Class of ’59 – March/April 2011

Nice celebrations! Last summer David and Stephanie Portman took their grandson (Class of ’19??) to London and Paris as his Bar Mitzvah present. He is the son of their daughter Susan Portman Price ‘90 and Rob Price ’90. “We had an amazing time,” writes David; “the highlight for all of us was the show at the Moulin Rouge in Paris.” Also visiting Paris last year was Carole Parnes: “We walked and walked and walked—and barely made a dent in what the city has to offer.” In addition, Carole did a walking tour in Provence and took a cruise—“pretty boring but with some interesting shore excursions”—down the Rhone. Chuck and Nancy Sterling Brown celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary with two events. In July they took a Caribbean cruise with more than 40 members of Chuck’s family. For their Thanksgiving holiday they enjoyed Skytop Lodge in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mts. with their immediate family. A cruise to Alaska was a 2010 highlight for Lois Landy Vazirani, a psychiatric social worker.

Don Brewer kindly wrote to inform us that Jack Evans, PhD ’68, a longtime faculty member and administrator at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received one of the university’s most prestigious awards for his terrific accomplishments for the university and community over his 40-year career there. Jack, who has been at UNC since 1970, is executive director of Carolina North, a research and mixed-use academic campus two miles from the main campus of UNC-Chapel Hill. He also is the Phillip Hettleman Professor of business administration in the university’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. Noted a university press release, “Whether shaping the master’s of business administration curriculum, leading Kenan-Flagler as dean from 1979 to 1987, serving for 15 years as faculty athletics representative to the Atlantic Coast Conference and NCAA, or spearheading the planning for Carolina North, Evans has amassed an impressive record of leadership in the past four decades.”

Taking CAU on-campus programs in Ithaca last summer were Ellie Applewhaite (“Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century European and American Art in Upstate New York”) and Marjory Leshure Marshall (“The Wines Course 2010”). A large number of Cornellians, including ‘59ers Carol Lipis and Harry Petchesky, attended a November reception in NYC honoring Professor Andrew Hacker for his distinguished career and his many years of teaching at the city’s Queen’s College. “Professor Hacker, who left Cornell in 1971 and has been teaching at Queen’s College ever since, has not lost a step. His irreverent wit is as sharp as ever, and all in attendance admired his vitality,” says Harry. Several days later, Harry and his wife Jill attended a concert given by Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey in Schenectady. “Peter was ecstatic to know that ‘Ballad and Folklore’ has been returned to the Cornell curriculum.”

In his “day job,” Elias Kaufman is associate professor of pediatric dentistry at the State University of New York at Buffalo. His main extra-curricular activity, shared with his wife Madeleine, is editing 5 Stringer, published by the American Banjo Fraternity. Currently published twice a year, the magazine has book and CD reviews, history articles and other items of classic banjo interest. Music (“playing piano—again!”) also is Ann Schmeltz Bowers’ major extra-curricula activity. Ann is chair of the board of the Noyce Foundation, working on creative after-school science programs. She also chairs the board of San Jose’s Tech Museum. Gerald Hirsch has been elected president of the International General Dental Institute of Implantology and Gerontology. Gerald was in private dental group practice for over 30 years and at present is a consultant in a private dental practice in New Jersey.

Harvey Weissbard has joined the firm of Genova, Burns & Giantomasi as Of Counsel. The firm has offices in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Harvey, who served for eight years as a Judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division and, prior to that, as a trial judge in the Criminal Division, will be a member of the firm’s Complex Litigation Practice Group. P.E.A.C.E. (People’s Equal Action and Community Effort), a non-profit community-based organization headquartered in Syracuse, honored Earle Lewis with its Champions of Diversity Volunteer Award. Another volunteer is Harriet Benjamin, who acts as a “court watcher” at Queen’s County (NY) Criminal Court. She sits in on jury trials and other proceedings to observe and take notes on protocol for the DA’s office. Hank ’56 and Marianne Smith Hubbard live in Tyron, NC, where Marianne helps restore the depot and gardens. “It’s a wonderful community in which to have a garden enclosed by brick walls,” she says. The Hubbards summer at Harbor Beach, MI, in a cottage on Lake Huron with a view of the lighthouse—and not far from their son and his family, who live in Grosse Pointe.

Join or rejoin! It’s that time of year when your class officers hope you’ll pay class dues…and continue to receive this fine magazine in your mailbox.

* Jenny Tesar, 97A Chestnut Hill Village, Bethel, CT 06801; tel., (203) 792-8237; e-mail, jet24@cornell.edu.