Aboard the ARC
Remembering Those
  We Lost

 

  
  

 
 
   

Classes of:
| 15-40 | 41-45 | 46-50 | 51-55 | 56-60 |
|
61-65 | 66-70 | 71-75 | 76-80 | 81-85 |
| 86-90 | 91-95 | 96-01 |

CLASS NOTES

Class of 1966

Stuart M. Berkman
24 Mooregate Square
Atlanta, GA 30327
smb102@columbia.edu

A few days after the attack on the World Trade Center, we received the following from John Burrows: "My God, what we have endured this past week! What some of you may not know is that Aaron, my son, is a doctor at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York. (Yes, the same little kid who was on the sailboat during the Cape Hatteras storm in 1988 and played mandolin on the song 'Please' on the CD.) On Wednesday night, he was sent down to what they call Ground Zero to evacuate a 40-story building. When I asked him who was in charge, he replied, 'Me, myself and I, Dad.' From there he went to set up the initial triage in the American Express building as doctor in charge. Last night, Thursday, at 9 p.m., I finally spoke at length with him for only the second time in three days. (One brief exchange, when I accidentally dialed his cell phone Thursday at 6:30, was, 'I'm alive, very busy, call you later, love you.') He said he had set up the triage at Stuyvesant High School and was reconfiguring it to hold more patients in case another building came down. To get drugs and supplies from Chelsea Pier to the school (at West and Chambers Streets), he had to commandeer a police boat as escort, as the streets were closed to all traffic between the pier and the triage center. As he was saying this, another boat pulled in and he had to go to coordinate unloading. He still had his great sense of humor when he said to the captain, 'Is that my Bertram?' (Bertram makes high-priced sport fishing boats.)"

In a lighter vein, John says that he and his band are still performing at the Seafood Festival in Gloucester. "My music is acoustic-based, kick-butt, folk-country and rocky/blues. My reviewers compare it to a synthesis of Gordon Lightfoot/Jimmy Buffet. I play six- and 12-string guitar, banjo, harmonica and pedal steel guitar on our CD, The Perfect Storm. I wrote all but one tune, and I sing lead. The band has some of the Northeast's hottest players. The Gloucester appearance was special because the song that titles the album is about the loss of the swordfishing vessel Andrea Gail, a Gloucester boat." John further explains that he began his professional career while in high school and "really blossomed (or was I fertilized?) at Columbia and the Village in the '60s." pks4000@mediaone.net

I ran into Ed Kabak on campus in August during first-year orientation. He later wrote: "I have taken a new position as director of legal affairs for the Promotion Marketing Association, a trade association representing the interests of the promotion marketing industry, a $300 billion annual U.S. business. My offices are located on Park Avenue South and 20th Street in Manhattan. Previously, I had been the general counsel for Grolier, the U.S. publishing arm of the Lagardere Group in Paris. My legal expertise cuts across several areas, including media and advertising law, international law, mergers and acquisitions and litigation. I live in Westport, Conn., with my wife, Joanne, a Barnard alumna and published author and journalist, and our two daughters, the oldest of whom is a member of the Class of 2005. I have been published on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times and in other periodicals, and have invented several humorous hidden word games that I hope to market. I also hope to continue my writings on madness and civilization. I have traveled extensively in recent years, including throughout Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand and elsewhere in Southeast Asia as well as in India, Afghanistan and Nepal." ekabak@pmalink.org

I would like to relate a wonderful experience that my wife and l recently had — our participation in the excellent orientation program at Columbia. Nothing even remotely similar existed in our time! We were very impressed by the panel discussions, dean's address, picnic lunch and reception for alumni parents in Low Library. The campus looked better than ever, with buildings cleaned and in good repair and the landscaping in top shape. The dean and the president were out mingling with the parents (imagine the president in our day out in shirt sleeves greeting parents...). The neighborhood also looked fantastic, with handsome shops and sidewalk cafés on Broadway, and the side streets clean and free of litter and garbage cans. I couldn't help thinking how the experience that today's first years are having differs so much from our own. To any of you who have not been on campus in a while, I strongly urge you to pay a visit. I could not help feeling a sense of envy for our daughter, who is beginning her college career under such circumstances. I even began to muse about a possible problem one generation hence, when the offspring of alumni who have had such a positive college experience flood the admissions office with an exponentially increased number of legacy applications. My wife and I left New York with feelings of tremendous satisfaction and pride in our daughter's decision to choose Columbia, as well as in Columbia's decision to admit her.

Class of 1967

Kenneth L. Haydock
732 Sheridan Rd. #202
Kenosha, WI 53140
klhlion@execpc.com

Class of 1968

Ken Tomecki, M.D.
2983 Brighton Road
Shaker Heights, OH 44120
Tomeckk@ccf.org

I got mail, e-mail from...

John Grant, who's "in (his) second adolescence...living in Palo Alto, working as theater reviewer for the Palo Alto Daily News, taking acting classes, performing in a few low-end independent films. I wrote three short plays (which were) produced in Bay area theaters this year." John's main message was actually a suggestion — to "put together an e-mail chat group for '68 CC ... (which) might be interesting ... (for) all the people far and wide who don't write alum letters." So if there's any interest, let me know. If so, John can lead the effort. johngrant777@yahoo.com.

Steve Mamikonian has returned to Chicago after a two-year assignment in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, as managing director of gold mining operations for Newmont Mining Company. He had an earlier six-year stay in Russia with Gillette and R.J. Reynolds International. He's still interested in working in that part of the world, so if anyone hears of any opportunities, drop him a line at smamikonian@ameritech.net.

From the home office: Peter Janovsky was elected partner in the law firm Zeichner Ellman & Krause, where he's a member of the litigation and bankruptcy group.

Remember the WTC. Stay close to family and friends.

Class of 1969

Michael Oberman
Kramer Levin Naftalis& Frankel
919 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022
moberman@kramerlevin.com

Earlier this year, I had my secretary compile a volume of my class columns, which now span more than 20 years. In the earliest years, I reported on classmates receiving degrees and obtaining employment. Over time, there was news of promotions and publications, weddings and children and myriad hobbies. We have had happy reports of classmates' children admitted to the College, and in a few sad cases, news of a classmate's premature passing. We are now at the stage where I am sure there are classmates at the height of professional success as well as classmates beginning to inch toward retirement.

Indeed, I received e-mail from Alan Yorker — who has over the years been a generous contributor to this column — announcing his semi-retirement and his turn to public advocacy work. Because Alan was the only classmate to send news for this issue and his news is at once interesting and well written, I present Alan's e-mail, only slightly abridged:

"I am taking the liberty of writing to share some news but more honestly to raise interest in my favorite topic. Having finished my tenure as Columbia Club of Atlanta president and semi-retired from my 27-year practice in sex therapy, I am devoting my time to my avocation of passenger rail advocacy. In September 2000, I was elected president of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, a Washington, D.C.-based citizen group working to educate elected officials about the wisdom of developing better passenger rail services in the U.S. I visit the Capitol frequently to talk trains with various members of Congress and their staffs, officiate at inaugural events, and attend state-level meetings on rail service planning. The big push for us this year in Congress is passage of the High Speed Rail Investment Act, a $12 billion bond bill to facilitate state upgrading of rail corridors across the nation to accommodate fast trains (110-125 mph). There is great bipartisan support, and passage would be the start of America's true investment in bringing passenger rail up to first class standards such as seen in Europe and Japan. It's fun to know that two of our classmates [Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., and Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y.] will have a say in how this all turns out."

Because I have been writing this column for over 20 years, I am more dependent than ever on news coming to me. E-mail is the best means; please let us know of your personal and professional news.

Class of 1970

Peter N. Stevens
180 Riverside Drive,
Apt. 9A
New York, NY 10024
Peter.N.Stevens@gsk.com

Haywood Dotson ran in the Democratic primary but was unsuccessful in his bid for a city council seat in New York City, in a district that encompasses a large strip of Upper Manhattan including a sliver of Morningside Heights.

Jonathan Beard has lived within a mile of Columbia since 1970, with the exception of two years in New Mexico, and visits the campus frequently. He takes advantage of a University program that permits alumni to use the library. He also was introduced to a program through the Alumni Association in which alumni help foreign students cope with language and other difficulties they encounter as students. He is currently working with a Japanese student.

At the last minute, the Ivy basketball schedule was changed and the Penn/Princeton weekend will take place March 1-2. I'm still interested in organizing a class get-together for one of those games. Please let me know if you are interested.

'Til then, keep the faith in these troubled times.

 

Classes of:
| 15-40 | 41-45 | 46-50 | 51-55 | 56-60 |
|
61-65 | 66-70 | 71-75 | 76-80 | 81-85 |
| 86-90 | 91-95 | 96-01 |

 

 
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