 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
|
CLASS NOTES
Stuart Berkman Editor’s note: We regret to report that our ’66 class correspondent, Joe Cody, passed away on March 10. Class Notes responsibilities will revert to Stuart Berkman, who would love to hear from you. An obituary for Joe will appear in an upcoming issue of CCT.
Kenneth L. Haydock Incredibly, our 35th Reunion will soon be upon us. While it may
seem impossible that 35 years have passed since the cleverest class
walked the stairs of Hamilton Hall, their passage gives us good
reason to reconvene on campus and celebrate during the weekend of
May 30–June 2. The members of our venerable reunion committee
— Peter Basilevsky, Robert Coviello, Jeremy Epstein,
Elliott Hefler, Jonathan Kranz, David Langsam, Everett Lautin,
Roger Lehecka, Robert Pam, Stephen Rice, Robert Rosenberg, David
Shaw and Harry Sticker — have met repeatedly since
October to lay the groundwork for a fantastic time. With Broadway
shows, entertaining receptions, compelling speakers and a class
dinner with one of the best views of New York, the weekend has it
all. By now, you should have received a reunion registration packet
in the mail; if you haven’t, check out the schedule of events
at www.college.columbia.edu/alumni/reunion,
and register online. Our committee members also have been hitting the phones to encourage attendance and promote our reunion class gift to the Columbia College Fund in support of financial aid and the Core Curriculum. The results of their efforts have been astounding, and the Class of 1967 can lay claim to the most potential attendees and amount raised of any reunion class so far. Let’s keep the momentum rolling and make the 35th our best reunion to date!
Ken Tomecki M.D. Once again, I got (e) mail, which helps the effort immensely.
For those who care, a pattern may be evolving. Stay tuned. I heard
from ... Jim Rizzo (always “the pizza man”) had
“nothing to explain, except that 30 years have gone by ...
and it’s terrific to know the guy who is gluing our class
together.” Please, no applause. Jim’s a Rochester,
N.Y., attorney who covers the legal gamut “from serious crime
to creditors’ rights and small corporations, domestic
relations to wills and estates.” Weather permitting, “I
still fly gliders and powered airplanes,” and
“[I’m] concentrating on gliding now ... it’s more
fun.” On the homefront, daughter, Tera, age 28 and married,
“gave us a granddaughter with a mind of her own;” son,
Emery, 14, keeps busy with “snowboarding and drums and
‘being cool.’” Sounds like a normal family.
Jim’s parting comment: “What’s up with our
class?” If anyone knows, let me know. Re: alumni from the area, Jim provided the following: Tony
Sciolino ’67 is a family court judge in Monroe County, N.Y.;
Peter Kristal ’66 is a fellow attorney in Rochester; and
Howard Rein is a Rochester district attorney. P.S. All three
now owe me an embellished update for the next column. Thanks, Riz.
Keep in touch. Ross Stolzenberg “is not dead yet,” which is
good news. Gainfully employed as a professor of sociology at the
University of Chicago, he’s an educator and researcher who
also edits a scholarly journal for the American Sociological
Association. He’s “still married (first and
only),” and lives in Glencoe, Ill., with his wife and
daughter, Nava (17), a high school student. His older daughter,
Shana, is married and living in Jerusalem with her husband and
newborn daughter, Brocha. Ross continues, “I try to do things that improve
opportunities for disabled people here, especially children and
young adults ... I’ve ridden a bicycle since graduating
(“rowing isn’t an option”), and still [take]
photographs ... I’m astonished to read of classmates planning
retirement. I hope to avoid it.” Thanks for the update, Rafe.
Send another whenever you’re inclined. Seth Weinstein sent an amazing piece, most of which
deserves inclusion. “I skipped graduation (much to my later
regret) ... [for] a job with public television in Arizona, which
led to a film [about] the [’68] democratic convention in
Chicago, and then a job at KING-TV (NBC) in Seattle writing the
news. After other equally interesting jobs, I ended up in St.
Thomas, where I started Voyager Yacht Services, [which led to]
“a couple of transatlantic passages and an encounter with a
‘near perfect’ storm off Bermuda. In 1976, I returned
to New York to work with Operation Sail, and later [joined] a
couple of fellows with a marginal merchandise business that I
helped turn into gold.” Soon after, Seth met Cathy Haala, a relationship that is
“still going well after 23 years.” For the past 20
years, Seth has been in the real estate business and he now owns
and runs Clearview Investment Management, based in Stamford, Conn.
He and Cathy live in Stamford and Manhattan. Re: “my Columbia
days, I am especially grateful for the Core readings in history and
philosophy, and ... [I] wish that the College had gone coed in
’64. I send my regards to all my classmates and hope that
this brief bio finds [everyone] healthy, wealthy and much wiser and
(more) spiritually centered than when we last ate together in John
Jay.” Thanks for sharing your ups and downs with the rest of
us. I appreciate the effort and the material. Keep in
touch. That’s it for now, which was very respectable. Re: future issues ... I always need material.
Michael Oberman Paul Miller lives in Armonk, N.Y., with his wife, Debby.
They have been married 23 years and have a 21-year-old son, Luke,
as well as “a lab and a red-throated conure.” (A
conure, as I learned on the Internet, is a type of parrot.) Debby
is a social worker and psychotherapist. Paul “recently sold
one sleepwear business and closed another.” He is looking for
a second career; meanwhile, he sees “many friends from my CC
days.” Eric Witkin recently became counsel to the law firm of
Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner LLP and a member of
the Labor and Employment Practice Group in the firm’s New
York office. Eight of his colleagues from the former labor and
employment boutique, Greble & Finger, joined Brown Raysman with
him. They continue to represent management in labor and employment
law issues such as defending against claims of discrimination,
wrongful discharge, breach of contract, and so forth. You may reach
Eric at 900 Third Ave., New York, NY 10002; e-mail: ewitkin@brownraysman.com;
phone, (212) 895-2313. Dick Menaker published a review in the New York Law
Journal of a biography of Aaron Burr. In addition to practicing
law as a partner in Menaker & Herrmann, Dick is chairman of the
Committee on Legal History of the Association of the Bar of the
City of New York. Speaking of book reviews, I wrote two for the summer and winter
2001 issues of NY Litigator, the journal of the Commercial
and Federal Litigation Section of the New York State Bar
Association; I serve on the executive committee of the section.
Each review addressed a recently public legal treatise. Most of my
outside writing time, however, has been devoted to CCT since it
went to six issues a year. Bill Stadiem, according to a press report (kindly
forwarded by Dan Carlinsky ’65), is working on a new book;
MISTER S: The Last Word on Frank Sinatra. This is an account
of Sinatra through the eyes of co-author George Jacobs,
Sinatra’s valet and confidant from 1953–68. (Bill, as
you may recall, co-authored a successful book on Marilyn Monroe
with Monroe’s maid.) When I called him for details, Bill told
me that the new book would be a “look at the ’50s and
’60s,” focused on “a star in mid-life crisis and
America in mid-life crisis.” MISTER S is to be
published next hear by HarperCollins. Bill also told me about an
article, “Ring of Fire,” which he wrote on commission
from (the late) Talk, which will be published in the
September 2002 issue of Playboy. The article recounts the
importation to California of Russian supermodels who became deluxe
call girls. In September, classmates finally will be able to say
truthfully that they are buying Playboy for the article, not the
pictures. Entertainment Weekly, in its 2002 Forecast Issue, tells
us to expect the latest novel from Paul Auster, The Book
of Illusions, also in September. As you can tell, some news just comes my way, but I am most dependent on classmates who write to me. E-mail is the easiest; please give it a try.
Peter N. Stevens Bad news on the doorstep: Bill Wazevich has died. As this sad
news comes on the eve of this publication, we do not have any
details. CCT will cover Bill’s passing as well as some
of his many accomplishments at Columbia and in his personal and
business life in an upcoming issue. I knew Bill well and kept in
touch with him over the years. The strength, courage, perseverance
and loyalty that Bill demonstrated as one of Columbia’s
all-time football greats carried over to his professional and
family life. Add to these qualities a large dose of integrity, and
you get a complete picture of the man. If any of you wish to share
stories about Bill, especially those that don’t usually make
it into the official reports, please let me know, and I’ll do
my best to get them into these notes. Roger Crossland, prior to 9/11, was a trial lawyer for
Shepro & Blake in Stratford, Conn. As a long-time Naval
reservist, he was mobilized and now finds himself in the Arabian
Gulf. His e-mail is crosslandr@nswu3.bahain.navy.mil. I’m
sure he’d appreciate some words of support. On behalf of our
class, thanks for your good work. No longer missing: Charles Slater felt pity, succumbed to
my constant whining for class news and e-mailed me a terrific
biographical note. “After graduating from Columbia, I
continued to live in New York for another eight years, working in
classical music publishing and distribution. I married my Barnard
girlfriend, Marsha Witten; it’s 25 years later and indeed, we
are still married. We left New York for the Philadelphia area when
I was offered a position of music distributor at J.W. Pepper,
Valley Forge, Pa. Pepper has grown to be the dominant force in
music retailing in the U.S. I started its Web site,
www.jwpepper.com, when the concept was new. I’ve been given a
creative position, vice president of information integration. I
have never lost my love for music, and I consider myself lucky to
be working with music and its creators. I also consider myself
lucky to have been able to make major changes in my career at least
twice after having passed 40. Marsha and I live in Haverford, Pa.,
with our children, Ben (13) and Joshua (5). I am in New York at
least once a month, and I always make sure to reserve time to walk
around the Upper West Side, though it’s not the same without
the New Yorker (although the Thalia was scheduled to reopen in late
spring).” Ground Zero report: When you visit NYC, make sure you take the
time to visit and at the same time drop into Trinity Church, which
was miraculously unscathed by the attacks, and pay your respects to
one of America’s great men of freedom and one of our own.
Alexander Hamilton (Class of 1778) is buried in the church
yard. Finally, remember to reach out to each other and, in doing so, don’t forget to let me know what you’ve been up to.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
