CLASS OF 1964 CORRESPONDENCE: (Please send us info/pictures about yourself and your family!)

from our Class Column in the Spring 2008 Rutgers Magazine

I write this shortly after our return from the International Bowl in Toronto where the Scarlet totally dominated Ball State, 52 to 30.  If you have not attended an RU bowl game (which are becoming annual events!), I encourage you to do so.   The scene in the hotel where the players, their families, official party, and many fans stay must be experienced.  There is not only football.  The weekend included outstanding morning lectures and a bus tour of cultural Toronto with museum stops, led by RU Professor Emerita/Artist Judith K Brodsky, followed by a pep rally, and organized alumni gatherings.  Upon our arrival at the Toronto airport, the immigration and customs inspectors declared that they knew about the game and were going to watch it and root for Rutgers.

Classmates Bill Bennett, Carl Burns, and Travis Hutchinson were there.  A bunch of us, together with Marv Engle, Barney Hoffman and Bob Vecchio (all of the Class of 1962) stayed up late and exchanged old RU stories, most of which were probably more or less true.

 I received an e-mail from Gerald Ash.  Jerry retired from AT&T after a most distinguished career of 35 years and moved from West Long Branch to North Clarendon, Vermont.  While at AT&T, Jerry wrote two books, was the 1997 recipient of the Rutgers Distinguished Engineer Award and was inducted into the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame. He and his wife, Lyn, are enjoying life in Vermont and its many seasonal outdoor activities.  They celebrated retirement by taking a 4-week 8700-mile trip during which they stopped at eight National Parks, visiting with their three children and four grandchildren along the way.  They plan a lot more travel.  Jerry will also resume his amateur radio activities, a hobby that he shares with your correspondent.  He assures us that he will return to the Banks next year for our 45th .

 Dave Gati wrote to advise that he has been retired for a year and that he and his wife Kathy live in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas.  His career included engineering positions in several states.  Dave’s last position was Engineering Manager at a 400-person titanium oxide manufacturing plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

 Jim Smith’s fascinating new book, Faithful to the Obligations of Honor, which chronicles participation by military college cadets in the Civil War, is available at the publisher’s website, www.publishameria.com/shopping/index.htm under “historical non-fiction.”

 Calvin Hutton wrote from Hawaii to have his e-mail address added to our class directory.  

It would be interesting to know how many states (and countries) can boast of having members of the Class of 1964 as residents.  We do seem to be everywhere.

 I’m saddened to report the passing of classmate Robert L. Miller who died on July 14, 2007 in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.  He had retired from Prudential in Newark.  Our class extends its heartfelt condolences to his widow, Donna.

from our Class Column in the Winter 2008 Rutgers Magazine

Your correspondent has enjoyed a nice series of e-mail communications with Gus Giebelhaus, who is currently a professor of history at Georgia Tech where he has chaired that department.   After a stellar athletic (football and track) and academic career on the Banks, Gus went on to receive his PhD in history from the University of Delaware where he was a Hagley Fellow in economic, business, and technological history.  He has taught at the University of Birmingham in the UK and has received a number of teaching awards at Georgia Tech. including undergraduate Faculty Member of the Year (2000) and a similar award this year from the Graduate Student Government Association.  Of course, Gus continues to follow the increasing success of Scarlet Knight football, mindful of the delicate balance between successful big-time athletics and sustained academic excellence.

Gary Huysse greets us from Cincinnati where he and wife Beverly remain after his 2001 retirement from Procter& Gamble where he put his RU 5-year engineering degree to good, broad, and productive use for many years.   His time is now spent, no less productively, meeting the challenges presented by the golf course contiguous to their house and with his two children and three grandsons who live nearby.   He writes that his location makes it convenient for him to watch the Scarlet compete against the University of Cincinnati and Louisville.   Gary is a volunteer leader for the Boy Scouts of America and, in March of 2007, received that organization’s Silver Beaver Award which is the highest honor that a Boy Scout Council can bestow upon a volunteer.  He also assists several local school districts and the Ohio Department of Education as a facilitator for school improvement.   While obviously comfortably established in Ohio, Gary writes that one of the highlights of each year is his entire family’s annual summer trip to the New Jersey shore.  “There’s nothing like it in the Midwest!”

 This year, our Class of 1964 Honors Scholarship fund awarded stipends to three members of the Class of 2009 and a member of the Class of 2007.  It is gratifying to know that we continue to do some good for well-qualified youngsters at RU who need and appreciate our assistance.

 Reunion Weekend 2008 will take place during the weekend of May 17-19.  A number of us do attend what might be deemed “off year” Reunions.  (This will be our 44th!)   The gathering at Old Queens and the parade are always fun.  The luncheon and (short) speeches and presentations at Brower Commons are worth the hike up College Avenue.  We hope to see a good number of Classmates this year. 

 

from our Class Column in the Fall 2007 Rutgers Magazine

In May, Stan Cherrie was honored by the University as a member of the 2007 class of the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni.  Congratulations, General!  Dave Mollen, Bill Speiser, and Alex Tuyahov have all checked in to advise of current e-mail addresses, now posted on our www.rutgers64.org class website directory.  Richard Silverberg reports that he is retired from his career in real estate and “is living very happily” in a beach resort community in Pattaya, Thailand, about two hours southeast of Bangkok.   He notes that “life is inexpensive and delightful:  mornings at leisure at home or shopping, afternoons at the beach reading or with friends and evenings of lovely dinners and hours in front of my computer”,  assuring us that “I certainly don’t miss those snowy winter days in New Jersey!”

 After years of owning a second home on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, John Pappas decided to move there permanently.  He continues to work with Smith Barney as a Wealth Management Specialist and Portfolio Manager out of their Elizabeth City office.   John invites classmates visiting the Outer Banks to contact him at his home in Corolla, North Carolina.

 Your correspondent spent a pleasant time in February at a wedding in New York City with Marshall Duke and his wife, Sara.  Marshall is still on the faculty at Emory University in Atlanta.

 Al Jaszek’s article, entitled “Beat the Heat with this External A/C Controller” was published in the March 2007 issue of Nuts and Volts magazine.  Al is retired but, as is apparent, continues to share his practical technical knowledge with the world!   He sent us a CD with a forty-minute segment from an October 5, 1962 WRSU broadcast of Rutgers After Dark.   Listening to it was a wonderfully evocative experience, transporting the listener back through time to the Banks!

 We regret to report the passing last year of two classmates.  After graduation from RU, Jerry Ziskind received a doctorate in elementary education and had a long teaching career in the Washington, DC area.  This correspondent’s Phi Ep fraternity brother, David Mantel, died in California.  Dave had lived there for many years as a consultant for the wine industry.

 In about 1950, I happened to notice an issue of the Rutgers Alumni Monthly (the predecessor to this magazine) that had been mailed to my father, Henry Busch, of the class of 1932.  I was fascinated by the class columns, the most senior of which were written by class correspondents who had graduated in the 1890’s!  It is now 43 years since we graduated.   Those of our current age who then might have perused a 1950 issue of the Monthly were members of the class of 1907!  Although I did not know any of the writers or persons mentioned in those columns, I was fascinated by the cheerful and gentle affection and respect, tersely expressed and implied by the correspondents for their classmates and for Rutgers.  I think that this tradition continues in these pages.

 

from our Class Column in the Spring 2007 Rutgers Magazine

 I write this column upon our return from the Texas Bowl in Houston after seeing RU totally dominate Big 12 representative Kansas State in the Texas Bowl, 37-10.   The Houston Chronicle reported that there were 17,000 Rutgers fans at the game.   It certainly did seem that we painted that town, the airplanes, Space Center, and museums scarlet!

 The team and many RU fans stayed at the Hyatt in downtown Houston.  When I entered the hotel, the very large lobby area was filled by hundreds of people in red.   That throng was ably manned by classmate John Petronko who was holding forth right near the front entrance.  I also chatted with Sid Whitman at the Pep Rally held on the grounds of City Hall where thousands gathered to celebrate our bowl appearance.

 A day or two before the game, your correspondent was wearing a red “Rutgers Football” sweater while browsing in one of Houston’s fine art museums.  A woman approached me and sniffed, “we don’t often see football shirts here.”   I responded “Madam, at Rutgers we have one of the largest university art museums in the nation and we have been doing many other great things there for the past 240 years in addition to having developed a nationally-competitive football program.” Her response was to laugh and playfully punch my arm.

 In their many television interviews during the season and the post-season, the coaching staff and players were impressive representatives of the University.  I have heard more than a few comments from non-Rutgers people admiring how well those in the football program acquitted themselves on the air.

 Although a successful football program is certainly not the University’s primary mission, it would be difficult to imagine anything else that would gain Rutgers as much good will and interest locally and even nationally than has the football team’s performance this season.   It seemed to be a rare day this past autumn in which The New York Times did not have at least one article about the Scarlet.  This wonderful, positive publicity translates into increased donations and applications.  An acquaintance just told me that his college-applying high school senior son laments that it’s just his luck that Rutgers has received 6,000 more applications this year than usual.  While that number is perhaps anecdotal, it certainly reflects public perception. 

 It seems obvious that our gridiron success will help to benefit RU’s major missions of education and research.   Perhaps even the State Legislature will sense the affection that New Jersey’s voters feel for their state’s flagship university and will fund Rutgers properly for the good of New Jersey.

 As exciting as the football season was and as much fun as it is to write about, it would be gratifying to be able to report more news from our classmates.

 

from our Class Column in the Winter 2006 Rutgers Magazine

As Tod Forman advises, “most of us have either attained our 64th birthday or are facing it and it suddenly occurred to me that I am now as old as my class year.  This probably has some deep, subtle philosophical significance, though in my case, our old classmate, Wally Smith, assures me I am just a plain old” man!  

Tod, thanks for pointing that out.  Perhaps a celebratory commemorative return trip to the Banks is in order for each of us this year.

Peter Smith wrote that “after 42 years of silence”, he decided to send us material for our column.  Peter, AG 64, GSNB 66, earned his Ph.D. at Penn State.  He left Happy Valley and settled into a career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC and recently retired after 34 years of Federal Service as Director of Economics and Social Sciences for the Department's Natural Resources Conservation Service.  Now, he is “enjoying his second, more relaxed career” as a Professor of Management at Southeastern University in Washington.

Robert Chianese, is Professor of English, at California State University in Northridge, CA.  

Ron Stetser has moved to Ocean City MD to enjoy that area’s resorts and other pleasures. He wife, Shirley Stetser just retired from the Baltimore County Board of Education and they are spending lots of time with their 5 grandchildren.

We received “thank you” notes from recent beneficiaries of the Class of 1964 Scholarship.  One wrote “Thank you endlessly for the Class of 1964 Scholarship.  I appreciate your kindness and how it has enabled me to afford a Rutgers education.  Hopefully, one day I too will be able to give back to this wonderful institution.”  Another said “Thank you for creating such a generous scholarship.  You have made it possible for me to take full advantage of the many wonderful programs that Rutgers has to offer.”

This year, Rutgers has suffered from substantially reduced state funding.  In addition to adversely affecting many academic offerings, the resulting budget constraints have forced RU to drop the men’s varsity crew, fencing, swimming and tennis programs.  We can hope that loyal alumni and friends will do their best to help restore these sports which have given pride, fame and texture to our college.  Those of us who are in New Jersey should urge our legislators to do everything possible to elevate Rutgers, the gem of our state education system. 

 

from our Class Column in the Fall 2006 Rutgers Magazine

Once again, May’s Reunion Weekend benefited from perfect weather.  The alumni parade featured a small, but hearty bunch from the Class of 1964, including Ed Simonson  and John Drew who valiantly held our class’s standard aloft the entire way of the parade down College Avenue.  Ed, who made his annual trek from Colorado to the Banks, advises that he still plays hockey. 

At the Reunion luncheon, President McCormick urged us all, “in light of New Jersey’s financial difficulties with an unprecedented cutback of funds for Rutgers, to become strong advocates for Rutgers.” 

Ken Bravo and his wife were in New Brunswick from Cleveland in late March to attend a friend’s daughter’s wedding.  He reminisced about how he and his parents had stayed at the Roger Smith Hotel in downtown New Brunswick when they came to New Jersey from Ohio in order to take a look at RU when Ken was a high school senior.   As he saw in March, that hotel is gone and is being replaced on site with the new, state of the art John J. Heldrich Conference Center and Hotel, hard by Rockoff Hall, a big, new Rutgers dormitory and retail center on George Street.  Both buildings are named for Rutgers alums whose generosity benefits the college and New Brunswick.

Rutgers has been featured twice on ABC’s The Apprentice.  Last autumn Randal Pinkett, RU 1994, won the competition.   Then, an early May telecast devoted forty minutes to a challenge that was recorded during the October 2005 Homecoming weekend which included the victory over Navy.  The show contained much on-campus footage in a most favorable light.  As the show was concluding, one almost expected a TV announcer to suggest that “everybody please rise and sing On The Banks!

As football season is upon us, it can be fun to join, or at least browse, the websites created for Rutgers sports fans.  The official university site is www.scarletknights.com and a lively and highly populated location is www.scarletnation.com.  At times there are in excess of five hundred Scarlet adherents logged in to that site.

 

from our Class Column in the May 2006 Rutgers Magazine

Classmates Matthew Mandel, John Petronko, Stan Winkler, and your correspondent were among the 8,000-plus scarlet-clad people who traveled to the Insight Bowl in Phoenix in December to watch the Scarlet Knights prove that Rutgers football can successfully compete on a national level.  Most gratifying is that RU placed fourth among 119 Division 1-A schools in the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate (APR), a formula established in 2005 to monitor student-athletes’ progress toward graduation.  Among this year’s bowl participants, Rutgers was second only to Navy in that category.

It was wondrous and somewhat surreal to see masses of folks in Rutgers regalia wherever one turned in the Phoenix area during bowl week.  Imagine standing on a street corner in Phoenix and seeing the Rutgers Band marching toward you!

In September, classmate Ray Freson enjoyed a very successful and extended stint on Jeopardy, displaying to the world a small portion of the knowledge that he acquired on the Banks.  Ray managed to insert some references to RU during his appearances.

Roy Fineman works for the Department of Defense and lives in Laurel, Maryland.  George Schechtman owns Gallery Henoch in Chelsea (NYC) and will be mounting an exhibit with the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers in February.  The Zimmerli is internationally recognized and is the third largest college art museum in the country.  It warrants a visit the next time you are in the area.  It is located in what we knew as Voorhees Hall, now substantially and handsomely expanded.

Lew Kampel is an attending physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He is married to Janice Passner Kampel, NCAS 1964.  They have two children.

Paul Hennessy lives in Newton Centre, MA and is director of publications at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute which has been producing premiere medical magazines that have won top honors from the New England Public Relations Association for the past five years.  Good work Paul!

Charles Joncas resides in Woodbridge.  He earned a master’s degree in finance from Fairleigh Dickinson and is a CPA and manager of real estate at Community Access Unlimited in Elizabeth.

In October, the old Phi Ep house hosted the dedication of the new lobby new reception area that it donated at the College Avenue Library.  Classmates Bill Bierman and Mark Busch were among those who participated in this project.

from our Class Column in the January 2006 Rutgers Magazine

Your correspondent received a wonderful missive from Pete Levitov who suggests that his white beard may make it a bit difficult to recognize him today. Pete, we have lots of members of that club!

He writes that “after leaving Rutgers and Penn Law School, I clerked for two judges and joined a law firm in Hackensack.  After one year, I left the practice of law and went to Liberia with my wife and infant daughter Karen for more than two years (1969-71).  I taught African History and other subjects in a teacher's college and boarding high school run by a small missionary order of Catholic priests. Returning to the U.S., I moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where I joined the University of Nebraska, working with international students.  Still there after 33 years, I am now Associate Dean of International Affairs and serve as the university's immigration attorney.  A son Daniel was born in 1974. My wife and I divorced in 1979. In 1983 I remarried and we had a son Alex two years later. My daughter is Associate Curator of the Jewish museum in New York. My elder son is a cellist, holding a doctorate and teaching at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.  My younger son Alex is a junior at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.  Over the years I have traveled to more than 50 countries, hitchhiked to Timbuktu, trekked in Nepal, lectured in Nairobi, played tennis in Kuala Lumpur and participated in commencement exercises in Albania, jogged in Ecuador and climbed the Great Wall in the snow.  Two years ago I got together in New York with five close RU friends (Seymour Levine, Ben Greenberg, Jerry Fond and Barry Kahn, all of our class, and Ken Javerbaum of the Class of 1963), all AEPi's and all but one of whom I had not seen since 1967.  My wife Deb and have a wonderful life, recently graced with a grandson.”

Those of you who have seen RU football during this past (2005) season have noticed that our team now arrays itself on the East Sideline, which had always been the visitor’s side.  We understand that this change was made so that the Scarlet Knights and staff would be more visible on TV than our opponents during the course of the game.

We’ve heard from classmates whose e-mail addresses have been added to the Class Directory on our website, www.rutgers64.org.  Let us know if you would like us to add yours, as well.

This column and our website are great places to share news of our lives with our classmates. Please e-mail your stories to us at mnb@buschlaw.com.  The content of this column, of course, depends upon you. Nemo dat quod non habet.

from our Class Column in the September 2005 Rutgers Magazine

Dennis Bliss, our outgoing (in both senses) class president, is enjoying his semi-retirement, which has included a winter-long stint in St. Lucia, advising that country in the modernization of its municipal court system.  Tough job, Dennis!

At this year’s reunion, I bumped into John Doyle and Ed Simonson.  Ed, who lives in Aspen and is retired from the practice of law, was joined by his vigorous and fit 97 year-old dad, Paul Simonson, RU 1931.

Will Gorman reports that, after many years in Morris County, he is now located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He is still working in the food industry and advises that Eithne, his “long suffering wife of 37 years”, is enjoying her retirement from Prudential.  Will is in regular contact (including beach reunions every summer) with Stan Cherrie, Dennis Crimi, Ron Stetser, Dave Dancy, Mike McDonnell, Tom Uksti, Joe Westlein, Bill Buss, Fred Stubbs, and Rich Wasowski.

At the Michigan State football game I met up with Paul Strelick (new grandfather of twins), Travis Hutchinson, and my old roommate Dr. Milt Reitman (grandfather of two girls). 

Barry Cohen, Phil Gaynor and Andy Klinger each remain engaged in the practice of law.

Old high school and RU ’64 pal Steve Dougherty writes “As promised at the reunion, I really did retire from Raytheon in December 2004.  In early January my wife, Bev, and I left on a 5 week journey to Hong Kong, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Singapore.  Some was done on organized tours, some with individual tours, and some on our own.  All was interesting and pleasantly warm for those of us used to cold Januarys in New England.  Only negative was returning to a classic New England winter problem - frozen, burst, and thawed pipes.  Now having a whole bunch of our house rebuilt while camping in an apartment with a view down the Charles River to Boston’s skyline about 6 miles away.  Not all bad.  Good thing we are retired, we’d never have time to deal with all the decisions that have to be made for a major project like this.”

Your correspondent is still actively employed, however I have found time to travel with my wife Frankie and to visit our grandchildren in LA and New York.  It’s exciting to live and work in the New Brunswick area where the city and RU skylines are changing.  Imagine College Avenue becoming a pedestrian mall with a high rise college center at its intersection with Somerset Street!

I represented our class at the annual RU honors scholarship dinner in May.  This year’s 1964 beneficiaries are two impressive young women, one going to medical school and the other who will pursue a career in law.  One wrote to say that our class’s “kindness means a great deal to me and I hope one day to be able to give to someone else as you gave to me.” 

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March  14, 2005:

Al Jaszek writes: I took the 5yr. eng'r program, so I got both a BA in Liberal Arts and a BS in EE. I was one of 5 survivors of a program that started out with 110. So although I graduated in '64, I started with the class of '63. My dink, which got lost off a sailboat off the Massachusetts shore, was a '63. Damn, wish I still had it.  Although I had a Master's in EE, I made my living as a Failure Analyst. I'm retired now and recycle used computers from my town's recycling center. Some might say I'm a dump diver, except that is not exactly how it works here. This afternoon, I'm delivering a recycled Mac to someone who needs to upgrade their internet connection. Oh, and although my son visited Rutgers prior to selecting a college, he settled on Lehigh, one of our old rivals. He's now doing nicely as a computer engineer.

John Koshoffer writes:  Just a note to say that I have retired 01/01/05 from General Electric Transportation where I held the position of Consulting Engineer for Augmentor Design after 38 1/2 years. Wife, Tomasina, and I are looking forward to a less stressful life with our 4 granddaughters and more travel. Cincinnati has been good but new horizons call.

Jim Buckmelter 's apparently definitive treatment of fly fishing in New Mexico appears at http://www.newmexicotrout.org/nm_lakes.htm.  It's worth a good look!

 

     Joli Quentin Kansil (formerly Joel Dennis Gaines) writes "am unable to attend the 40th Reunion as I'm teaching in Singapore.  Here is a photo of me with my 2 older children:  Melanie (27, a graduate of Harvard '98 and Stanford '03) and Zane, 11, who attends the Overseas Family School here in Singapore."  Joli is a most accomplished game creator.  For example, go to http://www.indochinegame.com/.

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Classmates: Please send news and pictures about yourself and your family!