Liz Ryan (Cole)

This is an attempt to reply to Reed Cosper's post 

I would like to simply be able to say "what a good idea"  but let's see where this appears. LOL. liz

Donald Salisbury

I of course remember Tom Ukena well - and we remain facebook friends. He was a freshman roommate. And gosh, I had planned to come to the cluster reunion but I have a conflict. I would have much enjoyed reconnecting - but fortunately that's nowadays possible electronically!

Ralph Shapira

Reunion Music Fest

Friday 9 PM

Cat In The Cream Coffee House

180 W Lorain St (inside Hales Annex)

On Friday night, September 29th of our reunion weekend, our class will entertain one another at a Music Fest.  I’m very excited that we will begin with a group sing of the moving choral piece “The Road Home” by Stephen Paulus.  Everyone is welcome to join the chorus.  It will be led by Professor Gregory Ristow of the Conservatory, who will bring a quartet of his current students to assist us.  Youtube has the sheet music and several beautiful performances of the piece; the lyrics are shown below.

After the group sing, other classmates will be welcomed to sing, play or dance for us.  I’m soliciting any and all of you to take a turn at the mic.   As I said in my last posting:  “Our group will doubtless include professional musicians, and it will be a special treat to hear from them. But rank amateurs are equally welcome and encouraged to give us a show. The only point is to have fun. I'm confident that each performer will be enthusiastically welcomed and applauded, whatever their skill level at our advanced age may prove to be.”

So far we have but three volunteers:  Rich Zitrin, Stephen Wagner and me.  I hope there will be more.  Please send me an email at ralphjshapira@gmail.com if you’d like to perform.

The Road Home

By Stephen Paulus

Tell me, where is the road
I can call my own
That I left, that I lost
So long ago?
All these years I have wandered
Oh, when will I know
There's a way, there's a road
That will lead me home

After wind, after rain
When the dark is done
As I wake from a dream
In the gold of day
Through the air there's a calling
From far away
There's a voice I can hear
That will lead me home

Rise up, follow me
Come away, is the call
With the love in your heart
As the only song
There is no such beauty
As where you belong
Rise up, follow me
I will lead you home

Richard Zitrin

Yeah, Baby!

I'm going to try to get my atrophied singing voice back in good enough shape to play two songs I wrote in the early 1970's, when I dropped out of law school and was singing and playing the piano in the Village in NYC. (Then I made a wrong turn and went back to school. Ah, well....)

I figure at our age, how bad can I screw up if I'm still standing - er, sitting at the piano and breathing - at the end of the damn thing!

- Rich

Shirley Smith (Kirsten)

I have been ravaged by a particularly virulent flea here in Berkeley Ca.. that resembles in behavior a Tonga Penetrans flea or Jigger, because it bites and burrows beneath my skin--like a tick.. leaves eggs on skin and flea dirt--bucca like impetigo lesions, blisters, plaque. It is confounding docs at Kaiser. I have head to toe invasion. Cat was successfully treated with Revolution Plus. I am looking for some heavyweights in the field to reach out to.. shirley_kirsten@yahoo.com  Has become an emergency situation. I have scanned the internet and even emailed entomologists at UC Davis with pics of fleas I have trapped in Dawn Dish Detergent. I have graphic full body pics of the bites.. etc. Of real concern to be in the right hands.  Thanks Shirley Smith Kirsten, piano. And since I am in Berkeley, one would think there are some Obies around to consult.

Elizabeth Keys (Jaffer)

With all the talk about the movie Oppenheimer, I remembered that Toni Oppenheimer, his daughter, was at Oberlin while we were. She was class of 1966. I didn't know her but I knew of her.  Here is a bit of biography about her sad life: https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/profile/toni-oppenheimer/

Dick Hobby

Elizabeth:

     Thank you for calling my attention to Toni Oppenheimer and her tragic life and suicide.  I went to the link you included and read it.

     I did not know Toni Oppenheimer.  Over the years I have thought about the fact that I was at Oberlin for four years and yet I am sure I got to know only a small percentage of the students.  So many bright interesting people there so it seems unfortunate not to know ALL of them!

      Anyway thanks for the link.

      Before going would like to recommend three films that relate to what Robert Oppenheimer unleashed with the atomic bomb:

Hiroshima Mon Amour    by Alain Resnais

Black Rain    with Michael Douglas

Kiss Me Deadly     from the novel by Mickey Spillane

Dick Hobby     '67

Ralph Shapira

ACCOMPANIMENT AVAILABLE FOR 9/29 CLUSTER MUSICAL EVENT

Many of you who might otherwise enjoy performing at our cluster’s musical event on 9/29 may have been discouraged by assuming you would have no band or instrumental accompaniment.  I can solve that problem for you.

Using a free app called Moises, I (you) can download any song from ITunes (or its non-apple equivalent) and break it into its constituent tracks, including vocal, guitar, piano, drums, etc.  Then I (you) can suppress (for example) the vocal track, which enables me (you) to sing the song with its full musical accompaniment.  You’re in effect creating your own karaoke version of the song.  That’s the way I’m going to sing my songs at our event, playing the “karaoke” version from my Iphone through the venue’s audio system using Bluetooth.

You needn’t worry about doing this for yourself — I’m willing to do it for you.  Just let me know what song you want to perform, and I will handle downloading it into Moises and playing it for you when you take the stage at the event.  Unlike a real karaoke system, the lyrics won’t be displayed, so you’ll either have to print them out and bring them with you, or memorize them.  But I recommend downloading the Moises app and the song yourself so you can practice.  ITunes charges about a buck for a song, I assume likewise with its non-apple equivalent.

Hopefully this will entice more of you to perform — right now there are only three individual performers to follow the group sing, which will kick off the evening at around 9 pm.

Richard Zitrin

Thanks, Ralph. What a great service! I hope more people will join in.
 

Ted Morgan

Re. Economic Diversity at Oberlin -

The New York Times published a table titled "The Top US Colleges with the Greatest Economic Diversity (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/09/07/magazine/college-access-index.html).  Interestingly, Oberlin ranked an embarassing 283rd with only 8% of first-year students receiving Pell Grants (the measure of economic need).

Ted
 

Stephen Wagner

Friday, September 8, 2023

Classmates,

     Unfortrunately, I have decided that I really should not attend the Oberlin reunion this Fall.  My wife continues to have some serious medical isses, though there has been some improvement.  I have a lot of work to do here at home and in a storage area, getting rid of a lot of excess "stuff", cleaning and organizing, partly to maintain "domestic tranquility".  Also, I have unpaid volunteer writing I need to get done by noon on September 22.

     The Amtrak schedules between Massachusetts and northeastern Ohio remain brutal; and, although I've managed to drive betrween my home in Mayanrd and nortwestern Vermont successfully and do plan to drive   roundtrip to and from Oneonta, NY, for a meeting in mid-October, driving to and from Oberlin or Cleveland would take considerably longer.  And the classmates I'd most like to see do not plana to attend.

     I had hoped to revise teh "Revolutionary Operetta" I had written (with original words set to very old tunes) for the Wayland (Mass.)  public schools sthat was performed in 1975.  I still think it's not as frivolous than the succesful musical 1776 and much more accurate historically than the deservedly popular Hamilton.  However, I really ought to add songs focusing on women and on "nonwhite" Americans in the Revolutionary period; and I most likely would not be able to do that before the reunion.

     If anyone would like to see what I've been able to recover from what I wrote decades ago, I could mail or email copies.  At some point I might. be able to record myself singing some or all of them.  But I suspect the performances at the concert at the reunion will have to be done live.

     I have already sent an apology to Ralph Shapira for my not coming to the reunion as well as thanks to him for the great work he has done in arranging for the concert.

Stephen T. (Steve) Wagner, gerhunpolam1@gmail.com

Richard Apling

Here's screen shot of what Ted Morgan reported from the NYT. I think this should be a topic of conversation with the powers-that-be during the cluster reunion.

Inline Image Not Displayed

Richard Apling

My screen shot didn't come through. Here is a link to the NYT article:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/09/07/magazine/college-access-index.html

Frank Duhl

I had planned to be at the reunion, but I have to cancel. Just after the reunion, I am going to DC to visit a friend who has COPD and is very vulnerable to Covid. Since numbers of infections are rising, I can't take a chance on getting infected at Oberlin and bringing it to her. I will miss seeing people at the reunion and hope that those of you who are there stay healthy and enjoy seeing each other. 
I encourage the organizers of this reunion and the College to consider precautions against this gathering becoming a spreading event for this virus. 
 

Gregory Pyke

This was written in May 2022 and I never saw Paul Safyan's reply requesting that I post it here, not just on my profile. Sorry it is out of time context but...

Thank you, Paul. It is hard to imagine that those faculty most affected by the health insurance and pay issues will sit on their hands until trustees meet next July and January to begin discussions. Anbar's reliance on the absence of large-scale faculty departure could be a positive but might also be a measure of the times in higher ed generally. Are good faculty positions open at comparable institutions which our faculty are ignoring to stay near Tappan Square? If not, if they are staying because they can't go elsewhere, the future is a depressing picture for them and for their students. Our gift may only be a token one-time drop in the bucket but what it says could matter. It's no surprise that faculty and staff compensation are the lion's share of the budget--they should be. But what percent is administrative compensation and at what rate has it grown? What would a shift of 1 or 2 percentage points add to faculty/staff?

Ralph Shapira

Here's a horrifying story about Oberlin.  I'm very upset by the college's immoral and inexcusable conduct.  https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2023/10/03/oberlin-makes-another-terrible-move-refusing-to-give-back-artwork-stolen-by-the-nazis-from-a-jew/

Liz Ryan (Cole)

In light of the college's desire to do a better job at communication as expressed last weekend in a forum held during Homecoming weekend I wonder if Oberlin will be willing to explain, or even better, return the art work and explain. 

Steven Katz

Stephanie Koenig

Thanks for alerting us to this, Ralph.  Rather than contribute this year, I will write a letter objecting to this egregious behavior.

Judith Klavans

Do we have any idea what could be the Allen Art Museum's resistance to relinquishing this very beautiful work of art (is it yet again.... dare I say it? All about the money?)

I was sorry not to be at the reunion but would value hearing from those of you who were there?  How did being far from campus impact interactions (which is the main reason to go, imho)? 

Judy

Peter Griswold

I thoroughly enjoyed the cluster reunion.  Many thanks to Rich Zitrin, Mark Jaffee, Ted Guest, Walt Galloway, Amy Rothstein, Lee Drickamer, Stephannie Kaza, Aaron Levin, Liz Keys, Penny Zoldbrod, Eve Tal and Ralph Shapira for organizing/moderating events (sorry if I left anyone out).  The downside of having to stay off campus was offset, in my opinion, by the opportunity to visit classes and see a fully-functioning campus with current students, faculty and staff.  About 35 people from our class attended.  I hope that the change in accommodations didn't keep classmates away.  The memorial Service was very moving, not only for the number of classmates we have lost (approximately 130), but also hearing the names of classmates who passed early, either in their 20's, 30's, 40's or 50's.  When the approximately 240 classmates who are listed as "Missing" on our class site are added to those who have passed, that brings a total of about 370 classmates missing or gone from that young and eager group who first gathered on the campus on a bright day in September 1964.  . 

Daniel Miller

Reading Ralph's link to an article about a drawing stolen by the Nazis, I got the feeling that not everything was stated.  I wonder if, as Liz says, there is more to the situation and if someone in the interest of transparency would explain what is going on.

Listening to the chair of the trustees dance round the question of what was changed in dropping the faculty from control of the college without ever actually answering the question, I would need to hear several different takes on the situation to know what was going on.

Jean Poppei (Eisenberg)

I believe you will find that the Allen, in fact, did nothing wrong and that it was included with some museums where it was an issue.  Let's relax folks before we make judgements and be open to hearing more.  

Peter Griswold

Given the age of the Finney Compact(1835), it would seem, at least to me, ithere would be a need of some re-examination.  Colleges have become far more complicated entities since OC was founded.  In a litigious world, colleges need a more formal decision-making structure so that it is clear where the authority and the responsibility lies.  Someone (I believe it was Professor Miyake) made the point that the change was necessary in case Oberlin was sued (again).  I doubt that many other colleges and universities have an arrangement similiar to that of the Finney Compact.  At my own university, it was repetedly emphasized that the Faculty Senate was an advisory body.  

Steven Katz