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CLASS NOTES
Jim Shaw Josh Rubenstein “represented Amnesty International as a ‘police monitor’ in Calgary, Canada, during the demonstrations there that greeted the G-8 [Group of Eight nations] summit. Everyone behaved themselves, police and demonstrators alike. Never had to deploy my ever-ready gas mask.” In the September issue, I erred in transcribing Rick Boyd’s e-mail address. Correct: rboyd.boydi03@insuremail.com. Steve Ratner has joined Proskauer Rose LLP as a partner in the firm’s litigation and dispute resolution department. The firm’s release describes Steve as a “noted litigator on behalf of major financial services firms, concentrating in securities and commodities litigation and investigations. Prior to joining Proskauer, he was a litigation partner at KMZ Rosenman.” The Center for New Media and History has been much in the news, particularly for its Web site, http://911digitalarchive.org, jointly run with the American Social History Project (ASHP) at the City University of New York Graduate Center. The site “holds e-mail and chat-room messages, photos and online diaries from people nationwide on their September 11 experiences,” as the Philadelphia Inquirer summarized. Roy Rosenzweig continues as director of CNMH, located at George Mason University, which is about 20 miles from the Pentagon. Contacted for an update, Roy replied on September 10 that the site has “gotten huge publicity — CNN, AP, hundreds of newspapers; I think we will be on MSNBC tomorrow night. We are using electronic media to collect, preserve, and present the history of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania and the public responses to them. Please encourage people to visit the archive and contribute their stories, e-mails and digital images.” Roy notes that Josh Brown ’93 GSAS, is director of ASHP. CNMH and ASHP have teamed on http://lostmuseum.cuny.edu, dedicated to P.T. Barnum’s American Museum, at Broadway and Ann Street, destroyed by fire on July 13, 1865, and never rebuilt. The July/August 2002 AAA World has a good article on it, noting that “the site offers three ways to experience and learn about the museum and its period: a virtual recreation of the museum itself; an online archive; and guided curricula, designed for use by high school and college students, but also interesting to the general public. Though the site’s designers were influenced by virtual reality games such as Myst, there’s more to the site than a cool ‘walk-around’ experience. The site’s online archive is a treasure trove of source material.” How times have changed, when the American Automobile Association’s magazine features a virtual reality visit to a place no longer in reality. Arvin Levine’s two children “have rejected my choice of college by not wanting to go to Columbia! My son moved to Israel to avoid coming here. My daughter has now joined him in avoiding (dear) alma mater and got herself accepted to Penn instead. What’s worse is that I take it personally. Other things change very slowly in [my] suburbia/corporate life.” But Arvin adds a quote from David Russell: “The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn.” Arvin, Barnum’s museum burned, so instead, cross a short bridge within two miles of Penn, and come visit. That’s also for all other classmates; I’m less than a mile from Amtrak’s 30th Street Station. Sixty-eight members of the Columbia College Class of 2006 are sons or daughters of Columbia College Alumni. Ten (10!) of them are children of our class (student, parent): Thomas and Joseph Boorstein, Daniel and Daniel Crowley, Talia and Bernard Falk, Judd and Ed Gartenberg, Nathaniel and Jonathan Greenberg, Aaron and Hillel Karp, Jeffrey and Jeff Knowles, Daniella and Joseph Rotenberg, Lara and Melvin Silberklang and Emily and Robert Tang. We are also well-represented among the six members of Engineering’s Class of 2006 who are sons or daughters of Columbia College Alumni: Josef and Jack Lemonik and Christopher and Roy Sweetgall. Congrats to all, including to Arvin and his children.
Paul S. Appelbaum Like father, like son ... and daughter. The following members of our class can boast that the Class of 2006 includes their offspring (indicated in parentheses) in its soon-to-be distinguished ranks: Benson Lieber (Alexander), Benjamin Lopata (Karen), Peter Milburn (Eleanor), Nunzio Pomara (Francesca) and James Sabella (Jennifer). Proud parents of first-year students at the Engineering School are Steven Jenning (Samuel), Mark Lesky (Daniel) and Conrad Lung (Jonathan). I can tell you from experience that there’s no feeling quite like sharing Alma Mater with your kids. Rafael Pastor is a founding member of Sonenshine
Pastor & Co., an investment banking and private equity boutique
firm in NYC. He is leveraging his prior experiences and contacts
as a senior executive and deal-maker in a variety of entertainment
and media industries. And he was good enough to find the time to
share his experiences with us on the class panel at last spring’s
reunion.
Barry Etra Noticed that I was a year early for our 30th — must be age settling in. Barry Kelner, who recently received an Alumni Medal for Distinguished Service, says he was “humbled” by the honor, given at a luncheon in Low Library. He is principal of Charitable Institutions at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis, and reports that his children, ages 13, 9, 6 and 6, include “their own Minnesota twins.” He hopes to see all of us at the (real) 30th reunion coming up at the end of May. Pat Sharkey’s wife, Mary, was a featured patient on ABC’s summer series, Houston Medical; she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and the show told her story from pre-diagnosis through her successful surgery in May. He notes that “one should attain his/her 15 minutes of fame for a less stressful reason!” Pat and crew live in Houston, where he is a real estate attorney and had three kids graduate this spring — two from college and one from high school. In his attempt to turn back the clock, he ran the NYC Marathon in 2000; always an admirable feat. Guadalupe San Miguel has written two books recently: Brown, Not White: School Integration and the Chicago Movement (2001), and Tejano Proud: Tex-Mex Music in the 20th Century (2002). Other class writers include Lyle Rexer, who recently published an important book on contemporary photography, Photography’s Antiquarian Avant-Garde: The New Wave in Old Processes (September 2002 CCT), an exhibition drawn from its contents ran this summer at the Sarah Morthland Gallery in the Chelsea section of NYC. Lyle writes regularly on art and photography for the The New York Times and lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. Don Jensen writes about baseball history in his spare time; he’s a contributing editor to the forthcoming volume on the National League during the deadball era, with a volume on the American League already in preparation (forever the junior circuit!). In his un-spare time, Don is director of communications at Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty in Washington, D.C., having recently returned from six years in Prague as associate director of broadcasting. Finally, congratulations to Finbarr O’Neill,
whose son, Rory, is a member of the Class of 2006. Keep those kids
(our betters) coming!
Fred Bremer The new Columbia K-8 school and faculty housing building (corner of 110th and Broadway) continues to emerge. This 12-story edifice creates a new southern anchor to the Columbia campus, and is sure to make it far easier to attract top young faculty members at a time when affordable housing is absent and private schools for one’s kids seem harder to get into than Ivy colleges! Speaking of Ivy admissions, the September issue of CCT included a tabulation of the College Class of 2006 that showed that 68 members were children of College alumni (from the 23 classes that stretch from 1959–81). Once again, Class of 1974 parents were disproportionately represented. These are the four members of the class and the names of their children who just started the Core on Morningside Heights: Ed Berliner (Joshua), Steve Kaplan (Meredith), James Kort (Naomi) and Dan Schnaidt (Laura). In what may be a first for us, more daughters were admitted than sons. The times, they are a changin’. I exchanged e-mails with Tom Ferguson, a longtime resident of the San Francisco area. Tom’s son, Greg, is a senior at the College, majoring in philosophy and history and active at WKCR. Tom had been the CFO/CAO of GeneMachine, a life sciences instrumental company, until he quit to take a “brief respite from the working world.” With another set of tuition payments about to start (for his daughter, Elizabeth, now a senior in high school), I bet his respite won’t be too long! Barry Klayman is a partner in the Wilmington, Del., branch of the Philadelphia law firm of Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen, where he practices in both its litigation and environmental groups. In his spare time, Barry is active in several Jewish organizations. He recently was reelected as president of the board of directors of Akiba Hebrew Academy, the oldest Jewish day school in the country. Last summer, he was appointed to the board of directors of BBYO, Inc., the national umbrella organization for B’nai B’rith Youth Organization. Last summer, while you were relaxing on the beach or playing a few rounds of golf, James Russell was off to Armenia to give lectures to a summer forum of college and high school kids from all over the world. Continuing in his love of “all things Armenian” that was very evident while we were on campus, Jim is a chaired professor of Armenian studies at Harvard. I received a fascinating advanced copy (scoop!) of an article that will appear in Armenian language periodicals here and abroad. It included insights into the evolving politics, culture and infrastructure of the area — and not a single mention of beaches or golf. Go figure. Please take a moment to zip out a quick e-mail about what you and your family are up to. Inquiring minds want to know!
Randy Nichols Sometimes, months go by without hearing from any classmates, but the last few weeks have been the exception. Maybe there will be something in the following that will cause you to write, too. Steven Krasner sent a book. Since graduation, he has been a sports writer for the Providence Journal, and since 1986, he’s been a beat writer covering the Boston Red Sox, home and away. His first postseason coverage was in 1986, when he witnessed Mookie Wilson’s roller through Bill Buckner’s legs, a play that will never be forgotten in Red Sox Nation. Steve has been very happily married to Susan Oclassen for 25 years. They have three children. Amy (22) just graduated from Hamilton College with a degree in psychology. Jeff (19), a sophomore at Brandeis, who last year was the only freshman starter (third base) for Brandeis’ baseball team, which went to an NCAA Division 3 Regional tournament. A switch hitter, Jeff batted .330 and whiffed only twice all season. (He’s better than his old man; Columbia missed out!) The youngest, Emily, just turned 16 and is a high school junior. Steve says, “We have been blessed with great kids and a great life.” Fr. C.J. McCloskey III is the director of the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C., a couple of blocks from the White House where, in addition to his pastoral duties, he has served as a host for several television series on Catholic authors and other topics for EWTN global television. He does many interviews for the press, radio and television in the secular media and maintains a Web site of his published writings: www.catholicity.com. He welcomes any Columbians in the area to drop by for a visit. Howard Robinson lives with his wife and two kids in Westchester County, N.Y. After College, he earned an M.A. in anthropology from GSAS, worked seven years at the renovated Tavern on the Green (where he met his wife), became involved in social work and completed his M.S.W. at Fordham in 1983. He trained in family therapy and studied psychoanalysis for a few years, then decided he wanted to teach and earned a doctorate in social welfare from CUNY in 1997. Howard has been teaching graduate social work students at Fordham since 1985 and has a private practice in Westchester. If that isn’t enough, he is a serious student of Chinese, a language he began one hot summer at Columbia as a high school student but never continued. He’s determined to study in China in the near future, hopefully in Columbia’s China program. Howard is always looking for language partners (French, Spanish or Chinese), so if anyone is interested, please get in touch with him at HTRobinson@aol.com. Michael Liccione ’80 corrected my report in the July issue. Bob Schneider seems to have innocently gotten his facts mixed up. Mike did teach a few courses at Guilford Technical Community College, but not at Guilford College. Bob, who gave me the info on Mike, may have been thinking of Mike’s friend, Jonathan Malino (a rabbi), whose career started at Columbia when we were there and who teaches at Guilford College. Mike would really like to hear from other Columbia pals. He can be reached at mliccione@hotmail.com. Here’s the best, saved for last. Dan Daneen’s letter was just too good to edit: “Mike Liccione a convert!? Like Flipper was a duck. I’m guessing that you might get a number of responses to that one (could it be a deliberate ploy?). Certainly, you’ll see some bills for laundering spewed coffee off shirt fronts … A convert!? Michael was the kid with the Torquemada tattoo, the Thomist Avenger, the scourge of heretics! Don’t worry, Mike! The Big Guy knows who you are! Or were?” Dan is “holed-up in northern Vermont, still married to La
Femme Nikita from East 3rd Street, got a boy in college, a dog,
good shoes, and some new schemes.” And he adds two pressing
questions for the column: “What does an original Sam fetch
these days?” and “Does anyone know a lot about 16th
century Mexico?” Replies will be published. Keep the cards
and letters coming.
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