CLASS OF ’59 – JAN/FEB 2008
This past April Roz Bakst Goldman of Rochester was elected president of the Appraisers Association of America, a professional organization of some 700 personal property appraisers who serve the arts, legal, and financial communities and private and corporate collectors, and who provide appraisals of fine and decorative arts, jewelry, and household contents. Roz specializes in the appraisal of original prints from all centuries and areas except for Asian. She also appraises paintings, drawings, and sculpture from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
Alan Schecter, who lives in Bethesda, MD, heads the molecular medicine branch of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, a branch of the National Institute of Health, where his research focuses on hemoglobin and its diseases, such as sickle cell anemia. Alan also is acting director of the Office of NIH History, which works with all NIH components to foster documentation, preservation and interpretation of the NIH history. In addition, he’s co-editor of Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, an interdisciplinary journal published by John Hopkins Press that focuses on subjects of current interest in biology and medicine in a context with humanistic, social, and scientific concerns. No wonder he says he’s “trying to have enough time for acting as a grandfather to four young grandchildren” plus finding time for reading, socializing, etc.
John Kriendler, who some years ago headed NATO’s Political Directorate and was deputy assistant secretary general for policy affairs, switched to academic life, where he is professor of NATO and European security issues at the George Marshall Centre for European Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Recent travels took him to Pogorica, Montenegro and Belgrade, Serbia, where he lectured on NATO and related issues to government officials and military officers. Svein Richard Arber was recently appointed chair of the English department at Lowell High School in San Francisco. Richard Harris of Teaneck, NJ, is president and founder of Richard M. Harris Associates, a personal communications training and coaching firm. His first book, The Listening Leader—Powerful New Strategies for Becoming an Influential Communicator, was published in 2006 by Greenwood Publishing Group. His articles on effective communication have appeared in such publications as Training and Development and Financial Executive.
Semi-retired radiologist Bob Dann and his wife Nancy now spend part of the year—from November to May—at their new home in Vero Beach, FL. Playing golf and welcoming visitors are high on the agenda. Also “not quite retired” is psychotherapist Judy Brotman Cochran of Kensington, MD. She and her husband Clayton completed the 192-mile Coast to Coast Walk in England last May. “We walked across northern England from St. Bees on the Irish Sea to Robin Hood’s Bay on the North Sea in 17 days…with no blisters,” says Judy. The walk crosses three National Parks and some of England’s finest scenery, including the Lake District, the Pennines, and the North York Moors. Another classmate who walked the English countryside is Carole Parnes of Alameda, CA. She spent two weeks in September in the village of Mickleton in the Cotswalds, at an inn that is home to the Pudding Club, founded in the 1980s to prevent the demise of the great British dessert. Every day a walk through a different village, every evening the pleasure of a different “pud.”
Paul Katzeff of Mendocino, CA, is CEO of Thanksgiving Coffee Company, a sustainable specialty coffee company that works with coffee cooperatives in Laos, Uganda, Rwanda, and Nicaragua. You can browse the company’s coffees, read about its projects, and sign up for its e-mail newsletter at www.thanksgivingcoffee.com. Paul’s extracurricular activities include raspberry gardener and catcher on a baseball team. Skiing and cycling are the extracurricular activities of choice of Donna Mason Drummond, Portland, OR, while Maxine Hollander Bittker of Rochester favors traveling, tennis, and bridge.
Our last column carried news of Dick Vincent’s induction in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as an Outstanding American from New York. Dave Dunlop, who had the pleasure of speaking about Dick to the audience at the September ceremony, writes that Steve Friedman, who had previously received the same honor, was one of the people who presented Dick with the award. “With Dick joining Steve as Outstanding Americans of New York, 40 percent of those who have been so honored are members of our class!” notes Dave.
* Jenny Tesar, 97A Chestnut Hill Village, Bethel, CT 06801; tel., (203) 792-8237; e-mail, jet24@cornell.edu.