 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
|
CLASS NOTES
Jim Shaw Leo V. Love received a Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry for fiscal year 2001 from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. I am instituting a new feature in which I call a few classmates for news for each issue. My goal is to broaden coverage of the class to include those who don't write to alumni magazines, though of course where would class correspondents be without those who do write? I start here with four friends I had not spoken to (my error) in from one to 30 years, as the case may be; it was a delightful chance to catch up on news as I conducted combination CCT interviews and personal conversations. Roy Rosenzweig is a professor of history at George Mason University, which he notes in the only major university serving D.C.-area Virginia's 1.5 million population. After obtaining a Ph.D. in history from Harvard in 1978, he followed Deborah Kaplan, who teaches English at GMU, there in 1981; they married and live in Arlington, Va. He studies "how history is presented and consumed, and how to use new technology to present history," and founded and directs the Center for History and New Media (http://chnm.gmu.edu). I took a quick Web site tour and in particular recommend a link to History Matters, then to the Puzzle icon, then to a monthly puzzle (also check the archived puzzles link on the current puzzle page, particularly the World War I era I.Q. test samples). I also found Roy's 19-page curriculum vitae, but, hey, it's in readable big type, as befits new media; I'll save you the details, but take my word that the guy publishes a lot. The History Matters link is for students and teachers of high school and college history courses. One person who might log on after she reads this is Emily Derringer, daughter of Paul Deringer and Margaret Young. She's a Princeton grad who is working on a master's in history and plans to teach high school history. Paul and Margaret's other kids are Kate, co-managing editor of the Daily Princetonian, and twins Molly and Will, who are juniors at Phillips Exeter. Paul's a neurologist and Margaret's a pediatrician, and they work together at Bassett Healthcare, a group practice formed by Columbia professors (and still affiliated with Columbia) to bring medicine to a rural community. When they are all home, their family constitutes one percent of the population of Fly Creek, a suburb of Cooperstown, N.Y., so, give a call if you're headed to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Fellow doc Ray Stricker was named one of San Francisco's 500 Best Doctors in the January 2001 issue of San Francisco magazine. Ray will appreciate that when I informed my son of Ray's honor, his first question was how many doctors does San Francisco have. I assured him that with San Francisco's medical centers, there are many, and fine, doctors, and that the patient population was higher than might be expected because of all those people jumping into San Francisco Bay to retrieve Barry Bonds's home runs (see Cooperstown), which they really do. Ray e-mails me jokes, so I think I'm okay, despite having been chastised, in advance, by a classmate years ago who required that I print his letter without comment and without linking his entry to any other entry; I declined to print but embarked on a period of writing dull, unlinkable columns, but heck, you deserve better and besides this is the age of new media, and what's that without links? Ray e-mailed me after our call to summarize: He "runs a busy hematology/immunology practice, and I have become the local expert on Lyme Disease, which is a growing problem in California. I was recently appointed to the California Lyme Disease Advisory Committee that was established by Gov. Davis and the state legislature." (By phone Ray had told me of his immunologic research study of abnormal counts of cells of Lyme Disease patients.) "I have also continued my work on AIDS and other immunologic diseases. My most recent publications have been in Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine and Immunology Letters. "On a personal note, my wife Abby works in a fancy boutique in San Francisco and enjoys hobnobbing with the rich and famous. Our daughter Zoe is 8 and our son Avi is 6. Zoe has informed me that she intends to be the first girl president, if Hillary doesn't beat her to it. Avi has memorized all the streets in San Francisco and loves to backseat drive (he wants to be a pilot). We should have no trouble finding Chappaqua when we visit New York this spring." On the way, he might fly over north Jersey, where Arvin Levine works at home as a consulting architect and analyst for Compaq Computer, designing computer system solutions for major financial institutions in the New York area. He is married to Gila Berkowitz, who writes books, including The Brides, a novel of corporate intrigue and romance. Their son J.J. is in the Israeli army and in college at a Yeshiva, and Arvin has an apartment in Jerusalem. Daughter Livia is in the 11th grade, stateside. Arvin is "still in stasis," which he then belies by noting that he "finally reopened his Feinberg physics book" from College days, "just to read it to be an interesting person again." (Ah, modesty.) Meanwhile, in my adopted town, classmate Dennis Langer is the new President of the Columbia Club of Philadelphia. With classmate Alex Sachare as CCT editor, we own not just Philadelphia but New York. So let's prove it at reunion, May 31-June 3. It would be great to see you there.
Paul S. Appelbaum It was, as he says, "a big year" for Jonathan Freedman. His marriage to Dr. Isabelle Rooney, a Scottish research scientist, was followed by the birth of their daughter Genevieve on April Fools Day. Meanwhile, daughter Madigan entered Columbia's first-year class this fall. Finally, his new book, Wall of Fame, was published in October. Wow! One of the ultimate honors in the legal world is to see your name incorporated into the name of your firm. Rick Kurnit was so honored this year by the New York firm of Frankfurt Garbus Kurnit Klein & Selz. After joining the firm in the early '80s, Rick expanded its advertising and marketing practice into one of the largest such practices in the country. He has handled major cases in libel law and the application of intellectual property law to marketing communications, and represented some of the leading Internet pioneers. Rick teaches at the New School and lectures widely to legal and industry audiences. There was a very nice profile of Calvin Hudson in the Hartford Courant. Calvin is the group senior vp of worldwide property-casualty claims at The Hartford Financial Services Group, a company he joined 27 years ago. In addition to overseeing this difficult area of claims resolution, Calvin is a deacon at the First Cathedral in Bloomfield and a father of four, including a foster daughter. With all the fuss about last fall's election, you might not have noticed that Christopher Garvey ran on the Conservative Party ticket as a candidate for N.Y. State Supreme Court Justice in the Bronx. Bill Cooper sent an e-mail to "brag a little bit," which it looks as though he's entitled to do. Daughter Sarah graduated from Columbia in December, the third generation of Coopers to go to the College. Bill also notes that Joe Falik's son, Benjamin, is in the Class of 2004. When I learned this fall that I'd been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences - which provides advice on health policy to the federal government - I scanned the list of new members to see who I might know. Sure enough, Jerry Groopman's name was there too. After sharing so many of those pre-med courses in our years at Columbia, it was particularly nice to share this honor with Jerry, too. Finally, as I write this, I'm pleased to say that we learned today that our daughter Avigail will be coming to Morningside Heights next fall as an entering student at Barnard, just like her mother did not all that long ago.
Barry Etra State of the Union? There is only one! Joel Pfister is a professor of American studies and English at Wesleyan, right here in good ol' CT. In other state news, Eric Coleman was presented with an achievement award by the Connecticut Men and Women for Justice on October 11. Have heard that Bob Iassogna was ill, but is recovering; Bob lives in Stratford, Conn. And Barry Etra (who's he?) has a new e-mail address, betra@unicorr.com. Type early and often.
Fred Bremer
Those of you living in New York City (proper) may have seen it. The New York Times on Sunday, Jan. 7 featured Morningside Heights as the cover story in "The City" section, referring to it as the greatest concentration of institutions serving the mind (Columbia, Barnard, Teachers College, etc.) spirit (St. John the Divine, Riverside Church, Union and Jewish Theological Seminaries, etc.) and soul (Manhattan School of Music, Miller Theatre, etc.). All at a time when most communities don't have a single such institution, let alone a need for et ceteras. The Times also noted the proliferation of new "yuppie" establishments that are transforming the neighborhood. If you have a free hour while in the city, drop by the Columbia area and you will be amazed. Even Tom's Restaurant has a purple glow at night. One person who will have a chance to relive life on the Heights is Ed Kornreich, whose daughter, Molly, was admitted early decision to the Class of 2005. If you have followed the articles on how hard it is to get into the College these days, you will share his pride in his daughter's achievement. The hyper-busy holiday season (and the death of the holiday card tradition) led to a near-record low number of class notes coming in. Sure, I did see Jon Ben-Asher speed by me at the World Financial Center, but he was rushing to catch a ferry to a train to suburbia, and thus no note. And my wife reported bumping into Richard Briffault at the Barnard Toddler Center while he was touring it as a possible repository for his second child, but this is hardly newsworthy. Yet I did receive two notes from the "long lost" that I will quote in (almost) full: Michael Ochs e-mailed me at the above address: "This is my first time writing.Briefly, I am recently married (yesterday!) and just moved to California after living in Texas for 17 years. I am in my 10th year as a middle school science teacher in public school and still involved in music. My e-mail is mvochs@yahoo.com and I would like to hear from anyone, especially the crew from Carman 2." Clifton Wellman writes to say, "At this point in my brilliant career, I have evolved to the stage where I would best describe myself as a person who specializes in studying, and collecting, very strange things. Strange science, strange history, and I happen to have a unique collection of highly unusual (and expensive) dioramas." Whether you are wanting to hear from your friends from some Carman floor, have an interest to share, or just want to share some details of even a mundane life, drope me a note or e-mail or call me. It will brighten the day of the guy who lived down the hallway who has thought, "I wonder what ever happened to." It only takes a moment.
Randy Nichols
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
