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CLASS NOTES
Robert Hardt Jr. Oh, this March was roaring like a weird angry lion, a strange
beast craving class correspondence, or at least a half-baked haiku.
If you don’t write soon, the starving animal could burst
through the bars and devour one of the editors, gentle readers. And
no one would want that to happen. So please, continue to write. It
will be like an 11-year confession that someone probably will want
to hear. And maybe it will turn into a heartwarming TV movie that
will have an all-too-true lesson for all of us at the end. Lots of odds and ends this issue. First, the incredibly
hard-working and mega-powerful lawyer Steve Weinstein had my
eyes falling out of their sockets when he wrote to say that he and
his lovely wife, Anne, are packing their bags and heading to a new
life in Bermuda. It sounded like a wacky prank to me. And then I
looked at the Knicks’ record, shook my head and understood
what this is really all about. Steve says, “Anne and I are
packing up our golf clubs, tennis rackets and ‘how to
sail’ books and moving to Bermuda, where I am taking a new
job as general counsel of my most significant client, RenaissanceRe
Holdings Ltd. RenRe is the largest (and most profitable) provider
of property catastrophe reinsurance in the world, and probably has
the nicest office — directly on the harbour in
Hamilton.” (Steve’s already using those extra Us.)
Steve adds, “This experiment abroad will not work unless we
receive visits, particularly from the Columbia crowd, and we hope
that you’ll plan on stopping by early and often.” I
like my pillows nice and fluffy, Steve. His e-mail for your
reservations (I have all of November and December, folks) is
shw17@columbia.edu. Jo-Ellen Truelove wrote to say that she went positively
bonkers when she turned on NPR’s This American Life in
January and heard the wonderful piece about Fred ’90 and
Evan Schultz’s voicemail message from their mother,
which quickly spread through the ROLM system like a sick and
powerful virus when we were undergraduates. She writes that hearing
the Little Mermaid story once again “brought me back to the
unique joy of Columbia ROLM.” Ah, it is indeed an American
life, Jo-Ellen, who is “living in Baltimore with my fab
husband, two great kids and a swell job as an English teacher in a
public high school.” What would Evan’s mom say?
[Editor’s note: For more, see the Class of ’90
notes.] David Markowitz is a “vascular/interventional
radiologist, which is a physician who uses radiology equipment
(X-rays, cat scans, ultrasounds, MRIs) to perform minimally
invasive surgeries through holes the size of a needle.” So,
at least someone has been busy during the past 10 years or so.
David has a practice in South Florida and lives in Boca Raton with
his wife, Sara Levine, an internist and a pediatrician. They have
two kids, Mollie (6) and Moses (4). When I read e-mails such as
David’s, I wonder if my wild life with my houseplants is all
that it’s cracked up to be. Lee Benaka, the master of all ceremonies that are good,
sends in another cool missive from Washington, D.C., noting that
his son, Isaac, recently celebrated his third birthday while his
16-month-old daughter, Dinah, was baptized in early March.
“They are a lot of fun still and enjoy each other’s
company, except when one of them bites the other.” Lee adds:
“We sadly moved out of our house in November because high
levels of arsenic were found in the soil in our yard. The arsenic
dates back to chemical weapons testing that occurred at American
University during World War I. None of us have suffered any ill
health effects (as far as we can tell), thankfully. My wife,
Danielle ’91 Barnard, has appeared in two sensationalistic
stories on the local Fox news station (“They didn’t
know that the yard their children played in was
poisoned!).” Did I mention that Lee is the best? And his fascination with
professional wrestling continues. His Henry Evans interviews have
found a nice Internet home at www.deathvalleydriver.com. Lee also
writes that George Abney “still works for the U.S. Department
of Justice and travels to Atlanta, Miami and Houston for work. He
claims the Houston trip had nothing to do with Enron, but I am
suspicious.” Liz Porter gets the last word with her e-mail in which
she informs us that she won the moot court client counseling
competition at the University of Miami law school with her partner,
Vincent Trimarco. She expects to graduate from the Evening Division
in December. While not busy interviewing prospective Columbia
students for the admissions department, Liz has a full-time job
selling advertising for The Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald.
She would love to get in touch with Augustine Flores and
Benjamin Hein. Wouldn’t we all? Well, that’s it for another strange episode of This Is
Your Life. Keep those scripts and treatments coming. And have a
good spring! I love you all.
Jeremy Feinberg This may be a first. I don’t think I’ve ever written
a column where most of my correspondents are taller than I. Yet,
oddly enough, between Michael Fisher, Kiernan
O’Connor and Tom Casey ’93, even I feel a little
small this time. I was pleased to get a phone call from Michael on February 26,
reporting the birth of his second child, Zachary, one day earlier.
Zachary will undoubtedly keep his older sister Zoe, Michael and his
wife, Lynn, busy in the next few months. Kiernan e-mailed to touch base after a busy six months. In that
time, he got married, moved out of New York and started a new
career. On June 2, 2001, he married Jacqueline Castillo in New
Haven, Conn. A bevy of Columbians were in attendance including
Frank Cicero; Jim Daine ’93; Bob Walcott ’93,
’93E with his wife, Farzana Lukmanji ’94 Barnard; Steve
Abbattista ’92E and his wife, Dr. Maria Abbattista (Hermann)
’91; and Nicole Horne ’94. Kiernan explained that Bob
and Clare Kent (Deegan) were unable to attend, due to
Bob’s commitment to the Air Force. Kiernan did pass along
their good news, however — the Kents’ third daughter,
Finna Anne, was born in Germany at the end of last year, and
“judging by photos, she is another healthy Kent
baby!” Kiernan and his wife moved to Virginia and bought their first
home in Warrenton, a quaint town in one of the last rural parts of
Northern Virginia. He has since started a financial planning
practice with American Express Financial Advisors. As for Tom Casey, he, my brother Doug ’95, my girlfriend
Elizabeth and I all had a nice dinner at Della Piena on the Upper
East Side in early March. Tom, who lives in Manhattan and works for
Morgan Stanley, said that he was still in touch with many of the
Columbia basketball players from our and the surrounding classes,
including J.J. Waterer ’94, Yon Okorodudu ’93, Mark
Dumolien ’93 and Russell Steward ’92E.
I also heard from Dr. Sandy Lora Cremers, who started
with us in the Class of 1992 but graduated early. Without question,
she says, she is a “Class of 1992 at heart,” and for
the same reason that we will always treat folks like James Woody
III in our class, her news fits nicely here, too. Sandy is
board certified in ophthalmology and is an attending surgeon at the
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Harvard Medical School. She
loves her position immensely and enjoys teaching the medical
students and residents everything she can about eye surgery. Sandy
married Jan-Hein Cremers on January 2, 1999. He is finishing his
Ph.D. in physics at Harvard and will be venturing further into
physics (or finance?). Sandy is a mother of two sons, Lucas, born
on February 4, 2000, and Jacob, born on November 4, 2001. That’s all for now. Be well, and keep writing.
Elena Cabral Greetings fellow thirtysomethings. Newshound turned lawyer
David Shimkin moved from his job as an assistant district
attorney in the Bronx, where he worked in the narcotics division,
to Martin, Clearwater & Bell, an insurance defense and medical
malpractice firm. Jessica Grace Broadwell, who now uses her married name,
Hamilton, has spent every day since Halloween trying to convince
Sophie, her 3-year-old daughter, not to wear her Dorothy costume.
Jessica’s son, Micah, who is 1, reportedly is not as obsessed
with his Cowardly Lion costume. Sophie, I’m told, can’t
wait to return to Cincinnati, where the Broadwells lived for a
year, to visit with her godmother, Mercedes
Falciglia. That’s all I have for now. Don’t make me compare Miami to Manhattan again. Send material soon.
Leyla Kokmen Ocean MacAdams was married last June to Suzanne
Petren-Moritz. The wedding took place in Northern California and
was attended by a slew of Columbia alumni, including Imara
Jones, Rebecca Castillo, George Kolombatovich ’93
and Karl ’92 and Wanda Cole-Frieman ’94 Barnard. The
couple, Ocean writes, is doing great. Ocean is the managing editor
of MTV News and Suzanne, who recently graduated from
business school, works at Bain Consulting. They live in
Brooklyn. Brian Presti wrote excitedly of the birth of his first
child. Brian and his wife, Alicia, welcomed Lillie Mae on February
1. Sanjiv Jhaveri writes that a science fiction short film
he worked on last fall was scheduled to air on the Sci Fi
channel’s program Exposure in January and
March. Thanks to everyone who wrote in. As CCT comes to your
mailboxes more frequently, it also means room for more class notes.
So please keep those updates coming!
Janet Frankston
Congratulations to Stephen Eckert, who married Jade
Polizzi last spring in New Orleans. In a truly Columbia wedding,
Keith Crockett served as best man and David Kamper,
Tarik Abdul-Wahid ’96 (who started with our class), Dave
Byron ’94E and Tom Greenaway ’96 came to help
celebrate. The couple lives in Boulder, where Stephen is an
associate at Wolff-Lyon Architects. He’s studying for his
architecture license exam and designing low-income housing in
Colorado. Thanks to Stephen for the update on David, Keith and
Tarik. David lives in Austin and is finishing his Ph.D. in
anthropology from UCLA; he’s married, and his wife is an
English professor at the University of Texas-Austin. Tarik got
married in October in L.A. and works in the film industry there.
After finishing his M.B.A. at Columbia, Keith lives in London and
works in the transport sector at UBS Warburg. More art news from Mala Iqbal, who will have a solo show
at the Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica in June. “I
don’t know a soul in L.A., so if there are any Columbia alums
out there who have an interest in contemporary art, I’m
hoping they’ll come to the opening or see the show,”
Mala writes. Contact Mala at ala150@earthlink.net. David Webber will graduate from NYU Law this month, then
he’ll clerk for federal Judge Harold Ackerman in the District
of New Jersey. David is finishing up a novel, which he’s
workshopping at the 92nd Street Y and in a seminar at the Law
School. He spent a weekend with Thaddeus Tracy and his wife,
Michele, ’94 Barnard. Thad’s a second-year lawyer at
Davis, Polk and Wardwell. Gabe Stadecker ’96 was there with
his fiancée, Kathy Ellis ’96. Gabe is graduating this
fall with a degree in architecture from the Harvard Graduate School
of Design and Kathy’s a first year at Columbia Law, Dave
reports. As of September, Kimberly Benson is teaching English at
Ridgefield, Conn., public schools and living in Redding, Conn. She
and her husband, Charles, are the doting parents of a miniature
dachshund, inherited from Charles’ grandmother. “I
consider it a family trust,” she writes. Contact Kimberly at
kkbenson@yahoo.com. I caught up with Jenny Hoffman ’93 this spring in Rome,
where she’s living la dolce vita. Jenny moved to Italy after
graduation and has been living there since; she now works as a
consultant for Ernst and Young in the risk management division.
During her time in Italy, Jenny’s earned an M.B.A. and
married Fabio Raineri (in August 1998). She’s at jennifer.hoffman@it.eyi.com
and likes hearing from Columbia visitors to Rome. That’s all for now. Please keep the news coming.
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