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

Columbia CollEgE Today CLAss NOTEs
to Nine Massachusetts Towns North of
Quabbin Reservoir guides (1983 and
2002) to the north central region of
Massachusetts where he lives.
Please write. As you can see,
we’re in need of material. And
Columbia has now made sending a
note even easier. Just go to college.
columbia.edu/cct/submit_class_
note and write. Be sure to select
“1962” in the “CC Class Year” pulldown,
and your message will be
automatically forwarded to me for
publication in a future issue. You
also may continue to e-mail me
directly. Peace to all.
63
paul neshamkin
1015 Washington St., Apt. 50
Hoboken, NJ 07030
pauln@helpauthors.com
I was lucky enough to spend most
of my time this long, hot summer
being a beach bum down the Jersey
Shore. Not retired yet, just very little
work. Sadly, I wasn’t able to make
the regular dinner visits with Bettye
and steve barcan to Vic’s (best pizza)
in Bradley Beach, but I was able
to join tom o’connor; his wife,
Terrie; son, Matthew; daughterin-law,
Emma; grandson, Raleigh;
and other family and friends for a
great birthday dinner at Sea Grass
in Ocean Grove. Tom was honored
in October with induction into the
Columbia University Athletics Hall
of Fame as a member of the great
1961 football team along with lou
asack, tony day, ron drotos,
Mike hassan, Joe Marchese, pat
Moran and fritz Mundorff. What
a season! Certainly one I’ll never
forget. Thank you, guys.
phil satow was saluted for his
generous donations to the athletics
program on October 23 (Homecoming)
when the baseball stadium was
named Satow Stadium in his honor.
The stadium will boast new seating,
a home team dugout, a press
box and a multimedia scoreboard.
It will be one of the best in the Ivy
League. Congratulations, Phil!
Phil also was rewarded with a
first granddaughter, Sophie Emilene
Elliott, on July 8. The mother is his
daughter, Julie ’96, ’01 SIPA, who
is a journalist currently freelancing
with The New York Times, and the
father is Julie’s husband, Stuart Elliott,
co-founder and editor-in-chief
of The Real Deal, a key New York
real estate publication.
It is fitting that now both the base-
ball stadium and football field,
robert K. Kraft Field, are named
in honor of two of our classmates.
If any of you are interested, there’s
probably a swimming pool or soccer
field that could be named after you.
gary rachelefsky writes, “Cannot
believe our 50th reunion is fast
approaching. Gail and I are married
44 years, having met at a TEP party
in 1962. We have three daughters
(Holly, Cara ’94 and Lindsay ’01)
and seven grandchildren. I left the
practice of allergy immunology
four years ago and am a full-time
tenured professor at UCLA. Best to
everyone.”
Gary, I can’t believe it either; time
moves too fast. We’d better start
planning.
Eric foner, the DeWitt Clinton
Professor of History, now is a
member of the editorial board of
the Progressive Book Club.
david pittinsky writes, “In addition
to my continuing to work
full-time as a commercial litigator,
my wife, Alecia, and I continue to
take wonderful vacations to France.
This summer, we spent two weeks
in Paris and one week in St. Tropez.
We have been going to St. Tropez
since 2002. We have also been going
to Paris every October since 2006
for extended eating weekends at
one-, two- and three-star Michelin
restaurants. My favorite Parisian
restaurant is L’Ami Louis, which
we went to for the fifth consecutive
year this October. If anyone would
like to read my Parisian eating reports,
which also contain valuable
information on other aspects of
Parisian life, they should e-mail me,
and I will be glad to share them.”
You can reach David at pittin
sky@ballardspahr.com.
Our regular second Thursday
lunches have been seeing an increasing
number of you. Some of
the luminaries in the spring and
early summer included steve barcan,
henry black, Ed coller, Jerry
dwyer, doron gopstein, bob
Heller, Rich Juro, Lee Lowenfish,
don Margolis, larry neuman,
paul neshamkin, tom o’connor,
barry reiss, phil satow and Jeff
thompson. If you’re in NYC,
try to make the next Class of ’63
lunch, scheduled for Thursday,
November 11, and then again on
Thursday, December 9. It’s always
the second Thursday. Check our
website at cc63ers.com for details.
In the meantime, let us know
what you are up to, how you’re
doing and what’s next.
64
norman olch
233 Broadway
New York, NY 10279
norman@nolch.com
I am writing this column in New
York City shortly after Labor Day.
The scorching summer days are
over, and everyone is looking
forward to a mild autumn. The
informal class lunches at the Columbia
University Club resumed
on October 14 and will continue
on November 11 and December 9,
both Thursdays. Please join us.
NOvEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
47
In July, howie perlstein retired
after 42 years as an attorney at the
National Labor Relations Board
in Washington, D.C. During his
career, Howie argued hundreds
of cases before federal courts of
appeals across the country. When
he retired, he was assistant general
counsel in the NLRB’s Appellate
and Supreme Court Litigation
Branch. He writes, “When not
auditing courses at George Mason
University, playing golf or serving
on various committees, my wife,
Linda, and I intend to travel, starting
with the Panama Canal in the
fall, and Israel in the spring.”
Also during the summer, steve
singer left for a five-week celebratory
retirement trip to Europe;
allen tobias read Fritz Stern ’46’s
autobiography, Five Germanys I
Have Known; nick rudd headed
to San Francisco to cradle his
newborn grandchild, Elizabeth
Lucy Rudd; Nick and dave levin
participated in Convocation to welcome
the Class of 2014; and ivan
weissman attended Old-Timers’
Day at Yankee Stadium.
Speaking of baseball, Marty
flamm writes, “I am enjoying my
retirement in Arizona with a parttime
‘job’ as a paid official scorer for
Arizona League baseball games. I
mostly score the rookie minor league
Texas Rangers games, though I also
will do a few Dodgers and Padres
games. It is nice to get paid to watch
games!”
I’ll say!
peter d.g. brown is the Dist-
inguished Service Professor of
German at SUNY New Paltz. He
has edited more than 100 books on
German history and literature, and
his book Oskar Panizza and The Love
Council: A History of the Scandalous
Play on Stage and in Court was
published in March. The German
play The Love Council appeared in
1894. Peter writes: “The Love Council
is a carnivalesque satire dealing
with the first recorded outbreak
of syphilis in 1495, which portrays
the scourge as divine punishment
for the rampant sexual excesses in
the Vatican court of the Pope of the
time, the notorious Rodrigo Borgia.
Panizza was imprisoned for one
year on 93 counts of blasphemy,
the harshest sentence ever given to
an artist in the Second Empire. My
book contains a detailed history
of the play on stage and the court
proceedings that led to Panizza’s
imprisonment. A new English translation
of the play is included as well
as a biography of its avant-garde,
modernist author.”
I am saddened to report the
death of thomas h. connell iii.
Since 1981, Tom was the production
stage manager — the chief stage
manager — at the Metropolitan
Opera. The New York Times obituary
recounts his colorful and extraordinary
career at the Met: nytimes.
com/2010/04/28/arts/28connell.
html.
Tom’s daughter, Phoebe Day
Danziger ’05, wrote to CCT: “I heard
from one of [my dad’s] CC classmates
during the summer, but as a
CC alum, it would mean a lot to me
if any of my dad’s other classmates
had any memories of him, because
I don’t know too much about his
time at Columbia.” Phoebe can be
reached at phoebedanziger@gmail.
com.
Requiesat in pacem.
65
leonard b. pack
924 West End Ave.
New York, NY 10025
packlb@aol.com
I have not received any news from
classmates since our 45th reunion
in June. While classmates who attended
the reunion may have shared
all of their recent doings, I have to
request the rest of you keep those informative
communications coming!
My wife, Adele, and I spent a
wonderful July weekend visiting
bob Kronley and his wife, Ann
Rosewater, at their house in the
Berkshires near Tanglewood. Bob
and Ann’s house is in the woods,
off a dirt road, and I saw Bob at
his rural leisure, a delightful contrast
to his Atlanta intensity (not
that there’s anything wrong with
intensity!). We caught a marvelous
performance of Mahler Symphony
No. 3 at Tanglewood, where we
saw pianist Emanuel Ax ’70 in the
audience enjoying a performance
instead of giving one.
REUNION JUNE 2–JUNE 5
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS
ALuMNI AFFAIRs Mia Gonsalves Wright
gm2156@columbia.edu
212-851-7977
DEVELOPMENT Heather Hunte
hh15@columbia.edu
212-851-7957
66
stuart berkman
Rua Mello Franco, 580
Teresópolis, Rio de Janeiro
25960-531 Brasil
smb102@columbia.edu
Lana Mae Noone, widow of byron
Michael noone, wrote recently that
Byron’s life and work were celebrated
during her remarks at a program
she presented at the Woodstock
Museum, Bethel, N.Y. (the site at
the Woodstock Festival of 1969), on
July 25. “My program was part of
the Woodstock Museum’s Vietnam
War 35th Anniversary Retrospective,
and I related the events of the
’60s and the Woodstock Festival
itself to the historical issues and
societal shifts that culminated in the