Notes from the Class of 1963

San Francisco was an enjoyable vacation spot for William Kieffer (PolSci’63) last fall. During his weeks visiting the Bay Area he wrote, “I used to live here in the ’60s. Now that was a time!” He calls Rock Hill, S.C., home.

The Lifetime Achievement Pacesetter Award was given to Alan Cass* (A&S ex’63, HonDocHum’99) by the BoulderCamera. He was recognized in February for his achievements on campus and in the community. Alan and his wife, Sue Cass, live in Longmont, Colo., and their son Casey Cass is a university photographer at CU-Boulder whose work appears in the Coloradan.

*Directors club member

Women and Poverty in 21st Century America (McFarland Publishing) by Paula Dail (Edu’63) was nominated for the 2012 Council of Wisconsin Writers Kenneth Kingery/August Derleth Award for nonfiction books. She also has written two novels and co-authored a self-help book. She was tenured at Virginia Tech and Iowa State University and received emeritus status as a research professor. She then enjoyed an eight-year career as a journalist writing editorials, columns and feature stories. She lives in Spring Green, Wis., with her husband and dog, Ernest Hemingway.

Composer, producer, arranger, pianist, keyboardist and CU-Boulder instructor Don Grusin (Soc’63, MEcon’67) has recorded and produced many albums, including Ernie Watts’ Grammy award-winning CD, Musician. Don tours internationally and traveled to Germany and Japan this summer. A 2006 George Norlin Award winner, he lives in Boulder.

A “Living Legend” of CU football, Mike Bolan (Acct’63) writes that the best part of the title is to be living. In law school he played rugby and served as a director of the United States Rugby Football Foundation for years. He practiced law, clerked for an Illinois Supreme Court judge and served as a circuit court judge in Chicago for 18 years before his retirement in 2001. Mike has five children, three stepchildren and 17 grandchildren. “I am very proud of my CU classmates and teammates, many of whom were outstanding students, genuine scholars and good men and women,” he writes. Mike lives in Glencoe, Ill.

On June 10 Joseph La Camera (MEdu’63, EdD’70) and his wife celebrated their 40th anniversary. After their retirement from the Thompson School District in Loveland, Colo., the couple worked in Monterrey, Mexico, for two years and two years in Kathmandu, Nepal. They have two children, two grandchildren and one great-grandson. Joseph and his wife live in Boulder.

Architectural historian Richard Wilson (Hist’63) reveals Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Edith Wharton’s effect on design in his book Edith Wharton at Home: Life at The Mount (The Monacelli Press). Richard is a professor at the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture with focus on American design and art of the 18th to 20th centuries. He resides in Charlottesville, Va.

Michael A. Berniger* (IntlAf’63) is president elect of the CU-Boulder Directors Club. Michael is a founder and past president of the University Club at University of Colorado, Colorado Springs established in 1981 to serve as a liaison between the university and the business and professional community.  He is a board of directors member of the Pikes Peak Community Foundation and is legal counsel and a board of directors member of the Esperanza Education Foundation and El Cinco de Mayo. He is a founder of the law firm of Berniger, Berg & Diver established in 1977.

*Directors Club member

Composer, producer, arranger and pianist Don Grusin (Soc’63, MEcon’67) has recorded and produced scores of Grammy Award-winning albums. In April Don participated in the 65th Conference on World Affairs. He is recipient of the CU-Boulder Alumni Association’s George Norlin Award for distinguished lifetime achievement. He tours internationally, records and teaches. Don lives in Los Angeles.

The International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry honored Laurel Richardson (PhDSoc’63) with the Lifetime Achievement Award in qualitative research. In April Laurel announced the publication of her book After a Fall: A Sociomedical Sojourn that addresses key issues of health delivery through a personal narrative of her experience in a rehabilitation facility. Laurel lives in Worthington, Ohio.

Alumna Rebecca Loose Valette (PhDFren’63) shared a photo with Coloradan staff taken in 1940 by Boulder photographer Charles Snow, featured in this edition of class notes. Rebecca’s father Gerhard Loose was a German professor at CU from 1939 to 1968, and the Snows were neighbors in the Geneva Park neighborhood until Rebecca’s family moved to Grant Place in 1947. She lives in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

The March Coloradan featured actor Robert Redford (A&S ex’58, HonDocHum’87), prompting Charles Fetterhoff (MechEngr’63) to write, as he found himself looking out of one of the story’s accompanying photos. In the decades since he graduated from CU, Charles pursued a career in sales and real estate. He sold mainframe computers with IBM and then co-owned a Denver real estate company for 18 years. Charles still loves the beauty of the Rockies and lives in Aurora, Colo.

A celebration of Karl Spence Richardson (A&S’63) and Sharon Holtzinger Richardson’s (A&S’63) 50th wedding anniversary in Greece turned into a small Buffalo reunion. The couple stayed with U.S. Ambassador Daniel Smith(Hist’77) and his wife, Diane. Spence is a former Marine who spent 30 years in the Foreign Service. Sharon worked for the Peace Corps in Venezuela and several companies in South Korea. The couple lives in Colorado Springs, Colo. Ambassador Smith’s assignment is in Athens, Greece.

The Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, Fla., hired David Breneman (Phil) as president and chief executive officer in January. He previously worked 19 years at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va., and in the early 1990s served as a visiting professor in Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.

Bill McConnell (Hist) and Beth McLeran McConnell (Edu’64) celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last June. After graduating from Denver Seminary, Bill spent 40 years on the staff of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, 15 of them on loan to the Aliança Bíblica Universitária in Brazil, where he started the organization’s publishing house, the ABU Editora. Beth taught school, both in the U.S. and Brazil. Bill retired in 2006, ending his career as assistant to the president of InterVarsity, and the couple moved to Denver, where their four children (two of them born in Brazil) and two grandchildren live.

Jo Harrington Calkins (A&S), who has more than 50 years of experience in biochemistry and virology, was recognized by Continental Who’s Who as a “Pinnacle Professional” in research and development. Jo worked as research director with Palmetto Health, the teaching hospital for the University of South Carolina’s medicine school. She established the clinical research program for medical investigators and collected patient samples of chronic infectious diseases for use by investigators. Now retired, she enjoys traveling, networking, reading and spending time with her family.

After teaching at CU’s ATLAS Institute for the past few years, jazz musician Don Grusin (Soc; MEcon’67) is focusing on his music full time in Los Angeles. He spent time this year performing in the UK and Germany and organizing for new master-class music clinics. He is working on his latest album, DEATHBEAT, a celebration and reminiscence of friends and colleagues. Don has recorded more than 20 solo albums and has won three Grammys in jazz and world music genres.

Nella Pitts Phillips (A&S) is one of three women featured in a national cable TV spot for Medical Alert. She also does a one-minute inspirational segment, “Wonderful Words of Life,” every weekday morning on KAAM radio in Dallas at 8:25 a.m. CST. This moment can be accessed online at kaamradio.com. Nella is a professional book reviewer, performer and entertainer, as well as an alto in the Park Cities Presbyterian Church choir in Dallas. She writes, “Any news of former Farrand Hall-ites and/or Tri Delts around ’60-’63 would be most welcome!”

Laurel Walum Richardson (PhDSoc) has been triply honored in the last year. The International Disciplinary Impact of Laurel Richardson’s Work, a book written by Julie White, contains more than 50 contributions from scholars, activists and educators in 12 different disciplines and 10 countries. Laurel was elected into the inaugural class of the Emeritus Academy of The Ohio State University in recognition of her creative work and academic scholarship. And her book, Seven Minutes from Home: An American Daughter’s Story, was published in 2015 to pre-release critical acclaim.

Douglas Looney (Jour) and Mary Ann Winter Looney (Edu) met in a freshmen English class at CU and have been happily married since shortly after college. Mary Ann, a retired teacher, is a member of CU’s Women Investing in the School of Education board. Doug, a retired journalist, worked at the National Observer and Sports Illustrated.