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CLASS NOTES
Kevin Fay Another classmate is about to receive the College's highest award — the John Jay — in March. Derek Q. Johnson, president and CEO of the Apollo Theater Foundation, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation responsible for the preservation, restoration and revitalization of this important theater in Harlem, will join three other honorees for this gala event held at the Plaza Hotel on March 6. Derek stayed well beyond his college years at Columbia, obtaining a master's in public administration and a law degree. With his background in government, politics and real estate, Derek has long been associated with economic development initiatives in the Harlem community. On a lighter note, I had dinner (and a few drinks, and a lot of laughs!) with Mike Kinsella in December as he was passing through D.C. Mike is director of product development for the WestGroup (lawyers in the crowd, take note). Outside of work and family concerns, Mike enjoys sailing Long Island Sound. I hope to hear from more classmates in 2002.
Robert W. Passloff Plans continue for reunion, which is coming up May 30–June 2. Other than that, nothing new to report. This is your column, so please drop me a line!
Roy Pomerantz Peter Simonson lives in Suffern, N.Y., with his wife, Jane, and their three children, Emily (13), Melanie (10) and Tess (5). Many of us remember Jane from her frequent visits to Columbia. Peter is an obstetrician/gynecologist, and he admits patients to good Samaritan Hospital. My wife and I are planning a V&T outing with Peter and Jane this spring. Any classmates interested in joining us should please send me an e-mail. Miguel Estrada recently was the subject of an editorial in The Wall Street Journal. Miguel is described as "an American success story, a Honduran immigrant who taught himself English and went to Harvard Law, where he was editor of the law review. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and worked as a deputy in Bill Clinton's Justice Department, where he argued cases before the Supreme Court." Miguel was one of President Bush's first judicial nominations to the D.C. Circuit. Peter Fumo has been in private practice as a nephrologist (kidney specialist) for the past seven years in Philadelphia. He married Susan Erfle on May 6, 2001, and they live in Horsham, Pa. They recently attended the wedding of Andrew Botti in Chatham. Congratulations, Andrew! David Hoantee lives in Hong Kong. Any classmates who are traveling in the Far East and want to contact him should please send me an e-mail. Gerrard P. Bushell reports, "It's been quite some time since I contacted anyone from Columbia's Class of '83. I always read the Class Notes to stay abreast of my classmates. After close to 19 years, I thought it was time to update folks on my whereabouts. I at one time was the president of student polity — I guess that was around 1982–83. I have spent the past 17 years working in politics; my last position was for New York State Comptroller H. Carl McCall. I spent six wonderful years working for an inspirational leader. For the past two years, I have been working for Citigroup as an institutional asset adviser to public pension funds. I married Leah Johnson (Harvard '83) more than five years ago, and we recently had a daughter, Claire Grace Bushell. Her birth made me immediately think about the wonderful times I had at Columbia, where I was fortunate to study and learn political science at the College and through the graduate program. I promise to stay in touch and periodically send updates. Most importantly, I look forward to catching up with folks again, as we are close to our 20th anniversary. Please share my e-mail address. It's often hard to remember people, but it's always pleasant to try and recapture the experience we shared." Thank you, Gerrard, for your detailed greetings! Gerrard's e-mail address is gerrard.bushell@ssmb.com. Ed Barbini enjoyed reading about Mark Licht in CCT, "one of the best-liked people at Columbia, and a super guy." Ed was one of the most active members of our class and it is great to hear from him. Tom Meltzer writes, "I entered with Class of '83 but took a semester off so I think I officially graduated with the Class of '84. All my friends were '83; don't think anyone would be looking for info about me in the '84 column anyway. Here's what I've been up to for the past 19 years: For a good long time after graduation, I wrote songs and performed with a country-folk band call 5 Chinese Brothers. The band got its start as a Columbia band, performing regularly at the legendary Blue Rose Café (Broadway and 105th Street). At the time we were called Special Guests; we ultimately decided to switch one stupid name for another. We made four albums, toured the country and Europe, and had a pretty good time of it until finally calling it quits in 1998. Paul Foglino '84 was an integral member of that band, by the way. While touring with the band, I met my wife, Lisa, in Milwaukee. I convinced her to move to New York, and we were married in 1999. Soon after, we decided to escape NYC for calmer, warmer environs. We chose Durham, N.C., and could not be happier. Great town, great folks, even some pretty decent food. Lisa and I work as writers for the Princeton Review, a test prep company in New York. I've written six books for them, including The Best 331 Colleges, the notorious rankings book. I was lead author on the book for the first three editions, and then handed the reins over to someone with better organizational skills and thicker skin. My other books are test prep books for Regents exams, AP exams, SAT IIs, that sort of thing. We pick up other freelance writing gigs from time to time. We work at home and enjoy what we do: it's a great life. "Thanks for slogging through this mini-autobiography and thanks also for chronicling the comings and goings of our classmates." Kenneth Chin is a partner at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, a major New York law firm. Ken practices corporate law and focuses on financing transactions. His wife, Lisa, is an in-home attorney at the New York State Housing Finance Agency. They have two children, Nicholas (7) and Austin (5). Ken and I were friends in college and law school, and it is always great to hear from him. Neal Smolar is associate general counsel and corporate vice president at UBS/Paine Weber. He is married to Betsy (Shutter) Smolar, '85 Barnard. They have three children, Abigail (9 1/2), Yael (6 1/2) and Aidan (3 1/2), and live on the Upper West Side. Neal is very involved with Columbia's Kraft Center and in touch with many of his classmates. Leonard Rosen is managing director in technology investment banking at Lehman Brothers. He is responsible for communications equipment and Israeli technology. Lenny, Tracy Klestadt, Eddy Friedfeld, Adam Bayroff and I traveled throughout Europe and Israel together after graduate school. Lenny travels to Israel regularly and is responsible for helping to finance its growing technology sector. Lenny, maybe it's time for a reunion trip? Kevin Chapman is making progress in his quest to visit every major league baseball stadium. He and his wife, Sharon, along with their kids Samantha, Connor and Ross, are planning a trip to the Midwest. Kevin notes, "The Mets will be playing Milwaukee in July, so that looks like a good time to do the Chicago-Detroit-Minnesota-Milwaukee trip and get three new stadiums checked off our chart (it's 25 down, 5 to go)." With the influx of new talent on the Mets, Kevin's family will undoubtedly enjoy their trip. Robert Flock inquired about his first-year roommate, Rich Jorge, after reading about him in CCT Class Notes. Robert reports, "I am the director of real estate for International Paper Company. Laureen, my wife of almost 16 years, and I live in Allendale, N.J., where we are raising four children; Robbie (14), Chris (13), John (11) and Mary Kate (5). I spoke with Rich the other night, after 19 years, and picked up right where we left off. I see John Hite from time to time. He lives in Upper Saddle River, N.J., with his wife and two children. I also bump into Bob Pash. He and I live in the same town. As small worlds go, I met Bill Massey not too long ago. His wife and my wife are good friends." My wife, Debbie, threw a surprise 40th birthday party for me. I was delighted to spend the evening with many Columbia classmates and my treasured friend and professor, Karl-Ludwig Selig. My father had a lengthy conversation with Professor Selig in Italian, and Professor Selig reunited with many former students. I was deeply saddened by the passing of Professor Wallace Gray. He was my faculty adviser and a great mentor. He was a brilliant professor who gave his life to Columbia. He will be greatly missed by countless former students. Anyone interested in contacting classmates mentioned in Class Notes should send me an e-mail.
Dennis Klainberg Congratulations to Jay Markowitz M.D. on a new career. "I am a transplant surgeon at Johns Hopkins, but will usher in the new year with a career change, going to work at T. Rowe Price as a biotech analyst." Jay lives in Baltimore with his wife, Susan, and their three children: Caroline (12), Jonathan (9) and Sarah (7). Congratulations as well to Eric Wakin, who announced his October marriage to Michele Barc in New York City, where they live with 13-year-old stepson, Dane. Alumni friends at the wedding included Jonathan Blum '82, Aaron Brenner '85, Michael Caruso '83, Ed Leibowitz '85, Dave Romine '86, Howard Snyder, Bo Tran '83 and Brad Young '85; Burt Clouse was sorely missed. Eric writes: "In late 1999, I left my job as executive editor of a startup magazine for technology investors to move to Ernst & Young. I've been at E&Y for two years. I'm working as an e-business adviser, helping run the firm's B2B services through its extranet. I'm theoretically still enrolled in the Ph.D. program in U.S. history at Columbia, though dissertation work has stalled. I get together regularly with College and GSAS friends to play cards. If any hold 'em players would like to join us, please e-mail me: eric_wakin@yahoo.com. "Finally, I'm co-author, with Seth Kamil, of The Big Onion Guide to New York City: Ten Historical Tours, due out from NYU Press in March." Thank you, gentlemen, for your updates. Looking forward to more input from our classmates.
Kevin G. Kelly Steve Dembitzer writes: "I encourage you and our classmates to see the new film In the Bedroom (distributed by Miramax), a project many years in the making, which I executive produced following an introduction to the material and the original English producer, Graham Leader, by another Columbian, Gordon Goldstein. The film stars Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek and Marisa Tomei and is directed by first-time director Todd Field. "Despite the many challenges along the way, we are pleased with the results and blessed with an extraordinarily generous reception from the major critics (The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, Ebert, etc.). All raves! "I also was encouraged to see another interesting film connected to one of our classmates, The Deep End (co-directed and co-written by Scott McGehee)." Pete Stathatos writes: "I'm a vice president at an opinion survey consulting firm in Purchase, N.Y., Sirota Consulting. I graduated from NYU with a Ph.D. in 1998 in industrial/organizational psychology. And, most importantly, I've been married since 1994 to Elizabeth Corley." I write: OK, Serge Ozerov. I have asked many times, over the phone and in person. Now you get to see it in print. Please put something together for CCT for inclusion in the next issue. You have lots to share! Also, let's hear from any members of the class of 1985 who started their Columbia experiences as freshman on the 11th floor of John Jay Hall in the fall of 1981. I have been sleuthing somewhat using the power of the Web to locate friends from my days at Columbia and re-establish contact. Not surprisingly, they were all fellow former Furnald Grocery comrades! For anyone contemplating doing so but unsure as to whether they should, I encourage you to do so. I have had some very pleasant interactions with many old friends, none of whom however, was CC'85. C'est la vie. I encourage all members of our class to e-mail me with newsy bits about themselves, their families and their classmates. You don't even have to deal with taking pen in hand and writing a letter, then finding an envelope and stamp and putting all three elements together in order to contact me. My e-mail address is included in this column for your convenience. Easy open spout. Lather, rinse, repeat.
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