Brandeis Magazine

All of you are always most gracious in thanking me for working on the Class Notes. I recently realized this is my 10th year of doing them. I am just as much a fan of reading the notes as you are. My sincerest thanks to everyone who takes the time to submit one.

In February, Michael Allosso received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Vistage International, the world’s largest advisory and coaching program for CEOs. A multiple Speaker of the Year award winner, he has presented his “You on Your Best Day” program in workshops all over the world, helping executives enhance their leadership and communication skills by using the same skills he learned as a theater arts major at Brandeis. Liz Attardo Greenberger is executive director of RowLA, a nonprofit she founded in 2009. The organization provides intensive rowing activities, individualized academic support and college counseling to empower girls from underserved communities in the Los Angeles area. Marian Bass, P’26, and her husband, Jeffrey Albert, visited Jane Kaufman and her husband, Ken Sacks, in Providence, Rhode Island, in early March. Daniel Brin, P’08, made an unsuccessful bid for a California Assembly seat representing the west San Fernando Valley. A Democrat, he has served as president of the West Hills Neighborhood Council for the past six years. Bob Creo is escalating his participation in performance storytelling. He frequents The Moth in Pittsburgh and other cities on a monthly basis. In February, he won a competition centered around the theme “Love Hurts,” which entitles him to compete in October against the other Pittsburgh winners. Bob says some of his stories are about Brandeis events or people, and they are true — to the best of his recollection. In May, Bob received the Sir Francis Bacon Alternative Dispute Resolution Award from the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee. The honor is given to those who make a significant impact in bringing mediation and other forms of dispute resolution to Pennsylvania. Susan Feigenbaum and Jay Pepose ’75, P’08, P’17, share news about their kids. Morissa ’17 will begin the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music’s master’s program in vocal performance in the fall. David ’08 had his comic book series “Spencer and Locke” published. Sam is working at Facebook. And Max is busy building his writing career in NYC. “We are now empty nesters,” Susan and Jay write. “Come visit us in St. Louis.” Michael Goldenkranz says he enjoyed celebrating the first birthday of his grandson in February, especially since the little boy debuted his “first real walk” during the festivities. Michael participated in a Brandeis reunion at the Seattle Art Museum, where director and CEO Kimerly Rorschach ’78 gave a private tour. He continues to volunteer at pro bono legal clinics and is helping with his son-in-law’s campaign for a seat in the Washington State Senate. Steve “Buddy” Greene, a former volunteer firefighter/EMT, created and hosts a podcast, “Five-Alarm Task Force: News and Issues for Today’s First Responders.” Listen at bit.ly/DalmatWeb. In May, Steve and his wife, Ruth Schreiber- Greene, celebrated the wedding of their younger daughter, Miryam, with older daughter Adinah sharing in the festivities. In January, Bob Jaffe appeared in the Under the Radar Festival at New York’s Public Theater in sold-out performances of “Memory Retrograde,” by Kristine Haruna Lee. He can be seen in the fifth episode of the new Starz series “Sweetbitter,” which premiered in May. Bob says he and Jill are (naturally) constantly thrilled with their two granddaughters, Riley and Parker. Roberta Levi Zimmerman, P’01, works at Neighborhood Health Plan, part of Partners HealthCare, in Somerville, Massachusetts. She lives in Watertown and also spends time at her condo in Portland, Maine. She writes, “Joan Smith Clemens, Pam Sacks Weil and I are so excited — we all have children getting married within a year of one another. My son, David, was married on Oct. 8, in Hartford, Connecticut, and Joan’s and Pam’s children are getting married this summer.” Cathy Morris Chernoff is proud to be a producer of the upcoming revival of Harvey Fierstein’s “Torch Song,” which will open this October on Broadway. Tom Phillips composed a new music package for the PBS show “Antiques Roadshow,” to be used in the 2018 season. It incorporates the theme he wrote for the show back in 1996, re-created in different styles and orchestrations. He also composed the score for a PBS “American Experience” documentary on the history of the Everglades. In June, Marvin Pinkert opened an exhibition at Baltimore’s Jewish Museum of Maryland titled “Inescapable: The Life and Legacy of Harry Houdini.” Marvin credits an American studies class he took with Steve Whitfield in 1973 as the inspiration for the project. Steve Ruby, P’08, and his wife, Gail, are retiring in Delray Beach, Florida, to enjoy more time together, and lots of time with their children and grandchildren. After a long run as a private-practice vascular surgeon and chair of surgery at Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut, Steve most recently served as senior vice president and chief physician executive at Trinity Health of New England. February found Betsy Sarason Pfau in Cincinnati, Ohio, celebrating the 70th birthday of her brother, Richard Sarason ’69. In March, Betsy and Dan Pfau ’73 went to London to visit their son, David, who works for DeepMind. In April, they visited their daughter, Vicki, in the San Francisco Bay Area; she works at OpenAI. Betsy reports that, 44 years after their last in-person contact, she had lunch with John Perry. For the fifth year in a row, Philadelphia magazine recognized Bruce Stark as a 2017 Top Doc in ophthalmology, a peer-nominated recognition. Allan Tepper is alive and well in Philadelphia, playing drums in the Losing Gravity Band and surfing all year long in New Jersey. His daughter, Lucia Rose, is attending Ithaca College, and his son, Max, is at Babson College. Judith Tolnick Champa, an independent curator, served as guest curator for “Facing Disjunction,” the 2018 National Artists’ Exhibition at A.I.R. in Brooklyn, described as the foremost feminist gallery in the U.S. Judith is also curatorial consultant for “(Un)Built Providence,” which explores Providence, Rhode Island, in the making. Back in 1974, Steve Tradd tore up his knee playing lacrosse at Brandeis. He reports that, after a few surgeries, he finally got a knee replacement in June 2015 and decided it was time to retire. Now he and his wife alternate between Foxborough, Massachusetts, and Orlando, Florida. They got an RV, he writes, but decided “we’re not RV people (after the fact ... too bad). Surprisingly, I don’t miss working at all — #enjoyinglife.” Sally Zanger, P’21, says that, starting in August, her daughter and son-in-law, Lynn and Alex Kaye, will join the Brandeis faculty, both in the Near Eastern and Judaic studies department (though they work in different areas of study). Sally is thrilled to have them at her favorite institution of higher learning. Her younger daughter, Maya Zanger-Nadis ’21, is also at Brandeis.