No. 47
Fall-Winter, 2010

I had the double pleasure in October of attending Homecoming and the dedication of the new baseball stadium named in honor of our classmate, Phil Satow. Phil’s generous gift has made Satow Stadium a reality, and it is a beautiful addition. Classmates Larry Neuman, Henry Black and his wife, Benita, Jerry Dwyer, Steve Barcan and his wife, Bettye, and I attended and toasted Phil, his wife Donna and family. At the Homecoming tent we were joined by Frank Partel, and Don Margolis. I sighted Tom O’Connor off with the football contingent, and am told that I missed Lee Lowenfish (and I’m sure several others). The day was beautiful, and could have been even better if we had won.

Here are some pictures of the dedication of Satow Stadium and the Homecoming Picnic and Game.

David Alpern writes, “That I even still have a radio show in semi-retirement is quite a saga, in which I have been buried too deep to attend monthly lunches since the start of the year. But maybe now our classmates might be interested and even helpful.

When our liberal AIR AMERICA network collapsed, in January, I began paying engineer and co-hosts from my Newsweek contract fee and we kept providing Newsweek On Air free via Internet to a dozen longtime stations.
When Newsweek in its infinite wisdom and woes decided not to renew my contract, I changed the show's name to FOR YOUR EARS ONLY, got six months of trial funding from non-profit National Arts Club in New York and was able to buy satellite time again on the mostly conservative Radio America Network (G. Gordon Liddy et. al.). Check out http://www.radioamerica.org/PRG_yourears.htm

We're now back up to about 30 U.S. stations (in New York, Washington, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Dallas, New Haven, etc.) plus Hong Kong, 177 other countries via the Pentagon's American Forces Radio Network and the podcast that we keep posting to the old Newsweek links (http://feeds.newsweek.com/podcasts/onair http://www.podcastbunker.com/Podcast/Podcast_Picks/Newsweek_On_Air/, http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/newsweek-on-air/id73329823).

I am now back to hunting funds for what I tout as a ‘truly fair and balanced, public-radio type platform for important issues in the increasingly strident, slanted arena of commercial radio.’ Budget is about $90,000 annually for satellite, studio, engineer, producer, anchors and interns (college journalists from Columbia, CUNY, NYU, and Fordham). Funding from non-profit or for-profit underwriters passes through another 501(c)(3) operation, Gatewave.org, a 24/7 radio reading service for those who can't see that has carried our program for years, and is fully tax-deductible.
Fingers crossed, and happy for any help or advice from the Class of '63.”

Lots more class notes below!

I am adding a Links page to our web site, where I will add these and other classmate-related links. Send me yours (business, blogs, whatever) and I will publish them here and on the site.

If this is your first visit here, I've added a link to an archives page, which in turn, will link you to the past issues of the Class of 1963 eNewsletter. If you haven't seen any of the earlier newsletters, take a look -- there's a lot more news, pictures, and interesting articles than I haven't been able to include in Columbia College Today. You might want to start with last month's eNewsletter (if you haven't read it already). It is chock full of interesting notes by and about your classmates.

Table of Contents:

• Next Second Thursday Lunches - Join us on October 14 and November 11
• The Latest News From Your '63 Classmates

Next Lunches - Thursday, October 14 and November 11

Every Second Thursday of the Month, 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Columbia College Club - 15 West 43rd Street, NYC

Please join your classmates for an informal lunch at the Columbia Club every second Thursday of the month. It is our hope that these gatherings will renew old friendships and foster improved relationship with our class and the College. I hope you can all join us at the next lunches on Thursday, November 11 and Thursday, December 9. Let me know if you will attend so that we can reserve a big enough table; RSVP to Paul Neshamkin (pauln@helpauthors.com).

Recent Lunches

November lunch attended by eight '63ers

The November 11, 2010 lunch was attended by Jerry Dwyer, Gil Einstein, Doron Gopstein, Don Margolis, Charles Miller, Paul Neshamkin, Larry Neuman, and Tom O'Connor.

(Seated from left to right) Larry Neuman, Don Margolis, Doron Gopstein (hidden),Charles Miller, Tom O'Connor, Jerry Dwyer, Gil Einstein, and Paul Neshamkin.

October lunch attended by eight '63ers

The October 14, 2010 lunch was attended by regulars Peter Broido (in from Chicago), Jerry Dwyer, Doron Gopstein, Charles Miller, Paul Neshamkin, Tom O'Connor, Barry Reiss, and Ben Tua (up from Washington, D.C.).

(Seated from left to right) Charles Miller, Tom O'Connor, Paul Neshamkin, Peter Broido (in from Chicago), Ben Tua (up from Washington, D.C.), Doron Gopstein, Barry Reiss, and Jerry Dwyer.

September lunch attended by eight '63ers

The September , 2010 lunch was attended by regulars Steve Barcan, Henry Black, Ed Coller, Doron Gopstein, Paul Neshamkin, Tom O'Connor, and Jeff Thompson.

(Seated from left to right) Jeff Thompson, Doron Gopstein, Tom O'Connor, Henry Black, Steve Barcan, Paul Neshamkin, Ed Coller (missing Bob Heller).

July lunch attended by six '63ers

The July 8, 2010 lunch was attended by Rich Juro (on a rare trip from Omaha), and regulars Jerry Dwyer, Doron Gopstein, Lee Lowenfish, Paul Neshamkin, and Tom O'Connor.

(Seated from left to right) Tom O'Connor, Paul Neshamkin, Rich Juro(in from Omaha), Jerry Dwyer, Lee Lowenfish, and Doron Gopstein.

June lunch attended by six '63ers

The June 10, 2010 lunch was attended by regulars Steve Barcan, Ed Coller, Doron Gopstein, Paul Neshamkin, Barry Reiss, and Jeff Thompson.

(Seated from left to right) Ed Coller, Paul Neshamkin, Jeff Thompson, Steve Barcan, Barry Reiss, and Doron Gopstein.

April lunch attended by nine '63ers

The April 8, 2010 lunch was attended by regulars Steve Barcan, Henry Black, Jerry Dwyer, Doron Gopstein, Bob Heller, Paul Neshamkin, Larry Neuman, Barry Reiss, and Phil Satow.

(Seated from left to right) Larry Neuman, Jerry Dwyer, Barry Reiss, Steve Barcan, Phil Satow, Henry Black, Paul Neshamkin, Bob Heller, and Doron Gopstein.

Lunch Archives

If you like to see our previous lunches, click on the dates below:

For information and inquiries call Paul Neshamkin at 201-714-4881 or email at pauln@helpauthors.com.

Latest News from the Class of 63

January 2011 Issue

Mark Koppel married Barry Brandes in Connecticut on September 1, 2010, the 38th anniversary of the day they met at the beach in Queens. Mark writes, “We waited this long because even when Massachusetts allowed out-of-state couples to marry, New York did not recognize them. A Court of Appeals decision, supported by the Governor and Attorney General ordered New York to accept out-of-state marriages. Since Connecticut is the closest state that performs same-sex marriage, the ceremony was there. It was a truly exciting day, shared by Columbia classmates Alan Greengrass (my best friend since third grade), Rory Butler and Geoffrey Akst (both of whom I met at Columbia). I am working with many LGBT groups to get Equal Marriage in the entire country. I hope I live long enough to see it happen.” Best wishes to Mark and Barry!

Barry Jay Reiss writes, “The family, including the kids and grandkids are off next Wednesday for our annual (for the past 20 years) four-day mini vacation at the East Hills farm in Keene NH. It’s a real working farm with a full complement of farm animals, many of whom were rescued. The original inn was built in 1834 and it also boasts New Hampshire’s first indoor pool (as well as several outdoor pools in the summer and a beautiful lake). Among the cool things are the henhouse where the kids can collect their own eggs every morning, then have them for breakfast, hayrides in the fall and multiple types of accommodations, most with working fireplaces. Since they make their own bread and use local cheese they make absolutely the best grilled cheese sandwich ever made! They also have a staff to guest ratio of 1:2, great walking and hiking trails and constant activities for kids and adults including a night at the bonfire with hot chocolate and some mores.”

Michael Nolan writes, "I was a co-founder of the Pickle Family Circus in 1975 and worked with [Bill] Irwin, [Randy] Craig and [Geoff] Hoyle. Irwin won the Tony for Best Actor several years back for his lead role performance in "Who's Afraid of Viriginia Woolf." This photo was taken at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. That's my daughter Rosy and son Mac. Photo by me.

(left to right) Rosy Nolan, Bill Irwin, Mac Nolan, Randy Craig and Geoff Hoyle.

Mike Bowler writes, “Since I last wrote, the MD governor appointed me to the Baltimore County Board of Education, in one of the nation’s largest districts. Our 10-year-old grandson is in one of “my” schools, so I’m duty-bound to do well. The board is grappling with Race to the Top issues, including the rating of teachers. I spent four hours today on a political matter that has little to do with education, the pay is zero (we do get expenses and a free flu shot), and the budget picture for next year looks disastrous. One has to be crazy or wealthy to take on this job, and I’m not in the latter category. Maybe I learned something in the two classes I took with Daniel Bell that will see me through.”

Mel Gurtov “In June I retired from Portland State University after 40 years of teaching, 23 of them at PSU. However, I continue as editor-in-chief of Asian Perspective (now in my 16th year) and as a researcher and writer on Asian affairs. My wife Jodi and I are planting an orchard of apple and Asian pear trees on our farm (see below), so I'm trying my best to deserve the title of "farmer" (see photo), though in truth I'm merely a lowly assistant to Jodi.”

Cal Cohn “I'm fully retired from psychiatric practice and have joined Houston's Retired Physician's organization as well as a Doctors' writing group. My wonderful wife Helen,a non-practicing attorney, still works for her brother's apartment building business. Our son Ely is 25 and works for a health food start-up drink company where he is the number two person. He graduated with highest honors from the University of Texas and now wants to go for an MBA. He lives in New York, on the Lower East Side. Thus my family history has come full circle. Our daughter, Jackie, lives in Los Angeles where she works for "Shine," Elizabeth Murdock's TV distribution company.

Members of my extended family have tended to be very successful: one is Professor of Journalism at Boston University, having been Editor of Columbia University's Journalism Review; another is a thoracic surgeon, who married a Barnard classmate of mine. She is a radiologist. They live near San Francisco. They have two sons, one an MIT graduate, the other a Harvard graduate. The MIT grad started a call center in India and sold it ten years later for a large sum; the other has an electronics research company that performs government contracts. A cousin is a Pulitzer prize-winning playwright and academy-award film script writer, another is writing a book for Scribner's, having been given a substantial advance. He was a columnist for the Christian Science Monitor and has a master's in science writing from Columbia. Another cousin was one of the very early employees of CISCO Systems. He lives in Palo Alto and has a farm in Wales.

In the course of my career, I worked, authored, and co-authored papers with a Nobel Laureate and studied with a winner of the Albert Lasker Award. I have two clinical full professorships and founded a successful Cognitive Therapy in-patient service, the first ever. I have given talks around the United States and Europe. My late and beloved father had a doctorate from Teacher's College.

A cousin of my wife's built a home in Tuscany where we visited last summer and plan on doing so next summer. My brother-in-law was the founding president of Holocaust Museum Houston. He has a daughter who is a vice president at Goldman Sachs.

Reading, writing (finishing an historical novel that takes place in 1940's Israel and which I hope might eventually make a good movie) ,staying healthy, and traveling are my near-term goals.

Anyone inclined to do so, please contact me at 101 Westcott, Unit 201, Houston 77007; or 713 661 7165.

Jim Cleven writes, “We are retired in Austin, TX and almost never get to New York. Happily married to Ellen (47 years) with four children and six grand children. Four of the grand children are in Texas ,as well as my two daughters. Enjoy traveling, boating, golf, bridge, and eating. Had a great and enjoyable career relocated several times from Connecticut to Texas, Las Vegas and San Diego. Started out in administration and Information technology then back to my true passion construction where I had a successful and rewarding career.

John Karlberg writes, “My wife, Anne, and I are back in Palm Coast FL after spending the summer at our other home in the Poconos. One of the highlights of the summer was the 20th annual John Karlberg family reunion in Nags Head NC. Beginning in 1990, we have rented a house on the beach every year. The first year there were my wife and I, three daughters, two sons-in-law and one grandson. This year we were 18, including nine grand children. We have had perfect attendance every year! ‘Nothing ages like happiness’.”

Frank Sypher has a new publication, just out: William J. Hoffman, An Armory of American Families of Dutch Descent, edited by Francis J. Sypher, Jr., New York: The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 2010. This 400-page book brings together and reprints 37 articles by Hoffman, originally published from 1933 to 1952, on heraldry among Dutch colonial families, such as Roosevelt, Van Cortlandt, Van Rensselaer, et al., with numerous illustrations of coats of arms, maps, etc., with new introduction and index. Nearly 100 families are discussed.

Another of our authors, Victor Margolin writes, “I have signed a contract with Berg Publishers in Oxford, UK for a three volume World History of Design. I have been working on the book for many years and hope to finish the second volume early in 2011. I have also co-edited a new anthology, The Designed World, also published by Berg and I continue to lecture and participate in conferences about design and design history. In recent months I have been to Turkey and Brussels and have future trips to Mexico City and Santiago, Chile. After Chile, my wife and I will visit the Galapagos Islands.” Victor is the Professor Emeritus of Design History at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Elliott Greher say that he is “busily involved, for the third year in a row, in modernizing and expanding my house and its possessions. this is the most active year yet in these endeavors with my wife's guidance and consent. my children are dong well as are my very many grandchildren.”

Steve Clineberg writes, “I retired as Regional General Counsel of Boston Properties (Washington, DC office) in December of 2006 and have literally not looked back. My wife Lin (a graduate of St. Luke’s Nursing School on 114th Street) and I have relocated to our 'vacation home' in St. Michaels, MD, on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Since then, I have gotten involved with the local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit that builds home for working families in this area. In fact, I am so involved in this organization that they made me its President, meaning that I get to 'herd the cats' on the Board of Directors for a two-year term and helping to assure that we have enough funding and able volunteers to continue our mission. I am actually looking forward to this since our affiliate is still growing, building 5-6 homes per year and filling a vital need for housing in our area – similar to the work that Habitat does around the world. I find that this work taxes the skills, such as they are, that I developed over my working career and am having fun with it.

In our 'spare' time, Lin and I like to travel. In fact, we have just returned from a 3-week safari trip to Southern Africa and are looking forward to our next trip – probably to Italy or maybe Egypt. We have also been spending a good deal of time with family, especially our three children (all girls) and seven grandchildren. The highlight of our summers has been our visits – with all of the children and grandchildren, as well as spouses – to Family Camp on a lake near Portland, ME. If that’s not enough, Lin volunteers with Master Gardeners and our local Chamber Music festival (held in these environs every June) as well as other volunteer activities.

It was great seeing everyone at our 45th in New York. We are certainly looking forward to seeing many more of you at the next one and catching up on what you have been doing for the last 50 years!”

Peter Broido became a first time grandfather in June – Jack Johnson born to his daughter Claire. “Mom and Jack are doing fine. We also have been travelling as much as possible with a recent return from Turkey and Greece. I see Gary Rachelefsky when he visits Chicago and saw Tom Homberger for the first time since graduating. We were both at a Chicago Columbia Club function. He too is doing well.”

David Pittinsky writes, “My talented wife Alecia put a wonderful video together for our trip to Paris in early October. This was our fifth consecutive October trip to Paris with another couple and their Maltese dog. We always stay in the Bristol Hotel on the right bank in the 8th Arrondissement, eat wonderful meals and walk all around Paris. In addition, this year we were able to go to the Grand Palais for the Monet exhibition and its 200 Monet paintings secured from museums and private collectors all over the world.”

Charles Miller writes, “that I will become Adjunct Professor of Patent Law at St. John's University School of Law in Jamaica, NY starting in January. I will also continue to practice law in my capacity as Senior Counsel at Dickstein Shapiro LLP in Manhattan.”

Our regular Second Thursday lunches continue to be a wonderful place to reconnect. If you’re back in NYC, try to make the next Class of `63 lunch, scheduled for January 13, and then again on February 10 – it’s always the second Thursday. Check our Web site at www.cc63ers.com for details.

In the meantime, let us know what you are up to, how you’re doing, and what’s next.

November 2010 Issue

I was lucky enough to spend most of my time this long, hot summer being a beach bum down the Jersey Shore. Not retired yet - just very little work. Sadly, I wasn’t able to make the regular dinner visits of Steve and Bettye Barcan to Vic’s (best pizza) in Bradley Beach, but was able to join Tom O'Connor, his wife Terrie, son Matthew, daughter-in-law Emma, grandson Raleigh, and other family and friends for a great birthday dinner at Sea Grass in Ocean Grove. Tom is going to be honored in October with induction into the Columbia Athletic Hall of Fame as a member of the great 1961 Football team along with classmates Lou Asack, Tony Day, Ron Drotos, Mike Hassan, Joe Marchese, Pat Moran, GS ’63, Fritz Mundorff, and Bill Witherow. What a season! Certainly one I’ll never forget – thank you guys.

Phil Satow is being saluted for his generous donations to the Athletic program on October 23 (Homecoming) when the baseball stadium will be named in his honor, Satow Stadium. Congratulations, Phil! The new stadium will boast new seating, home team dugout, and a press box, and multimedia score board. It will be one of the best in the Ivy League. It is fitting that now both the baseball stadium and football field, the Robert K. Kraft Field are named in honor of two of our classmates. If any of you are interested, there’s probably a swimming pool or soccer field that could be named after you.

Gary Rachelefsky writes, “Cannot believe our 50th Reunion is fast approaching. Gail and I are married 44 years having met at a TEP party in 1962. We have three daughters (Holly, Cava ’94 and Lindsay ’01) and seven grandchildren. I left the practice of allergy immunology almost four years ago and am a full-time tenured professor at UCLA. Best to everyone.” Gary, I can’t believe it either; time moves too fast. We’d better start planning.

Eric Foner, the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, is now a member of the editorial board of the Progressive Book Club.

David Pittinsky writes, “In addition to my continuing to work full time as a commercial litigator, my wife Alecia and I continue to take wonderful vacations to France. This past summer, we spent two weeks in Paris and one week in St. Tropez. We have been going to St. Tropez since 2002. We have also been going to Paris every October since 2006 for extended eating weekends at one, two and three star Michelin restaurants. My favorite Parisian restaurant is L'Ami Louis, which we will go to for the fifth consecutive year this October. If anyone would like to read my Parisian eating reports, which also contain valuable information on other aspects of Parisian life, they should email me and I will be glad to share them with my classmates.” You can reach David at pittinsky@ballardspahr.com

Our regular Second Thursday lunches have been seeing an increasing number of you lately. Some of the luminaries in the spring and early summer included: Steve Barcan, Henry Black, Ed Coller, Jerry Dwyer, Doron Gopstein Bob Heller, Rich Juro, Lee Lowenfish, Don Margolis, Larry Neuman, Paul Neshamkin, Tom O’Connor, Barry Reiss, Phil Satow, Steve Stoller, and Jeff Thompson. If you’re back in NYC, try to make the next Class of `63 lunch, scheduled for November 11, and then again on December 9 – it’s always the second Thursday. Check our Web site at www.cc63ers.com for details.

September 2010 Issue

It occurred to me that in three years, you will be reading a summary here of our great 50th Reunion. It’s hard to believe, but planning will start in earnest this fall (if you’d like to help, let me know). The results of the Class of 1963 Survey that Don Margolis and I sent out to you recently showed that 38% indicate that they will definitely attend (another 36% answered “maybe”). Obviously, a lot of you have been looking forward to this one. Mark your 2013 calendar – I hope you will all be there; it should be a terrific gathering.

Lee Lowenfish and I proudly carried the Class of 1963 banner in the Parade of Classes on Class Day. The College threw a great breakfast and arranged for a glorious day (the University had a little trouble with rain at Commencement the following day). I hope more of you will consider joining us next year at what is becoming a great tradition. Patrick Cary-Barnard continues to post his reports to You Tube. You can see his latest “Pimento Report” by searching for Pimento3. Patrick deals mostly with environmental and development issues in Montreal. I must say, Patrick, you are looking most youthful! Barry Jay Reiss sent in an update on his remodeling project, “My wife Brenda and I are just completing a major remodeling of the first floor of our home which we’ve owned since 1968. Like most homes of the 60’s our ground floor had rooms, a hallway, a kitchen, a dining room and a family room. We have entered the new millennium by taking down the walls and making what they call a ‘great room’ and we are doing it as green as possible. Our new floor will be bamboo, our ceiling lights low power halogen, our ‘under counter’ lights LED, our paint VOC, our cabinets with wood from certified renewable forests, our appliances ‘energy star’ and our countertops from a wonderful company we found here on Long Island that makes them entirely out of a combination recycled bottles, recaptured stone “dust”, recycled mirrors all bonded with a natural corn resin. They are as hard and durable as granite and cost just about the same and the colors are wonderful. All will be powered, of course, by the solar panels on our roof.”

Steve Langfelder writes, “This winter in Florida I met my four-year college roommate Don Putnoi for the first time in decades. After Columbia, Don and I had stayed in touch for a while, and were even each other's best man at our respective weddings in 1964. But he went on to Harvard Medical School, became an opthalmologist and eye surgeon, and settled in the Boston area where he still resides. Both of us enjoy the Berkshires, and we plan to meet there again this summer.

I remained in New York, obtaining an MBA in accounting from Columbia's Graduate School of Business, and spending the better part of the next four decades in public and corporate taxation. I retired in 2001 and have spent most of the last ten years enjoying life and working on a graduate degree in couch potato. My wife Ruth and I have two married daughters and six grandchildren. One daughter and four of our granddaughters live in Israel, so each year we travel there in the spring, then "import" them in the fall to keep the interval between hugs at six months.

A friend told me that at this stage, what counts are health, family, and friends. So far, health has been good, and two years ago I started working on my family tree. So far the tree has several hundred ‘leaves’, and I've made it back to 1825 with two great-great grandparents, leaving only thirty more to find at that level. However, this quest will end only, as one genealogist has said, when I can reach the Garden of Eden with one click of the mouse!”

Travel notes from all over: Don Margolis just returned from an Alaskan cruise, and Jerry Dwyer and his wife are back from London. Let me know what you did this summer.

The Alumni Office sent me an update saying that Dr. Charles Cantor, chief scientific officer of Sequenom, serves as a director at Exsar Corporation and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. With a little Google search, I discovered that Sequenom manufactures a mass-array genetic analysis system, and I found that Exsar is “a development stage company dedicated to identifying, developing and commercializing small molecule therapeutics for protein misfolding diseases.”

David Alpern reports that, after May, “Newsweek On Air” becomes ‘For Your Ears Only’. If you haven’t listened to David’s broadcast, you can find them on the Web (just Google David) or subscribe to them as podcasts. I often listen to them on my Zune when I’m driving. Great stuff, David.

July 2010 Issue

I recently reached out to all of you by email (if you didn’t hear from me, it means I don’t have a good email address for you – please send me one) and asked for some news, especially from those of you who have never sent in a note before, and received the following:

Richard Weisman writes, “This will be my first update since I graduated in 1963. I’ve managed to maintain contact with my dear friend and classmate, Paul Lehrer, over all these years. I’ve lost contact with a few other classmates. Anyway, briefly, I have been teaching at York University in Toronto since 1969- just received acknowledgement as a forty year veteran. I am a Professor in the Law and Society program and for the past two years have been director of the Graduate Program in Socio-Legal Studies- a program I helped to found. I have been a dual citizen of the US and Canada since 1997 and still vote in US elections. I married a wonderful woman – Maureen- in 1981 who had the misfortune to get breast cancer from which she passed away in 1995. I have since 2001 been sharing my life with another great lady- April. Maureen and I had two sons- Daniel – now 26- and Steve- now 22. I consider it the greatest and most rewarding learning experience of my life to have raised them more or less single handedly after their mother died. I have no plans to retire soon. I enjoy the freedom and opportunities that an academic career affords and besides I have unfinished business- another book to complete. I got my PhD in sociology from UC, Berkeley, but switched to interdisciplinary work after completing my LLB in 1985. I still remember an absolutely extraordinary seminar I took with Professor Daniel Bell at Columbia in 1962-1963. I think just about all eight of us in that seminar became academics. If I were to demand of my students today what was expected of us in that seminar on a weekly basis- completion of a major work in classical social theory and readiness to discuss it in detail – my students- graduate as well as undergraduate- would think I was either joking or had taken leave of my senses.”

Victor Margolin writes, “I am an emeritus professor of design history at the University of Illinois Chicago. Currently I am working on a large World History of Design, which I plan to finish in about two years. Recently I have given lectures in Poland, Spain, and China and will be speaking in May at a conference of Turkish design historians in Izmir. Future travel plans for work include Santiago, Chile and Montreal, Canada. So, life as a retired professor is not bad. I have also been nominated for the third time for the Design Mind award, which is part of the National Design Awards at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Announcements of the winners will be made in June.”

Mike Bowler writes, “I taught high school, worked nearly 40 years in the newspaper business, the last 35 at the Baltimore Sun (the last 10 of those as education editor), three years at the Institute of Education Sciences (research and statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Education). Our son, daughter-in-law and grandson live two blocks away, and I volunteer at grandson’s public school (as well as doing a volunteer research project on H.L. Mencken at a local university). Next Tuesday through early July I’ll be a part-time enumerator for the Census. I put this job roughly at the difficulty level (high) of brewing the coffee (and thus determining the mood of Columbia on any given day) at John Jay first thing in the morning in 1960/61. Being married to a Barnard girl (Margaret, for nearly 47 years), I sided with her when Columbia went coed and did not enamor myself to the Columbia p.r. machine. Will try to make the 50th.”

When I asked Mike if there were any classmates he’d like to be put back in touch with he replied, “No, not really. There were three of us from Montana (I from Helena) in the class that entered in ’59. I’m in regular touch with John Barovich, from Billings, who might not have graduated with our class in ’63. I’m long out of touch with Roland Trenouth, from Missoula. I’ve been close friends with the only Barnardian that fall from Montana, Carol Miles, from Livingston. We celebrated 50 years of friendship last fall. We met on an Undergraduate Christian Association hayride in the fall of 1959. My wife and I married in the Columbia chapel the week of my graduation. The next day I took her to a Mets double-header. She had a year left at Barnard, so we repaired (by train) to Montana, where we took a whole year’s worth of education courses and returned to New York, where I got a job after the start of the academic year replacing a woman at Oceanside (Long Island) High School who had made the mistake of showing her pregnancy. I taught that year and then did the master’s program at the Columbia J-school while my wife paid the bills as a teacher in Hicksville. The rest, including a turbulent time covering desegregation as education editor of the Atlanta Constitution, getting fired for rabble-rousing, being saved by arbitrator Hugo Black Jr. (yes, the son) is history.”

Walter Guarino writes, “This is to let you know that things have been very exciting recently. I have been interviewed a lot by national and local media (CBS TV, BBC TV, USA TODAY, WOR TV, FOX TV, NY Times, et al.). It is a result of the fact that I have become a media expert on things like Super Bowl advertising, ad trends, social media and most recently, Tiger Woods as a brand. I run a branding firm in New Jersey called Insight|sgw and I am in my 12th year of teaching grad students in a Master's Degree in Communications program at Seton Hall University. I guess one of the biggest honors I have been given was to receive the highest award a New Jersey resident can get. It's called the Governor's Gold Medal and it was given to me in recognition for a statewide pro bono campaign I created to promote multiculturalism. I married my lovely wife Maureen some 34 years ago and we live in Fort Lee, NJ. I often see my college roommate, Dr. Evan Silvy, and we talk about our ‘school days’ on many occasions.” Walter promises to try to make one of the class lunches soon and catch up on things.

Aaron Malakoff writes, “I live in New Braunfels, Texas, and work part time as a Hospice and Palliative Care consultant. I spent most of my professional career as a solo practice urologist in San Antonio but in 1998 I sold my cystoscope and was the first to do a fellowship in Palliative Care at Univ. of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. After that I was the medical director at the hospice here in New Braunfels until I quit working full time so that I could travel for longer periods of time. My convivant Judy and I like to involve ourselves with the local populace on our travels and we have had some very interesting visits to the rain forest in Ecuador and in helping start a palliative care program in Guatemala City. I hope to return to Vietnam and see it with different [eyes before] I get too old and can still see.

My son Jamie lives in NYC and I visit him around Labor Day, We have a long-standing tradition of attending the US open each year. Unfortunately, the US open is never close to a second Thursday. I spend quite a bit of time on the tennis court even though most of my friends have switched to golf. Still I like playing singles so it is usually with younger people and keeps me humble. I also attend a ski seminar in Colorado that is led by an aikido master. It is a most rewarding way to begin the year.
I know there must be many of our class here in Texas and I would like to get in touch with them. I attended an alumni get together last year in Austin which is a 45 minute drive from here but at that particular function there were very few of our generation present.” Aaron, I don’t know how often you get to Fort Worth, but you might try getting together with Arnie Barkman, Mike Bumagin, Bruce Miller, or Bob Whelan, who gather for bagels fairly regularly.

Harley Frankel's non-profit, College Match, had a spectacular college admissions year even though this was a very competitive year in the admissions world. He reports, “46% of College Match's low-income students of color from inner-city public schools were admitted into Ivy League universities or Ivy-equivalents like Wellesley, MIT and Stanford. This included three students at Yale, three at Stanford, eight at Dartmouth, nine at Wellesley, two each at Harvard, MIT and Amherst, and four at Brown. Unfortunately, no College Match students were admitted into Columbia.” Sorry, Harley – I’ve got my fingers crossed for a big Columbia year for your group soon.

Alexis Levitin is still teaching at SUNY-Plattsburgh, up near the Canadian border. Recent travels to Brazil and Ecuador have resulted in three books in the last year: a co-translation of Tapestry of the Sun: An Anthology of Ecuadorian Poetry, the English version of a multi-lingual book of twenty-two sonnets called Consecration of the Alphabet, and Brazil: A Traveler's Literary Companion, for which he was the editor. He is just now finishing work on a children's book called Invitation to Rio. Sandwiched with work were a full month living in the Galapagos Islands, as well as a week on Isla Grande in Brazil.

Bob Contiguglia was recently honored with the prestigious Werner Fricker Builder award by U.S Soccer at their annual meeting. The honor is bestowed annually to an individual who has worked tirelessly in furthering the interest of the sport of soccer, without regard to personal recognition or advancement.

Bob is the former president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, which culminated a three-decade career in which he excelled as a player, coach and administrator at nearly every possible level of the game. During his tenure as U.S. Soccer President several important soccer milestones were achieved, including a U.S. Women’s National Team victory in the spectacularly successful 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the largest women’s sporting event in history, the tremendous run to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Men’s National Team in the 2002 Korea/Japan FIFA World Cup, and an Olympic Gold Medal won by the U.S. Women’s National Team at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Michael Nolan writes, “I just found a photo of me and Harvey Milk, a friend and political adviser of mine, from early 1978. It got quite a response when I posted it on Facebook yesterday. Quality ain’t great but lots of meaning.” For those of you using Facebook, I recommend searching for classmates like Mike (or me) and become our “Friends.” There are a lot of us out there, and you might be interested to see what we’re up to. Maybe we should start a Class of 1963 page there.

Michael Nolan and Harvey Milk in 1978.

May 2010 Issue

You’re probably enjoying a lovely spring day, but it’s been one heckuva winter here on the East Coast - “Où sont les neiges d'antan” indeed. Joe Applebaum wrote in the middle of the second big storm of February from Washington, D.C., “Our power went out last weekend and so Phyllis and I - along with our cats - have decamped to a nearby hotel. Our power seems to be restored but the roads are impassable, and impossible, right now so we'll go home Friday. All else is well.” Steve Barcan took the weather in stride and headed to Vermont to ski with his kids and grandkids. Paul Gorrin wrote from southern Delaware that he had some two feet of snow and a blizzard. Paul also invited us to the 55th Georgetown Oyster eat the last Friday in February. As you read this in May, I guess we all missed a great time. “As a visiting friend of our oldest son, Daniel, said a couple of years ago, as he looked out for the first time at the cigar smoking beginning-to-be-drunk men of all ages milling about the sawdust covered floor of Georgetown grabbing beers, lining up for raw oysters crowding around about 20 or so stands with holes cut out in their centers for shells to be tossed in. Volunteer fire men turned waiters shouting "Hot stuff...Hot stuff" carrying tubs of steamed oysters to be ingloriously poured onto the stands and generously divided amongst the one-gloved, oyster-knife-wielding dudes and shared with the their friends behind them ---‘This is the real America.’ Come down, I'd love to see you. And if you can't make it, look at last Friday, Feb, 2011.” Paul, sounds like a great time. Maybe a bunch of us can make it down next year.
Further south, even the snow-birds complained a bit. Doug Anderson wrote from Palm Beach, “Sorry not to be able to join you but not unhappy to be in Sunny (but chilly) Palm Beach. Would someone please send a decent pastrami sandwich?” And Frank Partel wrote, “I am teeing off today in 56 degree weather at 1pm here in Vero Beach. Geez, it's cold down here. It's a good thing that we wear a glove on one hand when we play golf. Happy to let you know that I was informed by the USPTO that I am now the co-holder of US patent 7,624,068. And I have about half of my first draft written for novel 2, Black, with a Pinch of Salt.” OK, Frank I take that as a challenge for the class. I want to hear from the first of you who is working on your second patent while you are working on your third novel. Any takers?

Henry Black writes, “We (Benita and I) just moved from the Village up to West 81st Street -- that much closer to Alma Mater. We have taken tremendous advantage of the pre-basketball game buffet dinners in the Lou Gehrig lounge, courtesy of such local emporia as V&T, Fairway, Rack 'n' Soul and Carmine's. These dinners are a bonus to all season ticket holders in the True Blue program and it's fun to mix and mingle with alums, young and not-so-young.”

Harley Frankel's College Match program, which we have mentioned many times in these notes brought 64 outstanding low-income public school students to visit Columbia in two groups on March. He has been consistently successful in placing these students into first-rate universities – thanks for the fine work, Harley.

Steve Honig writes, “My wife and I, and our six year old son Matthew, are preparing for our trip this spring. We start out in Monte Carlo where my son Peter has a one man show of his photographs at the gallery at the Casino. From there we go to a photo safari in Zululand, and then to Cape Town to sight-see and try the wine (in Matthew’s case, the local orange juice). While I have lost touch, or rather almost never had contact, with Boston area classmates, I would be pleased to hear from them.” Sounds like a great trip. You can reach Steve at StephenHonig@comcast.net.

Art Eisenson has been a lead named plaintiff and a member of the Plaintiffs' Liaison Committee in a series of Writers Class Action Employment Discrimination suits. He writes, “I am limited by the terms of a settlement agreement in what I can say about it. However, if our classmates read major newspapers in the U.S, they will have seen articles and published legal notice about the settlements A FAQ about those suits and settlements can be found at www.tvwriterscounsel.com/questions.html. The fact that only the federal government has ever taken on or gotten a settlement from the entertainment industry may be of interest to attorneys, historians, or people who like bar bets. What is more significant, finally, is that we hope to address what is effectively a truncation of American popular narrative, in the form of TV fiction. The experiences of generations much over forty are simply not there in proportion to our numbers. We hope now to help people make sense of our lives by giving older writers the opportunities to tell the stories use to tell our truths and ask our questions.

It's been an education about law and the way the law business is done in the U.S. To borrow a term from my profession as a screen and TV writer, we owe ourselves a rewrite.

Alexis Levitin sends “Greetings from Plattsburgh. I am still teaching and still enjoying it, so I probably won't retire for another two or three years. Meanwhile I had three books of translations come out in the last year. Consecration of the Alphabet, published by Scortecci Editora, Sao Paulo, Brazil, is a collection of twenty-two rhymed sonnets by Brazilian poet Leonor Scliar-Cabral. Each poem is dedicated to one letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The original Portuguese poems are accompanied by my English translations, along with translations by others into French, Spanish, and even Hebrew. Tapestry of the Sun: An Anthology of Ecuadorian Poetry, published this past summer by Coimbra Editions San Francisco, California, is the first collection of Ecuadorian poetry ever to be published in the USA. I co-translated the book with Ecuadorian writer Fernando Iturburu. Brazil: A Traveler's Literary Companion, which I edited for Whereabouts Press, Berkeley, California, is a collection of Brazilian short stories organized by region and intended to be read as the traveler visits various parts of the country. It was published in January, 2010.” Alexis, you’ve been a busy man. You find a recent picture taken in Spain on our web site.

Farhad Ardalan Has been denied a visa to travel to the US from Iran. He sent me an article from the Feb. 20 issue of Science Magazine (you’ll find a link on our web site) that relates the frustrating tale. Farhad was made a fellow of the American Physical Society last fall in part because of his work to connect Iran to the global scientific community. He had hoped to come to the Society’s meetings to be honored, but the U.S. Embassy claimed he had an arrest record and that he had been involved in deportation proceedings in New York in 1993. He denies knowledge of both charges, states that he is sure that he is being confused “with a person with the same name who was a leader of the Kurdish guerrilla movement; as a result, for years I was routinely stopped and interrogated at the Tehran airport.” Farad, I hope that this issue has been resolved.

Paul Lehrer writes “All of my friends are talking about retirement plans, but I think I have just learned how to do my profession well, so I’m still going with full steam. I am a clinical psychologist, and professor of psychiatry at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. I am a past president of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, and have just received a sizable grant from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute to study biofeedback treatment of asthma. I have edited a book, Principles and Practice of Stress Management (NY: Guilford Publications) that is now in its third printing, and have published over a hundred papers in various scientific journals. This stage of a teaching career is very rewarding, particularly seeing my students now develop productive academic careers of their own. I also enjoy my clinical practice through UMDNJ. My wife, Phyllis, is an accomplished piano teacher and pedagogue, and is a professor of piano at Westminster Choir College, of Rider University. My daughter, Suzanne, lives in nearby Princeton, and has two lovely children, 3 and 18 months. She also is a pianist and teacher. She is married to a lovely fellow, Jonathan LeBouef, who is an associate registrar at Princeton University. My son Jeffrey is a diplomat with the U.S. Agency for International Development. He now lives in Tajikistan with his lovely wife Natasha and two children,3 and 6, with another one on the way.”

Michael Hassan sent me the latest episode in his life adventure, “I’m presently traveling in the Philippines with a friend of mine that I met in Cebu last year. He's an ex Navy Seal and we met on Mactan Island at Chief Lapu Lapu's shrine. Mactan Island is a part of Cebu, (where as many of my learned classmates probably already know), and is where the famous explorer Magellan, bit the dust after living there only 3 hot and humid weeks. Seems Magellan sided with the wrong chieftain during an inter-tribal war and lost his life as well as those of most of the 600 men with him. The ex Navy Seal and I are going diving on another island called Camiguin. The last time I dove, I returned to tell the tale but I had a scary moment that made my coupling up with the ex-Seal seem like a smart move. The last time, (in Subic bay of WWII fame), I had to abort the morning dive because I ate too much oatmeal for breakfast and coupled with my hiatal hernia, found myself 15 feet down and unable to catch a breath. Picture a diver roaring up towards the surface with such speed that he rises out of the water up to his waist...needless to say, I was mildly panicked. After much eructation, (3 hours worth) there was room for my lungs to expand and down I went on the afternoon dive, this time successfully. I hadn't gone diving for over 20 years and didn't realize what time and a bad stomach had done to my underwater breathing apparatus.”

Steve Stollman wrote awhile ago to let me know that he was about to be evicted from his offices of over 20 years at 3251 Broadway now owned by Columbia. “I have been offered, albeit at an unaffordable five times my current rate, replacement space in the Nash building, where the Manhattan Project got its start. Given the interdisciplinary nature of our quest, this is a most appropriate location to gather the best vehicle design and construction minds. They could help to heal the potentially fatal environmental and economic (and ethical) wounds which our unsustainable transportation system is still inflicting upon our chances of survival. My business consists of two elements. One, profit-making, involves antique restoration, including treasured elements of New York City’s history, like the Automat, and finely crafted 100 year old carved Victorian bars. I can also be legitimately defined as a re-cycler, since a surprising portion of my inventory was headed for the dump before it was rescued.
My other activity involves the creative development of new human-scale and human-powered transportation, bikes and trikes. I have put on conferences and events involving this work for thirty years. I am currently, (www.LightWheels.com) the operator of a facility in Flushing Meadows Park devoted to the evolution of these vital devices. We have also been making proposals to the city in regards to its plans to deploy a widespread shared-vehicle system. (www.LocalExpression.com) If I am able to persist in my tenancy here in Harlem, my intention is to develop a creative design program, to engage students and others in prototyping, testing and putting into operation, crucial elements of the next generation of urban transportation. When I provided the space and funding for the introduction of Pedicabs into New York City 18 years ago, it was to spur awareness of the potential for clean, quiet, healthy modes of lightweight transit like human-powered transportation to find a place here. It is more important than ever to find the way to minimize our impact on this planet rather than maximize it. The density of this city and wide variety of activities taking place here makes this the perfect place to dramatically expand the role of human-scale transportation.”
When I asked him if any progress had been made, he replied, “Thanks for responding and offering to give some visibility to the issue. I'm afraid there has been no improvement in the situation. I may be history soon after the magazine comes out but I still think it is important for former students to know what is going on here. I'd love to hear from some of them.” You can find the full correspondence from Steve (and even more news from Michael Hassan and others) on our web site at www.cc63ers.com. %%

March 2010 Issue

The small email discussion list that has grown from the attendees of our various class lunches had a flurry of communication after I recently wished them a Happy New Year (which I now extend belatedly to all of you). I had asked for news or resolutions and among the exchange of greetings from over 20 of your classmates, I received the following: Joe Applebaum resolved “to stay in close touch with my friends and colleagues.” Harvey Schneier wrote that one of his resolutions was “to work less hard so I can attend the class luncheons regularly. Now that my twins (son at Quinnipiac, daughter at George Washington) are one semester away from finishing college, I'll have less financial incentive to keep working this hard. What's retirement like, guys?” Which prompts me to ask all of you, “What’s your retirement like?” Not that I think I’ll ever be able to retire, but this seems like a good time to warn your working classmates of what’s in store. Please send me a note and let us all know how retirement is treating you.

David Alpern writes, “In last week of ’09, contractor began excavating for expansion and remodeling of the little ranch house in Sag Harbor on Long Island that I bought over thirty years ago. Lots of old memorabilia tossed out, but a great new home coming for me and the Mrs.”

Bill Goebel shared that he “received a nice hand written note from Coach Joe Jones thanking me for my support to the Columbia Basketball team. I am not a major contributor, but I really appreciated the gesture from him along with a New Year’s greeting card from the Athletic Director. It is great to see that Columbia, at least respecting the Athletic Department, is attempting to out reach to its alumni. It is a welcome change that I hope continues.” Henry Black seconded this sentiment, and writes, “I, too, am pleased that the Athletic Department has reached out and sent personal notes and cards this Christmas time and that there is some tangible evidence that we are improving across the board.”

Lee Lowenfish writes, “My first book The Imperfect Diamond: a History of Baseball’s Labor Wars comes out in a third updated edition in spring 2010 from University of Nebraska Press. On Jan 22, 2010 I received an award from the New York Pro Baseball Scouts Hot Stove League for meritorious service to the national pastime. Really honored by that.”

Phil Satow’s daughter Julie was married last May and is expecting a baby next June. She is College ‘96 and SIPA graduate. Her husband Stuart is the Editor in Chief and a principal in The Real Deal a successful real estate publication.

Frank Sypher’s latest book, a bicentennial history of St. James' Church, New York, is in production, for publication in the spring of 2010, titled: St. James' Church in the City of New York, 1810-2010.

Recent Class of ’63 lunches have been very well attended. At the December lunch a particularly happy group of ten of us toasted the holidays and exchanged news. On a more sobering note, Dan Perl updated the group on his recent work on traumatic brain injury in the NFL. These are usually interesting and fun get togethers. Over the past year we’ve averaged over eight classmates in attendance at these monthly events.

January 2010 Issue

Barry Reiss, Phil Satow and Paul Neshamkin attended the inaugural event of the Bridge Program at the West End (Havana Central) in October. As I mentioned in the last issue, the program, which runs until they graduate on our 50th anniversary, matches us up with the class of 2013. This and future events will allow us to connect to these young undergraduates and share the College experience. I hope more of you join us during the next four years.

Homecoming found Henry and Benita Black, Jerry and Jane Dwyer, Paul and Ruth Neshamkin, and Phil Satow in the Big Tent on Baker Field. I also saw Bob Kraft with President Bollinger, but did not have a chance to say hello. Tom O’Connor was happily tail-gating with the Football Alumni. At the game (don’t ask) we were joined by Larry Neuman, and I understand that Gil Einstein and his wife Anne sat with Henry Black. Gil has joined the 21st Century and set up a web site for his business as an art dealer. You can find an impressive selection of prints, paintings, and photos at www.gweinsteincompany.com. Well worth the visit!

You may have seen the Obituaries section of the November-December CCT and read of the death of our classmate Stephen F. Caldwell, in Tucson, on March 18, 2009. In addition to the information there, I Googled Stephen and found a more complete obituary, and learned more about his life as a quadriplegic. You can see his personal web site at www.memoiresques.com. There you will find a picture of Steve on graduation day and links to his unpublished novels and other works. Also, go to www.betterfarm.org to find out more about his life and the commune he founded.

I am adding a Links page%% to our web site, www.cc63ers.com where I will add these and other classmate-related links. Send me yours (business, blogs, whatever) and I will publish them here and on the site.

Keep the notes coming and I'll add them here as I receive them.

For information and inquiries call Paul Neshamkin at 201-714-4881 or email at pauln@helpauthors.com.

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