CLASS NOTES
Jim Shaw
139 North 22nd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
cct@columbia.edu
Leo V. Love received a Creative Writing Fellowship in
Poetry for fiscal year 2001 from the Arizona Commission on the
Arts.
I am
instituting a new feature in which I call a few classmates for news
for each issue. My goal is to broaden coverage of the class to
include those who don't write to alumni magazines, though of course
where would class correspondents be without those who do write? I
start here with four friends I had not spoken to (my error) in from
one to 30 years, as the case may be; it was a delightful chance to
catch up on news as I conducted combination CCT interviews
and personal conversations.
Roy Rosenzweig is a professor of history at George Mason
University, which he notes in the only major university serving
D.C.-area Virginia's 1.5 million population. After obtaining a
Ph.D. in history from Harvard in 1978, he followed Deborah Kaplan,
who teaches English at GMU, there in 1981; they married and live in
Arlington, Va.
He
studies "how history is presented and consumed, and how to use new
technology to present history," and founded and directs the Center
for History and New Media (http://chnm.gmu.edu). I took a quick Web
site tour and in particular recommend a link to History Matters,
then to the Puzzle icon, then to a monthly puzzle (also check the
archived puzzles link on the current puzzle page, particularly the
World War I era I.Q. test samples). I also found Roy's 19-page
curriculum vitae, but, hey, it's in readable big type, as befits
new media; I'll save you the details, but take my word that the guy
publishes a lot.
The
History Matters link is for students and teachers of high school
and college history courses. One person who might log on after she
reads this is Emily Derringer, daughter of Paul Deringer and
Margaret Young. She's a Princeton grad who is working on a master's
in history and plans to teach high school history. Paul and
Margaret's other kids are Kate, co-managing editor of the Daily
Princetonian, and twins Molly and Will, who are juniors at
Phillips Exeter. Paul's a neurologist and Margaret's a
pediatrician, and they work together at Bassett Healthcare, a group
practice formed by Columbia professors (and still affiliated with
Columbia) to bring medicine to a rural community. When they are all
home, their family constitutes one percent of the population of Fly
Creek, a suburb of Cooperstown, N.Y., so, give a call if you're
headed to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Fellow doc Ray Stricker was named one of San Francisco's
500 Best Doctors in the January 2001 issue of San Francisco
magazine. Ray will appreciate that when I informed my son of Ray's
honor, his first question was how many doctors does San Francisco
have. I assured him that with San Francisco's medical centers,
there are many, and fine, doctors, and that the patient population
was higher than might be expected because of all those people
jumping into San Francisco Bay to retrieve Barry Bonds's home runs
(see Cooperstown), which they really do.
Ray
e-mails me jokes, so I think I'm okay, despite having been
chastised, in advance, by a classmate years ago who required that I
print his letter without comment and without linking his entry to
any other entry; I declined to print but embarked on a period of
writing dull, unlinkable columns, but heck, you deserve better and
besides this is the age of new media, and what's that without
links?
Ray
e-mailed me after our call to summarize: He "runs a busy
hematology/immunology practice, and I have become the local expert
on Lyme Disease, which is a growing problem in California. I was
recently appointed to the California Lyme Disease Advisory
Committee that was established by Gov. Davis and the state
legislature." (By phone Ray had told me of his immunologic research
study of abnormal counts of cells of Lyme Disease patients.) "I
have also continued my work on AIDS and other immunologic diseases.
My most recent publications have been in Lancet, Annals of
Internal Medicine and Immunology Letters.
"On
a personal note, my wife Abby works in a fancy boutique in San
Francisco and enjoys hobnobbing with the rich and famous. Our
daughter Zoe is 8 and our son Avi is 6. Zoe has informed me that
she intends to be the first girl president, if Hillary doesn't beat
her to it. Avi has memorized all the streets in San Francisco and
loves to backseat drive (he wants to be a pilot). We should have no
trouble finding Chappaqua when we visit New York this
spring."
On
the way, he might fly over north Jersey, where Arvin Levine
works at home as a consulting architect and analyst for Compaq
Computer, designing computer system solutions for major financial
institutions in the New York area. He is married to Gila Berkowitz,
who writes books, including The Brides, a novel of corporate
intrigue and romance. Their son J.J. is in the Israeli army and in
college at a Yeshiva, and Arvin has an apartment in Jerusalem.
Daughter Livia is in the 11th grade, stateside.
Arvin is "still in stasis," which he then belies by noting that
he "finally reopened his Feinberg physics book" from College days,
"just to read it to be an interesting person again." (Ah,
modesty.)
Meanwhile, in my adopted town, classmate Dennis Langer
is the new President of the Columbia Club of Philadelphia. With
classmate Alex Sachare as CCT editor, we own not just
Philadelphia but New York. So let's prove it at reunion, May
31-June 3. It would be great to see you there.
Paul S. Appelbaum
100 Berkshire Road
Newton, MA 02160
pappel1@aol.com
It
was, as he says, "a big year" for Jonathan Freedman. His
marriage to Dr. Isabelle Rooney, a Scottish research scientist, was
followed by the birth of their daughter Genevieve on April Fools
Day. Meanwhile, daughter Madigan entered Columbia's first-year
class this fall. Finally, his new book, Wall of Fame, was
published in October. Wow!
One
of the ultimate honors in the legal world is to see your name
incorporated into the name of your firm. Rick Kurnit was so
honored this year by the New York firm of Frankfurt Garbus Kurnit
Klein & Selz. After joining the firm in the early '80s, Rick
expanded its advertising and marketing practice into one of the
largest such practices in the country. He has handled major cases
in libel law and the application of intellectual property law to
marketing communications, and represented some of the leading
Internet pioneers. Rick teaches at the New School and lectures
widely to legal and industry audiences.
There was a very nice profile of Calvin Hudson in the
Hartford Courant. Calvin is the group senior vp of worldwide
property-casualty claims at The Hartford Financial Services Group,
a company he joined 27 years ago. In addition to overseeing this
difficult area of claims resolution, Calvin is a deacon at the
First Cathedral in Bloomfield and a father of four, including a
foster daughter.
With
all the fuss about last fall's election, you might not have noticed
that Christopher Garvey ran on the Conservative Party ticket
as a candidate for N.Y. State Supreme Court Justice in the Bronx.
Bill Cooper sent an e-mail to "brag a little bit," which it
looks as though he's entitled to do. Daughter Sarah graduated from
Columbia in December, the third generation of Coopers to go to the
College. Bill also notes that Joe Falik's son, Benjamin, is
in the Class of 2004.
When
I learned this fall that I'd been elected to the Institute of
Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences - which provides
advice on health policy to the federal government - I scanned the
list of new members to see who I might know. Sure enough, Jerry
Groopman's name was there too. After sharing so many of those
pre-med courses in our years at Columbia, it was particularly nice
to share this honor with Jerry, too. Finally, as I write this, I'm
pleased to say that we learned today that our daughter Avigail will
be coming to Morningside Heights next fall as an entering student
at Barnard, just like her mother did not all that long
ago.
Barry Etra
326 McKinley Avenue
New Haven, CT 06515
betra@unicorr.com
State of the Union? There is only one!
Joel Pfister is a professor of American studies and
English at Wesleyan, right here in good ol' CT. In other state
news, Eric Coleman was presented with an achievement award
by the Connecticut Men and Women for Justice on October 11. Have
heard that Bob Iassogna was ill, but is recovering; Bob
lives in Stratford, Conn. And Barry Etra (who's he?) has a
new e-mail address, betra@unicorr.com. Type early and
often.
Fred Bremer
532 West 111th Street
New York, NY 10025
fbremer@pclient.ml.com
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![](images/tealuxe.jpg)
Tealuxe, an upscale "tea
bar," and Lord of the Fleas, a trendy women's clothing store, are
newcomers to the west side of Broadway between 115th and 116th
streets and among the establishments that are changing the look of
Morningside Heights.
PHOTO: ALEX SACHARE |
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Those of you living in New York City (proper) may have seen it.
The New York Times on Sunday, Jan. 7 featured Morningside
Heights as the cover story in "The City" section, referring to it
as the greatest concentration of institutions serving the mind
(Columbia, Barnard, Teachers College, etc.) spirit (St. John the
Divine, Riverside Church, Union and Jewish Theological Seminaries,
etc.) and soul (Manhattan School of Music, Miller Theatre, etc.).
All at a time when most communities don't have a single such
institution, let alone a need for et ceteras.
The
Times also noted the proliferation of new "yuppie"
establishments that are transforming the neighborhood. If you have
a free hour while in the city, drop by the Columbia area and you
will be amazed. Even Tom's Restaurant has a purple glow at
night.
One
person who will have a chance to relive life on the Heights is
Ed Kornreich, whose daughter, Molly, was admitted early
decision to the Class of 2005. If you have followed the articles on
how hard it is to get into the College these days, you will share
his pride in his daughter's achievement.
The
hyper-busy holiday season (and the death of the holiday card
tradition) led to a near-record low number of class notes coming
in. Sure, I did see Jon Ben-Asher speed by me at the World
Financial Center, but he was rushing to catch a ferry to a train to
suburbia, and thus no note. And my wife reported bumping into
Richard Briffault at the Barnard Toddler Center while he was
touring it as a possible repository for his second child, but this
is hardly newsworthy.
Yet
I did receive two notes from the "long lost" that I will quote in
(almost) full:
Michael Ochs e-mailed me at the above address: "This is
my first time writing.Briefly, I am recently married (yesterday!)
and just moved to California after living in Texas for 17 years. I
am in my 10th year as a middle school science teacher in public
school and still involved in music. My e-mail is mvochs@yahoo.com and I would like to
hear from anyone, especially the crew from Carman 2."
Clifton Wellman writes to say, "At this point in my
brilliant career, I have evolved to the stage where I would best
describe myself as a person who specializes in studying, and
collecting, very strange things. Strange science, strange history,
and I happen to have a unique collection of highly unusual (and
expensive) dioramas."
Whether you are wanting to hear from your friends from some
Carman floor, have an interest to share, or just want to share some
details of even a mundane life, drope me a note or e-mail or call
me. It will brighten the day of the guy who lived down the hallway
who has thought, "I wonder what ever happened to." It only takes a
moment.
Randy Nichols
503 Princeton Circle
Newtown Square, PA 19073
rnichols@sctcorp.com
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