Class Notes

River Campus Undergraduate: 1980s

1981

Alan Hodesblatt writes, “Sorry I missed the 25th reunion. I am still alive and well and living in Delaware. I spent the past 12 years working for construction companies, winding up as controller for a Pennsylvania Main Line contractor. After a management change I saw my long-term survival there going down the proverbial tube, so I did something radical—I decided to use my law degree again. I am now working for myself back in Delaware, conducting mortgage closings. I still find occasions to pick up my violin, although I don’t have as much time as I used to. I am also very involved in running bridge tournaments through the mid-Atlantic area. Rochester was a ‘trade school’—I am actually making money from playing violin and bridge, skills which I honed while at college. My wife, my son (13 already!), and I live ‘spitting distance’ from I-95 in Delaware. If you’re in the area, let us know! My e-mail is ahodesblatt@excite.com.” . . . Rob Specter has been named vice president for finance at the University of Delaware. He writes, “After four great years in NYC, Jennifer and I have decided to move from our Manhattan ‘skybox’ apartment in favor of a more suburban lifestyle. Once we’ve found and settled into a new home, we’ll contact you with the address, etc. In the meantime, our e-mail addresses and phone numbers remain the same. Please drop us a line to let us know how you are and what you’re up to!”

1982
25TH REUNION
OCTOBER 19–21, 2007
http://www.rochester.edu/alumni/reunion2007/?y=1982

Steve Hixson was appointed vice president of advanced concepts at Northrop Grumman’s Space Technology sector in California.

1983

Michael Chen has been named president and CEO of GE Commercial Finance’s global media and communications business unit. . . . Diane Dalecki ’93 (PhD) is the new director of the Rochester Center for Biomedical Ultrasound. She is an associate professor of biomedical engineering at the University. . . . Tony Martonosi is stationed at Forward Operating Base Apache in Qalat, Afghanistan (about a two-hour drive from Kandahar). This winter, he wrote, “I’m halfway through a one-year tour in southern Afghanistan as a member of an Embedded Training Team, training the Afghan Army. It’s not something I ever thought I would be doing when I was in NROTC at the U of R and my wife, Carole, is certainly not amused. Southern Afghanistan is an interesting mix of the old and the new. There are plenty of automobiles but caravans of camels pass through on a daily basis. Our base is located one mile from a hilltop fortress built by Alexander the Great’s army and is still in use today. After traveling to about 40 countries, I have to say that the Afghan people are the most courteous folks I’ve ever met, which is amazing given the daily hardships they endure.” . . . David Neumeyer has been named the dean of admissions at Tufts University’s School of Medicine and continues his appointments at Lahey Clinic Medical Center.

1984

Tamara Swartz (see ’45). . . . Gretchen Wendt Cohen and her husband, Jay, send a photo to announce the arrival of their son, Julian Peter, on August 4, 2006. They write, “He was a long time coming!” They can’t help but wonder if he’ll continue a century-old family tradition of attending the University, following in the footsteps of great-grandmothers Ruth Beecher Wendt ’26 and Anna Bullis Koch ’33; great-grandfather and former chairman of the psychology department, G. Richard Wendt ’27; his uncle, Erich Wendt ’83, and aunt, Kerry Higgins Wendt ’96. “Watch out Class of 2028!”

1985

We owe an apology to Richard Hurwitz. In the January-February issue of Review, we mistakenly reported that he works in Toronto. Rick is senior managing director at Aegis Investment Partners in Denver. In 2006, he was named chairman of the board of Pioneer Technology Inc., a Canadian company that develops new technologies to manage and transform heat into other useful forms of energy. . . . Gerard Michel ’88S (MBA) ’88M (MS) has been appointed to the board of directors and audit committee at EP MedSystems. . . . Lisa Tunick has become a principal in the law firm of Hessel and Aluise in Washington, D.C.

1986

Dawn Magaletta FitzGerald published Vinnie and Abraham (Charlesbridge Publishing), a book about artist Vinnie Ream who defied Civil War–era expectations of women to become a sculptor whose most famous subject was Abraham Lincoln. Dawn lives with her husband and two children in Pepper Pike, Ohio. . . . Lorna Cialdella Morehead ’90S (MBA) and her husband, Chuck, send a photo of their third son, Benjamin Stanley, born on Sept. 28, 2006. . . . Karen Phillips Richardson writes, “I’ve spent the better part of the last two years working toward the incorporation of Georgia’s newest and 10th-largest city—Johns Creek. It was a rare opportunity to build a new city from the ground up. And in November, I was elected to serve on the first Johns Creek City Council. After the pace of the last six months of campaigning (How do politicians campaign for a year at a time?) I’m looking forward to spending time with my husband, Eric ’86, and our children—Andrew, 13, Samantha, 10, and Miles, 7.”

1987
20TH REUNION
OCTOBER 19–21, 2007
http://www.rochester.edu/alumni/reunion2007/?y=1987

Mathew Empie ’02M (MD) ’06M (RES) is a physician at Long Pond Pediatrics in Rochester.

1988

Mark Hughes has published his second book, Lemonade Mouth (Random House), a young-adult novel that aims to be the definitive history of a legendary band started by five outcasts during their freshman year of high school. Mark’s first novel, I Am The Wallpaper, was published in paperback this spring.

1989

Dawn Tudryn Piciacchio and her husband, Alan, welcomed their second child, daughter Vanessa Elizabeth, on February 6, 2006. She weighed 8 pounds, 1 oz. and was 20 inches long. Dawn writes that the photo shows that Vanessa and her big brother, Justin, “are best buddies!” . . . Steve Sheldon and his wife, Christine, announce the birth of their first child, Isabel Violet, born on January 7, 2006, in San Diego, Calif. He writes, “Both mother and daughter are doing well.”