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RESPONSES - 2008

Update from Ariel Loftus
I am back after the stroke and teaching full time at Wichita State University in the History Department. I can now walk with a small cane. My husband Gregg of 10 years (15 if you count our stay in canada ), has updated the Professor Loftus blog.

Best,
Ariel

Ariel Loftus, PhD
Associate Professor, Ancient History
Department of History
Box 45
Wichita State University
Wichita, KS 67208-0045

RESPONSES - 2007

Jim O'Hara - Ph.D. 1988, Classical Studies
I have a new book: Inconsistency in Roman Epic: Studies in Catullus, Lucretius, Vergil, Ovid and Lucan.

Caroline Gabe - B.A. 2003, Classical Archaeology Minor
I am currently attending graduate school at the University of New Mexico.

Victoria (Hammer) Brouillette - B.A. 1966, Classical Studies
I am currently tutoring Latin to six students in suburban Minneapolis: bringing Latin back to Minnesota one student at a time. I have several students who are not taking Latin in school, but who still want to learn it.

James LaForest - B.A. 1991, Latin Language and Literature
After working in academic publishing for several years, I undertook a program in library and information science, receiving my MLIS from Dominican University in 2005. Currently, I am working on a second masters in Jewish Studies from the Spertus Institute in Chicago. My professional interests include Jewish Studies, Classics, and preservation/conservation. I currently review new titles for the Association of Jewish Libraries newsletter and for Choice. I am working for Cornell Libraries as a temporary professsional developing an NEH proposal for a digization initiative as my partner finishes law school.

RESPONSES - 2006

Margaret Thompson - ABD 1970, Classical Studies
I am at present in South Carolina making waves (wine-dark waves), in the Foothills of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, on an Army Corps of Engineers lake and on a miniature scale, with my little renaissance in the teaching of Latin at Clemson University. Clemson is a land grant institution, with strength in agriculture and engineering and almost no history of a Classics curriculum. My personal Odyssey led me from The University of Michigan Law School, J.D. 1984, to a rewarding adventure in Environmental Law. A staff attorney with U.S. EPA, Region II in the New York City office from 1984-1988, I found an affinity with the interface of law with science and technology, and developed an expertise in federal and state pollution control law and policy. I cleaned up New Jersey Superfund sites! After further adventures in the world of big-business, big-firm practice in Manhattan, I fled to South Carolina and family, where I found a rewarding niche teaching at Clemson University. Here I am a Lecturer in Environmental Science, Law & Policy, with field trip opportunities in the Natural Resources side of environmental policy that balance the discouraging truths in the Pollution side. I thrive among engineers and I thoroughly enjoy my work with very bright students in a multidisciplinary program. I was introduced to two others at Clemson who, like me, found something else to do in the late 1970s, with the changing job market for Classicists at that time and have enjoyed -- immensely -- reading Herodotus with them in the Fall and Livy in the Spring semesters. Then I was asked to resuscitate Latin at Clemson in the summer of 2005; the Languages Department has a Chair who loves Latin, but not a budget, and so the Latin curriculum is summer school only. Now I also teach Latin to the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students at the Clemson Montessori School, and I am amazed and very happy about this turn of events. I look forward to continued contact with Michigan Classics and I thank the memory of Roger Pack, an unforgettable teacher of Latin Prose Composition, and the Pack Lectures in Ann Arbor for the resumption of contact in recent years. I am proud to know of recent developments at Michigan in the Department and look forward to the future. It is a good time for a renais! sance in interest in the Greek and Roman Classics and I am thrilled to have found a way to join in the trend.

Malcolm Gilchrist - B.A. 2004, Classical Civilization
Currently attaining graduate certification in Secondary Social Studies at Indiana University's School of Education. Married August 13, 2005 to Corinne Terese Welch (UofM Class of 2004, BA Political Science) who is now a second year law student at IU. Bloomington is a nice city, kind of like Ann Arbor's little sister but without the traffic problems.

Steven Roach - B.A. 1983, Classical Languages and Literatures
After graduation, I attended Michigan Law School, receiving a J.D. in 1986. Deb and I have been married for 20 years, and have three children. I have high hopes that at least one will decide that studying a dead language can provide as much enjoyment as studying foreign languages. I am a senior partner with Miller Canfield, and serve as the group leader for the Financial Institutions Group.

Joshua Ahsoak - B.A. 2002, Classical Civilization
Graduated from Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, New York, NY 1/1/06. Currently employed at DeLisio, Moran, Geraghty & Zobel P.C. in Anchorage, AK.

Mark Petrini - Ph.D. 1987, Classical Languages and Literatures
I taught classics at Wellesley College and Columbia University until 1996. I graduated from Columbia medical school in 2000, and I will complete a dual residency in medicine/psychiatry in June, 2006, then begin working at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

RESPONSES - 2005

Rebecca Bell - B.A. 2004, CLassical Archaeology
I am currently in my first year of law school at the University of Chicago. My decision to pursue a career in law is a direct result of the exposure my undergraduate studies gave me into the world of ethics, museum and art law. My ultimate goal is to work as general counsel for a museum or in some other aspect of antiquities law.

Leonard Weinstein - M.A. 1970, Latin
Latin teacher Edgemont Jr-Sr High School, Scarsdale NY (retired)

Jessica Weintritt - B.A. 2004, Classical Languages and Literatures
Attending University of Houston Law Center, Fall 2005

Josh Hammond - B.A. 1999, Classical Languages and Literatures
After graduation I went to flight school, and from there flew the F-14 for 2 years and currently fly the F-18 as a flight instructor. Still keeping up with both Latin and Greek on my own and am very slowly trying to learn Koine. In case you were wondering, this is a real biography.

Anthony Cornish - B.A. 2003, Latin and Classical Archaeology
I am married and live in a house in Milan, MI. I have worked for Edward Jones as a Financial Advisor for one year now and my wife attends Uof M dental school. I loved my years in the "classics hallway" I have very fond memories of many professors and other faculty. It was probably some of the best years of my whole life.

Alexander Loney - B.A. 2004, Classical Languages and Literatures
Enrolled at Duke Univeristy in a Ph.D. program in Classics.

Kellie Hobbs - B.A. 1984, Classical Languages and Literatures
I received an MA in Linguistics from UC Berkeley, then decided I needed to learn a trade, so I took up computer programming. I am now a programmer in the Communications and Network Services department at UC Berkeley, writing software that helps to manage the campus network (certainly something I never imagined I would be doing!)

Michael O'Neill - B.A. 1977, Latin
Practicing civil rights law in New York City. Semper ubi, Sub ubi!

Annie Kelly (Lutes) - B.A. 2003, Classical Archaeology
I'm currently working on my M.A. in Near Eastern and Islamic studies at the University of Arizona. I hope to either work for the U.S. government or in perhaps in Museum Studies. I haven't quite narrowed down what I want to do yet! I'll be teaching Ancient Civilizations of the Near East and Middle Eastern Humanities for my department over summer 2005.

Daniel D. Wilson - B.A. 1973, Greek and M.A.T. 1976, Latin Teaching
Into 3rd 2nd year term as secretary to Resident Council - also living leader had 5th annual St. Patrick's Day poem in newsletter "To St. Patrick" - I am the editor. I joined Confraternity of St. Gregory's Abby 2005, Three Rivers, MI.

Michael Campbell - M.A. 1979
Been working for Siemens medical as field service engineer for the last 20+ years.

Susan Lapins (Kohler) - B.A. 1971
Our son - Alexander - received a Masters degree from the University of Michigan School of Music in April 2002.

Erin Crain - B.A. 2000, Latin Teaching Certificate
Wake County in North Carolina is a great place to be teaching and will be looking for more Latin teachers very soon. I'm having a great (and tiring) time here building my own Latin course. If you might be interested in information, please feel free to contact me.

Mike Gallizzi - 2003, Minor in Classical Archaeology
I have entered the M.S./MD program in Chicago

Paul Schapira - B.A. 1990, Latin Literature
Received an MBA, Carnegie Mellon University, 1992
I am Vice President at AlixPartners, LLC, reporting directly to the firm's Chairman, Jay Alix; AlixPartners, LLC is the industry standard in providing financial and operational advisory services to underperforming, troubled, and distressed companies. Personal: Married nearly eight years with two children (5 and 2 1/2) and third child due in late February 2005

RESPONSES - 2004

Richard Louis Galant - B.A. 1967 in Latin
Received an A.M. University of Michigan from the School of Education (Guidance & Counseling) & Ph.D. University of Michigan from the School of Education (Student Personnel Services in Higher Education)

Mary Frances Williams - M.A. 1984
I recently revisited Ann Arbor in May 2004 to present a paper at the Association of Ancient Historians annual meeting. My 25th publication was just accepted (on Posidippus), and I'll be giving a paper at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in March 2005.

Phillip Horky - B.A. 2000, Minor in Latin
Received an AM Latin, University of Chicago, 2002
I have recently completed qualifying examinations for my PhD in Classical Philology at the University of Southern California. In January 2005, I plan to begin working on my doctoral dissertation, which will examine the relationship between semiotics and the female with particular attention to Helen of Troy. Currently I am also researching affect and psychosomatics in Classical Greek rhetoric, drama, and philosophy.

R. Bruce Hitchner - Ph.D. 1982
I was appointed Professor and Chair of the Classics Department at Tufts University in September 2003.

Laurel Flentye - B.A. 1982 in Classical Archaeology
Recieved a second B.A. in Classical Archaeology, 1984 from Universtiy of Cambridge; an M.A. from Cambridge in 1989; am presently a doctoral candidate in Egyptian Art and Archaeology, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
I recently participated in the Old Kingdom Art and Archaeology Conference in Prague in June of 2004. During the conference, I presented a paper on my research at Giza. Also, I recently attended the ninth International Congress of Egyptologists in Grenoble, France where I also presented a paper on my research at Giza.

Mark Whitters - M.A. 1990 in Greek
Received an MA, U of Mn, 1994 (Classics and Near Eastern Studies) PhD, The Catholic University of America, 1999 (Biblical Studies). I was selected as "Regional Scholar of the Year" for this year by the Society of Biblical Literature. The award is based on previous publishing and on a submission of a scholarly paper. I can send you the blurb from the program of the upcoming (November) convention if you are interested. It gives the areas of my research and my venue of teaching (History and Philosophy, EMU, currently).

Richard Louis Galant - B.A. 1967 in Latin
Recieved A.M. University of Michigan from the School of Education (Guidance & Counseling) & Ph.D. University of Michigan from the School of Education (Student Personnel Services in Higher Education)

Andrei Nemoianu - B.A. 1999 in Classical Languages
Received an MD from UM in 2003. I am in a psychiatry residency in Pittsburgh.

Hilary Nader (Malspeis) - B.A. Classical Studies
Received an M.A. Classics, '93, University of Southern California
I am currently beginning my 12th year teaching Latin at Westridge School, a 4-12 all-girls private preparatory school in Pasadena, Ca. After I left grad school at USC, all I really wanted to do was teach in the secondary school realm...from where do you think colleges get their potential Classics majors? We have a strong Latin program that's usually referred to as 'the weird cult' by the other language students as school. We attend state conferences regularly. It's overwhelming to see over 1,000 screaming Latin students from california packed into a gymnasium. I teach 8th elementary Latin, Intermediate (Caesar, Cicero, Ovid), Advanced Placement Virgil, and Advanced Placement Catullus/Horace. It's terrific! I can't believe they pay me to do this! Here's my website: http://64.172.206.2/Internet/Academics/Coursesonline/MCL/Latin/Latinindex.htm
I would like to thank the UM Classics Department for such great inspiration while I was there as an undergrad, especially Prof. Witke, Prof. Knudsvig (fondly remembered), and Ellen Bauerle, who was my Latin T.A. when I first got to UM. Thank you all so much for such a great solid foundation. One of my former students at Westridge is now starting her sophomore year at UM, and she loves it! (Emily Green) Also, I have put all over my Latin classroom and bulletin boards the fantastic posters you created a couple of years ago (Some day you'll be ancient, too, etc.). When are you making more?

Marisa Horowitz Jaffe - B.A. 1998 in Classical Archaeology
After UM, I received my Master's in Museum and Art Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Following Harvard, I lived in Thailand for a year teaching English to Buddhist Monks. I then moved to New York and began working at the New York State Council on the Arts, a state granting agency which funds non-profit art organizations. However, last week I began working at the Museum of Modern Art as a Grants Officer in the Development Department.
My professional goal was to always work in a museum, and I am thrilled to finally be in the field. I hope everyone I graduated with is doing well and fulfilling their dreams, too!

Andrew S. Becker - B.A. 1982 in Classical Languages and Literatures
Pogue Fellowship, Ph.D. in Classical Studies, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Now the Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Virginia Tech. Won the William Wine Award for Innovation in Teaching (2003), and three certificates of Teaching Excellence. Author of a book on Homer's Illiad, articles on Greek and Latin verse. Married to a Classicist, Trudy Harrington; 3 children (twin boys born 1989, daughter born 1994). Directors (wife and self) of study abroad programs at Virginia Tech's Center for European Studies and Architecture in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland (6 miles north of Como, Italy).

Josh Ward - M.A. 1999
Living in Brooklyn, working in documentary film and public radio.

Jennifer Johnston - B.A. 1998 in Classical Archaeology
Received a Master of Arts in Arts Adminstration, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Worked as an exhibition developer at the Museum of Science and Industry and The Field Museum, both in Chicago. Currently, I am president of MetaArts, a for-profit company that specializes in museum consulting, exhibition design and development, educational publishing, and creative consultancy. I live in Chicago and have a daughter who is eight.

Fiona Greenland - B.A. 1998
Since graduating from Michigan in 1998, I have enjoyed living, studying and working in Oxford, England. After completing my doctoral degree in Classical Archaeology at Oxford University, I was hired as Assistant Curator at the Cast Gallery of the Ashmolean Museum (the main museum of Oxford University and the oldest public museum in England). I enjoy very much my curatorial and research duties and also keep up a full roster of undergraduate teaching. This is a wonderful community in which to work and live, particularly with a lovely husband (Will) and our baby boy, Alasdair, who was born on Dec. 24, 2003.

Kenneth Heskett - B.A. 2000
The University of Michigan's Information Techology Division hired me in 2000 as Manager of the Campus Computing Sites Rovers (mobile computer technicians). I have taken college classes at WCC and HFCC to shore up my mathematics in preparation for pursuing a Masters Degree. I am married to Jennifer Heskett a high school science teacher and we have a son named Miles who was born in 2003. We are expecting another child in early 2005.

Eleanor Pollack (Fruechtenicht) - B.A. 1997
Completed a Post-Bac (Classics) University of Pennsylvania MA (Classics) University of California, Santa Barbara - I teach Latin (including AP) at Stuart Hall High School in San Francisco. I am looking forward to taking a student group to Rome next summer.

RESPONSES - 2003

Judson Herrman – B.A. 1992
I’m currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics at Bowdoin College.

Laura McGinn – B.A. 1991 in Latin and Classical Archaeology
After graduating from New York Law School in 1995, I served as an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County (Brooklyn) New York and thereafter became an associate with Gordon & Forsyth, LLP, a law firm that specializes in international aviation and products liability law. In October 2002, I began a sabbatical from the practice of law when I gave birth to our twins, Megan and Brian. We happily reside in our hometown, New York City.

Hermann S. Schibli – Ph.D. 1984
Visiting Professor of Classics, Unviersität Pussau, Germany
Hierocles of Alexandria (Oxford 2002)

Mae J. Smethurst – Ph.D. 1968
Teaching Classics at the University of Pittsburgh. Last year, 2002: I took part in and gave a lecture at the Getty Museum Symposium on the Performance of Greek and Roman Drama. My article on Ninagawa’s Medea appeared in AJP. I was awarded the United States – Japan Friendship Commission for translation of medieval Japanese literature. The book, Dramatic Representations of Filial Piety (Cornell).

Nanette Stocky O’Connor – B.A. 1976 in Classical Archaeology, M.L.S. 1978
Presently, a Vice President of Campbell – Ewald Advertising and a corporate librarian.

RESPONSES - 2002

Daniel Berman - B.A. 1994
I'm currently Assistant Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Penn State. In 2001-2002, I taught at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies as an Assistant Professor.

Sylvia Brown - Ph.D. 1972, Classical Studies
I am now a professor of human rights law at a Japanese university (Ryukoku University). After teaching at Wellesley College and the University of Pennsylvania, I went to law school at Penn, practiced litigation in Philadelphia, married a Japanese philosopher and moved with our daughter Aya to Japan. I have worked as an expert witness on international law on a number of human rights cases here. A far cry from Classics, I suppose, but I have never regretted my training in Classical Studies. (I even tutored an eccentric Japanese lawyer in Latin for three years.)
Hello to all - and my best wishes.

Karen Carr - Ph.D. 1992, Classical Studies
I'm an Associate Professor at Portland State University, Oregon, in the History Department. My book, Vandals to Visigoths: Rural Settlement patterns in Roman Spain is coming out with the University of Michigan press. I have two children, Ansel is eight and Ruth is four.

William C. Dickerman - M.A. 1960, Latin
Thank you for the copy of Convivium bearing the sad news of Gerda Seligson's death. I last saw her when I managed to attend the colloquium in honor of her eightieth birthday. Gerda was my graduate mentrix and office mate where I was privileged to precede Glenn Knudsvig in the late fifties to teach and to assist her and Waldo Sweet. I imported their structural approach in my teaching at the University of Houston where I retired after twenty years. I emerged from retirement to transcribe state-adopted high school Latin textbooks into Braille.

Laurel Flentye - B.A. 1982, Classical Archaeology
I am a doctoral candidate in Egyptian Art and Archaeology at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. The title of my dissertation is The Decorated Elite Mustaba and Rock-cut Tomb in the Eastern and GIS Cemeteries at Giza and their Relationship to the Development of Art during the Fourth Dynasty.
I have just completed my second field season at Giza during which I studied mastabas and rock-cut tombs located in cemeteries throughout the Giza Necropolis. These tombs are supplemental to those I studied during my initial field season in 1999-2000 in the Eastern and GIS cemeteries. This first field season was funded by a Kress Fellowship awarded by the American Research Center in Egypt.

Craighton Goeppele - M.A. 1988, Classical Studies
Great to see the newsletter - thank you! I live in the Seattle area now with my wife, Linda, and our two sons, Stephen (7) and Matthew (6). I graduated from law school in 1991 and practiced law in Seattle and Tokyo, Japan (2 years) with Graham & James. For the past two years, I've been director, corporate counsel at Starbucks Corporation, supporting its international business development and expansion and drinking too much coffee. I met Professor Stephen Hinds (formerly of U of M) on a boat going up to Canada not too long ago and had a very nice chat!

Heather C. Gottry - B.A. 1995, Classical Archaeology
I recently joined the Office of General Counsel at the National Endowment for the Humanities - where my degree in Classical Archaeology is greatly appreciated. The NEH likes its lawyers to have at least some interest in the humanities. Frankly, my Classics degree means more to some of the staff than my law degree from Georgetown.

Marisa Horowitz - B.A. 1998, Classical Archaeology
Following my undergraduate education, I went on for a Master's of Art and Museum Education at Harvard University. Afterwards, I volunteered in Thailand teaching English to Buddhist monks for six months. Presently, I am an Arts Associate at the New York State Council on the Arts, and hope to one day soon find a position in the education department of a major metropolitan museum.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Irizarry (Wilson) - B.A. 2000, Classical Archaeology and ACABS
I just celebrated my one-year wedding anniversary and am enjoying a great life in St. Louis! I work in undergrad admissions at Washington University in St. Louis and my husband Vince (2000 grad in Aerospace Engineering) is working as a software engineer at Boeing.

Harry Jho - B.A. 1995, Classical Language and Literature & Classical Archaeology
Since graduation, I attended Yale Law School (J.D. 1999) and then began work at Davis Polk & Wardwell, a law firm in New York city. I have been at Davis Polk for over 3 years and have begun to develop a specialty in derivative products as they relate to the regulation of investment banks. Although this has nothing to do with either Classics or Archaeology, hardly a day goes by without my thinking of something related to antiquity. I remember my time at Michigan fondly and am happy to hear that the Classics department is doing well.

Frances D. Miller - M.A. 1943, Latin (deceased)
Frances D. Miller, 91, died on 8/16/02. She graduated from Alliance High School (Ohio) 1929. Post-graduate studies at Kent State University, M.A. degree at the University of Michigan. She taught Latin and English at Rocky River High School and Alliance High School in Ohio. She was a visual training and speech reading technician for 20 years. She had several papers published on the subjects. She helped organize the middle Atlantic Optometries Assistants Group with members from eight states. She went back to teaching Latin at Jr. High School in N. Canton before her retirement in 1974. She moved to Anna Marer Florida in 1978 where she became a well known artist for her Sumi E Oriental paintings. She loved to travel, visiting Japan, England and Greece.

Laura Nicholson - B.A. 2000, Classical Archaeology
This fall I will begin an M.A. program in Roman Archaeology at the University of Nottingham in the U.K. I am also engaged to Christopher Parrott (B.A. 2001 Classical Languages and Literatures). We will be married in October 2003.

Maryline G. Parca - Ph.D. 1984, Classical Studies
Currently vice-chair of the Department of the Classics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Co-organizer of the conference "Women's Rituals in Context" (4-5 October 2002, UIUC). Will succeed R. Blondell as Secretary-Treasurer of Women Classical Caucus in January 2003. One of our Directors-at-large of American Society of Papyrologists.

Eugene Phillips - M.A. 1955, Latin
I am retired after teaching Latin (4 year levels) for 30 years at Falmouth High School, Falmouth, Massachusetts. For several years I took Latin students to Rome for spring vacations. My wife and I have traveled extensively concentrating on Italy, then Greece and Egypt with a voyage around the world on the QE 2 as a highlight. I had the pleasure of teaching my 4 children Latin, 4 years each, in school.

Daniel D. Wilson - B.A. 1973, M.A. 1976, Classical Studies
No brag, just fact: with a Federal Disability which was first diagnosed when I was teaching Latin, Greek, Classical Studies in Scottland. At 51, I am now the Secretary to the Resident Council Meeting here at Bayside. Secretary to Consumers' Advisory Board at Lakeside Center where I work plus am a secretarial trainee, I tutor, have my own routine of work, study and prayer. Comments - I like the newsletter, sorry about the passings (of Gerda Seligson and John D'Arms). Regards to all.