Kenyon Class of 1970 Fall Class Letter

Gentlemen,

Lately, I know that good news is in short supply unless you watch the closing segment of NBC Evening News. Even during this most challenging of years, Kenyon has remained a bright spot and a point of connection and positivity for its community. This is, I believe, because we are being led by the scholarly scientist who is the President of the College. He is leading a team that is committed to bring Kenyon through this pandemic.

On September 24, I and several of our classmates watched a Kenyon Zoom Town Hall that was an update to campus activities. My notes from the meeting highlighted the following:

Only first years (still freshmen to me), sophomores and international students were to be on campus – a total of around 900 students (the College now tells me 950). The admitted first year class was 450 and an additional 30-35 international students will hopefully arrive for the second semester.

This fall everyone got a single!

The College developed clear COVID-related policies and protocols that included regular testing for those on campus (25% of students weekly) and the implementation of the “Kenyon College Commitment,” a personal pledge developed in cooperation with the student council that emphasized the well-being of the entire community. Waste water is being monitored for presence of the coronavirus. A fortuitous hire was Chris Smith as the new Director of Student Health Services, who arrived from the CDC.

Life on campus looked a bit different as Kenyon adapted its many facilities to ensure safe access to dining, athletics, research and more.

Apparently skateboards and ripsticks are prevalent (at least until mud season starts). If you don’t know, ripsticks are disjointed skateboards so that you can use a swivel motion which provides your propulsion and not have to hang one foot off the board to push. Unfortunately, there are no athletics.

In addition to adaptations for on-campus instruction, juniors and seniors and members of the faculty discovered new ways to learn and teach remotely. (Yes, it took a pandemic to make sweatpants acceptable classroom attire for even the professors.)

For employees, the College committed to avoiding layoffs and to maintaining take-home pay. The alumni community has shifted to meet the challenges of 2020 with an equal degree of innovation — organizing and attending virtual events, connecting with current students and new graduates as volunteer mentors, and giving back during June’s record-breaking online giving challenge, Kenyon Together. And, though it was heartbreaking to have our Reunion Weekend postponed, the College shifted its focus to Reunion Weekend 2021. Planning is underway and, if conditions allow, it could be the biggest alumni gathering in Kenyon history. More details in the months to come, as all alumni will be invited back for the festivities, including those of us celebrating a post-50th reunion.

Good things are happening at Kenyon. I support it year after year with a gift to the Kenyon Fund — to keep the good news coming. I give to bolster the student emergency assistance fund, which helped dozens of students get home when the spring semester unexpectedly went virtual. I give to make it possible for the College to award more in financial aid this year, when many families’ budgets are strained.

During challenging times like these, alumni support is more critical than ever. Join me in making your gift to the Kenyon Fund at gift.kenyon.edu to ensure good things continue to happen on the Hill this year, and in the years to come.

Accomplishments, milestones, and updates from our classmates are below. There is the possibility of 142 stories in our class, and some of them follow on the next page.

Thank you and stay well!

As always,

Mike Hill

Introducing the Lowry Center & Scholarship

William E. Lowry Jr. ’56 H’99 was the first Black student in the nation initiated into Beta Theta Pi, was student body president and captained the football, basketball and baseball teams. He went on to serve in many volunteer roles at Kenyon, including as trustee. In honor of Bill’s accomplishments and impact at Kenyon, the Board of Trustees decided to rename the Kenyon Athletic Center in his honor.

Recognizing his legacy, Board Vice Chair Joseph E. Lipscomb ’87 has created an endowed scholarship in Bill’s name to help bring more underrepresented students to Kenyon. Anyone can make a gift to the annual fund portion of this scholarship, or one of many other scholarships at Kenyon, and provide an immediate benefit to a current student.

Support currents students now with a gift to scholarships

Despite a challenging year, the College remains committed to continuing to meet 100% of students’ increased demonstrated need, with donor support. Every dollar you give goes directly to support students this academic year.

Consider giving today in support of:

Hannah More Scholarship for first generation students
Kenyon Women’s Annual Scholarship for female students
Lowry Annual Scholarship for underrepresented students
Pope Memorial Annual Scholarship for students from urban Ohio public school

And, of course, you can make a gift to the Kenyon Fund’s scholarships and financial aid designation, which supports the education of every single Kenyon student.

Make a Gift

Upcoming Virtual Events for Alumni

You're invited to join us this winter at these free events for alumni.

Alumni Town Halls with President Decatur
Thursday, Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. ET and Thursday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. ET
Five-week mini class with Professor Emerita Pam Jensen
"Democracy & Education: An Introduction to Rousseau's Emile"
Tuesdays, Jan. 5 – Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. ET
A Celebration of Kenyon Green Initiatives (two-part series)
Wednesday, Jan. 20 and Thursday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. ET

Visit kenyon.edu/alumnievents to register and view our full alumni event calendar.

Class of 1970 Fall Notes

Robert C. Boruchowitz: “I continue to supervise a summer law student fellowship program at Seattle University. I am active in state and national committees on public defense. I won a case in the Washington Court of Appeals reversing a conviction for an 11 year old girl because of ineffective assistance of counsel and an erroneous decision by the trial judge.”

Paul Keiner: "Not much new to report. I can pass on that Bob Plunkett had successful heart valve replacement surgery with a single bypass thrown in for good measure. In January, Bob also successfully made the transition to a new assisted living facility in Whitefield, NH. Kokes and others always supportive.

I am back at New England College tutoring and teaching a fall class in a hybrid system of both Zoom and in-class meetings. Over the summer Deb and I celebrated our 49th wedding anniversary. Also over the summer we sold our trusty canoe and picked up a used Kayak to go with the one we already had. Since then we have kayaked pretty much one day per week which has been glorious.

The Kokes Klassics meet on Zoom weekly with visits from Gene Peterson, Peter Wolf Arango ’68 and Bob Weist ’71. Haven't done any singing though, which I miss terribly. Kids and grandkids good. Best to all."

Murray Horwitz reports that he's still broadcasting -- albeit from his basement these days -- and that he was commissioned to write a play for Stream ON!, an international online ten-minute play festival. The result is Leave Meeting, and you can watch it here: https://vimeo.com/432292092/ae891cc87a.

Chuck Acton: “Still retired and living in Southern CA hoping the wild fires stay up North. They are the worst in CA’s recorded history. I sold my veterinary practice of 40+ years a few years back but I still own the building and land. My ‘encore career’ remains property management. Corporate consolidators have changed the landscape in our profession forever. 2020 has been a physical challenge. Knee replacement in January and surgical repair of a torn biceps tendon after a ladder fall in September. The never-ending battle against facial cancers is ongoing but not life threatening. I remain grateful for my life and wife (and no Covid-19 so far).”

Tom Swiss: "Like everybody, I’ve been confined to my house during COVID. I have medical conditions that make me very vulnerable so my social interaction has been limited. Fortunately I have been able to live with them pretty well. I went on dialysis last November. It is actually a good thing. Makes me feel and look healthy. But it is time consuming and inconvenient. I hope to get a transplant early next year. At one of my daughters’ request, I have been writing my memoirs in the meantime. Our three grown children and three grandchildren are healthy, happy and well. My loving wife Debbie and I are hoping for some answer to COVID by next July when we celebrate our 50th anniversary so that we can have a blow-out party. Also looking forward to Kenyon’s delayed 50th anniversary and revisiting our rowdy40th!”

Sam Dorrance: "Jeez, a note to ’the remainder of my class?’ Chilling. First, I wish all members of my class continued good health and safety during these uncertain times. I am still healthy, still working as a literary agent, still sailing, and hope to be enjoying all three activities for as long as my Maker permits. Vermont has done a good job of keeping its citizens informed, and safe. My wife Alice and I think we are very lucky to be here. All the best."

Ron Ditmars: “It has been encouraging to take part in the '70 reunion committee, and to hear what others consider most important in facing the pandemic. I think there is a silver lining, which is the hiatus of nations waging warfare against one another, and ceasing from pouring thought and funds into producing ever more effective or destructive weapons. I think Dante's commedia divina describes our present circumstance: some souls are suffering in inferno, driven there by their conscience, others on the purifying path are reaching for the beautiful and the ethical, while others are reflecting eternal messages. In our country, once a beacon of peace-making and democratic justice, we need angels to disarm our appetite for violence and for incarcerating 2.3 million brothers and sisters, and transpose that into embracing the winds of climate change. My three daughters, I and my former wife are all healthy, thankfully. We are anticipating the re-awakening of the earth and its cultures following this forced hibernation. Love to you all!”

Daniel Epstein: “In all of the craziness of the year, I'm not sure that I ever reported to the bulletin that the faculty and board of trustees of Kenyon awarded me an honorary doctor of letters at the last Honors Day.”

Mike’s note – In addition, here’s the intro to the press release on Daniel’s pandemic poetry effort:

New York, NY (June 2, 2020) - Award-winning stars of stage and screen—Tyne Daly, Paul Hecht, Jennifer Van Dyck, and Harris Yulin—joined forces for a reading of “Cruel April: Poems from the Pandemic,” a sonnet sequence written by acclaimed poet and biographer Daniel Mark Epstein. The 12-minute video of these insightful, often heart-wrenching sonnets, together with striking visual images, may be viewed at https://youtu.be/SDJ4TKPqNTc and a two-minute preview may be viewed here--https://youtu.be/Vya_DghOqsA.

Richard Brean: “I retired in 2018 as General Counsel of the United Steelworkers International Union after a 40-year career in the USW Legal Department. My wife Karen is still working and helping to support me as an urban planning consultant, and we're happily living in Pittsburgh. A few months ago, our daughter Molly stunned us by returning to Pittsburgh from London to work in a strategy job at the language app Duolingo. Our family cup truly runneth over.

In retirement, I remain active with Kenyon alumni activities. This year I was appointed as the oldest (make that most senior) member of Alumni Council, joining two other members from our time on campus, Tom Moore '72 and Pegi Goodman '73. Gene Peterson is serving on the Kenyon Fund Executive Committee, and I get to see Buddha regularly on joint Alumni Council/KFEC zoom calls."

Richard McManus: "2020! We were getting ready to put the band back together and play one last performance at Kenyon. It's now all about the COVID, so we are still prepping for NEXT year, when perhaps there will be another chance to visit. Meanwhile I now have two grandchildren with another on the way and I am still running the Fluency Factory (www.fluencyfactory.com/) and teaching learners of all ages. We continue to specialize in reading issues, along with test preparation work. I have also started a new organization that is dedicated to changing the way reading is taught in the USA. That website is www.breakingthecode.com. So, I am keeping busy. When the weather is better and warmer I sail as much as I can, I bike, and I pay attention to my marvelous children as best I socially distanced can. HOPING to see you all next year! Be well."

Byard Clemmons: “Gerry and I are enjoying the Fall weather in Western Tennessee and getting in our two walks and a nap each day. I hope you all are well and staying safe and I hope to see you in Gambier in May for our delayed 50th Reunion!”

Robert Strong: Bob Strong published a new book earlier this year, Character and Consequence: Foreign Policy Decisions of George H. W. Bush, and was a guest speaker at St John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, DC (yes, the one that Trump stood in front of with Bible in hand) on “Jimmy Carter in the Civil Rights Era.” He continues to teach at Washington and Lee University and is doing a fall term course on the 2020 election.

Reed Woodhouse: “Wow. Just wow. What a f***ed-up year! Don't want to freak anyone out: I'm covid-free and in fine shape, but not all my friends have been so lucky. LOOKING FOR CHEAP ROOM for one of them: honest, clean, quiet, and in desperate need of a place to live. He, like me, is in NYC and wants to remain. But he's realizing he may have no choice. Me, I'm still a Senior (Opera) Coach at Juilliard. The one good thing about the Covid disaster is that I'm in much more regular touch with Kenyonites Steve Hannaford, Scott Powell, Richard Krupp ’68, Chris Finch ’71, Bob Bennett H’06, and many others. Write me at reedwoodhouse@gmail.com.”

John K Morrell: “I am continuing as Priest In Charge of three churches in three northern counties of Nova Scotia. First services in all three churches last Sunday for Canadian Thanksgiving. I’m writing this from Sydney, Nova Scotia as my wife Kathy and I are on a four day bus tour to Cape Breton Island.”

Saul Hillel Benjamin: “Let me add my regrets to those of many others among us who've tallied theirs about the cancelling --- or at least the postponing --- of our 50th gathering. These days, in rising wintry Winnipeg, my professional time is focused on various Canadian civic commitments. Last year I was elected one of six Directors of the Manitoba Association of Parents Councils. The only American ever elected to this key Manitoba education policy-making stakeholder organization. Covid, of course, has turned policy-making topsy-turvy. Meetings and outreach almost completely virtual. In recent months, a modest-size constituency has begun urging me to enter the next political fray for Mayor of Winnipeg. In the meantime, three book projects (political commentary, poetry, and memoir) anchor my very late-night writing hours. Long past are my days in the upper reaches of the first Clinton administration. For the past seven years, since returning to North America from eight previous years of education leadership and conflict resolution assignments in Lebanon, Bosnia and Morocco, Canada has been my terrain. Finally, it's impossible not to add a necessary footnote of rage and hope. Whatever our individual partisan affiliations, the time has finally come to recognize that November 3rd's election is not about policy differences. It really never was. While arguments about taxes or health care or energy or international affairs or education matter --- let alone vital goals of social and racial and economic justice --- the anchoring truth is vastly more old-fashioned. This is an election about character and common decency. It's about what it means to live in a democracy not a circus. Last and first, I return to what it has been like to come late-to-fatherhood. Ongoing joys and exhaustions and discoveries. Noah is now eight-years-old. Everything my '70 classmates learned (or tried to learn) much earlier, I'm late-to-learning. But grateful, grateful.”

Read notes from the Class of 1969 and the Class of 1971.

New this year! Read notes from faculty.

Support Kenyon

If you missed the chance to share your news for this letter, you can submit a class note at any time via class.letters@kenyon.edu.

Class Listing

Kenyon is grateful to the following donors for their generous support of the College, including the Kenyon Fund, during the 2019-20 fiscal year. An asterisk (*) indicates a donor is a member of the Henry J. Abraham Society for loyal and consecutive giving. An obelisk (†) indicates an individual who is deceased. Please note that as of July 1, 2019 Kenyon’s annual giving societies have changed. Visit kenyon.edu/societies for more information.

1970

Annual Fund Total: $168,393

Class Participation: 60.43%

President's Society

Donors of $50,000 or more

James P. Finn*

Gustav A. Hindenlang IV †

Roger Novak, Jr.*

Barry F. Schwartz H'15*

Kokosing Society

Donors of $25,000 to $49,999

William F. Paraska*

Philander Chase Society

Donors of $10,000 to $24,999

James M. Lieberman MD

Bexley Society

Donors of $2,500 to $9,999

Chester A. Amedia Jr., MD P'99*

G. Christopher Blauvelt P'03 '10*

Richard J. Brean H'19*

Byard Q. Clemmons*

Daniel M. Epstein H'20*

Douglas M. Fleming*

Eric B. Herr*

Michael S. Hill*

Murray L. Horwitz H'92*

James A. Kenning MD*

William S. Koller Jr., MD P'98*

Anthony W. Olbrich*

J. D. Pell Osborn*

Bruce E. Pendleton P'98*

Kenyon Society

Donors of $1 to $2,499

David P. Adams*

Robert C. Altman*

Thomas R. Baley*

Saul H. Benjamin

Thomas G. Bentson Jr.

Frank J. Berardino Jr.*

Robert S. Berger*

D. Michael Bootes*

Robert C. Boruchowitz*

Roger A. Brown*

David F. Bushnell*

Edgar K. Byham*

Richard D. Coe

Donald L. Comis*

William F. Corwin*

Ron Ditmars P'08*

Donald A. Dunsmore*

Frank Ford*

John Foulkrod*

Jeffrey C. Franklin P'02*

David L. Friedgood*

Jeffrey A. Goldberg P'06*

Alan D. Gross P'05*

Jerry F. Gurkoff DO †*

Neil S. Hackworth*

Stephen G. Hannaford

Thomas P. Hartz Jr.

Dwight D. Hatcher II*

Hugh Timothy Hemphill*

William T. Howard*

Paul G. Keiner P'99

George K. Lagassa*

Carl M. Leichter MD

Peter B. Loughman*

Geoffrey A. Loving*

Charles H. Matthewson*

Philip D. McManus

Richard G. McManus*

John K. Morrell*

Jim Nininger MD P'12*

Bertram B. Parker*

Phillip D. Parker*

Eugene Peterson*

Robert E. Poll P'05*

Scott R. Powell*

Jeffrey P. Price*

Richard D. Reynolds

Robert A. Rubenfeld*

The Rev. Karl D. Ruttan*

Stephen R. Skinner MD

Edward L. Smyth

Randolph St John Jr.*

Robert A. Strong*

Larry S. Stuart*

Thomas C. Swiss

David S. Thompson MD*

Russell L. Tuverson Jr., MD*

Lyn Uttal*

Peter Van Voris PhD P'99

Perry D. Warren P'00*

Rodney L. Wiggins*

Reed Woodhouse*

Robert G. Zatroch DDS P'04

George Wharton Mariott Society

These alumni have included Kenyon in their estate plans or have made other planned gifts.

Richard J. Brean

James P. Finn

Peter A. Fluchere

Alan D. Gross

Eric B. Herr

Gustav A. Hindenlang IV †

Donald O. Mayer

Anthony W. Olbrich

J. D. Pell Osborn

Bertram B. Parker

Elliott S. Robinson III

Barry F. Schwartz

Kenyon College
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Kenyon Class of 1970 Fall Class Letter

Introducing the Lowry Center & Scholarship

Upcoming Virtual Events for Alumni

Class Agents

Class of 1970 Fall Notes

Class Listing