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Everett
Weinberger
50 West 70th Street
Apt. 3B
New York, N.Y. 10023
everett.weinberger@db.com
Bryan
Steinberg sends his regards from N.Y.U.'s School of Medicine
where he's assistant professor of surgery in the cardiothoracic
surgery division. He's also associate director of cardiac surgery
at Bellevue Hospital. Bryan specializes in adult cardiac surgery
and is one of the first surgeons to master techniques in minimally
invasive coronary bypass and valvular surgery. When Bryan isn't
working he spends time with his wife, Ilene, and their 2-year-old
son, Zachary.
Jack
Merrick recently formed a production company, Graden Floe
Productions, which just produced a full-length film, The
Pavilion, a suspense drama based on a Robert Louis Stevenson
short story of two friends reunited after the Civil War in a remote
sea island off South Carolina. The film, starring Richard
Chamberlain as a "drug-addled embezzling fiend on the lam," is
described by Jack as "Merchant Ivory on mescaline." Jack produced
the film and one of his partners directed it while the third acted
in it and co-wrote the script. Jack is following the indie route,
trying to sell it to TV or cable and pre-sell foreign rights. He
encourages all aspiring filmmakers in our class to send him
scripts. Aside from film, Jack continues with his entertainment law
practice, or as he puts it, "clinging to his law degree like a life
preserver." Jack is happily married to Margot.
Robert V.
Wolf
206 West 99th Street
Apt. 3A
New York, N.Y. 10025
rvwolf@compuserve.com
For more than
a year I've been getting a slow but steady flow of e-mail from you
all, which has made my job very easy. Please, please, please keep
it up in the new millennium.
Aubrey
Diane Birzon married Philip Blanda in 1997. Their son, Harry,
turned 2 in December. Aubrey is an attorney, most recently with the
Administration for Children's Services in New York City, but is in
the market for "an alternative route in life." (Suggestions
anyone?) Aubrey, Philip and Harry live in Glen Ridge,
N.J.
Donna
Pacicca is the pediatric orthopedic surgeon on staff at Boston
Medical Center and an assistant professor of orthopedics and
pediatrics at Boston University. Donna is married to Dominic
DeCicco '84E. Their son, Dante, was born in March, 1999. The proud
mother writes: "He hasn't started reading the Divine Comedy
yet, but at the rate he's going, it's only a matter of
time!"
Donna reports
that Christine Jamgochian Koobatian also entered the world
of parenthood with Daniel Thomas, born in May, 1999. On Labor Day,
she caught up with some fellow New England alumni: Dave Madoff '85,
Andrew Upton '85, Matt Samarel '83, Chip Traynor '84, and Artie
"Bunyan" Ajzenmann '83. Donna and Dom also had dinner recently with
Andrew Upton '85 and Wally Yassir '88. Wally is finishing his
orthopedic residency at Tufts/NEMC and will be starting a pediatric
orthopedic fellowship in San Diego next summer. Donna also ran into
Linda Wang Kornguth recently - in, of all places, the
operating room. "Linda was rotating on the orthopedic service, and
happened to be in the OR with me. Somehow colleges came up, and we
realized we knew each other! She and her husband David Kornguth are
in B.U. med school...it was a pretty bizarre place to have a
mini-reunion!"
Neither
lawyer nor doctor, John Erlich of Oakland is founder,
'oudist (Arabic lute player), and musical director of a seven-piece
professional folk music ensemble, "Za'atar: Music of the Jews of
Arab and Muslim Lands." Za'atar (named after the Middle Eastern
spice) was formed in 1997 and performs the sacred and social music
of the Jews of North Africa, the Middle East, and Turkey. "So far,
we have performed at the Dalai Lama's World Sacred Music Festival
(L.A.), the International Sephardic Arts Festival (L.A.), and
KlezmerMania (Berkeley), as well as at festivals, clubs, and
charitable events. One of my biggest joys in playing this music has
been crossing boundaries, playing both Israel Independence Day
events and fundraisers for Palestinian humanitarian aid!" For more,
see www.zaatar.web.com. John's day job, by the way, is as a city
planner working the public counter for the City of Albany,
Calif.
I mentioned
in the last issue the marriage of Ilene Weinstein (who
happens to be president of the CU Alumni Club of Northern
California) to Marcos Lederman. What I didn't mention was that
there was a wealth of CC alums at the ceremony-and not just from
our year, but from across the generations. In attendance were:
Edward Weinstein, '57 and James Weinstein '84 (Ilene's dad and
brother, respectively); Nancy Basri and Bill Basri '84;
Nancy and Michael Markhoff; Hannah Jones; Gerri
Gold; Michael McGough '87E; Philippa Feldman Portnoy '86B;
Rachel Brody '87B and Michael Lustig '86 (they are married but she
still goes by Brody); Amy Perkel '89; Richard Hannis '56; Lee
Seidler '56; Herb Sturman '57; Saul Cohen, '57; Howard Orlin '58;
and Bob Fischbein '61.
And one final
piece of news: Cherie B. Ruben married David M. Green in
June, 1999. They live in Derby, N.Y.
George
Gianfrancisco
c/o Columbia College Today
475 Riverside Drive, Suite 917
New York, N.Y. 10115
cct@columbia.edu
"Greetings
from Leslie Gittess" reads one of my recent letters.
Breaking a long-time Class Notes silence, the former Light Blue
tennis star worked for the NHL for the past six years. As a member
of the last class to inhabit "The Pub," pro hockey probably seems
absolutely serene compared to the 40-man pile-ups that went on our
freshman year (with Matt Sodl at the bottom, of course).
Leslie tells me that Todd Johnson is the proud father of
twin boys, bringing his total of sons to three. Things are looking
up for Lion athletics circa 2018, as Sodl, the All American, just
had a daughter, too.
Jonathan
Nash recently received his master of laws from Harvard. Right
now, he's a research associate at N.Y.U. Law, focusing on the
environment and land use, and will soon join Squadron Ellenoff.
Being back in New York has allowed him to keep up with Orin
Tempkin, an organic chemist at Novartis Pharmaceuticals in
Jersey who just got engaged. Congratulations. Hopefully he's in the
lab trying to bottle a love potion for all the rest of us
singles.
Doctor.
Doctor.
Dr.
Hillary Glasberg is planning to marry Dr. Joel Goldberg.
She's a surgery resident at Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston.
Something must be in the air, or else maybe Orin really did come up
with that love potion.
Dr. Nancy
Kauder had a baby girl: Camilla. Nancy's a veterinarian in
Baltimore, which qualifies her for this special CCT medical
report. She tells me that Sharon Moshavi was wed this past June
down there. In attendance were Whitney Connaughton Whalen,
Jennifer Hirsch Overton, Michael Kaminer, and
Aaron Pressman. Whitney lives in Boston with her husband and
1-year-old, Julia. Jennifer hangs her hat in Madagascar where she
works for Catholic Relief Services, moving over from Kenya with
spouse and daughter, Ellysia. Aaron is with Reuters in
D.C.
Finally, afer
finishing his Ph.D. in computer science at Michigan, Anthony
Hornoff is starting as an assistant prof at the University of
Oregon. Seeing that his research is in human computer interaction,
maybe none of us will be needing that love potion in the
future.
Amy
Perkel
212 Concord Drive
Menlo Park, Calif. 94025
amyperkel@yahoo.com
Galen
Sorrells is comfortably ensconced in Sacramento, Calif. The
native San Franciscan and his wife, Monica, are parents to the
nearly 2-year-old Jasmine, who was born the day after Galen
graduated from law school and the day before he began studies for
the bar exam. Galen reports that he spent "quality time" with his
daughter at 3 a.m. on the morning of the bar exam. The proud
father, who joined the law firm of Downey, Brand, Seymour, and
Rohwer in September 1988, is a general business law practitioner
serving all needs, including mergers, asset purchases, trademark,
and employment related issues with an emphasis on real estate
transactions. Galen, who studied political science, had a strong
sense he would study and practice law, but decided to work a few
years prior to going back to school. He earned his law degree from
Santa Clara University School of Law while working full time. Prior
to entering the legal profession, Galen was a business loan officer
with Wells Fargo Bank.
Chris
Della Pietra and his wife, Annmarie (Giarratano) '91 have been
living in Glen Rock, N.J. for the past year, where they love the
"peace and quiet on weekends" and the green lawn of the suburbs!
After seven years of law firm practice, Chris recently became the
general counsel of IESI Corporation, the 10th largest waste
management company in the U.S., with corporate headquarters in
Dallas/Fort Worth. (Okay, we couldn't let that pass without a
challenge: we're soliciting any and all jokes on waste management.)
Chris works out of the northeast region headquarters in New Jersey,
and he is responsible for all legal matters for the company.
Annmarie continues her career as a sales/trader for Lehman Brothers
on the institutional equities desk in Manhattan.
Enrique
Urquiola and his wife of nine years, Cristina Ramirez-Urquiola,
denizens of New Jersey, have two wonderful children, Rebecca and
Alexandra. Christina earned a graduate degree in social work,
though the two did not meet at Columbia but rather in high school.
Enrique has been with American Express for the last 10 years.
Currently, he is director of database marketing, responsible for
tracking and analyzing customer behavior and acquiring customers.
He has held this role for the last 18 months. And by the way,
Enrique confirmed that the Blue Card, with all the cool
advertising, is doing very well.
I'm really
sorry we haven't reported on Tom Kamber sooner. In fact, we
should all begin bidding on the movie rights of his life post
college. Tom's wife, Margaret Nelson, delivered their first baby, a
girl named Abigail, on December 14. Tom, a Ph.D. student of
political science at CUNY, is in the midst of writing his
dissertation on housing policy. Specifically he is comparing the
implementation of the Section 8 Voucher Program in New York and
Portland. Prior to his studies, Tom worked for a variety of
non-profit housing and community groups as a staff member and
consultant. The Urban Homestead Assistance Board sent Tom to Russia
four times, where he worked on democracy building programs. He was
responsible for managing projects with local community and housing
groups and providing guidance on structuring non-profits. In
addition to working with these groups in their communities, he also
brought them to the United States so they could witness first hand
the programs they were aiming to replicate. In between work and
studies, Tom and his wife took a six-month Asian trip, spending two
months trekking in Indonesia and Nepal, boating down the Mekong in
Laos, and enjoying Bangkok's urban planning. The two also spent
time in China, Japan, and India. Prior to the whirlwind trip, Tom
spent a year in South America. His intent was to spend extensive
time in Peru, but with a deteriorating civil war, he moved to
Bolivia where he wrote articles on the miners' strikes. Yes! Tom's
life reads like a novel, but he assures me it is all
true!
Deborah
Waxman graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
(RRC) in suburban Philadelphia, receiving the title of rabbi and
the Master of Hebrew Letters degree this past summer. Following
graduation, Deborah worked as an Israel program coordinator for
Habonim Dror and the United Kibbutz Movement, and was the grants
development officer at Teachers College. While at RRC, Deborah
worked as the Grants Coordinator for the College and an instructor
for the preparatory year program. She served as the student rabbi
of Congregation B'nai Vail in Colorado, provided pastoral care as a
chaplain intern through the Clinical Pastoral Education program at
Abington Memorial Hospital, and taught in children's and adult
education programs in Philadelphia. Her current role is director of
special projects/assistant to the president at the RRC.
Anna Lisa
(Martens) Davidson lives in East Aurora, N.Y., with her
husband, Bruce, and two children. After working five years on a
Multiple Sclerosis drug study as a statistician, and earning an MPH
from the University of Michigan, Anna is now spending time at home
with Carl, 3, and Erika, 1, and coaching swimming part time. Anna
and Bruce "thoroughly enjoy watching their children grow and learn
new things every day." In their free time, they manage to do a
little ice climbing and skiing in the winter.
I love
reading what you send, speaking with you, and writing about all the
wonderful things taking place in your lives. Keep the news coming.
Best wishes for a healthy and happy 2000.
Dan Max
Shaw Pittman
1676 International Drive
McLean, Va. 22101
daniel.max@shawpittman.com
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