HOPKINS Views From The Hill
student+alumni
connections
WINTER 2019–2020
The Hopkins community celebrated the opening of the new track and adjacent softball field on the morning of September 20, 2019.
HOPKINS Views From The Hill
Head of School
Editor
Photography
Kai Bynum
John Galayda
John Galayda (OFC, IFC, 8, 10, 11, 16, 17, OBC)
Views from the Hill is published biannually by
Director of Communications
Class Notes Editor
Hopkins School for the purpose of fostering ongoing
John Galayda
Donna Vinci
Director of Development
Managing Editor
Lauren Reichart
Jemma Williams Nussbaum
Director of Enrollment and
Design
Strategic Marketing
Bj Lambert, Beth Lyons
Pamela McKenna
Cheney & Company
engagement with and among alumni, students, parents, faculty, staff, and friends of Hopkins. Hopkins School does not discriminate on the basis of religion, race, color, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or national origin in the administration of its educational policies, scholarship, athletic and other school-administered programs.
Highpoint Photography (12–15) Peter Mahakian (19) Judy Sirota Rosenthal (21) Matt Vinci (22, 23) Steve Walter (20, 22, 23) Jemma Williams Nussbaum (18, 23)
WINTER 2019–2020
Inside Views FEATURES
2 A Letter from the Head of School 4 At Arm’s Length, but a Country Away
Jessica Kaufman ’04 and Tyler Eveland ’22 bring stories to life along the U.S.-Mexico border
8 Launching Hopkins’ Next Generation of Innovators & Entrepreneurs 10 Shining a Light through a Shadow 12 Alumni Who Work at Hopkins DEPARTMENTS
16 News from the Hill 21 Alumni: Commencement & Alumni Weekend 24 Alumni: The Parente Family Shares an Athletic Legacy 26 Class Notes 64 Milestones On the cover: Tyler Eveland ’22 and Jessica Kaufman ’04 operate a 15-foot-tall puppet on Smilow Field at Hopkins. On page 4, read about how Kaufman and Eveland used puppets to bring stories to life along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The text body of this issue of Views from the Hill is printed on 100% recycled paper.
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DEFINING OUR TERMS Alumni refers either to a group of
male graduates or to a group of both male and female graduates. Alumnae refers to a group of female graduates. Alumna refers to one female graduate, and alumnus refers to one male graduate. Alum and alums are more informal, acceptable terms that are not gender specific.
LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL
Dear Friends, Alumni often tell me about the powerful impact Hopkins has had on their lives. They speak of the beneficial effects of their education and describe how their experiences at Hopkins nurtured a lifelong connection to the School. Back on campus, students are eager to learn about what graduates are doing to make the world a better place. Alumni achievements greatly inspire our students, showing them a variety of paths to happiness and personal fulfillment. In this way, alumni help to build a better Hopkins for today’s students—simply by living their lives. But when alumni and students do connect, special things happen. As you’ll read in the following pages, alumni and students are connecting through a variety of mentorship and partnership programs at Hopkins, and it’s benefiting everyone involved. Students are learning from alumni, while alumni are gaining insightful feedback from a new generation. Together, they are working to solve real-world problems and to bring awareness to a myriad of social issues—locally and abroad. This is experiential education in its purest form, and it’s something you simply can’t replicate in a classroom. It’s also a true testament to the supportive, nurturing nature of our community, showcasing the awesome power of collaboration. Today, there are nearly 7,000 active Hopkins alumni doing incredible things all over the globe, and they can help open doors to almost any career. It’s a powerful network. In addition to these experiential learning partnerships between alumni and students, Hopkins is also strengthening its commitment to service learning, which combines academic study with service in our local community. To further complement our existing service learning program, our recently launched strategic plan (Hopkins360Plan.com) calls for strengthening Hopkins’ partnerships and relationships with the City of New Haven under the direction of Angela Wardlaw, our new Director of Community Engagement. Simply put, our community is teeming with potential. These are exciting times at Hopkins. We must now get to work to realize our true potential. Sincerely, Kai Bynum Head of School
P.S. Connect to alumni through our Net@Work platform, hopkins.peoplegrove.com, to offer advice, post jobs, and network.
Current student Cici Liu ’20 created the illustration at right to represent how we are connecting students with alumni through a variety of mentorship and partnership programs.
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VIEWS FROM THE HILL
student+alumni
connections
WINTER 2019–2020
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at arm’s
Tyler Eveland ’22 maneuvers the hands of a 15-foot-tall puppet during the Beyond the Wall Festival on May 5, 2019, at the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Arizona.
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VIEWS FROM THE HILL
length, but a country
Jessica Kaufman ’04 and Tyler Eveland ’22 bring stories to life along the U.S.-Mexico border.
away THE AFTERNOON SUN IS SHINING on a brightly colored 15-foot-tall puppet as it bobs and weaves through the streets of Nogales, Arizona. Operated by Jessica Kaufman ’04 and Tyler Eveland ’22, along with a team of other puppeteers, the puppet approaches a tall concrete barrier with perforated steel windows and barbed wire strung atop. Nearby, but a country away, another team of puppeteers maneuvers a similarly constructed puppet through the streets of Nogales, Mexico. The two puppets, built with recycled materials, meet at the wall and begin to interact with one another from their respective sides. They wave to each other. They high five and shake hands through the steel slats with hands constructed of water bottles. They play a friendly game of peek-a-boo. The story of how a Hopkins alumna and current student came to be playing with larger-than-life puppets at the U.S.-Mexico border began in 2015. That year, Kaufman earned her master’s in Advanced Theatre Practice from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, where she met fellow classmate and puppeteer Ana Díaz Barriga. Some time later, while watching children at play around a tree on a playground, Kaufman conceived of a puppet performance with Díaz Barriga, a Mexico City native, to bring a childlike vision to the U.S.-Mexico border, transforming it into an object of the puppets’ play
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“What if we make giant puppets at scale rather than a barrier to people on both sides. In an interview with Nogales International in 2017, she explained, “Kids have this sense of fluid ideation, where you give them an object and they see [millions] of possibilities. So you give them a wall, and maybe they do see a boundary, but they also see a play thing, they see hide and seek, they see a lot of different things. So I thought, ‘What if we make giant puppets at scale to make the wall into an object of play?’” Kaufman and Díaz Barriga expanded their puppet concept to engage a community located at the U.S.-Mexico border by collaborating with local artists to tell the real stories and celebrate the culture of life in the borderlands, and work with local youth to build the giant puppets to “play” at the border. The sister cities of Nogales, Arizona, U.S., and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, emerged as the ideal location for this festival. Kaufman and Díaz Barriga traveled to the area, where they joined forces with local artists and educators, forming the Más Allá del Muro //Beyond the Wall project. The first festival, which took place in November 2017, was conceived and executed within eight months, “a whirlwind” as Kaufman describes it. Both cities of Nogales had existing local arts festivals, and Kaufman and Díaz Barriga helped connect these artists in collaboration. The Más Allá del Muro //Beyond
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the Wall Festival, now three years and two festivals strong, has evolved into a binational art fair, with vendor booths showcasing local visual artists, and two performance stages for film-makers and musicians, and an underlying mission working toward larger artistic infrastructure for local artists. The festival takes place within two blocks on either side of the border, so that attendees can visit both sides by walking through one of four border crossings within Nogales. Throughout the planning and development of the celebration, the team works closely with U.S. Border Patrol agencies and both local governments to acquire permits and keep up with an ever-changing set of rules. A festival of this size takes a lot of time and energy to plan and execute, and as a growing nonprofit, Kaufman and Díaz Barriga put out a call for interns to help prepare for the 2019 festival. A conversation with Becky Harper ’07, Hopkins’ Director of Equity and Community at the Hopkins New York Holiday Alumni Gathering in December 2018, led to a meaningful connection for current student Tyler Eveland ’22. Eveland joined the Beyond the Wall team in January 2019, working remotely over email and weekly phone calls. His first role as an intern was to manage a pen pal program for Nogales youth, connecting high school students with each other over email. By February, he
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
AT LEFT: Images
of Kaufman and Eveland during the puppetry performance at the 2019 Beyond the Wall Festival.
to make the wall into an object of play?” was helping with more aspects of the festival, including social media strategies, logistics, and media relations, a truly interdisciplinary experience. Kaufman was thrilled to have Eveland on site in Nogales as her assistant for the May 5, 2019, festival, assisting with all the final details. Not only was Eveland able to meet Kaufman and the pen pal students in person, he was eager to operate one of the giant puppets during the performances. “I love theater and have wanted to learn about theater business—the aspects behind the scenes, production, and managing a huge nonprofit organization,” shared Eveland. “I love [Beyond the Wall’s mission], which uses theater to make everyone feel included, a peaceful way to connect people.” The puppet component—from concept, to construction process, and finally, to the performance—is especially dear to Kaufman. In the week before the festival, teams of volunteers and high school students on both sides of the border build four 15-foot puppets of Díaz Barriga’s design structure. The students develop the characters they construct to represent their community and cultural identity. On the day of the festival, the puppets are paraded through the streets to the border on either side and “play” with each other through, around, and despite the wall over multiple performances.
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“Our hope is that through the festival, people outside this area can have a first-person connection to what life is like in the borderlands through the eyes of young people and artists who live here,” she said, “and that people here get the chance to celebrate all the awesome things about living in the borderlands, instead of buying into the media narrative of their home being dangerous and fraught.” Eveland, now a sophomore, is continuing his internship this school year and is looking forward to helping the nonprofit and festival grow. In 2019, there were Beyond the Wall events in Nogales, Chicago, London, and Prague, and the group is taking the leap into becoming a formal nonprofit organization at the end of this year. Kaufman is grateful for the connections and support the Hopkins network has brought to Beyond the Wall. “I’m so grateful for the theater opportunities I had as a teenager,” she shared, “and the way the Hopkins community has embraced this project has been amazing. My artistic mission across not just this, but all of my work, is deeply connected to the service values I acquired at Hopkins, and with Tyler’s help, I’m so excited to keep that connection strong!” To learn more about Más Allá del Muro // Beyond the Wall, please visit their website: beyondthewallfestival.com.
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LAUNCHING HOPKINS’ NEXT GENERATION OF
INNOVATORS & ENTREPRENEURS
ABOVE, L–R:
Gunnar DeSantis ’20, Ben Berkowitz ’97, Marilla Yu ’20, and Samantha D’Errico ’20
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THROUGH A NEW Innovation and Entrepreneurship Pilot Program at Hopkins, students and faculty are collaborating with local businesses to create a mutually beneficial educational experience. The program centers around a three-week immersive partnership in which students research challenges identified by a local business owner. The students then develop a plan of action and present it to the company. “While you are not competing directly against your classmates, you might have visions of Shark Tank meets The Apprentice,” read an email from math teacher John Isaacs to students calling for applications to launch the first pilot last spring. “Are you interested in problem solving, growing a business, collaboration, leadership, research, marketing, technology, communications, public speaking, writing, or graphic design? If chosen, your commitment must be solid and your fortitude unwavering.”
While students do not receive grades or school credit for their participation in the pilot, interest was high and indicative of the self-starter, entrepreneurial mindset that permeates the classrooms at Hopkins. “The entrepreneurial spirit runs deep at Hopkins, and this program aims to cultivate and foster that passion,” Head of School Kai Bynum said. “Our students are extremely busy with coursework and extracurricular activities, but they are excited to make time for this initiative.” In April 2019, the pilot’s first cohort of students and faculty partnered with SeeClickFix, a digital communications system company based in New Haven, founded by Ben Berkowitz ’97. The company runs a website and mobile app that assist users in communicating with local governments about non-emergency issues. The challenge presented to students was fitting: “Determine a way that VIEWS FROM THE HILL
Students at Hopkins are solving real problems for real businesses in New Haven. SeeClickFix can capture, keep, and grow the youth market.” Students wasted no time strategizing and designing a marketing plan targeted at engaging young people on the company’s digital platforms. When the dust settled, students emerged with two thoughtful and well-researched plans. One of the pitches, for example, revolved around the launch of a secondary app, SeeClickFix Student. The students designed and branded an interface for the app, and created an incentive-base system that provided digital “merit badges” based on app-related actions and engagements. The “civic points” that student users earn through their engagements would subsequently increase their rank on the app, from “Street Smart” to “Municipal Avenger” to “Community Hero.” Hopkins students also created a rollout plan for the new app, centered on engaging students through Instagram. Samantha D’Errico ’20, who participated in the pilot, said she jumped at the opportunity to gain knowledge and experience in the business world. “I improved my team building, time management, and public speaking skills during this class. I also was very happy to gain experience in the actual business world, which I do not think many high school students get the chance to do,” she said. Following three weeks of research and development, the students presented their work to Berkowitz during a meeting in the Weissman Room at Hopkins. Berkowitz was so impressed that he invited the students to present their work to his full team at the SeeClickFix offices. “The student teams that we worked with far exceeded our expectations of what could be presented by high school students in such a short period,” Berkowitz said. “The product and marketing insights presented allowed our team to think about the SeeClickFix platform in the context of high school students.” Art teacher Derek Byron, one of the key architects behind the pilot program, has found great success in creating courses at Hopkins that involve collaboration with his colleagues in different disciplines. Previously, Byron helped launch the Design Engineering course at Hopkins, which involves an interdisciplinary partnership between the arts and science departments. To help get this most recent pilot program off the ground, Byron worked with Lisa Lamont, Director of Innovation and Learning, who helped facilitate the launch. WINTER 2019–2020
“Through these interdisciplinary initiatives, we have opportunities to engage all of our departments, leverage one another’s strengths, and come together to offer a unique and expansive experience for our students,” Byron said. The inaugural pilot in April 2019 was co-taught by Emilie Harris, Isaacs, and Byron: a scientist, a mathematician, and an architect. An additional four faculty members—Ian Melchinger (English), Keri Mathews (mathematics and computer science), Richard Thornburg (history), and Sarah du Plessis (modern language)—will help facilitate two threeweek partnerships in spring 2020. To prepare for leading this program, the aforementioned Hopkins faculty members recently attended the Korda Institute for Teaching to learn how to design educational experiences in which students solve problems impacting and involving their community. The real, unsolved problems provide meaningful work for students, which gives them the motivation to learn difficult things well. The first spring 2020 cohort of Hopkins students will partner with MakeHaven, a nonprofit makerspace in New Haven. The business challenge will be unveiled to students at the start of their work in April. The second partnership, which will kick off once the MakeHaven partnership concludes, has yet to be determined. Isaacs said he and Byron are currently interviewing potential companies. Students in grades 11 and 12 are eligible to apply. For the 2020 pilot, the participating companies have yet to be determined. Isaacs said, “Regardless of whether students want to start a company or not, being entrepreneurial will make a substantial addition to their professional growth,” Bynum said. Gunnar DeSantis ’20 said the program gave him a better understanding of the range of problems entrepreneurs need to solve on their own, and the way to look at those problems in order to create efficient solutions. “Presenting to SeeClickFix was the best part,” he said, “because we really felt like we were addressing a real-world problem.” Marilla Yu ’20 added, “the pilot was unlike your typical Hopkins class. It provided me with unique problem-solving techniques and real-world business experience.”
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Shining a Light Through a Shadow FOR A DAY THIS PAST AUGUST , the sounds of summer were quite different for Hopkins seniors Philip DeLise and Sophia Fitzsimonds. The two high school seniors spent the day surrounded by the hum, whirl, and squeaks of a factory in North Branford. They watched as workers wearing goggles and aprons pulled levers and guided pieces of metal through the innards of large machinery. It was an anachronistic scene where the gilded age collided with 21st century technology. Leading DeLise and Fitzsimonds through the factory maze was Ron Delfini ’84, president and co-founder of Engineering Specialties, Inc. (ESI), a company specializing in metal stamping and automated assembly. An entrepreneur at heart, Delfini is also a co-creator of the Hopkins Alumni Association Job Shadow Program, which is what brought DeLise and Fitzsimonds to the factory that day. During their visit, Delfini showed the two the intricate steps of the metal stamping manufacturing process, from product design to delivery. In one hands-on example, the students worked with a technician to review CAD drawings of a safety bracket mechanism created for a Ford automobile seat belt. Once die blocks of the brackets were machined using the drawings, the students helped provide quality control by utilizing state-of-the-art laser technology to measure the dimensions of the bracket down to the micrometer. “I learned about all of the tiny, but essential, parts that go into making everyday objects,” Fitzsimonds said. “It was interesting to see the design and building processes of simple parts that are actually incredibly useful and taken for granted.” Fitzsimonds said she requested to shadow Delfini because she has an interest in mechanical engineering. As a high school senior, she recently applied to universities with strong engineering programs, and she hopes to earn a degree in structural or civil engineering.
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Launched in 2007, the Job Shadow Program matches rising seniors with opportunities to spend a day “at work,” over the summer months, with area alumni involved in various occupations and professions. Since the program’s inception, more than 200 students have participated, successfully shadowing physicians, architects, judges, journalists, investment managers, aerospace engineers, and a host of alumni in other professions. Students have been able to witness the inner workings of the chamber of the Supreme Court, the newsroom at The New York Times, and even in the operating theater of a hospital—just to name a few. This past summer, 19 rising seniors were matched with alumni through the program. The program provides a unique opportunity for students to gain insight into a field or career that is of interest to them. It is also an opportunity for students to talk with alumni about future training programs and career directions. Participating alumni also enjoy the experience and report that they are always impressed with the intelligence and work ethic of our talented Hopkins students. While a job shadow program did not exist at Hopkins when Delfini was a student in the 1980s, he said his father, Dr. Ron Delfini ’61 HGS, arranged for his son to shadow several of his friends that owned local businesses, such as Mike Giordano ’61 HGS, who owns a construction company. Delfini also remembers shadowing his father’s friends in the real estate and retail industries.
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
FROM LEFT: Sophia
Fitzsimonds ’20, Ron Delfini ’84, and Philip DeLise ’20 during a job shadow visit to Delfini’s company, Engineering Specialties, Inc., in Branford last summer.
The Hopkins Alumni Association Job Shadow Program provides invaluable, hands-on experiences for students.
“I found these experiences quite rewarding, especially the entrepreneurship aspect,” he said, “and thinking about those past experiences was the genesis of the Hopkins Job Shadow Program.” Ron said he’s proud of the program he helped launch because it “affords current students the ability to get out in the work place and spend time with our amazing network of alumni.” Paying it forward, he has hosted several students interested in engineering and
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entrepreneurship over the years at his manufacturing company in North Branford. “It is so rewarding to see their enthusiasm,” he said. Students and alumni can get more information about the Hopkins Job Shadow Program by contacting Katey Varanelli, Director of Alumni Engagement, at kvaranelli@hopkins.edu. Pairings for Summer 2020 will begin this spring.
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Alumni Who Work at Hopkins 1
Joshua Brant 1988
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SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST ALUM, FACULTY, PARENT
It means a great deal for me to work at Hopkins. During my time as a student, I struggled significantly. It was a challenging time in my life both interpersonally and academically. After graduate school, I contacted Hopkins to see about the possibility of getting involved supporting the mental health of the student body. My hope was to offer guidance and counseling to students in the ways that I wish had been offered to me at a critical time in my development. As I enter my fourteenth year, I find myself both inspired and grateful for the opportunities Hopkins has given me to engage with some of the most amazing kids on the planet.
Rocco DeMaio Jr. 1986
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DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS ALUM, FACULTY
As an alumnus of Hopkins, I have always felt a great sense of pride and honor in returning to the Hill as a faculty member. This opportunity has been a chance to give back to the place that meant so much to my learning and development as a student-athlete. Working in athletics, and living in New Haven, I consider myself an ambassador for the School both in the wider community and in the variety of arenas that athletics encompasses. My experience as a student-athlete was so positive, and I 12
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am now afforded the opportunity to share that powerful experience with so many others. I continue to do what I love and I feel blessed to be able to contribute to this special place.
James Gette 2000
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LIBRARIAN ALUM, FACULTY
I got a great education and had a great experience at Hopkins. I hope that I can be some small part of that for our current students. Plus I get to call my former teachers by their first names—something that students would never, ever do.
Rebecca Flores Harper 2007
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DIRECTOR OF EQUITY AND COMMUNITY, SPANISH TEACHER ALUM, FACULTY
It is a unique and special perspective as well as an opportunity to contribute back to a community that gave me so much.
Emilie (Waters) Harris 2006
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HEAD ADVISER CLASS OF 2022, SCIENCE TEACHER ALUM, FACULTY
For me, working at Hopkins means that I have the opportunity to contribute to the continued growth and evolution of the School. The community aspect of Hopkins has positive impacts on students, faculty, and staff members, and alums and I appreciate being able to contribute to that in my current role. VIEWS FROM THE HILL
Currently there are 16 Hopkins alumni who work full-time at Hopkins as essential members of the administration, faculty, and staff. They share in their own words what it means to them to be alumni working at Hopkins.
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Katharine Higgins 1980
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ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF ADMISSION ALUM, FACULTY
My experience as a Hopkins student fostered in me both a love of learning and a desire to work in independent education. After graduate school, I knew I wanted to return to an independent school and have an impact on the whole student in the same way that so many of my Hopkins teachers had inspired and guided me. I wanted to be someone’s Bud Erich, their Jim Bucar, their Dana Blanchard, or their Toni Giamatti. After a long and rewarding career at boarding schools teaching history, advising, coaching, and running dorms, I was presented with the opportunity of returning to Hopkins and working in the Admission Office. Although no longer teaching at Hopkins, I realized that in my new position, I would be able to help students begin their Hopkins journey where they would be exposed to inspiring teachers, coaches, role models, and mentors. I could not help but feel as if life had come full circle.
Lars Jorgensen 1982
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DEAN OF STUDENTS, HEAD ADVISER CLASS OF 2023 ALUM, FACULTY, PAST PARENT
When I was a student, Hopkins set the foundation for learning and created a supportive and positive community. Returning to Hopkins has deepened that
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sense of community. I have the deepest respect for my colleagues and am inspired daily by the amazing students at Hopkins.
Keri (Adams) Matthews 1994
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COMPUTER SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS TEACHER ALUM, FACULTY, PARENT
Hopkins taught me how to learn and helped me develop a lifelong love of learning. I have always been grateful for the high school education I received and am so grateful that I get the opportunity to be part of this community. As a parent, I am delighted to see that Hopkins still nurtures its students and encourages them to be individuals with their own unique voice. I was quite nervous when I started here two years ago after being an alum and just beginning my journey as a Hopkins parent. I was afraid once I ventured “behind the curtain” that Hopkins would not be the same school I loved as a student and parent. Once I started here, I quickly learned I had nothing to fear and was delighted to see that Hopkins still has the same core values and encouraging nature it did when I was a student here. I genuinely love my job and am so pleased to be a part of a community that cares so deeply about our students and the education they receive.
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Ian Melchinger 1988
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ENGLISH AND VISUAL ART TEACHER ALUM, FACULTY, PARENT
When I first came to teach here, Hopkins was a refuge. I had gone to college and film school, and learned as a TA that I loved teaching more than my ostensible career. My partner caught a gig at Yale, so we moved back, and after some time as a creative in private industry, I was frankly relieved to be in a place that valued process and learning more than the core deliverable. Hopkins had shaped much of my sense of what a good school experience could be, and it felt like home. Well into my second decade here, I realize that I have an emotional attachment to this institution. Our two daughters have been powerfully shaped by this place, and I enjoy the challenges of work here every day. There are lucky moments in which a student, parent, or alum is generous enough to tell me that I’ve helped someone make their way in the outside world. Those moments remind me that I, too, have been helped by Hopkins to make my way, both here and in the rest of the world off the Hill.
Jonathan Nast 1997
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VISUAL ART TEACHER ALUM, FACULTY
Once upon a time, I was fortunate to have an extremely positive experience as a student at Hopkins. Not only did the Hop provide a profound educational experience that has helped to model the multidimensional person that I am today, I was also able to establish valuable friendships and relationships that have endured through time—most notably my wife, Theresa, who is 14
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also a Hopkins graduate. I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to return to such a special place and be part of the distinguished Hopkins Art Department.
Wendy (Florentine) Parente 1975
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ACCOUNTS PAYABLE MANAGER ALUM, STAFF, PAST PARENT
I have now worked at Hopkins for over 20 years. My office is where I had English class with Mr. Charlie Wells, so it brings back many memories. Coming back to the Hill to work was very exciting, as this is where I met my husband. We are both so grateful that three of our children have since attended, played sports, and graduated from here.
Nathaniel Peters 2014
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SCIENCE TEACHER ALUM, FACULTY
It means working alongside the same excellent people that made me into the person I am today.
Eleanor (Appellof) Stewart 2002
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ASSISTANT TO THE HEAD OF SCHOOL ALUM, STAFF
I always felt grateful to have been a part of the Hopkins community and for the ways in which my four years here prepared me for life after the Hill, but my appreciation for this place has grown immeasurably since I joined the staff five years ago. I’ve loved seeing parts of Hopkins that were completely hidden to me as a student. Until coming here as an employee, I could not understand just how much care and hard work go into running a school, or how dedicated the faculty and staff are to our students’ success. VIEWS FROM THE HILL
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Angela (Lewis) Wardlaw 1984
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DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF ADMISSION ALUM, FACULTY, PAST PARENT
This is the beginning of my 25th year at Hopkins. When I first arrived back on campus I was Hopkins’ first Director of Diversity. I agreed to stay for the duration of the grant, which was four years, then I would move along. Well, fast forward 20 years and here I am. No longer the Director of Diversity but the Associate Director of Admission and Director of Community Engagement. My work at Hopkins is near and dear to my heart. It allows me to focus on two areas I am passionate about: kids and New Haven. My academic experience at Hopkins wasn’t always an easy one but it was a valuable one. I see my work here as an opportunity to give back to Hopkins and my community. New Haven is filled with talented and amazing students and it is my responsibility to find them and guide them toward the community that has made such a difference in my life.
Scott Wich 1989
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HEAD ADVISER CLASS OF 2020, HISTORY TEACHER ALUM, FACULTY, PARENT
As I told the senior class and their parents earlier this year, coming back to Hopkins as a teacher, coach, and adviser has given me a truly 360-degree perspective on the school that was the formative experience of my younger days, and remains a central part of my life in my not-so-younger days. “Seeing behind the curtain” has only deepened my appreciation for the school as a whole, and for what remains unchanged from my experience
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as a student: the brilliance and dedication of the adults on campus, and the connections that they make with students every day. So it’s not so much that I’m seeing behind the curtain, but rather, it’s that I have a wonderful opportunity to see the full, beautiful forest for the trees.
Joshua Zelinsky 2003
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MATHEMATICS TEACHER ALUM, FACULTY
Working for Hopkins means sharing the same love of learning with students that teachers shared with me when I was a student. I teach math, and in the particular context of math, it means not just appreciating specific problems or puzzles, but appreciating the broader structural aspects. More generally, I hope to be a role model for hard work and good ethics just as teachers were for me. I’m reminded of specific guidance I received from teachers then, including that from Moggs Wright, Kevin Hart, John Roberts, David McCord, and others. This included not just academic comments, but also social feedback and advice. My suspicion is that I was in some respects less mature than other students for much of my time, and specific teacher advice helped me become a more mature, and frankly, less annoying person. In that context, I hope that if necessary, I’ll provide similar guidance for students in the future. Above all, being an alum teaching at Hopkins means that in a very direct way, I am part of a continuing, 360-year tradition, and that I need to do my part to uphold the values of that tradition.
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NEWS FROM THE HILL
The 2019–2020 Hopkins Committee of Trustees
FRONT ROW (L–R) Aaron Sack ’89, Peter Sasaki ’87, Vincent Calarco, Head of School Kai Bynum, Gwen Evans ’84, Medina Tyson Jett ’83, Niall Ferguson ’92. BACK ROW (L–R) Nicky Dawidoff ’81, Lynn Jackson Quinn, Kristin Collier, Nory Babbit ’76, Marvin Chun, Debra Seiter, Don Kendall, Barbara Rosiello, Mark
Lynch ’62 HGS. NOT PICTURED: Eric A. Kutcher ’92, David Leffell, Gregory R. Tanner ’92.
Meet Our New Faculty & Staff
Hopkins welcomes 21 new faculty members to campus this year. FRONT ROW (L–R) Jennifer O’Neill, Director of Parent Engagement; Josh Zelinsky ’03, Math Faculty; Linda Romanchok, School Counselor; Jennifer Roach, English Faculty, PENN Fellow; Ashley Sjolund, Science Faculty; CJ Chiu, Math Faculty; Linda Isaacs, Modern Language Faculty. BACK ROW (L–R) Mariana Torrens Arias, Modern Language Faculty; Sanil Patel, Associate Director of College Counseling; Sam Stockton, English Faculty, PENN Fellow; Kristen Wich, Assistant Director of Athletics, Coordinator of Auxiliary Programs; Megan Maxwell, History Faculty; Meghan O’Neill, Math Faculty; Lely Evans, Modern Language Faculty; John Galayda, Director of Communications. NOT PICTURED: Mike McManus, Director of Racquets; Laura Donahue, Admissions Office and Database Manager; Sarah Walter, Payroll and Human Resources Associate; Fernando Hernandez, Finance and Accounting Manager; Josh Garcia and Chris Malse, Buildings and Grounds.
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VIEWS FROM THE HILL
Meet Hopkins’ Newest Trustees
(L–R) Marvin Chun, Kristin Collier, and Aaron Sack ’89
Marvin Chun, Kristin Collier, and Aaron Sack ’89 were elected as trustees for three-year terms, effective July 1, 2019, at the May 6, 2019, meeting of the Committee of Trustees.
at Yonsei University. He earned a Ph.D. in brain and cognitive sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard.
MARVIN CHUN lives in New Haven
KRISTIN COLLIER lives in Darien with her husband, Charlie, and their four children. She is the mother of current Hopkins students Kate ’21 and Ellie ’23, and graduates Ben ’17 and Will ’16. A former kindergarten teacher, Kristin has always had a passion for education. At Hopkins, she is currently the Parent Association President. She has also served as a grade representative and an auction co-chair, along with serving on many PA subcommittees over the years. Outside of Hopkins, she serves on the Board of the Garden Club of Darien, and has previously volunteered at the Joshua House, a nonprofit organization that builds houses for impoverished families in under-served areas of the United States. Kristin grew up outside of Boston and attended Bucknell University, where she earned degrees in elementary education and studio art. She also holds a master of education in reading and language from the University of Massachusetts.
with his wife, Woo-young Ahn, and their two children, Nathan Ahn ’20, a current Hopkins student, and Allison Chun ’17, a recent Hopkins graduate. Marvin is Dean of Yale College and the Richard M. Colgate Professor of Psychology, with secondary appointments in the Cognitive Science Program and the Yale School of Medicine Department of Neuroscience. For his research in cognitive neuro science, Marvin was awarded the 2019 Ho-Am Prize for Science, which honors accomplishments of individuals of Korean heritage, along with early career awards from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the American Psychological Association. For his teaching, he has received major prizes from Yale University. Marvin was born and raised in California by his immigrant parents. When he was 12, his family moved back to Korea, where he attended junior high and high school, followed by college WINTER 2019–2020
AARON SACK ’89 lives in Madison with his wife, Amanda Oberg ’90, and their two children, Andrew ’22 and Margot ’24, and three dogs, George, Ringo, and Peggy. He is a managing director of Morgan Stanley and head of Morgan Stanley Capital Partners, a private equity fund that invests in midsized U.S.-based businesses. Aaron graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College, where he double majored in English and French, indulging his love of literature formed at Hopkins. He was a Fulbright Scholar and taught English in France, and has worked in Paris, San Francisco, London, and New York. Aaron holds an MBA in finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. For the last 23 years Aaron has worked at Goldman, Sachs in mergers and acquisitions, Apollo Management in investing, and for the last 12 years as a senior member and then head of Morgan Stanley’s private equity fund. In this capacity Aaron enjoys working with company founders and management teams in investing in the growth of their businesses. In his free time, Aaron enjoys fly fishing, skiing, and playing tennis.
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NEWS FROM THE HILL
Alumni Fellows JULIA MARCHESI ’98 Students and faculty got a peek inside the world of documentary filmmaking this fall, when Julia Marchesi ’98 returned to the Hill on October 25, 2019. Based in New York City, Julia has produced and directed a number of films for PBS that explore race, ethnicity, and immigration, including Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr., The Italian Americans, and Reconstruction: America after the Civil War. Several of her projects have focused on the intersection of culture, the arts, and American history, including two episodes of Soundbreaking, the Grammy-nominated PBS series on the evolution of recorded music. Julia was also the showrunner on CNN’s music-focused history series, Soundtracks, in which she oversaw all aspects of series production. She is currently co-directing a biographical documentary of 1930s actress Mae West, as well as producing and hosting a true-crime podcast series for Gimlet Media, set to launch in early 2020. Julia received a B.A. in history from Yale University, and lives in Brooklyn.
Julia Marchesi returned to Hopkins on October 25, 2019, and offered feedback to students in Mr. Melchinger’s Video Production class.
Please visit hopkins.edu to read more about Julia’s visit to Hopkins in October.
AARON ZELINSKY ’02 , an Assistant United States Attorney and former Assistant Special
Counsel to Robert Mueller, will return to the Hill this spring as a Hopkins Fellow to share his experiences and insights. Aaron has previously served as Special Assistant to State Department Legal Adviser Harold Hongju Koh (Hopkins class of ’71 HGS), and as a law clerk for Justices John Paul Stevens (Ret.) and Anthony Kennedy, as well as Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch of the Israeli Supreme Court and Judge Thomas B. Griffith of the D.C. Circuit. He has taught constitutional law at Peking University School of Transnational Law as well as foreign relations and national security law at the University of Maryland. Prior to law school, he worked as a deckhand on the Brazilian tall ship Tocorime and as a field assistant tracking migratory birds in the Negev Desert. His writing has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, Alabama Law Review, Michigan Law Review Online, Terrorism & Political Violence, and Defense & Security Analysis. He holds a B.A. in economics from Yale College and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
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VIEWS FROM THE HILL
Jean Bennett ’72 DPH Receives Hopkins 2020 Distinguished Alumna Award
Varsity Baseball team
WHEN NEWLYWEDS
Dr. Jean Bennett ’72 DPH, a molecular geneticist, and Dr. Albert Maguire, an ocular surgeon, first conceived of using gene therapy to treat inherited blindness, it was the 1980s and the idea seemed like a distant reality veering on science fiction. Yet, after more than 25 years of painstaking work, perseverance and the kind of patience that only a researcher would know, Jean and her team at the University of Pennsylvania achieved what decades earlier had seemed unattainable: the nation’s first gene therapy that targets a disease caused by the mutations in a single gene. Called Luxturna and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December 2017 and the European Medicines Agency in 2018, it is the first available therapy for patients with Leber’s congenital amaurosis, a severe, progressive retinal disease that, without treatment, can result in total blindness. On Monday, February 10, 2020, Dr. Bennett returned to Hopkins to receive the 2020 Hopkins Distinguished Alumna Award, and to share her story of discovery with students, faculty, and staff. In addition to the eye, projects in Dr. Bennett’s laboratory at UPenn target other organs affected by cell mutations, including the ear and kidney. Dr. Bennett is currently the F.M. Kirby Professor of Ophthalmology, Professor of Cell and Development Biology and Co-Director of the Center for Advanced Retinal and Ocular Therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania. She has a B.S. in biology from Yale University, a Ph.D. in zoology, cell, and developmental biology from the University of California Berkeley, and an M.D. from Harvard University. She and her husband live in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
Athletics Roundup 2019 SPRING SPORTS TEAM RECORDS
Varsity Baseball Record: 14–2 FAA Regular Season Champions FAA Tournament Champions Varsity Softball Record: 10–3 Western New England Semifinalists FAA Regular Season Champions FAA Semifinalists Varsity Track & Field Two All New England Athletes: Nic Burtson (3000M) Jasmine Simmons (400M, Long Jump) Varsity Golf Record: 2–9 Varsity Boys Tennis Record: 9–7 Varsity Girls Tennis Record: 13–1 New England Champions (third consecutive year) FAA Regular Season Champions Varsity Boys Lacrosse Record: 6–10 FAA Semifinalists Varsity Girls Lacrosse Record: 4–10 FAA Quarterfinalists Varsity Girls Water Polo Record: 5–7 Varsity Girls Tennis team
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NEWS FROM THE HILL
Richard Ferguson ’63 HGS Receives the Hopkins Medal
Richard Ferguson ’63 HGS with his wife, Marissa Ferguson, at the Hopkins Medal Ceremony on May 19, 2019.
Though Hopkins has many ways of recognizing its outstanding community members, the Hopkins Medal is its highest honor, bestowed on individuals who have demonstrated unparalleled commitment, loyalty, and devotion to the School. On May 19, 2019, Hopkins alumnus and former Trustee Richard “Dick” Ferguson ’63 HGS was presented the medal by Head of School Kai Bynum at a special reception held in Heath Commons. Joining the celebration were seven previous Hopkins Medal honorees, eight of Ferguson’s ’63 HGS classmates, and an appreciative gathering of family and friends of the Hopkins community. Vincent Calarco, President of the Hopkins Committee of Trustees, cited Ferguson for his unwavering twenty-year commitment as a trustee. He relayed two legendary stories about Ferguson’s generosity as an alumnus and his tenacity as a fundraiser: At a raffle for another organization, Dick won a BMW and immediately signed the car over to Hopkins so the proceeds could go toward financial aid; and while recovering from surgery, he made solicitations for the Senior Parent Fund from
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his hospital bed, wishing to add a livestreamed video component to the call. Classmate and fellow Hopkins Medal recipient Mark Sklarz ’63 HGS recalled their days of 66 boys on the Hill when the campus consisted only of Baldwin Hall, Hopkins House, and the gym: “Whether working at a radio station during your Junior School years or serving as the editor-in-chief of The Razor, your passion, empathy, and principles created an environment of leadership that permeated all of your actions.” Addressing those gathered, Ferguson stated simply and with emotion, “Hopkins was a life changer for me. My Hopkins story and experience would not have existed were it not for the financial aid I received as a student here.” Citing the deep and lifelong friendships he developed with his classmates and the influential teachers who gave him a first-rate education, Ferguson said, “My mission was and continues to be making sure that other hopeful youths can experience the life-changing impact of a Hopkins education.” Ferguson has actively championed and supported Hopkins for more
than 30 years, not only through his generosity but also through his time, involvement, initiative, and good will. He served as a Trustee 1984–1994 and 2011–2018. He founded the Hopkins Senior Parent Fund in 2011 and chaired the Development Committee 2011– 2018. He was instrumental in founding the Hopkins Distinguished Alumni and Fellows Committee in 2005, and is a longtime member of the Class of 1963 Reunion Committee. Ferguson founded the Donald P. Ferguson Memorial Fund in honor of his brother, who died in Vietnam. He also established the Franklin and Virginia Ferguson Fund, and his generosity helped establish the Karl Crawford Scholarship Fund, the Ib Jorgensen Scholarship Fund, and the Class of 1963 HGS Scholarship Fund. Ferguson was also honored by Hopkins for his professional accomplishments in the field of radio and television broadcasting when he received the Distinguished Alumnus award in 1998. Ferguson lives in Westport with his wife, Marissa. They have three children, Ben, Callie ’11, and Quinn ’14. Read his entire speech at hopkins.edu/ferguson.
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
ALUMNI
Commencement 2019
Friday, June 7, was a wonderful day on the Hill to celebrate the 359th Class of Hopkins School. Under a big tent, surrounded by family, friends, and the entire Hopkins community, 130 members of the Class of 2019 donned their maroon robes, received their well-earned diplomas, and stated the traditional Tibi Gratis Ago phrase. Senior Class President Madeleine Walker ’19 gave the Salutatory address, and Alex Hughes ’19 delivered the Valedictory address.
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ALUMNI
Alumni Weekend 2019 Hopkins celebrated Alumni Weekend on May 31–June 1, 2019, with more than 600 alumni and guests returning to campus for their reunion. Alumni from the classes ending in 4 and 9 attended a luncheon under the tent and special programs led by Hopkins faculty; played in the Alumni lacrosse, baseball, and softball games; enjoyed family activities; and culminated the day with dinner under the big tent.
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VIEWS FROM THE HILL
By the Numbers
The Hopkins Universe Every fall, on Orientation Day, the Head of School greets new students to Hopkins, welcoming them to a very special, and sought after, community of learning, where intellectual curiosity thrives, individuality is encouraged, and lasting bonds of friendship are formed.
16,482
STUDENTS HAVE ATTENDED HOPKINS SINCE 1660*
6,976
HOPKINS GRAMMAR SCHOOL 1660–1972
1,889
THE WOMEN’S SCHOOLS 1907–1972:
54
MISS GLENDINNING’S SCHOOL 1907–1916
262
MRS. DAY’S SCHOOL 1916–1938
493
THE DAY SCHOOL 1938–1960
467
PROSPECT HILL SCHOOL 1930–1960
613
DAY PROSPECT HILL SCHOOL 1960–1972
7,617
HOPKINS SCHOOL 1973–2019 *Record of attendance, not graduates. Compiled by Thom Peters, Hopkins School Archivist WINTER 2019–2020
The Parente Family Shares an
athletic legacy WHEN YOU WALK THROUGH the first floor of the Walter Camp Athletic Center, team photos dating back to the 1944–1945 school year of Hopkins Grammar School adorn the halls. For some Hopkins alumni, those photos show not only the history of Hopkins Athletics, but the history of their families. The Parente Family is one such family. Oscar “Ozzie” and Wendy Parente both graduated from Hopkins School in 1975, and were each three-sport athletes; Ozzie was on the cross country, wrestling, and tennis teams, while Wendy (Florentine) played field hockey, basketball, and lacrosse. The pair were high school sweethearts, and married after college. Fast forward a few years, and three of their four children attended Christine Parente ’06 Hopkins, where they were also multi-sport athletes: Oscar Jr. “Ozzie” ’05 played soccer, basketball, and baseball; Christine ’06 played soccer, field hockey, and lacrosse; Stephanie ’09 was on the soccer, basketball, and lacrosse teams. Parents Ozzie and Wendy share fond memories of their time as Hopkins athletes, and truly enjoyed bonding with their teammates. Ozzie added that he has “very fond memories of three coaches who, I believe, were amongst the very best coaches Hopkins ever had: Coaches Clay Hall, Ralph Kirchofer, and Bill Ewen.” Ozzie and Wendy were thrilled to get to experience Hopkins Athletics from the parent perspective while their children were students. One poignant experience Wendy was able to share with her daughter was that of being a team captain; both
I loved walking into the Athletic Center and seeing my parents’ photos on the walls… it always made me feel proud.
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she and Stephanie were Varsity Girls Lacrosse captains in their senior year. “It was very exciting that Stephanie was a lacrosse captain like I was,” says Wendy. Stephanie echoed that “sharing that with my mom was very special.” Each member of the Parente family looks back at their high school athletic career affectionately, and shares that their time on the courts and fields of Hopkins taught them lessons they still use today. “I thought Mr. (Kevin) Hart was an amazing coach and someone who taught me about being a tough competitor and a good sport,” said Ozzie ’05. “He was unapologetic about challenging you as an athlete, as well as a math student, and he did it in a way that caused you to truly respect him.” Christine added, “Hopkins sports taught me to appreciate being active and to also remember to enjoy it!” Ozzie ’75 feels that one of the things he learned through Hopkins was the value of gamesmanship: “The coaches I had insisted that we always treat opponents and teammates with the utmost respect. Hopkins athletics taught us good sportsmanship, behaving graciously in both victory and defeat.” One thing all of the Parentes can agree on is the importance of seeing themselves and each other in those team photos that line the halls of the Athletic Center. Christine stated, “I loved walking into the Athletic Center and seeing my parents’ photos on the walls from when they went there. It was so special to me to see them there—it always made me feel proud.” Ozzie ’05 currently coaches Boys Soccer at Taft, but says his favorite thing is being able to go back to Hopkins, albeit as an opposing coach, and seeing all of their photographs in the hall. Hopkins Athletics is a part of the Parentes’ family history, and Ozzie ’75 hopes that future generations of their family will continue their legacy. “Someday hopefully, those pictures will include our grandchildren!”
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
RIGHT: Ozzie Parente ’75 and Wendy Florentine ’75 at their senior prom in 1975. BELOW: The Parente family (L–R): Ozzie ’05, Christine ’06, Ozzie ’75, Wendy ’75, Stephanie ’09, and Rebecca.
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CLASS NOTES
HOPKINS GRAMMAR
MRS. DAY’S
DAY
PROSPECT HILL
DAY PROSPECT HILL
HOPKINS SCHOOL
1660–1972
1916–1938
1938–1960
1930–1960
1960–1972
1972–Present
1948 HGS Marvin Arons msarons@optium.com
1949 HGS Robert Archambault thearchambaults@optonline.net
We had no attendees at our 70th reunion! Health, distance, and timing were probably major problems in this decision. Stay home and stay healthy! Our last copy of Hopkins’ Views from the Hill included the reporting of the deaths of three of our classmates that I was not aware of. They are Rich Abt, Kurt Cylke, and Al Ives. Al came to many reunions, plus sent me occasional notes and Christmas cards. Can’t remember about Rich or Kurt. Unfortunately, Dick LoRicco passed away on April 17 in New Haven. I knew Dick pretty well, and he was instrumental in my going to Providence College. He gave me an application and we both went there, along with Bob Marrinan and Joe Obymachow (post-graduate of Hopkins). Dick was a successful lawyer and was also involved in various significant real estate and business ventures. He also was a good reunion attendee. Our original graduation Class of 51 now shows 17 active, 32 deceased and two unknown: Joseph Aitro and Robert Miles. If you are doing daily exercise, please do not stop! If not, start please.
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1950
70th Reunion HGS, PHS, and DAY—May 29–30, 2020 HGS Robert DeFeo rhdefeo@att.net
From Jim Colby: “My brother, Terry Colby, who was at Hopkins for a shortish time in the Class of 1952, will be celebrating, with his wife, Penny, their 60th wedding anniversary later this month at Sunapee, New Hampshire. Both my daughters and their families and I, all based in the southeast of England, plan to join in that family celebration. I hear from Wayne Weil an intimation of our 70th reunion next spring, and hope that I may be able to reconnect with the class on that occasion.”
DAY and PHS Alumnae interested in serving as correspondents for either the Day School Class of 1950 or Prospect Hill School 1950 may contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins.edu.
1951 HGS John F. Sutton johnfsut@aol.com
Summer is winding down. Here are a few news items about our class: Paul Brown reports that he made his 34th appearance marching in his village’s Fourth of July parade, a memorable experience for him. Many of his VFW friends and comrades, he says, were riding in convertibles with pretty girls. Paul notes, “It might be time for me to pass the flag to one of our more recent war veterans (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.), but I am proud to do it and enjoy the wonderful response from our local citizens to all veter-
ans who participate in this event. This year, we were honored to have a 97-year-old vet of the Normandy landing in our ranks (riding in a car).” Dick Lunt and his wife, Carmel Merrill, enjoyed wonderful three-season visits to their cottage on Keuka Lake, one of the Finger Lakes in New York State. Herons, ducks, and loons were their neighbors. In the fall, their focus shifted to music and theater in Rochester, New York. John Youmans writes, “We are spending the summer months as usual at our country house on a fjord in the south of Norway, where our children and grandchildren have been visiting for a few weeks. Plenty of outdoor activity, boating, and trying to keep nature in check, and the weather has been perfect.” Terry and Frank Foster, our world travelers, have chosen Patagonia, Argentina, as their next destination. We have previously written about Wick VanHeuven’s book The Eye… Window to the Body and Soul: An Ophthalmologist’s Odyssey. Call Wick (772-321-1457) to receive an autographed copy. Dick Wilde reports that he and Carla celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary in June. Their grandkids have flourished in Simsbury, Connecticut, both being on the honor roll at Simsbury High School and exhibiting some noteworthy traits while growing up. Grandson Colin is now 18 years old and a recent high school graduate who shortly will head off to Keene State College in New Hampshire. About 10 years ago, Dick introduced Colin to astronaut Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the moon. During dinner, Alan and Colin conversed privately, and afterward Alan told us “Colin is a very deep thinker. He asked questions that no adult has ever asked me!” Granddaughter Lauren is now 17 and a rising high school senior. She is considering a career in nursing. Several times while still in grammar school, she was able to calm
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
an agitated ADHD boy by gently touching his arm, thus allowing him to stay in class instead of being sent to a “quiet room.” During this 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Dick is contributing to and enjoying the reminiscences of his friends and colleagues who were part of that historic achievement. [Editor’s note: Dick has written two essays about the Apollo mission—too long to be included in this column. Ask Dick to send you a copy: richardcwilde@snet.net or 860-6589926.] Your editor continues to deal with a variety of illnesses, most notably Parkinson’s disease, seeing physicians on what seems like a weekly basis and keeping pharmacists busy. Grandchildren have interesting occupations: Dana runs a website devoted to chess. Carolyn is serving in the Peace Corps in Mexico. All the best for pleasant fall and winter seasons.
PHS Joan Haskell Vicinus joanvicinus@yahoo.com
From Jane Karlsruher Shedlin: “My news is that Laurie, my youngest daughter at 55, just got married, and I am thrilled for them. Next news is that Adam, my 22-year-old grandson, just out of college, joined the Navy and is stationed for the next four months aboard the hospital ship Comfort, in Peru and Ecuador, as a medical corpsman taking care of people from Venezuela who need medical assistance. As for me, I’m okay and dealing with something new—COPD. Lack of breath is not fun, but I do have oxygen to help me along. I’ve learned that when life hands you problems you just have to do your best and go with them.” This is a message sent by Tammy Fenn, Mary Rossman Jordan Bird’s daughter-in-law: “Mary is fine, healthy and happy. She and a friend have been doing some gardening, and the Yarmouth (Maine) yard is a heaven of color and beauty. Mary and Dave are currently considering a move to a place that may be better capable of supporting her needs but until then, she enjoys receiving letters at her current address. She hopes that all is well and wishes everyone the very best.” Tammy also mentioned that Mary no longer has an email address. And here is a word from Susan Hilles Bush: “I’m at Westport, Massachusetts, this summer seeing family in bits and pieces and Gladys Bozyan Lavine for regular dinners. Last fall was a trip to Italy with two sons and my sister-outlaw, starting in Venice and end-
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ing in Florence, the city I went back to see in May on a Harvard Art Museum trip, so I have finally grasped some of its art and history. With my son Jon I hope to go on a boat trip from Barcelona, Spain, to Lisbon, Portugal, in October—my last trip abroad? Hope to see people passing through Boston, Massachusetts, and at our 65th reunion (for some) this May. Love, Sukie.” This is a brief update from Susan Adams Mott: “We hope to join our children and grandchildren at Saranac Lake for a week of fishing, boating, lacrosse, and mountain climbing (they do the latter; we don’t!) in the Adirondacks in early August.” I talked with Gladys Bozyan Lavine in early August, and she admitted to having had a very cold and difficult winter and has finally taken the steps to sell her house. This is a piece of really sad news for us all, to say goodbye to our beloved place of reunions and happy times relaxing and eating and re-bonding. However, we can certainly understand her necessity to get out from under the heavy responsibilities of a large house, its taxes and maintenance. A good portion of the grounds are in conservation easement, which means that there can never be a development on the site, thank heavens. Gladys’s plan after the sale is to join up with her daughter, Rebecca, and grandson, Ari, and jointly search for a dual-living kind of space in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Gladys would be happy to live on her own but have family nearby and the freedom to go out her front door into a thriving city of food and shops and all the other excitements of city living. Look for a new address, and we wish her luck. From Elizabeth DeVane Edminster: “I am kept very busy here at Ingleside (in Washington, D.C.). I have been President of the Resident Council, which has been interesting but very time-consuming. Lots of interesting people here, and foreign service backgrounds. I had a lovely visit from Gladys (Gladys Bozyan Lavine) and Sukie (Susan Hilles Bush) in the spring. Children and grandchildren are close by, which is a blessing. David is doing well, but sadly has little memory of our good times abroad. I wish we could get away to the Vineyard, but traveling gets more difficult.” I, Joan Haskell Vicinus, am continuing happily amid all the perks of an active retirement community in Exeter, New Hampshire. In August, I returned to my old haunts in Holderness, New Hampshire, living for the month with my sister Anne
Haskell Knight PHS ’53. While there, all the
family gathered to remember the life of sister Lois Haskell Stratton PHS ’52 (deceased November 2017) and the interment of her husband Will’s ashes in the woods by the lake between houses. So many changes as life moves on.
DAY Alumnae interested in serving as correspondents for the Day School Class of 1951 may contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins.edu.
1952 HGS Matthew Smith elmatt56@msn.com
Our reliable, articulate correspondent Dave Steinmuller reports from Montana, “Compared to other parts of the country, we’ve had a mild summer so far with no extremes of heat or cold. Patti and I continue to enjoy our life in Bozeman: lots of cultural events—music, dance, plays, etc., lots of good restaurants, bakeries, and coffee houses, and lectures almost every week on interesting subjects because Bozeman is the home of Montana State University. Did you know that I love classical ballet? I’m on the Board of Directors of the Montana Ballet Company, which performs two full-length ballets each year, The Nutcracker of course around Christmas time, and another ballet, such as Snow White or Cinderella, in February. And then the main reason we moved here: easy access to hiking and skiing in the nearby mountains, biking country roads, and just getting outside.” John Noonan writes, “I am enjoying life in New York and happy to let you know that I have recently had a number of medical procedures, all of which have come out okay.” This is a recurring theme among our classmates… can’t be surprised that no one is big on details! Roy Wells continues actively in real estate development in his (and my old) hometown of Shelton, Connecticut. He’s in occasional contact with Bill Cramer and Burt Brockett, both reportedly alive and well at this writing. Two sad items to close this installment: Bob Conniff’s daughter, Cathy Hubbard, reports that Bob died this past May 27. He passed peacefully at home surrounded by family, and is survived by three children, 10 grandchildren, and 21 great-grandchildren.
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He started Woodbridge Boy Scout Troop 907 and served as Scoutmaster during its first five years, and was an active member of the Woodbridge Volunteer Fire Department for many years. Bill German’s wife, Jean, communicates, without further detail, that he passed away in March 2018. They lived in Mad River, California, for many years. He graduated from the University of Maine with a degree in forestry, and had been in the log hauling business in California. Regards to all, and please keep those calls and emails coming in!
DAY and PHS Alumnae interested in serving as correspondents for either the Class of 1952 DAY or the Class of 1952 PHS may contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins.edu.
1953 HGS Hal Hochman kappieh@aol.com
Most of us, as we age, become less active. Not Allie Malavase, our class all-pro, who was recently named to the Rochester Softball Hall of Fame, and claims he still shoots his age in a game of golf. Congratulations are in order. Allie is for sure our class magician. In contrast, thanks to a nagging back, I am slowing down. But I still manage the back and forth between New York and New Hampshire. I shall try, next time, to have more news. But what I have depends on you, so keep in touch. First requisite: keep breathing!
DAY and PHS Alumnae interested in serving as correspondents for either the Class of 1953 DAY or the Class of 1953 PHS may contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins.edu.
1954 HGS Jess B. Davis Jr. JBDavis@md.metrocast.net
PHS Peggy Graham Beers peggy.beers@gmail.com
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DAY Alumnae interested in serving as correspondents for the Class of 1954 DAY may contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins.edu.
1955
65th Reunion HGS, PHS, and DAY—May 29–30, 2020 HGS Woolsey S. Conover Jr. woolcon@aol.com
From Bob Porter: “Those of us in the Class of ’55 can remember that we attended a school proudly known as Hopkins Grammar School. This has entitled us to claim, with some degree of honesty, that we all ‘entered college directly from grammar school.’ Whether this boast made us smart, or simply smartass, was usually left in question. We all know that some years after we graduated, HGS started admitting women and also started admitting that they should not really call themselves a ‘grammar’ school. Believe it or not, the formal name of our wonderful school caused me a problem late in life. When I fully retired some years ago from teaching, Judy and I started living at our home on Bald Head Island, North Carolina. Bald Head Island is a three-mile-long pile of sand a couple of miles off the coast of Southport and is the extreme southeast part of the state. It is also the anchor of the famous Cape Fear and a former lair of pirates and numerous tourists and other scalawags. What is important to this story is that Bald Head is home to 200 fulltime residents (a figure that balloons to about 6,000 in the summer months) who need to have protection against fires on an island that is only reachable by taking a half-hour passenger ferry ride. Therefore I became a firefighter, albeit rather late in life, and drove a ladder truck to all alarms until leaving the island last year. Being a volunteer firefighter for more than 10 years meant weekly training sessions and numerous state-administered tests of proficiency. In order to have the test results formally registered in Raleigh, North Carolina, an applicant must provide a copy of his/her high school diploma. While I was able to provide a copy of such achievement formally titled ‘Hopkins Grammar School,’ a form letter of rejection was immediately sent back. Copies of my bachelor’s degree from Tufts and MBA from Wharton failed to move the bureaucracy! Their standards are very clear. ‘… Mr. Porter, we must have a
copy of your high school diploma.’ Over the years, three different fire department chiefs attempted to get me registered at the state level. In the meantime, I have happily driven my big red truck down the tiny byways sounding my air horn and siren with enthusiasm. Heady stuff for a fellow who could only swim backwards when on the HGS team!” The following note and corresponding story from Bill Branon: “Allow my offer of what follows. It’s an article I penned that was published in a slick magazine a few years back. Yesterday we had to put down our rescue Lab, Lina. Ouch. It occurred to me that our ’55 age group is frequently and finally and perhaps solely involved in a love affair with these sweet companions. Perhaps some of our classmates would appreciate reading it. Loneliness has a nasty bite. Revenge may be best served cold, but loneliness is downright inedible [see box]. The following from Don Buell, a resident of that great town of Framingham, Massachusetts: “I am setting up a blog on Wordpress to promote my mystery/ romance novella on ‘Wattpad,’ a story-writing website. I think I’ll scan my graphic novel and feature that there. Thanks for giving me an outlet.” Don, you should connect with Bill Branon (billylolly@earthlink.net), who is also now writing a novella set in the American Southwest, titled Lali and the Tigers. He has asked me to read/review it and I have been woefully derelict in completing my assignment (sorry, Bill!).
PHS Lucie Giegengack Teegarden teegarden_lucie@comcast.net
Dear classmates: This is an updated version of the class news column I submitted in February. Gremlins interfered, and that column never went to print. I think we would all love to have some news of more of our classmates, so please consider sending me an email update or request for a U.S. mail address. If you’re not fond of email, you could send me a note c/o Donna Vinci, Hopkins School, 986 Forest Road, New Haven CT 06515, and she could forward it to me. Our next deadline for Class Notes will be in February. Wonderful holiday letters from Anne Haskell Knight (our “Pickle”) and Vicki Meeks Blair-Smith ’54 brought us up to date on their interests and families. The Knight family remembered and celebrated the life of sister Lois Haskell Stratton ’52 PHS in several gatherings. Pickle included news of
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
her children—Chris, Catie, and Julie and their families. The ten Knight grandchildren are a varied crew with interesting talents. Four have graduated from college, pursuing careers in Air Force intelligence, social work in a major hospital, accounting at a health care management firm, and the recent graduate beginning her work in cinematic arts as a blossoming film director. Four others are in college majoring in dance choreography, French and economics, nursing, business, and one is just entering college on a soccer scholarship. The youngest will be finishing his year in high school next June. Anne’s own time is devoted to supporting Lew as he manages health issues while continuing her work on the board of trustees of the Durham Library. In November, she treated herself to a birding trip to New Mexico, where she saw 117 different species and subspecies of western birds. She says she’s now a convert to birding, which puts her in league with Judy Buck Moore, who traveled to Ecuador for a spring birding expedition. Judy particularly enjoyed the mountainous Andes landscape and vegetation. Notable bird sightings included many species of colorful hummingbirds and the Andean condor, which has the largest wingspan of any land bird at roughly ten feet. Vicki Meeks Blair-Smith entered PHS with the Class of 1954 but spent a year at school in Switzerland and returned to join our class and graduate with us. Her Christmas note reported that husband Hugh continues to be very active in sailing and boating endeavors, teaching coastal navigation and serving as captain of the Boston Navigators Club. As a former Apollo engineer, he was also interviewed and featured in a WGBH special on the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8. Vicki and Hugh celebrated their 50th anniversary in August. Son Rob and family are in Illinois and daughter Caroline and Andy are still working for Outward Bound and are based in Maine, along with their 29 sled dogs. Vicki has been actively researching family genealogy and history and has discovered her German Kohler relatives, including one still active in the Kohler & Frohling wine business, founded by a greatgreat-uncle in California in the mid-1800s. I, Lucie Giegengack Teegarden, remain busy working on other people’s books but haven’t given up hope of putting my own family history into some sort of written record. I had a wonderful Christmas celebration with all of my kids, in-law kids, and grandchildren (nine
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To the Dogs… By Bill Branon ’55 HGS Damn dogs. Always hustling you for a crust at
weeks back about the dog that woke up the
the table. Nagging you for an early morning walk
Indiana couple when their house caught on fire.
in that delicious last hour of Sunday-morning
The couple escaped by climbing down a balcony
sleep. Dog hairs Velcroed to your black sweater.
support. The dog didn’t get out.
Mud on the carpet. Barks in the night. Pee holes
And when Charka died, I typed an article
in that patch of green you euphemistically call
for the San Diego Union the next day about her
a lawn. Damn dogs. I suppose it’s the same no
passing. I used the word ‘typed’ because that’s all
matter what kind of pet you’re saddled with. Cat
I did. She ‘wrote’ it. The phone didn’t stop ringing
or kangaroo. Monkey or mare. Parakeet or python.
for two weeks. That article walked across the
Maybe different kinds of irritations, but irritations
country over the next two years. Newspapers and
all the same. They have a hell of a nerve. I just
two magazines reprinted it.
happen to be cursed with dogs. The dog we have now, Wiley, was picked
By some peculiar twist of fate coincident with the request from Las Vegas Life for this essay, I
up cowering in the median strip of a Southern
received a letter just 10 days ago. Though it says
California highway. Picked up by my wife three
more than I want said about some of my friends,
weeks after our old dog, Sam, died. Picked up
it also says something about these things called
despite my threats not to get another dog, since
dogs: ‘… When your packet arrived, I was halfway
we still owned a two-year-old German shepherd.
through Ken Kesey’s Sailor Song. When I read
We inherited the shepherd, a dysplastic wonder
about Charka, and about how she had dropped
named Charka, from our youngest son, who
Sam’s ball into his grave, I couldn’t maintain. I
discovered that his landlord would put up with a
cannot now, as I write this. It seems so weird that
six-pack of grungy, foul-mouthed surfers but not
someone like myself, who can cap another human
with a dog.
being as easily as sneezing, can come to tears
I knew Wiley was trouble right off. After a
when thinking about a dead pet because you put
short quiescent period, what I would term the
Charka’s death into a frame of reference I’ve so
dog equivalent of boot camp, I watched him,
often experienced.’ That from a Vietnam vet, a
one night, stalk into the den and pull a pillow
U.S. Marine.
off the couch. He had just been scolded by my
So, maybe country singer Tom T. Hall isn’t
wife, Lolly, for some indiscretion. With a sideways
too far off: ‘Ain’t but three things in this world
glance at me (some sort of male communication
/ that’s worth a solitary dime / but ol’ dogs and
regarding females), he crept into the kitchen
children / and watermelon wine.’ In a skipper’s
where Lolly was doing the dishes. He inched up
lonely stateroom, Captain Raymond Helms of the
behind her and dropped the pillow on the floor.
U.S.S. Prairie and his doc (me) listened to those
Then he backed off several paces, eyes never
lines more than a few times as the Prairie trekked
leaving my wife’s back. He let out a sharp bark.
through mile-deep Pacific nights to Westpac duty.
Lolly, startled, whirled around. Her foot caught
So maybe we were both getting a little soft in the
the cushion and she fell flat on her duff. Wiley
head. That happens to old guys, you know. Sea
barked twice and raced off, Lolly in hot pursuit.
dogs.
She was yelling the kind of words that reinforce
After 60 years of observation, I think I’ve
my belief that she was a bosun’s mate in a former
figured out what makes dogs special. Like us,
life. And animal behaviorists get excited when
though much less choosy, a dog simply wants
they see a chimpanzee use a stick to dig bugs out
to belong. And that’s as sweet a definition of
of a log.
love as any. Someone once asked me what my
Sure, these things called dogs have their
idea of heaven was. I wasn’t thinking too clearly.
moments. Like that night in Korea, up on
Must have been the gin and tonics. I said that I’d
Nightmare Range. I had just lost a good friend
settle for a nice green island with big trees, grass,
and was sitting alone on a sharp rock with a
and rabbits needing to be caught. Maybe like
cigarette and a busted heart, trying to put it
one of those islands up in Washington State, off
all in perspective. This no-account mangy dog
Whidbey. Just me and all those dogs that I knew,
came out of nowhere and nudged my hand and
now gone to earth. Charka. Boots. Holly. Sam.
lay down next to me. She stayed with me for
Bonny. Jojo. Ding. Max. Barney. Whiskey. All the
an hour. An important hour. Probably looking
rest. Damn dogs.”
for a handout. And that story in the news a few
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teenagers! until one turned 20 in July)—20 of us in all—here in Brunswick, Maine, a rare treat and much fun for all. Oldest granddaughter is now a junior studying lemurs at Duke (and in Madagascar this fall), and the four high school seniors are packing up and heading off to college—Colby, Clark, Hofstra, and University of Oregon at Eugene. The other four are all in high school, but just one senior this year. This has been a year of Giegengack family gatherings both sad and joyful. In early April, as many family members as possible traveled to Syracuse, New York, for the funeral of John Jureller, beloved husband of my sister Mary Giegengack Jureller ’57 PHS. Mary and John had planned a beautiful celebration of his life, and we treasured spending time together and supporting one another at this time of loss. Another family group headed to Ireland in June for a daughter’s wedding, and then in August, I had the pleasure of meeting my sister Jane Giegengack White’s four little grandchildren, ages 6 to 3. The occasion was my brother-inlaw Bob’s 80th birthday celebration, which brought his whole clan to Maine for a week. Great to see them all!
DAY Alice Watson Houston alice.houston@yahoo.com
Stonington, Connecticut, where I, Alice Watson Houston, live was a hub for summer guests. Carolyn Hess Westerfield ’50 PHS visited from her summer residence in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. Gathering for lunch with Suzanne Boorsch ’54 PHS and Anne English Hull, we arranged to meet at the concert performed by my stepdaughter Diana Higbee, an operatic soprano. She flew from France to sing for Opera in the Park of the Salt Marsh Opera on the village green beside The Kate in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Classmates take note that we have our 65th reunion in spring 2020. Mary-Alice “Bamboo” Koplik Solzman ’55 PHS and I attended our 60th at Smith College last May, and had good fun reminiscing.
1956 HGS Stephen Raffel tuleton@sbcglobal.net
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FROM LEFT, Joe Schwartz ’57 HGS and Alan
Cadan ’57 HGS, friends since 1954, celebrating their 80th birthdays together in Botswana.
DAY and PHS Alumnae interested in serving as correspondents for either the Class of 1956 DAY or the Class of 1956 PHS may contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins.edu.
1957 HGS Alan Cadan alancadan@mac.com
Peter Hart advises that after 25 years in the Adirondacks, by Labor Day he and Carole will have relocated to a more senior-friendly environment in Fort Myers, Florida, where Carole can enjoy the best in beaches and shelling and Peter can immerse himself in more golf courses than any other area of the country. Here’s his new email, in case any of you are venturing south and would like to stay in touch: pmhart39@gmail.com. John Lunt reports that he and Jane are continuing their activity as active volunteers/docents at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, where just being in that beautiful setting gives them great pleasure. In September, with hopes that the heat wave that has plagued Europe will have ended, they have a trip planned to Alsace, Normandy, and Brittany in France, including touring the Verdun and Normandy battlefields. Ed Cantor and Rise, joined by Judy and Dave Ryan, traveled to Israel in March. A third couple in their party were Mormons, so Ed reports they formed a tight ecumenical group and had a wonderful time. Allan Chasnoff writes that he had been
bedridden with a herniated lumbar disc for four months this past spring/summer, and finally had successful surgery on August 16, resulting in no more leg pain, and says “feeling great… hi to all my classmates!” Skip Borgerson and Gerry celebrated their 80th birthdays and their 60th wedding anniversary. Their children honored them with a surprise week for the whole family at a house on White Oak Pond in New Hampshire, a special place for them that holds many fond memories. Now they’re anxiously awaiting their 70th anniversary! Terry Malcom writes: “With a difficult medical year now behind me, I feel ten years younger and am looking forward to playing a round of golf with my grandsons as soon as I can round them up! Joanne and I celebrated our 42nd wedding anniversary in August, and I couldn’t be more happy and thankful and feel truly blessed.” Ed Westbrook: “I’m still attending in the Neurology Resident Clinic at University Hospital of Cleveland. Got involved in trying to smooth out some management problems in our condo building of more than 170 units. Not only did I get elected by the homeowners association, but I became president of the Board right out of the gate… Interesting challenge, but it is a lot of work. I told the HOA that I did not need a job, am never bored, and that I am older than Biden. None of those comments made any difference. Still playing golf actively and as often as the time and the weather allow, and row a machine for activity in the off months. There is hope. Doing photography and am reading voraciously. Hope all of you remain well in the troubled medical challenges of the next few years.” Ford Daley: “We have moved to the Village of Wilder, Vermont, part of Hartford, Vermont—a very lovely neighborhood—and we are lovin’ it. Going back to Hanover High School as a supervising aide with the fresh crop of freshmen… the hope for our future. Otherwise, life is sweet, and we will see what happens after Oct. 6, the dreaded birthday. What will fall off?” Joe Schwartz writes that he “joins with the Class of ’57 in mourning the recently disclosed loss of an intellectual icon that informed, molded, and turned our teenage and young adult ‘wiseassery’ (to quote the New York Times) into an art form and an institution. Say it isn’t so, but MAD Magazine’s announcement that it would cease publication of new material is a bitter pill to swallow and a devastating blow to the commonwealth. Can it be that his para-
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
digm of irony, satire, sarcasm, parody, and subversive comedy is really no more? RIP Alfred E. Neuman. On a more personal note, I’m now off to Central Park to impart to the many visitors my love and the lore of New York’s crown jewel. I meet folks from all over the world and engage in fascinating conversations.” Lynn and Alan Cadan, together with Joe and Marilyn Schwartz, traveled to southern Africa for a safari in Botswana, coincidentally celebrating Joe’s and my pending 80th birthdays. Overhearing our wives talk about our ages, the staff at our first camp baked a surprise cake in our honor and sang a great rendition of “Happy Birthday!” While we were together in four different camps for the first two weeks with Joe and Marilyn, Lynn and I traveled into Livingston and Zimbabwe for our final week, where close interaction with wild elephants, leopards, and lions was not to be believed! The wildlife sightings, weather, accommodations, and the interesting folks we met along the way validate why safaris continue to be our vacation of choice! On the home front, we’re busy helping to plan our son Adam’s wedding in December and, looking back over the years, we realize how lucky we’ve been that 56 years of marriage have given us four great children and four grandchildren.
DAY and PHS Alumnae interested in serving as correspondents for either the Class of 1957 DAY or Class of 1957 PHS may contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins.edu.
1958 HGS Dan Koenigsberg dkoenigsberg14@gmail.com
By the time you read this, the leaves will be changing and the fleece vests will have come out. Right now, it is still summer and the weather has been glorious on the Connecticut shore after a soggy and cool spring. At least, my hydrangeas and geraniums appreciated the effort. There have been no fewer than two gatherings of the Class of 1958 over the past six months, one at Hopkins and the other courtesy of Bonnie and Jim DeLucia. The usual suspects and a new one or two were treated to a sumptuous luncheon in July at the DeLucias’ East Haven, Connecticut, beach house. Needless
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to say, there was much discussion of how much Hopkins has grown and expanded over the years, and now appears to be more like a small college campus. There was talk of grandchildren and inevitably of health and aging, although we looked pretty good as a group IMHO (in my humble opinion, for those not that internet savvy). The group consisted of Chris Doob, Bob Kolb, Dick DeNicola, Gordon Daniel, Fred Wintsch, John Schneider, Jim Cohen, Jim DeLucia, and Dan Koenigsberg, most of whom came with spouses or significant others. We missed Taber Hamilton, who was unable to attend, and there was talk of rare Tom Falco sightings. Jim DeLucia had us in stitches with his account of the imaginary Hopkins “rice plunger” as follows: “If you remember our fairly formal lunches in the basement of Baldwin Hall, each table had a first and second waiter. The primary duty of the first waiter was to fetch the food from Charlie Billings’ kitchen and, along with the second waiter, place the serving dishes on the table. When the table was cleared and the dishes brought back by the first waiter, it was the second waiter’s responsibility to sponge off the table, which was problematic when it came to rice and peas, given the hard, shiny surface. My first week at school in the third form as second waiter, I was having a particularly hard time with rice, which would invariably get squished with the sponge. Dave Hummel, seeing the trouble I was having, suggested I go to the kitchen and ask Charlie Billings for the ‘rice plunger,’ which, being wet behind the ears, I did. I don’t remember Charlie’s reaction, but imagine it was pretty wild. Chris Doob reported that the second edition of his treatise, Social Inequality and Social Stratification in U.S. Society, an impressive tome on economic and social disparity, was being published over the summer by Routledge, in America. Chris noted that the book was longer than expected, “not surprising considering the ongoing explosion of events involving wealth and income inequality, deficiencies in health care, racial and ethnic conflict and women’s rights and oppressions.” As an interesting if coincidental counterpoint, Dave Branon weighed in quoting a friend on how the “fervor for socialism is driven by the naive assumption that we… can at last make socialism succeed… its previous failures attributable only to the lack of sophistication of prior generations. But the failures of
Lunch with Bonnie and Jim DeLucia ’58 on July 25, 2019, at their home in East Haven, Connecticut.
earlier efforts are attributable to socialism’s inherent stifling of the basic human instinct to attain success on an individual level. Take that opportunity away and the economy collapses. When it inevitably does, everyone suffers.” Certainly would have made a most lively debate at a ’58 get-together. On the class news front, Fred Wintsch visited his family in Zurich, Switzerland, followed by a cruise through the “micro-climates” of Bordeaux and Normandy, and ending with a visit to the Isle of Wight in the English Channel. Bob Kolb continues to perform on the saxophone with his jazz band, and your Scribe can vouch for his sonorous talents, having recently heard him perform at a restaurant in Guilford, Connecticut. His mellow sounds would definitely be competition for Tommy Dorsey. Jim Cohen has three grandchildren, one a Yale sophomore who sings in an a cappella group. Jim has been taking courses to keep his mind going (a problem he did not have at Hopkins, as I recall). If I have this correct, he recently authored part of a new flood insurance law (which may explain why I have to pay so much for my home insurance). In what has to be considered a milestone event for our class, Dick DeNicola reported that one of his sons is now retiring after a long career (having grandchildren is one thing, but children who are pushing 60 is another). Of his four grandchildren, one is a track star in California, and another is at Amherst College. Meanwhile, the Schneiders spent two very pleasant weeks on Block Island, Rhode Island, with their two teenage grandchildren, as they have annually. Dave
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Hummel continues his quest for visiting all
countries, and over the past year, has added destinations in Oceania and the coasts of Africa to the 175 notches in his belt. He was off to Ireland in September on a Yale-related educational collaboration with schools in that country. Gordon Daniel looked hale and hearty after having recovered from a heart attack in November 2018. He was the proud owner of four cardiac stents and has shed 25 pounds. “Gordo” and Gayle were looking forward to visiting his son in the Czech Republic this past summer. This summer, Dan Koenigsberg visited the Greek Islands whilst singing with the Yale Alumni Chorus. The venture included concerts in Athens, Rhodes, and other islands. Dan has three grandchildren under the age of 6. So, keep the news coming. Reading these class notes will hopefully spur you on to send in an account of your latest activities. No matter how mundane it may seem to you, we are all curious about what you and your family are doing. In the meantime, tibi gratias ago and pax nobiscum.
DAY and PHS Alumnae interested in serving as a correspondent for either the Class of 1958 DAY or the Class of 1958 PHS may contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins.edu.
1959 HGS William F. Dow III wdow@jacobslaw.com
It was Thomas Wolfe who said you can’t go home again. Well, Tom, as far as our class is concerned, at least for those of us who showed for our 60th Reunion, you missed the mark. Those who did show, and I think I have it right, were Charlie Adams, Steve Boies, Bob Dickie, Willie Dow, John Malone, Steve McDonald, Nate Milikowsky, Bill Oldakowski (rhyming couplets), John Pouzzner, Al Rogol, Jim Shanbrom, Truman Sherk, Joe Waronka, and Michael Wilder. Mary Lou Adams, Carol Shanbrom, Jane Harman, Diane Waronka, and Sandy Zieky joined in. And as they say, a good time was had by all. But in reality, that understates it. First, kudos to Dickie for putting together the Friday night dinner at Mory’s (no, Eunice, the Catholics did away with meatless Fridays decades ago), which was the highlight of the
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The Class of 1959 HGS celebrated its 65-year milestone during Hopkins’ Alumni Weekend on May 31 and June 1. Alumni had a chance to reconnect, reminisce, enjoy the festivities and tour the beautiful Hopkins campus.
weekend. If you were not there, I guarantee you were remembered, almost certainly by name, and more than likely spoken well of in detail. If you started with our class and didn’t finish, you were also remembered— think Maclean, McClees, Leitis, Seymour, Selsnick, and more. The topics of discussion were unlimited. Work scholars: Charlie Nash smoking cigarettes in the furnace room with some of the faculty; Charlie Billings in the kitchen, drying silverware, running the dishwashing machine, tearing down after chapel. Bill Corbett, whose hands felt like cinder blocks when you shook them. Faculty: Hank Christensen and Herb Bainton throwing erasers/chalk at those who were a little too enthusiastic and vocal; Mr. Luther; Mr. Weber, Latin scholar and bus monitor and producer of Hopkins’ version of a Mel Brooks romp in Latin; Ed Brown; Buddy Erich; Mr. Rood; of course Miss Carver—swamp, fen, morass; Miss Barton; of course Mr. Sherk— we were after all his first class at Hopkins— how he shoehorned many of us into colleges. (And, as a personal aside, I have the honor of being the first member of our class to be sent to his office, a notable event about which my parents were then unable to withhold their delight.) Heinz Lenz and his attempts to engage in a productive dialogue with Jimmy Gagliardi. Athletic Achievements: Adams in soccer; Malone as well. Malone has now erased the state discus record. Sandy Mack’s skill in the mile; McClees’s sprinting. Oldakowski’s baseball scoring record
and, as he relates it, a too-dinky curve ball to go far beyond Hopkins. Traveling in Nate Milikowksy’s baby blue Cadillac convertible to baseball games. Mismatched football opponents whose athletic dominance was punctuated with scatological observations about our limited abilities and similarity to barnyard fecal material. And more: Al Rogol, our resident medical expert, arriving at a time when our medical needs have become more prominent, filled us with information about things we hope we will not be needing. McDonald, not content with cornering horse-racing in Southern California, has somehow convinced Malone to get involved in stud farms. Waronka, comfortably ensconced in smalltown Michigan, keeps a sharp eye on the market which, once this is published, will be of substantial interest to the Hopkins’ Development Department. Shanbrom is running around after grandchildren and, of course, continuing to stand on his head for any number of charities. Pouzzner, amazingly, still coaches tennis—not full-time but in season—outside of Orlando, Florida, in an inner-city school. Wilder and Sandy spend time here in Connecticut, some in Florida and some in New Mexico with his daughter and grandchildren. Rogol is the éminence grise of the Charlottesville, Virginia, medical community and still manages to lecture at events around the globe. Dickie, in pre-electronic terms, has the biggest Rolodex I know. He keeps in contact with more people from Hopkins, college, and beyond than anyone
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I know. He and Jane Harman travel with frequency between Washington, D.C., and Boston, Massachusetts. Charlie Adams still has family back here, and after the reunion would spend a couple weeks in western Massachusetts.
DAY and PHS Alumnae interested in serving as correspondents for either the Class of 1959 DAY or the Class of 1959 PHS may contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins.edu.
1960
60th Reunion HGS, PHS, and DAY—May 29–30, 2020 HGS Alumni interested in serving as a Class of 1960 HGS Correspondent may contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins.edu. PHS Tricia Swift TSwift@grubbco.com
News from my PHS ’60 classmates is scant this time around, but here goes: Ursula Goodenough writes that she is “entering her third year of retirement on Martha’s Vineyard and thoroughly happy with this final (?) life chapter. Two daughters and five grandchildren live there; three sons and three grandchildren in Paris, France, Virginia, and Colorado. A wonderful add-on is Tricia Swift’s move to Boston, Massachusetts—we connect often for concerts and companionship.” I, Tricia Swift, am still immersed in science projects; also sing in two choruses, do volunteer projects on the island, and travel in the winter. It’s all good. And I share Ursula’s delight in being close enough to visit and go to concerts together. Her house on the Vineyard is cozy and filled with art and objects from her family’s home in New Haven. Ruth Osterweis Selig and I were at Tanglewood in July—she writes that she didn’t go to the Wellesley reunion this year, but was just with a Wellesley classmate out at Tanglewood. “The reunion (55th) was much smaller than the 50th, but the programs were good, particularly a dialogue with Hillary Rodham Clinton and Madeleine Albright, moderated by University President Paula Johnson. Also a good panel on aging, which seems to be the topic of the day!” Ruth is typically at Tanglewood for six weeks each summer doing grandmother duty
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while daughter Deborah Selig and son-inlaw Greg Zavracky (both renowned vocal soloists in the Boston area) teach/coach at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Ruth and I were both at a terrific Jean-Yves Thibaudet Saturday morning rehearsal in July without connecting—my fault entirely as I had spaced on her being there. I am determined to visit Ruth in Washington, D.C., this year. Ann Hummel Hoag writes that she just had a wonderful family reunion in Atlanta, Georgia: “Son Tom and his wife, Liz, and their 15-year-old twin girls came down from Maine, and activities centered around son Andrew and wife Janey’s home in Dunwoody, Georgia. Andrew’s girls are 14 and 15, so everyone is roughly the same age… such fun for the four girls. We are off to the Canadian Maritimes in early September for a ten-day trip of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. We do also stay in close touch with my brother, David Hummel ’58. We saw David and Cindy last September in Taos/ Santa Fe, New Mexico, and then again this spring at the Biltmore Estate (home of the Vanderbilts) in Asheville, North Carolina. We will see them again at the Teton Music Festival next summer.” Ann and her husband moved to a senior community almost four years ago, “an adjustment for sure,” she says, “but a very positive one.” I, Tricia Swift, am beginning my second year at Lasell Village in the Boston, Massachusetts, area, a senior community with emphasis on continued learning. I have enjoyed classes in literature, history, and sciences and love having time to read. In June, I took Hannah Swift (almost 16) to Barcelona, Spain, for a terrific week. For the third year in a row, I’ve gone to Santa Fe for a week of opera with dear friends there. In the fall, I will begin another student adventure at the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement (in Cambridge, Massachusetts), with courses on Frederick Douglass as well as “Reading the New Yorker,” both of which promise to be enlightening. I am loving being close to children and grands, and quite happy with the relief of no longer owning a home! As Ursula says, ‘it’s all good.’” Mary Louise Long writes that she continues to create paintings and monotypes, and has a show this fall (through September 22) at Art/Place Gallery in Fairfield, Connecticut. She has titled it “Reflections,” and you can enjoy her work by going to her website, marylouiselong.com. In addition, she reports that she enjoys her
garden and 9-year-old grandson, Timothy, who is a delight. Phyllis Light Ross writes, “When your email arrived, I had no special news, but that changed a week later when I received an invitation from the University of North Carolina Press to submit my book manuscript for consideration in their African American Studies list! Yes, African American Studies, since the subject of my research, begun in 2013, is a black textile studio and workshop active in the 1960s–70s whose designs were inspired by African art and artifacts. It will be a while until there’s an actual book, but it’s very promising.” Ever delightfully loquacious, Anne Goodwin Draper pounced on that news: “Phyllis, I am so excited for you. Please let us know when we can have this book!” Anne herself has also been quite creative. She reports the following, “I had a heart scare at the beginning of the year. Then before that was tended to, my daughter had serious major life-changing surgery in February. I stayed with her (and her family) at Emory Spine and Orthopedic Hospital for three weeks. When I came home, I went into the hospital for heart shock stuff which didn’t work until the fourth time. So—forget all that—I was inspired to take on a new hobby since I was so uncomfortable in the hospital. I now make comfort pillows for the cardiac patients and the ER patients in two hospitals. I was fortunate enough to have a husband bring me what I wanted, but so many are not, and they are scared, lonely, and sad. Now they get presents, in gift bags, to hug and hold for comfort. My daughter also inspired this because she uses about six different shapes and sizes to get comfortable. She is doing very well, thank you, and plans to visit here in September for Jerry’s 80th. Yikes! Did we adorable girls really marry such old farts?” Anne is also, with a friend, starting a “Write Now” writing workshop, “to keep the brain cells firing in our little town. We are ready to start in September. (I waited until the school supplies went on sale.)” So carry on, creative and productive classmates! And plan to come to New Haven for our—yikes—60th Reunion on May 29–30, 2020, so we can really chat it up and catch up.
DAY Kathleen Euston keeuston@me.com
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1961 HGS Bob Kessler bobkessler@yahoo.com
DPH Valerie Banks Lane capecodwoman43@gmail.com
Hello dear friends. Here we are at the fall side of another year, and I am going to turn 76 tomorrow, although by the time we read this I will be an old hat at being 76! Malitta Knaut wrote that she now has two miniature horses and is interested in driving and showing them, one of which she hopes will become a therapy horse and go around to nursing homes and hospitals making people smile. She says her sister is in a nursing home and doesn’t have much to interest her in things, but lights up when she starts talking about Levi, her first miniature horse. Anita Fahrni-Minear wrote from Switzerland that she spent three weeks in Dhaka, Bangladesh, at her daughter’s house. On returning home, she came down with dengue fever and spent a week in hospital, but is fine again. Now she is concentrating on placing people to teach English or German in Mongolia and—a new interest—writing short stories for Mongolian children. She is again looking forward to December in her cottage in Vermont. Phoebe Ellsworth says that she has no new news, “and I suppose at our age, no news is good news. I retired in January but am still doing some writing and advising, which suits me fine. We got a puppy in May—she has the energy of the Tasmanian Devil. We don’t.” Joy Haley Rogers wrote from sunny southern California that she went to New Haven in May for her granddaughter Haley’s graduation from Yale in environmental engineering. Haley is now working at Wright Water in Denver, Colorado. “It was a mini family reunion as we (son Carlin, his wife, Amy, and Amy’s mother) stayed with my sisters Chris and Pat. We all took a day to go to New York to visit the 9/11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center. Pat’s son, Terry, and his wife and daughter joined us there. It was my first time meeting Freya (1 year).” Rives Fowlkes Carroll wrote that she finds herself in possession of boxes of family papers that she has finally been tackling. She thought that she could just sort and distribute, but she finds herself reading
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them all and becoming fascinated by the lives, stories, and connections she never knew. There is material for another book, she says, at least about her mother’s father. But she will have to leave it to someone else to be his biographer. I wrote to her saying that I think she should try to write it while she is so taken with it. Her other book was very moving about her father. I cried when he died even though of course I knew he was going to die before I even opened the book! And finally Rives wrote that Muriel Miller Merenda ’64 DPH, Carol and Rives’ youngest sister, died recently after a long illness. She was in a class a few years behind us at DPH. I send my condolences to both Rives and to Carol (Miller Rand) too. Rives says that meanwhile, they are visiting their 100-year-old aunt in California regularly. Sally Henrickson Shaw and I had lunch at Wimpy’s in July when she and her family were vacationing at Popponesset in Mashpee, Massachusetts. We had a great time catching up on what has been happening in our lives. Sally is going to be traveling on a Scandinavian holiday in September. We talked about traveling and our common interests. Sally wrote that she recently ran into Debbie Bassin Fletcher ’59 PHS at the Farmer’s Market in Marblehead, Massachusetts, where she lives. We are both getting ready for our soon-to-be-experienced adventures. Ellen Powley Donaldson lives in West Falmouth, Massachusetts, every summer but we haven’t seen each other since her 75th birthday last September, when we met for lunch at Bleu in Mashpee Commons. She spends the rest of the year in Palm Springs, California. I am going to drive down to her house next week to see her before she leaves again for the West Coast. We always have a great time, talking for two hours nonstop. There is a bond that is formed when you have attended high school together, especially when it was such a small school. There were only 33 in our graduating class. But Prospect Hill and then Day Prospect Hill, and I’m sure Day too, before we all merged in our senior year, were wonderful small nourishing places for us to be nurtured as young women. For me, Valerie Banks Lane, it was a great place to grow up. I formed lasting friendships too that I have enjoyed all my adult life, as well as new friendships with those of you whom I didn’t know well while attending DPH. Writing this column is great fun for me,
mainly because I hear from many of you and I enjoy that very much. Jim and I are going to be leaving on the Queen Mary II on September 15 for England and Scotland. I am looking forward to visiting the land of my MacReynolds ancestors. Next year I’d like to go to Provence, in France. And Jim and I will celebrate our 57th wedding anniversary on Nov. 3! As I write this column, it is the eve of my 76th birthday and I have decided to have a small, impromptu 12-person birthday party for myself. We are going to have chicken piccata, catered from Wimpy’s, and my friend Mary Ellen is going to make sangria, both white and red. Another friend is bringing the cake. It is going to be such fun. I think we need to celebrate being 76 and still in (fairly) good health! As Rives said, “We’re so lucky to still be having birthdays.” And so, friends, until the next column, I bid you Adieu.
1962 HGS Marshal D. Gibson mgibtax@aol.com
From Kerry Triffin: “Life is going exceedingly well for me. I am not re-tired (I don’t see myself as having been tired before and nor am I tired now). Rather, I rather see myself as reflecting* on the past and charting a new course**. Having acquitted myself honorably (as I see it) of several major obligations, including Fair Haven Furniture, which my wife and I gave to two key employees including my nephew (we now consider FHF to be one of our grandchildren rather than one of our children), the path ahead of me seems almost daily larger, richer, ever more stimulating and enjoyable. *Etymologically, the word reflect has to do with bending back or turning away. It’s about looking at something from a different perspective. **Charting a new course is about planning a direction; the end destination can change.”
DPH Judith Parker Cole judithparkercole@gmail.com
Hello Classmates! Mary Jo Cipriano Amatruda writes, “I have been involved with a group helping an asylum family from Mexico get situated in New Haven. Amazing to see the way a community can pull together. It is inspiring. Back to New York City in the fall after a summer in Branford,
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
Pat Gimbel Lewis ’62 DPH and Pam Gimbel Lehman ’62 DPH vacationed in Maine in August 2019.
Connecticut. I’ll be continuing to give tours at the Met and am planting seeds to get involved in working on voter registration as a start to the election work ahead. We now have both our kids living in Texas and a grandchild (fourth for us but first for our son) expected in October. It will be a busy fall! Dear friends have left this realm this year and two more are near leaving. I have a hard time accepting they are no longer in this world with me… I am grateful that, for today, I have the gift of time to appreciate the natural gifts that surround me.” MJ also said that she and Roberta “Buzzie” Lawrence got together in New Haven over the summer. From Terri Petrillo Connolly: “Frank and I are keeping busy. We spent three months in Estero, Florida, and had a lovely visit from Ann Carter-Drier. We took advantage of the warm Florida sunshine and had a lot of fun reminiscing. We think Ann enjoyed the break from the cold Wisconsin winter. Hope all our classmates are doing well.” And a special update from our class twins, Pat Gimbel Lewis and Pam Gimbel Lehman! Pat wrote, “With some trepidation, we enclose today’s twin picture (August 2019) from the shore of Lake Mooselookmeguntic in Maine, the idyllic place we have summered in for 75 (!) years. The wonderful log cabins are now Pam’s, but twin sisters have special privileges. Pam’s older son and family are here now, along with two of her younger son’s kids and a few extra Dartmouth football players—lots of cooking—and of course our tolerant and compatible husbands. The younger crew will be replaced in two days by
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Judy Parker Cole ’62 DPH celebrates her 75th birthday in Maine with her dog, Baxter, in June 2019.
Pat’s daughter, spouse and four kids (10 and under). Different noise level. We thoroughly enjoy our ‘little family’ (vs. larger progeny of five other siblings), and often spend time together here, in New York, and in Miami Beach, Florida (where we share a fun pied-à-terre). Being mostly retired gives us more time for all this. The good news is that there’s not much new in our worlds (politics aside…). Driving by New Haven on the way to and from Maine brings back memories. Best to all, Pat and Pam (in order of age).” My own news (Judy Parker Cole, your faithful correspondent) is that I enjoyed the month of June in Maine, at the small seaside village of Ocean Park, where my great-grandparents first brought my mother as a baby in 1912. One son and family now have their own two weeks after mine, so six generations of our family have spent time loving this modest little village by the sea. Stay tuned: For the next issue, I think I’ll throw out a few questions—What gives you special joy as we enter this new 75-plus age, and what keeps your courage or strength up, when life gives us more inevitable challenges? Stay tuned!
1963 HGS Ron Groves groves18@gmail.com
Somebody oughta [sic] write a country song about Fred Martz. A year ago, he was parading his tractor in Killingworth, Connecticut. Now he’s an old-time model railroad engi-
neer. Last winter he restored and rewired his 1950s vintage Lionel train set, mounting it on a 5-foot by 6½-foot layout. “All the equipment dates from 1950–1958, except for the poultry dispatch car,” he wrote. “The layout includes two interconnected loops, a passing siding, a bumper track for the gang car, and a short storage siding.” His trains had been in storage for the past 60 years. “There are several additional pieces that I purchased on eBay,” he added, “most from the 1950s, along with a brand new Bluetooth-controlled LionChief New Haven Railroad set.” The locomotives in the collection represent the major manufacturers of the mid-twentieth century: General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division (EMD), the American Locomotive Company (ALCO), General Electric, and Budd. “It has been a lot of fun working with the old and new model trains and spending time at the three railroad museums in Connecticut, learning about equipment from the heyday of American railroads,” he concluded. A couple of years ago, I must have written that Bob DeLucia had retired. Was I ever wrong! After having served as senior economist and portfolio manager for Prudential Retirement, and, prior to that, chief economist and senior portfolio manager at CIGNA Investment Management, Bob now publishes an economic newsletter and continues to work as a consulting economist for a select group of clients, which rank among the leading financial institutions in the country. In August, the homies continued our tradition of getting together for our semi-annual lunches, which enable us to trade yarns and romanticize the past. The regulars included John Gordon, Mark Sklarz, Bob DeLucia, Vining Bigelow, Jim Scialabba, Fred Martz, Frank Loehmann, Dick Ferguson and Ron Groves. This time we ate at Modern Apizza, which Loehmann recalled had been next door to Lund’s Shoe Store, his father’s business. Upon hearing this, Ferguson was wondering if he could still return a pair of ill-fitting shoes. Don’t worry, Dick. I think there are quite a few people who would like to walk in your shoes.
DPH Carol Stock Kranowitz carolkranowitz@gmail.com
We are a creative and productive bunch. Lynne Davis Lyons’ creative outlet is her beautiful perennial garden in Michigan. She and Mark, now recovered from triple bypass heart surgery, enjoy volunteering at
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a food pantry serving the local community and, especially in the summer, migrant workers who come to work in the vineyards and orchards that Leelanau County is known for. Lynne is also involved with the local library and delights in taking frequent mother-daughter trips with Molly. Although Robin Isakson Martin claims that she is “not really creative at all,” her development of two new modules for educators, using iconic Chinese scrolls to teach about the dynasties in which they were created, certainly sounds original! One scroll was painted circa the year 1000 when China, under the Song dynasty, was the most advanced civilization in the world. afe.easia.columbia.edu/songscroll/song.html. The other module, “The Grandeur of the Qing,” at afe.easia.columbia. edu/qing/index.html, deals with dozens of scrolls that two great Qing dynasty emperors commissioned to record their tours of the realm along China’s east coast. Robin says, “The Qing scrolls were stored away in the Imperial Palace, not displayed, but destined for posterity, to show the world the grandeur of the Qing dynasty. We are the posterity, and we are using the scrolls precisely for this purpose, to teach the next generation that China was no backward place when the British and others arrived in the mid-1800s and launched the Opium War. We hope these modules will help educate about what a rich background the Chinese are drawing on to return to their premier stature in the world!” With great anticipation, I, Carol Stock Kranowitz, am producing the translation of The Out-of-Sync Child into Spanish: El Niño Desincronizado: Reconociendo y Enfrentando El Trastorno de Procesamiento Sensorial. Sensory World will publish it in early 2020, and ¡No puedo esperar!
1964 HGS Michael Adelberg mga@aya.yale.edu
We have a surprise entry this month (“wait for it…”). But first, some unfinished business. The previous issue of Views from the Hill included many responses to the narrative submitted by Fred Smith Jr. I inadvertently omitted one of those, from Jim Walker (C. James Walker III). As these remarks were going to press, most unwelcome news arrived of Jim Walker’s passing. To judge by
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Fred Smith ’64 HGS (CENTER) with Risë Nelson ’94 (LEFT) and Rashanda McCollum ’94 during Alumni Weekend.
the number of friendly recollection notes that immediately flooded in, Jim may have been the most universally liked of any of us. Perhaps some or all of those should be printed next round. Meanwhile, Jim’s response to Fred Smith from January 19, 2019: “My best to all. My family, Jennifer, Quinn, and Summer, are all fine to the best of our collective knowledge—this is about Freddy Smith. Fred, I knew of no one who might have thrown rocks at you on the Hill and, were any of your classmates to have become aware, I am nearly certain we would have dispatched with the individual in short order. A follow-up story, of which I am proud: post-Hopkins, at the institute of higher learning known as Colgate, 1966 junior year, my fraternity (Lambda Chi Alpha) took two Black youths and one Jewish lad into our pledge class. We were quickly notified by national fraternity headquarters in Indiana that our acceptance was not permissible and, shortly thereafter, the three top mucky-mucks came out to ‘visit with us.’ The three Indianan officials arrived on our doorstep and lugged their overnight bags in, expecting fraternity accommodations… wrongo! Five or six of us quickly returned their luggage to the curb outside, our meeting with the officials lasted no more than 10 minutes, and we wished them a safe flight home. Thus, our fraternity chapter was closed, but all of us stood united together against racism, and those surviving members of that time would be proud of that stance today. Sorry, Freddy, for what you had to endure, apparently in silence. Never in
silence again.” The string continues with a new submission from Fred Smith Jr.: “It’s been two months since this year’s reunion, our 55th, and the events and memories still swim in my brain. Unfortunately, no one from our class, other than myself, attended, at least as far as I could tell. There was one other member of the Class of 1964 who was called to have his picture taken at the Saturday dinner, but no one responded. That was disappointing, because I finally had some positive feelings about the school to share, thanks in large part to the responses by you classmates to my earlier post and in equal measure to the reception that I was given by other Black alumni, as part of the Hopkins Black Alumni Network receptions. When I was in college at Columbia, I was part of a group of interesting, intellectual, fun, young Black men and women (Barnard). This was a group that checked off all the boxes of what it was like to be a youthful Black person who understood the issues confronting Black people at that pivotal time in our country’s history, who came from similar Black communities, who were rigorously intellectual, but who could also be outrageously funny. I found that same general mix among the Black alumni I met during reunion weekend. And, because I have rarely encountered that combination of qualities in the preceding years of my life, it was an extreme turn-on. No other way to describe it. It is hard to explain to nonBlacks, really non-persons-of-color, what it is like to experience the coming together of others like ourselves. It is hard to explain to non-Blacks that Black people like myself are perpetually in resistance mode. We are resisting the daily onslaught of what I have heard called micro aggressions: the slights, either intentional or due to what many of my Black peers might term attitudes of white entitlement, which are hurtful in a variety of ways. They may be overtly jarring and cutting or like many of our modern devices, they turn on later, when we have had an opportunity to reflect on what was said or happened. Or we may be unsure to the point of confusion of what was meant. This creates a tension that makes it difficult to be as open and emotionally available with whites, as we might like. No Black person that I know of wants to go around seeing all Whites as implacable enemies, so we try and relax the suspiciousness, which sometimes serves us well. But we run into instances where people
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
who we consider to be friends say things, having obtained a measure of openness with us, which frequently cause us to recoil. I have a former Facebook friend who appeared to be very sensitive to social justice and other progressive issues, like myself. She was talking to me about her daughter in Hawaii, who was having a child custody battle with her husband over their autistic son. After separating from her husband, her daughter subsequently met another guy, who had become her boyfriend. While doting on my friend’s daughter, the guy, who had six children, seemed to be fairly unconcerned about seeing his children, who had moved to Virginia with their mother. The guy was bi-racial, and when I asked my friend about his seeming nonchalance about seeing his children, she said to me, ‘well, you know he’s half Black.’ I was taken aback. I asked her what his half Blackness had to do with his attitude toward his children. She said to me, ‘well, I’m not racist,’ not that I had accused her of being so. I should have asked why she didn’t describe him as being ‘half White,’ but I was too jolted by her comment to think to say it. This is just one example from a 55-gallon-drumful I could provide, if they weren’t so hurtful that I have subconsciously tried to forget them. I am sharing all of this, classmates, with you now, because otherwise you might not understand the joy I felt being welcomed by my Hopkins Black alums who have had similar experiences. I can feel invested in the school for the first time since I graduated 55 years ago, because there are central feelings in my life that I now know others who have climbed the Hill have also felt. I am no longer alone. Again, I am thankful for the emails of support from all of you. Your words of comfort matter. Hopefully, many of us will get to hang out at our 60th reunion in 2024. Keep practicing your dance moves!” Moving now to additional items submitted July 2019: Paul Thim Sr.: “As I write this, it is the day before my wife, Sandy, and I leave for France and our daughter’s wedding. It is also one week after my last day of work; I am now officially retired. And just three weeks ago I was in Munich, Germany, for a long weekend to attend the wedding of a German woman who lived with us for a year when she was a high school student, fourteen years ago. After our daughter’s wedding, our son will be getting married this October on the coast of South Carolina, where his future
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in-laws live. I think of myself as someone who lives his life in a consistent, steady way, putting one foot in front of another, without a lot of drama. This year is anything but that. It is turning out to be one of the most eventful years of my life and, for now at least, I consider myself very fortunate. We will see what comes next.” Robert Guthrie writes, “Thank you for getting in touch. Much of my energy has been consumed being of use to my 92-year-old mother and 96-year-old aunt (her sister). My mom is in a dementia care facility in Columbus, Ohio, and my aunt still lives independently in Somers, New York, so there is a lot of driving involved! When not doing that I’m working on the family genealogy and have taken three trips so far to sites where my ancestors lived, fought, and died. It’s my way of trying to connect with my past. Both of our daughters are now closer to us—one here in Roanoke, Virginia, and one at Lake Norman in North Carolina, which is wonderful.” Bill Ablondi: “I think the best headline for me is ‘Living the Dream.’ I’m still working because I enjoy it; thankfully all of our family members are healthy, and my wife, Nancy, is able to join me on business trips to arrange adventures in between my business meetings. In fact, the reason why I missed the 55th reunion was because we were on a three-week-long trip around Europe! We loved spending weekends and days off in Paris, France, Stockholm, Sweden, and Cornwall in western England. Nancy and I are looking forward to spending some time in the Adirondacks at our family’s ‘camp’ with family and friends for the next couple of weeks. We’ll be playing some golf, enjoying margaritas on the dock and then continuing our adventures to Europe in the fall. I too consider myself to be very fortunate and I wish the best for all of you.” John Morgan: “My dog, Jack, and I have just returned from a five-week visit with my daughter, son-in-law, and little grandson in San José, California. Mike, I drove through Sacramento, which, I believe, you call home. I also drove through Carson City, Nevada, where I believe John ‘Bearcat’ Walker will soon be living. Perhaps on one of my future road trips, I’ll stop to say hello to you both. I will be returning to San José in October in time for my grandson Zain’s third birthday. Most likely, I’ll remain in California through December. In November, I will welcome my second grandson to the world.” John
“Bearcat” Walker: “I’m still planning to
escape from California, but making slow progress. Between various ‘procedures’ and the humdrum maintenance of everyday life and the (necessary) recreational trips and activities, it takes forever to get anything done. Fortunately, I’m stubborn and will eventually prevail. My ‘plan,’ such as it is, is to go up to Carson City, Nevada, and rent a house, then spend as much time there as I can in between medical appointments and such while I decide what part of the area I want to settle in, then go ahead and make the move after I find the right area and property. Meanwhile, I’m still in San Diego (there are worse places to be stuck, I suppose), so should any of you be passing through, be sure to come by. I have a nearly always empty guest room and would be glad to see you.” Mark Blumenthal says he encountered Bruce Nichols at the recent reunion. Wendy and Bob Reilly managed to get a message through from their current travel destinations. There are strong internal indications of censorship, but—reading between the blacked-out lines—the gist may be something like this: Wendy and Bob, both volunteers at the International Seafarers’ Center in Brunswick, Georgia, have had some interesting conversations with foreign travelers that might be summed up as “lost in translation.” Bob recounts driving a group of Russians into town, during which he informed one of the passengers from Belarus that he had, in fact, been to that country: “‘Why you go there… business or pleasure?’ the passenger asked. ‘A little of both,’ I glibly replied. ‘Wendy and I went there so we could get extorted by the military, which halted our train until we paid a bunch of dollars.’ ‘Yes,’ my seafarer said, ‘They do that.’ One of the other guys said, ‘They eat just potatoes in Belarus,’ and everyone laughed at this especially Russian joke. You see, when traveling, it is very important to have a senseless phrase or two. In Germany, ‘I am a donut’ or ‘What kind of hotel is this?’ In France, ‘It stinks in here,’ is a winner. There are many more where these came from. Yet language may also be a problem. Once, in Romania, Wendy and I had to look at guns in a guy’s car trunk, and then he said, ‘We do shots.’ I thought, ‘Holy heck. No Romanian phrases to prevent being gunshot victims,’ but in a minute or two, after saying ‘shots’ over and over, he clarified that he just wanted to share some fine local liquor, not
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shoot us… Language, language, language. Yesterday, fifty pilot whales stranded on one of our beaches, swimming to us on a high tide. Humans came and rolled or dragged them back into the ocean, saved them for a change, no harpoons but lots of selfies. They were seen at least five miles away swimming to the deeper sea. I wondered why they came, what they were about. Sometimes, when you’re on a cruise ship, one of the large whales, maybe almost a blue, floats alongside and looks into your eyes with his giant eye, with curious compassion and love of a sort. The whale transmits these things (ineffable in our imprecise awareness) by a kind of telepathy, I suspect, mixed with his songs. Whales send sounds, whistles, certainly, five thousand miles through the ocean, in spite of stupid human sonar and ship noise, ocean static. I suspect they beached themselves, trying to reach us, with compassion trying to warn of disaster for our primitive race, with frustration that we cannot understand their songs. Saving them may save us.” James Seymour, after a prolonged silence, emerges to report: “I thought I would send along more of a telling of ‘me’ as a ‘being’ rather than a ‘what’ I am doing. Here ye be… Fifty-five years ago, I reluctantly trudged up the Hill for the first time, and the air around the huge basketball court half-dome that high was stifling, oppressive, and depressing for my physically, emotionally, and intellectually immature self. Formality, a mound of books, and the almost-tyrant headmaster greeted me that dark autumn morning with the shivering thought/question: What am I doing here without my public school buddies, wearing a tie noose and other clothes like the uniform my Dad wore to his law office every day? I ultimately took an extra year at HGS due to an unreadiness (my parents and the HGS faculty squad concluded thusly) for the private school world of greater learning opportunities. So, the over-the-shoulder view now—lo, a half century plus later!—displays a tapestry of impact that is humorous, out-of-sync somewhat with who I became, and a humbling acceptance that I got a good education in spite of myself and the austere environs of an institution still rooted in ‘humility-learning,’ rather than a place championing the gusto for an evolution of the mind, social self, and movement toward a rounded adulthood. Clearly, those early 1960s in the Yale New Haven pod of classism
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muted the light and potential energy of an ADHD lad, because the more primary agenda was to pump out Ivy Leaguers and college-prepared stereotypes. Many of the teachers knew of no other ways to oversee their academic charges, whereby ‘people’ may have emerged in 1964 readier for the wild and beautiful unpredictability of life. The commuter train, regimental striped ties, and the business realms were not an elixir for students or persons of my ilk. I kind of went the way of all flesh after HGS to learn myself and ended up in the Yukon Territory of Montana, where I laid hands as a psychotherapist, after traveling the globe some and through one marriage into another one. I have one blood son, and his life, upbringing, and nurturance as a human being were my main purpose for 18 years. Now he is 41, happy, and plying his ‘trades’ of family, a Denver, Colorado, media-arts business, and a zest for taking bites out of the universe’s multiple apples. I don’t know if I shall ever climb the Hill again for a reunion, because HGS is not really a ‘destination’ or even part of my remaining journey, but I might. I have four wonderful friends still living in the New Haven area—thus, a reason to visit and possibly walk the HGS grounds. Strong and unencumbered (neither religiously nor politically) education centers are so worthy if the freedom for understanding is wide open and invigorating, period. HGS wasn’t always that way, even though the intellectual growth potential had, obviously, a substantive curve. My present life of reading, physical activity, writing, travel, friends, family, and love is rich; and I could not/dare not, I reckon, ask for more. And as I look over the seven years of HGS influence on my landscape, career, and ‘mind-heart-soul process,’ I am not sure it cut much of a swath in my various paths. But, perhaps, it has, and I just don’t see it. The HGS reality has certainly not been one I have pursued to replicate, and yet it might have been a ‘teacher’ of sorts for me to ‘avoid’ in a lot of ways—so, an unintended beacon, ironically. And that is a good thing. My Dad was a good man, a role model in some ways, and generally meant well, but he wasn’t a particularly ‘present’ father or guide. Joyfully, I took from that ‘absence’ and turned it into an attentiveness as a parent—a thankful illumination in a sense by default. The appreciation of HGS may be a similar back-door lesson, as I am not bitter about the
HGS direction way back then—just contemplative about the experience and realistic about the HGS mantra of those days of ‘scholastic laddering,’ rather than ‘diverse human beingness growing.’ It was also, again, a long time ago. Regardless, HGS was a landmark (since I spent three quarters of my adolescence walking its halls); and that too was probably a good thing for my compass… Oh well, onward we all go into the late September of our years!” Michael Adelberg responds: “That is a remarkable, highly thought-provoking assessment, well worth waiting for! It deserves some equally thoughtful responses, which I hope to receive next round.”
1965
55th Reunion HGS and DPH—May 29–30, 2020 HGS Tom Delaney tfed3rd@gmail.com
From Jeff Alderman: “Life has been pretty chaotic. My wife, Shizuko, and I are readying ourselves for a move to San Francisco, California, after 10 years in Portland, Oregon. As lifelong big city dwellers, we find the diversity and conveniences of a real metropolis hard to resist (sorry, Portland). As our late August move date looms, we also find that we’ve forgotten what a pain the process of packing and downsizing is. Given San Francisco real estate prices, our new place is a fraction the size of our Portland house, so every day brings difficult decisions about what we can keep and what must go. No matter… as in Portland, Hopkins friends and colleagues will always be welcome, so keep us in mind if you come to San Francisco.” From Tom Burkhart: “Nothing new to report from here other than Florence storm damage is almost fixed with the dock finally done.” While others may understandably rib those of us who remained in New England regarding the rugged winters, Gordy Clark and his family are thoroughly enjoying the current season, with the kids cycling through with their families. There’s definitely a reason the Rockefellers and Bushes summered in Maine! Gordy is planning to fully retire at the end of next June. He thinks it’s a good idea to hang up his spurs while he’s still riding reasonably tall in the saddle both physically and mentally, and is looking forward very much to our 55th reunion next year!
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
Tom Delaney continues to enjoy retirement,
re-learning old, stale, and outmoded tennis habits, and experiencing the joys of (paying for) home renovation projects. A couple of months ago, he and his wife, Sandy, had the pleasure of joining classmate Gordy Clark and Gail in Pacific Palisades, California, for dinner, wine, and reminiscing. This get-together has turned into a yearly tradition when Gordy visits family in the Los Angeles area. Dick Hutchinson has played golf with classmate Jim Waterman a few times and admits that Jimbo is a much better golfer than he is. Further, Hutch has found time to visit with Mark Esposito at a local Branford, Connecticut, beach club, and has also talked with Bill Sarris prior to Bill’s relocation to Naples, Florida. Finally, Hutch has been busy performing sailing race committee work and judging races. Dick is looking forward to our upcoming 55th reunion, which will be here in no time at all. Bob Jose reports that his Old Lyme, Connecticut, summer is warm and sunny, the golf is okay, and Long Island Sound is perfect for swimming and kayaking. In the future, Bob will be playing golf regularly with classmate Doug Romero. Dave Kiphuth has been very active musically this summer. He’s played at two Bluegrass festivals and will be an instructor at a traditional music camp for the week before Labor Day. Right after that, his New England Bluegrass Band is playing Labor Day weekend at the big Thomas Point Bluegrass Festival in Brunswick, Maine, just beyond Portland. (Gordy Clark lives in Portland, Maine. He should attend.) Dave is also painting and enjoying life, my kitties, and his lady friend, with whom he spends most of the time at home in Eliot, Maine. To top all that off, Dave also plays the fivestring banjo with the Bolt Hill Band. John Mordes is still working part time, seeing patients and doing genetics research on Type 1 diabetes. So far this year, he has traveled to Cuba, Malta, and Sicily. As always, John has been consistent by actively reaching out to classmates, and he’s looking for more materials for our website, hgs65.org. He’s now negotiating with Hopkins School to transfer our class website (we are one of very few) to them, so our history can exist in perpetuity, or as long as the school, and the planet, make it. Paul O’Connell reports that there is not much going on in his world right now, except, just as with the rest of us, having to deal with multiple medical appointments
WINTER 2019–2020
Billy Walik ’65 HGS sends a photo of his barge on the Seine River in early May, adjacent to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, in France.
related to issues of aging. Paul was asked to submit a chapter on his experience as a platoon leader in Viet Nam (RVN). The author, William Brown, said that he wants to concentrate on the role of junior decision makers/ leaders in that conflict. The author has written two other RVN history books, so at least he has a track record. Paul’s wife, Ann, has been pushing him to write about his overall experience in the counterespionage/ counterterrorist world. This may give him the needed incentive. Paul finished his class note input by exclaiming (for my benefit) “Beat Navy!” with reference to this writer’s Navy background. Roger Poor has put off retirement for the time being and has taken on a rewarding new job. He has recently been appointed as chief financial officer at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (csbaonline.org), a non-partisan, nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C., focused on issues of national security. Good luck, Roger, with your new career challenges. Bill Sarris is extremely happy to announce that his son, Jonpatrick, is back from deployment, in one piece, and that he and his wife, Danielle, are the proud parents of Bill’s fifth grandchild. Bill and his wife, Lisa, joined by their two daughters, their husbands, and four grandchildren, just returned from a fabulous 12 days in June/ July on the Island of Crete. They visited the most beautiful beaches in the world, hiked a famous gorge, ate some terrific Greek food, and drank some wonderful wine while overlooking the Mediterranean. Keeping the Greek tradition going! Herb
Stocking is now retired and living in Oxford, Connecticut. He hopes to see many of his classmates at our next reunion. Norman von Wettberg is moving to Dutchess County in the Hudson River Valley to be close to grandchildren. When he gets settled, he’ll build a “zero energy” house. In his opinion, climate change is a real phenomenon, and Norm is putting his money where his politics are. Life has been good to Billy Walik so far! During the spring of 2018, he and his wife, Kathy, took their motor barge from France up to Holland (Maasbracht) for upgrades and a required every-seven-year certification (see his photo). Jim Waterman reported that life as a retired gentleman residing in the Connecticut countryside is quiet and uneventful. Bob Wintsch resigned from Indiana University in 2018, and moved to Haddam, Connecticut. He and his wife, Jody, bought an 1810 house that seemed in pretty good shape, but now, they’re having a very expensive graduate seminar in home restoration and maintenance. It’s keeping the two of them quite busy! In the fall, Bob will teach a “Geology of Connecticut” course at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. To all classmates: The 55th anniversary of our graduation is coming up in just a few short months. The reunion weekend is currently scheduled from May 29–30, 2020. Don’t forget to mark the events on your 2020 calendar now. More details will be published as they become available.
1966 HGS Charlie McClure cnmjr132@gmail.com
I knew our class was diverse with anti-war activists, back-to-the-earth DIYers, computer technicians, and international athletic champions. I just did not realize it was all wrapped up in one guy. Tom Warner writes, “After graduating from Hopkins, I attended Lehigh University. Upon graduation from Lehigh, I traveled around the country and Canada, and like many of us at that time, I returned to New Haven and attended graduate school at UNH. It was 1971, and having been arrested with John Froines of the Chicago Seven for protesting the war, I decided to head for the hills in New Hampshire. I bought 20 acres with two friends for $1,400 and an old Dodge Power Wagon and McCulloch chainsaw. With
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Tom Warner ’66 HGS sent this photo of the Liberty Cup, an outrigger race that starts in New York City at the Manhattan Bridge, then winds down around Battery Park, up the East River and around the Lady, and finishes under the Brooklyn Bridge.
Members of the Class of 1969 HGS came together during Alumni Weekend 2019 to celebrate their 50th reunion, enjoying a dinner gathering on May 31 at Amarante’s Sea Cliff in New Haven, with alumnae from the 1969 DPH Class, as well as on-campus programs and festivities on June 1.
the help of chains, pulleys, and draw knives, I built a log cabin. The New Hampshire winter cold got to me, so I took a job running a foster home, which got me into education. I became a computer science teacher and then a technology administrator for public schools in southern New Hampshire. A friend asked me to do the canoe leg of a team triathlon, and I got hooked into marathon canoe racing (12- to 120-mile races). I was a national champion for my class (age 60–69) in 2012, and placed second and third other years. I remarried in 2007 and my wife, Kristen, got hooked on racing. She won the women’s and mixed class (not with me) in the 70-mile New York race two years ago. I have won that race twice. My longest race was the AuSable, 120 miles across the state of Michigan. It took 17 hours (nonstop through the night). My canoeing got me on the U.S. National Dragon Boat Team in 2000. We went to South Africa and Thailand, placing first and fourth. I have raced outriggers around Cape Ann, Massachusetts; New York City (around the Statue of Liberty); and around the Island of Kauai in Hawaii. This year, I backed off from racing as my son got married at the house with a three-day bash. We bought an Airstream camper and have hit the road many times to kick back and enjoy recreational paddling and biking. Next stops:
the Bay of Fundy (between Canada’s New Brunswick and Nova Scotia provinces), Grand Isle in New York, North Carolina’s Outer Banks, and then the Canadian Rockies. I have kept in touch with the Westville guys: Jimmy Rathschmidt, John Hershey and Jimmy Bussmann (an honorary Hopkinite). One summer, I ran into Charlie McClure on our outrigger along the Guilford, Connecticut, coastline. My wife and I retired this year and life is good.” Please keep the stories and updates coming.
1967 HGS and DPH Alumni interested in serving as a Class Correspondent for either Class of 1967 HGS or Class of 1967 DPH may contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins.edu.
1968 HGS and DPH Alumni interested in serving as a Class Correspondent for either Class of 1968 HGS or Class of 1968 DPH may contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins.edu.
1969 DPH Alumni who wish to serve as a correspondent for the Class of 1969 DPH may contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins.edu. Although there is currently no official correspondent for the Class of 1969 DPH, the following was submitted by Pamela Harvey in memory of classmate Lynn Elston: “When the Day Prospect Hill Class of 1969 convened for its 50th reunion, we mourned the loss of a cherished classmate, Lynn Elston. Lynn died on January 19, 2016, after a six-month battle with cancer. She lived and worked on her extraordinary horse farm in Snohomish, Washington, dedicated to exploring and fostering the mysterious and mystical relationship between people and horses. Lynn was born on May 5, 1951, in New Haven and grew up in Woodbridge, Connecticut, with her parents, Lloyd and Dorathea ‘Tootie’ Elston, and brothers Warren and Dick. At Day Prospect Hill, she was active with singing groups, including the Glee Club and Cantabiles, and the school newspaper, the Crescent. She also excelled athletically, competing on the varsity field hockey, basketball, and softball teams. We remember her as a bright, lively, fun-loving classmate and a true friend. Lynn attended Smith College
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
Lynn Elston ’69, with Moon and Yogi, at FromtheMother Farm.
Alumnae from the Class of 1969 DPH posed for a photo on the Hopkins campus during Reunion festivities on June 1.
in Northampton, Massachusetts. After graduation, she was married briefly and lived in Greenwich, Connecticut, working in interior decorating. Her life shifted focus, and she worked for Planned Parenthood and the United Church of Christ. Classmates who were in touch during this period found Lynn to be fulfilled by her contributions to these causes, as she continued her search for her own true life. Her ties to Connecticut ended after the death of her mother, and her father’s move south. By 1997, Lynn was living in Edmonds, Washington, and was boarding her first horse, Pilgrim. She learned of a farm for sale and decided to buy it with the intent of starting a horse farm—not just a traditional horse farm, but a place for bringing together like-minded people with the need and skills to realize the horse-human bond. Riding was centered on this shared relationship. She named this place FromtheMother Farm (fromthemotherfarm. com). As she explained, the name was a tribute to three mothers: the Great Mother who makes all things possible, her maternal grandmother as the source of funds for the purchase, and her brother Dick’s wife, Deb, who had recently died and had been a wonderful mother. Lynn found great satisfaction in nurturing FromtheMother Farm as it developed into a thriving haven for horses and the people who love and need them. She had a particularly close relationship with her brother’s family, which grew to include Dick’s children and their families. She proudly and happily was back in the saddle in October 2015, after cancer treatments that
ultimately proved unsuccessful. The quote Lynn chose for the DPH 1969 yearbook was from Rod McKuen: ‘This place was made / for those who still play hide-and-seek / we’re home free.’ Lynn found her place, and while she did not hide, she did seek. She is missed by all who knew her, but she is home free.”
WINTER 2019–2020
blog at philzmusicnotes.com. Richard Hexter and his wife, Gingy, have moved to a newto-them townhome in Shreveport, Louisiana. He insists this is his last move, with his next move to Urn! Richard and Gingy are beginning to make plans to return to the Hill for our 50th next May 29–30 and are looking forward to seeing so many classmates that he hasn’t seen in 50 years. After 45 years as a physical therapist covering acute care, post-hospital rehab, military, private practice, and home health settings, Eric French has finally pulled the plug (almost). Now he is working one to two days a week and only if he wants to. He is looking forward to May 2020. Brook Reams and his wife, Rochelle Chartier, are still living in Denver, Colorado, and their two sons and their families are nearby. They are grandparents of three. Brook and Rochelle have taken motorcycle tours all over the world, including Morocco, Croatia, the Balkans, and the Pyrenees. They are looking forward to riding back to Hopkins for the 50th next May.
1971
1970
HGS
HGS
1972
50th Reunion HGS and DPH on May 29–30, 2020 Brian Smith bcsmitty@gmail.com
Craig Rutenberg continues to work as guest
coach and vocal advisor at the Mariinsky Opera in St. Petersburg, Russia. During the summer of 2019, he finished six weeks coaching for the White Nights Festival and the Tchaikovsky Competition. Craig released a new CD this past spring, Old Fashioned with baritone Brian Mulligan. It was singled out as Critics’ Choice in Opera in the U.K. and USA! Paul Kirchner and his wife, Sandy, recently celebrated their 35th anniversary and have been together for 48 years. The last several years, Paul has returned to illustrating comic books. He has a monthly strip in High Times magazine. Dick Wingate and his partner, Renee Mandis, are living in Weston, Connecticut. Dick is consulting in music and tech (devadvisors.com) and still can be seen frequenting concerts regularly. Phil Kuttner keeps busy teaching piano to students ages 5 to 71 at the Little Mission Studio in San Francisco, California. Check out Phil’s music
Brian Smith bcsmitty@gmail.com
Richard Hehre richardhehre@gmail.com
Well, gentlemen (and ladies), the summer of our Medicare sign up year is upon us, and I trust that you all have been doing your homework in that regard. Having so willingly undertaken this task, I am hereby giving you another assignment in anticipation of our golden anniversary celebration on the Hill in 2022, and that is an essay on “What I remember about Hopkins.” Ladies, we expect the same for yourselves: “What I remember about Day Prospect.” Mike Buxbaum has quite a head start on this, but the remainder of you have time to complete this before we meet again. Spelling and grammar will be checked, and a podium will be at Buxbaum’s house on Friday night of reunion weekend for required speeches. That goes for you too, Lozier and Reilly. So come on, you scalawags! Get cracking!
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1977
Diane Kolligian Shannon dshannon925@gmail.com
Alumni from the Class of 1974 pose for a photo under the tent during the Reunion Dinner on June 1.
1973
Michael P. Finnegan mfinnegan218@gmail.com
1974
Anne Sommer anne.sommer.editor@gmail.com
Greetings, all. Our 45th reunion took place the last weekend in May. A small group gathered at a Westville (New Haven) restaurant on Friday evening: Jim Madigan, Rich Manjoney, David Margolis, Paul McCraven, Jim Perito, Mark Schiffrin, John Vartelas, and me and my husband. Head of School Kai Bynum, who had hosted a reception at his home that afternoon, was making the rounds to a few class gatherings and came by to say hello to us, as did a couple of Hopkins alumni and development office staff members. I went up to the campus on Saturday morning to check out an event related to the women’s schools, but sadly no one else showed up. So I wandered around the campus for a while and ended up staying for the buffet lunch under the tent outside. I sat with Susan Spielvogel and her husband, Fred Senatore, who are very reliable reunion attendees. After going home for a while, I returned to campus for the buffet dinner under the tent. Attending from our class: Dean Baker and wife Amy, Janet Brown, Carol Barbesino Clark and husband Steve, Jim Madigan, Rich Manjoney, David Margolis and wife Jill, Paul McCraven, Jim Perito, Hap Perkins, Mark Shiffrin, and John Vartelas. A highlight for me was talking to
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Sue Walker ’74 with granddaughter Catherine McKee Monahan
Anne Lozier Echols and Cindy Saranec Livermore, both DPH ’69, who were seniors
when I was a little seventh grader at DPH. I idolized them and some of their classmates in those days, so it was a kick to see them again! In other news, Carol Barbesino Clark writes: “My trifecta of reasons to attend reunion finally happened: a milestone year for our class, my husband Steve’s retirement from Hopkins, and my son Ted Clark ’09’s 10-year reunion. How could I stay away? It was fun to see and visit with all the other ’74 alums.” I also heard from Sue Walker, who shares this news: “I’m teaching seventh grade humanities at Park Century School in Culver City, California, where we work with bright children who have learning differences.” Wishing you all a healthy winter.
1975
45th Reunion Hopkins—May 29–30, 2020 We look forward to seeing members of the Class of 1975 during Alumni Weekend 2020 for your 45th Reunion! Those interested in serving on the 1975 Reunion Committee to help plan a memorable gathering may contact Katey Varanelli at kvaranelli@hopkins.edu.
1976
Alumni interested in serving as a correspondent for the Hopkins Class of 1976 may contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins.edu.
Thank you to those who replied to my email with news or just to say hello. I loved hearing from each of you and hope to receive more replies next time. Jim D’Angelo wrote, “I am doing well in Nagoya, Japan, with wife Ayumi and son Leo. Leo is in ninth grade and is lead trombone in his combined junior high/high school brass band. I will be chair of a new, all-English medium major at Chukyo University called ‘Global Liberal Studies’ starting April 2020, something for which Hopkins provided a solid foundation! Let me know if anyone is traveling to Japan—the sushi is on me!” I had a wonderful conversation with Holly Clifford Grossman. Her daughter Heidi is a brand manager for Miller Coors, recently married and living in Chicago, Illinois. Her daughter Hayley lives in Bennington, Vermont, and works at the high school as an adjustment counselor. Holly and Paul still reside in Barrington, Rhode Island, and invite classmates driving through to Cape Cod to stop and visit. Jill Maconi did just that during her recent travels and they had a great visit. Jill also met up with Susie Locklin Wais in New York City in July. Perhaps there have been other get-togethers as this is a rather significant birthday year for many classmates. Please consider sharing celebration details and any other news for the next issue.
1978
Andrea Boissevain aboissevain@townofstratford.com
1979
Jeffrey A. Arons jeff@jeffreyaronsmd.com
Our 40th reunion was by all accounts a great success. Thirty-three classmates attended, plus guests, including Fran Palmieri, Jaime Fanning, Scott Fisher, Jane Sikand Edelstein, Brian Borgerson, Andrea Nolan, Sara Nelson, Loren Ziff, Rachel Cooke Golder, Geoff Harris, Rob Quish, Jeff Stier, Stu Gordon, Jerry Blair, Mark Healy, Marth Leshine, Sharon Livieri Peterson, Betsy Bradley Muskin, Ralph Livieri, David Hurwitz, Rebecca Pschirrer, Andrea Nolan, Ken Chang, Jon Mostow, Jon Sirot, Tom Wellington, Alexander Shaumyan, Walter
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
The Class of 1979 celebrated 40 years and enjoyed festivities during Alumni Weekend 2019, including a presentation and reception on June 1 in honor of classmate Francisco Palmieri, recipient of the 2019 Hopkins Distinguished Alumnus award.
Huckaby, Judy Smith, Martha Howard, Tung Huynh, Jay Angeletti and me. We
gathered on Friday night at Bar downtown to “reunite.” Some classmates returned for the first time in 40 years, so it was great for all to get together once more. Jon Mostow traveled the farthest, coming in from Los Angeles, California, just for this event. Many of us continued celebrating late (for us) into the evening. On Saturday, up on the Hill, the Hopkins Distinguished Alumnus of the Year, Francisco Palmieri, led a provocative discussion about the state of the Western Hemisphere. Then the dinner Saturday evening was another chance for us all to reconnect. It really was a special occasion for all of us, so much so that discussions are ongoing for future informal meetings instead of waiting five to ten years. And while it is painful even to consider it, many of us have even begun talking about plans for our 50th. And yes, I did say 50th. It will be upon us before you know it. Howard Etkind was unable to attend but wrote that his son, Sam, a graduate student at MIT in chemistry, is getting married to his partner, stating, “So proud to have a gay son.” David Hurwitz added that he’s completing his latest book in Amadeus Press, Unlocking the Masters Series: Beethoven’s Orchestral Music in time for Beethoven’s 250th birthday coming up in 2020. Miriam “Mimi” Renkin Posey reports from Texas that she sent her second and last child off to college in August and is anticipating empty nesting. She changed careers from geologist to freelance accountant (for flexibility), and husband Harry is retired
WINTER 2019–2020
from Shell. “We’re in Houston if any of you get down here!” Rich Kuslan, also living in Houston, released his latest musical work, Richie Kaye’s Space City Funtet, Blast-off! Playful and Inventive Tunes, at funtet.com. An album of originals for voice, guitar, ukulele, saxophone, clarinet, flute, bass clarinet, piano and special instruments like an ice machine (yes!). Alexander Shaumyan just started his own author page on Amazon at amazon.com/author/alexandershaumyan. Stefan Rosner, out of touch on this forum for a while, was happy to send the following update: “Greetings, all! I sure wish I could have joined you at the festivities surrounding the 40th reunion of our Hopkins Class of ’79, but sadly (and happily) this event landed on the very same weekend as my son Zachary’s high school graduation. It has been many years since my last update, so I hope you’ll indulge my verbosity as there is a lot of catching up to do. Summer is now officially over in mid-August, as we will be dropping Zachary off for his freshman year of college in a matter of days, and my daughter, Paloma, has already started her sophomore year of high school (yes, clearly I embarked on my family planning journey much later in life than many of you). As we are staring down seven-plus years of college expenses (and a California-sized mortgage), retirement still seems like a distant fantasy, but thankfully Julaine and I still enjoy interesting and rewarding work. Julaine was recently honored for 20 years of service teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) at a local community college, and recently
AT TOP, Stefan Rosner ’79 at the NASA Ames
Research Center at the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). ABOVE, Stefan poses in front of the observatory, just before boarding for a 10-plus hour flight in which his cryocooler system was commissioned and declared ready to support science observations.
published her second vocational ESL textbook. I work as an aerospace systems engineer at the NASA Ames Research Center, supporting the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a 2.7-meter infrared telescope that flies at up to 45,000 feet aboard a highly modified Boeing 747-SP aircraft, conducting astronomical observations that cannot be made from any groundbased or existing space telescopes. Observing in the mid- to far-infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum allows astronomers to ‘see’ what is happening inside thick dust shells surrounding supernovae, behind planetary nebulae, and within proto-planetary discs that are completely opaque in the visible portion of the spectrum. Because water vapor absorbs infrared radiation, most of these photons never reach even the highest mountain-top observatories. But by flying our observatory in the extremely dry stratosphere, we position the telescope above more than 99% of the atmospheric water vapor, opening an important window into our universe! I am part of the SOFIA science instrument development team, and also provide engineering support for the development of observatory mission systems, such as our newly commissioned, closed-cycle cryocooler system, capable of cooling the focal plane infrared detector arrays of instruments down to two to four degrees Kelvin (just above ‘absolute zero’),
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without the use of expendable cryogens such as liquid helium and liquid nitrogen. Keeping the detectors very cold is important to keeping the noise ‘floor’ low, and therefore the signal-to-noise ratio high. Some of our newer instruments use additional refrigeration technologies to further cool portions of the focal plane down to 70 milli-Kelvin (i.e., 0.07 Kelvin)! Despite the horror stories about terrible traffic and lengthy commutes here in the San Francisco Bay Area, I’m happy to report that my own daily commute is a lovely 16-mile (round-trip) bicycle ride, mostly on recreation trails within the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. As for the kidlings, after years of baseball and soccer, both have ‘disc-covered’ the burgeoning sport of Ultimate (Frisbee), which is especially gratifying for me and Julaine as this is how we met (in San Francisco, California, fall 1989, just days before the big Loma Prieta earthquake). Zachary’s high school Ultimate team recently won the California High School State Championship title for the third consecutive year in early June, earning them a top-10 ranking nationally. And just last week at the U.S. Open/ Youth Club Championship (YCC) national tournament in Minnesota, Paloma’s U17 girls team and Zachary’s U20 boys team both finished in third place within their respective divisions (in Zachary’s case, after taking down the #1 seeded team from Washington, D.C., that won the championship last year). Zachary is trying out for the U.S. National U20 Ultimate team, and if selected will compete at the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) World Junior Ultimate Championships to be held in Malmö, Sweden, July 18–25, 2020. Life is very busy, but good! Hope we can catch up in person soon. If any of you find yourselves out in the San Francisco Bay Area or Silicon Valley, please do reach out!” I (Jeffrey Arons) was elected to the Hopkins Alumni Association Board of Directors for a three-year term. I am honored and looking forward to it. I note that I am actually one of the older Board members. So it goes. I’ve lost four friends in the last year, all our age. So, please continue to keep in touch, whether for publication or not. Be well. Scott Fisher summed it all up with this: “It was great catching up with classmates after 40 years. Sharing updates about our lives since Hopkins and our experiences while attending the school were very meaningful. Congrats again to Fran
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for making us proud, as the Hopkins 2019 Distinguished Alumnus!”
1980
40th Reunion Hopkins—May 29–30, 2020 Pierce Tyler ptyler@gmail.com
Lots of news on my end. We moved to Pasadena, California, this summer, after my wife, Dia Tyler, was offered the job of running the Pasadena Humane Society. It’s a great opportunity for her, and us. Seems to be a good fit all around. I’m continuing to work remotely for xTuple, the Norfolk, Virginia, software company that I helped to found. I miss going into an office, but telecommuting does have its perks. Overall, we’re loving the vibe here in Southern California. And the food… Just an amazing and endlessly delicious supply of farmers’ markets, food trucks, cool restaurants, you name it. Looking forward to connecting for a meal out here with Monireh Kazemzadeh, Jeff Strauss, and also Peter Maretz, who is down in San Diego, California, and writes that he got married this summer: “I married Dr. Tracy Wutzke on July 19 in Cozumel, Mexico. We love to scuba dive, so we did a family dive trip and managed to squeeze a wedding in!” By the time you read this, I’ll know all about being an empty nester. But at the moment, as I write, the prospect looms large. This week, we’re heading back to New Haven to move our son James Tyler into Yale for his freshman year. We’re planning to connect with Chris Cogguillo, whose daughter, Leah, is also part of the same incoming Yale class. Chris writes that he finally got together for a round of golf at Pine Orchard this summer with Byron Brewer and Guy Iaccarino. He adds, “I’m planning on seeing John Crowley this week, before he heads back to Italy.” According to Guy, there was quite a reunion when John was back in the New Haven area this summer. Guy reports, “I was honored to attend John Crowley’s parents’ 60th wedding anniversary party at the Owenego on August 4. John was in with his family from Italy, Greg Valente and his wife, Diana, came from South Carolina, Malcome Sargent came from Virginia, and Dave Feola and his wife, Michelle, came in from Colorado. Judge Matthew Frechette and Ben Feola ’79 were in attendance as well. It was a fabulous day with smiles all around—all day—and more than a few
laughs. We all missed having Matthew Haury and Jim Miller there, as we all know they would have been, but we made sure to tell a few stories and raise a glass (or two) in their honor. Gone but never, ever forgotten.” Guy adds, “My kids are still relatively young—10, 12, and 18—so while many of you are or are soon to be empty nesters, I’m still shuttling kids to athletic events, music lessons, and more… Also I’ve recently moved just down the street from my previous home. My new address is 200 Jefferson Drive, Guilford CT 06437.” Kate Higgins says she also got to reconnect with John and his family in Branford, Connecticut, while they were here. “It has been nice to spend some beach days with him catching up, and I know he has seen a bunch of other classmates as well. I also visited with Willa Ridinger at her gorgeous new house in Milford, Connecticut, back in June. It was great to hear from Bob Carangelo, who sends this update: “I’m living in West Hartford, Connecticut, with my wonderful wife, Mary, and three great kids, Christopher, Haley, and Grace—two in college and one soon to be on her way. I’ve been practicing orthopedic surgery for 20 years, specializing in total joint replacement and sports medicine, and love it. I’m currently a partner in Orthopedic Associates of Hartford and am division chief of adult reconstructive surgery at the Bone & Joint Institute at Hartford Hospital. In my spare time, and that’s not much these days, I try to escape and climb mountains in faraway countries. It provides solace and peace and connection to important aspects of life outside the operating room. I often think of Hopkins as such an important part of my life. Don’t even recognize it now when I return, but still feel its profound effect in shaping my life. Hope all is well with fellow classmates of 1980.” I was also glad to hear from Robin Black, who writes, “My husband, Richard, and I have moved part time to New York, splitting our time between there and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I’m teaching in the Rutgers MFA program in writing, and working on my fourth book, a second novel. I had a fantastically fun dinner with Lisa Miller a couple of months ago with plans to meet up again soon. My three kids are 31, 28, and 23—which makes me very old, I guess. I’m looking forward to our 40th next year! (More reason to feel old.) And I’m hoping our country is moving in a better direction by then.” Thanks for the reminder about
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
Peter Maretz ’80 and Dr. Tracy Wutzke married in Cozumel, Mexico, on July 19, 2019.
Sara Their ’83 and her daughter, Bella, with Rich Ridinger ’83 at his tavern in New Hampshire.
the 40th reunion, Robin! I’m going to make every effort to make this one. I suppose we’ll need to do some planning at some point. Last, but not least, I heard from my fellow west-coaster Holly Pruett, who recently created a new resource that may prove useful to classmates. She writes, “As we age, our encounters with death increase in frequency and those of us without religious affiliation or family tradition may be poorly equipped to care for our dead. My own entry onto this path was when my Dad died just two weeks shy of his 65th birthday and went direct to cremation, with no funeral or memorial of any kind. I’m in the midst of launching a new public interest website, based on a model from New Hampshire: Oregon Funeral Resources & Education (orfuneral. org). Perhaps it will be of use to you or serve as a model for something needed in your state.”
1981
Alumni interested in serving as correspondent for the Class of 1981 may contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins.edu.
1982
Diane Lifton diane.lifton@hugheshubbard.com
Cody Breuler reports, “Just dropped my one and only son at SUNY Binghamton… My nest
WINTER 2019–2020
Melissa Sargeant ’83 and Lisa Peck ’83 pose with Head of School Kai Bynum during an alumni gathering at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, California, on March 21, 2019.
is now empty. The ex-kid spent the summer as a lifeguard at Poly Prep. We just returned from our family trip to Iceland. Cool temps, miles of lava fields, volcanic hikes, and more dried fish than I cared for. Still working at the New York City Department of Education, helping kids with behavior issues, and volunteering at the Coalition of Concerned Medical Professionals, pushing for comprehensive healthcare for all. Finally getting used to Brooklyn pizza after 20 years here, but I don’t go six months without finding a reason to go back home for real pizza.” From Chris Traub: “Hey all—hugs from Taipei, China. Son Justin just got married two weeks ago. Daughter is now registered for the Taipei Olympic team, working on qualifying for the World Cup for slope-style snowboarding, and gunning to do a Jamaican bobsled team, riding for Taipei in the Chinese Winter Olympics in 2022. This September, my partners and I will gather a group of inspired international leaders to join our third Vortex Ignite retreat, from September 28 through October 2 in Koh Samui, Thailand, at Samahita, a beautiful retreat facility. My executive search practice is now in its 31st year, and thankfully, we’re still very busy, helping private equity investors and both Asian and Western companies to hire critical senior executives. In addition to the executive search services of SES, I have created and curate Vortex—the Global Leadership Transformation & Impact Community
formed to curate and uplift inspired, ethical, compassionate, and joyful servant leaders. Comprised of both men and women, Vortex encompasses full religious, socio-economic, cultural, and professional diversity; members embark on an ongoing journey of healing and empowerment. We stand strong together for ourselves and one another, while playing, adventuring, and co-creating positive impact on the planet in an ecosystem of conscious capital, impact ventures and initiatives, wellness, and innovation. Vortex programs include immersive ‘Vortex Ignite’ fiveday retreats, ‘Vortex 360’ 12-month online masterminds, peer support groups, ‘Vortex Adventures’ spiritual and transformation journeys, and ‘Vortex Connect’ meet-ups around the world. After our Vortex retreat at Koh Samui in Thailand, we’ll be heading to the Mayan Riviera for Vortex Ignite 4 during the first week of February 2020. Would love to see any of you join us. Come and play!”
1983
Andrew Levy alevy@wywhp.com
Dear Class of 1983: Hope everyone is doing well! Take a few minutes from your daily routine and catch up with your classmates. Our leader Jim Bucar shares, “My wife and I are looking at a five-week trip to London and France. London because I regret that while teaching English for 44 years, I never visited the seat of English literature. So I’ll drop by Samuel Johnson’s home, the Dickens museum (Great Expectations, a novel most sophomores read, was always a great success), the new Globe Theatre, Stratford, etc. I’ve been enjoying the occasional visits from Hopkins faculty and alums—David McCord, Eric and Hallie Mueller ’02 among others—hearing about what has (and hasn’t) changed on the Hill. Oh, and a charming and illuminating series of mail exchanges with Mrs. Dawidoff. I recently watched the movie version of Nicky Dawidoff ’81’s biography of Moe Berg, The Catcher Was a Spy. Ten years into retirement, I very much miss the classroom and the daily interactions with bright, energetic, ambitious students, who so easily and naturally shared their zeal for life and learning. I am perhaps inclined to Swiftian skepticism (cynicism) about the nature and prospects of our human race, but those years of teaching and learning from Hopkins students curbed the worst excesses and
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Amy Marshall Lambrecht ’84 (LEFT) and Sarah Strauss ’84
The Class of 1984 marked 35 years during Alumni Weekend 2019.
even gave me occasional hope. And, at least for me, these days now are drearily light on hope. Any and all of you are welcome to stop in on your way north in Maine.” Laurie Ades-Penney writes, “So much going on here in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts: empty-nesting as we dropped our fourth and final kid off at college this fall (counting on Lesli Greenberg to keep an eye on him down in Atlanta, Georgia); starting to plan an October 2020 wedding for one of our daughters (excited to welcome an awesome new son to the family); quit teaching after 30 years to embark on a whole new career in educational publishing; sang and danced my way through three musicals in our thriving community theater last season. Phew… I’m exhausted!” David Keck adds, “Despite his best efforts, David Keck is getting older. By the time you read this, he will have gone under the knife for a torn meniscus. In general, his body simply doesn’t heal the way it used to. A long day at Disney makes him quite tired. Bifocals help, but they don’t solve the problem. And don’t mention the colonoscopy. Consequently, he thinks more than ever before about what life means, how he will be remembered, and whether he will ever see the Falcons win the Super Bowl in his lifetime. He has been reflecting on how his Hopkins teachers introduced him to the Humanities in such a way as to provide lifetime guidance and companions, incredible people you might have heard of: Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Cicero, etc. Thank you, Hopkins. All is well.” Scott Lowell is still living in Brooklyn, New York, but is heading off to South Korea next month to work
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on a film. He’s hoping “to visit with Dennis Rodman’s good friend north of the DMZ to see if he can help broker some peace while he’s in town.” Also, his series Adoptable! is now streaming on Amazon Prime as well as on the Binge Network (available on AppleTV, Roku, Firestick, and Samsung TVs) and he hopes you’ll check it out and leave some fabulous reviews if you like it! Sara Thier writes, “My daughter Bella and I had the sincere pleasure of meeting up with Rich Ridinger and his wife, Nancy, at their tavern in New Hampshire. We shared a delicious meal and commiserated about life with teenagers, while Bella added in her two cents in about my seemingly abhorrent parenting skills. Thank you for your hospitality, Rich and Nancy.” I urge anyone within an hour’s range or so to visit the tavern. I can’t help but think Rich is so much better off without his classmates from the Class of 1983 visiting on a regular basis. One “Rudy’s-like” night and Rich would be locking the doors to his tavern for good! Adam Perlmutter continues serving as a criminal court judge and living along the Brooklyn, New York, waterfront with his girlfriend, Erica, and his two sons. He writes, “A highlight of our summer was spending the evening with Patrick Doyle and his wonderful wife, Mary, at the New York Yacht Club’s 175th anniversary celebration in Newport.” Melissa Sargeant and Lisa Peck met up with Kai Bynum at the Olympic Club in San Francisco on March 21, 2019: “I haven’t seen Lisa in 35 years,” says Melissa. “We had a great time catching up.” Amy Yanagisawa Wilkins adds, “These days my life is pretty routine, going to work
and taking care of my son with his school and sports. My husband is very busy with the President’s Council for Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, promoting youth sports and a healthy lifestyle. I always help him out when he needs it. Also, I am training for my sixth marathon.” Natasha Berger Graf adds, “My son is starting a job with an ESPN affiliate in Missoula, Montana, producing the morning talk show, so everyone please subscribe to the podcast after Labor Day so he gets the credit. It’s free! I have adopted a one-year-old Boston terrier named Cowboy (Vaquero en español). I’m trying to teach him to respond to my bilingual commands. ¡Vamos a ver!” Dan Esposito writes, “Jeff Beatty, Ted Lovejoy, and Dan Esposito all met in Cape Cod for bike riding, lobster rolls, trampoline backflips, and a few jumps off ‘Jaws Bridge’ in Martha’s Vineyard. All the families were there, including Spencer Lovejoy ’16. Perhaps Jeff Beatty can provide you some interesting details.” Seth Stier shares something for the first time since graduation, “I am still not a banker in Boston, Massachusetts, but I did run into Moira Conway McCullough ’84 picking up a sandwich in Nantucket. She was there with her two kids. Haven’t seen her in years. Great to connect. Son Jared is a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis and daughter Sarah just started her freshman year at the same school. If ever in Nantucket, drop me a line.” From Elizabeth Haury: “Hello to all. I have been living in France for almost 28 years now (more than half my life); wow! Along with running my communications company since 2009, for
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
the past four years, I have been teaching at universities and have created a home in Montpellier with my English boyfriend. My daughter, Zoe (23), has just graduated with a master’s in education and will begin her first job teaching 5- and 6-year-olds this fall. My son, Emile (20), is in his third year of physics studies. I am about to embark on a new entrepreneurial project buying and selling secondhand/vintage clothing in parallel to a nonprofit organization which will help local people in need of clothing. Et voila! If ever in the south of France, don’t hesitate to drop a line.” Only four more years ’till Reunion. We better all make plans to see one another way before that. Stay well!
1984
Kathleen Hager Tasonis Oogg66@yahoo.com
I have to lead in with some news from Paul Schatz, “Our middle child, Ryan, has been dreaming about going to Hopkins since he started swimming for Chuck Elrick six years ago. His dream will become reality as he begins ninth grade on the Hill this fall. I continue my miraculous recovery from being hit by a rather large and dead silver maple tree on my property. Most of my 35 broken bones are healed and I look forward to playing golf and skiing before Thanksgiving!” Amy Marshall Lambrecht writes, “I had another terrific visit with Sarah Strauss recently. The Orioles lost, but we got these awesome Hawaiian shirts (that we both promptly regifted). I’m sorry to have missed everyone at Reunion this year.” Jill Harrison Shoshan reports, “My husband and I own an online photographic camera company, Classic Connection. We have three grown daughters: Myia, 27, who resides and teaches high school English in Israel; Eden, 25, recently engaged, who is a software engineer in Boston, Massachusetts; and Sapir, 21, who will be starting law school in the fall. It was great seeing some of our classmates at reunion.” From Jerry Klein, “Missed reunion again this year—very hard to get to Connecticut when my family has all moved on and my kids are so busy. My son, Xander, will be a sophomore at UT Austin this fall, studying biomedical engineering, while my middle daughter, Emma, will be a freshman at Vassar College. So, only one daughter remaining at home, beginning her high school experience at Crossroads School.
WINTER 2019–2020
Always happy to hear from Hopkins people passing through or visiting the Los Angeles, California, area.” If you have not connected with your classmates on Facebook yet, please like the “Hopkins Class of 1984” page at facebook.com/hopkins1984.
1985
35th Reunion Hopkins—May 29–30, 2020 Cristina Benedetto lucysmom1@optonline.net
I am so very happy to report that I received an amazing response to my call for updates this time around, with many of you writing in for the first time ever! Howie Young reports that his eldest daughter, Bella, is headed off to the University of Michigan. He recently saw Tracy Schpero Fitzpatrick at their 30th college (Tufts) reunion. Tracy is thriving as the director of the museum at SUNY Purchase. Howie has been up to Woodbridge, Connecticut, a few times recently, helping to move his parents, and was reportedly very happy that Modern Apizza accepts call-in orders. Dave Low and his wife, Lori Blank, continue to teach at the Sound School in New Haven. Lori covers Spanish 2–5 and Dave teaches Ocean Engineering. Dave’s students build under water robots and go out on boats to test them, which is never a dull moment. Their daughter, Erin, enjoyed her ninth grade year (her first) at Hopkins in 2018–19, singing in a couple of groups and playing water polo, among other things. She liked it so much that her sister, Sara, will be joining her on the Hill as a seventh grader in the fall. Happy to continue the tradition and especially to see what a vibrant place of learning Hopkins continues to be. Looking forward to bumping into some of you good people at our 35th (!) reunion next spring! First time contributor Ian Miller and his wife, Tracy, celebrated 29 years of marriage this June. They moved from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Oakland, California, a week after getting married and have been there ever since. Ian spent most of July touring Europe with his band, Kowloon Walled City. Two other bands—No Lights and Less Art—are writing and recording new material for upcoming releases, and a fourth, Strangelight, is scheduled to record their debut album in September. Nimmi Parikh Sharma is still working as a professor of physics at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain.
1986 classmates Kim Hart, Beth Maher Leonard, Nushin Ghofrany Sayfie, and Gillian Doyle met up for a girls’ weekend in Charleston, South Carolina, in May 2019.
Her research field is laser radar (LIDAR) and uses lasers to measure air pollution and aerosols that affect climate. She occasionally meets former Hopkins physics teacher Marjorie Hertzenberg for dinner. Nimmi’s husband, Narendra “Ren” Sharma, is a professor of mechanical engineering, and they have two girls, Juliet, age 9, and Isabel, age 12. Isabel will be starting at Hopkins this fall. Nimmi also reconnected with fellow Hopkins ’85 classmates at their 30th Yale reunion this summer, including Bethany Schowalter Appleby, Matt Lieberman, Massimo Calabresi, Miriam Pelikan Pittenger, and Emily Howard.
1986
Jennifer Hulford Odell jhodell2@yahoo.com
Hello Class of ’86! Hope everyone had a great summer, and thanks to the folks who submitted news. It is so enjoyable and interesting to read about what everyone is doing. We have had a good summer of activity, travel, and hangout time. I have been using the Hopkins Summer Reading list with Maisie (14), and she just finished her first Michael Crichton book. She prefers to build, sew, take care of animals (especially horses), wire robots, and read nonfiction, and loves math. She just did a free summer eight-day math class at our local high school, and as a freshman, will be placed in 11th grade math. Fia (11) will be heading to sixth grade, is excited to switch classes
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regularly, and loves to surf, read, write, and do art, especially drawing, watercolor, and painting small models. And she is getting ready to acquire two guinea pigs. Will (23) recently got engaged to his girlfriend, Kelsey, while they were in Japan. They live here in Portland, Oregon, but will be getting married in Vermont in 2021, meaning a Northeast trip for us! We just got back from a driving trip to the Southwest to Dinosaur National Monument, Rocky Mountain National Park, and to visit friends and my mom in Durango, Colorado, and Tucson, Arizona. Lots of swimming, hiking, and fishing. We have also had a lovely Finnish family living with us for the summer, coworkers of Turner’s on a sabbatical with their two kids. And we are now ending our summer with lots of hangout time around the house and horses galore: camps, clinics, and shows until school starts. Tremaine Cooper and I connected by text recently as we tried to meet up in Corvallis, Oregon, for one of his Eventing events. Unfortunately, our timing conflicted again, but we’re hopeful for September when he returns for an event in Yelm, Washington. And when he visits, he usually brings his kid(s)/family and sends along a great picture of a fun outdoor adventure they are doing. The last picture showed them high on a snowfield on a mountain in Washington State. Kim Wilson Nieto and I had a great chat. It was fun to hear about her kids’ athletic and academic achievements and activities. And I believe her husband is preparing to retire from a long and successful career in the military. We were reminiscing about watching our first MTV music videos at her house, back when MTV actually showed videos. We had no cable in Oxford, Connecticut, so it was such a treat to go to her house and be able to see these! Julie Polka Zellner writes, “The Zellner family is busy. This summer has flown way too fast. Sarah attended Culver Military Academy six-week camp and loved all the activities. She did receive a concussion from a sailboat boom halfway through camp, but still enjoyed herself. Joey participated in the YMCA nationals swimming championships in Maryland. His dedication to the sport is admirable. I get tired just watching. RJ is headed off to Alfred University in the fall to study engineering and swim for the Saxons. Scott continues to work for the West Haven, Connecticut, VA hospital as a clinical data manager. I have spent my summer off
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gardening, walking, and reading. Where the Crawdads Sing, Lilac Girls, and All the Things You Cannot See are all great reads. I love seeing all the posts on Facebook. I saw Mike McCleery this summer at some swimming events and hope to see Mike Brodsky in Orlando, Florida, this November for my national convention. Be well, Hopkins ’86.” Chris Bogan writes, “I’m here in Portland, Oregon (actually, Lake Oswego and now, on the coast near Cannon Beach). Fifteen years ago, I married an Oregonian and, though we live in Massachusetts, we come out here for a couple of weeks each year. It is great to hear the news from everyone. Despite going through Hopkins with not so much as a goldfish for a pet, I’m now living just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, on a family farm: cows, chickens, cats, a dog, a horse, and three kids 13, 10, and 4. My oldest, Eva, is the horse person, and it may not be too long before I am also going to Eventing events. My youngest, Jack, corrects me on dinosaur names and declares that he is going to be a paleontologist when he grows up. My middle one, Ceci, is musical and plays the flute and guitar. I’m running a small company that designs and manufactures specialized life-science research equipment—equipment that, among other things, researchers are using to develop promising mosquito controls, seed new coral reefs, and grow new human organs.”
1987
Megan W. Holbrook meganwh@gmail.com
Hi Classmates—Congratulations on hitting the half-century mark! Betsy Floman Fishbone writes, “I’m happy to say I have not yet hit the big 5-0, although I only have a few weeks to go. That said, Susanne Mei, Mary Clark Vines, and I flew out to beautiful Sonoma, California, in June to ring in Jen Hibbitts’ 50th birthday with her. Jen rented an amazing house in the middle of a vineyard, and we spent the long weekend reminiscing, looking at old Hopkins yearbooks and photo albums, laughing, and drinking a lot of wine. It was amazing to spend time together, and we picked up as if 30-plus years hadn’t passed since we were sitting together in the Lounge eating Dunkin Donuts! Jen lives in Fairfax, California, north of San Francisco, with her 9-year-old daughter, Eva, and is a commercial real
estate broker with Cushman & Wakefield. Sue is living in Manhattan, New York, with her husband, Ron, and their two children, Julian (14) and Lucia (11), and is the Senior Vice President for the CBS News Digital group. Mary and her husband, Jimmy, live in Brooklyn, New York, with their son, Clark (soon leaving them for college), and daughter, Tammy, who will be a senior at LaGuardia Performing Arts School (yes, the Fame school—she takes after Mary!). Mary is inspiring elementary school kids all over Brooklyn as their track coach. As for me, I’m still living in (gasp) New Jersey with Scott Fishbone ’86, our twin boys, Lucas and Alex (16), and daughter, Kate (15), and going on my 18th year in Colgate-Palmolive’s legal department as Vice President in charge of global litigation, human resources, and compliance. Looking forward to seeing everyone at our next reunion in a few years.” Dan Tamarkin writes, “50 is stellar. It’s the new 30. I’m celebrating by buying (stuff) I’ve always wanted but don’t need. I got a Pachinko machine, a chainsaw, and a grappling hook. I’m living large.” Ilyssa Greene Frey writes, “I’ve made a slight career shift and just started as director of admissions at the Rashi School, a Jewish independent school in Dedham, Massachusetts. My kids went there for several years and it’s a wonderful place, so it feels like coming home. Rebecca and Jason are rising high school seniors, i.e., we’re in the throes of the (double) college search and exhausted from it. (Coincidentally, in February I ran into Ellie Applewhite Terry and her family at the Raleigh/Durham airport after a week of North Carolina college tours.) The prospect of being an empty nester is pretty daunting, but I am savoring every moment with my family and celebrated 50 with much gratitude.” Jen Chernock Howland writes, “My ‘50’ is quickly approaching and I plan on being in Iceland with a college friend. So fun circling back on friendships that have taken a pause while raising young families. Travel is definitely on the priority list for this next life stage. I’m also taking a European river cruise with my mom in the fall, which will be very special. Workwise, I’m settling into the cath lab and luckily see a stretch of growth and learning to stay content for a while. I so admire classmates kicking butt with athletic endeavors! Try as I might, the gym habit just doesn’t stick, but if there were a dog walking,
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
Matthew Carrano ’87 with his wife, Diana Marsh, and son, Max, at the opening of the Smithsonian’s new Fossil Hall on June 8, 2019.
Michael Neuss ’87 and his wife, Waltraud Neuss-Widmann
flower planting, mulching bag carrying competition, I’d nail it!” Matthew Carrano writes, “After 7½ years, the Smithsonian finally opened its new Fossil Hall on June 8, concluding the museum’s largest-ever renovation. It’s been thrilling and humbling to be part of this project, but I’m also glad it’s over, and that we can give this new hall back to the American people. I hope to get back to some research and field work in the near future. At home, Diana and I are wrapping up year one of parenting our son, Max, an energetic and curious child with (thankfully) his mother’s sociability. We are approaching his first birthday with a mixture of exhaustion and amazement.” Michael Neuss writes, “My family and I are doing well. We are enjoying the high temperatures in Europe this summer. Luckily, my wife and I spent the last three weeks in the Bretagne, France, on vacation. The temperatures there were moderate in comparison to central Europe. The close proximity of the Atlantic Ocean has a cooling effect on climate. On the way back to Germany, the thermometer climbed to 43°C (109°F) in Paris, France. These kinds of temperatures are very unusual. Regarding your question to the big 5-0, I passed that mark 18 months ago. I am already working on the 5-2. The special date that is pending for my wife, Waltraud (German female form of Walter), and myself is our 25th wedding anniversary in August. For our anniversary, we will be flying up to Hamburg, Germany, for the weekend and will visit a concert at
WINTER 2019–2020
Susanne Mei, Jen Hibbitts, Mary Clark Vines, and Betsy Floman Fishbone, all ’87, strike a pose.
the Elbphilharmonie. Hamburg is a great city; we have visited it several times already with kids. Since my wife and I have six weeks of vacation every year which we have to take off, we have the opportunity to travel in our free time. This year, we have already been skiing for a week in Au, Austria, and spent the Easter weekend in Cannobio, Italy (a town at the lakeside of Lago Maggiore). We also spent a long weekend in Prague, Czech Republic, with our son. I even managed to visit my brother in Cleveland, Ohio, and one of my best friends from RPI in Connecticut on one of my business trips to the U.S. We are basically busy helping our kids to become independent, working, and traveling. Regarding the ‘News from the Hill,’ this is not really any ‘breaking news.’ The most important thing for me is that my wife and I still have fun and can have a good laugh together.” Jeremy Kasha is doing well and writes, “My daughter just turned 2 years old. Still working at the New York Attorney General Office as an antitrust hero-for-thepublic-good. Currently, I am in the trenches fighting to stop the T-Mobile/Sprint merger.” Bill Jaffee writes, “Greetings from Thailand. Everyone should get on a plane for 16 hours…” Jen Crisco Long writes, “My daughters are teenagers now. Molly is 14, Maggie is 16 and I have no idea how that happened so fast. Maggie is starting to drive so beware if you are driving through Glastonbury, Connecticut, anytime soon! I am a neonatal APRN and have been at
Connecticut Children’s in Hartford for 20 years. I recently was promoted to Lead APP (Adv. Practice Providers) in the Neonatal ICU. I’m lucky enough to love my job and even more lucky to work alongside some of the most amazing APRNs and PAs. We take care of babies that can range in size from 14 ounces to 14 pounds! Well, thanks for listening. Hope everyone is happy and well.” Nicky Weinstock will be heading east this year! Attention Boston, Massachusetts, residents: in addition to his Los Angeles, California–based life of producing movies and shows, he will be coming to the east coast once a month to teach a seminar on modern storytelling at Harvard beginning this fall. Nicky’s Showtime series, Escape at Dannemora, was nominated for 12 Emmy Awards; his CW series In the Dark is going into its second season; and his movie Plus One is screening on Hulu. And it’s a romcom: God knows we could all use one of those. Gerry Giaimo writes, “Daughter #2 (Francine ’19) graduated from Hopkins in June, and it was great to see many alumni in the seats as parents/friends, especially our classmate, Peter Sasaki, who is on the Hopkins Committee of Trustees. I thought I was finally done with Hopkins tuition, but daughter #3 is five years old and tuition will be dogging my heels for the remainder of my natural life. After a rigorous but successful recruitment effort, I now have the pleasure of seeing Bruce DelMonico on a regular basis, lacing up his skates for my ice hockey team (which plays out of the Northford, Connecticut, rink). Not many things more poignant than old men keeping the dream alive and playing hockey. Over the last few years, I have had a recurring dream that stars our classmate Lewis Griffin. I don’t know why, as I haven’t actually seen Lew since graduation. Lew, if you’re out there, I apologize for agreeing to decide the class president election by a coin toss back in 1985. A few months ago, I was delighted to see my old friend and prom date, Gina Paolini Marcus, show up at one of my gigs in New Haven. She got into a heated exchange with a concert promoter there about whether Bruce Springsteen was going to perform at the Woodstock anniversary show. It was nice to see that she has kept that flame alive.” As for me, Megan Holbrook, it’s been quite a year. Eric and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary with a trip to New York City in May. I turned 50 in June and had the fun of
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friends flying in from as far as San Francisco, California, and Germany to participate in the festivities. For throwing a great party, and for giving me a cute little vintage convertible, Eric has now been enshrined in the hearts of my female friends as the best husband ever, much to the consternation of their husbands. On a 96-degree day in mid-July, we hosted a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) at our house, with special guests DNC Chair Tom Perez and Congresswomen Abby Finkenauer and Gwen Moore, in conjunction with all the preparations for the 2020 Democratic Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We tested the capacity limits of the house and air conditioning with about 150 guests and we raised more than $70,000! I also had the chance to attend the second Democratic Presidential debates in Detroit, Michigan, in late July—it was tremendously exciting to see the candidates speak in person (#goWarren!). I start my PsyD in psychology this September, which will be the beginning of a new chapter in life. Alas, Burning Man plans were put on hold for this year, but otherwise 50 has been pretty fun so far!
1988
The Alumni Office would like to thank Lisa Goldbecker for her time and help in gathering the class notes. If anyone is interested in taking on this role, please contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins.edu.
1989
Curtis Groves curtis.groves@gmail.com
Since launching a law firm last April focused on criminal defense, Paul Rudof has won acquittals in two first-degree murder trials. The podcast, Crimetown, and the New York Times both featured one of the cases, which involved a 1991 armored car robbery and murder. The other case resulted in the release of a man who spent 32 years in prison, based on evidence of racial bias by the jury and false testimony. In his down time, Paul, like many of us, tries to figure out how to parent two teenage kids. The Honorable Sarah Merriam last summer performed the wedding of Willa Ridinger ’80 and Tim Fusco. Sarah says this means she gets to tell people “I married my ninth grade English teacher!” Amoreena Hartnett-
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Seventeen members of the Class of 1989 came together during Alumni Weekend on May 31 and June 1 to reconnect, share fond memories, and celebrate their 30th Reunion on the Hill.
O’Bryon recently started her own graphic
design, photography, and videography business. Amoreena and her husband, Bill, live in Saratoga Springs, New York, with their daughters, Cash (15) and Zoe (18). This fall, Zoe begins her freshman year at Colgate. Melyssa Kinney Madrak reports the Cannon Club’s annual party in Lebanon, Connecticut, was another success, with “free food, loud cannons, and amazing homemade fireworks” in a field at the end of a dirt road. Somehow, I don’t think that would work as well in the big city. Melyssa’s daughter is starting her fourth year at UConn, and her son is taking a gap year after graduating from high school in the spring. Jeff Millen literally views the world through blue-tinted glasses, as those who attended our recent reunion can attest. So Jeff and his family are thrilled, and a bit jealous, that his son, Ben, is off to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to begin his freshman year at the University of Michigan in the Ross School of Business. My son, Harry, and I spent a morning in Ann Arbor earlier this year, where we caught up with Jacqueline Jeruss and her family. Jackie is Director of the University of Michigan Breast Care Center, and she and her husband, Lonnie, share a lab dedicated to breast cancer research. After our short visit, Harry and I watched the Nationals play the Tigers in Detroit. Here’s a bold prediction from the Sports Forum: neither of those teams will win the World Series this year. And I found myself on the road again in August watching the Nationals, this time in Queens, New
York, with Scott Fisher. Scott is a leader with Greenlots, which is unlocking the possibilities of the electric mobility future by delivering innovative software, services, and support to deploy electric vehicle charging infrastructure at scale. Or so says their website… Speaking of saving the world from climate change, longtime reader and first-time contributor Andrew Slayman reports, “After seven years as an organic farmer in Maine, I recently gave up the woods and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where in the midst of a heat wave I’m figuring out how to leverage my MBA for the good of the planet.” Andrew met Jessica Brooks for a beer last spring after coming across her name while searching for Boston-area companies investing in clean energy. Jess was part of a small-butmighty contingent from our class at our reunion. She joined a handful of us for a nightcap as the evening wore down, where the look of bewilderment on Jess’s face as Phil Noto explained the rules of the Buffalo Club was priceless. We closed the evening, as far as I can recall several months later, with Scott Wich recalling the time he tried to catch a fly ball with his forehead as the girls lacrosse team ran laps nearby. And that’s why we come back every five years—to laugh with old friends about stories which, like us, only get better after 30 years.
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
1990
30th Reunion Hopkins—May 29–30, 2020 Brock Dubin bdubin@ddnctlaw.com
Hopkins staff and faculty look forward to seeing members of the Class of 1990 during Alumni Weekend 2020 for your 30th Reunion! Those interested in serving on the 1990 Reunion Committee to help turn out a truly special celebration may contact Katey Varanelli at kvaranelli@hopkins.edu.
1991
Jessica Roberti* jessicaroberti@msn.com Jonathan Ross-Wiley* jrosswiley@gmail.com
*Jessica Roberti and Jonathan Ross-Wiley will step down as co-correspondents after this issue of Views from the Hill. Thank you to them for all their great work. If anyone from the Class of 1991 would like to take up the torch, kindly contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins. edu. Andy Whitley writes that after 10 years as the Associate Head Coach of Lacrosse at Fairfield University, he has accepted the head coaching position at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky. It is a really great opportunity and he is really excited for the opportunity, although it has been a wild and crazy summer with the move and the job change (athletics.bellarmine.edu/index.aspx?path=mlax). Aaron Milstone shares that he and his wife, Amy, took the kids to London, U.K., and Paris, France, this summer. It was the kids’ first time in Europe. “Fortunately, we beat the heat wave and had a great time. It was sad to visit Notre Dame. We saw the musical Come from Away in London—a speculator story depicting some events on 9/11/01.” Jonathan Ross-Wiley writes, “Life is good for the Ross-Wiley crew! As I write this, I am entering year eight at Greenwich Academy, where I am Head of the Lower School. I love what I do and the team that I am fortunate enough to work with each year. My wife, Sahar, was hired full time at GA as an Upper School Science Teacher (biology and chemistry) and our daughter, Soraya, is heading into seventh grade, so it’s a family affair! Our son, Zia, while not on the same campus as the rest of us, is most certainly in the mix as he attends Brunswick (entering sixth grade). Time keeps pressing on!” And now for my,
WINTER 2019–2020
Jessica Roberti’s, update—it has been a
while since I have added to the notes. I recently took a new job at Victoria’s Secret in Columbus, Ohio, overseeing merchandising operations. Since I don’t want to leave the New York City area, I commute each week (Monday–Thursday) and spend Fridays in the New York office. We have a new CEO, and there are lots of changes (product, process, marketing, etc.) but it is a great time to join the company and I am excited to help move the business in a new direction. I hope everyone had a great summer and I am looking forward to reunion in 2021—it will be here before we know it!
1992
Sam Ozeck samhome@juno.com
It’s the moving edition! Alicia BromfieldDusza and her family have moved from Guilford, Connecticut, up the road to Madison—they love the new house and the (somewhat) shorter commute. Morgan Carroll also just moved before the school year started and was ready for fall after an unusually warm summer in Chicago, Illinois. It’s not a move for himself, but Eric Kutcher’s brother, Justin Kutcher ’98, has moved to Washington, D.C., and Eric looks forward to visiting his fellow ’92ers when he comes for a family visit. Finally, in non-moving news, Greg Tanner reflected proudly upon his undergraduate alma mater, Lehigh, which was recently named one of America’s most beautiful campuses. (Meredith Janson noted that her school, Wellesley, was also on that same list.) Greg continues to enjoy service on the Hopkins Committee of Trustees. Finally, in late-breaking news, Steve Siegal is excited about his new job with Campbell Soup Company! It does mean a long commute from North to South Jersey for Steve, but it was too good an opportunity for him to pass up. Steve and his wife, Lauren, attended the bar mitzvah of Jeff Pressman’s daughter. Rob Klee and Eric Kutcher attended as well, and they were all glad to catch up.
1993
Tara Cook-Littman taracook.littman@gmail.com
Hello Class of ’93. Thank you to everyone who took the time to send an update! Sachin Shah reports that his family moved to Needham, Massachusetts, earlier this year. They also welcomed their second child, Zaiden, who Sachin reports “is doing great, and his big sister, Laila, is only a little jealous.” Sachin is building a company in the wealthtech space and his wife, Sabiha, continues her career in human resources. “We are happy to be living in the ’burbs after 20 years in New York City.” Andy Dow says “Greetings from Oregon! I hope all is well back east. My family and I, along with all of the other Dow sibs, kids, grandkids, etc. were back in Connecticut this summer for my sister Becky Dow ’01’s wedding. It was nice to have the whole family back in one place.” Andy’s son, Zack, is starting junior high and his daughter, Emi, is going into second grade. “It’s been a wonderful year for Elizabeth, the kids and me; logging plenty of days on the mountain in the winter and enjoying the warm and dry Oregon summers.” Heather Mokotoff lives in Trumbull, Connecticut, and has three children. “Our oldest child, Jackson Mokotoff ’25, will be entering the seventh grade class at Hopkins this upcoming school year. It has been wonderful to see teachers that I had as a student at Hopkins as we have gone through the admissions process. I can’t believe I will have a child attending Hopkins! I truly look forward to experiencing Hopkins all over again through the eyes of my son.” Lisa Graustein is still living in Boston, Massachusetts, though this spring she and her son, Xander, took a seven-week, 9,000-mile road trip around the U.S. They spent a great afternoon with Naomi Stern Taransky and her kids in Washington, D.C. “We swam with manatees, volunteered at a shelter for asylum-seeking families in El Paso, Texas, hiked national parks, visited friends and family, and dodged a bunch of tornados.” Lisa works as a diversity/inclusion/equity consultant for schools and nonprofits in Boston, and as a Quaker minister on racial justice and decolonizing work throughout New England.
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FROM LEFT, Anthony Burton, Anne
Gallager West, Dave Brown, and Becky Russell Iacono, all 1994, at Alumni Weekend 2019.
Good show! A healthy turnout of 1994 alumni attended festivities and posed for a class photo during Alumni Weekend 2019.
1994
Christian J. Sauska cjs.nola@me.com Adrienne Betz Oliver adriennebetz@gmail.com
I, Adrienne Betz Oliver, just received the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Service to Students Award at Quinnipiac University. I am in my 11th year at QU and love my job. I run a robust neuroscience research lab and get to teach undergraduates and graduate students. Dana Watnick reports that she spent the month of July with her kids and husband in Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. They spent time at temples, met monks, washed elephants, made rice paper, and visited markets. She said she was “eating everything in sight and sweating.” Dana was there to teach research methods to colleagues studying HIV treatment in Rwanda. She also reports that she had an amazing time at the 25th reunion and was so happy to hear about the rich lives of our fellow Hilltoppers. Eric von Stein writes, “Just launched our company, Bright Stripes, designing and distributing kids’ arts and crafts and toys. Momentum is building and we are so excited for the items to hit local toy stores across the U.S. as well as online retailers in October!” Jared Townshend sent in that he is doing well and is a managing director at Deloitte. Finally, the accomplishments of Adjoa BotweAsamoah are astounding and she and I stay in touch, so I can report for her. She chairs and has memberships with so many import-
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ant political and social organizations. I will list a few from her email signature! Member, National Social Action Commission-ΔΣΘ; Member, National Public Policy CommitteeNCBW; Vice Chair, African American Affairs Commission; Chair, Democratic National Committee-AALC; Chair, Finance Council, The Collective PAC; Chair, D.C. Title I Committee of Practitioners; Chair, Social Action Committee, ΔΣΘ-FCAC; Charter/ Board Member, NCBW-DC Chapter; Member, National Finance Committee-DNC. Reach out to her if you want to get involved!
1995
25th Reunion Hopkins—May 29–30, 2020
Michaelangelo Palmieri michaelangelo_44@yahoo.com Luretha McClendon Tolson Lmctolson@gmail.com
Greetings, Class of 1995! We hope everyone had a wonderful summer. We were so happy to hear from Ahud Sela and Peter Scalettar. Ahud shared, “I published my first book, Seeing Angels in the Shadow of Death. It is a memoir about the critical moments in my life and the teachers and teachings that helped me in those moments, including how Justin and Aracy Belcher’s mom, Rev. Sandy Belcher, was instrumental in me realizing my calling as a rabbi.” Peter also shared an exciting update. “The Wu-Tang project was a wild ride. I was recently honored with an Emmy nomination for the film and it’s very humbling to be recognized in that way.
Currently I’m producing a feature documentary on DMX and a short horror film with Megan Thee Stallion. Additionally, Adjoa Botwe-Asamoah ’94 and I are trying to cook something up in anticipation of the 2020 election. My eldest daughter, Georgia, thinks she’s Lizzo and is trying to decide between being a rapper or basketball player. Cassie and I support whichever decision she makes. My youngest, Nyah, is starting preschool this week and it’s leading Cassie and me to have early-onset empty nester syndrome. I encourage any young alum who wants to work in the documentary/ nonscripted space to reach out as I’d love to work with motivated filmmakers/writers/ technicians and more. Petescal@massappeal. com.” Congratulations, Ahud and Peter—we are so proud of your amazing accomplishments! We encourage everyone to please reach out to us so that we can continue to share your updates. As you all know, it’s our 25th reunion year! We hope everyone plans to come back so that we can all catch up in person. We are very excited and I know Michaelangelo Palmieri is ready to start planning. If you are interested in joining the reunion committee, please let us know!
1996
Ellyn Black ellyn@campfernwood.com
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
FROM LEFT, Steve Testa ’94, Dave Brown ’94, and
Thomas Leaf ’97 enjoy alumni lacrosse during Alumni Weekend 2019.
1997
Theo LeCompte theo.lecompte@gmail.com
And we’re back! It’s been a while since the Class of ’97 had a correspondent, so I, Theo LeCompte, decided to pick up the mantle and had a great time reaching out and connecting with so many classmates. We’ve got a lot to cover in this edition—especially with many of us crossing that age 40 milestone. I am still living in Washington, D.C., and have recently taken a step away from politics to work on business strategy for Uber. I see Graham Gibson and Maura Leary around town a fair amount and mostly just try to keep up with our two boys, Ted (6) and Emmett (3). Graham runs all of the information technology for the personal office of Barack and Michelle Obama, and Maura is still working at the World Bank, leading communications on economic issues in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although I missed it, they recently got together for a fun dinner when Chris Langbein was in town from Chicago, Illinois, for his 40th birthday, but I’ve had a few chances myself to see Chris during work trips. Also holding it down here in D.C. is Laina Jones Cox, who is now the Principal at Capital City Public Charter Middle School. She’s been getting all sorts of accolades for her work, including last November when she was the recipient of the EL Education Silverberg Leadership Award, a National Leadership Award, awarded each year to an exemplary school leader who
WINTER 2019–2020
Members of the Class of 1997 caught up at the Hopkins Black Alumni Network Diversity and Inclusion reception, held on campus on June 1, 2019. FROM LEFT, Rashanda McCollum, Risë Nelson, Thomas Leaf, and Laina Jones Cox.
Dana Weiss ’97 celebrated her wedding last year to Morgan Ruelle. Joining the festivities were 1997 alums, FROM LEFT, Ana Powell, Yar Woo, the bride, Amit Gupta, and Michael Fishman.
raises student achievement through deep implementation of EL Education practices. She also made it up to New Haven this year for the 2nd Annual Hopkins Black Alumni Network Reunion Weekend to spend some time with Risë Nelson and Rashanda McCollum. Risë is the Dean and Director of the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale, and this past spring was awarded the Yale University Seton Elm-Ivy Award and the Urban League of Southern Connecticut Diversity Award for her work. Rashanda recently joined the Tow Youth Justice Institute as the Director of Education and Training, where she leads efforts to reform juvenile justice laws and policy throughout Connecticut. This past November, she also welcomed her son, Justice, to the world! Also in the D.C. area is Meridith Jacobs, who lives up in Potomac, Maryland, with her two daughters, Chloe and Dara. She stopped practicing law and is enjoying her girls while running a small business at home. Her forties got off to a great start, with a special trip and celebration with her parents and sisters, Brooke Sharpe Vaupen ’01 and Alexis Sharpe ’06. Dana Weiss got married last year and was super excited to be joined by Yar Woo, Amit Gupta, Michael Fishman, and Ana Powell. The wedding featured a cribbage tournament, and Michael won the Weiss League in a close match with Dana’s dad. Bianca Turetsky is living in Brooklyn, New York, and has a new series of young reader books out. The third book in the
Magic On The Map series, Magic On The Map: Texas Treasure, will be published with Random House Children’s Books this coming January. Bianca is also teaching writing to kids with an amazing nonprofit called Writopia Lab. Julie Golia had her second child last year and celebrated baby Cora’s first birthday in July, attended by Auntie Stacy Levine. Her eldest, Sam, is 6. She oversees exhibitions and collections at Brooklyn Historical Society, which recently opened a new exhibition she curated called Taking Care of Brooklyn: Stories of Sickness and Health. Evelyn Scaramella was at the May 30 opening to celebrate with her. And her podcast, Flatbush + Main, just celebrated its third anniversary. Nick Kapur lives in Armonk, New York, with his wife, Leena, and three young children, Deven (8), Sareena (6), and Naya (3). He recently got promoted to a senior director role in S&P Global Platts’ Product Management team, where he oversees their $210M global gas/ power and analytics business. Nick joined from another division of S&P Global, the Market Intelligence division, where he ran their energy business for more than 3½ years. Candice Norcott is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, was recently a featured expert in the docuseries Surviving R. Kelly, and is also a recurring guest on the Facebook Watch show Red Table Talk with Jada Pinkett Smith and family. Lauren Shapiro is an assistant professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University,
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Michael Fasano ’98 (FAR RIGHT) playing the lead role of Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys on the Norwegian Bliss.
where she teaches poetry and literary translation in the Creative Writing Program. Her second collection of poetry, Arena, was recently chosen to be published as an Editor’s Choice by the Cleveland State University Poetry Center, to be published in fall 2020. She and her husband are living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with their two children. Avital Woods is a psychotherapist in private practice in midtown Manhattan. She sees Michele Hoos often and recently had coffee with Brian Skope while he was visiting from Los Angeles, California. As for Brian, he is living in Old Agoura, a cool rural horse town in the Santa Monica Mountains about 20 minutes from Los Angeles. As of this year, he’s been in California as long as he lived in Connecticut. Brian recently celebrated his 40th birthday with an amazing trip through Thailand along with his wife, Lori, and a whole lot of rum. His boys, Lincoln (9) and Nolan (7), are baseball-obsessed, playing constantly, watching it all and winning fantasy leagues. They have begun their quest to visit all MLB ballparks with a trip to Fenway, Yankee, and New Shea this summer. On the work front, Brian is still directing and producing TV. Along with a partner, he launched a company called Whiz Bang about two years ago, which also now produces branded content and Esports. In addition to Avital, he also recently had a chance to catch up with Theresa and Jon Nast. Brian also has the pleasure of sharing his Los Angeles Kings season tickets with Mark Lee. Mark continues to live in Los Angeles with his wife, Jennica, and his two
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Members of the Class of 1999 celebrated their 20-year milestone during Alumni Weekend 2019, on May 31 and June 1.
children, Mason (9) and Juliet (6), while producing film and TV in Los Angeles for Halo Media Group, and in recent years spearheaded a new division for entertainment consulting and media strategy, which has been creating original content for large scale brands. Mark’s son is especially thankful that one of his clients is a Finnish mobile gaming company called Supercell, so that he can play Clash of Clans and Brawl Stars as “research.” Aneesh Garg is in Chicago, Illinois, and has been doing some work for USA Hockey and USA Soccer. He travels with them when they need a team doctor for international tournaments. He even won a gold medal with USA hockey two years ago! After 3½ years in Austin, Texas, Charis Anderson and her husband, Dan, moved back to Massachusetts in September 2018. Charis is working at Boston University’s dental school as Director of Communications and is enjoying both her job and being much closer to family and friends in New England. After spending an adventurous year in the Bay Area, Kelly Finucane Cortina and her family recently relocated to Denver, Colorado. She is heading up product development for The North Face, and the company moved its global headquarters from San Francisco to Denver. She, her husband, Chris, her two sons, Conor (8) and Ryen (6), are all looking forward to settling in to Colorado and joining the ice hockey, soccer, and lacrosse communities. If any Hopkins friends are in the area, she would love to see them. Brian Cook lives in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with his wife of 11
years, Jamie, and their two sons, Brice (10) and Jaiden (9). After 13 years in retail/ commercial banking in management roles, he recently transitioned to Northern Trust in Greenwich, Connecticut, working in their banking practice, specializing in syndication lending. His sons currently attend St. Ann Academy in Bridgeport, but they have their sights on potentially becoming Hopkins students in the near future. Tim Nolan is living in Rhode Island with his three children, Bridget (8), Owen (7), and Molly (4), and wife, Diana, and they are celebrating their 10th anniversary this year. He works at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, Rhode Island, where he develops and integrates robots with submarines. His most recent trip back to campus was for the alumni lacrosse game in June, where he was able to catch up with Thomas Leaf. Meanwhile, Ben Berkowitz is holding down the fort in New Haven proper. He has recently been getting a lot of time with the Nasts on Sunday mornings at Edgewood Skatepark, where their kids are learning to ride various wheeled things. They are all excited to be cheering for Alexis Sablone ’04 in the Olympics next year, now that skateboarding has a seat at the table. Growth at Ben’s company SeeClickFix has continued to increase, and they are enjoying their new home in two conjoined and recently renovated department stores in the Ninth Square. The design was done by Hopkins faculty member Derek Byron. Derek recently brought in Hopkins students to work on a marketing project at SeeClickFix.
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
Eamonn Carter Abbott Miner, born to Laura Abbott ’99 and Jay Miner on November 25, 2018
Ida Bell Kinsley-Skidmore, daughter of Liz Kinsley ’01, pictured with her mom’s first book, Here in This Island We Arrived: Shakespeare and Belonging in Immigrant New York.
Both the team and the Hopkins community were truly impressed with the students’ work. Ben sees Alex Hoffnung around the neighborhood now, as well, as he has recently bought a home in Westville. If you’re in town and want to come by the office to see what they are up to or get a tour of their 300-member makerspace, shoot him an email at ben@seeclickfix com.
1998
Misha Body mishabody@gmail.com Tina Chen tina.chen02@gmail.com Eamon Griffin grifbear@yahoo.com
Tina Chen: Greetings from Philly! Not too much new going on here. I’m still settling in on my new job at Epic@Jefferson. I had the fantastic opportunity to see Molly Venter perform when she was in the area. You should all go out and see her perform if she’s ever in your area. For the last six months, Mike Fasano has been playing the lead role of Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys on the Norwegian Bliss. Steve Musante and his wife, Maria, welcomed their third child, Anabelle Gwinn Musante, on June 4. That’s all for now. Please be sure to send updated contact information so we can stay in touch!
WINTER 2019–2020
1999
Erica Schwartz erischwa@gmail.com Allison Grady alligrady2@gmail.com
Hi classmates! It’s been a while, and I believe several of your emails may have changed, so please feel free to email me, Erica Lynn Schwartz, your new info at erischwa@gmail.com. I am still living in Boston, Massachusetts, with my husband and two daughters. My life on Broadway has gotten quite busy, as I am currently co-producer on Moulin Rouge! The Musical, which started performances on Broadway this past summer, and David Byrne’s American Utopia (on Broadway fall/winter 2019). Brooke Lyons Osswald writes, “I’m filming NBC’s new crime drama, Lincoln, based on The Bone Collector novels. Please look out for it on NBC in early 2020.” Laura Abbott and Jay Miner are the proud parents of Eamonn Carter Abbott Miner, born November 25, 2018.
2000
20th Reunion Hopkins—May 29–30, 2020
George Austin Reis IV, son of Popi Benisch ’01 and George Benisch
to restore to its former glory. Andrew Gustafson is still living in Brooklyn, New York, and chugging along with Turnstile Tours. He has been leading tours of the Brooklyn Navy Yard for almost 11 years, as the place continues to grow tremendously— the Yard recently opened a food hall that’s open to the public, and there are now more than 10,000 employees in the industrial park. He is also still running programs for the Brooklyn Army Terminal, Prospect Park, and the Street Vendor Project, and he just recently launched a new partnership with the Brooklyn Historical Society to operate walking tours of Dumbo and their new satellite location in the neighborhood, dedicated to waterfront history. He has been working with Brooklyn Historical Society Director of Public History Julie Golia ’97! Andrew and his wife, Cindy, have also been working with the Brooklyn Botanical Garden on a threeyear project to improve access to the garden for people with disabilities.
2001
Marissa Black blackmarissa@gmail.com
Robert Curry rccurry01@yahoo.com
Daniel Zlotoff zlotoff@gmail.com
Vaani Garg will be changing jobs from BronxCare Hospital to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital as a cardiology attending and Fellowship Associate Program Director. Alden Ferro and his husband, Richard, moved to a new house in Hamden, Connecticut, which they are working
As has been the case for 18 years, the Class of 2001 is up to some big things. Liz Kinsley and husband Dave welcomed daughter Ida Bell Kinsley-Skidmore to their home in Chicago, Illinois, in August 2018. Liz also recently published her first book in March 2019: Here in this Island We Arrived:
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Twelve 2001 alumni, their partners and children were reunited for a joyful celebration of Becky Dow ’01 and James Randall’s marriage on July 14, 2019. FROM LEFT, Dan Wolf and wife Kaylan Lasky, Sydney Wolf (age 4), Brynn Eloise Wolf (7 months), Matt Lundgren, Molly Lundgren, James Haffner, Meg Haffner, Eric Feigenbaum, Linzee Feigenbaum, Alice Feigenbaum (3), Jordan Guynn, Quianna Chambers Guynn, Carter Guynn (7), Kennedy Guynn (5), Marissa Black, Luca Wortham (1), Cimarron Wortham (married to Marissa Black), S. André Warner, Solimar Santiago-Warner, Santiago Warner (4), Lucas Warner (17 months), Sarah Mansourian and husband Diego Ayala, Emilia Ayala (4), Mateo Ayala (4 months), Dan Decore (married to Anne Langbein Decore), Sara and Ben Rubenstein, Willa Rubenstein (15 months), Lindsay Junkin Henry, Johanna Ferguson, Anne Langbein Decore, Theodore “Theo” Decore (2), Matt Goulding (married to Johanna Ferguson), Eric Charles Henry, and Luke Charles Henry (18 months).
Shakespeare and Belonging in Immigrant New York, which came out with Penn State Press. She has also taken on an impressive new role at Northwestern University as Associate Dean and Director of Undergraduate Admission. She writes, “I’m excited to be back at Hopkins later this month to lead a recommendation workshop with faculty (hopefully a few familiar faces!).” Popi Benisch and her husband, George, are the proud new parents of George Austin Reis IV. “Mom and Dad are learning the parenting ropes, and loving spending time with baby G, regardless of the lack of sleep,” she writes. Becky Dow married James Randall on July 14, 2019, with a huge Hopkins contingent present—see the photo above of an amazing mini-reunion including all the little ones. Luca Fusi is living in Vancouver, Canada, where he works for a company that performs sound design for video games. Kate Bogart writes, “Hi Class of 2001! I hope everyone is doing great! I’ve settled in Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, New York, and work right above Grand Central Station. If you pass through either place, give me a holler. I’d love to catch up.”
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2002
Aaron Zelinsky Aaron.Zelinsky@gmail.com
Apologies for the lack of updates recently. Rest assured, the Class of 2002 (and its errant scribe) are riding strong. Paige Armstrong is currently deployed in her role with the U.S. Public Health Service. She’s now the team lead at the Center for Disease Control for the Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch. No word yet on who will play her in Outbreak 2. Her son, Massimo, now has a little brother. Santino Francisco Lontoc was born November 18, 2018. Congrats! Cammie Dale Liberty reports that she welcomed her third child, Allison “Allie” Cate Liberty in September. Allie joins big sister Meredith (5) and big brother Sam (2). “Life is a circus, but a lot of fun too.” Mazel tov! Olivia Lindquist Bowen sends a picture from Aaron Margolis’s going away party in Washington, D.C. “The Golis” (who recently welcomed twins!) is now living in Moldova, where his wife, Anna, is posted as a foreign service officer. Olivia started a new position at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in March, and now serves as the Director of Internal Communications. In May, she welcomed baby Juniper “Pepper” Bowen to the family, who joins her aggressively enthusiastic big sister, Magnolia. Pete “The Meat”
Aaron Margolis ’02, Aaron Brotman ’02, Oliva Bowen ’02 and children
Gallo is now the father of three: Vincent
John joined him and his wife, Steph, on June 30. Peter reports they have moved to a new house to accommodate the growing family. Elena Grewal recently moved to New York City after seven years at Airbnb, and published a set of “How to Play the Card Game Bridge” videos on YouTube. You can find them by searching for “Bridge BFF.” If you are interested in playing or meeting up in NYC, let her know. Hallie Mueller “got married in October and then promptly fell off a cliff in November (about 60 feet).” She broke “a whole lot of stuff” (contact her directly for more details), but after eight months she is “currently hauling luggage around the airport on my way to Maine for an artist residency.” We’re happy she’s making a full recovery. Be safe out there, Hal Pal. Andrew Myrick married Danielle Sheehan last July in Glacier National Park. He also just celebrated his 13th anniversary at Apple, where he’s currently leading the Mac firmware team. Cassie Vinograd is back in London, and just started a new gig at 60 Minutes.
2003
Courtney Hart courtneyleigh.hart@gmail.com Arielle Traub arielle.traub@gmail.com
A couple of our classmates have recently made their way back to the New Haven area. Joshua Zelinsky is returning to the Hill to teach pre-calculus and the senior seminar for advanced math students. No
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
Santino Francisco Lontoc, son of Paige Armstrong Lontoc ’02 and John Lontoc
Cammie Dale Liberty ’02 and Brian Liberty’s family, FROM LEFT, Sam (2), Meredith (5), and Allison (1)
doubt those are a very lucky bunch of Hilltoppers! Liz Nugent also writes from New Haven: “In fall 2018, I started as an assistant professor in the political science department at Yale University. I teach and research Middle East politics, though I’m on leave this year after my husband I welcomed our daughter, Juliette, in April.” In more baby news, Jessica Bloomgarden Muse and her husband, Michael Muse, welcomed Jack Muse on June 28, 2019, soon after making the big move from New York City to Dallas, Texas. Big sister Molly is smitten! Speaking of families, Kate Wynne, Julia Israel Edelstein, Olivia Haedt Stevens, and Amanda Cardinale reunited with their families (including Julia’s husband, Andrew Edelstein) in Guilford, Connecticut, this past May to celebrate the first birthday of Amanda’s daughter, Claire. Amanda writes, “Our ‘gang of four’ (so named by Mr. Haedt back in 2003) has expanded to include Kate’s son, Julian; my daughter, Claire; Julia’s sons, Joey and Gabriel; and Olivia’s sons, Gage and Gunnar. This was the first time we’ve all been together in perhaps five years: Kate and her family live outside of Boston, Julia and her family live in Manhattan, Olivia and her family live in Vermont, and I live with my family in Amsterdam.” Andrew Soberman continues to serve as a pilot in the Navy; he is stationed off the coast of Seattle, Washington. And congratulations to Nicole Aaronson, MD; she received her MBA from the Jack Welch Management Institute in June 2019. As for your class secretaries, Courtney Hart recently left the 9-to-5 office
WINTER 2019–2020
From left, Thomas Peter, Vincent John, and Christopher Anthony, sons of Stephanie and Peter Gallo ’02.
Kate Wynne, Julia Israel Edelstein, Olivia Haedt Stevens, and Amanda Cardinale, all ’03, with their children
world and is now helping to bring babies earthside and support families as a birth and postpartum doula and Certified Lactation Counselor in Brooklyn, New York, which she is absolutely loving. And I, Arielle Traub, am continuing to navigate the whole work/life balance thing as a mom of two young kids and health policy consultant with Manatt Health, where I focus on expanding public health insurance coverage. We love hearing from the Class of 2003, so please keep your updates coming!
Jack Muse, born June 28, 2019, son of Jessica Bloomgarden Muse ’03 and Michael Muse
Members of the Class of 2004 celebrate their 15-year mark during Alumni Weekend 2019: FROM LEFT, Elliot Bodian, Michael Balderrama, Derek Holodak, and Abigail Gillis.
2004
Erin Johnson erin122@gmail.com Kimberly J. Lewis kimberlyjlewis@gmail.com
It is hard to believe that it has been 15 years since we were last together on the Hill. Although most of us did not make it back for reunions this spring, a small but mighty contingent of classmates—Michael Balderrama, Elliot Bodian, Avery Forbes, Abigail Gillis, Derek Holodak, and Jess Kaufman—were among the 2019 reunion celebrants. Thanks to them for representing us, and thanks to all classmates who marked the milestone through contributions
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to the Hopkins Fund. So, what’s new since our last class notes? First, we are thrilled to announce that Jess Kaufman has been named a fellow of the New Victory Theater on 42nd Street for the 2019–20 season and will be spending the year redeveloping her play, Mathilda and the Orange Balloon, for an American audience. Jess shared that she will be working with deaf artists in New York to adapt the play from British Sign Language (BSL) to American Sign Language (ASL). We are also happy to announce that Joshua Fein has returned to the Northeast after a stint abroad in Israel. He and his family have moved back to the great state of Connecticut so that Josh can begin a residency in internal medicine at UConn Health (rotating between UConn’s John Dempsey Hospital, St. Francis Hospital, and Hartford Hospital). Josh is eager to reconnect with classmates stateside, particularly those in the local area. Meanwhile, in the Midwest, Hani Zainulbhai and I (Erin Johnson) reconnected after bumping into each other on a train platform during our morning commutes from Chicago to Evanston, Illinois! Further proof that the Hopkins network is strong. We close this column by reminding you to make sure that Hopkins has your updated contact information and by thanking you, as always, for sharing your news and updates. Until next time!
2005
15th Reunion Hopkins—May 29–30, 2020
Courtney Yakavonis courtneyyakavonis@gmail.com Pamela Soberman pamela.soberman@gmail.com
Congratulations to Ben Zlotoff and his wife, Sarah, who welcomed Emma Zlotoff on June 24. Not shortly thereafter, on June 28, Elyse Schoenfeld Moyer and her husband, Alex Moyer, welcomed their daughter, Callie Emma Moyer, weighing 5 pounds, 15 ounces. Elyse and family are living in Washington, D.C., where she is an associate at the law firm Morrison and Forrester. Congratulations to Louise Cocks, who married Jeff White in August. Classmates Kyle Warren, Amanda Bushell, Matt Bushell ’02, Meg Goetsch, Liz Shapiro, Dan Morgan, and Brooke Schley were all in attendance to celebrate. Louise is living in Los Angeles, California, getting her master’s in Clinical Psychology at Pepperdine University, while also working as a research/teacher’s assistant and a trainee
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at the Southern California Counseling Center. Enjoy the honeymoon in Spain! Seth Halpern’s startup, Ori.ai, was recently acquired. He is launching WithTherapy, a mental health venture with therapists from Washington, D.C., and New York City. Pam Soberman moved to New York and took a new job with Sidewalk Labs, an Alphabet company focused on urban innovation. She is delighted to have seen a number of Hopkins folks since she moved back, including Meg Goetsch, Amanda Bushell, Kyle Warren, Ian Epstein, and Sophie Golden.
2006
Corey Briskin corey@coreybriskin.com TiffanyAnn Johnson tiffanyannjo@gmail.com Lucas Kelly-Clyne lukekellyclyne@gmail.com
Corey Briskin is in his third year at the
Manhattan DA’s office. He continues to prosecute violent felonies, including sex crimes. Corey and his husband, Nicholas, recently took a trip to Israel through an organization called Honeymoon Israel, and since their return, they have become active members of Brooklyn’s Jewish community. Luke Kelly-Clyne lives with his girlfriend, Francesca Smith ’10, in Los Angeles, California, where he runs Big Breakfast, a production company that was recently acquired by Propagate Content. Geoff Giller moved to Berlin, Germany, with his partner earlier this summer. They plan to live there for a couple of years. TiffanyAnn Johnson and her new husband have relocated to the Washington, D.C., metro area. She is currently employed as a human resources business partner by the largest public-school system in Maryland. In her role, she handles the needs of professional staff in the system’s 207 schools. In her spare time, she and her husband travel and spend quality time with Onyx, their new Morkie puppy. Since last fall, Ali Tichy has been attending school part time for her master’s in molecular and cellular biology at Quinnipiac University. James Ringold continues to practice law in Wallingford, Connecticut. Recently, James successfully argued a case before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and he and his wife, Chelsea, rescued a golden retriever named Gracie. After Tom Lambert and his wife took their honeymoon in the spring to
Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Tokyo, Japan, Tom started working at Pullman & Comley, LLC, one of Connecticut’s largest full-service law firms. Tom practices in the litigation department with a focus on commercial and construction litigation, as well as lawsuits stemming from some of the most tragic circumstances, such as the Sandy Hook and Sutherland Springs mass shootings.
2007
Becky Harper bharper@hopkins.edu Eric Emanuelson eric.emanuelson.jr@gmail.com
The Class of ’07 has always enjoyed doing things a bit differently. We’re staying #onbrand, once again, by offering our classmates prompts to answer in addition to the usual highlights. Heather Wegner Wald and her hubby, Steven, welcomed their first baby, Sienna Jane Wald, on February 27. She would have been a mighty Hilltopper if it weren’t for the long commute from California. Felicidades, Wald family! Katie D’Souza graduated from Fairfield University with her Doctor in Nursing Practice (DNP) and is currently working as a family nurse practitioner for the CVS Minute Clinic in Southeastern Connecticut. Congratulations, Katie! Eric Emanuelson also had reason to celebrate this year. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from American University’s Washington College of Law this past May, and has spent the summer studying for the bar exam. In general, he is good with paper straws, but finds that wooden forks and knives don’t quite cut it. Cameron Bloomer’s summer anthem is “Humanity First”; The Force Awakens is the Disney movie that describes his life right now; he wonders, “How will the penguins drink their milkshakes?”; he believes in open borders and is helping Andrew Yang run for President of the United States, #yanggang. Kara Crowther is jamming to “Champion” by Bishop Briggs (added it to my workout playlist… thanks, Kara!). She is also looking forward to the school year and resuming work on her podcast, Citizen Cork, as well as hoping to launch a second. Let’s show her some ’07 support. Amelia Russo is sticking around in New York City for museum work after completing an art history program at NYU this past spring. Becky Harper is hoping to see Amelia and more ’07s at the regional alumni events
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
(New York City, Boston, New Haven, D.C.) this year as she heads into her third year at Hopkins and second year as the Director of Equity and Community. Thank you to those who contributed; we encourage you all to send us updates as well as prompt ideas. Let’s keep doing how we do ’07 pride!
2008
Marguerite Paterson margueritewp@gmail.com
Nunziata (formerly Nancy) Monaco just got
back from a trip to Hawaii, Australia, and New Zealand with Jay Brett. She is teaching world history and film history at a charter prep school in Boston, Massachusetts, while also learning Capoeira. She shares an apartment with Dan Hill, where she is thrilled to have finally brought her cat, Delilah, up from Connecticut. Dan is less thrilled about the cat. Arev Pivazyan spent the past year living in London, U.K. They have returned to their native New York to finish their Ph.D. in gender studies. Ben Sperling recently transitioned out of his staff role with his nonprofit and onto the board of directors since he moved to New York City to start his MBA program at NYU Stern School of Business. He and his wife are excited for this next chapter of their lives and hope to see many Hopkins classmates in the city. Ben Gusberg is also starting business school; he is moving to the west coast to attend Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Steven Cimino and Nicole DaCosta ’07 celebrated their first wedding anniversary this August. They recently moved back to Connecticut after living in Los Angeles, California, for several years. Steven is currently working at ASML in Wilton as a manufacturing product lead. After more than six years at the Movember Foundation, Doug Prusoff recently started a new role with LinkedIn on its Learning Solutions team. He is currently living in Manhattan, New York, with his wife, Kristin, and their two-year-old Australian Labradoodle, Beasley. Finally, after five years teaching second and third grades at a charter school in Lawrence, Massachusetts, I (Marguerite Paterson) am excited to be transitioning into a role as an English as a Second Language teacher at a public elementary school in Watertown, Massachusetts.
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With a decade under their belt, more than 25 members of the Class of 2009 celebrated, reminisced, and enjoyed the festivities during their 10th reunion at Alumni Weekend 2019 on May 31 and June 1.
2009
Allison Lyons lyonsal@sas.upenn.edu Rajeev Mehrotra rmehrotra@wustl.edu
2010
10th Reunion Hopkins—May 29–30, 2020 Allie Briskin alliebriskin@gmail.com
Molly Levine mollyhl@gwmail.gwu.edu
After working in various fields in New York City for five years, Anna Carolan is pursuing a master’s in Italian through Middlebury College in Florence, Italy, this academic year (2019–2020) as a Premio Famiglia Fiducia Fellow. Molly Levine started a new job at Exposure America, a creative communications agency based in SoHo, where she is representing brands like Uniqlo and José Cuervo. She still resides in Clinton Hill in Brooklyn, New York, and enjoys jogging in Fort Greene Park most mornings. This year, she is excited to continue throwing art parties with Ready Made Collective, the event series she started with fellow ’10er Sam Dailey. Allie Briskin started a full-time job in wealth management at J.P. Morgan in August, after graduating with her MBA from Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. She will be working in Manhattan, New York, and living in Dumbo, Brooklyn. She is excited to reconnect with her Hopkins crew. Austin DeChalus got married this May
in Providence, Rhode Island. He graduated from UConn Medical School, and moved to Seattle, Washington, to start his residency in pediatrics. Maddie Kern graduated from Tufts Dental School with her DMD this May. She is currently in a general dentistry residency at Tufts, and she got married in August in Connecticut. Ashley Reidy adopted a four-month-old Cavapoo puppy in June from an organization in Brooklyn, New York, called In Our Hands Rescue. Her name is Penny. Katie Schaffer left News Corp after five years to join the tech start-up world with Remesh, an innovative marketing research firm with a mission to create a technology that could truly represent the will of the people and amplify their collective voice. She’s been living in Dumbo, Brooklyn, under the same roof as Busta Rhymes for about a year now. Robert Young has been living in Washington, D.C., since graduation, working for a general contractor making buildings more energy efficient. He was happy to be one of Dan Rathbone’s groomsmen last year and is looking forward to being Leon Wang’s best man next year. Taliya Lantsman graduated from medical school at Northwestern and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, for her residency in internal medicine at Beth Israel. She is excited to be back on the East Coast!
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2011
Matt Pun poonee_11sbcglobal.net Cailin Gillespie cgilles1@nd.edu
Sam Greco graduated from Georgetown Law School and served as a law clerk for Lindsey Graham’s staff on the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. He was commissioned as an officer in the Navy, where he is serving as an attorney in the JAG Corps. Christina Nelson started medical school at Quinnipiac University (Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine) this fall and expects to graduate with the Class of 2023. Sam Kuslan was traveling, recording, and playing a lot this summer. He had his first tour abroad in France, where he played an international festival (his group was one of two or three bands brought over from the U.S. at the festival). After the tour, Earl Lin met up with Sam in Paris, and they explored and ate to their hearts’ content. Sam also met up with Miles Johnson, who is living in England. Sam recorded and played a few gigs with his father this summer in Houston, Texas, and has released two live albums with Chali 2na and Marcus King from shows they played in New Orleans, Louisiana. He’s been writing a few songs with Alex Ebert from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes and has been recording demos and preparing to record his own album at the end of the year. He is super excited to share it with everyone. Cailin Gillespie is living in Chicago, Illinois, and loves her new job in transaction advisory consulting.
2012
Luke McCrory lukemcrory16@gmail.com Amanda B. Fath afath@wellesley.edu
The Hopkins Class of 2012 has had a very exciting summer and is looking forward to a busy and eventful fall. Robbie Emmet is enjoying his third summer in his Ph.D. program at the University of Washington, and recently went to Washington, D.C., for research. He has also been writing poetry on the side. Sanam Rastegar joined the Biden campaign in June and is serving as Deputy State Finance Director for Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. She is really excited about this amazing opportunity and next chapter. Leslie Brunker just finished
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at Cornell Veterinary School and is now officially a doctor. After she finishes up some final training in San Antonio, Texas, she will be starting her internship in the Army Veterinary Corps at Fort Campbell in Kentucky at the end of the summer. Alida Mossberg is currently getting her master’s in Christian Marriage and Family Therapy from Liberty University. With the degree, she plans to work with couples and children in a church or private practice. Additionally, she recently got engaged and is moving to Cleveland, Ohio, from St. Petersburg, Florida.
2013
Leili Azarbarzin lazarbarzin17@gmail.com Alex Dillon alexbaileydillon@gmail.com Eli Lustbader e2lustbader@gmail.com
Hello all! It’s that class notes time again and we’ve got a lovely collection of news as well as some great responses to my new idea. In addition to collecting life news, I’m also going to be posing a question for each issue that we can all answer instead of/in addition to updating everyone on other aspects of our lives. The inaugural question: What’s your favorite thing about the place that you live? So, news first, and then fun trivia! First of all, big news: Our very own Laura Srivichitranond got married! She’s Laura Srivichitranond Smitherman now and is teaching high school chemistry in Edison, New Jersey, where she moved with her husband, Owen. Matt Wuest finished up Teach for America this past school year and has decided to continue teaching, at least for now, in Kigali, Rwanda. He moved at the end of July to join Bridge2Rwanda, a college prep program working to combat brain drain. In the past few months, he’s also completed a half-Ironman and competed in U.S. Rowing Nationals. If you’re ever in the area, Matt and his partner are planning to start an AirBnB, so keep an eye out! Nailen Matschke checked in for the first time in a while—after Caltech, he spent a year in Seattle, Washington, and has now been in New York City at Jane Street, a technology focused trading firm, for the last year. But if you’re hoping to catch him in NYC—sorry! By the time this is published, he’ll have transferred to Jane Street’s Hong Kong office, where he plans to stay for at
least two years. Kahdeem Cohens has also been enjoying traveling and has been to Jamaica, Mexico, and L.A. recently. He’s still at Lockheed Martin in Connecticut, but is hoping to move somewhere new as he starts a new rotation in the larger corporation. Andrèa Wooten has achieved her 2019 goal of moving back to Washington, D.C., and started a new position at an education technology company on the Conduct and Culture team at EverFi. She’s also working on a hiphop documentary called District of Culture that highlights D.C. artists and social issues in D.C. like gentrification. It sounds amazing; I hope we all get to see it! I, Alex Bailey Dillon, am living in Oakland, California. I’ve been working in theater full time, but I’m hoping to transition to some kind of situation in which I can work on more theater that I’m passionate about but still have a life outside of the industry. In complete contradiction to that, I’m writing this from Edinburgh, Scotland, where I’m almost through my fourth Edinburgh Festival Fringe and have been having an amazing time. And (drumroll please) here’s everyone’s favorite thing about where they live! Matt Wuest: “My favorite thing about life (in Kigali, Rwanda), aside from the weather, cleanliness, and generally more relaxed pace of life, has been furnishing a small home with my partner.” Nailen: “My favorite thing about New York City is all the great people I’ve met through work who are pretty cool in real life too. Also pizza.” (Editor’s note: I’m so jealous.) Kahdeem: “I moved back to New Haven from Meriden, Connecticut, and am currently enjoying my apartment downtown strictly due to the convenience and proximity of everything.” Andrèa: “My favorite thing about where I live [D.C.] is the culture. I feel like everywhere I look there’s either a protest, concert, or new brunch spot I’ve never tried and I’m equally excited for all three.” Matt Vine: “Best thing about New York City is the density. With so many people in such a small area it’s so easy to run into people you know and to meet new ones or go to a cool event or meet up.” Alex Dillon: “I lucked out like crazy and my place in Oakland has a yard and a plum tree and some rose bushes I’ve been nursing back to health. It’s beautiful.” That’s all for now, folks!
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
Alumni from the Class of 2014 marked their five-year milestone at Alumni Weekend on May 31 and June 1, 2019.
2014
Joshua Furth joshua.furth@duke.edu Jack Greenberg jbg3@williams.edu Ross Pforzheimer rossinator199@aol.com
2015
5th Reunion Hopkins—May 29–30, 2020 Griffin Smith smithg2@union.edu
Get ready for our five-year reunion this spring! Now more than four years since the Hopkins Class of 2015 walked off the Hill for the last time as students, the members of this storied class continue to accomplish great things. Former Student Council President Kyra Post will be living in Madrid, Spain, for a year working at a product development firm. Matthijs Van Mierlo is going to be a Penn Fellow at the Hotchkiss School, teaching computer science and mathematics. As a teaching fellow, he will also take graduate school courses from the University of Pennsylvania for his Master of Science in Education (M.S.Ed.), which will be completed during his two-year teaching residency. Natalie Davis Porada is in a similar program called the Boarding School Teaching Residency with UPenn’s Graduate School of Education, and is working as an English teaching fellow at Taft while earning her M.S.Ed. at Penn. Alex Liu is following his lifelong dream of pursuing an acting career in Palo Alto, California, while also working with the Technology, Media
WINTER 2019–2020
and Telecommunications team at Bank of America as an investment banking analyst. After an impressive four-year club lacrosse career during which he broke numerous school records, Michael Leone has settled into his role as an investment banking analyst at Citi with the Mergers and Acquisitions Group. Nathaniel Flicker started a yearlong internship at the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania in June, where he is the Natural Lands/Bloomfield Farm intern. Moving over to the Rhode Island School of Design, Zenon Holowaty changed her major to film and animation. Griffin Smith is working as a business development associate with Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) in New York City with the law team. A pair of Dartmouth graduates, Victoria McCraven and Walker Schneider, will both be making the jump across the pond to continue their education. Victoria was selected for a 2019–2020 Fulbright Award to study in the United Kingdom, and in September she will begin a master’s program at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, to study Art History. Walker will be pursuing his Master of Philosophy degree in American history at Cambridge as a James B. Reynolds scholar, writing about modernizing policing in the United Kingdom and America. Ryenne Carpenter worked at the Partnership for After School Education (PASE) in the Wall Street area of New York City and with the faculty support team at the Yale School of Management. She also started her trusteeship at Smith College on July 1 and is excited to explore the college from the perspective of governance as well
as to use her platform to create stronger connections between the student body and the administration. Over at Johns Hopkins, Ben Koleske is starting medical school for his MD/PhD training. Another medical school standout is Meera Dhodopkar, who is attending Yale Law School and working on a project that evaluates Community Health Needs Assessments that nonprofit hospitals have to complete to comply with IRS guidelines, based out of the COPPER Center at Yale. In her free time, she is also teaching people how to skate at the famous Yale Whale. After a summer full of traveling with her family, Stephanie Gidicsin started at the NYU School of Medicine. Lucy Berman started a fellowship called Avodah, a yearlong service program for progressive young Jewish people, where she will be working in D.C. at N Street Village, an organization that serves women facing homelessness and poverty. With an impressive new LinkedIn photo, Jackson Kleeman is working down in Austin, Texas, as a solutions engineer at Oracle. CC Crews joined the Peace Corps in Rwanda in September, where she will serve as a maternal child health volunteer for two years. After graduating from Wake Forest University, Lucy Peterson started her Ph.D. in pharmacology at Boston University. Emily McDonald is working as a research fellow for Atlantic Media in D.C. after graduating with majors in English and psychology, with a concentration in justice and law studies. Down in Florida, Allison Hellman is working as a college readiness instructor at a private school. She is looking forward to learning how to surf and bike as well as climbing all
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of the indoor walls, since Florida is “super flat.” It is great to hear from everyone who responded and hope to see everyone back at Hopkins this spring—stay tuned for more details! Note: Victoria McCraven helped collect information for the fall 2019 Class Notes.
2016
Eric Kong eric_kong@brown.edu Sophia C. Cappello sophia.cappello@yale.edu Emmanuel C. Chinyumba emmanuel.chinyumba@uconn.edu
2017
Caroline Simon pokeysimon@gmail.com
Andrew Baxter spent his summer at
Brandeis University (where he is a rising junior double-majoring in chemistry and biology) working as a member of the Orientation Core Committee, planning new student orientation programming. This summer, Duncan Carey was a brokering intern at WillisRe, part of the Willis Towers Watson Group. He’ll spend this upcoming semester studying abroad in Prague, Czech Republic. Chloe Glass did research at the National Museum of Modern Art at the Pompidou Center in Paris, France, working on an upcoming exhibition on Henri Matisse that will open early in 2020. What she learned about the Pompidou’s educational programming will inform the work she does as a Yale University Art Gallery tour guide and student programs liaison. Chloe is looking forward to more interesting Art History and Education Studies courses as well as captaining the Yale women’s water polo team. Natalie Hawley spent the summer in Singapore interning at a nonprofit that provides health care, legal assistance, and counseling, among other things, for foreign workers in Singapore. This upcoming semester, Tara Maloney is living in Amman, Jordan, studying Arabic and Middle Eastern politics at the University of Jordan. This summer, Dave Tsnobiladze interned in blades design engineering at Sikorsky, working primarily on the S-97 Raider development program. Though he wasn’t allowed to fly any “real-life helicopters,” he got to fly the simulator. Lydia McGrath is the marketing intern at Morning Blitz and encourages every-
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Zack Putnam ’18 took this photo of the Brandenburg Gate in Germany (with his friends Photoshopped on top).
one to follow @morning_blitz on Instagram. Tatiana Niebuhr was recently voted onto the Executive Board of the Boston College Symphony Orchestra, and in addition to looking forward to the concert season, she’s excited to play a role in the organization and development of the orchestra. This summer, Caroline Vanderlee has been working as a research assistant at Harvard and polishing the final draft of her novel. Sydnee Blanco enjoyed her summer internship at Michael Kors. During the first half of the summer, Holden Turner took the chance to travel through Italy and practice the language skills sparked in Hopkins’ Italian classes. He journeyed alone from Milan to Naples by bicycle, stopping to rest and volunteer at three farms on the way. Having returned, he is grateful for New Haven family and friends and looks forward to a peaceful fall semester ahead. This spring, Madeleine Cahn won the Esther Goldman Prize for Excellence in Classical Languages and Literatures and had her first paper published in a student-run journal. She spent the summer volunteering for the New Haven Parks Department and taking dance classes and is excited to return to Brandeis for her third year.
2018
Leigh Melillo kmelillo@fordham.edu
The Class of 2018 was once described as “pretty neat” by a Hopkins faculty member, and after catching up with them over the past few weeks, it’s clear they’ve lived up to and exceeded this already mountainous praise. Claire Abate declared her major as English and interned with her church over the summer. International pop sensation Kieran Anderson sang and “danced” his way across the world this summer, touring with Harvard’s premier a cappella group, The Krokodiloes. He performed in more than 15 countries, including Taiwan, Japan, Australia, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, and Panama. Amy An also traveled internationally, and happened upon Evan Schott and Ray Wang while visiting China. Karyn Bartosic has declared her majors as politics, philosophy, and classics, with a minor in economics and a certificate in Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies (REEES). She is the managing editor of the Pitt Political Review, VP of the Women’s Club Water Polo Team, a brother of a pre-professional law fraternity, on a council encouraging civic engagement on and off
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
campus, and is the student ambassador for the Center for REEES, following a 10-week intensive language program for Russian in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Moscow, Russia. Zander Blitzer taught archery at Camp Walden, where she used to attend summer camp herself. Emily Calderone worked as an assistant costumer for Legacy Theatre’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Branford, Connecticut. Abigail Chow completed a research internship at Yale-Griffin Hospital’s Prevention Research Center and traveled overseas to Hong Kong and Singapore. After a year of study at NYU, Emilia Cottignoli has made the decision to transfer. We all wish her well as she embarks on a new adventure this fall at Tufts! Liam Day came in third place at the D3 nationals for Club Frisbee, where he met up with Andrew Treat and Dylan Sloan. Jess D’Errico joined the Women’s Club Rugby Team at Boston College and volunteers with 4Boston and APPA. In her spare time, she attends football and hockey games and takes the T into Boston with her friends. Georgia Doolittle is pleased to report that she met a cool dog. During his gap year, Nikhil Etikela traveled the country and beyond while working for various medical research labs. He lived in Maryland, New York, California, and Connecticut through the army and their university partners. To no one’s surprise, Colin Flaumenhaft is now a seasoned puppeteer, a skill he developed earlier this year while starring as Princeton in the musical Avenue Q. This former Peaches stand-out has also continued his improv training with the Rollins Improv Players, participating in workshops with the famous Chicago comedy troupe Second City. Jennifer Horkovich is the co-director of March for Our Lives: Massachusetts, a position she’s held since last September. This summer she participated in an enriching political science program through the National Student Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. Joshua Ip joined a fraternity, studied abroad in Japan, and, along with Dylan Sloan, completed the IronMan Challenge to raise donations for the Treatment Advocacy Center. Kiarra Lavache traveled to Turin, Italy, where she shadowed physicians for 20-plus hours a week through a clinical fellowship with Atlantis. Former HDA monarch Leigh Melillo is pleased to report (in the third person) that she is spending her fall as the assistant director of
WINTER 2019–2020
The Wolves in New York City, working with director Alicia House and Tony Award–winning designer Clint Ramos. Drew Mindell spent his summer interning at the Wellfleet Actors Theater as a production assistant, spotlight operator, and scene shop carpenter. He is also a founder of a group for disabled students at Emory University. Charles Paraiso has declared his major in economics and strategy, and recently completed an internship at Memorial Sloan Kettering doing computational oncology. Unique Parker is continuing her theatrical endeavors at Yale, and was invited to join the university’s premier improv comedy troupe, The Viola Question, with whom she traveled to Rhode Island and California for sightseeing, performing, and conducting workshops at local schools. She also continues to teach with Pathfinder at Hopkins, and this summer she worked with Ms. Horsley’s “fabulous” Latin class and co-taught an Escape Room course with Mr. Ziou’s daughter, Rosie Ziou ’15. Zack Putnam spent his first semester of college abroad in Berlin, Germany, and had an amazing time. He visited numerous famous landmarks, including the Brandenburg Gate, which he photoshopped all his friends on top of so they could scare their parents. Andrew Roberge has continued his well-rounded education, participating in academics, baseball, and theater performance at Bard. He also earned his EMT license and has served on the EMT squads of his campus and in Bethany, Connecticut. Eli Sabin is furthering his already extensive history of public service by running for Ward 1 Alder in New Haven. He writes: “I love my hometown and I’m really excited about the opportunity to fight for policies that address the rising cost of housing, food insecurity, chronic underemployment, and so many other issues.” You can learn more about his campaign at elisabin.com. Kristina Yarovinsky interned at Compass Pro Bono, a nonprofit consulting firm in Washington, D.C. She particularly enjoyed working on a marketing and development project that included preparing materials for the annual report, which is a 30-plus page summary document sent to donors and clients.
Correction With apologies for a photo error in the Spring 2019 Views from the Hill, we celebrate the Hopkins Legacy of the Kosinski family: George Kosinski 2019 (below left) joined his father, Peter Kosinski 1982 (below right), as an alumnus when he graduated on June 7, 2019.
2019
The Class of 2019 needs a correspondent! Alumni interested in serving should contact Donna Vinci at dvinci@hopkins.edu.
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MILESTONES
Births
Marriages
In Memoriam
1998
1980
William H. Haggard 1938 HGS
Steve Musante and Maria Musante
Peter Maretz and Tracy Wutzke
d. June 21, 2019
welcomed Anabelle Gwinn Musante on June 4, 2019.
on July 19, 2019
1999
Becky Dow and James Randall
2001
John C. Healey 1944 HGS
d. December 2, 2019
Laura Abbott and Jay Miner welcomed Eamonn Carter Abbott Miner on November 25, 2018.
on July 14, 2019
2001
Andrew Myrick and Danielle Sheehan
Richard A. LoRicco 1949 HGS
in July 2019
d. April 17, 2019
Ida Bell Kinsley-Skidmore in August 2018. Popi Benisch and George Benisch welcomed George Austin Reis IV in 2019.
2005
Alice Haughton Rice 1949 PHS
Louise Cocks and Jeff White in August 2019
d. April 8, 2019
2002
2010
Gordon E. Perry 1951 HGS
Austin DeChalus and Laney Caldwell
d. December 9, 2019
on May 4, 2019 Maddie Kern and Ryan MacInnis on August 4, 2019
Robert A. Conniff 1952 HGS
2013
William H. German 1952 HGS
Laura Srivichitranond and Owen
d. March 2018
Liz Kinsley and Dave Skidmore welcomed
Peter Gallo and Stephanie Gallo welcomed
Vincent John Gallo on June 30, 2019.
Cammie Dale Liberty and Brian Liberty
welcomed Allison Cate Liberty in September 2018. Paige Armstrong and John Lontoc welcomed Santino Francisco Lontoc on November 18, 2018. Olivia Lindquist Bowen and Michael Bowen welcomed Juniper “Pepper” Bowen in May 2019. Anna and Aaron Margolis welcomed twins in 2019.
2003 Jessica Bloomgarden Muse and
Michael Muse welcomed Jack Muse on June 28, 2019. Liz Nugent and Nicholas Lotito welcomed Juliette in April 2019.
2005 Ben Zlotoff and Sarah Zlotoff welcomed Emma Zlotoff on June 24, 2019. Elyse Schoenfeld and Alex Moyer welcomed Callie Emma Moyer on June 28, 2019.
2007
2002
Smitherman on June 8, 2019
Patricia O’Sullivan Lucey 1944 DAY
d. November 6, 2019
d. May 27, 2019
Cyvia Russian Peters 1952 DAY
d. April 22, 2019 Marilyn Reynolds Crowell 1953 DAY
d. February 5, 2019 Gabriel J. Balsamo Jr. 1954 HGS
d. April 6, 2019 Louise W. Christian 1955 PHS
d. September 8, 2019 Theodore Richard Sucher III 1957 HGS
d. August 7, 2019 Muriel Miller Merenda 1964 DPH
d. August 6, 2019 C. James Walker III 1964 HGS
d. August 18, 2019
Heather and Steven Wald welcomed
Elisha “Skip” Atkins 1967 HGS
Sienna Jane Wald on February 27, 2019.
d. August 6, 2019 Lynn Elston 1969 DPH
d. January 2016 Peter M. Jarowey 1970 HGS
d. September 2019
64
VIEWS FROM THE HILL
Save the Date!
We hope to see you on campus or at an event near you this year! More information to follow by mail and email. Update your address to ensure you’re invited to events near you by emailing your information to alummail@hopkins.edu.
GOLF TOURNAMENT FOR SCHOLARSHIP
ALUMNI WEEKEND
COMMENCEMENT
FRIDAY, MAY 29 & SATURDAY, MAY 30
FRIDAY, JUNE 5
NEW DATE!
Reunion for classes ending in 5 or 0.
FRIDAY, MAY 29 AS PART OF ALUMNI WEEKEND
Orange Hills Country Club Visit hopkins.edu/golf for details
Alumni games for men’s lacrosse and baseball, women’s softball, and coed soccer, tennis, squash, and track and field. All alumni, family, and friends are welcome!
Keep an eye on the monthly Hopkins Highlights email newsletter for additions to the events calendar!
Visit hopkins.edu/reunion for more details
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“It is a vibrant community of student athletes, artists and activists a microcosm of what I wish the world were more like.” - Parent ‘21 & ‘24 “We want to help preserve and increase Hopkins’ high standards and excellent reputation, resulting in strong, self-reliant, and kind students, who are equipped with the tools to succeed academically and socially.” - Parent ‘22
What’s your reason? Make a gift today and support what matters most to you. hopkins.edu/giving
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