Meet the BOLLI Banner
March 2, 2021
I was pleasantly surprised to learn recently that since the onset of the pandemic BOLLI has added about 200 new members, a remarkable achievement during difficult times. The good news is dampered a bit when taking into account the fact that members of this group have had little or no opportunity to engage with fellow members in a classroom setting. For this and many other reasons, we are all looking forward to our return to 60 Turner Street. But perhaps there’s a small step we can take right now to get to know more about the people with whom we gather in virtual meeting spaces.
The BOLLI Banner, your community newsletter, will soon begin publishing a directory of Special Interest Groups and committees. Many active members will have the opportunity to participate in the creation of the directory, which we hope will be of considerable interest to the entire BOLLI community. Additional information on this new initiative will be coming soon, but to get things started the Banner team and I are pleased to offer our profiles as examples of what’s to come.
Na’ama Ansell
What’s there to do here?” lamented Na’ama when she and Sam moved to Waltham after years of living in Italy. The answer came from a good friend: “Join BOLLI!” The variety of courses and genial members smoothed the transition. In prior years, Na’ama’s vocation as a photojournalist netted her a grant to photograph the lives of Wayland low-income families. The resulting exhibit was a success, but recalcitrant townsfolk were still not convinced that those families deserved affordable housing. Sadly, even her efforts as chairperson of the Wayland Housing Authority netted zero new housing during her five-year term. Na’ama’s photo stories have been published in regional and national magazines. At BOLLI, she has gravitated to literature and social science courses and is a contributor to the Banner.
Sam Ansell
Sam joined BOLLI eight years ago, fresh from twenty years toggling to and from Groton, MA and Gubbio, Italy. A Newton native, Sam spent most of his career in New York. He did a stint as public relations director at New York’s Metropolitan Opera and then wrote advertising for major consumer products. The family moved to Wayland, where Sam was an active member of several town committees and a passionate advocate for low-income housing. During their years in Italy, Sam and his wife, Na’ama, toured the length of the peninsula. They also used it as a jumping-off place to visit parts of Western Europe and Scandinavia. At BOLLI, Sam has been the resident cartoonist on the Banner staff and enjoyed many literature and opera courses.
Jack Curley
Prior to joining BOLLI in the spring of 2013, Banner managing editor, Jack Curley, spent much of his career as a manager of not-for-profit organizations. A lifelong greater-Bostonian, he now lives in Framingham. He has taught English as a Second Language for nearly a decade and enjoys time spent in the company of his wife, children and grandchildren. You’ll usually find him in BOLLI classes focused on literature and history. Claims to fame: He once got a highly sought-after autograph from Ted Williams, and about a decade later became one of a small number of credulous concertgoers who paid for admission to Woodstock ($7 per day). He remains on the lookout for a ticket-taker.
Joyce Lazarus
Before joining BOLLI in the spring of 2012, Joyce Lazarus taught French, as well as some Spanish and English as a Foreign Language, for more than 35 years at a university. Her hobbies include reading, singing, playing classical piano, traveling and international folk dance. Joyce’s favorite BOLLI classes have focused on history, literature, music, architecture and art history. She and her husband Carl enjoy spending time with their grown children and two grandchildren. She appreciates her friendships at BOLLI as well as the many stimulating courses offered. She is a member of the Distinguished Speakers Committee and on the staff of the BOLLI Banner.
Ellen Moskowitz
Ellen Moskowitz has been a BOLLI member since the spring of 2015. Since her retirement as a visual arts teacher in the Boston Public Schools several years ago, Ellen has found more time to pursue her own art interests, working in various media, including collage, watercolors, monotype printmaking and drawing with colored pencils. At BOLLI, Ellen has taken courses in literature, music, photography, art history and sociology. She has enjoyed being a member of the BOLLI Membership Committee, contributing art to the BOLLI Journal, participating in the “Conversations About Race” Special Interest Group and is on the staff of the BOLLI Banner. Ellen and her husband, David, live in Needham and enjoy spending time at their condo in Williamstown, participating in all the Berkshires have to offer.
Phil Radoff
Phil Radoff has been a BOLLI member for more than 15 years, a Banner editor of longstanding, an SGL for a variety of opera courses, a frequent lunchtime speaker, and an occasional writer of short stories. He started his working life as a physicist but soon found the law more to his liking. In choosing courses at BOLLI Phil has tended to favor literature and the arts rather than the social sciences, but with an occasional foray into history. In pre-pandemic years he sang with a community chorus. He and his wife, Norma, live in Wayland with their aging Irish terrier and lament the distance that keeps them from more frequent visits with their children and grandchildren, who live in London and Bet Shemesh, Israel.