Class Correspondent

50th Reunion
June 5-7, 2015

Susan Sherkow has an active practice in adult, adolescent and child psychiatry and psychoanalysis in New York City, with a weekend office on Copake Lake in the Berkshires. Her husband, Charles Murkofsky, also practices psychiatry and psychoanalysis. They have two grown sons. Susan developed an affinity for treating children on the autism spectrum early in her career, and, as this population grows, she has become increasingly focused on treating children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. In 2013, she co-published a book, “Autism Spectrum Disorder: Perspectives from Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience,” in which she describes the intensive dyadic treatment of several toddlers who ultimately lost the diagnosis. Buoyed by her findings, she went on to found a not-for-profit organization, the Sherkow Center for Child Development and Autism Spectrum Disorder, to train professionals and paraprofessionals, as well as offer intensive group therapy to parents and children. She says the last Reunion inspired “Susan, Kiki, Cindy, Franny, Tish, Susan W. and Nina, with a sprinkling of Flo” to continue to meet yearly at Copake Lake, with one foray to Boulder, Colo., so tightly did they re-bond on the lawn in front of Shapiro (though they fought about who was in Deroy). They are all excited to rejoin the entire class next spring at Reunion. December 2014 will mark Michael Seltz’s 10th anniversary with Volunteers of America, in Alexandria, Va., where he develops affordable housing, mainly for low-income seniors, using the Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. He has three children, three stepchildren and 11 grandchildren. Patricia Striar Rohner writes short stories, creates oil paintings and tries to lower her golf score. She also reads a novel a week and is addicted to The New York Times Sunday Book Review and the Boston Red Sox. She writes, “With 10 grandkids, you get to a few games.” After 35 years in suburban Washington, D.C. (all but one in Silver Spring, Md.), Saha Amara­Singham reported that he planned to move to Denver in September 2014. He hopes to see more of former Brandeis roommate Herbert Teitelbaum, P’92, who has a carriage house in the city. He also stays in touch with former roommates Richard Remnek ’64, Ethan Gluck and Marc Sapir ’63. After many years of working in public health and development around the world, Saha is now a consultant. Juan Corradi, MA’67, PhD’73, says that although his 40-foot wooden Concordia yawl, Westray, finished last in the annual Newport Bermuda race, he was awarded the Galley Slave Trophy. The sumptuous cuisine that Juan and his wife, Christina Spellman, served their four shipmates included ravioli, beef Bourgogne and lamb marinated in Malbec. Nancy Sherman writes, “Happy 50th to everyone! I don’t know how this Reunion has crept up so quickly, but I’m looking forward to seeing you all.” Since 2010, when Nancy retired from the Calhoun School after serving as director of admissions for more than 20 years, she has worked as a consultant for families seeking help with the complex independent-school admissions process in New York City. She is thrilled to have two granddaughters in her life. Arlene Boshes Hirschfelder is series editor of “It Happened to Me,” a Rowman & Littlefield nonfiction series for teen readers, which includes 38 titles to date. She is co-curator of “Toy Tipis and Totem Poles: Native American Stereotypes in the Lives of Children,” an exhibition at the Sequoyah National Research Center at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock. Ellen Bassuk works at the Center for Social Innovation (www.center4si.com), which she founded in 2006 after leaving the National Center on Family Homelessness. The organization, based in Needham, Mass., works with vulnerable populations, especially homeless people and those with serious mental illness. She writes, “I’m looking forward to catching up with people at our 50th Reunion.”

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