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CLASS NOTES
Alan N. Miller First and most important, I am the proud grandfather of my second grandson, nine days late and weighing in the championship range of 9 lbs., 1 oz., in Portland, Maine. Now for additional class news. Twelve classmates and several wives joined in the educational fun of Dean’s Day in April, a class record. Present in alphabetical order: Ralph Banks, John Censor, Maurice Easton, William Garretson, Larry Gitten, Peter Klein, Ralph Longsworth (and Roberta), yours truly, Mark Novick (and Maya), Norton Roman, Raymond Sherman, Bob Siroty and Michael Spett (and Lisa). Four of us were able to sit together at lunch — unfortunately, not all of us, as there wasn’t a class table — and discussed the next event that was proposed, namely, a class lunch at the Columbia/Princeton Club (we know who comes first) at the end of May. If this is successful and desired, I propose to do this on a regular basis, possibly the last Wednesday of every month. Please let me have input. In April, I went to the Barnard Torchbearer Reception to meet my
scholarship student, Karen Chang ’04 Barnard. The scholarship
was established for my deceased wife, Libby ’60 Barnard. It
was a lovely event with a great atmosphere done outside on an inner
lawn. I received a communication from Art Salzfass, who refuses to retire completely. He is having great fun running a small cooperative book publisher. He and his wife, Jane, who works in computers at Reader’s Digest, are neighbors of the Clintons in Chappaqua, a potentially exciting situation. His two daughters are pursuing writing and teaching careers. He sadly reports that Lenny Schreier died recently. Our “In Memoriam” list gets longer with each Reunion Class Book. Finally, I have been meaning to go to commencement for years and did so in May in the company of Steve Easton, who also thought it was a great idea. Please keep in touch at (212) 712-2369 or fax (212) 875-0955; remember, email under duress. So here is wishing all you guys and dolls health, happiness, some wealth, great children and extraordinary grandchildren, and let’s get together while we may and possibly even sing a few Columbia songs as we did so well, with the help of our Sigma Chi members, twice at reunion. Love to all.
Herman Levy Ward Armstrong retired from the sporting goods business in 1997. He and his wife, Geniel, spend time traveling, hunting and river running. After practicing law in New York for nearly 30 years and teaching law at Fordham, Neil Bramwell now is a writer in New Orleans. Xlibris has published his book, Sam’s Legacy, a murder mystery, available online. Enslow Publishing has published Neil’s James K. Polk, a biography of the 11th president of the United States. Both are available in bookstores or online. Neil’s Web site for Sam’s Legacy is bramwellmystery.com, not working as of press time. His address is 1725 Burgundy St., New Orleans LA 70116; telephone is (504) 947-3355; email is ndbram@aol.com. Marty Fisher attended a Heyman Center for the Humanities seminar with Robert Belknap, professor emeritus of Slavic languages. Belknap recently completed a brilliant and informative short course on Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov for alumni at Heyman, a “relatively new, small building with seminar space on the East Campus, which former College Dean Carl Hovde heads. Luminaries hanging their hats there include Wm. Theodore de Bary ’41, Edward Said and Peter Pouncey. There are younger Heyman Fellows as well. Heyman is the center for human rights activities on campus. Marty stopped by to see Brandon Doyle, an assistant director of the Columbia College Fund in the Alumni Office, and to make telephone calls as promised. He reached Art Roberts at the University of Connecticut and Arnie Nachmanoff in Alexandria, Va. At other times, he had lunch with Ron Kushner and Marty Brothers. Marty also “had the opportunity to do a bit of historical research” into the Ford Foundation program at the College (1951–58). During the Korean War, which in many cases interrupted academic careers, the Ford Foundation “initiated an experiment to determine if students could be admitted to college early in order to expedite their [education] ... Columbia, Yale, Chicago, Lafayette, Oberlin and a few other schools agreed to participate by taking [15–30] freshmen each year for a period of [2–8] years and tracking their success or failure. Those students were offered a full scholarship as an inducement to participate. Unfortunately, [Marty] was one of the guinea pigs.” Marty “perused dusty, hitherto unread” files and reports from Dean Nicholas McKnight ’41 and Professor Quentin Anderson ’37. To Marty’s surprise, a report names Jerome Kern, himself and some other ’57 Ford scholars, referring to him as “butterball.” Daniel Goldberg’s widow, Audrey, has informed us that Daniel died on January 7. Audrey, his wife for 40 years, tells us that “Daniel always spoke about the wonderful education he received at the College and how much he enjoyed the years he spent at Columbia. He was very proud to have one of his children graduate from the same institution.” His daughter, Beverly ’87, MD Harvard, “is board-certified in pulmonary and critical care [and practicing] with a group in Lowell [Mass.]” Daniel received his M.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He was on the staff at Morristown (N.J.) Memorial Hospital and practiced internal medicine in Mendham, N.J. for 30 years before he retired in 1997. He specialized in diabetes and endocrinology. His memberships included the Mount Freedom Jewish Center, American Medical Association and the American Orchid Society. Ed Weinstein reports that Deans’ Day in New York “was glorious, with a turnout of 700, the largest ever, [with] the campus looking great.” Our class “had a nice attendance ... including Marty Fisher; Nat Swergold and his son, Jason; Carol and Art Perlman; Ed Weiner; Rob Flescher; and Carlos Munoz. “Rob drove down from East Hartford, Conn. Nat practices law in Cedarhurst, N.Y. Art is a psychiatrist in NYC. His wife, Carol, and I met by coincidence at Montefiore Hospital, where she does social work.” Ed also noted that “Mark Chapman M.D. is a gastroenterologist and professor of medicine at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City, [where] he continues in private practice. He is married to Judy (43 years and counting). They have two children and four grandchildren. When not practicing medicine, Mark enjoys racquetball, golf and reading. He regrets missing our 45th … he was in Marbella, Spain, vacationing with friends, and looks forward to our 50th.” Also according to Ed, Ed Koren recently celebrated 40 years as a cartoonist for The New Yorker. “His illustrations also have appeared in The New York Times, Time, Newsweek and The Nation [as well as Columbia College Today]. Ed is working on a children’s book, to be published in about 18 months, and an illustrated cookbook. Ed has two children in their 30s and a boy of 13. He and his family have lived in Brookfield, Vt., for about 25 years. Ed’s wife is an English teacher in the same school in which his son is a student. When I asked why he chose Vermont as his home, he said: ‘I simply love being outdoors.’” Ed Weinstein had lunch with Lew Leventhal. About five years ago, Lew reached the mandatory retirement age (60) at KPMG Peat Marwick & Co. “He noted that he had worked continually during his last six months, unlike his contemporaries, who had tapered off. He decided that he liked what he was doing and made arrangements to continue in the profession. Today, Lew is a partner at the NYC accounting firm of Richard Eisner & Co. He enjoys his work and has no plans to slow down. He lives in Roslyn, N.Y.” More from Ed: “Mike Lipper sold the assets of his Lipper Analytical Services publishing business about four years ago to Reuters. He is active in the investment field by operating investment advisory and hedge fund businesses from his home in Summit, N.J. He also is involved in setting up start-up operations in the investment field. Mike chairs the investment or finance committees of the Atlantic Health System, Drew University and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and thus shares his investment wisdom pro bono. He has four children and five grandchildren.” Ed’s travels took him to San Francisco, where he had lunch with Ira Lubell, whom he had not seen in 45 years. They spent two hours refreshing their memories. Ed reports: “Ira is medical director of Santa Clara Valley [Health and] Hospital System, a 1,000-bed facility, and clinical professor of medicine at Stanford ... He has lived in Santa Cruz since 1988 and has a weekend pad in San Francisco. Ira, a Log Cabin Republican, recently served as president of the California Medical Board (licensing and discipline of physicians). Billy Friedman served with Ira on this board. Ira has been in public health since medical school, even serving as a medical officer with the rank of lieutenant commander at the U.S. embassy in Moscow. He speaks 10 languages, including fluent Russian, and has traveled extensively.” Alan Zuckerman and Marilyn, his wife of 35 years, have returned to their home in Bethany Beach, Del., after almost two years in South Africa. Alan worked at the Umsobomvu Youth Fund, which “was established to develop and fund projects to prepare unemployed out-of-school youth for jobs and small businesses.” He also worked in the development office of the University of Pretoria, helping it to raise money from U.S.-based foundations. A Columbia M.B.A., Alan says that he has “worked for nonprofit organizations, universities and as a consultant most of my life.” For 10 years, he served as director of the National Youth Employment Coalition in Washington D.C. He and Marilyn had “always wanted to live and work overseas. We decided to move to South Africa because we both had done some short-term work there...[knew] people and were fascinated by the transformation.” Alan’s work at UYF gave him “a chance to share my knowledge and American experiences with the South African youth and to work on the development of a new, energetic, publicly financed youth development funding source. I learned a great deal about South Africa, youth programs, working in the developing world and myself. My wife and I traveled to all nine provinces of South Africa and to Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. We visited spectacular mountains, beaches and deserts and saw wild animals and beautiful birds in their habitats. We visited and worked in poor townships and villages and had an opportunity to learn about some of the many different cultures of South Africa.” Alan and Marilyn say, “We made it work and the rewards, personally and professionally ... exceeded our hopes. Life for those of us with money is not too much different from that in the United States. The biggest challenges are driving on the left and getting into the car on the right. As sports fans, we had to adjust to cricket, rugby and soccer matches. We missed baseball, football and basketball.” The latter, plus two burglaries they suffered, were their only negatives. Alan continued, “South Africa is an incredibly beautiful place. Americans should plan to come for holiday. Capetown is a great city; the wine country (and the wine) are excellent; the mountains and oceans are beautiful. The game parks are a special treat. Climate is temperate. The plane ride is interminable, but worth the effort. The people are welcoming, civil and most speak English, even though there are 11 official languages. It also is inexpensive. Winter in the United States is summer in South Africa.” Alan plans “to continue consulting in the youth employment and workforce development field for as long as I am able. I also want time to play tennis, read and be with family and friends … and I hope that there is another adventure or two left in my life.” His younger son, Eric ’94, works in film casting in New York; Alan attended a few baseball and football games with him. Alan’s older son teaches high school in Oakland, Calif.
Barry Dickman Joe Dorinson has two new books. He is co-editor, with William Pencak, of Paul Robeson: Essays on His Life and Legacy (McFarland & Co., Inc., 2001), and, returning to his roots, he contributed an essay, “Danny Kaye, Brooklyn Tummler” to Jews of Brooklyn (University Press of New England, 2001), an anthology edited by Ilana Abramovich and Sean Galvin. The New York Times Magazine recently ran an article, “The Stephin Merritt Standard. Can a downtown songwriter who composes tunes like Porter be a pop star like Sting?” Merritt is the leader of a band, Magnetic Fields, whose co-founder, manager and drummer is Dotty and Don Gonson’s daughter, Claudia. Claudia is a classically trained pianist, who, like many of our children, has chosen a nonstandard career. The article places Claudia in good company, with Bernie and Toby Nussbaum’s daughter, Emily, who has become a regular contributor to The New York Times Magazine and The New York Times Book Review. John Giorno’s latest poetry reading, “There Was a Bad Tree,” was held at the Swiss Institute-Contemporary Art in SoHo. It was part of a work of performance art: Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone installed a stainless steel floor with embedded speakers from which John’s voice emerged. Here’s our reminder about the class lunch that Scott
Shukat hosts, which is now held on the second Wednesday of
every month in the Grill Room of the Princeton/Columbia Club, 15 W.
43rd St. ($31 per person). You can let Scott know if you plan to
attend up to the day before by phone at (212) 582-7614, by fax at
(212) 315-3752 or by email at scott@shukat.com.
Bennett Miller [Editor’s note: CCT extends its thanks to Ed Mendrzycki, who has served the College, his classmates and this magazine with dedication and distinction as class correspondent since 1980. We welcome Bennett Miller, who had been assisting Ed (and will be assisted by him in the future), as the new correspondent and urge classmates to contact Ben at the above postal and email addresses.] Ed Mendrzycki has promoted me from cub reporter to full-fledged correspondent as he steps down as our class correspondent. Ed has done yeoman’s work over the years, and we owe him a sincere thank you for his efforts. I look forward to helping all of us keep in touch, so don’t mind if from time to time you get a phone call or an email from me urging you to get in touch with us and our fellow classmates. Shelby Brewer has been elected chairman, president and CEO of Commodore Applied Technology, Inc., an environmental remediation, engineering and financial services company headquartered in New York City and Alexandria, Va. Shelby, who has a nuclear engineering background and spent the early part of his career in Admiral Rickover’s nuclear navy, was the top nuclear official in the Reagan Administration (1981–84) and chairman and CEO of ABB Combustion Engineering (1985–95) before taking on his new job. I also have a new job. I recently founded a development firm that has a new approach to processing high-level nuclear waste. The company is moving into the demonstration stage of development with the launching of a $50 million project that is scheduled to go into operation in about 18 months. Congratulations to John Corigliano for being awarded the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Symphony No.2. Last year, John won an Oscar for his film score for The Red Violin. Mike Cohen still practices maritime law and teaches an admiralty law course at the Law School while increasing his participation in projects of the American Law Institute. His wife, Bette, retired after serving 17 years as the Cantor of Temple Emamu-El of Long Beach, N.Y., where she has become Cantor Emerita. Harris Schwartz recently concluded his 36th year working at Columbia, during which he has helped transform the undergraduate experience. Harris is the executive director of Lerner Hall. He invites classmates to stop by the student center, say hello and see one of Columbia’s newest and most exciting additions. To continue a tradition, his daughter, Jennifer ’05 is following her brothers, Jason ’92 and Jon ’97. Our man in Washington, Steve Trachtenberg, president of The George Washington University, continues to earn the admiration of the capital city. He recently was selected as one of the 100 most influential people in D.C. by one of the city’s major magazines. Ernie Holsendolph ’58 was gracious to send us this epistle: “I’m from the Class of ’58, but I knew Ken Gros-Louis well in our college days. A national newsnote reminded me to remind you guys from the Class of 1959 that he is retiring as chancellor of Indiana University. I noticed that a scholarship is being formed in his name, partly a recognition of his closeness to students on the Bloomington campus, though I have not had an opportunity to fellowship with him much since graduation. He was a fine fellow student, and evidently he was a terrific educator. Read about him online. The Web page has a picture of Ken and a statue. The trick is to figure out which is which. (That would be a perfect example of Ken’s sense of humor.) Ernie, thank you. Your note has finally gotten me over the fact that you were our sophomore tormentor. Some things die hard, such as hating the guys in New Jersey, if you know what I mean. In March 2002, Jerome Charyn was named a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. This is the highest honor that France can bestow upon artists and writers. Other recipients include Bob Dylan, Robert Redford, Richard Meier, Susan Sontag and Meryl Streep. Congrats, Jerry. Ed Mendrzycki retired as a partner of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and become of counsel to the firm. Ed continues to consult for a client on a part-time basis and recently was appointed to a three-year term on the American Bar Association standing committee on professional liability. And, finally, Ed and Irwin (Buddy) Jacobs (still practicing pediatric neurology in Cleveland), were hosted in Charleston, S.C., by Myron Lutz ’60, who is semi-retired from his Ob/Gyn practice in Charleston. They and their wives enjoyed some old-time conviviality and some reminiscences and send their regards to all of us. So, where are the rest of you? Seriously, don’t hesitate to send us news about you. We want to hear what’s going on in your lives, so take a moment and pass a note along to the above address or email miller_bennett@yahoo.com. Look forward to hearing from you.
Robert A. Machleder Each of our lives is a symphony, and for many in the class, a new movement has been reached. Once, the tempo of our careers was allegro con brio. Now, for an ever growing number, andante ritardando — “I’m cutting back” — or, adagio — “I’m semi-retired” — or, largo — “That’s it, I’ve had it, I’m putting in my papers.” Some, however, find the rhythm of their careers infused with new vitality, and the beat goes on. Joshua Pruzansky has been practicing law on Long Island “since,” to appropriate with some exaggeration a familiar legal phrase, “the memory of man runneth not to the contrary,” and has served with distinction as president of the New York State Bar Association. The attraction of private practice remains compelling for Josh, and he recently established a firm. The venture is invigorating, and Josh reports that every new day is a source of the most pleasant anticipation. Another travel adventure figures prominently in our Class Notes this issue. Destination: the Galapagos Islands, the largely desolate lava formations west of Ecuador straddling the equator, famous for the giant tortoises that give the archipelago its name and for the abundance of wildlife in various stages of evolutionary development that were studied by Charles Darwin and afforded the body of evidence to support his theory of natural selection. As an unparalleled laboratory for the study of evolution, it is maintained as a nature preserve. Arthur Delmhorst made the trip in March with his wife, Wynnkie, and sons, Dwight and Fred. Art remarked on the abundance of birds including the many varieties of finches and the colorful and unusual frigate birds inflating their great red-throated pouches, and the colonies of seals and sea lions, noting particularly the formidable dominant bull, which all were advised to keep from at a safe distance. One of many highlights of the trip was swimming among the porpoises and seals. Art noted that because the absence of natural predators on the islands, save for owls, the wildlife is remarkably indifferent to the presence of humans. Art applauds the efforts of the Ecuadorian government to negotiate the delicate balance of preserving the islands for naturalist studies while permitting tourism on a carefully controlled basis. Although an old Navy hand, the voyage to the Galapagos was Art’s maiden crossing of the equator, thus exposing him to the ritual initiation — something to do with kissing a fish and being doused with a water hose, all of which Art experienced with his customary good humor. Methinks such humiliations, if unavoidable, should be endured at an earlier stage in life. Art had contemplated making the trip after retirement but accelerated the timetable when he realized that any further delay might make it difficult to proceed with the whole family. Art’s son, Fred, is a doctoral candidate at Columbia in industrial and organizational psychology. Since moving his office from Manhattan to New Jersey to be closer to home, Paul Fierstein’s attendance at our first Thursday of the month class lunch has been infrequent. And so it was good to see Paul back for our May 2 get-together. Paul insists that there is nothing of particular interest in his life at this time to warrant mention, but, with Paul, there is always a palpable sense that life is good. Prominent in Paul’s life are his five children, Susan, Ronald, Elizabeth, Jane and Robert, whose ages range from 31 to 40. Do we have any classmates who started families before Paul? In the May Class Notes, I reported my conversation with Michael Hein. I omitted to mention, however, that Mike had a recollection, faulty as it turns out, that I had given him rides from campus to the Bronx on the back of my motorbike. Not possible, said I. Never had a motorbike. Good thing that, for if I had a motorbike, it and all aboard would very soon have come to no good end. However, I was a passenger many a morning during freshman year on Steve Wilder’s motorbike as we raced to beat the second bell for Professor Farenholt’s chemistry class. I suggested to Mike that Steve was probably his pilot as well, a supposition that only Steve can confirm. Now that summer has arrived and many of you will be relaxing, I
hope that more of you will find time to call or write with news to
share with the class.
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