CLASS
NOTES
Robert Hardt
Jr.
154 Beach 94th St.
Rockaway Beach, NY 11693
Bobmagic@aol.com
It’s not easy for
your faithful correspondent when a jet falls from the sky just 35
blocks from his home office in the Rockaways. Without getting
treacly, I’ll just say that I hope we all have a better year
in 2002 and that everyone had a good holiday.
Through the hard work of
Stephen Weinstein and others, a good chunk of our class was
accounted for post-September 11. If anyone has stories or knows
anything about classmates relating to the World Trade Center
attack, pass them on to me or the alumni office. The notes are
short this installment because of the quick turnaround between
issues. Luckily, there are a few, not-too-moldy leftovers from last
time. They include:
Joe
Kim E’91and his wife, Carmen, had another boy, Alexander, in
September. Joe started his own consulting company and is based in
Chicago. Javier Loya bought out his partners at Choice!
Energy and is now the president of the company. He and his wife,
Lucinda, are building a new home in Houston. Laurel Daniels
Abbruzzese and Greg Abbruzzese weren’t able to
attend the 10th reunion because Laurel had just given birth to
their second daughter, Emily. Big sister Lydia couldn’t be
happier. Sonya Cho Hong took a break from practicing law and
spent the last year studying baking and pastry making. She has now
opened up her own bakery, where she makes beautiful cakes. Check
out her Web site: www.butterflycakes.com. Sonya
and her husband, David Hong ’92, live in San Francisco.
Vijay Sud received an M.B.A. from Cincinnati last June and
graduated Beta Gamma Sigma. He is now working for Deloitte
Consulting in Cincinnati, where he lives with his wife,
Irene.
There was a great article
in the September 27 Spectator about Chris Kotes, who
was a dominating pitcher for the Columbia Lions and signed by the
Toronto Blue Jays organization. (I even have a minor-league Kotes
card.) After years of kicking around on the double-A level, Chris
was finally let go by the Blue Jays (those hosers). Chris
maintained his relations with Columbia’s athletics department
and worked for them in the off-season. Now he’s working
full-time there as the ticket and promotions director. His dream
event (which sounds like a great way to pack the stands) would be
to make the last football game of the season “Tuition
Night.” If a student brings a parent to the game, he or she
could win a year’s tuition in a raffle. Sounds like a
surefire way to fill the stands for archery and fencing as well,
Chris.
That’s all, folks.
Please keep in touch and send me some news. Peace out.
Jeremy Feinberg
211 W. 56th St., Apt 4M
New York, NY 10019
thefeinone@worldnet.att.net
Hi,
gang. I have a confession. For the first time since I’ve been
doing this column (scarily, now nearly a decade?!?), I have almost
no news to report. For a number of understandable reasons, other
than the two e-mails described below, there simply were no letters,
rumors, whispers or anything. What I wouldn’t give to have
our old pal J. Schmoe around to pass along his gossip column from
Spectator. Then again, I wouldn’t want to make stuff
up.
Especially in light of this
fall’s chaotic and devastating events, what better time to
try to reconnect with your classmates and renew acquaintances? Our
reunion is merely months away, and I’ll have at least one
more chance to collect information for a column before then. If
there’s anything you want people to know before they see you
at our 10th year extravaganza, here’s your chance. And to
think, I don’t even charge for this service...
Anyway, the news: After
returning to politics for a few months to work on the Mark Green
mayoral campaign in NYC, Peter Hatch is now in the
employment litigation group at Schulte Roth & Zabel. He
attended the 40th anniversary celebration for the rugby team last
spring and once again joined forces with former teammates Rob
Perle, Mark Eames ’90, and Lt. Christopher
“Maddog” Sheridan ’90, as well as former coach
Brian “Psycho” Murphy ’85. He reported,
“Great fun; no broken bones.”
On
September 30, Scott Matasar and his wife, Sheryl, became the
proud parents of Lauren Sydney Matasar. Congratulations!
Sorry there’s not
more to report this time. But in all seriousness — it’s
been an honor and a pleasure to be your humble correspondent for
this long. I look forward to continued service, sharing whatever
you’d like your fellow classmates to know. That’s the
fun part, after all. Cheers!
Elena Cabral
Columbia College Today
475 Riverside Dr., Suite 917
New York, NY 10115
elenacabral@yahoo.com
On
September 10, Andrew Ceresney and Rachel Levine welcomed a
son, Ethan Levine Ceresney. News of his birth came at a time when
most of us were looking for something to feel hopeful about. That
fact was not lost on Rachel and Andrew, who are counting their
blessings in Brooklyn, Andrew’s hometown. For the past three
years, Andrew has been working as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the
Southern District of New York. Rachel works at the Department of
Homeless Services for the Assistant Commissioner for
Budget.
Matt Henry and his
wife, Andrea, were married in June 2000. Andrea is a former track
athlete who now works as a physical therapist. Matt is the director
of youth services for the Mexican American Community Services
Agency, directing more than 15 youth programs throughout the San
Jose, Calif., area and getting back into touch with his Latino
roots. Matt reports that Steve Eitelgeorge plans to move to
England to get a master’s degree in (what was described to me
as) Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon and the cultural history of
Renaissance England.
And
now for something totally different: Check out Melissa de la
Cruz’s well-received first novel, Cat’s Meow
(Scribner, 2001), a comic tale about a Manhattan fashionista.
Andrea Boykowycz moved back to New York after a year in
Budapest, where she finished a master’s degree in European
history at Central European University. She is studying historical
sociology at the New School and loving life in Fort Greene,
Brooklyn.
Lars Nesheim
got married shortly after defending his Ph.D. dissertation in
economics at the University of Chicago. Lars was planning a move
from San Francisco to work on a post-doctorate at University
College London.
In
another destination wedding to end all weddings, Shira Boss,
the talented writer whose work you’ve seen in these pages,
was married on June 22 to Murat Bicak in a four-day celebration in
Istanbul. That’s where the couple met three years ago. The
wedding festivities included a belly dancing class, drum lesson,
water pipe smoking, a trip to a Turkish bath and a barbecue and
badminton tournament at the in-laws’ house on one of the
Princes’ Islands. The ceremony overlooked the Bosporus and
Asian side of the city and was officiated by the couple’s
friend, Chad Finley ’94, who was ordained for the occasion.
Roya Babanoury ’92 delivered a tear-jerking honorary
sermon.
Privately, Shira and Murat
will share the name Boss-Bicak, after Shira convinced her husband
that it is a perfectly acceptable practice to do so in America.
Professionally, however, neither side is budging. Shira welcomes
any creative solutions to the name conundrum at shiraboss@yahoo.com.
Chris Wiggins
returned to NYC armed with a doctorate in theoretical physics from
Princeton and a research job in Paris on his resume. He taught math
at NYU for three years before landing his dream job as a Columbia
professor. Chris planned to spend the summer visiting Berlin but
was expected back in Morningside Heights in the fall, ready to take
up faculty housing and the fine art of torturing undergraduates.
Chris hoped to continue performing with Andrew Vladeck ’92
and Rob Perle ’92. Perhaps you’ll catch a gig back in
the hood.
Kari Zirkle, a
fellow early denizen of the Schapiro floors of note, married her
longtime boyfriend Ryan in March 2000 and is living in Los Angeles.
Kari was working for the president of Universal Studios for the
past six years before leaving that job in February to take time off
to travel. She visited Leyre Goitia in Spain in June. Not
having been in New York City since graduation, Kari planned to
return for a visit in December.
After the September 11
attacks, I returned to the city for a brief visit and found it
— not surprisingly — to be a much changed place, yet
somehow more appealing than ever. If you go back, you’ll see
what I mean. Thanks for your notes, and keep writing.
Leyla Kokmen
2748 Dupont Ave. South
Minneapolis, MN 55408
leylak@earthlink.net
By
now, many of you have probably looked through or even contributed
information to Columbia College’s September 11 status
Web site (www.college.columbia.edu/wtc).
It’s certainly heartening to see that so many of our
classmates were unharmed. Still, the list is far from complete, so
please take a moment to fill me in on what you’re up to.
Until then, here are some quick notes from our
classmates.
I
received a flier announcing the November 16, 2001, “Concert
of Excellence” at Lincoln Center. The event, which honored
Asian American contributions to excellence in the arts, was
conceived by Welly Yang and directed by Brian R. Yorkey
’93. Mason Kirby dropped me a note just before his
October wedding to Amanda Kahn ’95. The couple, who met in a
Butler Library reading room, have been living in San Francisco for
the past several years. Mason is practicing architecture after
receiving a master’s degree from Yale’s School of
Architecture in 1998, and Amanda is a Ph.D. student in neuroscience
at UCSF.
Ali Lemer has
finished her master’s in humanities at the University of
Chicago and is teaching writing at Columbia College Chicago, a
fine/visual/multimedia arts school. She has published several poems
in Aubade, a literary magazine at the university; she
continues to work on her writing and music and plans to spend
another year in Chicago.
And
finally, I have several extremely old items that have been cut from
past columns due to space constraints, but I still wanted to
mention them. Sanjiv Jhaveri had a small role on Law
& Order during last May’s sweeps; though his screen
time as a bailiff in the arraignment court was brief, it was very
nice to hear that familiar voice. Also making a TV appearance last
spring was Brad Deal, who was a contestant on the game show
Weakest Link in an episode that aired April 30. In his real
life, Brad is doing his psychiatry residency at Jackson Memorial
Hospital in Miami. He graduated from the Medical University of
South Carolina in 1998 and was elected National President of the
American Medical Student Association. He served a one-year,
full-time term in Washington, D.C.; after that he worked on
healthcare accounts as a medical consultant with Porter Novelli in
Washington before starting his residency.
Thanks very much to all
those who wrote in. Please keep us updated on all those twists and
turns as life goes on.
Janet Frankston
2479 Peachtree Rd. NE
Apt. 614
Atlanta, GA 30305
jrf10@columbia.edu
I
hope this update finds everyone doing OK. I was relieved to hear
that none of our classmates died in the terrorist attacks on
September 11. With so much bad news out there, I’m happy to
report some happy news. Matt McGovern is a new father.
Chelsea Anne McGovern was born to Matt and his wife, Kristine, on
August 8; she weighed 7 lbs., 13 oz. and measured 20 inches. Matt
spends most of his free time playing with his daughter (and even
might be caught changing a few diapers) in Cumming, which is just
north of Atlanta. As for his work life, Matt is enjoying his job
with Hewlett-Packard in Atlanta. He also completed his M.B.A. from
Emory last year. Matt recently spoke to David Leung, who is
working on his M.D./Ph.D. at Columbia.
In
wedding news, Amanda Kahn married Mason Kirby ’94 on
October 20 in San Francisco, where the couple has been living for
the past few years. “Yes, we did meet in the old School of
Library Service Reading Room at the top of Butler,” Mason
writes. Amanda is a Ph.D. student in neuroscience at the University
of California San Francisco and Mason is practicing architecture;
he received his master’s degree from Yale’s School of
Architecture in 1998. Their wedding announcement in The New York
Times recounted how the two met on Columbia’s
campus.
It’s a short update,
but with CCT now coming out six times a year, I need your
help. Please send in your updates. First-timers are
encouraged.
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