Class Note 1963
Issue
May-June 2020
When retirement beckoned, these classmates responded each in their own way.
Ed Wirth “retired” at least four times, first in 1995 from AT&T/Lucent, where he served 30 years in executive positions. Then came a second stint from 1997 to 2000 as chief business development officer at GVN Technologies, a telecom equipment startup, followed by a third gig from 2002 to 2006 as president and cofounder of Enersafe, manufacturer of remote battery monitoring systems, and most recently finishing up as adjunct professor at Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida. Ed still runs his own EDW Consulting in marketing and management and teaches online university courses. With Mary, a retired medical technologist, Ed has six children, plus grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
John Rose might still be working full-time were it not for politics. A Yale-trained lawyer, John served as assistant chief prosecutor in New Haven, Connecticut, then in private practice for 36 years in nearby Hartford, appointed Hartford Corp. counsel, back to private practice, and most recently back to New Haven as corporation counsel from 2015 to the end of 2019, when Democratic Mayor Toni Harp lost her bid for re-election, putting John out of a job. But John has plenty to keep him occupied, including daughter Anika, star in the 2006 Academy Award-winning film Dreamgirls, and son Khari, who owns a gymnasium in Taylor, Texas. John enjoys his grandchildren and at least two books a week, especially espionage thrillers by Ben Coes and the Jack Reacher adventure series by British author Lee Child.
Paul Howell writes novels in retirement, but his first book, Montreal Olympics: An Insider’s View of Organizing a Self-financing Games (McGill-Queens, 2009) derives in large part from his experience as technology consultant to the 1976 games, which helped launch him on a career in computers and communications—not what he expected when he enrolled at Columbia for graduate work in German literature. Paul studied in Munich, Germany, and when he, wife Betty, and son Matthias returned to New York, he took a job in computers at Prudential. The rest is history. The family moved for another computer assignment to Montreal, where Paul got recruited for the Olympics.
Michael Hirschenson, retired French arts professor and museum administrator, was reported in January as having recently bicycled 121 miles in the Pacific Northwest when the correct number was 191. This past winter he visited the Galápagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador.
Join classmates for “Tanglewood on Parade,” a ’63 mini-reunion July 27-28 featuring the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestras performing Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with fireworks. Contact Steve Kurland, stkurland@aol.com, (508) 864-7979.
Polly Seymour penned a thank you and tribute to the class in memory of Dean Thad, who died last October, that appears in the March issue of the class of 63 newsletter, which you can read on the class website.
I regret to report the deaths of Dave Elders, Joe Connors, and Sherman Bendalin. Obituaries of classmates may be found in the magazine online edition, authored by class necrologist Tige Harris.
—Harry Zlokower, 190 Amity St., Brooklyn, NY 11201; (917) 541-8162; harry@zlokower.com
Ed Wirth “retired” at least four times, first in 1995 from AT&T/Lucent, where he served 30 years in executive positions. Then came a second stint from 1997 to 2000 as chief business development officer at GVN Technologies, a telecom equipment startup, followed by a third gig from 2002 to 2006 as president and cofounder of Enersafe, manufacturer of remote battery monitoring systems, and most recently finishing up as adjunct professor at Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida. Ed still runs his own EDW Consulting in marketing and management and teaches online university courses. With Mary, a retired medical technologist, Ed has six children, plus grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
John Rose might still be working full-time were it not for politics. A Yale-trained lawyer, John served as assistant chief prosecutor in New Haven, Connecticut, then in private practice for 36 years in nearby Hartford, appointed Hartford Corp. counsel, back to private practice, and most recently back to New Haven as corporation counsel from 2015 to the end of 2019, when Democratic Mayor Toni Harp lost her bid for re-election, putting John out of a job. But John has plenty to keep him occupied, including daughter Anika, star in the 2006 Academy Award-winning film Dreamgirls, and son Khari, who owns a gymnasium in Taylor, Texas. John enjoys his grandchildren and at least two books a week, especially espionage thrillers by Ben Coes and the Jack Reacher adventure series by British author Lee Child.
Paul Howell writes novels in retirement, but his first book, Montreal Olympics: An Insider’s View of Organizing a Self-financing Games (McGill-Queens, 2009) derives in large part from his experience as technology consultant to the 1976 games, which helped launch him on a career in computers and communications—not what he expected when he enrolled at Columbia for graduate work in German literature. Paul studied in Munich, Germany, and when he, wife Betty, and son Matthias returned to New York, he took a job in computers at Prudential. The rest is history. The family moved for another computer assignment to Montreal, where Paul got recruited for the Olympics.
Michael Hirschenson, retired French arts professor and museum administrator, was reported in January as having recently bicycled 121 miles in the Pacific Northwest when the correct number was 191. This past winter he visited the Galápagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador.
Join classmates for “Tanglewood on Parade,” a ’63 mini-reunion July 27-28 featuring the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestras performing Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with fireworks. Contact Steve Kurland, stkurland@aol.com, (508) 864-7979.
Polly Seymour penned a thank you and tribute to the class in memory of Dean Thad, who died last October, that appears in the March issue of the class of 63 newsletter, which you can read on the class website.
I regret to report the deaths of Dave Elders, Joe Connors, and Sherman Bendalin. Obituaries of classmates may be found in the magazine online edition, authored by class necrologist Tige Harris.
—Harry Zlokower, 190 Amity St., Brooklyn, NY 11201; (917) 541-8162; harry@zlokower.com