Japan Storm - Columbia College - Columbia University

CLASS NOTES COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
lbs.) — I had a stroke and went
into a coma. My wife, Shoshana
(née Jane Wirth ’63 Barnard), sat
by my bed, urging me to wake
up. And I did … just five months
later! It’s rare enough to wake up
after one month in a coma. I had
‘slept through’ my final semester
of teaching, but had also lost 55 lbs.
… and my asthma and cough were
mysteriously gone. After several
months of rehab, I’m almost as
good as when I was 30: I can walk
upstairs and down. My mind and
memory were miraculously unaffected
by the coma and stroke; I’ll
be teaching my adult-ed Hebrew
course, for which I recently wrote
a new version of my textbook
(this version brings my innovative
‘key-letter’ system to the beginning
of elementary Hebrew study).
Although fully retired now, I’ll also
teach my ‘Language & Politics’
course at San Diego State University
in the spring.”
Peter Gollon and his wife, Abby
Pariser ’67 Barnard, are delighted
at the birth of their daughter Kate’s
son, and their first grandson,
Blake. Being retired allows them
to travel between Kate’s family in
Rhode Island and their son, David,
and 3½-year-old granddaughter,
Olivia, in Burlington, Vt.
When not visiting friends or
family or otherwise on vacation,
Peter continues to advance his
liberal politics through activity
in the New York Civil Liberties
Union, on whose Board of Directors
he served for 25 years and was
recently elected director emeritus.
He’s also putting his physics
background to good use as the energy
chair of the Sierra Club: Long
Island Group, from which position
he’s trying to move the local
electric utility to faster implementation
of its energy efficiency and
renewable energy projects. Peter
is motivated by his knowledge
that “climate change is real, and is
driven by human-produced carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere. What
we and other countries do or don’t
do to limit it will have a profound
effect on the world we leave to our
children and grandchildren.”
Michael Bumagin writes, “I
have 36 hours left in my seventh
decade, and my favorite birthday
present so far is a scrub suit embroidered
with the Columbia Lion!
If I’d known I’d live so long I’d
have taken better care of myself!”
Byron Cohen writes, “I have
had a contemporary art gallery
for 16 years. We have closed our
physical space and now do all of
our shows on the Internet. We advertise
in ARTnews and represent
some great contemporary artists.
Our new website is byroncohen
gallery.com. I would love to hear
from my classmates.”
Peter Slocum writes that he
“was married between freshman
and sophomore years at Columbia
College. Went to Cambridge University
for grad degree and stayed
in England with Merrill Lynch.
Subsequently was CEO of three
banks in London, Beirut and the
Bahamas. Now working in investment
business in Carefree, Ariz.,
with oldest son. Portfolio consists
of four children, nine grandchildren
and one great-grandchild.”
Peter, great name for a town. I
hope it is.
Carey Winfrey retired on September
30 after 10 years as editor
of Smithsonian Magazine. Asked his
plans by The Washington Post, Carey
replied: “Something between
writing the Great American Novel
and a lot of emails.” He was only
the third editor in the magazine’s
40-year history.
After more than 35 years in the
Washington, D.C., area, David
Chessler Ph.D. ’74 GSAS is moving
to Waltham, Mass., to be closer
to his children and grandchildren
and farther from hurricanes and
earthquakes.
David Orme-Johnson writes,
“We are spending summers in
Fairfield, Iowa, where some of our
kids and many friends live and
where the university we helped
found, Maharishi University of
Management, is located. Winters
are in the Florida Panhandle, our
main residence, between Destin
and Panama City, a beautiful area.
“I write papers, mainly reviews
and meta-analysis of research on
transcendental meditation, and
paint. I learned pastel painting this
past summer and now am taking a
watercolor class. What a joy. We do
long, daily meditations with a group
of about 2,000, working on personal
enlightenment and ostensibly creating
coherence for the United States,
and go to a lot of concerts and musical
events. Yes, in Fairfield, population
10,000. I tell my New York and
West Coast friends that this is where
the action is!”
Jack McMullen writes, “I am on
the boards of three venture-backed
companies and also on the boards
of three civic organizations in
Vermont. I was in New Zealand for
adventure hiking last November
and in a few months plan to go to
Patagonia for another outdoorsoriented
trip, this time with my
fellow J.D.-M.B.A. classmate, Ed
Savage. I’ve attached a picture
from the New Zealand trip. I’m the
one in the green shirt in the foreground.”
(Visit our website to see.)
Benita and Henry Black recently
returned from a trans-Atlantic
crossing on the QM2, where they
were enrolled in a Road Scholar
course, “An Insider’s Perspective
of London Theatre Aboard the
WINTER 2011–12
70
Queen Mary 2.” The course continued
on land in London, where
they were able to live what they
had learned aboard ship. Henry
reports that his Columbia class in
modern drama with Bentley and
Brustein stood him in good stead
on the trip.
Robert Smith writes, “I am
active in psychiatric research
and practice. I continue research
in biological mechanism and
treatment of schizophrenia and
autism as a research psychiatrist
at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for
Psychiatric Research, where I lead a
research group, and I am a research
professor of psychiatry at NYU
Langone Medical Center. I also
have a part-time private practice
in Woodmere, N.Y., where I live
with my wife, Sultana. I recently
retired from clinical and research
duties at Manhattan Psychiatric
Center after 20 years and was chief
of psychopharmacology consultation
from 2000–11. I have current
research grants from the Stanley
Medical Research Foundation and
other philanthropic sources and am
working on studies of metabolic
side effects of antipsychotic drugs;
biological and clinical studies of
smoking in schizophrenia; effects of
varenicline in schizophrenia; and
effects of yoga on metabolic, epigenetic,
hormonal and psychopathology
changes in schizophrenic
patients. I am a member or fellow of
prestigious organizations including
the International College of Neuro-
Psychopharmacology/Collegium
Internationale Neuro-Psychopharmacologicum.”
Jeff Parson (alias Jefferson
Parson) writes, “My companion,
Lauren Oliver, and I recently helped
to organize a successful musical
benefit for the northern-Californiabased
Environmental Protection
Information Center (EPIC), which
is taking California Department of
Transportation (Caltrans) to court,
contesting its plans to widen the
highway (101) through Richardson
Grove, a state park just south of
Garberville, Calif., that has one of
the most beautiful remaining stands
of ancient redwoods. We raised
around $7,000 for EPIC’s legal fund.
The event included well-known
environmental troubadours such
as Joanne Rand and many local
musicians, including my band,
Raspberry Jam, which performed
12 of my original songs, five of
them specifically about Richardson
Grove. We also made a compilation
CD of Richardson Grove-inspired
songs. Concurrently, I came up
with the concept for a billboard
that we installed on Route 101, near
Richardson Grove. The sign has
four identical panels of artist Marc
Arceneaux’s rendering of giant
redwoods, with a headline that says
‘Richardson Grove — Our Future,’
but underneath each panel are the
separate captions: Tourism? Lumber?
Development? Inspiration?,
asking viewers to decide what these
ancient trees mean to them. For
more information about the movement
to protect Richardson Grove
and other ‘Redwood Curtains,’
please contact EPIC: wildcalifornia.
org. Anyone wanting a copy of the
compilation CD (for a $10 donation)
or copies of my other two CDs, The
Baby and the Bathwater and Jefferson’s
Laments, please contact me at jeffer
son@asis.com. Class of ’63 discounts
available!”
Yoshiharu Fujisawa writes, “One
big change took place recently. On
June 20 I relinquished my chairman
and CEO position at Internix,
which I founded in September
1970, and got listed in the First Section
of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in
2004. I retain the honorary chairman
title but basically am retired and no
longer am a board member. I plan
to concentrate on the nature and
biodiversity preservation activities
that I have been involved in for
almost two decades. After David
Cohen passed away, I have not kept
in touch with any classmates and I
certainly look forward to knowing
how they have been doing.”
You’ll find pictures of Yoshi and
his family on our website.
After eight years of serving the
U.S. Department of Justice as a
pseudo-special master, monitoring
and enforcing Micro soft’s compliance
with the 2002 final judgment
in the long-running antitrust case,
Harry Saal is “retired” once again,
seeking the next big thing. Having
two young grandchildren living
nearby in Palo Alto seems to be filling
all his free time in the interim.
Harry’s wife, Carol, has had quite
a challenging year due to multiple
rounds of chemotherapy and a
stem cell transplant for mantle cell
lymphoma. She is participating
in a clinical trial of personalized
immunotherapy that promises
lifelong immunity against a recurrence
of MCL.
Ira Malter’s wife, Cynthia, recently
completed a set of five murals
for the new Sarabeth’s restaurant in
Tribeca at Jay and Greenwich Streets.
“Have a look,” Ira says. “We live in
Arizona in the winter and Vermont
in the summer.”
Lee Lowenfish turned summer
into a paradise of baseball travel
and baseball writing for his blog
(leelowenfish.com) and also the
booktrib.com and lovemyteam.
com blogs.
He made two trips to Cooperstown,
N.Y., once to speak about his
new project on baseball scouting,
“Competitors and Colleagues,”
and the other to attend the annual
late July Hall of Fame inductions.