Genevieve Drake, widow of William J. Drake '28, passed away on August 12, 1998. Her husband died in 1964.

Henry J. Hettger '28, who is 93, lives with his son Joel, who reports that his father is "in good health for someone his age." Henry is a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

Charles F. Gunther '29 lives in Boca Raton, Fla., where he moved after retiring from Texaco's offices in Harrison, N.Y.

From Bloomington, Conn., Alan Tompkins '29, the son of a member of the Class of 1896, writes about his varied career: "My main career is as an artist -- murals, books and advertising illustration, even industrial design. My secondary, part-time career was in education and educational administration." A faculty member at the University of Hartford, Conn., from 1951 to 1974, he served as vice chancellor of the university from 1957 to 1969 and was awarded an honorary doctor of fine arts degree by the school in 1987. His accomplishments as painter and muralist include commissions for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Art Projects, and other organizations. His portrait of George G. Raddin '29, painted when they were both teaching at Manhattan's Cooper Union in the early 1940s, is now in the library of Penn State University. "I still think Columbia is the most stimulating intellectual environment in the nation," he says.

Alan F. Perl '29, who received his degree from the Law School in 1931, worked with the National Labor Relations Board from 1937 to 1947 before establishing his own private legal practice. A special labor counsel to the government of Puerto Rico for 28 years, he retired in 1982. Although he will be unable to attend his 70th reunion, he remembers the College as the source of "lifetime friendships" and as the place where he "met the girl I ultimately married." His son Daniel is a member of the Class of 1963.

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31
T. J. Reilly
249 North Middletown
Road, Apt. 14A
Nanuet, N.Y. 10954

The Alumni Office recently sent all of you a questionnaire in connection with our forthcoming 65th reunion in June. Here are some of the comments:

Lew Goldenheim has two great grandsons. How many others of you also have great grandchildren?

Steve McCoy has retired to Southbury, Conn. As to reunion activities, George Paul suggests, "Nothing too vigorous for the mid-80s." Herb Jacoby is now in his 62nd year of active law practice. Milliard Midonick (and this writer) recall the Rose Bowl victory as the "most memorable undergraduate moment."

Asked to name favorite teachers or administrators, those replying named a variety of such persons, with Irwin Edman and Armin K. Lobeck mentioned most often. Others were J. Bartlett Brebner, Harry J. Carman, Harrison Steeves, and Nicholas McKnight.

Editor's Note: Columbia College Today is sad to report the death of devoted alumnus and class correspondent Leonard Schreiber on March 13, 1999, at age 84. An obituary appears in this issue.

My previous column concluded with a passionate plea for classmates to send me news items, and also a request for any Columbians of our era to send me information about the noted big-band arranger, Eddie Sauter, as an undergraduate. Here is the box score: Sauter News - 0, '37 News - 1.

That's right! I've received only one letter. It came from Murray T. Bloom, who informs me that his "middle granddaughter, Karina Lubell ['02], is finishing her first year at Columbia College where she is on the track team and lives in John Jay, where I dwelt eons ago." Fifty years ago Murray was a founder of the American Society of Authors & Journalists, in which he is still active as chairman of its editor-writer committee.

I'm sure there are others of you who are still accomplishing things, or who have offspring who make you proud of what they are doing. But I'd just as soon not hear about your arthritis or loss of dear ones; Let's keep this upbeat!

Take me, Wally Schaap. You can see and hear me in the Smithsonian traveling exhibit, "The Jazz Age in Paris," and I was co-founder of the Sidney Bechet Society in 1997, the centennial of the New Orleans jazz great, and edit its quarterly.

Toot your horn with a letter to me or the Alumni Office, and you won't have to listen to me tooting mine. And yes, I'd still sorta like to hear something about Eddie Sauter '36, as an undergraduate.

I am taking over this column from Peter J. Guthorn, who passed away September 28, 1998 (see the obituary in the last issue). I wish to express my personal condolences and those of the class to his widow, Katherine, and his family. Peter did a memorable job as class correspondent for over a decade. I will try to make this column a report of interest to Class of '38 graduates with news of classmates' current whereabouts, activities, concerns and interests.

Probably the most interesting class event of 1998 was the 60th reunion, May 15-17, celebrated at Arden House, the Columbia University Conference Center, on an idyllic Ramapo mountaintop in Harriman, N.Y.

Sixteen class members, many with their wives, some with other family members, attended: Nancy and Robert S. Blanc of Plandome, N.Y.; Alenda and John F. Crymble of Salem, N.J. (chauffeured to the event by their granddaughter, Emma Flowers, and her husband, Richard); Elizabeth and Robert E. Friou of Tarrytown, N.Y.; Geer and Ernest C. Geiger of Atlantic Highlands, N.J.; William A. Hance of Nantucket, Mass.; Vincent G. Kling of Chester Springs, Pa.; Sara and A. Leonard Luhby of the Bronx, N.Y.; Hazel Mack, widow of Julius ("Pete") Mack of Jacksonville, Fla.; David B. Mautner of Henderson, Nev.; Robert Minervini of Hagerstown, Md.; Janice and Henry P. Ozimek of Brick Township, N.J.; Senta and Alfred Raizen of Arlington, Va., Linda and Jack Stein of Great Neck, N.Y.; Trudy and Paul H. Taub also of Great Neck, N.Y.; Seymour Trevas of Manhasset, N.Y.; and Leon J. Warshaw of New York.

Class officers re-elected at the retreat were Len Luhby, president, Bob Friou, vice president, Paul Taub, secretary, Sy Trevas, treasurer, and Ernie Geiger, historian.

Sy Trevas recently established a $100,000 charitable remainder trust in the names of Seymour and Doris Trevas. Such trusts give the donors an immediate charitable deduction on the current income tax, plus an annual income for the rest of their lives. The remainder becomes available to Columbia upon their demise, which in this case means a College scholarship program in their names, with credit to the Class of '38.

Hazel Mack, widow of Pete Mack, recently donated funds to buy a special equipment rack for the baseball team's dugout at Baker Field. Pete loved baseball during his undergraduate years.

It has been suggested that we hold our next reunion in two years, in 2000 (our 62nd), instead of the standard five years, not only because "Father Time" is reaping amongst us, but because we enjoyed the last one so much.

Please send your current address to the Alumni Office, as well as personal news or views of interest to classmates to me.

John McCormack of Dallas, retired lawyer at Texas Instruments, sends a message to his classmates, "If at all possible, make it to the 60th. Time, alas, is running out."

Our 60th is scheduled for Thursday and Friday, October 22 and 23, and if you wish, Saturday, October 24, with a football game. See you on campus.

Jim Robinson remembers walking down Broadway to the 103rd Street Automat, with Warren Thiesen '38 reciting Milton's Lycidas in its entirety. He went on to help found CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality.

Paul Sauerteig is now of counsel with Snow and Sauerteig in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Ralph C. Staiger, recently retired as treasurer of the Reading Hall of Fame, is stepping down as chairman of the University of Delaware Association of Retired Persons.

Thomas W. Styles, a retired Navy Department marine engineer, lives in Takoma Park, Md. He remembers with great pleasure his association with Professor E. H. Armstrong, the inventor of FM radio in Philosophy Hall. Styles now bowls twice a week and volunteers with Meals on Wheels and the University of Maryland Recycling Center. He occasionally goes fishing with Dave Roderick.

Victor Wouk recalls setting the antenna on Philosophy Hall for the first-ever baseball telecast, in May 1939 (see feature, page 34), and watching it on Dr. Armstrong's television.

Trygve H. Tonnessen, who lives in Greenwich, Conn., is retired from the Exxon Corporation and the Teagle Foundation. He remembers fondly that the College provided him with an intellectual framework and developed his capacity for an analysis.

I was shocked to learn from our Class President Hector Dowd that Lawson Bernstein had died on January 25. Lawson had called me just a very short time before, sounding upbeat, and was looking forward to the call I had agreed to arrange from Bill Evers's daughter, Louise. (You may recall from Winter '99's Class Notes that Louise had never met her father, killed on Iwo Jima, and is appealing to his classmates to share their memories of Bill with her. Lawson knew Bill well, and remembered him as "a prince of a guy.")

Last winter, also in these Notes, I referred to a citation to Lawson by the Board of the College Alumni Association. The citation reviewed Lawson's 60-year commitment to the College, and his career as scholar, lawyer and philanthropist. It stated "you have placed the College, its students and alumni in your debt through your service and your example." I added then, and can only repeat now, "not least your own class, for whom you've done so much...our deepest thanks, Lawson." You'll find his obituary elsewhere in this issue. There will be a memorial service in St. Paul's Chapel, at 4 p.m. on June 11.

In the same letter, Hector added, "As Lawson's successor, I have been haunted by the realization that the year 2000 is not that far away, and that IN ROUGHLY FOURTEEN MONTHS WE WILL HAVE OUR 60th REUNION" (my caps). He then invited the recipients, including Mel Intner, Don Kursch, Harry Schwartz, Boaz Shattan and me to a February planning meeting, where we began to consider questions of theme and program. How should we go about creating a meaningful, enjoyable, memorable experience for every classmate?

Hector opened the meeting with a challenging question and a handout: "The year 2000 and Class of '40 60th anniversary: How do the two events mesh?"

The handout started with "A Look at the 20th Century," a summary of the explosion in our scientific understanding and the extraordinary contrast with how we've managed our relations with each other -- more than 100 million war dead in this bloodiest century.

"Problems for the 21st Century" (the next section) asked "What kind of world do we (individually and collectively) want to leave as our legacy to our children and grandchildren?" and "Can and will our children and grandchildren be able to do any better in the 21st, with the legacy of the global society we're now building for them?"

We then reviewed the themes of our two last reunions. In 1990, our theme of Past, Present and Future mobilized a sizable number of our classmates, for months, on the personal and the public. They prepared four highly successful Saturday morning panels on law, business, communications and medicine. In 1995, we continued our theme of Past, Present and Future with a panel on "The Changing Roles of Women at Columbia and Worldwide."

For our 60th, we all agreed on our need for help from everyone, wherever you are. Call Hector at (212) 486-8607 or me at (212) 876-7674 or send me e-mail or regular (snail) mail. We're looking forward to an active dialog as we move ahead.

As I wrote these notes, I heard from Hugh Bower, Nick Stevenson and John (Col) Coffee (thanks to the catalyst of very timely calls from Hector).When Hugh Bower retired from Hallmark Cards he was vice president of marketing, and his wife, Sally, was in retailing. Their next career was as North Texas cattle ranchers. When they left cows and fences to move to San Antonio, they decided that it was what Hugh described to me as payback time to the larger society. Their volunteer work -- and management roles -- at the local branch of the Executive Service Corps provides "direly needed," and very gratifying management help from retired business executives to not-for-profit organizations. ESC has offices in major cities in the U. S. and overseas, and Hugh emphasized that they welcome new volunteers.

Nick Stevenson described the very moving story of his response to macular disease, which left him legally blind, after a long career in the sugar business. Nick became active in, and national president of the Association for Macular Diseases (the leading cause of blindness in people over 60). He and his wife, Shirley, a graduate of Columbia's School of Social Work, travel widely in the U. S. and overseas. They combine extending the Association's public education and support activities with keeping in touch with their children (and grandchildren): Julie in San Francisco, Matthew in Switzerland and Nanette in Alaska.

During John (Col) Coffee's call we found ourselves going on and on, comparing notes on how our shared industrial engineering starting points and subsequent management consulting work led us into very broadly diverse careers. Col estimates he's had more than 300 companies as clients since he started in 1948. He's currently also an active part owner of Rush Technology, developers of a novel electric motor with many applications. He and wife, Mary, (whom he married in 1942) have two sons, John C. Jr. and Robert '67, both lawyers. Col is part of a remarkably extended Columbia family: John C. Jr. is Adolph Berle Professor at the Law School, Robert is Class of '67, brothers Joe '41 and Donn '55 are both very active in Alumni Affairs, and Donn's wife, Toni, is associate editor, alumnae affairs at Barnard.

Gene Sosin has recently authored Sparks of Liberty: An Insider's Memoir of Radio Liberty (Penn State University Press). For 33 years Gene was a key executive with the American shortwave station that helped win the Cold War. Radio Liberty broke through Soviet censorship to become the most popular radio from the West, broadcasting in Russian and more than a dozen other languages. He combines vivid eyewitness reports with documents from his personal archives to trace the radio's evolution from Stalin's death in 1953 to its current role as a voice of democratic education in the post-Soviet world. Gene returned to Columbia after serving in the Navy during WWII and received his Ph.D. in Russian studies along with the Certificate of the Russian Institute. Sparks of Liberty has been praised by several scholars and U.S. government experts, including Marshall Shulman, professor emeritus of International Relations, and Zbigniew Brzezinski, former Columbia professor and former National Security Advisor.

From Arthur Weinstock comes news of the relocation of classmates. Maria and Jack Beaudouin now permanently reside in Florida: The Oasis, 3120 South Ocean Boulevard, Apt 603-North Bldg, Palm Beach, Fla. 33480. Muriel and Alan Goldberg are now at 7322 Modena Drive, Boynton Beach, Fla. 33437. Connie and Semmes Clarke have elected to simplify their life style while remaining in the same community. Their new address is 530 Valley Road, Apt 3M, Upper Montclair, N.J. 07043. Their phone number remains the same. Quentin Brown now resides at Sunrise, 45800 Jona Drive, Sterling, Va. 20165.

Also via Arthur comes news of John Lyons and Ken Friou. John wrote (via daughter Susan) that he is still recovering from the stroke he sustained one year ago. Although still unable to speak or use his right hand, he is fully able to understand others, both speech and writing, and is interested in hearing from classmates and friends. Ken writes from Wisconsin about "six-foot icicles this winter" as well as the exploits of his granddaughters. Within the past year he performed the wedding ceremony for one of them. Somewhat belatedly, the Class of '41 wishes to thank the staff at Arden House for their efforts to keep us fed and happy during our forced evacuation from the building (as reported in the previous issue of CCT). Not only did they bring out sandwiches and other refreshments but, once the "all clear" was announced, went on to serve the regular lunch.

Finally, we extend our sympathy to Edith, widow of Dave Westermann whose obituary was printed in the last issue of CCT.

[CCT apologizes for any confusion among the names that appeared in this column last issue. The column should have read: Helen Abdoo, Mary Louise and Hugh Barber, and Fanny and Ted de Bary.]42?

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42
Herbert Mark
197 Hartsdale Avenue
White Plains, N.Y.
10606
avherbmark@cyburban.com

Early planning for our next class reunion is underway, but, we need up-to-date information about you to proceed. A questionnaire is in the mail with the current number of our newsletter. Your answers and suggestions are needed before a committee can be named and planning can go ahead. Give some thought to your answers and get them back to Mel Hershkowitz. If you prefer, contact me directly.

Bill Mazzarella wrote from his retirement home in Oceanside, Calif. Bill, who spent 14 years in the Marine Corps after college, went on to a career in the Internal Revenue Service. Retired for 20 years, he currently devotes himself to volunteer work at his local medical center and United States Marine Corps organizations. Bill and his wife, Rita, have four children, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

So far this year, the sole contact has been W. Noel Keyes, who became professor emeritus this year after teaching at the Pepperdine School of Law for many years. "Now I serve on the Medical Ethics Committee at the University of California at Irvine's Medical Center in Orange," he writes. "As a result, I also write books and articles on bioethics and the law. This fascinating field will come to dominate much of the twenty-first century. No one from Columbia has written on the subject, as far as I know. While attending the 50th anniversary of my Columbia Law class, I stayed at the Theological Union and did some historical research on the subject."

Ralph Lane, Jr. -- the Varsity coxswain on the Blue and White crew that beat Navy a few years ago (okay, 1943, but that was only yesterday) has retired as professor of sociology and now enjoys seeing his poetry in print. He's planning to illuminate our reunion.

H. Rolf Hecht -- active as a consultant in financial writing, he will grace the reunion and is pitching in as a gifted volunteer.Donald Mitchell -- the retired lieutenant colonel, USAF, won't wing it in from Oregon, but sagely advises classmates to "Look to the future, one day at a time."

Dr. Edwin Tutt Long -- the world thoracic surgeon is coming from Kansas City to see those elderly fellows, and discuss his work on access to health care
for all.

Leonard Koppett -- our eminent sports historian is back at his word processor after a cardiac annoyance, and hopes to explain the entire Columbia athletics situation to all. Since he intends to attend the Friday-night dinner at the Chateau Topkis at the start of reunion, he can share with football coach Ray Tellier and basketball coach Armond Hill, who'll be there.

The glittering and nourishing evening will reflect the generosity of Jay Topkis (his digs and gracious spouse, Jackie), David Sacks (Lord of Beverages), and Messrs. Joseph Leff and Charles O'Malley (food and philosophy). All right, the caterers didn't go to Columbia, but they respect the institution.

Homer Schoen -- the sage of Pound Ridge in New York has joined the Advisory Board of Community Partners, which recruits pro bono consulting teams to assist Big Apple not-for-profit organizations wrestling with critical business issues. He's also helping with the reunion.

John Donohue -- the Orange, Conn., dynamo is thriving (on solar energy?) a decade after retirement with the challenges of serving as legislative chairman of the Progressive Caucus of Connecticut Democrats, president of local AARP chapter, school board member and grandpa of five.

Walter Wager -- chaired a panel and "mentored" young scribes in March at invitation to Sleuth Fest VI, annual workshop of Florida chapter of Mystery Writers of America. Some 300 attended the event in Hollywood 15 miles from Fort Lauderdale.

FYI, to get a one-on-one picture of what Columbia is today, our early June reunion will see '44 speaking more with current students than listening to our fine administrators and teachers. There are several ways to learn, right?

George T. Wright from Tucson, Ariz., writes that his collection, Aimless Life: Poems, 1961-1995, is now available from North Stone Editions, D Station, Box 14098, Minneapolis, Minn. 55414; paperback: $15; cloth: $35.

The Columbia University Club of Northern New Jersey had Dr. Randall H. Balmer, the Ann Whitney Professor of American Religious History at Barnard, speak in March on "What's Wrong with the Religious Right?"

Our nominees for honorable mention are: Henry C. Monroe, Jr. of Bethel, Conn., and Ernest H. Morgenstern of Livingston N.J. Would be good to hear from Henry and Ernest or to hear about them.

I heard from Gene Rogers, who was reacting to the news of Jim Ferguson's death as reported in the last issue. Gene, Jim's roommate in Livingston during their freshman year, noted that "Jim was a highly intelligent young man and our friendship continued during our V-12 years." Gene also reported that Don Sengstaken died last July as a result of melanoma in one of his eyes. Shortly before he passed away, his stricken eye was removed but the cancer had metastasized to his vital organs; he went quickly after that. News of Gene and Don brought back wonderful memories to your class correspondent of the glory years of Columbia swimming, when Gene and Don swam for Ed Kennedy. Gene mentioned he was 75. To the members of the Class of 1946, that is still middle-aged.

On a brighter note I received a Christmas report from John McConnell. He and his wife, Pearl, have concluded an exciting year as full-time residents of North Idaho. In July they hosted the McConnell family reunion, with 75 in attendance from all over the country. "Driving into town last week we discussed the fact that for the very first time in either of our lives we feel that we are vacationing, not worrying about when the phone may ring," John writes. "It seems like we are playing hooky and getting away with it. We wish you would join us at our leisure."

Robert DeMaria, in a 40-year career as an educator and writer, has published several textbooks on creative writing, as well as 13 novels. The first of his novels, Carnival of Angels (1961), included as settings both the Harlem neighborhood he grew up in and Columbia, where he also took an M.A. in '49 and a Ph.D. in '59. Bob is currently writing a book with the working title Growing Up Liberal: A New York City Childhood. He and his wife, when not at their house on Mallorca, live at 106 Vineyard Place, Port Jefferson, N.Y. 11777.

Sears E. Edwards, class president, wrote that "The reunion was excellent [and] it may be that we should go again to Arden House in a couple of years.... I am surprised at the number of classmates still around." Sears lives at 131 Hampton Road, Garden City, N.Y. 11530.

Hollis W. Hodges continues to be a mystery man. Burt Sax tried hard to locate him for me but couldn't. Does any classmate know Hollis's location?

Burton R. Sax is a retired CPA and now concentrates on playing tennis, being a theater buff, and attending some of the colloquium series offered alumni by Columbia. He and his wife recently celebrated the birth of their fifth grandchild, the son of their son Charles, and, as Burt writes, "that in itself is a great avocation!" They live at 174 Birch Drive, Manhasset Hills, N.Y. 11040.

Murray Strober and his partners sold their medical practice and building to Mountainside Hospital, Montclair, N.J., in January 1996. Murray subsequently took a position as part-time assistant professor of medicine at the University Medical and Dental School in Newark. There he supervises the medical residents in their care of needy Newark patients. Earlier, Murray was the physician to Moe Berg, the legendary Princeton honor student who played major league baseball for 17 years, spoke 15 languages fluently, and was leading spy for the OSS during World War II. Murray's care of Moe was noted in the recent bestseller about Berg, The Catcher Was a Spy. Murray and his wife live at 533 Passaic Ave., Passaic, N.J. 07055-3305.

George T. Vogel continues to be self-employed as an attorney. For the last 20 years, George has run in the annual New York City marathons -- and has finished every one! He lives at 295 Devoe Ave., Yonkers, N.Y. 10705.

The following brief poem was recently written in a mood of grief by a classmate who wishes to be anonymous.

Space is good, but Time is bad.

Space makes happy, Time makes sad.

Space stands still, but Time won't pause.

Space presents, but Time withdraws

May he be rebutted and cheered by the arrival of Spring.

A spate of new material arrived on my desk at the beginning of February with the return of a number of reunion questionnaires. Here's what we have, to deadline date:

Tom Chamberlain spent 25 years with the Chase Bank, mostly in trust administration, followed by 18 years with Crum & Forster Insurance until it was dissolved in 1994. Now retired, he is enjoying books, accumulated from Humanities A to the present, for which he could never seem to find time.

Distinguished former jurist Stan Harwood (N.Y. State Supreme Court and Appellate Div., 2nd Dept.) is again practicing law, now as counsel to a Long Island law firm. One suspects that Stan has remarried: in which event, may happiness long prevail!

Retirement from retail management work for Woolworth Corp. is not all it's cracked up to be for Bill Ivie, who complains he never gets a day off any more -- it's golf, golf, golf. On a more serious note, he grieved over the passing of Al Elsen, former chairman of art history at Stanford.

A professor emeritus of psychology at SUNY Stony Brook, Marvin Levine is no longer a research psychologist but instead a writer and musician, with a volume of poetry published last year and a new textbook, The Applied Psychology of Buddhism and Yoga, under contract. Marv lost his first wife, Tillie Cascio, three years prior to retiring and marrying Mara Sandler. May they be very happy together!

Still active as a lawyer, mediator and arbitrator in Portland, Ore., and still active locally and nationally with the American Civil Liberties Union, Paul Meyer is a public member of Oregon's Teachers' Standards and Practices Commission, the body that licenses all of the state's educators. He notes with delight that it's fun to be "a Philistine among the priests!" Paul asks, anent our reunion, "After 50 years, please wear your name badges where they can be seen. Correct place is on right lapel!"

Professor emeritus of geosciences (hydrology and environmental geology) at the University of Massachusetts, Ward Motts has been conducting research in New England, New Mexico and California, consulting for industries and communities in New England, and involved in public service studies for the State of Massachusetts and the town of Amherst. As a scientist he urges that the College retain the key Humanities and CC courses as part of its strong liberal arts program.

Chester Nedwidek is happily working as assistant director of the geographic information systems unit of the North Carolina Department of Transportation, which he places at the cutting edge of mapping and impact analysis technology. They are now developing and installing a system that will facilitate the sharing of technical information among state, county and metropolitan area groups. He looks forward to going to work each day, and in his spare time at home generates piles of wood shavings and now and then a decent bowl or piece of furniture. His message: "Keep smiling, it scares hell out of your enemies!"

After service as a first lieutenant with the Army Corps of Engineers in the Philippines during World War II and a Columbia education, Tom Porro continued graduate work at MIT and then spent 34 years with Perkin-Elmer Corp., a chemical instrument manufacturer, in various marketing jobs. He retired in 1992. "May you all live healthily to a thousand.""Smell the roses," says Robert Ronnow, who came back to the College in January 1946 after WWII service. He is now the proud grandfather of four boys and the proud father of four successful sons, happily married to Josephine '50 Barnard and retired from an interesting working life with Union Carbide as director of business research and analysis.

Dick Sachs entered the College directly from World War II (Army) and rushed through, never getting to enjoy college life other than as a great learning experience. He went to work after graduation as an administrative assistant to a congressman, then for Senator Herbert Lehman ("a great experience") and then spent too many years in the family furniture business ("not a great experience"). Today Dick is happily teaching at The New School University (what we knew as The New School for Social Research), writing articles and a book about civil libertarians.

Yet another emeritus professor, this time Alfred Scherzer, who had been clinical professor of pediatrics at Cornell Medical College and past president of the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine. He continues to direct a regional center for disabled children in Eastern Long Island, where he maintains a consulting practice. "Oh, to have the time to re-read what I should have done more carefully and absorbed more completely during my
College years!"

Paul Tanner, who cannot attend the reunion, asks that those who remember him fax him at (626) 337-2403, e-mail: Tannerteam@aol.com. A former math professor, and aerospace engineer at Northrop-Grumman Corp., Paul has newly founded The Mentorship Conglomerata, whose goal is involvement in teacher mentoring and in furthering traditional folk art endeavors, stressing our European heritage.

Having spent 25 years with the U. S. Information Agency as a foreign service officer, with overseas assignments in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Turkey, Dick von Glatz retired in 1988. He has since been interviewing high school applicants to the College, plus taking one big trip a year.

After Army service (1944-46) which included combat in France and Germany in 1945, the Combat Infantry Badge, and a Bronze Star, Arthur Wilson returned to complete his interrupted education at the College, after which he spent 37 years as a service consultant and analyst for Dun & Bradstreet Inc., retiring in December 1986.

A loose committee of our classmates has been hard at work planning the reunion for June 4–6 (these are the correct dates, sorry to have misled you) to commemorate the passage of 50 years since the end of our undergraduate experience. Chaired by our Class President Joe Levie, the committee includes your correspondent and Howard Beldock, Fred Berman, Jack Byrne, George Cook, Art Feder, Stan Harwood, Gene Hawes, Dick Kandel, Ed Lemanski, Marv Lipman, Bill Lubic, Art Mehmel, Don Porter, Gene Rossides, George Spitz and John Weaver. (I devoutly hope I've not dropped a name!) We hope lots of you will join us to celebrate, but whether you are able to come or not we implore you to take some time now to complete the "Reflections" that you were recently asked for, and send them posthaste to the Alumni Office.

Charlie Bauer sends his very best to all our classmates, and writes: "It is hard to believe that we graduated nearly 50 years ago. I hope you can read my lousy handwriting, but multiple sclerosis, which I diagnosed in medical school, has me paralyzed from waist down and has my upper extremities and eyes but poorly usable. It forced me to discontinue practice in 1979.

"I thought this anecdote might be interesting. In the fall of 1949 while at Harvard Med., I received a note from Gen. Eisenhower's office asking me to appear at the Faculty Club to be awarded a prize by the General. I came back to NYC, and met to my surprise Gen. Eisenhower himself. He presented a watch to me as the first recipient of the Scholar Athlete Award (I have a Varsity "C" Award for 1949). The General then invited me to have lunch with him at the Faculty Club. There he asked me how I liked P&S. I told him that I was not at P&S but at Harvard Med. Gen. Eisenhower: 'How come?' I answered that I heard from Harvard but not one word from P&S. Gen. Eisenhower then turned to Dean McKnight: 'I want a full report about this.'

"I doubt if Gen. Eisenhower ever heard as he soon left Columbia for the White House. I understand that the 'Eisenhower Watch-Scholar Athlete Award' is still being presented."50?

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50
Mario Palmieri
33 Lakeview Avenue W.
Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.
10567

Jim Garofalo is still practicing in his specialty of aviation medicine and is still piloting his own airplane out of the Caldwell, N.J., airport. He has also started a research company dedicated to guiding newly developed drugs through the FDA approval process. Thinking ahead, Jim says that his son Alex, now 10 years old, may enter Columbia.

A note from John Rawley tells us that he's still alive and thriving in Hershey, Pa. Well, actually it wasn't so much a note as a pasted-up collection of aphorisms and mottos that indicate that John is as ebullient as ever. Maybe it's that chocolate-laden atmosphere he's been breathing that keeps him so humorous.

Arthur Trezise, now retired, and his wife, Lucia, divide their time between the woods of Vermont and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Art had a long career in Sao Paulo, where he and Lucia raised three children. After service with two U.S. companies in Brazil, Art became a U.S. Foreign Commercial Service Officer, serving in Sao Paulo, Bogota and Paris.

To begin planning for the Class of 1951 reunion in 2001, class officers met with Columbia College alumni representatives at the Columbia Club in New York City on February 26. The following information is to give all classmates an opportunity to provide reunion input. Please address all comments to your class correspondent by e-mail, regular mail or by phone.

Class President Robert Snyder presided and announced formation of the leadership committee to get the ball rolling. Committee members are Ronald Young, treasurer; George Koplinka, secretary; Mark Kaplan, co-chairman for class fundraising; Ted Borri '51E, class coordinator for Engineering; Steve Smith, advisor for university development and alumni relations, Shelley Grunfeld, advisor and assistant director for Alumni Affairs; and Andrew Greene, assistant director of the Columbia College Fund.

Committee members discussed previous reunions -- the 25th, 40th and 45th. Previously, '51 Engineering was invited to join the College committee, and Ted Borri will be assisted by several classmates, including Joe McCormick, in their planning.

The leadership committee decided initial emphasis should be on the selection of a reunion location because the class voted at the 45th to have the 50th at Arden House in Harriman, N.Y. College representatives aided in the discussion about the pros and cons of both locations. Although Arden House offers ambiance in a conference setting, its location at a distance from the campus makes appearances by the university president and dean of the College unpredictable. The Morningside campus offers more opportunities for involvement with professors in reunion activities and with the programs of other classes as well. New buildings and College facilities will be of interest to alumni who have not visited Columbia in many years. Septuagenarian classmates might find dormitory housing not amenable, but the Mayflower Hotel could be a suitable alternative for the short reunion stay in the New York
City area.

The committee agreed on the following proposals:

A reunion "steering committee" will be assembled for the next meeting, in April. All classmates may attend and participate in the planning of the 50th. Date, time and place to be announced.

The steering committee will be divided into two parts. One section will handle program events, the other section will be concerned with raising a major '51 reunion gift to the College.

The U.S. will be divided into six geographic zones, with a zone leader in each, to encourage participation in the 50th.

The class secretary will commence work on a class survey sheet to record preferences for the location of the 50th and what kind of program events should be offered. At a later date, a reunion handbook with photos and biographies will be published.

Classmates are encouraged to communicate by electronic means as much as possible in submitting data. Mark Kaplan has offered the use of his office, and fax communications should be sent to his attention at (212) 735-2000 when the information concerns fund-raising for the 50th.

I am very pleased to announce that Bob Adelman was married to Judith Ann Turner in January. We all wish them the very best!Two years ago, when Leo Ward sent in his order for football tickets, he related the following incident: In 1949 University President Eisenhower was planning to talk with the football team before the game at Baker Field. The roof leaked in the dilapidated locker room and a student manager was trying to mop up the floor so the General wouldn't see it. When Lou Little asked what he was doing, the student explained. Lou told him to stop mopping and throw more water on the floor!

Joe Di Palma is now listed in Who's Who in America.

Mary Ann and Gene Manfrini are trying to find an apartment in Manhattan so they can move back from New Jersey. Nothing against N. J....they just miss the "city."

Evelyn and I missed the Adelmans' wedding because of a conflict. The opening reception for Evelyn's solo art exhibition was the same day. I am happy to say that Evelyn's show got a nice review in The New York Times. We are also happy because our second and third grandchildren are expected this year (via both daughters-in-law). Evelyn and I both will have retired by the next issue of CCT.

If you are tired of reading about me and my family, please provide some of your own notes.

Nick Wolfson's wife, Judith, passed away at home in February 1998 after a long battle with a rare cancer. Nick has established an annual lectureship in her honor at the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford, Conn.

Larry Harte has been selected chairman of the Public Health Council of the State of New Jersey. He is the only orthodontist, and one of only four dentists, to receive this honor. The council deals with health-related issues, which include anti-smoking campaigns and promoting New Jersey as a health-oriented state. Larry's daughter Helaine '88, '92B has continued his family's Columbia tradition.

Dick Auwater continues to live in Norwalk, Conn., surrounded by seven children and 17 grandchildren. Grandpa is happy to spend a great deal of time baby sitting, mentoring inner-city kids, and raising funds to prevent cancer. With 17 grandkids, here's hoping at least one will follow in Dick's footsteps and become another great Columbia swimmer.

After many years of service, William Dick retired last year as the director of coordination for the Brunswick School in Greenwich, Conn. Bill and Esme recently returned from a week of helping rebuild a black church that had been destroyed by arsonists. He reports that putting up sheet rock is enormously satisfying. Good work, Bill!

Thorunn and Charles Faddis have three daughters, one son and three grandchildren. Chuck has been living in Florida for many years and reports that he is having too much fun to ever think of retiring. Chuck develops land in an environmentally sensitive way. "We don't destroy the wetlands," he told me. "On the contrary, we are dedicated to preserving existing wetlands and creating new wetlands. Sometimes, when we have to fill in 10 acres of existing wetlands, we will create 400 acres of new wetlands."

Annelly and Dick Deets have been married for 42 years. They have an adopted son and daughter, both now in their 30s. As yet, there are no grandchildren. However, Dick told me that they really have many grandchildren because for 10 years the couple have been mentoring and tutoring inner-city children in Atlanta. One boy they helped was a 10th-grade youngster who was reading at a fourth-grade level. With Dick and Annelly's love, tutoring and guidance, the youngster eventually graduated from college. Dick reports that all the children they helped have gone to college; most graduated; many married and now have their own children. "We think of the children as our grandchildren," Dick said. He also reports that he has been in the life-insurance business for more than 35 years and is the owner of one of the top producing agencies in the United States specializing in estate and business-succession planning.

Al Hellerstein, who had been a partner and co-head of the litigation department of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, retired after 38 years with the firm. In November 1998 he became a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York. Talk about second careers.

George Fadok, who now lives in Glendale, Arizona, will not, unfortunately, be with us in June since he and his wife, Evelyn, will be on board the QEII returning form England. George thinks that a transatlantic crossing would be a great setting for our 50th. Larry Gartner retired from the University of Chicago in October '98 where he was professor of pediatrics and ob-gyn. He has moved to a small ranch in San Diego County where he continues to write and lecture. Larry is president of the Academy of Breast Feeding Medicine.

It was a real pleasure to hear from Don Wardlaw, who was president of our sophomore year and active throughout our four years at Columbia. Don retired in '97 from the faculty of the McCormick Seminary (Presbyterian) in Chicago after 21 years. He and his wife, Ruth B'54, are now living in Charlottsville, Va. Don writes, "I hope life has been as fulfilling and whole for you as it has for me." Welcome back, Don.

After retiring from ITT in '85 as a senior v.p., then from Duke in '90 as a professor of public policy, Bob Braverman is now on the verge of retiring as a consultant to businesses. He is "still hoping for major epiphany, but with diminished hope." As Professor Hadas might have said, "hang in there, for when you least expect it...."

Joel West is still practicing his profession; he is currently the secretary of the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. Joel's daughter, Anne '89, is practicing law in San Diego.

Al Weinfeld retired on June 1 of last year from the University of Miami School of Medicine after 36 years of teaching there. He is now emeritus professor of radiology. Norman Kahn is retiring from the Columbia faculty where he has served since 1962 as professor of pharmacology and dentistry. Norman's advice to the rest of our class is to "enjoy the rest of your lives." I'm sure that no one could have said it any better.

Fred Ripin writes from the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia that he is now a "serious student and practitioner of the culinary arts."

Len Moche is very happily married with a large family, "...six great kids...grandchildren too...also a dog." Len continues to practice law as a trial attorney.

Alan Fendrick is now president of the Columbia University Alumni Club of Sarasota, Fla., which was formed in March 1997.

John Timoney who lives in Princeton is retired and travels with his wife, Ana, to Spain frequently. John writes that he still swims a lot "but I've moved to the slow lane."

Bret Charipper has moved back to Manhattan to enjoy music, art and theater. He writes, "first grandchild is one year old and is the joy of my life." Welcome to the club, Bret.

George Thomas is retired and living in Houston, but spends nearly six months a year in the mountains of Oregon. He recommends the regimen highly. Bob Sherry is now retired and living in Aurora, Colorado, where he and his wife, Kathleen, are really enjoying community volunteer work.

Jack Blechner has served as founding chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He is looking forward to retirement. Steve Bailes is a senior v.p. of marketing & planning and writes that "I have a great girlfriend, a great dog, a nice house that I love, and a good job. I hike every Sunday with a group and generally am happy with my life. Inside I'm still college age."

Irwin Bernstein is well and living in Westfield, N.J. He is chairman of Columbia's Alumni Fencing Committee and the U.S. Fencing Foundation. "My long-term involvement in the fencing program has been my key connection to Columbia and its successive generations of students," he writes. "Whatever your special interest may be, I recommend that you pursue it as a source of perpetual youth."

It's great to hear from so many of our classmates. Hope to see you at our 45th reunion.

When the noted musicologist, Jerry Lee Lewis (not a Columbia grad) sang: "There's a whole lot of shakin' goin' on," he had no idea that this song could be referring to all the activities currently taking place on or near the Columbia campus.

The Broadway residence hall on 113th Street is being built at such a pace that move-in is expected by August 2000. Lerner Hall will be occupied after Commencement of this year. Other key projects to be undertaken are the refurbishing of Hamilton Hall ("Hamilton Hall 2000"), which will include upgrading the classrooms, lobby, offices and more, plus the refurbishing of Wien Hall (known as Johnson Hall in the olden days).

Further north on the Harlem River, the new boathouse groundbreaking ceremony was held in mid-March. Our former crew stalwarts, Bob Banz, Dan Hovey, Norm Roome, Bob Hanson, Bill Mink, Terry Doremus, Richard Schlenker, and John LaRosa, must all be proud of this major effort by the school and alumni. By the way, applications for admission to the College are up (putting the number over 15,000, including Engineering). Are we getting too blasé about this constant upward surge? Does everyone realize that class size of 955 is double that of our class?

As we head on a steady pace toward our 45th reunion, we have heard from classmates stateside and overseas. Jack Armstrong ran into Tom Chrystie, his old roommate, in a small restaurant in Santiago, Chile, during one of Jack's foreign tours. Tom spends most of his time in Wyoming, while Jack frequents the Jersey Shore, where he is learning to surf during his spare time. (Who paid for dinner, guys?)

Norm Goldstein has received mention in this column in previous issues, but we could not pass up this latest missive from the Big Island: The Governor of Hawaii proclaimed July 14, 1998 as Dr. Norman Goldstein Day. What do you get for this honor? A parade? A beach party? I'm sure Norm will tell us, without prodding.

Back to the mainland: Tony Blandi, who retired to Florida a short while ago, is working again harder than ever at Sanford Airport doing non-aviation affairs for a company that handles corporate and private aircraft (JETT Aire Executive Services). He is also participating in all those things he couldn't do in New York -- walking the beach, swimming in a heated pool, relaxing in a hot tub. Don McDonough called us from Florida as well. Don was between engagements in Ireland and Paris. Maybe he can find time to visit the Blandis. From the great city of Cleveland, we are proud to announce that our own Jim Berick has been chosen as a winner of the prestigious John Jay Award to be presented in May.

We hear from our Rochester, N.Y., classmate, Beryl Nusbaum periodically. No, he is not retiring and, for the most part, his law practice keeps him traveling quite a bit. Beryl does keep in touch with another Clevelander, Harlan Hertz, whose law practice takes him out of Ohio, but not in the direction of New York. Abbe Leban, in his new endeavor, was sworn in as a "new" Delaware attorney recently. According to unsubstantiated reports, he was one of the oldest persons ever to be admitted to the Delaware bar in its 322 years. (Abbe had to take the bar exam to be able to practice in this state.) Another award to another classmate: Stuart Kaback has received the Herman Skolnik Award for outstanding achievement in chemical information. This award recognizes his leadership and contributions to patent and chemical information searching. It is a major achievement in the industry. Stu, in his spare time, attended one of the many Columbia functions off-campus: a lecture by one of our esteemed faculty in Northern New Jersey, where he ran into Aaron Preiser, an avid seminar attendee.

Ivan Leigh has spent several weeks down south recovering from a heart ailment, which he reports will not prevent him from attending our get-together in late May 2000.

We didn't have time to mention it in the last column, but everyone should know that our classmates are in demand everywhere -- Ezra Levin spent last fall as an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School teaching "Mergers & Acquisitions." From what we understood, his course received rave reviews.

Our former editor-in-chief of Spectator, Lee Townsend, was espied as a new member of the fledgling Columbia Club in mid-Manhattan.

We continue to work on the 45th with an ever growing committee, whose goal is to exceed the 40th. We've heard from Al Momjian, Howard Loeb, Dick Kuhn, Jerry Rosenthal, Hal Rosenthal, Jack Freeman, Ferdie Setaro. Donn Coffee is working with a small group to update the famous reunion questionnaire, which will be mailed to everyone in the fall. We're also putting together a list of speakers, events, and functions to make everyone's visit back to campus a wonderful experience.

Do you think we could get a reading from former Columbia Players Lew Banci, Paul Frank, Marty Salan and Harry Wagner? Or some old tunes from Herb Gardner? How about a return of the Pony Ballet with Dave Stevens (among others)?

There is a sad note to report: the passing of our classmate, Otto Sperr. Otto was a major factor in the rejuvenation of the city of Philadelphia. He will be missed.

Gentlemen of the Class of 1955. Stay well. Think positive thoughts. Take long walks. Keep your mind and body active. It's almost a year until reunion. You guys are the best. Love to all! Everywhere!

Ernst Weglein is our class grandparent champion, with 12 by now, but we must give honorable mention to a recent entrant in hot pursuit, upstate physician Mark Sicherman, with 10. Keep me up to date guys about this fast and furious -- and difficult to predict -- business.

Friend and loyal committee member Steve Eaton is recovering from heart surgery. He's doing much better and starting to be up and about. Hopefully, he'll be up to dinner soon.

Lisa, wife of Mike Spett, advised me I used a wrong name for her in a CCT column. I apologize. Mike is busy trying to get their new home in White Plains into livable shape.

Lou Hemmerdinger called to thank me for guarding his Columbia tie for so long and threatened to pick it up some day.

Vera and Larry Gitten are very busy helping out children and grandchildren -- an enviable job. Larry is still extremely busy as a consultant. (He thought he could actually retire!)

Anne Marie and Don Morris are still fixing up their new country house. Lynn and Lee Seidler have a country place nearby, so maybe we'll be able to arrange a mini-reunion.

Henry Bamberger recently received the Scroll Award of the Central New York Academy of Medicine for his strong involvement at three hospitals in medical ethics -- a complicated business for a rabbi.

In December, yours truly finished his Columbia course, with undergraduates, on ancient Greek art and architecture with the outstanding Professor Brilliant. In January, I left for a three-week trip to Greece and Turkey to see the ancient ruins for myself. I had a great time at a Greek wedding on the island of Kos, of Hippocrates fame, and I really loved Turkey, both Istanbul and the Aegean coast. Wonderful people, food, and extraordinary ancient Greek ruins. I even bought a few Turkish carpets.

On my return, I interviewed some Columbia College applicants and resumed wondering if Columbia would accept me now. The dean assures me yes, but who knows. I then started my Columbia spring courses: #4 with Jim Shapiro (Shakespeare) and #5 with Ted de Bary (East Asian values and human rights, with an emphasis on Confucius). I am also taking an oil painting course for "absolute beginners."

I saw basketball vs. Brown -- we tried to lose, but Brown wouldn't let us. I recollect the old basketball court, and the new one is such an improvement. Dinner and basketball makes a fun night out; the class should plan one as an event next year.

In the fall it will be time to start assembling a reunion committee. The more the merrier, so please contact me to join. I would also love more notes and info for future columns, so don't be bashful. Here's wishing you all healthy, successful children and many grandchildren to keep you young. Keep in touch at (212) 712-2369 or at the address above.

After several years of running a railroad in New York, George Stern has returned to Michigan, where he is the president and CEO of the Chicago & Illinois Midland Railroad.

Uldis Grava, whose decades-long battle for Latvian independence was finally rewarded a few years ago when the Soviet Union collapsed, is the director of planning and development for Radio Free Europe, stationed in Prague. He and his wife, Sarmite, have three children, all of whom graduated from the College; his son, Roberts Latvis '89, is head of the foreign exchange department of the Bank of Latvia.

Larry Harris is now senior vice president, law and policy, at MCI in Washington, D.C.

Henry Solomon, M.D., has become the medical director/cardiovascular marketing for the pharmaceutical giant, Hoffman LaRoche, in Nutley, N. J.

On a subject of increasing interest to our class, Consumer Reports Books has just published a new edition of your reporter's book, How to Plan for a Secure Retirement, co-written with Elias Zuckerman and Trudy Lieberman.

Erik Jakobsson reports that he is a professor in the departments of molecular and integrative physiology and of biochemistry, a senior research scientist at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and director of the Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology at the University of Illinois.

Harvey Leifert is enjoying his third career, as public information manager of the American Geophysical Union in Washington. Harvey retired from the foreign service in 1991 and headed a
non-profit organization for
several years.

Patrick Mullins has moved to Bumpass, Va., after serving six years as chairman of the Fairfax County Republican Party, attending three National Republican Conventions, and delivering a nominating speech for Oliver North. Pat continues to be employed as director of Equine Association Development for Markel Insurance Company.

Bob Ratner, who moved to Canada after graduate school, is a professor of sociology at the department of anthropology and sociology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Bruce Stave, who is a professor of history and director of the center for oral history at the University of Connecticut, recently published his tenth book, Witness to Nuremberg: An Oral History of American Participation at the War Crime Trials.

Ralph Wyndrum has been named program planning and management vice president in the AT&T Laboratories at Middletown, N.J. Prior to this position, Ralph was technology vice president.

Dr. Richard Tyler '59 (center) was the featured speaker at a
bi-monthly dinner held by the Columbia University Club of Atlanta
on February 22. Tyler, who is flanked by Alan Yorker '69 (left),
chair of the Secondary Schools Committee in Atlanta, and Stuart Berkman '66,
president of the Columbia University Club of Atlanta
and CCT class correspondent, spoke on the topic of "The Other Medicine."

The year 1956, so fateful for our class as the time of our entry into Columbia, is the setting for a novel by Sidney Hart. He promised it at our 30th reunion, though he reports that the awesome task of finding an agent has begun in earnest. Is there an agent or publisher out there reading this? If so, the author's email address is hartgrnwch@aol.com. He assures me that Irwin Sollinger, whose taste we all remember as impeccable, has read it and enthusiastically recommended the author's skill as a storyteller (admittedly the result of several excellent lunches).

Your correspondent's first semester freshman roommate, Philip J. Hirschkop, was recently honored with the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association's Distinguished Service Award. Phil is the subject of a front-page article in the Association's November 1998 newsletter, where a former partner describes him as redefining the "definitions of hard work, tenaciousness and creativity. His creed is where there is a wrong, there is a remedy." He is best known for landmark cases involving desegregation of state prisons, admission of women to the University of Virginia, and sexual discrimination. In perhaps his most widely publicized case, Phil argued for the free-speech right of American Nazis to bury their assassinated party leader, an honorably discharged veteran, in a federal cemetery while wearing swastikas. Although faced with the dilemma of representing clients who detested him, and the disapproval of his family, he said, "there was a principle I could not escape." In private practice since 1964, Phil has also served as adjunct faculty at Georgetown Law Center and in many capacities for the Virginia State bar and other organizations.

Two classmates have triumphed in the New York City theater this season. Brian Dennehy opened to critical acclaim as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (see profile, page 12). The praise for the entire production has created a smash hit (the producers can excerpt that for future ads with my permission). And Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi opened at the Manhattan Theater Club despite threats by right-wing religious groups to bomb the theater. The MTC first cancelled the play because of the threats, then reinstated it following counter-protests by other playwrights and just about everyone who counted. The night your correspondent saw it (a few days into the previews), 55th Street was a lively mix of religious groups urging us not to see it and civil libertarians supporting the freedom to present it.

The monthly class lunch continues -- now at the newly installed Columbia Club within the Princeton Club, 15 West 43rd Street, at noon on the first Thursday of each month. No reservations required. It's very nice, even with all that obsessive orange and black decor.

My report begins with a quote from David Cohen's new book, Stranger in the Nest. Do Parents Really Shape Their Child's Personality, Intelligence or Character: "Parents need to lighten up; parent-blaming is mostly baloney." David is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. As an article in the campus newspaper about the book reported: "Mom and dad can install all the behavioral software they want in a child's apparently receptive little brain but from personality traits to career paths, outcomes depend much more than most people believe on the hardware the child arrives with from the factory." We should ponder these words, and perhaps read this book, as we finish nurturing our children.

Peter Gollon, despite his best efforts to avoid the responsibility, was elected treasurer of the New York Civil Liberties Union, on whose board of directors he has served for the last 15 years. His son, David, joined the Marine Corps after graduating high school and has just returned from boot camp at Paris Island where he was promoted to private firstclass. Peter and wife, Abby Pariser B'67, report that it has taken some effort for them to get past their anti-military feelings from the late '60s and '70s.

From Westport, Conn., Michael Lubell writes about his daughter, Karina, who is a first-year student at Columbia. She selected our alma mater because of her desire to extend her high school track and cross country experience. Michael reports that he has become the director of public affairs of the American Physical Society besides serving as professor of physics at the City College of New York. The American Physical Society has built a coalition of 110 professional societies representing 3.5 million scientists, engineers and mathematicians. "With numbers like that, about three times the membership of the Christian coalition, we grab the attention of any politician," he writes. "The result: increases of about 7% for science during the last two years. We have a compelling non-partisan case to make. Economic prosperity, health, military security and environmental well being. Still in a democracy, political clout counts. It's taken a while, but scientists are beginning to get used to the drum beat." Michael, if alumni affairs reads this, they are sure to recruit you for Columbia.

I look forward to hearing from more of you about your adventures. Enjoy the summer.

June marks 35 years since graduation. Writing this column for many years has been a source of great personal satisfaction: recording the public achievements and personal joys you choose to share with your classmates. There are still many of you I have not heard from. Perhaps now is the time to write.

On a sad note I also recall the early deaths of friends: Alan Willen, Jack Lipson, Bill Roy, Don Mintz, and Bill Schwartz. Each was a memorable person in a wonderful class.

I asked to hear from those whose children have attended or are attending the College. The early returns are in. John Langbein, the Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and Legal History at Yale Law School, writes that daughter, Julia, has been admitted to the Class of 2003 and will enroll in September.

Ajohn Quinn's son, Ian '93, is now pursuing his Ph.D. in music theory at the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester. In 1997 John moved from Hartford, Conn., to California to direct the clinical oncology program at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, the second largest children's cancer treatment program in the United States.

Brian Saffer may win the most-devoted-to-Columbia award. His son is Ian '92, while daughter Amy '89, married Viktor Altschul '85. Grandson, Dan, is slated for the Class of 2020. Brian writes, "We hold alumni association meetings on visits."

Please write if you have a child who has attended or is attending the College. I want to publish a complete list.

Jerry Oster, assistant director of arts & sciences development at Duke, has won the 1999 Deutscher Krimi Pries for Sturz ins Dunkel, the German edition of his novel Nightfall. Jerry beat out such heavyweight crime writers as Elmore Leonard and Dick Francis for the award made by the organization of German critics and bookstore owners.

This column was rescued from "no news" oblivion by letters from George Bonsall and Jack Strauch, which arrived the week of CCT's deadline. Thank you, George and Jack.

George has spent much of the past two years visiting the hill tribes of western China and Southeast Asia and trekking in the Himalayas of Nepal, Bhutan and India. A book is forthcoming. When at home he serves as a judge in three Arizona courts and enjoys backpacking in the mountains of the Southwest and California. Intrigued by my previous descriptions of our class's New York lunch group, George adds, "If I find myself in New York on the second Tuesday of a month it would be fun to drop by and have lunch with your group (as long as it's not at Tom's Restaurant)."

Jack, who lives in Charleston, S.C., reported that a sizable group from our class visited Tampa, Fla. from Thursday through Sunday, February 11-14, for the "FAAABGT." Since Jack included no explanation of this acronym, but mentioned that Jerry Hug was unable to attend but was there in spirit, I called Jerry in Pine Brook, N.J. He generously educated me: the event was, in fact, the First Annual Alpha Alpha Beta Golf Tournament! The event was hosted by Bonnie and Jim Boosales, of Palm Harbor, Fla. Participants included Roger and Linda Holloway of Eustis, Fla., Gene and Sherry Chwerchak of Dallas, Texas, Lou and Cathy Tanagorra of Venice, Fla., as well as Jack Strauch. Also present were Tom Bieniek '66, of Needham, Mass., Paul Kastin, '66, of Atlanta, and Bill Mitchell '64, of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.

In addition to Jerry Hug, those in the "unable to attend but there in spirit" category included Mike Moore of Phoenix, Dave Filipek '67GS of San Francisco, Bill Corcoran '66, of Arlington, Mass., and Ron Brookshire '66 of Los Angeles.

The event was highlighted by a dinner at Boosales's ranch, where awards and trophies were presented. Bill Mitchell was the winner of the prestigious "lGGY" Award, emblematic of the attributes represented by IGMFU. (Thanks to Jerry, I have learned that this was an expression of endearment from upperclassmen to first-year players at football training camp. It can be partially translated as "I've got mine...")
It was noted that this award was based not only on achievements at FAAABGT, but on lifetime accomplishments. Upon being presented with the award, Bill stated that he "humbly accepted the award but that he deserved it." Jack concludes, "The camaraderie and enthusiasm displayed by all attendees, despite the fact that many had not been seen for numerous years, was heart-warming. One can be assured that future events will only heighten the close-knit brotherhood that has existed, albeit in a dormant state, for decades."

Not only did Jerry translate acronyms, but he proudly reported that the very day I telephoned him, March 2, his third grandchild had been born. Jerry and Kate are celebrating their 34th year of marriage, have four children and, as of March 2, three grandchildren.

Anthony Leitner became general counsel of the Equities Division of Goldman Sachs in January. He is looking forward to seeing his two daughters, Megan and Wendy, both wed this summer.

At a recent Columbia event sponsored by the Alumni Partnership Program, Residence Life, and the First-Year Program, Dr. Michael Teitelman led a discussion about the expectations and realities of becoming a doctor. Michael is the director of the Transitional Day Treatment Center at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital and is also in private practice in psychiatry. Previously he treated AIDS patients at Mount Sinai Hospital. Also a published philosopher, Michael has taught courses in Philosophy and Contemporary Civilization at the College.

Barry Coller, M.D. is the Murray M. Rosenberg Professor of Medicine and chairman of the Samuel Bronfman Department of Medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital. His research interests focus on hemostatis and thrombosis, in particular platelet physiology. Barry and his wife, Bobbi, reside in Manhattan. Their daughter, Alyssa, is a recent graduate of the College, Class of '92.

From Nashua, N.H., Dean Mottard writes: "You might have something there about giving up our sons and daughters... In keeping with your statement in Class Notes, I am pleased to inform you that my son, Lee, was granted early acceptance to the Class of '03 (with a big thanks to the men's soccer coach, Dieter Ficken). Brown and Williams wanted him, but Columbia and New York got him."

Dean has two other sons: Scott, a freshman at Johnson & Wales (always wanted to be a chef); and Troy, soon to be a seventh-grader. He is "still married to Janice, wife of 26 years, friend of 40 years... Taking over as postmaster in Merrimac, N.H., a fairly large operation. Having fun... Don't worry if this information gets out and fellow alumni decide to call 'late' in the evening. Of course, 'late' used to be after midnight, now it's about after 10pm." His e-mail address is airedale13@aol.com.

Steven Weinberg splits his life among family, work, and a heavy dose of Jewish communal activities. Empty nesting in East Brunswick, N.J., (Exit 9) with wife, Dorna Silverman, they use every known means of communication to keep in touch with their four children: Abby (B'92, in Philadelphia), Beth (Penn '93, in San Francisco), Adam (Keene State '98, in Boston), and Ezra (Hampshire '99). Steve's consulting firm, Community Action Services, specializes in community and economic development work in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Learning to write grant applications at Columbia (Project Double Discovery) has held him in good stead for lo these 32+ years. For the past 13 years, Steve has become increasingly immersed in the zionist world, first as board chair of Philadelphia's Habonim Dror Camp Galil, then as secretary of the Habonim Dror Foundation. He has worked his way on to the national executive committee of the Labor Zionist Alliance and has become a delegate to the 100th World Zionist Congress. Steve can be contacted by e-mail at nevets2@aol.com.

What about others of our classmates? Please let me know your e-mail addresses when you send in your news.

Your correspondent has heard recently only from Carleton Carl and CCT, each asking for more class notes. But, it's your input that fills this column with the wonderfully lurid detail for which it was once so widely known. (We recognize that few of us would meet the College's current admissions standards, but just deal with it! Dick Jupa in finance in New York does. So can you.) Please report on your whereabouts. Send anecdotes. Tell on classmates. Don't save everything for our 35th reunion! Act now and we'll include the steak knives.

The new year arrived without fanfare or mail. So I beat the bushes (so to speak) and discovered that...

Bruce Bono is an attorney for the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Boston.

Scott Hammer M.D., after a lengthy stint at Harvard, returned to New York where he is now chief of the infectious diseases service at Columbia Presbyterian.

Frank Lowy M.D., continues to battle microbes at Montefiore Medical Center where he's an internist/infectious disease sub-specialist. He recently produced a fine review of Staph aureus infections for The New England Journal of Medicine.

Dave Rankin is a labor relations specialist for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Togus, Maine.

Greg Winn, with an M.A. from NYU and a Ph.D. from USC, is CEO of People to People International. He lives in Leawood, Kansas., with his wife, Neena, and three children.

For the next issue, I'd like to hear from Marty Cahill, Tony Ditaranto, Bob Halper, and Paul Witt. OK? OK?

Our 30th Reunion quickly approaches, and with it comes a cluster of completed questionnaires to help your class columnist.

After 20 years in industry, Peter O'Hare retired from AT&T and is now a high school principal in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J. "What a great job," he says.

At the end of 1997, Ken Krupsky left his post as deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury to join the law firm of Miller & Chevalier. He adds: "And no, I didn't know about Monica."

Stephan Bodian left the magazine Yoga Journal in 1994 after 10 years as editor-in-chief to devote himself to his private psychotherapy practice in San Francisco and Marin County, Calif. His third book, Meditation for Dummies, is being published this spring by IDG Books.

After serving as vice president of corporate communications for several high-tech firms, most recently CompuServe, Steve Conway took the plunge in early 1998 and started his own high-tech marketing communications company, "eponymously named Conway Communications."

Bill Tracy is heading up the real estate advisory group at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in New York. His primary focus is on the sale of resorts and golf courses for Asian clients. His older son, Thaddeus, graduated from the College in 1995.

After careers in music, banking and multimedia software, a stint at running his own company, and several years "of at all places, IBM," Woody Lewis is "having a lot of fun at Cisco Systems" as a senior solution architect.

Mark Kator "is proud" to now be president/CEO of the Isabella Geriatric Center in northern Manhattan, an organization with over 100 years of service to the elderly and its community. Before beginning his current position in August 1998, Mark had already spent close to 30 years in health care, most of which were in management in the public sector.

On to reunion, the best source of news of all.

On a personal note, after a year in exile in Princeton working as a vice president for Bristol-Myers Squibb's Worldwide Medicines Group, I'm back at corporate headquarters in New York doing litigation. According to my former roomie Mike Bradley, litigation suits my "combative, cynical, and heckling N.Y. nature." Mike, by the way, continues to live in rural northwest Massachusetts (Rowe) with his wife, Becky, and their three sons. They run a country inn/bed and breakfast all year round. It's ideal for skiers, hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts. Closer to home, Jim Periconi is now a partner at the Manhattan law firm of Windels, Marx, Davies & Ives.

On a festive note, fellow lawyers Phil Russotti, a prominent Manhattan trial lawyer, and Terry Sweeney, a fairly prominent N.Y. banking lawyer, joined me to celebrate the 50th birthday of Dennis Graham. Dennis himself orchestrated this tribute, held in a fancy ballroom of a posh hotel. There were over a hundred people, plus a band and a belly dancer. In addition, there was no bride to compete with the celebrant. It was great fun. We will put Dennis in charge of entertainment for our 30th reunion.

Steve Peterson has worked with Buck Consultants, now a subsidiary of Mellon Bank, for over 25 years. Buck provides a wide range of actuarial and employee benefit consulting services to large corporations and governmental units. Steve, currently a principal and consulting actuary, lived in N.Y.C. until ten years ago when he relocated to open Buck's Boston office. He lives in Milton with his wife, Dianne.

As our 30th reunion approaches, I expect our class to break out of its current funk and get re-energized for what promises to be the mother of all reunions. We need a theme for that event. Hopefully, one of you will come up with a better one than did Bill Poppe, another Manhattan lawyer/businessman and parent of footballer Will Poppe '00: "Still dirty after 30." Please send in your entries and news of your lives.

John Mazziota, M.D., Ph.D., was recently named founding director of the UCLA Brain Mapping Center. A professor of neurology, radiology, and pharmacology at that institution, his area of expertise is imaging of the human brain in health and disease. The new Brain Mapping Center combines all of the currently available methods for studying the human brain, its structure and function and represents an international resource for investigators of such topics. He has prepared or published seven books on the human brain, most recently, Human Brain Function, (Academic Press). He is currently writing a book for the general public about the brain to be published by the Dana Press. A member of the National Neurological Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Mazziotta has received numerous awards and recognition of his scientific work, the foundations of which, he says, were all found on the Morningside campus.

Gene Ross, having retired from his career as an ear, nose, and throat surgeon in 1996 because of spine problems, is on the verge of graduating from NYU Law School. He's already working in the intellectual property department of Rogers & Wells in Manhattan, where he'll be "taking up permanent roost." On the personal side, he writes, "My wife of 16 years is as beautiful as ever; my three sons are all doing well at school and sports, and are in the process of becoming Bar Mitzvot." Regardless of his degrees in medicine from Mt. Sinai and law from NYU, Gene says "I shall forever consider Morningside Heights my true academic home." He's looking forward to joining the reunion committee for our 30th in 2002.

Gene has been in touch with Mike Gerrard, an environmental law partner at Arnold & Porter; Jon Beckerman '73, a geriatric social worker in Queens; and John Robbart '73, who is starting a linguistics software company in California. Andrew Kaslow has been appointed senior vice president of human resources for Time Warner Inc., having held similar positions at Pepsico Inc. and at Becton Dickinson and Co. In his new role, he'll be responsible for managing all facets of human resources at the corporate level of the world's leading media company. After graduating from the College, Andrew received an M.A. in music and a Ph.D. in behavioral science from Columbia.

Joel Feigin, whose work as a composer we follow regularly in this column, had his Mosaic in Two Panels performed by the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin. The concert took place at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where Joel is an associate professor of music.

Please take advantage of the convenience of e-mail to send your class notes. Gene Ross is the first member of the class to do so, and now that he's broken the ice, I hope others will soon follow suit.

Carter Eltzroth is with Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP in Belgium; his full address is 165 Avenue Louise, 1050 Brussels, Belgium. His e-mail address is celtzroth@ssd.com.

The alumni office has only sent me the reunion questionnaires returned by last January, but already 10 percent of the class has responded, with half saying they will definitely be at the reunion and another quarter of the class saying they may attend!

Some may be coming just for the dinner cruise around Manhattan on Friday night, while others will only be at the Saturday night gala in Low Library. I suspect many will come and relive the old days by staying the weekend in Furnald Hall. Whatever your choice, don't miss out on your 25th reunion!

The reunion questionnaires brought responses from many classmates not heard from in a long while.

From the West Coast, Louis Klonsky (married, two kids) wrote that he is a staff geologist for Chevron in Bakersfield, Calif. Marc Reston (married, three kids) lives in Alameda, Calif., and is a managing director at D'Accord Financial Services. Richard Arthur (married, one kid) normally lives in New York, but is working in Alameda, Calif., as president of CyberTran International. He writes, "I'm putting together a new form of automated light-weight, high-speed transit to provide commuter rail service in Southern California."

Moving East, Matt Movsesian (single) tells me he is a physician/scientist at the University of Utah. He says that the most valuable books he's read since graduation were the ones that introduced him to Buddhism. Mark Rantala (married, two kids), in Ohio, has sold his real estate firm, Rantala & Co., to his old employer, CB Richard Ellis Commercial Real Estate. Mark is now a vice-president and director of the retail services of their Cleveland office. He also squeezes in time to be a youth soccer coach.

Responses from the D.C. area naturally were mostly lawyers. William Stein (married, one kid) is a partner of the D.C. law firm of Hughs, Hubbard & Reed. He also serves as the firm's pro bono coordinator. Vic Fortuno (married, three kids) is general counsel at the Legal Services Corporation in D.C. His eldest son, Adam, is now at St. Joseph's University. Ken Marks (married, one kid) is a lawyer living in Reston, Va. Julio Castillo (married) is the executive director of the District of Columbia's Public Employee Relations Board. He remains active on the board of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington.

Further north, we hear from Steve DeCherney (married, four kids), a doctor who is also director of the research center of the Christiana Care Health System in Delaware. Doug Birch (married, one kid) is a science reporter living in Baltimore. He still makes time for running and photography.

Jumping to New England, John Hostage (single) wrote that he is a librarian at the Harvard Law School Library. Harvey Weiner (married, one kid) is a software engineer for VERITAS software, also in Cambridge.

Bruce Brennan (single) says he has a private practice in internal medicine in Connecticut, and that he is "happily single, so I'm able to use all my vacation time for travel -- 26 countries and counting. I'm also a pick-up basketball fanatic at the Yale University gym." James Kort (married, three kids) continues to practice orthopedics in Connecticut. His eldest daughter, Rachel, is a freshman at Dartmouth.

There were so many responses from the New York area that I'll have to save some for another column. Rob Stevens (married, two kids), is still president of One Stone Productions in N.Y.C. He just completed production (with Yoko Ono) of The John Lennon Anthology as well as the new LP of the rap/hip-hop band Belizbeha. Rob says he plays ball with his two sons on South Field at Columbia while his wife reads on the library steps. "Being an alumnus has its privileges," he writes. Albie Hecht (married, two kids) is living in Montclair, N.J., and is president of the film and entertainment division of Nickelodian. He is also on the board of the Children's Museum of Los Angeles.

Mark Mehler (single) is a professor of neurology, neuroscience and psychiatry at the Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. He writes he is involved in "innovative research on neural progenitor cell biology" and -- get this -- "the development of novel brain transplantation and regenerative strategies." Stephen O'Connor (married, two kids) lives in the Columbia area. He wrote that taking Kenneth Koch's "Imaginative Writing" course led him to become a writer; he is now an associate professor of fiction writing at Lehman College and Rutgers.

A poignant note came from Victor Klymenko (married, two kids) who lives in Short Hills, N.J., and is a financial consultant for Merrill Lynch. He also serves as a cubmaster and athletic coach. "Just after the first of the year, my youngest son was diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia," Vic wrote. "This diagnosis was the equivalent of an all-out assault on all of my family's beliefs on what is real."

I'll close with a note from a classmate that we haven't heard from in a quarter of a century: Don Koblitz. Don e-mailed from Berlin that he studied Asian studies and law at Stanford, and then clerked for William Bryant of the D.C. Federal District Court. Later he went to the State Department's legal office, where he investigated "spy trades, Central American massacres, and Nazi war crimes," and then spent a final year helping negotiate the reunification of Germany in 1990. Don is now in private practice in Germany, and has lately been doing international negotiations for Volkswagon. His spare time all goes into renovations of a ruined pre-war villa in the former East Germany.

I didn't have space to report on all the news sent in, but I'll get to everyone in future columns. Hope to see you June 4-6 and remember: three out of four of the above classmates said they either will be or are considering attending the reunion!

Acting on the principle that staying busy enough will keep you out of trouble, I have agreed to serve as class correspondent.

I will start with the news I have, which is my own. I remain happily married to the former Jacqueline Laks '77 Barnard: we have two children, a dreamy second grader named Colin and a down-to-earth preschooler, Caitlin. (Photos or macaroni art available upon request.) This is our eighth year living at the edge of the great plains, about 60 miles west of Chicago, where, for some wacky reason, the English Department at Northern Illinois University saw fit to give me tenure a couple of years ago; Jackie is a freelance editor. Life in farm country is about as different as possible from life on the Upper West Side, but it grows on you. If we had an Indian restaurant and a Korean grocery, we would hardly feel nostalgic at all.

I will be after as many classmates as I can for news. Though no one who has a real life has any time to spare, it takes so little effort to get in touch with CCT that it seems worth finding the five minutes to let us all know what you have been doing.

For those who live beyond the immediate metropolitan area, one of New York's finest (and a member of the Class of 1981) was featured prominently in The New York Times (January 27, 1999) as an Ivy League policeman. Lieutenant Adam Kasanof has been a police officer in New York City since the early 1980s, and like other officers with prestigious degrees followed his passion by joining the force. In addition to his work on the front line of law enforcement, Adam returned to Columbia in 1988 for his law degree.

I am sure that no two days are alike for Mr. Kasanof...which brings me to my next topic. If there are other graduates from the Class of 1981 who are pursuing non-traditional careers, please let us know. Our class was (and is) diverse, and we all benefit from each person's pursuits.

Conrad Ramos had a busy 1998! He got married on July 4 in Montreal and was promoted to export manager at Sun Chemical. Conrad and his wife reside in New Jersey.

By now Arie Michelson should have completed his last year of law school at George Washington University. He was also working full-time at an intellectual property law firm. Prior to law school, Arie received a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular neurobiology at Caltech. Arie plans to work for one year at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Wayne Root reports that he is an author, business speaker, entrepreneur and television sportscaster on the USA TV network. Wayne has appeared four times on ABC's Politically Incorrect, where he has debated such notables as rapper Ice T, actress Cathy Moriarty, author Calvin Trillin, and Melrose Place star Rob Estes.

Wayne is currently writing his fourth book, Throwing Grandpa From the Plane, about his skydiving adventures with his 92-year-old grandfather. Wayne and his grandfather recently appeared on The Rosie O'Donnell Show and the Rev. Robert Schuller's Hour of Power.

Michael Coudreaut wrote from Salt Lake City. After graduating from Columbia he went to Columbia Medical School and then did his residency in psychiatry at UCLA. He then served in the U.S. Air Force at Hill AFB in Utah for three years. Now out of the military, he currently works at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City.

Lane S. Palmer wrote from Great Neck, N.Y., where he practices pediatric urologic surgery. He is also an assistant professor of urology and pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is married to Lisa Menasse-Palmer, M.D., a pediatrician and clinical geneticist. They have two children, Samantha, 6, and Robert, 2.

Mark Fallick of Cherry Hill, N.J., has finished his urology residency and fellowship in male infertility and has joined the Center for Urologic Care in Voorhees, N.J. He and his wife, Dana, are happy to be back in the Northeast after spending a year in Houston where Mark completed his fellowship.

Mark included updates on fellow '85 grads. David Slossberg is working as an attorney in Connecticut. He and his wife, Gayle, have two sons and a daughter. Andrew Lund lives in Manhattan where he is an attorney. He recently wrote and directed his second short film. Howie Rappaport works in real estate development. Marty Moskovitz, who recently finished his plastic surgery fellowship, is working at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston as a plastic surgeon.

Joel Feldman wrote from Springfield, Mass., and included some newspaper clippings containing articles published about the law firm he co-founded. His firm provides legal representation to very-low income residents. They do not charge their clients retainers but instead litigate cases where they can recover attorney's fees from defendants they sue. The firm focuses on tenants' rights, consumer rights, employee rights and discrimination cases in housing, employment and public accommodations.

David Ordan is living in Jerusalem, where he is studying for ordination as an orthodox rabbi. He says he has a great wife and two little boys, Menachem, 28 months and Yehuda, 11 months. I received a printout of an e-mail from David. Unfortunately, part of his message did not print. If I have left anything out from your message, David, please write me.

Larry Rogers is teaching at an English language school in Japan. After leaving the Marines in 1992, Larry got an M.A. in English literature from SUNY Albany and an M.A. in education from Union College in Schenectady. He asked any '85ers in Japan to contact him, until June 1, 1999, at #202 Parkside Tatuse 2-30-25; Sagamigaoka, Zama Shi; Kanagawa Ken 228; Japan.

Paul Wojcicki e-mailed of his doings since graduation. After attending DePaul Law School, he became an associate and then a partner at Segal McCambridge Singer & Mahoney in Chicago. One of his cases was even reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court. He's celebrating his tenth wedding anniversary with Tricia McWilliams, with whom he has two children, Erin and Jenna, with a third on the way.

Staying with lawyers, we congratulate another new partner, Bill Seligman, at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in New York, where he focuses on real estate. Congrats also to Raj Seth -- he and wife Cecile Major announced the birth of their first child, Ryan.

On the high-tech front, Michael Gat is living in Mountain View, Calif., and working with Hewlett-Packard's Pavilion Home PC unit in Cupertino. When he's not flying airplanes on the side, Michael analyzes and interprets customer feedback for practical use in HP's tri-annual new product launches. And he's proud to claim that he still doesn't own a suit.

We have to congratulate Claire Shipman for being named a recipient of a John Jay Award from the College. I also spotted Claire photographed with her new husband, Jay Carney, in their Washington D.C. home in W magazine. (I knew my subscription would pay off one day!) She is White House correspondent at NBC; Carney is a congressional reporter for Time. They met in Moscow when she was at CNN and he was covering Russia for Time. Later, in 1994, they both ended up in D.C. as competing White House reporters. They spent a three-week honeymoon in Russia, Greece and Italy.

Douglas A. Cifu had a wonderful 1998. He reported via e-mail in December, "I was just elected to the partnership at the New York law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where I have worked in the corporate department since my graduation from Columbia Law School in 1990. I will continue my corporate practice representing a wide range of clients in connection with public and private mergers & acquisitions and corporate finance transactions.

"In addition, and of much more significance, I'm engaged to marry a wonderful woman, Melissa Lautenberg, whose only fault is that she attended Lafayette College (and even worse Penn Law) instead of our alma mater. Melissa is a vice president in the private equity group of Credit Suisse First Boston in New York.

"I've also kept in touch with a number of my KDR [Kappa Delta Rho] brothers from '87 including Reino Truumees, who just had his first baby, Bruce Furukawa, who is practicing law in San Francisco, John Sun, who is a daddy of two and doing great on the West Coast, and Ronnie ("the man") Burton and Ed Ho '84 (honorary KDRs), who are both hard at work in New York as a lawyer and banker, respectively."

Tom Lane, who like Douglas graduated from Columbia Law in 1990, has been working on some interesting things, both on and off the job. "I'm working as broadcast counsel for CBS Broadcasting Inc., working on entertainment, sports and news contracts and other transactional work," he e-mailed. "I've been at CBS for two years, and I spent the previous four years in Washington D.C., as director of business affairs for National Geographic Television, a job which required me to travel to Cannes several times a year for film festivals. Why I gave that all up, I'll never know, but CBS offers plenty of exciting opportunities.

"I've also been writing screenplays, have optioned one to a producer in Hollywood, and have retained an agent to sell another. I'm starting a small company with a few friends of mine in the movie and TV business to run an annual screenplay contest and offer script consultation services. In what time I have left, I play bass in a jazz combo called Fatback, and enjoy living in N.Y.C. with my girlfriend, Evelyn."

He asks that all the writers out there keep their eyes open for "The Great American Screenplay Contest" and all the music lovers to keep their ears open for Fatback.

In September, Margaret McCarthy and her partner, Kate Chason, had their second daughter, Rebecca Chason-McCarthy, joining Hannah Chason-McCarthy, who turned 4 in March. Like the aforementioned Tom and Douglas, Margaret attended the Law School. After graduating in 1989, she had been working as a defense attorney. Recently, however, she switched sides and joined the Ithaca city prosecutor's office, handling misdemeanor cases and traffic infractions. Ithaca suits her. "I like that I can walk to work. It's really beautiful, there are a lot of pretty waterfalls and a lot of things for kids to do," she said.

Sandy Asirvatham, a former Metrotone, has stayed in touch with quite a few people, including some who lived with us freshman year on the ninth floor of Carman. Mirella Huber, who came to Sandy's wedding in the fall of 1997, owns a computer company, Random Technologies Corporation, in Los Angeles. Sandy also stays in touch with Andrea Solomon, a fellow Metrotone and now an assistant dean of students at the School of General Studies, and Becky Smith, married to Chuck Laber and now known as Becky Laber-Smith, who is a school psychologist living north of Portland in Maine, her home state. The Laber-Smiths were expecting their first baby in April.

Anne Cartwright, another alum of 9 Carman, married Colin Redhead '85. They recently moved from Boston to Mt. Kisco, New York, and they have two children, Andrew, 3, and Matthew, 7 months in March. Sandy's sister, Sulochana B'91, is still in touch occasionally with Rick Russell, who's living in the Boston area and producing educational CD-ROMs.

Sandy recently brunched with Kevin Hovland and Sharon Block, who live in Washington with their 3-year-old twins, Charlotte and Eli. Sandy is still good friends with Keith Thomson, who is living in New York, writing scripts (and selling a few to Hollywood), making short films and low-budget features when he can, and patiently awaiting his first big directorial break.

Sandy and her husband visited Lowell Kaufman in San Francisco in January. Lowell is working in the computer software industry and dreaming of moving to Utah to open a live-music nightclub. She also reported that Arthur Nielsen is giving up lawyering to attend business school at UCLA.

Sandy also detailed the major events leading to her aforementioned wedding: "Five and half years ago, my friend Andy Day '86, introduced me to Kevin Donovan '87E. I recognized him from school -- he'd worked for dining services, and I could picture him wearing his little white and blue cap -- but he had no idea who I was. (He was a Bacchantae rather than a Metrotone loyalist, the poor fool.)

"In any case, we've been absurdly happy together since our first date (we hiked Breakneck Ridge up near Cold Spring, N.Y.) and decided to get the law involved in September '97. We have since merged bank accounts but our CD collections remain separate."

The couple live in Baltimore. Kevin's a mechanical engineer working for a small electronics firm in Columbia, Md., and Sandy has been "slowly working my way up the food chain as a freelance writer." She writes a biweekly column, Underwhelmed, at www.citypaper.com. The January/February issue of Poets & Writers magazine featured her profile of novelist Caryl Phillips, and she's slated to do one of Paul Auster '63 later this year. "I'm also teaching piano lessons to some little budding Mozarts, and studying with a teacher of my own so that my students don't catch up with me too quickly."

Laurie Gershon sent me wonderful information for the last issue. Unfortunately, I made some careless errors in typing the information up. For the record, Mia MacDonald's husband is Martin Rowe (not Rose), and Barbara DiDomenico married Chris Geary in 1998 (not 1997). My apologies to all involved, and I hope this doesn't discourage folks from continuing to make such great contributions. Please keep the news coming.

Who among us isn't grateful for the opportunity to have gone to Columbia? Well, maybe the 10 of us who played four years of football have some second thoughts, but generally speaking, the good things outweigh the bad.

In carrying that logic a step further, who among us would actually be admitted to Columbia if they applied today? I mean, even the football players are better now. Recently, I've spent a little bit of time volunteering to interview applicants to the College and Engineering, and I'm astounded by the quality of those who are not accepted. Most all prospective students are aware that acceptance is a fantastic opportunity, not only for their résumés, but also for their lives. About this, they are passionate, intelligent, and incredibly devout.

After several years of doing interviews, I've come to the following conclusion: NO WAY would I get into the College today.

If you're missing my point, what I mean to say is that slowly but surely, I've become more grateful for my four years at Camp Columbia.

Also, I want to encourage all of you to volunteer to assist your local alumni groups in interviewing applicants, going to college fairs, or mentoring current students. For a modest donation of your time, you actually get a tangible reward. It makes you realize just how lucky we are.

Of course, I have plenty of time to talk to 18-year-olds because nobody writes me anymore. And if I don't start to get some updates from people, I don't know. I will be forced to rely on writing ad nauseum about Mssrs. Putelo, Sodl, Bissinger and the rest of the football team.

With that warning, I'm happy to say that Doug Wolf, who I didn't know, sent in an update. (This Doug was the one who majored in physics, not the one who was captain of the basketball team.) He has just made partner in the intellectual property law firm of Wolf, Greenfield, Sacks in Boston.

Paul DeFrino writes from Dallas where he's just wed and is finishing his orthopedic training at Baylor, specializing in foot and ankle surgery. After a year there, he and his wife, Daniela, will be moving back to my hometown, Chicago.

And finally, if you didn't see it, US News & World Report did a very nice piece on Michael Satow in its January issue. The magazine's "Outlooks 1999" profile of Michael focuses on his entrepreneurial effort, Eclipse Trading. Eclipse is an on-line venture that allows investors to take advantage of the overnight price swings in the stock market, once the sole territory of the big trading firms. It was a very interesting article about a very interesting idea, and being one of the greatest underdogs in the history of collegiate athletics, I always like it when someone strikes a blow for the little guy.

No doubt, many of you are familiar with Ling of Ally McBeal fame. Well... Ling's real name is Lucy Liu, and, you guessed it, she's the sister of our very own John Liu, who attended the Golden Globe Awards ceremony as Lucy's escort. John reports that after arriving in a limo with the entire Ally McBeal cast, it took them well over an hour just to get down the red carpet, owing to the onslaught of photographers and interviewers stopping them at every step. "It was crazy," noted John. "It was like step, stop, pose, smile big, rotate slowly: pose, turn, pose, turn, then step, and all over again." When not mingling with the likes of Cameron Diaz, Angelina Jolie, and Faye Dunaway, John is jetting around Asia, stopping in Korea, Hong Kong, and Indonesia on business, and having custom suits made!

Michael Glikes recently completed his second U.S. Marine Corps Marathon in 3:20, two minutes slower than his previous year's time, owing to warmer weather and pulled hamstrings. Michael received an M.P.A. from George Washington and is now in his third year with the Environmental Protection Agency, where he writes materials for the public on pesticides. Michael has been running 10Ks, 10 milers, and half marathons, and he usually finishes in the top 10 percent for his age group. In his most recent marathon, he finished in the top 5 percent of all male finishers. Michael says he likes Washington but is looking forward to his upcoming two-week vacation in Australia. We look forward to a full report.

Kristi (Hilgaertner) Wedemeyer and her husband recently relocated to Peachtree City, Ga. Kristi tells how the two met. For background, Kristi had been living and acting in New York since graduation, and earned an M.F.A. from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She took a temporary hiatus from acting and took church ministry full time. Then she met an "amazing man" who was finishing up seminary in Princeton and who soon became her husband. Kristi has returned to acting, performing with professional theaters in town and working in commercials and industrial films. She notes that while they have no children, the two tend to their adorable canine, a Benji lookalike.

Roberts Grava's wife, Iveta, who he met when she was singing in a Latvian choir performance at Lincoln Center in 1987, gave birth to their first child, a son, Niklavs Uldis Grava, in November. After living in New York for two years, they have relocated to Latvia, where Roberts is a member of the executive board and head of the foreign exchange department at the Bank of Latvia, the country's central bank, for whom he has worked for the last five years. He was elected to the executive board over three years ago and has expanded his responsibility to include monetary policy and commercial bank supervision. Roberts manages the country's foreign exchange reserves and conducts currency interventions. One might surmise that Roberts has put his Columbia economics degree to good use.

Bill McGee apologizes in advance to classmates for missing reunion, owing to the fact that he and his wife, Elizabeth, will be in the process of relocating to Baton Rouge, where Bill has accepted a position as history teacher and head football coach of The Episcopal School of Baton Rouge. The move, Bill reports, is more "weather-based." He held similar positions at Lake Forest Academy in northern Illinois, but he will also be in the process of "rebuilding an unsuccessful football program...something that has become old hat" for Bill since his Columbia days. If anyone plans on visiting the area, Bill encourages you to look him up.

Danielle Maged writes that she's been meaning to write for the past three years! After spending five years with the National Basketball Association, Danielle returned to Columbia for business school, despite never thinking that would happen. Since then she's held a number of roles, but being unable to kick the sports bug, Danielle has settled into being vice president of marketing for Madison Square Garden. And yes, her office is on top of the Garden. Previously, she was working for ESPN International in strategic planning, where she found herself traveling too much, and then at an electronic commerce Internet company. She reports that classmate Jon Dwyer, recently engaged, and Duane Barsch are roommates in Manhattan Beach, Calif. Bob Giannini recently left Manhattan Beach to head north to take a job in San Francisco and he's moved in with Bart Barnett '90.

Life in New York is great for Donna (Herlinsky) MacPhee and her family. She and John have two girls, Larissa and Alexa, ages 4 and 2. John continues work with Forest Labs where he is a product director. Two years ago, Donna co-founded a small event and meeting planning company. Donna reports that Lee Feldman and his wife, Suzanne, had a baby boy, Henry, on December 31, 1998. Elana Amsterdam lives on Central Park West with her son, Jake. Dawn (Muchmore) Conception continues to live in Connecticut with her husband, Louis. Emily Miles Terry and Dave Terry '90 have a baby girl, Julia, and they are living in Cambridge.

Liz Pleshette will soon be graduating from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at University of Texas at Austin. She is writing her master's on sustainable, socially equitable and environmentally sound economic development. As she contemplates careers, Liz would love to run a socially conscious mutual fund or investment bank in a few years. That, or run a bar/restaurant on a small tropical island that caters to tourists. Either way, Liz notes, Columbia grads would get a deal.

LaShauna (Bryant) McIntosh writes in on herself and a number of classmates. LaShauna is an OB-GYN practicing in Delaware, and recently ran into -- or shall we say "pliéd"-- Mimi Rogers at a ballet class. LaShauna also notes that Kamil Poorman is a lawyer in Bethesda, Md. Sheila Choi, who is an architect living in New York, will be getting married in June. Joanne Ooi is living in Hong Kong and is expecting. Meg Lockwood is living in the Bay Area, working for Hewlett-Packard.

LaShauna is doing a great job of rounding up the above mentioned folks to make it to reunion, and is looking forward to seeing everyone there. Cheers for now!

My apologies to all of you whose news is being reported much later than it was submitted. So little time, so much to do. Anyway,...

Craig Nobert began his residency at Cornell Medical Center in New York City and Lisa Dabney, his wife, finished her residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. Kirsten Mellor is a corporate and securities attorney specializing in high tech and entrepreneurial companies and venture capital financings at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, in Boston.

Matt Less and his wife, Julene, were blessed with a beautiful and healthy daughter, Madeline Anise, who at birth weighed in a 8 lbs. even, and was 191/2 inches long. Mom and dad are enjoying the new challenge.

Carlos Riobo received his Ph.D. from Yale in Romance language and is now an assistant professor at SUNY Binghamton.

Emilie Ast left Mississippi for St. Paul, Minn., where she is writing for a Catholic newspaper. Any other grads in the Twin Cities?

Eleni Demetriou was married to John Passalaris, brother of Tina Passalaris. The pair were set up at the five-year reunion! Judy Shampanier, Judy Bernstein, Jennifer Lee and lots of others attended.

Dan Sackrowitz and Peter Neisuler spent the summer taking the Trans-Siberia Railway to Beijing where Joel Tranter was to meet up with them.

Isaac Astrachan is back in New York from France and is working at an architecture firm and liking it.

After Eleni's honeymoon, she, Judy S., Rachel Cowan, Isaac and Robin (with husband Mike and Maya, 3, and Aaron, 16 months) had a blast together at Café
Pertutti.

Jill Mazza gave birth to a baby girl, Zoe; her husband, Tod, finally managed to drag her out of Brooklyn to the Burlington,
Vermont area.

E.J. Acholonu is doing a general surgery residency at Howard University in D.C., but extended the agony (her words) of residency by doing a two year research fellowship at Allegheny University in Philly. Actually, she says that she really enjoys the surgery and the diverse work despite the long hours and frequent on-call nights.

Stan McCloy loves running his own private pediatric practice in Ohio.

Gerg Palega is married to Mary Lynn Trifaro (now Palega) and they have a beautiful daughter named Hailey Elizabeth, 2. Greg is practicing internal medicine in Wilmington, N.C., and spends most of his spare time ocean kayaking! Mary loves staying home with Hailey full-time. He also reports that Mike Anastasio was recently married and that Betsy and Scott Buitekant have a cute little girl, Emily Elizabeth, 1.

In a new feature I'm starting this issue, the first '90 grad to tell me who gave the following quote in our class yearbook, The 1990 Columbian, will win a prize to be named later. The quote comes from Willie Wonka: "So much time, so little to do. Wait! Strike that...reverse it."

This won't be the world's longest column as sadly, I only have an e-mail and a letter to report since last issue. However, I have a little news myself. I'm now back in the world of private practice of law, having rejoined the New York law firm of Proskauer Rose LLP as a litigator. Stay tuned, true believers...

Clare Deegan-Kent and her husband, Bob, have relocated to Bethel, Conn. Bob is a lawyer and Clare refers to herself as an MBA Mom, having obtained her MBA from the University of California only four weeks after giving birth to her daughter, Audrey Anne Kent, on April 8,1998. Congratulations on both fronts, Clare (and Bob).

Ashish Jha is living in San Francisco, having graduated from Harvard Medical School and finished the second year of his residency at the University of California at San Francisco. Ashish says that he has been hanging out with Jon Dowell, a recent graduate of Berkeley's Bolt Law school, who is now working for a law firm downtown.

Ashish reports that Matthew Grant is also living in Berkeley and working for a software company, that Tanya Froehlich is finishing up medical school at Yale and recently visited San Francisco to interview for pediatric residency programs, and that Tanya Nieri is living in Phoenix and working at that state's office of the auditor general. (Tanya recently had to recover from the "trauma" of snow in Phoenix.) Finally Ashish reported that Randa Zakhary is interning in neurosurgery at UCSF.

Ashish and Clare, thanks for helping me fill the column this month.

Some of you may have read the very moving article in The New York Times about our classmate Mike Sardo, who had been battling leukemia and is now planning a wedding. Nothing I could write in this space could ever do justice to the story of his journey with fiancée and fellow Columbia athlete Kathleen Johnson. But I would like to share with the class the news that there is a Mike Sardo Fund set up at the Institute for International Sports (P.O. Box 104 Kingston, R.I. 02881-0104). I wish them both happiness and many blessings for their future together.

It was John Cerza, former Columbia football player and now an attorney in Belleville, N.J., who let me know about Mike. Cerza, it turns out, is also engaged, to a fellow attorney, and is planning a July wedding. He dropped a few words about some other KDRs: Ed Turro, formerly known as "Cruiser," I'm told, is an associate in Cerza's firm. Gus Leming, Cerza says, is one of the best-known and most respected personal trainers/philosophers in the area.

Cameron Meierhoffer lives in Washington, D.C., and is doing work in public policy. Sang Ji and Vic Fleischer are attorneys in New York. Sang is married now, and is the father of a newborn boy. Cerza predicts that Vic will one day become the dean of Columbia. Joe Ori, also a lawyer, is living in Chicago.

Cerza spotted Neil Turitz (a regular in these pages) on CNN, on the Jumbotron at Rangers games, and on U.S. magazine bylines. Alan Freeman, an attorney in Washington, D.C., announced that he was married in October to Remy Ruskin. They live with their three-year-old beagle, Morgan, in Bethesda, Md. The guest list at the nuptials included Alan Cohn, Dan Donshik, Joel Lusman, Cesar Perez, Andy Schmeltz, Jen Friedman, Adam Towvim '92, and Mia Kogan'93B.

Here's one more lawyer for good measure...The firm of Arter and Hadden issued a press release on the appointment of Oliver Cheng as a first-year associate at the firm's office in Irvine, Calif. Oliver, who graduated from UCLA Law School in 1998, will be working in the firm's intellectual property and corporate securities groups.

In the large stack of reunion questionnaires that landed in my mailbox I found responses from 10 lawyers/law students, six doctors/med students, six graduate students, five bankers/analysts/
consultants, four people working at magazines and other publications, four business students, three people in marketing, three teachers, one police officer, one recruiting officer and one manager of board relations for a conservatory of music.

Studying in the public interest law program at UCLA law school and loving it is Kim Worobec. Since graduation, Chi-Chun David Lee has worked for a non-profit in New York, worked and studied in Taiwan, and attended Yale Law School. From September 1999 to September 2000, Chi-Chun will clerk for a federal appellate court judge. Emilie Hsu graduated Columbia Law School in 1997, passed the bar and worked as an associate at Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam & Roberts. Since September 1998 she has been working as an associate at Debevoise & Plimpton.

Brian Schenberg is a med student at SUNY Brooklyn. Paul Bollyky is in medical school and living in Cambridge, Mass. Dee Dee Wu is a doctor working at Montefiore Medical Center, and Laura Elisa Horvath is a physician, internal medicine, at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her husband, David Hunter Matthews, is also a physician.

Elizabeth Bergman is a grad student in music at Yale University; she plans to marry Buckley Harris Crist, also a Yale Ph.D. candidate, in August 1999. They'll graduate in 2000. Elizabeth specializes in American music; Buckley in Renaissance Italian music. J. Shawn Landres is working as a research fellow in social anthropology at Mates Bel University in Slovakia. Annette Ostling, who recently entered her first mountain bike race, is in her fourth year of a Ph.D. program in physics in Illinois. She's researching string theory but is considering changing to a career path relevant to environmental issues. Roy Gal is a graduate student at Caltech.

John Jennings, returning to New York after a sojourn in southern California, is working as a municipal bond broker for Nori, Hennion, Walsh, Inc.

Jean Huang is in the millennium class at Harvard Business School, along with Matt Spielman, David Kraft and Eric Older. Allegra Wechsler is at Penn's Wharton School of Business (allegra@wharton.upenn.edu). Stacey Elin Rossi is currently at the University of St. Andrews, planning to receive a master's in management economics and politics. Before that, Stacey traveled quite a bit through the United States, Alaska, and Asia.

Rachael Combe is beauty editor at Mirabella magazine. She's living with Peter Hatch '92, across the street from Abigail Davis. Rachael often sees Stacey Jacovini, who just finished her architecture degree from Harvard, Josh Levy, who's finishing up at Michigan Law, Nicholas Keleman, who's finishing at Harvard's Graduate School of Divinity, and Kristan Lassiter, who's an attorney recruiting coordinator for Morrison & Foerster. Rachael writes that Naomi Meckler is at NYU Medical School.

Stephanie Geosits received a master's in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government in June 1998. After spending the summer covering the Mets for the Associated Press, she became editor-in-chief of New York Yankees Publications.

After working for a professional sports agent in Chicago, Antony Lee Ambroza moved to Orlando in June 1998 to become director of marketing for Planet Hollywood International. In September 1998 he and Cheryl Reed became engaged.

Regina Chi is engaged to James F. Clancy; they plan to get married in September. Regina is vice president at Clay Finlay Inc. in New York. Marina Gurin, an assistant marketing manager at BMG Direct, also plans a September 1999 wedding, to law clerk Erik Groothuis.

Returning to her southern California hometown two years ago Leticia Tomas Bustillos is teaching elementary school and plans to complete the master's in education in the spring of 2000. She married John Ross Bustillos, a graduate of USC's Marshall School of Business, in March 1998, and the USC marching band played at the reception. David Eisenbach is teaching courses, such as American history and Shakespeare's tragedies, at the Manhattan School of Music.95?

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95
Janet Frankston
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First, the accountant Rich Altman passed the fourth part of the CPA exam and is on his way to becoming certified. He's also finishing up his last classes for an MBA in accounting and finance and expects to be done by this summer.

As for the doctors, Robert Jawetz and his wife, the former Sheryl Chesney '95B, are celebrating the birth of their baby girl, Dina Michelle Jawetz, born on November 6, 1998, weighing six pounds, seven ounces. Both Sheryl and Robert will graduate from P&S this May and will be pursuing residencies in pediatrics. They are now living in Riverdale, N.Y., with their baby.

On to the actors. Congratulations to Gladys Chen and Matt Eddy '94 (who is technically in our class). They received good reviews in The New York Times in February for Making Tracks, a musical that celebrates the Asian-American immigrant. The book and concept are by Welly Yang '94, who also stars in the show (see page 6).

I am happy to report that my desperate plea for more information has been heard and extend a warm thank you to all who wrote in.

Jodi Kantor is currently taking a leave from her first year at Harvard Law School to write for Slate magazine (www.slate.com) in Washington, D.C., about both news and the media. She reports that Rose Kob is also at Harvard Law; Frank Foer is reporting on Congress for U.S. News & World Report; Will Savage is in his third year at Cornell Medical School; Gen Connors is working as a management consultant in London; and Jodi Heyman has moved to Israel for good, getting a degree in social work in Jerusalem. Erin Miles is in Jerusalem as well, in her first year of cantor school.

Wendy Lefko worked as an editorial assistant at MTV networks for two years after graduation, but last summer decided to go back to our alma mater to get a master's at the Journalism School. Melissa Gajarsa is working as an administrative assistant at an Internet Design Company in New York. For the last three years Dorota Ostrowska has been doing graduate work in French film and literature at Cambridge and Oxford, and is currently in the second year of her Ph.D. program at Queen's College, Oxford. Dorota is planning on doing research in Paris in the near future, but in the meantime she would like to get in touch with fellow '96ers in the U.K. She can be contacted at dorota.ostrowska@queens.ox.ac.uk.

Feeling a bit sad about not interacting with many of his fellow classmates anymore, Arnold Kim decided to learn web scripting and designed a website (http://www.cugrads.com) designed to keep Columbia alums in contact. It is open not only to '96ers, but also to all graduates of the College, SEAS, and Barnard. You should all check it out -- it sounds like a great idea.

Lisa Moore graduated from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago in 1998, and received a master's in public policy. During that time, she worked for the Chicago Housing Authority, and interned at HUD in Washington, D.C. She is now an evaluator for the U.S. General Accounting Office in Atlanta. Lisa would like to get in touch with Clayton Hopkins, so if anyone knows his contact info, please email Lisa at moorel.atlro@gao.gov.

Moha Desai is working as a consultant at Price Waterhouse Coopers, along with Michael Choi. Moha had news of many other classmates: Alex Leuca, still avoiding business school, is currently at Solomon Smith Barney; Geoff DuVaul has been very entreprenuerial since graduation and has started a cheesecake franchise with a partner; Mark Levine and Steve Weinrich are currently enjoying their new promotions at Chase and Morgan Stanley, respectively; Noha EI-Gobashy is still living and working in Long Island; Evan Matler is still a sportscaster in North Carolina; Yannis Mancheras is finishing up his third year at Tulane Law School; and Sam Ryan, after being in Washington, D.C. for a couple or years writing for a staunch Republican paper, is now in London working at the London Economic Times.

I'm happy to report, dear classmates, that thanks to a few of your '97 cohorts, this has been the newsiest and easiest-to-write column thus far!

Derek Brinkman is doing well as a first-year student at P&S. At the time of his letter, his buddy Tim Hogan was in the midst of a job hunt in Manhattan, and Jenny Bemesderfer was starting an M.D./Ph.D. at Harvard.

Alli Jaffin sent me a lovely e-mail on what she and several other classmates are doing. Alli lives in the West Village and works in the philanthropy department of Bloomberg Financial Markets; in her free time she enjoys yoga and painting classes.

She also told me about Seth Unger, who not only works at the Red Hot Organization (a record label whose proceeds benefit AIDS organizations) but he also manages the band Project Nim (which includes Aaron Dessner '98) and runs a label called Messenger Records with Brandon Kessler '96. Alli suggested that everyone should support Seth's efforts by checking out Dirt Floor, the latest release on Messenger by artist Chris Whitley (formerly on Sony).

Alli reported that John Coletti and Jim Curran started a Web design company with Jeff Gale '96 and are living in Brooklyn with Tony Roach.

Joshua Ross wrote to me about "a truly enlightening and wonderful if sometimes lonely and terrifying experience:" spending four months traveling alone in India and Nepal. Now he works as a technical editor at DoubleClick, a booming Silicon Alley firm and the Internet's leading ad server.

Joshua mentioned that Daniel Kleinfeld is working as a director in the avant-garde theater scene downtown. His latest production, Shakespeare's King John, opened at The Present Company Theatorium in February.My final piece of news comes from Kerri Bauchner, who is in her second year at NYU Law. In addition to being a first-year law teaching assistant and co-chair of Law Women, the former captain of the Columbia cheerleading squad is also choreographing the Law Revue Show. (Kerri admittedly hasn't gotten all that dancing out of her system yet!) She will be working this summer at Kaye, Scholer as well as at Proskauer Rose, and was recently accepted to do a federal clerkship in the southern district of New York upon graduation in 2000. She plans on living with Allyson Baker '95, who switched from Cornell to NYU Law.

Let's start with our class's first official engagement announcements: Fencing champ Noah Zucker and his fiancée Katherine Lee '97, recently purchased an apartment in Brooklyn Heights and live with their dog, Schmenky; Noah works as a marketing associate for a Silicon Alley firm called Vault Reports (www.vaultreports.com). "We have an online recruiting system that everyone reading class notes should sign up for on our website (it's free)," he says. Kathy works for Lehman Brothers at the World Financial Center.

My fellow Hartley-Wallach RA Mark Popovsky and Ilana Nossel wrote to announce their wedding, which takes place this May. Mark is busy finishing his first semester at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Ilana is wrapping up her year as co-director of Lights in Action,a Jewish educational program for college students. Ilana starts medical school at P&S this fall.

Noah provided an update for his fellow fencers: Dan Kellner is currently training to make the Olympic team for 2000 and works as a webmaster/graphic designer in the city. Nate Strauss works for Kenan Systems in Massachusetts. Ilana and Mark say friend Rebecca Nash is successfully finishing up her first year of med school at Mount Sinai.Other grads still in the City: Dahlia Jacobs lives on the Upper West Side with Alisa Shamske B'98, who is currently at Teachers College. Lizzy Simon has been busy in the art world -- producing, curating, and basically being a "twentysomething dynamo" of the arts (as she was called in the New York Press last fall). Liora Powers works for my parent company, Time Inc., as a marketing manager for Fortune and Money. Liora informed me that Lea Goldman works for her competitor Forbes downtown. She also updates the whereabouts of Kate Olivier, who teaches English in Madrid; Julia Lindenberg, who teaches science at the Emma Willard School in upstate New York; Cara Rosenbaum who's in Chicago at medical school; and E.J. Weppler, who hangs out with Liora at the New York Sports Club on the Upper West Side. He works for Andersen Consulting. Fellow Schapiro-2er Bob Welsh went on a cross-country bike trip last summer with Tina Hermos '97 and Brendan Killackey '96. Bob works for a marketing concern in Norwalk, Conn.