Notes from the Cornell Class of 1991 - 1994 November/December

Class Notes, 1994 November/December

November 1994

"Let all joys be as the month of May/And all thy days be as marriage day: Let sorrow, sickness, and a troubled mind/Be stranger to thee." (Francis Quarles, 'To a Bride").

As you might guess from this quote, I am once again pleased to begin this column with news of weddings involving our classmates. Lori Giuffre wrote to express what a wonderful time she had had at the wedding of Kimberly Clark and Bruce Borden this past August in Chagrin Falls, OH. Kim and Bruce met while working at Price-Waterhouse, where Kim will return after completing her MBA at Cornell next year. Lori, the maid of honor, is a third-year vet student at Iowa State U., and "can't wait to get back to the East Coast." Christine Reidl Fladda and Kathy Kraus were also members of the bridal party. Christine lives with husband Marty and son Anders in Tupelo, MS, while Kathy works in alumni relations for Rutgers U. Other attendees included Robin Leong, who just completed law school at Georgetown and is now working for the Federal Reserve Bank in New York City, and Melanie Dunn, who just left her job at Price-Waterhouse to attend business school at Dartmouth.

Joan Kochan Schade checked in with a rather lengthy letter to describe the rather busy year she and husband Mike have had. They were married last September in Milwaukee, just after Joan finished her MS in food science at the U. of Wisconsin. A large number of alumni attended the wedding, including Best Man Samir Khanjar, who is in medical school at the U. of Buffalo; Maid of Honor Karen Schmeidler, an analyst at Paine Webber in NYC; and Groomsmen Gary Wojcik, a grad student in meteorology at SUNY, Albany and Jim Conti '88, MBA '89, who also works at Paine Webber; Gary Bean, working for Air Products and Chemicals in Atlanta; Garrett Grega, employed by Mobil; Sue Farrar, who works for Procter & Gamble in Mahoopany, PA; M. Joseph Riordan, who recently purchased a house in Ithaca, where he works at the Cornell Theory Center; Jen Adams, who has moved to Germany to find a job and learn the language; Paula Burdett and Julie Pearlman, both recently earning degrees--Paula, her MBA from Cornell and Julie, her JD from American U. law school. Wedding attendees still in school include Carolyn Saacke '90, the Wharton School, Jerry English '90, working on his PhD in materials science at Stanford, Debbie Etelson, attending the New York Medical College, and Laura Powers, earning a master's degree at New York U. Charles Nemecek, Russ MacAdam, Adam Choi, Rob Long, and Matt Schatz '90 were also at the wedding.

Joan writes that they reveled in singing Cornell songs at the reception, after which she and Mike honeymooned in Maui for two weeks. After moving to the New York City area, Joan finally found a job as a process engineer doing R&D for Pepsi. Mike is still working as a compensation program manager for IBM. This past summer, they shortened their commute by moving to Mt. Kisco, NY.

The next wedding was that of Tamar Ben-Dov and Seth Brufsky '88 this past June in the Berkshires. Nina Rosen recorded a list of wedding celebrants which included Michael Peek '88, Cathy Merrill, Evan Kanew, Peter Cohen '92, Jane Levine '90, Julia Resnick '90, Jackie Flake, Tina Hernandez, Toby Handler, Jennifer Diamond, Stefanie Nelson, Joanne Pundyk, Missy Singer, Dave Dase '89, Michael Naughton '86, Billy Sind '88, Scott and Jennifer Hoff Myers both '88, Meg and Don Ragas '86, and Laura and J. Marc Warrington '89.

Finally, I received a newspaper announcement of the marriage of Andrew Isikoff to Jennifer Weiss, a graduate of the U. of Maryland, College Park. The wedding took place last November in Washington, DC. Andrew had been working for The Carey Winston Co. in commercial real estate, but has entered the Wharton School to pursue an MBA in real estate and finance. Heartfelt congratulations to all of the couples!

The Navy issued a couple of news releases: Lt. JG Steven Yodowitz has been assigned to Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 116, based at the Naval Air Station in Miramar, CA. Marine 1st Lt. Benjamin Watson completed the cold weather survival school, which is conducted in Bridgeport, CA, and the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains. Benjamin is currently stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC.

Many thanks to those who took the time to write such detailed letters. I certainly enjoy reading of everyone's exploits and accomplishments, and it is much easier to write this column when I have useful material with which to work. Keep the letters coming, and I will keep printing them! *Howard Stein, 600 Warren Rd., #3-2D, Ithaca, NY 14850; (607) 257-3922.

December 1994

BRRRR! It's cold out here in the East. Fellow classmates and Easterners will probably agree. Meanwhile they are busy, and it doesn't sound as if they're letting the bitter cold and slushy snow get in the way. Anna Chan is a sixth-grade teacher at City and Country School, a private school in Manhattan. She says, "It's been quite an experience ..." David Burrows is a marketing analyst at Philip Morris USA, while Jason Damaso is associate director of OURS, a nonprofit membership organization which facilitates task forces for companies to study better ways to use computer information technologies. Before landing this position, Jason worked with a headhunter in the City for three months. His inside scoop to the job market: "It's still tough out there."

Jennifer Stone is a teacher at Newark Middle School. She also mentions that she traveled to Russia and visited Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Novgorod. While in Moscow, she met up with peer Neva Flaherty, who was working there. Sharyn Talman is a human resources representative at Beth Abraham Hospital in the Bronx, and Mark Tatum is in sales at Procter & Gamble in Crawford, NJ.

Entrepreneur Shawn Young started his own computer company called Bedrock Computing Inc. and acts as a computer analyst. The company is located in Brookhaven, NY. Melissa Morrison Dixon is manager for Steinbach Department Store in Clifton Park, NY. Melissa and husband Kenneth live in Balston Spa, where she hosted classmate Christina McKenna for a "fun-filled weekend."

Around this time last year, Erik Saszik was braving the cold in Norway, where he attended the 1994 Winter Olympics. He proudly says he "watched Tommy Moe bring home the Gold!" Erik is living in Bridgewater, VA in the Shenandoah Valley, where he works for Perdue Farms as a pullet flock supervisor. Anne Starner is a coordinator at the U. of Pennsylvania, working for the Wharton Risk Management Center.

Under the sunny skies of the South and the West, other classmates have wisely chosen to avoid the cold weather. In Miami, FL, Patrick Farrell is a structural engineer for Riva, Klein and Timmons. Kathryn Pierson moved from Florida to Los Angeles, CA, where she is working for the CFO of MCA Recreation Services. In San Francisco, Lisa Munter-Clark is in marketing at Wells Fargo Bank, and Maria Cleaveland is a store manager at Starbucks Coffee Co. Jason Feinsmith is a field sales engineer at Intel Corp. in San Jose, CA. Jason says he went to Sue Cohen's wedding. Melissa Levitt, Robyn Lipsky, and Jason's wife, Elana (Adleman) '89, were bridesmaids. Also in attendance were Jeff Weintraub and Elena Klaw.

Other summer brides were Amy Lawrence Flueck, Melanie Velie Anastasio, and Dawn Harrison. Also, Meredith Clark Shachoy, whose wedding was mentioned in the October issue, sent a list of alumni who were among those attending: Michael Vargas, Heather Bracher, Elizabeth Kuo, Jill Weisman, Kim Rugala, Elleke Monster, Hilary Morse, and Amy Gellert. Meredith and Christopher spent three weeks honeymooning in Italy. Amy Lawrence Flueck writes that she and classmate Alex were married in Lancaster, PA. Jenn Leeds, Julie Voveris, and Jeff Donahue were in the wedding party. The Fluecks live in Ithaca, where Alex is working on his PhD in electrical engineering and Amy is working as a manufacturing engineer for Cutler Hammer.

Melanie Velie Anastasio was married in Corning, NY and now lives in Mason, OH, where she is a research associate at Procter & Gamble. Anita Strods writes that Dawn Harrison's wedding was held in Glens Falls, NY at her parents' home. Anita lists other alumni who attended, including Kari Ginsberg, Laura Curran, A. Christy Tyler, Laura German, Jenny Gottlieb, Kara Niles, Nils Fonstad, Jen Hamilton, Jen Bensadoun, Greg Mazer, Cristina Mera, Ali McKersie, Heidi Wilhelm, R. Guy Riefler, Dave Frain, and C. Starck Johnson.

Deep in studies for finals, Barbara Wilinsky is finishing up her last year's work toward her PhD in the radio/TV/film program at Northwestern U. Darcy Andrew also has one more year and is studying for her MBA at MIT. Darcy writes that during last spring break she took her first trip to Europe, and during her summer vacation she was an intern at Van Den Burgh Foods in Chicago. Christine Stuebner is getting her master's degree at the U. of Michigan. During her summer vacation, Christine had an internship with the Department of State at the American Mission in Skopje, Macedonia (Yugoslavia). Mark Adams is a third-year law student at Cornell. He spent his summer as an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Star and Hamilton in NYC.

Recent law grads are Michele Slobod and Elizabeth Collard. Michele graduated from the U. of Chicago law school and is working at McDermott, Will and Emery in their corporate department in Chicago. Liz graduated from New York U. law school and is working at a law firm in NYC. Best wishes to all for a warm and happy holiday season! *Melanie Bloom, 401 E. 80th St., #24D, NYC 10021.