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Stuart M.
Berkman "After 30 years with Smith Barney in New York City, the past 15 years heading up the institutional investment management area," writes Bruce Sargent, "I have transformed my venue and have opened an office in New Canaan, Conn., for Salomon Smith Barney!" Rudolph von Bernuth is currently associate vice president for humanitarian response at the Connecticut-based charity, Save the Children. Rudy spent a good deal of time earlier this year leading his agency's response to the Kosovo refugee crisis in the Balkans. He lives in Westport, Conn. In April, Stefan Rudnicki won the Grammy award for the best spoken-word album for children, The Children's Shakespeare, of which he was the producer. In June, the Los Angeles, Calif. resident was named publisher of the audio division (Dove Audio) of New Star Media, Inc. "After 23 years as the only legal aid attorney in El Dorado County, Calif., I have retired," wrote George Appelbaum by e-mail. He plans to spend more time playing music, walking, gardening, cycling and traveling, while practicing law part-time out of his home in the "lovely oak-covered foothills of the Sierra Nevada." George closes sending his "Warmest Class of '66 greetings to you and all." George's e-mail address is lynnette@calweb.com. And from Yorktown Heights, N.Y., we recently received an e-mail from Mark Levine. He wrote that his wife, Stephanie von Hirschberg, a former magazine and book editor, recently started her own literary agency and is looking for writers with good nonfiction book ideas. She can be reached at svonhirsch@aol.com. Mark's own e-mail address is mrl@sandw.com. Next year will be the 35th anniversary of our graduation. Does anyone have any special ideas or suggestions that can be channeled to the reunion committee, once it makes itself known? May I remind you once again to include your e-mail addresses when sending in your news.
Kenneth L.
Haydock Several members of the Cleverest Class in the World have reported in, to your correspondent's delight. Paul Broches tells us that his firm, Mitchell/Giurgola Architects, will be preparing the master plan for renovating Chandler Hall for Columbia's Chemistry Department. Classmate and physician Harold Jawetz's family continues the Light Blue tradition; his older son Robert and daughter-in-law Sheryl graduated from P&S this year, and his younger son Seth from the College, where his daughter Shari is Class of '02. Martin Oster and wife Karen were proud to see their daughter Bonnie receive her degree from the College this year; she entered Columbia's doctoral program in art history this fall. Robert Knobler, a tenured professor of dermatology at the University of Vienna, is co-president as well as co-founder of the Society of Investigative Dermatology of Latin America. Sin-Min Shaw reports a diverse range of activities: a private investigator in Hong Kong, a columnist for Time magazine's Asia edition, a trustee of the American University in Paris, and a visiting scholar for the coming academic year at the Fairbank Center of East Asian Research. Your correspondent invites e-mail from classmates in every walk of life, whether to report major events or just to offer stray philosophical reflections on contemporary civilization. The Class of '67 mourns the loss, after prolonged illness, of Heidi Duerbeck B'67, wife of our classmate, alumni leader Jenik Radon. Heidi's hallmark intelligence, energy and wit will be greatly missed. Our sympathy is with Jenik and with Kaara Radon '95, their wonderful daughter.
Ken
Tomecki "All the
leaves are brown, From the home office (via the impersonal fyi/press release)... Bill Broudy (St. John's Law, '72) recently joined the N.Y.C. office of Cozen and O'Connor, a Philadelphia-based law firm, where he'll devote his time to insurance regulation and corporate and commercial litigation. He lives in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y. and serves as director and president of the Croton Community Land Conservatory (which he established), a non-profit organization. Mike McGuire, M.D. ('72 P&S) FACS, ABC, is president of the California Society of Plastic Surgeons for the year 1999-2000. He's an associate clinical professor of surgery at UCLA and chief of plastic surgery at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., where he's lived for the last 15 years. He's also the founder and president of the Foundation for Surgical Reconstruction, a charitable organization that raises funds to cover reconstructive surgery for uninsured individuals, especially women with breast cancer. Courtesy of Bob Pszczolkowski, who lives in St. Augustine, Fla., I learned that Skip Zilla left the warmth of Atlanta to continue his computer programming career in Hartford, Conn. Thanks, Bob. Unfortunately, and somewhat as expected, I personally heard from no one. So, once again, I'd like to hear from anyone in the class, especially the same three suspects I named in the last issue, plus John Tait, Tom Russo, and Neil Gozan, and any member of the class whose last name begins with A or B. Ok?
Michael
Oberman Some columns almost write themselves, when lots of news arrives. Others, like this one, require actual reporting, with phone calls to follow up on leads. Here's what I learned. David Ucko is president of the Kansas City Museum, which has created a new kind of educational attraction that combines key characteristics of museums, science centers, theme parks, retail and theater. Called Science City, the new facility, scheduled to open November 10, has been built with a project cost of $250 million in Kansas City's newly renovated train depot (the second largest train station in North America). As Dave explained it, Science City has more than 50 environments that replicate the look and feel of selected city settings, such as a movie studio, a crime lab, a medical operating room, and a TV news studio. All floor staff play roles in partial costume as characters who live or work in Science City. It provides a one-of-a kind destination for "recreational learning" as visitors explore the environments through hands-on activities and role-playing. Dave, as president of Science City, has spent 10 years on the project and-with the opening in sight-enthusiastically invites classmates to come visit. Nicholas Fox Weber is the author of Balthus: A Biography, published this fall by Knopf and excerpted in the September 6 edition of the New Yorker. The excerpt focuses particularly on the "provocative painting" called The Guitar Lesson, "which has remained something of a peepshow curiosity ever since it was first shown-under wraps at the artist's insistence." Apart from its interesting treatment of this work, the article gives considerable insight on what it was like to interact with Balthus and write a book about him. For Nick, a cultural historian, this is his ninth book and only the latest in a large group of articles. For 25 years, he has served as executive director of the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, which is devoted to exhibitions of, and publications about, the work of the painter Josef Albers and the textile artist and printmker Anni Albers. Nick told me that he has come to realize that his qualities of "irreverance and questioning" are products of the College experience for which he is "perpetually grateful." Nick is also active as a member of the National Board of Outward Bound, an educational organization that sponsors wilderness trips (in which you bring minimal clothing and rugged gear for camping and hiking without electricity or cell phones) as well as inner city educational programs. He told me that Outward Bound has become an important element of his life and that he had gone on a skiing and camping trip in Michigan when it was 28 degrees below zero. He invites classmates to join him for an Outward Bound course. (I know at least one classmate who is far more likely first to visit Science City-where there is heat and he can bring his cell phone and laptop as he awaits news from his classmates.) David Hummon is a professor of sociology at Holy Cross, where he has been teaching introductory sociology, a special inter-disciplinary course for first- year students, a course on the college experience, and a course on children and contemporary society. He developed a special interest in children's literature as his children were growing up, and he has now published his first book for children. Animal Acrostics is a book of poems about animals, in which the first letters of each poem's lines, when combined, spell out the animal's name. Dave has now created a web page about acrostic poetry, linking to other sites featuring acrostic books. To visit this web site, go to Holycross.edu, select sociology department, find Dave's home page, and follow through to the acrostics page. (I know at least one classmate who probably will visit this website even before he gets to Science City.) John Van Dusen Lewis, having obtained a doctorate in anthropology and then having spent over 20 years in the foreign service, "will finish the century as director for agriculture and food security at the U. S. Agency for International Development." He explained he developed an interest in the Third World and what should be done there while in College, which led him to his chosen field. He has lived for stretches of time in Africa, Haiti and France. The Agency has been an instrumental part of the "green revolution," applying agricultural science to quadruple the yields of rice, wheat and corn in countries around the world. His daughter, Mathilde, graduated from the College in 1998. (I know at least one classmate who is most likely to visit the College again, perhaps even before checking out acrostic poems.) The column's phone budget is now shot. Please e-mail me your news today.
Peter N.
Stevens Regular readers may have noted that I have a new address. While it's true that I continue to slowly distance myself from the campus physically (all the way from W. 96th St. to W. 90th St.), my heart still resides on Morningside Heights. Please also note my new e-mail address. By the way, for those who haven't recently been back to the heights and the campus itself, you'll be delightfully surprised. Both have improved significantly from the days of yore. It's well worth a trip back... which leads me to reunion news. Our committee continues to meet on a regular basis. Our goals are threefold: (1) get as many classmates back to campus on June 2-4; (2) rally classmates to contribute to the College Fund and especially to our class gift fund; and (3) put together a spirited, fun and meaningful weekend program. As an incentive to lure many of our long lost classmates, we hope to have a large supply of Columbia head bands, tie-dyed shirts, elephant bells and appropriately colored arm bands to reflect our diverse class's historical and current political moods. Unfortunately, the pace of the wonderfully improved CCT has overtaken the pace of our class mailbag, so there is little additional class news to report. Please note that two class members, Al Scardino and Richard Snow, are on the advisory board of CCT and our thanks go to them for their efforts on behalf of the magazine for many years. Finally, Bill Poppe's entry in our class reunion theme contest ("Still dirty after thirty") was the winner. The number of entrees unfortunately was less than overwhelming. Accordingly, we have embarked on another competition. The idea is for class members to submit haiku reflective of our undergraduate experiences. Winners will be announced at the reunion and published in this space. For example, the first entry (submitted anonymously and with apologies to iambic pentameter purists) reads as follow:
In any event, I look forward to your entries and to news about yourselves, your families and other classmates. I also look forward to seeing you all at the reunion.
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