class of 1973
Ted Armen
tool.instrument@gmail.com
413-475-2266
68 Main St. Montague MA 01351
Education
B.A., Goddard College
Spouse: Alice Armen
Children: Max, Oliver, and Simon
Professional Bio
In the mid-eighties I worked in Chicago at Northwestern University as a laboratory instrument-maker. Aside from that I’ve been self-employed since college. Early on it was carpentry and cabinetmaking. For the last 30 years or so I’ve worked in my shop at home in western Mass, as a machinist.
Fun Fact / Hobbies / Last or Favorite Book
My wife and I keep bees, dairy goats, and chickens. We’ve made a few cycling trips in France in recent years. I’ve brushed up my French which has been very rewarding.
Favorite RLS Teacher and/or RLS Memory
Mr Whitney was the best.
Walter Bender
Walter Bender is co-founder and Chief Scientist at Sorcero, a Washington, D.C.-based start-up company that deploys AI solutions in the life sciences. Bender is also founder of Sugar Labs, which develops and maintains educational software used globally by millions of children, and One Laptop per Child, a non-profit association with Nicholas Negroponte and Seymour Papert, that designed and developed low-cost laptop computers for children. Despite having been booted from the RL glee club for “having a voice like a frog”, Bender is the co-author of Music Blocks, a visual programming language and collection of manipulative tools for exploring musical and mathematical concepts.
As executive director of the MIT Media Laboratory from 2000 to 2006, Bender led a team of researchers in fields as varied as tangible media to affective computing to lifelong kindergarten. At MIT, Bender started the Electronic Publishing Group and the MIT News in the Future consortium, which helped launch the era of personalized media and digital news. Bender is the past president of the Industrial Arts and Method Foundation, a Florida-based foundation that promotes innovation in industrial design education.
After graduating from Roxbury Latin, Bender received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1977 and a master’s degree from MIT in 1980. He married Wanda Whitham from Dedham in 1981. He has 2 children and 3 grandchildren.
Bender’s 2012 book, Leaning to Change the World, provides an overview of his work at the intersection of technology, learning, and social entrepreneurship.
Scott P. Calisti
calisti.claridge@outlook.com
617-783-0447
Claridge House, 1933 Commonwealth Avenue #304 Brighton, MA 02135
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
Master of Architecture, Kent State University, Kent, OH (I pursued a concurrent Master of Business Administration degree at KSU but still had a semester to go when I finished the M. Arch degree and my 3-year teaching assistantship ended. I accepted an advanced commission as an officer in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps instead and didn’t complete the additional coursework for the MBA.)
Master of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL (My thesis, “The Redevelopment of the Charlestown Navy Yard: A Model for the Military Base Closure Process” is in the collection of the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA).
Licensed Architect, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Professional Bio
In 1981 (after Penn and Kent State) there were no jobs for architects, so I accepted what I thought would be a three-year advanced commission in the Navy. My first three-year duty assignment was overseas, and I never looked back. Over the course of my career I was responsible for the management of naval facilities in Naples, Italy; Cairo, Egypt; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a break for a Navy-sponsored urban planning degree at the University of Florida. My last military career assignment was in Mississippi, where I served as the Public Works Officer and Resident Officer in Charge of Construction at Naval Air Station Meridian, MS. I have worked for the last eighteen years at the Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance as a consultant to the Commonwealth’s 29 state universities and community colleges in managing their facilities. planning, financial planning, corporate and individual taxation, and estate and trust administration. When I joined the firm we were located in Dedham, ultimately moving to Norwood in 2002. I remained there for 34 years, retiring in July of 2018.
Fun Fact / Hobbies / Last or Favorite Book
While I was assigned to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and living in Philadelphia I spent weekends as a part-time whitewater raft guide on the Lehigh River in the Poconos.
If you could give one piece of advice to the RLS Class of 2023, what would it be? “Keep Moving!”
Favorite RLS Teacher and/or RLS Memory
Mr. Jorgensen
Christopher Carolan
ccarolan@gmail.com
404-285-8648
105 Boundary St. Athens, GA, 30607
Education
B.S. Skidmore College
M.F.A. (printmaking) Washington University, St. Louis
Children: Micaela and Naomi
Professional Bio
Former Member Pacific Stock Exchange
Author: The Spiral Calendar, book 1992. Arguably the inspiration for Darren Aronofsky’s first film, Pi, Faith in Chaos. Technical analysis of financial markets with an emphasis on human emotional behavior is my thing. spiralcalendar.com on the web. @spiralcal on Twitter.
Fun Fact / Hobbies / Last or Favorite Book
Shakespeare and the authorship question are an avocation. I’ve a few videos on youtube including my conference presentation on the source Shakespeare used for the St. Crispin’s Day speech.
If you could give one piece of advice to the RLS Class of 2023, what would it be? Walk through every open door.
Favorite RLS Teacher and/or RLS Memory
Too many good teachers to list—but the more this reunion and our class can honor Dick Mayo Smith, the better.
Philip Driscoll
Pjd955@aol.com
908-295-4179
38 van Doren Way
Belle Mead, NJ 08502
Education
MBA, Columbia School of Business (Finance)
NYU Stern School of Business (Advance Professional Degree in Accounting).
Note: not too shabby for someone tagged by Mr. Bridges for the dummy math track
Spouse: Denise
Children: Sarah and Emily; Grandchildren: Caroline, age 7; Ellie, age 5; and Lucas, age 1.
Professional Bio
I’m still vertical and still get paid every two weeks. I have a dual retirement plan: 70 years and 7:00pm. For the past 22 years I’ve been the CEO of the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, Saddle Brook Hospital Campus. Kessler is ranked #4 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for rehabilitation. We specialize in rehabilitation of brain injuries, strokes, amputations, cardiac conditions, cancer, neurological disorders, COVID (new) and orthopedic conditions. Prior to finding a professional home at Kessler, I had a varied career: 4 years in philanthropy at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 3 years in health care consulting at Coopers & Lybrand, 10 years in acute care hospital administration at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, 2 years in managed care, physician practice management & business coalition consulting with the Permanente Company arm of Kaiser Permanente and a cup of coffee in hospital administration and strategic planning at Somerset Medical Center.
I’m on the Board of the New Jersey Hospital Administration and have previously served on the local boards for the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association.
Fun Fact / Hobbies / Last or Favorite Book
I’ll overachieve & give 1 of each: every year the entire family rents a house on Block Island, a place where there is nothing to do and plenty of time to do it in; I love golf and tennis. I describe my golf game as “I’m close to being better”; I don’t read, I listen to books on my daily 2+ hour commute. May I suggest The Good Lord Bird by James McBride for fiction and for non-fiction, The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson or anything by John McCullough.
If you could give one piece of advice to the RLS Class of 2023, what would it be? Again I’ll overachieve and give 3: my personal True North I learned from my father” never resist the generous impulse, practice the Serenity Prayer and don’t sweat things beyond your control and focus on what you can change & influence, and finally adopt the Montessori philosophy to your career “Work is Play”. Life is too short and the work day too long not to laugh and have fun every day.
Favorite RLS Teacher and/or RLS Memory
That’s a tough one: jumping from the 2nd floor window into the snow drift in the 8th grade, stealing Bobby Finnegan’s favorite seat in the lunch room, picking up rocks off the football field on Saturday detention, listening to Beggar’s Banquet in the art room…
Brian Freeman
I was just having some slides digitized including one of myself and Jim Shea taking a bow in ’72, from RLS Drama Club production of “Royal Hunt of the Sun”. That afro is long gone and I don’t need makeup to make what little hair I have left grey. Sporting many hats now, gotta look stylish onstage, keep my bald head from getting burnt in the California sun.
Adding another bow from my most recent piece. “Tumble Fall Embrace” premiered at the first ever Black History Month event at the 103 year old Commonwealth Club of San Francisco in February 2023. My collaborators are Jeaninne Anderson, classical & gospel singer, devorah major, 2 x SF poet laureate, and Destiny Muhammed, jazz & classical harpist (her Alice Coltrane shows at SF Jazz Center are amazing). It was performed on 2/25/23 so there’s 50 years (actually 51) between RLS Drama Club and the Commonwealth Club. (Video and podcast available at Commonwealth Club website as “Honor and Glory”)
“Tumble Fall Embrace” is the story of the sculpture that was unveiled on the Boston Commons on 1/13/23, “The Embrace”, MLK weekend and it is the story of my parents when they were on the dating scene in Roxbury in the early ‘50s, going to dances in social halls in the hopes of finding a partner. The story is in many ways how I got to RLS, how I met MLK many times as a child, and what was going on in Boston, Roxbury, RLS and the nation at the time we all became ‘sixies’, in the 60s. Many of my works over the years both directly and indirectly reference my family and my days at RLS. Art & activism in my family goes back many generations, like my great grandparents, Rev. George & Lila Simms, who cofounded the NAACP in Portland, Maine to stop the rise of the Klan in that state 100 years ago.
First time I kissed some body for real, ya know, was on the RLS campus and that body was another guy’s. Teenage kisses are rarely great, takes practice, Kept at it. Been with my husband Peter, a documentary filmmaker, 25 years. Our fussing is out of control, two senior artists in one household is ridiculous, what to do when one or the other gets yet another award. Our pup Teddy helps negotiate space.
Look forward to seeing “The Embrace” on the Boston Commons during my visit to Boston. The names of so many friends of my family are engraved on the base. Look forward to seeing RLS and my classmates from RLS ’73.
Laurence Golding
lgolding@carret.com
914-393-0267
1755 York Avenue, 23C
New York, NY 10128
Education
B.A., History, Harvard College, cum laude, 1977 MBA, Harvard Business School, 1984
Spouse: Cynthia Sheps Golding
Children: Eliot (born 1991) [thirteenth generation descendant of the Good Apostle]; Aaron Freedman (1992) m. Carly Machlis; Sarah Freedman (1994)
Professional Bio
For the past 30 years, I have been involved in private client wealth management, serving as a portfolio manager and advisor to a range of individuals, families, foundations and endowments. Since 2007, I have been a Managing Director with Carret Asset Management, LLC, in New York, www. carret.com.
Fun Fact / Hobbies / Last or Favorite Book
I spent twenty-five years in the service of the Union Army, rising to the rank of Lt. Colonel at the 155th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. My participation in the reenacting community brought me some wonderful experiences and memorable moments, from serving on the field with some 35,000 troops at the 135th Gettysburg, to some excellent classroom visits including RLS, to riding my horse down Pennsylvania Avenue during the 150th Grand Review. Unfortunately, the teaching of history has become politically incorrect in this country, and there is, alas, no joy in fighting uphill. I still do an occasional parade or living history event. It was a great commitment, and a delightful opportunity to share a hobby with my son.
I have returned to my longstanding passion of sailing. First introduced by Jonathan Reynolds in 1968, I went on to become a sailing instructor, charterer of other people’s yachts starting in 1982, and finally in 2020, the owner of my own 33ft sloop, ENTERPRISE. I have just been accepted into the membership of the New York Yacht Club, which is sort of the culmination of this passion.
If you could give one piece of advice to the RLS Class of 2023, what would it be?
Lighten up. There is plenty of time to be serious about your careers. Enjoy college.
Favorite RLS Teacher and/or RLS Memory
While I have fond memories of Dennis Kratz, Phil Bridgess, Dick Whitney, Gerhard Rehder and Bill Chauncey, I found the one who is with me almost every day is Warden Dilworth. I do a lot of writing in my business, and I am constantly reminded of the rules of expository writing that he instilled upon me. www.carret.com/_files/ugd/91c1ff_9ce0c426e09246d481d3a243855b8af6.pdf.
So many mixed emotions. Did we enjoy the experience? Being preternaturally uncoordinated, I hated athletics, and learned nothing. I liked Glee Club and enjoyed the social aspects of interscholastic chorusing, especially with Winsor, Beaver and the like. I do not think that I had a lot of friends, per se, but that ones that I did associate with were a constant source of joy and support. What I recall most fondly is the shared experiences, from the dress code to fids and triangles, to picking up rocks on the varsity field, to the ministrations of a devoted group of Masters, who took our education most seriously.
Constantine Hutchins III
After graduation, I spent the year following traveling in Mexico, Central and South America. Among other things, I learned Spanish, walked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, took a riverboat down the Chapare River in northern Bolivia.
After returning, I studied Comparative Literature at UMass Amherst where I studied Spanish, Russian and English literature. I took time off to work before graduating and, after graduating in 1981, I took a job teaching Spanish in San Antonio, TX, where I met the woman who became my wife: Anne O’Connor. She had also majored in Comparative Literature at Princeton so we both had the reading bug.
We returned to the Boston area in 1985 where we worked for a year locally before I began studying law at Vermont Law School. Anne and I married after I finished my first year. After law school, I did a clerkship in the trial courts in Windsor County, VT and then began working for the New Hampshire Public Defender, where I remain to this day.
Anne and I raised three children: Constantine IV (Max), Alison Blaine (Blaine), and Frances Margaret (Maggie). Anne sang with a variety of singing groups in the “Upper Valley,” one of which performed in Cuba. We travelled with the Feminine Tone to Cuba in 2010 where Anne performed in the Sala Dolores in Santiago. We were able to travel from Santiago to Camaguey on an overnight train and spent a week in the lovely city of Camaguey.
Unfortunately, it was the last time we were able to travel together. After we returned, Anne began to suffer the beginnings of frontotemporal dementia, which required multiple hospitalizations over the years, and eventually required adult day care in local facilities. This awful disease took her life last year.
Our children thrive. Max is a massage therapist with studios in Vermont and New Hampshire, Blaine has recently taken up carpentry, and Maggie recently finished up a stint as a barn manager for a horse stable near Greensboro, NC. We will see what she does next. I am also beginning to ponder my next steps. I have worked as a trial lawyer and managing attorney since joining the NH Public Defender in 1991 and over the years have tried many cases to both judges and juries with a high rate of success. The years since Anne’s illness began have been challenging, particularly during COVID when adult day centers in Vermont closed, so I may need to lighten up my work load.
Stephen Linskystephenlinsky@stephenlinsky.com
617-906-5404
P.O. Box # 525, Easthampton, MA 01027
Education
B.A., University of Massachusetts, Political Economics, 1977
M.S., University of Massachusetts, Labor Studies, 1980
J.D., Northeastern University, 1986
Spouse: Martine Vanpee (m. 1984)
Children: Arielle and Ethan; Grandchildren: Julian
Professional Bio
• Was involved with the Tobacco Products Liability Project while in law school and was sworn into the U.S. Supreme Court bar when it heard one of its first tobacco cases. Do you know what Clarence Thomas said during oral argument? Nothing.
• Thirty years in state and municipal government, including various state administrative law appointments to agencies overseeing workers’ rights and benefits.
• Six terms as an elected city councilor. While my record advancing a number of community initiatives earned me a string of re-elections, it was my occasional foray into foreign affairs that drew a bit more attention—particularly the response to my co-sponsorship of a resolution supporting withdrawal from Guantanamo Bay that was featured in a documentary produced by Japanese public television [NHK] on the rightward drift in U.S. politics following 9/11. It should also be noted that during this same period I was a drummer in a traveling American Legion marching band.
• Founding co-principal of one of the first Boston area collaborative law firms and family comediation practices.
Fun Fact / Hobbies / Last or Favorite Book
• When the last embers of my dream playing center field for the Red Sox finally died, I helped form a fantasy baseball league, largely comprised of similarly aggrieved Jewish law students, that became my main hobby, apart from politics, for 25 years. My 60 years at Fenway Park remains my longest running streak.
• Norman Mailer’s ‘Miami and the Siege of Chicago’. Forty years after that book, in 2008, I was elected as an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. I was certain that for the first time in ages the nomination would be contested beyond the first ballot and I’d be thrust into a Clinton/ Obama food fight. Not to be.
• Days after retiring from state service I traveled to Tanzania and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro to see the remaining portion of its glacier before it disappeared. At age 60 it was a good thing I had reserved an oxygen tank to assist in the summit. I’ve since traveled to Malawi twice and had planned to travel to South Africa last year but had to cancel due to surgery.
If you could give one piece of advice to the RLS Class of 2023, what would it be? Don’t get this old.
Favorite RLS Teacher and/or RLS Memory
• Gerhard.
• A number of memories are laced with a certain amount of absurdity, like our first class dance and some of the sports-related ones that I would need to consult with Andy Manns, Scott Calisti, Terry ‘Ace’’ Power and, yes, Danny Wolk, before revealing more. There was one year (1968), I was known as ‘le chat’ because: (1) I was pretty fleet on the football gridiron and (2) it was one of the few French words Coach Ralph Farris could confidently repeat.
Bob McTighe
rmctighe@comcast.net
781-898-8161
28 Wellesley Ave. Wellesley, MA 02482
Education
B.S., Tufts University, College of Engineering, 1973-1977 MBA, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, 1977-1979
Spouse: Jean McTighe—Jean and I were classmates at Tuck and got married five years after graduation when Jean was working in corporate finance in NYC and I was in Boston.
Children: The older is a music educator and conductor for the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, married and living in Northbrook, IL. The younger just went back to pursue a Masters and PhD in Mechanical Engineering and is studying at ETH Zurich.
Professional Bio
At the end of 2022 I retired and can’t say that I’m fully accustomed to the dramatic change from a packed, unending work schedule to being able to tackle some of those forgotten projects, but I admit, it is a welcome change! To stay busy professionally, I am now mentoring start-ups and looking for Board of Director and Advisory roles at nonprofits, start-ups, and private organizations.
The majority of my career focused on evaluating and implementing major strategic changes at a variety of companies, including family-held organizations, a VC-backed start-up, and a nonprofit.
I initially worked in our family business and led the technology transfer from a German manufacturer to expand and improve manufacturing efficiency. I then started and managed a new company in South Carolina and eventually relocated and integrated our Massachusetts operations into the new entity before leaving.
In my next position, I was the fifth employee at a VC-back fabless semiconductor company designing chips for digital imaging applications. It was a wonderful learning experience, just too bad that the tech bubble burst shortly after I joined. Nonetheless, we were able to raise about $40M in 4 rounds of financing, with the initial management team eventually being replaced by the VCs.
For the past 11½ years, I was at a nonprofit focused on energy efficiency and equitable climate solutions in homes, buildings, industry, and communities for the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States. It was personally satisfying to work for a mission-based nonprofit that was addressing important environmental and social issues. While there, I led the spin-off of its major initiative to form a separate nonprofit focused on LED lighting.
Fun Facts and Memories
• I’m a few pounds lighter in weight than I was senior year at RL.
• At the end of last summer, I attended an intensive week-long boat building class in Annapolis, MD and built a 16-foot wooden canoe with my younger child.
• I never fully enjoyed history at RL but now like reading historical novels with David McCullough being a favorite author.
• My interests include family, gardening, hiking, and bike riding – switched to the bike after always being a jogger. I enjoy baking bread and usually have ice cream every night before bed!
• Pre-COVID I did a bike ride with Steve Linsky and hiked Mt Monadnock with Andrew Manns and Steve. Fond memories of playing trivia with Willie Walker and Steve. Don Murray—swimming pool jousting and ping-pong. John Storella when in Boston. Many other RL contacts from our class and others on occasion.
• Phil Bridges and Dick Whitney were my favorite teachers at RL. Dick Whitney would always make you think for yourself and in the process, learn. John Storella was always asking questions in his classes! After graduation, I greatly appreciated Gerhard Rehder’s ability to connect with alumni. The writing on his postcards was infinitesimal!
Don Murray
dwmurray@gmavt.net
617-640-4481
1802 German Flats Road
Waitsfield, VT 05673
Education
St. Lawrence University, BA 1977
Suffolk University Law School, JD 1980
Boston University School of Law, LLM in Taxation 1984
Spouse: Julie E. Murray
Professional Bio
My legal career began at Gross & Galvin where I was employed as an associate attorney in a small law firm located in Weymouth, Massachusetts. That practice included estate planning, probate and estate administration, real estate law and civil litigation. After obtaining my LLM in Taxation I went to work for what became Fedele and Murray, P.C., a small firm focusing primarily in the areas of estate planning, financial planning, corporate and individual taxation, and estate and trust administration. When I joined the firm we were located in Dedham, ultimately moving to Norwood in 2002. I remained there for 34 years, retiring in July of 2018.
Fun Fact / Hobbies / Last or Favorite Book
Living in Vermont full time now, a lot of our activities are outdoor related. We ski and snowshoe in the winter, hike and golf in the summer.
Dean Plakias
deanplakias@gmail.com
508-395-2491
23 Boyden Road
Medfield, MA 02052
Education
B.A. Political Science, Boston University, 1977
Master in Industrial and Labor Relations (MILR), Cornell, 1981
J.D., Suffolk University School of Law, 1989
Spouse: Aphrodite Plakias
Children: Justin and Lydia
Professional Bio
American Arbitration Association, Boston, MA 1977-1979 Labor Tribunal Administrator. Set up labor arbitration cases with Union leaders, Labor and management attorneys and neutrals.
Citibank, NA, New York and Riyadh Saudi Arabia: 1981-1986
Various positions in human resources, recruiting and international compensation and benefits Expatriate manpower planning. Recruited foreign nationals in US universities for placement in home country. Left banking industry to attend law school in Boston.
Hill & Plakias P.C., Dedham, MA, 1989 to ??
Private practice focused on real estate. Represented banks, lenders, individuals and institutions in the buying, financing leasing and selling of commercial and residential real estate. Title Insurance agent.
Member Massachusetts and Real Estate Bar Associations. Corporator, Dedham Institution for Savings, Trustee Dedham Savings Charitable Foundation.
Personal
Met my wife of 37 years, Aphrodite, while working for the Citibank in the Arabian Gulf region. There was a brief Jim Shea spotting in Bahrain around that time. We have two adult children living in New York and Vermont.
Been in Medfield for about 20 years, looking for the next adventure. I am an Anglophile by marriage and all things Greek by birth. Enjoy golfing and skiing at our second home in Quechee, Vermont. As a local professional, I have the opportunity to meet through Boy Scouts or local families, young men who are attending RLS. It is always my advice to work hard and take everything the school has to offer. It will serve you well in your future.
Favorite RLS Teacher and/or RLS Memory
hmm. Ralph Farris’s music class was like having Donald Trump as a music teacher. RIP Ralph, one of the more entertaining classes. Looking forward to seeing all of you who will attend the reunion.
Jonathan Reynolds
jonathanr40@gmail.com
917-971-9954
452 Riverside Drive #75 New York, NY 10027
Education
A.B., Harvard
M.A., East Asian Studies, Stanford
M.A., Art History, Stanford
Ph.D., Art History, Stanford
Spouse: Zoë Strother
Professional Bio
I am a professor of Art History at Barnard College and Columbia University. I specialize in the history of modern Japanese architectural and the history of Japanese photography. Before this, I taught at USC, at U. of Michigan, and at Washington University.
Publications include:
Maekawa Kunio and the Emergence of Japanese Modernist Architecture (2001)
Allegories of Time and Space: Japanese Identity in Architecture and Photography (2015)
Fun Fact / Hobbies / Last or Favorite Book
Music; fountain pens; during Covid began to listen to birds a bit more.
Favorite RLS Teacher and/or RLS Memory
Mr. Rehder and Dr. Kratz
Jim Shea
jtshea05@gmail.com
603-276-5803
143 Pine Forest Drive
Conway, SC 29526
Education
A.B., French and Italian,Vassar College, 1977
License ès lettres, History, Université des Science
Humaines, Strasbourg, France, 1978
Spouse: Elaine L. Shea
Children: Stepson Chris LaSalle, spouse Candice LaSalle, grandchildren Gabriel and Charlotte
Professional Bio
“I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, A poet, a pawn and” … okay, well maybe not a king… I’ve been a perpetual grad student (two degrees, one I ignore); a Washington, DC lobbyist; a corporate partnering specialist for universities impersonating a development officer, since none of them understand corporate partnering; and a retiree who has occasionally done consulting.
Fun Fact / Hobbies / Last or Favorite Book
Published Corruptions, A Novel of Washington, the story of my life as a Washington, D.C. lobbyist, in 2010. Still available on Amazon (hint, hint).
As a sixie during a week off school, I read the entire Lord of the Rings over six days in bed. It remains my favorite book(s), although these days I mostly read science fiction/fantasy by first-time authors and U.S. history. I am on the board of the Clarion Foundation, which provides fundraising support for the nation’s premiere science fiction writing workshop, the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop, held annually on the campus of UC San Diego (If you’re an SF or fantasy fan, reach out!). My wife Elaine and I are rabid antiquers and book buyers. We’re headed to Europe in 2024 for a year overseas.
If you could give one piece of advice to the RLS Class of 2023, what would it be? Chill out. When we graduated in 1973, you could be a generalist and find a great career. Today, some kind of science/computer engineering skills are needed to get a great first job. But those skills get you the first job, while the other skills—writing, critical thinking, historicity, analytical and social awareness—are what you need to move up the ladder. RLS provides the grounding in thinking that prepares you for college; as long as you picked up enough science to get in the door, your greater analytical thinking will support you throughout your career.
Favorite RLS Teacher and/or RLS Memory
“F for the day!” Every time I heard it, but especially the time when ERMY asked me if I had done the homework and I admitted that I hadn’t. “Well, um, thank you for admitting the truth, but F for the day!”
Oh, and favorite teacher/drama advisor, Ernest Robert Marryat Yerburgh, ERMY. Loved those plays.
John Storella
After graduating from Roxbury Latin, I attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. I loved Dartmouth for its strong sense of community, and I’m still actively involved in activities for my Class. I took classes in a wide range of areas, but my first love was biology. I graduated with the intention of getting a Ph.D. in molecular genetics, and pursuing an academic career in biology research. It didn’t exactly turn out that way.
In 1977 I entered the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. At UMass I learned a lot of biology. But I was unfocused and could not seem to get the research done to prepare a dissertation. Four years later, I departed with a Masters Degree in Cell and Molecular Biology.
In 1982 I took a position as a laboratory assistant in the laboratory of Walter Gilbert at Harvard University, where I performed experiments using recombinant DNA technology. The atmosphere was exciting, but it became clear that I didn’t have the temperament for laboratory science.
In 1983, trying to figure out what to do with my life, I moved to Brooklyn, New York and took a job teaching high school at the Brooklyn Friends School. I loved New York. It was big, exciting, and endlessly stimulating – The universe compressed into twenty square miles. I also enjoyed teaching and have great respect for teachers. But I felt the urge to do something more challenging. A friend suggested that I consider patent law. The biotechnology industry was just getting started, and there was a need for people who understood the technology and communicate it. This felt right to me, so I applied to law school.
In 1985 I began law school at the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville, Virginia. I expected law school to be dry, but it was a revelation. Who would have guessed you could spend three days arguing about whether a chimney sweep should be able to keep a diamond he found on the street? (Hint: “Possession is nine-tenths of the law.”)
After graduating law school in 1988 I took a job at Fish & Neave, a patent law firm in New York City. Fish and Neave represented Biogen and Eli Lilly in its patent law suit against Genentech. I knew I had made the right career choice. But, after four-and-a-half years, I was exhausted and depressed. It was time to get out.
So, in 1993 I moved to San Diego, California. That was culture shock. On a warm morning in early April, I saw some people sunning by the pool. I thought, “Are they on vacation?” But, a year later, I was sunning by the pool in April. In 1994, bored of living in paradise, I moved north and took a position at Townsend and Townsend, a patent law firm in Silicon Valley/San Francisco. In 1998 I became a partner at the firm. At Townsend, I worked on Gene Chips, green fluorescent protein, and telomerase (the protein that repairs the ends of your chromosomes).
That year I also met my wife, Lisa Aliferis. Lisa grew up in northern Michigan. On a visit to Berkeley in the ‘80s she thought, “You mean people can actually live here?” At the time, Lisa was working as a television producer for Dateline NBC, with a specialty in health stories. We married in 1999. We moved to Oakland,
California in 2000. Since we have been married, Lisa has worked at KQED, the San Francisco PBS affiliate, where she did health reporting. Currently, she works as a communications officer at the California Health Care Foundation.
In 2000, during the dot-com bubble, I left my law firm to join a biotech start-up, Ciphergen Biosystems. The company went public in September 2000. Six years later, after fewer ups than downs, the company was acquired.
In the meanwhile, Lisa and I had two children – Lydia in 2001 and Dominic in 2004. Lydia graduated last week from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with a major in public policy. Dominic is a freshman at UCLA, unsure whether he will major in physical science or political science. These last twenty years, raising a family and mastering my craft, have been the most fulfilling of my life so far.
In 2006, after Ciphergen was acquired, I went to work for Wilson Sonsini, a technology law firm in Silicon Valley. Wilson’s approach to intellectual property was very business oriented, and different that anything I’d been exposed to. I learned a lot. But the commute was rough and the billable hours grueling. So, in 2009 I struck out on my own. I worked mostly with early stage biotech companies as part time in-house patent counsel. One of my favorites developed a “liquid biopsy,” sequencing DNA from the blood to find cancer biomarkers and suggest treatments.
In 2015, on turning 60, someone asked me if I regretted anything in life. I said, yes, I regretted giving up the violin when I was in fifth grade. So I started taking lessons. Violin turned out to be one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. After seven years, I can play Vivaldi’s Am concerto and the Bach Double Concerto passably well. But Joshua Bell doesn’t have to worry about any competition.
In 2018, I persuaded a friend of mine started a law firm, Storella & Witt. We style ourselves “Intellectual Property Law for Innovators in Biotech and Cleantech.” That’s where I am now.
Life has taught me a few lessons. One of these is that the most important thing in life, and often the most difficult, is knowing what you really want. But once you do know, don’t be afraid to choose happiness. Our personal demons periodically raise their heads. Sometimes we slay them, sometimes we have to wait for the next chance. Comparing yourself to other people can be demoralizing, but if you work at getting a little better at something every day, you’ll be pleased in the long run.
I remember the day I got my acceptance from Roxbury Latin. My dad and I took the T from Medford to West Roxbury. When we got to the gate he asked me, “Are you sure you want to do this?” I’ve never regretted saying “Yes.” I have fond memories of my RLS days, and remember warmly Mr. Whitney, Mr. Rehder, Mr. Bridgess, Mr. Ryan, Mrs. Hubbard, and the many other teachers and staff who devoted their lives to teaching us. I am grateful to Roxbury Latin for teaching me the value of hard work, instilling in me academic discipline, and leaving me with a love of learning. And I thank you, my classmates, for your friendship at RLS and through the year, and for helping to make Roxbury Latin one of the greatest experiences of my life.
Dan Wolk
dwolkfp@gmail.com
610-505-6409
2 Schiller Avenue Penn Valley, PA 19072
Education
MIT BS Mechanical Engineering 1977
Tufts U School of Medicine 1981
Thomas Jefferson U Family Medicine Residency 1984
Medical College of Pennsylvania Geriatric fellowship 1985
Spouse: Cathi Tillman
Children: Two daughters
Professional Bio
Nearly 30 years in a four-doctor, independent primary care practice. Nearly 30 years on the faculty of the Bryn Mawr Family Medicine Residency Program.
Fun Fact / Hobbies / Last or Favorite Book
I love many outdoor sports, and birdwatching. I’m a tireless advocate for a healthy planet. I’m a 14-year cancer survivor, and a grandpa!
If you could give one piece of advice to the RLS Class of 2023, what would it be? Think about how you can put your special talents and resources in service of people much less fortunate than you.
Favorite RLS Teacher and/or RLS Memory
Mr. Bridges engaged many areas of my busy mind and led me to love math. The alternative Phys Ed curriculum, esp “mountaineering”
In Memoriam
Our classmates Rich (‘Cal’) Callanan and Bill (‘Willie’) Walker, who joined us in this photo from our 45th reunion in 2018, have since passed. We honor their memory and life with us at RL, as well as their life together as classmates at Amherst College.
The photo depicting a small stone in the foreground was placed on the high bluffs of Cape Finistere (which the Romans referenced as the ‘end of the world’) overlooking the Atlantic Ocean along the northwest corner of Spain by classmate Stephen Linsky shortly after Willie’s passing in honor of Willie’s love of the classics.
Following his graduation from Amherst College, Cal pursued a career in medical device sales, along with a passion for golf. Known for his friendly, easy-going nature, he passed away after a 1½ year battle with Non Hodgkin’s T-cell Lymphoma.
