Phil Alexandre: I rode out the front end of the pandemic working remotely from Peaks Island, Maine, and I’m now back in New York restructuring my longtime gallery for the new, virtual world. I’ve enjoyed regular Zoom calls with Reed Wessells Nichols and my old roommate, Charlie Leary, who is now living in Panama City.
Larry Apke: For the past three years I have been running a nonprofit called The Job Hackers that trains people for free to help them find meaningful employment. In that time we have provided over $2 million of free training and our participants are finding good jobs even in this pandemic. We even have had at least one Kenyon grad join our over 1,000 participants. Personally, I am happy to have been in the SF Bay area for almost six years now; and to be married to my lovely wife Zhanna, and to have three children aged 14-29. We are thankful that all children are currently living with us in Hillsborough, CA. Shortly, I will start a new "day" job leading big data teams for Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), hoping to help an organization which faces numerous challenges with climate change and customers in California.
cdavid cottrill: Hola from the Pacific Northwest friends!
Hoping you and your families are as well and sane as possible. It’s been a lot, eh? For here, as throughout the West Coast, we’ve experienced COVID, economic crisis, 110 days (and counting) of protests downtown, as well as a fierce wildfire season. Thankfully Colette and I have been well and in a safe place from all the severe smoke. Thank you to friends like Kai Schoenhals who called to make sure we weren’t in eminent danger. And, just as I thought my work to get my union members help with unemployment was finishing, I had to jump on wildfire relief. We only had a few of our members directly affected, but our Sister Locals south of Portland experienced severe damage and some total loss of their homes. Most of the 200 members and their families are just now receiving help from FEMA. Anyway, we are doing what we can to help those in need, especially the stagehands, who will be out of work until live events and trade shows can safely return, and we’re sending down a vanload every other week with requested supplies. The good news is that after months of labor on COVID protocols, the Motion Picture & Commercial Industry is back up and producing in the Pacific Northwest, and negotiations with producers have resulted in a national Return To Work Agreement for motion picture work. So far we have had a Warner Horizon Television production come back to finish up a couple of episodes after shutting down for Covid. In addition, we have seen Facebook’s The Birch Season 2, Hulu’s Shrill Season 3, a Netflix feature, and a myriad of commercials shot in and around Portland. Our IATSE Local Union also covers Montana, and I am looking forward to visiting our crews working on Yellowstone Season 4 as soon as I can get up there. Counseling With Colette, my love’s counseling business is, as you might expect, booming right now with so many folks coping with the stress of everything. She does such great work with her clients! With COVID I have missed traveling to Seattle every few months to visit our friend David Diggdon and his awesome family. David has climbed the ranks of the Everett, WA Fire Department, and I am sure he will one day soon command the whole department. There are still the too-infrequent phone connections with Ruth (Ann Gather Of Wheat) DeWitt (nee Warner) which are guaranteed laughter-inducing, except when we are commiserating about the state of the world. I have loved reconnecting and rekindling friendship with the lovely Kate Frankfurt ’87 during the last year while her oldest son is attending college in Portland. Also, I was blessed to connect via the semi-irregular, but always hysterical, "4th Floor Mather Artsy-Fartsy Zooms" with Beth Miyashiro-Vivio, Amy Malkoff, Paul Singer, Tara Jones, J. Edward Ball, Brad Koogler, Tony Ziselberger, and Rik Kleinfeldt ’89. I think that’s about the extent of it here! Sending love and health to all. cdavid, Colette and Benny Solstice (@BennysBelly)
Victoria “Vickie” Cruz (Kinsey): After living in Texas for 24 years, 22 of them in San Antonio, my husband Jimmy Cruz and I moved to Charleston, SC in 2018 in order for Jimmy to pursue a career opportunity. I had previously been a Licensed Professional Counselor in Texas for more than 20 years (and a Dance/Movement Therapist before that for five) and decided to take a break from psychotherapy and pursue another healing profession. I had worked for many years in inpatient psychiatric and residential settings, dealing with serious, chronic mental health conditions and trauma. Prior to the move, the last three years were especially grueling, working in an emergency shelter for children and youth in Child Protective care while grieving the loss of my father and my mother's encroaching Alzheimer's disease. I went back to school, and eight months later, graduated a 900-hour program and became a Licensed Massage Therapist. COVID slowed down my initial work experience, but I did get started at a spa in Charleston. Then Jimmy got offered an even better job at Lucid Motors, and we just moved across the country to an area near Phoenix, AZ! I'm still dancing, though what/where/when/how since the pandemic has been tricky. It's been a fun adventure; for more details you'll have to find and friend me on Facebook...
Mark Eberman: In perfect timing with the COVID shutdown, I opened a guitar making and repair business in March, after spending January and February in Michigan at luthier school. In spite of the predictable difficulties, Mars Guitars is starting to be a little something!
Jonathan Ennis: Theo '23 returned to Kenyon this fall for his sophomore year. And Max (college junior) made it through border control in Germany for his junior year at Bard Berlin. Happy we had the whole family home for 6 months to shelter in place at the ranch. Keeping in touch with folks. Recently talked to Parish Lentz, Marc Royce, Jerry McEntee and Phil Alexandre who are all taking on new challenges in 2020.
Peter Harper: First off, a big thanks to Jeff Richards for posting his walks around Gambier and his commentary on life on Facebook. They are entertaining and therapeutic if you haven't watched them yet. I live with my family (including two 11th graders) in Maplewood, NJ and I started a new job recently at a publisher called Real Leaders. I'm sharing this on the assumption some in our class and community may be interested in what we do. Real Leaders recognizes and collaborates with businesses and leaders who balance their people's development and needs, the communities they are a part of, and the well-being of planet with profit. If any Kenyon alums work at or run these kinds of businesses (Certified B Corps would be an example), feel free to reach out to me."
Aileen Hefferren: After 25 years at Prep for Prep, the last 18 as Chief Executive, I stepped down in June to become the CEO and Director of the Children's Museum of Manhattan. Flatteringly, the day my new role was announced the New York Times featured me as the lead in an article titled, "Could There Be A More Difficult Time to Become an Arts Leader?" -- Ha!
Tara Jones: We (my partner Jeff and I) had a bit of a commune going on at our house over the summer. In addition to the friends who live in the tiny home they built behind our garage we had two Workaway volunteers staying with us. Tristan lives in the shuttle bus she converted to a mobile tiny home parked across the street from our house. Adriane has been staying in our guest room. In exchange for use of our bathroom, kitchen and washer and dryer, Tristan has been helping out in the garden: weeding, harvesting, processing and building an herb drying cabinet from salvaged materials. In exchange for room and board, Adriane has cooked most of our dinners. We have, in other words, had our very own personal paleo chef. For a couple of weeks our household increased by one more. Julia, another Workaway volunteer, pitched a tent under our apple tree and took part in an all-day work party transforming our garage from a nightmare of chaos into a place of beauty and order. As the days get darker, we are making sure we fit in one last kayak trip down the Willamette, one last outdoor concert before the rains begin, and new indoor activities such as our Liberation Listening class to fill the longer nights. We have, in other words, managed to have sweet, busy lives filled with good friends in spite of the pandemic and hope to continue to do more of the same in the months to come.
Melissa Henderson Koenig: In January 2020 I was lucky to be able to participate in the Master Winter World Games in Innsbruck Austria (just before the world ceased to be normal). I traveled with two teammates/friends and we competed in Short Track Speedskating. I placed 2nd in my age group (50-54 ladies) in the 500, 1000, and 1500 and we joined forces with another US skater to make a mixed relay team (2 ladies, 2 men) where we came in 4th overall (2nd in country teams as many teams were mixed countries). We just missed 3rd overall as I was caught at the line by a former Olympian from Germany. It was great fun and seems now like such a lifetime ago. In real life I am the Director of Instructional Technology at DePaul University in Chicago and these past 7 months have been a roller coaster as we ramp up our distance offerings and train faculty on transforming their classes for virtual spaces. With most of the speedskating season likely cancelled (although I am still coaching) I have turned my attention this winter to ramping up my involvement in dog sports - particularly mushing - with my 2-1/2 year old Siberian. We are perhaps the only weirdos hoping for lots of snow as I just purchased a sled!
Charlie Leary: I moved to Panama in late January looking for business opportunities and ended up spending a long quarantine in Panama City. The lockdown only ended in mid-October. I plan to stay, and I am working in real estate and wine importation. I’ve had lots of moral support from Reed Wessells, Phil Alexandre, and Tim Whealon while alone in my mid-city apartment via telephone and Zoom calls . . .
Robin Lentz: I’ve been teaching art remotely to K-4th grade girls at The Hewitt School since March. I’m really enjoying the creative challenge of teaching this way, though still shocked this is our new normal. Daily drawings and long walks around Brooklyn have kept me sane, as well as frequent texts, phone calls and occasional zoom gatherings with Kenyon friends. My oldest ‘graduated’ from Kenyon this spring.
Janet Lord: Grounding due to COVID precluded a visit to Gambier this spring which was a big disappointment. I ended my tenure on the Board of Directors for Amnesty International USA and service as Chair during the last year of my term. It was a great pleasure to serve the organization which is needed now more than ever. I have taken on more teaching at the University of Maryland Law School in the international law program and continue to work on advancing human rights in the context of international development programs. No travel has meant spending more time with family in Baltimore and in Western Maine. A big treat was reconnecting in Burlington, VT with Jessica Udvardy where we socially distanced at an outdoor cafe this past summer.
Dennis Mulvihill: Proud to say I recently discovered a new species of extinct Woolly Mammoth while hunting Grizzly Bear in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.
Matthew C. Pasher: Hello from Chelsea! We are muddling our way through the pandemic. I have now become a class monitor for my 11-year old who has entered 6th grade in The Professional Performing Arts School in Hell's Kitchen. My wife is currently working on the East Side as a Director of Speech at a school called Children's Academy and I await my management assignment at H&R Block this year. I have really enjoyed reconnecting with many during my weekly Zoom call. Everyone is invited to join every Sunday @ 8PM eastern time. Anyone in NYC please reach out!!!
Priscilla Perotti: Hey friends! What a year. During the temporary closing of our art studio I realized just how much I love my work and the people who walk through the doors every day. A couple of things have helped carry me through this time: having our kids at home with us with no distractions or places to be was nothing short of amazing; and having a creative outlet. I teach painting, drawing, pottery....but to have that much time to create my own work was a gift for me. I just hung a random assortment of works in the Fairfield U. Bookstore next to my studio. It's not a curated show, but it forced me to do my own work and produce some paintings I like of things I love--kids, biking long distances, animals...It's a start.
I’m grateful to have been in some text threads with old friends from Kenyon, which basically confirms the absurdity of our current situation. I reached out to friends recently to ask for the name of the goat we met at The Kenyon Farm during a recent reunion. I was taken by the goat's expression of sweetness and did a painting of it. I looked up the goat’s name on the website but didn't get far...they sell goat meat. (See photo below.)
If you want to see some really great works, check out Robin Lentz’s Instagram pages and Jim Bush's too--such talent!
Jeff Richards: I had a beer at the VI last night with Carolyn Cutler M’89. Things are almost back to normal in Central Ohio (assuming you were an introvert before this all started) although my comedy hypnosis show bookings aren't yet back to where they were pre-COVID. I've been coping with the copious downtime by taking my dog on long walks. I've worn through three pairs of shoes and I'm in better shape than I've been in a long time.
Dan Rudmann: Colorado has been hot and smoky this summer, and COVID-19 has been quite the scientific and social experiment! We are persevering and our 26- year-old, Keegan, has moved back home to help us realize how important family is. Our son Connor delayed his wedding to summer 2021, and Anna is braving remote university in Boulder. Leah has had it the closest to “normal” with a full, in-person return to high school and, after 6 weeks, only one COVID case. I have helped with some testing sites and completed studies on potential COVID drugs, Cathy is volunteering as well for non profits in support of COVID needs. I am sure the Class of ‘88 is making a great impact across the world. We all will be stronger. Be safe.
Terry Samwick: In the year 2020 I lost my natural mind and waged a quixotic mission to produce and direct an outdoor performance of Twelfth Night with high schoolers in Vermont. It felt necessary. It felt rebellious. It felt right. It felt crazy. The planets aligned in such a way that the local science museum gave us space to perform. Since this note is due a few days before the show goes up, I have no idea how this story turns out. Send retroactive positive vibes, please!
Kristi Sink (McCaukey): Hi all! My family and I have relocated to Grafton, OH. My work as a hospital executive with University Hospitals continues to be both rewarding and challenging. On the home front, my son Jason is graduating from high school. So much ahead of us! Would love to hear from fellow “Kenyonites.”
Chris Tejirian: I am currently serving at our consulate in Osaka, Japan, and we are living nearby in Hyogo Prefecture. Junko and 12-year-old twins Helen and Noah are doing well. The kids recently started at (yet another) new school. As I write this in October, day-to-day life in Japan is okay, but the chance of more infections (and resulting restrictions) looms as we progress into winter. International travel is nearly impossible, and hearing from friends infected with COVID in the US and, especially, worrying about family members is distressing. Best wishes to all.
Charlie Walch: I've officially entered middle-age. Good signs: kids are grown, employed, and out of the house; I sold my old business, 1st Choice Delivery, and started a biotech company called Pluton Biosciences; my wife, Diana, and I are nearing our 30th wedding anniversary. Bad signs: lost my Dad and both my in-laws in the last two years. Providing end of life care to your parents is tough, heartbreaking, yet oddly rewarding. Still live in St. Louis, MO. Changes happen even if you stay in one place!
Sue Byrne Wooster: 2020 surely has brought me to my knees! In addition to the pandemic, it’s been an incredible year of change, growth and discovery for my family. Kenyon (with admirable hard work and caution) made the tough decision to have only freshman and sophomores on campus this semester, so my son, Benjamin ’22, is now learning remotely from his bedroom in Greensboro, NC. Meanwhile my daughter Beatrice started in-person as a ballet major at Butler University in August. I hope by next semester this virus will be under control and my dreams of being an empty-nester will come to fruition!
One way I have escaped the stress of 2020 has been to follow the creative talents of some of our classmates. On Instagram, Robin Lentz draws me into her world at home with her TV drawings @r0binlentz and takes me on walks through NYC and beyond with her incredibly intriguing and sophisticated photos @rojo9art. She is truly one of the most engaging and underrated artists I know! Also, on Instagram, you need to check out @alexandregallery, owned by Phil Alexandre. This site not only highlights the fabulous contemporary and modern paintings from his gallery in New York, it gives in-depth descriptions and histories of the works and lives of the artists who produced them. And before leaving the Instagram world, you may want to follow the doodles and stamp collection of Andrew Hunter (@andrewehunter) and the nature photos by Kirsten Stadheim (@stadfing) to bring some ground and beauty to your quarantine days. Last (but by no means least) if you haven’t already “taken a ride” with J. Edward Ball on his incredibly entertaining, side-splitting and (sometimes) informative YouTube channel, “Questionable Baloney,” I urge you to drop everything and watch a few episodes immediately. The channel is produced by Wes Reynolds ‘89 and features Ed talking on a variety of important subjects from bicycle helmets to Swedish fish-- a must-see and perfect way to kill some time waiting for your next Zoom meeting to begin.
