Summer 2024 Class Notes Preview: 1960s

1960

Columbia College Today
cct@columbia.edu

[Editor’s note: CCT thanks Robert Machleder for his 23 years of service as class correspondent; what follows is his last column. Going forward, please send your news, updates and/or College memories to CCT at the email address above or by using the online Class Notes webform, college.columbia.edu/cct/submit_class_note.]

Our last column reported Larry Mendelson BUS’61 having been awarded in September the prestigious 44th annual Howard Hughes Memorial Award from the Aero Club of Southern California for his leadership in the advancement of aviation and aerospace technology through his transformation of HEICO Corp. from a small provider of a few aircraft components into the highly diversified and expansive aerospace, defense and electronics company it is today. Numerous other awards and accolades received by Larry personally and by HEICO are notable.

Forbes Magazine cited HEICO as one of the 100 Best Small Companies 2012–14, as one of Most Trustworthy Companies in America and as one of the World’s Most Innovative Growth Companies. In 2017 the highly regarded Institutional Investor Magazine named HEICO to its All-America Executive Team and named Larry the best CEO in the Aerospace & Defense Electronics sector.

As for personal accolades, on July 14, 2017, Bastille Day, Emmanuel Macron, president of the Republique Française, named Larry a “Chevalier” in the French Legion of Honor. Larry is also a trustee emeritus of Columbia University and a recipient of the 1999 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He continues to be the object of such plaudits, for on Jan. 19 he received the Kenn Ricci Lifetime Aviation Entrepreneur Award from Living Legends of Aviation.

Thad Long wrote that one of his courtroom drama novels, The Impossible Mock Orange Trial, was selected as October’s book of the month by the Online Book-of-the-Month Club. “After approximately 100 reviews and ratings on Amazon Books, it received a composite rating of 4.3 out of 5.0. Although this personal injury/wrongful death case is a gripping novel with many unexpected twists and turns, it is also a serious and thoughtful study of justice in the local courts of the United States.”

Frank Zmorzenski passed away in Florida on Nov. 3, 2023, of multiple health complications. As an NROTC student he was commissioned as an ensign upon graduation and then pursued a 30-year career in the Navy, attaining the rank of captain, and serving as commanding officer of three vessels: the U.S.S. Meredith, the U.S.S. Edward McDonnell and the U.S.S. Ajax. He served with bravery and distinction and was highly decorated while serving in Vietnam as a U.S. naval adviser onboard a Vietnamese naval gunfire support vessel, and as an adviser to Vietnamese Navy Fleet Command. His numerous military decorations included Legion of Merit (two awards), Bronze Star Medal with Combat ‘V,’ Meritorious Service Medal with Gold Stars, Navy Commendation Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, Navy Expeditionary Medal, Vietnam Service Medal with Eight Stars, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal with Device, Vietnamese Staff Service Medal - First Class, Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and Vietnamese Civil Actions Unit Citation.

An active participant in the monthly Class Zoom meetings, Frank is now sadly missed. [Editor’s note: See “Obituaries,” online on July 11, at college.columbia.edu/cct.]

Now, prepare yourself for an intense heartbreaker. You may recall a Class Note in 2013 that Dr. Paul Brief’s book, Hootch 8: A Combat Surgeon Remembers Vietnam, had been published. Paul described the book as follows: “Hootch 8 is a memoir of my experiences with the blood, the pain and yes, the humor of the Vietnam War in 1969–70. As a Navy orthopedic surgeon fresh out of residency training, I was assigned to the First Medical Battalion hospital in Danang, where my job was to treat Marines for injuries suffered in combat. There, I was one of six orthopods among other surgical specialties, and as incoming casualties were quite heavy, we worked feverishly and exhaustingly, day and night, for an entire year. Our hospital, a favored target, often came under heavy enemy fire, especially at night. All medical officers lived in wooden huts called hootches, and mine was Hootch 8. All proceeds from the book are being donated to various injured veteran charities.”

I can attest that Paul’s memoir is extraordinary.

Only recently, Paul learned of and shared with me a Vietnam-Class of ’60 connection that he had no knowledge of. It shocked me. Let Paul tell it.

“Reflecting upon our recent Class Notes, which were mostly of an obituarial nature, it occurred to me that many in our class may be unaware, as I was until recently, of the extremely untimely death of Howard Gerstel VPS’64.

“After VPS, Howard was drafted, then sent to Vietnam in 1967 as a U.S. Army medical officer.

“In Vietnam, Capt. Gerstel distinguished himself as an excellent physician, and by regularly and fearlessly going on jungle patrols with his men. During these outings he tended to the wounded and also ministered to needy Vietnamese civilian villagers. In the eight months he spent in-country, February–October 1967, he twice received the Bronze Star Medal, a decoration awarded for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement or meritorious service in a combat zone.

“On Oct. 4, 1967, his unit was ambushed, and tragically Capt. Gerstel was killed. He was 28.

“He was awarded the Silver Star Medal posthumously, and left behind his young wife, Barbara, as well as three little children.

“As I had lost touch with Howie after graduation, I was shocked and brokenhearted to learn of his death only in early 2022. With his wife’s permission I have now observed his yahrzeit twice and plan to continue doing so as long as the Almighty permits me. May his memory continue to be a blessing to his family and to all his Class of 1960 classmates.”

Overwhelmed by Paul’s narrative, I focused with a heavy heart on Howie’s photo in our yearbook, pondered the highlights and accomplishments in my life, and considered how very fortunate I have been — we all have been — to have made it to our octogenarian years.

1961

Michael Hausig
mhausig@yahoo.com

Dave Furman is enjoying the many aches and pains to which his long tenure on this planet entitles him, but he remains very active.

In 2011, Bill Burley ’63 invited Dave and his wife, Carol, to join the Burleys on a bike tour in Italy. They so enjoyed the bike trip on rail trails through the Dolomite Alps that they began biking a lot more when they returned to the United States. As of February, Dave had biked more than 80 bike trails in 17 states and one province in Canada. His odometer read 20,518 miles!

Dave and Carol will spend the bulk of this summer at their secluded woods cabin in the Adirondacks. Because of foot nerve damage, Dave’s hiking days have ended, so they spend their time biking on little-used back roads, canoeing the area’s many lakes and streams, and loafing on the cabin’s screened porch. They also look forward to bike trips on the new Adirondack Rail Trail from Lake Placid to Saranac Lake, N.Y., and the Lamoille Rail Trail across northern Vermont.

Frank Lorenzo recently completed the book Flying for Peanuts: How We Revolutionized the Airline Business, about his airline days; it’s set to be released in September. It might be of interest to classmates, as, in addition to noting Frank’s airline experiences, it goes into his days at Columbia, both good and bad.

The book title originated from the very successful “Peanuts” (much lower) fares that his team originated in the late 1970s and approved as an experiment, before airline deregulation became law, thus allowing low unrestricted fares generally, as today.

Roger Panetta is involved in the project Shadows on Stone: Identifying Sing Sing’s Incarcerated, which seeks to uncover the hidden stories of those at Sing Sing 1865–1925 by transcribing the hand-written admission registers; the organization is seeking more volunteers (zooniverse.org).

Oscar Garfein VPS’65, BUS’97’s daughter, Dr. Jennifer Ashton ’91, VPS’00, HN’16 (now married to Tom Werner), was honored on March 6 at a gala in New York City as one of this year’s recipients of a John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement. She is the chief medical correspondent for ABC News (daily on GMA3). She has a son, Alex ’20, and a daughter, Chloe.

Bob Salman LAW’64 is actively involved in the 2024 election as a member of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee. In addition to the presidential race, in New Jersey there is a fierce primary for the U.S. Senate in both parties and at least two contested primaries for the House; Bob is active in all these races. He is also chair in four active Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitrations. FINRA is a nonprofit that provides confidence to participate in the stock market by safeguarding market integrity.

Bob and his wife, Reva, will seek another term in the June Democratic primary as longtime members of the Monmouth County Democratic Committee.

Bob will discuss his projections for this year’s elections in our October Zoom class meeting.

My wife, JB, and I had lunch with Jon Liebowitz and his wife, Ruth, when they were in San Francisco in January to see their son and his family, who live in Cambodia but were here on a ski trip.

Alex Liebowitz (Jon’s brother) was here for five days of skiing with me in March.

Ira Weinryb SEAS’61 was listed in Marquis Who’s Who in America 2022, the Diamond 75th Edition.

Arnie Intrater LAW’64 died peacefully in his home in Boynton Beach, Fla., on Oct. 15, 2023. Arnie was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1939. The family escaped from Nazi Europe to Cuba, and Arnie attended the American School in Havana for two years, He was the first in the family to learn English.

In 1947, the family immigrated to the United States, settling in Forest Hills, N.Y. Arnie graduated from Yeshiva of Central Queens and Forest Hills H.S.

In 1964, he married Karen Adrienne Weill, and they moved to the Washington, D.C., area.

A true public servant, Arnie proudly served his country with dedication and integrity, quickly rising to leadership in the Office of the General Counsel for the Department of the Treasury, the White House Counsel office and as general counsel to both the Peace Corps and the Federal Housing Finance Board.

Arnie is survived by Karen; his son, Marc; his daughter, Michelle; and six grandchildren. A memorial service was held in Boynton Beach in October. A memorial service will also be held this summer in Harpswell, Maine, where Arnie enjoyed many summers. Donations in his name may be made to Magen David Adom (the Israeli affiliate of the International Red Cross; afmda.org). [Editor’s note: See “Obituaries,” online on July 11, at college.columbia.edu/cct.]

Adolf Frederick J. Toborg passed away on March 2, 2024. I don’t have any details at this time but expect to have more information for the Fall 2024 issue.

1962

John Freidin
jfreidin@gmavt.net

Peter Berman GSAPP’69 entered Columbia in September 1958. But three years later, at the urging of his first-year design critics, Gerhard Kallmann and Michael McKinnell, Peter transferred to Cambridge University to study architecture. Kallmann and McKinnell had asked Peter to join them in the design competition for a Boston City Hall. Their design won, and the building was built. Peter studied at Cambridge for three years and earned a B.A. in architecture. He then returned to Columbia to get the American degree, required for registration in the United States. Subsequently Peter apprenticed with Marcel Breuer and Paul Rudolph and built his first building, in Peru, Vt. The story was published by Architecture Forum, and his career took off. “Since then,” Peter writes, “I’ve been fortunate to work on several large projects, often in exotic places, including Chongqing, Cairo, Dubai and Riyadh.

“Large-scale buildings have always excited me, and the macrostructure I’m currently working on is no exception. It will stand atop a two-story underground garage: two 60-foot-wide parking lanes with columns and piers extending upward. At 1,260 feet it might be the longest building in the Western Hemisphere. It will be 120 feet wide, totally prefabricated, including kitchens, baths and cabinetry, and stand on a sloped site in Elkin, N.C. The structure begins at four stories at the top of the slope and stretches to a point 50 feet lower, making the building four stories at one end and nine at the other. Inside, two rows of apartments and hotel rooms face a skylit atrium; it is 30 feet wide and runs the full length of the building.

“The structure is built from a space-age lightweight composite that is shiny white. It is a million square feet in area but will cost just $250–$300 per foot to build due to its structural system and prefabrication. There will be 178 dwelling units, ranging in size from 1,800 to 2,700 square feet, and 224 hotel rooms, each 450 square feet. Every room will have a large terrace, and the roof will host three swimming pools. Views to the Blue Ridge Mountains will be spectacular.”

Three additional landowners have expressed interest in constructing similar structures, and Peter hopes this building will be the prototype of many.

Richard Toder and his wife, Joan, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on June 14. They met on a Circle Line vessel, bringing them to a camp in Upstate New York, where Richard was a counselor and Joan was a counselor in training.

Since retiring from his interventional radiology practice at the start of Covid-19, Steve Stein has been lecturing at two Connecticut hospitals. His wife, Linda, and he “keep busy with kids and grandkids, theater locally and in NYC, and seeing friends (including Art Levy) for walks, movies and dining. We are active in our local conservative congregation, Beth El in Norwalk, and attend many Zoom meetings on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Sadly, we are repeatedly disheartened by acts of antisemitism happening locally, nationally, internationally and on U.S. college campuses, including Columbia.”

Anthony Valerio’s new book, Confessions of an Aspiring Pornographer, about his life in publishing, has been launched. He’d love to hear from classmates.

Last fall, as director of The Resnick Institute at SUNY New Paltz (for 35 years now), Gerry Sorin GSAS’69 coordinated a lecture series, “Israel at 75.” The first lecture, on Oct. 2, went very well. The next, scheduled for Oct. 9 via Zoom from Israel, was postponed. “From there,” Gerry reports, “the series went in directions we had no inkling of before it started. For those of us anxious, angry, sad or all of those things about what is happening in the Middle East, I recommend ‘Israel Is Falling Into an Abyss,’ a March 1 New York Times essay by Israeli novelist David Grossman.

“On a happier note, my book Saul Bellow: ‘I Was a Jew and an American and a Writer’ was published in April, almost simultaneously with Bellow’s appearance on a USPS stamp!”

Daniel Stone says, “When not worrying about the unhappy state of the world, I indulge my hobbies of history and dance. I’m co-editor of Jewish Life and Times, a collection of essays about Jewish history around Winnipeg, Canada, and I am preparing for the 50th anniversary of the Village Green Morris Men, with whom I’ve performed for 45 years.”

In order to pursue a mountain-climbing passion that started in California and continues in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Dick Schwartz GSAS’67 has had his fourth joint replacement. He and his partner, Debra, are celebrating their 18th year together. They met in New Orleans in 2005, while doing Katrina relief work. Since 2009 Dick has maintained a blog that might interest other members of our class. And for the last five years he has been hosting a monthly roundtable discussion, “Literature at Lunch.”

Geza Feketekuty has taken up sports for the first time, in his 80s. So far, he’s completed one triathlon and two 5K running races. In all three, he finished second in his/our age group! He also participated in the three-day Florida Bicycle Safari.

Bravo, Geza!

Our beloved classmate Ed Pressman passed away on Jan. 13, 2024. Ed grew up in Queens and graduated from Forest Hills H.S., as did Art Garfunkel ’65. “The Sound of Silence” was sung at Ed’s funeral.

In September 1959 Ed and Phil Lebovitz became roommates and remained close friends ever since. Phil remembers that “one of Ed’s treasured memories was visiting my family in Memphis, where he encountered the remnants of Southern segregation and our family’s Southern hospitality …. Classical music was Ed’s passion; he introduced me to Carnegie Hall and for years sent me his favorite recordings. He greeted rock ’n’ roll with explosive anger so I teased him by turning it up loud.”

Ed was married and divorced twice. His children — Susan, Mark and Deborah — bore him six grandchildren. The love of his life, Marcia Gellert, filled his final 14 years with joy and love. They met at Westchester Community College, where they became members of the Collegium for Lifelong Learning. Almost immediately Ed was drafted to teach American history and then Broadway and classical music.

Marcia recalls: “Columbia was pivotal for Ed. It nurtured his love of learning, initiated lifelong friendships with a cadre of classmates and hooked him on attending Columbia athletics events. He served on committees, planned reunion activities, encouraged scholarship programs and spoke often of how Jim Shenton [’49, GSAS’54]’s Civil War seminar inspired his fascination with American history.

“Anyone who knew him knew how smart, funny and social Ed was. He loved talking about history, current events, politics, sports, and classical and show music. He was a Democrat with a capital D. When things were going politically wrong, he would always ask: ‘What kind of society do we want?’ He loved pens, notebooks, watches, books, attaché cases, popcorn, iced decaf, telling jokes, and most of all his family and schmoozing with anyone young or old about any subject.”

Ed spent his career running his family’s business, which supplied high-quality paper to the graphic arts community. In 1992 he sold the business and stayed on until retiring in 2009. For 16 years (51 issues), Ed was also our class correspondent. [Editor’s note: See “Obituaries,” online on July 11, at college.columbia.edu/cct.]

Please go to this column, online on July 11, to read a note from Roman Kernitsky.

Also, please note my new email address: jfreidin@gmavt.net.

1963

Paul Neshamkin
pauln@helpauthors.com

The Class of ’63 Virtual Lunch continues to be popular, with about 20 classmates in attendance twice a month. We cover everything, including the existential threats to our Nation, World and Universe, but also find time to talk about the Dodgers, Giants and Yankees of our youth and all things Columbia sports.

Bob Heller writes, “Thank you to all those who have supported and prayed for me during my recent illnesses. I am happy to be home continuing to rehab and recover from severe impairment after three spinal surgeries and 132 days in the hospital and healthcare facilities to treat infections that had paralyzed me in November. That followed stomach surgery and 10 days in the hospital in early September. Extremely grateful for all the support I have received through this time and am blessed to have such a loving family and friends. Also blessed to have celebrated my oldest grandchild Madeline Hartog’s 21st birthday, her brother Cooper’s 18th birthday and my 82nd during this time. In June, my grandson, Felix Heller, turned 16 and his twin sisters, Ollie and Romy, were to celebrate their bat mitzvahs. I feel lucky to be alive and able to anticipate joyous moments ahead.”

Steve Stollman writes, “While I am in leafy Austerlitz, N.Y., now, bought out of our $127.50 rent-controlled apartment in the city, I am still connected in some ways. I am building a human/solar powered prototype of a pedicab, a business I began there 30 years ago, but which has degenerated into a tourist scam instead of the ‘serious transportation’ it was intended to be. The value of my efforts to sell ebikes in the 80s is also in trouble, as 60,000 food deliverers annoy pedestrians with their frantic efforts to get your food to you while it is still hot.

“My capture of the last of the original Horn & Hardart Automat fixtures, with the little windows, has led to an effort by me to update them, (theautomat.com) along with a terrific documentary about the subject now streaming. Now, a reconstituted train station in Pennsylvania might offer the opportunity to experience them again in working order. Yet, increasing automation might provide an enormous threat to a positive, functioning society.”

David Alpern writes: “As the son of a ‘girl singer’ on the road around the country and on radio in New York circa 1938–39, I was delighted with the offer to produce and host one of several evenings of live cabaret at LTV studios in East Hampton on June 29, starring veteran performers Steve Ross and Karen Murphy.

“It’s ‘Best of the Versed,’ celebrating the opening lines you might not know to songs you thought you did, the vibrant venue of verse in the Great American Songbook, tunes both familiar and obscure, but all with now rarely performed introductory verses.”

Michael Lubell writes, “A few snippets from my literary desk. The publisher of my 2019 book, Navigating the Maze: How Science and Technology Policies Shape America and the World, told me this week that there is interest in a second edition, updated to cover the last decade of American science and technology. The first edition came out several months before Covid-19 hit, and my speaking engagements in spring 2020 were canceled. Timing is everything! A new edition opens the door for new marketing.

“On the fiction side, I have completed the first third of my novel, Dangerous Entanglements, a story about an aging spy who is charged with disrupting a global conspiracy to overthrow the liberal democratic order around the world.”

Nick Zill writes, “I’m delighted to report the birth of a happy, healthy granddaughter, Amal Jeevanjee Zill, to my daughter-in-law, Dr. Sara Jeevanjee, and my son, Oliver Zill ’02 Ph.D., on July 5, 2023. Amal and her 3-year-old sister, Nyla, were triumphant outcomes of IVF pregnancies. Both girls are robust, inquisitive and sociable with great senses of humor. It amazes me to recall that they were once frozen embryos. At a time when IVF and other aspects of reproductive medicine are being called into question, these young ladies are delightful examples of the good that modern science can bring about when it is not hampered by religious strictures. I look forward to Amal being part of the Class of 2045.”

Lee Lowenfish continues his love of baseball in its many forms, not just on the field. He writes, “In late May Lee spoke again at the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture. He concentrated this year on more aspects of the career of baseball lifer George ‘Birdie’ Tebbetts (1912–99), whose unfulfilled desire was to have scouts eligible for Hall of Fame consideration. Birdie’s dream formed the prologue for his fifth book on baseball, Baseball’s Endangered Species: Inside the Craft of Scouting by Those Who Lived It (2023). Lee also taught another baseball-themed class in July in the Chautauqua Institution Special Studies Program. His favorite college sports remain Columbia baseball and women’s basketball. Lee ardently followed the women’s cagers during their second straight Ivy League co-championship. He was among the more than 1,000 fans who saw on Levien Gym’s scoreboard screen the Lions’ run to their first game in March Madness, which fell just short against Vanderbilt.”

On March 7, 2024, Harvey Schneier VPS’67 became likely the oldest grandfather of a first grandchild among classmates when his daughter Margo delivered Billie Louise Lukach. Mother and baby are doing well. Margo plans to return to her job as a public relations director at Gucci after parental leave. Husband Mike is a fund controller at Glendower Capital. Twin brother, Jon, is an elementary school teacher at Saint David’s School, on the Upper East Side, and older brother, Matthew, was recently appointed the chief restaurant critic and features writer at New York magazine. All children and their significant others reside in New York City (Manhattan and Brooklyn), with granddaughter only a short subway ride away from TriBeCa, where Harvey and his wife, Barrie Mandel, live.

Barrie is a residential broker for the Corcoran Real Estate Group. Harvey practiced general internal medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital for 20 years before entering the pharmaceutical industry at Forest Laboratories in 1993. He retired in 2013 as executive director in clinical research, having led Phase 3 studies in multiple therapeutic areas. Harvey continues to consult in the pharmaceutical industry. March 2024 marked the four-year anniversary of his hospitalization with a life-threatening Covid-19 infection, from which he made an almost-full recovery.

Elliott Greher writes, “[As I write this] I will have the second insertion of stents to my heart’s four arteries on April 2. The previous one was successfully installed on March 5. Soon I have to replace the stent installed 24 years ago. I am also nearly two years into my third pacemaker, [originally] installed in 2000 as I was retiring from nearly 30 years as a federal civil servant (at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency that brought you the famous Three Mile Island incident).”

Jerry Kessler writes, “You are cordially invited to visit my new (virtual) museum, a collection of my music, writings, performances and photography: thejeromekessler collection.com. Enjoy!”

Please go to this column online on July 11 at college.columbia.edu/cct for a note from Peter Landecker.

We have lost another classmate. Roland G.F.J. Droitsch died on Jan. 26, 2024 (see “Obituaries,” online on July 11, at college.columbia.edu/cct). Rest in Peace, Roland.

We continue to meet virtually on Zoom every first and third Thursday at 12:30 p.m. (now during EDT). Let me know if you’d like to join us, and I’ll send you an invite. In the meantime, please let us know what you are up to, how you’re doing and what’s next. Stay safe, stay well!

1964

Norman A. Olch
norman@nolch.com

I am writing this column at the end of March, and it will appear in print after our late May reunion. If you attended, please let me know the classmates you saw, what you did and how you felt these many decades after graduation.

Wonderful to hear from so many of you.

Ed Waller writes from sunny Florida: “My wife, Laura, and I live in Tampa but have a second home in Rockland, Maine. I retired from my law practice in 2017. I am a trustee of the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland. Laura, who retired from her financial planning firm, is a full-time artist in Tampa and Rockland (laurawallerart.com). We have a daughter who owns and operates the premier bead shop in Laguna Beach; a daughter with a solo law practice in Fairfax, Va., who also is a stand-up comic on the Northern Virginia/D.C. circuit; and a son, who owns a financial adviser firm in Tampa. We have seven grandchildren but no room to describe their varied interests and locations, e.g., one in Florence, Italy, designing and making fine jewelry. Let us know if you are in Tampa or Maine — we could wax nostalgic about the theft of the fire chief’s hat while he was fighting the New Hall fire.”

Mark Rogers is celebrating the publication of the sixth edition of his eponymous book Rogers Textbook of Pediatric Intensive Care. In addition, he chairs a biotech company that is working with the National Cancer Institute to begin clinical trials on the brain tumor glioblastoma. “Working hard, living well,” Mark says.

Bill Mitchell BUS’66 writes: “I am a member of Columbia Beta Alums. Since the Covid-19 shutdown we do a monthly Zoom call. This year in Vermont we will have our 25th consecutive mini-reunion celebrating the fall colors, hosted by Willard Brown ’65. Signups so far are Len DeFiore, Al Butts, Fran Furey ’66, Gene Chwerchak ’65, Dave Filipek GS’67, Steve Danenberg ’65 and Bob Donahue ’63.

David Frank retired in 2014 after many years as a faculty member in the mathematics department at the University of Minnesota.

Howard Perlstein BUS’66 was a little too close to world events: “My wife, Linda, and I left Petra, Jordan, early on Oct. 7 on our way to cross into Israel via the southernmost Allenby Bridge when Hamas attacked and the borders closed. Safely returned home a few days later. Hope to visit a peaceful Israel and Middle East soon.”

Michael Gunter SIPA’66 has been teaching political science at Tennessee Tech University since 1972. “My 23rd academic book, Erdogan’s Path to Authoritarianism: The Continuing Journey, has recently been published. It has great endorsements. During 2023, I visited the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador), India and Iraqi-Kurdistan, where I gave a number of lectures on academic topics.”

Michael Sklaroff recently retired from his law practice but he writes that “retirement” has been short lived. He is now executive director of the Pennsylvania Bipartisan Climate Initiative, a nonprofit with a mission to implement Pennsylvania’s Environmental Rights Amendment through a coordinated public education effort aimed at mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change. Mike has this message for his fellow Pennsylvanians: “The global climate crisis requires immediate action, and we can start here at home in our Commonwealth, where we produce more than 1 percent of global greenhouse gases annually. Thankfully, in Pennsylvania, we have a superpower in our Environmental Rights Amendment, stronger than in any other state in the country. Now, we need to implement the ERA throughout the Commonwealth to move the needle on climate change and safeguard the health of our communities, especially those historically overburdened. The ERA is surprisingly not well known in government or by the public. A superpower left on the shelf is not a superpower; this is where the Initiative comes in.”

Gene Meyer has published Hidden Maryland: In Search of America in Miniature, a collection of 50 columns, features and profiles he wrote for Maryland Life magazine 2006–13. The pieces are updated and illustrated with images he took along the way.

Jeff Lass writes: “Unlike the swift passage of time, it feels like planets ago: the cafeteria, Ferris Booth Hall, The West End, the Core Curriculum — most of us who went to normal public high school were astounded. The relevance of our College degree is forever stuck in our brains.

“A personal comment about me and a great number of Columbia overachievers: I had no friends until I was 16. First real date (excluding high school prom) was when I was 23. I luckily got mutual life therapy when I married my only wife, Pat, when I was 37. Through her I now live in a three-dimensional world, with real people, real feelings. Columbia gave me the mental agility to be able to analyze and experience at the same time. Because of my incredible interaction with maybe 20 fellow students, we all have a treasure chest of an idyllic sheltered college life, not at all like most people, rare in America, and certainly the whole wide world of scarcity. So glad it didn’t cost $70,000–$80,000 a year. Even in today’s inflation you can’t compare milk and egg price inflation with our $1,200-a-year tuition. I hope we’re all above-average generous, happy and healthy, and since we can’t take it with us, I know each of us is trying to give back and forward. Oh, my noteworthy achievements: I’ve written a lot of songs (sung by Madonna, Ice-T, my sister ... the list is endless).”

From Richard Muller in California: “I live in a big Berkeley brown shingle house, with my wife, Rosemary (married 57 years). The first floor is offices, my wife and I live on the second and my daughter, Elizabeth, her husband, Rahal (he’s from Morocco), and two of my grandchildren (10 and 14) live on the third floor. The fourth floor is also offices.

“Why do we need so many offices? I am CEO of a startup planning to build and deploy a new configuration of a nuclear reactor. In 2022 I applied for patents on the design. In 2023, Elizabeth and I founded a company, Deep Fission, to obtain a license and build this reactor. We have received substantial seed funding from venture capitalists and others.

“The nuclear reactor fits in an 18-inch borehole, and operates a mile deep. The safety is incredible, but so is the low cost. Boreholes are much cheaper, per kilowatt hour, than large containment buildings and above-ground pressurizers. The reactor produces between 3 and 30 megawatts, and it looks like it will be cheaper per kilowatt hour than coal. That means that it might be adopted widely, even in the developing world. If so, then by replacing coal it is the ultimate reducer of global warming, far better (in my estimation) than a carbon tax.

“Life begins at 80!

“My best regards to the Class of 1964! I hope they are all having as much fun as I am.”

1965

Leonard Pack
leonard@packlaw.us

Joel Berger responded to an item in my last column: “Robert Kolodny’s wonderful piece in the Winter/Spring 2024 issue filled me with nostalgia — and regret — over the worst course-selection mistake of my four undergraduate years at Columbia College.

“By my junior year I was getting a bit bored with taking courses solely at the College, and was diversifying by enrolling in classes at General Studies and Barnard. A GS course in the catalogue caught my eye, ‘Sociology of Religion,’ taught by a then-unknown woman named Susan Sontag. But for some long-forgotten reason it didn’t fit into my schedule, and I wound up taking another GS sociology course that semester. Little did I know!

“As one who was destined to become a civil rights lawyer, deeply involved in political and social issues of the day, I’m sure I would have gotten to know Sontag better in the manner described by Bob in his piece. What a missed opportunity, one that I regret to this day. I had the privilege of studying with many other prominent professors at Columbia, but to have passed up a chance to get to know Sontag has always haunted me. I admire Bob for having had the experience and for sharing it with us.”

Gene Feldman, who says he was “inspired by Class Notes about successful men still working at 80,” shared this: “I am happy for classmates who, at 80, are still contributing to their fields and being honored by their colleagues. No doubt they find their roles fulfilling.

“A different approach to work has been rewarding for me, and perhaps some of you. I have worked in aerospace research, transitioned to patent practice (both in the corporate world) and finally taught AP physics in a suburban high school. All these positions were gratifying, yet would have been more so if corporations and schools were less bureaucratic.

“When the time was right, I retired, in 2012. Perhaps the best use of money is to buy freedom. Like many of you, I relish doing what I want, when I want. My dear partner, Maureen, and I live in a condo near New Haven. We continue to enjoy the museums and concerts that Yale has to offer, not to mention New Haven pizza.

“When I experience new art, music or literature, while nearby or traveling, I’m struck by how often my understanding and pleasure have been enhanced by my Columbia education.

“Although my means are modest, I have something that Zuckerberg, Musk and Bezos don’t — enough.”

I never have enough submissions from classmates, so if you feel inspired, act immediately on that impulse and send me your news!

Peter Levine GSAS’66 sent in this wonderful reminiscence: “Once upon a time and long ago, fall 1964, Ron Brookshire ’66, Artie Greenspan, Fran Furey ’66, Peter Levine and Tom Sobel moved into a fifth-floor apartment at 520 W. 110th St., two stores down from a local pizzeria run by two Greek guys. We maintained a running account for killer $1.00 pies and meatball sandwiches. All this a stone’s throw from the Moon Palace Chinese restaurant on the corner of Broadway, and just a block away from the long-departed and sorely missed The Gold Rail.

“No one will remember that Peter, Brooks and Fran ‘borrowed’ a sofa from Hartley Hall for the year, carrying it down Amsterdam Avenue in broad daylight. The sofa pulled together an otherwise rag-tag assortment of begged and borrowed furniture in our living room. Interior decoration? Eat your heart out, Martha Stewart! The apartment, in a pseudo–Beaux-Arts building, was spacious, with three bedrooms and a kitchen that clearly had never been renovated but that served Tom, our live-in cook, quite well. He rustled up delicious meals of hearty American fare every evening, Monday–Thursday. We had a schedule for washing dishes, but at least one of the roommates, whom shall remain unnamed (but whose initials are FF) often reneged on his task and duty.

“Brooks was captain of the ’65 football team in the fall and Fran, captain of the rugby team that spring. Greenspan, Levine and Sobel killed it playing midnight touch football on Low Plaza. Peter no longer rowed by then, although he still sculls today on the lake near his bungalow north of New York City.

“Levine married Gale right after graduation, in June 1965. His wedding was the last time, for a long time, that we were all together. It was not until November 2023 that the remaining roomies met in Sacramento, chez Tom, for our own Columbia reunion. We drank to Brooks, the missing member of the crew whom we all loved, had a New York-style pizza at Giovanni’s in East Sacramento (highly recommend), walked, reminisced and even listened to Peter sing ‘Sans Souci’ and ‘Roar, Lion, Roar.’ Including Brooks, we are the fathers of nine children and the grandfathers of 15, the latter ranging in age from 2 to 19.

“Some brief notes on our time post-college:

“Ron moved to California in 1973, went to work at Paramount and settled in Westchester, in Los Angeles County. He had two daughters, and adored them. Sadly, he passed away far too soon, succumbing to a heart attack in 2014.

“Fran, widely recognized as Columbia’s ‘whole man,’ the institution’s alleged educational mission, has been variously an actor, machinist, Peace Corps volunteer, warranty administrator for the San Francisco Municipal Railway and single parent to three boys. The dude loves to travel and is recently back from Provence. He speaks four languages!

“Artie taught French for 50 years, the last 40 at Colby College, where he established and led a junior year-abroad program, effectively swapping life in the woods of central Maine for the good life in France. Recently retired, he continues to split his time between Paris and Waterville, Maine, doing occasional translation work after having churned out a book a year for most of his career. He has a lovely apartment near the Bastille, which his ex-roommates know well.

“Tom has devoted his life to the law and his family. After earning a law degree at Boston University, he spent a year in the Vista program before co-directing the Housing Division of the Urban Law Institute at the George Washington University, where he earned an L.L.M. He moved to California, first to San Francisco and Bakersfield, and was directing attorney for Legal Services. In 1977, he headed north to Sacramento to join the nascent California Agricultural Labor Relations Board and raise a family. As the chief appellate attorney for the board, in its hectic, early days, and then as its longest-serving chief administrative law judge, his decisions effectively established a major part of agriculture law in California, some of which, in particular the law concerning union access to employers’ properties, has unfortunately been undone by the U.S. Supreme Court. He maintains a small arbitration practice. Peter spent 30 years teaching and writing American history at Michigan State University and directing the American Studies program. He is best known for two books: Ellis Island to Ebbets Field: Sport and the American Jewish Experience and A.G. Spalding and the Rise of Baseball: The Promise of American Sport. In 2000, he moved back to Brooklyn, where he was born and raised, and has ever since pursued a second career as a professional actor and playwright. For the moment, his unpublished plays and books far outnumber those that have made it into print.

“As you can see from the picture of us in this column online (college.columbia.edu/cct), none of us has aged at all — a tribute to our continuing friendship and our Columbia roots.”

For notes about Niles Eldredge GSAS’69 and the late LeRoy Euvrard Jr., please go to this column, online on July 11, at college.columbia.edu/cct.

1966

Martin Lee
martinlee3615@gmail.com

Hello, classmates. We have several respondents for this issue.

Dan Gover sent this story, titled “My Grandfather’s Store”:

“My grandfather Paul Harrison had a drugstore at 31 Canal St., on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in the early years of the 20th century. Located a few blocks from the progressive Yiddish newspaper The Forward, the store was open on Saturday (Shabbos), and so the religious Jews in the neighborhood referred to it as ‘the Socialist store.’ My grandfather also sold schnapps (brandy) in the back room, which may have helped draw such local luminaries such as Emma Goldman, an anarchist leader; Sholem Aleichem, a Yiddish writer; and even Leon Trotsky, who was called back home by the Russian Revolution in 1917. My mother told me that they all passed through my grandfather’s drugstore.”

Joseph Albeck writes, “Still relatively healthy and happily married, my wife, Isabelle, and I enjoy time with our three children and four grandchildren, who all live close by. We play doubles tennis and do a bit of traveling, in addition to our regular visits to Isabelle’s numerous relatives in France.

“With the help of Alex Auerbach, I recently published an autobiography on Amazon. Shaped By Shadows. A Psychiatrist and Poet Explores His Holocaust Heritage is available in paperback and e-book formats. It begins with the stories of both my parents, who were married in the Warsaw ghetto in 1942 and survived deportation to a camp, escaping and hiding in Warsaw until liberated by the Russians in 1945. That history, as I gradually learned a few painful details, subconsciously shaped my personality and influences the key choices I made in my personal life.

“Much of my professional life was devoted to improving understanding of how traumatic events trigger emotions in parents’ lives, and how they are, or are not, transmitted to their children.

“I hope that some of my classmates will find the book informative.

“Let’s keep in touch while we can.”

Bill Hiney ’67 writes: “Had a wonderful trip to Cambridge, Mass., to visit roommates, former teammate and former bandmate Dean Mottard, Gene Thompson and Paul Lenart ’67. (See the photo in the Winter/Spring 2024 issue, Class of 1967 column.) We all lived at 560 W. 113th St., Alpha Chi Rho, from which civilized society gave us wide berth. For us it was the crucible from which a friendship developed that became a unique and lasting brotherhood. The shared ordeal of rigorous academic demands, the transition from the security of home and high school to independence and self-reliance, and add to that the demands of intercollegiate athletics and the legal drinking age of 18 molded us into the people we have become. Throughout the following 60-plus years, with lives going in many different directions at first, nothing changed among us. Dean flew helicopters in Vietnam, Gene went to Africa in the Peace Corps, Paul continued playing great blues guitar around the country. I joined John Burrows ’66 and played folk-rock on the college circuit. Those lives have evolved to where we are now. But where we are now, as the dearest of friends; that has not changed and I’m very thankful for it.”

Calvin H. Johnson had this to say: “When the moving van pulled up on April 26, I left Austin, Texas, where I had taught since 1981, and moved to Roland Park in Baltimore, on the next hill over from my doctor daughter, Martha, and crew, a block away from Johns Hopkins, an easy ride to the train to D.C. and the room where it happens, or a comfortable ride to Brooklyn or Boston.

“I had a good publishing year, three pieces described here, with arguments as inevitable as 2+3=5, but not yet taken up to victory. I submitted a Professor’s Amicus brief to the Supreme Court in a current case, Moore v. United States, arguing that apportionment of direct tax by population was written to tax wealth by direct tax on the states using the labor of the population of a state to measure its wealth. The Framers assumed, without dissent, that there was a ‘perfect proportion’ between wealth and people. If the exact proportion did not hold, the tax was not a direct tax that needed to be apportioned. Apportionment of direct tax clause may never be used to invalidate any tax passed by the Democracy.

“In Grading the Constitution on Slavery, I argued that the Constitution’s grade was 3.8 on a scale of plus to minus 10, that is, constructive, but not triumphant. The 3/5ths clause worked to benefit the North. Northern refusal to join into a covenant with slave states would not have freed the slaves.

“Stop Location Subsidies (Tax Notes) argued that subsidies, e.g., to locate a Tesla plant just outside Austin, are unconstitutionally unfair to fellow Americans. They add not one job, just move them around. Tesla should be given legal standing to stop them, because Tesla cares enough to put Elon Musk’s face on its 93-foot statue of the ‘Golden Oil Driller’ in its losing effort to attract the plant.

“To come, I will give advice to the Treasury Department as to how to raise $3.5 trillion, starting in 2025 with plans to make the tax system fair, efficient and unavoidable. But never raise taxes.”

David Tilman had this message: “We are getting close to our 80th birthday celebrations. The milestone requires significant retrospection on the eight decades of our lives.

“My beloved wife, Ellen, and I celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary last April. We have three fantastic children: Avrum SEAS ’04, Rabbi Howard and Alana. Avrum is a computer/IT professional for Bloomberg; Rabbi Howard is rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in Scotch Plains, N.J., husband to Naomi, and father to Micah and Sophie; and Alana is associate director of Camp Ramah in Wingdale, N.Y.

“After 36 years, I retired as cantor and music director from Beth Sholom Congregation, Elkins Park, Pa. (the Frank Lloyd Wright synagogue), in 2011. Since then, I completed a five-year tenure as associate professor at the H. L. Miller Cantorial School of the Jewish Theological Seminary. I am now in my 12th year as choir cirector and pastoral outreach professional at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, Elkins Park. I was an active participant in the Leonard Bernstein Centennial Celebration, as a consultant for the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History’s Leonard Bernstein exhibition and as a lecturer on the Jewish contents of Bernstein’s compositions for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Bernstein concerts. I continue to lecture on Bernstein’s music in light of film Maestro. In April 2023, I conducted 175 singers in a concert of Israeli music on the Verizon Hall stage of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in celebration of Israel 75.

“We are in good health. Ellen insists that we take significant vacations to far-flung locations while we are mobile. We spent three Passover holidays in Europe, and completed recent trips to Panama and river cruises to Germany and France. This August we are going to Alaska.

“Fond regards to all ’66 classmates, and special greetings to Glee Club alumni. ‘Lift voices now in joyful song!’”

Speaking for myself: I invite any of our class to contribute something witty, sagacious or on how you spend your day.

Please stay well. Go Lions and Lionesses.

1967

Albert Zonana
azonana@me.com

We heard from six classmates for this issue.

Jonathan Howland: “After 40 years of teaching and research, I recently retired from the Boston University School of Medicine. Ten of those years involved commuting to Sweden and Denmark, where I conducted randomized trials at Linnaeus University and collaborated with colleagues at the University of Copenhagen. I reside in Marion, Mass., with my wife, Elizabeth, and with children and grandchildren nearby.”

Tom Hauser LAW’70: “My most recent book is a memoir, My Mother and Me. I began writing 47 years ago. It was the best decision I’ve made in my life, and this book (which touches on our years at Columbia as part of the journey) is particularly meaningful to me.”

Philip Greco: “I admit I haven’t been following either the progress of Columbia or my class for many years and haven’t gone to reunions. Basically, I live in Philadelphia with my wife, Carol. We have been married 51 years and have two children and five grandkids. I have been retired from my private practice of psychiatry for 10 years, and my wife is a retired Realtor. I enjoy bridge (our son became a world-champion bridge player), computer games, reading and watching TV — obviously I’m not a great athlete!”

Bruce Donnell GSAS’70: “I am an opera stage director. I worked at the Met Opera for 17 seasons across a span of 34 years. I worked internationally and have a long history with the Santa Fe Opera. I have lived in Santa Fe since 1988. In a bit of a Columbia connection, I see Mark Rudd ’69, who lives in Albuquerque, at Democratic political events. New Mexico is a great and blue place to call home.”

Paul Brooke GSAS’72: “Paul Gewirtz’s note in the Fall 2023 CCT has prompted me to write. Thank you, Paul.

“For the bulk of my professional life, I have been in the investment business, the major part of which was as global head of health-care research and strategy at Morgan Stanley. Following Morgan Stanley, I sat on a number of boards, established and sold a company in medtech, and then founded and funded a strategic venture firm and hedge fund. Afterward, I was executive chair of a therapeutic company sold to AstraZeneca, on the board of a medtech company recently sold to Stryker and am now working to help fund and develop another medtech company.

“I have four children and one grandchild. They live in Maine, Los Angeles, Indiana and Montana. Watching them develop reinforces a sense of how fortunate I have been.

“As I reflect on my time at Columbia, I am deeply grateful for my teachers and for the Core Curriculum. That was reflected in endowing a chair in the Core. I cannot adequately convey the experience of Stephen Marcus ’48, GSAS’61 teaching Hamlet; Jim Shenton ’49, GSAS’54, American history; Carl Hovde ’50, American literature; and Meyer Schapiro CC 1924, Renaissance art. And as I watch the current global environment, I feel doubly fortunate. No university better prepares someone to be a citizen, to be broadly knowledgeable and to be sensitive to history. Jules Renard once wrote that some people’s minds are so open, their brains fall out. Fortunately, the Core provides broad and diverse information. Judgment and perspective arise out of the Core. And in the current environment one needs to focus on dislocations — how our global debate has shifted from discussions of good and evil to debates of powerful and powerlessness — where power is bad and powerlessness is good. This is the intellectual issue that has driven changes at Harvard and Penn and from which Columbia was absent. If sunlight cures mold, one can be grateful to Trump for opening mold to sunlight, where the quality of intellectual diversity in the Core is both a culture carrier and creator providing a framework to manage conflict and envision creative thinking.”

Ed Yasuna: “I live five houses from Nantucket Sound on Cape Cod in a restored 1911 cottage. I read lots (aka dozing), a mix of classic fiction, contemporary fiction and books about nature. I walk 1.5–2 miles most days. I’m in fairly good health (knock on the proverbial wood). I spend much time at the beach in summer. I putter in my gardens and three goldfish ponds. I collect white-line woodcuts and Studio Glass and am moderately active in a number of Cape and Worcester art museums. I seem to make a lot of short (one-to-four-day) road trips. I own one car, my fourth Miata, after the 1981 RX-7. My longtime (50-plus years!) relationship with my Ohio love has, sadly, faded due to differing interests and social/political values. I go to concerts at small venues, enjoying classic rock, blues, folk and classical. I volunteer at a nearby nursing home. I write, many letters and some non-fiction, some fiction. I watch lots of classic films and Bruins and Red Sox games. I don’t allow mirrors in my home because some old guy keeps appearing in them. I remain a devout Columbia advocate and fan and am saddened that I am not in touch with former ’mates. Overall, my life is blessed, and I am quite fortunate.”

Be well all of you, and do write.

1968

Columbia College Today
cct@columbia.edu

Starting with the Fall 2024 issue, Jeffrey Kurnit will be the CC’68 class correspondent. Please send your news, updates, and thoughts on or memories from your time at the College to him via email, jeffkurnitcct@gmail.com, or via the Class Notes webform, college.columbia.edu/cct/submit_class_note.

Following are the notes CCT received for this issue.

Nigel Paneth writes, “I retired from full-time status as a professor at Michigan State University in 2021 and am now employed part time, allowing me to continue to direct or co-direct three NIH grants. I spent much of the last four years working with fellow physician scientists at Hopkins, Einstein and Mayo to first assess and then advocate for greater use of convalescent plasma early in the course of Covid-19. Between 2017 and 2021, we welcomed two grandsons and two granddaughters into the world, and the joy they bring is unmeasurable.”

Steve Brown writes, “I’m still practicing law, though only part time, as I sold the practice to my younger partner in 2015 and he took over in 2019. Now I’m just an employee, but still enjoying handling employment rights cases for federal employees. Learned in April that several of our cases will be among the first tried at the EEOC in a 30,000-member class action for disability discrimination against the U.S. Postal Service.

“My stepson Matthew died suddenly of a heart attack in 2012 at 45, but now his daughter Sophia (16) spends lots of time with my wife, Judy, and me. I don’t envy these high school kids and what they have to deal with these days.

“I enjoy ocean fishing — my brother and I went to Alaska for salmon and halibut last year, and caught our limit every day — and make yearly trips to Cabo for that with longtime friends. Since I only work part time, Judy and I have time to travel and do a good bit of that now.

“Hello to all my ’68 compatriots!”

Russell Needham writes, “I’ve been fortunate to have lived my entire adult life since graduation in the same West Side area, a few miles from the Columbia campus. Those living in the area should know that Columbia hosts free chamber music concerts each week at St. Paul’s Chapel and some free lectures at the 125th Street campus and Wallach Art Gallery.”

Roger Wyatt SOA’74 writes, “Greetings to all. I’m happily retired with my lovely wife, Letitia, on the shores of the Hudson in Washington County, about 20 minutes outside of Saratoga. I spend a lot of time writing. At the moment I’m working on an essay about the coming of quantum computing and AI software.”

CCT has learned of the May 4, 2024, passing of David J. Shapiro GSAS’73, a poet, art historian and professor who lived in the Bronx. An obituary will be published in the Fall 2024 issue.

1969

Columbia College Today
cct@columbia.edu

CCT is sorry to report that CC’69 class correspondent Nathaniel Wander died on March 27, 2024. An obituary will be published in the Fall 2024 issue.

If you are interested in assuming the role of class correspondent, please write to the email above with the subject line “CC’69 class correspondent.”

In the meantime, please send your news, updates and/or College memories to CCT at the email above or by using the online Class Notes webform, college.columbia.edu/cct/submit_class_note.