Summer 2024 Class Notes Preview: 1950s

1953

Columbia College Today
cct@columbia.edu

Congratulations to Clarence B. Jones, who on May 3 was awarded a 2024 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Biden. The announcement noted: “Clarence B. Jones is a renowned civil rights activist and lawyer who helped draft Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. Jones was instrumental in preserving Dr. King’s legacy and remains an outspoken force against hate.”

In presenting the award, Biden said of Clarence: “Born in Philadelphia, the cradle of our democracy, Dr. Clarence B. Jones wielded a pen as a sword and gave words to the movement that generated in freedom for millions of people. A speechwriter for and lawyer for Dr. King, he helped define the enduring ideas included in the ‘Dream’ that will be engraved in the ethos of America. ... Thank you, Dr. Jones.”

Please share your news and updates with us and your classmates.

1954

Columbia College Today
cct@columbia.edu

Edward Cowan shares news of a classmate’s passing: “Brian Tansey died on Jan. 31, 2024, in Cincinnati from complications following surgery to repair a hip broken in a fall. He was 91 and had been living in a senior community for a few years. Brian, whom I met when we were both denizens of Hartley Hall, had a bifurcated career, initially as a Presbyterian pastor and later in service to seniors. After graduating, Brian enlisted in the Army and served three years. In 1958, he entered Louisville (Ky.) Presbyterian Theological Seminary. By the summer of that year, he was a student pastor at a small-town church in far southeastern Kentucky, where I visited him.

“Some years later, dissatisfied with the way the Presbyterian hierarchy was responding to him, Brian removed his clerical collar and turned to senior services — long-term healthcare, nursing home administration, community services. When Brian retired a second time, he returned to religion and wrote a commentary on the Gospel according to John. In 2004, after I saw the Mel Gibson film The Passion of the Christ, I discussed the story with Brian. He gave me deeply informed answers, including comparisons of John to the other Gospels.

“Brian was born in Cincinnati, a traditionally Republican city, and emerged an ardent Democrat. Of late, he felt the Democratic party had turned to the right under President Clinton, abandoning its roots.

“Brian is survived by four daughters, three by a first wife and one, Eira Tansey of Cincinnati, by a second marriage.”

CCT has learned of the April 17, 2024, passing of A. Stephen Passloff VPS’58, a physician who lived in New York City. An obituary will appear in the Fall 2024 issue.

Please share your news and updates with us and your classmates.

1955

Columbia College Today
cct@columbia.edu

Gordon Silverman SEAS’57 writes, “Still active: emeritus professor of electrical and computer engineering. Most recent assignments: AI, and ‘Computer Systems, Organization and Design,’ teaching at Manhattan College.”

Please share your news and updates with us and your classmates.

1956

Robert Siroty
rrs76@columbia.edu

Bob Lauterborn is halfway through his term as president of the University of North Carolina Retired Faculty and Professionals Association. He has visited Antarctica (his seventh continent, which I must admit I did in 2007) and Alaska, his 50th state.

Ralph Kaslick DM’62 continues to chair the Visiting Professor Program at the College of Dental Medicine. This yearlong program is intended to raise awareness of contemporary issues in dentistry. During this past year, Dr. Thomas E. Van Dyke, SVP at the ADA Forsyth Institute and a professor at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, was invited to work in investigation of finding a cure for oral microbial diseases. Ralph has also been president of the Lyceum Society of the New York Academy of Sciences, a group that comprises the academy’s retired and semi-retired members.

Bob Siroty continues to serve on the Advisory Council of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Rutgers University, which has a full schedule of online and in-person courses that meet weekly (no blue books, papers or exams).

Sadly, must report the passing of Ron Kapon BUS’57, a world-renowned oenophile, in November 2023. Ron was a strong supporter, among other ventures, of the Class of 1956 and Lions basketball. He was a civilian liaison for the community with the NYPD and a member of the faculty at Fairleigh-Dickinson.

Must also report the passing of Gerald Fine, in December 2023. After graduation, Jerry went to dental school and later specialized in orthodontics, practicing on Long Island.

[Editor’s note: See “Obituaries,” online at college.columbia.edu/cct on July 11, for more on Gerald.]

Please keep the info flowing.

1957

Columbia College Today
cct@columbia.edu

Thank you to the following alumni, who responded to our call for news and updates.

Mac Gimse writes about his latest sculpture, Striving for Peace On Horizon’s Brim, on the St. Olaf College campus in Northfield, Minn. “‘Horizon’ was a project that began in 2009 with sculpture and poetry as part of a Nobel Peace Prize Forum on campus. As a large public art sculpture, it took many paths before finally being installed in February 2023. It is built of stainless steel to last many generations of students and will easily outlive me. I taught sculpture and architecture at St. Olaf since 1970, and led several dozen groups of students around the world teaching ‘Monuments to Power and Faith.’

“There is an Art Endowment Fund given by St. Olaf alumni for students and faculty to create a Striving for Peace Garden using all of the fine arts in their presentations, which will go on in perpetuity.”

“I visited Columbia from Minot, N.D., when I was 14, during the first year Grayson Kirk was president, and did not dream of going there. As [I was] a National Scholar, Columbia taught me that the purpose of a liberal arts education was to take a love of learning into life, and that lesson carried through my whole career.”

Read more about “Horizon” online; Mac also submitted a poem.

Striving for Peace on
Horizon’s Brim

If peace is a form of ultimate

human understanding,

before I pass into the heart of

God’s surrounding,

I want to plunge my head into

seas of language

and drink from every tongue only
the words

of kindness. Then with the taste
of love in

my mouth, I want to whisper
silence on

wars of shouting, at children of abuse,

on races from hatred, between

embittered genders, within

unrighteous religions,

and by angered nations.

Striving for peace on horizon’s brim.

If peace is death, as in rest in peace,

before I lie down underground
to cease,

I want to swaddle myself in
unfamiliar

clothing and nestle into the smell of

fresh dug earth next to the stones

and bones of forgotten peoples.

Then I want to run my fingers

through the silt of their sorrows

and quench their mourning thirst

for those innocents who were shed

on never-gain fields for letting blood.

Striving for peace on horizon’s brim.

If peace is kindled in children,

our progeny,

before I garland my soul with

bouquets of eternity,

I want to spill my seeds of final
begetting into the

roots of the mercy tree, from which
hangs the

last unsightly corpse of human harm.
And for

yet unborn, I want to feel their
blood flowing

through my flanks that will
soak tomorrow

in the deep red, ages past of all
our origins,

making us one human flesh.

Striving for peace on horizon’s brim.

If peace is a form of tradition-passing,

before I give up my most
prized possessions

of hair and teeth, of flesh and breath,
before I let

go of hordes of family and hugs of
friends, I want

to squeeze my soul through the
martyr’s throat

to feel words of compassion as
spoken by

the lips of mercy, knowing that flashes

of anger can never be retrieved.

Striving for peace on horizon’s brim.

If peace is to quell all forms of
violence against

nature and against us as humans,
our pathway to

peace can become a reality,
knowing that acts

of violence cannot be simply
washed away.

Then I want to sing out to the whole

world the sweet sounds of

bearing the burdens of peace

using YOUR impressions,

not just my own,

of how,

and why,

we live.

Striving for peace on horizon’s brim.

Robert Alter writes, “During the last six months [as of April], I have published two books: a biography of the Israeli writer Amos Oz and a memoir, A Writing Life.”

Richard Berger, who lives in Los Angeles, writes, “Having moved to California 20-plus years ago, it seems I’m a Californian even though I was born in NYC. I never married. I keep up with Columbia via Spectator (of which I’m an alum), and follow the sports teams as best I can.”

Erich Gruen writes, “Time moves all too quickly at this stage of life. Good friends who enriched our lives for many decades now disappear every year, sometimes even more frequently. I have spoken at too many memorials. But I console myself with the thought that those who have departed enjoyed long, productive and rewarding lives.

“I stave off the grim reaper by keeping myself busy. A new book of mine will appear this year, at about the time when I will welcome a second great-grandchild. I get invitations to speak at universities or conferences from time to time. And I offer an adult education course in Berkeley every spring that provides considerable stimulus (at least for me). Two classmates have attended those classes (remotely), Ron Kushner and Joe Diamond, much to my delight. And I do keep in touch with two others, Bob Alter and Alvin Kass. For the most part, the distance and the scattering prevent frequent contact. But the Columbia years remain a vital part of my life.”

CCT is sorry to report the passing of John F. Mathews and Ira N. Silverman. Please go to “Obituaries,” online on July 11, at college.columbia.edu/cct.

Please share your news and updates with us and with your classmates.

1958

Peter Cohn
petercohn1939@gmail.com

Let’s start with some good news: The women’s basketball team has done it again! For those of you who don’t follow Columbia sports that closely, it’s been a long time since the Columbia men’s basketball team has won an Ivy League championship (1968, to be exact) and to make the good news even sweeter, it’s the second year in a row the women have done it! And as this issue goes to press, we’ve learned that they have received a bid to play in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. The last time a Columbia team did that was (you guessed it) 1968. So, hats off to the women, and best of luck in the days ahead.

More on the good news front: Bill Claire writes that Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), At-Large Representative, placed his poem “The Heartbeat of Cape Henlopen Park” in the Congressional Record on April 19, 2023. In doing so, Rochester commented, “ … it was an honor to share your poem with the American people. It is a reminder to all of us to treasure and protect our coastlines.”

Bill notes that it is “most unusual to receive this kind of recognition for poetry in Washington, where I was involved in public service for more than 50 years. I also had a dual career in both the literary and antiquarian book worlds. During the last year I happened to be a modest activist in opposition to developers who wanted to start a restaurant in our historic state park.” That occasion prompted Bill to send his poem celebrating the park to Rochester. He adds, “Speaking of an earlier D.C. era, I had a nice relationship with Bernie Nussbaum there. I’m also reminded that it’s been more than a half-century since I started arguing with roommate Ron Szczypkowski. We still disagree about everything but were both happy that Claude Benham ’57 was inducted into the Columbia University Athletics Hall of Fame last October.

“In my later life, I had major personal and professional ties with Mark Van Doren GSAS 1920 and Richard Neustadt.”

I will close Bill’s interesting contribution with the words of Rochester: “It is my sincere hope you will continue to inspire others with your beautiful poetry.”

On that, we all can agree!

Joe Dorinson brings us up to date on his activities (and those of other classmates as well): “Harvey Feuerstein hosted Mark Weiss; Shelly Raab; Ernie Brod LAW’61; Marty Silver (né Silverstein); and yours truly at the Harvard Club on Nov. 8. We recalled our salad days at Columbia over a delicious meal, leavened by heady discourse on many things, cabbages and kings. Deeply concerned about the horrific events in the Middle East and the hostile demonstrations on campus, we agreed to voice our displeasure with the new administration.”

Since then, Joe has added that “to think of our usually quiet campus now under siege by Hamas apologists is too awful to contemplate.”

We hope that by the time this issue is delivered to alumni, both the Middle East, and our campus, will be quieter places.

We started this column on a happy note, but we are ending it on a sad one. Another one of the leaders of our class, Peter Gruenberger LAW’61, died, on March 6, 2024. After graduating from the Law School, he became an outstanding corporate litigator and lead counsel on several important cases. But he always had time for his family and for Columbia. He started a family scholarship fund and was active in alumni affairs and class reunions. For the last 20 years Peter even hosted a Class of ’58 monthly poker game (though “outsiders” had to be admitted when attrition took its toll) and which I was (usually) pleased to participate in. A life truly well lived. Condolences to his wife, Carin, and their extended family. [Editor’s note: See “Obituaries,” online on July 11, at college.columbia.edu/cct.]

1959

Norman Gelfand
nmgc59@hotmail.com

By the time you read this our 65th reunion will have come and gone. I hope that it was successful, and I encourage you to plan to attend our 70th reunion in only five years.

Joseph Ramos SEAS’60, SIPA’64, GSAS’68 writes, “I hold a B.A. from Columbia College, a B.S. from Columbia Engineering, was an international fellow at SIPA, 1963–65, and hold a Ph.D. (economics) from GSAS. Difficult to be more Columbia. I am now a member of the board of the Columbia Global Center Santiago; I have resided in Chile since 1968, when I arrived as a visiting professor. I am now professor emeritus at the School of Economics and Business Administration of the University of Chile. Though I am an economist (indeed my peers honored me in 2020 as Economist of the Year), my avocation is philosophy. Indeed, in December 2023, just as I turned 85, I published a book on the existence of God, Belief or Unbelief: The Mystery of God in the Light of Reason. Its Spanish version (2022) was well received by academics and the public at large in Chile and is now in its third printing.”

From Jim Levy GSAS’61, “… are some thoughts on the influence of Columbia College on my life.

“We have reached the Age of Sorting Things Out, so here are four ways in which Columbia affected my life.

“First, the Core Curriculum. It taught me how little I knew. And gently, it opened my mind to so much. For example, the readings in CC (both years), and the syllabus for Humanities A and B. I became a professional historian, and the Core guided my thinking about education and why history is the foundation from which we build an understanding or misunderstanding of ourselves. Herodotus and my tattered Thucydides, purchased at Salter’s, are still on my bookshelves. And so is Augustine’s City of God, where I encountered an argument for a just war. Honestly, most of it did not stick in my 18-year-old head but I never forgot who was on the reading lists. Long live the Core!

“Second, our teachers. The men (yes, only men in those days) who stoked my interest in the past: Richard Morse in Latin American history, Jim Shenton ’49, GSAS’54 in U.S. history and most important to me, Walter Metzger GSAS’46, who made me think about the relationship of history to the social sciences. But I must acknowledge some other staff members who, thankfully, patiently suffered my ignorance and enriched my imagination: Among them are Edward Le Comte ’39, GSAS’43; Steven Marcus ’48, GSAS’61; George Knobbe; Robert Belknap SIPA’57, GSAS’69; and Marvin Harris ’49, GSAS’53.

“Third, Columbia’s location in Manhattan. I (we) had the privilege of being at university at the zenith of New York’s power and influence in the world. It was the beating heart of the ‘American Century’ — oozing wealth, culturally vibrant, subways packed Saturday nights through early Sunday mornings, the ‘twofers’ allowing us to see shows on Broadway and Off- and to watch ice hockey at Madison Square Garden for 75 cents! Who in their right minds would not have wanted to be at university in New York during the 1950s? Think Comden and Green, Rodgers and Hammerstein. And Leonard Bernstein and West Side Story.

“Ah, there’s a different voice. Underneath the sheer joy and energy of Manhattan lay growing tensions: whites, Blacks, Latinos rubbing irritably against each other, the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers abandoning their hallowed grounds for Pacific gold, and the commanding heights complacent in their authority until one day mighty Gotham threatened bankruptcy. By then, I, too, was elsewhere.

“Fourth, Barnard College, where I met the lovely Valerie Brussel BC’61, married her after graduation in 1959 and helped to produce two boys, one of whom is now in New York producing plays including Come from Away and Six the Musical, while the other resides in Sydney, a block from Bondi Beach, after a career in Hong Kong as manager of a hedge fund. Sydney? In 1973, we moved there to take up a position in Latin American history at the University of New South Wales for three years, after which we planned to return to the United States. As one says in the Empire, ‘We just stayed on.’ Happily.”

Lou Stephens writes, “I have prepared and will finally have printed a booklet on my art. This includes about 15 images of my work including a self-portrait, a bio, my thoughts about art coupled with each image and an appendix referencing items in the text. Since I was born and raised in Mexico and met and socialized with many known artists there, I speculate that this will be an interesting project to view for those interested in art. If any of you ’59ers have friends or connections to the New York art world, please let me know (luistephens@yahoo.com).”

We hear from Steve Buchman LAW’62, “Since graduating, I followed the traditional path of a New York attorney, first joining a small firm, and when it dissolved, moving to a larger one with its attendant responsibilities and opportunities. I retired in 1992, having spent a bit of time thinking about a second career. After some searching, it turned out to be as a career counselor at the Law School, where I’ve been since 1994.

“My hope was to make the law school experience, and the transition to practice, easier for today’s students than it had been for me in 1962. My time at the Law School had been as fraught and miserable as my time at the College had been exciting and positive. My counseling experience at the Law School has brought my appreciation for that institution back into a much more balanced perspective and I still counsel there one day a week (and more when needed). For quite a few years, up until about five years ago, I was also the ombudsman at my former law firm. Until asked to be its ombuds, I didn’t know what an ombudsman did, or was (an off-the-record issue resolver and sounding board). It turned out to be particularly rewarding work and complemented my law school counseling.

“Being on campus allowed me to stay in touch with Columbia and its transitions since 1959 in a way I wouldn’t have thought possible. It included engagement with the Columbia College Alumni Association and, of course, the fencing program that had been so pivotal to me as an undergraduate. Being involved in our last three reunions was a terrific way to stay in touch with classmates, and with those decades-old memories we all have of the Morningside campus. My warmest wishes to all classmates, wherever they are.”

Jerome Charyn is “currently working on a novel about Eleanor Roosevelt, FDR and Missy LeHand, the President’s private secretary 1933–40. Most of the novel will take place at the Little White House in Warm Springs, Ga., where FDR had once been a polio patient.”

I have also received notes from Gerald Friedland, Charles Rabb, Bruce Schlein and Steve Trachtenberg, which I cannot include here due to CCT’s space limitations. Check the column online on July 11 at college.columbia.edu/cct for the notes from Bruce and Charles.