Class Notes

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Find your class

• 1940-1949
• 1950-1959
• 1960-1969
• 1970-1979
• 1980-1989
• 1990-1999
• 2000-2009
• 2010-2019
• Losses

  1940-1949

• Rae Miller ’49, age 97, was surprised and honored to be selected to serve as Grand Marshall for the parade at Beloiter Days last fall. She is one of 38 remaining members of the class of 1949. When she came to Beloit College in 1945, she lived in Chapin Hall, where students then slept on cots with straw mattresses. When the mattresses became compacted, she recalls that she and her roommate would slide down the stairs on their mattresses to loosen them up.

  1950-1959

• Douglas B. Bailey ’59 received the 2025 Alaska Bar Foundation Jay Rabinowitz Public Service Award, given each year to an individual whose life work has demonstrated a commitment to public service in the State of Alaska. Doug is the former attorney general and represented the state during the Exxon Valdez oil spill. During 60 years of practice, he served clients from Ketchikan to Kaktovik, and helped Alaskans from all walks of life, many times for little or no remuneration. His service centered on his ethics of fair treatment, racial justice, and compassion. The award is funded through gifts from the public in honor of the late Alaska Supreme Court Justice Jay Rabinowitz. 

  1960-1969

• Polly Surr Wolfe ’65, Michael Wolfe ’65, and Henry Eckstein ’65 met for lunch last March in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
• John Thorn ’68 is in his 15th year as Major League Baseball’s official historian.

  1970-1979

Phil Erickson ’77, Andy Persily ’76, Tom Dickinson ’73, Ann Tutundjian ’76, Penny Hauffe, and Lesley Persily.

Dot Stoops Mason ’72 with her grandson.

Steven S. Hall ’73 and a snake friend.
Credit: Mindy Levine

Tom Hurster ’74

• Dominick Maino ’72, emeritus professor at the Illinois College of Optometry/Illinois Eye Institute, is part of a team at Rush University and Harvard University that is writing a scoping review of cannabis use by senior citizens with chronic pain.
• Dot Stoops Mason ’72, a Spanish major at Beloit, left teaching in 1978 to work in radiation safety at nuclear power plants. After becoming a single parent in the mid-1980s, she luckily found a job near her parents in New England. She recently left her radiation safety career to enjoy her family, which includes a great-grandson born last December. Her hobbies are gardening, birding, and genealogy.
• When the stars properly aligned, a few Beloiters, including Tom Dickinson ’73, Andy Persily ’76, Ann Tutundjian ’76, and Phil Erickson ’77, descended upon the Hauffe-Erickson residence and sculpture garden in Leesburg, Virginia.
• Stephen S. Hall ’73 published his seventh book, Slither: How Nature’s Most Maligned Creatures Illuminate Our World, in April. As the title suggests, it’s about snakes. More specifically, it’s about recent scientific research on snakes, and also diversity (evolutionary and sociological), loathing, otherness, ancient reverence for serpents, and modern considerations about conservation. The book received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly.
• Tom Hurster ’74, MSS, LCSW, CGP, AGPA-F, was one of the recipients of the 2025 Harold S. Bernard Group Psychotherapy Training Award from the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA). His professional focus and involvement continues to be with the Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research (since 2002), the Benchmark School in Media, Pennsylvania (since 1981), and his private psychotherapy practice working primarily with youth. He and his colleagues have made a profound impact within the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA), contributing to the professional community by promoting teaching, training, supervision, mentoring, and writing about group psychotherapy for children and adolescents. This prestigious award is presented annually to individuals or organizations whose work in group training and/or education elevates the practice of group psychotherapy. Mr. Hurster and his fellow recipients received this honor in March at the AGPA Connect 2025 conference in San Francisco.
• Rob Miller ’74 was named Division 1 Coach of the Year by The Boston Globe for the second straight year. He led the Wellesley High School Girls tennis team to a second straight Massachusetts state title this year with an undefeated 24-0 record.

  1980-1989

• Tamara Bray ’80 has published a new book with University of Texas Press, Objects of Empire, that represents the culmination of research on Inca ceramics that she has been engaged in for the past 30 years. She’s a professor of anthropology at Wayne State University, where she’s been since 1995. She is looking to retire from teaching next year. She remembers with fondness the anthropology department at Beloit from where she launched what has been a great career.
• Dave Bogenschultz ’80, Rich Sheinberg ’80, Barb Gunville Bogenschultz ’80 and Sally Buell Sheinberg ’81 basked in the sun at Carpinteria State Beach in Southern California on March 8, 2025. Rich got bonus points for wearing his Beloit hoodie.
• The novel Cyan Magenta Yellow Black by Kevin Fenton ’81 won the 2024 Big Moose Prize, and will be published in September by Black Lawrence Press.
• Jeff Van Hulle ’82 reports that his third career has been his most satisfying. He is an assistant to the instructors of the masters program in prosthetics at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Nearly half the students at CSU-DH, one of the most ethnically and economically diverse universities in the west, are the first in their families to go to college. The assistant to the instructors serves as the students’ first live, upper-extremity patient. During the prosthetic build, Jeff shares his diversity experiences and the kindness, compassion, and understanding bedside manner he received for years from his prosthetist, the late Herb Schulze, of Rockford, Illinois.
• Archaeologist Mark Warner ’84, with chemist Ray von Wandruszka, received the Award for Excellence in Collections-Based Research and Education at the Society for American Archaeology conference in Denver this year. Their project of nearly 20 years at the University of Idaho provides free testing of samples from historic bottles, fabrics, gunpowder, tin cans, slag, wood, and fillings in human teeth. The project was originally developed as an opportunity for students to gain laboratory experience by participating from beginning to end, from the testing to the final reports. The project encompasses the entire country, exposing students to historical materials from a wide range of regions, expanding their knowledge of historic archaeology. They are always looking for samples to test.
• Patrick Cornbill ’88 and Evan Howell ’89 were among the crowd of old fans who attended the sold-out reunion concert of 1980s Coughy Haus favorites Joey Miserable and the Worms at the Cutting Room in New York City. It was the band’s first show in over 35 years.
• The latest book of fiction by Rob Davidson ’89, Welcome Back to the World, received the 2025 National Indie Excellence Award for Short Stories.

  1990-1999

• Daniel O’Donnell ’94 has been working in the labor union movement for most of his adult life. He also does cinema work as a sound recordist, actor, subtitle translator, editor, and occasional director of photography.

  2000-2009

• Christopher Longoria ’02 became one of the rare bartender recipients of a Michelin star in the U.S., receiving the award on June 26 at the Michelin Guide California ceremony in Sacramento. He leads the bar team at Eylan, an Indian restaurant in Silicon Valley that serves dishes on a wood-fired grill using local ingredients. He got his start serving cocktails in the basement of Blaisdell.
• The beloved Beloit student band, The Quick & Dirties, reunited to perform at Detroit’s Gem Theater in February for Amy Elliott Bragg’s parents’ combined 150th birthday sock hop. Beloiters in attendance included Amy Elliott Bragg ’06, Liz Keuler ’06, Andrew Falk ’06, groupie and Music House roommate Celeste Baldassare ’09, Joe White ’06, Carl Germain ’08, Emmy Hall Ganos ’06, and Sarah Huff Frank ’06.
• Johanna Heilman Lerma ’06 and Eli Wykell ’06 had daughters in the same 2nd grade class in Takoma Park, Maryland, pictured at the 2nd grade promotion ceremony.
• Visions of Financial Order: National Institutions and the Development of Banking Regulation by Kim Pernell ’07 received Honorable Mention for the Mary Douglas Book Award, Culture section of the American Sociological Association. The book is part of the Princeton University Press series Princeton Studies in Global and Comparative Sociology.
• Paige Stratemeyer Speers ’07 is a contributing author to the recently published anthology, Through the Fire: Women’s Stories of Courage and Resiliency.
• On May 31, Jessica Fujan ’08, Breja Gunnison ’08, Julie Heney ’10, Tyler McGaughey ’10, Mark Conway ’15 and Brigid Parker ’25 converged on Quimby’s Books in Chicago to celebrate the launch of Forage Like a Bear, a new book by Beloit faculty members Chris Fink and John Porcellino.
• Beloiters reunited in Washington, D.C. to celebrate Greg Rankin ’08 and his graduation from Marymount University, where he earned his doctorate in Educational Leadership and Organizational Innovation. Among those in attendance were Diane Lichtenstein, emerita professor of English and Critical Identity Studies; Brienne Adams ’08, assistant professor of Black Studies at Georgetown University; and Alana Coats Rankin ’05, National Board Certified Teacher at Wapato High School in Wapato, Washington.

  2010-2019

• Joe Davis ’10 won a Sports Emmy award for his national sports broadcasting work days after addressing Beloit College’s class of 2025 as commencement speaker. He was the only baseball play-by-play announcer nominated for the Outstanding Personality/Play-by-Play Award.
• John Henry Erikson ’10 and Max Maiken ’10 visited Chris Brown ’10 in Seattle last May to meet Chris’ son, Aiden (future member of the class of 2046).
• Athiththan Selvendran ’14 was named chief creative officer at The Virgil Abloh Foundation in April. Athi’s new role underscores his significant creative influence and leadership within the foundation. The Virgil Abloh Foundation is an organization devoted to philanthropy and education in the creative realm. With a mission to honor Virgil Abloh’s contributions to various industries, the foundation aims to foster systemic change by creating equitable opportunities for underrepresented groups in the creative field. This transition marks a new phase for the organization as it continues its mission of philanthropy and innovation.
• Kyndall White ’17 and Geoffrey Stevens ’17 married on April 13, 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona. They celebrated their wedding surrounded by family, friends, and a few familiar faces from Beloit College, including Jessica Rardin ’13, Isaiah Turner-Wyatt ’16, Thorin Blitz ’16, Dave Kovarik ’16, Patrick Fraser ’17, and Professor of English Chris Fink.

Losses

Recognizing members of the Beloit College community we have lost.