MICHAEL GERRARD ‘72 COLLEGE HONORS FIVE IS THE GURU OF DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI CLIMATE CHANGE LAW WITH JOHN JAY AWARDS page 26 page 18 Columbia College May/June 2011 today Nobel Prize-winner Martin Chalfie works with College students in his laboratory.

APassion for Science Members of the College’s science community discuss their groundbreaking research ’ll meet you for a I drink at the club...”

Meet. Dine. Play. Take a seat at the newly renovated bar  grill or fine dining room. See how membership in the Columbia Club could fit into your life. For more information or to apply, visit www.columbiaclub.org or call (212) 719-0380.

The Columbia University Club of New York 15 West 43 St. New York, N Y 10036

Columbia’s SocialIntellectualCulturalRecreationalProfessional Resource in Midtown. Columbia College Today Contents

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Cover Story Alumni News Departments 2 20 A Pa s s i o n f o r Sc i e n c e 38 B o o k s h e l f Le t t e r s t o t h e Members of the College’s scientific community share Featured: N.C. Christopher Ed i t o r Couch ’76 takes a serious look their groundbreaking work; also, a look at “Frontiers at The Joker and his creator in 3 Wi t h i n t h e Fa m i l y of Science,” the Core’s newest component. Jerry Robinson: Ambassador of By Ethan Rouen ’04J, ’11 Business Comics. 4 Ar o u n d t h e Qu a d s 4 Reunion, Dean’s Features 40 O b i t u a r i e s Day 2011 43 6 Class Day, Jo h n Ja y Aw a r d s Di n n e r Fe t e s Fi v e C l a s s No t e s Commencement 2011 18 The College honored five alumni for their distinguished A l u m n i Pr o f i l e s 8 Senate Votes on ROTC professional achievements at a gala dinner in March. 54 Melvin I. Urofsky ’61 8 Brill, Nnadi Win By Alex Sachare ’71; photos by Eileen Barroso 71 Arnold Kim ’96 Goldwaters 12 Student Spotlight: Gu r u o f Cl i m a t e Ch a n g e La w 73 Raji Kalra ’97 26 Anna Feuer ’11 Law School professor and attorney Michael Gerrard ’72 13 80 l u m n i o r n e r Alumni, Student is considered the foremost expert on climate change law. A C Win Scholarships By Shira Boss ’93, ’97J, ’98 SIPA Dr. Ralph Freidin ’65 shares his time and medical 15 5 Minutes with … Cl u b Sp o r t s Fl o u r i s h a t Co l u m b i a expertise by volunteering to Katharina Volk 30 More students participate in club sports than in work with the uninsured. 16 Roar, Lion, Roar varsity sports, but at the club level, the students handle 34 everything from travel to purchasing equipment. Co l u m b i a Fo r u m By Jonathan Lemire ’01 Brian Greene, professor of mathematics and physics, posits in his new book, The Web Exclusives at college.columbia.edu/cct Hidden Reality: Parallel Uni- verses and the Deep Laws of the Gr o u n d b r e a k i n g Re s e a r c h Cosmos, that the universe is Professors Martin Chalfie and Maria Uriarte discuss their scientific research. immersed in a bath of photons De e p Spa c e Ex p l a i n e d from the days of its creation. Watch Professor Brian Greene talk about his latest book, The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos. Fi v e Mo r e Mi n u t e s Professor Katharina Volk discusses the subject of her book Manilius and His Intellectual Background, winner of the 2010 Lionel Trilling Award.

FRONT COVER: EILEEN BARROSO columbia college today Letters to the Editor

Joe Coffee Jr. ’41 help was greatly appreciated. Volume 38 Number 5 Thank you for your rich account of Joseph What a great start Joe Coffee gave to May/June 2011 D. Coffee Jr. ’41’s rich life (“Obituaries,” a new alumnus who still treasures his Editor and publisher March/April). friendship and guidance. Alex Sachare ’71 Mr. Coffee was my off-campus inter- John C. Thomas Jr. ’48, ’50 Business Managing Editor viewer when I was applying to Columbia. Ne w Yo r k Ci t y Lisa Palladino Friends had prepared me for all kinds of associate editor awful interview questions. But Mr. Coffee’s Dubious Modernism Ethan Rouen ’04J, ’11 Business question was disarmingly simple: “Why CCT editor Alex Sachare ’71 deserves forum editor do you want to go to college?” Not why Co- praise for his candor regarding the new Rose Kernochan ’82 Barnard lumbia, but why college. It was the unasked Northwest Corner Building: “I’m not a fan Contributing writer Shira Boss ’93, ’97J, ’98 SIPA question behind the enterprise that I had of these metal walls on Broadway and West been involved in for all the years of my edu- 120th Street, which a friend describes as a Editorial Assistants Samantha Jean-Baptiste ’13 cation. I loved it. More than 20 years later, it giant cheese-grater” (“Within the Family,” Atti Viragh ’12 GS is the only interview that I re- March/April). Design Consultant member. And it remains one If only the dubious mod- Jean-Claude Suarès of the most memorable, and ernists entrusted with Co- art director most characteristic, of all my lumbia’s architectural heri- Gates Sisters Studio experiences at Columbia. tage evinced similar bravery. Contributing Photographers Ron Lee Meyers ’92 For the last 50 years, most of Eileen Barroso Ne w Yo r k Ci t y the buildings erected on the Char Smullyan Morningside Heights cam- The excellent obituary of Joe pus have been uninspired Published six times a year by the Coffee Jr. ’41 reminded me at best, egregious at worst, Columbia College Office of of the lucky break I had in and altogether ruinous to Alumni Affairs and Development for meeting him in 1948. I had the original McKim, Mead alumni, students, faculty, parents and graduated from the Col- friends of Columbia College. & White aesthetic. lege in June and entered the One would have thought Address all correspondence to: Business School that fall and Columbia College Today we had learned our lesson Columbia Alumni Center needed a job. I can’t remember Joe’s title but from the late 1950s and early 1960s, when 622 W. 113th St., MC 4530 I believe he was on the University payroll. Mudd, Carman, Ferris Booth, Law, Interna- New York, NY 10025 At that time, he was spending most of his tional Affairs and Uris combined to despoil 212-851-7852 time with the Columbia College Alumni Columbia’s Beaux-Arts unity with their E-mail (editorial): [email protected]; Association (CCAA) and he hired me, with (advertising): [email protected]. jarring, ugly, soulless presence. But no. The Online: college.columbia.edu/cct a title of assistant secretary of the associa- 1970s brought the Sherman Fairchild Cen- tion and a salary of $200 a month. ISSN 0572-7820 ter for the Life Sciences, looking like a col- Joe had the idea that led to the Alexan- lection of solar panels attached to a central Opinions expressed are those of the der Hamilton Medal, and among the first authors and do not reflect official core. In the 1980s, East Campus arose like a positions of Columbia College awardees was V.K. Wellington Koo (Class threatening monolith out of 2001: A Space or Columbia University. of 1909, Class of 1912 GSAS), Chiang Kai- Odyssey. In the new century, the Law School © 2011 Columbia College Today Shek’s ambassador at the time. It took a addition resembles a glass and steel box All rights reserved. super-human effort to get 450 people into topped by an ocean liner’s smokestack. the Waldorf, but the next year’s honoree, Perhaps no recent building was more ea- “Wild Bill” Donovan (Class of 1905), fared gerly anticipated, and so dismally executed, much better. as Lerner Hall. Students and alumni thought Joe was a tremendous source of ideas — that undergraduates would finally receive Dean’s Day was next. His enthusiasm and the spacious activities center they deserved. boundless energy inspired the immensely Instead, they got a disjointed monstrosity talented group that ran the Alumni Asso- whose huge sloping ramps — which call to ciation to make sure these concepts didn’t mind a Pachinko machine — waste the suffer crib deaths. Having the district at- precious square footage that should have CCT welcomes letters from readers about torney of New York County, Frank Hogan articles in the magazine but cannot been given over to club space. I recently print or personally respond to all letters ’24, ’28L, as president of the CCAA made showed Lerner to a prospective College received. Letters express the views of life for me extraordinarily exciting and re- freshman. Gazing at the skeletal ramps and the writers and not CCT, the College or the University. Please keep letters to 250 warding. On the campus, Harry Carman see-through facade she asked innocently, “Is words or fewer. All letters are subject to ’19 GSAS was still dean, soon to be suc- it still under construction?” Honest. editing for space and clarity. Please direct ceeded by Larry Chamberlain ’45 GSAS, How does the University, with all of its letters for publication “t o t h e e d i t o r .” and their great support and willingness to (Continued on page 78)

may/june 2011 2 columbia college today

W i t h i n t h e Fa m i l y The Times, They Continue To Change

uring my first semester at soliciting e-mails from other the College, I attended a pre- members of the Columbia sentation by a representative community and holding Dof the New York City Police three open forums, the Senate Department. He was on campus as voted 51–17 (with one ab- a recruiter, looking for students who stention) to approve a resolu- might be interested in careers in law tion to invite ROTC back (see enforcement after graduation. If that “Around the Quads”). Later sounds a bit strange, consider that this that same day, the University was in fall 1967, months before the issued a statement saying it demonstrations and the police bust that would take the issue before left an indelible impression on anyone the Council of Deans, with who was on campus on the night of a final decision expected to April 30, 1968. come before the end of the I’ve long since forgotten the speaker’s school year. name, but I remember one thing he It seems to me that the police recruit- ary (see “Obituaries,” March/April) said. The basic point of his pitch was er’s message applies to the military as but must be looking down with pride this: Wouldn’t the city be better off with well. Wouldn’t the country be better off on how his baby has grown. The fact police officers who have been educated with military officers who are educated that several private companies have at schools like Columbia and who have at schools like Columbia? That, to me, copied the idea and made similar pro- put considerable thought into their is a compelling reason to invite ROTC grams available to the public, albeit at a choice of law enforcement as a career, back to campus. much higher cost than what Columbia as opposed to those who signed up Taking “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” off charges, is a testament to its merit. because they were attracted by the pros- the board, are there other U.S. military This year’s program is a strong one, pect of wearing a badge and carrying a policies that stand in conflict with those beginning with the Dean’s Continen- gun and putting in their 20 years before of the University? This is a very impor- tal Breakfast, at which Dean Michele they got out? tant question, and any action regarding Moody-Adams will offer remarks on I don’t know if anyone in that room ROTC should depend upon a satisfac- the state of the College. Moody-Adams took him up on his offer, and I confess I tory answer. But if there are no con- will then join Deans Feniosky Peña- didn’t give much thought to his point at flicts, ROTC should be viewed not as Mora (Engineering) and Peter Awn the time. As a first-semester freshman, a referendum on U.S. military service (General Studies) and E.V.P. of Arts and I wasn’t particularly career-focused — or governmental policies but rather for Sciences and Dean of Faculty Nicholas and police work would have been to- what it is: an opportunity for students Dirks to deliver Public Intellectual Lec- ward the bottom of a list had I had one. who want to serve in the military to tures. After lunch, five distinguished I’d gone purely out of curiosity, the same receive extensive expert training and to faculty members will conduct Core impulse that took me to many other enter service as officers. Curriculum lectures, several affinity such events that year. I thought it would Beyond the Core, the majors and groups will hold receptions and alumni be interesting to hear what a police everything else they absorb in the class- singers from a spectrum of groups will recruiter had to say and what his pitch room, an important part of what stu- raise their voices in song. might be to a classroom of Columbians. dents learn while attending the College The entire program (which is free His message came back to me dur- is how to make life choices. As long as to reunion registrants) is open to all ing the debate about whether to invite the policies of the U.S. military do not alumni and parents at the nominal cost ROTC back to campus, after Congress conflict with those of the University, of $75. If you want to eat on your own voted in December to repeal the “Don’t shouldn’t ROTC be one such choice for and just attend the lectures and other Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that had prohib- Columbia students? events, the cost is only $25. It’s a unique ited openly gay men and women from opportunity to be a student for a day serving in the military. Six years ago, the ean’s Day, which used to be a and hear from some of Columbia’s University Senate (whose decisions are stand-alone event, now is part best and brightest. non-binding) voted 53–10 against invit- Dof Alumni Reunion Weekend Well done, Joe. ing ROTC back, largely because “Don’t and will take place this year on Satur- Ask, Don’t Tell” contradicted the Uni- day, June 4 (https://alumni.college. versity’s policy against discrimination. columbia.edu/deansday). Its creator, But this spring, after surveying students, Joe Coffee Jr. ’41, passed away in Janu-

may/june 2011 3 columbia college today Around the Quads Alumni To Gather for Reunion Weekend Gala weekend June 2–5 for classes ending in 1 and 6; Dean’s Day, June 4, open to all

B y Li s a Pa ll a d i n o

pring at Columbia means lectures, tours of Columbia libraries and a beautiful campus, warm facilities, and more; New York City cul- weather and the College’s big- tural options, including performances and gest event of the year: Alumni art gallery tours; the all-class Wine Tasting Reunion Weekend. Open this and Starlight Reception with music, danc- year to alumni from classes ending in 1 ing and champagne on Low Plaza; and Sand 6, events will take place on campus Camp Columbia for Kids. and throughout New York City from The 50th anniversary class, 1961, starts Thursday, June 2–Sunday, June 5. the weekend early with a special recep- Dean’s Day, which is open to all alum- tion on Wednesday, June 1. The weekend ni and parents whether from reunion officially kicks off on Thursday evening, classes or not, will be held on Saturday, June 2, with class-specific events and a June 4. To highlight this year’s program, choice of the American Ballet Theatre, Dean Michele Moody-Adams, as well as New York Philharmonic or Broadway the deans of Engineering, General Studies shows. These performances are open to and the faculty of Arts and Sciences, will Dean Michele Moody-Adams will speak all reunion attendees, but tickets must be deliver the Public Intellectual Lectures at on “Morality and the Claims of History” at purchased in advance. Dean’s Day. Dean’s Day this year. Friday, June 3, features an “Essentials The entire weekend is designed to re- of Estate Planning” breakfast and Back on connect alumni with one another and with with the Alumni Office to make the Campus morning sessions, followed by the College while also offering family- weekend fun and memorable. Events will class-specific events, campus tours and friendly events and a touch of the under- include class-specific gatherings such as more learning opportunities. That evening, graduate experience through lectures and receptions, cocktail parties, panels and din- alumni may attend class-specific cocktail panels. Each class’ Reunion Committee ners; “Back on Campus” sessions featur- parties/receptions and dinners. Those has been working hard in conjunction ing Core Curriculum lectures, Engineering who observe the Sabbath may participate in a Tri-College (College, Engineering, Bar- nard) Shabbat service and dinner. Friday evening also features one of the biggest and most popular events for young alumni (Classes 2001–2011), a party aboard the recently restored U.S.S. Intrepid. Join Engineering, Barnard and GS friends and classmates for dancing, flight simula- tion, food and limited open bar. Tickets will be available for purchase in advance at college.columbia.edu/intrepid or for $35 on-site the night of the event. Starting at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 4, attendees’ children ages 3–12 may attend the all-day supervised Camp Co- lumbia for Kids. Also on Saturday morn- ing, all alumni, including Dean’s Day participants, may sign up for the Dean’s Continental Breakfast, where Moody- The Starlight Reception highlights the weekend with music and dancing under a tent on Low Plaza. Adams will give an update on the College

may/june 2011 4 columbia college today around the quads and present the President’s Cup. After breakfast, events continue for all reunion alumni and Dean’s Day attendees Class of 2010 One-Year with morning Public Intellectual Lectures, Reunion Celebration lunches and early afternoon Mini-Core Courses. he Class of 2010 kicks off the Late afternoon options include affin- reunion season in May with a new event this year, a One-Year ity group receptions, open to all reunion T Reunion Celebration, to be held on alumni and Dean’s Day attendees. Back Friday, May 20, from 7:30–9:30 p.m. at for an encore on Saturday, after a success- Astor Center, 399 Lafayette St. (at East ful debut last year, will be the Columbia 4th Street). A $25 ticket to this private Alumni Singers, who will gather in the reception with College and Engineering morning for a rehearsal, then regroup for classmates includes a full bar and hors an afternoon performance and reception. d’oeuvres. Space is limited, so register Other afternoon affinity group options by Tuesday, May 17: college.columbia. include a Varsity Athletics gathering, Spec- edu/2010reunion. tator gathering and an Afternoon Tea and Music of Columbia Concert, featuring a string quartet playing music composed by Also new this year is the ability to send fellow Columbians, among others. classmates an e-postcard to say hello and Reunion classes will continue the cel- to encourage them to attend reunion ebration on Saturday evening with the all- (https://alumni.college.columbia.edu/ class Wine Tasting, elegant class-specific Alumni Reunion Weekend offers a plethora of reunion/postcard). dinners and the all-class Starlight Recep- family-friendly activities. Non-reunion class members can reg- tion, with music, dancing and champagne PHOTOS: EILEEN BARROSO ister for Dean’s Day and select lectures at on Low Plaza. The weekend wraps up on https://alumni.college.columbia.edu/ Sunday morning with The New York Times bia.edu. New this year, the Classes of deansday. and a bagels and lox brunch. 1986–2006 can register via smartphone. For more information or assistance

Reunion class members can register (See your class’ Class Notes column in with either event, contact the Alumni and learn more at reunion.college.colum this issue for details and your class’ URL.) Office: 212-851-7488 or 866-CCALUMNI.

DEAN’S DAY • SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 2011 • NEW YORK CITY

Columbia College and the Columbia College Alumni Association are proud to sponsor Dean’s Day 2011. Scheduled for Saturday, June 4, the program provides the opportunity for alumni and parents to participate in thought-provoking lectures and discussions with some of Columbia’s nest faculty.

Dean’s Day 2011 is particularly noteworthy, as we are proud to announce that the Public Intellectual Lectures will be delivered by Michele Moody-Adams, dean, Columbia College and vice president for undergraduate education; Feniosky Peña-Mora, dean, e Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science; Nicholas Dirks, executive vice president for Arts and Sciences and dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences; and Peter Awn, dean of the School of General Studies.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

8:00 a.m. Registration Opens — Alfred Lerner Hall 8:30–10:15 a.m. Dean’s Continental Breakfast with Opening Address by Michele Moody-Adams, Dean, Columbia College 9:30 a.m. Camp Columbia for Kids

10:30–11:45 a.m. Public Intellectual Lectures Noon–1:30 p.m. Lunch 2:00–3:30 p.m. Core Curriculum Lectures 3:30–5:00 p.m. Anity Receptions, including Columbia Daily Spectator, Varsity Athletics and a special performance by the Columbia Alumni Singers

RE GISTE R TODAY! • WWW. COLLEGE. COLU MBIA. EDU/ DEANSDAY around the quads columbia college today Class of 2011 Approaches Class Day, Commencement

B y Al e x Sa c h a r e ’71

or the more than 1,000 members al that also includes graduating students, of the Class of 2011, graduation faculty and administrators. This parade season finally is here. underscores the transition the graduates F This year’s seniors will join the are making from students to alumni, and ranks of Columbia College alumni fol- emphasizes that their Columbia connec- lowing Class Day ceremonies on Tuesday, tion is lifelong. May 17, and Commencement on Wednes- Alumni are invited to represent their day, May 18. Alexandra Wallace Creed class by carrying its banner in the pro- ’88, senior v.p. of NBC News, will be this cession, which starts at 9:30 a.m. and is year’s Class Day speaker. She is only the preceded by a breakfast for parade par- second alumna to address the graduat- ticipants in John Jay Dining Hall. Alumni ing class, joining Claire Shipman ’86, ’94 interested in taking part in this tradition SIPA, who spoke before the Class of 1999. should contact Nick Mider, event coordi- Highlighting Class Day, as it has for nator, alumni affairs: nm2613@columbia. the past eight years, will be the Alumni edu or 212-851-7486. Parade of Classes, in which alumni carry Later that day, the annual Academic Students celebrate at Class Day 2010. their class year banners in the procession- Awards and Prizes Ceremony, at which students are recognized for their academ- ic achievements, will be held in Faculty House at 3:00 p.m. The day after Class Day, the members of the Class of 2011 will participate in Commencement, where more than 11,000 degree candidates from all University schools and approximately 20,000 guests will fill Low Plaza and South Field. The Baccalaureate Service, an inter- faith, intercultural service celebrating the completion of each undergraduate’s academic career, kicks off the graduation season at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 15, in St. Paul’s Chapel. This year’s keynote Banner-carriers in the Alumni Parade of Classes were cheered on by last year’s graduating seniors. speaker will be Peter Awn, dean of Gen- PHOTOS: CHAR SMULLYAN eral Studies.

Panels Highlight Forum in Washington, D.C.

pproximately 300 alumni, parents and friends turned out for Reform in Today’s World,” “Student a Columbia World Leaders Forum on April 2 at the Ronald Voices: Around Campus” and AReagan Building in Washington, D.C. The Columbia Alumni “Global Press.” Panelists included Association event featured four panel discussions: “An Insider’s View Dean Michele Moody-Adams, of Columbia: Today and Tomorrow,” “Global Health Care Policy and Provost Claude Steele, ABC News journalist Claire Shipman ’86, ’94 SIPA and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski ’85. There also was a welcome address from President Lee C. Bol- linger; a keynote address by Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer ’80, ’84 SIPA, ’85L (who filled in because his President Lee C. Bollinger (right) boss, Attorney General Eric H. greets Assistant Attorney Gen- Holder Jr. ’73, ’76L, was unable eral Lanny Breuer ’80, ’84 SIPA, Dean Michele Moody-Adams (far left) moderates the student panel with to attend); and a school-based ’85L at the forum. (from left) Sarah Khan ’11, Tao Tan ’07, ’11 Business and Laura Kelley ’11 PH. networking luncheon. PHOTOS: J.L. LINKO

may/june 2011 6 ZZPVOH!PVOH!BBMVNOJ!MVNOJ!QQBSUZ!BSUZ! PO!UIF!PO!UIF!VTT!JVTT!JOUSFQJEOUSFQJE

Columbia College Young Alumni invites the Classes of 2001–2011 to attend the Young Alumni Party Dmbttft on the USS Intrepid. 

 The USS Intrepid is the young alumni port-of-call for College sailors and mates. Join Engineering, Barnard and GS friends  and classmates, as we relive those Intrepid parties of old! We  have charted a course for dancing, flight simulation, food and

 limited open bar.  Gsjebz-!Kvof!4-!3122!¦!21!q/n/Ñ2!b/n/ 

 Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum West 46th Street and 12th Avenue, Pier 86  New York City  Tickets will be available for $25 in advance at  www.college.columbia.edu/intrepid or for $35 at the Intrepid on the night of the event.

Questions? Call 212-851-7977. around the quads columbia college today Senate Votes To Invite Return of ROTC

B y Al e x Sa c h a r e ’71

he University Senate voted on April 1 to support inviting the Reserve Officers Training Corps back to the Columbia campus. Shortly afterward, the University issued Ta statement indicating the issue would go before the Council of Deans, and a final decision could be expected before the end of the semester. ROTC, which has units at more than 300 campuses, has not been at Columbia since 1969, following anti-Vietnam War demon- strations in Spring 1968. Columbia students wishing to participate in ROTC must train For many years, Columbia’s Corps of Midshipmen drilled on College Walk and in neighboring streets. at Fordham University (Army) or Manhat- tan College (Air Force) or serve extended Columbia community. program at Columbia, and University offi- sessions in Quantico, Va. (Marines). Soon after the Senate vote was announ- cials would need to negotiate terms of the The senate, whose recommendations ced, the University issued a statement to program with the Department of Defense. are nonbinding, voted 51–17, with one media that read, “We appreciate the diligent On March 4, Harvard, which has been abstention, to approve the resolution that work by the University Senate in fostering without ROTC since 1971, signed an agree- states, in part, “Columbia University wel- a robust debate on the issue of military ment to bring a naval ROTC program back comes the opportunity to explore mutual- engagement and ROTC. As in any diverse, to its campus effective on the date of the ly beneficial relationships with the Armed open community there will always be a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” At Co- Forces of the United States, including par- range of strongly held opinions on such lumbia’s Senate meeting, there was a late ticipation in the programs of the Reserve important issues. But as President [Lee C.] push to add an amendment stating that the Officers Training Corps.” Bollinger stated after last December’s Con- resolution would not take effect until the re- The vote capped several months of Sen- gressional vote, the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, peal is officially implemented, but Bollinger ate debate regarding the return of ROTC, Don’t Tell’ offers an historic opportunity indicated he would not bring an ROTC which began shortly after Congress voted for universities to reconsider their own program to Columbia until that point. in December to repeal the “Don’t Ask, policies as well. As planned, we look for- Columbia was involved with ROTC Don’t Tell” policy that had prohibited ward to sharing the Senate resolution with since the program’s beginnings in 1916, openly gay men and women from serving the Council of Deans and seeking an of- forming one of the first Naval ROTC de- in the military. The Senate’s task force for ficial conclusion on this matter by the end tachments in the nation. For more than 50 military engagement conducted a student of the semester.” years, ROTC students took Naval Science survey in February, with 60 percent of re- Even if Bollinger follows the Senate classes, drilled on College Walk and in spondents in favor of the return of ROTC, recommendation, it does not mean ROTC neighboring streets, and worked on ships held three town hall-style meetings and will return to campus. A branch of the and submarines in New York Harbor. Co- invited comments via e-mail from the military would need to agree to start a lumbia’s NROTC program graduated thou- sands of students to become naval officers. At its peak, Columbia’s Corps of Midship- men rivaled the Naval Academy in size. Six years ago, the Senate voted 53–10 Brill, Nnadi Win Goldwaters against inviting ROTC back to campus. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was cited by op- achary Brill ’12, from Somerset, N.J., and Chimno Nnadi ’12, from New Milford, ponents as a contradiction of Columbia’s N.J., both chemistry majors, each received the $7,500 2011 Barry M. Goldwater policy of nondiscrimination. Scholarship in March. The scholarship is the most prestigious national undergrad- Z The University Senate, which was cre- uate award for students studying the sciences, mathematics and engineering. Brill has worked in the lab of Professor Scott Snyder since 2009. He plans to pursue ated in May 1969 in the wake of the demon- a Ph.D. in chemistry focusing on the total synthesis of natural products. In 2010, Brill re- strations that rocked the Columbia campus ceived the Class of 1939 fellowship to pursue independent research. He is a violinist with the year before, has 108 voting seats, with the Columbia University Orchestra and a member of the Chandler Chemistry Society. 63 reserved for faculty, 24 for students, six Nnadi, who works in Professor John Hunt’s lab, will study molecular biology in a M.D./ for officers of research, two each for admin- Ph.D. program. In 2009, she received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship istrative staff, librarians and alumni, and grant. Nnadi is active with CU Emergency Medical Services and the Undergraduate Re- nine for senior administrators including the cruitment Committee. president, who chairs monthly plenaries. Dmitriy Timerman ’12E, a biomedical engineering major, received honorable mention. For more, go to columbia.edu/cu/ senate/militaryengagement.

may/june 2011 8 This Is Columbia’s Moment.

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$5 billion by December 2013 around the quads columbia college today

Alumni In the News n Robert K. Kraft ’63 has donated uations Group, in April. Ruzika ville Theatre in March. Fox played $20 million to Partners HealthCare, had spent nearly 30 years at the Bobby in Neil LaBute’s latest play, a Boston-based nonprofit health Wall Street firm. Only one year In a Forest Dark and Deep. The play care system. The owner of the New after graduating from Columbia, was billed as a “dark comedy of England Patriots hopes his dona- Ruzika joined J. Aron, which was sibling rivalry” that “escalates into tion will galvanize states and phi- acquired by Goldman in 1982. He a psychological thriller bursting lanthropists to invest in programs climbed up the ranks, beginning as with savage conflict.” Fox’s intense through which doctors and nurses a silver and gold trader, and was performance with co-star Olivia impact a broader community, named head of Global Commodi- Williams was well received by instead of specializing and joining ties in 2000 and co-head of Global British critics. private practices. In an interview Macro Trading in 2006 before his with Boston.com, Kraft noted that final appointment leading the n Dennis Hirsch ’85, a law profes- while patients arrive from overseas Special Situations Group in 2007. sor at Capital University, was fea- for Boston’s elite medical care, In announcing his retirement, The tured in an interview in Columbus “people living in our own commu- New York Times noted that Ruzika’s Elliott Schwartz ’57 Business First in January. Hirsch nities aren’t treated properly” due division “is known for its typically photo: erik jorgensen specializes in privacy and envi- to lack of access. The funds will profitable deal on everything from ronmental law, and was awarded create the Kraft Family National golf courses to Texas wind power has taught at Bowdoin since 1964, a Fulbright Senior Professorship Center for Leadership and Training companies.” Ruzika received a where he is the Robert K. Beckwith Grant last year to lecture at the in Community Health, supporting John Jay Award for distinguished Professor of Music Emeritus and University of Amsterdam and re- medical practitioners caring for professional achievement in 2006. has been president of the College search Dutch information privacy more than 200,000 patients. It also Music Society and national chair of regulation. In the interview, Hirsch covers up to $50,000 in medical n To wish Elliott Schwartz ’57 a the American Society of University shared his views on the challenges student loan debt in exchange for happy birthday, the Portland Sym- Composers. Schwartz’s work has and recent innovations in privacy two to three years of service pro- phony Orchestra commissioned a been acquired by the Library of Con- regulation, including Internet viding care for the community. score by him that premiered in gress for its permanent collection. privacy, and suggested that the January. His reflective composition, United States can learn a great deal n Goldman Sachs lost a star execu- Diamond Jubilee, looks back on his n Matthew Fox ’89, who starred from the system in place in the tive with the retirement of Richard 75-year journey through music. in the TV series Lost, made his Netherlands. Ruzika ’81, head of the Special Sit- A resident of Maine, Schwartz stage debut in London’s Vaude- Atti Viragh ’12 GS

CAMPUS NEWS n SCIENCE: Amber D. Miller, the search involves a 6,000-lb. telescope nity.” The forum was part of CSER’s ments from student life, the origins Walter LeCroy Jr. Associate Profes- that will capture light from the hot Native American/Indigenous Stud- of the Core Curriculum and the sor of Physics, has been appointed plasma, near Antarctica, that was ies Project and hosted three speak- movement to coeducation. Items Dean of Science for the Faculty of left over from the big bang. ers — one each in February, March on view include a lottery book Arts and Sciences. Nicholas Dirks, Miller has received an NSF and April —working in academia, that recorded the funds raised to e.v.p. for Arts and Sciences, said Career Award, an Alfred P. Sloan the arts and the political sphere. The establish the College in 1748 and when announcing Miller’s appoint- Fellowship and the Columbia Dis- forum was made possible through The Book of Misdemeanors, used to ment on March 1, “Amber will be tinguished Faculty Award. She is a the funding of Daniel Press ’64, who record student infractions in 1771. charged in part with figuring out member of the Council on Foreign for the last four decades has prac- Two distinguished international how to make sure the core depart- Relations and recently was the ticed Indian law and has worked on alumni, Pixley ka Isaka Seme ments are fully supported and chief science adviser to the NYPD Native American economic issues (Class of 1906) and V.K. Wellington make sure the newer initiatives feed Counterterrorism Bureau. on behalf of tribes throughout the Koo (Class of 1908, Class of 1912 back with an organic continuity in country. GSAS) are profiled. relation to the departmental needs.” n INDIGENOUS: This spring, the The full exhibit will close on Fri-­ Since Miller joined Columbia in Center for the Study of Ethnicity n LONGEVITY: The International day, December 23. For more infor- 2002, she has worked on the Faculty and Race (columbia.edu/cu/cser) Longevity Center, a nonprofit orga- mation and updates on Parts II and Budget Group, the Space Planning presented a public forum for speak- nization founded in 1990 by the late III, visit library.columbia.edu/news/ Committee and the Academic Rev- ers on indigenous rights. CSER Dr. Robert N. Butler ’49, ’53 P&S, an exhibitions/2011/20110323_univ iew Committee, and chaired the Director Frances Negrón-Muntaner expert on aging who’s credited with ersity_archives_origins.html. Executive Committee of the Faculty called it “a milestone both for the coining the term “ageism,” will be of Arts and Sciences. Her current re- University and the larger commu- transformed into an interdisciplinary n SAID ROOM: Room 616 in center on aging headquartered at the But­ler Library is now the Edward Mailman School of Public Health. W. Said Reading Room, in memory Discussions were under way for the of the late University Professor. move at the time of Butler’s death The collection houses nearly 3,000 Tracy V. Maitland ’82, last July (college.columbia.edu/cct/ volumes ranging from classic president and chief sep_oct10/obituaries1). literature, music and fine arts to investment officer of politics, religion and history. In Advent Capital Man- n 100 YEARS: The Rare Book & addition to the Reading Room, the agement, received the Manuscript Library and the Univer- Rare Book & Manuscript Library is Black Alumni Heritage sity Archives commenced a year- opening a selection of Said’s notes Award at the Black long, three-part exhibit, “Columbia and marginalia for public viewing. Alumni Council’s University: 100 Years of Collecting,” Said taught at Columbia from 1963 annual reception, on February 15. until his death in 2003. He wrote held at Faculty House Part I, open until Friday, May more than 20 books, among them on February 24. 27, is “Alma Mater: Origins,” the classic Orientalism, an in-depth PHOTO: COLIN SULLIVAN ’11 which explores the beginnings examination of how the West per- of King’s College and feature ele- ceived the East.

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student spotlight Marshall Scholarship Helps Anna Feuer ’11 Follow Her Passion

B y Na t h a l i e Al o n s o ’08

xpressing her thoughts Feuer enrolled directly at the It was her interest in litera- and explore a lot of different through language comes university and took classes with ture and texts in general that subjects that I really didn’t know easily to Anna Feuer local students. drew Feuer to the Core Cur- very much about,” says Feuer, ’11, a passionate Eng- “A lot of study abroad pro- riculum, which enthralled her who has written articles about Elish major and writer. When the grams in India have all the Ameri- enough to apply early decision. financial aid and labor relations Marshall Commission called to can students taking classes “I liked the idea that all stu­ at Columbia. inform her that she had been separately,” says Feuer. “I was dents should have a well-round- Feuer has been equally active selected as a Marshall Scholar, able to make friends with my ed education,” says Feuer. “I also off-campus. During summer 2009, however, the Los Angeles native Indian classmates and interact liked that I would have to take with funding from the Los Angeles was at a loss for words. more directly.” science, even though that’s not County Arts Commission, she “I was incoherent, babbling,” During her semester in India, my strong subject.” completed a paid internship says the otherwise articulate Feuer lived in a university dormi- In addition to her initial inter­- with PEN Center USA (penusa. Feuer amidst laughter. “I was so tory and devoted some of her est in literature, a number of org), a nonprofit that works to excited. It’s a huge honor.” spare time to volunteering as an courses and professors at protect the rights of writers all Each year, up to 40 Ameri- English language tutor for boys Columbia have helped shaped over the world and foster a liter- can students receive the pres- ages 6–15 at the local Poor Boys’ Feuer’s academic trajectory. ary community among writers tigious Marshall Scholarship, Ashram. She decided to study in India in the western United States. which funds two years of grad- Upon returning to New York and learn Hindi and Urdu after Feuer helped plan events and uate study at any university in in May 2010, Columbia’s Depart- taking the course “Gandhi’s advocated for writers imprisoned the United Kingdom. This fall, ment of English and Compara- India” as a sophomore with abroad by encouraging members Feuer will continue her educa- tive Literature awarded Feuer associate professor of history to send letters to the state gov- tion at the University of Oxford, the Richmond B. Williams Travel- Janaki Bakhle. English professor ernments involved. where she will pursue master’s ling Fellowship, which allowed Alan Stewart and James Sha- “In some countries — in degrees in global and imperial her to spend three weeks in piro ’77, the Larry Miller Profes- China, for example — it seems as history and English literature. Dublin that August conducting sor of English and Comparative though the more Western mail According to Michael Pip- research at the National Library Literature, helped solidify her is sent to the prisoner, the better penger, associate dean of the of Ireland. decision to major in English. the prisoner is treated in jail,” Office of Fellowship Programs, “It was my first time at a nat­ “Their classes really got me says Feuer. “It was really inter- Feuer was one of 32 nationwide ional library and my first time excited about being an English esting learning about freedom of awardees chosen this year from doing that kind of research for major,” says Feuer, whose essay expression and the complicated a pool of 999 applicants. an English project,” says Feuer. “Reconstructing Englishness: politics that surrounds it.” “Part of the application pro- “To be able to see Yeats’ manu- Cultural Scission within the In addition, Feuer has com- cess is drafting and redrafting scripts was really exciting.” European Self” was published pleted editorial internships at essays to make them into some- in the September 2010 LA Weekly, n+1 magazine and thing special,” says Pippenger. issue of the University of W.W. Norton & Co. As a junior “Anna never shied away from Virginia’s Essays in His- and senior, she devoted one day putting more time and energy tory journal. a week to tutoring fifth-graders into crafting the best application “Anna connects dispa- struggling with reading at P.S. possible. She is a great com- rate ideas with creativity, 165 in Harlem. municator. She knows herself enabling others to read After Oxford, Feuer envisions well and can get others excited literary texts and intellec- herself returning to the United about her ideas. Anna also had tual history in the fresh States to pursue a Ph.D. in a great sense of humor, which I ways that she herself English or history. She eventu- think helps students in such an does,” notes Pippenger. ally wants to write nonfiction intense competition.” Feuer also has put in some capacity and the sug- At Oxford, Feuer will delve her literary talents to use gestion that she could end up more deeply into the subject outside the classroom. teaching at the university level of her senior thesis, which ana- She was managing editor brings a smile to her face. lyzed the impact of the Hindu of the Columbia Journal “That’s very attractive to me tradition on the Celtic revival of Literary Criticism as a and definitely a big reason for of the late 19th and early 20th sophomore and rose to wanting to get a Ph.D.,” she says. centuries. Feuer studied corre- co–editor-in-chief as a spondences between Irish poet senior. In her sophomore Nathalie Alonso ’08 is a free- W.B. Yeats and Indian poet Rabi- year, she also became a lance journalist and an editorial ndranath Tagore. She developed staff writer for The Eye, producer of LasMayores.com, the project with the guidance Anna Feuer ’11 has used her time at Spectator’s features and Major League Baseball’s official of a professor at the University Columbia to engage with the writings arts magazine. Spanish language website. She of Hyderabad in India while of W.B. Yeats, one of her favorite poets. “[The Eye] gave me the also writes a career blog for studying abroad her junior year. PHOTO: Nathalie Alonso ’08 opportunity to write about women, herfabcareer.com.

may/june 2011 12 columbia college today around the quads

Alumni, Student Win Scholarships To Continue Research

hree alumni and one senior will continue doing research at the Tgraduate level after receiving some of the most competitive and prestigious fellowships in the United States. Mollie Schwartz ’09, her class’ saluta- torian, won the Hertz Foundation Fellow- ship, an award valued at $250,000 that gives “generous support to young leaders in applied sciences and engineering.” The fellowship, which goes to only 2 percent of applicants, comes with no strings attached and supports Schwartz, a chemical physics major from Washington, D.C., for up to five years of graduate work. She is currently deciding where to attend graduate school. Jun Hyuk Jason Kim ’08, an English major from Brooklyn, is in the 3 percent of applicants who received the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Ameri- cans, which gives first-generation Ameri- cans up to $45,000 a year for two years to fund graduate work. Kim, who worked at The New Yorker, is working toward his M.F.A. in playwriting at The New School. Christopher Beam ’06, a history major and political reporter for Slate, won the Luce Scholarship, which will provide him with $30,000 to support a year’s worth of language study and professional experience in East Asia where Beam, from Washington, D.C., hopes to find a job in journalism. Benjamin Turndorf ’11, a philosophy major from Skillman, N.J., will pursue an M.S. in modern Chinese studies at Ox- ford, supported by the Clarendon Schol- We’ve got you covered. arship, which provides $41,000 a year to “academically excellent students with the best proven and future potential.” Through Columbia Alumni Association, Ethan Rouen ’04J, ’11 Business life insurance is available in amounts up to $1,000,000, underwritten by New York Life Manage Your Insurance Company (NY, NY 10010). Subscription f you prefer reading CCT online, For details about eligibility, coverage amounts, you can help us go green and save rates, exclusions and renewal provisions, please I money by opting out of the print visit alumni.columbia.edu/insurance or call edition. Click “Manage Your Subscrip- tion” at college.columbia.edu/cct and the plan administrator at 800-223-1147 follow the domestic instructions. We will continue to notify you by e-mail when each issue is posted online. You may be reinstated to receive the print edition at any time by sending a note to [email protected].

may/june 2011 13 around the quads columbia college today

In Lumine Tuo Burgers and Basketball n FONER: The DeWitt Clinton topher Tomlins for Freedom Bound: Professor of History Eric Foner ’63, Law, Labor, and Civic Identity in Colo- ’69 GSAS has been awarded two nizing English America, 1580–1865. major prizes for his book The Fiery Foner also won the Bancroft, which Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American carries a $10,000 prize, in 1989 for Slavery. He won the 2011 Lincoln Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Prize, sponsored by Gettysburg Revolution, 1863–1877. [To read College and the Gilder Lehrman an excerpt from The Fiery Trial, Institute of American History. Fon- go to college.columbia.edu/cct/ er will receive a $50,000 award on jan_feb11/columbia_forum.] May 11 at the Union League Club in New York City. He also was one n LENFEST: Eight faculty mem- of three winners of the Bancroft bers received this year’s Distin- Prize for History, awarded by Co- guished Columbia Faculty Awards, lumbia, along with Sara Dubow for established by Trustee Gerry Len- Ourselves Unborn: A History of the fest ’58L, at a dinner at Casa Italiana Fetus in Modern America and Chris- on February 8. The awards are giv- en annually to faculty in recognition of scholarship, University citizen- ship and professional involvement, More than 100 alumni, family members and friends came out to with emphasis on the instruction Havana Central at The West End on February 11 for “Burgers and and mentoring of undergraduate Basketball” to get an early start on June’s scheduled Alumni Reun- and graduate students. Each winner ion Weekend festivities. Following the reception, attendees cheered receives a stipend of $25,000 per on the men’s basketball team, which fell short to Princeton 76–46. year for three consecutive years. Enjoying the event were Erik Jacobs ’81, ’85 SIPA; his wife, Laura The awardees are Rachel Adams, Eberstein Jacobs ’88; and their children, William and Margo. Become a fan of professor of English and American PHOTO: NICK MIDER Columbia College studies; Stuart Firestein, professor of ® biological sciences; Mahmood Man- Today on Facebook dani, the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and professor of Obama ’83 announced. Keep in touch with anthropology; Stephen Murray, the Barzun, who is 101 and lives in In Memoriam fellow alumni and get Bernard and Lisa Selz Professor of San Antonio, taught at Columbia Medieval Art; Paul Olsen, the Arthur for five decades and has written MARABLE: Manning Marable, the latest news from D. Storke Memorial Professor in the or edited more than 30 books. He the M. Moran Weston/Black Department of Earth and Environ- was honored “for his distinguished Alumni Council Professor of the College and CCT. mental Sciences; Susan Pedersen, career as a scholar, educator and African American Studies, professor of history and James P. public intellectual,” according to a founding director of Columbia’s Shenton Professor of the Core Cur- news release issued by the National riculum; Achille Varzi, professor of Endowment for the Humanities. Institute for Research in African- philosophy and department chair; Other winners were authors American Studies and director and Katharina Volk, associate profes- Wendell E. Berry, Joyce Carol Oates of the Center for the Study of Advertise sor of classics. [For more on Volk, see and Philip Roth; historians Bernard Contemporary Black History, “Around the Quads” in this issue.] Bailyn and Gordon S. Wood; liter- died on April 1. He was 60 and here! n ary scholars Daniel Aaron, Roberto lived in New York City. Marable’s PARKIN: Chemistry professor Gonzalez Echevarria and Arnold Gerard Parkin was among 11 indi- death came just days before Connect with all Rampersad and legal historian the publishing of his long-await- viduals and four organizations and higher education policy expert ed biography, and the culmina- Columbia College alumni. named by President Barack Obama Stanley Nider Katz. ’83 as recipients of the Presidential tion of his life’s work, Malcolm Reach an audience of Award for Excellence in Science, n SLOAN: Six Columbia fac- X: A Life of Reinvention. prominent, affluent, Mathematics and Engineering Ment- ulty members have been named Marable had been at Colum- oring. In announcing the awards research fellows by the Alfred P. bia since 1993. During his 35- on January 21, Obama said, “These well-educated readers Sloan Foundation, which awards year academic career, he wrote individuals and organizations have two-year, $50,000 grants to support who are leaders in their gone above and beyond the call of and edited numerous books the work of exceptional young re- about African-American politics fields — attorneys, duty to ensure that the United States searchers in the fields of chemistry, and history and remained one physicians, politicians, remains on the cutting edge of sci- computer science, mathematics, ence and engineering for years to biology, neuroscience and physics. of the nation’s leading Marxist scientists … yes, even come. Their devotion to the edu- Columbia’s 2011 Sloan Fellows historians. He was a prolific writ- a President. cational enrichment and personal are Sabin Cautis, assistant profes- er and impassioned polemicist, growth of their students is remark- sor of mathematics; Dirk Englund, addressing issues of race and Significant savings able, and these awards represent assistant professor of electrical economic injustice in numerous just a small token of our enormous engineering and applied physics; opportunity. Call today to gratitude.” works that established him as Aaron Lauda, the Joseph Fels Ritt one of the most forceful and find out more. n Assistant Professor of Mathemat- outspoken scholars of African- BARZUN: Jacques Barzun ’27, ics; Abhay Narayan Pasupathy, ’32 GSAS, noted cultural historian American history and race rela- Contact Alex Sachare ’71 assistant professor of physics; and University Professor Emeritus, Nathaniel Sawtell, assistant pro- tions in the United States. at 212-851-7951 or was among the 10 winners of the fessor of neuroscience; and Latha A complete In Memoriam [email protected]. 2010 National Humanities Medals Venkataraman, assistant professor will be published in the July/ for outstanding achievement in of applied physics and applied August issue. history, literature, education and mathematics. cultural policy, President Barack Alex Sachare ’71

may/june 2011 14 columbia college today around the quads

Katharina Volk is an associate where the professors were duction to the poet. Right now, as well. I think it’s fun to look professor of classics. She super-friendly. So I thought, I don’t have a book project. at the overlooked. In this case, received the Distinguished forget about German, I’m go- I’m working on something Cicero is a very famous guy, Faculty Teaching Award for ing to become a classicist. a bit marginal, a poem by one of the most famous people 2010–11, and her book Manilius Can you talk about the book Cicero. He was a famous ora- from antiquity and probably and his Intellectual Background for which you won the Lio- tor and statesman, of course, the one we know the most was awarded the Lionel Tril­ nel Trilling Award? but he also wrote poetry, about because we have a great ling Award in 2010. Her most I received the award for Mani-­ including a poem about his many works of his, including recent book is Ovid, an intro­ lius and his Intellectual Back- own consulship. When he his letters. But he also wrote ductory text to the poet. Volk ground and was really excited. was the leader of the state in this crazy poem, and very few earned an M.A. from Ludwig- First of all, I think it’s fantastic 63 B.C., he thought he had people talk about it. Maximilians-Universität in done a really good job; most that Columbia has a book If you could be anywhere in Munich and a Ph.D. from award that is given by stu- importantly, he had put down the world, where would you Princeton. dents. Then there is the subject a conspiracy of people who be? Where did you grow up? Rome is definitely at the In Munich, Germany. Five Minutes with … Katharina Volk top of my list. What did you want to be What’s the last book you when you were growing up? matter: Manilius was a poet wanted to overthrow the read for pleasure that you’d At some point, I wanted to who about 2,000 years ago government. He then wanted recommend? run a cafeteria in a museum, wrote a very difficult poem someone to write a poem in I read a lot of novels. I really but I was really little. After about astrology. Even within praise of his achievement, and enjoyed Room by Emma that, I wanted to be a history classics, the topic is quite no one wanted to do it, so he Donoghue. I thought it was teacher. Then I wanted to be obscure. It’s not like Virgil or did it himself. We only have amazing. I also recently read an actress. That was the order. Ovid, who I’ve also worked on. a few fragments of the work. The Elephant’s Journey by José Mine is the first monograph in How did you become a pro- Already in antiquity, everyone Saramago. I loved that, too. English on this poet, and fessor of classics? was making fun of the fact that while I was working on it, even Cicero wrote his own poem What’s your favorite spot in In Germany, there isn’t a lib- classicists asked, “What are about how great he was. I got New York City? eral arts college system. You you talking about? Manilius?” interested in it, so I’m giving a Riverside Park down by the had to decide on a subject So it was very exciting that talk about it at a conference. river near West 100th Street. early. I knew I wanted to go students gave this book into academia, but wasn’t Are you usually attract- How do you recharge? the award for best fac- quite sure about the field. At ed to obscure topics? I like to cook to relax. After a ulty book of the year. first, I thought I was going If you’re a scholar, there long day, I find it takes your to do German literature, but What are you work- are some authors and mind off things. You have to the German department was ing on now? topics that everyone concentrate, but it’s a differ- this huge, anonymous de- I published an- works on, and ent type of concentration. partment. I had chosen Latin other book last they’re great, Interview and photo: as my minor; I had started year, Ovid. but there are Ethan Rouen ’04J, ’11 Business learning it in fifth grade and It’s much many other always loved it. The classics more main- things going To watch Volk talk about receiv- department turned out to be stream, on that are ing the Lionel Trilling Award, go this nice, small department an intro- interesting to college.columbia.edu/cct.

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may/june 2011 15 around the quads columbia college today

R o a r , Li o n , Ro a r Hale, Agho Highlight Winter Sports

B y Al e x Sa c h a r e ’71

haray Hale ’12 added First earn first-team honors since John was enough to tie Brown Team All-American to her Baumann ’08 in 2007–08. for fourth place in the growing list of achieve- league. ments and Noruwa Agho n BASKETBALL: Agho’s all- Katheen Barry ’11 earned ’12 captured the Ivy League around play helped the Lions All-Ivy First Team honors Sscoring championship in highlights compile a 15–13 record in Kyle by averaging team highs of Columbia’s winter sports season. Smith’s first season as men’s head of 10.4 points and 7.4 Hale won two individual races basketball coach. It marked only rebounds per game and and one relay and was named the Columbia’s third winning record leading the league with outstanding female athlete at the in the past 28 years. seven double-doubles. An Indoor Ivy League Championships Columbia tied for fifth in the Ivy economics/math and Span- for the second consecutive year, then League at 6–8. Princeton and Har- ish major, Barry was named finished seventh in 400 meters at vard were league co-champions to the Capital One/CoSIDA the NCAA Championships to earn at 12–2, and Princeton advanced Academic All-America First All-America honors. She might have to the NCAA tournament on the Team, the first Columbia finished even higher at the NCAAs strength of a 63–62 playoff victory. woman to be so honored. had she not had to hurdle a com- Princeton was beaten by Kentucky Brianna Orlich ’14, who petitor who had tripped and fallen 59–57 in the first round of the averaged 9.3 points and 3.5 into Hale’s lane. Heading into the NCAAs, while Harvard lost to rebounds per game, was Sharay Hale ’12 earned First Team All- outdoor season, Hale already had Oklahoma State 71–54 in the first selected to the league’s All- America honors in the 400 meters at the four school records to her name. round of the NIT. Rookie Team. indoor NCAA Championships. Agho, a 6-foot-3 guard, scored Agho was named to the All-Ivy PHOTO: MIKE Mc LAUGHLIN a career-high 31 points against First Team and Brian Barbour ’13, n TRACK AND FIELD: Brown in his season finale to finish Columbia’s starting point guard, Hale won the 200-meter and in the tournament, responded to the atop the Ivy scoring chart at 16.8 received Honorable Mention after 400-meter races and was a member intensity of the NCAAs. I’m look- points per game, beating out Greg averaging 13.3 points and 3.2 as- of the winning 4x400m relay team ing forward to coming back to next Mangano ’12 of Yale, who was sists per game and shooting .917 to lead Columbia’s women to sec- year’s NCAAs with fencers who are second at 16.3 ppg. Agho was the from the free-throw line. ond place at the Ivies. Columbia vastly improved, and know how to only Ivy League player to finish in The women’s team struggled amassed 213 points, its most ever, win in the NCAA format.” the top 10 in scoring, rebounding early, losing its first 13 games, but just behind Princeton’s 218. Although the men were winless (10th, 4.9 rpg) and assists (5th, 4.3 hit its stride in midseason and went Joining Hale in receiving All-Ivy in the round-robin Ivy Champion- apg). He finished second on the 7–8 the rest of the way, with six First Team honors for victories at ship, three Lion first-years earned team in rebounding, steals, blocked of those wins coming against Ivy the meets were Kyra Caldwell ’12 All-Ivy honors. Alen Hadzic ’14 shots and three-point field goals, opponents. Despite a 7–21 overall (60m hurdles), Monique Roberts went 10–5 to gain First Team hon- and is the first Columbia player to record, Columbia’s 6–8 Ivy mark ’12 Barnard (high jump), Uju Ofo- ors in epee, Alex Pensler ’14 was che ’13 (long jump), QueenDenise 11–4 and earned First Team honors Okeke ’13 (triple jump) and 400m in foil and Bo Charles ’14 went relay team members Caldwell, 10–5 and was named to the Second Ofoche, Hale and Miata Morlu ’14. Team. Hadzic and Pensler also Morlu also received Second Team earned Third Team honors at the honors by placing second to Hale NCAA Championship. in the 400m. The women placed second at the Columbia’s men finished sixth Ivies with a 5–1 record, losing only in the indoor Heptagonals, with the to champion Princeton 15–12 in the meet’s bright spot coming when first round of the two-day compe- the 4x800m relay team came from tition. Five Lions earned All-Ivy behind to win in a school-record honors: Katya English ’14 (13–5 in 7:28.64. Dylan Isaacson ’11, Matt foil), Nzingha Prescod ’14 (16–2 in Stewart ’11, Sam Miner ’14 and Jeff foil) and Loweye Diedro ’13 (16–2 Moriarty ’11 thus earned All-Ivy in sabre) made First Team, and honors. Lydia Kopecky ’13 (12–6 in epee) and Sammy Roberts ’12E (15–3 in n FENCING: Columbia’s com- sabre) made Second Team. bined men’s and women’s team The women accounted for 54 finished seventh overall in the of Columbia’s 94 victories at the NCAA Championships, a perfor- NCAAs, where the men competed mance that Coach George Kolom- for the first two days and the women batovich called “one of the most followed. Kopecky won 13 of her 23 satisfying I’ve experienced in all my bouts to tie for seventh in epee, the years as a coach. No, not in terms best finish of any Columbia fencer, of a high placing, although there is and earned All-America Second nothing wrong with seventh when Team honors. Roberts, who was Noruwa Agho ’12 scored 31 points in his season finale to capture the you consider the level of the tal- 12–11, and Diedro, who was 11–12, Ivy League men’s scoring crown. ent in collegiate fencing today, but earned Third Team recognition in PHOTO: GENE BOYARS rather how our team, the youngest sabre.

may/june 2011 16 columbia college today around the quads

n SWIMMING: Adam Powell ’11 ning, she was named to the All-Ivy Tony Zou ’13 at 12–8 and Andrew quarterback who ranks in the top closed out his Columbia career by First Team. Tan ’14E at 10–6. five for career touchdown passes capturing All-America Honorable Although no other Columbia Skylar Dickey ’14 Barnard had and also played baseball at Colum- Mention honors in the 50-yard free- woman finished first or second in the best record on the women’s bia, is to be honored with the Var- style when he qualified for the con- the meet, the team’s depth enabled team at 15–3, with Anne Cheng ’11 sity ‘C’ Alumni Award along with solation finals with a time of 19.55 the strong overall result. “Every Barnard and Monica Stone ’14 at Helen Doyle Yeager ’85 Barnard, a seconds, a career best and a school swimmer and diver on this team 13–5, Jenny Schroder ’14 Barnard two-time captain of the women’s record. Powell finished 16th overall contributed to our third-place fin- at 12–6, Katie Quan ’14 at 12–8 and basketball team. Both are on the in the 50, as well as 37th among 58 ish,” said coach Diana Caskey. Morgan Strauss ’14E at 11–5. Liz leadership committee for the Co- swimmers in the 100 freestyle. Chu ’12 was 8–8 at the No. 1 posi- lumbia Campaign for Athletics: Powell and Hyun Lee ’14E n WRESTLING: Heavyweight tion and 9–10 overall. Achieving Excellence. helped Columbia finish third in the Kevin Lester ’12 compiled a 23–6 Ivy Championship. Powell won overall record and won all five of n ENDOWMENTS: Several n COACHES: The Women’s the 50 and 100 free, Lee captured his Ivy League matches to earn College alumni have established Basketball Coaches Association the 200 and 500 free as well as the All-Ivy First Team recognition from endowments for the benefit of the has partnered with Columbia to 200 butterfly, and the two teamed the league’s coaches. Chosen to the wrestling and crew programs. Broth- establish The Center for Coaching with John Wright ’13 and Patrick Second Team were Eren Civan ’11, ers David Barry ’87 and Michael Excellence, a leadership-training Dougherty ’13E to win the 400 free- who went 4–1 at 165 lbs., and Nick Barry ’89, who wrestled together for program hosted on the Columbia style relay. Powell finished second Mills ’13, who was 3–2 at 184 lbs. Columbia in the 1980s, have estab- campus beginning this spring. in the 100 backstroke and was part Kyle Gilchrist ’12 (3–1 at 133 lbs.), lished an endowment in support of The center, developed by Athletics of two second-place relay teams — Steve Santos ’13 (2–0 at 149 lbs. an assistant wrestling coach position, Director M. Dianne Murphy in part- the 200 free with Wright, Dough- after missing a month of the season the first endowment of an assistant nership with WBCA, is the first of erty and Kai Schultz ’14, and the due to injury) and Mike Pushpak coach position in the Columbia Ath- its kind. It is designed to introduce 400 medley with Lee, Johnny Bai- ’11 (3–2 at 197 lbs.) received Honor- letics program. And Tom Cornacchia coaches to various aspects of leader- ley ’12 and Matthew Swallow ’14. able Mention. ’85, a four-year letter-winner who ship and provide a deeper under- All event winners earn All-Ivy First As a team, Columbia was 3–2 in rowed at the 1985 Henley Regatta, standing and appreciation of the Team recognition, with runners-up Ivy competition and 9–6 overall. has made a leadership gift to the importance of ethics and integrity in getting Second Team. rowing program to enhance the women’s college basketball through Powell won the Harold Ulen n SQUASH: Columbia’s squash experience of the more than 100 a rigorous curriculum presented Award as the Career High Point teams enjoyed successful varsity student-athletes who compete for in a seminar-style environment. Swimmer and Lee won the Phil debut seasons, the men’s team Columbia’s heavyweight, light- Coaches participate in an intensive Moriarty Award as the High Point going 13–5 and the women’s team weight and women’s crew teams. 2½-day seminar-style learning en- Swimmer of the Meet. finishing 12–6. vironment, featuring panel discus- The women also finished third Graham Miao ’13 had the best n VARSITY ‘C’: Don Jackson ’73, sions, guest speakers, small-group in the Ivies, matching their best record on the men’s team at 15–5, ’80 Business is scheduled to be breakouts, roundtables and interac- finish. Katie Mieli ’13 led the way, followed by Theo Buchsbaum ’14 honored at the 90th Varsity ‘C’ Cel- tive problem-solving. winning the 200 individual medley at 13–4, Clayton Dahlman ’11E and ebration on Wednesday, May 4, in a personal-best 1:59.20. For win- Alec Goldberg ’14 at 12–5 each, in Levien Gym. Jackson, an All-Ivy

“My life opened up when I “Why? came to Columbia,” Case says. “I want others to have the same So tomorrow’s experience and that’s why I put students can Columbia in my estate plan.” Join Steve Case and others walk through in the 1754 Society, alumni and friends who have made the same doors bequests and other planned that we did.” gifts to the University. Steve Case ’64CC, ’68LAW To learn more about Steve Case’s Columbia university Trustee experience—and about planned giving— Columbia Alumni Association (CAA) inaugural chair visit giving.columbia.edu/plannedgifts or call 800-338-3294. columbia college today

ive accomplished alumni — day is extraordinary.” An English major Andrew Barth ’83, ’85 Busi- with a concentration in visual arts who ness; Alexander Navab ’87; has held summer internships in Hong Kenneth Ofori-Atta ’84; Mi- Kong and Mumbai, Mangaldas plans chael Oren ’77 and Elizabeth to return to India after graduation and FD. Rubin ’87 — were presented with work in the film industry. (CCT profiled 2011 John Jay Awards for distinguished her in “Student Spotlight” in Septem- professional achievement on March 2 at ber/October 2008: college.columbia. the annual John Jay Awards Dinner. edu/cct/sep_oct08.) The diverse accomplishments of this Board of Trustees Chair William V. year’s award-winners speak to the varied Campbell ’62, ’64 TC welcomed the backgrounds and interests of College stu- guests and introduced Columbia Col- dents and alumni. lege Alumni Association Executive Barth, Navab and Ofori-Atta are lead- Committee member Kyra Tirana Barry ers in finance. Barth is the chairman of ’87, who thanked those in attendance Capital Guardian Trust Co. and Capital and announced that the dinner had International Limited, Navab is a partner raised nearly $1.5 million. Dean Michele Five Alumni Honored at John Jay Awards Dinner B y Al e x Sa c h a r e ’71

Photos: Eileen Barroso

and co-head of North American Private Moody-Adams recognized the faculty Equity for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. in attendance, calling them “the heart and Ofori-Atta is the executive chairman of the institution,” and the students who and co-founder of Databank Financial were in the audience, saying, “All of us Services. Oren has been the Ambassador are very proud of your accomplishments of Israel to the United States since 2009, and look forward to the day you can worked on a kibbutz in Israel as a teenag- stand up here as recipients of this award.” er and served in the Israel Defense Forces In his remarks, President Lee C. Bol- in the 1982 Lebanon war. Rubin is an linger said Columbia was at a historical award-winning war correspondent and a moment in its 257-year history. The open- contributing writer to The New York Times ing of the Northwest Corner interdisci- Magazine and other publications who has plinary science building completes the reported from the front lines in the Bal- original blueprint for the Morningside kans, Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan. Heights campus at the same time that the The black-tie dinner, attended by courts cleared the way for Columbia to approximately 600 at Cipriani 42nd create “a new campus for this century” Street in New York, benefits the John in Manhattanville. “This solves the space Jay Scholars Program, which aims to problem that Columbia has had for four extend and enhance the academic and or five decades,” Bollinger said. He also extracurricular experiences of out- noted that the endowment had outpaced standing College first-years with pan- peer institutions by achieving a 17 per- els, discussions and presentations by cent gain last year and that the Columbia leading professors and professionals. Campaign’s $4 billion goal had been Leeza Mangaldas ’11, who spoke on reached more than a year early. Bollinger behalf of the John Jay Scholars, many of got a laugh when he added, “Naturally, whom attended the dinner, was born in we extended the campaign by two years a small fishing village in the Goa, India. and raised the goal to $5 billion.” “On the 16-hour plane ride to New York Ofori-Atta, who is from Ghana and and Columbia, I could see my life was whose business is based in its capital, going to change,” she recalled. “Though Accra, is the first African-born recipient the rural, sea-salt air made for an idyllic of a John Jay Award. He was pleased childhood, Columbia University in the when Bollinger named Nairobi as a City of New York seemed like the glori- future site of a Columbia Global Center. From top: Honoree Elizabeth D. Rubin ’87 (right) with ous antithesis to everything I’d known.” “Africa is truly the next frontier, and fellow journalist Christiane Amanpour; honorees She praised the “astounding eloquence Columbia should be taking the lead Andrew Barth ’83, ’85 Business (left) and Michael and passion” of Columbia faculty mem- in bringing us into the community of Oren ’77; and honorees Alexander Navab ’87 and bers and said, “At Columbia, the every- states,” he said. Kenneth Ofori-Atta ’84.

may/june 2011 18 columbia college today john jay awards dinner

From top: Joining President Lee C. Bollinger (far left) and Dean Michele Moody-Adams following the presentation of citations are (left to right) honorees Andrew Barth ’83, ’85 Business, Kenneth Ofori-Atta ’84, Elizabeth D. Rubin ’87, Alexander Navab ’87 and Michael Oren ’77; students played a prominent role in the ceremony as presenters and speakers, including (left to right) Warren McGee ’11, Alicia Outing ’11, Vesal Yazdi ’11, Leeza Man- galdas ’11, Francesca Triani ’11 and Alexander Moll ’11; Mangaldas represented all John Jay Scholars in addressing the crowd of about 600 at Cipriani 42nd Street, which is in an or- nate former bank branch; and Moody-Adams praised the faculty in attendance, describing them as “the heart of the institution.”

may/june 2011 19 columbia college today

olumbia’s curriculum has helped the College develop a reputation as one of the world’s great liberal arts in- stitutions. The Core Curriculum, which dates to 1919, immerses students in great works of philosophy, litera- ture, art and music and “creates a stable foundation be- cause it is organized around timeless themes expressed in works that are unlikely to go out of style,” according to a recent Wall Street Journal article touting Columbia’s method. CAlumni who frequently come to mind when people think about Colum- bia College include Barack Obama ’83 and Eric H. Holder Jr. ’73, ’76L; Allen Ginsberg ’48 and Paul Auster ’69, ’70 GSAS; Richard Rodgers ’23, Oscar Hammerstein II ’16 and Lorenz Hart ’18; Tom Kitt ’96 and Brian Yorkey ’93; Claire Shipman ’86, ’94 SIPA and Maggie Gyllenhaal ’99; Herman Wouk ’34 and Jacques Barzun ’27, ’32 GSAS — people who have made their marks in the worlds of politics, law, the arts and the humanities. But the College also is a leader when it comes to the sciences, turning out Nobel-prize winning research and graduating students who become not only top doctors but also groundbreaking researchers on subjects ranging A Passion for Science

Members of the from the molecular structure of substances in our daily experience to large College’s science scale processes that play out in the farthest reaches of space. Now Dean Mi- chele Moody-Adams — working with the new Arts and Sciences science community dean Amber Miller, the chairs of the science departments and other academic discuss their leaders — is launching a planning and fundraising effort to enhance under- graduate course offerings and research opportunities in science. groundbreaking “Instilling an understanding of science is essential for the College’s mis- research sion of preparing students to live fully engaged lives as citizens and lead- ers,” Moody-Adams said. “Given the increasing importance of science to our daily lives and to issues facing the globe, we are intensifying our focus B y Et h a n Ro u e n ’04J, ’11 Bu s i n e s s on developing scientific literacy for nonmajors as well as majors, and offer- ing science majors the most challenging and rewarding science education possible. We hope to renew Columbia College’s commitment to providing our students with the best education in the liberal arts and sciences.” With what President Lee C. Bollinger has described as fitting symbol- ism, Columbia devoted its last piece of buildable space on its main cam- pus to the Northwest Corner Building, an interdisciplinary science center that is home to lecture halls, a library and cutting-edge laboratories where leading scientists train the next generation of Nobel laureates. In this issue, current students, faculty members and one alumna discuss research projects on subjects as varied as the sense of touch, nanotechnol- ogy, forest ecology and statistics.

may/june 2011 20 columbia college today a passion for science

Clockwise from top: Professor Martin Chalfie examines the sense of touch in worms; Joanna Wang ’11 (right) studies the behavior of mice with Rahia Mashoodh ’13 GSAS; Meredith Martin ’09 takes a brief respite from the field to work in the lab; Professor Andrew Gelman explores the world through statistics with GSAS stu- dent Zach Shahn; Professor Maria Uriarte and a re- searcher examine the for- ests of Brazil; Hechen Ren ’11 studies the properties of graphene; and Martin examines agave plants in Mexico. PHOTOS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: ETHAN ROUEN ’04J, ’11 BUSINESS; COURTESY JOANNA WANG ’11; COURTESY MERE­ DITH MARTIN ’09; MICHAEL MALECKI; COURTESY MARIA URIARTE; ETHAN ROUEN ’04J, ’11 BUSINESS; COURTESY MEREDITH MARTIN ’09

may/june 2011 21 a passion for science columbia college today Taking the Long Way To Becoming a Chemist

arkrete Krikorian ’11 knew that she loved chemistry the way conduction works at small scales (a billionth of a meter). in high school. But when she entered the College and “The problem with nanocircuits is that they don’t conduct consis- enrolled in general chemistry, she worried that she tently and so a lot of energy is lost. If we can understand the mecha- Mwould be behind the many classmates already taking nism of conductance at the nanoscale, we can bring nanoelectronics advanced organic chemistry early in their Columbia careers. to the forefront,” Krikorian says. “Using a compound versus using a “I told myself ‘I’ll somehow manage and make my own way,’” metal or rare element would be beneficial in many ways. It’s going she says. “I was glad I started with general chemistry because it was to be a lot cheaper, a lot more environmentally friendly, and stilbene good to be continuous and go from beginning to end at Columbia.” derivatives are easy to make and mass produce.” In the process, she completed laboratory work that might have Until her junior year of high school, Krikorian wanted to be a seemed to be extra credit. But Krikorian took the extra work as writer. Indeed, she still writes daily and hopes that writing will be a way of figuring out where her passions were. By the summer part of her life no matter what field she selects. after her first year, she was working in the organic materials lab Given her varied interests, choosing Columbia made sense to of Professor Colin Nuckolls ’98 GSAS. Krikorian because it offered an excellent liberal arts curriculum as Three years later, she still is working in the lab and trying to well as opportunities to be involved in the research being carried choose from among the eight top graduate programs to which out by Columbia’s outstanding scientists. she was accepted. Krikorian says that in addition to her work in the lab, she has “This lab experience was an integral part of deciding to go to benefited from Columbia’s small, friendly Chemistry department grad school,” she says. and from the chance to take graduate level courses, which have Krikorian, a Queens, N.Y., native, has worked on a variety of given her a taste of what her future in graduate school will be like. projects in the lab. Most recently, she has been studying the con- “The most important thing for me has been not to think of one ductivity of stilbenes, molecules that could have applications in path as the right thing to do but doing what is right for you,” she the field of nanocircuitry. says. “Chemistry is what I really liked, and I’m not doing it be- Krikorian is using stilbenes as a model system to understand cause it’s a stable job. I do it because I want to be happy.” Nobel Prize Winner and Professional Worm Tickler

artin Chalfie may be best known for winning the with an eyebrow hair or poking them with a wire. When they Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008, but the William R. come across these mutants, they clone their genes to find out Kenan Jr. Professor of Biological Sciences also is “the what has gone wrong and identify the components that allow Mworld expert on tickling worms.” animals to sense touch. Chalfie’s work has led to a recent paper Chalfie shared the Nobel for the work he does with GFP, a fluo- in which his lab identified the first molecule in an animal nerve rescent protein found in some jellyfish. Chalfie showed that other cell that allows it to respond to mechanical stimuli. organisms given the jellyfish gene could make functional GFP. In- While Chalfie has been doing groundbreaking work, he is also vestigators could then see the green cells or a generous teacher who allows Columbia green proteins within living tissues. College undergraduates to join in his re- This discovery has far reaching con- search and provide meaningful contribu- sequences in biology, influencing work tions during their time in the laboratory. in genetics, developmental biology and Students often start out screening for cell biology as well as giving insight into mutants, which does not require extensive disease processes such as cancer. With training but is a vital part of the process and GFP, scientists can label specific cells and often gets them hooked on the research. track their progress, whether it’s how This summer, Chalfie will have three a specific cell grows or how it moves undergraduates working with him, Isaac through a body. Johnson ’14, Geneva Miller ’13 and Alexis Chalfie came across GFP while doing Tchaconas ’14, as well as numerous grad- the research that has consumed much of uate students. his career examining the sense of touch in “I like to have first-year students work animals. in the lab because if things work, they “For the most part, we don’t know how can continue working on the project for we respond through these physical senses,” several years if they wish,” he says. “I he says, “and that leads to one of the very have had undergraduates in the lab who big questions of sensory biology: How have been integral parts of work and who does an organism interact with its sur- have been co-authors on papers. We have roundings?” also had really outstanding students who Using worms, he and his team of re- worked in the lab and nothing came from searchers look for mutants that are in- their work, but they developed into won- sensitive to touch, either by tickling them Chalfie works with College students in his lab. derful scientists and physicians.”

may/june 2011 22 columbia college today a passion for science How Environment Molds DNA

hile mice may not be able to lie on a couch and which is not yet complete, will reveal some of the social experi- squeak about their problems, they can provide ences that can alter the DNA in animals, changing their behaviors valuable insight into how an animal’s environ- and the behaviors of future generations. ment can alter the way in which it Wang plans to continue doing research in the fall develops, as psychology major Joanna Wang ’11 is when she starts medical school. Although she is still Wshowing. waiting to hear from some of the schools to which For two years, Wang has been working in the lab she applied, she already has been accepted to several of psychology professor Frances Champagne, ex- schools, including Stanford. amining how mice are affected by the environment She has been working in labs for some time and be- in which they are raised. gan her science career at a science and technical high “We now know more that the environment plays school in Washington, D.C., where she was raised. The a significant role in affecting behavior,” Wang says. influence of her teachers in high school guided her to “Not only are we passing on our DNA to our chil- Columbia because of her many interests. dren but also our experiences and our behaviors “They really stressed that to succeed, you needed influence them.” to take courses outside your field of interest,” Wang Wang’s experiments, which are the basis of her se- says. “Columbia has a great science program, but it Wang (right) and Rahia Mas- nior thesis, involve examining two sets of mice, one hoodh ’13 GSAS study how was the Core Curriculum that really appealed to me. that is raised in isolation and one that is raised in a the environment of mice can I always enjoyed literature and philosophy, and that communal setting. She hopes the results of the study, alter their behavior. tradition drew me to Columbia.” The World Is Her Laboratory

hile most people are lucky if they land one job that in tequila as well as a high-end liquor, mescal. makes people say, “How cool!”, Meredith Martin She collaborated with a local NGO to figure out what influenc- ’09 is developing a career with one fascinating proj- es the plants’ growth and how to most effectively improve yields Wect after the next. while ensuring sustainability. Her work revealed that cattle tram- Martin, who majored in Ecology, Evolution and Environmental pling the plants did the most harm. Biology, began doing meaningful, in-depth research the summer “It was nice to be able to show definitively that it’s actually a after her sophomore year at the College, when she completed a factor and submit results to the community,” Martin says. “The Research Experience for Undergraduates project at the American findings had an effect on the farmers’ methods.” Museum of Natural History. Working as a lab technician, she stud- The offerings in the E3B department were what initially drew ied the genetics of sea turtle populations. Martin to the College, but the opportunity to take “That’s one thing that’s great about going to a wide-ranging curriculum sealed the deal. school in New York,” she says. “You have access “I liked the idea of having to take all these hu- to all these great institutions.” manities classes that I wouldn’t necessarily have As part of the Ecology, Evolution and Environ- taken if I didn’t have the requirements,” she says. mental Biology curriculum, Martin, who grew up Martin is now in the Master of Forest Science in Brooklyn, spent a summer doing research in the program at the Yale School of Forestry, support- mountains of Mexico. The results of that research ed by a fellowship from the New York Botanical became the basis of her senior thesis. Working with Garden. She continues to work with Professor adjunct professor Charles Peters, who also is the Peters, although she is now studying how the Kate E. Tode Curator of Botany at the Institute of growth of the camu camu fruit in the Peruvian Botany at the New York Botanical Garden, Martin Martin spent a summer doing field Amazon is being affected by the fruit’s increas- studied the basic ecology of agave, which is used research in the mountains of Mexico. ing popularity. Applying Physics to Daily Life

echen Ren ’11’s work in physics could seem abstruse lum, she knew that the College would provide the broad educa- even to a high school science teacher. But Ren’s time at tion she was seeking, as well the kind of students with whom she Columbia College has allowed her to become a well- could comfortably share her ideas. Hrounded student despite spending many hours in the “I was really into philosophy, and I thought that the Core laboratory. would be the way to force myself to learn,” she says. “Everyone is Ren, who grew up in China, first fell in love with Columbia learning the same thing, reading the same books, and we discuss on a visit to New York while she was a high school student. En- them. I knew that if I wanted to come to a new country, I wanted chanted by the cultural offerings of the city and the Core Curricu- to find the best way to learn about the culture.”

may/june 2011 23 a passion for science columbia college today

While she enjoys reading the “The field is very cool for undergraduates,” she says. “For us, great books of Western Civiliza- it’s many small projects we can do. We can start from scratch, fab- tion, Ren, a math and physics ma- ricate our devices, measure them and analyze the data, and really jor, devotes a lot of time to exam- feel like we’re doing physics.” ining graphene, a one-atom thick She also works with students from Engineering to explore sheet of bonded carbon, whose graphene’s potential applications, such as high-frequency FET, a properties let her explore correlat- possible replacement for silicon transistors in computer chips. ed electron systems in condensed The work she has done with Associate Professor Philip Kim matter physics. has given her a deep understanding of the sciences she has stud- Many inspirations for her ex- ied and landed her in an extremely enviable position: Ren has periments come from theoretical been accepted to do graduate work at Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Hechen Ren ’11 examines the properties of graphene at her physicists, who propose a hy- Stanford, UC Berkeley and Columbia. lab in the Northwest Corner Sci- pothesis that Ren can then ex- “It is a hard decision,” she said. “I’m still trying to figure out ence Building. plore through graphene. where to go.” Using Statistics Across Many Fields

ndrew Gelman is a Professor of Statistics whose work lic opinion on gay rights, patterns in stops by NYPD officers and touches on topics as varied as how voting patterns measurements of cockroach allergens in New York apartments. He differ depending on religious commitments and eco- currently is working with researchers Matt Schofield, Ed Cook and nomic status, and (along with researcher Alexander Upmanu Lall at Lamont-Doherty on reconstructing climate history van Geen) how to find safe drinking water in Bangladesh. based on tree ring data. The scarcity of the data and the approximate AIn his book Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Ameri- nature of the models make reliable reconstruction a statistical and cans Vote the Way They Do, Gelman and his colleagues David Park, scientific challenge. Boris Shor, Joseph Bafumi and Jeronimo Cortina ’03 SIPA, ’07 GSAS, Still, Gelman’s biggest project is creating a new introductory sta- dispelled several of the most common notions of who is voting for tistics course and writing a corresponding textbook. In an intro class, the different political parties. Their research showed that the differ- he says, there isn’t enough time to prove everything mathematically, ences in voting between “red America” and “blue America” are con- so he is relying on a lot more showing and a lot less telling. centrated among upper-income voters. It is the rich, more than the The class involves a great deal of active learning and contains poor, who are voting based on culture, on “God, very little lecturing. An early project has stu- guns and gays,” Gelman says. dents select what they believe is a random sam- “Within any given state, the richer you are, ple of candy from a bag and guess the weight the more likely you are to vote Republican,” he of the entire bag based on the sample. An en- says. “It’s not the Prius versus the pickup truck. velope hidden in the room before class always It’s the Prius versus the Hummer. The culture correctly predicts that all estimates will be too war is happening among the upper middle class high because the larger candies will float to the and the rich.” top, skewing the results. Gelman has worked on many other projects “It’s like a survey of people,” he says. “You at Columbia on topics including structure in so- Gelman explores the world through sta- get the most talkative people. That’s why we cial networks, reversals of death sentences, pub- tistics with GSAS student Zach Shahn. need to do random sampling.” How People Impact the Growth of Forests

ssistant Professor of E3B Maria Uriarte studies the ways forests that were once there?” in which forests regrow after humans abandon agricul- In Puerto Rico, Uriarte is examining the regrowth of forests that ture, and the effect of this process on the community com- were once cleared to grow coffee, tobacco and sugar. She is try- position genetics of plant species. She wonders whether ing to find out if new forests will support the biodiversity of the biodiversity can be preserved as human beings encroach upon, and original primary forests, as well as offer the benefits that tropical Athen retreat from, nature. She also investigates the ways in which forests provide to humans, such as clean water and carbon uptake. climate change alters our relationship with the natural world. This is an issue of global importance because the area of degraded Uriarte, who teaches in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and secondary forests in the tropics covers an estimated 850 mil- and Environmental Biology, does her research in the tropical for- lion hectares and is likely to increase. ests of Puerto Rico, Brazil and Peru. Her work is an attempt to In Brazil, Uriarte explores how forest regrowth between remnant understand the effects of human interactions with forests in time fragments of primary forest influences the genetic structure of the to prevent further damage. species that have survived inside of these fragments. She expects “People are moving away from agricultural land all over the deep insights from this project because genetic data dates back 13 world,” she says. “To what degree can these forests that grow years, making it possible to see firsthand what the genetic compo- after agricultural abandonment resemble the primary tropical sition of species in remnant fragments looked like before and after

may/june 2011 24 columbia college today a passion for science the pastures originally cleared in areas surrounding the fragments zon Basin, and led to rising prices for tropical commodities includ- became reforested. Deforestation in the tropics is continuing at rates ing biofuels that might serve as substitutes for petroleum products. that lack historical precedent resulting in the extensive fragmenta- Many of these changes result from a series of enacted policies and tion of species-rich rain forests. Insights from Uriarte’s project are decisions taken on national and local levels. The disruptions pro- likely to be relevant to what is happening to forests in other areas. duced by rapid land use and demographic transformations are Uriarte’s work in Peru involves not only biologists but also an- compounded by the uncertainties of a changing climate. Uriarte’s thropologists and climate scientists. For centuries, farmers in the team aims to quantify the critical factors driving the increased inci- Peruvian Amazon have used burning to manage agricultural fields, dence of fires. The researchers are trying to determine whether the and more recently, to clear and clean pastures. Yet the landscapes of fires are the result of droughts, or of recent changes in land use, or the region are being rapidly transformed by clearing for large-scale perhaps of the management practices of new migrants. plantation agriculture, especially biofuel production, by extensive “As scientists, we like to deal with one thing at a time,” she says. ranching and by new patterns of smaller-scale land uses by non- “Right now, so much is happening at once that that is impossible. Amazonian migrants who arrive in large numbers from the coast What’s the effect of climate change on forests? Legacies of human and highlands of Peru. Large fires escaped from burning fields and land use? Development policies? There are so many important ques- pastures have become common dry season events that ravage for- tions. The trick is to identify which ones we must manage to preserve ests, farms and settlements in much of Amazonia and recently, these biodiversity, critical ecosystem services and human livelihoods.” destructive fires have become a major problem along this region. The immediate causes of increased fire susceptibility reflect a Ethan Rouen ’04J, ’11 Business is associate editor for Columbia variety of changes in economic policies. The policies at stake have College Today. His last cover story, about internships at the College, affected agricultural development and land settlement in the Ama- was published in the January/February issue. Frontiers of Science Broadens the Liberal Arts Education he seniors who will graduate from Columbia “The course emphasizes the frontiers, the break- College this May were not yet born when throughs,” says Darcy Kelley, the Harold Weintruab Columbia first began to consider how to add Professor of Biological Sciences, one of the Frontiers’ a science component to the Core Curriculum. creators. “Doing anything in science, you have to strug- The debate began in 1982, when Profes- gle through years and years of preparation. In Frontiers, sorT David Helfand, now the chair of the Department of you don’t. You get to cut to the chase and talk about Astronomy, was asked to head the Committee on the what’s happening right now. That’s fun for faculty to Place of Science in a Liberal Curriculum. talk about, but it’s also fun to hear.” “When I got here in 1977, I was delighted to see that The seminars are taught by tenured faculty and post- the faculty actually had the temerity to say, ‘These ideas doctoral research fellows with a specific interest in inter- are important, these books are important, and I don’t disciplinary science teaching. Regardless of the instruc- care what you are majoring in, you will all do this togeth- David Helfand has been tor’s expertise, he or she teaches all components of the er,’ ” he says. “I was simultaneously appalled that this thinking about a Core course, which has proven alluring to dozens of faculty Core Curriculum, which was advertised in the catalog as course in science since members. the intellectual arms of the University and preparation for the 1970s. “As scientists go deeper into their fields, their focus life as an intelligent citizen, consisted of seven humani- PHOTO: MARIANNE COOK, becomes narrower and narrower,” says Kelley, who this FACES OF SCIENCE ties courses, zero math courses, zero science courses year gave four lectures on neuroscience. “Here, astrono- and zero social science courses.” mers who haven’t done biology since ninth grade get to For 22 years, Helfand worked with faculty, administrators and learn about and teach biology. Scientists do what they do because alumni, many of whom had a deep emotional attachment to the Core they love to learn science. Frontiers allows them to explore new as it was, in an effort to create a science component for the Core fields. What’s not to love?” Curriculum. The basic goals of the project were “to show students Although Frontiers initially was met with resistance from some that science is interesting because of the things we don’t understand, students, others found it eye-opening. The course has begun to not the set of facts that we do,” and “to inculcate in them a set of gain traction as a vital piece of the Core education, even convert- quantitative reasoning skills that many students lack,” he says. ing some students from liberal arts majors to science majors. In 2004, Columbia launched the Frontiers of Science course on “Understanding scientific methods of argument and inquiry is a trial basis. In this one-semester class, which College students an important requirement of citizenship in the 21st century,” generally take in either the fall or spring semesters of their first year, says Dean Michele Moody-Adams. “Frontiers of Science seeks to students attend a series of lectures develop that understanding so that students graduate from the presented by noted senior faculty College able to participate responsibly in those political, social and on current research, and then meet economic debates that require some awareness of the nature and in smaller seminar-style groups to goals of modern science.” discuss the topics covered. Frontiers recently underwent an initial five-year review, and it The topics change every year continues to be revised, in a process that Helfand says he hopes as research advances. More than will never cease. 30 tenured professors have taught Moody-Adams has approved a second, more extensive review of the course, and each lecture must Frontiers of Science. External reviewers will join Columbia faculty in Professor Darcy Kelley (left) says Frontiers focuses on what’s hap- be rehearsed twice in front of the examining the course’s content and methods to ensure that it fully pening in science right now. faculty before it is presented to the embodies the goals of the College’s Core Curriculum. PHOTO: COLUMBIA COLLEGE students. —E.R.

may/june 2011 25 columbia college today Guru of Climate Change Law When an island nation is threatened with extinction due to rising waters, Michael Gerrard ’72 is the man to call

B y Sh i r a Bo s s ’93, ’97J, ’98 SIPA

eaders of the Marshall Islands, alarmed that their country is slowly disappearing into the Pacific Ocean due to rising waters caused by climate change, recently turned to environmental lawyer Michael Gerrard ’72 for help. Gerrard, renowned in the field of environmental law and especially climate change law, returned to Columbia from private practice two years ago to teach at Lthe Law School and head the new Center for Climate Change Law (columbiaclimatelaw.com), the first of its kind. Its mission is to develop legal techniques and resources to help govern- ments, companies and even individuals fight global warming and cope with its impact. Gerrard visited the Marshall Islands late last year and witnessed It’s not just encroaching oceans that are a concern worldwide, the vulnerabilities firsthand. The capital, Majuro, rises only a few says Gerrard. Climate change has grown into one of the most vital feet above sea level on an island whose width is roughly the dis- problems affecting the earth. Gerrard has been heavily involved tance between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue on the Colum- in the issue for several years and has worked at the forefront of bia campus. It’s not just an outright disappearance underwater that environmental law since its inception in the 1970s. He has writ- threatens habitability but also erosion from rising tides, pounding ten nine books on specific areas of environmental law, including by increasingly severe tropical storms, and salt water infiltrating the first and definitive volume on U.S. climate change law, and the drinking water supply, which are already happening. he has represented scores of corporate, municipal and nonprofit Among the Marshall Islands’ legal concerns, which they share clients in environmental actions. with other small island nations are: Where would their citizens “There’s overwhelming scientific evidence that humans are go, with what citizenship status, if and when their country be- causing changes to the climate and that these changes will have a comes uninhabitable? Would the country retain fishing and min- significant negative impact,” Gerrard says. He believes that legal eral rights? Would it still be a country at all? techniques are among the most effective tools to change patterns “The questions were so novel and difficult and numerous that of energy production and use and address climate change. they were beyond our capabilities to answer on our own,” says Gerrard, the Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice, errard came of age in an industrial area of Charleston, W.Va., referring to the Center for Climate Change Law’s small staff of heavily polluted with discharge from chemical plants. While student interns, four fellows and two visiting scholars. Instead, Ghe was an undergrad, the country was just waking up to the Gerrard put out an international call for papers — answered by importance of environmental protection. In 1970, the first Earth Day 77 scholars in 23 countries — and organized a conference to be was celebrated, the Environmental Protection Agency was founded held at Columbia on May 23–25, “Threatened Island Nations: and Congress passed key legislation such as the Clean Air Act. Legal Implications of a Changing Climate.” “In the shadow of Vietnam, there was a lot of attention paid

may/june 2011 26 columbia college today Michael Gerrard ’72

Signs of the damage caused by rising waters due to climate change are everywhere in the Marshall Islands. Top: Michael Gerrard ’72 stands on a beach where much of the sand has been washed away, exposing the trees’ roots and threatening their survival. Middle left: Gerrard examines a building whose underpinnings are endangered by rising wa- ters. Middle right: One of many gravestones that have been damaged by the encroaching seas. Immediate right: Gerrard and Martha Campbell, U.S. ambassador to the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Far right: Back home in Chappaqua, N.Y., Gerrard with his wife, Barbara, supervisor of the Town of New Castle, and their sons, William ’05, ’12 Arts (second from right) and David ’03, ’07 Arts. PHOTOS: DERRAIN COOK (Marshall Islands), LORI SACHARE (far right)

may/june 2011 27 Michael Gerrard ’72 columbia college today to reforming society and controlling corporate conduct,” Gerrard which came out this spring. He now is co-editing a book on the says. “It became clear that the environmental problems of the law of adaptation to climate change, which includes domestic and country resulted not only from engineering failures but also from international laws. Two of his books have won the Association of political and legal failures, and that political and legal action was American Publishers’ Outstanding Legal Book of the Year award: a necessary component of fighting environmental decline.” the 12-volume Environmental Law Practice Guide and the four-vol- A political science major, Gerrard initially pursued a career in ume Brownfields Law and Practice: The Cleanup and Redevelopment of journalism. He was a writer and editor at Spectator and worked in Contaminated Land, both of which are continually supplemented. the summers and after graduation for the Charleston Gazette and “He’s very unusual in not only the quality but the amount of the Charleston bureau of the Associated Press. his writing — books, articles and studies,” says Ross Sandler, pro- But a seminar he took during his junior year, “Institute in fessor of law at New York Law School, who was the adjunct who American Politics and Social Change,” taught by Alan F. Westin, taught environmental law to Gerrard at NYU. “Many academic led him to his eventual field of environmental law. In Westin’s lawyers would envy his output over the years.” Sandler says part course, Gerrard studied the problem of air pollution in West Vir- of what enabled Gerrard to be so prolific while practicing law ginia. That research turned into his senior thesis, “The Politics of full-time is that he “keeps voluminous files on every aspect of Air Pollution in West Virginia,” for which he won the Alan J. Wil- environmental law, and has them meticulously organized — he len Memorial Prize for the best thesis on American politics. did the work of a computer even before computers.” After his stint in journalism, Gerrard came back to New York Gerrard has been ranked by Who’s Who Legal and in the Guide in 1973 to be a policy analyst at the Council on the Environment of to the World’s Leading Environmental Lawyers as one of the top envi- New York City, affiliated with the Office of the Mayor. He became ronmental lawyers in the world. Peers surveyed by the publication involved in the Westway case, the biggest development controver- group Best Lawyers designated him the 2010 New York Environ- sy in New York City in the ’70s. It involved a proposal to build an mental Lawyer of the Year. Their awards are given to the attorneys A tagline for Gerrard’s career could be “Act Globally, Act Locally.” interstate highway on the far West Side that would have included who have earned their peers’ highest respect for “their abilities, landfill in the Hudson River and cost about $2 billion. “At a time their professionalism and their integrity.” when the New York subway and bus systems were falling apart, “He has a really sophisticated perspective,” says Steve Cohen, this would have cost $10,000 a linear inch,” Gerrard says. director of the Earth Institute at Columbia. Gerrard was recruited The battle helped inspire Gerrard to become a lawyer. “It be- to the faculty of both the Law School and the Earth Institute. “He came clear to me that this beast could best be fought in court and understands the perspectives of interest groups, industry and en- other legal arenas,” he says. “I watched lawyers use legal tech- vironmentalists, and the details of environmental policy and law.” niques to great effect.” Gerrard continues his professional practice part-time as senior During law school at NYU, Gerrard interned at the Natural Re- counsel at Arnold & Porter, where he was previously managing sources Defense Council and remained involved in the Westway partner of the New York office and head of its environmental case, which was defeated in 1985 on environmental grounds. After he practice. He has represented numerous real estate companies in- graduated from NYU Law in 1978 and went to work for Berle, Kass volved in proposed development projects, helping them navigate & Case, Gerrard’s experience with Westway “led to a string of cases the environmental review process and get the permits they need. representing municipalities and community organizations litigating Since 2002, he has represented developer Larry Silverstein con- against highways,” he says. He then used many of the same legal cerning the environmental issues regarding redevelopment of the techniques to represent municipalities and citizens groups fighting World Trade Center site. hazardous, solid and radioactive waste landfills and incinerators. “Mike analyzes legal issues without favor or bias. He is the first person we all look to on a difficult or close issue in our field,” hen Gerrard attended law school, there was no envi- says Jim Periconi ’70, who met Gerrard when they attended NYU ronmental law program; the school’s entire offering on Law and who now runs a boutique environmental law firm in Wthe subject was a single course taught by an adjunct. New York and remains a friend. “He’s given so much time and Gerrard has not only built his expertise working in the field but effort to nonprofits, and at the same time he has an impressive also has helped shape it through numerous books and articles, roster of corporate clients. He commands great respect in both work with environmental advocates, teaching and now by form- camps — it’s rare for an environmental attorney to be so admired ing and leading the Center for Climate Change Law. and trusted by such radically competing interests.” “He’s always on the cutting edge,” says Deborah Goldberg, who Gerrard points out that the two sides are not always conflict- worked with Gerrard at two law firms and now is managing attor- ing. “Many companies really do want to comply with environ- ney of Earthjustice, a nonprofit public interest law firm. “He’s writ- mental laws and want to know what they are and how to do ten the book on any number of issues just as they were emerging, that,” he says. “Silverstein wants to make the new towers green. and is still doing it now, with the Center for Climate Change Law.” For years, we’ve been working on the design and construction Goldberg says he is the leading authority on environmental impact and operation being as environmentally friendly as possible.” review in New York and that “the first thing anyone with a question The towers now being erected at the former World Trade Center in that area does is to reach for Mike’s two-volume treatise.” site will earn the Leadership in Energy and Environmental De- Gerrard wrote the first and leading book on U.S. climate change sign Gold certification or the equivalent, Gerrard says. law, Global Climate Change and U.S. Law, in 2007. His two most re- For several years in the mid-’90s, Gerrard represented the cent volumes are The Law of Green Buildings: Regulatory and Legal Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) on a pro bono basis Issues in Design, Construction, Operations and Financing, published in litigation against the New York City Department of Sanitation last August, and The Law of Clean Energy: Efficiency and Renewables, for failure to implement the city’s recycling law. As a result of the

may/june 2011 28 columbia college today Michael Gerrard ’72

case and political pressure, recycling was expanded. mental law as a career, “primarily because of Professor Gerrard, In 2008, he represented the NRDC in filing a petition — largely how much he loves environmental law and how passionate he is drafted by Gerrard — with the White House Council on Environ- about climate law.” mental Quality asking it to issue regulations requiring environmen- “I find a great deal more student interest in environmental law tal impact statements to discuss greenhouse gas emissions and cli- now versus before,” Gerrard says, referring to his time as an adjunct mate change. (The CEQ did issue proposed rules in February 2010.) lecturer at the Law School from 1992–2000. “Before, it was consid- Gerrard has a reputation for tact and gentility, which make him ered a specialty, and not a great many wanted to go into it as a career. a more influential attorney and advocate and also, colleagues say, Now, people are attracted to it. They think environmental issues are a behavioral role model. important to their own futures and the future of civilization. The en- “Mike never gets frazzled,” Periconi says. “He’s the most gener- vironment poses many fascinating legal and policy issues they’d like ous of people in helping colleagues with the right way to approach to tackle. And they see job growth in this area.” a legal problem, providing sources of information you didn’t know existed, telling you the right people to call on an issue … and yet o reduce his carbon footprint, Gerrard commutes to cam- he’s supremely modest about his accomplishments. I’ve never heard pus from his home in Chappaqua, N.Y., by Metro-North anyone say a negative word about Mike Gerrard — ever.” T train to East 125th Street, a crosstown bus and a half-mile walk on Amsterdam Avenue. He points out that errard taught courses as an adjunct at mode of transportation is a major determinant the Law School, NYU Law and the Yale of one’s personal environmental impact. GSchool of Forestry and Environmental Gerrard and his wife of 34 years, Barbara, to Studies before joining the faculties of the Law whom he was introduced through taking the School and the Earth Institute full-time at the Westin course, also are active in local politics. In beginning of 2009. November 2009, Barbara Gerrard was reelected “I came to feel climate change is one of the to a second term as supervisor (the equivalent most serious issues facing humanity, and since of mayor) of the Town of New Castle, of which I have some expertise, I felt an obligation to Chappaqua is a part. The town has become in- devote myself to helping devise solutions and creasingly environmentally conscious under her train the next generation of leaders in the field,” leadership and was the first in New York to sign Gerrard says. “There’s too much to be done, and the state’s Climate Smart Communities Pledge to not enough people to do it.” lower greenhouse gas emissions, promote recy- Cohen says Gerrard is truly interested in ed- cling and reduce energy consumption. ucation and is a popular teacher, whose courses Michael Gerrard has chaired the town’s Solid on environmental law, climate change law and Waste Advisory Board, which he admits sounds energy law are always full. unglamorous but says plays an important role “What he brings to the classroom is his enor- in any local environment. He also sits on several mous experience from the time environmental Gerrard is a pioneer in environmental nonprofit boards, and for 10 years was the pro law and has helped shape the growing law started, so students get the benefit of know- field with his prolific writings, profes- bono general counsel of the Municipal Art Soci- ing what went on and how we got to where we sional work and the founding of Colum- ety of New York. are today,” Sandler says. bia’s Center for Climate Change Law. The couple’s sons, David ’03, ’07 Arts, and Students say Gerrard, who can come across PHOTO: ERICA MARTIN William ’05, ’12 Arts, are third-generation Colum- as staid before getting to know him, makes even bians. Gerrard’s parents met while both were at- lecture courses lively and interactive. He will play YouTube videos tending graduate school at Columbia: his father, Nathan ’52 GSAS, to bring the material to life, and has brought in bumper stickers in sociology, and his mother, Louise ’69 GSAS, in political science from oppositional campaigns and original documents from cases (she took time off to raise Michael and his brother, then completed for show and tell. “He’s quite funny, and intersperses anecdotes her Ph.D. when Michael was a first-year at the College). from his years of experience in the field throughout the class,” says A tagline for Gerrard’s career could be “Act Globally, Act Lo- Ben Schifman ’11L. “He’s been involved in many of the founda- cally.” At the same time that he has been working on the plight tional environmental law cases we read in the case books — you of drowning island nations, he was one of six private citizens ap- are unlikely to have a professor who can do that in other fields such pointed to work on the issue closer to home, as part of New York as, say, property law, which was largely developed centuries ago.” State’s Sea Level Rise Task Force. “The sea is rising and rising While student interest in pursuing environmental careers has at an accelerating rate,” he says. “By the end of the century, the been growing during the past decade or so — enrollments in re- rise could be quite significant for low-lying cities, including New lated courses have increased, and the College added a major in York.” Regarding his wide-ranging involvement in the field, he sustainable development in 2010 — neither the school nor Gerrard states simply, “There are a lot of balls to juggle.” fully anticipated his reception on campus. For 18 spots available Colleagues marvel at how much Gerrard accomplishes, and at in the spring 2010 semester for his “Seminar on Energy Law,” a the way he does it. Periconi says, “I think of Mike as perhaps the topic Gerrard says was previously considered “an obscure corner best exemplar of the mix of qualities promoted by a Columbia of the law,” 130 students applied. Demand remains strong, and this education: a spirit of intellectual adventurousness, tremendous semester, for the first time, Gerrard admitted 20 undergraduates to public mindedness, contributing to the commonweal and not all his “Climate Change Law” lecture class. that focused on promoting his own career yet with outstanding Carolyn Matos ’12, an urban studies major who interned at professional accomplishment.” the Center for Climate Change Law last summer, is taking “Cli- mate Change Law” and says she has decided to pursue environ- Shira Boss ’93, ’97J, ’98 SIPA is a contributing writer to CCT.

may/june 2011 29 Club Sports Flourish at Columbia Nearly twice as many Columbia athletes compete in clubs as on the varsity level

B y Jo n a t h a n Le m i r e ’01

lub sports participants are Columbia’s oft-overlooked athletes. They are rarely written up in Specta- tor, and their games are not broadcast on WKCR. They aren’t recognized by fellow students when they walk across campus, nor do large crowds usually throng to their games. CBut they are everywhere, and their groups are growing in size, stature and skill. More than 1,600 students partici- pate in club sports at Columbia, nearly double the number who are on the 31 varsity squads. There are 38 club teams on campus — from archery to kayaking, from racquetball to table tennis — and each team is entirely student-run. Students raise the money for uniforms, they make hotel and travel arrangements for tournaments, they network with alumni and they balance up to 15 hours a week of practice with their academic responsibilities. “You do everything,” says Marie Johnson ’12 Barnard, president of the Sailing Club. “And you’re not just an ath- lete. You learn to communicate, to organize, to fundraise. You learn more skills than just what you need to succeed at your sport.” Club sports are not intramurals, which are loosely orga- nized games among friends that sometimes are played on South Lawn. Rather, club teams are well-run squads with an informative website (columbia.edu/cu/clubsports) and significant budgets that train at Athletic Department facili- ties and compete against other colleges — often including varsity teams — up and down the East Coast and beyond. They are open to all Columbia undergraduate and grad- uate students; even a handful of faculty and staff partici- pate, though the vast majority of athletes are enrolled at the College, Barnard and Engineering. Kerry Morrison ’11 (seated), captain and president of the Columbia Sailing Club in 2009 and 2010, with Weston Friedman ’08 in one of the new boats that are the result of club members’ fundraising efforts. club sports columbia college today

come forward in an organized fashion and with a detailed plan and budget, we’re happy to entertain the idea of a new team.” According to a University bylaw established in the 1970s, there cannot be a club team in a sport that already has a varsity squad — so, for example, no basketball, baseball or soccer. However, a few older clubs that duplicate a varsity team, such as archery, have been grandfathered in. All club teams are managed the same way. They each nominate four student officers who run their respective teams with the assis- tance of the Club Sports Governing Board, which is staffed by four elected undergraduates. Though Athletics Department officials are happy to provide guidance, the students run the show. “Each club is only as strong as its students,” says Johnson. “That’s an amazing thing. And I know the students want to be as strong as possible.” The entire club sports program, which has an annual budget of approximately $600,000, is funded in two ways. About one-third comes from a program known as Funding at Columbia, which is money collected from student fees that is distributed by a consor- tium of student councils. This year, that program — known infor- mally as F@CU — is expected to distribute about $246,000. The other two-thirds is generated by the teams themselves through Kelsey Mowatt-Larssen ’12 Barnard (right) will be captain of the Tae a combination of student dues, team fundraisers, alumni dona- Kwon Do team next year. tions and, yes, even bake sales. “There’s a wide range in what teams need to fundraise,” says Though records often are fuzzy, club sports on campus date Voss, who is from Cambridge, Mass. “For, say, equestrian and sail- back to at least the 1920s, according to Athletics Department of- ing, those are expensive sports that require teams to raise a lot of ficials. Interest in particular teams has ebbed and flowed across money. But for the road runners, who use very little equipment, the decades, but Morningside Heights has remained a welcom- they charge one $10 fee per student and they have all they need.” ing home to organized non-varsity sports. Voss, a former president of the Tae Kwon Do Club, highlighted In recent years, the number of students participating has steadi- the need for increased alumni involvement to ensure the contin- ly grown, from 1,241 in 2006 to 1,391 in 2009 to 1,649 this academic ued health of most teams. year. For many of those students, the ability to play their favorite “The biggest challenge for a club sport, by far, is the high turnover sport on campus even factors into their decision of which college rate,” she says. “It’s not like a varsity sport, which has the Athletics to attend. Department infrastructure. These are student-run teams and those “I starting taking martial arts classes when I was 5 and was a students graduate. The alums, though, can be a constant presence.” black belt by 9,” says Miyako Yerick ’12, president of the Tae Kwon Many former students agree. Some teams, like rugby, have Do Club. “It became more than just a sport to me; it was as much long-established alumni organizations whose members help stu- about the mental aspects as it was the physical. I loved that combi- dents with everything from fundraising to career counseling. But nation. I loved how it made me feel completely in control. many others don’t have that in place, and a group of alumni is try- “It is a part of who I am,” adds Yerick, who grew up in the ing to change that. Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. “There was no “Unlike the varsity sports, where a lot is done for you by the question that I would compete while in college.” school, these students are doing everything on their own,” says However, club sports also cater to a different sort of athlete, the Dave Filosa ’82, a member of the varsity crew team while at Co- one who is eager to try something new. lumbia who now is a partner at Morningside Securities, an in- “There are two categories of people who join club sports,” says vestment banking firm. “It’s a very self-motivated group who do Alexandra Voss ’11 Barnard, president of Columbia’s Club Sports it for themselves. There’s little glory to be had, even if they win a Governing Board. “First, there are those who have been doing a championship. sport a long time, usually in high school, and they want to con- “What they do is really impressive,” he adds. “We want al- tinue to compete at a pretty high level. But there are others who ums, especially those who played a club sport themselves, to see get to a campus as a freshman and say ‘Hey, equestrian, I want that and ask themselves, ‘What can we do to help?’ ” to give that a shot.’ We are delighted to cater to those types of Filosa is drawing upon his experiences with the King’s Crown students, too. That’s the beauty of club sports.” Rowing Association, an alumni group founded in 1983 that al- lowed graduates to not only keep alive their love affair with crew wenty-seven sports offer co-ed squads for students to but also to connect with their successors at the school. He is hop- join, while rugby, water polo, volleyball, ultimate Fris- ing to build similar bridges between alumni and the teams on bee and ice hockey have separate men’s and women’s which they played. T teams. Lacrosse is available as a club for men (it’s a var- “The goal here, at first, is to set up a framework so that the sity sport for women). The Athletics Department provides space students are able to communicate in more direct ways with and support for the club teams, who rent the space themselves. alums,” says Filosa, who is a member of the Columbia College “Students can start a new club team at any time,” says Brian Alumni Association Board of Directors. “Some teams haven’t Jines, director of intramural and club sports. “If enough students kept great records, so it’s hard to reconnect with alums. We want

may/june 2011 32 columbia college today club sports to make that easier. “We want to establish a relationship between club sports and the Alumni Association,” he says. “If we get greater involvement and interaction … well, the money will come from the alums someday, too, and that will really help the teams.” Some teams have taken the initiative. Earlier this year, the Tae Kwon Do Club hosted its second annual alumni dinner, and the graduates returned to Morningside Heights bearing valuable advice. “For any student who has a question, there’s an alum who has an answer,” says Yerick, who added that one of her team’s instruc- tors is a Columbia graduate, Roshan Bharwaney ’05 TC. “It’s nice to have them around and to go to them for the answer. They’ve been around the block and know what they’re talking about.” Perhaps the greatest recent success of alumni and students working together to improve a club team came last year, when the Sailing Club needed a new fleet of boats. With some guid- ance from an alumni board, the team set upon an ambitious plan of cold-calling and letter-writing to Sailing Club alumni, capped off with a fundraising dinner. All told, they brought in about $115,000, well more than the $55,000 needed for the fleet of 10 new 14-foot-long boats. “It was the hardest thing we’ve done but also the most reward- Anne Cheng ’11 Barnard compiled a 13–5 record in 2010–11 after ing,” says Johnson, the team president, who is from Seattle. “We women’s squash went from a club sport to the varsity level. tried to build up a base of alums to contact, and they responded and PHOTOS: COURTESY COLUMBIA CLUB SPORTS made this happen.” Members of the 30-person sailing team rent a van three times a Both squash teams fared well in their debut varsity seasons. The week from September to November and again in March and April men’s squad went 13–5 while the women went 12–6, and each team and drive north to City Island in the Bronx, where they practice sent competitors to the national championship meets in March. on the waters of Long Island Sound. They compete nearly every “We were the last Ivy League school not to have a varsity weekend at schools such as Cornell, Dartmouth and the Naval squad,” says Liz Chu ’12, a captain of the women’s team, who Academy, but now, thanks to the new boats, they soon will be grew up in New York City. “The alums were pushing for it, and able to welcome their rivals to their own turf, or more accurately, the players were on board completely. It’s a lot more work but water. the trade-off is worth it. We have extra resources now: stipends “We’ve put Columbia University on the sailing map,” says for food, free uniforms and transportation, and tutors if you’re Johnson, her voice brimming with pride. “Now, we can finally having a little trouble with a class. host regattas, too.” “It’s a great level of prestige,” says Chu, whose team will Columbia hosted one in April and will host two more in the compete in a full Ivy League schedule next year. “It’s something fall, including an alumni regatta in October. we wanted.” “We’ve heard from so many alums who tell us, ‘We always Will sailing be next to make the move to varsity status? Not wanted to do this — to buy these boats, to host these races — but necessarily. you guys were the ones to finally make it happen.’ It’s such a “Do we have the school support and funding we need to make feeling of pride and accomplishment,” says Johnson. Members of it happen? Yes, on both fronts,” Johnson says. “I can understand the team also will start teaching a sailing physical education class why some teams want to make the move, but I don’t think it’s for undergraduates. right for us.” Several of the nation’s top sailing teams, like Brown’s squad, n article in Spectator last fall posed the question of are club level and not varsity, she explains. And if the team leaves whether the sailing squad would consider petition- the realm of club sports behind, Johnson fears that what her team ing to become a varsity sport, an opportunity another would gain in resources it would lose in control. A club team recently jumped at. Completing a process “Students wouldn’t be running everything anymore,” she says. that began nearly a decade earlier, the men’s Squash Club and the “And I’m afraid we’d no longer have one of the key elements of women’s Squash Club each were granted approval to elevate to our team: We bring freshmen onto our boats who have never been the varsity level for the 2010–11 season. on the water, and we know we’re training our future captains. In order for a team to make the leap, Jines explains, it must “They’ll learn and grow into that role,” says Johnson, “and I have high levels of success and participation as well as comply think that’s what club sports are all about.” with pertinent NCAA and Title IX rules. It then needs the approv- al of the Athletics Department and the Faculty Athletic Commit- Did you participate in club sports at Columbia? Today’s clubs would like tee, which governs the sports programs at the school. to hear from their alumni. Contact Brian Jines, director of intramural “It was a really proud moment for the club sports program, and club sports, at [email protected], and he will forward your note the Athletics Department and the school when the squash clubs to the respective club leaders. were elevated,” says Jines, who notes that an elevation to varsity is a rare event. The last team to do so was softball in 2001. Jonathan Lemire ’01 is a staff writer for the New York Daily News.

may/june 2011 33 columbia college today

[ Columbia Forum] The Hidden Reality Brian Greene explores parallel universes and the deep laws of the cosmos in his latest book

Brian Greene, professor of mathematics and physics, is a theoretical physicist well-known for his discoveries in super- string theory, a field that (as Greene puts it) “has the potential to realize Einstein’s long-sought dream of a single, all-encompassing theory of the universe.” Greene also is the author of two bestselling books on cutting- pioneering group edge physics. The first, The Elegant of physicists in the mid-1900s realized that if you were to shut off the sun, remove the other Universe: Superstrings, Hidden stars from the Milky Way, and even sweep Dimensions, and the Quest for the Aaway the more distant galaxies, space would not be black. To the human eye it would ap- Ultimate Theory, published in 2000, pear black, but if you could see radiation in the was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and microwave part of the spectrum, then every which way you turned you’d see a uniform was translated into a Peabody Award- glow. Its origin? The origin. Remarkably, these winning PBS series in 2004. Another, physicists discovered a pervasive sea of micro- wave radiation filling space that is a present- The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, day relic of the universe’s creation. The story Time, and the Texture of Reality, of this breakthrough recounts a phenomenal Brian Greene published in 2004, also is being pro- achievement of the big bang theory, but in PHOTO: LARK ELLIOTT time it also revealed one of the theory’s fun- duced as a PBS series. damental shortcomings and thus set the stage Greene’s latest volume, The Hidden Reality: Parallel Uni- for the next major breakthrough in cosmol- ogy after the pioneering works of [Alexander] verses and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos (Knopf, 2011), Friedmann and [Monsignor Georges-Henri] takes his investigations one step further. This time, he looks at Lemaître: the inflationary theory. Inflationary cosmology modifies the big the parallel universes that may surround us, in forms of infinite bang theory by inserting an intense burst of variety. In the following excerpt, Greene describes the big bang enormously fast expansion during the uni- verse’s earliest moments. This modification, theory’s poetic but inevitable revelation: There is cosmic micro- as we will see, proves essential to explaining wave radiation suffusing our universe, its atoms lingering on some otherwise perplexing features of the relic radiation. But more than that, inflation- from the distant past. ary cosmology is a key chapter in our story be- Rose Kernochan ’82 Barnard cause scientists have gradually realized over the last few decades that the most convincing versions of the theory yield a vast collection of parallel universes, radically transforming the complexion of reality.

may/june 2011 34 columbia college today the hidden reality

Relics of a Hot three minutes, the rapidly falling tempera- their atomic unions are electrically neutral. Beginning ture remained sufficiently high for the uni- And since a plasma of electrically neutral verse to act like a cosmic nuclear furnace, composites allows photons to slip through eorge Gamow, a hulking six- synthesizing the simplest atomic nuclei: like a hot knife through butter, the forma- foot-three Russian physicist hydrogen, helium, and trace amounts of tion of atoms allowed the cosmic fog to clear known for important contribu- lithium. But with the passing of just a few and the luminous echo of the big bang to be tions to quantum and nuclear more minutes, the temperature dropped to released. The primordial photons have been physics in the early twentieth century, was about 108 Kelvin (K), roughly 10,000 times streaming through space ever since. asG quick-witted and fun-loving as he was the surface temperature of the sun. Al- Well, with one important caveat. Al- hard-living (in 1932, he and his wife tried to though immensely high by everyday stan- though no longer knocked to and fro by defect from the Soviet Union by paddling dards, this temperature was too low to sup- electrically charged particles, the photons across the Black Sea in a kayak stocked port further nuclear processes, and so from have been subject to one other important in- with a healthy assortment of chocolate and this time on the particle commotion largely fluence. As space expands, things dilute and brandy; when bad weather sent the two abated. For eons that followed, not much cool, including photons. But unlike particles scurrying back to shore, Gamow was able happened except that space kept expand- of matter, photons don’t slow down when to fast-talk the authorities with a tale of the ing and the particle bath kept cooling. they cool; being particles of light, they always unfortunately failed scientific experiments Then, some 370,000 years later, when the travel at light speed. Instead, when photons he’d been undertaking at sea). In the 1940s, universe had cooled to about 3000 K, half cool their vibrational frequencies decrease, after having successfully slipped past the the sun’s surface temperature, the cosmic which means they change color. Violet pho-

The cosmic microwave background was formed approximately 380,000 years after the big bang. The different colors denote differences in tem- perature, which correspond to tiny density enhancements, that later condensed into the first structures. PHOTO: Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe iron curtain (on dry land, with less choco- monotony was interrupted by a pivotal turn tons will shift to blue, then to green, to yel- late) and settled in at Washington Univer- of events. To that point, space had been filled low, to red, and then into the infrared (like sity in St. Louis, Gamow turned his atten- with a plasma of particles carrying electric those visible with night goggles), the micro- tion to cosmology. With critical assistance charge, mostly protons and electrons. Be- wave (like those that heat food by bouncing from his phenomenally talented graduate cause electrically charged particles have the around your microwave oven), and finally student Ralph Alpher, Gamow’s research unique ability to jostle photons — particles into the domain of radio frequencies. resulted in a far more detailed and vivid of light — the primordial plasma would As Gamow first realized and as Alpher picture of the universe’s earliest moments have appeared opaque; the photons, inces- and his collaborator Robert Herman worked than had been revealed by the earlier work santly buffeted by electrons and protons, out with greater fidelity, all this means that of Friedmann (who had been Gamow’s would have provided a diffuse glow similar if the big bang theory is correct, then space teacher back in Leningrad) and Lemaître. to a car’s high beams cloaked by a dense fog. everywhere should now be filled with rem- With a little modern updating, Gamow and But when the temperature dropped below nant photons from the creation event, streaming Alpher’s picture looks like this. 3000 K, the rapidly moving electrons and every which way, whose vibrational fre- Just after its birth, the stupendously hot nuclei slowed sufficiently to amalgamate quencies are determined by how much the and dense universe experienced a frenzy into atoms; electrons were captured by the universe has expanded and cooled during of activity. Space rapidly expanded and atomic nuclei and drawn into orbit. This was the billions of years since they were released. cooled, allowing a particle stew to congeal a key transformation. Because protons and Detailed mathematical calculations showed from the primordial plasma. For the first electrons have equal but opposite charges, that the photons should have cooled close

may/june 2011 35 the hidden reality columbia college today

to absolute zero, placing their frequencies in telephone calls in the history of science. logical investigations. The reason is clear. the microwave part of the spectrum. For this While Dicke and Peebles had been cal- In a great many fields, researchers would reason, they are called the cosmic microwave culating, the physicists Arno Penzias and give their eyeteeth to have an unfettered, background radiation. Robert Wilson at Bell Labs, less than thirty direct glimpse of the past. Instead, they miles from Princeton, had been struggling generally have to piece together a view of recently reread the papers of Gamow, with a radio communications antenna (co- remote conditions on the basis of evidence Alpher, and Herman that in the late incidentally, it was based on a design Dicke from remnants — weathered fossils, decay- 1940s announced and explained these had come up with in the 1940s). No matter ing parchments, or mummified remains. Iconclusions. They are marvels of theo- what adjustments they made, the antenna Cosmology is the one field in which we can retical physics. The technical analyses in- hissed with a steady, unavoidable back- actually witness history. The pinpoints of volved require hardly more than a ground- ground noise. Penzias and Wilson were starlight we can see with the naked eye are ing in undergraduate physics, and yet the convinced that something was wrong with streams of photons that have been travel- results are profound. The authors con- their equipment. But then came a serendipi- ing toward us for a few years or a few thou- cluded that we are all immersed in a bath tous chain of conversations. It began with a sand. The light from more distant objects, of photons, a cosmic heirloom bequeathed talk Peebles gave in February 1965 at Johns captured by powerful telescopes, has been to us by the universe’s fiery birth. Hopkins University, which was attended traveling toward us far longer, sometimes With that buildup, you may find it by the Carnegie Institution radio astrono- for billions of years. When you look at such surprising that the papers were ignored. mer Kenneth Turner, who mentioned the ancient light, you are seeing — literally — This was mostly because they were writ- results he heard Peebles present to his MIT ancient times. Those primeval comings and ten during an era dominated by quantum colleague Bernard Burke, who happened to goings transpired far away, but the appar- and nuclear physics. Cosmology had yet be in touch with Penzias at Bell Labs. Hear- ent large-scale uniformity of the universe to make its mark as a quantitative science, ing of the Princeton research, the Bell Labs argues strongly that what was happening so the physics culture was less receptive to team realized that their antenna was hissing there was also, on average, happening here.

The pinpoints of starlight we can see with the naked eye are streams of photons that have been traveling toward us for a few years or a few thousand.

what seemed like fringe theoretical studies. for good reason: it was picking up the cosmic In looking up, we are looking back. To some degree, the papers also languished microwave background radiation. Penzias and The cosmic microwave photons allow because of Gamow’s unusually playful Wilson called Dicke, who quickly confirmed us to make the most of this opportunity. style (he once modified the authorship of that they had unintentionally tapped into No matter how technology may improve, a paper he was writing with Alpher to in- the reverberation of the big bang. the microwave photons are the oldest we clude his friend the future Nobel laureate The two groups agreed to publish their can hope to see, because their elder breth- Hans Bethe, just to make the paper’s byline papers simultaneously in the prestigious ren were trapped by the foggy conditions — Alpher, Bethe, Gamow — sound like the Astrophysical Journal. The Princeton group that prevailed during earlier epochs. When first three letters of the Greek alphabet), discussed their theory of the background we examine the cosmic microwave back- which resulted in some physicists taking radiation’s cosmological origin, while the ground photons, we are glimpsing how him less seriously than he deserved. Try as Bell Labs team reported, in the most con- things were nearly 14 billion years ago. they might, Gamow, Alpher, and Herman servative of language and with no men- Calculations show that today there are could not interest anyone in their results, let tion of cosmology, the detection of uniform about 400 million of these cosmic micro- alone persuade astronomers to devote the microwave radiation permeating space. wave photons racing through every cubic significant effort required to attempt to de- Neither paper mentioned the earlier work meter of space. Although our eyes can’t see tect the relic radiation they predicted. The of Gamow, Alpher, and Herman. For their them, an old-fashioned television set can. papers were quickly forgotten. discovery, Penzias and Wilson were award- About 1 percent of the snow on a televi- In the early 1960s, unaware of the earlier ed the 1978 Nobel Prize in physics. sion that’s been disconnected from the cable work, the Princeton physicists Robert Dicke Gamow, Alpher, and Herman were deep- signal and tuned to a station that’s ceased and Jim Peebles went down a similar path ly dismayed, and in the years that followed broadcasting is due to reception of the big and also realized that the big bang’s legacy struggled mightily to have their work recog- bang’s photons. It’s a curious thought. The should be the presence of a ubiquitous nized. Only gradually and belatedly has the very same airwaves that carry reruns of All background radiation filling space. Unlike physics community saluted their primary in the Family and The Honeymooners are in- the members of Gamow’s team, however, role in this monumental discovery. fused with some of the universe’s oldest fos- Dicke was a renowned experimentalist and sils, photons communicating a drama that so didn’t need to persuade anyone to seek The Uncanny played out when the cosmos was but a few the radiation observationally. He could do Uniformity of hundred thousand years old. it himself. Together with his students David Ancient Photons To watch Brian Greene talk about his work, go Wilkinson and Peter Roll, Dicke devised an to college.columbia.edu/cct. experimental scheme to capture some of the uring the decades since it was big bang’s vestigial photons. But before the first observed, the cosmic micro- Excerpted from The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene. Copyright © 2011 by Brian Greene. Reprinted with Princeton researchers could put their plan to wave background radiation has permission by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random the test, they received one of the most famous Dbecome a crucial tool in cosmo- House, Inc. All rights reserved. may/june 2011 36 columbia college today the hidden reality

Alumni 38 Bookshelf 40 obituaries 43 Class Notes News 80 alumni Corner

PHOTO: EILEEN BARROSO

may/june 2011 37 columbia college today Bookshelf

The Final Victim by Larry Jukofsky Diary of a Dean by Herbert I. ’76. Part memoir, part instruction, with Leslie Bonci and Budd Coates. ’46. A victim of the Holocaust rises London ’60. This memoir about Black’s debut delves into the nexus This guide avoids shortcuts and from the grave as a vampire to take London’s years as a professor and of yoga, writing and life (Rodmell focuses on burning more calories his revenge (Graveyard Publishing eventually founder and dean of a Press, $14.95). than are consumed to help readers Co., $16.95). new college at NYU reveals how lose weight; includes a companion he balanced traditional Western Humor 101 by Mitch Earleywine ’86. workbook (Rodale Books, $19.99). Joe Biden: A Life of Trial and Re- standards of education with up- This book offers an introduction to demption by Jules Witcover ’49. In and-coming technologies (Hamil- the role of humor in the sciences Otherwise Known as Home by this biography, Witcover begins ton Books, $14.99). (Springer Publishing Co., $20). Tim Wood ’96. In his debut col- with the vice president’s roots in lection of poems, Wood finds Scranton, Pa., and examines his Thinking about Logic: Classic Bangkok Vanishing: A Novel by inspiration in his daily life, ex- private and political life (William Essays edited by Steven M. Cahn Eric Rogers ’87. Blake Lawerence, an perimental writing practices and Morrow, $27.99). ’63, Robert B. Talisse and Scott F. ex-Force Recon Marine, husband Shakespeare’s sonnets (BlazeVOX Aikin. The editors present provoc- and father, is blackmailed after a trip [books], $16). An Accidental Sportswriter: A ative articles in the philosophy of to help a Cambodian orphanage Memoir by Robert Lipsyte ’57. Lip- logic; they provide further back- leads him into the Thailand bargirl Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention syte’s story of how he stumbled ground in the introduction and culture and Bangkok’s criminal un- by Manning Marable, the M. Moran into a career as a prominent sports- discussion questions (Westview derground (Exotic Press, $15.99). Weston and Black Alumni Council writer includes insight into the les- Press, $24). Professor of African American Stud- sons he learned from athletes and Vargas Llosa and Latin American ies and professor of history and his personal heroes (Ecco, $25.99). The Chess Players: A Novel of the Politics edited by Juan E. De Castro public affairs. Marable, who died Cold War at Sea by Francis J. Partel and Nicholas Birns ’88. These essays on April 1, takes a new look at Mal- Joe DiMaggio: The Long Vigil by ’63. This naval love story follows examine the writings of Peruvian colm X’s life and ends with a new Jerome Charyn ’59. After DiMaggio Ensign Cannon on the Essex, an novelist Llosa in the realm of his look at his assassination (Viking retired from baseball, some writers anti-submarine vessel, and fictional- political thought and from different Adult, $30). criticized his private life and labeled izes naval incidents that took place perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan, him as self-centered, but Charyn is throughout the Cold War (Navy Log $85). Forms of Knowledge in Early more sympathetic (Yale University Books, $21.95). Modern Asia: Explorations in the Press, $24). Sub-versions of the Archive: Intellectual History of India and Sweet Justice: A Jake Neuman Manuel Puig’s and Servo Sar- Tibet, 1500–1800 edited by Sheldon Journalism and Other Atrocities: Mystery by Jerry Oster ’64. Homicide duy’s Alternative Identities by Pollock, the William B. Ransford An Irreverent Memoir by Arthur detective Jake Neuman and his part- Carlos Riobó ’90. Drawing on Professor of Sanskrit and Indian M. Louis ’59. After four decades in ner, Bobby Redfield, investigate the sources within and outside the Studies. These essays explain how journalism, the author recounts the murder of a small-time crook and Hispanic literary tradition, Riobó changes in communication and behind-the-scenes drama of his ca- become embroiled in further trouble examines the work of Argentin- the notion of power shaped think- reer and life (CreateSpace, $16.95). (PageTurner, $15.99). ean writer Puig and Cuban writer ers in India and Tibet and their Sarduy, and demonstrates the response to a changing world You Are My Heart and Other Sto- Embraceable Me by Victor Cahn ’69. popularity of archival fiction (Duke University Press, $24.95). ries by Jay Neugeboren ’59. In this In this comic play about how op- among Latin-American novelists collection of short stories, Neuge- posites attract, Edward and Allison (Bucknell University Press, $65). Henry James: Novels: 1903–1911 boren raises questions about the try to resolve their feelings for each edited by Ross Posnock, the Anna complexities and mystery of life other (Samuel French, Inc., $8.95). Run Your Butt Off!: A Break- S. Garbedian Professor of the using diverse settings and various through Plan to Shed Pounds and Humanities. This final volume in human relationships (Two Dollar Writing Yoga: A Guide to Keeping Start Running (No Experience a series examines and publishes Radio, $16). a Practice Journal by Bruce Black Necessary!) by Sarah Lorge Butler ’95 James’ last three major novels: The

may/june 2011 38 columbia college today bookshelf

A Serious Look at The Joker and His Creator

B y Am a n d a Go r d o n

erry Robinson, who attended the College in Pre-Colombian Art History and Archaeology Esther the early 1940s, decided to go to Columbia Pasztory ’71 GSAS and legendary cultural anthropol- after he was offered a job illustrating a new ogist Margaret Meade, Couch became a scholar of comic book called Batman. Native American and Latin American art. He wrote J N.C. Christopher Couch ’76, ’87 GSAS took a his dissertation on illustrations in Aztec manuscripts. more conventional route. “When I visited the cam- In 1988 he joined the faculty of Smith. pus with my family, I knew instantly it was where I Like Robinson, he too wound up with a job in wanted to be,” he says. the comic book industry, becoming an editor at More than 30 years separated their time at the Kitchen Sink Press, which specializes in comic University, but a love of comic books brought them books. together, first as friends, then as collaborators on “One lesson I’ve learned is, if anyone asks you Jerry Robinson: Ambassador of Comics (Abrams if you’d like to be a comic book editor, there’s Comic Arts, $35). The book charts Robinson’s life, only one answer: yes.” from his boyhood in Trenton, N.J., in the 1920s and Couch says his five years at Kitchen Sink ’30s to his appearances at Comic-Con conventions, changed the way he teaches. “I’ve worked with where he is treated as a mythic figure in comic book printers, distributors, artists,” he says. “I have history. a kind of understanding that you can never get Couch, who teaches courses on comic art and the being just a scholar, and it deeply enriches my graphic novel in the Program in Comparative Literature teaching.” at University of Massachusetts Amherst, conducted It was through his job at Kitchen Sink that more than 50 hours of interviews with Robinson, now Couch met Robinson and reentered academe 89, to write the book. “I just set down the tape recorder with a focus on comic books, teaching classes and asked, ‘What would you like to talk about today?’ ” he describes as “historical and contextual survey Couch says. courses that are totally informed by art history.” Some of the stories Robinson told, such as how he He’s currently teaching at New York’s School of landed the Batman gig, are the stuff of legend. At a re- Visual Arts and Trinity College as well as at UMass. sort in the Poconos, Batman’s creator, Bob Kane, took For his book, Couch was eager to understand

notice of the jacket Robinson wore to play tennis. It PHOTO: the sources of Robinson’s dark visual style. He was covered in doodles, including one of a comb stick- Jim Gipe, Pivot Media learned that as a teenager, Robinson had formed ing out of the pocket. Amused and in need of an illus- a deep attachment to a volume of Edgar Allen trator, Kane asked Robinson to work with him. Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination with illustrations by Harry Robinson was 17 at the time, “a combination of tough street Clarke. Robinson also spoke of going to see German expressionist kid, budding intellectual and innocent teenager,” Couch writes. films at MoMA. “For the first time, I had an explanation for what He’d planned to go to Syracuse to study journalism. Kane’s offer I’d seen all along,” Couch says. prompted him to select Columbia, which would keep him in New The book includes more than 100 of Robinson’s illustrations. York City near his work. Early on, before anyone thought of their potential historical It was in his creative writing classes at Columbia that Robinson significance, Robinson made a habit of retrieving his original art got the idea for his most famous character, The Joker. from printers and holding on to it. Many other artists’ work is lost “A villain with a sense of humor would be the kind of contra- forever. diction that would make a character memorable,” Robinson told Post-Batman, Robinson created comic book heroes Atoman Couch. and London, and then moved on to editorial cartoons, illustrations Financial pressures and the demands of his comic book work for children’s books such as A Maxton Book About Atomic En- pulled Robinson away from Columbia after only two years. Couch, ergy, and the comic strip True Classroom Flubs and Fluffs. In 1974 who arrived in New York from St. Louis, stayed 11 years, earning a he wrote The Comics. Couch considers it the definitive history of B.A in art history and three degrees at GSAS: an M.A., M.Phil. and newspaper comic strips. Ph.D., all in art history and archeology. While he maintains his scholarly interests in Native American “I knew by my sophomore year I wanted to be a professor. I and pre-Colombian art, “comics is No. 1 now,” Couch says. “I was always in the library or Schermerhorn Hall (the home of the don’t have any trouble with the idea of legitimizing comics. I’ve art history department),” Couch says. “To relax, I loved just walk- devoted much of my life to that.” ing around the campus.” Guided by faculty such as the Lisa and Bernard Selz Professor of Amanda Gordon is a columnist at Bloomberg News.

Ambassadors, The Golden Bowl and Old Dominion Foundation Profes- A Behavioral Theory of Elections only boundedly rational, and they The Outcry (Library of America, sor in the Humanities; and Nirvana by Jonathan Bendor, Daniel Dier- examine the effects on party com- $40). Tanoukhi. Top cultural theorists ex- meier, David A. Siegel and Michael petition, voter turnout and voters’ amine Wallerstein’s world-systems M. Ting, associate professor of choices of candidates (Princeton Immanuel Wallerstein and the analysis, which explains why the political science and public affairs. University Press, $29.95). Problem of the World: System, West is able to exploit the rest of Using computational models and Samantha Jean-Baptiste ’13 Scale, Culture edited by David the world (Duke University Press, data on elections, the authors con- Palumbo-Liu; Bruce W. Robbins, the $23.95). tend that politicians and voters are

may/june 2011 39 columbia college today Obituaries

1933 109 finest young musicians in the WWII, Bess was stationed in Lub- Arthur W. Seligmann Jr., physi- country. Eason learned to fly in a bock, Texas, where he served in the cian, New York City, on June 6, Stearman and SNJ and served in the Army Air Corps. He was honorably 2010. Born on June 16, 1912, Selig- Coast Guard Reserve as a musician discharged with the rank of captain. mann graduated from Cornell Uni- first class. He earned an economics Bess served his surgical residency versity Medical College, where he certificate and Ph.D. in 1951 and at St. Luke’s Hospital in Denver was on staff for many years as asso- 1959 from SIPA and GSAS, respec- and was on the staffs of St. Luke’s, ciate professor of medicine. He also tively. Eason’s academic career in St. Joseph’s, St. Anthony’s, Porter maintained a large private practice Soviet economics spanned the Cold Adventist, Littleton Adventist and in internal medicine. During WWII, War to the end of the Soviet Union, Swedish hospitals. He was a Fellow Seligmann served in the Navy as a taking him to the U.S.S.R. nine of the American College of Surgeons, lieutenant commander in the South times. A professor at The Ohio State member of the Colorado Medi- Pacific. He was predeceased by his University from 1968–2003, he also cal Society, member of the Denver wife, Elizabeth Simon Seligmann, taught at Syracuse, Princeton and Medical Review Group, member of and is survived by his companion, Franklin J. Tobey II ’42 Johns Hopkins. Eason became the Phi Gamma Delta and 46-year Jane Mayer Field; daughters, Mary inspiration for a home in Clinton- member of the Denver Athletic Club. Ascheim and her husband, Robert, 1919, Tobey had an early interest in ville for people living with memory Bess was an avid outdoorsman with and Jean; three grandchildren and natural history, was an Eagle Scout loss, Eason House. He is survived a love for fly-fishing and back-coun- their spouses; eight great-grandchil- and was assistant to the doctor at by his wife of 63 years, Jeanne (Fox); try escapes. He is survived by his dren; sister, Jean Seligmann Levine; Camp Mohican. He served in WWII daughters, Katherine Power and wife of 53 years, Helen; sons, Robert, sister-in-law, Ursula Seligmann; and as a Medical Corps motor-transport Barbara Himes; two grandchildren; Charles, John, Daniel and Michael, 14 nephews and nieces. officer in Europe and married Ma- and a godson. Memorial donations and their wives; daughters, Lynne rie Carolyn Wiederspahn in 1946. may be made to WOSU or the Al- and Laura Ann; 22 grandchildren; 1940 Tobey earned an M.A. in economics zheimer’s Association. and one great-grandchild. Memorial Seth G. Neugroschl, computer and in 1947 from GSAS. He and his wife contributions may be made to Al- 1944 technology expert, New York City, moved to Washington, D.C., where zheimer’s Association of Colorado, on November 4, 2010. Neugroschl he wrote for the magazine Public William V. Beshlian, physician, 455 Sherman St., Ste 500, Denver, entered with the Class of 1940 and Utilities Fortnightly, then worked Glen Rock, N.J., on April 24, 2010. CO 80203. earned a B.S. in industrial engi- at the Atomic Energy Commis- Born in Turkey, Beshlian was raised 1948 neering and operations research sion (Energy Department). He was in Paterson, N.J., and settled in in 1941 from Engineering. He was the editor of the Annual Report to Glen Rock 56 years ago. He was a a former IBMer and leader of the Congress. Tobey was a merit badge 1946 graduate of New York Col- “Computer, Man and Society” Uni- counselor in mineralogy, atomic en- lege of Medicine, and after serving versity Seminar at Columbia. Neu- ergy and herpetology; co-founded with the Army Medical Corps groschl was devoted to the better- the Virginia Herpetological Society; began his residency at St. Joseph’s ment of humanity through the use and in 1985 published a survey of Regional Hospital Medical Center of tools to improve global network- Virginia’s reptiles and amphibians. in Paterson. Beshlian had a distin- ing and to increase tolerance and He wrote for Collier’s Encyclopedia guished career with St. Joseph’s understanding through the use of Year Book and was a member of that spanned 52 years. He received computers and other media. He the National Press Club. After the hospital’s Distinguished Ser- was a pioneering thought leader retirement, Tobey wrote, traveled vice Award and the 1991 Alumni in the effort to understand from and was a member of the Franklin- Award, and also received the 100 a systems viewpoint the impact Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society Years’ Service Award for father and of computers on human society, and the Rock and Mineral Club son, H.K. Beshlian and W.V. Besh- planet Earth and beyond. Neu- of Lower Bucks County. He is lian. Beshlian was a world traveler John W. Gould ’48 groschl received the Tannenbaum- survived by his children, Carolyn and loved tennis, cooking and jazz. Warner Award for distinguished Tobey Berardesco, Franklin III and He is survived by his wife, Doris John W. Gould, retired professor, scholarship and great service to Alix Tobey Southwick; six grand- (Mabey); son, Paul, and his wife, Santa Monica, Calif., January 26, the University Seminar Movement children; six great-grandchildren; Deborah Ann; daughter, Lisa; two 2010. Gould was born on March 19, and was the Class of 1940 Class and a brother, John. grandchildren; and sister, Anne 1922, in Brooklyn, N.Y. He attended Notes correspondent from 1990 Kazaros. Memorial contributions Boy’s H.S., where he edited the Boy’s 1943 until shortly before his death. He may be made to Doctors Without High Weekly and was class president is survived by his wife, Geraldine; Warren W. Eason, professor and Borders or the Glen Rock Ambu- his senior year. He served in the daughter, Judith Neugroschl- musician, Columbus, Ohio, on lance Corps. 1255th Engineer Combat Battalion Melnick and her husband, Ari; and March 22, 2010. Eason was born from 1943–46 and was in General 1945 two grandchildren. in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., on October 6, George Patton’s Army during the 1921. At a young age he showed Howard H. Bess Jr., surgeon, Den- Battle of the Bulge. Gould earned 1942 talent for the French horn, study- ver, on May 2, 2010. Born December an M.A. in English and compara- Franklin J. Tobey II, retired Army ing at Juilliard and playing with 5, 1924, in San Diego, Bess was tive literature in 1949 and a Ph.D. in lieutenant colonel, editor, Purcell- the Columbia University Band at raised in the Bronx and attended the education in 1962, both from GSAS. ville, Va., on May 6, 2010. Born 15. In 1940, he was chosen for the Bronx H.S. of Science. He earned a His career was in education. He in Newark, N.J., on February 22, All American Youth Orchestra, the degree in 1948 from P&S. During taught at Stony Brook School for

may/june 2011 40 columbia college today obituaries

Boys from 1949–1954. From 1955–60, of small wound incision cataract for three major corporate divisions, Forestal from 1961–65. From 1965– Gould worked in administration at surgery, the way all cataract surgery overseeing budgets and streamlin- 67, he served as a flight instructor in CW Post College Long Island Uni- is done today. Throughout his career, ing accounting systems. The fam- Pensacola, Fla., instructing student versity, Columbia and Lafayette. He and following his 1997 retirement, ily spent summers in Stonington, naval aviators in carrier landings. taught at USC’s School of Business McDonald was active in the creation where Bartholet won nine men’s After leaving the Navy in 1967, from 1961 until he retired in 1987. and development of ophthalmic and singles titles at the Wadawanuck Nordlund began working for TWA, Gould traveled widely in the United surgical instrumentation. He loved Club. Divorced in 1983, he married a career that lasted 31 years flying States, Europe and Asia, consulting drawing, painting, chess and play- Anne Baker Schwartz in 1985. Bar- various aircraft including the 707, for many corporations and teach- ing piano. McDonald is survived by tholet was involved in community 727, L1011 and the 747. He was an ing business communication in a his wife; children, Henry, Robert and activities and was an avid golfer. avid fisherman and loved deep sea number of Pacific Rim countries. In Robyn; and six grandchildren. Me- He is survived by his wife; children, fishing. Nordlund is survived by his 1991, he was reunited with his Army morial contributions may be made Jeffrey, Frederick, and Carolyn Vail; wife of 48 years, Denise; daughter, Battalion and attended 17 of their to the American Heart Association. stepchildren, Robert Schwartz, Joan Carolyn Montero, and her husband annual reunions. Gould was very O’Neill, Marianne O’Hearn and Bill; sons, Michael and his wife Jen- involved in church activities. He 1949 David Schwartz; nine grandchil- nifer, and Karl and his wife, Nicole; is survived by his wife since 1949, Kenneth F. Hadermann, retired dren; brother; and sister, Elizabeth. and five grandchildren. Memorial Olwen (Stafford); children, Heather, teacher and school administrator, Memorial contributions may be contributions may be made to the William, David, Elizabeth and Caro- Lake Wylie, S.C., on April 25, 2010. made to Denison Pequotsepos American Cancer Society. lyn; five grandchildren; and three Born in New York City, Hadermann Nature Center or to the Stonington great-grandchildren. enlisted in the Army Air Corps in Community Center. 1965 WWII and was a member of the George W. “Bud” Goth, retired Henry H. McDonald, retired oph- American Legion. He earned a 1958 professor, Berkeley, Calif., on No- thalmologist, Pasadena, Calif., on master’s from Teachers College and James R. Meyers, civil rights activ- vember 28, 2009. Goth was born on April 9, 2010. McDonald was born was a member of Sigma Nu Frater- ist and retired librarian, Ithaca, N.Y., June 23, 1943, on Long Island and on July 27, 1923, attended Stuyvesant nity. Hadermann was a teacher and on April 15, 2010. Meyers was born earned a B.S. in chemistry. After Math and Science H.S. and enlisted school administrator in four states. on August 9, 1936, in Detroit. His Columbia, he moved to California in the Air Force at 19. He served as In 1976, he relocated with his family family soon moved to Pittsburgh, and earned a Ph.D. in nuclear a navigator in the European Theatre to Berlin, Germany, where he was where Meyers attended St. Basil’s chemistry in 1973 from UC Berke- of Operations throughout WWII. the principal of the John F. Kennedy Catholic School for 12 years and ley and did post-doctoral work at As a first lieutenant, he received the School until his retirement to North initially wanted to become a priest. Washington University in St. Louis. Bronze Star, flying 35 missions in the Carolina in 1986. A volunteer Boy While at Columbia, he met Francis Goth returned to Berkeley, where he B-24 Bomber, and later 25 missions Scout leader for more than 50 years, Joan Gillen, who became his wife. contributed to the grassroots news- in the Royal Air Force “mosquito” he received the District Award of The couple later moved to South paper of Berkeley Citizens Action plane. Following WWII, McDonald Merit and the Silver Beaver. As a Bend, Ind., where Meyers worked during the late 1970s and ’80s. He returned to New York, graduated member of the Order of the Arrow, for many years as the film librarian taught chemistry part-time at the from Columbia, earned a medical a Boy Scout honor camper’s so- at the South Bend Public Library as College of San Mateo in 1975 and degree from NYU and completed a ciety, Hadermann became a Vigil well as devoting his passions and then full-time at Skyline College in residency in ophthalmology there member and received the Founders extra time to helping to end the 1980. Goth founded and edited The and at Harvard. In 1952, he mar- Award. After his retirement, he con- Vietnam War and taking part in the Advocate, a union newsletter for the ried Dorothy Dieckhoff and in 1957 tinued to serve youth as a Guardian countercultural ’60s revolution. In American Federation of Teachers, began his practice in Pasadena. He ad Litem. Hadermann is survived 1996, Meyers retired and moved to Local 1943. He retired in 2006. He was on the staff of the Huntington by his wife, Hannelore; daughter, Albuquerque, where he lived until was an avid theatergoer and was Memorial Hospital for 40 years. Karena, and her husband, Jeff; son, 2005 when he moved to Ithaca, active in film and book clubs, at- McDonald was an early advocate Kurt, and his wife, Elizabeth; and N.Y., to be near his family. His pas- tending readings and serving on one grandson. Memorial contribu- sions included spiritual pursuits the Board of the Berkeley City Club tions may be made to the American such as Dances of Universal Peace, for six years. Goth is survived by Obituary Submission Heart Association. reincarnation, the Unity Church, his aunt and uncle, Elizabeth and Guidelines meditation, yoga, music, prayer, James Sharman; and 11 cousins. Columbia College Today 1956 television, Transactional Analysis, Memorial contributions may be welcomes obituaries for Paul I. “Ivy” Bartholet, controller, astrology and co-counseling. Mey- made to the San Mateo County College alumni. Deaths are Stonington, Conn., on May 20, 2010. ers is survived by his sons, Pete, and Community Colleges Foundation, noted in the next available Born in 1933, Bartholet attended St. his partner, Mary Loehr, and David; memo line: The George Goth Sci- issue in the “Other Deaths Bernard’s School in NYC through and one grandson. ence Scholarship. Reported” box, but due to eighth grade, later attending Pom- the volume of obituaries 1960 1968 that CCT receives, it may fret School in Connecticut, where he take several issues for the captained the baseball and hockey Norman H. Nordlund, pilot, Brook- Melvin L. Dennis, architect, expedi- complete obituary to appear. teams. He earned a B.A. in econom- field, Conn., on April 28, 2010. Nor- tor and photography gallery curator, Word limit is 200; text may ics, and he and his brother, Chaunc- dlund was born in Pori, Finland, New York City, on June 13, 2010. be edited for length, clarity ey ’56, ’57E, were doubles partners on October 27, 1938, and grew up Dennis was born in Portland, Ore., and style at editors’ discre- on Columbia’s tennis team. Bartho- in Hastings, N.Y. After Columbia, and grew up on the Oregon coast. tion. Click “Contact Us” at let’s first job out of college was with where he earned a B.A. in econom- He earned a B.A. in art history, did college.columbia.edu/cct, Metal and Thermit Corp. in New ics, he was commissioned an ensign advanced art history studies at NYU or mail materials to Obituaries Editor, Jersey, where he was an accountant. in the Naval Reserve through and earned a B.Arch. from the Coo- Columbia College Today, He took night courses at Rutgers the NROTC Program. Nordlund per Union in 1977. Dennis worked Columbia Alumni Center, and was hired by IBM in 1961. became a naval aviator, flying the for several architecture firms in New 622 W. 113th St., MC 4530, Bartholet rose through the ranks Douglas Skyraider AD1. He served York, including Pasanella & Klein, New York, NY 10025. during nearly three decades with on the aircraft carriers USS Inde- and the New York Public Library, the company, working as controller pendence, USS Saratoga and the USS and was later a building expeditor.

may/june 2011 41 obituaries columbia college today

He was a co-founder and curator for the Puchong Gallery, which cham- pioned avant-garde photographers Other Deaths Reported in the 1980s and 1990s. An active civic leader, Dennis was president of Columbia College Today also has learned of the following deaths. Complete obituaries will be pub- the Waterside Tenants Association lished in an upcoming issue, pending receipt of information. Due to the volume of obituaries that and was a member of the New York CCT receives, it may take several issues for the complete obituary to appear. County Democratic Committee and the Tilden Democratic Club, and 1926 S. Delvalle Goldsmith, Patterson, N.Y., on February 18, 2011. a regular attendee at the Sixteenth Street Friends Meeting. He is sur- 1929 Eric C. Lambart, retired rear admiral, Jacksonville, Fla., on February 17, 2011. vived by his brother, Everette; and four sisters. 1938 Wells S. Brimhall, retired banking executive, Provo, Utah, on March 10, 2011.

1973 1940 Harold J. Lehmus, retired physician, Coventry, Conn., on February 17, 2011.

Dennis E. Milton, judge, New York stanley L. Temko, retired attorney, Washington, D.C., on March 7, 2011. City, on May 31, 2010. Milton was born in 1951 on Staten Island, N.Y. Edmund W. White, retired chemical engineer, Silver Spring, Md., on March 5, 2011. He attended Regis H.S. and Ford- 1941 ham Law. Milton, a United States William H. Goldwater, retired research director, Bethesda, Md., on February 23, 2011. bankruptcy judge in the Eastern 1942 John B. Kelly, Scottsdale, Ariz., on December 27, 2010. District of New York, was appoint- ed in 2001. He is survived by his 1943 John G. Pappas, retired physicist and chemist, New York City, on March 4, 2011. wife, Karen Greve Milton. Memo- rial contributions may be made to 1944 Donald P. Mitchell, retired business executive, Portland, Ore., on January 11, 2011. Regis H.S. in New York City. 1945 Charles E. Silberman, Sarasota, Fla., on February 5, 2011. 1981 1946 Marvin L. Aronson, psychotherapist, Mount Vernon, N.Y., on February 27, 2011. Charles G. “Grant” Fulk, plumbing business co-owner, Menlo Park, Ca- 1947 Edmund J. Guilhempe, Brooklyn, N.Y., on January 17, 2008. lif., on June 14, 2010. Fulk graduated 1949 from Sequoia H.S., where he was Arthur W. Mehmel Jr., insurance executive, West Hartford, Conn., on March 2, 2011. active in the drama program, and 1951 Jeremy Gaige, newspaperman and chess archivist, Philadelphia, on February 19, 2011. earned a B.A in English. He was co-owner of Dittmann Plumbing in brian K. Langworthy, organist and music instructor, Marietta, Ga., on, March 2, 2011. San Mateo and is survived by his parents, Earl and Elizabeth; aunts, James W. Lister, New York City, on April 27, 2008. Ruth Morelock and Grace Phair; 1953 Alan Macnow, public relations, marketing and market research executive, New York City, uncle, Jack Fulk; and a number of on December 25, 2010. cousins. Memorial contributions may be made to Menlo Park Host 1955 Herman C. Okean, Huntington, N.Y., on January 30, 2011. Lions Club, “Menlo Park Project Read.” arnold J. Schwartz, radiologist, Stamford, Conn., on March 8, 2011.

1985 1956 Arnold D. Bucove, physician and medical director, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on January 10, 2011.

William F. Evans, investment banker 1957 George Broderick, Ocala, Fla., on December 7, 2010. and musician, New York City, on July 10, 2010. Evans was born in herbert L. Winans, retired corporate benefits executive, Lexington, Va., on March 20, 2011. Towson, Md. He earned an M.A. 1958 in mathematics from Penn. During William W. Bartlett, retired financial executive, Chappaqua, N.Y., on March 25, 2011. his school years, Evans played bass 1959 Douglas P. Dunbar Jr., retired Navy captain, Tampa, Fla., on March 3, 2011. in both performance and recording with several jazz and fusion bands. 1960 Jerome H. Cantor, psychologist and financial adviser, Brooklyn, N.Y., on December 15, 2010. After graduate school, he embarked on a 23-year career in the financial John M. Radbill, Albuquerque, N.M., on August 7, 2010. services industry, specializing in 1964 Brian Safer, biochemist and researcher, Adelphi, Md., on February 6, 2011. modeling and structuring complex tax-exempt mortgage revenue bond christopher Trumbo, film and television writer, Ojai, Calif., on January 8, 2011. transactions for state housing finance agencies throughout the country for 1966 Frederic Neuburger, certified financial planner and tax practitioner, Syracuse, N.Y., on February 19, the purpose of financing affordable 2011. housing programs. Evans is sur- 1967 William M. Crouch Jr., cartoonist and comic arts writer, Fairfield, Conn., on February 21, 2011. vived by his former spouse, Laura; children, Katherine and Philip; steven D.Wexler, former carpenter; writer and teacher, Tijeras, N.M., on December 20, 2010. parents, Bernard and Estelle; and brother, Robert. 1988 Nancy E. McAdoo, communications/knowledge exchange content manager, Medford, Mass., on Lisa Palladino January 15, 2011.

may/june 2011 42 columbia college today class notes Class Notes

Columbia College Today athon and Franklin. He continues to Melvin Hershkowitz and Forestry for his work on behalf Columbia Alumni Center follow current events about justice 42 22 Northern Ave. of the Canal Society. He is survived 25 622 W. 113th St., MC 4530 and equality nationally and interna- Northampton, MA 01060 by his wife; children, Mary, Robert 40 New York, NY 10025 tionally. [email protected] and Claire; two grandchildren; and [email protected] David Perlman ’39, ’40J writes, two great-grandchildren. We mourn “At 92, I’m still science editor of On January 14, The New York Times’ the loss of such a distinguished Howard N. Meyer ’34, ’36L, a retired the San Francisco Chronicle, cover- obituary section carried a memorial classmate, and we extend our con- New York lawyer and two-time ing everything except medicine — tribute to Franklin Gerald Bishop dolences to his family. Pulitzer Prize-nominated author, anthropology, seismic goings-on, ’43E, who died on January 14, 1996. The annual Dean’s Scholarship discussed challenges of immigration cosmic universes, planets and so Gerry’s widow, Evelyn, has faith- Reception, honoring donors to and civil rights in terms of the 14th on.” [Editor’s note: CCT profiled fully published this annual tribute named scholarships, was held in Al- Amendment. A product of the Civil Perlman in November/December to Gerry since he succumbed to fred Lerner Hall on February 3. Two War, the amendment made citizens 2009: college.columbia.edu/cct/ his final illness 15 years ago. This of the finest members of our Great equal before the law. nov_dec09.] writer met Gerry at a freshman beer Class of 1942 are honored in per- Howard has written more than party in September 1938 in John Jay petuity by memorial scholarships: 70 articles and books, and in his Hall, where we gathered around a Charles F. “Chic” Hoelzer Jr. and Pulitzer Prize-nominated book Robert Zucker piano to sing raunchy limericks and Dr. Herbert Mark. The Hoelzer me- from 1973, The Amendment that 41 29 The Birches Roar, Lion, Roar. Gerry later became morial scholarship was established Refused to Die: Equality and Justice Roslyn, NY 11576 a good friend. He was a brilliant in 1978, the year of his untimely Deferred: A History of the Fourteenth [email protected] mathematician and engineer. He death, by this correspondent and Amendment, he reflects on the had a successful career as an engi- Chic’s widow, the late Dorothy. The beginnings and current signifi- Sad to report that Joe Coffee, one neer and management consultant, Mark memorial scholarship was es- cance of the amendment. Howard of our most outstanding class and finally as CEO and president tablished by Herb’s widow, Avra ’45 believes that because of new members, passed away in January of Matrix Corp. At our Homecom- Barnard; his sons, Peter, Tom and developments in the Arizona U.S. shortly after his 92nd birthday. ing football game in 1995, Gerry Jeremy; his cousin, Reuben Mark; Senators’ attempts to repeal the Joe was our class president; voted came up to the Remmer-Maniatty and this correspondent after Herb’s 14th Amendment, more specifi- most likely to succeed; a member Alumni Lounge above Wien Sta- death in 2006. In 1939–40, Herb cally the effects the repeal would of student board; a regular attend- dium in his wheelchair to watch the was my Livingston Hall roommate, have on the children of Mexican ee, with his wife, Margaret, at our game and visit with classmates. He and thanks to Columbia, became nationals because their entrance annual Arden House reunions; and already was very ill but perfectly my friend for 67 years. I encourage into the country was not in ac- a good friend. After graduation, alert and able to converse with us. classmates who remember Chic and cordance with the law, the nation he joined the Navy and served on That was the last time I saw him. At Herb to contribute to their memo- will eliminate the rights of people, the President’s staff, was executive Columbia, Gerry was Dean’s Day rial scholarship funds. Please con- and people will begin to forget the officer on a destroyer escort that chairman, and a generous financial tact the Columbia College Fund’s importance of equality and justice was sunk and then commanding supporter of the College, a tradition Eleanor L. Coufos ’03, director of values. officer of another destroyer escort. that Evelyn has continued through annual giving programs, at 212-851- Reading books such as Thomas He was assistant to the president the years. We join Evelyn in remem- 7483 for further information. Wentworth Higginson’s Army Life of Columbia and on its Board of bering Gerry’s impressive profes- I was sad to receive notice from in a Black Regiment opened How- Trustees. Joe was president of sional accomplishments and his our Alumni Office on February ard’s eyes to the contributions of Eisenhower College and was the lifelong devotion to Columbia. 19 that Werner Rahmlow died in minorities such as women, African- patriarch of a large and loving fam- The New York Times of January 24 Camden, Maine, on January 3. In Americans and other groups that ily. A memorial service was held at reported the death of Clarence April 2009, Werner sent me a long have been omitted from textbooks Columbia on April 28. [See March/ Eich ’43E on January 8. After WWII autobiographical letter from his in American history. Howard’s April Obituaries.] service in the Navy, he was a mech- winter residence in Lady Lake, Fla., most recent book, The World Court On a happier note, I spent Christ- anical engineer at Combustion En- including reminiscences about his in Action: Judging Among the Nations, mas week in Costa Rica with Fran gineering. In 1962, Clarence joined years at Columbia. Like Columbia’s was published in 2002 and also was Katz’s family, where I zip-lined, the Foster Wheeler Corp., where he most generous financial supporter, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. In white water rafted, kayaked and was issued several patents for new the late John W. Kluge ’37, Werner it, he writes about the International hiked in the rainforest, including designs and products for power was born in Germany; he emi- Court of Justice and international five bouncing suspension bridges. generation and rose to the position grated to the United States in 1932 law. In February I took my family of 26, of e.v.p. before his retirement in 1984. and became a U.S. citizen in 1942. Howard moved to Bolinas, Calif., including 12 great-grandchildren, to At Columbia, Clarence was an ac- He settled in Leonia, N.J., where in 2009 to be closer to his sons, Jon­ Club Med in Ixtapa, Mexico. tive and widely respected classmate. he attended the local high school. Ken Hechler ’40 GSAS, my last He was a member of Sigma Alpha Werner’s high school principal instructor in college, stayed at my Epsilon, the Glee Club, the Van Am took him to the Columbia campus Class Notes are submitted by house for two nights and lectured Society and the Debate Council. He for a personal visit (could that ever on April 8 at the Roslyn Library earned silver and gold crowns, and happen today?), and Werner was alumni and edited by volunteer and then at C.W. Post (LIU). He was elected to Nacoms. He attended eventually admitted with a full class correspondents and the wrote the book (also was a movie) all of our significant landmark scholarship to study engineering. staff of CCT prior to publication. The Bridge at Remagen and many reunions and our Homecoming He commuted to the campus by other publications, was a colonel games at Wien Stadium. After his trolley, 125th Street ferry, subway Opinions expressed are those of in the army, a long-term (and still) retirement, Clarence traveled widely and on foot for three hours daily, individual alumni and do not college professor and was Presi- with his wife, Ellen, enjoyed his golf five or six days each week, and still dent Truman’s speechwriter and games and was a skilled gardener. found the time to train and run reflect the opinions of CCT, its adviser. He was a congressman He won awards for his flowers and for Columbia under track coach class correspondents, the College for 18 years, secretary of state in developed several new varieties of “Canny Carl” Merner (Werner had West Virginia, and still lectures gesneriads. In 2001, Clarence was been an undefeated half-miler in or the University. and writes. named Volunteer of the Year by the high school). With his demanding Let me know what you are doing. State of New Jersey Division of Parks engineering studies and long com-

may/june 2011 43 class notes columbia college today mutes, Werner said he could not G.J. D’Angio classmates, as well as other alumni, M._Grumbach). keep up with the required readings 43 Department of Radiation want to hear about what you are His pediatric endocrine group for Humanities and Contemporary Oncology doing. has addressed in a broad perspec- Civilization, and despite the in- Hospital of the University tive the following: hormonal effects spiration from professors Weaver, of Pennsylvania, Donner 2 on growth and maturation, the de- Luckie and Baumeister, he “lost 3400 Spruce St. Dr. Enoch Callaway veloping brain and the endocrine interest in college.” He also lost his Philadelphia, PA 19104 45 1 Mt. Tiburon Rd. system, the ontogeny of the human scholarship and had to find part- [email protected] Tiburon, CA 94920 and ovine hypothalamic-pituitary time work to pay his tuition of $200 [email protected] apparatus, genes, fetal hormones, a semester. After finishing three Do you run into unusual or note- the origin of the Barr body, the years at Columbia, Werner was worthy Columbia ties in your read- Dr. Stanley Braham retired from ontogeny of human sex determina- about to be drafted and enlisted in ing? I do; send me yours. Here are a Park Avenue practice of urology tion and differentiation, aromatase the Navy. He served for four years some recent ones of mine. John about 20 years ago and still lives in deficiency due to mutations in the as a Navy pilot during WWII and Parke Custis enrolled in King’s Manhattan. He was divorced about gene encoding P450 aromatase and then returned to Columbia, where College in 1773 but did not return 20 years ago and has three children the biologic role of estrogen in the his fourth year was paid for by the for a second year. He was the child scattered about, all doing wonderful male as well as in the female. G.I. Bill. As he said, “I could finally of Martha Custis Washington, by things. He has a son in the Silicon This last topic concerns the criti- afford a K&E Slide Rule.” His sense her first husband, and became the Valley finance business and won- cal role of estradiol in the pubertal of humor had remained intact. stepson of George Washington. J.P. ders if that wasn’t a better choice growth spurt and skeletal matura- After graduation, Werner went to Custis’ son was no better a scholar. than medicine. Stanley has many tion in the male, as in the female, and work for the Bendix Corp. in New He matriculated at the College of health issues, including an aortic the previously poorly characterized Jersey as a versatile mechanical, New Jersey (later Princeton) but aneurism and a bad valve, which he effects of estradiol in the male on electrical, chemical and civil engi- was expelled for reasons related to has opted to live with, and so far so glucose and insulin metabolism, neer, and eventually a management decorum. He later dropped out of good. After he stopped practicing lipid metabolism, bone mineral executive. He lived in Westwood, St. John’s College in Annapolis. medicine, Stanley spent much of accretion and the maintenance of N.J., and enjoyed golf, bowling and Another two: There were pro- his time golfing. He belonged to a bone mass. In addition, aromatase playing bridge. He invented and fessional athletes in Columbia his- club in Bermuda and had a house deficiency suggests endogenous fetal held a patent for a centrifuge that tory in addition to the great Lou in Florida near a golf course. He is, estrogens synthesized by the con- developed 800 Gs in 15 seconds, Gehrig ’23. One was Eddie Collins as lots of us say these days, “doing ceptus are not an important factor and stayed at Bendix for 34 years (Class of 1907), quarterback on as well as can be expected,” but he in the differentiation of the female until his retirement, when he moved the Columbia football team and a mourns the inability to play golf. genital tract or the maintenance of to Rockland, Maine, while spend- star baseball player. He went on to Dr. Arnold Modell is “semi-re- pregnancy. Endogenous estradiol ing winters in Florida. His first play on major league teams, in- tired,” still active in the Boston Psy- does not even have a critical effect on wife, Virginia, mother of his three cluding the Philadelphia Athletics, choanalytic Society and Institute, psychosexual development or sex children, died in 1987. All of the and was inducted into the Base- and (remarkably for those our age) differentiation of the human brain. children, Richard, Carol and Donald, ball Hall of Fame. Collins is con- he is in good health. His most recent The aromatase deficiency story is were college graduates, but none, sidered by many to be the great- paper, “Not Even Wrong,” will be an illustration of Louis Pasteur’s regrettably, from Columbia. In 1992, est second baseman of all time. appearing in Psychoanalytic Inquiry insight: “Origin of scientific creativ- Werner remarried and enjoyed life Brooklyn-born Sid Luckman ’39 within the next few months, as the ity: To know when to be astonished.” with his second wife, Louise, and was another. The star quarterback galleys have been returned. In it, he Mel says his studies on aroma- attended our 50th reunion at Arden played for the Chicago Bears from discusses the difficulty psychoana- tase deficiency also illustrate the House, where he commented that 1939–50 and was inducted into the lysts have in talking to each other. critical role of collaboration. he had enjoyed our notable 16–13 Pro Football Hall of Fame. Dr. John Peck ’47 P&S is another The CCT staff notified me of the football victory over Princeton in My wife, Audrey, and I have psychoanalyst who is healthy and deaths of Dr. Don Johnson and 1988, which ended our 44-game several trips scheduled for this semi-retired in that he maintains Carter Golombe. Obituaries will losing streak. Werner closed his year. They include a lecture at contact with the Los Angeles Psy- appear in a future issue. letter by expressing his devotion to a meeting in Amsterdam. We’ll choanalytic Institute and Society for Columbia (“Good Old Roar, Lion, take the opportunity to go to the Psychoanalytic Studies but no longer REUNION JUNE 2–JUNE 5 Roar,” he said) and speculated that British War Cemetery in Sittard, sees patients. At this stage in his life, Alumni Office Contacts many of our classmates must be The Netherlands, where Audrey’s he prefers to lie on a beach in front of Alumni Affairs Jennifer Freely approaching 90. He was accurate in brother Pat is buried with all of his his house and read (the hard life in [email protected] that observation. As I write this, Dr. tank crew. They were killed in the Southern California!). 212-851-7438 Gerald Klingon, Stewart McIlven- battle for Geilenkirchen, Germany, Dr. Gordon Mathes ’48 P&S lives Development Paul Staller nan, Bob Kaufman and Dr. Arthur in November 1944. I think I have in The Trezevant Episcopal Home, [email protected] Wellington all have celebrated their located the spot where his tank 177 North Highland St., Apt. 4111, 212-851-7494 90th birthdays. Werner was born in was destroyed, just over the Dutch Memphis, TN 38111. He retired 20 Germany on January 13, 1920, so he border, and we’ll try to find it. years ago and moved into the retire- Bernard Sunshine was 10 days short of his 91st birth- Sad news: Walter J. Sassano died ment home six months ago. He has 46 20 W. 86th St. day when he died. He had already in West Harrison, N.Y., on Decem- been golfing since retirement and New York, NY 10024 become a distinguished member ber 28. He was 89. He enlisted in played nine holes on February 14! [email protected] of our Class of 1942 Nonagenarian the Army in 1942 while a student Dr. Melvin Grumbach ’48 P&S Club. He is survived by his wife, at Columbia and was discharged signed up to be a naval officer just Roar, CC ’46, roar. The celebration Louise; his children; three grandchil- as a captain four years later. He after Pearl Harbor, returned to the of our 65th anniversary reunion, dren; and three great-grandchildren. then became active in the American College and then went on to P&S. Thursday, June 2–Sunday, June 5, We salute Werner’s unusual life and Legion and other community orga- Following an enviable period of will indeed be memorable. loyalty to Columbia, and we send nizations. training and academic service, in Our return to campus includes condolences to all members of his 1965 he became professor and chair- a lecture at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, family. man of pediatrics at UCSF, presi- June 4 (choose from five possibili- Some of this report was origi- Henry Rolf Hecht dent of the Endocrine Society in ties), to which all reunion classes nally published in Class Notes in 44 11 Evergreen Pl. 1981 and was elected fellow of the are invited. the July/August 2009, online-only, Demarest, NJ 07627 U.S. Academy of Arts and Science The setting for Saturday’s class issue of CCT: college.columbia.edu/ [email protected] in 1983. I have a 52-page CV, an in- reunion luncheon will be high in cct/jul_aug09. terview with him as past president Butler Library (you may remember Kind regards and good wishes to Friends, please take a moment to of the Endocrine Society and a URL it as South Hall) with dramatic views all classmates. I welcome news from send me some information about for the Wikipedia article about Mel of the campus and Low Library. you. Long may Columbia stand! your lives. I assure you that all your (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_ At noon, we will gather for a

may/june 2011 44 columbia college today class notes

cocktail reception, meeting and Air Force bombardier. Paul said: tion at Columbia. In fact, the tradi- greeting to the music of a live “I enjoyed a wonderful career as a tion has continued, as his son also ensemble. Lunch will follow with businessman and CEO of a bank in went to Columbia. His son also had welcoming remarks from Dean of New Jersey.” Professor Charles Dawson 26 years Academic Affairs Kathryn Yatrakis. after his father. Professor Dawson Dean Yatrakis continues a tradition was able to retrieve his father’s that began with our 55th, took place Columbia College Today grades in his class. Angelo did not again at our 60th and now will take Columbia Alumni Center stray far from New York. He spent place at the 65th. She recently told 47 622 W. 113th St., MC 4530 most of his life after Columbia in me how much she enjoyed meeting New York, NY 10025 Nassau County at the end of a canal and getting to know so many of the [email protected] that empties into Great South Bay. class through the years. Paul R. Homer remembers well Richard Heffner has hosted The Class of ’47 is looking for a class the ROTC and V-12 programs being PBS’ The Open Mind for 55 years. correspondent to write a bimonthly active on campus. He recalls that What could be more fun than a Dick’s guests have included Dr. column for Columbia College Today. the student body consisted of both week in Mexico? A week in Mex- Martin Luther King Jr., William If you want an open platform and a a military and a civilian body. He ico with an old college buddy. In Buckley, Elie Wiesel, Malcolm X, chance to reconnect with classmates, served in the military so was de- February, Irving Kushner ’50 (left) Betty Friedan, Supreme Court please contact Associate Editor Ethan layed in getting back to Columbia, headed south of the border to Justice Thurgood Marshall, Arthur Rouen ’04J, ’11 Business at ecr2102@ which resulted in him becoming spend time with Ted Reid ’50. Schlesinger and Benjamin Spock, columbia.edu. Until then, please a part of the Class of 1948 instead and the list goes on and on. Of his send notes about your life, travel, of 1947. Happily, he considers the program, The New York Times said it family and experiences at Columbia school a great institution, which, from you as was his. So, let’s hear is easier to list those of importance to the postal or e-mail address at the according to him, is getting greater from you all to fill these columns. who have not come under Dick’s top of the column. each year. He remembers fondly I must, however, raise a glass, microscope than those notables Professor William C. Casey and shout a cheer, sound the trumpets who have. Professor Dwight Miner ’26, ’40 (make your own choice of celebra- For the celebration of our 65th, Eric P. Schellin GSAS and enjoyed classes with tory noise) in recognition of the mail Dick invited Dean Michele Moody- 48 2506 N. Harrison St. both of them, especially Casey and I received from Howard Beldock! Adams to appear on his program. Arlington, VA 22207 his famous course, which became I opened the envelope, which con- She enthusiastically accepted, and [email protected] known as “Caseyology.” tained a note along with a printed we will preview the taped program Dr. George Dermksian, after notice regarding his practice as a followed by a Q&A, to which the Robert M. Berk remains active in graduating from medical school, mediator/arbitrator. This is work dean graciously agreed. the medical profession along with joined St. Luke’s Hospital and for which Howie has attained con- Enjoy the comradeship, remi- his wife. He is known as a consum- became professor chairman of its siderable status and recognition. nisce, catch up, share a few giggles. mate homebody — in his words, “I archives. He has two sons and has Not being a lawyer, let me dwell Bring wives and friends. Celebrate have traveled not at all.” He is proud been to a number of Dean’s Days. on the personal note, the content the Columbia experience. Do not of that achievement. He has two chil- miss this moment. You can celebrate dren and a couple of grandchildren the 65th anniversary only once. and says that he is very happy. Gerald Weissmann ’50 is director of the Biotechnology Details about reserving your Arthur E. Bradley also still is in places at the reunion luncheon are the medical profession. He contin- Study Center and research professor of medicine at in the mail. You also can register ues to be involved in chemistry and NYU. online: alumni.college.columbia. consults in the field of nutrition. edu/reunion. Arthur says that there is an empha- Lawrence Jukofsky authored sis these days on polyphenols (anti- This fact calls this writer’s atten- of which might be summed up as, The Final Victim, available at Barnes oxidants), agricultural and food pro- tion to the fact that get-togethers “I’m still here and doing great!” But & Noble and on Amazon.com. cessing wastes. He is quite active in such as Dean’s Day and reunions it is stated in the warmest terms and A building site in Poland reveals the field and still performs experi- are sparsely attended by members brought a smile to my face. Nev- a mass grave. One of the bodies ments. He discovered that if one of the Class of 1948. The combina- ertheless, the visual, which I can is well preserved and is sent for washes pecan fragments and leaves tion of a military segment and a ci- only describe here, remains most a shrine to a temple on a barrier the fragments overnight in a con- vilian segment at that time resulted vividly in my mind. Howie has the island, where this Jewish victim of centrated ammonium hydroxide in poorly attended class functions, most extraordinary “hand,” with the Holocaust takes his revenge on solution, the liquid turns black. It something we can change. This flourishes and style that we associ- anti-Semites and ex-Nazis. Larry will be interesting trying to figure year’s Dean’s Day will be held on ate with historical documents. The writes: “I am a bit old to be doing out what is happening there. Saturday, June 4 (college.columbia. visual impact of his written page this sort of thing but boredom in Charles D. Cole retired in 2007. edu/alumni/events/deansday). adds emotion to the content and the aged must be common. I have He has moved to his present loca- makes the decline of cursive writ- started a sequel plus a coming-of- tion, Bristol Village (bristolvillage. ing a loss that younger generations age novel, much based on my be- org), and now has an on-site doctor’s John Weaver cannot understand. ginnings as a V-12er in Livingston office in a medical building. Charles 49 2639 E. 11th St. Thanks, Howie. Hall and with encouragement from is a counselor-labor relations and is a Brooklyn, NY 11235 Hope to see as many of you as Dr. Knobbe years ago. I recall his member of the America Newspaper [email protected] can make it at Dean’s Day on Satur- last bit of advice, ‘Learn to spell!’ ” Publishers Association. Bristol Vil- day, June 4 (college.columbia.edu/ Larry would appreciate hearing lage has a modern activity center Writing in the extreme cold of a alumni/events/deansday). It is from anyone who lived on the sev- with walking track, pool, library, winter’s day, the sun gives promise always a meaningful occasion and enth deck (floor) and would love to café, fitness center, woodshop and of the warm spring to come. Read- worth getting up early to make it in have pictures of V-12ers who shared more. ing this, we hope it has arrived for time for breakfast with classmates! the deck. Frank I. Marcus is yet another you all. Larry, from what I know about person in the medical field who First, allow me a personal note: the men in our class, boredom is should receive our congratulations, My brother Bertram Sussman ’47, Mario Palmieri not in their psyche. having been chosen to receive the who was his class’ correspondent for 33 Lakeview Ave. W. Paul Rotondi, who lives in Lake- prestigious Heart Rhythm Society’s two years, has withdrawn. I must 50 Cortlandt Manor, NY 10567 wood, N.J., responded to my Dec- Pioneer in Cardiac Pacing and admit to being jealous of the extraor- [email protected] ember letter. His Columbia days Electrophysiology Award. dinary success he had in attracting were interrupted by Uncle Sam’s Angelo DiMartino remembers submissions from his classmates. Irving Kushner retired from call, and he spent three years as an well that he got a very good educa- Our class is just as happy to hear academic medicine and now is

may/june 2011 45 class notes columbia college today professor emeritus at Case Western 2–Sunday, June 5! There will be a ing WWII, Columbia’s unit trained ics at Baruch. In December, John Reserve University. Irv continues, great mix of cultural happenings more than 23,000 officers for naval B. Morris died in the Atlanta area. though, to participate in the aca- throughout New York City as well service. While our class attended Active with the Canterbury Club at demic activities of the Division of as class-specific events where we Columbia, the Corps consisted of Columbia, he subsequently gradu- Rheumatology at Case’s hospital, will have a chance to renew old 220 midshipmen, about 10 percent ated from the Virginia Theological where he engages in conferences friendships. Thursday night, there of the College’s enrollment. Encour- Seminary before embarking upon a and journal clubs and helps his will be a chance to take in a show in aged by B. James Lowe and Leon- career in the ministry. younger colleagues write papers. Manhattan. Friday offers mini-Core ard A. Stoehr, along with continu- A couple of 60th reunion notes to Irv says that he has had “an attack courses, tours and discussions, and ing publicity in The Wounded Lion conclude this column. Please don’t of late life productivity” and has a class reception. Saturday is Dean’s to bring back the Navy, Columbia’s overlook the letter you received had six papers published after his Day, with great lectures, including administration may yet agree with from Reunion Committee members 81st birthday dealing variously a talk by Dean Michele Moody- Harvard’s President Drew Gilpin Willard Block, Mark Kaplan and with medicine, science and medical Adams, followed in the evening by Faust that Harvard’s “renewed Harvey Krueger. Their suggestion history. And speaking of history, as the all-class Wine Tasting, a dinner relationship (with NROTC) affirms is for every class member to reex- this was being written, Irv was pre- with the Class of 1946, and sweets, the vital role that members of our amine his assets and make as large paring a lecture on the history of champagne, music and dancing Armed Forces play in serving the as possible a reunion class gift to the four humors, the theory of the on Low Plaza at the Starlight Recep- nation and securing our freedoms, the Columbia College Fund. You human body that guided ancient tion. In between, there will be plenty while also affirming inclusion and can give online (college.columbia. Greek and Roman physicians. of other happenings to keep us opportunity as powerful American edu/giveonline) or mail a check to Gerald Weissmann, whose entertained. Don’t miss it. It’s not ideals.” Columbia College Fund, Columbia medical career has been in basic too late to register. You can even do Congratulations to Ralph Low- Alumni Center, 622 W. 113th St., biomedical research on inflamma- so online: alumni.college.columbia. enstein ’52J, formerly dean of the MC 4530, 3rd Fl., New York NY tion, continues as director of the edu/reunion. College of Journalism and Commu- 10025. Of equal importance is the Biotechnology Study Center and committee’s suggestion to register research professor of medicine now for reunion festivities. Again, at the NYU School of Medicine. Ralph Lowenstein ’51 received the 2011 Emma you can do this online (alumni.col Gerry’s science-related activities lege.columbia.edu/reunion) or use extend beyond academic halls; he Lazarus Statue of Liberty Award, the American the registration packet you received is editor-in-chief of the FASEB Jour- Jewish Historical Society’s highest honor. in the mail. Contact Jennifer Freely, nal, which is the official publication assistant director, alumni affairs of the Federation of American ([email protected] or 212-851- Societies of Experimental Biol- Without generous philanthropists, nications at the University of Florida. 7438), for the latest details or more ogy, now the most-cited journal our country’s great centers of learn- Ralph received the 2011 Emma information. of biology worldwide. Gerry has ing would cease to exist. Consider Lazarus Statue of Liberty Award, the contributed many articles to the for example the contributions of the American Jewish Historical Society’s Journal through the years, and Sulzberger family. In late February, at highest honor, presented to an Sidney Prager these articles are the basis for his the death of Judith Sulzberger, sister individual “who has demonstrated 52 20 Como Ct. 10th book of essays, Epigenetics in of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, The New outstanding leadership and commit- Manchester, NJ 08759 the Age of Twitter: Pop Culture and York Times published an inspirational ment to strengthening the American [email protected] Modern Science, to be published this story about the family and its close Jewish Community.” Previous year. He has served for four years relationship to Columbia. Judith awardees include George P. Shultz, The men and women who serve in as chairman of the prize jury for graduated from P&S in 1949 and Edward Koch and Elie Wiesel. Last our military forces and protect our Prix Galien USA, an international financially supported alma mater’s year, Ralph had the idea to create country are to be admired and res- group that annually grants its pro Genome Center. In 1991, together a Gainesville Holocaust Memorial. pected, especially during times of bono award for humanitarian with her siblings, Judith gave a He became the fundraiser, project war, when a young life can be snuf- services to underserved popula- generous contribution to Barnard coordinator and memorial designer. fed out in a split second. Many of us tions worldwide. Gerry extends his in honor of their mother, Iphigene. Some 340 individuals and families have served and feel proud of our interest to sea life as well and for In 2005, Judith and her sisters Ruth contributed the $36,000 cost of the small or large contribution. Our 18 years has been a trustee of the and Marian presented the Journal- memorial, which was unveiled country called and we answered. Marine Biological Laboratory at ism School with major gifts for new before a large gathering and much When General Studies stu- Woods Hole, Mass., and has been management training programs for local publicity on September 12. dent and former Army Staff Sgt. appointed to its board of overseers. news executives, as well as intern- Paul Miller lives in Tarpon Anthony Maschek was heckled Sadly, we report three deaths. ships and scholarships, to honor Springs, Fla. He was one of our during a school forum discuss- Joachim (Joe) Adamczyk of Madi- Arthur, the chairman emeritus and classmates who returned from ing ROTC on campus, it struck a son, N.J., died in January. George former publisher of the Times. WWII active duty with the Army nerve with New York Assembly- C. Finch of New Bern, N.C., died All of the above is not the end to continue his college education. man Robert J. Castelli. Castelli, a in November. John E. Silverberg of the story about Judith and little Paul began his career with Curtis- Vietnam War veteran, was angry of Long Island City, N.Y., died in brother Arthur. The Times let the Wright, aircraft engine manufactur- that a young man who was shot 11 December. “cat out of the bag.” When Arthur ers in New Jersey before embarking times in a firefight in northern Iraq was born, his father, who enjoyed on long careers with Bell and Gen- in February 2008 was shown a lack writing light verse, prepared an eral Telephone. Before retiring in of respect by some of his fellow REUNION JUNE 2–JUNE 5 illustrated book describing the 1989, Paul participated in a broker- students. Alumni Office Contacts boy as having “come to play the age business. He can be reached at A college professor, Castelli Alumni Affairs Jennifer Freely Punch to Judy’s endless show.” So 727-937-0560. wrote a letter to President Lee C. [email protected] “Punch” became Arthur’s lifelong Mary Jo Kloezeman advised us Bollinger and cc’d, among others, 212-851-7438 nickname. that her father, Robert Archer, died American Legion Department of Development Paul Staller Nearly 40 years after prominent on September 4. Robert earned a New York Commander V. James [email protected] colleges such as Columbia and Har- Ph.D. from GSAS in 1954 and had a Troiola. The letter was shared with 212-851-7494 vard expelled the Naval Reserve long career with Hewlett-Packard. National Commander Jimmie L. George Koplinka Officers Training Corps from their Howard N. Ross died on Novem- Foster, who praised Castelli “for 51 75 Chelsea Rd. campuses, some colleges are recon- ber 16. In college, he was an editor standing up for former Army Staff White Plains, NY 10603 sidering what might have been a of the Pre-Medical Journal, a member Sgt. Anthony Maschek and all vet- [email protected] too-hasty action during the Vietnam of Sawbones and secretary of the erans currently enrolled in colleges conflict. At the time of this writing, Pre-Med Society. He earned a Ph.D. throughout the country. Our vet- Alumni Reunion Weekend is less Harvard announced that it would from GSAS in 1964 and for many erans deserve to be treated, at the than a month away, Thursday, June officially recognize NROTC. Dur- years was a professor of econom- very least, with the same respect as

may/june 2011 46 columbia college today class notes

any of their fellow students.” reporter) at a daily paper in Frank- 2, 1929, proceeded to earn his Ph.D. Lew Robins Castelli's letter to Bollinger read, fort, Ky. I decided to move on, and (1961) in social and political phi- 53 1221 Stratfield Rd. in part: “As a champion of diversity, while heading to North Carolina losophy as an Irwin Edman Scholar Fairfield, CT 06825 I would expect that you could con- with a fellowship in sociology and in the philosophy department of [email protected] vey to your students the fact that a job stringing for the Durham Sun, Columbia. He commenced his career they do not need to honor the war got sidetracked. I ended up work- as an educator by working in the The unusual achievement of our to respect and honor our warriors. ing for a daily labor paper out of philosophy departments of the uni- innovative classmate Herman The treatment of this young veteran Charleston, W.Va. I was unhappy versities of Hawaii, Kentucky and Winick is truly amazing. In 1997, who was wounded 11 times in the there, so I moved back to Cincinna- Texas, before being invited, in 1967, Herman was associated with service of his country is abhorrent, ti, where I remained unemployed to join the faculty of the political sci- the SLAC National Accelerator to say the least ... (M)embers of our and rejected by every major paper ence department at UC Berkeley. He Laboratory at Stanford when he military who served their country I queried. At a crossroad, I decided retired from his teaching obligations learned that the Bonn government and risked their lives on all our to use the G.I. Bill. Remembering in 2009, and continues his research in Germany was planning to shut behalf should be treated with the how happy and unstressed the pre- and publication, primarily in the down its existing synchotron and same dignity and respect that your meds were at Columbia, I decided history of revolutionary thought. He replace it with a newer, more pow- institution demands for any diverse to go to medical school. Unfortu- has published 26 volumes, the most erful model. The Germans planned member of our population.” nately, I had none of the science recent of which include Marxism, to cut up their old synchotron and Armen Haig wrote, after we requirements. So in two years and Fascism, and Totalitarianism: Chapters sell its metal as scrap. chatted by phone: “I am still doing working full-time, I got the credits in the Intellectual History of Radicalism; In simple terms, a synchotron orthopedic surgery, now with my and got admitted to University of The Search for Neofascism: The Use and produces super intense X-rays that son, who is managing the practice in Cincinnati College of Medicine. Af- Abuse of Social Science; Mussolini’s enable scientists to see the detailed Bronxville, N.Y., with part-time clini- ter a year of internship, three years Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political arrangements of atoms inside com- cal academic interest at NewYork- of internal medicine residency and Thought; and Faces of Janus: Marxism plex molecules such as proteins. Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia a year of fellowship, I established and Fascism in the Twentieth Century. For example, the synchotron makes University Medical Center. practice in Oakland, Calif. Collateral with his studies in it possible to analyze the atomic “I had been department director “I married an attractive, talented revolutionary ideologies, Anthony structure of defective hemoglobin at Lawrence Hospital Center and young lady from Iowa named has published widely in profes- in order to create a medicine to help then chief of staff before moving on Virginia, whom I met while she sional journals dealing with secu- patients with sickle cell anemia. to senior staff. My previous aca- was a physical therapist at the rity and national defense issues. In Hearing that the Bonn govern- demic activity had been a full-time V.A. hospital in Cincinnati. She that capacity, he has held the Op- ment was about to sell the existing academic appointment at Albert has had the fortitude to tolerate penheimer Chair of Warfighting synchotron, Herman came up with Einstein Medical Center as deputy my years of residency and me. We Strategy at the United States Ma- an imaginative idea. Instead of director, where I had a wonderful have three boys. The oldest, David, rine Corps University (1996–97) selling it as scrap, would the Bonn time managing the residency train- is a captain in the Navy, married as well as been an adjunct lecturer government be willing to donate ing program from 1964–69, when I to a pathologist, and has realized for the Professional School, De- the equipment to a scientific group moved to Westchester. his dream of being a skipper of partment of State, and occasional in the Middle East? “My Columbia friends included an attack submarine. He has two lecturer for the National Defense Working diligently, Herman Frank Durkan ’51, who passed boys. Middle son, Tom, after get- University and the United States was able to secure an enthusiastic away recently, just before a reunion ting his master’s in biotech and Marine Corps University. He response from the scientific com- we had planned. We kept putting it working in research, switched to has served as expert witness in munity and UNESCO. As a result, off, but we talked by phone about more remunerative biotech sales. regional security matters for both nine Middle Eastern countries (Bah- his clients (he was a lawyer). Lesson He married a schoolteacher, con- houses of Congress and on the rain, Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian learned: Do not squander opportuni- tinued the family tradition hav- editorial boards of the Journal of Authority, Cypress, Jordan, Turkey, ties to hold old (or new) friendships. ing two boys, and lives in idyllic Strategic Studies and Comparative Iran and Pakistan) agreed to con- You don’t always get a second Coronado, Calif. Our youngest, Strategy. Anthony has participated struct the Middle East’s first major chance. Thanks for listening.” Charlie, went to Berkeley, was Phi in lectures and conferences in cooperative international scientific From Irwin Herman: “Most of Beta Kappa and by an unusual set most of the major cities of the research center. Jordan successfully the names that appear in this col- of circumstances acted as factotum United States, and in Europe, as competed with seven countries to umn, I do not recognize. Whether for David Brinkley during the 50th well as Mexico City, Buenos Aires become the site for the new center. this is due to time or age, I can’t D-Day commemoration in France. and Montevideo in Latin America. Talking to Herman on the phone, say. My wife has buried the 1952 This led to a job at ABC News, Similar obligations took him to I learned that he is especially ex- yearbook in the depths of an antique where he advanced to business Tokyo, Beijing, Pyongyang, Taipei, cited that this cooperative venture steamer trunk, and I don’t dare open and economics producer. This past Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Manila, of scientists from nine countries will it to check the pictures lest I release year he moved to a similar position New Delhi and Calcutta in Asia. convince bright young students in evil. This is sad because during at WNYC in NYC. As a lecturer for the United State the area to work together on peace- 1948–52, we knew almost everyone “The chaos of insurance and the Information Agency, Anthony ful projects that will have enormous in the College by name or by sight. government led me to leave practice spoke at institutions in Jerusa- medical and other benefits for “My name will probably suffer in 1994, and I joined the enemy as lem, Cairo and Pretoria. In 1972, people in their countries and for the same lack of recognition, but a medical consultant for the state of he was awarded a Guggenheim the entire world. Detailed informa- because it’s almost 60 years (60 California, where I work full-time. Fellowship. In 1974, he was tion about the project is available at years!) since graduation, I will take “This has been a long bio writ- commemorative speaker at the www.sesame.org.jo. an old man’s liberty of providing a ten at the request of our esteemed Giovanni Gentile Commemora- Keep up the great work, Herman! brief biography. Maybe some sur- ’52 column editor, Sidney. How- tive Ceremony of the Enciclopedia Your classmates are proud of your vivors out there in graduation land ever, I will announce now that this Italiana, Rome. He was a fellow of determined efforts over many years will find this interesting. is not an invitation for solicitations. the Center for Advanced Study in to bring this project to fruition. “After graduation, I returned With the wisdom of age, I have the Social Sciences at the Hebrew Talking to Stan Maratos by to Cincinnati, where I started my gone from yellow dog Democrat to University, Jerusalem (1980–81). In phone, I learned that last summer career in journalism, running copy conservative independent.” 2004, the government of the Re- he was inducted into the Hellenic for the Cincinnati Enquirer until the Citing what he perceives as “the public of Italy awarded Anthony Athletic Hall of Fame at a ceremony Army called. After two years at pervasive radical and anti-Israeli membership (as cavaliere) in the in Montreal. His achievements Fort Belvoir in public information, bias of the University,” Irwin closes Order of Merit. He lives in Berke- were cited at a dinner attended by where I saw Mal Schechter pass by saying he has “moved my wallet ley, Calif., with his wife, Professor 300 people where Stan received a through the engineering school from my left to right hip pocket.” Maria Hsia Chang. huge plaque and a glass globe on and Max Frankel while on an of- This next about Anthony (A. Your reporter thanks you all a pedestal. Interestingly enough, ficial visit to the Pentagon, I ended James) Gregor: Anthony Gimiglia- for your contributions and wishes Stan is one of a small number of our up as a reporter (in fact, the only no, born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on April good health and happiness to all. classmates who married as under-

may/june 2011 47 class notes columbia college today graduates. He and Amaryllis were he has to use a wheelchair to get For those of our classmates whom Travel Study featuring guest lectur- married during their senior year around. Nevertheless, he still re- we have not heard from recently, ers; and Crossroads of Cultures and celebrated their 59th wedding tains his delightful sense of humor please drop me a note or an e-mail, in the Mediterranean — a voyage anniversary. Stan also told me about and powerful intellect. When asked or call. Hope to hear from many of from Seville to Venice. Myron a celebration every two years in what he thought of Barack Obama you soon. Liptzin went with a group on one Florida known as The Last Round- ’83’s election, Rolon told me, “Hell of these cruises a short while ago. up. It seems our Columbia jocks of a hoot.” All of his classmates and The sixth annual Howl event was from the early ’50s get together to fraternity brothers are praying for Gerald Sherwin held in the early spring. Key speak- party and talk about the good old Rolon’s recovery and return to good 55 181 E. 73rd St., Apt. 6A ers were Professor Ann Douglas, days. If you were a jock and would health. New York, NY 10021 composer David Amram, writer like to participate, please telephone [email protected] Joyce Johnson and a cast of all-stars Stan in Treasure Island, Fla. who helped Columbia honor its Stan was a member of the 1950– Howard Falberg The hottest news on Morningside Beat prodigal sons, Allen Ginsberg 51 men’s basketball team that went 54 13710 Paseo Bonita Heights currently is the issue of ’48 and football coach Lou Little’s undefeated during the regular sea- Poway, CA 92064 bringing back ROTC to campus. favorite, Jack Kerouac ’44. son and won the Eastern Intercolle- [email protected] It is being discussed passionately Another major achievement in giate Basketball League (forerunner in the University Senate, and by the admissions area: Columbia of the Ivy League) championship While it is always great hearing from faculty, students and alumni. Re- received a record number of appli- before bowing to Illinois 79–71 in classmates on a regular basis, every member the good old days when cations for the Class of 2015, 34,587, the NCAA tournament. That team so often I hear from members of our NROTC and AFROTC were joined a more than 32 percent increase has been inducted to the Columbia class whom I have not heard from by a good many undergraduates? from last year. University Athletics Hall of Fame. for some time. I was delighted to The question should be resolved The Kraft Family Center for Jew- Congratulations, Stan, on your hear from Ed Raab recently. He has shortly, perhaps before this maga- ish Student Life is holding its 10th Hellenic Athletic Hall of Fame been happily married to Rosanne zine reaches your hands. anniversary celebration in which award. for 52 years, and they have three fine Alumni weekend recently was Allen Hyman is being honored, Elliot Weser still is active, vigor- children, two admirable in-law chil- held for basketball and baseball among others. In addition to partici- ous and enthusiastic. For example, dren and four super grandchildren. (including an alumni game for pating in events at the Kraft Center, in 2010 he was elected to the city Ed writes, “Rosanne and I travel a hoopsters — none of our class Allen is active with our class, attend- council of Alamo Heights, Texas. great deal, and she has accompanied played). We saw Jack Freeman, ing monthly class dinners, sporting During the course of our telephone me on teaching missions in China, Richard Ascher, Bob Pearlman events, scholarship functions and conversation, he told me that he’s India and Uzbekistan. We play and many other alums socializing more. enjoying every minute of being on tennis year-round, and I am still in and reliving the past. Some of the Two affinity groups will be gath- the council and finds that the key active ophthalmology practice and guys who couldn’t make it were ering at Alumni Reunion Weekend to being politically productive is to teaching at Mount Sinai School of Ron McPhee, Tom Brennan, Tony in early June. One is varsity athletes make sure to maintain a sense of Medicine.” Palladino and John Naley. There’s — will we see Neil Opdyke, Bob humor. After 32 years of flying his Peter Ehrenhaft is a truly loyal always next year, fellows. Mercier, Dick Carr, Peter Chase, four-passenger plane to all parts “roving reporter.” Peter met Roy In early April, the annual Co- Bob Dillingham, Peter Martin, of the United States, two years ago Schotland at a dinner party recent- lumbia Community Outreach was Barry Pariser, Willy Storz and Barry Elliot and his wife, Marcia, decided ly. Roy teaches at Georgetown Law held. More than 1,000 students, Sullivan? Due to the success of last to stop flying. School. Peter and Roy clerked at the alumni, faculty and the rest of the year’s gathering, all singing groups Elliot’s working years have been Supreme Court in the same term Columbia community went into (Glee Club, et al.) will be invited enormously productive. For 44 during 1961, Roy for Justice William New York City neighborhoods and to give another concert at reunion. years, he was professor of medicine Brennan and Peter for Chief Justice areas around the globe, participat- Details will follow. We mentioned at the University of Texas Health Sci- Warren. Roy’s wife, Sara, recently ing in a day of service. This event that WKCR had its 70th anniversary ence Center at San Antonio, where retired as a partner at the law firm has been going on for 15 years and party a couple of months ago. No, he founded and became the chief of of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamil- was started by two College stu- it was not held in the old studios in the gastroenterology department. ton and now competes with Roy as dents in the 1990s. Hamilton Annex. Didn’t see Dave For 20 years, Elliot was the chief of a lecturer on a variety of themes at Faculty have become an integral Sweet (“Voice of the Roaring Lion”). medicine at the Veterans Hospital in law schools around the world. part in bringing the classroom to Everyone should know that the San Antonio. He is emeritus profes- Class of 1955 Scholarship Fund sor of medicine at the University of recipient is Dominique Nieves ’12, Texas Health Science Center. Allen Hyman ’55 was honored by Columbia’s Kraft who is majoring in dance and a Six years ago, Gene Winograd pre-med track of study. She teaches retired as professor of psychology Family Center for Jewish Student Life at its 10th high school students at NewYork- at Emory, where he specialized in anniversary celebration. Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia experimental research on memory. University Medical Center. Domi- Gene published more than 75 papers nique is smart and is a wonderful and wrote a couple of books. On the Ed Cowan and his bride, Ann alumni in Manhattan and around person as well. phone, Gene reported that he finds it Louise, continue their pilgrimage, the world. Everyone knows about We received an invitation from very pleasant to be retired. He finds aka baseball odyssey, and are plan- the lectures at PicNic, a restaurant George Raitt to have coffee at it especially rewarding to do a lot of ning to be in Denver in May. The at West 103rd Street and Broadway, “Chock Full o’Nuts” or “Prexy’s, the reading and piano playing. He and Colorado Rockies will mark the where every Monday evening Hamburger with a College Educa- Judy are celebrating their 50th wed- 30th major league stadium visit for professors talk about various Core tion.” In case we have trouble find- ding anniversary. them. While there, a lovely reunion subjects to a multitude of attendees. ing these places, there is always The During our undergraduate years, will take place between the Cow- The Columbia University Club will West End (or a variation thereof). Rolon Reed was one of our most ans and Herb Wittow and his wife, be hosting a series of lectures by key The class monthly dinners have ex- dynamic and capable class lead- Sandra. I know, and my wife, Deb- Columbia professors in the spring panded to boroughs outside of Man- ers. To mention a few of his many by, can say from experience, that and throughout the rest of the year. hattan. (We haven’t made it to the activities, he was the managing Herb and Sandra are absolutely On the worldwide front, there will Bronx or Staten Island, yet.) Looking editor of Spectator, the president of wonderful hosts. Herb tells me that be travel study abroad programs forward to seeing Stan Zinberg, Ber- Phi Gamma Delta and the record- he is finally sincerely considering later on this year: a Black Sea voy- ish Strauch, Aaron Hamburger and ing secretary of the Pamphratria retirement. age including Yalta, other parts of Robert Kushner, and from Long Is- Council. Talking to Rolon, I learned Speaking of travel, Debby and Russia, Romania, Turkey (study land, John Nelson, Jules Rosenberg, that after suffering two broken hips I recently went to China, where I leaders: professors John Gaddis and Bob Loring and Milt Merritt. Ben and having terrible trouble with judged at dog shows and we visited Charles King); River Life Cruise Kaplan was in touch trying to find his lungs after 60 years of smoking, several cities. — Rhine, Main, Mosel — another out the whereabouts of Don Kresge.

may/june 2011 48 columbia college today class notes

Ben still is in the insurance business Al Franco ’56E and I were privi- reunion. perched atop? Does anyone remem- in Midtown. leged to attend the Dean’s Scholar- Class news: Elliott Urdang, a ber the first class to lose? We learned of the passing of two ship Reception, where we get to Brooklyn boy living in Rhode Island During our freshman year, classmates — Don Grillo and Jay meet many of our class’ scholar- for the last 40-plus years, has had Gordon Butler was bundled up in Novins. Our sympathies go out to ship recipients. Our class currently multiple careers. As he writes, “After bandages mummy-style and put their family and friends. They will has four permanent scholarships working as a child psychiatrist for on a plane to Chicago by a group of be missed. (set up at our 50th reunion) and six 25 years, I have been working for 20 sophomores who had kidnapped Benevolent Class of 1955, time is current-use scholarships. It is truly years as a freelance translator from him? They explained to the airline moving quite rapidly as we head a joy to listen to the students. They Russian (as well as medical materi- that he had been horribly burned toward another milestone, our 60th. are bright, ambitious, directed and als from Spanish and French in the and was bandaged so heavily in Keep your spirits up. Keep your very appreciative of the scholar- past five years).” Elliott’s interest in order to prevent him from speaking cholesterol down. Enjoy yourself to ships that have enabled them to foreign languages led him to get an or touching his badly burned body. the fullest. Love to all, everywhere! attend Columbia. Interestingly, the M.A. in Russian, which led to his When the hoax was discovered, it scholarship program now covers second career in translation, which got national press coverage, adding living expenses during the summer he loves. He is a co-translator of two immeasurably to the considerable REUNION JUNE 2–JUNE 5 so students can take internships in books by Romanian poet Ion Car- image of maturity that Columbia Alumni Office Contacts their chosen fields without worry- aion: Ion Caraion: Poems, co-translat- students were about to display in the Alumni Affairs Kimberly Peterson ing about finances. It also was nice ed with Marguerite Dorian, bilingual years ahead. [email protected] to hear that they were interested in Romanian-English edition; and The During the Cold War, in a Radio 212-851-7872 our experiences some 55 years ago. Error of Being (Greşeala de a fi),poems Moscow broadcast, Valentin Zorin, Development Paul Staller I am trying to get our two graduat- of Ion Caraion, co-translated from a Soviet and Russian commentator, [email protected] ing class scholarship students to Romanian with Marguerite Dorian, suggested that Dwight D. Eisen- 212-851-7494 attend one of our reunion events bilingual Romanian-English edition. hower had tried to turn Columbia Stephen K. Easton (probably our June 3 dinner). Elliott’s wife, Ester, also is an into a barracks during his time as 56 6 Hidden Ledge Rd. Our last class luncheon was held author and is writing a textbook on Columbia’s president? Zorin had Englewood, NJ 07631 at the Columbia Alumni Center, human behavior in the social envi- obviously stayed at, or seen, the [email protected] home to the Alumni Office. We ronment. So they both get added rooms at John Jay Hall at some time have elected to hold our lunches at to our class’ list of authors. Elliott or another. I went to Ft. Lauderdale in early the Center until we have completed is friendly with Eddie Smith and In May 1953, a mob of Columbia March to visit Danny Link for four our 55th reunion planning. It has his wife, and still is nostalgic for students attempted a panty raid at days that included our Florida worked really well. In attendance Columbia. both Barnard and Johnson Hall? Class of ’56 Luncheon. The lun- at a recent lunch, held on February Elliott, I would love to see you The event was covered by all the cheon was held on March 8 at the 6, were Bob Siroty, Peter Klein, at our 55th reunion. New York newspapers, with the Ibis Country Club in Palm Beach Stan Soren, Buzz Paaswell, Jerry Don Roth, host of our Florida New York Post calling the under- Gardens and was hosted by Don Fine and me. We have completed luncheon, also has had multiple graduates “cavemen who garnered Roth and attended by Anita and most of the planning, so now the careers. After lawyering with Fried trophies in furious assaults on the Lou Hemmerdinger, Lisa and rest is up to you, our class members Frank, Wachtell and Lipton in trembling women students in three Mike Spett, Jackie and Don Roth, who would like to attend. We will Washington, D.C., he moved on to dorms.” Elinor Baller and Danny Link, be moving our bimonthly lunches, an executive position at Ocean Data During Columbia’s bicentennial Fern and Stan Manne, Don Kazi- after the summer, back to campus Systems, a high-tech company, from celebration in 1954, more than 7,000 mir, Janet and John Garnjost, and (at Faculty House, or some new, in- which he retired when it was sold. invited guests from 37 countries as- myself and my wife, Elke. John teresting restaurants near campus), Not satisfied to be retired, Don sembled in the Cathedral Church of brought his mother-in-law, whose or the Columbia University Club returned to get an M.B.A. from St. John the Divine? They included company we enjoyed, as well as for our midtown class alums. Wharton about the same time my Germany’s Konrad Adenauer, Su- enjoying the fact that we had at Our 55th reunion is less than a son got his M.B.A. The only differ- preme Court Chief Justice Earl War- least one older person attending. month away. It’s not too late to reg- ence is that Don was about 30 years ren and 1952 Presidential candidate Everyone enjoyed the food and ister online: alumni.college.colum older than his classmates. This has Adlai Stevenson. good company, and we already are bia.edu/reunion. There will be a led to Don being a co-founder and Graduating seniors could expect talking about next year’s Florida great mix of cultural happenings officer of an Internet startup, Opti- to earn starting salaries of from luncheon. throughout New York City and mal Effect. $75–$90 a week, according to Co- I believe that the winter weather class-specific events where we will Good luck to Don in this exciting lumbia’s Placement Bureau? that we suffered here in the New have a chance to renew friendships. new challenge. Despite a vote where 91 percent York City area has finally ended. So On Thursday night, there will be a Leo Glass, practicing law in Mon- of dorm students voiced approval let’s start thinking summer, the Class chance to take in a show in Manhat- ticello, N.Y., writes that he misses of a system that would permit fe- of 2011 graduation and our 55th tan. Friday offers mini-Core courses Columbia and had a claim of being male students to visit dorm rooms, reunion, Thursday, June 2–Sunday, and a class wine tasting and buffet the youngest in our class. Sorry Leo, the Residential Dormitory Council June 5. See details later in this dinner. Saturday is Dean’s Day, Buzz Paaswell has you beat by elected not to allow such visits? column. with great lectures, including a talk about nine months. We would both The small-scale riot during our On January 15, a number of our by Dean Michele Moody-Adams like to see you at our 55th reunion to senior class beer party in John Jay class members were in attendance and a class luncheon at Casa Itali- share other remembrances. Hall resulted in the destruction of to see the Columbia basketball team ana, followed in the evening by our On a sad note, Herbert Baum- furniture and chandeliers, with one kick off its Ivy League season against class cocktail and dinner party, with garten passed away in January. classmate being sent to St. Luke’s Cornell. It was good to share the a lively discussion with Professor Herb was a member of our winning Hospital for eight stitches? winning experience with Maurice Peter Pazzaglini ’77 GSAS. For those fencing team and had a successful It may seem hard to believe that Klein and his wife, Judy, and Jordan who still want to party, there is the career with Unilever. I send our in some cases these events happened Richin, who came as my guests, and Starlight Reception, which features class condolences to his widow, Jes- close to 60 years ago, and even more to run into Paul Taormina and Char- sweets, champagne and dancing sica, and his three children. so that they still burn bright in the lie Brown, who are regulars at many on Low Plaza. In between, there Len Wolf, our class historian, memories that so many of us still of the games. It also was nice to see will be plenty of other happenings has written his following observa- have. the names of a number of our class to keep us entertained. Don’t miss tions on our years at Columbia. Do College fundraising: We have set members honored in the program it. The committee has worked hard any of you remember that: a class goal of $150,000 donated to as receiving their basketball letters to keep the cost reasonable and the As sophomores during the the Columbia College Fund by the during our four years in college. The program lively and interesting. For Soph-Frosh Rush, we were the end of this fiscal year (Thursday, night brought back some very good more detailed information, check second class to lose to the freshmen, June 30). If we meet this goal, the memories. your reunion package or online who managed to climb the greased Scholarships 101 Challenge, gener- On the evening of February 3, at alumni.college.columbia.edu/ pole and capture the prized beanie ously funded by the late John W.

may/june 2011 49 class notes columbia college today

Kluge ’37, will release the $150,000, be complete without Lou Little, who sented to them in March 2000 at St. by Nussbaum & Wu, a nearby deli. allowing us to fund a class scholar- will always be ‘my coach.’ Olaf College in Minnesota. Although not on the level of the ship, which we would like to name “Alan Gottdenker and Roy “It was inspiring to bridge the culinary or ambient splendor of The the Alan M. Miller Scholarship Wolff stand at the front of the line. years with ’57 classmates to our University Club, the situation was Matching Fund. It is urgent, if you Their deep and abiding love for time of passing between Butler cozy, informal and made for easy are so inclined, to both honor Al- me is something that is always Library and Hamilton Hall. Our communication among all present. an’s memory and add to our class’ with me. discourse moved from current “Bob Lipsyte moderated the support of Columbia scholarships, “In somewhat alphabetical or- events to great issues in philoso- conversation, which went on for that you make the largest contribu- der, Pasquale Caputo shared his phy and history with the help of about two hours and might have tion you can for this worthwhile great love of opera with me. Char- impromptu lectures by Professor lasted longer. Not only was he en- program. You can mail a check to lie Catania was my always helpful Bernard Wishy ’48, ’58 GSAS, class gaging but also he was interesting, Columbia College Fund, Columbia rat lab partner. Claude Benham valedictorian. We had Erich Gruen amusing, candid, controversial and Alumni Center, 622 W. 113th St., struck me with the noble way he and a host of bright and willing personable, and everyone present MC 4530, 3rd Fl., New York, NY carried himself. Roy Altman’s young minds ready to debate any had something to say that all others 10025, or give online at college. charming smile will always shine issue. It was somewhere on the heard and found interesting. He columbia.edu/giveonline. I thank in my memory. Ted Dwyer was quad that I lost my intellectual had stories to tell and anecdotes you for your participation. my roommate during our fresh- innocence. The magic of Columbia that were at times surprising and I am again asking all class mem- man year, and I had the great plea- was to bring everything into ques- moving, regarding his own life and bers who want to keep in touch to sure of introducing him to some of tion. I am grateful.” the lives of celebrities, mentors and update their e-mail addresses by my favorite places in NYC. Carlos Muñoz: “Just received others who had impressed him. contacting Lou Hemmerdinger, our “Dick Eberl inspired me with his CCT, and it reminded me that, “I hope he’ll return for an class correspondent: lhemmer@aol. courage. Billy Friedman delighted while I was in California prepar- encore. Here’s an idea for you, com. This seems to be the best way me with his creative mischief. Sher- ing to take our grandchildren on Bob. Why not collar some athlete to stay in touch with the majority of ril Fischer was a rewarding part a cruise, I missed the regular ’57 or journalist you’ve known and our class members. Please keep in of my AFROTC experience, and lunch by two days. I had lunch with interview him or her on or off contact with Columbia in whatever Stan Luftschein was grace under John Taussig. Gene Wagner was the record, where we could ask ways you feel appropriate, as I pressure. Harry Marks and I were to join us, but the horrendous rains questions and make comments believe that it has been a force and not close, but I always admired in December blocked roads and during or after your interview? power in our lives. the quiet way in which he carried prevented his trip. We survived the It wouldn’t have to be someone If you have news to share, please himself. I will always remember rains and had a delightful cruise to famous: say, a boxer or a baseball e-mail me at tball8000@earthlink. Murray May’s infectious laugh. I Mexico with our family group of 12, or football or tennis player. Surely, net, and I will make sure it gets in a am proud to call John Wellington including six grandchildren. Pete Rose would be interesting, but future Class Notes. my friend; we dressed for football “The cruise left from the Port of a lesser known or even unknown Wishing that the next few months in adjoining lockers and that is all Los Angeles December 26, com- player with a story of interest are as exciting in your lives as they that it took for us to find each other. prising eight days to Cabo San Lu- might do as well or better. Please are to the graduating Class of 2011. I looked up to Art Wilson for his cas, Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta. give this some thought. values, and I totally understand The ship included a full basketball “The prospect of organizing a why he was chosen as captain of and soccer court for the four teen- similar luncheon is one that any one Herman Levy our football team. age boys (who almost beat the or more of you can do, either indi- 57 7322 Rockford Dr. “Now the inescapable question ship’s crew team in soccer), an ice vidually or as a team, whether the Falls Church, VA 22043 is, what do all of these classmates skating rink and a climbing wall, luncheon centers around a theme, [email protected] have in common? I will call the and the kids kayaked in Cabo, topic or moderator, or you aim at a entity a ‘largeness of spirit.’ The parasailed in Mazatlan and swam get-together without more, a cause- John “Sparky” Breeskin: “I have demonstrated details are, of course, with dolphins in Puerto Vallarta.” rie, chat or symposium. Any format good news to pass along to you. completely idiosyncratic, but to me, Martin Brothers: “At this first of interest might work, and the Roy Wolff is out of the hospital the similarities are compelling.” classmates’ conversation of its resources of the University in the (see November/December) and Mac Gimse: “Thank you for kind, held at the Columbia Alumni City of New York offer too many slowly recovering at home. Because your thoughtful mail containing Center on March 3, 14 of us were possibilities to list here. we have the kind of relationship the article on Mr. Chris Sharp (The present (including our Alumni “I’d be happy for your input on that we do, I asked him how his Washington Post, January 16) and Office liaison, Paul Staller, direc- the luncheon we had and would perspective has changed as a result his project to cast 19 statues of Dr. tor of class giving): Bob Lipsyte, organize another if enough of you of his stroke. He quickly replied Martin Luther King Jr. I am happy Sal Franchino, Stanley Barnett, wish, but would be just as pleased that now he appreciates being out to see a sculptor devoted to such Paul Zola, Art Meyerson, Martin (if not more pleased) to defer to or of the rehab hospital and being able a worthy cause and admire his Brothers, Joseph Diamond, Carlos assist anyone else who has an idea to sit in the sun in his own house commitment to the Civil Rights Muñoz, Robert Klipstein, Mark for a project. with his angelic partner, Monique, Movement. Stanton, Al Fierro, David Kinne “My impression is that at our by his side. “I have written about Dr. King and Joseph Feldschuh. age the collective knowledge, ex- “I hasten to add that what has and cast a sculpture to honor his “Twelve others would have at- perience and wisdom around the happened to him has not impaired work, although it is a very different tended if they were not out of town table was remarkable if not daunt- his colorful speech.” style, showing the brutality of rac- or obliged to attend to compelling ing and should make for many Sparky then provided some rem- ism. It has been called, ‘Not suitable personal matters: Alvin Kass, Alan more interesting conversations inisces of his days at alma mater: “I for children to view,’ and I agree. Rosen, Jonathan Lubin, Steve where we can feel connected and find that after more than two score Mr. Sharp’s project is a focus on Ronai, Phil Olick, Edward Wein- involved in the event. and 10 years, certain impressions King and his cause. I appreciate his stein, Marty Fisher, Alan Brown, “Listen, there were guys there are indelibly imprinted into my work.” Mike Lipper, Bob Flescher, Larry who have a great deal they could memory, and I would like to share Mac continues from the previ- Boes and Ken Bodenstein. say to engage us for hours. Frankly, them with you as one person’s per- ous CCT on his New York exhibit “The conference room at the any one of us could, if we wanted, ception of an experience we all have (November) at KGB Gallery: Center was commodious enough to delve into our own lives for mate- in common. “Joe Diamond appeared later, seat 22 on comfortable leather chairs rial that might interest others. Quick “First, among the faculty, how can and it was the occasion for the only around a substantial oblong confer- examples: Art Meyerson (psychia- I go wrong by nominating Dustin photo of the day. We are looking at ence table equipped with audio- try), Paul Zola (psychology), David Rice (‘C- Rice’) at the head of the Bearing The Burden Of Peace, created visual adaptors, with an adjoining Kinne (medicine) and Stan Barnett queue? James Shenton ’49, of course, for David Trimble and John Hume kitchen where coffee had been (scientist, engineer), among others, follows, with Ralph Hefferline and of Northern Ireland, co-laureates prepared by the staff and a refrig- all others in fact. the inestimable Fred Keller among for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998. erator where we chilled wine that “So, if this was something that this company. This list could never The bronze sculpture was pre- was served over lunch delivered you enjoyed, let us all know and

may/june 2011 50 columbia college today class notes

suggest anything you think would system. As many of you will remem- continues to broaden and also congressman (now House Major- be of interest, and if you would like ber, Dave died not long after gradu- get smaller. Many old Columbia ity Leader) Eric Cantor, I agreed to to organize or produce the event ation. friends continue to wander in. It have my named placed in nomina- by yourself or selves, or want assis- According to the Amherst alumni is a joy and delight remaining in tion. Looking back, I am certainly tance, just say so and move ahead magazine, Mort Halperin’s young- touch with them through art.” glad that Jackie and I made this with it at some mutually convenient est son, Gary, was voted by readers From Arthur M. Louis: “I re- decision, as the position has kept date that does not conflict with any of Natural Awakenings magazine as a cently published a book of mostly me campaigning nonstop for our University or College event. 2010 Natural Choice Award winner journalistic memoirs, Journalism candidates throughout Virginia “Wishing all the best, and thank- for “favorite yoga instructor in Sara- and Other Atrocities: An Irrever- and given me something to occupy ing all who attended and expressed sota, Fla.” The note added, “Gary ent Memoir. I spent more than 40 my time following her loss. interest and support.” remains a stay-at-home dad to three years as a professional journalist, “Six months after I was elected girls under 7; 17,000 diapers changed about half of that as a writer on the party chair at a May 2009 conven- and counting.” And why, you may staff of Fortune. There also is a fair tion attended by 12,000 Virginia Barry Dickman be asking, is your reporter reading amount in the book about Colum- Republicans, Republicans swept the 58 25 Main St. the Amherst alumni magazine? bia College, the Journalism School Virginia governor, lieutenant gover- Court Plaza North, Ste 104 Because his daughter, Sue Dickman, and Spectator, where I was editori- nor and attorney general races by 20 Hackensack, NJ 07601 was Gary’s classmate at Amherst. als editor in my senior year. percent, only the second time in our [email protected] The class lunch is held on the “If anyone wants to buy the Commonwealth’s history that we second Wednesday of every month, book (hint, hint), the easiest way have held all three of the top posi- Congratulations to Steve Jonas on in the Grill Room of the Princeton/ is to go to the following link: cre- tions. We also picked up eight seats his marriage to Chezna Newman. Columbia University Club, 15 W. atespace.com/3483153. Another in the Virginia House of Delegates. I Steve and Chezna “were very hap- 43rd St. ($31 per person). E-mail Art way is to go to Amazon.com.” was given major credit for the victo- pily married with a rabbi, a recep- Radin if you plan to attend, up to From Alvin Halpern we hear, ries, for reuniting and reenergizing tion and a honeymoon in Sweden. the day before: aradin@radinglass. “My wife and I have moved to the party and for reaching out and We really rushed into it; we’ve been com. sunny San Diego. We love and bringing home the business com- together only 12 years. Our class miss New York, but the weather, munity and our conservative base was represented at the wedding by and our two grandchildren living after eight years of defeats, acco- my dear friend Joe Dorinson.” Norman Gelfand close by, proved irresistible. We lades which I felt were undeserved Not exactly breaking news, but 59 c/o CCT moved in August, and it has taken but ones I humbly accepted. better any old time than never. Your Columbia Alumni Center months of hectic activity to fully “Then this past November we reporter noticed an obit in The New 622 W. 113th St., MC 4530 settle into our new condo. While followed up those victories by taking York Times headlined, “Jack Oliver New York, NY 10025 not New York, San Diego is filled back three Democrat congressional [’45, ’53 GSAS], Who Proved Con- [email protected] with museums, theaters and good seats. tinental Drift, Dies at 87,” and read restaurants that keep us busy and “During this period, I visited on. Although the theory had been Thanks to all of you who have sub- entertained.” and spoke in more than 60 Virginia put forth in 1912, it had generally mitted your doings to Class Notes. Pat Mullins has been busy of counties and cities and had a driver been regarded as a crackpot idea I encourage those members of the late. The last issue of CCT contained who took me on these campaign until the 1960s, when Oliver, who class who have not done so recently news of his wife Jackie’s death. He trips. was working at Columbia’s Lamont to please do so. This is the only way continues his report, “Fortunately, “The week before the November Geological Observatory, together some of us can keep in touch. 16 months previously, I had been elections, I joined with Rep. Cantor with his former graduate student I am sorry to report that Stephen asked to run for the position of on a five-city swing with rallies Bryan Isacks found proof of the M. Remen, a psychiatrist and psy- chairman of the Republican Party throughout his congressional dis- theory. In 1968 they published a pa- choanalyst, of New York City, died of Virginia, a position that I had not trict; spent a day in Virginia Beach per making a convincing case that on January 20, and federal judge sought nor really wanted. with our congressional candidate what had become known as plate David G. Trager, of Brooklyn, N.Y., “After several conversations there who picked up a Democrat tectonics was real (and important; died on January 5. [Editor’s note: with our Republican Governor seat; and was driven on a four-day, it’s now the basis for offshore oil Obituaries will appear in a future nominee, Bob McDonnell, and my 1,500-mile swing for rallies and exploration, among other things). issue.] Bryan has retired as the William Bernie Pucker writes, “During and Katherine Snell Professor of the past three years, our son Jon Geological Sciences at Cornell. has been working alongside us in Columbia School Designations Here’s a letter from Barry Luten- our gallery in an effort to continue In Class Notes, these designations indicate Columbia der: the commitments of the gallery degrees from schools other than the College. “Your column in the January/ that go back to 1967. It is reassur- February Columbia College Today ing to all who visit the gallery — Arch. School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation was appreciated and very mean- clients, friends and artists — that Arts School of the Arts ingful to me. I was saddened to there will be a sense of continuity Barnard Barnard College learn that Asher Rubin had passed in what we have begun. Business Graduate School of Business away but was pleased you clearly “I am recently back from an remembered him well, as I have. extraordinary trip to Germany, CE School of Continuing Education “Asher and Al Shine were good where I met with Jan Kollwitz, the Dental College of Dental Medicine friends of David Davis ’56E and great-grandson of Kathe Kollwitz. E The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and mine during those wonderful years Jan is a potter who studied in Applied Science at Columbia in Livingston Hall. Japan 25 years ago and has been GS School of General Studies Asher was literally one of a kind. His creating pots in the Japanese tradi- GSAS Graduate School of Arts and Sciences sense of humor is unforgettable, and tion for the past 20 years. We are in J Graduate School of Journalism his close friendship with Al was very the process of preparing to exhibit similar to mine with David. his work here in Boston. L School of Law “Thanks for rekindling the won- “Additionally, I came across a Nursing School of Nursing derful memories of Asher. Please Korean potter, Young-Jae Lee, and P&S College of Physicians and Surgeons keep up the good work with the at the same time, I have added the PH Mailman School of Public Health magazine.” works of another Japanese potter, SIPA School of International and Public Affairs Barry, we appreciate your kind Yoshinori Hagiwara, to our col- SW School of Social Work words. lection based upon our May 2010 Barry retired from teaching math journey to Japan. TC Teachers College in the Framingham, Mass., school “I must say that the universe

may/june 2011 51 class notes columbia college today speaking engagements in southern tural Biology, Channels and so on. after the opponent had endorsed holding contributions from Steve and southwest Virginia, where “I have become drawn to the you? That would be worse than Tractenberg, Lou Lucaccini, Bill both our GOP candidates took concept of interdisciplinary science losing to a dead guy! Berberich, Benjamin Jerry Cohen, back Democrat seats. and have a paper in press, “The “Still keeping busy being a pa- Jerome Charyn, Jay Neugeboren, “The final two days before the Interdisciplinary Scientist of the triarch of my clan of eight grown Alvin Goldman and Peter Rosen- election, I did an eight-city, two- 21st Century,” in which I argue children (two by birth and six feld for the next issue. day fly around Virginia with Gov. that with modern technology for adopted) and 11 grandchildren. McDonnell, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling bringing knowledge and analysis The grandchildren are growing up. and Attorney General Ken Cuc- and modeling tools to our finger- One looks as though she might be Robert A. Machleder cinelli, who incidentally filed the tips, instead of having to access a scientist, as she is in her junior 60 69-37 Fleet St. first lawsuit to have Obamacare remote library shelves and main- year at the Illinois Mathematics Forest Hills, NY 11375 ruled unconstitutional and has frame computers, there is no bar- and Science Academy (Illinois’ an- [email protected] prevailed in the initial decision in rier to individuals acquiring deep swer to Bronx Science). Others are the lower court. knowledge in multiple scientific doing many good things, mainly From his home in Taiwan, Syd “The crowds were large and disciplines, and that in fact training just being and becoming beautiful Goldsmith sends family reflections enthusiastic. This was the second individuals to be multidisciplinary people. on the year just passed, the Year of time I had joined our party leaders is essential to solving many of the “As you can imagine, in a group the Tiger, and greetings to all on the in a Virginia fly-around with airport most important scientific problems of young people this size, there is recently arrived Year of the Rabbit. rallies, and it is an unforgettable today. always something to celebrate and “It has,” he writes, “been a color- experience. “I took this message to a work- something to be concerned about. ful year for all of us.” All of us being “Frankly, I had not realized the shop on e-learning in Costa Rica, Next year, my oldest grandchild Syd, his wife, Ann, son Harrison prominence and prestige that a with the result that the Costa Rica enters college. Time flies when one (17) and daughter Jessica (12). “The state party chairman in Virginia Institute of Technology has decided is having fun.” Taipei Goldmiths,” as Syd refers to has, and it’s still a novelty to me to build a Ph.D. program on these Clive Chajet reports, “My hair them. to have a driver and scheduler, to principles, and I am consulting with is grayer, my weight is about the “Ann has created more new art be featured at fundraising events, them on the details of the plan. I same, my memory for names and than our walls will hold and has to have folks wanting to pose for wake up every day excited about faces is getting worse, and we have participated in exhibitions on both pictures with me, and at large this. It seems that this is what I moved in Manhattan to an ideal sides of the Pacific. Now she is col- meetings someone is always walk- have been pointing to intellectu- size apartment for my wife of 45 laborating with her two artist sisters ing with me. In many cases, I have ally with the earlier part of my life. years and me. My granddaugh- in a recently opened gallery. Ann been told I was the first party chair I am hoping to come back to our ters are becoming more and more also translated for self-growth work- to ever visit that particular county. administration at the University of divine. I receive some very funny shops in China and Bali, and she “I served on our 50th reunion Illinois and convince them that this e-mails from classmates regularly has become a superbly imaginative planning committee and was set to is a direction we should go in as and am somewhat busy as a brand- gourmet cook. attend and renew acquaintances, but well. We have many very powerful ing consultant. The book I wrote “Harrison walked into drama my new duties as party chair pre- departments, but in my mind there some 25 years ago, Image by Design: class late; the teacher pointed at vented me from leaving Virginia. is growing evidence that the rigidity From Corporate Vision to Business him and said, ‘You’re dead,’ lead- “I look forward to seeing every- of the departments is getting in the Reality, still sells. I get at least $75 ing him to being murdered twice one at our 55th reunion.” way of tackling some of the most a year in royalty payments, and in the Taipei American School’s Eric Jakobsson clearly is very important research questions and of my attitude toward Columbia gets production of Animal Farm. He’s an busy: “The most exciting scientific training our students to tackle those more and more positive because of avid movie critic, and his rock gui- thing in my life is a new project on questions. our schoolmate Barack Obama ’83 tar easily out-decibels all the other genetically specific antimicrobial “Also, it is great to travel in and the continued attractiveness of instruments in the house. therapy. I have come to have a great Costa Rica because of the natural living and working in Manhattan.” “Jessica is marching toward teen- appreciation for the ability of anti- beauty of the country, in addition The Health Coverage Founda- dom with flying colors; purple, red, sense RNA to shape cell function to it being a very progressive soci- tion, founded by Marlys and Mike green and blond, all on display at and have, through the Nanomedi- ety. In December, I went zip-lining Bromberg, announced that it has various times of the year. When she cine Center I directed for five years, through the rain forest canopy, awarded a one-year, $100,000 grant isn’t dying her shoulder-length hair, developed a collaboration with a which is about as big a thrill as I to the American Cancer Society to she plays classical guitar and piano, wonderful nanoscientist whose can take anymore. help provide insurance premium enjoys having many friends and group has engineered delivery “My wife, Naomi, was campaign- assistance to high risk individuals. has been known to pay attention in vehicles that can target specific cells ing last fall for re-election to the Illin- The grant will be used to build class ... sometimes.” and deliver RNA to the interior. We ois state legislature. I am very proud upon the Health Insurance and And as for Syd, his second novel, have teamed up with a microbial of her in many ways, but one way Financial Assistance Service, a Two Musicians and the Wife Who Isn’t, geneticist to submit a grant pro- is that she is running a completely program already in place at the is “with a well-known literary agent, posal to NIH for developing geneti- positive campaign on her record, American Cancer Society. This is looking for a home in a publishing cally specific antimicrobial therapy in contrast to the horrible negative a free service that connects cancer industry rocked by tumultuous via antisense RNA that would be stuff that is so common. Naomi won patients with health insurance change. Lifelong passion for the flute specific to the pathogen genome. In her re-election to the Illinois House specialists through the ACS Na- leads to intense practice. I’m work- this fashion, we hope to overcome last November against a Tea Partier, tional Cancer Information Center’s ing toward recording several CDs the problems with broad spectrum and Democrats held control of the toll-free number (800-227-2345). A as evidence that I really did play it antibiotics of acquired antibiotic legislature and the governorship. new insurance premium assistance my way.” resistance and side effects on com- We are amused at the chaos across program will be added to the Karl Donfried was unable to mensal microbes. So far this is only the border in Wisconsin and grate- Health Insurance Assistance Ser- attend the 50th reunion last year. a concept supported by preliminary ful to them for making us look good vice through the use of the grant Duty called. He was obliged to be data and computations, but if we by comparison. funds. Health insurance specialists in southeastern Turkey at that time get some grant money, it promises “I also have taken a fling in poli- will identify uninsured callers who to complete a project. Karl prom- to be by far the most important tics. I agreed to be appointed to a are at the highest risk, inform them ises that when time permits, he’ll thing I have done scientifically, so I vacant city council seat in Urbana about their options to gain cover- share with us the highlights of his am quite excited. and ran for election in my own age and help connect them with investigation of the ancient biblical “In recent years my research has right in the Democratic primary in local resources. sites that compelled his attention. become interdisciplinary, publish- my ward on February 22. My op- Mike is chairman of Capitol A gala event on February 24, the ing in journals as diverse as Journal ponent decided to endorse me, but Health Group, a Washington, D.C.- celebration of the 70th anniversary of Computational and Theoretical I still campaigned until the end. based health care lobbying firm rep- of the first broadcast of Columbia’s Chemistry, Journal of Physical Chemis- Can you imagine how embarrass- resenting health care organizations. radio station, brought four mem- try B, Biophysical Journal, BMC Struc- ing it would be to lose an election Our space in CCT filled, I am bers of the class back to Morning-

may/june 2011 52 columbia college today class notes

side Heights. Joining 180 other here until finally packing it in a few Lenny Fuchs recalls Jerry as WKCR alumni were Paul Feldman months ago. To this point at least, “decent, quirky and very interested of the classical music department; we have been able to enjoy the in the great philosophers.” Tom Hamilton, news department; fruits of my/our labors. We have Andy’s and Lenny’s recollections John Pegram, engineering depart- three middle-aged adult children, precisely coincide with my own. ment; and Bill Seegraber, popular none of whom has yet elected mar- A dry wit and a mordant sense of music department. Beverly Arm- riage, so no grandkids yet. Since humor were characteristics that strong ’60 Barnard was among the Ellen turned 68 in February, and I immediately sprang to mind as celebrants. The event was held in hit 73 in March, they’d better hurry memories of Jerry returned when I the Roone Arledge Auditorium up before it’s too late.” learned of his death. and at the WKCR station. Stephen Scheiber has been The class sends its deepest Not all of Bill Tanenbaum’s elected president of the Lifers orga- condolences to Jerry’s family and time is spent atop the 14,000-foot nization of the American Psychiatric friends. Friends and part-time neighbors peaks in Colorado, though it may Association, and writes, “In June at the Painted Desert Community seem that way. In fact, Bill loves to 2010, I completed two years as REUNION JUNE 2–JUNE 5 in Las Vegas Gerry Brodeur ’61 travel and does so widely. He also president of The Isaac Ray Center, a Alumni Office Contacts (left) and Jack Kirik ’61 kicked makes it a practice to stay in touch nonprofit that provided psychiatric Alumni Affairs Jennifer Freely back after a round of golf in Feb- with members of the class. services to the Cook County Jail, [email protected] ruary. Soon after our reunion, Bill so- which houses more than 8,000 de- 212-851-7438 PHOTO: John Brodeur journed in California, meeting twice tainees of whom roughly 15 percent Development Paul Staller with Bob Levine and Dick Dora- receive psychiatric care at any one [email protected] zio. In July, he met with Ira Jaffrey time. Hence it is the largest psychi- uted the lead chapter to the soon- 212-851-7494 in Glenwood Springs, Colo. All atric facility in the state of Illinois. to-be-published book Understand- three are in the medical profession The Juvenile Temporary Detention Michael Hausig ing and Preventing College Student with different specialties. Center, with approximately 400 resi- 61 19418 Encino Summit Suicide. His most recent scholarly In December, Bill traveled through dents at any one time, was the other San Antonio, TX 78259 paper on this topic, “Rate, Rela- Israel for 16 days. Three of those correctional organization in Chicago [email protected] tive Risk and Method of Suicide days were spent with Joel Levine that received mental services from Among Students at Four-Year and Joel’s wife, Zehavit. “The first The Isaac Ray Center. I continue to Our 50th Alumni Reunion Weekend Colleges and Universities in the two nights were in Elkana, Samaria, teach psychiatric residents in the is less than a month away, Wednes- United States: 2004–05 Through across the green line,” writes Bill. Northwestern University Feinstein day, June 1–Sunday, June 5. It’s not 2008–09,” soon will appear in the “The last night was spent in Kin- School of Medicine.” too late to register for what prom- journal Suicide and Life-Threatening neret. They drove us through the Another blow to the class: Jerry ises to be a fantastic long weekend Behavior. Allan has shown that it is Golan Heights and around the Sea Cantor died on December 15, appar- (alumni.college.columbia.edu/ the dramatically lower availability of Galilee, ending with a delicious ently having suffered a heart attack reunion). In addition to great cul- of firearms to students on these dinner in Tiberias. We enjoyed each while jogging. Jerry was in private tural events and lectures during campuses that is responsible for other’s company and got to know practice as a psychologist and si- Dean’s Day on Saturday, June 4, the suicide rate among these stu- each other better. Joel is semiretired multaneously a financial adviser to there are numerous class-specific dents being half that of the general and enjoys traveling.” a select group of investors. He had events where we will have a chance population. Suicide, he notes, is Bill’s conquests of the 14’ers of majored in philosophy at the College to catch up. Wednesday has a special the second leading cause of death Colorado have been chronicled in but his lifelong interest and pas- evening gathering just for our class, among students at these campuses. prior Class Notes, and those ad- sion was economics. Jerry’s family followed on Thursday by great Michael Schachter writes that ventures prompted an e-mail from published a trade magazine that he events on campus and throughout his love during the past 35 years Dick Caldwell: “I just read through joined upon graduation. When the the city, including Broadway theatre has been nutritional and integra- the January/February issue, and it business was sold soon thereafter, and the New York Philharmonic. On tive medicine, although he is a brought back fond memories. It’s Jerry earned a doctorate in clinical Friday, there will be a class medical board-certified psychiatrist. At his been a long time since my wife, psychology at NYU and embarked panel, a class lunch in Low Library center (schachtercenter.com), they Ellen, and I have touched base with on his dual careers in counseling and and a class dinner hosted by Tom see patients with all kinds of health Bill. The last time was shortly after finance. He was a voracious reader Gochberg and his wife, Lettie, at challenges. Michael’s book, What Reina’s [Bill’s beloved wife] untime- of financial news and reports, na- their home. Saturday offers a finan- Your Doctor May Not Tell You About ly passing. We would really like tional and global, and his keen grasp cial panel for our class. The day will Depression: The Breakthrough Integra- to reconnect with him. Ellen and I of macroeconomic trends and influ- end with the all-class Wine Tasting, tive Approach for Effective Treatment, will be making at least two trips to ences enabled him to achieve great our class dinner and the Starlight offers depressed patients alterna- or through Colorado this year. Our success in managing his personal Reception, with champagne and tives to the usual prescription of son Rick has lived there for five portfolio and the portfolios of those dancing on Low Plaza. And if you anti-depressant drugs. His recently years, and we have been frequent to whom he was an adviser. Upon aren’t completely exhausted after published article, “Integrative On- Colorado visitors. If we could meet his sudden, unexpected death, many that party, there will be a brunch on cology for Clinicians and Cancer in Colorado with Bill in 2011, that who were counseled by Jerry in his Sunday morning. Don’t miss it! Patients,” is available as a PDF would be really special.” practice as a psychologist called his In celebration of our 50 years file for anyone who is interested Dick provided these details of sister Gail to express the esteem in since our graduation, we will be by just contacting his office (see his own life: “Retirement for the which he was held and how signifi- conducting an e-mail survey this website above) and requesting it. past seven years has been great — cant he had been in their lives. He spring and will present the find- Michael has six children from three golf, travel and so on. I hope Ellen was married but briefly and did not ings, as well as those from last marriages with an age range of and I will continue to be blessed have children, but was a devoted year’s survey, at Alumni Reunion 15–40. He has two grandchildren with good health, mobility and uncle to Gail’s son and filled an Weekend. The survey will focus on (3 months and 5). Michael and his an active lifestyle for many more important role as mentor to him. I alumni accomplishments and alum- wife, Lisa, hope to make our re- years. I changed careers in my thank Henry Kurtz ’58, who brought ni perspectives on major issues. If union dinner. early 50s, from the apparel indus- the news of Jerry’s death to my at- you suspect that we might not have Arnold Klipstein has entered try to insurance and investments. tention, and Gail, who provided your e-mail address, please send it his 40th year in the practice of Fortunately I had many successful details of her brother’s life. Henry to Tony Adler: awadler@sparta gastroenterology in Manchester, years in both careers, while Ellen and Jerry were fraternity brothers at commercial.com. We urge your Conn. He received a reward from was busy as owner/operator of her Beta Sigma Rho and remained life- participation in the survey, as we his hospital for 40 years of service own retail operation, and, after we long friends. would like as accurate a representa- and for the second consecutive moved in 2000 from northern New Andy Feuerstein remembers tion of our class as possible. Her- year has been recognized by the Jersey to Maryland, eventually Jerry’s intelligence and “unique man Kane will compile the data. Consumers’ Research Council of managed another retail operation sense of humor.” Allan J. Schwartz has contrib- America as one of “America’s Top

may/june 2011 53 class notes columbia college today

Melvin I. Urofsky ’61 Sets the Bar for Studying Brandeis

B y Eu g e n e L. Me y e r ’64

or Melvin I. Urofsky ’61, says Jeffrey Rosen, legal affairs literally knew everyone he en- ’68 GSAS, Louis D. Bran- editor of The New Republic and countered on a stroll down Main deis is like the man who a law professor at The George Street. came to dinner — and Washington University. Urofsky, His family roots, however, Fnever left. he adds, “has written a Brandeis were on the Lower East Side. Urofsky, a historian, has de- biography for our time.” Urofsky’s grandfather, a barber, voted decades to the legal lion David Pride, executive direc- “summered” in the Catskills, of Louisville who ascended to tor of The Supreme Court Hist- cutting the hair of resort-goers, the U.S. Supreme Court under orical Society, which awarded then moved the family to Lib- Woodrow Wilson and, after Urofsky its Distinguished Gris- erty and opened his own shop. serving on the high bench for wold Prize for the biography in Urofsky’s father was a book- 23 years, left an enduring mark 2010, calls Urofsky “the fore- keeper, killed in a WWII training on jurisprudence and political most Brandeis scholar in the incident in Texas; his mother thought. country.” was a telephone operator. The culmination of a lifetime All told, the Urofsky oeuvre Urofsky was valedictorian of of scholarship was Urofsky’s de- encompasses 52 books he either his high school class of 75, in finitive biography, published by wrote or edited. His American a school that had 12 grades in Pantheon Books in 2009 to criti- Zionism from Herzl to the Holo- one building. cal acclaim. Louis D. Brandeis: A caust, published in 1975, won A local Columbia alumnus, Dr. in Business-Government Re- Life, a doorstopper at 953 pages, the Jewish Book Council’s Mor- Harry Golembe ’17, ’19 P&S, en- lations. came on the heels of seven ris J. Kaplun Award in 1976, and couraged him to apply, and a full By then, Urofsky was an volumes of Brandeis correspon- his Brandeis biography won the tuition scholarship sealed the instructor at The Ohio State dence that Urofsky collected, University of Louisville Louis D. deal. He lived in Livingston (now University, where he began a co-edited and published with Brandeis School of Law’s 2010 Wallach) Hall, entering as an collaboration with a colleague, David Levy, a history professor at Brandeis Medal. Urofsky appears engineering student but switch- Levy, that resulted in the even- the University of Oklahoma. in a 2007 documentary, Justice ing to history after higher level tual publication of seven vol- How long did it take Urofsky Louis D. Brandeis: The People’s calculus and chemistry courses umes of Brandeis letters. “We to write the Brandeis biography? Attorney, produced to mark the confounded him. Peter B. Kenen got a National Endowment for “It took 45 years,” he says, sesquicentennial of the justice’s ’54, the great economist, was the Humanities grant in 1967 laughing. birth, and he has lectured at Urofsky’s adviser, and Bernard [followed by several renewals], To serious students of the venues around the world for the W. Wishey ’48, ’58 GSAS, Henry went to Louisville together and Supreme Court, Urofsky’s work State Department. Steele Commager and Walter P. Xeroxed papers,” Levy says. is no joke. Not bad for a kid from Liberty, Metzger ’46 GSAS were among “We brought the papers back “Mel Urofsky is the gold N.Y., a small town in the Catskills his teachers. “This was a history to Columbus and laid them out standard for Brandeis scholars,” where, Urofsky remembers, he department of stars in those on the floor of his house. We years,” Urofsky recalls. both had the feeling his wife It was in Metzger’s 20th- was chagrined.” century American history class They were right. “Louis and that “a light bulb went off — I the papers were very often could do that,” Urofsky says. So under my feet,” says Susan he went to GSAS, with the no- Urofsky. “They were sorting the tion that he, too, could teach. letters into multiple volumes. He earned a Ph.D. in 1968 in There were just mountains of history. paper around.” Urofsky “fell in love” with an Five books of edited and American history course cover- annotated letters were com- ing 1877–1920 that was taught pleted by 1978 and two more by William Leuchtenburg. This were published in the 1990s, led to a doctoral thesis proposal after the two Brandeis scholars on Brandeis’ role in shaping obtained access to the papers Wilson’s progressive platform of Supreme Court Justice Felix for a “New Freedom.” But after Frankfurter and the letters spending “a very happy day” im- Brandeis wrote to his family. mersed in the Brandeis papers Meanwhile, Urofsky had in Louisville, Urofsky concluded carved out a career at Virginia the documents did not justify a Commonwealth University, in Melvin I. Urofsky ’61 says his definitive biography of former Supreme thesis, which then became his Richmond, where he chaired Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis is the product of 45 years of work. 1969 book, Big Steel and the the history department from PHOTO: JEFF WATTS, COURTESY OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITY Wilson Administration: A Study 1974–81. His Brandeis work

may/june 2011 54 columbia college today class notes

Gastroenterologists.” John Freidin The musical creativity of Charlie Arnold writes, “I remember as 62 1020 Town Line Rd. Morrow ([email protected]) was a child the older generation would Charlotte, VT 05445 celebrated in New York City for not be happy with changes and felt [email protected] four days in October and featured our society would go downhill with in an article in the March 2010 issue the changes. Now I am the older Retired rabbi Don Splansky (don of the magazine The Wire: Adven- generation and have problems with [email protected]) and his wife, Greta tures in Modern Music. The article some changes. The explosion in the Lee, live in Framingham, Mass., said: “From decoding the language inspired him, at 40, to enter computer industry and electronics where his congregation is located. of fish to conceiving harbour sym- is wonderful, but are people going They celebrated Don’s 70th birthday phonies and public events involv- law school at the University to be able to communicate in person by taking their three children and ing thousands of players, chemist of Virginia, in Charlottesville, as well as they have in the past? seven grandchildren on vacation in turned musician and sound artist while still teaching at VCU. “I Texting is a new way to communi- the Florida Keys. Don now teaches Charlie Morrow is creating a holis- had a predictable mid-career cate and has brought on a new lan- religion at the St. Marks School in tic Earth catalogue aimed at redress- crisis,” Urofsky recalls. “I got guage and quicker communication, Southborough, Mass. Greta Lee ing the damage mankind has done contacts, which I still wear, but it has contributed to more auto- is the operations manager of the to the planet.” One piece, “Land and a sports car, and I went mobile accidents. We are in difficult Framingham Heart Study, which, Sea Air,” an audiovisual installation to law school. I had a good economic times and must look for Don writes, “all our classmates using his own sophisticated system time there. I knew how to ways to cut costs. Obamacare has who went into medicine will know for 3-D sound playback, spans 400 really changed the way medicine because they studied its statistics in million years. Charlie explains, read a case, so I didn’t spend is practiced. Care will be restricted, medical schools.” “That’s the time when life crawled four hours obsessing over especially for senior citizens. At To help celebrate their milestone out of the sea onto land, and vocal what a sentence meant.” least in my community, and I am birthdays, Joan (60) and John von cords and ears formed. I’ve worked After graduating from law sure in many others, your primary Leesen (70) ([email protected]) with scientists and we came up school in 1983, Urofsky began care doctor is not allowed to man- chose to visit the antiquities of Pe- with sounds appropriate to the teaching constitutional law al- age your care if you are admitted tra, Jordan. John writes, “The ar- time: thunder, fire, reptiles hissing.” most exclusively and became to the hospital. Hospitalists assume chitectural facade of the ‘Treasury,’ Two other soundscapes within the an adjunct at several law the care. I feel that your ‘family doc- which is carved out of red sand- installation focus on New York’s schools. Currently, he teaches tor’ can best manage your care in stone, is well-preserved and spec- Central Park. Charlie drew on ma- and out of the hospital and to leave tacular. We experienced the hustle, terial from the recording archive at at American in Washington, the family doctor out of the loop is a bustle and smog of Cairo, explored Cornell’s Ornithological Institute D.C., and also an occasional grave error. the ancient pyramids of Giza and to make short montages featuring course or seminar at VCU. “Despite all the changes, I am toured the world’s oldest Christian bird species living in the park when Work on the Brandeis bi- optimistic that life will go on, the monastery of St. Catherine located it was built in the mid-19th century ography accelerated after his debt will slowly be corrected de- at the foot of Mount Sinai in the and now. I encourage you to read 2003 retirement from VCU. spite tough times for many of us Sinai Desert. Then, pretending the full article in The Wire. Charlie The original manuscript was and our offspring will continue to to ride with Lawrence of Arabia, currently is working in Helsinki on 1,200 pages. Urofsky says he have a pretty good life.” we traversed the dramatic desert projects with Marimekko. told his editor, “It’s going to Gene Milone is completing the landscape of Wadi Rum. Finally, From Connecticut, Anthony proof markups for the new pho- we traveled to Luxor’s Valley of Valerio ([email protected]) be a big book, and she said, tometry volume commented on the Kings, where many of Egypt’s writes, “I really can’t say how I like ‘He was a big person.’ ” in the November/December 2010 pharaohs were laid to rest amidst to spend the day right now, only The book is dedicated to column. At the end of February, troves of statues, gold jewelry and to say it happens a lot when I’m in Urofsky’s wife. When he show- Gene and his wife, Helen, went other precious artifacts. Here we the tropical heat of the Bahamas, ed her the finished product, to Hawaii to attend a meeting on also discovered Hatshepsut, Egypt’s so I go as often as I can. This past he says, “Her comment was, telescopes on the big island, where most powerful female ruler.” year and next are the busiest of my ‘Can Louie leave the house he gave a talk on the infrared pass- Back home in Chicago and career, as I have one book in the now?’ ” bands he helped to develop. After inspired by their time with the hopper, two coming out in transla- The book has won several that, they took the circum-islands pharaohs, mummies and other tion and am going to Italy to tour cruise with a Norwegian Cruise antiquities of (pre-revolution) this year. The irony is sometimes prizes, and its author seems Lines ship. In December, they Egypt, the von Leesens hosted an we have to live long enough to see to be on a perpetual tour pro- cruised to the Panama Canal via “Evening in Shangri La” at a local certain things happen that could moting it and talking about Aruba and Curacao, watching a Asian-themed art gallery. Friends not have happened when we were the subject. Brandeis also fig- lunar eclipse en route. and family gathered (some in chic young. I wish I could tell all my ures in Urofsky’s next book, As a reminder to everyone, sev- Himalayan attire), sipped “Tibetan mates to buy a copy of Anita (Gal- which is about dissent on the eral years ago, Tony Adler and Twilight” cocktails and sampled lucci editore) but only if they read Supreme Court. “He was the Philippe de la Chapelle organized beautiful cuisine. “Our theme for Italian or know and like someone great dissenter,” Urofsky says, a “Resource Council” for classmates the evening,” John writes, “was who does. Wishing all my class- “always writing to educate and their immediate family mem- taken from James Hilton’s 1933 mates a lot of happiness and fun bers under which approximately 80 novel in which the residents of a in 2011.” and persuade.” of us offered to provide pro bono fictional Tibetan lamastery were Looking forward to our 50th Thus his answer to his advice/assistance on questions perpetually happy and forever reunion, David Wallack (david wife’s plaintive question: “No, concerning the various professional young. Seems like a nice concept [email protected]) decided to Louie has not left the house.” disciplines each of us has expertise for us old-timers, don’t you think?” summarize his activities during the in, i.e., medicine, law, banking, ar- From New York’s Upper West past 50 years. Following medical Eugene L. Meyer ’64 is a chitecture, business, finance and so Side, Alex Firestone (alexfirest@ school in Buffalo, David’s post- former longtime Washington on. Classmates should not hesitate aol.com) reports that he retired as graduate training was interrupted Post staff writer and editor of to call on each other as necessary in a professor of physics at Iowa State by a tour in the Army that includ- B’nai B’rith Magazine. He has order to accomplish the council’s University in Ames. Currently, he ed 12 months as a flight surgeon mission, which is to support each is a program officer in elementary in Vietnam. He then completed his freelanced for several pub- other, particularly during these dif- particle physics within the Nation- medical training in internal medi- lications, including The New ficult times. al Science Foundation. Although cine in Colorado in 1972. He and York Times and U.S. News & Tony (awadler@spartacommer NSF is headquartered in Arlington, his wife, Bonnie, settled there and World Report. cial.com) and Philippe (pxdlc@ Va., Alex can work mostly from reared three daughters. All of them yahoo.com) would be pleased to home thanks to modern telecom- attended college out of state, and provide information on the council. munications. all earned advanced degrees. Two

may/june 2011 55 class notes columbia college today of them are married (each with two consuming activity is my math John’s compositions for children’s ’76L should get the M.V.P. for his children); the third is a fellow in tutoring, and my second most choir. He plans to ask them to sing play in that game. He told me that gastroenterology. time-consuming activity is my more of his work. the New York sports media was Meanwhile, for 34 years, David NAACP activity. I tutor in math Crawford Kilian ([email protected]) pushing for Jim McMillian ’70 to get practiced internal medicine south at my church after school twice a sent an e-mail in mid-January with it, which he did. Jim subsequently of Denver. “In 2006,” he writes, “I week. I have six regular students: the sad news that Christopher got the Haggerty Award for three joined a group that provides medi- one prekindergartener, one kinder- Trumbo ’64 died on January 8 in years running and, of course, cal services at a senior health center gartener, one second-grader, two Ojai, Calif., of complications from starred in the NBA for many years. in West Denver. This is what I now third-graders and a fourth-grader. renal cancer. He was 70. Crawford Bill was a fine gentleman whom I do three days a week; I feel reener- They’re all doing OK, and I almost wrote, “Chris entered with the Class know is sorely missed by all those gized and have happily extended always enjoy working with them.” of ’62 but took time off to be an who knew him.” my medical career. Bonnie and I Once again Carl was hard assistant director on the film Exodus. Frank Partel writes, “My wife, remain active with tennis, golf, hik- at work on the annual Mission Thereafter, he worked in film and Mary Ellen, and I celebrated our ing and downhill skiing. We’d love Outreach Day, which took place TV, usually as a writer. Chris’ cred- 10th anniversary in Bourges during to meet any of you who come this in Bremertown on March 11. This its ranged from a John Wayne crime a trip to Brittany and Burgundy last way to try our slopes.” Other inter- year’s event had a dual theme: drama, Brannigan, to many scripts fall. I am pleased to say she is now ests include traveling, art history, 2011 is the 25th anniversary of the for the Ironside television series. In healthy, and we are very grateful serving as a voluntary instuctor for People Power Revolution in the recent years, Chris developed a to an excellent team of doctors. a few semesters at the Academy of Philippines and also the 25th anni- stage play based on the letters of My second novel, The Chess Play- Lifelong Learning and competitive versary of the first civil, diplomatic his father, blacklisted screenwriter ers, A Novel of the Cold War at Sea, trivia (especially sports). David contact between the U.S. State De- Dalton Trumbo. This eventually was officially published on March says that his 15-minute claim-to- partment and the African National became the documentary Trumbo, 1. The novel is a naval story and a fame is being in the Trivia Hall of Congress. That meeting took place which appeared in 2007 to excel- love story set in 1967 just before and Fame. at the ANC headquarters-in-exile lent reviews. Chris also became a just after the Six Day War/Arab- historian of the Hollywood blacklist Israeli War. I certainly didn’t want and was working on a book about it to disappoint Lionel Trilling ’25, ’38 John Boatner ’62 composes and performs choral when he died. Chris leaves his wife, GSAS, whose class I took, who once Nancy Escher, and sisters, Nikola said that every time some writer music as well as directs a children’s choir program and Mitzi Trumbo.” wants to locate a young character in in Corodova, a suburb of Memphis. Crawford has created a blog to New York, he or she is a Columbia commemorate Chris’ remarkable University student. Several scenes life: crofsblogs.typepad.com/chris pertain to the Columbia area, and David and Bonnie celebrated at Lusaka, Zambia, in May 1986, topher. I urge you to look at it. the main characters, ENS Cannon their 40th anniversary last spring against a backdrop of heavy-hand- I recently watched Trumbo; it is and Laetitia, are indeed associated with a two-week tour/cruise to ed repression by the apartheid fascinating and superb — a power- with Columbia. There are cameo Alaska. Then in the fall they trav- regime that was then ruling over ful documentary about fear, intimi- appearances by LCDR Boris Nesh- eled to Peru as part of a medical South Africa. dation and courage during the years amkin and Lt. Max Gorrin. A minor mission that provided care to a That beginning of businesslike when we attended elementary and character, Professor John Meaney, is group of primitive Indian villages diplomatic meetings between high school. to a small degree modeled on Her- along the Amazon River. Finally, the ANC and the United States bert A. Deane ’42, ’53 GSAS. Here as a reward they visited the Sacred marked a sharp departure from is virtually a direct quote about Valley and Machu Picchu. ”I’m previous practice. It was a few Paul Neshamkin Eisenhower, when he was president looking forward to the reunion and years after those meetings that an 63 1015 Washington St., Apt. 50 of Columbia, from the former pro- hope to reconnect (and perhaps ANC representative at an anti- Hoboken, NJ 07030 fessor of government, contributor connect for the first time) with apartheid meeting in Los Angeles [email protected] to our CC curriculum readings and classmates,” he said. remarked that when the ANC University provost, page 83: Richard Toder (rtoder@morgan started having positive contact Robert Whelan wrote in response “Again Meaney drew a very long lewis.com) also sent an update. with the State Department, they to my request of memories of the puff from his cigarette and peered While he practices bankruptcy law were concerned that the Americans late Bill Shannon, “I was saddened out momentarily from the window at Morgan Lewis in New York City, were not feeling well. It turned out when I read of Bill’s tragic death. of his office across the campus to the he and his wife, Joan, made time that the Americans were in fact After a Columbia-Penn baseball dome of Low Library. He exhaled to take a three-week trip to Aus- feeling fine. Those initial diplomat- game in Philadelphia, Bill persuad- very slowly and seemed to use the tralia and New Zealand. Richard ic contacts marked the beginning ed me to go to a Cubs-Phillies game time to review his comments before acknowledges that “it is an endless of the development of a rational, that evening. Bill already was work- proceeding to his next point. ‘Ike had flight and seems to take forever to coherent American policy toward ing for the CUAA. He had a press the right idea.’ Parenthetically, ‘You readjust one’s internal clock upon South Africa. pass of some kind, and we sat in the know, we didn’t think much of him return, but it is more than worth it. Carl writes: “I hope somebody auxiliary press box by ourselves. We when he was president here. The The people are uniformly friend- will pick up on what we are doing spent several innings pretending to books in his office, as I recall, were lier than any you will meet in the here with Mission Outreach Day do a play-by-play broadcast. Bill’s mostly army field manuals and tech- States (except perhaps NYC) and and do a better job than we are. It knowledge of baseball was phe- nical manuals, but he was our shield the scenery, especially on the South deserves to be a big event: to keep nomenal. He would say things that against McCarthy.’ Island of New Zealand (think Lord alive the historical recollection of required far more than the usual “ ‘Columbia did not have people of the Rings) is simply spectacular. the last years of apartheid in South knowledge, such as ‘The Cubs start- fleeing to Europe in the middle The mountain chain is called the Africa and of the revolution that ing pitcher, Bob Anderson, hails of the night. Good God! Isn’t that Southern Alps for good reason.” finally brought an end to apartheid from Hammond, Ind.’ Bill loved a tragic irony? Professors fleeing Last year Richard and Joan pur- and a beginning of democracy.” and knew baseball, and he was a America for freedom in Europe.’ He chased a home in Naples, Fla. In Tennessee, John Boatner (jbb genuinely nice guy.” paused as he contemplated his own Though they have not been able [email protected]) continues his Bill Goebel also wrote. “I have words. ‘Anyway, Ike low-keyed the to spend much time there, Richard composition and performance of very fond memories of Bill, having activity in Vietnam with 150 to 200 predicts that will change. He, too, choral music. Most recently, he interacted with him when I was military advisors — just enough to is “looking forward to getting to- founded, and currently directs, a basketball manager and Bill was a satisfy some of our critical allies and gether for our 50th reunion.” children’s choir program at St. Fran- member of the Sports Information assure them that we would come to Carl Jakobsson (cjakobsson@ cis of Assisi Catholic Church in Department. Subsequently, when their aid in the Pacific region ...’ ” comcast.net) wrote, “I’m living at Corodova, a suburb of Memphis. Columbia beat St. John’s in the 1968 Elliott Greher writes, “I collect the same old stand in Bremerton, During the past several months, the Holiday Festival, I mentioned to Bill books on a variety of subjects, with Wash. Probably my most time- children have performed several of that I thought Heyward Dotson ’70, emphasis on synagogue architec-

may/june 2011 56 columbia college today class notes

ture and history, Jewish communi- help launch a program to attract provost and dean of faculties, and Leonard B. Pack ties throughout America and the doctors and nurses to Massachu- Howard Jacobson ’67L is deputy 65 924 West End Ave. world, Hagadahs in various lan- setts community health centers. general counsel. At the end of New York, NY 10025 guages and the work of book illus- The Boston Globe reported, “The June, Steve Case ’68L will retire [email protected] trators (primarily for English lan- gift will be used to pay off up to after 14 years as a trustee. Steve is guage books). I add about 10 books $50,000 of the medical school loans a regular at our informal monthly As I mentioned in my last column, each month to a collection that of physicians and nurse practitio- class lunches in New York, and I we have resumed our practice of now numbers 2,000 volumes. But ners, as well as to finance fellow- always look forward to his candid, having a monthly lunch for class- I also de-acquisition books, hav- ships in targeted specialties and for insider news of developments at the mates who live, work or otherwise ing given away about 700 books master’s degrees. In return, care- College and the University. He has find themselves in New York City. in 1996 and about 90 books a year givers must work for two to three been involved in the myriad issues Our lunches are being hosted, since then. I recently added 11 feet years in a health center or other of running a great university, and he generously, by Mike Cook and are of bookcases to the 23 linear feet I community-based setting to care brings them to life at our lunches. scheduled for the last Friday of each had (and my wife’s 10 linear feet of for needy patients. ‘We wanted to The class salutes him on his out- month. The first lunch took place on bookcases). It is fun to search out do something to support everyone standing service to Columbia. January 28. For information about books to be acquired.” getting the kind of health care my Allen Tobias reports on a future dates, please contact Mike at David Alpern writes, “Since my family gets,’ said Kraft, during an serendipitous encounter with his [email protected]. The January last update (January/February), interview at Partners’ headquarters freshman roommate: “I recently 28 lunch was attended by Allen the Carnegie Corporation of New in the Prudential Tower last week. returned from what I believe, so Brill, Dan Carlinsky, Neil Far- York awarded a $25,000 ‘challenge ‘What I worry about in this coun- far, to be successful spinal surgery ber, Andrew Fisher, Joe Geneve, grant’ to the newly renamed For try are the people who are hurting performed at the Hospital for Stephen Hoffman, Paul Hyman, Your Ears Only program on radio the most.’ Over the next five years, Special Surgery in Manhattan. My Anthony Leitner, Barry Levine, stations and the Internet (formerly Partners chief executive Dr. Gary freshman roommate, Dr. Robert Leonard Pack, David Sarlin, Mi- Newsweek On Air), but I need to Gottlieb estimates, the Kraft dona- Schneider, was there, too! chael Schlanger, Stephen Steinig, match it to get it. Positive indica- tion will support more than 100 “Robert is a radiologist. While Larry Strenger, Derek Wittner, Bob tions from the Nathan Cummings physicians, nurse practitioners, and a radiologist is one who expertly Yunich and John Zeisel. Foundation in New York, but I other providers caring for about reads X-rays, myelograms and all The New Haven Independent re- won’t know for sure until after its 200,000 patients.” kinds of scans, I mistakenly thought ported that the Connecticut Martin May board meeting, as my current Bob recently addressed the Boston that he is involved with radiation Luther King Jr. Holiday Commis- funding runs out. LGBT business community, making while treating cancer patients. It sion on January 15 awarded one of “I would appreciate any advice it the first time a local team owner never dawned on me that Robert its three “Dream Maker” Awards to or contacts at other foundations or headlined a major event for a gay would be in on my case. But having Connecticut Supreme Court Justice corporations interested in preserv- audience. read my ‘films,’ he confirmed the Flemming Norcott Jr. Flemming ing truly ‘fair and balanced’ pre- shared the awards with Rep. Rosa sentation of important issues and DeLauro (D-Conn.) and the recently developments in all fields for the The Connecticut Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday elected Sen. Richard Blumenthal increasingly strident and slanted (D-Conn.). world of commercial radio — and Commission presented a “Dream Maker” Award A memorial service was held at getting grateful on-air credit. Also to Justice Flemming Norcott Jr. ’65. Columbia’s St. Paul’s Chapel on on the Pentagon’s American Forces January 20 for Garland E. Wood, Radio Network and our weekly who died on November 15. Attend- podcast. Bob Heller missed the February seriousness of my condition, and ees included Allen Brill, Michael “All gifts and grants are tax- lunch, but he had a good excuse. visited almost daily (sometimes Cook, Andy Fisher, Harrison Fitch, deductible under our new status as He writes, “I will be in Mexico on twice daily). Paul Hyman, Steve Hoffman, Ken a production of 501(c)(3) Gatewave, the beach. I’m in Los Angeles right “Had I understood what Robert McCulloch, Flemming Norcott Jr. Inc., a 24/7, volunteer radio-reading now and seeing Gail and Gary did for a career, I might well have and Michael Schlanger. Although service for people with disabilities. Rachelefsky for dinner tonight. consulted with him and saved he was born in New York City, You can reach me at david.ears.only Retirement is pretty good so far.” myself the times of increasing diffi- Garland was raised from the age of @gmail.com for more information. OK, how many of us are now re- culty leading to the operating table: 5 in Prairie View, Texas. There, ac- And check out the show anytime at tired? Let me know how it is going. The radiating pain of multiple seri- cording to the memorial program, radioamerica.org/PRG_yourears. Also, for those of you who have ous lumbar stenosis is no joke. Garland learned the value of hard htm, or gatewave.org/fyeo/home decided to keep working, please “I woke up with Robert in the work by laboring at such chores as or podcastbunker.com/podcast/ write and tell me why (I figure that recovery room. Very pleased. I con- harvesting watermelons, potatoes podcast_picks/for_your_ears_ I might be able to afford retirement tinue to believe that in some purely and corn in the hot Texas sun. He only.” when I’m 90). magical way, Robert’s continued was valedictorian of his class at Lee Lowenfish is having a busy Our regular second-Thursday protective presence provided a way Prairie View H.S., and in his senior spring speaking on baseball, espec- lunches continue to be a wonderful to my stay of a fourth day of recov- year, won Texas state championship ially on Branch Rickey, at New place to reconnect. If you’re in NYC, ery in my lovely river-view room.” titles in tennis and basketball. At the York’s Union League Club, the lo- try to make a Class of ’63 lunch, It was a rough winter in New College, Garland played basketball cal NYC Bar Association chapter scheduled for May 12, June 9 and York. As usual, Marty Isserlis and ran track. He earned a B.A. in and the University of Wisconsin- July 14. It’s always the second Thurs- escaped to Naples, Fla., but Dan economics and an M.B.A. from the Lacrosse campus. In early June, he day. Check cc63ers.com for details. Schechter reported that at his Business School in 1972. will discuss his new project on base- In the meantime, let us know home 100 miles north of New York Upon graduation, Garland joined ball scouting at the annual Cooper- what you are up to, how you’re City, there was 60 inches of snow! Goldman Sachs and began his rise stown Symposium of Baseball and doing, and what’s next. Marty Weinstein retired after through the ranks in a career that American Culture. More details 39 years as a professor of political spanned more than two decades, available at leelowenfish.com. science at William Paterson Uni- becoming the first black partner at Steve Stollman has put in a bid Norman Olch versity in New Jersey. Marty is a the firm and one of the first in the fi- for a citywide bike-share system in 64 233 Broadway Latin American specialist and one nancial services industry. During his NYC. I’ve posted his proposal on New York, NY 10279 of the world’s foremost experts on years at Goldman Sachs, he became our website, cc63ers.com. [email protected] Uruguay. We wish him well. renowned as a leader and innovator Good luck, Steve! As the deadline for this column in public finance, particularly in the Bob Kraft remains in the news. Some of our classmates have been approaches, I often get desperate field of municipal bonds. I received word that he and his deeply involved with the Columbia for news. Help me out. Send a note A Boy Scout throughout his wife, Myra, have given $20 million administration. For many years, or an e-mail. Your classmates want youth, Garland was a longtime to Partners HealthCare, which will Jonathan Cole ’69 GSAS was to hear from you. supporter of the Boy Scouts Council

may/june 2011 57 class notes columbia college today of Greater New York. The Garland take in a show in Manhattan. Friday Albert Zonana (Actually, I still am: I’m continuing E. Wood Foundation also supported offers a class tour and lecture, mini- 67 425 Arundel Rd. temporarily with the Corps as a numerous local educational and Core courses and a class dinner. Goleta, CA 93117 ‘reemployed annuitant’ to assist cultural organizations, and for nearly Saturday is Dean’s Day, with great [email protected] with the transition until they can a decade, a scholarship in Garland’s lectures, including one by Dean fill my position and then mentor name has been awarded at the Busi- Michele Moody-Adams, followed At least four of our classmates my replacement ... but really, how ness School. He also served on the in the evening by the all-class Wine were moved by the absence of easy could it be to replace a Co- College’s Board of Visitors and was Tasting, our formal class dinner and news from our class and wrote. lumbia grad?) one of three alumni who established then champagne, music and danc- David Galinsky: “I’m ending the “After getting my B.A. in eco- the Black Alumni Council. ing on Low Plaza at the Starlight string of no entries from the Class of nomics and completing my first year Michael Schlanger shared his Reception. In between, there will be ’67. After working nonstop for the of graduate school at NYU, I got a impressions of the memorial service, plenty of other happenings to keep last 40 years and achieving some summer job with the Corps in Wash- which he found “remarkably touch- us entertained. Don’t miss it. local fame as a geriatrician, I’m ington, D.C., in 1968. It turned out ing and inspiring in many ways.” Carnival comes unusually late ready to consider what I really want that I liked the people and the work, Garland’s sisters and brothers re- this year, which means that the to do when I grow up. Volunteer- and I stayed with the Corps in New counted Garland’s growing up “in agony of all the noise and confu- ing, going back to school, changing York City while I continued gradu- a large, loving, close-knit family in sion in Rio de Janeiro is lasting careers and writing poetry are pos- ate school. And during the following a sleepy, peaceful, southern college longer than normal. Fortunately, sibilities. My goal is to gradually cut few years, I acquired an M.A. from town ... but what a remarkable little your correspondent is escaping all back and then quit my practice on NYU and an M.Phil. from GSAS, college town. It was 100 percent this and is writing from the rela- July 1, 2016, so I have time to plan both in economics, and I’d decided black, the home of Prairie View tive quiet and calm of his home my future. I’d like to hear what my to make the Corps my career. Since A&M. Texas, being fully segregated in Teresópolis, in the mountains cleverest classmates are thinking then, I’ve worked in Corps offices in in those days, parked all its black about 100 km from Rio. We seem about or already doing as they pass New York City, Albuquerque, Fort students at Prairie View. Although to go into “hiding” every year until Medicare age. And I don’t want to Worth and Dallas. Garland was one of only four black Carnival has passed. My wife and hear about golf or taking cruises.” “Four weeks after I started with students in our College class of 700 I recently spent a pleasant week David lives in Merion Station, Pa. the Corps of Engineers in 1968, I and had never so much as sat in a married Phyllis, and in 1983 we classroom with white children, he adopted our son, Jonathan. Spend- came to Columbia grounded, sol- Steve Schwartzman ’67 combined his interest in ing more time with them is what emn and serene. At the service, I’m looking forward to the most in former UN Ambassador Andrew linguistics, Spanish and English by starting a blog: retirement. Well, that and painting! Young, recalling his eight years wordconnections.wordpress.com. “Not as exciting or distinguished as mayor of Atlanta, movingly a story as some of our classmates recounted how Garland pioneered could tell, no doubt, but it’s been a the modern science of public finance in Buenos Aires, celebrating our Steve Schwartzman: “Though good one for me.” and helped build the Atlanta area up 35th anniversary. I know that some I’ve never been a contributor to And finally, Jack Harris writes, from a sleepy Southern region of 1.5 of our classmates have been hap- Class Notes, I noticed the forlorn “The article about Gemma Tarlach million to the 6 million-strong colos- pily wed for longer than that, and space set aside for ’67 in the Janu- ’90 in the January/February CCT sus of the New South. And how Gar- perhaps you may wish to send an ary/February issue and thought I (college.columbia.edu/cct/jan_feb11) land traversed mainland America e-mail to let everyone know just should give you a little something provoked me to write to report that (and beyond), enabling countless how long you have been married to fill at least a column inch or two. the Cleverest Class also is represent- towns to finance the infrastructures (to the same wife, of course). I took my first general linguistics ed on the ice. I recently spent a field that turned them into robust, thriv- To all classmates (at least, those course at Columbia with Professor season as part of a team installing ing cities. All with money Garland with an e-mail address that they William Labov ’64 GSAS. Upon the first benthic microscope. Why? raised in the private capital markets wish to share with others), the fol- graduation as a French major, I Well, because near-shore Antarctica, with his brilliance, his tenacity and lowing was sent in early February joined the Peace Corps and went with 15 feet of ice above, mimics the his charisma as a Goldman Sachs by Michael Garrett, Mark Amster- to Honduras, where I taught math dark, cold abyssal benthos and that partner.” dam and Dan Gardner: in Spanish. Jump ahead more than part of the biosphere we know very I am sorry that I could not be at “In this, our 45th reunion year, four decades, and you’ll find that I little about. the service. we had a great opportunity to get recently combined my longstanding “I am professor of biology and together about four months prior interest in linguistics, Spanish and Distinguished University Profes- to Alumni Reunion Weekend, on English by starting a blog about sor at The Sage Colleges in Troy, REUNION JUNE 2–JUNE 5 February 11, before and at the the many connections between N.Y. I also direct the college honors Alumni Office Contacts Columbia versus Princeton men’s the words in those two languages. program and the college orchestra. Alumni Affairs Mia Gonsalves Wright basketball game. At the game, we Anyone with a similar bent is wel- I plan to retire this May and move [email protected] peered through the mist of time to come to look at wordconnections. to NYC, where my grandchildren 212-851-7977 try to compare the team and its staff wordpress.com. For the past decade live. Anyone have an apartment Development Heather Hunte with coach Jack Rohan ’53 and play- I’ve been pursuing another interest, for rent?” [email protected] ers Stan Felsinger, Dave Newmark the photography of native plants Don’t be shy. Your classmates re- 212-851-7957 ’69, Ken Benoit et al. of our era.” in central Texas, of which samples ally do want to know what you’re Stuart Berkman Mike reported, “A dozen class- can be found at flickr.com/photos/ up to. 66 Rua Mello Franco, 580 mates showed up for the reception schwartzman.” Teresópolis, Rio de Janeiro and game. Many of us had not been Peter H. Shaw wrote, “I saw 25960-531 Brasil to The West End since it was taken your mention in the January/ Arthur Spector [email protected] over by Havana Central, so there February CCT that your mailbox 68 271 Central Park West was much talk of the old, larger has been empty lately. At the end New York, NY 10024 Our 45th reunion is less than a bar that served anyone who had of December 2010, I retired from [email protected] month away, Thursday, June 2– completed toilet-training and the the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sunday, June 5. It’s not too late to hygienically challenged steam table after 42 years as an economist and While there was about 15 inches of register: alumni.college.columbia. that once lurked in the left front water resources planner. At my new snow at my place in Saratoga edu/reunion. There will be a great corner. Being at the game continued retirement, I was the senior econo- during the last few days before mix of cultural happenings through- the nostalgia with many compari- mist at its Southwestern Division writing this, spring is in the air in out New York City and class-specific sons between the gym and the old office in Dallas with technical and the city … about time. I continue to events where we will have a chance space and between the current team policy oversight for economic enjoy the Metropolitan Opera and to renew old friendships. Thursday and our memories of a much more analyses in Corps planning studies saw the production of Rossini’s night, there will be an opportunity to eccentric and colorful squad.” in the southcentral United States. Armida with Renée Fleming; it was

may/june 2011 58 columbia college today class notes

great fun and great singing even preciation marketing business and is very troubling. It doesn’t really dale. I’m working hard advocating though it premiered in Naples in most recently, Daily Radio Deals, matter which news outlets covered at the state and federal level for the 1817. (And of course to digress, I a Groupon-ish website marketed the story. Those same news outlets arts, public radio and television, believe Neil Anderson and Gregg through radio advertising. would cover with equal promi- social service, and educational Winn live in Naples, Fla.) I looked “In the ‘life happens’ depart- nence a statement made by Lee organizations. Most recently, I’ve around for Bill Henrich, who used ment, about three years ago I was Bollinger denouncing the behavior, been trying to raise public funds to be seen there once in a while. diagnosed with a neurological but sadly none has been forthcom- for a $300 million capital project at Bill, when are you going to be disorder that affects the right side ing.” the Cleveland Museum of Art and there again? of my body and makes physical Bob, in a separate note to me, the construction of a cultural center Paul de Bary skipped a Colum- movement a little more challeng- added: for Case Western Reserve Univer- bia basketball game for the Met a ing. It hasn’t gotten in my way too “I really don’t know Bollinger at sity as well as for the construction few weeks ago, but I saw him at the much, although it takes me a bit all, even though we were classmates of new buildings for the Museum Columbia-Penn basketball game longer to do certain things; I sim- at Columbia Law, but I was very of Contemporary Art Cleveland with his dad, Ted de Bary ’41, ’53 ply allow for it and life goes on. disappointed with how he handled and The Cleveland Institute of GSAS, the John Mitchell Mason “Sharon and I celebrated our the Iranian leader’s visit, and at his Art. I recently received the ORT Professor Emeritus, provost emeri- 43rd wedding anniversary in No- failure thus far to denounce the con- America Cleveland Region Man of tus and Special Service Professor in vember. We have managed suc- duct of the students who heckled the Year award, ‘… for his many East Asian Language and Culture, cessfully to avoid children all these the soldier. I agree about ROTC. Its accomplishments and his dedica- as the Lions mauled the Quakers for years, but we are devoted to our return to campus is way past due. tion to non-profit advocacy with a great win. Buzz Zucker was there, ‘kid,’ a 5-lb. Maltese named Issa. Alexander Hamilton [Class of 1778] the Jewish Community and the too, and told me he had seen three “There is a tiny coterie of alumni distinguished himself as an officer community at large.’ ” great plays recently. with whom I keep in touch sporad- during the Revolutionary War. He Congratulations, Bill. I look Buzz, you should write a piece ically: Roger, who is now my best would be appalled at how disre- forward to seeing you. for the Class Notes about the last friend in the whole world because spectful the University has been I am probably going to be in hot 100 plays you have seen on- and of his unexpected compliment, and toward our military. I know how water for publishing the first para- Off-Broadway in the last year or so. Derek Vanderlinde, who recently hard you’ve worked for Columbia, graph I received from Jon Kotch. I received a great letter from Jay shed his old life and embarked on and you must have some influence Jon wrote: “You know, Art, your Mitchell, and so here it is, titled, a new one as a business consultant. at our alma mater. I hope that you daughter, [Hannah ’06], was the star “Much Ado About Me.” Jay writes: Maybe if I call him ‘one of the fun- use it, and feel free to mention my of the department [at UNC’s re- “OK, OK, so you got Roger niest people I have ever known,’ displeasure. I’ve supported the Uni- nowned school of public health] this Berkley to say nice things about you’ll hear from him, too.” versity financially every year since past week. She delivered a dynamite me (he called me ‘one of the fun- Jay, great to hear from you. I have 1971, in part due to my pride as an seminar on health services for LGBT. niest people’ he’s ever known) in been to Iowa, when my brother alumnus. Sadly, my pride turned to The room was packed. She has really a recent CCT column to flush me was a professor at the University of shame this week.” done so much since she has been out. Consider me flushed. Iowa. Orange County does sound Bob, I have no influence at the here, taken advantage of every op- “After many years as a consul- warmer, for sure. University, but I, too, was disgusted portunity to advance her education tant to the radio industry, my wife, I decided to break with my tradi- by the reporting about the student and making a lasting contribution Sharon, and I moved to lovely Fair- tion of avoiding politics. Bob Brandt, treatment of the veteran and have to the department at the same time. field, Iowa, in the mid-’80s, part of my wonderful roommate one sum- heard from others who were as You should be proud. And you the grand, ongoing experiment on mer and a great fellow, wrote a letter well. At the same time, Columbia, probably already know that Sho- the effects of large groups practic- to a Spectator reporter who seemed which received approximately shana Goldberg [’08], daughter of ing the transcendental meditation to treat lightly the behavior of some 35,000 applications for the Class of Ira Goldberg, is in our department program. After a couple of years students towards an Iraq War vet- 2015, is getting a diverse group of as well, one year behind Hannah. there, we were offered the oppor- eran who had lost a leg and now students, and I believe is politically More classmates should send their tunity to purchase the local radio is a Columbia student. Bob copied more diverse as well. The Admis- offspring if they don’t mind.” stations for cheap, whereupon I President Lee C. Bollinger: sions Office is doing a great job. I am quite proud of Hannah’s became an owner for the first time. “Dear Mr. Roth [the Spec reporter], Columbia admissions data for the deep interest in maternal health and Success ensued, and we built a tiny “I spent seven years on Morn- College and Engineering may well children and public health issues group by adding an AM and FM in ingside Heights, first as a Colum- be second only to Harvard, though across the planet. nearby Ottumwa. bia College student (’68), and then I suspect for the College alone our Jon also noted, “On a recent week- “At about the same time, we as a Columbia Law School student admit stats may be the best in the end, we were at our vacation home decided that we’d had enough (’71). I was on campus during the Ivies. of Midwest weather, exacerbated tumultuous Spring of 1968 and Reid Feldman, in Paris with his by a particularly nasty ice storm when ROTC was booted off cam- law firm Kramer Levin Natfalis wherein Sharon slid into one of the pus. I read your recent article and & Frankel, is handling multiple Manage Your deep roadside trenches for which want you to know that Columbia European deals and litigation, with Iowa is famous. She did not suf- has a serious public relations short breaks in Méribel, where the Subscription fer any damage, and the car only problem that it needs to address. snow has been great this year. He slight damage, but it stiffened our Columbia is a great institution, and has mastered the art of BlackBerry f you prefer reading CCT resolve to get out of there. great institutions should stand for uphill, powder downhill. I online, you can help us “After a lengthy nationwide site and protect freedom of expression Reid, Have you seen Bill Mc- go green and save money study, we decided upon Orange and freedom of choice, including David in Paris? And Bill, have you by opting out of the print County, Calif., as our new home. We a student’s choice to enroll in an called Reid? edition. Click “Manage Your moved there a year or so after the ROTC program on campus. It I received a wondrous, long note Subscription” at college. big Y2K non-event, but I still spent tarnishes the school’s reputation from David Shapiro (editing it may nearly all my time in Iowa keeping for ROTC not to be allowed on be beyond my skills). He is writing, columbia.edu/cct and follow the radio stations afloat. We sold the campus and creates an impression teaching, doing poetry readings and the domestic instructions. stations, more or less advantageous- that the school is controlled by a so much more with his art. We will continue to notify ly, in 2008, whereupon I embarked liberal elite hostile to the military, David, I have some of your art. you by e-mail when each on the life of the semi-retired, only which I hope is not the case. The Maybe it is time to frame it if Jasper issue is posted online. You without the income part. fact that no senior University offi- Johns is framing it now. may be reinstated to receive “Now I am operating several cial, at least to my knowledge, has Bill Joseph wrote: “I recently the print edition at any time endeavors simultaneously: a spoken out publicly to denounce returned from visiting a grand- by sending a note to cct@ newsletter for broadcasters, a the disgraceful behavior of the daughter and grandson in Port- columbia.edu. consulting practice, a radio station students who heckled the student land, Ore. Earlier, I visited three web development business, an ap- war veteran at the ROTC hearing other granddaughters in Scotts-

may/june 2011 59 class notes columbia college today in the North Carolina mountains, confronted with that larger-than-life for their diplomas. Our generation, World but built in 1843) in Copen- where it should have been cold, photo. at least those who could, continued hagen. However, having a drink but it wasn’t. When we returned to “I feel that we are at the age at exercising and that might help us in at the ‘Ice Bar’ in Copenhagen was Durham, we learned that we had which we recognize and appreciate the long run. End of sermonette.” also quite an experience and a lot missed temperatures that reached our good fortune and the progress Since he became a U.S. District of fun. I recommend it highly! On 79 degrees! of our children. Jeremy (Yale, Cam- Court judge for the Eastern District a professional note, I am pleased “So what about me? You could bridge and NYU Law) completed of New York (sitting in Brooklyn), to announce that in the January say (because it is true) that my re- his clerkship this summer with Nick Garaufis’ decisions have be- Avenue Magazine, I was named to search is taking a more biomedical Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the come a frequent subject for articles the Avenue’s Legal Elite list of New twist as I explore the changes in Supreme Court, a great privilege in the New York Law Journal, and are York City’s top trusts and estates brain structure and function among and an immensely rewarding ex- occasionally in the news pages and attorneys. I also recently was hon- the children (now young adults) I perience. He now is with Vinson & even are in the editorial pages of ored by Martindale-Hubbell with have been following for 25 years Elkins in its Washington, D.C., office the city’s daily newspapers. Still, I its Peer Review Rated for Legal who experienced child abuse or in a small group doing appellate was surprised to see in the New York Ability and Ethical Standards neglect. Like the pilgrim looking and regulatory practice. He married Post of March 6 a story titled “Judge Award for being an attorney hav- for an honest man, I am looking for the wonderful Jillian Lawrence, Garaufis’ mob ties.” Turns out Nick ing a Martindale-Hubbell AV Pre- grant funds to continue MRI studies who is an attorney with Pepco. is presiding over a murder trial of eminent Rating for more than 20 on as many as consent to partici- Jonathan (Bates College) is enjoy- an individual convicted of a prior continuous years. I am honored to pate. As we look at the prospect of ing life as a bachelor commercial murder, and the defendant some- have received both awards. cuts in health and social services for real estate broker in Westchester, how had not been provided with “After 37 years as a Law School- low-income children and families, and Julie (Cornell and St. George’s a tie to wear during jury selection. trained practicing attorney, I still documenting the permanent func- University School of Medicine) is Nick solved the problem by loaning love my job. I enjoy doing premier tional and anatomical changes that in her third year of medical school a Brooks Brothers tie to the defen- trusts and estates work at my Wall growing up in abusive households doing her clinical rotations at New dant, prompting the Post to craft a Street law firm in Manhattan, where may lead to might move some York Methodist Hospital in Park Post-like headline. I continue to be the ‘confidant’ stony hearts.” Slope. Gloria and I celebrated our I sent out a blast e-mail to those and ‘personal trusted family ad- I received a brief note from Henry 25th anniversary this summer with who had served on our 40th viser’ who is attentive, supportive, Welt. I am overdue in tracking Judge Nicholas Garaufis gener- Reunion Committee, inviting com- sympathetic and responsive to the Henry down for lunch or dinner ously and graciously conducting ments on how the Core courses needs of my many affluent clients some night. Henry wrote: “I re- our vow renewal ceremony in the continue to influence us, and for in both New York and Florida. sumed practicing law last spring and Adirondacks. news. Jim Weitzman responded: Meeting with my clients, becoming am having a great time. Somehow, it “I practice law in Mount Kisco “I was elated to get an e-mail from well-acquainted with them and seems to give me more pleasure as I when not engaged in bar associa- a fellow alumnus announcing their families, knowing their history, get older — maybe just a better per- tion activities. Gloria continues to WKCR’s 70th Anniversary Dinner hearing their stories, earning their spective — and it is challenging and push forward as a real estate broker on February 24 in Roone Arledge trust, and legally and skillfully pro- fun. At the same time, I’ve expanded in Westchester and Fairfield coun- Auditorium. Without even looking tecting their wealth and estate as- my art licensing and brand manage- ties and has become a cowgirl, as at what was already in the calendar, sets for them and their families for ment business, WeltAdvisors, and she has taken up riding cutting I immediately made a reservation. years to come are the most reward- now work with several artist clients. horses as a hobby (yes, like in City On campus, I spent almost as much ing aspects of my work. Getting Also, I had a great time taking an Slickers) and is competing in shows time at KCR as I did sitting in class. to know the client as a person, not alumni mini-Core course on Con- in Florida, New Jersey, Pennsyl- The highlight of my tenure was only as a file, is extremely important temporary Civilization. It made me vania and New York. Some of her having the privilege of produc- and satisfying to me as a T&E attor- feel like I was back on campus. All in shows are on YouTube.” ing a live weekly broadcast from ney. Above all, however, is the fact all, life is good.” Steve Conway ’71 GSAS was Greenwich Village’s Cafe Feenjon that I always will be thankful to Co- It is hard to believe that this kind enough to e-mail me about the every Saturday night at midnight. lumbia College for giving me that summer I will turn 65, and I guess January/February column, so I, of It exposed this Wisconsin kid to a solid foundation that has helped to others in the class will do so too. I course, asked him for some news. variety of Mediterranean cultures make all of my past, present and suspect our class will have lots to From Steve: “I exited Columbia and people. I could say that WKCR future accomplishments possible. report for three more decades or College and GSAS with liberal arts and the Feenjon ultimately formed My Columbia daughters, Jodi ’99, so. Do send in a note. My sentence degrees and no career in mind. the basis of my second career: Jennifer ’02 and Janine ’05, also are for this job may be commuted at Since then I’ve had more than 30 owning and operating a group of doing well. I am pleased and proud some point before then. I hope all jobs in university teaching and ad- radio stations featuring primarily to report that all three of them are of you are enjoying each day. And ministration, and then in business, multicultural/multilingual pro- active in their respective classes.” if you can, go to a football game that I’ve almost always enjoyed. At gramming. I’ve recently finished a I received a number of comments this fall. I predict a great season. 61, I joined Boston-based industry grueling couple of years in the plan- about the Core courses. From Dave analyst firm IDC as research v.p. ning, financing, zoning, permitting Sokal: “I remember reading David for the supercomputer market. This and construction of the latest one, a Hume — or maybe John Locke — Michael Oberman might be my last paid gig. A big 50,000-watt station near Washing- and gaining an understanding of a Kramer Levin Naftalis & pleasure in the past couple of years ton’s Dulles Airport that took to the quote that I can’t now recall exactly 69 Frankel was reconnecting and then staying air in March. I’m forever grateful about how we often don’t appre- 1177 Avenue of the connected with my CC roommates for the Columbia education that ciate the influence of dead phi- Americas Pesach Slabosky, a celebrated artist opened my mind to embrace the losophers on today’s conventional New York, NY 10036 living in Jerusalem; Rick Altabef, diversity that provided the founda- wisdom.” moberman@ one of the top legal eagles at CBS; tion for this line of work.” From Dave Rosedahl: “Don kramerlevin.com and Jim Llana, recently named Joe Materna wrote: “My wife, Quixote. Fantasies are fun … some- associate provost of institutional Dolores, and I recently celebrated times become real. Who’d have I was paging through the State Bar effectiveness at the City University our 35th anniversary by taking an believed the Germans would own News for New York one recent night of New York. To you and everyone extensive tour of Russia, Poland the NYSE? Pursue your dreams.” and found on its back cover a photo in our class and their kith and kin, and the Scandinavian countries And Mark Webber, who has an of John Marwell in an ad for the I mainly wish good health. We all of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, amazing recall of our college days Bar Association. I promptly asked used to wonder at aging relatives Finland and Tallin, Estonia. It was (with specific dates), reminded him for the “back story” and for who seemed obsessed with health a beautiful trip. My favorites were me of an escapade the two of us some news; John replied: “Michael talk, and now we’re learning more the State Hermitage Museum and engaged in when the pages began — no cover boy back story — I what that’s all about. The last exer- the Catherine Palace, both located to fall from our copies of the Ra- was as surprised as anyone when I cise people of my parents’ genera- in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Tivoli belais book in freshman year. We opened the State Bar News and was tion seemed to get was reaching out Gardens (which is like Walt Disney wrote to Penguin Press in the style

may/june 2011 60 columbia college today class notes

of Rabelais, but a bit cruder; Mark translator, interpreter and immi- tells me it went something like grant rights advocate. this: “Gentlemen: We are students Art Engoron: “The Chief Admin- at Columbia College of Columbia istrative Judge of the State of New University and are taking a course York has elevated me from Civil in humanities. Generally speak- Court Judge to the position of Acting ing, we have enjoyed reading the Supreme Court Justice. The Supreme Penguin Books Limited versions Court is the state’s basic trial court, of the various texts. Unhappily, in with original, unlimited jurisdiction. the case of Rabelais’ Gargantua and “Meanwhile, I sold my Upper Pantagruel, for those persons who West Side co-op after 29 years read the books, the bindings came there, and I now live in an apart- apart and thus we were unable to ment on Worth Street, downtown, benefit from the erudition because near the courts.” the pages refused to remain in any Lew Preschel: “Since I retired A dozen members of the Class of 1971 gathered with spouses and guests logical order. We suggest that you from the active practice of orthope- at Fuleen Seafood Restaurant in NYC’s Chinatown on March 13 for a pre- train your bindings more effective- dic surgery in 2004, I have earned a reunion Year of the Rabbit Banquet organized by Richard Hsia ’71. Pictured ly, or in the future, no school will master’s in library and information (left to right) are Dr. Lew Preschel ’71, Bernie Falk ’71, Ray Gaspard ’71, wish to purchase copies of books science from Rutgers. I did this with Dick Fuhrman ’71, Hsia, Greg Wyatt ’71, Jim Shaw ’71, Ken Lehn ’71, Irwin that in Rabelaisian terms have the the intent of working part-time or in Warren ’71, Larry Weiss ’71, Mat Thall ’71 and Joe Boorstein ’71. runs.” PHOTO: HEATHER HUNTE a library associated with pharma- Mark adds that Penguin Books ceuticals or medically related thanked us for our letter and sent products. However, in the interim, us two new copies of the books — 113th St., 3rd Fl., New York, NY premier outrigger competition. Our writing has caught my interest. I which also fell apart. Those of you 10025, or give at college.columbia. crew raced a distance of 41 miles have written a murder mystery who recall the reading assignment edu/giveonline. Make a note that across the Kaiwi Channel between novel, with a main protagonist, Dr. will know that Mark and I saw a your contribution was prompted by the islands of Moloka’I and O’ahu Madison Muttnick. He is a mash-up perfect use for the pages that fell reading CCT. alongside 120 other outrigger ca- of Philip Marlowe and ‘Trapper’ out of the book, since we did not noes. See article, video and photos John McIntyre. I am trying to find have “a well downed goose.” (The at fairfieldcitizenonline.com/de literary representation for the first answer, for those who need a hint, Leo G. Kailas fault/article/Fairfielder-braves-the- in a series of manuscripts. I also appears in Chapter 13 of Book 70 Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt high-seas-in-premier-816073.php. started a blog that is co-authored One, Gargantua). By the way, some 885 Third Ave, 20th Fl. “I’m a trial lawyer in Connecti- by both my ego and my alter-ego, might not know that Lit Hum New York, NY 10022 cut. In 2005, I retired from the Navy madisonmuttnickmd.blogspot.com. courses no longer include the writ- [email protected] after 35 years of service, active and If you drop by or have a friend drop ten quizzes that challenged us. reserve (one cold war and two hot by, you might like it. If you do, drop Thanks to Dan Carlinsky ’65 Just prior to my recent five-week ones).” me a note and let me know. The for calling my attention to the trial in beautiful Greenbelt, Md., I least that could happen is that you interview/profile of author Siri got a note from Dennis Graham can link to some fine jazz as selected REUNION JUNE 2–JUNE 5 Hustvedt in Scanorama Portfolio, bragging about Phil Russotti: “Good from old time stuff on YouTube. Alumni Office Contacts the in-flight magazine of SAS — I luck with your trial, counselor. “Where have the good ol’ days Alumni Affairs Ken Catandella likely would have missed the piece And if you need to sharpen up gone?” [email protected] without Dan’s e-mail; the article any of your aggressive courtroom Lew, they were good ol’ days, 212-851-7430 calls Hustvedt and her husband, techniques, please consult Kailas- and I find them again at reunion. Development Heather Hunte Paul Auster, “Brooklyn’s — and proclaimed football bad luck charm, Sam Higginbottom ’74L: “I hope [email protected] America’s — best known literary Phil ‘Double Barrel’ Russotti, that my wife, Cyndi, and I will be 212-851-7957 couple.” We learn from the article the sharp shooting trial attorney able to attend reunion. I am a lawyer that Paul always has the beef bour- of Wingate, Russotti & Shapiro. Jim Shaw with the Federal Energy Regulatory guignon when dining at Sweet He’s lost only two of 97 cases … or 71 139 North 22nd St. Commission. I have more than 35 Melissa Patisserie around the cor- something like that.” Philadelphia, PA 19103 years of federal service. Cyndi and ner from the couple’s home. You Phil’s “sharp shooting” must [email protected] I are the parents of seven children. can tell I am in need of class news have rubbed off on me, as the jury The oldest is 35 and the youngest is when I start reporting on what a came back in two hours with a Our 40th reunion is less than a 15. I am the grandfather of five, who classmate eats. verdict in favor of my client. month away, Thursday, June 2–Sun- range in age from four weeks to 11. This issue appears as the Co- Mike Passow recently completed day, June 5. There will be a great mix None of my children have attended lumbia College Fund’s 2011 fiscal his presidency of the National Earth of cultural happenings throughout CC, but my youngest daughter, 15, year draws to a close (Thursday, Science Teachers Association. In New York City and class-specific claims that her near-term goal is to June 30). Reading CCT leads most August, Mike organized a teacher’s events where we will have a chance attend Columbia. classmates to recall their days at the workshop for the American Geo- to renew old friendships. Thursday “I have many family members College and what is special about physical Union Meeting of the night, there will be a chance to take who also are Columbia grads. My them: the readings, the teachers, the Americas in Iguassu Falls, Brazil. in a show in Manhattan. Friday of- dad, Sam Higginbottom ’43E, is activities, the friendships, the time Every month, research scientists fers mini-Core courses and a class alive and well in Miami. Others of growth, the campus and more. If from Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty dinner. Saturday is Dean’s Day, with are my dad’s brother, James Hig- reflecting makes you feel like part Earth Observatory provide informa- great lectures, including a talk by ginbottom ’53; my maternal grand- of the Columbia community, show tion about cutting-edge investiga- Dean Michele Moody-Adams, fol- father, Richard Steinschneider ’19; your active connection by support- tions for classroom teachers and lowed in the evening by the all-class his brother, William Steinschneider ing the College. We really would students in the Earth2Class Saturday Wine Tasting, a class dinner and (Class of 1910E), two of my moth- like to increase the participation rate Workshops for Educators that Mike then the Starlight Reception with er’s brothers, Dick Steinschneider for the Fund. Any amount from a has organized for more than a de- sweets, champagne and dancing on ’43 and Eugene Rowan Stein- new donor would be greatly appre- cade. Mike, now in his 41st year in Low Plaza. In between, there will be schneider ’49; and a cousin, Pat ciated. But, of course, the more our the classroom, teaches at Dwight plenty of other happenings to keep Steinschneider ’73, ’76 Arch. One of classmates give, the more that can Morrow H.S. in his hometown of us entertained. Don’t miss it. It’s not my sisters, Rowan Higginbottom be of immediate help to the current Englewood, N.J. too late to register: alumni.college. Maclaren ’87E, earned a master’s student body. Send your dona- Roger Crossland reports: “I columbia.edu/reunion. in computer engineering. tion to Columbia College Fund, finished 2010 with participation in Lawrence Thomases passed “Life has been good, and I be- Columbia Alumni Center, 622 W. the Moloka’i Hoe 2010, the world’s away on December 10. He was a lieve it has been good in part due

may/june 2011 61 class notes columbia college today to the skills learned at Columbia succeeds, loudly, with the director history of science, and I think it had for at least another decade.” College and the Law School.” in the balcony. The gormless girl, a green cover. Someone must know The class has had several pre- Conceptual artist John Borek’s who has never been on a stage, the title of this book. Thanks.” reunion events. On February 11, work, A Window on the Carrageenan, works hard at understanding the To me, one of the many great there was Burgers and Basketball, was performed in December at the relationship between the actor and things about Columbia was that with dinner at Havana Central at Multi-use Community Cultural the audience. The street musician we had shared reading and not The West End (in what we knew as Center in Rochester, N.Y. His web- is only interested in the promotion academic segregation. Lit Hum The West End) followed by basket- site, theprofessorofrap.com, discuss- of his music and the paraplegic is and Contemporary Civ discussions ball at Francis S. Levien Gym. Here es it: “In A Window on the Carrageen- only interested in the stability of could include everyone, regard- is part of Richard Hsia’s report: an, I attempted to recreate the chaos his wheelchair on a stage full of less of major, and so therefore also “... cheered on throughout by of commercial theater by crafting running, jumping narcissists. The could the 3 a.m. bull sessions, dis- Dean Michele Moody-Adams, the an epic disaster. In a way, I was producer is worried about not be- cussing those subjects and every- Lions never gave in. Nor could paying tribute to Arthur Bicknell’s ing able to pay his BlackBerry bill, thing else academic or otherwise. the game’s direction or outcome Moose Murders: A Mystery Farce in thereby losing his contact list, and (For anyone not from our class dampen the enthusiasm and ca- Two Acts, trending Marx Brothers. the director finds that his reputa- reading this column, the books maraderie of our classmates led by [In my play, the] producer has ne- tion is no longer at risk — it has that Ed King refers to were those Phil Milstein, Greg Wyatt, Richard glected to get rights clearance, the been vaporized. Of course, the assigned to the incoming freshman Hsia, Hillary and Dick Fuhrman, actors leave the production before playwright-within-a play, Maeve class to read prior to arrival. For Lori and Alex Sachare, and Tim the curtain even rises, the set disap- Gomorra, shows up to experience the reference to Summer of Love, DeBaets, who joined us from the pears, appropriated by a Holiday the joy of her first produced effort. below, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ sunny West Coast, together with on Ice show, a tripartite injunction The show’s end is announced by a Summer_of_Love.) Jersey gentle farmers Marina and is served against performance, the real pizza delivery boy announcing Within about 36 hours of sending John Bleimaier. Still looking like stage lights fail, the director has a he could elevate the Lions’ winning breakdown and the producer is prospects on the court, Bob Gailus eventually arrested by the FBI. New Conceptual artist John Borek ’71’s work, A Window was there, with daughter Marianna, actors are recruited from the envi- who has grown into a spectacular rons of the theater: a prostitute, a on the Carrageenan, was performed at the Multi-use young woman. Pam and Chris paraplegic, an itinerant street singer, Community Cultural Center in Rochester, N.Y. Moriarty came, together with their a gormless lass walking by. The son, James, who is growing into a translator who has translated the sensational young man. Heather play from Gaelic into Hungarian his delivery on stage. out the eNews, I had eight replies. Hunte, assistant director, class giv- into English is pressed into service, “No one, but no one, cared Seeing as how the question had ing, in the Alumni Office, gave us playing a 7-year-old girl. about presenting the play in this struck a memory, I am including it in welcome support.” “The producer buys time with improvised performance. Not even the Class Notes after all. In chrono- I was there in spirit only, but here the audience by delivering a lec- Christiano, who played the direc- logical order, the BUtterfield 8 are in Philadelphia I listened to Penn’s ture on thatched cottages, and the tor and wrote the damned thing. David Menke, Lawrence Goldberg, radio station the next night as the street singer finds inspiration in the “This was perhaps the most en- Bill Christophersen, Art Engoron, Lions beat the Quakers, which was play’s subject of Nazis of the Reich tertaining of all the Post-Cap pre- Andrew Dunn, Terry Chorba, delicious in its own way. attending college in Ireland during sentations. No audience members Steve Boss and Julio Rivera. (For Richard Hsia organized a Chi- WWII. His song, Nazis Don’t Get left, and it is important to note that the reference, see en.wikipedia.org/ nese New Year Banquet (think of it Swing, becomes a huge hit. The the audience included theatergoers wiki/BUtterfield_8. And, no, these as CNY in NYC) on March 13 at Fu- play’s original title, A Window on who believed they were there to classmates do not meet in Yankee leen Seafood Restaurant in the heart the Carrageen, is modified to food see a real Irish play. It was the an- Stadium.) of Chinatown. He noted that “Our additive-friendly A Window on the tithesis of a Neil Simon play. There As Bill Christophersen ex- Year of the Rabbit Banquet con- Carrageenan to technically thwart was no roadmap. Everything was plained: “The third book we were sisted of an array of 10 delectable, as the injunction. placed on the backs of the actors required to read was Herbert well as lucky, dishes (but no rabbit “In order to orchestrate chaos, who had no idea what crisis they Butterfield’s The Origins of Mod- and no lion).” [See photo.] [post-capitalist] playwright Spen- would have to avert next at any ern Science. One reason it was A fine time was had by Margaret cer Christiano writing as Maeve given time. Yet the laughs were interesting is that it examined the and Joe Boorstein ’72 GSAS, Vivian Gomorra, actually wrote a two-act what I would call warm laughs. ‘also-ran’ theories that were in play and Bernie Falk, Hilary and Dick play modeled after Sean O’Casey’s People liked the characters on before the important theories of Fuhrman, Ray Gaspard, Peggy oeuvre. Two Nazis, one bad, one stage even though these characters optics, gravitation, planetary mo- and Richard Hsia ’74L, Ken Lehn good, are billeted as detainees in were being invented as they were tion, diseases and so on got nailed ’74L, Carole and Lew Preschel, Jim neutral Ireland early in WWII. being presented. down and took on the aura of Shaw, Mat Thall (from Boston), Liz Based on true historical detail, they “My thanks to the generous inevitability. My experience of the and Irwin Warren ’74L, Wendy and are permitted to attend university talents and wonderful good humor Summer of Love was spoiled by Larry Weiss, and Fay and Greg Wy- where one of them falls in love of not only Spencer Christiano, but appendicitis, but as a booby prize, I att, as well as by Ken Catandella, with an Irish girl. The ensuing clash of Michael Arve, Cassandra Kelly, had plenty of time to read all three senior executive director, University of cultures and politics resembles Kimberly Niles, Declan Ryan and books. I became a lit major, but I events and programs, Office of nothing so much as an Irish/Nazi Patrick Stefano. It takes a lot of found Butterfield’s the most in- Alumni and Development, and his version of West Side Story. The play Irish moxie to push on while the teresting. Only last year, I found a wife, Victoria Augustine Catandella has production merits of its own arts collapse around you.” copy on sale by a street vendor and ’80 Barnard; and Heather Hunte, and can be performed as a separate Folks, in the Class of ’71 eNews, snatched it up.” assistant director, Columbia College vehicle, but as I found out in this I include not only a preview of the And Terry Chorba added this: Fund, and her sons, Jonathan and production, when you give actors Class Notes but also some items “Please tell Edward King that the Matthew. perfect freedom, the play is seldom exclusive to the eNews. In the issue third book that we had to read was I came in from Philadelphia and the thing. In the 80 minutes of this I sent on February 26, I included Herbert Butterfield’s The Origins of had the pleasure of meeting up with production, only one full page of this: Modern Science. It was a small con- and walking and talking the three the original play was performed. Ed King: “I’m trying to remember tributor to the heavy nudge that miles from Penn Station to China- “Instead, as the improvising a book we were assigned as summer Columbia gave me into a career town with Steve Boss ’76 SW, ’78 actors discovered, they spent al- reading in 1967. There were three in science. I am thriving as chief Business, and back with Ron Bass, most all of their time keeping their books. One was The Greeks by H.D.F. of the branch that oversees the each of whom was attending family interpersonal relationships afloat. Kitto, and the second was Economic domestic field activities of the Divi- events during the time of the dinner. The prostitute tries to make a buck and Social History of Medieval Europe sion of TB Elimination at the Cen- Remember 44 Septembers ago, by attempting to score with mem- by Henri Pirenne. What was the ters for Disease Control, and I hope and the feelings we had, including bers of the audience; she finally third book? I know it was on the to keep working in public health of adventure, as we entered Colum-

may/june 2011 62 columbia college today class notes

bia College. We are still connected. Fred and Mike Byowitz have been When we came to the College, it reached out to Mark Rantala, v.p. See ya at reunion! discussing our 40th reunion, just was the time when fierce national and director of retail sales at CB two years away. Fred hopes to see debate erupted over the Vietnam Richard Ellis (commercial real es- many new faces, especially those War, abortion, feminism, gay rights tate) in Westlake, Ohio. Mark con- Paul S. Appelbaum who have not attended reunions. and a whole host of other issues. firmed that real estate is starting to 72 39 Claremont Ave., #24 Bob Shea earned an M.B.A. at Now I am reminded by the cur- pick up. However, he seemed more New York, NY 10027 Columbia right out of college (as rent turmoil in the Middle East that caught up in picking colleges for [email protected] did I), then had two long careers, we were literally born during the his oldest daughter, Shannon. Fam- one in advertising and another in moment in history when the Egyp- ily trumping career, an increasingly Neil Izenberg has an interesting consulting. He has been back at the tian Revolution of 1952 abolished common occurrence. adventure to relate: “At the end of B-School for the last six years as the constitutional monarchy and, in An update came in from Rich- January, I was invited to a small senior associate director of admis- 1953, Egypt was declared a repub- ard Briffault, the Joseph P. Cham- White House Women’s Online sions, a move he recommends (re- lic. As Wikipedia says, “The success berlain Professor of Legislation at Summit. Yes, I know I’m not a turning to campus) as he has “come of the revolution inspired numer- the Law School. You might recall woman, but KidsHealth.org, which full circle.” ous Arab and African countries to that the Senate confirmed his wife, I founded and head, is one of the Christopher Koefoed spent 32 remove pro-Western … monarchies Sherry Glied, as assistant secretary web’s most-visited sites reaching years in Los Angeles, in the film biz, and potentates.” How could our for planning and evaluation at the mothers and families. Along with editing such films asMenace II Soci- forming DNA resist these powerful Department of Health and Human me, a score of executives from sites ety and Gridlock’d, as well as teaching influences? Services. That’s the good news. such as Yahoo, WebMD, Oprah.com film production at the Art Center of When you think of nominees But this new career means Sherry and others heard from a stream of College Design and screenwriting for “class revolutionary,” not a slim commutes from New York, going senior officials who briefed us on at UCLA Extension. He also wrote number of nominations would be to D.C. on Monday morning and what the administration is doing a “teleplay” for BET, Playing with cast for Arthur Schwartz. While on returning to New York on Friday in business, health, education and Fire. In 2006, Christopher moved to campus, he was active in all sorts of evening. This leaves professor/ other areas that impact women and Washington, D.C., to work with his liberal causes, and this has continued Mr. Mom Richard “here teaching, families. Earlier in the day, we had brother Erik in the family business, during the past four decades. More sluggishly writing a book, doing an unexpected ‘meet and greet’ in The Palisades Pizzeria & Clam on this later, but first we need to some other projects and taking care the East Wing with Bo (the Obama Bar (palisadespizzeria.com), right nominate him for the class “The Dog of the kids (who amazingly have girls’ Portuguese Water Dog), but outside of Georgetown. It serves Can Still Hunt” award (also known reached 15 and 12).” Richard adds that visit was one-upped by a sur- thin-crust, New York style-pizza as the classmate with the young- that this position has included prise drop-in by President Barack (they’re from the Bronx). est child). Diligent readers of the taking the kids to various sporting Obama ’83 himself, who popped Tragically, in February 2009, column know that the two youngest events: Olivia to a fencing compe- in to spend about 30 minutes giv- Christopher’s only child, Gabriella, I know of are Reilly (son of Abbe tition in Dallas and Jonathan on ing us his perspective and meeting was killed by a speeding motorist Lowell) and Eli (son of Jonathan Cu- various hockey trips to New Jersey us individually. In the excitement, in Baltimore. She was 22 and was neo); both fathers are Washington, and Westchester. Richard says, though, I forgot to tell him we were due to graduate from Maryland D.C., lawyers. Now comes Arthur “Given my total lack of athletic fellow Columbia alums and that an ability, I find this unfathomable.” invite to next year’s White House The early decision admissions Seder would not be declined. Oh Bob Shea ’73 earned an M.B.A. at Columbia and for the Class of 2015 (if you can well. Next time, perhaps.” believe it) include four children of Congratulations to Al Neugut, has been back at the B-School for the last six years classmates. [Editor’s note: A list of whose son, Zachary, made the list as senior associate director of admissions. alumni legacies for the College and for early admission to the Class of Engineering Class of 2015 is sched- 2015! Al, who stayed on to receive uled for the September/October an M.D. and a Ph.D. from Colum- Institute College of Art that year. wondering if his kids (5 and 7) give issue.] The following is some brief bia, is the Myron M. Studner Profes- He has been working on projects to him the title. Any other challengers information about the admitted sor of Cancer Research and Professor honor and remember her; the best waiting in the wings? kids and their dads. Please note of Medicine and Epidemiology at one so far has been the Gabriella Arthur’s note added that, coinci- that, for the first time in class his- Columbia. Milagro Koefoed Endowed Schol- dentally, he needed to call in Abbe’s tory, all four of the early admit lega- arship Fund at Howard University. assistance during 2009–10 for work cies were women! If anyone wants to contribute, it’s involving several criminal investi- Rachel Bercovitz will come to Barry Etra coas.howard.edu/development. gations while Arthur was general the College from Baltimore, where 73 1256 Edmund Park Dr. NE html. counsel of what he calls “the notori- she attended Beth Tfiloh Commu- Atlanta, GA 30306 Christopher, we all feel your pain. ous ACORN” (the now-defunct nity H.S. She is the daughter of Dr. [email protected] Anyone wishing to reach out to Association of Community Orga- Barry Bercovitz, an endocrinolo- Christopher can do so at gabriella4 nizations for Reform Now). Arthur Not so much this time, fellas. Please [email protected]. said he and Abbe “spent a lot of make the effort to send in a missive, time talking about the old days, Submit Your Photo a thought, a comment. him as a student representative to Fred Schneider and his wife, Fred Bremer the University Senate and me dis- Submitting a photo for Harriet, have lived in Brooklyn 74 532 W. 111th St. rupting the senate. Recent alliance Class Notes is easier Heights since 1981, the year he left New York, NY 10025 worked well: No criminal charges than ever! the Kings County D.A. Harriet is filed anywhere.” [email protected] Online by clicking the director of the Office of Counsel Might as well get the last piece for Children in New York’s Second Maybe fate destined our class to be of Abbe news on the table: While “Contact Us” at Judicial Department and has held surrounded by revolutionary am- I was surfing the web for updates college.columbia.edu/cct. that position for more than 20 years. niotic fluid where the status quo on the Wikileaks circus, up he Mail by sending the They have two daughters: Lauren, was constantly challenged! After popped, being described as the photo and accompanying an officer at Bank Leumi USA in our quaint post-Eisenhower “Ozzie “espionage expert at the law firm caption information to Manhattan, and Stephanie, who is and Harriet” upbringing, we came McDermott Will & Emery.” And I deciding which law school to at- of age in high school just as the always heard Abbe described as a Class Notes Editor, tend in the fall. Fred is a partner at “counterculture” movement was “white collar criminal defense law- Columbia College Today, Gilman and Schneider, which he in full throw (including “free love,” yer.” At any rate, it is good to have Columbia Alumni Center, founded in 1989; the firm special- chemical mind expansion and the our own 007 in the class! 622 W. 113th St., MC 4530, izes in family law, matrimonial law, like ... you know, all those things Curious to learn if the economic New York, NY 10025. divorce, custody, support and so on. you council your kids against!). recovery is hitting the heartland, I

may/june 2011 63 class notes columbia college today gist at the Johns Hopkins Com- I went to Columbia (pretty typical!). tive voting system. The unusual Guide to Keeping a Practice Journal, munity Physicians group and who But it was at Columbia that I first arrangement was allowed under a available this spring from Rodmell is affiliated with the Johns Hopkins read St. Augustine’s Confessions and 2008 court order. Press. Bruce lives in Sarasota, Fla., Hospital. Barry’s practice covers Dante’s Inferno. I didn’t return to the As if he isn’t busy enough, Bob with his wife (a professor at New diabetes, metabolism, endocrinol- faith until 1978, when I began going Schneider has been elected corpo- College) and daughter (who re- ogy and internal medicine. to a Lutheran church in Midtown.” rate secretary of the University of cently got her driver’s permit), and Isabel Genecin is from Larchmont, Bryan later studied the religious Pennsylvania Club of Long Island. welcomes friends and classmates N.Y. (in nearby Westchester), where controversies between Protestants Bob is special counsel at Cuddy & to drop by if they’re ever exploring she attended Mamaroneck H.S. Her and Catholics while he worked on Feder. Some day, we may open a the beauty of Florida’s west coast. dad, Victor Genecin, is of counsel at his Ph.D. dissertation at Michigan. dictionary and see Bob’s picture. You can reach him at bruceblack@ the Midtown Manhattan law firm “I became convinced that God has I’m just not sure whether it will gmail.com. Squire Sanders. unfolded his truth over time in the be next to dedication, loyalty or Mark Heller passed away in Brina Seidel attended Bethesda- Roman Catholic Church. I joined pride. Bob gives back to both Co- Potomac, Md., last October. He was Chevy Chase H.S. in Chevy Chase, the Catholic Church in 1995; two lumbia and Penn (his children all married for 27 years to Connie and Md. Father Stephen Seidel is v.p. years later, the rest of my family did undergraduate work at one or also is survived by his children, for policy analysis and general joined.” Bryan is taking classes to the other), was devastated when Danny and Laura. He was an active counsel at the Pew Center on Glob- become a member of Opus Dei. his Catholic grammar school was member of Temple Beth Ami in al Climate Change. He directs the While at Columbia, Bryan was slated for closing and is involved Rockport, coaching MSI soccer and analysis of the climate change pol- a typical liberal English major. in other charities and volunteer singing in the choir for 20 years. icy initiatives of the legislative and During the past decade, he taught work. You go, Bob! The family welcomes contributions executive branches of the federal literature and journalism for sev- Spring seems to be in the air in to the Fund for Innovation or the government. Steve formerly was eral years (most recently at the Baltimore. Tax season is winding Tikkun Olan Committee at Temple the director of the Stratospheric University of St. Francis in Joliet, down. I thank the IRS for maintain- Beth Ami, 14330 Travilah Rd., Rock- Protection Program at the EPA. (To Ill.) and for the past three years ing moving, home interest and other ville, MD 20850. Tea Party members, it might sound has been a freelance writer and itemized deductions, including those like he was involved in analyzing journalist, writing for the American for charitable giving. I’m proud (as a the national debt, but in reality Metal Market, National Catholic Lion!) to write checks to Columbia, David Gorman Steve was more concerned with Register and other publications. and even happier when I deduct 77 111 Regal Dr. the ozone.) He also is writing a book on litera- the donations. When you get that DeKalb, IL 60115 Victoria Van Amson is finishing ture and 16th- and 17th-century call or letter from a classmate, please [email protected] up at the Nightingale-Bamford religious controversies. His oldest be proud to do the same. You also School in Manhattan. Her father, child, Adrienne, is a clarinetist in can give online any time: college. Some of the notes I get are what I George Van Amson, is a managing the U.S. Army Field Band (based columbia.edu/giveonline. call meaning-of-life messages. I director at Morgan Stanley in Mid- at Fort Meade, Md.). His middle received a couple of splendid ones town Manhattan and former two- child, Joanna, has joined an order from Artie Gold and Bill Dorsey. REUNION JUNE 2–JUNE 5 term Columbia University trustee. of Catholic nuns (Servants of the In August, Artie had his third Alumni Office Contacts Congratulations to each of the Lord). His youngest, John, is about child, Eliza Rose (“I’m slow but Alumni Affairs Taruna Sadhoo young ladies and their families! to graduate from the University of making up for it”). It was on Christ- [email protected] Looks like another progeny of Illinois and will then be commis- mas Eve 2009, as I reconstruct the 212-851-7849 a classmate will have the potential sioned as an ensign in the Navy dates, that, as Artie puts it, “it was Development Paul Staller to become a neo-“Microsoft Mil- the next day. He will attend flight only the combination of being in [email protected] lionaire.” First, we learned that Rob school at NAS Pensacola in Florida just the right place at just the right 212-851-7494 Knapp’s son was at Facebook, and starting in October. time (and an on-call cardiovascu- now Kevin Ward tells us that his el- There you have it. The discovery Clyde Moneyhun lar surgeon with a hot hand) that dest, Matt ’11, is about to start work- of powerful forces that have made 76 Boise State University kept me from being referred to in ing at Google on the West Coast. our classmates “agents for change.” Department of English the past tense in that other section “Very proud of him,” crows Kevin. News of great achievements of our 200 Liberal Arts Building of CCT. And I’ve had one of those Kevin himself is spending his pre- classmates and their children. And 1910 University Dr. recoveries that makes the docs retirement years paying college the tale of an amazing spiritual Boise, ID 83725 shake their heads and smile.” Factor tuition bills (“more than $100,000 a journey. If you have something to clydemoneyhun@ in Eliza Rose’s arrival about eight year”) and attending basketball and share of you or your family with boisestate.edu months later and, if you were Artie, lacrosse games (“which I love”). His your friends of 40 years, please take you too would say, “Indeed, life is second child, Mark, is a sophomore a moment to send an e-mail. As the Our 35th reunion is less than a good.” at Fordham on a pre-med track. His Grateful Dead said, “What a long, month away, Thursday, June 2–Sun- Meanwhile, Bill, in fall 2009, third, Jamie, is off to Holy Cross in strange trip it’s been!” day, June 5. Join your classmates moved to a new position after 19 the fall (recruited to play lacrosse) and their families for cultural events years as a social worker and social and his “baby,” Brian (15) is the in New York City and mini-Core work manager at the Kaiser Perma- starting point guard for Bergen Randy Nichols courses as well as class-specific nente hospital in Santa Rosa, Calif.; Catholic’s freshman basketball 75 734 S. Linwood Ave. dinners, discussions and cocktail he is now a palliative care social team. Kevin still plays rock ’n roll Baltimore, MD 21224 parties. Saturday is Dean’s Day, with worker at the outpatient clinic. “I’ve in a local bar, “but playing two or [email protected] lectures from some of Columbia’s been providing counseling to pa- three times a year doesn’t make this best, including Dean Michele tients affected by advanced cancer a likely retirement pursuit!” He also Adding to the list of multi-genera- Moody-Adams, followed in the and other illnesses. These chronic recently celebrated his 35th year at tional Lion families, Julia Selinger evening by the all-class Wine Tast- and often life-shortening conditions Merrill Lynch as a financial adviser. and Matthew Suozzo are early ad- ing, our class dinner and then the can impact a person’s physical, “I wouldn’t want to do anything mits for the Class of 2015. Julia is the Starlight Reception, with sweets and emotional, social and spiritual cop- else,” he says. “Life is good and daughter of Neil Selinger and Rima champagne plus music and dancing ing. I work closely with the doctors, very, very full.” Grad and currently attends Mama- on Low Plaza. Don’t miss it. It’s not nurses, chemo pharmacists and Do you realize that two-thirds roneck H.S. Matthew, who is headed too late to register: reunion.college. the rest of the team to help patients of our life stories have been written for Engineering, is the son of Mark J. columbia.edu. live with the best quality of life pos- since we first set foot on Morning- Suozzo and attends Hunter College Bruce Black reports that since sible. I include their family in the side Heights? A lot can happen in H.S. in New York City. his 50-something knees no longer counseling to help them cope, too. It four decades! Consider the “spiritual “Bring it on,” was Randolph can take the stress of running, he can be challenging and rewarding, journey” of Bryan Berry. He writes, McLauglin’s response to the vil- switched to yoga a few years ago and I always am impressed with “I deserted my Christian (Protestant, lage of Port Chester, N.Y.’s plans to and discovered a new passion that the strength, hope and gratitude mainly Lutheran) upbringing when appeal the village’s current cumula- led to his book, Writing Yoga: a that people can demonstrate in the

may/june 2011 64 columbia college today class notes

toughest of times.” He goes on, “I spent two years with the National play drums regularly at our church Health Service and completed his and with a couple of jazz bands. anesthesia residency at Hahnemann. The artistic and spiritual outlets He is an anesthesiologist practicing help keep me centered.” in Newport Beach, Calif. Bill also wants us to know that Vincent Sama joined Kaye Scho- son Brendan is a freshman at The ler as partner in the firm’s litigation George Washington University, practice and co-chair of the com- while son Brian is a freshman in mercial litigation department. He high school, and that Bill is “grate- previously was a partner at Winston ful every day for the love and sup- & Strawn. port of my wife of 25 years, Lynn.” Robert C. Klapper: “This issue’s From Florida, we hear that topic is vacations. I hope we have Charles Trippe ’79L has been named all achieved in our lives that beauti- general counsel in the governor’s ful balance between work and play. office. After graduating from the We are all hopefully at that point in Law School, Charles did litigation our careers where an expertise in work in New York, Massachusetts our field has been achieved. With and Florida. He was general counsel the years of hard work and stress, The only thing better than the annual Burgers and Basketball event on for litigation for CSX Transportation, one needs a timeout. Our vaca- campus in February is spending it with old friends. Carman roommates and then worked in civil litigation as tions come in one of two varieties: (left to right) Harvey Cotton ’81, Ernie Cicconi ’81 and A.J. Bosco ’81 a partner at Moseley, Prichard, Par- either returning to visit a Shangri enjoyed the pregame ritual with their daughters (left to right) Leah Cot- rish, Knight, and Jones in Jackson- La second home, where you feel so ton, Samantha Cicconi and Anna Bosco. ville. Now he will be handling the comfortable because you know the PHOTO: Cathy Cotton ’83 Barnard legal issues of a state, no less. routine, or embarking on a trip to a Congratulations and more im- locale where you have never been portantly, good luck. and what awaits you is an adven- we dedicated the baseball/soccer REUNION JUNE 2–JUNE 5 Greetings also come from Arto ture and newness to delight all your locker room on behalf of Eric Blatt- Alumni Office Contacts Becker and Jeffrey Allen. Arto senses. I divide my time between man and his family. Eric gave a won- Alumni Affairs Kimberly Peterson is a lawyer in Los Angeles who my work here in Hollywood and derful speech between games, and [email protected] describes his life as “simple.” He my second home in Honolulu. So his teammates John McGuire ’84, 212-851-7872 explains that he has been “practic- to all of you from the Class of ’79, Ray Commisso, Larry Biondi and Development Paul Staller ing for more than 30 years in the I give you an open invitation that Ray Stukes wished him all the best. [email protected] same firm,” and has “grown chil- when you travel with your families Ray Commisso is at Thomson 212-851-7494 dren who make me very proud.” to either of these locations, please Reuters, where he is in charge of Jeff Pundyk Jeff describes his “fond memories feel free to contact me for the loca- designing many of the fixed income 81 20 E. 35th St., Apt. 8D of playing 158-lb. football. It was tions of diners, drive-ins and dives applications, such as Terms and New York, NY 10016 1973, and we hadn’t won a game that you won’t read about in the Conditions pages, New Issues pages in four years. It was like the Super guidebooks. and calculators that appear on the [email protected] Bowl when we beat Penn.” Injury “I am here to remind you, as the Xtra and Eikon Fixed Income plat- [Editor’s note: CCT thanks Jeff shortened Jeff’s playing career and late great cartoonist Saul Steinberg form. Ray’s experience as a fixed Pundyk for his six years of service his time at Columbia, but though from The New Yorker illustrated in income trader, portfolio manager as class correspondent and will he transferred to a rival institution, his classic magazine cover, that and former Reuters client was some- welcome back Kevin Fay (kfay@ he notes that “Columbia still con- there is a whole lot more to life than thing the company needed in build- norcapital.com) in the July/August siders me an alumnus (at least for driving on vacation to … New Ha- ing its data products, so that the end issue.] fundraising).” ven, Conn.!” result is user-friendly instead of the Finally, I know that we’ve all been product of academics and develop- A fine time was had by all at the thinking about David Paterson. Not ers who do not understand what February 11 Burgers and Basketball to worry about the Hofstra Law grad Michael C. Brown clients need to see and use in the night on campus and at Havana and former governor. According to 80 London Terrace Towers workflows of the typical financial Central at The West End, if you Newsday, at least for this year, he’ll be 410 W. 24th St., Apt. 18F market participant. managed to avoid the actual burg- at NYU, teaching courses on govern- New York, NY 10011 We ran into Steve Spence ’82 at the ers and largely disregarded the b- ment and public policy. Though not [email protected] Ivy football dinner. Steve is building ball part of the evening, that is, and a tenure-track post, it’s still a job, and a wealth management business with maybe if you were able to discount we wish him well. “Take me out to the ball game, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in some of the more personal health- “Take me out with the crowd. Midtown. related confessions that came “Buy me some peanuts and Crack- Congratulations to Phil Adkins spilling out around the bar. Still, Matthew Nemerson er Jack, and David Sherman on their child- it was great to see classmates and 78 35 Huntington St. “I don’t care if I never get back. ren’s early admittance to alma mater, reminisce about when we were all New Haven, CT 06511 “Let me root, root, root for the Class of 2015. We wish both Nastas- taller, faster and stronger. On hand [email protected] home team, sia Adkins and Adam Sherman the for the evening were Kevin Costa, “If they don’t win it’s a shame. best of luck. Mark Hansen, Erik Jacobs, Derek Please send me a note to share with “For it’s one, two, three strikes, Jim Gerkis and I attended the Johnson, John Luisi, Brian Kris- classmates. you’re out, annual John Jay Awards Dinner on berg, Sergey Kudrin, Jay Lee and “At the old ball game.” March 2 and want to remind you to Carman roommates A.J. Bosco, consider a gift to the Columbia Col- Harvey Cotton and Ernie Cicconi. Robert Klapper There is nothing better than watch- lege Fund. Give at college.columbia. (See photo.) 79 8737 Beverly Blvd., Ste 303 ing the baseball team play at the new edu/giveonline or mail a check to Think of it as a rehearsal for the Los Angeles, CA 90048 Satow Stadium. Coach Brett Boretti Columbia College Fund, Columbia reunion. And, frankly, some of us [email protected] has the squad playing some of the Alumni Center, 622 W. 113th St., need a little work before the actual most competitive games we have MC 4530, 3rd Fl., New York, NY event, which is scheduled for Thurs- DeMoyle Howell went to medical ever witnessed, and we are glad for 10025. We have come a long way day, June 2–Sunday, June 5. The school at Hahnemann University our coaches’ and players’ success. in our fundraising efforts, and we weekend will be great, with plenty Hospital in Philadelphia and com- We have had tremendous alumni need your support. of cultural activities, Dean’s Day on pleted his residency in internal support, as the stands are full of us Please drop me a line at mcbcu80 Saturday, mini-Core courses, tours, medicine at Bryn Mawr Hospital. He old-timers. At Homecoming last fall, @yahoo.com. cocktail parties, dinners, the all-class

may/june 2011 65 class notes columbia college today

Wine Tasting and the Starlight Re- Nonetheless, we have some happy Beta Kappa, and were named an supporter of the College, and the ception, which features champagne, news. All-Ivy wrestler. In 1985, you earned Class of ’83 congratulates him on re- sweets, and music and dancing on First and foremost, Frank Lopez- an M.B.A. from the Business School. ceiving this much-deserved honor. Low Plaza. Don’t miss it! It’s not Balboa is undoubtedly bursting You continued to live your passion Michael Oren ’77 also received a too late to register: reunion.college. with pride upon learning that his for wrestling by competing for the John Jay Award that night. Michael columbia.edu. daughter Olivia will attend the Col- New York Athletic Club, achieving is the Israeli Ambassador to the It’s also not too late to edit down lege in the fall. It’s darn near impos- state, regional and international United States and a former student some of those stories, make the sible to get into the College these honors in Greco-Roman wrestling. of Professor Karl-Ludwig Selig. necessary adjustments to waistlines days, so major kudos for this! I have You have spent your entire profes- Michael extended a personal invita- and hairlines, and hire whatever it on good authority from Louis De sional career at the Capital Group, tion to KLS to attend the dinner and escorts seem appropriate. Chiara that Olivia is a wonderful beginning as a financial analyst referred to KLS at the “incompa- Dave Cook is doing his part. In person and a superb student. covering automotive and financial rable Karl-Ludwig Selig” during his addition to his food blogging and Closer to home, WR Managed companies with Capital Guardian remarks. restaurant reviews, Dave has put Accounts, a privately held pro- Research. As a research director Kevin Cronin: “I met Barack together a blog on Columbia bands vider of managed account and for 15 years, you oversaw Capital Obama in college — there, I said from our era. Read it and weep for technology solutions for hedge Guardian Research’s development it — and it’s time to put to bed the our lost youth: columbiabands.com. fund investments, announced on into a global organization and its mystery of Obama and college life. John Luisi checks in from the February 18 a strategic partner- evolution into Capital International First, let’s talk about misplaced outermost of the outer boroughs: ship with Duff & Phelps, a leading Research. You have risen through a arrogance. Lots of people say they “I’m the new agency chief contract- financial advisory and investment series of executive and investment didn’t know him in school, despite ing officer at the NYC Board of Elec- banking services firm, and Har- roles during the past two decades to common commitment to political tions, so all contracts for goods and court Investment Consulting AG, a become the chairman of the Capi- science and pre-law (gosh, there’s services will go through my office. preeminent Zurich-based alterna- tal Guardian Trust Company and a small group for you), yet Obama Capital International Limited. You went on to Harvard Law and the have been an important contributor presidency. Maybe he had better John Luisi ’81 is agency chief contracting officer at to the growth of the Capital Group things to do? At any rate, it worked from $25 billion in assets under for him. Here’s my meeting with the NYC Board of Elections. management in 1985 to $1.2 trillion ‘the man who would be President.’ today. It was late on a weeknight, prob- “You are an active member of ably in March or April 1983, and My staff and I will do our best to tive asset management company your community and a dedicated I was with a group of students bring the highest quality goods and and part of the Vontobel Group, public servant. You were twice editing Sundial newsmagazine. services to our agency at the most an internationally oriented Swiss elected to the Board of Governors The Black Students League, which competitive prices. There. I said it. private bank. The partnership will of the San Marino Unified School also had an office on the third floor But more importantly, I’m starting enable the firms to develop unique District, serving from 1997–2005, of Ferris Booth Hall, was leaving the cycling season 20 pounds lighter technology-based solutions that with three years as president. You from a meeting, and the students than I did last year. Maybe I’ll finish provide transparency for hedge worked to put in place the founda- trickled down the hall to the stair- that 13th century ride.” funds and their investors. “Why tion that has earned San Marino well. One student, the future Presi- Speaking of cycling, Daniel should I care?” you ask? I’m the the highest Academic Performance dent, walked by our open door Monk continues to live in a fantasy CEO of WR. Hey, even a broken Index ranking of all unified school and recognized one of the editors world, chasing an imaginary pelo- clock is right twice a day. districts in the State of California and looked in, shouting a friendly ton from his perch on his station- Looking forward to hearing from for seven consecutive years. You greeting as he poked his head in ary bike. Team Monk keeps a ready you. I have two free tickets to the have been a trustee or overseer of the open doorway. The future Pres- supply of Cheez Doodles and Bud next Brooklyn Giants home game The American Ballet Theater, The ident, realizing there were others Light on the support vehicle (i.e., for each of the next six contributors. California Science Center Founda- in the office working, smiled and the couch). tion, The Center for the Study of the went on down the hallway and Our class had its usual fine show- Presidency and Congress, Pomona was gone. That’s it. End of story. ing among early admissions this Roy Pomerantz College, and The Huntington Mu- So what do we conclude? What year for the Class of 2015. Let’s 83 Babyking/Petking seum, Library and Gardens, as well does this one instance establish give credit to the fine DNA of the 182-20 Liberty Ave. as the Business School. In 2005, you about our President? Not much, mothers of the children of Hilary Jamaica, NY 11412 endowed the varsity head wrestling I’m afraid; perhaps that the future Hanchuk, James Kaufman, Jay Lee [email protected] coaching position at Columbia, President was friendly, gregarious (who is three for three now), Mi- now known as the Andrew F. Barth and involved during his college chael Strauss and Ronald Strobel. Andrew Barth ’85 Business was Head Coach of Wrestling. At the days. I suppose some things don’t Richard Ruzika, a Goldman presented a 2011 John Jay Award for time, you spoke about the impact change (though it doesn’t necessar- Sachs executive who runs the firm’s distinguished professional achieve- that wrestling had on your life: ily help dealing with Republicans special situations group, is retiring. ment on March 2 at the annual John ‘Wrestling taught me many valu- in Congress). Best wishes. I hope And with that, I am retiring, too, Jay Awards Dinner. The citation able lessons about life, lessons I use you are well.” from this lofty post. I’ll be passing presented to Andy, commemorating every day. Discipline, persistence The following are early admit the class quill back to Kevin Fay his achievements, stated, “In today’s and hard work really do make a legacies to the Class of 2015: Samuel ([email protected]) with the global economy, leading a multi- difference. Some of the best times Lutzker (Las Lomas H.S., Walnut sage words he neglected to say national company is one of the most in my life and some of my best Creek, Calif.), son of Stuart G. Lutz- to me when he passed it to me lo challenging and rewarding jobs. memories are due to wrestling and ker, and Samuel Stevens (Academy those many years ago: “No backs- Your tenure at the Capital Group being a part of this team. Columbia for the Advancement of Science and ies.” Companies has been impressive, was a wonderful experience, and I Technology, Haworth, N.J.), son of See you all in June. and your 25-year commitment to the received a great education.’ You are Peter Stevens. company has occurred during a pe- a thoughtful and caring husband On March 5, my wife and I hosted riod of significant expansion. In your to your wife, Avery, and a loving about 50 Columbia graduates and Andrew Weisman many roles at the Capital Group, you father to your children, Emily, students at our home prior to Colum-­ 82 710 Lawrence Ave. have overseen a global expansion Catherine, Andrew Jr. and Avery bia’s final home basketball game of Westfield, NJ 07090 while maintaining an active role in Vivian. In recognition of your work the season. It was great to see Dennis [email protected] the investment process. as a financier, Columbia College is Klainberg ’84, class correspondent, “You are a native New Yorker, proud to present you a 2011 John tireless supporter of Columbia Greetings gentlemen, I trust all is born in Queens, and you majored in Jay Award for distinguished profes- College, former marching band well with all of you. None of you economics at the College. You grad- sional achievement.” manager and inspirational friend slug-a-beds wrote this period. uated summa cum laude and Phi Andy has been a tremendous to Professor Selig. Kevin Chapman

may/june 2011 66 columbia college today class notes

showed me a stunning photo of tion accidents and defects, property This very special friend, and in- to join our 25th reunion dinner. his wife, Sharon ’83 Barnard, who damage, employment, business deed, amazing asset to the Colum- So, as far as I’m concerned, they’re competed in the last New York disputes, securities litigation, and bia community in those days, was, welcome to stay in touch in this City Marathon. Kevin beat my son, insurance agents and brokers errors and is, Beth Knobel ’84 Barnard. column. Let’s hear from Craig Sul- David, in chess. My wife praised and omissions.” Ethan Rouen ’04J, (She deserves boldface treatment, tan ’84E, ’90 Business and Carolyn Kevin for having the skills necessary ’11 Business, associate editor of CCT, but that honor is reserved for Col- Strauss-Meckler ’84E, all great class to beat a 6-year-old. David has been and his wife, Kim Martineau ’97J, lege and Engineering classmates.) leaders, and any of their classmates. invited to compete in the national also participated in the gathering. I Beth distinguished herself in Fire away! chess tournament in Texas, where made sure to invite Ethan, as I am many leadership roles, most prin- he will receive a ranking compet- always running late on my Class cipally with Spec, working under ing against adversaries closer to Notes submission (including this editor-in-chief Steve Waldman and Jon White his age. My daughter, Rebecca, has one). Marc Ripp ’80 and his wife, alongside co-news editor Richard 85 16 South Ct. become an accomplished hula hoop Dr. Shari Ripp, attended with their Pollack. Port Washington, NY 11050 artist and performed her repertoire daughters, Brandi ’12 and Elena “It was through Spec that I met a [email protected] of moves for the guests. Geoffrey ’14E. Brandi and Elena are active at few of my closest friends to this day, Mintz has started a hat company Columbia and represent the third including Jim Weinstein, whom I Well, it’s been a quiet month for and has made several trips to China generation of Ripps at the College. met when I interviewed him, and updates, so please refill the “update to work on his new line. He and his Mark Simon ’84 and his wife, Me- Richard Froehlich ’85. I now sit pipeline” for us. wife live in NYC. Many of you may lissa, brought their children, William, on the Spec Board of Trustees and The Glee Club is joining other remember Geoff’s father, Norman Oliver, Annabel and Colette. Mark recently found one of my favorite singing groups for another concert Mintz, a former e.v.p. of Columbia. is friendly with Andrew Barth, and photos in the office, a front-page during the upcoming Dean’s Day/ My wife’s Hunter H.S. classmate, Mark attended the John Jay Awards photo of Jim and the late, great Stu- Alumni Reunion Weekend (Thurs- Emily Glickman Meyerson ’90, and Dinner. Overall, it was an eclectic art Garcia, who were both College day, June 2–Sunday, June 5), so for her husband, Howard Meyerson gathering of CC graduates and stu- senators, posing a bit like superhe- any of you who are in or can get ’85, brought their daughters, Hallie dents spanning many decades. roes.” to the New York area, plan accord- and Julia. Steven Greenfield and Wishing you all much health, Now, as a journalist and profes- ingly. There is more info available his girlfriend, Melissa, were pres- prosperity and happiness as many sor, Beth graces us once more, as on the Glee Club’s Facebook page. ent. Steve has attended dozens of of us turn 50 this year. the author of Heat and Light: Advice I hope to be on campus for this CC basketball games this year and for the Next Generation of Journalists, and several other Dean’s Day/ helped organize the event with me. which she co-wrote with the one reunion activities; let me know if Ken Howitt ’76, a friend for more Dennis Klainberg and only Mike Wallace. you are coming so we can catch up than 30 years and a Nacom, drove 84 Berklay Cargo Worldwide “Mike and I worked together in person. from New Jersey to be with us. Ken JFK Intl. Airport twice when I was the Moscow Congratulations to two more of organized February’s WKCR alumni Box 300665 Bureau Chief for CBS News and our classmates who can add the dinner. Marcia Sells, associate v.p., Jamaica, NY 11430 he was still at 60 Minutes, when he “P” moniker to their Columbia planning and program development [email protected] came to Russia to interview Boris credentials: Stephen Carty and and initiatives at the School of the Yeltsin and then Vladimir Putin. Michael Romey. Welcome to the Arts, as well as associate dean of Welcome back, Tom Dyja! Mike always was incredibly nice Columbia Class of 2015, Monica community outreach, also joined Tom wrote, “Given all the cover- to me, and when I left CBS to teach Carty and Morgan Romey! We will us. Marcia is the faculty liaison for age of Charles Portis (True Grit), journalism at Fordham in 2007, he hopefully add to our total “P’15” the Senior Society of Nacoms. She you might want to check 1984 back accepted my invitation to speak to count (now up to three) when the was joined by several current senior issues of the alumni magazine, when students. Mike had such interest- final numbers come out. [Editor’s Nacoms, including Alex Katz ’11 GS, Matt Cooper did a short piece on ing things to say about journalism note: A list of alumni legacies for the Batab. Sam Rowan ’96 Barnard, a Portis promotion I’d had a hand that day that I told him that he the College and Engineering Class who helped organize the event, is in starting at the Madison Avenue should write a book about how of 2015 is scheduled for the Sep- the managing editor of Real Estate Bookshop. Portis had stalled a little to be a good reporter ... or that we tember/October issue.] As nearly Finance & Investment and also a Na- after The Dog of the South, and we like should write one together. And we 35,000 students applied for admis- com. Steve Holtje is publishing in to think all the attention gave him a did! We took all of our best advice, sion to the College or Engineering, Culture Clash a response to Anthony boost and got him back on the map. then added the best advice of a acceptance is a terrific accomplish- Tommasini’s top 10 list of classical “I’m working on a cultural his- lot of our friends (including AP ment. I have been interviewing composers. Steve is a former CC tory of postwar Chicago for Pen- baseball reporter Ron Blum ’83 and prospective students for more than marching band trombone player and guin Press, due this fall, covering Washington Post executive editor 10 years (a great way to give back lives with his wife in Manhattan. everyone from Mies van der Rohe, Marcus Brauchli ’83) and turned to the College that doesn’t cost a Three former CC marching band Mahalia Jackson, Hugh Hefner out an easy-to-read guidebook dime; studentaffairs.columbia.edu/ managers showed up: Dan Carlin- and the Second City to Ray Kroc, for young journalists. In writing admissions/alumni/volunteers.php) sky ’65, Frank Mirer ’66 and Peter Nelson Algren and Sun Ra. I’ve the book, I thought a lot about my and have never seen such a strong Janovsky ’68. Nick Paone is starting spent more time in Butler the last college years working on Spec and group of potential applicants. kept asking myself what I know In early February, I had the pleas- now after 20 years as a journalist Geoffrey Mintz ’83 started a hat company and has that I wished I’d known then. The book was published by Three Riv- What’s Your Story? made several trips to China to work on his new line. ers Press, part of Random House, Letting classmates know and I think it is a good read for any about what’s going on in aspiring journalist.” a band. His bio at White Fleischner year than I did all through my four On a personal note, I am most your life is easier than ever. & Fino states: “Mr. Paone joined years in college.” happy to see Beth and her son now Send in your Class Notes! White Fleischner & Fino in 2003 and And a great four years they were, and then at the local JCC where Online by clicking is a trial attorney with over 20 years chronicled by such current day we are all members; her son and “Contact Us” at of experience. Mr. Paone focuses on multimedia experts as WKCR’s Jon mine have even attended the same college.columbia.edu/cct. the preparation and trial or arbitra- Abbot and Spec leaders Cooper camp. Small world indeed! tion of significant cases in New York, and Steven Waldman (and even I can see the letters now: What’s E-mail to the address at New Jersey and Pennsylvania. These a friend or two from across the next, ’84 Engineering alums? Well, the top of your column. cases run the gamut from medical street), which leads me to make the why not? While, like Barnard, they Mail to the address at the and dental malpractice to profes- provocative move of introducing do have their own magazine, they top of your column. sional liability, insurance coverage, to our all-male (entering) class the also lived, took courses and dined general liability, products, construc- progress of a Barnard alum! with us, and they were welcome

may/june 2011 67 class notes columbia college today

His daughter Jessica will enter the Alzheimer’s, but who is able, when College this fall after graduating the occasion demands, to revive his from Horace Mann School. old skills and save their skins. John Featherman is running on In addition, Spyglass Entertain- the Republican side in the Phila- ment is developing a feature film delphia mayoral election this fall. version of Once a Spy. He will face incumbent Michael My dear friend and Hunter Nutter. John, a Philadelphia real College H.S. classmate Dr. Juanita estate agent, faces an uphill battle Punwaney has started to see derma- in a city where most voters are tology patients at Manhattan’s Phy- Democrats. sician Group. She said the group is a wonderful multispecialty provider with three locations in Manhattan. Sarah A. Kass Juanita will be available to see der- 87 PO Box 300808 matology patients at the Upper East Brooklyn, NY 11230 Side, Midtown and Flatiron offices, [email protected] and the group accepts most major A group of alumni stopped to have their photo taken outside Tom’s insurance plans. Diner during their annual Super Bowl celebration in New York City. With more public tributes to Greg Please do not forget to join our The party included (left to right) Mark Lewis ’86, Ted Munter ’87, Brian Giraldo hitting the stages and the Class of ’87 Facebook group and Driscoll ’86, Jeff Monroe ’86E, Jack Catapano, Claude Catapano ’86, airwaves, we will hold off on our connect with Columbia on LinkedIn! Lane Vanderslice ’86 and Dave Katz ’86E. promised cumulative tribute for The time you put in now in setting PHOTO: Char Smullyan one more issue in order to make it up your accounts may pay you back more comprehensive. Thanks for huge dividends later in the amount your understanding. of networking you can do both with ure of attending the Columbia- The schedule offers a great mix of In the meantime, we have great other classmates and with connect- Princeton basketball game. Although cultural happenings throughout news on the admissions front: three ing with current students to give not our finest hour on the court (we New York City as well as class- — count ’em — three of our class- them a few minutes of your guid- lost by 30 points and were not in the specific events where we will have a mates have children who have been ance that could help them immense- game after 10 minutes), my youngest ly. And that is more than worth the son, who would be CC ’20, and I got few minutes of set-up time. great seats and were named “Fam- John Featherman ’86 is running for Philadelphia ily of the Game.” We also bumped into CCT class correspondent Roy mayor this fall on the Republican ticket. Eric Fusfield Pomerantz ’83, who was there with 88 1945 South George two of his children. When I moved Mason Dr. into John Jay 30 years ago this fall, chance to renew old friendships. accepted early decision to the Class Arlington, VA 22204 Roy was the first person who greet- Thursday night, there will be a of 2015. Our heartiest congratula- [email protected] ed me (with his energetic juggling chance to take in a show in Manhat- tions go out to Cynthia Campo, act). The enthusiasm and good spirit tan. Friday offers mini-Core courses daughter of Dr. Diane Hilal-Cam- Congratulations to the Class of that he had way back then remains and a class dinner. Saturday is po and Richard P. Campo ’84; Justin 1988’s newest legacy parent, Mark to this day. Dean’s Day, with great lectures, Goluboff, son of Nicole Goluboff; Timoney. The Timoney family will including a talk by Dean Michele and Brian McGrattan, son of Laura be represented on Morningside Moody-Adams, followed in the eve- Ting and Kevin McGrattan ’87E. Heights this fall by Mark’s son, REUNION JUNE 2–JUNE 5 ning by the all-class Wine Tasting, Welcome to Columbia! John Timoney-Gomez, a Bronxville Alumni Office Contacts our class dinner and cocktails, and I received an e-mail from Eric (N.Y.) H.S. senior who earned early Alumni Affairs Jennifer Freely then sweets, champagne and danc- Rogers, who has written a new admission to Engineering’s Class [email protected] ing on Low Plaza at the Starlight novel, Bangkok Vanishing, which he of 2015. 212-851-7438 Reception. In between, there will be describes as “a gritty crime thriller Another proud parent, Graham Development Grace Lee ’02 plenty of other happenings to keep about a good family man who goes Dodds, writes from Canada with [email protected] us entertained. Don’t miss it. to Thailand and makes terrible perhaps the best argument ever 212-851-7492 It’s not too late to register: alumni. decisions and is required to battle offered for moving north of the Everett Weinberger college.columbia.edu/reunion. And his way back to redemption with border: “For the past six years, I’ve 50 W. 70th St., Apt. 3B new this year is the ability for us his family.” been a political science professor at 86 New York, NY 10023 to register on a smartphone. The Eric also wrote, “I miss Columbia, Concordia University in the great [email protected] Alumni Office has launched the living so far from New York in Cali- city of Montreal, trying to explain free Alumni Reunion Weekend app, fornia. I live with my dream girl and the strange politics of the United This is the last column before our which features a full and detailed have two spectacular kids. Ethan States to puzzled Canadians. Five 25th reunion, Thursday, June 2–Sun- listing of events, an up-to-date list (10) is a stunning soccer player, and months ago my wife, Amy Kimball, day, June 5. If you haven’t been very of registered classmates, answers to Lindsay (8) is a guitar-playing coun- and I had our second child, Julia. active with Columbia since gradu- reunion FAQs and several ways to try singer. I am blessed.” I’m presently taking advantage of ation, that’s OK. It’s not too late! stay connected to Columbia: Twitter In other book news, Keith Quebec’s generous social welfare Come back to the beautiful, vastly (twitter.com/Columbia_CCAA) Thomson’s Twice a Spy: A Novel, state by being on a year of paid pa- improved Columbia campus in early and the app’s news module, which hit the shelves in early March. A rental leave as a stay-at-home dad, June, the best time of year. Remem- includes CCT (college.columbia.edu/ sequel to his Once a Spy: A Novel, but I plan to return to academic ber when we had to reluctantly leave cct) and Columbia news (news. the book finds his lead character, work in the fall.” campus after finals each spring just columbia.edu/). Charlie Clark, having left his life as It was great hearing from my when the weather was starting to be IPhone, iPod Touch and iPad an inveterate gambler far behind former Carman Hall suitemate amazing? Well, this is your chance to users can search Apple’s App Store as he and girlfriend Alice go on the Jonathan Etra ’91L. Jonathan, a return without final exams pressure for “Columbia Reunion” to find our lam in Switzerland from Alice’s lifelong New Yorker, moved with and enjoy great food and drinks and class app. BlackBerry, Droid and employer, NSA, and a special CIA his wife, Kate Myers, to her native the company of old and new friends. other smartphone users can access black ops unit known as Cavalry. Miami in 2003, where they have You also can benchmark yourself the app from mobile browsers by The real star of the group is Char- been raising “two fantastic girls,” vis-a-vis your classmates in terms of visiting http://reunion.college. lie’s father, Drummond Clark, Lilly (6) and Annabelle (1). Once body shape, hairline and material columbia.edu/1986mobile. who after a career as a CIA agent a federal prosecutor in New York, success. Congratulations to Dennis Chi. is sinking into the throes of early Jonathan now is a partner at the

may/june 2011 68 columbia college today class notes

Florida law firm of Broad and Cas- hard in San Francisco. Moody-Adams, followed in the reconnected with some local CU sel, where he specializes in complex Since I last caught up with Tom evening by the all-Class Wine grads, including Britta Gooding, litigation and white collar criminal Leder, he and his wife, Mary Ellen, Tasting, a formal class dinner and Dan Loflin ’89, Jeremy Hough ’93 defense. “I have become a happily and daughter Julia (2) have wel- then sweets, champagne, music and David Schach ’99E. Find us on transplanted Floridian, although I comed another little one, Meg (1). and dancing on Low Plaza at the Facebook at Fogline Vineyards or will always miss New York,” Jona- The Leders live in northern West- Starlight Reception. Don’t miss it! at foglinevineyards.com. than writes. Does that mean he still chester. Tom writes, “I work for It’s not too late to register. Go “Sara is practicing veterinary pulls for his beloved Mets, Giants MassMutual, out of its White Plains to reunion.college.columbia.edu, medicine as a boarded small ani- and Knicks? “Absolutely!” office, and with work and father- or, new this year, register on your mal internal medicine specialist at Please keep your updates com- hood, I have never been busier ... smartphone. The Alumni Office has a practice in Rohnert Park. During ing! Feel free to send me an e-mail or happier.” launched the free Alumni Reunion the brief breaks in her schedule, or friend me on Facebook. Just as I was about to submit this Weekend app, which features a full she squeezes in a ride on her horse, post, I literally ran into Eli Neus- and detailed listing of events, an up- focusing on dressage. Her horse ner outside our local bagel shop. to-date list of registered classmates, was the runner-up champion two Emily Miles Terry It was one of those days when I answers to reunion FAQs and of the last three years in his class 89 45 Clarence St. hoped to not see anyone I knew, several ways to stay connected to for the state of California.” Brookline, MA 02446 for my 4-year-old had insisted on Columbia: Twitter (twitter.com/Co- Elisabeth Porter won’t be joining [email protected] wearing pajama bottoms (dinosaur pajama bottoms!) to school, and I heard from Jill Pollack Lewis, it was a typical Monday for us, Married couple Brent Bessire ’91 and Sara Schachter who traveled throughout the tail meaning we were looking a bit end of 2010 and the beginning of tousled. Eli didn’t seem to notice ’91 live in Sonoma County and recently launched this year to Canada to shoot a pilot — his kids and wife, Poly, are well. the wine label Fogline Vineyards. for an HGTV talk show that she It’s always great to see someone will host. Traveling back and forth from the good ol’ Columbia days! between her new home in Con- lumbia_CCAA) and the app’s news us at reunion, but she did send this: necticut and Canada for the show module, which includes CCT (col- “I am a senior program attorney has been grueling, but Jill’s hus- Rachel Cowan Jacobs lege.columbia.edu/cct) and Colum- for the Guardian ad Litem Program band, Jeff, is holding down the fort 90 313 Lexington Dr. bia news (news.columbia.edu). in Broward County, Fla. The pro- with their young son, Sam, while Silver Spring, MD 20901 IPhone, iPod Touch and iPad gram helps abused and neglected Jill shoots the show. Since the show [email protected] users can search Apple’s App Store children by advocating in their best will air in Canada, I’m hoping to see for “Columbia Reunion” to find our interest. It is hard seeing what these Jill strut her stuff via the Internet. Yes, Facebook, Jeff Sepulveda class app. BlackBerry, Droid and children go through every day, but I caught up with John MacPhee tracked me down. He teaches other smartphone users can access it is great to know that there are so and Donna MacPhee in Park City, American history, à la James Shen- the app from mobile browsers by many dedicated people trying to Utah, in January while in town for ton ’49, ’54 GSAS (if you weren’t visiting http://reunion.college. help them. I can only do my best the Sundance Festival and the super a history major, you might not get columbia.edu/1991mobile. and hope that is good enough.” party Columbia throws for students the reference), at the American There also is a “Columbia Col- Melanie Jacobs and her hus- and alumni. John recently retired School of Tampico, Mexico. I hope lege Class of 1991” Facebook group band, Shane Broyles, welcomed a from his position as president of the rest of you are doing well and if you want to reconnect and get son, Jacob Evan Broyles. Melanie Strativa Pharmaceuticals and is might find 30 seconds in your more information. and Shane are delighted and ex- working on a master’s at the Mail- lives to send me an update. (Fifty- Football fever swept through hausted first-time parents! man School of Public Health. He nine words. So sad!) Dallas in January as Super Bowl Wayne Jebian is an associate also has become involved in the XLV came to town. My husband professor of English at Lincoln New York chapter of Bottom Line, and I attended our first Super Bowl College of New England. He lives REUNION JUNE 2–JUNE 5 a nonprofit that my husband, Dave with Annie Giarratano and her in Connecticut with his wife and Alumni Office Contacts Terry ’90, chairs in Boston. Bottom husband, Chris Della Pietra ’89, two children. Wayne’s most recent Alumni Affairs Taruna Sadhoo Line helps first-generation youths who have been to a number of Su- work is a contribution to the collec- [email protected] get in to and graduate from college. per Bowls. It was great to catch up tion Looking for Lost: Critical Essays 212-851-7849 John now is Bottom Line’s chair- with the Della Pietras and spend on the Enigmatic Series. Development Eleanor L. Coufos ’03 man in New York. the weekend with them! And, in the “not the regular [email protected] The 2011 Sundance Film Festival Stephen Jansen is part of our 9-to-5 job” category, Sam Helfrich 212-851-7483 screened 24 films that collectively Reunion Committee, doing what sent in this update: “In 2000, I re- featured contributions from 38 Margie Kim he can from across the ocean. It ceived my M.F.A. in theater from alumni, students and faculty who 91 c/o CCT will be a year of change for him, the School of the Arts. Since then, represent Columbia and School of Columbia Alumni Center as his wife, Jennifer Bender, gave I’ve been directing theater and the Arts. Carol Becker, dean, School 622 W. 113th St., MC 4530 birth to their first child, Sabrina Ga- opera (mostly opera) around the of the Arts, and Donna, v.p., alumni New York, NY 10025 briella Bender-Jansen, in Decem- country. Highlights include my relations, and president, Columbia margiekimkim@ ber. Stephen made me laugh when production of Philip Glass’ Orphée Alumni Association, hosted the hotmail.com he wrote, “First-time parenthood at Glimmerglass Opera, which sixth annual CAA at Sundance on the north side of 40 will be an continues to be produced at opera complimentary reception in Park Our 20th reunion is around the adjustment, to put it mildly.” companies around the country. I City. Dave and I attended the party corner! Please make plans to join Brent Bessire sent in this up- also directed Amistad for Spoleto that honors the work of Columbi- the festivities from Thursday, June date: “Sara (Schachter) and I live Festival in Charleston, S.C., and ans featured at the festival. There, in 2–Sunday, June 5. There will be a in Sonoma County with our boys Aida at Opera Omaha as its 50th addition to the many filmmakers, great mix of cultural happenings (6, 4 and 2) and two dogs, three anniversary production. I have had we visited with Ann-Marie Wright throughout New York City and cats, three goats, two llamas, 10 longstanding associations with and her husband, Fred Lampropou- class-specific events where we chickens, one horse and one rabbit! Opera Boston, Boston Baroque, los, who, with their children, reside will have a chance to renew old We recently launched our wine Glimmerglass Opera, Spoleto and in Salt Lake City. friendships. Thursday night, there label, Fogline Vineyards, which is Pittsburgh Opera, among others. In I also heard from Dan Loflin, will be a chance to take in a show producing about 300 cases a year 2006, my production of Handel’s whom we just missed connecting in Manhattan. Friday offers mini- of Pinot Noir and Zinfandel. Our Agrippina with Boston Baroque with in Utah, but who has been Core courses and campus tours, vineyard is located at about 850 was named ‘best production of the spending a fair amount of time plus a class reception. Saturday is feet above sea level on the ridge year’ in The Boston Globe. Upcom- there pursuing his new passion, Dean’s Day, with great lectures, of Sonoma Mountain. We have ing projects include a fully staged fly fishing, when he isn’t working including a talk by Dean Michele been fortunate as a result to have production of Handel’s Messiah

may/june 2011 69 class notes columbia college today with the Pittsburgh Symphony and scheduled to speak at the Compli- Lee, Matt Eddy ’95, Alan Freeman, agreement at client facilities across an Off-Broadway production of ance Week Conference in Washing- Eric Zuckerman ’94, Karen Sendler the United States. At Soltage, Kwon Tape, a play by Stephen Belber. I’ve ton, D.C., at the end of May, and I ’94, Marci Levy ’93 Barnard, Matt was involved in the financing of also begun teaching, most recently get especially psyched about flying Streem, Joan Campion ’92, Jen one of the first merchant power completing my second year as a into Dulles. Usually I have time Beubis ’91 and plenty of others. plants in the U.S., Sithe Boston visiting professor at the Yale School to stop by Five Guys for the best Addison, meanwhile, turned 40 Generating (1,500 MW), located of Drama, as well as guest residen- cheeseburger in any airport in North almost a month later, and the two in Boston. Before joining Soltage, cies at Manhattan School of Music America, with two shots at it during of us have attended each other’s Kwon worked at Alinda Capital and Mannes College of Music. I’m layovers: Terminals A and B.” shindigs for years. While his was a Partners for three years, where he working on a world premier of a I heard from Kirsten Danis, my more intimate affair (what with Ad- was responsible for the origination new opera, The Secret Agent, based former Spectator editor-in-chief, who dison being a tad less ... well, let’s of investments in energy and in- on the Conrad story. After premier- has taken a new position as deputy say ‘flamboyant’ than me), it was frastructure projects in excess of $2 ing here in New York, it will travel editor of the Greater New York Sec- still delightful. He had a group of billion. He has been with Dresdner to the Armel Opera Festival in tion of The Wall Street Journal. friends gather at the Russian Vodka Kleinwort Wasserstein and WestLB Hungary. Much of my work can be Finally, a little bit of personal Room on West 52nd Street, where AG, where he completed various viewed at samhelfrich.com.” news: I was deeply honored to be we sampled flavored vodkas (and energy project financings in excess Looking forward to seeing every- asked to serve as the “Honorary argued to some extent about which of $1 billion. Kwon lives in Jersey one in June! For those of you who Coach of the Game” on senior night flavor was which) and chatted in an City, N.J. can’t make it, I’ll do my best to recap for the men’s basketball team. I amiable and low-key way.” As I finish writing this column, it for you. Until next time … cheers! it is a Sunday evening, and I am watching TV. It’s time for my fa- Kirsten Danis ’92, former Spectator editor-in-chief, vorite Sunday night show, ABC’s Jeremy Feinberg Brothers & Sisters, and there is Cara 92 315 E. 65th St. #3F is deputy editor of the Greater New York section Buono appearing as Rose, Tommy New York, NY 10021 of The Wall Street Journal. Walker’s girlfriend. A little Internet jeremy.feinberg@ digging, and I was reminded that verizon.net Cara appeared in Mad Men this sat on the bench not only next to I also heard from Matt Streem, past fall and also appeared in one News, anyone? the current team and coaches (and who lives “in Solon, Ohio (east- of my favorites, The Sopranos. I thought so. It’s nice to be able tried to stay out of the way) but also ern Cleveland suburbs), with my to give you what you want. next to Jerry Sherwin ’55, who has wife, Shereen, son, Ryan (6) and Let me kick things off with news long served as an ambassador for daughter, Sari (3). Enjoying the Leyla Kokmen from Karla Sanchez. Until recently, the team, as well as the University lowstress levels of the suburbs 94 440 Thomas Ave. S. Karla was a partner at the presti- as a whole. I am pleased to report and just spending time with fam- Minneapolis, MN 55405 gious Patterson Belknap Webb & that Columbia trounced Brown that ily and trying to keep in shape! I [email protected] Tyler law firm. But she left to enter night, sending off the seniors with a own a distribution company, Trend government service, accepting a win and finishing the season with a Evolution, where we sell Burt’s Well, after my sad, newsless col- position with newly elected Attor- 15–13 record in coach Kyle Smith’s Bees, Blistex, Carmex, ChapStick, umn in the last issue, I am pleased ney General Eric Schneiderman’s first year. (I’ll happily end my Dial and other impulse products to share an abundance of updates office. She is the executive deputy “coaching” career with a 1–0.) to specialty retailers in the United this time around. attorney general for economic On that cheery note, I think States. We also recently developed Suzy Shuster Eisen and her hus- justice, responsible for the Investor there’s only one way to end this and launched an organizational band, Rich, welcomed their second Protection, Consumer Protection column: Roar, Lions, Roar! Till next line of office products called Con- son, Cooper, in February; he joins and Fraud, Antitrust, Real Estate time. tact Keeper (contactkeeper.com) brother Xander. Megan McGowan Finance, and Internet bureaus. that is now available in 1,100 Of- Epstein was there to help celebrate Karla is looking forward to her fice Depot stores and will be in his arrival. Suzy is taking some time time in the AG’s office and doing Betsy Gomperz 900 FedEx Office stores in March. off from sports broadcasting but is great things to protect the citizens 93 41 Day St. The products solve a common working with Ron Shelton (who of New York State. Newton, MA 02466 problem of keeping business cards directed Bull Durham and Tin Cup) Karla is not the only one of our Betsy.Gomperz@ and notes together, and are great on a pilot he wrote based on her classmates doing great things in gmail.com for meetings, trade shows, job career as a sideline reporter on ABC. government service. I ran into Ben interviews and any business card Suzy is producing the pilot, which Lawsky at a recent Columbia men’s Ask and ye shall receive. In a recent exchange situation. My brother has been optioned by NBC. basketball game. He is the chief of column, not only did I ask for those Jason Streem ’00 is finishing a resi- David Eisenbach has been staff to Governor Andrew Cuomo of you celebrating birthdays to dency in periodontics at Virginia teaching history, CC and Lit Hum (D-N.Y.). Similarly, Peter Hatch is write in, but I also asked for details Commonwealth University and is at Columbia. In April, Palgrave the state director for Senator Kirsten about Neil Turitz’s 40th birthday planning to start a private practice Macmillan is releasing his third Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). I saw Peter and celebration, and Neil delivered. when he moves with his family to book, One Nation Under Sex: How his wife, Hilary Rubenstein Hatch, According to Neil, “My birthday Cleveland in August. He and his the Private Lives of Presidents, First at the annual Dean’s Scholarship party was pretty fantastic. Tons of wife, Mindy, welcomed a son, Sam, Ladies and their Lovers Changed the Reception in February. people, a great time. I wore a tux in October. I was hoping to see Course of American History. David I had lunch with Jake Novak ’92 (as you recall, the invite was ‘black Chad Moore in California at the co-authored the book with Hustler GS, who graciously hosted me at tie optional’), and looked pretty Natural Products Expo in Anaheim publisher and free speech advocate the offices of News Corp. in Man- spectacular. Friends and family in March. I keep in touch with Joel Larry Flynt. hattan. Jake is the senior producer joined me, there was much alcohol Cramer, Kevin Connolly and Neil David Dooling lives in Falls of Varney & Co. on Fox Business consumed, as well as a fair share of Turitz. Otherwise, I’m looking Church, Va., with his wife, Amy Network. He also runs a thorough pigs in blankets and jalapeño pop- forward to a weekend of fun and Lopez Dooling, and daughter Sofia blog on all things Columbia foot- pers, of course. I know for a fact that celebration in NYC for my 40th. Elena (2). David went to grad school ball at roarlions.blogspot.com. Joe Saba and his wife, Jen, Stephen I will definitely check out the old for physics then went on to Montreal Q VanBenschoten e-mailed to Morfesis, Kevin Connolly, Axuve stomping grounds!” for a post-doc. He spent five years in pass along some good news: She’s Espinosa ’93E and Addison Golla- Kwon-Kyun Chung recently New Mexico before starting work in been promoted to regional compli- day were in attendance, but I had to was named v.p. of finance at Solt- McLean, Va., in 2007. ance officer of Americas for Intertek, settle for good wishes from friends age, a renewable energy provider Last October, Tony Ambroza a FTSE 100 company. As Q describes who were not able to make it, like that develops, finances, builds, moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., and it, “I still spend too much time in you, Steve Conway, Robyn Tuerk owns and operates solar energy joined Carhartt, a 121-year-old airports. But I love my new job. I am (who was on her honeymoon), Patti systems under a power purchase apparel brand, as v.p. of marketing.

may/june 2011 70 columbia college today class notes

Arnold Kim ’96 Diagnoses Apple on MacRumors.com

B y La u r a Bu t c h y ’04 Ar t s

r. Arnold Kim ’96 had Kim followed his sister Nam two passions from a ’93 to Columbia. He was pre- Dyoung age: medicine and med with a concentration in computers. These interests grew computer science, foreshadow- into dual careers for Kim as a ing his career interests. It was physician and founder of Mac only a matter of time, however, Rumors.com. In 2008, however, before two such time-consum- with MacRumors attracting ing occupations led to a choice. more than 4 million readers a “In 2007, my wife and I had our month, he made the decision first child, and that ultimately to stop diagnosing kidney prob- spurred the decision to quit lems and instead analyze Apple medicine,” Kim says. “My avail- news and rumors full-time. able free time shrank, and what Since Kim left his medical I actually wanted to do with that practice to focus on MacRumors, free time also shifted. Spending the website has continued to time with our newborn and my grow. “Surprisingly enough, the wife took priority.” recession hasn’t tangibly affec- It is difficult to quantify Kim’s ted us,” Kim says. “Between working hours. During key times MacRumors and my other web when there are a lot of news projects, we hired four full-time and rumors, he may spend all employees in 2009.” The ad- Dr. Arnold Kim ’96 works on MacRumors.com in his home office. day working, but hiring other ditional staff has increased the writers has helped. As blogging site’s ability to cover Apple news just the time I put into it.” That ision took a long time,” Kim has grown in popularity over the and rumors, attracting an active time had to be well-managed, says. “I was able to effectively years, the news cycle has accel- community of enthusiasts to its as Kim earned an M.D. at the juggle my job and MacRumors erated, forcing MacRumors to news, buyer’s guide, discussion Medical College of Virginia, for years, but MacRumors was expand coverage. forums and a separate section completed an internal medicine what I enjoyed working on in my “The site has grown consider- focused on the iPhone. Advertis- residency at UNC Chapel Hill free time.” ably through the years, but the ing revenue rose in 2009 and and specialized in a nephrology Kim began spending his free basic format hasn’t changed,” 2010, and according to Quant- fellowship back at MCV. time on computers while grow- Kim says. “The news and rumor cast, MacRumors’ number of MacRumors was started in ing up in Newport News, Va., focus has remained generally monthly visitors is now more Kim’s last year of medical school. when his family got a Commo- consistent. In fact, I’ve always than 8 million. Already interested in Apple, Kim dore Vic 20, followed by an prided myself on the selectivity When it launched in February began tracking news and rumors Apple //c. “For whatever rea- of the news we choose to report 2000, MacRumors was a solo on his blog. After his medical sons, I was drawn to it,” he says. on and how seriously we take enterprise for Kim. “It’s hard to fellowship, he joined a private “I actually got a modem early. our reporting.” even say it was an ‘enterprise’ nephrology practice in Rich- At the time, the Internet didn’t as much as it was a hobby,” he mond, Va., for two years before really exist as it does today, so Laura Butchy ’04 Arts is a explains. “It really required little leaving to devote himself to dialing up local bulletin board teacher, writer and dramaturg financing. Beyond that it was MacRumors full time. “The dec- systems was the extent of it.” in New York City.

Son Jackson started kindergarten fellowship at the Hospital for Spe- Tanzania,” Deborah writes. “I Michael Cervieri is a co-found- and daughter Siena is in preschool. cial Surgery in New York City. Dee recently returned from Jamaica, er of the media production and “The kids are keeping us busy with Dee lives in Oradell, N.J., and is in MIA’s 20th medical mission! I left strategy firm ScribeLabs, where plenty of activities, and my wife, touch with Hetty Chung, who lives for Tanzania in April.” When she he’s working on a documentary Cheryl, is training for a half-mara- in Manhasset and is an ob/gyn at is not traveling, Deborah lives and about the future of American news thon,” Tony writes. North Shore University Hospital. works in Oakland, Calif. media called The Future Journalism After more than 20 years in New Project. Columbia has tethered him York City, Rachel Phillips Flamm during the past few years. Michael is moving with her husband and Rachel Phillips Flamm ’94 is moving to Washington, taught at the Journalism School two small children to Washington, from 2006–09 and since then has D.C., to join PricewaterhouseCoo- D.C., to join PricewaterhouseCoopers’ national taught a course on media and tech- pers’ national office in its inter- office in its international tax group. nology at SIPA. He lives in Queens national tax group. Rachel would with dreams of eventually moving love to reconnect with classmates to warmer, more tropical climates. who are in D.C.; she can be reached Deborah Chong sent her first Another first report came from Alan Berks took the job of direc- at [email protected]. Class Notes update. About five Kristine Campagna, who lives in tor of communications for Pillsbury Dee Dee Wu is married to Brian years ago, she started a nonprofit, the Albany area and practices fam- House and Pillsbury House Theatre, Golden and is the mother of two Medicine in Action, which is dedi- ily medicine and sports medicine. a professional theatre and neighbor- boys, Jake and Justin. She has been cated to delivering healthcare to She is married to Bryan Sixberry, hood center in Minneapolis. “It’s practicing rheumatology in Fair people in the developing world. and they have two boys, Sean (2) a professional theater that actually Lawn, N.J., since she finished her “We work in Jamaica, Haiti and and Ryan (1). runs a neighborhood center,” he

may/june 2011 71 class notes columbia college today writes, “so everything we do now or, new this year, register on your has a brother. About a month after so drop us a line if you’re interested in the social service area is also smartphone. The Alumni Office has the birth of our son, my wife and I in joining us for some tailgating. ‘arts-integrated.’ It’s fun.” Alan also launched the free Alumni Reunion celebrated (or rather, had; couldn’t I recently met with Martin Mraz, reports that the Minnesota Jewish Weekend app, which features a full do too much celebrating with a new- who lives in domestic partnership Theatre produced the area premiere and detailed listing of events, an up- born) our 10-year anniversary.” with Jenna Johnson right off Smith of his play, Goats, in March. to-date list of registered classmates, Michael enjoys his job doing real Street in downtown Brooklyn. He And finally, Alicia Guevara has answers to reunion FAQs and estate acquisitions and asset man- works in finance during the week been named executive director for several ways to stay connected to agement. He specializes in multi- but spends most of his time build- New York at Peace First. Formerly Columbia: Twitter (twitter.com/Co- family real estate investments and ing a remote cabin somewhere known as Peace Games, Peace First lumbia_CCAA) and the app’s news management in the Connecticut upstate. He’s convinced the Dark is a national nonprofit that works module, which includes CCT (col- market and has had an active few Ages are soon upon us. Susan with schools in Boston, Los An- lege.columbia.edu/cct) and Colum- months, closing on three deals and Kassin, who obtained her Ph.D. in geles and New York to empower bia news (news.columbia.edu). getting ready to close on a fourth. astrophysics at 26, recently taught children, as young as 4, with the IPhone, iPod Touch and iPad “Anybody having any opportuni- and did research into black holes at skills to become peacemakers in users can search Apple’s App Store ties or wanting to reconnect is wel- Oxford. She moved to Washington, their schools and communities. Al- for “Columbia Reunion” to find our come to contact me at mwachsman@ D.C., in January to continue her ice will be responsible for building, class app. BlackBerry, Droid and paredim.com,” he says. research for NASA. growing and sustaining New York other smartphone users can access These are all the updates I have, operations, including securing lo- the app from mobile browsers by so please reach out to me over the cal fundraising, maintaining strong visiting http://reunion.college.col Sandie Angulo Chen next few weeks so we can share school partnerships and ensuring umbia.edu/1996mobile. 10209 Day Ave. some exciting news with our class. excellent program delivery across OK, you’ve heard my piece. On 98 Silver Spring, MD 20910 I have no problem if you want to the New York City partner schools. to the bit of news I do have for you. [email protected] embellish your achievements. Many thanks to everyone who Charles Rhyee has been named wrote! Until next time. managing director and senior For only the second time in nearly research analyst at Cowen Group, a 15 years, I haven’t received any up- Prisca Bae New York-based financial services dates. I know somewhere, some- 00 344 W. 17th St., Apt. 3B Janet Lorin firm. Charles will cover health care one in our class is moving, getting New York, NY 10011 95 127 W. 96th St., #2GH information technology and distri- married, transitioning jobs, having [email protected] New York, NY 10025 bution in the health care sector of a baby, something! So I’m hoping [email protected] Cowen’s research group. Charles some of you meet up at Class Day Nugi Jakobishvili and his wife, recently was a senior research on Tuesday, May 17, and will let Isabelle Levy ’05, welcomed Flora I can now complete the update analyst for health care distribu- me know, so I can have something Sophia Jakobishvili in December. started in the last issue about Marie- tion and information technology to write about in a future issue. She loves strolling through River- Carmelle Elie. She and her husband at Oppenheimer. Prior to this, he side Park and on College Walk and are now parents of three boys. Twins was an equity research associate at meeting Columbia friends. She is Noah and Nicholas were born Feb- Credit Suisse. Charles also has held Laurent Vasilescu an excellent companion as Isabelle ruary 18 at the impressive weights positions at Jefferies & Co., Schwab 99 127 W. 81st St., Apt. 4B works on dissertation chapter No. 2. of 7 lbs., 10 oz., and 7 lbs., 4 oz. They Soundview Capital Markets and New York, NY 10024 Please send me news! Your join brother Nathan (3). Smith Barney. laurent.vasilescu@ classmates want to hear about you. Anyone in Miami, please volun- A hearty congratulations to Ger- gmail.com teer to give them an hour so they emy Kawaller, who married Ed- REUNION JUNE 2–JUNE 5 can have a break! ward Toll Ackerman in January in A big thank you to Lauren Becker Alumni Office Contacts Please keep the updates coming. Greenwich, Conn. Geremy works for maintaining our Class Notes Alumni Affairs Mia Gonsalves Wright for VelocityShares, a financial ser- for the last year. I was handed the [email protected] vices company in New Canaan, baton a few months ago, and I hope REUNION JUNE 2–JUNE 5 212-851-7977 Conn. He sells unsecured debt se- to report on the usual suspects as Alumni Office Contacts Development Donna D. Desilus ’09 curities and other financial products well as some new ones. If you don’t Alumni Affairs Taruna Sadhoo [email protected] to hedge funds and other financial remember me by name, I was the [email protected] 212-851-7941 institutions. Geremy earned an guy who wore a red ski jacket all 212-851-7849 M.B.A. from NYU. four years of college. Remember Jonathan Gordin Development Eleanor L. Coufos ’03 And that, my friends, alas, is all. how North Face jackets were all the 3030 N. Beachwood Dr. [email protected] 01 What to leave you with this time: rage back then? The last time I sub- Los Angeles, CA 90068 212-851-7483 “A perfection of means, and mitted something to Class Notes, [email protected] Ana S. Salper confusion of aims, seems to be our Brad Neuberg and I had the bright 96 24 Monroe Pl., Apt. MA main problem.” idea to tell everyone we joined the Hi everyone. I hope your spring is Brooklyn, NY 11201 —Albert Einstein French Foreign Legion to fight com- off to a great start! Hard to believe [email protected] munist insurgents in Sierra Leone. our 10-year reunion is around the Since then, I graduated from the corner — in fact, only a month Greetings, classmates. Unfortu- Sarah Katz Business School, work in finance away, Thursday, June 2–Sunday, nately, I have another paltry column 97 1935 Parrish St. and plan to get married this sum- June 5. Come back to campus for for you this time. Where are you? Philadelphia, PA 19130 mer in Brussels, Belgium, to Sophie Mini-Core courses, cocktail hours, We need to hear from you, so send [email protected] Anderson. Brad has since been hon- dinners, the all-class Wine Tasting, in notes, otherwise you will have orably discharged from the French dancing and sweets on Low Plaza me hounding you for information Jesse Levitt opened a second bar Foreign Legion and worked at and Dean’s Day speakers, includ- in person at our 15th reunion (see in Brooklyn, The Minor Arcana, Google for a number of years. After ing Dean Michele Moody-Adams. how I slipped that in there?) from in Prospect Heights. It is inspired recently watching The Social Net- It’s not too late to register! Go Thursday, June 2–Sunday, June 5. by tarot cards, carnival sideshows work, he was inspired to quit Google to reunion.college.columbia.edu, It will be a blast, with Mini-Core and liquor. He invites everyone to and focus on a start-up in Silicon or, new this year, register on your courses, cocktail hours, dinners, the stop by! Valley. During last October’s Home- smartphone. The Alumni Office has all-class Wine Tasting, dancing and Michael Wachsman happily an- coming, Sameer Shamsi, Stacy launched the free Alumni Reunion sweets on Low Plaza and Dean’s nounces the birth of his son, Amitai Rotner, Dominique Sasson, Scott Weekend app, which features a full Day speakers, including Dean Mi- Eitan (aka Adam), born on October Napolitano and Adam Nguyen ’98 and detailed listing of events, an up- chele Moody-Adams. 26. “He is the newest addition to an met up at Baker Athletics Complex. to-date list of registered classmates, It’s not too late to register! Go existing trio of siblings and has made We plan to round up more people answers to reunion FAQs and to reunion.college.columbia.edu, our son thrilled, for he now finally this year, on Saturday, October 15, several ways to stay connected to

may/june 2011 72 columbia college today class notes

Raji Kalra ’97 Finds Fulfillment in Finance for Nonprofits

B y Alb e r t Sa m a h a ’11J

he stairwell in the con- place inside the residence halls. struction site is pitch When Kalra moved onto cam- T black. The lights have pus at the start of her first year, burned out. But Raji Kalra ’97, many of her classmates had ’04 Business wants to go to already befriended each other at the second floor, where by this pre-orientation events. The so- fall the Museum for African cial circles had already formed, Art’s main gallery will be. Her it seemed, and she wasn’t sure cell phone screen isn’t bright how she was going to make enough, so she borrows a hot- friends. dog-sized LED flashlight from a “I cried my first two days of col- construction worker and enters lege,” she admits with a chuckle. the darkness. Kalra’s mother told her to “This is kind of an adventure,” knock on every door on her she says. dorm’s floor and introduce her- Kalra is the CFO of the New self. “I definitely was not going York museum. She manages to do that,” Kalra says. “So I did the day-to-day funds and makes the next best thing.” sure the museum operations There was a TV in a lounge at are sustainable. But since tak- the end of her hallway. Nearly ing the position in June 2010, every day for the next two weeks the most significant aspect of she sat by that TV and let the the job has been overseeing Raji Kalra ’97, CFO of the Museum for African Art, stands at the site friends come to her. It worked. the capital financing of the mu- of the museum’s new East Harlem home, slated to open this fall. She got to know everybody. She seum’s first self-owned location Photo: Albert Samaha ’11J became class v.p. her freshman in its 27 years of existence. In and sophomore years and class previous years, the museum projects. After graduating with Then she joined a consulting president her final two years. occupied rented space, first a double major in economics firm that took part in the open- “Raji is genuinely interested on the Upper East Side, then in and political science, her plan, ings of eight schools ranging in people,” says Lin. “She really SoHo and most recently in Long she says, was to enter private from elementary to high school brings people together. She’s Island City, Queens. industry, retire early and then in post-Katrina New Orleans. always giving.” “To say that I was part of teach. But she also did volun- Afterward, she was hired by Seventeen years later, it’s this groundbreaking event by teer work, and during the next Harlem RBI, a nonprofit youth hard to imagine Kalra anxiously managing the costs is really three years, she came to a life- development center in East sitting by the TV. She glides exciting,” Kalra says. altering conclusion: Working in Harlem, as it sought to launch across the cold concrete floor Scheduled to open this fall, the private sector did not give its charter school in 2007. All of the construction site, toward the museum will sit off the her enough time and energy to in all, 11 new schools opened a pair of glass doors that lead to northeast corner of Central volunteer. under Kalra’s watch. a patio area. She tries to push Park, “where Museum Mile and “I got a lot of fulfillment and “It takes guts to change ca- one open but it won’t move. Harlem meet,” Kalra notes. She pleasure from volunteering and reers, especially from finance to The doors have been blocked holds in her left arm a stack of I thought, ‘Why can’t I do that nonprofit. That says a lot about by several inches of packed placards that show renderings full time?’ ” Kalra says. Raji’s character. I respect that,” snow. She pushes harder, really of what the museum will look She decided to return to says Joy Lin ’97, who was on leans into the door and finally like. In one image, the main en- school to better position herself Columbia’s student council with plows it open. It is freezing, tranceway opens to a tall room for a job in nonprofit finance. Kalra. raining and slushy outside, but with large, mullioned windows Kalra spent the next three years It is a courage that was mold- Kalra doesn’t seem to notice. on one side and a curving wall getting an M.B.A at the Business ed during Kalra’s time on cam- She walks to the ledge of the of light brown African wood on School and a master’s in inter- pus. While she fondly remembers patio and breathes in the view. the other. national policy at Johns Hopkins favorite classes, such as Profes- “We’re not sure if it’s techni- through a dual degree program. sor David Downie’s “Economics Albert Samaha ’11J writes cally feasible, but if it is, we’re In 2006, Kalra became the of the Environment” and Uni- primarily about social justice. going to do it,” she says of the first director of finance in New versity Professor Jagdish Bhag- His work has been featured in bending wall. York City for the Knowledge wati’s “International Monetary publications such as City Limits, Kalra is familiar with the Is Power Program, a national Theory and Policy,” perhaps her Examiner.com, Philippine Head- nuances of overseeing new network of public schools. most rewarding experience took lines and CollegeFanz.com.

Columbia: Twitter (twitter.com/Co- IPhone, iPod Touch and iPad the app from mobile browsers by on January 16 in Los Angeles at lumbia_CCAA) and the app’s news users can search Apple’s App Store visiting http://reunion.college.col the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly module, which includes CCT (col- for “Columbia Reunion” to find our umbia.edu/2001mobile. Hills. It was a spectacular wed- lege.columbia.edu/cct) and Colum- class app. BlackBerry, Droid and Annie Lainer Marquit and ding, and I was fortunate to be bia news (news.columbia.edu). other smartphone users can access Jonathan Marquit were married one of the many Columbians in

may/june 2011 73 class notes columbia college today

about our 10-year reunion, but in about a year’s time we’ll need to start doing precisely that. I am planning to return to New York in June 2013 for reunion, and I hope that you will as well. In the mean- time, let’s celebrate the continued success of our classmates. Katori Hall continues to make headlines. She was featured in an article in the March 2 New York Times for winning the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. This award is giv- en annually to outstanding women playwrights, and Katori earned $20,000 and a print by artist Willem de Kooning for her play Hurt Vil- lage, which explores the issues fac- ing families in a decaying Memphis housing project. Michael Wolf is graduating in May with an M.B.A. from Wharton. Annie Lainer Marquit ’01, ’06L and Jonathan Marquit were married in January at the Four Seasons Hotel in He “will join a stealth startup based Beverly Hills. The multi–Columbia-generational soiree included the bride’s father, Luis Lainer ’65; her sister, in New York City. Stay tuned for Jesse Lainer-Vos ’04 SW; brother-in-law, Dani Lainer-Vos ’09 GSAS; Ken Krug ’74; Rabbi Sharon Brous ’95, ’01 our launch this spring.” GSAS (who officiated); Dina Epstein Levisohn ’01, ’05 TC; Nancy Michaelis (née Perla) ’01; Jamie Rubin ’01 Nadege Fleurimond writes, “I re- Barnard; Sarah Rosenbaum Kranson ’01; Donny Kranson ’99E; Billy Kingsland ’01; Susan (née Pereira) Wilsey cently offered a Groupon for my com- ’01; Lila Foldes ’01 Barnard; Joyce Chou ’01; Cambria Matlow ’01; Dan Laidman ’01; Jonathan Gordin ’01; pany, Fleurimond Catering, and sold David Light ’95, ’02 Arts; and Toby Reifman ’70 SW. more than 800 cooking parties, which PHOTO: Michael Brannigan are weekly cooking classes that I offer as a great way to have fun, network and meet people. I have even done attendance, including the bride; Samantha Earl and Francis Best wishes to all, and please do one of my favorite cooking parties her father, Luis Lainer ’65; her Manheim recently were married in keep in touch. for CCYA, which was really nice. In sister, Jesse Lainer-Vos ’04 SW and New York City, where they reside. other news, I started doing some TV brother-in-law, Dani Lainer-Vos Sam is completing a master’s at catering, and I boast BET News and ’09 GSAS; Ken Krug ’74; Rabbi MIT in urban planning and design. Sonia Dandona The Colbert Report as new clients.” Sharon Brous ’95, ’01 GSAS (who Francis is an investment banker. 02 Hirdaramani Ben Kopit ’02 is getting an officiated);D ina Epstein Levisohn; Many Columbians gathered in 2 Rolling Dr. M.F.A. in screenwriting at UCLA. Nancy Michaelis (née Perla); Jamie beautiful Sonoma, Calif., on Septem- Old Westbury, NY 11568 Dawn Zimniak is getting married Rubin ’01 Barnard; Sarah Rosen- ber 25 for the wedding of Ali Kidd [email protected] on June 25, with about 20 Colum- baum Kranson; Donny Kranson and Travis Ritchie. A lovely garden bia alumni scheduled to attend. ’99E; Billy Kingsland; Susan overlooking a vineyard provided the Trushna Leitz-Jhaveri and her hus- Wilsey (née Pereira); Lila Foldes perfect backdrop, and several ’01ers band moved in November to Zurich. ’01 Barnard; Joyce Chou; Cambria provided the party, including Jenny She writes, “We love our new home Angela Georgopoulos Matlow; Dan Laidman; David Tubridy, Jessie Tubridy, Jaime Pan- and are making the most of this little 04 200 Water St., Apt. 1711 Light ’95, ’02 Arts; and Toby Reif- none, Anne-Marie Ebner, Becca country’s beautiful mountains and New York, NY 10038 man ’70 SW. [See photo.] Siegel Bradley and Emily Georgitis great cheese and chocolate.” [email protected] Annie and Jonathan are attor- Stanton ’01E. The magical day was Agnia Baranauskaite Grigas neys in Los Angeles and reside in truly a Columbia affair: The bride’s moved back to California after get- Congratulations to Lydia Roach, Santa Monica. father is Robert Kidd ’70, and the ting her Ph.D. at Oxford and com- who earned a Ph.D. in oceanogra- Marc Dunkelman and his wife, party stretched long into the night pleting her posting as adviser to phy from the Scripps Institution Kathryn Prael, welcomed Emilia thanks to the entertainment pro- the foreign minister of Lithuania. of Oceanography at UC San Diego Prael Dunkelman on February vided by James Tubridy ’97. She is based in Santa Monica with and now is an environmental 10. Emilia weighed 9 lbs., 7.6 oz. Ali is an associate at the San her husband, Paulius Grigas, and consultant at Dudek in Encinitas, My family and I visited Marc and Francisco office of Gibson, Dunn, they are launching a technology Calif. Anjlee Khurana graduated Kathryn in Washington, D.C., and Crutcher, where she practices company. Agnia looks to connect from Vanderbilt Law in 2008 and a few months ago as they were law in the real estate group. Travis with old friends and alumni in the works at Harris Martin Jones in preparing for Emilia’s arrival. Con- is an attorney at the Sierra Club. technology sector. Please contact Nashville. Finally, congratulations gratulations to Marc and Kathryn! Ali and Travis met at UCLA, from her at [email protected]. go out to Ben Falik and his family, Matthew Wosnitzer married which they both received law and who welcomed daughter Phoebe Danielle Rudich ’04 Barnard on Oc- public policy degrees. While at in February. tober 3 at Glen Island Harbor Club UCLA, they also were students of Michael Novielli Don’t forget to send me your in New Rochelle, N.Y. Matthew’s former Massachusetts Governor 03 World City Apartments news! Let your friends and fellow brother, Brian Wosnitzer ’02E, was Michael Dukakis, who officiated the Attention Michael J. alumni know what you have been best man, and other Columbians in wedding and noted that theirs was Novielli, A608 up to. attendance included Isaac Darko the first wedding he has officiated Block 10, No 6. Jinhui and David Epstein. Matthew and for two of his former students. Road, Chaoyang District Danielle live on the Upper West My family and I recently took a Beijing, 100020, People’s Peter Kang Side; Matt is completing his fifth road trip to the Bay Area and stayed Republic of China 05 205 15th St., Apt. 5 year of urology residency at in the beautiful new San Carlos home [email protected] Brooklyn, NY 11215 NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia of Michelle Nayfack (née Braun) and [email protected] University Medical Center and her husband, Aaron Nayfack. Our Well folks, this year marks our Danielle is completing her third daughter, Julian, had a blast playing eighth year as alumni of the Col- CCT should publish an infographic year of ophthalmology residency at with their son, Isaac, but we still miss lege. I would be lying if I said that that shows a breakdown of intra- Mount Sinai Medical Center. having them here in Los Angeles. it feels natural to start thinking class marriages since 1983. It’d be

may/june 2011 74 columbia college today class notes

interesting to see where our class ranks. Adding to our class total are Joanna Dee ’11 GSAS and Dr. Koushik Das ’09 P&S. They were married on December 18 in Somerset, N.J. Classmates in at- tendance included Jennifer Legum Weber, Irene Malatesta, Steven Esses, Jamie Yoon, Ashley Walker and Marc Dyrszka ’10 P&S, along with many other Columbians. (See photo.) Another interesting infographic could show marriages between members of different classes and among the different schools (Engi- neering, Barnard, etc.). John A. Zaro and Natalie Leggio ’04 Barnard were married October 2 at Saint James Roman Catholic Church in Setauket, N.Y. Celebrating with the couple were Travis Rettke, Sean Connor, Joanna Dee ’05, ’11 GSAS and Dr. Koushik Das ’05, ’09 P&S tied the knot in December in Somerset, N.J. Cel- Mike Grady, James Catrambone, ebrating with them were (left to right) Katie Broad; Jed Bradley ’06; Andrew Brotzman ’03, ’11 Arts; Carey Brendan Quinn, Jenny Madden Garris Brotzman; Kelly Desantis, Brian Hansbury ’03; Monica Valente Harriss; Brett Harriss ’03, ’08 Business; (née Korecky) and Greg Madden, Brian Overland ’04; the bride; the groom; Daniel Byrnes ’03; Kristin Szatkiewicz; Jennifer Legum Weber ’05; and Dave Buffa. After the wedding, Daryl Weber ’02; Lauren Fishman Perotti ’02 Barnard; Daniel Perotti ’02; Irene Malatesta ’05 Barnard; Josh John and Natalie traveled to France Silverman ’02E; Steven Esses ’05; and Daniella Lichtman Esses ’05 Barnard, ’09L. and visited Paris, Mont Saint-Michel PHOTO: Ajit Singh Photography and the Loire Valley before heading south to Antibes, St. Paul de Vence, Nice and Monaco. They reside in com.” M.S. in industrial ecology from the union Weekend, Thursday, June 2– downtown Manhattan. Nancy Yerkes earned a Ph.D. in Universities of Leiden and Delft in Sunday, June 5. Join your class- Rebecca Silberberg married Eric biochemistry from MIT and started the Netherlands. Anya Cherneff mates for great cultural happen- Levine last March. Rebecca met Eric her first year of medical school at lives in Leiden, and they are both ings throughout New York City as at Harvard Law, and both are law- Stanford. working on the launch of an NGO well as plenty of dinners, cocktail yers in New York. In attendance at Anna Lee graduated from busi- that helps women in Southeast Asia hours and parties that will provide the wedding were Rebecca’s great ness school at UC Berkeley and who live in marginalized communi- an opportunity to catch up on the friends, whom she met on Carman moved back to New York last sum- ties become successful renewable last five years. Dean’s Day will be 5: Alexandra Seggerman, Stephen held Saturday, with a great lineup Poellet, Lindsey May ’05E and of lectures, including one by Dean Bridget (Geibel) Stefanski. Kate Lyn ’05, former Columbia women’s soccer Michele Moody-Adams, and the Congrats to all the newlyweds! evening concludes with champagne When Columbians marry, many assistant coach, has been named head women’s and dancing on Low Plaza. I am have kids. Jonathan Reich ’04, ’07L soccer coach at Marist College. looking forward to what is sure to and Suzanne Schneider welcomed be a marvelous celebration! the arrival of twins Sophia Hannah It’s not too late to register via the and Charlotte Grace in January. mer. She works at American Express energy microentrepreneurs. The web (alumni.college.columbia.edu/ Susanne is taking the semester off in the Membership Rewards New NGO is called Empower Genera- reunion) or even on a smartphone. from working on her Ph.D. in Product Development Group. tion and is set to launch by 2012. The Alumni Office has launched the Middle Eastern studies at GSAS In March, Brendon-Jeremi Jacobs Please continue to send me your free Alumni Reunion Weekend app, in order to “master new skills like became a proud homeowner as he updates. Thanks! which features a full and detailed feeding, diapering and maneuver- moved in with his partner, Bob Mc- listing of events, an up-to-date list ing the double stroller.” She will Kee, in historic West Germantown, of registered classmates, answers to REUNION JUNE 2–JUNE 5 resume research in London and Philadelphia. He’ll graduate in May reunion FAQs and several ways to Alumni Office Contacts Jerusalem this summer. with an M.S. in teaching, learning stay connected to Columbia: Twitter Alumni Affairs Mia Gonsalves Wright Nugi Jakobishvili ’00 and Isa- and curriculum from Penn Graduate (twitter.com/Columbia_CCAA) [email protected] belle Levy welcomed Flora Sophia School of Education and then leave and the app’s news module, which 212-851-7977 Jakobishvili in December. She loves for Georgetown for a graduate con- includes CCT (college.columbia.edu/ Development Amanda Kessler strolling through Riverside Park stitutional seminar with the James cct) and Columbia news (news. [email protected] and College Walk and meeting Madison Fellowship. Brendon- columbia.edu). 212-851-7883 Columbia friends, and is an excel- Jeremi’s thesis is on how single-sex IPhone, iPod Touch and iPad lent companion as Isabelle works education impacts the social and aca- Michelle Oh Sing users can search Apple’s App Store on dissertation chapter No. 2. demic development of girls. In June, 06 9 N 9th St., Unit 401 for “Columbia Reunion” to find our Congrats to our new parents! the class that he’s sponsored for the Philadelphia, PA 19107 class app. BlackBerry, Droid and Carmen Yuen writes: “I (La Car- past three years also will graduate. [email protected] other smartphone users can access mina, as I’m known professionally) Former Columbia women’s the app from mobile browsers by have joined the NOH8 team. The soccer assistant coach Kate Lyn Writing this issue’s column was visiting http://reunion.college. NOH8 Campaign (NOH8Cam was named head women’s soccer especially exciting with our five- columbia.edu/2001mobile. paign.org) fights inequality and coach at Marist College in January. year reunion just a month away Until then, here are the latest discrimination via a silent photo Kate had been an assistant and by the time you read it! It’s been a updates from our class: protest. Celeb supporters include goalkeeping coach under Kevin pleasure to be able to stay in touch Jeremy Kotin will screen the first Paris Hilton, Lady Gaga and Adam McCarthy ’85, ’91 GS for the last with you by way of this column, of multiple video pieces highlighting Lambert. For the first time, we are four seasons, and was the top assis- but I’m looking forward to catching the amazing work of the Alzheim- taking the campaign worldwide ... to tant coach on his staff for the past up with everyone in person! er’s Association, NYC chapter, at Tokyo! There’s more info at NOH8 three years. If you haven’t already, please its annual gala in June. Comprising Campaign.org and at lacarmina. Bennett Cohen is pursuing an make plans to attend Alumni Re- interviews with patients and caregiv-

may/june 2011 75 class notes columbia college today

also became a board member of Columbia College Women (CCW; college.columbia.edu/alumni/com mittees/ccw), an alumna network at the College. Carolyn Braff shares, “I am both thrilled and sad to say that I will be leaving New York this summer to move to Chicago, where I will start business school at the University of Chicago in the fall. Anyone in the Chicago area, or anyone who has recommendations for brunch places in the Chicago area, please get in touch!” Andrew Russeth recently began working at Metro Pictures Gallery in New York and received a Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for his blog about contemporary art, 16 Miles of String (16miles.com). One weekend in February, he had the pleasure of CCT class correspondent Michelle Oh ’06 and Alan C. Sing were married in January in Rockleigh, N.J., in front of dining on Porchetta’s famous pork enough Columbia alumni to fill a stadium. Cheering the couple were (back row, left to right) Albert Kim ’03E, Timo- sandwiches with Avi Zenilman and thy Kang ’06E, Bernard Lin ’04E, Edward Kim ’08, Paul Yoo ’06E, William Kang ’06E, Spencer Chang ’06, Andrew David Chait. Afterward, the trio Lichtenberg ’06 and Jukay Hsu; and (front row, left to right) Bori Kang ’06 Barnard, Jamie Yoo ’07 Barnard, Christine repaired to the apartment Russeth Kwak ’07, Irene Kwon ’06 Barnard, Joo Lee Song ’07, Jee Hae Yoon ’04, Jennifer Kim ’06, the bride, the groom, Jes­ shares with Marc Tracy. sica Lee ’06, Christine Chung ’06, Josephine Kim ’06, Angela Lee ’06 Barnard, Michelle Lee ’06 and Sarah Hwang ’07. Siheun Song PHOTO: Minnow Park left Ava Luna last year and missed her chance to tour Europe with the band, which con- ers as well as high-impact animation, are happy to share that they got Alan in Philadelphia, where he is a tinues to record and tour (featured the pieces will spool out online in the engaged in November. Right now pediatric resident at the Children’s as “Indie Band Crush” by Nylon following months. Jeremy is proud they’re living together in New York Hospital of Pennsylvania. Magazine in November). She filled that the feature film MONOGAMY, City as Paul works on his disserta- the void left by the excitement of her which he co-produced and co- tion and teaches in the Department rock band days by shifting more of edited, played in theaters nation- of Cinema Studies at NYU and David D. Chait her time to CCW, serving as board wide starting in March. Everyone Kinara finishes her final year at 07 1255 New Hampshire secretary and chair of the member- put it in your Netflix queue or watch the Law School and keeps busy Ave. N.W., Apt. 815 ship committee. On February 1, it on-demand! as editor-in-chief of the Columbia Washington, DC 20036 Siheun was elected the chair-elect Talibah L. Newman completed Human Rights Law Review. After [email protected] of CCW, succeeding chair Claire her Kickstarter.com fundraiser almost a decade in the city, both are Shanley ’92. Siheun’s two-year term for her next short film, Busted on moving to New Haven in August, As we celebrate four years since will begin in September. During the Brigham Lane, which will shoot in where Kinara will begin a two-year graduation from Columbia College, day, she is building her four-year-old May and needs a savvy producer. clerkship with the federal district see below for some exciting CC ’07 financial practice as a consultant at Talibah is in her second year at the judge Janet Bond Arterton. updates! AXA Advisors in Midtown. School of the Arts, aiming to obtain Emily Ross started her second Robert Half Legal announced Samantha Feingold is excited to an M.F.A. in film directing. She also semester back at Columbia, work- that Bryan Lee is the 2011 Minor- be graduating from Fordham Law is working on her first children’s ing toward an M.P.A. at SIPA. She ity Corporate Counsel Association in May. She won her trial advocacy book, Olayinka’s Beaded Comb. enjoys being at school again, espe- scholarship winner and the new competition sponsored by the A.B.A. Matt Smith will graduate in May cially seeing all the familiar sights Robert Half Legal scholar. Currently and as regional champion competed from Duke Law and will begin a on campus and hanging out with a first-year law school student at at the national competition in Texas one-year clerkship with Judge old friends. Over break, she not only UCLA, Bryan will receive $10,000 to in April. Rosemary Barkett of the U.S. Court got married but also went to Egypt use toward tuition. Eric Bondarsky and Nina Co- of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on her honeymoon. Emily and her in Miami in September. husband, Ryan, had an amazing Andrew Stinger is wrapping time and luckily left just days before Bryan Lee ’07 is the 2011 Minority Corporate Coun- up a year-long stint in Google’s the protests started. She swears that Cambridge, Mass., office, where he she played no role in their instigation sel Association scholarship winner and the new enjoyed working alongside Mer- ... The Democracy Promotion course Robert Half Legal scholar. edith Fuhrman ’05 and running is only offered to SIPA second-year into the recently engaged Caroline students (joking)! Emily will intern Guidry ’06E as well as Colleen in Washington, D.C., this summer Leni Babb writes, “I love Salt hen ’09 Barnard recently hosted a Myers ’07 and Kwame Spearman. and looks forward to rejoining the Lake City. I’ve skied more than 15 delicious dinner featuring all-stars Andrew headed back to the Bay D.C. alumni group. days already, and it’s only Febru- Rebecca Schmutter-Kornecki ’04, Area in April as he moved into And to close, a happy announce- ary. And law school is going great. ’07L, Adina Bitton ’08 Barnard and product development for Google ment of my own: Michelle Oh and I recently spoke with Kori Gatta, Michael Emerson ’09. The intel- TV and Video Ads. Alan C. Sing ’05 Dartmouth were and she and her boyfriend, John lectual discourse ranged from a The following is a nice prelude married on January 8 in Rockleigh, Estrada, are living the dream in new restaurant in Williamsburg to the following three submissions: N.J. The celebration was made all Manhattan, working hard in the to the new profession known as Victoria Baranetsky writes the more memorable by the many hedge fund industry.” “man coach,” or as they coined from Cambridge, Mass., with her Columbians in attendance (see Katerina Vorotova recently left it that evening, “moach.” More bimonthly haiku: “Engagements photo). This month, Michelle will her consulting role at Thomson importantly, more chili than can be abound / from our dear class of graduate from Columbia’s dual Reuters and now is a strategic and humanly imagined was consumed ’0 - 6 / welcome adulthood.” masters’ program at SIPA and the financial planning associate at thanks to Nina’s culinary skills. Paul Fileri and Kinara Flagg Journalism School and will join Weight Watchers International. She Adam Brickman writes, “Dur-

may/june 2011 76 columbia college today class notes

ing the Martin Luther King Jr. Day strangers from all over the country weekend, Nick DiCarlo, Christo- boasting vastly diverse and seem- pher Simi, Marty Moore, Christian ingly incompatible interests, skills, Capasso and I were part of a team expectations and levels of determina- that won the Second Annual Blue tion somehow were able to quickly Chip Farms Snow Bowl. The squad reconcile incongruities and establish defeated a team composed par- something organic in doing one thing tially of Jonathan Chanin, Noam and that one thing well: to build. Zerubavel, Craig Rodwogin, Joshua “There never was a pre-screening, Kace ’07E and David Koretz ’07E. and there was not an application “Dominated and demoralized process. The only red tape we saw are probably more apt terms to was used as nametags. All 40 of us describe the circumstances of the were instead judged and accepted victory. Moore scored the game’s onto the team based solely on our first offensive touchdown by dust- willingness to create. Armed with ing the opposing team’s secondary the curiosity of what a bunch of on an early go route. After a back strangers can do when they share and forth first half, it became ap- the same goal, we came back having parent early in the third quarter learned that sometimes wonderful that all signs of hope had been things can happen.” extinguished from the losing team Being in a snow-covered New (‘the losers’). Simi’s relentless pass York is great for a few days, but rush, coupled with Koretz’s in- when the opportunity arises to head ability to throw in the direction of to the Rocky Mountains, where you Graduating from college, check. Summiting Mount Kilimanjaro, check. ‘Capasso Island’ limited the losers’ can really make use of the white What’s next? Friends Samuel Harris, Tomoko Masaki, Stephanie Shieh ’08, offensive options. stuff, this crowd couldn’t resist. So Amelia Breyre ’08 and Daniel Breyre have plenty of time to figure it out on “Mr. DiCarlo was awarded the in January, Christopher Tortoriello, the decent from the Tanzanian mountain, which they climbed in January. game ball as the team’s M.V.P. ‘It Caitlin Hodge, Carmen Ballard, was a great win,’ said Nick. ‘I’d say Vladimir Gorbaty ’08E, Sumana we triumphed because of superior Rao and Jason Gordon ’08E, all of flugelhorn, fellow Columbians Nepal, Vietnam and Cambodia. athleticism, better teamwork and whom live in New York, reunited Jeremy Siskind ’10 GSAS on piano Brett returned to the States in a distinct lack of SEAS graduates with their friends Rob Wu and Liz and Joel Gombiner ’11 on tenor January 2010 and started working on our squad. Those guys are Gill, who live on the West Coast, saxophone, and Israeli musicians for McKinsey. Currently on his sixth spastic.’ ” for a week of skiing/snowboarding Daniel Ori on bass and Ronen Itzik project, Brett has explored multiple Seth Flaxman and Jim McCor- in Vail, Colo. “It was the best time of on drums. Steph plays alto saxo- business topics in industries that in- mick are looking for a good broker our lives. Two cracked ribs and one phone and piano and sings. Audio clude finance and pharmaceuticals. to help them find an apartment in missing tooth later, we are all still samples can be found at stephchou. He joined the Learning Committee, Brooklyn (somewhere around Fort wondering why we got back on the com. Prime Knot now is available which designs learning programs Greene). Seth asks, “Any recom- plane to JFK,” said Carmen. in hard copy and digital download for first- and second-year business mendations? (Please send referrals Rachel Weidenbaum (now from CDBaby (cdbaby.com/cd/ analysts, and the Columbia recruit- to P.O. Box We Are On Facebook.)” Rachel Claire) had the lead role in stephchou), iTunes and Amazon. ing team. Ansky’s The Dybbuk and various The NYC release concert was on Brett recently was staffed on a ensemble roles in Federico García April 29 at Drom on Avenue A and growth strategy project in China, Neda Navab Lorca’s Blood Wedding. Both shows featured the full band. flying to and from Hong Kong and 53 Saratoga Dr. were performed with Marvell Rep- After graduation, Joanna Zuck- Shanghai. Though life on the road 08 Jericho, NY 11753 ertory in its inaugural season at the erman Bernstein spent a year in can be lonely, he has had the op- [email protected] Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex Mexico City on a Princeton in Latin portunity to see China through the on West 36th Street from March America fellowship. In addition to “local” eyes of fellow Columbians While studying at SUNY Downstate through April. She was thrilled to working at a public health orga- Tom Hou ’11, Allan Lau and Colin Medical School, the always impres- be working alongside Broadway nization, she spent a month road- Felsman, who are involved with sive Calvin Sun also has helped to veterans and received her Actors’ tripping around the south of Mexico. various projects in China. Brett was build a medical clinic in Mexico. “I Equity card! In February, Rachel Upon returning to the United States, scheduled to return home for good don’t believe any of us fully grasped made her TV debut as Sadie in Joanna moved to Chicago, home to at the end of January. the impact of what we were doing Fire at the Triangle on the PBS series the second largest Mexican immi- Colin Felsman is halfway through until we had left. And even now, American Experience. grant population in the country. She his year as a Luce Scholar working in the nascent days of our Tijuana- is the development coordinator for for a nonprofit incubator in Shang- withdrawal, I still haven’t fully com- Universidad Popular, a community hai. This year has given him a prehended the obvious, the notion Alidad Damooei organization that offers ESL classes, chance to fully immerse himself in that we were in Mexico for only four 09 c/o CCT computer literacy and repair courses, the Chinese social enterprise and days, transcending a community Columbia Alumni Center Spanish literacy classes, youth after- nonprofit space, begin the arduous service cliché by creating something 622 W. 113th St., MC 4530 school programs, dance and exercise, task of learning Mandarin and travel more than just a building. New York, NY 10025 and citizenship classes. like he never has. Colin’s journeys “We returned feeling like we lived [email protected] Almost immediately following so far (both for work and pleasure) up, somehow, to the overarching mis- graduation, Brett Robbins hopped have included Vietnam, Thailand, sion of helping serve a community of Stephanie Chou recently released on a plane for the first leg of a Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia 1,500 in need, but we also came back her debut recording, which explores seven-month, round-the-world trip and numerous locations throughout having taken with us something we a new approach to combining jazz, that would take him through 21 China. In addition to more domestic never really read in the pamphlets traditional Chinese music and countries on six continents (Antarc- excursions, during the coming six or heard about in our information math. Prime Knot contains a varied tica is next). A few weeks in Europe months Colin will head to Taiwan, sessions. Beneath the very obvious set of original compositions includ- were followed by months in South Mongolia, South Korea, Laos and act of building a clinic, we also uncon- ing jazz arrangements of the ancient America, Asia and Oceania before even New Zealand. When not on sciously had nurtured a remarkable Chinese classic, “Jasmine Flower,” concluding in Africa. Though he the road, he has grown quite fond environment of affiliation and ac- tunes inspired by knot theory, did some solo exploring, Brett often of Shanghai, which he says is a dy- ceptance among one another. Novices classical piano and pop. It features was accompanied by friends. He namic city of sharp juxtapositions, and experts, young and elder, artists Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s met up with Seth Melnick in Delhi, rapid modernization and fascinat- and builders, brains and brawn; Marcus Printup on trumpet and and together they tackled India, ing history. He relates that the city

may/june 2011 77 class notes columbia college today is undeniably in the midst of a plans to visit campus to see the pivotal moment, so it’s incredible, if Shakespeare Troupe’s spring show. Letters sometimes troubling, to witness its Natalie will be working in some- (Continued from page 2) evolution. thing law-related in Philadelphia And last but not least, Amanda this summer. critical and financial resources, jus- dren’s Defense Fund, addressed Weidman and Shana Bush are Ebele Ifedigbo writes, “¡Saludos tify such work? the illustrious Class of 1993. Per- having fun. desde Ecuador! I am here working For decades, Columbia has haps the distinction you intended with a nonprofit organization that failed to act on a simple yet el- to draw is that Ms. Edelman did focuses on rural development and egant solution to the Morningside not attend the College. Still, that’s Julia Feldberg environmental education. I have space crunch: Follow through, to awfully good company to be in. 10 4 E. 8th St., Apt. 4F been here about 1½ months as I the extent possible, on McKim, Alan M. Freeman ’93 New York, NY 10003 write this, working with youth Mead & White’s master plan. Five Po t o m a c , Md. [email protected] groups, learning Spanish, making McKim buildings, originally con- new personal connections and ceived for the campus, could still Editor’s note: Creed should have been Hello everyone! There are a lot of enjoying the fact that I do not have be erected. They would be placed identified as the second alumna, not the great updates to report. to endure the winter this year, opposite Hartley, Wallach, Fur- second woman, to speak at Class Day. After spending summer 2010 in among other things. I plan to stay nald, Lewisohn and Mathematics, Rio de Janeiro, Innokenty “Ken- six months in total.” completing those quadrangles Hakoah ny” Pyetranker began his stud- And finally, I will leave you with and helping fulfill the University’s I enjoyed reading Franklin Foer ies at Harvard Law, where he is another one of Chris Yim’s adven- original architectural vision. ’96’s “Columbia Forum” excerpt involved with the Harvard National tures: “There comes a day when It is too late to undo the archi- on Hakoah (March/April). A post- Security Journal and the Jewish Law every boy must become a man. On tectural damage already wrought. script: Having played soccer for the Students Association. Most impor- January 13, 2011, that day occurred But a return to first principles Swiss Football Club in the Big Ten tantly, Kenny is a member of the in my life when I was held up at could mitigate at least some of the Division of the German American Columbia Alumni Representative the corner of West 168th and Am- harm. In the meantime, I shud- League in the early 1950s (while Committee and encourages fel- sterdam Avenue. A man and young der to contemplate what is being incidentally also playing baseball low alums to do the same. He will lady tackled me from behind. I planned for Manhattanville. and basketball at Columbia), I can spend this summer in Washington, was in the area visiting an ailing Thomas J. Vinciguerra ’85, ’86J, attest to the “non-mediocre” status D.C., as a summer associate at friend who needed me to deliver ’90 GSAS of the East Coast Hakoah team Public International Law & Policy soup to him. These hooligans who Ga r d e n Ci t y , N.Y. at that time. They played against Group, a global pro bono law firm tackled me had no idea what they Good Company teams in the Big Ten Division and that provides legal assistance to were up against. Up until I was 18, held their own. This was some of states and governments involved I took Tae Kwon Do and earned Not to take anything away from the best soccer in the United States in conflicts. a third-degree black belt. I kicked Claire Shipman ’86, ’94 SIPA and at that time and included the Ger- Michael Bossetta is enrolled in the man and woman in the face Alexandra Wallace Creed ’88, but man Hungarians, who one year a master’s program for European and knocked them out. I quickly I believe CCT was incorrect when won the National Challenge Cup studies at Lund University in Swe- ran down the street and as they got it stated that they are the first and (which included all professional den. He will work this summer up to chase me, I found my sling- second women, respectively, to and amateur clubs in the U.S.) as at the U.S. embassy in Stockholm shot in my back pocket, which I speak at Class Day (“Around the well as the National Amateur Cup. within the Bureau of European and always carry when that far north in Quads,” March/April). I recall Andy Biache ’54 Eurasian Affairs. Manhattan, and hit them with two that Marian Wright Edelman, Al e x a n d r i a , Va. Maria Alzuru writes, “After stones I found on the street. I mis- founder and president of the Chil- completing a 15-week unpaid fired the first five times, but when internship (aren’t they all?) at they got within point blank range, The Carter Center in Atlanta last I might have taken an eye out. semester, I was offered a tempo- Though it was a traumatic experi- Alumni Corner rary full-time position as assistant ence, I want the Class of 2010 and (Continued from page 80) project coordinator (APC) for the the Columbia College community Americas Program. Things I’ve to know that I am a survivor, and I Had the free clinic not existed would be at the next clinic in learned: 1. Getting paid makes survived. Thanks Mom and Dad for and his daughter not insisted that Kansas City that was scheduled working 40 hours a week im- putting me through Tae Kwon Do, he come, would the cause of his in five weeks. Without hesitating, mensely easier. 2. Interns get to do even though I hated it! That’s what death been his heart disease or the I said yes and that I would travel research and analysis, APCs are Asian parents are for.” failures of our health system? to any clinic organized by the all administrative and logistical It was not the spectrum of ill- NAFC. I have been to Kansas City, tasks. 3. I officially want to go back ness I witnessed that was different. Hartford, Atlanta, Washington, to school. At least now I know for Colin Sullivan It was the severity of illness. It was D.C., and New Orleans. My sev- sure, right? Also, having a couple 11 c/o CCT not just diabetes; it was uncontrolled enth and most recent clinic was in of CU people around is priceless.” Columbia Alumni Center diabetes with diabetic complications. Charlotte, N.C. Lien Hoang joined the Sacra- 622 W. 113th St., MC 4530 It was not just hypertension; it was I have no professional affiliation mento bureau of the Associated New York, NY 10025 blood pressures of 190 over 120. with NAFC. My commitment to it Press in February as a reporter [email protected] There were five patients sent is personal. I pay for my travel and covering California legislation. She by EMT ambulance directly to the take time from my private practice writes, “I’m excited to work with Hello, Class of 2011! I will be your emergency room who may well to do this. journalists and lawmakers in and class correspondent when we not have seen the next day were I thank my years at Columbia around the state capitol, addressing leave the comfort and familiarity it not for this clinic. At the end of for fostering my social awareness policies and politics with reverbera- of Columbia’s gates to venture out the day, I had spoken to several as well as my preparation in the tions around the country. So far, my into the real world. I hope you all hundred people and heard their basic sciences and American his- reporting has appeared in outlets have enjoyed life in the College as stories of living in the wealthi- tory for my career in medicine that such as Bloomberg and the San much as I have, and in the months est country in the world without has continued to bring challenges Francisco Chronicle. This also means ahead, I hope you write to me with health insurance. and satisfaction. I spend much more time exploring updates of your inevitably exciting I was overwhelmed. Every pa- the downtown. Yes, you can have a lives. Congratulations to everyone tient’s story ended with the haunt- Dr. Ralph Freidin ’65 has practiced lot of fun in Sacramento.” upon graduation, have an amazing ing refrain of the chorus of a Greek internal medicine and primary care in Natalie Gossett, on spring break summer and shoot me a message tragedy: “no insurance, no cash, no Lexington, Mass., for the past 30 years. from Villanova Law, visited Emily when you can! doctor, no medication.” He blogs about health reform at theun- Wilson in Marseilles, France. She Before leaving, I was asked if I seenpatient.blogspot.com.

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may/june 2011 79 columbia college today

A l u m n i Co r n e r Caring for Those Without Health Insurance

B y Dr . Ra lp h Freidin ’65

n 1965, Medicare and Medicaid were passed, Martin Luther taught and practiced primary care and internal medicine in mu- King Jr. marched to Montgomery, Malcolm X was assassinat- nicipal hospitals. By 1980, I had a family of two young children and ed, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Voting Rights Bill became a wife with her own professional career. The problems of people law, more troops went to Vietnam and many were protesting marginalized in our health care system were too taxing for this the war. This was the social backdrop of our class. stage of my life. I left inner-city medicine and joined a small private IMy years on Morningside Heights were a time of social change practice in Lexington, Mass. and student activism. The corner of West 116th Street and Broad- way was as much a classroom as Hamilton Hall. Although pre- ast summer, I saw a report of a one-day medical clinic in New med, I minored in history. The highlight of my four years was Jim Orleans that had provided free care to almost 1,000 people Shenton ’49’s renowned seminar “United States during the Era Lwithout insurance. The clinic, spread across 102,000 square of Disunion.” feet of a convention hall, was my small neighborhood health center Professor Shenton wove the milestones of current American on steroids. history into his seminar, leaving me with indelible lessons of the Believing health care was a right of every American citizen, un- tide of American history. doubtedly learned in CC, history classes and Professor Shenton’s I left Morningside Heights in June 1965. In September, I drove to Civil War seminar, I called The National Association of Free Clinics St. Louis to begin my first year at Washington University Medical (NAFC, freeclinics.us). Two weeks later, I was on a plane to Little School. With Medicare and Medicaid promising access to care to Rock. I was asked to triage the waiting line, looking for someone millions previously excluded, I entered medicine believing that it who needed urgent care. The people began to line up two hours would be a tool for social change. before the doors opened at 10 a.m. By the time the first scheduled Quickly, I learned that the view from Morningside Heights patient was seen, more than 200 patients were waiting. was not that from the heartland. Columbia had prepared me well More than 80 percent were working but none had health insur- for medical school, but not that my profession’s vision of social ance. Some were self-employed but could not afford the premi- responsibility started and stopped at the hospital’s door. ums of individual policies. Some had several jobs, none of which Starving for the pulse of social change, I heard the words of my provided health benefits. Others had been laid off and could not Columbia swimming coach, Richard Steadman: “Defeat is not a afford COBRA. discouragement but a call to be better.” I started thinking of ways Few had seen a physician in the past year. Almost half had not to get the medical school and hospital to extend its services to the seen a physician in the past six years. All had the same reasons for inner city three miles from its door. With the support of two young having neglected their health. Without insurance, they could not faculty members, some of my classmates and members of the afford to pay for a physician visit. Without insurance, they could Pruitt-Igoe Men’s Club, we established a health center in Pruitt- not afford to fill their prescriptions. Without insurance, they could Igoe, St. Louis’ largest public housing project. not afford any surgical procedure. If they had been sick enough to For the first 10 years after graduating from medical school, I need emergency care, they were then saddled with an enormous bill that discouraged them from seeking further care. A man with a below-knee amputation was in a wheelchair. He hoped the clinic would help him obtain the prosthesis request his medical insurance had denied. A woman grimacing in pain had cancer treatment two years ago but was unable to continue treatment without insurance. Another woman was wearing a trench coat to cover her emaci- ated frame. She had had three seizures in the past two weeks. A local emergency room where she had sought help told her that the level of her seizure medications was “OK” and discharged her. No follow up was arranged. During her seizures she had bit- ten the inside of her mouth and tongue. She could not eat. When I told her that we would care for her and arrange for further care, I could not see an intact tooth in her broad but crooked smile. A man with labored breathing and a sweaty brow was slumped in a wheelchair. His weak voice told me five days ago he was in the intensive care unit of a local hospital for “swollen legs and chest heaviness.” At discharge, he was handed a list of unaffordable medications that he did not understand. Continuing care was not Dr. Ralph Freidin ’65 examines a patient at a free clinic in Washington, arranged. He had unstable angina. I wheeled him to the front of the D.C., last August. line and called the EMTs to take him back to the hospital. PHOTO: CHRIS USHER (Continued on page 78)

may/june 2011 80 COLUMBIA COLLEGE FUND

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Come celebrate Alumni Reunion Weekend 2011 Dmbttft — the reunion that everyone is  looking forward to!

 In addition to class-specific events throughout the weekend,  you can join all Columbians celebrating their reunions on Friday at the “Back on Campus” sessions, including Core Curriculum  mini-courses, engineering lectures, tours of the Morningside campus and its libraries and more. There will also be unique opportunities to engage  deeply with the city’s arts community with theater, ballet, music and art gallery tours.  Columbians will be dispersed throughout the Heights and greater Gotham all weekend  long, but Saturday is everyone’s day on campus. This year’s Saturday programming will invite all alumni back to celebrate some of the best aspects of Columbia at the affinity  receptions, and learn together with some of Columbia’s best known leaders, including Dean Michele Moody-Adams, in a series of public intellectual lectures. The day wraps up  with the reunion classes’ tri-college wine tasting, followed by class dinners and a final gathering for champagne, dancing and good times on Low Plaza.   Ebuft!boe!Sfhjtusbujpo!Jogpsnbujpo

 Thursday, June 2–Sunday, June 5, 2011

 Sfhjtufs!Upebz"! For more information or to register online, please visit

http://reunion.college.columbia.edu.