Calvin Hill DCC Newsletter Spring 2011
Celebrate spring with the latest Calvin Hill Day Care Center newsletter (click on the link below):
Calvin Hilltop Spring 2011 Newsletter
VIDEO: Whiffenpoofs at Reunion - Friday night, June 3, 2011
Nostalgia and Harmony, June 3, 2011:
Don McDaniel sent a link to his wife's terrific video of the Whiffenpoofs singing at our 40th reunion:
Watch for more photos coming soon from our brilliant reunion!
Class of 71 Women's Scholarship Awarded to Mary Liu '12
Congratulations to Meng (Mary) Liu of the class of 2012, winner of a scholarship award from the Class of 71 Women's Scholarship Fund for the 2010-2011 academic year. Mary is an economics major who transferred to Yale from the University of Florida, where she founded The Dynamo, a student think tank. "After attending FOCUS on New Haven, a re-orientation program that immerses students in community-service projects in greater New Haven, I've come to believe in the possibility of a synergistic relationship between Yale and the city for many years to come."
Click on the link below for more details:
Yale 1971 Women's Scholarship Fund Awardee for 2010-11
Martin Rubin on 'Forties Fashion'
Martin Rubin reviews Jonathan Walford's book Forties Fashion in the May 13, 2011 Washington Times:
Jonathan Walford, "Forties Fashion: From Siren Suits to the New Look.”
New York: Thames & Hudson. 208pp $29.95. Illustrated.
By Martin Rubin
One of the best things about the way historiography has opened up over the past half century is the way it has enabled us to view the palette of the past from different perspectives. Freed from the straitjacket of what used to termed “political economy”, historians find themselves free to explore different aspects of culture and indeed to use them as a means to take a fresh look at even the most over-explored times and places. This book, by an experienced Canadian fashion curator, takes an in-depth look at the clothing, shoes, and accessories of the most transformative decade in a century chock full of turmoil and upheaval. And in so doing he manages to convey to the reader a marvelous sense of the texture of life as a whole back then.
For Martin's full review, click here or visit www.washingtontimes.com.
Roz Milstein Meyer Wins Elm Award
Roz Milstein Meyer received an Elm Award at a recent ceremony honoring members of the New Haven and Yale communities for their efforts to sustain and strengthen the two communities. As noted in an online article in the Yale Daily Bulletin:
"Yale University President Richard C. Levin and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. honored 12 individuals and one group with Yale University Seton Elm-Ivy Awards at a ceremony on campus on April 27.
"The Elm-Ivy Awards recognize people whose leadership helps sustain the strong collaboration and supportive partnership of the university and its hometown. Each year, some of the most outstanding efforts that enrich the 'town-gown' relationship are recognized through these awards."
Below is the citation read at the ceremony:
ROSLYN (ROZ) MILSTEIN MEYER
ELM AWARD
It's a good thing for our community that Roslyn Milstein Meyer transferred from Cornell University to Yale in 1969, when Yale admitted women. After earning master's and doctoral degrees in clinical psychology at Yale, she and her husband decided to remain in New Haven. She has ever since served as a model of leadership and social change in our community. Ithaca's loss was certainly New Haven's gain.
Known to friends and colleagues as "Roz," in 1991, she cofounded LEAP (Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership), a mentoring program that trains high school and college students to provide academic and social enrichment to inner-city youth. Roz's goal is to "help inner-city youth view education as an avenue to get out of poverty."
Five years later, Roz also served as a founder of the city's International Festival of Arts and Ideas, which brings performers and artists from around the world to New Haven annually during two weeks in June. The event aims to break down racial and socioeconomic barriers through the arts.
Her most recent philanthropic venture is the creation of the Milstein Meyer Center for Melanoma Research and Treatment, with the goal of developing new treatments for this disease.
YaleWomen Lunch May 10 at NYC Yale Club
Joan O'Meara Winant '73 and Nancy Stratford '77 send this invitation by way of our class secretary Harry Levitt:
We are pleased to invite you to our second quarterly YaleWomen NYC Back to the Women's Table Luncheon for interesting conversations and fellowship.
Date: Tuesday May 10th
Time: Noon - 2pm
Location: Tap Room at The Yale Club
50 Vanderbilt Avenue
New York, NY
Cost: $ 25 cash at door
This is a great networking event for all alumnae and is usually very popular, so please RSVP ASAP.
Hope to see you there!
Best,
Joan and Nancy
RSVP to: yalewomennyc "at" aol "dot" com
Martin Rubin on Anne Roiphe's 'Art and Madness'
THE WASHINGTON TIMES. MONDAY APRIL 4 2011
Anne Roiphe, “Art and Madness: A Memoir of Lust Without Reason.” New York: Doubleday. 220pp. $24.95.
By Martin Rubin.
Once upon a time, there was a young girl who lived in a series of privileged cocoons: the Upper East Side of Manhattan, private school, elite women’s colleges. Yet she was never at home there, partly because she was acutely aware of the fragility of fortune which had placed her so fortuitously, when across an ocean other Jewish girls of her age met a fate almost too horrible to comprehend. But mostly it was because she saw the rottenness of her golden apple from the inside, the mother who smoked and drank too much, the successful father she heard bribing a judge and then rationalizing it to her. And Roy Cohn was her real-life cousin! So no wonder this young girl, who would eventually metamorphose into the writer we know as Anne Roiphe, was disillusioned. . . .
For Martin's full review, visit www.washingtontimes.com.
Jim Kaplan Walking Tours
Jim Kaplan writes (March 25, 2011):
1. HELL'S KITCHEN---The audio of my March 12 tour, Hell's Kitchen: A Political History of the New York Irish, can now be heard in its entirety on the Culturenow.org website. I and several others who took the tour (approximately 60 people) consider it to be one of my finest. For those few of you who may not wish to listen to the full three and a half hour audio you can Google "Tammany's Last Stand" to access my 10,000 word companion article, which covers most but not all of the tour. [Note: The article is here.]
2.ISRAEL AND AMERICAN JEWS---On May 15, in honor of Israeli Independence Day, I will be giving a new tour on the history of the Jews in New York and America and how they were instrumental in the creation of the State of Israel. This tour will cover some of the same material as my prior Arrival Day tours, but will describe much more extensively the importance of the immigration of Jews from Russia, the political alliance of the Jews and Irish politicians on the Lower East Side and the Black/Jewish alliance in Harlem. It will also discuss the direct link between American Jews and the creation of the State of Israel, and my theory that the modern State of Israel would not exist today were it not for a failed haberdashery store in Kansas City, Missouri. The tour is sponsored by the Temple of Universal Judaism/Congregation D'At Elohim, of which I have been a member for more than 32 years. To sign up, visit the Temple's website or call 212 427-1918.
3. JULY 4 ALL NIGHT TOUR (2 A.M. to 6 A.M.)---For the 15th consecutive year, I will again be giving my highly acclaimed all night walking tour of Lower Manhattan sponsored by the Fraunces Tavern Museum (the audio of which for last year can also be heard on the Culture Now website). On the tour as in prior years I will extensively discuss Thomas Paine (and visit Thomas Paine Park), give the July 4th history of the City of New York in City Hall Park (including my daughter Olivia's classic oration on Nathan Hale), and will provide my now famous discourse on General Horatio Gates and the critically important Battle of Saratoga in front of his unmarked grave in Trinity Church graveyard. This year my pre-tour lecture at the Fraunces Tavern Museum will be at 6:30 on June 16, and I will be speaking on July 4th on its importance in the City's history and will provide a part of the July 4th history of the City of New York.
4. BROOKLYN NAVY YARD---I have in development a possible revival of the Brooklyn Navy Yard tour which I used to give for the 92nd Street Y 15 years ago. This tour, which would be given in late August (around V-J day) under the auspices of Culture Now, would present my unique view of how the Brooklyn Navy Yard and people closely connected to it were instrumental in forging the nation's relations with Japan, both in opening Japan to the West and later in defeating Japan in the Second World War, in the rise of the two most important Presidents of the 20th century, and in works of major writers in the 19th and 20th centuries. My ability to do this tour is dependent on obtaining permission from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Any thoughts, comments or suggestions would be appreciated.
Richard Lieberman & Class Notes
Harry Levitt sends heartfelt apologies for misspelling Richard Lieberman's name in a Class Notes item in the Mar./April 2011 issue of Yale Alumni Magazine. The corrected item is below:
Richard Lieberman wrote: “In a recent issue of this magazine, Chris Conty raised the question of whether he was the oldest first-time father in our class. This has inspired me to come forward, just in case there is any one out there who is curious about my doings and whereabouts. In February of 2002, I was rushed to surgery for the repair of a thoracic aortic aneurysm, caused by an undetected genetic defect. (This was the same defect that famously killed the Three’s Company actor John Ritter, later that year.) After a stormy, scary course, I left the hospital with a shiny new Dacron aorta, and a titanium replacement for my aortic valve. I returned to work as an ER doctor, and I was able to continue my work with the Santa Fe Ski Patrol, though I had to decrease my skiing velocity because of the risks imposed by the prescribed blood thinners, which are necessary to prevent my new valve from clotting.
"Later that year, I got married to Carol Vaughn (UNM '87), and I left the ER to open a walk-in 'urgent care' clinic in Santa Fe. The project was so well received that we opened up several more clinics in northern New Mexico. We also became popular for our 'free' days, when anyone without health insurance could walk in and see the doctor. Running a business has been gratifying, and I especially enjoy being able to order equipment without having to go through 14 committees.
"In July 2007, Carol gave birth to Elianah Rose, who is now in her second year of pre-school. I was 58 when she was born. She has added such a beautiful dimension to our lives, and every day is a blessing. Barbara Twigg, from Davenport, was recently in New Mexico for her work with the DOE, and she got to meet Elianah. Elianah was well behaved, and Barbara did not have to witness one of the famous 3-year-old meltdowns. I have plenty of time to take our daughter to school, gymnastics, Hebrew class, the Ski Basin, and swim lessons. After all those years of bachelorhood, I simply love being the doting father.
"Hope to see all of you at the 40th in June. Elianah will be in tow, unless she decides to stay in NYC to visit toy stores.”
Update from Alan Levin
Alan Levin writes:
After completing my “six-year Yale BA program” which started with the Class of 1969, and included a sojourn in the US Army and a stint in (fortunately) Korea before returning as a junior and graduating with the Class of 1971, I became a lawyer. I graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1974, and then spent 34 years as a labor and employment lawyer in Chicago representing employers. Our firm was tiny when I joined and had some 70 people when I retired from my law practice in 2008. I was fortunate both to have had a rewarding law career and to know when it was time for my journey to take a different path. I left my law practice for one reason---to pursue a dream.
As I approached age 61, I went to grad school full-time, at the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration, to get an MA in social work (clinical concentration). I am now a therapist. Three days per week, I counsel people of all ages, regardless of ability to pay, at a community mental health center (Turning Point Behavioral Health Care Center in Skokie, IL), and the rest of the time I’m building a private practice in Evanston, IL, with a component, drawing upon my career experience, targeting the distress of lawyers and their families, and the internal relational issues of law firms (CareForLawyers.com, under the rubric of our group practice, Evanston Therapy Group).
My transition from lawyer to therapist was catalyzed by my experiences, beginning 13 years ago, first as a participant, then as a facilitator, and then as a co-leader, with weekend and other group programs for men, designed to open men up to emotional self-awareness and deep emotional connection with each other. Our organization is non-sectarian and not-for-profit---Victories of the Heart (www.victoriesoftheheart.org). I consider myself to be lucky both to have had the opportunity to pursue a dream, and then to be able to make it real. In the seventh decade of life, I have finally realized that the rest of my life will be, and must be, about experiencing the meaning and purpose of life in relationship with other people, and being on a rich inner self-aware journey. The more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know, and the more I am comfortable with and honoring of “not knowing.” After years of mistakes I made in past relational life, causing pain to myself and others, and providing an endless source of learning, I am fortunate to have a wonderful relationship with my wife, Diane, and my daughter, Rachel, a professional musician (trombone, both jazz and classical) who is getting married in August. At the age of 63 (by the time this is read), I am more excited about life, more able to live in the here-and-now, and more in touch with the open wonder of what each new day will bring, than at any time before.