John Powers ’40, ’45G has edited Pioneers in Food Science 2, which recounts the careers of four scientists who set the teaching of food science upon its course. He writes, “Two of the scientists were UMass Amherst professors; Walter Chenoweth describes his career from 1913 to 1941 in a chapter written by Professor Jack Francis ’54G.”
Doris Abramson ’49 published her most recent book of poems, titled Time Will Tell. She lives in New Salem and is a professor emeritus of theater at UMass Amherst, where she taught for 34 years. (Prior to press time Doris passed away after a brief illness. See “In Memoriam.")
Joyce Prince ’56, ’74G is the author of a bilingual book, written in Spanish and English, titled Running of the Bulls: El Encierro, published by Teacher’s Discovery. She has over 30 years of teaching experience from elementary through college level and lives in Barnstable with her husband, Thomas ’57. She can be reached at joycealberta@aol.com.
Gerald McLellan ’57, a former family and probate judge in Massachusetts, has written his first novel, Old City Hall. Visit www.oldcityhallanovel.com for more information.
Gayle (Geberth) Macklem ’63 is a licensed school and educational psychologist in Massachusetts. Having served in the field of education for 30 years, she is a former president of the Massachusetts School Psychologists Association (MSPA) and serves on the board of directors as technology chairperson of the state association. In 2001 she was elected School Psychologist of the Year by MSPA and received a GPR award from the National Association of School Psychologists in 1997. Among her many publications is her most recent book, Practitioner’s Guide to Emotion Regulation in School-Aged Children. She lives in Manchester with her husband, Richard ’62, ’63G.
David Axelrod ’65 has been named Suffolk County Poet Laureate for the 2007-2009 term. His 18th book to be published is The Impossibility of Dreams. For more information visit www.poetrydoctor.org.
Lew Kutzman ’65, president of Growth Resources Associates in Wilmington, North Carolina, has coauthored Selling Outside Your Culture Zone. He writes, “This book addresses the new challenges faced by American and Canadian salespeople who sell to a rapidly growing population of foreign-born buyers.” Visit www.grasolutions.com for more information.
Rudy Favretti ’67G, a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, specializes in landscape history and preservation and is professor emeritus of the University of Connecticut. He has written a biography of Jacob Weidenmann, a 19th-century landscape architect whose work included large cemeteries, public parks, capitol grounds, and private yards. Jacob Weidenmann: Pioneer Landscape Architect.
Rich Letarte ’67G, a certified public accountant in Leominster, lives in Lunenburg with his wife, MaryEllen. They have three children and three granddaughters. After a life spent compiling baseball statistics, Richard published That One Glorious Season: Baseball Players With One Spectacular Year. He writes, “Throughout my life I have been a student of baseball history. I first became interested in the sport at age seven after buying a statistics-filled yearbook at Braves Field in Boston. I was later able to convince a second-grade teacher to instruct me in long division so I could figure out batting averages and win-loss percentages.” Please visit www.gloriousseason.com for more information on the book. Steve Priest ’66 developed and maintains the site.
Richard Cohen ’68G is retired as the vice-president of academic affairs and professor of English at the University of Maine, Presque Isle. He is the author of four novels, his most recent being Petal on a Black Bough. For more information on his writing career and publications visit blackboughbooks.com.
Barbara Proko ’68 writes, “I’ve just produced my third photo history in Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series. Worcester County’s Polish Community is the first book to document this sizable ethnic group in Central Massachusetts. My earlier works are The Polish Community of Worcester and The Polish Community of New Britain.” Barbara would love to hear from old friends and can be reached at bjproko@yahoo.com.
Robert Southard ’68 lives in Duxbury and is the author of Ordinary Secrets: Notes for Your Spiritual Journey. He writes, “In the book I share 25 years of searching and aim to explain how an ordinary person, as most of us are, can have an extraordinary spiritual journey.”
Neal Whitman ’69 retired from the University of Utah School of Medicine after 37 years of “teaching medical teachers how to teach.” He lives with his wife, Elaine, on the Monterey Peninsula in Pacific Grove, California, where they are volunteer docents at Tor House, the stone cottage built by poet Robinson Jeffers in 1919. He writes, “I’m now a published poet and am recognized in town by my personalized auto plate, PG POET.” He is the author of Chapter & Verse: Pro Amicus Poeticae.
Paul Johnson ’70 is a photographer whose work has appeared in books, magazines, and advertising throughout the world. Backroads of New Jersey: Your Guide to New Jersey’s Most Scenic Backroad Adventures is the newest book to showcase his photography. Paul is director of photography for the Wohlfarth Galleries in Provincetown and Washington, D.C., and an associate of Weld Artists in Maine.
Almut Metzroth ’70 lives in Florida with her husband, Bert, and has written her autobiography, Thorns and Roses: A Life in the Context of History. The book has received second place in the history/autobiography/biography category of the Royal Palm Literary Award from the Florida Writers Association.
Mary Lou Heiss ’72 and her husband, Robert, owners of the Northampton store Cooks Shop Here, are coauthors of two books: The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guide, and one with 50 recipes titled, Hot Drinks: Cider, Coffee, Tea, Hot Chocolate, Spiced Punch, and Spirits. Mary Lou writes, “We have utilized our knowledge and experience from traveling to the sources of tea manufacturers in China and Japan to paint a more complete picture of tea than is covered in other tea books.” They have been invited by the luxury cruise line Silversea Cruises to lead a Tea Cruise from Singapore to Hong Kong in late February. For more information on their store visit cooksshophere.com. To find out more about the tea cruise contact culinarycruises@montrosetravel.com.
Jeanne Fleming ’74 of Palo Alto, California, has written a book on money and ethics called Isn’t it Their Turn to Pick Up the Check?. She appeared on Good Morning America in January and is a columnist for Money Magazine and for the CNN/Money website. (Click on the book title for more on Isn’t it Their Turn.)
Yusef Lateef ’75G, a musician and retired Five Colleges professor, has written an autobiography with Herb Boyd titled The Gentle Giant. His career, spanning more than 60 years, has included performing with John Coltrane, Quincy Jones, Thelonious Monk, and other jazz greats. He lives in Amherst and is the founder of the YAL record label. Visit www.yuseflateef.com for more information.
Martha Kilcoyne ’76 writes, “I’m a formerly bed-ridden chronic fatigue patient who is now fully recovered. I’ve written a book about my experience, Defeat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: You Don’t Have to Live With It, which includes an eight-step protocol to help other CFS/Fibromyalgia sufferers to recover. If you’re familiar with CFS, the message that patients get from the medical community is that one has to ‘live well’ with CFS—no one gets fully well again. My mission is to get the message out to CFS patients that you can get well. I’m someone who has and I’ve climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa to prove it!”
Bill Fournier ’79 recently published New Directions in Technical Reviews. He lives in Fairfax, Virginia.
Mark Foster ’85 wrote the children’s book, Whale Port: A History of Tuckanucket, with Gerald Foster ’95 as illustrator. He writes, “I graduated from UMass Amherst in 1985 with a BA in history. Gerald Foster, the illustrator, is my father but he graduated from UMass 10 years after I did through the University Without Walls. My dad had a long career in architecture but had never been to college. In semi-retirement he went to UMass to study art and anthropology. I tease him that he followed in his sons’s footsteps.”
Jacqui DeLorenzo ’87, a licensed mental health counselor and academic counselor at North Shore Community College in Danvers, has written A Thread of Hope: A Woman’s Spiritual Journey of Faith from Trauma to Triumph. She writes, “I feel this book will touch each person. It deals with bullying, parents’ breakup, death of a sibling through cancer, my own personal journey with cancer, surviving an eating disorder, and how my journey through college at UMass Amherst played a major part. Visit threadofhope.wordpress.com for more information about the book and its author.
Marc Songini ’87 of Foxboro recently published The Lost Fleet: A Yankee Whaler’s Struggle Against the Confederate Navy and Arctic Disaster from St. Martin’s press.
Mary Chaffee ’83, ’03H, is co-editor of Policy and Politics in Nursing and Health Care. She lives in Frederick, Maryland, and Brewster, and writes, “I served for 24 years in the Navy and am now a full-time PhD student in the School of Nursing at the University of Maryland Baltimore.” Recent work for the Navy has included visiting Naval hospitals and clinics around the world to improve hospital disaster preparedness. “The book makes the universe of politics accessible for nurses so they can influence health care through policy-making in addition to through the care they provide for patients.”
Joel Zuckerman ’83 has published his fourth book, A Hacker’s Humiliations. He writes, “My next book, due in September 2008, will be significantly bigger than the first four combined. I’ve been hired by the Dye family (Pete Dye is one of the most significant golf course architects of all time) to write the definitive book on his celebrated career. The book is titled DYE 85 in honor of his upcoming 85th birthday and features 85 of his most significant courses.” For more on Joel and his writings visit vagabondgolfer.com.
Bryan Vartabedian ’85, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, writes, “After nearly 50 years since the initial description of colic, parents have had no choice but to live with or cope with the irritable baby. I was motivated to write Colic Solved when my own daughter suffered from intractable screaming as an infant. This book will serve as a starting point for understanding that the answer to a baby’s crying lies not in a rigid schedule or the proper shushing sound but rather in the belief that a baby’s pain is treatable and real. In short, Colic Solved is the ultimate validation for the mother of the irritable baby.” Visit colicsolved.com for more information on the book or read other opinions and thoughts on Bryan’s blog at parentingsolved.typepad.com.
Robert Spadoni ’86, an assistant professor in the English department at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, is the author of Uncanny Bodies: The Coming of Sound Film and the Origins of the Horror Genre.
Kristen (Scholz) Demeo ’89G lives in Adams with her husband, Tom Demeo ’89G, and is a substitute teacher in the local schools. In June, she published the children’s alphabet book, Sounds Like This…, now in its second printing and soon to have a CD accompaniment.
Amy Hoffman ’90G is the author of My Life at the Gay Community News. She is the editor of Women’s Review of Books.
Trevor Hughes ’90, an attorney in York, Maine, has coauthored Privacy Law in Marketing, a desk reference for attorneys dealing with issues related to privacy and consumer protection in the marketing field. He writes, “In June, I testified before the Home Affairs Committee of the British Parliament, speaking on behalf of the International Association of Privacy Professionals. I provided insight on the use of surveillance technologies in the UK and the public policy and market solutions that are being used globally to respond to threats to privacy.”
Melanie Almeder ’93G teaches creative writing and contemporary literature at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia, and has published a book of poems, On Dream Street.
Dan Berthiaume ’93 and his wife, Julie, welcomed their first child, David Walter, in September. Both mother and baby are doing great. Dan is the editor of the book Fresh Customer Service.
Stephen Cole ’96G, director of the natural resources and sustainable communities programs at Coastal Enterprises, Inc., is the author of The Rangeley and Its Region: The Famous Boat and Lakes of Western Maine. He lives in Damariscotta, Maine.
Randy Shamlian ’97 has published A Slice of Apple Pie: A Memoir to be Savored. He has worked in the culinary field for over 30 years and was owner of a pastry company in Southern California for 10 years. This book chronicles his life journey from his childhood in New Jersey through his work with renowned chef Brendan Walsh to his job as a pastry chef in Montana. Some of his recollections focus on his time at UMass Amherst.
John Link ’02 is the author of The Link To Beating Cancer: The Real Life Story of a Teenage Cancer Survivor. He writes, “My book is about my cancer survival as a teenager. I designed it as a book for young adults to read while battling this disease. Part of the proceeds from the sale of the book go back to raising money for cancer research.”
Pierre Orelus ’08G recently authored Education Under Occupation: The Heavy Price of Living in a Neocolonized World. Pierre, a native of Haiti, is the son of a struggling carpenter father and “madan sar” (women who buy and sell alimentary products under horrible working conditions) mother. He attended and received his first formal basic education in an old church building when he was 11, finishing high school at the age of 22.