Kyle Smith Takes the Helm in Levien Gym - Columbia College ...

Columbia CollEgE Today CLAss NOTEs
contributors ($1,500 or more) this
fund year. Remember, we have until
June 30 to reach our goal. Hopefully
with our 55th reunion year, and
with the stock market recovering
so our 401ks start to feel and look
more like 401ks, our feelings and
commitment to giving to Columbia
will increase with our age. It also
will be a continued blessing to the
students we are supporting.
I am again asking all class members
who want to keep in touch
to share or update their e-mail
addresses by contacting lou hemmerdinger:
lhemmer@aol.com. My
name will remain at the top of the
column, but Lou and I will share
Class Notes responsibilities. This
seems to be the best way to stay in
touch with the majority of our class
members. Please keep in contact
with Columbia in whatever ways
you feel appropriate. It has been a
force of power, I am sure, in each
and every one of our lives.
Until our next issue, wishing for
a fall season of Columbia teams
winning and health and good fortune
for all our class members.
57
hdlleditor@aol.com
Ken bodenstein left Duff & Phelps,
a financial advisory firm, on August
31 after 35 years; he had been mana-
ging director. His new contact information
is 28 Westwind St., Marina
del Rey, CA 90292; 310-629-3694;
kenbodie@yahoo.com.
Ken attached a copy of an excerpt
from the Daily Bruin (“UCLA’s answer
to Spectator”) of May 25. The
Daily Bruin described Ken as “not
your average tennis fan” and “a
30-year-old trapped in a nearly
75-year-old man’s body.” In the
excerpt, Ken noted he competes in
70-and-over tournaments and that
his wife, Diane, was a member of the
Bruin Racqueteers, a support group
for the UCLA tennis teams, which
“opened his eyes to the UCLA tennis
program.”
ronald h. boorse, retired business
owner, died in Houston on
July 6. A complete obituary will be
published in an upcoming issue,
pending receipt of information. Due
to the volume of obituaries that
CCT receives, it may take several
issues for the obituary to appear.
John “sparky” breeskin: “roy
wolff had a stroke, and he [was
at this writing] in a rehabilitation
hospital in the wilds of New Jersey.
There is no question that Roy is a
fighter, and he receives praise on
all sides for his motivation directed
toward regaining his ability to
function. He has made remarkable
progress to date and that fact
encourages all of us who love him.
“[Because] he may be changing
hospitals in the near future, I will
be the contact point for him for our
class and would welcome the opportunity
to correspond with any
of you who wish, as I do, the very
best for our friend.
“I was standing in total shock at
the foot of a hospital bed looking
into the face of my dearest, closest
friend whom I have been privileged
to know for 57 years. Roy is the
only person alive who knew my
parents and my brother and, thanks
to the acceptance of brolove in our
culture today, we are able to tell one
another, without hesitation, that we
love one another. [See photo.]
“He is my age (75) and also has
heart problems with atrial fib as I
do. He was lying uncomfortably
in a hospital bed in an intensive
rehabilitation hospital, and he had
aged at least 10 years since I saw
him a few months ago. He suffered
a stroke, fell to the floor, and it was
four hours before he could reach a
phone. Roy has left-side residual
paralysis and is in obvious physical
discomfort. His left arm is essentially
paralyzed, and he tries over
and over again to get it to respond
herman levy
57 7322 Rockford Dr. only to be faced with failure. His 58
Falls Church, VA 22043
face was pale, and he had lost more
than 30 pounds. When I first called
him on the phone just after learning
of his stroke, I was unable to
understand him, and I am relieved
that his speech has improved
enormously.
“In addition to my great concern
about Roy, I was sharply aware that I
was looking into myself lying in that
hospital bed. What had happened to
Roy could also have happened to me
and, indeed, is something that I have
to realize may be in my future.
“His close companion of more
than 10 years, Monique, was with
him, and she can appropriately
be called an angel of mercy. She
feeds him soup in tiny spoonfuls,
assists him to the bathroom and
coordinates all the services that the
hospital offers. She does this with
obvious pride over the fact that she
is able to offer her compassion to
him, and it is beautiful to observe.
“Roy was quick to point out to
me that the stroke has not affected
his mind, and he proceeded to
quote Kipling, Henry V and Omar
Khayyam with obvious and appropriate
pride. Of course, we got into
one of our ongoing debates about
politics and the dubious applicability
of the scientific method. Monique
and I watched and were moved to
see Roy’s complexion improve and
the sparkle come back to his eyes
as he was talking to me, and when
I left, he told me how wonderful it
had been to talk to me in our old
style of loving disagreement.
“I was able to keep it together
until I said goodbye to Roy and
walked out the door, and then
proceeded to burst into tears in the
nurse’s station. Monique did not
have to say a word, but she held me
until I could gain some control over
my emotions.
“I know that what I learned as
a result of visiting my dear friend
will be a lesson that will take me
some time to understand, but I
know that the end result will be to
leave me both sadder and wiser, in
that order.
“I wish to publicly acknowledge
my deep gratitude to my
dear friend Michael Gottdenker
’86, who provided me with angel
wings to speed me on my journey.”
While in San Francisco for the
American Bar Association Annual
Meeting and vacation, yours truly
had dinner with ira lubell and
his partner, Louis Bounsignore,
and Sunday brunch with Eloise
and John norton. My plans are
to return to San Francisco in May
following the ABA meetings in Sacramento;
I look forward to again
seeing our Bay Area contingent.
58
NOvEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
43
barry dickman
25 Main St.
Court Plaza North, Ste 104
Hackensack, NJ 07601
bdickmanesq@gmail.com
We are sorry to report the deaths of
two more classmates.
Dr. george braman died on June
23. He earned his medical degree at
SUNY Downstate Medical Center
and taught in its School of Public
Health, retiring as an assistant professor.
George also was director of
quality management and assistant
attending physician at Elmhurst
Hospital Center in Queens. In
addition, he was a published poet;
many of his poems and essays
appeared in Annals of Internal
Medicine. George is survived by his
wife, Joan; and sons, Donald and
Leonard.
Edward “bud” spraker died on
July 3. Originally from Knoxville,
Tenn., Ed was a wide receiver on
the Lions football team and went
on to get an M.A. in education at
Teachers College. He had a long
teaching career in the Tenafly, N.J.,
school system, including time as
varsity coach in several sports and
as athletics director. Ed sang in the
choir at Christ Episcopal Church in
Teaneck, N.J., and was the Sunday
School superintendent for many
years. He is survived by his sons,
Gary and John, and one granddaughter.
Congratulations to russ Ellis
on winning the Wyld Propulsion
Award, given by the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
The award is presented
for outstanding achievement in
the development or application of
rocket propulsion systems. Russ,
’58’s leading rocket scientist, spent
his entire career in rocket engineering,
including 32 years at Pratt &
Whitney Rocketdyne, and he continues
to work as a consultant. The
award honored Russ’ “significant
improvements to solid and liquid
nozzle reliability and performance
through introduction and demonstration
of innovative design
concepts incorporating new composite
materials.” We asked Russ
for a translation into English and
he replied, “Most of my work was
on advanced, high-performance
rocket nozzles, applying new
high temperature composites to
systems such as the Trident II (D5)
submarine-launched ballistic missile,
Tomahawk, Delta 4 and many
others. It was rewarding to see
things I’d worked on send probes
to Mars, Saturn, Pluto and so on. I
also was fortunate to be involved in
importing advanced foreign rocket
technology and made many trips
to France and Russia through the
years to work with their experts.”
We caught Frost/Nixon on HBO
and were delighted to spot a cameo
by carl stern (NBC News, Washington):
a clip from his post-Watergate
coverage.
Marshall front, dapper and
eloquent as always, appeared on a
recent Bloomberg News TV report,
discussing financial stocks and the
new reform law.
Ed halperin, who confides that
he has “always avoided filling in
the details of my life,” has finally
decided to share them with Class
Notes. Ed is a child psychiatrist
practicing in New Rochelle, N.Y.;
he also is board-certified in adult
and adolescent psychiatry. Ed is a
consultant for Leake & Watts, a Yonkers
foster care agency. His wife,
Beth G. Weingast, is president of the
American Society of Appraisers; she
specializes in valuing Judaica and
coins (both ancient and modern).
Ed and Beth have three children:
Alex ’03J, a journalist who recently
won the Sidney Hillman prize for
socially responsible journalism;
Anne, who is starting her residency
in psychiatry at New York
Hospital; and Anthony, who is in
Bolivia on an NIH Fogarty grant
to do research on Chagas disease,
a parasitic infection prevalent in
South America.
charles goldstein has once
again made the news for his activities
in the art world. As counsel to
the Commission for Art Recovery,
a nonprofit that helps victims of
Nazi art thefts, Charles is involved
with a claim by the Herzog family
against the Hungarian government,
seeking the return of $100 million
worth of paintings and sculptures,