A Passion for Science - Columbia College - Columbia University

CLASS NOTES Columbia CollEgE Today
of Greater New York. The Garland
E. Wood Foundation also supported
numerous local educational and
cultural organizations, and for nearly
a decade, a scholarship in Garland’s
name has been awarded at the Business
School. He also served on the
College’s Board of Visitors and was
one of three alumni who established
the Black Alumni Council.
Michael schlanger shared his
impressions of the memorial service,
which he found “remarkably touching
and inspiring in many ways.”
Garland’s sisters and brothers recounted
Garland’s growing up “in
a large, loving, close-knit family in
a sleepy, peaceful, southern college
town ... but what a remarkable little
college town. It was 100 percent
black, the home of Prairie View
A&M. Texas, being fully segregated
in those days, parked all its black
students at Prairie View. Although
Garland was one of only four black
students in our College class of 700
and had never so much as sat in a
classroom with white children, he
came to Columbia grounded, sol-
emn and serene. At the service,
former UN Ambassador Andrew
Young, recalling his eight years
as mayor of Atlanta, movingly
recounted how Garland pioneered
the modern science of public finance
and helped build the Atlanta area up
from a sleepy Southern region of 1.5
million to the 6 million-strong colossus
of the New South. And how Garland
traversed mainland America
(and beyond), enabling countless
towns to finance the infrastructures
that turned them into robust, thriving
cities. All with money Garland
raised in the private capital markets
with his brilliance, his tenacity and
his charisma as a Goldman Sachs
partner.”
I am sorry that I could not be at
the service.
REUNION JUNE 2–JUNE 5
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS
ALuMNI AFFAIRS Mia gonsalves wright
gm2156@columbia.edu
212­851­7977
dEVELOPMENT heather hunte
hh15@columbia.edu
212­851­7957
stuart berkman
66 Rua Mello Franco, 580
Teresópolis, Rio de Janeiro
25960-531 Brasil
smb102@columbia.edu
Our 45th reunion is less than a
month away, Thursday, June 2–
Sunday, June 5. It’s not too late to
register: alumni.college.columbia.
edu/reunion. There will be a great
mix of cultural happenings throughout
New York City and class-specific
events where we will have a chance
to renew old friendships. Thursday
night, there will be an opportunity to
take in a show in Manhattan. Friday
offers a class tour and lecture, mini-
Core courses and a class dinner.
Saturday is Dean’s Day, with great
lectures, including one by Dean
Michele Moody-Adams, followed
in the evening by the all-class Wine
Tasting, our formal class dinner and
then champagne, music and dancing
on Low Plaza at the Starlight
Reception. In between, there will be
plenty of other happenings to keep
us entertained. Don’t miss it.
Carnival comes unusually late
this year, which means that the
agony of all the noise and confusion
in Rio de Janeiro is lasting
longer than normal. Fortunately,
your correspondent is escaping all
this and is writing from the relative
quiet and calm of his home
in Teresópolis, in the mountains
about 100 km from Rio. We seem
to go into “hiding” every year until
Carnival has passed. My wife and
I recently spent a pleasant week
in Buenos Aires, celebrating our
35th anniversary. I know that some
of our classmates have been happily
wed for longer than that, and
perhaps you may wish to send an
e-mail to let everyone know just
how long you have been married
(to the same wife, of course).
To all classmates (at least, those
with an e-mail address that they
wish to share with others), the following
was sent in early February
by Michael garrett, Mark amsterdam
and dan gardner:
“In this, our 45th reunion year,
we had a great opportunity to get
together about four months prior
to Alumni Reunion Weekend, on
February 11, before and at the
Columbia versus Princeton men’s
basketball game. At the game, we
peered through the mist of time to
try to compare the team and its staff
with coach Jack Rohan ’53 and players
stan felsinger, Dave Newmark
’69, Ken benoit et al. of our era.”
Mike reported, “A dozen classmates
showed up for the reception
and game. Many of us had not been
to The West End since it was taken
over by Havana Central, so there
was much talk of the old, larger
bar that served anyone who had
completed toilet-training and the
hygienically challenged steam table
that once lurked in the left front
corner. Being at the game continued
the nostalgia with many comparisons
between the gym and the old
space and between the current team
and our memories of a much more
eccentric and colorful squad.”
67
albert Zonana
425 Arundel Rd.
Goleta, CA 93117
az164@columbia.edu
At least four of our classmates
were moved by the absence of
news from our class and wrote.
david galinsky: “I’m ending the
string of no entries from the Class of
’67. After working nonstop for the
last 40 years and achieving some
local fame as a geriatrician, I’m
ready to consider what I really want
to do when I grow up. Volunteering,
going back to school, changing
careers and writing poetry are possibilities.
My goal is to gradually cut
back and then quit my practice on
July 1, 2016, so I have time to plan
my future. I’d like to hear what my
cleverest classmates are thinking
about or already doing as they pass
Medicare age. And I don’t want to
hear about golf or taking cruises.”
David lives in Merion Station, Pa.
steve schwartzman ’67 combined his interest in
linguistics, spanish and English by starting a blog:
wordconnections.wordpress.com.
MAY/JUNE 2011
58
steve schwartzman: “Though
I’ve never been a contributor to
Class Notes, I noticed the forlorn
space set aside for ’67 in the January/February
issue and thought I
should give you a little something
to fill at least a column inch or two.
I took my first general linguistics
course at Columbia with Professor
William Labov ’64 GSAS. Upon
graduation as a French major, I
joined the Peace Corps and went
to Honduras, where I taught math
in Spanish. Jump ahead more than
four decades, and you’ll find that I
recently combined my longstanding
interest in linguistics, Spanish and
English by starting a blog about
the many connections between
the words in those two languages.
Anyone with a similar bent is welcome
to look at wordconnections.
wordpress.com. For the past decade
I’ve been pursuing another interest,
the photography of native plants
in central Texas, of which samples
can be found at flickr.com/photos/
schwartzman.”
peter h. shaw wrote, “I saw
your mention in the January/
February CCT that your mailbox
has been empty lately. At the end
of December 2010, I retired from
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
after 42 years as an economist and
water resources planner. At my
retirement, I was the senior economist
at its Southwestern Division
office in Dallas with technical and
policy oversight for economic
analyses in Corps planning studies
in the southcentral United States.
(Actually, I still am: I’m continuing
temporarily with the Corps as a
‘reemployed annuitant’ to assist
with the transition until they can
fill my position and then mentor
my replacement ... but really, how
easy could it be to replace a Columbia
grad?)
“After getting my B.A. in economics
and completing my first year
of graduate school at NYU, I got a
summer job with the Corps in Washington,
D.C., in 1968. It turned out
that I liked the people and the work,
and I stayed with the Corps in New
York City while I continued graduate
school. And during the following
few years, I acquired an M.A. from
NYU and an M.Phil. from GSAS,
both in economics, and I’d decided
to make the Corps my career. Since
then, I’ve worked in Corps offices in
New York City, Albuquerque, Fort
Worth and Dallas.
“Four weeks after I started with
the Corps of Engineers in 1968, I
married Phyllis, and in 1983 we
adopted our son, Jonathan. Spending
more time with them is what
I’m looking forward to the most in
retirement. Well, that and painting!
“Not as exciting or distinguished
a story as some of our classmates
could tell, no doubt, but it’s been a
good one for me.”
And finally, Jack harris writes,
“The article about Gemma Tarlach
’90 in the January/February CCT
(college.columbia.edu/cct/jan_feb11)
provoked me to write to report that
the Cleverest Class also is represented
on the ice. I recently spent a field
season as part of a team installing
the first benthic microscope. Why?
Well, because near-shore Antarctica,
with 15 feet of ice above, mimics the
dark, cold abyssal benthos and that
part of the biosphere we know very
little about.
“I am professor of biology and
Distinguished University Professor
at The Sage Colleges in Troy,
N.Y. I also direct the college honors
program and the college orchestra.
I plan to retire this May and move
to NYC, where my grandchildren
live. Anyone have an apartment
for rent?”
Don’t be shy. Your classmates really
do want to know what you’re
up to.
68
arthur spector
271 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024
abszzzz@aol.com
While there was about 15 inches of
new snow at my place in Saratoga
during the last few days before
writing this, spring is in the air in
the city … about time. I continue to
enjoy the Metropolitan Opera and
saw the production of Rossini’s
Armida with Renée Fleming; it was