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CLASS NOTES
Stuart Berkman Clyde Wachsberger was awarded the 2002 Garden Globe Award for Book Illustration by the Garden Writers Association. The book is Of Leaf and Flower: Stories and Poems for Gardeners (Persea Books, 2001), which Clyde co-edited with his partner, Charles Dean. Featured in the January 2002 CCT Bookshelf, it is an anthology of poems and stories for gardeners, and deals with those profound passions and obsessions that connect a gardener with his or her plants. The award was for Clyde’s 12 sumi ink paintings of plants in their garden. The award is quite beautiful, etched glass on a wooden pedestal, and Clyde is honored to have received it. Clyde lives in Orient, N.Y., which he describes as “the most beautiful place on the face of the earth, here at the eastern tip of the North Fork of Long Island.”The gardens here are sensational, since the climate, a micro-climate really, is mild and benign. I have palm trees and banana trees growing happily outside all year! And this past winter, granted, a particularly mild one, my Tasmanian blue gum (eucalyptus) survived the winter and grew to about 20 feet this summer.” Sincere congratulations go to Mark Amsterdam and
Daniel Colbert. They are the proud fathers of Lauren
Amsterdam and J. Drew Colbert, both recipients of the “thick
envelope” from the Admissions Office and now members of the
Class of 2006.
Kenneth L. Haydock The apparent conspiracy of silence has at last abated, and your correspondent is happy to be able to report news about the Cleverest Class in the World. The best item we received, read, in its entirety: “Reunion? What reunion? I have been in the Maine woods for the last 35 years. No kidding. Selwyn Silberblatt ’67.” (See how simple it is to submit an interesting class note?) More conventional input came from Gordon Klein. As best we can decipher his distinctive (medical) handwriting, he attended the reunion with his wife — although, as we refuse to believe his wife’s name is John (which is, in our view, clearly what he wrote), we will translate her name as Joann. In any case, they were accompanied by their daughter, Adrienne, who won a disproportionate number of prizes at Casino Royale at the Hammerstein Ballroom and wishes to apologize for that to those there who were less fortunate. Bob Costa (who has perfectly legible M.B.A. penmanship) lives with his wife, Joan, and their daughter in London where his work for J.P. Morgan Chase has taken them. Jonathan Kranz, who reuned, demands to know our whereabouts at that time and reports that Kent Hall “showed great emotion at the dinner in his building.” Jon, your correspondent’s legal work for Case Corp. required his presence in Turin, Italy, at that time and so prevented his attendance. Also, don’t misinterpret Kent’s emotionalism as a response to dining in his namesake building: He was upset not to have been invited to dine in his sister’s namesake building, Carman Hall. David Galinsky, an internist who specializes in geriatric medicine, has “demonstrated how clever [he is] by convincing Beth Rosenbloom” to marry him in August. Her son, Josh ’00E, graduated at the same time his daughter, Shira ’00. The newlyweds met at a reception for Rabbi Charles Scheer, director of the Kraft Family Center for Jewish Life at Columbia. Congratulations to all! Roger Lehecka, a fixture on the Columbia campus for about three decades (a level of either extreme dedication or extreme agoraphobia that bears investigation), calls our attention to Joel Klein having become chancellor of the New York City Public School system (see CCT, September 2002); Professor Richard Axel having served as mentor to Columbia postdoctoral fellow Kristin Scott (who was just awarded a $500,000 grant for carrying on medical research that he initiated); and Tom Werman having switched careers; he now runs a bed and breakfast in Lenox, Mass. Roger also notes that Don Krim preserves classic films, Allen Spiegel is at the National Institutes of Health, Mark Minton works at the United Nations and Carlton Carl has left years of staff work in Congress, but still resides in D.C. If you want to report on your whereabouts, doings, vocation, avocation, favorite vegetable or — following Dean Lehecka’s example — classmates, just contact your class correspondent. We’re always happy to hear from (or about) you!
Arthur Spector "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.” - Henry V. The College is in great hands. I witnessed firsthand a little of the opening activities for the Class of 2006 students and parents. Deans Austin Quigley, Chris Colombo and Kathryn Yatrakis, along with admissions director Eric Furda and a host of other staff and upperclassmen, did a wonderful job for the newest students and their parents. Derek Wittner ’65, Alumni Office executive director, and his team did great things, too. The campus was teeming with excitement, the weather was great and the place was festive with music, balloons, tents, box lunches and good cheer, though no freshmen beanies. Interest in our reunion is high based upon the feedback I am getting. Everyone whom I have spoken with wants to go, so I believe that this will be the best turnout for a reunion ever (for any class). I hope you are planning to attend. From Cincinatti, Rich Ahearn reports that he’s fine though he’s given up marathoning for other forms of exercise. In the past, he qualified for Boston. Rich is the regional director for the National Labor Relations Board. His wife, Susan ’70 Barnard, also will be at the reunion. His older daughter, Meghan, is a sophomore at Williams, and his other daughter, Allison, is a junior in high school. Rich reports that Neil Gozan and his wife, Gale, have twins now 8 or 9 years old. Gale is an artist and Sam and Henry are surely keeping them busy in sunny Berkeley, Calif. I also hear that Bob Halper and his wife, Nancy, are in Atlanta. Hope to hear from Neil and Bob soon. Jon Kotch is in Chapel Hill teaching and doing research in public health at UNC with a special focus on child abuse issues, injury prevention for young ones and general public health matters. He and his wife, who he met at Sarah Lawrence when we were in school, have three children. They expect to be at the reunion. Their son, Seth, graduated from the College in 2001 and expects to go to graduate school. Another son went to Yale and now is in Manhattan working on World News Tonight with Peter Jennings (we will be all watching), and a third is at Brown. So with three out of the house, there must be a spare bedroom for us to visit. Jon recently spoke with Ron Pristin, who is in New York, and Mike Harwood, also there, so we’ll get more information on these two for a future column. Earlier this year, I spoke to Hollis Petersen, whom I have seen with his wife a few times during the years at Columbia football games. I invited him to a reunion meeting, but he was off to Clarkson University where he is a trustee. He will be at games this year, too. He may be waiting for that Ivy League championship team that Paul de Bary, Ed de Sear, myself and others have been watching for. Andy Herz is busy at his law practice and having some fun, too. He was class president while at the Law School, an august position. University President Lee Bollinger was in his class, so I hope that Bollinger is deferential to his class president. Andy believes there were 30 of our class in his Law School class. While there are many wonderful schools out there, I am glad that some of our classmates’ children have decided to matriculate at Columbia. Hailing from Newtown, Mass., Mike Tracy’s daughter, Annie, is a first-year and lives in John Jay. His other daughter, Ellen, is in high school. Mike continues to practice law — for 30 years, he points out (civil and some criminal defense work). Frank Havlicek, his wife, Louise, and his family reside in Chevy Chase, Md. The kids are Lee (15), who goes to Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, and Raymond (10). By the time this column is in print, Frank will have biked 300 miles in three days from the WTC site in New York to the Pentagon for a 9-11 event, so I guess he’s in good shape. He has entered triathlons. Like many of our classmates, Frank was at the Law School with President Lee C. Bollinger. Frank teaches at American University and is still at the International Monetary Fund. He expects to be at reunion. Mike Newmark is a neurologist in Houston with a specialty in epilepsy. He is delighted that his daughter, Diana, is a first-year living in John Jay. His son is a junior at Carleton College. Mike talks regularly with Frank Lowy, who is teaching at P&S. Frank’s son, Mike, is a sophomore at the College. Jeff Kurnit expects to be at reunion. I hope to find out more about Jeff, and we look forward to seeing him in a few months. We have a large crowd from Shaker Heights, Ohio, in our class. Bill Joseph lives there, doing legal work along with advocacy for Arts in Ohio, including support for public television, the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Museum. He was planning a trip with his 15 year-old to visit Columbia. His wife, Sarah Sager, is a cantor at the Fairmount Temple in Ohio. Bill is in the city regularly and expects to attend reunion. I met him for a bagel a year ago or so. He looks the same as he did when he was 18. Ed Weathers left Golf Digest as a senior editor in protest over an issue of editorial integrity. Previously, he was an editor at Tennis. “Like a ’60s idealist, I leaped on my high horse, pointed myself to the moral high ground and galloped out of a job that most of my friends would have killed for. (Yes, I did photo shoots with Tiger Woods.)”. Ed added, “The real news, of course is about my son. In the last two months, Alex 1) got married to the lovely Lori Bond of Dallas, 2) got a combined M.B.A./law degree from the University of Memphis and 3) moved to Santa Barbara, Calif., to pursue life. Boy, am I proud of him.” Ed adds, “I, meanwhile, still live with the preternaturally pretty, patient and understanding Gail Bilingsley (of Nesbit, Miss.). We are rather absurdly content in Shelton, Conn. I still play a lot of tennis, and I’ll take Steve Gottlieb on anytime he wants.” Ed, we look forward to the next chapter. Bob Brandt plays tennis once a week with great seriousness, so I think we should throw Bob in the mix of this tennis match. I will take Buzz Baumgold against all of you combined. Buzz would whip you three. Larry Susskind provided an update, although I think we should insist on pictures. “I’m still on the faculty at MIT (31 years) and also at Harvard Law School. I run a not-for-profit, the Consensus Building Institute, that provides mediation services in complicated disputes around the world (www.cbuilding.org). I have two teenagers: Noah is a high school senior trying to make college decisions during the next few months, and Lily is a junior. My wife, Leslie Tuttle, is a photographer. She’s on her way to Turkey to finish a long-term effort to document the impact of westernization on Kurdish village women.” Richard Ross is “a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Philadelphia VA Medical Center. In addition to my clinical work, I research the effects of psychological trauma and teach.” He is married to Judy and has three daughters, Carolyn and Anna (18) and Elizabeth (15). Richard adds, “This is an exciting time for our family because Carolyn has just entered the Class of 2006.” I believe he reported that Anna is off to Wesleyan. “It’s been wonderful returning to my alma mater. I enjoyed visiting with my longtime friend, Michael Kaufman, this spring. Michael’s daughter, Katrinia ’04, has been very helpful to Carolyn in introducing her to the unparalleled opportunities at Columbia.” After 20 years in Seattle, Bruce Marogn is “cautiously optimistic that I’ll make it to the reunion, especially since I’ve recently relocated to the Washington, D.C., area, so I don’t have distance as an excuse.” Greg Winn’s wedding was a truly special evening in the Finger Lakes region of New York with an extraordinary waterfall as backdrop and perfect weather. He and Pam are the perfect couple. They recently returned from North Carolina. Greg works in D.C. for a governmental agency, but we need more details. Any other weddings out there? Remember that your autobiographies for our reunion class directory are due November 15. Please send them to Elaine Mathews in the Alumni Office at em2036@columbia.edu or via fax at (212) 870-2747. If you did not receive the letter about autobiographies from Peter Janovsky, please call Elaine. I hope that if you have some news, you will send it to me or CCT.
You can reach me at abszzzz@aol.com,
at home at (212) 724-8384, or by mail at 271 Central Park West,
New York, NY 10024. I have been involved in the last year in some
special financings across the country including for the District
of Columbia, Utah, Massachusetts, North Carolina and the city of
Omaha, among others, and in Missouri and Iowa in the near future,
I expect. I will try to report accurately and do the best I can.
See you at reunion, the best ever, coming up soon enough.
Michael Oberman Congratulations to our six classmates who have children in the Class of 2006: Eric Branfman (Melissa); Bruce Gillers (Allen); Joe Materna (Janine); Dave Parshall (Jane); Jonathan Schiller (Aaron); and Reed Whittemore (David). Congratulations as well to Bob Merlis, whose son, Timothy, is a first-year Engineering student. Eric sent news. “I’ve been meaning to write for some time, but finally have a reason to stop procrastinating: My daughter, Melissa, will be starting this fall as a member of the Class of 2006. Her interest in Columbia has renewed my own interest. As part of her college search process, I took her to a Humanities class last year. They were discussing Don Quixote, and it was as if the 35 years that had passed since I took the course were only 35 minutes. It reminded me of how enduring the Core Curriculum is. Melissa will be reading many of the same books that I read, and that my father (Class of 1943) read before me. And they are as timely as ever.” Eric mentioned the rest of his family: his wife of 23 years, Beverly, a retired teacher, and his son, Joshua (15). After graduation, Eric attended Yale Law School. Because of his interest in public policy matters, he went to Washington, D.C., to spend a couple of years, and never left. For his first 10 years, he worked in anti-trust, first with the FTC, where he was an attorney adviser to Elizabeth Hanford Dole, and later with an antitrust specialty firm. After the 1980 election, antitrust enforcement virtually ceased, so it seemed time to retool. For the next 10 years, Eric used his experience in antitrust litigation to be a case litigator in a number of areas, notably one at FERC to determine whether the billions of dollars of cost overruns in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System were “prudently” incurred and court litigation following similar cost overruns in the construction of nuclear power plants. Eric adds that, after 10 years as a litigator, “it seemed time for a change,” and he moved into the field of telecommunications at Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman, where he is a partner. Telecommunications interested him because competition was being introduced to the local telephone market, and he thought that his antitrust background would be useful. Eric has been representing competitive entrants for the last 10 years, but with the recent telecom meltdown has gone full circle and is now also handling antitrust litigation in the telecom area, combining all three of his specialties. He concludes: “Who knows what the next 10 years will bring?” John Herbert’s daughter, Amy-Kristina, graduated from the College in 1998 and then earned her Columbia M.F.A. in 2001 to pursue a career in acting. John went back to school for an M.B.A. and will attempt to integrate clinical medicine with health systems management in the near future. He adds, “Please wish me luck!” He also observes that this year marks 70 years of College Alumni activity in his family, which began with his father, Benne ’32, and includes his brother, Mike ’77. Roger Kirby has written a play, Natural Inclinations, which (at our column deadline) was about to begin a four-week engagement in London. The play is set in 1769 London and deals with the efforts of a young James Boswell to rein in his natural inclinations (as many of us were trying to do 200 years later). Roger has a second play ready for a workshop and a third one under way. When not writing for the stage, Roger has top billing in Kirby McInerney & Squire, a law firm in New York City. Finally, the media is replete with good reviews for Paul Auster’s 10th novel, The Book of Illusions: A Novel (Henry Holt & Co., Inc., 2002). This is quite a lot of news. I’ll need your help to share as much news next time. Send an e-mail now and resist procrastination.
Peter N. Stevens Four classmates have sons who are members of the Class of 2006: Fred Kushner (Jared), Bob Stulberg (Jacob), Isaac Wiener (Zev) and Jonathan Weisgall (Andrew). Congratulations to all. Mike Passow is an adjunct professor of science education at Teachers College. He continues to teach in the White Plains public school system and is the president of the Science Teachers Association of New York. Ron Szumilas is entering his 32nd year of teaching and lives in Texas, a long way from his hometown of Southbridge, Mass. Ron teaches U.S. history at Stafford H.S. in Houston and coaches football, basketball and baseball. He has two grown kids who live and work in Columbia, S.C.; a third in high school; and recently became a grandfather. Ron would love to reconnect with old friends: ronszum@aol.com. Other Lone Star State news involves Dave Sokolow, who finished his 21st year of teaching at the University of Texas Law School. He is a visiting professor at Case-Western Reserve Law School in Cleveland and will return to Texas next year. For those who have not been back for awhile, the time is right.
The campus is sparkling, the Morningside Heights neighborhood is
jumping, and the Big Apple has made an amazing comeback. The time
is also right to let me know what you have been up to these days.
I look forward to hearing from you.
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