46
CLASS NOTES
Photographs this page: Sarah Blodgett
Helaine Kushner, 1953
Cynthia Maris Dantzic, 1954
Reunion Weekend 2004
Late May in Annandale, and more than three
hundred alumni/ae and their spouses, partners,
friends, and children gathered at Bard for Reunion
Weekend 2004. They came from as far away as
London and Hong Kong to renew old friendships
and catch up with the Bard of today. The annual
dinner, dance, and fireworks on the Blithewood
main lawn drew a record 1,200 partygoers, includ-
ing faculty and graduating seniors and their fami-
lies, even as a smaller reunion group (Classes of
1939 through 1954) dined in the Olin Atrium, and
the Classes of 1964 and 1969 held their party at
Ward Manor.
Back at Bard for Reunion 2004: (left to right) Richard Koch ‘40, Arnold Davis ‘44, David Schwab ‘52, Seena Davis,
Wayne Horvitz ‘42, and Richard Price ‘44
47
Photographs this page: Karl Rabe
Class of 1969, 35th Reunion
Class of 1964, 40th Reunion
48
’35
70th Reunion: May 20–22, 2005
Contact: Stella Wayne, 845-758-7407 or wayne@bard.edu
’40
65th Reunion: May 20–22, 2005
Contact: Stella Wayne, 845-758-7407 or wayne@bard.edu
’44
Richard Price writes that things are slowing down, but still
picking up. In the summer of 2003, at age 82, he climbed
Mount Washington. At age 75, he paddled a kayak around
Cape Horn, Chile. He also races iceboats in the winter.
’45
60th Reunion: May 20–22, 2005
Contact: Stella Wayne, 845-758-7407 or wayne@bard.edu
’47
Walter Liggett is self-employed as a painter, poet, and com-
piler of poetry anthologies, including Facets from a Crystal,
Volume One (2003). He is also the self-appointed haiku
master of Berkeley. One of his more recent haiku:
November nineteenth,
red leaves, Japanese maple.
Branches twist skyward.
Mark Stroock writes that he is still working as a consultant
for Young & Rubicam, Inc., but that he mostly enjoys
spending time with his children, grandchildren, and great-
grandchildren.
’48
Susan Lowenstein-Kitchell (Wender) is codirector of the
Abortion Rights Fund of Western Massachusetts.
’50
55th Reunion: May 20–22, 2005
Contact: Stella Wayne, 845-758-7407 or wayne@bard.edu
Mary Gelb Park sends word that she recently had a success-
ful show of her paintings in Portland, Oregon. She writes,
“I sold seven, which I consider a minor triumph!”
’53
Bastiaan Kooiman is enjoying retirement. He travels a fair
amount and otherwise keeps busy by volunteering at an
area homeless shelter and in church. He writes that he vis-
ited Bard four years ago in the summer and found much
changed since 1953.
Kit Ellenbogen ’52
After a successful career as a high school guidance coun-
selor, Kit Ellenbogen started law school at the tender age
of 54, the “token grandmother” in her class at Rutgers, she
quips. In most of her classes she was the oldest person in
the room, but Ellenbogen says she never felt self-con-
scious. She balanced course work with a full-time job and
the care of her elderly mother. “Sheer perseverance and
determination saw me through,” she says. “Those are the
qualities I find most useful.”
Upon graduation, her two grown sons threw her a
well-deserved party.
Ellenbogen is now a staff attorney for the nonprofit
Association for the Children of New Jersey, helping par-
ents ensure that New Jersey’s school districts meet their
children’s needs. Most of her clients are immigrants, a cir-
cumstance she understands firsthand, having escaped
from Europe with her parents just as Hitler was taking
over Czechoslovakia. “I know from experience that there’s
a lot of injustice in the world,” she says. “Working with
immigrant parents really hits home for me. I delight in
telling them what their rights are.”
Another source of delight for Ellenbogen is that her
grandson, Monroe, will attend the College this coming fall
as a third-generation Bardian, following in the footsteps of
his uncle Anthony Ellenbogen ’82 and his aunt Kristina
Ellenbogen (Mickelson) ’83.
Photograph: Doug Baz
49
Roger Phillips’s Concept to Construct sculpture exhibition
was on view at Weber Fine Art in Chatham, New York, from
December 6, 2003, to January 31, 2004. He gave a special
gallery talk on January 17.
’54
McAlister Coleman was awarded professor emeritus status
by Endicott College at a convocation September 4, 2003. He
used the opportunity to introduce new students to two of
his sculptures on campus: a granite carving, A Taoist
Landscape, and a welded steel piece, X, The Unknown is Not
Nothing. He had retired four years earlier after teaching in
the Art and Design Division for 30 years.
Dr. Gregory Tucker is semiretired from his clinical practice.
He is writing a book and working on psychotherapeutic
techniques based on Buddhist concepts.
’55
50th Reunion: May 20–22, 2005
Contact: Jessica Kemm, 845-758-7406 or kemm@bard.edu
’59
Joint reunion celebration with the Classes of 1960 and
1961: May 20–22, 2005
Contact: Stella Wayne, 845-758-7407 or wayne@bard.edu
’60
45th Reunion: May 20–22, 2005
Contact: Stella Wayne, 845-758-7407 or wayne@bard.edu
’61
Joint reunion celebration with the Classes of 1959 and
1960: May 20–22, 2005
Contact: Stella Wayne, 845-758-7407 or wayne@bard.edu
’63
Richard Perry, who received his master of arts from
Teacher’s College, Columbia University following his years
at Bard, has retired from the Corning–Painted Post Area
School District after 36 years of teaching vocal music. He
remains as choir director at the First Congregational–
United Church of Christ in Corning, New York, where he
lives, and continues to teach chorus, voice, recorder, and
jazz at institutes throughout the United States and Canada.
His service to education has earned him the honor of Paul
Harris Fellow, given by the Rotary Foundation of Rotary
International. He is the father of three grown sons—James
of Cincinnati; David of Corning; and Thomas of Charlotte,
North Carolina—and grandfather of five.
Heywood Zeidman is a psychiatrist in San Diego. His
group, Psychiatric Centers at San Diego, employs 35 psychi-
atrists, as well as psychologists, social workers, and thera-
pists. One of his daughters, who has a Ph.D., works with
his group, while another daughter works as an industrial
psychologist helping corporations attract and motivate man-
agement employees. As of December 2003, his son was in
the process of applying to college.
’64
Stuart L. Posner, M.D.’s rheumatology practice continues at
a busy pace. Photography and travel, along with family (two
grandchildren so far!), occupy his leisure time.
’65
40th Reunion: May 20–22, 2005
Contact: Jessica Kemm, 845-758-7406 or kemm@bard.edu
Roderick Townley’s new novel for young adults, Sky, will be
released this summer. The third novel in his Sylvie Cycle,
The Constellation of Sylvie (Simon & Schuster), will be out in
2005. The Sylvie books have been optioned by Utopia Films.
Bibi Wein received the 2002–2003 Tupelo Press Editor’s
Award for Prose for her first work of creative nonfiction, The
Way Home. The book will be published by Tupelo this fall.
’66
Esther Wanning received an M.S. in counseling psychology
from Dominican University in 2002 and is now a psychother-
apy intern at a low-fee agency in Marin County, California.
After many years as a writer, she is very pleased with her new
career and spends her spare time working toward single-payer
health care, particularly CA Senate Bill 921.
’68
Joan Wishkoff reports that her car was rear-ended on I-95
last November, and she sustained a broken back. She is
mobile now and doing well in physical therapy. She wore a
seat belt and reminds all to do the same. She moved out of
her cabin on the banks of the Delaware River and bought a
condominium in a high-rise in Wilmington, Delaware,
where she enjoys her view of the city, especially at night.
Her youngest son, Ari, 25, is an assistant producer with
Richard Frankel on Broadway.

50
Yesterday . . .
Bard in the 1960s
By Howard Dratch ’68 and Patricia Beringer ’68
Patricia Beringer entered Bard in 1965; Howard Dratch in
1966. She went on to art school in London, he to law school at
Cornell. They married in 1969 and settled in the mid Hudson
Valley until 1998. Then, having developed congestive heart
failure, Dratch bought a big red Bronco and drove them both
to Mexico, to the shore of Laguna Bacalar, “the hemisphere’s
prettiest swimming hole.”
After receiving the Fall 2003 Bardian, with its call for
remembrances of Bard, Beringer and Dratch settled down for a
chat with an imaginary student from the Class of 2008.
Student ’08 How did you feel when you first encountered
Bard? Was it a lot different then? The ’60s are only history
for me . . . wow! Almost 40 years ago.
Patricia I first saw Bard when I was 8. My father had
attended the College in the 1930s, and in the fall he liked to
go back to the old school. I remember the heady taste of
apples, rural Bard—a place that definitely wasn’t Scarsdale—
and my first sight of the beatniks studying there. Soon
enough I was taking the train to New York, to hang out with
the beats in the Village. I went to the University of Arizona
for a semester and then came back to New York to go to the
New School, where I studied with Justus Rosenberg, who was
also teaching at Bard. He encouraged me to apply to Bard,
giving me my first ideas of Bard excellence and freedom.
Later there was my tutor, Murray Reich [assistant professor of
art], and Jim Sullivan [assistant professor of art], who made
pictures with glee, and Wyn Chamberlain with his film,
Brand X, parties, and happenings in his classes. Dylan was
singing “The pump don’t work ’cause the vandals took the
handles” about the pump at the triangle across from
Adolph’s. “Sgt. Pepper” poured out of windows on campus,
and I loved my freedom living off campus in Schuyler House.
Howard My first view of Bard was at Grand Central Station,
where Bruce Blowitz [’71] was in antipreppy, anti–Chicago
Latin School regalia asking, “Hey man, is this the Bard
Train?” I was culture shocked as we left the station, and
Bard’s 19th-century majesty and mystery finished me off.
Happily, my first new Bard idea came from my tutor, Bob
Koblitz [professor of government], who listened to my tale of
terror—that everyone else spoke an academic language with
references to Hobbes and Locke, Latin phrases, and verbal
footnotes—and taught me to sift through the verbiage, find
the information, distill my own thoughts, and believe that I
could join this exclusive world that I hadn’t known before.
Student ’08 Do you think of anyone special from your
days at Bard?
Howard Girls. Timothy Leary speaking behind Stone Row.
Old friends. Regrets of friendships not made. Peter Sourian
[professor of English], with whom I still wish I had studied.
Patricia & Howard Ken Grimwood [’69] and Lonnie
Younge [’67]. The Fall 2003 Bardian came with the news
that Ken had died at 59. Lonnie died in 1998. Both deaths
surprised us.
Howard Patricia and I met in 1966 in the dining com-
mons. But not until a famous three-day party at Lonnie’s
did we “lock eyes” and begin to go out. Late at night, Ken
and Pat and I would turn Blithewood into an antebellum
plantation for impromptu plays bathed in the scent of the
garden. We heard the Clermont sound her whistle as she
steamed up the Hudson.
51
’69
Peter Minichiello has been appointed director of develop-
ment of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The BSO
recruited Peter, whose career has included time in the cor-
porate publishing world as well as development positions at
AmFar, The Lighthouse, and WNYC public radio in New
York City. After years of fund-raising, he says he’s learned to
never take any gift for granted. “Small donations are as
important as anything else,” he says. Regarding the fund-
raising climate in these difficult economic times, he is mat-
ter-of-fact: “You simply keep soliciting. You never stop.”
’70
35th Reunion: May 20–22, 2005
Contact: Jessica Kemm, 845-758-7406 or kemm@bard.edu
George Brewster left his position as president of JVA
Properties to start Kiwi Properties, LLC, a real estate invest-
ment and development firm specializing in New Zealand
properties.
Steve Levy, who received his V.M.D from the University of
Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in 1977, prac-
ticed for two years as an associate veterinarian in Guilford,
Connecticut, before purchasing the Durham Veterinary
Hospital in Durham, Connecticut, in 1979. His practice is
limited to dogs and cats and he has developed a strong spe-
cialty in Lyme disease and tick biology. Since 1986, when he
diagnosed the first case of canine cardiac Lyme disease,
Steve has accumulated the majority of primary authorships
on clinical Lyme disease in dogs. In addition to his clinical
and research activities, he presents continuing education on
ticks and tick-borne diseases throughout the United States
and internationally. Steve has also been chief of the
Durham Volunteer Fire Company for 10 years. He is mar-
ried to Diane (Seltzer) Levy. They have one daughter, Hilary,
and a grandson, Jacob Eric Beler.
Mark Zuckerman has been awarded a New Jersey State
Council on the Arts (NJSCA) fellowship for 2004, one of
only two given to New Jersey composers. The NJSCA
granted fellowships, based solely on artistic excellence, to
26 New Jersey artists out of a pool of 303 applicants in five
disciplines.
Student ’08 What do you remember of Bard in the differ-
ent seasons?
Patricia Apple smells and River Road, the changing colors
of the trees and getting my Senior Project ready, lost in my
little, private Proctor studio, painting until I couldn’t see,
then dancing at Adolph’s until late. Young men not named
Howard. My brass bed at Schuyler House and the old gar-
den there. Blithewood garden in spring bloom.
Howard My first sight of real snow. Steve Miller [’70] get-
ting me to slide down the hill in front of our North
Hoffman rooms on a dining commons tray. Winter Field
Periods working for law firms in Chicago and New York.
The Blithewood garden in 1969 when David Pierce, then an
Episcopal priest, later friend and editor, married us as the
bees danced by the fountain in the pool. David had long
blond hair and blue eyes and he ad-libbed a marriage cere-
mony to suit our ’60s lives and the mention that I made on
the way to the garden that I happened to be Jewish.
Student ’08 What do you remember of Commencement?
Pat & Howard Finishing Senior Projects and papers,
thinking about Life and grad schools. Heinz Bertelsmann
yelling at us for refusing to come to Baccalaureate, but God
was in a blue sky that day, and neither of us would get off
the grass to sit inside and miss a drop of sky.
Patricia My grandmother hired a limo and driver to come
up from Park Avenue. She was proud of me. It was sweet
because she died the next year.
Student ’08 And what about leaving Bard?
Patricia I hated to leave. Graduate art school in London
didn’t come close to the education and freedom I had at
Bard. I came back and we were married and lived in
Germantown, Barrytown, and Saugerties. Bard was always
part of our lives. Movies, lectures, friends, music . . .
Howard In 1982 I began to freelance for Bard as a photog-
rapher. We knew people in many Bard classes and at many
reunions. We had a lot of faculty friends, whom I miss,
including David Pierce, gone now too. Working on the
Hudson Valley Regional Review with Dick Wiles [professor
emeritus of economics]. Shooting the art faculty for the new
Avery M.F.A. program. What is not a memory is Bard, still a
voice of reason, for freedom and human rights.
52
’71
Seth Kammerer writes that his wife, Hatsue, died in Tokyo
on December 6, 2003. Seth, their son, her sister, and two
close family friends were with her at her bedside. Her
wake was held on December 12, and a formal service on
December 13. She was interred at her family’s formal burial
site in her hometown of Chiba, Japan.
’73
Natalie Kaye is very happy living a “bicoastal” life in
Woodstock, New York, and New York City. She is the direc-
tor of marketing services at the magazine Organic Style.
Leslie Phillips is a partner in Burke/Phillips Design
(www.burkephillips.com) and founder of the Robert Phillips
–Youman Memorial Foundation (www.robertphillipsy-
ouman.org), in memory of her late son, Robbie. The
Foundation is an outreach group that serves severely men-
tally ill and suicidal young people. Leslie is happy to report
that her daughter, Courtney, 21, loves the University of
Washington, where she is studying geography and sustain-
able economics in third world countries, and that her son
Seth, 11, continues to play Little League and dreams of
becoming a Mariner. Leslie encourages any Bardians who
find themselves in the Seattle area to look her up.
’74
Mardi-Ellen Hill has launched her own multimedia company.
Jeannie Motherwell exhibits at the Lyman-Eyer Gallery
(http://www.lymaneyerart.com) in Provincetown,
Massachusetts, where she has summered most of her life.
She exhibited her recent work in June; new work will be on
view this fall. Jeannie is a full-time employee at Boston
University for the Arts Administration Graduate Program.
She has been appointed to the Cambridge Arts Council’s
Public Art Commission advisory committee, a nine-mem-
ber board that reflects the cultural, ethnic, and geographic
makeup of Cambridge, Massachusetts. You can contact
Jeannie at Jmotharts@aol.com.
Caroline Muir shares her loft space in an artists’ cooperative
with her sweetie, Steve, and her cat, Mercury. Her efforts to
master HTML have paid off: a Google search for “Caroline
Muir” now easily returns her site.
Brother Francis E. Revels-Bey encourages fellow Bardians to
check out his two websites: www.circleofgrace1.com and cir-
cleofgrace1.byregion.net.
Pete Mauney ’93, MFA ’99
Class of 1974, 30th Reunion
53
’75
30th Reunion: May 20–22, 2005
Contact: Jessica Kemm, 845-758-7406 or kemm@bard.edu
Roberta Maria Baldini has been appointed to the Office of
the Prosecutor at the UN International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania. The UN Security
Council established the ad hoc ICTR to prosecute those
most responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Robert “Ron” Wilson retired as assistant executive vice
chancellor emeritus after 27 years with the University of
California, Irvine. He was the first administrator to retire
with this honor. This past December 9 marked the first
anniversary of his heart transplant. Ron and his wife, Carol,
are looking forward to their 29th anniversary in August and
have been spending time traveling and visiting with friends
and family. Their three children (Jascha, Shanta, and Alina)
are all happy and healthy.
’76
Steven Haber lives with his wife, Xiaolan, and their two
children, Jonathan, 12, and Maya Lin, 9, in New Jersey. He
teaches English at New Jersey City University in Jersey City
and writes that he would love to hear from fellow Bardians.
Richard Frank ’74
The high cost of health care in the United States is a con-
cern for many. For Richard Frank, it’s a passion. “The con-
nection between economics and health is direct,” he says.
“One of every seven dollars in the United States is spent
on health care. That’s 15 percent of our economy.”
Frank, who majored in economics at Bard, is the
Margaret T. Morris Professor of Health Economics in the
Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical
School. He found his calling as a graduate student
research assistant at Boston University (where he earned a
Ph.D. in economics), studying the effect of the expansion
of health insurance to cover mental illness. “I thought it
was extraordinarily cool,” he recalls. “I was interested in
understanding how markets intersect with policy.”
In 1993 Frank got a firsthand look at health care pol-
icy when he served on President Clinton’s Task Force on
National Health Care Reform—“an amazing experience,”
he says. “I worked on mental health issues in the reform
plan with Mrs. Gore. For six months I worked literally
round the clock.” Disappointed by the task force’s out-
come, he nevertheless says, “I wouldn’t have traded my
involvement in it for the world.”
Last fall Frank wrapped up the first portion of a major
study looking at the impact of direct-to-consumer advertising
on the prescription drug industry. The study combines two
of his favorite pastimes, he quips: “health economics and
watching television.” Papers about the study have been pub-
lished in the New England Journal of Medicine and by the
National Bureau of Economic Research, where Frank is a
research associate. Frank was also seeking a publisher for a
book he has written about the state of mental health care in
the United States. Tentative title: Better but Not Well.
Ron Wilson and Bard friends from all over (left to right): Jackie
Nieves ’77 of Jamesburg, New Jersey; Dawn deLeongh (Toppin) ’76
of Alexandria, Virginia; Wilson; Marlene Rubain ’76 of Oakland;
Anita Rodriguez ’77 of Riverdale, New York; and (center) Pat Rock ’78
of Brooklyn.

54
’78
Kathleen C. Reardon has been named counsel at the inter-
national law firm of Bryan Cave LLP. She joined the firm’s
St. Louis office in 1998 and is a member of the Health Care
Client Service Group.
’79
Tom Carpenter Hunter reports from Iowa City that he is
still a meat eater and has, in fact, become a modest grill
master. He earned a master of arts in teaching in 1991 and
a master of fine arts in creative nonfiction in 2003, both
from the University of Iowa. Tom and his wife, Annie, have
three nonhuman children: Sunny, a yellow lab; and the
Larrys, big and little, two feline brothers.
Madeline Wilson teaches photography and graphic design at
the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York. She kayaks
the Hudson River during the summer and skis in the win-
ter. Her girls are getting big, ages 13 and 16, respectively.
“It’s all good,” she writes.
Ed Winter is on the faculty of Thomas Jefferson Medical
School in Philadelphia, where he teaches and does
research. He is married to Jeannette Dumas and they have
a 2-year-old son, Theo. He can be reached at
winter@lac.jci.tju.edu.
’80
25th Reunion: May 20–22, 2005
Contact: Stella Wayne, 845-758-7406 or wayne@bard.edu
Aliza Driller is the mother of two awesome kids as well as
an art teacher and the department chairperson for K-12 in
the Highland (New York) Central School District. She is also
still making “art things.”
Stephanie Leighton works as a portfolio manager for a Boston-
based, socially responsible investment management firm
called Trillium Asset Management. In December 2003 she
wrote, “I am looking forward to marrying my partner of 15
years, due to the recent gay marriage ruling in Massachusetts!”
Samuel D. Marshall, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology and
director of the J. H. Barrow Field Station at Hiram College in
Ohio, was the subject of an article entitled “Stalking Spiders”
in the February 2004 issue of Discover magazine. The article,
an offshoot of the book The Tarantula Scientist by Sy
Montgomery (Houghton Mifflin, spring 2004), details
Gretchen Fierle ’78
As executive director of the Research Center for Stroke and
Heart Disease at the Jacobs Neurological Insititute in Buffalo,
Gretchen Fierle heads a team that designs and implements
projects to change behaviors relating to health.
Fierle’s team covers an eight-county area of western
New York that has the highest rates of stroke and heart dis-
ease in the country. “Our work is not clinically based,” she
says. “We design broad-based interventions in an effort to
promote behavior changes that will prevent these diseases.”
One such intervention involved working with church congre-
gations in a physical activity program; another is an effort to
bring healthier foods to public schools, to put the next gener-
ation on the road to good health.
Fierle, who majored in psychology at Bard, also invests
her time in community issues, particularly those focused on
women and girls. She serves on the national board of the
National Women’s Hall of Fame, an organization she holds
in high esteem. “The people most likely to be poor in our
country are women,” she says. “They need not only opportu-
nity, but also role models. Women who have overcome
extraordinary obstacles can be found at the Hall of Fame, as
inspiration.” Targeting youth, Fierle wants to see the organi-
zation work with more school curricula and offer its website
as a learning tool in schools.
Fierle sums up her interest: “Not too long ago, women
had no rights. Today we’re leveling the playing field, but we
need to bring up the next generation in an inspired way.”
55
Sam’s career as one of only a dozen arachnologists world-
wide specializing in tarantulas. The article may be viewed
online at http://www.discover.com/issues/feb-04/
features/stalking-spiders/. Sam notes that his career in
tarantula research started with his Senior Project at Bard.
’81
Stacy Presha’s play, Elaina Vance’s Last Dance, was produced
at Theater for the New City in Manhattan, April 2–25.
’82
Steve Bennish, assistant regional editor at the Dayton (Ohio)
Daily News, is pleased to report that in January 2004, Ohio
Governor Bob Taft signed a landmark bill reforming the
ways in which the state handles crimes against the develop-
mentally disabled and retarded. The bill, authored largely by
a blue-ribbon panel of police, prosecutors, and judges,
follows the Dayton Daily News’s series “Deadly
Consequences,” written by Bennish and reporter Tom
Beyerlein, which detailed deaths due to abuse and neglect.
The signing of the bill echoed overwhelming support by
the state legislature. The series can still be viewed at:
http://www.daytondailynews.com/project/content/project/
mrdd/mrdd_index.html (free registration is required).
Steven Colatrella is an assistant professor of sociology at
Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and the
2003–2004 president of the Iowa Sociological Association.
Lisa R. Jaccoma is vice president of public affairs at Mystic
Aquarium’s Institute for Exploration in Mystic, Connecticut.
’83
Jan Altshool, after moving into a 1910 Craftsman five years
ago with her partner Deb, has pledged to find time to put
pictures on the walls. They were honored to accept the
British Columbia Human Rights Commission Award on
Human Rights Day 2003, on behalf of the Lesbian and Gay
Immigration Task Force for their work with lesbians, gay
men, bisexuals, and transgendered people in cross-border
relationships.
Roy Gumpel
Class of 1979, 25th Reunion
56
’84
Karen Lehmann and her husband, Dennis, are completely
smitten with their daughter, Amelia Louise, born March 14,
2003. While the days fly by in one big “Mommy swirl,” she
steals time for poetry and continues to mentor other writers,
while simultaneously completing her training as a Montessori
teacher. The family, including four dogs, lives in Denver.
Leonard Schwartz was appointed professor of creative writ-
ing at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington,
last fall. Talisman House published his new collection of
poems, The Tower of Diverse Shores, in November 2003.
Leonard hosts his own radio program, Cross-Cultural Poetics,
on KAOS, 89.3, in Olympia. In January, he was an invited
reader at the WordFeast Poetry Festival in Singapore.
Lisa Vasey (Jurkowski) earned an M.B.A. degree in non-
profit management after 10 years in the music industry.
She is now the program manager of artistic operations for
the Henry Mancini Institute in Los Angeles, where she
manages a four-week summer education program and pro-
duces a free concert series.
’85
20th Reunion: May 20–22, 2005
Contact: Stella Wayne, 845-758-7406 or wayne@bard.edu
Lisa Uchrin (Ferguson) is the mayor of her tiny borough in
New Jersey. She won the Democratic nomination by one
vote and went on to unseat a 30-year incumbent.
’88
Laura Giletti married John Meany in 1999, after a
courtship of more than seven years. In 2003 they moved
to Sydney, Australia, where they are exploring life in the
land “down under.”
Roy Gumpel
Class of 1984, 20th Reunion
57
Sheryl Korsnes is helping to develop the endoscopy research
program at the University of Michigan Medical School. She
is an investigator on a clinical project that involves the use
of optical coherence tomography in ulcerative colitis surveil-
lance. She is also investigating the use of capsule endoscopy
in the detection of sources of small bowel bleeding. She
writes that she is happy with what she is doing, and sends
greetings to her professors and classmates.
Allison Radzin and her husband, Mark, welcomed their
daughter, Wyatt C. F. Radzin, into the world on October 29,
2003, in Greenwich, Connecticut.
’89
Dominick Reisen curated the exhibition Freemasonry in
Cooperstown, which runs from June 21 to September 19 at
the Smithy Pioneer Gallery in Cooperstown, New York. He
is also president of the Otsego County Historical
Association.
Julia Williams (Todd) is the director of the nursing program
for the Brattleboro campus of Vermont Technical College.
’90
15th Reunion: May 20–22, 2005
Contact: Stella Wayne, 845-758-7406 or wayne@bard.edu
Thomas Crofts lives with his wife, Molly, and sons, Rex and
August, in Norman, Oklahoma, where he is an assistant pro-
fessor of medieval English literature at the University of
Oklahoma.
Marcos Morales and his wife, Nancy, had their first child,
Marcos Antonio II, on October 30, 2003. In December
Marcos reported, “Mom and baby doing great, and dad is
wonderfully tired.” The family lives in Yonkers, New York.
’91
Chad Kleitsch participated in the inaugural exhibition of the
Haddad Lascano Gallery (cofounded by Carrie Haddad ’95)
in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, last March 27.
’92
Christina Hajagos-Clausen and Jakob Clausen still live in
New York City, where they are learning how to balance work,
school, and parenthood. Their son, Andreas, is now an
active and curious 2-year-old. Jakob has earned a master’s
degree at Teachers College, Columbia University, and con-
tinues to teach ESL at a New York City public high school.
Elizabeth Reiss ’87
After years of working in New York City museums,
Elizabeth Reiss left Gotham in 2001 for Pittsburgh and the
helm of a major annual arts festival.
As director of the Three Rivers Arts Festival, Reiss
raises funds and selects artists for the 45-year-old festival,
which runs for 17 days each June, featuring music, visual
arts, crafts, and dance performances. “I like institutional
planning, and thinking in advance to make things hap-
pen,” she says. “I’m not a ‘detail’ person, but I love think-
ing about how it all comes together.”
Challenges include the current economy, which
makes fund-raising difficult. Further, an annual event is
“weird,” says Reiss. “You think you have all the time in the
world, and then it’s like a freight train coming at you—
everything happens at once.”
The freight train does bring its rewards. “I remember
the opening night concert of my first real year on the job.
The Indigo Girls were playing to an audience of fifteen
thousand. I attended the event with my staff, and one of
them turned to me and said, ‘You did this.’ It was a
tremendous feeling. Through all my work in museums
over the years I’ve probably had an impact on a lot of peo-
ple, but the impact of this festival is just palpable.”
58
Christina, director of organizing at a local union, is finish-
ing up a master’s degree in labor relations from the
University of Massachusetts.
Heather Klinkhamer earned an M.S. degree in education
from St. John’s University in 2003, as part of the New York
City Teaching Fellows program, Her oil painting, Turquoise
Nun, was selected for inclusion in Touchstone Gallery’s
sixth annual All Media Exhibition, which ran from February
11, 2003, to March 7, 2004, in Washington, D. C.
Margaret Sova McCabe and her husband, Tom, added
another son to their family. Hank was born on February 2,
2004, joining big brother Tommie, who is 3. Margaret
enjoys teaching at Pierce Law in Concord, New Hampshire.
She continues to practice law on a limited basis, working
mostly on contracting projects.
Katya McElfresh received a master’s degree in social work
from Hunter College in 2001. At Hunter, she was awarded
the Helena Rubinstein Foundation Award for academically
outstanding women in social work and the Reva Fine
Holtzman Award for her work with families. She is a social
worker at the Family Reception Center, where she works
with children at risk for placement in foster care. She writes
that she loves her life and work in Brooklyn, where she fre-
quently babysits for Keelan Durham, the perfect child of Jon
Durham ’93 and Margaret Loftus ’92.
Bryony Renner attends law school at Washington and Lee
University in Lexington, Virginia. Her full-length play, Can’t
Make Me, was selected for the 2003 FringeACT Festival of
New Original Work in Seattle.
Claudia Smith’s stories have appeared online (in Pindeldyboz,
Eyeshot, and the Mississippi Review) and in print (in Ink Pot,
Night Train, and Flash!Point). Her short story, “How To
Catch A Good Girl,” published by Word Riot, was short-
listed for storySouth’s Million Writers Award as one of the
top 10 online stories of 2003.
Daniel Sonenberg completed his dissertation about Joni
Mitchell in May 2003, and received a doctorate in music com-
position from the CUNY Graduate School. Together with
librettist/poet Daniel Nester, he is composing an opera, The
Summer King, on the life of Negro League baseball legend Josh
Gibson. Excerpts of the work have been performed at the
Manhattan School of Music and Peter Norton Symphony
Space, under the sponsorship of American Opera Projects. He
Andrew Joffe ’82
Playwright Terrence McNally has noted that in opera, the
music is everything and a “good libretto, or a bad one, is
everything else.” Andrew Joffe, who penned the libretto for
The Song of Eddie, an opera in two acts that premiered in July
at The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts,
would probably agree, but he’d add a kicker: “It’s true that a
good libretto never saved a bad opera, but a bad libretto has
sunk many a good one.”
Joffe, who has staged more than 40 productions as
the artistic director of the American Chamber Opera
Company, has written the libretti for two chamber operas,
Faust Triumphant and Medea in Exile; a two-act opera based
on the Joris-Karl Huysmans novel A Rebours; and Beast
and Superbeast, an operatic trilogy inspired by Saki’s short
stories. As a librettist, Joffe describes his collaborative
modus operandi as “anything that gives you a good piece,”
but he prefers give-and-take with the composer. “I’ve been
lucky, in that the composers I’ve worked with value the
input,” he says, adding that he knows of many who “beat
up on the librettist.”
The chemistry of interacting with a composer and
creating something that is somehow magically other than
either the music or the text is what Joffe finds most stimu-
lating. “The most amazing alchemical transformations
happen, because your libretto is essentially incomplete
[without the music],” he says of the process. “Things come
up that you would never have foreseen.”
Photograph: Tania Barricklo

59
is a visiting assistant professor of music at Brooklyn College,
and lives with his wife, Alexandra, in Astoria, Queens.
’93
Andrew Browne finds himself in Shanghai, China, follow-
ing stays in Germany and Kuwait. He writes that life in
Shanghai is very fast-paced, the work week not long
enough, and that he regrets not having taken an intensive
Chinese course while at Bard. Fellow Bardians in China (or
elsewhere) can contact Andrew at abrowne123@yahoo.com.
Dr. Catherine “Betsy” Buck works as a small animal veteri-
narian in York, Pennsylvania.
Ling Kwan earned a master’s degree in music from Ithaca
College and now teaches at the Mountain Laurel Waldorf
School in New Paltz, New York, and at the Dutchess
Community College Music School. In addition, the mother
of Julian, 7, and AnaIsabel, 3, gives private cello lessons to
children and “enthusiastic adults.” She lives in Red Hook,
New York.
Benjamin Schneider writes that he is still living in
Manhattan, practicing law, studying jazz and blues guitar,
and searching for like-minded musicians to play with.
’94
Georgia Hodes made the “logical shift” from acting to psy-
chology. She is in her third year of the Ph.D. program in
biopsychology and behavorial neuroscience at Rutgers
University.
Kristi Martel moved from Oakland, California, back
home to Rhode Island after the sudden death of her life
partner, Littlebird. She writes that it has been an enormous
loss and trauma, but that she is healing. Check
www.kmetal.net/blogger.html for details of Kristi’s record-
ing, touring, and CD release schedules.
Roy Gumpel
Class of 1989, 15th Reunion
60
Tatiana Prowell is pursuing a fellowship in oncology and
conducting breast cancer clinical trials at Johns Hopkins
Hospital in Baltimore. She and her husband of two years,
Todd Gleeson, a fellow physician, welcomed their first son,
Gavin Rhys Gleeson, on January 16, 2004.
’95
10th Reunion: May 20–22, 2005
Contact: Stella Wayne, 845-758-7406 or wayne@bard.edu
Pamela Chaplin-Loebell and her husband, David ’98, are
pleased to share the news of the birth of their second
daughter, Amelia Robin, on May 11, 2003. Following a four-
month maternity break, Pam took over the management of
their family business, Klatha.com, which provides computer
and Internet consulting services to small businesses, com-
munity organizations, artists, and arts institutions.
Premraj Makkuni is a resident in internal medicine at the
Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia.
Phuc and Susan Tran ’96 moved from New York City to
Portland, Maine, where they opened up their own tattoo
shop. Phuc also teaches Latin. You can view their website at
www.tsunamitattoo.com.
Hoa Tu will serve as the coprincipal of a new public school
on the Lower East Side in New York City, starting in
September 2004. The Henry Street Secondary School for
International Studies has been created in collaboration with
the Asia Society to serve inner city minority children.
’96
Sarah Popdan writes that Lucian Robert Popdan Li arrived
on November 1, 2003, to bring her and her husband, Eric Li,
one step closer to their goal of a family mah jong foursome.
Among Lucian’s first admirers were Katrina Hajagos ’97
(whose birthday he shares), Priya George ’97, Godric
Shoesmith ’97, Wendy Grunseich ’96, Cree (Christopher)
Nevins ’95, and Elizabeth Norton ’95. Those wishing to join
the crew, view photographs, or contact Mama can visit
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze8dvk2/index.html.
Roy Gumpel
Class of 1994, 10th Reunion
61
Mara Tillett lives in Mexico City, where she was born. She is
active as a flamenco dancer (having founded her own com-
pany), flute performer, and teacher. She shares her apart-
ment with three cats.
’97
Rakhel Milstein (Speyer ) passed the New York bar exam
and now works in immigration law in New York City.
’98
Something in Between, a short film directed by Zackary Adler
and produced by Adrian Bartol ’99, was screened at the
2004 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The film,
which deals with drug addiction, has also been shown at
drug treatment centers for teens to stimulate discussion in
a group therapy setting.
’99
Amy Foster graduated from the Longwood Gardens
Professional Gardener Training Program in 2002 and has
been the education manager at the Delaware Center for
Horticulture for the past two years
Molly Heekin graduated with a master’s degree in the sci-
ence of teaching from the State University of New York at
New Paltz this spring.
’00
5th Reunion: May 20–22, 2005
Contact: Stella Wayne, 845-758-7406 or wayne@bard.edu
Maro Sevastopoulos works as a full-time labor union organ-
izer with Service Employees International Union, Local 503,
Oregon.
Hilary Takiff received a master of fine arts degree from the
University of Pennsylvania in 2003.
’01
Benjamin Blattberg attends the University of Chicago,
where he is in the Ph.D. program in the Department of
English Language and Literature.
Blanca Lista was invited to be part of the jury at Belgium’s
Mons International Film Festival in February 2004. She is
finishing her next 16mm film, Galore.
Cecilia Maple and her long-time partner, Dwane Decker, were
married on May 29, 2004, in the Bard Chapel. Cecilia has
returned to Bard, where she now works as the assistant to the
director of the new Master of Arts in Teaching Program.
Lisa Kereszi ’95 was approached in
October 2003 by the Public Art Fund to docu-
ment Governor’s Island, a former U.S. Army
base and later a Coast Guard base in the mid-
dle of New York Harbor, the proposed redevel-
opment of which may produce the next
Central Park. On the island, accessible only by
private a ferry, she found a ghost town—man-
sions, apartment buildings, two hospitals, a
Burger King, bowling alley, Super 8 motel,
movie theater, beauty salon, bank, churches,
dormitories, classrooms, and a gym. Her
work, and that of fellow project photographer
Andrew Moore, was shown in May at the
Urban Center. A soft-cover book will follow
the exhibition. The project is made possible
by the support of the Public Art Fund and the
Governor’s Island Preservation and Education
Committee (GIPEC). For more information,
visit www.lisakereszi.com.
Lisa Kereszi

62
Anthony Rivera, of New York City, writes that he is still
striving for greatness and giving back to the community
that nurtured him.
’02
Jessica Farwell ran her first marathon this June in San
Diego to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma
Society. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, and is a
sixth grade science teacher at Frank Ashley Day Middle
School in Newton.
Jean-Marc Gorelick is serving a 27-month tour for the
United States Peace Corps in Togo, Africa, in the field of
girls education and empowerment. An article he wrote
about his experience, “The Africa We Aren’t Shown on TV,”
appeared in the January 30, 2004 edition of The Christian
Science Monitor.
Jonathan Leach is a staff reporter/assistant producer for the
CBS documentary news magazine 48 Hours, television’s
third longest-running news program.
’03
Gabrielle Becker is the founder of Grand St. Community
Arts, Inc., a nonprofit arts organization that is converting
the long-abandoned St. Anthony’s Church in downtown
Albany, New York, into a community arts center. Gabrielle
and her dedicated volunteers, including Monique Roberts
’03, foresee many uses for the center, including after-school
programs, live musical performances, and rental space for
nonprofit groups.
Pia Carusone moved to New Hampshire last fall to work on
Howard Dean’s presidential campaign. As an area organizer
based in Laconia, she was responsible for building local
teams of activists. Initially attracted to Dean’s political
courage, she was even more impressed by the grassroots
style of his campaign. She writes, “Never before had the
principles of social justice organizing been applied to a pres-
idential campaign.” She has since moved to Telluride,
Colorado, where she snowboards to and from work and is
“enjoying the view of election-time turmoil from a distance.”
Roy Gumpel
Class of 1999, 5th Reunion
63
She remains hopeful that she will be as passionate about her
next job as she was about the Dean campaign.
Babacar Cisse, now a student in a combined M.D./Ph.D.
program at the College of Physicians and Surgeons,
Columbia University, has been awarded a 2004 Paul and
Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans (immigrants
and children of immigrants). Fellows receive a stipend of up
to $20,000, plus half-tuition for as many as two years of
graduate study at any institution of higher learning in the
United States. Babacar is one of 30 fellows chosen from an
applicant pool of nearly 1,000 this year. In other news,
Babacar married Fatou Toure in July 2003. His wife
remains in Senegal.
Mneesha Gellman lives in Arcata, California, where she
helps produce a weekly public affairs radio program for the
Mainstream Media Project. In her free time, she does
Aikido, volunteers at Pelican Bay State Prison, and serves on
the Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Commission for the City of
Arcata. She misses her Bard friends and loves visitors.
Luke Venezia has gained recognition from European and
United States labels for his electronic music under the alias
“drop the lime.” In addition to touring Europe with material
from his five records, Luke has made his way up the ranks
at Outpost Digital, a production company at Radical Media
in New York City. He began working in the dub room, but
soon moved on to motion graphics and compositing. To
date, he has worked on animated logos for clients such as
VH-1, done flash motion graphics for the new Reebok S.
Carter sneaker, and is head compositor on an Errol
Morris–directed CVS ad. Acknowledging his years at Bard,
Luke writes, “Thank you Richard Teitelbaum, Bob Bielecki,
Jackie Goss, Leah Gilliam, and Hap Tivey.”
Milton Avery Graduate School
of the Arts
’92
Michael Merchant and his family have returned to the U.S.
after two and a half years in Brussels. They are restoring
and working on their 19th-century farmstead and organic
farm in New Jersey, where, they report, the countryside still
exists, but is disappearing quickly. Their 29-acre farm is a
television-free sanctuary for Michael, his wife, and their
three children.
Lily Prince’s Candlesmoke and Fingerprints on Paper 22” x 30”
appeared in the March 2004 exhibition Meditations, New
York at 473 Broadway Gallery in New York City.
’93
Jane Schiowitz had a solo exhibition of new paintings at the
Elizabeth Harris Gallery in New York City last January. It
was her fourth one-person show with the gallery.
’94
Gary Green, an assistant professor of art at the University of
Southern Maine, was a visiting lecturer in art at Bates
College in Lewiston, Maine, this past spring.
’95
Janet Echelman exhibited her works at the Florence Lynch
Gallery in New York City in January. Entitled Projects in the
Public Realm, the show featured work from three important
public sculpture projects completed or conceived in the past
year, including a one-tenth scale prototype of her $1.25 mil-
lion commission currently under construction in Porto,
Portugal. Rising 14 stories to visually connect a city park
and a popular beach on the Atlantic coast, the work sus-
pends multiple 150-foot-diameter sculptural nets over a
three-lane highway roundabout.
Jackie Lipton’s work was featured at Brooklyn’s Gallery
Boreas in its February exhibition, Visual Dialogue.
’96
Mara Adamitz Scrupe, an environmental artist, had a solo
exhibition of her work at Grand Arts in Kansas City. Entitled
Back to Nature: Collecting the Preserved Garden, the work was
jointly commissioned for exhibition by the Aldrich
Contemporary Arts Museum (Connecticut) and Grand Arts.
She is currently at work on new commissions for TICKON
(Tranekaer International Centre for Art and Nature) in
Rudkobing, Denmark; Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork,
Ireland (funded by the Arts Council of Ireland); Buffalo
Bayou Art Park, Houston; and Agnes Scott College Public Art
Commission, Atlanta. Scrupe holds the Barbara L. Bishop
Endowed Chair in Art at Longwood University in Virginia.
’99
Tom Johnson and Carrie Moyer ’02 had simultaneous exhi-
bitions at the New York City gallery Canada this winter.
Tom’s Better Social Realism also featured a performance by
the artist. Carrie’s exhibition was entitled Chromafesto.
Wallace Whitney ’01 is one of the gallery’s founders.
64
’00
Serkan Ozkaya, of Istanbul, is a Ph.D. candidate in German
literature at Istanbul University. He was a fellow of the
MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire and has been an
artist-in-residence at Ecole Regionale des Beaux-Arts de
Nantes, France, and in Malmo, Sweden, as recipient of an
IASPIS grant (International Artists’ Studio Program in
Sweden). Recent exhibitions include Minerva Street at
Galerist, Istanbul, and Look Again at Proje 4L, Istanbul.
’01
Michelle Handelman’s video work, along with work by Bard
associate professor of film and electronic arts Peggy
Ahwesh, was featured in the exhibition Acting Out at the Art
Gallery of York University in Toronto this past January.
Michelle also received a 2004 New York State Council on
the Arts Individual Artist Grant for her new animation
project, ’lil m vs. ’lil m.
A solo exhibition featuring photographs by Holly Lynton
took place this spring at Mixed Greens in New York City.
Judy Radul did two video installations, Empathy with the
Victor and No One Must Know, for an exhibition at the Power
Plant in Toronto this past winter.
Work by Trevor Stafford was included in Projects ’03 at
the Carriage House at the Islip Art Museum in East Islip,
New York.
’02
Alexandra Newmark’s Cycle of Three, an installation of
mohair creatures, was on exhibit this winter at PS122
Gallery in New York City.
Raïssa Venables was awarded the Andrew Rhodes Fund for
Young Artists grant from the Visual Arts Foundation in
March. In April, she was in residence and gave a solo exhi-
bition at the Galerie SPHN in Berlin. Raïssa’s artwork and
her Berlin exhibition were the subjects of a feature article in
the April 2004 issue of the German photography magazine
Photography-Now.
’03
Ben Coonley’s experimental video, Wavelength 3-D, was
shown at the New York Underground Film Festival at
Anthology Film Archives in March. It was described in pro-
motional literature as “a 3D video cover of Michael Snow’s
seminal structural film, Wavelength (1967), reflecting on
Snow’s work from a contemporary (digital) vantage point.”
Joel Griffith’s paintings were on exhibit at 69 Broadway, in
Tivoli, New York.
’04
Stanya Kahn and Harry Dodge collaborated on Winner, a
short film that played at the Mix Festival in New York City
last fall. The improvised short about a fictional interview
gone awry was described as “smartly and deftly sideswiping
the gap between those who ‘get’ and ‘don’t get’ art.”
Laurel Sparks was one of eight artists included in Terra
(in)Cognita at Hampshire College Gallery in Amherst,
Massachusetts. The spring exhibition explored the “maps”
that define everyday existence and distinguish internal and
external, public and private domains.
Center for Curatorial Studies
’96
Regine Basha and artist Roy Stanfield collaborated on The
Vulcan 20 and the Commodore 1541, a project involving three
sites in Austin, Texas, where Regine is adjunct curator at
Arthouse and an associate at Fluent Collaborative, a contem-
porary art initiative. Her writing has appeared in art/text,
Performance Art Journal, ARude, and Modern Painters.
Gilbert Vicario received an award from the U.S. Section of
the International Association of Art Critics for Diller +
Scofidio, an exhibition he curated at Boston’s Institute of
Contemporary Art. Gilbert is assistant curator at the ICA.
’97
Rachel Gugelberger, associate director at the Visual Arts
Museum, School of Visual Arts, New York, recently curated
Rubbish at Chuchifritos, an art gallery and project space.
The exhibition included site-specific works by three artists.
Tomas Pospiszyl is teaching at the Film Academy in Prague
as well as writing and working on curatorial projects.
’98
Anne Ellegood, curator of the Norton Collection in New
York City, was a participant in a four-panel debate at the
65
ARCO Forum at the Armory Show, The International Fair
of New Art, March 2003.
Zhang Zhaohui, former director of Xray Art Center, Beijing, is
enrolled in a Ph.D. program at the Central Academy of Fine
Art, Beijing, focusing on 20th-Century Chinese art history.
’99
Tobias Ostrander curated an exhibition of paintings and
drawings by Kevin Appel at Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City,
where he is curator. He also contributed an essay to the
accompanying catalogue.
’00
Tracee Robertson (Williams) has written three articles for
ARTL!ES, a Houston-based journal that examines contem-
porary art and art issues throughout Texas.
Gregory Sandoval began the year with a new job as manager
of adult interpretive programs at San Francisco Museum of
Modern Art.
SLOWNESS, an exhibition curated by Mercedes Vicente,
presented works from five artists who have taken critical
positions around issues of time. It opened in November
2003 at New York City’s Dorsky Gallery Curatorial
Programs, a not-for-profit organization that explores themes
relevant to our understanding of visual arts today.
’01
Katherine Chan is associate director at Nolan/Eckman
Gallery in New York City.
’02
Elizabeth Fisher has moved to Cambridge, England, where
she has accepted the position of exhibitions organiser at
Kettle’s Yard, a major center for 20th-century and contem-
porary art.
Jenni Sorkin received the College Art Association’s Art Journal
Award for her article “Envisioning High Performance,” which
was based on a section of her CCS thesis. Jenni, a research
assistant at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles,
will be pursuing a Ph.D. at Yale in the fall.
Jill Winder is still living in Berlin, where she has been
involved in a number of projects, including acting as curator-
ial assistant to Carina Plath ’01 at the Kunstverein in Munster.
’03
Kazeem Adeleke will attend the Ph.D. program at Cornell
University.
Robert Blackson has accepted the position of curator at the
Reg Vardy Gallery at the University of Sunderland, England.
He will curate about seven exhibitions a year.
Finland Station, curated by Ingrid Chu, launches White
Box’s new program, VIDEOBOX, which features ongoing
video screenings in its street level window in New York City.
Candice Hopkins was awarded the 2003 Ramapo Prize for
her exhibition Every Stone Tells a Story: The Work of David
Hammons and Jimmie Durham. The exhibition will be on
view at New Jersey’s Berrie Center for the Performing and
Visual Arts in November. Candice is a curatorial resident at
the Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff, Alberta.
’04
Pascal Spengemann navigated his final year of graduate
study at CCS while simultaneously putting together five
exhibitions at Taxter & Spengemann, a fledgling gallery in
Chelsea that he co-owns with Kelly Taxter ’03. Their exhibi-
tion of emerging artist Matt Johnson’s work was noted in
the New York Times on March 21.
Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the
Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture
’97
Malcolm MacNeil is teaching a new survey course on
American glass at the BGC as a visiting faculty member. He
is also an adjunct faculty member at New York University’s
School of Continuing and Professional Studies, where he
teaches classes on European and American glass of the
Victorian, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco periods. He is the
current president of the New York Metropolitan Glass Club,
a chapter of the National American Glass Club.
’98
Julia Gorzka has been busy with a career transition in the
last eight months. Under the name “The House of Julia,”
she has done a variety of projects: she started a line of hand-
painted baby clothes; worked her first spokesmodel gig;
acted in a Ghost Walk of Ybor City, Tampa’s Latin Quarter;

66
taught “Fundamentals of Design” in the Interior Design
Department at the International Academy of Design and
Technology; and took on her first decorating project.
During this time she searched for a way to be hands-on in
the redevelopment and revitalization of Tampa’s urban core
and the movement to encourage more creative workers to
make Tampa home. She found her niche in real estate and
is selling real estate with a focus on downtown projects.
’00
Ayesha Abdur-Rahman was appointed associate curator of
Visual Media Resources at the BGC. Ayesha continues to
travel back to her native Sri Lanka, where she is researching
that country’s decorative arts tradition. Last summer she
took numerous digital images of the furniture collection at
the National Museum of Colombo. Other visits allowed her
to gather family portraits that reveal insights into the cos-
tumes of the colonial period.
Caroline Hannah is acting assistant curator of American
decorative arts at the Yale University Art Gallery. She is
involved in a number of projects there, including research
and writing for a catalogue accompanying a major traveling
exhibition of American art and decorative arts; coordinating
a Tiffany & Co. Foundation–funded Internet project; and
supervising the Furniture Study, a collection of more than
1,000 examples of mainly American furniture dating from
350 years ago to the present.
Stephanie Day Iverson curated Chic is Where You Find It:
Selections from the Bonnie Cashin Collection of Theater, Film
and Fashion Design, on exhibit from January 14 to March 25
at UCLA, where she is curator of the Bonnie Cashin
Collection. She is also lecturing, creating an annual Bonnie
Cashin lecture series, and working with the BGC to endow a
Cashin travel grant. On a personal note, Stephanie married
Clifford Franklin Lake III (her long-lost, high school almost-
sweetheart) last October in Manhattan. They split their time
between Los Angeles and Minneapolis, where his company,
American Guitar Boutique, is based.
Constantine Ramantanin has joined the faculty at the
Fashion Institute of Technology, where he teaches
“Metallurgy” and “History of Jewelry.” He continues to
design and create custom jewelry and decorative objects in
gold, platinum, and silver.
Jason Petty BGC ’97
Few musical instruments carry as many romantic associa-
tions as the lute. Angels, minstrels, and ladies of noble
mien have all been depicted strumming its strings, or
plucking them with a plectrum, by Piero della Francesca,
Caravaggio, Vermeer, and other venerated painters. For
Jason Petty, though, the ultimate expression of love for the
lute is not to limn its contours in oil, but to build it from
maple, yew, or rosewood.
Petty’s passion for the pear-shaped instrument was
initially kindled by playing lute music transcribed for the
classical guitar. He eventually became a luthier because
building a lute was cheaper than buying one. “It was obvi-
ously not a very satisfactory instrument,” he says of his
first effort, which involved completing a half-finished lute
from an English kit. But he persisted, and gradually began
to master his craft. To date, Petty has built more than 20
lutes in various styles from the pre-Renaissance,
Renaissance, and Baroque periods. He specializes in theo-
rbos, or lutes with extended necks and 14 strings, which
were popular circa 1600, when the birth of opera required
lutes to “play larger” and to have a more dynamic range,
especially in the bass registers.
“My lute-building and scholarly careers inform each
other nicely,” says Petty, who lives in Brooklyn and is
working on a doctorate at the BGC. His postgraduate work
is in the field of cultural organology—the study of musical
instruments “from an art-historical, as opposed to a musi-
cal, perspective,” he says.
67
’01
Elizabeth Caffry Frankel, her husband, and their two chil-
dren (Sam and Sadie) left Los Angeles and relocated to
Lyme, Connecticut.
’02
Ron Labaco left the BGC in December 2003, and is now
assistant curator of decorative arts at the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art. His article, “Serving Modern to America:
The Museum Dinnerware Collaboration,” was published in
the March issue of Modernism magazine. Ron recently
adopted two dogs: Daisy, a miniature pinscher-beagle mix
puppy, and Maddie, a year-old chow–German shepherd mix.
’03
Alexa Griffith published several articles this spring. The
March edition of Dwell magazine featured her story on a Paul
Randolph house on Sanibel Island, Florida. She had a piece
about Modernist design in the Minneapolis/St. Paul region
in the March issue of Modernism. In the Journal of Design
History, vol. 17, she has written about the Walker Art Center’s
1941 and 1947 exhibition houses, called Idea House I and II.
She also was a guest lecturer in a course on history and theory
of modern architecture at Columbia University this spring.
Miranda Pildes obtained a gemology degree from the
Gemological Institute of America and completed a three-
month internship in Sotheby’s Jewelry Department. She
now works with Judy Price, director of the National Jewelry
Institute, who is preparing to found the first museum of
jewelry in New York City.
Bard High School Early College
’03
Hamza Alizai lives in Binghamton, New York, where he
taught “Introduction to Cellular and Molecular Biology Labs
and Discussions” last semester. He writes, “It’s great experi-
ence to do exactly what grads do, at my age.”
Daphne Perez is at SUNY Stony Brook, where she’s a mem-
ber of Minorities in Medicine and plays on the softball team.
Program in International
Education (PIE)
’95
Monika Nica met her husband, Bogdan Nica ’95, while at
Bard, where she was a Kellner Scholar and he was a PIE
student. They married in 1996 and lived in Budapest for
three years, while Bogdan studied at Central European
University. Since 2001, they have worked in New York City,
Monika in financial consulting, and Bogdan in software
development. Now living in Port Washington, New York,
they are the proud parents of two sons.
’98
Anna Térfy works for the Student Records Office of Central
European University in Budapest, and also serves as regis-
trar of the CEU Business School.
’00
Edit “Dit” Bori graduated from both the Department of
Border Policing of the Police Academy and the Department
of Political Science of Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest
this spring.
’02
Zoltán Fehér graduated from Eötvös Loránd University in
Hungary in 2002 with a double M.A. degree in American
studies and political science. He graduated from Pázmány
University Law School this year. Since the fall of 2002,
Zoltán has worked as a diplomat at the Hungarian Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, where he has attained the rank of attaché.
He also teaches various courses on foreign policy and public
policy at Eötvös Loránd University. A research paper of his,
written partly during his time at Bard, was published in the
December 2002 and May 2003 issues of the Hungarian
Review of Political Science.
György “George” Tóth was elected president of the Kellner
Scholars’ Society (an organization of Hungarian Bard
alumni/ae) in May 2003. He is in the midst of his 11-
month-long “civilian service” (an alternative to being drafted
into the army) as an instructor at the Department of
Foreign Languages of Eötvös Loránd University in
Budapest. George urges Bard students to consider the
Bard–Central European University study-abroad program
and all Bard alumni/ae visiting the region to contact him at
chippewa@galamb.net or 36-30-402-6014. “Bard has a
home in Budapest,” he writes.

68
In Memoriam
’42
Edgar A. “Ted” Anderson, 84, died at Nantucket Cottage
Hospital on November 30, 2003. A native of the Hudson
Valley, he worked as a newspaperman in New York City and
Newark, New Jersey, during the 1940s. In the Summer 2001
Bardian, he wrote about how his sophomore year “field
period” (now known as January intersession) opened the door
to his career in journalism. In 1950, he moved to Daytona
Beach, Florida, where he was involved in several small busi-
nesses while pursuing a teaching certificate from Stetson
University. Upon achieving that goal, he became an English
teacher in the Volusia County school system. During this
period he also wrote and published two books for young peo-
ple, Salt in Their Hair and Day Number 142. He retired from
teaching in 1970 and moved to Nantucket, where his family
had summered since the 1920s. On Nantucket, he became
involved with the Theatre Workshop, Brant Point Association,
and Civic League. His survivors include a son, a grandson,
and his sister.
’48
David E. MacDonald died on May 21, 2001.
’50
The Very Reverend Robert Bizzaro died on February 21,
2004. He was a World War II Navy veteran, serving his
country from October 21, 1944, to July 10, 1946. He held a
bachelor of sacred theology degree from the General
Theological Seminary in New York City, a master of divinity
degree from Philadelphia Divinity School, and a master of
sacred theology degree from the New York Theological
Seminary. He was ordained to the priesthood on October
24, 1953. Since 1998, he had worked at St. Paul’s Episcopal
Church in Mishawaka, Indiana. From 1975 to 1991, he
served as dean of the Cathedral of St. James in South Bend,
Indiana, where he was granted the title of dean emeritus.
Prior to that, he served as rector of Gethsemane Episcopal
Church in Marion, Indiana, and Trinity Church in Cranford,
New Jersey. He was active in community, peace, and civil
rights causes. He participated in the March on Washington
with Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963, and later helped estab-
lish the South Bend Advocacy Center and St. Margaret’s
House, a daytime shelter for women and children in need.
His survivors include his wife, his daughter and her family,
his two sons and their families, and his dog, Mac.
Mark G. Richard died on June 21, 2003, in Naples, Florida. He
had owned and operated Mark R. Buick-Pontiac in East
Hampton, New York, for 25 years. In 1986, he sold the dealer-
ship and retired to Naples. Born on January 1, 1924, in Bexhill,
England, he grew up on Long Island. He served in the 142d
Regiment of the 36th Army Infantry Division during World
War II and earned two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star with
cluster. His artwork, along with that of his wife, Catherine, was
displayed in several galleries. His survivors include his wife,
four children from his first marriage, a brother, 10 grandchil-
dren, and two great-grandchildren.
’53
Richard L. Bush-Brown died on October 18, 2003.
’73
James Gardner died on March 30, 2003.
’87
Anne Barlow Gallagher, 38, of Stevensville, Maryland, died
April 1, 2004, after a 14- week battle with lung cancer
(although she was a lifelong nonsmoker). Born in Baltimore,
she grew up in Columbia, Maryland. She met her husband,
Peter Holland, while at Bard, where she studied photography.
After college, she taught home- and hospital-bound children
through the Baltimore City Public School System. She also
taught in the Walter P. Carter Center, a state psychiatric hospi-
tal for 9- to 12-year-old inpatient children. Extensive contact
with these children and their families helped her decide to go
to law school in order to have a broader impact as a legal advo-
cate for disadvantaged children. She graduated from the
University of Maryland School of Law in 1994, and then pro-
vided legal advocacy for foster, abused, and neglected children
throughout the Eastern Shore. For many years, she held office
hours at Maryland courthouses to provide legal counseling and
information to more than a thousand individuals. She will be
posthumously awarded the 2004 Founder’s Day Award of
Children’s Choice, a regional children’s advocacy organization,
for her outstanding work on behalf of children in need. She
was also an active member and volunteer in the Key School
community of Annapolis, Maryland, where her children attend
school. Her survivors include her parents, her husband, a
daughter, a son, and a brother; several aunts, uncles, nieces,
and nephews; and other extended family and close friends.
69
’96
Christopher T. Smith died on August 12, 2003. An accom-
plished musician and composer, he studied music composi-
tion at Bard, and most recently played keyboards and wrote
the music for his San Francisco–based band, Samara. His
survivors include his long-time partner, Tony Koester of San
Francisco; his parents, Tom and Elsa Smith of Tiburon,
California; and his brother, Tommy, of San Diego.
Faculty
Frank Riessman died on March 1, 2004. At Bard, he was
assistant professor of psychology from 1955 to 1958 and
associate professor of psychology from 1958 to 1964. He
wrote a number of books on social class and poverty in the
United States, and was the editor of Social Policy magazine.
His survivors include his wife, Julia, daughters Robin and
Janet, son Jeffrey, and two grandchildren.
Staff
Linda Forstrom, 55, died on January 25, 2004, as a result of a
fire at her Germantown, New York, home. She had worked for
Chartwells, Bard’s food services department, for three years
and was involved with the College’s rape and associated vio-
lence education program (BRAVE) as a speaker and friend.
Also lost in the fire were her 13-year-old daughter, Mara Mahig,
and her 11-year-old granddaughter, Carianne Scholefield.
Survivors include her daughter, Korrena Salerno, a Chartwells
employee for seven years and the invited guest speaker at the
2002 Senior Dinner; her mother; her sister; and her grandson.
Frances “Frannie” Kurdziel, 70, who made the dining com-
mons run smoothly for 32 years before she retired in 2001,
died on February 23, 2004. A longtime resident of Red Hook,
New York, she was active in the Columbia County–Southern
Tier Senior Citizens and the Red Hook Senior Citizens. The
Queens native was a communicant of St. Christopher’s Church
in Red Hook. In his announcement to the Bard community,
Chas Cerulli, director of food services, remembered Frannie’s
hospitality and vibrant personality and noted, “She will be
greatly missed” by all of those she touched during her long
tenure at Bard. Surviving are her husband, Mathew B. Kurdziel
Sr., three sons, three granddaughters, and five grandsons.
Clark G. Rodewald ’59, professor emeritus of
English, died at his home on January 18, 2004. He had
served the College for 36 years, having joined the faculty
of the Division of Languages and Literature in 1968.
“Clark was fiercely loyal to the College as an alumnus
and faculty member,” President Leon Botstein wrote to
the Bard community. “He was a distinguished teacher
who loved his subject and his students.” Stuart Stritzler-
Levine, dean emeritus of the College, recalled
Rodewald’s high standards and hailed him as a “singu-
lar individual in our midst” in his written remem-
brance. He added that despite physical limitations
resulting from a car crash in the 1960s, “Clark was
always on board for the journey . . . always vital.”
Literature Program colleague Nancy Leonard
recalled Clark with the following story. “I sometimes
brought my daughter to campus to play with Clara
Botstein, and one sunny weekend afternoon the two,
about 9 and 10, were riding their bikes with a gleeful
pleasure in being faster and more elusive than I. I kept
looking for them, and near Preston I found the small
basement terrace leading into Clark Rodewald’s office—
with two bikes fallen on their sides outside it. I entered
his office warily, and found the girls in intense conversa-
tion with Clark. He spoke with them in careful, respect-
ful conversation about their immediate doings; began to
talk to them about a poem or two he loved; asked them
questions. His was an astonishing hospitality toward the
individuality of beings, of language, of poems. These
two children were as graciously received as young col-
leagues and the many students who visited his office.
We all found his conversation a mix of difficulty and
delight, wit and seriousness together. Poetry was always
central to his imagination, and I like to think he struck
sparks not only from me, but from my now almost-adult
daughter, who writes poetry still.”
Rodewald received a master’s degree from John
Hopkins University. Other academic achievements
include the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Fellowship.
Prior to returning to the College as a faculty member, he
taught at the University of Puerto Rico, University of
Southern California, and Southern Illinois University.
He is survived by his wife, Carolyn Blatchley; his chil-
dren, James ’82, Christopher, and Cecilia; and his
grandchildren, Rosa, Henry, and Lucia. A memorial
reading was held in his honor at the Chapel of the Holy
Innocents on May 21, during Commencement weekend.