Summer 2024 Class Notes Preview: 1970s

1970

I have lots of catch-up to do, as I could not include all the notes I received in my last column. This note from Carl Hyndman GSAS’74 is one such example. “As we get older, we seem to grow younger. My dream has always been to play guitar in a group. This dream became reality when I recently became friends with the lead guitarist for Iron Butterfly (yes, that Iron Butterfly: ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’). We formed a tribute band called Eric and the Trailer Trash. We do Beatles covers and some blues. Take a listen on the YouTube channel Carl L. Hyndman or The Carl L.”

Elliot Stern reports: “I am happy to note that my major contribution to Indological scholarship has recently been published: Vidhiviveka of Man_.d_.anamiśra with its commentary Nyāyakan_.ikā of Vācaspatimiśra and its commentaries Jus_.adhvan˙karan_.ī and Svaditan˙karan_.ī of Parameśvara.”

Old friend James Periconi gave me a report on his preceding six months, dating back to May 2023. Even the CliffsNotes version that begins in September 2023 is long: “In September, I spent 10 days in Paris with the Association internationale de bibliophilie (International Association of Bibliophiles), where we visited the treasures of Paris’ great libraries, including all parts of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Bibliothèque Marazrine (as well as those of the municipal library of Versailles, much more interesting to a bibliophile than the library of Versailles palace itself) ... Speaking of France and French at Columbia, in the spring [I had dinner with] my former French teacher at Columbia … Susan Rubin Suleiman, now an emerita professor [at Harvard].”

I also shortened this note from David Sokolow: “Joel Mintz, Ted Wirecki and I went on our 17th consecutive annual (excluding 2020) guys’ trip this past fall. We spent a week in Costa Rica exploring the rainforest and Pacific coast ... I still teach at the UT School of Law one semester a year. It’s the best of both worlds: I love it when I teach and love it when I don’t. Because my wife, Tobi, is retired, we get to travel more. Since we didn’t get to celebrate our 50th reunion in 2020, I hope to reconnect with y’all here in Austin in 2024. I’m happy to show you around this amazing city (dsokolow@law.utexas.edu).”

Professor Robert Launay gave me this update: “I am still active, and have recently become executive editor of the Journal of Religion in Africa. I have also been appointed to the President’s Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism and Hate
at Northwestern.”

Norman Greene celebrated his 50th reunion at NYU Law last spring and told me you can view his legal publications online.

Fred Kushner VPS’74 reports: “After 45 years in my practice of cardiology I will be retiring and moving from New Orleans to be closer to my growing family. I will continue to teach cardiology fellows at NYU Langone, and continue to paint, read, golf and enjoy summers in Colorado with some winter months in Florida. This year I planned to attend my 50th reunion for VPS. My older son, Adam Benjamin Kushner ’03, recently became the deputy editor of the New York Times newsletter ‘The Morning.’ My younger son, Jared Scott Kushner ’06, VPS’12, is an assistant professor and translational scientist at Columbia. My wife, Ivy, maintains a busy nonprofit and sporting life with tennis and pickleball.”

Professor Larry Rosenwald GSAS’79 wrote: “... I’ve been ‘reading and writing.’ Writing in some unusual venues, for me at least: a review of James Marcus’ book on Emerson for The New York Times. An abridged version of a talk I gave setting out a pacifist perspective on the war in Gaza has been published in The Catholic Radical, a Catholic Worker newspaper published in Worcester, Mass. Some reflections on accuracy in multilingual literature will be published in the Journal of Literary Multilingualism.”

William Longa caught up with me: “Jack Probolus and I have stayed close ever since our time rowing together. [As I write this] we are enjoying a few days of golf and sunny weather at my winter home on Hilton Head. We managed to make it to last year’s Homecoming game with my apartment mates Dave Sweeney ’71 and Dennis Dean SEAS’71.”

Leonard Levine GSAS’77 writes: “I attended an Object Management Group conference near me in Reston, Va. The topic was the continuing update of the last IT standard I worked on before I retired in 2018: OMG/ISO Unified Architecture Framework, good for mission planning as well as project and system development.”

On a sad note, John Gardner wrote: “I thank my many classmates and fellow alumni for their kind, generous support for the untoward death of my son Joseph Kerksick Gardner (Nov. 3, 1990–Sept. 17, 2022).”

Lewis Siegelbaum reports: “I have become an active member of the Israel-Palestine Working Group of H-PAD (Historians for Peace and Democracy). We seek to better inform the public about the historical context of the current situation in Israel-Palestine and to add our collective voice for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.”

Dov Zakheim gave this update: “I have been appearing regularly on WION, a major Indian-English language TV outlet, discussing U.S.-Israeli relations during the course of the Gaza war. It has about 15 million viewers.”

Another old friend, Dan Feldman, wrote: “My wife says I do things backward. I was promoted to tenured full professor in 2014, and got my Ph.D. in February of this year. Seems logical to me. I now have a doctor of philosophy degree in philosophy.”

Professor Lennard Davis GSAS’77 reports: “I’m retiring from teaching at the end of this year. I began teaching as a graduate student in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia in 1971. I’ve taught at a number of institutions including Harvard, Brandeis, Penn, SUNY Binghamton and finally at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where I’ve been for the last quarter-century along with John D’Emilio GSAS’72. I’ve taught literature, disability studies, medical humanities and novel studies ... I have a book coming out in November, Poor Things: How Those with Money Depict Those without It, and I hope to continue writing and lecturing in New York City, where I live, and elsewhere.”

Frank Motley LAW’74’s update is: “Nine years retired from Indiana University, snowbirding between Bloomington, Ind., and West Palm, Fla., I still assume I hold the class record for most grandchildren (19) and great-grandchildren (14).”

Dr. Paul Rosen writes: “In November I was proud to attend Columbia General Studies’ Columbia University Military Ball; proceeds help underwrite academic and career transition programming for all veterans and military family members nationwide, financial aid for veteran students at Columbia University, and veteran student and alumni programming. It was attended by President Minouche Shafik, Dean Josef Sorett and more than 500 active and former military, and the school spirit was probably the best I have ever seen. I continue to work, now half time. I write and publish medical articles and attend medical conferences and forums across the country. I spend time with my grandchildren, who are my pride and joy, and am starting to wind down as age takes its inevitable toll.”

1971

Lew Preschel
l.a.preschel@gmail.com

Robert Mayer reports the tradition of The Men’s Trip continues for a group of classmates and friends. It started in summer 1980. Robert and his brother Alan Mayer ’72 were backpacking in the Wind River Range of Wyoming. They loved the experience and committed to try to do some kind of nature-oriented trip together every summer.

During the next few years, several friends in the San Francisco Bay Area asked if they could join them. Three of the friends were Larry “Spider” Masket, Larry “T” Teitlebaum and Elliot Cahn (who entered with the Class of 1970 but left to pursue a career with another Columbia College institution, Sha Na Na; he completed his degree at UC Berkeley).

At its largest, The Men’s Trip had 10 participants, with Columbia alums typically the majority or at least the plurality.

Except for 2020, when the risk was too high due to the lack of a Covid-19 vaccine, they have kept their vow of yearly trips to enjoy nature. They have transitioned from backpacking to their base camp to having their gear carried by pack animals. Most recently, they began staying in cabins and taking day hikes.

They added a “Mini Men’s Trip” that consists of getting together during the winter at Sea Ranch, Calif., where Robert’s brother Alan and another friend have second homes by the Pacific Ocean. Please note that John Jaeger was with them on this year’s Mini via telephone.

The group members hold different orientations to the outdoors. Some members of the group like nothing better than building a campfire and sleeping under the stars. As a youth, Robert associated nature with dirt and mosquitos, but on graduating and moving to California, he left that attitude behind. In contrast, Spider loves the camaraderie much more than the hiking.

Through the years, the group has traveled to Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Utah and British Columbia, although the most frequent destination is somewhere in California’s Sierra Mountains. They are looking forward to their 44th annual trip this summer; the venue is as yet unknown. Go to this column online at college.columbia.edu/cct to see a photo from this year’s Mini.

For your class correspondent, my life has been busy during the last several months, and although the sea my family sailed on was rocky, it was nothing we couldn’t handle. That is my excuse for the limited information in this issue of Class Notes. However, if you submit your life events to me at my Gmail address, at the top of the column, they will make a future issue. Our class has helped shape the planet as it is today. Your small or large part in creating events that change our world and how we live holds interest for classmates. Drop me a line.

1972

Paul Appelbaum
pappel1@aol.com

From the Embarrassment of Riches Department: We had so many great submissions for this issue that we’ll have to save some for next time.

To get us started, Mark Hoffman “vividly remember[s] what it was like in 1968 when, as freshmen, we were thrust into situations that felt like we were on the front lines of a kind of student revolution with the consternations between the SDS, our Columbia University administration and the NYPD Tactical Patrol Force. I have been teaching for years that you never retire — what you are to do is retire and ‘refire’ to give back in worthwhile ways. Hence, I now am privileged to be spending time with folks who are on the front lines of human needs. I am (because of my serious, focused training from International Literacy and Development and my 52 years of business experience) coaching refugee families from places like Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and Jordan who are starting life over here in Dallas-Fort Worth. These are folks who have faced ‘Big T Trauma,’ and I love to witness how resilient they are and how hungry they are for life and an opportunity to flourish.

“I am also still enjoying health care and benefits consulting without sales quotas and commissions, but rather a consulting fee and my years of knowing how the sausage is made in medical benefits. I also work in another frontline situation as the board chair of operations at Winfree Academy Charter Schools, for students in second- and third-chance high school situations. I attend Rotary meetings (I am past president of a Rotary club in Tulsa, and one here in Dallas, too). What keeps my wife, Jana, and me ramped up about life (aside from interacting with fantastic grandchildren and our 41st wedding anniversary) is our close work with the prayer ministry at our local church. We help lead the team that prays in an upper room for the preacher, the staff and all the lives who are present each Sunday as a frontline effort during the service. And now we are privileged to be there each Wednesday, as the sanctuary is open to the church members and the public at large for quiet individual prayers ... By helping us shine a light on our individual lives we begin to see how together we all make up a super-welcoming stained-glass window of humanity!”

As Mark suggests, retirement doesn’t necessarily mean having nothing to do. Case in point: Shep Hurwitz VPS’76, who “retired from several positions during the last four years, including as executive director of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery and professor of orthopaedics at UNC. He writes: “I commute between Chapel Hill and Charlottesville. I have administrative roles at the UVA School of Medicine Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and teach at the UVA Darden School of Business while pursuing a doctorate in education at Grand Canyon University. Two daughters are in North Carolina, one working full time and the other finishing college at Appalachian State University.”

This is the first time writing for Alan Mayer, who notes, “It’s been a long time since I left NYC. I took off for law school in San Francisco after graduation and basically had a solo civil litigation practice representing individuals. I retired at the start of the pandemic in 2020, after 45 years. I live in San Anselmo (about a half-hour north of SF) with my wife of 44 years. Strictly volunteer work now. Have two great daughters and three grandsons all living in the Bay Area. I have an ongoing summer hiking trip (going on our 43rd year) into the mountains (converting from backpacking to having mules carry our gear) with a group that includes, among others, five Columbians (me; my brother Rob Mayer ’71, Larry Masket ’71, Larry Teitlebaum ’71 and Elliot Cahn; go to the CC’71 column online at college.columbia.edu/cct to see a photo from this year’s trip). Still in touch with Alex Waugh.”

Another first-time message comes from Paul Masson, who notes, “After Columbia I studied with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for a few years and then taught TM (meditation) in Japan for six years. After a few other short-lived businesses, I bought M-S Cash Drawer from a Japanese meditation student in 1988 and have run it ever since. I have two grown kids and four grandkids, and one 16-year-old daughter still at home. I live in La Canada, a suburb of Los Angeles. I would like to retire, but every time I am about to do so we have a recession or pandemic or some other emergency I have to stay on to handle.

“My fondest memories are of the chaotic experiences living in the Fiji house on West 114th Street and all the wild friends I made there. I think many of the ‘fun’ things we did then you’d be arrested for now. NYC was so out of control then that our activities just blended right in!”

“Life has been a rollercoaster that has treated me better than I deserve,” says Michael Later. “After going to graduate school, and then teaching, I succumbed to the inevitable and went to law school. I practiced for 20-plus years in middling-sized firms in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, and then have been on my own for the last 20 years I live in Mesa, Ariz., with my bride, Rexann. We have four children (two apiece) and seven grandchildren. I practice as general counsel for a Las Vegas real estate developer. We cherish our yearly trips to England to visit our youngest grandson. I deeply miss my dear Columbia friends Alex Waugh, Brian Rosner and Alan Mayer. Their wisdom and compassion helped this underprepared westerner through the great years at Columbia.”

John Miller BUS’77 is “still run[ning] my financial planning and investment business and will probably do so for a long time to come. I’m blessed in having work that I love doing. Recently, with the addition of Henry, I have five grandkids. So much fun visiting them and so much fun leaving them with their parents at the end of the day. My son, Adam, has decided that he wants to be a police officer and has been accepted by the force in Reynoldsburg, Ohio. He started the academy in April. I’m so proud of him.

“My best memories at Columbia include sitting on Low Steps at all hours of the night, eating subs and talking and debating the events of the time and anything else anyone wanted to discuss. Spirited, heartfelt discussions with never any hard feelings. It was a wonderful life then. Secondly, I often think about sitting in the stacks in Butler in relative darkness with the reading light shining on the page. It was so easy to concentrate. Knowledge leaped from the page into my mind. I hope all classmates are doing well.”

Syngcuk Kim DM’78 is a full-time professor of endodontics and associate dean at Penn Dental Medicine. “I practice in NYC at Rockefeller Center two days per week, now about 40 years! My main job is making global connections with Penn and the world, and teaching dentists in other countries by lecturing and doing live demo surgery. No retirement planned!”

More to come in the next issue.

1973

Barry Etra
barryetra@gmail.com

Ken Kutscher VPS’77 is practicing cardiology and working on his second memoir, In Your Dreams, Dad!, which is loaded with hopes and dreams about his life but most of all about time with his daughter Jan as she was growing up; she is now a schoolteacher in the Bronx. Ken was honored in 2023 by Rep. Tom Kean (R-N.J.) as a “Senior of Distinction” for his community work in his district.

Henry Rosenberg is five years into retirement as an internist and pediatrician, and is active in Physicians for Social Responsibility. He adds, “Nuclear war is bad for the future of Columbia College.”

How true! Please check out preventnuclearwar.org.

On a sad note, Errol Holt BUS’76 passed away on Nov. 22, 2023. [Editor’s note: See “Obituaries,” online on July 11, at college.columbia.edu/cct.]

And there you have it. Write early and often!

1974

Fred Bremer
fbremer9@gmail.com

Remember when we were referred to as Yuppies? (That was when we were Young Urban Professionals.) Now many have become Guppies (Geezer Urban Professionals) and others have already become Grumpies (Geezer Retired Unfit Miami Pickleballers)! Well, at least we’re staying vertical! We should take inspiration from Mick Jagger who, along with Keith Richards, turned 80 this year and is still touring. Don’t know if you heard, but special presale tickets for their Hackney Diamonds tour are available to those with an AARP membership (really!).

Spring Break isn’t the same when you are in your 70s as it was in your 20s. Sure, many of us might catch a flight to Florida, but instead of wild parties on the beach we will be taking our grandchildren to Walt Disney World. Such was the case when I reached the cell phone of recently retired lawyer (from Proskauer in NYC) Ed Kornreich and his wife, Shirley, as they were leaving Magic Kingdom Park with three grandchildren in tow. He said they had a great time and that they might bring all six grandchildren to Disney on their next trip.

How convenient, I thought: bankruptcy and a nervous breakdown rolled into one! “Spring breakdown”?

Another great tradition seems to be to get your retired parents to help take care of the older kids when a new grandchild arrives. Thus, I found retired lawyer (from Gibson Dunn in NYC) Peter Sullivan and his wife, Mary Krueger BC’74 (who live in Santa Barbara, Calif.), in South Carolina when their daughter, Carly ’07, added another grandson (Beau). Twin sister Hilary ’07 lives an hour from Peter and Mary in southern California and had fairly recently called them for the same help when she had a second child.

“I’m retiring!!” screamed the email from Ted Gregory earlier this year. “After 11 years working for Columbia, I’m calling it quits.” After a career of executive search elsewhere, Ted had returned to alma mater to be director of diversity initiatives and talent retention for the Office of Alumni and Development. He was also a Board of Directors member of the Columbia Alumni Association and on the football and basketball advisory committees. With Manhattan housing being so lofty for a retiree, Ted tells us he will finally be moving from Morningside Heights. It has taken half a century, but Fidel Lopez has sent news from his life in Spain. Until mandatory retirement in 2021, he was a professor at the Universidade da Coruña. Fidel tells us he has been married for 51 years and has two children. Since retirement, he has been doing “my share of quiet not-for-profit work.” He asked me to pass on, “Fidel is much happier than he deserves, and he knows it. That is why he is doing retirement penance, trying to make others’ lives a little happier.”

Seems like a good way for all of us to spend part of our retirement years.

The first (and undoubtedly not the last) mention of artificial intelligence came in a Facebook post from Jon Ben-Asher (a law partner at Ritz Clark & Ben-Asher in Lower Manhattan). He said he was part of a panel at the New York City Bar Association’s Employment Law Institute exploring the impact of AI in the workplace. If you Google his name, you can read his recent white paper, Artificial Intelligence and Employee Monitoring: Big Brother is an Algorithm Named Julie, and She’s Hiring, Watching and Rating You. Alternatively, reread George Orwell’s 1984 (published in 1949)!

A few follow-ups on classmates mentioned in recent columns. When I wrote that Abbe Lowell LAW’77 (lawyer in Washington, D.C.) was interviewed on Face the Nation, I thought it was a unique TV appearance. Now those watching virtually any news program are likely to get a near-daily dose of Abbe, as every time Hunter Biden is photographed in a congressional inquiry or even just walking down the hall we see Abbe by his side. Arthur Schwartz (lawyer in NYC) emailed that he had started publishing The Village View, a local newspaper for Greenwich Village. He said that local newspapers play a vital role in our country, citing the local paper in Nassau County that uncovered the lies of George Soros.

Sad news came in from Jean-Pierre “JP” van Lent (a commercial litigation lawyer with Cullen and Dykman in Uniondale, N.Y.). He told us that Robert Knapp LAW’77 passed away last December after a brief struggle with colon cancer. Rob was a longtime partner of Mulholland & Knapp, a law firm in Port Washington, N.Y. JP accurately says of Rob, “No one who met Rob would confuse him with anyone else, and those who knew him could only love him for his idiosyncratic humor, caring nature and unceasing, inquisitive intelligence.” Rob is survived by his wife, Enn-Soo; daughter, Esther; sons, Henry and Aaron; and four grandchildren. Rob was an active alumnus who helped plan many of our reunions. He was missed by many at our 50th.

There you have it. As we move from being Yuppies to becoming Grumpies, we celebrate our grandchildren and mourn the inevitable losses of buddies from the past half-century. Some of us are either using or fighting AI in our careers while others plan new lives in retirement. Stay tuned for more updates.

1975

Robert Katz
robertdkatz@gmail.com

We must take note of the several classmates, me included, who are most distressed by the blatant display of antisemitism on the Columbia campus, and what we see as the administration’s apparent lack of resolve in dealing with this unfortunate situation. We hope that the many Jewish students at Columbia and Barnard will not have to endure this distressful situation for long.

Turning to other news:

David J. Goldberg reports his latest activities: “After 45 years and affiliations with three major American appraisal associations, I decided to start my own certification group. I call it Certified Estate, Divorce, and Insurance Appraisers of America. I am hoping that the qualifications will be the most stringent of all certifications; I welcome Columbia grads to become art and antiques appraisers (if anyone knows any person who might seek such a professional career).”

Robert Schneider recently saw a two-hour program on PBS, Dante: Inferno to Paradise, that included Professor of Italian Teodolinda Barolini GSAS’78 as one of the commentators. We all remember this book as one of the favorites from Humanities A.

Douglas Letter, who is lead counsel at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, is trying to work with Hollywood and the NBA to promote a message about reducing gun violence.

We wish him well with this worthy project.

James Oberly, now in Minneapolis, edited and annotated a book published in 2023, Budapest Blackout: A Holocaust Diary. The book consists of excerpts from the diary of Dr. Maria Madi, a Hungarian physician who wrote daily between December 1941 and November 1945. Madi was subsequently honored by Yad Vashem as a “Righteous Among the Nations” for her courageous actions in protecting Jews from death and deportation in the Holocaust.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this issue. Please keep sending news to me to share with classmates. Our 50th reunion is around the corner!

1976

Ken Howitt
kenhowitt76@gmail.com

One hundred years ago this past February, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue debuted, and I have listened to it often, so I put a recording of Oscar Levant playing Gershwin’s Second Rhapsody instead, and off I go to the Class of 1976 column!

This column is geographically from all over. What great fun to hear from across the world!

Beginning in Florida, my first-year floormate from 10 Carman, Paul Macchi VPS’80, sent this in: “I decamped to Florida many years ago. It’s more crazy after all these years. I am a lucky boy. Married to the girl of my dreams. Still can’t stop watching her. Blessed with a task (neuroradiology) that is forever humbling and deep. Gratitude! Kids are trying to find their way. As it should be. Photography was my path to radiology. Still shooting. Sold all my gear and now use my iPhone. Amazing for what it is. ‘The best camera is the one you have with you.’ Discovered Buddhism 30-plus years ago with a daily practice that has changed my life. Sasaki Roshi’s ‘Where will you stand when the earthquake comes?’ Curiosity in the mystery and paradox of life is something my meditation teacher of many years urges us to explore. I am so blessed I could just burst sometimes.”

On March 12, in West Palm Beach, Fla., four friends got together (left to right): Paul Dashefsky ’76, Jeff Retig ’75, Jeff Hon ’75 and Henry Harary ’77. Dashef- sky noted, “The best part is none of them have aged at all since college!”

Paul Dashefsky: “After 44 years practicing labor and employment law, I have substantially slowed down. Nevertheless, I continue to be involved in grading the New York Bar Exam. A major source of enjoyment is my two young granddaughters.”

Paul also sent in this great photo of a reunion of friends from adjacent classes in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Roy Plotnick checked in from the Midwest: “I retired in 2020 after 38 years at the University of Illinois Chicago and am now professor emeritus. Still doing research and writing papers. I represented Columbia at the investiture of our new chancellor in April. My first book, Explorers of Deep Time: Paleontologists and History of Life, was published in 2022 by Columbia University Press, which will also publish my forthcoming second book, on the geo-heritage of Chicago. Recently became a grandfather!”

Another Midwesterner, Michael Imperiale GSAS’81: “I retired from the University of Michigan at the end of last year after almost 40 years as a faculty member. It was a great ride, and I would often tell people that having taken the Core Curriculum at the College undoubtedly made me a better scientist. And person. I have three grown, married children and five grandkids, with another on the way this summer. I’m adjusting to retirement, which has been less painful than I’d anticipated. I have lots of travel plans and, importantly, more time to spend with the little ones.”

Moving east, Gary Lehman BUS’80, SIPA’80: “My wife, Linda SIPA’80, and I live in northern Vermont, following the eternal human migratory impulse to be near grandchildren (number 7 arrived a year ago, oldest is 8). Linda is a case manager at UVM Health Network Medical Center; I retired nine years ago after 36 years at IBM (jeepers, that long already?!); I have worked for the Department of Homeland Security for five years; I am a program delivery manager/public sector (‘helping people before, during and after the disaster’). Fulfilling and interesting work, with benefits of travel around the United States and U.S. territories; I recently deployed to Guam and Saipan, hit by typhoons — glad that we helped out our Chamorro (Indigenous peoples of the Mariana Islands) friends and neighbors there! We are badly missing New York: Manhattan, Arthur Avenue, New York Botanical Garden, zoo, the local clubs we were members of and most of all, our New York/New Jersey friends.”

From the New York area, David Hershkowitz remembered my WKCR days, saying: “Enjoyed your play-by-play. Remember Doug Jackson. After 43 years I have retired from my Bayside, N.Y., dental practice. I’m getting fit and looking to enjoy what the city has to offer when I’m not on the boardwalk here in Long Beach. I have 6.3 grandchildren and I dream of seeing one of them fencing for the Lions or Team USA!”

From that sixth borough of New York where I live, Northern New Jersey, Jim Bruno reports: “Our 1976 baseball team was inducted into the Columbia University Athletics Hall of Fame in October. Bob Kimutis and I were co-captains of that team. During that season a young Ken Howitt provided the play-by-play on WKCR.”

Jon Kushner ’76 (far left) and Jessica Geddes ’16 (center) met in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, on March 2. Geddes was there with John Shea (second from left) on the occasion of Kushner and his wife Gail’s oldest son Adam’s (far right) wedding to Rachael Greenberg (second from right). Kushner and Geddes share the same birthday, graduated from medical school 40 years apart and have both worked at the University of Cincinnati.

Gail Kushner

Two mentions of my play-by-play in one column. I was not that memorable, especially to me. Please remember Jon Kushner, who was the most talented ’76er behind the WKCR microphones! Jon sent in the nearby great photo from his son’s wedding ... two Columbia alums, 40 years apart, met in Mexico!

Another New Yorker from the Upper West Side, Jonathan Margolis: “My younger daughter got married last summer at the Central Park Zoo. My wife and I still live on the UWS, a block away from our two grandsons. I can’t believe that I keep reading that our colleagues are retiring. I will have to give it some thought!”

From around the world, in Israel, specifically, Baruch Schwartz (né Barney) sent this in: “Happy to report that everyone in my family is safe and well, and they have all been released from reserve duty as of this writing. I retired this year from my position at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, concluding four-plus decades of teaching biblical studies (at HebU and elsewhere). Like everyone else in the humanities, I imagine that retiring from active teaching will enable me to move ahead with research projects awaiting completion. Mostly, however, I intend to devote more time to kids, grandchildren, friends, home and garden, and crime fiction. At a one-day conference held by my department to mark my retirement, I was presented with a volume of essays in my honor, The Pentateuch and Its Readers. Who could ask for a nicer way to celebrate?”

Moving across the country to Washington State, Charles Martin will attend Left Coast Crime, a convention of mystery writers and other criminal minds that meets west of the Rockies each year. This year it’s in Seattle and will include the launch of the Pacific Northwest crime anthology The Killing Rain, in which he has a story. No doubt he’ll be talking up Rented Grave, his novel that will be out this summer. With editing done on that one Charles is back to writing his next Hong Kong crime novel. Apart from that, he and his wife, Cathy, tried to stay warm and dry in the Seattle spring.

We had a few classmates simply saying hi! Jumping across the Pacific Ocean, Monte Elias checked in from Hawaii and will eventually report something when he comes in from the sun. Lars Newsome also sent a brief reply. Richard Sussman observed that I seem to be on a “Sondheim tear,” which has been true for a very long time.

So, not much writing from me since all of you took Freshman Seminar. Thanks for your updates, and keep them coming!

1977

David Gorman
dgorman@niu.edu

In saying this I feel that I am repeating myself, but the Class of 1977 is really all over the place.

Palm Springs. Winters, Mark Gauthier GSAS’79 resides in southern California (summers, in Seal Harbor, Maine). This, he explains, “after a long career in magazine publishing in New York — first at the Council on Foreign Relations (Foreign Affairs), then at Forbes and finally at Time.”

Don’t think that Mark has become sedentary, however. “I’m consulting and doing a good deal of nonprofit board work, finishing up 10 years as president of the Foundation for the Palm Springs Unified School District,” as well as “keeping old age at bay as a 3.5-level daily tennis player.”

Mark had a visit in February from Barry Bergdoll GSAS’86, who was in town for Modernism Week (actually 10 days), a Palm Springs event, in which modern architecture and design are celebrated. Mark says that Barry’s keynote, “‘Modernist Architecture on Exhibition,’ was a sellout at the beautiful Annenberg Theater at the Palm Springs Art Museum.”

Since hearing from Mark, I have learned that Barry is the 2024 recipient of a Humanities Faculty Award for Academic Excellence, which recognizes academic excellence in the humanities at Columbia.

India. Peter Basch reports a number of things. First, he is still working, as a writer and technical editor at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His current project is NISAR, “a collaboration with the Indian space agency, ISRO,” which, at this writing, was scheduled to launch in April. “I worked in Bangalore for a few weeks when we shipped the hardware to the satellite construction facility. I worked in both the ISRO facility and in the stunning five-star luxury hotel where they put us up. The only reason I favored the hotel was that it had internet access, which was forbidden in the highly secure ISRO facility.” Second, Peter has a grandchild (his first), Roger Edmund, who will be 2 when this column appears. Nor is that all; third, Peter announces, “I am reigniting the acting career that I left in order to make a better living when I got married. Do you need a distinguished, older, balding man who speaks French and German? Me voici.”

Brooklyn (inevitably). Jeffrey Goldberg has been the chair of behavioral health at New York City Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health for 17 years. In May 2023, he informs us, a clinical services building, the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital (on Ocean Parkway), opened, one result of a FEMA project that began after Hurricane Sandy in — can you recall the date? — 2012. “It has been a very rewarding endeavor,” Jeff says, “serving some of the most disadvantaged and disenfranchised New Yorkers and addressing the mental health crisis we are all facing.” He also has family news: In October 2023, his son “Justin Goldberg was married to Dr. Rachel Hainline ’15,” in a wedding held in Durham, N.C. Meanwhile, there are two grandchildren (Max and Dylan) by the other son, Brandon, and Brandon’s wife, Katie. At ages 5 and 3, it seems predictable that Jeff describes them as “really putting my wife, Sherry, and me through our paces.” And Jeff is co-author of a chapter, “Fathers on Television,” to appear in a volume on dads in 2024.

Tel Aviv. I was especially pleased to hear from my Spectator colleague Jonathan Steinberg GSAPP’80, who decided that “the time has come” for him to write in to the column. His story goes like this: A few years after finishing graduate school in urban planning at Columbia, Jonathan moved to Israel. He and his wife, Barbara Storch, “have four children and four grandchildren, all born and living here.” Jonathan works in the commercial real estate business and runs a company, Newmark Natam, with more than 100 employees. He cannot help but notice that “many contributors to the Class Notes are other Spectator veterans,” and wants to convey greetings to Jon Lukomnik, among others.

1978

Matthew Nemerson
matthewnemerson@gmail.com

Thanks for the responses, which always go way over our allotted space — so edit I must. Some of you will be bumped to the website (college.columbia.edu/cct).

Tom Mariam, who still covers many New York sports when not engaged in his day job of major league law firm public relations, reports, “Not since our senior year, when our Lions beat Penn, had there been as much excitement and success as we experienced this season with our marvelous women’s basketball team, which earned its way into the NCAA Tournament, before being edged by Vanderbilt. Making it more special was attending games with WKCR friends and colleagues Russ Behrman ’77, Ken Howitt ’76 and Shari Teitelbaum BC’79, and classmates such as Fred Rosenstein and Mike Wilhite. Coach Megan Griffith ’07 and her tremendous team, led by the spectacular Abbey Hsu ’24, made the 50th year at Levien (you know, ‘the new gym’) a most memorable one!”

“I have been enjoying Columbia women’s basketball,” adds Chuck Callan. “You can see the love they have for one another, and their coach is the indomitable sixth person.

“My daughter Grace, a frontliner in the Covid-19 wars, got married at home this spring, to Matt, whom we love, too!”

Joseph Zablotski sends “greetings from soon-to-be totally-solar-eclipsed Buffalo, N.Y.! Older son, Casimir, went to Hamilton, then University of Warsaw, and on to investment banking in New York, London and now Warsaw. Younger son, Aleksander, was finishing Johns Hopkins, majoring in molecular cellular biology, and daughter, Greta, is at the University of Rochester in public health and nursing.”

Now in his seventh year on the faculty at Stanford University, as director of orchestral studies, Paul Phillips GSAS’80 notes, “I’m no rock star, but I get to perform with them. I conducted a performance of Grateful Dead songs featuring Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros for 6,000 enthusiastic Deadheads. My latest composition, Sweet Thunder for 12 pianos, premiered this year, and the book The Devil Prefers Mozart: On Music and Musicians, 1962–1993, which I compiled and edited, went on sale, too. My wife, Kathryne Jennings, is the director of vocal studies at Stanford, and our daughters, Joanna ’12 and Alanna (UVM’21), both work in film and TV in Los Angeles.

“Getting a Columbia education was one of the foundational pillars of everything I achieved in my adult life, but society seems to be turning away from expertise today. To be educated, knowledgeable, with expertise on a topic makes one ‘an elite’ to be ignored by the so-called ‘real’ citizens. I find this trend shocking and utterly disheartening. It is why I often say I don’t consider us to be living in a ‘serious’ society anymore.”

On the common theme of aging gracefully, Bill Hartung explains, “Turning 68 wasn’t nearly as scary as I expected it to be. I’m on a good run — enjoying my job, working on a book, expanding my social circle and getting better at my main hobby, standup comedy, often at my favorite club at 75th and Amsterdam. When I tell the crowd I’m 68 I generally get a vigorous round of applause. I don’t ask whether the applause is because they’re surprised I made it this far, or they’re impressed I’m doing comedy at my age.

“I work on foreign policy issues, most recently at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and I’m working on a book tentatively titled The Trillion Dollar War Machine, which is about the evolution of the military-industrial complex since Eisenhower’s day.”

And Jeff Canfield SIPA’82 adds, “At 68 I find myself reflecting on the same time perspective issues. If you want to compound the problem, I recommend that you read The Serpent Papers, by Jeff Schnader ’75. It will trigger memories of life at Columbia and cause you to reflect on that time and the present.

“I am a DoD senior executive, but truth be told, my wife and I have fallen in love with Iceland. She wants to open a second cat cafe in Reykjavik and I would love to open an art gallery there. The costs associated with living as an expat in Iceland will, of course, preclude both options, but it is nice to dream, even at this advanced age!”

On the theme of what can Columbia do better, Joel Levinson says, “I wish Columbia did a better job of teaching history of the Middle East, but people refuse to learn from history. Mussolini made the trains run on time, and Hitler rebuilt the German army, but what did that get the Italians and the Germans? Putin invades a sovereign state without provocation, and instead of seeing the parallels to 1938 we shamefully play politics with aid to Ukraine.”

John Glusman GSAS’80, of W.W. Norton & Co., notes that he’s “had more connections with Columbia faculty than with classmates and I believe that Columbia has a vital role to play not just in terms of its emphasis on a Core Curriculum in the humanities but also in instilling the values that inspire political discourse and participation in civil society. How can we have an informed electorate without some knowledge of American history and political science? Columbia can and should emphasize those disciplines even more.”

Marvin I.C. Siegfried is “enjoying retirement and in Florida with my wife. Pickleball has proven to be fun; after two knee surgeries, it’s something I can still play. We recently moved to Boynton Beach, where we have more room for guests.

“The number of Jewish students in the Ivies has declined dramatically (about 50 percent), according to a recent article. Antisemitism, which was openly present when Nicholas Murray Butler CC 1882 was University president, seems to be making a comeback. I would not recommend the College to any of my Jewish friends or their kids, which is a shame because I cannot overemphasize the value of the education I received there.”

Among our most active and involved classmate on issues in the Middle East is no doubt Gary Pickholz SIPA’81, who writes, “I have not written notes to date on living through the current war with Hamas, and the explosion of antisemitism on American college campuses, and for now I cannot comment until the April testimony before the House of Representatives Committee on Education & the Workforce. I trust any Class of ’78 alumnus who was privileged to read the Core Curriculum can discern the deafening silence of what may not be publicly expressed. How tragic that we have come to this in the United States, and the Ivy League in particular. Never in my wildest nightmares would I have imagined it possible, let alone to have taken hold without any serious resistance or protest. One always wondered why European antisemitism in the 1930s grew seemingly unchallenged, yet today’s is met with even less real opposition than Europe before the war.”

Go to this column at college.columbia.edu/cct on July 11 for a note from Edward Rosenfeld and sad news on Rob Josephs.

1979

Robert C. Klapper
robertklappermd@aol.com

Robert C. Klapper: “Today’s Columbia thought comes from a personal celebration of writing this column for now 20 years — the Magical Mystery Tour of our lives with our shared touchstone of the four years spent in those hallowed halls of Columbia College.

“Like many of you, I lived my freshman year at Carman, my sophomore year at Hartley, my junior year at John Jay and then culminating in my senior year at the Taj Mahal known as Furnald. The connection between then and now has always been a fascination to me, which is what led me to volunteer for this job at CCT to begin with. With that in mind, I’d love to share a recent Columbia connection in my life.

“Beginning our senior year, while many of you (particularly my pre-med colleagues) were joyous in beginning a playful final year at the College, I was unfortunately trapped in my dorm room for a marathon of studying for the MCAT in October with my Kaplan MCAT books to be memorized and the millions of questions to test myself. I truly would not answer my door when anyone knocked. I ate ramen noodles ‘illegally’ on a hot plate and told my friends who were banging at the door, ‘Go away; I’ll see you in October.’

“I did allow myself one study break, which was to go to the TV lounge to watch the new show captivating America, the sitcom Taxi. It had premiered the fall of our senior year. I didn’t miss a show because truly it was therapy to watch Danny DeVito, Tony Danza and Marilu Henner cavort. It was a lonely experience, but necessary to lock myself up that way, and that show was a godsend.

“Now fast forward to 2023, 45 years later. Danza and Henner have a one-man and one-woman show, respectively, where they sing and dance in Las Vegas acts they created individually. I had the pleasure of doing knee surgery on Danza and hip surgery on Henner. When their shows came to Los Angeles, each of them called me to ask if I would come to see them sing and dance in their unique solo performances. Danza’s show was in the beginning of the year and Henner’s was toward the end of the year. Each of them, midway through their performances, stopped to tell the audience how grateful they were to be able to dance again pain free because their surgeon, ‘who is present in the audience tonight,’ gave them this gift of an operation.

“All I could think about was 45 years before, sitting in the TV lounge at Furnald watching these two actors making me laugh in the midst of my torture chamber pre-med experience, and it was as if an angel came out of the sky to tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘Keep studying because these two talented folks you are watching right now will one day be your patients because of what you are doing in your tiny little dorm room with the door closed.’

“It truly has been a Magical Mystery Tour. Roar, lion, roar!”