April 2012 - Alumni News - Williams College

an NSF grant for grad work
on solar panels at UC Santa
Barbara. K.K. and fellow geo
majors Mike Wilson and Ben Duke
try to see Professor Bud Wobus
whenever he is in Denver.
Two classmates spent January
in Williamstown as Winter Study
instructors. Will Parish taught
“Environmental Education:
What, How and Why?” Will’s
wife Julie won an award for her
fundraising efforts on behalf
of the National Parks in San
Francisco. Chan Lowe co-taught
“Editorial Cartooning and the
Art of Propaganda” with E.J.
Johnson ’59, who addressed
the art history side while Chan
taught students how to draw and
communicate. Last fall, Chan
was inducted into the Oklahoma
Cartoonists Hall of Fame in
recognition of nine years he spent
working for Oklahoma newspapers
and his work as a Florida
journalist.
After five and a half months,
Chuck Chokel reports that he has
recovered from his 2011 bike
injury. He and Naira alternate
between their New Hampshire
and Arizona homes with plenty
of domestic and international
travel as well as triathlons to fill
in the gaps.
Dede and Tony Brown traveled
to New Hampshire to welcome
Tony’s third grandchild,
Thatcher, born Dec. 3. Hermien
and Phil Less love living in Rhode
Island and celebrated their first
year back in New England since
1975. Bobby Kittredge is stateside
after two and a half years in
France. His wife found the
perfect job in Sacramento, and
Bobby is “better suited to English
and optimists” and is still changing
diapers. He recommends
watching the 20-minute lectures
in the EphNotes emails, which
are helping him “stop flunking
out of Williams in my dreams.”
Margaret Stuhr checked in from
Chicago, where she and husband
Tim Quinn ’77 celebrated the
marriage of their daughter Katie
Quinn ’08 to Bryan Eckelmann
’09 in July. Janean Abbott and
husband Tracy Slack came from
Oregon to join the festivities,
which sounded like a massive
Ephfest with alumni from the
’70s and ’80s as well as current
students including Margaret and
Tim’s son Andy ’13.
Always a source of ’75 news,
Anton Bestebreurtje watched the
Williams/Amherst game with
Bob (Milt) Morin, Gene Frogale,
Lucy and Bob Beck and Larry
Patent ’74. Anton provided this
report: “Milt has retired from
his administrative position at
St. Elizabeth’s but maintains
his private psychology practice.
Gene opened a sideline for their
lumber business that caters to
custom builders and is always
nice enough to offer Redskins
tickets to Milt and Anton. Lucy
continues in an internal medicine
practice. Apparently Bob felt
that dealing with preemies as a
neonatologist wasn’t enough of a
challenge, so he’s about to get an
online MBA from UMass. Larry
is in private practice after retiring
from the U.S. government.”
Sam Bronfman, living in
Barcelona for the school year,
reports that his Spanish is
improving slowly and that he is
becoming a fan of international
“football.” Bonnie Harris had a
fabulous holiday in France to celebrate
her husband Larry’s 60th
birthday. I guess after 30-plus
years in Sydney, every day
doesn’t seem like a holiday in
the Land of Oz. Amy and Allan
Ruchman took an online course
through Princeton on “The Art
of Engineering” (greatest hits of
buildings and bridges over the
last 150 years), and Allan continues
to sing with the Greenwich
Choral Society. He reports that
Tully Moss is alive and well
and visited Connecticut before
returning to the Philippines,
where he is doing management
consulting and teaching management
education courses for
various companies.
Polly Smith and her family rang
in the New Year with Liz Titus,
who looks forward to attending
the ordination of Barnaby Feder
’72 into the Unitarian ministry
in 2012. Liz writes, “Thanks
to an enduring friendship with
Professor Roger Bolton, I had
the opportunity to write a book
review that will be in the Journal
of Regional Science.” Liz is
fortunate to have the inspiration
of her parents’ “vim, vigor and
60 years of marriage!”
Ned Reade spent a week last
summer working at an orphanage
in Haiti and found the
experience to be transformative.
Bottled water was readily
available, but electricity and
other “necessities” were spotty,
if available at all. It sounds as if
Ned believes that a jolt to one’s
perspective can be a good thing.
My request for news elicited a
lengthy response from Gene Falk,
who has decided after 10 years of
working with mothers2mothers,
the last seven of them in Cape
Town, to step down as m2m’s
n 1974–76
CEO and return to the States
in 2012. Ten years ago, after
visiting his college roommate
Mitch Besser ’76, who had just
launched the very first Mentor
Mother program in Cape Town,
Gene was hooked. He writes,
“One mother at a time, the
Mentor Mothers battle stigma
and discrimination, confounding
expectations of what it means to
be a woman living with HIV and
becoming important role models
for personal and economic
empowerment.” Kudos to Gene
for his tireless work for one of
the most successful grassroots
programs on the planet whose
aim is to improve people’s lives.
The fall included two noteworthy
experiences for me. The first
was meeting and “chillin’” with
Bill Murray (of SNL fame), clad
in his pink pants, at the Cornell-
Harvard football game. Unless
someone can introduce me to Sir
Paul, I have probably maxed out
as far as celeb encounters go. The
second and far more worthwhile
and enjoyable experience was
spending an October afternoon
with Sage F classmate Akua Lezli
White at her house in Corning,
N.Y. Lezli is wheelchair-bound
due to transverse myelitis, but
there is nothing “bound” about
Lezli’s spirit, energy and humor. I
brought my 40-year-old copy of
What’s What (with all our high
school senior pictures), and we
laughed and reminisced about
many of you. We both learned
things about Williams from
1971-75 that neither of us had
known before.
Just a reminder that what you
see as your ho-hum existence is
very likely of great interest to
your classmates—so please send
along a report of how 2012 is
shaping up for you!
1976
Jane Ray Kell
4 Spring Lake Place NW
Atlanta, GA 30318
1976secretary@williams.edu
Hello, everyone. I have sad
news to report this time. George
Powell Jr. passed away on Nov.
12 in Tampa, Fla., where he
lived for 28 years and worked
as an economic development
manager at Boone, Young &
Associates and as a program
director at Central City Family
YMCA. He is survived by his
mother Leonarda Powell and
daughter Garvey Powell. The
funeral was held in Tampa,
and the burial at Laurel Grove
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