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CLASS NOTES
Everett Weinberger Very meager notes section this issue. And if not for the press releases of two Philadelphia law firms, we'd have nothing! Congratulations to Henry DeWerth-Jaffe for making partner at Pepper Hamilton. Henry focuses on bankruptcy and creditors' rights matters. And congrats to Howard Bashman for his selection as co-chair of the appellate courts committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association. Howard is a partner in the litigation department of Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads. Lawyers can read his monthly column on appellate litigation in The Legal Intelligencer.
Robert V. Wolf
George Gianfrancisco Marc McCann wrote me. Marc is currently program director at the Second Mile, a Pennsylvania non-profit that runs programs for at-risk youth. Marc and his wife, Denise, live in State College with their two sons, Conor and Alex. He wonders why he is the only person who wrote me. (Except for Dean Anderson '87, and Dean only wanted TJ the Ape's e-mail address and they graduated in '87 anyway, so who cares?) He wonders what Jill Levey-Powlen is up to? He wonders what state Krysten Hommel is living in nowadays? He wonders about Gloria Trillo and Jody Wu and The Bird? How about Steve Kavanaugh? Please, somebody find him. Or the Grimm Reaper? What about that little Greek-boy Johnny Stamatis? Carl Schaerf? David Putelo? Leon Friedfeld? Gus Liem? How is this column's favorite whipping boy, Math Sodl? What is Jenny Wallace up to? Is Marc de la Roche president of his country yet? Homer Hill? Homer Hill, anyone? Marc doesn't want to sound like he's whining, but he has a lot of questions. Questions that sound like they deserve answering. I guess I can understand. Don't let Marc McCann down. Write me.
Amy Perkel Much thanks to all classmates who stay in touch. Let's start with Russell Glober, who ran the New York marathon in November and had a blast despite never having run more than a half-marathon just a few months prior to the big race. It was a great opportunity, Russell notes, to be back in NYC, having just moved to Los Angeles after 15 years on the East Coast. Russell graduated from the film program at Columbia in May 2000, and figured he needed to move west to increase his chances of putting his degree to use (not to mention the infinitely more advanced weather conditions on this fine, left coast, notes this correspondent). He's enjoying living in Venice, catching up with the extended family, and making new friends. While not writing, he is working as a personal trainer at the sports club L.A., the same high-end outfit that owns the Reebok Club in New York, to pay his larger than life student loans. Sounds familiar. Russell has but a few weeks left of revisions on his action thriller script, Icarus Falling. With the elimination of procrastination, he notes, "all should be well." Russell is keen to catch up with other CU alums, so please get in touch with him at (310) 452-6620. Gil Greenman lives with his wife, Maura, in Old Town Alexandria, Va., and they have three children. Quinn is a big 4-year-old boy who attends the local Montessori school. In February 2000, the Greenmans had Jacqueline and Julia, identical twins. The girls took their first steps during the week of their first birthday. Congratulations to Gil who notes that "it is a happy, hectic life, and our cup truly runneth over." On the professional front, for the past 412 years, he has been working as an associate at Williams & Connolly in Washington. In his words (so as not to impart any partisanship), he had the good fortune to assist in the defense of former President Clinton at the impeachment trial and to have worked as a volunteer in the effort to assist former Vice President Gore in Florida. Other high points have included defending a union president against charges that he associated with the mafia and defending a lawyer accused of misconduct in the handling of an internal police investigation. Prior to joining Williams & Connolly, Gil enjoyed judicial clerkships in Honolulu and Seattle. Gil still keeps in touch with Eli Neusner, Greg Watt, Brian Thompson, David Gordon, Roger Rubin, David Koller, and others from the class of 1989. After 10-plus years, Antonio F. Vinals kindly sent an update. After graduating from Columbia, he went to Yale Medical School, followed by a residency in ophthalmology and eye surgery at Harvard Medical School (Massachusetts General Hospital), followed by a fellowship in corneal surgery and laser vision correction, also at Harvard, which he completed in 1998. His wife, who he met at Yale, is currently a resident in ophthalmology at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, and the two live on the familiar Upper West Side and make the occasional visit to Columbia... my, has it changed, notes Antonio. In addition to serving as a clinical assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Manhattan Eye Ear and Throat Hospital, he manages his own private practice in refractive surgery; a.k.a., laser vision correction. Antonio graciously notes that he provides discounts to any College graduate, regardless of GPA! Please e-mail him if interested or if you have any questions at AVinals@aol.com. We had a wonderful time at the wedding reception of Barbara Rosenthal and new husband, Dave Bagley. The two married on the island of Hawaii in November 2000, an intimate affair, witnessed by her sister Isabel and Nathan Nebeker '88. The February 2001 reception was a gorgeous affair planned by Isabel. Wedding guests congregated at the Wilshire Ebell, a Los Angeles ladies club started in the 1920s (though Mrs. Bagley is not a member). Barbara looked absolutely gorgeous and as young as ever with her hair swept up, in a fitted dress falling below the knee of neatly crinkled yet smooth fabric of geometric patterns in deep turquoise, gold, purple, and black. Each of the tables was graced by the most spectacular floral arrangements - large orbs of jewel-toned flora with embedded candles reaching skyward, and trailing ivy, dipping down, brushing the table. Wonderful toasts were made by the fathers, Isabel, and Nathan, the friend who brought the two together. Barbara and Dave met at Nathan's bad attitude anti-Valentine's Day party in February 1997. In his toast, Nathan warmly shared that he "watched them fall in love before my eyes." In California fashion, when asked was it love at first sight, Barbara swiftly and affirmatively responded, "I thought he was pretty cool." At the wedding, we were able to catch up with Kate Movius, who, as well, looks absolutely terrific; her lovely husband Hugh O'Donovan; and their newborn son, Aiden, who has the most wonderful pouty lips and pleasant - i.e., no crying whatsoever - disposition. While we provided a comprehensive update on Kate a number of columns ago, Barbara provided me with even more juicy tidbits (Kate must be very modest by nature). With chagrin, Barbara missed a recent comedic performance by Kate. For a number of years, Kate has been queued up with a comedy group, and in one of her current gigs, she plays a nun with Tourette's Syndrome. Also at the wedding, though I failed to run into her, was Laura Yavitz. Barbara and Laura actually met through their men, who went to college together. Laura's husband is Darren Dockstader. She was an English major at Columbia, and is wrapping up a Ph.D. dissertation from Princeton, though she lives in greater Los Angeles. Getting back to Barbara, she continues with Doheny Asset Management as a portfolio manager of domestic equities - her six-year anniversary is fast approaching. Congrats on the longevity. (Over the past five years, I haven't managed to hold a job longer than 22 months - but that's by choice, and don't you forget it!) Barbara's husband, Dave, is head of sales for Ultimatum, an independent record label featuring alternative rock backed by William Morris, a major Hollywood talent agency. Barbara's favorite picks include "SixGig," "Moses Leroy," and "Sugar Cult." Another Ultimatum favorite is "Dogstar," Keanu Reeves's band. I can't wait for Matrix II and III to come out. (I had a great Matrix theme party a while back: three VCRs going with The Matrix, with great big tarps spray-painted with outstanding one-liners from the flick, with guests clad in nothing but pleather from head to toe and back to head and toe again.) Okay, here's a mini update on yours truly. I am absolutely obsessed with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Personality Inventory. Based on work by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, and further honed by the mother-daughter team of Briggs and Myers, the latter two claim there are 16 types of people out there. Believe it or not. I've even spent $1,000 of my hard earned cash to be officially qualified to administer and interpret this personality test. I'm keen to hear from any other obsessive types - I mean - types equally obsessed with Type. If you're mildly interested, I'm more than happy to chat on the topic as well. Why oh why did I ever waste any time studying economics, when I could have been exploring the depths of the human psyche instead? Warmest regards for the most heated of summers.
Rachel J. Cowan [Editor's Note: Columbia College Today thanks Dan Max for his devoted service to his classmates, the magazine and the College in his tenure as class correspondent. He is relinquishing those duties for family reasons as you will read below, and so we welcome Rachel Cowan as the new class correspondent. Please submit all news to her at the above address.] All of our thanks and congratulations go out to Dan Max, who reports, "My wife, Sandy, and I enjoyed the birth in mid-January of my daughter, Eden Rose, who was a happy and healthy 8 pounds, 13 ounces. Mom, Dad and Eden's big sister, Jacey, 2, are all thrilled about the new arrival." Arriving in my mailbox was the birth announcement of Laura (Schiele) and Steven Robinson's son, Spencer, who was born on November 10, 2000. Since his birth, the new parents spend their time working as a lawyer and a dentist and playing with the baby whenever possible. Margaret Flynn can attest to just how adorable Spencer is, having visited the family in Birmingham, Ala., in November. There could be quite a legacy forming with all the newborns. Erhmei Yuan and Amar Sen had a baby boy on July 19. His name is Khyber Kung-Yuan Sen, and his parents report he's sitting up, bouncing, clapping, laughing and happily babbling all day long. Ted Tsekerides announced that Caroline and he had a son, Henry Elias Tsekerides, on November 22. Ted loves being a dad, although there have been a lot of sleepless nights, and says Caroline is an excellent mother (no bias here). Adam Lindgren married Dede Breren in the fall of '98. Serving Adam as best men were Joel Tranter and Todd Fahey '89. Adam and Dede's son, Ethan, was born in October '99. They're living in the East Bay (Calif.), where Adam is doing very well professionally as a city attorney. Liz Lubow wrote in with the following: "Last summer, I took a leave of absence from my job in D.C. to work on the Gore/Lieberman campaign as state press secretary in Florida. That's right, Florida. I knew it would be exciting and challenging, but who could have predicted just how much! I spent most of my time through the fall in Tallahassee, coordinating the state communications strategy and serving as campaign spokesperson for the Florida press corps. I traveled all over the state when Vice President Gore or Senator Lieberman was there, and briefed Gore a number of times for press interviews. (I also staffed Rebecca Lieberman, Barnard '91, for local interviews when she did a swing through the state. We both kept laughing at how surreal it was.) Other highlights were hanging out with the national press corps at 'debate camp' on Florida's Gulf Coast and a great Jimmy Buffett concert/rally in downtown Tampa. After an endless, sleepless Election Night in Tallahassee, I spent a hellish 36 hours fielding media calls in Tallahassee - 'Hi, I'm a producer from 60 Minutes. I'm on a plane headed to Florida. Where should I go to find voter fraud?' - before moving out to Volusia County and then Broward, where I was spokesperson during the hand counts. (No chad jokes, please.) I finally made it back to D.C. in December. Phew! What a bizarre experience it all was! I can't say I'm happy about the outcome, but we did everything we could possibly do. I worked with a great group of folks on the campaign staff and wouldn't trade the experience for anything, even if I did have to cancel my post-election vacation in Key West! Anyway, I'm now back to my normal, significantly less exciting life, working for a D.C. public affairs firm." Wei-Nchih Lee is "at the Westchester Medical Center, where I am an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of General Medicine. My wife, Erhyu Yuan Barnard '91 is still working at Columbia at the Center for the Study of Human Rights based in SIPA. She and I both live in Valhalla, N.Y., where I spend my days seeing patients and teaching internal medicine to the medical students and house staff at New York Medical College, and my nights continuing my training in Tae Kwon Do (third dan black belt, all received at the Columbia U. Tae Kwon Do club)." Arlene Hong was full of updates about her classmates. From her own e-mail signature, I learned she is assistant general counsel at J. Crew in New York. (Hmm, wonder what that discount is?) She reports that in September 1999, "Gloria Kim married John Pak (Dartmouth '90, Cornell Law School '93) at Oheka Castle in Long Island. In attendance from our class as bridesmaids, besides Arlene, were Nancy Pak, Anita Bose, and Joy (Kim) Metalios '90E. Guests attending included Jennifer Lee, Ernesto Halim, Balan Venugopal, Betty (Mar) Tsang '90E and Peter Hsing '90E. The wedding was a great party and a fun reunion for '90 class members. Gloria survived years as a lawyer at Shearman & Sterling and Levin & Srinivasan in New York and now works happily as an in-house lawyer at Time Inc., a division of AOL-Time Warner. Nancy Pak has been climbing the corporate ladder faster than anyone in memory at Colgate-Palmolive. After graduating from the Business School, she did a marketing stint at American Home Products in New Jersey before moving to Colgate-Palmolive, where she has worked on the Colgate Total product and is currently product manager for Speedstick at Colgate-Palmolive in New York. As part of her job, she gets to hang out with celebrities such as Alex Rodriguez, the spokesman for Speedstick, and recently partied at his house in Miami until 3 a.m.! The next step for her is CEO at Colgate! After years of hard work, Jennifer Lee got her Ph.D. is sociology at Columbia and landed a great job teaching at UC-Irvine. She taught a graduate course in the fall and a large lecture course in the winter called "Immigration and the New Second Generation." Peter Neisuler reports that after four years of teaching high school English in the South Bronx, he enrolled in September at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Pete wins the summer travel award in my book. In 1996, he rode his bike across the U.S. (New York - Portland); in '97, he rode it across Europe (Amsterdam to Krakow) and was my first visitor, stopping in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany for a few days; in '98, he and Dan Sackrowitz took the Trans-Siberian railway from Helsinki to Tashkent to Siberia to Ulan Bator to Beijing, then were joined by Joel Tranter for a few weeks in Thailand and China; in '99, Pete and Joel took trains across China from Shanghai to the edge of the Pakistani border; in '00, Pete traveled to Europe sans bike or aforementioned buddies. Wow! Too bad the trains don't give mileage credit. When Joel wasn't traveling with Pete, he could and can still be found behind his desk at NYC's Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Joel is the deputy director for new homes programs but also found time this spring to teach an urban studies class at Hunter College. Professor Joel. That kind of has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Dan Sackrowitz is putting his Columbia degree to good use by selling intimate apparel on the Internet, as director of marketing for Bare Necessities (www. barenecessities.com). Receiving a multitude of postcards from the guys was Eric Yu, who just got married last June to Linda. In Atlanta, wedding guests included Dan (groomsman) and Joel. Pete, of course, was traveling abroad at the time. Eric and Linda had a New Jersey reception where they caught up with Steve Winick, Colin Campbell, and Andrew "Fuz" Lih '90E. After the Tahiti honeymoon, which Eric says was the bomb, they moved to White Plains. Eric is "working hard at a startup financial application services provider (ASP) company, Centerprise Services, Inc., now looking for first client & second round funding (anyone got cash?)." Colin is a professor of economics at Rutgers and his wife, Carolyn Moehling, teaches economics at Yale. Colin, Carolyn and Joel claim to have been the only three fans to have attended both the football AND basketball Columbia-Yale games this year in New Haven. Reporting on behalf of his 47 Claremont-mates is German Gomez, who wants us to know that Michael Casey graduated from the Business School in May 1998 and is currently the director of real estate at Tricon Global Restaurants based in Louisville, Ky. He and his wife, Johna, celebrated the birth of their first child, Iris Olivia Casey, on August 30. Casey will be attending his third straight Kentucky Derby this month and has said that all are welcome, subject to Olivia's strict bath and bed-time schedule. Diego Gomez presently resides in Washington D.C. with his wife, Dr. Christine Daly, and their wonderful pets. He is back among the working stiffs after a two-year stint on the government payroll at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, where he was an energy attorney. He is currently an associate in the federal regulatory/project development & finance groups in the Washington, D.C. office of Atlanta's Troutman Sanders. Previously, Diego was a commercial litigator in New York City for five years. Diego and his wife are looking forward to meeting Iris Olivia Casey, and hopefully this time Diego will place a bet to "win" rather than "show" at the Kentucky Derby. German is a commercial litigation attorney in the New York office of Chicago's Clausen Miller. After many years of searching for the right firm to practice law, he is finally happy with being called a "lawyer." German expects to join Michael Casey, his brother Diego and the rest of the boys from 47 Claremont Avenue for this year's Kentucky Derby festivities. John Roddy reports that after a several-year stint as a lawyer he has been working for the past four years as an investment banker at Lehman Brothers in New York City, where he is now a vice president in their financial institutions group. He and his wife, Elizabeth (Nanni) Roddy, Barnard '92, celebrated the birth of their first child, William, in September. John has been keeping extremely busy with the new family, work and renovating their NYC apartment. David Javdan is still a lawyer at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan eight years after graduation and has been traveling a great deal. After spending two weeks hiking in Kenya (and returning with the President) and three weeks in Israel as a guest of the government studying international relations and diplomacy, David spent the latter part of last year and early part of this year shuttling between London, Vienna and Washington, D.C. representing the Austrian Jewish Community in its efforts to work with the State Department and the Austrian Government to resolve outstanding issues from the Holocaust. In between, he coordinated the Bush Jewish Outreach Program nationwide, necessitating more traveling-albeit domestically-and a number of appearances on MSNBC, Good Morning America and ABC talk-radio (which continue to this day). Although traveled out, he too will be joining German, Diego and Michael at the Derby this year. In a tribute to Carman 8, I'll let the news of several of my floormates bring this column to its end. Laura Shaw writes, "We are enjoying life in Jerusalem where we are living for at least two years while my husband, Aaron, is a fellow in the Jerusalem Fellows program. Our kids, Ateret and Yanniv, are quickly becoming bilingual, which is amazing to watch. I am working at an international law firm called Zell, Goldberg & Co. in Jerusalem. Our offices are in a villa overlooking the Judean Hills - lovely, and oh so different from Wall Street! Anyone passing through Jerusalem, please be in touch! You can e-mail me at shawfrank@yahoo.com." John Vincenti, my birthday twin (same day and year AND our fathers were both '54 - coincidence?), is practicing commercial law and litigation in Manhattan and is a partner with his father and brother (he claims the stories are too numerous to mention, but he's very happy). He is also living happily in Battery Park City (affectionately known by many unenlightened souls as "the middle of nowhere"). He did see Vera Scanlon recently. She is clerking for a Federal Court judge, living in Brooklyn, and enjoying decorating her new apartment. John also told me, "Paul Greenberg and Jessica Decoux's wedding was great (bride and groom looked resplendent). They were married on New Year's Eve at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan under a resplendent chuppa (borne in part by yours truly) and 15 inches of snow (not so resplendent). Columbia alumni present included Chris Roth, Dan Javitch, Dave Kansas and Liz Shack (all resplendent as well, of course)." Good old John: once a Six Milk, always a Six Milk. Paul is at MTV.com running the day-to-day operations of the Web site. He says he is really enjoying it, and fortunately, working for a big company has helped him get through the crash of the Internet economy. Meanwhile, Dave is plugging along as editor-in-chief at TheStreet.com. (Yes, Carman 8, I realize that the people following John did not live on our floor.) Mike Cashton proudly reports that his wife, "Susie, gave birth to our first child, Tyler Phillip, October 27, 2000. We live in Sharon, a quiet suburb south of Boston and like many, many, many people who write to you, I'm an attorney. I work at Gadsby Hannah in Boston. Susie, my wife of 312 years, is a computer teacher in Norton, and is taking a year off to raise Tyler. She's planning to go back if she can tear herself away from the baby." They did spend 12/31/99 with Isaac-Daniel Astrachan in NYC, but due to Tyler's impending arrival, they were sadly unable to attend Isaac's August 2000 wedding to Meghan Farely. Isaac reports that the wedding was held "in my home village of Gordes in the south of France. It was awesome (if I do say so myself). Meghan is the drama director at the Little Red School House & Elizabeth Irwin High School here in Manhattan. I have been recruited as her set designer. During the daytime, I am still working at the Stephen B. Jacobs Group as project architect. The Hotel Giraffe that I was working on for the past two years is now complete and fully operational. I am now working on several other projects, including another boutique hotel, this time in the old meat district, and a monument to the memory of the Little Camp of Buchenwald." Mark Ambrosino is keeping himself busy (as usual) with his recording studio in Queens, his apartment in the city, and constant traveling about for business. Judy Shampanier is staking her claim to fame, having discovered that her colleague, Steve Newman '87, is one of the guys from Carman 8 who dragged home the rolled up carpet with the dead body inside. Everyone remember that Columbia myth? Well, it's no myth. As for me, it's wonderful to be writing to everyone from this side of the Atlantic. After three years of working in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany for University of Maryland in undergraduate admissions, I moved to Durham, N.C. in May 2000 to work in MBA admissions at The Fuqua School of Business at Duke. I have a whole new appreciation for collegiate basketball, let me tell you. And I'll have a whole new appreciation for YOU when you send me your latest and greatest for the next column.
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