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Class Notes
classnotes
Constituency Codes*
’GB Alumna/us from Grace Bement era (1925–1947) ’00 Alumna/us Class Year TT Trustee PTT Past Trustee P Parent GP Grandparent GGP Great Grandparent FA Current Faculty or Staff PF Past Faculty or Staff FR Friend of Bement HOS Head of School FHS Former Head of School IHOS Interim Head of School *Constituents are listed with their Bement affiliation following each name. For example, John ’72 and Alice PF Smith P’95 means that John is an alum from the Class of 1972, and Alice is a past faculty member. Together, they are parents of a student who attended Bement Class of 1995.
Keep in Touch!
Recent marriage? Exciting adventure? New baby? Visited with fellow alumni/ae? Keep your classmates updated on the latest happenings in your life. All Class Notes also appear in the magazine’s online version. To report your entry, you can visit bement.org/alumni or contact us via phone or email. PHONE 413.774.3021 EMAIL alumni@bement.org
Pamela Lee Cranston ’64 writes: “My husband, Ed, and I are enjoying retirement in Oakland, CA. As an Episcopal priest, I continue to assist at a local church here in the San Francisco Bay Area. One benefit of being in lockdown in 2020 is that I was able to write a lot. In 2020, my newest book, Searching for Nova Albion, was a semi-finalist in the Poetry Society of Virginia 2020 North American Poetry Contest. Also, I won fifth place in the national 2020 Writer’s Digest Poetry contest for my poem ‘My Grandfather’s Typewriter.’ My niece, Rebecca (daughter of David C. Lee ’67, who sadly died in 1995), and her husband now have two adorable girls, ages three years and ten weeks old.”
Ned Reade ’67 writes: “I have officially ‘retired’ from teaching art and art history at the Trinity-Pawling School in Pawling, NY. I taught my last classes via Zoom in May 2020 during the pandemic, and the school graciously allowed us to stay in our campus home for one more year as ‘artists-in-residence.’ So with time on my hands, I opened the Live 4 Art Gallery in Pawling, featuring the work of local artists and others in the greater Hudson Valley area. I also taught an eight-week and a six-week session of watercolor workshops online through the winter into spring. A highlight was having Jennifer Montgomery Bethlenfalvay ’68 join my class from her home in Denver! The wonders of remote education!”
Richard Herchenreder ’75 writes: “I’ve reached age 60 and hope I have achieved some wisdom to build on my Bement education. I am continuing my practice as a Certified Internal Auditor and was recently elected to the board of the Institute of Internal Auditors’ Southern New England Chapter. Every day I use skills I learned at Bement from Miss Hawks, Tim Young, and others as I perform planned audits for banks and credit unions all over New England. I really enjoyed the recent online gathering of Bement alumni/ae, which is something I hope is repeated. My best regards to all members of our Bement family.”
Phil Barreda ’82 is
doing well and enjoying time fishing with his son under the Rickenbacker Causeway in Key Biscayne, FL.
Nick Lawson ’99
and Samantha Lawson welcomed William Castle Barnard Lawson, born December 12, 2020. Besides being a proud new dad, Nick’s mom, Amy Gordon P’99 ‘03, PF reports, “Nick is a psychiatric social worker and therapist working in a New York City Mobile Behavioural Health Unit that functions as an alternative to re-incarceration for a population coming out of Rikers Island, many of whom have been diagnosed with severe mental illnesses.”
Phil Barreda and son
Nick with William at almost seven months old
Joanna Pasiecnik ’06 sold a comedy/fantasy web series project, The Campaign, to the Fantasy Network.
Wilder McCoy ’12 writes: “I now live in the Netherlands and am pursuing a Master of Science in water management and governance. Studying water resource management is something I’m passionate about, and it allows me to address one of the world’s most pressing problems. Upon graduating, I hope to bring my skills learned here in Holland and apply them all over the world to create more equitable access to drinking water and sanitation for people everywhere.”
Madeline Surgenor Richards PF “Hello! I hope this
note finds the Bement community healthy and well! Two newsy items: (1) I was married in May 2020 in a ‘pandemic perfect’ ceremony—10 people in person at my parents’ farm and the rest on Zoom! (2) I am the head of the upper school at Worcester Academy!”
Ralph and Jack
Rachel Pfeffer ’01 writes: I’ve
been living in DC for a while now, and I recently moved just over the line to Takoma Park, MD. My husband, Ben Terris, is a journalist at The Washington Post, and I have my jewelry business: rachelpfeffer.com. We had our first son, Ralph, in 2017, and we had a pandemic baby, Jack, in 2020. I live 10 minutes away from fellow 2001 alumni Emily Platt, and we keep in touch regularly with Daniela Jacobson ’01!”
Ross PF and Sarah
Feitlinger welcomed Noah Tate Feitlinger on April 5, 2021.
Noah Tate Feitlinger
In Memoriam
We are deeply saddened to have lost the following members of our Bement family this year:
Ann H. Adams ’68 Jeri Bannister PF Susan Wendell Beebe ‘60 Marc Bernier P’15 ’19 Ralph Boody GP’13 ’16 Kathleen Casey FR Joanna Creelman P’87 ’89 ’95 Olohiye (Lohi) Ehimiaghe ‘18 Peter Gerquest P’80 Philip Gladue GP’12 ’16 Virginia D. (Chorlton) Gladue GP’12 ’16 George Gogel ’73 Pamela Wick Lincoln ’65 Matthew McGuire P’27 ’28 Mary Merriam P’74 ’75 ’80, GP’98 Theodore Pina PF Richard Schattin GP’26 Bob Shields GP’19 ’21 ’25 Bernice Shuman GP’10 ’14 Michael Walsh GP’27 ’30 Merle Willman FR Edward Yazwinski PF
The list of names included in the In Memoriam section is reported from September 2020 to August 2021. Marc Qianyi Ma ’17 (Columbia University ’24), Jamie Jaeyoon Lim ’18 (Carnegie Mellon University ’25), Daniel Dongmin Shin ’17 (New York University ’24), and Keishi Kimura ’17 (University of Chicago ’24) have been working on a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that allows individuals to transact funds at their convenience. Without having to undergo set procedures of financial institutions, users of the upcoming platform will be able to borrow capital and trade assets on their own terms and interest rates. Amid the pandemic, the founding members are geographically dispersed in their own personal “offices.” Keishi is living in a house share in Tokyo, Marc is travelling between Beijing and Shanghai, Jamie is temporarily staying with family in Seoul, and Daniel is on a road trip in the States while meeting potential investors.
Nailah Barnes '15
was a finalist for the national 2021 Harry S. Truman Scholarship. Spelman College celebrated this honor with a banner and image of Nailah.
Shelley Borror Jackson FHS, P’00
had lunch with Seth McKenzie ’17
before he headed off to Brown University this fall.
Jiyoung Jeong '13 stopped by Bement for a visit. She recently graduated from Stanford University, and is going to Taiwan for a one-year Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Program.
