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CLASS NOTES
ington, DC, which is managed by Jim Petzing.
"Everything was perfect!" added Allan.
A great letter from Gerald Gordon arrived
a while ago. He was executive producer on
a film entitled Scalpers, starring Andy Garcia
and Rosanna Arquette, and after doing
another film, expected to be working on a
Broadway musical starring Robin Williams
some time this year. "Hollywood has
changed but it's still an exciting town."
Marilyn "Micki" Levy Black retired
("with mixed emotions") from her job as an
employment counselor in Rochester. She's
been working with single mothers on welfare
to help them find employment. But having
gone through two back surgeries, Micki
finds that working full time leaves too little
time and strength to enjoy life—so "I'm
choosing fun! I feel guilty, but so what. As
we approach our 40th Reunion, we're entitled
to goof off a bit." Couldn't agree with
you more! Robert Alstrin also recently retired,
from the food marketing business, and
now spends his time between Arizona and
Wisconsin, traveling often to Australia where
his son lives. "Golf and radio-control airplane
flying (and crashing, sadly) are major hobbies."
A couple of '55 scholars check in:
Arthur Yelon chairs the engineering physics
department at Ecole Polytechnic, the
largest engineering school in Canada, and
David West, a professor of biology at Virginia
Polytechnic Inst. and State U., reports
that he and wife Lindsey (Butte), '58-59
Grad spent spring of 1993 on leave at the
U. of Cambridge, where he was working on
a biography of the 19th century naturalist
Fritz Muller.
Adrian "Andy" Phaneuf retired in
1990, and is now enjoying the west coast of
Florida, with a home in Homosassa. For
three months each summer the Phaneufs
head for the open road in their motor home.
Pete Eschweiler retired from his position
as commissioner of planning for Westchester
County, NY and is now serving as planning
advisor to the Hudson River Valley
Greenway, a new agency promoting better
planning and waterfront reclamation along
the Hudson. Caryl Salomon Bernstein
"retired" from Fannie Mae after 12 years
as executive vice president, general counsel,
and secretary, but joined the Washington,
DC law firm of Shaw, Pittman, Potts &
Trowbridge last fall as senior counsel. She
is also on the board of directors of Georgetown
U. Husband George continues in private
law practice with his own DC firm.
Other classmates still in harness: Rod
Rougelot, who's CEO of Evans & Sutherland
and lives with wife Carol (Schuette)
in Salt Lake City; Sandy Montgomery Elder,
librarian for the Moultenborough, NH
schools; George Shear, an architect with
Larsen Associates in NYC; and John Weiss,
"plugging away" at his second career as
chairman, Source Consumer Products in
Westport, CT.
After recovering from bypass surgery
last year, Steve Price is back practicing
psychiatry in Bethpage, Long Island, and is
also teaching psychiatry residents at the
North Shore campus of Cornell U. Medical
College. Ronald Ganeles is completing his
eighth year on the University Council, and
was back to campus with wife Joyce (Ke-
IMPRESSIONS OF
A J E V ψ
Elinore Schaffer '56 has lived in
Paris for more than 30 years,
where she ran her own business,
teaching English as a second language.
In the winter of1993-94,
she traveled to Sarajevo "as a gesture
of solidarity with the people
there," according to her sister,
Rita. Elinore Schaffer's account of
war in Sarajevo provides a remarkable
glimpse of life beneath
the headlines.
y stay in Sarajevo between
Christmas and the
New Year coincided with
the holiday cease-fire,
> still another truce which
the Serbs did not respect. I went
as an ordinary citizen, to show
people there, by my American
presence, that they had not been
totally abandoned.
To say that life is difficult in
Sarajevo is an understatement. Everyone
can recall a power outage.
The elevator doesn't work, the TV
goes off, food in the freezer begins
to thaw. If the power goes off at
night, you find a flashlight, rummage
for a candle. After turning
on a battery-powered radio to find
out what happened, you eat a cold
meal in a cold room.
If for some reason your water
has been turned off, the dishwasher,
washing machine and toilet
no longer function. You can't
even wash your hands or make a
cup of coffee. Multiply this by two
years, close to 700 days.
My companion and I stayed
with Dr. Sahovic, who is Moslem.
She is a surgeon in an eye clinic
so deprived of equipment and
medication that she can no longer
do operations there. When on
duty, the doctor walks the 25 minutes
to the hospital. Otherwise she
stays at home because she is afraid
to go out. Rada, an elderly refugee
from the countryside who
lives with her, fetches water. A
neighbor brings them a daily loaf
of "humanitarian" bread—when it
is available.
The windows on each landing
ELINORE SCHAFFER '56
of her apartment building have been
blown out. The apartment windows
have been replaced by opaque plastic
sheeting with UNHCR (United National
High Commission for Refugees) written
on the outside in large blue letters.
Dr. Sahovic's spacious home, the
modern appliances and magnificent Persian
rugs, mark her as well-to-do. Now
she saves the candle drippings to make
new candles. Her monthly salary buys
a box of matches.
Sarajevo is blessed with hills and a
river which flows through the heart of
town. To go into the city center in broad
daylight you must walk or run 100 yards
in full view of snipers—first over the
bridge where seven people were shot
the week before, then through a square,
hugging the buildings, until you reach
the main cross street. Sarajevo is now
a city of parks without trees (all burned
for firewood) and empty squares in front
of public buildings and churches. To linger
is to risk your life.
Humanitarian aid keeps people
alive. Soup kitchens serve hot gruel to
those who cannot fend for themselves.
Young boys walk for miles with food
for those who cannot get about. For others,
rations are distributed every 15
days: 2 pounds of flour, 1 pound of
beans, 1 pound of rice, 700 grams of
cooking oil (1 cup), 1 can of herring,
1/3 cup of soap powder per adult.
Some parts of the city have gas all
the time, some have gas a few hours a
day, others have none. The same is true
for the telephone. Some phones work
all the time, others rarely. Apart from
a few generator-powered buildings,
there is no electricity. Those without
gas cook and try to keep warm by burning
wood—in a stove, in a metal receptacle.
To make their daily soup of rice
and water some people are reduced to
burning their furniture.
Before the war, there was a rich
and varied cultural life. The city boasted
ten cinemas, two of which are still functioning
on generators. There were theaters,
a symphony orchestra, rock-music
groups, art galleries, fine cuisine,
coffee houses. Yet, cultural life stubbornly
continues. I saw Paris, Texas
while in Sarajevo, went to an art exhibit,
a concert, to coffee houses, and