Class Notes, September/October 2002

Sunday November 10, 2002 Category: Archives Permanent Link

I’m glad to see some of our classmates submitting their class news on-line. Like newlywed Michael “Shep” Holland, alumni who pay dues through www.alumni.cornell.edu can also send in their updates. Michael reports that he hadn’t had a good reason to write since graduation, but this last year seemed to bring a flood of good news. “Last June I married Eliza Barton, who graduated from the U. of Pennsylvania in 1999 as a nurse-midwife. There were more than a dozen Cornellians in attendance, including Vanessa Jacobs-Lorena, Michael Intravaia, and Prof. Deborah Streeter as a special guest. We went to Hawaii for two weeks for our honeymoon (kayaking and hiking) before returning home to Hartford, CT. “Michael also e-mailed me a few lovely wedding and honeymoon photos that I would include in this column if it were possible. Trust me, they’re very nice. Michael adds that he’s been fortunate enough to return to Cornell almost every semester to guest lecture for Prof. Streeter for the Entrepreneurship Program. “Thanks to her glowing recommendation, I was thrilled to be accepted this week into Duke’s Fuqua School of Business Cross-Continent MBA Program starting later this summer. Looks like six years of slaving away at start-up companies will pay off!”

Here are the names of some other Cornellians who attended Eliza and Michael’s wedding: usher Brian Davis ‘93, new bride Ingrid “Doc” Schmidt, Anthony Loinaz ‘95, Juvenal Marchisio ‘95, Hans Grohmann ‘94, Scott Watson, Vincent Bortone, Phillip Peters, Nancy Arena, Rob Feld, Ryan Eberhard, Randy Koss ‘97, Emily Quarles ‘98, and Kirsten Suhr ‘98. Ben Geiger, who guest lectured at Cornell several months ago, says that a few beloved Ithaca institutions like Little Joe’s, Wendy’s, and Aladdin’s have disappeared since our reunion last summer. What happened? Are they being replaced by conveniently located residence halls? I’ll be happy as long as I can skip through the aisles of Wegmans, but I hate to see the Collegetown of my misspent youth changing so dramatically. On a lighter note, Michael encourages us all to return to campus to behold the loveliness of the new North Campus.

If you’re a fitness aficionado, you’ll be interested to know that Courtney Rubin is writing a memoir that grew out of weight loss/fitness columns she wrote for Shape magazine over two years (plus some stories she did for The Washingtonian). The memoir, which is currently titled “A Sense of Scale,” will be published by Contemporary Books, an imprint of McGraw Hill. She says that our classmates will probably be reading this column as she’s trying to write the book and that she’s terrified she’ll still be sitting in her pajamas, watching reruns of some godawful show. She adds, “Anyone who watched me write a paper in college knows I’m not very disciplined, and you cannot write a book in an all-nighter.”

Courtney also says that she saw “Mamma Mia” in Washington, DC, with Christine Kaefer, Madeline Infante, Christine Lydon, Yulun Yang ‘97, Dana Becker ‘97, and Laurie Mandell ‘97. (My fellow class correspondent assumes that I will make fun of the fact that she went to see the ABBA musical. I would mock a Whitesnake musical, but never ABBA–they’re Sweden ‘s finest export.) “Christie is a dietitian in the Army in Northern Virginia, Christine does biotech consulting for LEK in Boston, and Madeline is a social worker for a mental health agency in NYC. Christie also reports that Eva Silvestre is spending the summer in Guatemala visiting family, then moving to New Orleans to work on a PhD in Public Health at Tulane. She got her master’s degree in anthropology at the U. of Colorado this past year.

In NYC, Columbia U. film student Catherine Tingey wrote, directed, and co-produced a 12-1/2-minute comedy, “A Girl’s Guide to the Galaxy,” that was selected for competition in the Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival. Her entry “explores the fickle nature of young love and follows the exploits of a 16-year-old girl obsessed with astrology.” The central character is played by teen actress Paz de la Huerta, who has previously appeared in The Cider House Rules and Riding in Cars with Boys. The film is available for viewing at www.chryslermdff.com.

Finally, this column wouldn’t be complete without a few more wedding announcements. Jonathan Simon, an associate with Carter Ledyard & Milburn, and Daniella Rubin (Brandeis), an associate with Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, both in Manhattan, were married by Rabbi Bruce Ginsburg at the Sephardic Temple in Cedarhurst, NY. St. Petersburg, FL, residents Rachel Adleman and Neil Jordan tied the knot at Wagner Vineyards in Lodi, NY. Rabbi Scott Glass conducted the ceremony. Rachel, who is a product development scientist with Tropicana Products, traveled to Greece with her husband, a professor at the U. of South Florida, following the reception. Christel Cuykendall, MAT ‘97, a math teacher at Dryden High School, married David Donlick (SUNY Cortland), a used car manager at Bill Cooke Imports, at the first Baptist Church of Homer, NY. The bride is the daughter of Dr. Charles ‘62 and Shirley Cuykendall. The couple left for a Caribbean cruise after the reception.

Don’t forget to contact Courtney, Sheryl, or me with news you would like to share with your classmates.

–Allie Cahill, Class Correspondent