Class Notes

1950 Kenn Hubel received a note from Arnold van der Lande, to be shared with friends from the Class of 1950. Arnold wrote: “On my 91st birthday, a few days ago, we drank the last bottle of wine which my father had bought in the year of my birth. In 1939 he hid the wine in a very old cellar where the Germans could not find it during the war. He died in 1949, leaving the many bottles he had stowed away in the hiding place. I opened the bottle, which I had kept for so many years, and savored the wine together with my family. We were surprised that the wine had kept a fine flavor and taste during these 91 years.” Kenn writes that Arnold’s letter “evoked memories of World War II, the harsh German occupation of the Netherlands, the foresight of Arnold’s father hoping for a better day, and his wisdom in sending his son to an America then rife with optimism.”

1952 Dan Riley has written a memoir, My Life, My Words (CreateSpace). In addition to reminiscences and reflections, it includes several original essays and poems. Dan adds, “I am completing my 25th year as editor of Alligator Alley, magazine of the USS LSM/LSMR Association of World War II Navy Amphibious Veterans. Still too busy at 92!”

1953 Allen Brown writes that he’s published his fourth novel, The Elevator (Page Publishing). He’s also the author of Constitution 20XX (2013), The Story of Pope Maria (2015), and Why Is a Cow (2016).

1954 Hal Sobel has published a book, The Dream Shall Never Die: Essays on the Political Landscape (Mountain Air Books). Hal is a retired professor in the education division of Queens College, City University of New York.

1955 Marianne Lewald Hutchinson sends an update. She writes: “After my early childhood in Dresden, Germany; immigration to the U.S.; schooling, including an MA; and marriage and three children, my family and I moved to Mexico and served as missionaries for the United Methodist Church from 1965 to 1998. Upon retirement to Phoenix, Arizona (and 10 grandchildren later), I still continue to work part time as a court interpreter for Spanish speakers, a task I find endlessly fascinating.”

1958 Maude Feist Ackerman sends a photo of herself with her granddaughter, Laura Ackerman ’17, at commencement. Maude’s son (and Laura’s father), Joel Ackerman, writes: “We are a family of five U of R graduates now,” including Kurt Ackerman ’90M (PhD), ’91M (MD); Jane Jergesen Ackerman ’91 (PhD); and Phyllis Ackerman Rosenbaum ’60, ’61N, ’66N (MS).

1959 Bobbie Schwennker Kopf sends a photo and a note. “Three ’59ers enjoyed a week in Dunedin, Florida, in April.” From left to right are Bobbie, Gayle Green Pinkowski, and Bonnie Hall Sheppard. . . . Michael Shapiro writes: “I’ve coedited a collection of essays entitled Wrestling with Shylock: Jewish Responses to The Merchant of Venice (Cambridge University Press). I recently completed a six-year stint as visiting professor of English at Loyola University. My wife, Elizabeth, and I live in Chicago, not far from our two daughters and four grandsons. I serve on the Joseph Jefferson Committee, which gives annual awards to equity and nonequity theater artists in the Greater Chicago area.”

1960 Phyllis Ackerman Rosenbaum ’61N, ’66N (MS) (see ’58).

1964 Jerry Zandman writes: “After 24 yearly trips, the Class of 1964 Delta Kappa Epsilon ski team, now retired, continued the tradition in Islamorada, Florida, in March.” Clockwise from the left are John Ozols ’65, ’68 (MS), Scott Yeaw, John Detraglia, Jerry, Jim O’Hara ’77S (MBA), and Tom Collins.

1965 John Ozols ’68 (MS) (see ’64).

1968 Jeff Roberts lives in Montpelier, Vermont, and is president of Cow Creek Creative Ventures, which consults and advocates for small-scale food producers and for sustainable agriculture and community economic development. He’s published a book, Salted and Cured: Savoring the Culture, Heritage, and Flavor of America’s Preserved Meats (Chelsea Green Publishing). He also teaches the history and culture of food at the New England Culinary Institute and is a visiting professor at the University of Gastronomic Science in northern Italy.

1969 Stuart Mushlin has published Playing the Ponies and Other Medical Mysteries Solved (Rutgers University Press). Stuart, a master clinician in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, writes that the book is a memoir of his 40 years practicing internal medicine and “a reflection on how internists think.”

1971 Mel Hyman writes: “My 35-year career as a journalist began with columns I wrote for the Campus Times during the early seventies. I’m currently ensconced on the New York Post copy desk.” Mel would love to hear from anyone “with a memory of the old days” at mhyman@nypost.com. . . . Jerry Newman sends a photo of himself with his daughter, Aurora Newman ’17, taken during May’s commencement weekend.

1975 Marilynn Patterson Grant ’82W (Mas) has been named program director, pre-K to 12 education, for the William and Sheila Konar Foundation in Rochester. Marilynn has advised school-based and district administrators through her consulting and coaching firm, M. P. Grant, and previously served as deputy superintendent of teaching and learning for the Rochester City School District.

1977 Composer and arranger Brett Gold released a CD of original recordings, Dreaming Big (GoldFox Records), with his big band, which includes trumpeter Jon Owens ’90E and Eastman saxophone professor Charles Pillow ’84E (MM). Two-time Grammy nominee John Fedchock ’85E (MM) wrote the liner notes. Gold writes that he began studying big band arranging a decade ago after practicing law for 25 years. . . . James Goldstein, a professor of English at Auburn University, has published a book, The English Lyric Tradition: Reading Poetic Masterpieces of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (McFarland). He writes that he “would not have written the book if I hadn’t taken Anthony Hecht’s course, The Lyric in English.”

1980 Kathy Kahn Brandes sends a photo from a minireunion held in New York City (see page 53). Clockwise from the left are Wendy Baim Siegel, Bruce Saber, Susan Landau Glasser, Bethany Panzirer Gilboard, Kathy, Barbara Rosenberg Passick, and Jeffrey Passick.

1985 Jay Marinstein, a partner and commercial litigator with Fox Rothschild in Pittsburgh, has been elected office managing partner, with a seat on the firm’s executive committee. Jay serves publicly and privately held for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations in commercial litigation in state and federal courts across the country.

1987 Stephen Parente ’89 (MS), ’89M (MPH) has been nominated by President Donald Trump to be the assistant secretary of planning and evaluation for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Stephen is the Minnesota Insurance Industry Chair of Health Finance at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, associate dean of MBA and MS programs, and director of the university’s Medical Industry Leadership Institute. An expert on insurance, health IT, and health reform, he’s governing chair of the Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute. He also serves as a Congressional Budget Office health advisor and was a health policy advisor for Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.

1989 Fred Grossman has started a new job as controller for the Credit Junction in New York City after leaving his position as controller for Prolifics. He’s married and lives in Plainview, New York, with his wife, Monica, and their two sons, Mitchell and Jeremy.

1992 Jeffrey Reznick, chief of the medical history division at the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health, has coedited the book Images of America: US National Library of Medicine (Arcadia).

1993 Alexis Hart is an associate professor of English and the director of writing at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. She and her coauthor won the Conference on College Composition and Communication’s 2017 Richard Braddock Award for their article “Veterans in the Writing Classroom: Three Programmatic Approaches to Facilitate the Transition from the Military to Higher Education,” which appeared in the December 2016 volume of College Composition and Communication. . . . Kirt Wackford ’94 (T5) was awarded his shodan (black belt) by the California Aikido Association in May 2016. His daughter, Gabriella, received her first belt (fifth kyu–yellow belt) in March. He writes: “My first aikido class took place on the River Campus in the fall of 1989, and while an undergraduate I trained often with an instructor who was also a graduate student in the philosophy department.” Kirt adds that after 10 years teaching (and the last few as chair of the science department) at Wasatch Academy in Utah, he has accepted a faculty position at Idyllwild Arts Academy in California and will move there this summer. Pictured are Kirt, Gabriella, and friend, Logan.

1994 Kirt Wackford (T5) (see ’93).

1995 Andrew and Lisa Graf Falconer visited Rome and London with their children, Ben, 10, and Everett, 7, over spring break in March. Lisa writes: “While in England, we took a day trip to Bath and visited Nelson House, home of Advanced Studies in England, where Andrew and I studied during our junior year of college. It brought back a lot of great memories, and we were so happy to be able to share the experience with our kids.”

1998 Rachel Rains Winslow has published a book on international adoption, The Best Possible Immigrants: International Adoption and the American Family (University of Pennsylvania Press). Rachel, an assistant professor of history at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, is married to James Winslow ’99 (T5), who shared the news of her book.

1999 Jennifer Farmer, the managing director of communications for the PICO National Network of progressive faith-based community organizations, has published a book, Extraordinary PR on a Budget (Berrett–Koehler). . . . James Winslow (T5) (see ’98).

2001 Rahuldeep Gill ’02 (T5), an associate professor of religion at California Lutheran University in Los Angeles, writes: “My book, Drinking From Love’s Cup: Surrender and Sacrifice in the Va¯rs of Bhai Gurdas Bhalla (based on my undergrad honors thesis), was published by Oxford University Press.” He adds that he’s joined the national speaking organization Speak Out, whose roster also includes Angela Davis, Cornel West, Tim Wise, and others. . . . Emily Zeman writes that she was named associate director of clinical education and instructor at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Institute of Health Professions last July. She’s also published a paper in the National Academy of Medicine’s Perspectives, “Burnout, Stress, and Compassion Fatigue in Occupational Therapy Practice and Education: A Call for Mindful, Self-Care Protocols.”

2002 Rahuldeep Gill (T5) (see ’01).

2003 Sudhir (Sid) Shenoy lives in North Carolina and was named to the Charlotte Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. He’s a partner at the law firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice and serves as cochair of the firm’s public company advisors team. He’s also president of the Charlotte Asian Pacific American Bar Association and is an active volunteer for Classroom Central (an organization that collects and distributes free school supplies) and Heart Math Tutoring (a math intervention program for students in high-poverty elementary schools).

2005 Rachael Gabriel, an assistant professor of reading education at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education, writes that she published a book, Making Teacher Evaluation Work: A Guide for Literacy Teachers and Leaders (Heinemann). . . . Radhika Vemishetti ’06 (MS) writes that she and Krzysztof Laskarzewski were married last October in Somerset, New Jersey (see photo, page 55). Pictured are (standing, left to right) Sheena Ahmad ’04, Chandana Thammana ’03, ’04 (MS), Sona Rai, Mithun Sahdev ’03, Hisham Rifaey, Crystal Richards Kelly, Michael Kelly, and Rupal Varshneya Karnani ’06 (MS); (seated, left to right) Swathi Nadindla Doyle ’04, ’08M (MD), Radhika, Megha Shah, and Krzysztof.

2007 Sudesna (Sue) Ghosh is the author of Just Me, the Sink & the Pot (Amazon Kindle), a novella about an overweight girl reflecting on her journey through school. Sue has also published two nonfiction books.

2008 Daniel Cochran, a doctoral candidate in art history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has been named one of 21 Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellows for 2017 by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Designed to support emerging scholarship in ethical or religious values, the Newcombe fellowship grants Daniel a year of support to complete his dissertation, “Building the Body of Christ: Ecclesiastical Art and Architecture and the Formation of Christian Identities in Late Antique Italy (c. 318–450 CE).”

2011 Al Vostal and Michael Tichenor were married in May in Utica, New York. Al writes: “Although we did not know each other during our time at U of R, we met in 2014, using the dating app Tinder, in Washington, D.C. We continue to live in Washington, where Michael is working on her master’s in social work at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and I recently finished medical school at the Uniform Services University of the Health Sciences and will be starting a residency in internal medicine at Georgetown University Hospital this summer. We both think fondly of our time at the U of R and spend lots of time chasing our fellow alumni around the country.”

2012 Tom Norman writes to say that he and Nicole Karam were married at the Sagamore Resort in Bolton Landing, New York, in January (see photo, page 56). Pictured from left to right are Mindy Sutton, Adam Brinkman, Pete Vercillo, Meghan Liptak ’13, Chiharu Pidgeon, Brendan Pidgeon ’13, Tom, Nicole, Richard Brunet ’13, Danielle Clark, John Whiting, Conor Flynn, Ann Flynn, Andrea Morrell, and Bill Campi.

2014 Joseph Cosentino ’15 (MS) writes that since completing his master’s degree in optical engineering, he has been working for Harris Corp. in Rochester as well as NASA, testing software for the James Webb Telescope. . . . Rachel Stuart graduated with a master of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in May. She writes that she is “heading to Emory University to pursue a PhD in Hebrew Bible through the Graduate Division of Religion.”

2017 Laura Ackerman (see ’58). . . . Aurora Newman (see ’71).