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CLASS NOTES
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
CLASS NOTES
mentioned in the New Testament as
a cult leader, a magician with Messianic
ambitions and a rival of St.
Peter. The story takes him through
the centuries, from Rome, to Transylvania,
to Basque and finally to
England.
“Manci’s Girl, an updated noir
thriller in which a beautiful, young,
ambitious woman manipulates the
men surrounding Manci, the crime
boss of the Philadelphia mafia,
only to be finally undone by her
love for the big man.
“Expiration Date, a Christian
science-fiction adventure thriller,
in which Galahad Jones, a supersecret
agent, is called out of retirement
to combat a psychotic, renegade,
brilliant cardinal who plots
to use viral agencies to achieve
control of the Catholic Church and,
ultimately, the world.
“The Case of the Missing Rembrandt,
an action mystery set largely on
the Columbia campus in which a
philosophy professor is drawn by
circumstances into acting as a topflight
detective. It is the first book
in a projected series, The Columbia
Mysteries.”
As for your correspondent, I saw
that computer security expert Mark
Seiden was again quoted in The
New York Times (March 27), which
identifies him as “a member of the
Security and Stability Advisory
Committee of the International
Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers, which oversees the
domain name system.”
Philadelphia has vibrant theatre,
and I attend. Seminar, a sharp, witty
play by Theresa Rebeck, is about, as
the Philadelphia Inquirer noted, “four
aspiring novelists enrolled in the
private weekly workshops of rockstar
literary editor Leonard.” In the
lobby afterward, out came “Leonard,”
who had absolutely nailed
the portrayal. After complimenting
him, I mentioned that because the
play was set on the Upper West
Side and I went to Columbia, it
reminded me of some Columbia
professors who were sophisticated
and wanted the best from their students.
He smiled and replied, “Oh,
I went to Columbia, too.” Turns out
he is Rufus Collins ’84 (who has
acted in five shows on Broadway,
says the playbill), and we had some
of the same professors.
When I included that item in our
class’ eNews, Ray Gaspard responded:
“I’m one of the producers on The
Trip To Bountiful on Broadway, which
stars Cicely Tyson, Vanessa Williams
and Cuba Gooding Jr. Always great
[getting the eNews].”
If you are not receiving the ’71C
eNews and would like to, please
email me.
Remember back 46 Septembers
ago, and the feelings we had,
including of adventure, as we
entered Columbia College. We are
still connected.
72
Paul S. Appelbaum
39 Claremont Ave., #24
New York, NY 10027
pappel1@aol.com
Keith Luis (or at least his alter ego,
Dr. Louie) recently had a new CD
released by Tain-Hamilton Records.
Fillin’ the Billie, a rockabillyinflected
disc, features guest artists
Evan Johns (two guitar parts) and
Leeann Atherton (one vocal). Keith
performs the other vocals and
plays the guitars, mandolin, washboard
and additional percussion.
The genre is bluesrock, incorporating
elements of urban and country
blues, rockabilly, New Orleans
R&B and zydeco. You can find the
title track at most online stores. Or
you can hear it free at reverbnation.
com/drlouie.
Richard Avila brings us up to
date. Following graduation from
Columbia, he took some time off
from school but was prompted
by Watergate to attend Harvard
Law. He earned a J.D. in 1978, then
returned to Southern California
(where he’d grown up) to clerk
for a federal trial judge, after
which he moved to San Francisco
in 1980. Richard is a bankruptcy
lawyer —“an expert in debt, so to
speak.” After working for private
firms, large and small, and for
the government collecting debt in
Bankruptcy Court, he started his
own bankruptcy debtor practice
in 1995.
Married once and divorced
once, Richard is the proud father of
Patrick, a freshman at UC Berkeley
and “a serious and disciplined
young man of great courage,” with
an unusual set of interests: politics,
history, drama and boxing. Patrick
won a regional theatre competition
in high school with Marc Antony’s
funeral oration for Julius Caesar,
and he scored a TKO in his first
intercollegiate boxing bout.
Richard notes that his hobbies
are “tennis — I am a ranked player
for my age group — and restoring
the 1966 Oldsmobile Cutlass
‘muscle car’ I got my parents to
buy for themselves when I was in
high school, and which my now
95-year-old mother has decided
to entrust to me to restore. It’s a
real piece of American industrial
archaeology as well as a lot of fun
to drive on a Sunday afternoon.
Think of the Beach Boys singing
409 and you’ll get the idea.”
Richard sends best wishes to all
classmates and especially his freshman
suitemates in Carman, Jon
Berlin ’74 and Brooks Ballenger,
saying, “Guys, it would be so great
to hear your news!”
On a sad note, I received word
that Richard A. Arcaro died in
Laurens, N.Y., on January 9, 2013.
He was a retired electrical engineer
and computer analyst. CCT will
publish a more complete obituary
in a subsequent issue.
73
Barry Etra
1256 Edmund Park Dr. NE
Atlanta, GA 30306
betra1@bellsouth.net
By the time you read this, our 40th
Alumni Reunion Weekend will be
history; such is the timing of the
world of Class Notes. I hope everyone
had a terrific time. A full report
will be included in the Fall issue. If
you attended reunion, please share
your thoughts and stories with me.
The class photo, however, may be
found on the CCT website (college.
columbia.edu/cct) as part of this
issue’s reunion follow-up article.
Joe Seldner was happy to see so
many classmates at the pre-reunion
event with Eric Holder, among
them Marc Jaffe and Ray Vastola.
Joe regretted not being able to
attend reunion; he and his brother
were climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro,
courtesy of the artificial hip manufacturer
that made both of their hip
replacements! Joe is developing and
producing movies and TV, giving
workshops and trying to find a
home for The Parenting Channel
(see: Food Channel, Travel Channel
and so on). His son, Dan, left California
for Europe after 11 years, and
his daughter, Laura, has been in and
out of Ecuador with granddaughter
Liliana in tow; a grandson is on the
way. “Hasn’t always been easy or
smooth,” says Joe, “but it’s always
been interesting.”
Ain’t it the truth …
REUNION WEEKEND
MAY 29–JUNE 1, 2014
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Vanessa Scott
vs2470@columbia.edu
212-851-9148
DEVELOPMENT Esfir Shamilova
es3233@columbia.edu
212-851-7833
Fred Bremer
532 W. 111th St.
New York, NY 10025
f.bremer@ml.com
74
During our four years on campus,
society, the economy and world
politics were in a state of turmoil.
Feminism, abortion, gay rights,
Kent State and Watergate all fought
with a multitude of other issues to
gain our nation’s attention. The recessions
of 1970 and 1973–74 bracketed
our undergraduate years. The
Cold War, Vietnam and the Arab oil
boycott, among others, screamed in
the headlines. Four decades later,
we still see many of these same issues
in the newspapers. I think that
most people would agree that we
have seen some progress on some of
these issues, but it is amazing how
glacial that progress has been in
nearly half a century!
Some notable events occurred
during our four years on Morningside
Heights that seem to have
slipped through the pages of history.
The Environmental Protection
Agency was created in 1970, and
today it holds sway over issues
as broad as the Keystone Pipeline
and the location of manufacturing
plants. In 1971 the gold standard
ended (which some associate
with the inflation of the 1970s and
beyond) and, important to our class,
the 26th Amendment was ratified
giving the right to vote to 18-yearolds
(perhaps influencing the recent
reelection of President Barack
Obama ’83). It may be that the event
with the most enduring impact
happened in 1972, when President
Nixon visited China and normalized
relations. This contributed to
the birth of a new superpower that
profoundly changed our world.
A really big year was 1973, when
we saw the Supreme Court rule
against state laws against abortion
in Roe v. Wade. That same year
marked the start of the Arab oil
embargo that led to smaller cars
and the 55 mph national speed
limit. That year also brought about
the end of the draft. (Need I remind
you of that terrifying day the previous
February 2, when the drawing
was held — à la Shirley Jackson’s
book The Lottery — to determine
priority numbers for conscription I
was No. 35; do you remember your
number) In 1974 we saw India successfully
test an atomic bomb and,
after our graduation, Nixon become
the first President to resign.
This little walk down memory
lane highlights the significant
world events that we shared four
decades ago and is meant to accomplish
two things: First, I hope
it brings back memories of our
bygone days on campus and reminds
you to make plans to return
to Morningside Heights Thursday,
May 29–Sunday, June 1, for our
40th Alumni Reunion Weekend.
Second, it’s my hope that you
share this thumbnail history lesson
with your kids to assure them that
all of the chaos we are witnessing
at home and abroad is nothing
new. We experienced all of these
historical moments, which echo
those of today, while enduring
an economic crisis equivalent to
the one we are just coming out of.
Forty years later, most of us are
looking back on a pretty good four
decades. As we said in the ’70s,
“Keep the faith!”
Speaking of kids, this column
features a lot of updates about what
our classmates as well as their kids
are up to these days. While we
continue in our careers of multiple
decades, our kids are moving on in
bold new directions. Understanding
how our buddies of yesteryear are
doing often means understanding
what is happening in the lives of
their offspring.
Let me shamelessly start by
announcing that my daughter,
Katie, has recently been admitted
to Columbia Grammar and
Preparatory School in NYC, where
she will start ninth grade next fall.
She is following in the footsteps of
the children of Larry Silverman,
George Van Amson and the late
Jeff Rosecan (among others). Some
of you may know that Columbia
Prep was started in 1764 — a decade
after the creation of Columbia
College — to “prepare” the young
men who were going to attend the
College. Nowadays, it has no affiliation
with the College and is coed.
And, no, I doubt my Columbia
connections had any influence.
An update came from Dr. David
Melnick (senior medical science
director for AstraZeneca, the
British pharmaceutical company
in Wilmington, Del.). He relates
that he’s continuing work on the
development of new antibiotics
and recently received approval
for a new treatment of MRSA (the
antibiotic-resistant bacteria increasingly
found in hospitals). David
plans to continue research into
other “highly antibiotic-resistant
pathogens,” including drug-resistant
tuberculosis.
His daughter, Katie ’03, is an
ADA in Manhattan and is married
to a Columbia P&S professor. Son
James is busy buying and selling
companies at a private equity
group. David adds, “We used to
joke that James would come work
for me when I set up my own
company. It now seems considerably
more likely that I will end up
working for him.”
Stewart Levy sends greetings.
He writes, “I am a partner in an
NYC law firm, Eisenberg Tanchum
& Levy, specializing in litigation
and entertainment law. All three
children are finished with college:
the youngest recently graduated
from Michigan; oldest son is a
Stanford Law grad and practices
entertainment law in Los Angeles;
daughter is a Muhlenberg College
grad and media director for an
NYC marketing firm. She’s also the
mother of a 1-year-old girl — our
first grandchild.”
From San Francisco comes word
of Tom Ferguson. In January
2012, he started a job as the chief
financial and operations officer of
the Episcopal Diocese of California.
Tom tells us that both of his
kids are in New York City: Son
Greg works for an NYU library
and daughter Elizabeth works for
Carnegie Hall.
At least three classmates have
kids who have gravitated to some
of the biggest names in the “dotcom”
world. While Kevin Ward
toils away in his fourth decade as
a Merrill Lynch financial adviser
in New Jersey, his son, Matt, is
living the good life in the YouTube
division of Google in Silicon
Valley. (Notes Kevin, “Talk about
being at the center of the earth!”)
Matt’s brother, Mark, is a senior
at Fordham, and sibling Jamie
is a sophomore at Holy Cross
and active on its varsity lacrosse
team. Brian, Kevin’s youngest, is a
junior at Bergen Catholic H.S.
Also out in Silicon Valley is Henry
Knapp (29), son of Rob Knapp,
who is an attorney at his Manhattan
commercial litigation law firm
Mulholland & Knapp. Henry is
in Facebook’s mobile app group.
Rob’s eldest daughter, Esther (32),
is a doctor at Montefiore Medical
Center in NYC in the (depressing
but important) specialty of pediatric
oncology. Aaron (28) studies
graphic design at Parsons in NYC.
Rounding out the Internet trio is
Scott Kunst’s son, Dave. Scott runs
Old House Gardens (his heirloom
bulb company) in Michigan. Dave
seems to be a rising star at Groupon
in Chicago. (I’ve lost track of
what Scott’s other son, Scott Jr., is
up to these days.)
Update: In a recent column I
mentioned that Roger Kahn’s
elder daughter, Amanda ’10, was
“completing the post-bac, pre-med
program at Columbia.” Roger
emailed news that Amanda has
been admitted to medical school.
Congrats, Amanda!
The support for these Internet
careers doesn’t only come from
today’s youth. A recent news item
said that 57 percent of Baby Boomers
have used social media. As
proof, I am introducing “Facebook
Factoids” (short items pulled from
my Facebook Wall — don’t worry,
I have done my best to fact-check
them). In future columns I hope
to give more details about these
classmates’ posts but until then,
here they are:
Ralph Coti: Announced he has
moved his law offices from the
Wall Street area to a posh East 61st
Street location between Park and
Lexington Avenues. He’s just a
stone’s throw from Trump Tower!
(“The Ralph” has a nice ring to it!)
Dr. Reginald Manning ’78 P&S:
Last we knew he was an assistant
professor of clinical surgery at the
Department of Orthopedic Surgery
at P&S. Now his “timeline” on
Facebook has been updated to
show him at Kings County Hospital
Center in Brooklyn. He also has
offices on Malcolm X Boulevard in
Harlem.
Raouf Abdullah (while on
campus you knew him as Ralph
Williams): Had been an attorney at
the Federal Trade Commission in
Washington, D.C., for many years.
In December, he posted that he
opened law offices in Lanham, Md.
Les Bryan: Posted last February,
“I just received my first Navy
retirement check — 27 years of
active and reserve service is paying
off. Full retirement looms closer.”
(Les has recently been principal at
a Department of Defense School in
Europe.)
Steve Dworkin: Has been at
Citigroup Global Markets in Los
Angeles for the past few years. He
had formerly been at Bear Stearns
and then J.P. Morgan after the 2008
financial collapse.
An item not related to kids —
even though he has five (!) — came
in an email from Victor Fortuno. He
is “transitioning” from his 30-year
career at the Legal Services Corp. in
Washington, D.C., which “ended”
with Vic’s title being v.p. and general
counsel. All the quotation marks
are due to the qualifying phrases in
his note such as, “My wife tells me
that I’m too young and not ready
to retire just yet but I plan to take
some time to see how I might adjust
to retirement.” He refers to a “trial
retirement” and concludes, “I do
think it might be nice to at least get
a taste of retirement while I’m still
young(ish), healthy and able to really
appreciate it.” Why do I expect
to get word within a year or so that
Vic has bounded out of his La-Z-
Boy and started doing something
new and exciting
There you have it. Some classmates
are continuing on in their
longtime jobs, while others are
altering their “timeline.” Some of
our kids are moving into the same
careers that we considered, while
others are moving into ones that
didn’t exist in 1974. Can’t wait to
get together to discuss all of the
above and more at our 40th reunion
next May!
Randy Nichols
734 S. Linwood Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21224
rcn2day@gmail.com
I hope all will find this big and
marvelous news: The scholarship
from our successful 35th reunion
fundraising efforts, made possible
by a match from the estate of John
W. Kluge ’37, has been renamed
the Neil Selinger Class of 1975
Scholarship. Kudos to Ira Malin,
Richard Witten, Steve Jacobs and
Steve Krasner for their diligence
in working through the details.
Thanks also go to Neil’s widow,
Rima Grad, and the Selinger family
for allowing us to recognize Neil in
this way, and to all of the classmate
donors who also signed on. When
we work together, we do make a
difference.
For the first time in six years —
since he made the move from radio
to multimedia and joined Comcast
— James Dolan returned to
Country Radio Seminar, the annual
country confab, which took place in
Nashville in February. Afterward,
he wrote of sharing “stories of glory,
tales of shame and a lot of laughs!”
(I urge you all to take a look at the
Stewart Levy ’74 is an attorney in New York City
specializing in litigation and entertainment law.
75
picture Jim posted on Facebook
about the same time; he is always
one to play any role to the fullest!)
A couple of weeks ago, he also
posted a picture of a red fox in his
backyard. My sister lives just a few
blocks north of Jim, in a densely
populated area of Baltimore City,
Md., with Loyola and Marymount
in between. We shared stories about
all the foxes. If you want to get in on
the joke, contact Jim!
Here’s a reach-out to one of our
class’ attorneys, Gerard Francis
Keating. Gerry, you and Bob
Schneider have business interests
together; have you two been in
touch Gerry is a criminal defense
lawyer in Florida. After further
research, Bob learned that Gerry
attended Chaminade H.S., which
both Bob’s sons attended.
Following the announcement of
the resignation of Pope Emeritus
Benedict XVI, I had lively communications
with classmates and others.
(Weird — a couple of issues ago, I
wrote in these notes about the book
The Pope Who Quit: A True Medieval
Tale of Mystery, Death, and Salvation,
about Pope Celestine V.) Following
the recent announcement, I wrote
to Fr. John (CJ) McCloskey. He
responded that he has been doing a
good number of interviews for both
secular and Catholic media. CJ also
noted that, while a former resident of
Maryland, he’s a Redskins fan. But
since the ’Skins weren’t in the Super
Bowl, he did cheer for World and
Super Bowl XLVII champions the
Bawlmer Ravens!
When not praying, preaching at
retreats, hearing confessions, giv-
SUMMER 2013
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SUMMER 2013
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