Stewart Coffin ’52 of Andover has been designing and making geometric puzzles for 35 years. In 2006 he was awarded the Nob Yoshigahara Award for his lifetime contribution to mechanical puzzles. His book, Geometric Puzzle Design, includes major categories of geometric puzzles, examples, and design and woodworking tips.
Wayne Barcomb ’55 is a writer living in Sarasota with his wife, Susan. A former president of a college textbook publishing company in Boston, he now writes full-time. His third novel, Blood Tide, is a murder mystery set in Florida.
Barbara Gilvar ’60, an executive search consultant for nonprofits for more than 20 years, has recently published a second book on executive searches, The Art of Hiring Leaders; A Guide for Nonprofit. Read more at www.theartofhiringleaders.net.
Roy Blitzer ’65, an independent executive coach with many years of experience in the human resources and business management fields, has published Hire Me, Inc., which teaches job hunters how to take an entrepreneurial approach to their job search. He lives in Palo Alto, California.
Emily (Fila) Bancroft ’68 of Hardwick was recognized for her years of service to her hometown where she received the Community Citizen of the Year award by the New Braintree Grange in April 2006. She recently published a map of the town showing the locations of all of the residences, businesses, and landmarks, which continues the tradition of historic maps made over the last three centuries. She also self-published Pony Pictures: Photographs of the 1900s, a collection of stories and photos of children on ponies.
Jacob Chacko ’73G, project manager for INTEC Engineering Inc., is co-author of a reference book for engineers, Offshore Pipelines: Design, Installation and Operations. He lives in Houston, Texas.
Alexander Shishin ’76G, a professor at Kobe Women’s University in Japan where he teaches literature and writing, has published a travel memoir, Rossiya: Voices from the Brezhnev Era. He writes, “The story is about an extended railway journey through the Soviet Union and Poland just prior to the USSR’s disastrous invasion of Afghanistan. It is also a bittersweet tale of an American coming to terms with his Russian roots.”
Pam (Robinson) Waterman ’77 is an engineer and author living in Mesa, Arizona. She writes, “I have completed a mother-daughter project with my teen, Brenda, publishing, The Braces Cookbook: Recipes You (and Your Orthodontist) Will Love.” She was featured on national television as a spokesperson for the American Association of Orthodontists, presenting tips for braces-friendly Halloween treats.
Steve Lafler ’79 has illustrated a graphic novel, 40 Hour Man, written by Stephen Beaupre. While on campus, Steve drew a daily comic strip for the Massachusetts Daily Collegian. To this day he hears from fellow students letting him know how much they enjoyed the "Aluminum Foil" strip. Visit stevelafler.net for more of his illustrations.
John Lowney ’79 ’86G, associate professor of English at St. John’s University in New York, is the author of Modern American Poetry, 1935-1968, a revisionist history of modern American poetry that investigates the Depression era’s impact on late modernist American poetry from the socioeconomic crisis of the 1930s through the emergence of the new social movements of the 1960s.
Charlotte Hebert ’82 recently published her first novel, Numbering Stars. Her short fiction has been published in numerous literary journals including Sun Dog: The Southeast Review and The Wedener Review. Numbering Stars was a finalist in both the Hemingway First Novel Contest and The Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize. She lives in Northboro with her husband, Tom Nelson ’81 and their son.
Lisa Watts ’82, a newspaper and magazine writer, is the editor of Good Roots: Writers Reflect on Growing up in Ohio. She lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with her husband, Bob Malekoss, and their two children.
Linda Fuller ’84G has edited Sport, Rhetoric, and Gender: Historical Perspectives and Media Representations. She lives in Wilbraham and is a communications professor at Worcester State College.
Anne Johnson Mullin ’91G has published a collection of poems, Surface Tension. She is retired from Idaho State University, where she was a professor of English composition and director of the Writing Center. She lives in New Harbor, Maine.
Meredith O’Brien-Weiss ’91 lives in Southborough with her husband, Scott, and their three children. She is an adjunct faculty member in the journalism department at UMass Amherst and the author of A Suburban Mom: Notes from the Asylum.
Esther Wilder ’91 and her husband, Sam Trivedi, live in the Bronx, New York, with their new daughter, Naomi. Esther’s second book, Wheeling and Dealing: Living with Spinal Cord Injury, was published in September.
Carlyn (Cerniglia) Beccia ’95 has published a children’s book, Who Put the B in the Ballyhoo? An illustrator and author, her work can be seen at carlynbeccia.com.
David Copeland ’96 has published his first book, Blood & Volume: Inside New York’s Israeli Mafia. He told us that, “In writing the book I became the first journalist to gain inside access to this brutal gang of Israeli ex-pats, which operated in New York City in the 1980s.” For more information visit bloodandvolume.com.
