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CLASS NOTES
Robert Hardt Jr. Happy 11th reunion, everyone! In lieu of any formal events planned for our class, let this column stand as the big party spot of our official reunion. That's right: Cook up a rubber chicken, pour yourself a glass of cheap wine and pump up your resume. It's time to party. Or at least read highly-edited versions of e-mails sent to me by classmates. Jeff Ordower goes first because he narrowly missed the deadline for the last issue. Jeff has been organizing for the past nine years, first with Service Employees International Union and then with ACORN, an education and housing-rights group. Jeff recently moved to Bridgeport, where he is the head organizer for Connecticut ACORN. He writes: "We're teaming up with some unions to help build a Working Families Party (similar to New York State), a third party that would have its own ballot line but also be able to cross-endorse Democrats and Republicans." Moving right along, Tom Fritsch writes for the first time to say that he recently left Cravath, Swaine & Moore to accept a position as general counsel of Smith Management LLC, a private investment firm in New York. Tom lives in Westchester with his wife, Ana, and two sons, Thomas Xavier Jr. and Matthew Wolfgang. Leif Siklossy has no haikus for me but did share some good news about himself: He is working at a drug treatment center in West Palm Beach, Fla. This fall, Leif will work on his masters in social work at Barry University in Miami. A brief note forwarded from our former dean of students, Roger Lehecka '67, says that Maurice Coleman was honored by the Boston Junior Chamber of Commerce on May 3 for being one of the city's outstanding young leaders. No surprise there, 'Reece. Chris Front reports that after spending two years in the Bay Area, he and his wife, Tasmyn, will head back to the Midwest, where Chris will begin teaching at the John Burroughs School, a private day school in St. Louis, this fall. Chris also has been working hard on his dissertation in American history at Northwestern. Because of his impending move, Chris is ending his tenure as president of the Columbia Alumni Club of Northern California. Christine Herron, Michelle Jacobson Goldman (down from Seattle, no less), Tina Gianquitto and Matt Segal attended recent club events. Chris provided the following: Greg Ostling and his wife, Angela Tu, have been living in Paris this past year. Greg has been working on a project for his law firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz. In mid-May, they were traveling around Europe, after which they'll return to Manhattan. Mike Leiter lives in D.C. with his wife, Amanda, and is completing his tenure as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Tamara '92 and George Takoudes and their adorable son, Alexander, live in Providence, R.I., where Tamara is completing a fellowship studying high-risk pregnancies. George commutes to Boston where he is an architect at Payette Associates. Our Columbia College Today editor, Alex Sachare '71,
informs me that Javier Loya is a minority owner of the
newest NFL team, the Houston Texans. We hope to have a fuller
report on Javier in an upcoming issue, but it's worth noting that
Javier is joining the ranks of two other alumni/NFL owners, Bob
Kraft '63 of the New England Patriots and Al Lerner '55 of the
Cleveland Browns. I'll also tell you in the next issue about the
expansion baseball team I'm setting up in the Rockaways. Until
then, thanks for attending our happening 11th reunion. Sorry, you
don't have to go home - but you can't stay here.
Jeremy Feinberg There are many reasons why I have enjoyed serving as your humble correspondent during the past 10 years, not the least of which has been staying in touch with many of you and keeping my finger on the pulse of happenings with our classmates. Unfortunately, there are times, like this column, where I must be the bearer of bad news. And for that, I am sorry. I learned of the sudden and shocking passing of Leon Fan in early May. It is a testament to how well known and loved Leon was among our classmates that I heard the news through many different sources; indeed, too many to list. Leon was very active during our four years on Morningside Heights. We first met while covering Columbia sports for Spectator. I certainly recall a number of ill-fated intramural teams that we organized together, and all the discussions that we had about student government, where Leon spent much of his time at Columbia. I understand from Eric Garcetti that in addition to serving in a variety of roles on CCSC, Leon co-founded Asian-American Artists with Wah Chen '93. I feel lucky to have been out in Los Angeles in March and having had the opportunity to reconnect with Leon. Of all things, we played pickup basketball in a schoolyard on a Saturday afternoon. We did about as well as our intramural teams, but still had a good time. Without question, Leon will be missed. Beyond what I normally request from you, my loyal readers (news, notes, etc.), I would welcome your remembrances of Leon in the coming months. I do not mean to overlook the other news I recently received. David Aserkoff is a director of EMEA Equity Strategy for Credit Suisse First Boston. Tanya Nieri does youth substance abuse prevention research at Arizona State University and will soon start a part-time doctoral studies program in sociology. She reports that a Latin dance class is "keeping me busy on local dance floors!" Erin (Zyko) Hussein deserves a mention and an apology. The news of her wedding to Samir Hussein on November 10, 2001, should have appeared in my last column, but due to an oversight on my end, it did not. Erin was married in her hometown of Middlebury, Conn. Guests included Sayuri Rajapakse (who works for the federal government advising foreign countries about their copyright laws) and Seth Goldsamt '91, a lawyer at Akin Gump in New York. This column will have run after our 10th reunion. For those of you who were unable to make it, rest assured, a full report will appear in my next column. Feel free to write in with anything you'd like to add. Be well.
Elena Cabral Linda Appel graduated from NYU's Stern School of Business in May 2001 and married Adam Lipsius (Dartmouth grad, filmmaker, recent Jeopardy! contestant). Linda went to London to work for the family business. She runs Orange Glo Europe, the European subsidiary of Orange Glo International. Linda loves the United Kingdom and is plowing through the company's first retail launch. Shana Priwer earned a master's degree in architecture in 1997 from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She spent a couple of years in Arizona before returning to her home state, California, where she now lives in the San Francisco Bay area. Shana is a software engineer, and her partner of eight years is a planetary research scientist. The couple has two children, 3-year-old daughter, Zoecyn, and 6-week-old son, Elijah. See you next time.
Leyla Kokmen Not long ago, I found myself at a local reception for Minnesota students who had been admitted to the Class of 2006. It would, of course, be easy to fixate on all these bright, exuberant youths with their whole lives ahead of them. (Maybe it's that recent 30th birthday, but it's astoundingly easy to feel old in such company ... ) But the event also was populated by a number of alumni who eloquently and self-deprecatingly shared their College experiences, many of them so familiar (the Steps, Columbia Hot Bagels, the importance of remembering the deadline to drop classes) that they couldn't help but evoke a smile. It got me thinking about all those actions and decisions we make in college - some deliberate, some random, some seemingly insignificant - that start to define the roadmap we follow through life's unpredictable turns. Which, of course, leads us to today. I'm happy to report updates from classmates as they move along their post-College pathways. I recently had the pleasure of catching up with Ayanna (Parish) Thompson while she visited Minneapolis for the annual conference of the Shakespeare Association of America. She and her husband, Derek, are doing very well and live in Santa Fe, N.M. Though it's a big change from Boston, Ayanna says they've already grown fond of the Southwest's beautiful scenery. Ayanna enjoyed her first year as Shakespeare professor at the University of New Mexico, where she's teaching, writing and working toward tenure. Monique (Williams) Morris announced the publication of her novel, Too Beautiful for Words. [Editor's note: Please see "Bookshelf," November 2001, pages 14-15.] Essence calls the story of life on the streets "intoxicating and quietly devastating in its power." Published last September by Amistad Press, the book will be out in paperback in August. I received a lovely card from Nina Habib Spencer. In mid-March, she and her husband, Parke, welcomed their son, Jack, into the world. The family is doing well and lives in New York City. Nina is on maternity leave from the Environmental Protection Agency, where she is press spokesperson. Thanks everyone, and please keep the news coming! Until next
time...
Janet Frankston What's up with our class and reality television? First, there was Allison Jones on MTV's Road Rules. Now comes Amy Anzelowitz (known as Amy Anzel) on ABC's cheesy hit The Bachelor. I was flipping channels one Monday night and saw a familiar face. There was Amy, who looks terrific with straight hair, vying (with 24 other bachelorettes) for the chance to be Mrs. Right. Amy and "the bachelor," a Harvard guy named Alex Michel, talked about being "Ivy Leaguers." "I did it for the experience," Amy said. "Yes, I did want to meet the man of my dreams. Why not?" Amy made the first cut; 10 women were sent home. She experienced a "group date" with Alex and five other contestants at a spa in Palm Springs, but didn't make the second cut. Nonetheless, she enjoyed the show and defended it. "The majority of the women were well-educated, successful, ambitious and beautiful," she said. "We weren't desperate. We were looking for another way to meet people." Amy lives in New York and is an actress and production coordinator. She spent a few years working for Sony Music producing music-oriented television shows. Amy's face might not be familiar to all in the class. She transferred from Tufts to Barnard, then spent her last two years at the College. I remember her from Wien, where I was an RA my junior year. Her bio from The Bachelor may still be up when this comes out. I recently caught up with Josh Prager '94 in New York. Josh ran into Amy while he was lunching with NBC broadcaster Bob Costas. Amy and Miss Runner-Up invited them to a party for the last episode. (They didn't go.) Josh, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was talking baseball with Costas. Congratulations to Josh, who is writing a book about the 1951 New York Giants and sign stealing. The book follows his front-page Wall Street Journal scoop that made a big splash in the sports world. Hilton Romanski has something in common with "the bachelor." They both graduated from Stanford Business School. Hilton finished in June 2000, then left to travel through Turkey and India, where he met the Dalai Lama in McLeod Ganj. Hilton works at Cisco as a manager in the strategy, acquisitions and investments group, helping the company do just those things. "It keeps me busy and my commute is not bad, as I still live in Palo Alto," he writes. He reports seeing classmates in Galveston, Texas, for Ryan Mossman's bachelor party. Ryan is a partner at his successful technology consulting firm in Texas, McKinley Powell. Several classmates attended: David Attanasio (still works on Wall Street, but will be starting at Teachers College next year); Jon Berkun (beloved rabbi at a synagogue in Detroit); Craig Bernstein (VP at Morgan Stanley); Shane Mogensen '96 (geophysicist for Phillips Petroleum, on assignment in Alaska) and Alex Cortez. And one last bit: Jed Weiner graduated from NYU Law School and begins a job with Cravath, Swaine & Moore this fall. Thanks for the updates, and keep the news coming.
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