Download this issue as a PDF - Columbia College - Columbia ...

CLASS NOTES
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
CLASS NOTES
of the world. Recent stops have
included New Zealand (his home
away from home), France, Spain
and Italy. He was planning to be
in Australia for the holiday season
to watch the Rolex Sydney Hobart
Yacht Race and will hike, trek,
climb and ride in Tasmania this
year, being sure to stay away from
those devils!
Robert C. Klapper: This issue’s
Columbia thought returns to my
freshman year and my mother’s
visiting our great university for the
first time. To paint the scene, I am
pretending to be an octopus holding
five boxes and suitcases. As
we enter the elevator my mother
immediately smiles and begins a
conversation with the only other
adult standing in the mobile cube.
She makes it clear that this is the
greatest day of her life and this
innocent bystander will be the
recipient of this emotional barrage.
She then remembers that common
courtesy dictates that she introduce
herself. Pleasantries are exchanged
as she states, “Hi, my name is Lillian
Klapper,” whereupon a very
sweet and soft-spoken Asian man
sticks out his hand and says, “I’m
Dr. Lee.” My mother responds,
“Oh, what kind of doctor are you”
He explains he is chairman of the
astrophysics department at either
MIT or Caltech (I can’t remember
which). To my chagrin (story of my
life), my mother rolls her eyes. The
elevator door closes and I am once
again trapped in first-generation
immigrant hell here in America.
As the elevator begins to rise, this
most brilliant, learned man states,
“I know … my mother doesn’t
think I’m a real doctor either!”
With all due apologies to those
of you reading this column, who
labored endlessly on your theses
and are proud recipients of a Ph.D.,
I want you to know, I have all the
respect for what you’ve done.
But when your days on this earth
are over, and if you should meet
my mother in heaven, when she
introduces herself, please, just first
names.
God bless you, Mom, and to all
of the mothers from the Class of
1979. Roar, lion, roar!
80
Michael C. Brown
London Terrace Towers
410 W. 24th St., Apt. 18F
New York, NY 10011
mcbcu80@yahoo.com
“Courage is rightly esteemed the
first of human qualities because it
guarantees all others.”
That’s a quote from Winston
Churchill in Great Contemporaries,
also cited by Paul Reid in the
preamble to The Last Lion. Reid observes,
“He believed in virtue and
right … he taught himself well and
created a code he could live by.”
Congratulations to George Yancopoulos
M.D., Ph.D., on being
selected to receive a 2013 John Jay
Award for distinguished professional
achievement. George is
president of Research Laboratories
and chief scientific officer at Regeneron
Pharmaceuticals. He has
a distinguished record of scientific
achievement and is the author of a
substantial number of publications;
he also is a member of the National
Academy of Sciences. [Editor’s
note: See Web Extras at college.co
lumbia.edu/cct for a photo gallery
of the March 6 event.]
I received a nice email from Ray
Stukes in response to last quarter’s
report on the Grinder aka Dave
Cromwick ’80E. Ray is a sales
executive with Meggitt Polymer
Solutions and lives in Atlanta with
his family. We look forward to
seeing him at a baseball game this
season.
Jim Gerkis has been named to
the board of governors of the
Columbia University Club of New
York. In addition to his work with
the Columbia College Fund’s Fund
Development Council and partnership
at Proskauer Rose, Jim has
been a driving force for fundraising
for our class.
Congratulations to Shawn Fitz-
Gerald and David Malooff on
their sons’ admittances to the College.
Nothing better than seeing
your child attend alma mater and
follow the legacy tradition.
Hope to see you around campus
or up at Robert K. Kraft Field. Drop
me a note at mcbcu80@yahoo.com.
81
Kevin Fay
8300 Private Lane
Annandale, VA 22003
kfay@northridge
capital.com
I keep checking the mail (OK,
email) for updates from the Class
of 1981 and, as of the CCT deadline,
had nothing to report. This
rejection is making me feel empty,
even depressed … similar to how
I felt on November 6. (Q: For the
bankers out there, can I put a “stop
payment” on the last check I wrote
supporting Mitt Romney after the
fact)
We have had a good run of classmates
reporting in, so I’m going to
consider this column to be halftime.
I hope everyone enjoyed the
holidays and had a safe and happy
New Year’s celebration. Don’t
forget to send me an update in
2013! Use my email address at
the top of the column, or submit
through CCT’s easy-to-use webform:
college.columbia.edu/cct/
submit_class_note.
82
Andrew Weisman
710 Lawrence Ave.
Westfield, NJ 07090
weisman@comcast.net
Remember when you were young
and your mother would chastise
you for succumbing to peer
pressure “If Billy jumped off the
bridge would you do it, too”
The right answer was, of course,
no. The true answer, however,
was probably yes. David Shine
understands this social dynamic
and managed to persuade several
members of the illustrious Class of
’82 to join him as he plummeted
off the bridge and into the pages
of CCT. Huzzah! In recognition of
his contribution, he is this year’s
winner of either Brooklyn Dodgers
box seats or 2012 rink-side Rangers
tickets.
David reports, “I am a partner
at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver, &
Jacobson in New York and am cohead
of the firm’s M&A practice.
My wife, Karen, high school junior
son, Matthew, and I live in Armonk,
Westchester. My daughter,
Rachel, will graduate this spring
from Northwestern, and Karen and
I are looking forward to moving
back to the city as soon as Matthew
heads off to college. Haven’t been
to a Grateful Dead concert in many
years, but did see Neil Young on
his recent tour — spectacular.”
To paraphrase Jacques Cousteau,
“Who knows why the humans
do what they do” (Substitute
“salmon” for “humans,” pronounce
with a French accent and you’ll
remember what I’m referring to.)
My wife, Jody ’84 Barnard, ’85 SIPA,
and I will be swimming back to
Manhattan as soon as our last one
heads off to college as well.
David, hope to see you there
and thanks for getting the ball
rolling!
Following David’s lead, Gavin
Miles writes, “I am an executive
ADA at the Kings County District
Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn,
where I specialize in fraud investigations
and prosecutions. My wife,
Sarah Berger, and I live in Brooklyn
with our son, Benjamin, who is
a senior at The Beacon School in
Manhattan. I have fond memories
of my years at Columbia and the
friends I made there. I remain a
strong believer in the Core Curriculum,
although I haven’t yet had
occasion to reference the ‘Myth of
Er’ professionally (but I’m pretty
sure it’s applicable).”
Given Gavin’s legal focus, and
my lengthy career in the asset management
industry, I’m surprised
that our paths haven’t crossed.
(Anyone from the SEC who happens
to be perusing this column:
I’m kidding.)
I attended last year’s Great
Teacher Awards ceremony, sponsored
by the Society of Columbia
Graduates, and am pleased to
report that the Core Curriculum is
in great shape. The College winner
was the Jesse and George Siegel
Professor in the Humanities Cathy
Popkin, who is a mainstay of the
Literature Humanities faculty and
well known for hosting reunions
with her former Lit Hum students
when they are seniors. Her acceptance
speech was inspiring.
Following Gavin “Iron Fist in
the Velvet Glove” Miles’ advice,
Phil Teverow writes, “Gavin
Miles gently offered the opportunity
to join him and other College
friends in providing an update. No
pressure, really.
“I’m writing from Brooklyn,
where I’ve been tucked away
almost since graduation. My wife,
Josephine, and I have three kids.
Rosie is a junior at Oberlin, Henry
is a first-year student at St Andrews
in Scotland and Ruben is still
trapped in the NYC public school
system as a high school sophomore.
Professionally, I’ve never shaken the
merchant impulse that sustained
me through college at Furnald Grocery.
I help clients turn food ideas
into food businesses and help them
run those businesses. Strangely
enough, it’s kept me busy as a solo
practitioner consultant for the last
16 years, and I love doing it.”
Alas, the Furnald Grocery is no
more but its soul lives on.
Also leaping off the “bridge” this
quarter was another of our accomplished
esquires, Edward Hernstadt.
He reports, “I live in Brooklyn
with my documentary filmmaker
wife, Maia Wechsler ’83 Barnard,
and my daughter, who is a junior in
high school. I suspect that my son,
who is a sophomore at Colorado
College, spends too much time
celebrating the recent referendum
victory in his new home state and
skiing. I am a partner in Hernstadt
Atlas and focus on employment
and intellectual property litigation.
Like most Columbia grads, I spend
most of my time trying to look
as good as Evan Hollander and
wondering if in my next life I can be
John Rexer, who lives in Guatemala
and is busy managing a booze empire
around his ridiculously good
Ilegal Mezcal.”
Edward, thanks for checking in.
John, in case you’re reading this,
I enjoy small batch, hand-crafted,
artisanal mezcal. Just saying. If
you care to write in, that would be
awesome, too.
Also succumbing to peer pressure,
the (by all accounts) handsome
Evan Hollander writes, “I
am a partner in the New York
office of Arnold & Porter, having
recently made the move after 18
years at White & Case (the last 12
as a partner). My practice focuses
on complex financial restructuring
and insolvency matters. I live on
the Upper West Side with my wife,
Anne Doyle ’95 SIPA; my daughter,
Rachel (a fifth grader at The Chapin
School); and our dog, Elliot. I have
aged somewhat but remain significantly
better looking than Messrs.
Shine, Miles and Hernstadt, along
with David Fishman, Larry Sacks
’82E and Charles Hess ’83, by all
objective measures.”
Oh, yeah! Trash talk. Excellent!
Not to be outdone, David Fishman,
an associate at Robert A.M.
Stern Architects, reports, “I haven’t
strayed too far from campus and
live with my wife, Stephanie, on
110th Street just east of Broadway,
with daughter Claire in her junior
year at Brandeis. This fall, I have a
new book coming out, co-written
with Robert A.M. Stern ’60 and
Jacob Tilove, Paradise Planned: The
Garden Suburb and the Modern City.”
This is so cool! Jody, whose
undergraduate degree is in urban
studies and master’s is in public
administration, will be lining up
outside Barnes & Noble the night
before the release date.
The final esteemed member of
the Shine bridge-jumping team,
Larry Sacks, writes, “I have been
living in London for more than five
years now with my wife, Kay, and
son, Benjamin, who is in year five
(fourth grade to you Colonials).
I recently was granted indefinite
leave to remain by the home office
so will likely be staying here for
some time (though after earlier,
similar stints in Hong Kong and
Sydney, who knows). I am a
director in risk management with
Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Int’l.”
A quick sidebar with Larry:
What’s your favorite copula,
Gaussian, Archimedean or T
Jeffrey Lautman and his wife,
Teri ’81 Barnard, proudly announce
the engagements of both their children,
Adira and Yaniv: “Adira will
be wed to Simeon Botwinick from
Riverdale (Yeshiva University) on
June 16, and Yaniv will be wed to
Talya Margulies (Stern College for
Women) on July 18.”
Jeffrey is the chief of nephrology
and chief of staff at Hillcrest Hospital
in Mayfield Heights, Ohio.
Teri is the business manager for
Cleveland Kidney & Hypertension
Consultants. After two weddings
in the space of about a month, he
says, they will no doubt take some
kind of vacation!
The talented Lou Orfanella has
announced the upcoming release
of his latest novel, Manhattan
Equinox. From the press release: “It
takes the intertwined storylines of
[Armistead] Maupin’s Tales of the
City, the multiple narrative voices
of [Bret Easton] Ellis’ The Rules of
Attraction, the episodic nature of
[Sandra] Cisneros’ The House on
Mango Street, and the New York
City sensibility of [Pete] Hamill’s
The Invisible City: A New York
Sketchbook and introduces readers to
the denizens of The Golden Grotto,
a bar one street below street level in
a university neighborhood that just
might look familiar to Columbia
alumni. The book reminds us that
although our lives might seem like
isolated incidents, we can live with
the hope that, when all is said and
done and we look back, we might
just find that the parts have merged
to create a satisfying whole.”
Looking forward to reading this
one!
Finally, the thoughtful and erudite
Thomas O’Keeffe reports, “After
several years of teaching at Stanford
and living in San Francisco, I have
moved back to the East Coast to become
chair of the West Hemisphere
Area Studies program at the U.S. Department
of State’s Foreign Service
Institute in Washington, D.C.”
Well, I must say that I’m quite
gratified by all these contributions.
Keep ’em coming!
REUNION WEEKEND
MAY 30–JUNE 2, 2013
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Leigh Ann Preston
lhp2114@columbia.edu
212-851-7438
DEVELOPMENT Matt Marsallo
mem2219@columbia.edu
212-851-7452
83
Roy Pomerantz
Babyking/Petking
182-20 Liberty Ave.
Jamaica, NY 11412
bkroy@msn.com
It is with great sadness that I report
the passing of my friend, mentor
and extended family member,
Professor Karl-Ludwig Selig, on December
1, 2012. I met Professor Selig
(KLS) when I was a high school
senior. I was invited to a reception
for prospective freshmen at Dr.
Frederick Lane ’28, ’32 P&S’s home
overlooking Long Island Sound.
Professor Selig was the featured
speaker and he spoke passionately
about Columbia’s Core Curriculum,
outstanding faculty and talented
students. Significantly, during my
last visit with KLS two weeks before
he died, I read to him the faculty
names and course listings from the
most recent CC course catalog. We
also spoke about his many former
students who had visited him this
fall. His love for Columbia and,
most notably, his former students
was unwavering.
Professor Selig was first and foremost
a scholar. Dennis Klainberg
’84, a fellow CCT class correspondent,
used to bring KLS the results
from searching his name on Google.
They were pages long. Professor
Selig spoke many languages and
loved to converse with my father in
Italian. KLS would insist on sitting
in the front seats of taxis so he could
speak with the different drivers
about their home countries, often
exchanging words in their native
tongue. Professor Selig always
lamented the fact that young
people were not better versed in
geography. He had an outstanding
memory and tremendous intellectual
curiosity. Once, he was mugged
while waiting for the subway to get
to one of his classes at Columbia
and afterward spent several weeks
in the hospital. To pass the time, he
recreated the great texts in his mind.
During my last visit with him, he
seemed at moments to be confused.
Before I left, however, he demanded
to know whether Barack Obama or
Mitt Romney carried Wisconsin.
Perhaps the most famous classes
he taught were Modern European
and American Literature-Philosophy
II (“Super Lit-Hum”), Artistic
Theory and the Renaissance, Novella-Boccaccio
to Cervantes, and
Don Quixote, pronounced with an
“x.” His philological proof for this
was the pronunciation of the word
“quixotic.” KLS is regarded as one
of the foremost experts in the world
on Don Quixote. He loved to tell
students that every major novel depends
on Cervantes’ paradigmatic
and primogenitor text, a variegated
tapestry that works backward and
forward. KLS spoke with a unique
vocabulary that often is imitated by
former students. With a stentorian
voice replete with inflection and
passion, he remarked, “Don Quixote
has a certain universality, richness
and density which creates a literary
virtuosity.” In fact, Professor Selig
and Don Quixote had a lot in common.
Both were art-minded philologists.
They had no trouble creating
a world of art though the manipulation
of words. Don Quixote was part
of the picaresque tradition, a literary
genre that fascinated KLS.
The American epic and literary
tour de force Huckleberry Finn also
was a Selig favorite. He brilliantly
examined the topos of trickery in
relation to the protagonist, Huck
Finn. As I was an Ivy League
student who performed juggling
tricks for money while people
waited on Manhattan movie lines,
Professor Selig used to call me
Columbia’s own picaroon.
Professor Selig was a great teacher
to a generation of College students.
Befittingly, he was honored
with the Mark Van Doren Award
for great teaching. Every former
student of his now confronts a text
with greater acuity and intellectual
rigor. Incredibly, he gave a thesaurus
to his medical aides and worked
with them daily on improving their
vocabulary. He could be a taskmaster
regarding proper pronunciation
and would correct all until they
correctly pronounced his name,
“Sailig.” He maintained a close
relationship with hundreds of his
former students, many of whom
are now world-renowned in their
fields. When Michael Oren ’77,
’78 SIPA, Israel ambassador to the
United States, was honored with a
John Jay Award for distinguished
professional achievement, a
ticket and personal invitation was
extended to KLS. Tom Glocer ’81,
former CEO of Reuters, regularly
invited KLS for Thanksgiving dinner.
Mike Schmidtberger ’82, ’85L, a
managing partner at Sidley Austin,
was an executor of KLS’ estate and
regular visitor (along with Ted
Allegaert ’87). Dr. Paul Maddon
’81, ’88 P&S, ’88 GSAS, a University
trustee, spoke movingly about KLS
during his John Jay Award acceptance
speech in 2009. Professor Selig
encouraged Paul to write his term
paper on his favorite Wagner composition,
even though its relevance
to the course was tangential at best.
I was honored to have KLS join my
family to celebrate major holidays
and he spoke at the last several ’83
reunion dinners. Dozens of former
students attended his 86th birthday
celebration on August 14.
The last year of his life, Professor
Selig shared with me that he was
hallucinating and dreaming about
a river. His former students know
the symbolism of the river in Huck
Finn. It represents adventure and
the unknown. He requested that
his body be cremated and his ashes
dispersed in the Hudson River by
the Columbia crew boathouse. A
service will be held for him at the
boathouse.
Jack Abuhoff: “I’ve decided to
re-read Quixote (with careful attention
to the text) in a personal tribute
to the Great Professor.”
Frank Antonelli: “I do not think
there is a kid who went to Columbia
in our generation who does not
include Professor Selig on his list of
favorite professors.”
What’s Your Story
Letting classmates know
what’s going on in your
life is easier than ever.
Send in your Class Notes!
ONLINE by clicking
college.columbia.edu/cct/
submit_class_note.
EMAIL to the address at
the top of your column.
MAIL to the address at the
top of your column.
SPRING 2013
78
SPRING 2013
79