Robert Hardt
Jr.
154 Beach 94th Street
Rockaway Beach, N.Y. 11693
Bobmagic@aol.com
Happy New
Millennium - and I hope no one is reading this in a fallout shelter
where there are only pickled eggs to eat and no DVD players. I
received lots of news via e-mail so please keep the flames and spam
coming. Unsolicited manuscripts will continue to be
discarded.
David
Charytan wrote a great electronic missive with the following
news: Daren Kragenbring is married to April Manlapaz '91E.
They live in Minneapolis where Daren works in banking. No kids, but
they do have a small dog that keeps them highly entertained. A
Spectator media-love connection from the early '90s continues. Spec
arts editor Bob Kolker writes for New York magazine after
leaving his job as one of the original editors of Time Out New
York. He married Kirsten Danis '92 (former Spec editor in chief), a
City Hall reporter for the New York Post. They are happily living
in Brooklyn.
WKCR's
Frank Tipton was a Ph.D. student in political science at
MIT. He recently took a leave from his program and is teaching high
school history in the Boston suburbs. He moved to Newton, Mass.,
with his partner Jonathan Krasner.
Ed
Mitre (one of the nicest guys in the world) is married to
Debbie Appelbaum B'93. After completing his residency and chief
residency in internal medicine at N.Y.U. Medical Center, Ed has
moved to D.C. to start a fellowship in infectious diseases, at the
NIH.
As far as
David is concerned, he dropped out of a Ph.D. program in philosophy
(to his parents' infinite joy) and settled on a career in medicine.
He is a second-year resident in internal medicine at Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and is married to Shoshana
Jacobs B'91. They have a 1-year-old boy, Natan.
David (who
promises to be back in touch in about seven or eight years) also
tells me that Sara Cosgrove is finishing an infectious
disease fellowship at Beth Israel. (Stay healthy Sara!)
In October
1998, Ted Stern, another WKCR legend, joined the legal
department at America Online, working at the headquarters in
Dulles, Va. (That probably means he can read all of the class
e-mail before I do.) Ted is a member of the transactional practice
team, specializing in intellectual property work.
In College,
Lee Benaka was a religion major from Kansas who wrote his
fantastic senior thesis about pro wrestling. Back in 1991, Lee
decided to get heavily into CDs (not certificates of deposit) and
sold me his stereo and some of his records. Now, all that behind
him, he's married with a baby boy. Lee and his wife, Danielle
Feuillan B'91, moved to Washington, D.C. in January 1999. Their
son, Isaac George Benaka, was born in March. Lee works for the
National Marine Fisheries Service and recently served as editor of
Fish Habitat: Essential Fish Habitat and Rehabilitation,
published by the American Fisheries Society in 1999.
Lee also says
that George Abney has been living in Washington, D.C. where
he works for the Justice Department; currently he is on special
assignment in Tucson.
Lee reports
that Joel Johnson continues to be the guiding force of 2
Skinnee J's, ''a rap/hip-hop/ funk band that is going to make it
big any day now.'' Joel is living in Brooklyn, tours often, and is
working on the band's second CD. Lee still likes the CDs, I
see.
Tami Luhby
'92, a reporter at Crain's New York Business, wrote about
the wedding of Cristina Baiata and Michael Martinez in
September in Long Island. Guests included Ilan Scharfstein,
Dina Kotkin, Julie Chow '91E, Rob Lanstein, and
Herman Chow '92E. After graduating from Brooklyn Law
School and working for four years in the Bronx District Attorney's
office, Cristina is now a clerk at the New York Court of
Appeals.
After
graduating, Aida Saleh, took a year off to "flounder in a
law firm." She then went to the Architecture School. After
"laboring in obscurity at a few architecture firms in New York and
briefly in Japan," she launched her own practice last year. Aida
says: "I now labor in obscurity at home.''
Aida's last
name is now Stoddard because she married Christopher Stoddard,
another New York architect. Aida says they "live in a small, but
efficiently appointed, condominium in Brooklyn.''
Last but not
least is Margie Kim, who gave me a very comprehensive update
that follows: Marriages: Vijay Sud married Irene Bojko in
September 1999 in Cincinnati. In attendance were: Bob Cooper
and his wife, Debby Williams Cooper B'94; Margie and her
husband, Dean Kim; Cory Flashner; Sonya Cho Hong and her
husband, David Hong '92, who were married in 1999; Jeff
Michaelson, his wife, Jody, and their 1-year-old son,
Connor.
Javier
Loya married Lucinda Vincent on New Year's Eve 1998 in Houston.
In attendance were; Joe Kim '88 and his wife, Carmen Kim;
Tara Kreidman Steinberg and her husband, Mark; Margie
Kim and her husband, Dean; and Neil Flynn and his wife
Jennifer. Serving as best man was Mareo Loya '92.
Births in
1999: Melanie Frager Griffith and Jason Griffith '92 - Emma;
Laurel Daniels Abbruzzese and Greg Abbruzzese -
Lydia; Melanie Seidner and Jeff Bashaw - Oscar; Julie
Levy and Matt Tropp - Katie; Joe Kim and Carmen Kim -
Matthew; Elise Scheck and Gil Bonwitt - Joshua.
Accomplishments: Beth Shubin
Stein - completing her residency in orthopedic surgery at
Columbia Presbyterian in 2000, applying for fellowships
now.
OK folks. As
you were. We're one year away from our 10th reunion when we can
point our Palm Pilots at each other and wonder what the hell
happened.
Jeremy
Feinberg
211 W. 56th St., Apt 4M
New York, N.Y. 10019
thefeinone@worldnet.att.net
Happy
2000!
Lots of mail
and e-mail this time, including from a lot of people I hadn't heard
from before. Thanks - that always makes my day.
Rachel
Peterson is the executive director of Urban Ecology, a
non-profit organization in the Bay Area. She asked that I send a
message to the ultimate frisbee team, "White Plastic Blue Death"
(one of my favorite teams to cover while I was at the Columbia
Daily Spectator). The message: anyone up for a reunion team at
any tournament in 2000?
Bryan
Paul is working for USA Capital, an investment firm in
Philadelphia. He added that Sean Feren and his wife, Liz,
have a recently born daughter.
A Loomis
Sayles & Company press release announced that John
Tribolet was named a vice president and portfolio manager. He
will be partly responsible for managing close to $250 million in
international equity assets.
Mignon
Moore sent a lengthy e-mail detailing a lot of comings and
goings. Mignon reports that she, Sandra S. Smith, Ezra, and
Mary Pattillo-McCoy '91 all graduated with Ph.D.s from the
department of sociology at the University of Chicago. Mignon and
Sandra are now postdoctoral fellows at the program on poverty and
social welfare policy at the University of Michigan.
Mignon's
e-mail had plenty of other news. Galia Austin-Leon married
her high school sweetheart, Rodney Leon, in August 1997. Lea
Henry, LaTonya Carter, Marjorie Momplaisir-Ellis
and Mignon were all in the wedding party.
The same
group were also bridesmaids in Marjorie's wedding to William Ellis
in July 1997. Marjorie now has a son named Aker and is finishing a
master's in public health at Columbia, while applying to medical
school.
LaTonya is
completing the master's program in social work at Fordham and looks
forward to working as a women's and children's advocate in the New
York legal system.
Lea received
a master's in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government
at Harvard. After two years in non-profit consulting on workforce
development in Durham, N.C., she is working for the Self-Help
Credit Union as construction manager for an affordable housing
project. She is also a realtor working on her own real estate
projects.
I received a
lengthy e-mail, from Eric Guth in Moscow. Since graduation
Eric had been living in Moscow where he had been studying
literature for two years at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute.
Since then, he has worked at a real estate company and enjoyed
"working with a country of people who grow up on Dostoyevsky and
Mayakovsky."
Eric reported
that Chad Breckinridge was married a year ago to Joy
Drachman B'92. He is now finishing at N.Y.U. Law School and plans
to move to Washington, D.C. and work for the Cleary Gottlieb law
firm. According to Eric, Michael Sant'Ambrogio is also
finishing his legal training at N.Y.U.
Eric also
"tattled" on Jon Henick, who is in the foreign service
working as advisor to the State Department, Office of the Special
Negotiator for Nagorno-Karabakh & NIS Regional Conflicts. Try
saying that 10 times fast!
Kim
Colosimo Cavitt e-mailed me that she married Kirk Cavitt, Jr.
on September 4, 1999 in Sewickley, Pa. Several '92ers were in
attendance, including Laura Weinfeld, Phil Fischer
and Kara Lisi Tuccio '92E. Kim reports that Laura is still an
attorney in Florida, and Phil is employed by Bayer Pharmaceuticals.
Kim and Kirk took their honeymoon in Hawaii, including Maui, Kauai
and Oahu, explaining that "words cannot describe the beauty of the
landscape and the loving and kind people we met on our
trip."
Kim also
spent a vacation in Florida with Elizabeth (Lisa) Lim, who
is an attorney living in Pemroke Pines, Fla.
Finally, Eric
requested word from his three first-year floor "blockmates" Nick
Diamand, Rafi Salamon '92E and Mik Smith. I'm happy to
post news if you'll write in.
Thanks for
all the news Mignon and Eric - you make my job easy. And, to
everyone else, I look forward to hearing from as many of you as
possible during the new millennium.
Elena
Cabral
Columbia College Today
475 Riverside Drive, Suite 917
New York, N.Y. 10115
elenacabral@yahoo.com
Antonio
Borrelli, who graduated from Georgetown Law School in May,
moved back to New York City over the summer. After passing the bar
exam, Antonio moved to the litigation department of Paul, Hastings,
Janofsky and Walker, where he is specializing in intellectual
property and entertainment law.
Antonio wrote
that Tsahai Tafari is finishing up a doctorate in cell
biology in Southern California.
Aileen
Torres bought her first apartment on the North Shore of Long
Island and is loving life outside New York City. She is graduating
in May from Teachers College, where she will earn a masters and
clinical certification as a bilingual speech and language
pathologist. Aileen is doing research on bilingualism and the
drawbacks of using standardized language tests to assess language
disorders among minority children.
Aileen's
friend Linda Ayala was appointed director of LULAC's
National Education Center a year ago. She wrote that Kerry
Ogle is teaching Spanish at Roosevelt High School on Long
Island.
Jody
LaPosta, a.k.a. Jody Walker, announced the birth of her first
child, a girl named Anneke Rose, on May 2, 1999. Jody and her
husband, Vincent, live in central Massachusetts, where Jody is a
software engineer.
Rubén
Fontes and his wife, Anne, welcomed their first child
Rubén Antonio on March 17, 1999. Rubén is the director of
business development for an electro-mechanical contracting business
in Tijuana, Mexico. He is finishing a master's degree in
international business at the University of San Diego.
The Fontes
wedding in 1997 featured fellow KCR buddies and football players
Nkem Okpokwasili, Matt Mosca, and Jason Smith
as the groomsmen. Nkem works for a pharmaceutical company in New
Haven and plans to start medical school in the fall of 2000. Jason
lives in New York and Matt, who was recently promoted to
vice-president for BlackRock in New York, will head the company's
division in Tokyo.
Lisa
Rutkoske attended the wedding of Mike Sardo and
Kathleen Johnson on July 24, 1999, in Scarborough, Maine.
Lisa, Kathleen, and Kerry Lunz were teammates for four years
on the women's basketball team. "Needless to say the event was
simply fabulous,'' Lisa wrote. "The bride was beautiful and the
groom was handsome.''
Classmates
who attended included Tony and Penny Apollaro,
formerly Penny Schneider, Kenny Hayes '92, Greg Kearney, Chris
Bordoni, and Nkem Okpokwasili.
Tony and
Penny recently bought a house in Flower Meadow, Texas. Kerry is
practicing law for Weinstock & Scavo in Atlanta.
I'm glad to
hear from more and more of you. Keep 'em coming.
Leyla
Kokmen
2748 Dupont Ave.
South Minneapolis, Minn. 55408
leylak@earthlink.net
I was treated
to a quasi-Columbia Reunion Weekend last December, at the wedding
of Danny Franklin and Ruth Halikman '95. They got married in
a lovely ceremony on a balmy weekend in Baltimore, with a slew of
happy festivities to launch their new life together. (Danny is
still working for Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Ruth works at The
New Republic.) Other classmates in attendance were Kay
Bailey, who did not move to Texas and instead has a new job in
Washington, D.C. working on development issues in Guatemala, and
Tanya Larkin, who is finishing up her poetry degree at the
University of Iowa. Also present were Jenny Lee '95 and my fellow
groomsmen: Eric Roston '93, Tim Carvell '95, and Mike Fein '95 (who
himself got married last fall to Marjorie Feld).
Another
wedding that slipped by my last deadline was that of Marina
Gurin and Erik Groothuis in the fall. Marina says it was
a beautiful event, followed by a relaxing honeymoon in Hawaii. She
also says married life has been wonderful, although they're both
incredibly busy now - Marina works as the marketing director at
UGOdirect.com, an online
video game store, and Erik works at the law firm Cleary, Gottleib,
Steen & Hamilton.
In other
news, I got an e-mail recently from Anne Kornblut, who's
covering Congress for the Boston Globe's Washington bureau. At the
time, she was vacationing in South Africa, where her fiancé, a
TV producer for the BBC, is posted. Anne updated me on several
classmates she stays in touch with: Eliza Lowen McGraw
successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis at Vanderbilt; Rebecca
Weinberg, after living in Chile for several years, has returned
to New York, where she works for an international firm that
arranges specialized corporate conferences; Libby Eynon also
works there. After several years living in Beijing, Rachel
Dewoskin is in Boston, where she's getting a graduate degree in
creative writing. Anne says they all got together in Philadelphia
last year at the wedding of Susannah Rosenstock.
Stacy
Feigenbaum e-mailed that she plans to be married in November to
Aaron Turnof '98B, whom she met at Columbia Business School. Stacy
works as an equity research analyst at Merrill Lynch in the
retailing group, and Aaron is a senior trader at Freimark-Blair,
specializing in emerging markets.
Thanks to
everyone who wrote in - please keep the news coming. Until next
time, take care.
Janet
Frankston
2479 Peachtree Road NE
Apt. 614
Atlanta, Ga. 30305
janet.frankston@mindspring.com
I hope this
especially long update finds everyone well. It's very exciting to
hear that so many of our classmates are doing so well.
Last we heard
from James Stoterau, he was finishing up a film school
degree at Columbia. During school, he landed a job working for
David O. Russell as his assistant on The Three Kings with George
Clooney. (Check out James's name in the credits!) After finishing
the grueling shoot, James accepted a job as Mike Nichols's set
assistant on his new movie, What Planet are You From?
starring Garry Shandling and Annette Benning. "During the middle of
production on the Mike Nichols movie, Sony and MGM got into a
bidding war over a romantic comedy script that I had written,'' he
writes. "MGM won out, and now the movie is being produced by the
people who made Blue Streak, Cruel Intentions, and I Know
What You Did Last Summer." If that isn't enough, MTV also hired
James to create a TV show called Shotgun Love Dolls, a
retro-comedy about a group of sexy, tough female crime fighters.
James is now living in Venice, Calif., and has taken up surfing.
Stay tuned for more details.
After
receiving his master of philosophy in Modern Middle Eastern Studies
from St. Antony College at the University of Oxford, Jed
Weiner served as an assistant to Congressman Benjamin Gilman,
chairman of the International Relations Committee in the House of
Representatives. Jed worked in his personal office and the
International Relations Committee. Now, he's first-year at N.Y.U.
Law School. Allyson Baker is also there after transferring
from Cornell.
Also in New
York, Adlar Garcia was recently promoted to development
officer at the Double Discovery Center, where he has been working
since he graduated. Adlar said he enjoys working for DDC and being
at Columbia.
Ryan
Mossman's having a great time in business school at the
University of Texas, Austin. After quitting his job with Andersen
Consulting last May, Ryan spent a busy summer traveling all over
the world with Columbia friends. He spent time in Madrid and
Morocco with Hilton Romanski (who's now at Stanford Business
School), and they met up with David Webber (also at N.Y.U.
Law) in Egypt. "It was an amazing time,'' Ryan says. The group also
went to Israel and Jordan. In addition, Ryan saw Erin
Bertocci (see below) and some Andersen Consulting friends in
Prague. "I came back to New York and met up with Craig
Bernstein (now at Morgan Stanley) and Dave Attanasio and
we went to Nantucket for the 4th of July,'' Ryan writes. "Later in
the summer I went to San Francisco, where I was in the wedding of
Bert '96 and Lareina Galleno B'95. It was a beautiful ceremony.
After that I hurried to Austin to begin school. I love it.'' In
addition, Jonathan Berkun, a rabbinical student, and Greg
Mancini are both engaged. Greg is finishing up med school at
Mercer in Georgia.
Also in
Austin is Karen Schwartz, who works in advertising. You may
have seen some of Karen's work, like commercials for Southwest
Airlines. "I never know which of our spots are running where, but
you may have seen one of them that has a girl in a bikini jumping
around freezing on the beach because she's had to take her vacation
at the wrong time of year. That was the first commercial I wrote
and produced,'' Karen writes. "You think it's going to be all
glamorous shooting on the beach until you have to be out there at
five in the morning!'' Karen and her former roommate, Hannah
Glass, both plan to be at reunion. Hannah is in medical school
in Montreal.
Here are
updates on parents: Matt Weinstein is the proud papa of
Shulamit Shoshana Weinstein ("Shuli"), a sixth-generation
Philadelphian who was born last Sept. 21 and weighed 8 lbs., 6 ozs.
Matt writes that he and his wife, Shira B'94, plan to stay in
Philadelphia for the foreseeable future. Matt will finish law
school at Villanova this May and plans to take the Pennsylvania and
New Jersey bars this summer. Starting in September (and hopefully
after a nice August vacation) he'll work for Wolf, Block, Schorr
& Solis-Cohen, a Center City Philly firm. "I'm planning on
starting in the real estate department,'' Matt writes.
Jeremy
Senderowicz and Chana Sommer have been married for three
years and now have a baby girl. Ayelet Rina was born on July 18,
"the same day as David Cone's perfect game, which we all watched
together in the hospital," Jeremy writes. "She's growing by leaps
and bounds. I don't have a scanner, so you'll have to take my word
for it about how beautiful she is." As for mom and dad, Chana
received her M.A. from Columbia in East Asian languages and
cultures last May, and she's working at the China Institute in
Manhattan, helping run its teacher-training programs. Jeremy
graduated the law school last May; he's now a first-year associate
at Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells in Manhattan. Jeremy's e-mail
is JeremyS470@aol.com.
Mohit
Daswani is back in grad school. "After four years of investment
banking and private equity at Chase, I'm enjoying student life
again at Harvard Business School,'' he writes. "I'd love to hear
from everyone: mdaswani@mba2001.hbs.edu."
Mohit is in touch with Sejal Patel, who is currently at
MIT's Sloan School of Management. After graduating from SIPA in
1996, Sejal worked at Mitchell Madison Group for two years and then
co-founded Katzenbach Partners, a management consulting firm.
Sejal's e-mail is: spatel@mit.edu.
More bankers:
Ray Chan left SalomonSmithBarney last year to join Lehman
Brothers, where he is working with the principal transactions group
in Asia. He's been splitting his time between Thailand and the
Philippines.
Aryeh
Portnoy is living in Bethesda and working for the D.C. firm of
Crowell & Moring. He graduated from N.Y.U. Law, where he met
his wife, Alison.
Sara
Cross completed her master's at Oxford in women's studies this
year. Erin Bertocci has had a hefty traveling schedule with
Andersen Consulting. She's worked in London, Moscow, Singapore,
Prague, and Paris and also lived in Zurich for eight months. Her
home base is New York, where she shares an apartment with
Melissa Shea, who works at the law firm of Mendes &
Mount. Erin reports that Mara Giattina '95E is in her second year
at Einstein Medical School and Kendra Crook is working in
Tucson on the Biosphere 2 project. Kaara Radon is working
for a pharmaceutical company in Ravensbourg, Germany, and Chad
DeMartino is back at Georgetown for a law degree. Sonia
Pabley is a literary agent in New York; Donna Paoletti
is teaching in the D.C. suburb of Bethesda; Nick Judson is
continuing to work on his Ph.D. at Harvard in biochemistry and is
also in the orchestra; and Jeremy Szerlip is teaching high
school history in New York.
Alex
Cortez spent last summer working in e-commerce at Dell
Computers in Austin, Texas, where he saw Ryan Mossman and
Karen Schwartz. Alex is now back Harvard Business School,
where he sees Daniel Barash, who worked for Disney in
Florida last summer; Axel Martinez, who worked for the
Central Bank of Honduras last summer; and Alice Gugelev, who
worked as a banker in Singapore before returning to
school.
Here is more
from Gene Mazo, via Alex, on people at the wedding of Ben
Cramer and Naoko Hokari in Tokyo last May. Included in
the tour were several West Coasters: Naseema Asif, who works
for an architecture firm in San Francisco; Elissa Swift, who
works for the Israeli consulate in San Francisco; Reina Maruyama
'95E, a Ph.D. student in physics at the University of Washington in
Seattle; Jocelyn Liang, who is engaged and also living in
San Francisco; and Rajen Parekh, who graduated from SIPA
last May, spent the summer in Seattle working in a refugee
resettlement program for Kosovars, and is now relocating again to
the East Coast to work on human rights-related issues. Gene is
getting his master's in public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School
of Government while working on his Ph.D. from Oxford. Then, he'll
go to Stanford Law School.
The next two
paragraphs are also from Gene via Alex, so I apologize if anything
has gotten mixed up in the translation. Vikram Jaswal is
studying for a Ph.D. in psychology at Stanford. Ruth Krieger
has just completed her architecture degree at Columbia. Tanya
Walter is working at SIPA and living in Brooklyn. Chris
Kerkering is finishing up at Harvard Law School. Rohini
Nadgir is finishing up her last year of medical school at Penn
med school and is applying to residency programs in radiology.
Tim Carvell has left New York for California to work for the
L.A. bureau of Fortune magazine. (Tim, write in and tell us
your thoughts on the New York vs. L.A. debate. We know they'll be
funny!)
Kim
Harrison is an assistant director for an organization dedicated
to court reform. Prudence Howes is teaching English in
Korea. Ruby Chin '95E graduated with her master's in engineering
from Berkeley and is preparing to leave for a tour of duty in the
Peace Corps. Angeles Pai is living in New York and is
working in a senior post for the Administration for Children's
Services. After graduation, Alison Fogg studied in
Aix-en-Provence, France, as a Fulbright. After earning a master's
in education in Maryland, she is now living on 110th Street in
Morningside Heights and working as a teacher in the
Bronx.
From Jean
Huang, '94, via Alex: Minnie Shu works in retail at TSE
Cashmere on Madison Avenue. Elizabeth Poon works in
marketing at the Franklin Mint after finishing a degree at
Harvard's Kennedy School of Government last year. Winifred
Teng completed dental school and now practices in New York, and
moonlights at Morgan Stanley.
And we
couldn't end without any wedding announcements. This one is from
Mike Fein, who was married to Marjorie Feld at Temple Beth
Shalom in Cambridge, Mass., on Oct. 10. They live in Somerville,
Mass., and are both working toward their doctorates in American
History at Brandeis University. "In addition to both being
knee-deep in dissertation writing, I'm a research associate at the
Harvard Business School, and Marjorie, a graduate of SUNY
Binghamton, works in urban education and as an editorial board
member for the journal Radical Teacher,'' Mike writes. Fellow
Columbians (and Spekkies) Tim Carvell and Danny Franklin '94
were in the wedding party; Ruth Halikman attended as well.
"Sad to say,'' Mike writes, "Brian Frank and Laura
Margolis couldn't make it in from the West Coast, nor could my
freshman year roommate, Alex Liss.''
Former Carman
10 resident Saara Bickley attended the October marriage of
Dara Marmon to Jack Kaplan. Dara is living in New
York and works for a hedge fund. Both Patty Irigoyen, who is
a fourth year at P&S, and Saara, who works for the big firm
Cravath Swaine & Moore after graduating from Yale Law School,
were in the wedding party. Rob Flores also attended the
fete. Rob is a med student at N.Y.U. and is engaged to Tania
Lee.
Finally,
you'll see that my address has changed. I have moved to Atlanta to
work for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where I'm writing
about growth and development. If anyone is in the sprawling Atlanta
metro area, do let me know.
Thanks for
all your updates. I hope to gather more at our fifth reunion the
weekend of June 2. If anyone is interested in helping to plan it or
has any questions, feel free to e-mail me. In the meanwhile, keep
the news coming!
|