Class Notes from Fall 2018
class of 1955
John M. Gordon (A) published his second Penny Summers mystery in May 2018. Malice at the Manor follows former Navy public affairs officer Penny Summers and her landscape design professor to the mountains of western North Carolina, where the Civil War is still romanticized and the discovery of a dead docent in a famous garden leads Penny to a Civil War battle flag scam, a deadly reenactment, and a search for a man in black. With the help of Kalea, a brilliant 11-year-old CSI wannabe, and Aaron, her handsome Navy friend working undercover, Penny discovers more than she bargained for.
The first Penny Summers mystery, Katelyn’s Killer, is set at St. John’s in Annapolis and was launched at the college bookstore during Homecoming 2017.
1959
Valerie Shuart’s (A59) book The Chess Queen is the true story of her husband Don Edwards’ famous Bostonian family from the 1800s. His great-great-grandfather, Samuel Grey Ward, was the best friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson and other well-known people of the time. From letters and diaries, Valerie found the women speaking stronger than the men. Thus, the name The Chess Queen, referring to the only female on the board, who has the most power, which she must use to protect the males on the board—similar to the lives of women at the time and many women today. The book can be found on Amazon.
1960
Mary Campbell Gallagher (A) is president of the International Coalition for the Preservation of Paris, ICPP. She is editor of ICPP’s book of essays Paris Without Skyscrapers: The Battle to Save the Beauty of the City of Light. Mary notes that international contributors, including leading architects, planners, lawyers, and writers, oppose skyscrapers inside Paris on economic, aesthetic, and other grounds. The book launch is expected in late November in Paris.
1966
Constance (Bell) Lindgreen (A66) shares that a few years ago, Leo Pickens suggested that she and Dimitar Indzhov (A11) might like to connect and they did, via Skype and Messenger, those now-ubiquitous technologies. Their lives and backgrounds are wildly different—not to mention their ages—but they have stayed in touch sporadically. And thanks to Dimitar’s interest in visiting Fontainebleau, they met at last. Perhaps they’ll build a deeper friendship—you never know!
1968
Bart Lee (A) treasures his grandson, Quinlan Silverio Lee, friendships—so many from St. John’s, now so many absent friends, and domestic tranquility. He practiced law for 40 years with rarely a glimpse of justice and taught law and economics for 20 years. He is still writing legal history, history of technology, and poetry, reading good books and an occasional Great Book, and writing lesser books. Bart saw the world and is now cultivating a garden.
1970
Edward Macierowski (A) has been teaching philosophy for the past 25 years at Benedictine College in Kansas. His foreign experiences include residence in Canada (1970-76; 1977-79) and Iran (1976-77), and professional visits to Jordan (American Institute of Oriental Research Jan 2004), Italy (summer course in Florence 2017), Uzbekistan (national election observer 2014, 2015), Eastern Europe (public lecture in Toruń 2014, graduate summer course at Catholic University of Lublin 2015). Edward’s most recent public lecture topic was “Christianity and Islam in Dialogue” (2018). He was one of the participants in the NEH summer institute on medieval political philosophy in 2014 and his major publications include translations of Henri de Lubac’s Medieval Exegesis: The Four Senses of Scripture, vol. 2 (2000) and vol. 3 (2009), St. Thomas Aquinas’ Commentary on Aristotle’s “On memory and recollection” (2005), Bernard Montagnes’s book on the analogy of being (2004), and Thomas Aquinas’ Earliest Treatment of the Divine Essence (1998). He accepted an invitation to lecture in Uzbekistan in October.
1972
Glenn (SF) and Dale (Graves) Gladfelder (SF) live in Montana, along with their daughter, son-in-law, and grandson. Glenn has launched a new website where he describes himself as “an unpublishable writer.” Despite that shortcoming, you can read his cab-driving tales, exposé of H&R Block, profiles of adults with intellectual disabilities, and his examination of the relationship between morality and distance.
1973
Frazier O’Leary (SFGI) is running for the Ward 4 Board of Education in Washington, DC, after 47 years of teaching at DC Public Schools. The special election is on December 4.
1978
Rita (Shea) Collins’ (A) traveling bookstore business continues to surprise her with places and people and yes, even books that come her way. Recently, Atlas Obscura did a great article about her business. In September, Rita and the traveling bookstore were at the Montana Book Festival in Missoula.
Winfield Ihlow (A) retired from State University of New York at Oswego in the summer of 2017 and now spends time reading (books and magazines, like The Atlantic and New York Review of Books), going to movies, playing tennis and squash, and gardening.
1979
Miyoko (Porter) Schinner (A) has been very busy over the last several years with the company she founded in 2014, Miyoko’s, that is revolutionizing dairy products by making them from plants instead of cows. Miyoko has been a serial entrepreneur since she graduated and has had many ups and downs, so it has been a lot of fun growing the company at breakneck speeds. The company’s products can be found nationwide at Trader Joe’s, Kroger, Target, Publix, Wegmans, Whole Foods, and most natural food stores. In Maryland, there’s a good stock of them at Roots Market and MOM’s Organic Market. Miyoko was able to meet up with a couple of classmates—Lisa Simeone (A) and Jim Sorrentino (A80)—last year in Baltimore and hopes to be able to make it to a reunion one of these years.
1982
Geoff Henebry (SF) reports that after 13 years in the bracing plains of eastern South Dakota, he has moved southeast to enjoy the milder climes of central Michigan. In August, he joined Michigan State University as a Hannah Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences and the Center for Global Change and Earth Observations. Ana and Geoff are nearly empty-nesters—of their seven kids, thus far, five have graduated college (all are gainfully employed), two are married, one in college, and one will be off to college next fall. Ana teaches Latin part-time at an inner-city parish school in Lansing. If you are in the area, drop a line.
1983
Don Dennis (SF83) and his wife, a dairy farmer, continue to live on the small island of Gigha, just off the west side of Kintyre in Scotland, where they make ice cream and bottle milk from the farm using returnable glass bottles. Find Wee Isle Dairy on Facebook.
1984
Tuck Bowerfind (A84) is proud to say his daughter Dorothy (A19) has begun her senior year in Annapolis and he is hoping to be at commencement on May 12, 2019.
1985
Daniel Lieberman’s (A) book about the brain chemical dopamine, The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity—and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race, was recently published and can be found on Amazon and at your local bookstore. It is a ripping tale of drugs, sex, politics, madness, and neuroscience! If you are inclined to give it a read, please consider leaving an Amazon review.
David Vermette (A) has just published his first book, A Distinct Alien Race: The Untold Story of Franco-Americans, a timely excursion into a criminally neglected episode in U.S. immigration history. Although the book discusses the 1840-1930 period, it also deals with issues still in the news: cross-border immigration, Nativism, and the challenge of counter-cultural religious groups. You can learn more about the book at the publisher’s website and from the review in Publishers Weekly.
1986
Kristen (Baumgardner) Caven (SF) had the pleasure of traveling in Italy this summer with Jennifer Flynn Israel (A). After filling their eyes, bellies, and souls with art and food and some deep culture dives, they did a presentation together at an arts colony in Florence. The topic was their 2015 trip to Italy, which only half materialized. Kristen read a few chapters from her forthcoming travel memoir, Ten Days, Ten Pounds, and Jenny did a slideshow and talk about having brain surgery and recovering her color vision as a painter. The talk was entitled, “Saturation,” regarding the neurological and emotional experience of color (and lack of it). Kristen opened the session with the story of how the two of them met at convocation as freshman at St. John’s: “Hey! We could be sisters!”
A highlight of the trip was visiting the Duomo in Siena, which celebrates philosophers and sybils alongside biblical characters—and the pulpit is held aloft by figures representing the seven liberal arts. You can read about the mystical doublings and infinities that seem to appear when twin bombshell philosopher artists travel together, at “Two infinity—and back again.” Kristen notes that for maximum saturation, make sure to click all the links on the site.
Douglas Gentile (A86), continuing the tradition of pairing Western with Eastern, was recently ordained as a Zen monk in the Five Mountain Zen Order. He continues to be a professor of psychology at Iowa State University, studying media’s influences on children.
1988
Jana Giles (A) sends this news: As part of the Regents Awards to Louisiana Artists and Scholars (ATLAS) Program, a panel of out-of-state experts evaluated a grant proposal written by Dr. Jana Giles, University of Louisiana Monroe associate professor of English, and deemed it “excellent.” Based on the panel’s recommendation, the Board of Regents funded Giles’s project, allowing her a year-long sabbatical (2018-19) to complete her project. Giles’s grant of $38,057 was one of only eight awarded in the state.
“I’m so very grateful to the state of Louisiana and ULM for this investment in my research,” Giles said. “The generous time and resources provided will allow me to dedicate myself full time to finish my book.”
Her project, “The Post/Colonial Sublime: Aesthetics, Politics, and Ethics in the Twentieth-Century Novel,” explores the “aesthetic turn” in postcolonial and colonial studies, addressing six British Anglophone authors: Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, Jean Rhys, Joan Lindsay, J.M. Coetzee, and Amitav Ghosh.
Giles is in her third year as Endowed Professor in English. Other scholarly achievements include a Cambridge Overseas Trust Research Scheme Equivalent Bursary and The J. Barbara Northend Scholarship from the British Federation of Graduate Students. Presently, she serves as the managing editor of Conradiana, the premiere journal in North America dedicated to Joseph Conrad, which received the Phoenix Award from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals in 2017.
Giles, who has worked at ULM since 2009, earned her Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Philosophy at St. John’s College. She earned a Master of Arts in English and Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico, and her Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
ATLAS supports major scholarly and artistic productions with potential to have a broad impact on a regional and/or national level, thus strengthening the educational, artistic, and research bases of Louisiana institutions. ATLAS is a subprogram of the Board of Regents Support Fund’s Research and Development Program. The award will provide Giles with the time needed to complete her project.
1989
Anne Leonard’s (A) daughter, Emma Leonard-Hill (SF22), is a freshman in Santa Fe and is loving it.
1990
Kilian Garvey (SF) recently left the University of Louisiana to join the psychology faculty at Miami University of Ohio. He continues to carry out research on the two subjects he was always advised never to discuss in polite company: politics and religion.
Danilo Marrone (SF) sends aloha and greetings from Oahu, Hawaii, where he still teaches at a small community college, Hawaii Tokai International College. The campus moved to the west side of Oahu in 2015 and he and his wife, Gladys, decided that it would also be a good idea to relocate and moved from a small apartment in town to a new house in Ewa Beach, very close to the location of the college.
Last year they were very fortunate to become proud owners of a purebred Great Dane puppy, Sienna, who keeps their house safe from any intruders. Besides teaching, Danilo continues to forge ahead with his Bibliotheca Walleriana research and also writes poetry, plays music, surfs, and practices Tai Chi Chuan. To top it all off, he handles Sienna at dog shows around Oahu: “She’s a lot better than I am.” Danilo left Facebook several years ago but has her own website.
Karl Meyer (A) says to look out for his debut solo album in 2019.
1992
Lt. Cmdr. Michael A. Zampella USN (A) has been appointed by Queen Elizabeth II to the Order of St John. The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem is a British royal order of chivalry tracing its origins back to the Knights Hospitalier, which was later known as the Order of Malta. It became associated with the founding in 1882 of the St John Ophthalmic Hospital near the old city of Jerusalem and the St John Ambulance Brigade in 1887. The American Priory of the Order raises funds for the hospital in Jerusalem and maintains a volunteer service corps that supports the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
1993
James Craig (AGI) presented at Havre de Grace Opera House in Maryland “The Moon Has Been Eaten,” the culmination of three years on Easter Island, the land of the giant stone statues, between 2006 and 2016. The program included slides, videos, talk, stories from the island, Rapanui music, and more, and ticket holders received a free signed copy of Jim’s book. All proceeds benefited the Havre de Grace Arts Collective to help expand the programming at the Cultural Center at the Opera House.
1994
Juditha Ohlmacher (SF) has been living in Bangladesh for the past 15 years, where she helped her husband, K. Anis Ahmed, found the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh and established both their communications/PR office as well as the first fully-fledged student affairs office to provide academic, psychological, medical, and legal assistance to the students.
They accept international research students for their postdoc work, especially in the field of Sustainable Development, and we seek international faculty who wish to come to Bangladesh for a term. Interested Johnnies can email Juditha.
While she is still a board member at the university, she stepped back from day-to-day work when she had her son and now has become a LEGO builder and is working on LEGO versions of Bangladesh’s architectural heritage.
Juditha has submitted a version of the Louis Kahn-designed Bangladesh Parliament building to LEGO ideas and is seeking 10,000 supporters to make it into a real set. She would love support from fellow Johnnies for this project!
1995
Jennifer Chenoweth (SFGI) is for grateful that her recent public art project, “XYZ Atlas,” was able to reach so many people and culminated in a TEDMED talk.
On October 13, she is producing a “Sacred Space Tour” of churches, mosques, and historic buildings, with arts programming at each location in Wilkinsburg, Penn. Jennifer says it has been very worthwhile to bring together all kinds of people working for the betterment of a community in need of positive change.
1995
Kurt Schmidt (AGI) is now in his 20th year in the Rio Rancho, N.M., public school system, and last spring was named executive director of fine arts for the school district. He wishes his classmates all the best.
1996
Erin Furby (A) is now working in the registrar’s office at the University of Alaska Anchorage after 12 years of teaching and administration at a small K-12 private school.
Lucille (Ward) (AGI) and Marty Walker (AGI) are the proud parents of two sons (18 and 15), with their eldest a Johnnie freshman in the Annapolis class of 2022! Lucille is the executive director of the Southern Maryland Heritage Area, an organization dedicated to preserving the unique cultural and natural resources of the region. Marty continues his work as clinical social worker providing psychotherapy to service members at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
1997
Peter Eichstaedt (SFGI) had a successful book reading and signing event Saturday, September 15, at the Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver, for his latest mystery/thriller, Napa Noir. The novel, published earlier this year by WildBlue Press, is the first of a planned series of mysteries set in wine regions around the world. His previous novel, Borderland, also published by WildBlue Press, received an honorable mention award in 2015 from the International Latino Book Awards.
Jill Nienhiser (A) and her husband, Dane Petersen, continue on their digital nomad adventure. This year, they have spent two months each in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Mexico, three months in Canada, and headed to Chile at the end of September. Plans are in the works to spend 2019 in Europe. Jill works as a writer for Mind & Media in Alexandria, Va., and Dane teaches English as a second language.
Juan G. Villaseñor (A) was appointed as a district court judge to serve in the 8th Judicial District Court in Fort Collins, Colo., on September 13, by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper.
Villaseñor currently serves as an assistant U.S. attorney in the civil division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, a position he has held since 2008. In this role, he represents federal agencies and employees in civil cases in federal court, prosecutes criminal cases, and handles other miscellaneous matters. Previously, he was an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Pardon Attorney (2014-2016); an assistant attorney general with the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office (2003-2008); a First Amendment Fellowship Attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (2002-2003); and a law clerk to the Honorable William J. Haynes in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee (2001-2002). He received his law degree from Vanderbilt Law School in 2001.
Juan’s appointment is effective October 6 and he started October 10.
1999
Greg Koehlert (SFGI) writes that all is well, and he has been living for five years with the family on a mountainside in Montclair, N.J. They moved out from NYC to start a school for students with learning differences, a new campus of Winston Prep School where he has been on the faculty since 2001. His wife, Merrie, is painting and teaching, the kids are in middle school, and life is both busy and quiet. He would love to keep up with Johnnie friends in the NYC area, and asks old friends to please stay in touch.
2001
Marshall Hevron (A) has been practicing law for nine years and was recently made a partner at Adams and Reese, LLP, a large regional law firm based in New Orleans. Please look him up if you ever make it down there.
Suzannah Simmons (SF) and her husband, Alexander Saify, are happy to share they are expecting their first child, a girl, at the end of February. She is still an operations and outreach consultant for small businesses and startups. Alex is a director of technology for a cybersecurity company. They love staying in touch and networking with Johnnies—feel free to message Suzannah.
2002
Justin Naylor (A) and wife, Dillon (A05), operate a small vegetable farm and on-farm restaurant, Old Tioga Farm, in rural northeastern Pennsylvania. Open only on Fridays and Saturdays, they serve 18 people in two small dining rooms and were recently featured in Eating Well magazine. Justin also offers week-long culinary tours in three Italian cities and interviews people of note in the food and wine worlds.
2005
Aron Wall (SF) has won prizes recently in the course of his professional career as a physicist. Read more about the 2018 IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in General Relativity and Gravitation and the Philippe Meyer Prize in Theoretical Physics.
2006
Caelan (MacTavish) Huntress (SF06) has moved with his young family to New Zealand and obtained residency in that faraway country. He continues his work as a freelance website designer, helping people sell things online through his digital marketing agency.
Constantino (Diaz-Duran) Khalaf (A) says hi to Johnnie friends and is so excited to share the news that he and his husband have a book coming out in January 2019 with Westminster John Knox Press. Modern Kinship: A Queer Guide to Christian Marriage is available for preorders now on Amazon and other online retailers. Part personal reflection, part commentary, their book explores the biblical concept of kinship from a 21st-century perspective. It tackles subjects such as overcoming church and family issues, gender roles in marriage, the relationship between sex and shame in church teachings, infidelity, and finding your mission as a couple.
2007
Renee Albrecht-Mallinger (SF) completed a master’s degree at IIT Institute of Design in May, where she studied design research and strategy. Her projects included work with University of Chicago hospitals, the Cook County sheriff’s department, and working with senior university officials to develop a long-term plan for the future of the school. Renee just started a new job as a senior design researcher at IA Collaborative, a design consultancy in Chicago, and in August was with some of her fellow graduates at the Design Management Institute’s academic conference in London, presenting work on how universities can contribute to the public sector through partnerships with government institutions.
2008
Sean Penny (A) graduated with an MA in counseling from the University of the District of Columbia in May. In October, Sean embarks upon a long-awaited career as a counselor at the McClendon Center, a nonprofit mental health clinic in Washington, DC.
2009
(Kyle) Keilah Lebell (SF), who now goes by her Hebrew name Keilah, was ordained in May as a rabbi at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies. She recently began work as the Jewish Emergent Network Rabbinic Fellow at IKAR, a start-up Jewish community in Los Angeles. She and her husband, Sam, also a congregational rabbi, have been blessed with a son and a daughter.
2010
Gianna Englert (AGI) has accepted a position as assistant professor of political science at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
2011
Nick Urban (SFGI) is starting a Master of Divinity at the University of Chicago, where he plans to study Buddhism, ministry, and modern theology.
2012
Alex Leone (A) has taught computer programming to homeschool students in middle and high school for the last two years. He wrote his own curriculum, using the Scratch programming language, which he recently turned into an online course called Coding Foundations. He continues teaching both the online and in-person courses this fall.
Mike Simpson (SFEC) just started his first year as a PhD student at Brown University, studying early American history.
Dean Theophilos (SF), and his wife, Leigh-Ann Theophilos, welcomed their first child, Theodoros (Theo) Theophilos, on June 10.
Alexandra Walling (A), after leaving St. John’s in 2011, went on to earn a bachelor of science in biology at California State University, Monterey Bay. In September, she began as a PhD student in comparative biology at the American Museum of Natural History, where she will be studying the evolution of photosynthesis among bacteria. Being in New York has been a wonderful opportunity to connect with other Johnnies, both those she knew while a student at Annapolis, and those she has met since leaving St. John’s.
2015
David (A) and Joy Perry Lincer (A) married on July 14 in Corbett, Ore. David plans to attend Adelphi University’s general psychology MA program, and Joy plans to attend Pratt Institute’s MFA program this fall.
Emily Slagel (A) is currently working for the college in the Admissions Office and has started a food blog.
2016
Christopher Cullinane (SF) is very happy to say that he started law school for his JD at the University of San Francisco School of Law. He plans on studying intellectual property (IP) law and staying in San Francisco after his graduation with the class of 2021.
Obituaries
William (Bill) Mullen, Tutor
November 2, 2017
Steven Thomas, SF74
June 21, 2018
Myron Wolbarsht, Class of 1950
July 7, 2018
Frank B. Murray, Class of 1960
September 14, 2018
Donald Edwards, Class of 1959
August 15, 2018
Class Notes from Summer 2018
Class of 1962
James Broschart (A) notes that they say most wines, some cheeses, and a few collectibles get better with old age, and he is more than ready for that transformation as he confronts his 80th year. Having lived through 14 U.S. presidents, he is still trying to make sense of it all, and those of you who remember how confused he was as a Johnnie in the 1960s might like to view the outcome. His poetry collection, Old News, will be released by Finishing Line Press early in September. You can reserve a copy on the publisher’s website.
1968
Glenn Ballard (SF) and wife, Jeanne, now have two granddaughters and Glenn has been elected to the National Academy of Construction.
Bren Jacobson (A) is a senior disciple of Swami Vishnudevananda, with whom he co-piloted a plane during several peace missions including a trip from Ireland to India only three years after he graduated from St. John’s.
His travels did not stop there—Bren lived on his 34-foot sloop for 12 years, sailed across the Atlantic twice, and has traveled to and worked in 68 countries. He is currently an advanced rolfer, psychotherapist, and health consultant, working around the world, as well as an interfaith minister ordained by Rabbi Joseph Gelberman. He gave a talk about a peace mission on June 15 at Sivananda Yoga Ranch Ashram. You can view a video about the plane he copiloted as well as a video of him talking about the trip.
Bren notes he was applying for a job teaching abroad after graduating and a St. John’s tutor, in a recommendation letter to the school he was applying to, said that Bren was “too naive and inexperienced to do well working in a foreign country.” He did not get that job but did end up lecturing in universities throughout Europe.
Harold Morgan (SF) is still in Albuquerque and writing a syndicated column for community newspapers with a focus on the economy and broad policy challenges. The big project is to somehow stimulate the public dialogue through attention on systems issues facing the state. Feel free to share your thoughts at progress(at)swcp.com. He notes that his children became adults and live in Nevada, he has one grandchild, and has been married to Susan Bennett for almost 20 years.
Rick Wicks (SF) is working hard (volunteering) with Democrats Abroad to get out the vote among American expats in Sweden and has just returned from the global meeting of Democrats Abroad in Tokyo. For 35 years he has thought about taking trains from Europe across Russia as a way to get home to Alaska. He finally did the “across Russia” part—23 days with lots of interesting stops, most memorably the small historic town of Nerchinsk in Siberia, east of Baikal. He has survived oral and bladder cancer and heart failure thanks to Sweden’s universal medical care.
Charles Watson (A) is now semi-retired and doing clinical work a couple days a week in the New London area of Connecticut. He reports it is a lot less pressure than “herding cats” as the clinical department chairman.
He shares exciting news that daughter Anya (Watson) Hanson recently gave birth to Alexander (Sasha), who joins older brother Adrian (2.5-years-old). The family lives in Rhode Island where John Hanson teaches math and economics at the Wheeler School in Providence and Anya is director of scientific diving and a faculty member at University of Rhode Island in Kingston. Charles and his wife Masha enjoy grandparental baby and pet sitting.
His eldest son, Ivan, is often traveling as CNN’s senior international correspondent based in Hong Kong and his middle son, Misha, is on Cape Cod and engaged in various construction projects there and on Martha’s Vineyard.
Charles notes that Johnnies who are in NYC are near but far and perhaps it would be easier to connect with alumni in the New England area on Martha’s Vineyard in the summer. He has visited and has been visited by George Partlow (Class of 1968) who returns to Yale for Russian Choir and divinity school reunions from either Arizona or Juneau, Alaska.
1970
Benjamin Barney (SF) is now in Europe. He went to Germany at end of April to visit friends and has been visiting in Neihof, Frankfurt, Freiburg, and Stuttgart. He also spent five days in Paris. Toward end of May, he spent five days in Oslo, Norway. His visits with friends began the second week of January in San Francisco. In April he spent two days on the Vassar College campus, five days in New York City, two days in Washington, DC, one day in Philadelphia, and three days in Toronto, Canada. It became clear and important that he get back in touch with friends, and what a better way to do so by spending time with people? Mr. Barney writes: “As so normally happens one disconnects and begin to disappear to others across the world. It is a form of dealing with internal changes. It is also part of aging. Such disconnections are hard to know well. They just come about as if slowly falling into a soft sleep. Now I tell people the simple image; I fell into a hole for time.” He sends his note from Warmbronn, Germany.
John Dean (A) notes that some alumni in and around the Annapolis class of 1970 stay in contact via an email group and various Facebook sites. He suggests this method as a way to keep the old SJC new and be in touch in a more personal way.
He spent the first semester of 2017 professing in India at Christ University, Bangalore. He also notes it was very positive, very intense, physically demanding, and utterly exhilarating. India’s blend of wealth and poverty, the refined and the coarse, the down-to-earth and the transcendental, the astonishing polyculturalism—more than 800 different languages, each spoken by half a million people or more—is a lesson to keep learning.
Hudi (Schneider) Podolsky (SF) retired from education consulting in 2013. In January, she and her husband, Jay Bosley, moved to Hartwick, New York, not far from Cooperstown. Neither care much about baseball, but Cooperstown also has an excellent museum, an opera house, and a fine hospital. Their place, Sunnyhill, is 21 acres of cleared hilltop. They miss family and friends in the San Francisco Bay area and have to travel to see their children and grandchildren, but the trade-off is peace, quiet, and beauty—and they sure don’t miss the traffic.
Connie Shaw (A) will begin a 40-mile hike in Glacier National Park on July 29 with the organization Climate Ride to raise money for climate change solutions. Support this cause. Donations are tax-deductible and will go to 350.org, the nonprofit she is supporting with the hike. Connie, and our planet, thank you!
1972
Robin (Kowalchuk) Burk (A) gave her first TEDx talk in late April. The topic was “Countering Collapse of Our Complex Interconnected Systems” and drew on research she managed for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (center of U.S. counter-WMD expertise) and as one of the chief scientists at Battelle. The video should be available by midsummer.
Coming late this summer or early fall is her latest book, Will to Win, co-authored with business/career guru Brian Tracy and other experts.
1973
Jon R. Stroud (SF73) has lived in the Portland, Oregon, area since the early 1970s. Now retired, he is married and has one son.
1974
Jon Hunner (SF) retired from teaching history at New Mexico State University after 23 years. He directed the public history program and served as the department chair at NMSU. He now continues his “Driven by History” road trip where he visits historic sites around the country and writes a history of the U.S. from those places where history actually happened. You can follow his account of his travels.
David Huston (A) retired last year from Laurel School for Girls in Shaker Heights, Ohio, after 40 years as a high school teacher of philosophy, history, economics, and political science. During that time, he also directed a program for the Kenyon Academic Program (KAP) for Kenyon College where high school students took college classes in 15 different disciplines and earned college credit. KAP (like a college-based AP program) includes 20 Ohio high schools and more than 1,000 students each year. He had a great time working with the Kenyon faculty in many departments; teaching bright, eager high school girls was one of the great opportunities of his life and several of his students went on to St. John’s.
Since retirement, he has offered adult classes on World War II and American history. Next fall, he will be offering a course on Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. He is also in the early stages of producing a web course for AP U.S. history students and hopes to have more information to announce this year. His two sons have now finally launched on their own careers—one is an executive chef at a local restaurant in Cleveland and the other works for Marathon Oil in data and systems analysis. After leaving the classroom, David is seriously thinking of starting a St. John’s alumni seminar in northeast Ohio—anyone interested?
1975
Charles Hoffacker (A) “retired” last summer but continues on with several expressions of ministry. He now lives in Greenbelt, Maryland, and serves as priest associate at St. John”s Episcopal Church, Beltsville, Maryland, a multicultural congregation. An activist and writer, Charles is a board member of the Frances Perkins Center, named for “the woman behind the New Deal.” He has been married since 2013 to Helena Mirtova, a mathematics professor at Prince George’s Community College. Helena and Charles recently enjoyed reading aloud together Emily Wilson”s fine new translation of the Odyssey and highly recommend it.
1976
Michael MacDonald (SF) celebrated his first full year in business in Santa Fe and was named “Best Mastering Engineer 2018” at the New Mexico Music Awards ceremony in May.
1977
Larry Clendenin (SF), after retiring from a 45-year career in college admissions, living in Washington DC, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, and New Mexico, raising two children with one wife, and feeling darn satisfied, retired in 2016 as director of admissions emeritus from St. John’s College in Santa Fe. He is now a volunteer college counselor at Santa Fe High School and a grand jury bailiff at the district court in Santa Fe. Larry’s daughter is an ER doctor; his son is a fly fisherman, rock climber, and downhill skier in Bozeman, Mont.; his granddaughter, 8-years-old, is a good student, skier, and soccer player; and his mother, Ethel, is 95-years-old and lives in Virginia where Larry grew up, close to his brother, as one of you will remember from graduation.
1979
Lucy Seligman (SF) has been a clinical/medical hypnotherapist since 2011, after many years in nonprofit management. In the past year, she has added on Life Strategies Coaching, which she does online, and also started a Japanese food blog Thanks for the Meal, based on her many years of living in Japan. Her daughter was accepted and will be heading off to Parsons in New York City so Lucy suspects a lot more East Coast travel is coming her way.
1980
Bill Day (SF) was recently promoted to full professor at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, where he has taught philosophy for 20 years. During his sabbatical in the fall of 2018, he and his wife, Kate (A76), will travel to Iceland for a week, then to London to visit David (A75) and Susan Tischler Ashmore (A76), who are trading their home in Princeton for the year for a London flat.
1982
Peter Griggs (A) has published a novel called No Pink Concept. It is based loosely on his own experiences with depression and family problems. He has written a second novel called Paisley Jubilee about his experiences as a diabetic living in the mental health system in New Jersey. He is still rewriting it but has an interested publisher.
Peter’s niece Dr. Cornelia Griggs Goldstone recently gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Jonah Henry Goldstone. She and her husband, Robert, already have a daughter named Eloise Dovie Goldstone, who was born October 2, 2016. His family is thrilled to have an addition to their small family.
1983
Amber Eden (SF83) left her 25-year career in journalism and headed back to campus. She just completed her first year of a master’s degree in social work at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work. Upon completion of that degree in 2019, she will enter CUNY Law, ultimately hoping to pursue a social justice/public justice career advocating for at-risk adolescent and elderly populations. Her experience at St. John’s College developed a lifelong love of learning, and ultimately prepared her to take the LSAT at age 55. Amber says, “Thank you!”
1984
James Hyder (A) and Leslie Smith Rosen (A82) are leaving Las Vegas after a five-year sojourn to move to Atlanta, Georgia, where Leslie will start a new job on July 1 as middle school principal at the Epstein School.
Michael Strong (SF) after many decades of founding small schools, private and charter, is now responsible for creating a chain of secondary schools based on the model he developed. Higher Ground Education, whose mission is to modernize and mainstream Montessori education, has hired him to create The Academy of Thought and Industry (ATI) with campuses opening in August in San Francisco, New York City, and Austin. He expects to open three to five more campuses for fall 2019 and accelerate growth after that.
One of the required courses at ATI is a Socratic humanities class which is based on his experience at SJC and his book The Habit of Thought: From Socratic Seminars to Socratic Practice. ATI has more faculty candidates for fall 2018 than they can possibly interview (hundreds of people have applied, including many Johnnies). But if they grow as desired, in future years they may have jobs for Johnnies, who have a solid foundation for leading Socratic humanities classes.
1986
John Lawton (SF86) was recently in touch with David Blankenbaker (SF88) who read and had a few questions about John’s senior essay. David has also met with long-lost friend Carl Buffalo (SF non-grad), who recently changed his name.
Michael Silitch (SF86), after living in the Alps for almost 20 years, is back in the United States. His wife, Nina Cook Silitch (Dartmouth ‘94), taught and raced World Cup ski mountaineering during their stay in Europe and their two sons were born in Aigle, Switzerland. They are now based in Park City, Utah, where Nina is teaching, and Michael is the executive director of the BRASS Foundation for snow and avalanche safety. They partner with the U.S. Ski Team and educate the team’s 35,000 members.
1987
John Sullivan (A) has been living in Alexandria, Virginia (again!) since November 2016 when he took a job at NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. He loves being closer to his alma mater—close enough to attend the occasional Friday night lecture. He says last year’s reunion was great and would love to reconnect with more Annapolis and Santa Fe friends from 30+ years ago.
1988
Tobias Maxwell (A) asks Johnnies to visit his new website at tobiasmaxwell.com.
1990
Alexandra Stockwell (A) practiced family medicine for seven years, has taken courses on spiritual, energy, sexuality, and mindset masters, and is now a relationship coach, teaching committed couples how to create the emotional and sensual intimacy they crave. She loves working with people where everything looks good from the outside while on the inside they are hungry for a nourishing relationship with the one they love. She recently wrote an article and make sure to visit her website.
Alexandra has been married for 22 years and has four amazing children, ages 6 to 21. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area, so look her up if you are in the area.
1992
Elyette Kirby (SF) is working in the suburbs of Paris at a bilingual international school teaching third grade math, science, geography, art, and English. She also teaches yoga. She has three children, ages 17, 15, and 13.
She would like to drive from Minneapolis to San Diego this summer, the second half of July, and if anyone is living along the route from Minneapolis–St. Paul–Santa Fe–San Diego, please let her know. She might make the return trip by going through northern California. If anyone comes through Paris and needs a room or wants to say “Hi,” she is usually there.
1995
David Brown (AGI) just completed his PhD in journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He is loving life with family in the Texas capital city and hosts a daily statewide public radio newsmagazine called Texas Standard. He misses Annapolis.
Shana Hack (A) opened Moon Rabbit Toys in Santa Fe, NM, 10 years after she graduated (proving you never know where life will lead you.) Her focus is on American-made, fair trade, and fair labor toys. And toys she likes to play with.
She carries a wide selection of stuffies, puzzles, art supplies, things that make noise, things with wheels, things that fly, and so on. Over the years, as board games have become more popular, her gaming section has grown to where it is now half of her business. Johnnies are always welcome to swing by to visit, play, and discuss Herodotus.
Kira Zielinski (SF) says the gods have smiled on her little nest in Iowa City and answered her prayers for a little one to help her pour libations to them. She just celebrated her son Xerxes’ first birthday! And she is back to studying classics at long last and playing recorder in an early music ensemble.
1999
Heather Richardson-Wilde (A), while ostensibly living in Las Vegas, Nevada, she only managed 22 days home last year. One of the few female CTOs in the world, she frequently speaks at conferences and authors a column on technology trends in Inc. and Forbes magazine—in addition to running her business, which has expanded to 5 continents.
She also just published her fourth book, Growth Hacking 101, and is writing a fifth.
2000
Tim Carney (A) is expecting his third book, Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse in February 2019, from Harper Collins. He is the commentary editor at the Washington Examiner (where he has worked since 2009) and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (since late 2012).
Tim and his wife Katie live in Silver Spring, Maryland with their six children. They are parishioners at St. Andrew Apostle parish, where Tim coaches youth baseball and basketball.
2001
Erik Stadnik (A01) sends a hello from Prague, the “city of a hundred spires!” After more than 15 years in Alexandria, Virginia, he decided to make a pretty significant change—in fall 2017, he moved to Prague and attended The Language House TEFL to get certified to teach English (meeting Johnnies past and future along the way). Now, he teaches English to Czech students and works at The Language House, helping to train new teachers. Come fall, he will join the external teaching staff of Czech Technical University and teach future engineers the joys of English.
He would love to hear from any other Johnnies living in or visiting Prague, as well as anyone who wants to know more about teaching English abroad.
2003
Wilson M. Dunlavey (A) was named “California Lawyer of the Year” for his role in the landmark Volkswagen “clean diesel” litigation. In 2015, Volkswagen admitted that 11 million of its vehicles were equipped with software that it used to cheat on federal emissions tests. These cases were combined into a single action in federal court in San Francisco and settled for more than $11 billion, the largest consumer class action settlement in history.
Erika Ginsberg-Klemmt (SFGI) crossed the Atlantic with two small children in her sailboat Pangaea. She moved to Sarasota, Florida, and began investing in properties. She notes, “So much for ‘Das Prinzip Cruising,’” a preceptorial paper she wrote on the application of Hans Jonas’ Imperative of Responsibility to the prolonged cruising lifestyle. Her first born just graduated from high school and she has been singing, dancing, and acting in various venues in Sarasota County. She is sure she will take to the high seas again once her children are up and gone.
2004
Martin Gaudinski (A) became Lieutenant Commander Gaudinski in spring 2018, when he was commissioned into the United States Public Health Service. As a commissioned corps officer, he is dedicated to promoting, protecting, and advancing the health and safety of the nation. He does this as the medical director of the clinical trials program within the Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health. His work involves helping to develop and test new vaccines and other treatments for infectious diseases. More importantly, he and Kimberly Gaudinski (A04) are living in Kensington, Md., and raising their three little ones, Benjamin (7), Mariah (5), and Magdalena (3).
Michael Looft (A) sends his hello to fellow Johnnies. He reports he just published a novel and you can check out a video about it. He wishes eudaimonia for all.
2006
Heather Cook (SF) has been traveling for more than a year on a personal and geographical journey throughout America and her deepest self. She spent the six months previous converting a Ford cargo van into a home on wheels to live as much as she can according to her values while traveling the country, visiting friends, connecting with nature, and engaging in deep personal explorations. She says that this is a time for her to reflect on what I want to do with her life from this point on, to construct a life that matches her values and passions. You can follow her journey on her website or email her to catch up and she might just come visit you.
Jonathan Freeman-Coppadge (A) with his husband, Darren, and their son, Langston, will be resettling in Maryland in August after five years in Massachusetts. Jonathan will be teaching English at Severn School and is looking forward to milder winters, Old Bay everything, and a little more free time than boarding school has afforded him.
2009
Terrill Legueri (SFGI) and Aaron Kane Turner (SFGI) joyfully (and belatedly) announce the birth of their first son, Benjamin Terrill Turner. At a year old, Benjamin is following in the shoes of his father—he’s huge! Luckily, he is also very sweet so they don’t mind carrying around the extra weight. They look forward to submitting his application to St. John’s in 2034.
2010
Marianna Brotherton Crabbs (A10) and Jake Crabbs (A09) are pleased to announce the birth of their first son, Isaac Lundy on Easter Sunday. After (an all too brief) paternity leave, Jake has started work as a law clerk for the Illinois Appellate Court.
2011
Derek Ayala (SFEC) shares that it is with deep gratitude and more than a little humility that he is now a full-time religious studies professor at Glendale Community College.
Michael Fausnaugh (SF) has been working on the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a NASA mission that successfully launched on April 18. TESS is a space telescope that will survey most of the sky over two years, searching for small planets (about the size of Earth) around nearby bright stars. He is writing the mission’s target selection code and is responsible for diagnosing the performance of the data reduction/analysis.
Lee Nutini (AGI) began working in May as an associate attorney at King & Spalding LLP in Atlanta, Ga. He will practice in the government matters and healthcare group. She was previously an associate attorney with a healthcare litigation boutique in Nashville, Tenn. (He notes for context that she attended law school after graduating from the GI in Annapolis.)
2012
Rhett Forman (SF) graduated in December 2017 with a PhD in literature from the University of Dallas. He has become a full-time lecturer in English and liberal arts at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, where he will design a new liberal arts undergraduate major.
2013
John Neylan (AGI) and his wife live on the California central coast and have worked for The San Luis Obispo Community Foundation for the past several years, awarding more than $5 million in grants and scholarships each year to support charitable work throughout their region and beyond. He credits any success to St. John’s and still remains in touch with colleagues.
Dylan K. Rogers (A) premiered two original works in his 2017 recital series, representing an hour of new music. Dylan is currently completing his MA at the University of Chicago; his thesis explores the ethical dimension of aesthetic dissonance.
2015
Elizabeth Fedden (SF) graduated in June with her MLIS from the University of Washington. She will be moving to New York City to complete an internship with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in their library and archives.
Emma Goos (SF) has fulfilled a lifelong dream and has begun a tattoo apprenticeship at Heart in Hand Tattoo in Castle Rock, Colorado. She looks forward to dedicating herself to an art form which explores the dialectic of self and other. If Johnnies are in the Denver area and interested in getting philosophical with a tattoo, email her at emmaconstancesterling(at)gmail.com. Follow her progress on Instagram @emmaconstancesterling.
Charles Zug (A) published two major articles last winter: One for The Washington Post and the other for Perspectives on Political Science (peer reviewed). He has also written multiple articles for the Claremont Review of Books.
2017
Ken Baumann (SF) is publishing his second work of nonfiction—a collection of poems, aphorisms, and essays titled Eat the Flowers—this summer through Sator Press.
Caitlin Kelly-Carmichael (SF) finished a run as Isabella in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure at the Aux Dog Theater in Albuquerque. She will be playing Hester Prynne in their production of The Scarlet Letter, opening September 2018.
Garri Saganenko (A) and two other Johnnies collaborated to host a screening of the documentary Four Games in Fall on May 12. Directed by Julie Marron (SF92) and produced by Kurt Redfield (A89), the screening took place at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center, where Garri works as the development director and helped facilitate the screening. Julie and Kurt were in attendance and hosted a question-and-answer period following the film.
Joshua Sturgill (SF), after two years in preparation, has his first collection of poetry As Far As I Can Tell published and on the shelves! Copies are available at the Santa Fe bookstore, or online.
Obituaries
Corinne Hutchinson, SF03
February 19, 2018
Franz Snyder, SFGI75
April 25, 2018
Marta Weigle, Class of 1965
June 14, 2018
Class Notes from Spring 2018
class of 1965
John Hetland (A) since 1973, has directed the Renaissance Street Singers, performing polyphonic motets here and there in New York City. He also hosts alumni seminars in his home.
1970
Benjamin Barney (SF) finished his work in education as of 2005 and now lives in the house his parents built in the early 1900s, and in which he was born. He has remodeled the house in Lukachukai, Arizona, in the middle of the Navajo Nation. If you happen to visit the canyon country of the Navajo Nation and Arizona he hopes you will get in touch and visit.
Les Margulis (A) writes: “Hello, anyone who remembers me (after all it has been a few years). After some 40 years in the ad game (I was one of the stars of Madmen) I am sort of retired and live in the mountains on the outskirts to Sydney. I still have a few clients mostly in old media (love the smell of day old news print).
In the last 10 years I think I have lived in at least 10 countries running ad agencies, from the good old USA to the farthest reaches of the old Soviet Union. It was an interesting life, but it does get a little tiresome being tailed by members in good standing of the FCB (which is the old KGB). Remind me to tell you over vodka shooters what it is like when a colonel decides that I am more trouble than the couple thousand rubles I am paying him to keep his hands off my business and he decides to introduce me to his best friend, Comrade Makarov—for those who didn’t attend small arms practice at St. John’s, the Makarov is a deadly side arm similar to a Glock.
Things are calmer now. I just have to worry that crows are eating my fresh herbs. Anyway, all should look me up if you come to this side of the world.”
1971
David Gleicher’s (SF) fourth book, Beyond Marx and Other Entries, has been published (by Brill). The previous one, receiving a number of reviews and comments of all sorts, is The Rescue of the Third Class on the Titanic: A Revisionist History.
Since St. John’s he has lived in New York City. In 1984, he received a PhD in economics from Columbia, and has been a professor at Adelphi University since 1981. He has been happily married since 1989 and his child, Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, is a classical (modern) flutist who plays in a number of ensembles around the United States and beyond, including (yes) Annapolis, and is well-known in New York. He would love to hear from 1965 to 1973 Johnnies.
1974
Diana Echeverria (A) sends greetings after finally being back in the United States, not far from St. John’s in Lorton, Va., on the Potomac River. She is still sailing and has been working in public health as a research scientist at the University of Washington and Battelle Memorial Institute for the last 30 years. Since 2004, most of her time has been spent abroad living and working in Ukraine, designing health surveillance for the Chernobyl workers and doing HIV research in Zimbabwe. Since 2010, she has spent time strengthening infectious disease surveillance in Tbilisi Georgia, Armenia, Tanzania, Kazakhstan, Iraq, and Afghanistan. She is now commuting to teach in Vietnam. She notes the research has been great, but still holds that the underlying structure of her thinking and most of the arguments on paper that get her work is informed by what she learned at St. John’s. She is grateful for the opportunity to learn how to think. She thinks she would benefit from a refresher and almost wants to do it again. She is happy to mentor new and old students interested in science, so feel free to find her even just to say hi.
1978
Rita (Shea) Collins (A78) says that St. Rita’s Amazing Traveling Bookstore is geared up for the Grand 2018 North Carolina and Back Traveling Bookstore Tour. With numerous stops along the way, she hopes to connect with Johnnies and share conversations.
1979
Tony Waters (A) graduated from the University of California, Davis, after spending a year as a Febbie. He currently is in between California State University, Chico, where he is a professor of sociology, and Payap University in Thailand, where he is on the faculty of peace studies. He has a strong interest in classical sociology (go ahead and ask him anything about Max Weber!), which occasionally sends him back to his year at St. John’s.
1981
Rick Campbell (A) notes his daughter is attending Summer Academy this year in Annapolis.
1982
Don Dennis (SF) writes: “Over the past 18 years I have been making flower essences with tropical orchids here in the UK. Since 2003, I have lived on the small Scottish island of Gigha, where I married Emma, a local dairy farmer. Three years ago we began a new business, making ice cream and bottling milk. It was needs must, financially! The big surprise was to discover that our milk is wildly popular, now selling across Argyll and in Glasgow and Edinburgh. We’re the only dairy in Scotland that pasteurises with the old-fashioned settings of 63°C for 30 minutes. Everyone else heats the milk much higher, for much shorter periods. Most common is 73°C for 15 seconds. That 10°C extra ruins the flavour. And so our milk won a major UK food award last year. Oh, and we use only glass bottles.
We are also trying to change UK government policy on school milk, because whole milk is banned for students over 5 years old here, on the misguided notion that this somehow helps combat childhood obesity. Yet all the studies out there point to an ‘inverse link” between whole milk consumption in childhood and high BMI. In the UK traditionally, farmers would give pigs skimmed milk when they wanted to fatten them up, because the skimmed milk leaves them so hungry they gobble up the grains.”
Cindy Rutz (SF) is the director of faculty development at Valparaiso University in Indiana, near Chicago. She also teaches for VU and for the adult great books program at the University of Chicago, called the Basic Program. They are starting to offer online classes and she is teaching one now on King Lear, Pride & Prejudice, and Virginia Woolf. She regularly visits the children of Paul Frank (SF), who died of cancer four years ago. Willa and Ellis are doing well, as is Paul’s widow, Monica. If any classmates come through Chicago, Cindy would love to see you.
David Stein (A) and Laura Trent Stein (A81) recently retired. Laura is an art student at the Schuler School for Fine Arts in Baltimore, where she’s learning the techniques of the Old Masters. David is organizing public outreach events for his local astronomy club and doing a bit of cybersecurity consulting. They have two sons; one is an economist and the other is a semi-professional Magic: The Gathering player.
1987
Susan (King) McElrath (A) recently moved to the San Francisco Bay area to take a job at Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley.
1988
Erin Milnes (A) has been the creative director at Catchword, a brand naming agency, for the past few years and loves the linguistic play and search for new metaphors. She also spends a fair amount of energy on music education at her son’s elementary school. Erin teaches third-grade music and coordinates the K-3 program, which is all-volunteer (the district doesn’t provide any music education until fourth grade). She plans to attend Homecoming this September and is looking forward to seeing everyone.
1993
James Lank (A) was recently appointed president and chief operating officer of Henderson Drilling Products, a Houston-based company serving the oil and gas industry.
Laura Melbin (SF) for the last six years has been working as the first-year academic dean at Hampshire College (which is philosophically similar but structurally different from SJC) in Amherst, Mass., where she makes her home with her two delightful children (Solomon, 9, and Emmanuel, 7). Her arm-candy, Patrick Hunter, and she are getting married in Las Vegas in April after almost five years together. They visited Santa Fe in June of 2017 and had a joyous reunion with a number of SJC friends, including Ellen Dornan (SF), Jenny (Smith) Harris (SF92), Rita James (SF92), Kendall McCumber (SF), Maria Pumilla (SF), and Jennifer Rand-Silverman (SF). She would love to hear from any Johnnies coming to Amherst (on college visits with their own children?)!
1997
Jill Nienhiser (AGI) and her husband, Dane Petersen, have become digital nomads. After two months in Nicaragua, they recently moved to Guatemala. They plan to travel for at least a year, moving every month or two. Jill continues to work as a communication consultant for Mind & Media in Alexandria, Va., where she has been employed since 1999.
1998
Sarah Ochs (A) got married and entered a PhD program this past year—two notoriously difficult and yet massively rewarding experiences at once! Her program is in sociology at George Mason University and she commutes from Richmond, Va., where she lives.
2000
Patrick Schaefer (A) was just selected as a Fellow for the Zhi-Xing China Eisenhower Fellowship. Typically, 10 candidates are awarded a four-week fellowship focused exclusively on China. This program was launched in 2015 after many years of partnership between EF and the China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE). Starting in Beijing and ending in Shanghai, Fellows experience two-and-a-half weeks of individualized programming in cities and towns across China.
Christina Ruffino (A) and her husband, Tim, welcomed their son, Henry, in February 2017. She resides in Frederick, Md., and works for the federal judiciary. She enjoyed writing this note in the third-person and welcomes email at christinaruffino(at)gmail.com.
Jason Salinas (AGI) retired from the Navy after 20 years as a helicopter pilot and began teaching English and coaching golf at the Severn School in Severna Park, Md. He and Susie (Lorenzini) (AGI99) live in Arnold, Md., with their three children. Susie is the owner/operator of Systems by Susie, a business that helps busy moms in Annapolis organize their lives and homes and provides ways to preserve and protect their children’s keepsakes.
2001
Talley (Scroggs) Kovacs (A) after 6 1/2 years in private practice is joining the Maryland Office of the Attorney General to handle litigation and real estate matters for the Department of Natural Resources. She is thrilled to transition after many years navigating the world of commercial litigation. Dr. Louis Kovacs, MD (A02) and Talley still live in downtown Baltimore and are glad to host visitors to Charm City!
2002
Jonathan Cooper (A) sends greetings from Bennington, Vt. He moved to the town with his wife, Kate, and daughter, June, in September 2016 to take a position as an economic development planner for southwestern Vermont. Johnnies past and present with an interest in planning and economic development are always welcome to get in touch, as are those who find themselves tarrying in or passing through this remarkably beautiful part of the world.
2003
Deborah (Roberge) Fermo (AGI), former USNA faculty member, has joined the faculty of The Pennington School in Pennington, N.J.
2004
Nellie McKesson (SF) quit her job last summer at Macmillan Publishers to found a tech startup called Hederis. The company is building a platform for automated bookmaking, using artificial intelligence and web technology to help people make books faster and more easily. Wish her luck!
2007
Jonathan Green (A) is a partner at a creative content studio called Conscious Minds in Los Angeles and just finished his first feature documentary Social Animals which premiered March 9 at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin. The film is one of only ten documentaries in competition at the festival.
2008
Reid Pierce (SFEC) has recently joined the City of Canterbury-Bankstown of Greater Sydney’s economic development team as the Innovation and Strategic Partnerships Officer. He is leading a project on smart cities and blockchain tech. Outside of work, he also recently published an interview with David Godman on Ramana Maharshi in SUFI Journal.
2009
Laura Logan Johns (SF) was hired as a research associate at Montana State University in Bozeman, Mont., in 2017. She is a member of the Apple Lab, where they study influenza and bacterial superinfection. She received her MS in microbiology in 2016. Additionally, Laura got married May 27, 2017.
2010
Jesse Rundle (A) finished an EP of songs written from Wallace Stevens’s Harmonium and is working on a full album of a songs written from the book, hoping to finish it later this year. He says it has been a fun project—both as a way to write music and as a way to explore the depths of the poems. Listen for free at jesseblakerundle.com/.
2013
Thomas Bonn (A) is a first-year PhD student in philosophy at University of Colorado Boulder, very tentatively planning to dissert on something like the unity of virtue in Plato (or another equally clear, narrowly defined topic).
2014
Brennan Harris (A) graduated in December of 2017 with a master’s degree in choral conducting from The Ohio State University. He is now working as a professional singer, pianist, and conductor in Columbus, Ohio, and planning his next career move.
2016
Stan Lavery (A) had one of his poems, titled “Travelogue,” published in February in Maryland’s Best Emerging Poets–An Anthology by Z Publishing House. He writes: “Incidentally, first contact came about after an editor read my poem, ‘A Decrepit Tutor’ in Energia, so thank you to the college and to the Energia staff for the labor of love that is St. John’s student publishing!”
2017
Micah Harris (A) earlier this year, in collaboration with a retired SJC tutor, published Only Small Things Are Good, a literary novel that tells the story of a West Texas mechanic’s child who goes to work in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and speaks truth to the President. Small Things inverts the premise of Plato’s Republic. Plato models the human soul on a massive scale by describing the structure of a just city but Small Things models our too-large country on the scale of a person, a family, and a community. The book is available from Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble and can be found at micahharris.com.
Ken Baumann (SF) writes that the small, nonprofit publishing company he runs, Sator Press, has published a new title, On Hell, a novella by Johanna Hedva.
Natvara Hongsuwan (SFGI) is currently a professional actress and a writer in Thailand.
Obituaries
Henry B. Higman, Class of 1948
August 4, 2017
James W. Jobes, Jr., Class of 1956
January 27, 2018
Richard S. Cahall, Class of 1959
January 21, 2018
Frances A. Burns, A69
September 11, 2017
Steven Sedlis, A73
January 21, 2018
Mary M. Neidorf, SFGI78
December 19, 2017
Pamela B. Sklar, A81
November 20, 2017
Seamus P. McNerney, SFGI96
August 26, 2017
Keith A. Bemer, A98
November 27, 2017
Corinne L. H. Hutchinson, SF03
February 19, 2018
Christopher R. Mules, A06
August 14, 2017
