call the<br />
Alumni Office (212-851-7488).<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s members are encouraged<br />
to join the Reunion Committee to<br />
help plan the weekend’s events<br />
and to reach out to cl<strong>as</strong>smates<br />
for gifts to the <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
Fund in honor of reunion. If you’re<br />
interested in participating, contact<br />
the appropriate Alumni Office<br />
staff member noted at the top of<br />
the column. You need not be in the<br />
New York area and can participate<br />
in meetings via conference call.<br />
Thank you to all who shared<br />
news with CCT. The Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1948<br />
still is in need of a cl<strong>as</strong>s correspondent<br />
to write <strong>this</strong> column. If you<br />
are interested, ple<strong>as</strong>e contact Alexis<br />
Tonti ’11 Arts, managing editor:<br />
alt2129@columbia.edu or 212-<br />
851-7485. In the meantime, ple<strong>as</strong>e<br />
send updates to CCT at the postal<br />
or email address at the top of the<br />
column, or via CCT’s e<strong>as</strong>y-to-use<br />
webform: college.columbia.edu/<br />
cct/submit_cl<strong>as</strong>s_note.<br />
49<br />
John Weaver<br />
2639 E. 11th St.<br />
Brooklyn, NY 11235<br />
wudchpr@gmail.com<br />
Summer is over and we hope all of<br />
you had an enjoyable one. Writing at<br />
almost the start of that se<strong>as</strong>on, I must<br />
offer that all who missed Dean’s Day<br />
on June 2 missed a wonderful one.<br />
The weather cooperated with bright<br />
sun, a light breeze and ple<strong>as</strong>ing<br />
temperature. Attending were Bill<br />
Lubic and his wife, Ruth, Joe Levie<br />
and your correspondent.<br />
The lead-up to Dean’s Day saw<br />
incre<strong>as</strong>ed email traffic <strong>as</strong> cl<strong>as</strong>smates<br />
shared information regarding attendance<br />
or re<strong>as</strong>ons for absence. A most<br />
Dr. Bob Mellins ’48 w<strong>as</strong> named Distinguished Practitioner<br />
of the Year by the Society of Practitioners of the<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong>-Presbyterian Medical Center.<br />
enjoyable exchange w<strong>as</strong> from Bill,<br />
who offered the following narration<br />
of his experience at Cl<strong>as</strong>s Day.<br />
“Attended the champagne breakf<strong>as</strong>t<br />
and Cl<strong>as</strong>s Day celebration <strong>as</strong><br />
a ’49 representative [in the annual<br />
Alumni Parade of Cl<strong>as</strong>ses]. Two<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates were required to carry<br />
the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of ’49 banner up the center<br />
aisle. Drafted the nearest body.<br />
Turned out to be my ne’er-do-well<br />
son Dougl<strong>as</strong> Watson Lubic ’82<br />
Princeton. Sorry about that. Took<br />
it upon myself to designate him<br />
CC ’49 alumnus pro hac vice. To my<br />
amazement, we were the grand<br />
m<strong>as</strong>ters of the procession. We gave<br />
photo ops (free of charge) and accepted<br />
the adulation of the m<strong>as</strong>ses<br />
(on about six giant TV screens)<br />
for our longevity and mobility. Be<br />
aware, I estimate that 60 percent<br />
of the grads are women. Upon<br />
conclusion I dutifully defrocked my<br />
co-banner carrier nunc pro tunc and<br />
sent him home to his mother. And<br />
yes, grandson Charles Levering<br />
Lubic ’12 graduated that day, too.”<br />
Congratulations to Charles!<br />
I enjoyed the respectful applause<br />
accorded those of us surviving <strong>this</strong><br />
long a few years ago, when Dick<br />
Kandel and I carried that banner.<br />
We heard from our cl<strong>as</strong>s president,<br />
Fred Berman, who sent regrets,<br />
<strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> Joe Russell and Marvin<br />
Lipman. All held out hope for a<br />
mini-reunion at Homecoming in the<br />
autumn. [Editor’s note: Homecoming<br />
is Saturday, October 20. See<br />
Around the Quads.]<br />
Marvin shared some personal<br />
news of his acquisition, along with<br />
his wife, Naomi ’49 Barnard, of a<br />
pied-à-terre in Manhattan; it h<strong>as</strong><br />
brought with it the opportunity to<br />
renew friendships with <strong>Columbia</strong>ns<br />
of “neighboring” cl<strong>as</strong>ses, Robert<br />
Steiner ’48 and Bernie Sunshine<br />
’46, who live in the same building.<br />
Marvin writes: “I practice medicine<br />
with the Scarsdale Medical<br />
Group (now in my 51st year) and<br />
work with Consumer Reports (now<br />
in my 46th year). Will definitely be<br />
at Homecoming. Hope to see you<br />
there.”<br />
At Marvin’s urging, Naomi sent<br />
a note about attending the Barnard<br />
graduation festivities, which featured<br />
President Barack Obama ’83.<br />
Naomi reports the President did<br />
not disappoint and w<strong>as</strong> enthusi<strong>as</strong>tically<br />
received by the graduating<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s.<br />
A lunchtime revelation from Joe<br />
Levie: He h<strong>as</strong> written a novel and<br />
we can anticipate publication soon.<br />
Yet another example of the l<strong>as</strong>ting<br />
inspiration of the Core.<br />
L<strong>as</strong>tly but far from le<strong>as</strong>t, I must<br />
mention the Dean’s Day breakf<strong>as</strong>t<br />
remarks from then-interim Dean<br />
James J. Valentini. I think our impressions<br />
were best summed up in an<br />
email from Bill Lubic that arrived<br />
a few days after the event, but prior<br />
to the news of his appointment <strong>as</strong><br />
permanent dean.<br />
“Acting Dean Valentini started<br />
his remarks in a rather routine<br />
and unremarkable f<strong>as</strong>hion, but<br />
finished with a surprising flourish<br />
and with depth and appreciation<br />
of the <strong>College</strong>, the alumni and of<br />
the complexities of the Core. He<br />
came into his own (humorously<br />
for a chemist) when a lady <strong>as</strong>ked<br />
why the only electrical outlet in a<br />
student room w<strong>as</strong> in the closet, and<br />
what w<strong>as</strong> the cost of power such a<br />
student would consume.<br />
“He seems to have the inside<br />
track on appointment <strong>as</strong> dean,<br />
and really appears to want it, and<br />
should be a good choice.”<br />
I, too, had shared my genuine<br />
enthusi<strong>as</strong>m for the dean during<br />
our lunch. And subsequently, we<br />
all received the announcement<br />
of Dean Valentini’s appointment<br />
on June 11. Should he happen to<br />
stumble across <strong>this</strong> page, we want<br />
him to know that the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of ’49 is<br />
very happy with the University’s<br />
decision.<br />
See you all at Homecoming.<br />
50<br />
Mario Palmieri<br />
33 Lakeview Ave. W.<br />
Cortlandt Manor, NY<br />
10567<br />
mapal@bestweb.net<br />
Kirby Congdon h<strong>as</strong> been designated<br />
the first poet laureate of Key<br />
West, Fla. Kirby h<strong>as</strong> published<br />
several collections of poems and<br />
one-act plays and h<strong>as</strong> long been<br />
the reviewer of poetry for the Small<br />
Press Review. His poem “Mirrors,”<br />
which w<strong>as</strong> first published in The<br />
Christian Science Monitor, w<strong>as</strong> used<br />
<strong>as</strong> a visual work in a show of paintings,<br />
“The Arts of Trinity Church,”<br />
at that historic Manhattan church.<br />
In addition to his poetry, Kirby<br />
creates collages and is a judge of<br />
novels for the Florida Council on<br />
the Arts. He also plans to continue<br />
his own small-press activities in the<br />
avant-garde.<br />
In the Summer <strong>issue</strong>’s Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
Notes we reported Dr. Martin<br />
Duke’s editorship of Reflections on<br />
Medicine: Essays by Robert U. M<strong>as</strong>sey,<br />
M.D. The New England Chapter<br />
of the American Medical Writers<br />
Association h<strong>as</strong> awarded the book<br />
its 2012 Will Solimene Award for<br />
Excellence in Medical Communication.<br />
The <strong>as</strong>sociation is a national<br />
organization of writers, editors and<br />
others engaged in communicating<br />
medical and health information.<br />
Roland Glenn, who w<strong>as</strong> an<br />
infantry officer in the Okinawa<br />
campaign in WWII, h<strong>as</strong> been relating<br />
his experiences in a series of<br />
interviews for the Veterans History<br />
Project of the Library of Congress.<br />
Roland can be seen and heard<br />
online at witnesstowar.org. The<br />
interviews are e<strong>as</strong>y to find; simply<br />
type Roland’s full name into the<br />
search box on the home page.<br />
Bob Goldsby’s book on the playwright<br />
Molière h<strong>as</strong> been published.<br />
Titled Molière on Stage: What’s So<br />
Funny?, it analyzes the performances<br />
of Molière’s plays in his time and<br />
now, and will interest theatregoers,<br />
those interested in comedy and<br />
anyone involved professionally<br />
or academically with the stage.<br />
Richard Wilbur, widely known <strong>as</strong><br />
the major translator of Molière’s<br />
verse plays, said of the book: “It is a<br />
delight to read.”<br />
Len Kliegman figures that the<br />
old song “Don’t Get Around Much<br />
Anymore” just about sums it up,<br />
and for most of us he’s probably<br />
right. Len and his wife, Edie,<br />
though, have plenty going on<br />
around them. One granddaughter,<br />
a CPA, is recently married; her<br />
twin sister is practicing law; and<br />
their older brother runs two restaurants<br />
and a nightclub he owns<br />
while also managing a nightclub<br />
at a hotel. All these enterprises are<br />
located in the “hipster” section of<br />
Manhattan (below 23rd Street).<br />
Four other grandchildren are in<br />
various stages of education from<br />
law school down to high school.<br />
Nolan Lushington continues<br />
with his teaching of a course on<br />
the planning and design of public<br />
libraries at the Harvard Graduate<br />
School of Design, which he h<strong>as</strong><br />
done for 23 years. The course examines<br />
the evolving role of the library<br />
in the digital age and reviews<br />
the processes required to bring a<br />
library from concept to reality. Nolan<br />
h<strong>as</strong> been a consultant on more<br />
than 200 libraries in 10 states and<br />
h<strong>as</strong> authored five books on library<br />
design. His most recent project w<strong>as</strong><br />
a major redesign of the Queens<br />
Central Library, including the<br />
design of a children’s library. The<br />
New York Times architecture critic<br />
observed that the children’s library<br />
is “part of a revolution reshaping<br />
the city’s public architecture.”<br />
Finally, we have sad news of<br />
four deaths: Richard D. Cushman,<br />
November 2011; William H.<br />
Dickie, October 2010; Jerome R.<br />
“Jerry” Kaye, April 2012; and William<br />
A. Maloy, March 2012.<br />
51<br />
George Koplinka<br />
75 Chelsea Rd.<br />
White Plains, NY 10603<br />
desiah@verizon.net<br />
While thumbing through a somewhat<br />
ragged and disheveled copy<br />
of our 1951 Commencement program,<br />
your cl<strong>as</strong>s correspondent w<strong>as</strong><br />
reminded that Commencement<br />
at <strong>Columbia</strong> h<strong>as</strong> been one of the<br />
features of New York life since 1758<br />
and h<strong>as</strong> survived seven wars, a<br />
revolution, frequent shifts of locale<br />
and numerous metamorphoses<br />
of the ceremonies themselves. As<br />
we reminisce about the 61 years<br />
that have p<strong>as</strong>sed since our Commencement<br />
day, along with all our<br />
trials and tribulations, failures and<br />
successes, we extend best wishes to<br />
the bright-eyed men and women<br />
who are converting their light blue<br />
graduation costume to the appropriate<br />
f<strong>as</strong>hions for making it in the<br />
years ahead!<br />
Who were the recipients of the<br />
prizes, medals and honors in the<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1951? Joseph A. Buda<br />
received the Alumni Prize, which<br />
w<strong>as</strong> first awarded in 1858 and<br />
given annually to the most faithful<br />
and deserving student in the<br />
graduating cl<strong>as</strong>s. Value, $50. In a<br />
recent telephone conversation, Joe<br />
confessed he could not remember<br />
what happened to the money, but<br />
the Cornell University Medical<br />
<strong>College</strong> probably got its share; Joe<br />
graduated in 1955. He did an internship<br />
at NewYork-Presbyterian<br />
Hospital, spent three years <strong>as</strong> a<br />
flight surgeon in the Air Force,<br />
completed his residency in surgery<br />
and subsequently experienced a<br />
long career at P&S <strong>as</strong> a surgeon<br />
and clinical professor. Despite<br />
some recent discomfort with a hip<br />
replacement, he still finds time for<br />
trips to the office to keep in touch<br />
with the medical world.<br />
Also at our Commencement,<br />
Richard J. Howard received a Philolexian<br />
Prize for literary achievement.<br />
Following graduation, he studied<br />
at the Sorbonne <strong>as</strong> a fellow of the<br />
French government. His teaching<br />
career h<strong>as</strong> included positions at<br />
the Whitney Humanities Center<br />
at Yale, where he w<strong>as</strong> the Henry<br />
Luce Visiting Scholar in 1983, and<br />
at the University of Houston from<br />
1987–97. Richard is the author<br />
of numerous volumes of poetry,<br />
including Trappings: New Poems<br />
(1999) and Like Most Revelations: New<br />
Poems (1994). In 1970 he received a<br />
Pulitzer Prize for Untitled Subjects.<br />
He h<strong>as</strong> published more than 150<br />
translations from the French and is<br />
author of Alone with America: Essays<br />
on the Art of Poetry in the United States<br />
Since 1950. His honors include the<br />
Levinson and Harriet Monroe Memorial<br />
Prizes <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> the National<br />
Institute of Arts and Letters Literary<br />
Award and the Ordre National du<br />
Merite from the French government.<br />
Richard is a former chancellor of the<br />
Academy of American Poets and<br />
w<strong>as</strong> poet laureate of New York state<br />
from 1994–96; more recently, he h<strong>as</strong><br />
taught in the Writing Division of the<br />
School of Arts.<br />
Continuing with our reminiscing,<br />
Andrew P. Siff ’53L w<strong>as</strong> awarded<br />
the Brainard Memorial Prize. He<br />
w<strong>as</strong> adjudged by his cl<strong>as</strong>smates <strong>as</strong><br />
most worthy of distinction because<br />
of his qualities of mind and character.<br />
Andy practiced law in New<br />
York City except for a period of time<br />
during 1959–60 when he produced a<br />
musical comedy on Broadway and<br />
in 1970 when he w<strong>as</strong> house counsel<br />
of the William Morris Agency. For<br />
most of his career his practice w<strong>as</strong><br />
in the are<strong>as</strong> of trusts and estates, real<br />
estate and litigation.<br />
Other cl<strong>as</strong>smates who received<br />
prizes and awards, all now dece<strong>as</strong>ed,<br />
included Roger A. Olson<br />
(Fox Memorial Prize for significant<br />
participation in non-athletic activities),<br />
Henry L. Rosett (Jackson<br />
Memorial Prize for outstanding<br />
scholarship), John D. Azary (C.M.<br />
Rolker Prize for preeminence in<br />
sports) and Donald K. McLean<br />
(David W. Smyth Football Cup for<br />
being the most outstanding member<br />
of the varsity football team).<br />
Ronald G. Granger ’54 Dental is<br />
another cl<strong>as</strong>smate who had a long<br />
military career. He concluded it<br />
w<strong>as</strong> the next best thing considering<br />
he w<strong>as</strong> not a championship<br />
wrestler for coaches Gus Peterson<br />
and Dick Waite. Like many college<br />
students, Ron worked his way<br />
through school with various jobs<br />
(in drug stores, <strong>as</strong> an apprentice<br />
carpenter and <strong>as</strong> a parking lot<br />
attendant). After his junior year he<br />
opted for the Professional Option<br />
Program, w<strong>as</strong> accepted by the<br />
Dental School and received enough<br />
deferment time from his draft<br />
board to qualify for a commission<br />
in the Navy in 1954. This w<strong>as</strong> the<br />
beginning of a 26-year Navy dental<br />
career that led to <strong>as</strong>signments in<br />
Al<strong>as</strong>ka and W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C., <strong>as</strong><br />
well <strong>as</strong> on ships in the Mediterranean<br />
and Guantanamo Bay. Ron’s<br />
specialty w<strong>as</strong> in the field of crown<br />
and bridge prosthodontics, and he<br />
followed up his Navy career with<br />
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CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
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CLASS NOTES<br />
six years <strong>as</strong> professor and chairman<br />
of a comparable program at<br />
Boston University. Ron said that in<br />
1986, “I w<strong>as</strong> worn out!” He and his<br />
wife, Evelyn, a nurse trained at St.<br />
Luke’s Hospital, then retired to a<br />
small farm on Maryland’s e<strong>as</strong>tern<br />
shore, raised registered Polled<br />
Herefords for 13 years, finally sold<br />
everything and headed for winters<br />
in Boynton Beach, Fla., and summers<br />
in Maine.<br />
That’s it for <strong>this</strong> <strong>issue</strong>. Ple<strong>as</strong>e support<br />
<strong>this</strong> magazine by sending your<br />
contribution to <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
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More importantly, it provides your<br />
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[Editor’s note: You may contribute<br />
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which ended on June 30.]<br />
52<br />
Sidney Prager<br />
20 Como Ct.<br />
Manchester, NJ 08759<br />
sidmax9@aol.com<br />
From May 31–June 3, the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of<br />
1952 held its 60th Alumni Reunion<br />
Weekend at the <strong>College</strong>. My wife<br />
and I were among 23 other attendees<br />
enjoying each other’s company<br />
and reliving many of the wonderful<br />
times we had in college. We<br />
stayed in the dorms, which were<br />
very nice, and had breakf<strong>as</strong>t, lunch<br />
and dinners every day in different<br />
restaurants. We enjoyed breakf<strong>as</strong>t<br />
one day with Robert Adelman,<br />
Alan Bomser, Harry Chandless<br />
Jr., N. David Charkes and David<br />
Charlton. The luncheon w<strong>as</strong> spent<br />
with Joseph DiPalma, Bernard<br />
Friedland, Ira Hoffman, Aldo<br />
Ippolito and Gerald Kahn. Dinner<br />
w<strong>as</strong> spent with John L<strong>as</strong>zlo,<br />
Martin Liebowitz, George Lipkin,<br />
Alden Mesrop and Frederic<br />
Primich.<br />
The following day we spent<br />
breakf<strong>as</strong>t with John “Jack” Ripperger<br />
and Jack Rosenbluth.<br />
Lunch and dinner were spent with<br />
James Santos, George Satran,<br />
Jerold Schwartz, Sholom Shafner,<br />
Alan Stein and Herbert Steinberg.<br />
It w<strong>as</strong> a weekend to remember and<br />
I look forward to many more.<br />
From Cliff Blanchard, we hear:<br />
“On the 60th anniversary of our<br />
graduation, I tried to reflect on<br />
where the time went. First, I met a<br />
lovely lady, Sally Evans, who for<br />
53 years h<strong>as</strong> been my wife; she is<br />
also mother of our two children<br />
and Gramma to our two young<br />
grandchildren.<br />
“I spent a two-year tour of duty<br />
in Vicksburg, Miss., with the Army<br />
Corps of Engineers and eight years<br />
in New York City <strong>as</strong> a design civil<br />
engineer for M. W. Kellogg, now<br />
the KBR division of Halliburton. I<br />
w<strong>as</strong> involved in the design of reinforced<br />
concrete foundations and<br />
structures for petroleum refineries,<br />
chemical plants and major smelting<br />
complexes.<br />
“We then left for Rhode Island,<br />
where I took over the management<br />
and, later, ownership of a small,<br />
family-owned electroplating company.<br />
When I retired, about 20 years<br />
ago, we moved to Marco Island,<br />
Fla., and now reside in Naples, Fla.<br />
“In our younger years we traveled<br />
extensively but now confine<br />
ourselves to our family, friends and<br />
an occ<strong>as</strong>ional cruise, mostly to the<br />
Caribbean.”<br />
Jack Ripperger and his wife of<br />
44 years, Kathryn, of San Diego,<br />
had dinner with me and my wife,<br />
Maxine. We all enjoyed the evening<br />
and afterward Jack submitted<br />
the following:<br />
“Many wonderful stories were<br />
shared during the dinners at our<br />
60th reunion.<br />
“Among the Saturday attendees<br />
at dinner w<strong>as</strong> David Charlton<br />
from Rochester, N.Y. He had a<br />
surprising story to share. About 46<br />
years ago he w<strong>as</strong> working in New<br />
Orleans and met a lovely southern<br />
belle, Janice Cook, now his wife of<br />
45 years. When he <strong>as</strong>ked her out,<br />
she responded that she had only<br />
dated one other ‘Yankee’ — and<br />
his name w<strong>as</strong> Jack Ripperger.<br />
What a surprise! (It had happened<br />
back when I worked for Polaroid<br />
in Chicago; Janice w<strong>as</strong> visiting a<br />
friend and found herself on a blind<br />
date with me.) Janice w<strong>as</strong> unable<br />
to join us at reunion but still, you<br />
can imagine the lively conversation<br />
we shared over dinner. By the way,<br />
while I w<strong>as</strong> working for Polaroid,<br />
David w<strong>as</strong> working for Kodak!<br />
“While in town, we spent time<br />
with our adult children and granddaughters<br />
(7 and 3), all of NYC. I<br />
shared the story of time spent oneon-one<br />
with <strong>Columbia</strong> President<br />
Dwight Eisenhower prior to the<br />
Homecoming dance in 1950. My<br />
Blue Key brothers and I had arranged<br />
for Edith Piaf to perform <strong>as</strong><br />
an appreciation for Ike for the U.S.<br />
soldiers’ rebuilding her hometown<br />
in France. It w<strong>as</strong> a day to<br />
remember.”<br />
Your reporter thanks you all for<br />
your contributions and wishes good<br />
health to all the members of the<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1952.<br />
REUNION WEEKEND<br />
MAY 30–JUNE 2, 2013<br />
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS<br />
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Fatima Yudeh<br />
fy2165@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7834<br />
DEVELOPMENT Valentina Salkow<br />
vs2441@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7833<br />
53<br />
Lew Robins<br />
1221 Stratfield Rd.<br />
Fairfield, CT 06825<br />
lewrobins@aol.com<br />
As you may recall, when we were<br />
undergraduates, WKCR’s headquarters<br />
w<strong>as</strong> a small building between<br />
Hartley and Hamilton Hall. The<br />
image of Wendell Hatfield ’56 P&S<br />
striding into or out of the WKCR<br />
building is indelibly engraved in my<br />
memory of <strong>Columbia</strong> life almost 60<br />
years ago.<br />
During a recent phone conversation,<br />
I learned that working at<br />
WKCR had an enormous influence<br />
The New England Chapter of the American Medical<br />
Writers Association awarded Dr. Martin Duke ’50 its<br />
2012 Will Solimene Award for Excellence in Medical<br />
Communication.<br />
on our unusual cl<strong>as</strong>smate. After<br />
freshman year, Wendell returned<br />
home to Denver and, by claiming<br />
to have been an announcer at a<br />
New York radio station, w<strong>as</strong> hired<br />
by a local station to substitute on<br />
air for the regular disk jockeys<br />
<strong>as</strong> they went on vacation. When<br />
Stan Kenton’s big band traveled to<br />
Denver, the station sent Wendell<br />
to broadc<strong>as</strong>t live from the remote<br />
location. During the ensuing years,<br />
he became the business manager<br />
of WKCR, the station’s chief announcer<br />
and an honored Sachem.<br />
Knowing that Wendell’s career<br />
included becoming the acting chairman<br />
of rheumatology at P&S and<br />
that he spent 20 years on the faculty<br />
of <strong>this</strong> world-famous institution, I<br />
w<strong>as</strong> curious <strong>as</strong> to whether there w<strong>as</strong><br />
any specific undergraduate event<br />
that spurred him to go to medical<br />
school. His answer w<strong>as</strong> f<strong>as</strong>cinating:<br />
“As a junior, my faculty adviser w<strong>as</strong><br />
Professor George Nobbe. When he<br />
heard that I hadn’t decided on a<br />
career, he nearly jumped out of his<br />
chair and recommended that I go<br />
into medicine.”<br />
After graduating from P&S,<br />
Wendell spent the next 20 years<br />
working a killer schedule teaching<br />
rheumatology fellows during<br />
the day and treating patients in<br />
the evening. He found time to<br />
marry Charlotte and they brought<br />
up four children (and now have<br />
six grandchildren). He h<strong>as</strong> been<br />
retired for 10 years and spends his<br />
time fly-fishing, reading, cooking<br />
and gardening.<br />
Toward the end of our conversation,<br />
Wendell said that the most<br />
moving experience in his medical<br />
career w<strong>as</strong> caring for people who<br />
had been victims of the Holocaust<br />
and who came to America after<br />
being rescued from the concentration<br />
camps.<br />
Wendell and Charlotte are hoping<br />
to attend our 60th reunion next<br />
spring. Speaking for all our cl<strong>as</strong>smates,<br />
I know that seeing them in<br />
person after all these years will be<br />
a superb treat.<br />
Mark your calendar for Thursday,<br />
May 30–Sunday, June 2, 2013.<br />
To ensure that <strong>Columbia</strong> can get<br />
in touch with you about the event,<br />
ple<strong>as</strong>e update your contact information<br />
online (reunion.college.colum<br />
bia.edu/alumniupdate) or call the<br />
Alumni Office (212-851-7488).<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s members are encouraged<br />
to join the Reunion Committee to<br />
help plan the weekend’s events and<br />
to reach out to cl<strong>as</strong>smates for gifts to<br />
the <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Fund in honor<br />
of reunion. If you’re interested in<br />
participating, contact the appropriate<br />
Alumni Office staff member<br />
noted at the top of the column. You<br />
need not be in the New York area<br />
and can participate in meetings via<br />
conference call.<br />
54<br />
Howard Falberg<br />
13710 P<strong>as</strong>eo Bonita<br />
Poway, CA 92064<br />
westmontgr@aol.com<br />
As many of you may know, when<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s Day comes around the <strong>College</strong>’s<br />
alumni are invited to march<br />
in the Alumni Parade of Cl<strong>as</strong>ses<br />
with their respective cl<strong>as</strong>s banners.<br />
We are very proud of Larry Kobrin<br />
(especially <strong>this</strong> year), <strong>as</strong> he w<strong>as</strong> our<br />
sole representative at the event. He<br />
notes, “They loaned me a lovely<br />
young lady from the Alumni Office<br />
to <strong>as</strong>sist in carrying the flag.”<br />
Perhaps next year there will be<br />
more of us to help. In the meantime,<br />
many thanks, Larry.<br />
Alan Fendrick and his lovely<br />
wife, Bev, move north and south<br />
se<strong>as</strong>onally, depending on the<br />
weather, spending their time either<br />
in Florida or M<strong>as</strong>sachusetts. Alan,<br />
v.p. of our cl<strong>as</strong>s, w<strong>as</strong> responsible<br />
for developing a <strong>Columbia</strong> alumni<br />
club in Florida with an active<br />
group of <strong>Columbia</strong>ns.<br />
Mike Naver writes that he enjoys<br />
a “rather self-indulgent life with golf,<br />
tennis, movies and books. I retired<br />
in 1999 after 30 years with the Social<br />
Security Administration <strong>as</strong> national<br />
press officer and public affairs manager.<br />
That w<strong>as</strong> my second career,<br />
after I completed 10 years <strong>as</strong> a writer<br />
and editor at the Baltimore Evening<br />
Sun. Both during and after my government<br />
years I taught journalism <strong>as</strong><br />
adjunct faculty at Towson University<br />
outside Baltimore. I retired<br />
completely in 2008.” Mike and his<br />
wife, Irid, and their two children live<br />
in Baltimore.<br />
Speaking of special events, our<br />
60th anniversary and reunion will<br />
take place in 2014. Bernd Brecher<br />
would like very much to hear from<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates who could <strong>as</strong>sist in<br />
planning our reunion program. His<br />
email address is brecherservices@<br />
aol.com.<br />
My wife, Debby, and I spent two<br />
weeks in Israel visiting biblical and<br />
national spots. It w<strong>as</strong> a wonderful<br />
trip and we enjoyed ourselves<br />
greatly.<br />
Our cl<strong>as</strong>s h<strong>as</strong> many members<br />
who have made important contributions<br />
to our society. One of them<br />
certainly w<strong>as</strong> Peter Ehrenhaft ’57L,<br />
’57 SIPA, who p<strong>as</strong>sed away on July<br />
25, three weeks prior to his 79th<br />
birthday. Peter w<strong>as</strong> selected by<br />
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice<br />
Earl Warren to be his senior clerk<br />
during 1961 and 1962. He achieved<br />
key positions with major law firms<br />
and also served <strong>as</strong> deputy <strong>as</strong>sistant<br />
secretary of the tre<strong>as</strong>ury for international<br />
trade. He w<strong>as</strong> active in<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> alumni affairs and took<br />
on responsibility for coordinating<br />
our cl<strong>as</strong>s contributions to support<br />
key activities that enabled <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong> undergraduates to<br />
pursue societal contributions both<br />
in the United States and overse<strong>as</strong>.<br />
We send our sincere condolences to<br />
Peter’s widow, Charlotte, and their<br />
three children. He will be missed<br />
by many.<br />
I hope that all is well with our<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s members and I hope to hear<br />
from many of you soon.<br />
55<br />
Gerald Sherwin<br />
181 E. 73rd St., Apt. 6A<br />
New York, NY 10021<br />
gs481@juno.com<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> continues to be the preeminent<br />
worldwide university judging<br />
from events around the globe,<br />
including the opening of Global<br />
Centers in Istanbul, Turkey and Santiago,<br />
Chile, earlier <strong>this</strong> year. In addition,<br />
alumni have the opportunity<br />
<strong>as</strong> part of the Alumni Travel Study<br />
Program to visit regions of the planet<br />
such <strong>as</strong> the ancient co<strong>as</strong>t of Turkey<br />
and the Aegean Sea Islands; China,<br />
Tibet and the Yangtze; Australia and<br />
New Zealand; and many more, in<br />
the latter part of 2013. Noted professors<br />
will be leading the explorations<br />
to these regions.<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>smates are encouraged to<br />
stop by Hamilton Hall to learn<br />
about the Richard E. Witten Center<br />
for the Core Curriculum, which enhances<br />
the Core experience through<br />
programs on campus and in New<br />
York City and offers Core faculty<br />
weekly lunches and seminars. The<br />
Café series continues to put forth a<br />
wide variety of lectures including<br />
Café <strong>Columbia</strong>: Immigration at the<br />
Turn of Two Centuries; Café Social<br />
Science: Magema Fuze; and Café<br />
Science: Ultr<strong>as</strong>ound: Knocking on<br />
Brain’s Door. Terrific intellectual<br />
and entertaining programs.<br />
The school had a visitor from<br />
W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C. (Lew Mendelson’s<br />
hometown) in mid-May.<br />
President Barack Obama ’83 gave a<br />
brisk talk to the Barnard graduates<br />
at their Commencement, May 14.<br />
It w<strong>as</strong> a pretty exciting experience<br />
for those who attended under a tent<br />
on South Field and others who saw<br />
the event on a big screen in Levien<br />
Gym.<br />
Dean’s Day, which now takes<br />
place the Saturday of Alumni Reunion<br />
Weekend, h<strong>as</strong> become a big<br />
hit among alumni and faculty. This<br />
June the lectures were attended<br />
by some familiar faces from your<br />
favorite cl<strong>as</strong>s: Bob Brown, Larry<br />
Balfus and Don Laufer. The report<br />
w<strong>as</strong> an emphatic “thumbs up.”<br />
Don h<strong>as</strong> been working on building<br />
attendance for the monthly cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
dinners. Some of the guys who<br />
have been partaking in the good<br />
cheer have been Alan Hoffman,<br />
Marty Dubner, Abbe Leban, Stan<br />
Zinberg, Peter Pressman, Ralph<br />
Wagner, Chuck Solomon, Ron<br />
Spitz, Mort Rennert, Bob Kushner<br />
and Anthony Viscusi. Bill Epstein<br />
could not be part of the dinner before<br />
the summer because he w<strong>as</strong> on<br />
safari in South Africa. (Pictures of<br />
Bill and his entourage are available<br />
for only a small handling fee.)<br />
Putting learning into practice, the<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> men’s b<strong>as</strong>ketball team<br />
went to Spain and Italy <strong>this</strong> summer<br />
to absorb the many cultural<br />
<strong>as</strong>pects the countries have to offer.<br />
They saw what they had discussed<br />
and read about through the Core —<br />
a terrific learning experience, plus<br />
the boys in blue finished the tour<br />
with a 5–0 record. (“Oh, who owns<br />
Barcelona?” etc., etc., <strong>as</strong> the song<br />
goes.)<br />
In May the <strong>Columbia</strong> University<br />
Film Festival played at Alice Tully<br />
Hall with a retrospective of student<br />
works from the festival’s 25-year<br />
history. Notable alumni and the<br />
film community attended <strong>this</strong> great<br />
event, which w<strong>as</strong> co-presented with<br />
the Film Society of Lincoln Center. If<br />
you missed it, there’s still next year,<br />
fellows.<br />
From the West Co<strong>as</strong>t, Harry<br />
Scheiber made an important ap -<br />
pearance at the Blackwell and<br />
Dodge Cups (crew races) in mid-<br />
May. Harry w<strong>as</strong> the keynote speaker<br />
and led the dedication ceremony<br />
for two pair-oared shells that are<br />
being named to honor Coach Walter<br />
“Bud” Raney and former Professor<br />
J. Bartlett Brebner.<br />
Harry, you are the best.<br />
Going back in time, other crew<br />
members were Bill Mink, Bob<br />
Hanson, Dan Hovey, Norm Roome,<br />
Bob Banz, coxswain John Larosa<br />
and stroke Terry Doremus.<br />
Stanley Lubman let us know he<br />
earned a new title, distinguished<br />
resident lecturer, and wants everyone<br />
to know his new email, stanley.<br />
lubman@gmail.com.<br />
Our cl<strong>as</strong>smates continue to put<br />
pen to paper (<strong>as</strong> they say). Harold<br />
Kushner, who lives in New England,<br />
h<strong>as</strong> a book coming out shortly<br />
titled The Book of Job: When Bad<br />
Things Happened to a Good Person.<br />
Bill Kronick, writing from California,<br />
is putting together a new novel<br />
called What Katie Said. It talks about<br />
the experiences of a <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong> scholarship student from<br />
1975–79.<br />
Ezra Levin (the Chet Forte ’57 of<br />
his era) received an award from the<br />
Hebrew Free Loan Society. He is<br />
p<strong>as</strong>t president of the organization<br />
and he served the group well for<br />
more than 20 years.<br />
We heard from world traveler<br />
Beryl Nusbaum, whom we brought<br />
up to date on all the positive happenings<br />
in the Athletics Department.<br />
Things are looking better for<br />
the fall se<strong>as</strong>on.<br />
Two cl<strong>as</strong>smates have p<strong>as</strong>sed on<br />
recently, Morris Tenner and Jim<br />
Phelan. Condolences go to their<br />
families and friends.<br />
Sparkling cl<strong>as</strong>smates of the Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
of 1955.<br />
It is time to begin preparations<br />
for our next important event — our<br />
60th reunion.<br />
Keep an eye on your diets, mix in<br />
a little exercise and get ready for the<br />
award-winning activities in 2015. It<br />
promises to be the best ever.<br />
Love to all, everywhere.<br />
56<br />
Stephen K. E<strong>as</strong>ton<br />
6 Hidden Ledge Rd.<br />
Englewood, NJ 07631<br />
tball8000@earthlink.net<br />
Recently, my wife, Elke, and I<br />
enjoyed a visit from Larry Cohn<br />
and his wife, Judi, our cl<strong>as</strong>s’ inveterate<br />
travelers, who were visiting<br />
New York from California for a<br />
couple of family events. While Judi<br />
and Elke enjoyed getting further<br />
acquainted and shopping in the<br />
city, Larry and I reminisced about<br />
our <strong>Columbia</strong> experiences, which<br />
included lightweight football, Air<br />
Force and Navy ROTC; we also<br />
know a number of the same cl<strong>as</strong>smates,<br />
whom I get to see regularly<br />
and he gets to visit occ<strong>as</strong>ionally.<br />
We ended our short visit with golf.<br />
Larry used my wife’s clubs and<br />
shot one of his best rounds (we<br />
always knew he w<strong>as</strong> an athlete<br />
from his b<strong>as</strong>ketball days at Bronx<br />
Science). We plan another gettogether<br />
soon in California.<br />
This h<strong>as</strong> been a busy time for<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s of ’56 activities, starting with<br />
two of our cl<strong>as</strong>s lunches at Faculty<br />
House in the spring, continuing<br />
through Cl<strong>as</strong>s Day in May and<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> School Designations<br />
In Cl<strong>as</strong>s Notes, these designations indicate <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
degrees from schools other than the <strong>College</strong>.<br />
Arch. School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation<br />
Arts School of the Arts<br />
Barnard Barnard <strong>College</strong><br />
Business Graduate School of Business<br />
CE School of Continuing Education<br />
Dental <strong>College</strong> of Dental Medicine<br />
E The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and<br />
Applied Science<br />
GS School of General Studies<br />
GSAS Graduate School of Arts and Sciences<br />
J Graduate School of Journalism<br />
L School of Law<br />
Nursing School of Nursing<br />
P&S <strong>College</strong> of Physicians and Surgeons<br />
PH Mailman School of Public Health<br />
SIPA School of International and Public Affairs<br />
SW School of Social Work<br />
TC Teachers <strong>College</strong><br />
FALL 2012<br />
62<br />
FALL 2012<br />
63
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
Dean’s Day in June (which now<br />
coincides with Alumni Reunion<br />
Weekend) and concluding with<br />
our summer lunches at Dan Link’s<br />
country club. Our cl<strong>as</strong>s activities<br />
have been well attended.<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s Day activities on May 15<br />
were attended by Dan Link, Ron<br />
Kapon and Len Wolfe. I w<strong>as</strong> out of<br />
town, else I would have been there.<br />
This is an event not to be missed.<br />
Len h<strong>as</strong> provided a report <strong>as</strong><br />
follows: “The day began with<br />
breakf<strong>as</strong>t in John Jay Dining Hall,<br />
and it w<strong>as</strong> quite a sumptuous one.<br />
Afterward, but prior to <strong>as</strong>sembling<br />
for the Alumni Parade of<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>ses, we were all given Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
Day pins (well-designed with a<br />
b<strong>as</strong> relief portrait of Alexander<br />
Hamilton in the center). Unfortunately,<br />
before the parade began,<br />
Ron slipped on one of the parade<br />
flags that had been laid out on the<br />
floor and had to be attended to by<br />
a couple of student paramedics,<br />
who did a great job of bandaging<br />
his cut knee. Fortunately, the<br />
injury didn’t amount to much<br />
and, before the parade began, Ron<br />
felt repaired enough to remove<br />
the bandage so that he could walk<br />
unencumbered.<br />
“As we sat in John Jay for<br />
break f<strong>as</strong>t, I couldn’t help but think<br />
back to the day some 56 years ago<br />
when, <strong>as</strong> seniors, many of us were<br />
in that same room celebrating our<br />
impending graduation. As Spectator<br />
reported of that long-ago day<br />
(and <strong>as</strong> I’ve recalled once before,<br />
on the occ<strong>as</strong>ion of our 20th reunion<br />
dinner on October 9, 1976, at the<br />
St. Regis hotel in Manhattan) our<br />
Senior Beer Party turned the John<br />
Jay mezzanine into a small-scale<br />
riot <strong>as</strong> members of the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of<br />
’56 littered the floor with broken<br />
gl<strong>as</strong>ses, destroyed chandeliers and<br />
ripped up furniture, and sent one<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smate to St. Luke’s Hospital<br />
with a cut necessitating eight<br />
stitches in his arm.’<br />
“This year, <strong>as</strong> I rose slowly and<br />
creakily from my chair at the brea<br />
kf<strong>as</strong>t table, I found it hard to imagine<br />
that we had once been so young<br />
and energetic, but it w<strong>as</strong> also nice<br />
to see that the room w<strong>as</strong> just <strong>as</strong> it<br />
had been when we were students,<br />
sharing meals and such good times<br />
at so many special events.<br />
“When the parade began, Danny,<br />
Ron and I held our cl<strong>as</strong>s banner and<br />
proceeded to march p<strong>as</strong>t the <strong>as</strong>sembled<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2012. Interestingly,<br />
<strong>this</strong> cl<strong>as</strong>s w<strong>as</strong> graduating 56 years<br />
after we did, and it will be 2069<br />
when they celebrate their own 56th<br />
graduation anniversary — a span<br />
of 112 years. It is hard to imagine<br />
what America and the world will<br />
be like then. Somewhat frightening<br />
to think about w<strong>as</strong> the realization<br />
that our banner w<strong>as</strong> only third from<br />
the head of the parade, with many,<br />
many more following ours.<br />
“As we marched p<strong>as</strong>t the seniors,<br />
we were met with great applause<br />
from them. In typical f<strong>as</strong>hion,<br />
given his gregarious nature, Ron<br />
proceeded, at various intervals, to<br />
bow to the seniors on one side and<br />
parents and guests on the other,<br />
much to their delight. We certainly<br />
were a cl<strong>as</strong>s that w<strong>as</strong> noticed. Following<br />
the procession we joined<br />
parents and guests to observe the<br />
awarding of prizes to members of<br />
the cl<strong>as</strong>s and to listen to talks by the<br />
salutatorian, the senior cl<strong>as</strong>s president<br />
and John R. “Rick” MacArthur<br />
’78, publisher of Harper’s magazine,<br />
former Spectator news editor and<br />
a member of Spectator’s Board of<br />
Trustees. It w<strong>as</strong> a truly enjoyable<br />
experience.<br />
“The next day w<strong>as</strong> <strong>Columbia</strong>’s<br />
258th University Commencement. I<br />
w<strong>as</strong> the only cl<strong>as</strong>s member there to<br />
celebrate although I had plenty of<br />
company between the thousands of<br />
graduates and their proud families<br />
and friends. It w<strong>as</strong> cloudy to begin<br />
with but bright and sunny <strong>as</strong> Commencement<br />
came to a close — a<br />
perfect ending to a glorious two<br />
days filled with words of hope for<br />
the future of the country and the<br />
world, brought to greater heights by<br />
the remarkable young people that<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> h<strong>as</strong> prepared so well.”<br />
Thanks, Len.<br />
We had a great turnout for<br />
Dean’s Day on June 2. In attendance<br />
were Stan Soren and his wife, Ruth;<br />
Danny Link and his wife, Elinor<br />
Baller; Ron Kapon; myself; Al<br />
Franco ’56E; John Censor; Ralph<br />
K<strong>as</strong>lick; Vic Levin and his wife,<br />
Fran; Bob Siroty; and Jerry Fine<br />
and his wife, Barbara. The lectures<br />
have been designed to show off<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong>’s brightest faculty and<br />
alumni, in addition to giving us alums<br />
a view of what is happening at<br />
our <strong>College</strong>. The day started with a<br />
continental breakf<strong>as</strong>t and comments<br />
from Dean James J. Valentini, including<br />
an informative Q&A. Then<br />
there were morning and afternoon<br />
lectures, a cl<strong>as</strong>s luncheon at Low<br />
Library and various affinity group<br />
receptions, including tea and a<br />
concert in Hamilton Hall. I atten ded<br />
the morning session “Where Could<br />
Brain Mapping Lead Us?” and w<strong>as</strong><br />
treated to an analysis of the interconnection<br />
among the biological<br />
sciences from a medical perspective<br />
and the electrical engineering from<br />
a computer and brain connecting<br />
perspective. It appears that in addition<br />
to being a f<strong>as</strong>cinating subject, it<br />
also is an area of lucrative research<br />
grant monies to <strong>Columbia</strong>.<br />
Stan and Ruth attended the<br />
lecture “Why Don’t We Have<br />
More Cures for Cancer?” and were<br />
perplexed <strong>as</strong> to why — with so<br />
much money being put toward<br />
research and with all the technological<br />
advances that have been made<br />
— a cure (or cures) still seems so<br />
far away. For the afternoon lecture,<br />
I had the honor of introducing<br />
Christia Mercer, chair of Literature<br />
Humanities, for her lecture, “How<br />
Literature Humanities Makes Us<br />
Wise.” In it, she examined the value<br />
of humanities to our education and<br />
our life <strong>issue</strong>s. She also went into<br />
great detail <strong>as</strong> to how the various<br />
are<strong>as</strong> of art, theatre and writing<br />
Len Wolfe ’56 earned the Forest Avenue H.S. (Dall<strong>as</strong>)<br />
Alumni Association Award for the success of his<br />
book E<strong>as</strong>y Economics.<br />
interact, and how the Core Curriculum<br />
always will be evolving.<br />
These are just a few examples<br />
why, if you are in the New York<br />
area, you should not miss Dean’s<br />
Day next year. Also, <strong>as</strong> Dean’s Day<br />
is now combined with Alumni<br />
Reunion Weekend, the facilities,<br />
food and venues have improved<br />
substantially.<br />
Come <strong>this</strong> winter, we again<br />
will split our monthly luncheons<br />
between Faculty House on the<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> campus and the <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
University Club in Midtown.<br />
For the luncheons, we will try to<br />
have at le<strong>as</strong>t one speaker (whether<br />
faculty member or current student)<br />
to add to our cl<strong>as</strong>s attendees. I urge<br />
everyone in the New York area to<br />
attend these luncheons. It h<strong>as</strong> been<br />
a great way for us to keep in touch.<br />
In fact, Joe Sofhauser, one of our<br />
“lost” cl<strong>as</strong>smates, in<strong>as</strong>much <strong>as</strong> we<br />
didn’t know where he w<strong>as</strong>, h<strong>as</strong><br />
expressed interest in attending and<br />
now will receive our regular email<br />
notices. Anyone else who is interested<br />
in being informed about the<br />
lunches so they can attend, rather<br />
than read about them in Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
Notes, is invited to get in touch<br />
with me at tball8000@earthlink.net.<br />
Now for cl<strong>as</strong>s correspondence<br />
and news.<br />
Vic Levin recently moved back<br />
from the suburbs to the West Side<br />
of Manhattan, near <strong>Columbia</strong>. To<br />
his and his wife’s surprise, he says,<br />
the neighborhood is substantially<br />
better than when we attended the<br />
<strong>College</strong> more than 50 years ago.<br />
Vic practices matrimonial and<br />
estate law, with an office in Garden<br />
City. As another one of our working<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates, we look forward to<br />
seeing him at our cl<strong>as</strong>s luncheons<br />
and other <strong>Columbia</strong> events.<br />
Lou Hemmerdinger ’56E, our<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s coordinator, will be moving,<br />
after 35 years, from his house in<br />
Old Bethpage, N.Y., to an upscale<br />
adult community in Melville, also<br />
on Long Island. He <strong>as</strong>sures me<br />
that the move will not affect his<br />
ability to send out our various cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
notices.<br />
Thanks, Lou.<br />
Ron Kapon sent an update on<br />
his various wine activities. Ron,<br />
<strong>as</strong> many of you know, is our go-to<br />
guy when we need wine t<strong>as</strong>tings<br />
for any reunion events. Ron is<br />
celebrating his 17th year <strong>as</strong> adjunct<br />
professor and director of the wine<br />
studies program at Fairleigh Dickinson.<br />
He is co-author of the Fairleigh<br />
Dickinson/New York Times<br />
online wine course. If interested<br />
in anything wine, contact Ron at<br />
vinoron@yahoo.com (note, <strong>this</strong><br />
email is corrected from previous<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s Notes).<br />
Len Wolfe reports that his book,<br />
E<strong>as</strong>y Economics, while doing well in<br />
sales, also h<strong>as</strong> earned him the Forest<br />
Avenue H.S. (located in Dall<strong>as</strong>)<br />
Alumni Association Award, given<br />
to distinguished alumni. Other<br />
recipients have included Stanley<br />
Marcus of Neiman Marcus and<br />
Aaron Spelling of television fame,<br />
so we know Len is in good company.<br />
The book, which Len authored<br />
with a former Fortune magazine<br />
colleague, Lee Smith, is written in<br />
a Q&A format and illustrated with<br />
delightful cartoons in an attempt<br />
to explain all those things we<br />
don’t know about economics but<br />
wish we did. The way it is written,<br />
even children can understand it. If<br />
you want more info, email Len at<br />
leonardwolfe@gmail.com.<br />
A record number of cl<strong>as</strong>smates<br />
contributed to <strong>this</strong> year’s <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong> Fund. The total amount<br />
raised w<strong>as</strong> more $125,000, between<br />
general purposes and our Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
of ’56 scholarship. Thank you to<br />
all who contributed. If anyone is<br />
interested in establishing a legacy<br />
to <strong>Columbia</strong> by way of planned<br />
giving, contact me at tball8000@<br />
earthlink.net.<br />
As always, I encourage all cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
members who want to keep in<br />
touch to update their email addresses<br />
with Lou Hemmerdinger:<br />
lhemmer@aol.com. Ple<strong>as</strong>e keep in<br />
contact with <strong>Columbia</strong> in whatever<br />
ways you feel appropriate, <strong>as</strong> I<br />
believe that it h<strong>as</strong> been a force and<br />
power in our lives.<br />
I hope that all of you had a<br />
de lightful summer and that our<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> education and life experiences<br />
are allowing us to grow older<br />
gracefully. If you have news to<br />
share, ple<strong>as</strong>e email me at tball8000@<br />
earthlink.net and I will make sure it<br />
gets in the next Cl<strong>as</strong>s Notes.<br />
57<br />
Herman Levy<br />
7322 Rockford Dr.<br />
Falls Church, VA 22043<br />
hdlleditor@aol.com<br />
Richard Berger writes, “Several<br />
alumni, including Ken Bodenstein<br />
and myself, and parents of current<br />
players welcomed football coach<br />
Pete Mangurian at a reception in<br />
Southern California. We heard some<br />
fairly candid comments about the<br />
progress of introducing the team<br />
to a new regimen (early morning<br />
departures for the recent spring<br />
practice days, for instance), new offensive<br />
and defensive schemes, and<br />
the incoming cl<strong>as</strong>s (very promising).<br />
The coach w<strong>as</strong> quite engaging<br />
and he answered many questions,<br />
some from former players who<br />
wanted some ‘inside b<strong>as</strong>eball’ comments.”<br />
Elliott Schwartz reports, “I’ve<br />
discovered that, even after so-called<br />
retirement, I haven’t been able to<br />
tear myself away from teaching and<br />
academia. My wife, Deedee, and I<br />
spent the winter term at Robinson<br />
<strong>College</strong> in Cambridge (UK) on a<br />
visiting fellowship, my third stay at<br />
Robinson in the p<strong>as</strong>t five years. This<br />
l<strong>as</strong>t visit involved some informal<br />
teaching, organizing performances<br />
of my music and hearing pieces of<br />
mine played in London, Gl<strong>as</strong>gow<br />
and Oslo. Since returning to the<br />
States in late March, I’ve been<br />
active <strong>as</strong> a composer-performer in<br />
Portland, Boston and Miami. Works<br />
of mine also were featured on three<br />
New York programs <strong>this</strong> spring and<br />
summer: a piano piece premiered at<br />
the Juilliard School; an old (1960s)<br />
chamber work turned up on the<br />
New York Philharmonic Ensemble<br />
series; and a relatively new (2008)<br />
violin concerto w<strong>as</strong> performed at<br />
Symphony Space in late June.<br />
“I’m sorry we couldn’t be at<br />
our 55th <strong>Columbia</strong> reunion. It conflicted<br />
with the Bowdoin reunion<br />
weekend. So <strong>this</strong> time I chose to<br />
stay home in Maine and exchange<br />
45 years’ worth of memories with<br />
my former Bowdoin students. But<br />
I w<strong>as</strong> thinking of <strong>Columbia</strong> friends<br />
<strong>as</strong> well.”<br />
Yours truly and some 51 other<br />
’57ers plus wives and significant<br />
others returned to Morningside<br />
Heights for our 55th reunion, held<br />
May 31–June 3. To us hale and<br />
hearty septuagenarians, the main<br />
theme of the weekend w<strong>as</strong> the<br />
greatness of our <strong>Columbia</strong> education,<br />
especially the Core Curriculum,<br />
in training our minds to think<br />
creatively in our respective are<strong>as</strong><br />
of interest and, when the occ<strong>as</strong>ion<br />
calls, outside the box.<br />
The first event took place on<br />
May 31, an evening reception<br />
hosted by Kaye and Jim Barker<br />
in the Model Room of the New<br />
York Yacht Club. The NYYC is<br />
housed in a magnificent Beaux-<br />
Arts building on West 44th Street<br />
between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.<br />
Construction of the building began<br />
in 1898; the building opened in<br />
1901. As I learned from perusing<br />
John Rousmaniere’s The New York<br />
Yacht Club: A History, 1844–2008,<br />
the commodore of the NYYC at the<br />
time w<strong>as</strong> J. Pierpont Morgan. The<br />
Model Room houses about 1,300<br />
yacht models, the world’s largest<br />
collection of its kind, comprising<br />
“almost the entire history of yacht<br />
design from the early 1800s to the<br />
present.” In addition to yacht models,<br />
the collection includes other<br />
types of vessels, including a model<br />
of the warship U.S.S. Gloucester.<br />
The Model Room h<strong>as</strong> an ornate<br />
ceiling with a green oval relief.<br />
Friday and Saturday both<br />
included cl<strong>as</strong>ses and campus tours,<br />
<strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> a ’57 dinner on Friday<br />
and a ’57 luncheon and dinner<br />
on Saturday. Friday morning<br />
yours truly joined a tour of the<br />
Northwest Corner Building. Built<br />
where tennis courts once stood,<br />
the striking modern structure is at<br />
the corner of Broadway and West<br />
120th Street; it’s directly across<br />
from Teachers <strong>College</strong> and cattycornered<br />
from Union Theological<br />
Seminary. The building primarily<br />
houses science laboratories and h<strong>as</strong><br />
a café on the second floor. Upstairs,<br />
a gl<strong>as</strong>sed-in room affords a wide<br />
panorama of upper Manhattan.<br />
Particularly striking is the northern<br />
view, which includes Grant’s<br />
Tomb, Riverside Church, Union<br />
Theological Seminary, the Manhattan<br />
School of Music, the Jewish<br />
Theological Seminary and, in the<br />
distance, Harlem and City <strong>College</strong>.<br />
Lunch w<strong>as</strong> under a tent on Low<br />
Plaza, a buffet billed <strong>as</strong> “T<strong>as</strong>te of<br />
New York.”<br />
That afternoon, by serendipity,<br />
I attended Teodolinda Barolini’s<br />
Literature Humanities cl<strong>as</strong>s, “The<br />
Divine Comedy Through Images.”<br />
Among other things, Barolini said<br />
that The Divine Comedy is still alive<br />
because of the way Dante’s characters<br />
come to life; she finds them<br />
quite contemporary. In answer to<br />
my question, she said that, indeed,<br />
Dante’s characters are in that way<br />
comparable to those of Shakespeare,<br />
noting that contemporary<br />
writer Harold Bloom also h<strong>as</strong><br />
made that observation.<br />
Friday’s ’57 dinner w<strong>as</strong> at the<br />
Kellogg Center at SIPA. After dinner,<br />
several cl<strong>as</strong>s members reminisced<br />
before the open microphone about<br />
the greatness of the <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong> education we received,<br />
especially the Core Curriculum.<br />
Saturday morning featured the<br />
all-cl<strong>as</strong>s Dean’s Continental Breakf<strong>as</strong>t,<br />
part of Dean’s Day. Dean James<br />
J. Valentini addressed the <strong>as</strong>sembly,<br />
<strong>as</strong>suring us that the Core Curriculum<br />
will go on, but with changes<br />
from time to time. Otherwise, he<br />
observed, it would not be contemporary.<br />
Afterward, I attended “Why<br />
Don’t We Have More Cures for<br />
Cancer?” with Brent Stockwell,<br />
<strong>as</strong>sociate professor, biological<br />
sciences, Howard Hughes Medical<br />
Institute, and Poppy Harlow ’05,<br />
CNN correspondent. Stockwell<br />
said the main problem is creating<br />
molecules to form proteins to attack<br />
cancer. He then observed that<br />
in discovering a new drug we do<br />
not know what its effect will be. He<br />
went on to discuss the role of funding.<br />
Among other things he noted<br />
that the Israeli pharmaceutical<br />
industry h<strong>as</strong> made much progress<br />
and that chemotherapy w<strong>as</strong> a<br />
serendipitous finding during WWI<br />
from therapy for mustard g<strong>as</strong>.<br />
The ’57 luncheon followed in the<br />
library of the ornate C<strong>as</strong>a Italiana.<br />
Former Dean Austin E. Quigley<br />
addressed head-on the value of<br />
a liberal education in hard times,<br />
saying it helps students develop the<br />
ability to see different approaches<br />
to a problem. He stressed the<br />
importance of living on campus, <strong>as</strong><br />
being with people different from<br />
oneself helps one to see from others’<br />
points of view. He then turned to<br />
discussing the role of the <strong>College</strong><br />
in a great research university —<br />
namely, to help students develop<br />
the above thinking process. More<br />
than a century ago, he noted, when<br />
the University moved to Morningside<br />
Heights, there w<strong>as</strong> concern that<br />
the <strong>College</strong> would lose its place.<br />
What saved the University, he said,<br />
w<strong>as</strong> the commitment to the <strong>College</strong><br />
while the graduate and professional<br />
schools were forging ahead.<br />
Dean Quigley praised the alumni<br />
role in keeping the <strong>College</strong> in place<br />
during the recent budgetary crisis.<br />
He also reported that the <strong>College</strong><br />
h<strong>as</strong> one of the best financial aid<br />
systems, thanks to the gift from<br />
John W. Kluge ’37 to provide financial<br />
aid focusing on grants rather<br />
than loans, so <strong>as</strong> to avoid students<br />
graduating with a heavy debt.<br />
He then discussed the question<br />
of the arts versus science. With<br />
the humanities, he said, there is<br />
the opportunity to see things from<br />
different points of view. Science<br />
is more a matter of right versus<br />
wrong. There now is a science<br />
course, Frontiers of Science, in the<br />
Core Curriculum; <strong>this</strong>, however,<br />
fights pedagogical traditions.<br />
He allowed that rote learning<br />
h<strong>as</strong> value; nevertheless, we need<br />
people who can cross between arts<br />
and sciences. Next he discussed the<br />
matter of research versus teaching<br />
on the part of the faculty; would it<br />
pay to have more faculty members<br />
teaching? Although a student in a<br />
small liberal arts college likely will<br />
receive more attention from the<br />
faculty, he/she will miss faculty<br />
members with cutting-edge knowledge<br />
of their disciplines.<br />
Dean Quigley concluded by saying<br />
that globalized people tend to<br />
see that there is more than one way<br />
to look at a problem. This among<br />
other things meets the challenge of<br />
preparing people for tours of duty<br />
abroad.<br />
Later that afternoon, I attended<br />
Music Hum Chair Elaine Sisman’s<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s, “Mozart’s Don Giovanni and<br />
the Literary Imagination.” She<br />
discussed several versions of the<br />
opera produced across some years,<br />
especially different portrayals of<br />
the Don. The session brought back<br />
happy memories of Vladimir Ussachevsky’s<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s in Humanities B, in<br />
which he discussed the opera and<br />
played excerpts of it on a phonograph<br />
and on the piano. A ple<strong>as</strong>ant<br />
conclusion of the cl<strong>as</strong>ses w<strong>as</strong> the Afternoon<br />
Tea and Music of <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
Concert, featuring a string quartet.<br />
Held under a tent on Schermerhorn<br />
Plaza, the scene could have come<br />
from a Renoir painting.<br />
The final cl<strong>as</strong>s event of the<br />
reunion w<strong>as</strong> cocktails and dinner<br />
at Faculty House on Saturday<br />
evening. On Sunday morning a<br />
dozen or so cl<strong>as</strong>smates, wives and<br />
significant others gathered around a<br />
table under a tent on Low Plaza for<br />
brunch and l<strong>as</strong>t good-byes; it w<strong>as</strong><br />
truly a wonderful reunion weekend.<br />
Among us w<strong>as</strong> the resplendently<br />
uniformed Alvin K<strong>as</strong>s, the NYPD’s<br />
chief chaplain, accompanied by an<br />
officer, about to leave for a parade.<br />
Finally, some sad news: Robert I.<br />
Brockman, an architect who lived<br />
in Haverford Pa., died on June 12,<br />
2011.<br />
REUNION WEEKEND<br />
MAY 30–JUNE 2, 2013<br />
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS<br />
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Fatima Yudeh<br />
fy2165@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7834<br />
DEVELOPMENT Valentina Salkow<br />
vs2441@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7833<br />
58<br />
Barry Dickman<br />
25 Main St.<br />
Court Plaza North, Ste 104<br />
Hackensack, NJ 07601<br />
bdickmanesq@gmail.com<br />
We are sorry to report that David<br />
Londoner died on May 11, 2012,<br />
after a yearlong battle with cancer.<br />
David w<strong>as</strong> a loyal supporter both<br />
of the <strong>College</strong> and of Stuyvesant<br />
H.S., and he w<strong>as</strong> one of the major<br />
forces behind the establishment of<br />
the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1958 Peter Stuyvesant<br />
Scholarship. He is survived by his<br />
wife, Clara; sons, David-Marc ’91<br />
and John; and granddaughters,<br />
S<strong>as</strong>ha and Roxanna. After earning<br />
FALL 2012<br />
64<br />
FALL 2012<br />
65
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
an M.S. at the Business School, David<br />
spent his entire career on Wall<br />
Street, primarily with Wertheim &<br />
Co. and its successor, Schroders.<br />
As a chartered financial analyst, he<br />
specialized in entertainment and<br />
media stocks and w<strong>as</strong> well-known<br />
for his commentary on Disney. After<br />
he retired, he w<strong>as</strong> on the boards<br />
of several public companies in the<br />
United States and in Great Britain.<br />
Congratulations to Marcia and<br />
Rick Brous. Their daughter Sharon<br />
Brous ’95, ’01 GSAS w<strong>as</strong> named<br />
by Newsweek <strong>as</strong> one of America’s<br />
50 most influential rabbis for 2012.<br />
[Editor’s note: Read CCT’s May<br />
2005 profile of Brous online.] This<br />
w<strong>as</strong> not Sharon’s first impressive<br />
honor; a few years ago she w<strong>as</strong> the<br />
winner of the Jewish Community<br />
Foundation’s inaugural Inspired<br />
Leadership Award, which came<br />
with a gift of $100,000. She earned<br />
a m<strong>as</strong>ter’s in human rights. Sharon<br />
is the spiritual leader of IKAR, a<br />
Los Angeles synagogue she helped<br />
found. Rick is retired and lives in<br />
California.<br />
Congratulations also are in order<br />
for Jim Sternberg, who won the<br />
Howard Peter Leventritt Silver<br />
Ribbon Pairs for bridge players<br />
older than 55 at the spring 2012<br />
North American Championships in<br />
Memphis. Jim’s bridge partner, Fred<br />
Hamilton of L<strong>as</strong> Veg<strong>as</strong>, h<strong>as</strong> won 16<br />
national titles; <strong>this</strong> w<strong>as</strong> Jim’s third.<br />
A retired radiologist, Jim lives in<br />
West Palm Beach, Fla.<br />
Bob Tauber h<strong>as</strong> been appointed<br />
to the Board of Ethics of the Village/<br />
Town of Mount Kisco, N.Y.<br />
Art Radin reports that the Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
Lunch h<strong>as</strong> been ongoing for more<br />
than a decade, with three to eight<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s members attending each<br />
month. Regulars are George Jochnowitz,<br />
Tom Ettinger, Ernie Brod,<br />
Marty Hurwitz and Paul Gomperz,<br />
with Dave Marcus, Joe Klein, Paul<br />
Herman, Peter Cohn, Joe Dorinson,<br />
Bernie Nussbaum, Henry<br />
Kurtz and Sheldon Raab making<br />
occ<strong>as</strong>ional appearances. Conversations<br />
range from <strong>Columbia</strong> sports,<br />
linguistics, politics, children and<br />
grandchildren to our current careers.<br />
There is minor tension between the<br />
retireds and the non-retireds, with<br />
neither sure who is better off. The<br />
tradition w<strong>as</strong> begun by the late<br />
Scott Shukat, but Art’s perseverance<br />
h<strong>as</strong> kept it going for all these<br />
years.<br />
The lunch is held on the second<br />
Wednesday of every month, in the<br />
Grill Room of the <strong>Columbia</strong> University<br />
Club of New York, 15 W.<br />
43rd St. ($31 per person). Email Art<br />
if you plan to attend, up to the day<br />
before: aradin@radingl<strong>as</strong>s.com.<br />
Finally, here’s an early “save the<br />
date” for our 55th (!) Alumni Reunion<br />
Weekend, which will be held<br />
Thursday, May 30–Sunday, June 2,<br />
2013. So that the <strong>College</strong> can get in<br />
touch with you, ple<strong>as</strong>e update your<br />
contact information (if necessary)<br />
online (reunion.college.columbia.<br />
edu/alumniupdate) or call the<br />
Alumni Office: 212-851-7488.<br />
We’re hoping for our usual enthusi<strong>as</strong>tic<br />
turnout for the Reunion<br />
Committee both to plan the weekend’s<br />
events and to reach out to<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates for gifts to the <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong> Fund in honor of reunion.<br />
If you’re interested in participating,<br />
contact the appropriate Alumni<br />
Office staff member at the top of the<br />
column. No problem if you’re not in<br />
the NYC area; you can participate in<br />
meetings via conference call. We’re<br />
hoping to see some new faces in<br />
addition to our loyal regulars.<br />
59<br />
Norman Gelfand<br />
c/o CCT<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> Alumni Center<br />
622 W. 113th St., MC 4530<br />
New York, NY 10025<br />
nmgc59@gmail.com<br />
From Arthur Mollin we hear, “On<br />
March 4, I had a welcome-to-NYC<br />
party at Le Parker Meridien for<br />
my newest grandson, Zackary<br />
Thom<strong>as</strong> Elliott, who came with his<br />
mom (my daughter) Stefanie and<br />
her husband, Gary Elliott. My son<br />
Richard Mollin, who is a music<br />
professor at Oneonta, arrived with<br />
his trio to entertain the guests<br />
(about 70 in all). My other three<br />
children, Marian Mollin, a history<br />
professor at Virginia Tech; Bryan<br />
Mollin, an automotive advertising<br />
executive; and J<strong>as</strong>on Mollin ’91, an<br />
executive with Goldman Sachs in<br />
Brazil; were present along with my<br />
other four grandchildren. My wife,<br />
Sarilyn, organized and officiated<br />
at the welcoming party magnificently,<br />
to everyone’s delight. It is<br />
a rare occ<strong>as</strong>ion to have all five of<br />
my children and all five of my<br />
grandchildren in the same room at<br />
the same time.”<br />
Arthur added that Stefanie and<br />
her family “were in town just for<br />
10 days, <strong>as</strong> they live in London,<br />
where Gary is the CEO of an aeronautical<br />
manufacturing company,<br />
Hybrid Air Vehicles, which sells<br />
surveillance aircraft to the U.S.<br />
government.”<br />
Clive Chajet “continues to pray<br />
for more of the same and is happy<br />
to report that his prayers are<br />
ans wer ed.” He says that his wife,<br />
Bonnie, “continues to be a very<br />
successful residential Manhattan<br />
real estate broker. Eldest daughter<br />
Lisa is a clone of her mother (very<br />
successful residential real estate<br />
broker). Younger daughter Lori h<strong>as</strong><br />
a Ph.D. in education and is married<br />
to an outstanding teacher in New<br />
York City; they have two divine<br />
daughters, aged 8 and 5, and live in<br />
Brooklyn.”<br />
Clive concludes, “I consult on<br />
branding <strong>issue</strong>s for corporations,<br />
serve on a couple of boards, play<br />
golf and tennis in Bridgehampton<br />
and Florida and live in wonderful<br />
Manhattan. Hope any of you<br />
that will read <strong>this</strong> is <strong>as</strong> satisfied <strong>as</strong><br />
I am.”<br />
Kenneth Scheffel continues<br />
his travels and writes, “L<strong>as</strong>t fall,<br />
between Michigan’s home football<br />
games, I traveled to central Europe<br />
(with stops in New York going and<br />
coming, of course). I spent three<br />
days each in Prague, Vienna and<br />
Budapest, with mini-bus rides between<br />
them. I enjoyed all three cities<br />
but each in a different sort of way.<br />
“Prague proved to be the most<br />
pedestrian-friendly city I’ve ever<br />
seen (and I love to walk). Relatively<br />
undamaged by WWII, the C<strong>as</strong>tle<br />
and Old Town were magnificent,<br />
and the Jewish ghetto with its<br />
centuries-old, multi-layered cemetery<br />
(which the Nazis preserved<br />
to document a ‘vanished race’)<br />
most memorable. By far the le<strong>as</strong>t<br />
religious of the three cities and<br />
countries, most of its churches<br />
appear to survive by serving <strong>as</strong> concert<br />
venues. The music offerings are<br />
excellent and inexpensive … The<br />
Czechs’ only liability stems from<br />
their addiction to tobacco. The entire<br />
city smells like a stale cigarette<br />
(much <strong>as</strong> Hamilton Hall once did). I<br />
can understand why Václav Havel,<br />
leader of the Velvet Revolution,<br />
died of lung cancer. Those who stay<br />
should be warned of the dangers of<br />
secondhand smoke.<br />
“Vienna had the most friendly,<br />
helpful citizens I’ve encountered<br />
anywhere. Everybody spoke<br />
English and strangers volunteered<br />
Jim Sternberg ’58 won the Howard Peter Leventritt<br />
Silver Ribbon Pairs for bridge players older than 55.<br />
information on what to see and<br />
how to use the public transportation<br />
system, on which youngsters<br />
stood up to give us their seats (age<br />
does have its privileges, at le<strong>as</strong>t in<br />
Vienna). Of the three cities, Vienna<br />
appeared the most health-conscious.<br />
It had the only joggers we saw (and<br />
there were lots of them, <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong><br />
bicyclists), and very few smokers.<br />
Vienna w<strong>as</strong> also the most cosmopolitan<br />
(for example, our guide w<strong>as</strong><br />
born in Sweden and is married to a<br />
Moldavian who does much of his<br />
work in Russian) … The Kuns<strong>this</strong>torisches<br />
art collection, Ringstr<strong>as</strong>se<br />
building and palace settings were<br />
impressive. But being a southern<br />
Ohio hillbilly, I missed the high hills<br />
of Prague and Budapest.<br />
“Budapest exhibited an exotic<br />
gypsy-like quality and proudly<br />
displayed its scars from WWII and<br />
the 1956 revolt against the Soviets.<br />
The overlooks from the C<strong>as</strong>tle<br />
were spectacular, and the central<br />
market had everything that anyone<br />
could want, at re<strong>as</strong>onable prices.<br />
The Holocaust memorial of shoes<br />
lined up along the Danube (where<br />
the Nazis shot Jews into the river<br />
at the end of WWII) w<strong>as</strong> probably<br />
the most poignant I’ve seen.<br />
But Budapest had more homeless<br />
than anywhere else in Europe (it<br />
reminded me of Detroit). Also, an<br />
extra gratuity w<strong>as</strong> expected for all<br />
services, including (doctors in our<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s should take note) for medical<br />
care. Our Hungarian guide<br />
explained that the government<br />
is trying to curtail the practice by<br />
offering new grads higher pay for<br />
agreeing not to solicit extra benefits<br />
from patients and their families.”<br />
“Look forward to seeing you and<br />
hopefully many other cl<strong>as</strong>smates at<br />
our 55th in 2014, if not before.”<br />
Ken is not our only traveler.<br />
David B. Smith writes, “My wife,<br />
Helen, and I are enjoying our retirement<br />
with international travel. We<br />
spend about seven months of the<br />
year abroad. [As of <strong>this</strong> writing in<br />
the spring,] we plan to leave on April<br />
25 for Turkey, where we spend two<br />
months. Initially, after a few days in<br />
Istanbul, we will travel to southe<strong>as</strong>tern<br />
Turkey at the edge of the plain<br />
of Mesopotamia on the Iraq and<br />
Syria borders. Then, we will settle<br />
down near Yalikavak on the Bodrum<br />
peninsula on the Aegean shore. We<br />
have been going there for the l<strong>as</strong>t<br />
four years and have many friends<br />
in that lovely place.<br />
“We leave Turkey at the end<br />
of June and travel to the Orkney<br />
islands north of mainland Scotland<br />
for two months. This, too, will be<br />
our fourth year in Orkney. There,<br />
Helen will <strong>as</strong>sist in a f<strong>as</strong>cinating<br />
Neolithic archaeological site on the<br />
Ness of Brodgar, where extraordinary<br />
discoveries are being made<br />
of stone temples that predate the<br />
pyramids of Egypt and Stonehenge.<br />
We’ll then visit Gl<strong>as</strong>gow<br />
and Edinburgh for a week each,<br />
after which we go to Bergen, Norway.<br />
After a few days in Bergen,<br />
we’ll take a ship up the west co<strong>as</strong>t<br />
of Norway through the fjords to<br />
North Cape and back to Trondheim.<br />
After a few days in Oslo, we<br />
fly to Paris and then to the Cele<br />
Valley in southwestern France for<br />
two weeks. Our house there will be<br />
in walking distance of Pech Merle,<br />
an Upper Paleolithic cave with<br />
wonderful wall paintings. Finally,<br />
we go to Venice for the l<strong>as</strong>t month.<br />
This will be our fifth year in Venice,<br />
which h<strong>as</strong> become a second home.<br />
We hope to revisit old haunts and<br />
soak up the lovely art and architecture,<br />
<strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> the extraordinary<br />
Venetian food.”<br />
Since his initial writing, David<br />
h<strong>as</strong> provided an update on his trip<br />
but space limitations prevent me<br />
from including it now.<br />
Ed Boylan brings us up to date:<br />
“After graduation, I went to Princeton,<br />
where I received my Ph.D. in<br />
mathematics in 1962. Following<br />
brief stays at Yeshiva University,<br />
Rutgers at New Brunswick and<br />
Hunter <strong>College</strong>, I came to Rutgers-<br />
Newark in September 1968. I am on<br />
leave <strong>this</strong> semester with retirement<br />
officially starting in July.<br />
“In addition to mathematics, for<br />
several years I w<strong>as</strong> a consultant on<br />
Middle E<strong>as</strong>t and nuclear strategy<br />
<strong>issue</strong>s at Hudson Institute, back<br />
when it w<strong>as</strong> actually located in<br />
Croton-on-Hudson and headed by<br />
Herman Kahn.<br />
“My wife and I have three children:<br />
two daughters living in Israel<br />
and a son living in Flatbush. We<br />
also have seven grandchildren, the<br />
oldest of whom is now in the Israeli<br />
army. For more than 40 years<br />
we have been living in Englewood,<br />
N.J. Any cl<strong>as</strong>smate who wants<br />
to see what the Orthodox Jewish<br />
community of Englewood is like is<br />
welcome to give me a call. (We are<br />
in the phone book.)”<br />
Richard Tyler writes, “My good<br />
friend Raphael ‘Ray’ Osheroff<br />
p<strong>as</strong>sed in his sleep on March 18.<br />
Graveside services were held on<br />
March 21 at Beth Israel Cemetery<br />
in Woodbridge, N.J.<br />
“Following graduation from the<br />
<strong>College</strong>, Ray received his medical<br />
diploma from the Creighton Univ -<br />
ersity School of Medicine. He practiced<br />
nephrology in the W<strong>as</strong>hington,<br />
D.C., area for many years.<br />
“Ray w<strong>as</strong> a musical genius who<br />
w<strong>as</strong> able to play any instrument:<br />
percussion, strings, reeds and other<br />
horns. During our college days and<br />
early during his professional life,<br />
he would be invited to gigs, where<br />
he filled in on whatever instrument<br />
w<strong>as</strong> needed. It w<strong>as</strong> my ple<strong>as</strong>ure<br />
to accompany him to many of<br />
those engagements. Watching him<br />
switch from instrument to instrument<br />
with alacrity and verve w<strong>as</strong> a<br />
mesmerizing experience.<br />
“Ray w<strong>as</strong> a wonderful and dear<br />
friend whom I shall miss.”<br />
Joseph Ramos writes, “Six years<br />
ago I lost my first wife. But 1½ years<br />
later I married a wonderful widow,<br />
Gloria Baeza. I am still going strong<br />
at the University of Chile. L<strong>as</strong>t year,<br />
I w<strong>as</strong> chosen by the students <strong>as</strong><br />
the best professor in the economics<br />
department. It goes to prove that<br />
life isn’t over till it’s over!”<br />
We hear from Herbert M. Dean:<br />
“I am an oncology consultant for<br />
an insurance company and find it<br />
intellectually stimulating, <strong>as</strong> it provides<br />
me the opportunity to review<br />
files from the major cancer centers<br />
and also allows me to remain<br />
current with <strong>this</strong> rapidly changing<br />
discipline without the responsibilities<br />
that accompany a clinical<br />
practice. I have written a section on<br />
cancer chemotherapy for the sixth<br />
edition of a textbook on dise<strong>as</strong>es<br />
of the colon and rectum that will<br />
be published in September and<br />
enjoyed the challenge, especially<br />
when it w<strong>as</strong> finished.<br />
“My wife and I celebrated our<br />
seventh anniversary (we were both<br />
widowed) and travel between our<br />
home in Worcester and our apartment<br />
in New York City. I am trying<br />
to sell a beautiful oceanfront condo<br />
on Cape Cod; if anyone is interested,<br />
do I have a deal for you! I like<br />
to think I work in Worcester, play in<br />
New York and rest at the Cape.<br />
“My joints limit my ability to<br />
play tennis, but I continue to walk,<br />
especially in NYC, with the help<br />
of a little Celebrex. Reading is a<br />
delight, especially since you can<br />
pick and choose your subject, put<br />
it down if you find it not appealing,<br />
and don’t have to write a term<br />
paper or take an exam. A wonderful<br />
book that traces the history and<br />
current status of cancer but reads<br />
like a novel, which I can recommend,<br />
is The Emperor of All Maladies<br />
by Siddhartha Mukherjee (also a<br />
professor at P&S).<br />
“We look forward to our next<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s reunion.”<br />
David N. Horowitz writes, “I’m<br />
not sure everyone will remember<br />
there is more than one David<br />
Horo witz in our cl<strong>as</strong>s. David J.<br />
Horowitz is the famous advocate<br />
of academic humility. David<br />
N., yours truly, is a retired New<br />
York state government lawyer<br />
living with his significant other,<br />
Barbara, in Boynton Beach, Fla. I<br />
can’t complain; my health is OK,<br />
although I am a survivor of two or<br />
three bouts with the big C, including<br />
bre<strong>as</strong>t removal, of all things.<br />
Our generation is very lucky in<br />
the quality of the medical care that<br />
we are able to receive. My father,<br />
who w<strong>as</strong> born in Lithuania, p<strong>as</strong>sed<br />
in 1965 when he w<strong>as</strong> 65; even so,<br />
he w<strong>as</strong> fortunate, <strong>as</strong> I w<strong>as</strong>, that he<br />
came to America in 1920, <strong>as</strong> those<br />
who stayed were murdered during<br />
the Holocaust known <strong>as</strong> WWII. I<br />
think of <strong>this</strong> every day of my life<br />
and recollect how fortunate I am<br />
to wake up every morning to see<br />
the blue sky and the puffy white<br />
clouds of Florida, to say nothing<br />
of the ever changing tones of the<br />
Florida sunset.<br />
“I wish you and all our cl<strong>as</strong>smates<br />
good health, continued good<br />
cheer, kindness, love and blessing.”<br />
Frank R. Wilson is now a doctor<br />
at le<strong>as</strong>t two times over, an M.D.<br />
who also w<strong>as</strong> named an Honorary<br />
Doctor of Fine Arts by the M<strong>as</strong>sachusetts<br />
<strong>College</strong> of Art and Design.<br />
He and his wife, Pat, were in<br />
Chicago <strong>this</strong> spring. They, J. Peter<br />
Rosenfeld and his wife, Carmen,<br />
and Frank’s sister, Julie, went to see<br />
Brian Dennehy ’60 in The Iceman<br />
Cometh at the Goodman Theatre.<br />
My wife, Yona, and I joined them<br />
after the show for a very ple<strong>as</strong>ant<br />
dinner.<br />
60<br />
Robert A. Machleder<br />
69-37 Fleet St.<br />
Forest Hills, NY 11375<br />
rmachleder@aol.com<br />
Delighted to hear from Harvey<br />
Sage, who reflects on the values he<br />
acquired at alma mater. “<strong>Columbia</strong><br />
helped me think analytically,” he<br />
writes. “The physics and math<br />
courses prepared me for my first career<br />
<strong>as</strong> a teacher (28 years). My most<br />
notable instructor w<strong>as</strong> Polykarp<br />
Kusch, who once told an FBI agent<br />
to wait outside his office because<br />
he w<strong>as</strong> talking with me, a mere<br />
student. I b<strong>as</strong>ed part of my teaching<br />
style on his ebullience.<br />
“My second career w<strong>as</strong> <strong>as</strong> a<br />
newspaper publisher (15 years).<br />
I attribute my writing skills, <strong>as</strong><br />
meager <strong>as</strong> they were, to the rigors<br />
of communication developed in<br />
our various cl<strong>as</strong>ses.<br />
“The health education course<br />
gave good insights to male/female<br />
relationships, helping me in my<br />
50-plus years of marriage.<br />
“From <strong>Columbia</strong>’s influences I<br />
developed a viable philosophy for<br />
life b<strong>as</strong>ed on fulfilling the will of<br />
my Creator. For when all the many<br />
tre<strong>as</strong>ures and ple<strong>as</strong>ures are talked<br />
about, being a good and faithful<br />
servant overshadows them all.”<br />
Kusch, professor of physics,<br />
w<strong>as</strong> awarded the Nobel Prize in<br />
1955 for his work in atomic and<br />
molecular physics. Curious <strong>as</strong> to<br />
why an FBI agent would be waiting<br />
outside his door — although<br />
perhaps I should not have been<br />
surprised, <strong>as</strong> rumors abounded<br />
that FBI agents were everywhere<br />
and many an unadorned wall<br />
bore the graffiti warning, “FBI<br />
in the Library,” without ever explicitly<br />
saying whether in Butler,<br />
Low Memorial or the 42nd Street<br />
Public — I <strong>as</strong>ked Harvey if he<br />
inquired <strong>as</strong> to the presence of <strong>this</strong><br />
patient agent.<br />
“Nope,” Harvey replied. “Probably<br />
national security. The year w<strong>as</strong><br />
1960. Remember the Cold War? I<br />
w<strong>as</strong> a poor physicist, but Kusch’s<br />
dynamism helped me become a<br />
good teacher and a better human<br />
being. I wrote him a letter a few<br />
years later, thanking him for his<br />
ways. He appreciated it. He rests<br />
with the Creator now and I hope to<br />
see him again at the end of <strong>this</strong> life’s<br />
cycle.”<br />
Irwin Sollinger writes, “Taking<br />
the recent CCT survey motivated<br />
me to send a Cl<strong>as</strong>s Note. I remain in<br />
contact with Irwin Young, especially<br />
when he makes his jaunts to the city.<br />
I also have monthly luncheons with<br />
Sidney Hart; he maintains his psychiatric<br />
practice in Greenwich, and I<br />
am a psychologist in Westport. But<br />
l<strong>as</strong>t week w<strong>as</strong> a ’60 bonanza for me.<br />
[RAM: ‘L<strong>as</strong>t week’ w<strong>as</strong> in fact some<br />
months ago, and while I am grateful<br />
to CCT for conducting its motivating<br />
survey, I can’t say that I recall how<br />
long ago that w<strong>as</strong>.] I met Bob Berne<br />
quite serendipitously at a matinee<br />
and then Michael Hertzberg at<br />
Carnegie Hall. The benefits of an<br />
education in the best college town in<br />
the country continue.”<br />
Our reporting on the loss of Bob<br />
Morgan, and the memorial celebration<br />
of his life, brought <strong>this</strong> note<br />
from Doug Eden.<br />
“I’m very sorry I don’t recall<br />
Bob Morgan, but he w<strong>as</strong> clearly<br />
a man of t<strong>as</strong>te. We evidently both<br />
attended John Gutman’s cl<strong>as</strong>ses<br />
on opera. Gutman w<strong>as</strong> <strong>as</strong>sistant<br />
manager of the Metropolitan<br />
Opera and w<strong>as</strong> resigned to never<br />
succeeding his boss, Rudolph Bing.<br />
Bing disliked Wagner and put on<br />
<strong>as</strong> little of it <strong>as</strong> possible. We were<br />
fortunate to see a Walküre dress<br />
rehearsal. He and Gutman also<br />
were resistant to Strauss’ oper<strong>as</strong><br />
outside the very popular ones such<br />
<strong>as</strong> Der Rosenkavalier. Bob would<br />
have been present when I argued<br />
with Gutman about the merits of<br />
Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten<br />
and he generously permitted me<br />
to present an illustrated analysis of<br />
<strong>this</strong> opera to his cl<strong>as</strong>s. I hope other<br />
colleagues derived satisfaction a<br />
few years later when Frau successfully<br />
entered the Met’s repertoire<br />
soon after Bing’s departure. Gutman<br />
w<strong>as</strong> very generous to me here<br />
in London, too. In 1961, he invited<br />
me to join him in the Duke of Bedford’s<br />
box at Covent Garden for<br />
Rudolf Nureyev’s remarkable London<br />
debut accompanied by Sonia<br />
Arova. Bob and I were indeed very<br />
fortunate in our time at <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
and our choices of courses.”<br />
Doug is a Senior Atlantic Fellow<br />
at the Atlantic Council for the U.K.<br />
and <strong>as</strong>sociate fellow, Institute for<br />
Study of the Americ<strong>as</strong> at the School<br />
of Advanced Study, University of<br />
London.<br />
Astronomer extraordinaire and<br />
science fiction author Thom<strong>as</strong><br />
Wm. Hamilton’s newest book is<br />
Our Neighbor Stars: Including Brown<br />
Dwarfs, in which Tom presents<br />
information about the 100 stars<br />
nearest Earth, <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> the brown<br />
FALL 2012<br />
66<br />
FALL 2012<br />
67
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
dwarfs within the range covered<br />
by such stars. This includes the<br />
visibility of the stars, their size, distance,<br />
color, who discovered them<br />
and how they were discovered,<br />
and observations on the chances<br />
for life on the planets around them.<br />
Big thanks go to the 125 donors<br />
who contributed gifts to the <strong>College</strong><br />
<strong>this</strong> p<strong>as</strong>t fiscal year. As of June<br />
30, the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1960 had raised<br />
more than $700,000. Congratulations,<br />
all.<br />
And finally, a sad note. Josh Pruzansky<br />
advises that Lenny Lustig<br />
’63L died on April 1, 2012, about a<br />
month after being diagnosed with<br />
liver cancer. Lenny w<strong>as</strong> a distinguished<br />
real estate practitioner in<br />
Suffolk County. He is survived by<br />
his wife, Susan; daughter, Caren;<br />
and son, Craig.<br />
The cl<strong>as</strong>s sends its deepest condolences<br />
to Lenny’s family.<br />
61<br />
Michael Hausig<br />
19418 Encino Summit<br />
San Antonio, TX 78259<br />
mhausig@yahoo.com<br />
Tom Lippman traveled to San<br />
Antonio, Richmond, Va., Hartford,<br />
Conn., and other cities <strong>this</strong><br />
spring promoting his latest book,<br />
Saudi Arabia on the Edge, and had<br />
the ple<strong>as</strong>ure of discussing it with<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates at one of Tony Adler’s<br />
monthly lunches in New York. In<br />
June he made his annual visit to<br />
Saudi Arabia to interview government<br />
officials, business people and<br />
academics for a new writing project<br />
b<strong>as</strong>ed at The George W<strong>as</strong>hington<br />
University.<br />
Richard Mace recently realized a<br />
lifelong 770 - goal 787 of being the pianist of<br />
a HAMPTON foursome performing 11oz. (CERAMIC) the Mozart<br />
Piano Quartet in G-minor, K.478, for<br />
a joyous audience of aficionados,<br />
relatives, loved ones and friends;<br />
the concert took place June 5 at<br />
the 92nd St. Y in Manhattan. He<br />
looks forward to expanding his<br />
chamber music repertoire <strong>this</strong> fall<br />
<strong>as</strong> a participant in similar programs<br />
featuring like-minded amateur<br />
musicians. He also is ple<strong>as</strong>ed to<br />
report that his son, Richard Riurik<br />
Mace, recently returned from a<br />
15-day tour of the Holy Lands<br />
(Kuwait, Jordan and Israel) during<br />
which time he educated potential<br />
converts to Evangelical worship via<br />
weeklong workshops of instruction<br />
and example. Meanwhile,<br />
daughter Michelle Margaret Logan<br />
completed her third year <strong>as</strong> the<br />
office manager for a spectacularly<br />
successful (1,400 patients) children’s<br />
dentistry practice in Cumming, Ga.<br />
Both children enjoy spending weekends<br />
cruising Lake Lanier in their<br />
respective power boats, relaxing<br />
away from the crowded agend<strong>as</strong> of<br />
their weekday pursuits.<br />
second edition of their two-volume<br />
work, Solar System Astrophysics, a<br />
daunting t<strong>as</strong>k right now, with the<br />
burgeoning population of known<br />
extr<strong>as</strong>olar planets.<br />
We conclude with some sad<br />
news.<br />
Dr. Barry Jacobs p<strong>as</strong>sed away in<br />
Plano, Tex<strong>as</strong>, in May. Barry served<br />
<strong>as</strong> a doctor in the Navy during<br />
Vietnam and then specialized <strong>as</strong><br />
an ophthalmologist, practicing in<br />
Boston for most of his career. He<br />
semi-retired to New Hampshire<br />
but ended his practice with the<br />
onset of the illness that took his life<br />
a decade later. A few years ago, he<br />
and his wife, Barbara, moved to<br />
Plano, north of Dall<strong>as</strong>, to be near<br />
their daughter Alison, son-inlaw<br />
Michael and grandchildren<br />
Graham and Ariel. Throughout his<br />
long illness, Barry w<strong>as</strong> stoic, dignified<br />
and courageous.<br />
Jack Samet’s wife, Helen, p<strong>as</strong>sed<br />
away, a victim of ovarian cancer.<br />
Jack wrote on his Facebook page<br />
that “words are insufficient to<br />
describe the force of the grief I am<br />
experiencing and the power of the<br />
loving memory she leaves behind.”<br />
The funeral service w<strong>as</strong> held at Mt.<br />
Sinai Chapel, Mt. Sinai Memorial<br />
Park and Mortuary, Los Angeles,<br />
on May 2.<br />
Larry Kline p<strong>as</strong>sed away March<br />
26. He leaves his wife, Bonnie; three<br />
daughters; a son; and several grandchildren.<br />
He had suffered a stroke<br />
some years ago and had not been in<br />
good health since then. Larry w<strong>as</strong> a<br />
prominent psychiatrist in Maryland<br />
for decades. Larry Rubinstein ’60<br />
officiated at the services.<br />
Arthur D. Friedman, a computer<br />
science researcher, professor and<br />
Phil Cottone’s oldest granddaughter,<br />
Megan, graduated<br />
from Villanova Law in May and<br />
her brother, Ryan, who recently<br />
completed his freshman year at<br />
the University of Miami, now h<strong>as</strong><br />
transferred to <strong>Columbia</strong>. That<br />
will make the third generation of<br />
Cottone Lions, including Phil; his<br />
oldest son, Anthony ’80; and now<br />
Ryan ’15. Phil works full-time <strong>as</strong><br />
an active national mediator and<br />
arbitrator specializing in real estate,<br />
securities and lawyer-represented<br />
commercial c<strong>as</strong>es for the American<br />
Arbitration Association, Financial<br />
Industry Regulatory Authority and<br />
the Counselors of Real Estate.<br />
Morris Dickstein gave the Lionel<br />
Trilling lecture at <strong>Columbia</strong> on<br />
May 2. The subject w<strong>as</strong> how movies<br />
gradually took over some of the territory<br />
of fiction in the decades after<br />
the war, which led writers to worry<br />
about the death of the novel.<br />
Bob Rennick ’64E wrote that he<br />
and Mark Franklin ’64E, Mickey<br />
Greenblatt ’62E and Hillel Hoffman<br />
’62E, who were on the 3-2<br />
program with <strong>Columbia</strong> University<br />
School of Engineering (now<br />
called the School of Engineering<br />
and Applied Science) attended<br />
Engineering’s Cl<strong>as</strong>s of ’62 50th<br />
reunion in June and were inducted<br />
into the Golden Lions Society.<br />
Bob also attended the May 23<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s luncheon in Tom Gochberg’s<br />
conference room, where Ira Hayes<br />
gave his annual book report. Our<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates are voracious readers<br />
with impressive recall. During their<br />
visit, Bob and his wife, Lisa, spent<br />
time with some c<strong>as</strong>t members of<br />
The Best Man, including James Earl<br />
Jones.<br />
Gene Milone, professor emeri-<br />
author who lived in San Diego,<br />
tus and the Rothney Astrophysical 1451211 ROE HOWARD p<strong>as</strong>sed away GA770 on October sublimation 24, 2011. FS<br />
Observatory director emeritus,<br />
University of Calgary, cleaned out<br />
his office at the university l<strong>as</strong>t July,<br />
with the conclusion of his second<br />
term <strong>as</strong> faculty professor, and<br />
now works at home. He is awaiting<br />
a partial corneal transplant<br />
and, should it be successful, will<br />
travel to Beijing in August for the<br />
International Astronomical Union<br />
meeting, where <strong>as</strong> president of the<br />
IAU’s Commission on Astronomical<br />
Photometry and Polarimetry<br />
and chair of its Infrared Astronomy<br />
Working Group he will chair a<br />
few sessions. He also plans to<br />
present a paper illustrating a new<br />
distance determination method for<br />
eclipsing binaries in star clusters.<br />
He is working also on several<br />
John Freidin<br />
biographies of <strong>as</strong>tronomers for the<br />
second edition of the Biographical<br />
62<br />
1020 Town Line Rd.<br />
Charlotte, VT 05445<br />
Encyclopedia of Astronomers, including<br />
that of professor Jan Schilt,<br />
jf@bicyclevt.com<br />
chairman of <strong>Columbia</strong>’s Astronomy<br />
Department when we were geous, merry, moving. The campus<br />
Alumni Reunion Weekend w<strong>as</strong> gor-<br />
students. Finally, with a Calgary sparkled — red brick, white granite,<br />
colleague, he is working on the smooth marble. Gone were the<br />
nicotine-stained walls of Hamilton<br />
Hall, replaced with clean <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
blue! Your cl<strong>as</strong>smates were warm,<br />
relaxed, generous, interested and<br />
interesting. About 100 attended,<br />
and during our days together a<br />
sense of commonality and equality<br />
spread among us. Seldom have I<br />
felt <strong>as</strong> good, and I expect everyone<br />
else did <strong>as</strong> well. Wish we had more<br />
50ths to anticipate.<br />
At registration, the <strong>College</strong> presented<br />
each of us with a Cl<strong>as</strong>s of ’62<br />
mug, printed in color with Michael<br />
Stone’s delightful drawing, “Still<br />
Amazing After All These Years,”<br />
celebrating our path from blazers<br />
and ties to jeans, flannel shirts and<br />
an extra 12 lbs. (See the top of the<br />
column.)<br />
Formal events began with an elegant<br />
reception at President Lee C.<br />
Bollinger’s home. Bollinger spoke<br />
of the University’s growth northward<br />
to Manhattanville, its success<br />
raising money for <strong>this</strong> expansion<br />
and the planned opening of several<br />
“global centers” in major cities<br />
abroad, where undergraduates will<br />
simultaneously pursue <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
courses and foreign studies. In Ed<br />
Pressman’s words: “Bollinger’s<br />
comments clearly reflected his<br />
pride in being part of the <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
family.”<br />
During the weekend I <strong>as</strong>ked<br />
nearly everyone to email me 25–50<br />
words about the reunion. Here are<br />
some excerpts:<br />
Tobi<strong>as</strong> Robison: “My first<br />
reunion, mostly people I’d failed to<br />
meet or remember. Trepidation! But<br />
oh, did we all have something in<br />
common. Made friends, heard f<strong>as</strong>cinating<br />
life stories, enjoyed enjoyable<br />
events. Looking forward to 55.”<br />
Phil Lebovitz: “The instant sense<br />
of an intellectual commonality w<strong>as</strong><br />
poignant and warm. Having integrated<br />
the experience of a <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
education, we immediately shared<br />
ide<strong>as</strong> and stimulating conversations.”<br />
Bill Campbell: “I cannot think<br />
of when I had a more wonderful<br />
time. A great ‘reunion’ of people<br />
who really cared about each other.<br />
I w<strong>as</strong> touched and blown away.”<br />
Charlie Freifeld: “I w<strong>as</strong> particularly<br />
glad to see that so many of<br />
my cl<strong>as</strong>smates had lived rich lives<br />
and done really powerful things,<br />
yet were not self-important.”<br />
Michael Stone: “What a reunion<br />
should be: enjoyed [time with] old<br />
friends and made new ones. But<br />
thought a lot about the cl<strong>as</strong>smates<br />
who weren’t with us anymore and<br />
missed the ones who didn’t come.”<br />
Larry Loewinger: “It w<strong>as</strong> a<br />
fun, informative and, ultimately, a<br />
rather touching experience.”<br />
Bernie Patten: “A thousand<br />
thanks to the many people who<br />
spent time, energy and money<br />
making the 50th the success that<br />
it w<strong>as</strong>. And special kudos to Bill<br />
Campbell for the dinner [at Smith<br />
& Wollensky]. It w<strong>as</strong> wonderful<br />
seeing cl<strong>as</strong>smates turned out and<br />
tipsy, having a good time, laughing<br />
and being themselves.”<br />
John Golembe, who flew in from<br />
Germany with his wife, Evelyn: “A<br />
wonderful confirmation of how<br />
fortunate we were to be members of<br />
the <strong>Columbia</strong> Cl<strong>as</strong>s of ’62.”<br />
Jim Spingarn: “Seeing our<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates (and reading the sad list<br />
of those departed) w<strong>as</strong> a very emotional<br />
experience. Like most of us,<br />
I’ve never forgotten what a huge<br />
role <strong>Columbia</strong> played, and continues<br />
to play, in my life. It influences<br />
how I think, what I am p<strong>as</strong>sionate<br />
about and virtually every intellectual<br />
thought I ever have. How<br />
do you beat that? That’s why that<br />
magical reunion meant so much.”<br />
Neilson Abeel: “The greatest<br />
realization I had w<strong>as</strong> how much<br />
more interesting and open we are. I<br />
had wonderful conversations with<br />
people I’d never really spoken to<br />
50 years ago and made connections<br />
that will result in meetings. I<br />
reiterate my thanks to the generous<br />
fellows who hosted the off-campus<br />
events. As Peter Yatrakis said,<br />
‘We’ve got 60 folks crowded onto<br />
a boat for four hours; you’ll really<br />
get to talk with each other.’”<br />
Bill Weissman: “Attending<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>ses and seeing cl<strong>as</strong>smates every<br />
day made it seem like we were<br />
back in school.”<br />
Stan Lupkin: “Most of us have<br />
attended more than our share of reunions.<br />
Can you top <strong>this</strong> 50th? No<br />
way! The spirit and camaraderie<br />
w<strong>as</strong> reminiscent of that day, during<br />
freshman orientation, when, with<br />
our beanies on, we had the ‘Freshman<br />
Rush’ with the tug of war<br />
and Steve Trachtenberg racing to<br />
victory up the gre<strong>as</strong>ed flagpole.<br />
Fifty years. Hard to believe — and<br />
we all look so young!”<br />
Joe Nozzolio: “The vibrancy and<br />
energy of the city. People walking<br />
at all times of day or night. The gorgeous<br />
architecture in Manhattan,<br />
much of it new since my l<strong>as</strong>t visit.<br />
A similar reaction to the <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
campus. Students running to and<br />
fro, beautiful new buildings like the<br />
Northwest Corner Building, where<br />
several lectures were held. Seeing<br />
and speaking with football teammates.<br />
Reviving friendships. Having<br />
interesting conversations with<br />
Ed Pressman and Allen Young.”<br />
David Tucker: “I w<strong>as</strong> very in spired<br />
by the events of our reunion. The<br />
efforts of Stan Lupkin to arrange<br />
our trip to Ground Zero w<strong>as</strong> truly<br />
memorable. Hearing Bill Campbell,<br />
who could be doing anything<br />
anywhere, but w<strong>as</strong> good enough to<br />
express his gratitude to the <strong>College</strong>,<br />
his teachers and his peers, w<strong>as</strong> a<br />
treat. Let’s all raise our mugs and<br />
think of the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of ’62.”<br />
Bill Ross: “Everyone w<strong>as</strong> in<br />
a mellow mood and the mensch<br />
quotient w<strong>as</strong> high.”<br />
Barry Leeds: “I loved everything<br />
about our 50th. More important<br />
than the wonderful events were the<br />
wonderful people: warm, welcoming<br />
and unpretentious 50 years after<br />
they set out to make their indelible<br />
marks upon the world and succeeded<br />
admirably.”<br />
David Wallack: “[My wife,]<br />
Bonnie, and I returned to Colorado,<br />
and agree the weekend w<strong>as</strong> everything<br />
we could have wished for. It<br />
combined meaningful <strong>College</strong>-sponsored<br />
events with cl<strong>as</strong>smate-sponsored<br />
events. I feel I made almost <strong>as</strong><br />
many friendships in four days <strong>as</strong> I<br />
did in four years on campus.”<br />
Allen Small: “What a great reunion!<br />
Kudos to the Reunion Committee<br />
for the magnificent fe<strong>as</strong>ts,<br />
etc. Enjoyed the 9/11 Memorial and<br />
renewal of old friendships. Now I<br />
can enjoy my retirement and plan to<br />
return for our next reunion.”<br />
Peter Shrager: “Fifty years ago<br />
I would not have predicted that so<br />
many of us would still be professionally<br />
active. Having the lectures<br />
reflect the Core reinforced the<br />
uniqueness of our education.”<br />
Bob Umans: “What a bl<strong>as</strong>t!<br />
We’re the best! Vive le Cl<strong>as</strong>s of ’62!”<br />
Jeff Milstein put his thoughts<br />
into a poem, 50th <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
Reunion:<br />
“Here we are:<br />
“Eating and drinking,<br />
“Talking, remembering, and<br />
embracing,<br />
“In the very place<br />
“With the very men<br />
“And their engaging women,<br />
“With whom we had studied<br />
and striven,<br />
“Laughed and cried,<br />
“Half a century ago; and<br />
“Who somehow, each by different<br />
ways,<br />
“Had amazingly become<br />
“Who we are now.<br />
“Cheers! To Life!”<br />
Even the notes from cl<strong>as</strong>smates<br />
who were not present were touching.<br />
Joe Romanelli: “I tried my<br />
darnedest to make it. Flew into<br />
New York from Israel and readied<br />
myself for the big event. Then,<br />
four days before the start, my son<br />
called from Jerusalem to announce<br />
the birth of his first child, a son,<br />
and I had to be there for the ritual<br />
circumcision. So I changed my<br />
ticket and returned to Jerusalem.<br />
… I’m sorry to have missed it and<br />
hope you’ll visit me in Jerusalem.”<br />
You can email Joe at romazaid@<br />
romazaid.info.<br />
David Nathan: “My wife and I<br />
still work, and our signals crossed.<br />
She booked us on a trip to Italy<br />
beginning on reunion Friday, but I<br />
had one glorious day, Thursday, at<br />
the reunion. A great experience!”<br />
Frank Grady: “I missed the event<br />
because I w<strong>as</strong> stupid. I’d made<br />
reservations to spend the weekend<br />
in Reykjavik with my wife long<br />
before I realized <strong>this</strong> w<strong>as</strong> our 50th,<br />
and I could not change the date.<br />
Sorry. I miss y’all. I’ll try to be there<br />
for the 55th.”<br />
Richard Mace ’61 played piano in a foursome performing<br />
Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G-minor, K.478,<br />
in a concert held at the 92nd St. Y in Manhattan.<br />
John Joyce: “Early <strong>this</strong> year I contacted<br />
six cl<strong>as</strong>smates, all of whom<br />
were waiters with me at Johnson<br />
Hall, to determine if any were going<br />
to the ‘official’ reunion. Our discussions<br />
led to a planned gathering of<br />
Ron Meyer, Rich Wright, Bill Davidson,<br />
Charlie Lyons, Larry G<strong>as</strong>ton,<br />
myself and our spouses here in<br />
W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C., in October. That<br />
will be our reunion, and I’ll send a<br />
picture or two for Cl<strong>as</strong>s Notes.”<br />
Crawford Kilian: “Just too busy!<br />
Doing a lot of writing, including<br />
<strong>this</strong> article on how I experienced<br />
a stroke in January: thetyee.ca/<br />
Life/2012/03/03/My-Scan-Health-<br />
Care.”<br />
You can email Crawford at crof@<br />
shaw.ca.<br />
Armando Favazza: “I had already<br />
traveled to New York twice in the<br />
p<strong>as</strong>t month and couldn’t handle<br />
more travel for the reunion. My first<br />
trip w<strong>as</strong> for a National Geographic<br />
TV shoot on body modification and<br />
the second w<strong>as</strong> to attend a psychiatric<br />
conference at the wonderful<br />
Angel Orensanz Center in the oldest<br />
synagogue in New York. Otherwise I<br />
would have attended for sure.”<br />
Several cl<strong>as</strong>smates suggested that<br />
we pool our photographs. If you<br />
email yours to me at jf@bicyclervt.<br />
com, I’ll put them together. But I<br />
hope someone more Internet-savvy<br />
than I will offer to put them on a<br />
website where we all can view them.<br />
Four cl<strong>as</strong>smates arranged and<br />
hosted extraordinary off-campus<br />
events. On Thursday evening, Burt<br />
Lehman and his wife, Brenda,<br />
gave a festive cocktail party at the<br />
distinguished Harmonie Club on<br />
E<strong>as</strong>t 60th Street, off Fifth Avenue.<br />
On Friday morning, Peter Yatrakis<br />
took us on a glorious four-hour<br />
cruise of New York harbor. In brilliant<br />
sunshine we motored from<br />
E<strong>as</strong>t 23rd Street on the E<strong>as</strong>t River,<br />
north beneath the Brooklyn, Manhattan<br />
and Williamsburg Bridges.<br />
The morning light accentuated the<br />
crisp lines and soaring profiles of<br />
Manhattan architecture. We came<br />
about and glided southward p<strong>as</strong>t<br />
the Statue of Liberty and Ellis<br />
Island. All the while we talked and<br />
laughed and contr<strong>as</strong>ted what we<br />
saw with what we remembered <strong>as</strong><br />
students. As lunch w<strong>as</strong> served we<br />
p<strong>as</strong>sed the Financial District, the<br />
gleaming One World Trade Center<br />
and the new residential towers<br />
of Jersey City and Hoboken. Few<br />
aboard wanted to disembark when<br />
our voyage concluded at 2 p.m.<br />
Later, we re<strong>as</strong>sembled at Third<br />
Avenue and E<strong>as</strong>t 49th Street for<br />
the evening of a lifetime at New<br />
York’s quintessential steakhouse,<br />
Smith & Wollensky. Bill Campbell<br />
hosted us in an enormous private<br />
dining room; there were magnificent<br />
cocktails, trays of cold lobster<br />
and shrimp that must have taken<br />
steroids and then hot, thick steaks<br />
prepared precisely <strong>as</strong> we ordered.<br />
We regaled one another with<br />
stories, laughed with dear friends<br />
and hugged enough to compensate<br />
for our staid male upbringings of<br />
the 1950s. Writing about it makes<br />
me yearn for a cold martini, iced<br />
shrimp and the men with whom I<br />
share so much good fortune.<br />
Thanks, Bill! All that w<strong>as</strong> missing<br />
were those of you who could<br />
not make it.<br />
On Saturday evening at the gala<br />
dinner in Low Library, cl<strong>as</strong>s president<br />
Paul Alter presented Dean<br />
James J. Valentini with our Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
Gift. Thanks to extraordinarily<br />
generous lead gifts from Jerry<br />
Speyer and Bill Campbell — p<strong>as</strong>t<br />
and current chairs of the University<br />
Board of Trustees, respectively<br />
— we contributed $1.13 million to<br />
the <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Fund, the<br />
highest ever from a 50th reunion<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s.<br />
Activities concluded Sunday<br />
morning when Stan Lupkin hosted<br />
a private tour for us of One World<br />
Trade Center, now New York’s<br />
tallest building. Since 2007 Stan h<strong>as</strong><br />
been the integrity monitor for the<br />
construction of <strong>this</strong> skyscraper. He<br />
and his staff of attorneys, former<br />
FBI agents, forensic accountants and<br />
engineers identify and investigate<br />
fraud, corruption and labor racketeering,<br />
all of which have plagued<br />
the New York construction industry.<br />
“For me,” said Stan, “it’s a very<br />
special <strong>as</strong>signment, <strong>as</strong> I performed<br />
the same function at Ground Zero<br />
after the 9-11 attack.”<br />
Burt Lehman described the tour<br />
<strong>this</strong> way: “We were guided by a<br />
Port Authority construction official<br />
who described plans for the entire<br />
site, especially One World Trade<br />
FALL 2012<br />
68<br />
FALL 2012<br />
69
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
Robert Shlaer ’63 Recreates<br />
History Through Daguerreotype<br />
Though he w<strong>as</strong> born<br />
and educated on the<br />
E<strong>as</strong>t Co<strong>as</strong>t, Robert<br />
Shlaer ’63, ’66 GSAS<br />
is a westerner at heart. Sure,<br />
he looks the part, with his thick<br />
beard, flannel shirt and suspenders,<br />
but it runs deeper than<br />
that. Shlaer is a westerner in<br />
that older, more romantic sense<br />
of the word: He’s an individualist,<br />
determined to carve out his<br />
own path wherever it may lead.<br />
And sometimes it leads to<br />
someone else’s path. For nearly<br />
two decades, Shlaer h<strong>as</strong> been<br />
exploring America’s western<br />
landscape with a camera in tow,<br />
retracing the steps of the great<br />
explorers of centuries p<strong>as</strong>t. He<br />
B y Justin DeFreita s<br />
h<strong>as</strong> sought both to recreate and<br />
expand on the work of the pioneering<br />
artists and daguer re otype<br />
photographers who documented<br />
these 19th-century expeditions,<br />
capturing the same vist<strong>as</strong> that<br />
were once framed in the viewfinders<br />
of his predecessors.<br />
Shlaer considers daguerreotype<br />
— the silvery images that<br />
reigned from 1839–60 <strong>as</strong> the<br />
first commercially viable form of<br />
photography — to be “the most<br />
beautiful of all forms of photography.”<br />
But it’s hardly the most<br />
reliable. “My first and greatest<br />
love remains the landscape,” he<br />
says, “so with a process <strong>as</strong> given<br />
to failure <strong>as</strong> daguerreotypy, it<br />
is comforting to know that the<br />
Self-portrait in Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, May 1998.<br />
subject will be there tomorrow<br />
for another try.”<br />
Shlaer w<strong>as</strong> born in Manhattan<br />
and raised in New Mexico,<br />
where his father, Simon Shlaer<br />
’24, ’37 GSAS, w<strong>as</strong> an engineer<br />
at Los Alamos National Laboratory.<br />
By Shlaer’s own admission,<br />
his academic career w<strong>as</strong> an<br />
exercise in expedience. Though<br />
his family put a premium on<br />
education, Shlaer applied to the<br />
<strong>College</strong> more because it made<br />
its admissions decisions earlier<br />
than other schools. “I figured<br />
that if I got accepted, I wouldn’t<br />
have to put any effort into applying<br />
elsewhere,” he says.<br />
He started out studying physics<br />
but became disenchanted<br />
and made a late switch to art<br />
history, primarily because it w<strong>as</strong><br />
the only degree that could be<br />
completed in two years. Later,<br />
he pursued a m<strong>as</strong>ter’s in experimental<br />
psychology at <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
in part, he says, <strong>as</strong> a means of<br />
avoiding the draft, then moved<br />
on to thesis work in neurophysiology<br />
at Rochester before earning<br />
a Ph.D. in neurophysiology<br />
and sensory psychology from<br />
Chicago in 1971.<br />
For a few years Shlaer continued<br />
in academia, working <strong>as</strong><br />
a researcher and lecturer in the<br />
Department of Neurosurgery at<br />
Northwestern University Medical<br />
School, but he struggled<br />
with the desire for a different<br />
career. It w<strong>as</strong> an “escapist<br />
fant<strong>as</strong>y” that had crystallized<br />
during his tenure<br />
at <strong>Columbia</strong>, when he<br />
had seen an exhibit of<br />
works by Ansel Adams at<br />
the Museum of Modern<br />
Art. Adams’ imagery invoked<br />
a longing in Shlaer<br />
to wander and document<br />
the western landscape.<br />
In the mid-1970s, newly<br />
inspired by a quote from<br />
Adams in which he declared<br />
the daguerreotype<br />
the benchmark against<br />
which he me<strong>as</strong>ured his<br />
own creations, Shlaer<br />
decided to take up the<br />
moribund medium.<br />
Shlaer immersed himself<br />
in the craft, embarking<br />
on a project of selfeducation.<br />
He ordered<br />
customized plates from<br />
a commercial manufacturer<br />
and hand-built the<br />
necessary equipment for<br />
preparing and developing<br />
them and for handling<br />
the toxic chemicals the<br />
process requires. (In<br />
daguerreotypy, an image<br />
is captured on a polished<br />
and chemically treated<br />
layer of silver atop a<br />
copper plate and must be<br />
developed in short order<br />
by exposing the plate to<br />
mercury vapors.) After<br />
six months of refining his<br />
technique, Shlaer left his<br />
academic life behind and<br />
returned to New Mexico,<br />
determined to make his<br />
living <strong>as</strong> a daguerreotypist.<br />
He quickly realized,<br />
however, that he didn’t<br />
have the money or the<br />
facilities to get his new<br />
career off the ground.<br />
What followed w<strong>as</strong> an<br />
extended period of peripatetic<br />
employment that<br />
included tutoring at St.<br />
John’s <strong>College</strong> in Santa Fe<br />
<strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> an eight-year<br />
stint crafting and selling<br />
custom woodwind instruments.<br />
By the mid-1980s Shlaer<br />
finally felt that he had everything<br />
he needed to make<br />
a go of it. He promoted<br />
himself <strong>as</strong> “The World’s<br />
Only Full-Time Professional<br />
Daguerreotypist” and sold<br />
his work in local galleries<br />
before beginning the project<br />
that would become<br />
his magnum opus: the<br />
recreation of the lost daguerreotypes<br />
of Solomon Nunes<br />
Carvalho, the young photographer<br />
hired by famed explorer<br />
John C. Frémont to document<br />
his final expedition, in 1853, in<br />
search of a viable central route<br />
for a transcontinental railroad.<br />
Though Carvalho’s plates<br />
were lost in a warehouse fire in<br />
1881, many of his images had<br />
been copied by engravers for<br />
use <strong>as</strong> illustrations in a book<br />
Frémont w<strong>as</strong> planning. Shlaer<br />
w<strong>as</strong> intrigued by the idea of<br />
recreating them in their original<br />
form, a project that combined<br />
all of his talents and p<strong>as</strong>sions:<br />
the delicate daguerreotyping<br />
process called upon his scientific<br />
and technical skills, the<br />
photography itself summoned<br />
the artist in him and the exacting<br />
research not only made use<br />
of his art history background<br />
but also provided an outlet for<br />
his admittedly obsessive nature.<br />
Shlaer outfitted his minivan<br />
<strong>as</strong> a mobile laboratory and<br />
Wetterhorn Peak, Colo., from the Forks of the Cimarron River, July 1996.<br />
PHOTOS: ROBERT SHLAER ’63, ’66 GSAS<br />
began retracing Frémont’s<br />
route, tracking down every site<br />
that Carvalho photographed.<br />
“I w<strong>as</strong> able to find all of the<br />
scenes in the engravings and<br />
redaguerreotype them,” Shlaer<br />
says. “I filled in the rest of<br />
the expedition from surviving<br />
written descriptions, from my<br />
knowledge of the route and<br />
from my imagination, which I<br />
attempted to synchronize with<br />
that of Frémont and Carvalho.”<br />
“Bob’s a remarkable person,”<br />
says John Morton, a retired<br />
chemistry professor from Western<br />
New Mexico University and<br />
longtime friend of Shlaer. Morton<br />
is himself a photographer,<br />
his interest having begun with<br />
his study of old photographic<br />
processes. But Morton h<strong>as</strong><br />
never attempted daguerreotypy.<br />
“Too rich for my blood,” he says.<br />
“It’s very expensive and very<br />
difficult.”<br />
Morton testifies to Shlaer’s<br />
perfectionism. “If a daguerreotype<br />
turns out poorly he’ll wipe<br />
it off the plate,” Morton says.<br />
“I’ve seen him wipe away images<br />
I would have been proud to<br />
have caught.”<br />
Shlaer explains himself differently.<br />
“I lack self-discipline,” he<br />
says, arguing that the singleminded<br />
focus with which he<br />
pursues his p<strong>as</strong>sions is more<br />
vice than virtue. “It’s just another<br />
form of excess.”<br />
Shlaer’s “excess” resulted<br />
in a book, Sights Once Seen:<br />
Daguerreotyping Frémont’s L<strong>as</strong>t<br />
Expedition Through the Rockies,<br />
which recreates Carvalho’s lost<br />
imagery and provides a lucid<br />
and thoroughly researched account<br />
of Frémont’s expedition,<br />
correcting the historical record<br />
of a journey that had generated<br />
much myth and misinformation<br />
during the preceding century<br />
and a half. Shlaer spent four<br />
years researching the expedition<br />
in archives across the<br />
country and photographing the<br />
images out west. He spent another<br />
year writing the book and<br />
preparing a museum exhibition<br />
that traveled the country for<br />
five years. “It w<strong>as</strong> the culmination<br />
of my career,” Shlaer says.<br />
But he’s not finished. His<br />
current project h<strong>as</strong> him photographing<br />
another western trek,<br />
that of topographic sketch artist<br />
Richard Kern, who created the<br />
first visual documentation of<br />
the Rocky Mountains <strong>as</strong> part of<br />
the Gunnison Expedition, which<br />
also took place in 1853. Shlaer<br />
is using conventional photography<br />
<strong>this</strong> time, and the result<br />
will be another book, <strong>this</strong> one<br />
due in 2013. “When <strong>as</strong>ked my<br />
occupation, I now call myself<br />
a ‘visual historian of western<br />
exploration,’” Shlaer says. “And<br />
if pressed further I add, ‘specializing<br />
in the year 1853.’”<br />
To see more photographs by<br />
Shlaer, go to Web Extr<strong>as</strong> at<br />
college.columbia.edu/cct.<br />
Justin DeFreit<strong>as</strong> is a Bay Area<br />
writer, editor and cartoonist.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
70<br />
FALL 2012<br />
71
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
Center. Wearing hard hats, we were<br />
hoisted to the 39th floor, where<br />
we gazed over a panorama of the<br />
scene and its surroundings. We<br />
then toured the 9/11 Memorial, in<br />
particular the two impressive pools<br />
of moving water, which are surrounded<br />
by the names of all who<br />
perished in the dis<strong>as</strong>ter.”<br />
The Reunion Committee, consisting<br />
of George Abodeely, Paul<br />
Alter, Lester Hoffman, Richard<br />
Kobrin, Burt Lehman, Stan Lupkin,<br />
Ed Pressman, Leo Swergold,<br />
Peter Yatrakis and myself, clearly<br />
outdid itself.<br />
REUNION WEEKEND<br />
MAY 30–JUNE 2, 2013<br />
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS<br />
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Fatima Yudeh<br />
fy2165@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7834<br />
DEVELOPMENT Valentina Salkow<br />
vs2441@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7833<br />
63<br />
Paul Neshamkin<br />
1015 W<strong>as</strong>hington St.,<br />
Apt. 50<br />
Hoboken, NJ 07030<br />
pauln@helpauthors.com<br />
Our 50th reunion is only nine<br />
months away! If you haven’t<br />
already marked your calendar for<br />
Wednesday, May 29–Sunday, June<br />
2, 2013, do it now. This is the big<br />
one and none of us should miss it.<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> and the Reunion Committee<br />
are planning a memorable<br />
weekend. If you want to join the<br />
committee or have suggestions for<br />
our program, ple<strong>as</strong>e contact me<br />
or the appropriate staff member,<br />
noted at the top of the column.<br />
On Cl<strong>as</strong>s Day, May 15, Henry<br />
Black, Doron Gopstein, Harvey<br />
Cantor and Lee Lowenfish joined<br />
me for the annual Alumni Parade of<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>ses and helped carry the Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
of 1963 banner (Don Margolis, who<br />
h<strong>as</strong> joined me in p<strong>as</strong>t years, had to<br />
cancel at the l<strong>as</strong>t minute). Harvey’s<br />
youngest daughter, Elizabeth ’12,<br />
graduated that day. Congratulations<br />
to both! This event is great fun,<br />
a wonderful opportunity to join<br />
graduates and their families at one<br />
of the most joyful days of their lives.<br />
Join us next year.<br />
Larry Neuman and Herb Soroca<br />
joined me at the annual crew reunion<br />
and lunch at Gould/Remmer Boathouse<br />
for oarsmen from the ’50s and<br />
’60s. It w<strong>as</strong> great to see so many guys<br />
from the early ’60s. Next year, let’s<br />
get all the rowers from ’63 to come<br />
out on the Friday of reunion. I’ll be<br />
calling each of you!<br />
I’m sad to report that Yoshi<br />
Fujisawa h<strong>as</strong> died. His daughter,<br />
Natsuko, writes, “I regret to inform<br />
you that my father, Yoshiharu<br />
(Yoshi) Fujisawa, p<strong>as</strong>sed away on<br />
March 15, 2012, due to pancreatic<br />
cancer. He retired in June 2011<br />
from the CEO/chairman position<br />
of Internix, which he founded in<br />
1970.”<br />
I also learned that William F.<br />
Finley Jr. died in NYC on April<br />
14, 2012. Bill met Brian De Palma<br />
’62 at <strong>Columbia</strong> and w<strong>as</strong> in the<br />
core group that joined him to bring<br />
coeducation to Sarah Lawrence.<br />
He w<strong>as</strong> an actor in many of Brian’s<br />
films, most memorably <strong>as</strong> the star<br />
of Phantom of the Paradise (1974).<br />
Ken Ostberg writes, “My wife,<br />
Andi, and I have been happily and<br />
busily retired for seven years and<br />
p<strong>as</strong>s most of the year in Winston-<br />
Salem, N.C. We recently celebrated<br />
our 30th anniversary, share good<br />
health, remain active and involved<br />
in the community and, when we’re<br />
not in Winston, are someplace else<br />
on the globe. I recently returned<br />
from five weeks in Japan, South<br />
Korea and China. We head to the<br />
shores (e<strong>as</strong>t and west) of Lake<br />
Michigan in late July, followed<br />
by a couple of weeks in Toronto,<br />
the queen city of North America.<br />
We’re also planning for a fall trip to<br />
Scandinavia. Our older daughter,<br />
Kristen, is a special education<br />
teacher working with severe and<br />
multiply-handicapped children,<br />
and Adrienne, our younger, completes<br />
her M.F.A. in documentary<br />
film at UNC Greensboro in May.<br />
While both are in serious relationships,<br />
neither is married and there<br />
are, <strong>as</strong> yet, no grandchildren. Andi<br />
hopes that situation changes soon<br />
because she desperately wants to<br />
be a grandmother. Life is good!”<br />
Marty Greenfield writes, “I am<br />
married with three children and<br />
four grandchildren. My eldest<br />
daughter is a <strong>College</strong> alumna,<br />
Elizabeth ’91. I am an endocrinologist<br />
in a large group practice in Lake<br />
Success, N.Y. I am on the governing<br />
council of The Medical Society<br />
of The State of New York, having<br />
previously been president of the<br />
N<strong>as</strong>sau County Medical Society. I<br />
also am on the Board of Directors of<br />
the Lower New York Chapter of the<br />
American Association of Clinical<br />
Endocrinologists. In my spare time,<br />
I serve on several committees of the<br />
North Shore-LIJ Health System.”<br />
Barry Reiss reports that David<br />
Rubinson now lives in France.<br />
David, let us know more about<br />
your life’s adventures!<br />
Henry Black h<strong>as</strong> written Hypertension,<br />
A Companion to Braunwald’s<br />
Heart Dise<strong>as</strong>e, which w<strong>as</strong> recently<br />
published.<br />
Roland Droitsch writes, “I live in<br />
W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C., a stone’s throw<br />
from the Capitol. Am having a family<br />
get-together and it will be a joy<br />
for me. Am retired after spending<br />
years in the federal government <strong>as</strong><br />
the deputy <strong>as</strong>sistant secretary for<br />
policy at the U.S. Department of<br />
Labor. Think about <strong>Columbia</strong> and<br />
the good times there. I have not<br />
heard from Michael Silbert and<br />
would like to get a brief notice, if<br />
possible.”<br />
Michael, write Roland (and me).<br />
Paul Reale will have a CD rele<strong>as</strong>ed<br />
of his complete violin works,<br />
performed by Jessica Mathaes, on<br />
the Centaur label <strong>this</strong> fall.<br />
If you live in the Bay Area, you<br />
should get on Mike Nolan’s email<br />
list. I enjoy it even from the E<strong>as</strong>t<br />
Co<strong>as</strong>t. Mike always h<strong>as</strong> something<br />
interesting going, a musical<br />
evening, a party at a local venue or<br />
even genealogical research.<br />
You can reach Mike at mikey<br />
davy@gmail.com.<br />
Mike Lubell writes, “Laura<br />
Appelman and I were married l<strong>as</strong>t<br />
December in a small ceremony<br />
conducted by Joette Katz, commissioner<br />
of the Connecticut Department<br />
of Children and Families and<br />
a former Connecticut Supreme<br />
Court justice. Laura, who hails<br />
from Chicago, is an artist, currently<br />
working in polymer clay. Her new<br />
focus is on unique handcrafted<br />
jewelry, which garnered attention<br />
at spring craft shows in New York<br />
and Chicago (lauraappelman.com).<br />
“My daughter, Karina ’02, does<br />
antitrust work for Shearman and<br />
Sterling. She lives in W<strong>as</strong>hington,<br />
D.C., and is celebrating her fifth<br />
anniversary with her husband,<br />
Romain, who works at KPMG in<br />
Tyson’s Corner, Va.<br />
“I commute weekly (or more) between<br />
New York and W<strong>as</strong>hington,<br />
carrying out my physics teaching<br />
duties at CCNY and public affairs<br />
work for the American Physical<br />
Society (APS) from a suite in the<br />
National Press Building. Amtrak<br />
and Delta love me.<br />
“I’ve pioneered an interactive<br />
mode of teaching to keep 300 students<br />
engaged in intro <strong>as</strong>tronomy.<br />
Using a wireless, hand-held mic, I<br />
roam the lecture hall playing Jerry<br />
Springer, but without the pathos,<br />
engaging the students with Q&A<br />
throughout. The students love it<br />
and their grades demonstrate its<br />
success. I also teach a seminar on<br />
science, science policy and politics<br />
to students in CUNY’s Macaulay<br />
Honors <strong>College</strong>.<br />
“In W<strong>as</strong>hington, I run a successful<br />
public affairs group for APS,<br />
which now counts seven members,<br />
who focus on science lobbying,<br />
policy and media. In addition I<br />
have become a board member of<br />
the T<strong>as</strong>k Force on American Innovation<br />
and a consultant to Our<br />
Energy Policy Foundation.<br />
“Most recently, I have begun<br />
another gig <strong>as</strong> an opinion writer<br />
for Roll Call, one of the three Capitol<br />
Hill newspapers (circulation<br />
20,000). I write the ‘Inside the Beltway’<br />
column for APS News, which<br />
reaches 50,000 readers worldwide.<br />
“So my life continues to be busy<br />
and enjoyable, so much so that I<br />
don’t even think about retirement.”<br />
Bill Burley writes, “Separated<br />
my left shoulder in a bike cr<strong>as</strong>h in<br />
Hungary. Nevertheless, I am training<br />
on the bike and w<strong>as</strong> planning<br />
to race up Mt. W<strong>as</strong>hington on July<br />
7. Fortunately I’m racing against<br />
others in our age group, so if some<br />
20- and 30-somethings beat me, so<br />
be it. I’ll send a photo from the top<br />
when (not if) I get there.”<br />
Bob Heller writes, “My son,<br />
David, w<strong>as</strong> honored by Prep for<br />
Prep at its annual dinner for his<br />
contributions to the work of that<br />
organization, which is an educational<br />
leadership development program<br />
that prepares selected innercity<br />
kids of color, places them at<br />
independent schools and provides<br />
them with ongoing support and<br />
life-changing opportunities. Following<br />
secondary school, the v<strong>as</strong>t<br />
majority pursue their educations at<br />
Ivy League and other highly competitive<br />
colleges. Since the program<br />
began, 111 Prep for Prep students<br />
have graduated from <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
and 26 are enrolled; 156 have gone<br />
to Harvard, David’s alma mater.<br />
“My daughter, Pamela Heller,<br />
a Brown alumna, is president of<br />
Project Morry, another successful<br />
program for inner-city kids. A<br />
year-round youth development<br />
organization, it offers each child a<br />
multi-year commitment anchored<br />
by a residential summer camp<br />
experience each year. The children,<br />
for whom these experiences would<br />
not otherwise be available, benefit<br />
from a network of support and gain<br />
incre<strong>as</strong>ed social skills, enhanced<br />
self-esteem, positive core values<br />
and a greater sense of personal<br />
responsibility. Many of them go on<br />
to college <strong>as</strong> well. Pam h<strong>as</strong> been on<br />
the board for several years, <strong>as</strong> h<strong>as</strong><br />
David.<br />
“My wife, Amy, and I (we cele -<br />
brated our 47th anniversary in July)<br />
are proud of both David and Pam.<br />
Yes, there is that one blemish; I<br />
could not persuade either to go to<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong>, but we’ll see about the<br />
grandchildren, the oldest of whom<br />
is only 9. Not too early to start lobbying.”<br />
David Orme-Johnson writes, “As<br />
it turns out, <strong>this</strong> is an active time in<br />
my career. I got a review paper accepted<br />
on the effects of transcendental<br />
meditation on coronary heart dise<strong>as</strong>e<br />
(blood pressure, cardiov<strong>as</strong>cular<br />
reactivity to stressors, congestive<br />
heart dise<strong>as</strong>e, angina, atherosclerosis<br />
and left ventricular hypertrophy). I<br />
also recently completed a year learning<br />
about meta-analysis and recently<br />
submitted my first one on the effects<br />
of TM on perceptual-motor behavior<br />
under time pressure (rapid fire pistol<br />
shooting, driving speed, 50-meter<br />
d<strong>as</strong>h, etc.).<br />
“My wife, Rhoda, and I recently<br />
went to her 50th V<strong>as</strong>sar reunion;<br />
it w<strong>as</strong> so fun and inspiring being<br />
around all those intelligent and<br />
lively people that I definitely want<br />
to come to our 50th next year. We<br />
are now on an extension of that<br />
trip through Vermont, Quebec and<br />
New Hampshire, sightseeing and<br />
visiting friends and family; I’m also<br />
doing watercolors of the beautiful<br />
landscapes. We gave some lectures<br />
on TM in Quebec — Rhoda on her<br />
book of Maharishi on language<br />
and literature, which she delivered<br />
in French, and me on the TM<br />
research, delivered in jargon. Hope<br />
everyone comes to our reunion.”<br />
Frank Sypher is the author of<br />
Strangers and Pilgrims: A Centennial<br />
History of The Laymen’s Club of<br />
the Cathedral Church of Saint John<br />
the Divine. The Laymen’s Club,<br />
founded in 1908, h<strong>as</strong> sponsored<br />
numerous projects in the construction<br />
of the cathedral, especially the<br />
Pilgrims’ Pavement, dedicated in<br />
1934. Since then the club h<strong>as</strong> supported<br />
many other additions to the<br />
cathedral, especially of sculpture<br />
and other structural features. The<br />
club played a prominent role in<br />
observances at the reopening of the<br />
cathedral in 2008 after a program<br />
of renovation. Other volumes of<br />
church history by Frank include St.<br />
James’ Church in the City of New York<br />
1810–2010 and St. Agnes Chapel of<br />
the Parish of Trinity Church in the<br />
City of New York 1892–1943.<br />
Harley Frankel reports that his<br />
nonprofit <strong>College</strong> Match had its<br />
best year ever in getting lowincome<br />
students into the nation’s<br />
great colleges. For details, visit<br />
collegematchla.org.<br />
Jerry D. Glickson, professor of<br />
radiology and director of molecular<br />
imaging at the University of<br />
Pennsylvania School of Medicine,<br />
w<strong>as</strong> awarded the Gold Medal from<br />
the International Society of Magnetic<br />
Resonance in Medicine for<br />
introduction of nuclear magnetic<br />
resonance spectroscopy to the<br />
study and management of cancer.<br />
The award w<strong>as</strong> made in Montreal,<br />
Canada, on May 9, 2011, and w<strong>as</strong><br />
shared with John R. Griffiths of<br />
Cambridge.<br />
Steve Barcan is celebrating his<br />
70th birthday by taking his whole<br />
family (12 people) on a cruise to<br />
Bermuda, where he and his wife,<br />
Bettye ’65 Barnard, honeymooned<br />
in 1965. He met her 50 years ago at<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> when she w<strong>as</strong> a Barnard<br />
freshman.<br />
Gershon Levinson writes, “I am<br />
president of Northern California<br />
Anesthesia Physicians. My<br />
youngest son, Jonathan ’12 SIPA,<br />
did five years <strong>as</strong> an Army infantry<br />
officer and then went to SIPA for a<br />
m<strong>as</strong>ter’s. My oldest son, Charles, is<br />
Jerusalem bureau chief for The Wall<br />
Street Journal.” Gershon added, “I<br />
definitely plan to attend reunion.”<br />
Ken M<strong>as</strong>ter is a retired physician<br />
splitting his year between<br />
Boynton Beach, Fla., and NYC. He<br />
plays golf regularly with David<br />
Saxe, who still is a justice in the<br />
Appellate Division, First Judicial<br />
Department of New York. Both<br />
came to our cl<strong>as</strong>s lunch in June<br />
along with seven of our regulars.<br />
The Cl<strong>as</strong>s of ’63 lunches at the<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> University Club of New<br />
York are a great place to reconnect.<br />
If you’re in NYC, try to make one<br />
of the next few; they’re scheduled<br />
for September 13, October 11 and<br />
November 8 (always the second<br />
Thursday). Check out cc63ers.com<br />
for details.<br />
In the meantime, make plans for<br />
attending our 50th reunion! And,<br />
<strong>as</strong> always, let us know what you<br />
are up to, how you’re doing and<br />
what’s next.<br />
64<br />
Norman Olch<br />
233 Broadway<br />
New York, NY 10279<br />
norman@nolch.com<br />
As I write <strong>this</strong> note in June, we<br />
have just had our final informal<br />
monthly cl<strong>as</strong>s lunch before the<br />
summer break. In May and June,<br />
the following cl<strong>as</strong>smates attended:<br />
Joel Abramson, Steve C<strong>as</strong>e, Marty<br />
Isserlis, Howard Jacobson, Gil<br />
Kahn, Fred Kantor, Larry Kessler,<br />
Beril Lapson, Jeff Newman, Nick<br />
Rudd and Allen Tobi<strong>as</strong>. Bernard<br />
Catalinotto, visiting New York from<br />
Mill Valley, Calif., joined us, too.<br />
He is a cartographer (mymapbook.<br />
com) and it w<strong>as</strong> f<strong>as</strong>cinating to hear<br />
and see the latest developments and<br />
techniques in mapmaking.<br />
Steve C<strong>as</strong>e, who retired <strong>as</strong> a<br />
University trustee in 2011 after 14<br />
years, h<strong>as</strong> co-authored Treacherous<br />
Beauty: Peggy Shippen, the Woman<br />
Behind Benedict Arnold’s Plot to Betray<br />
America [see Bookshelf].<br />
Gil Kahn h<strong>as</strong> a blog, Kahntentions,<br />
at njjewishnews.com/kahn<br />
tentions.<br />
Larry Kessler had aortic valve<br />
replacement surgery and now h<strong>as</strong> a<br />
cow’s valve in his heart. Larry is the<br />
Richard J. Cardali Distinguished Professor<br />
of Trial Advocacy at Hof stra<br />
Law. He h<strong>as</strong> been accompanying his<br />
wife, Barbara Barron, to far-off places<br />
such <strong>as</strong> Moscow, Tbilisi, Georgia and<br />
Paris, where Barbara h<strong>as</strong> been giving<br />
programs in trial advocacy. According<br />
to Larry, he h<strong>as</strong> the greatest<br />
appearance of success in our cl<strong>as</strong>s,<br />
with the le<strong>as</strong>t amount of work!<br />
Beril Lapson h<strong>as</strong> been traveling<br />
to China and Mexico on business.<br />
He and his wife, Ellen ’69 Barnard,<br />
have become grandparents.<br />
Jeff Newman, a horse racing<br />
fan, attended <strong>this</strong> year’s running<br />
of the Belmont Stakes. Jeff saw<br />
Secretariat win the Triple Crown<br />
Andy Russakoff ’64 h<strong>as</strong> been named one of America’s<br />
best professors in The Princeton Review book<br />
The Best 300 Professors.<br />
in 1973! He is president and executive<br />
director of the National Child<br />
Labor Committee.<br />
Allen Tobi<strong>as</strong> sang the praises<br />
of the “extraordinary lectures” at<br />
Dean’s Day, held on June 2.<br />
Marty Isserlis skipped the cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
lunch and went to New Haven to<br />
visit Mike Kerbel, director of the<br />
Yale Film Study Center.<br />
Marty Weinstein traveled to the<br />
Dordogne in France with his wife,<br />
Ruth, to celebrate his 70th birthday.<br />
Andy Russakoff h<strong>as</strong> been named<br />
one of America’s best professors in<br />
The Princeton Review book, The Best<br />
300 Professors, which is b<strong>as</strong>ed on student<br />
comments on ratemyprofessor.<br />
com; Andy teaches computer science<br />
at St. John’s University.<br />
Congratulations, Andy.<br />
We resume our monthly lunches<br />
in September (always the second<br />
Thursday) at the <strong>Columbia</strong> University<br />
Club in Manhattan. Join us.<br />
I am saddened to report the<br />
death of Daniel Nussbaum. I<br />
remember that Dan w<strong>as</strong> a math<br />
major and a varsity swimmer. He<br />
earned a Ph.D. in mathematics<br />
and w<strong>as</strong> in the worlds of academia<br />
and national security, at one time<br />
serving <strong>as</strong> senior adviser to the secretary<br />
of the Navy. I had not seen<br />
Dan for several years. Ple<strong>as</strong>e write<br />
to share your memories of him.<br />
Requiescat in pacem.<br />
65<br />
Leonard B. Pack<br />
924 West End Ave.<br />
New York, NY 10025<br />
packlb@aol.com<br />
The Hon. Barry Kamins w<strong>as</strong> appointed<br />
administrative judge of the<br />
Criminal Courts of New York City<br />
in January. He comments, “I don’t<br />
expect to see any of our cl<strong>as</strong>smates<br />
coming through, except <strong>as</strong> attorneys.<br />
Ple<strong>as</strong>e tell them to stop by and<br />
say hello.”<br />
As an attorney licensed to practice<br />
law in the state of New York,<br />
I update my legal knowledge by<br />
taking continuing legal education<br />
courses. I w<strong>as</strong> delighted recently to<br />
find an online lecture by Barry, “Recent<br />
Developments in New York<br />
Search and Seizure Law.” I found<br />
his coverage of <strong>this</strong> subject to be<br />
magisterial in its completeness and<br />
in his effortless cross-referencing of<br />
different strands of <strong>this</strong> important<br />
body of law. I wrote Barry a compliment,<br />
to which he replied, “Thanks<br />
so much. You made my Sunday!”<br />
You can reach Barry at bkamins<br />
@courts.state.ny.us<br />
Eric Marcus h<strong>as</strong> been reappointed<br />
to a second, five-year term <strong>as</strong> director<br />
of the <strong>Columbia</strong> University<br />
Center for Psychoanalytic Training<br />
and Research. Eric is a professor<br />
of clinical psychiatry at P&S. He<br />
writes, “I look back on my Core<br />
Curriculum experience with great<br />
reverence and still have my cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
notes. The Core helped me write<br />
one of my psychoanalytic books<br />
where I cited Plato and Kant!”<br />
You can reach Eric at erm4@<br />
columbia.edu.<br />
Ed Merlis writes, “Leonard<br />
<strong>as</strong>ked me to submit something for<br />
Notes on the same day that President<br />
Barack Obama ’83 delivered<br />
<strong>this</strong> year’s Barnard Commencement<br />
address. Since that reminded me of<br />
the l<strong>as</strong>t Barnard Commencement I<br />
attended — that of my wife, Carole<br />
Franklyn Merlis ’67 Barnard, 45<br />
years ago — I figured I should help<br />
him out. So here’s a recap of my life<br />
since graduation:<br />
“We have two very talented<br />
daughters, although neither even<br />
considered <strong>Columbia</strong>. The elder,<br />
Pamela Conover, is a v.p. and senior<br />
legal counsel at T. Rowe Price in<br />
Baltimore, and mother of grandsons<br />
No. 1, Hap Conover (13) and No. 3,<br />
Teddy Conover (10). The younger,<br />
Jennifer Houston, is a teacher at<br />
the Bullis School in Potomac, Md.,<br />
and mother of grandsons No.<br />
2, Will Houston (12) and No. 4,<br />
Ben Houston (9). We are indeed<br />
fortunate to have all of our children<br />
and grandchildren within one hour<br />
of our home in McLean, Va., and to<br />
have wonderful sons-in-law.<br />
“Going back in time to 1965:<br />
What’s Your Story?<br />
Letting cl<strong>as</strong>smates know<br />
what’s going on in your<br />
life is e<strong>as</strong>ier than ever.<br />
Send in your Cl<strong>as</strong>s Notes!<br />
ONLINE by clicking<br />
college.columbia.edu/cct/<br />
submit_cl<strong>as</strong>s_note.<br />
EMAIL to the address at<br />
the top of your column.<br />
MAIL to the address at the<br />
top of your column.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
72<br />
FALL 2012<br />
73
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
With my local draft board breathing<br />
down my neck I joined the U.S.<br />
Public Health Service, w<strong>as</strong> trained<br />
in epidemiology and <strong>as</strong>signed<br />
to the New York City Health<br />
Department <strong>as</strong> a venereal dise<strong>as</strong>e<br />
investigator (no kidding) working<br />
in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section<br />
of Brooklyn. While interesting, that<br />
<strong>as</strong>signment w<strong>as</strong> not the career I<br />
envisioned, and so less than a year<br />
later I transferred to the Surgeon<br />
General’s office in W<strong>as</strong>hington,<br />
where I began my lifelong career in<br />
public policy.<br />
“Three months after arriving<br />
in W<strong>as</strong>hington, I w<strong>as</strong> sent up to<br />
the Senate Commerce Committee<br />
to help with a set of hearings the<br />
committee w<strong>as</strong> planning on research<br />
since the p<strong>as</strong>sage of the 1965<br />
cigarette labeling act. During the<br />
next three years, I worked with the<br />
committee in developing the act<br />
that banned cigarette advertising,<br />
produced several anti-smoking<br />
commercials for the Public Health<br />
Service, dealt with broadc<strong>as</strong>t<br />
network standards and practices,<br />
wrote speeches, publicized new<br />
research and did battle with the<br />
Tobacco Institute.<br />
“Following the 1970 election,<br />
I w<strong>as</strong> hired by the Senate Commerce<br />
Committee, where I initially<br />
staffed the consumer subcommittee<br />
through which much of the<br />
landmark consumer legislation<br />
of the 1970s p<strong>as</strong>sed. Contrary to<br />
today’s Congress, even with a<br />
Republican in the White House<br />
and a Democratic Congress, the<br />
presence of old bulls who had been<br />
elected during the Depression,<br />
WWII or the Korean War created an<br />
environment where partisan rancor<br />
w<strong>as</strong> minimized in favor of a collective,<br />
conscientious effort to solve<br />
problems.<br />
“In 1977 I became staff director<br />
of what w<strong>as</strong> then the Senate Committee<br />
on Commerce, Science and<br />
Transportation and, a year later,<br />
chief of staff of the Senate Appropriations<br />
Committee, when the<br />
Appropriations Committee Chairman<br />
died and the seniority system<br />
worked its will, resulting in my<br />
boss, Sen. Warren Magnuson (D-<br />
W<strong>as</strong>h.), becoming chairman of the<br />
Appropriations Committee. Before<br />
I left the Hill, I <strong>as</strong>sisted Sen. Ted<br />
Kennedy (D-M<strong>as</strong>s.) in reorganizing<br />
the Judiciary Committee when he<br />
became chairman in 1979.<br />
“With a decade of senate staff<br />
experience behind me and the<br />
Senate turning over to a Republican<br />
majority, I did what any selfrespecting<br />
Hill staffer does: I went<br />
downtown to K Street. At different<br />
times during the next 30-plus years<br />
I have run government affairs and<br />
communications for four major trade<br />
<strong>as</strong>sociations in the grocery products,<br />
cable television, airlines and telecom<br />
industries, and worked <strong>as</strong> a public<br />
policy or public relations consultant<br />
to a number of companies and trade<br />
<strong>as</strong>sociations, which I still do.<br />
“There w<strong>as</strong> also a two-year<br />
respite from W<strong>as</strong>hington when we<br />
moved to the Chicago area in the<br />
late ’80s; I ran a division of Telaction,<br />
a wholly owned J.C. Penney<br />
development company that built a<br />
pre-Internet interactive cable programming<br />
network. Unfortunately,<br />
we folded after spending more than<br />
$100 million.<br />
“I have worked on a wide array<br />
of <strong>issue</strong>s with legislators and<br />
public figures whose contributions<br />
stretch from WWI to the present<br />
day. I have worked with people<br />
who developed the strategy to p<strong>as</strong>s<br />
the Civil Rights and Voting Rights<br />
Acts, with people who serve on the<br />
Supreme Court and with people<br />
who played cards with President<br />
Roosevelt during the depths of<br />
WWII. I have been more than an<br />
eyewitness to history, and I consider<br />
myself to be very fortunate.<br />
“There are also a number of<br />
alumni with whom I had some<br />
great working experiences. Among<br />
them are Richard Merrill ’59, former<br />
chief counsel of the FDA (and brother<br />
of Stephen Merrill, with whom I<br />
also worked); David Heymsfeld ’59,<br />
former staff director of the House<br />
Committee on Transportation<br />
and Infr<strong>as</strong>tructure; Hon. Nichol<strong>as</strong><br />
Garaufis ’69, former chief counsel<br />
of the FAA (before being confirmed<br />
<strong>as</strong> a U.S. District Court Judge for<br />
the E<strong>as</strong>tern District of New York);<br />
David Cavicke ’84, former chief of<br />
staff, House Committee on Energy<br />
and Commerce; and Margaret Kim<br />
’91, who w<strong>as</strong> a colleague at the Air<br />
Transport Association.”<br />
You can reach Ed at edmerlis@<br />
edmerlis.com.<br />
Chris Morren reports, “I am<br />
an internist, now semi-retired,<br />
with a lot of the daily stress gone.<br />
I trained in the Bronx and would<br />
see Noah Robbins at Montefiore<br />
Medical Center. Al Steere taught<br />
me lots about Lyme Dise<strong>as</strong>e. I stay<br />
in touch with Joe Beckman, Bill<br />
Wertheim and Fred Colligno. Pete<br />
Manley worked at my hospital<br />
in administration (Lawrence and<br />
Memorial Hospital, New London,<br />
Conn.) for a few years but h<strong>as</strong> left.<br />
I plan to see LeRoy Euvrard in<br />
France in November. Sadly, my<br />
brother George ’60 died in September<br />
2011. This h<strong>as</strong> left a big hole in<br />
our family. My wife, Edie ’74 Nursing,<br />
is an advance practice R.N.<br />
working in Connecticut; daughter<br />
Cindy (26) is married, lives in<br />
Exeter, R.I., and is working on her<br />
R.N.; and son James (28) lives in<br />
Brooklyn and is an arborist for the<br />
NYC Department of Parks and<br />
Recreation, working on projects in<br />
Manhattan.”<br />
You can reach Chris at morren<br />
christopher@gmail.com.<br />
James Murdaugh writes: “I’m<br />
still happy with the practice of law<br />
in Houston. And it’s still fun — the<br />
most important thing. A couple of<br />
anniversaries: my partner, Gary<br />
Smith, and I celebrated our 16th<br />
anniversary <strong>this</strong> summer, and Gary<br />
celebrated his 30th anniversary at<br />
the Shepherd School of Music at<br />
Rice, where he is <strong>as</strong>sociate dean. As<br />
I write [in early June], we’re about<br />
to leave for Nantucket, driving up<br />
with Golden Retrievers Bob and<br />
Leo. We were recently at brunch<br />
with Ben Cohen and his wife,<br />
Helen, and they are both <strong>as</strong> super<br />
<strong>as</strong> ever. Regrettably I missed Steve<br />
Eric Marcus ’65 h<strong>as</strong> been reappointed to a second,<br />
five-year term <strong>as</strong> director of <strong>Columbia</strong>’s Center for<br />
Psychoanalytic Training and Research.<br />
Weinstein ’66 when he came to<br />
town in June for a medical lecture,<br />
but I visited with Dave Blanchard<br />
’67 when he w<strong>as</strong> in town for a<br />
wedding in May.<br />
“In addition to the law practice,<br />
I stay busy at my church, Christ<br />
Church Cathedral (Episcopal),<br />
where I recently completed a term<br />
<strong>as</strong> Senior Warden of the Vestry and<br />
am on the search committee for a<br />
new dean. Finally, our artistically<br />
inclined cl<strong>as</strong>smates may want to<br />
know about the new James Turrell<br />
Skyspace adjacent to the Shepherd<br />
School on the Rice campus. Gary<br />
and I were lucky enough to go<br />
to the dedication and dinner. It’s<br />
pretty amazing; Google will tell<br />
you all about it!”<br />
You can reach Jim at jmurdaugh<br />
@smithmur.com.<br />
Richard Newman ’68L submitted<br />
the following: “After graduating<br />
from the Law School, I took<br />
a job with a law firm in Chicago.<br />
With 1968 being the height of the<br />
Vietnam War and my being both<br />
too physically fit to be cl<strong>as</strong>sified 4F<br />
and too young to avoid the draft<br />
by entering the Peace Corps (I<br />
would have been several months<br />
shy of the magic age of 26 when<br />
my stint w<strong>as</strong> up), I managed to get<br />
into an Army Reserve unit and w<strong>as</strong><br />
able to avoid being drafted.<br />
“I met my wife, Dr. Lilian Spigelman,<br />
on a blind date in September<br />
1973 and we’ve been married 38<br />
years. We have one son, Jonathan,<br />
who is in his l<strong>as</strong>t year <strong>as</strong> a cardiology<br />
fellow at NewYork-Presbyterian<br />
Hospital/<strong>Columbia</strong> University<br />
Medical Center.<br />
“I lived in the Chicago area for<br />
44 years (36 in the same house in<br />
Oak Park, Ill., home of Frank Lloyd<br />
Wright and Ernest Hemingway). I<br />
changed law firm jobs and are<strong>as</strong> of<br />
specialty three times before spending<br />
17 years in the law department<br />
of Continental Illinois National<br />
Bank, where I rose to <strong>as</strong>sistant<br />
general counsel before the bank<br />
failed (the largest bank failure in<br />
American history at the time) and<br />
w<strong>as</strong> taken over by Bank of America.<br />
In 1991 the bank fired all its<br />
in-house lawyers with two weeks’<br />
notice. I w<strong>as</strong> one of the fortunate<br />
ones; I accepted an offer to join the<br />
Chicago office of Mayer Brown &<br />
Platt (n/k/a Mayer Brown) <strong>as</strong> a<br />
partner in its finance practice. I left<br />
Mayer Brown in 1995 to become<br />
e.v.p. and general counsel of a<br />
small, privately owned Chicago<br />
bank, Amalgamated Bank and<br />
Trust Company of Chicago. Left<br />
that position after a year and spent<br />
the next five <strong>as</strong> a partner in Neal,<br />
Gerber & Eisenberg; returned to<br />
Mayer Brown in 2000; and retired<br />
from Mayer Brown in 2010.<br />
“In March 2011, my wife and I<br />
became grandparents when our<br />
grandson, C<strong>as</strong>sius, w<strong>as</strong> born. To<br />
be closer (but not too close) to our<br />
new extended family, we moved<br />
from Oak Park to Doylestown, Pa.<br />
“In September 2011, a former colleague<br />
from Mayer Brown’s New<br />
York office, who had moved to<br />
the New York office of DLA Piper,<br />
persuaded me to come out of retirement<br />
and accept a role <strong>as</strong> part-time<br />
special counsel. I now commute to<br />
the law firm’s office on Avenue of<br />
the Americ<strong>as</strong> twice a week. I’m very<br />
much enjoying retirement.”<br />
Richard can be reached at rmn5@<br />
columbia.edu. I find it interesting<br />
that his definition of “retirement”<br />
includes working two days a week<br />
and commuting from Doylestown to<br />
NYC. I guess that other cl<strong>as</strong>smates<br />
approaching retirement, or living it,<br />
may also have great stories to tell,<br />
and I invite you to share them.<br />
James Niss also chipped in: “I<br />
retired <strong>as</strong> a lawyer two years ago,<br />
after working six years <strong>as</strong> Judge<br />
Jed S. Rakoff’s special m<strong>as</strong>ter in the<br />
Ephedra multidistrict litigation. I<br />
still live in the Riverside Drive apartment<br />
I rented in 1965 when I started<br />
graduate school in French literature<br />
at <strong>Columbia</strong>. I teach English to immigrants<br />
two hours a day <strong>as</strong> a volunteer<br />
at a public school for adults<br />
in Harlem, a half-hour walk through<br />
Morningside Park, which nowadays<br />
is safe, clean and ple<strong>as</strong>ant with its<br />
waterfall and pond inhabited by<br />
turtles and waterbirds.”<br />
You can reach Jim at james.niss@<br />
verizon.net.<br />
Finally, the sad news that David<br />
Wallace died on March 2, 2012. A<br />
full obituary will appear in a future<br />
<strong>issue</strong>.<br />
66<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Today<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> Alumni Center<br />
622 W. 113th St., MC 4530<br />
New York, NY 10025<br />
cct@columbia.edu<br />
[Editor’s note: This column marks<br />
Stuart Berkman’s l<strong>as</strong>t in his 23 years<br />
of service <strong>as</strong> a cl<strong>as</strong>s correspondent.<br />
CCT thanks him for his dedication<br />
and now seeks a new correspondent<br />
for the cl<strong>as</strong>s. If you are interested<br />
in writing <strong>this</strong> quarterly column of<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smate news and views, ple<strong>as</strong>e<br />
contact Alexis Tonti ’11 Arts, managing<br />
editor: alt2129@columbia.edu<br />
or 212-851-7485. In the meantime,<br />
ple<strong>as</strong>e send updates to CCT at the<br />
postal or email address at the top of<br />
the column, or via CCT’s e<strong>as</strong>y-to-use<br />
webform: college.columbia.edu/<br />
cct/submit_cl<strong>as</strong>s_note.]<br />
Rich Forzani sent the following<br />
update earlier <strong>this</strong> year: “I abandoned<br />
my retirement l<strong>as</strong>t year to<br />
become a consultant for Intel, and<br />
then to <strong>as</strong>sume a sales/marketing<br />
role for a human capital management<br />
software firm. My wife, Kathy,<br />
is overjoyed to have me out of the<br />
house again. However, my advice<br />
to all of you contemplating retirement<br />
is <strong>this</strong>: It’s pretty enjoyable.<br />
Never underestimate the ple<strong>as</strong>ure<br />
of having nothing to do.<br />
“My youngest son, Richard,<br />
graduated magna cum laude from<br />
Rutgers in May (also Phi Beta<br />
Kappa) and is attending the University<br />
of Richmond School of Law<br />
<strong>this</strong> fall <strong>as</strong> one of 11 incoming John<br />
Marshall Scholars, the law school’s<br />
highest merit award. His academic<br />
accomplishments are surely hereditary,<br />
although possibly not from<br />
my DNA. I don’t know if the world<br />
needs another lawyer, but if it does,<br />
let it be him. Kathy and I are also<br />
first-time grandparents, so we had<br />
a busy and enjoyable spring and<br />
summer.<br />
“We recently enjoyed a dinner<br />
with Celeste and Tom Chorba, and<br />
had the ple<strong>as</strong>ure there of seeing<br />
John Wellington ’57 and his wife,<br />
<strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> Kathy Donelli. Kathy, <strong>as</strong><br />
you may know, recently lost her<br />
husband, Dick ’59, ’63 Dental, who<br />
w<strong>as</strong> one of our freshman football<br />
coaches and a good friend to many<br />
’66ers. I lunched recently with Rich<br />
Beggs, who is wrapping up his stint<br />
<strong>as</strong> CEO of Daiwa Securities after a<br />
long and successful career. Most enjoyably<br />
for me, Rich picked up the<br />
tab. We also have spent time with<br />
Barbara and Harvey Kurzweil,<br />
both at their home in Nantucket<br />
and here in New Jersey. Harvey w<strong>as</strong><br />
kind enough to counsel Richard on<br />
his choice of law <strong>as</strong> a career.<br />
“We live in North Jersey, visit our<br />
grandson in Los Angeles whenever<br />
possible and are anticipating a<br />
move to the Jersey Shore in a couple<br />
of years. May <strong>this</strong> note find all of<br />
you well and productively dissipative.”<br />
You can contact Rich at rforzani1<br />
@optonline.net.<br />
Here is what we heard from<br />
Rudy von Bernuth a few months<br />
ago: “I have been working for<br />
Save the Children for more than 20<br />
years, following a 20-year career<br />
with CARE. At <strong>this</strong> moment, I have<br />
been given a bit of an Indian summer<br />
in my professional life. Since<br />
April 2011, I have been in charge<br />
of a big merger process among<br />
all 29 Save the Children members<br />
worldwide, leading the process by<br />
which all Save the Children Member<br />
programs in 60 countries and<br />
seven regions are transitioning to<br />
one unified management structure<br />
within Save the Children International,<br />
with an aggregate value of<br />
about $1.3 billion. In <strong>this</strong> role I coordinate<br />
all <strong>as</strong>pects of the transition<br />
process, and I manage the Save the<br />
Children International program<br />
operations that result from it. My<br />
wife, Betty, and I have moved to<br />
London and live in a lovely flat<br />
five minutes from Victoria Station<br />
and 10 minutes from Westminster<br />
Abbey. Most mornings, I walk to<br />
work from the flat. The walk goes<br />
directly by Buckingham Palace,<br />
then along The Mall to Trafalgar<br />
Square, where my office is adjacent<br />
to the National Gallery.”<br />
Rudy’s email is rudy.vonbernuth<br />
@savethechildren.org.<br />
Surprise! An actual handwritten<br />
letter w<strong>as</strong> received earlier <strong>this</strong> year<br />
from Joe Albeck. I think <strong>this</strong> is the<br />
first time in more than a decade<br />
that news h<strong>as</strong> been submitted in<br />
<strong>this</strong> atavistic way. What a delight<br />
to see something in personal penmanship!<br />
At any rate, Joe writes<br />
from Waban, M<strong>as</strong>s.: “Things are<br />
good for my wife, Isabelle, and<br />
myself. Our three grown kids all<br />
live near Route 128. My son, David,<br />
w<strong>as</strong> married in 2011 to a lovely<br />
woman with two talented teenagers<br />
from a prior marriage. Then<br />
David and his wife, Smaranda,<br />
welcomed Henry Daniel Albeck<br />
on May 15, 2012. Our daughter<br />
Margot had her second child, Julia<br />
Martine, on June 20. Our other<br />
daughter, Simone, is single and<br />
works in the mental health field.<br />
“I work four days a week in my<br />
psychiatry practice, and Isabelle<br />
retired from teaching high school<br />
French a few years ago; we are<br />
mostly healthy and happy. On a<br />
recent visit to Sacramento, Calif.,<br />
I met with Mike Leibowitz, our<br />
dear friend, who reminded me of<br />
our CC ’66 bonds.” Joe’s email, for<br />
those who prefer cyber epistles, is<br />
jhalbeck@m<strong>as</strong>smed.org.<br />
67<br />
Albert Zonana<br />
425 Arundel Rd.<br />
Goleta, CA 93117<br />
az164@columbia.edu<br />
News about the 45th Alumni Reunion<br />
Weekend of the Cleverest<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s, held May 31–June 3, poured<br />
in.<br />
Marty Nussbaum writes, “I w<strong>as</strong><br />
surprised to see that many members<br />
of our cl<strong>as</strong>s seemed to have aged,<br />
unlike me. (Actually, Dean Ringel<br />
must have a picture in the attic<br />
because he’s aged not at all.) Most<br />
of us were accompanied by spouses<br />
or significant others who were far<br />
more attractive than we deserved.<br />
While a relatively small proportion<br />
of the cl<strong>as</strong>s w<strong>as</strong> in attendance, the<br />
aggregate weight of the attendees<br />
offset the number of participants,<br />
so that the aggregate avoirdupois<br />
probably equaled the total poundage<br />
of the cl<strong>as</strong>s in 1967.”<br />
Mark Minton reports, “Reunion<br />
w<strong>as</strong> memorable. Probably the high<br />
points were Saturday’s cl<strong>as</strong>s luncheon<br />
in Kent Hall (C.V. Starr E<strong>as</strong>t<br />
Asian Library), where we were addressed<br />
by Dean James J. Valentini<br />
and had an exchange with a panel<br />
of <strong>College</strong> students, <strong>as</strong>sembled and<br />
introduced by Roger Lehecka, and<br />
the final cl<strong>as</strong>s dinner on Saturday,<br />
which w<strong>as</strong> held in a beautiful,<br />
floor-to-ceiling-windowed dining<br />
area in the new Northwest Corner<br />
Building on campus. True to our<br />
reputation for cleverness (or more<br />
accurately, feistiness), our dinner<br />
speaker, former New York City<br />
schools chancellor Joel I. Klein, set<br />
off a lively discussion — almost a<br />
debate — about American education.<br />
[Editor’s note: See feature in<br />
<strong>this</strong> <strong>issue</strong> about Klein.]<br />
“The lectures during Dean’s<br />
Day and the other social events<br />
also were memorable. Everyone<br />
who attended very much enjoyed<br />
our kickoff event on Thursday<br />
evening, an opening reception<br />
hosted by Robert Rosenberg and<br />
his wife, Pamela, in their beautiful<br />
townhouse on E<strong>as</strong>t 61st Street.<br />
“On a more personal note, Marty<br />
Andrucki, Chris Hartzell, Leigh<br />
Dolin, Dean Ringel and I — all<br />
Spectator board members of 1967 —<br />
got together for a reunion dinner on<br />
Friday.”<br />
And about that dinner, Leigh<br />
wrote: “I thought I’d give you my<br />
version. Hartzell and I ran into each<br />
other at a Friday afternoon lecture<br />
and, at his suggestion, headed to<br />
the Spectator office to see if we could<br />
check out what our favorite newspaper<br />
looks like in 2012. The office<br />
now is on Broadway near 112th and<br />
initially we couldn’t get in but then<br />
we followed two students through<br />
the otherwise locked door; they<br />
turned out to be the editor-in-chief<br />
and the sports editor. We had the<br />
grand tour, and Chris and I did our<br />
best old-guy routines (‘Back in our<br />
day, we used linotype machines,’<br />
etc.). Dinner w<strong>as</strong> at an Italian<br />
restaurant north of 120th and over<br />
very good food and perhaps too<br />
many carafes of house wine, Mark,<br />
Chris, Marty, Dean and I discussed<br />
the problems of the world, including<br />
abortion, political correctness,<br />
the existence of God, the importance<br />
of faith, Syria, Iran, Obama,<br />
health care, poetry, Lyndon Johnson<br />
and, of course, Spectator. We would<br />
have followed up with a series of<br />
editorials but unfortunately we no<br />
longer have a newspaper in which<br />
to publish them.”<br />
Gordon Klein also attended<br />
reunion; he writes, “My old roommate,<br />
Bob Rudy, appeared for the<br />
first time since I have been going [to<br />
the reunions]. He h<strong>as</strong> retired from<br />
the Hennepin County Attorney’s<br />
Office and now travels and cruises.<br />
Ken Haydock w<strong>as</strong> there trying to<br />
recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.<br />
He carried a big sign throughout<br />
reunion that said ‘Recall Walker.’<br />
Some of us thought he had changed<br />
his name.<br />
“I have retired from being a pediatric<br />
g<strong>as</strong>troenterologist and have<br />
taken a position <strong>as</strong> clinical professor<br />
of orthopaedic surgery, still at the<br />
University of Tex<strong>as</strong>, where I lecture,<br />
write, consult and do research.”<br />
Marty Andrucki reports, “I<br />
reconnected with Larry Besserman<br />
during the Chelsea art gallery crawl<br />
on Friday night and again at lunch<br />
in Kent Hall on Saturday. He is now<br />
professor emeritus at The Hebrew<br />
University of Jerusalem and also<br />
teaches summer school at <strong>Columbia</strong>.<br />
Had a good time schmoozing<br />
with Dick Jupa and Ken Haydock<br />
at the Core Curriculum open house<br />
[in Hamilton Hall] on Saturday.<br />
The latter w<strong>as</strong> wearing a ‘Recall<br />
Walker’ plaque around his neck<br />
and, I swear, for a long moment I<br />
thought it meant he w<strong>as</strong> an official<br />
of the reunion t<strong>as</strong>ked with walking<br />
around and helping alums recall the<br />
good old days.”<br />
The apparently ageless Dean<br />
Ringel writes, “What follows are<br />
some random observations. I am<br />
out of practice <strong>as</strong> a journalist, and<br />
lawyer-like pablum h<strong>as</strong> replaced<br />
whatever freedom of expression I<br />
once could muster. But I will give<br />
it a try.<br />
“Pamela and Bob Rosenberg’s<br />
E<strong>as</strong>t Side townhouse w<strong>as</strong> what we<br />
all thought/hoped we might one<br />
day inhabit. Few of us have realized<br />
that vision but it w<strong>as</strong> fun to<br />
FALL 2012<br />
74<br />
FALL 2012<br />
75
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
share for the night. The recurring<br />
subject at the party and throughout<br />
the weekend w<strong>as</strong> retirement —<br />
Have you? Are you? Must you?<br />
And then what? I guess we are of<br />
the age. There w<strong>as</strong> no clear consensus,<br />
with folks divided among<br />
those thrilled to retire, those who<br />
were worried about having to<br />
retire and those who vowed never<br />
to consider the concept.<br />
“The cocktail party at Faculty<br />
House w<strong>as</strong> great. The physical<br />
impressiveness of the bar itself and<br />
its tactile appeal made me regret<br />
not having pursued an academic<br />
career. Saturday’s cl<strong>as</strong>s lunch w<strong>as</strong><br />
held in the strikingly beautiful C.V.<br />
Starr E<strong>as</strong>t Asian Library; a panel of<br />
current <strong>College</strong> students discussed<br />
how the <strong>College</strong> had changed<br />
since we Neanderthals roamed the<br />
campus. As much <strong>as</strong> anything else,<br />
I think they were stunned to hear<br />
members of our cl<strong>as</strong>s describe the<br />
primitive ‘telecommunications facilities’<br />
(a shared phone in the hall).<br />
Interestingly, for all the updated<br />
technology, one theme seemed to<br />
be that these days, after freshman<br />
year, students are relatively cut<br />
off from one another. The current<br />
students were quite taken with<br />
discussions of the role of the draft<br />
in the politics of our time <strong>as</strong> well<br />
<strong>as</strong> the difference in tuition costs<br />
between then and now.”<br />
Bill Heinbach says, “Reunion<br />
reminded me of what I always<br />
thought about many, if not most<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> people: they are just<br />
good people, in addition to being<br />
brilliant.”<br />
From Richard Frances: “I especially<br />
enjoyed meeting Robert Kalter,<br />
an eminent pathologist; Allen<br />
Spiegel, who is dean at Albert Einstein<br />
<strong>College</strong> of Medicine; David<br />
Dell, an innovative consultant and<br />
businessman; and Ray Burghardt,<br />
who h<strong>as</strong> had a distinguished career<br />
in the State Department, including<br />
amb<strong>as</strong>sadorial posts in Vietnam.<br />
“I have three children, five grandchildren<br />
and my wife is Marsha<br />
Frances. I founded the American<br />
Academy of Addiction Psychiatry<br />
and w<strong>as</strong> the president and medical<br />
director of Silver Hill Hospital. I now<br />
am in the private practice of psychiatry<br />
in Manhattan.”<br />
Ken Haydock took time out<br />
from his efforts to recall Walker to<br />
say, “Among those with whom I<br />
w<strong>as</strong> able to compare notes, however<br />
briefly — or at le<strong>as</strong>t, those whom<br />
the quantity of chardonnay I consumed<br />
that weekend failed to befog<br />
— were Carlton Carl, Bob Costa,<br />
Bill Herrick, Richard Jupa, Gordon<br />
Klein, Jonathan Kranz, Merek<br />
Lipson, Marty Nussbaum, Steve<br />
Rice, Bob Rudy, Jenik Radon,<br />
David Shaw and Rich Str<strong>as</strong>sberg. I<br />
didn’t, however, make it to the dinner<br />
dance [Starlight Reception] that<br />
resulted in, among other things, a<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s photo almost <strong>as</strong> impressive <strong>as</strong><br />
the ‘official’ one that shows Marty<br />
Nussbaum, a Stuyvesant cl<strong>as</strong>smate<br />
of mine, and Bob Rosenberg, a<br />
sophomore-year roommate of<br />
mine, standing in front of our rather<br />
rumpled Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1967 flag.”<br />
Larry Besserman: “The main<br />
event, of course, w<strong>as</strong> seeing cl<strong>as</strong>smates<br />
after 45 years — more of a<br />
treat than I ever imagined it would<br />
be.”<br />
Jack Harris had some observations:<br />
“The faculty at <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
is outstanding. Having spent my<br />
professional life trying to figure<br />
out how to engage college students<br />
in academic work, I have great<br />
appreciation for the talent and<br />
efforts of faculty who find a path of<br />
connection to the area of their life’s<br />
study for beginners.<br />
“The members of our cl<strong>as</strong>s are accomplished<br />
and smart but also surprisingly<br />
gentle and, in many c<strong>as</strong>es<br />
anyway, modest. I met scientists,<br />
teachers, government employees<br />
and business people who have had<br />
important careers but remain curious<br />
and friendly. It really is too bad<br />
that more of our cl<strong>as</strong>s can’t come to<br />
reunion. I know a few cl<strong>as</strong>s members<br />
who have had distinguished careers<br />
who would add enormous diversity<br />
to our conversations.<br />
“<strong>Columbia</strong> w<strong>as</strong> clean. I can’t<br />
think of a larger contr<strong>as</strong>t to when<br />
we lived there. The venues were<br />
attractive, and the technology all<br />
worked.”<br />
Tom Werman ’69 Business<br />
updated us on his adventures:<br />
“I’m pretty certain that Dean Irv<br />
DeKoff helped to e<strong>as</strong>e my way into<br />
the Business School in our senior<br />
year, and fortunately the protests<br />
of ’68 forced the administration to<br />
institute a p<strong>as</strong>s-fail program for<br />
the spring semester. Without <strong>this</strong>, I<br />
surely would have had a D on my<br />
transcript in operations research.<br />
After a boring year at Grey Advertising,<br />
I succumbed to my p<strong>as</strong>sion<br />
for rock ’n’ roll, fled across town<br />
and started a 12-year career at CBS<br />
Records.<br />
“My wife, Suky, and I raised<br />
our three children in Los Angeles,<br />
where I went independent and<br />
managed to collect more than 20<br />
gold and platinum albums while<br />
producing about 50 hard rock<br />
records. It w<strong>as</strong> far e<strong>as</strong>ier to do <strong>this</strong><br />
then, <strong>as</strong> the music business w<strong>as</strong><br />
robust and growing. Unfortunately<br />
it imploded about 10 years ago, although<br />
my son is actually making<br />
a living in it today. My timing w<strong>as</strong><br />
fortunate. By 2001 I had burned<br />
out, and we headed back e<strong>as</strong>t to<br />
the Berkshires in order to establish<br />
an all-suites luxury B&B on 10<br />
acres, just down the road from<br />
Tanglewood. It turned out to be a<br />
successful concept, and we’ve been<br />
operating here for the p<strong>as</strong>t decade,<br />
hosting guests largely from New<br />
York City and enjoying a lifestyle<br />
even better than the one we had in<br />
L.A. (which I had considered to be<br />
about <strong>as</strong> good <strong>as</strong> you could get).<br />
“I spent about five years interviewing<br />
L.A. <strong>Columbia</strong> applicants<br />
for the Alumni Represenative<br />
Committee, and when we returned<br />
to M<strong>as</strong>sachusetts I enjoyed attending<br />
the Sachems dinners that<br />
Roger Lehecka generously put together<br />
for us in the city; sometimes<br />
my Carman Hall roommate David<br />
Zapp would attend, too. I spoke<br />
at one of these dinners some years<br />
back about my first career and<br />
about the decision to move e<strong>as</strong>t<br />
and initiate an entirely different<br />
life. Our three kids live and work<br />
in the city, and we drive in to see<br />
them frequently. At <strong>this</strong> age, the<br />
great ple<strong>as</strong>ure I get from a Manhattan<br />
visit is pretty dependent on the<br />
knowledge that I’ll be returning<br />
home to the country. With plenty<br />
of weekdays off in the winter, I’m<br />
writing a book about my life in<br />
the music business. It’s something<br />
I’ve always wanted to do, and I’m<br />
loving the process.”<br />
REUNION WEEKEND<br />
MAY 30–JUNE 2, 2013<br />
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS<br />
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Fatima Yudeh<br />
fy2165@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7834<br />
DEVELOPMENT Valentina Salkow<br />
vs2441@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7833<br />
68<br />
Arthur Spector<br />
271 Central Park West<br />
New York, NY 10024<br />
arthurbspector@gmail.com<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> h<strong>as</strong> a new dean,<br />
James J. Valentini (see cover story).<br />
I have heard great things about him<br />
and wish him well.<br />
I hope everyone is planning to be<br />
at our 45th reunion next year. Mark<br />
your calendars for Thursday, May<br />
30–Sunday, June 2. I am told by Bob<br />
Costa ’67 that his reunion <strong>this</strong> p<strong>as</strong>t<br />
June w<strong>as</strong> good; things were well<br />
planned and Dean’s Day now is<br />
held that Saturday, meaning that<br />
additional programming is available.<br />
He and his wife, Joan, had a<br />
great time.<br />
To ensure that <strong>Columbia</strong> can get<br />
in touch with you about Alumni<br />
Reunion Weekend, update your<br />
contact information online (reunion.<br />
college.columbia.edu/alumniup<br />
date) or call the Alumni Office (212-<br />
851-7488).<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s members are encouraged<br />
to join the Reunion Committee to<br />
help plan the weekend’s events and<br />
to reach out to cl<strong>as</strong>smates for gifts to<br />
the <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Fund in honor<br />
of reunion. If you’re interested in<br />
participating, contact the appropriate<br />
Alumni Office staff member<br />
noted at the top of the column. You<br />
need not be in the New York area<br />
and can participate in meetings via<br />
conference call.<br />
Paul de Bary and others organized<br />
a Core-themed wine t<strong>as</strong>ting<br />
several months ago at the <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
University Club of New York. I<br />
w<strong>as</strong>n’t able to attend so I hope Paul<br />
will do a similar session at reunion.<br />
Paul wrote to me before the event,<br />
however, and described the plan:<br />
“We’ve been working busily on <strong>this</strong><br />
for several weeks and it should be<br />
both entertaining and educational<br />
…. The first wine will be a Greek<br />
Roditis, a delicious wine, presented<br />
with examples from Homer, Greek<br />
tragedy and Plato’s tri-partite soul<br />
to evoke thoughts about the b<strong>as</strong>ic<br />
structure of wine. The second will<br />
be an Italian [wine] made from the<br />
ancient Roman Fiano variety, presented<br />
with examples from Virgil,<br />
Cicero, St. Paul and St. Augustine<br />
to evoke discussion of the natural<br />
laws of wine and the concept of<br />
terroir. That of course leads right<br />
into the discussion of a Burgundian<br />
St. Véran, presented with Medieval<br />
and Renaissance thinking to show<br />
the virtues of single varietal wines<br />
and the effects of restrained use of<br />
wood.<br />
“We then move on to red wines<br />
with a Priorat and introduce tannins<br />
and blending paired with<br />
ide<strong>as</strong> from the Reformation, before<br />
moving on to the Enlightenment,<br />
pairing Cabernet Sauvignon with<br />
Spinoza, Locke, Newton, Adam<br />
Smith and others before ending<br />
up with a scientific analysis of the<br />
major acids in wine and what they<br />
bring to its t<strong>as</strong>te, brought to you by<br />
Bacon, Boyle, Nietzsche and others.<br />
All in all, it should be a pretty<br />
thorough exploration of wine and<br />
a good refresher on the Core, all in<br />
less than two hours, followed by a<br />
little fe<strong>as</strong>t for the graduates.”<br />
Reid Feldman, who may know<br />
something about wine, reports,<br />
“The Euro crisis makes practicing<br />
law in Paris ever so interesting.”<br />
Peter Gross sent a brief update:<br />
“My wife, Susan, and I have been<br />
married for 44 years. Have a daughter,<br />
a retina specialist in NYC, who<br />
h<strong>as</strong> identical twin girls and a son.<br />
Have another two daughters and a<br />
son, none married. Susan retired <strong>as</strong><br />
the chair of world languages at Harriton<br />
(Pa.) H.S. I am still doing the<br />
same things, just look a lot older.”<br />
We are all a little older, but 65 (or<br />
so) is the new 45.<br />
Phil Mandelker ’71L w<strong>as</strong> in the<br />
city recently. He is devoting more<br />
time to travel and reading and w<strong>as</strong><br />
expansive about his son, who is a<br />
researcher in physics and <strong>as</strong>tronomy<br />
and is studying galaxy formulation.<br />
Afterward, Phil sent a note:<br />
“Just got back from a networking<br />
get-together of the Business School,<br />
with Vice Dean Amir Ziv. Took my<br />
daughter, who is thinking of applying.<br />
She w<strong>as</strong> recently informed<br />
that she is graduating magna from<br />
Hebrew U (business and psych).”<br />
Phil thought the dean w<strong>as</strong> impressive<br />
and the program changes<br />
there exceptional. I know Phil, like<br />
so many with whom we went to<br />
school, had a Law School cl<strong>as</strong>smate<br />
named Lee Bollinger. All in all, Phil<br />
w<strong>as</strong> in great spirits and looking forward<br />
to lots of inspired years. He’s<br />
also planning to attend reunion.<br />
Greg Winn (a Fort Holabird<br />
alumnus like me) wrote, “Greetings,<br />
Sir Arthur — that is a rather<br />
funny way to begin a note but it<br />
also is part of what h<strong>as</strong> been keeping<br />
me busy the p<strong>as</strong>t six months or<br />
so, writing an historical fiction novel,<br />
The Violinist: Il Pleure Dans Mon<br />
Coeur. There is a character in the<br />
novel called ‘Sir Arthur’ but I am<br />
not ready to share the draft with<br />
our wonderful group just yet. Perhaps<br />
if it is published. I also have<br />
about 40 percent left to write, so we<br />
shall see. What is novel about <strong>this</strong><br />
work is that it is designed to be an<br />
e-book with narrative, photos and<br />
music. The time period is primarily<br />
just before WWI and it is located<br />
in Paris.”<br />
Greg, I want an advance copy.<br />
By the way, I am reading Professor<br />
Bernard Lewis’ book Notes on<br />
a Century: Reflections of a Middle<br />
E<strong>as</strong>t Historian and, while he did<br />
time at Princeton, the book is great.<br />
Amazingly, he completed it at 95,<br />
inspiring for sure.<br />
Nigel Paneth, who works at<br />
Michigan State, wrote, “I continue<br />
to plow the fields of research into<br />
developmental disabilities and their<br />
early causes, and <strong>as</strong> the possibility<br />
of discoveries in dise<strong>as</strong>e prevention<br />
remains alluring, I just keep<br />
at it, and probably will continue to<br />
do so, <strong>as</strong> long <strong>as</strong> health, funding<br />
and scientific imagination hold up.<br />
By contr<strong>as</strong>t, my wife, Ellen, h<strong>as</strong><br />
decided to retire from her position<br />
<strong>as</strong> professor of English, though not<br />
necessarily from her participation in<br />
the scholarly world of literary studies.<br />
The humanities have a harder<br />
and harder time at our universities.<br />
“Our daughter Rachel also is<br />
at Michigan State, beginning her<br />
fourth year of medical school<br />
and headed for a career in family<br />
practice, possibly linked to public<br />
health. Our second daughter,<br />
Tessa, is getting married soon at<br />
our [other] home in Vermont and<br />
is completing a Ph.D. in art history<br />
at Princeton. We are now spending<br />
more time in our Vermont home,<br />
especially in the summer. The climate<br />
is identical to Michigan’s, and<br />
it’s a 12-hour drive besides, but<br />
Weathersfield is our special corner<br />
of the planet, home to friends from<br />
our youthful days in New England<br />
(Ellen went to Bennington <strong>College</strong><br />
and, after <strong>Columbia</strong>, I w<strong>as</strong> at Dartmouth<br />
School of Medicine for two<br />
years).”<br />
I l<strong>as</strong>t sat with Nigel a couple of<br />
years ago on a flight from Detroit<br />
to Lansing, Mich. It w<strong>as</strong> great to<br />
hear from him.<br />
Finally, I received a note from<br />
Paul Brosnan. I’m afraid I can’t<br />
find it now to quote directly, but<br />
the substance w<strong>as</strong> that his daughter<br />
h<strong>as</strong> graduated from Barnard.<br />
She w<strong>as</strong> an outstanding student,<br />
and of course he w<strong>as</strong> ple<strong>as</strong>ed to<br />
report that she had enjoyed her<br />
academic experiences and had lots<br />
of good times, too.<br />
I apologize to Paul for misplacing<br />
the note. I get these great notes<br />
from him all the time about current<br />
affairs and politics. He sends a<br />
cartoon once in a while, too. In any<br />
event, congratulations to him on his<br />
daughter’s graduation; I am sure<br />
there will be more reports about her.<br />
As I write, my daughter is planning<br />
to visit NYC <strong>this</strong> week from<br />
Durham, N.C., and I am excited<br />
about seeing her; it h<strong>as</strong> been a while.<br />
Peter Janovsky and I continue a<br />
periodic debate about the state of<br />
affairs of the country. I suspect <strong>this</strong><br />
discussion will go on for years to<br />
come (we hope). Maybe for our 60th<br />
reunion we will have the answers.<br />
In the meantime, I hope all is<br />
well with the cl<strong>as</strong>s (lots of folks are<br />
moving on to new chapters in their<br />
lives). I am supposed to have lunch<br />
with Andy Herz soon, and I see<br />
John Slattery once in a while — all<br />
of which is for another time.<br />
Write me with your updates!<br />
69<br />
Michael Oberman<br />
Kramer Levin Naftalis &<br />
Frankel<br />
1177 Avenue of the<br />
Americ<strong>as</strong><br />
New York, NY 10036<br />
moberman@<br />
kramerlevin.com<br />
Once again, I participated in the<br />
Alumni Parade of Cl<strong>as</strong>ses, <strong>this</strong><br />
time for Cl<strong>as</strong>s Day 2012 on May 15,<br />
carrying our cl<strong>as</strong>s’ banner to the<br />
applause of the graduates and their<br />
families. And once again, Irv Ruderman<br />
joined me, and Rod Reef<br />
’69E w<strong>as</strong> granted special privileges<br />
to march with us, <strong>as</strong> his son Daniel<br />
’12 w<strong>as</strong> among the graduates.<br />
Congratulations to Jonathan<br />
Schiller, who w<strong>as</strong> selected <strong>as</strong> <strong>this</strong><br />
year’s recipient of the Alexander<br />
Hamilton Award. [See Around the<br />
Quads.]<br />
From Bob Rabinoff: “While not<br />
much h<strong>as</strong> changed in my situation,<br />
my children have made some<br />
remarkable progress. Oldest son,<br />
Joseph, and his wife, Kirsten, are<br />
in the third year of post-docs in<br />
math at Harvard, where they met<br />
in freshman advanced calculus. It<br />
looks like they’ll be heading to Atlanta<br />
in 18 months for tenure-track<br />
positions. Joseph recently turned<br />
31, which is a Mersenne prime,<br />
for those of you who care, and the<br />
l<strong>as</strong>t one he’s likely to see unless he<br />
outlives the Biblical 120 (the next<br />
Mersenne prime is 127).<br />
“The triplets are 28 (a perfect<br />
number, equal to the sum of its<br />
divisors — we’re having a big<br />
mathematical year <strong>this</strong> year).<br />
Daniel is in the second year of a<br />
Ph.D. program in philosophy at the<br />
University of Toronto. Eve also is<br />
in a Ph.D. program in philosophy,<br />
though at Boston <strong>College</strong>; she is<br />
hoping to finish the fifth and final<br />
year <strong>this</strong> academic year. Shoshanah<br />
is an R.N. and works labor and<br />
delivery at the b<strong>as</strong>e hospital at Fort<br />
Sill, Okla., where her husband, Erik<br />
(captain, USMC), is stationed. On<br />
June 20 she had my first grandchild,<br />
Nathaniel Dale Wilkerson.<br />
“I’m still in Fairfield, Iowa,<br />
about 60 miles south of Iowa City<br />
and 50 miles west of the Mississippi.<br />
My main purpose here is taking<br />
care of my friend Marie, who is immobile<br />
from the neck down with<br />
chronic-progressive MS. Thanks to<br />
the Internet, I can get her set up on<br />
a laptop with an external touchpad<br />
she can control with her tongue,<br />
and voice-recognition software<br />
so she can send emails and shop<br />
online, and she’s <strong>as</strong> connected to<br />
the world <strong>as</strong> any of us. I’m able<br />
to make my living programming<br />
computers from her living room,<br />
and I have the house next door (I<br />
won’t make you envious by telling<br />
you how little a house costs here)<br />
where I eat and study, but most<br />
of the time I just need to be home<br />
with her. It’s a 180-degree contr<strong>as</strong>t<br />
with my earlier, globe-trotting<br />
days. I walk to the post office five<br />
times a week to get my mail and<br />
to get some exercise. I take the<br />
car to the grocery store twice a<br />
week; I put 185 miles on it in the<br />
five months between October and<br />
February — that w<strong>as</strong> one tank<br />
of g<strong>as</strong>. One would think it’s a<br />
restricted life and indeed, without<br />
the Internet it would be a lot more<br />
so, but the truth is I don’t feel it <strong>as</strong><br />
a restriction at all — I’m with her,<br />
and that’s exactly where I want<br />
to be. If anyone wants to visit just<br />
give a call (641-472-9842) or email<br />
(rar113@columbia.edu). It’s very<br />
quiet here, a good place to think.”<br />
Bill Stadiem reports: “Off to<br />
Paris next week [late June] to<br />
research newest book for Random<br />
House. Jet Set is a social history<br />
of the golden age of Boeing 707<br />
travel, 1958–71, after which the<br />
airborne cattle car 747s spoiled the<br />
party. I first went to Europe in 1968<br />
on a <strong>Columbia</strong> charter on Pan Am,<br />
$200 round-trip. Returning from<br />
Paris, the plane blew a tire and we<br />
had to do an emergency landing<br />
at Gander. We all thought it w<strong>as</strong><br />
the bitter end, so the p<strong>as</strong>sengers<br />
brought out the drugs they were<br />
smuggling back from Turkey, and<br />
it became a flying pot party.”<br />
Mike Schell writes: “Forty-seven<br />
years ago <strong>this</strong> September, we all<br />
gathered on Morningside Heights<br />
for a four-year run that w<strong>as</strong> eventful<br />
if nothing else. But of course, it<br />
w<strong>as</strong> lots else in the bargain. And<br />
now, that number 65 is relevant<br />
again. In the blink of an eye most all<br />
of us (excepting the young geniuses<br />
who finished high school at 12 or<br />
whatever) are celebrating our 65th<br />
birthdays. Truly hard to believe.<br />
“Turning back to 2012, I recently<br />
had the ple<strong>as</strong>ure of having a relaxed,<br />
almost lazy lunch with the<br />
new dean, James J. Valentini. He is<br />
a good man in the most fundamental<br />
sense of those words, and I am<br />
confident he will be good for <strong>Columbia</strong>.<br />
Unlike the deans of our era,<br />
he is a scientist but he also seems<br />
steeped in the arts. In any event,<br />
he is a liberal human being, and he<br />
seems to me to be thinking about all<br />
the right things and <strong>issue</strong>s (of which<br />
there are likely more than a few).<br />
But he also seems to be well-liked<br />
and comfortable among — and<br />
perhaps even inspirational to — the<br />
students, and these are good things.<br />
I hope to have the opportunity to<br />
chat with him from time to time.<br />
Which leads to my immediate<br />
circumstances. I no longer have a<br />
full-time job at which I am required<br />
to punch in every morning by 8 or 9<br />
a.m. I am still engaged in a number<br />
of endeavors but I don’t collect a<br />
paycheck for any of them. Not all<br />
bad. Chief among them is a seat<br />
on the National Advisory Council<br />
for Minority Business Enterprises.<br />
We are 25 business and other NGO<br />
leaders formulating recommenda-<br />
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FALL 2012<br />
76<br />
FALL 2012<br />
77
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
tions to the Secretary of Commerce<br />
and ultimately the President for<br />
developing and promoting minority<br />
businesses in America. It h<strong>as</strong><br />
been an engaging, challenging and<br />
interesting effort, and I am hopeful<br />
we will achieve an immediate and<br />
substantial positive impact.<br />
“<strong>Columbia</strong> played a rather major<br />
role in my life these p<strong>as</strong>t couple of<br />
years in yet another respect. I have<br />
been the extraordinarily fortunate<br />
beneficiary of the skill, expertise<br />
and bonhomie offered by the Pancre<strong>as</strong><br />
Center at the <strong>Columbia</strong> University<br />
Medical Center. It’s a part of<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> about which many of us<br />
don’t know much but, I can <strong>as</strong>sure<br />
you, its decisively positive impact<br />
on me is just <strong>as</strong> significant <strong>as</strong> the<br />
Morningside Heights version more<br />
than 40 years ago.<br />
“My wife, Kathy, and I enjoy a<br />
slightly less hectic existence. Mostly,<br />
we are still stewards of our next generation,<br />
which is expected to expand<br />
to a new generation in September<br />
— a blessing to our daughter Jenny<br />
and her husband, Jonathan. Son<br />
Jamie is a political operative with the<br />
Elizabeth Warren campaign in M<strong>as</strong>sachusetts.<br />
Speaking of things going<br />
and coming round, Warren and I<br />
were summer <strong>as</strong>sociates in the same<br />
Wall Street law office in 1975.<br />
“Son Blake worked for Amb<strong>as</strong>sador<br />
Ronald Kirk, United States trade<br />
representative, and is beginning law<br />
school at Boston University. So, full<br />
circle, we have yet another three<br />
years of tuition to fund. But we are<br />
fortunate souls indeed, a long way<br />
from that warm, sunny day in 1965<br />
when I arrived on Morningside<br />
Heights from the ‘plains.’”<br />
Howard Goldman reports from<br />
Boca Raton, Fla.: “I practice ophthalmology,<br />
primarily cataract surgery.<br />
I guess I’ll stop ‘practicing’ when I<br />
finally get it all right. <strong>Columbia</strong>, of<br />
course, encouraged (actually, embedded)<br />
the value of lifelong learning.<br />
I appreciate the Core Curriculum.<br />
As a science major anywhere else, I<br />
likely would not have been exposed<br />
to all that — and ‘all that’ continues<br />
to give me ple<strong>as</strong>ure now.<br />
“I enjoy seeing and operating<br />
on patients but take particular<br />
satisfaction in those sent to me by a<br />
local free clinic, the Caridad Center.<br />
These are mostly the working poor,<br />
either earning too much to qualify<br />
for Medicaid but not enough to<br />
buy health insurance, or older<br />
immigrants who don’t qualify for<br />
Medicare. In pre–9-11 days, I traveled<br />
to developing countries in <strong>this</strong><br />
hemisphere once or twice a year<br />
with Surgical Eye Expeditions (SEE)<br />
International on what were called<br />
‘eye surgery missions,’ operating<br />
on indigent blind. Of course, there<br />
is still a never-ending supply of<br />
those, but I have been shocked<br />
at the number in south Florida.<br />
My practice holds an annual Gift<br />
of Sight Day, during which we<br />
perform free procedures, mostly<br />
cataract, but also complex glaucoma<br />
and excisions of pterygia (fleshy<br />
white growths that can impair<br />
vision). This year we have 25 c<strong>as</strong>es<br />
scheduled two days before Thanksgiving.<br />
I w<strong>as</strong> nominated in May <strong>as</strong><br />
a ‘Hero in Medicine, International<br />
Category’ for Palm Beach County<br />
Medical Society. Though I did not<br />
get the top honor, it w<strong>as</strong> nice to<br />
be nominated by my two current<br />
and p<strong>as</strong>t congressmen and then to<br />
become a finalist.”<br />
From Bill Stark, who is a biology<br />
professor at Saint Louis University,<br />
comes a reflection on “Morningside<br />
Haute Cuisine”: “Like all other<br />
freshmen, I had the meal plan. It<br />
came in the form of a book of tickets.<br />
There w<strong>as</strong> a big cafeteria with<br />
real meals in John Jay right across<br />
from the new Carman Hall, where I<br />
had a double room (suite of four) on<br />
the third floor. I would try to meet<br />
people when I went to dine alone,<br />
saying something like, ‘Are you also<br />
a freshman?’ (They never were.)<br />
“Things fell apart for me when I<br />
went out for crew. The subway ride<br />
to the Harlem River took us p<strong>as</strong>t<br />
John Lindsay running for mayor<br />
on Harlem street corners. We had<br />
the <strong>as</strong>sistant coach (Dick?) but the<br />
coach w<strong>as</strong> a newly hired champion<br />
from Australia who looked ungainly<br />
like Ichabod Crane. The ride<br />
brought me back for dinner when<br />
only the snack bar in Ferris Booth<br />
w<strong>as</strong> open and, on the first morning<br />
possible, I joined a long line of<br />
fellow freshmen at the window to<br />
c<strong>as</strong>h in our meal plans.<br />
“So my roommate, Jeff Escher,<br />
and my suitemates, Dave Mc-<br />
Carthy and Al Kennedy, would<br />
look for food in the neighborhood.<br />
Everybody knew that one of the<br />
main re<strong>as</strong>ons to choose <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
w<strong>as</strong> that the drinking age in New<br />
York w<strong>as</strong> 18. The West End, with<br />
40-cent, 12-ounce steins at the big<br />
bar in the center, w<strong>as</strong> catty-corner<br />
across Broadway and had trays<br />
heated by g<strong>as</strong> just to the left of the<br />
door. A regular menu item w<strong>as</strong><br />
oxtail ragout that we pronounced<br />
‘rag out.’ Those g<strong>as</strong> heaters came<br />
in handy during the great blackout<br />
that affected a quarter of the<br />
country, the likes of which w<strong>as</strong><br />
supposed to never happen again.<br />
Nobody knew what happened<br />
because there w<strong>as</strong> barely a transistor<br />
radio, so we just thought it w<strong>as</strong><br />
WWIII. Also on Broadway w<strong>as</strong><br />
TaKome, home of the meatball<br />
hero, called hoagie, grinder, po’<br />
boy or sub(marine) depending on<br />
where you were from. W<strong>as</strong> that<br />
ketchup on the knife or did he cut<br />
his finger every time he cut the<br />
sandwich in half?<br />
“The better deli w<strong>as</strong> a few blocks<br />
down Broadway, Mama Joy’s. If<br />
you bought lox by the quarterpound,<br />
its bagel, cream cheese and<br />
lox would have cost you twice<br />
<strong>as</strong> much. There were restaurants,<br />
<strong>College</strong> Inn and Tom’s. Tom’s had<br />
a Spanish omelet with a sauce of<br />
stewed celery, and decades later I<br />
went there and found that they still<br />
had that. You could buy a hot dog<br />
from the Sabrett’s corner umbrella;<br />
it’d be made with stewed onions by<br />
a man wearing a wool glove with<br />
worn-out fingers. I remember a<br />
place called Prexy’s (‘the hamburger<br />
with the college education’), but I<br />
do not remember going there. There<br />
w<strong>as</strong> a place across Amsterdam,<br />
named for the mom and pop who<br />
ran it, which had a hamburger platter<br />
with two big hamburgers. There<br />
w<strong>as</strong> a Japanese place around West<br />
118th Street across Amsterdam.<br />
More often we went for Chinese (I<br />
cannot remember where) with family<br />
service; column A had egg foo<br />
young while column B had sweet<br />
and sour pork. I thought the advertisements<br />
in my souvenir Spectator<br />
would refresh my memory, but it<br />
makes you think the only place to<br />
eat w<strong>as</strong> in Butler Hall.”<br />
My inbox is now empty of cl<strong>as</strong>smate<br />
news or views. I really need<br />
help. Email or write me. I’m talking<br />
to you.<br />
70<br />
Leo G. Kail<strong>as</strong><br />
Reitler Kail<strong>as</strong> & Rosenblatt<br />
885 Third Ave., 20th Fl.<br />
New York, NY 10022<br />
lkail<strong>as</strong>@reitlerlaw.com<br />
I had reports from many of our<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates after I made a request<br />
for news updates. But first, I apologize<br />
to my Bronx Science cl<strong>as</strong>smate<br />
Dr. Paul Rosen for referring to him<br />
<strong>as</strong> Paul Roth in my l<strong>as</strong>t column!<br />
James Periconi reports: “My<br />
daughter, Francesca ’02, got married<br />
l<strong>as</strong>t August at Elm Court in Lenox,<br />
M<strong>as</strong>s., to Adam Brody, a graduate<br />
of the University of Chicago — the<br />
closest thing in the Midwest to <strong>Columbia</strong>!<br />
Adam recently finished at<br />
Fordham Law and will become an<br />
ADA in the Queens County D.A.’s<br />
office <strong>this</strong> fall. Francesca graduated<br />
in May from the Silver School of Social<br />
Work at NYU. After eight years<br />
in television production at VH-1,<br />
she came to me two years ago and<br />
said, ‘Dad, my glamorous 20s in TV<br />
production are over; it’s time for me<br />
to do something socially useful.’ A<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> education at work!<br />
“My environmental law practice<br />
at Periconi continues into its 10th<br />
year successfully. My big extracurricular<br />
project is an exhibition<br />
I’m mounting at the Grolier Club<br />
(47 E. 60th St.) of my collection of<br />
American imprints published in<br />
Italian (with one work to be borrowed<br />
from <strong>Columbia</strong>’s Rare Book<br />
and Manuscript Library). It’ll be<br />
there from September through early<br />
November. (The club is open to the<br />
public Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–<br />
5 p.m.) The exhibition is filled with<br />
lots of political literature, especially<br />
that of the bomb-throwing anarchist<br />
type, likely to appeal to a certain<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> sensibility, not to speak<br />
of the anti-clerical literature popular<br />
among politically active immigrants.<br />
“I also am president of the board<br />
of the Pearl Theatre Company here<br />
in New York City, a cl<strong>as</strong>sical theatre<br />
company with a resident acting<br />
company; it recently moved to a<br />
theatre on West 42nd Street, previously<br />
occupied by the Signature<br />
Theatre Company. My wife, Alice,<br />
and I moved to Manhattan six years<br />
ago. Finally, six grandchildren, from<br />
Marin County, Calif., to Rye, N.Y., to<br />
London, make me very grateful.”<br />
Steve Stahler sent the following:<br />
“I have been a theoretical <strong>as</strong>trophysicist<br />
at UC Berkeley for many<br />
years. Those interested in broadening<br />
their perspective a bit might<br />
enjoy my book, coauthored with F.<br />
Palla, The Formation of Stars.”<br />
Michael Braun had a lengthy<br />
update: “I became a grandfather to<br />
a second granddaughter on February<br />
14, Effie Fae Miller. She joins<br />
Paikaeya (‘Paiki,’ named after the<br />
girl who w<strong>as</strong> the whale rider in the<br />
New Zealand movie of the same<br />
name about a girl trying to compete<br />
in a misogynistic Maori tribe). Paiki<br />
turned 2 on April 28. Their mother<br />
(my daughter), Keetch, creates<br />
silk-screen clothes with her own<br />
design. She recently signed a license<br />
agreement to sell stuff with her illustrations<br />
in Japan and China.<br />
“My son, Jake ’09, h<strong>as</strong> finished<br />
his second year <strong>as</strong> a junior high<br />
b<strong>as</strong>ketball coach and English<br />
teacher under the Japan Exchange<br />
and Teaching Program. He is a<br />
writer and wrote an incredible<br />
piece about the Japanese attitude<br />
after the earthquake and tsunami<br />
l<strong>as</strong>t year. He will return to the<br />
United States to look for a job after<br />
he travels around Southe<strong>as</strong>t Asia.<br />
Unlike our days, Vietnam, Laos<br />
and Cambodia are tourist destinations<br />
and there are still places of<br />
unspoiled beauty, though you need<br />
to be careful with the unexploded<br />
land mines in Cambodia; kids still<br />
lose their arms and legs playing<br />
in the rice fields. I went to North<br />
Vietnam three years ago and loved<br />
it and want to go back.<br />
“I practice law at Morrison &<br />
Foerster. I will eventually get the<br />
hang of it. Can we take a poll of<br />
how many in our cl<strong>as</strong>s have retired<br />
and are enjoying life and how<br />
many of us are still punching the<br />
time clock?”<br />
I, too, am curious about how<br />
many of our cl<strong>as</strong>smates have retired<br />
— feel free to send me a response to<br />
<strong>this</strong> informal poll.<br />
Joel Mintz reports, “I live in<br />
South Florida with my wife, Meri-<br />
Jane Rochelson ’71 Barnard, whom I<br />
met when I w<strong>as</strong> a senior at the <strong>College</strong><br />
and she w<strong>as</strong> a junior at Barnard.<br />
I recently finished my 30th year <strong>as</strong><br />
a law professor — a job I still enjoy<br />
(most days, at le<strong>as</strong>t). I have gotten<br />
together each of the l<strong>as</strong>t several<br />
years for long and relaxing spring<br />
weekends with David Sokolow, Ted<br />
Wirecki and Doug Sabrin — always<br />
a treat! On the professional front, my<br />
ninth book, Enforcement at the EPA:<br />
High Stakes and Hard Choices, w<strong>as</strong><br />
published in April. The book jacket<br />
(written by editors at the press)<br />
describes the book <strong>this</strong> way: ‘B<strong>as</strong>ed<br />
on 190 personal interviews with<br />
present and former enforcement<br />
officials at EPA, the U.S. Department<br />
of Justice and key congressional staff<br />
members — along with extensive<br />
research among EPA documents<br />
and secondary sources — the book<br />
vividly recounts the often tumultuous<br />
history of EPA’s enforcement<br />
program. It also analyzes some<br />
important questions regarding EPA’s<br />
institutional relationships and the<br />
agency’s working environment.’”<br />
Ralph Allemano says: “I am<br />
alive and well and live in Swansea,<br />
South Wales (U.K.) with my wife,<br />
Catherine. Daughters Helen and<br />
Alice are trying to make their<br />
marks in the theatre world of<br />
Los Angeles and New York City,<br />
respectively; son Alexander is<br />
taking up a Ph.D. in theoretical<br />
physics at Durham University; and<br />
youngest daughter, Laura, can’t<br />
decide whether to go to Harvard<br />
or Edinburgh University! I travel a<br />
lot for my business and run on the<br />
beach near home. Catherine works<br />
in ‘e-learning,’ advising Welsh colleges<br />
and universities.”<br />
Stephen Sossaman writes, “I<br />
recently moved to Napa, Calif. I’ve<br />
finished a comic novel set during<br />
the Vietnam War, Chanser Rules,<br />
and am looking for an agent.”<br />
John J. Kane notes: “I am<br />
retired from Boeing and Johnson &<br />
Johnson and live on Lopez Island<br />
in the San Juan Islands of my<br />
native W<strong>as</strong>hington state. The San<br />
Juans are a world-famous wildlife<br />
area and my neighbors range from<br />
hummingbirds to bald eagles,<br />
whales, otters, salmon and tame<br />
deer who peer in my windows. I<br />
live in a large cabin in the woods. It<br />
is poles apart from New York City,<br />
where I worked for 25 years and<br />
which I confess I miss. I am in the<br />
antiquarian book business, specializing<br />
in Latin, Greek and Irish<br />
Gaelic items. I have been learning<br />
Syriac (Aramaic) and writing<br />
an action-adventure novel in the<br />
Ludlum-Clancy vein. Life is good<br />
and terribly low-key.”<br />
John’s life does sound pretty<br />
idyllic but I, too, wonder whether<br />
I could deal with that much peace<br />
and tranquility on a full-time b<strong>as</strong>is!<br />
71<br />
Jim Shaw<br />
139 North 22nd St.<br />
Philadelphia, PA 19103<br />
jes200@columbia.edu<br />
The New York Times’ Sunday Book<br />
Review on June 3 carried a review<br />
of Steve Ross’ Hollywood Left and<br />
Right: How Movie Stars Shaped<br />
American Politics. From the review,<br />
by Andy Webster: “Occ<strong>as</strong>ionally,<br />
the wealth and worship showered<br />
on movie stars and studio executives<br />
prove insufficient, and they<br />
feel compelled to affect public<br />
policy by making pronouncements,<br />
<strong>as</strong>suming office or playing<br />
kingmaker. With Hollywood Left<br />
and Right, Ross, a historian at the<br />
University of Southern California,<br />
provides concise c<strong>as</strong>e studies of<br />
movie-industry influence, from<br />
the silent-film era to the present.<br />
He also corrects the misconception<br />
that Hollywood is a beehive of liberalism<br />
and parses the divide between<br />
idealistic, telegenic charisma<br />
and the grit of partisan maneuvering.”<br />
Go to the Times website for<br />
the full review. [Editor’s note: Also<br />
see Summer 2012 Bookshelf.]<br />
Toshihiko Taketomo writes,<br />
“My wife, Renee Russian Taketomo<br />
’71 Barnard, and I are longtime<br />
residents of Arlington, M<strong>as</strong>s., having<br />
moved to Cambridge for me<br />
to attend the Harvard Graduate<br />
School of Design. I have practiced<br />
architecture out of the Boston area<br />
ever since.<br />
“We’re proud parents of three<br />
grown children. Our youngest,<br />
Katherine Taketomo ’13 Barnard, is<br />
entering her senior year. Our older<br />
daughter, An<strong>as</strong>t<strong>as</strong>ia, who graduated<br />
from Sarah Lawrence in 2006,<br />
worked for the ACLU and is completing<br />
her M.S.W. at Smith. Our<br />
son, Zander, who graduated from<br />
Temple in 2010 with a degree in film<br />
and media studies, is a professional<br />
photographer and videographer in<br />
Philadelphia and NYC.<br />
“Renee is a clinical social worker<br />
(M.S.W from Smith in 1974) with<br />
a full-time private psychotherapy<br />
practice. I have joined MPdL<br />
Studio, with offices in Boston, NYC<br />
and Ann Arbor, Mich., <strong>as</strong> v.p. The<br />
founder, Monica Ponce de Leon,<br />
is dean of Michigan’s Taubman<br />
<strong>College</strong> of Architecture and Urban<br />
Planning and w<strong>as</strong> p<strong>as</strong>t principal of<br />
Office dA, a leading-edge architecture<br />
and design firm.<br />
“I w<strong>as</strong> a principal at Moshe<br />
Safdie and Associates (MSA),<br />
with which I w<strong>as</strong> <strong>as</strong>sociated for 17<br />
years. Most recently I w<strong>as</strong> one of<br />
the design leads for Marina Bay<br />
Sands, the landmark integrated<br />
resort and new city sector in Singapore<br />
that opened l<strong>as</strong>t year. The<br />
range of projects at MSA included<br />
major institutional, residential and<br />
commercial projects, including<br />
museums, a city hall, performance<br />
halls, university buildings, hotels,<br />
condominiums and mixed-used<br />
commercial projects on prominent<br />
urban sites. Winning the Columbus<br />
Center/New York Coliseum site<br />
competition, teamed with Boston<br />
Properties and Salomon Brothers,<br />
and the Ottawa City Competition<br />
were earlier career highlights.<br />
“I w<strong>as</strong> able to attend only part of<br />
the 40th reunion and thus missed<br />
much of the chance to catch up with<br />
old friends — but I look forward<br />
to future opportunities on and off<br />
campus!”<br />
Ron B<strong>as</strong>s reports, “Jersey Petroleum’s<br />
song ‘As The Vessel Burns’<br />
appears on the recently rele<strong>as</strong>ed<br />
compilation album Magick, Music<br />
and Ritual 3. Jersey Petroleum consists<br />
of John Stanford and me. The<br />
album can be found at hermetic.<br />
com/anthology/album/magickmusic-and-ritual-3.”<br />
Congratulations to Mark Kingdon<br />
and his son, J<strong>as</strong>on ’16. Mark<br />
writes, “J<strong>as</strong>on is the third member<br />
of our family to attend <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong>. Our daughter, Jessica ’09,<br />
is a documentary filmmaker living<br />
in Brooklyn. J<strong>as</strong>on plans to major<br />
in financial economics, a major that<br />
w<strong>as</strong> started a year ago.”<br />
Remember 45 Septembers ago<br />
and the feelings we had, including<br />
of adventure, <strong>as</strong> we entered <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong>. We are still connected.<br />
72<br />
Paul S. Appelbaum<br />
39 Claremont Ave., #24<br />
New York, NY 10027<br />
pappel1@aol.com<br />
Our 40th Alumni Reunion Weekend,<br />
held May 31–June 3, w<strong>as</strong> a<br />
huge success. Perhaps the best<br />
way to explain why is to share my<br />
experience of it.<br />
Our cl<strong>as</strong>s kicked things off on<br />
Thursday with a walk on the newly<br />
extended High Line Public Park<br />
in Chelsea. There I ran into Arthur<br />
Ensroth and his wife, Barbara<br />
W<strong>as</strong>zczak, sunning themselves on a<br />
bench and people-watching. Arthur<br />
lives in Wellesley, M<strong>as</strong>s., and is a<br />
project director at Harvard Pilgrim<br />
Health Care. He said that he w<strong>as</strong><br />
grateful to <strong>Columbia</strong> for taking a<br />
Rick Kurnit ’72’s legal practice h<strong>as</strong> evolved to<br />
include a major focus on advising clients on<br />
structuring the next ph<strong>as</strong>e of their careers.<br />
kid who grew up in the suburbs of<br />
Detroit and introducing him to the<br />
ple<strong>as</strong>ures of exploring a big city.<br />
After the walk, we all gathered<br />
at the Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea<br />
for a reception and explanation<br />
by artist Matthew Brandt of the<br />
works. Brandt’s approach involves<br />
using natural substances to create<br />
images of the things themselves, for<br />
example, using ground bee parts to<br />
produce printed images of bees. Bob<br />
Grey, a collector himself, arranged<br />
for the gallery to host us. In his day<br />
job, Bob is s.v.p., general counsel<br />
and secretary of the PPL Corp.,<br />
which owns energy generating and<br />
distribution companies in the United<br />
States and United Kingdom.<br />
Among the other cl<strong>as</strong>smates with<br />
whom I chatted at the reception<br />
were Mark Mandell, medical director<br />
of the emergency department at<br />
Morristown Hospital in New Jersey;<br />
Doug Altabef, in from Israel, where<br />
he and his family live; Mariano<br />
Rey, a cardiologist at NYU; Jamie<br />
Katz, erstwhile editor of CCT and<br />
now a freelancer, often for Smithsonian<br />
Magazine; and Dowell Myers,<br />
a professor of urban planning in<br />
Los Angeles at USC. Rick Kurnit<br />
told me how his legal practice h<strong>as</strong><br />
evolved to include a major focus on<br />
advising clients on structuring the<br />
next ph<strong>as</strong>e of their careers.<br />
Friday w<strong>as</strong> full of options for<br />
attendees, including talks by professors<br />
and a “crawl” through the art<br />
galleries of Chelsea. I joined the<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s tour of the painting and sculpture<br />
galleries in the new American<br />
wing of the Metropolitan Museum<br />
of Art, led by a staff member who<br />
commented extensively on the selection<br />
of works we saw. Steve Bellovin,<br />
for many years at Bell Labs<br />
but now a professor of computer<br />
science at <strong>Columbia</strong>, reminded me<br />
that we’ve known each other for 50<br />
years, having met when we started<br />
junior high. Of course he w<strong>as</strong> right,<br />
though I’ll confess to having been<br />
unsettled by the number, the impact<br />
of which w<strong>as</strong>n’t mitigated until I<br />
met someone who w<strong>as</strong> back for his<br />
60th reunion; then I realized how<br />
young I really am.<br />
Later that evening I missed the<br />
cocktail reception for our cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
hosted by Rick Kurnit at his law<br />
firm, but did get to the <strong>College</strong>/Engineering/Barnard<br />
Shabbat dinner<br />
at the Kraft Center, the Hillel building<br />
that didn’t exist in our time. I sat<br />
with Allan Schuster and his wife,<br />
Cindy Sherman, both physicians.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
78<br />
FALL 2012<br />
79
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
Allan is a cardiologist and internist<br />
who works <strong>as</strong> a hospitalist at United<br />
Hospital in St. Paul, Minn. We<br />
were in high school together, <strong>as</strong> well<br />
<strong>as</strong> fellow pre-meds at <strong>Columbia</strong>, so<br />
we had a lot of catching up to do.<br />
There were talks to choose from<br />
on Saturday morning <strong>as</strong> part of<br />
Dean’s Day, but our cl<strong>as</strong>s events<br />
began with a luncheon in the 15thfloor<br />
conference center of SIPA. The<br />
l<strong>as</strong>t time I’d been there w<strong>as</strong> a little<br />
more than 38 years ago — on my<br />
wedding day. My wife, Dede, and<br />
I had chosen the conference center<br />
with the great view of the New York<br />
skyline in the then-new SIPA building<br />
<strong>as</strong> the site for our wedding.<br />
Gene Ross came to the luncheon<br />
in his Army Medical Corps<br />
uniform. After serving <strong>as</strong> the only<br />
ENT doctor in Iraq in 2005–06, Gene<br />
returned to practice in Westchester,<br />
though he still serves in the Army<br />
Reserve. We talked about some of<br />
his experiences in Iraq, where he<br />
treated everything from shrapnel<br />
wounds to soldiers with fish bones<br />
stuck in their throats, and about<br />
being on-call round the clock <strong>as</strong> the<br />
only ENT in the country.<br />
Lunch w<strong>as</strong> followed by a cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
discussion in Alfred Lerner Hall<br />
(for those of you who didn’t know,<br />
Ferris Booth is long gone, replaced<br />
by gl<strong>as</strong>s-fronted Lerner with its<br />
endless ramps). The discussion, led<br />
by Rick Kurnit, w<strong>as</strong> about second<br />
careers at 60. I should not have been<br />
surprised that it quickly felt like<br />
we were back in CC, with some<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates challenging the premise<br />
that we necessarily need to think<br />
about doing something different<br />
with the rest of our lives; others<br />
saw the problem <strong>as</strong> residing in a<br />
system that discards good people<br />
after they have contributed to their<br />
organizations for so many years.<br />
Neil Izenberg told me after the session<br />
that he’d already gone through<br />
a transition, having shifted from<br />
being a practicing pediatrician with<br />
a specialty in adolescent medicine<br />
and a side interest in educational<br />
media to doing the latter full time.<br />
Neil is CEO of KidsHealth, a project<br />
of the Nemours Foundation, which<br />
produces online, video and print<br />
media for parents, kids and teens.<br />
The culminating event of the<br />
weekend w<strong>as</strong> the Saturday cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
dinner at C<strong>as</strong>a Italiana. Lots of<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates and spouses were there,<br />
including Bruce Jacobs, co-founder<br />
and principal of Jacobs Levy Equity<br />
Management in New Jersey; Mark<br />
Lesky, who is director of responsible<br />
care at Nova Chemicals in<br />
Pittsburgh; Gene Cornell, who<br />
runs Cornell-Mayo Associates, a<br />
software firm, and still is p<strong>as</strong>sionate<br />
about social justice; and Arnold<br />
Horowitz, retired from the State<br />
Department and working for the<br />
“intelligence community” in W<strong>as</strong>hington,<br />
D.C. (I’m a pretty intrepid<br />
reporter but I didn’t dare <strong>as</strong>k more).<br />
After dinner, Mike Gerrard,<br />
the Andrew Sabin Professor of<br />
Professional Practice at the Law<br />
School and a leading expert on<br />
environmental law, gave a terrific<br />
talk about the impact of global<br />
warming. Mike represents the<br />
Republic of the Marshall Islands,<br />
likely soon to be submerged under<br />
the rising waters of the Pacific. The<br />
islands’ situation, <strong>as</strong> he said in his<br />
understated way, raises “novel<br />
legal <strong>issue</strong>s.” [Editor’s note: Read<br />
CCT’s May/June 2011 feature<br />
about Gerrard online.]<br />
Richard Macksoud, who w<strong>as</strong>n’t<br />
able to attend, nonetheless wrote<br />
to say that he’s now a grandfather.<br />
“My daughter Jennifer Dukes<br />
delivered James Michael late in<br />
March. By the way, does any of<br />
our famous doctors have a for-sure<br />
cure for acid reflux in a baby?”<br />
Other cl<strong>as</strong>smates who registered<br />
for the weekend (I’m not relying<br />
on my memory to tell you who else<br />
w<strong>as</strong> there) included Stuart Bernsen,<br />
Emilio Carrillo, Peter Darrow,<br />
Dennis Greene, Tariq H<strong>as</strong>an,<br />
Steven Howitt, Harlan Lachman,<br />
Joseph Lowe, Keith Luis, Jeffrey<br />
Matloff, Eugene Nathanson,<br />
Gerard Papa, Allan Reiss, Joseph<br />
Smith, Gary Szakmary, Harold<br />
Veeser and Robert Williams. My<br />
apologies to those who were there<br />
and whom I missed, and for failing<br />
to do justice to the many wonderful<br />
conversations I had with so many<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates during the weekend. I<br />
hope many more of you will join us<br />
for our 45th — just five years away.<br />
REUNION WEEKEND<br />
MAY 30–JUNE 2, 2013<br />
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS<br />
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Fatima Yudeh<br />
fy2165@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7834<br />
DEVELOPMENT Valentina Salkow<br />
vs2441@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7833<br />
73<br />
Barry Etra<br />
1256 Edmund Park Dr. NE<br />
Atlanta, GA 30306<br />
betra1@bellsouth.net<br />
As we settle into our 60s, our vision<br />
shortens (literally) <strong>as</strong> our existence<br />
approaches twilight. Is it possible<br />
we’re finally feeling our age? Could<br />
be …<br />
Dr. Ken Kutscher ’77 P&S recently<br />
became governor of the New<br />
Jersey chapter of the American <strong>College</strong><br />
of Cardiology; he works with<br />
local cardiologists on education and<br />
insurance <strong>issue</strong>s. Ken also h<strong>as</strong> taken<br />
the lead in statewide advocacy by<br />
establishing a state PAC to work<br />
with the governor and legislators<br />
on <strong>issue</strong>s of concern to both patients<br />
and physicians.<br />
Next year is our 40th Alumni Reunion<br />
Weekend. Mark your calendar<br />
for, Thursday, May 30–Sunday,<br />
June 2, 2013. If you’re interested in<br />
being part of the Reunion Committee<br />
(planning the weekend’s events)<br />
or the Cl<strong>as</strong>s Gift Committee (fundraising<br />
for the <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
Fund), contact the appropriate staff<br />
member at the top of the column.<br />
You need not be in the New York<br />
area and can participate in meetings<br />
via conference call.<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> will send materials by<br />
email and postal mail <strong>as</strong> the date<br />
grows closer. If needed, update your<br />
contact information at reunion.col<br />
lege.columbia.edu/alumniupdate,<br />
or call the Alumni Office: 212-851-<br />
7488.<br />
Hey, that’s all I got. Shake off<br />
those PCs and keep us informed;<br />
no news is bad news.<br />
74<br />
Fred Bremer<br />
532 W. 111th St.<br />
New York, NY 10025<br />
f.bremer@ml.com<br />
With the presidential election<br />
garnering all the media attention, it<br />
is important to remind one and all<br />
that it is the 40th anniversary of another<br />
seismic “presidential event”:<br />
the Watergate break-in on June<br />
17, 1972. It doesn’t seem that long<br />
ago that we were hearing about<br />
CREEP (the Committee to Reelect<br />
the President) and how W<strong>as</strong>hington<br />
Post reporters Woodward and<br />
Bernstein, with the help of Deep<br />
Throat, uncovered the wiretapping<br />
of the Democratic Party<br />
headquarters at the Watergate<br />
Hotel. Woodward recently said,<br />
“Watergate implanted a cynical<br />
bomb about American politics that<br />
will probably never go away.” This<br />
year’s big money PACs and inaccurate<br />
slurs (from both sides) have<br />
only added to the popular distain<br />
of our politicians. Let’s hope that<br />
the 50th anniversary of the breakin<br />
will find political leadership that<br />
operates at a higher level and that<br />
no future President will have to<br />
declare on TV, “I am not a crook!”<br />
All of <strong>this</strong> political talk seems<br />
like a perfect segue to the John<br />
Edwards trial that ended in June.<br />
We must extend our congratulations<br />
to Edwards’ lead attorney,<br />
Abbe Lowell, for his incredible<br />
defense that led to the government<br />
dropping all charges (mainly<br />
involving using alleged campaign<br />
contributions to support Edward’s<br />
girlfriend and their “love child”).<br />
This must have invoked a sense<br />
of déjà vu for Abbe. He came<br />
into the national spotlight in 1998<br />
when he defended President Bill<br />
Clinton at his impeachment trial<br />
over Clinton’s alleged perjury in<br />
his characterization of his “lurid<br />
relationship” (<strong>this</strong> is a family<br />
publication) with White House<br />
intern Monica Lewinsky. [Read<br />
CCT’s profile of Lowell online in<br />
the Winter 2011–12 <strong>issue</strong>.]<br />
After these two unsavory entries,<br />
let’s cool things down with news<br />
of the Ozzie and Harriet variety. A<br />
few months ago I caught up with<br />
Tom Sawicki, who w<strong>as</strong> in from Jerusalem,<br />
where he is the director of<br />
programming for the Jerusalem office<br />
of AIPAC (the American Israeli<br />
Public Affairs Committee). Tom<br />
and I, joined by fellow 8 Hartley<br />
floormate Joe Lipari ’75, compared<br />
the differences in our households.<br />
I have two kids too young to have<br />
left for college, Joe h<strong>as</strong> two kids<br />
who left for college but have now<br />
returned, and Tom and his wife, Susie,<br />
are adapting to life without their<br />
two sons (28 and 24, both career<br />
officers in the Israeli air force), who<br />
have both graduated college and<br />
are living in their own apartments.<br />
Seems like Tom and his wife are<br />
doing quite well — enjoying hiking<br />
with several other couples, going<br />
to the opera and the like. Tom also<br />
shared that he h<strong>as</strong> a weekly Sabbath<br />
gathering with his buddies to<br />
sample single malt Scotches. (I seem<br />
to recall some serious drinking in<br />
Fiddler on the Roof. Ah, “tradition,<br />
tradition” trumps Ozzie and Harriet<br />
in the lives of the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of ’74!)<br />
Tom w<strong>as</strong> in the United States in<br />
part to surprise D.C. resident Leon<br />
Wieseltier at his 60th birthday<br />
party. This reminded me of seeing<br />
Leon mentioned in a New York<br />
Times Style Section article (where<br />
else?) about Chris Hughes and<br />
Sean Eldridge (called “the new<br />
Power Brokers” by the Times). The<br />
article talked about how Hughes<br />
w<strong>as</strong> a co-founder of Facebook and<br />
h<strong>as</strong> used his newfound wealth<br />
both to host Democratic fundraisers<br />
and to buy a majority stake in<br />
The New Republic. Because Leon h<strong>as</strong><br />
been the longtime literary editor<br />
at the magazine, Hughes wanted<br />
to make sure he w<strong>as</strong> on board<br />
with Hughes’ politics. A picture<br />
accompanying the article showed<br />
an amazing contr<strong>as</strong>t between the<br />
boyish Hughes and Eldridge (28<br />
and 25) and the not-so-boyish Leon<br />
with flowing white locks. (It w<strong>as</strong><br />
kind of like Clark Kent standing<br />
beside Perry White in those old<br />
Superman TV shows!)<br />
But who needs Superman when<br />
our cl<strong>as</strong>s h<strong>as</strong> its own “Super Doctors”?<br />
Each year a company polls<br />
doctors in the New York area to<br />
find the most respected physicians<br />
in various fields of medicine.<br />
New York magazine then h<strong>as</strong> the<br />
company narrow the list to 1,160,<br />
and it highlights those chosen in<br />
the “Best Doctors” <strong>issue</strong> each June.<br />
Incredibly, our one cl<strong>as</strong>s, which h<strong>as</strong><br />
around 150 doctors (many outside<br />
the New York area), had at le<strong>as</strong>t<br />
four of these best doctors: Mark<br />
Lebwohl (dermatology), Burt Rochelson<br />
(maternal and fetal medicine),<br />
Larry Stam (nephrology,<br />
i.e., kidneys) and Steve Schonfeld<br />
(neuroradiology). The New York<br />
magazine article did not list college<br />
affiliations, so my apologies to<br />
anyone on the list I failed to notice.<br />
Ple<strong>as</strong>e send in omissions!<br />
You don’t need to be doing<br />
things that lead you to be featured<br />
on the evening news, in newspapers<br />
or in magazines to be of<br />
interest to our cl<strong>as</strong>smates. Here are<br />
some vignettes from around the<br />
country that document the busy<br />
careers of our cl<strong>as</strong>smates in are<strong>as</strong><br />
<strong>as</strong> varied <strong>as</strong> science, architecture,<br />
finance, business and the law.<br />
From Fairbanks, Al<strong>as</strong>ka, comes<br />
news from Jim Beget, who recently<br />
completed his 28th year <strong>as</strong> a professor<br />
in the geology and geophysics<br />
department at the University<br />
of Al<strong>as</strong>ka. Jim is involved in a new<br />
National Science Foundation project<br />
looking at the effects of climate<br />
change on frozen ground. Part of<br />
the research project takes place in<br />
a “permafrost tunnel” — a mine<br />
shaft drilled into an area of frozen<br />
ground where the temperature is<br />
only about 20 degrees Fahrenheit,<br />
even in the middle of the summer.<br />
To make up for spending part of<br />
his summer in a dark frozen tunnel,<br />
Jim and his wife, Mary, headed<br />
to Arizona in July to join a float trip<br />
down the Grand Canyon.<br />
Closer to home we got an update<br />
on the career of New York architect<br />
Larry Marner, who works on a<br />
range of projects from helping local<br />
private schools expand their facilities<br />
to updates at Grand Central and<br />
Chelsea Piers (a sprawling sports<br />
complex along the Hudson River).<br />
Larry writes, “The ‘fam’ is doing<br />
well. My wife, Elisabeth Post-Marner<br />
’74 Barnard, practices architecture<br />
in Stamford, Conn. Daughter Nell is<br />
applying to nursing school. Son Ben<br />
is in his third year at Iona <strong>College</strong> in<br />
New Rochelle, N.Y.”<br />
Moving one step closer to retirement,<br />
Bob Fuchs and his wife,<br />
Bobbie, moved from Connecticut<br />
to North Carolina four years ago.<br />
Bob wanted to incre<strong>as</strong>e his time on<br />
the golf course and Bobbie wanted<br />
more time on the beach. A longtime<br />
IT person, Bob is able to work parttime<br />
from home. He is doing some<br />
financial control work for Delta<br />
Dental’s IT department, located on<br />
the other side of the country. Bob<br />
adds, “Bobbie and I celebrated 38<br />
years of marriage <strong>this</strong> p<strong>as</strong>t summer<br />
… 1974 w<strong>as</strong> a busy time — graduating<br />
in May, starting a new job in<br />
June and getting married in August.<br />
We have four children ranging from<br />
34–24 and one granddaughter (4).<br />
My kids all have graduated from<br />
college, one h<strong>as</strong> a m<strong>as</strong>ter’s and one<br />
is working toward an M.B.A. I’m<br />
happy and fortunate to say they all<br />
have good jobs.”<br />
A short update came from Joel<br />
Almquist, in Boston. He is a partner<br />
at K&L Gates law firm, where he<br />
counsels clients on a range of tax<br />
<strong>issue</strong>s (from mergers and acquisitions<br />
to hedge funds to real estate<br />
transactions, to name a few). Joel<br />
tells us that one son is a broker at<br />
UBS and the other is an investment<br />
banker at Barclays. He adds, “I ran<br />
the Paris Marathon l<strong>as</strong>t spring.”<br />
The “Energizer Bunny Award”<br />
must go to Will Willis, in Palm<br />
Beach Gardens, Fla., what some<br />
people might consider retirement<br />
country. But Will writes, “All six<br />
of my companies are doing great.<br />
Book No. 3 is coming out in January.<br />
Can’t retire, having too much<br />
fun!”<br />
Will’s latest adventure w<strong>as</strong> a<br />
real surprise for two re<strong>as</strong>ons. First,<br />
he received a huge contract to<br />
put 6½-foot micro-wind turbines<br />
on 400 Wal-Mart stores. Then he<br />
began working with Brad Higgins<br />
(managing partner of the U.S.<br />
investments at private equity firm<br />
SOSventures) on the funding of the<br />
turbines. When I <strong>as</strong>ked Will how<br />
the two hooked up, he replied, “We<br />
connected on LinkedIn. After we<br />
talked, we found we had similar<br />
business interests and investment<br />
requirements.”<br />
Maybe there is more to <strong>this</strong><br />
social media revolution than many<br />
of us give it credit for.<br />
There you have it. Cl<strong>as</strong>smates<br />
featured on TV and in newspapers<br />
and magazines for their amazing<br />
achievements. Other cl<strong>as</strong>smates<br />
pursuing their p<strong>as</strong>sions in a variety<br />
of fields. For a cl<strong>as</strong>s of only 600<br />
guys, we have a lot to be proud<br />
of — not le<strong>as</strong>t of which is that no<br />
one h<strong>as</strong> had to declare, “I am not<br />
a crook!”<br />
75<br />
Randy Nichols<br />
734 S. Linwood Ave.<br />
Baltimore, MD 21224<br />
rcn2day@gmail.com<br />
Not one to skip a re<strong>as</strong>on to celebrate<br />
(and taking some time to themselves<br />
now that they are empty-nesters),<br />
Y<strong>as</strong>min and Jim Dolan were in<br />
France in early summer. Jim proposed<br />
to Y<strong>as</strong>min in Paris.<br />
Known to many of us for his<br />
high profile in sports labor negotiations,<br />
Jeffrey Kessler recently led<br />
70 other former partners of Dewey<br />
& LeBoeuf to Winston & Strawn,<br />
where Jeff now is on the executive<br />
committees. Joe Tato, also formerly<br />
of Dewey, h<strong>as</strong> joined other former<br />
Dewey partners at DLA Piper.<br />
Both rainmakers will continue to<br />
represent their portfolios.<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>smates gathered with other<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong>ns at Dean’s Day on June<br />
2. Lou Dalaveris and Ira Malin<br />
spent some time chatting. Bob<br />
Schneider and his wife, Regina<br />
Mullahy ’75 Barnard, toured the site<br />
of the new Manhattanville campus.<br />
Floyd Warren had registered but<br />
no one saw him, and I w<strong>as</strong>n’t able<br />
to contact him before these Notes<br />
were due, which w<strong>as</strong> shortly after<br />
Dean’s Day.<br />
A couple of weeks back, I got<br />
an email from Bob Sclafani <strong>as</strong>king<br />
if I knew how he could get our<br />
Jeffrey Kessler ’75 recently led 70 fellow former<br />
partners of Dewey & LeBoeuf to Winston & Strawn,<br />
where Kessler now is on the executive committee.<br />
yearbook. I told him I didn’t know<br />
but would loan him mine. I sent it<br />
off, with the condition that when<br />
he got (and returned!) it, he also<br />
would send me stuff for Notes.<br />
Look for news in the next CCT.<br />
I have just spent the most amazing<br />
weekend here in my hometown<br />
of Baltimore — remember, I’m writing<br />
<strong>this</strong> in June — taking part in its<br />
Star-Spangled Sailabration, which is<br />
the official kickoff to the nation’s celebration<br />
of the 200th anniversary of<br />
the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Those<br />
of you elsewhere on the E<strong>as</strong>t Co<strong>as</strong>t<br />
may have experienced it <strong>as</strong> OpSail<br />
2012. Sailing ships, tall, medium<br />
and small. Ditto for naval, marine,<br />
Co<strong>as</strong>t Guard and other Grey ships,<br />
all from around the world. There<br />
were air shows, including the Blue<br />
Angels, which I swear I could have<br />
reached up and grabbed <strong>as</strong> they flew<br />
over my roof deck. I did more than<br />
24 hours of volunteering, walking<br />
the promenades of the harbor <strong>as</strong> a<br />
Sailabration amb<strong>as</strong>sador, during the<br />
l<strong>as</strong>t four days, but that also put me in<br />
the middle of enjoying it. Now, I’m<br />
gonna collapse and recover. From all<br />
the standing and walking, my body<br />
aches in places that I didn’t know or<br />
had forgotten existed.<br />
And, of course, <strong>this</strong> edition of<br />
CCT is the first of the new fiscal<br />
year of the <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Fund.<br />
For early givers, especially those<br />
who want a 2012 tax deduction,<br />
now’s the time to pencil in those<br />
transactions. Others, pledge early.<br />
(Often is not necessary, but then<br />
ple<strong>as</strong>e back up that pledge with a<br />
check or credit card.)<br />
Give by credit card at college.<br />
columbia.edu/giveonline or by<br />
calling 212-851-7488, or mail a<br />
check, payable to <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
Fund, to <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
Fund, <strong>Columbia</strong> Alumni Center,<br />
622 W. 113th St., MC 4530, 3rd Fl.,<br />
New York, NY 10025.<br />
76<br />
Clyde Moneyhun<br />
Boise State University<br />
Department of English<br />
200 Liberal Arts Building<br />
1910 University Dr.<br />
Boise, ID 83725<br />
cam131@columbia.edu<br />
I hope the members of the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of<br />
1976 are enjoying a wonderful fall.<br />
Ple<strong>as</strong>e send your news to me at the<br />
above email or postal address. Your<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates would love to hear<br />
from you!<br />
77<br />
David Gorman<br />
111 Regal Dr.<br />
DeKalb, IL 60115<br />
dgorman@niu.edu<br />
Our cl<strong>as</strong>s held its 35th Alumni<br />
Reunion Weekend from May 31–<br />
June 3. Although I w<strong>as</strong>n’t there, I<br />
received a number of enthusi<strong>as</strong>tic<br />
reports that I have attempted to<br />
cobble together, hopefully not too<br />
inaccurately. (They make <strong>this</strong> kind<br />
of thing look so e<strong>as</strong>y on the CSI<br />
shows.)<br />
Lou DeStefano says that Karen,<br />
his wife of two years, w<strong>as</strong> impressed<br />
by her first view of the campus;<br />
she saw much of it but not all. A<br />
night in Carman w<strong>as</strong> “not so bad<br />
<strong>as</strong> an inexpensive hotel,” but when<br />
Lou wanted to show her John Jay<br />
lounge, he w<strong>as</strong> stopped by campus<br />
security. Lou adds that he w<strong>as</strong><br />
ple<strong>as</strong>ed to see Peter Buxbaum, a<br />
first-timer at a <strong>Columbia</strong> reunion.<br />
Tom Wagner and his wife,<br />
Miriam Furey ’77 Barnard, had<br />
dinner on reunion Thursday<br />
with his fraternity brothers from<br />
Beta Theta Pi, including James<br />
Camparo (with his wife, Lori ’77<br />
Barnard), Jim Mullin (plus his<br />
wife, Linda) and Kevin Roach<br />
’77E; <strong>this</strong> w<strong>as</strong> followed by a show,<br />
The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. Tom<br />
reports that he “sees the Mullins<br />
at most Homecomings, since they<br />
are local, but the Camparos live out<br />
West and we had not seen them in<br />
many years, making for a wonderful<br />
reunion.” Tom and Miriam also<br />
went on the Chelsea art gallery<br />
crawl tour the next day, followed<br />
by lunch on Tenth Avenue — and,<br />
al<strong>as</strong>, an early departure due to<br />
other commitments. They missed<br />
a cl<strong>as</strong>s reception held by Bill Gray<br />
in his office.<br />
Among those who made it<br />
to Bill’s w<strong>as</strong> John Hallacy, who<br />
FALL 2012<br />
80<br />
FALL 2012<br />
81
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
enjoyed the spread <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> the<br />
view of the Empire State Building,<br />
lit in blue and white. Of the reunion<br />
overall, John adds, “The events<br />
were very well organized <strong>this</strong> year.<br />
The lectures were truly stimulating.<br />
I attended one on brain research<br />
that w<strong>as</strong> viewed from a multidisciplinary<br />
perspective. The Wine<br />
T<strong>as</strong>ting w<strong>as</strong> great because Barnard<br />
alumnae were present, including<br />
my wife, Mary Ann Lofrumento<br />
’77 Barnard, and you could mingle<br />
with the broader reunion crowd.<br />
As is predictable, we talked about<br />
surviving the 1970s and cl<strong>as</strong>ses and<br />
professors that we appreciated a<br />
great deal. The food w<strong>as</strong> generally<br />
excellent but did not surp<strong>as</strong>s the<br />
discourse and the weather. The<br />
recent grads also appeared to be<br />
very enthusi<strong>as</strong>tic.”<br />
Someone else at Bill’s reception<br />
w<strong>as</strong> Mike Aroney, who seems to<br />
have kept up a frenetic pace during<br />
the weekend; he brought his wife,<br />
Kathy; daughter, Brittany; son,<br />
Kell; and daughter-in-law, Brittany.<br />
As Kell is a recent graduate of the<br />
business school at Southern Methodist<br />
University and Brittany had<br />
just graduated (with honors, yet)<br />
from the University of South Carolina’s<br />
<strong>College</strong> of Nursing, “the trip,<br />
in part, w<strong>as</strong> a graduation present,<br />
and I acted <strong>as</strong> tour guide for most<br />
of the time. We stayed in Tribeca<br />
and saw just about everything,<br />
and it seems I walked the younger<br />
folks to the point of crying ‘uncle.’<br />
We sent the kids off to see War<br />
Horse, so they had to humor Dad<br />
with a trip to MoMA, an art gallery<br />
crawl in Chelsea and lunch at the<br />
Boathouse on Friday,” followed by<br />
Bill’s event. “I gave the kids a tour<br />
of campus and told some stories.<br />
Kell wanted to see the B-school<br />
and Brittany wanted to know<br />
about the medical school. The kids<br />
attended our cl<strong>as</strong>s dinner with<br />
Kathy and me, but left early from<br />
the champagne and dancing to go<br />
back to the hotel. I do believe they<br />
were in bed by 10, while Kathy and<br />
I made a fair job of the dancing and<br />
champagne consumption.<br />
“Funny story: our daughter is<br />
an attractive, 6-foot tall, 22-yearold<br />
blonde. When we arrived at<br />
the dinner for cocktails, my wife<br />
went over to the bar to gather<br />
some refreshments while I greeted<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates. Brittany came back<br />
and w<strong>as</strong> standing next to me and<br />
eventually when it w<strong>as</strong> clear she<br />
w<strong>as</strong> a daughter, a few cl<strong>as</strong>smates<br />
confessed they were relieved to<br />
learn she w<strong>as</strong>n’t a trophy wife!”<br />
Also at reunion were (with<br />
apologies to anyone I left out — or<br />
put in! — by mistake): Craig Brod,<br />
Leslie Cohen, Mark Goldberger,<br />
Michael Katzman, Bob Kent,<br />
Marty Kutscher, Jon Lukomnik,<br />
Peter Nagykery, Dan Sang, John<br />
Santamaria, Jim Shapiro, Michael<br />
Sherman, David Stanton, Christopher<br />
Sten, Robert Werner and<br />
George Whipple. Among attendees<br />
I heard from, there w<strong>as</strong> agreement<br />
on the fine weather, the good work<br />
of the reunion staff and (unfortunately)<br />
the relatively low turnout of<br />
our cl<strong>as</strong>s. Here’s to a bigger 40th.<br />
REUNION WEEKEND<br />
MAY 30–JUNE 2, 2013<br />
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS<br />
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Fatima Yudeh<br />
fy2165@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7834<br />
DEVELOPMENT Valentina Salkow<br />
vs2441@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7833<br />
78<br />
Matthew Nemerson<br />
35 Huntington St.<br />
New Haven, CT 06511<br />
mnemerson@snet.net<br />
I continue to be amazed and humbled<br />
at the achievements and broad<br />
range of our cl<strong>as</strong>s. Bravo! I have<br />
been wondering <strong>as</strong> we approach<br />
our 35th reunion if we are closer to<br />
half our allotted time <strong>as</strong> <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
grads, or two-thirds done. It’s beginning<br />
to make a difference …<br />
John N<strong>as</strong>tuk, also ’78E, writes,<br />
“The news from Danvers, M<strong>as</strong>s., is<br />
that I’m a senior engineer with GE<br />
Aviation but bigger news is that our<br />
son, David, recently started his first<br />
full-time job <strong>as</strong> a mechanical engineer<br />
after graduating from UMaine<br />
l<strong>as</strong>t fall, and second son, Eric,<br />
recently graduated from UConn <strong>as</strong><br />
a biomedical engineer. Three engineers<br />
under one roof is sufficient to<br />
make Karen — the artist, wife and<br />
mother — about crazy.”<br />
Steve Bargonetti h<strong>as</strong> enlisted<br />
his wife, Diane, to do his column<br />
PR (I advise <strong>this</strong> for all of you). She<br />
writes, “My husband w<strong>as</strong> honored<br />
by author David Maraniss when he<br />
w<strong>as</strong> chosen to be in the new Obama<br />
biography, Barack Obama: The Story<br />
[see Bookshelf]. This is not a political<br />
statement from us but rather an<br />
honor to be part of history for Steve.<br />
If you have a chance, check out the<br />
book (especially page 435!). It is rare<br />
that people in the ‘real world’ are<br />
interested in what musicians have<br />
to say.”<br />
Diane also included the below,<br />
which w<strong>as</strong> originally written for<br />
the NYC musicians’ union paper.<br />
“How many Local 802 Musicians<br />
do you know who have been interviewed<br />
for a presidential biography<br />
and actually quoted for the book?<br />
Well, if you know guitarist Steve<br />
Bargonetti then you know at le<strong>as</strong>t<br />
one!<br />
“He graduated from <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
University around the time<br />
President Obama transferred there.<br />
Steve h<strong>as</strong> a similar bi-racial heritage<br />
and, at the time, w<strong>as</strong> the leader of<br />
the premier jazz fusion group, So<br />
What, on the <strong>Columbia</strong> campus.<br />
The bands playing at The West End<br />
during Obama’s first year included<br />
So What, whose name w<strong>as</strong> inspired<br />
by the first cut of the Miles Davis<br />
album Kind of Blue.”<br />
Steve’s wife concludes with the<br />
reference that, “Maraniss felt Steve<br />
offered great perception into <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
University’s campus life, socially,<br />
politically and racially … a look into<br />
the environment experienced by<br />
Steve and, thus, the future President.<br />
To quote Steve from the book:<br />
‘There were racial inferences from<br />
both sides, which were completely<br />
disavowed once we started bringing<br />
people together via music.’”<br />
So there you have it. Proof that<br />
the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1978 w<strong>as</strong> intimately<br />
involved in the President’s experience<br />
at alma mater.<br />
From David J. Margules, “Things<br />
are good here. Four sons, and no<br />
one at <strong>Columbia</strong>! My eldest, Andy,<br />
graduated from medical school at<br />
Jefferson (along with his wife) and<br />
started his residency in urology. He<br />
claims to have picked it because<br />
it gives his friends lots of fodder<br />
for rude jokes about the kinds of<br />
things he ‘handles.’ (My mother<br />
still tells me I should have been a<br />
doctor and that it’s not too late to<br />
go to medical school.) My second<br />
son, Elliot, h<strong>as</strong> finished his second<br />
year of law school and h<strong>as</strong> been<br />
working for Josh Dratel. He loves<br />
the practice and is looking forward<br />
to graduating. My third, Sam, starts<br />
culinary school in September and<br />
wants to open a p<strong>as</strong>try/coffee shop.<br />
My youngest, Will, is in the middle<br />
of 1½ years in yeshiva in Israel and<br />
will start at Yeshiva University in<br />
January. My wife, Michelle Seltzer<br />
’77 Barnard, and I are very proud of<br />
each.”<br />
Midwestern refugee Robert<br />
Blank sends <strong>this</strong> from Madison,<br />
Wis.: “Scary how time flies. Nothing<br />
Daniel Pincus ’78 sang the national anthem at<br />
numerous Lions’ football and b<strong>as</strong>ketball games<br />
during <strong>this</strong> p<strong>as</strong>t year.<br />
fun or exciting to report. Sorry to say<br />
the recall w<strong>as</strong> a dis<strong>as</strong>ter here, and<br />
[Gov.] Scott Walter is truly evil.”<br />
Henry Aronson h<strong>as</strong> been busy<br />
<strong>as</strong> always, “My wife, Cailín Heffernan,<br />
and I were selected for the<br />
Rhinebeck Writers Retreat for <strong>this</strong><br />
summer; [at <strong>this</strong> writing in June<br />
we planned to go] for a week in<br />
August to continue working on our<br />
new musical, Loveless Tex<strong>as</strong>. I do<br />
some orchestrating for the Rocktopia<br />
symphonic/rock fusion ensemble,<br />
kicking off with the Youngstown<br />
(Ohio) Symphony in September; I’ll<br />
be playing keyboards in the concert,<br />
too. Meanwhile, I’m still music<br />
director/conductor of Rock of Ages<br />
on Broadway.”<br />
Jeffrey Moerdler looks down<br />
on Gotham from his perch at Mintz<br />
Levin, telling us, “My oldest son,<br />
Scott, graduated from Mount Sinai<br />
School of Medicine and is starting<br />
his residency in pediatrics at Mount<br />
Sinai Medical Center (he got his<br />
first-choice match) and plans to<br />
specialize in pediatric oncology. He<br />
is getting married in October. My<br />
twins are both at NYU, Jonathan<br />
in the Stern School of Business<br />
and Eric in the <strong>College</strong> of Arts and<br />
Sciences, majoring in architecture<br />
and urban planning. Jonathan<br />
[w<strong>as</strong> scheduled to] get married in<br />
August.<br />
“I’m busy in my real estate legal<br />
practice and in particular in my<br />
specialty in data center and telecom<br />
real estate. I also spend lots of<br />
my time on my three unpaid parttime<br />
jobs. For starters, I’m commissioner<br />
of the Port Authority of<br />
New York & New Jersey (yes, the<br />
recent toll incre<strong>as</strong>es are my fault);<br />
I’m very involved in all of its major<br />
real estate projects, in particular<br />
the World Trade Center. I’m also an<br />
EMT on my local volunteer ambulance<br />
service and co-president of<br />
my chapter in Riverdale <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong><br />
president of my co-op apartment<br />
building.”<br />
Stu Kricun may hold the record<br />
for appearances in <strong>this</strong> column<br />
(what Joan Rivers w<strong>as</strong> to Johnny):<br />
“I have worked at Disney since<br />
2005, after spending 12 years at<br />
Playboy. Talk about 180-degree<br />
changes in the subject matter. If any<br />
of our cl<strong>as</strong>smates’ kids are fans of<br />
Good Luck Charlie or Lab Rats, those<br />
are two of the shows for which I am<br />
production counsel. My kids are in<br />
the prime demographic right now<br />
for Disney. My daughter, Arianna, is<br />
7 and my son, Jordan, is 5 (yes, I did<br />
start really late compared to some of<br />
the rest of you!).<br />
“I find myself reminiscing every<br />
so often about the good old days at<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong>. Hard to believe it’s been<br />
almost 35 years. One of these days,<br />
I need to take a trip with the entire<br />
family and show my little ones<br />
where dad went to college.”<br />
Gary Pickholz gets the award<br />
for eclectic activities. “My new<br />
book, for background context, is<br />
my nonfiction project at Stanford’s<br />
Writer’s Studio, which h<strong>as</strong> been a<br />
truly marvelous and eye-opening<br />
experience,” he writes. “I have<br />
been blessed with many sharp colleagues<br />
in many universities and<br />
firms worldwide, across a number<br />
of disciplines, in my career, but <strong>this</strong><br />
is by far the most f<strong>as</strong>cinating group<br />
of colleagues I have ever enjoyed<br />
spending time with.<br />
“My son Dov got engaged to a<br />
lovely young lady originally from<br />
Paris, whose family also made<br />
aliyah. I now have an appointment<br />
at the Business School. I have two<br />
books coming out (hopefully) <strong>this</strong><br />
year, one on some of the significant<br />
failures in capital markets and<br />
one a nonfiction autobiographical<br />
discussion of a Jewish divorce and<br />
its policy considerations, both in the<br />
United States and Israel. My son<br />
Josh now is in an elite combat unit,<br />
and my daughter Tamar will serve<br />
in the office of Prime Minister Bibi<br />
Netanyahu (whom I used to play<br />
b<strong>as</strong>ketball with in the Philadelphia<br />
synagogue league when his name<br />
w<strong>as</strong> still Benjy), <strong>as</strong> her national<br />
service.<br />
“I will be testifying before the<br />
Knesset once again in October, <strong>this</strong><br />
time on the topic of Israeli-continued<br />
insistence of taxing American<br />
and British charitable contributions,<br />
an embarr<strong>as</strong>sment that your<br />
local UJA-Federation and Israel<br />
Bonds representatives prefer be<br />
ignored by American donors.”<br />
An interesting story about fame<br />
in the big city from Daniel Pincus:<br />
“This p<strong>as</strong>t year, I sang the national<br />
anthem at numerous Lions’ football<br />
and b<strong>as</strong>ketball games. I sang the<br />
tenor solos with the Barnard-<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> Chorus and with the<br />
Collegium Musicum. At the end<br />
of Yom Kippur l<strong>as</strong>t year, a young<br />
congregant came up to me and said,<br />
‘Cantor Pincus, there is something<br />
about the way you sing and your<br />
style that reminds me of John Amarante<br />
at Madison Square Garden.’<br />
“A week later I called <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
Athletics and onto the roster I<br />
went, and w<strong>as</strong> requested for the<br />
Harvard games. Thinking that <strong>this</strong><br />
w<strong>as</strong> going very well, I contacted<br />
Fordham. They won all six games<br />
I sang at, and alerted the New York<br />
Daily News to write a story about it,<br />
resulting in a full-page article. Two<br />
days later, Clyde Haberman of The<br />
New York Times picked up the story<br />
in a column.”<br />
Capt. Jeffrey L. Canfield, USN,<br />
writes: “I am concluding an <strong>as</strong>signment<br />
<strong>as</strong> Headquarters ISAF Ministerial<br />
Advisor to the Government<br />
of Afghanistan Ministry of Rural<br />
Rehabilitation and Development<br />
in Kabul, Afghanistan. I will be<br />
<strong>as</strong>signed next from the Pentagon to<br />
the United States Institute of Peace<br />
in W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C.”<br />
On the home front, my family<br />
abandoned me <strong>this</strong> summer. My<br />
wife, Marian ’77 Barnard, is teaching<br />
near Paris at INSEAD, the European<br />
business school. Daughter<br />
Elana (21) took courses in London.<br />
And Joy (18), who is recently<br />
installed <strong>as</strong> social action v.p. of the<br />
National Federation of (Reform)<br />
Temple Youth, split the summer<br />
between W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C., and the<br />
movement’s b<strong>as</strong>e in Warwick, N.Y.<br />
Next year is our 35th Alumni Reunion<br />
Weekend. Mark your calendar<br />
for Thursday, May 30–Sunday,<br />
June 2, 2013. If you’re interested in<br />
being part of the Reunion Committee<br />
(planning the weekend’s events)<br />
or the Cl<strong>as</strong>s Gift Committee (fundraising<br />
for the <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
Fund), contact the appropriate staff<br />
member at the top of the column.<br />
You need not be in the New York<br />
area and can participate in meetings<br />
via conference call.<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> will send materials by<br />
email and postal mail <strong>as</strong> the date<br />
grows closer. If needed, update your<br />
contact information at reunion.col<br />
lege.columbia.edu/alumniupdate,<br />
or call the Alumni Office: 212-851-<br />
7488.<br />
79<br />
Robert Klapper<br />
8737 Beverly Blvd., Ste 303<br />
Los Angeles, CA 90048<br />
rklappermd@aol.com<br />
Thom<strong>as</strong> Costigan of Falls Church,<br />
Va., is a contract employee for a<br />
specialized agency of the federal<br />
government dealing with international<br />
trade <strong>issue</strong>s (that’s all<br />
he can say about <strong>this</strong> one or he’d<br />
have to remove Bob Klapper’s<br />
knee caps). Tom also is co-chair of<br />
the Northern Virginia <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
Alumni Representative Committee<br />
and would love to hear from<br />
area alumni who can help out with<br />
admissions interviews.<br />
Theodore Anton writes with<br />
news that his son, Constantine,<br />
w<strong>as</strong> hired <strong>as</strong> coordinator of emergency<br />
services for the Red Cross<br />
Co<strong>as</strong>tal Virginia region. His daughter,<br />
Marja, begins medical school<br />
at the Loyola University Stritch<br />
School of Medicine in Chicago <strong>this</strong><br />
fall. Ted’s new nonfiction book,<br />
Mortal Coils: The Strange Race for<br />
the Secrets of Longevity, will be published<br />
by University of Chicago<br />
Press in 2013.<br />
Los Angeles-b<strong>as</strong>ed Ali Gheissari,<br />
president of Advanced<br />
Cardiothoracic Surgery Medical<br />
Group, h<strong>as</strong> been practicing cardiothoracic<br />
surgery in Los Angeles<br />
for more than 20 years. He writes,<br />
“I am blessed with a beautiful<br />
wife and two beautiful children.<br />
My son, Reza ’14 (20), finished his<br />
sophomore year at the <strong>College</strong> and<br />
spent the summer in L.A. doing an<br />
internship at NASA Jet Propulsion<br />
Laboratory. He is majoring in physics<br />
and mathematics. My daughter,<br />
Roya (16), is a high school junior<br />
and hopes to study medicine. I owe<br />
my achievements in life to my education<br />
at <strong>Columbia</strong>, and having a<br />
son at <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> h<strong>as</strong> further<br />
strengthened my bonds with alma<br />
mater.”<br />
The “big news” from Harlan<br />
Greenman is that his daughter<br />
Catherine ’12 is “not only a proud<br />
graduate of the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2012, where<br />
she majored in computer science<br />
math, but also is relocating to Tex<strong>as</strong><br />
and starting her career with Microsoft<br />
in July.<br />
“In other news, I have been kept<br />
busy with building New York City’s<br />
first totally new subway line —<br />
the Second Avenue subway, first<br />
proposed in the 1920s, partially dug<br />
before the 1970s fiscal crisis that<br />
nearly bankrupted the city and now<br />
on track to open during <strong>this</strong> decade.<br />
L<strong>as</strong>tly, our younger daughter, Beth,<br />
accomplished a personal triple<br />
crown, having all in one day made<br />
her bat mitzvah, received our Little<br />
League’s most prestigious memorial<br />
award (known <strong>as</strong> the Chris<br />
Ciuffani Award) for her fairness<br />
and respect for others, and, with<br />
her team, won the championship<br />
with a come-from-behind effort in<br />
the bottom of the l<strong>as</strong>t inning. It w<strong>as</strong><br />
in true storybook f<strong>as</strong>hion, with two<br />
outs and the b<strong>as</strong>es loaded!”<br />
Robert Klapper: “Here’s my<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> thought for <strong>this</strong><br />
column. As an orthopedic surgeon<br />
in Los Angeles for the p<strong>as</strong>t 23<br />
years, I’ve operated on 500–600<br />
patients every year, which means I<br />
have opened up more than 12,000<br />
shoulders, hips and knees. I cannot<br />
believe where the time h<strong>as</strong> gone.<br />
“In order to begin a surgery,<br />
you must scrub your hands. This<br />
moment at the sink is a miniopportunity<br />
for meditation. It’s<br />
actually ironic that in <strong>this</strong> act, by<br />
rubbing your hands together and<br />
letting them dry, you take the position<br />
of praying. Before one of my<br />
recent surgeries, in <strong>this</strong> meditative<br />
state of becoming sterile (without<br />
a v<strong>as</strong>ectomy), my mind wandered<br />
back to my first organic chemistry<br />
lecture; I still struggle with<br />
understanding the relevance of <strong>this</strong><br />
ridiculous course and the necessity<br />
to excel in <strong>this</strong> subject when it h<strong>as</strong><br />
no relevance whatsoever to what<br />
one does <strong>as</strong> a doctor. But I remember<br />
Professor Charles Dawson ’38<br />
GSAS in 309 Havemayer beginning<br />
the first cl<strong>as</strong>s of the first semester<br />
by drawing three giant circles on<br />
the blackboard. He then turned<br />
to the cl<strong>as</strong>s and said, ‘I think of<br />
my students in one of these three<br />
circles. Some of you are in <strong>this</strong> first<br />
circle, for whom everything I say<br />
here in <strong>this</strong> cl<strong>as</strong>sroom you will<br />
understand completely. Some of<br />
you are in <strong>this</strong> middle circle, where<br />
you won’t understand everything<br />
that I say today but you will go<br />
home tonight and read and study<br />
hard and then understand it. And<br />
some of you are in <strong>this</strong> third circle<br />
… who never will.’<br />
“I guess the lesson I learned w<strong>as</strong><br />
I w<strong>as</strong> never going to be in that first<br />
circle, and I need to spend the rest<br />
of my life staying out of that third<br />
circle.”<br />
80<br />
Michael C. Brown<br />
London Terrace Towers<br />
410 W. 24th St., Apt. 18F<br />
New York, NY 10011<br />
mcbcu80@yahoo.com<br />
As fall begins we look forward to<br />
seeing how the Giants, Jets and <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
Lions fare on the gridiron.<br />
We are only a little way into our<br />
new era with coach Pete Mangurian,<br />
but already I am impressed<br />
with our commitment and effort<br />
each week.<br />
Eric Granderson ’80 h<strong>as</strong> been named in-house<br />
lobbyist for New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu.<br />
Eric Granderson h<strong>as</strong> been named<br />
in-house lobbyist for New Orleans<br />
Mayor Mitch Landrieu. A New<br />
Orleans native, Eric brings three<br />
decades of experience in the city’s<br />
government to his new post steering<br />
the administration’s relations with<br />
council members, local agency officials<br />
and community leaders.<br />
Joel Moser joined Kaye Scholer<br />
<strong>as</strong> an energy and infr<strong>as</strong>tructure<br />
partner. He will be instrumental in<br />
building out the practice, which is<br />
viewed with great optimism by his<br />
partners. Joel h<strong>as</strong> extensive experience<br />
in the industry and h<strong>as</strong> been<br />
recognized <strong>as</strong> a leading project<br />
lawyer.<br />
What’s Your Story?<br />
Letting cl<strong>as</strong>smates know<br />
what’s going on in your<br />
life is e<strong>as</strong>ier than ever.<br />
Send in your Cl<strong>as</strong>s Notes!<br />
ONLINE by clicking<br />
college.columbia.edu/cct/<br />
submit_cl<strong>as</strong>s_note.<br />
EMAIL to the address at<br />
the top of your column.<br />
MAIL to the address at the<br />
top of your column.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
82<br />
FALL 2012<br />
83
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
Ronald Weich recently w<strong>as</strong><br />
named dean of the University<br />
of Baltimore School of Law. He<br />
previously served <strong>as</strong> chief counsel to<br />
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid<br />
(D-Nev.) and counsel to former Sen.<br />
Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) and the late<br />
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-M<strong>as</strong>s.).<br />
I look forward to seeing you<br />
all at Homecoming [on Saturday,<br />
October 20; see Around the Quads]<br />
and supporting our team!<br />
Drop me a line at mcbcu80@<br />
yahoo.com.<br />
81<br />
Kevin Fay<br />
3380 Darby Rd.<br />
Glenmore<br />
Keswick, VA 22947<br />
kfay@northridge<br />
capital.com<br />
Dr. Paul J. Maddon Ph.D. announced<br />
his retirement in March<br />
<strong>as</strong> chief science officer of Progenics<br />
Pharmaceuticals, a company he<br />
founded in 1986. Having served <strong>as</strong><br />
chairman of the board, CEO and<br />
chief science officer, Paul will continue<br />
to be a member and vice chair<br />
of the Progenics Board of Directors.<br />
Progenics, a biopharmaceutical<br />
company dedicated to developing<br />
innovative medicines to treat<br />
dise<strong>as</strong>es, with a focus on cancer<br />
and related conditions, is b<strong>as</strong>ed in<br />
Tarrytown, N.Y. Paul intends to stay<br />
active in retirement, <strong>as</strong> he serves on<br />
a number of boards and committees<br />
of nonprofit and commercial organizations,<br />
including <strong>as</strong> a University<br />
Trustee at <strong>Columbia</strong>. In addition, he<br />
plans to spend a lot more time with<br />
his family, Alex (12), Hanna (11) and<br />
Sophie (9).<br />
Paul, I have no advice on how to<br />
run a biopharmaceutical company,<br />
but can provide a little insight on<br />
raising daughters, if you’re interested.<br />
From one doctor to another:<br />
Michael E. Schatman Ph.D. sends<br />
an update from Seattle, where he<br />
enjoys recreational pursuits both<br />
in the mountains and on water.<br />
Michael is executive director of the<br />
nonprofit Foundation for Ethics<br />
in Pain Care and is very involved<br />
in pain medicine <strong>as</strong> a clinician,<br />
writer, editor of four journals and<br />
lecturer. He recently w<strong>as</strong> honored<br />
<strong>as</strong> “Clinical Pain Educator of the<br />
Year” by the American Society of<br />
Pain Educators.<br />
Also in medical world news, we<br />
learned that Dr. Daniel P. Petrylak,<br />
an oncologist, is set to begin a new<br />
appointment in September: Yale<br />
Cancer Center and the Smilow Cancer<br />
Hospital at Yale-New Haven<br />
have named him to lead the genitourinary<br />
cancers medical oncology<br />
team at Smilow and to be director<br />
of the prostate cancer research<br />
group and co-director of the Signal<br />
Transduction Research Program.<br />
Daniel joins Yale from NewYork-<br />
Presbyterian Hospital/<strong>Columbia</strong><br />
University Medical Center. He<br />
earned an M.D. from C<strong>as</strong>e Western<br />
Reserve University School of Medicine,<br />
completed his internship and<br />
residency at Albert Einstein <strong>College</strong><br />
of Medicine and did his fellowship<br />
in oncology at Memorial Sloan-<br />
Kettering Cancer Center.<br />
Congratulations to Paul, Michael<br />
and Daniel on their stellar professional<br />
achievements.<br />
Jack O’Loughlin reports: “Oldest<br />
son John ’12 graduated in May.<br />
He’ll live and work in New York.<br />
He w<strong>as</strong> on the track team (middistance)<br />
and really enjoyed his CC<br />
experience. Our other son, Brendan<br />
’15, is now in his second year at CC<br />
and also is a mid-distance runner.<br />
He’s enjoying the experience thus<br />
far <strong>as</strong> well. Oldest is a daughter,<br />
Caroline (also a runner), who<br />
graduated from Dartmouth l<strong>as</strong>t<br />
year and recently moved back to<br />
Boston for a new job after working<br />
in Manhattan for a year. My wife,<br />
Carol, and I now are empty-nesters<br />
and are in the process of selling<br />
our home in suburban Boston<br />
and moving into the South End<br />
neighborhood.<br />
“Had dinner with former roommates<br />
Bill Haney ’81E and Tom<br />
Wind<strong>as</strong> ’81E in June, and it w<strong>as</strong><br />
great seeing them.<br />
“I’ve been working in banking<br />
for nearly 30 years, primarily<br />
with BankBoston (and successor<br />
banks Fleet and BofA) in corporate<br />
and international banking; I then<br />
started a New England wholesale<br />
banking team for Huntington Bank<br />
from Columbus, Ohio, in 2010. It’s<br />
been very entrepreneurial and a<br />
lot of fun. The best part is I’ve also<br />
managed to turn less commuting<br />
time into some exercise time.”<br />
Finally, though many of you<br />
have already heard <strong>this</strong> news, it is<br />
with great sadness that we note the<br />
p<strong>as</strong>sing of Richard M. Ruzika on<br />
May 8 from complications arising<br />
from knee surgery. Richard w<strong>as</strong> a<br />
star on the football team, so good<br />
he w<strong>as</strong> drafted into the NFL (Dall<strong>as</strong><br />
Cowboys). He decided to byp<strong>as</strong>s<br />
a career in football, instead joining<br />
Goldman Sachs, where he worked<br />
in several executive positions and<br />
ultimately became co-head of commodities.<br />
He spent almost 30 years<br />
at Goldman and w<strong>as</strong> preparing to<br />
start a new hedge fund, Dublin Hill<br />
Capital, b<strong>as</strong>ed in Greenwich, Conn.<br />
Richard w<strong>as</strong> very loyal to <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
and w<strong>as</strong> recognized with a John Jay<br />
Award for distinguished professional<br />
achievement in 2006. He is<br />
survived by his wife, Ruthanne,<br />
and two teenage children. Our deep<br />
condolences go out to the Ruzika<br />
family.<br />
[Editor’s note: See Summer 2012<br />
Obituaries.]<br />
82<br />
Andrew Weisman<br />
710 Lawrence Ave.<br />
Westfield, NJ 07090<br />
weisman@comc<strong>as</strong>t.net<br />
Greetings, gentlemen: I trust <strong>this</strong><br />
note finds you all in good spirits.<br />
As I put single digit to iPad, one of<br />
the hottest summers on record is<br />
blazing, Obamacare h<strong>as</strong> been upheld<br />
(or defined <strong>as</strong> a tax, depending<br />
on your political persu<strong>as</strong>ion)<br />
and the European bond markets<br />
are in disarray, playing mumbletypeg<br />
with my 401K.<br />
On a positive note, I recently<br />
encountered one of our most<br />
esteemed <strong>College</strong> professors on<br />
a flight to Newark from Denver<br />
(where I reside four days a week, so<br />
if anyone’s in the vicinity, look me<br />
up and I’ll spring for dinner). The<br />
professor: Arnold Eisen. Some of<br />
you may remember him from CC;<br />
if I recall correctly John Malcolm,<br />
Wally Wentink and John Levy<br />
Eric Laursen ’82 is an independent journalist who<br />
h<strong>as</strong> covered political and financial news for more<br />
than 25 years.<br />
were in cl<strong>as</strong>s with me. Professor<br />
Eisen now is chancellor of the Jewish<br />
Theological Seminary. He w<strong>as</strong><br />
rather taken aback that I remembered<br />
him after 30 years. The reality<br />
is that he did a fant<strong>as</strong>tic job teaching<br />
the cl<strong>as</strong>s and I’d be surprised if any<br />
of us forgot the experience.<br />
Writing in <strong>this</strong> period is the selfless<br />
and adventurous Karl Olson.<br />
A member of the Foreign Service,<br />
Karl spent the spring studying<br />
P<strong>as</strong>hto and growing a beard in<br />
preparation for deployment to Afghanistan<br />
(a commitment that also<br />
kept him from attending reunion).<br />
On behalf of the entire cl<strong>as</strong>s, I<br />
thank Karl for his efforts.<br />
On special <strong>as</strong>signment <strong>this</strong> period,<br />
our roving reunion reporter,<br />
Dave Filosa, sends <strong>this</strong> account of<br />
the weekend’s events: “The 30th<br />
reunion w<strong>as</strong> a great success. High<br />
point w<strong>as</strong> the tri-college cocktail<br />
party on the Hamilton Steps before<br />
our cl<strong>as</strong>s dinner in Butler. Everyone<br />
w<strong>as</strong> happy for the opportunity<br />
to see cl<strong>as</strong>smates from Engineering<br />
and Barnard.<br />
“We have established a <strong>Columbia</strong>-<br />
Barnard-Engineering Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1982<br />
Reunion Group on Facebook that<br />
h<strong>as</strong> pictures from the weekend and<br />
that we encourage everyone to join.<br />
Check it out at facebook.com/#!/<br />
groups/217827018331357/.<br />
“Yours truly saw Andrew Danzig,<br />
Victor Lopez-Balboa, Frank<br />
Lopez-Balboa, Louis De Chiara,<br />
Joe Cabrera, Joe Piscina, Mark<br />
Berti and Mike Schmidtberger.<br />
Had a great discussion regarding<br />
polytheism over dinner.<br />
“After the Friday barbecue we<br />
got to relive the good old days at<br />
Havana Central a.k.a. The West<br />
End where Dan Libby ’82E ch<strong>as</strong>ed<br />
down a pickpocket from the bar.”<br />
Philosophical discourse, booze,<br />
crime and punishment. It doesn’t<br />
get better than that!<br />
Also writing in <strong>this</strong> period w<strong>as</strong><br />
the accomplished Eric Laursen,<br />
an independent journalist who<br />
h<strong>as</strong> covered political and financial<br />
news for more than 25 years. He<br />
reports that his latest book, The<br />
People’s Pension: The Struggle to<br />
Defend Social Security Since Reagan,<br />
w<strong>as</strong> published in April.<br />
Eric says, “It tells the surprisingly<br />
entertaining story of how a<br />
gr<strong>as</strong>sroots collection of labor unions,<br />
progressive lawmakers and advocates<br />
for the elderly, low-income<br />
communities and people of color<br />
have repeatedly stymied efforts by<br />
the Republican right and Democratic<br />
center-right to scale back, ph<strong>as</strong>e out<br />
and privatize Social Security. I became<br />
interested in the subject when I<br />
w<strong>as</strong> running Plan Sponsor, a monthly<br />
magazine for pension executives, in<br />
the ’90s. I wanted to explore why so<br />
many powerful people are intent on<br />
cutting Social Security even though<br />
other elements of the American retirement<br />
income system are eroding,<br />
making Social Security’s protections<br />
more important than ever. And<br />
I wanted to clear up some of the<br />
confusion about the economics of<br />
Social Security.<br />
“Along the way, I found out a<br />
lot that had never been revealed.<br />
For instance, how the Clinton<br />
administration and Newt Gingrich<br />
(then Speaker of the House) were<br />
so intent on making an historic<br />
deal to cut Social Security that they<br />
kept at it for months, even after the<br />
Monica Lewinsky scandal made<br />
it next to impossible for the White<br />
House to work with Congress on<br />
anything. In fact, every President<br />
since Jimmy Carter h<strong>as</strong> tried to cut<br />
Social Security at some point in<br />
his administration. That includes<br />
Barack Obama ’83. The real heroes<br />
of The People’s Pension are the gr<strong>as</strong>sroots<br />
groups that have somehow<br />
stopped them every time. Will<br />
they be able to keep doing so? I<br />
explore <strong>this</strong> question and also what<br />
it would take to inoculate Social<br />
STUDENT<br />
Alumni Sons and Daughters<br />
Seventy-one members of the <strong>College</strong> Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2016 and five members of the Engineering Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2016<br />
are sons or daughters of <strong>College</strong> alumni. This list is alphabetical by the parent’s l<strong>as</strong>t name.<br />
PARENT<br />
Nichol<strong>as</strong> Ackerman Stephen K. Ackerman ’79<br />
Poughquag, N.Y. • Arlington H.S.<br />
Olivia Alex John Alex ’89<br />
Middletown, N.J. • Leonia H.S.<br />
Stepan Atamian Jean-Marie L. Atamian ’81<br />
New York City • The Dalton School<br />
Stephen Babendreier Gerard M. Babendreier ’84<br />
Rockville, Md. • The Heights School<br />
Theresa Babendreier Gerard M. Babendreier ’84<br />
Rockville, Md. • Oakcrest School<br />
Aram Balian Nairi Checkosky Balian ’88<br />
Chevy Ch<strong>as</strong>e, Md. • St. Albans School<br />
Roberta Barnett Richard L. Barnett ’75<br />
Pelham, N.Y. • Pelham Memorial H.S.<br />
Cian Barron Joaquin Barron ’94<br />
Woodcliff Lake, N.J. • P<strong>as</strong>cack Hills H.S.<br />
Andrew Barth Andrew F. Barth ’83<br />
San Marino, Calif. • San Marino H.S.<br />
Eleanor Beckman Peregrine Beckman ’84<br />
and Elizabeth Leicester ’87<br />
Los Angeles • The Archer School for Girls<br />
Nicole Bernstein Brett B. Bernstein ’84<br />
Scarsdale, N.Y. • Scarsdale H.S.<br />
Tanna Bogursky Jeff Bogursky ’80<br />
New York City • SAR H.S.<br />
Daniel Brovman Mikhail Brovman ’81<br />
Teaneck, N.J. • Horace Mann H.S.<br />
Alexander Carames Ernesto J. Carames ’85<br />
St. Augustine, Fla. • St. Joseph Academy<br />
Brigid Connell John C. Connell ’76<br />
Haddonfield, N.J. • Haddonfield Memorial H.S.<br />
Marguerite Daw Edward W. Daw ’86<br />
St. Louis • Clayton H.S.<br />
Ilana Deresiewicz Robert Deresiewicz ’79<br />
Newton, M<strong>as</strong>s. • New Jewish H.S.<br />
Etienne Desbois Marcel P. Desbois ’77 °<br />
Scarsdale, N.Y. • Scarsdale H.S.<br />
Amar Dhingra * Alda Dhingra ’91<br />
Gurgaon, India • V<strong>as</strong>ant Valley School<br />
Ariana Dickey Burton F. Dickey ’76<br />
Houston • St. John’s School<br />
Samantha Duncan Daniel N. Duncan ’85<br />
Austin, Tex<strong>as</strong> • Westlake H.S.<br />
Elliot Finkelstein Joshua S. Finkelstein ’82<br />
E<strong>as</strong>t Brunswick, N.J. • The Frisch School<br />
Penina Francus Yitzchak Francus ’84<br />
Pittsburgh • The Ellis School<br />
Claire Friedman Brett Friedman ’80<br />
Salt Lake City • Rowland Hall-St. Mark’s School<br />
Daniel Friedman David P. Friedman ’79<br />
Wynnewood, Pa. • Lower Merion H.S.<br />
Avi Chad-Friedman * Mark Friedman ’70<br />
Newton Highlands, M<strong>as</strong>s. • Newton South H.S.<br />
Rebecca Glanzer Michael Glanzer ’78<br />
Brooklyn, N.Y. • Berkeley Carroll School<br />
Henry Green Alan I. Green ’65<br />
Hanover, N.H. • Milton Academy<br />
STUDENT<br />
PARENT<br />
Jared Greene Steven E. Greene ’76<br />
Tenafly, N.J. • Tenafly H.S.<br />
Ch<strong>as</strong>e Gutman Howard Gutman ’77<br />
Brussels • The International School of Brussels<br />
Justin Hahn Kim S. Hahn ’77<br />
Bayside, N.Y. • Hunter <strong>College</strong> H.S.<br />
Sophia Horowitz Benjamin A. Horowitz ’88<br />
Atherton, Calif. • Sacred Heart Prep<br />
Katharyn-Alexis Huseby Thom<strong>as</strong> S. Huseby ’69<br />
Seattle • The Bush School<br />
Adam Jaffe * Aaron D. Jaffe ’85<br />
White Plains, N.Y. • White Plains H.S.<br />
Dylan Jones Robert A.W. Jones ’85<br />
Richmond, Va. • Appomattox Regional Governor’s School<br />
Alexander Kalicki * Jan H. Kalicki ’68<br />
Alexandria, Va. • Sidwell Friends School<br />
Chester King Thom<strong>as</strong> S. King ’86<br />
Stamford, Conn. • Stamford H.S.<br />
J<strong>as</strong>on Kingdon Mark E. Kingdon ’71<br />
New York City • Riverdale Country School<br />
Ike Kitman Jamie L. Kitman ’79<br />
Piermont, N.Y. • Tappan Zee H.S.<br />
Anna Knight Robert C. Knight ’81<br />
Redlands, Calif. • Redlands H.S.<br />
Nathan Kung David S. Kung ’84<br />
Bethesda, Md. • Montgomery Blair H.S.<br />
Allison Lavine Jonathan S. Lavine ’88<br />
Weston, M<strong>as</strong>s. • Dana Hall School<br />
Benjamin Lewinter David Lewinter ’84<br />
West Orange, N.J. • Rae Kushner Yeshiva H.S.<br />
Daniel Liss Kevin J. Liss ’84<br />
Silver Spring, Md. • Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School<br />
Alena Lovi-Borgmann John D. Lovi ’83<br />
Montclair, N.J. • Phillips Exeter H.S.<br />
Rachael Lubitz Lawrence J. Lubitz ’79<br />
New York City • The Brearley School<br />
Kyra Lunenfeld Peter Lunenfeld ’84<br />
Los Angeles • Windward H.S.<br />
Lisa Maddox Robert T. Maddox ’81<br />
Weston, Conn. • Weston H.S.<br />
Gabriel Merkin J. Ezra Merkin ’76<br />
New York City • Ramaz Upper School<br />
Hannah Milnes Eric J. Milnes ’81<br />
Locust Valley, N.Y. • Locust Valley H.S.<br />
Zachary Neugut Alfred I. Neugut ’72<br />
Teaneck, N.J. • The Frisch School<br />
Katherine Nevitt Thom<strong>as</strong> M. Nevitt ’82<br />
Manh<strong>as</strong>set, N.Y. • Manh<strong>as</strong>set H.S.<br />
Meena Oberdick John D. Oberdick ’79<br />
Columbus, Ohio • Columbus Alternative H.S.<br />
Martha Corey-Ochoa George Ochoa ’81<br />
Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. • Dobbs Ferry H.S.<br />
Denyven Peng * David H. Peng ’83<br />
Chaoyang Dist. Beijing • Redwood H.S.<br />
Gregory Rempe Gary L. Rempe II ’87 and<br />
Susan Beamis Rempe ’87<br />
Albuquerque, N.M. • Eldorado H.S.<br />
STUDENT<br />
PARENT<br />
Kla<strong>as</strong> Roberts Sandy A. Roberts ’81<br />
Bowie, Md. • The Key School<br />
Sarah Roth Steven D. Roth ’77<br />
Scarsdale, N.Y. • Scarsdale H.S.<br />
Craig Ruzika Richard M. Ruzika ’81 °<br />
Riverside, Conn. • Brunswick School<br />
Alexander Sabel David G. Sabel ’72<br />
London • St. Paul’s School<br />
Noah Schoen Robert E. Schoen ’79<br />
Pittsburgh • Shady Side Academy<br />
Daniel Schultz William Schultz ’83<br />
Atlanta • Phillips Academy<br />
Anne Scotti Thom<strong>as</strong> Scotti ’85<br />
Medfield, M<strong>as</strong>s. • Medfield H.S.<br />
Harrison Shih Chih Y. Shih ’80<br />
Saddle River, N.J. • Bergen Catholic H.S.<br />
Gunter Sissoko Carolyn G. Sissoko ’92<br />
Culver City, Calif. • Lycée Français<br />
Sarah Sperber Seb<strong>as</strong>tian Sperber ’85<br />
London • North London Collegiate School<br />
Andrew Stoughton Gerald Stoughton ’79<br />
Scarsdale, N.Y. • Edgemont H.S.<br />
Nina Stoupnitzky Gregory Stoupnitzky ’78<br />
Rye, N.Y. • Rye Country Day School<br />
Aryeh Strobel Ronald E. Strobel ’81<br />
Englewood, N.J. • The Frisch School<br />
Elizabeth Trelstad Graham L. Trelstad ’89 and<br />
Julie M. Trelstad ’89<br />
White Plains, N.Y. • White Plains H.S.<br />
Kristina Wald Robert M. Wald ’68<br />
Chicago • The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools<br />
Grayson Warrick Lance A. Warrick ’79<br />
New York City • Choate Rosemary Hall<br />
Eric Wimer Charles Wimer ’67<br />
New York City • Fieldston School<br />
Arianna Winchester Daniel J. Winchester ’76<br />
New York City • New York City Lab H.S. for<br />
Collaborative Studies<br />
Zoe Wood Christopher Wood ’83<br />
Lexington, M<strong>as</strong>s. • Lexington H.S.<br />
Ezra Wyschogrod Daniel Wyschogrod ’78<br />
Newton Centre, M<strong>as</strong>s • Maimonides School<br />
* Member of the Engineering Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2016<br />
° Dece<strong>as</strong>ed<br />
Seven incoming <strong>College</strong> transfer students<br />
are sons or daughters of <strong>College</strong> alumni.<br />
STUDENT<br />
PARENT<br />
Sarah Coleman Steven Coleman ’83<br />
Ryan Cottone Anthony Cottone ’80<br />
Karl Daum Eric Daum ’81<br />
Shmuel Goldman Alan Goldman ’91 and<br />
Sara (Silver) Goldman ’91<br />
James Mazur Marc B. Mazur ’81<br />
David Momjian Mark A. Momjian ’83<br />
Dougl<strong>as</strong> Yee Danny Ong Yee ’77<br />
FALL 2012<br />
84<br />
FALL 2012<br />
85
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
Security — the most successful antipoverty<br />
program in U.S. history<br />
— from <strong>this</strong> kind of politics.<br />
“Researching and writing the<br />
book took more than a decade, and<br />
I supported it with freelance financial<br />
writing and journalism, the<br />
field I’ve worked in since <strong>Columbia</strong>.<br />
I w<strong>as</strong> fortunate, too, that I found a<br />
wonderful independent publisher,<br />
AK Press, that w<strong>as</strong> willing to take<br />
on a long, serious book about an<br />
important topic. I have a couple<br />
more intriguing book projects that<br />
I’ve already started to flesh out. But<br />
first I want to see if The People’s Pension<br />
can make a difference!”<br />
Very exciting! I’m looking forward<br />
to reading <strong>this</strong> one.<br />
In the news <strong>this</strong> period, it w<strong>as</strong><br />
announced on June 23 that Greg<br />
Burke w<strong>as</strong> selected <strong>as</strong> a senior communications<br />
adviser to the Vatican’s<br />
secretariat of state, in the Vatican. In<br />
an AP interview Greg said, “I’m a<br />
bit nervous but very excited. Let’s<br />
just say it’s a challenge.” Greg will<br />
be leaving his role <strong>as</strong> the FOX News<br />
Vatican correspondent to <strong>as</strong>sume<br />
<strong>this</strong> new and demanding role. [See<br />
Alumni in the News.]<br />
Congratulations!<br />
Looking forward to hearing from<br />
all of you. Cheers!<br />
REUNION WEEKEND<br />
MAY 30–JUNE 2, 2013<br />
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS<br />
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Fatima Yudeh<br />
fy2165@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7834<br />
DEVELOPMENT Valentina Salkow<br />
vs2441@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7833<br />
83<br />
Roy Pomerantz<br />
Babyking/Petking<br />
182-20 Liberty Ave.<br />
Jamaica, NY 11412<br />
bkroy@msn.com<br />
Greetings, cl<strong>as</strong>smates. My wife and<br />
I hosted a fundraiser at our home<br />
for my friend and trusted confidante<br />
of nearly 30 years: pragmatic,<br />
progressive, Democrat Marc Landis.<br />
Marc is running for New York<br />
City Council on the Upper West<br />
Side. He is a tireless and dedicated<br />
public servant, and is a person of<br />
outstanding character and comp<strong>as</strong>sion.<br />
Marc’s wife is Judy Landis ’85<br />
Barnard, ’92 SIPA. John Luisi ’81<br />
w<strong>as</strong> one of many <strong>Columbia</strong> graduates<br />
in attendance. Other <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
supporters included Stephen Jacobs<br />
’75, Jim Weinstein ’84, Ken Chin,<br />
Mark Simon ’84, Eddy Friedfeld<br />
and Dennis Klainberg ’84.<br />
Eddy wrote an article about <strong>this</strong><br />
year’s Friars Club Ro<strong>as</strong>t for Betty<br />
White for the website Cinema<br />
Retro. It begins: “From an eclectic<br />
dais that ranged from Matt Lauer,<br />
Liza Minnelli, and Dick Cavett, to<br />
Dominic ‘Uncle Junior’ Chianese,<br />
to The Office’s Oscar Nuñez, to former<br />
New York [Knicks] star John<br />
Starks, to [former] boxing great<br />
Ray ‘Boom Boom’ Mancini, to Best<br />
Picture The Artist’s Uggie the dog,<br />
the event w<strong>as</strong> up to its usual biting<br />
and merciless humor, poking fun<br />
at the guest of honor’s age and<br />
sexual proclivity.<br />
“Barbara Walters served <strong>as</strong><br />
Ro<strong>as</strong>tm<strong>as</strong>ter, marking the first time<br />
in Friars history that women were<br />
both host and subject. ‘Yesterday, I<br />
w<strong>as</strong> talking to the President of the<br />
United States,’ Walters said, referring<br />
to Barack Obama’s appearance<br />
on The View, ‘and today I am with<br />
second-rate comedians and a dog.’<br />
“Walters kicked off the festivities<br />
by skewering her longtime friend:<br />
‘What h<strong>as</strong> been said about Betty<br />
White that h<strong>as</strong>n’t been said about<br />
her contemporaries: Moses, John<br />
the Baptist and General Custer …<br />
Betty w<strong>as</strong> the first woman banned<br />
by the TSA for requesting too many<br />
pat downs, the first person to try to<br />
send a text from a land line, and the<br />
first woman to do Shakespeare at<br />
The Globe Theatre. Literally, she did<br />
him in the balcony.’<br />
“‘Regis Philbin, Abe Vigoda,<br />
Larry King … what is <strong>this</strong>, a ro<strong>as</strong>t<br />
or are we sitting shiva?’ Walter’s<br />
co-host, Joy Behar, said about her<br />
elderly dais companions. ‘Larry<br />
King’s latest wife is not only compatible<br />
romantically; she is also a<br />
compatible donor … When Katie<br />
Couric had her l<strong>as</strong>t colonoscopy<br />
televised, they found Sarah Palin’s<br />
high school diploma … Betty<br />
White is so old her first sitcom w<strong>as</strong><br />
‘Hot for Grover Cleveland.’”<br />
You can read the rest at cinema<br />
retro.com.<br />
Jon Ross is the founder and<br />
program manager for MicroAid International.<br />
He writes, “I am happy<br />
to report that the canoe project<br />
in Matafa’a, Samoa, is complete.<br />
Now, every family in the village<br />
h<strong>as</strong> a canoe to get across the bay to<br />
get to school, to the shop and to the<br />
bus stop so they can get to work in<br />
the capital of Apia. Thanks to the<br />
support of our donors, MicroAid<br />
w<strong>as</strong> able to replace the canoes that<br />
were lost in the 2009 tsunami. Our<br />
mission, to stay focused on victims<br />
of dis<strong>as</strong>ters after the world’s attention<br />
h<strong>as</strong> moved on, works because<br />
we deliver the <strong>as</strong>sistance directly<br />
and efficiently. I oversee the projects<br />
from beginning to end and<br />
make sure they are finished. (We<br />
also replaced lost fishing kits in the<br />
village of Salea’aumua.)<br />
“Ple<strong>as</strong>e go to the MicroAid<br />
Jon Ross ’83 is the founder and program manager<br />
for MicroAid International.<br />
website (microaidinternational.org),<br />
under ‘Completed Projects and<br />
Updates,’ to see the details. Also on<br />
the site, you can read my blog from<br />
the field for day-by-day updates<br />
on different stages of the project<br />
and my time living in the village<br />
(microaidinternational.org/WP).<br />
Thank you so much for the support.<br />
MicroAid is the only humanitarian<br />
aid organization focusing on <strong>this</strong><br />
kind of specific long-term dis<strong>as</strong>ter<br />
recovery.”<br />
Brendan Mee writes, “Earlier<br />
<strong>this</strong> year I opened my own law<br />
firm, Brendan Mee Law. My specialty<br />
is IP, patents and trademarks,<br />
particularly chemical and mechanical<br />
patents. I have paid internship<br />
opportunities for recent grads or<br />
rising seniors with a science background<br />
and some interest in law.”<br />
Brendan works in New York;<br />
those who are interested may contact<br />
him at bmee@fchs.com.<br />
In other legal news, Business<br />
Wire reports that Joseph A. Smith<br />
h<strong>as</strong> joined Schulte Roth & Zabel <strong>as</strong><br />
a partner in the investment management<br />
group. Joseph previously<br />
w<strong>as</strong> the global chair for Dewey &<br />
LeBoeuf’s private equity practice<br />
group. He h<strong>as</strong> been recognized <strong>as</strong><br />
a leading practitioner by Chambers<br />
USA, The Legal 500 and The Legal<br />
Media Group Guide to the World’s<br />
Leading Private Equity Lawyers. He<br />
earned his J.D. at NYU Law.<br />
I had an enjoyable breakf<strong>as</strong>t<br />
recently with Andy Barth ’85<br />
Business, a tireless supporter of<br />
the <strong>College</strong>. Andy w<strong>as</strong> in NYC<br />
for a Business School event. I w<strong>as</strong><br />
thrilled to learn that his son, Andy<br />
Barth Jr. ’16, is starting CC <strong>this</strong> fall.<br />
He is a wrestler (following in his<br />
legendary dad’s footsteps) and<br />
football player. Andy told me that<br />
he did not start wrestling until he<br />
attended Stuyvesant H.S. He also<br />
told me that <strong>Columbia</strong> had a huge<br />
impact on his life and contributed<br />
greatly to his success. Andy is close<br />
friends with Li Lu ’96, ’96L, ’96<br />
Business, a 2012 John Jay Award recipient.<br />
Andy attended the dinner<br />
and award ceremony in March.<br />
Thom<strong>as</strong> Vinciguerra ’85 h<strong>as</strong> an<br />
article in <strong>Columbia</strong> magazine’s summer<br />
<strong>issue</strong> on President Obama’s<br />
May 14 Barnard Commencement<br />
speech. Obama h<strong>as</strong> a half-sister,<br />
Maya Soetoro-Ng ’93 Barnard. He<br />
spoke at South Field so the maximum<br />
number of students could<br />
attend. He wore a <strong>Columbia</strong> doctoral<br />
gown and Harvard hood. He<br />
remarked that when he attended<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> some of the streets near<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> were not <strong>as</strong> “inviting”<br />
<strong>as</strong> now.<br />
Tom <strong>as</strong>ked me about ’83’s hopes<br />
for Obama’s being at the 30th reunion<br />
or in the future. I responded:<br />
“As cl<strong>as</strong>s correspondent for CCT<br />
and co-chair for the 30th reunion,<br />
I understand that many of our<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates experienced challenges<br />
attending <strong>Columbia</strong> in the 1980s.<br />
Having turned 50 <strong>this</strong> year, I am<br />
eminently aware of the fact that<br />
most life experiences are nuanced.<br />
The Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1983 h<strong>as</strong> produced<br />
world leaders in finance (Dan<br />
Loeb, founder of Third Point), law<br />
(Miguel Estrada, argued 20 c<strong>as</strong>es<br />
before the Supreme Court), technology<br />
(Kai-Fu Lee, former president<br />
of Google China), journalism (Marcus<br />
Brauchli, executive editor of The<br />
W<strong>as</strong>hington Post) and politics (President<br />
Barack Obama). Undoubtedly,<br />
the tremendous success of these<br />
individuals and others highlights<br />
the benefits derived from <strong>Columbia</strong>’s<br />
outstanding education and<br />
unique urban experience. President<br />
Obama’s commencement speech<br />
at the Barnard [Commencement]<br />
<strong>this</strong> year w<strong>as</strong> truly historic. The<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s of ’83 hopes that he continues<br />
to reconnect with his <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
roots by attending our upcoming<br />
30th reunion and embracing [alma<br />
mater] for the impact it h<strong>as</strong> had on<br />
our lives.”<br />
According to an article in The<br />
New York Times in May, Dan Loeb<br />
h<strong>as</strong> gained a seat on the board at Yahoo!<br />
in the wake of chief executive<br />
Scott Thompson’s departure. As the<br />
article explains, “Mr. Thompson’s<br />
departure also signifies a victory for<br />
Third Point, the activist hedge fund<br />
that had discovered the executive’s<br />
erroneous record and had waged a<br />
bitter proxy fight to get its nominees<br />
onto Yahoo’s board. Under the<br />
terms of a settlement announced<br />
on Sunday, Third Point’s founder,<br />
Daniel S. Loeb, will gain a board<br />
seat, <strong>as</strong> will two of his designees,<br />
Michael J. Wolf and Harry Wilson.”<br />
Dan also w<strong>as</strong> in the Times in<br />
connection with his apartment. A<br />
June article, “Trophy Hunting in<br />
Manhattan,” which surveyed highend<br />
real estate in NYC, noted that<br />
he “owns the largest penthouse<br />
in the taller ‘tower’ [at 15 Central<br />
Park West], which brokers in [the<br />
reporter’s] sample unanimously<br />
ranked among the Top 5 trophies.”<br />
William Bivins h<strong>as</strong> three shows<br />
that opened <strong>this</strong> summer: Dude, a<br />
one-act comedy about a straight<br />
guy’s reluctance to be best man at<br />
his gay college buddy’s wedding;<br />
Celia Sh*ts, a short comedy about<br />
what happens when all the mystery<br />
goes out of a relationship; and<br />
The Education of a Rake, a full-length<br />
comedy about sex, politics and one<br />
man’s crusade to gain equal rights<br />
for women.<br />
I’m looking forward to helping<br />
organize our 30th reunion. Any<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates interested in participating<br />
in the planning or fundraising<br />
should contact me or the appropriate<br />
Alumni Office representative at<br />
the top of the column. It’s still early<br />
enough that you can help in the<br />
planning by joining the Reunion<br />
Committee. And of course put the<br />
dates on your calendar, Thursday,<br />
May 30–Sunday, June 2, 2013.<br />
84<br />
Dennis Klainberg<br />
Berklay Cargo Worldwide<br />
14 Bond St., Ste 233<br />
Great Neck, NY 11021<br />
dennis@berklay.com<br />
Yours truly and Louis Vlahos had<br />
the distinction of holding high our<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s banner during the Alumni<br />
Parade of Cl<strong>as</strong>ses at Cl<strong>as</strong>s Day on<br />
May 15. As reported over the years,<br />
<strong>this</strong> is an amazing experience<br />
where, after a sumptuous catered<br />
fe<strong>as</strong>t in John Jay Dining Hall (yes,<br />
it is possible), we march down the<br />
aisles to the applause and adulation<br />
of the graduating cl<strong>as</strong>s. Makes<br />
one feel like a rock star, and truly<br />
gives a great sense of pride in the<br />
<strong>College</strong>. Louis w<strong>as</strong> doubly blessed<br />
<strong>as</strong> his daughter, MaryAnn ’12, w<strong>as</strong><br />
one of those graduates.<br />
Good luck at <strong>Columbia</strong> Dental<br />
School, MaryAnn!<br />
And speaking of legacies, Eleanor,<br />
daughter of Peregrine Beckman,<br />
will join the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2016 <strong>this</strong> fall<br />
and live in Carman. He writes, “We<br />
attended the Days on Campus event<br />
in April just to get her primed; she’s<br />
very excited. I also got to see my old<br />
roommate and great friend Gregory<br />
Lynch, who’s still in textbook publishing.<br />
I’m editing my fifth episode<br />
of Deadliest Catch right now and will<br />
soon move on to Bering Sea Gold, all<br />
for Discovery channel. I still listen to<br />
WKCR’s jazz programming every<br />
day and love having it online.”<br />
From the Republic of Tex<strong>as</strong>, Dr.<br />
Langham Gle<strong>as</strong>on rides again!<br />
“Practicing neurosurgery with an<br />
emph<strong>as</strong>is on minimally inv<strong>as</strong>ive,<br />
image-guided techniques in Wichita<br />
Falls, Tex<strong>as</strong>. I’m very excited that<br />
my second-oldest daughter, Kylie,<br />
is moving to NYC from Cambridge,<br />
M<strong>as</strong>s., to work for Bain &<br />
Co. I plan to visit her <strong>as</strong> often <strong>as</strong><br />
I can! Just hope one of my other<br />
four, younger kids pick <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
for undergraduate studies.”<br />
Saul Hansell watched too much<br />
TV <strong>as</strong> a kid, and look what<br />
happened: He started Sii.TV, a<br />
company that will offer video news<br />
over the Internet. Saul, a longtime<br />
technology writer and editor at The<br />
New York Times, left in 2009 for AOL,<br />
where he ran several product are<strong>as</strong>.<br />
At the end of l<strong>as</strong>t year, he became<br />
an entrepreneur in residence at<br />
Betaworks, a New York Internet<br />
incubator, and founded Sii.TV. “I<br />
had spent too much time watching<br />
other people start companies, and it<br />
w<strong>as</strong> time for me to build something<br />
myself,” he says. “I’ve been excited<br />
about the possibilities of broadc<strong>as</strong>t<br />
news since I worked at WKCR. The<br />
dawn of Internet television will let<br />
us create video news programs that<br />
are a lot more interesting, personal<br />
and interactive than the typical<br />
cable and network fare today.” Saul<br />
h<strong>as</strong> built a demo app and shot a<br />
pilot episode with the help of two<br />
buddies from WKCR, Charles P<strong>as</strong>sy<br />
’85 and Eric Scholl ’83. Now he is<br />
raising the money so Sii.TV can take<br />
on CNN, FOX News and the rest.<br />
“Oh, we’re moving on up… ”<br />
with Richard Manion: “Since<br />
splitting with my business partner<br />
in 2009, my residential architectural<br />
firm h<strong>as</strong> done well and now<br />
employs 20. I recently completed<br />
two apartments at Manhattan’s 15<br />
Central Park West, have numerous<br />
projects in California and Hawaii,<br />
and also am designing residences<br />
in Singapore, Shanghai and Abu<br />
Dhabi. (I am in Singapore <strong>as</strong> I write<br />
<strong>this</strong>.) I also recently published a<br />
book on some of my works from<br />
the p<strong>as</strong>t 17 years; called Richard<br />
Manion Architecture, it’s part of the<br />
New Cl<strong>as</strong>sicists series on architects<br />
whose work is traditionally<br />
inspired.”<br />
Thank you, Richard, for gifting<br />
me your beautiful tome! I can attest<br />
that your work is amazing.<br />
Wink wink, nod nod, wot? Henry<br />
Goodrow and Ron Adelman both<br />
headed to London in July for a reunion<br />
with their London School of<br />
Economics junior-year-abroad cl<strong>as</strong>smates.<br />
Henry is the development<br />
director at Artists For Humanity, a<br />
Boston nonprofit that provides urban<br />
high school teens with training<br />
and jobs in art and design. Ron is a<br />
litigator and transactional lawyer<br />
with Lynn & Cahill in New York,<br />
specializing in art law intellectual<br />
property and defamation.”<br />
What’s new, Tom Dyja? (I<br />
had to <strong>as</strong>k.) He responded, “All I<br />
can give you is a shameless plug<br />
for one of my projects: Thames<br />
& Hudson recently published a<br />
book I packaged, On the High Line:<br />
Exploring America’s Most Original<br />
Urban Park. It h<strong>as</strong> more than 400<br />
color photos and the first guide to<br />
the High Line and the neighborhoods<br />
it p<strong>as</strong>ses through.”<br />
At the prodding of the enterprising<br />
and eleemosynary Mark<br />
Simon, Cary Pfeffer, our noble<br />
and modest salutatorian, checks<br />
in: “I remain busy building new<br />
biotech companies <strong>as</strong> a partner at<br />
Third Rock Ventures. In that role I<br />
am interim CBO and CEO of new<br />
biotech companies we form, and<br />
also serve on the boards of many<br />
of these companies, which are all<br />
involved in developing breakthrough<br />
therapeutics for patients.<br />
I also recently completed writing<br />
the biotech chapter in Wharton<br />
Professor Lawton R. Burns’ second<br />
edition of The Business of Healthcare<br />
Innovation, so look for it on<br />
bookshelves. In addition, I enjoy<br />
spending time with my 7- and<br />
10-year-old daughters, who are<br />
growing up too f<strong>as</strong>t.”<br />
Eh? Speaking of band guys who<br />
needed to seek <strong>as</strong>ylum, Robert<br />
Zecker writes, “My latest book is<br />
recently published by Continuum.<br />
It’s called Race and America’s Immigrant<br />
Press: How the Slovaks Were<br />
Taught to Think Like White People. I<br />
still enjoy teaching at university in<br />
Canada.”<br />
Oy! We have another grandfather<br />
in the cl<strong>as</strong>s. Mark Kestenbaum<br />
says, “I married Johanna Friedman<br />
in 2004 and moved back to Israel<br />
with our seven children (four of<br />
mine, three of hers). Three years<br />
ago we had a beautiful daughter,<br />
Yocheved Kestenbaum. Also three<br />
years ago, I became a grandfather<br />
to a beautiful boy, Noam, born to<br />
my son and daughter-in-law, Itamar<br />
and Becky Kestenbaum. Six months<br />
ago I became a grandfather to a<br />
Saul Hansell ’84 started Sii.TV, a company that will<br />
offer video news over the Internet.<br />
beautiful girl, Eliana Serach, born<br />
to my son and daughter-in-law,<br />
Aharon and Hannah Kestenbaum. I<br />
own a company, ShtibLuach, which<br />
produces software for electronic<br />
display systems for synagogues. I<br />
also work for Datanet in Jerusalem<br />
<strong>as</strong> a software engineer.”<br />
Gevalt! You, too, David Rier?<br />
“During the p<strong>as</strong>t 18 months or so,<br />
the other two-thirds of our triplets<br />
(both sons) each got married; one of<br />
them had twin girls l<strong>as</strong>t fall, and my<br />
daughter had another child, giving<br />
us our first grandson to complement<br />
our trio of granddaughters.”<br />
Jim Knocke, Mike McCool,<br />
Don Henline, Brian Clew and<br />
Rick Robinson, all members of<br />
the Ivy Championship swimming<br />
and diving team, celebrated their<br />
50th birthdays with a sailing trip<br />
in the British Virgin Islands. Brian<br />
writes, “Since graduation we have<br />
all stayed in touch but hadn’t seen<br />
each other in quite some time.<br />
After we settled into the 40-foot<br />
catamaran and started sailing to<br />
the many beautiful islands, it w<strong>as</strong><br />
like we had seen each other l<strong>as</strong>t<br />
week. Aside from scuba diving and<br />
sailing, we discussed our families,<br />
goals and current events, like we<br />
were in a humanities cl<strong>as</strong>s. The<br />
Core Curriculum experience w<strong>as</strong><br />
alive and well! We are looking to<br />
go on another trip in two years.”<br />
David Stafford reports, “I w<strong>as</strong><br />
named general counsel of McGraw-<br />
Hill Education, which <strong>as</strong> publicly<br />
reported will be separated via spinoff<br />
or sale from The McGraw-Hill<br />
Companies later in 2012. I’ve spent<br />
the l<strong>as</strong>t 20 years <strong>as</strong> an attorney at<br />
The McGraw-Hill Companies. I’m<br />
in the process of transitioning to<br />
the new role. My wife, Caryn ’85<br />
Barnard, and I live in Scarsdale with<br />
our three children. My son Daniel<br />
graduated from high school <strong>this</strong><br />
spring and will be heading to the<br />
University of Arizona in the fall. My<br />
son Andrew finished ninth grade<br />
and my daughter, Allison, fifth<br />
grade.”<br />
Who knew David Terhune w<strong>as</strong><br />
such a swinger? Listen to <strong>this</strong> slew<br />
of shows. “The musical revue in<br />
which I’m involved (guitar, sing),<br />
The Loser’s Lounge, performed at<br />
Lincoln Center’s Midsummer<br />
Night Swing series on July 12. This<br />
w<strong>as</strong> our third time doing the series,<br />
and we featured songs from the<br />
Prince and Michael Jackson catalogs.<br />
We also played at Celebrate<br />
Brooklyn in the Prospect Park<br />
Bandshell on July 28. Did songs<br />
from the original Muppet Movie<br />
before a screening of that movie.<br />
Our shows at Joe’s Pub continue<br />
<strong>as</strong> well; we did a Sonny and Cher<br />
tribute June 21–23.”<br />
Adding a bit of historical gravit<strong>as</strong><br />
to the mix is Adam Van Doren: “I<br />
w<strong>as</strong> ple<strong>as</strong>ed to return to campus<br />
l<strong>as</strong>t month to attend the annual<br />
Mark Van Doren Award reception,<br />
now in its 51st year, held in the<br />
penthouse of Faculty House. It w<strong>as</strong><br />
a great experience and the organizers<br />
could not have been more<br />
welcoming, especially Rose Razaghian<br />
’02 GSAS, who works in the<br />
Office of the Vice President for Arts<br />
and Sciences. A large, lively crowd<br />
attended, and it w<strong>as</strong> wonderful<br />
to see the recipient, philosophy<br />
professor Christia Mercer, give<br />
such an imp<strong>as</strong>sioned and eloquent<br />
acceptance speech. I remember<br />
when my widowed grandmother,<br />
Dorothy, would be picked up by<br />
limousine each year from her house<br />
in northwest Connecticut to attend<br />
the event in NYC. I am ple<strong>as</strong>ed<br />
to report that the enthusi<strong>as</strong>m and<br />
energy at <strong>this</strong> year’s ceremony<br />
is indicative of how relevant the<br />
award still is, and it bodes well for<br />
future such occ<strong>as</strong>ions. I urge <strong>as</strong><br />
many alumni and current students<br />
<strong>as</strong> possible to come next year (the<br />
Lionel Trilling Award also is given<br />
FALL 2012<br />
86<br />
FALL 2012<br />
87
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
at <strong>this</strong> time); it is intensely rewarding<br />
to see how genuinely proud<br />
these teachers are to be celebrated<br />
and honored by their students. This<br />
award is one of a kind, and it is a<br />
credit to <strong>Columbia</strong> that it continues<br />
to provide the event with such<br />
strong support.” [Editor’s note: See<br />
Around the Quads, Summer 2012.]<br />
And now a message from Karl<br />
Citek (quite the driven educator!): “I<br />
have been teaching at Pacific University<br />
<strong>College</strong> of Optometry for more<br />
than 17 years; I started <strong>as</strong> an <strong>as</strong>sistant<br />
professor and w<strong>as</strong> promoted up to<br />
full professor in 2006. On April 18,<br />
I w<strong>as</strong> honored to receive a Target<br />
Zero Award in the area of impaired<br />
driving from the W<strong>as</strong>hington Traffic<br />
Safety Commission. I have been<br />
involved for more than 10 years in<br />
helping teach law enforcement officers,<br />
prosecutors and judges about<br />
the effects of intoxication on eye<br />
movements and how police officers<br />
can detect impaired drivers. I have<br />
participated in similar teaching and<br />
training seminars in other states<br />
through the years. Bottom line: don’t<br />
drink or do drugs and drive; cab<br />
fare will always cost less, by every<br />
possible me<strong>as</strong>ure.”<br />
Michael James reports that he<br />
left the Justice Department five<br />
years ago and is in-house counsel<br />
at GE Capital, where he manages<br />
litigation and investigations.<br />
Gridiron reunion: John Witkowski<br />
says, “I w<strong>as</strong> the featured<br />
speaker at the <strong>Columbia</strong> Gold Football<br />
Dinner in March, which gave<br />
me the opportunity to see many of<br />
my teammates and cl<strong>as</strong>smates who<br />
came to (I think) support me. It w<strong>as</strong><br />
also a great evening for the seniors,<br />
their parents, coaches and alumni.<br />
I thank Joe Bossolina, Bill Reggio,<br />
Lester Brafman, John Magner, Tom<br />
Samuelson, Mike Bozzo, Larry<br />
Silo and Pat Conroy — it’s been<br />
a few months, so I hope I didn’t<br />
forget any cl<strong>as</strong>smates — for being at<br />
the event. We had some laughs but<br />
more importantly are committed<br />
to getting together at CU events.<br />
Special thanks to Peter Leone ’83<br />
and the football advisory committee<br />
for inviting me to speak.<br />
“I have two boys in college.<br />
One is at Eckerd in St. Petersburg,<br />
Fla., studying economics. He is<br />
beginning his junior year and<br />
plays second b<strong>as</strong>e on the b<strong>as</strong>eball<br />
team. My other son is beginning<br />
his sophomore year at John Carroll<br />
University, just outside of Cleveland.<br />
He is going to its Boler School<br />
of Business to major in accounting.<br />
He played quarterback for the JCU<br />
JV football team. We live in Orchard<br />
Park, N.Y., and my daughter<br />
played junior varsity b<strong>as</strong>ketball<br />
and soccer <strong>as</strong> an eighth-grader.”<br />
Dear friend and host of our<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s’ 25th reunion party, Dr. Doug<br />
Mintz, recently tied the knot with<br />
his beloved Lloyd Cheu in South<br />
Salem, N.Y. Doug, a musculoskeletal<br />
radiologist in Miami, and Lloyd,<br />
a kitchen designer who works with<br />
private clients in New York and<br />
Miami, reside in Miami Beach.<br />
85<br />
Jon White<br />
16 South Ct.<br />
Port W<strong>as</strong>hington, NY 11050<br />
jw@whitecoffee.com<br />
Rich Froehlich w<strong>as</strong> honored <strong>this</strong><br />
spring by the Citizens Housing &<br />
Planning Council on the occ<strong>as</strong>ion<br />
of its 75th anniversary. Rich<br />
received the Roger Starr Public<br />
Service Award in recognition of his<br />
many achievements <strong>as</strong> the COO<br />
and general counsel of New York<br />
City Housing Development Corp.<br />
During Rich’s tenure, he h<strong>as</strong> overseen<br />
more than 230 bond <strong>issue</strong>s in<br />
helping HDC become the largest<br />
multi-family bond <strong>issue</strong>r in the nation.<br />
The introduction to the award<br />
noted, “Rich’s record speaks for<br />
itself” and he is “highly respected<br />
in the industry for his creative,<br />
ground-breaking interpretations.”<br />
Well done, Rich!<br />
Seb<strong>as</strong>tian Sperber ’88L and his<br />
wife, Sally ’85 Barnard, are ple<strong>as</strong>ed<br />
to report that their daughter Sarah<br />
h<strong>as</strong> been admitted to the Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
of 2016. Seb<strong>as</strong>tian and Sally live<br />
in England, where Seb<strong>as</strong>tian is a<br />
partner at Cleary Gottlieb. “Things<br />
are still good here. The markets<br />
are much shakier given Europe’s<br />
woes, but we are still finding things<br />
to do.”<br />
Pete Maloney w<strong>as</strong> on and off<br />
campus for the l<strong>as</strong>t two years<br />
getting a certificate in business excellence<br />
from the Business School.<br />
It entailed no grades or tests and<br />
so, with apologies to Woody Allen,<br />
actually involved a full 100 percent<br />
of just showing up. Nonetheless,<br />
he took time to gambol around<br />
campus and relive yesteryear,<br />
including a one-man reenactment<br />
of the Apache Relays.<br />
Michael Nagykery and his wife,<br />
Geraldine, sent me a photo of their<br />
son, Aslan, who h<strong>as</strong> turned a whole<br />
10 months young! “Little fellow h<strong>as</strong><br />
already been to five countries, spent<br />
a few months here in the States and<br />
recently went back to France to<br />
be with friends and family for the<br />
summer. He is happy, healthy and<br />
doing well, and his parents are of<br />
course thrilled!”<br />
While traveling in the city, I ran<br />
into Paul Wiener, who h<strong>as</strong> worked<br />
in Legal Aid’s Criminal Appeals<br />
Bureau for more than 15 years.<br />
On the night of the first Mets<br />
no-hitter in June, although I missed<br />
every pitch of the ballgame, I<br />
w<strong>as</strong> just <strong>as</strong> ple<strong>as</strong>ed to attend the<br />
long overdue Kingsmen reunion.<br />
Thanks to Jed Bradley ’06 for his<br />
hospitality and the current group<br />
of ’smen for attending. Kingsmen<br />
spanning more than 50 years of<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> history attended, making<br />
for a truly wonderful evening<br />
(and late night). I had met the current<br />
group (<strong>as</strong> irreverent <strong>as</strong> ever),<br />
and, thanks to my wife, Allison,<br />
we got them a gig at our local high<br />
school (showing middle school<br />
students the wonders of a cappella<br />
music). The entire alumni group,<br />
young and not <strong>as</strong> young, ran off a<br />
couple of numbers including one<br />
of the group’s signature hits, Mary<br />
Dr. Adam Cohen ’86 w<strong>as</strong> named the forthcoming<br />
editor of Gesta, the only journal in English dedicated<br />
to the study of medieval art and architecture.<br />
Anne; it didn’t sound half bad,<br />
especially considering some of us<br />
hadn’t done it in several decades.<br />
I w<strong>as</strong> glad to hang out with<br />
everyone and especially with Phil<br />
Birnbaum ’86 and Abe Glazer ’88,<br />
who were my Kingsmen cohorts.<br />
We look forward to another gathering,<br />
including a larger contingent<br />
of the Kingsmen from the ’80s, in<br />
the next year or two.<br />
For my personal update, the<br />
coffee business continues to evolve.<br />
Our company h<strong>as</strong> grown significantly<br />
in the retail space, adding<br />
a wide variety of retail licenses to<br />
our portfolio, which h<strong>as</strong> enabled<br />
us to offer our products in multiple<br />
club stores, major m<strong>as</strong>s merchants<br />
and a wide range of supermarkets<br />
throughout the country.<br />
On the home front, our son,<br />
Isaac ’14, worked again at CCIT<br />
<strong>this</strong> summer, doing website design<br />
and completion. While he had<br />
lived on campus l<strong>as</strong>t summer,<br />
we were ple<strong>as</strong>ed that <strong>this</strong> year he<br />
chose the life of a suburban commuter.<br />
(When here, he dedicated<br />
a lot of time to redesigning the<br />
Spectator website.) As for our other<br />
boys, Noah (16) spent his summer<br />
shuttling between a political science<br />
course at Stanford, a hiking<br />
trip in the Colorado Rockies and<br />
a week at track camp (where he is<br />
looking to better his sub-5-minute<br />
mile time). Josh (14) returned to<br />
his camp for the sixth consecutive<br />
summer (he calls it “home”).<br />
And in a moment of truly personal<br />
glory, I threw out the first pitch<br />
at a Mets game at Citi Field in May.<br />
(See nearby photo.) I neither threw<br />
it into the dirt nor over the catcher’s<br />
head (a bit high and inside, but it<br />
w<strong>as</strong> an amazing experience). Josh<br />
and I have had several opportunities<br />
to have Field of Dreams moments,<br />
with a catch on the Citi Field outfield<br />
and time in the batting cage. If only<br />
it were Shea.<br />
And finally, a gentle reminder<br />
that <strong>this</strong> column is only <strong>as</strong> good <strong>as</strong><br />
your updates … so ple<strong>as</strong>e keep the<br />
news coming.<br />
86<br />
Everett Weinberger<br />
50 W. 70th St., Apt. 3B<br />
New York, NY 10023<br />
everett6@gmail.com<br />
Warwick Daw checked in with<br />
good news: “I’m thrilled to tell you<br />
that my daughter, Marguerite ’16, is<br />
starting at <strong>Columbia</strong>. She attended<br />
the same public high school I did<br />
in suburban St. Louis and now she<br />
will be attending the same college<br />
<strong>as</strong> well! She’s also thinking of being<br />
a physics major, <strong>as</strong> w<strong>as</strong> I at that<br />
age, but then I made a big change<br />
junior year to … ah … mathematics.<br />
I think I’ve mentioned <strong>this</strong> before,<br />
but now I do research in statistical<br />
genetics at W<strong>as</strong>hington University<br />
in St. Louis.”<br />
Congrats to Michael Purves for<br />
being named chief global strategist<br />
and head of derivatives research<br />
at Weeden & Co., an institutional<br />
equity and fixed-income broker.<br />
Michael h<strong>as</strong> definitely made the<br />
rounds. He w<strong>as</strong> previously at BGC<br />
Financial and Pali Capital, two<br />
emerging market hedge funds, and<br />
spent 12 years in investment banking<br />
at S.G. Warburg, Merrill Lynch<br />
and RBC Capital Markets. He’s a<br />
graduate of the Wharton School<br />
(M.B.A.).<br />
Donna Petty Christie emailed: “I<br />
had been planning to put in a word<br />
for female graduates after reading<br />
the article in CCT celebrating the<br />
25th year of coed cl<strong>as</strong>ses [Spring<br />
2012]. Technically, there were female<br />
graduates of <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
prior to 1987: the transfer students! I<br />
w<strong>as</strong> part of a small group of women<br />
who stood with all those male grads<br />
in May 1986 to receive our undergrad<br />
degrees. The imbalance of<br />
gender w<strong>as</strong> never apparent in our<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>ses — only on that day when<br />
all grads came together — very<br />
memorable. Since receiving a B.A.<br />
in economics I have earned an M.A.<br />
in educational administration from<br />
Montclair State University, married<br />
and had a family, and teach preschool.<br />
I would love to hear from<br />
fellow ’86 grads who were transfer<br />
students with me (Susan from Oklahoma?<br />
Lisa from New Jersey?).<br />
Dr. Adam Cohen is undertaking<br />
two new cooperative endeavors.<br />
Along with his wife, Linda Safran,<br />
who also is a medieval art historian,<br />
he recently w<strong>as</strong> named the forthcoming<br />
editor of Gesta, the only<br />
journal in English dedicated to the<br />
study of medieval art and architecture<br />
(published by the International<br />
Center of Medieval Art, b<strong>as</strong>ed at<br />
The Cloisters). Of more interest to<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong>ns will be his position<br />
<strong>as</strong> new co-chair of the Ontario,<br />
Canada, chapter of the Alumni<br />
Representative Committee. He says,<br />
“I look forward to working with<br />
Karen Madorsky ’92 to help steer<br />
great students to <strong>Columbia</strong>.”<br />
87<br />
Sarah A. K<strong>as</strong>s<br />
PO Box 300808<br />
Brooklyn, NY 11230<br />
ssk43@columbia.edu<br />
Our 25th reunion! Words fail me.<br />
Do we start by talking about all the<br />
wondrous events and opportunities<br />
for reconnection and connection,<br />
like the amazing parties at Kyra Tirana<br />
Barry and Dave Barry’s house<br />
and at The Standard, New York?<br />
Or do we do a traditional linear<br />
narrative, starting with Thursday<br />
evening with the Barrys and<br />
continuing Friday with a report of<br />
some of the most amazing lectures<br />
I have heard in a long time — since<br />
school days, probably — including<br />
Carol Rovane’s lecture on Plato and<br />
Rousseau and Katharina Volk’s on<br />
happiness in Hellenistic philosophy?<br />
Or do we simply jump around<br />
and talk about reliving the old days<br />
by doing things like sitting on the<br />
Steps, hanging out with Gerri Gold<br />
and Judy Kim on Saturday afternoon?<br />
Since there is no ideal way<br />
(unless you believe unquestioningly<br />
in Plato), I thought I’d let some of<br />
the reunion attendees speak for<br />
themselves.<br />
Cathy Webster writes, “Thursday<br />
night at the Barrys’ house<br />
— what a gorgeous event! And<br />
a beautiful evening all the way<br />
around. A highlight w<strong>as</strong> catching<br />
up with two of my freshmen<br />
floormates, Stavros Zomopoulos<br />
and Jane Bolgatz, and reminiscing<br />
about the close bonds of our little<br />
corner of 6 McBain. Also enjoyed<br />
chatting with Bruce Furukawa,<br />
one of only a few of our lot who<br />
h<strong>as</strong> actually set foot in Oklahoma.<br />
“On Friday, I had a wonderful<br />
and extended evening that started<br />
at The Standard, New York, and<br />
ended at the Dream Hotel with<br />
dancing and partying into the<br />
wee hours. Loved catching up, if<br />
briefly, with Elizabeth Schwartz<br />
Cohen, who h<strong>as</strong> held more or less<br />
the same professional position<br />
for 21 years with CNN, and with<br />
Anne Cartwright, with whom I<br />
exchanged iPhone photo albums<br />
of our kids. George Stone and I<br />
talked at length about the value<br />
of French education, which w<strong>as</strong><br />
an unlikely conversation for both<br />
of us! Ellen Sullivan Crovatto<br />
bought me dinner. It w<strong>as</strong> wurst,<br />
but really not bad.<br />
“After lunch on Saturday with<br />
my BFF Sarah K<strong>as</strong>s, the Marching<br />
Band reception featured Lee Ilan<br />
and Margaret McCarthy, both with<br />
their partners, but Lee also had her<br />
gorgeous babe in tow. It w<strong>as</strong> good<br />
to sit down and catch up for an<br />
extended stretch with them both.<br />
“And at dinner, Dick Dawson<br />
and his wife, Katy Tkach Dawson,<br />
with whom I took freshman comp,<br />
were wonderful table companions.<br />
We talked a lot about food — Dick<br />
h<strong>as</strong> become a chef in Cambridge,<br />
M<strong>as</strong>s. — and about our extended<br />
families and our kids.<br />
“I ended the night with Glee<br />
Club members including Shelley<br />
Friedland, Laurie Gershon, Farah<br />
Chandu and more. We sang all the<br />
school songs we could remember,<br />
including all three official verses<br />
of Sans Souci and a couple of the<br />
naughty ones. My feet were too<br />
tired to dance under the stars,<br />
unfortunately, but I loved taking<br />
the 1 train late on a Saturday night.<br />
Some things still feel the same, all<br />
these years later.<br />
“I also had warm chats with<br />
Jon Nelson, also 6 McBain, and<br />
Michelle Estilo Kaiser before and<br />
after dinner on Saturday night.<br />
Not to mention the engineers with<br />
whom I w<strong>as</strong> so very happy to dine!<br />
Overall turnout w<strong>as</strong> incredible,<br />
really.<br />
“Plus, I went to Elaine Sisman’s<br />
talk on Don Giovanni. She is just<br />
<strong>as</strong> I remembered her: dynamic and<br />
vibrant and so incredibly smart. I<br />
w<strong>as</strong> completely flattered that she<br />
remembered me by name.”<br />
Farah Chandu writes: “Great<br />
idea to have joint CC and SEAS<br />
events! My husband, Paul Carbone<br />
’86E, and I had a wonderful<br />
time with dear friends from<br />
both schools. Especially fun w<strong>as</strong><br />
gathering at the Sundial with<br />
other Glee Clubbers to sing official<br />
and decidedly non-official school<br />
songs. Amazing how many verses<br />
we remembered from 25 years ago!<br />
Thanks to all who helped arrange<br />
it — <strong>this</strong> felt more like a party for<br />
our real life, far-flung friends than<br />
it did a school reunion.”<br />
Thoughts from Christine<br />
Jamgochian Koobatian: “I had a<br />
great time at our 25th reunion. I<br />
remember going to my dad’s [Peter<br />
Jamgochian ’63 GS] 25th <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
reunion the spring before I started<br />
at <strong>Columbia</strong> and thinking to myself<br />
that everyone w<strong>as</strong> sooooooo old.<br />
Somehow we don’t seem nearly <strong>as</strong><br />
old <strong>as</strong> they did, although the college<br />
kids would probably disagree!<br />
“I spent time with four of my five<br />
college roommates: Teresa Saputo<br />
CCT cl<strong>as</strong>s correspondent Jon White ’85 threw out the first pitch at<br />
Citi Field for the Mets-Reds game on May 16.<br />
Crerend, Michelle Estilo Kaiser,<br />
Lauren Alter Baumann and Donna<br />
Pacicca. We missed Kerry Russell<br />
Hutson ’87E but are planning our<br />
own reunion with her <strong>this</strong> fall. It<br />
w<strong>as</strong> so good to see everyone. Teresa<br />
and I were sitting on the Steps and<br />
talking about how much <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
feels like home to us. I’ll always feel<br />
that way. I live in Connecticut now<br />
with my husband and four kids,<br />
yet whenever we’re in the city we<br />
have to go p<strong>as</strong>t alma mater. I hope<br />
to make it back for Homecoming<br />
[Saturday, October 20; see Around<br />
the Quads] and other alumni events<br />
in the near future.”<br />
Bruce Furukawa reported, “I<br />
had an amazing few days hanging<br />
out with my friends from college.<br />
While our appearances were different,<br />
the hearts and souls of the<br />
people I saw there were the same,<br />
and that w<strong>as</strong> all that mattered. My<br />
only regret when I left w<strong>as</strong> that<br />
I did not take advantage of the<br />
time when I w<strong>as</strong> at school to get<br />
to know people I just met at the<br />
reunion.”<br />
Ron Burton said, “Great reconnecting<br />
with old friends and, believe<br />
it or not, making new ones. Old<br />
enough to regale each other with<br />
stories of our kids’ accomplishments,<br />
but still young enough not<br />
to be sporting seersucker suits and<br />
straw hats. In short, the echoes were<br />
awakened!”<br />
Here’s Madeleine Villanueva’s<br />
recap: “I, along with Juliet (Rogers)<br />
Kaba ’87E and Chris Kane,<br />
were part of outreach for Carman<br />
6. The whole process for that w<strong>as</strong><br />
exciting ... trolling the web for<br />
contact info, getting the Alumni<br />
Office to provide a floor plan and<br />
enlisting the help of an evergrowing<br />
circle to track — in my<br />
c<strong>as</strong>e more like hunt — everyone<br />
down. Dan Wery, for example,<br />
responded: ‘Wow! Hi Madeleine!<br />
What a fl<strong>as</strong>h from the p<strong>as</strong>t. I can<br />
still hear you say “Papi!”’ Deidre<br />
(Facendola) Altobell ’87E said, ‘I<br />
received a message from one of<br />
my co-workers at Con Ed that the<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s of ’87 is looking for me for<br />
the reunion. In effect, I w<strong>as</strong> reconnecting<br />
long before the reunion.’<br />
“It w<strong>as</strong> touching that Demetria<br />
Gallegos, although busy with family<br />
obligations, came by campus<br />
to visit. We took advantage of the<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> Alumni Center to chat<br />
comfortably while enjoying the<br />
coffee and muffins. Aida Santiago<br />
’87E also maneuvered her schedule<br />
to join us. We’d reconnected in<br />
the p<strong>as</strong>t couple of years, but we<br />
hadn’t actually seen each other in<br />
27! Diane Ridley-White ’88 cr<strong>as</strong>hed<br />
just to catch up with some of the<br />
old crew.<br />
“I danced a good portion of the<br />
night away with Rina Teran. There<br />
also w<strong>as</strong> the opportunity to make<br />
new connections. Friday night I<br />
received a text from Jennifer Duran<br />
’97, saying ‘I met someone from<br />
ur cl<strong>as</strong>s.’ Apparently, Joongi Kim<br />
had opted to hang with the ‘young<br />
folk’; on Saturday night we sought<br />
each other out. We recalled memories<br />
of John Pennywell, taken from<br />
FALL 2012<br />
88<br />
FALL 2012<br />
89
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
us way too early.<br />
“Yet one of the most tre<strong>as</strong>ured<br />
moments from <strong>this</strong> weekend didn’t<br />
occur on campus. It w<strong>as</strong> my trip<br />
with Bill Hicks to visit Kevin Davis<br />
’87E, who could not join us due<br />
to health concerns. During virtually<br />
all four years at <strong>Columbia</strong>, we were<br />
a pretty tight trio. Kevin and I even<br />
rented a two-bedroom in Park<br />
Slope together after graduation. Yet,<br />
<strong>this</strong> w<strong>as</strong> the first time in roughly<br />
15 years that all three of us were<br />
together. The bond and love forged<br />
at <strong>Columbia</strong> h<strong>as</strong> transcended time,<br />
distance and even lapses in communication.<br />
It w<strong>as</strong> a truly awing<br />
experience.”<br />
Christina Musrey said, “I had<br />
never been to a <strong>Columbia</strong> reunion<br />
and am so happy I went to <strong>this</strong> one!<br />
I came because my dear roommate,<br />
whom I love and am very connected<br />
to, and her lovely, <strong>as</strong>sertive husband<br />
would not let me stay home.<br />
I am speaking of Ellen (Sullivan)<br />
Crovatto and Chris Crovatto. I also<br />
came to see Gwen Dunaif, whom I<br />
want to see whenever I can.<br />
“When I arrived at LAX airport<br />
at 6 a.m., I heard, ‘Oh there she<br />
is!’ It w<strong>as</strong> Bill Hicks and Kevin<br />
Greber. So, the reunion began a<br />
little early. The surprise w<strong>as</strong> how<br />
many other friends I felt strongly<br />
about after the weekend ended. I<br />
spent time with Ron Burton and<br />
his beautiful wife; Kyle Kietrys<br />
’89 and his incredible wife, Jane<br />
Bolgatz; Cathy Webster; and Luis<br />
De Los Santos ’87E. I danced the<br />
night away with Ellen, Stavros<br />
Zomopoulos, Jose Calvo and<br />
Rina Teran. Also with Sandy<br />
Asirvatham, who, along with her<br />
husband, Kevin, I and many others<br />
spent quality time with at all the<br />
events. I even visited their room in<br />
Carman Hall! That w<strong>as</strong> a memory<br />
… I am sure I am forgetting some<br />
names. I left feeling so appreciative<br />
of a chance at fun and youth, recollection<br />
and new beginnings. It w<strong>as</strong><br />
wonderful.”<br />
Richard Simonds wrote, “I found<br />
our 25th reunion to be a surprisingly<br />
profound experience, not just reconnecting<br />
with cl<strong>as</strong>smates but also<br />
with the school itself. Other than the<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s dinner, the highlight w<strong>as</strong> the<br />
presentation on Lit Hum by Christia<br />
Mercer, which brought back wonderful<br />
memories of the Core, and<br />
I’m happy to say that the intellectual<br />
philosophy of the Core is still going<br />
strong. It w<strong>as</strong> good to see many of<br />
my Glee Club friends show up and<br />
to spend time with people whom I<br />
hadn’t known <strong>as</strong> well.”<br />
Highlights of the reunion for<br />
Joe Feuer: “Reminiscing with Bill<br />
Hicks about our departed friend<br />
John Pennywell; touring the High<br />
Line and catching up over dinner<br />
with Divya Singh and Sarah K<strong>as</strong>s,<br />
who gave us frequent updates of<br />
the first Mets no-hitter; hearing<br />
amusing stories over lunch about<br />
Judy Kim’s latest European adventures;<br />
having a mini-reunion with<br />
Hartley suitemates Luis De Los<br />
Santos ’87E and George Stone;<br />
making new friends with Sandy<br />
Asirvatham and her husband,<br />
Kevin, over wine and cheese; going<br />
to cool lectures on brain mapping<br />
and on the ancient philosophies of<br />
Epicureanism and Stoicism; giving<br />
a tour of the neighborhood and the<br />
campus to my girlfriend, capped<br />
off by a visit to my freshman dorm<br />
room in Carman for the first time<br />
in 25 years.”<br />
From Lee Ilan: “I had a great<br />
time reminiscing and catching up<br />
with so many people. I’m continually<br />
impressed with what an interesting,<br />
diverse, funny group we<br />
are, <strong>as</strong>ide from being good-looking<br />
and talented!<br />
“My husband, Peter Engel, our<br />
daughter, Mavis, and I spent much<br />
time with Laura Ting, my Carman<br />
13 (yay!) roommate, and her husband,<br />
Kevin McGrattan ’87E, who<br />
w<strong>as</strong> a big hit at the cl<strong>as</strong>s dinner. We<br />
were happy that so many <strong>College</strong><br />
and Engineering friends attended<br />
and brought spouses/partners/<br />
kids. I didn’t attend any lectures, <strong>as</strong><br />
I knew I’d want to spend the time<br />
yakking with cl<strong>as</strong>smates. My enthusi<strong>as</strong>m<br />
got the better of me, and<br />
I loudly sang <strong>College</strong> songs at the<br />
Sundial with fellow Glee Clubbers<br />
on Saturday night — thereby ruining<br />
my voice for the conferences I<br />
had to speak at later in the week.”<br />
Lee also noted the Mets jersey I<br />
wore to the day events on Saturday<br />
in honor of Johan Santana’s nohitter<br />
the night before. Lee told<br />
me, “It brought back memories of<br />
the street party on 114th when the<br />
Mets won the ’86 World Series.”<br />
Since I know there are even more<br />
memories than can be recounted<br />
in <strong>this</strong> small space at one time, I<br />
leave the door open to all of you to<br />
continue to send reflections <strong>as</strong> they<br />
occur. And of course, keep sending<br />
regular updates, too!<br />
REUNION WEEKEND<br />
MAY 30–JUNE 2, 2013<br />
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS<br />
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Fatima Yudeh<br />
fy2165@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7834<br />
DEVELOPMENT Valentina Salkow<br />
vs2441@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7833<br />
88<br />
Eric Fusfield<br />
1945 South George<br />
M<strong>as</strong>on Dr.<br />
Arlington, VA 22204<br />
ericfusfield@bigfoot.com<br />
One of the perks of serving <strong>as</strong> cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
correspondent is the opportunity to<br />
hear from, and occ<strong>as</strong>ionally meet,<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates I never got to know<br />
back in Morningside Heights.<br />
Having learned that Giuliana<br />
Dunham Irving and I work just<br />
a few blocks from each other in<br />
downtown W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C., I met<br />
her for lunch in her building, at the<br />
famously cosmopolitan World Bank<br />
cafeteria. In Giuliana’s own words,<br />
“After NYU Law School (J.D. ’92), I<br />
practiced law in New York City for<br />
six years (private practice) before<br />
moving to D.C. I spent eight years<br />
<strong>as</strong> a federal prosecutor, with both<br />
Main Justice (Criminal Division,<br />
Fraud Unit) and the United States<br />
Attorney’s Office. In 2006, I moved<br />
to the World Bank, where I am<br />
senior counsel for institutional administration.<br />
My husband, Michael,<br />
and I live in the District with our<br />
daughter Michela (6).”<br />
Heather Richards Heller’s first<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s Notes update comes from the<br />
Pacific Northwest: “I figured after<br />
24 years, I should participate!”<br />
she said. “I traded in the hustle<br />
and bustle of New York City for<br />
the tranquility of central Oregon,<br />
where I am the community development<br />
director for a town nestled<br />
in the C<strong>as</strong>cade Mountains. Worldcl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
skiing, fly-fishing and rafting<br />
entertain me now. I am also the<br />
proud mother of two, Hadleigh (7)<br />
and Sam (9), who saw <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
University for the first time <strong>this</strong><br />
summer when we sojourned back<br />
to NYC.”<br />
I am sad to belatedly note that<br />
Nancy McAdoo p<strong>as</strong>sed away<br />
on January 15, 2011, in Medford,<br />
M<strong>as</strong>s. Nancy had been living in<br />
the Boston area since graduation.<br />
Most recently she worked for<br />
Management Sciences for Health,<br />
a Cambridge-b<strong>as</strong>ed international<br />
nonprofit organization, <strong>as</strong> its communications/knowledge<br />
exchange<br />
content manager. Nancy had a love<br />
of music and the performing arts;<br />
she danced and played three instruments.<br />
She also had an abiding<br />
interest in social justice, women’s<br />
rights and the environment that<br />
pervaded her personal and professional<br />
life. Nancy w<strong>as</strong> 44.<br />
Thanks for your updates and<br />
ple<strong>as</strong>e keep sending them. Don’t<br />
forget that 2013 is our 25th reunion<br />
year, so start planning your trips.<br />
The dates are Thursday, May 30–<br />
Sunday, June 2. In the meantime,<br />
to ensure that <strong>Columbia</strong> can get<br />
in touch with you about it, ple<strong>as</strong>e<br />
update your contact information<br />
online (reunion.college.columbia.<br />
edu/alumniupdate) or call the<br />
Alumni Office (212-851-7488). Also,<br />
if you’re interested in joining the<br />
Reunion Committee to help plan<br />
the weekend’s events, contact the<br />
appropriate Alumni Office staff<br />
member noted at the top of the<br />
column. You need not be in the<br />
New York area and can participate<br />
in meetings via conference call.<br />
89<br />
Emily Miles Terry<br />
45 Clarence St.<br />
Brookline, MA 02446<br />
emilymilesterry@me.com<br />
I ran into Patrick Nolan at Book<br />
Expo America in New York in June.<br />
It’s always great to see a familiar<br />
face in the crowd at the Javits<br />
Center and sometimes I’m lucky<br />
enough to cross paths with Patrick<br />
— a calm person in the midst of the<br />
trade convention frenzy.<br />
Patrick h<strong>as</strong> worked in book<br />
publishing for many years and l<strong>as</strong>t<br />
April he w<strong>as</strong> named v.p., editor-inchief<br />
and <strong>as</strong>sociate publisher of Penguin<br />
Books, a member of Penguin<br />
Group (USA). For the p<strong>as</strong>t 12 years,<br />
Patrick h<strong>as</strong> been the director of<br />
trade paperback sales contributing<br />
to the success of such bestsellers <strong>as</strong><br />
Eat, Pray, Love; The Memory Keeper’s<br />
Daughter; The Omnivore’s Dilemma;<br />
The Secret Life of Bees; The Kite<br />
Runner; and The Help. The long list<br />
of bestsellers he’s worked on also<br />
includes hardcovers from Charlaine<br />
Harris, Laurell K. Hamilton and J.R.<br />
Prolific children’s book author Laura Dower ’89 is<br />
finishing up another book series for Hyperion/Disney.<br />
Ward. Patrick, who earned a graduate<br />
degree from the University of<br />
Ulster, Northern Ireland, started<br />
his publishing career <strong>as</strong> a fiction<br />
buyer for Waterstone’s Booksellers<br />
in Boston. Prior to joining Penguin<br />
he worked at Houghton Mifflin and<br />
Hyperion/Disney.<br />
Also at Book Expo in New<br />
York, I ran into prolific children’s<br />
book author and mom of three<br />
Laura Dower, who is finishing up<br />
another book series for Hyperion/<br />
Disney. We exchanged workingmom<br />
tales of love and woes,<br />
with an emph<strong>as</strong>is on the shared<br />
“Who ever thought we’d be <strong>this</strong><br />
harried?” feeling, though Laura<br />
looks <strong>as</strong> poised <strong>as</strong> ever and still<br />
wears her generous smile. She is<br />
the author of more than 70 books<br />
for young adults, including the<br />
series From the Files of Madison Finn<br />
and the book Rewind. Laura lives<br />
in New York with her husband and<br />
children. If you have school-age<br />
kids who love to read, check out<br />
her website, lauradower.com.<br />
Robert B. Kaplan, formerly chief<br />
of the <strong>as</strong>set management unit of the<br />
Macky Alston ’87 Fights for Equality Through Film<br />
Filmmaker Macky<br />
Alston ’87 spent the<br />
p<strong>as</strong>t four years shooting<br />
at locations around<br />
the world, sleeping on the<br />
floors of friends of friends and<br />
Skyping with his husband and<br />
two children while working 12-<br />
hour production days during<br />
month-long absences. Despite<br />
raising $1 million for his project,<br />
he h<strong>as</strong>n’t been paid a cent.<br />
Yet he’s smiling.<br />
Alston’s satisfaction is due<br />
to the documentary he spent<br />
almost half a decade directing.<br />
Love Free or Die chronicles the<br />
struggles of New Hampshire’s<br />
Bishop Gene Robinson, the<br />
first openly gay bishop in the<br />
global Anglican Church, <strong>as</strong> he<br />
seeks acceptance in the face<br />
of worldwide controversy and<br />
death threats. From scenes<br />
of Robinson’s invocation at<br />
President Barack Obama ’83’s<br />
inaugural ceremony to decorating<br />
the Christm<strong>as</strong> tree at home<br />
with his husband, the film offers<br />
a full picture of the trailblazing<br />
man behind the robe.<br />
Alston’s steady camera<br />
follows Robinson’s attempts<br />
to advance LGBT acceptance<br />
from America’s small-town<br />
churches to England’s 2008<br />
Lambeth Conference (from<br />
which Robinson w<strong>as</strong> banned).<br />
In a particularly dramatic<br />
scene, the bishop’s preaching<br />
is interrupted by a heckler<br />
screaming “heretic” over and<br />
over until the congregation<br />
begins singing hymns to drown<br />
him out.<br />
“Making <strong>this</strong> film will be<br />
something I’ll be able to tell my<br />
grandchildren about,” Alston<br />
says <strong>as</strong> we sit in the bustling<br />
Caffe Reggio, a few blocks from<br />
his sunny West Village apartment.<br />
“The only re<strong>as</strong>on I’ll even<br />
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s<br />
Division of Enforcement,<br />
h<strong>as</strong> joined Debevoise & Plimpton<br />
<strong>as</strong> a litigation partner resident in<br />
the firm’s W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C., office.<br />
He will advise Debevoise clients in<br />
a broad range of securities-related<br />
enforcement and compliance <strong>issue</strong>s.<br />
While at the Division of Enforce-<br />
have grandchildren is because<br />
of historic people like Gene<br />
who stood up and fought for<br />
my liberation.”<br />
Critics agree about the film’s<br />
impact: Love Free or Die won<br />
the Documentary Special Jury<br />
Prize for an Agent of Change<br />
when it premiered at the Sundance<br />
Film Festival in January.<br />
Alston, an animated storyteller<br />
who would not be mis -<br />
c<strong>as</strong>t in front of the lens, is no<br />
stranger to accolades. He received<br />
Emmy nominations for<br />
his earlier films, The Killer<br />
Within, Hard Road Home and<br />
Family Name; the l<strong>as</strong>t also<br />
won the Sundance Freedom of<br />
Expression Award in 1997 and<br />
scored him appearances on<br />
The Oprah Winfrey Show and<br />
ment, Robert won several prestigious<br />
awards for his service, including<br />
the Chairman’s Award for Excellence<br />
and the Arthur F. Matthews<br />
Award. Prior to joining the SEC, he<br />
w<strong>as</strong> a litigation <strong>as</strong>sociate at the New<br />
York office of a Philadelphia law<br />
firm. He earned a J.D. from NYU.<br />
Jill Pollack Lewis took a break<br />
B y Y e l e n a Shuster ’09<br />
The Today Show.<br />
The awards circuit, however,<br />
does not guarantee extravagant<br />
living. “Except for the 1 percent,<br />
documentary filmmakers don’t<br />
survive on documentary filmmaker<br />
wages,” Alston says. When<br />
not filming, he is the media<br />
director at New York’s Auburn<br />
Theological Seminary, which is<br />
where he met Robinson.<br />
For his part, Robinson knew<br />
no one else could do justice to<br />
his story. “You don’t let someone<br />
put your own life up on the<br />
screen unless you have a kind<br />
of implicit trust, and I really felt<br />
that with Macky,” he says. “I love<br />
the film and how empowered<br />
people feel, after seeing it, to<br />
make a difference themselves in<br />
the lives of LGBT people.”<br />
Filmmaker Macky Alston ’87 accepts the Documentary Special<br />
Jury Prize for an Agent of Change for Love Free or Die at the<br />
2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on January 28.<br />
PHOTO: JEMAL COUNTESS/GETTY IMAGES<br />
from her job hosting the second se<strong>as</strong>on<br />
of her Canadian HGTV show<br />
(shooting in Vancouver), Consumed,<br />
to catch the Broadway musical Book<br />
of Mormon in New York with her<br />
husband, Jeff. A funny CC reunion<br />
happened <strong>as</strong> Matthew Fox and his<br />
wife, Margarita, sat down behind<br />
her right before the curtain rose!<br />
Like many artists unsure of<br />
their calling, Alston spent his<br />
post-college years trying out different<br />
canv<strong>as</strong>es. He worked first<br />
<strong>as</strong> a museum researcher, then<br />
made collage art, taking photos<br />
wherever he went and selling<br />
his work on the street (and in<br />
one lucky break, to Newsday). At<br />
25, he got a low-paying job <strong>as</strong> a<br />
production <strong>as</strong>sistant for a documentary<br />
and h<strong>as</strong> been creating<br />
art through film ever since.<br />
Alston notes the impact of<br />
the Core Curriculum on his<br />
career. “Being a documentary<br />
filmmaker means I’m a journalist<br />
and a generalist. I rely on<br />
the liberal arts education that<br />
I got at <strong>Columbia</strong> every day of<br />
work,” he says. In fact, Alston<br />
applied early: It w<strong>as</strong> love at<br />
first campus tour. “Walking into<br />
campus w<strong>as</strong> like walking into<br />
Shangri-La,” he explains. “It w<strong>as</strong><br />
a thrill to think my story could<br />
play out in such a beautiful,<br />
epic context.”<br />
Even with the accolades, the<br />
work of documentary filmmaking<br />
can feel endless. In addition<br />
to festivals around the world,<br />
Alston plans to show Love Free<br />
or Die at 500 community-b<strong>as</strong>ed<br />
screenings before its national<br />
broadc<strong>as</strong>t on PBS in November.<br />
The long hours, however,<br />
don’t bother him: “To be screening<br />
<strong>this</strong> in the states where<br />
there are ballot me<strong>as</strong>ures <strong>this</strong><br />
year, I feel like I made something<br />
that can not only depict history<br />
but also impact history.”<br />
To view the trailer, go to Web Extr<strong>as</strong><br />
at college.columbia.edu/cct.<br />
Yelena Shuster ’09 is a freelance<br />
writer whose work h<strong>as</strong><br />
been featured on Cosmpolitan.<br />
com, Refinery29.com and in<br />
New York magazine.<br />
Matt Engels visited Boston<br />
recently and we caught up. Matt<br />
looks the same and enjoys his work<br />
<strong>as</strong> v.p. of Network Solutions for<br />
CorVel Corp., a national workers’<br />
compensation managed care and<br />
claims management leader. He<br />
and his wife, Beth, and their two<br />
young children live in Chicago.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
90<br />
FALL 2012<br />
91
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
Matt reported that Amy Weinreich<br />
Rinzler, her husband, Brad, and<br />
their two children recently visited<br />
him and his family; they live in<br />
New York.<br />
90<br />
Rachel Cowan Jacobs<br />
313 Lexington Dr.<br />
Silver Spring, MD 20901<br />
youngrache@hotmail.com<br />
In the “most remote location” category,<br />
Gemma Tarlach wrote from<br />
Antarctica. “As I type <strong>this</strong>, I am<br />
back for my second austral winter<br />
se<strong>as</strong>on at McMurdo Station in Antarctica.<br />
[Editor’s note: See January/<br />
February 2011 <strong>issue</strong>.] Thanks to the<br />
Internet, I’ve been able to get my<br />
dark historical novel Plaguewalker<br />
published and available in paperback<br />
and e-book formats while<br />
living at the bottom of the world.<br />
Plaguewalker (shameless plug:<br />
available at Amazon and also at<br />
BN.com for Nook readers) is set in<br />
14th-century Bavaria and told from<br />
the point of view of its protagonist,<br />
an amoral executioner. Things go<br />
from bad to worse for Marcus when<br />
a little thing called the Black Death<br />
arrives in town. It is not a romantic<br />
comedy. It will never be made into<br />
a movie starring Julia Roberts. That<br />
said, it’s been getting reviews from<br />
total strangers positive enough to<br />
make me blush. You can read the<br />
first chapter at plaguewalker.com.<br />
For anyone who says it’s too dark,<br />
I say: spend six months with me<br />
here in Antarctica without sunlight<br />
and then we’ll talk about what’s<br />
‘too dark.’<br />
“After my 14 months in 2010–11<br />
on the ice, I had to leave (National<br />
Science Foundation rules: you can’t<br />
stay here on ice planet Hoth more<br />
than 14 months at a time), so I<br />
ended up hiking around T<strong>as</strong>mania,<br />
Australia, where it rained. Every.<br />
Single. Day. I had leeches in my<br />
tent, my clothes and my hair. That<br />
said, it w<strong>as</strong> a beautiful place and<br />
I got to meet lots of T<strong>as</strong>manian<br />
devils (love them!), wallabies,<br />
kangaroos and wombats. I even<br />
held a juvenile wombat; it w<strong>as</strong> like<br />
cuddling with a furry sandbag.<br />
“The other highlight of my office<br />
time w<strong>as</strong> meeting New Zealand<br />
All Blacks rugby star Brad Thorn<br />
at a fan event in Christchurch just<br />
after the All Blacks won the Webb<br />
Ellis Cup. He said, ‘Do you want<br />
to touch the cup?’ (He w<strong>as</strong> holding<br />
it.) And I replied, ‘Can I touch you<br />
instead?’ He w<strong>as</strong> gracious about<br />
it, though I suspect he w<strong>as</strong> ready<br />
to call security when I wouldn’t let<br />
go. I love Kiwis.<br />
“As for what’s next, I have a few<br />
irons in the fire, <strong>as</strong> always. I have<br />
two more novels in the publishing<br />
queue, for starters, and some ide<strong>as</strong><br />
about what to do when I leave<br />
the ice later <strong>this</strong> year, but nothing<br />
definitive. To quote David Bowie,<br />
‘I don’t know where I’m going<br />
from here, but I promise it won’t be<br />
boring.’”<br />
Gemma, I <strong>as</strong>sure you on behalf<br />
of our cl<strong>as</strong>s that your updates are<br />
never boring!<br />
Directly from Tenders Info’s May<br />
news bulletin (because it said it better<br />
than I could): “GAMCO Investors<br />
awarded the Graham & Dodd,<br />
Murray, Greenwald Prize for Value<br />
Investing to William von Mueffling<br />
[’95 Business], managing partner<br />
and chief investment officer at Cantillon<br />
Capital Management, during<br />
its 27th annual client conference in<br />
New York. Known <strong>as</strong> the Gabelli<br />
Prize, the annual prize honors an<br />
individual, student or practitioner<br />
who h<strong>as</strong> made an outstanding<br />
contribution to enlarge the field of<br />
value investing.<br />
“William is founder and CEO of<br />
Cantillon, where he manages more<br />
than $1 billion in long-only <strong>as</strong>sets.<br />
Prior to founding Cantillon in<br />
2003, he w<strong>as</strong> a managing director<br />
for hedge funds at Lazard Asset<br />
Management, where he managed<br />
their European opportunities and<br />
worldwide opportunities hedge<br />
funds. Before joining Lazard,<br />
he w<strong>as</strong> with Deutsche Bank in<br />
Germany and France. William is<br />
also a special adviser at Industry<br />
Capital Management, a member of<br />
the Board of Overseers of the Business<br />
School and a trustee at French<br />
American Cultural Exchange.<br />
“Bruce C.N. Greenwald, who<br />
heads the Heilbrunn Graham &<br />
Dodd Research Center at the Business<br />
School and who leads the Gabelli<br />
Prize selection committee, said,<br />
‘William’s contribution <strong>as</strong> chair of<br />
the executive advisory board of the<br />
Heilbrunn Center h<strong>as</strong> been imme<strong>as</strong>urable,<br />
and his investment skills<br />
and his consistent application of<br />
Graham & Dodd’s principles to the<br />
investment process have enabled<br />
him to make countless contributions<br />
to the program.’”<br />
And now, back to me. William,<br />
congratulations on <strong>this</strong> impressive<br />
award.<br />
It w<strong>as</strong> great to get email from<br />
Erika Rogers Marino, who reports,<br />
“My husband, Nick Marino, and I<br />
and our beautiful girls live happily<br />
in Stamford, Conn. Melissa Eva<br />
turns 7 in September and Rachel<br />
Alexis is 4. A recently retired<br />
federal agent and a guitar player<br />
and singer since the age of 12, my<br />
husband now spends a lot of time<br />
playing. I am not only his agent,<br />
publicist and manager, booking<br />
him at gigs, but I also handle<br />
these same t<strong>as</strong>ks for another local<br />
musician. My husband recently<br />
performed with my cousin and<br />
bluegr<strong>as</strong>s performer extraordinaire<br />
Roger Sprung. I w<strong>as</strong> on the<br />
sailing team at <strong>Columbia</strong> but with<br />
little kids have found it e<strong>as</strong>ier to<br />
take up boating in Long Island<br />
Sound, which we do <strong>as</strong> often <strong>as</strong> the<br />
weather permits. See everyone at<br />
our next reunion, if not sooner.”<br />
I am thinking that Dr. Wei-Nchih<br />
Lee might have more letters after<br />
his name than anyone else in our<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>s. If I am wrong, let me know<br />
so I can correct the record. In June,<br />
Wei-Nchih added Ph.D. to the M.D.<br />
and M.P.H. that follow “Lee.” He<br />
also added California resident to<br />
his resume in 2007 when, after eight<br />
Amee Manges ’90 is an <strong>as</strong>sociate professor in the<br />
School of Population and Public Health at the<br />
University of British <strong>Columbia</strong>.<br />
years of practicing and teaching<br />
internal medicine at New York<br />
Medical <strong>College</strong> and itching to try<br />
something new, he packed up his<br />
wife and child and moved to Palo<br />
Alto to start Stanford’s Biomedical<br />
Informatics doctoral program. In<br />
these intervening five years, he also<br />
added a second child to his family.<br />
Don’t go looking for Wei-Nchih in a<br />
lecture hall, though. Instead, you’ll<br />
find him at Hewlett Packard Labs<br />
(also in Palo Alto) <strong>as</strong> a senior research<br />
scientist, continuing his work<br />
in big data analysis in medicine and<br />
medical decision support systems.<br />
Amee Manges is another West<br />
Co<strong>as</strong>t transplant. She’d been a<br />
professor in infectious dise<strong>as</strong>e<br />
epidemiology at McGill since 2004<br />
but recently made the move to the<br />
University of British <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>as</strong><br />
<strong>as</strong>sociate professor in the School of<br />
Population and Public Health. She<br />
and her husband have three boys:<br />
Oakley (9), J<strong>as</strong>per (4) and Tilden (1).<br />
Amee would love to reconnect<br />
with cl<strong>as</strong>smates, so ple<strong>as</strong>e look her<br />
up.<br />
Does everyone remember David<br />
Mandell, member of the varsity<br />
fencing team? It appears he got hit<br />
by the 40-something-year itch and<br />
h<strong>as</strong> become a runner. He recently<br />
completed his first 10-mile race<br />
and is training for the Philadelphia<br />
Marathon in November. Maybe the<br />
marathon route goes p<strong>as</strong>t his office<br />
at Penn. In July, David became the<br />
director of the Center for Mental<br />
Health Policy and Services Research<br />
in the Department of Psychiatry.<br />
Most of his research is on improving<br />
quality of care for people with<br />
autism. He also is an <strong>as</strong>sociate professor<br />
of psychiatry at Penn, where<br />
he h<strong>as</strong> the ple<strong>as</strong>ure of teaching<br />
undergrads and mentoring doctoral<br />
students and post-doctoral fellows.<br />
Melissa Michelson; husband,<br />
Christopher Gardner; and sons,<br />
Joshua (6) and Zachary (4); live in<br />
Palo Alto with their three cats, two<br />
dogs and five chickens. Melissa<br />
is a political science professor at<br />
Menlo <strong>College</strong> and h<strong>as</strong> co-authored<br />
a book, Mobilizing Inclusion:<br />
Transforming the Electorate Through<br />
Get-out-the-Vote Campaigns, which<br />
came out <strong>this</strong> summer. She also<br />
knits a lot.<br />
Up until recently, in my job <strong>as</strong> an<br />
admissions officer at Johns Hopkins,<br />
my professional life w<strong>as</strong> starting<br />
to intersect with our cl<strong>as</strong>smates’<br />
personal lives, <strong>as</strong> some of you are<br />
beginning the college search process<br />
with your children. Take Beth<br />
Kissileff, for example. On a spring<br />
college tour with her rising senior<br />
daughter, she realized just how<br />
much life h<strong>as</strong> changed since we<br />
were heading to college. (So true!<br />
I listened to my first CD in Music<br />
Hum freshman year and now they<br />
barely exist.) Beth, her husband and<br />
three daughters relocated to Pittsburgh<br />
in August 2010 after many<br />
years of teaching at Smith, Mt.<br />
Holyoke, University of Minnesota<br />
and Carleton. Her first book will be<br />
published in 2013 by Continuum.<br />
Per Beth, “It is an anthology of academic<br />
writers using some <strong>as</strong>pect of<br />
their professional expertise to write<br />
on the Biblical book of Genesis. Dr.<br />
Ruth Westheimer is writing on ‘it is<br />
not good for man to be alone… ’ —<br />
you get the idea. I am also working<br />
on an Exodus volume.”<br />
Beth primarily works <strong>as</strong> a freelance<br />
writer these days. She h<strong>as</strong> a<br />
piece about her urban Pittsburgh<br />
neighborhood on the Motherlode<br />
blog on nytimes.com. She also h<strong>as</strong><br />
completed a novel, and once that is<br />
published, we might find her back<br />
in the cl<strong>as</strong>sroom.<br />
It w<strong>as</strong> 13 years ago that Josh<br />
M<strong>as</strong>ur moved to the Bay Area to<br />
practice intellectual property law;<br />
he now is a partner with Turner<br />
Boyd, a patent litigation boutique<br />
in Mountain View, Calif. He and<br />
his wife, Shelly, have three children,<br />
Julia (15) and twins Jacob and Noah<br />
(12). Shelly is running for county<br />
supervisor for San Mateo County,<br />
and their kids are competitive skiers.<br />
When I learned that Josh is a ski<br />
patroller at Alpine Meadows and<br />
legal adviser to the E<strong>as</strong>tern Sierra<br />
Region of the National Ski Patrol, I<br />
marveled at the power of genetics.<br />
(Or is it nurture? Discuss.) He<br />
said that after more than 20 years,<br />
he finally got to see and ski with<br />
Gabriel Kra <strong>this</strong> p<strong>as</strong>t se<strong>as</strong>on.<br />
I wonder if these guys know<br />
what Marc Levarn is up to. He<br />
wrote to say, “Quite a bit h<strong>as</strong> been<br />
happening with me during the<br />
p<strong>as</strong>t 22 years. With the exception of<br />
one year away for graduate school,<br />
I’ve been living in the ski resort<br />
town of Vail, Colo. At first I w<strong>as</strong> a<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>sic ski town resident who lived<br />
to ski, but during the p<strong>as</strong>t two decades<br />
I’ve evolved into a husband,<br />
father and business owner. My<br />
wife, Maria, and I met in Vail in<br />
1992. We have two daughters, Marina<br />
(10) and Silvia (8). Our whole<br />
family enjoys skiing and living<br />
next to the wilderness of the high<br />
Rockies. In 2006, my brother-inlaw<br />
and I opened an art gallery in<br />
Vail Village, the Vail International<br />
Gallery (vailgallery.com). I’d been<br />
working in the gallery business<br />
first <strong>as</strong> a salesperson and later <strong>as</strong> a<br />
gallery director, so it w<strong>as</strong> a natural<br />
step to open our own and, <strong>as</strong> they<br />
say, so far so good.<br />
“I enjoy keeping up with some<br />
friends from the swim team and<br />
Phi Ep. Two years ago I travelled to<br />
Seattle to visit with Phi Ep friends<br />
Brian Trisler ’92, John Temple<br />
and Dan Miron to celebrate the<br />
successful sale of John and Brian’s<br />
business. Anyone visiting Vail is<br />
welcome to drop by and say hello.”<br />
In the future <strong>Columbia</strong>n department,<br />
a hearty “congratulations”<br />
goes out to June Matsukawa on<br />
the March 1 birth of her daughter,<br />
Mika McConnell. Mika’s parents<br />
and brother, Yohji, are most<br />
ple<strong>as</strong>ed with their addition.<br />
Rounding up <strong>this</strong> lengthy column<br />
— and thank you to everyone<br />
who submitted an update! — is a<br />
word about Miriam Lefkowitz,<br />
who wrote from New Jersey, her<br />
home since 2002. She h<strong>as</strong> arranged<br />
her life in such a way that she can<br />
spend significant time with her<br />
husband, Marc Heimowitz, and<br />
their children, ages 12, 10 and 8,<br />
while also working part-time <strong>as</strong><br />
general counsel for an <strong>as</strong>set manager<br />
in Manhattan. She h<strong>as</strong> a financial<br />
services compliance consulting<br />
practice on the side, too.<br />
Now that <strong>this</strong> column is complete,<br />
tell me if you noticed any themes.<br />
Whoever contacts me first with the<br />
correct answer(s) wins a prize. (Note<br />
my new email address, at the top of<br />
the column.) Happy fall and back to<br />
school to all.<br />
91<br />
Margie Kim<br />
1923 White Oak Clearing<br />
Southlake, TX 76092<br />
margiekimkim@<br />
hotmail.com<br />
Hello, all! I recently caught up with<br />
Tom Yang, his wife, Mary, and their<br />
three adorable children. Tom is an<br />
attorney with Haynes and Boone<br />
in Dall<strong>as</strong> and is doing well. We all<br />
met up at the beautiful home of<br />
Claudia Pak Choi ’96, ’98 SIPA and<br />
her husband, Henry Choi ’94, with<br />
whom I do alumni interviews <strong>as</strong><br />
part of the Alumni Representative<br />
Committee.<br />
Mary Zamore sent in <strong>this</strong> update:<br />
“It h<strong>as</strong> been a wonderful and<br />
full year. In addition to my responsibilities<br />
<strong>as</strong> a congregational rabbi<br />
at Temple B’nai Or in Morristown,<br />
N.J. (come visit if you live nearby),<br />
I designed, edited and contributed<br />
to a book! The Sacred Table: Creating<br />
a Jewish Food Ethic h<strong>as</strong> spurred a<br />
rich discussion throughout the<br />
Reform Movement concerning the<br />
intersection between ritual, ethics<br />
and food. My <strong>Columbia</strong> friends<br />
have been super-supportive<br />
throughout the process. A special<br />
shout-out to Elana (Goltsman)<br />
Altzman ’90, her husband, Jerry<br />
Altzman ’90, Rob Scheinberg and<br />
Dana Fenlon-Wu.”<br />
I also heard from Susie Wood,<br />
who says, “I’m one of the one million<br />
people who lost power in the<br />
recent storm that hit D.C. And in<br />
the middle of that, I w<strong>as</strong> preparing<br />
to leave for my first <strong>as</strong>signment<br />
with the Foreign Service. I’ll be the<br />
information officer (press attaché)<br />
for the U.S. Emb<strong>as</strong>sy in Bishkek,<br />
Kyrgyzstan. I’m very excited about<br />
my new career <strong>as</strong> a diplomat. My<br />
family will join me. My husband<br />
is a conservation biologist and I<br />
have two daughters, ages 3 and 7.<br />
I know it is a long shot but if any<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong>ns are coming through<br />
Central Asia, ple<strong>as</strong>e look me up!”<br />
Donald Rollock, husband of<br />
Virginia Cornish, wrote to let us<br />
know that she w<strong>as</strong> appointed the<br />
Helena Rubinstein Professor of<br />
Chemistry, which is a named chair<br />
in the Department of Chemistry<br />
at <strong>Columbia</strong>. Congratulations,<br />
Virginia! [See Around the Quads.]<br />
I hope everyone enjoyed the<br />
summer. Until next time … cheers!<br />
92<br />
Jeremy Feinberg<br />
315 E. 65th St. #3F<br />
New York, NY 10021<br />
jeremy.feinberg@<br />
verizon.net<br />
That w<strong>as</strong> some reunion. We crammed<br />
so many events (official and<br />
unofficial) into just a few days.<br />
It w<strong>as</strong> simultaneously dizzying,<br />
breathtaking and a heck of a lot of<br />
fun. And I’ll bet, like me, you didn’t<br />
manage to catch up with everyone<br />
you wanted to.<br />
I guess we’ll just have to do it<br />
even bigger and better for No. 25 in<br />
five years, and catch up with those<br />
we missed <strong>this</strong> time.<br />
Here’s what I can report. Although<br />
a work function prevented<br />
me from attending the opening<br />
night cocktail party on Thursday,<br />
on Friday I attended the cocktail<br />
party at MoMA, ably hosted by<br />
Josh Siegel. The evening had been<br />
billed <strong>as</strong> a cocktail party followed by<br />
screenings of several short films with<br />
a <strong>Columbia</strong> theme. As the cocktail<br />
party pressed into its third hour,<br />
though, it became clear that people<br />
were having so much fun reconnecting<br />
that there w<strong>as</strong> no need to break<br />
for the films — and on we went.<br />
Among the many I spotted and<br />
chatted with at the party were John<br />
Thompson, Jonathan Henick,<br />
Quinn Kayser-Cochran (and his<br />
wife, Carrie Kayser-Cochran ’92<br />
Barnard), Richard Bernard (an<br />
attorney at Foley & Lardner in<br />
New York City), David Weisoly<br />
(a neonatologist in Dall<strong>as</strong>), Nomi<br />
Levy-Carrick, Evan Ambinder,<br />
Ben Lawsky, Patricia Ireland<br />
and Olivier Knox. Olivier, Yahoo!<br />
News’ White House correspondent,<br />
provided two of the night’s<br />
more entertaining stories — the<br />
first about being treated for food<br />
poisoning in the medical bay of Air<br />
Force One while in flight, and the<br />
second about how he and younger<br />
brother Christophe ’95 had, without<br />
consulting and without realizing it,<br />
named their sons Felix and Oscar.<br />
Somewhere, Neil Simon is smiling.<br />
Saturday w<strong>as</strong> the busiest day<br />
of the reunion. Four events in 10<br />
hours will do that to you, and<br />
I doubt I attended more than<br />
many of you. I started by joining<br />
fellow members of the <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
Daily Spectator’s 115th managing<br />
board for lunch at V&T. Special<br />
thanks to (former) editor-in-chief<br />
Kirsten Danis, who now is at The<br />
Wall Street Journal, for organizing<br />
the event. In addition to Kirsten,<br />
former managing editor Catherine<br />
Thorpe and news editors Kirsten<br />
Fermaglich and Kris Kanthak<br />
were present. We were joined by<br />
Kirsten Danis’ husband, Robert<br />
Kolker ’91, and their two children<br />
<strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> by Andrew Vladeck,<br />
who had been a stellar photo editor<br />
for the 113th managing board.<br />
Next up w<strong>as</strong> a reception thrown<br />
by the Athletics Department for<br />
returning athletes and, thankfully<br />
for me, sports journalists. I w<strong>as</strong><br />
ple<strong>as</strong>ed to see former Lion athletes<br />
Joan Campion, Deirdre Flynn<br />
(who h<strong>as</strong> successfully rehabbed<br />
a torn ACL — congratulations!),<br />
Cliff Blaze and Ana Blaze, among<br />
others, reconnecting with coaches<br />
and athletic administrators not far<br />
from the entrance to Dodge Physical<br />
Fitness Center.<br />
There were several pre-parties<br />
for the main event dinner on Saturday,<br />
one of which w<strong>as</strong> a fundraising<br />
gathering for Eric Garcetti, who is<br />
well into his campaign for mayor<br />
of Los Angeles. This proved to<br />
be a great opportunity to connect<br />
with cl<strong>as</strong>smates from Barnard and<br />
Engineering <strong>as</strong> well. Among other<br />
attendees, I saw Peter Hatch, Andy<br />
Contiguglia, Wah Chen and Frank<br />
Au, who had traveled from Hong<br />
Kong. I am pretty sure that sets the<br />
distance record for <strong>this</strong> reunion, but<br />
ple<strong>as</strong>e let me know if you can top it.<br />
The dinner proved to be the<br />
centerpiece of the weekend. From<br />
our vantage point on top of SIPA,<br />
we had an excellent view of campus<br />
and the surrounding are<strong>as</strong> <strong>as</strong><br />
well <strong>as</strong> an ideal spot to continue<br />
catching up not only with each<br />
other but also with our Engineering<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates, some of whom were in<br />
attendance. That certainly allowed<br />
for a mini-reunion of the 13th floor<br />
of John Jay from 1988–89, <strong>as</strong> I chatted<br />
with Neo Antoniades ’92E, an<br />
<strong>as</strong>sociate professor of engineering<br />
science and physics at the <strong>College</strong><br />
of Staten Island, <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> Justin<br />
Hellman and Ilusha Bernstein,<br />
who made cameos at the dinner.<br />
There w<strong>as</strong> also plenty of time to<br />
chat with Laura Lopez, Heather<br />
Benson, Jamshed Zuberi ’92E,<br />
Chris Watanabe, Alex Oberweger<br />
and — those seated at my table —<br />
Quinn Kayser-Cochran and his<br />
wife, Carrie, Richard Bernard, Will<br />
Jackson and his wife, Arwen, Rob<br />
Carey and Frank Cicero.<br />
At the dinner, Peter Hatch,<br />
who led the Reunion Committee,<br />
announced that we had broken the<br />
fundraising record for a 20-year<br />
reunion (previously $430,000, set<br />
by the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1989). Our total? A<br />
sm<strong>as</strong>hing $570,000 (which climbed<br />
to $575,000 by the end of the fiscal<br />
year). The Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1993 h<strong>as</strong> its work<br />
cut out for it. We were treated to a<br />
stellar slideshow featuring thenand-now<br />
pictures going all the way<br />
back to our Freshman Facebook<br />
(yes, that Facebook). Many kudos to<br />
Andy Contiguglia and those who<br />
helped him put that together; it w<strong>as</strong><br />
truly a highlight of the evening.<br />
All in all, a fant<strong>as</strong>tic weekend.<br />
Let’s do it again in five years. If<br />
you missed it <strong>this</strong> time, we’d love<br />
to see you then. Cheers.<br />
REUNION WEEKEND<br />
MAY 30–JUNE 2, 2013<br />
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS<br />
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Fatima Yudeh<br />
fy2165@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7834<br />
DEVELOPMENT Valentina Salkow<br />
vs2441@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7833<br />
93<br />
Betsy Gomperz<br />
41 Day St.<br />
Newton, MA 02466<br />
Betsy.Gomperz@<br />
gmail.com<br />
A big thank-you to everyone who<br />
submitted updates for <strong>this</strong> edition.<br />
We start with news from Amy<br />
Longo, who is a litigation partner<br />
FALL 2012<br />
92<br />
FALL 2012<br />
93
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
in the financial services practice<br />
group of O’Melveny & Myers in<br />
Los Angeles. Amy recently became<br />
an adjunct professor at Pepperdine<br />
University School of Law in Malibu,<br />
Calif., where she teaches electronic<br />
discovery practice. Amy’s husband,<br />
Steve Pesce, is head of post-production<br />
for Zizo Group in Santa<br />
Monica, Calif., where he h<strong>as</strong> been<br />
working on the TV show Raising<br />
an Olympian, airing in conjunction<br />
with the London 2012 Olympics.<br />
Amy and Steve have two sons, Leo<br />
and Renzi, who are 4 and almost 3,<br />
respectively, and attend preschool<br />
in Santa Monica.<br />
I heard from Jeff Kelly, who<br />
lives in Georgia with his wife and<br />
four children. Jeff is a consumer<br />
bankruptcy attorney and recently<br />
attended the National Association<br />
of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys<br />
convention in San Antonio, where<br />
he reconnected with Alfredo Avelos<br />
’96E, who owns a construction business<br />
in that city. Jeff writes, “We had<br />
a great time talking about our days<br />
on the <strong>Columbia</strong> cross-country and<br />
track teams.”<br />
Gary Heidt, who w<strong>as</strong> the station<br />
manager of WKCR our senior year,<br />
h<strong>as</strong> been busy since we graduated.<br />
Gary wrote that he’s “rele<strong>as</strong>ing a<br />
line of soon-to-be-cl<strong>as</strong>sic novels<br />
<strong>as</strong> e-books for sale on the Kindle<br />
platform. DIRT e-books can be<br />
found at dirtebooks.wordpress.<br />
com. Our initial six novels are dirt<br />
cheap, priced under $4.” Gary h<strong>as</strong><br />
spent the l<strong>as</strong>t seven years <strong>as</strong> a literary<br />
agent with Signature Literary<br />
Agency, representing clients such<br />
<strong>as</strong> Charles Yu ’01L and the Church<br />
of the SubGenius. Since graduation<br />
Gary also h<strong>as</strong> performed<br />
extensively on the improvised<br />
music scene with Daniel Carter and<br />
Sabir Mateen, his plays have been<br />
performed in NYC and Europe,<br />
his poetry h<strong>as</strong> appeared in many<br />
journals and in an anthology, his<br />
music (with groups such <strong>as</strong> Mammals<br />
of Zod, Tender Buttons and<br />
Fist of Kindness) h<strong>as</strong> been played<br />
on radio around the world, he h<strong>as</strong><br />
performed in 17 annual installations<br />
of a 67-year performance piece and<br />
he recently directed a play about<br />
Margaret Mead ’23 Barnard, ’28<br />
GSAS in Leipzig, Germany.<br />
Wow. And good luck with your<br />
new endeavor, Gary!<br />
Congratulations to Kevin Connolly<br />
and his wife, Laura, who<br />
welcomed their first child, Clarabel<br />
Rose, on May 17.<br />
With fall upon us, it is hard to<br />
believe it h<strong>as</strong> been 20 years since we<br />
began our senior year at <strong>Columbia</strong>.<br />
I hope many of you will return to<br />
Morningside Heights to attend<br />
our reunion next June. It will be<br />
great to reconnect with old friends,<br />
see how the campus h<strong>as</strong> changed,<br />
hear from leading professors and<br />
innovative cl<strong>as</strong>smates, reminisce<br />
about the Core Curriculum, visit<br />
old haunts (even if The West End<br />
and Cannon’s <strong>as</strong> we knew them<br />
are no more) and relive some of the<br />
fun from Senior Week 1993 (note to<br />
the Reunion Committee: perhaps<br />
an Intrepid party?). If you’d like<br />
to get involved in the planning,<br />
ple<strong>as</strong>e contact the appropriate staff<br />
member, <strong>as</strong> noted at the top of the<br />
column.<br />
And <strong>as</strong> I mentioned in my l<strong>as</strong>t<br />
column, ple<strong>as</strong>e also consider contributing<br />
to our Cl<strong>as</strong>s Gift in honor<br />
of <strong>this</strong> upcoming milestone. Give<br />
by credit card at college.columbia.<br />
edu/giveonline or by calling 212-<br />
851-7488, or mail a check, payable<br />
to <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Fund, to<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Fund, <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
Alumni Center, 622 W. 113th St.,<br />
MC 4530, 3rd Fl., New York, NY<br />
10025.<br />
94<br />
Leyla Kokmen<br />
440 Thom<strong>as</strong> Ave. S.<br />
Minneapolis, MN 55405<br />
lak6@columbia.edu<br />
Congratulations to Chris Schmidt<br />
and his wife, Jen, a Manhattan sex<br />
crimes prosecutor, who welcomed<br />
baby No. 4 to the Schmidt family<br />
on May 11, with the arrival of<br />
Katherine Mae. She joins Charlotte<br />
(7), Johnny (5) and Isabella (16<br />
months). Chris recently started his<br />
19th year with the New York Police<br />
Department, adding, “I’ve been a<br />
lieutenant since 2003 and continue<br />
to happily work the streets of Harlem<br />
and W<strong>as</strong>hington Heights. Yes,<br />
I can retire in 20 months after 20<br />
years on, but with four mouths to<br />
feed, that is a fleeting fant<strong>as</strong>y. Anyway,<br />
with four healthy kids, life is<br />
good and I am truly fortunate.”<br />
Bruce Curtis wrote in for the<br />
first time, noting that he lives in<br />
Austin, Tex<strong>as</strong>, and loves it. He’s a<br />
construction supervisor for custom<br />
home builder Ford Strei Builders<br />
and also is reinvigorating a print<br />
brokering business (curtisprinting.<br />
net), working primarily with a<br />
colleague in China. “I live in a<br />
1907 house (old for Tex<strong>as</strong>), which I<br />
gutted and rebuilt and operate <strong>as</strong> a<br />
B&B now and then,” Bruce writes.<br />
“No family yet. Come visit! Breakf<strong>as</strong>t<br />
tacos and BBQ await.”<br />
Bruce is eager to hear from fellow<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> alums at bruce.e.curtis@<br />
gmail.com.<br />
Here’s a nice update from Elliot<br />
Regenstein, who did some world<br />
traveling <strong>this</strong> spring. First, he went<br />
to Guam for three days of work,<br />
culminating in an Early Learning<br />
Summit, where he presented. He<br />
spent time with Guam Gov. Eddie<br />
Calvo and First Lady Christine<br />
Calvo, who co-chairs the Guam<br />
Early Learning Council. Then he<br />
traveled to Paris to celebrate his<br />
10-year wedding anniversary. His<br />
kids are doing well, and daughter<br />
Zoe (8) became a huge NBA fan<br />
<strong>this</strong> year. “Not sure how that happened,”<br />
Elliot writes. “Although<br />
environmental factors may have<br />
been an influence.”<br />
Thanks to all for the terrific<br />
updates. Ple<strong>as</strong>e keep them coming!<br />
Catch you next time.<br />
95<br />
Janet Lorin<br />
730 Columbus Ave.,<br />
Apt. 14C<br />
New York, NY 10025<br />
jrf10@columbia.edu<br />
Colleen B<strong>as</strong>sett and Brian B<strong>as</strong>sett<br />
live in Charlottesville, Va., with<br />
their two girls. The family moved<br />
from London about 2½ years ago.<br />
On the day Colleen and I emailed,<br />
their older daughter w<strong>as</strong> finishing<br />
kindergarten; their younger daughter<br />
is 3½. Colleen is an interior<br />
designer at Stedman House and<br />
Brian manages his <strong>as</strong>set management<br />
company.<br />
Anna Hemnes h<strong>as</strong> continued<br />
her journey south. After college,<br />
she headed to Baltimore for medical<br />
school, residence and fellowship.<br />
She then moved to N<strong>as</strong>hville<br />
in 2006 to join the faculty in pulmonary<br />
and critical care medicine<br />
at Vanderbilt. Anna mostly does<br />
research on pulmonary arterial hypertension,<br />
a rare lung dise<strong>as</strong>e, and<br />
cares for patients with the dise<strong>as</strong>e.<br />
Her husband is a neurosurgeon<br />
and they have three kids, twins<br />
Emma and Olivia (6) and son Benjamin<br />
(4). “I never thought I would<br />
move to the South, but I love it<br />
here and have even occ<strong>as</strong>ionally<br />
used the phr<strong>as</strong>e ‘y’all’ in conversation,”<br />
Anna writes.<br />
I hope these updates from our<br />
freshman floor, Carman 10, will<br />
inspire others to send news.<br />
Like Anna, Emily Hu is a physi<br />
cian. She moved west for her<br />
residency in ob/gyn at Stanford,<br />
which she finished in 2004, and h<strong>as</strong><br />
been in San Francisco ever since,<br />
working in private practice. She<br />
and her husband, John Tang ’96L,<br />
have two sons, Derek (1½) and<br />
Morgan, born in May.<br />
Tony Andrione lives in Severna<br />
Park, Md., with his wife of eight<br />
years and their two boys, William<br />
(4½) and Bennett (8 months). L<strong>as</strong>t<br />
spring he finished his 17th year <strong>as</strong><br />
a high school English teacher. “I<br />
still love every minute of it, but I’m<br />
looking to make the move to administration<br />
within the next couple<br />
of years,” Tony writes.<br />
I ran into another <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
friend a few months ago at<br />
Bloomberg News, where I work.<br />
It h<strong>as</strong> been great to reconnect with<br />
Shahrzad Elghanayan ’94, who h<strong>as</strong><br />
been working at Bloomberg <strong>as</strong> a<br />
freelance photo editor. She also is<br />
writing a biography/memoir about<br />
the life and death of her grandfather,<br />
Habib Elghanayan, an Iranian-<br />
Jewish industrialist who w<strong>as</strong> the<br />
first businessman executed during<br />
the Iranian revolution in 1979.<br />
Prior to joining Bloomberg,<br />
Shahrzad spent eight years at the<br />
AP <strong>as</strong> supervisor on the news<br />
photo desk. She lives in New York<br />
with her fiancé, Dougl<strong>as</strong> J. Rowe,<br />
just a few blocks away from me on<br />
the Upper West Side.<br />
96<br />
Ana S. Salper<br />
24 Monroe Pl., Apt. MA<br />
Brooklyn, NY 11201<br />
<strong>as</strong>alper@ebglaw.com<br />
Greetings cl<strong>as</strong>smates! Only a bit of<br />
news for you <strong>this</strong> time.<br />
Josh Mandelberg lives in Westwood,<br />
Calif., with his wife, Robyn,<br />
and daughter, Emily (5). Josh<br />
recently completed a fellowship in<br />
developmental-behavioral pediatrics<br />
at UCLA and now is in private<br />
practice in West Los Angeles. He<br />
evaluates children and helps manage<br />
their care for concerns such <strong>as</strong><br />
autistic spectrum disorders, ADHD,<br />
learning disabilities and anxiety<br />
disorders. Josh also is a clinical<br />
instructor of pediatrics at UCLA.<br />
I recently ran into Adam “Tex”<br />
Beshara in the Hamptons, where I<br />
w<strong>as</strong> impressed to see he w<strong>as</strong> wearing<br />
a <strong>Columbia</strong> T-shirt, representing<br />
alma mater well. After almost<br />
15 years at J.P. Morgan, Adam left<br />
recently to become a partner at<br />
Centerview, a private equity and<br />
M&A advisory boutique in New<br />
York City.<br />
I urge you all to send in more<br />
notes. Your cl<strong>as</strong>smates love to read<br />
about fellow CC ’96ers, so ple<strong>as</strong>e<br />
keep the news flowing! I leave you<br />
with <strong>this</strong> for now:<br />
“It requires less mental effort to<br />
condemn than to think.”<br />
— Emma Goldman<br />
97<br />
Sarah Katz<br />
1935 Parrish St.<br />
Philadelphia, PA 19130<br />
srk12@columbia.edu<br />
I had a wonderful time catching up<br />
with cl<strong>as</strong>smates at our 15th reunion,<br />
among them J.D. Alfone, Laura<br />
Chittick, Luisa Cruz, Raji Kalra,<br />
Zaharah Markoe, Joshua Meyers,<br />
Maggie Osdoby Katz, Cristina<br />
Rumbaitis del Rio, Eva Subotnik<br />
and Andrew Wu. It w<strong>as</strong> so much<br />
fun to be on campus during the<br />
day with my son, Micah (2½), and<br />
have him meet and play with other<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates’ children, and then to<br />
come back in the evening and join<br />
everyone for cocktails, dinner and<br />
conversation. What a lovely time!<br />
Raji Kalra took the plunge and<br />
bought an apartment in NYC, so<br />
she finally owns a piece of Manhattan!<br />
Kerri (Bauchner) Stone writes:<br />
“On June 20, my husband, Josh,<br />
and I became the proud parents of<br />
Dylan Jacob, the love of our lives.<br />
I also recently found out that I<br />
received tenure; I am now a tenured<br />
law professor at the Florida International<br />
University <strong>College</strong> of Law.”<br />
Rachel (Adame) Anderson<br />
writes, “I missed the reunion<br />
because I had a baby. My husband,<br />
Cuyler, and I welcomed Maxwell<br />
Mark on April 13. Sister Madeline<br />
likes him pretty well.”<br />
Boris Kachka and Jamie Elizabeth<br />
Ehrlich were married in April<br />
at the powerHouse Arena, an arts<br />
and event space in Brooklyn. Cantor<br />
Ronald Broden officiated. Boris<br />
is a contributing editor at New York<br />
magazine.<br />
Nathan “Natie” Fox and his wife,<br />
Michal (née Agus) ’97 Barnard, live<br />
in Englewood, N.J., with their children,<br />
Noam (12), Kira (12), Nili (9)<br />
and Mia (6). Natie is a maternal fetal<br />
medicine specialist (a.k.a. high-risk<br />
obstetrician) in NYC and Michal is<br />
the school psychologist in the Ramaz<br />
Lower School, also in NYC.<br />
Rebecca Braverman and her<br />
husband, Ryan Olson, welcomed a<br />
son, Ari Benjamin, in August 2011.<br />
Happy belated first birthday, Ari!<br />
Joshua Schank writes, “I am<br />
president and CEO of the Eno Center<br />
for Transportation, a 90-yearold<br />
nonprofit transportation policy<br />
think tank in W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C.<br />
I live on Capitol Hill with my<br />
wife, Lindsey, and sons, Max (4),<br />
and Jonah (2). I recently saw Paul<br />
Tuchman and Ben Greenbaum<br />
on a trip to New York and w<strong>as</strong><br />
reminded, <strong>as</strong> I often am, of fond<br />
memories of <strong>Columbia</strong>.”<br />
Josh Ross returns to <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
<strong>this</strong> fall to pursue a m<strong>as</strong>ter’s in the<br />
Department of E<strong>as</strong>t Asian Languages<br />
and Cultures at GSAS.<br />
Nina Covalesky starred in a<br />
short film by Merci Entertainment,<br />
The Plan, which premiered in <strong>this</strong><br />
year’s Cannes Film Festival’s<br />
Short Film Corner and w<strong>as</strong> on the<br />
schedule for various film festivals<br />
around the country during the<br />
summer (theplanshortfilm.com).<br />
Eva Burmeister recently w<strong>as</strong> appointed<br />
to the violin section of the<br />
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.<br />
Eva h<strong>as</strong> been a member of the<br />
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra,<br />
the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra<br />
and an <strong>as</strong>sociate member of the<br />
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.<br />
M. Omar Chaudhry and his<br />
wife, Samiyah Ali, are learning<br />
about the mysteries of the heavens<br />
and earth with their son, Humza<br />
(5). During the work week, Omar<br />
manages a law practice concentrating<br />
in immigration law, family<br />
law and real estate law. His email<br />
is lawyeromar@gmail.com.<br />
Darrell Cohn writes, “My wife,<br />
Leah, and I moved to Israel in<br />
August 2011. We live in Jerusalem<br />
and are finally starting to settle in.<br />
In fact, I just recently p<strong>as</strong>sed my<br />
driver’s test. Leah is studying fulltime<br />
at the Pardes Institute of Jewish<br />
Studies. I work for Umachaka<br />
<strong>as</strong> the director of production. We<br />
make interactive media for preschoolers<br />
and our flagship brand is<br />
TJ & Pals (tjandpals.com), a band<br />
of animated cartoon characters.<br />
While the company is b<strong>as</strong>ed in<br />
Israel, our market is America right<br />
now. Leah and I take trips around<br />
the country when we can. So far<br />
we’ve been to the Golan Heights,<br />
the Galilee and the Dead Sea.”<br />
As for me, Sarah Katz, I am very<br />
excited to have been appointed<br />
<strong>as</strong> a visiting clinical professor at<br />
Temple’s Be<strong>as</strong>ley School of Law. I<br />
will spend the year teaching and<br />
running a family law clinic that<br />
handles child custody and support,<br />
paternity and adoption matters.<br />
REUNION WEEKEND<br />
MAY 30–JUNE 2, 2013<br />
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS<br />
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Fatima Yudeh<br />
fy2165@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7834<br />
DEVELOPMENT Valentina Salkow<br />
vs2441@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7833<br />
98<br />
Sandie Angulo Chen<br />
10209 Day Ave.<br />
Silver Spring, MD 20910<br />
sandie.chen@gmail.com<br />
Hello, Cl<strong>as</strong>s of ’98. I hope that all of<br />
you will consider joining me at our<br />
15th reunion next spring. Ple<strong>as</strong>e<br />
save the date for Alumni Reunion<br />
Weekend 2013, Thursday, May<br />
30–Sunday, June 2. Hope to see<br />
many of you back in Morningside<br />
Heights!<br />
If you’re interested in being part<br />
of the Reunion Committee (planning<br />
the weekend’s events) or the<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s Gift Committee (fundraising<br />
for the <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Fund),<br />
contact the appropriate staff member<br />
at the top of the column. You<br />
need not be in the New York area<br />
and can participate in meetings via<br />
conference call.<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> will send materials by<br />
email and postal mail <strong>as</strong> the date<br />
grows closer. If needed, update your<br />
contact information at reunion.col<br />
lege.columbia.edu/alumniupdate,<br />
or call the Alumni Office: 212-851-<br />
7488.<br />
Now, news from cl<strong>as</strong>smates:<br />
Joshua Ratner wrote with news<br />
of an exciting career transition: “I<br />
have quit the law (for now) and<br />
have spent the p<strong>as</strong>t few years<br />
studying to become a rabbi at the<br />
Jewish Theological Seminary in<br />
NYC.” Josh w<strong>as</strong> ordained in May.<br />
He and his wife, Elena (Salkovsky)<br />
’98 Barnard, live in Connecticut<br />
Nina Covalesky ’97 starred in a short film, The Plan,<br />
which premiered in <strong>this</strong> year’s Cannes Film Festival’s<br />
Short Film Corner.<br />
with their kids, Dimitri (9), Eli (6)<br />
and Gabby (2). They plan a move to<br />
the suburbs of New Haven, Conn.,<br />
<strong>as</strong> Elena is a gynecologic oncologist<br />
at Yale, and Josh will be the rabbi<br />
of a Conservative congregation in<br />
Cheshire, Conn.<br />
Mazel tov to Josh on his ordination!<br />
In other celebratory news, Michele<br />
Hyndman married Matthew<br />
Hodge on March 30 in St. Thom<strong>as</strong>,<br />
U.S. Virgin Islands, where the couple<br />
resides. Michele is the manager of<br />
the tax practice in the St. Thom<strong>as</strong><br />
office of the accounting firm Deloitte<br />
Touche Tohmatsu. Her husband is a<br />
customer care representative at Glacial<br />
Energy, a natural g<strong>as</strong> provider.<br />
He also is running <strong>as</strong> a Democrat<br />
for a senate seat in the Virgin Islands<br />
legislature.<br />
Ch<strong>as</strong> Sisk and Cathy Chang<br />
had their second child, Mei-Ling, in<br />
April. Their son Cai turned 3 in July.<br />
Ch<strong>as</strong> and Cathy live in N<strong>as</strong>hville,<br />
where Ch<strong>as</strong> is a political reporter<br />
at The Tennessean and Cathy is a<br />
Unitarian Universalist chaplain.<br />
Congratulations to the double-<br />
CC ’98 couple!<br />
Another double-alum couple celebrated<br />
their 10th anniversary in June.<br />
Jackie Vo and Jeff Tse renewed their<br />
vows in a beachfront ceremony in<br />
Cancun. Their daughters, Kaitlyn<br />
and Maddie, along with a group of<br />
close family and friends, were in attendance.<br />
The Vo-Tse family lives in<br />
Austin, Tex<strong>as</strong>, where she is a dentist<br />
and he is a physician.<br />
Jeremy Blacklow h<strong>as</strong> been in Los<br />
Angeles for eight years. He h<strong>as</strong> been<br />
v.p. of media for WhoSay, a Creative<br />
Artists Agency-launched Internet<br />
start-up that helps celebrities and<br />
athletes maintain license over (and<br />
monetize) content that they upload<br />
online, for the p<strong>as</strong>t year. In June,<br />
Jeremy finished his fifth AIDS/Lifecycle<br />
ride from San Francisco to Los<br />
Angeles. He’s also launching a DJ<br />
career in the L.A. area.<br />
Amol Sarva reports that his<br />
daughter, P<strong>as</strong>cale (5), is attending<br />
the Queens Paideia School, a<br />
progressive independent school<br />
in Long Island City founded by<br />
Francis Mechner ’52, ’57 GSAS.<br />
Amol and his wife Ursula’s<br />
younger daughter, Lila, is 2. One<br />
of our cl<strong>as</strong>s’ most successful entrepreneurs,<br />
Amol, who founded the<br />
tech company Peek, just raised its<br />
latest big round of VC funds led by<br />
SoftBank, Bharti Enterprises and<br />
RRE Ventures. Also a real estate<br />
developer, Amol completed his<br />
Long Island City building, E<strong>as</strong>t<br />
of E<strong>as</strong>t, in 2010; it w<strong>as</strong> called “the<br />
most important new building in<br />
the borough” of Queens by the<br />
New York Daily News. In more<br />
business news, Amol started a seed<br />
fund focused on <strong>Columbia</strong>, called<br />
(appropriately) Cfund.<br />
L<strong>as</strong>tly, according to SEC filings,<br />
Ronald G. Lehman, managing<br />
director of investment banking at<br />
Bruderman Brothers, h<strong>as</strong> been appointed<br />
to the board of directors of<br />
FONAR. The announcement says<br />
that Ronald “specializes in advising<br />
healthcare services companies.”<br />
Congratulations to Ronald on<br />
his appointment.<br />
99<br />
Laurent V<strong>as</strong>ilescu<br />
127 W. 81st St., Apt. 4B<br />
New York, NY 10024<br />
laurent.v<strong>as</strong>ilescu@<br />
gmail.com<br />
Solid updates to share with you<br />
<strong>this</strong> go-round. Eli Sanders, who<br />
w<strong>as</strong> editor-in-chief of Spectator<br />
our senior year, recently won the<br />
Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing.<br />
He lives in Seattle and works for<br />
a local paper, The Stranger. A great<br />
write-up on Eli’s accomplishment<br />
can be found if you type his name<br />
into Spectator online.<br />
I recently had brunch with Sameer<br />
Shamsi and Wendy Liu, with<br />
whom I w<strong>as</strong> happy to reconnect.<br />
Wendy graduated with an M.B.A.<br />
from the Wharton School in 2010<br />
and now works at a private equity<br />
fund that invests in healthcare<br />
royalties. She is happily married to<br />
Adam and they live on the Upper<br />
West Side not too far from campus.<br />
The CCT office gave me the good<br />
word that Rohit Bansal recently<br />
joined the investment bank Jeffries<br />
<strong>as</strong> a managing director and head<br />
of distressed and special situations<br />
trading. Prior to working at Jeffries,<br />
Rohit w<strong>as</strong> a managing director at<br />
Citigroup, where he spent four<br />
years in distressed debt trading.<br />
Jess (Wendover) Zimbabwe<br />
welcomed a daughter on May 31,<br />
Martha, who joins sister Celia, or<br />
C.J. (2). Jess lives with her husband,<br />
Sam, in W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C., where<br />
FALL 2012<br />
94<br />
FALL 2012<br />
95
CLASS NOTES COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY CLASS NOTES<br />
she is an executive director at the<br />
Urban Land Institute.<br />
Meghan Taira also lives in<br />
W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C., and h<strong>as</strong> been<br />
calling our nation’s capital home<br />
for the p<strong>as</strong>t 10 years. For the p<strong>as</strong>t<br />
five, she h<strong>as</strong> kept her ties to New<br />
York by reporting to Sen. Charles<br />
Schumer (D-N.Y.); she is now his<br />
senior legislative <strong>as</strong>sistant for health<br />
and education.<br />
These are all the updates for <strong>this</strong><br />
edition. Don’t hesitate to drop me<br />
a line and let me know how you<br />
are doing.<br />
00<br />
Prisca Bae<br />
344 W. 17th St., Apt. 3B<br />
New York, NY 10011<br />
pb134@columbia.edu<br />
According to Crain’s New York<br />
Business, Jeffrey D. Rotenberg<br />
’00L w<strong>as</strong> promoted to partner in<br />
the litigation practice of the law<br />
firm DLA Piper. He previously w<strong>as</strong><br />
a senior <strong>as</strong>sociate.<br />
Michael Glynn is a co-author<br />
of a recent publication of the University<br />
of Tex<strong>as</strong> Press, Independent<br />
for Life: Homes and Neighborhoods for<br />
an Aging America. It w<strong>as</strong> edited by<br />
Henry Cisneros, former Secretary of<br />
HUD under President Bill Clinton.<br />
Tom King’s debut novel, A Once<br />
Crowded Sky, w<strong>as</strong> rele<strong>as</strong>ed <strong>this</strong> p<strong>as</strong>t<br />
summer. According to Simon &<br />
Schuster it “fuses the sensibility of<br />
bomb<strong>as</strong>tic, comic-book-style storytelling<br />
with modern literary fiction<br />
to bring to life a universe of super<br />
men stripped of their powers, newly<br />
mortal men forced to confront<br />
danger in a world without heroes.”<br />
Tom worked for the counterterrorism<br />
center at the CIA following the<br />
events of 9-11. While at <strong>Columbia</strong>,<br />
he interned for DC Comics and<br />
Marvel. Tom lives in W<strong>as</strong>hington,<br />
D.C., with his wife, Colleen, and<br />
children, Charlie and Claire.<br />
If you were at our 10-year<br />
re union in 2010, you may have noticed<br />
Brendan Colthurst and Bryan<br />
Carmel following Vikram Gandhi<br />
with video camer<strong>as</strong>. Turns out, they<br />
were filming for their documentary<br />
feature film, Kumaré, rele<strong>as</strong>ed in theaters<br />
in June through Kino Lorber,<br />
a distributor founded by Richard<br />
Lorber ’67 and the late Donald Krim<br />
’67, ’71L. Winner of the Audience<br />
Award for Best Feature Documentary<br />
at SXSW 2011 (South by<br />
Southwest), Kumaré documents the<br />
time Vikram impersonated a wise<br />
Indian guru and built a following<br />
of real people in Phoenix. On the<br />
success of its opening in New York<br />
at the IFC Center, the film expanded<br />
to more cities, including Denver,<br />
Chicago and Seattle, and <strong>as</strong> of <strong>this</strong><br />
writing w<strong>as</strong> set to open in Los<br />
Angeles on August 3. Produced by<br />
Brendan and Bryan and directed by<br />
Gandhi, Kumaré is their first feature,<br />
made through their production<br />
company, Disposable Television. Go<br />
see it on the big screen! Tell all your<br />
friends! You also can visit kumare<br />
movie.com.<br />
01<br />
Jonathan Gordin<br />
3030 N. Beachwood Dr.<br />
Los Angeles, CA 90068<br />
jrg53@columbia.edu<br />
For some re<strong>as</strong>on, communications<br />
from cl<strong>as</strong>smates <strong>this</strong> summer were<br />
sparse. Hopefully everyone w<strong>as</strong> off<br />
exploring the world, commencing<br />
from grad school and getting married,<br />
and you’ll write in with great<br />
updates in the coming weeks. I will<br />
await them! Meanwhile, here is the<br />
news I have:<br />
V<strong>as</strong>antha Rao writes, “I have<br />
been in touch with many CC<br />
alumni lately, <strong>as</strong> I got married l<strong>as</strong>t<br />
year to Joel Dowling; the wedding<br />
took place in Shrewsbury, N.J., on<br />
June 19, 2011. In attendance were<br />
Michael Bilsborough, Apeksha<br />
Kumar ’01E, Jonathan Ferrantelli,<br />
Andrea Villanti, Christopher<br />
Brady, Claudia DeSimio ’99,<br />
Annemarie DeSimio ’02, Courtney<br />
Strate ’02, Hannah Warren ’01 Barnard<br />
and Jessica Beck ’01 Barnard.<br />
It w<strong>as</strong> a wonderful time.<br />
“The biggest news lately is<br />
that my husband and I moved to<br />
Rabat, Morocco, in May. I work for<br />
the Department of Justice, and I<br />
represent DOJ <strong>as</strong> the resident legal<br />
adviser to the U.S. Emb<strong>as</strong>sy in Morocco.<br />
We are both really excited<br />
for <strong>this</strong> big adventure and hope<br />
that if there are any CU alums in<br />
the area, they will get in touch!”<br />
In other wedding news, Patrick<br />
Durkan married Amy Pettibone on<br />
June 16 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral<br />
in New York. Patrick is a partner<br />
at Madison Financial Concepts, a<br />
corporate consulting and financial<br />
planning firm in the city. He also is<br />
the head saber-fencing coach at the<br />
New York Athletic Club.<br />
My former Carman 11 floormate<br />
Karl Ward will attend the Interactive<br />
Telecommunications Program<br />
at NYU Tisch starting in September.<br />
As always, ple<strong>as</strong>e keep in touch!<br />
02<br />
Sonia Dandona<br />
Hirdaramani<br />
2 Rolling Dr.<br />
Old Westbury, NY 11568<br />
soniah57@gmail.com<br />
It w<strong>as</strong> amazing to see everyone<br />
at reunion after 10 long years. I’m<br />
including updates I received both<br />
at reunion and otherwise.<br />
After graduating, Ksusha Boutov<br />
w<strong>as</strong> a trader for seven years in New<br />
York, first at Morgan Stanley and<br />
then at a hedge fund. She earned an<br />
M.B.A. from Wharton in 2011 and<br />
since graduating h<strong>as</strong> been working<br />
at Goldman Sachs in private wealth<br />
management. L<strong>as</strong>t fall, she married<br />
Sean McCormick ’02 Princeton.<br />
Among the <strong>Columbia</strong>ns in attendance<br />
were Courtney Rennicke<br />
’07 TC, Bronwyn Roantree, Anya<br />
Boutov ’05, Oana Cornis-Pop ’03,<br />
Josh Flagg, Lena Kazakina ’99 TC,<br />
Emily Erstling, Scott Statland ’04,<br />
Jeff Stedman ’05, Cody Upton ’05,<br />
Laura Stedman ’06 (née Schnaidt),<br />
Laurel Eisenach ’06, Ed Combs<br />
’06, Enrique Walker (professor, the<br />
Architecture School) and Malwina<br />
Lys-Dobradin ’05. Ksusha writes,<br />
“It’s been a fabulous 10 years, and<br />
I would love to reconnect with any<br />
of my cl<strong>as</strong>smates who have been<br />
wondering how I’m doing!”<br />
Sarah Hsiao HuYoung had a<br />
great time seeing all the familiar<br />
faces at reunion, especially her<br />
fellow John Jay 9ers. Sarah and<br />
her husband, James HuYoung ’01,<br />
made the big cross-country move<br />
to Los Angeles in July. Their son<br />
Nathan is 19 months. She writes,<br />
“We’re looking forward to reconnecting<br />
with fellow <strong>Columbia</strong>ns<br />
on the West Co<strong>as</strong>t!”<br />
Kimberly Blumenthal started a<br />
fellowship in allergy and immunology<br />
at M<strong>as</strong>sachusetts General Hospital<br />
in July. She and her husband,<br />
Daniel Blumenthal, also a physician<br />
at M<strong>as</strong>s General, welcomed their<br />
first child, Jonah Martin, on February<br />
1. They live in Cambridge and<br />
would love to meet up with any CU<br />
grads in the area.<br />
Lynn Juang h<strong>as</strong> spent the 10<br />
years since graduation in New<br />
York and working in the creative<br />
industry. She started in f<strong>as</strong>hion<br />
advertising at Laird+Partners and<br />
then, in 2006, began working at<br />
AvroKO, doing restaurant branding,<br />
graphic design and marketing<br />
projects. Just <strong>as</strong> she left the firm,<br />
she met her now-husband, chef<br />
Seamus Mullen. She helped him<br />
open Tertulia, a Spanish restaurant<br />
in the West Village, in August 2011.<br />
This p<strong>as</strong>t March, Lynn left her day<br />
job at a small ad agency and began<br />
working full-time with Seamus <strong>as</strong><br />
director of marketing and development<br />
of their fledgling restaurant<br />
group, overseeing all new projects<br />
and communications.<br />
The couple w<strong>as</strong> married on<br />
July 14 at the Brooklyn Winery in<br />
Williamsburg. A sizable <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
contingency w<strong>as</strong> in attendance,<br />
including Purdy Tran and Akiko<br />
Kurematsu ’03 Barnard, who<br />
were in the bridal party. Also on<br />
hand were Stefanie Tsen, Paul<br />
Choi, Franklin Amoo, Albert Lee<br />
’02E, Melissa Tominac, Matt Hill<br />
’01, Emeka Ofodile ’01, Ian Chee<br />
’01, Linyee Yuan, Youn Lee ’01,<br />
Miryam Seid and Natalie Fung ’02<br />
Barnard and her husband, Ethan<br />
Farbman.<br />
Liz Matory is in W<strong>as</strong>hington,<br />
D.C., fundraising for nonprofits.<br />
She is two credits away from finishing<br />
her core requirements at the<br />
Robert H. Smith School of Business<br />
at Maryland, where she’s pursuing<br />
an M.B.A. part-time.<br />
Avi Fernandes graduated from<br />
INSEAD in July 2010 and joined<br />
Morgan Stanley in San Francisco.<br />
In January, however, his team<br />
spun out of MS and formed an<br />
independent firm, Iconiq Capital<br />
(global multi-family office b<strong>as</strong>ed in<br />
San Francisco).<br />
Jeffrey Seth Colen lives in San<br />
Francisco and works at Zynga in<br />
digital advertising.<br />
Ronit Gurtman lives on Long Island<br />
with her husband, Brian Gurtman,<br />
and children, Elisabeth (6),<br />
Micah (3) and Ruthie (6 months).<br />
She’s an employment lawyer at Littler<br />
Mendelson’s NYC office.<br />
Genevieve (Vivi) Ko had a busy<br />
2011. She graduated from Yale (Ph.D.<br />
program in biology and biomedical<br />
sciences), started a new job <strong>as</strong> a life<br />
sciences consultant in Boston and<br />
w<strong>as</strong> married to Bayan Takizawa at<br />
The Boston Harbor Hotel on October<br />
9. (See nearby photo.)<br />
On October 1, Purdy Tran married<br />
Joshua Bailer at The Mansion<br />
at Natirar in Far Hills, N.J. Alumni<br />
in attendance included Albert J.<br />
Lee ’02E, Emeka Ofodile ’01, Matt<br />
Hill ’01, Lynn Juang ’02, Youn Lee<br />
’01 and Ian Chee ’01.<br />
She writes, “It w<strong>as</strong> nice to be back<br />
in the Northe<strong>as</strong>t to celebrate with<br />
friends and family. In summer 2010,<br />
Josh and I moved from NYC to Miami<br />
Beach, where I am the director<br />
of membership and club development<br />
for C<strong>as</strong>a Tua, Miami, a private<br />
membership club. Although we miss<br />
the city, we love being able to surf<br />
and run on the beach before hitting<br />
the office in the mornings.”<br />
From 2008–11, Andy Cheung<br />
and his wife, Karen Corrie, lived<br />
in The Hague, Netherlands. Karen<br />
left a job <strong>as</strong> an ADA with the New<br />
York County District Attorney’s<br />
Office to work for the Office of<br />
the Prosecutor at the International<br />
Criminal Court, where she held<br />
several positions, including that<br />
of <strong>as</strong>sociate trial lawyer. From The<br />
Hague, Andy started Sensobi, a<br />
U.S.-b<strong>as</strong>ed software company, with<br />
a childhood friend. Sensobi w<strong>as</strong><br />
acquired in 2011 by GroupMe, a<br />
New York-b<strong>as</strong>ed startup, which in<br />
turn w<strong>as</strong> acquired by Skype.<br />
The couple moved back to New<br />
York in 2012. Karen h<strong>as</strong> begun a<br />
litigation fellowship at the Open<br />
Society Justice Initiative, where she<br />
is pursuing international human<br />
rights litigation. Andy continues to<br />
work at GroupMe, alongside other<br />
CC alumni including Jared Hecht<br />
’09, Neil Sarkar ’07E and Chris<br />
Connolly ’04.<br />
Santosh Sekar ’02E lives in Mid -<br />
town and works for AMEX. He<br />
recently celebrated his five-year<br />
anniversary with his wife, Jyoti.<br />
Luba Kagan lives on the Upper<br />
West Side after a stint in Argentina<br />
and two years in Philadelphia for<br />
business school. She would be<br />
happy to meet fellow N.Y.-area<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> alums.<br />
Lisa Genn lives in Park Slope<br />
and w<strong>as</strong> married on June 30 to<br />
Mark Snyder. She works at the<br />
Brennan Center for Justice.<br />
Sheethal (Rao) Shobowale lives<br />
in Brooklyn and works for Google.<br />
She recently had a son, Hudson,<br />
who w<strong>as</strong> the youngest attendee at<br />
reunion!<br />
Leslie Papa lives in New York<br />
with her hubby, Salvatore. She<br />
does publicity for Broadway Show.<br />
Evelyn Addo-Wallace is a<br />
women’s nurse practitioner.<br />
Adrienne Moran is an <strong>as</strong>sistant<br />
U.S. attorney in W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C.<br />
Nikki Hinman moved to Rome,<br />
N.Y. She works for the State Appellate<br />
Division of New York, Fourth<br />
Department.<br />
Nichol<strong>as</strong> Manheim lives in Seattle<br />
and is an attorney at Perkins<br />
Coie. His daughter, Naomi, is 2.<br />
Kristin (Savarese) Lorieo works<br />
in communications at a law firm.<br />
Sara Kim ’02E lives on the<br />
Upper West Side and is married to<br />
Steven Munch.<br />
Franklin Amoo works at a<br />
hedge fund owned by a Japanese<br />
company and is involved in a<br />
number of startups. He is contemplating<br />
a move to Asia.<br />
Raquel Aragon is practicing law<br />
in her own professional corporation.<br />
Kevin Espy h<strong>as</strong> a baby, Jaylon<br />
(6 months), with his wife, Teresa.<br />
They live in Riverdale.<br />
Craigory Brown is going to work<br />
in at Goldman PWM out of Miami.<br />
Kelly Jamieson Rainn ’02E gave<br />
birth to Jameson Rainn Thom<strong>as</strong> on<br />
April 11. She lives with her husband<br />
in the West Village.<br />
Helena Andrews lives in W<strong>as</strong>hington,<br />
D.C., and is a successful<br />
writer.<br />
Abena Sanders is an employment<br />
attorney living in Atlanta and<br />
is engaged.<br />
Elizabeth Alicea is studying at<br />
Cardozo Law School.<br />
Ardavan Akhavan is finishing<br />
his residency at Mount Sinai in urology<br />
and moving to Seattle to do a<br />
fellowship in pediatric urology.<br />
Jarrett Keys lives in Miami and<br />
w<strong>as</strong> married in October 2009 to his<br />
wife, Siumy.<br />
Elvis Rodriguez ’02E lives in<br />
New York and works in financial<br />
services. He earned an M.B.A. from<br />
UVA.<br />
Jeff McCall and his wife, Alexis,<br />
Genevieve (Vivi) Ko ’02 and Bayan Takizawa were married on October 9 at the Boston Harbor Hotel.<br />
Left to right: Hironobu Katoh ’02E; Henry Wong ’02; Camy Chu ’02E; Christopher Wong ’02; the bride’s<br />
father, Chun-Min (Tony) Kao ’68; the bride; Alice Lu ’02; and Lu’s husband, Maximilian Lee ’02, ’06 P&S.<br />
live in W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C.<br />
Robin van der Meulen lives in<br />
Brooklyn and is a lawyer at Wilkie<br />
Farr & Gallagher.<br />
Amanda Konstam lives in New<br />
York and works in communications<br />
for Mayor Michael Bloomberg.<br />
REUNION WEEKEND<br />
MAY 30–JUNE 2, 2013<br />
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS<br />
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Fatima Yudeh<br />
fy2165@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7834<br />
DEVELOPMENT Valentina Salkow<br />
vs2441@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7833<br />
03<br />
Michael Novielli<br />
World City Apartments<br />
Attention Michael J.<br />
Novielli, A608<br />
Block 10, No 6. Jinhui Road,<br />
Chaoyang District<br />
Beijing, 100020, People’s<br />
Republic of China<br />
mjn29@columbia.edu<br />
It w<strong>as</strong> a wonderful experience for<br />
me to be back in New York City <strong>this</strong><br />
p<strong>as</strong>t spring for Alumni Reunion<br />
Weekend and to be able to see so<br />
many at the Young Alumni Party on<br />
the U.S.S. Intrepid. Remember when<br />
we used to party on the Intrepid for<br />
the annual year-end celebration?<br />
Well, we’ll be able to relive that<br />
and all our other memories next<br />
year for our 10-year reunion. Mark<br />
your calendars now for Thursday,<br />
May 30–Sunday, June 2, 2013. And<br />
if you want to get involved in the<br />
planning it’s not too late. Just get<br />
in touch with one of the Alumni<br />
Office contacts listed at the top of<br />
the column. It w<strong>as</strong> great to bump<br />
into Jessica Berenyi at the event <strong>this</strong><br />
year but we’ll be represented in far<br />
greater numbers next year!<br />
Now, on to the updates:<br />
First, in wedding news, Albert<br />
Shin married Ji Yeh Kim on June<br />
24 at the National City Christian<br />
Church in W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C. Albert<br />
and Ji Yeh are <strong>as</strong>sociates at White &<br />
C<strong>as</strong>e in New York City. <strong>Columbia</strong>ns<br />
in attendance included Jack<br />
(Chen-Wen) Yuen ’03E, Andy So,<br />
Barry Chiang ’03E and John Kwak<br />
’03E.<br />
Mike Youn is leaving the Navy<br />
in September to start a two-year,<br />
full-time grad program at Johns<br />
Hopkins School of Advanced International<br />
Studies in W<strong>as</strong>hington,<br />
D.C. He’ll start in the American<br />
foreign policy concentration.<br />
Michelle Hodara ’12 TC earned<br />
a Ph.D. in economics and education<br />
from Teachers <strong>College</strong> in May.<br />
She now is a postdoctoral research<br />
<strong>as</strong>sociate at the Community <strong>College</strong><br />
Research Center at <strong>Columbia</strong>, conducting<br />
research on <strong>issue</strong>s of college<br />
access and completion.<br />
Graciete Lo writes, “I moved to<br />
Hawaii in June 2011 to complete a<br />
pre-doctoral psychology internship<br />
at the Honolulu VA. I walked in<br />
May and will receive my Ph.D. in<br />
clinical psychology from Fordham<br />
in September. It’s been a long sixyear<br />
journey!<br />
“I hung out in New York for<br />
a few weeks <strong>this</strong> summer before<br />
starting a two-year position at<br />
the National Center for PTSD in<br />
Honolulu. Interestingly, I ran into<br />
Jennifer Schneider, who is a psychologist<br />
at the NC-PTSD. What an<br />
amazing coincidence! I also recently<br />
met up with Kris Depedro (who is<br />
finishing a Ph.D. through USC) and<br />
Joel Marrero in Los Angeles for a<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> mini-reunion. They both<br />
reside in L.A.”<br />
Darrell Silver writes, “It’s been<br />
an exciting year so far: I sold my<br />
first tech startup, Perpetually.com,<br />
in March. It w<strong>as</strong> a roller co<strong>as</strong>ter, and<br />
I can’t wait to do it again. <strong>Columbia</strong><br />
bonus points: Dan Moss helped<br />
out tremendously <strong>as</strong> an adviser on<br />
the deal.”<br />
On March 22, Nick Solaro and<br />
his wife, Amy, celebrated the birth<br />
of their son, Jack. Mom and baby<br />
are doing great.<br />
Leah (Davis) Bailey writes, “In<br />
2010 I received an M.B.A. from<br />
Al<strong>as</strong>ka Pacific University and married<br />
Aaron Bailey. This year finds<br />
me in Walla Walla, W<strong>as</strong>h., <strong>as</strong> mom<br />
to Eli<strong>as</strong> (born May 23) and working<br />
<strong>as</strong> a freelance copy editor under<br />
the auspices of my small business,<br />
Bailey Editing.”<br />
After 2½ lovely years on the<br />
Italian Riviera, Robyn Schwartz<br />
and Dan Hammerman ’02 now are<br />
in Houston, a move precipitated<br />
by Dan’s work. Robyn writes,<br />
“Following a year back working<br />
in homeless services, I recently<br />
returned to nonprofit freelancing<br />
while attempting to build a small<br />
FALL 2012<br />
96<br />
FALL 2012<br />
97
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
specialty food company. Fianco a<br />
Fianco (fiancoafianco.com) makes<br />
sweet-savory cookies, such <strong>as</strong><br />
biscottini al pesto, inspired by our<br />
time in Italy. L<strong>as</strong>t spring I w<strong>as</strong><br />
ple<strong>as</strong>antly shocked to run into<br />
Simone Seb<strong>as</strong>tian at a farmers’<br />
market — she’s a reporter at The<br />
Houston Chronicle. We get together<br />
every now and again to complain<br />
about the humidity and how much<br />
we miss NYC. Dan and I expect to<br />
be down here through next summer,<br />
so holler if you find yourself<br />
in the Bayou City.”<br />
Chelsea (Walsh) Beser writes,<br />
“I recently joined Montage Legal<br />
Group <strong>as</strong> the lead attorney for<br />
New York and am responsible<br />
for Montage’s expansion to New<br />
York. Montage Legal Group is a<br />
nationwide network of experienced<br />
freelance attorneys who work for<br />
law firms on a project b<strong>as</strong>is. I live<br />
on the Upper West Side with my<br />
husband and son, Jacob Robert,<br />
who w<strong>as</strong> born on October 26.”<br />
04<br />
Angela Georgopoulos<br />
200 Water St., Apt. 1711<br />
New York, NY 10038<br />
aeg90@columbia.edu<br />
With fall under way, I hope that all<br />
the members of the Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2004<br />
are enjoying the se<strong>as</strong>on. Ple<strong>as</strong>e send<br />
your latest updates to me at the<br />
email or postal address at the top of<br />
the column. It’s a great way to stay<br />
connected.<br />
05<br />
Peter Kang<br />
205 15th St., Apt. 5<br />
Brooklyn, NY 11215<br />
peter.kang@gmail.com<br />
It’s always nice to get first-time<br />
submissions from cl<strong>as</strong>smates. Mike<br />
Vary writes, “My wife, Jaclyn Matayoshi<br />
’06, and I have never submitted<br />
a Cl<strong>as</strong>s Note, so I figured it’s time.<br />
We’ve been back in my hometown<br />
of Cleveland for three years. Jackie<br />
graduated C<strong>as</strong>e Western Reserve<br />
Law School and took the bar in July.<br />
All <strong>this</strong> with a 2-year-old, Luc<strong>as</strong>. We<br />
are truly blessed and busy! I work at<br />
UBS in Cleveland and Jackie is starting<br />
at a boutique estate planning law<br />
firm in the fall.”<br />
Anil Kumar and Tanvi Desai<br />
were married on February 25 in<br />
San Juan, Puerto Rico. They were<br />
wed under sun-drenched skies in<br />
a traditional but humorous Hindi<br />
wedding, after a raucous bharat<br />
involving dancing groomsmen and<br />
a gun-shy white horse. <strong>Columbia</strong>ns<br />
in attendance included Fareed<br />
Melhem, Harmony Davis, Liz<br />
Down, Mike Camacho, David<br />
Kim ’06, Nishant Dixit ’07 and<br />
Suma Pratyusha Tumuluri ’05E.<br />
Meredith “Merry” Boak married<br />
Joshua Biber in June in Vermont at<br />
the Round Barn Farm. Joining her<br />
w<strong>as</strong> Keri Wachter <strong>as</strong> her maid of<br />
honor, Jackson Shafer <strong>as</strong> a reader<br />
in the ceremony and Paul Wright,<br />
who stole the show (<strong>as</strong> usual) <strong>as</strong><br />
the fabulous emcee at the reception.<br />
Eva Rosen ’05 Barnard and<br />
Justin Ifill ’06 also shared the special<br />
day. Merry, Keri, Jackson, Eva and<br />
Justin were all part of Notes and<br />
Keys a cappella during their time at<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> and relished the reunion,<br />
singing and dancing the night away.<br />
Jacob Shell and his wife, Ize,<br />
celebrated their first anniversary in<br />
March. In July, Jacob started <strong>as</strong> an<br />
<strong>as</strong>sistant professor of geography<br />
and urban studies at Temple.<br />
Our cl<strong>as</strong>smates continue to<br />
make strides in their education and<br />
careers. Andy Rios will be pursuing<br />
an M.B.A. at the Ha<strong>as</strong> School<br />
of Business at UC Berkeley <strong>this</strong> fall.<br />
Ted Goldman earned a doctorate<br />
in music composition from Juilliard.<br />
He will be on the faculty at<br />
E<strong>as</strong>tman School of Music, teaching<br />
music theory, starting <strong>this</strong> fall.<br />
Cary D’Alo Place earned a<br />
m<strong>as</strong>ter’s of architecture from Rice in<br />
2008 after which she took some time<br />
to be a Teach for America corps<br />
member north of Baton Rouge, La.<br />
She now is a designer with Odell<br />
Associates in Richmond, Va.<br />
Katie Henderson Adams<br />
writes: “Since graduation I’ve been<br />
working in book publishing while<br />
obtaining my m<strong>as</strong>ter’s in English<br />
literature from NYU. I w<strong>as</strong> married<br />
in September to Benjamin Adams<br />
in my hometown of Exeter, N.H.,<br />
with many <strong>Columbia</strong> and Barnard<br />
alums in attendance (Conor<br />
McNamara ’03E, Christina Norris<br />
McNamara ’05 Barnard, Frank Angones,<br />
Peter Mende-Seidlecki ’07,<br />
Lee Havlicek ’09 Barnard, Sarah<br />
Matteucci, Ali Rohrs ’07, Pat Higgiston<br />
’04E, Meredith Fuhrman,<br />
Rami Raff ’06 GSAS, Sandy London<br />
’02, Amanda McCroskery ’06<br />
and Tanya Franklin). I’m an editor<br />
at Liveright, a newly relaunched<br />
imprint of W.W. Norton, and I love<br />
both married life and my new job.”<br />
Lots of congratulations to go<br />
around for our newlyweds, new<br />
parents and new grads. Thanks for<br />
the updates, and we look forward<br />
to hearing more!<br />
06<br />
Michelle Oh Sing<br />
9 N 9th St., Unit 401<br />
Philadelphia, PA 19107<br />
mo2057@columbia.edu<br />
Hope everyone had a great<br />
summer! Here are some exciting<br />
updates from our cl<strong>as</strong>smates.<br />
Thessaly La Force is in her<br />
second year at the Iowa Writers’<br />
Workshop, where she is working<br />
on a novel and short story collection.<br />
She recently finished working<br />
on an illustrated book, My Ideal<br />
Bookshelf, with artist Jane Mount; it<br />
will be published in November.<br />
Emily Ross ’12 SIPA writes,<br />
“After spending two wonderful<br />
years back on <strong>Columbia</strong>’s campus,<br />
I graduated from SIPA in May<br />
with a m<strong>as</strong>ter’s. Since then, I have<br />
returned to W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C., and<br />
work for the political consulting<br />
firm GMMB. Next time anyone is<br />
in D.C., be sure to let me know!”<br />
Stephanie Simon earned an<br />
M.B.A. and m<strong>as</strong>ter of urban planning<br />
degree from Michigan. In July,<br />
she joined GE Capital.<br />
Kathleen Adams writes, “My<br />
husband, Ford, and I and our son,<br />
Wells (3), have moved to New<br />
Delhi, India! Looking forward to<br />
seeing any cl<strong>as</strong>smates who are here<br />
for work or ple<strong>as</strong>ure.”<br />
Justin Ifill writes, “The Young<br />
Alumni Party, held during Alumni<br />
Reunion Weekend aboard the U.S.S.<br />
Intrepid, w<strong>as</strong> bigger and better than<br />
ever, with almost 2,000 people! It<br />
w<strong>as</strong> great to see many 2006 faces<br />
and other young alumni. The following<br />
weekend I had the ple<strong>as</strong>ure<br />
of attending the wedding of Merry<br />
Boak ’05 and Joshua Biber. I had<br />
an amazing time with our fellow<br />
Notes and Keys a cappella family<br />
including Eva Rosen ’05 Barnard,<br />
Jackson Shafer ’05, Keri Wachter ’05<br />
and Paul Wright ’05.<br />
“L<strong>as</strong>tly, it h<strong>as</strong> been my amazing<br />
honor to serve <strong>as</strong> the president of<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Young Alumni<br />
for the l<strong>as</strong>t two years. I hope I<br />
w<strong>as</strong> able to make young alumni<br />
programming just a bit better, and<br />
I know Calvin Sun ’08 will do an<br />
amazing job! On to the next one!”<br />
07<br />
David D. Chait<br />
1255 New Hampshire<br />
Ave. N.W., Apt. 815<br />
W<strong>as</strong>hington, DC 20036<br />
ddc2106@columbia.edu<br />
It w<strong>as</strong> amazing seeing so many of<br />
our cl<strong>as</strong>smates at Alumni Reunion<br />
Weekend in June. The Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2007<br />
had a record 264 alumni in attendance<br />
and 340 overall attendees.<br />
Thank you to everyone who came<br />
out for it.<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>smates came from far and<br />
wide to join the festivities, including<br />
Nishant Dixit from his global<br />
travels, Keith Hernandez from<br />
China, Marco Zappacosta and Jessica<br />
Isokawa from California and<br />
Tammi Lee and Isaac Schwartz<br />
from Cleveland.<br />
Ngozi Okoh writes, “Hey everyone!<br />
It w<strong>as</strong> great seeing you in<br />
June. I’m back in New York City after<br />
moving from Philadelphia and<br />
so hoping to reconnect with many<br />
of you, so find me on FB and let me<br />
know when you’re available!”<br />
Geo Karapetyan had a “great<br />
time reconnecting with so many<br />
CC ’07ers at reunion in June!” Immediately<br />
afterward, Geo boarded<br />
a plane and moved to Los Angeles<br />
for the summer to work at Walt<br />
Disney Studios in feature animation<br />
finance. He h<strong>as</strong> since returned<br />
to New York and is completing an<br />
M.B.A. at NYU Stern.<br />
Jessica Wong Zen shares,<br />
“Shortly after attending reunion,<br />
I received an M.B.A. from MIT’s<br />
Sloan School of Management and<br />
then promptly moved with my husband<br />
from Boston to Seattle. As I<br />
write, I’m planning to start my new<br />
job with Amazon in August — in<br />
the meantime, I am getting situated<br />
in my new city and my time is<br />
mostly occupied with the fun and<br />
games (and headache) that come<br />
with being a new homeowner.”<br />
Isaac Schwartz w<strong>as</strong> happy to<br />
see everyone at the reunion before<br />
heading to Peru. He helped organize<br />
and carry out a monthlong<br />
medical mission in the Sacred Valley<br />
region with doctors, students<br />
and nurses from Cleveland.<br />
Joshua Davis and his wife, Naomi,<br />
were sorry they missed the reunion<br />
but had a great re<strong>as</strong>on: They<br />
welcomed their son, Samson Rex, to<br />
the world on May 30 in W<strong>as</strong>hington,<br />
D.C. Josh says, “His sister,<br />
Eleanor, is very excited to have a<br />
playmate and can’t understand<br />
why he spends all day ignoring her.<br />
You can see pictures on our family’s<br />
blog, Rockstar Diaries. It’s been<br />
featured in a number of magazines,<br />
on websites and in newspapers and<br />
gets millions of page views each<br />
month: tazaandhusband.com.”<br />
Caitlin Shure thought that the<br />
reunion w<strong>as</strong> “amazeballs.” She<br />
w<strong>as</strong> so caught up in the magic of<br />
the night that she “completely forgot<br />
to execute her original reunion<br />
plan (to seduce a man from the<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s of ’02).”<br />
Margaret Bryer writes, “Great to<br />
see people whom I hadn’t seen in a<br />
while at the reunion and re<strong>as</strong>suring<br />
to see that people haven’t changed<br />
all that much in five years.”<br />
Love is in the air for many members<br />
of our cl<strong>as</strong>s. Luciana Colapinto<br />
and Jake Olson got engaged and<br />
will be married next June. Erik<br />
Lindman and Naomi Nevitt ’07<br />
Barnard also are engaged. And Pitr<br />
Strait and Katherine Atwill ’08 were<br />
married April 7. The ceremony w<strong>as</strong><br />
held in W<strong>as</strong>hingtonville, N.Y., and<br />
w<strong>as</strong> attended by <strong>Columbia</strong>ns from<br />
every cl<strong>as</strong>s from ’04–’12.<br />
Congratulations to everyone!<br />
Julia Kite writes, “I’ve recently<br />
completed my second year of a<br />
Ph.D. in sociology at UC Berkeley. I<br />
live in San Francisco and miss New<br />
York City every day! This summer<br />
I spoke at conferences in Denver<br />
and London about my research into<br />
Veg<strong>as</strong>’ Alexandra Epstein ’07 Revitalizes Her Hometown<br />
Alexandra Epstein ’07<br />
starts every workday<br />
by moving methodically<br />
through the<br />
secret p<strong>as</strong>sageways of L<strong>as</strong><br />
Veg<strong>as</strong>’ El Cortez Hotel & C<strong>as</strong>ino.<br />
She traverses the kitchens and<br />
the unmarked hallways, greeting<br />
the cocktail waitresses and<br />
bartenders <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> the “back<br />
of house” staff. It is definitely<br />
the scenic route, but it’s one<br />
she takes religiously.<br />
Why the long walk? In the<br />
service industry, your company<br />
is only <strong>as</strong> good <strong>as</strong> the people<br />
who make it hum and happen<br />
— and Epstein knows <strong>this</strong>.<br />
“I’m a perfectionist,” she admits.<br />
“And I don’t try to direct<br />
things without having an idea<br />
of what I’m speaking about.”<br />
Granted, the El Cortez —<br />
L<strong>as</strong> Veg<strong>as</strong>’ oldest continually<br />
operating c<strong>as</strong>ino (built in 1941)<br />
— isn’t Epstein’s company, but<br />
it may be one day. The 27-yearold’s<br />
father, Kenny Epstein,<br />
now the CEO and chairman,<br />
h<strong>as</strong> helped run the 366-room<br />
complex since the 1960s. His<br />
daughter is the e.v.p., promoted<br />
after two years <strong>as</strong> executive<br />
manager, and you’d be hard<br />
pressed to find someone who<br />
says she didn’t earn that title.<br />
With a love for art history and<br />
an eye for design cultivated at<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong>, where she majored in<br />
art history with a pre-med concentration,<br />
Epstein is balancing<br />
her creativity with her business<br />
pedigree to realize a cosmopolitan<br />
vision for her native city. In<br />
just a few years she’s become<br />
a rising star of the downtown<br />
— the city’s other major district,<br />
apart from the famous Strip —<br />
spurred by Veg<strong>as</strong> pride to revitalize<br />
her neighborhood despite<br />
the greater economic woes.<br />
“The area around Fremont<br />
Street on the North Strip is<br />
really where L<strong>as</strong> Veg<strong>as</strong> began,”<br />
Epstein says of the area where<br />
the El Cortez is located. “Residents<br />
here see a silver lining.<br />
There are plenty of people who<br />
have taken the opportunity to<br />
leave, but I think those who<br />
have stayed, particularly downtowners,<br />
are very optimistic<br />
about the potential for change.”<br />
The El Cortez h<strong>as</strong> been an<br />
important part of that change.<br />
In 2009, Epstein spearheaded a<br />
redesign of the hotel’s smaller<br />
Cabana Suites, bringing the 66-<br />
room property from seedy “old<br />
Veg<strong>as</strong>” skeleton to a modern<br />
Miami Beach-style boutique<br />
hotel. In 2011, she helped the<br />
hotel run a contest for designers<br />
to revamp the El Cortez’s luxury<br />
suites that w<strong>as</strong> touted by the L<strong>as</strong><br />
Veg<strong>as</strong> Sun <strong>as</strong> galvanizing interest<br />
in new construction and development<br />
in a city still struggling with<br />
a national mortgage crisis.<br />
It’s not only about the family<br />
business, though. Epstein also<br />
sits on the board of the Neon<br />
Museum, which houses many<br />
of the city’s giant signage fossils,<br />
like that of Caesars Palace<br />
and the Golden Nugget; on the<br />
board of the Jewish Federation<br />
of L<strong>as</strong> Veg<strong>as</strong>; and on the University<br />
of L<strong>as</strong> Veg<strong>as</strong> Libraries<br />
Advisory Board. She is the<br />
youngest member of the City<br />
of L<strong>as</strong> Veg<strong>as</strong> Arts Commission,<br />
appointed by then-Mayor Oscar<br />
Goodman to help the commission<br />
with placement of new<br />
public art, from the new L<strong>as</strong> Veg<strong>as</strong><br />
City Hall to outdoor parks.<br />
“She is absolutely the personification<br />
of energy when it<br />
comes to the redevelopment<br />
of downtown L<strong>as</strong> Veg<strong>as</strong>,” says<br />
Goodman, who h<strong>as</strong> worked<br />
with Epstein on efforts to bring<br />
life to a newly designated entertainment<br />
district surrounding<br />
the intersection of 6th and<br />
Fremont Streets, north of the<br />
busiest part of the Strip. “She<br />
single-handedly transformed<br />
the El Cortez and the Cabana<br />
Suites into places that locals<br />
and tourists now flock to. Her<br />
t<strong>as</strong>te is impeccable. That’s<br />
why I appointed her to the arts<br />
commission.”<br />
As a <strong>Columbia</strong> student, Epstein<br />
fell in love with New York’s<br />
bounty of museums and galleries;<br />
but she first fell in love with<br />
the idea of a community built<br />
B y Ben Johnson<br />
Alexandra Epstein ’07 spearheaded a major redesign at her<br />
family’s El Cortez Hotel & C<strong>as</strong>ino in downtown L<strong>as</strong> Veg<strong>as</strong>.<br />
PHOTO: BRYAN HAINER<br />
around shared knowledge.<br />
“I w<strong>as</strong> really drawn to the<br />
Core Curriculum,” she says. “I<br />
loved the idea that I would have<br />
<strong>this</strong> connection with the p<strong>as</strong>t,<br />
with people who had been coming<br />
to <strong>Columbia</strong> for decades.”<br />
Gathering community around<br />
shared knowledge and ide<strong>as</strong><br />
can be seen in the vibrant Emergency<br />
Arts building, an old medical<br />
center on Fremont Street,<br />
owned by the El Cortez, which<br />
since spring 2010 bo<strong>as</strong>ts a new<br />
creative collective. With 42 tenant<br />
businesses, from galleries to<br />
web design and photo studios to<br />
a bustling coffee shop, Emergency<br />
Arts — its name a nod to<br />
the building’s former use — is<br />
another example of Epstein’s tenacity<br />
in turning good ide<strong>as</strong> into<br />
practical realities. Put together<br />
by Epstein and directors Michael<br />
and Jennifer Cornthwaite, the<br />
collective h<strong>as</strong> been a shining<br />
example of revitalization, and<br />
how cheap real estate for artists<br />
can bring new commerce into<br />
downtown.<br />
“It’s an awesome concept,<br />
and she’s made it a reality,”<br />
says Heather Hyte, owner of<br />
the Rad Kisser photography<br />
gallery on the collective’s<br />
second floor. “It’s nice to get<br />
a lot of people with ide<strong>as</strong> to<br />
contribute to a common goal.<br />
To focus on something like that<br />
out of p<strong>as</strong>sion, even though it’s<br />
not going to be a major payout,<br />
that says a lot about a person.<br />
Already, she’s done a lot for<br />
<strong>this</strong> city.”<br />
Ben Johnson is a writer living<br />
in Brooklyn and working at Slate<br />
Magazine, where he is an editorial<br />
supervisor for Slate’s video<br />
department, SlateV.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
98<br />
FALL 2012<br />
99
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
CLASS NOTES<br />
Pitr Strait ’07 and Katherine Atwill ’08 were married on April 7 in W<strong>as</strong>hingtonville, N.Y. In attendance<br />
were, left to right: Lars Dabney ’07, Lucia Plumb-Reyes ’06, Mike Gl<strong>as</strong>s ’11E, the groom, the bride,<br />
Peter Mende-Siedlecki ’07, Nick Weiler ’07, Kevin Connell ’07 and Hannah Temple ’07.<br />
PHOTO: LE IMAGE, INC.<br />
the determinants of neighborhood<br />
satisfaction in urban regeneration<br />
zones. I’ve also made a full-time job<br />
of trying to find a literary agent for<br />
my first novel; I highly recommend<br />
doing <strong>this</strong> if you like pain.”<br />
Liz Ferguson practiced, practiced,<br />
practiced to get to Carnegie<br />
Hall and then applied for a job<br />
in community programs at its<br />
Weill Music Institute, where she’s<br />
been for the l<strong>as</strong>t three years. Her<br />
highlights from reunion include<br />
the radio hits aboard the U.S.S.<br />
Intrepid [at the Young Alumni Party<br />
on June 1] and cr<strong>as</strong>hing the ’02 tent<br />
with Jessica Isokawa, Alana Weiss<br />
and Jerone Hsu, “where we saw<br />
the future — see everyone there.”<br />
Alison Desir completed her<br />
first marathon with The Leukemia<br />
and Lymphoma Society’s Team in<br />
Training. On June 3, she ran the<br />
San Diego Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon<br />
in four hours and 29 minutes and<br />
raised nearly $4,000 to benefit LLS<br />
in finding cures and better treatments<br />
for leukemia, lymphoma,<br />
Hodgkin’s dise<strong>as</strong>e and myeloma.<br />
Laura Taranto writes, “I moved<br />
to Berlin to join Wooga, a social<br />
games developer. I am a product<br />
manager here working on a game<br />
not yet rele<strong>as</strong>ed. Stay tuned and<br />
greetings from Germany!”<br />
Marianna Z<strong>as</strong>lavsky spent the<br />
summer in London working at<br />
Bain & Company and w<strong>as</strong> “looking<br />
forward to my l<strong>as</strong>t year at the<br />
Business School.” Marianna will be<br />
joined by fellow CC ’07ers David<br />
Chait, Yael Silverstein, Christian<br />
Cap<strong>as</strong>so, Ben Baker and Jake<br />
Olson, among others.<br />
James Mahon entered the political<br />
economy and government Ph.D.<br />
program at Harvard three years ago.<br />
He moved to W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C.,<br />
<strong>this</strong> p<strong>as</strong>t summer to continue his<br />
dissertation research at the U.S.<br />
Tre<strong>as</strong>ury Department. James writes,<br />
“Drop me a line if you’re in the<br />
neighborhood!”<br />
REUNION WEEKEND<br />
MAY 30–JUNE 2, 2013<br />
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS<br />
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Fatima Yudeh<br />
fy2165@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7834<br />
DEVELOPMENT Valentina Salkow<br />
vs2441@columbia.edu<br />
212-851-7833<br />
08<br />
Neda Navab<br />
7 Soldiers Field Park,<br />
Apt. 7C<br />
Boston, MA 02163<br />
nn2126@columbia.edu<br />
Rachel Claire Weidenbaum<br />
recently played a role in the HBO<br />
film Muhammad Ali’s Greatest<br />
Fight, directed by Stephen Frears,<br />
in a scene opposite Christopher<br />
Plummer and Kathleen Chalfant.<br />
Next, she will return to working<br />
with the Drama Desk-nominated<br />
Marvell Repertory Theatre on its<br />
upcoming se<strong>as</strong>on, directed by<br />
Lenny Leibowitz ’94.<br />
Alisa Brem recently graduated<br />
from law school and is a development<br />
<strong>as</strong>sociate at Insight Property<br />
Group, a real estate development<br />
company in W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C. In<br />
October she will begin a Fulbright<br />
Scholarship in Florence, studying<br />
Tuscan regional sustainable<br />
development.<br />
L<strong>as</strong>t December, Anna Lindow<br />
joined the team at General Assembly,<br />
a global network of campuses<br />
for people seeking opportunity<br />
and education in technology,<br />
design and entrepreneurship. She<br />
writes, “It’s been an amazing experience,<br />
especially because I get<br />
to work alongside incredibly interesting<br />
and talented people like<br />
Adam Pritzker ’08, Jordan Hepner<br />
’09 and Scott Zaloom ’09.”<br />
Dr. Kristin Van Heertum<br />
recently graduated from medical<br />
school. “I w<strong>as</strong> at Drexel University<br />
<strong>College</strong> of Medicine in Philadelphia,<br />
where I received the award<br />
for overall excellence in obstetrics<br />
and gynecology. I’ve now started<br />
a residency in ob/gyn at Abington<br />
Memorial Hospital, just north of<br />
Philadelphia, which I will complete<br />
in 2016.”<br />
Darius Dehnad ’08E and Kara<br />
Worsley were married on April<br />
28 in a ceremony and celebrated<br />
at a reception at the Central Park<br />
Boathouse in Manhattan. Kara<br />
writes, “We could not have been<br />
happier celebrating with so many<br />
of our <strong>Columbia</strong> friends, including<br />
several members of the men’s<br />
swim and women’s tennis teams<br />
on which we played.” (See nearby<br />
photo.)<br />
Matthew Levitan, a law student<br />
at Harvard, married Ariel Wagner<br />
’09 Barnard, a social work intern<br />
at a private elementary school in<br />
New York.<br />
Gabby Francis had a son, Morrie<br />
Abraham, in February.<br />
Lauren Arnold started medical<br />
school at P&S in August. Beforehand,<br />
she visited her Peace Corps<br />
village in Cambodia, where she’d<br />
served, for a few weeks.<br />
Carmen Jo Ponce is fully settled<br />
in her new home in Houston,<br />
where she moved to take a job <strong>as</strong><br />
an <strong>as</strong>sociate attorney with Baker<br />
Botts. It’s also an exciting time for<br />
her, <strong>as</strong> she got married on July 7.<br />
In other wedding news, Andrew<br />
Ness w<strong>as</strong> married on June<br />
16 to Alicia Bonner ’08 Barnard at<br />
Memorial Chapel in Gill, M<strong>as</strong>s.<br />
The reception that followed w<strong>as</strong><br />
held at the Lord Jeffery Inn in<br />
Amherst. Attending w<strong>as</strong> Melody<br />
Chou ’08E, Chris O’Conor ’08E,<br />
Katharine Head, Adrianne Nickerson,<br />
Stephen LaPerla, Robert<br />
Deiches, Christopher Tortoriello,<br />
Danielle Gilbert ’07 Barnard,<br />
Laura Stoffel ’08 Barnard, Kelly<br />
Garone ’08 Barnard and Ryan<br />
Brindley ’07 GS. Andrew and<br />
Alicia spent their honeymoon in<br />
the Greek Isles and on the western<br />
co<strong>as</strong>t of Turkey.<br />
Finally, believe it or not, next<br />
year is our first Alumni Reunion<br />
Weekend! We’ll be celebrating<br />
five years since graduation! Mark<br />
your calendars now for Thursday,<br />
May 30–Sunday, June 2, 2013. If<br />
you’re interested in being part of<br />
the Reunion Committee (planning<br />
the weekend’s events) or the Cl<strong>as</strong>s<br />
Gift Committee (fundraising for<br />
the <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> Fund), get<br />
in touch with the appropriate staff<br />
member at the top of the column.<br />
You don’t have to be in the New<br />
York area and can participate in<br />
meetings via conference call.<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> will send materials<br />
by email and postal mail <strong>as</strong> the<br />
date grows closer. If needed,<br />
update your contact information<br />
at reunion.college.columbia.edu/<br />
alumniupdate, or call the Alumni<br />
Office: 212-851-7488.<br />
Darius Dehnad ’08E and Kara Worsley ’08 were married on April 28, with both ceremony and reception held at the Central Park Boathouse<br />
in Manhattan. Top row, left to right: Angela Hendry ’08, Kendall (Murphy) Severson ’07, Sayuri Shimoda ’10, Sherwin Shahraray<br />
’10E, Phil Hadley ’09, Omar Ahmed ’10E, the groom, the bride, Lauren C<strong>as</strong>ty ’08, Chris Hunter ’08, Brittney Carfora ’08, Sydney Murray ’09,<br />
Sean Thom<strong>as</strong> ’08, D<strong>as</strong>ha (Leonyuk) DeWald ’07, Elizabeth de Berardinis ’08, Christina Kim ’07, Jennifer Aster ’08 Barnard, Lauren Shearer<br />
’09, Michael Accordino ’07 and Sina Peyrovian ’03E; bottom row, left to right: Stephen Searles, John Hessler ’06, Roxanna Dehnad ’10E,<br />
Maya Wedemeyer ’10 and Alise Green ’10.<br />
09<br />
Alidad Damooei<br />
c/o CCT<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> Alumni Center<br />
622 W. 113th St., MC 4530<br />
New York, NY 10025<br />
damooei@gmail.com<br />
After spending two years <strong>as</strong> a<br />
consultant in W<strong>as</strong>hington, D.C.,<br />
Dov Friedman moved to Ankara,<br />
Turkey, to work for the SETA<br />
Foundation. The organization is a<br />
Turkish think-tank broadly aligned<br />
with the ruling AK Party; Dov is on<br />
the foreign policy desk, covering<br />
<strong>issue</strong>s relating to the United States<br />
and Israel. In May, Dov made an<br />
all-too-brief visit back to New York<br />
City at which time he proposed,<br />
and now is engaged. The happy<br />
couple is spending the coming year<br />
in Istanbul but they hope to return<br />
to the United States in fall 2013. At<br />
that time, Dov will start an M.A.<br />
program in international relations<br />
at Yale.<br />
Dov is not the only <strong>Columbia</strong>n<br />
heading to New Haven. Nat<strong>as</strong>ha<br />
Chichilnisky-Heal will begin pursuing<br />
a Ph.D. in political science<br />
and economics at Yale <strong>this</strong> fall. Following<br />
graduation, Nat<strong>as</strong>ha joined<br />
a socially responsible investment<br />
firm where she covered investments<br />
in microfinance institutions<br />
located in the former USSR<br />
region. In 2010, she transitioned<br />
into environmentally responsible<br />
business, taking a position with a<br />
clean technology firm involved in<br />
climate change mitigation.<br />
Of course, Yale is not the only<br />
destination for postgraduate study.<br />
Eliav Bitan will start in the M.B.A.<br />
program at Virginia’s Darden<br />
School of Business <strong>this</strong> fall. He h<strong>as</strong><br />
enjoyed three years of work on<br />
sustainable agriculture <strong>issue</strong>s and<br />
hopes to continue pursuing those<br />
interests. He would love to hear<br />
from any fellow <strong>Columbia</strong>ns in<br />
central Virginia.<br />
After majoring in economics,<br />
Maya Koenig-Dzialowski decided<br />
to switch gears and pursue medicine.<br />
She joined <strong>Columbia</strong>’s postbac<br />
program and concurrently worked<br />
at Mount Sinai Hospital in HIVrelated<br />
kidney dise<strong>as</strong>e research. She<br />
completed her postbac in 2011 and<br />
started working at Bellevue Hospital<br />
Center on a project in primary care<br />
and psychiatry that screens for depression<br />
in New York’s Latino community.<br />
This fall, after three months<br />
of backpacking through Asia, Maya<br />
is excited to return to <strong>Columbia</strong>, <strong>this</strong><br />
time for medical school.<br />
Ernest Herrera graduated in May<br />
from the University of New Mexico<br />
School of Law. He plans to begin his<br />
legal career in Albuquerque, where<br />
he hopes to join the New Mexico<br />
Public Defender’s office.<br />
10<br />
09 10<br />
Julia Feldberg<br />
4 E. 8th St., Apt. 4F<br />
New York, NY 10003<br />
juliafeldberg@gmail.com<br />
Thanks for sending in all of your<br />
wonderful updates. Between<br />
engagements, marriage, graduate<br />
school and world travels, our cl<strong>as</strong>smates<br />
have been leading exciting,<br />
busy lives.<br />
Nishi Kumar writes, “I have<br />
spent the l<strong>as</strong>t two years teaching<br />
middle school math in a charter<br />
school in New Orleans through<br />
Teach for America — a truly eyeopening<br />
experience. I made a career<br />
move for the fall and am starting<br />
law school at NYU. I’m looking<br />
forward to returning to New York!”<br />
On May 5, Nora Nicholson Calhoun<br />
married Alexander Calhoun<br />
’11 at Corpus Christi Church on<br />
West 121st Street. On May 30, Nora<br />
began studies to become a nursemidwife,<br />
<strong>this</strong> time at <strong>Columbia</strong>’s<br />
med campus.<br />
Derek Hou proposed to Esther<br />
Chan during Memorial Day Weekend<br />
on the Santa Monica Pier. The<br />
couple held an engagement party<br />
in Boston that w<strong>as</strong> attended by<br />
many <strong>Columbia</strong> alums, including<br />
Victor Chiang ’09E, Edward Kim<br />
’10E and Jungsuk Cho ’10 Barnard.<br />
Giselle Marie Obregon will<br />
attend Boston University <strong>this</strong> fall<br />
<strong>as</strong> a student in the m<strong>as</strong>ter of public<br />
health program. She writes, “I’ll be<br />
pursuing a concentration in international<br />
health with an emph<strong>as</strong>is<br />
in health program management.<br />
After two years in the working<br />
world, I welcome the opportunity<br />
to continue my education and to<br />
connect with <strong>Columbia</strong> alumni in<br />
the Boston area.”<br />
James Bogner got engaged to<br />
Cameron Rollins in April. As James<br />
works in financial aid at <strong>Columbia</strong>,<br />
the couple moved to a larger brownstone<br />
apartment near campus.<br />
Natalie Gossett h<strong>as</strong> decided<br />
that the law is not for her, so she is<br />
changing programs and pursuing a<br />
m<strong>as</strong>ter’s in mental health counseling,<br />
to be followed by a doctorate<br />
in psychology. Before moving to Ft.<br />
Lauderdale, Fla., Natalie attended<br />
a great Park Slope party hosted by<br />
Emily Wilson. Sean Marzug-<br />
McCarthy and her former suitemates,<br />
Alyson Cohen and Chiara<br />
Arcidy, also were in attendance.<br />
Nicole Ellis writes, “I attempted<br />
and survived (more or less) the<br />
9-to-5 lifestyle just long enough to<br />
save for a trip around the world, so<br />
I’m doing it! I recently launched a<br />
travel blog to document my journey<br />
through time zones: navigatingnik<br />
ki.com. I successfully summited Mt.<br />
Kilimanjaro’s highest point, Uhuru<br />
peak in Tanzania, and have plans<br />
FALL 2012<br />
100<br />
FALL 2012<br />
101
CLASS NOTES<br />
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
Nora Weber ’10 and Alex Calhoun ’11 were married on May 5 in New York City. Left to right: Genevieve<br />
Deleon ’10, Lillian Udell ’10, Carolina Brito ’10, Frances Bodomo ’10, the bride, the groom and Linnea<br />
Hincks ’10.<br />
to head to the Serengeti, Rwanda,<br />
for some gorilla tracking, and on<br />
and on until I make my way back to<br />
the United States in a year (or so) to<br />
make some grown-up life decisions.<br />
For now, I’m enjoying life <strong>as</strong> a wanderer<br />
and soaking up some culture<br />
along the way to put my anthropology<br />
degree to good use.”<br />
L<strong>as</strong>t but not le<strong>as</strong>t, our quarterly<br />
installment from Chris Yim: “The<br />
biggest accomplishment that I have<br />
to report is the completion of the<br />
treehouse project on my roof. You<br />
wouldn’t think that any landlord<br />
in New York would allow his tenant<br />
to build a faux-treehouse, but I<br />
got lucky. My interests of late lie in<br />
listening to This American Life with<br />
Ira Gl<strong>as</strong>s, buying Trader Joe’s pizza<br />
dough and making homemade<br />
pies, promoting the educational<br />
startup ucl<strong>as</strong>s.org and living life on<br />
the edge.<br />
“I w<strong>as</strong> heartbroken in May<br />
when Chelsea won the Champions<br />
League, denying Tottenham entry<br />
next year. On a side note, I visited<br />
cl<strong>as</strong>smates in New Orleans and<br />
went to teacher prom. The achievement<br />
gap is closing there.<br />
“I have a very apparent language<br />
and cultural gap with my folks. Is<br />
anyone else running into a similar<br />
<strong>issue</strong>? I have a longing to have my<br />
parents understand the struggles<br />
of a 20-something-year-old adult,<br />
but it’s tough not being able to communicate<br />
with them about what I’m<br />
going through. What does one do?<br />
“L<strong>as</strong>tly, I agreed deeply with Marina<br />
Keegan, when she said: ‘What<br />
we have to remember is that we can<br />
still do anything. We can change<br />
our minds. We can start over.’ I<br />
wish I could have met her, sounded<br />
like she had a very beautiful soul.<br />
“Until the next episode.”<br />
[Editor’s note: Marina Keegan<br />
’12 Yale w<strong>as</strong> killed in a car cr<strong>as</strong>h<br />
just days after her graduation. To<br />
read her essay, “The Opposite of<br />
Loneliness,” which w<strong>as</strong> distributed<br />
at her cl<strong>as</strong>s’ Commencement, go<br />
to yaledailynews.com/news/<br />
2012/may/27/keegan-oppositeloneliness.]<br />
11<br />
Colin Sullivan<br />
c/o CCT<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> Alumni Center<br />
622 W. 113th St., MC 4530<br />
New York, NY 10025<br />
c<strong>as</strong>ullivan@gmail.com<br />
Greetings, Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2011! To start off<br />
with some happy news, Kara Bess<br />
and Ch<strong>as</strong>e McCaleb ’10E were married<br />
on June 9 at St. Paul’s Chapel<br />
on campus.<br />
Congratulations to both of them!<br />
Emiddio Licursi is the editorial<br />
<strong>as</strong>sistant at Bidoun magazine, a<br />
quarterly publication dealing with<br />
art and culture from the Middle<br />
E<strong>as</strong>t. He also is publishing a chapter<br />
of his thesis in an Albanian academic<br />
journal, Përpjekja, and will travel<br />
throughout Latin America <strong>this</strong> year,<br />
starting <strong>this</strong> summer in Cuba.<br />
Michael Mirochnik finished<br />
his first year at Harvard Law<br />
and worked in-house at a private<br />
equity firm <strong>this</strong> summer.<br />
As always, I encourage you to<br />
submit Cl<strong>as</strong>s Notes whenever possible!<br />
Write to me at the email address<br />
at the top if the column or use<br />
CCT’s webform: college.columbia.<br />
edu/cct/submit_cl<strong>as</strong>s_note.<br />
Additionally, if you wish to update<br />
your contact information with<br />
the Alumni Office, you can do so at<br />
college.columbia.edu/cct/update_<br />
contact_info or by calling the Alumni<br />
Office: 212-851-7488.<br />
12<br />
Sarah Chai<br />
c/o CCT<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> Alumni Center<br />
622 W. 113th St., MC 4530<br />
New York, NY 10025<br />
sarahbchai@gmail.com<br />
“Mr. President: Standing before<br />
you in Sections 8 and 9, which<br />
must be an indexing error because<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> students only sit<br />
in Section 1, are the 1,132 candidates<br />
of <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> — candidates<br />
who have heroically completed the<br />
overly demanding and seemingly<br />
endless requirements for the degree<br />
of Bachelor of Arts!”<br />
After proclaiming the accomplishments<br />
of the <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2012 at University Commencement<br />
on May 16, Dean James<br />
J. Valentini called on the graduates<br />
for a “collective roar <strong>as</strong> lions most<br />
powerful,” <strong>as</strong> students proudly<br />
waved neon orange inflatable lions<br />
in the air. The ceremony concluded<br />
with Frank Sinatra’s “New York,<br />
New York” and Jay-Z’s “Empire<br />
State of Mind,” sending <strong>Columbia</strong>’s<br />
newest alumni off to all parts of the<br />
globe, where we will undoubtedly<br />
continue to make our mark wherever<br />
our paths take us — in school,<br />
in work, in life.<br />
This fall, some of our cl<strong>as</strong>smates<br />
will begin pursuing post-graduate<br />
and professional degrees.<br />
Randy Subramany returns to<br />
our beloved <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>as</strong> a full-time<br />
student in the Healthcare Management<br />
program (M.P.H.) at the<br />
Mailman School of Public Health.<br />
Anthony Testa h<strong>as</strong> started at the<br />
Harvard School of Dental Medicine,<br />
where he will engage in dental<br />
research and receive his D.M.D.<br />
after four years.<br />
On the West Co<strong>as</strong>t, Zach Brill is<br />
beginning a Ph.D. in organic chemistry<br />
at UC Berkeley, while Wesley<br />
Yip is attending Keck School of<br />
Medicine at the University of Southern<br />
California.<br />
Other cl<strong>as</strong>smates are heading<br />
back to school, but <strong>this</strong> time <strong>as</strong><br />
teachers!<br />
Returning to the Empire State,<br />
Debbie Feng h<strong>as</strong> joined the educators<br />
of Teach for America. Jake<br />
Goren is a Teach for America 2012<br />
New York City Corps member at<br />
VOICE Charter School in Long<br />
Island City, Queens.<br />
Helping to mold young minds<br />
through Teach for America outside<br />
of New York, M<strong>as</strong>on Fitch<br />
h<strong>as</strong> begun his first year at Aiea<br />
Intermediate School near Honolulu.<br />
He’s teaching U.S. history<br />
(Revolution to Reconstruction) to<br />
approximately 125 eighth-graders.<br />
Hannah D’Apice is teaching sixthgrade<br />
social studies at TW Browne<br />
Middle School in Dall<strong>as</strong>.<br />
Heading straight into the work<br />
force, Stephanie Foster is an ad<br />
sales <strong>as</strong>sistant for Crown Media.<br />
She is in charge of making deals<br />
and placing commercials for<br />
Hallmark Channel and Hallmark<br />
Movie Channel.<br />
Negin Navab w<strong>as</strong> planning<br />
to spend a few weeks traveling<br />
around Europe before returning to<br />
New York and hopefully finding<br />
an apartment before she starts<br />
work <strong>as</strong> an analyst at J.P. Morgan.<br />
Negin writes that she is “definitely<br />
attending a few <strong>Columbia</strong> young<br />
alumni events in between my<br />
travels!”<br />
L<strong>as</strong>tly, although Dean Valentini<br />
is not an official member of the<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2012, we were Deantini’s<br />
first graduating cl<strong>as</strong>s, so it seems<br />
only fitting to include here that<br />
Dean Valentini h<strong>as</strong> officially been<br />
appointed dean of <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
and v.p. for undergraduate<br />
education.<br />
Now that we don’t have the<br />
luxury of living in close proximity<br />
to one another in E<strong>as</strong>t Campus,<br />
Hogan, Watt, Woodbridge or<br />
Broadway, I hope these Cl<strong>as</strong>s Notes<br />
will make it e<strong>as</strong>ier for us to stay<br />
connected! Ple<strong>as</strong>e don’t hesitate to<br />
reach out at sarahbchai@gmail.com<br />
with updates on your life. I hope<br />
you enjoyed your first post-grad<br />
summer, Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 2012!<br />
Cl<strong>as</strong>sified<br />
Advertising<br />
CLASSIFIED AD INFORMATION<br />
REGULAR CLASSIFIED RATES: $3 per word for one <strong>issue</strong>,<br />
discounts for four consecutive <strong>issue</strong>s. Ten-word minimum.<br />
Phone (including area code) and PO boxes count <strong>as</strong> one word.<br />
Words divided by sl<strong>as</strong>hes, hyphens or plus signs are counted<br />
individually. Email and web addresses are priced b<strong>as</strong>ed on<br />
length. No charge for <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> cl<strong>as</strong>s years or<br />
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Additional boldface words are $1 per word.<br />
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PAYMENT: Prepayment required on all <strong>issue</strong>s at time of order.<br />
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Mail or email orders to:<br />
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New York, NY 10025<br />
Email: cctadvertising@columbia.edu<br />
Online: college.columbia.edu/cct/advertise_with_us<br />
Telephone: 212-851-7852<br />
Deadline for Winter 2012–13 <strong>issue</strong>:<br />
Thursday, October 25, 2012<br />
Answers to Dean Quiz<br />
on Inside Back Cover<br />
1. Herbert E. Hawkes, who<br />
w<strong>as</strong> dean from 1918–43.<br />
2. 16.<br />
3. Harry J. Carman, for<br />
whom the student residence<br />
originally called<br />
New Hall w<strong>as</strong> renamed.<br />
4. Austin E. Quigley, for<br />
whom the Black Box<br />
Theatre in Lerner w<strong>as</strong><br />
renamed.<br />
5. John Howard Van Amringe<br />
(Cl<strong>as</strong>s of 1860)<br />
became the <strong>College</strong>’s<br />
first dean in 1896.<br />
6. False. Only seven of the<br />
16 deans are <strong>College</strong><br />
alumni.<br />
7. 1130 Amsterdam Ave.<br />
8. Jack Greenberg ’45, ’48L.<br />
9. David B. Truman.<br />
10. Peter Pouncey.<br />
Bonus: Robert E. Pollack ’61.<br />
Alumni Corner<br />
(Continued from page 104)<br />
cops. Not a lot of people spend<br />
time in the stacks anymore. (Except,<br />
<strong>as</strong> Ms. Green pointed out,<br />
around the graphic-novel section.)<br />
It’s not the current nature of finding<br />
information.<br />
Doing it the inefficient way, you<br />
use the senses. You look at a row<br />
of spines, imprinted with butch,<br />
ultra-legible white or black type;<br />
your eye takes in more at any time<br />
than can be contained on a computer<br />
screen. You hold the books<br />
in your hand and feel the weight<br />
and size; the typography and the<br />
paper talk to you about time. A<br />
lot of libraries smell nice, but the<br />
smell of the Butler stacks is a song<br />
of organic matter, changing <strong>as</strong> temperatures<br />
do through the reaches<br />
of a pond. Get yourself near Goffredo<br />
C<strong>as</strong>alis’s life’s work on the<br />
ADVENTURES<br />
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out at runningtripsnorthwest.com!<br />
RENTALS<br />
Historic Jekyll Island, Georgia. 4BR cottage near beach. Weekly. Bingham ’65<br />
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802-524-2108, James Levy ‘65CC, ‘68L.<br />
ACADIA NATIONAL PARK: 8 bedroom 7.5 bathroom waterfront estate in<br />
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October. neh2012@hmamail.com, (650) 450-8413.<br />
FOR SALE<br />
RARE set of 14 Lenox <strong>Columbia</strong> plates, mint condition, $950. ‘52CC grad,<br />
845-534-9317.<br />
SERVICES<br />
MUSIC THEORY/COMPOSITION ASCAP Award recipient (<strong>Columbia</strong>/Mannes)<br />
available to teach/tutor in NYC. All ages welcome. References on request.<br />
Ple<strong>as</strong>e email teddypoll@gmail.com.<br />
duchy of Savoy, the Dizionario<br />
Geografico-Storico-Statistico-<br />
Commerciale, published in 27<br />
volumes from 1833 to 1854, and<br />
breathe in. A fant<strong>as</strong>tic, pre-acidicpaper<br />
smell: burned caramel,<br />
b<strong>as</strong>ically. Nobody there but you.<br />
There are 15 floors of stacks<br />
with 64 rows of books per floor,<br />
running about 25 feet each; 6 or<br />
7 shelves in each row. Can you<br />
actually browse there, find books<br />
on your own, faced with the dark<br />
phalanxes? You can, once you get<br />
subject are<strong>as</strong> in your head. Having<br />
made enough spot searches, you<br />
gr<strong>as</strong>p the logic of each floor. There<br />
are no signs to help you, only diagrams<br />
with codes and numbers.<br />
You can also create luck in any<br />
given spot: You turn your head to<br />
the opposing row of books. A different<br />
subject area can arise, perhaps<br />
only partly to do with your<br />
are<strong>as</strong> of interest. This is non-linkb<strong>as</strong>ed<br />
browsing. You can discover,<br />
instead of being endlessly sought.<br />
I’ve already gone back <strong>this</strong> year:<br />
Above 90 degrees w<strong>as</strong> my cue. I realize<br />
that I am lucky to do <strong>this</strong> free.<br />
If you have no affiliation with the<br />
school, it will cost you $55 a month.<br />
You’d pay more to go to the gym. I<br />
think it’s a good deal.<br />
From The New York Times, 6/27/12<br />
© 2012 The New York Times. All<br />
rights reserved. Used by permission<br />
and protected by the Copyright Laws<br />
of the United States. The printing,<br />
copying, redistribution or retransmission<br />
of <strong>this</strong> content without express<br />
written permission is prohibited.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
102<br />
FALL 2012<br />
103
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY<br />
This article w<strong>as</strong> first published in June for “Still Life,” a series of New<br />
York Times articles in which Times writers sketched their favorite<br />
summer images.<br />
The heat comes quickly in the summer. By early June,<br />
working at home with no air-conditioning, I have no<br />
concentration. Everything feels close and impolite<br />
and loud.<br />
So I go to Butler Library, on the southern end of<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong>’s campus in Morningside Heights. What began <strong>as</strong> a diversion<br />
h<strong>as</strong> become a self-preserving summer thing: not just Butler,<br />
but the Butler stacks, the stillness capital of my imagination.<br />
My job <strong>as</strong> a music critic depends on listening in crowds and<br />
writing in solitude. It also involves gathering facts and context,<br />
Ben Ratliff ’90 finds sanctuary inside the stacks at Butler Library.<br />
PHOTO: DANIEL PORTALATIN PHOTOGRAPHY<br />
of which there is exponentially more every day. I think by writing,<br />
and I write on a computer; the computer also contains the<br />
Internet, which manufactures express-service context <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong><br />
overstatement, sociopathy and lameness. In my hot office I w<strong>as</strong><br />
starting to look at it abstractly, <strong>as</strong> a hot thing blowing exhaust.<br />
I needed to renegotiate my relationship with space and sound<br />
and information.<br />
Butler is a 1930s neo-Cl<strong>as</strong>sical hulk. At the front, above 14 columns,<br />
runs a list of writers and thinkers; the l<strong>as</strong>t is Vergil, and I<br />
like that someone long ago took a stand and chose to spell it in<br />
the Anglicization closer to his real name, not the more common<br />
“Virgil.” It announces: nonsense not spoken here.<br />
In the late ’80s, I’d been there a lot, studying and working <strong>as</strong> a<br />
A l u m n i C o r n e r<br />
Butler Stacks Offer a World Apart<br />
B y Ben Rat l i f f ’90<br />
summer employee. When I turned up at the Library Information<br />
office l<strong>as</strong>t year, there w<strong>as</strong> much clucking about how I’d graduated<br />
so very long ago that they needed a whole other datab<strong>as</strong>e<br />
to find my information. But that’s cool: I am from another time.<br />
Pre-air-conditioning.<br />
I had come to work but also to tune myself up. So I split the<br />
day. Some for my bosses, some for me. After I met my deadline,<br />
writing in the reference room, I walked behind the main desk into<br />
the stacks. The <strong>Columbia</strong> library system owns over 10 million<br />
volumes; 1.5 million, humanities and history, live here. I moved<br />
around for a few hours in the stillness, looking things up, standing<br />
up or crouching the whole time, purely and almost dopily happy.<br />
I’d forgotten. The Butler stacks are in a different sensory category,<br />
starting from the threshold: If you’re tall, you bow your<br />
head <strong>as</strong> you p<strong>as</strong>s through the low door<br />
frame. They form an enclosed rectangular<br />
prism at the center of Butler — no<br />
windows, a bit cooler than the rest of the<br />
building. Two or three levels of the inner<br />
stacks can correspond to one floor of the<br />
outer library. All <strong>this</strong> reinforces the feeling<br />
that the stacks are something special:<br />
a separate province or a vital inner organ.<br />
Inside there is the deep quiet of protection<br />
and near-abandonment. You hear the<br />
hum of the lights, turned on <strong>as</strong> needed;<br />
that’s it. There’s a phone to make outgoing<br />
calls on the fifth floor. To me the stacks<br />
are the most sacred space in the library,<br />
yet here nobody’s telling you not to talk.<br />
You’re on your own. It’s a situation for<br />
adults.<br />
Unlike the stacks at some other university<br />
libraries, Butler’s were not built<br />
for public consumption. They opened to<br />
patrons gradually, much later; originally,<br />
Butler had a call desk, where you’d<br />
put in your requests and wait for your<br />
numbers to come up.<br />
“That’s why they’re not pretty stacks,” said Karen Green, Butler’s<br />
librarian for ancient and medieval history and for religion and<br />
graphic novels. She said it with empathy. Both she and I know that<br />
they are very beautiful.<br />
I spent a few weeks there in the worst of l<strong>as</strong>t June and July,<br />
grazing around, letting the shelves make the connections for me,<br />
writing down notes for a book whose thesis grew obscure and finally<br />
implausible: I w<strong>as</strong> looking up works on plague, fire and the<br />
Egyptian desert fathers. I learned well, but I felt even better. I took<br />
in great amounts of information without ever becoming fried or<br />
irritable. All that organization and nobody around — it seemed<br />
like tresp<strong>as</strong>sing in the history of Western learning, with no fear of<br />
(Continued on page 103)<br />
So You Think You Know<br />
Your Former Deans?<br />
With the recent naming of James J. Valentini <strong>as</strong> Dean of the <strong>College</strong>,<br />
we thought <strong>this</strong> would be an opportune time to test your<br />
familiarity with some of the people who have held that office.<br />
1. Which Dean of the <strong>College</strong> (hint: he w<strong>as</strong> a mathematician) served<br />
longer than any other?<br />
2. How many deans h<strong>as</strong> <strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong> had?<br />
3. Which dean, who once described himself <strong>as</strong> “a good dirt farmer<br />
who never should have left Saratoga County,” is the only one to<br />
have a campus building named after him?<br />
4. Which dean, who now teaches <strong>as</strong> the Brander Matthews Professor<br />
of Dramatic Literature, h<strong>as</strong> a campus theatre named after him?<br />
5. Who w<strong>as</strong> the first Dean of the <strong>College</strong>?<br />
6. True or False: A majority of the <strong>College</strong>’s deans graduated from<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>College</strong>.<br />
7. What is the street address of Hamilton Hall, where the Office of<br />
the Dean is located?<br />
8. What dean argued Brown v. Board of Education, the c<strong>as</strong>e that<br />
declared “separate but equal” unconstitutional, before the Supreme<br />
Court in 1954, and co-authored the cookbook Dean Cuisine?<br />
9. Which dean, who later became president of Mount Holyoke<br />
<strong>College</strong>, recounted the “nightmarish experience of witnessing,<br />
of experiencing, what can properly be described <strong>as</strong> the<br />
disintegration of a great university” in his book Reflections<br />
on the <strong>Columbia</strong> Disorders of 1968?<br />
10. Which dean became president of Amherst <strong>College</strong> and authored<br />
the novel Rules for Old Men Waiting, which won the McKitterick<br />
Prize in 2006?<br />
Bonus: Which dean is the founder and director of the Center for the<br />
Study of Science and Religion at <strong>Columbia</strong>?<br />
PHOTO: DANIELLA ZALCMAN ’09<br />
Answers on page 103.<br />
FALL 2012<br />
104
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