The Wheatley School Alumni Association Newsletter # 196
The Ouchi Debate Continues, 1968 Golfers, 1968 Exchange Student, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, a Wheatley Author, and More
Dear Wheatley Wildcats and other Interested Persons,
Welcome to The Wheatley School Alumni Association Newsletter # 196.
Sheli Nan’s March 10, 2025 Concert
Shelley “Sheli Nan” Hershcopf (1968) Writes - “Hi All - The concert was an hour long. How marvelous to celebrate Women’s Month with four women composers. My piece is second. If you scroll up or down on the four frames on the side of the YouTube page, you can choose to which piece to listen, rather than listening to the entire concert. Thank you all for your support. Best wishes, and a special shout out to those who attended. Especially fun was the Wheatley crowd. 🎶🦋💕 Sheli
Shelley "Sheli Nan" Hershcopf's Concert Footage
Faculty - Edward Ouchi Revisited
Donna Kenton (1963) Writes - “Hi Art, I’m relieved to read that other people also had no idea what Mr. Ouchi was talking about. His lectures made me feel stupid. When I became a Junior High School English teacher in Manhattan in my twenties, the head of the department brought me to the book room and told me that I could pick whatever I wanted. I don’t remember there being a syllabus or much direction at all. I found a ninth grade grammar book, and while I was teaching from the book, I learned grammar myself. I still have the book.”
Jane Berger Putnam (1964) Writes - “I had Mr Ouchi in 10th or 11th grade, and I remember doing grammar ala Gerald MacBoingboing. The only writing assignment I remember was to analyze a poem. I thought the poem was fairly serious…..but I received a failing grade because, he said, it was nonsense poem and didn’t mean much. Poetry was killed for me and has not been a part of my life.
I was an elementary school teacher and found grammar essential to reading. My school system, which went along with every new type of teaching, banned grammar. I hated the new regime, and I snuck in grammar whenever I could. It was not Mr Ouchi’s grammar.”
John Corwin (1964) Writes - “I vividly remember Ed Ouchi and Peter Witt team-teaching English class. I think I had them in 9th grade, and each made a lasting (favorable) impression on me. Mr. Ouchi taught us about phonemes, of which I had been entirely unaware before that. If I recall correctly there are about 44 different sounds that are used in speaking English, and many of them can be spelled in several different ways (whey, way, weigh, and wait being examples of the sound of the long ‘a’). I found that fascinating. Mr. Witt assigned us, for six straight weeks, to write something in class, every single day. That is how I learned to write, and writing was central to my ability to pursue my career as a public interest lawyer and nonprofit executive.”
Judy Berkan (1967) Writes - “To Dan Silver: My experience in the same class taught by Mr. Ouchi was marvelous. (In my memory, it was a whole year. Maybe two.) I enjoyed his spirit and forever was steered towards linguistics, in which I semi-concentrated in college. (It’s complicated - Russian linguistics and then an interdisciplinary major, which had me discovering Noam Chomsky). I almost went on to graduate school in linguistics, but I ended up in law (in Spanish and English, given Puerto Rico’s colonial status). Mr. Ouchi inspired my love of language, which in turn made me a better attorney, law professor and writer.”
The Sports Section - Still More Football
Paul Giarmo (1976) Writes - “Art, I could listen to Bob Holley (1958), Matt Sanzone (1959), Paul Hennessy (1960), and John Moncure (1960) talk about Wildcat football all day long. Their personal anecdotes add so much to the story, something not available from the old ‘Newsday’ and ‘Long Island Press’ articles that I have. You feel like you're on the sidelines with these gridiron 🏈 greats. Well done, gentlemen. We appreciate all the happy memories. Paul (‘Spirit of '76’) Giarmo”
Graduates
1958 + 1967 - Two Wheatley NYC Judges
L-R - Barbara Newman (1958) and Art Engoron (1967) - Pepolino, 281 West Broadway, New York, NY - Tuesday, March 18, 2025
1967 (mostly) - Several more people identified in photo of 1963 trip to Washington
Key - “(?)” means uncertain. “???” means unknown.
Left to Right:
Front Row - ???, Cheryl Clark (1967) (?), ???, Vicki Schwartz (1967) (?), ???, Rosalind Wald (1967), ???, Lauren Jacoby (1967), Linda Laurie (1967), Abbe Levine (1967), Lesley Falkoff (1967) (?), ???, Marcy Buzen (1967), Helen Sparks (1967)
Middle Row - Gilbert Katz (1967), George Dreier (1967), Dominick Foresto (1967), Robert Hecht (1967), Marty Cervellione (1967), Debbie Friedman or Lynn Robinson (1967) (?), Jane Colchamiro (1967) (?), Lois Ertel (1967), ???, Jimmy Bressman (1967), Steven Lax (1967), Tom Glaser (1968), Phil Mariani (1967) (?), Jay Peiser (1966)
Back Row - Marshall Jablon (1967), ???, Bobby Scandurra (1967), Doug Martin (1967), Paul Nissenfeld (1967), Paul Tankersley (1967), ???, ???, Peggy Meisel (faculty) (?), Joseph Goldwasser (faculty), Richard Schwarz (1967), Lee Fein (1967), Dennis Pensa (1967), Bruce McAllister (1968), Charles Bell (1967), Manny Casamassima (1967)
If, and only if, other people are identified, I will publish again next newsletter!
1968 - Golf Buddies and Significant Others
Andy Forstenzer Writes - “In 2023, a friendly golf competition started among Wheatley Class of 1968 alumni Joel ‘Ace’ Blumenthal and David Pinter, both escaping winter on Florida’s East Coast, and John ‘Clutch’ Rosenbloom and Andy Forstenzer, embracing the warm weather on Florida’s West Coast. This foursome met mid-state on neutral ground in Sebring, FL for the First Annual Wheatley ’68 Golf Championship event – won narrowly by the two Willets Road alumni (Ace & Clutch) over the North Side alumni (David & Andy).
We met again in March of 2024 at the Gleneagles Resort in Delray Beach, this time hosted by David (with all four ’68 classmates bringing their wives) for a weekend celebration that included a round of competitive golf (again narrowly won by Willets Road); an Italian feast, also in Delray, on the Saturday evening before St. Patrick’s Day; and a Sunday morning brunch hosted by Class of ‘68 married classmates Tom Glaser (Willets Road) and Jill Silvering (North Side).
Jon and Andy hosted this year’s Third Annual Event in Sarasota, Florida. First up was a Thursday night dinner and challenging round of mini golf at a Tiger Woods-sponsored PopStrokes venue, where the four spouses showed short game skills easily matching the golfing talent of their partners. Of special note were ‘Ace’ scoring the evening’s only hole-in-one and Deb Rosenbloom (Jon’s wife) lofting the winning shot in the unanticipated mini-golf longest drive competition.
Left to Right: Donna Shirreffs Blumenthal, Jon Rosenbloom, Deb Rosenbloom, Joel Blumenthal, David Pinter
L-R - Back Row - Andy Forstenzer, David Pinter, Jon Rosenbloom, Joel Blumenthal - Front Row - Debbie Forstenzer, Cindy Pinter, Deb Rosenbloom, Donna Shirreffs Blumenthal
Friday’s 18-hole true golf course outing featured a new scoring format, with the Willets Road duo again besting the North Side challengers by a single point in a shortened 6-hole match. This was followed by successive six-hole matches between Florida East (Joel/David) vs Florida West (Jon /Andy) and Wheatley high school soccer alumni (Andy/Joel) vs. non-soccer alumni (Jon/David), both of which ended in ties.
L-R - Andy Forstenzer, David Pinter, Jon Rosenbloom, Joel Blumenthal
As important, Friday’s golf was followed by a relaxing round of beach cocktails at Seaplace on Longboat Key and a fabulous but way too filling Cuban-style dinner in St. Armands Circle among the four couples.
Left to Right: David Hechler, David Pinter, Jed Berman, Jon Rosenbloom, Joel Blumenthal, Beverly Berman Hornick (Class of ’66), Andy Forstenzer
Then, to top off another fabulous reunion, Jon and Deb hosted a Saturday morning brunch, at which we were joined by fellow ’68 classmates Jed Berman (and wife Randy) and David Hechler (with partner Annie), plus ’66 graduate Bev Berman Hornick (Jed’s sister).
L-R - Back Row - Annie, David Hechler, David Pinter, Jed Berman, Deb Rosenbloom (white top and black pants), Jon Rosenbloom, Joel Blumenthal, Arthur Engoron,* Donna Shirreffs Blumenthal, Andy Forstenzer
Front Row - left to right: Cindy Pinter and Randy Berman
*Most surprising was the unexpected virtual appearance at brunch by Wheatley’s famous Arthur Engoron, who seems never to miss a chance to attend any meal with Wheatley alumni, even ones he can’t eat.
Next year’s fourth annual gathering is scheduled for Vero Beach, Florida in late winter/early spring 2026 but there is talk (an unsubstantiated rumor) of a possible mid-season summer gathering as well in either (or both) Durham, New Hampshire or Quogue, New York. Until then….
1968 - Asoka Bandarage
Art Engoron (1967) Writes - Asoka was a foreign exchange student from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) during the 1967-1968 school year. She lived with the Berley Family (Karen 1969, Lisa 1970, Peter 1971, and Barbara 1975) in the “S” Section of Roslyn Heights. After Wheatley, she graduated from Bryn Mawr and Yale, from which she received a Ph.D, and taught at Brandeis University (her first faculty appointment), Mount Holyoke College, and Georgetown University. Before partially retiring, she specialized in international development, political economy, women and gender studies, multiculturalism, conflict analysis and resolution, peace and security, South Asia, Sri Lanka, population and ecology.
Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, she also taught yoga.
In the following video, she discusses the Sri Lankan Economic Crisis, Geopolitical Rivalry in the Indian Ocean, and Human and Planetary Sustainability, etc.
Asoka Bandarage's Wikipedia Page
1972 - Rich Weissman (graduated in 1971) - “Hello Art, Remember the many lessons in environmental issues we learned in biology and earth science classes at Wheatley during the period of the nascent environmental movement during our younger years? Remember the first Earth Day in 1970? Now fast forward 55 years ...
On March 10, 2025, my husband (J.D. Horn) and I hosted a wonderful dinner event with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin for 130 people in our Palm Springs, CA home. The event was for JanePAC, Jane’s organization supporting environmental candidates for national and down-ballot elections. We were asked to plan and host the event, as I created and head up Ibis Group Institute Think Tank, a national group of professionals who work with the LGBTQ U.S. Congressional Caucus to provide data analytics, AI, research, strategic planning, and sophisticated micro marketing and other support for Congressional LGBTQ candidates. We’re all volunteers at the Institute, with deep professional backgrounds in these areas, seeking to ensure sustainability of democracy and LGBTQ rights.
I had been Senior Vice President and Executive Marketing Director at U.S. Bank and then at Bank of America. I am a statistician and data scientist by training, and I later created the first cloud technology fintech company to develop algorithms for understanding banking industry and financial markets sustainability, creating predictive AI models, including predicting the 2008 financial crisis well in advance. I sold my company ten years ago, and now I work as a political volunteer, utilizing my expertise, along with the resources in my 501-C3 charitable fund, which I personally fund (I’m not looking for donations) to promote democracy and fight homophobia, anti-Semitism, misogyny, and all other forms of bigotry and hate, along with animal rights and environmental issues.
Similarly, Jane promotes support for candidates who prioritize environmental sustainability, and Jane and Lily asked J.D. and me to introduce JanePAC to the Palm Springs Community. And so we did, as we are deeply concerned about the future for our children (and now our one-year-old grandchild), and all the children, grandchildren, and future generations in the world, all of whom will require a habitable planet.
Along with wonderful, humorous presentations by Jane and Lily, we had fabulous musical entertainment with the magnificent voice of Broadway star Joaquina Kalukango – Tony Award and Drama Desk Award winner, and star of the recent film “The Gloria Gaynor Story.” Joaquina was accompanied by the renowned pianist, arranger, and musical director of Broadway and hit TV shows Michael Orland, who is also my friend. Another friend, Palm Springs Mayor Ron deHarte, presented Jane with a Palm Springs City Proclamation declaring March 10 Jane Fonda Activism for the Environment Day.
Tickets for the event were all purchased and sold-out at all levels within 48 hours of my email invitation to my Palm Springs friends. We raised a serious amount of funds that evening (twice the goal) – one of the most successful JanePac events, and 100% of the proceeds went to JanePAC, as J.D. and I covered all event costs. Jane eloquently spoke about the climate crisis and how we must ensure political advocacy for the future of our planet: clean water, fresh air, and an environment free from devastation by raging fires, floods, storms, and other global warming consequences and harmful human activities that degrade and destroy our globe, impacting humans, animals, and plant life that all depend on a sustainable environment for survival. We cannot walk away from this critically important and existential issue.
J.D. and I have homes in Palm Springs and San Francisco and on a ranch in the Cascade Mountains in Central Oregon (near Bend and Sisters). If you live in any of these areas, contact me and let’s connect. Meeting other Wheatleyites is always great.
Rich Weissman
cell: 503.250.4545
email: rweissman@hotmail.com
website: www.richweissman.com
Palm Springs, San Francisco, Black Butte Ranch (Oregon)
Rich Weissman and Jane Fonda
Clockwise from top Left - J.D. Horn, Rich Weissman, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin.
Jane and Lily
The Crowd
The Red Carpet
1974 - Carol Leifer’s New Book
Linda Jordan Samuels (1974) Writes - “Hi Art, Carol Leifer’s new book just came out. Carol Burnett wrote the foreword, and glowing reviews have come in from Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Maher, and many more of Carol’s colleagues. Carol is an Emmy award-winning writer, producer and standup comedian, having worked on Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Hacks, and many Oscar Shows.
I read the book, and it is wonderful. All Wheatley alumni should know about it.
1974 - Bob Berta and Buzz Bosshart - BBBB
William “Buzz” Bosshart (1974) Writes - “After 50 years, Robert ‘Bob’ Berta is still active with the Machias, Maine Wide News. He cornered the local media market with a radio DJ gig. He has interviewed governors, presidential candidates, and the little old lady down the road. Not afraid to work, he even swept the studio after his show. Bob, always positive, just keeps rolling along.”
Bob Berta (1974) Writes - “Recently, an amazing person, Katie, has been organizing me. She came across the holy grail of Berta's Bums, a file of ditto masters, approximately ¾ of an inch thick, full of statistics and stories. Kind of the trash talk of the day.
Buzz Bosshart even got reunion t-shirts (without my authorizations, haha). I included Buzz in his reversible Dairy Barn Holiday Tournament shirt. Even Danny Engoron (1973) played two games for us and scored 32 points (16-point average). And Marianne Leborgne (1974) scored 12 points in five games for us.
This was when Title IX was coming into play and the School Within a School (SWS) team needed a name.
Now, this is fifty years ago, but my memory is that we were in one of those SWS classrooms around lunch time discussing the name. I would attribute to you, Buzz, coming up with the name ‘Berta's Bums.’
As a federal prosecutor, can you confirm or deny that?
Did you call it ‘the Bums’ because people were sad that the Dodgers left Brooklyn in 1957?
Would you call it the same name now?
Remember, these comments may be published in Art Engoron's Wheatley Alumni Newsletter.
I noticed that the class reunion photo only has women in it. What happened to the men? Can I be a minority man at the next reunion, with all these accomplished, smart and healthy looking women?
Melanie Artim was taking notes when we requested a bus for the Bums. Mr. Doig thought it was so funny when Melanie wrote in the official notes, METHINKS THE BOY IS CRAZY....... Hmmm, still crazy after all these years.
Enjoy! Anyone who wants to can call 207-259-6212.......
/s/ Williston Bob Berta
Fan Mail
1965 (Jeff Orling) - “Thanks Art...great research, and a fun read!”
1967 (Lauren Jacoby) - “I love it all, Arthur! Thank you.”
1968 (Asoka Bandarage) - “Thanks for helping create a sense of community.”
1968 (Andy Forstenzer) - “Thanks as always for all you do.”
1971 (Peter Berley) - “I love the Newsletter.”
1974 (William “Buzz” Bosshart) - “Continuing gratitude to you, Art.”
1974 (Linda Jordan Samuels) - “Thank you for all your hard work and dedication to getting these newsletters out to us. I love receiving them.”
The Official Notices
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The Usual Words of Wisdom
Thanks to our fabulous Webmaster, Keith Aufhauser (Class of 1963), you can regale yourself with the first 195 Wheatley School Alumni Association Newsletters (and much other Wheatley data and arcana) at
The Wheatley School Alumni Association Website
Also thanks to Keith is our search engine, prominently displayed on our home page: type in a word or phrase and, wow!, you’ll find every place it exists in all previous Newsletters and other on-site material.
I edit all submissions, even material in quotes, for clarity and concision, without any indication thereof. I cannot and do not vouch for the accuracy of what people tell me, as TWSAA does not have a fact-checking department.
We welcome any and all text and photos relevant to The Wheatley School, 11 Bacon Road, Old Westbury, NY 11568, and the people who administered, taught, worked, and/or studied there. Art Engoron, Class of 1967
Closing
That’s it for The Wheatley School Alumni Association Newsletter # 196. Please send me your autobiography before someone else sends me your obituary.
Art
Arthur Fredericks Engoron, Class of 1967
646-872-4833
Another great issue. Thank you Art