University of Rochester

Class Notes

River Campus /Undergraduate

1937

Garson Merimsky celebrated his 100th birthday in May. He lives in Rochester.

1941

John Manhold sends an update. He’s written a new book, El Tigre II (Sarah Book Publishing), a sequel to his 2007 book about a young aristocrat, Johann Heinrich von Manfred, who emigrates from post-Napoleonic Prussia to the United States, making his way to California during the Gold Rush of 1849. In addition, John’s 2008 book, The Elymais Coin (Cereb Press), has been released as an e-book under the title The Coin (BookBaby).

1953

Joseph Pagano, the director emeritus of the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, received the 2011 Hyman L. Battle Distinguished Cancer Research Award. The award honors an exceptional cancer researcher at the University of North Carolina’s medical school. A virologist, Joseph was among the first to discover the molecular links between viruses and cancer.

1956

Sarah Miles Bolam is coauthor with her husband, Thomas, of Fictional Presidential Films: A Comprehensive Filmography of Portrayals from 1930 to 2011 (Xlibris). This is the couple’s second book on the topic of film. In 2007, they published The Presidents on Film, a guide to 400 films made since 1903 that included a president.

1958

Jerry Gardner ’65 (MA) sends a photo and an update. He has three grandchildren: Isabella, Ella, and Dylan. Ella and Dylan are the children of his son, Bradley ’96. Jerry is a life trustee of the University.

1959

Richard Davis writes that he married his high school sweetheart, Marjorie, in September 2010 after a 53-year separation. They were married at the foot of Canandaigua Lake by Mayor Ellen Polimeni. He adds that he and Marjorie are “paragons of vigor and good health at age 72. I work full time in the energy industry and Marjorie holds a position at the Canandaigua Hospital. There’s no dust on either of our shoulders.”

1961

Arnold Sucher sends a photo of a Class of 1961 Sigma Alpha Mu reunion. He writes: “Most of us were not able to be at the 50th reunion at the U of R, but we did wish to get together, and were able to do so in New York in early May.” Pictured are (standing, left to right) Barton Kraff ’69M (Res), Marvin Grote, Michael Savin, Bernard Jaffe, Arnold, Myron Belfer; (sitting, left to right) Larry Ossias ’66M (Res), Joe Zelson, and Edward Feller. Also attending the reunion were Leslie Sucher, Leslie Miller Kraff ’63, ’69W (MA), Jacquelyn Grote, Adrien Savin, Marlene Lambert Jaffe ’62, Sandy Belfer, Linda Michaelson Ossias ’64, Myra Zelson, and Arlene Feller. Arnold notes that a few Sigma Alpha Mu brothers and their spouses were not able to be there, including Bill Smith and his wife, Barbara; Melvin Dell and his wife, Barbara; and Bob Rosen. Arnold also notes the absence of Jerry Steinberg Stone. Jerry passed away in 2001.

1962

Marlene Lambert Jaffe (see ’61).

1963

Carol Gracie has published a book, Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast: A Natural History (Princeton University Press). Carol is a retired naturalist, photographer, and writer, and formerly an educator and tour guide at the New York Botanical Garden. . . . Leslie Miller Kraff ’69W (MA) (see ’61).

1964

Linda Michaelson Ossias (see ’61).

1965

Dick Hull writes that he’s the interim dean of Lenior-Rhyne University’s College of Professional and Mathematical Studies in Hickory, N.C. He continues to teach mathematics and computer science and play jazz guitar on the side.

1968

Cathy Jones Minehan was the keynote speaker at YWCA Boston’s annual YW Boston Academy of Women Achievers luncheon in June. Cathy was inducted into the Academy of Women Achievers in 1996. She’s the dean of the Simmons College School of Management, a Rochester trustee, and a former president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

1971

Jack Dornan (see ’72).

1972

Career diplomat Gene Cretz was nominated by President Barack Obama in April to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Ghana. He previously served in Libya as the first American ambassador to the north African nation in 36 years. . . . Valerie Pierce writes that she and Jack Dornan ’71 “reconnected and were married in October, among close family and friends. Jack is retired from the chemical industry and I’m a high school foreign language teacher. We attended the 2011 reunion and anyone visiting mid-coast Maine is most welcome chez nous.”

1973

Marian Kester Coombs writes: “I recently copyrighted a handmade and illustrated book called Animal Lexicon, a collection of words and phrases derived from the animal kingdom, in taxonomic order, interspersed with small essays on such topics as ‘Animal Metaphors from the French,’ ‘Bestiaries,’ fables, cocktail names, colors from nature, Cockney rhyming slang, Shakespeare’s beastly insults, ‘Onomatopoeia,’ the zodiac, Egyptian hieroglyphs, animal symbols of the nation-state, and ‘Teams, Tribes, and Totems.’” Marian keeps a blog at http://mariankcoombs.blogspot.com. . . . Susan Hockfield, the president of MIT, has been elected to the National Geographic Society’s board of trustees. Susan, professor of neuroscience at MIT, announced earlier this year that she plans to step down as president once a successor is named.

1974

Frank Koch writes: “I’ve retired after a 31-year career at Chevron and have begun my second career as an executive coach at Koch Decision Consulting, where I guide senior executives making strategic decisions. I’ve recently become president of the Society of Decision Professionals. My wife, Elizabeth, and I have relocated to Eugene, Ore., and spend our time traveling and enjoying retired life.”

1976

Harriet Washington, a journalist and medical ethicist, has published Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself and the Consequences for Your Health and Our Medical Future (Doubleday). Harriet’s 2007 book, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present (Anchor Books) won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction and has been cited by Toni Morrison as an inspiration for her latest novel, Home (Doubleday).

1977

Daniel Kimmel’s 2011 book Jar Jar Binks Must Die. . . and other Observations about Science Fiction Movies (Fantastic Books) is one of five nominees for a Hugo Award, a top award in science fiction, in the category of Best Related Book, which covers nonfiction works about the science fiction genre. Voting continues through July and the final winners will be announced in August at the 2012 World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago. Daniel teaches in the communication and journalism department at Suffolk University and is the former president of the Boston Society of Film Critics.

1979

Peter Blanck has been elected to the board of trustees of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse. Peter is a professor at Syracuse University.

1981

Fred Guterl has published The Fate of the Species: Why the Human Race May Cause Its Own Extinction and How We Can Stop It (Bloomsbury, 2012). Fred is a veteran science writer and the executive editor of Scientific American.

1983

Tom Wilber has written a book, Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortunes, and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale (Cornell University Press). Tom is a reporter covering business, health, and the environment for the Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin.

1987

David Levine writes: “On May 2, four of the six suitemates of Chambers 110 got together in Boston for a 25th reunion warm-up. We all made a pact to be in Rochester this coming October for the reunion and Meliora Weekend.” Pictured from left to right are Robert Cutting, Seth Read, David, and Eric Carlson. . . . Julie Anne Taddeo ’97 (PhD) has published Catherine Cookson Country: On the Borders of Legitimacy, Fiction, and History (Ashgate). Julie is a visiting associate professor of history at the University of Maryland.

1990

Julie Bentley ’96 (PhD) has been named a fellow of the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, an honor for scientists who have made significant contributions in the fields of optics, photonics, and imaging. Julie is an associate professor of optics at Rochester, where she’s been on the faculty since 1998 and teaches courses on lens design to undergraduates and graduate students.

1991

Mike LaMontagne has published a fantasy novel for middle school readers, The Carter Girls and the Battle of Frontenac Island (Ozbo Productions). . . . Navy Commander Michelle Morse deployed in March on the final mission of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. Commissioned in 1961, the Enterprise is the oldest and largest active naval combat ship, and was part of operations during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, the war in Afghanistan, and the second Iraq war. As part of the mission, Michelle will be overseeing training on awareness and prevention of sexual assault.

1992

Paul Sharlow has been named partner at the Syracuse law firm of Gilberti Stinziano Heintz & Smith. He joined the firm as an associate in 2003.

1993

Bethanie Deeney Murguia has published Zoe Gets Ready (Arthur A. Levine Books), her second book for preschoolers. She lives in Sausalito, Calif.

1995

Fred Beer has been named president of ITX Corp. Fred has been an executive at ITX, a business technology and web solutions company based in Pittsford, N.Y., since 2009.

1996

Bradley Gardner (see ’58). . . . Brian Grimberg delivered a talk, “Buzzkill: How Malaria Has, and Is, Changing the World We Live In,” for the online conference website TED in April. Later that month, on World Malaria Day, he joined 19 other scientists studying the disease on a trip to Capitol Hill, where they discussed their research with members of Congress. An assistant professor of international health at the Center for Global Health and Diseases at Case Western Reserve University’s medical school, Brian received a $7.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to test malaria therapies in Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific.

1997

Carrie Johnson Adelman has received the Future Leaders in Cancer Research Award from the American Association of Cancer Research. A postdoctoral fellow at the London Research Institute of Cancer Research UK, Carrie has helped identify a tumor suppressor gene as well as a probable link between human ovarian cancer and a mutation of the gene. She presented her research, along with the three other winners of the international contest, at a symposium in April. . . . Frank Hayn has been named vice president of retirement plans at National Planning Holdings, an affiliate of the Lansing, Mich., firm Jackson National Life Insurance Co. Frank will work at the affiliate’s Santa Monica, Calif., headquarters.

1999

In January, Tamberla Latray Perry starred in a performance of Race, the 2009 Broadway play by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright David Mamet, at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. Tamberla played the role of Susan, a black attorney hired, along with a white counterpart, to defend a wealthy white man charged with the rape of a black woman.

2001

Amir Dehestani married Jen Sarbaker in February in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in a ceremony conducted by Daniel Britton ’04. Amir writes: “We met six years ago when I helped my sister open up the Uptown Espresso Caffe in Boston, where Jen was a customer.” Pictured are: (back row) Damon D’Arienzo, Raymond Brown ’03, Jameson McNeil ’03, Daniel, Adam Fine ’98, Colleen Whitecar ’98, Craig Pipal ’04; (front row) Nathan Higgins ’08, Nicole Lehman Britton ’05, Jen, Amir. . . . Alison Martinez Finstad and her husband, Korey, welcomed a daughter, Abigail, in December 2010. They live in Denver, where Korey is the pastor at Christ the King Lutheran Church and Alison owns Benezet Advisors, a consulting firm that helps nonprofits develop fundraising strategies.

2003

Ieva Gruzina writes that she’s been appointed to the Central Election Commission of Latvia by the Latvian Parliament. The commission is a nine-member body charged with enforcing electoral laws. . . . Dan Quinn writes: “Greetings from South America! After eight years in Texas, I relocated to Bogotá, Colombia, where I’m opening a new branch office for National Instruments, covering Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and the Caribbean. I’ve hired a team of engineers, and we’re working hard to keep up with the demands of the booming business environment down here. Otherwise, I’m finding time to explore the region, leading some weekend motorcycle tours, and trying to perfect my Spanish language skills (I should have taken some classes at UR). It’s an exciting time to be in South America!”

2004

Daniel Britton (see ’01). . . . Corinne Samler has joined the Philadelphia law firm Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg as an associate. She practices in the bankruptcy and corporate restructuring department.

2005

David Hochbaum (see ’08).

2006

George McCrory has been named investment analyst and client services support advisor at Cooper/Haims Advisors in Rochester. . . . Julie Mihalek writes that she married Scott Allen last September in Blowing Rock, N.C. Brian Moravan ’04 and Melissa Arms-Moravan ’04 were in attendance. Julie and Scott live in Morrisville, N.C. . . . Oscar Pedroso writes that he won third place out of 26 entries in the Rochester area’s Startup Weekend last April. Startup Weekend is a 54-hour event in which participants create a web or mobile application with market potential during that time period. Oscar formed a team with three other participants who together created GradFly, “a website that pools social media streams on engineering programs from Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, and organizes them in one place by school.”

2007

Ebony Richards sends an update. She graduated from the Medical College of Wisconsin with an MD and will be a resident in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis starting this summer.

2008

Eric Janosko (see ’09). . . . Meggan Patterson writes: “David Hochbaum ’05 and I were married last October in Mamaroneck, N.Y., after Hurricane Irene forced us to postpone our original late August date.” Pictured are Paul Szymanski ’05, Seth Berkowitz ’05 (best man), Tim O’Brien ’06, James Patterson, Rachel Robinson (maid of honor), Meagan Friedman, Sherry Hochbaum, Karen Bachmeyer ’10 (MS), Becky Patterson, and Emily Patterson (flower girl). Also in attendance were Cynthia Czapla, Katie Olson, Beckie LaRocque ’09, Beth Springate ’05, Laura Yanoso Scholl ’05, ’08 (MS), Summer Romasco ’07, and Dan Gross ’03. Meggan and David live in Manhattan, where David is director of search marketing at MEC and Meggan is a graduate student in media studies at the New School.

2009

Kristen DeCarlo writes that she and Eric Janosko ’08 will marry in September. Kristen is the marketing director at ServiceMaster by ASAP, a Rochester company offering cleaning and restoration services. Eric is a chemical engineer at Reflexite’s Henrietta, N.Y., location. They live in Farmington, N.Y.