star trek convention philadelphia

Throughout the course of the convention, fan-made music videos honoring the legacy of the show will be screened for your viewing pleasure.

If you're ready to make the trek for this event, get moving now—tickets are only available at the door. For the full event lineup and to see what other notable Star Trek alums will be in attendance, check out the convention's website .

Philadelphia International Star Trek Convention

A Star Trek Convention held August 7-10, 1975 at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, PA .

See also Al Schuster's International Star Trek Convention .

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Galactic Diversity & Inclusion Convention

By richhart , April 10, 2023 in Star Trek Conventions

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Richhart    0.

https://dnicon.org/

Get ready for the Newest, Most EPIC Sci-Fi Convention of the year... ‘Gaaays In Spaaace’ is proud to present the ‘GALACTIC DIVERSITY & INCLUSION CONVENTION’ 2023!!!

Appropriately located in 'The City of Brotherly Love,' our inaugural convention will be held in the heart of Philadelphia, PA from May 5-7, 2023, at the Downtown Pennsylvania Convention Center located at 1101 Arch Street Philadelphia, PA 19107.

We are honored to have over a dozen of our most dedicated, supportive, and all-around best pals from the sci-fi world joining us as our very special guests, including...

DENISE CROSBY (TNG), NANA VISITOR (DS9), ALEXANDER SIDDIG (DS9), TERRY FARRELL (DS9), ROBERT PICARDO (VOY), PENNY JOHNSON JERALD (THE ORVILLE, DS9), MARK JACKSON (THE ORVILLE), PETER MACON (THE ORVILLE), CHAD L. COLEMAN (THE ORVILLE, THE EXPANSE, THE WALKING DEAD), GARRETT WANG (VOY), JG HERTZLER (DS9), ROBERT O’REILLY (TNG, DS9), CONNOR TRINNEER (ENT), DOMINIC KEATING (ENT), JOHN BILLINGSLEY (ENT), BONNIE FRIEDERICY (ENT), THOM ALLISON (KILLJOYS), BONNIE GORDON (PRODIGY) & many, many more!!!

In addition to convention mainstays such as autograph signings, photos ops and panels, you can expect a LOT more from ‘D&I Con.’

One of the most exciting additions to the schedule are our ‘Actor Away Missions.’

These are separately ticketed events limited to a maximum of 24 participants, each with a different theme and a different actor(s) leading them.

‘Actor Away Missions’ are far more interactive and experiential than anything else you’ll find at other conventions.

We’ll also have several of our signature TREK-themed Game Shows including the fan favorite, ‘TREKKIE FEUD!!!’

Plus, casually Mix & Mingle with fellow fans and our celebrity guests, enjoy amazing LIVE Musical Performances, Tons of TREK Trivia with Fabulous Prizes, AND…

A Once in a Lifetime Event Celebrating the Union of Science Fiction & Science in a way that could ONLY come from 'GIS.'

This weekend will be the most memorable, history making celebration we have ever produced.

You do NOT want to miss it!!!

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The 50 Most Disappointing Movie Sequels of All Time

A world where heroes never die, the same jokes never get old, and the odd numbered star trek movies always stink.

IMAGES IN PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: EVERETT COLLECTION, 5. ADOBE STOCK 4.

Sequels are almost as old as Hollywood itself. Even before talkies hit the marketplace in 1927, studios were churning out follow-up movies like The Fall of a Nation and Don Q, Son of Zorro. The trend continued throughout the Golden Age of Hollywood with The Bride of Frankenstein , Dracula’s Daughter , The Thin Man Goes Home, Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell, Jolson Sings Again , and Father’s Little Dividend. Blockbusters of the Seventies and Eighties like Star Wars, The Exorcist, Halloween, Ghostbusters, Batman , and Raiders of the Lost Ark launched film franchises that continue to this day.

It’s easy to understand why risk-averse studios are so eager to green-light sequels. If a formula worked once before, why not simply try again? It’s also much easier to market a familiar story than it is to introduce something new. The only problem is that precious few sequels in Hollywood history have ever lived up to the original. And for every Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Terminator 2: Judgment Day that truly justify their existence, there are about 300 movies like Weekend at Bernie’s II and Son of the Mask that, to put it kindly, do not.

A list of the worst sequels in history could be almost endless, and almost too easy. Few people turned on Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles or American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile and expected some great masterpiece. So in picking our list of the worst movie sequels, we limited the list to movies that seemed at the time like they might actually be worthwhile. We admit it’s very subjective. And it’s easy to fault us for expecting anything decent out of the latter-day Die Hard or Terminator movies, but they somehow managed to get our hopes up at least a little every single time. (If they made Terminator 37, we’d still walk in feeling hopeful. We’re fools.)

Please join us on this sad journey through Hollywood history where Michael Meyers is never truly dead, John McClane transforms from a regular police officer into an immortal killing machine, the odd numbered Star Trek movies always suck, and we wait in vain for the day any Jurassic Park sequel is even halfway watchable.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines had a lot working against it before the cameras even started rolling. The first two Terminator movies were the brainchild of James Cameron. He wrote them, directed them, and oversaw every detail of their production. He’s also a genius that’s basically never made a bad movie. But Cameron wasn’t involved with Terminator 3. The film also didn’t have Linda Hamilton or Edward Furlong on board to play Sarah and John Connor. The only thing it had from the first two movies (besides a cameo from Earl Boen as Dr. Peter Silberman) was the Terminator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger. And as we’ve learned from Batman and Robin, End of Days, The Sixth Day, and many other turkeys, Schwarzenegger alone doesn’t guarantee a great movie. And this is far from a great movie. It’s a reprise of T2, where yet another advanced Terminator comes back in time, played by Kristanna Loken, and John Connor (now Nick Stahl) has to find a way to stay alive with help from another T-850 Terminator, played by Schwarzenegger. There’s almost no scene worth remembering up until the very end when a nuclear war begins and John Connor fulfills his fate by taking command. It’s a genuinely chilling moment, but it can’t make up for the nearly two hours that precede it. To be fair, nothing was ever going to top T2. It’s one of the greatest sequels in Hollywood history, rivaled only by The Godfather II, but Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines doesn’t even come close.

Staying Alive (1983)

The dance sequences in 1977’s Saturday Night Fever are some of the most iconic images in the history of film. But they’re just a few fleeting minutes in an otherwise dark movie about a Brooklyn teenager (played by John Travolta) desperate to improve his lot in life. Gene Siskel considered it the greatest movie in the history of Hollywood. By the time we catch up with Travolta’s Tony Manero character in 1983’s Staying Alive, he’s a waiter who dreams of Broadway stardom. Sylvester Stallone is the director, and he invited his brother Frank to contribute songs to the soundtrack. And with all due respect to Frank Stallone, his work doesn’t exactly stand up to the Bee Gees. (They have some deeply unmemorable songs of their own on the soundtrack.) But bad music is far from the biggest problem in Staying Alive. There’s simply no heart to the story, and Manero finds himself acting in an abysmal Broadway musical that feels like a Flock of Seagulls fever dream. “Staying Alive is a sequel with no understanding of what made its predecessor work,” Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times. “The first film was funny and touching, powered by a phenomenally successful score. This one is clumsy, mean-spirited, and amazingly unmusical.”

Jurassic Park: The Lost World (1997)

With the very big exception of the Indiana Jones movies, Steven Spielberg has largely resisted the lure of sequels throughout his long career. He could have made a fortune directing follow-up movies to Jaws, E.T., and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but he knew they’d never live up to the originals, and that his time would be better spent on new projects. But 1993’s Jurassic Park was such a mega-hit that he went against his better judgment and agreed to direct 1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park. It’s an adaptation of a novel that Michael Crichton reluctantly churned out in 1995 so that this very movie could exist. It’s about another island where the Jurassic Park dinosaurs were bred. Jeff Goldblum heads there alongside Julianne Moore and Vince Vaughn. The dinos attack. People die. In the end, a T. rex is set loose in San Diego. It all feels very humdrum and lacks any sense of wonder found in the original. It made a ton of money, and they’re in the midst of creating a seventh Jurassic Park right now, but only the first one is a genuinely good movie. The sequels are all varying degrees of terrible. 

Bad Santa 2 (2016)

When comedy sequels truly work, which is exceedingly rare, they come out within a couple of years of the original, and are assembled by the same creative team. Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey and Addams Family Values are the gold standard here. They hit theaters within two years of their predecessors, and the key behind-the-scenes players (Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon for Bill & Ted, Barry Sonnenfeld for Addams Family) were back. Bad Santa 2 came out 13 years after Bad Santa, without the help of original director Terry Zwigoff or writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. They did have Bad Santa himself, Billy Bob Thortnon, along with Tony Cox as his conniving partner, and even former child actor Brett Kelly reprising his Santa-obsessed Thurman Merman character. The old gang reunites to pull off another Christmas heist, but the dirty jokes just don’t land in this one. “There’s a going-through-the-motions vibe to the whole affair,” wrote Rolling Stone’s David Fear. “The original believed in its sodden, everyone-sucks with every ounce of its hardened, pitch-black heart — ironically, its horribleness made it that much more humanistic (and hilarious). The sequel is closer to fool’s coal: You can blow the thin patina of painted darkness off it with a breeze and find there’s nothing underneath.”

Teen Wolf Too (1987)

To be very clear, the original Teen Wolf is far from a great movie. But Michael J. Fox had more than enough Back to the Future-era charm to pull off the role as a nerd turned werewolf who becomes a high school basketball star and unlikely ladies man. Sadly, Fox is nowhere to be seen in the sequel. It stars Jason Bateman as the cousin of his character. He goes to college, discovers he’s also a werewolf, and uses his powers to win boxing matches. “College Boxer Transforms Into Werewolf” should have generated headlines all across the globe, but it’s treated as little more than a regional curiosity in this horrid movie. “The pacing is near-cataleptic and the movie’s intended comic highlight is a frog fight in the biology lab,” wrote Michael Wilmington in the Los Angeles Times. “Isn’t that just what you’re dying to see and hear? Bad dialogue, lugubriously paced; awful jokes about werewolves, and guffawing actors churlishly hurling around a lot of little frogs?”

Men in Black: International (2019)

If any movie franchise was poised to create a cinematic universe, it was Men in Black. There’s literally an entire galaxy of wacky aliens to explore, and a small army of Men in Black spread across Earth to battle them. If Sony handled this IP properly, we could be 10 seasons into a Men in Black cable show, eight seasons into an animated program, and somewhere around spinoff movie 12 or 13. But their first attempt to move beyond the Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones movie trilogy was 2019’s Men in Black: International, starring Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Rebecca Ferguson, Liam Neeson, and Kumail Nanjiani. It centers around a London Men in Black office, and the search for a powerful weapon hidden somewhere on the planet. It grossed just enough to possibly break even, but not nearly enough to justify another one of these things. ”It has been 17 years since Men in Black was a hot property, and the intervening gap has done nothing to revive interest in it,” wrote film critic James Berardinelli. “Whoever spearheaded this half-hearted resurrection should be fitted with a golden parachute. For those who remember the Men in Black movies fondly, stick with your memories. Seeing this latest installment is more likely to degrade than enhance them.”

Airplane 2: The Sequel (1982)

When it comes to comedy sequels, the temptation to simply recreate the exact structure of the original movie, along with all of the signature gags, is just too tough for most filmmakers to ignore. That’s why the genius trio of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker opted against creating a sequel to Airplane! so they could devote their time to developing the TV series Police Squad. That show — which eventually morphed into the Naked Gun movie franchise — is also why Leslie Nielsen wasn’t free to appear in Airplane 2: The Sequel. It did reunite Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, and Lloyd Bridges, but writer-director Ken Finkleman simply doesn’t have the same comedic instincts as Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker. (His prior movie was Grease 2. Need we say more?) He wrote a screenplay about a lunar shuttle headed to the moon, but it’s basically just a straight remake of Airplane! minus about 500 laughs. The only good thing about the whole fiasco is that Naked Gun exists because Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker were smart enough to avoid this movie. You won’t see either of the Naked Gun sequels on this list. Unlike Airplane 2: The Sequel, they’re both extremely funny.

Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)

If we were making a list of the best sequels in Hollywood history, Lethal Weapon 2 would be near the top of the list. The third one was slightly underwhelming, but the series didn’t crap out until the fourth one arrived in 1998. By this point, Joe Pesci and Rene Russo were part of the Lethal Weapon family along with series stars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. Chris Rock and Jet Li came on board for the fourth chapter, cramming in so many big names they barely fit on the poster. In this one, Riggs and Murtaugh battle an Asian counterfeiter/slave trader. Glover is beyond “too old for this shit” by this one, considering that his character planned on retiring from the police force a decade earlier, and it feels like everyone is just going through the motions, and counting how much money they’re making per second. The script was nowhere near ready when filming started, and that’s clear in most every frame. “I felt like Lethal Weapon 4 was outtakes [from the previous movies],” wrote critic Roger Ebert, “stuff they didn’t use earlier, pieced together into a movie that doesn’t really, in its heart, believe it is necessary.”

Iron Man 2 (2010)

The first Iron Man movie forever changed Hollywood. It marked the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the start of a broader superhero fixation that grips the industry to this day, and a new dawn for the career of Robert Downey Jr. But when it came time to make a second Iron Man movie in 2010, just two years after the original, Marvel was still fine-tuning its movie operation. Justin Theroux took over as screenwriter for this one, and he cobbled together a convoluted tale where Tony Stark is forced to confront a serious health scare, a powerful new Russian enemy portrayed by Mickey Rourke, and pressures that came after the public learned of his true identity. “Everything fun and terrific about Iron Man, a mere two years ago, has vanished with its sequel,” wrote the Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt. “In its place, Iron Man 2 has substituted noise, confusion, multiple villains, irrelevant stunts, and misguided story lines. A film series that started out with critical and commercial success will have to settle for only the latter with this sequel.” 

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

The initial announcement that Natalie Portman was returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe for 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder was greeted with real excitement. She’d been AWOL since 2013’s Thor: The Dark World, despite playing a pretty big role in the saga as Jane Foster, Thor’s astrophysicist girlfriend. Excitement grew when fans learned she was going to finally wield the hammer herself and take on the role of the Mighty Thor. But then word slipped out that the character was battling stage 4 cancer. The script tries to balance out this colossal bummer with an endless series of comic sequences that creates a very odd overall tone. If you don’t believe us, listen to Thor himself, Chris Hemworth: “I got caught up in the improv and the wackiness, and I became a parody of myself,” he told Vanity Fair this year. “I didn’t stick the landing.”

Alien Resurrection (1997)

The first three Alien movies were directed by three of the best directors of their time: Ridley Scott, James Cameron, and David Fincher. The third one was a letdown, since Fincher was still a novice, the studio didn’t fully trust him, and the screenplay was never really finished. But it remains a David Fincher movie that’s intermittently innovative and interesting. The same can’t be said for 1997’s Alien Resurrection. It takes place on a military spaceship 200 years after Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley character died at the end of Alien 3. She’s cloned from a drop of her blood, and somehow her memories are intact. They also bring back the Xenomorph alien species, which is a very, very bad idea. (Haven’t these people heard about the events of the first three movies?) Needless to say, the Xenomorphs grow, reproduce, and start killing. Winona Ryder enters the story, and we eventually learn she’s a robot. Ripley once again batters the shit out of the Xenomorph, but haven’t we seen this all before? “This is a series whose inspiration has come, gone, and been forgotten,” wrote Roger Ebert. “I’m aliened out.”

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

For a while, it was popular to cite Spider-Man 3 as the low point of the franchise. But time has been somewhat kind to Emo Spider-Man and his Pete Wentz haircut, and a small cult (as well as endless memes) have grown around its weirdness. And even if you think Spider-Man 3 is a bloated sludge of a movie with too many villains, it’s clearly superior to The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which marked the premature end of the Andrew Garfield era. It’s the one where Jamie Foxx plays Electro, Paul Giamatti takes on the Rhino role, the Green Goblin returns, and Gwen (played by Emma Stone) falls to her death. This was the fifth Spider-Man movie in a 12-year period, and it all just feels like a rehash of things we’ve seen before, along with an effort to set up about six different spinoff movies and sequels. “The studios and the producers have to split the difference — between excellence and adequacy, between darkness and light, between seriousness and fun,” Wesley Morris wrote on Grantland. “The Amazing Spider-Man 2 might have been split too far. It doesn’t taste like anything.” 

U.S. Marshals (1998)

The huge success of 1993’s The Fugitive meant a sequel was somewhat inevitable, even though any such project was basically doomed from the start. There was no logical way for Harrison Ford to be framed for a second murder, escape from the law, and get chased around again by Tommy Lee Jones. It would have been preposterous, and Ford was never going to sign on to such a thing. The only move was to send Jones’ Samuel Gerard character and his team of U.S. Marshals after another unjustly accused man. That’s what happened in 1998’s U.S. Marshals, where Wesley Snipes takes over for Harrison Ford as the man on the run. The movie was a modest hit, but it has aged terribly. Jones himself isn’t even willing to defend it these days. “The thing that drove The Fugitive was that we weren’t chasing just a normal doctor,” he told Rolling Stone in our 2023 oral history of The Fugitive. “Whatever we were doing, we were chasing Harrison Ford, and I think he was the engine of the movie. With U.S. Marshals, we had a different director, had a different approach, and it just wasn’t … the movie wasn’t as good as The Fugitive.” It’s impossible to argue with that. 

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

The Star Trek film franchise got off to an extremely shaky start with the snoozefest that is 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which just made 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan all the more stunning. Star Trek III: The Search For Spock was a minor letdown in 1984, but words can barely describe our love for 1986’s Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. That’s the bonkers time-travel one with the whales that’s as fun to watch the 200th time as the first. Leonard Nimoy was given the chance to direct that one, which is why William Shatner demanded the director’s chair for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. It’s about the search for God at the center of the universe and an evil Vulcan named Sybok, but it barely matters. Nothing about the movie works, especially the cringe scene of Spock, Kirk, and Bones singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” around a campfire. It was such a fiasco that 1991’s Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was designed as a farewell to the OG cast. 

Caddyshack 2 (1988)

Imagine a version of Caddyshack without Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Lacey Underdall, a single quotable line or even a single laugh. Whatever comes to mind is surely nowhere near as horrid as Caddyshack 2. Chevy Chase is the only returning cast member, and he’s joined by Robert Stack, Randy Quaid, Dyan Cannon, Chyna Phillips, and Dan Aykroyd in the thankless Bill Murray role as the groundskeeper. That’s a good cast, but they can’t save this terrible movie about a millionaire buying the country club and turning it into an amusement park. Original Caddyshack director Harold Ramis is credited as a co-writer, but he denounced the movie in later years and said he nearly had his name removed. The ultimate red flag here is that Dangerfield deemed this movie beneath his standards. This is a man (albeit a comic genius) that took parts in Meet Wally Sparks, My 5 Wives, and The 4th Tenor. He was willing to accept almost any role that put him on the big screen, but not Caddyshack 2. It was the right move. Nothing could have saved Caddyshack 2, not even Rodney. 

Halloween Kills (2021)

The original Halloween, in 1978, is a horror classic that paved the way for A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and many other slasher films of the Eighties. But much like the franchises it spawned, Halloween begat sequel after sequel that fell flat in profound ways. A miracle happened in 2018 when Jamie Lee Curtis returned to the fold for Halloween, which ignored every film after the first one, and managed to create genuine chills by showing a grizzled, gray-haired Laurie Strode battling Michael Meyers yet again. They should have left it there. The 2021 sequel isolates Strode in a hospital room for much of the movie while Meyers wanders through the town of Haddonfield on yet another killing spree. Familiar faces from the original movie show up, including Kyle Richards from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, who acted in the first movie as a child. But the whole thing feels like a tired, pointless rerun. It was also designed to set up a third and final movie, 2022’s Halloween Ends, but they should have learned the lesson of the first movie. You can’t just keep redoing these things over and over. More important, a movie should stand on its own. It shouldn’t feel like connective tissue between two others.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

Future film historians will have real fun trying to pinpoint the exact moment the Marvel Cinematic Universe jumped the shark. Some will point to Eternals in 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder in 2022, or Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness that same year. But it’s a safe bet that 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will be mentioned many times. Marvel was pounding out content at a furious clip when the movie went into production, and resources were spread way too thin across numerous TV shows and movies. Postproduction was rushed on this third Ant-Man movie, and the special-effects team was focused on wrapping up Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The result was a movie that literally didn’t look finished when it hit theaters. When you throw in a confusing, tired plot about Ant-Man and his family accidentally entering the “Quantum Realm” (ask your 11-year-old nephew what that means), you’ve got a real mess on your hands. “Everyone just kind of wanders through this movie — through its elaborate, colorful, cluttered, psychedelic-album-cover-style environments,” wrote New York critic Bilge Ebiri. “They occasionally crack jokes or cross their arms. Nothing seems to match. If you told me that the actors had been shot before the filmmakers decided what they would be looking at or interacting with, I’d believe you.”

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 (2014)

The Harry Potter franchise set a very bad precedent when the final book in the series was turned into two movies. This was justifiable in the Potter case, since that’s a 607-page book that would have been tough to boil down to one satisfying movie. But it made no narrative sense whatsoever to take the 390-page Mockingjay, the final Hunger Games novel, and stretch it into two movies. The first one clocks in at an agonizing 123 minutes, where very little happens of any real importance. Katniss and her buddies enter an underground district and prepare for a grand revolution, but it’s all just a setup for the second chapter. (There’s also the problem that this is a Hunger Games movie where we don’t get the payoff of an actual Hunger Games.) The movie was a hit and critics were once again impressed by the performance of Jennifer Lawrence, but even director Francis Lawrence says it was wrong to make two movies out of one book. “What I realized in retrospect — and after hearing all the reactions and feeling the kind of wrath of fans, critics, and people at the split — is that I realized it was frustrating,” he told People in 2023. “And I can understand it.… I totally regret [splitting the movies]. I totally do. I’m not sure everybody does, but I definitely do.”

The Godfather Part III (1990)

It would be deeply unfair to put the third Godfather movie on a list of the 50 worst sequels in Hollywood history. It’s a much better film than its reputation suggests, and placing it alongside Alien vs. Predator or Weekend at Bernie’s 2 would be cruel. It also has perhaps the most quoted line (“Just when I thought I was out … they pull me back in”) in any Godfather movie. But this is a list of disappointing sequels, and expectations for this movie were just off the charts. The Godfather is arguably the greatest movie in history. The Godfather II is inarguably the greatest sequel in history. There was no way a third film that came 16 years after the second one would do anything but disappoint. The fact that Robert Duvall backed out over a salary dispute, and Winona Ryder quit shortly before filming, causing director Francis Ford Coppola to give his teenager daughter Sophia a key role, didn’t help matters much. The movie still reunited Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, and Talie Shire with director Coppola, and grossed $137 million, but to call it anything short of a disappointment would be wrong.

Jaws 2 (1978)

Jaws 2 has one of the greatest taglines in history: “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water …” That’s just about the only memorable thing about the movie, which is about another killer shark descending on Amity Island that Roy Scheider is forced to battle. This time around, it nearly kills his son before he electrocutes it and once again saves the town. (Does work like this really fall under the jurisdiction of the police chief?) Steven Spielberg was too busy working on Close Encounters of the Third Kind to direct it, but he also had little desire to head back into the water after all the difficulties he faced making the first one. He also knew that topping it would be impossible. To be very clear, the third and fourth Jaws movies were significantly worse. Jaws 2 fails in rather pedestrian ways. Jaws 3-D and Jaws: The Revenge fail in spectacularly inept (and often hysterical) ways. But nobody walked into either of those movies thinking they were seeing any sort of masterpiece. People had high hopes for Jaws 2, and they left deeply disappointed. 

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)

The 1999 film calendar was crammed with so many remarkable movies that many critics are now calling it one of the single greatest years in Hollywood history. And even in the middle of all of that brilliance, The Blair Witch Project stood out. The “found footage” horror movie was shot on a microbudget of just $60,000, but still managed to scare the living shit out of everyone who saw it. A sequel was inevitable. Sadly, it completely disregarded the DIY feel of the original, along with anything that felt even remotely original despite being directed by Paradise Lost creator Joe Berlinger. We instead get a very traditional horror flick about a group of Blair Witch Project fans who head to the site of the first movie, Burkittsville, Maryland, and find themselves battling an evil force. “Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 is a not a very lucid piece of filmmaking (and contains no Book of Shadows),” wrote Roger Ebert. “I suppose it seems clear enough to Berlinger, who co-wrote it and helped edit it, but one viewing is not enough to make the material clear, and the material is not intriguing enough, alas, to inspire a second viewing.”

Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

Die Hard: With a Vengeance is one of the greatest threequels in the history of action movies, largely because they brought back original Die Hard director John McTiernan after leaving him out of the underwhelming second movie. A fourth movie didn’t materialize for another 12 years. This time around, Underworld director Les Wiseman was at the helm. He was working with a ridiculous script where John McClane battles a cyberterrorist in Washington, D.C. Bruce Willis practically has superpowers in it. At one moment, he destroys a flying helicopter by driving a car into it. It’s so ridiculous that even Michael Scott on The Office couldn’t enjoy it. “Here’s the thing about Die Hard 4,” he said in one episode. “Die Hard 1, the original, John McClain is just this normal guy, you know? He’s just a normal New York City cop who gets his feet cut, he gets beat up. But he’s an everyday guy. In Die Hard 4, he is jumping a motorcycle into a helicopter in the air. You know? He’s invincible. It’s just sort of lost from Die Hard 1. It’s not Terminator.” For once, Michael Scott is completely right. 

Major League II (1994)

Creating a sequel to Major League wasn’t a crazy idea. We never even saw the misfit group of Cleveland Indians play in the World Series in the original movie, which remains one of the best sports films in history. And Major League II did manage to reunite the original cast, with the sole exception of Wesley Snipes, who was replaced by Omar Epps. The crazy idea of Major League II was downgrading the R rating from the original all the way to PG. It neutered the characters in every way possible. Who wants a Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn who can’t swear? You want to hear “locker-room talk” in the locker room. The movie also felt like a bland rehash of the original. “There has rarely been such a steep and strange decline between a movie and its sequel as the one between the fast, silly original and the dismal, boring Major League II,” Caryn James wrote in The New York Times. “While the first film ran riot with baseball cliches, this one plods along and almost takes them seriously.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2017)

In 2003, Disney somehow turned its Mad Men-era Pirates of the Caribbean theme-park attraction into a Johnny Depp movie that grossed more than $650 million. The first two sequels racked up an astonishing $1 billion each, and earned surprisingly respectable reviews, considering the source material. But director Gore Verbinski stepped aside for the fourth movie in favor of Rob Marshall, though it’s slightly unfair to blame him for the bloated, painfully unfunny mess that is Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. The franchise simply ran out of gas at this point, and no amount of special-effects wizardry was going to change that. “Its pleasures are so meager, its delight in its own inventions so forced and false, that it becomes almost the perfect opposite of entertainment,” wrote A.O. Scott in The New York Times. “To insist otherwise is a variation on the sunk-cost fallacy. Since you exchanged money for fun, fun is surely what you must have purchased, and you may cling to that idea in the face of contrary evidence. But trust me on this: This movie would be a rip-off even if someone paid you to see it.”

More American Graffiti (1979)

The original American Graffiti, in 1973, was such a colossal pop-culture force that it somehow gave the world Happy Days, Star Wars, and the entire concept of rock & roll oldies. (We’re only slightly exaggerating here.) The George Lucas film took place during one very long night in 1962, but the 1979 sequel, written and directed by Bill Norton, is spread across four New Year’s Eves between 1964 and 1967. Nearly the entire cast, except Richard Dreyfuss, returned from the original (there’s even a Harrison Ford cameo), but the story leaps erratically back and forth through time, sometimes using split screens, and it’s very hard to follow. It also simply lacks the fun and innocence of the first one. Unsurprisingly, it was also a huge box-office bomb that marked the end of Ron Howard’s acting career.

Coming 2 America (2021)

Eddie Murphy spent decades resisting calls to make a sequel to 1988’s Coming to America before finally surrendering in 2021. It was a mistake. The movie is so desperate to evoke nostalgia by bringing back characters, set pieces, and sight gags from the original that it fails to tell a compelling story of its own. Yes, there’s a thin plot about Murphy coming back to Queens, New York, in search of his lost son, but it’s just an excuse for Murphy to lather on latex and makeup to play the old men in the barber shop that are somehow still alive. The scenes back in the fake African nation of Zamunda are even less effective. It’s briefly fun to see Murphy, Arsenio Hall, and the old gang back together, but how many of you watched it even a single time after the first viewing? Be honest. 

Wonder Woman: 1984 (2020)

The problem with Wonder Woman: 1984 isn’t the cast or even the director. Patty Jenkins, Gal Gadot, Chris Prine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, and Robin Wright are all capable of remarkable work. And the first Wonder Woman movie in 2017 is one of the great superhero movies of the past decade. And the problem isn’t even the decision to move the action from World War I to the Reagan decade. That was clever since it opened up so many creative possibilities for the narrative. The problem is the script, which finds Wonder Woman working at the Smithsonian, where she comes across an ancient artifact that grants wishes. This causes her co-worker to transform herself into an evil cheetah, and grants a twisted businessman immense power. This is all much cheesier than it even sounds. The movie hit near the peak of Covid, and most people saw it on Max instead of the big screen. The reaction was not kind, to put it mildly. “Three years ago, Wonder Woman emerged amid a reckoning on male abuse and power; the timing was coincidental, but it also made the character feel meaningful,” Manohla Dargis wrote in The New York Times. “In 2017, when Wonder Woman was done saving the world, her horizons seemed limitless. I didn’t expect that her next big adult battle would be at the mall.”

Zoolander 2 (2016)

The temptation for Ben Stiller to film a Zoolander sequel must have been intense. The 2001 fashion-industry spoof wasn’t a huge commercial or critical hit, but that was largely because it had the misfortune of landing in theaters just weeks after 9/11. We weren’t exactly in a laughing mood at the time. A giant cult of Zoolander fans emerged in the years that followed, but what they really just wanted to do was watch it over and over, sprinkle quotes into everyday conversation, and attend the occasional midnight screening. They didn’t want a second one packed with more celebrity cameos than actual jokes, and endless callbacks to the original. “There are some clever bits, and the satire is at times scathing,” wrote film critic James Berardinelli, “but, on the whole, moments of hilarity are like oases in a desert of tedium.” 

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

After years of shoddy odd-numbered Star Trek films, fans hoped for a new pattern once the Next Generation crew took over in the mid-Nineties. Their hopes were raised with the release of 1996’s Star Trek: First Contact, which is one of the greatest science-fiction movies of the Nineties. But then came the crushing disappointment of 1998’s Star Trek: Insurrection. Captain Picard and the gang were back together, and Jonathan Frakes was once again directing, but the movie was an enormous step backward. The story centers around the Federation’s attempt to displace the population of a peaceful planet that had discovered a way to live forever. This would have been an interesting two-part episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but it simply didn’t feel like a movie. “Insurrection is a muddled, gimpy mess, filled with the worst sort of Trek clichés and ill-timed humorous outbursts,” Marc Salvov wrote in The Austin Chronicle. “On top of that, the film might as well have been edited by Mr. Scott in the midst of a Romulan-ale bender: Plot points appear out of nowhere, and voluminous backstory seems to have been dropped in favor of bigger, better explosions and forehead-slappingly bad double entendres. Is this Star Trek or Friends in Space?”

City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly’s Gold (1994)

Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz are a brilliant writing duo that gave the world A League of Their Own, Parenthood, Splash, Spies Like Us, and Mr. Saturday Night. “We’ve done one sequel in our entire career,” Ganz told Rolling Stone in 2022. “That’s City Slickers. And the reason we don’t do more is we put our characters where we want them to be.” Mandel framed the issue in a more concise way: “The story is over. It’s done.” The story of City Slickers was definitely over after the events of the first movie, but it was such a giant hit that they were coaxed into writing a sequel. It finds Billy Crystal and Daniel Stern back on horses in the West on a mission to find lost gold. (Bruno Kirby had the good sense to avoid this one. He was essentially replaced by Jon Lovitz.) And even though Jack Palance’s Curly character dies in the original City Slickers, he returns in this one as Curly’s brother Duke. “What I missed was the rich humor and the human comedy of the original film — where the people, not the plot, were what mattered,” Roger Eberot wrote. “By the end of the film, with Slickers II also borrowing from the Indiana Jones movies, I was overcome with deja vu and indifference.”

Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)

There are a lot of problems with Blues Brothers 2000, starting with the fact that John Belushi died 16 years before it came out. That’s an insurmountable issue that should have ended any talk of a sequel. But Dan Aykroyd’s never come across a franchise he isn’t willing to drive into the ground. And if he was willing to participate in My Girl 2, five Ghostbusters (and counting) movies, and even (shudder) Caddyshack 2, he was certainly down to try and revive The Blues Brothers in 1998 with help from John Goodman, Joe Morton, and child actor J. Evan Bonifant. They were joined by a truly impressive lineup of musical icons, including Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Bo Diddley, Isaac Hayes, Eric Clapton, Dr. John, and many, many others. It could be the greatest assemblage of musical talent ever to appear on film. But it’s not enough to make Blues Brothers 2000 a watchable movie. It’s about Elwood Blues getting out of prison and putting the band back together, but it just feels sad and pointless without Jake by his side. 

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

Independence Day was the highest grossing movie of 1996, raking in more than $800 million. It was also an incredibly fun popcorn movie as long as you don’t spend too much time thinking about the fact mankind foiled an alien invasion by uploading a virus to their ship’s mainframe from a rinky-dink Windows 95-era laptop. (The aliens mastered interstellar travel, but they didn’t have even rudimentary virus protection? How did these computer systems even line up in the first place?) Rumors of a sequel swirled for years, but Will Smith wanted such a colossal payday they eventually moved forward without him for 2011’s Independence Day: Resurgence. They did manage to bring back Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, Brent Spiner, and Vivica A. Fox, but what they didn’t have was an original idea. The aliens return. The world unites against them. Pullman gives another inspiring speech through a bullhorn. Yawn. If this movie hit in 1999 or so, it would have likely been a huge hit. But we had to wait 15 years for this thing. By that point, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was in full swing. It made this limp Independence Day retread feel very tired and just wildly unnecessary. 

Cars 2 (2011)

The original Cars is basically Doc Hollywood in a bizarre, post-human world where cars are talking, autonomous beings. They should have ripped off another great movie for the sequel, which sends Lightning McQueen and his team to Europe to compete in the World Grand Prix. Along the way, they get entangled with some British spies. The whole thing reeks like a quickie cash-grab designed to sell toy cars. It’s one of the few Pixar movies to have a “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “Will your kids have fun?” Logan Hill asked in his Vulture review. “Sure, though the green-energy subplot is too intricate. As for the parents, politically, it feels like a focus-grouped cop-out. Lefties will be flattered by the cars’ environmental ideals; conservatives will cheer when it turns out that green energy doesn’t work. Worry not, Disney shareholders: No automotive cross-branding opportunity was risked.” (The movie never explains what happened to the humans in the Cars universe. The cars clearly went Terminator and killed them all when they became self-aware, right?)

Terminator: Salvation (2009)

There’s something about The Terminator that keeps bringing people back into the theaters despite the plainly obvious fact that the series simply cannot work without James Cameron. And as much as Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines disappointed the Terminator faithful, it at least had Arnold Schwarzenegger and a powerful ending that gave the series somewhere to build toward. The nuclear holocaust was here, and now John Connor had to lead the resistance. That’s a premise for a pretty great movie. But 2009’s Terminator: Salvation was nothing even remotely great, despite casting Christian Bale as the newest John Connor. Arnold was busy serving as the governor of California at the time, and there’s not a single actor in it from the previous movies. It’s about the early days of Connor’s leadership during the war against Skynet. Lots of things blow up. There are chases. It’s all just an endless green screen of blah. An infamous audio leak from the set revealed that Bale had a complete meltdown at one point and chewed out director McG and members of the crew when a take was interrupted. “Am I going to walk around and rip your fucking lights down, in the middle of a scene?” he roars. “Then why the fuck are you walking right through like this in the background. What the fuck is it with you? Give me a fucking answer!” This audio was 100 times more entertaining than any moment in Salvation. 

Superman 4 (1987)

It’s tempting to put Superman 3 on this list since it’s such an oddball outlier in the history of the franchise, but there’s a certain goofy charm to the movie. Throwing Richard Pryor into the world of Metropolis as a computer genius still makes us chuckle. But there’s nothing even remotely amusing about 1987’s Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. It’s a shockingly inept movie about Superman trying to rid the world of atomic weapons, and battling the foe Nuclear Man. The film was shot on a shoestring budget, and that’s clear in every single frame. It’s hard to believe the original film came out less than 10 years prior. “The script of Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal contains neither bite nor gleam, and the movie has no propulsion,” wrote Michael Wilmington of the Los Angles Times. “By the end, the editing takes on a meat-ax fervor, as [one character] disappears mysteriously and the loose ends are given a violently perfunctory last-second wrap-up. The overall effect is of a story atomized and dying before our eyes, collapsing into smashed pulp, ground down into big-budget Kryptonite ash.” The film was such a disaster that it wasn’t until 2006 that another Superman movie hit theaters. It was a direct sequel to the original two Superman movies, and pretended like Superman 4 didn’t exist. Sadly for us, it does exist. 

Sex and the City 2 (2010)

The temptation in sequels is often to move the action to an exotic overseas location since it opens up all sorts of new storytelling possibilities. The Hangover 2 (Bangkok), Oceans 12 (Amsterdam, Paris, Rome), Cars 2 (France, Italy, England), The Karate Kid 2 (Okinawa), and National Lampoon’s European Vacation (Europe, duh) are just a few of the examples. And in the second Sex and the City movie, Carrie Bradshaw and her friends take an extended trip to Abu Dhabi, though they actually filmed it in Morocco. It’s part of an absurdly bloated two and a half hour movie where the four ladies deal with professional and personal dilemmas, discover the power of friendship for the 600th time, and wear designer outfits that must have collectively cost them about $18 million. The whole thing is so abysmal and boring that even hardore Sex and the City fans rarely defend it. It sent the series onto life support before it came back to Max as the 99.9 percent Kim Cattrall-free …And Just Like That in 2022. 

Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)

Is Michael Jordan the GOAT in the NBA, or is it LeBron James? It’s a basketball debate that’s likely to rage for eternity. Both sides have very strong arguments to make in terms of total points scored or the number of championship rings they wear. When it comes to their Space Jam movies, however, it isn’t really a contest. Jordan made a very fun live-action/animated Warner Bros. movie back in 1996. And James delivered a turkey of a sequel in 2021, where the Lakers great and his fictional son Dominic find themselves trapped in the Warner Bros. Serververse. They come into contact with all sorts of studio IP, including Rick and Morty, The Wizard of Oz, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and King Kong, but the whole thing feels more like a Warner Bros. shareholders presentation than a movie. When it comes time for the big basketball game, it’s hard to even care. “It is a film that has no reason to exist,” wrote Alex Shepherd in The New Republic, “except as a vehicle for reminding people that various pieces of content, all of them merchandisable, are available for instant streaming now.”

Rocky V (1990)

The first four Rocky movies followed a familiar formula. A powerful opponent challenges Rocky Balboa to a boxing match, his devoted wife, Adrian, expresses some doubts (“You can’t win, Rocky!”), he furiously trains, and the film climaxes with the fight. In 1990’s Rocky V, however, the formula was completely upended. It begins with the Balboa family losing all of their money after Rocky is diagnosed with a brain disorder that makes it impossible for him to fight. They move back to Philadelphia, and Rocky trains a young fighter named Tommy Gunn. It ends with Rocky and Gunn briefly fighting in the street, but audiences were less than thrilled. The movie didn’t capture the heart of the original Rocky or the cheeseball joy of the sequels. “The dramatic moves are so obvious and shopworn,” wrote the Chicago Reader’s Jonathan Rosenbaum, “that not even the star’s mournful basset-hound expressions can redeem them.” It would be another 16 years before Stallone was given the green light on another Rocky movie. That one ends with Balboa back in the ring even though Stallone was 60-years-old by that point. It’s also an infinitely better movie than Rocky V. 

Revenge of the Nerds 2: Nerds in Paradise (1987)

The insane success of Animal House inspired roughly 100 knockoff movies about wild college campuses. The best of the bunch, by far, is 1984’s Revenge of the Nerds. This one twists the formula by casting nerds as the heroes, and the cool frat boys as villains. It’s hysterical and infinitely rewatchable. (And, yes, there’s a heinous scene near the end where one of the nerds dresses up in a jock’s costume and fools his girlfriend into having sex with him.) The sequel was unable to bring Anthony Edwards back for anything more than a cameo (he made a little film called Top Gun the prior year), but the rest of the cast is back for a movie that takes them down to Florida for a frat convention where they once again battle evil jocks. But it’s rated PG-13, when the original was a very hard R. That means the jokes are much softer, and the laughs never come. The only positive thing we can say about it is the made-for-TV sequels are even worse. 

Batman and Robin (1997)

The Batman franchise was already in serious decline by the time 1997’s Batman and Robin came around. Michael Keaton handed over the Batsuit to Val Kilmer for 1995’s Batman Forever, and Tim Burton ceded his director’s chair to Joel Schumacher. The result was a less-than-stellar movie, especially when compared to the dark brilliance of Batman Returns, but Jim Carrey’s manic energy as the Riddler (along with great songs by U2 and Seal) prevented it from being a total train wreck. Nothing could have prepared us, however, for the horrors of Batman and Robin. George Clooney is the Dark Knight in this one, and he battles Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze, and Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy. He’s joined by not only Chris O’Donnell as Robin, but Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl. It’s a clusterfuck of characters, plot incoherence, and cheeseball, pun-filled dialogue straight out of a McBain movie (“It’s ice to see you”; “Let’s kick some ice.”) Nearly every person involved with the movie condemned it in the years that followed, especially Clooney. “It’s a terrible screenplay,” he told Howard Stern in 2020. “I’m terrible in it. Joel Schumacher, who just passed away, directed it, and he’d say, ‘Yeah, it didn’t work.’ We all whiffed on that one.”

Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

It wasn’t until the Seventies that hit movies routinely generated sequels. That’s why we have The Godfather II, Jaws II, Rocky II, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, and many others. The astronomical success of The Exorcist in 1973 guaranteed a follow-up chapter. But Exorcist novelist William Peter Blatty and original movie director William Friedkin didn’t want to be involved in 1978’s Exorcist II: The Heretic since they were in the midst of a lawsuit with the studio over profits from the first one. The studio did manage to bring back Linda Blair and Max von Sydow, but that wasn’t nearly enough to salvage this low-budget trainwreck of a movie where poor Regan, now a teenager, deals with the aftermath of the demonic possession from the first movie. “There had to be a sequel,” wrote Vinceny Canby in The New York Times, “but did it have to be this desperate concoction, the main thrust of which is that the original exorcism wasn’t all it was cracked up to be?”

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

After the stunning ineptitude of 2009’s Terminator: Salvation, the franchise bounced back to “somewhat watchable” status with 2015’s Terminator Genisys. The critics disagree with us here, and it’s not like Genisys is a masterpiece, but at least it was a little fun. (It wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as the criminally underrated 2008-09 Fox series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.) And when news hit that Linda Hamilton was finally returning to play Sarah Connor in 2015’s The Terminator: Dark Fate, it was hard not to feel genuine excitement. James Cameron signed on as producer. Hope was in the air. Then we saw the actual movie. In the first few minutes, a de-aged Hamilton watches a teenage John Connor get killed by a Terminator shortly after the events of T2, basically nullifying the entire movie. We flash-forward several years, and Skynet is at its old tricks again. It has sent yet another robot back in time. A grizzled Connor has to protect people that will be pivotal in the future. They meet up with an elderly Arnold, who once again helps them survive. We’ve seen this many times before. Once the thrill of seeing Hamilton in her badass Sarah Connor mode wears off, this becomes just another rote action movie. There’s been talk of another Terminator reboot, but let’s hope it doesn’t happen. Haven’t we all suffered enough at this point? 

The Hangover 3 (2013)

The third Hangover ditches the premise of the first two movies where four buddies have a debauched night on the town, wake up without any memories of it, and try to retrace their steps to find someone they lost along the way. It was insane enough this happened a second time, but moving the action from Las Vegas to Bangkok in the sequel was clever and occasionally quite funny. In the third one, they head back to Sin City for an adventure that’s heavy on plot and action, but very light on actual laughs. It also gives Ken Jeong a much bigger role than he had in the first two, but a little bit of his psychotic Leslie Chow character goes a very long way. And bringing everything back to Vegas just reminded us of the superiority of the first movie. “The second didn’t have to be funny, and wasn’t, but at least existed somewhere in the general vicinity of that borderless country known as Comedy,” Rick Groen wrote in The Globe and Mail. “Part Three doesn’t, not even remotely, which makes it not just bad, but weirdly, fascinatingly bad. What exactly is this? Certainly a cash cow, definitely an exercise in cynicism, maybe even a cri de coeur from the self-hating principals. Whatever, a comedy it ain’t.”

A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)

Live Free or Die Hard is not a good movie by any standard. But it’s practically Raiders of the Lost Ark compared to the flaming pile of dog shit that is 2013’s A Good Day to Die Hard. There’s no pretext that John McClane is a regular human being in this one. He’s a superhero that couldn’t be killed by conventional or even unconventional weapons. The plot barely matters, but it revolves around an ill-fated trip to Russia where he teams up with his son, played by Jai Courtney, and fights all sorts of evil dudes. They visit Chernobyl, fire off about 10,000 rounds of ammo, and a helicopter flies into a building. Bruce Willis says, “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!” and everyone laughs because it reminds them of better Die Hard movies. There was talk of a sixth Die Hard for years, but that’s impossible now that Willis is retired from acting. Tragically, the franchise ended with A Good Day to Die Hard. The best thing we can do now is pretend the last two Die Hard movies were just bad dreams McClane had in the final years of his life. 

Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)

Keanu Reeves isn’t opposed to signing on for sequels. He’s made four Matrix movies, four John Wicks, and three Bill and Ted’s. But when the makers of Speed 2: Cruise Control came to him, he had some doubts. “It was just a situation in life where I got the script and I read the script and I was like, ‘Ugh,’” Reeves recalled to Jimmy Kimmel in 2015. “It was about a cruise ship, and I was thinking, ‘A bus, a cruise ship.… Speed, bus, but then a cruise ship is even slower than a bus, and I was like, ‘I love you guys, but I just can’t do it.’” They carried forward with Jason Patrick essentially in the Reeves role, but it was a mistake. Reeves was 100 percent right to realize that a speeding cruise ship simply isn’t very scary. The film was a critical fiasco that forever killed the franchise and was nominated for eight Golden Raspberry awards. This was a good lesson. If Keanu Reeves thinks your movie is dumb, don’t do it. He knows what he’s talking about. 

Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

The initial expectations for Star Trek: Nemesis were very high. Fans were desperate to see the Next Generation cast after a four-year hiatus, and they were returning in an even-numbered movie. The ironclad rule up to that point was that the even-numbered Trek films were all great. Tragically, the streak ended with Star Trek: Nemesis in spectacular fashion. The enemy this time around is Shinzon, a young clone of Picard (played by Tom Hardy) that took over the Romulan empire. (Pay no attention to the fact that Hardy doesn’t look a damn thing like Patrick Stewart at any age.) At the climax of the movie, Data sacrifices himself to save Picard. That’s probably the only moment anyone that saw Nemesis in the theater can recall. The rest is a boring blur of cheesy special effects and dialogue that reads like it was written by ChatGPT. What went wrong? “The director was an idiot,” said Counselor Troi actress Marina Sirtis. “I guess that’s a fair assessment of someone that wasn’t willing to take advantage of the help he was offered.” The movie was such a bomb that TNG never appeared on the big screen again. Thankfully, they returned for the Paramount+ show Star Trek: Picard in 2020. In a clear acknowledgement that Nemesis was a complete turd, they gave Data another death scene. 

Dumb and Dumber To (2014)

Comedy sequels are notoriously hard to pull off. For every successful attempt like Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey or Addams Family Values, you have 50 fiascos like Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment or Meet the Fockers. We won’t list either of those films on this list since no reasonable person expected them to be any good. That’s not the case for Dumb and Dumber To, which reunited Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels with directors Peter and Bobby Farrell 20 years after the original Dumb and Dumber. The moronic duo of Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne travel cross country again in this one, but this time they’re searching for Dunne’s lost daughter. After the initial thrill of seeing Carey and Daniels back in character wears off, it becomes clear a Dumb and Dumber sequel is way better as an idea than an actual movie. It’s also so shockingly unfunny it almost makes you question the value of the first one. But don’t do that. The first one is one of the funniest movies of the Nineties. It’s Jim Carrey at his absolute peak. Dumb and Dumber To is a sad retread. 

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

It may be slightly hard to remember now, but there was enormous excitement surrounding Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull back in 2008. We’d waited through 19 very long Indy-free years at this point, and we finally had Harrison Ford back in his fedora with Steven Spielberg in the director’s chair. They even brought in Karen Allen to reprise her role as Marion Ravenwood from Raiders of the Lost Ark. They also brought in Shia LaBeouf as Indy’s greaser son, Mutt, Cate Blanchett as an evil Soviet, a muddled plot about KGB agents and extraterrestrial life, and sequences where Mutt swings from vines like Tarzan and Indy survives a nuclear blast in a refrigerator. It simply doesn’t cohere into a fun movie that can remotely compare to the first three. “Reckless daring is what’s missing from Crystal Skull,” David Denby wrote in The New Yorker. “The movie leaves a faint aura of depression, because you don’t want to think of daring as the exclusive property of youth. There must be a way for middle-aged men to take chances and leap over chasms, but repeating themselves with less conviction isn’t it.”

Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)

If you were at least a somewhat dorky teenager in the Eighties or Nineties, you probably have fond memories of the first Highlander movie. It stars Christopher Lambert as an immortal being from the 16th-century Scottish Highlands who battles other immortals in mid-Eighties New York City. The 1991 sequel, Highlander II: The Quickening, roped Sean Connery into the saga, and holy mother of God, it is an unholy mess. Not only does it completely violate established Highlander canon by transforming the immortals into aliens from another planet, it was filmed on the cheap in Argentina, and director Russell Mulcahy was removed from the postproduction process so the producers could totally butcher his original (admittedly flawed) vision. It often ranks very high on lists of the worst movies in history. “Highlander II: The Quickening is the most hilariously incomprehensible movie I’ve seen in many a long day — a movie almost awesome in its badness,” wrote Roger Ebert. “Wherever science-fiction fans gather, in decades and generations to come, this film will be remembered in hushed tones as one of the immortal low points of the genre.”

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Being a Star Wars fan means dealing with a lot of bitter disappointment. This is a franchise with 12 movies, of which only about four or five are universally loved. Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace is often cited as the low point, but we’re not counting prequels on this list. (It’s also not quite as awful as the lore suggests. Watch it again with an open mind.) But the biggest disappointment in Star Wars history came in 2019 with the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. After 42 years and 50 bazillion hours of fevered fan speculation, the world was finally seeing the (supposed) conclusion of the Skywalker saga. This was going to be the one that resolved all of the lingering issues, gave our heroes one last adventure, and ended the franchise on a perfectly satisfying note. Things got off to a bad start in the opening crawl when we learned Emperor Palpatine was back in the picture, which is something they never bothered to explain beyond Poe’s infamous “somehow Palpatine returned” line midway through the film. And after the prior film told us that Rey came from a humble background, meaning anyone could rise from obscurity and become a Jedi, we learn she’s actually a Palpatine. It was one of many ways that returning director J.J. Abrams tried to nullify Rian Johnson’s work on The Last Jedi. We spend time with Luke Skywalker as a force ghost, Han Solo as some other sort of apparition, Princess Leah via clumsily edited archival footage, Chewie, R2D2, C-3PO, and even Lando Calrissian, but nothing feels satisfying about any of it. It just feels like a bunch of random Star Wars images and characters thrown into a blender. It still earned more than $1 billion, but the reaction was so abysmal that Disney radically switched course and put all of its Star Wars energy into TV shows. We’re heard endless reports and rumors about additional movies, but none of them have actually gone into production. Something has to happen eventually. The Star Wars cinematic experience can’t forever end on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Somehow Star Wars has to return. 

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YAY!!! So glad that they're doing well with their Little Tokyo location and have opened another one in OC! Huge benefit to this location is there's plenty of free parking in the parking structure attached to the Source. Also none of that stressful DTLA traffic. Sora Gumi is located on the bottom floor of the Source and is towards the end where Don Melt and Basilur Tea is. The shop itself is in 2 parts and it is slightly awkward since they're currently not connected, but you can always ask the staff to hold onto your purchases from one side as you trek your way over to the other side to do more shopping. TLDR; One side has all of the local artist collaboration items as well as a small wall of official goods (I saw Spy x Family blind trading card wafer packs I believe), some plushies, buttons, etc. and keyboards. The other side has licensed goods from Mihoyo, other billibilli collaborations (they have the Cardcaptors Sakura wireless ear buds), Hatsune Miku goods, blind boxes, and much more. So for the side that has local artist goods and keyboards, if you've been to the other Sora Gumi location or have been to any of the local conventions in SoCal, you'll definitely recognize a lot of these works, such as haiyunee, ariesdreamery, No Thread No Life Embroidery, suugrstudio, Mikou, ahhgela, The Juice Box Club, and... One of MY FAVORITES, TuziNeko! They have super cute, relatable, and funny goods (stickers, keychains, desk mats, tote bags, and much more! Def check them out, you'll get a good laugh!). There's a good amount of original content, but lots of fandom/fan art items too ranging from art prints, desk mats, stickers, keychains, hoodies, shirts, hats, plushies, air fresheners, license plate frames, and even more unique items like a light up acrylic stand, a Touken Ranbu top loader for oshi purposes, an Appa (Avatar the Last Airbender) umbrella! The most common series you'll see here is of course the big anime that is out right now, the shonen favorites, and gacha games (Mihoyo games), so we're looking at JJK, One Piece, some Frieren, Spy X Family, Chainsaw Man, Genshin, Honkai Star Rail, Arknights, and of course, Vtubers. HOWEVER, very interestingly enough, this may be one of the FEW locations in North America where you can purchase LIMBUS COMPANY goods in person! Was surprised to see this! Also, they're also going to be selling Reverse 1999 goods here too, which I've only seen Animate sell. Sadly though, as many other places, FGO's getting phased out of popularity so they only have 2 keychains, 1 Mashu figure, and the dakimakura covers that I've seen at the Little Tokyo location. I pray to the kami-samas everyday that this will change. On the other side is where they have more of their official merchandise items and more of their clothing which range from jackets, t-shirts, hoodies, belts, bags, etc. Some clothing items are official merchandise for Hatsune Miku or Genshin, but others are from local/familiar faces from convention fashion lines such as M.RAGE, etc. Though not to the crazy extent of the Little Tokyo location, YET, but there's a big variety of Genshin and Honkai goods here. There's cute plushies of the characters and the NPC mascots/creatures (the slimes) of varying sizes, some are bags, others are chibi plushies, there's character cushions, bracelets, desk mats, a bubble camera machine (??), buttons, acrylic keychains, and so much more. Once again if you are an oshi for Genshin and Honkai, RIP your wallet tbh. Aside from those series there's lots of Hatsune Miku official merchandise here too including many plushies, ita-bags, clothing, and even a neat Miku keyboard that lights up and Hatsune Miku scented candles?? There's also a small amount of Evangelion goods here too, as well as figurines from others series. For Arknights they have blind boxes, figures, and acrylic stands. I'm sure this stock is gonna get beefed up too. Overall, another great anime shop location in SoCal and I'm really looking forward to the events that they'll hold here since the Source, I feel, is a less stressful location to do pop ups, cosplay gatherings, having voice actor guests, etc.

See all photos from Ann T. for Sora Gumi

This place is a hidden treasure for Honkai Star Rail merch. I went to their LA shop before, and was so happy to know they opened another one closer to me. Their Merch is pretty up to date as well. Highly recommend all the HSR fans!

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• Class Notes

The Latest News from Your Classmates

July / August 2024

CHECK OUT GROUP NOTES!

Scroll down to read Group Notes, which comprises alumni news about members of Cornell groups—including campus activities, alumni organizations, and more—across generations. Want to see your group represented in future sections? Email us for information!

I now present to you the final installment of my essay, originally written for and published by my fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi, and featured in the last three Class Notes sections. Thank you for reading along, and I encourage you to write in with your own memories of our time shared on the Hill!

Alpha Delt affected my post-college life in another unexpected way. Senior year was find-a-job time, and many companies came on campus to interview seniors and to make job offers. Dow, DuPont, Standard Oil of New Jersey (of Ohio, of Indiana, etc.), Gulf Oil, and many others visited Olin Hall to interview Chem Es, and I was fortunate enough to get an offer from practically everyone I signed up for interviews with. Then, sometime in this year, an Alpha Delt graduate visited the house. His name was Joseph Pursglove ’30 , and he had been active the year our old house burned down. He had played a part in building our present chapter house. You see, his family owned Pursglove Coal Company in West Virginia; hence, he had been able to help. He learned I was a graduating Chem E and explained to me that Pursglove Coal had been acquired by Pittsburgh Consolidation Coal Company, which had a goal of becoming the technology leader in the coal industry and which had formed an R&D division that was going to develop a process to make gasoline from coal. Would I come to work for them?

I had worked two summers for Standard Oil of Ohio, who hoped I would come back. Although I had several very good other offers, I was intrigued by the chance to “get in on the ground floor” with a company not already loaded with chemical engineers. This was an opportunity to develop a promising new technology and to work for a fellow Alpha Delt, since Mr. Pursglove was their VP of research and development. I accepted his offer and moved to Library, PA (outside of Pittsburgh), in June 1948.

Two and a half years later, we had successfully pilot-planted our process to make gasoline from coal; we ran the economics and discovered it would cost 30 cents per gallon to make, while at that time you could buy gas retail at the pump for 19 cents per gallon. Our R&D partner, Standard Oil Development, heaved a sigh of relief that coal was not going to replace crude oil as the source of gasoline and terminated the program. The process was, however, used years later by South Africa when the world was embargoing their imports of gasoline in protest against apartheid.

Bob Engelbert ’49 and Ned Turner ’48 were at my side when I married Peg Wilharm Tuttle ’48 and we stayed in touch for many decades. Ray Tuttle ’48

Working in Pittsburgh after college, Peg Wilharm Tuttle and I got back to Alpha Delta Phi as house-party chaperones with great enjoyment. Later, due to moves farther away to central Illinois, Florida, Chicago, and California, and with a family that grew to three children, we were seldom able to get back to Cornell. Then we moved to Weston, MA. Our children graduated from high school, and the opportunity for a second generation of Cornellians/Alpha Delts appeared in the form of my youngest, John Tuttle ’81 . He was vice president of his senior class and a member of its state champion tennis team, and he had good enough grades to be accepted at almost all the schools he applied to. He also was determined to achieve admission on his own. He was suspicious that having a father as alumnus would play a role in being accepted at Cornell and, therefore, made Brown his first choice. Brown was the only one that did not invite him on campus, so he agreed to visit Cornell when I convinced him that being son of an alumnus would not play much of a role, and I certainly would not push it.

The engineering campus proved pretty impressive, so I took him down to see Alpha Delta Phi. It was summer break, and unfortunately the house was in terrible shape: trashy, dirty, and very unappealing. As we left, John said, “Do I have to join Alpha Delt?” I said, “No, but give it a chance when they rush you, because you’ll see a great house then.” He did and did. I was traveling overseas so much in those days that I don’t even remember if I made it to his initiation. He switched for a year or so to the University of Colorado but returned to Cornell and Alpha Delta Phi and lived in the top-floor suite, where he made lifelong friends. He graduated from Cornell, went back out west to Colorado School of Mines and the University of Colorado, where he got his PhD.

John and I made it back for several of my Reunions, including my 60th and 65th, and his presence and the visits to Alpha Delt made the trips very worthwhile. He has been much more active than I ever was, holding office in both the local alumni chapter and in the national leadership of the fraternity.

The fraternity offered us opportunities for leadership, encouraged charity and athletics, and gave exposure to brothers with a wide variety of backgrounds and interests. Some become lifelong friends— Bob Engelbert ’49 and Ned Turner were at my side when I married Peg and we stayed in touch for many decades. I know John has continued a lifelong friendship with his roommate as well. ❖ Ray Tuttle ( email Ray ) | Alumni Directory .

We hope this column finds you well, wherever you are. Please take a moment to fill out the online news form to let us know what you’ve been up to. What are your plans for the summer? Who from the Hill do you still keep in touch with? Did attending Cornell change the trajectory of your life in any way? We’d love to hear from you. ❖ Class of 1949 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

In the last several columns I have written on the general theme of gender equity, with emphasis on how our female classmates overcame restrictive folkways and prejudices to obtain graduate degrees and to go on to successful careers in law, academia, healthcare, and other professions. In those columns I featured brief life stories of a select few of our accomplished female classmates.

For this column I brought up the question of the rates at which gender equity has gradually advanced in various occupational fields. For example, which occupations opened first, and which have been among the last? I found that this could be a PhD dissertation topic. So the best I can do is to reflect on the extent to which gender equity is being achieved.

I looked up some current information about our dear alma mater. Total undergraduate enrollment is now about 16,000, of which 54% percent are female and 11% international. 53% identify as persons of color. 47% receive financial aid averaging $49,000. Graduate enrollment is about 10,000, of which 47% are female.

Marjorie Leigh Hart (New York, NY) of our class council sent me an unusual magazine titled Olin Hall News , named after the campus home of the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Marjorie and Billie Carter Nelson of the Class of ’49 are featured as female pioneers in the field of chemical engineering. I thought Marjorie might be the first graduate in the field, but Billie preceded her by one year. All of which relates to the welcome fact that the College of Engineering, with an undergraduate enrollment of 3,000, and graduate enrollment of 1,300, has achieved gender parity and also reached an amazing high of 65% females in the entering PhD class! Seven of the 11 schools in the College of Engineering are led by women. The college grants 50% of its degrees to women, compared to 22% of all other schools of engineering.

Marjorie Leigh Hart ’50 was the only female chemical engineering graduate in our class.

Like Marjorie, Billie was the only female chemical engineering graduate in her class. On graduation day she married Earl Nelson ’49 , a fellow chemical engineering student. Both were immediately hired, Earl in the development and research department of Atlantic Petroleum and Billie in DuPont’s experimental station. Billie’s father was English and her Chinese mother had high expectations of her. She enjoyed high school chemistry and physics, and her teachers encouraged her to apply to Cornell. At age 16, there were no commercial airline flights from her home in Hawaii and she traveled to the mainland on a cargo steamer. A friend of her dad met her in San Francisco and got her safely on a train, which—with connections and layovers—took two weeks to get to Ithaca.

Interestingly, when she left employment to raise four children, she left the field of chemical engineering and subsequently went to the University of Delaware for a PhD in psychology. Thereafter, she helped high school and college students, women in particular, plan and execute plans for future education in fields of their choice with emphasis on science-related careers.

Our classmate Marjorie spent her entire post-Cornell time working in the field of chemical engineering, and I consider her a Cornell chemical engineering pioneer and will add a bit to what I reported on her in the March/April 2024 column. Upon arrival at Cornell, because the College of Engineering was committed to WWII veterans, she was admitted to the College of Arts and Sciences. To enroll in engineering, she “had to prove herself!” On a fateful day in December, she met with Fred H. “Dusty” Rhodes , PhD 1914 , then director of the now Smith School. “So you want to be an engineer?” he asked. “Do you drink beer?” “No,” said Marjorie, “but I can learn.” And on that basis, Marjorie was admitted. Subsequent to graduation, Marjorie had a stellar career in management and corporate development and investment roles in several chemical companies. She fondly recalls her time working in Japan. “The Japanese included me in everything—even trips to male-dominated bars. It was a good thing I learned to drink beer at Cornell!” At Zinck’s, perhaps? Marjorie’s remarkable accomplishments deserve recognition.

While Billie and Marjorie were probably the first females in chemical engineering, they were not the first to graduate from the College of Engineering. That honor goes to the remarkable Kate Gleason , Class of 1888 . Kate acquired an outstanding reputation as an industrialist, banker, inventor, and land developer. She was succeeded by female engineering graduates in 1905, 1921, and 1924. ❖ Paul Joslin ( email Paul ) | 13731 Hickman Rd., #4207, Urbandale, IA 50323 | tel., (515) 278-0960 | Alumni Directory .

Happy summer, Class of ’51! We hope this column finds you content and well, wherever you are. Please take a moment to fill out the online news form to let us know what you’ve been up to. What are your plans for the summer? Who from the Hill do you still keep in touch with? Did attending Cornell change the trajectory of your life in any way? We’d love to hear from you. ❖ Class of 1951 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Lewis Ward-Baker writes from Rochester, NY: “I keep singing—most recently in a large chorus that performed with a fine student orchestra (Eastman School of Music), and I warble in a church choir and a vocal quartet, ‘Voices of the Spirit.’ Here is a motto I’ve coined to live by: ‘Seek beauty … and be kind.’ My four children, seven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren continue to enrich my life. Though it took until I was in my 60s, I finally found a glorious life partner, my wife, Pat. It’s a good life.”

Patricia Dexter Clark writes from Concord, MA: “I worked for Cornell until my husband retired. Then we traveled during the ’80s. In ’07 we moved to Concord to a retirement home, Newbury Court. Since then, I helped with projects and enjoyed entertainment, music, trips, speakers, art, etc.” She derives the most satisfaction from her family of three children and their children and what they do in their lives.

Rik Clark writes from Osterville on Cape Cod: “Transferring to Cornell as a junior in 1950 broadened my interest in academics. I attended all seven undergraduate colleges in two years. Establishing and staffing the Cornell Northeast Regional Office from 1969 to 1984 further increased my fondness and respect for Cornell.” Good health and staying active and involved brings the most satisfaction. He is grateful to enjoy small boat cruises, golf, family, and friends, but as the aging process continues, losing family and friends is difficult.

I keep singing—most recently in a large chorus that performed with a fine student orchestra, and I warble in a church choir and a vocal quartet. Lewis Ward-Baker ’52

Carolyn “Cappy” Heyl Innes writes from Dallas, PA: “I do count my blessings for good health. Bibbi Antrim Hartshorn and Jane Kiely Davis and I keep in touch from afar. Our traveling days are over, but great memories of our ’52 days and our yearly road trips with Gene Powers Johnson make us smile. We were lucky!”

Jim Ling writes from Fort Collins, CO: “I finally retired as chairman of the local sewer board after 18 years. I also retired from volunteering for recognizing veterans in a local hospice.”

Diane Sargent writes from Gloucester, MA. She is writing a memoir and enjoying life and learning and making the most of each day. Being with family and friends brings her the most satisfaction.

I, Tom Cashel , thank these classmates for their notes. I hope that all the class enjoys the summer months and takes advantage of the opportunity to reflect on our good fortune to be able to witness it. ❖ Thomas Cashel, LLB ’56 ( email Tom ) | Alumni Directory .

Our class treasurer John Nixon reports that last year (July 2022 to June 2023) we contributed an incredible $5,613,169 to Cornell, donated by 148 classmates including 24 Tower Club members. Our generosity was recognized with several awards, including the Class of 1947 Cayuga Society Bowl and the Class of 1958 Bowl. The impact of these gifts, which set a new donor record for any 70th Reunion in Cornell history, has continued to leave a mark on campus. Thank you!

The Class of ’53 Library Endowment Fund currently has a book value of $70,836 and a market value of $99,196 with a projected $3,654 payout for 2024. Our Container Garden Fund has a book value of $26,088, a market value of $36,295, and an anticipated fiscal year payout of $1,336. To see the campus at its springtime best, go to the Botanic Gardens website ; its natural beauty may be even grander than the pictures in your memory.

’53 class president Bill Gratz recently traveled to Baltimore for this year’s Cornell Alumni Leadership Conference (CALC). He reports that there were some interesting presentations about freedom of speech, diversity, equity, and inclusion, antisemitism, and Islamophobia. Since his return from that weekend, Bill has had an opportunity to attend a meeting of the Cornell Club of Fairfield, CT, for a presentation by Corey Earle ’07 . He urges all class members who are reading this to go hear Corey speak if you have the opportunity. “Corey highlighted many items from our daily lives that connect us with Cornell,” he reports. “It was really thought-provoking.”

Our class set a new donor record for any 70th Reunion in Cornell history. Caroline Mulford Owens ’53

Do you recall a news item from New Mexico in 1990 that named ’53 classmate Linda Mitchell Davis New Mexico’s Cattleman of the Year? A remarkable honor, as that recognition was usually reserved for men. However, Linda grew up on ranches in northeast New Mexico, riding a horse from the time she was a toddler. In her senior year she left Cornell to marry Les and join him in operating the historic CS Ranch. Les, who died in 2001, called her “the best cowboy in the state.” The last time I spoke with Linda was at our 65th Reunion, and at that time she had organized a driving group whose focus was on emergency driving (including an ambulance) to the nearest hospital many hours away. Linda passed away on February 18.

Do you find Zoom as useful as I do? It was especially helpful during the pandemic and continues to keep me in touch with my two little great-grandchildren, ages 2 and 3 and growing up fast. Their mom, my granddaughter Anna Plattner ’12 , has become an expert on forest farming (at Wild Hudson Valley), leaving limited time to visit great-grandma five hours away. Let us know how you use Zoom or Facetime in your life. ❖ Caroline Mulford Owens ( email Caroline ) | Bob Neff , JD ’56 ( email Bob ) | John Nixon ( email John ) | Alumni Directory .

As I was composing this column in April, I received word that a Cornell friend of mine died. Forgive me while I feel sad and remember what our friendship has meant over these many years. Charles “Chuck” Juran ’53 and I developed our friendship during our activities at Willard Straight. In my senior year I worked with Chuck, who was president of the board of managers of the Straight. Though an engineer, he had broad interests. We kept in touch over the years. With our spouses we visited each other’s homes and traveled together to Alaska. Chuck exemplifies the Cornellians who have played a significant role in my life since 1950. I am sure you too have favorite friends from the Hill who have meant a great deal to you. It’s time to tell those folks we cherish them.

I look forward with much anticipation to our 70th Reunion. Often we don’t think about the huge amount of planning devoted to making it run smoothly. Both Cornell and the classes work diligently to create a memorable weekend. As a reminder of that, our class president, Chick Trayford , MBA ’60, traveled from his home in Delaware to Ithaca for Reunion 2023. He went to observe how the Class of 1953 planned for their 70th and to gain ideas for ours in 2024. Which he did.

But then, on July 11, Chick was taken to the emergency room in Dover and stayed there for eight days. He writes, “After a bone marrow biopsy, they diagnosed acute promyelocytic leukemia but were not capable of treating it there. I was transferred to Newark, DE, for an additional 27 days. I continued treatment as an outpatient (80+ chemo infusions and many pills) until February 29, 2024. They have given me a clean bill of health and doubt I will have a recurrence.” Chick cautions, “The only reason I’m still alive is that I was proactive.” He urges us to do the same. And, happily, he plans on joining us in Ithaca this June!

I received an email from George Hein . “I’m a ’54 classmate writing in for the first time. As I get older, like many of us, the life we have lived before becomes more interesting as the life we have left begins to shrink. After majoring in chemistry and graduating, I went on to graduate school at the University of Michigan and post-doc study at CalTech and then was an academic chemist at Boston University and Harvard Medical School for about 10 years. In the ’60s I was politically active opposing the Vietnam War and left my career to join other scientists and teachers in developing science education materials at the Education Development Center in the Boston area. (Philip Morrison was one of our guiding advisors.) Still later I settled at Lesley University, where I started their doctoral programs and had a third career as an evaluator of education programs, many of which were in museums.

I’m a ’54 classmate writing in for the first time. George Hein ’54

“In 1954, I married Hilde Stern ’53 . We had three children. After divorce 20 years later, I lived alone for 10 years and then married Emily Romney (Radcliffe ’57), a singer and classical voice teacher. We live in Cambridge in a lovely house that is beginning to be a bit much for us with the many stairs and the generous collection of furniture from both families.

“If I remember correctly, I had a classmate named Ruth Carpenter from Binghamton, NY, who went to Cornell. Could this be you?” How about that for a surprise and welcome connection?! George and I have had a wonderful phone conversation to catch up a bit on all these intervening years.

Searching for more news, I contacted Corey Earle ’07 , the University’s longtime (if unofficial) historian. Corey is a visiting lecturer in American studies and teaches “The First American University” on the Hill, which is affectionately known as “Storytime with Corey.” The course is now a Big Red institution on par with the Hotel School’s Introduction to Wines. It draws more than 400 students each spring—filling its lecture hall to capacity and generating a long waiting list. This is in addition to his full-time job as a principal gifts associate in Alumni Affairs and Development.

He responded at once! He sent me wonderful sources of material from the Cornell Daily Sun . Here are a few headlines from the issue as we graduated in 1954: “University to Confer 1,725 Degrees at 86th Commencement Exercises.” “52 Seniors to Receive ‘Honors,’ 31 to Graduate with Distinction.” “Senior Week Activities Include Picnic, Partying.” “’54 Councils Begin Planning Class Functions.” “Class of 1954 Bids Farewell.” And this topic, relevant in 2024, “Education and the Prospect for Democracy.”

My keen appreciation to Corey for researching material relating to the Class of 1954. We are extremely fortunate to have him scheduled to speak to us at our Friday dinner during Reunion. Ever since his guiding us on a bus tour of campus in 2014, we have recognized what a special person, with deep knowledge of Cornell, Corey is. Now everyone understands that. ❖ Ruth Carpenter Bailey ( email Ruth ) | Bill Waters , MBA ’55 ( email Bill ) | Class website | Alumni Directory .

Dave Sheffield , MRP ’61, writes, “Join in the ’55 Zoom Connection on the first Tuesday of each month at 4 p.m. hosted by our class president, Bill Doerler , to reminisce and ‘chew the fat’ in preparation for our 70th Reunion in 2025. I’m still ‘going’ after retiring from architectural practice eight years ago, but starting to wind down most church, community, and Cornell boards and committees. Allison (Hopkins) ’56 and I are fortunate to have Laurie Sheffield ’84 and Stephen Sheffield ’88 nearby, although the grandchildren (two each) are spreading out. We’re approaching our 58th year in our Wellesley, MA, house. It’s just the right size for the two of us.”

Arnold “Arne” Foss shares that these days, he greatly enjoys his grandkids and a good nap. When asked if attending Cornell changed the trajectory of his life, he replied, “Yes, it allowed me become a jet pilot and then a doctor.” At age 90, Roy Allen , MS ’63, is feeling good being able to do what he wants to do, which includes traveling. “By the end of this year, I will have been to 100+ countries!”

Cornell is where I had the privilege of receiving a great education and meeting my best friend, Jerry Jakes ’53 . Emilyn Larkin Jakes ’55

Peter Eschweiler , MRP ’57, writes, “After living 60 years in nearby Pleasantville, NY, Pauline ‘Mickie’ (Symonds) ’53 and I moved to a retirement community in 2020 in Briarcliff Manor, NY. I keep busy in my role as secretary to the community’s independent living resident council. Our grandson Michael Rivlin ’13 is the fifth generation Cornellian in our family following my grandfather, my dad, two uncles, Mickie and me, and our daughter, Susan Eschwiler ’78 (Michael’s mom!).” Mickie died in 2021, and Peter notes that he gets great satisfaction these days from remembering her and walking each morning.

Since the loss of her husband, Jerry Jakes ’53 , in March, Emilyn Larkin Jakes says, “I’ve been trying to adjust to waves of missing him. I spent the last one and a half years taking care of Jerry while he was on a journey of illness. Prior to that, we enjoyed a wonderful retirement with our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Cornell is where I had the privilege of receiving a great education and meeting my best friend, Jerry.”

Robert Leader gets great satisfaction “from the success of our children, 17 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. I successfully completed lung cancer treatment and continue to work on legal matters about 20 hours per week.” William Boyle , MBA ’56, enjoys maintaining friendships and reading. When asked about his time on the Hill, he wrote, “Cornell provided an opportunity for intellectual development, personal relationship expansion, and personal confidence-building that has served me well throughout my life!” ❖ Class of 1955 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Elizabeth Jennings Rutledge finds satisfaction these days from, she says, “spending valuable time with my husband, Dick ’55 , travel, studying every subject of interest—even on my iPhone!—spending time with friends, fresh air, gardening, and bird watching. I am very involved as a private investor.” She also enjoys “many happy birthday celebrations, including for two sons and one daughter, three grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and all their pets.” Elizabeth fondly recalls living in Clara Dickson Hall, a happy sorority life, and meeting Dick on the Hill. After graduation, the pair moved to Hawaii. “We witnessed Hawaii become a state while living on Oahu. I was teaching Hawaiian children to read while Dick served as an officer in the Navy.”

Orlando Turco still greatly enjoys following the Cornell wrestling team. Jack Wootton is still auctioning for charities. When asked if Cornell changed the trajectory of his life, he replied “Absolutely!” and particularly noted that ROTC prepared him for his 53-year career in the Army.

John Long , MS ’57, writes, “I’m enjoying life and retirement from farming with my wife, Loretta; we have been married for 62 years. I continue writing up memories of all our years together.” Joe Henninger , MBA ’58, writes, “Unfortunately, I lost my wife, Suzanne (DeRosay) ’57 , on March 4, 2024. We met at Cornell, were married in Ithaca, and were married for 65 years.”

We witnessed Hawaii become a state while living on Oahu. Elizabeth Jennings Rutledge ’56

Leo Convery is involved with Rotary Club and does wood carving. He writes that Cornell “gave me the smarts and ability to have a successful work life and now a great retirement.” Lewis Klotz shares that he gets the most satisfaction these days from “living past 92!”

Michael Cornman writes, “I retired at year-end from the practice of IP law but am still licensed to do pro bono. I have moved onto the campus of SUNY Purchase, into an apartment of a new intergenerational learning community where classes are readily audited and students mentored. It has been likened to being on a cruise ship, without the waves. All the residents are seniors intent on continuing to learn (albeit without the burdens of exams and term papers). Plenty of Cornellians in the new community. Not quite the good old days on the Hill back in the ’50s, but it is an exciting new chapter.” ❖ Class of 1956 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

When Bob Martin sent his news, he noted one particularly strong memory of his time on campus. He recalled freezing in Beebe Lake trying to get his fraternity’s “submarine” to work in the Spring Weekend boat race. He did not mention if his efforts were successful. He said he does enjoy living in fascinating Sedona, AZ, even while taking multiple cruises each year plus traveling throughout the country visiting his growing family. At last count, he had eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. Bob was with us at our 65th Reunion, where he was seen continuing his longtime connections with his Alpha Chi Rho brothers/classmates.

Thinking about Spring Weekend and Fall Weekend festivities left me wondering how the Cornell in loco parentis policy for Cornell women allowed us to stay overnight in the fraternity houses. The women had very strict sign-in/sign-out times with housing curfews, probably to keep us safe and innocent during our undergraduate years. Yet, we packed up our ball gowns and changes of clothing for these two party weekends each year. Where did the fraternity brothers go while we slept in their beds and used their restrooms? House Mothers might have been on the premises, as well as married graduate student couples, serving as chaperones.

Recently I was told the men moved to lower floors in the houses or apartments with friends, and slept on couches, on cots, or in sleeping bags. Or, being so young, maybe they did not sleep at all. Does anyone else remember the champagne cocktail parties, live jazz bands, and Big Band galas in Barton Hall, which had been transformed by YASNY (the student decorating group)? We may have been the Silent Generation, but our “Gracious Living” era at Cornell will never be duplicated.

Bob Martin ’57 recalled freezing in Beebe Lake trying to get his fraternity’s ‘submarine’ to work in the Spring Weekend boat race.

Classmates continue to move and downsize. Colin Campbell and wife Nancy have left the environs of Colonial Williamsburg and moved to Bluffton, SC. After Cornell, Colin earned a law degree at Columbia University. He worked briefly at the American Stock Exchange before moving to Wesleyan University in administration. He was selected as the 13th president of Wesleyan in 1970. His next career move, in 1988, took him to Virginia, where he became the president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Some of you might have attended a class pre-Reunion gathering held at Colonial Williamsburg, facilitated by Colin. He is now chairman emeritus of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. In honor of Colin and Nancy, groundbreaking of the Colin G. and Nancy N. Campbell Archaeology Center at Colonial Williamsburg was held on April 21, 2023. Currently under construction, when completed the Campbell Archaeology Center will encompass 35,000 square feet of collections, research, and educational space.

Bob Watts sent word about his change of residence. Linda, his wife of 63 years, passed away soon after our 2022 Reunion. Bob found himself living alone in their warm but empty home in Portsmouth, RI. Linda was a great “Navy wife” as Bob continued in his 30-year career in the U.S. Navy. Bob had 12 different duty assignments, mostly on the East Coast, but had an over-five-year residence in Belgium when he was assigned to the staff of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe. Their daughter was born there and still lives there, as do two granddaughters and a great-granddaughter. After Bob’s retirement as a captain from the Navy, he became involved in our class activities, along the way serving as class president and webmaster. His search for a more suitable living situation led him to Essex Meadows, a senior living community in Essex, CT. It was “all hands on deck” as his three children and several grandchildren helped sift through the many years of memorabilia. The recent move took him closer to his oldest son’s home and that of his grandson with the added bonus of two great-grandchildren. Bob is finding a warm, caring environment in Essex Meadows with peers with interesting life stories. He has a kitchen in his apartment, yet he enjoys the camaraderie of mealtime with others. He dubs the conversations as lively, yet not contentious.

After John Wolberg graduated from Cornell with a BME, he went on to earn a PhD in nuclear engineering in 1962 from MIT. He and wife Laurie (Holbreich) ’58 moved to Haifa, where he joined the faculty of Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. With the intention of staying for only two years, John’s career continued at Technion and he was promoted to full professor in 1979. He is considered an expert in financial data modeling, has done research and consulting for leading financial institutions, and has worked with some of the pioneers of computerized trading. Author of six related books, the most popular is Expert Trading Systems: Modeling Financial Markets with Kernel Regression. Now professor emeritus, he has pursued an interest in art which began at Cornell. He started painting after a sabbatical in the 1980s. Forty of his paintings are featured in the book John Wolberg: Engineer as Artist. ❖ Connie Santagato Hosterman ( email Connie ) | Alumni Directory .

We have a few brief reports from class officers and others as we await input from you all via the News and Dues letter for 2024. Class president Meyer Gross represented us all at the annual CALC/CACO meeting in February in Baltimore. He reports getting good tips in “class officering” from many staff members and also connecting with fellow engineers from the Engineering Alumni Association. Meyer, an active member on the CEAA board, hoped that some would be attending its meeting on campus in April when they celebrated the 150th anniversary of Mechanical Engineering on the Hill.

Good news comes from Alan Goldman on the American Platform Tennis Association mixed-ages finals. Alan and his son, James, came close to winning their match, “losing to a better pair,” Alan says, “as my son was the best player of them all, and I played my best as the oldest player.” They will try again next year. Alan wrote on other family successes: “I’ve been fortunate to have both well-educated and very nice grandchildren. My sons and spouses have done great jobs in raising them and are currently living in Illinois and Abu Dhabi (yes, we did get to AD about a year ago, a great trip).”

We’re saddened to report that the class lost a truly stalwart member in March, Marilyn Zeltner Teel , after her 26 years of battling Parkinson’s disease while somehow maintaining an infectiously hearty outlook on life and her family. She was surrounded by them all: husband Larry ’57 , BME ’60, daughter Kathleen ’87 and her husband, Dan Wagner ’87 , and their three grown sons, and Marilyn’s son, David, and his family. Marilyn was an avid Cornell supporter active in local CU Rochester activities, a teacher of children for many years, a fine piano student, an active horticulturist at home with Larry doing the hard work, and an active Kappa Delta with close ties to her sisters. Those who knew her—many of whom were present for her memorial service in Victor—will miss her greatly.

Ray ’57 and Audrey Wildner Sears ’58 greatly enjoyed the eclipse at the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, VT. The museum’s telescopes were well attended.

Dale Reis Johnson and husband Dick ’57 , BEE ’59, report “slowing down a little, but still traveling to visit grandsons Spencer, at George Fox University near Portland, OR, and Luke ’27 , a Cornell frosh. Both boys play baseball for their schools.” The Johnsons recently had lunch with Dick’s Phi Kappa Sigma brother John Bodenmann and his wife, Tracy, who were visiting from Wisconsin. “John’s company embroiders things, including all the Boy Scout patches.” Dale and Dick still play bridge and attend Learning In Retirement courses, along with their occasional traveling.

Ray ’57 and Audrey Wildner Sears are pleased to have one of their grandsons, Chester, entering Cornell’s Graduate School in Agriculture and Life Sciences to pursue more study in genetics, after working in CALS in recent years. The Searses greatly enjoyed the April sun’s near-total eclipse at the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, VT (across the river from Dartmouth College), where they are active members. The museum’s telescopes were well attended and marvelous to use for many children and adults of the community as that locally rare event occurred.

That’s it for now; your co-correspondents will look for news from you soon. ❖ Dick Haggard ( email Dick ) | Barbara Avery, MA ’59 ( email Barbara ) | Alumni Directory .

Pearl Woody Karrer reports that her fourth poetry collection, Like Silencing the Wind , has been published by, and is available from, Finishing Line Press. The book threads themes of conflict and war through poems that affirm our shared humanity. They cross barriers of time and continents, beginning with Rodin’s nude bronze of a helmet maker’s wife and ending in Afghanistan. In addition to writing poetry, Pearl teaches piano and exhibits art in juried shows. After many years of editing, she has retired from the California Quarterly .

Wayne Scoville remarried in 2012. “Between us, Julie, and I have seven kids, 19 grands, and nine great-grands. Hard to remember all their names, let alone birthdays!” Wayne and Julie live in Jackson, MS, but continue to spend part of each summer at their place on Lake George, which Wayne has owned since 1963 and has long referred to as “the money pit.” Fortunately, the kids and grands use it and provide some sweat equity.

Len Rubin ’s big project of the spring was redoing the kitchen in his NYC apartment. “This time, I may wind up actually liking it!” Len continues to keep up his subscriptions to Carnegie Hall and several Off-Broadway theater series. “I recommend the Off-Broadway theater scene to everyone. The plays and casts are more interesting, it is a lot less expensive, and the audiences are much better behaved.” Len is thinking of retiring from his psychiatry practice later this year, though his assistant suggests they should try telehealth for a while and see how it goes.

Volunteer extraordinaire: For the past 45 years, Joan “Jo” Ellis Jones has been the manager for senior citizens’ congregate or Commission on Aging’s congregate meals in Ithaca, MI. And for 30 years she has served as the director to the city’s Senior Activity Building, where the nutrition program has long been located. In addition, for 30 years she has volunteered to serve on the task force that created the senior building. She continues to work on expanding opportunities for seniors, last year helping to raise the funds to build pickleball courts next to the building. Jo’s now-deceased husband, Fred “Shape” Jones ’57 , BChemE ’59, also contributed to development of the senior building and served as the first president of its board of directors.

Alan Schechter ’59 was recently designated the Christian B. Anfinsen Distinguished Investigator at the NIH.

After 47 years in their home in Bethesda, MD, Ira Wolpert and his wife moved about two miles away, to a senior facility. “We find it easy living, with no worries about taking out the trash, changing light bulbs, or dealing with repairs and maintenance.” A retired lawyer, Ira continues to work for Senior Corps of Retired Executives, a volunteer organization that offers free counseling and mentoring to folks who wish to start or build existing businesses in the greater D.C. area.

“My wife and I have four grandchildren who are benefitting from higher education at institutions geographically dispersed, from the University of Pittsburgh to Stanford,” writes Alan Schechter . Alan was recently designated the Christian B. Anfinsen Distinguished Investigator at the NIH in Bethesda, MD, where he has conducted basic and clinical research since 1965. His current studies, with a moderate number of colleagues, is focused on sickle cell anemia, nitric oxide, and related topics. In addition, he has helped develop the NIH history program, and tries to contribute to larger questions of biomedical history.

“A Season to Remember”: Harry Petchesky spent the winter following and writing about Cornell basketball. Overall, the men’s team went 22-8, losing only one at-home game. Following each game, Harry sent game summaries to about 35 alumni, friends, and present and previous athletic directors. “It was fun to do, and when lots of people responded appreciatively, I had the reports bound and sent copies to Jon Jaques ’10 , the new coach and a great guy, for distribution to the players, coaches, and managers.”

“After years of attending Reunions, I’m afraid we’ll miss this one,” writes Dave Portman . He and his wife, Stephanie, moved in 2022 to Moorings Park Grande Lake, a continuing care retirement community in Naples, FL. “It’s still under construction but it’s beautiful and just what we needed at this stage of our lives. We’re very happy here and staying as active as possible with bridge, water aerobics, exercise classes, and a busy social schedule. Stephanie and I would love to hear from any classmates who are or plan to be in Naples.”

By the time you read this, our 65th Reunion will be a memory, with attendees sharing details of their experiences during three activity-filled days “far above Cayuga’s waters.” There will be lots to talk about, write in diaries, post on Facebook. Photos taken won’t need to sit in an album until our 70th but will have been instantly shared via texts and emails. All this will have been possible thanks to months of hard work by Brenda Canniff’s team in the Alumni Affairs office and by a group of classmates led by Reunion chair Jerry Schultz . Jerry hosted Zoom sessions, during which Reunion finances, meal menus, wine lists, souvenirs, speakers, a memorial service, and many other matters were discussed regularly with Ron Demer , Harry Petchesky, Barbara Hirsch Kaplan , and other class officers. Bill Kingston deserves special credit for his astute fiscal analysis of our class finances and expenditures. Thanks, too, to classmates, such as Ron, who spent hours tracking down classmates and encouraging them to attend the Reunion. These folks are the best! ❖ Jenny Tesar ( email Jenny ) | Alumni Directory .

Reflecting on the various changes in his life, Bob Schnur writes from Verona, WI, that he feels quite satisfied because he is retired but is also teaching tax law at the University of Wisconsin. Yet he deeply regrets that his long-term partner, Betty, passed away about two years ago. Bob has had some serious health problems but now seems to have recovered and will be resuming his teaching. John Smith , who lives with his wife, Julie, in Far Hills, NJ, and was formerly a tax lawyer, says gratefully, “I had a heart attack that slowed me way down in late 2022, but I am gradually gaining strength and now have much pleasure working in my large vegetable garden, though I am also still toiling as a landscape architect and have interesting jobs. Perhaps retirement will come when I am 90 years old; we will see.”

Meanwhile, David Berkley , PhD ’66, reports from Metuchen, NJ, where he lives with his spouse, Marlene Unterberger, that what brings him the most satisfaction is quiet day-to-day living with his children. “I have triplets, Marlene has two, I have three grandchildren, and Marlene has 9. We also travel to Israel, where Marlene’s daughter and grandkids live.” Asked whether Cornell has changed the trajectory of his life, David answered, “Of course—the entire experience, and whoever gave me a taste of management. Most of my career was spent in technical management of R&D.”

I took a splendid cruise around South America last year and visited Singapore. Johanna Dwyer ’60

From High Falls, NY, Janis Mitchelhill Leas says that she experiences great satisfaction with her family, friends, music, reading, and gardening. However, she admits, “I’m rather self-indulgent; I downsized my home in 2018 but am still in Ulster County. No more horses or dogs or at-home young people. My seven grandchildren are scattered in New York, Ohio, and Massachusetts. One is just starting in the military and the last one is graduating from Cornell and beginning in the Army in order to fulfill his ROTC commitment in June.”

Sharon Lasky Mishkin reports that as of June 15, 2024, she has a new address in Arcata, CA. Sharon’s late husband was a law school attorney and she says, “I’m going to spend the next two or three years in Arcata with my daughter and her husband. Then I expect to return to Indianapolis. I also will feel satisfaction from gardening and Torah study.” Johanna Dwyer , still living in Jamaica Plain, MA, is pleasantly satisfied these days by “friends, family, good books, concerts, and cruises when possible. I still do a little work part time on nutrition-related topics. I’m also taking a number of trips to foreign countries when health permits; I took a splendid cruise around South America last year and visited Singapore. I’m pleased to admit that going to Cornell changed my life: I made lasting friendships and had a career I enjoyed. I also met many people unlike myself whom I very much enjoyed and continue to do so.” ❖ Judy Bryant Wittenberg ( email Judy ) | Alumni Directory .

It’s a beautiful spring day in Atlanta to write our class column. Our next on-campus Reunion is two years away, but the first messages are emerging. One, we have two outstanding Reunion chairs in Rosanna Romanelli Frank and Pat Laux Richards . Second, we will be staying at the Statler Hotel, finally. I will leave further communications in the hands of our Reunion chairs. Our mailbag of Class Notes is nearly exhausted. Don’t forget to send us your news!

Ruth Bohrer Bramson sent an informative update. “Having retired as CEO of the Girl Scouts, my husband, Shelly, and I have been spending a great deal of time at our home in Ogunquit, ME. I spent a difficult year fighting lung cancer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and just got word that my scan shows no evidence of disease. So I am happy to report that I am now a healthy wife, mother, and grandmother. I have nine grandchildren and all of my children are pursuing exciting professional careers. My fondest memories of Cornell are living in my sorority house, Delta Tau, and cruising the quarters in the freezing weather.”

I’m teaching at a small university in St. Paul—back in a classroom after ‘vowing’ I’d never be back in one after graduation. Mike Hoffman ’61

After more than a few years, we heard from Mike Hoffman , coxswain on our great varsity crew. “Hello all! Haven’t contributed in a while, but at Susan Williams Stevens and Doug Fuss ’s invite, here’s some Hoffman trivia: Still living in Minneapolis (Minnetonka, officially); I have four sons ranging in age from 57 to 30. Beth is a medical safety director at Medtronic, and I continue to run my ‘business coaching’ practice with independent contractors and small business professionals. I periodically remain in touch with my crew gang and ZBT bros: Lory Aaron , Nat Weisler , Wally Buch , Joel Rosenberg ’60 , BCE ’62, Donny Spero , and Larry Bortles . Life is good. I’m keeping our Peloton busy, doing some traveling to our boys and family, and teaching in the marketing department of the business school for a small university in St. Paul. Imagine—back in a classroom after ‘vowing’ I’d never be back in one after graduation. And so it goes. I continue to treasure my time on the Hill and the wonderful, important, and enduring friendships I was lucky enough to make. Wishing all of us continued health and staying sharp! Cheers.”

On a personal note, Sue and I have been seven months in our new independent living community in Atlanta. We are at the end of the beginning but no further. The move has turned out to be more monumental than anticipated. The physical move itself was daunting, but then we needed to adjust to a new lifestyle, a new city, and traffic! Happily, the hard part is behind us, and we now see our daughter and granddaughters regularly.

Finally, remember Susan and Doug. Please keep your news flowing and send in lots of class notes. Your classmates want to hear from you. ❖ Doug Fuss ( email Doug ) | Susan Williams Stevens ( email Susan ) | Alumni Directory .

This column is being written in April, which, as we all know, is tax month. In the absence of personal entries from classmates, I thought it fitting to write about another set of figures: classmate and class-based giving.

In this, the 62nd year of the Class of 1962, generous donations and consistent giving have resulted in an excess of $315,474,379 (as of 2/7/2024) in gifts to the University. Included in this figure is the nearly $40,000,000 the class raised for our 60th Reunion—a historic milestone for the University because it was the highest amount ever given by a 60th Reunion class! This is not the first giving record our class has set. Indeed, in 1987 we were dubbed “The Class” by then-Cornell President Frank Rhodes for our 25th Reunion gifts of $5.5 million, which represented a new Cornell and national record for the most money ever raised by a single class!

Amazingly, there’s still more. We have burnished our record for generosity with our class-based donations as well. The Class of 1962 Fund for Photography at the Johnson Museum of Art ($150,935) now holds a collection of 37 outstanding historic and contemporary fine art images by distinguished and acclaimed photographers, including Edward Steichen, Lotte Jacobi, Andreas Feininger, Bruce Davidson, and Gordon Parks. And how about the Frank and Rosa Rhodes Class of 1962 Tradition Fellowship and the Class of 1962 baseball field scoreboard? Two of many other fantastic Class Gift Fund projects.

The Class of 1962 Fund for Photography at the Johnson Museum of Art now holds a collection of 37 outstanding historic and contemporary fine art images. Judy Prenske Rich ’62

While we’re on the subject, our current Tradition Scholar knows quite a lot about giving—in this case, giving of oneself, which seems to be second nature to Bronx, NY, native Abbie Jobe ’26 , who is majoring in agriculture science in CALS. Abbie used her 2022–23 award this winter to cover the costs of a service trip to The Gambia, where she was a volunteer employing Montessori practices to educate Gambian students in the community of Foni, located in the rural region upcountry. Once back at Cornell, she began taking environmental engineering courses in hopes of switching her major to that area. A project team member of Cornell Engineers in Action, this summer she will be traveling to the Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) to build a bridge in the rural community. The plan is to help individuals in the community have better access to resources that are located on the other side of a floodplain. On behalf of all of us, WOW!

Please send along news and updates (photos, too) of what’s happening with you and your family. Don’t let the Class of 1962 disappear from these pages before its time. Check out our class website for timelier information and send your entries to me! ❖ Judy Prenske Rich ( email Judy ) | Alumni Directory .

Greetings from your class president, Paula Trested Laholt : “As you may know, we had our 60th Reunion last June. To keep you all informed I would like to present our newly elected class officers for the next four years. They are: vice president, Judy Kross ; secretary, Retta Presby Weaver ; treasurer, Vivian Grilli DeSanto ; Reunion chair, Nancy Cooke McAfee ; membership chair, Harvey Rothschild ; and nominations chair, Jim Billings , MBA ’64. And please remember our class correspondent, Nancy Bierds Icke , who would love to hear news from you about all your comings and goings. In addition to our officers, we have a class council of 10 members whose involvement in class affairs determines our class decisions and activities. If anyone is interested in participating, please contact me. You will be receiving a letter announcing our dues for the coming year. Dues are now $20. We would like as many as possible to reach our class goal.”

As you know, Ed Butler , MS ’65, has been working hard on our mental health video project since before our 60th Reunion last year. The fund has remained open and our class donated an extra $4,000 on Giving Day in March. Video number one was used in August 2023 for incoming freshmen. Videos two and three are ready to film. There is talk about using videos for graduate students as well. Donations are still welcome at any time.

Harvey Rothschild keeps in touch with classmate Cliff Argue , ME ’66, and his wife, Theo, who live in Mercer Island, WA. Cliff wrote, “We hope to go to California to visit our daughter Christina and her family. We are still trying to decide what the best housing arrangement is for us going forward. Our 3,200-square-foot house is too much for the two of us.”

My wife and I have rented a small duplex in Horizon Villages off Triphammer Road so that we will have a second home in Ithaca. Jim Byrnes ’63, MBA ’64

After our class council Zoom meeting on March 20, Jim Byrnes , MBA ’64, sent a newsy email: “I did attend the council meeting a couple of weeks ago but could not say anything because I was in my car and the phone hookup was not working properly even though I could hear everything. I was actually driving from Albany to Ithaca and got caught in a late winter blizzard just before the meeting started—so I felt lucky to get into the meeting and it seemed miraculous that I kept the connection all the way through the hill country from Bainbridge to Dryden!

“Terry (Connecticut College ’68) and I have rented a small duplex in Horizon Villages off Triphammer Road so that we will have a second home in Ithaca. We have been in Vero Beach, FL, for several years but, having lived in Ithaca for 30 years, found that we do miss Ithaca and look forward to spending more time there. I have been enjoying Cornell sports. Men’s basketball, the hockey teams, and wrestling have all done well on the national scene—as has lacrosse. The ESPN+ service is well worth it. Last night I watched Cornell come from way behind to beat number-four Syracuse in double overtime—great entertainment for us alumni!”

Please send news—I am always in need of more for the column. ❖ Nancy Bierds Icke ( email Nancy ) | 12350 E. Roger Rd., Tucson, AZ 85749 | Alumni Directory .

Welcome to our traditional post-Reunion column, which was written before Reunion weekend. We hope to have Reunion recollections to report upon in the September/October column! But in the meantime, we’d like to feature a classmate we only once mentioned here, some 40 years ago, who has since gotten reams of headlines and stories elsewhere: Joseph Bruchac . If you don’t remember him, it could be because, while Joseph matriculated with our class in the autumn of 1960, he graduated with the Class of ’65.

Joseph is renowned for giving much to literature and society. A Google search results thusly: “Bruchac is a writer and storyteller who published more than 120 books. Much of his work explores Abenaki identity and Native storytelling. He began publishing in 1971 and has collaborated on eight books with his son, Jim.”

Joseph is proud of his Native American heritage; much that he has written elaborates on native cultures in general. He notes that his own heritage is also both English and Slovak, yet he identifies mostly with his Abenaki heritage, which traces back to colonial times and is still located in the northern-most New England states and southeastern Canada. But he’s also written extensively about myriad other Native American cultures from coast to coast. Some of his notable works include the novel Dawn Land (1993) and its sequel, Long River (1995), both of which feature a young Abenaki man of the pre-colonial period, before European contact. The sheer scope of his work has not gone formally unnoticed: in 1999, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas. He lives in Greenfield, NY, a picturesque rural enclave comprising five different hamlets.

Joseph Bruchac ’64 is renowned for giving much to literature and society.

Our class focus has been on ensuring that our annually bestowed JFK Award will quite literally outlive us all. Class president Ken Kupchak , JD ’71, put it this way: “As previously reported, we have determined that our JFK Award for Public Service will be our enduring class legacy. In preparation for the eventual sunsetting of our class, we have transitioned the direction of the JFK Award to a self-perpetuating board controlled by our JFK awardees. Awardee Katie Dealy ’00 is the JFK board chair and our Cindy Wolloch is our class liaison to the board. Cindy and Katie are planning a great 60th Reunion panel of several pairs of JFK awardees and our classmates to share the award’s special place in Cornell’s public service.”

I am confident this panel was a success that ensured our class’s status for decades to come. I sincerely hope you were able to attend our 60th Reunion and had a great time. As for your news, just please keep it coming! Update me by email, regular mail, our class website , or our class Facebook page . ❖ Bev Johns Lamont ( email Bev ) | 720 Chestnut St., Deerfield, IL 60015 | Alumni Directory .

Loren Meyer Stephens (Los Angeles, CA) reports that her ghostwriting companies, Write Wisdom and Bright Star Memoirs, released two memoirs in February: We’re Live in 5: My Extraordinary Life in Television by Jeff Margolis with Loren Stephens, and Adieu: A Memoir of Holocaust Survival by Alfred J. Lakritz. Loren has published a personal essay, The Meyer Trilogy , which “spills the beans” on members of her father’s family. Loren and husband Dana spent 10 days in Scandinavia enjoying the fabulous food, countries, and people. She was in New York for the March meeting of the National Commission of the Anti-Defamation League, on which she sits.

Loren is proud that her son Josh (Princeton ’97 and Harvard Kennedy School) is working part time with her. He is a journalist and runs a business helping students worldwide to apply to U.S., Canadian, and British schools of higher education. Her favorite memories of college days: “Sneaking off to Greenwich Village to see French movies and wander around the city. Driving around the campus in the wintertime with the top down. Having my first apartment with Phyllis Weiss Haserot , MRP ’67, Judy Hayman Pass , and Marilyn Jacobson Friedland , where I started cooking.”

John Marks (Amsterdam, Netherlands) is a best-selling author and has a new book scheduled to come out on August 17 from Columbia University Press titled From Vision to Action: Remaking the World Through Social Entrepreneurship . To note one of many laudatory comments on this work, from former U.S. Ambassador Frank Ricciardone: “This book tells the inspiring story of an extraordinarily successful social activist who used the precepts of social entrepreneurship to deal with highly charged conflicts around the world.”

John is the founder and managing director of Confluence International; a visiting scholar in Peacebuilding and Social Entrepreneurship at Leiden University; and the founder and former president of Search for Common Ground, the world’s largest peace-building nonprofit organization, which was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018. John is co-author of the New York Times bestseller The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence and the award-winning Search for the “Manchurian Candidate.” John also founded Common Ground Productions and has produced TV series promoting nonviolent coexistence in 25 countries.

John Marks ’65 is founder of Search for Common Ground, the world’s largest peace-building nonprofit organization, which was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018.

Class president Jamil Sopher , ME ’66, and numerous other class officers attended the annual meeting of the Cornell Alumni Leadership Conference in Baltimore in February. The class delegation included Joan Hens Johnson , Laureen Stanton Knutsen (treasurer), Bill Vanneman (secretary), Barbara Press Turner , and Grace Hershberg Morgenstein . Alumni class counselors Lauren Coffey and Kate Freyer joined them. On February 22, Jamil, Joan, and Laureen and husband Ragnar dined at the Petit Louis, a French bistro. On February 23, another nice dinner was enjoyed at La Tavola, an Italian restaurant, by Jamil, Joan, Laureen, Grace, Barbara, Bill, and Lauren, with Class of 1964 delegates (including Stan Morgenstein , Grace’s husband). Joan and others also enjoyed a visit to the Walters Art Museum while in Baltimore.

We are particularly saddened to learn of the passing of classmate Bob Baker , a Vietnam War veteran and an entrepreneur who distinguished himself as a member of the Cornell football team, especially at the halfback position, in the years 1962–64. Bob was one of the greatest all-purpose runners in team history. In 1964, he led the entire nation in kickoff returns with a 35.1-yard average on 11 returns for 386 yards, thereby duplicating the feat of star quarterback Gary Wood ’64 , who did it in 1963. Also in 1964, Bob led the team in rushing with a 5.2-yard average for 543 yards. He was an AP All-America pick and first team all-Ivy pick, and was selected to the ECAC All-East team. He left with school records for highest average gain per kickoff return in a game (52.7 yards), season (35.1), and career (27.7). He was always a welcome presence at Reunions and other group events. We will miss him.

Stephen Appell pursued his Cornell basketball passion with a second trip to New Haven, this time on March 1, to see the women’s team give a decent battle to Yale, though they succumbed 79-72. On March 15–16, he attended the Ivy tournaments at Columbia, viewing all the women’s games; on March 16 he was at Columbia with son Brad to see the men’s team give a spirited effort against Yale, the ultimate men’s champion. Steve got to see some of his favorite women players who came to watch that game, including team high-scorer Kaya Ingram ’24 , Vivienne Knee ’26 , and Clarke Jackson ’27 , as well as some favorite past men players, including Garry Munson ’66 . On March 19 he got to watch the Cornell men play for the first time ever in the National Invitation Tournament, against Ohio State. They lost 88-83 after leading with a minute to go. Steve is convinced that a couple of bad officiating decisions near the end of the game turned the tide. The team finished 22-8, and the University has since announced that Jon Jaques ’10 has been named the new head coach to replace the departing Brian Earl. Steve has known Jon ever since his playing days on the Sweet Sixteen team of 2010 and is thrilled at his appointment.

Please remember that our 60th Reunion class gift involves support for the development of a Well-Being Program under the auspices of the Skorton Center, for the promotion of mental health throughout the Cornell community. Our class gift Reunion committee, headed by Jeff Kass , has worked in collaboration with Skorton Center Director Julie Edwards, a pilot project has proved successful, and many classmates have contributed financially to the Class of 1965 Mental Health Fund. The program is training and engaging coaches who are experienced, sensitive members of the Cornell community and who are proving to be a great help to Cornell students and staff. We look forward to continued support from our classmates.

Please keep the news coming to us. People love to hear about your doings, via our column. ❖ Joan Hens Johnson ( email Joan ) | Stephen Appell ( email Stephen ) | Alumni Directory .

Martha Goell Lubell recently phoned me, just to chat. We went to high school together and have continued our friendship. Years ago, at a Reunion, we sat on the front steps of Donlon one night, waiting for her teenage boys to return from an adventure on campus. On our call, Martha told me that one of her sons just had another son; she now has three grandsons, but no granddaughters. She also told me how she had met her husband. Soon after graduation, she had a new job, at the New York Times , and had to work nights. Her first night there, she walked into the newsroom, and the first person she saw was a guy; they now have been married for decades!

In a similar theme, I ( Pete Salinger , MBA ’68) met my wife, Ruth (Dritch) ’67 , one afternoon during intersession in my sophomore year and her freshman year at Cornell. We liked each other immediately, and then never dated anyone else.

Carolyn Rider Chase wrote: “I’m still trying to get my head around my 80th birthday coming around in May. We continue much the same—playing with trains (Jack), gardening, doing photography, and trying to keep up an 1880s house. This winter we skied several times—a first since Jack’s 2016 strokes and 2018 esophagectomy. We’re looking forward to spending the month of June in Florida with our daughter.”

Michael Rauchway wrote from Saint Pete Beach, FL, that his grandson Theodore will be entering Cornell in the fall as a member of the Class of ’28. In addition to his grandfather, he joins his father, Jonathan ’94 , and uncle Eric ’91 as a Cornellian.

We took an amazing trip this past October to Morocco with five other couples who are good friends. Hilda Lichtenstein Levine ’66

Hilda Lichtenstein Levine wrote from Naples, FL: “Marty and I are enjoying retirement in two wonderful places: winters in Naples, FL, and summers in Lenox, MA, in the Berkshires. We took an amazing trip this past October to Morocco with five other couples who are good friends. We also spend time with Michael ’63 , ME ’65, and Joan Simonson Ury ’65 and Marilyn and Mike Ratner ’63 in both locations. Our daughter Jill Levine Bradford ’94 and her husband, Dan, currently live in Sudbury, MA. Their son, Adam, graduates from USC this May, and their daughter, Jessica, will graduate from Northwestern next June.”

A note from Mary Jansen Everett and Alice Katz Berglas : “As ever, the Cornellians class column deadline pushes us to think two months down the road. As we write, the Cornell Class of 2024 is taking its final finals, finishing senior projects, excited and yet conflicted about leaving what has become their home, their Hill. By the time you read this, the Cornell Class of 2028 will be packing suitcases, hugging high school best friends, anticipating and yet anxious, about to begin their own Cornell climb up the Hill. And we, the Cornell Class of 1966, will begin the first steps planning our big 60th Reunion year and weekend. Our Hill, their Hill, shared by Cornellians since the first Cornell commencement in 1869. Join us this coming Cornell year and all our alumni years ongoing. (Yes, send your dues and news !) Mark your calendars NOW for our return to our Hill—it’s the big Cornell 60th. And we will fill our Hill with us, June 4–7, 2026!”

Stay in touch. Everyone wants to know what you’ve been up to (they really DO!). ❖ Pete Salinger , MBA ’68 ( email Pete ) | Susan Rockford Bittker ( email Susan ) | Alumni Directory .

Joan Klein Cohen (Stockbridge, MA) shares: “Happy to announce my second novel, The Deepfake , was published April 2, 2024 (and received a starred review from Kirkus ). Husband Bruce ’65 , ME ’67, and I still love living in the Berkshires, where Bruce is a volunteer assistant lacrosse coach at Williams.” Joan’s favorite Cornell memory: “Sitting in the stacks of the A.D. White Reading Room, staring out at the view, contemplating profound philosophical questions I still don’t know the answer to.”

Julia Bentley-Macdonald writes: “My husband, Jerry Macdonald, passed away on March 7, 2024. I am moving to Longview, a senior residence near Ithaca College, this June. Last year, I received the Volunteer of the Year Award from Lifelong—a senior community center. I plan to continue my activities at both Longview and Lifelong.”

Thanks to Stan Davis ’69 for this report: “The unique strategies of Ralph “Russ” Morin , to retain and attract business talent during and after the pandemic, were recently touted in the New Hampshire Business Review . Russ continues to operate his Attleboro, MA-based catering and events business. Also continuing aggressive growth initiatives, he has recently added a restaurant group and a business consulting arm.”

John Lyncheski (Naples, FL) has “officially cut ties (fully retired) from Dentons Cohen & Grigsby. I was one of the founding partners in 1982 of the Pittsburgh-based firm. We grew to approximately 150 lawyers and recently partnered with Dentons, the nation’s largest global law firm. I spent the last seven years as of counsel, based out of our Naples office. My focus was on management side labor and employment law with clients in the healthcare field. One of the newer principals in our firm is Reeve “Ting” Vanneman ’s daughter, Julie.

Stu Ockman ’67 has now had 13 puzzles accepted by Times crossword editor Will Shortz.

“A proud veteran of the U.S. Navy JAG Corps, I’m married to my high school sweetheart, Kathy, who probably spent as many weekends at Cornell as I did. We have three children and seven grandchildren, several of whom have joined us in Naples. I’ve stayed connected as a member of our class council and have reconnected with Sigma Nu contemporaries, including Tom Charlton , MBA ’69, Fred Nesbitt ’69 , and Bill Manser . I ‘Facebook’ with George McWeeney , MBA ’69, and Dick Gilkeson . I do my best to follow Big Red sports. Unfortunately, I’m hampered by some mobility limitations, but, overall, life is good. Go Big Red.”

During a Zoom meeting with Cornell engineering classmates, Stu Ockman revealed that he has a lifelong love of crossword puzzles. “Perhaps my earliest memory of solving a real crossword puzzle (not the Highlights for Children version) was a contest run by the Philadelphia Inquirer when I was in sixth grade. I had fun solving it (and think I found the correct answer) but needed a version without erasures to enter the contest; I was too shy to ask our next-door neighbor for their copy of the paper. Imagine my surprise a few days later when the Inquirer announced that there were no winners.”

After graduating with a BS degree, Stu then received an MS in construction management from Stanford and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, continuing to solve puzzles while working as a licensed professional engineer in California for Day & Zimmermann Inc. When Adam Perl told him that he had submitted a puzzle to the New York Times , Stu took his passion for crossword puzzles up a notch. He has now had 13 puzzles accepted by Times crossword editor Will Shortz. Stu created a puzzle for the Civil and Environmental Engineering Update for alumni to solve, which can be found here . He maintains his engineering practice at Ockman & Borden Associates, which he founded in 1981. ❖ Richard Hoffman ( email Richard ) | 2925 28th St. NW, Washington, DC 20008 | Alumni Directory .

I have some news to share with our classmates this summer! For future columns we need more news and updates, so please let us know where you are and what you are doing, or share with us your reflections on your years at Cornell!

Susan Mascette Brandt writes that “through serendipity” she has reconnected with Jane Wallace Vanneman . They were corridor-mates freshman year in Dickson VI (a.k.a. “the Wine Cellar”) but had not seen or spoken to each other since around 1965! She reports that this reconnection has been “just wonderful” and is continuing on Zoom.

Jim Ponsoldt and his wife, Susan, continue to live in Athens, GA. Jim enjoys helping his son, James Ponsoldt, a well-known and acclaimed writer, director, and producer, with scripts for his son’s two recent TV series, “Shrinking” and “Daisy Jones & the Six.” Jim, a lawyer, was on the faculty of the University of Georgia School of Law beginning in 1978 and retired from the full-time faculty as the Joseph Henry Lumpkin Professor of Law in 2008, where he specialized in the areas of antitrust, corporations, criminal procedure, and communications law. He is the author of numerous articles as well as letters to the editors of the New York Times , the Atlanta Journal-Constitution , and local publications on a variety of legal and social policy issues. He and Susan enjoy spending time with and taking photos of their three grandkids.

Jerry Kreider , MArch ’71, and his wife, Kathleen, live in Narberth, PA, outside Philadelphia. He recently received the 2024 Patrick Monaghan Good Neighbor Award for his “unwavering commitment” to Habitat for Humanity’s mission of building and repairing homes in Philadelphia. He continues to contribute to the group’s strategic fundraising initiatives.

Jerry Kreider ’68 , MArch ’71, received the 2024 Patrick Monaghan Good Neighbor Award for his ‘unwavering commitment’ to Habitat for Humanity’s mission.

Sharon Lawner Weinberg , PhD ’71, published two books in 2024, a second edition of Statistics Using R : An Integrative Approach and a third edition of Statistics Using Stata: An Integrative Approach, both by Cambridge University Press . She is professor emerita of applied statistics and psychology, having recently retired from NYU after being on the faculty for 52 years and having served as a vice provost of the university for seven of those years.

Richard Schuler writes, “I’m still practicing civil trial law at a firm I founded in West Palm Beach, FL, 46 years ago, Schuler, Weisser, Zoeller, Overbeck & Baxter. I still love the practice and living in Jupiter, FL, with my wife, Angela. Angela is originally from Brazil, and we attended the 21st annual family reunion there in March, then went on to Chile to explore that country—I recommend it highly. We’re leaving in a few weeks to go to Eastern Europe, Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands. Trying to exercise and keep these bones from getting too creaky and have been swept up in the pickleball mania along with my wife—although she beats me at that and still runs four miles a day!”

David Radin , former editor-in-chief of the Cornell Daily Sun during our days on the Hill, recently published a book, A Temporary Affair . His book is a collection of 31 talks given at Sunday morning sittings at the Ithaca Zen Center by Yoshin David Radin, founder of and abbot at the Ithaca Zen Center for the past 40 years. The talks were given at a time when David’s health was severely compromised by end-stage renal failure. Happily, in February 2019, he received a kidney transplant from a member of the Ithaca Zen Center, to whom the book is dedicated.

I look forward to receiving more news and updates from all of you! Please email me about you and your family with news you want to share with our classmates. ❖ Steve Weinberg, MBA ’70, JD ’71 ( email Steve ) | Alumni Directory .

This column is being written at the beginning of April, just about the time that registration information for Reunion 2024 is being made public. News of how our 55th Reunion fared on June 6–9 will be covered in a later column, but I plan to be there as it will mark the end of my term as Class of ’69 co-president. I am hoping for a good turnout. Catching up with friends in person is best—but here is some news received from other classmates that you may know, who may or may not be attending our 55th.

John Reilly (Arts) has retired in Erie, PA, after a 45-year career as a colon/rectal surgeon. He and his wife, Bette, have found great enjoyment in activities in support of the Erie Philharmonic. In addition to penning reminiscences of his days in surgical training at Bellevue Hospital in NYC, he relaxes at the piano, serves on local boards, and, as expected in retirement, travels to link up with family and friends. John keeps in close touch with his Sigma Nu buddies, the faithful custodians of shared memories of rites of passage: Bob “Bubba” Smith (Arts), Frank Pagano (Arts), and Marc Grabelsky (Ag), as well as with several fraternity brothers from that era who still look for any occasion to raise a glass at the Chapter Lodge on Willard Way. Finally, for over 40 years, John has treated several generations of family to the unique experience of Cornell’s Adult University, accompanied by the bliss of summer on the Hill. He looks forward to attending future courses, on and off campus, hoping to run into precious friends for encounters that summon up a special time—a time that, although now so long ago, “seems like only yesterday!”

Ann Sullivan (Arts), now retired, doesn’t have to travel to attend our Reunion, as she and her husband, Nick Salvatore (also retired, from the ILR School), are living in Ithaca. Ann writes that her days are filled with volunteer work and enjoying family in a wonderful place to live. Her daughter, Nora Salvatore ’01 , JD ’06, settled in Ithaca, too!

For over 40 years, John Reilly ’69 has treated several generations of family to the unique experience of Cornell’s Adult University, accompanied by the bliss of summer on the Hill.

Ron Gidron (Engr), MBA ’71, on the other hand, has a long way to go if he wants to attend a Reunion, as he and his wife, Lourdes Sanchez, are retired and living in Madrid, Spain. In December 2023, they invited all of their children and six grandchildren to join them in NYC, and reported it was great to rediscover that unique place with all of them. Ron has two grandsons and a nephew now living in the U.S., either studying or working. What he enjoys now (having closed his company last year) is composing music, writing a family history book dating to 2000 BC (!!), and teaching math, Hebrew, and music online to several young family members. They have been traveling mostly around Spain by using the state-owned Paradores Nacionales, which provides unique lodging in mostly historic buildings converted to hotels. Asked about his favorite memory of Cornell, Ron lists a number of them: professors Hans Bethe, Robert Moog , PhD ’65 , and Carl Sagan, discovering electronic music, designing the first computers, musical history classes as electives in the College of Arts and Sciences, the unique landscape of the Cornell campus and the Finger Lakes region, Willard Straight Hall and Uris Library, harsh winters, Collegetown, and downtown cinemas.

Another classmate living abroad is Kent Nadbornik (Hotel). He and his wife, Nina, call Helsinki, Finland, home. Turning 80 in February 2024 was a milestone for Kent, who enjoys walking outdoors and keeping track of his 11 grandchildren. Among his favorite memories of Cornell are serving as a banquet waiter in the Statler in 1965, food facilities engineering, and the design of Alcatraz food facilities.

Submitted by acting class correspondent and retiring class co-president: ❖ Greg Baum ( email Greg ) | Class website | Alumni Directory .

The writing and submission of this column has turned into a miracle. Originally there was not to be one, as there was no material. However, a miracle of some last-minute submissions and an allowance to submit after the deadline has allowed the continuation of a 1970 class column without a break since I volunteered to write one some years ago. Somehow this takes me back to the creation of papers, lab reports, and such as a student—a last-minute reprieve. So be it!

My focus on Cornell recently has been preparing for my 45th Johnson Reunion, along with the ever-interesting Continuous Reunion Club, now less than a month away. Be aware that our class 55th Reunion is now just a year away. If you have any thoughts or ideas, and wish to be involved or to volunteer, contact Sally Anne Levine , JD ’73, our class president. Find her contact info (and others’) through the Alumni Directory . Hope to see many of you there.

Nick Cooper (Draper, UT) responded positively and proudly to my request about those who might have stayed in engineering. “I got into engineering right out of school and continue to work as a consultant in the water field. I’m currently a senior project manager at AECOM, where I am also design manager for water and wastewater treatment projects.

My work has taken me around the world, to the Middle East, Southeast Asia, the U.K., and South America. Nick Cooper ’70

“My work has taken me around the world, to the Middle East, Southeast Asia, the U.K., and South America. My wife of 46 years, Deb, has been very patient while I travel. My employment for three consulting firms has meant that we’ve relocated as well. Utah is our seventh and last state. These days, I’m only commuting one or two weeks a month to California from our home in Draper, UT (a few miles south of Salt Lake City). Although I work full time, this feels like semi-retirement. I enjoy what I do and spend much time guiding clients and junior engineers on how to manage people and projects.

“I’ve been back to Ithaca a few times, including lectures to graduate civil engineering students on ‘Your Career Path.’ As an engineer, the thing that was the most beneficial to me is having gone to Cornell and started engineering before we had computers. I try to teach younger engineers to build the database of their mind—that is the most important value they have for clients.”

Merry Bloch Jones (Philadelphia, PA) responds as follows: “I’m living in Philadelphia, still writing suspense novels, just beginning my 22nd book, 15th spine-rattler. (Find them all on my website .) I also spend time rowing on the Schuylkill River and chasing grandkids (a new one coming this year!). Hoping to visit Cornell sometime soon to see all the changes.”

As always, you may contact me directly (see below) or you may use the University’s online news form . ❖ John Cecilia, MBA ’79 ( email John ) | Alumni Directory .

As I am putting the final touches on this column, it is the day of the “Great American Total Eclipse,” and I wonder how many of us shared this extraordinary cosmic phenomenon, as we have so many significant events during the past 74–75 years. If you experienced an eclipse adventure, please tell us about it.

Did you know that Naomi Guttman-Bass left her science profession behind for a career in the arts in Israel? After completing her BA degree at Cornell, Naomi continued to pursue her interest in science and biology, earning a PhD from MIT. Following years of scientific research both at Yale University and at the University of Jerusalem, she left academia to pursue a career in video production. She has been producing documentaries and short films ever since (for more than 25 years). Have you seen her latest documentary, UnReined , which tells the story of a young horseback rider who held the Israeli high jump record for 20 years? The film illustrates how a shared love for horses developed into a collaboration between Israelis and Palestinians. You can view UnReined here .

A group of 23 Psi Upsilon alums from the classes of 1970–73 gathered with a few members of SAE for a small reunion in Ithaca in late November 2023. Classmates Robert Bloch , Tom Brereton (and his wife, Amy), Eddie Kosteva , MBA ’73, Warren Baker (and his wife, Donna), Leo Reinsmith , ME ’72 (and his wife, Laurie (Bettan) ’72 ), and Gary Cokins joined in the festivities. Robert wrote on our class Facebook site that the passing of classmate Barry Cermak earlier in 2023 “made us realize that we should get together before more of us were unable.” Highlights of the weekend included a Friday evening dinner, a football game against Brown University, a Saturday barbeque, a visit to the former Psi U fraternity house (now a grad student dorm), side trips to Taughannock Falls and other points of interest, time on campus, and, most of all, sharing old memories and wallowing in nostalgia.

The Cornell Alumni Leadership Conference (CALC) is Cornell’s annual signature volunteer event, where Cornellians come together for a weekend full of discovery and inspiration. This year’s CALC was held in Baltimore, MD. To begin the weekend with some Big Red spirit, the Class of 1971 held a dinner at Café Gia on Friday evening, February 24. Dale Cohen , Mitchell Weisberg , Naomi Katz Mintz , Susan Deitz Milmoe , Martha Coultrap (and her husband, Harvey Bagg), Laurie Berke-Weiss (and her husband, Brian Berke), David Beale , and Barbara Brem Noveau (and her husband, Donald ’70 ), together with Sally Anne Levine ’70 , JD ’73, and Kate Freyer from Alumni Affairs and Development shared a delightful meal, reminisced, brainstormed additional ideas for our class history project, and began planning for our next Reunion.

In early March, Linda Germaine-Miller and Leslie Jennis Obus organized a lovely lunch in NYC for Martha Coultrap, Gilda Klein Linden , Laurie Berke-Weiss, Dale Cohen, and me. It was wonderful to spend time with friends we have known for over 50 years, to catch up on our current lives, and to reminisce about our time in Ithaca and days gone by. We all enjoyed the afternoon so much we are planning another in May!

Naomi Guttman-Bass ’71 left her science profession behind for a career in the arts in Israel.

Barbara Gelsky Popka and her husband, Ed ’70 , were married shortly before our graduation on March 27, 1971, but celebrated their anniversary last April (albeit two years late because of COVID) with a great party attended by friends and family. Ed and Barbara spend most of the year in Hilton Head, SC, and summer in Deep Creek Lake, MD. The Popkas have two children and four grandchildren (“the highlight of our lives”) living in the Atlanta and Baltimore areas, so they visit both places fairly frequently. The Popkas love to travel. In the past year they have visited Vietnam and Cambodia, toured Eastern Europe, cruised through the British Isles, and vacationed for a month in Hawaii. On schedule next: a cruise around South America and a 10-day trip to Cuba in May. Barbara’s fondest Cornell memories are her 9 p.m. “Straight breaks.” She would love to hear from other Cornellians and her contact information can be found in the Alumni Directory .

Marcia Wities Orange is immersed in Big Red this season. In April, she attended an excellent local presentation by Corey Earle ’07 , Cornell’s “unofficial historian,” titled “Cornell is Everywhere: How Our Everyday Lives are Shaped by Cornell.” Marcia noted, “It still amazes me when I am one of the oldest alums there, but after 50-plus years, logic says it really shouldn’t.” This summer, Marcia is looking forward to Cornell’s Adult University on campus and may also attend Reunion with the Continuous Reunion Club. Marcia is also attending the Cornell Theater Weekend in late April—totaling four Cornell events in four months!

Gail Sussman Marcus reports she has had a stable, happy, and lucky life. Gail has been living in Larchmont, NY, for 40 years. Since 1980, Gail has been teaching history at the Brearley School in Manhattan and continues to find joy and energy in the classroom and engaging with her students. She and her husband of more than 50 years, Marty, who has recently retired from his position as a judge in the Bronx Supreme Court, enjoy spending time with their two grown children, their children’s spouses, and four growing grandchildren.

Down in Lower Manhattan, Richard Warshauer leads an annual historical walking tour, “The Great Crashes of Wall Street.” He sent us a wonderful photo from his last one featuring Richard and his Cornell flatmate and lifelong friend James Wanderstock . Richard, who founded the tour after the stock market crash of 1987 says, “If we’ve learned anything from history, it is that history repeats itself.” Any history buffs, classmates intrigued by the financial markets, or people looking to spend a few interesting and enjoyable hours in Manhattan, contact Richard (who can also be found in the Alumni Directory ) for information about his next tour.

Have you participated in our class history project yet? Dale Cohen, Martha Coultrap, Irmgard Dick , MAT ’72 (known in Cornell years as “Victoria Elmer”), Kathy Ellison Lindeman , Naomi Katz Mintz, Arthur Lasko , Mike Licitra , Molly Mead , Arthur Mintz , Sharon Schatz , Jim Schiffman , and Mitch Weisberg joined the monthly conversation last March. Participants discussed our junior and senior years with an emphasis on Cornell traditions. The wide-ranging conversation touched on the Vietnam War, sex, drugs, and rock and roll, dogs roaming on campus , campus movies, the teach-in at Barton Hall, taking manual notes in class, slide rules, the 18-year-old legal drinking age, activist David Burak ’67 , MFA ’80, and Jeff Dowd (the son of Cornell Economics professor Douglas Dowd), who was the Coen brothers’ inspiration for the Dude character in The Big Lebowski . “Tumultuous” was Jim Schiffman’s description of our time on the Hill.

Does Cornell continue to have an impact on your life? Please write and tell us how—we always look forward to hearing from you! Cara Nash Iason ( email Cara ) | Elisabeth Kaplan Boas ( email Elisabeth ) | Alumni Directory .

Richard Joslyn , PhD ’77, retired in 2020, after a 44-year career as a political science professor and academic administrator at Temple University, which included teaching at, and being the dean of, the university’s campus in Tokyo. He writes, “When I locked my office door on Friday, March 13, 2020, to finish out the semester virtually, I had no idea I would not be able to return for two years to clean it out. Unfortunately, the COVID experience has taught me the extent to which many of my fellow citizens have little regard for the health and safety of others. Could we endure the kinds of sacrifices and deprivations our parents and grandparents did during the WWII years, in support of a greater good? I have my doubts.

“I retained my sanity during the abrupt change to an isolated COVID-induced protective bubble by co-authoring a book about the history of Temple’s campus in Japan (1980–present), published by Temple University Press. It is available on Amazon. The story includes villains and heroes, periods of rapid growth and sharp decline, and complicated relationships with several Japanese partners fighting for respect and fair treatment by the government of Japan and enduring the Japanese economic crash, tsunami, and nuclear meltdowns. But today the campus has over 2,000 matriculated undergraduates from around the world and plans to open an additional campus in Kyoto.”

Peter Fortunato ’s memoir, Desert Wind: My Life in Qatar , came out in March 2023. It recounts his experiences teaching in the pre-medical department of Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar from 2005–09. He writes, “This was a crucial time for the country as it emerged on the world stage, and important for me both professionally and personally. This is one of the only books in English to detail the expat experience of interacting with Qatari natives.”

These days, Peter is writing, painting, and doing community service in Ithaca. “Although I left classroom teaching in 2013, I’m as busy as can be with projects. My wife of 51 years, the poet Mary Gilliland ’73 , MAT ’80, has had three collections of her poetry published in the past two years and is riding a wave of success!” When asked about his time on the Hill, Peter fondly recalls his friendships with his roommates “and all that we went through together, 1968–72. We still keep in touch often!”

Peter Fortunato ’72 ’s memoir recounts his experiences teaching in the pre-medical department of Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar.

Artist and writer Sarah Sutro shares, “My second book of poetry, Natural Wonders , comes out on August 9, 2024, with Finishing Line Press. The poems, deeply entwined with nature, offer the reader an experience of intense immersion in, and balance with, the Earth. A kind of rallying to care for Earth’s house and our ultimate survival, they stress the necessity to repeat these daily excursions and the urgency to keep on cultivating, walking, praising, looking ahead—ultimately conversing with the Earth every day to protect and appreciate her. Natural Wonders celebrates coming home to a sense of place in the natural world, with occasional ominous reverberations from the world stage. For the month of September, I will be in a two-person show, ‘Out of Time: Memory Portraits,’ at the Third Eye Gallery in Hoosic Falls, NY.”

A previous finalist for the Robert Frost poetry award, Sarah has published poetry in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Previous works include her chapbook Études (Finishing Line Press, 2016), and her book of essays COLORS: Passages through Art, Asia and Nature (Blue Asia Press, 2011). Her writings have been included in journals, newspapers, and anthologies, and she has been a writer and reviewer for American Arts Quarterly and Berkshire Fine Arts . In addition to her Cornell degree, Sarah also holds degrees from Yale at Norfolk and University of the Arts, London, and for many years she taught college courses in art and interdisciplinary studies in the Boston area. Her paintings can be seen at her website .

Margo Rogers Lesser writes, “This news is prompted by the note from Elias Savada ,” who shared in the May/June Class Notes column that he and his wife, Andrea, are “still waiting for grandkids.” Shares Margo: “We had given up on becoming grandparents, but in February 2023 our daughter and son-in-law (married almost eight years at that time) had a beautiful little girl, who has given us incredible joy. And as I write this, our son and daughter-in-law (married 10 years) are on the verge of ‘giving us’ a second grandbaby. Amazingly enough (and luckily for us), they all live within an hour of our primary residence. Don’t give up, Elias!”

Margo adds, “I’m basically retired but still work regularly to keep my co-authored treatise, Michigan Corporation Law & Practice, updated. For many years, I did volunteer work with the local child abuse and neglect charitable and advocacy organization, which I still support philanthropically. My husband (Princeton ’72), an ophthalmologist, specialized in glaucoma and cataract surgery, retired at the beginning of 2020, and pursued relocating our primary residence from a big house in Birmingham, MI, to a condo in Bloomfield Hills—a crazy process during the pandemic. But despite the difficulty of downsizing and moving at that time, I admit that life is easier in a good condo community.

“Attending Cornell definitely changed the trajectory of my life! When I was growing up, my understanding/assumptions about what women could do—beyond wife, mother, household manager, and hostess—were limited to secretary, stewardess, teacher, and other school worker. While in junior high and high school, I discovered a facility in languages and allowed myself to think about a future in diplomacy, or at least as an interpreter at the U.N. That was why I chose Cornell—because of the strength of the language program. I gradually shifted into government and history, and ended up going to law school, where I thrived.” ❖ Frank Dawson ( email Frank ) | Alex Barna ( email Alex ) | Wes Schulz , ME ’73 ( email Wes ) | Susan Farber Straus ( email Susan ) | Alumni Directory .

Wayne Merkelson , JD ’75, and spouse Nancy Roistacher ’72 are two of this year’s five Frank H.T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award recipients. This award recognizes alumni who have demonstrated extraordinary service to Cornell through long-term volunteer activities. Congratulations to these two outstanding alumni who continue to give countless hours to Cornell. Wayne and Nancy write, “We are honored even to be thought about for such an honor, and we hope to remain involved and keep giving back as long as we are able to do so.” Wayne currently serves our class as Cornell Fund co-chair with Susan Murphy , PhD ’94, as well as nominations chair. My non-Cornell spouse and I enjoyed a delightful brunch with Wayne and Nancy in Cincinnati last October while they were on one of their trips to visit state capitals. It was Wayne who contacted me over 25 years ago, encouraging me to volunteer for our class, and it has been a very fulfilling experience.

Congratulations to Paul Cashman upon his election to Cornell’s Board of Trustees. Paul is a 2020 recipient of the Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award, immediate past president, and current web community manager for our class. As grandparent to two cats, I really appreciate Paul’s love of cats, which he has combined with his interest in software, “through mentoring student teams developing an app for the Cornell Feline Health Center (CFHC), being a technical mentor at Cornell Animal Health Hackathons, and developing an AI system with the CFHC to support their national citizen-science project to perform a health census of the U.S. feral cat population.”

Mary Gilliland , MAT ’80, senior lecturer emeritus, CAS Knight Institute for Writing, has a new book of poetry published this year titled Ember Days . Its poems “feature soldiers under duress, models transformed to artists, descendants of forced immigrants, survivors of hurricanes, and witnesses for peace—stepping up to our world’s disasters, leveling with its possibilities, and interrogating faith, justice, militarism, madness, and the perception and affection of intimate relationships.” Mary’s previous book The Devil’s Fools (2022) won the Codhill Press Pauline Uchmanowicz Poetry Award. Her other award-winning poetry collection is The Ruined Walled Castle Garden (2020). She is the recipient of a Council on the Arts Faculty Grant from Cornell, where she created and taught seminars such as “Ecosystems & Ego Systems” and “America Dreaming.”

I’m developing an AI system with the Cornell Feline Health Center to support their project to perform a health census of the U.S. feral cat population. Paul Cashman ’73

Natalie Tyler , spouse of classmate David Riede , who lives just up the interstate from me in Columbus, OH, writes that she “remains introverted, small-talk adverse, and terminally shy.” Natalie’s best Cornell memories include “listening to classmates who were brilliant.” She thanks a sampling of the many who helped her “appreciate the arts from many directions, how to think and write critically, how politics work, and how to ask questions.” They include William Cowdery , PhD ’89, Jeff and Robin Marantz Henig , Mitch Weiss , Louise Eisenbrey Wakefield , Diana Straight , Margot Murtaugh , Louise Shelley ’72 , Mona Deutsch Miller , Jeff Newman , and Gary Borgida ’70 . Natalie gets the most satisfaction these days from listening to opera, rereading Anthony Trollope, and poetry.

Michael Van Valkenburgh is the creative director of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc. (MVVA), a landscape architecture firm he founded in 1982. He had a new book published earlier this year regarding one of MVVA’s iconic parks, titled Brooklyn Bridge Park . This book is “MVVA’s 23-year story of transforming 85 acres of Brooklyn waterfront into parkland that reconnects New Yorkers to the East River. It examines MVVA’s process of designing a park that went from a remote possibility to an essential part of the city around it.” Michael, thank you for your persistence and creativity.

Send news to: ❖ Pam Meyers ( email Pam ) | Phyllis Haight Grummon ( email Phyllis ) | Dave Ross ( email Dave ) | Alumni Directory .

The teeny-tiniest of columns this time, as we hope everyone has been saving up news to share at our 50th Reunion! The almost-empty class mailbox was cheered to hear from Raymond Seraydarian , ME ’76, who has recently moved to the Mission Hills neighborhood of San Diego. His favorite memory from his time at Cornell is the Christmas program of “Lessons and Carols” held in Sage Chapel.

Ronald Pies also wrote to alert us that he has just published a book, titled The Anatomy of Gratitude , which is a survey of this important quality in six of the world’s great spiritual traditions. “I try to practice cultivating gratitude every day, with some days admittedly more difficult than others!” Ron has recently retired from the practice of psychiatry.

With gratitude to you all for whatever news you are willing to share. ❖ Molly Miller Ettenger ( email Molly ) | Jim Schoonmaker ( email Jim ) | Alumni Directory .

We have lots of news on how our classmates celebrated their 70th birthdays! Did we ever think that was going to be a number in our lives? Paula Amols celebrated hers with a trip to Iceland, where she got a glimpse of the Northern Lights! The highlight was a helicopter ride over the volcanic southwestern region of the country. “One volcano had erupted two days earlier,” she writes. “The mix of lava fields with beautiful views of snow-covered volcanoes was stunning.” While an adventurist on trying foods, she did avoid the fermented shark and the boiled sheep’s head. Upon her return home, she had a larger family celebration, which included her brother, who turned 75. Paula has a side hustle: she owns microshares in racehorses! One is on the Kentucky Derby trail! She devotes her time at her local SPCA. She also assists in another organization to help people age in place by providing social activities and helpful services.

Kathryn Gabinet-Kroo drove from Montreal with her family all the way to Cleveland, joining up for a family reunion to celebrate her birthday. In all, there were 12 adults, six kids, and plenty of great stories that were salted with food and drink. Frank Goodwin and his wife went south—way south, to Antarctica—for his 70th. They camped in a tent on Kerr Point. Walter Krepcio shares his birthday news from Augusta, GA. He lives about a mile from Augusta National Golf Club. “For my 70th I appeared as a guest co-DJ on a doowop radio program on Wesleyan University WESU-FM in Middletown, CT. I’m into ’50s music—I always listened to Rockin’ Remnants on Saturday nights on WVBR when I was a student.” After that gig, the family went on a Seabourn three-week cruise to a lot of Caribbean islands. “What a blast,” he says, adding that he hopes to go on many more cruises! Roberta Moran writes that her 70th birthday was spent signing up for social security. Ken Englander did not want any kind of big party, and that worked out well. It happened that five people in his family have birthdays around the same time, so his granddaughter made custom cakes for each of them. He notes, “The best part was on my 70th, we all enjoyed watching our hometown Kansas City Chiefs win the Super Bowl! That is a pretty cool memory of the day.”

In other news, Beverly Spivey-Rivers writes from North Carolina that her favorite Cornell memory is running up the Hill from freshman dorms to get to the Hot Truck! She is an ordained Baptist minister and continues to serve in this calling. Greatest source of satisfaction for her? Spending time with family and friends and serving in her ministry. William Martin takes great satisfaction in restoring his 1800s barns and more. He continues to serve as an officer for two different charitable organizations. His fondest memories at Cornell include living with the guys at Cayuga Lodge and the camaraderie from that. He took pride in taking some hard and NOT required electives like organic chemistry and physics and loved working at Bob’s Hot Truck! Suzy Nagin Klass has retired from social work and is now a certified end-of-life doula, working primarily in Manhattan. She centers her work on supporting the emotional and spiritual needs of the dying person, along with providing support to the person’s family members and caregivers.

Elisabeth Rittner Needleman lives in Watertown, MA. Her favorite memories of Cornell? The library, the sense of independence, the beautiful natural surroundings, and reading poetry with friends.

Lynn Rosenbluth Saltz and husband Rick ’73 , MBA ’74, celebrated the marriage of their daughter, Marcy ’06 to Andrew Ogulnik on September 30, in Greenwich Village in New York. About a third of the guests were Cornellians. Both Lynn and Rich are happily retired and are “just doing what they want to do.”

Paula Amols ’75 celebrated her 70th birthday with a trip to Iceland, where she got a glimpse of the Northern Lights!

Jan Carr (New York City) wrote to us about her new children’s book, Pet-a-Palooza , which is the third book in her chapter-book series of Buddy and Bea. The books were inspired by Jan’s experience as a teacher and by her academic studies at Cornell in human development and family studies. “These books are for ages 5–8—you will laugh out loud as you read these to youngsters,” she says. Jan still keeps in touch with Ellen Cohen , her freshman roommate in Mary Donlon Hall. Randomly paired by the university as roommates, they are still very close. She also sees Rudy Perkins , Martha Simon , and Michael Miller ’74 .

Peter Kaestner holds the world record for viewing the most bird species—and in February 2024, he achieved his personal goal of viewing 10,000 species when he spotted an orange-tufted spiderhunter!

By the time this column goes to print, college basketball won’t even be in your rear-view mirror! Nonetheless, I joined the ILR Alumni Association of Northern New Jersey for a Princeton/Cornell game back in March. Jordan Berman ’95 was the host of the pre-game festivities at Princeton. Jordan is founder and CEO of OFC, a video production company that centers itself on creative communications. The pre-game was a lot of fun. Cornell lost—but our daughter, who is at Princeton for her PhD, was happy.

I myself just learned that I have been awarded a Fulbright scholarship to teach and conduct research at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in Madrid, Spain, for either the fall 2024 or the spring 2025 semester. Husband Joel and I have become grandparents again—two little boys now.

Please take a few minutes to send us highlights of your life after Cornell, college friends you’ve seen, and memorable moments on campus, and we’ll share the news in our upcoming columns. ❖ Karen DeMarco Boroff ( email Karen ) | Mitch Frank ( email Mitch ) | Joan Pease ( email Joan ) | Deb Gellman , MBA ’82 ( email Deb ) | Alumni Directory .

We received a letter from a senior principal process engineer from 24M Technologies, who was writing to praise “an amazing engineer,” our very own Ray Zagars , ME ’77. “Ray is a special human being; he is both an extremely qualified engineer and an amazing people person. No doubt Ray’s success can be attributed to the foundation Cornell provided. He has been a driving force in the success of 24M Technologies for over 10 years now. 24M grew out of a lab at MIT to produce semi-solid lithium-ion batteries; because of Ray’s knowledge and training, the company is changing the way the world stores energy. I am selfishly saddened that Ray has made the decision to retire at the end of this month.” Congratulations on your retirement and your successful career, Ray!

Thad Rutkowski has a new book , Safe Colors , a novel of short fictions. This autobiographical novel tells the story of a biracial boy whose struggles to fit in run from childhood to middle age. The book is filled with incidents revolving around the search for identity. A press release says that Thad perfectly captures the loneliness and isolation of a nowhere man lost in a nowhere land, searching for that elusive “somewhere” in which he can finally be someone.

Abdullah Sami Paksoy , ME ’77, writes that daughter Elif lives in Northern Italy; son Mustafa, in San Francisco, has been married to Anabel for almost eight years now and they have two boys, Zeki, born in 2021, named after his father-in-law, and Aydin, born in 2023. Abdullah and wife Halime are busy in their home in Adana, Turkey. Last August, they celebrated their 40th anniversary with family in Sardinia and recently visited Mexico City for the first time. He writes that they shuttle back and forth and love spending time with family. Their two kids plus two grandchildren are their pride and joy. He also loves building toys for his grandchildren.

Paul Stander ’76 is happy to say that he survived both the Drake Passage and the polar plunge!

In January 2024, Paul Stander and his daughter—and a contingent of some 50 Cornellians—traveled to Argentina and Antarctica with Cornell Alumni Travel for the trip of a lifetime. Paul is happy to say that he survived both the Drake Passage and the polar plunge! It was a fantastic experience! Paul continues to work as the chief of geriatrics at V.A. Phoenix Health Care System, as well as the Hospice of the Valley in Phoenix, and is vice chair of the board of trustees for Vitalant Inc. This is the second-largest blood banking company in the country. He asks that you donate blood if you can, as it is very much needed. Paul still manages to enjoy a workout, playing golf, and playing bridge. A lot has changed in the 40 years since he last played as a freshman at Cornell, but he is slowly getting it together.

Donna Tesiero is pleased to announce the recent publication of her book , A Revolutionary Woman: Elizabeth Freeman and the Abolition of Slavery in the North (McFarland & Company). According to the publisher, “Elizabeth Freeman was an enslaved widow and mother living in Massachusetts at the end of the American Revolution. Hearing the words of the new Massachusetts state constitution, which declared liberty and equality for all, she sought the help of a young lawyer named Theodore Sedgwick, later Speaker of the House and one of America’s leading Federalist politicians. The lawsuit that she and Sedgwick pursued would bring freedom to her and her daughter, as well as thousands of other enslaved people.” Donna adds, “My daughter and her husband, Tony, are expecting their second child in July; she’ll be joining older sister Sofia, age 2.”

Thank you for sending us your news! It is appreciated by all. ❖ Lisa Diamant ( email Lisa ) | Pat Relf Hanavan ( email Pat ) | Alumni Directory .

In the absence of any news from our classmates, I will take the Correspondent’s Prerogative (if that is a thing) of writing about what I have been doing over the past several decades.

Since the late 1980s, I have been caring for patients with heart failure, which, as the name implies, is the inability of the heart to provide blood, oxygen, and nutrients to the rest of the body. Among the miracles of modern medicine are the medications that take the stress off the failing heart, improving survival and quality of life. Many people who I saw earlier in my career—and who would have died—can now, as a result of modern medicine, return to normal lives and have their hearts recover. Unfortunately, there are some patients who, despite modern medicine, do not improve, and for those patients (who have what we call advanced heart failure) the options are either heart transplantation, mechanical circulatory support, or ventricular assist devices, which are pumps that help the heart pump.

One question is whether the future of advanced heart failure is biological (heart transplantation and other potential therapies) or mechanical (mechanical circulatory support). Both have been successful in improving survival and quality of life. Newer advances such as gene therapy or xenotransplant (transplants from pigs) on the biological side or newer, smaller, more durable ventricular assist devices on the mechanical side make this a rapidly evolving field. The good news is that patients with heart failure have many medical options that can improve their heart function, survival, and quality of life. For those who don’t derive benefit from medications, there are biological and mechanical options that can improve survival and quality of life. Stay tuned.

Hope you enjoyed the science lesson (there will be no credit; you audited it). Here’s to continued travel and adventures with family and friends in 2024. Please stay safe, be careful, and, as always, follow the science. Best wishes.

Please keep all of your news and views coming in! ❖ Howie Eisen ( email Howie ) | Mary Flynn ( email Mary ) | Alumni Directory .

A very short update this time around. Don’t be shy, classmates—tell us what you’re up to these days!

Thanks to the generosity of our classmate Roger Strauch and his brother Hans Strauch ’80 , the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning continues to increase the accessibility of academic careers to emerging scholars and practitioners in those disciplines. The college recently announced the establishment of a new endowed Strauch Early Career Fellow, an annual appointment funded by the brothers. Through gifts totaling $1M on behalf of the Mosse Foundation, the brothers have championed the college’s efforts to create more robust pathways to academic careers.

“We focus our philanthropic endeavors on supporting progressive leaders and institutions that develop opportunities for talented people and dedicated professionals to respond to daunting societal challenges,” said the Strauches. “We are inspired by Dean J. Meejin Yoon’s leadership and her focus on identifying, attracting, and supporting talented, early-career educators who contribute fresh ideas and perspectives. We share her confidence that this endowed fund will lead to impactful and effective approaches to how society designs and builds environments that dramatically improve how we live and work more economically, peacefully, and comfortably—both individually and collectively.”

In retirement, Bob Annear works for a company that gives support to the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners area of the Southwest. With many poverty-related diseases and issues in the Nation, his organization provides much-needed revenue and jobs. Living in Boulder, CO, Bob enjoys the long winter ski seasons. He also gets satisfaction from coaching lacrosse at a local high school and, he says, “watching my son grow into a productive member of the community.”

Mick Rogers writes that he and his wife, Pam Marrone , are approaching retirement at different speeds. While Mick is winding down his work guiding Master of Social Work graduate students from Smith College in the San Francisco Bay Area, peer-reviewing clinical social work articles, and providing ethics consultations to members of California’s clinical society, Pam has started up a new company—the Invasive Species Corporation. This is the fourth company that Pam has established in Davis, CA. She serves as executive chair and co-founder.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Keep up with Cornell news at the Cornellians website , submit an online news form , or send an email to either of your class correspondents: ❖ Ilene Shub Lefland ( email Ilene ) | Cindy Fuller , PhD ’92 ( email Cindy ) | Alumni Directory .

Sunny Hallanan resides in Belgium, where she continues to be the country’s only Episcopal priest. For the last 12 years, she has led one parish and three missions there, and also travels quarterly to a new mission church in Tbilisi, Georgia (the country, not the state!). Sunny lives on the edge of the Waterloo battlefield, where she enjoys running. She says she can’t understand why more people don’t visit Belgium, which she calls a “hidden gem.” Sunny is proud of her daughter, a Chicago firefighter, and son, a dairy farmer for the University of Pennsylvania. She has two grandsons.

Updating his recent report, Bill Gallagher says that he was offered a contract extension for the 2024–25 school year to continue teaching at CEVRO Institute in downtown Prague. Bill calls his experience teaching abroad after 40 years in the business world “a brave new world,” adding, “I’ve been enjoying it immensely, and to do it overseas in a different cultural environment is a wonderful experience.” Bill’s favorite Cornell memories include: Lynah Rink, Louie’s Lunch, Willard Straight, the Quad, the Haunt, the Rongo on Fridays, Green Dragon coffee shop (“a welcome respite from the cold walk up the Hill”), and being “soaked and chilled to the bone” playing rugby on Upper Alumni Field.

Charlie Howland of Lower Merion Township, PA, says he frequently asks friends and colleagues, “How does one know when to retire?” As for himself, he reports: “Technically I retired from the EPA in 2018, after a 28-year career as an enforcement attorney, focused on cleanups of contaminated land. But I did so to jump into a second career, as a partner at an international-focused law firm based in New York, heading its environmental group.” Over the past several years, Charlie has spent “serious chunks of time” in India, Kazakhstan, Norway, Panama, Spain, and Uzbekistan,” both for clients, as a Fulbright Specialist teaching environmental and energy law, and for fun with his family. He believes that his time at Cornell, with professors LaFeber, Polenberg, Weiss, Moore, and others, helped prepare him for international work, especially during this time. He’s observed that the U.S. appears quite a bit different from abroad than it does from within. Charlie said he keeps up with all things Cornell primarily through regular visits with his cousin and his wife, both of whom are Cornell English professors. His son, Baird ’18 , BA ’17, is pursuing a PhD in communications at the Annenberg School at Penn. And his daughter, Carolina (Elon ’14, Stern MBA ’23), is a director at IBM, focused on cybersecurity and sustainability offerings. Wife Beth Saslow continues seeing young children as part of her psychology practice at Cooper Hospital in Camden, NJ. At the time of this writing, Charlie was hoping to attend our 45th Reunion.

After retiring in late 2017, Lloyd Herman has been spending his days biking, sailing and kayaking when the weather permits, and doing yoga and reading on inclement days. He says he is particularly satisfied by “sunrise in a kayak on a warm, calm summer day.” Lloyd says he recommends retirement for everyone, “early and often.” Lloyd and wife Julie Lim’s son got married (to a Cornellian!) in 2019, but they are “still waiting for the next generation.” He believes Cornell changed the trajectory of his life, stating, “I doubt I would have made it to law school without Cornell for an undergraduate school.”

Brad and Mary Maxon Grainger , MPS ’87, had two “epic experiences” this past spring. Their first adventure was a tour of four ice hockey rinks in a span of three weeks. First up was Lynah Rink, where they witnessed the Cornell men’s hockey team defeat Harvard (twice) to advance to the ECAC playoffs. Next, they journeyed to Lake Placid, where they saw Cornell beat their opponents at the Herb Brooks Arena, becoming ECAC champions. In Springfield, MA, they saw Cornell advance to the NCAA “elite eight,” and, several days later, at the Adirondack Bank Center, they watched Canada vs. Finland in international women’s hockey, featuring three Cornell women’s hockey alumnae. Brad and Mary’s second experience involved traveling back to Lake Placid to experience the solar eclipse totality on April 8. “Fortunately, the skies were quite favorable, and we were very glad to be there and to help Mary’s brother Bob Maxon ’87 broadcast it live on NBC Connecticut.”

Sunny Hallanan ’79 resides in Belgium, where she continues to be the country’s only Episcopal priest.

At the time of her April submission for this column, Margie Wang was anticipating catching up with Wendy Schaenen , MD ’83, Laura Hitt McCann , Laura Dorfman , and other Tri-Delta sisters at Reunion. She and her husband, Bill, are relishing their new role as grandparents as daughter Marlene Wang ’11 and son-in-law Tom Hudson ’11 welcomed their first child, Amelie, in June 2023. Additionally, son Alexander Wang ’14 was scheduled to complete his MBA at NYU Stern with a class trip to the Cannes Film Festival in May.

In April, Nancy Sverdlik reunited with ILR classmates Howie Lavin , Brian Linder , Jedd Mendelson , John Scelfo , MBA ’80, and Janet Goldin Rubin over dinner in NYC. The following day, she, along with Howie, Jedd, and John, attended the ILR Groat and Alpern Awards ceremony, held at NYC’s Pierre Hotel. The award (which John Scelfo received in 2011), is named for Jerry Alpern ’49 , MBA ’50, father-in-law of classmate Ricky Fisch , MBA ’80.

Jeff Berg , ME ’80, MBA ’81, relays that he and his wife, Debra Paget, celebrated their 40th anniversary with an “amazing bucket-list five-week ocean cruise in Southeast Asia” during March and April 2024. They visited Indonesia (Bali and Java), Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. In all, they took in nine countries, including the flight connections they made through Doha and Seoul.

Speaking of big trips, my husband, Jeff Riback ’75 , and I ( Danna Levy ) journeyed to Australia and New Zealand for the month of January. It was our farthest and longest journey to date, and despite any pre-travel anxiety over the distance and length of the trip, we settled in quickly and thoroughly enjoyed our time in Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart (Tasmania), and Auckland. Highly recommended! In other news, I have decided to make this Class Notes column my last. I’ve enjoyed reporting all your “news that was fit to print” during these past five years, and writing our class newsletter for the five years prior. Thanks to all the classmates who provided me with material for this column, and to those of you who contacted me offline to say “hi” or to relay comments, mostly about my Major League Baseball stadium odyssey (which I hope to complete this summer!). Sending best wishes to all!

Please submit future updates on your travels, jobs, retirements, and other personal and family news via the Share Your News form, the online news form , or emails sent directly to the continuing class correspondents, Linda Moses and Cynthia Ahlgren Shea . ❖ Danna Levy ( email Danna ) | Linda Moses ( email Linda ) | Cynthia Ahlgren Shea ( email Cynthia ) | Alumni Directory .

Since we did not receive news submissions for this column, I am sharing my firsthand experiences and welcome your input and dialogue as we approach our 45th Reunion next summer. We look forward to reconnecting through pre-Reunion events and on campus, celebrating our time at Cornell and investing in the success of the current students and the University.

I visited campus twice during the spring months: in early May to attend the Cornell Hillel Board of Trustees retreat, and in early June to attend the Class of 1979 45th Reunion with friends from the class. I served as trustee and co-chair of the Campus Climate Committee for the Cornell Hillel Board of Trustees during the 2023–24 academic year.

Campus was filled with the usual activities, excitement, and energy in early May, as classes came to an end and students were busy with finishing papers and preparing for exams. Along with my fellow trustees, I had the opportunity to spend time with students and Hillel staff, enjoy a boat tour of Cayuga Lake, experience Shabbat services and dinner at 104West!, and attend a dessert reception and board meeting at the North Campus house where Hillel hosted events during the 2023–24 academic year. During this campus visit, the encampment was parked on a corner of the Arts Quad with tents and signs and a small number of students wearing masks and milling around behind a tarp wall.

While students pursued their campus academic and extracurricular activities, they experienced the spring semester of 2024 overshadowed by the horrible terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023, the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and campus controversies involving protests.

In early June, campus was filled with proud and excited alumni of all ages wearing red, marveling at the new residential and academic buildings, and warmly embracing classmates they had not seen for many years. The Class of 1979 stayed in one of the new North Campus dorms, Hu Shih Hall (our class Reunion destination next year), evoking memories of freshman year hanging out in the dorm lounge and making friends. West Campus U-Hall dorm living does not compare with the sparkling newness and modernity of Hu Shih Hall, with rooms and bathrooms organized by pods, cooling temperature control, spacious well-lit hallways, and a courtyard for outdoor gatherings.

I visited campus twice during the spring months. Leona Barsky ’80, MS ’81

Cornell Reunion provided a captivating and timely smorgasbord of educational, social, and cultural opportunities, with programs about: global domestic resilience; artificial intelligence; robots and space; synthetic biology; Toni Morrison , MA ’55 ; entrepreneurship and women C-suite officers; campus climate; and antisemitism, Islamophobia, and racism and the 1935 Nuremberg Laws. There was also a Hillel reception at the new building site, a tour of the Human Ecology Fashion + Textile Collection and the NanoScale Facility, welcome cocktail receptions and breakfasts at the colleges, an enjoyable Q&A session with Andrew Ross Sorkin ’99 for the Olin Lecture in Bailey Hall, the final Reunion address from President Martha Pollack on Saturday morning, and Cornell music shows, including the Savage Club, the Glee Club, Redstock, and Cornelliana Night.

There was time to dance in the tent parties, reminisce at fraternities and sororities, canoe on and walk around Beebe Lake, hike Cascadilla Gorge, take a tour of the Botanic Garden or the Lab of Ornithology and Sapsucker Woods, try rappelling at Schoellkopf Stadium, and, of course, enjoy Cornell ice cream at the ice cream socials and the Dairy Bar. The library offered three sessions for a popular genealogy research seminar referencing the complimentary genealogy guidance posted on the library website.

Classmates enthusiastically participated in the Class of 1979 Reunion activities to reconnect with friends from this class and learn practical tips for planning our upcoming 45th Reunion on June 5–8, 2025, including Mollie Pulver and Todd Wolleman (Reunion co-chairs), Nancy MacIntyre Hollinshead , Beth Anderson , and Nate Weiss . We encourage you to share your news, participate in Class of 1980 social media and pre-Reunion events, and volunteer for Reunion.

Our 45th Reunion will be memorable and a wonderful way to enjoy spending time on campus with your friends after missing our 40th Reunion weekend due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ❖ Leona Barsky, MS ’81 ( email Leona ) | Dik Saalfeld ( email Dik ) | Chas Horvath, ME ’81 ( email Chas ) | David Durfee ( email David ) | Alumni Directory .

I am happy to report that my family and I are doing well. My daughter, Ella, will be attending University of Florida this fall. We are super excited to be a “Gator family.” (We love the Big Red, but we will also love our new school!) My son, Brayden, will be transferring from Boca Raton Community High School to Dreyfoos School of the Arts, where his specialty will be theater tech! He absolutely loves the behind-the-scenes of building the scenery and directing. I am also delighted that two of the prospective students that I met with in the fall will be attending Cornell! I’m still hard at work raising funds for Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, Israel.

Karen Levine Whitman is now planning the annual June Class of ’81 dinner in NYC around the NYU Hospitality Investment Conference dinner. Guests always include Kenny Blatt , Karen, Dan Miller , Erik Nylen , Joe Ziskin , Russ Urban , Mike DeNicola ’80 , Rob Mandelbaum , Rachel Lipschutz, and others.

Down the road from me in Boca Raton, Kenny Blatt tells us that daughter Maya ’27 is a rising sophomore Hotelie and loved her first year. Also in Florida are Mike and Tanis MacKay Bell , who are living in Plantation and Gainesville. Tanis grew up in Williamsville, NY, and freshman year on the Hill she lived in U-Hall 3. She was involved with the Noyes Center programming board, Willard Straight dining, the pre-vet society, and ski club, and she was an orientation counselor. When she wasn’t in class, Tanis was at the apartment on 614 Stewart Ave. with Theresa Wrobel , Jaquelyn Fitch Fleckenstein , Jennifer Read Campbell , Mary Ellen Plubell Miller ’82 , Nancy McDonald Cousins , James Hahn , and Mike Bell. Her favorite memories are with Mike, her partner and best friend, “walking and walking and walking” on the gorge trails, the suspension bridge, and around Beebe Lake—plus working for Willard Straight dining with so many wonderful friends and eating dinner together like a big family every night in Okenshields, parties at the Straight, dancing at Nite Court, the Pancake House, playing volleyball and broom hockey, hockey games and sleeping out for season tickets, and the “mug club” at the pub.

Mike is now retired, so they are enjoying trips to spend time with their four kids and grandson, who are sprinkled across the country. Tanis is volunteering as a vet tech weekly at the Humane Society and the South Florida Wildlife Center and they are fostering kittens, baby squirrels, and baby possums. They purchased a second home up in Gainesville, so as to be able to spend more time with their grandson! They have been resuming their road trips, “which allow us to reconnect with our Cornell friends, and we now have a teardrop trailer to pull along with us!” Their plan ended up quite different than expected, starting with settling in South Florida; the plan was just to be there for Mike’s residency. Tanis was a stay-at-home mom to their four kids, and she then became a full-time volunteer in the public school system for 22 years (which had not been on her radar). She has enjoyed being able to focus on working with animals since the kids all finished school. She feels so fortunate to have a happy and fulfilling life.

Claudia Bloom tells us she met up with John Hoffman for drinks at the Beekman Hotel in New York City. John had been nominated for his documentary short film, The Barber of Little Rock , as the co-director. They caught up and toasted the excitement of his new film!

Lori Balton ’81 is a location scout for Netflix, Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros., Sony, and Amazon.

In North Carolina, David Boraks had retired in January from WFAE, the Charlotte NPR station. So far, he is “failing” at retirement. He’s taken on multiple freelance projects, including two podcasts, occasional work for two public radio stations in North Carolina, and some magazine writing. But he does have time for some travel, including a recent road trip with a friend to see the eclipse in northern New Hampshire and to visit the Maine coast. And he and his wife, Shelley Rigger, have a trip planned to England in June. He’s not ready to sit still!

Also in the South, we meet up with Susan Lee , who is the owner/instructor at Body & Brain Yoga Tai Chi in Raleigh. Her first year at Cornell, she lived in Balch Hall. She was involved with CAAA, SCA, and the Cornell Orchestra. She joined the U.S. Air Force in 1984 as a communications/computer officer, then became a government IT contractor working for the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security in 1996. She became a Body & Brain Yoga Tai Chi instructor in 2012 and opened her own Body & Brain center in 2015. She survived the pandemic as a small business owner and continues to provide holistic fitness for body, mind, and spirit.

Annie Laase Bailey is retired and living in Santa Fe, NM. Willie and Annie have been together for more than 40 years. Annie spent her career working for a global healthcare company in executive management, with the last 10 years in Europe (France and Switzerland). She achieved her goal of retiring at age 50 and returned to the U.S. to enjoy more time with family. They also own a small farm in Northern Wisconsin. They have a daughter, Jazz, and two grandchildren, as well as two lively Australian shepherds. Annie shares that she had no particular expectations of life after Cornell, “it just happened one day at a time, unfolding as a wondrous adventure.”

Dawn Lee , ME ’82, is living in Longmont, CO. She lived her freshman year in Sperry Hall. Her areas of expertise are business, computer science, and math. And continuing to Las Vegas, David Barringer is camping, hiking, skiing, and fine dining. He grew up in Utica, NY. When he wasn’t in class, you could find him at the Hot Truck, running, or playing tennis.

Further west is Lori Balton , a location scout for Netflix, Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros., Sony, and Amazon living in Venice, CA. She grew up in New Hyde Park, NY. Her areas of expertise are visual arts, painting, science, journalism, photography, video making, research, writing, and editing. She remembers being in the library, watching a movie at one of the Cornell Cinema venues, and dancing at the Rongovian Embassy. Cornell Cinema offered her such invaluable exposure to films from around the world—it was truly a critical part of her education, as was living in the Shire Coop on Oak Avenue with an incredible, eclectic group of people who she gratefully continues to call friends. She is married to Chuck Sharp.

Ron Komsa is retired and living in Ellicott City, MD. He told us he lived freshman year in U-Hall 2. He was an RA in Dickson, was in APO, and worked some on-campus jobs (with cows, calves, and sheep!). So many fond and wonderful memories. The people he met, friends made, and experiences had (both academic and non-academic!) are “all valuable to me and I will cherish them for the rest of my life.” He especially remembers U-Hall/old West Campus living, RAing, Dickson Living Learning Unit and the incredible residents there, the nutrition barn, the waterfront dancing, falling in and out of love, the homestead (and its guests), weekends at the state parks, breakfasts, and much more! Life never goes the way you would think it should/could, but each step of life has a purpose and meaning and keeps him smiling and hoping for more!

I hope you are all doing well! Please reach out and let me know your news. I would love to share it with our classmates. Stay well! ❖ Betsy Silverfine ( email Betsy ) | Alumni Directory .

Congratulations to Dianne Renwick , a dear friend from U-Hall 3, who was sworn in officially in January as Presiding Justice of the NYS Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department. New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, who named Dianne as Presiding Justice last June, addressed the attendees in a historic investiture ceremony; Dianne is the first African American woman appointed to this role in the court’s 129-year history.

Linda Harris Crovella wrote from Arlington, VA, that she changed jobs in fall 2022 and is now an administrative law judge with the Federal Maritime Commission. She says, “It is a new area of law for me, and I love it! My retirement is now postponed indefinitely.” Linda loves to travel with and see her children in Seattle, Burbank, and Boston. She adds, “My most important news is that my oldest son, Ben ’07 , and his wife, Cassie Rotman, just had their first baby, a boy who was impatient and arrived seven weeks early, in February 2024. I was able to fly to Boston the day he was born, and I am happy to report that being a grandma is as wonderful as everyone has reported! Jackson is an overachiever, already having met all his special care nursery milestones early, and he is now home with Mom and Dad. He could be the third generation Cornellian in our family!” As for her favorite Cornell memory, Linda answered, “Seeing Bruce Springsteen my first year, but frankly, all the concerts I saw during those four years were fantastic! There are a few I did not see that I wish I had, but all in all, I can’t complain! The Pretenders at Slope Day was the cherry on top!”

Jonathan Welsh and his partner, Ken West, were creative collaborators on the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection exhibition “Let the Grain do the Work,” curated by Catherine Kueffer Blumenkamp , MPS ’15 . Showcasing designs draped from rectangular cuts of cloth, the exhibition highlighted zero-waste and couture techniques and the collaboration of architecture and fashion. Jonathan wrote, “Several pieces on display are from our private collection.”

Our online memory book is now closed for new entries, but you can still see photos and read about many of our classmates there. Some of the most recent news is from Robyn Allen-McKinnon , who wrote, “Since graduation, I have resided in New York, Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. I have worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 30 years in roles in finance, project management, market access, pricing, and business analytics. I am currently employed at Organon, a Merck ‘spin-off,’ in Pennsylvania. I have been married for more than 30 years and have two sons, who recently graduated from college. And I enjoy vacationing in the Caribbean and tropical locations. Finally, I have worked with nonprofit organizations—including my sorority (Delta Sigma Theta)—trying to make a difference!”

Gail Soltan Payne ’82 met her husband, Don ’83 , at Cornell. Their first date was dinner at the Nines and then a Hangovers concert.

Susan Drange wrote, “Since graduation, I have spent most of my life in California, working and raising a family. For the first 20 years I was working in corporate training, HR, and communication roles at SoCalGas, Disneyland, and Hughes, as well as having my own consulting business. For the second half of my career, I switched over to higher education and got a PhD from UCLA at age 54! I have held leadership roles in faculty development and diversity at UCLA, Columbia, and Stanford. I am looking forward to retiring near the beach in Ventura County. If you are visiting Southern California, I’d be happy to connect.”

Gail Soltan Payne met her husband, Don ’83 , at Cornell; he was a member of the Glee Club. She wrote that their first date was dinner at the Nines and then a Hangovers concert. Gail added, “We’ve traveled a lot, including bicycle touring in France twice. Don and I just purchased a camper van for exploring the country. We have two wonderful adult kids. Our daughter, Hannah, is a neuroscientist post-doc at Columbia, and our son, Dylan, worked in data analytics at YipitData in NYC, and now lives in Park City, UT. I love to travel and am a fan of dogs, hiking, good music, and films.”

Patti Morrissey writes from Alexandria, VA, where she is CEO and founder at Global Foresight Strategies. She added, “I went from being a psych major at Cornell to two MAs in international relations. I’ve been in the D.C. area since 1985 and my career has been in international/national security. I go to every Cornell Reunion and I’m still close with my gymnastics teammates and quite a few of my sorority sisters.” Patti added several photos including one with her two daughters at Octoberfest in Munich in 2018.

Michitaka Yamaguchi shared, “After a long career in architecture, first as a designer then a project manager and marketer, and finally a construction manager, I left architecture to pursue my passion as a visual artist.” He added, “My husband, Len, and I currently live in Harlem and are loving it.”

Many others added newsy pages to our memory book— Everette Phillips , Pauline Kurtides Sheehan , Susan Ng Hill , and Adam Shapiro , to name a few, with photos too! ❖ Nina Kondo ( email Nina ) | Doug Skalka ( email Doug ) | Mark Fernau ( email Mark ) | Alumni Directory .

Chuck Ruebling and I caught up by phone a few days ago. A fellow New Jersey resident, he and his wife, Donna, live in Morristown, where Chuck is the assistant headmaster at Delbarton School. Lacrosse coaching and camps continue to be a large part of their family life when they are not spending time at their seaside home in Ocean Grove, NJ. Chuck told me his Cornell group of friends still meets regularly for fine dining and libations (i.e., pub crawls) in various cities—2023 was in Asbury Park, and this year, in March, they did it again in Boston. The group included Mike Vernick , ME ’84, Steve and Christine Bisagni Wyman , Dave Fetterolf and Erica Waterman ’82 , Dave and Lori Krinsky , Chuck and Donna, and Beth DiRusso , BS ’85, and husband Mark.

That’s all for now! ❖ Nancy Korn Freeman ( email Nancy ) | Alyssa Bickler ( email Alyssa ) | Jon Felice ( email Jon ) | Stewart Glickman ( email Stewart ) | Alumni Directory .

When I wrote this column, we had only a couple more weeks until we saw each other at Reunion 2024! Our new correspondent will take the helm from there.

Here is some news to catch you up. Our class president, John Toohey-Morales , was recently featured in a Cornellians article , which I have excerpted and paraphrased here. John is best known as the longtime chief meteorologist for Miami’s NBC station, WTVJ Channel 6. John’s value as a trusted expert became especially apparent in 1992 when Hurricane Andrew struck Florida, Louisiana, and the Bahamas. His on-camera meteorology career began in 1991 in Miami, where he appeared on Univision, Telemundo, and finally, NBC. As his profile rose, it prompted other U.S. stations serving Latino audiences to recruit their own Spanish-speaking degreed meteorologists—broadening the job market and inspiring the next generation to follow in his footsteps.

On the Big Red front, he sits on the external advisory board of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability; in 2023, he won a four-year term as an alumni-elected trustee. In January 2024, John was inducted as an honorary member of the American Meteorological Society—and at the ceremony, he gave a prominent shout-out to his alma mater. “Cornell showed me what it takes to be successful: hard work, resilience, and perseverance,” he said at the event. Now semi-retired, John still appears on Channel 6 regularly from June to November—as the station’s hurricane specialist, guiding viewers through the region’s often dangerous storms. John has certainly done the Class of ’84 proud, and we wish him well as he ends his term as our class president.

In January 2024, John Toohey-Morales ’84 was inducted as an honorary member of the American Meteorological Society.

Diane Garber is the founder of WillPOWER Your Day , which creates healthy, delicious, and nutritious plant-based snacks. An avid animal lover, Diane has embraced a completely plant-based lifestyle and is more creative in the kitchen and happier than ever. From WillPOWER Your Day’s website: “Evidence-based research continues to show that plant-based nutrition promotes superior health and can minimize several diseases. Diane uses somewhat unconventional cooking methods to create truly sensational, mouth-watering snacks that provide healthy protein and hefty fiber with no added oil, salt, or sugar.”

And now I bid you all farewell! It has truly been an honor to help keep the class aware of the “happenings” these last five years. As of this writing, I can’t wait to see everyone in Ithaca in June! Far above Cayuga’s waters. Send your class news: ❖ José Nieves ( email José ) | Alumni Directory .

Greetings, Class of ’85! Please take a moment to fill out the online news form to let your classmates know what you’ve been up to. What have you been doing for work? What brings you the greatest satisfaction these days? How has your life changed—or not changed—lately? We’d love to hear from you!

If you have sent in your news recently, please look for it in the next column. ❖ Joyce Zelkowitz Cornett ( email Joyce ) | Alumni Directory .

The art and science worlds collided last April, when not one but two Cornellians were featured in a public conversation about art and science. Classmate Enrique Martínez Celaya and the Nobel Prize-winning chemist Roald Hoffmann (a Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor Emeritus) held a conversation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was moderated by the award-winning journalist Krista Tippett.

Coinciding with this event in New York, Enrique opened a solo exhibition at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library called “The Word-Shimmering Sea.” A public reception followed. This exhibition is the inaugural project in the Hispanic Society’s main courtyard following the recent renovation of their historic Upper Manhattan space. Congrats to Enrique!

Classmate and beloved Cornell men’s hockey coach Mike Schafer was recently featured in a Cornellians story . Since taking the helm in 1995, he has carved out a stellar record: going into the most recent past season (2023–24), he had 520 wins, 282 losses, and 105 ties. Mike shares his thoughts on the game of hockey, the players, Cornellians’ love of the sport, and aspects of coaching. Interestingly, he believes that growing up in a large family taught him many of the skills necessary for coaching!

Enrique Martínez Celaya ’86 opened a solo exhibition at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library called ‘The Word-Shimmering Sea.’

James Chen is currently living in Northern California but is gearing up for retirement in Las Vegas. He recently reflected on his time on the Hill after dropping son Zachary ’26 off: “Going back to Cornell to drop off my son brought back many memories of prelims, parties, problem sets, Cascadilla Hall, Rulloff’s, the Nines, Upson Hall’s computer lab, basketball, football, and hockey games, poker/bridge nights, and, of course, winter storms. In fact, there was a snowstorm in January 2024 when I last dropped him off. It’s been too many years since I’ve seen some classmates, and I hope to see them at our 40th.”

Speaking of retirement, my husband, Michael Wagner , and I recently had a fun get-together in California with fellow Cornellian Jon Grunzweig ’85 . (Side note, Michael and Jon also share the same high school in Ohio, and Jon’s wife, Tina, and I attended the same California high school.) We both have “retirement homes” on the Palos Verdes Peninsula and had fun connecting and planning future West Coast Cornell get-togethers.

Please let us know what you all are up to so we can share your news. ❖ Lori Spydell Wagner ( email Lori ) | Michael Wagner ( email Michael ) | Toby Goldsmith ( email Toby ) | Alumni Directory .

Vishaan Chakrabarti ’s forthcoming book, The Architecture of Urbanity: Designing for Nature, Culture, and Joy will be out September 24, 2024. The book discusses how the right design of our communities can create a more equitable, sustainable, and joyous future for us all. It also presents works by a global array of practicing architects that demonstrate how innovative design can dramatically improve life in big cities and small settlements around the world.

Vishaan is an architect, author, public thought leader, and founder of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, a firm that focuses on building ecological, equitable, and joyous communities. He is also the author of A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America .

Debra Howard Stern is happy to announce that on March 26, 2024, she successfully defended her dissertation (without the need for revisions!) titled “Forty Acres and a School: How Black Charter School Founders Can Disrupt the Impact of Segregation on Black Children” to earn her EdD in education policy and leadership at American University in Washington, DC. “My dissertation focused on exploring how Black charter school founders are actively working to disrupt systemic racism and create affirming inclusive learning environments for marginalized students in the face of persistent segregation and inequity in K–1 education. I continue as the executive director for the Amani Public Charter School, a public charter middle school in Mount Vernon that I founded 13 years ago.” Bravo!

Edward Herrmann is an archaeologist at Indiana University in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Ed recently stepped down from being the executive director of the university’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in order to continue his fieldwork in the Midwest and the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.

This past spring, Charles ’86 and Adrienne McVicker Reing , Howard Greenstein ’88 , and Kenneth Szydlow ’88 biked 178 miles around the Netherlands as part of a mini AEPi reunion. They biked through massive tulip fields, past numerous windmills, and over more canals and water crossings than could be counted. Adrienne said that “going for the full Dutch experience, pedaling through high winds, rain, and hail most days, was a tad unexpected, but worth it for this adventure.”

Going for the full Dutch experience, pedaling through high winds, rain, and hail most days, was a tad unexpected, but worth it for this adventure. Adrienne McVicker Reing ’87

James Sturz has been touring the country in support of his new book, Underjungle , and seeing classmates and other alumni at the events. Steven Rosenblatt and Amy Underberg Applebaum ’86 attended the September 2023 event at the Cornell Club of New York. Also in September, Jim saw Gligor Tashkovich , MBA ’91, and Eric Messinger ’83 at Pan Aqua Diving in NYC.

In October, Jim’s book tour took him to Ocean Plant in San Francisco, where he caught up with Natan Goore , Bart Schachter , and Michael Moore , ME ’88. Jim then headed to Los Angeles, where, at North Figueroa Bookshop, he saw Hugh O’Gorman and Steve Meagher . In March, Jim was a panelist at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, VA. He stayed with Pamela Mandell Freedman and saw Gregory DiMeglio and Jimin Han ’88 . Jim said, “Promoting a book means seeing friends, wherever they are!”

In early April, Charles Muller came back to campus to watch the men’s lacrosse team take on Brown and to cheer on Steve Long ’s son Mikey ’25 . A contingent of Class of 1987ers attended the game including Charlie’s wife, Deborah (Kranz) , Martin and Nicolle Clessuras McCormick , Christian Modesti and wife Lisa, Frank Kelly ’86 and wife Gayle, and Greg Ripich ’86 and wife Kelly. Charlie wrote, “It was great to turn back the clock, spend time at the Fall Creek House, and have dinner at the Souvlaki House, where our Chi Psi composites still hang on the wall.” Charlie and Debbie recently moved to St. Petersburg, FL, and are enjoying being empty nesters and watching their sons make their way in the world.

Hotelie alumnae Amy Benigno Fothergill , Janet Pulliam Smith , Jennifer Scanlan , Jennifer Gonsalves-Cotter , Michelle Russo , Cheryl Van Steeden Schneider , and Jennifer Miles Coulter ’86 got together in Austin, TX, because they realized that meeting up once every five years at Reunion is just not enough! During the weekend they did yoga, danced the two step, sampled margaritas, took a boat tour, and did a lot of laughing. According to Amy, “The highlight was a very fierce ‘Chopped’ competition in which three teams of two showed off their skills. Chaos ensued (especially with all of the dishes!), but in the end a delicious meal was enjoyed by all. The weekend was a real testament to the special friendships made more than 35 years ago.”

Amit Batabyal has two jobs at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY. He is the Arthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics in the College of Liberal Arts and the interim head of the Department of Sustainability. He says, “Doing both jobs keeps me on my toes!” ❖ Liz Brown, JD ’90 ( email Liz ) | Whitney Weinstein Goodman ( email Whitney ) | Alumni Directory .

Happy summer, fellow ’88s! Hope you are all enjoying the summer sunshine, wherever you may be—on the beach, in the mountains, or hanging out in your own backyard.

Save the date: November 30, 2024 is the next Frozen Apple Hockey game at Madison Square Garden in NYC. Catch the Cornell men’s hockey team in action at this world-famous arena.

Now onto our Class Notes: Chad Snee has lived in Troy, OH, since 1999 and has been married for 31 years. He has three daughters (ages 26, 22, and 19). In his own words, Chad says, “I am very blessed.” From the West Coast, Aileen Cleary Cohen checks in from Palo Alto, CA.

In other class news, Misha Gonz-Cirkl was invited to speak at the Give Back for Students conference for students nationwide who are trying to figure out their college plans and future career moves. In her talk she emphasized “how education and constantly checking in with myself has helped me take a risk when a dream presented itself.” She told the students to “stay curious, imagine your place, create a plan, pave your own path, and run your race at your own pace!” Great advice, Misha! After Cornell, she worked on Wall Street in NYC. Then she earned her MBA abroad before becoming an actor, writer, and director.

News Flash: Karis North has recently been named to the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Top Women of Law list for 2023. She was honored at an event on November 1, 2023 to celebrate her accomplishments as a female lawyer who is both a pioneer, educator, trailblazer, and role model for her peers. She currently serves as the president of the Massachusetts Municipal Lawyers Association. Congratulations, Karis!

Lauren Camp ’88 has written a collection of poetry based on her experiences as the astronomer in residence at the Grand Canyon Conservancy.

Sharon Berlin , another female lawyer in our class and a graduate of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, joined the law firm of Keane & Beane PC. She will be located in their new Long Island office in Melville, NY. Sharon will represent both private and public sector management in labor and employment law matters. She also serves as the general counsel to several school districts, private schools, and other educational groups.

Now let’s focus on the arts: Lauren Camp , New Mexico poet laureate, has just written another book, titled In Old Sky . It is a collection of poetry, based on her experiences as the fourth astronomer in residence at the Grand Canyon Conservancy in Arizona. The book includes color photos from her study of the natural darkness of Grand Canyon National Park and the wonders beyond this breathtaking landscape. Lauren has written seven other books.

Don’t forget to join our Cornell Class of ’88 Facebook Group —it is a great way to stay in touch with your fellow classmates as well as get the latest news on upcoming class and university events.

That’s all for now. Please keep sending your news to me. I love hearing from our classmates, both near and far. ❖ Pamela Darer Anderson ( email Pam ) | Alumni Directory .

Hi, classmates, family, and friends of the Class of ’89! You’re reading this after our 35th Reunion, but before our Reunion reports have been published—stay tuned for that news in a later column (and I sure hope you had a blast if you attended!).

Speaking of Reunions, our classmate George “Skip” Winters traveled to Vermont last October to attend his University of Vermont Medical School 30th Reunion and shared this update (mea culpa for the delay): “In 2015 I moved to Grand Junction, CO, where I am a private practice gastroenterologist. My oldest son, Ross, is a sophomore at the Citadel and plays lacrosse there. My youngest, Duncan, went to high school in Scotland and is a two-time world-champion bagpiper. He is now a freshman at Carnegie Mellon in the College of Engineering.”

Before Reunion, one of my most recent opportunities to catch up with classmates was through holiday cards. My kids and I, over the years, have always enjoyed the annual card from Paul Schulte and his family—yes, because we want to hear what my U-Hall 2 freshman-year friend Paul and his wife, Krista, and daughter Ali have been up to, but also because the cards often feature a photo and/or amusing news of their big orange cat. This year, however, the photo was not of a domestic kitty but a spectacular leopard, along with news of their adventure in Tanzania. They visited four wildlife parks—logging more than 50 animal species—and also enjoyed five beach days in Zanzibar, while celebrating Paul and Krista’s 30th anniversary and Ali’s completion of grad school. Congratulations on those milestones, Schulte family!

I enjoyed some special travels of my own earlier this year, visiting Tokyo and Kyoto via a wonderful tour with Boston-based Marathon Tours & Travel. My first trip to Asia was spurred by my longtime goal to finish the six World Marathon Majors; I ran my first, London, in 2004 and have since completed Boston (many times, as it’s my “hometown” major here in New England), New York (three times), Berlin, and Chicago. The Tokyo Marathon, and indeed the whole vacation, was an amazing experience and I was grateful to be able to get there. Next up (fingers crossed): the Sydney (Australia) Marathon in September. (Always a new goal: no sooner had I checked off the six majors than Sydney is close to being added as a seventh, with Cape Town expected to be eighth.) I’ll take any excuse to run through beautiful new-to-me parts of the world, but one of these days I am going to slow down to take a non-running trip, maybe one of the Cornell-sponsored ones that I get glimpses of in my mailbox.

Another one of our classmates gets to take the trip of a lifetime this summer: Brian Krabak is going to Paris for the Olympics! He’ll be serving as physician for the U.S. swim team at the Games. Brian was not among those arriving at Cornell dreading the swim test ; he credits his parents with making sure he knew how to swim and says, though he didn’t compete at Cornell, swimming became an important part of his fitness regimen and he’s since enjoyed masters swimming and competed in triathlons. His professional journey has gone from being an electrical engineering major at Cornell to med school at SUNY Buffalo, an internship at Johns Hopkins-Sinai Hospital, a residency at New England Medical Center-Tufts University, and a sports medicine fellowship at the Mayo Clinic. Currently, he’s a board-certified sports medicine physician within UW Medicine and a clinical professor in rehabilitation medicine, orthopedics, and sports medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Brian Krabak ’89 will be serving as physician for the U.S. swim team at the Olympics.

Brian expects long workdays with the intense training camps leading up to the Games, and at the Games themselves, but certainly will savor the experience: “It’s a dream come true to contribute to the health and well-being of our athletes, enabling them to excel and achieve their athletic aspirations on such a grand stage. I’m filled with immense fulfillment and gratitude for this opportunity, and I intend to cherish every moment of my time at the Paris Olympics, eagerly awaiting the playing of our national anthem. Additionally, I’m excited to collaborate with medical professionals from around the world, uniting our efforts to prioritize athlete health and safety during this prestigious event.” Santé , Brian!

Here’s some closer-to-home news: Congratulations to Jill Ruderman Sandford and family! Jill wrote in recently from Rye, NY: “I am excited to share that my son, Tom Sandford , a third-generation Cornellian, will be graduating from Arts & Sciences with the Class of 2024 .” Melinda Fellner also shared legacy news: “I am bursting with pride at my three sons who are all Big Red men now— Harry Bramwit ’22 (Arts & Sciences), Miles Bramwit ’25 (Arts & Sciences), and the newest addition, Simon Bramwit ’28 (Arts & Sciences). Go Big Red!” Melinda is currently the chair of the tax department of Carter Ledyard and Milburn in NYC as well as a proud mom.

Big kudos also to our classmate Jason Karszes , MS ’91, of Stanley, NY, who was presented with the Friend of NEDPA Award at the 2024 Northeast Dairy Management Conference in March. The award recognizes an extraordinary industry partner whose work has positively impacted New York’s dairy industry. Jason works as a farm business management specialist for Pro-Dairy, a nationally recognized extension and applied research leader serving dairy farms. He was praised by colleagues for the collaborative environment he’s fostered and for his selfless dedication to helping dairy farmers; he in turn highlighted his appreciation for his staff and for the challenges and growth he experiences through his work with the farmers. You can read more here .

It’s always a joy to receive updates from classmates who are excelling in their fields, nurturing and mentoring others, pursuing their passions, challenging themselves, and reflecting on their time at our alma mater. Thanks to those of you who shared your news. We’d love to hear from more classmates! Simply fill out an online news form or e-mail one of us. ❖ Anne Czaplinski Treadwell ( email Anne ) | Lauren Kidder McGarry ( email Lauren ) | Stephanie Bloom Avidon ( email Stephanie ) | Kris Borovicka Gerig ( email Kris ) | Alumni Directory .

Greetings, classmates! By the time you read this column, summer will be in full swing. Hopefully you are enjoying sun, relaxation, time with family and friends, and maybe a getaway to somewhere special.

We hope you are also starting to think about traveling to Ithaca for our class’s upcoming 35th Reunion next June, now less than a year away! And, a reminder that we are still seeking volunteers: if you would like to help with Reunion planning, with building our affinity groups and class connections through social media, or with fundraising and encouraging contributions to our class, please send an email with your area of interest to cornellclass90@gmail.com .

Our classmates continue to live Cornell’s current campaign, applying their education “to do the greatest good.” Marla Spindel , who lives in McLean, VA, with her husband and 17-year-old daughter, is a perfect example. Marla, who attended law school at George Washington University, “always wanted to do something to help people.” After taking on pro bono cases while working at D.C. law firms, Marla decided to leave law firm life but kept her pro bono cases, in which she served as guardian ad litem for children in the foster care system. The pro bono organization she was engaged with then connected her with two other attorneys doing similar work, and together the three attorneys founded the D.C. Volunteer Lawyers Project to focus on representing the interests of children in court as guardians ad litem and representing victims of domestic violence. The D.C. Volunteer Lawyers Project has grown tremendously since its founding in 2008 and now recruits, trains, and supports hundreds of dedicated volunteer lawyers in the D.C. area who provide pro bono legal services to victims of domestic violence, at-risk children, and vulnerable immigrants.

Today, Marla not only continues to serve on the project’s advisory board but also is executive director of DC KinCare Alliance , a charitable legal organization she co-founded in 2017 to provide legal and related assistance to low-income grandparents and other “kin caregivers” who take on responsibility for raising children whose parents are unable to do so, due to such circumstances as incarceration, homelessness, mental illness, and substance abuse. As Marla recognized, the grandparents and other kin who step up in these emergency situations face huge challenges, including financial hardship; the need to juggle work with unanticipated childcare responsibilities; and a lack of knowledge of how to navigate the system. DC KinCare Alliance helps caregivers file for custody or adoption of children in court, to then obtain legal documents such as birth certificates and social security cards on behalf of the children, and to apply for government benefits and secure healthcare coverage for them. Marla enjoys the work not only because she can help individual families, but also because she seeks to bring about systemic changes to laws and policies, including engaging in litigation to redress discrimination and advocating before Congress and government agencies for changes to laws and policies that better support kinship family needs and reduce barriers to recognition of these families. Marla, you are truly using your education to do good for so many families!

Brian Vinci ’90 , ME ’94, PhD ’03, has worked at the Conservation Fund for more than 25 years, where he currently serves as director of the Freshwater Institute.

Brian Vinci , ME ’94, PhD ’03, is also using his Cornell education to do the greatest good. Brian was fortunate to stay in Ithaca well beyond 1990, earning from Cornell both a Master of Engineering and then a PhD in biological and environmental engineering. He lives in Williamsport, MD, with his wife, Jonna, and has worked at the Conservation Fund for more than 25 years, where he currently serves as director of the Freshwater Institute. He is responsible for the management and administration of the institute’s day-to-day operations, including program delivery, communications, fundraising, and development, and leads a group of 20 scientists and technicians who conduct applied research in sustainable aquaculture production systems. “Our mission at the institute is to advance sustainable aquaculture practices that create a robust U.S. aquaculture industry, reduce dependence on seafood imports, and ensure high-quality, safe, and nutritious seafood for all. We are dedicated to developing solutions that minimize environmental impact, address climate change challenges, and meet the evolving demands of consumers. The best part of my career has been the people that I have met and known, both at the Freshwater Institute and in the seafood industry. I am fortunate to have traveled all over the globe and met truly wonderful people in the past 25 years.” This past October, Brian was quoted in the New York Times concerning the benefits of land-based salmon farming, which offers a more climate-stable alternative to traditional ocean-based salmon aquaculture and will help meet U.S. demand for salmon. “Land-based technology is already viable. We are 25 to 30 years away from replacing 50–70% of our imported farmed salmon with domestically raised fish.”

Lastly, Lauren Berkow , who lives in Alachua, FL, and works at the University of Florida College of Medicine as the chief of the division of neuroanesthesiology, recently published her second medical book , titled Emergency Anesthesia Procedures. The book is intended as a resource for both residents in training and for use by practicing physicians. The book provides checklists and step-by-step guidance that can be used in real time to respond to anesthesia emergencies involving pediatric and adult patients. Congratulations, Lauren! She also shared the news that her older daughter, “who graduated from Florida State University in May, got accepted into the Master of Public Health program at University of Florida!” Lauren’s younger daughter is an undergraduate at Florida State University.

Please write in with news of how you are using your Cornell degree “to do the greatest good,” or of how you are spending your summer. Enjoy! ❖ Nancy Solomon Weiss ( email Nancy ) | Allan Rousselle ( email Allan ) | Rose Tanasugarn ( email Rose ) | Class Facebook page | Alumni Directory .

Greetings, Class of ’91! This is Evelyn Achuck Yue , reporting from the Bay Area in Northern California. My 16-year-old twins, James and Allison, hit a huge milestone and received their driver’s licenses just in time for me to fly to Las Vegas to compete in a golden ticket pickleball tournament. This summer, we hope to visit Cornell and other schools on the East Coast as we begin the college visit tours.

Now, reporting on news from some of our classmates. Therese Duane writes, “My husband, Jeffrey Tessier , and I have been raising our four children, two of whom are now at Texas A&M and the other two at Nolan Catholic High School. Jeffrey is clinical chief of infectious diseases at UT Southwestern. I left academic surgery and am now doing locums and medical mission trips for the last year, trying to serve a higher purpose.”

Michelle Dortignac sent an update: “I came to New York City to be an artist and forged my unconventional career path from there. I started as a modern dancer/choreographer, then went to teaching yoga, then became an aerial acrobatics performer, then created a combination class of aerial acrobatics mixed with yoga, called aerial yoga. As aerial yoga started to become popular and competition started popping up everywhere, I developed my own method, Unnata, which now has a worldwide presence. Even after 30 years since college graduation, I found my life path but am still a ‘work in progress.’ Last year, I relocated to Pennsylvania after having lived in Brooklyn, NY, since my Cornell graduation.”

Doantrang Du  shares, “I am the program director of the Rutgers/Monmouth Medical Center Internal Medicine Residency Program located in New Jersey and the co-director of the Cystic Fibrosis Center at Monmouth Medical Center. I am responsible for training young physicians and medical students. I am married and have two children. My son graduated from Brown and is currently working as a software engineer out in Silicon Valley and my daughter is a freshman at Cornell.”

I developed my own method of aerial yoga, Unnata, which now has a worldwide presence. Michelle Dortignac ’91

Susan Halebsky Dimock sent in a quick greeting: “I run Loyola University Chicago’s D.C. semester program and have an 11th grader. I am no longer on my local school board. This summer, I hope to see Maryanne DePresco when I take my son to camp in Vermont.”

Todd DeMonte sent an update that he and his wife live in Sun Prairie, WI, and will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary this year. They have three happy children: Thomas, 24, Emma, 23, and Julia, 22. Todd spends his spare time as a volunteer wrestling coach at a local high school. He is the principal member of TD1 LLC, where he identifies and leads the development and acquisition of innovative product concepts and solutions across multiple markets, increasing vitality and driving long-term value creation. Todd earned a BS in mechanical engineering from Cornell and an MBA from Tulane University. He has been awarded 31 U.S. patents with several more pending.

Rebecca Brown writes, “I moved to Vero Beach, FL, from Austin, TX, once I became an empty nester in 2023. After pursuing various careers from finance to technology to fitness, I am currently a real estate investor in Vero Beach and the surrounding areas. My son is studying engineering at UCF in Orlando and following his dream to work in the theme park industry. I now spend my free time playing tennis and running on the beach with my two rescue pit bulls.”

Thanks to those who sent in updates for this month. If you haven’t been in touch in a while, we encourage you to reach out and let us know what you have been up to! We would love to hear from all of you! You can send updates by using the online news form or feel free to contact one of us directly: ❖ Evelyn Achuck Yue ( email Evelyn ) | Susie Curtis Schneider ( email Susie ) | Ruby Wang Pizzini ( email Ruby ) | Wendy Milks Coburn ( email Wendy ) | Joe Marraccino ( email Joe ) | Alumni Directory .

I, Wilma Ann Thomas Anderson , am so excited to be on the other side of my doctoral journey. My dissertation is published and I graduated with my doctorate in education leadership, management, and policy from Seton Hall University! Woohoo! That’s it. Mic drop. Well, of course that’s not all of it and the mic won’t stay dropped; there is always something brewing with me. I am still singing near and far, soon launching my first book, and always up to all good. I have been actively involved with the Cornell Black Alumni Association for the last six years as the VP for student relations, and I am looking forward to continuing to serve the organization, alumni, students, and Cornell in any way possible, as best as I can.

The singing group I founded, Baraka Kwa Wimbo, is still singing strong on campus and turns 33 years old in September 2024. It has been great meeting many of the alumnae over the years. Hats off to every young woman who has lent her voice and spirit to this ministry.

Lifelong learning continues: I recently earned a certificate in plant-based nutrition through eCornell and the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies, and a certificate in user experience (UX) design from Georgia Institute of Technology. I am working on an associate’s degree level course in UX research. Hey, I love tech, and learning is FUN! Now what about your other 1992 classmates? Well …

Chimene Liburd Brown shares that she never would have imagined working for the government as the chief medical officer for Medicaid. Politics, policy, and payment is a new space, but knowing she can make a difference in healthcare, where it is most needed, is rewarding. She is board certified in lifestyle medicine, which complements her internal medicine certification. Chimene’s newest crafting hobby is Tunisian crochet. She also enjoys making metal jewelry, photography, and so many other creative projects. Chimene is also an empty nester enjoying the freedom—two college degrees and one to go!

Jeanne Rosen Goldberg reported, “My youngest daughter, Gabrielle, just got accepted and confirmed that she will be attending Cornell in the fall in the engineering program. We just visited the school for accepted students’ day, and it was really fun to see both how the school and Collegetown have changed and also stayed the same in many ways. Most of our favorite hangouts are no longer there! So come August, my husband and I will become empty nesters, with all three of our daughters in college for the next two years. It will just be us and our two dogs, Finn and Teddy! I am looking forward to hopefully traveling a bit more if possible.

“I am a regional director of operations at Beth Israel Lahey Health Primary Care in Massachusetts. I have been in this particular role for the last seven years. It has been a challenging time working through COVID and in primary care in general, but it is very rewarding work and I enjoy helping patients get the care they need. Cornell definitely helped me get into my graduate program at NYU, and then my first work position. This led to the trajectory of my career and how I ended up in the Boston area, where I met my husband and have lived ever since—so I would say that Cornell greatly impacted my life.”

Stacey Rappaport has been named a finalist for the Women in Business Law Awards for Insurance & Reinsurance Lawyer of the Year. She was recently appointed to Fordham Law School’s Dean’s Planning Council and to the Advisory Board of the Partnership Accelerator Program at the Equality Action Center at UC Law San Francisco. Here is the press release for more info.

The 1990 caving expedition in Puerto Rico with Cornell Outdoor Education is hands down my favorite experience! David Contiguglia ’92

David Contiguglia says, “I am continuing a 100-year tradition of the Contiguglia family practicing law in Cayuga County, NY, which was started by my grandfather, Anthony Contiguglia, in 1924, and continued by my father, Louis Contiguglia , JD ’56 , and his twin brother, Hon. Robert Contiguglia , JD ’56 . I’m enjoying the continued connection with my community. I maintain my own law practice in Auburn, NY. My niece Emma Contiguglia ’23 graduated from Cornell last spring. My niece Courtney Contiguglia ’25 is completing her junior year.”

The activities keeping David joyfully busy are gardening, cooking, and attending Cornell men’s ice hockey games at Lynah Rink! Go Big Red. What’s his favorite memory of his time at Cornell? “Attending Dragon Day with my brother, Carl ’89 , MBA ’90, while I was still a high school senior. The 1990 caving expedition in Puerto Rico with Cornell Outdoor Education is hands down my favorite experience!” Dave exclaims. “Does anyone have pictures?” If so, let us know and 1992 Class Notes will make the connection.

Jeff Parnapy , MAT ’97, beams, “My daughter, Erin, graduated from SUNY Potsdam in January 2024. My son, Andy, is a junior at Alfred University studying biochemistry. I am proud to be the FFA advisor at Byron-Bergen Central Schools. My agricultural mechanics team won first place at the state level and will be competing at the National FFA convention in October! I am also a high school agriculture teacher in my 32nd year of teaching and am also serving as the president of the New York Association of Agricultural Educators.” To the question, “Did attending Cornell change the trajectory of your life?” Jeff answered, “Yes! Dr. Arthur Berkey and Dr. Daryle Foster ’72 , PhD ’85, in the education department were key in getting me certified as a high school agriculture teacher.”

Paul Lacava , MD ’96, wrote in about a recent adventure. “Three college roommates decided to get together for an epic trip from April 18–22, 2024. Traveling in from New Jersey, David Wrone and Gene Cutler met me at the San Francisco airport, and we embarked on a six-hour drive to the great Sequoia National Park. We stayed at Wuksachi Lodge and hiked the trails along the Round Meadow and the Big Trees trails, in awe of the towering great sequoias. General Sherman was a highlight of the trip, standing at 275 feet tall.

“We next drove to Death Valley National Park, camping overnight in tents. The clear night sky enabled us to see Jupiter, multiple satellites, and the Milky Way. In Death Valley, we hiked at Zabriskie Point with its borax deposits and the Golden Canyon Trail. At 282 feet below sea level, Badwater Basin was our next stop, where we visited the salt flats of the ancient seabed. The vibrant colors of the red hematite and green chlorite revealed a palette of color in the geological rock formations along our way. In terms of local flora, Joshua trees and wildflower super blooms were additional noteworthy sightings. Our trip was great fun for three good friends who made plans for another trip very soon. More to come.”

And more to come from the rest of the Class of 1992! Now don’t be shy. We all need to hear good things, regularly. Class Notes is one way to make this happen. Just let us know you are out there and share at least one good thing about your time at Cornell and about your life now. Rest assured, we only share the information you want us to share. What happens in 1992 Class Notes, stays in 1992 Class Notes. Well … kinda … it’s on the Internet, but you know what I mean! We can’t wait to hear from you! ❖ Wilma Ann Thomas Anderson ( email Wilma Ann ) | Jean Kintisch ( email Jean ) | Sarah Ballow Clauss ( email Sarah ) | Alumni Directory .

Maisie Ganzler has written a book ! You Can’t Market Manure at Lunchtime: And Other Lessons from the Food Industry for Creating a More Sustainable Company (Harvard Business Review Press) was published in April, in time for Earth Day. This is a how-to guide for anyone, regardless of industry or company size, who wants to build an authentic brand based on sustainability.

In addition to five lessons drawn from her experience, the book includes 12 Q&As with a who’s who of sustainability pioneers from much-admired companies such as Whole Foods Markets, Chipotle, Stonyfield Organic, Clif Bar, Ben & Jerry’s, and others. It’s an easy read full of stories and practical advice. Maisie is the former chief strategy and brand officer at Bon Appétit Management Company, where she is now a strategic advisor. ❖  Theresa Flores  ( email Theresa ) |  Melissa Hart Moss, JD ’97  ( email Melissa ) |  Mia Blackler  ( email Mia ) |  Alumni Directory .

This month’s update starts with some hardcore travel. Sean Alexander , MBA ’01, wrote, “I had the opportunity to sail over 1,500 miles from Ushuaia to Antarctica and back on a fiberglass Kaufman 48 with four other crew members. Scott Crawford ’95 , my shift mate, played hockey for Cornell in the early ’90s! We experienced hurricane-level winds along with massive swells crossing the Drake Passage while encountering whales, dolphins, and thousands of penguins!”

Thanks to the April 8 solar eclipse, some of us didn’t have to go all the way to Antarctica for adventure! During the 2017 eclipse, Kirstyn Cassavechia Smith felt left out of the festivities due to her blindness. This time, she and the South East Area Coalition in Rochester, NY, hosted an eclipse party for the visually impaired, featuring a light-sensitive device that helps the blind “hear” an eclipse via musical tones. Kirstyn appeared on CNN to demonstrate this fascinating LightSound device.

Sital Kalantry wrote, “ Eduardo Peñalver and I have a fun update—our son will be starting Cornell this coming fall. Eduardo is now president of Seattle University and I am a professor of law and associate dean.” Closer to the Hill, Jaclyn Schnurr was named dean of faculty for the Office of Academic and Student Affairs at Wells College.

Paris-based Jason Gardner recently published We the Spirits , a photography book about the traditional Carnival celebration. “For more than 15 years, throughout 15 countries, I have visually documented the ritual and festival of Carnival, focusing on traditional, folkloric, and community celebrations, ones with few outside visitors. The book includes Carnivals photographed in Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Guinea-Bissau, Italy, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.S.” ❖ Dika Lam ( email Dika ) | Dineen Pashoukos Wasylik ( email Dineen ) | Jennifer Rabin Marchant ( email Jennifer ) | Alumni Directory .

It’s springtime in D.C. as I write this column. The cherry blossoms on the National Mall peaked early this year, but there are still plenty in my neighborhood and I am grateful for the sunny, 75-degree day we are having, as I know it won’t be long before the heat and humidity of summer kick in (which will certainly have happened by the time you read this).

Also in the D.C. area is Michael Stroud , who shared that 2023 was an eventful year for his family, in particular his daughter, Quinn ’27 , who began her Cornell career in CALS and is studying biology. Quinn is also proudly serving in the U.S. Armed Forces Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). Michael says his favorite moment was moving Quinn into her dorm early for her to participate in ROTC; it was also his proudest and scariest moment, watching as she set out on her own journey. Michael himself recently transitioned his legal practice to the law firm of Ice Miller LLP in the firm’s Washington, DC, and Baltimore, MD, offices. Michael focuses on government relations and lobbying related to congressional funding, transportation, infrastructure, technology, and taxes. He is also helping advise political candidates on federal and state campaign finance and election law as well as import-export control and compliance for restricted technology.

Another child of a classmate about to become a Cornellian is Noah Greenberg, son of Joshua Greenberg . Josh shared on social media what a thrill it was to join his son for the newly admitted students’ weekend at Cornell in April. Writes Josh, “We are so proud of Noah and look forward to watching his Cornell experience. Grandpa George Greenberg ’65 would be very happy to see him at Cornell too!” And Stephanie Lessans Geller ’s second son, Ira, will not only be a classmate of Noah’s, but will also be joining his older brother Henry ’25 on campus in the fall. Brian Hyett recently reached out to me on social media and shared that he is a gastroenterologist living in the Portsmouth, NH, area.

Josh Greenberg ’95 shared what a thrill it was to join his son for the newly admitted students’ weekend at Cornell in April.

Lastly, exciting news from Texas, where the Family Houston board of directors announced in January the appointment of its new CEO and president, our classmate Ken Sheirr , who previously served as chief marketing officer of the Houston Rockets. Since 1904, Family Houston has been serving Houstonians providing programs for veterans, adults and children in need of affordable mental healthcare, and families struggling to achieve financial stability. And for 120 years, Family Houston has been by Houston’s side through wider-spread adversities like natural disasters, multiple epidemics, and wartime.

“We are confident that Ken will lead Family Houston with a strong vision that connects broadly across our community,” said the board chair. “We recognize that thousands of Houstonians are counting on us, and we are excited by what is possible with Ken’s strategic thinking, marketing acumen, and talent for consensus-building.”

As the Rockets’ CMO for 15 years, Ken oversaw all areas of the team’s brand, philanthropy, customer experience, and digital, retail, and event operations, and led all revenue-driving marketing efforts. He was also instrumental in the opening of Toyota Center, strategic planning for inaugural sponsorship deals, and overseeing third-party facility operations. He created the Rockets Give Back community relations initiative, designed to serve Houston’s underserved youth, military, and first responders and provide disaster relief, while simultaneously creating a focused philanthropic identity for the team, comprehensive corporate partnerships, and opportunities for staff involvement and leadership. Previously, he served on the Ronald McDonald House board and chaired the marketing committee. A current Anti-Defamation League board member, he chaired the education committee for five years and sits on the strategic development committee. Ken and his wife, Gretchen, have 16-year-old twins.

Stay connected and safe, classmates. ❖ Alison Torrillo French ( email Alison ) | Class website | Class Facebook page | Class Instagram page | Alumni Directory .

This year, I finally had the opportunity to attend the Cornell Alumni Leadership Conference (CALC) as a class rep, and it exceeded all my expectations. Held February 23–25 in the Baltimore area, the event drew more than 400 engaged alumni volunteer leaders from across Cornell’s global network.

For me, it was an incredibly valuable experience full of learning, sharing, and focusing on leadership development to enhance the student experience along with networking to meet new friends. The weekend’s programming featured insightful presentations and breakout sessions providing direct updates from the university administration.

Some of the frank discussions addressed head-on the challenges institutions like Cornell have faced in recent years—from the COVID-19 pandemic and social isolation to social unrest and complex issues like the Israel/Gaza conflict. Fred Van Sickle (vice president for Alumni Affairs and Development) and Michelle Vaeth ’98 (associate vice president for Alumni Affairs) spoke about the nuances of supporting student voices while ensuring safe spaces for learning.

Despite such obstacles, the resilient Cornell spirit was on full display. I was inspired by the rich dialogue with fellow alumni as we exchanged perspectives on striving “to do the greatest good” in our respective fields and communities.

A personal highlight was reconnecting with familiar faces like Lauren Myers ’97 , Patty Louison Grant ’95 , and Nicole Innis ’97 . Even more special was finally meeting my fellow class volunteer leaders in person, including Stephanie Cockerl , Jenn Lagnado-Papp , MAT ’97, Lee Hendelman , MBA ’03, and Katrina James , as well as many other people. Our class is truly fortunate to have such a committed group keeping us connected to Cornell and each other. I remain grateful to Stephanie for recruiting me to join this group.

The weekend left me beaming with Cornell pride and an even stronger commitment to supporting the school that paved the way for my career success. As the academic year winds down, I was reminded of the importance of making Annual Fund and class dues contributions to uphold Cornell’s excellence. You can learn more here .

Attending my first CALC in Baltimore was an energizing and unifying experience. I’m already looking forward to the next one! ❖ Marjorie Polycarpe Jean-Paul ( email Marjorie ) | Catherine Oh Bonita ( email Catherine ) | Janine Abrams Rethy ( email Janine ) | Alumni Directory .

Kristin Maloney MacDonald writes, “For the last 10 years or so I have been working with composer Robert Maggio and librettist Justin Warner on a musical adaptation of Far From the Tree , an extraordinary book by Andrew Solomon. This year we’re delighted to announce that we won the 2024 Richard Rodgers Musical Theater Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters, which will subsidize a Studio Production in the New York area. See this article for more information.”

Lindsay Rich Cavner is celebrating 20 years of owning her company, Stepping Stones Pediatric Therapy, in Phoenix, AZ. “My team of 30 therapists delivers life-changing pediatric therapy to children and families in their homes. My agency is honored to be recognized for quality therapeutic services throughout the entire State of Arizona.” Lindsay shares that she loves spending time with her daughter, husband, cat, and dog, and gets great satisfaction from “changing lives for the better of children born with disabilities. Being an early intervention occupational therapist is rewarding and brings meaning to my life.”

About her time on the Hill, Lindsay fondly recalls being with the fifth-floor Cascadilla group on Slope Day 1997, “listening to the great student bands and relaxing on outdoor couches with friends after finals were over. Also singing with my a cappella group After Eight at arch sings, at witching hour concerts, and in Bailey Hall.” ❖ Sarah Deardorff Carter ( email Sarah ) | Erica Broennle Nelson ( email Erica ) | Alumni Directory .

I deeply regret to inform you about the passing of a member of our class, Jocelyn Chabot Mozak . After graduating cum laude with a bachelor’s in electrical engineering, Jocelyn earned her master’s in electrical engineering at Stanford University on scholarship. She married her college sweetheart, Chris , and together they raised two young men, both of whom Jocelyn was extremely proud of, as they represent her greatest success in life. She worked at Intel, started her own web design agency, and became a sought-after public speaker. Jocelyn is remembered for her big heart, quick wit, and ability to put people at ease because of her empathy and humanity. In addition, I will personally remember her for the kindness and compassion she had shown me when my mother passed away during junior year. Sincerest condolences to her family from her CU family.

Please share your latest news with me via email or the online news form . Thank you and take care. ❖ Uthica Jinvit Utano ( email Uthica ) | Alumni Directory .

Greetings, Class of ’99! Please take a moment to fill out the online news form to let your classmates know what you’ve been up to! What have you been doing for work? What brings you the greatest satisfaction these days? How has your life changed—or not changed—lately? We’d love to hear from you!

If you have sent in your news recently, please look for it in the next column! ❖ Class of 1999 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

I hope that all is well, wherever you are, whenever you read this note. I would love to see you all in person, but as we have just this brief message, I will say that not a day goes by where my mind does not wander to my time on the Hill and the people I met.

I have never met Mickey Rapkin , but from the article recently featured in Cornellians , I am sure I would have enjoyed a little quality coffee time with him in my favorite campus coffee shop, eating chocolate-covered espresso beans.

Mickey recently wrote and directed a poignant short film that wrestles with making the Holocaust relevant to younger generations. If you have not seen this 15-minute short, titled The Anne Frank Gift Shop , take the time to view the trailer on YouTube. Rapkin uses a blend of dark humor and satire to stir the conversation around the sensitive topic. I suggest you watch the movie, if possible.

That’s all for now. I’d love to know what you are up to, out there in the great, wide world. Drop me a line through the online news form . Take care. ❖ Denise Williams ( email Denise ) | Alumni Directory .

Summertime is flying by and the return to school for the younger set is getting closer. I remember those days well. Wanting to make the most of every day of summer vacation freedom while nerves built for the return to classes and homework. The excitement must be even more palpable for the students preparing for their freshman year at Cornell. What an exciting time—moving into a dorm, meeting roommates, roaming around campus with a pack of new friends, and class selection. Those were the days.

I was recently in Pittsburgh for a work trip and found some time to see a close friend (that I met freshman year), Thomas Kavanaugh ’00 . We caught up on our families—his 10-year-old twin boys were deep in their soccer season. And his spouse, Megan (Cunningham) , was enjoying her job. As usual, we re-hashed some funny college stories and ran through our list of Cornell friends who we had seen or heard from recently.

Thomas had recently decided to go for a walk through the nearby Carnegie Mellon campus and coincidentally ran into our friend Jay Rosen . Jay was on a college tour in Pennsylvania with his oldest son, who will be applying to schools this fall. It’s scary to think, but taking our children on college tours is going to become more and more common in the next few years (if it isn’t already). Jay was doing well and told Thomas about his time working for the Red Sea development company in the Middle East and preparing to run in the senior division of the Maccabiah Games.

It was great to see Courtney Pearson Esposito when she recently visited us last week while she was in New York. My wife, Christobel Lorie Gutow , and Courtney don’t have the chance to see each other often, but they always have a great time getting together and catching up. Courtney lives in Dallas with her husband, Bryan . They have two teenage daughters who keep busy with dance and cheer in addition to their schoolwork. I was very impressed to learn that Courtney started an indoor and outdoor seasonal floral arrangement business called Bee Contained. What started out as a hobby and passion for floral decorations has grown into a full-fledged business with hundreds of clients in the Dallas area. Check out her Instagram ( @beecontained ) and be sure to reach out to Courtney if you’re in Dallas.

Erica Chatfield Roberts ’01 recently completed running marathons on all seven continents!

Christopher Fan  is an assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine, in the departments of English, Asian American studies, and East Asian studies. He is also a cofounder and senior editor of  Hyphen   Magazine . He’s the author of a recently published book,  Asian American Fiction After 1965: Transnational Fantasies of Economic Mobility . Christopher says it “examines how Asian American fiction maps the immigrant narrative of intergenerational conflict onto the ‘two cultures’ conflict between the arts and sciences.” The book offers a new way of understanding contemporary Asian American fiction through the lens of the class and race formations that shaped its authors, both in the U.S. and in Northeast Asia.

Another classmate, Jennifer Ng Chow , is an Agatha, Anthony, Lefty, and Lilian Jackson Braun Memorial Award-nominated author. Her newest series is the Magical Fortune Cookie mysteries, and the first book in the series is Ill-Fated Fortune , published by St. Martin’s Press. Jennifer describes the novel as a whodunit mystery about a young fortune cookie chef who becomes the main suspect when one customer’s ill-fated fortune results in his murder. Jennifer is an active member of Crime Writers of Color and Mystery Writers of America. Connect with her online and sign up for her newsletter at her website .

Erica Chatfield Roberts recently completed running marathons on all seven continents! She completed the feat in South America with a Patagonia marathon in Chile in October 2023. Before that, she completed a Bhutan marathon in May, and in prior years ran Athens, Sydney, Marrakesh, and Antarctica marathons, along with several in North America. Retired from marathoning, Erica is looking forward to continued adventures around the world.

Don’t forget to get in touch with your local Cornell alumni group to see if they’re planning a student send-off this summer! Those are great opportunities to answer questions from anxious parents (if not the kids themselves) and network with fellow alums. To share news and get back in touch with classmates, please email either of us, visit our website , like the Class of 2001 Facebook page , join our Class of 2001 Classmates Facebook group , and/or follow us on X ( @Cornell2001 ). ❖ James Gutow ( email James ) | Nicole Neroulias Gupte ( email Nicole ) | Alumni Directory .

Thalia Goldstein writes, “I’m excited to announce the publication of my first book, Why Theatre Education Matters: Understanding Its Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Benefits , published by Teachers College Press. This book answers the question: ‘What, psychologically, is an acting class?’ Based on a nationally representative, systematic study of acting classes for high school students, the book connects the activities and teaching strategies of acting to relevant developmental psychology findings and the skills adolescents need as they navigate their worlds.”

Thalia adds, “This book comes out almost 25 years after I took English 301, ‘Mind and Memory,’ with Professor Diane Ackerman , MFA ’73 , PhD ’79 . This course introduced interdisciplinarity to me, and the idea that you can study both a topic and the act of creativity and learning within that topic. That course was structured as the study of creativity across domains and was paired with the student’s own creative practice—for me, theater and dance. Since then, my research and academic career has been focused on the interdisciplinary study of psychology and theater, and I now teach a similar course as a professor at George Mason University, ‘Psychology of Creativity and Innovation.’ I can only hope to change the trajectory of a student’s life the way Professor Ackerman and this course changed mine!” ❖ Class of 2002 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

This month, we heard from Clement Chow , associate professor of human genetics at the University of Utah School of Medicine, whose lab uses “the common fruit fly to model rare diseases and find new drugs for kids with rare diseases.” Clement says, “The most exciting aspect of this work is the prospect of directly applying our lab work to helping people live full and healthy lives. Working with the families and patients and getting to know the people and lives that these diseases affect is very fulfilling.”

Let us know what you’re up to. Until next time: ❖ Candace Lee Chow , PhD ’14 ( email Candace ) | Jon Schoenberg , ME ’03 , PhD ’11 ( email Jon ) | Alumni Directory .

Keith Hermanstyne writes, “This June, I will be participating in AIDS/LifeCycle 2024! While this means I will unfortunately miss Reunion, I am happy that I will be biking more than 500 miles from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles. The money I raise for this event supports important HIV/STI treatment and prevention services for people who are most vulnerable. If you would like to learn more, you can check out this link .”

Jigyasa Chander ’00 , BA ’04, reports that she has a new toddler, Anant Mitva, and she gets great satisfaction from watching him grow and from her work in nonprofit administration. ❖ Jessi Petrosino ( email Jessi ) | Alumni Directory .

Hi, Class of 2005! We hope you are all having a nice 2024. As we start to prepare for our 20th Reunion in 2025, we’d love to know if we have the correct contact info for our classmates. If you have any updates, please use this link .

Yasmin Fahr published her third cookbook, Cook Simply, Live Fully , in April with HarperCollins. She’s also a regular contributor to New York Times Cooking and is currently spending half the year in Menorca, Spain. She invites people to say hi online @yasminfahr!

Anpao Duta Flying Earth was recently appointed to the board of directors at the education innovation nonprofit the Aurora Institute. He is currently the executive director of the NACA Inspired Schools Network. ❖ Jessica Rosenthal Chod ( email Jessica ) | Hilary Johnson King ( email Hilary ) | Alumni Directory .

Hello, Class of 2006! Spring has finally sprung as I write this column, and with it comes a sense of rejuvenation and renewal. Amidst your endeavors both professional and personal, we’re pleased to share the latest class news with you.

Joe Fassler has published his debut novel , The Sky Was Ours , through Penguin Books. The story begins in Ithaca and follows a young woman’s journey into the wilds of Upstate New York, where she stumbles on a charismatic recluse working on an impossible project in his countryside barn. “The novel draws deeply on my time at Cornell,” says Joe, where he studied English and creative writing and was “immersed in the landscape that surrounds Ithaca.” Joe’s writing on climate and technology has appeared in outlets like the New York Times , the Atlantic , the Guardian , and Wired . Publishers Weekly called The Sky Was Ours a “stunning debut.” What an incredible accomplishment, Joe!

Jessica DiMenna Watson is excited to share that she got married in September 2023, and now she and her husband are expecting their first child together. Congrats, Jessica!

Whether you’re embarking on exciting new projects, heading to new destinations, cultivating newfound passions, or cherishing moments and milestones with loved ones, please keep the updates coming and share with the class! We’d love to hear about your favorite memories at Cornell and what you’ve been up to lately. ❖ Kirk Greenspan, MBA ’22 ( email Kirk ) | Alumni Directory .

Hello, Class of 2007! I was recently in Puerto Rico for spring break with my family, and there happened to be a lot of Cornell students there as well! I felt extremely old, but was happy to see the new crew of Cornellians. As a little update from me: I’m working with local candidates for my borough council election and have joined the Core Campaign Team as head of events. Gearing up for a busy election season!

Hello from Shane Dunn ! He writes: “As you may know, I have the immense privilege of serving as president of the nonprofit board of directors of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) in Boston, one of the country’s most effective, durable, and tenacious civil rights organizations. For more than 45 years, GLAD has paved the way for some of the most monumental and important legal victories in New England and across the country—from marriage equality to protecting those living with HIV to ensuring the transgender community can live, thrive, and serve.

“Social movements are not one-day or one-year affairs. For us to achieve true lived equality for the LGBTQ+ community, those of us with other forms of visible and invisible privilege must get involved and stay engaged, even when we think we have succeeded. I wake up every day with deep humility and gratitude to serve and support GLAD.”

Thanks, Shane, for the update and all your hard work! Is anyone else in the nonprofit space? What are you working on?

Looking forward to sharing more exciting stories with everyone! Have more updates to share? Please feel free to reach out to me or submit online! ❖ Samantha Feibush Wolf ( email Samantha ) | Alumni Directory .

Happy summer, Class of ’08! Please take a moment to fill out the online news form to let your classmates know what you’ve been up to! What have you been doing for work? What brings you the greatest satisfaction these days? How has your life changed—or not changed—lately? We’d love to hear from you!

If you have sent in your news recently, please look for it in the next column! ❖ Class of 2008 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Kirsten Stoner Cummiskey , ME ’10, writes, “Since last Reunion, I got married to Ryan , ME ’10, and we had a baby girl this spring. I love spending time with my newborn daughter, husband, and doggo.” In her work, Kirsten has been developing and leading research on a subretinal delivery device for gene and cell therapies. When asked if attending Cornell changed the trajectory of her life, she replied, “Yes! I would never have met my husband otherwise.”

Katie Engelhart is a journalist, documentary producer, and contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine , based in Toronto and New York. She’s also a Fellow at New America and mostly reports on ethics and medicine. Her most recent article , which won a Pulitzer, is about a legal fight involving dementia. It asks: when does a person with dementia lose the ability, and then perhaps the right, to decide for herself?

Katie writes, “My story What Happened in Room 10? won a George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting in 2021. It is the product of a months-long investigation into the first COVID outbreak in an American nursing home—and, more broadly, the rise of the for-profit nursing home industry in America. The article also won the John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism and the MOLLY Prize for Investigative Journalism, and was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Feature Writing. Previously, I worked as a documentary film correspondent and on-air producer at NBC News. I made short documentaries from across the U.S. and abroad.” ❖ Jason Georges ( email Jason ) | Alumni Directory .

We welcome spring with the announcement of new Cornell babies! Ordessia Charran and her husband, Anthony Torres, welcomed a baby girl in August 2022 and are expecting another girl this summer. Since leaving New York City in 2020, Ordessia has been working as a pulmonary and critical care medicine physician at Kingman Regional Medical Center in Arizona. The family splits their time between Arizona and Nevada. She is enjoying spending time with her daughter and looks forward to bringing her family to visit the East Coast again.

Sarah Khatibzadeh , BS ’09, DVM ’14, and Gordon Briggs ’09 , BS ’08, ME ’09, celebrated the birth of their first child, Athena Melanie, in 2023. They are thrilled and look forward to taking Athena on her first trip to campus, including stops at Alice Cook House, where they met on Halloween night in 2007, and Sage Chapel, where they tied the knot in May 2014.

Samantha Stout spent the last 10 years studying paintings with X-ray spectroscopy in Italy. She met her husband there and together they founded a freelance business. They moved back to the U.S. in March 2023 and Samantha now works as a metrology engineer at the MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems) foundry Atomica in Santa Barbara, CA. Her Big Red ties run deep, and she still loves keeping up with the research advances coming from the materials science department at Cornell.

Please write and share your news! We would love to celebrate with you. ❖ Michelle Sun ( email Michelle ) | Alumni Directory .

John Nitti ’s book, Sharing the Road , was published last year. “There are plenty of bits about Cornell in it,” he writes. From the publisher: “Ten years after his 36-year-old uncle, a Brooklyn firefighter, is killed on 9/11, Cornell senior John Nitti prepares for a journey and challenge of a lifetime after graduation with his roommates―one of the longest bicycle rides in the history of the U.S. As the 10,000-mile, 35-state ride across the country and back approaches, however, his friends drop out, making it a solo venture. The odds are against him. For one, he’s not a cyclist. He’s never biked more than nine miles in a day, and he needs to learn how to change a flat tire. He’s never camped before, except in his backyard as a kid.

“As Nitti faces self-doubt and a fear of being alone, the challenges of the road prove immense: gale-force headwinds in Texas, freezing temperatures in New Mexico, 25 flat tires, encounters with wildlife and police, crashes in Alabama and Pennsylvania, and more; but he receives unexpected help from strangers―just about every day. On a trip full of unique experiences, from riding up and down the Rockies twice to ‘showering’ in farm sprinklers and rivers, to working on a farm in Ohio, he learns to appreciate changes in himself as he bikes through the forests, mountains, plains, cities, and deserts of the U.S., on everything from dirt roads to interstates, trying to make it back home to New York.”

Virginia Tyrone Yozwiak shares, “ Adam , ME ’11, and I welcomed our third child, Andrew David (a.k.a. A.D. Yozwiak)!” And Carolyn Sedgwick-Ludwin writes, “My husband, Brian, and I were indeed laboring on Labor Day weekend—we welcomed our son Andy to the world! He is a delight. He’ll be making his first trek to Ithaca this summer. Andy loves the water, so we’re especially looking forward to introducing him to Ithaca’s many waterfalls and natural areas.”

My husband and I were indeed laboring on Labor Day weekend—we welcomed our son Andy to the world! Carolyn Sedgwick-Ludwin ’11

Michael Breitstein has been promoted to partner at CoVenture Management, a privately held alternative asset management firm focused on direct credit opportunities and credit-oriented investments in early and later-stage companies. He has more than 10 years of special situations credit experience.

Sami Fishbein Sage has co-written a book , Democracy in Retrograde: How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and in Our Lives , which is “a combo of self-help and political manifesto that is perfect for anyone who wants to save our democracy but doesn’t know where to start.” According to the publisher, “In today’s political climate, it’s hard not to get discouraged. Isolated, doom scrolling, lacking a sense of purpose or community … it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the dire state of American democracy and do nothing, because why try when the odds are never in our favor? [The co-authors] want to reframe civic engagement as a form of self-care: an assertion of one’s values and self-respect. This book is not just about voting, but about claiming your singular place in your country and community.

“Using real stories of regular citizens who have made a difference, Democracy in Retrograde is a choose-your-own-adventure map to civic engagement that’s tailored to your values, skills, passions, resources, and time. Whether you have only a few hours to spare or are ready to make a lifetime commitment, [the authors] show you how to make changes, big and small, that matter.” Sami is a cofounder and chief creative officer of Betches Media and she hosts the award-winning daily news podcast, Morning Announcements . ❖ Class of 2011 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Olivia Prout Plunkett and her husband, Dan, are pleased to share that their son, Orin, was born on January 23, 2024. His big brother, Ellis, is very happy with his new promotion and they all look forward to getting back to Ithaca this year! ❖ Peggy Ramin ( email Peggy ) | Alumni Directory .

After a short break, we are back with more news. As usual, our classmates are continuing to impress as they take business and entrepreneurship into their own pioneering hands.

First up is Brynne Vernon , who is a member of the board of the nonprofit organization Sunday, which supports entrepreneurs and small businesses in low-income and underserved communities by providing zero-interest microloans. Its mission is to accelerate entrepreneurship, dismantle poverty, and reinvent micro-finance through ethical and transparent lending practices. Most of the entrepreneurs Sunday supports are women. By removing undue interest, Sunday empowers women to start and/or grow their business with inclusive and equitable access to capital. As loans are repaid, the capital is lent out once again, helping more business owners and multiplying impact over time. Sunday has lent directly to entrepreneurs in over 130 countries and is funded entirely by donations. More information can be found here .

Amanda Quain will be releasing her third book, Dashed , on July 16, 2024. Dashed is a contemporary young adult update of the classic Sense and Sensibility and tells the story of Margaret Dashwood. When Margaret’s sister Marianne—newly single and the world’s biggest romantic who has seemingly forgotten that love nearly tore their family apart five years earlier—crashes a cruise vacation with their other sister, Elinor, the vacation Margaret planned is seemingly ruined. The only solution? Find Marianne a love interest, at least until they reach land. The plan, however, quickly goes awry as Margaret finds her own love interest on board and the boat faces a storm. Will Margaret follow the plan of finding her sister love or will she follow her own heart?

Amanda Quain ’13 will be releasing her third book, a contemporary young adult update of the classic Sense and Sensibility .

Lei Liu started law school at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law in August 2023 in Concord, NH. Lei visited Ithaca in November 2023 and was able to reconnect with his former German studies professor, Grit Matthias. Lei remembers his years at Cornell fondly, including relaxing on Libe Slope and watching the sunset, studying late at night at Uris and Olin libraries, enjoying snowball fights on the Arts Quad, and making friendships that continue today.

We’ve reported many times on Kamillah Knight , MPA ’15, MBA ’22, and her impressive achievements, but I would be remiss not to mention a future Cornellian now in our midst. After marrying Stephan Spilkowitz ’10 , Kamillah welcomed baby Koah in September 2023 and they are already planning for Koah to become a member of the Cornell Class of 2045!

As always, if you have news to share, please email me! ❖ Rachael Schuman Fassler ( email Rachael ) | Alumni Directory .

Hello, Class of 2014! Earlier this year in March, Spencer Whale made his Broadway debut as an assistant director for the show Lempicka , about Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka.

Classmates Delia Hughes , MBA ’20, and Lindsay Simon recently won a Stacy’s Rise Project grant, which awarded their company, Tazzy Candy, $25,000 and mentorship from PepsiCo and Frito-Lay. They were one of 15 female-founded companies to win, alongside two others with Cornellian founders. Tazzy Candy sells hard candy with only six ingredients and low sugar content.

Please reach out if you have any news to share! ❖ Samantha Lapehn Young ( email Samantha ) | Alumni Directory .

Some exciting news from our class! First, Sadie Garside married husband Brandon on June 15 in Chatham, MA, on Cape Cod.

Also, Christine Gutchess and her mother have written a cookbook of their favorite recipes, focusing on simple, easy dishes that are sure to please a crowd. The book is called Homebody , inspired by summers spent near Cornell on Skaneateles Lake. After graduating from Cornell, Christine went to the Culinary Institute of America and spent time in Washington, DC, as a private chef.

Congratulations, Sadie and Christine! ❖ Caroline Flax ( email Caroline ) | Mateo Acebedo ( email Mateo ) | Alumni Directory .

2016 & 2017

Happy summer! We don’t have any news to share from these classes, so if you are reading this please take a moment to fill out the online news form to let us know what you’ve been up to! What have you been doing for work? What brings you the greatest satisfaction these days? How has your life changed—or not changed—lately? We’d love to hear from you! ❖ Classes of 2016 & 2017 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Austin Beck , BS ’17, and his brother, fellow Cornellian Tyler Beck ’14 , run their family’s Upstate New York dairy farm, which was recently featured in a new TV series. Streaming for free on the Roku Channel, “ Dairy Diaries ” follows former “Saturday Night Live” star Vanessa Bayer around the brothers’ operation as she spends a week learning what it takes to produce milk, from cow to glass.

Sponsored by the dairy industry and shot over the course of a week in November 2023, the show comprises five episodes that are roughly 10 minutes each. In choosing a location for filming, the producers considered more than 80 hopefuls. “When we applied, we thought, ‘There are so many farms, there’s no way they would choose us,’” Tyler recalls. “But eventually, we had a 50-person production team from Hollywood on our farm—and some of them had never even seen a cow.”

Said Austin, “We did the show because it’s important for us to do our part to bridge the gap between consumers and farmers.” He hopes “Dairy Diaries” will counter some of the negative PR generated by activists who oppose the milk-production industry. “Other generations didn’t always prioritize telling their story—but we wanted to have the opportunity to educate and give people a different perspective.”

You can read more about their adventures in this recent Cornellians story ! ❖ Class of 2018 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

We hope many of you reconnected on the Hill at Reunion last month! If you did, please take a moment to send us a note—via the online news form or email—to tell us about the weekend! Who did you see? How was it to come back to East Hill as an alum? What changes to campus caught your eye? We’d love to hear from you! ❖ Class of 2019 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Sara Tayara was recently selected to receive the John Mack ABANA Fellowship, which offers an educational stipend of $15,000 and professional mentorship opportunities to MBA students with an interest in the Middle East and North Africa region. Sara was one of five Fellows selected from 100 applicants in the fellowship’s inaugural year. In the fall, she will attend the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

At Cornell, she earned dual degrees in information science and urban planning, with a minor in business. Currently, Sara is a manager at EY MENA, in their digital and emerging technology practice, where she leads teams in designing and developing digital products for various sectors, most notably smart cities. Based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, she is actively involved in expanding the company’s digital design practice across the region, as well as mentoring young professionals in the product space.

Julia DeNey was recently featured in a Cornellians story for her work designing apparel for people who have autism and other conditions. Her company’s offerings include a sweatshirt with a flip-down eye mask and weighted vinyl material around the ears that can block 10–30 decibels of high-frequency sound, and a “compression” shirt whose adjustable lining can be tightened around the wearer, replicating the feeling of a hug.

Amanda Madenberg writes, “I met my fiancé, Josh Londin ’21 , on campus in 2017. Seven years later, he proposed at the top of the Slope.” Congratulations! ❖ Class of 2020 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Amanda Hernandez  was recently featured in  a  Cornellians  story  for her work as the coach of the Cornell Dance Team. A medical student at the University of Michigan, Amanda has coached the squad remotely for the past three seasons—and this year they made it to the finals of the U.S.’s largest collegiate dance competition, which was held in Walt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, FL, in January. Of the team, she said, “The growth we have had is unbelievable for such a short period of time.”

Their advancement to the finals (where they finished eighth overall) marked the best showing by any Ivy League school in the competition’s history—thanks in large part to Amanda’s efforts. The team’s advancement is a bit bittersweet for Amanda, since, she says, it will soon be time for the squad to have an in-person, professional coach. “I want the team to live on forever and just keep getting better and better,” she says. “I’ll always be the dancers’ number-one fan.” ❖ Class of 2021 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Summer greetings, Class of ’22! If you are reading this, please take a moment to send in an online news form . What have you been doing since graduation? What are your plans for the summer? Sends us your news, big or small—we can’t wait to hear from you! ❖ Class of 2022 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Lorlei Boyd , who was featured in our May/June Class Notes column, has since penned a personal essay for Cornellians titled “We Need Anthropologists Everywhere—Especially in AI.” In it, she wrote, “One year ago, I entered the job market with a humanities degree. This was never the plan—until my senior year, I thought for sure I was en route to my PhD. Humanities were for academia, right? I was hungry to join the workforce, only I didn’t know how.

“I wish the world were kinder to non-STEM majors. I had internalized self-doubt—a conviction that corporate America belonged to the engineers, that humanistic and research skills were inferior. Now I lead applied AI software development at Gray Decision Intelligence , a provider of academic program evaluation software to higher education institutions. The truth is that these skills transfer.

“What’s the catch? The humanities don’t teach you the technical details—rather, they give you a toolbox. Your skillset offers an aggressive competency to research anything and everything and distill that dizzying volume of information into a thoughtful final product.

“What you know going into a project almost doesn’t matter. When you’re trained in the humanities, your job is to think through incommensurable problems. What’s more complex than human nature? My point is that the humanities prepared me for a biztech career in STEM—not something I would’ve anticipated a few years ago.

“At the end of the day, this is not to say STEM majors are worth any less. Rather, I hope to lift up my fellow humanities majors. You, too, are incredibly skilled and will bring unique gifts to your workplace. Trust your education.” ❖ Class of 2023 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Arts and Sciences

Malve Brueggemann Burns , MA ’67 , PhD ’71 , published a historical novel , Stone Mother , in September 2023. The novel highlights the strange period in post-WWII Germany when an entire nation would not—and could not—speak of the horror it had wrought. The novel’s heroine, Marie, grows up in a castle, a thousand-year-old “stone mother,” in the late 1940s in Germany. Kirkus called it “an evocative novel about inherited pain and redemption.” Malve has given book presentations at independent bookstores and libraries, including at Georgetown Neighborhood Library.

Jason Clay , MA ’76 , PhD ’79 , is an expert on food sustainability and the senior vice president at World Wildlife Fund (WWF)—where he oversees the Markets Institute, a think tank that works with startups focused on how to make food production more climate friendly. He is currently working on creating “Codex Planetarius,” a set of minimum environmental standards to produce globally traded food. The project will propose standards to reduce the six to eight key environmental impacts of producing food exports and to ensure that they don’t undermine renewable natural resources for present and future generations. He also authors “ Rethink Food ,” a weekly newsletter that offers readers insight and experiences gained over the course of his more-than-40-year career on the front lines of global food sustainability. Before joining WWF in 1999, Jason ran a family farm, taught at Harvard and Yale, worked in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and spent more than 25 years working with human rights and environmental organizations.

Cheryl Walsh , MA ’91 , published her debut novel , Unequal Temperament , with American Buffalo Books in September 2023. As the book’s blurb notes: “From her early aspirations of being a concert pianist to her current job as a meteorologist, Morgan has found that life—much like forecasting weather patterns and tuning harpsichords—is far from an exact science. When her father dies unexpectedly, Morgan pushes away her husband, and the growing chasm threatens their marriage. Through the lens of art, music, and meteorology, Unequal Temperament examines how we navigate the storms of our lives.”

Hanna Hasl-Kelchner , MBA ’78 , wrote a book , Seeking Fairness at Work: Cracking the New Code of Greater Employee Engagement, Retention & Satisfaction . It helps executives, managers, and business owners examine the unwritten rules at work—rules that, when broken, keep employees from doing their best work and companies from reaching their full potential. Hanna uses real-life stories to reveal the fundamental unfairness and hidden conflicts that slowly crush trust and employee engagement. The book also tackles managers’ misconceptions and concerns and includes a five-step framework to dramatically elevate both the employee experience and business results.

On May 17, an episode of “Let’s Make a Deal” featured our very own Sanford “Sandy” Argabrite , MBA ’85 ! Sandy performed a magic trick for the host, Wayne Brady, and in the end, he went home with $5,000. Sandy has been practicing magic tricks for the past 20 years and has performed in Los Angeles, Hawaii, and Toronto. And this isn’t his first time on a game show—in 2019, Sandy was on the “Best Ever Trivia Show.”

Brian Hittle , MBA ’03 , is now writing Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan book series. In 1984, Tom Clancy published The Hunt for Red October , a novel that reimagined thrillers and invented the military thriller genre. (Clancy died in 2013.) Now, for the 40th anniversary of that book, Brian and his friend, both Navy veterans, are writing the sequel, Act of Defiance . Brian was a former submarine officer, who himself used to do the type of missions seen in the movie adaptation. He writes under the pen name Brian Andrews.

Rachel Eng Tomadakis , MBA ’19 , was hired as a senior asset manager at Synergy, a real estate development firm in Boston. Rachel’s career has spanned over 15 years in commercial real estate asset management. Most recently she was the vice president of asset management at Marcus Partners and the director and asset manager for the RMR Group. “I am honored to be a part of Synergy’s high-caliber team,” said Rachel. “I look forward to elevating the team and contributing to Synergy’s ongoing success in this dynamic real estate environment.”

Onyinye Akujuo , MBA ’22 , shares that, on March 20, 2024, she gave birth to Adaora Johnson, who can sometimes be seen sporting her very own striped Cornell outfit. Congratulations!

Yusuf Kappaya , MBA ’23 , and his wife, Issra, also shared that they welcomed their baby boy, Ilyas Haroon Abdullah-Kappaya, to the world recently. “Cornell Class of 2046!” said Yusuf.

Computing and Information Science

Daniela Rus , MS ’90 , PhD ’92 , was featured in the Boston Globe ’s third annual list of the most influential people in the New England technology sector. Daniela is a roboticist and computer scientist, director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Gregory Parks , JD ’08 , a professor of law at Wake Forest University, edited a recently published volume on collegiate Greek-letter organizations. The book , The Law of Fraternities and Sororities , offers an overview of the legal landscape of the critical issues that collegiate Greek-letter fraternities and sororities should understand and integrate into their day-to-day work. The first section explores the range of issues that deal with processes, standards, rules, and practices that fraternities and sororities must follow. The second discusses risk and liability issues like hazing and sexual assault. The third covers constitutional issues like freedom of speech, and the final section examines broader issues of antitrust and consumer protection.

Welcome to our newest offering: Group Notes! Like Class Notes, these columns are written by alumni, but they comprise news about members of Cornell groups—including campus activities, alumni organizations, and more—across generations. If you would like to see your group represented here, email us for more information!

Cornell Daily Sun

Hello fellow Sunnies, and welcome back to Group Notes! I’m Vee Cipperman ’23 , a former Sun editor-in-chief, who also worked as a graduate operations fellow for the Sun this past spring. The semester brought many exciting events with our alumni, both in and outside the media industry.

Throughout the semester, student Sunnies saw where their work could take them through the “Meet a Journalist” series. Eric Lichtblau ’87 , a celebrated journalist with the New York Times and other major publications, led a workshop on investigative journalism. Adam Thompson ’97 , a bureau chief in the Life & Work group at the Wall Street Journal , taught students about writing engaging sports stories. Melanie Lefkowitz ’95 , editor-in-chief of the Cornell Chronicle , joined us for an engaging conversation about pursuing a journalism career and covering higher education.

On April 19, the Cornell Daily Sun Alumni Association hosted its annual New York City reunion. The student editorial board traveled downstate to meet alumni and share Sun stories. On April 20, the board enjoyed an exclusive tour of the New York Times office, hosted by Times managing editor Marc Lacey ’87 . This event followed the Washington, DC, reunion, hosted on March 22.

On April 13, the Sun held our second annual business workshop in Ithaca. We invited alumni working in management, tech, and multimedia journalism for a day of panels and networking with students. This event is modeled after our journalism workshop, which has taken place at the Sun office every October for the past decade; it gives alumni from other industries a chance to reconnect and share their knowledge with students.

Throughout the semester, student Sunnies saw where their work could take them through the ‘Meet a Journalist’ series.

Rebecca Shoval ’08 planned the first business workshop last year, and I took over for this year’s gathering. We hosted a number of impressive speakers. Alex Berg ’09 , an award-winning documentarian and broadcast journalist, teamed up with Leah Stacy, editor-in-chief of CITY Magazine in Rochester, for a panel on producing multimedia content. Google app developer Jordan Epstein ’18 and Roku marketing VP Dan Robbins ’13 spoke about using analytics and data tools in journalism.

Several members of the Sun senior board joined us for the event, including incoming chair Scott Jaschik ’85 . We shared panels, meals, and vibrant discussions on the Sun ’s future.

As always, the Sun welcomed its new editorial board in early March. Editor-in-chief Gabriel Levin ’26 leads the editorial side of the paper, and director of business and operations Sheila Yu ’26 leads the financial side. This spring, the 142nd board launched ambitious projects and set new goals to rejuvenate the Sun ; they still have many months to drive the paper, and we can’t wait to see what they’ll accomplish.

As always, the spring semester brought new ideas, productive meetings, and alumni reconnections at the Sun . Look forward to more in the future! If you’re interested in submitting an update for a future Cornellians column or want to know more, please reach out to me. Enjoy a summer of rest and sunshine! ❖ Vee Cipperman ’23 ( email Vee ) | Alumni Directory .

University Chorus & Glee Club

For my encore, I almost titled this column “The Sounds of Silence,” as I had received very little news by my deadline. Fortunately, a little plug on social media resulted in some fantastic updates to share.

Paul Sheppard , MS ’84 , wrote in from Tucson, AZ, to share that his singing club, Under Video Surveillance, which is composed of various small ensembles, put on a recital of sacred music on May 11 in the old church of Tumacácori, AZ. The event was recorded, and a playlist of the songs is in production—stay tuned! Paul made me smile when, at the time of this writing, he shared that the group planned to end the recital with the Biebl “Ave Maria.”

Town and Country Players in Bucks County, PA, brought in an update about Chorus accompanist extraordinaire Sue den Outer ’94 , who is the music director for their upcoming performance of 9 to 5 . This is Sue’s second year with T&C, her first show being Guys and Dolls . One of Sue’s favorite theatrical experiences was Little Women , “because of the connection to a childhood favorite novel, the beautiful score, and the people who became dear friends,” and her favorite woman character in theater is Elphaba (from Wicked ), because she is “strong-willed, grounded (well not always, but you know what I mean), and passionate.” What would Sue tell her younger self? “You do not need to do all of the shows!”

Speaking of doing all the shows, I received some super exciting news from Kristin Maloney ’97 , which I am sharing in her own words: “For the last 10 years or so I have been working with composer Robert Maggio and librettist Justin Warner on a musical adaptation of Far From the Tree , the extraordinary book by Andrew Solomon. This year we won the prestigious Richard Rodgers Musical Theater Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters, which will subsidize a Studio Production in the New York area. We have been working with director Michael Greif ( Rent, If/Then, Next to Normal, Dear Evan Hansen ), and we are really looking forward to further developing this show under his direction. It is a super thrilling shot of adrenaline, much needed after the years of listlessness wrought by the COVID theater shutdowns.”

A dozen Glee Club alumni performed at a celebration at the Cornell Tech campus to honor the life and memory of Chuck Feeney ’56 .

Lastly, Jacques Boubli ’88 sent in a lovely update from a lakeside Airbnb about half a mile north of the Hangar Theatre and Allan H. Treman State Marine Park, where he and his wife, Elyse, drove to from Katonah, NY, to celebrate Passover with their children, Sophia ’26 and Jeremy (a freshman at Binghamton). Jacques shared a special story that explains why Passover is such a deeply personal holiday to his family, as his father, Elie Boubli , MS ’54 , left Egypt and took the maiden voyage of the Andrea Doria to save his life and make a better one in the U.S. “Of all places,” Jacques writes, “he started it at Cornell, majoring in electrical engineering and minoring in ILR.”

A few days before making the trip to Ithaca, Jacques attended the Groat-Alpern Awards celebration at the Pierre in NYC, where classmates Lauren Ezrol Klein ’88 and James Miller ’88 were honored. The next day, a dozen Glee Club alumni performed at a celebration at the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island to honor the life and memory of Chuck Feeney ’56 . Writes Jacques, “It was a deeply moving tribute to the extraordinarily generous Feeney, Cornell’s largest donor ever. Our group included Andrew Guo ’19 , Phil Batson ’70 , PhD ’76, Bart Codd ’88 , Pete Klosterman ’70 , Chris Umeki ’19 , Eric Saidel ’97 , Don Peck , JD ’86 , Steve Tremaroli ’76 , Terence Goff ’96 , Joe Cleverdon ’98 , BS ’15, and my dearest friend, TP Enders ’90 , ME ’96, who expertly organized and coordinated our participation.”

Professionally, Jacques is a partner at the Portfolio Strategy Group, a $2B Registered Investment Advisor in White Plains, NY, where he has been for 10 years and previously served as chief compliance officer. His career journey has not been a straight line, however, and he says he is often asked about his transition from arts management to wealth management. Jacques shared that he served as the Glee Club’s music librarian, assistant manager, general manager, and tour manager from 1984–88, which led to a 20-year career in the performing arts, which included running violinist Isaac Stern’s family office and serving as production manager for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Armed with an MBA from NYU/Stern and as a certified financial planner, he entered financial services in 2008, “so don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t time the markets!” Jacques also shared, “I often reflect on my experiences with the Glee Club. Nothing meant more to me at Cornell. It helped me find my friends, my calling, and myself. The camaraderie, brotherhood, and responsibility were transformative and continue to provide me with joy.”

Your updates are music to my ears—please keep them coming! Until we meet again. ❖ Alison Torrillo French ’95 ( email Alison ) | Alumni Directory .

Top image: Photo by Adam Murtland / Cornell University

Published July 1, 2024